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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 "I enjoyed these poems immensely." - William Peter Blatty, author of The Exorcist 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 The Land Development Agency will sell the first blocks of new Gungahlin suburb Taylor by ballot in March. Registrations for the 126 single residential blocks will open on February 10 and close on February 20. The suburb is adjacent to Horse Park Drive, four kilometres from the Gungahlin town centre. Credit:Land Development Agency Successful registrants will be notified of their place in the ballot draw on March 15 with block selections and sales on March 29 and 30. Blocks will range from 250 and 587 square metres and cost between $221,000 and $383,000. Thirty-four of the blocks will cost less than $300,000. A Canberra man who sparked an extensive search when he allegedly fled police at Calvary Hospital has been accused of stuffing bottles of expensive wine and French bubbly down his pants in a string of thefts in early December. Garry Gordon, 27, is alleged to have nabbed bottles of Nicolas Feuillatte and Moet & Chandon champagne, as well as Penfolds Bin 150 shiraz, together worth more than $1000, in a crime spree which lasted several days. ACT Policing searched for Garry Gordon after he allegedly fled Calvary Hospital. Credit:ACT Policing Gordon was arrested on December 8 but later escaped from the hospital, where he had been taken for medical treatment. He was captured a couple of days later and formally charged when he faced the ACT Magistrates Court, represented by Legal Aid, on Thursday. It's going to be another warm one today, with the maximum expected to hit 30 degrees. The forecast top for tomorrow is about the same too, but Sunday and Monday are both expected to reach 35 degrees, as another heatwave hits the territory. A "cool" change on Monday is expected to drop it to "just" 31 degrees - and it may even bring a welcome drop of rain. This is one of those stories where, thankfully, everything that could go right, did go right. But it could so easily have been very different. Sarah was on her way home to Moruya for Christmas. She was tired, and her car veered off the road. It left her hand "hanging by a tendon". It would be easy to think her life was changed forever, but that's where Ross Farhadieh comes in. He was about to walk into a James Bond movie, when his phone rang and he ended up in a different theatre. There's a lot more to the story, including an epic 14-hour surgery, which Megan Doherty explains in detail. It's an amazing tale that is well worth your time. 100 objects, one million visitors National Museum director Mathew Trinca happy that his museum has just clocked the millionth visitor to the British Museum's touring exhibition A History of the World in 100 Objects. Credit:Karleen Minney If you haven't been to see A History of the World in 100 Objects, you are missing out. It's an impressive exhibition and, it seems, a popular one. It started in the British Museum and has been to Abu Dhabi, Taiwan and Perth, before arriving here in Canberra. And it has now had one million people through. Of course, only some of those 1 million people have been through the Canberra exhibit, but the 128,000 visitors so far makes this the museum's most successful exhibition to date, surpassing 2010's Yiwarra Kuju: The Canning Stock Route, which clocked some 122,000 visits. Karen Hardy explains. New crop of talented young people The state government and the wealthy Toowoomba family behind the region's privately owned airport are at loggerheads over the funding of a new road link. Eponymous family-owned company Wagners has asked the Queensland government to fund a $15 million overpass on the new $1.46 billion Toowoomba Second Range Crossing. Denis Wagner wants the state government to pay for a new intersection overpass to service Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport. Credit:Glenn Hunt The overpass would connect with a new southern access road to Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport, which Wagners built, owned and operated. Wagners managing director Denis Wagner said the overpass intersection would be about four kilometres south of the planned access to Toowoomba-Cecil Plains Road, which was currently the airport's main road access point. Bellamy's Australia chairman Rob Woolley is expected to quit over the next few months if the tussle by dissident shareholders for control of the company succeeds. Jan Cameron, a founding director of Bellamy's, is working with the owners of a block of 14.5 per cent of the company's shares, who are seeking to seize control of the board. If the board spill succeeds, it will leave only chairman Rob Woolley and CEO Laura McBain of the existing directors on the board. Credit:Jessica Hromas The dissidents have lodged a notice with the company seeking to have the four independent directors of Bellamy's removed and replaced with Cameron, Sydney lawyer Rodd Peters, Melbourne stockbroker Vaughan Webber and Chan Wai-Chan. If the board spill succeeds, it will leave only Mr Woolley and the chief executive, Laura McBain, of the existing directors on the board. The ACCC said wholesale prices were at their highest levels since September 2015 due to increases in international crude oil and refined petrol prices. The rises followed OPEC's approval last month to reduce oil production from January - the first supply cut in eight years. Russia and other non-OPEC nations also agreed to cuts. "Along with the falling exchange rate, the OPEC agreements are the primary reason for increases in wholesale petrol prices over the past six weeks and why motorists are likely to see higher petrol prices in the near future," Mr Sims said. "The OPEC cartel, therefore, continues to cause Australian motorists to pay much more for petrol than they should." NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury said while there was no doubt there would be OPEC-related flow-on effects in Australia, petrol companies had already artificially inflated prices well before Christmas. "My understanding is that the [oil production] cuts are only occurring in January, if indeed they go ahead. We expected there to be some increase in January as a result of OPEC but that increase came anyway, it came well before that," he said. He said petrol companies were "ripping people off". "Not only did we not get to the low point of the cycle we were expecting before Christmas, but it didn't take very long for a number of the major service stations to increase their prices quite significantly," he said. "Overnight, a number of service stations increased their prices to 144.3, which is way too high, the terminal gate [wholesale] price is 20 cheaper than that. "None of the capital cities got to as low as we thought they would over Christmas. In Sydney, we had a false spike yesterday when a number of service stations jacked their prices up by more than 20 a litre. "Now more than ever you need to do research before you fill up." The ACCC said in Perth, which had regular weekly price cycles, prices were generally at their lowest on a Monday and peaked on a Tuesday. "With the regular petrol price cycles in Perth, motorists are encouraged to buy their petrol a day or two before Tuesday to take advantage of the cycles," Mr Sims said. "The ACCC is concerned that petrol prices are increasing in Sydney, and those in Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide may increase in the coming days, so motorists should get in early, shop around, and consider filling their tanks before prices jump." In NSW, which has an ethanol mandate, regular unleaded is used by about 22 per cent of motorists, premium unleaded 30 per cent, ethanol 18 per cent and diesel 30 per cent. The ACCC revealed in November the government's controversial ethanol mandate was costing Sydney motorists up to $85 million a year. "The ethanol mandate in NSW led to less choice and higher spending," the report said. Here is what the ACCC says is happening in the petrol markets of Australia's major capital cities: Sydney In Sydney, E10 petrol prices peaked on December 11, 2016 at around 130 cents per litre (cpl) before decreasing to around 119 cpl on January 3, 2017. It appears that prices have started to increase at some service stations in Sydney. Daily average E10 retail prices and TGPs in Sydney. Credit:ACCC Melbourne In Melbourne, petrol prices peaked significantly earlier on November 17, 2016 and have been decreasing very slowly since. Over the 46 days to January 3, 2017, petrol prices decreased by around 7 cpl. Daily average RULP retail prices and TGPs in Melbourne. Credit:ACCC Brisbane In Brisbane, petrol prices peaked on December 14, 2016 at around 136 cpl before decreasing to around 131 cpl on January 3, 2017. The ACCC is currently undertaking a market study into the Cairns petrol market and is looking at Brisbane petrol prices in that context. In addition, the ACCC has been informed by industry that additional costs associated with the introduction of the ethanol mandate in Queensland on 1 January 2017 may have had some influence on higher margins in Brisbane. Daily average RULP retail prices and TGPs in Brisbane. Credit:ACCC Adelaide In Adelaide petrol prices peaked on December 6, 2016 at around 129 cpl before decreasing to around 122 cpl on January 3. Consumer protection authorities are warning Australians not to use air loungers in water after two people nearly died while floating on them in backyard pools on Christmas Day. The inflatable loungers were heavily advertised on social media in the lead-up to Christmas and were popular gifts. Prices can range from $20 for a cheap copy on eBay to $130 for a branded product. Anthea Chester, a paramedic from Pakenham, in Victoria, said she was watching her daughter Hollie float on a blue Now Lounger in her friend's backyard pool when the fabric split and engulfed her body. "She suddenly disappeared into the middle of it. She then emerged standing up, thank goodness, because the water was shoulder height and she was encased in the parachute material," she said. More than one-third of the cranes hovering over apartment building sites in Australian cities are in neighbourhoods banks have "blacklisted" as lending problem spots. Global property and construction firm RLB's most recent crane index reveals 625 were operating in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and the Gold Coast during the September quarter. A new analysis reveals 239 of those, or 38.2 per cent, are within postcodes National Australia Bank and AMP have targeted for reduced or restricted lending, The Australian Financial Review reports. The banks' measures include lower loan-to-value ratios, which mean buyers may end up having to pay more at settlement than they expected. That's raised concerns of settlement risk and prompted some realty groups to prepare to buy distressed apartment projects. China-based food retailer Winha Commerce and Trade International has had a positive start to life on the Australian share market, with its share price rising 40 per cent in its debut trading session. Winha describes itself as a paddock-to-plate retailer and wholesaler that specialises in selling premium food products to 1.3 billion consumers in China. Retail spending in China is encouraging and there are enough jobs to go around. Credit:Bloomberg The company raised $8.5 million through an offer of just over 24 million shares to the public, at 35 cents per share. Winha says it listed on the Australian share market because it hopes to source as many agricultural products as possible from Australia for sale in China, under the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement that came into force in December 2015. 'More of a woman's touch' Take Tracy Dawson, 53, a welder in St. Clair, Missouri. He lost several jobs, some because his employers took the work to China and Mexico and others because the workers were replaced by robots. He has heard the promises of fast-growing jobs in the health care field: His daughter trained to be a medical technician. But he never considered it. "I ain't gonna be a nurse; I don't have the tolerance for people," he said. "I don't want it to sound bad, but I've always seen a woman in the position of a nurse or some kind of health care worker. I see it as more of a woman's touch." Also, health aides earn a median wage of $US10.50 an hour. Dawson used to earn $US18 an hour making railroad traction motors. "I was a welder, that's all I know how to do," said Dawson, who is living on disability insurance because he has rheumatoid arthritis. Women were hit harder than men by the decline in middle-skill jobs, according to Autor. But they have more easily moved into the expanding occupations, and earn more college degrees than men. Women have always entered male-dominated fields - usually well-paid, professional ones - more than men have entered female-dominated ones. There are now many female lawyers, but male nurses are still rare. One reason is that jobs done by women, especially caregiving jobs, have always had lower pay and lower status. Yet when men, especially white men, enter female-dominated fields, they are paid more and promoted faster than women, a phenomenon known as the glass escalator. 'Real men' Much of men's resistance to pink-collar jobs is tied up in the culture of masculinity, say people who study the issue. Women are assumed to be empathetic and caring; men are supposed to be strong, tough and able to support a family. "Traditional masculinity is standing in the way of working-class men's employment, and I think it's a problem," said Andrew Cherlin, a sociologist and public policy professor at Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University, and author of "Labor's Love Lost: The Rise and Fall of the Working-Class Family in America." "We have a cultural lag where our views of masculinity have not caught up to the change in the job market," he said. But telling working-class men to take feminine jobs plays to their anxieties and comes off as condescending, said Joan Williams, a professor at University of California, Hastings College of the Law, and author of "Reshaping the Work-Family Debate: Why Men and Class Matter." "White working-class men's wages have plummeted, and what happens to men in that context is anxieties about whether they're 'real men,'" she said. Identity mismatch It's no surprise, then, that Donald Trump appealed to men who feel this way - not just his promises to bring back factory jobs, but also his machismo. Many unemployed men who did manual labour say they can't take the time and make the effort to train for a new career because they have bills to pay. And they say they chose their original careers because they wanted to build things, not take care of people. Lawrence Katz, an economist at Harvard, has a term for this: "retrospective wait unemployment," or "looking for the job you used to have." "It's not a skill mismatch, but an identity mismatch," he said. "It's not that they couldn't become a health worker, it's that people have backward views of what their identity is." Jon Ray, 31, of Inez, Kentucky, was an electrician at a coal mine until it was shuttered a year ago. He applied unsuccessfully for maintenance and repair jobs, and got a job in manufacturing after enrolling in a program to learn how to operate computerised tools. Service-sector jobs weren't an option, he said. "I couldn't afford to go back to school," he said. "And I'm used to working with my hands." Erasing the stigma If more men do pink-collar jobs, they could erase the stigma and turn them into men's jobs, said Janette Dill, a sociologist at the University of Akron, at least for jobs that require less hands-on caregiving. "More men will go into care because they don't have a choice, but they're going to carve out spaces for themselves that feel less like women's work," she said. Dill was a co-author of a study published in April that looked at what happens when men move into pink-collar jobs in the health care field. Men in the lowest-rung health jobs, like the nursing assistants who change patients' sheets and help them bathe, earned 10 per cent less than men in blue-collar jobs. But they were less likely to be laid off and their wages rose over time, while blue-collar wages were stagnant. Technical health care jobs like ultrasound technician - requiring more training but not a college degree - paid 22 per cent more than other blue-collar jobs, after controlling for things like education. They involve less interaction with patients and more with computers, so they are less stereotypically feminine. Adrenaline rush of caregiving There is an education and race divide among the men who take these jobs, the study found. Black men were 3.3 times as likely as white men to take the lowest-rung health jobs, and other minority men were 1.8 times as likely. White men were more likely to take the higher-status technical jobs. For men without college degrees, more technical training that equips them for those jobs could help. And if health aide jobs paid more and offered better benefits, they'd probably attract more men. Ford chief executive Mark Fields said on Tuesday the vehicle maker was ditching its plans to open a factory in Mexico and instead expanding a Michigan plant, creating 700 more local jobs. The next wave of workers in Flat Rock will build mostly self-driving and electric cars, including a hybrid Mustang. Unlike manufacturing roles of decades past, though, the jobs will probably require computer literacy and more than a high school degree. "The era of the electric vehicle is dawning," Mr Fields told his employees this week, "and we at Ford plan to be a leader in this exciting future." The new employment opportunities - the tickets to the middle class - will not look like the old ones. Economists say auto manufacturing at Ford and beyond will become increasingly automated, resulting in fewer jobs for more highly skilled workers. Ever since the US presidential election, Ed Dahlberg has pretty much had a smile on his face. He brokers the sale of private jets, and already he's seeing interest pick up and used-aircraft prices starting to firm up. The sale of a single-engine turboprop aircraft that he recently handled went for about 5 per cent more than anticipated. Welcome to the new age of conspicuous consumption: Donald Trump as he exits his private Cessna jet. Credit:NYT "My phone is ringing off the hook" from people interested in buying used jets, said Dahlberg, president of Emerald Aviation in the Washington suburb of Manassas, Virginia. "Just the business climate feels like it's getting better." The era of Donald Trump, a man long associated with conspicuous consumption, figures to be good to a whole range of luxury-goods industries. But perhaps nowhere is that excitement greater than in the private-aircraft business. Australia's military and diplomatic relationship with Indonesia is on tenterhooks again, though the whys and wherefores of this latest hiccup are less obvious than previous contretemps. Even Indonesian officials themselves appear confused about the extent or duration of the suspension of military cooperation between the Australian Defence Force and the Indonesian Military or TNI. On Wednesday, a TNI spokesman said "yes, we stopped it temporarily, but we have not cut the cooperation". The significance of the suspension allegedly the outcome of a complaint made by an Indonesian Kopassus (or special forces) officer about "offensive" training material encountered while on secondment at SAS headquarters in Perth was later played down by Indonesian Defence Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu, who said he was convinced no offence was intended. Minister Ryamizard noted, too, that an unnamed Australian lieutenant had been reprimanded over the material, suggesting the ADF had investigated the complaint, decided it was justified and taken steps to ensure it didn't happen again. Also caught offguard by the TNI's refusal to let the matter lie was Defence Minister Marise Payne, who seems to have been well aware of ADF attempts to resolve the matter. That included having the errant lieutenant's commanding officer apologise to General Gatot Nurmantyo, commander in chief of the TNI. The TNI's decision to escalate the matter despite obvious efforts to preserve its "honour" suggest a desire for pay-back or square-up for previous slights. Alleged instances of Australian perfidy whether related to independence struggles in East Timor and West Papua or spying activities directed at former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono have never been entirely forgiven, and certainly not forgotten, in Jakarta. Another possible explanation is that General Gatot, not particularly well disposed towards Australia, saw an opportunity to remind a bumptious neighbour that Indonesia can't be taken for granted. An Indonesian-initiated suspension of bilateral military co-operation is less critical for Australia than it is for Indonesia. There would be cause for much greater concern if co-operation with Indonesia was to break down in other more important areas of the relationship. A primary cause of the latest breakdown apparently relates to an Indonesian officer from Kopassus (Indonesia's Special Operations Forces (SOF)) seeing "inappropriate" material at Campbell Barracks at Swanbourne, Perth, home of the SAS. It has been reported that it included teaching materials related to Indonesian military human rights abuses. Indonesia is notoriously sensitive about human rights abuses, dating from the independence struggle against the Dutch during 1945-49, through mass killings of communists in 1965-66, human rights abuses in East Timor during 1975-99 (including the killing of the Balibo Five), violent anti-Chinese riots in 1998, and ongoing security force abuses in West Papua Province since its annexation of Western New Guinea in 1963, to name some of the better-known cases. We have sensitivities about unsavoury aspects of our history as well such as our massacres of Aboriginals and panicked military flight from the New Guinea Mandate and Papua in 1942 but we can at least discuss them without being censored. A period of combative Marxist cultural criticism and advocacy resulted in an edited anthology of essays, Permanent Red (1960), and a novel, A Painter of Our Time (1958). The latter imagines a fictional, Berger-like critic, John, discovering the diary of his Hungarian friend, Janos. Partly, it marked Berger's abandonment of painting for writing, inspired by what he saw as the urgent threat of nuclear war: "the risk, of course, came from Washington, not Moscow." The novel covers the 1953 "Secret Speech" in which Khrushchev publicly condemned Stalin's crimes, and ends with the 1956 Hungarian Uprising. Many British intellectuals left the Communist Party of Great Britain over this crisis, but Berger had never been a member he claimed to have been rejected initially, and later, when asked, refused to join. He believed that both MI5 and the KGB had files on him owing to the amount of contact he had with Soviet dissidents on various trips to Russia. But in the press he effectively followed the CPGB line that the uprising had been counter-revolutionary. Stephen Spender, an ex-communist of a previous generation, compared A Painter of Our Time to Goebbels' propaganda in his review, and Berger felt the novel was "suppressed". This is hard to prove, but it emerged in the 1960s that the CIA had been funding Encounter, the magazine Spender edited. After separating from his first wife, the illustrator Pat Marriott, Berger had by this point already moved to Gloucestershire with Rosemary Guest, the ex-wife of the 6th Lord Kilmarnock, and was acting as a stepfather to her son, Tiger. In 1962, he moved to Geneva with the writer and translator Anna (Anya) Bostock, previously the partner of the painter Peter de Francia, with whom he had a daughter, the writer Katya Berger, and a son, the filmmaker Jacob Berger. Anya widened Berger's intellectual horizons, and her translation work at the UN supported periods of his work on an increasingly diverse output, including the 1966 biography The Success and Failure of Picasso, and A Fortunate Man (1967), a collaboration with the Swiss photographer Jean Mohr about the life of a country GP. The year 1972 brought what are still Berger's most famous works, including Ways of Seeing. This collaborative television series (directed by Mike Dibb) and book took the German thinker Walter Benjamin's reflections on how works are changed by their mechanical reproduction and applied them to the age of television. But Ways of Seeing was also welcomed as a pluralistic response to Civilisation (1969) by Kenneth Clark, the man who had given Berger his first television appearance on a programme about Picasso. Sections of Ways of Seeing were reproduced in G., the novel which won Berger the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Guardian Fiction Prize and the Booker McConnell Prize, as it was then. On learning of Booker McConnell's historical connections to slave plantations, Berger declared that he would share the prize money between the London chapter of the Black Panthers and his next project. This next project, also in collaboration with Jean Mohr, was A Seventh Man (1975), an account of Europe's dependence on migrant workers. "The subject is European," Berger wrote. "The meaning global." After learning that many of these people had been forced out of peasant communities, Berger sought to capture this "disappearing form of human dignity" in the fictional trilogy Into Their Labours (1979-90). To write this, Berger moved to the Haute Savoie, a then-rural area of the French Alps below Geneva, and integrated himself into a subsistence farming community. Beverly Bancroft, at the time rights manager at Penguin Books, went with him; the archive of papers Berger donated to the British Library in 2009 is entirely the product of her stewardship. They had a son, the painter and writer Yves Berger. The writing of Into Their Labours was punctuated both by film work with Alain Tanner, writing for New Society, and a fellowship at the Amsterdam-based Transnational Institute. And Our Faces, My Heart, Brief as Photos (1984), a slim book on love and exile, began as love letters to the writer and actor Nella Bielski, with whom Berger lived when he was not with Beverly in the village of Quincy. In 1989, Berger argued that Salman Rushdie should withdraw The Satanic Verses out of consideration for the people caught in the crossfire. His article ended, chillingly, with the prediction that if the issue were not resolved, "a unique 20th-century holy war, with terrifying righteousness on both sides, might be on the point of breaking out sporadically but repeatedly in airports, shopping streets, suburbs, city centres, wherever the unprotected live". Berger's novel, To the Wedding (1994), engaged with the theme of Aids in a manner which was characteristically woven into his personal circumstances: having begun writing, Berger discovered that his daughter-in-law had been diagnosed as HIV-positive. The author's royalties were donated to Aids charities. King: A Street Story (1999) which may or may not be narrated from the point of view of a dog was published anonymously at first. Where Into Their Labours is recognisably contemporary with writers such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the ruminations on memory and place in the short story collection Here Is Where We Meet moved more into the European context of W.G. Sebald. Berger's archive testifies to his lifelong interest in the collaborative possibilities of letter-writing. His book I Send You This Cadmium Red (2000) is composed of letters with the artist and filmmaker John Christie, each responding to a colour the other has sent; Lapwing and Fox (2016) continues the dialogue. The novel From A to X (2008), shortlisted for the Booker Prize, is based around a fictional correspondence between a political prisoner and his lover, set in an anonymised country which could be Palestine or South America. Bento's Sketchbook (2011) blends writing and drawing around the imagined rediscovery of a sketch book by Marx's favourite philosopher, Benedict ("Bento") Spinoza. Berger was a habitual decliner of honorary degrees, though he accepted a Fellowship from the Lannan Foundation and British Film Institute. A less conventional canonisation took place as part of Gareth Evans and Di Robson's Here Is Where We Meet season of talks and performances in London in 2005. His writing has been collected into a Selected Essays by Geoff Dyer in 2001, a Collected Poems by Smokestack Books in 2014, and, in 2015 and 2016, Portraits and Landscapes, a selection of writing on and around art, edited by Tom Overton. A Jar of Wild Flowers: Essays in Celebration of John Berger was also published in 2016. Director Gale Edwards' staging of this awkward moment, which can fall flat if it looks like he is standing around pretending not to notice, is one of the most successful I have seen and brought this revival (by Hugh Halliday) to a touching, if medically implausible, close. That was probably closer to reality for most 19th century consumptives, but too close for Puccini's verismo needs and, instead, he constructed a death of poetic tristesse among Bohemian friends of whom Rodolfo is the last to know she is gone. In Henri Murger's Scenes de la Vie de Boheme, on which Puccini's La Boheme is based, the heroine Mimi dies alone in a hospital bed, her lover Rodolfo tragically unaware, due to a hospital mistake, that she is still alive. Mariangela Sicilia sang Mimi with an adroitly controlled and flexibly coloured voice, bringing sweetness and variety to the love confession of the first act. Against her, Ji-Min Park's Rodolfo had youthful freshness in the sound and the ability to position climactic phrases such as that leading to the high C in Che gelida manina in Act I so that they bloomed with radiant clarity. Their Act III scene in the snow at the city gates, when Mimi really ought to have been home in bed, was comparably effective although conductor Carlo Montanaro, whose speeds in Act I had been quick, had a tendency to exaggerate the expressive easing of tempo at times. From the point of view of artistic control, Taryn Fiebig as Musetta sang with the greatest musical insight, bringing out the character's complexity with meretricious outrageousness blossoming alongside a yearning for goodness. As the painter Marcello, her lover, Christopher Tonkin had such textured vocal firmness and tonal flexibility that the duets with him and Rodolfo had some of the naturalness of young men just getting together and singing a few operatic duets, as one does. Richard Anderson brought humanity and a noble disdain for the worldly to the philosopher Colline's persona and to his Act IV "Coat" aria, while Shane Lowrencev brought high-camp nerviness and quicksilver energy to the musician Schaunard. Setting the work not in 1830s Paris but in 1930s Berlin, Edwards brings a seedy edge to the brilliant fluidity and vitality of Puccini's street and cafe scene in Act II, though it is never fully explained what children, toy sellers and a girl guide's band are doing in a brothel. Amid growing controversy about Centrelink's new automated debt recovery methods, the agency is using Twitter to refer welfare recipients to a crisis support hotline and offer assistance from trained social workers. Centrelink has been sending out 20,000 debt-compliance letters a week since the Turnbull government introduced a new computer-based compliance system in July, up from its usual rate of about 20,000 a year. Social Services Minister Christian Porter said this week about $300 million had been recovered, part of a target of $4 billion in recovered payments for household, unemployment and student support. The agency's official Twitter account has been communicating with users concerned about receiving debt notices during the Christmas period and has referred some to Lifeline, the 24-hour crisis support and suicide-prevention service. "The worst we can do is to take this partnership for granted," Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono declared more than six years ago, when he became the first Indonesian president to address Australia's Parliament in 2010. "We have to continue to earn each other's trust, for trust is at the heart of our bilateral relations." What Yudhoyono didn't know when he uttered this warning was that, just a few months earlier, that trust was breached when Australia attempted to bug his, his wife's and several of his most senior colleagues' mobile phones. The reaction, when the story was broken in 2013 by the ABC and Guardian Australia after being leaked by Edward Snowden, was swift and emphatic, with Yudhoyono recalling his ambassador and placing all military and intelligence co-operation on hold. Brad Pitt is "terrified the public will learn the truth" about the breakdown of their marriage, his estranged wife Angelina Jolie has claimed in court documents. In the latest round of their divorce proceedings the Hollywood couple agreed that details should be sealed. But in documents obtained by TMZ, Jolie's lawyer Laura Wasser said Pitt was attempting to "deflect from his own role in the media storm which has engulfed the parties' children". The documents said: "There is little doubt that he would prefer to keep the entire case private, particularly given the detailed investigations by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Children and Family Services into allegation of abuse." With just over two weeks to go to the US Presidential Inauguration, First Lady-in-waiting Melania Trump has fuelled speculation about which designer she will wear to the historic event by donning Dolce & Gabbana to a New Year's Eve celebration. The photos of Mrs Trump wearing the black, knee-length cocktail dress, which retails for nearly $4500, to a New Year's party in Palm Beach, Florida, have reignited voices on both sides of the "who will dress Melania Trump" debate. Following the controversial election of her husband, President-elect Donald Trump, several designers said they were "boycotting" the future first lady, including Sophie Theallet, Marc Jacobs and Tom Ford. Other designers, including most recently Diane von Furstenberg, have said Mrs Trump should receive the same treatment as any other first lady through history, having access to whichever frocks she wants to wear. The backlash is in full swing against Kayla Boyd, the wife of Brisbane Broncos player, Darius Boyd and 29 year-old mother to 1-year-old Willow. Boyd wrote candidly on her blog this week about enduring both a miscarriage and an abortion just months apart last year. The post soon went viral. By Wednesday Boyd had to explain herself to the Courier Mail. And then again on social media. The stereotypical view of abortion is that it's the domain of single women who are sleeping with a number of men; women who are careless and void of emotional depth. Nasty women, selfish women. But women in families? Women with children? Kayla and Darius Boyd. In her original blog post, Boyd spoke of what she called her "selfishness" but it might be more accurate to call it self care. Boyd suffered a miscarriage in April, around the same time she lost her grandmother. When she found out she was pregnant in August, she terminated the pregnancy. "I had about ten reasons," is how she explained it on Instagram. The worry about miscarrying again was a factor, "but it wasn't the sole reason" she said. As she wrote on her blog, Boyd suffered from severe morning sickness for almost her entire first pregnancy. She also had a child who was nine months old and felt that she would suffer, as would her marriage, if she had another child so soon. Women in India have taken to Twitter to counter victim blaming by government officials after reports of "mass molestation" on the streets of Bangalore during New Year's Eve celebrations. #YesAllWomen began trending on Wednesday night in response to a televised interview in which the Home Minister of Karnataka State Parameshwara responded to the molestations by blaming the attacks on young Indian women copying western style of dress. Indian women have taken to Twitter to fight back against victim blaming in the aftermath of the Bangalore mass molestation over new years. Credit:AIJAZ RAHI Intersectional feminist movement Feminism In India promoted the hashtag to encourage women to share their experiences of sexual harassment and violence. One of Sydney's largest private schools looks set to close after a tribunal upheld a federal government decision to revoke its funding over concerns it was operating for profit. The Malek Fahd Islamic School, with campuses in Greenacre, Hoxton Park and Beaumont Hills, has around 2400 students who now face an uncertain future in the new school year. "That is a hard outcome for Malek Fahd, and the students and community it serves. But the ultimate responsibility must be laid at the door of the previous management of Malek Fahd," Administrative Appeals Tribunal deputy president Bernard McCabe said of his decision. The school has been operating under a cloud since a review in late 2015 raised questions over improper financial arrangements between the school's board and the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, which was instrumental in founding the school in 1989. A man has died after a boat accident in Sydney's north on Thursday. Emergency services were called to Pittwater, near Clareville, just before 2.30pm with reports a boat and a yacht had collided. The skipper of the boat, an elderly man whose age is not yet known, was seriously injured in the crash, police said. Witnesses and police from the Marine Area Command attempted to resuscitate the man, but he died at the scene. Three people have been taken to hospital after a bus crash near Lithgow in the Blue Mountains on Thursday. Emergency services were called to the intersection of State Mine Gully Road and Old Bells Line of Road at Newnes at 3.50pm. A damaged bus at the scene of an accident in the Blue Mountains on Thursday. Credit:Seven News Three small buses were travelling in a convoy along the quiet dirt road, when the first bus slowed down at the intersection. The second bus did not stop, crashing into the first one at a "moderate" speed. A 16-year-old boy who allegedly attacked a Gold Coast bus driver on Wednesday night has been remanded in custody. The teenager faced Southport Magistrates Court on Thursday morning but did not apply for bail and the case was adjourned until January 11. Police will allege that the boy punched the driver in the face and attempted to steal the vehicle's cash tin before leaving the bus. He is accused of later re-boarding the bus and attempting to assault the driver again. Another passenger was then allegedly required to remove the boy from the bus before the police arrived. The ombudsman, Mr Clarke, looked favourably upon their complaints. Mr Clarke said there was no documentation of the decision-making process that led to the council sending legal letters to the two residents. "The errors in the letters sent to (Ms Berridge) and Complainant B and the lack of documented decisions leads me to the conclusion that there was only a superficial or rushed consideration of the action taken by council," Mr Clarke said in his report, which was published on Thursday. "This is disappointing as it is evident from (Ms Berridge's) and Complainant B's complaints that the action taken by council caused significant stress and anxiety to them. "Such stress is a reasonably foreseeable response to such an action." Mr Clarke also noted the council spent public money on external legal advice to determine whether the posts were defamatory, as a cost to ratepayers of $2860. "Given the lack of documented decisions and other significant flaws I have identified in council's approach, it would be difficult to say this was an appropriate use of public funds," he said. The council also sent a legal letter to the University of Queensland, the then-employer of Complainant B, about the social media posts. Complainant B's employment contract was subsequently not renewed. "It should have been clear to council on the information available to it at the time that Complainant B did not intend to have details of her employment associated with her comments," Mr Clarke said. "In any event, it would have been reasonable for council to confirm this with Complainant B prior to taking any action in this regard. "In my view, council's decision to contact Complainant B's employer could reasonably be considered punitive in the circumstances." On that point, Complainant B, who asked not to be named, agreed. "It was punitive, a slap on the wrist, to say 'don't speak out about the council or we'll come after you and it won't be nice'," she told Fairfax Media. "That was the lesson they were trying to get across, but it was certainly an effective punishment and has ongoing effects in terms of my career." The ombudsman had recommended the council apologise to both Ms Berridge and Complainant B, which was not accepted by the council. "However, I have determined that a more appropriate course of action is for council to write to (Ms Berridge) and Complainant B and formally withdraw its threat to commence legal action for defamation, as outlined in the letters sent to both complainants," Mr Clarke said. "This action will assure both complainants that this matter is at an end and that they are not at risk of having legal action commenced against them for any comments which still remain on social media." Both Ms Berridge and Complainant B told Fairfax Media they were happy with the ombudsman's findings. But Ms Berridge said she felt "extremely angry" she had to go through such lengths to get results. "It's all about controlling people by fear, that's how I see this," she said. "This council uses that power of fear to control people. There were five of us who got those letters and only two of us made a formal complaint. "The other three were frightened off." Still, Ms Berridge said she felt vindicated by the ombudsman's findings. "We knew we were right," she said. "We just had to have it acknowledged by a third party, because the council wouldn't acknowledge it." "Given the role is a part-time position, with no clear metrics or KPIs and without the ability to make decisions, to set policy or to drive outcomes, we will be intrigued to see just what the outcomes will be," he said. "Small businesses will rightly ask what the point of this role is." The spokesman questioned where the champion would stand on key issues important to small business, such as lifting the payroll tax exemption threshold, the new Easter Sunday public holiday and building infrastructure. And he said the role would simply be another layer of filtering between businesses and the government. "Given the government's opposition to each of those measures - in direct conflict with the wishes of small business - it will be interesting to see just how a Small Business Champion will go about taking the fight to their employer," he said. The CCIQ opposed the creation of the role in a submission in May 2016. A spokeswoman for the Small Business Minister said it was disappointing the CCIQ did not welcome the Small Business Champion. She said since the LNP abolished the Office of the Queensland Small Business Commissioner in mid-2012, Queensland did not have a seat with other commissioners to discuss the national agenda. "As an industry body, CCIQ cannot fulfil that role," the spokeswoman said. "This investment by the state government is about creating more successful businesses which will lead to more jobs, more sustainable communities and a stronger Queensland economy." She said the Champion would complement existing industry advocacy bodies, like the CCIQ, and provide a voice for small business at inter-jurisdictional meetings. The spokeswoman said Ms Adshead was a respected advocate of business, with more than 20 years' professional experience. She said the pay package was commensurate with similar positions where a highly capable private sector professional was engaged by government. The announcement was made in a press release on Friday, December 23, when many workers had already clocked off for the Christmas break. But the spokeswoman said the announcement was made as soon as possible after the details were finalised. "The merit based selection process and negotiations were finalised in late December and the announcement was made as soon as practical after Ms Adshead's contract was finalised," the spokeswoman said. Opposition small business spokesman Scott Emerson said the position was a costly thought bubble. "Let's spend hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars hiring a bureaucrat to tell the minister what she should already know," Mr Emerson said. "The CCIQ is right. Adding another layer of administration between the minister and real business people will do nothing to address issues affecting small business owners." Whether it's hipsters or yuppies, the cycle of higher income residents flooding a suburb can prove tricky ground. So how does a business owner go about adjusting? Just ask the Footscray's hipster business vanguard: 8bit burgers, Rudimentary cafe, Littlefoot Bar and Up In Smoke barbecue restaurant. All four have been defaced in recent months . Being trendy can bite you in the bottom. Roshan Nijar, co-owner of Up In Smoke, stands behind his bar. Credit:Jason South Wing La, the president of Footscray's Asian Business Association welcomes "newcomers" like 8bit and and hopes they invigorate Footscray's central business district. Mr. La has been running his cake shop for over 25 years. "My advice for the existing shops is they need to up their business to attract the new crowd. We need the newcomers to bring the new concepts and new people to the area of Footscray," he said. "Hipsters are the hot topic in Footscray right now, but we can either change or we can stand still. Of course it is hard when rentals go up, but consumers understand if you need to raise prices." In 1885, English surgeon Frederick Treves gave a series of talks at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. His most famous moment in abdominal history - treating Edward VII, a few days before the king's coronation, by draining an abscess in the royal appendix - would come decades later. But even by the late 19th century Treves was known among his peers as an expert of the guts. He spoke at length to his fellow doctors about the digestive tract, having examined it in a hundred or so cadavers. J. Calvin Coffey, professor of surgery at the University of Limerick, has identified the mesentery, in the gut, as an organ. Credit:University of Limerick The medical field was receptive to his findings. It remained so. As recently as 2008, textbooks such as the 40th edition of Gray's Anatomy echoed descriptions that Treves presented in his lectures. But Treves' research contained an error that persisted for more than a century, a pair of scientists from the University of Limerick, in Ireland, wrote in The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology journal late last year. Jonathan Russell has worked out an NBN hack that has given him one of the fastest home internet connections in the country. And he says anyone can do it. Here's what you do: you just take two national broadband network lines, plug them both into a router, and boom 190 megabits-per-second download speeds. You could download an episode of Game of Thrones (legally, of course) in about 19 seconds, or the whole first season in a little over three minutes. St Kilda's iconic Greyhound Hotel - a more than 160-year-old venue that morphed into a centre for drag-queen culture - has closed its doors for the last time. The pub near the corner of St Kilda Road and Carlisle Street had been earmarked for demolition to make way for new apartments, but campaigners hoped to save it. The Greyhound Hotel before demolition. Credit:Google Maps In a statement to Fairfax Media on Friday, hotel management said the closure was due to recent developments outside the owners' control that had left the business insolvent. "Despite recent headlines regarding the development potential of the GH hotel site, this is not the reason for the closure. Keeping the GH hotel open for the community has always been the priority of the owners. Unfortunately this is now no longer a viable option," the statement read. The bitter workplace dispute between the CFA and the militant United Firefighters' Union has hit another flashpoint, in the midst of bushfire season, with the CFA asking the federal workplace authority to again intervene in the stoush. CFA chief executive Frances Diver said on Thursday she had written to the Fair Work Commission, seeking an urgent mediation between the CFA and UFU. CFA chief executive Frances Diver. "Given we have reached an in-principle agreement with the UFU on the contents of the operational enterprise agreement, we feel the most appropriate mechanism to resolve any outstanding issues is through the commission, as opposed to industrial action," she said. But UFU branch secretary Peter Marshall laughed off the idea the two organisations had reached agreement. The Andrews government will launch a costly High Court bid to block the Victorian Ombudsman from probing Labor's alleged rorting of parliamentary funds. Mr Andrews office has been accused of directing upper house MPs to pool electorate officer entitlements in the lead-up to 2014's state election. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. Credit:Justin McManus The staff are alleged to have campaigned at the election instead of working to support MPs in their parliamentary and electorate duties, as they are meant to. The Court of Appeal last month ruled Ombudsman Deborah Glass was free to probe the allegations against Labor. A Perth physical education teacher who allegedly had inappropriate photos of underage girls on his computer while working at a Perth public high school has been charged with child exploitation offences. Police executed a search warrant at the 61-year-old Scarborough man's house in December in response to allegations he had taken photos of a girl. A Perth teacher has been charged with child pornography offences. Credit:Viki Lascaris The man's computer and electronic storage devices were seized. "It will be alleged that the devices belonged to the man and that analysis of the devices identified images of child exploitation material," a police spokeswoman said. Chief security minister Wiranto said "military ties have not been completely severed". Credit:AP "I acknowledge and value President Widodo's commitment to the strategic partnership between our two countries and value our personal friendship." A press statement issued by chief security minister Wiranto said the postponement of defence cooperation related to the Special Forces Australia language training program only. "Military ties have not been completely severed as reported by many media outlets," he said. "It is temporary in nature. It will resume once Australia has taken steps to finalize the case. This matter will not disrupt the bilateral relations between two countries that has been going well." "With this explanation hopefully will be no more reporting that causes confusions and disrupts the bilateral relationships between the two countries." At a news conference explaining Indonesia's decision to put defence co-operation between the two countries on ice, General Gatot said what was taught was "unethical" for a friendly country. "It is too painful to explain so I won't explain," General Gatot said. General Gatot said every soldier was taught to love their country's ideology so they were ready to sacrifice their lives when they faced the enemy. He was upset over teaching on topics such as past Indonesian soldiers, East Timor, that West Papua should be independent and "Pancagila", a spoof of the state ideology of Pancasila which suggests its five principles are crazy. "That's not right. Because of that I pulled back the teacher and I suspended it," General Gatot said. He said Chief of the Australian Defence Force, Mark Binskin, was his "good friend", and had written a letter of apology and said he would fix the curriculum. Air Chief Marshal Binskin told him he would investigate, send the Australian Army chief to Indonesia and extended the apology to General Gatot and the Indonesian Army Chief. "Since he is my best friend, I also sent him a letter. I thanked him for the apology and we suspended the program and there will be a conversation after the investigation is complete," General Gatot said. Australian Defence Minister Marise Payne said an Australian Defence inquiry into the offensive material, under way since late November, was "close to finalisation". Senator Payne said Indonesia had not taken part in some planned events because of the dispute but negotiations about the country's involvement in a multilateral military exercise planned for next month were ongoing. She had only written to her Indonesian counterpart about the dispute for the first time this week despite becoming aware of the concerns in November. The Indonesian military confirmed to Fairfax Media that joint navy patrols would continue. In a speech last month, Commander Gatot also said when he became Commander-in-Chief he put a stop to Indonesia sending top-ranked army officers to Australia to study, to prevent Australia from "recruiting" them. He also raised concerns about the US Marines that rotate through Darwin, pointing out the close proximity to West Papua and Indonesia's giant Masela gas block. General Gatot said there were 1500 US Marines in Darwin, which would soon increase to 2500. "I, as TNI (Indonesian military), have to wonder what it's all about," Commander Gatot said. "Why not in the Philippines? They have a base there. No problems, but it's Darwin," he said in the speech which has been posted on YouTube. In 2011 Indonesia sought an urgent explanation from then Prime Minister Julia Gillard about plans to station US Marines in Darwin, questioning the need for a military build-up on the country's doorstep. Indonesia has long been suspicious of Australia having hidden motives towards West Papua after its intervention in East Timor, despite it formally recognising Indonesia's sovereignty over the province in the 2006 Lombok Treaty. Senator Payne denied Australia had recruited Indonesian military officers as spies or agents of influence She said the US Marine rotation had been under way for some years. "I have in fact discussed the Marine rotation with my counterpart in a number of meetings in the past and have had no concerns raised with me," she said. "Let's be clear ... it's not a new occurrence and it is something which has been very important in the region." Loading Washington: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange agrees with the assessment of Fox News pundit Sean Hannity that the media colluded with Hillary Clinton throughout the 2016 presidential election. He must not have read his own website's disclosures very carefully. In an interview that aired on Tuesday night on Fox News, Assange called the media "dishonest" (Donald Trump's favourite label) and "ethically corrupt," and he endorsed Hannity's claim that WikiLeaks had revealed a press corps secretly in cahoots with Clinton when it published hacked emails belonging to Democrats. "They're colluding, yes," Assange said of the media and Clinton, adding that he believes the arrangement worked like this: "You rub my back; I'll rub yours." Washington: The top intelligence official in the US said Thursday that Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign consisted of hacking, as well as the spreading of traditional propaganda and "fake news." "Whatever crack, fissure, they could find in our tapestry ... they would exploit it," said Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee on foreign cyber threats, and especially Russian hacking and interference in the campaign. President-elect Donald Trump has loudly and repeatedly voiced scepticism that the Kremlin was orchestrating the effort, directly clashing with the view of the US intelligence community and the committee's chairman, Senator John McCain. Every American "should be alarmed by Russia's attacks on our nation," McCain said at the opening of the packed hearing. For full functionality of this site it is necessary to enable JavaScript. Here are the instructions how to enable JavaScript in your web browser PHILIPSBURG:--- It is not often that a politician is also a major, continuing patron of the cultural arts in St. Martin. Louis Constant Fleming is one of the very few exceptions among this rare grouping in St. Martin, North and South. For the last four years, Fleming has become the private sector example of a St. Martin patron of the cultural arts through the LCF Foundations significant contribution to the annual St. Martin Book Fair. The book fair has come a long way, and it is something that should be promoted, said Fleming about the islands literary festival celebrating its 15th anniversary in 2017. Fleming links literature, writing books, literacy itself, and the overall development of society in one breath. What I want to see is more of the real history of St. Martin written and promoted. Also, I dont see how you can justify democracy with illiteracy, said Fleming. Louis Constant Fleming hails from a St. Martin family that has been involved in the political leadership of the previous mayoral system and of the current collectivity structure in Marigot for well over 100 years. His family has been involved in island-wide business developments for about the same length of time. The former senator of the National Assembly of France from the Collectivity of St. Martin is also a businessman He sees the island-wide book fair as an information-driven vehicle of change. Its important to educate people on where they came from, and where theyre going, said Fleming. Fleming also commended book fair coordinator Shujah Reiph for his consistency in informing the public through the festival and his weekly Conscious Lyrics radio magazine. Furthermore, Fleming is pleased with the increase of writers on the island because of the many aspects of St. Martin yet to be documenteda gap that he feels the writers can fill. He said that, our islands history is very unique and believes in the need to strengthen the connection between the people on both sides. Fleming said that the people of the whole island need to count on themselves, as the St. Martin people, and to be more patriotic as the relationship of France and Holland has put a damper on the patriotism for the island. Fleming said that his focus during his stint in politics in the North was to make the territory more autonomous. St. Martin has a tremendous potential but people have to be more literate in order to make clear or informed decisions from a young age. St. Martin is ours, said Fleming and to ensure a better future, more young people need to be educated and involved in events like the St. Martin Book Fair. The 15th annual St. Martin Book Fair is scheduled for June 1 3, 2017. Each year the opening ceremony rotates between both capitals of the island. This year Marigot is the host city of the festival; Art is the theme, and authors are expected from St. Martin, the wider Caribbean and other parts of the world, said Reiph. The organizers of the St. Martin Book Fair are Conscious Lyrics Foundation and House of Nehesi Publishers, both non-profit NGOs. The St. Maarten Tourist Bureau has been the dedicated and strategic partner of the literary festival since 2004. The book fair is also organized in collaboration with the University of St. Martin and LCF Foundation. Peridot Foundation and SOS radio are among key sponsors of visits by leading international authors and media promotions. PHILIPSBURG:---Lately a hoax(1) has been circulating on social media about HIV infected canned food from Thailand. This hoax claims that the government of Thailand has issued a warning about canned foods that had purportedly been contaminated with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Emergency News Radio 1 FM announced that Thai Govt. confirmed: Emergency notification: Do NOT eat canned food especially those canned fruits manufactured in Thailand . There were over 200 HIV carriers instructed by their leader to contaminate the products of the canned food factory by their blood. The information was confirmed by the government this morning. In order not to let the people get infected Thai agencies, including the Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, and Food and Drug Administration of Thailand, had announced that Thai canned products have been thoroughly inspected and are certified according to international standards (GMP and HACCP) before the products could be shipped out. In fact, the heat treatment during the processing method will eliminate all harmful microbes and other viruses that may existed. Moreover, HIV virus needs a human host cell to live and it does not live long outside the human body. Therefore, it is not possible that canned products are contaminated with HIV as claimed. Hoaxes are usually in the form of chain e-mails or viral social media claims and can be easily suspected to be bogus when they contain certain key characteristics: 1. The author is anonymous 2. The author is supposedly a famous person 3. Theres a reference to a legitimate source that completely contradicts the information in the message 4. The message is often riddled with spelling errors 5. The author just loves using exclamation points 6. The message argues that it is not false 7. Theres math involved See also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fm0LwscDYHs It is strongly advised to consider researching a suspected hoax on the internet before believing and/or distributing it further. Suggested sites: http://hoax-slayer.com/ http://www.factcheck.org/ http://www.snopes.com/ Dr. E Best , Inspector General (1) A hoax is a deliberately fabricated falsehood made to masquerade as the truth. It is distinguishable from errors in observation or judgment, rumors, urban legends, pseudosciences and April Fools' Day events that are passed along in good faith by believers or as jokes. PHILIPSBURG:--- The 12th Annual National Day of Prayer will be held this Sunday, January 8th, 2017 in front of the New Government Administration Building under the theme is Lord give us vision that we may Prosper. The ecumenical service will begin at 5:30 p.m. with Praise and Worship led by the Harmonics Team & Band. The Order of Service includes a call to worship and invocation. Renditions will be done by the church choir of the Seventh Day Adventist Church as well as the Love and Grace Youth choir. Intercessory Prayers for: Government, Economic stability, Against Crime & Violence, the Family, the Youth and Protection will be offered by a member of the clergy, together with the various persons from the different churches, while Rev. Jaediene Meade will give the sermonette. The Honorable Prime Minister William Marlin will offer remarks, followed by a word of thanks by a representative of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport Affairs. The National Day of Prayer is observed annually on the second Sunday in January, with an invitation to people of all faiths to pray for the nation. It is a way of bringing together the entire population in prayer to start the New Year on the right footing. Criminals at gas stations are handing out key rings with transmitters that enable them to track potential burglary or carjacking victims. Warnings about crooks handing out free key rings or key fobs that are actually small (solar-powered!) transmitters, used to track potential victims for later burglaries and carjackings, began circulating in August 2008: Warning from Harris County Constable From HC Constable patrol Prec. #5 Be careful at gas stations & parking lots/criminals giving free key rings with device chip. There is a syndicate of criminals presenting themselves as sales promoters who are giving free key rings at gas stations and parking lots. The key ring has a tracking device chip which allows the criminals to track and follow you. Please, please don't accept them. They select their seemingly well-to-do potential victims and if you accept, you might become a victim of their tricks. The key holders are very beautiful and hard to resist accepting; but remember, you may end up paying more than the cost of a key holder, including the risk to your life. Please advise your family members, email contacts, and friends as well. URGENT PLEASE REPOST people at gas stations giving out key chains.. but the key chains have tracking devices to track u too ur house so they can rob u blind.. please pass this on too everyone on ur friends list please.. it could be ur mother or father that will accept one of them from these ......people!!!!! There is a syndicate of criminals presenting themselves as sales promoters who are giving free key-rings holders at gas stations or parking lots. The key rings have a tracking device chip which allows them to follow you. Please don't accept them. They select their seemingly well-to-do potential victims and if you accept, then you will be in for their tricks. The key holders are very beautiful to resist accepting but remember you may end up paying more than the key holder including the risk to your life. Please advice your family members as well!!! Syndicates made up of Ghanaians & Nigerians are giving free key-rings at petrol stations in Nairobi. Don't accept them as the key rings have a tracking device which allows them to follow you. Forward this alert to friends and family. Folks, a friend alerted me on the above and indicated that these guys just select their seemingly well-to-do potential victims and play the trick. The key holders I am told are too beautiful to resist collecting but remember you may end up paying more including your life if you can't resist. Security alert: Syndicates are giving free keyrings at petrol stations. Don't accept them as the keyrings have a tracking device which allows them to follow u. Forward this alert to friends and family. it hads GM, Opel and Isuzu badges at the top. WARNING: this happened to Andre yesterday. He put petrol in his car and the petrol attendant gave him a key holder Free! Back at work he noticed something funny a copper plate standing out. It had a sticker on the key holder, he pulled it off. With the key ring being transparent, he noticed a type of SIM card inside. He opened the key holder just to find a miniature transmitter which works with sun power. He took it to the Police Station and the Police said that they were aware of it it is used to follow you home and hijack your car/break into your home. Former Warren City Council at-large candidate Gary Boike said he has been planning since the Nov. 2019 election to request appointment to Council President Patrick Greens seat once it becomes vacant. A look back on all of our reporting of the Delphi murders since 2017 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. We have more newsletters Something went wrong, please try again later. Invalid email Something went wrong, please try again later. Want the latest news from Swansea sent straight to your inbox? A 13-year-old Swansea boy known as "a true gentleman" has died suddenly. Tributes were paid to Year 8 pupil leuan Griffiths, who was a student at Penyrheol Comprehensive School. The news of the Loughor youngster's sudden death has stunned the community. Penyrheol county councillor Jan Curtice said it was a real shock. Mrs Curtice, during a meeting of Gorseinon Town Council, said: "We had bad news as a Year 8 pupil passed away from Penyrheol Comprehensive School Ieuan Griffiths. "It was a shock. It's dreadful news." Her council colleague Gorseinon county councillor David Lewis said his thoughts were with Ieuan's family and friends. Mr Lewis said: "We have received the extremely sad news. We are thinking about his family and friends at this time. "If a message could go from the town council to the school. I can't imagine what they are going through at this moment." A South Wales Police spokeswoman said: "South Wales Police attended an address in Loughor at approximately 4.15pm on January 3, 2017, and can confirm the sudden death of a 13-year-old male." A statement from Penyrheol Comprehensive School said: "Everyone at Penyrheol Comprehensive has been deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Ieuan Griffiths who was a Year 8 pupil in our school. Ieuan was a quiet and thoughtful young man who was popular with both his fellow pupils and school staff. "He was always respectful, polite and considerate of others and he will be sorely missed. He was a true gentleman. "Understandably, since hearing of his passing many pupils and staff at the school are very upset and trained staff are on hand to support them. "Our thoughts are very much with his family and friends at this very sad time." 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 In the movie "Hidden Figures," astronaut John Glenn (Glen Powell) launches to space, but not before he directs NASA to "get the girl to check the numbers." "Get the girl to check the numbers." With those seven words, spoken by astronaut John Glenn before he became the first American to orbit Earth in 1962, Katherine Johnson's role in history changed. A "human computer" assigned to NASA's Flight Research Division at Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, Johnson was the African-American, then-44-year-old "girl" who was the subject of the astronaut's directive. As such, she set about double checking the trajectory calculated by her electronic counterpart: room-size IBM 7090 computers at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. John Glenn (Glen Powell) meets mathematician Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson) in the film "Hidden Figures." (Image credit: 20th Century Fox) "If she says the numbers are good, I am ready to go," said Glenn, according to Margot Lee Shetterly, citing Johnson, in her book "Hidden Figures" (William Morrow, 2016) which served as the basis for the 20th Century Fox movie by the same title opening wide in U.S. theaters on Friday (Jan. 6). That brief exchange, and the work Johnson did as a result of it, is a pivotal scene in the feature film, which stars Taraji P. Henson as the mathematician and Glen Powell as the astronaut. Like most "based on true events" films though, "Hidden Figures" takes certain liberties with the history. "Those calculations for John Glenn took three days," said director Ted Melfi. "We can't do that in the movie, so even though [Johnson] is a math genius, she is not that much a genius." "So yes, it took her 25 seconds in the film," said Melfi. Shetterly writes that it actually took Johnson a day and a half to complete the calculations. But whether it was 36 or 72 hours, there is a potentially bigger question: When did Glenn ask for "the girl" to check the computers' numbers? That piece of paper In "Hidden Figures," the movie, Johnson (Henson) rushes to complete the math while Glenn waits on the launch pad. She then runs to hand off her report to Mission Control (in real life, Johnson was in Virginia for the launch, while the flight controllers were at Cape Canaveral in Florida). Shetterly writes in her book that Glenn, who died on Dec. 8 at the age of 95, conducted a final check of his Mercury-Atlas 6 mission flight plan during the three days that led up to his launch on Feb. 20, 1962. It is within that context that she describes Johnson making the calculations, but that may or may not be when it occurred. "Out of all of the things that I was trying to track down, this was the one," Shetterly told collectSPACE in an interview. "I spoke to some of the guys in Houston, with Katherine, and [searched through] documents. I cannot even tell you how many boxes of the Project Mercury reports, all of the computer printouts, I went through trying to find that exact thing." Johnson told Shetterly it happened "weeks before" Glenn's launch, but her account, recalled more than 50 years after the event, "sort of moved around a little" over the course of her interviews. "As best as I can tell and looking at all the details, her oral history testimony and NASA documents, it was some point very close to the launch in 1962, but I could never get the final date," stated Shetterly. "I have gotten close to it, but I haven't found that piece of paper that said it happened on this date, at this time, these many days before the launch." The question of when might be further complicated by the history of Glenn's flight. The first American to orbit Earth lifted off on Feb. 20, 1962, but that came after two months of false starts. Glenn first got ready to launch by entering quarantine at the Cape in December 1961. "NASA hinted that the flight might occur before Christmas," Glenn wrote in his 1999 memoir. "Bob [Gilruth, head of the Space Task Group] knew it wouldn't hurt the agency if the president could give a Christmas present to the country in the form of an orbital flight." That gift however, was not to be. Technical problems with Glenn's Mercury capsule, Friendship 7, slipped the flight to the next month. NASA announced a date of Jan. 16, 1962, but that was postponed due to issues with the propellant tanks for the mission's Atlas rocket. On Jan. 27, after at least one delay for poor weather and another for technical concerns, Glenn proceeded through a pre-flight physical, put on his silver spacesuit, ascended the launch tower and boarded his spacecraft for launch. John Glenn reviews his orbital trajectory on a map the day after a launch scrub of his Mercury-Atlas 6 mission on Jan. 27, 1962. (Image credit: 20th Century Fox) "I lay there on my back in the contour couch for nearly six hours, wishing that the gantry would pull back, signaling a break in the clouds and imminent liftoff," Glenn wrote. "But they didn't break, and the launch window closed." A new attempt on Feb. 1 was called off after it was found that a fuel leak had soaked an insulation blanket inside the Atlas. Two weeks later, the weather scrubbed tries on Feb. 14 and 16. Finally, the weather improved, and Friendship 7 lifted off at 9:47 a.m. EST on Feb. 20, 1962. So, with all those stops and starts, why would Glenn only become concerned with the computer-generated numbers for his orbital trajectory on what turned out to be his last, successful attempt? After all, had the weather cooperated, he might have lifted off as early as a month before without the benefit of Johnson's double-check. Time to figure Had that happened had Glenn flown his three orbits on Jan. 27, and were all other conditions equal he probably would have been okay. Johnson's math matched the IBM, establishing the computer (the electronic one) was reliable. As to the timing, at least two possibilities exists. Johnson could have performed the math earlier then she recalled, such that her verification came prior to the January launch attempts (or maybe even for the December pre-Christmas target), or, perhaps, the delays gave Glenn the extra time he needed to think through all the possibilities. [Incredible Life of NASA's Katherine Johnson - By the Numbers] One detail that might bolster the latter scenario concerns how Glenn got the camera he used on board Friendship 7. According to his memoir, Glenn purchased the automatic camera at a Cocoa Beach drugstore in January, after his launch campaign had begun. The delay from December gave Glenn the time to further consider the necessity of flying a camera after NASA had initially rejected the idea. Maybe the extra days and weeks also gave Glenn the time to recall the "girl" whose figures preceded the computers. See more photos from "Hidden Figures" and of the real Katherine Johnson and John Glenn at collectSPACE. Follow collectSPACE.com on Facebook and on Twitter at @collectSPACE. Copyright 2016 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved. For the first time, China moved ahead of Russia in the number of rocket launches in 2016 and ended the year by tying the United States with 22 orbital missions. The statistics, complied by Harvard University astrophysicist and long-time rocket watcher Jonathan McDowell, also show that Russia's 17 launches in 2016 fell far short of the country's 2015 and 2014 tallies, which were 26 and 32 launches, respectively. Russia has been the world's launch leader since 2004, eclipsing both China and the United States. "By my count the USA was ahead from 1958 to 1966," McDowell wrote in an email to Seeker. "Next Russia held the lead from 1967 to 1995 but then (as the fall of the USSR caught up with the space program) the U.S. took it back in 1996-1999, 2001, and 2003. "Since 2004 Russia has had the lead again, so this is the first time in 12 years they've lost it," McDowell said. "Meanwhile China continues its ascent to parity or more with the US and Russia." RELATED: China Announces Plans for Moon and Mars Missions The United States would have finished the year well ahead of China had it not been for the grounding of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket fleet following a Sept. 1 accident on the launch pad. The company, owned and operated by technology entrepreneur Elon Musk, is aiming to return to flight on Sunday. As for the rest of the world, Europe's Arianespace finished the year with 11 launches, India had seven, Japan four, Israel one and newcomer North Korea launched one orbital rocket as well. While China's growing prowess in space is raising concerns in the defense community, space policy experts Joan Johnson-Freese, with the U.S. Naval War College in Rhode Island, and Theresa Hitchens with the University of Maryland's Center for International Security Studies, say that the threat of a war in space is dangerously overhyped. "My view is that the U.S. ought to put an equal amount of effort into diplomacy as it does to building 'stuff' but diplomacy doesn't allow the Pentagon or Intel (intelligence) community to buy lots more 'stuff.' Let's not forget, the Pentagon is a big bureaucracy. My bottom line on all of this is what's good for the Pentagon as an organization isn't always good for the U.S. as a whole," Johnson-Freese said. RELATED: Two Chinese Astronauts Arrive at Orbiting Space Lab She sees a parallel between China's efforts to evolve its space program and what the United States accomplished during the 1960s and '70s, a period of time that included the Apollo missions to the moon and the initial exploration of the solar system by robotic probes. "I'm not sure that the number of launches on its own means anything special," Johnson-Freese said. "I see it largely as a continuation of past plans. China continues to place their space plans within the context of overall country development since most space technology is dual use." "China has worked hard to build a family of launchers and an array of satellite capabilities and now it is utilizing them to the fullest," she said. Originally published on Seeker. Cosmonaut Igor Volk, who died on Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2017 at the age of 79, launched to the Salyut 7 space station in 1984. Igor Volk, a Soviet-era cosmonaut whose only spaceflight in 1984 was intended to prepare him to fly Russia's space shuttle Buran before it was canceled, died on Tuesday (Jan. 3). He was 79. Volk's death was reported on the website for the Russian city of Zhukovsky, where the cosmonaut was an honorary citizen. "[Volk] was a representative of the legendary generation of cosmonauts," the city officials wrote on Zhukovskiy.ru. "He will remain in our memory as an outstanding personality, an extraordinary man and a highly skilled, courageous test cosmonaut, who made contributions to the exploration of outer space and to the knowledge of the mysteries of the universe." [The Greatest Soviet & Russian Space Missions Ever] Roscosmos, Russia's federal space corporation, confirmed Volk's death in a post to its Facebook page. Selected in July 1977 among the first group of civilian test pilots for the Buran, the Soviet Union's answer to the U.S. space shuttle, Volk passed basic cosmonaut training and qualified for a spaceflight assignment in 1980. Volk might have then waited for a mission on board the winged orbiter a flight that would ultimately never come were it not for an aborted space station docking three years earlier. In the wake of a two-man, all-rookie Soyuz crew failing to dock to the Salyut 6 station, a new rule was instituted by the Soviet space program that every crew had to include at least one person who had previously flown into space. As such, Volk was initially named to fly with Leonid Kizim and Vladimir Solovyov to the Salyut 7 space station in 1983, to provide him the experience needed to lead the first flight of the Buran. Another failed docking mission however, resulted in Kizim and Solovyov being reassigned to a later launch and Volk being added to the Soyuz T-12 mission crew with Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Svetlana Savitskaya, the latter being the world's second woman to fly into space making her second spaceflight. Cosmonaut Igor Volk training in a Soyuz simulator. (Image credit: Roscosmos) Volk, Dzhanibekov and Savitskaya launched on July 17, 1984 from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome (now located in Kazakhstan). During the Soyuz T-12 mission, the seventh crewed flight to visit Salyut 7, Savitskaya became the first woman to go out on a spacewalk, beating NASA astronaut Kathy Sullivan by three months. [Giant Leaps: The Greatest Moments in Spaceflight] Volk returned to Earth with his two crewmates on July 29, 1984, logging a total of 11 days, 19 hours and 14 minutes in space. Soon after he landed, Volk boarded a Tu-154LL Buran training aircraft and flew an approach following the same flight path the orbiter would on its return from space, touching down at Zhukovsky Air Base near Moscow. The flight demonstrated that a cosmonaut still readjusting to gravity could safely fly the shuttle to a landing, though Volk, nor any other cosmonaut, would have the opportunity to conduct that real re-entry from space. Igor Petrovich Volk was born in Kharkiv, now the second-largest city in Ukraine, on April 12, 1937, 24 years to the day before cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin would become the first human to fly into space and 44 years to the day before the first launch of NASA's space shuttle. A pilot in the Soviet Air Force and graduate of Kirovograd Military Aviation School in 1956, Volk received his degree in engineering from the Moscow Aviation Institute in 1969. He then went to work as a civilian test pilot at the Gromov Flight Research Institute, flying jets, including the MiG-21, MiG-25 and Su-27, as well as a single flight in the "Lapot," an atmospheric test vehicle for the never-realized MiG-105 "Spiral" space plane. After his Soyuz T-12 mission, Volk continued to prepare for a Buran mission by piloting 13 flights of the analog version of the shuttle, the OK-GLI, between November 1985 and April 1988. His last approach and landing flight marked the 25th and last flight for the vehicle, which is now on display at the Technik Museum Speyer in Germany. The Buran only launched to space once, without a crew, in 1988, before the program was canceled in 1993. A view of the Soviet Union's Buran space shuttle on the launchpad. (Image credit: RSC Energia) "Energiya-Buran is the most powerful space vehicle the world has ever seen, and, had it been given the chance to fully develop, it would have been of great benefit to the people of the Soviet Union and, indeed, the world," Volk wrote in his foreword to the 2007 book "Energiya-Buran" by Bart Hendrickx and Bert Vis. "It didn't get that chance, but the political, and to some extent, economical situation, were not ideal." In 1995, Volk left the cosmonaut corps to become director of the flight test center at the MM Gromov Flight Research Institute in Zhukovsky, a position he held until he retired in 2002. For his service to the country's space program, Volk was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin in June 1984. Volk is survived by his wife, Valentina, and two daughters, Marina and Irina. Follow collectSPACE.com on Facebook and on Twitter at @collectSPACE. Copyright 2017 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved. The new Enhanced Vision Telescope (eVscope) provides a clearer and brighter view of the cosmos (right) compared to that provided by conventional telescopes, according to Unistellar, the French startup that makes the eVscope. A new backyard telescope accumulates and intensifies light, bringing the shapes and colors of cosmic objects into clearer view for amateur astronomers, the instrument's makers say. The Enhanced Vision Telescope (eVscope) uses optics and electronics to increase celestial objects' brightness in the eyepiece in real time, according to representatives of Unistellar, the French startup behind the instrument. The eVscope is being shown this week at the CES 2017 tech showcase in Las Vegas. You can see the latest news from CES 2017 here from our sister site Tom's Guide. "Can you imagine finally being able to see colors and shapes of galaxies, live and directly through the eyepiece of a portable telescope where even a large and expensive 16-inch telescope wouldnt let you see more than a gray mist?" Unistellar co-founder Laurent Marfisi said in a statement. "We expect it to revolutionize the hobby the same way consumer drones rocked aeromodelling." This amplification system can be switched off if users wish to use the evScope as a traditional telescope, Unistellar representatives added. The eVscope also features a "field recognition system," which lets users know just what they're observing objects' names and distances from Earth, for example. Unistellar is demonstrating the eVscope every evening at CES, which runs from today (Jan. 5) through Sunday (Jan. 8). Additional demos this month will take place in San Francisco and Marseilles, France, according to the startup's website. Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com. The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2016 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. 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Get complete PC optimization and extend the life of your PC with these must-have software tools. 4 / 5 Amri also managed to spend days fleeing after the terrorist attack, traveling through Germany, the Netherlands and France before finally getting caught in a random check by police in Milan, Italy, during which he was shot to death. He was believed to be a potential threat by both German authorities and those in Italy, where he first arrived as a refugee in 2011. Matthew Brown / Hearst Connecticut Media STAMFORD More than a dozen city public school students will compete this winter in two regional music festivals after being selected from thousands who auditioned last year. Ten city high schoolers from Westhill and Stamford high schools will perform Jan. 13 and 14 at the Connecticut Music Educators Associations Western Regional High School Festival at Staples High School in Westport. In 2004 when I set out for China and the world unknown, I never intended on starting my own business. I wanted an adventure, to travel and to see places most only dream of. My adventure became more of an education than a 25-year-old wanna-be expat could have ever imagined. I built an international network and learned to problem solve in ways I never thought possible. I grew an understanding that the American way wasnt always the best way and got comfortable being uncomfortable. I learned to take risks. My eight-year adventure in China led to the creation of BRIC Language Systems, which just celebrated five years in business! Being that its our fifth anniversary, here are five reasons why if you decide to "Go Global" you might find yourself becoming an "expatreneur." 1. Youre starting from scratch. Moving abroad requires an appetite for risk that few possess. Creating a life from nothing in a foreign country also requires a certain degree of curiosity, a sense of adventure, and the determination to see it through to the end regardless of the outcome. Youll need to build an entirely new social and business network, to get familiar with the unfamiliar and persevere through the most difficult of situations. You must overcome the feelings of isolation that can consume you as an outsider. You need to keep an open mind to different ideas and adjust to new ways of doing things. All of this while keeping your emotions in check when confronted with both total failure and overwhelming success. Most of all you need to learn to read situations in a seemingly alternate universe, adapt to that universe, and make decisions that result in positive outcomes for you. Related: How to Turn Your Hobby into a Profitable Business Venture If this sounds familiar it is because many of these things are written about daily on this site. It is because living as an expat forces you to cultivate the skills that are shared by the most successful entrepreneurs. You are learning to be entrepreneurial in life and those skills translate directly to business. 2.) You get comfortable being uncomfortable. I stole that line from the Navy Seals but it is one of the most necessary skills you can have in business. In starting a business, youre taking on a huge risk. Your reputation, your money and, more often than not, other peoples money is all on the line. That requires being comfortable in an incredibly uncomfortable situation. Being able to function at a high level under that type of pressure is an essential skill for entrepreneurs. It is also one of the first skills you acquire while living and working abroad. Whether its eating strange things, meeting new people, adjusting to a new culture and not knowing the language, living in a foreign country will make you uncomfortable on a daily basis. If you are not able to get comfortable with being uncomfortable you will wash out. According to a study by Rosetta Stone 75 percent of all expat relocations fail. Life as an expat forces you to learn how to be comfortable, or at least act that way, in even the most uncomfortable of situations. This is an important skill as an entrepreneur. 3.) Cross-cultural experience gives you new ideas. Studies illustrate that living abroad in a cross-cultural environment sparks new ideas and develops a persons ability to identify profitable entrepreneurial opportunities. Cross-cultural experiences expose you to new ways of doing things as well as products and services that you may have never known existed. Some of these are good, others bad. The most apparent examples are food and drink. In China, they mix red wine with Coca Cola: this would fall into the realm of bad. Green tea mixed with hot whiskey falls squarely into the good category. Related: Up and Coming U.S. Cities for Your Business (Infographic) While living in China I had ideas that ran the gamut. Again, some good and some bad. At one point I wanted to bring chewing tobacco into a market that had none but did have a love affair with tobacco. We talked about organic juice shops for China before they existed there. We looked at cultural sensitivity training programs for Chinese traveling abroad. All it took was one good idea and now were in the business of language training and providing work opportunities abroad for young professionals! 4.) In emerging markets, you know the future. If youre from the US and move to a developing country, you might find yourself in a situation where you have seen the future. Products and services that exist already in the US may be either in their infancy or may not exist at all. This puts you in a unique position of knowing the solution to a need that has not yet been met. They may not even know that they have the need yet. This leaves you with some options. The first is to import the product into the country youre living in. The second is to develop it there, taking into account local culture and adding features that cater to that community. 5.) Expand your cross-cultural networking skills. Networking, like taxes, is a necessary evil. It is also a skill that must be cultivated and refined. Just having thousands of contacts on LinkedIn doesnt make you a great networker. Its good to cast a wide net. I think that it goes without saying that the larger your network, the more opportunities you have. Great networkers stand out by finding a few of the right connections, ones that have the potential to be mutually beneficial long term, and nurturing those relationships. Related: 4 Signs It's Time to Let Go of That Idea You Thought Was a Winner When relocating abroad youre forced to develop an entirely new social and business network. This essentially doubles your network. This network consists of locals from the host country and other expats from around the world. My network includes people from Australia, Ireland, UK, Italy, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Canada, Thailand, Brazil, Mexico and about 15 other countries spread across four continents. The people in my network have brought me some great opportunities, and Id like to think that Ive done the same for them. Go global to find your inner entrepreneur. The global expat community produces entrepreneurs because expats are, by their very nature, entrepreneurs. Expats are risk takers. We are forced to develop and perfect exactly the skills that starting a business requires. Working across cultures and international borders introduces new solutions to age-old problems while igniting the creative parts of our brains. Our ever expanding network puts us in touch with more people in more countries which creates more opportunities. Go global and see if you have what it takes to be an "expatreneur!" Related: 5 Reasons Expats Make Great Entrepreneurs Start-ups Are Looking at Ways to Challenge the Status Quo 7 Companies Empowering You to Give Gifts That Give Back Copyright 2017 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved NORWALK A Stamford man, who was a subject of narcotics surveillance by the Norwalk Police Departments Special Services Division, was charged with a host of marijuana possession and sales-related charges. Cameron Evans, 18, of Jordan Street, was charged with possession of less than four ounces of marijuana, possession of drugs with intent to sell, possession of drugs within 1,500 feet of a school, possession of drug paraphernalia, interfering with an officer, possession of drugs with intent to sell within 1,500 feet of a school, and possession of drug paraphernalia within 1,500 feet of a school. Many journalists and pundits have presented an interesting case for moving to a nationwide popular vote in the quadrennial presidential contest. As these commentators note, Donald Trump will become president on Jan. 20, notwithstanding his loss to Hillary Clinton in the popular vote by almost 3 million. Of course, it has been pointed out that presidential candidates campaign to maximize their opportunity by focusing on swing states a tactic that would change if the national popular vote mechanism effectively became the law of the land. And as campaign strategies would change, so would the vote tallies. While utilizing the national popular vote is appealing in that the overall will of the people determines the outcome, the abolishment of the Electoral College would require a difficult-to-achieve constitutional amendment. Instead, to achieve the same result, many advocate the formation of a pact in which each state allocates all of its electoral votes to the individual who wins the national popular vote. This would, in effect, disenfranchise so many voters and eradicate a key feature of the federal system. Moreover, while such a move might be appealing in concept, this approach is completely impractical: if the national vote is close, say within 20,000 votes, how confident would Americans be that the respective totals are correct and actually present the will? With 125 million votes cast, such a differential amounts to a measly 0.016 percent. Even 50,000 votes is equivalent to only 4/100th of 1 percent. Such a narrow spread would require a completely impractical 50-state recount, after which confidence in the result would still be minimal. I recommend a proportionality method, eliminating the unfair winner-take-all schemes. In the simplest of such methods, each states electoral votes would be allocated to reflect the percentage of votes for each candidate, rounded off to the nearest whole electoral vote. There would have to be a small correction in the calculation in the event that third or fourth party candidates complicate the rounding off process. A second proportionality method would utilize Congressional districts and provides a neat alternative while maintaining the federal system with an added twist accounting for senators. Maine and Nebraska, the only states that do not award all of their electoral votes to the candidate that wins a plurality of the states presidential ballots, use this system. In these two forward-looking states, the winner of each Congressional district wins that electoral vote, and the last two electoral votes (representing the two senators) are awarded to the overall statewide winner. Importantly, a switch to one of the proportionality methods would not require a constitutional amendment. It could be accomplished gradually on a state-by-state basis as more state legislatures and governors sign on. It would much more closely reflect the popular vote than todays mechanism and encourage candidates to campaign in far more states, reducing the number of forgotten territories. For example, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, California, Illinois and Texas host far fewer campaign events than they should, as the first five are reliably Democratic, while the sixth usually favors the Republican. A key challenge, however, would be encouraging state legislators who hold a majority of seats in their respective capitals to support such a move, even if their party typically dominates presidential election results in their states. But, as Maine and Nebraska have demonstrated, such movement is certainly possible and, we believe, is long overdue. William R. Young is a Stamford resident. WILTON The Wilton Chamber of Commerce will ring in the New Year with two special events. The first aims to provide helpful information in the form of a seminar. Your Elevator Speech will be presented by SCORE of Fairfield County and will be hosted by the Wilton Library on Wednesday, Jan. 11, from 6-8 p.m. Speaker Stan Witkow, a SCORE counselor, will help attendees develop a concise, compelling and memorable introduction to enhance their business opportunities. Though the seminar is free, registration is required. Visit scorefairfieldcountry.org to sign up. T he sale of Formula One to Liberty Media wiped 270 million off the value of the motor racing series, it has emerged. Filings from carmaker Ferrari valued F1 at 4.1 billion two months before its sale but the figure plummeted to 3.8 billion three weeks after the deal got off the grid. Liberty bought F1 for 3.6 billion from private-equity firm CVC in September. F1s Jersey-based parent company Delta Topco does not disclose the sports value but, as Ferrari owns an option on a 0.25% stake in Delta, the listed Italian team reports quarterly valuations on it. Its option was valued at 9 million in December 2014 and peaked at 10.3 million in June 2016 after F1s announcement of a sponsorship deal with Heineken. That valuation gave Delta Topco an equity value of 4.1 billion but this soon reversed. The team, which boasts former F1 champion Sebastian Vettel in its line-up, said of the drop in value: Movements in the Delta Topco option relate to the revaluation of the instrument as a result of the agreement between Liberty Media Corporation and CVC, where CVC sold a portion of its shareholding in Delta Topco to LMC, which had an impact on the valuation. CVC was reportedly under pressure from investors to sell up after owning F1 for a decade. Liberty shareholders vote on the sale later this month. CVC and Liberty declined to comment. S hares in PureCircle left a bad taste in the mouth today as it revealed its stand-off with US customs pushed it into the red in the first half. The ingredients provider, which makes a third of its sales in the States, had two shipments of stevia imported from China in May seized by US customs, alleging that the low-calorie sweetener had been the product of forced prison labour. PureCircle denies the allegation. Today, it said the ordeal, which is yet to be resolved with all US shipments by PureCircle on hold, meant sales in the first half would be $47 million (38 million), down 14% year-on-year, causing underlying profits to tumble from $13 million to $8 million. Overall, it made a net loss of $2 million from a $5 million profit the year before. The shares dived 23.9p, or 10%, to 227.1p. Strong UK services data erased early gains from the FTSE 100, which, having hit new highs earlier in the day, slipped 3.17 points to 7186.57. Shaftesbury rose 10p to 912.5p after broker Liberum lifted its forecasts as it shrugged off the long-term impact of business rates on the West End landlord. Security firm G4S was up 8.4p to 240.8p as broker Jefferies lifted its rating from underperform to hold, playing down the potential for a dilutive placing after helpful foreign exchange tailwinds. Fears about Capes dividend were soothed as the industrial services firm pleasantly surprised investors by revealing its full-year results would be materially ahead of current market expectations thanks to a strong performance in Asia Pacific. The shares dived in November after it warned the fallout from the asbestos scandal at its Barking factory could threaten the dividend. Insurers are claiming against Cape on premiums already paid out to asbestos-related cancer sufferers. The shares recovered 29p, or 19%, to 181p today. Shares in Gfinity were off 0.25p at 16p on AIM despite the e-sports firm being chosen to host two Call of Duty events at its Gfinity Arena in Fulham. Elsewhere on the junior market, ceramic mugs and teapots maker Churchill China surged 70.11p, or 8%, to 925.11p after a bullish update in which it said its full-year operating performance would be ahead of forecasts. R oyal Mail rang the death knell for one of the UKs last surviving major final salary pension schemes today, threatening the retirements of 90,000 postal workers. Royal Mail, privatised in 2013 at 330p a share in a highly controversial float, today said it has started a consultation process with staff and unions over changes to pensions. The move wont affect those who have already retired, or directors such as 1.5 million-a-year chief executive Moya Greene, who are not in the scheme. The Royal Mails giant fund has assets of 7.4 billion and, unlike many other schemes, is presently in surplus to the tune of 1.8 billion. It says that surplus will run out in 2018 and that it would have to pay in 1 billion a year, up from 400 million now, to keep running the fund, which it last year labelled simply unaffordable. Though the company insists no decision has yet been taken, it seems highly unlikely that the final-salary scheme will be retained. The average pay at Royal Mail for so-called frontline staff is 23,000. It pays 200,000 a year into Greenes pension. A spokesman said: We will actively consider any other affordable proposals that members or their representatives put forward during the consultation. The consultation ends in March. The announcement, so soon after the key Christmas period, is likely to spark anger. By shifting from a final-salary pension to a so-called defined contribution scheme, staff are left at the mercy of the stock market for their retirement income. Unite, already at war with the Post Office over changes to pensions, said it could not rule out strike action. Royal Mail insists the new deal it is offering will be competitive compared to our industry. It notes that few FTSE 100 firms still have a final-salary scheme. Tesco and Marks & Spencer are among big businesses recently to have taken an axe to staff benefits. This week it emerged that the final-salary pension deficit of the UKs top 350 listed companies has trebled in a year to 137 billion. Royal Mail blames tough financial market conditions for its move on pensions. Low returns on bonds have made it difficult for pension funds to meet liabilities. However, stock markets here and in the US have hit record highs lately. Royal Mail staff were given shares in the company when it joined the stock market. They quickly soared, leading to accusations the Government had sold the asset off too cheaply. The sale of Royal Mail was one of the few opposed by Margaret Thatcher. The former prime minister once remarked that she was not prepared to have the Queens head privatised. Royal Mail is 500 years old. K ey-cutting and shoe repairs firm Timpson today bought Jeeves of Belgravia, dry cleaners to the Royal Family, as part of an 8.3 million acquisition from Johnson Service Group. As well as the purchase of the upmarket Royal Warrant holder, which has eight London branches and a number of international stores, the deal includes retail arm Johnson Cleaners UK. Combined, the Johnson dry-cleaning business generated sales of 46.2 million in 2015. It has around 200 stores. Johnson Service Groups boss Chris Sander said the disposal would help the firm to concentrate on expanding its textile rental arm, which provides linen for hotels and restaurants. The company added that some of the proceeds will be used to reduce its debts and pay into its pension scheme. Shares in Johnson rose 1.62p, or 1.44%, to 114.62p. W e are a godmother. My first godchild a boy, as yet without a name was born on New Years Eve to two of my closest friends. I feel I have won the godparent lottery. Not only is he gorgeous (his miniature fingers! his little button nose!) but he has the most memorable birth date, so there will never be a tardy present. Perhaps best of all, though, his parents have no expectations about my contribution, for while I am Catholic, they are Jewish and I rather thrust the idea of being a godmother upon them. Thats because Ive always wanted godchildren. So much so that I would happily go the full Princess Diana with 17. You get the heavily edited highlights of a child rather than the directors cut: trips to the cinema and for afternoon tea and later the theatre, without the nappy-changing or the toddler and then teen tantrums. In theory, Im supposed to be a spiritual role model, but even without the complication of our belonging to different faiths the role has moved on. As one of Debretts etiquette advisers has stated, there are no hard and fast rules nowadays. I see my job as seven-fold. Give presents. See him regularly birthdays, Friday night suppers. Dole out occasional gems of pseudo-materteral advice. Offer a free babysitting service to help maintain parental sanity. Ignore his siblings. Ensure that he knows I wont judge him, that he can confide in me. And, most importantly, be a fifth emergency service for him in his late adolescence only ever a phone call away, with a bed free if he ever needs a place to stay, even if that just means a holiday home during periods of empty pockets. In recent years, though, the demands on godparents have ballooned. A tenner on a birthday is no longer deemed enough; the era of godflation is upon us. A friend, Tim, was asked to be a godparent recently to a child called Cecily (names have been changed to spare blushes). After he accepted, there was a painfully long email chain which he understandably stopped reading, only checking which church he needed to be at and when. Standing at the font, the vicar turned to him, and said: Cecilys godparents have all been asked to recite a poem theyve written to her. Tim, can you start? Worse, perhaps, a wealthy, childless, older acquaintance was asked to stump up part of his godchilds school fees. Increasingly, people dont even pick their closest friends. Sometimes, its part of empire-building; the godfather of Rupert Murdochs daughter is Tony Blair. A friend of mine suspects she was only asked to be a godparent because shes an author, and her Mammon-focused banker friends (loosely defined) wanted their child to have contact with someone more artistic than materialistic. If youre a celebrity, youre in ever greater demand, a trend known as power godparenting. But what could be naffer than asking your one famous mate even if theyre a mere Facebook friend now to do the honours in place of the friend youd call at 4am? Some friends have even been sacked as a godparent, either for failing in their responsibilities coming over all Fredo Corleone or for falling out with the parents. An important rule is that you never criticise the childs upbringing, even if theyre a swinish sod prone to conniptions and with Erysichthons appetite for sweets. That isnt your place, just a fast-track to your godparent P45. Usually, though, theres only way of getting out of this job: death. Luckily, my dear, darling godson, I am in this for the long haul. Pray for the latest canine Kardashian Kendall Jenner received a puppy for Christmas, a snowy Italian greyhound. Which made me wonder what happened to the rest of the Kardashian clans panoply of puppies and pets. No animal ever seems to reach old age at casa Kardashian. There was Bella the Maltese, who Kim K says went to live with Pastor Brad (that, apparently, isnt a euphemism, like when you tell your toddler the familys deceased dog is now gambolling in the countryside). A peacock named Peter Pan was left when Khloe K moved house. Dolce, a chihuahua, was killed by a coyote. Mercy, a white cat, was given to Khloes assistant Sydney. Rocky, a boxer, appears to be MIA. Kylie Jenners dogs, at least, seem to be there for the long haul. Its like a canine version of Henry VIIIs wives: dispensed of, deserted, died, dispensed of, disappeared ... survived? Only Justin Bieber who gave his hamster to a fan and had his monkey seized by customs trumps the Kardashians on the celebrity pet owner scale. A dog is surely not for Kardashmas. If only Sherlock got it right in his name game Theres a new Rosamund in town. In the recent Sherlock episode John Watson named his daughter in my (OK, Rosamund Pikes) honour. She joins Rosamund of the Gepids, Henry IIs mistress Clifford, novelists Pilcher and Lehmann, poet Marriott Watson and Downtons Lady Rosamund. I feel this may propel our moniker up the baby names chart to heights not seen since the 12th century (2012 was a strong year for Rosamund, with nine British babies christened thus). But Sherlock was mistaken about the root of the name. It doesnt mean rose of the world though its spelling was influenced by that idea. Its Germanic and means horse protection. So I am named after an equine condom. That should nix its pretensions towards popularity in the bud. * Brexit is going swimmingly, isnt it? Our Government has such a strong strategy for negotiating with the EU that it didnt even tell its own ambassador what it was. That was one of the gems from Sir Ivan Rogerss resignation letter. Rogerss fears should worry us he warns that Britain risks being completely outgunned in negotiations but I imagine there will be many too who envy him his candid epistle. January is the time of year when people are most likely to search for new jobs, in part because they return after Christmas and cant face another year of workplace Gehenna. Many must fantasise about speaking their minds to their employer like Rogers has, before slamming the door on the way out. T he rise in rail fares and Sadiq Khans desire for Transport for London to take over commuter routes represents a double whammy for Londoners [Why I will continue to fight for TFL to take over more rail services, Comment, January 3]. The Mayor is wrong to compare how much British commuters pay for railway fares with other European countries, given that empirical research shows the UKs railways to be the safest and most efficient in Europe. The UK has not had a fatal train crash in more than a decade and time has proven that serious money must be invested to increase safety and for better punctuality to be achieved. Our railways do have this investment, which is heavily funded by railway fares, while countries such as France do not. Concerning TfL, I do not believe it would bring much to the table in terms of improving the railway lines in London. All services operated by TfL suffer terribly from overcrowding and infrastructure problems in the same way as the mainline railways in London. Yet the mainline operators have, in my opinion, done more to increase services and capacity than TfL. It is high time that Sadiq Khan and TfL took a step back and looked at the wider picture, as well as the GLA Act 1999 and the Railways Act 1993, both which prohibit TfL and the GLA from operating mainline railway lines. Ian Roberts Sadiq Khan is being disingenuous in calling for a freeze on rail fares. His pledge in the mayoral election promised a clear freeze in fares; never once did he say that this could not include Oyster and travelcards. By making these demands Khan is trying to be populist but his delivery appears to be more style than substance. Instead of making cheap and uninformed shots against the Government and his predecessor he needs to come up with practical solutions. While I understand he is in a hurry to make an impact, he is laying the foundations for a big failure. His decision to abolish Routemaster buses is another example of his opportunism. Putting commuter rail routes in his hands would be a disaster unless he can prove himself. David Caillard I am glad that Sadiq Khan has raised the issue of rail fares increasing and how unacceptable that is. Commuters who travel into London already pay extraordinary prices for a poor service, so to increase these fares further is unsurprisingly being met with dismay. At the moment the Mayor does not have any power over national routes but if franchises were handed over to TfL, as suggested by Khan, he would then be able to implement his fare freeze. Londoners deserve better than more money coming out of their pockets. Gill Hughes Let athletics events be more inclusive In response to your interview with Dame Sarah Storey, Leonard Cheshire Disability welcomes her call for Paralympians to be given a bigger platform to display their talents [Para-athletes should get equal billing, says golden girl Storey, January 3]. We recently asked more than 2,000 people if they supported integrating events for disabled athletes into the Olympic Games and other sporting events. Of the participants, 48 per cent of the British public said disabled athletes should compete on the same stage as non-disabled athletes if they wished. Just 29 per cent were against this happening. Last years Anniversary Games were a great inclusive success and the world record set by amputee runner Richard Whitehead was the highlight of the day. The Paralympics are a great example of what disabled people can achieve when given the chance and we need more inclusive events for athletes to have the same opportunities as their non-disabled peers. Neil Heslop, chief executive, Leonard Cheshire Disability Communities can stop knife crime The murder of Ernest Kalawa saw yet another precious young life lost to knife crime in London. All the victims deaths leave families devastated, friends bereft and communities fearful. The group most affected by knife crime is young people. Our recent survey of 4,000 young Londoners showed that 93 per cent felt that knife crime was a problem. This leads many young people to the erroneous conclusion that they too must carry a knife to protect themselves which is why we educate young Londoners about the consequences of knife crime. This is, however, only part of the solution. We need to address the factors that allow these tragic incidents to happen, and to achieve this we need to support communities to tackle knife crime at its source. Patrick Green, Ben Kinsella Trust The fight for press freedom is vital Melanie McDonagh is right to castigate the enemies of press freedom in the House of Lords [Karen Bradley needs to stand up to the threat to the press, Comment, January 3]. Our great newspapers must not be put under pressure to join a state-approved regulatory body which the majority of them oppose. It is not just about national titles, but also regional and local newspapers, many of which already struggle to survive. In Northern Ireland, what is now being proposed would not apply. One country, two different laws for the press: how could that be right? Baron Lexden, House of Lords (Con) We need figures on toxic air pollution We share Baroness Joness concerns regarding high levels of toxic air near schools [Stop children playing outside when toxic air is at danger levels, January 3]. Further and faster action is needed to tackle this public health crisis. Air pollution levels must be monitored around schools as currently this critical information is not available. Once we can see how toxic our air is, the demand for change will be loud and clear. Dr Penny Woods, chief executive, British Lung Foundation W hat does belief mean in the 21st century? The Southbank Centres year-long festival Belief and Beyond Belief will spend a year exploring this compelling issue with debate, workshops, concerts, poetry, film and performance. The festival opens on January 16 with a talk from Professor Stephen Hawking, who will discuss the highlights of his career to mark his 75th birthday. The opening weekend, taking place from January 20-22, will address the search for the meaning of life; a particular highlight will be a performance of Beethovens only opera, Fidelio, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. The London Philharmonic Orchestra, who are partners for the festival, will hold 27 concerts in 2017, all based around the weekend themes of the festival. These will include Haydns The Creation, John Adamss Harmonielehre and Krzysztof Pendereckis 1966 St Luke Passion. A number of writers will host debates and give talks around the issue of the relevance of religious belief. Colm Toibin will discuss what its like to write a novel from the perspective of Jesuss mother, and there will be a live reading of Primo Levis If This Is a Man, to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the books publication. AC Grayling will discuss the whether war can ever be justified, and other debate topics will include God in politics, assisted dying, playing God with artificial intelligence, and how the world would be different if God was a woman. Events and speakers continue to be announced, but other highlights will include former bishop Richard Holloway discussing his disillusionment with religion, Mona Siddiqui OBE discussing whether struggle gives life meaning, a panel on how to be a Shaman, and Music to Die For, a performance by the BBC Concert Orchestra of film and theatre music that deals with death and spirituality. There will also be film screenings, workshops, and a performance based on the 1925 Scopes monkey trial. Plenty of events will be free, including singing groups, craft activities, yoga, mindfulness, and a parade inspired by the Mexican Day of the Dead festival. Eight weekends across the year will be centred around a particular theme for the festival, which include how we live with death, science versus religion, how to be good, and how religion has shaped society. Belief and Beyond Belief runs at the Southbank Centre through 2017 from January 16; southbankcentre.co.uk Visit standard.co.uk/arts for the latest news and reviews from Londons arts scene Follow Going Out on Facebook and on Twitter @ESgoingout O ded Oren is to be the first chef-in-residence at new south east London cafe, bar and restaurant Louie Louie, which opens tonight, January 5. Tel Aviv born Oren has made his name across the capital at a series of pop-ups, including time at The Common E2 and the Terrace at the Oval Space. The menu will showcase his signature modern Mediterranean cooking, with dishes including chicken hearts with pimenton and cumin, labneh tortellini in a tomato ragu, and chargrilled octopus with greek yoghurt and fennel. Oren told the Standard: I want to reach new audiences and introduce new flavours, textures and ways of presenting great simple good quality ingredients at reasonable prices. We are working closely with local suppliers, and respecting the local communities, of which there are many in this area. Louie Louie opens on Walworth Road, SE17, making a change for the chef, whos previously been based in the east and north of the capital. He said: This fantastic part of London is very new to me. There are lots of very open minded residents as well as very established communities from all across the world and bringing my own East Mediterranean style of cooking here is exciting. A Kickstarter campaign, which raised nearly 30,000, has helped the restaurant launch. Named for the Kingsmans iconic 60s rock n roll record (which, incidentally, contains one of the first recorded instances of f*** in pop music), Louie Louie comes from the team behind Camberwells Fowlds cafe, Jack Wilkinson and Hanne Cole, who have partnered with Chris Greenwood, co-owner of the Bedroom Bar & Comedy Cafe theatre. Besides Orens menu, Louie Louie will serve cocktails, natural wines and local craft beers in the evenings, while DJs play. There will also be live music downstairs. During the day, it will be open as a cafe, offering breakfast, lunch and, naturally, a weekend brunch. Stromabakes will be their in-house pastry chef. For more information, visit louielouie.london. Follow David Ellis on Twitter @dvh_ellis Follow Going Out on Facebook and on Twitter @ESGoingOut T hai chain Busaba are hoping to cheer up Londoners suffering from the January blues with the promise of cheap food. On January 16 so-called Blue Monday, allegedly the most depressing day of the year Busaba will run a 99p menu from midday until 4pm at all of their restaurants. To take advantage, Londoners will need to sign up in advance here. 99p dishes are, sadly, limited to one per person and will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. The nine-dish menu includes the likes of chilli prawn stir-fry, Songkhla red curry, and Pad Thai, which all typically cost around 12 each. Other plates available include crabmeat fried rice, chargrilled chicken, green chicken curry and ginger beef stir fry, many of which come with free rice. The final two dishes are yet to be confirmed. Busaba have thirteen restaurants across the capital. Details can be found here. Blue Monday is an example of a publicity stunt unravelling out of control. About a decade ago, a press release went out claiming scientists had concluded the third Monday of January to be the most depressing day of the year, which has since stuck in the public imagination. This 'fact' is anything but. Follow David Ellis on Twitter @dvh_ellis Follow Going Out on Facebook and on Twitter @ESGoingOut W e first met Army intelligence officer James Palatine in Little Sister last year when he was causing mayhem in the Western Sahara. This sequel, which is in fact a prequel, finds his younger self in Kosovo in 1999, where hes eliminating paramilitary thugs with extreme prejudice and glee. On one such operation he rescues a traumatised little girl. However, instead of handing her over to the UN High Commission for Refugees, a misunderstanding sees him give the child to a gang of pimps. James is an inch shorter than Jack Reacher but a more sensitive action hero. Determined to right his wrong, he breaks out of detention in Britain dont ask and returns to the Balkans as Tony Blair and his buddies prepare to bomb Serbia. Aided and abetted by the girls mother, James tracks the traffickers all the way into Greek waters where they are all out of their depth. Say A Little Prayer is a more polished, grown-up work than its predecessor. Giles OBryen presents the complexities of the conflict with scrupulous impartiality, while never neglecting the bouts of bone-crunching that make this such a thrilling read. There are baddies galore including, of course, a paedophile priest and a horribly ironic twist. A wise old soldier explains: Gangs, tribes, races and nations they all need to do some killing every so often. And, as Graham Greene might have said, they need murderous bastards such as James Palatine to do it. P erhaps you and your partner found yourself in a romantic rut in 2016. It could be that you bickered over which presidential candidate to support. It could be that one of you was working long hours and left the other person feeling neglected. Or, it could simply be that you've been together a long time now, and the spark has seemingly faded. The good news: It's possible to recover from any of these situations. The less-good news: You'll have to work at it. Up for the challenge? Awesome. Over the past year or so, Business Insider has shared many research findings and expert insights on how to develop a great relationship. Below, we've rounded up the most compelling of that advice. Whether you've been married for decades or just moved in together, you'll be able to apply at least some of these tips to your 2017 romantic life. 1. Show gratitude for your partner As Business Insider's Erin Brodwin has reported, couples who express gratitude toward each other are more likely to stay together. In fact, thanking your partner even once can bring you two closer months later. That's possibly because a single act of gratitude sparks a cycle of gratitude and generosity: You thank your partner, so your partner feels appreciated and invests more in the relationship, which in turn makes you feel more grateful to them. Meanwhile, in the 2015 book "The Gratitude Diaries," journalist Janice Kaplan describes how being thankful to her husband for something as mundane as fixing a leaky faucet or driving home from a party meaningfully improved her relationship. 2. Occasionally remind your partner of all the ways you contribute to the relationship There's a concept called "operational transparency" that businesses can use to improve customer satisfaction. The idea is to show customers how much work goes into delivering the product or service. For example, while you're waiting for the available flights to appear on the screen, a flight aggregation website will tell you exactly which airline databases it's searching. So you can see the amount of effort it's putting in. On an episode of The James Altucher podcast, behavioral economist Dan Ariely argued that you can apply these findings to the science of relationships. Simply tell your partner (once in a while not all the time) about your day full of errands: the drugstore, the supermarket, picking up the kids from school, and so on. Knowing what you've contributed when they weren't looking, it will be harder for your partner to take you for granted. 3. Before you get married, talk about your individual career ambitions For her 2016 book "Earning It," Joann Lublin, who is management news editor at The Wall Street Journal, interviewed dozens of high-powered women. Some women had partners with equally high-powered careers, and Lublin learned that the only way for both to succeed was to sit down and have a conversation about it before things got really serious. In the book, Lublin shares how she and her husband, also a journalist, signed a "marriage contract" years ago, in which they agreed that they would alternate who took the lead in any relocation for a job. It's not a panacea for marital discord but it can prevent a lot of frustration down the line. 4. Practise 'mindful conversation' "Mindful conversation" isn't designed to help romantic couples, per se but it's a useful exercise in learning to actually listen to what your partner is saying, instead of tuning out or waiting for your chance to jump in. You can practice with your partner or with someone else. Here's how it works (one of you can be "A" and the other can be "B"): A talks and B listens for a set time period. B responds with, "What I heard you say is " A gives feedback and B responds until A is satisfied. A and B switch roles. It might be awkward at first, but it gets easier over time. Best books on mindfulness 1 /14 Best books on mindfulness Find your inner peace with our pick of the best mindfulness and meditation books... Mindfulness: a practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world This bestseller will get you in the right frame of mind for 2016. Based on Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) a successful form of brief meditation this book's success relies on the way in which authors Mark Williams and Danny Penman optimistically focus on adding joy to your life as opposed to ridding it of unhappiness. 10.50, Amazon, Buy it now Anti-Stress Dot-to-Dot Always thought that dot-to-dots were an activity for children? Apprently you're wrong be wrong the pictures in this book, featuring elegant buildings and nature scenes, will relax and focus your mind in a way you never thought a dot-to-dot book could. 5, Amazon, Buy it now I Am Here Now This will help enhance both your observation and creativity; with an audio track (featuring musings from mindfulness teacher Tara Brach) and a field notes page for recording purposes, I Am Here Now will enable your thoughts and emotions to take on a new lease of life. 7, Amazon, Buy it now The Mindful Workplace What better time to deploy the theories of mindfulness than at work? This book, filled with Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) techniques, provides an eight-week training course to keep your workplace attitude at its peak. 30.50, Amazon, Buy it now Get some headspace This book from Andy Puddicombe, founder of popular digital health platform Headspace, attempts to get people to take ten minutes out of their day for meditation purposes. Once the technique's been learned, these skills will stay with you for the rest of your life. 10, Amazon, Buy it now The Mindfulness Colouring Book Much like the dot-to-dot book above, this pocket-sized adult colouring book is the perfect activity for a 10-minute breather. Consider your stress and anxiety soothed. 4, Amazon, Buy it now The Little Book of Mindfulness In this day and age, it's more important to be in the moment than ever this book will help you with that. From Dr Patrizia Collard, these brief practices will rid your day of stress and have you feeling more optimistic. 4, Amazon, Buy it now Body Calm The saying mind over matter derives from the idea that our minds have the power to control our bodies if we really want them to. Equally, mental stress can have a damaging effect on our bodies. Newbigging teaches us a new self-healing meditation technique to help keep our bodies healthy and to understand the source of common stress and anxiety triggers. 11, Amazon, Buy it now The Power of Now The Power of Now has become one of the most famous mindfulness books out there. Helping us to tap into our innermost Being, Tolle guides us through various techniques to help us understand that the present moment is all that really matters. 8, Amazon, Buy it now A Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled An ambassador for mental health awareness, Ruby Wax OBE has helped to make mindfulness accessible to all. Having suffered from depression herself, in this book she explores how modern living is causing us more stress and anxiety than ever as we know and see too much. Included are mindfulness exercises and tips for everyone from babies to adults; all with sound underlying scientific reasoning. 4, Amazon, Buy it now 5. Look outside your relationship for additional sources of fulfillment Recent research by the psychologist Eli Finkel suggests that our expectations for marriage have changed drastically in the last two centuries or so. As Business Insider's Jessica Orwig has reported, Finkel and his colleagues call the modern partnership the "suffocation model" of marriage because we expect so much from our relationship love, companionship, and personal fulfillment, just to name a few things. Finkel recommends looking outside your marriage for additional sources of personal fulfillment, like friends, hobbies, and work. That way, you're not placing all your demands on your partner, and potentially setting yourself up for disappointment. 6. Try something new with your partner Research suggests that couples who try new things together are more satisfied with their relationships. For example, in 1993, psychologist Arthur Aron and colleagues published a study that found married couples who spent time jointly doing new and exciting activities like hiking or dancing were more satisfied with their relationships than couples who did routine activities together or who didn't change anything. It's a reminder that relationships take work, and that boredom isn't necessarily a bad thing if it's a sign that you need to spice things up a little. 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Share your beliefs about money with your partner Money problems in a relationship are rarely just about money and resolving them often requires going deep into each other's emotional lives. According to Don Cloud, president and founder of Cloud Financial Inc., it's important to share with your partner your beliefs about money, and let them share theirs. Maybe one of you believe it should be used for happiness, while the other thinks it should be used only for necessities. Armed with knowledge of each other's beliefs and feelings, which are ultimately driving your financial behavior, you'll be in a better position to reach a compromise. 8. Divide chores equitably between you and your partner This might seem like an obvious one but it's important. Over 60 per cent of Americans in one poll said that taking care of chores plays a crucial role in having a successful marriage. Interestingly, one study found that each member of a couple tends to overestimate how much of the housework they do, so that the total adds up to more than 100 per cent. "It's Not You, It's the Dishes" coauthor Paula Szuchman recommends a system where each person specializes in the chores they're best at. "If you really are better at the dishes than remembering to call the in-laws, then that should be your job," she writes. "It'll take you less time than it'll take him, and it'll take him less time to have a quick chat with mom than it would take you, which means in the end, you've saved quite a bit of collective time." I t was 2001. Id just landed at JFK en route to New York Fashion Week when a well-heeled woman with bouncy hair, a friendly face and a Marc by Marc Jacobs denim jacket that marked her out as an early adopter struck up a conversation in the taxi queue. I didnt know that she was Natalie Massenet. Nothing in her manner could have predicted that she would go on to revolutionise the world of e-commerce, founding a $1.4 billion company, Net A Porter, and netting a $170 million fortune on her way. As a 36-year-old woman, many would have imagined she was past it. But Massenet, now 51, will never be past it. Shes a Perennial. It might sound like a bland yet hardy shrub that people plant in their herbaceous borders but a Perennial is not a potato, a gooseberry bush or a pot of basil: its a person. A very specific type of person who, according to US tech entrepreneur Gina Pell (the woman who coined the term) defies being defined by their age. We are ever-blooming, relevant people of all ages who live in the present time, know whats happening in the world, stay current with technology and have friends of all ages, says Pell. We get involved, stay curious, mentor others, are passionate, compassionate, creative, confident, collaborative, global-minded, risk takers who continue to push up against our growing edge and know how to hustle. Risk-taker: Natalie Massenet / Dave Benett I push up against my growing edge all the time. Or at least I would do if I knew what it meant. But if you can look past the Americanese, its clear that Pell is onto something. Writing on her blog, The What List (thewhatlist.com), Pell continues: The term generation used to refer to parents and their offspring every 25 years [sic]. It wasnt until the 19th century that it mutated to describe the social cohort we are born into. The Baby Boomers (1946-1964) are the first and only officially recognised generation by the Census Bureau. They may be the only generation to be Census Bureau-approved, but this hasnt stopped a host of other definitions being ushered into common parlance. Douglas Couplands novel Generation X: Tales of An Accelerated Culture (1991), led to the term Generation X being used to define those born between 1965 and 1980, and while Generation Y and Generation Z may not have caught on to the same degree, the same cant be said for the term Millennial surely one of the most irritating, over-used words of the 21st century. Even Millennials (those born between 1982 and 2004) get vexed by being called Millennials. That Millennials are one of the largest generations in history, and about to enter their peak purchasing years (in the US alone they already account for an estimated $1.3 trillion in spending) goes a large way to explaining brands fixation with them. Fashionably Perennial: Kate Moss / Dave Benett But nobody wants to be crowbarred into a demographic: it seems divisive and blunt. Besides, the idea that anyone can or should be defined by their age alone feels patronising, dated and irrelevant in an era when technology is moving at such warp pace that even the experts admit they dont know how well all be working and living in five years. Nobody has a job for life any more: theyre far more likely to have several, often at the same time and sometimes in wildly different fields. This sense of being all in it together flung around by the winds of change has had the positive effect of highlighting peoples similarities rather than their differences, with considerations of age becoming far less important than the idea that they are united by a common mindset. Anyone can keep up: you just have to be open and receptive to every new possibility. Typical London Perennials include the stylists and multi-taskers Charlotte Stockdale and Katie Lyall, founders of Chaos Fashion, whose first retail venture is a collection of luxury tech accessories. There might be a 15-year age gap between fortysomething Stockdale and Lyall, but their maverick, can-do outlook makes it irrelevant. Join the gang: stylist Charlotte Stockdale (Getty) Its a similar story with fortysomethings Emilie McMeekan and Annabel Rivkin, co-founders of The Midult (themidult.com), an online platform for women that is wholly Perennial in its outlook. At some point, the generations were artificially sliced up and somehow pitched against each other but age is an increasingly inaccurate indicator of mindset, says Rivkin. This generation of grown-up women for whom we coined the term Midults are hyper-connected, financially confident, digitally literate and uniquely wise. The Millennial myth is just that. Like Stockdale and Lyall, McMeekan and Rivkin are friends first and colleagues second. Its typically Perennial to figure out a way to hang out with your friends and make money from it. Who wouldnt want to work this way? Its the dream. The concept of the dream is important to Perennials, many of whom had their fingers burned while working in more traditional organisations whose values clashed with their own. Thanks to a plethora of social platforms, anyone with a wi-fi connection can seek out people whose mindsets accord with their own. Kate Moss in The EDIT 1 /6 Kate Moss in The EDIT Chris Colls courtesy of The EDIT, NET-A-PORTER.com Kate Moss wears jacket & dress by Kate Moss for Equipment Chris Colls and courtesy of The EDIT, NET-A-PORTER.com Kate Moss wears coat by Stella McCartney & pants by Kate Moss for Equipment Chris Colls and courtesy of The EDIT, NET-A-PORTER.com Kate Moss wears shirt and pants by Kate Moss for Equipment Chris Colls and courtesy of The EDIT, NET-A-PORTER.com Kate Moss on the cover of The EDIT Chris Colls and courtesy of The EDIT, NET-A-PORTER.com Nor is mere geography an impediment. Bianca Presto, a beauty PR, and Nicola Eyre, founder of the childrens concept store Cissy Wears, first struck up a friendship on Instagram, only meeting in the flesh some two years later. We were as nervous as anyone would be on a blind date, because thats essentially what it was, says Presto. But since that meeting our friendship has evolved. Weve gone on holiday together and also collaborated at work. Perennials typically curate their friendships and, where possible, their working relationships, in the same way as they curate their viewing on Netflix, filtering by shared tastes and mindset rather than by age. Talking of Netflix, its worth emphasising that Perennials arent exclusively fortysomething-and-upwards women trying desperately to cling on to their youths by having Botox and joining Snapchat. Millie Bobby Brown is also a Perennial and shes only 12. The breakout star of Netflixs Stranger Things qualifies because she is what Pell calls a vector, who spreads ideas and commerce faster than any single generation. To Pells US examples of Lady Gaga, Lena Dunham, Michelle Obama, Bob Dylan and Justin Trudeau, you could add British examples such as Noel Gallagher, Mary Beard, Sadiq Khan, Catherine Parsons, Skepta and Kate Moss. All are either politically engaged, socially savvy, outspoken or pioneering in their fields and wield an influence far wider than their peer group that renders their age irrelevant. Perennial Brit: Sadiq Khan / Dave Benett Which is lovely, given that researchers from Imperial College, London claim that by 2030 many of us will be living until were 90. Never has there been a better time to adhere to the old adage that age aint nothing but a number. Why be past-it when you can be Perennial? Its not your birth certificate that counts: its your state of mind. Follow Laura Craik on Twitter: @lauracraik How Perennial are you? How do you decide what to watch on Netflix? a) You just know and, whats more, you are known as the go-to person who helps others decide. Its not just your real-life friends who treat you as their pop cultural barometer but your Twitter followers too. You dont let on that you are actually too busy recommending things on social media to sit down and watch the shows. b) Good question. You have a long wish list but always end up watching Peppa Pig with the kids and then falling asleep in front of a demanding French drama. c) Netflix? You dont have a subscription London is a city for going out, not staying put in front of the television, how else will you establish yourself on the scene? On the rare occasions when you stay in you hack into your exs account and watch whatever is in the most watched section, scrolling through the internet to bone up on plots so you can bluff your way through conversations about whatever the latest trending show is at parties. Netflix What do you use Instagram for? a) Its merged into a work/life tool. You launched your workout wear concept on it but all your friends (and their children) are on there too and you occasionally cant resist a stalk of Alexa Chung. b) You tried to download it to keep up with your teenage step-sister but its a bit overwhelming. c) Its all about Snapchat now, mate. What is your go-to party outfit? a) A black jumpsuit and Vans. Its easy to throw on, doesnt look fussy and youre over heels. The only problem is that your colleagues have all bought the same jumpsuit. b) Whatever you panic buy at lunchtime when you decide you dont like anything in your wardrobe. You keep the tags because inevitably it isnt right and youll need to return it. c) Parties are for old people. The same goes for outfit planning. Thankfully you are always on Asos so have a ready supply of cropped hoodies. Have you booked a holiday yet this year? a) Youre at Soho Farmhouse this weekend, then theres a winter sun trip to Tahiti with your business partner in the pipeline. Youll do a few choice Instagrams from the beach. b) The idea brings you out in a stress rash. Theres too much to co-ordinate. c) Youre in a few WhatsApp groups discussing them but you have yet to commit to anything. Answers Mostly a: Age will not wither you, you remain a Perennial. Try not to look so pleased. Mostly b: You have Perennial aspirations but are ground down by real life. Someone needs to hold everything together. Mostly c: You see yourself as defying classification. But face it kiddo, youre a Millennial. S an Francisco has built a reputation as a culinary capital with food and drink trends stemming from the citys fantastic restaurants and bars. Here is a flavour of the buzziest venues to visit EAT AT Tosca Cafe British chef April Bloomfield is a darling of the foodie world in New York with two Michelin star restaurants The Spotted Pig and The Breslin Bar & Dining Room under her belt. Her charming San Francisco offering lives up to expectations. Teaming up with restaurateur Ken Friedman, she has given this historic dive bar a new lease of life in the form of a laid-back Italian with hearty, delicious fare. Rustic and inviting, it is the perfect date spot. Full of character and anecdotes, rumour has it that Sean Penn shot a hole in the wall of one of the intimate dining spaces. He still likes to visit regularly. Order the Bucatini, Cioppino, Spanish Octopus and Tiramisu or ask your waiter for daily recommendations, toscacafesf.com. Octavia The latest restaurant from acclaimed executive chef Melissa Perello is a low-lit elegant spot with a divine menu. Chef Perello's daily selections highlight her commitment to sustainability and the Bay Area's wealth of agricultural resources. The simple and expertly crafted dishes are that great balance of fine-dining with down-to-earth fare. The Devilled Egg or roasted cauliflower are musts to start. For main, try the Osso Buco beef or black bass. Dont leave without ordering the gnocchi with caciocavallo, black trumpet mushroom and chanterelle fondue - a truly standout dish. For dessert, Rocky Road eton mess melts in your mouth. We loved everything about this place, octavia-sf.com. Lord Stanley This Michelin Star dining room was voted the third best new restaurant in America by Bon Appetit. Its a polished offering in a cool environment. Owners and co-chefs Rupert and Carrie Blease have training which stems from London and the US, most notably at Le Manoir aux Quat Saisons, Texture, Per Se and Blue Hill. The tasting menu is a real feat with highlights including cabbage with house buttermilk, roasted scallop and grilled wagu beef. The dark chocolate pudding with black sesame and toasted rice is also a rare offering. The pared back design with minimalist Japanese influences creates a contemporary ambience. There is a stand up bar with a varied list by wine director Louisa Smith. Little wonder Lord Stanley is in such high demand. Be sure to book ahead, lordstanleysf.com. Causwells In the Marina district of San Francisco, this chilled out restaurant serves Southern comfort food with healthy, Californian sensibilities. The Americana Burger was recently voted second best in America by Thrillist (quite the feat) but the menu is varied, featuring creative dishes like cauliflower soup with brown butter and lime, baby kale salad with kuri squash, bacon, black eyed peas, cured yolk and a mustard dressing. Creole Shrimp comes with cornmeal and scallions and sides range from house made cornbread with baby yams and beets to pistachio and gribiche. A brilliant brunch spot in an industrial style setting, causwells.com. Waterbar If you are seeking dinner with a view, this is the place. Waterbar has a vista of the waterfront and the Bay Bridge from its floor to ceiling windows. Under the helm of Chef Parke Ulrich, it is all about the fish. A cascading oyster bar and dramatic floor-to-ceiling aquariums serve as the restaurants focal point. Dishes include seared sea scallops, pan roasted black Bass or whole Mediterranean Branzino from the wood oven. There is a strong wine list as well. A smart choice which works as well for couples as parties, waterbarsf.com. E&O Kitchen & Bar A good spot for lunch after visiting San Franciscos vibrant Union Square. Executive Chef Sharon Nahm cooks up bold flavours in modern Asian dishes. A sleek lounge offers guests a chance to enjoy shareable late night bites and creative cocktails. Rolls and dumplings are delicious. The chickpea fries are great for dipping and try the drunken noodles. Friendly staff will give you a warm welcome, eosanfrancisco.com. One Market Sophisticated dining with farm-to table food by chef Mark Dommen, One Market is frequented by city types who enjoy good food and wine. There is an open kitchen, wood-fired grill and bar area. Mains include lightly smoked trout or grilled flat iron steak. There is also a thorough wine list and the knowledgable sommelier will talk you through the best accompaniments for your meal. Close to the waterfront, you can take in the sights after dinner, onemarket.com. Tartine A visit to San Francisco isnt complete without popping into its most famous bakery where pastries and bread are cooked freshly on the premises daily. Stock sells out very quickly so catch it while you can, tartinemanufactory.com. Humphry Slocombe Named after the two lead characters (Mr. Humphries and Mrs. Slocombe) from British sitcom Are You Being Served?, this is the place to go for inventive ice-cream. There are several sites in San Francisco so track one down, humphryslocombe.com. DRINK AT The Treasury Formerly the home of the original Standard Oil Company, the historic 1916 Beaux Arts space features arched entryways and intricately carved details. Named after the alley flanking the bar, The Treasury is inspired by Parisian bistros and Victorian decor. San Francisco-based Geremia Design has installed a dramatic curved soapstone bar, marble cocktail tables and an ornate glass chandelier. Think Gatsby meets California vibes. Charming owner Carlos Yturria is passionate about what he does and really knows his cocktails. He has enlisted a brilliant team who extend his enthusiasm, shaking up seasonally inspired drinks made with ingredients such as hand-cut ice, house made tinctures, and market fruit. Cocktails like the Slushy of the Day and the Selfie (gin, watermelon & ginger ice cubes, tonic) make it clear that while serious about the craft, The Treasury doesnt take itself too seriously, thetreasurysf.com. ABV An ever evolving bar meets dining space, ABV is rock n roll. In the trendy Mission district, the Booze list is vast and the bar snacks are delicious. Kick off proceedings with the Tartine toast, bunh mi, charred brussel sprouts or kimchee fritter. The vodka based Mumbai Mule or Applebum brandy are popular choices. In addition to the downstairs bar, ABV is creating a new cocktail and food pop-up concept upstairs called Over Proof (overproofsf.com) built around a specific spirit category that will completely change every three months with a design overhaul. The first concept is built around Rum and called Flip Flop, abvsf.com. 1760 Bar Manager Christopher Longoria takes his cocktails seriously. Lucky us. From Green tea and Cocount or Apple and Thyme to Tarragon and Pomegranate to Peach Buck, he puts an impressive twist on his excellent tipples and approaches them as a chef would his signature dishes. This makes for some of the best cocktails we have tasted. Rock up at the swish bar, order some bites and take the sharing concept to a new level, 1760sf.com. Trick Dog There is no sign on the exterior but thats all part of Trick Dogs mystery. The popular bar is the work of cocktail consultants Josh Harris and Scott Baird. Exposed metal beams, a cement floor, loft style windows and a teal coloured bar make this a design conscious venue. Drinks are served on a themed board (rather than a traditional menu) and always have quirky names or ingredients. The snacks are great too. A good place to hangout and soak up the atmosphere, trickdogbar.com. Black Cat There is something rather lovely about the eclectic clientele at this underground jazz haunt. A more mature music fan is just as welcome as a swinging hipster. The mix of live music and delectable drinks makes for a fun atmosphere. A relatively new opening, Black Cat has quickly established itself as one of the citys most vibrant bars. Gritty and glamorous all at once. Its a winner, blackcatsf.com. Hotels opening in 2017 in pictures 1 /18 Hotels opening in 2017 in pictures Six Senses Cambodia A bedroom at Six Sense Cambodia on Krabey Island The Ned, London A stylish bathroom at The Ned One of the bars at The Ned Sir Nikolai, Hamburg Design Hotels Hoxton Hotel, Paris Henrietta, London The Whitby, New York Design Hotels Lympstone Manor, Devon Artist Residence, Oxfordshire Wild Coast Tented Lodge, Sri Lanka A copper tub in one of the Wild Coast Tented Lodges in Yala, Sri Lanka Brown, Jerusalem A rendering of the Brown hotel in Jerusalem Norwegian Air offers low-cost flights from London Gatwick to San Fracisco - Oakland. Fares start from 149 one way. All of Norwegians low-cost flights to the USA are on state-of-the-art new Dreamliner aircraft, norwegian.com. For more hints and tips visit sftravel.com. Follow Amira Hashish on Twitter @amiranews and Instagram @thedesigneditor. P lanning a holiday in January is tricky business. While the wet and windy elements have you longing for your next escape, the positioning of the years bleakest month means that your wallet is probably feeling the post-Christmas strain. But finding your next great adventure neednt cost the earth. Travel company Mondono has looked at the average cost of various travel essentials - including a night's stay in a hotel room, dinner for two, a 1km taxi ride, a pint of beer, and a bottle of wine - in cities all over the world to compile the ultimate travel cheap list. So whether youre looking for sun, city or seascapes, heres where to head this year on a shoestring budget. Valparaiso, Chile Cost per day: 105.51 Shutterstock / f11photo This beautiful hillside port city on Chiles coast is home to steep funiculars, colourful clifftop homes, artistic murals and a bohemian vibe to rival some of South Americas more expensive sister sites. Skip nearby Santiago and head here instead for great seafood, colonial architecture and dreamy sunset vistas. Taxi: 0.80 Beer: 1.63 Meal for two: 11.08 Hotel: 92 San Antonio, Texas Cost per day: 102.75 The saying goes that everythings bigger in Texas - but not the bill, if you head to San Antonio. Top sights include the Alamo, a preserved 18th-century Spanish mission, and the San Anotnio River, a famed miles-long promenade lined with pavement cafes where you can soak up the riverside views. Taxi: 1.23 Beer: 2.42 Meal for two: 16.10 Hotel: 83 Belfast, Northern Ireland Cost per day: 86.28 Shutterstock / Kanuman Okay, so its not exactly an exotic escape, but thats the beauty of Northern Ireland - its just a short plane ride away for Londoners. For years the country was plagued by the violence of the Troubles, but todays Northern Ireland is a far cry from its turbulent past. Capital city Belfast boasts Norman castles, galleries, brilliant restaurants, one of the most beautiful cathedrals in Europe and endless pints of Guinness on tap. Taxi: 0.78 Beer: 3.50 Meal for two: 20 Hotel: 62 Yerevan, Armenia Cost per day: 71.61 Not many people can say theyve holidayed in Yerevan. Armenias second city might be relatively under-the-radar for most, but its worth the visit simply to soak up its tree-filled boulevards, Soviet-era architecture and Instagrammable snow-capped mountains towering in the distance. Taxi: 0.17 Beer: 0.84 Meal for two: 9.60 Hotel: 61 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain Cost per day: 69.05 Shutterstock / ZM_Photo This area of Gran Canaria is much more than a starting point for major cruise ships and a duty-free shopping hotspot. Pack towel and flip flops and make for Playa de Las Canteras, a golden beach thats lined with a coral barrier and offers plenty of al fresco fun. Head here in the late summer to soak up the festival vibes at the capitals annual carnival. Taxi: 0.56 Beer: 1.47 Meal for two: 16.02 Hotel: 51 Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina Cost per day: 66.17 Turquoise rivers, medieval castles and tumbling waterfalls. It sounds like something out of a fairytale, but the craggily beautiful lands of Bosnia and Herzegovina are real - and theyre one of Europes best kept secrets. Few places can boast being the cross-cultural centre of Eastern Europe - the place where East meets West - but in this heart-shaped country can. Youll find a mix of influences at its most spectacular, born from its blended Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian histories. Taxi: 0.45 Beer: 1.36 Meal for two: 6.36 Hotel: 58 Braga, Portugal Cost per day: 65.79 Shutterstock / dvoevnore Fancy Rome but dont want to foot the bill and face the crowds? Braga is often referred to as its cheaper, Portuguese rival thanks to its many ancient churches and artifacts. The city youve probably never heard of is home to impressive Baroque monuments, cobbled streets and arcaded squares to wander aimlessly around. Taxi: 0.76 Beer: 1.25 Meal for two: 9.78 Hotel: 54 Kalamata, Greece Cost per day: 64.74 This ancient and historic city in Greece can trace its origins back to the writings of Homer. Forested mountains, sandy beaches, indented shores, great weather and postcard-worthy views lure those-in-the-know here time and time again. Taxi: 0.83 Beer: 3.11 Meal for two: 17.80 Hotel: 43 Panama City, Panama Cost per day: 58.07 Shutterstock / Sylwia Brataniec Dont think that Panama City is just for the boozy, bikini-clad Spring Break set. This balmy country on the isthmus linking Central and South America is a city of contrasts: on one side there are modern skyscrapers, casinos and nightclubs while on the other youll find handsome colonial buildings in the Casco Viejo district and exotic rainforests in its Natural Metropolitan Park. Taxi: 1.61 Beer: 1.41 Meal for two: 16.1 Hotel: 47 Sofia, Bulgaria Cost per day: 57.37 Despite being the capital of Bulgaria, Sofia is still an absolute steal. If youre not feeling a city break amongst the ancient Ottomon mosques, orthodox churches and Communist-style architecture, head for the hills instead - the Vitosha mountain boasts ski slopes and hiking trails galore. Taxi ride per km: 0.36 ($0.44) Beer: 0.91 ($1.12) Meal for two: 9.10 ($11.18) Hotel: 47 ($57.73) Lviv, Ukraine Cost per day: 25.46 Shutterstock / Tainar The affordable gem of western Ukraine is tipped to be the next Prague or Krakow - theres an ever-growing supply of backpacker hostels popping up here. And its no surprise really, considering that you can survive on as little as 25 per day. So what does it offer? A burgeoning cafe scene, an old town thats perfect for strolling, historical beer brewing museums and beautiful mountaintop castle ruins that provide panoramic views of the citys green-domed churches and surrounding hills. Taxi: 0.16 ($0.20) Beer: 0.42 ($0.52) Meal for two: 3.88 ($4.77) Hotel: 21 ($25.79) Follow us on Twitter: @eslifeandstyle A fly tipper is facing jail after being caught on CCTV dumping tonnes of rubbish on a lane lined with detached 1million homes. George Smith, 40, took cash in hand for house clearance jobs and illegally dumped more than six tonnes in just two months, a court heard. He was caught on film driving down the alleyway Campden Road in Croydon, south London, in a truck which was traced back to him and seized by council officials. Smith, who was jailed in 2009 for fly tipping, denied carrying out four fly tips in South Croydon and Thornton Heath between February 12 and April 11 last year. He claimed an imposter had copied his number plates and stuck them on different vehicles, known as doubling up, before dumping the rubbish. CCTV footage showed the tipper van dumping waste in the quiet lane Smith, who represented himself, said: Its been a double up. That means they used my plates that is not my vehicle. Simon Kiely, prosecuting, asked who the driver who had dark hair and a distinctive hairline similar to Smith could have been, but the defendant said he had no idea. District Judge Karen Hammond said: I am quite satisfied and I am quite sure that you are not telling me the truth. I reject your suggestion that they were different vehicles. They are not the best quality but the photograph makes it abundantly plain it has the same logo. There are simply too many coincidences. Smith, of Crowley Crescent in Waddon, south London, was convicted of four charges of fly tipping at Camberwell Green Magistrates Court yesterday and will be sentenced later this month. Judge Hammond warned him: You have been to prison for these offences before, so you know perfectly well, having been convicted, that I am now considering a prison sentence. P olice have issued a fresh appeal for witnesses after a man was stabbed in the chest in Peckham, leaving him with serious injuries. After the knife attack, which happened just before 7pm on Tuesday, the 26-year-old victim stumbled into Asda in Rye Lane to raise the alarm. Met Police officers and paramedics from the London Ambulance Service rushed to the scene, and the man was taken to a south London hospital. He remains in a serious but stable condition, and his injuries are not thought to be life-threatening. No arrests have been made and enquiries by police are ongoing. On Thursday, detectives made a fresh appeal for people to come forward who may have seen what happened. DC Rebecca Whiteley, from Southwark Police, said: This attack happened at a busy time of day when people were making their way home from work, and it is fortunate that the victim was not more seriously hurt. We are still trying to establish exactly where the stabbing occurred, and we would urge anyone who has any information that could assist us in our investigation to get in touch. It was the second stabbing on the same road in just two days after another man was attacked there on Monday night. He was knifed in the arm but his injuries were not believed to be life-threatening. Anyone with information is urged to call police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. T he father of Yassar Yaqub, who was shot by police officers on the M62, has likened his sons death to that of Mark Duggan, suggesting it was racially motivated. Yaqub, an alleged drug dealer who called himself Stud Badboy online, died during a pre-planned operation near Huddersfield on Monday, after a tip-off he was carrying a gun. The 28-year-old father-of-two was shot three times through the windscreen of his Audi after being surrounded by West Yorkshire Police officers on junction 24. The Independent Police Complaints Commission has confirmed a non-police issue firearm was found in his car. Friends have since claimed Yaqub was a drug dealer who laundered money, drove luxury cars and was feared on the street. He was cleared of attempted murder in 2010 after being arrested over a drive-by attack. Yaqub was an alleged drug dealer with a love for luxury cars His heartbroken parents attended a vigil at the side of the motorway on Wednesday night attended by more than 100 mourners. And his father Mohammed Yaqub said there were similarities between his sons shooting and that of Mark Duggan in how the official accounts of Duggan's death changed. He told MailOnline: I am well aware of what happened with Mark Duggan and because of what was revealed first, and what the outcome was of that, it has worried me a lot. Look how many protests they had to take to get answers. Duggan, 29, was shot dead by armed Metropolitan Police officers in Tottenham in August 2011, sparking riots in London and other English cities. Mr Yaqub has pledged to fund a private prosecution to bring the shooter to justice, and added: He was driving down, he was cornered. Bearing in mind it was dark, how could you have seen what he was doing? My lad didn't deserve this I thought this is something that happens in America but not here. Several Justice for Yassar pages have appeared online while campaigners reacted with fury after it emerged the armed officers in the operation were not wearing body cameras. A teenager was left bleeding from the back of the head after he was shot with a BB gun on a London bus, police said. The 18-year-old victim was struck on the head by a pellet as he travelled on a Route 25 bus from Romford Road, Manor Park towards Ilford. Police said he was sat at the front of the bus on the top deck when he felt something hit the back of his head. He immediately turned around but saw no-one looking suspicious. But when he touched the back of his head, he felt the BB pellet protruding from his skin, which was slightly bleeding, police said. Scotland Yard released a CCTV image of a man they want to speak to in connection with the incident, which happened at about 1.45pm on Friday, November 11. A Met Police spokesman said: Police believe the victim was struck by a metal ball fired from a ball bearing (BB) pellet gun. "The injured man required hospital treatment but has since been discharged. The incident is being investigated by detectives from the Mets Roads and Transport Policing Command. No arrests have been made. Enquiries are ongoing. Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Constable Teresa Moore on 101, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. A prolific south London drug dealer has been jailed for six years. Steven Tran, 22, was caught after he discarded a bag full of crack cocaine and heroin while being chased by police officers in March 2015. His accomplice, Ashley Henry, 21, was with him in the Peckham area last year when police officers spotted the pair and went after them. During the chase, Henry threw a bag containing 228 packages of class A drugs which was retrieved by police. The pair were subsequently arrested and a raid on Trans home on Talfourd Road in December led to the further discovery of 3,500 worth of class A drugs. Tran was sentenced after pleading guilty to supplying class A drugs, and possession with intent to supply to class A drugs at Inner London Crown Court. Henry, from Sydenham, was handed a two year jail term suspended for 21 months. He was also ordered to carry out 80 hours of unpaid work and wear an electronic tag for at least six months. P olice have launched a fresh appeal after a 14-year-old girl was sexually assaulted while travelling on a Tube through east London. The teenager was attacked on a westbound District Line train between Elm Park and West Ham, police said. After she was assaulted, her attacker got off at Canning Town. British Transport Police released CCTV footage of a man they wish to speak to over the assault, which happened between 2.20pm and 2.30pm on October 1. Police appeal: Officers released a CCTV still of man wanted over the sexual assault of a teenage girl on a District Line train / BTP Now, they have revealed he is known to frequent Becontree station in Dagenham. PC Ben Martin-Richmond branded the attack unacceptable and said it was something nobody should have to experience. He added: Our investigation is ongoing and enquiries so far have led us to believe that the offender frequents the Becontree area, at various times of day and night. I am appealing specifically to people in thelocal area and anyone who uses Becontree station, as they may well be able to help identify the offender. I would like to hear from anybody who recognises the man shown in the CCTV images - I am sure that somebody knows who he is and it is very important that we speak to him as he may have information which could help the investigation." Anyone with any information about the incident should contact British Transport Police on 0800 40 50 40 or text 61016, quoting reference number 323 07/12/16, or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. T errified Tube passengers were left trapped inside a blood-soaked train carriage after a violent brawl broke out between youths on New Years Eve. Witnesses told of crazy scenes as two thugs became embroiled in a punch-up on a packed westbound Piccadilly line train. One of the teenagers was said to have ripped off his shirt and head-butted a train window after the violence spilled out onto the platform at Holloway Road station. A witness, who asked not to named, said passengers were stuck on the train for half an hour after the driver locked the doors to stop the youths re-boarding until police arrived. Violent brawl: Police descended on Holloway Road after a fight broke out on a Piccadilly line train (@josephheskett ) / @josephheskett Images and video footage emerged on Twitter of scores of police vehicles descending on Holloway Road outside the station after officers were called to the disturbance at about 10.40pm on Saturday. British Transport Police said a 16-year-old boy and a 17-year-old boy were arrested. The witness, a 24-year-old flight attendant, told the Standard: Just before we got to Holloway Road, I dont know what came over one of the guys but he just punched the other one out of nowhere and he fell straight to the floor. We walked towards the back of the carriage to move away from them. He got punched again and fell back to the floor. There was blood everywhere. When we got to Holloway Road, the train doors opened and we got off and moved to another carriage. The two guys got off the train as well. They started shouting hysterically because the driver locked the doors and wouldnt let them back on the train. Some passengers started moving down into our carriage as they were punching the doors. People were scared. One of them headbutted the window and it smashed. We were stuck down there for about half an hour with the doors shut before the police showed up. One of the guys apparently lodged himself in between the carriages to try to stop the train from leaving and had taken his top off. He said passengers were eventually allowed off the train after police arrived and detained the men on the platform. He added: Once the police came, we were allowed off. People were running to the next platform. It just happened really fast. We were joking around in the carriage once things were calming down that we might end up celebrating the New Year underground. Witnesses who saw the police vehicles outside the station posted images of the drama on social media. A British Transport Police spokesman said: At approximately 10.40pm on Saturday 31 December, we were called to Holloway Road Underground station following reports of a disturbance. Officers attended and a 16-year-old boy and a 17-year-old man were arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and handling stolen goods. They have both been bailed to return to police custody on Wednesday 1 February. Tony Matthews, TfLs Piccadilly Line General Manager, said: I would like to thank passengers for their patience during this incident which must have been extremely distressing to witness. We do not tolerate acts of criminal damage on our transport network and thankfully incidents such as this are extremely rare. "We are working closely with British Transport Police to assist their investigation. A n attacker who fractured a mans cheek, chin and jaw after viciously kicking him in the head in east London has been jailed. George Jacomelli, 27, repeatedly kicked the vulnerable victim with full force as he lay face down on the ground in the despicable alcohol-fuelled attack in Tower Hamlets. The assailant, who lives in Iver, just outside of the M25 in Buckinghamshire, left the 41-year-old victim needing surgery and suffering from several fractures to his face and a broken nose. Members of the public alerted police to a fight which had broken out in Commercial Road in east London at around 5.45am on December 19. A CCTV operator told police they could see a man being knocked to the ground and another man kicking him. GBH: The assailant repeatedly kicked the victim in the head. / Met Police Police sped to the scene at the junction with Jubilee Street, near Shadwell station, and later arrested Jacomelli nearby. Jacomelli, of Iver Lane, had been drinking alcohol and said he did not remember attacking the victim. He was jailed to six years and four months on Thursday, January 5 at Snaresbrook Crown Court. Detective Sergeant Rob Brown from Tower Hamlets CID said: "This was a vicious attack in which Jacomelli repeatedly kicked the victim with full force in the head as he lay prone and vulnerable on the ground. We would like to thank the witnesses for coming forward and helping us to bring Jacomelli to justice." T ens of thousands of schoolchildren have been exposed to a Scientology organisation through drugs education presentations, the Standard has learned. An investigation found increasing numbers of pupils, some as young as 10, at primary and secondary schools have sat through lectures inspired by Scientology and its leader L Ron Hubbard. In the past year alone 35,000 children have taken part in the Narconon anti-drugs programme, including more than 16,000 in London. Recently it emerged two schools in Camden hosted Narconon talks. Narconon, which does not employ doctors, is funded and run by the Church of Scientology. Scientology leader L Ron Hubbard / Express Newspapers/Getty Images It states its programme is based on the research and writings of L Ron Hubbard, the founder of the Scientology religion. Its parent organisation, the Association for Better Living and Education, was established by the Church of Scientology and staffed by members of Sea Org the Scientology equivalent of monks. Former employees have since claimed Narconon has been used to convert people to the religion, which the Church and Narconon deny. Narconons theories about drug dependency and treatment have been described as potentially dangerous and dismissed by some scientists as lacking medical evidence. Critics say the lectures provide a soft introduction to Scientology. Scientology has been championed by stars such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta. Part of its doctrine is the belief that humans are haunted by the spirits of aliens brought to Earth in spaceships and massacred with hydrogen bombs by a galactic warlord called Xenu 75 million years ago. Scientology: Louis Theroux talks about his first theatrical release It has been accused of being a cult and a money-making business. The Church denies the allegations. Professor David Nutt, who chaired the governments Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs until 2009, said: We have known for years that Scientologists have been targeting schools through drugs education packages. They are the main provider of teaching aids to schools, as neither government nor local authorities put any money into this topic. Its an outrage. Hosts: Brecknock primary in Camden / Google StreetView Professor David Touretzky of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, who has written extensively about Scientology and Narconon, said the organisation targets pupils any chance they get. He called Narconon a money- making scam and a source of potential new Scientologists adding: The first step is to get people to see L Ron Hubbard as a benevolent authority figure instead of a sociopathic cult leader. The drug education programme is just about taking that first step. Many schools are seemingly oblivious to the link between Narconons programme and Scientology. Hosts Camden School for Girls and Brecknock primary in Camden said that they were unaware of it and that teachers supervised the talks, which focused entirely on drug awareness. But one pupil present reportedly said students were alarmed when the speaker quoted Hubbard and described him as a great humanitarian. Hosts: Camden School for Girls / Google StreetView A spokeswoman for Brecknock said: We were completely unaware. If we had known there would have been no way we would have let them in. Retired schools inspector Patrick Hargreaves, who works with the Home Office and Department for Education, said Narconon was very dangerous, adding: When this organisation approaches a school with glossy pamphlets and money behind it saying, We can do your drug education for free, that is enormously appealing. Harry Shapiro, director of information service DrugWise, said schools had a duty of care to research any offer of education services. He added: Narconons drug information is not scientifically accurate, nor is their programme in line with evidence-based health education practice. Camden council said it advises schools against using Narconon. The Department for Education said it was down to schools to check the appropriateness of their speakers. Narconon, which advocates Hubbards methods, insists its treatments and lectures are evidence-based and backed up by decades of peer- reviewed studies, saying its rehabili- tation programme has had consid- erable success. It says as a result of its work in schools many thousands of young people have resisted the lure of dangerous street drugs. Noel Nile, president of Narconon UK, said its lectures were focused on drug prevention and had been almost entirely positively received by students, teachers and parents. He added: Were in the business of saving lives. The lectures are not concerned with religion. Theyre popular and successful because they communicate a clear message which is easily understood by young people. T hey say you know youre getting old when police officers start looking young. But dont worry the little chap in these pictures is only four. Arthur Corrigan, who was wearing his beloved costume on a day out in London with his parents, saw his dreams of joining the Met come a step closer after being noticed by a police officer. He ended up with an exclusive tour of police stables, pictures with elite protection officers and a letter from Met Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe. Arthurs father said: He hasnt stopped talking about it since. Basically the only time Arthur is out of his police uniform is when he is in his school uniform. The youngster, who was on holiday from Dubai with his expat parents Ben and Bronwyn, was spotted by Sergeant Nathan Holland near Hyde Park police station. Impressed by his costume, Sgt Holland gave him a tour of a police van, let him try on his helmet and posed with him for pictures. After learning of his dream to become an officer, Sgt Holland arranged a tour the next day of the mounted police stables in Old Police House in Hyde Park, normally off-limits to the public. Behind the wheel: Arthur Corrigan As Arthur walked home with his parents, his attire was also a hit with the armed police detail outside Tony Blairs house in Bayswater, who posed for pictures with him. He went on to meet other officers during his two-week trip last year to visit relatives of his father, an interior designer from the UK who moved to Dubai 18 years ago, leaving him with many more memories for his holiday scrapbook. Mr Corrigan, 43, wrote to Sir Bernard to praise the officers and he and Arthur received letters back three days later. Sir Bernard, who will step down from running the Met next month, wrote to Arthur: I have heard that you had an exciting time with your mummy and daddy and that you sat in a police van with your uniform on. I have seen some of the photos of your visit to London and must say you look very smart in your police uniform. I am sure that if you become a policeman when you grow up in the future you will be the smartest recruit. Mr Corrigan said: It was so nice of the officers, particularly Sgt Holland. Arthur has been obsessed with the police since he got the uniform in a bag of old dressing-up clothes a friend gave us in Dubai last year. Hed love to join the Met one day he wants to be a helicopter pilot or a mounted policeman. The Corrigans have since struck up a friendship with Sgt Holland, sending a model of a Dubai police supercar to his four-year-old son Harry. They hope to meet up when the family, including Arthur, now five, visit London again this summer. L ondon risks becoming the dirty man of Europe unless new laws are introduced to protect the environment after Brexit, MPs have warned. They fear regulation on air quality, the Thames and Londons parks and wildlife may slip through the net unless a specific Environmental Protection Act is drawn up as soon as possible. Mary Creagh MP, chair of the Environmental Audit Committee, said: We dont want to look back to the bad old days when London was the dirty man of Europe. The worst case scenario is that we see more pollution, more waste and more environmental degradation and the disappearance of our much-loved spaces and iconic wildlife in London. The committees latest report found the Governments intended Great Repeal Bill to end EU supremacy over UK law will not cover every policy area and environmental laws could miss out. Domestic regulation on clean air standards was an absolute must as the last Clean Air Act has not been updated in 1968, said Ms Creagh. T axi drivers, hotel staff and other night-time workers across London should be trained how to spot children at risk of sexual exploitation in a bid to prevent abuse, a charity said today. Barnardos said others working in pubs and bars or driving buses should also be given tips on how to spot vulnerable youngsters and create a network of eyes and ears watching out for their safety. The charitys call follows what it says is the success of a two-year pilot Nightwatch scheme in Camden and Islington in which more than 2,000 people were given advice on how to identify children at risk. Those given the information included taxi drivers, public transport workers and more than 100 people working in bars or other licensed premises. Hotel managers and concierges, bed and breakfast owners, community wardens and doctors and nurses, such as those working in casualty departments, were also given similar advice. A new evaluation of the scheme by academics at the University of Bedfordshire has concluded that it succeeded in raising awareness of the danger that young people out in the evenings or early hours could be targeted for sexual exploitation. Javed Khan, Barnardos chief executive, said: Its clear that children and young people are safer after dark as a result of the Nightwatch programme. We need to build on that success by extending this network of eyes and ears still further, so that many more night-time workers know how to recognise and report a situation in which a child may be being sexually abused or exploited. As well as the London scheme, Barnardos ran similar projects in 12 other areas of the country, giving advice on spotting young people at risk of exploitation to another 15,000 people working at night. The aim is to ensure that warning signs including being vulnerable because of drink or drugs, appearing to be under the control of older adults, or visiting hotels are noticed and can be reported to police or others who can protect the young persons welfare. Any business that would like advice on how to better protect children from the threat of exploitation can contact Barnardos on 0151 488 1174. P olice officers rushed to help a person collapsed in an alleyway in south-east London, only to make an unexpected discovery. Upon closer inspection, the heap on the ground in Lewisham was a large teddy bear, wearing a grey cardigan and holding a bottle of Coke. Police, who made the discovery on Wednesday morning, joked the bear was "clearly a little worse for wear from the night before." Posting a picture of the white cuddly toy on Twitter, Lewisham Safer Neighbourhood Team said: "Turns out teddy had too much to drink last night and couldn't make it home." The teddy was slumped in an alleyway in Lewisham / @MPSLewishamCntl)/Twitter A spokesman for Lewisham Central Safer Neighbourhoods Team (SNT) said: "There was an alley way with a trolley full of goods at the entrance and there was something that looked like a person slumped over so we went to investigate. "We found out it was a large teddy bear in a cardigan with a bottle of coke. He clearly he was a little worse for wear from the night before. "Though at least it wasn't anything too serious." A surprising endorsement for our new EU ambassador Sir Tim Barrow from, of all people, friend of the top Ukippers, Andy Wigmore. Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage and financier Arron Banks were both delighted when Sir Ivan Rogers resigned. Then Banks decided that Sir Tim, with his three-piece suits and his title, was another diplomatic wet flannel. Sir Tim, shuffling FCO knights hardly imaginative, tweeted Banks last night. Sums up the way we are run: badly. Civil servants are not meant to believe in anything. Cut them open and they have the EU running through them, not the Union Jack.Then Wigmore interjected on Twitter. Wow, he wrote. They do have a good man on this. Tim is a top bloke. I like him, think he will surprise people and told Nigel [so]. I like him from another life. What other life is undefined. Wigmore has been something of a fixer for Ukip, and was pictured in Donald Trumps gold lift with Farage. He also holds the title of trade and investment minister for the Belize High Commission and is an Olympic standard shooter, ranked 274 out of 274 in the world. Our calls to him this morning to ask where he might have met Sir Tim have rung out. Banks and Wigmore continued the chat. He may be a nice chap, said Banks, but the FCO sees it as their job to sell out British interests. They do it so well... Wigmore replied: It takes a certain type to be a civil servant, often followers not leaders. Important part of the machine, though, to make things happen. Are these the first cracks in the triumvirate? And meanwhile, what of the vacancy left by Sir Tim, who has left his post as Ambassador to Russia? Perhaps Nigel Farage should apply. --- 2016 was an unusually rough year for the soothsayers among us, Politico.EU opined last month. Then yesterday, they came up with 10 runners and riders who could become our EU ambassador: our man in Brazil, Alex Ellis, a strong outside bet, Ambassador to the US Kim Darroch, EU security commissioner Sir Julian King and Cabinet Secretary Jeremy Heywood. All 10 names missed the mark. 2017 isnt looking up yet. Scuttle back to your dictionaries ENGLISH sometimes just isnt good enough for our US cousins. The new edition of the Wall Street Journals Style and Substance column has a particular bugbear. The British slang scuppers continues to worm its way into our copy, and we still dont like it, it complains. Grammar geeks who hunt out Briticisms noticed a prominent headline last month: Tehran officials say accord is now harder to undo, threaten clawbacks if scuppered. So whats wrong with that? The American English word is scuttled, they moan. Wed send them a list of unacceptable Americanisms but wouldnt want to scupper the special relationship. Beckinsale goes back to the Underworld Corsets or catsuits Kate Beckinsale can do it all. Following a recent trip to London to accept the Evening Standard Film Award for her performance in pithy Jane Austen society comedy Love & Friendship, the English actress was in New Yorks AOL Studios yesterday. Beckinsale, daughter of late actor Richard, is on the publicity trail for her new film Underworld: Blood Wars, which marks her return to leather and swordplay to play werewolf-slaying vampire Selene in the long-running franchise. This will be the fifth Underworld film, and no one is more surprised than Beckinsale. I was so anxious to not pigeonhole myself that I pigeonholed myself in the place furthest outside my comfort zone, she said earlier this year. I accepted it on the basis that it would be terrifying and therefore I should probably do it. Hopefully the fear factor has faded by now. Andrews dopey day with Mickey Mouse Disneyland is generally for children but it seems that adults can also enjoy it with a little pharmaceutical help. Actor Andrew Garfield, pictured, tipped for awards success in Martin Scorseses Silence, explains how he spent his favourite birthday at the California theme park. We went to Disneyland, he tells W magazine. We ate hash brownies. It was literally heaven. I freaked out on the Its a Small World ride. I was like: It is a f***ing small world. There was a moment when me and eight of my closest friends found ourselves ... walking through Fantasyland, he recalls. The group seem to have had fun but Garfield has a message for someone caught in the crossfire. We had this girl called Chantelle bless you, Chantelle, he says. She was our guide. And I think she was that pure of heart that she had no idea that we were on drugs. -- TATLER has released a list of top baby names for 2017, casting aside traditionally popular ones for something more adventurous. The list of female names includes Gethsemane, Monaveen, Rara and Tansy. Boys can look forward to being called Fenston, Ludlow, Npeter (silent N) or Wigbert. Has Jacob Rees-Mogg, who named his fifth child Alfred Wulfric Leyson Pius Mogg, been in the building? Less lip about Lipman THE late AA Gill had a way with words. But calling actress Maureen Lipman, pictured, a three-flush floater didnt go down well with her.Some years later, Lipman writes in this weeks New Statesman, I saw him at a party. Hello A, I said pleasantly. I just want you to know that I hate you, I will always hate you, and nothing you can ever say will stop me hating you.Gills response? If a new sitcom was aired he wrote how much better it would have been with Maureen Lipman in it. If I had a cameo he singled me out and called on the Beeb to recognise my talent.Always forgive your enemies. Nothing annoys them so much. -- Accessory of the day: Larry the Downing Street cat is now wearing a red, white and blue collar. Feline patriotic, Larry? C hancellor Philip Hammond has been accused of putting trade above human rights during his tour of the Middle East. His two-day Gulf visit is an attempt to bolster economic ties and forge investment opportunities post-Brexit. But Amnesty International said he should be pressuring leaders into bringing an end to the conflict in Yemen, and reconsidering UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia. Lucy Wake of Amnesty said: Philip Hammond shouldnt confine himself to trade issues during his Gulf visit, but should insist on a few human rights home truths with his hosts. It is the third time in four weeks a senior member of the Government has travelled to the region on a charm offensive. Prime Minister Theresa May and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson visited late last year. Mr Hammond met the acting prime minister of Kuwait and held talks in the United Arab Emirates with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, Abu Dhabis biggest sovereign wealth funds and Qatars largest banks. The three countries all back Saudi Arabias support for the Yemeni president, whose troops are fighting Houthi rebels. Ms Wake said: Top of his agenda must be the appalling loss of civilian life in Yemen, a conflict that Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE are all party to and one which the UK is effectively involved in with its massive arms shipments to Saudi Arabia. Human rights group Reprieve said the UK should raise Kuwaits extension of the death penalty to 16-year-olds. Director Maya Foa said: Trade must not be allowed to trump human rights. N igel Farage is to host a daily radio show of political debate. The former Ukip leader was previously tipped by US president-elect Donald Trump as a potential ambassador to Washington and on Tuesday said he would "rather fancy" taking Sir Ivan Rogers' job as UK permanent representative to the EU - a post now filled by Sir Tim Barrow. His new job will instead see him present an hour-long week-night phone-in on LBC radio. He said the Nigel Farage Show would be "full of opinions, callers and reaction, as well as my nightly final thought on the events of the day". But Liberal Democrats questioned whether the job - presented largely from LBC's studios in London - was compatible with his duties as a member of the European Parliament. "Shouldn't he be, you know, turning up to his office in the European Parliament?" said a Lib Dem spokesman. "If not, maybe he could donate his MEP salary to the NHS?" Mr Farage has previous radio experience hosting phone-in programmes and standing in for other presenters on LBC, and has this week been hosting a late-night show on the station. He said: "If 2016 was exciting, then this year could be tumultuous with President Trump, Article 50, elections all over Europe and maybe a eurozone crash. I can't wait to start my daily show on LBC and I invite listeners to agree with me or challenge me and together we can lead Britain's conversation." T heresa May will set out her plans for Brexit in more detail after Britain's EU ambassador quit his job. A scathing resignation memo written by Sir Ivan Rogers, the British ambassador to the European Union, hit out at ill-founded arguments and muddled thinking among politicians backing Britains exit from the bloc. In the speech expected later in January, Theresa May will reportedly say Britain will pull out of the single market if the EU does not offer concessions on freedom of movement. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Brexit Secretary David Davis will contribute to the announcement. No 10 sources insisted the claims were speculation. Following Sir Ivan's surprise resignation, Mrs May moved swiftly to calm tensions by appointing career diplomat Sir Tim Barrow within 36 hours. No 10 described Sir Tim, a former ambassador to Russia, as a "seasoned and tough negotiator" who will help the Government make a success of Brexit. Mr Johnson said Sir Tim was "just the man" to secure the best deal for the UK. Mr Davis added: "His knowledge of Brussels means he will be able to hit the ground running at a vital time, and steer UKRep throughout the negotiation period. But the appointment of another mandarin to the role sparked anger from some staunch Brexiters. Labour welcomed the appointment but called for the Government to set out a clear timetable for its Brexit plans in the wake of the resignation. The party's Brexit spokesman Sir Keir Starmer warned that Sir Ivan's resignation was likely to be a "significant loss" for Britain. He said it had raised "a number of serious questions" about the Government's preparations for Brexit negotiations. Mrs May has said she will trigger Article 50 of the EU treaties before the end of March. A countertop device controlled by your smartphone promises to make turning leftover fruit into alcohol as easy as making coffee. The 400 Alchema brewer offers hundreds of different recipes for cider, mead and wine that can be monitored through an app. After placing the fruit - along with sugar, water and yeast - into the wifi-connected device, the user can check on the drinks temperature and adjust the sweetness and alcohol content to taste. A weight sensor tells the user how much fruit to add and it includes a built-in sanitiser. Brewing up a favourite: Alchema offers hundreds of drecipes for cider, mead and wine that can be monitored through an app The length of the process depends on the brewer, with craft cider needing one or two weeks and wine taking up to four months. The firm behind it said Alchema removes the trial and error from home cider making and produces a perfect batch of hard cider every time. If there is a problem with the mixture then the device sends an alert to the app. A company spokeswoman said it was possible with grapes to make a nice Merlot right on your kitchen top. Oscar Chang, Alchemas chief executive, said: What better way to reduce food waste at home then by turning leftover fruit into delicious hard cider or wine. The Alchema home cider making system is a great alternative to throwing away unused fruit. The firm plan to make Alchema available in the UK after its initial launch in north America and Taiwan. A television set thinner than a smartphone has been unveiled by technology giant LG at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The ultra-thin wallpaper W-series TV is 2.57mm thick about one-tenth of an inch and uses magnets to hang on the wall. The organic light-emitting diode set is among the gadgets on show as CES, the worlds biggest tech show, opens its doors to the public today. Hardware powering the TV is hidden in a separate speaker bar connected to the screen, which is designed to bounce sound off the ceiling. New design: The television is thinner than a smartphone The TV, available in 65in and 77in models, is so thin that LG said its internal name was wallpaper OLED because it blended in so well. Both models are due for release this year but the company gave no indication of price. Its cardboard-thin set is meant specifically for wall mounting and there is no option to stand it on a table or sideboard. Rival Sony was also unveiling new television sets yesterday, with some of its latest generation of Bravia sets doing without speakers by using technology that emits sound through the screen. New technology: The LG Airport Guide Robot is unveiled / David Becker/Getty Images LG also launched a number of robots. They include the Hub Robot, which uses Amazons Alexa voice recognition technology to complete household tasks such as turning on the air conditioner or changing a dryer cycle with verbal commands. It can play music as well as give traffic updates and features an interactive display to show information such as images of contents inside the fridge and recipe instructions. The robot is designed to respond to consumers using body language, such as nodding its head when answering simple questions. It senses when family members leave home or go to bed, greeting them with a personalised welcome when it sees them again. LGs Airport Guide Robot is described as the travellers best friend and will be launched in Seouls Incheon International Airport soon. It can answer questions in English, Chinese, Japanese and Korean. Air passengers can scan their ticket for information on boarding time and even weather at their destination. It can also give directions in an airport, guiding lost travellers to the gate. Mark Blunden flew as a guest of Virgin Atlantic, which flies Boeing 747-400s daily from Gatwick to Las Vegas. See virginatlantic.com. T he traditional Changing the Guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace is switching to fixed days this autumn and winter as security is stepped up in the wake of the Berlin terror attack. The time-honoured military spectacle normally takes place on alternate days from August to March but will now happen on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays during this period. Its scheduled time has also been brought forward by half an hour with the ceremony taking place at 11am, instead of 11.30am. Last month, Scotland Yard announced it was boosting security measures at the spectacle to combat fears of a Berlin-style truck attack after 12 people were killed by a lorry which careered into crowds of people at a Christmas market. For the next three months, roads around Buckingham Palace will shut to traffic at certain times of the day while additional barriers have been put in place to maintain safety for guard movements. Tourist attraction: Crowds watch the Changing the Guard at Buckingham Palace / John Stillwell/PA Wire Changes to the autumn and winter schedule start on January 16 and the implementation of fixed days and an earlier time aim to reduce disruption following the new road closures. A spokesman for The Royal Parks said: "From January 16, Changing of the Guard will take place on fixed days in the Autumn and Winter; on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays between 10.15am and 11.45am. "This new programme allows the public, visitors, motorists and businesses to forward plan following new road closures on Guard Change days which were introduced in December as part of ongoing security measures aimed at keeping the public safe." From April to July, Changing the Guard takes place every day. The Army has said it has not made a decision whether to switch the daily event to set days in the summer as well During the traditional ceremony, which is also known as Guard Mounting, the Old Guard - the soldiers currently on duty - line up in front of the Palace and are replaced by the New Guard which arrives from Wellington Barracks. The New Guard is accompanied by a Band or Corps of Drums and the ceremony represents a formal handover of responsibilities. The duty is usually carried out by one of the five Foot Guards Regiments of the Household Division. The ceremony remains one of Londons most popular attractions as thousands of tourists visit the Queens official residence to see the soldiers in their red tunics and bearskins. A n Eritrean stowaway was found crushed and suffocated in the back of a HGV trailer in Kent after French authorities searched the vehicle in Calais, an inquest heard today. Hungarian lorry driver Lorinc Guyla parked in a service station near Ashford after arriving in the UK and checked the trailer. He saw the stowaways legs protruding from underneath a stack of Christmas catalogues which had ripped open and fallen onto the man. After making the discovery Mr Guyla, alerted the manager of the cafe, Julie Breen. She called the police, who rushed to the Airport Service Station in Sellindge, but the stowaway, a man thought to be in his late 30s, was pronounced dead at the scene on October 18 last year. Before the the Hungarian-registered soft-sided trailer had made the crossing, French police had removed around 10 Eritrean stowaways from the trailer. They had climbed inside after slashing the lorrys canvas roof while it was waiting in Calais to enter the port, the inquest in Maidstone heard. An aerial view in Calais show the 'Jungle' migrant camp after it was demolished last week / AFP/Getty Images Detective Sergeant Simon Johnson, from Folkestone CID, said it was impossible to know if the dead man had been missed by the police in their search, or if he had climbed in at a later point. Asked by assistant coroner Christopher Morris if he could pinpoint the time the man had entered the trailer, Mr Johnson said: "I would say it's impossible to tell because the vehicle was left insecure [following the search]. "There is a hypothesis that he was there when the others were, or he could have entered in the port area." Refugees leaving the Calais Jungle 1 /13 Refugees leaving the Calais Jungle Refugees surge through a barrier at the camp in Calais Jeremy Selwyn There were chaotic scenes today as thousands of people began to leave the camp Jeremy Selwyn Huge queues formed - it came after violent clashes overnight between riot police and migrants Jeremy Selwyn Work to flatten the camp was due to begin today Jeremy Selwyn The refugees were told to leave the camp or face arrest and possible deportation Jeremy Selwyn Desite chaotic scenes, the refugees were said to be resigned to their fate Jeremy Selwyn The camps residents were today being processed before being bussed to temporary accommodation centres Jeremy Selwyn More than 1,200 police and officials were deployed as the operation to clear the Jungle started Jeremy Selwyn Todays first wave of departures were voluntary Jeremy Selwyn Camp residents, mostly men and male teenagers, gradually streamed out carrying belongings in suitcases and bin bags Jeremy Selwyn The unidentified man has been found to have been carrying Hepatitis B. He had no tattoos or surgical scars and DNA samples have so far failed to confirm his identity. Large plastic pipes filled with urine, indicating someone had been inside for some time were also found in the trailer. Two untraceable sim cards were found stitched into his clothing, as well as around 550 euros, Mr Johnson added. He said the death was a tragic accident and there were no suspicious circumstances. A post-mortem exam found that the man had died due to traumatic compressive asphyxia. The coroner recorded a conclusion of accidental death, saying: "I'm unable to record a name for the deceased gentleman - a poignant tragedy given he was probably somebody's brother, son and friend." A n outraged Tesco shopper has called on the supermarket to ban customers from walking the aisles in their pyjamas as he branded them disgusting on social media. The man posted a message on the supermarket giants Facebook page asking bosses to enforce new rules alongside a picture of two women in their dressing gowns. The picture was taken on Tuesday night at a branch in Manchester and sparked a heated debate as Facebook users hit out at the post. The shopper, who asked to remain anonymous, wrote: Dear Tesco, please can you put a rule in place that people like this will not be served in your stores. Its bloody disgusting. This was at 7pm last night at your Tesco Salford store and I have seen other people dressed similar on a regular basis. I mean who doesnt have time to get changed into clothes to go shopping. A Tesco spokeswoman said it was down to management to decide what dress is appropriate with no formal code in place. She replied: Many of our customers have told us that they feel uncomfortable when they see other shoppers wearing unsuitable clothing in our stores and we do try to find a balance that everyone is happy with. Although we don't have a formal dress code in our stores, we rely on our management team to use their discretion and common sense. While some agreed with the man and branded the women bone idle, others ridiculed him for taking the photograph. One wrote: I for one find it uncomfortable to have to shop alongside people who spend their time taking photographs of strangers minding their own business rather than just ignoring things that do not affect them in any way. The post has since been deleted. TODO: define component type apester A Tesco spokesperson said: We do not have a formal dress code in our stores and colleagues use their common sense and discretion when speaking to customers about this issue." L etters sent by Princess Diana which revealed Prince Harry was "constantly in trouble" at school have sold for thousands more than was estimated. The six handwritten letters, sent to a favoured Buckingham Palace steward, sold for 15,100 at auction, exceeding the 2,300-3,600 estimate. One lot, which included a letter where Diana described Prince William's adoration for younger brother Harry, was sold for 3,200 - around five times more than its estimate of 400-600. In the letter to Cyril Dickman, Diana wrote: "William adores his little brother and spends the entire time swamping Harry with an endless supply of hugs and kisses, hardly letting the parents near! Royal memorabilia from the estate of the late Cyril Dickman, former Palace Steward at Buckingham Palace / PA "The reaction to one tiny person's birth has totally overwhelmed us and I can hardly breathe for the mass of flowers that are arriving here!" In October 1992 Diana wrote to Mr Dickman ahead of a trip to Asia with the Prince of Wales: "The boys are well and enjoying boarding school a lot, although Harry is constantly in trouble!" The lot containing the revealing letter sold for 2,400, more than double the 600-900 estimate. The letters were sent to a favoured steward / PA As well as divulging details about the private life of the young family at Kensington Palace, the messages from the 1980s and 90s show how fond Diana was of Mr Dickman, who provided her with support after the death of her father in 1992. The six notes were part of a collection described as "the private letters between a trusted butler and the royal family", which also included photos and Christmas cards. The collection was auctioned at Cheffins on January 5 / PA John Foster, of Cheffins auctioneers in Cambridge, said interest in the collection had been "phenomenal", with inquiries coming from as far afield as Japan, Australia and Canada. He told the BBC: "One of the nice things about this collection is that it reveals the personal side. It's not just thanking someone for an event, it's things like the handwriting and the squiggly drawings. The letters sold for thousands more than estimated / PA "There is also mention of when Diana's father passed away and how sad it was, talking of the children when they were at school, how much trouble they got into, just those personal touches which you never really get to hear about." Among the letters was a note appearing to wish Mr Dickman well on his retirement in 1992. In it she wrote: "Cyril, you will be greatly missed by this particular Lady - thank you from the bottom of my heart for being so kind to me throughout the years and take great care of yourself, fondest love from Diana x." The six letters were part of a bigger collection which included other royal memorabilia. One handwritten letter from the Queen sold for 1,500 - considerably more than the 50-100 estimate. In it, the Queen wrote: "Dear Cyril and Eva, I much appreciated your thoughts and sympathy on the death of my mother. We must all be thankful in the encouragement and pleasure she gave to so many during her long life. Elizabeth R." A boxed piece of cake from the Queen's wedding in 1947 sold for 550. P rince Harry was "constantly in trouble" while at boarding school, letters sent by Princess Diana to a much-loved butler have revealed. The personal notes, sent to former Buckingham Palace steward Cyril Dickman in the 1980s and 1990s, include a description of how in the days after Harry was born Prince William was inseparable from his baby brother - and gave him "an endless supply of hugs and kisses". Diana said it was a "particularly happy time" in a letter sent five days after Harry's birth in September 1984. She wrote: "William adores his little brother and spends the entire time swamping Harry with an endless supply of hugs and kisses, hardly letting the parents near. "The reaction to one tiny person's birth has totally overwhelmed us and I can hardly breathe for the mass of flowers that are arriving here." As well as revealing details about the private life of the young family at Kensington Palace, the messages show how fond Diana was of Mr Dickman, who provided her with support after the death of her father in 1992. Private letters: The notes are expected to make thousands at auction (Cheffins) Among the letters is a note appearing to wish Mr Dickman well on his retirement in the same year. In it, she wrote: "Cyril, you will be greatly missed by this particular Lady - thank you from the bottom of my heart for being so kind to me throughout the years and take great care of yourself, fondest love from Diana x." Close friends: Diana confided in the former steward following the birth of Prince Harry (Cheffins) The six handwritten notes are part of a collection described as "the private letters between a trusted butler and the royal family" that is expected to sell for thousands of pounds at auction. The collection also includes photos, Christmas cards and a boxed piece of cake from the Queen's wedding in 1947. Dave Benett A note sent by the Queen thanking Mr Dickman for his condolences following the death of her sister, Princess Margaret, in February 2002, will also go under the hammer at 11am on Thursday. John Foster, of Cheffins auctioneers in Cambridge, said interest in the collection had been "phenomenal", with enquiries coming from as far afield as Japan, Australia and Canada, but he admitted how much they may sell for "is anyone's guess". He told the BBC: "One of the nice things about this collection is that it reveals the personal side, it's not just thanking someone for an event, it's things like the handwriting and the squiggly drawings. "There is also mention of when Diana's father passed away and how sad it was, talking of the children when they were at school, how much trouble they got into, just those personal touches which you never really get to hear about." A knifeman who was seeking revenge for alleged bullying stabbed 12 kindergarten children at a nursery school in China. Five children were left seriously injured after Qin Pengan, 41, allegedly entered the nursery school in the city of Pingxiang, Guangxi, south-west China and carried out the attack using a kitchen knife. He gained access to the Xiaocongzai Kindergarten on Wednesday by claiming he was collecting his child, authorities said. Qin allegedly stabbed the children in his childs class as they were eating before two teachers fought him off with plastic chairs until he was detained by police. The initial police investigation concluded that he had sought revenge by attacking the children after he felt bullied by members of the community. Police said none of the childrens injuries were life-threatening. The government said the suspect was from Nanshan village that is under the jurisdiction of Pingxiang city. In recent years, China has had several incidents of attackers entering schools and stabbing children, mostly carried out by people with vendettas against society. Separately, a Communist party leader and the mayor of the south-west city of Panzhihua were shot and injured in a rare gun attack. Zhang Yan, the citys Communist party chief, and Li Jianqin, the mayor, were holding a morning meeting in an exhibition centre when Chen Zhongshu, 54, head of the local land and resources bureau, opened fire, the Xinhua news agency reported. He was later found dead on another floor of the building after apparently taking his own life. Mr Chen had allegedly sought revenge after an anti-corruption investigation was launched against him. A pod of dolphins escaped from a tourist attraction in a Japanese town known for its annual hunts. Staff at the DolphinBase centre in Taiji discovered nets dividing the pools from the ocean had been slashed, allowing four bottlenose dolphins to get out. The escaped pod was spotted yesterday swimming outside their pool at the facility, where visitors can interact and swim with the animals. In an official blog the centre said the dolphins had stayed close to their pen and that three returned on their own accord. We are enraged by this heinous act which can easily lead to the dolphins dying, a statement said. Taijis annual dolphin hunt first gained global attention when it became the subject of 2009 Oscar-winning documentary film The Cove. Between September and March, hundreds of dolphins and pilot whales are herded by local fishermen into a small bay and either killed with knives for meat or sold to aquariums. The centre said it was furious someone with no expert knowledge had callously exposed the dolphins to danger. We are enraged by this heinous act which can easily lead to the dolphins dying. They think that once out of their pen, dolphins will swim far away but that is not true. Dolphins will not stray far and they will not leave their group. A police spokesperson told the BBC that an investigation was ongoing and they did not know who the perpetrators were. T he pilot flying the plane carrying Carrie Fisher increased his speed in a bid to save the actress after she suffered a heart attack. Fisher went into cardiac arrest just 10 minutes before the plane from London was due to land in Los Angeles just a few days before Christmas. In the newly-released audio of the 911 call, airline staff can be heard telling paramedics that the pilot would be landing the plane earlier than expected. One of our international flights from London coming in, its about 10 minutes out and its a medical emergency for a passenger in (seat) two foxtrot female, they can be heard saying. Bright Lights- Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds - trailer - HBO She goes on to say that the pilot is making up time and is due to land at 9.28pm. The actress heart stopped beating and was revived by passengers who had CPR training. Carrie Fisher - In pictures 1 /29 Carrie Fisher - In pictures Carrie Fisher poses for cameras as she arrives at the European Premiere of Star Wars, The Force Awakens in Leicester Square, London in December 2016 Paul Hackett/Reuters Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia in Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) Princess Leia and Han Solo (Carrie Fisher & Harrison Ford) kiss in The Empire Strikes Back (1980) Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) and Hans Solo (Harrison Ford) in Star Wars: A New Hope Lucasfilm Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds hold their baby daughter, Carrie Frances Fisher in 1957 AP Actress Carrie Fisher in 1977 Getty Images Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) in Star Wars: A New Hope (1977) Lucasfilm Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) in Star Wars: A New Hope (1977) Lucasfilm Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker in Return of the Jedi (1983) Lucasfilm Han Solo, Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker in Return of the Jedi (1983) Carrie Fisher and singer Paul Simon stand together at their apartment in New York during their wedding reception on 16 August 1983 Mario Suriani/AP Legendary actress Debbie Reynolds poses with her daughter Carrie Fisher after Reynolds star in the live theatre and stage category was unveiled on the Hollywood Walk of Fame during ceremonies in 1997 Reuters Debbie Reynolds and daughter Carrie Fisher, who played Princess Leia in the original Star Wars movie, joining a Darth Vader and a Stormtrooper character as they arrive for the premiere of 'Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith' in Washington on 12 May 2005 Mike Theiler/EPA Actress Carrie Fisher and director George Lucas pose at the 33rd AFI Life Achievement Award after party at the Highlands on 9 June 2005 in Hollywood, California Vince Bucci/Getty Images Carrie Fisher and Daisy Ridley during the filming of the Graham Norton Show at The London Studios in 2015 So TV/PA John Boyega and Carrie Fisher embrace as they arrive at the premiere of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" in Hollywood, California on 14 December 2015 Mario Anzuoni/Reuters Carrie Fisher attending the World premiere of Absolutely Fabulous The Movie held at Odeon Cinema in Leicester Square in 2016 Ian West/PA Carrie Fisher returned to the role in 2015 for The Force Awakens Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher attend the Midnight Mission's 100 year anniversary Golden Heart Gala held at the Beverly Wilshire Four Seasons Hotel on 30 September 2014 in Beverly Hills, California Araya Diaz/Getty Images Carrie Fisher at 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' film premiere David Fisher/Rex Carrie Fisher and dog Gary attends the European Premiere of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" in Leicester Square on 16 December 2015 in London Dave Benett Fisher, who was 60, was met at the airport by paramedics and taken to the UCLA Medical Centre, but she never regained consciousness. The Star Wars actress died a few days later on December 27, followed by her mother Debbie Reynolds who died the following day. Both Fisher and Reynolds are expected to b e buried on Friday following a private memorial at their compound on Thursday evening. D ustin Lance Black has said that he has no respect for closeted gay actors. The Hollywood screenwriter thinks that being in the public eye and lying about your sexuality sends a negative message. Black, who is engaged to British diver Tom Daley, blames acting agents and managers for telling actors and actresses to say that they are straight. I have no respect for someone who lies about their sexuality, he said in a new interview with Attitude Magazine. Engaged: Dustin Lance Black and Tm Daley are expected to tie the knot this year / Dave Benett At the very least say no comment, just keep your personal life personal. But if youre going to closet yourself, that sends a negative message. Black, 42, won an Oscar back in 2008 for his script for Milk, about prominent gay rights activist Harvey Milk. Ive never encountered homophobia in casting from the studios or networks not once, not ever, he said. Where you encounter it is with the agents and the managers, they're the ones who have an outdated notion of the price an actor might pay if it's discovered that they're LGBTQ. Often they don't want to see anything happen that might compromise their investment. Black and Daley are expected to tie the knot later this year after announcing their engagement back in October. A convicted felon faces numerous assault charges, including assault on a child under 12, after a domestic violence incident on Monday, according Iredell County Sheriff Darren Campbell. Joshua Shane Ireland, 30, was threatening to kill his wife with a knife when deputies were called to the scene, according to a press release. The caller reported Ireland was drunk at the time, the release said. Authorities said Ireland became upset after his wife wouldnt give him the keys to their vehicle because he was intoxicated. Ireland responded by breaking items in the home and shoving his wife, the release said. The wife grabbed her child and ran to the neighbors for help. Later the wife and child left to stay at a family members house, but returned with the family member later that night to collect items. Thats when Ireland pushed the family member against the car, busted out the car windows with a knife and threw a cinder block onto the windshield, the release stated. The wife, child and family member all suffered minor injuries. Ireland was ultimately charged with two counts of assault on a female, assault with a deadly weapon, two counts of injury to personal property, three counts of felony habitual misdemeanor assault, child abuse and assault on a child under 12. He was given a total secured bond of $55,000. According to the release, Ireland has been convicted in the past of felony habitual misdemeanor assault, simple assault, assault inflicting serious injury, assault on a government official, third-degree assault and battery, felony possession of methamphetamine, felony possession of marijuana, felony possession of a firearm by a felon, hit and run leaving the scene, false report of motor vehicle theft, two counts of driving while license was revoked, DWI, failure to secure a passenger under 16, fictitious tag/card, two counts of larceny of motor fuel, two counts of uttering a worthless check from a closed account and driving after consuming under the age of 21. Blog Archive Apr 2010 (22) May 2010 (25) Jun 2010 (8) Jul 2010 (12) Aug 2010 (18) Sep 2010 (19) Oct 2010 (29) Nov 2010 (30) Dec 2010 (18) Jan 2011 (13) Feb 2011 (21) Mar 2011 (23) Apr 2011 (19) May 2011 (31) Jun 2011 (36) Jul 2011 (46) Aug 2011 (26) Sep 2011 (12) Oct 2011 (15) Nov 2011 (17) Dec 2011 (7) Jan 2012 (18) Feb 2012 (4) Mar 2012 (12) Apr 2012 (18) May 2012 (10) Jun 2012 (21) Jul 2012 (8) Aug 2012 (15) Sep 2012 (7) Oct 2012 (17) Nov 2012 (20) Dec 2012 (10) Jan 2013 (58) Feb 2013 (59) Mar 2013 (60) Apr 2013 (98) May 2013 (134) Jun 2013 (204) Jul 2013 (293) Aug 2013 (351) Sep 2013 (363) Oct 2013 (347) Nov 2013 (374) Dec 2013 (440) Jan 2014 (544) Feb 2014 (475) Mar 2014 (525) Apr 2014 (527) May 2014 (470) Jun 2014 (408) Jul 2014 (472) Aug 2014 (522) Sep 2014 (441) Oct 2014 (471) Nov 2014 (496) Dec 2014 (535) Jan 2015 (535) Feb 2015 (520) Mar 2015 (579) Apr 2015 (657) May 2015 (679) Jun 2015 (673) Jul 2015 (728) Aug 2015 (803) Sep 2015 (923) Oct 2015 (921) Nov 2015 (801) Dec 2015 (791) Jan 2016 (782) Feb 2016 (835) Mar 2016 (929) Apr 2016 (864) May 2016 (946) Jun 2016 (1044) Jul 2016 (882) Aug 2016 (1035) Sep 2016 (966) Oct 2016 (918) Nov 2016 (854) Dec 2016 (885) Jan 2017 (879) Feb 2017 (777) Mar 2017 (896) Apr 2017 (872) May 2017 (850) Jun 2017 (851) Jul 2017 (971) Aug 2017 (1040) Sep 2017 (998) Oct 2017 (1144) Nov 2017 (1046) Dec 2017 (838) Jan 2018 (873) Feb 2018 (769) Mar 2018 (885) Apr 2018 (808) May 2018 (827) Jun 2018 (820) Jul 2018 (840) Aug 2018 (854) Sep 2018 (844) Oct 2018 (851) Nov 2018 (870) Dec 2018 (912) Jan 2019 (919) Feb 2019 (827) Mar 2019 (957) Apr 2019 (913) May 2019 (1007) Jun 2019 (934) Jul 2019 (949) Aug 2019 (936) Sep 2019 (910) Oct 2019 (920) Nov 2019 (874) Dec 2019 (908) Jan 2020 (941) Feb 2020 (848) Mar 2020 (898) Apr 2020 (848) May 2020 (822) Jun 2020 (787) Jul 2020 (819) Aug 2020 (858) Sep 2020 (841) Oct 2020 (873) Nov 2020 (811) Dec 2020 (780) Jan 2021 (765) Feb 2021 (716) Mar 2021 (819) Apr 2021 (805) May 2021 (815) Jun 2021 (824) Jul 2021 (830) Aug 2021 (832) Sep 2021 (791) Oct 2021 (754) Nov 2021 (683) Dec 2021 (693) Jan 2022 (694) Feb 2022 (654) Mar 2022 (740) Apr 2022 (745) May 2022 (748) Jun 2022 (701) Jul 2022 (704) Aug 2022 (702) Sep 2022 (699) Oct 2022 (737) Nov 2022 (78) Former Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos announced on Thursday that, in the following period, he will launch an associative structure based on the 'Romania 100' platform and has in intention to collaborate in this regard with the Save Romania Union (USR) and National Liberal Party (PNL). Ciolos has discussed this subject at the Palace of Parliament with the USR deputies. "In the upcoming period I will see it for myself, first of all I need an analysis, which is the best way for me, as a person, to be efficient in the public life. If I will consider entering a political party, will take into discussion this subject, I will see", Ciolos stated at the end of discussions. Asked whether he will collaborate with PNL and USR, he confirmed it. "Yes, this is what I proposed to them (e.n. - USR) and I will also propose to those from PNL, to the extent that there will be an interest", the former Prime Minister said. According to him, the new structure will not be a political party. "No. This is not my intention. I believe we have already enough political parties, including new political parties. In the current moment, I do not believe that this is the solution. (...) The idea is to develop several areas in which we have launched projects in the period of governing which we wish to see further on", Dacian Ciolos explained. The former head of the Executive has specified that he wants to thank the persons in the USR and PNL for their support. "Both USR and PNL have supported the Platform 'Romania 100', have supported me in the electoral campaign as a candidate for Prime-Minister and I thought it is of common sense to come and thank them, because I did not have until now, in the period I was at the Government, a meeting neither with USR, nor with PNL after the electoral campaign. A part of them have worked at the Government and we want to have this first discussion. It was the first contact visit on my behalf, I told them my intention is to remain further on involved in the public life, to continue promoting values, principles, projects from the platform 'Romania 100'. We have discussed on the future collaboration. In the next period, I intend to create an associative structure probably starting from the platform 'Romania 100', which would be active publicly and to promote further on values, principles from the platform. It is not a foundation, it will be an association. When it will be ready we will announce. I am doing what I consider I can do in the following period", he also said. Agerpres Dacian Ciolos, who just wrapped up his term at the head of a technocratic government, on Thursday met at the Palace of Parliament with lawmakers of the group of the Save Romania Union (USR). Talks are taking place behind closed doors and according to sources they allegedly envisage the establishment of an NGO that is to steer clear of becoming a political party, so as "to not divide the Romanian right-wing even more.'' The NGO's mission would be to provide documents and experts to help ''the work of the opposition" and who will carry out a set of projects together with former ministers. agerpres. WASHINGTON President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday targeted Toyota Motor Corp., threatening to impose a hefty fee on the Japanese automaker if it builds its Corolla cars for the U.S. market at a plant in Mexico. Toyota Motor said will build a new plant in Baja, Mexico, to build Corolla cars for U.S. NO WAY! Build plant in U.S. or pay big border tax, Trump said in a post on Twitter. This was Trumps latest broadside against automakers building cars in Mexico and first against a foreign automaker. Trumps attacks on investments by companies in Mexico have cast a shadow over cross-border production networks central to more than $583 billion a year in trade between the two countries. The value of the Mexican peso has skidded amid fears that Trumps policies would harm Latin Americas second-biggest economy. Toyota, which announced its plan to build a new Mexican facility in April 2015, said the plant in Guanajuato city would not take away from U.S. employment. Toyota looks forward to collaborating with the Trump administration to serve in the best interests of consumers and the automotive industry, Toyota spokesman Scott Vazin said. Trumps tweet confuses Toyotas existing Baja plant with the planned $1 billion plant in Guanajuato city. Baja produces around 100,000 pickups and truck beds annually. The plant in Guanajuato will build Corollas and have an annual capacity of 200,000 when it comes online in 2019, shifting production of the small car from Canada. The automakers American Depositary Receipts traded on the U.S. market fell 0.6 percent to close Thursday at $120.44 on the New York Stock Exchange. Toyota President Akio Toyoda said in Japan on Thursday that the automaker has no immediate plans to curb production in Mexico, preferring to wait until after Trumps Jan. 20 inauguration before deciding whether to make any changes. We will consider our option as we see what policies the incoming president adopts, Toyoda said at an industry gathering in Tokyo on Thursday before Trumps tweet, when asked whether his company was considering any changes to a production plant the automaker was building in Mexico. Automakers in the United States have been slammed by Trump for building cars in lower-cost factories south of the border, which he said costs American jobs. Pressure to curb that production intensified this week after Ford Motor Co. scrapped plans to build a $1.6 billion assembly plant in Mexico after Trump harshly criticized the investment. Ford, however, still plans to shift production of small cars to Mexico from Michigan, even as it uses $700 million from the planned Mexico investment to expand its operations in Flat Rock, Mich., and add 700 jobs. During the campaign, Trump criticized barriers to U.S. auto exports to Japan and said the U.S. government did not do enough to open the market to more American-made vehicles. Until you open your markets, youre not selling any more cars over here, Trump said of Japan in an August 2015 interview with the Detroit News. Thats going to force people to build in the United States. Toyota has extensive U.S. investments, operates 10 U.S. plants in eight states and builds more than 2 million vehicles in the United States annually. Trump has also said General Motors Co. could become subject to tariffs on Mexico-made cars for the U.S. market, and that he would like to renegotiate terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement signed with Canada and Mexico, or scrap it altogether. As president, Donald Trump wont be able to punish General Motors or other U.S. automakers for building cars in Mexico without violating the North American Free Trade Agreement. That may not stop him from taking such an unprecedented step. Trade experts agree that presidents have wide latitude to impose penalties on imports, at least temporarily, even if courts later find them unlawful. Targeting a single company with a tariff as Trump threatened to do with GM in a tweet on Tuesday is unheard of and barred under NAFTA, according to trade experts. Punishing GM with a tariff on its Mexico-made cars or any other U.S. company that has shifted production there could prompt a Mexican response that would hurt U.S. exports and raise the price of all goods from the country. The notion of using emergency tariff-raising authority to influence the investment location decisions of a single company would be an unprecedented use of that authority and far beyond what Congress ever intended, said Edward Alden, a trade expert at the Council on Foreign Relations. Turning those powers on a single U.S. company because you dont like its strategy just takes us to a whole new realm. The Republican rattled automakers this week when he tweeted that he would make General Motors pay a big border tax on Chevy Cruze models manufactured in Mexico and shipped across the border to U.S. dealers. On the same day, GMs competitor, Ford, canceled plans to expand in Mexico and said it would add jobs in Michigan instead. A GM spokesman said the company has imported to the U.S. only 4,500 of the Cruze hatchbacks it has manufactured in Mexico. Americans have bought about 190,000 Cruze sedans that were all built in Lordstown, Ohio, a second company spokesman said. The mere threat of a tariff or other punishment may be enough for Trump to get what he wants. The president-elect has repeatedly used the bully pulpit to pressure companies to change their business plans since winning election Nov. 8, as when United Technologies Corp. unit Carrier announced in November it would keep open a furnace plant in Indianapolis instead of moving about 850 jobs to Mexico. Doug Holtz-Eakin, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office who is president of the right-leaning research group American Action Forum in Washington, said that Trumps GM tweet might be better understood as the opening bid in the negotiations. A lot of this is about setting the agenda and getting people to talk about what he wants to talk about, Holtz-Eakin said. Its not something that in the end generates great policy. GM might be able to challenge any Trump tariff in court and win; the 1974 law that Trump would likely cite as the source of his trade authority allows presidents to target countries, not companies, said Gary Hufbauer, a researcher at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and a former U.S. government tax and trade official. Trump has vowed to renegotiate the two-decade-old NAFTA, which bars the U.S. from assessing tariffs on goods made in Canada or Mexico. As president, Trump would have the power to withdraw from NAFTA entirely, though no president has abandoned a trade treaty since the 1800s. But even pulling out of the three-nation pact wouldnt necessarily enable Trump to ratchet up tariffs to 35 percent, the level he pledged during his campaign. Duties on goods produced in Mexico would only rise to the rate for countries with most favored nation status in the U.S.: about 4 percent, said Doug Irwin, an economist and trade expert at Dartmouth College. Trump could impose 15 percent duties for 100 days on GMs cars, claiming a balance payments emergency, but that would fall short of the punishment hes threatened. Other fines, such as anti-dumping duties, require special and lengthy procedures to enact. For his 35 percent tariff to stick, Trump would likely have to ask Congress to include it in a broader overhaul of the U.S. tax code. Trump and House Republicans are aligned on much of their tax policy, but they differ starkly on how imports should be treated. Both want to lower the current top corporate income tax rate Trump to 15 percent and House Republicans to 20 percent. But the Republicans also propose a system known as border adjustments that would levy the 20 percent rate only on U.S. companies domestic sales. Their exports would be untaxed, and their imported goods would be taxed at 20 percent, much lower than Trumps 35 percent tariff. The Republicans border-adjustments plan also would probably violate NAFTA rules, said Steve Charnovitz, a professor of public international law at The George Washington University Law School. Trumps tariffs would likely result in additional negative economic effects. If taxes on exports were not simultaneously eased, all U.S. companies that buy or sell things abroad would be harmed, said Alan Cole, an economist at the Tax Foundation in Washington. There are right ways and wrong ways of doing this, Cole said in an interview. A tariff is discriminatory. And focusing on specific companies could cause damage by creating uncertainty about the rules and how they apply, he said though Washingtons influence industry may view that as upside. It just creates incentives for out-sized lobbying budgets, he said. Bloombergs David Welch, Keith Naughton, Justin Sink and Steven T. Dennis contributed to this report. Wells Fargo Advisors, the St. Louis-based brokerage arm of Wells Fargo, has agreed to pay $35.5 million to settle a class action racial discrimination lawsuit brought by a group of African-American financial advisers. The company also agreed to implement several initiatives to boost recruiting and advancement opportunities for African-Americans after the settlement finalizes later this month. Lance Slaughter, the lead plaintiff, filed the lawsuit in September 2013 in federal court in the northern district of Illinois. Slaughter, a financial adviser employed by Wells Fargo Advisors in the Washington, D.C., area since 2005, alleged that of the companys more than 15,000 registered brokers, African-Americans are under-represented in adviser and managerial roles and are paid substantially less than employees who are not African-Americans. Wells Fargo employs company-wide teaming and account transfer and distribution policies and practices that deny African-Americans the same business opportunities as employees who are not African-American, the lawsuit alleged. Wells Fargos teaming and account distribution policies and practices exclude African-Americans from lucrative teams and client account distributions and segregate its workforce by race. There are at least 325 people who self-identify as African-Americans who are potential members of the class and there may be more class members, said Slaughters attorney, Linda Friedman of the Chicago-based law firm Stowell & Friedman, who said shes hopeful the settlement will prompt other investment firms to end discriminatory practices. In addition to the monetary settlement, Wells Fargo Advisors also agreed to not enforce class action waivers or mandatory arbitration agreements for race discrimination or race-related retaliation claims of African-American financial advisers or trainees for four years. The hope is that this case and others, that the message will resound that there is liability for these actions, Friedman said. Several other investment firms have also faced racial bias lawsuits lodged by employees in recent years, including Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch. Wells Fargo Advisors denied the allegations but said it agreed to settle the case to avoid protracted litigation. We do not agree with the claims in the lawsuit, but believe that putting this matter behind us is in the best interests of our team members, clients and investors, Wells Fargo Advisors spokeswoman Helen Bow said in a statement. Resolving this matter allows Wells Fargo Advisors to continue to focus on providing a diverse and inclusive work environment where all of our team members can thrive through industry leading recruiting, coaching, leadership and business development practices. We will also update our policies and procedures to provide greater opportunities for inclusiveness. Additionally, as part of the settlement reached Dec. 30, Wells Fargo Advisors agreed to end the practice of requiring new financial advisers or trainees to reimburse costs of their training, which can total $50,000 per year. The company also agreed to boost hiring and promotion opportunities for minorities, and hire a recruiting professional whose primary responsibility is to recruit African-American financial advisers and trainees. The settlement comes as the brokerage arms parent company, San Francisco-based Wells Fargo, is seeking to burnish its image after its employees created thousands of fake accounts to meets sales quotas. The bank said it fired about 5,300 employees related to the account scandal and was fined $185 million last year. The new year promises to be a better one, lawyering-wise, for former St. Louis Mayor Freeman R. Bosley Jr. Bosley, who had his law license restored last month after it had been suspended for more than two years, also appears to have cleared up the second of two legal malpractice suits. According to Bosley's attorney, Joseph R. Dulle, both Bosley and plaintiff Eugene Willingham agreed to dismiss Willingham's lawsuit claiming that Bosley failed to show up for court and did not file necessary motions in Willingham's workmen's compensation case. Willingham had been seeking at least $25,000 in damages. No information was available about any terms associated with the dismissal agreement. Just last month, on Dec. 20, the Missouri Supreme Court restored Bosley's law license, which was suspended in February 2014 after Bosley admitted he mishandled clients funds. A disciplinary panel determined that Bosley used clients' funds "as a personal piggy bank by combining personal and client funds, using trust account money to pay personal expenses and failing to keep accurate records. In August, Bosley cleared up another legal problem when he paid off tax liens filed by the Missouri Department of Revenue, which claimed that Bosley owed $3,159 in individual income taxes. In Dec. 2015, Bosley cleared up a legal malpractice suit when he agreed to pay $10,000 to Dwayne Reid, who claimed that Bosley missed the deadline for filing a workers compensation claim on Reids behalf. Bosley, a Democrat, was elected mayor in 1993, then went into private law practice after he lost a 1997 re-election bid to former St. Louis Police Chief Clarence Harmon. ST. LOUIS A St. Louis man was sentenced Thursday to 25 years in federal prison after admitting his part in a 2010 murder during a drug robbery. Walter Wallace Jr., 29, admitted in October that he fired a shot that killed Michael C. Mac Hayes Jr., 32, in his home in the 4500 block of Alice Avenue in the OFallon neighborhood on Dec. 18, 2010. He was sentenced Thursday by U.S. District Court Judge Henry E. Autrey. Wallace and co-defendant Jerry B. Chambers broke into Hayes' home, hoping for cash and marijuana, according to prosecutors. When Hayes returned to the home during the break-in, Wallace pulled his 9mm handgun and fired once. Hayes was an aspiring hip-hop artist and Sumner High School grad who had recently been laid off from a factory job, his sister told the Post-Dispatch at the time. Wallace's pleaded guilty to a charge of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime resulting in death. The case was part of an effort by federal prosecutors and police to address a rising rate of violent crime in St. Louis with federal charges. Chambers pleaded guilty to the same charge in August. At the time of their indictment, both Chambers and Wallace were serving time on a federal bank robbery charge. Chambers had also been convicted of drug and gun charges. A photo of Wallace was not available. ST. LOUIS A St. Louis man was on probation for drug possession when he fatally stabbed a man in late November near the Halls Ferry Circle, police say. Terrell McDaniel, 34, of the 4800 block of Sacramento Avenue, was charged with second-degree murder and armed criminal action. His bail was set at $750,000 cash-only. His next court hearing is set for Jan. 19. Police say McDaniel stabbed Robert Collins, 44, more than 10 times in his torso about 1:50 p.m. on Nov. 29 in the 1100 block of Howell Street. McDaniel ran away; Collins, who lived in that block, was found suffering from stab wounds. He was taken to a hospital where he died of a stab wound to the heart. Police have not offered a motive in the killing but said the two argued before the stabbing. Court documents say that McDaniel was on probation for drug possession charges in the city and in St. Louis County at the time of the killing. McDaniel was charged Dec. 7. St. Louis University High School's longest-running and first lay president is leaving the prestigious school next year. President David Laughlin will leave July 1, 2018, to become president at Rockhurst Jesuit High School in Kansas City. I have always been honored to be our President and look forward to a continued year and half in service to our mission and community, Laughlin said in a statement on the school's website Wednesday. Since he was hired in 2005, Laughlin helped grow the school's endowment to $40 million from $30 million, reduce its debt to $12 million from $21.5 million, raise average SAT and ACT scores and expand the retreat, counseling and campus ministry programs, said Tom Santel, chairman of the school's board of trustees, in a statement. Laughlin also helped increase student diversity and quadruple financial aid, Santel said. In the 2015-2016 school year, minority students made up 13.4 percent of enrollment. About 40 percent of students receive financial aid. Clearly, Dave will leave a significant legacy of achievement at SLUH that will benefit the school for years to come, Santel wrote. The board will work with the Jesuits' Central and Southern Province Office to search for a new president. On Wednesday, Laughlin also announced a new principal for the high school. Jesuit priest Ian Gibbons, a St. Louis native who is currently an assistant principal at the selective, all-boys Regis High School in New York City, will take over as principal July 1 this year. St. Louis University High School is a Jesuit, all-boys school that charges $16,500 a year in tuition and enrolls 1,050 students. ST. LOUIS An audit of a 3-year-old higher education funding system highlighted concerns about how well the state is holding universities accountable for meeting certain standards. A small part of Missouri's funding for public colleges is tied to the schools' performance on different measures, such as graduation rates. But according to a Missouri audit released Thursday, the state Department of Higher Education is lacking when it comes to keeping colleges accountable for meeting those standards. That is in part because of ambiguity that leaves schools "to interpret results differently when reporting information" to the state, including identifying peer institutions to compare themselves to, according to the audit. "The Legislature and the Department of Higher Education must take responsibility for creating appropriate guidelines and improving program management and oversight," Missouri Auditor Nicole Galloway said in a statement. "Without that commitment, it is difficult to determine whether the program provides any real benefits or if it simply creates another bureaucratic task that leads to more paperwork, but fails to improve educational outcomes." The exact amount of funding tied to performance is determined each year by the Legislature. Main recommendations from the auditor are for comprehensive standards for peer groups and benchmarks, and continued review of the funding mechanism as a whole. In a response within the audit, the Missouri Department of Higher Education promised to make these issues a priority this year, with a new task force focused on performance funding. This is the third of four higher education audits Galloway announced last year. Two released in the fall focused on affordability and on the Department of Higher Education. The final audit will be of the University of Missouri System and is expected in the coming months. WASHINGTON The magic number as Republicans in Congress embark on fulfilling a campaign promise to repeal and replace Obamacare is 60. As events on Thursday showed, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., is one of a bakers dozen Democrats who could be keys to whether or not Republicans are able to reach it. The calculus in the United States Senate goes like this: When Democrats passed President Barack Obamas signature health care reform law seven years ago, there were 60 Democrats in the Senate, thanks to the 2009 conversion of former Republican Arlen Specter. As long as 60 members of a majority party stick together, they can avert a filibuster by minority-party opponents opposed to legislation. Obamacare was passed without a single Republican vote, an act that framed the bitter partisanship of health care to this day. Thirty of those 60 Democrats are no longer in the Senate, meaning that the Democratic coalition that pushed Obamacare through the Senates often arcane legislative process is a shell of what it was. But the number 41 for Democrats is more salient now. Since 1975, that has been the number necessary to sustain legislation-threatening filibusters. Republicans have 52 senators, a narrow majority tied to big promises. To pass controversial things like Obamacare replacement, they need at least eight members of the opposition party to go along with them. Senate Republicans can use parliamentary budget maneuvers to repeal parts of Obamacare themselves. But replacement exposes them to potential filibusters and to the need for Democratic help. So self-described moderate Democrats like McCaskill are in a position of power and peril. Their help may be necessary, but if they appear to be too obstructionist theyd look as if they were defending a law that many Americans say has not worked as well as promised. On Thursday, McCaskill and 12 Democratic colleagues wrote a largely symbolic letter to Republican leaders asking the GOP to work with us now on fixing Obamacare before voting to repeal it. Asked later if she expected that to happen, McCaskill flatly declared: No. Republicans, with Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., continuing in a leadership role, think they have a strong case for repeal, and broad thoughts on what can replace it. Blunt spent 20 minutes on the Senate floor Thursday describing businesses in Missouri he said had been adversely affected by Obamacare, including a nonprofit senior transportation service in Columbia whose premiums for its drivers have risen by $500,000. Families and small businesses really shouldnt be penalized because the law didnt live up to its promises. If you like your health care you can keep it. If you like your doctor you can keep your doctor. Family costs will go down $2,500 after this plan is put in place, Blunt said, mocking Democratic promises when the law passed. Those things didnt happen. We are in a chaotic situation now and its time to move in a new direction. McCaskill, who constantly stresses her work with Republicans, knows that direction runs past her doorstep. They are going to need some Democrats, she said of health care. I dont know if they will need me or not. I think that all depends on what they propose to do, she said, adding that she would not go along with changes in the law that allow insurance companies to be back in the saddle in terms of having their thumb on whether your claims will be paid, or whether or not you have to pay extra because you are a woman, or whether or not a man can get Viagra under an insurance policy but you are not entitled to the same benefit for birth control. She said moderate Democratic senators are trying to put a marker down. We dont want anybody to think the law is perfect, she said. We have been knocking on the door of help-us-improve-it for years. But (Republicans) have been unwilling to do that because they have been more interested in using it as political leverage than they were of actually fixing it. New Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has replaced an accommodating postelection tone toward the incoming Donald Trump administration with threats of more confrontational and obstructing tactics now that the new Congress has begun. McCaskill is not as threatening, but on Obamacare, she said: Make no mistake about it. Once they repeal (Obamacare), they own it. They own every problem in the health care system. Republicans say Democrats have had their head in the sand about Obamacares problems and should have learned that lesson with Trumps victory in November. Blunt suggested that Republican ideas that were rejected in 2009 cross-state competition between insurance companies, more stress on pre-tax health care accounts, for instance will be part of a Republican replacement. JEFFERSON CITY The leader of the Missouri Senate made it clear Thursday that Republican lawmakers are not in lockstep with Governor-elect Eric Greitens on every issue. Although the GOP-controlled Legislature appears ready to join with the Republican newcomer on a series of pro-business reforms, Greitens call for an overhaul of state ethics laws stands on significantly shakier ground. It could mark the political death of one of the major issues Greitens ran on as an outsider candidate seeking to clean up the culture of the capital city, where lobbyists for businesses and special interest groups spend hundreds of thousands of dollars wining and dining lawmakers. In a press conference Thursday, Senate President Pro Tem Ron Richard gave an emphatic thumbs down to Greitens proposal to limit how quickly lawmakers can become lobbyists. Under a plan Greitens unveiled during the campaign, a member of the House and Senate would have to undergo a cooling off period equal to the number of years they served in office. In other words, someone who has served eight years in the Senate would have to wait eight years to lobby. Richards response to the idea? I think theres a better way to do that, the Joplin Republican said. Richard last year supported a two-year waiting period and said the idea of a cooling off period is a worthy one. But his Republican counterparts in the Senate have been reluctant to endorse the concept. During the 2016 session, for example, the House approved a one-year waiting period, but the Senate whittled the wait time to six months. While many lawmakers argue six months is too short, Richard said Greitens' approach isnt workable. I do think there needs to be a timeout, whether it is one year or four or five years, Richard said. I think it needs to be a finite term. The Senate president also signaled that Greitens, a former Navy SEAL who oversaw a charity and wrote books before seeking political office, may have a tough fight convincing lawmakers to back his idea for a complete ban on lobbyist gifts. As part of an ethics push last year, the House approved a complete ban on lobbyists buying gifts, meals and drinks for members of the General Assembly. But, the measure died in the Senate after Republicans said they didnt believe gifts of pizza or soda influenced their votes. Richard said he has told Greitens he needs to spend some time lobbying the opponents to convince them otherwise. The Senate leader's comments come as Greitens is poised to be sworn in Monday as the first Republican governor in eight years. His spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the issue. TWIN OAKS Aldermen are considering rezoning for Big Bend Square, a $53 million mixed-use project on the site of the former Schnucks near Big Bend Boulevard and Highway 141. Residents had mixed reactions to the plan at a public hearing Tuesday night. Haley Holdings Seven LLC, based in St. Charles County is proposing redevelopment of the 11-acre site. "It will be a 'live, work, play environment,'" spokesman Tim Breece said. The 219 apartments will be in the "high-end" class and feature walkability in relation to a revamped retail presence, adequate parking and security, he said. The project would pay more than $700,000 a year in property taxes and need no special incentives. Schnucks closed in 2007, when the grocery moved to larger quarters on the north side of Big Bend. The project would feature 219 leased units of up to three bedrooms, as well as a total of 45,000 square feet of retail space. Some retail would continue in a revamped one-story building on the south side of the site, which now has restaurants and other businesses. The former Schnucks, is directly south across Big Bend from the site where a new Twin Oaks City Hall is planned. About 30 residents attended the hearing, which had been moved to Twin Oaks Presbyterian Church. Two suggested that the development could overwhelm the site and that the "walkability" of the plan may be overstated, because residents will still need to cross busy streets to reach Schnucks and other locations. A church administrator said that church members, many of whom live in Twin Oaks and the immediate area, are in favor. Development would take more than a year after city approval, Breece said. JEFFERSON CITY In trio of paintings between 1851 and 1855, the recently deposed Missouri legislator George Caleb Bingham took to the canvas to immortalize the raucous scenes of small-town democracy. Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri, chair of the Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, saw Binghams last installment, a depiction of the announcement of results in a county election called Verdict of the People, on July 1 and thought it would be the perfect centerpiece for an inauguration luncheon scheduled for Jan. 20. St. Louis artist Ilene Berman and Ivy Cooper, an art historian at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, disagree and have garnered more than 2,000 signatures on an online petition asking the St. Louis Art Museum to cancel its loan of the painting later this month. We object to the paintings use as an inaugural backdrop and an implicit endorsement of the Trump presidency and his expressed values of hatred, misogyny, racism and xenophobia, the petition reads. We reject the use of the painting to suggest that Trumps election was truly the verdict of the people, when in fact the majority of votesby a margin of over three millionwere cast for Trumps opponent. Ilene and I were concerned because we look at the painting as a representation of our community, both the St. Louis community and the national artist community, Cooper said Thursday. So we object to the use of it because it would appear to represent us, as if we the community were endorsing the results of the election. But while Trump faltered in St. Louis County and the city on Nov. 8, he won Missouri handily, defeating Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton by nearly 19 points on the way to an unexpected Electoral College victory. Blunts communications director, Brian Hart, said Friday that the painting was selected by Sen. Blunt after visiting in July and in consultation with the St. Louis Art Museum months before the presidential election and would have been displayed regardless of the election results. This painting is a celebration of Missouri and our uniquely American form of representative government, Hart said. Museum director Brent Benjamin wasnt interested in parsing the popular vote or playing politics. He plans to meet with Cooper and Berman next week, but said the museum will honor Blunts request. The museum doesnt take any position on candidates for public office, but it does support the office of the president of the United States, Benjamin said. So when the US Senate asks that we help them with the inauguration by loaning a painting, thats a great honor. Cooper wasnt surprised by Benjamins response and acknowledged her petition was unlikely to succeed. But she rejected the nonpartisan appeal. Any decision to put a representative of your collection into a political situation makes a political statement," she said. "If there were a discussion of the meaning of the painting, it would be different. But it's being used as a prop." Chuck Raasch of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report. I took my children into the voting booth with me and later my grandchildren so they could learn the procedure and why it is so important. As Americans look ahead to the presidential inauguration, a pattern is emerging from the political left. Here are some predictions on the direction that Democrats will take in the coming year. Democrats will continue to attempt to delegitimize the election results through tainted rhetoric and threats. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., said that she would not meet or work with Donald Trump: Im not going to sit down with him. Im not going to go. Im not going to go pretend Im not pretending. Waters is the ranking member of the Financial Services Committee. Her statement should be seen for exactly what it is: obstructionism. Waters has declared political war on the incoming administration. She is not alone. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., echoed Waters sentiments: The only way were going to work with him is if he moves completely in our direction and abandons his Republican colleagues. When pressed by CNNs Dana Bash, Schumer did admit to enjoying deal making. When Republicans employed rhetoric like this about then-incoming President Obamas policy plans, they were roundly criticized for it and rightly so. Democrats will remain immovable on key policy ideas. Take school choice, for example. Public school officials will continue to oppose the charter school movement while parents seek options. Inner-city parents have been dealt a very specific hand as it relates to their childrens education. Each child has one year to successfully complete a grade level in school. If that doesnt occur, the well-meaning policy ideas of those who want to save failed inner-city public schools are irrelevant. Each year that their child is trapped in a failing school is one year too many. This fact is only of consequence to parents with children in those schools. The people making the policies that keep children there often have no children of their own or have their own precious students in elite private schools. The policymakers are detached from the consequences of their decisions, which is a primary reason for the lack of movement on education reform. Parents must assume the responsibility for educating their children, while working within the existing system and demanding options outside of it; school choice must be one of those options. Democrats will continue to use language about blacks that places the government in the role of savior to an oppressed minority, which cannot help itself. This is perhaps the most insulting prediction for 2017, yet it is based on historical evidence. As a black woman in America, I am certain there is no man who is working in concert with other whites to keep me down or prevent goal attainment. Yet the refrain from progressive Democrats is that blacks are victims, and can only make it with the constant intervention of the government. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights protect the rights of all Americans. Historically, the Supreme Court made egregious rulings against the rights of black Americans, but those rulings have been corrected. American thought on race has positively shifted since the Jim Crow era; one result was the election of the first black president of the United States. Racial tensions will exist as long as humanity does, and no amount of government tinkering will ever completely eradicate racism. Instead of a constant drumbeat of negativity, successful people prefer to focus on what can be done personally to improve circumstances while working through civic channels to ameliorate the rest. As a nation, America will continue to move forward as long as we make the decision to do so regardless of party affiliation. Final prediction: The politics of division, in an atmosphere of hatred and angry finger-pointing, will continue to threaten the bonds that hold our society together unless Americans decide that enough is enough. A new president will be inaugurated on Jan. 20 and his name is Donald Trump. Giving the incoming administration a chance to improve the lives of all Americans, including those negatively impacted by the failed policy decisions of the past eight years, isnt just the right thing to do; its the American thing to do. Stacy Washington Twitter: @StacyOnTheRight Wellesbourne Airfield. Around 200 aircraft and several celebrities are expected to fly into Wellesbourne Airfield this month for a special event to highlight its importance to the region. There has been renewed impetus behind the campaign to save the airfield in recent weeks after Stratford District Council took dramatic action to prevent the landowners demolishing the site earlier this month. Businesses are hopeful that this momentum will carry on into the New Year. Owners of the airfield, Littler Investments, are keen to build up to 1,500 homes on the site, a plan widely criticised by the aviation community and many local residents. The issue is far from resolved though and the airfields future still remains in the balance. To draw attention to the airfields plight, a group of pilots and aviation enthusiasts at Wellesbourne called Landed Aviation are planning a huge fly in event next month. Celebrities including Carol Vorderman and Matt Dearden from Channel 4's Worst Place to be a Pilot have pledged to join the aviators touching down in Wellesbourne. The group have also organised an online petition to save the airfield, which has so far gained more than 4,700 signatures. The petition has been widely promoted on social media by Carol Vorderman and Stratford motoring journalist Quentin Willson, both avid supporters of Wellesbourne airfield. The organisers of Throckmorton Air Show are also involved in the fly-in, organising the paperwork necessary for such an event to take place and promoting the event on its website. Quentin Willson said: Theres lots of reasons why we should be fighting to save Wellesbourne Airfield, Carol Vorderman and I are quite adamant that this is a very significant airfield in the UK. It is a great community resource for Stratford and if we allow a large housing estate to be built there, it will tip the balance in Stratford towards much greater congestion. There is so much potential to make Wellesbourne Airfield more of a business hub. We should be having conversations about making it more of a destination for people to fly and learn to fly. I really enjoy going to the airfield with my family, its got a fantastic cafe. Im very pleased about the way Stratford District Council are supporting the airfield. Its great that Carol is taking part in the fly in, Im supporting the event and I hope to attend too. Mike Roberts, who runs Take Flight Aviation at Wellesbourne Airfield, said: Im not surprised by the support we are getting, the general aviation community is very close and anything that supports the airfield is very welcome. Obviously we were very happy with the councils actions, theyve given a message to the owners that if they want to develop the airfield they must do so in line with their Core Strategy. Its just a case of waiting for the landowners to see sense now. To sign the petition to save Wellesbourne Airfield visit www.change.org and search for Save Wellesbourne Airfield From Demolition. Broadpeak and Wyplay Redefine Delivery of Live TV Everywhere Services Pairing Together Frog By Wyplay Middleware and Broadpeak nanoCDN Technology on Set-Top Boxes, Pay-TV Operators Can Deliver High-Quality Video to Every Screen RENNES and MARSEILLE, France( ) Broadpeak, a leading provider of content delivery network (CDN) technologies and live and video-on-demand (VOD) servers for content providers and pay-TV operators worldwide, and Wyplay, creator of software solutions for leading pay-TV operators, today announced that they will unveil a joint solution at CES 2017, Jan. 5-8 in Las Vegas, designed to revolutionize the distribution of live TV Everywhere services over managed networks. Broadpeak's industry-leading nanoCDN(TM) technology has been integrated with Frog By Wyplay middleware on set-top boxes (STBs) to make multiscreen delivery scalable and affordable for telecom, cable, and satellite direct-to-home (DTH) operators. The joint solution addresses the new challenges pay-TV operators face in today's OTT multiscreen world. In particular, the unicast nature of traffic streamed to secondary screens causes latency and unstable video quality. Broadpeak's nanoCDN and Frog By Wyplay middleware offers operators an easy migration path to a fully converged HTTP video delivery infrastructure, enabling them to guarantee a high quality of service on all devices. "The solution we've developed with Wyplay is especially groundbreaking for satellite DTH operators, who have controlled the main TV screen battleground by providing amazing video quality for years," said Jacques Le Mancq, CEO at Broadpeak. "By deploying Broadpeak's nanoCDN technology on satellite set-top boxes running Frog middleware, they can now extend the exceptional video quality they are known for to PCs, tablets, smartphones, and secondary WiFi boxes in the home." Frog middleware provides operators with a flexible, customizable, and powerful solution fit for even the most demanding pay-TV requirements. Yielding the best performance that silicon offers, the middleware client ensures a seamless user experience for hybrid DVB/OTT television services. Combining Frog with Broadpeak nanoCDN enables operators to contain their bandwidth requirements to only a few megabits per second for live multiscreen delivery. Broadpeak's nanoCDN application converts multicast streams into unicast via multicast ABR technology, removing all of the hurdles related to peak hour consumption. With nanoCDN, operators can stream high-quality telecom, cable, and satellite services to millions of simultaneous devices and transition to a fully converged HTTP video delivery architecture. "When it comes to live streaming in the home, today's television viewers demand superior video quality on all screens," said Dominique Feral, CMO at Wyplay. "Broadpeak's nanoCDN technology drastically decreases latency, making it the perfect companion to our Frog middleware solution, which is known for its high-quality and rich feature set. We're excited to extend the Frog capabilities with Broadpeak's nanoCDN solution and give pay-TV operators a competitive edge in the marketplace." Visit Broadpeak and Wyplay during CES 2017 at booth San Polo 3401 A & B - Level 3 at the Venetian Hotel. # # # About Wyplay Independent and internationally recognized, Wyplay develops open, modular, and innovative software solutions for IPTV, cable, satellite, and terrestrial TV operators and broadcasters around the world. Wyplay's technology enables operators to select, configure, and deploy solutions easily from the richest list of preconfigured functionality available in a modular online TV solution, including an electronic program guide, video recorder, multiscreen and multiroom connectivity, an application store, and more. Wyplay's professional services team creates user experiences that exactly match and complement an operator or broadcaster's product and market strategies. Wyplay is now a strategic partner for such leading brands as SFR, Vodafone, Proximus, Canal+, Sky Italia, and DishTV. To learn more about Wyplay's set-top box, multi-screen and OTT solutions, please visit www.wyplay.com and https://frogbywyplay.com/. About Broadpeak(R) (www.broadpeak.tv) Broadpeak designs and manufactures video delivery components for content providers and network service providers deploying IPTV, cable, OTT, and mobile services. Its portfolio of solutions and technologies powers the delivery of movies, television programming, and other video content over managed networks and the Internet for viewing on any type of device. The company's systems and services help operators increase market share and improve subscriber loyalty with superior quality of experience. Broadpeak supports all of its customers worldwide, from simple installations to large delivery systems reaching capacities of several million of simultaneous streams. Broadpeak systems leverage the long legacy of Technicolor's excellence in broadcast and broadband content delivery from where the founders and technology originated. The company is headquartered in Rennes, France. Photo Link: www.202comms.com/Broadpeak/Broadpeak-nanoCDN.jpg Photo Caption: Broadpeak(R) nanoCDN(TM) Logo Photo Link: www.202comms.com/Broadpeak/Broadpeak-Frog_by_Wyplay_logo.png Photo Caption: Frog By Wyplay Logo Share it on Twitter: https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=.@Broadpeak%20and%20Wyplay%20Redefine%20Delivery%20of%20Live%20TV%20Everywhere%20Services%20-%20https://goo.gl/Yf0oNn All trademarks appearing herein are the property of their respective owners. Brown Gibbons Lang & Company (BGL) announced the sale of Personnel Management Systems, Inc. (PMSI) to Asure Software, Inc. (NYSE: ASUR). BGL's Business Services team served as the exclusive financial advisor to PMSI in the transaction. Personnel Management Systems (PMSI) is one of the largest providers of HR services in the Pacific Northwest. The company operates a full-service HR outsourcing model to address HR issues for small- and mid-sized businesses in the following areas: employment, group benefits, management resources, policy and procedures, HR administration, wage and salary issues, employee relations, training and development, safety and drug programs, and recruiting. PMSI was founded in 1987 and is based in Seattle, Washington. With the acquisition, Asure will expand into HR consulting and enhance its software and service offering. Asure's suite of offerings ranges from HCM workforce management solutions, time and attendance to workspace asset optimization and meeting room management solutions. PMSI President, Jack Goldberg, commented, "I want to sincerely thank the Business Services team at BGL for their advice and effort throughout the process that culminated in the sale of PMSI to Asure Software. As the leading provider of HR services in the Seattle area for over 25 years, we are very proud of our people and the quality of our work. Asure Software is an excellent partner. The acquisition provides us with new client tools and resources, and allows us to expand our model nationwide and eventually on a global scale." The BGL Business Services team is a leading advisor in the HR and HR technology sector. PMSI is the third closed transaction in the space in the last six months. The aggregate consideration for the Shares consisted of (i) $3,875,000 in cash and (ii) a subordinated promissory note in the principal amount of $1,125,000, subject to adjustment as provided in the Stock Purchase Agreement. Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) and CEB Inc. (NYSE: CEB), the industry leader in providing best practice and talent management insights, today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement whereby Gartner will acquire all of the outstanding shares of CEB in a cash and stock transaction valued at approximately $2.6 billion. The transaction has a total enterprise value of approximately $3.3 billion, including Gartners assumption of approximately $0.7 billion in CEB net debt. The transaction is immediately accretive to Gartners adjusted EPS and is expected to be double-digit percentage accretive in 2018. The transaction has been unanimously approved by the Boards of Directors of both companies and is expected to close in the first half of 2017. Under the terms of the agreement, CEB shareholders will receive $54.00 in cash and 0.2284 shares of Gartner common stock for each share of CEB common stock they own, implying 70% cash and 30% stock consideration for the offer. The total $77.25 per share consideration represents a premium of approximately 31% compared to the volume weighted average closing stock price of CEB over the past 30 days, approximately 41% compared to the volume weighted average closing stock price of CEB over the past 60 days, and approximately 25% compared to CEBs closing stock price on January 4, 2017, the last trading day prior to todays announcement. Upon completion of the transaction, Gartner shareholders will own approximately 91% of the combined company and CEB shareholders will own approximately 9%. In addition to issuing Gartner shares, the transaction will be funded through a combination of Gartner cash, capacity under its existing credit facility and new additional debt financing. The addition of CEB further enhances Gartners ability to deliver tremendous value to its clients and help them make the right decisions with confidence. Gartners analyst-driven, syndicated research and advisory services in Information Technology (IT), Marketing and Supply Chain, combined with CEBs best practice and talent management insights across a range of business functions, including Human Resources (HR), Sales, Finance and Legal, will provide a comprehensive and differentiated suite of advisory services aligned to the mission-critical priorities of virtually all functional business leaders across every industry and size of enterprise worldwide. On a pro forma basis, the combined companys reported results for the last 12 months ended September 30, 2016 include approximately $3.3 billion in revenue, $693 million in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), and $463 million in free cash flow. Together, Gartner and CEB will employ more than 13,000 associates serving clients in more than 100 countries worldwide. We are excited about joining forces with CEB, a world-class company we have long admired. Our highly complementary business models will create the leading global research and advisory company for all major functions in the enterprise, said Gene Hall, chief executive officer of Gartner. We look forward to working with CEBs highly talented teams to leverage our global reach and apply Gartners proven operational and sales execution capabilities at scale to accelerate growth across CEBs businesses. We will also introduce Gartners existing syndicated research and advisory services to CEBs clients in a broad range of functional areas that extend beyond our existing IT, Marketing and Supply Chain roles. Similarly, we will introduce CEBs best practice and talent management insights to Gartner clients worldwide. We expect this acquisition to create value for our shareholders in both the near and long-term, including immediate accretion on an adjusted EPS basis, added Mr. Hall. Associates will benefit from expanded career opportunities as part of a larger, strong organization with the most extensive client offering in the industry. We remain focused on delivering tremendous value to our clients, capturing our vast market opportunity and continuing our trend of driving consistent double-digit growth in revenue, earnings and free cash flow. Tom Monahan, chairman and chief executive officer of CEB, said, We have long admired Gartner for its impact on clients and track record of growth. Were pleased to reach this agreement, which offers compelling benefits to CEB shareholders, clients and employees. CEB shareholders will receive substantial and immediate value for their investment while benefitting from the upside and strong growth prospects of the combined company. The combined company will have unmatched insight into technology, talent and the other drivers of corporate performance. It will also have deep reach into a massive, immediately addressable market with clear need for our support across a range of functional areas. CEB employees will benefit from being part of a diversified and growing global organization with enhanced opportunities for career growth and development. We look forward to working with the Gartner team to accelerate our growth and scale our impact on members and clients. Mr. Hall concluded, Gartner and CEB are well-aligned from a culture, talent and business model perspective, which will support a seamless integration following close. We look forward to welcoming CEB to our team as we work to realize the benefits of this compelling combination for all our clients, shareholders and associates around the world. Benefits of the Transaction Accelerates CEBs Growth by Leveraging Gartners Proven Practices and Global Scale. Gartner will accelerate CEBs revenue growth by applying its proven practices operating at scale, which have driven Gartners sustained double-digit growth. CEB will also benefit from Gartners broader market presence and global footprint. As a result, Gartner expects to deliver double-digit contract value growth for CEB by the third full year after closing. Gartner will accelerate CEBs revenue growth by applying its proven practices operating at scale, which have driven Gartners sustained double-digit growth. CEB will also benefit from Gartners broader market presence and global footprint. As a result, Gartner expects to deliver double-digit contract value growth for CEB by the third full year after closing. A Highly Complementary Combination with Enhanced Capabilities. Gartner will expand CEBs existing best practice and talent management insights for executives in large enterprises into the mid-size enterprise segment, where Gartner has more extensive market presence. In addition, Gartner will introduce and develop a comprehensive suite of new syndicated research and advisory products leveraging CEBs existing strength in Human Resources, Sales, Finance and Legal. CEBs large enterprise clients will benefit from Gartners expertise in technology as decision-making is increasingly taking place across a wider range of functional roles beyond IT. Gartner will expand CEBs existing best practice and talent management insights for executives in large enterprises into the mid-size enterprise segment, where Gartner has more extensive market presence. In addition, Gartner will introduce and develop a comprehensive suite of new syndicated research and advisory products leveraging CEBs existing strength in Human Resources, Sales, Finance and Legal. CEBs large enterprise clients will benefit from Gartners expertise in technology as decision-making is increasingly taking place across a wider range of functional roles beyond IT. Attractive and Aligned Business Model Fundamentals. The combination will benefit from a complementary, expanded and growing base of recurring, subscription-based revenue streams offering high visibility and high renewal rates. In addition, both companies are expected to continue generating strong cash flow conversion given the negative working capital dynamics associated with upfront invoicing. The combination will benefit from a complementary, expanded and growing base of recurring, subscription-based revenue streams offering high visibility and high renewal rates. In addition, both companies are expected to continue generating strong cash flow conversion given the negative working capital dynamics associated with upfront invoicing. Delivers Attractive Short and Long-Term Financial Benefits. The transaction is expected to be immediately accretive to Gartners adjusted EPS before cost synergies, with double-digit percentage accretion in 2018. In addition, Gartner expects to realize annualized cost synergies of approximately $25 million - $50 million starting in 2018, which will further enhance the financial benefits of the transaction for shareholders. Over the longer-term, Gartner expects to deliver double-digit revenue, earnings and free cash flow growth while maintaining a strong balance sheet and liquidity profile. Given the expected strong cash flow generation of the combined business, Gartner plans to quickly de-lever to approximately 3 times gross leverage within 24 to 36 months after closing. The transaction is expected to be immediately accretive to Gartners adjusted EPS before cost synergies, with double-digit percentage accretion in 2018. In addition, Gartner expects to realize annualized cost synergies of approximately $25 million - $50 million starting in 2018, which will further enhance the financial benefits of the transaction for shareholders. Over the longer-term, Gartner expects to deliver double-digit revenue, earnings and free cash flow growth while maintaining a strong balance sheet and liquidity profile. Given the expected strong cash flow generation of the combined business, Gartner plans to quickly de-lever to approximately 3 times gross leverage within 24 to 36 months after closing. Significantly Expands Market Opportunity to Enhance Long-Term Growth. Gartners existing vast market opportunity in IT, Marketing and Supply Chain, combined with CEBs massive market opportunity in Human Resources, Sales, Finance and Legal, significantly increases the overall addressable opportunity for the combined company. Approvals, Financing and Close The transaction, which is expected to be completed in the first half of 2017, is subject to the approval of CEB shareholders and the satisfaction of customary closing conditions, including applicable regulatory approvals. Under the terms of the definitive agreement, CEB has a go-shop right to solicit third party alternative acquisition proposals for the next 35 days. As part of the transaction, Gartner will issue approximately 8 million shares of Gartner common stock. Gartner intends to fund the cash portion of the transaction consideration through a combination of cash on hand and fully committed debt financing to be provided by JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. and Goldman Sachs Bank USA. Upon completion of the transaction, Gartner is expected to have net debt of approximately $3 billion. Advisors Evercore and Goldman, Sachs & Co. are serving as financial advisors to Gartner, and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati is serving as legal counsel. Centerview Partners LLC acted as lead financial advisor to CEB and Allen & Company LLC also acted as financial advisor. Kirkland & Ellis LLP is serving as legal counsel. Conference Call and Webcast Gartner will hold a conference call to discuss the transaction today at 8:30 a.m. ET. The dial-in number for the conference call is (866) 610-1072 (or (973) 935-2840 for international callers). The participant passcode is 46334837. The call will also be webcast live and can be accessed at the companys website at www.investor.gartner.com. A replay of the call will be available at the companys website, or by calling (800) 585-8367 (or (404) 537-3406 for international callers), passcode 46334837, beginning at approximately 11:30 a.m. ET. Additional information regarding the CEB acquisition can be found on Gartners website in the Investor Relations section. (Reuters) - U.S.-based online publishing platform Medium said it would slash its workforce by a third, or eliminate 50 jobs, close two offices as the company changes its ad-driven business model. The job cuts were mostly in sales and support, while the vast majority of the product development and engineering teams would remain, the company said on Wednesday. The company's ad-driven publishing model was "becoming an extension of a broken system", Chief Executive Evan Williams wrote in a post. (http://bit.ly/2hRxRZ3) Williams did not describe the "new model" the company would create, but said it would reward writers and creators, based on the value they were creating, not just their ability to attract "a few seconds of attention". Medium allows users, including companies and media outlets, to post blogs that readers can annotate. The company said it was shutting down offices in New York and Washington, D.C., though some employees would continue to work remotely from these locations. (Reporting by Vishaka George in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila) File Photo: Former MF Global CEO Jon Corzine testifies before a House Financial Services Committee Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee hearing on the collapse of MF Global, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, December 15, 2011. REUTERS/Jonathan Erns By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) - Jon Corzine, former New Jersey governor and Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) co-chairman, will pay a $5 million civil fine to settle a U.S. regulator's lawsuit over the 2011 collapse of his commodity brokerage, MF Global Holdings Ltd. Thursday's accord with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission resolves the last piece of litigation against Corzine over MF Global's rapid descent into bankruptcy on Oct. 31, 2011, as an estimated $1.6 billion of customer money went missing. The agreement, which has been approved by a federal judge, bars Corzine from ever working for a futures commission merchant or registering with the CFTC. He also cannot ask insurers to cover the fine. "I am pleased to have reached this settlement," Corzine, who turned 70 on Jan. 1, said in a statement. "As the CEO of MF Global in 2011, I have accepted responsibility for its failure, and I deeply regret the impact it had on customers, employees, shareholders and others." Andrew Levander, Corzine's lawyer, noted that none of the criminal and civil probes into MF Global's demise led to charges that Corzine engaged in intentional misconduct or fraud. In a related settlement, Edith O'Brien, MF Global's former assistant treasurer, agreed to pay a $500,000 civil fine and accept an 18-month industry ban to resolve claims that she "aided and abetted" the misuse of customer funds. O'Brien's lawyer, Christopher Barber, declined to comment. The CFTC said MF Global improperly used nearly $1 billion of customer funds to shore up liquidity during the last week of October 2011, rather than keep the funds separate. This commingling occurred as margin calls, credit rating downgrades and Corzine's big wager on European sovereign debt left customers and investors increasingly worried about the New York-based company's survival. The CFTC said Corzine failed to properly supervise employees handling customer funds, while O'Brien authorized the illegal transfer of customer funds to MF Global accounts as the specter of bankruptcy loomed. Customers were fully repaid in 2014. Corzine and other former MF Global executives last year reached a $132 million settlement with a trustee liquidating the company on behalf of creditors. A year earlier, executives reached a $64.5 million settlement of separate investor litigation. Portions of the earlier payouts were covered by insurance. Corzine, a Democrat, is also a former U.S. senator, and now manages his own money. He said he plans to focus on "issues that have always been important in my life: my family, community and philanthropic causes, and markets." Experienced Payment Guru to Drive Innovation and Growth Initiatives PHOENIX & TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Equinox Payment Solutions (Equinox), a leading provider of payment terminals, applications and support services, announced that Bohdan Myroniw has joined Equinox as vice president, Strategic Alliances. He will be responsible for driving strategic initiatives and building strong sales partnerships, leveraging the unique and innovative Luxe product family as a true industry differentiator. "Bohdan embodies the entrepreneurial spirit and drive that has positioned Equinox as a trusted solutions provider," said Rob Hayhow, vice president, Equinox Payment Solutions. "I am confident that his extensive industry and professional experience will build upon our current momentum and successfully drive growth for our clients, our partners and our company." Im thrilled to be joining Equinox at such a pivotal point in the companys trajectory, said Myroniw. The Luxe product family is a true game-changer and I am looking forward to working with such a talented team as we engage our partners and help them implement an improved customer experience wherever payments happen. Prior to joining Equinox, Myroniw worked at Verifones AJB division for more than a decade, most recently serving as director of Business Development. Working from Toronto, he successfully contributed to the global reach of the company in the Retail and Financial Services sectors. Myroniw began his career as a systems project manager, and held multiple senior posts at Fujitsu Consulting, and before that he ran his own IT consulting firm. He is a native of Canada, and holds a Masters degree in Business Administration from the Richard Ivey School of Business, The University of Western Ontario. About Equinox Payments Brookfield Equinox LLC (dba Equinox Payments) was founded in 2014 as a result of an acquisition of assets from Equinox Payments, LLC. Located in Scottsdale, Arizona, Equinox is looking beyond product features to rethink and reimagine the customer payment experience. The company is owned by NBS Payment Solutions, based in Toronto, Canada and a leading provider of electronic payment solutions to the financial industry for over 25 years. NBS Payment Solutions is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Brookfield Asset Management, a global asset manager with over $225 billion of assets under management. Brookfield is listed on the New York (BAM) and Toronto (BAM.A) stock exchanges. For more information about Equinox Payments, please visit www.equinoxpayments.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170105005468/en/ Equinox Payment Solutions Michelle Wagner, 770-331-7010 [email protected] Source: Equinox Payment Solutions SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- GI Partners ("GI"), a leading alternative asset manager, announced today it has acquired KOMO Plaza, a state-of-the-art carrier hotel and data center facility located at 100 and 140 Fourth Avenue North in Seattle, Washington for $276 million. The highly resilient and secure facility combines data center, network neutral interconnections and a class A office in a superior, accessible location. A two-building campus, KOMO Plaza offers robust infrastructure across approximately 294,000 square feet. Based in San Francisco, GI Partners offers a differentiated, technology focused approach to real estate investment. With a 15-year history of investing in data centers, carrier hotels and other technology-advantaged real estate, the team leverages its expertise in sourcing, underwriting, financing, and actively managing its holdings. The company also owns the One Wilshire building, located in downtown Los Angeles, which serves as one of the most comprehensive United States network gateways to Asia and West Coast interconnection environments. Both KOMO Plaza and One Wilshire offer enterprises, service providers, and telecommunication companies flexible and reliable infrastructure and unmatched access to domestic fiber routes and transpacific undersea cables. "The acquisition of KOMO Plaza further expands GI's portfolio of technology-advantaged real estate and exemplifies its strategy of leveraging the firm's operational excellence, technical knowledge, and market expertise to acquire properties with significant critical building infrastructure," stated Tony Lin, Director of GI Partners. "GI Partners is well positioned to offer tenants and users connectivity along the West Coast through KOMO Plaza and its sister carrier hotel, One Wilshire." KOMO Plaza offers industry leading building infrastructure and mission-critical systems including: Meet-me-room with more than 15 carriers and service providers through diverse routing paths Reinforced concrete foundations, raised flooring, multiple riser systems and conduits 18 megawatts of installed utility power with separate A and B utility feeds and data center power densities in excess of 150 watts per square foot Backup power provided by nine generators totaling 16.5 megawatts Close proximity to transpacific subsea cables for low latency service to Asia One of four core switches for the Seattle Internet Exchange, a neutral and independent peering point and 4th most active internet exchange in the United States Rooftop satellite and antenna facilities for multiple communication configurations For KOMO Plaza leasing information, please contact Tony Lin, Director, at [email protected]. For more information, please visit www.gipartners.com and www.komoplaza.com. About GI PartnersFounded in 2001, GI Partners is a leading private investment firm based in San Francisco, California. The firm currently manages over $13 billion in capital commitments through private equity and real estate strategies for recognized institutional investors, including some of the largest state and sovereign pension funds in North America, Europe, Australia, Asia, and the Middle East. GI Partners' real estate team invests across a number of property types and investment strategies, including industrial, apartments, and technology-advantaged properties, such as data centers, life science facilities, and corporate campuses. For more information on GI Partners, please visit www.gipartners.com. About KOMO PlazaKOMO Plaza is a unique 294,000 square foot, two-building, carrier hotel that combines wholesale data center, co-location, Class A office, and retail space with state-of-the-art communications and media service facilities. Located in a highly desirable location, the heart of South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle, KOMO Plaza is adjacent to the Space Needle, Seattle Center, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. KOMO Plaza supports the mission-critical infrastructure, strategic office needs, and business continuity provisions of a large roster of local, national, and international companies. For more information on KOMO Plaza, please visit www.komoplaza.com. About One Wilshire One Wilshire is widely recognized as the most vital carrier hotel in the Western United States. The building is the premier communications hub to the Pacific Rim and noted industry-wide for its essential unmatched connectivity, at the nexus of a rich telecommunications network. One Wilshire is owned and operated by a team committed to maintaining and enhancing its position as one of the premier carrier hotels in the world. To learn more, visit www.one-wilshire.com. Media Contacts:Jaymie Scotto & Associates+1 866-695-3629 ext 13[email protected] Chris Tofalli Chris Tofalli PR +1 914-834-4334[email protected] Caroline SchimmelbuschGI Partners | Investor Relations +1 415-688-4800[email protected] To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/gi-partners-acquires-komo-plaza-in-seattle-washington-300385681.html SOURCE GI Partners BERLIN, GERMANY and AUSTIN, TX -- (Marketwired) -- 01/05/17 -- Energy storage pioneer Younicos was awarded contracts for a total of 75 megawatts (MW) in 2016, its first year under the stewardship of CEO Stephen L. Prince. Compared to 2015, this represents a record 400% growth in bookings. The battery storage integrator now has a total of 200 MW of systems either installed or under construction, as well as a qualified pipeline of deals worth a total of 1.2 gigawatts over the next two years. "I'm extremely proud of the entire Younicos team, both on the technical and commercial side, for all that we achieved in 2016," Stephen L. Prince commented. "While the 49 MW battery system we are designing and delivering for Centrica in the UK is a cornerstone of this year's success, we made very significant progress in many other areas as well. I'm most pleased by the fact that we continue to lead the industry as battery storage moves beyond grid-scale use cases to now be embraced by downstream energy users, such as commercial and industrial (C&I) clients." The past year saw Younicos sign its first orders for the plug-and-play Y.Cube storage solution in both the US and UK, for use in PV+storage and C&I applications. With the company's Y.Q software platform effectively bundling and blending Younicos's 10 years of industry experience into its "DNA," the Y.Cube can provide both microgrid functionalities and grid-scale ancillary services in one system. "I look forward to steadily growing our business on the solid foundation that we laid down in the last year. We not only have unique solutions and products in place, but have successfully built the right relationships with key strategic and channel partners," Mr. Prince continued. "Energy generators and distributors -- and indeed large energy users -- understand that batteries are an economically attractive and reliable asset to optimize energy production and consumption. The steadily declining costs of battery storage have created compelling business cases behind the meter, particularly when combining various storage applications. As solar PV costs fall and self-consumption increases, grid charges will increase, thus strengthening the business case for C&I storage -- particularly co-located PV+storage solutions." About Younicos Younicos is a global leader for intelligent energy storage and grid solutions. Clients benefit from technical expertise, commercial know-how and in-depth experience built on 150 megawatts installed in 37 energy storage projects worldwide. The company was founded in 2005 in Berlin, Germany, and currently employs more than 130 storage experts there and in Austin, Texas (USA). For more information please visit www.younicos.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter. Spokesperson Americas Gene Hunt +1 978-750-0333 Email Contact Spokesperson EMEA & Asia Philip Hiersemenzel +49 174 9088188 Email Contact Source: Younicos Inc. Continuing with the crowdsourced theme, the Hawkeye phone is available for funding on Kickstarter today LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- ZTE USA, the fourth largest smartphone supplier in the U.S. and second largest in the no-contract market,* today announced Hawkeye as the winning name of the Project CSX eye-tracking, self-adhesive smartphone device. With 540 name submissions from consumers around the world, the Hawkeye phone is available for funding today on Kickstarter at kickstarter.zteusa.com for a discounted price of $199.00. Project CSX has been a groundbreaking process and the Hawkeye device sets the stage for us in 2017, said Lixin Cheng, chairman and CEO of ZTE USA. As we move forward with this smartphone, well look to continue to integrate consumers every step of the way. Continuing with the crowdsourced theme surrounding Project CSX, the Hawkeye phone is available for funding on Kickstarter and is expected to ship globally in Q3 2017. With Project CSX, we experimented by turning the typical R&D process on its head and did something completely different within the industry, said Jeff Yee, vice president of Technology Planning and Partnerships of ZTE USA. We believe that the Hawkeye name reflects the spirit and vision of ZTE as we continue to put the consumer first throughout this entire process and will continue to do so in every phone we deliver. Project CSX kicked off at CES 2016 when ZTE announced its plans to completely crowdsource a mobile device that the company promised to build in 2017. In October 2016, thousands of consumers from 176 countries selected the winning concept, a device that aims for an easier and smoother user experience with eye-tracking capabilities and a self-adhesive back. To learn more about ZTE and to keep up with the latest Project CSX developments visit csx.zteusa.com or to become a member of Z-Community, visit community.zteusa.com. *Strategy Analytics, Q3 2016 About ZTE USA ZTE USA (www.zteusa.com), headquartered in Richardson, Texas, is a subsidiary of ZTE Corporation, a global provider of mobile devices, telecommunication systems, and enterprise solutions. Operating since 1998, ZTE USA is dedicated to making cost-efficient, quality communication technology accessible to all. ZTE is ranked by independent industry analysts as the fourth-largest supplier of mobile devices in the U.S. overall, and second-largest supplier of prepaid devices. Visit ZTE USA at www.zteusa.com on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ZTEUSA, Twitter https://twitter.com/ZTE_USA, and on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/user/ZTEUSAInc. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170104006535/en/ ZTE USA Jeffrey Norris (972) 671-8885 [email protected] Source: ZTE USA DUBAI (Reuters) - Arab separatist militants in Iran said on Tuesday they had blown up two oil pipelines in coordinated attacks in the western Khuzestan region two days earlier, though this was subsequently denied by Iran's Interior Ministry. The group, the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of al-Ahwaz, said on its website its armed wing had caused major damage and fuel losses in the attacks on Jan. 3 near the town of Omidiyeh and the port of Deylam. However, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry told state television the reports were untrue. Ahwazi Arabs are a minority in mainly ethnic Persian Iran, and some see themselves as under Persian occupation and want independence or autonomy. Separatist groups have carried out intermittent attacks for decades, including on oil installations. Tehran denies there is discontent among its Arab minority and has blamed suggestions of there being any separatist sentiment on a foreign plot to seize the oil that lies beneath Iran's Gulf coastal territory. In a statement posted on their Ahwazna.net website, the group said the first attack targeted the "Maroun" pipeline of the state-owned Aghajari Oil and Gas Production Company, while the second attack targeted pipelines from the Baharkan oilfield to Kharg Island. (Reporting by Sami Aboudi; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky) By Elizabeth Piper and Guy Faulconbridge LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May appointed a senior career diplomat as envoy to the European Union on Wednesday to replace an ambassador who quit with a scathing resignation letter that exposed frustration among officials over her strategy. Tim Barrow, political director at the Foreign Office, will take up the post next week following the abrupt departure of Ivan Rogers, who told staff in his resignation letter they should "speak the truth to those in power". The implicit criticism of the government's approach in Rogers' letter put rare strain on rules that shield the politically neutral civil service from elected leaders. The selection of Barrow, a 30 year veteran diplomat, could disappoint some Brexit campaigners who would like to see a known eurosceptic in the post. But it could help reassure Britain's cadre of civil servants that their expertise is still valued. Barrow, a former ambassador to Moscow who served earlier in his career as first secretary at Britain's embassy in Brussels, is not known to have taken a strong public position on Brexit. In a statement released by May's Downing Street office, he said he looked forward to joining the new government department tasked with overseeing the exit from the European Union, "to ensure we get the right outcome for the United Kingdom as we leave the EU". Downing Street described him as "a seasoned and tough negotiator, with extensive experience of securing UK objectives in Brussels". May intends to launch the two-year process of negotiating to leave the bloc by the end of March, beginning what is expected to be some of the most complicated international talks Britain has engaged in since World War Two. She has so far said little publicly about Britain's negotiating position, arguing that to do so would weaken London's hand in talks. Her political opponents say the government underestimates the task and has failed to take into account the position of European leaders, who say they will not give Britain access to the EU free trade zone if it closes its borders to EU citizens. In his undiplomatically worded resignation letter, Rogers said May's negotiating objectives were as yet unknown. He told his staff: "I hope you will continue to challenge ill-founded arguments and muddled thinking". May's opponents said his departure would deprive Britain of crucial expertise about Europe at the time when it was needed most. But Brexit supporters described his comments as sour grapes and said he should be replaced by someone who was more positive about Britain's prospects outside the EU. PRECARIOUS With May's end of March deadline to trigger the formal EU divorce procedure approaching, her reticence over her strategy may be contributing to a lack of coordination among staff in government departments, say experts on the British bureaucracy. Robyn Munro, senior researcher for the Institute for Government which is close to the civil service, said there were questions over what kind of structure Britain would put in place to manage the negotiations. The future of Rogers looked precarious late last year when a report was leaked that he had told ministers that a post-Brexit trade deal with the EU could take 10 years to finalize. Prominent eurosceptics in May's Conservative Party accused him of being overly "pessimistic" before the talks. One source in parliament said Rogers had been victim of a breakdown in relations not just with ministers, but within the civil service after the new Department for Exiting the EU took precedence over his Brussels-based mission. Other diplomats said Rogers, who had been central to a difficult renegotiation of the terms of Britain's EU membership led by former prime minister David Cameron before last year's referendum, was frustrated that his message that the talks would be tough was not getting through. But pro-Brexit lawmakers said it was right that officials who lacked enthusiasm for quitting the EU should step aside. "Some have been passionately committed to the previous pro-EU consensus and they are in real grief, like many others we know. If they cannot adapt to the new policy, then they are right to go," said Conservative lawmaker Bernard Jenkin, who campaigned for Britain to leave the European Union. (additional reporting by Estelle Shirbon and Alastair Macdonald in Brussels,; editing by Peter Graff) By Shadrack Kavilu KIAMAIKO, Kenya (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Dressed in a white apron and black gum boots, 24-year-old Osman Idris waits patiently outside a Nairobi slaughterhouse as scores of customers stream past in search of fresh meat. A delivery man, Idris is just one of many residents of Kiamaiko, a slum 12 kms northeast of the Kenyan capital, who is making a decent living from its thriving trade in goat meat. Unlike the majority of Kenyan slums where unemployment, insecurity and crime are rife, Kiamaiko has seen more jobs and small businesses flourish as a result of the goat market. "Most of us here depend on these slaughterhouses for a living, it's our daily hustle," said Idris, his eyes searching for clients who might need his services. Nearly 1 billion people live in slums where their survival often depends on the informal economy - activities such as hawking clothes, food and other goods on the street that do not fully comply with tax or labor market regulations. The United Nations says improving transport, sanitation, hospitals and schools is imperative in slums, but authorities must also work to integrate shanty towns and their informal economies into their cities. Success will require policies to address the problems faced by slum dwellers and their businesses including a lack of documents to prove land or property ownership which allows re-sale or loans, according to a senior official at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). "Given its size and importance, the informal economy is a fundamental element of accelerating Africa's long term vision for development," said Edlam Abera Yemeru, a UNECA specialist on urbanization policies. RISING COST OF RENT UNECA estimates that overall nearly 70 percent of workers in sub-Saharan Africa are engaged in the informal economy. Increasingly, African governments are exploring new ways to slash red tape and help legalize micro-businesses to give slum dwellers a legitimate income to invest and improve their lives - while creating a new taxation stream for city administrations, experts say. Africa's population of slum dwellers is expected to rapidly increase in the coming years with United Nations projecting that around 187 million more Africans will live in cities in the next decade, boosting both formal and informal urban economies. In Kiamaiko residents say the goat market has transformed the sprawling slum - once notorious for guns and young, violent thugs - and even attracted investment. "The slum used to be very risky," Idris told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "I've witnessed countless muggings here before, but since the slaughterhouses started expanding they have opened up job opportunities for youths thus helping reduce cases of crime and violence." The growth of the goat market has led to other businesses opening their doors from car wash points to barber shops, fruit and vegetable stores to money transfer services and even recreation centers, locals say. But not all residents are happy. In some areas, the cost of rent has soared placing pressure on poorer families to leave their neighborhoods in search of cheaper housing further away from Nairobi's peripheral settlements and potential jobs. "We can no longer afford to pay rent here. The rent has surged ten-fold and only those that can afford a year's rent in advance are favored by the landlords," said Macharia Karanja, a mechanic who has lived in the slum for the last 10 years. JOBS MEAN SERVICES Karanja says he and many other young men have become trapped in a vicious cycle of low incomes and family responsibilities at a young age. "Most of the traders in the slaughterhouse business have bought ghetto houses and converted them into two to three storey buildings which have become unaffordable," he said. While some residents have been forced out of Kiamaiko, others like Abdul Hassan are happy wealthier new tenants can afford services such as garbage collection and security. "At least tenants from these high-end houses don't give us headaches like those in ghettos. They are very co-operative when it comes to paying our services," said Hassan, a member of a self-help group that collects garbage in the area. Kiamaiko's fast-growing slum economy has also started to attract investors, residents say. "The slum has become safer, less risky and more attractive to outside investors," said John Kibichu, a beer distributor. "The local environment has made it possible for businesses to operate 24 hours a day and traders are all keen to grab a share of the revenue generated in this slum". (Reporting by Shadrack Kavilu, Editing by Paola Totaro and 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 news.trust.org) An AT&T sign is seen outside a branch in Rolling Meadows, Illinois, U.S., October 24, 2016. REUTERS/Jim Young (Reuters) - Donald Trump remains opposed to AT&T Inc's (NYSE: T) planned $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner Inc (NYSE: TWX), Bloomberg reported, citing people close to the president-elect. Trump, who has been silent about the transaction for months, told a friend in the last few weeks that he still considers the merger to be a bad deal, Bloomberg reported. (http://bloom.bg/2jfkJlx) He believed the deal would concentrate too much power in the media industry, Bloomberg said. Shares of AT&T were down 0.2 percent, while Time Warner's stock was down 1.6 percent. Trump's chief strategist, Steve Bannon, is also opposed to the deal, Bloomberg reported, citing another person. Trump during his campaign had said AT&T's proposal to buy the owner of CNN and the Warner Bros movie studio was an example of a "power structure" that was rigged against him and voters. Trump's transition team, AT&T and Time Warner did not immediately respond to requests for comment. (Reporting by Anya George Tharakan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila) UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION Washington, D.C. 20549 FORM 8-K CURRENT REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 Date of report (Date of earliest event reported): January 4, 2017 OCH-ZIFF CAPITAL MANAGEMENT GROUP LLC (Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in Its Charter) Delaware 001-33805 26-0354783 (State or Other Jurisdiction of Incorporation) (Commission File Number) (IRS Employer Identification No.) 9 West 57th Street, New York, New York 10019 (Address of Principal Executive Offices) (Zip Code) 212-790-0000 (Registrants Telephone Number, Including Area Code) Not Applicable (Former Name or Former Address, if Changed Since Last Report) Check the appropriate box below if the Form 8-K filing is intended to simultaneously satisfy the filing obligation of the registrant under any of the following provisions ( see General Instruction A.2. below): Written communications pursuant to Rule 425 under the Securities Act (17 CFR 230.425) Soliciting material pursuant to Rule 14a-12 under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14a-12) Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 14d-2(b) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14d-2(b)) Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 13e-4(c) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.13e-4(c)) Item 7.01. Regulation FD Disclosure. Estimated Unaudited Net Returns The following information is being provided to investors in the alternative investment vehicles (the funds) that affiliates of Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC (collectively, the Company) manage with respect to the estimated net returns of certain of the Companys most significant master funds for the month ended December 31, 2016 . The following information is not necessarily indicative of the Companys anticipated financial results. December 2016 Net Returns Estimate (1)(2) December 2016 Year-to-Date Net Returns Estimate (2)(3) OZ Master Fund +0.72% +3.82% OZ Asia Master Fund -2.27% -5.39% OZ Europe Master Fund +1.61% +3.70% ______________________________________________ (1) Monthly net returns are based on managements estimates as of the date hereof for performance of the referenced funds from December 1, 2016 to December 31, 2016 . Such data may change upon completion of the Companys month-end valuation procedures, and any changes could be material. (2) Year-to-date net returns are based on managements estimates as of the date hereof for the performance of the referenced funds from January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2016 . Such data may change upon completion of the Companys month-end valuation procedures, and any changes could be material. (3) Net return represents a composite of the average return of the feeder funds that comprise each of the referenced funds. Net return is presented on a total return basis, net of all fees and expenses (except incentive income on unrealized gains attributable to investments that the Company, as investment manager, determines lack a readily ascertainable fair value, are illiquid or otherwise should be held until the resolution of a special event or circumstance (Special Investments) that could reduce returns on such Special Investments at the time of realization) and includes the reinvestment of all dividends and other income. Performance includes realized and unrealized gains and losses attributable to Special Investments and initial public offering investments that are not allocated to all investors in the feeder funds. Investors that were not allocated Special Investments and/or initial public offering investments may experience materially different returns. The performance calculation for the OZ Master Fund excludes realized and unrealized gains and losses attributable to currency hedging specific to certain investors investing in OZ Master Fund in currencies other than the U.S. Dollar. Estimated Unaudited Assets Under Management In addition, the Company is disclosing to investors in the funds that it manages that, as of January 1, 2017 , the estimated unaudited amount of assets under management was approximately $33.5 billion , which reflects a net decrease of approximately $3.6 billion since December 1, 2016 . The Companys estimate of assets under management is inclusive of performance for the month ended December 31, 2016 and capital flows from December 2, 2016 through January 1, 2017 . Assets under management includes assets attributable to the Companys multi-strategy, opportunistic credit, real estate and equity funds, Institutional Credit Strategies products, and other alternative investment vehicles it manages. Management fees and incentive income earned on assets under management may vary depending on the asset class, commitment period, amount of capital committed by investors, and other factors related to a particular fund. The information in this report is being furnished, not filed, for purposes of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, pursuant to Item 7.01 of Form 8-K and will not be incorporated by reference into any filing under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, unless specifically identified therein as being incorporated therein by reference. Forward-Looking Statements The information contained in this Current Report on Form 8-K may contain 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 reflect the Companys current views with respect to, among other things, future events and financial performance. The Company generally identifies forward-looking statements by terminology such as outlook, believe, expect, potential, continue, may, will, should, could, seek, approximately, predict, intend, plan, estimate, anticipate, opportunity, comfortable, assume, remain, maintain, sustain, achieve, see, think, position or the negative version of those words or other comparable words. Any forward-looking statements contained in this Current Report on Form 8-K are based upon historical information and on the Companys current plans, estimates and expectations. The inclusion of this or other forward-looking information should not be regarded as a representation by the Company or any other person that the future plans, estimates or expectations contemplated by the Company will be achieved. The Company cautions that forward-looking statements are subject to numerous assumptions, estimates, risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to the following: global economic, business, market and geopolitical conditions; U.S. and foreign regulatory developments relating to, among other things, financial institutions and markets, government oversight, fiscal and tax policy; the outcome of third-party litigation involving the Company; the consequences of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act settlements with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the U.S. Department of Justice; conditions impacting the alternative asset management industry; the Company's ability to retain existing investor capital; the Companys ability to successfully compete for fund investors, assets, professional talent and investment opportunities; the Companys ability to retain its active executive managing directors, managing directors and other investment professionals; the Companys successful formulation and execution of its business and growth strategies; the Companys ability to appropriately manage conflicts of interest and tax and other regulatory factors relevant to the Companys business; and assumptions relating to the Companys operations, investment performance, financial results, financial condition, business prospects, growth strategy and liquidity. If one or more of these or other risks or uncertainties materialize, or if the Companys assumptions or estimates prove to be incorrect, the Companys actual results may vary materially from those indicated in these statements. These factors are not and should not be construed as exhaustive and should be read in conjunction with the other cautionary statements and risks that are included in the Companys filings with the SEC, including but not limited to the Companys Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015 , dated February 11, 2016 . There may be additional risks, uncertainties and factors that the Company does not currently view as material or that are not known. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement, because of new information, future developments or otherwise. This Current Report on Form 8-K does not constitute an offer of any Och-Ziff fund. SIGNATURES Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, the Registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned thereunto duly authorized. OCH-ZIFF CAPITAL MANAGEMENT GROUP LLC (Registrant) By: /s/ Alesia J. Haas Alesia J. Haas Chief Financial Officer and Executive Managing Director January 4, 2017 UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION Washington, D.C. 20549 SCHEDULE 14C INFORMATION Information Statement Pursuant to Section 14 (c) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 Check the appropriate box: X . Preliminary Information Statement . Definitive Information Statement . Confidential, for Use of the Commission Only (as permitted by Rule 14c-5 (d)(2)) CUBESCAPE, INC. (Name of Registrant as Specified in Its Charter) Payment of Filing Fee (Check the appropriate box): X . No fee required. . Fee computed on table below per Exchange Act Rules 14c-5(g) and 0-11. 1) Title of each class of securities to which transaction applies: 2) Aggregate number of securities to which transaction applies: 3) Per unit price or other underlying value of transaction computed pursuant to Exchange Act Rule 0-11 (set forth the amount on which the filing fee is calculated and state how it was determined): 4) Proposed maximum aggregate value of transaction: 5) Total fee paid: . Fee paid previously with preliminary materials. . Check box if any part of the fee is offset as provided by Exchange Act Rule 0-11(a)(2) and identify the filing for which the offsetting fee was paid previously. Identify the previous filing by registration statement number, or the Form or Schedule and the date of its filing. 1) Amount Previously Paid: 2) Form, Schedule or Registration Statement No: 3) Filing Party: 4) Date Filed: CUBESCAPE, INC. 1026 16TH AVENUE SOUTH NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE 37212 (913) 940-9919 NOTICE OF ACTION BY WRITTEN CONSENT OF MAJORITY SHAREHOLDERS (AMENDMENT NUMBER 1) WE ARE NOT ASKING YOU FOR A PROXY AND YOU ARE REQUESTED NOT TO SEND US A PROXY THIS IS NOT A NOTICE OF A MEETING OF STOCKHOLDERS AND NO STOCKHOLDERS MEETING WILL BE HELD TO CONSIDER ANY MATTER DESCRIBED HEREIN. To the Holders of Common Stock of CubeScape, Inc.: The accompanying Information Statement is being furnished to the holders of shares of the common stock of CubeScape, Inc. (the "Company"), a Nevada corporation. The Board of Directors of the Company (the "Board") is not soliciting your proxy and you are requested not to send us a proxy. The purpose of this Information Statement is to notify you of actions already approved by written consent of a majority of the voting shareholders (the Majority Shareholders) and the Board: 1. To approve an amendment to the Articles of Incorporation of the Company to change the name of the Company to American Rebel Holdings, Inc. (the Name Change). 2. To approve the formation of two wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Company, both Nevada corporations (the Subsidiaries Plan). 3. To approve and execute a stock purchase and reorganization agreement with American Rebel, Inc., the Companys majority shareholder. The Company shall issue 14,621,000 shares of its common stock and American Rebel, Inc., a Nevada corporation (American Rebel), shall be acquired by the Company and American Rebels business operations shall become the Companys business operations, and American Rebel shall become the accounting acquirer for all reporting purposes (the Stock Purchase and Reorganization). In connection with the Stock Purchase and Reorganization, the Company shall cause to cancel or return to treasury 9,000,000 shares of its Common Stock. The Name Change has been approved by the Board and the shareholders of action by written consent (the Written Consent) as of November 22, 2016 (the Record Date) by the majority shareholder holding 60% of the voting rights of the outstanding shares of our common stock, par value $0.001 per share (the Common Stock). In accordance with Rule 14c-2 promulgated under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, the Name Change will become effective no sooner than 20 days after we mail this notice and the accompanying Information Statement to our stockholders; The Subsidiaries Plan has been approved by the Board and the shareholders of action by Written Consent as of the Record Date by the majority stockholder holding 60% of the voting rights of the outstanding shares of our Common Stock. In accordance with Rule 14c-2 promulgated under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the (Exchange Act), the Subsidiaries Plan will become effective no sooner than 20 days after we mail this notice and the accompanying Information Statement to our stockholders; The Stock Purchase and Reorganization has been approved by the Board and the shareholders of action by Written Consent as of the Record Date by the majority shareholder holding 60% of the voting rights of the outstanding shares of our Common Stock. In accordance with Rule 14c-2 promulgated under the Exchange Act, the Stock Purchase and Reorganization will become effective no sooner than 20 days after we mail this notice and the accompanying Information Statement to our stockholders, The written consent that we received constitutes the only shareholder approval required for the actions under Nevada law and, as a result, no further action by any other stockholder is required to approve the actions and we have not and will not be soliciting your approval of the Name Change, the Subsidiaries, or the Stock Purchase and Reorganization. This notice and the accompanying Information Statement was mailed to our stockholders on or about November 30, 2016 . 1 This Information Statement is being provided to you pursuant to Rule 14c-2 under the Exchange Act. It contains a description of the Name Change, as well as summary information regarding the transactions covered by the Information Statement. We encourage you to read the Information Statement thoroughly. You may also obtain information about us from publicly available documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC). We may provide only one copy of the Information Statement to shareholders who share an address, unless we have received instructions otherwise. If you share an address, your household has received only one copy of this Information Statement and you wish to receive another copy, please contact our corporate secretary at the address or telephone number above. If you have received multiple copies and only wish to receive one copy of our SEC materials, you also may contact us at the address and phone number above. By Order of the Board of Directors, /s/ Charles A. Ross, Jr. Charles A. Ross, Jr. President, Chief Executive Officer, Secretary and Treasurer November 23, 2016 (amended January 5, 2017) 2 CUBESCAPE, INC. 1026 16TH AVENUE SOUTH NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE 37212 (913) 940-9919 ____________________________________________ INFORMATION STATEMENT November 23, 2016 (amended January 5, 2017) Action by Written Consent of Majority Shareholders ____________________________________________ WE ARE NOT ASKING YOU FOR A PROXY AND YOU ARE REQUESTED NOT TO SEND US A PROXY GENERAL INFORMATION This Information Statement has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and is being furnished, pursuant to Section 14C of the Exchange Act, to the shareholders (the Shareholders) of the Common Stock, of CubeScape, Inc., a Nevada corporation (the Company or CubeScape), to notify such Shareholders that on November 22, 2016, the Board of Directors of the Company and shareholder holding a majority of the voting rights of the outstanding shares of our common stock (the Majority Shareholder), par value $0.001 per share (the Common Stock), approved and authorized the Company to file an amendment to the Articles of Incorporation of the Company to change the name of the Company to American Rebel Holdings, Inc. (the Name Change), the formation and incorporation of two wholly-owned subsidiaries as approved and authorized by the Board (the Subsidiaries Plan), and the approval of a stock purchase and reorganization agreement with American Rebel, Inc., the Companys majority shareholder. The Company shall issue 14,621,000 shares of Common Stock, and American Rebel, Inc., a Nevada corporation (American Rebel), shall be acquired by the Company and its business operations shall become the Companys business operations, and American Rebel shall become the accounting acquirer for all reporting purposes (the Stock Purchase and Reorganization). In connection with the Stock Purchase and Reorganization the Company shall cause to cancel or return to treasury 9,000,000 shares of its Common Stock. These actions were approved by Mr. Charles A. Ross, Jr., the sole member of our Board of Directors and holder of approximately 60% of the outstanding voting capital stock of the Company. We, us, our, the Registrant and the Company refers to CubeScape, Inc., a Nevada corporation. THE AMENDMENTS AND OTHER ACTIONS HAVE NOT BEEN APPROVED OR DISAPPROVED BY THE SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION, NOR HAS THE SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION PASSED UPON THE FAIRNESS OR MERIT OF THE AMENDMENTS, OR THE OTHER ACTIONS NOR UPON THE ACCURACY OR ADEQUACY OF THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS INFORMATION STATEMENT ANY REPRESENTATION TO THE CONTRARY IS UNLAWFUL. PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS NEITHER A REQUEST FOR YOUR VOTE NOR A PROXY STATEMENT, BUT RATHER AN INFORMATION STATEMENT DESIGNED TO INFORM YOU OF THE CHANGES THAT WILL OCCUR IF THE AMENDMENTS ARE COMPLETED AND TO PROVIDE YOU WITH INFORMATION ABOUT THE AMENDMENTS, THE OTHER ACTIONS AND THE BACKGROUND OF THESE TRANSACTIONS. This Information Statement has been prepared by our management. The entire cost of furnishing this Information Statement will be borne by the Company. We will request brokerage houses, nominees, custodians, fiduciaries and other like parties to forward this Information Statement to the beneficial owners of our voting securities held of record by them and we will reimburse such persons for out-of-pocket expenses incurred in forwarding such material. The Name Change will not become effective until at least 20 calendar days following the date of mailing of this Information Statement to our shareholders. SUMMARY INFORMATION IN QUESTION AND ANSWER FORMAT The following information in question and answer format summarizes many of the material terms of the Companys proposed Name Change. For a complete description of the terms and conditions of the Name Change, you are advised to carefully read this entire Information Statement and the other documents referred to herein. Why did I receive this Information Statement? Applicable laws require us to provide you information regarding the Actions even though your vote is neither required nor requested for the Actions to become effective. Why am I not being asked to vote on the Name Change? The holder of a majority of the issued and outstanding shares of Common Stock has already approved the Name Change pursuant to a written consent in lieu of a meeting. Such approval, together with the approval of the Companys Board of Directors, is sufficient under Nevada law, and no further approval by our shareholders is required. What Vote Is Required To Approve The Name Change? Approval of the Name Change requires the affirmative vote of the holders of not less than a majority of the votes entitled to be cast by holders of record of the 15,000,000 issued and outstanding shares of common stock as of November 22, 2016. Who Voted in Favor Of The Shareholder Action? The Shareholder owning an aggregate of 9,000,000 shares of our Common Stock, representing approximately 60% of the Common Stock. Such shareholder shall be referred to as the Majority Shareholders. What Rights Do Shareholders Have To Dissent From The Shareholder Action? Company shareholders do not have dissenters rights or the right to seek the appraisal of their shares under Nevada law. What do I need to do now? Nothing. This information statement is purely for your information and does not require or request you to do anything. FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS This Information Statement contains or incorporates both historical and 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). Words such as anticipates, believes, expects, intends, future and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. Any such forward-looking statements in this report reflect our and Six Dimensions current views with respect to future events and financial performance and are subject to a variety of factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from historical results or from anticipated results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. There may be events in the future that cannot be accurately predicted or over which the Company has no control. Shareholders should be aware that the occurrence of the events described in this Information Statement or in the documents incorporated herein by reference could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition or ability to consummate the transaction. The forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, events or circumstances, and actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements herein or in documents incorporated herein by reference speak only as of the date of this Information Statement or the applicable document incorporated herein by reference (or such earlier date as may be specified therein), as applicable, are based on current assumptions and expectations or assumptions and expectations as of the date of the document incorporated herein by reference, and are subject to the factors above, among other things, and involve risks, events, circumstances, uncertainties and assumptions, many of which are beyond our ability to control or predict. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. We do not intend to, and do not undertake an obligation to, update these forward-looking statements in the future to reflect future events or circumstances, except as required by applicable securities laws and regulations. The results presented for any period may not be reflective of results for any subsequent period. You should carefully read and consider the cautionary statements contained or referred to in this section in connection with any subsequent written or oral forward-looking statements that may be issued by us or persons acting on our behalf, and all future written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to us or any other matters, are expressly qualified in their entirety by the foregoing cautionary statements. ACTION TO BE TAKEN This Information Statement contains a brief summary of the material aspects of the actions approved by the Board and the Majority Shareholders. In accordance with Section 78.315 and 78.320 of the Nevada Revised Statutes, the following actions were taken based upon the recommendation and approval by the Companys Board of Directors and the written consent of the Companys shareholders. AMENDMENT TO THE CERTIFICATE OF AMENDMENT OF THE ARTICLES OF INCORPORATION On November 22, 2016, our Board of Directors adopted a resolution declaring it advisable to amend our Articles of Incorporation to effect the Name Change. Our Board of Directors further directed that the Certificate of Amendment of the Articles of Incorporation be submitted for consideration by our shareholders. By written consent, dated as of November 22, 2016, the Board of Directors and the shareholders approved and adopted resolutions to amend the Companys Articles of Incorporation to reflect the Name Change. Reason for the Name Change The Company plans to change its name to better suit the change in business and focus. Management of the Company plans to enter the concealed carry market due to growing demand for backpacks, briefcases, computer bags, purses, handbags, jackets and other items that allow the consumer to conceal their weapons, stay armed and safe. SECURITY OWNERSHIP OF CERTAIN BENEFICIAL OWNERS AND MANAGEMENT The following table sets forth information regarding the beneficial ownership of shares of our common stock as of the Record Date by: Each of our directors; Each of our named executive officers; All of our directors and executive officers as a group; and Each person known by us to beneficially own more than 5% of our outstanding common stock. Beneficial ownership is determined in accordance with the rules and regulations of the SEC and includes voting and investment power with respect to the securities. In computing the number of shares beneficially owned by a person and the percentage ownership of that person, shares of common stock subject to options or warrants held by that person that are currently exercisable or exercisable within 60 days of this Report are deemed outstanding. Such shares, however, are not deemed outstanding for purposes of computing the percentage ownership of any other person. To our knowledge, except as indicated in the footnotes to this table and subject to community property laws where applicable, the persons named in the table have sole voting and investment power with respect to all shares of our common stock shown opposite such persons name. The percentage of beneficial ownership is based on 15,000,000 shares of our common stock outstanding as of November 22, 2016, unless as noted below. Name and Address of Beneficial Owner(1) Amount and Nature of Beneficial Ownership Percentage of Common Stock Outstanding Charles A. Ross, Jr.(2) 9,000,000 60.00 % Directors and executive officers as a group (1 Person) 9,000,000 60.00 % ABA Rebels, LLC (3) 9274 Kingston Pike, Suite 406, Knoxville, Tennessee 37922 4,075,274 25.16 % Robert K. Green (4) 846,221 5.64 % Albert Dacre (5) 823,220 5.49 % Douglas Grau (6) 923,329 6.16 % (1) Unless otherwise noted above, the address of the persons and entities listed in the table is c/o CubeScape, Inc., 1026 16th Avenue South, Nashville, Tennessee 37212. (2) Chairman, President, Chief Executive Officer and Director. 9,000,000 shares of common stock are owned through American Rebel, Inc. for which Mr. Charles A. Ross, Jr. is an officer and director. Mr. Ross may be deemed to be a control person of the shares owned by such entity. Mr. Ross claims beneficial ownership of these shares as of this date. Of the amount listed above 3,385,541 shares of common stock are beneficially owned through American Rebel, Inc. for which Mr. Ross is a greater than 10% shareholder. Mr. Ross disclaims beneficial ownership of these shares as American Rebel, Inc. does not intend to distribute such shares and intends to cancel such shares upon completion of the Stock Purchase and Reorganization (3) 1,000,274 shares of common stock are owned through American Rebel, Inc. for which ABA Rebels, LLC (ABA) is a greater than 10% shareholder. ABA owns 1,875,000 shares of common stock that it purchased through a private transaction on June 9, 2016 with several former shareholders of the Company. ABA beneficially owns 1,200,000 shares of common stock pursuant to a convertible note entered into on September 16, 2016, see Current Report filed on Form 8-K, dated September 16, 2016. ABA in addition to the convertible note was issued a warrant to purchase 600,000 shares at $1.00 per share. The Company does not consider the underlying shares or exercise of such warrants to be imminent. ABA disclaims beneficial ownership of the 1,000,274 shares of our common stock as American Rebel, Inc. does not intend to distribute such shares and intends to cancel such shares upon completion of the Stock Purchase and Reorganization. William D. King, managing member of ABA may be deemed to be a control person of the shares owned by such entity. Mr. King disclaims beneficial ownership of these shares. (4) 246,221 shares of common stock are owned through American Rebel, Inc. for which Robert K. Green is a less than 5% shareholder. Mr. Green owns 600,000 shares of common stock that he purchased through a private transaction on June 9, 2016 with several former shareholders of the Company. Mr. Green disclaims beneficial ownership of the 246,221 shares of our common stock as American Rebel, Inc. does not intend to distribute such shares and intends to cancel such shares upon completion of the Stock Purchase and Reorganization. (5) 523,220 shares of common stock are owned through American Rebel, Inc. for which Albert J. Dacre is a less than 5% shareholder. Mr. Dacre owns 300,000 shares of common stock that he purchased through a private transaction on June 9, 2016 with several former shareholders of the Company. Mr. Dacre disclaims beneficial ownership of the 523,220 shares of our common stock as American Rebel, Inc. does not intend to distribute such shares and intends to cancel such shares upon completion of the Stock Purchase and Reorganization (6) 923,329 shares of common stock are beneficially owned through American Rebel, Inc. which Douglas Grau is a greater than 10% shareholder. Mr. Grau disclaims beneficial ownership of these shares as American Rebel, Inc. does not intend to distribute such shares and intends to cancel such shares upon completion of the Stock Purchase and Reorganization. DELIVERY OF DOCUMENTS TO SECURITY HOLDERS SHARING AN ADDRESS Regulations regarding the delivery of copies of proxy materials, information statements and annual reports to stockholders permit us, banks, brokerage firms and other nominees to send one annual report, proxy statement or information statement to multiple Shareholders who share the same address under certain circumstances, unless contrary instructions are received from Shareholders. This practice is known as householding. Shareholders who hold their shares through a bank, broker or other nominee may have consented to reducing the number of copies of materials delivered to their address. If, at any time, a Shareholder no longer wishes to participate in householding and would prefer to receive a single copy of annual reports, proxy statements, or information statements or to revoke a householding consent previously provided to a bank, broker or other nominee, the Shareholder must (1) notify its bank, broker or other nominee, as applicable, to revoke such consent or (2) direct its written or oral request to: Attention: Mr. Charles A. Ross, Jr., CubeScape, Inc., 1026 16th Avenue South, Nashville, Tennessee 37212. Upon written or oral request, we will deliver promptly a separate copy of the annual report, proxy statement, or information statement, as applicable, to any Shareholder at a shared address to which a single copy of any of these documents was delivered. Two or more Shareholders sharing an address can request delivery of a single copy of proxy statements, annual reports, or information statements, if they are receiving multiple copies by contacting the Company in the manner set forth above. DISSENTERS RIGHTS OF APPRAISAL The Shareholders have no right under Nevada law, the Companys and Restated Certificate of Incorporation consistent with above, or the Bylaws of the Company to dissent from any of the provisions adopted in the amendments. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION The Company is subject to the informational requirements of the Exchange Act and in accordance therewith files reports, proxy statements and other information including annual and quarterly reports on Form 10-K and 10-Q (the Exchange Act Filings) with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the Commission). Reports and other information filed by the Company can be inspected and copied at the public reference facilities maintained at the Commission at Room 1024, 450 Fifth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20549. Copies of such material can be obtained upon written request addressed to the Commission, Public Reference Section, 450 Fifth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20549, at prescribed rates. The Commission maintains a web site on the Internet (http://www.sec.gov) that contains reports, proxy and information statements and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the Commission through the Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval System (EDGAR). By Order of the Board of Directors Date: November 23, 2016 (amended January 5, 2017) By: /s/ Charles A. Ross, Jr. Charles A. Ross, Jr. CONCLUSION As a matter of regulatory compliance, we are sending you this Information Statement which describes the Actions and its effect on the Company. Your consent to the Action is not required and not being solicited in connection with the Action. The Information Statement is intended to provide our shareholders with information required by the rules and regulations of the Exchange Act. Exhibits Description Exhibit A* Stock Purchase and Reorganization Agreement by and between CubeScape, Inc., and American Rebels, Inc. and each of the Individuals and Entities Executing Signature Pages Attached Thereto Exhibit B Beneficial Ownership table of CubeScape, Inc, post-acquisition of American Rebel, Inc. * - originally filed with Schedule 14C preliminary information statement, dated November 23, 2016 By Order of the Board of Directors Date: November 23, 2016 (amended January 5, 2017) By: /s/ Charles A. Ross, Jr. Charles A. Ross, Jr. EXHIBIT B BENEFICIAL OWNERSHIP TABLE OF CUBESCAPE, INC, POST-ACQUISITION OF AMERICAN REBEL, INC. BUYERS: Number of CSCP shares to be issued Number of CSCP shares owned before acquisition (**) Number of CSCP shares to be cancelled (**) Number of CSCP shares owned post-acquisition Charles A. Ross, Jr. (Chairman) 5,500,000 37.62% 5,500,000 26.67% Douglas Grau 1,500,000 10.26% 1,500,000 7.27% Robert Lucas 1,000,000 6.84% 1,000,000 4.85% ABA Rebels, LLC 1,625,000 11.11% 1,875,000 12.50% 3,500,000 16.97% Albert Dacre 850,000 5.81% 300,000 2.00% 1,150,000 5.58% Brian Tansey 750,000 5.13% 200,000 1.33% 950,000 4.61% Steven Cochennet 500,000 3.42% 500,000 2.42% Corey Lambrecht 500,000 3.42% 500,000 2.42% Robert Green 400,000 2.74% 600,000 4.00% 1,000,000 4.85% Roger Mason 300,000 2.05% 150,000 1.00% 450,000 2.18% Phillip Holcomb 300,000 2.05% 150,000 1.00% 450,000 2.18% Kelly Smith 200,000 1.37% 200,000 0.97% Elizabeth Nelson IRA 190,000 1.30% 190,000 1.27% 380,000 1.84% William Boehlke IRA 150,000 1.03% 150,000 0.73% Troy Lorenz 134,000 0.92% 134,000 0.65% Harvey Burstein 200,000 1.37% 300,000 2.00% 500,000 2.42% James Miller 132,000 0.90% 96,000 0.64% 228,000 1.11% Troy Lorenz IRA 80,000 0.55% 80,000 0.39% David Gonyea 60,000 0.41% 60,000 0.29% Ronda Dumvoich 50,000 0.34% 50,000 0.24% Gary Padjen 50,000 0.34% 250,000 1.67% 300,000 1.45% David Slavens 50,000 0.34% 50,000 0.24% R. Eric Hughes 50,000 0.34% 50,000 0.24% Jason Cohorst Revocable Trust 50,000 0.34% 50,000 0.24% American Rebel, Inc. 9,000,000 60.00% (9,000,000) 100.00% - 0.00% CubeScape S-1 investor 400,000 2.67% 400,000 1.94% CubeScape S-1 investor 375,000 2.50% 375,000 1.82% CubeScape S-1 investor 75,000 0.50% 75,000 0.36% CubeScape S-1 investor 50,000 0.33% 50,000 0.24% CubeScape S-1 investor 700,000 4.67% 700,000 3.39% CubeScape S-1 investor 289,000 1.93% 289,000 1.40% 14,621,000 100.00% 15,000,000 100.00% (9,000,000) 100.00% 20,621,000 100.00% ** - assumes the cancellation or return to treasury of 9,000,000 shares currently held by American Rebel, Inc. the corporation. Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Imran Khan has said on Thursday that it would be proved on Friday that Maryam Nawaz, daughter of Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif is the beneficiary of Mayfair flats in London. Khan addressed the media in Bani Gala and said that PTIs legal team would conclude its stance in the Supreme Court (SC) by Monday then would hear out Pakistan Muslim League-Nawazs (PML-N) replies. He said that PTI would accept whatever verdict of the top court would be in Panama Leaks case. He said that opposition is not supposed to provide evidence but identify the violations of the law in a democratic setting. He alleged that the only responsibility government was shouldering for the last eight months was to hide corruption of the premier. He said that motu gang was lying to the entire public. Khan alleged that the premier shifted the money earned through corrupt means to foreign accounts and declared his children the owner of the funds. Offshore companies were established to cover familys corruption. Imran Khan said that he would advise Qatari prince to not present before the top court if he wishes to avoid incarceration. Chairman of PTI said that he welcomes SCs decision of daily hearings of Panama Leaks case. A new report says 2016 saw the highest number of Palestinian children killed by Israeli troops over the past decade, warning that Tel Aviv is not being held accountable for its lethal attacks. The report by Defense for Children International (DCI), a Geneva-based NGO focusing on children's rights, noted that 35 children were killed and 83 others injured by Israeli troops in 2016. It warned that Israeli forces are not being held accountable for using firearms against the Palestinian protesters and stone-throwers. Thirty-two of them were killed in the occupied West Bank, out of whom 19 children were between the ages of 16 and 17 and 13 others were between 13 and 15 years old, the report said. We can say Israeli soldiers are encouraged to use lethal force against children in the absence of any kind of accountability. They do not observe the laws protecting civilians under occupation, Ayed Abu Eqtaish, a DCI director, told Press TV correspondent in Ramallah. We have evidence where there was no reason to kill those children. They did not pose any kind of threat. In many cases, soldiers fired so many bullets at the slain children to make sure they were dead, he added. Helmi al-Arja, from the Hurryat Center for Defense of Civil Rights, told Press TV that Israeli forces are confident they will not be tried for their crimes. Trials will only be the mock ones, because the victims are Palestinians, he added. Unrest has flared up in the West Bank since 2015 when Israel imposed restrictions on the entry of Palestinian worshipers into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East Jerusalem al-Quds as part of Tel Avivs perceived moves to change the status quo on the Muslim holy site Haram al-Sharif (the Temple Mount). Since October 2015, Israeli forces have killed at least 244 Palestinians, including unarmed protesters. On Monday, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that since October 2015 they had documented over 150 cases in which Israeli forces had fatally shot Palestinian children and adults. Video footage and/or witness accounts raise serious questions about the necessity of the use of lethal force, it said. The HRW also warned that some Israeli officials have been encouraging forces to kill Palestinians even when they do not constitute a threat. In 2016, the Middle East Eye online news portal reported that Israeli forces were using a "shoot-to-cripple" policy against the youths in the West Bank. According to a report by the BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian residency and refugee rights, 18 youths aged between 14 and 27 were shot in their legs during raids on the Dheisha refugee camp in the West Bank in 2016. Palestinians participating in protests in the West Bank cited an Israeli commander, nicknamed "Captain Nidal, as telling them he would cripple half of you and let the other half push your wheelchairs. Water testing on a stream in Putaruru has not yet identified a likely cause for the recent deaths of hundreds of koura (freshwater crayfish). Waikato Regional Councils incident response team first attended the Oraka Stream after a local fisherman reported seeing the dead koura during a visit to the stream on December 20. Council staff returned to the stream for five consecutive days to gather water samples and carry out an extensive search of the area, as well as to speak with a number of upstream businesses as part of their inquiries, says incident response team leader Derek Hartley. It appears a single acute event has killed the koura. However, the good news is that other aquatic life has been seemingly unaffected by it. The results of testing on water samples collected over five days last week have been analysed by our scientists, and theres nothing that clearly identifies a likely cause of the deaths. While its good news that theres been no further deaths of koura reported, Derek says the regional council will continuing to eliminate potential causes as part of its ongoing investigation. Derek encourages anyone with information on the possible cause of the koura deaths to contact the Waikato Regional Council on 0800 800 401. An eight-year-old motorcycle rider suffered serious injuries after he collided with a car in the Coromandel on Wednesday. Auckland Westpac Rescue Helicopter Trust communications advisor Kerrie Spicer says the Whitianga chopper crew were dispatched to Colville shortly after 5.15pm. He was riding a child-sized motorbike on a farm road and went around a corner, colliding with an SUV travelling at about 40km/h. On crew arrival, fire and ambulance personnel were in attendance. The boy was subsequently flown to Aucklands Starship Childrens Hospital in a serious condition. Prime Minister Bill English will travel to Brussels, London and Berlin next week to meet with leaders to discuss issues including trade and security. This is an opportunity to exchange views on a range of issues facing Europe and the world, and to reaffirm that New Zealand remains a committed friend and partner, Mr English says. The focus of my trip will be to advance New Zealand business and trade opportunities in the region, including starting the negotiations on an FTA with the European Union this year. In Brussels, Mr English will meet with the three Presidents of the EU European Council President Donald Tusk, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and European Parliament President Martin Schulz. He will also meet with Belgiums Prime Minister Charles Michel. In London, Mr English will meet with Prime Minister Theresa May and Mayor Sadiq Khan. I will be interested to hear Prime Minister Mays views on Brexit and will take the opportunity to reaffirm New Zealands commitment to working towards a high quality trade deal when the UK is in a position to negotiate. In Berlin, Mr English will meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble. Mr English will also meet with a range of other government, business and academic leaders to hear their views on the political, economic and security situation in the region and about opportunities for New Zealand there. The Prime Minister will be accompanied by Trade Minister Todd McClay in Brussels and Foreign Minister Murray McCully in London and Berlin. Dr Mary English will also travel with the Prime Minister. Mr English will leave New Zealand on 9 January and return on 18 January. SOURCE: Office of Bill English Police have now completed the physical search for missing father and daughter Alan and Que Langdon who disappeared over a fortnight ago. Langdon, 49, and his six-year-old daughter have not been heard from by family or friends since they left Kawhia Harbour in the Waikato on board a white catamaran on December 17. The boat they are believed to be on is a 6.1 meter Wharram design catamaran, painted white, with white sails and the number T878 in black on the sail. Langdon is an experienced and capable skipper and his daughter has had experience on boats also. It was believed the pair intended to sail to the Bay of Island from Kawhia, but Police say its unknown which direction they went after leaving the harbour. Its also been suggested the catamaran was stocked for a voyage. There have been a number of unconfirmed sightings of similar vessels in the upper North Island area, but none of any significance since the New Year. This search has covered a wide area of the New Zealand coastline as a consequence of Mr Langdon not giving anybody any notification of his intentions. Specifically, the search covered the western coastline of the North Island, from Wellington to Cape Reinga and the eastern coastline from Cape Reinga to the Bay of Islands. Interpol have since been notified of the missing boat and its occupants, in the chance that he has sailed to Australia or the Pacific Islands. The enquiry file will be maintained by the Waikato CIB and a response has been planned for any positive sightings or information that comes to hand. It is hoped that Mr Langdon will make contact when he arrives at his destination. The search was managed by the Waikato Police Search and Rescue and the Auckland Police Maritime Unit, with support from the Rescue Co-ordination Centre of New Zealand, Coastguard and the New Zealand Air Force. Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Alan Langdon and his six-year-old daughter Que Langdon is being asked to contact their nearest police station immediately. Information can also be left anonymously via the Crimestoppers 0800 555 111 line. The boat Alan and Que Langdon are believed to be sailing on is a 6.1 meter Wharram design catamaran, painted white, with white sails and the number T878 in black on the sail. File Photo. A ship thats been sitting out in the harbour for more than a week is no cause for concern, says the Port of Tauranga. An Arataki resident contacted SunLive about the vessel called the Messina Strait wondering what it was waiting for. One of the last ships to idle off the coast in such a manner was the Molat, which was denied entry to New Zealand by the Ministry of Primary Industries over concerns surrounding its palm kernel cargo. A spokesperson for the Port of Tauranga says the Messina Strait is a different situation. Its going to dump some containers here at some stage. Theres nothing untoward, just changing its course and going somewhere else. Its containers arent required here just yet, so its just waiting before it starts a different run. They came in before Christmas and changed crew. Its believed the cargo is simply empty containers. As far as we know after this stop theyre off to Singapore to look for more work. If youre planning on heading out on the water this summer please make sure you are wearing a correctly fitted lifejacket at all times. This plea follow in the wake of an incident at Lake Rotoiti near Rotorua where a 48-year-old man dived into the water from his boat and moments later disappeared under the surface on Wednesday. The search for the mans body has now entered its third day, with polices national dive squad scouring the waters of the lake and their search and rescue team searching the shoreline. It is understood the man had been wearing a lifejacket at the time of the incident but it has somehow slipped off him when he hit the water. This very unfortunate incident emphasises the importance of having a properly fitting lifejacket and wearing it when out on the water, says Waikato Regional Council maritime service team leader Richard Barnett. Lifejackets should fit snugly without being too tight. If you cant make your life jacket fit snugly, then its too big. Maritime New Zealands website says crotch straps are also recommended in situations other than very calm water as lifejackets, even when tightly secured, have a tendency to ride up if theres any wave action. Crotch straps are also mandatory for all child-sized lifejackets and in some yacht racing situations. Most drownings in boating accidents involve craft under six metres. Everyone on board boats under six metres should wear a lifejacket, unless the skipper has assessed this is not necessary, due to the low risk at the time. We recommend that non-swimmers and children wear lifejackets at all times. The search for the 48-year-old man who went missing in the water without a lifejacket at Lake Rotoiti, just north of Rotorua, on Wednesday was changed to a recovery operation on Thursday. Photo: Benn Bathgate/Fairfax NZ It is understood the missing man, his partner and primary school-age son had travelled to Rotorua for a family getaway on Wednesday. Speaking to Fairfax, Rotorua Lakes Coastguard president Barry Grouby says the family launched their boat at Otaramarae Road boat ramp on the northern side of the lake, and were heading to the popular lakeside thermal pools on the southern shore which is only accessible by boat. But about halfway across the lake the man somehow ended up in the water. Police were called at 2.10pm and told the mans lifejacket came off when he entered the water and he didnt resurface exactly how this happened is still not clear. I dont think he had one on and I think his partner threw him one, but it got caught in the wind and didnt make it to him, he couldnt get to it, says Barry. A search operation involving Coastguard, the Rotorua Harbourmaster, the Bay Trust rescue helicopter, police and ambulance was activated soon after the man was reported missing, but was suspended for the night shortly before 9pm. Police, Coastguard and the rescue helicopter resumed the operation, which was changed to a recovery operation and involved polices dive squad, on Thursday morning and spent more than eight hours scouring the waters of Lake Rotoiti with no luck. The search continues today. The mans family is currently being supported by other family members, friends, police, Victim Support and local residents. - Additional reporting: stuff.co.nz Flying Scotsman 13:39, 23 OCT 2022 Story Saved You can find this story in My Bookmarks. Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right. Lockheed Martin sign Lockheed Martin plans to hire 100 new employees for its campus at Electronics Park in Salina. The defense contractor has openings for engineers, finance specialists and assembly technicians. (File photo by David Lassman ) Lockheed Martin Corp. will host a job fair today at Destiny USA in Syracuse to recruit up to 100 new employees for its plant at Electronics Park plant in Salina. The defense contractor said the event from 3 to 8 p.m. today is open to college students and experienced professionals seeking jobs in engineering, finance and as assembly technicians. The engineering openings are for software, hardware, systems, mechanical, manufacturing and test engineers. Lockheed Martin declined to disclose the specific salary range for the jobs, but a spokeswoman said the pay will be competitive for the industry. In previous years, the company said its engineering jobs paid from $60,000 to more than $100,000 per year for senior systems engineers. Lockheed hosted a similar job fair last year at Destiny USA, marking a change in direction after years of layoffs and cutbacks that almost led to a shutdown in 2013. The Salina plant's payroll declined from a peak of 2,300 employees in 2011 to between 1,500 and 1,600 employees today. The company is one of the largest private-sector employers in Central New York. The new openings are the result of a mix of attrition, retirements and the success of the business in obtaining new contracts and follow-on work, said Melissa Chadwick, a Lockheed spokeswoman in Washington, D.C. As recently as July, Lockheed decided to lay off 350 employees in the business unit that includes the Salina plant. A total of 69 jobs were cut from Lockheed's Salina and Owego plants as part of the restructuring. A month earlier, 381 employees in the business unit accepted voluntary layoffs, including 41 in Salina. Workers at Lockheed's plant at Electronic Park design and build radars, sonars and other sensors sold to the military, including U.S. allies overseas. Lockheed's career fair will be on the 3rd floor Canyon level at Destiny USA. The company also will have recruiters on hand for openings at its Tioga County plant in Owego, west of Binghamton. Contact Mark Weiner anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 571-970-3751 OSWEGO, N.Y. -- A former Mexico town judge was this week sentenced to state prison for causing a crash in Oswego County that left one man dead. Douglas Horton Douglas B. Horton, 52, of Mexico, was sentenced Tuesday to 2 to 6 years in state prison. He must also pay $8,494.81 in restitution, according to the Oswego County District Attorney's office. Horton pleaded guilty Oct. 5 to first-degree vehicular manslaughter, a felony. On March 26, Horton drove his 2016 Dodge pickup off the road, causing it to flip over multiple times, according to the Oswego County Sheriff's Office. He and his three passengers had been out at 7:15 p.m. near 115 Rowe Rd. when the crash happened. The accident injured three people in the car and left one, Michael Fredette, 51, of Oswego, dead, deputies said. Deputies determined Horton had been driving while intoxicated. Horton served as Mexico's town court justice from 2008 to 2012 before being admonished by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct. The admonishment came after Horton was accused of pushing his girlfriend into a wall in 2010 at a Mexico Fire Department banquet. DeWitt, N.Y. -- New York officials are looking for someone to take over operation of a film production facility near Syracuse that cost state taxpayers $15 million but failed to generate high-tech movie jobs as promised. Empire State Development Corp., the state's economic development agency, is looking for a strategic partner to run the Central New York film hub in DeWitt. State officials are looking for someone to fill the 52,000-square-foot building with filmmakers and production workers, something the state has been unable to do. Only one job has been created out of 350 that were promised. "If we can take the asset and find good strategic partners, I think we'll better position that asset to have positive economic impact locally,'' said Howard Zemsky, president and CEO of Empire State Development. Empire State Development recently took control of the film hub and other facilities in the wake of a corruption probe that touched both Cor Development Co., which built the facility, and SUNY Polytechnic Institute, which owns it. Two Cor executives and the former president of SUNY Poly were indicted in November on federal charges. Among other things, they are accused of colluding on the request for proposals that led to development of the film hub. Now state officials are looking for someone to bring the under-utilized building to life. Empire State Development is ill-suited to operate a movie production facility, Zemsky said. State officials are "in conversations with a number of potential strategic partners, locally and in the film industry,'' who might run the film hub, Zemsky said. He did not provide specifics about potential partners or what would be required of them. SUNY Polytechnic, a state college focused on nanotechnology, is not expected to be involved in the film hub's future, Zemsky said. Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Alain Kaloyeros, former president of SUNY Poly, came to Syracuse in March 2014 to announce plans for the film hub, which they dubbed the Central New York Hub for Emerging Nano Industries. They predicted the facility would create 350 "high-tech" jobs within seven years. Cor Development built the facility at Collamer Crossings Business Park, a 200-acre tract owned by Cor, finishing it in late summer of 2015. The remote suburban location was chosen, Cor officials said at the time, because the site was shovel-ready and the film hub's first "anchor tenant'' was eager to move in and begin work. But the tenant, a four-person production company called The Film House, never established a permanent presence in the building. Neither did any other company. The Film House used the film hub briefly to shoot scenes for one feature film, "American Dresser.'' When the film hub was first announced, state officials had predicted The Film House would shoot five to 10 movies a year in the region. Another production company, Wing & A Prayer Pictures, also shot scenes for one movie at the film hub. Owen Shapiro, a film professor at Syracuse University, said at least two other films and some commercials have been shot at the film hub. Kaloyeros was indicted in November on charges of bid-rigging, including allegations that he conspired to rig a request for proposals so that Cor Development would be selected as SUNY Poly's preferred developer in Central New York. Two Cor executives, Steven Aiello and Joseph Gerardi, also have been charged. Both men have proclaimed their innocence, as has Kaloyeros. They and five others accused in the federal case are awaiting trial. Federal prosecutors did not accuse Cuomo of any wrongdoing. Ryan McMahon, chairman of the Onondaga County Legislature, said he would like to see the CNY film hub put to better use. But he said it's unlikely to create many jobs. "It's a unique resource for us to try to attract different film opportunities,'' McMahon said. "At the same time, I have no expectations that this is going to be a major employment driver.'' Empire State Development Corp. recently awarded a $12 million state grant to build a new Rochester film production hub that will include a state-of-the-art soundstage and other facilities to produce films and interactive games. Unlike the DeWitt facility, however, the new Magic Spell Studios on the campus of Rochester Institute of Technology will be integrated with RIT's existing - and highly regarded - programs in digital gaming, film and animation. Private companies, including Dell, Cisco and Wegmans, are contributing $16.5 million to the facility, which will be owned and operated by RIT. Contact reporter Tim Knauss anytime | email | Twitter | 315-470-3023 A Hollywood couple is reportedly engaged again five years after they met in Syracuse. TMZ reports Emma Roberts was spotted out in Beverly Hills on Wednesday with a diamond ring on that finger, apparently confirming her engagement to Evan Peters. The actors met on the set of "Adult World," filmed in Syracuse in February 2012. The couple played love interests in the quirky indie comedy, which also starred John Cusack and Cloris Leachman. Roberts' character was a Syracuse University graduate who starts working at a porn shop when her career as a poet doesn't take off; Peters played the store manager. Roberts and Peters first got engaged in 2014, but the relationship hit some bumps along the way. The 25-year-old niece of Oscar-winning actress Julia Roberts was arrested for domestic violence in an alleged fight with Peters, 29, at a Canadian hotel in 2013. They split in 2015, but started dating again later that year. The Daily Mail reports they broke up again last May, but started appearing together again in November. The new rock on Roberts' finger, which appears different from the first engagement ring, has sparked rumors he proposed over the holidays. Roberts and Peters have not commented on potential wedding plans, but Peters hinted they were back together by posting two photos of Roberts over the past six weeks. "This girl," he wrote on one Instagram picture. Since "Adult World," both Roberts and Peters have appeared on "American Horror Story." Roberts also starred on "Scream Queens" and "We're the Millers." Peters played Quicksilver in two "X-Men" movies and has a role in Al Pacino's upcoming "Dabka" film. "Adult World" producer Justin Nappi previously said the Central New York winter may have helped foster their relationship. "I don't know if it's the Syracuse weather or what that was keeping them close together," Nappi told syracuse.com. Both young stars later said they had a crush on each other while filming "Adult World," but Peters was "awkward and stupid" while attempting to flirt with Roberts. Peters told Chelsea Handler in 2014 that he especially screwed up when he compared their first kiss, filmed during a party scene at the Gear Factory in Syracuse, to the lips of a 90-year-old actress. "It was good, but it was super awkward and so I felt weird about it," he said. "So I was like, 'That was like kissing Cloris Leachman.' And she was super pissed off." "I don't know if it's the Syracuse weather or what that was keeping them close together," "Adult World" producer Justin Nappi previously said of the relationship that started in Central New York. "Adult World" was released in 2014. The movie is currently streaming on Netflix. Remember Aereo? It was an ill-fated startup that delivered over-the-air broadcast television from a cluster of mini-antennas based in major cities. A 2014 Supreme Court ruling forced the pioneering cloud service out of business after broadcasters complained the technology infringed on their copyright, sending cord-cutters in search of other options. Aereo would have been ideal for me. I live an hour south of Clevelands major networks, far enough away that indoor antennas and portable solutions like TabletTV rarely pull in more than a few second-tier stations. So, I was intrigued when the makers of a new wireless smart antenna offered to take their product for a spin. More coverage Available in black or white, WatchAir is a thin (0.57 inches), stylish-looking HDTV indoor antenna 18.1 inches across and 3.7 inches high that attaches to a vertical base measuring 2.7 inches wide and 7.6 inches tall. Weighing 11.1 ounces, the antenna mounts upright using included screws or 3M VHB tape, or sits flat on a table when connected to an existing external antenna. Epict Available in white or black, WatchAir is an attractive wireless smart antenna that can be placed almost anywhere in the home. WatchAir promises 60-mile, triple-band coverage (high-band VHF, low-band VHF, UHF), requiring only AC power and an available wireless network to stream live programming to a variety of devices. Setup was a snap, thanks to the universal iOS apps GPS-based live installation guide, which shows you exactly where to mount the antenna for best results. To my surprise, WatchAirs channel scan found 49 stations, including local ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX affiliates; channels with weaker signals can be filtered out before scanning. This was the first time Ive ever successfully tuned into all four major networks using an indoor antenna. (Service currently only available in the US.) Epict The WatchAir TV app for iPhone features an attractive, intuitive home screen that filters content based on category or genre. The free, universal WatchAir TV app includes an enhanced schedule guide with synopsis and artwork, as well as a home screen that sorts available content by category or genre; when a data connection isnt available, the app instead uses a barebones text-based schedule, offering a bit of future-proofing should the parent company ever fold. WatchAir features a single ATSC tuner capable of streaming one live broadcast, but a second user can tune in to the same channel or watch previously recorded content at the same time. Set your DVR As a digital video recorder, WatchAir includes 7GB of internal storage, enough for five hours of H.264-encoded video with AAC audio. By inserting a 32GB SDHC card into the base, another 25 hours of recording is possible, but theres also a USB port to plug in a thumb stick or hard drive for even longer DVR capabilities. Picture quality is limited to 720p, so streams were never quite razor-sharp even with a strong signal, but perfectly watchable under the circumstances. I occasionally experienced issues with channels momentarily freezing or breaking up, but nothing significantly worse than what Ive experienced with cable or satellite broadcasts. Although WatchAir is now available to the public, device support remains a work in progress. During this review, the promised Apple TV and Fire TV apps finally launched, each with slick, attractive user interfaces that offer a superior viewing experience than using AirPlay from the iOS app. (Roku and Android TV apps should also be available by the time you read this, with support for smart TVs, PCs, and consoles expected by mid-2017.) Epict Recording TV shows with WatchAir is a snap, but scheduled recording isnt always reliable. While testing WatchAir over a couple months, engineers worked swiftly to squash bugs, but a few remain. I had mixed success scheduling upcoming shows, which occasionally failed to record at all; the ones that did kept recording beyond the end of the show. Theres currently no way to automatically record new episodes of a show, although this feature is in the works; also in the pipeline is Live TV Everywhere, which allows WatchAir owners to stream shows outside their home network. Bottom line There are still a few bugs to be worked out, but WatchAir has the potential to become the most promising product for cord-cutters since Aereo. And since you own the antenna, broadcasters wont be able to shut this one down so easily. Based solely on press photos, I think this aluminum-clad smartphone looks a lot like the Asus ZenFone 3 Max 5.5-inch. According to Asus, the Dual-Optics module allows the user to snap images with interesting depth-of-field or Bokeh effect Here's to hoping that Asus would give ZenFone 3 Zoom a far lower price tag than the first generation Zoom when it was launched in our country in January 2016. Just a few minutes ago, respected Taiwanese tech companyofficially announced a couple of new Android smartphones at, which is currently being held in Las Vegas, Nevada USA.One of the handsets is this: TheAs its name suggests, this model is the follow-up to one of the most gorgeous cameraphones I've ever played with - thefrom 2016.Interestingly though, this fresh iteration looks nothing like its predecessor andThe camera set-up at the back incorporates two 12 MegaPixel optics, one having wide-angle 1/2.5" lens with f/1.7 aperture and Sony's IMX362 sensor. On top of that, both feature 1.4nm pixels, Optical Image Stabilization (OIS), EIS, 4K video capture support, and Tri-Tech autofocus., which I believe is reminiscent of what' portrait camera mode delivers. So while it represented a subtle downgrade strictly in terms of zooming capabilities, it nonetheless brings something new to the table.Measuring just 7.83 millimeters at its thickest point and weighing only 170 grams, Asus ZenFone 3 Zoom is equipped with a 5.5-inch Full HD IPS display protected by Gorilla Glass 5 touchscreen panel, Zen-UI-skinned Android Marshmallow OS, Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor, and a whopping, giving the handset extended uptime and allowing it to work like a powerbank.Official release date and pricing details have yet to be announced. Although, I'm personally expecting to see this model in store shelves across the Philippines within Q1 2017. Asus ZenFone AR is one of the first Android smartphones that support Google's Project Tango and can work with Daydream VR headset , which made its debut at CES 2017 today - January 5 - at around 3AM Manila Time, is the first smartphone in the world to have an incredible(Needless to say, it will take a real power user to make this smartphone stutter or feel laggy. Seriously.)That internal hardware feature alone - I know - would be enough to make many of you fancy this device. But actually, such large amount of RAM paired with handset's beastlyprocessor andmerely make this device'spossible.You see, as its name suggests,Project Tango is Google's Augmented Reality platform that uses computer vision to enable smartphones and other mobile devices, to determine their position relative to those around them without using external signals.Daydream, on the other hand, is a Virtual Reality mode that's integrated into Android 7.0 Nougat OS, allowing the user to view VR apps - like Youtube and Google Street Maps view among others - in a more immersive manner using a supported headset.Going back to specs, Asus ZenFone AR is also equipped with a 5.7-inch Quad HD (515 ppi, 72.59 % screen to body ratio) SuperAMOLED display that's protected by scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass 4 touchscreen, 23 MegaPixel main camera at the back (with Sony IMX318 sensor, OIS, and EIS), 8 MegaPixel front cam for selfies, 4K video recorder, Fingerprint Scanner, Dual SIM Dual Standby capability, 4G LTE Cat11 support, and a 3,300 mAh battery pack, which sadly isn't bigger.In terms of looks, ZenFone AR's face - replete with a 'stretched' circle home button below the display - reminds me of somesmartphones while the design of the camera module at the back - I think - is reminiscent ofYou may be seeing something else when you stare at the press photos.As of writing, Asus hasn't announced the exact release date and pricing details of this exciting new model. Off hand, what we know is that it's arriving sometime in; Hopefully, just in time for back to school season here in the Philippines. Oh, and I reckon this will be the most expensive ZenFone model to date -- so if you're already smitten, be prepared. Away from the avalanche of new products pouring out of CES comes some new rumors regarding the Galaxy S8. In addition to alleged production targets and a release date, we've now seen the first purported photograph of Samsung's upcoming handset. The image from Slashleaks matches the earlier S8 rumors: the physical home button has been removed in favor of a virtual version; it features a dual-edge curved display, and the bezels are noticeably smaller. As with previous renders, the Samsung name has been moved from the top of the phone to the bottom. As with so many leaked product images of this sort, its authenticity is questionable - the absence of the rumored 3D Touch-style software navigation keys really throws the integrity of the picture into doubt. More than likely this is a photoshopped S7 Edge, but it could still bear a close resemblance the real Galaxy S8. More reliable information comes from South Korea's Electronic Times. The publication reports that Samsung has set an initial production target of 10 million S8 handsets. The company is doubtlessly banking on the smartphone selling well enough to help offset some of the $5.1 billion it lost through the Note 7 fiasco. The Electronic Times added that S8 is set to go into production in March and launch sometime in April, possibly the 15th. The S5 and S6 both arrived during this month, but last year's S7 had a March release date. In other Samsung news, the company is expected to release the official report into what caused the Note 7 fires later this month. It'll be interesting to see if the findings match those from Instrumental, whose engineers concluded that packing the battery too tightly inside the case was to blame. Scientists in Germany, Peru, and Taiwan face the prospect of being unable to access online journals owned by Dutch publishing company Elsevier after negotiations for a new contract fell through. Elsevier is considered one of the leading providers of technical, medical and scientific information in the world. Its current lineup of online journals, including Cell, The Lancet, Trends, Current Opinion and ScienceDirect, has become a staple read for researchers looking to advance their work. However, thousands of scientists could lose their access to the company's journals at the start of this year. While efforts to secure a new deal in Germany and Taiwan didn't materialize in December, the Peruvian government simply decided not to fund an Elsevier license anymore. Project DEAL, a consortium of universities and research institutions in Germany, led the negotiations in getting a new subscription deal with Elsevier. The group had accused the Dutch company of trying to exploit its dominant position in the market in asking for a higher price for license fees and threatening organizations of cutting off their access to its services. Horst Hippler, a spokesman for Project DEAL, described the failure to get a new license as "very unpleasant," but that they cannot agree to what Elsevier has proposed to them so far. Rising Costs Of Academic Journals Universities in different countries had already expressed disappointment over the rising costs of Elsevier's journals before, with some even threatening to cancel their subscriptions altogether. Negotiators were eventually able to strike a deal with the company to prevent researchers from losing access. However, this was not the case for research institutions in Germany and Taiwan. Project DEAL was in line to secure a nationwide license agreement with Elsevier for German universities and organizations at the start of 2017. The group had proposed that all articles written by German researchers should be made open access. Hippler said Elsevier's asking price for the license cost too much, and that it didn't include a clause for open access. Despite negotiations between the two camps ending inconclusively in December, there are talks about a possible resumption in January. For Elsevier's part, a company spokesperson reiterated that they have suggestions about the potential of creating open-access publishing in Germany. The company said it is also looking forward to resuming negotiations in 2017. With no license deal in place so far, more than 60 research institutions in Germany remain without any access to Elsevier's journals. They chose not to automatically renew their subscription with the company by the end of 2016 in the hopes of getting a newer one through Project Deal's planned nationwide agreement. Some of these organizations won't have access to research articles published from the beginning of 2017 onward, while others won't have access to Elsevier's archives as well. They can still opt to get new subscriptions individually, but many seem to prefer waiting for the results of the nationwide deal instead. Meanwhile, about 75 percent of universities in Taiwan have staged a boycott against Elsevier. CONCERT, a consortium of Taiwanese universities, told the company that they will not renew their subscriptions because of the high fees. Elsevier has opted to negotiate with universities individually, but many of the country's leading institutions, including Academia Sinica, have decided to uphold their boycott. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Amazon has partnered with third-tier TV brands Seiki, Westinghouse Electronics, and Element Electronics to help these companies come up with their own Amazon Fire TV. All three brands are built by the Chinese company TongFang Global, and are usually available in retail stores such as BestBuy, Target, and Walmart. The 4K Ultra HD Smart TVs produced by these companies will be equipped with a voice remote featuring Amazon's Alexa. Announced at CES 2017, the brand new line aims to simplify the television viewing experience by having a great selection of content in just one place, an easy-to-use on-screen programming guide, and an Alexa voice remote wherein users will be able to use their voice to search for something to watch, play music, control their smart home devices, and so many more. Alexa Makes 4K TV Simple And Easy Sung Choi, VP of Marketing at TongFang Global, says that TV viewing can sometimes be cumbersome and difficult to use. Choi hopes to change this perception with the launch of the Amazon Fire TV Edition in the three brands mentioned. "Our new line of 4K Ultra HD Smart TVs Amazon Fire TV Edition represent an elevated customer experience powered by the highest performance processors in the industry, a unique voice-controlled remote control, and Amazon's cinematic viewing experience," Choi said. And with the help of Alexa, Choi believes that "access to movies, videos, music, gaming, and more is simple, easy, and intuitive." Marc Whitten, VP of Amazon's Fire TV division, agrees with Choi's sentiment. "Teaming up with brands on a new range of smart TVs allows Amazon to deliver an experience that's familiar and easy to use," Whitten said. What To Expect From The Amazon Fire TV In a press release, the company said the Amazon Fire TV will come in four sizes: 43", 50", 55" and 65". All sizes will have the 4K Ultra HD display resolution. The TVs also come with an Alexa remote that can be voice-enabled to control third-party smart home brands such as Belkin WeMo, Philips Hue, Wink, Insteon, Samsung SmartThings, and Nest. Since the company's brand positioning is all about convenience, it will also incorporate the Amazon Fire TV user interface, which boasts an easy TV input setup and access to OTA TV programming. Aside from Alexa, the TVs will also come with 4K video streaming, 3 GB of memory, 16 GB of internal storage, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and Ethernet connectivity. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. A woman battling cancer gave birth to four babies on Dec. 30. After being diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma in January 2016, the women underwent chemotherapy. One month before giving birth, she found out that her cancer had returned. Kayla Gaytan, who is from Tennessee, gave birth at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, on her 30th week of pregnancy. Cancer Patient Gives Birth To Quadruplets The four babies are named Lillian, Victoria, Michael and Charles, and their birth is spectacular because of the mother's health status. After five months of chemotherapy, the woman's cancer has successfully been treated. After finishing her treatment, the woman found out she was pregnant. "It was exciting. It was nerve-wracking. But to see them when they all came out and to hear them crying, that was really exciting," she declared. The news of her pregnancy made her happy. A wife to a soldier and already a mother of two children, Kayla looked forward to giving birth to the four children, especially after the very intense months spent in chemotherapy treatment. But no more than a month before giving birth, Kayla found out that her health status was not as stable as she thought. "You think you've beat it the first time. When it comes back, you're just wondering, why get pregnant with these four babies and then, you know, something like this happens," Kayla noted. The woman wished not to give birth before the end of her 34th week of pregnancy. She thought that if beating cancer was possible, so was carrying her babies for this amount of time. However, neither of these two wishes came true. A Cause Worth Supporting People showed support toward the family's situation on social media, and the news story about the woman's pregnancy got more than 2,300 likes and more than 700 shares from the WKRN-TV post alone. The story became viral immediately, and people wrote different messages in support to this cause. "A Soldier's family in need of support. Will be in contact with Cape Cod Cares for the Troops to see how we can help," noted Mary Ellen McCarthy upon sharing the Facebook post. While the doctors only give Kayla a 50-50 chance at surviving the following five years, her story has impressed people all over the United States, who showed their support in hundreds of comments. "Praying for this family! Battled cancer, been a military wife, and had a child while once stationed at FT Campbell, but certainly not all at once. I can only imagine their joy and concerns all experienced at the same time. May the 101st treat them kindly and may all our prayers be answered for a healthy future for this family. Kayla, you are so right. God has an amazing plan for you, your husband, and your children. Trust and enjoy those babies," noted Lisa Edwards Large in the comment section of the WKRN-TV post. However, among the support messages, there were some with a more practical approach, thinking of the financial situation of the woman's family, given the children and the costs of Kayla's treatment. "If anyone deserves government assistance, it's this family. She should sign herself and all her children up now. This financial income can really make a difference during this difficult time. Many are not aware that they qualify or that it's even offered. Contact ss asap. Prayers that all works out," commented Teresa McKnight Henson. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. NASA has bestowed four more contracts each to SpaceX and Boeing for ferrying astronauts to the International Space Station in 2018. The new crew rotation missions to the private firms will take the number of total missions with SpaceX and Boeing to six each. A statement from NASA said the space taxis will transport up to four astronauts and 220 pounds of critical cargo to the space station. "Awarding these missions now will provide greater stability for the future space station crew rotation schedule, as well as reduce schedule and financial uncertainty for our providers," said Phil McAlister, director of NASA's Commercial Spaceflight Development Division. Flight Schedules The debut flight test of Space X without crews is expected in November, to be followed up by a Crew Dragon capsule test in May 2018. Boeing's CST-100 Starliner test with crew will take off in August 2018. In the crewed missions, a lifeboat capability will be a highlight, allowing the ISS astronauts to return safely to Earth in an emergency. Despite the publicized schedules, the crewed missions to ISS would take off only after the companies get the flight certification nod from NASA. For NASA, the fresh contracts make sense, as the arrangements have to be in place for the transfer of astronauts to ISS as the deal with Russian Space agency may not continue beyond 2018. The United States ended its Space Shuttle program in 2011 and was relying on Russia's Soyuz rockets to ferry ISS crew. For using the services of the Russian spacecraft to ferry astronauts to and from the ISS, the spending by NASA was near $80 million for every seat on the Soyuz rocket. Russia's space agency Roscosmos stated in 2015 that it will not continue the arrangement of sending U.S. astronauts to the ISS after 2018. This has added a new urgency to NASA. It means SpaceX or Boeing has to keep the capsules ready by 2018 to manage the U.S. presence on the space station. NASA inked the space taxi contracts with Boeing and SpaceX in 2014 and offered them two missions each as a starter. Both Space X and Boeing will be launching their space taxi services from Florida's Space Coast. Boeing may operate from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, while SpaceX will opt for the Kennedy Space Center of NASA. ISS Transit Meanwhile, an opportunity is coming up to see the International Space Station passing in front of the sun on Thursday morning at the Denver Metro area. A map of the space station's transit across the sun through Denver has been released by the Denver Astronomical Society. The transit is expected at 11:16 a.m. Thursday. For watching the ISS solar transit, binoculars or telescopes with an eyepiece and solar filter must be used. "The sun is way too bright to look at without safe filters. It can actually cause blindness, either temporary, or in some cases, permanent damage to the eye," said Ron Hranac, president of the Denver Astronomical Society. Since the movement of ISS will be will be faster, it will take only less than a second to pass across the sun. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Those under the age of 18 are prohibited from buying medicines that contain dextromethorphan over the counter in Florida starting this new year. Senate Bill On Dextromethorphan Medication Senate Bill 938 bans manufacturers, retailers and distributors from selling medicines containing dextromethorphan to minors. Customers who look younger than 25 upon checkout are also required to provide identification that would verify their age. Dextromethorphan is a well-known cough suppressant and is found in a number of over-the-counter medications. However, it has been widely reported in recent years that youngsters use the medication as such or in combination with other substances for getting high. The bill on the retail sale of dextromethorphan was the last one signed by Gov. Rick Scott in 2016. Doug Broxson, the former state representative who will assume office shortly as senator, sponsored the bill. Doug Broxson On Dextromethorphan "What we were concentrated on were some of the deaths and the by-products, what some of the kids were doing in reconditioning this in a hypnagogic form," said Broxson, who pushed for the bill after learning about dextromethorphan's adverse effects on youngsters from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Broxson added that the bill is brought into effect in an effort to contain medication abuse among minors, who also try to be creative in using the substance by mixing it up with other ingredients. He noted that a sudden increase in the number of cases related to dextromethorphan misuse was reported in Texas, Florida and California, which demanded the need for the new legislation. Broxson also said that the pressure came from the federal government on this issue. It was decided that the best way to deal with the problem is to put the pressure on people or clerks that handle the medication, noted Broxson. Vendors that sell the medication need to monitor their customers and verify whether they are above 18 years of age. They are advised to ask for IDs if they suspect the customers to be minors. It is better to put the responsibility on the personnel that sell the medicines than put the product behind the counter, added Broxson. Pharmacists On Dextromethorphan Medication Santino Colabianchi, a pharmacist currently with Thrift-T Drugs in Pensacola who has worked for both small pharmacies as well as big chains like CVS and Walgreens, said that when it comes to such medication misuse it could probably be more prevalent in big chains, not in small ones where it's easier to keep an eye on customers coming in. Another pharmacist, Steve Jackson from Jackson-Pace Pharmacy, said that monitoring kids coming to buy medicines in small pharmacies is easy, something that may be hard to do in bigger ones. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. In accordance with a request from Chinese authorities, Apple was forced to take down news apps created by The New York Times from China's App Store late last month. The order by China's government and Apple's compliance shows that the censorship enforced by the Asian country's government on newspapers and websites based in the United States is still in full effect. Apple Pulls Out New York Times From China App Store According to the report by The New York Times, Apple took down both the English and Chinese versions of the publication's app from China's App Store on Dec. 23. The move further limits the means for users in mainland China to read The New York Times without having to resort to special software. Apps by other international publications such as The Wall Street Journal and The Financial Times, however, remain available in China's App Store. News apps by The New York Times remain available in Hong Kong and Taiwan. However, for users to be able to download them, they need to have a credit card with a billing address not within mainland China. The virtual reality and crossword puzzle apps of the company, however, remain available in China. Why Did Apple Take Down The New York Times Apps? "For some time now the New York Times app has not been permitted to display content to most users in China and we have been informed that the app is in violation of local regulations," said Apple in a statement, adding that if the situation would change, then the apps taken down will once again be added to China's App Store. Apple, however, declined to reveal how the government requested the takedown of the apps, when the request was received by Apple, and most importantly, the specific laws that the apps of The New York Times allegedly violated. China's Censorship In Full Effect The ruling Communist Party of China has a tight grip on media within the country and utilizes one of the most sophisticated systems of online censorship in the world, dubbed the Great Firewall of China. Chinese law prevents the release of "harmful information" on the internet, with officials able to take down online content that they see as such without the need to go through legal procedures. There are some readers in China who are still able to read The New York Times, though, through software that bypasses the firewall put up by the government. In July 2015, the publication released a version of its Chinese app that utilized a different way of retrieving articles that was not controlled by the Chinese government. The Chinese-language app should not affect users who have already previously downloaded it, but for readers to receive new content, they would need to use the App Store of another region. A spokeswoman for The New York Times, Eileen Murphy, said that the requested takedown by China's government to remove the publication's apps is a part of the bigger initiative of preventing users in the country from accessing news coverage of China by The New York Times. The New York Times was working on several articles covering China's government before its apps were pulled out, one of which, posted Dec. 29, revealed billions of dollars' worth of hidden subsidies and perks being provided by the government to the biggest iPhone factory in the world. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The $5 billion Gigafactory of Tesla Motors is now online, with mass production of lithium-ion battery cells now started. The move marks a major milestone for the massive factory in Nevada, as Tesla Motors transitions from an electric vehicle manufacturer into a sustainable energy company. Tesla Motors Initiates Battery Cell Production At Gigafactory The start of mass production for lithium-ion battery cells at the Gigafactory was announced through a blog post on the official website of Tesla Motors. The high-performance cylindrical 2170 cell, which was designed and engineered by Tesla Motors in partnership with Panasonic, will be used in the energy storage products of Tesla Motors and the upcoming mass-market electric vehicle, the Model 3. The 2170 cell looks to offer the best possible performance at the lowest cost of production, with an optimal form factor that will allow it to be used in both energy storage products and electric vehicles. The battery cells currently being produced at the Gigafactory will first be utilized for the Powerwall 2 and Powerpack 2 energy storage products of Tesla Motors, with the battery cells to be used for the Model 3 to begin production in the second quarter. The start of mass production at the Gigafactory also launches the battery manufacturing industry in the United States, which is an industry previously dominated by China, South Korea, and Japan. Tesla Motors and Panasonic will be hiring several thousand local employees over 2017, and upon reaching peak production, the Gigafactory will have a workforce of 6,500 people and indirectly create around 20,000 to 30,000 jobs in the surrounding area. The Future of Tesla Motors' Gigafactory According to Tesla Motors, the plan is to have the Gigafactory, described as the biggest factory in the world, producing 35 gigawatt-hours per year of lithium-ion battery cells by 2018. This figure is almost as much as the battery production from the rest of the world combined. The company is also expecting that the Gigafactory will be able to decrease the per-kilowatt-hour cost of its battery packs by over 30 percent by the end of this year. However, even as the mass production of battery cells has started at the Gigafactory, less than 30 percent of the facility's structure has actually been completed. The Gigafactory is being built in phases so that Tesla Motors, along with partners such as Panasonic, could start manufacturing immediately within finished sections while waiting for the facility to be completed. How long that will take, however, is not yet clear. A recently taken drone footage on the Gigafactory's construction reveals that the facility is expanding, but a significant portion is still incomplete. The Gigafactory And The Model 3 If it seems that Tesla Motors is rushing the launch of battery production at the Gigafactory, it might have something to do with the fact that the company has already received about 400,000 pre-orders for the Model 3. Priced at $35,000, the Model 3 will be the cheapest model of Tesla Motors once it is launched, as the company looks to extend the accessibility of electric vehicles to more customers across the world. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Fueling speculations of a climate change hiatus are data showing that from about 1998 to 2012, global temperature rise appeared to plateau, based on NOAAs Extended Reconstruction Sea Surface Temperature dataset. This so-called pause has been puzzling scientists as well as prompting skeptics to say that human-induced global warming, after all, is a mere hoax. Now a new study has surfaced to say that, no, that data isnt proof of a hiatus. Across Earth, the oceans have been warming at a relatively steady clip over the last 50 years. Lead author Dr. Zeke Hausfather, a data scientist from the University of California Berkeley, clarifies that warming appears in both datasets in practically the same way confirming the integrity of the NOAA dataset. However, further evidence showed that ocean temperatures have warmed steadily without a pronounced slowdown. A fair bit of the apparent hiatus seems to be due to problems in our ocean measurements, and not a real thing," Hausfather told The Christian Science Monitor over the phone. Global Warming Pause: An Illusion? Detailing their findings in the journal Science Advances last Wednesday, Hausfathers team revisited the data after political chaos erupted in 2015, when the errors were first identified. They discovered that NOAA was right despite the flak they received. In June that year, NOAA updated its dataset, with National Centers for Environmental Information Director Thomas Karl and his NOAA colleagues pointing to a critical flaw in the old database. ERSST version 3b, the said previous version, had a cooling bias over the 15-year period and showed global temperatures as lower than actual. In that controversial research, Karls team called the hiatus an illusion. [Scientists at the NOAA] werent cooking the books. They werent bowing to any political pressure to find results that show extra warming, Hausfather said, adding that the scientists tried their best to work with messy data. Hausfather and the NOAA team agreed that changing technology caused the skewed data. Sea surface temperatures, for long decades, were tracked on ships. This changed in the mid-1990s when researchers started to use thermometers on buoys as a new strategy. The buoys, however, take colder measurements than the previous technique, and scientists in the previous dataset version did not adjust for the difference. When this problem surfaced, the NOAA scientists calculated the difference and weighted the numbers differently to come up with version 4, which revealed that warming was actually more than twice as that on version 3b. The results triggered great controversy, with some politicians suggesting that the team manipulated data out of political motives. How Scientists Confirmed The 2015 Study What Hausfathers team did is to do things a little differently, studying trends in data from various sources independently rather than putting composite datasets together as other agencies do. The trends are tracked in sources that include data from buoys, ships, and satellites. Indeed, from 1998 to 2012, temperatures did show some slow rising than predicted in climate models. The slowdown has been attributed to different factors, including the El Nino cycle, multiyear ocean cycles, and even the post-Soviet reforestation in Russia. A massive El Nino event that occurred before that 15-year timeframe, for instance, would have made the following years appear relatively cold, while La Nina could have also helped drive the temperature reading slow. Certain small volcanoes too that were excluded in models could have had their share in the cooling effect, Hausfather explained. For Karl the lead scientist in the controversy-rocked 2015 paper the recent findings emphasize the need for independent measurements in order to tackle observational uncertainties, he noted in his email to the Monitor. Whatever slowdown occurred in the 2000s, it also appears to have stopped by now, with the last three years, from 2014 to 2016, breaking all records as the hottest year ever in the modern temperature data. Photo: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center | Flickr 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. It's no secret that BlackBerry, the once-dominant smartphone heavyweight until it was lapsed by its contemporaries, has thrown in the towel in the hardware department. Last September, the company said that it would "end all internal hardware development" and shifted its focus to software development instead. That's not to say the brand will cease appearing on hardware. The famous logo will still be plastered onto phones manufactured by TCL, the company where BlackBerry outsourced its brand to. This partnership birthed the DTEK lineup of Blackberry phones, most recently with the DTEK60, an Android-powered smartphone laden with high-end specs. BlackBerry Mercury It seems like the DTEK60 won't be BlackBerry's last phone in the wild, as suggested by a teaser. A new phone nicknamed "Mercury" will take the brand forward, poised to be the last in-house-designed BlackBerry phone the world will ever see. Specs have not been disclosed as of yet, and the name Mercury may very well end up being scrapped when the phone is officially revealed. At this year's CES, TCL is showing off what's looking to be an Android phone with BlackBerry's signature QWERTY keyboard. The phone in question is due for a more proper unveiling in this year's Mobile World Congress, rolling around late February. "We look forward to unveiling details around this distinctly different and impressively designed BlackBerry smartphone around the Mobile World Congress timeframe next month," said Steve Cistulli, TCL Communication North America's president and general manager. BlackBerry Mercury Features TCL, while unable to provide pricing and availability information as of this time, did share three core features of the forthcoming BlackBerry handset. There's the previously mentioned QWERTY keyboard, which also doubles as a trackpad and promises an alternative navigational input, a fingerprint scanner housed beneath the spacebar, and preloaded proprietary BlackBerry apps such as BlackBerry Messenger, Hub, and a DTEK app for greater convenience and security. On the DTEK50 and DTEK60, the DTEK app provided detailed information on how apps are accessing the user's data. It'll likely function similarly for the Mercury. Thankfully, the phone will run Android 7.0 Nougat off the bat, adding to the very scant list of phones that come preloaded with Google's most recent OS. Let's go back to that keyboard-slash-trackpad for a moment. The feature was previously seen on the BlackBerry Passport, but this time, it's poised to be more useful. Sure, the space taken up by the keyboard is slightly annoying think of the screen real state that's occupied but there's a tradeoff: Users can use the keyboard as an alternative navigational input. For example, users can swipe right, left, or scroll up and down when viewing webpages, lessening the need to do the same functions on the screen. Ultimately, so little can be said of the Mercury as of this time that to declare its potential to reinvigorate the brand is simply guesswork, if not a haphazard forecast, but as it stands, the prototype has definitely piqued the interest of CES onlookers, one of them being Engadget, and it takes a lot for tech aficionados to get worked up over a phone. What's your opinion of the BlackBerry Mercury? Can it push the company back on the radar? Feel free to sound off in the comments section below! 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The U.S. Navy has confirmed that highly trained bottlenose dolphins will join the fight to save the critically endangered vaquita (Phocoena sinus), the rarest of marine mammals and the smallest porpoise in the world. Dolphins that were trained by the Navy's Marine Mammal Program to sniff out underwater mines and enemy divers will be deployed in the Gulf of California, the only known place where the vaquitas live. The cetaceans will locate the last few remaining members of the species in an attempt to capture them. Critically Endangered Vaquitas Extinction looms for the vaquita porpoises. About 97 vaquitas exist in 2014, but a report published last year revealed the possibility that the marine animals would go extinct because there are only 60 of them left in the world. The declining population of the marine animal is due to the demand for the giant fish totoaba (Totoaba macdonaldi), also an endangered marine species, which is a delicacy in Chinese cuisine and whose swim bladder is considered to have medicinal value. Illegal fishing of the totoaba accidentally traps the vaquitas in the gill nets, so the latter end up drowning. Capture And Conserve As Many Vaquitas As Possible The Mexican government has already suspended the use of gill nets in the parts of the gulf where the vaquitas live and provided monetary compensation for fishermen who ditch using the gill net. Vaquita porpoises, however, continue to die because of demand for the totoaba bladder, which can sell for more than $5,000 per pound. Last month, the Mexican government launched a rescue mission to capture and hopefully conserve as many vaquitas as possible, an effort considered to be a potentially risky one. Experts question the feasibility of the catch-and-enclose proposal because the vaquita has never been held in captivity. Mexico director of World Wildlife Fund Omar Vidal raised concern that captivity may even result in killing the last remaining members of the endangered species. The last-ditch effort, however, is pushing through. Dolphins To Locate Elusive Vaquitas This week, the U.S. Navy announced that dolphins will be deployed in the only known body of water where vaquitas thrive to find surviving members of the species and capture them. The mission is set to begin sometime this spring. Jim Fallin of the U.S. Navy Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific said that besides using dolphins to locate and catch the vaquitas, the other goal of the mission is to determine how feasible it is to temporarily house the marine mammals in the Sea of Cortez, a protected area of the gulf where the animals may be able to safely breed. The dolphins will use their natural sonar to find the elusive vaquitas. Bottlenose dolphins can find targets in deep and murky waters, an ability unmatched by existing technology. The Navy has sought the help of these cetaceans to conduct underwater searches. "Their specific task is to locate," Fallin said. "They would signal that by surfacing and returning to the boat from which they were launched." 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Sony does not want to be left behind in the scramble for the best 4K TV at CES 2017. Leading the company's charge is the massive 4K XBR-A1E Bravia OLED TV, which boasts of a few distinguishing marks, leaving it one of the standouts in the consumer show thus far. Sony's Take On The OLED Technology The new Bravia TV A1E series means that LG is no longer dominating the OLED segment in the market. One should note, however, that Sony has supposedly sourced its display panel from the South Korean tech company LG Display and so it can only rely on proprietary processing to differentiate the Bravia from the current LG OLED offering. According to a report from The Verge, however, Sony still refuses to officially confirm its OLED vendor. Nevertheless, it is helpful to remember that OLED technology is prized by electronic manufacturers for allowing extremely high-quality display with deep blacks, high color range but less energy consumption. Its pixels are able to light itself up, dispensing with the need for a separate backlighting component. This variable also leads to the achievement of extremely thin display. Sony Acoustic Surface While LG chose to go for the super thin, touting its wallpaper-like OLED TV, Sony has implemented its own curious technology. Like its LG rival, the Bravia is also bezel-free but it has no accompanying soundbar. Its maker instead developed a new audio system that it calls as Acoustic Surface. This rendered the entire screen as a speaker as if sound is emanating directly from the very images themselves. According to Sony, this new technology allows the TV to offer more comprehensive soundstage and also better synchronization between sound and visuals. Sony BRAVIA's Form Factor Sony has also kept the display's thin form factor by porting the TV's main innards onto the stand, which the display uses for support. As it is hidden from view, the Bravia itself looks like it is leaning backwards on its own. "Sony continues to make consumer choice a priority especially for those seeking the very best viewing experience, and we are proud to introduce our new XBR-A1E BRAVIA OLED series," Mike Fasulo, Sony's President and COO, said in an official statement. "Sony delivers incredible innovation and excitement to customers with all of our premium 4K HDR TVs through a powerful mix of technology and our exclusive image processing." There are still no pricing details but the Bravia OLED TV range will come in three sizes: 77-inch, 65-inch and 55-inch models. If you would like to see this cutting-edge technology and you happen to be at CES, head to Sony's exhibition at Booth #17300. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Analysis of a fossilized shark skull that was found in South Africa in the 1980s has revealed that the mysterious ghost shark, a group of elusive prehistoric fish that has existed before the time of the dinosaurs, is descended from a shark-like fish that lived 280 million years ago. Bizarre-Looking Deep-Sea Fish Scientists had difficulty fitting the ghost shark, also known as chimaera, into the evolutionary tree of life because of its strange appearance. The deep-sea fish characterized by wing-like fins and large eyes does not look much like any of the creatures that live today. By analyzing the shark skull that has chimaera-like traits, however, scientists now have an idea where to best fit the elusive marine animal. Analysis Of Ancient Shark Skull Using Micro CT Scan In a new study, Michael Coates, from the University of Chicago Medical Center, and colleagues revealed that ghosts sharks descended from the ancient fish known as Dwykaselachus oosthuizeni, which belongs to a family of prehistoric sharks called symmoriiforms that emerged 300 million years ago. Coates and colleagues used micro computed-tomography scanner to look more closely at the ancient shark skull, which allowed them to produce a virtual 3D image of the ancient creature's skull and the braincase, where the brain originally sat. Analysis revealed that the ancient shark was just as strange as the modern-day chimaeras. The braincase structures of the D. oosthuizeni, as well as the nostrils, major cranial nerves, and the inner ear resemble those that are seen in ghost sharks that live today. Shared Characteristics Of Chimaera And D. Oosthuizeni In modern day sharks and rays, the skull's cartilage roof is open at the front, but this roof is closed in both the ghost shark and the D. oosthuizeni. The characteristics of the tubes and ducts that have the inner ear's semicircular canals are also shared. The large eyes were likewise alike. "Internally, the morphology exhibits otherwise characteristically chimaeroid specializations, including the otic labyrinth arrangement and the brain space configuration relative to exceptionally large orbits," the researchers wrote in their study, which was published in Nature. Large Eyes Adapted To Dark Conditions In Deep Waters Researchers think that the large orbits of the D. oosthuizeni may have been an adaptation to dimly lit waters, which allowed them to hunt for fish in dark conditions, suggesting that the symmoriiforms have adapted to light-limited conditions such as those in deep waters. Coates said that their findings hinted where the chimaeras should be in the evolutionary tree of life. The scans showed that the D. oosthuizeni diverged from symmoriiform sharks before it evolved into the modern-day ghost sharks. The researchers said that the D. oosthuizeni was an early chimaera. "Chimaeras are ancient specialists, now anchored within a large and very distinctive group of early shark-like fishes that thrived in the late Paleozoic era," Coates said. "We now have a glimpse of the preconditions from which modern chimaeras evolved, suggesting that the large eyes of these early sharks predisposed chimaeras for low-light, deep-sea habits." 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. For its press conference at CES 2017, it did not take long for Samsung to discuss the issue that is at the top of the mind of the attendees and consumers all over the world. The issue, of course, is the Galaxy Note 7 debacle that plagued Samsung for most of 2016. Samsung Apologizes For Galaxy Note 7 At CES 2017 When Samsung Electronics America President and COO Tim Baxter stepped onto the stage, he set the tone of the whole presentation by starting his speech with the acknowledgement of the Galaxy Note 7 recall. "As you know, this year was a challenging year for Samsung," Baxter said, adding that some of the people in attendance at CES 2017 might have been directly impacted by the recall that was launched for the Galaxy Note 7, and likely all having seen the heavy media coverage that the issue received. Baxter promised that Samsung has reflected upon its experience over the past year, while also listening to the feedback that it has received to make improvements to the company. Baxter added that Samsung will not stop innovating despite the setback that is the Galaxy Note 7, with the company increasing its market share in the United States for products such as TVs, washing machines, refrigerators and other appliances. Samsung To Soon Explain Cause of Galaxy Note 7 Explosions One other thing that Baxter mentioned during his opening speech is that Samsung will soon be reporting on the root cause of the problem that caused the batteries of Galaxy Note 7 smartphones to explode and catch fire. While the term "soon" does not really offer a definite timeline for when Samsung will be able to release the findings of its investigation, it does indicate that at the very least, the company is close to coming up with a definite answer. Baxter's statement coincides with a previous report that Samsung will be announcing the results of its probe into the Galaxy Note 7 explosions before the end of January. Samsung Moving Forward Into 2017 While the Galaxy Note 7 debacle has effectively ended due to the update being rolled out by Samsung through carriers in the United States preventing the smartphone from being charged up, the results of the investigation into the explosions are still important for both the company and its customers. The investigation will allow Samsung to regain the trust of consumers by showing that it has determined what the problem was and that it will be implementing measures to ensure that the issue will not happen again. Rumors surrounding the company's next flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S8, have promised a powerful smartphone, with one report claiming that it will be able to offer a PC-like full desktop experience. However, in order for Samsung to find success with the Galaxy S8 and all its future devices, it will first need to prove that exploding batteries are a thing of the past. Once the company has done so, it can finally begin looking ahead into 2017, beyond the Galaxy Note 7 debacle of last year and toward the Galaxy S8. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. In its recent reversal of its organ donation policy, France is now automatically assigning all its citizens as donors upon their death, unless they join an official register for opting out. The new law, which took effect Jan. 1, presumes consent for organ removal and donation, although the family refuses or wishes otherwise. Prior to this measure, a person had to have a clear intent to donate or doctors must consult the family, who refused in nearly one-third of cases. How The Opt-Out System Works The Guardian reported, however, that French citizens can still join a so-called refusal register, which has been signed up by at least 150,000 individuals last Jan. 2 at the time of the report. Those who refuse can do so by doing the action online rather than by post. In addition, people who oppose having their organs used can leave a signed document in the case of their next-of-kin or orally express their choice to relatives, who will then produce a written declaration of non-consent to doctors during the time of death. Read the process on the agencys official Facebook page. Organ Donation Systems Around the World The updated opt-out system is targeted at preventing widespread organ shortages and long transplant wait lists. Similar measures are already in place in certain European countries, including Austria, Spain, and Wales generally controversial laws but also backed by research of improved donation rates. In the United Kingdom, for instance, healthcare providers lament that they have one of the lowest consent rates in the region and a general lack of black or Asian donors. While a record number of organ donations and transplants were made in the country from 2015 to 2016, the rate falls short of the 80 percent target by year 2020. The same problem with lengthening patient waiting lists has been highlighted in the European Union. Deemed as the largest hurdle is the opposition of relatives, often vetoing transplants even from registered donors. In a 2014 review by British researchers that involved 48 countries with opt-in or opt-out donation systems, donor rates were notably higher in nations with opt-out systems, compared with living donor rates being higher in opt-in systems. However, overall transplants for in-demand organs such as kidneys and livers were higher in opt-out regimens. The United States still follows an opt-in system. Here, a patient joins the waiting list for transplant every 10 minutes, while 22 every day die waiting for their transplant. French Legislation The major public health change is not the only French law to recently make headlines. On New Years Day, France legislated its workers "right to disconnect" from their work email during off-hours. The new employment law obliges companies with more than 50 workers to start negotiations with employees about their right to ignore their phones and avoid compulsive after-hours email checking. The legislation aims to address the scourge of info-obesity in workplaces and the always-on work culture, which has been blamed for such health issues as burnout and has paved way for rising rates of unpaid overtime. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Documents and charts on Jihad have been recovered from the home of Jamesha Mubeen killed in the Coimbatore car blast on October 23. He was also an accused in the case. IndiaToday has accessed the evidence allegedly found at Mubeens home by the National Investigation Agency. The hand-drawn flow charts classified humans as Kafirs (Arabic for infidels) and Muslims. Jihad is the duty of young people and not of children or old people, one of them read. A third described Hadees (a report attributed to the Prophet Muhammad). Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro assured on Thursday that the time has come for his country to return to the Andean Community of Nations with all the productive and commercial capacities... | Read More By Press Trust of India: Chandigarh, Jan 5 (PTI) Punjab police have arrested 25 people including the jail Superintendent for trespassing into Fazilka prison to allegedly meet inmate Shiv Lal Doda, considered to be close to Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal. Disclosing this here today, ADGP (elections) H S Bhawra said that on the directions of the state Election Commission, surprise raid was conducted last night at Fazilka and Amritsar jails. advertisement "During the checking police arrested 25 people," he said, adding that Fazilka jail SP Jashandeep Singh has also been suspended. The Election Commission had directed the home department to conduct a probe into the matter and submit its report within four weeks. Bhawra said that during checking police found 24 people holding a meeting inside the visitors meeting room of the jail with Doda, a liquor baron. Police also seized Rs 3.28 lakh, some mobile phones and impounded seven vehicles, he said. Doda and his nephew Amit are facing charges of criminal conspiracy and murder for allegedly killing a Dalit youth named Bhim Tank last year. Meanwhile, Aam Aadmi Party accused the SAD-BJP government for mounting atrocities on Dalits and shielding the culprits. State party convener Gurpreet Singh Ghuggi took serious note of the arrest and slammed the state government over it. He said that Fazilka jail incident is an eye opener of SAD patronage of culprits. Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal who was considered close to Doda had tried to protect him in the Bhim Tank murder case and a case of murder was registered only after the Dalit community protested on streets, Ghuggi said. SAD had promoted the anti-Dalit sentiment in Punjab during its ten year rule. The Dalits in Punjab lived on margin all that years even as fate of farmers is not different, he said. State Congress chief Amarinder Singh demanded immediate dismissal of the Badal government, saying it had been completely exposed in the Fazilka jail incident, where a known henchman of Home Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal was caught holding a kangaroo court on yesterday along with two dozen other Akali-linked criminals. Lashing out at the "brazen display of money and muscle power and the complete breakdown of the law and order" in the state, Amarinder demanded imposition of Presidents Rule to hold free and fair elections in the state. The incident has thoroughly exposed the complicity of the Badal family and their associates in the rampant crime mafia in the state, he said. advertisement "It is important to find out how all that money and weapons entered the jail premises," he asked. It could not have been done without involvement from the highest levels in the government, Amarinder alleged. PTI VJ ASV --- ENDS --- The Bengaluru molestation incident has enraged one and all in the country, and well, Akshay Kumar is not one to stay quiet. A photograph from Bengaluru's mass-molestation incident on new year's eve (L), Akshay Kumar in a still from his video message (R) By India Today Web Desk: Don't angry Akshay Kumar! The mass-molestation incident on Bengaluru's streets on new year's eve has shocked the whole country. Several accounts of women, who were caught amidst thousands of men who groped, grabbed and pawed at anybody and everybody of the opposite sex, have been recorded. ALSO READ: Abu Azmi's son Farhan Azmi slutshames Esha Gupta, goes on misogynist rant advertisement ALSO READ: Bengaluru Molestation happened because nudity is in fashion, says Abu Azmi ALSO READ: Abu Azmi's comments are choking, says son Farhan Azmi ALSO WATCH: SP MLA Abu Azmi blames women for Bengaluru molestation incident What has shocked the country more has been the justification of this incident from several quarters, in particular, the horrendous explanation from Samajwadi Party's Maharashtra MLA Abu Azmi. Speaking to India Today, Abu Azmi had said, "If a girl celebrates after dark she should go with her husband, father and not with strangers. There should be strict action against those going against our culture." He added that one cannot avoid molesting or being molested as women consider being nude as fashion. Now, Akshay Kumar took to Twitter earlier today to share his thoughts about the Bengaluru molestation incident and boy, was he angry. Looking into the camera, Akshay said that he got to know of the Bengaluru molestation incident as he returned from vacationing in Cape Town with his family. He added that he felt ashamed of calling himself a human being and that watching the video made his blood boil. Akshay continued saying that a society which does not respect its women should be ashamed of itself. Akshay also condemned those who were justifying the mass-molestation incident. Finally, Akshay ended the video by advising women to take up martial arts and learning how to defend themselves against all adversities. Akshay Kumar, himself, is father of a four-year-old girl, Nitara. WATCH: Akshay Kumar's message regarding Bengaluru molestation incident The Bangalore incident makes me feel we r evolving backwards,from humans to animals,rather beasts coz even animals are better!Truly shameful pic.twitter.com/FJwJ80Mkby Akshay Kumar (@akshaykumar) January 5, 2017 --- ENDS --- Heads up to prevent injury from falls Morning walks in my neighborhood are one of the most enjoyable parts of my day. I love the coolness of daybreak and the special sightings of the stag and two does that frequent our open space. I also enjoy my walk because each day at... Signs that point to the best time for retirement Ive been thinking a lot about retirement lately. One of our amazing staff members, who has been with Senior Concerns for the last 13 years, retired last month. It just doesnt seem real. I always thought of Dana as young. Certainly not the person to... Rethinking the mandatory retirement age How old is too old for working at a job? Last week a news story hit my inbox and it really got me to thinking about age and retirement. The article noted that Target Corp. abandoned its mandatory retirement age of 65 for its CEO,... Tips to promoting a healthy nights sleep for children Question: Help, please. My daughter is almost 2 years old and has been an easy child to put into her own bed. Yet in the past few weeks she is purposefully stretching out the bedtime routine longer and longer. She wants more: more stories, more... Akshay Kumar replaced Arshad Warsi in Jolly LLB 2, the sequel to Jolly LLB. Seems like Warsi is in no mood to forget. Or forgive. By India Today Web Desk: Arshad Warsi doesn't seem to have forgotten Akshay Kumar replacing him in Jolly LLB 2. The actor, if reports are to be believed, is apparently planning to release his upcoming film Irada on the same day as Jolly LLB 2 hits the screens: February 10. Irada will mark director Aparna Singh's debut and has Arshad Warsi reuniting with his Ishqiya co-star Naseeruddin Shah. Falguni Sheth, the producer of Irada, told Mid-Day, "Our film is ready and we are looking at an early release. We were eyeing a window next month and February 10 appears ideal." advertisement February 10 is the day Akshay's Jolly LLB 2 hits the theatres. The Republic Day weekend will see Shah Rukh Khan's Raees clashing with Hrithik Roshan's Kaabil, and if both the films do well, they are bound to continue at the screens for at least two weeks. As such, the producers of Irada feel that releasing their film on February 10 will mean not being swallowed up by titans Raees and Kaabil. However, February 10 would mean clashing with Akshay's Jolly LLB 2. Releasing Irada on February 10 is being construed as an angry Arshad Warsi's method of getting back at the Jolly LLB 2 team for replacing him with Akshay Kumar. ALSO READ: Step aside, Khans. 2017 is Akshay Kumar 2.0's year WATCH: Akshay-Huma's Holi song Go Pagal from Jolly LLB 2 is wild and energetic Director Subhash Kapoor's Jolly LLB, the 2013 film, was a sleeper hit with critics praising Arshad Warsi for his role of Jolly. Back when it was announced that Akshay Kumar was being roped in to play the lead role in the sequel, Warsi had reportedly said, ""I was supposed to do it, but the studio needed a bigger star. If you have a bigger star, then even if the film is not that good, you still manage to recover the money, so the risk factor from the producer's point of view is less. It bothers me a bit, but not that much. I was the one who convinced Subhash (Kapoor, director) to go ahead and do it [cast Akshay] since he was not willing to." Earlier, when Akshay Kumar was asked about his comments on replacing Arshad Warsi in the sequel to Jolly LLB, he said, "It is the producer's call. I did 'Welcome' (2007), but not 'Welcome Back' (2015); I did not feel bad. It was my franchise, so should I feel bad?" Apart from Akshay Kumar in the lead role, Jolly LLB 2 stars Huma Qureshi and Saurabh Shukla in pivotal roles. ALSO WATCH: First impression of Jolly LLB 2 trailer --- ENDS --- advertisement ST. AMANT John and Sharon Pugh's two adult sons and their cousins stacked sandbags and put five pumps around their one-story house last August. But they couldn't stop the water. The sandbags gave way early one morning and it was all over. Thirty-nine inches of water rushed into the Pughs' home. "Rarely have I ever been involved in a setting where I felt like I couldn't control it, and we couldn't control it that night," Jarrett Pugh, 35, one of the couple's sons, said in a recent interview. Four months later, John and Sharon Pugh are looking to stop any repeat of their battle with the elements. Like 1,572 other Ascension Parish home or business owners, the Pughs have been told their house was "substantially damaged." While some property owners are appealing this finding, they accepted it, deciding to raise their home 5.5 feet off the ground while living in a trailer in their driveway along Peter Bourgeois Road in St. Amant. State homeland security officials estimated earlier this month that as many as 8,400 homes and businesses statewide could end up being deemed to have substantial damage from the August flood, a finding that means the damage is worth 50 percent or more of the value of the building. Under local and federal rules, owners of homes with substantial damage that are also in the 100-year flood plain and below the base flood elevation have three options: move, demolish and rebuild, or elevate. Residents in the Pughs' part of St. Amant are the fringes of Ascension's flood protection system. Sandbagging is something of a necessary community rite during hurricanes and floods. Their flooded home fit all three factors that require elevation, demolition or removal: inside the 100-year floodplain, low elevation and 70.2 percent damage. The 100-year floodplain is the area estimated to inundate during a 100-year flood, which, despite the name, has a 1 percent chance of happening in a given year. The August flood has been estimated to be a 100- to 500-year flood by the U.S. Geological Survey. Though John Pugh said he was open to moving, Sharon said she could not leave the house her dad built for them in 1982 and the land passed down to her. "This is my land from my mother, and my sister's land," Sharon Pugh said. "My grandfather and grandmother had 30 acres, and they left it to their nine kids." Sharon Pugh, 67, said some of her neighbors and friends are fighting substantial damage findings that came by mail recently because they had already started work on their homes. But by the time she and her husband got a substantial damage letter from the parish in late November, they had already settled on the way forward. The Pughs did briefly consider demolition and rebuilding higher, but could not find a builder of a traditional pier-and-beam house. They also considered a modular home on their property but would have had to pay extra to raise it high enough and were concerned about future hurricanes, Sharon Pugh said. "We made the decision that we wanted to lift because we're old. We're tired of sandbagging," she said. Earlier this month, their 1,200 square-foot home had already been excised from its old concrete slab, shed of its Old Chicago brick exterior and raised up while impaled with steel I-beam skewers resting on piers of stacked wood. In unincorporated Ascension, elevation means going up 1 foot above the base flood elevation. John Pugh, who is disabled and 72, figures his house will be more than 2 feet above the August flood height and nearly the same above the base flood elevation once the work is done. The base flood elevation is the height of water during a 100-year flood in a given location. The Pughs said they are using their flood insurance proceeds for a $58,000 elevation job and hoping to use future elevation funds from the National Flood Insurance Program and leftover insurance dollars to pay for the house rehabilitation. Though Federal Emergency Management Agency contractors often worked with parish and municipal inspectors to collect damage data after the August flood, the agency leaves the final decision and subsequent appeals of "substantial damage" to local governments. Also, some parishes, like Ascension and East Baton Rouge, did not look at flooded structures outside the 100-year floodplain because the elevation and demolition rules don't apply no matter the damage. But so far with 1,573 flooded structures, Ascension remains far and away the local leader on structures with substantial damage. Nearly a quarter of the 6,700 to 6,800 homes, businesses and other structures flooded in unincorporated Ascension, Gonzales and Sorrento have been determined to be substantially damaged, municipal and parish officials said. In the city-parish of East Baton Rouge, contractors working for FEMA had collected data from the field suggesting 6,000 of the 48,000 flooded structures had substantial damage, almost 13 percent of the total, city parish officials said. But by late December, the city-parish had sent out 190 substantial damage letters 0.4 percent of all flooded structures in the city-parish. Another 80 or so home and business owners combined in Baker, Central and Zachary out of almost 6,600 flooded properties have been notified of substantial damage after the communities' internal review of FEMA field data. Central confirmed 39 of those properties as having substantial damage by late December, but still had another 411 properties to review that FEMA initially flagged. City government has internally overturned another 347 findings. As of mid-December, Denham Springs officials had found 3,114 flood homes, businesses and other structures and 676 or about 22 percent had received substantial damage letters. Livingston Parish is taking a more determined approach to reviewing flooded structures and had sent out around 200 letters by early December. Appeals could alter these totals as property owners submit contractor estimates and home appraisals to challenge damage estimates. Steve Bateman, 72 and semi-retired, said he was three months into the repair of his flooded house off Stringer Bridge Road in St. Amant when he got a letter from Ascension Parish government. The November letter said he had 55.1 percent damage and, therefore, would have to move, elevate or demolish. Bateman, who got 44 inches of water in his 40-year-old brick slab house that had never flooded before, is planning an appeal. He said he is doing all but the toughest, most time-consuming work himself he built the house himself as a younger man and figures the whole job wont cost more than $50,000 to $60,000, which is less than half the value of his home. He noted the letter didnt break down how the parish and FEMA calculated the damage percentage, but he has been saving his receipts for the appeal. Though he has resisted the idea of seeking out a contractor just for an estimate on the repair job he is already doing, he has come around to the idea recently. Batemans home was not insured. Elevation would be expensive, with Bateman estimating it could cost more than $100,000. Its not worth doing that, but its worth fixing and me continuing to live in it. At 72, how many more years do I have? he asked. Batemans letter warned him that if he is not in compliance with parish flood rules, he wont be eligible for flood insurance in the future. Thats a bet hes willing to take if his appeal fails. I went through the parish 40 years without (flood insurance). I guess I can go through rest of my life without it, he said. You know, what are my choices? Jerome Fournier, Ascension's planning director, said property owners aren't always trying to get substantially damaged homes reduced below the 50 percent threshold. Some are seeking just the opposite. But early data from the parish show the vast majority of appeals that were approved so far did involve lowering damage percentages to get below the 50 percent substantial damage threshold. In Ascension, 129 appeals were filed by mid-December and decisions had been made on 110 of them, parish statistics show. Of that number, 100 determinations were overturned. Of them, 82 had been found initially to have substantial damage but were lowered below the substantial damage threshold on appeal. The remaining 18 were shifted from initially not having substantial damage to being deemed substantially damaged, parish statistics show. In East Baton Rouge, former Building Official Justin Dupuy said in October that the city-parish was double-checking every property with between 40 percent and 60 percent damage from FEMA and exploring "every possibility," including bringing in additional information, before substantial damage letters went out. Dupuy said officials were focusing then on those who came in for permits. Earlier this month, Shannon Dupont, city-parish floodplain manager, said owners of some of the 6,000 structures that previously had been flagged by FEMA contractors filed an appeal. But he could not say how many. Unlike the Pughs, others with substantial damage have not made a decision about how to proceed. Money is often the delay. Sorrento Mayor Mike Lambert takes some pride in the way things used to be constructed when his mother and fathers house was built on Airline Highway in 1962. His old house now gutted is solid, the mayor said during a recent tour, pointing to the thick two-by-fours, oak floors and a cypress ceiling. In August, the split-level, two-story slab house got between 3 an 4 feet of water. Even after an appeal to the small town government that he leads, Lambert had 57 percent damage, enough to remain in the substantial damage category with all its requirements. While Lambert lives in a FEMA manufactured housing unit next-door, he is fighting with his insurance company for settlement dollars and is hung up on which way to go, he said. Looking at how much money he can likely spend, Lambert is leaning toward demolition. He said he got an estimate of $155,000 to raise his 3,800-square-foot house the required 6 feet. "It looks like the cost of raising it might be prohibitive to me," he said. Part of the problem with his insurer, he said, is getting credit for the older, more expensive construction style, as well as slab damage he said the slow-rising flood water caused. Lambert said the contrast has been notable between what National Flood Insurance Program officials have told him in meetings with other elected public officials and what his insurer has told him as an individual policy holder. "Now you talk to NFIP people and they say, 'No, we're going to make you whole on your damages, on your actual damages,' but you talk to Allstate, it's a whole different story," Lambert said. "Like they don't want ... to give you the actual value and take into consideration the age and construction of older houses." He said his insurer has told him the company would make his home "sustainable" and offered what he believes is less than half the cost of repair. He rejected that offer and is waiting on another. Meanwhile, Brandi Wells Bourgeois, 38, had no desire to appeal her 59 percent damage assessment and wants to elevate to avoid dealing with a future flood. Bourgeois' house in St. Amant, which she bought in April, got 16 inches of water even though it was raised more than 3 feet. She said she needs nearly a foot more to get above the base flood elevation, but fights with her mortgage company to release her insurance settlement and getting access to federal elevation funds have led to delays. Wells, a married mother of three who is living out of a FEMA trailer and backyard shop, believes she has found a way for the money to start flowing and work to begin, possibly in January. "Its a nightmare," she said. "We just want to be in our house." 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. By Press Trust of India: Jammu, Jan 5 (PTI) Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat will today visit Jammu and Kashmir in his first official trip after taking over as Indias 27th Chief Of Army Staff. According to top army sources, he will be visiting army formation in Jammu. This will be his median tour to J&K after taking over as new army chief. advertisement Gen Rawat last week took over as the chief of the 1.3 million strong Indian Army succeeding Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag, who retired after 42 years of service. Gen Rawat superseded two senior most Lt Generals, Praveen Bakshi and P M Hariz. Rawat was commissioned in the Fifth Battalion of the Eleven Gorkha Rifles in December 1978 from IMA, Dehradun. He was awarded the Sword of Honour at the academy. Gen Rawat has vast experience in high altitude warfare and counter-insurgency operations. He commanded an infantry battalion, along the Line of Actual Control in the Eastern Sector, a Rashtriya Rifles Sector and an Infantry Division in the Kashmir Valley, a Corps in the Eastern theatre and the Southern Command. Gen Rawat has held important staff appointments at Directorate General of Military Operations and Military Secretarys Branch at Army HQ. PTI AB CPS --- ENDS --- President-elect Donald Trump's pick for Attorney General is pitting Louisiana's lone Democratic congressman against its only senator on the powerful Judiciary Committee that will vet U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions for the role. The Congressional Black Caucus, lead by Democratic U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond of New Orleans, held a news conference on Thursday to express its opposition to Sessions becoming the nation's top law enforcement officer. Richmond further vowed to "hold all those who vote to confirm him accountable." Just a day earlier, U.S. Sen. John N. Kennedy, a Madisonville Republican who has been named to the Judiciary Committee, expressed his support of the Alabama Republican. "I'm proud to offer him my support," Kennedy tweeted. I'm honored to be on the Judiciary Committee that will consider the nomination of @jeffsessions next week. I'm proud to offer him my support John Kennedy (@SenJohnKennedy) January 4, 2017 Kennedy reiterated his support following Richmond's news conference Thursday. Congressman Richmond is a good man. So is Senator Jeff Sessions," Kennedy said. "Sen. Sessions will be a fantastic Attorney Genera, and Im honored to support him. Being from Mobile, he is practically a Louisianian." Richmond and other members of the black caucus cited Session's questionable past with regard to race relations. Sessions was blocked from a federal judge position in the 1980s following testimony that he made racially offensive remarks. Richmond rejected the notion that concerns over Sessions are strictly based in the past. "The best way to know what someone is going to do in the future is look at what they've done in the past," he told reporters. "His beliefs are discriminatory. His actions are discriminatory." Richmond said he was concerned by Sessions' views on criminal justice reform and opposition to consent decrees that regulate law enforcement in major cities, including New Orleans. The Congressional Black Caucus is made up of members of the U.S. House and no members of the Senate that will vote on Sessions' confirmation. Sessions confirmation, scheduled to begin Jan. 10, is heavily expected to pass through the GOP-controlled Senate. "None of our fights have ever been easy and we don't let the fact that it might be a long shot ever deter us," Richmond said. "We may not have a vote in the Senate, but we have a voice -- a voice for millions of Americans." Mayor Sharon Weston Broome gives her address during her inauguration ceremony earlier this month at the River Center Theatre for the Performing Arts. You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close An English judge told the great British barrister, F.E. Smith, It seems to me you are trying to show contempt for the way I am conducting thi Fighting crime in New Orleans has long been an effort by committee, an amalgam of local, state and federal agencies forging a united front aga By Press Trust of India: Jammu, Jan 5 (PTI) Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat will visit Jammu and Kashmir today in his first official trip after taking over as the countrys 27th Chief of Army Staff. According to top army sources, he will be visiting the army formation in Jammu. Gen Rawat took over as chief of the 1.3 million strong Indian Army last week, succeeding Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag, who retired after 42 years of service. advertisement He superseded two seniormost Lt Generals, Praveen Bakshi and P M Hariz. Rawat was commissioned in the Fifth Battalion of the Eleven Gorkha Rifles in December 1978 from IMA, Dehradun. He was awarded the Sword of Honour at the academy. Gen Rawat has vast experience in high-altitude warfare and counter-insurgency operations. He commanded an infantry battalion, along the Line of Actual Control in the Eastern Sector, a Rashtriya Rifles Sector and an Infantry Division in the Kashmir Valley, a Corps in the Eastern theatre and the Southern Command. He has also held important staff appointments at Directorate General of Military Operations and Military Secretarys Branch at Army HQ. PTI AB CPS BSA --- ENDS --- Westwego officials cut the ribbon over the weekend on their new $3.4 million City Hall, but the 13,000-square-foot building isnt the only lon Languishing in the limbo between receiving their final mark and securing a university place is over for these three Canberra school-leavers. They are among more than 2600 students, including 800 ACT students, to receive early offers to study at The Australian National University in 2017. ANU Vice-Chancellor Professor Brian Schmidt with ACT students Katrina Gibbins, Georgia Larsen and Joshua Guest who have received early 2017 places. Credit:Georgina Connery Dickson College student Katrina Gibbins has been accepted a Bachelor of Philosophy (Honours) Science, a research intensive degree and one of the hardest undergraduate courses to get into as it requires an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) of 99. The gifted student was familiar with the campus after taking part in the ANU secondary school extension programs during Year 11 and 12, and said she was thrilled to receive the offer confirming it would be her academic home for the next four years. Hunter Hall International has denied it knew founder Peter Hall intended to sell his holding in the company before Christmas, although it was aware he wanted to quit as its chief investment officer. Trading in the fund manager's shares was halted on December 28, the first day of sharemarket trading after Christmas, as Mr Hall had informed chairman Kevin Eley on Christmas Eve he planned to resign as the chief investment officer. Only subsequently did Hunter Hall become aware Mr Hall wanted to sell his 44 per cent shareholding, the company said in a statement to the stock exchange on Thursday. Hunter Hall has $1.1 billion in funds under management, with about $700 million held in several unlisted funds and the balance in a listed investment company, Hunter Hall Global Value. On December 30, the company announced Mr Hall had sold a 19.9 per cent shareholding in Hunter Hall International to Washington H. Soul Pattinson Co for $1 a share, significantly less than the $3.50 the shares were trading at prior to their sharemarket suspension. Soul Pattinson has said it intends to offer $1 a share to all investors in Hunter Hall, and Mr Hall has indicated he will accept for the remainder of his shares in the absence of a higher offer. In 1941, a few months before the United States entered World War II, magazine publisher Henry Luce called on Americans to establish "the first great American century". America, he argued, had become the world's most powerful nation but refused to act like it. Luce believed America had to commit itself to promoting democratic internationalism. In the years that followed, as the US helped found the United Nations, joined security alliances like NATO and ANZUS, and pushed for free trade agreements across the globe, Luce's dream was largely realised. The year 2016 may well mark the end of the American century. It is fitting that a Republican is bringing it to a close. Although typically thought of as the party most aggressively promoting intervention and free trade, the GOP has long housed some of the nation's most vocal opponents of internationalism a group now ascendant with the election of Donald Trump. East German citizens climb the Berlin wall at the Brandenburg gate after the opening of the East German border was announced in November 1989. For much of the 1940s and 1950s, a strong anti-internationalist element was prominent in the GOP, led by Senator Robert Taft. Taft was an American-century sceptic. He believed that if the US got too involved in world events, it would begin to sacrifice its democratic traditions. But as the Cold War heated up, conservative Republicans, the most ardent Taftites, flipped. They became committed "cold warriors", ready to do battle wherever and whenever in order to assert American strength against the Soviets. No sooner had the Berlin Wall fallen than the anti-internationalists re-emerged. Now called "paleocons", they were led by Pat Buchanan, a former Nixon aide who called for America to return to its roots, to withdraw from its active involvement in the world, to build walls, not bridges. Buchanan did surprisingly well in his run for the GOP nomination in 1992, though he ultimately failed to unseat George H.W. Bush. He was Trump's precursor, a sign that anti-internationalism remained a live cause in the Republican Party. At Botany Council, the ICAC heard of several million dollars being paid for fake or inflated invoices, a high five figures "microwave" budget and senior managers spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on overseas travel. How did this go unnoticed in a budget of only $50 million at an organisation open to democratic scrutiny? Nobody cares. Over the New Year break, former prime minister Bob Hawke called for state governments to be abolished, citing familiar arguments. But it's suburban councils we should think about abolishing. The factors that have fostered council corruption are making them less relevant. Clean and successful government depends as much on the people looking in and scrutinising from the outside as the quality of its members. The Herald is the only major news organisation to maintain a full-time team devoted to scrutinising the activities of local government as readers display a marked preference for news about quasi-celebrities in Canberra. Elsewhere the task is left largely to local newspapers, which are in decline and where reporters say councils can use their advertising budgets to apply pressure over critical coverage. Merging the city's councils and doubling their size will help, but only ever so much. This is a symptom of a bigger and terminal decline in local communities and civic life, set forth first by television and then by the internet. The City of Sydney, which is well run, of a high-profile and pursues projects of enough scale and substance to draw scrutiny, is an exception. But in the rest of Sydney's councils the poor quality of political representatives (and the senior bureaucrats they appoint) is at crisis point. Candidates for councils are now mostly determined not just by political parties but by factions within them and local chiefs who control branches. Right faction dissidents in the Liberal Party publicly claim that its party tickets in many areas are determined by some of the lobbyists who have come to hold enormous sway in its two dominant factions. If that is true, the risk for corruption is probably much greater at the local level, where scrutiny is scant and developers are circling, than in federal politics. The benefit to having elected representatives is that they can be pulled into line by the public. But this seldom happens in council life, and when it does, it usually concerns a swimming pool. It's worth asking whether the council chambers could be substituted with a Swiss-like system that allows the public to challenge decisions if enough residents sign petitions opposing them. We have already entered a great anti-democratic experiment. About half of Sydney's councils are in the freezer while the Baird government prosecutes its merger plans. Councils are also being stripped progressively of planning powers by the state government. Removing elected representatives from councils has brought about some immediate wins, such as the cancellation, by an unelected administrator, of decisions made to the benefit of elected Auburn councillors. But there have already been complaints about administrators acting against the will of local residents, most notably the Inner West Council's (largely irrelevant) stance on WestConnex. It's time to weigh the gains of having professionals run local government against the loss of voters' franchise. Importantly, we should see if most people notice. Three men Blondie (Clint Eastwood), Tuco (Eli Wallach) and Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef) are searching for buried gold. Each knows only part of its secret location and they must work together before violently attending to personal scores. A visual and visceral triumph, director Sergio Leone reinvigorates traditional notions of framing and montage. His extreme close-ups are as exciting and confronting today as they were three decades ago. The film's American Civil War scenes are simply astonishing, cutting boldly from a spectacle battle over a bridge to a moment of rare tenderness when Blondie lays a sheepskin jacket on a dying soldier so that his last thoughts can be of human goodness. This epic Western is revered for its black humour, bravura performances (casting Eli Wallach was a stroke of genius) and the swirling gunfights to the sonic inspirations of Ennio Morricone. This is a masterpiece of world cinema. SM Eleven, 8.30pm Billy Wilder's 1954 Sabrina (9Gem, 1.45pm) is an undisputed gem of the Golden Years of Hollywood, the enchanting story of a chauffeur's daughter, Sabrina Fairchild (Audrey Hepburn), falling in love with the dissolute son, David Larrabee (William Holden), of her father's employer. It occurs all too slowly to sweet Sabrina that it is David's brother, the dour and responsible Linus (Humphrey Bogart), who is the better choice. In 1995, Sydney (Out of Africa) Pollack tried his hand at a remake, beginning with Samuel A. Taylor's source play and the original film script being updated by Barbara Benedek and David Rayfiel. It is full of zingy (but now a bit dated) one-liners. Pollack cast Brit Julia Ormond as Sabrina (she's captivating, even if it's impossible to forget Hepburn was there first) and Harrison Ford (subtle as the repressed Linus). An unusually handsome film, this represents a major director in a light and carefree and irresistible mood. SM The Cheshire Murders CI, 9.30pm This gruelling feature-length documentary made for HBO details a suburban nightmare: a home invasion leading to rape and murder. In 2007, in the quietly affluent Connecticut town of Cheshire, two men described as "monsters" broke into the home of Dr William Petit and a range of lives were shattered. Filmmakers Kate Davis and David Heilbroner chronicle the crimes and their aftermath, talking to family members, friends and lawyers and the following the cases through the trials. They're concerned to examine the use of the death penalty: is it vengeance or justice? Is it a deterrent? Might life sentences be a preferable outcome? The filmmakers also raise questions about the police response to the crime after they were alerted to a hostage situation in the Petit house. No one from the local police department would talk to the filmmakers and the absence of their perspective raises additional questions about a profoundly disturbing case. DE There comes a point in any new relationship when it is time to meet the in-laws, and for Prince Harry, it seems, that moment has already happened. The Prince has already met his girlfriend Meghan Markle's father Thomas, who is said to be "extremely proud" of his daughter. Prince Harry speaks after presenting U.S. Staff Sergeant Elizabeth Marks' gold medal to members of the medical team from Britain's Papworth Hospital at Kensington Palace on June 1, 2016 in London, England. Credit:WPA Pool The Prince, 32, met Thomas Markle, 72, during one of his visits to Toronto, where Miss Markle, an actress, lives and works. Her half-brother, Thomas Markle Jr, said the couple were "very much in love", adding: "They're extremely happy together, they look great together and she's done good." Thomas Jr said his father met the Prince six months ago, before the couple's relationship was public knowledge. He told Mail Online: "He's pretty happy about Harry and he's extremely proud of her. They have an amazing relationship, they're very close and they always have been." Bollywood stars have come together to condemn the horrific mass molestation incident which took place in Bengaluru on new year's eve. By India Today Web Desk: The entire nation woke up to the horror of mass-molestation incident on Bengaluru's streets on new year's eve where innumerable women were groped and grabbed by men. The horrific incident has invited the wrath of many. And Bollywood fraternity is not far behind. ALSO READ: Akshay Kumar's angry, emotional video message on Bengaluru molestation ALSO READ: Bengaluru molestation happened because nudity is in fashion, says Samajwadi Party's Abu Azmi advertisement ALSO READ: Abu Azmi's son Farhan slutshames Esha Gupta, goes on misogynist rant Aamir Khan, who is riding high on the success of Dangal, condemned the incident and said that he feels ashamed that such incidents happen in India. In an interview to ANI, Khan said, "The incident that took place in Bengaluru was very disappointing. We feel ashamed that such incidents take place in our country. I think it's the responsibility of everyone along with the administration to see that law and order prevails." The 51-year-old actor, who has always been vocal about social issues and women safety, said that strict action should be taken against the culprits. "The law and order mechanism and the judiciary and police should bring the culprit to the task at the earliest as it happens in other countries. For example, when such an incident takes place in America, the guilty are not only arrested but they are given punishments as well within two or three months. I think when such a change will take place, things will automatically change," added the PK actor. Even Hrithik Roshan couldn't contain his angst and said, "I didnt see the news in real time. But yes it is sad and we all bear responsibility. We all must do something about that. I feel very strongly as a father, as a member of the society that if something like this is happening in an environment so close to me, then I definitely must be impacted. I must be affected and I must do something about it." It isn't just the incident that has angered the film stars but also the comments of Samajwadi Party MLA Abu Azmi has left many B-Town stars shocked. In an interview to ANI, Abu Azmi had said, "Aaj modern zamane mein jitni aurat nangi nazar aati hai utna usey fashionable kaha jata hai." From Varun Dhawan to Swara Bhasakar, many actors took to Twitter to express their angst against the incident. Argggh how this angers me.Sir punish the criminals not the victims. Women can wear what they want it's their choice. https://t.co/HSpRjlRq8A Varun Dhawan (@Varun_dvn) January 3, 2017 Shameful that law breakers, law makers & law keepers are united in the warped logic tht women invite rape/molestation #bangalore #india 2/2 Swara Bhaskar (@ReallySwara) January 3, 2017 #Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara you must resign.. you share the mentality of the molesters #bangaloremolestation #bangalore #shame Swara Bhaskar (@ReallySwara) January 3, 2017 Women should not dress like westerners b'coz men dressed like westerners are molesters, says the man in the shirt.#oxy(deprived)morons Farhan Akhtar (@FarOutAkhtar) January 3, 2017 advertisement Akshay Kumar also took to Twitter earlier today to share his thoughts on the Bengaluru molestation incident. Khiladi Kumar condemned the incident and said that he is ashamed of being called a human being. He also advised the women to learn to defend themselves. The Bangalore incident makes me feel we r evolving backwards,from humans to animals,rather beasts coz even animals are better!Truly shameful pic.twitter.com/FJwJ80Mkby Akshay Kumar (@akshaykumar) January 5, 2017 --- ENDS --- For more than 40 years, pregnant women around the world have sought help for morning sickness through a combination of the two main ingredients in Diclegis: pyridoxine and doxylamine. An estimated 35 million are believed to have taken the medication, which is endorsed by health agencies and obstetricians worldwide. Could their faith in the treatment be based on flawed data? The photo made headlines when the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cracked down on the drug's manufacturer for not disclosing risks in its marketing. Today, Diclegis is in the news again, but this time it's not just the advertising that's in question: It's the effectiveness of the drug itself. "OMG," she wrote in the caption. "Have you heard about this? As you guys know my #morningsickness has been pretty bad... I talked to my doctor. He prescribed me #Diclegis, I felt a lot better and most importantly, it's been studied and there was no increased risk to the baby." Kardashian West has been a strong endorser of products along with her sisters. Credit:Getty Images That unsettling question is raised by an analysis published Wednesday in PLOS One by researchers in Toronto who reviewed more than 7200 pages of data from a clinical trial in the 1970s that had never been made public before. The information was obtained from the FDA through the Freedom of Information Act and is part of a global initiative by the scientific community to bring to light or restore invisible and abandoned trials (RIAT). The effort began in 2013 following a call by Peter Doshi, then a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins University, and others for researchers to publish data sitting around on their computers or in file cabinets. Science magazines described it as a "stark warning" to drug companies that if they don't publish their data, others will. Nav Persaud, a family physician and researcher at St. Michael's Hospital who is the main author of the new analysis, said the trial in question was key to obtaining the drug's approval in Canada, where it is sold as Diclectin. The old clinical trial was conducted by Merrell-National Laboratories, which no longer exists, and involved 2308 patients at 14 clinics in the United States who were in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy who complained of nausea or vomiting. They were randomised into eight groups that tested different medications. Women were asked to take two tablets at bedtime and, if necessary, another in the morning and midafternoon for seven nights. Doctors were asked to note the frequency of vomiting and hours of nausea. In the medical literature over the past few decades, Persaud said that this study, which was never finished, had been referred to as being a success but with no details. However, he said, when he looked at the raw data it contained critical flaws, including the fact that some information that was supposed to be obtained during patient visits was not, the criteria for reporting improvement were unclear, outcome data was unavailable for 37 per cent of participants in the placebo group and about 30 per cent of the patients were lost to follow up despite the fact that the trial lasted only a week. Many people think that STEM means technology and coding. That is one part of the bigger picture. Science encompasses our world and includes environmental science, marine science, chemical, physical and earth and space sciences as well. Professor Ian Chubb said in 2013, in his role as chief scientist: "STEM is everywhere. Our nourishment, our safety, our homes and neighbours, our relationships with family and friends, our health, our jobs, our leisure are all profoundly shaped by technological innovation and the discoveries of science." The investment in STEM STEM is important for future generations because future jobs will require problem solving skills, innovative and creative thinking and digital skills. Future generations need to learn how to think critically and flexibly in order to adapt to this rapidly changing world. The way in which STEM skills can be incorporated into the teaching and learning within Australian schools requires support for educators at all levels. In December 2015, the Australian Federal Government announced a National Innovation and Science Agenda. The mantra was to "inspire all Australians from pre-schoolers to the broader community to engage with STEM". The program was given almost $65 million for the professional development of teachers, and to pay for specialised STEM programs in classrooms. There was $5 million in the 2014-15 Budget for similar programs, called "Primary Connections" and "Science by Doing". State governments have also committed significant money to the STEM program. Curriculum changes and challenges As a result of increased spending, university curriculums are changing. For example, science has become a pre-requisite to enter a Bachelor of Education primary or early childhood course at some universities. In addition, coding is now being taught from Foundation to Year 10. While both of these initiatives provide a step forward for STEM education, teachers need to be given the support to be able to teach STEM skills in the classroom. The level of support varies from state to state. For example, regional STEM champions are being appointed to offer support to state schools in Queensland. In Victoria, $82.2 million has been committed to a similar support initiative. A further $128 million is being spent in 10 Tech Schools, $30 million in professional learning programs, 200 teachers are being trained as mathematics and science specialists, and others are being taught to be STEM trainers. Also, $21.6 million is funding a new curriculum. In summary, teachers are being taught to contextualise new science concepts being taught in the classroom. Local flavour Resources are allowing teachers to apply their new skills in a local context. For example, teachers in the Queensland central coast city of Gladstone are focusing on the Great Barrier Reef, local industry and the harbour. They're using the principles of STEM to immerse themselves into real world science issues. Technology, drama, industry tours, laboratory work and field trips are all important components which lead to a final solution or outcome. This immersion in real world science ultimately means STEM education is being improved in a way which bonds communities with government, industry and educators. The future of STEM The Australian curriculum and the way in which teachers develop learning experiences will reflect the transient and evolving character of STEM theory, while providing a strong focus on the practice of STEM. If this happens, curriculum content will be delivered to students in ways that encourage curiosity and reflection, combining their inquisitive nature with the power of scientific method. Australian schools are responsible for providing a foundation of learning for those with future STEM careers. This is in addition to developing a scientifically literate and numerate society. The critical ingredient for teachers is to be inspirational, nurturing children's curiosity and interest in science to a point they can carve career pathways. More support Good results of STEM training are likely to persuade governments to invest more heavily in state-based programs at all levels of education. The most immediate need is for teachers of primary years, where time spent on science averages 7 per cent, according to a report, Education at a Glance, OECD Indicators 2015. The dream for some teachers is to see a STEM specialist in every primary school in Australia even if this means STEM experts devote some time to their local school. A man has been arrested and charged after another man was killed in a fatal hit-and-run in Sydney's west last week. Zac Andreou, 67, was standing next to his car on Clarence Street in Condell Park just before 4pm on December 28 when he was hit by a van. Police allege the van did not stop. Family members rushed to the scene to help him, but he was critically injured and died on the way to hospital. A union has called for the bus safety review to include tougher penalties, after a bus driver was assaulted while on the job last night. A 16-year-old boy has been charged over the assault in Benowa. The boy boarded the bus at Nerang about 11pm on Wednesday. Police allege the 16-year-old sat at the back of the bus and began yelling at the driver. He allegedly then punched the driver in the face and tried to steal his cash box. Emergency services are frantically searching for a 60-year-old man who was swept away by flood waters in the Atherton Tablelands last night. A helicopter, along with 24 police, fire and SES members on the ground resumed the search at 5am for the man, who was believed to have been swept away near the Kennedy Highway in Tolga about 6pm on Wednesday night. Emergency services searched until 11pm and are trying to do as much as possible Thursday morning before more heavy rain hampers their efforts. The Atherton received a whopping 118mm of rain in 24 hours, and heavy rainfall over the past four days dumped 240mm on the area, according to Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Sean Fitzgerald. A year after puzzling auto analysts and enthusiasts with a prototype racing car, Faraday Future returned to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week to unveil its first passenger vehicle, named the FF 91. While the California-based company finally put an automotive face to its proposed mass-market plans, details were scant. Officials said the sleek four-door would boast 1000 horsepower produced by electric motors, and that it would begin taking $US5000 ($6869) deposits on the company website, FF.com. Faraday Future's FF 91 can summon 1000 horsepower and go from 0 to to 60mph (96.5kmph) in 2.39 seconds. Credit:AP In March, one FF 91 will be auctioned off for charity at an undisclosed event. The main production run is slated for 2018, company executives said. As for price, Faraday representatives were mum, saying only that the company aims "to deliver the value of an ultra-luxury car at the price of a premium sedan." Most premium sedans in the US, vehicles such as a BMW 7-Series, can cost upwards of $US80,000 to $US100,000. The state government has announced a $10 million upgrade program for shelter areas at 200 government schools in high bushfire risk areas. But only 51 of that number, those judged to be of highest priority, will have works completed by the time school starts at the end of January. Coping with bushfire risk: Principal Julie Legione, second from right, in front of Billanook primary school's fire shelter. Pictured with pupils Alana Watson (front right), Kaiden Watson (front left) and parents Kelly and Mark. Credit:Darrian Traynor The program, of audits followed by upgrades, includes vegetation removal, gutter cleaning, and the installation of gutter guards, door and window fire shutters, water tanks and sprinklers. A further 40 audits will be completed by February, and the remaining 109 by June, however the actual works will start after the audits, with the aim of completion by the end of 2017. A large thunderstorm expected to lash Melbourne, looks like it will skip the capital city and head straight for north-east Victoria, bringing large hailstones and flash flooding with it. The Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe weather warning on Thursday afternoon for parts of the north-east and Gippsland, including Corryong, Dargo, Maffra, Buchan, Bonang and Omeo. "Severe thunderstorms are likely to produce heavy rainfall that may lead to flash flooding and large hailstones in the warning area over the next several hours," the warning says. As the sun was shining high above Melbourne CBD at 3.30pm, Bureau forecaster Stephen King said there was 40 per cent chance of some storm activity just outside of Melbourne. A man was slashed with a Stanley knife during a road rage incident at Kings Park, in Melbourne's north-west. Police are appealing for witnesses to the road rage incident which occurred on Monday about 10.45am on Kings Road. A man was run over after a road rage incident involving thrown bottles from a stolen BMW. Credit:Tina Haynes A 22-year-old was driving north when his car was rammed from behind by a dark-coloured car, forcing it off the road. Brimbank Crime Investigation Unit police say the rammer then approached the victim, spraying him with a fire extinguisher and slashing his chest with a Stanley knife. Ahmed Abou-eid, back centre, with his family (left to right) Salma, Isra, Yasmin and Aladdin. Credit:Facebook "I thought this is too close for comfort, I better film this," he said. "F--- off you wog," the man can be heard yelling in the video. "What are you going to do?" "Nothing, go back to where you're sitting," Mr Abou-eid responds. "Have you thought about my family? No you don't even think about it," the man says, in between expletives, repeating the words "wog" and "dago". The man walks closer to Mr Abou-eid, realising he is being filmed, and says "you're not allowed to take my picture". He walks around the playground, next to where the children are playing. "Oh you're a macho man," he says, inciting a fight. He then turns on one of the women, "Go back to Greece you f---ing wog," he yells. The man eventually throws a punch at Mr Abou-eid, but Mr Abou-eid does not retaliate. "Just go back, just go back," he says to the man. At the end of the video the man sits down inside the playground, crosses his legs, and clutches his bottle of whiskey. Mr Abou-eid said after he stopped filming, several people around him decided to leave the park. "Some families got their kids and got in their cars and drove off, and then about six or seven guys surrounded him and I think he got scared so he stopped abusing everybody," he said. Police were called several times during the altercation. Once they arrived the man was taken away, but Mr Abou-eid said he did not want to press charges as he didn't want to relive what had happened. "The police told me, they've had a few problems with him in the area, but not in the park, and not actually abusing anyone to the extent that he had that day," he said. "You think it's the drink or the alcohol, but these people have this racism in them that comes out of them the more they drink. "I would love to ask him why he has that much hatred towards people from overseas and what has someone done to him to make him feel like that." He said, by filming the incident, he hoped he could make people aware of the abuse, and urged people not to stay silent. "These things are happening, they are real and people must stand up against these things. If they see something like that happen, don't walk away, help out if someone needs help, step in," Mr Abou-eid said. Mr Abou-eid said he worried about how witnessing such abuse could affect his children in the future. "My six-year-old asked me today if the man was still in jail. They're still thinking about it, and they're scared to go back to the park again," he said. "That park is a meeting point for a lot of friends and family, but now we will kind of think twice about whether we will go there." Moreland City Council mayor Helen Davidson said the behaviour was unacceptable. "Moreland takes great pride in having such a culturally diverse community. This behaviour goes against what the community of Moreland stands for," she said. "Harmony Park was created by Moreland for people to come together; people of all ages, cultures and abilities. This footage shows that Moreland's community does not tolerate this behaviour." Advice from the Australian Human Rights Commission about being a bystander to racial abuse is "if you see something, say something, if it feels safe to do so". While promising a safer Bengaluru, the top minister termed the entire episode an a conspiracy to defame the state's Congress government and the IT city in particular. By India Today Web Desk: Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara today promised to make state capital Bengaluru safer for women, five days after video from the city of women being groped, molested, robbed by men during New Year celebrations shocked the country. While promising a safer Bengaluru, the top minister termed the entire episode an a conspiracy to defame the state's Congress government and the IT city in particular. advertisement Parameshwar said that he was misquoted by the media over the mass molestation case. "These things do happen," the minister was quoted in the media while responding to the January 1 incident. HERE'S WHAT THE MINISTER SAID: On Kamanahalli incident : We have got enough evidence through the CCTV images. We have taken necessary action. FIR has been registered in the case. Governor has asked for a report on the entire incident. We will submit it as early as possible. We have given instructions to police commissioner to install 550 CCTV cameras across the city. We will keep increasing the number of cameras in the coming days. We have planned to install 5000 CCTVs. DIAL 100 helpline will now have 100 lines. I made a statement and release to press. I am extremely pained that with respect to the incident has been misinterpreted. Women have equal rights. I have stressed on women and child safety. City police following leads and will take necessary action suo moto. Request media if there is footage of molestation to come forward with that footage to support us to nab the culprits. I have sisters, a wife, am not a person to treat women in a different sense. We never see them in a different sense. WATCH: Bengaluru molestation: 4 accused arrested in Kamanahalli case ALSO READ: Bengaluru molestation happened because nudity is in fashion, says Samajwadi Party's Abu Azmi Bengaluru mass molestation survivors: First time ever we felt unsafe --- ENDS --- A prisoner at the maximum-security Port Phillip Prison has been stabbed and assaulted in an incident on Thursday afternoon. The 26-year-old man was taken to St Vincent's Hospital in a "non-life-threatening condition", an Ambulance Victoria spokeswoman said. There are more offenders aged 25-34 in Victoria than those aged 15-24. Credit:Paul Jeffers Detectives from the Wyndham Crime Investigation unit are at the facility at Dohertys Road in Truganina. It is the second reported stabbing at the prison in recent months. In November an inmate in his 20s was taken to hospital with stab wounds and lacerations to his upper body. The full shutdown of a large section of the Tullamarine Freeway began at 10pm on Thursday night and will add an estimated 40 minutes to journeys between the city and the airport, as an estimated 100,000 vehicles a day snake through the north-west suburbs via lengthy detours. The full shutdown of a Melbourne freeway for roadworks for such a long period is unprecedented and VicRoads says high summer, when traffic volumes are lower, is the best time to do it. "This is the first time in Melbourne's history that we have closed a significant section of a major freeway for several days," Trevor Boyd, VicRoads' Director M80 Ring Road Upgrade, said. "With traffic volumes 20 per cent lower and the weather at its warmest, it's the best time to do this work." A baby whose mother was serving a sentence at Bandyup women's prison has contracted meningococcal disease, the Western Australian Department of Health has confirmed. A spokesman for the Department of Corrective Services said the infant, who was living with their mother at the jail, went to carers over the holidays on the 24th of December and was brought to hospital on the 30th of December where the child was diagnosed with the deadly disease. Up to eight children are living with their mothers at Bandyup women's prison at any given time. Credit:Photo:ABC A spokesman for the Department of Health, who would not reveal the age or gender of the child for privacy reasons, said the infant was responding well to treatment. The baby's mother has since completed her sentence at the prison. Beijing. A city official in south-west China unleashed a barrage of gunfire on the city's mayor and Communist Party secretary during a meeting on Wednesday, injuring them before fleeing and killing himself, the official news media reported. Privately owned guns are rare in China, because of a virtual ban on civilian use, and grisly attacks on officials by colleagues are also uncommon. Panzhihua mayor Li Jianqin (third from left) and colleagues including gunman Chen Zhongshu (second from right) at a market just before Chinese new year. Credit:Panzhihua government website So rumours of the shooting in Panzhihua, an industrial city in Sichuan province, rippled quickly across the Chinese internet even before local authorities confirmed the news. Panzhihua was built as part of Mao Zedong's plans to relocate factories deep inland, where they would be protected from a feared war. Cairo: One suspect was killed and three others arrested in a police raid in connection with a bomb attack that killed six policemen in Cairo on December 9, the Interior Ministry said on Thursday. Police also seized the car that was used to carry out the attack on a security checkpoint on the main road leading to the Pyramids, a ministry statement said. Egyptian explosives experts look for evidence at the scene. Credit:AMR NABIL The ministry said those arrested in the raid on the outskirts of Cairo belonged to a militant group called the Hasm Movement, which claimed responsibility for the attack. Hasm is described by security forces as an armed wing of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Brotherhood describes itself as a peaceful organisation. 2017 Mitsubishi Outlander Expert Review By Larry Nutson 2017 Mitsubishi Outlander Another three-row SUV choice Review By Larry Nutson Senior Editor and Bureau Chief Chicago Bureau The Auto Channel The choice of new vehicles offered on the U.S. market today is a virtual smorgasbord. Trying to decide on how to fill your plate can be mind-boggling. My typical approach to a buffet meal is to scan the table from one end to another before I start to choose. Today when it comes to car or truck or SUV shopping scanning the buffet is pretty easy to do right at home on the web. And the good news is theres something for everyone. Mitsubishi is one of those brands that has a place in the market although it may not be one of the big players. Folks are shopping and buying Mitsubishi vehicles as shown by total sales in 2016 being up one percent, making for four consecutive years of annual sales growth. And, overall Outlander SUV year-over-year sales are up 39.5 percent here are the final 2016 US Sales year-end results. Last year about this time I drove the 7-passenger 2016 Outlander 3.0 GT. This is the top of the line model, the only one powered by a 224HP V6, with all-wheel-drive and is now priced starting at $31,695 for 2017. This time around I was in the 2017 Outlander 2.4 SEL S-AWC priced at $27,495. Its one of six Outlanders with the 166 HP 2.4-L engine offered in two-wheel or all-wheel drive. Prices start at $23,495 for the ES which is now available with a lower cost AWD system that costs only $1000 additional. The SE and SEL step-up for AWD is $2000. In 2016 the Outlander was freshened with a new exterior design and new interior appointments as well. New for 2017 are some additional interior updates and improvements, as well as the new entry level All-Wheel Control 4WD system on the ES, infotainment and connectivity upgrades, Blind Spot Warning with Lane Change Assist and Rear Cross Traffic Alert, and Forward Collision Mitigation System with Pedestrian Detection. Some new convenience items include a wiper de-icer standard on all 4WD trims, a heated steering wheel (which I commented a year ago as needed, thank you), an electric parking brake, automatic high beam headlights and multi-view camera system. For 2017 the Outlander seven-passenger crossover has been named an IIHS TOP SAFETY PICK+ recipient for the fourth year in a row when equipped with optional Touring Package. The Touring package is offered on the top two trims, the SEL and GT. It has a $4,400 price on the SEL and $1500 on the GT due to its higher level of standard equipment. We expect that over time these driver-assistance safety features such as forward collision mitigation will come down in cost and eventually become standard on all vehicles. On the fuel economy front the 2017 Outlander SEL that I drove, which was with all-wheel drive, is EPA test-cycle rated at 26 mpg combined, with 24 city mpg and 29 highway mpg. The two-wheel drive Outlander gets one mpg better in both ratings. I might also mention that all Outlanders are certified as low emission vehicles so you can be proud of being green and, as an added benefit, if your work in a LEED certified building you might get a parking space closer to the front door. More information, trim levels and specifications on the 2017 Outlander can be found at www.mitsubishicars.com. And, you can compare the Outlander to other midsize 7-passenger SUVs right here at TheAutoChannel.com. Overall the Outlander is a good value. Its a roomy 7-passenger SUV with plenty of rear cargo room, growing from 10.3 cu.ft. behind the 3rd-row, expanding to 34.2 cu.ft. with it folded and to 63.3 cu.ft. with both rows flat. Theres lots of versatility here. The 2.4-L engine delivers modest acceleration as well as fuel economy. That said, depending on how heavily loaded you use an SUV and the terrain you routinely drive it can be just fine for many. Towing capacity is only 1,500 pounds on the 4-cylinder models, but the V6-powered GT can handle 3,500 pounds. From my year-ago GT driving experience, this is the model to get if you tow a lot and haul a lot of people and stuff. Theres also a good warranty to take into consideration. Its 10-year/100,000-mile powertrain and 5-year/60,000-mile overall. There is a recent recall on the Outlander affecting older models from 2011, 2012 and 2016 model years. The rear hatch lift gate can suddenly fall on people because the outer tube on the lift gate supports may not have been treated properly to prevent rust. That can make the tube corrode when exposed to road salt and water and allow the gas that holds up the hatch to leak out. But, recalls are a fact of life today. Stuff happens. I hope you enjoy your buffet selection. Learn More About Mitsubishi Vehicles 2017 Larry Nutson, the Chicago Car Guy . Honda Canada Inc. combined and Honda Auto Division set all-time annual sales records Acura Division annual sales top 20,000 units for the second consecutive year Civic becomes Canada's best-selling passenger car for 19th consecutive year best-selling passenger car for 19th consecutive year 99% of HCI vehicles sold in Canada built in North America MARKHAM, ON, Jan. 4, 2017 /CNW/ - Honda Canada Inc. (HCI) today reported an annual sales increase of 5% in 2016, on sales of 186,676 units by the Honda and Acura divisions combined, celebrating all-time annual sales for the third year in a row. Honda Automobile Division set a third consecutive annual sales record, up 6% over last year, on sales of 166,449 units in 2016. Although the Acura Division topped 20,000 units sold for the second consecutive year, the brand reported a decrease of 4% on annual sales of 20,227 units. "2016 was very rewarding for Honda Canada, as we continue to add more Canadian customers to the Honda family each year. We intend to build on our success by remaining focused on delivering a complete line-up of quality and value-oriented vehicles to a wide variety of Canadians," said Dave Gardner, Senior Vice President of Operations, Honda Canada Inc. "As our loyal customers are a key pillar of our success, we'd like to thank the thousands of Canadians who supported Honda and Acura this past year." "Honda also celebrated the hard work and dedication of generations of manufacturing associates in 2016, as Honda of Canada Mfg. celebrated its 30th anniversary of automobile production in Canada in November. We are extremely proud to say that more than 53 percent of Honda vehicles sold in Canada in 2016 were built by Canadians, for Canadians at Honda's manufacturing facility in Alliston, Ontario," added Gardner. 2016 Honda Canada Inc. highlights HCI: Honda Canada set a third consecutive all-time annual sales record in 2016 with 186,676 sales, versus the previous best annual sales of 177,506 units in 2015. 2016 sales represent the fifth consecutive year of annual HCI sales increases. Honda: Honda brand had its best year in company history with 166,449 sales versus the previous all-time record year in 2015 with 156,503 sales. Honda Division celebrates five consecutive years of annual sales increases. Honda Civic becomes Canada's best-selling passenger car in Canada for the 19 th consecutive year. best-selling passenger car in for the 19 consecutive year. With seven years of consecutive annual sales growth, Honda CR-V had its best year ever with 44,789 sales versus the previous best in 2015 with 38,961 sales. Honda HR-V set an annual record on sales of 12,371 units versus 8,959 units in 2015. Acura: Acura brand posts second consecutive year of more than 20,000 unit sales. In September, the Acura brand sold its 500,000 th unit in Canada . unit in . Acura RDX had its best year ever with 8,047 units sold versus the previous best in 2015 with 7,380 units, marking five years of consecutive sales growth. About Honda Honda Canada Inc. (HCI) was founded in 1969 and is the parent company for both Honda and Acura vehicle brands in Canada. The company has produced more than seven million cars and light trucks since 1986 at its two manufacturing facilities and builds engines at a third manufacturing plant in Alliston, Ontario. Both manufacturing facilities are extremely flexible and currently build Honda Civic and CR-V models. Honda Canada has invested more than $3.9 billion in Canada and each year it sources nearly $2.1 billion in goods and services from Canadian suppliers. Honda Canada has sold more than four million Honda and Acura passenger cars and light trucks in Canada. We and our partners use cookies to Store and/or access information on a device. We and our partners use data for Personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. An example of data being processed may be a unique identifier stored in a cookie. Some of our partners may process your data as a part of their legitimate business interest without asking for consent. To view the purposes they believe they have legitimate interest for, or to object to this data processing use the vendor list link below. The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website. If you would like to change your settings or withdraw consent at any time, the link to do so is in our privacy policy accessible from our home page. The party's office bearers and state presidents are taking part in the crucial meeting ahead of polls. By Brijesh Pandey: The BJP's national office-bearers meeting began on Friday at NDMC convention centre here. The party's office bearers and state presidents are taking part in the crucial meeting ahead of the Assembly elections in five states. BJP president Amit Shah inaugurated the meeting which would finalise the agenda of the national executive. BJP NATIONAL EXECUTIVE: WHAT TO EXPECT Around 4 pm Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the office bearers. Two resolutions will also be presented - political and economic resolution. In the economic resolution, Modi government's decision on black money and demonitisation will be lauded. At the same time, the role of the Opposition especially Congress, SP, BSP and TMC in opposing demonitisation, will be condemned. On the first day, at around 5 pm BJP National Executive will be officially inaugurated by PM Modi and BJP president Amit Shah. After the inauguration, presidential address of Amit Shah will take place. Next day, the national executive will begin at 9 am. Before the PM Modi's speech, the economic resolution will be adopted. The economic resolution is expected to endorse the work done by the Modi government related to farmers and agriculture. There will be a separate political resolution, which is expected to focus on the surgical strikes in the aftermath of the Uri-terror attack. The cross-border operation will be hailed as a big achievement of the government and it will be touted as one of the historical incidents of independent India. This will be presented as an instrument through which the world started seeing India differently. At around 4 pm PM Modi will deliver his concluding speech. Apart from this, elections in five states will also be discussed. Assembly polls in UP will be at heart of the discussion. Views of members will also be sought for general budge and the same will be relayed to the government. Former party presidents, present chief minister and around 350 members will take part in this executive meet. advertisement ALSO READ: Narendra Modi to assess performance of ministries ahead of polls --- ENDS --- City of Columbias Pet of the Week Meleas is a five-month-old pit bull puppy who is looking for a home to call her own. Meleas is happy to hang around with her humans, sunbath, snooze on a... For Dogs, its Trick and Treat Its almost Halloween, a great time to teach your dog a trick and give him a treat. Most trainers are fans of trick training. Its not as silly as it... By India Today Web Desk: Hollywood received a major jolt when Angelina Jolie filed for divorce from Brad Pitt on September 19, after 12 years of togetherness and 2 years of marriage. ALSO READ: Brad Pitt is 'sleeping with an actress almost as big as Angelina Jolie' ALSO READ: Is Kate Hudson pregnant with Brad Pitt's child? Angelina, who recently spent New Year with her children, sans Brad, slammed him in her recent court filing, according to People. Reportedly, Angie claims that Brad is insistent on getting the details relating to custody sealed from their ongoing divorce because he is "terrified that the public will learn the truth." advertisement The filing reportedly states, "There is little doubt that [Brad] would prefer to keep the entire case private, particularly given the detailed investigations by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Dept. of Children and Family Services into allegation of abuse." According to USA Today, Brad had sought sealing of the documents to protect their children's privacy. "I am extremely concerned that if court records regarding custody are not sealed, information contained therein will cause irreparable damage to our children's privacy rights," he is quoted to have said. People quotes a source close to Brad as saying that since he has been cleared by the FBI and child services, Angie's "line of attack doesn't make much sense." However, a source close to Angelina says, "While his behavior didn't amount to anything criminal, that doesn't mean he didn't do anything wrong," adding that the kids are "traumatised." ALSO WATCH: Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt call it quits --- ENDS --- CHARLESTON, South CarolinaQuivering with fear beneath a desk, Jennifer Pinckney and her 6-year-old daughter held each other tight and placed their hands over each others mouths. Silence was essential. A killer was stalking the church basement just outside the office in which they were hiding, firing gunshot after gunshot. During a break in the rampage, Pinckney heard the killer speak to one of his victims. Im not crazy, he said, separated from Pinckney by a locked door. I have to do this. Eighteen months later, the killer repeated that same sentiment to a jury considering whether he should be put to death or imprisoned for life as punishment for the massacre of nine worshipers at Emanuel A.M.E. Church on June 17, 2015. Theres nothing wrong with me psychologically, Dylann Roof told a jury Wednesday at his trial at the Charleston Federal Courthouse, where he has elected to serve as his own attorney. Roof, 22, was convicted in December of 33 charges related to the killings, including firearm crimes, religious obstruction crimes, and hate crimes. Prior to the church massacre, he had published a racist online manifesto and posed in assorted pictures with a gun and Confederate flags. Since being arrested in North Carolina a day after the shooting in June 2015, Roof confessed to the killings and told police he had hoped to start a race war with his actions. Instead the bloodbath spurred South Carolina to remove the Confederate flag from the grounds of its statehouse and inspired numerous vigils around Charleston to promote racial harmony and unity. During Roofs bond hearing two days after the shooting, several relatives of his victims told him in court they forgave him. I will never be able to hold her again, but I forgive you, and have mercy on your soul, said Nadine Collier, whose mother, Ethel Lance, was killed during the attack. But while some relatives of victims have expressed forgiveness and are not keen on Roof receiving the death penalty, other relatives and the federal government believe the defendant, who has twice been declared mentally competent to stand trial, should be executed for his crimes. The murder of anyone person is horrificthis case is worse, Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Williams told the jury in his own opening statement on Wednesday. It is worse because it wasnt just one personhe killed nine peopleIt is worse because of the reason he killed those people. He killed them because of the color of their skin, because he thought they were less than people. Advocating for the death penalty, the government followed the opening statements by calling its first witness, Jennifer Pinckney, widow of the Rev. Clementa Pinckney and one of three adult survivors of the shooting rampage. After describing how she met her late husband, Jennifer Pinckney testified about the horrors of that evening and how she survived the tragedy in which her husband perished. Pinckney explained that she and her youngest daughter, Malana, had accompanied the reverend to church that evening. While her husband handled church business and led Bible study in a nearby room in the church basement, Jennifer Pinckney typed on a laptop in the pastors study while her daughter watched a cartoon. Their activities, said Pinckney, were soon interrupted by loud sounds: Pop, pop, pop. Pinckney wondered if a generator had exploded, unaware that her husband had just been shot and killed at point blank range as he stood to pray, the first of Roofs victims. She rose to investigate the noise, grabbing a door handle to leave the room, but then quickly abandoned the plan, realizing the noises she had heard were actually gunshots. She took her hand off the door handle and grabbed her daughter. Retreating to a secretarys office beside the pastors study, she shoved her daughter under a desk, closing and locking a door behind them. Gunshots continued to ring throughout the basement. To impress upon her daughter the seriousness of their predicament, the gentle mother suddenly turned fierce. I just got real firm with her, said Pinckney. Shut up, dont say anything, youve got to be quiet. Pinckney contemplated making a run for help. She instructed her daughter to stay put and to pass along a message of love to the Pinckneys other daughter, Eliana, who had stayed home with her grandmother that evening. Tell your sister that I love her, said Jennifer Pinckney. More gunshots sounded. Bullets ripped through walls and entered the office. Pinckney dived under the desk with her daughter. Momma, is Daddy going to die? asked Malana. Be quiet, said her mother. Dont say anything. Jennifer Pinckney grabbed a cellphone lying on top of the desk but was unable to use it to call for help. More gunshots blasted through the basement. Shh, shh, shh, Jennifer Pinckney told her daughter in a panic, putting her hand over Malanas mouth. The 6-year-old reciprocated the gesture, covering her mothers mouth with her small hand. Mother and daughter shook with fear. Jennifer Pinckney heard sounds of people running outside the room, and then heard Roof speak, claiming not to be crazy. Then Roof tried to open the door to the room concealing the mother and daughter. A chill completely went over me, testified Jennifer Pinckney, I felt, This is it for us. But instead of trying to burst through the locked office door, Roof left the church, a door chime indicating his exit. Pinckney soon mustered the courage to leave the desk and locate her husbands cellphone in the office. She called 911 and stayed on the line until police arrived and knocked the office door down, entering with guns drawn. As the police helped the surviving Pinckneys leave the church, a female officer told Malana they would play a game with two simple rules: Malana would bury her face in the officers shoulder and shut her eyes tight. Im just gonna carry you out of here. Just keep your eyes closed, the officer said as she whisked Malana out of the church. Jennifer Pinckney followed her daughter, stepping over pools of blood as she left, convinced her husband had died. On Wednesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Richardson asked Jennifer Pinckney why she thought she and her daughter escaped without physical harm. Wasnt my time or my daughters time, said Jennifer Pinckney. God is a just God and I dont see God taking both parents away from two small kids. Malana and I could also have been victims and gotten killed, and Eliana would have lost both her parents and her sister. Acting as his own attorney, Roof elected not to cross-examine Jennifer Pinckney, nor the two friends of Clementa Pinckney who followed the widow on the witness stand. He spent much of the court proceedings staring straight ahead, without emotion, even when the rest of the courtroom erupted in laughter a handful of times during witnesses lighthearted recollections of Pinckney and his quirks. Following the testimony concerning Clementa Pinckney, prosecutors called to the stand the Rev. Anthony Thompson, husband of shooting victim Myra Thompson. He is the fourth of 38 possible witnesses prosecutors may call as they seek to inform the jury about the nine lives that Roof extinguished. The sentencing phase of Roofs trial continues Thursday. Wadi Barada, Damascus, was once an area known for summer picnics, cool breezes and popular cafes. As a born Damascene, I went there regularly during the summer to attain relief from the scorching heat. My cousin, who now has four kids, even met his wife in Wadi Barada after the two of them happened to picnic near each other one lucky weekend. But last week, as the bombs started falling, Wadi Barada turned into hell on earth. Napalm, explosive barrels, and tank shells rained down and left dozens of civilians killed and wounded. Hospitals and other civilian infrastructural facilities were deliberately targeted. The result was not only a humanitarian catastrophe but also perhaps the worst environmental catastrophe of the entire war. Let's take California for a comparison. California is currently experiencing a historic water shortage, including nearly three years under a drought state of emergency. Homes and businesses have faced long-term water rationing that stands to be extended under the conservation plan released by state authorities last month. But at least in California, the state works to mitigate the crisis. In Syria, the state is the cause of it. Millions of residents of Damascus are without water today due to the blistering bombing against Wadi Barada, where many fear they will soon meet the fate of Aleppo, which saw mass rapes, summary executions, and hundreds dead as regime forces seized the city. Indeed, after regime forces captured Aleppo, Wadi Barada residents began receiving chilling messages similar to the warnings that threatened Aleppo residents last month. As the regime bombing progressed, pro-regime sources spread false rumors that Wadi Barada residents were about to poison the Barada spring by pouring diesel into the water. These rumors were most likely a cover for what Assad regime forces were about to do. Starting last weekend, locals reported heavy bombings that appeared to be targeting the Wadi Barada spring and aquifer. No freshwater spring could exist without an aquifer -- an underground rock cavity formed by long-term water erosion. Rain water builds up underground in the aquifer, usually over the course of millennia, before the aquifer is finally filled and water bubbles out of the ground as a spring. Because of how long the aquifer-filling process takes, compensating for drops in aquifer water levels is extremely difficult. One reason for California's water plight is that residents have been depleting the key Central Valley aquifer at twice the historical average, causing the ground to sink 1.5 feet in some locations. Assad regime warplanes took Syria's water supply by thousands of years last week when they finally hit the Barada aquifer and caused massive damage to the aquifer itself. Aquifer water levels plunged by about a third, depriving Syria's largest city of Damascus of its main water source. Damascus has been struggling through a water crisis for two weeks and counting. It is unclear how Damascus' water supply can be replenished, or if it even can. Although regime authorities have placed water pumps in selected neighborhoods, this is not a long-term sustainable option. More likely is that Damascus simply does not have the water to support as many residents as before. This means many Damascenes will simply flee -- creating more refugees. It also may allow the regime to reduce the populations of historically rebellious areas by restricting water access. Only a truly deranged and power-hungry regime would wreck the water source of its most populous city to conquer ten small villages that, quite frankly, were already on the cusp of defeat. But now that regime forces are closing in, the tragic consequences will become much higher. Continued bombing raids on Wadi Barada area risk destroying the aquifer entirely and could render much of Damascus unlivable. Local residents, under siege for over a year and armed with only light weapons, can only hold out for so long. Against such massive firepower, it is only a matter of time before Wadi Barada falls, just as the neighboring towns of Zabadani and Madaya fell, triggering harrowing scenes of mass starvation. Despite a recent nationwide ceasefire agreed upon by Russia, Iran and Turkey last week, Assad regime propaganda is justifying continued attacks on Wadi Barada with claims that Fatah al-Sham - a former Al-Qaeda affiliate excluded from the ceasefire - is present in Wadi Barada. The regime, and its allies on the ground Iran and Hezbollah, wish to use this as a pretext to seize control of Wadi Barada as the last remaining rebel pocket between Damascus and Hezbollah-dominated territory in Lebanon. But Wadi Barada is known to be an area held by local residents who took up arms, and bombing has continued apace even though local civil society released a declaration last week certifying that there was no Fatah Sham presence in the area. Locals are asking for the United Nations to be allowed entry into Wadi Barada, for humanitarian assistance, to stay in their homes and not be forcibly displaced, and for maintenance crews to be allowed entry to fix the aquifer. Ideally, the international community would mobilize to save the people of Wadi Barada, as well as the aquifer, from imminent destruction. In practice, this option has long been taken off the table by President Obama. It therefore falls to Russia - which desires a more limited Syria intervention, though it has the blood of thousands of Syrian civilians on its hands - to determine how far it wants to be dragged by the ambitions of its Iranian and Assad regime allies for a total and ruthless military victory. Pushpa had filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court earlier on Sunday urging the apex court to order for CBI probe into the 'mysterious and suspicious' death of Jayalalithaa. By India Today Web Desk: The Supreme Court today rejected a petition filed by expelled AIADMK MP Sasikala Pushpa seeking Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into J Jayalalithaa's death. Pushpa had filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court earlier on Sunday urging the apex court to order for CBI probe into the 'mysterious and suspicious' death of J Jayalalithaa. advertisement Pushpa had announced that she would contest for the party's top post of general secretary which fell vacant following the death of former chief minister and AIADMK general secretary Jayalalithaa. --- ENDS --- BERLINOn the night before Christmas on Berlins U8 subway line between the central districts of Kreuzberg and Neukolln, a group of parka-clad teenagers were loitering in one of the cars looking for trouble, and then they found it. As they they got out at Schonleinstrae, they spotted an intoxicated 37-year-old man sleeping on a long steel bench and decided to set fire to his clothes and the papers he was using as a blanket. Other passengers rushed to extinguish the flames, saving the mans life and what little he owned. It was an ugly event but not an extraordinary one. Berliners have long referred to the U8 line as the Heroin Express, and it has seen a fair share of criminal activity. Nor is it unusual for some people to act like assholes on other branches of Berlins public transport. Just a few weeks ago CCTV caught a man kicking a woman down a flight of stairs after she turned her back to him. Still, young men setting a homeless man on fire on Christmas Eve, five days after the Berlin truck attack that slaughtered 12 people at a Christmas market, was unsettling, even for a city that likes to brag about how tough it is. Then, one day later, the police arrested the culprits, and as fate would have it they had all come to Germany as refugees, six from Syria and one from Libya. These people didnt do it because they are refugees, but because they are the way they areyoung and brutalized, Berlins Commissioner for Foreigners told Berliner Zeitung. Meanwhile, one social worker has gone public to point out that the majority of violent attacks on the homeless in the past two decades in Germany have come from the right: The motive usually being some kind of Patrick Bateman-style American (or German) psycho hatred for societys worst off. But, of course, that was not the end of the story. *** On New Years Eve, as scores of police officers were checking the bags and confiscating firecrackers from all-too-enthusiastic partygoers throughout the country, German Chancellor Angela Merkel gave her annual televised speech, appearing to the nation in her party mode: a shimmering, glittering, baby-blue jacket in place of the usual blazer, complemented by a Christmas tree brightening the background. But her words were earnest as ever. The last year has been full of the most difficult tests, she said. Yes, its especially bitter when people commit terror attacks who allegedly desire safety in our country. But it was right and important to welcome those who needed protection. Urging confidence, she promised that her government would take action where political and legal changes are necessary. After Tunisian illegal immigrant Anis Amri murdered 12 people by racing a truck through one of the capitals biggest Christmas markets on Dec. 19 (and before the worrying snafus of Germanys security services started coming to light), Merkel was hit with the accusation that by taking in refugees, she put her capital and all of Europe at the mercy of terrorisma thesis with which, in fact, most Germans disagree. Indeed, some characters on Germanys far right immediately earned themselves flak for brandishing about the slur of Blutschuld, or bloodguiltas if Merkel were as culpable for the Christmas market slaughter as Amri. Two hours after the attack, when the identity of the truck driver was still unknown and before the blood even had a chance to dry, the parliament representative of the anti-migrant Alternative fur Deutschland party (AfD), Marcus Pretzell, tweeted, They (the victims) are Merkels dead! And AfD politician Stefan Rapple took it one step further, posting an actual photo of hands covered in blood, with the words, Merkel, there is blood on your hands! But can the Blutschuld images stick to Merkel, even for nine months until national elections? And even if they do, Merkels losses arent automatically the AfDs gains, though the party does love to advertise itself as the Alternative to Merkel. Merkel knows she wont win back those voters who are already sporting the unflattering Merkel must go stickers. As she said at the conservative party convention in December, she is not prepared to jump through every hoop that is dangled in front of me. But there are many of those to come, it seems. Since Merkel rolled back her open-door refugee policy, the upstart AfD party has cleverly been shifting its focus from protesting against incoming refugees to arguing that integration in Germany isnt working, most notably by criticizing Islam. Please dont tell him the culprit could also have been German, Berlin AfD politician Marc Vallendar commented on Facebook recently. There are, plainly and simply, fundamental cultural differences between Europe and the Middle East. Not for nothing are these countries all engulfed in flames, he wrote. Vallendar was referring to the gruesome incident on the U8 subway line. Yet the habit of making bombastic claims is not to the taste of everyone in the party, it seems. As the AfD (initially founded as a eurosceptic party in 2013) moves further to the right, party representatives must do a tricky balancing act trying to keep radical supporters while also winning over the larger middle class. Seventy-five-year-old Deputy Chair Alexander Gauland, who spent decades in Merkels Conservative Party, is often lauded as the AfDs number one honey trap for Germanys dissatisfied conservative voters. Gauland attended a candlelight vigil in front of the Kanzleramt, organized for various far right groups to commemorate the 12 dead three days after the atrocity and to protest against what some attendees were calling a refugee invasion. Here, he told reporters, I said myself that [Merkels] refugee policies are obviously responsible for this development. But I find it completely wrong to suggest, as Marcus Pretzell or apparently Stefan Rapple did, that the Chancellor is to be blamed with bloodguilt. Despite pre-circulated rumors that Gauland would be speaking at the vigil, the roughly 200 people who showed up had to instead make do with a man who was dressed as a priest but had flunked out of his trial period with the evangelical church (apparently because hed been too sympathetic to right-wing extremism). Political decisions have been made, but they can be reversedwe Christians have a right to Widerstand (resistance), the wannabe pastor told the crowd, some of whom were swinging the Wirmer flag from the late 1940s, a black and yellow cross on a red background. (Partially due to concerns theyll be blasted as National Socialist fans, the far right in Germany likes to style itself in the mold of Nazi-era resistance fighters like Josef Wirmer, executed after the failed Valkyrie plot to kill Adolf Hitler. Gauland once called Merkel the Kanzler Dictator.) Is that Gauland? one man standing at the back asked. No hes a priest, his friend replied. The man grunted appreciatively. The microphone was in bad condition, and easily drowned out by a group of counter-protesters, who turned up on the sidelines to holler, Nazi propaganda! Nazi propagandabullshit, the man at the back muttered. They cant even hear what he is saying, another chimed in, to murmurs of consent. One woman, wrapped in a thick black anorak, handed out Merkel must go stickers among the protesters: Merkels hangdog face, crossed out in red. The woman giggled. Doesnt she look beautiful? After prayers, a Bach piece began to play from the loudspeakers. Some people were holding candles, others lit up cigarettes. Two men used their cigarettes to light up torches, which they solemnly held in the air for a few minutes before the icy evening wind blew them out. For four years, an Arkansas judge allegedly offered a secret plea deal to women who appeared in his court: have sex with him and get out of jail free. Judge Tim Parker of Carroll County, Arkansas, resigned in the final days of term last month, after an Arkansas judicial oversight group accused him of letting women out of jail without bond, or trading them cash or prescription pills, in exchange for sexual favors. Parker allegedly conducted his business over jail phones, calling women behind bars, or requesting favors from their family and friends. In other cases, Parker allegedly freed women he had represented in his private practice, where he worked part-time as a lawyer in addition to being a judge. From 2013 to 2016, Parker engaged in a pattern of personal relationships with many female litigants, a letter of removal from the Arkansas Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission alleges. After women made their initial appearances in court, Parker would allegedly contact them in jail, or make an offer to their friends or family: in exchange for a low bail or release, theyd provide him with sexual favors. Parker allegedly continued to ply the women for favors even after they left jail. Allegations also exist about trading cash or prescription pills for sexual favors or money with many of the same women, as well as other women in the community, the letter of removal claims. According to the JDDCs report, Parker denied trading lenient bonds and pills for sex, but stepped down from the office before their investigation could conclude. You resigned before receiving the names and details from the disputed allegations, which, if you had received that information, may have allowed you to investigate and contradict the witness statements, the JDDC wrote Parker. The JDDC can remove judges, but does not have the authority to press criminal charges, although the groups executive director, David Sachar, told The Daily Beast that Parkers case had been referred to a special prosecutor. The terms of Parkers resignation prohibit him from ever acting as a judge in Arkansas again. Our investigation is over because we only have jurisdiction over sanctions and we got the ultimate sanction, Sachar said. Hes never going to be a judge again. Contacted by The Daily Beast on Wednesday, Parker declined to comment on the allegations. But the JDDC claimed to have video statements from over a dozen women accusing Parker of abuse. The group also claimed to have recordings of Parkers conversations on jail phones, as well as his texts with women he allegedly pressured for sex. But the JDDC said Parker confessed to other abuses of power including a 2013 case, when one of his friends was arrested and allegedly called him from jail, asking him to conduct her probable cause determination. Without disclosing his relationship with the woman, Parker allegedly drove to the jail in his official capacity as a judge and ordered the woman released without bail. After the womans release, he drove her home. During his four-year term, Parker allegedly performed similar favors for friends and clients of his law firm, where he still worked part-time in addition to his duties as a judge. You often went to, or called the jail personally to affect their prompt release, the JDDC wrote. In some cases, you gave rides to defendants in your own vehicle after they had just had their release secured by your rulings on their case. The allegations against Parker follow similar sexual misconduct charges against another Arkansas judge. Former judge Joseph Boeckmann was indicted in October, after dozens of men accused him of decades of sexual abuse. As a prosecutor and later as a judge, Boeckmann allegedly offered to pay legal fees or toss cases for men who would let him photograph them nude or spank them with a paddle. Sachar said the similarities in Boeckmanns case made it easy for the office to expedite an investigation into Parker. My office and staff is very hardworking and efficient and were able to work through this pretty quickly, Sachar said of Parkers case, which he began investigating after witnesses began coming forward in October, around the time of Boeckmanns indictment. We were like, does [Parker] not know we have the forms for this? Does he not know we can get his texts? Parker resigned at the end of his four-year term, without running for re-election. While his resignation means he may not serve as an Arkansas judge again, he had previously stated his intention to only serve one term. I am a small man with a small ego, Parker told the Carroll County News in 2013 when he was first elected. There is no room for ego on the bench. I plan to be a humble judge that follows the law. Its justice with compassion. During the inaugural interview, Parker announced plans to create a kinder legal system, offering community service instead of fines for misdemeanor offenders. We are in hard economic timeit is hard for people to pay on fines and costs, he said. I want to use community service as a way for them to pay. Apparently his idea of community service may have been a little more self-serving. It wouldnt surprise me if 2017 is a bad year for Tim Parker, Sachar said. Osama bin Ladens favorite son is now a member of the U.S. State Departments exclusive Specially Designated Global Terrorist list. The 20-something Hamza bin Laden began appearing in propaganda messaging for al Qaeda less than two years ago. Formally, the designation means that Americans are prohibited from engaging in business with Hamza bin Laden and that his assets in the U.S. can be frozen. But its not clear what prompted the new designation for the scion of the worlds most infamous jihadi family. Hamza is the only child of Osama bin Laden and Khairiah Sabar, a child psychologist who was described in Lawrence Wrights The Looming Tower, a history of al Qaeda, as the terrorist's "favorite wife." She was captured at the compound when bin Laden was killed, but Hamza evaded death and capture. Hamza bin Laden established himself early as one of Osamas most notorious offspring. At his half-brother Mohammad's wedding, a 12-year-old Hamza reportedly promised to "fight the kafr forever, and he reportedly appeared in a video recording of a battle in Waziristan during his teens. This was an obvious one for a lot of reasons, Thomas Joscelyn, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told The Daily Beast. In the weeks leading up to Osama bin Ladens death, he was very worried about Hamzas security. This was at the height of the American drone campaign, and the situation was very perilous. The elder bin Laden even considered shipping his son off to Qatar for education. But Hamza reportedly wanted to learn the familys terror business from his fathers top men. Youre talking about, in some cases, six years ago. They were talking about training and grooming him, Joscelyn said. Thats a long time. He reemerged in August 2015, when al Qaeda head Ayman al-Zawahiri officially named Hamza as a leader of the group in an audio message. That recording was apparently from May 2015, and in it Hamza praised Zawahiri and renewed his pledge of allegiance to Taliban leader Mullah Omar. (Omar actually died in Pakistan in 2013, the Taliban finally admitted shortly before the al-Qaeda audio was released.) Hamza also called for terror attacks on Paris, Washington, D.C., and Tel Aviv. One operation from a loyal knight from your knights who chose his target and did well in his selection, and did his job and did well in his job, it would shake the policy of a great nation in a dire fashion, he said. So then, what would tens of operations do? More recently, in a video message from May 2016, the younger bin Laden spoke out in favor of the Palestinian cause. But the younger bin Laden is much more elusive than his father; he prefers to stay off-camera. Most photos online are of a young, beardless Hamza, sometimes sitting side by side with Osama. In July 2016, he released another speech called "We Are All Osama, in which he taunted President Obama over promises that he will end the wars, and that his era is an era of peace, and that he will close the open files that his predecessor left for him. Ibrahim al-Banna, an Egyptian leader in Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, was added to the list alongside Hamza bin Laden. The U.S. government has a $5 million reward out for information that would bring him to justice. A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that the lag in naming him a Specially Designated Global Terrorist came from the bureaucratic process that precedes such a designation. After the Zawahiri audio, the department prepared an administrative record on Hamza bin Laden, which then had to be run up the chain of command. Prince Harry has met the parentswell, one of them at least. Harry, who has been dating American actress and Suits star Meghan Markle for several months, met Meghans dad, Thomas, about six months ago in Toronto, before their relationship became public knowledge, her brother has told reporters. Speaking to Dailymail.com, Meghans brother, Thomas Jr., said: My dad knew about [the relationship] from the start. The report should put to rest to spurious stories that have circulated of a rift between Meghan and her father, a lighting technician. Meghans brother said: He first met Prince Harry about six months ago out in Toronto. He goes once every couple of monthsthey are very close and they stay in close contact. Hes pretty happy about Harry and hes extremely proud of her. Speaking of the bond between Meghan and her father, he said: They have an amazing relationship, theyre very close and they always have been. However, he was not sure whether Harry had met her mother yet. Harry and Meghans relationship has blossomed quickly. She stayed with Harry at his home in the grounds of Kensington Palace when she visited in November, and again before Christmas. On the latter occasion, Harry and Meghan were pictured strolling down a central London street, looking like any other couple wrapped up in winter coats as they made their way through some of the most crowded shopping streets in the city, with nothing more than woolly hats for disguises. Harrys biographer Penny Junor told The Daily Beast: Meghan is used to being in the limelight, which neither Chelsy or Cressida were. Also they were younger and were intimidated by the media intrusion; they didnt want a future in a goldfish bowl. For a U.S. celebrity, that media attention is the oxygen they need and rely upon and crave. I just hope that Meghan is being genuine here and not using Harry to further her career. Meghan is believed to have visited the U.K. four times in the past three months, and Harry raised eyebrows when, contrary to the strict royal protocol that prohibits mixing business trips with pleasure, he diverted 1,700 miles to see her on his way back from his royal tour of the Caribbean. The princes relationship with the 35-year-old, which began in the spring, was confirmed when his communications secretary, Jason Knauf, issued a strongly worded statement attacking the media over the wave of abuse and harassment the actress had experienced. Knauf revealed the depth of Harrys feelings for his girlfriend when he said the prince was worried about Ms. Markles safety and deeply disappointed that he has not been able to protect her. News of the couples relationship broke in the Sunday Express in October, with a source saying Harry was happier than hes been for many years. Scientists working on the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 are more confident than they have ever been that they know where the airplane went down. And yet after looking in the wrong place for 27 months, the search is about to end for want of funds. Two weeks ago the Australian Transport Safety Bureau admitted that an area of 46,000 square miles in the southern Indian Ocean where the search has been conducted is unlikely to contain the missing aircraft. At the same time they said the most likely location of the Boeing 777 was in an area of 9,600 square miles north of the original search area. On the heels of those statements the Australian transport minister, Darren Chester, said that until credible evidence was available to fix a more specific location, the current search, which has cost around $150 million, will end soon and no new one will be approved. However, The Daily Beast has learned that even in the absence of a decision to fund a new search the cutting-edge scientific effortemploying resources from all over the world, including from the U.S.will continue, involving a series of tests simulating the voyage of wreckage from the jet across the Indian Ocean and months of feeding data from those tests to super-computers. One thing is for sure: The remains of Flight MH370 lie at the bottom of one of the most inhospitable stretches of ocean in the world. But more than that is now apparentwhen the jet hit the water at the end of a flight lasting seven hours and 40 minutes it met a violent end and many pieces of debris did not sink but remained as a debris field floating, undetected, above where larger and heavier parts did sink to the bottom. Over a period of many months this floating debris was dispersed, some of it eventually sinking, some of it ending up on beaches in the western Indian Ocean and some of it likely to spend years as specks floating on the vastness of the seas, forever undetected. The score or more pieces of floating debris that have been collected so far from Indian Ocean beaches as far south as the South African Cape, as far north as Tanzania, and as far east as a tiny atoll called Rodriguez Island have provided scientists with information of immense value in attempting to fix the precise location of the crash. Indeed, that debris has provided vital missing pieces in the most challenging puzzle ever to face an airplane crash investigation. The true scale and drama of the science involved is hard to grasp because it has mind-melting complexity, but the basics are relatively simple. The first principle of navigation, of knowing precisely where anyone or anything is on the globe at any time, is fixing the intersection of two lines. Modern navigation began when it became possible to accurately calculate the intersection of the lines of longitude and latitude. But this case began with a huge handicap: There was only one line to work with, a line serving the same purpose as longitude, moving from north to south in an arc describing the flight path of the jet. The track of the arc was fixed as a result of the only messages ever received from the 777, a series of seven hourly automatic handshakes exchanged between it and an orbiting satellite operated by the London-based company Inmarsat. Only someone with a grasp of arcane math can explain how these exchanges produced the data that enabled Inmarsat to establish the arcing flight path. But they did, and with a high level of confidence. The arc became known as the 7th arc and indicated that the jet had tracked into the southern Indian Ocean about 1,700 miles west of the coast of Western Australia. But the crunch question was, and remains, where along that arc did the flight come to an end? In other words, where was the X point, a line of latitude that intersected the arc at the precise place where the airplane hit the water? The best guess at this was made by Boeing running computer simulations of the 777s final five hour and 40 minute cruise, the period known as the zombie flight because no word was ever received indicating that anyone aboard, including the pilots, was still alive. The Boeing simulations assumed that the jet was cruising at 35,000 feet as it would under the command of its automatic pilot until it ran out of gas and spiraled into the ocean. These simulations were refined over months and even then they could not be very precisethey placed the X point somewhere between latitudes 36 and 39.3 degrees south and up to 60 miles on each side of the 7th arc, the current search area. And, as it has now turned out, that guess was wrong. The chance discovery of debris, beginning in the summer of 2015, has transformed the quality of the information available for the calculations. For the first time there was physical evidence, and it brought a new confidence to the analysis that could not be achieved using computer simulations alone. Although all the pieces of debris were thousands of miles apart when they washed up they hadobviouslyall started their voyage at the same place, the X point. Not just at the same place, but at the same time. The time was already known, and that has become essential to the new calculations. Looking at the distribution of the debris, the scientists realized thatgiven access to data already gathered by a number of ocean-monitoring organizations across the worldit could be possible to create a picture of the exact state of the seas in that region of the southern Indian Ocean as they were in March 2014 and extend it for months afterward into other parts of the Indian Ocean. The aim was to reveal in detail the elemental forces that steered debris away from the crash site. If that exercise could show how each piece of debris wound up where it did, then by reversing those tracks the scientists would get a far better idea of where the debris had originated. Of course, it sounds a lot simpler than it actually is. Few things are more complex than the constant interaction of waves, wind, currents, temperature, and climate on the ocean surface. And yet any hope of finding the remains of MH370 now depended to a large extent on being able to build such a picture. No other catastrophic event in aviation had ever called for such a reach in scientific skills and resources. In order to do this exercise the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, CSIRO, in Australia, called on scientific agencies in the U.S., Europe, and India, including those operating satellites that monitored the oceans from space. One of these was our own National Oceanic and Atmosphere Organization, NOAA, and very early on it was NOAA that provided a breakthrough. At any one time the agency has many hundreds of buoys, called GDP drifters, scattered across the worlds oceans collecting data on sea conditions and behaviorincluding data that has helped to build a detailed picture of climate change. When the Australian scientists began trying to recreate the forces at work in the area of the 7th arc in March 2014 they realized that by pure luck there were at that moment two NOAA drifters in the water at the northern end of arc. Their data, once retrieved, revealed that there were strong influences that would have steered debris north and westaway from the coast of Western Australia and toward Africa. (NOAA has since donated 10 drifters to the project as well as complete access to its huge archive of data.) A second break came in June 2016, with the discovery of one of the largest pieces of debris, a wing flap, on a beach of Pemba Island, off the coast of Tanzania. Its significance was not just related to the tracking of the paths taken by debris. A wing flap is a part of the flight controls not controlled by the automatic pilotit is activated only by the pilot and only during takeoff and landing. One of the unknowns limiting Boeings simulation of how the jet had finally plunged into the ocean was whether it had been under human commandthis affected the final trajectory and therefore how close to the 7th arc it hit the water. After weeks of examination investigators established that the recovered flap had not been deployed, making it possible to reduce the estimate of the impact point to 25 miles on each side of the arc. The first piece of debris to be found was another, smaller part of the wings control surfaces called a flaperon (one that constantly moves during a flight commanded by the automatic pilot) that turned up on a beach on La Reunion Island in July 2015. It is significant for other reasons and has inspired the most improvised experiment of the program, requiring carpentry rather than telemetry. Six near-replicas of the flaperon were made of wood and steel. They were life-sized and close to the actual shape, with ballast added to replicate the right weight. They were fitted with motion sensors and GPS trackers and launched into the waters of a bay near the CSIROs laboratories at Hobart in Tasmania, and monitored in two one-hour immersions on each of eight days of experiments. The behavior of the replicas in the waterhow they floated, depending on which side was up, how wind and wave action affected their speedwas compared to the data received from the drifter buoys in the open ocean. The experiment showed that the flaperons moved faster than the buoys. A few months later more tests were carried out in the open ocean, including tests with replicas of two smaller pieces of debris. The results of the tests using debris replicas and data gathered from drifters was combined with a detailed history of the main steering currents in the Indian Ocean gathered from satellites for more than a year after the airplane disappeared. The arrival time of the flaperon on the beach at La Reunion, July 31, 2015, then took a significant role. The flaperon was found 509 days after the crash. By retrieving the day-by-day historical record of the ocean conditions for that period and tracking the debris likely path in reverse the scientists realized that it must have originated at a point further north than the area being searched. As a result of this and other debris tracks, the CSIRO scientists now believe that the 777 went down between latitudes 32 to 36 degrees south, with a location close to 35 degrees south as the most promising. In fact, they say that this estimate is much more precise than they once thought would be possible. Before the Australian experiments were conducted, a team at a European body called Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, based in Italy, carried out its own independent analysis of the ocean currents using a different computer model and a different source of data. They published a report in July 2016, saying if the current search proves unsuccessful, a northward extension of the search area should be considered. Their results had, in fact, suggested the most promising area was between latitudes 28 and 35 degrees south. One of the authors of the report, Eric Jansen, told The Daily Beast, The CSIRO results are very interesting. It is the first study to represent field experiments to determine the drift characteristics of the aircraft parts. This has been missing from previous studies. The CSIRO study is more thorough than ours, and confirms that our assumption was realistic. Thus both the Europeans and Australians were on the same page in their view of the correct resting place of the remains of the airplane. David Griffin, one of the leaders of the Australian team, told The Daily Beast that their analysis is far from complete. There will be more tests using debris and drifters and, using a new method analyzing data still being gathered, they will require months of super-computer time. Meanwhile in the original search area the Dutch-operated vessel Equator is making its final sweepsin the knowledge that that entire search has almost certainly been futile. What happens now? The search is directed by the ATSB. Questions from The Daily Beast to the ATSB about the future of the operations were referred to the Joint Agency Coordination Centre, a body that includes officials from Australia and Malaysia. In response, the JACC repeated an agreement made in July 2016 between Malaysia, Australia, and China (the majority of passengers on the flight were Chinese) stating that in the absence of credible new evidence leading to the identification of a specific location of the aircraft, the search would be suspended on completion of the existing search area. The JACC added, The position of the three countries has not changed. However, 24 hours later the ATSB added: Ministers have reiterated that this does not mean the termination of the search. In just the first month after the jet disappeared an international air and sea search, including airplanes and ships sent by the U.S., cost $44 million. That was almost as much as the cost of the successful search for Air France Flight 447 in the south Atlantic between 2009 and 2011. Of the $150 million spent on the search now ending, Australia contributed $60 million, China $20 million, and the rest came from Malaysia. There is, of course, an almost inexplicable and glaring anomaly: Not a cent has been spent conducting a systematic search for debris. All the debris so far has been discovered either by dedicated amateurs or, by chance, by people walking beaches. And yet the debris has been instrumental in reaching the compelling new conclusions about the probable location of the wreckage. Those conclusions are obviously putting new pressure on both the Australians and Malaysians when they consider what they actually mean by credible new evidence. So nearand yet so far. Donald Trump has spent weeks trash-talking Americas spies and intelligence analysts. The spy chiefs retaliated Thursdayjust a day before the intelligence community briefs Donald Trump on Russian attempts to influence the U.S. elections. Under bright lights, and sitting before a large depiction of the Great Seal of the United States, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and Cyber Command head Adm. Mike Rogers contradicted the incoming president again and again. Yes, they said, the Russians really were behind the hacks that impacted the election. And no, dont trust Wikileaks boss Julian Assange when he tells you otherwise. President-elect Donald Trump is expected to receive a briefing from the intelligence community Friday. But he has repeatedly dismissed their assessment that Russia tried to interfere in the election that made him the 45th president of the United States. The Intelligence briefing on so-called Russian hacking was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange! Trump wrote on Twitter this week. Not only were the nations spies taken aback by this tone, intelligence officials told multiple outlets that this was incorrect; the briefing had always been scheduled for Friday. Not only was Russia behind hacks and spreading misinformation, Clapper told senators, but their campaign to interfere continues to this day. This was a multi-faceted campaign, Clapper said before the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday morning. So the hacking was only one part of it, and it also entailed classical propaganda, disinformation, fake news. About a month before the election, Clapper had released a statement saying that his office was confident that the Russian government had been behind the hacks of the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign chairperson John Podesta. On Thursday, Clapper says he stands even more resolutely on this conclusion now than he did then. The intelligence community believes it has definitive evidence that Russia tried to influence the elections through its hacking and information operations, but can only share that evidence with lawmakers in session closed to the public, in order to protect the methods by which is was intercepted, two U.S. officials briefed on the evidence told The Daily Beast. Trump has repeatedly voiced skepticism of this intelligence, which the spy chiefs acknowledged was his right as the top consumer of that information. But in Clappers view he had crossed dangerously into the territory of disparagement of the intelligence community. There is an important distinction here between healthy skepticism, which policymakers, including policymaker number one, should always have for intelligence, but I think there's a difference between skepticism and disparagement, Clapper said. Earlier this week President-elect Donald Trump also aligned himself with Assange, whose Wikileaks site has previously exposed the sources America's spies use, much to the chagrin of those in the intelligence community who believe those actions put Americans at risk. Assange had said that Russians were not the source of leaked emails his site published, and that anyone could have hacked Podestas emails. Hes holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, because hes under indictment I believe by the Swedish government for a sexual crime. He has, in the interest of, ostensibly, openness and transparency put people at risk, Clapper said Thursday. I dont think those in the intelligence community have a lot of respect for him. Sen. Claire McCaskill and other Democrats had spent the morning aligning themselves with the spy bosses. (Not too long ago, in the run up and aftermath of the Snowden affair, many of these same Democrats were harshly critical of these intelligence chiefs.) On Thursday, however, these senators went after the president-elect, who had cited Wikileaks head Julian Assange as a source and questioned the intelligence communitys assessment that Russia had tried to interfere with the U.S. elections. There should be howls, said an incredulous McCaskill. The notion that the elected leader of this country would put Julian Assange on a pedestal compared to the men and women of the intelligence community and the military I think it should bring about a hue and cry, no matter if youre a Republican or Democrat. The exchange highlighted a bipartisan coalition that is building to challenge the President-elect on national security issues, either by exposing Russian interference in the American democratic process, or by pressing new sanctions to punish them for it. I can count on maybe more than one hand who have stood up in a nonpolitical way to defend the intelligence community over the last few weeks, McCaskill said, praising Republicans who had joined her in that effort. Among those was Sen. Tom Cotton, a defense hawk who rarely finds reasons to join forces with the Democrat. I'll add my voice to senators... in my admiration for the men and women in our intelligence agencies, said Republican Sen. Tom Cotton. Intelligence officers don't wear uniforms and are usually undercover, so I want to express my admiration and deepest respect and gratitude for what they do. Angus King, an independent senator from Maine, told The Daily Beast he understood some of the skepticism towards the intelligence community over the election hacks. The December intelligence briefing to lawmakers on the intrusions did not include a smoking gun linking Russia to the hacks. . But Clapper said at Thursdays hearing that what intelligence agencies had found between then and now raised the intelligence community's confidence to high. I believe they have the forensics, said King, a member of both the Senate Intelligence and Armed Services Committees. I understand skepticism...but I believe the President-elect has to sit down and listen. As for the intelligence community's reaction to the Trump's skepticism? My impression is that the reactions range from puzzlement to furious, King said. If you spend your whole life putting your life at risk for your country and your future leader puts the word intel in quotes in a tweet which implies sarcasm, that's got to be at best dispiriting and at worse infuriating. The three hour panel convened by Chairman John McCain also exposed a number of flaws within American strategy. There was uncertainty about what sort of retaliation the United States might get back from a cyberattack, Clapper said, and there was no set way to respond -- meaning there was little deterrence to America's adversaries. It disturbs me that we don't know what our deterrence really ought to be, Sen. Roger Wicker said. Added McCain, It seems like every attack is handled on a case-by-case basis, and that's not a strategy. For hawks like McCain and his close friend Sen. Lindsey Graham, its time to strike back at Russia, and establish a deterrence against future attacks. Sen. Ben Cardin, a Democrat, is hoping to introduce new sanctions against Russia within a week. Ladies and gentlemen, it is time now not to throw pebbles, but to throw rocks, Graham said. I wish we were not here. If it were up to me, we would all live in peace, but Mr. Putin is up to no good, and he needs to be stopped. And Mr. President-elect, when you listen, you can be skeptical, but understand [the intelligence community] are the best among us, and theyre trying to protect us. with additional reporting by Kim Dozier. As Stephen Colbert put it Wednesday night, one little shadow hanging over this months inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump is the whole Russia chose our president thing. Our entire intelligence community says that Russia hacked the Clinton campaign but Trump doesnt buy it, the Late Show host told his viewers. And we know this because Trump not-so-subtly revealed that he spent the night before watching Sean Hannity interview WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Fox News. The Intelligence briefing on so-called Russian hacking was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange! Trump tweeted Tuesday. Yes, I agreevery strange for the future commander in chief to use sarcastic quotations about the intelligence agencies he will soon rely on, Colbert said. Mr. Trump, you know youre not an outsider anymore shooting spitballs from the sidelines, right? In two weeks youll be president of the United States, he added, putting his own scare quotes around those words. As Colbert reiterated, the meeting Trump referenced was always scheduled for Friday. Thats an interesting fact, he said. You know where Trump could have learned that? From an intelligence meeting. Instead, Trump has decided to trust intelligence from a more reliable source: WikiLeaks founder and hobo Anderson Cooper, Julian Assange. In the early morning hours after Hannitys latest lovefest with Assange aired on Fox News, Trump tweeted out his favorite quote from the interview: Julian Assange said a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta. And thats not easy, Colbert added. Most 14-year-olds surf the internet with just one hand. The host went on to point out that Trump follows just 42 other accounts on Twitter, most recently adding one called Emergency Kittens, which tweets out photos of cats cuddling with their owners. (As of just after midnight Thursday, Trump no longer follows that account, though he does have Ann Coulter and Piers Morgan on his short list.) That must be strange for Trump to see, I mean, a man being grabbed by a pussy, its so unusual, Colbert joked. For more, listen and subscribe to The Last Laugh podcast. Just days after the departure of host Megyn Kelly from Fox News, the network replaced one of its few Trump skeptics with Tucker Carlson, an unabashed booster of the president-elect. But Carlsonwho recently compared some anti-Trump politicians to segregationist George Wallacewasnt always such a supporter of The Donald. Carlson had a bit of a more measured take on Trumps candidacy in a piece he wrote for Politico in January of last year. The premise was basically that Trump could teach Republicans a valuable lesson and that he demonstrated that their brand of politics had failed. It also began with a pretty stunning anecdote. About 15 years ago, I said something nasty on CNN about Donald Trumps hair, Carlson wrote. I cant now remember the context, assuming there was one. In any case, Trump saw it and left a message the next day. Its true you have better hair than I do, Trump said matter-of-factly. But I get more pussy than you do. Click. Carlson goes on to say that The message had all the hallmarks of a Trump attack: shocking, vulgar and indisputably true and that Trump was not his first choice for president. But in the months that followed, something changed. Nevertheless, he did or said something that warranted the specific praise of the president-elect. .@tuckercarlson is doing a really good job on Fox, especially when talking politics, Trump, an avid cable news watcher, tweeted in early May 2015. He has come a long way fast! (The day prior, Carlson had gone on Fox News to discuss the attack on Pamela Gellers Draw Muhammad contest in Garland, Texas.) Carlson also has something else in common with the incoming leader of the free world. They both have a soft spot for Alex Jones, Americas leading conspiracy theorist, 9/11 truther, Sandy Hook truther, and anti-Beyonce crusader who also actually advised Trump during the 2016 campaign. Carlson has been on Joness paranoid-conspiracy-theory-mongering show multiple times for cozy chats, and Jones has lauded Carlsons great coverage on Fox as recently as last year. In late May 2015, for instance, Carlson went on Joness broadcast to complain about President Obama and liberals pushing "ethnic politics" and Nazi stuff. (Alex Jones has frequently told his viewers and listeners that Barack Obama is very much like a dictator and a black Adolf Hitler.) Carlson only recently gotten a gig with Fox to host a show during the 7 p.m. hour after leaving his position as editor-in-chief of The Daily Caller. In the two months that Carlsons show has been on the network, he has made headlines for acrimonious exchanges with writers like Teen Vogues Lauren Duca and for one particularly odd segment with Newsweeks Kurt Eichenwald, which started as a discussion of journalistic ethics and Trumps mental health and rapidly degenerated into several minutes of non-sequiturs, visual aid, and embarrassing snippiness. He recently also brought on left-leaning journalist Glenn Greenwald to brush off allegations and reports of Russian government-directed, pro-Trump hacking during the presidential election. While Carlson hasnt necessarily stooped to the boot-licking level of fellow Trump acolyte Sean Hannity, he has been vocal about his support for the 45th president. In August, Carlson made an appeal to Republicans who didnt support Trump by appearing on Fox and Friends and saying that a Hillary Clinton victory would fundamentally change America. Shes going to open the borders, pack the Supreme Court and you are not going to have the same country, Carlson said on the program, which is a favorite of Trumps. Maybe you like that, maybe you dont. But were not going back to the status quo, period. And so Republicans need to understand if Trump loses, it is a new America, OK? A lot is on the line, whether you like him or not. That is real. The 47-year-old conservative commentator has been a fixture on cable news since the early 2000s, during which time he co-hosted CNNs Crossfire and went on to have a short-lived show on MSNBC, Foxs left-leaning cable-news competitor. His libertarian-ish, Ron-Paul-loving, right-leaning role back then was vastly different from the Tucker Carlson of his Daily Caller and Fox News era, which has been defined largely by a fealty to Fox News, and unveiled racial anxieties. For instance, in late 2006, Carlson, on his MSNBC show Tucker, went after one of Fox Newss biggest stars, Bill OReilly, practically thrashing him as a rape-apologizing victim blamer. (OReilly had just done a radio segment on how a New Jersey teenager who was raped and murdered was in part to blame because of her intoxication, what she was wearing, and where and when she was walking alone.) "So, she's got a halter top with a bare midriff and she's drunk; therefore, she gets raped and murdered, as if that's natural? That's what happens when you've got a bare midriff and you're loaded? Not in my America, buddy," Carlson said on-air in response to OReillys criticism of the dead rape victim, knocking him for his "pretty low standards." I don't know if O'Reilly is attempting to blame her for luring this guy inIts sick all around; you ought to be able to wear whatever you want on our streets and not get raped and murdered, Carlson continued. Period." (Roughly a decade later, the Carlson of Fox News fame would of course go on to opine about how Americans who complained about a statutory rape case were whiny, and why identifying rape-y tones in popular culture is repressive feminism.) Nowadays, calling out Fox News is the farthest impulse from Carlsons mind. Despite the fact that his new Fox show is all about how The Media is liberally biased, self-beclowning, and corrupt, Carlsons time leading The Daily Caller was marked by the voluntary self-censorship of his own siteto the point where he would kill stories critical of Fox News, his other source of income. This is merely scratching the surface when it comes to his hypocrisy and breach of basic journalistic standards when running his right-wing website. I have two rules, Carlson said in early 2015. One is you cant criticize the families of the people who work here. And the other rule is you cant go after Fox. Only for one reason, not because theyre conservative or we agree with them [or] because theyre doing the Lords work. Nothing like that. Its because I work there, Im an anchor on Fox. Carlson has, again, been rewarded for his unwavering loyalty. The clearest sign yet of the concern that the queens recent health scare has caused her fans came courtesy of the Australian Monarchist League, which issued a circular to its members this week, urging them to brace themselves for the death of the queen. The advice was circulated in a note sent out to members of the organization entitled how our lives will change, according to the website Royal Central. In the message, the leader of the League, Philip Benwell, wished the queen a speedy recovery from her illness, but also pointed out that it was time to think about what was going to happen on the day that Her Majesty passes away, pointing out that many Australians will need time to adjust to Prince Charles as King of the nation. That is an understatement; many Australians see the death of the queen as a natural moment to ditch the British Monarch as titular head of state, and become a republic. The Queen has been a part of the lives of all her subjects for over 60 years, Benwell wrote. Most were born during her reign. It will be as though a safety net has disappeared because we have always had a sort of assured faith that the Queen is there to protect us. That faith wont be there when Charles becomes king because it is something that is earned and is not automatic. The muddled messaging surrounding the Queens health this Christmas is to blame for all this concern. The Royal familys deft handling of planned eventsjubilees, coronations, birthdayscontrasts dramatically with the floundering that always seems to accompany unplanned incidents, such as illness, however predictable such happenings may be. The fumbled way the palace dealt with Her Majestys illness over the Christmas period was a dramatic case in point; photographers were actually waiting to photograph the Queen boarding her train from London to Sandringham when police told them, Its not happening, and started to remove barricades. A four-hour information vacuum followed, leading many to speculate that the Queen was seriously ill. It was the beginning of weird few weeks, and, as one celebrity death followed another over Christmas and the days following, there was nasty feeling 2016 was going to claim its biggest scalp of all. The palace continued to insist the Queen was only suffering a heavy cold, and it was leaked that she was up and about with the family on Christmas Day, but her failure to attend church not only on Christmas Day but also on New Years Day, conflated with rumors that she would not be performing any public engagements until March, and would be staying at Sandringham to recuperate for several weeks longer than originally planned, did nothing to calm nerves. In the absence of the Queen making any public appearances since she was struck down with a heavy cold, the best evidence that the Queen is not, actually, dying is to be found in the text of the Court Circular. This archaic document, published daily in The Times and the Telegraph, lists the previous days royal engagements. And it is through this old-fashioned method that on Wednesday a positive smoke signal was sent to the outside world from Sandringham, the Queens splendid country house in Norfolk where she has been recuperating out of public sight for the past two weeks. There was a clear subtext to the announcement in the court circular that a member of her staff was being honoured for a lifetime of faithful service--Mr. Raymond Wheaton was received by The Queen today when Her Majesty invested him with the Insignia of a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order--and the hidden message was: the Queens doing just fine, thank you very much for asking. But there is a world of difference between a one-line report of the Queen conducting an investiture service, and a good old fashioned walkabout. The palace continues to calmly state that the Queen is feeling better and getting stronger. But until she makes a public appearance rumors will continue to foment, from one end of the globe to the other, that the end of the second Elizabethan age is nigh. Elizabeth knows this better than anyone; as she herself famously remarked, when asked why she maintained such a crowded schedule of engagements, I have to be seen to be believed. By Press Trust of India: New Delhi, Jan 5 (PTI) The commerce ministry today decided to introduce logistics performance index (LPI) to rank states and review the working of all internal container depots as a part of exercise to boost shipments of goods and services. Briefing the media on the outcome of the second meeting of the Council for Trade Development and Promotion here today, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said states, centre and industry deliberated upon all the issues concerning ways to promote exports. advertisement "There are five good outcomes of this meeting. In the meeting, states have come up with lot of suggestions," she said, adding the DIPP will come up with LPI for all states. It will start from 2016-17 only and for this the DIPP will soon start stakeholders consultations to develop parameters and a reporting mechanism for LPI. The index will rank states on their logistics readiness as it is an important sector which creates huge number of jobs and help promote trade facilitation. On the issue raised by the Kerala minister regarding cruise operations in India, she said there is lot of potential for this as it attracts both domestic and foreign tourists. "Lot of cruise potential is there on the West Coast ... it has a great potential as a service sector. Many players are asking for ease of doing business in this. We have asked the CBEC to immediately form a group which can hold inter - ministerial consultations (on their issues)," she said. She also said lot of states are demanding for internal container depots (ICDs) and customs freight stations (CFS). As already 120 ICDs and 150 CFS are in existence, it was decided to conduct a status review of all these. "We really do not know how many of them actually are optimally operating ... We have agreed to have a status review on how many ICDs/CFS are functioning optimally or lean or suffering or is there any need for more," she said. MORE PTI RR CS MR --- ENDS --- By India Today Web Desk: Two people including Congress leader Raju Mishra were shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh today morning. More details awaited. --- ENDS --- Is the Odisha government's free hearse service failing to reach the poor? Another incident of a man carrying the dead body of a loved one comes to light. By Manogya Loiwal : A grief-stricken father in Odisha was forced to carry the dead body of his five-year-old daughter all because the local health center refused to take responsibility. Sumi Dhibar was admitted to the Pallahara Community Health Centre in Odisha's Angul district by her father after she complained of high fever. A day later, the doctors declared her dead, but shockingly took no further responsibility. advertisement "My child died [due to] high fever after which the hospital staff ordered me to take her away," Gati Dhibar, the father, said. With seemingly no knowledge about the state government's free hearse service and no money to hire one, Gati had no choice but to carry his daughter's dead body for 15 kilometers up to his village's burial ground. NOT THE FIRST TIME Gati Dhibar's ordeal is eerily similar to the Dana Majhi episode, also from Odisha, that made headlines last year. Majhi received national sympathy after reports came to light that he had to transport his wife's dead body on his shoulders for 13 kilometers. This was followed by reports of Sarat Barik ending up carrying his father's body after the latter succumbed to jaundice at a health center in Odisha. GOVERNMENT SERVICES HAVING NO EFFECT? These incidents have occurred despite Odisha's Naveen Patnaik government announcing a free hearse service under the 'Mahaprayan' scheme last August. The repeated instances of poor men physically carrying the dead bodies of their loved ones brings into question the scheme's implementation. It seems clear that even months after its announcement, the service is yet to make its way to the poor. OFFICIAL: HAVE DELEGATED RESPONSIBILITIES TO STAFF Pratap Chandra Mohanty, the medical officer of the Pallahara Community Health Centre, expressed alarm at the Sumi Dhibar episode, saying that he had no knowledge about it until it was reported in the media. He further said that he has asked his staff to ensure that nobody has to physically take away dead bodies. "Also, I have instructed the Mahaprayan Ambulance driver to take the responsibility. However, it should not be expected from me that I will [always] act like a security guard," he commented, adding, "I have informed the Citizen Committee to look into the negligence."ALSO READ: Another Dana Majhi? Son carries father's body on shoulders as community centre denies help ALSO READ: Odisha's Dana Majhi, who carried his dead wife on his shoulder, receives Rs 9 lakh from King of Bahrain --- ENDS --- advertisement A first Brexit green line, then, is that negotiating objectives should be, as much as possible, aligned with the 25-year plans. The MPs' report suggests the basic framework and consultation on both plans should take place before the government officially starts negotiating to leave the EU. This would ensure any conflicts between the two plans and the Brexit negotiation brief are considered and hopefully mitigated. 2. Beware of regulatory gaps The prime minister has called for a "Great Repeal Bill" to transfer to UK law all applicable EU law and ensure a smooth transition. But copy-pasting legislation is not so straightforward: Andrea Leadsom, told the environmental committee that, of the 800 or more pieces of European environmental legislation, up to a third would not be automatically carried over. What is striking in the committee's report is how little is known about what these gaps actually are, and which policy areas are particularly at risk. A second green line for Brexit would be to identify these gaps as soon as possible and make sure they are effectively plugged by the time the UK leaves the EU. To do this, the committee suggests that "any provisions which cannot be transposed into UK law should form the basis of a new Environmental Protection Act." 3. Coordinate across the UK May's government is working on a Brexit deal for the "whole UK", but environmental policy is a devolved area. While there are of course EU-wide rules, they're implemented slightly differently in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. Common rules limit regulatory divergence, although it still exists: for example, Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland have banned their farmers from growing genetically modified crops but England has not. The Great Repeal Bill therefore risks fuelling constitutional tensions within the UK. Establishing UK-wide rules, such as minimum pollution standards, would see Westminster taking back control from the devolved administrations, and not just from Europe. It would be politically difficult - indeed the Scottish government is clearly opposed to it - but may be, to some extent, environmentally necessary. A third green line for Brexit would thus be to achieve both minimum standards throughout the UK and to respect devolved administration's competences to adopt more ambitious and innovative policies. 4. Don't stick environmental policy in a silo Coordination will not only be needed between devolved and central administration, but within central administration itself. How the UK answers the two central Brexit questions - in or out of the single market? In or out of the customs union? - will have major impacts on the environment. Notably, if the UK opts for a hard Brexit (out of both single market and customs union) and is to negotiate its own trade deals, environmental standards could be at risk. Just think of the Europe-wide mobilisation against the EU-US trade deal TTIP on this very basis. A fourth green line for Brexit is that the UK environment should not lose out from these new deals. The committee asks that "the government should guarantee that it will not trade away environmental protections, animal welfare and food safety standards, as part of the negotiations to leave, or as part of future trade deals." These four green lines will allow us to gauge the Brexit negotiation from an environmental perspective. A first test will be in how the government responds to the Environment Audit Committee's report. But the key test will be the UK's official negotiation position - and whether it makes any mention of the environment. Viviane Gravey is Lecturer in European Politics, Queen's University Belfast . This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. The UNC had imposed the blockade against the creation of seven new districts in the state by bifurcating the existing ones. By Parbina Purkayastha: The ongoing economic blockade in Manipur were felt in the national capital, with members of Delhi Manipuri Society and Naga groups staging protests over the tense law-and-order situation in Manipur, that will go to polls in less than two months. READ: Amid fears of President's rule, Manipur CM Ibobi Singh rushes to Delhi "People are facing extreme difficulties in terms of food and basic necessities. The essentials to lead a normal life are either absent or beyond the reach of the common man. Is the government scared of the United Naga Council? Is there something called rule of law?", Delhi Manipuri Society vice-president Sangeeta asked. advertisement The UNC had imposed the blockade against the creation of seven new districts in the state by bifurcating the existing ones. While members of the Manipuri society in Delhi highlighted the 'humanitarian crisis' due to the strike imposed by the UNC, the Naga groups demanded imposition of President's Rule in the state. Manipuri youths took part in the day-long sit-in at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, demanding an immediate end to the blockade. Meanwhile, members of the Joint Naga Civil Societies demonstrated outside Manipur Bhawan, alleging that "Manipuri mobs backed by the state government" had "attacked" Naga civilians. "We demand President's Rule because the law-and-order situation in Manipur is bad. New districts have been carved out undemocratically and UNC leaders are in jail. Naga's are not safe under the Manipuri security forces," said Lakpachui Siro, convener of the committee. Know more of Manipur's economic blockade: Manipur unrest: Had centre acted on time things would not have escalated, says CM Ibobi singh --- ENDS --- 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 ... A video has emerged which shows a few drunk men misbehaving with a women in Delhi's Mukherjee Nagar area. Visuals show the men even attacking the cops who come to rescue of the woman. By Shivendra Srivastava: Just when you thought the video of women being molested in full public view by a few men on New Year's eve in Bengaluru was something outrageous, this footage from New Delhi will shock you even further. A video has emerged which shows a few drunk men misbehaving with a women. Visuals show the men even attacking the cops who come to rescue of the woman. The incident took place in December 31 in north Delhi's Mukherjee Nagar area. advertisement "There were about 200-250 students celebrating New Year near Batra Cinema. Suddenly, some men in the crowd tried to grab hold of a woman, who was passing from there on a bike with a man. The woman held on to the bike tightly. We immediately ran towards the men to protect the woman," said constable Anil Kaushik. "We were attacked with stones when we tried to stop the crowd. A few men even barged into the chowki. By then we had already informed the police control room about the situation. Soon, more police force was rushed in to control the situation. We are in the process of identifying the unruly men," Kaushik told India Today. HERE'S WHAT HAPPENED: Around 200-250 men, mostly students, gathered for New Year celebrations near Batra Cinema in Mukherjee Nagar. A group of men misbehaves with a woman passing on a bike. Video shows some men pulling the shawl of the woman. A few cops present at the site rush to protect the woman and nab the men. Some of the men were nabbed by the police. The crowd resorted to stone pelting after seeing police action. Four police constables were injured in stone pelting from the crowd. Several cars parked nearby were also damaged by the unruly mob. The victim woman is yet to approach the police. Sources said that some of the accused men have been identified. ALSO READ: Bengaluru molestation a conspiracy to defame city: Karnataka Home Minister's shockers continue Bengaluru molestation happened because nudity is in fashion, says Samajwadi Party's Abu Azmi --- ENDS --- Conservation board tables property lease program, examines deficit The Des Moines County Conservation Board on Wednesday tabled a proposed program that would have generated revenue for the conservation department. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Sears Holdings is selling its Craftsman brand of tools and equipment to New Britain-based Stanley Black & Decker, whose CEO promised to re-Americanize the brand by adding jobs in the United States as it shifts Craftsman manufacturing to its own plants stateside. Separately, Sears Holdings announced the closure of 150 stores nationally, including a Kmart store in Cromwell that will close in March. Shares of Hoffman Estates, Ill.-based Sears (Nasdaq: SHLD) were up 3 percent Thursday afternoon to $10.64, while Stanley Black & Decker shares (NYSE: SWK) rose 2 percent to $118.82. Stanley Black & Decker is paying Sears Holdings $775 million in two tranches, with the deal escalating to $900 million pegged to sales of Craftsman products over 15 years. Under CEO and former Greenwich resident Ed Lampert, Sears has been undergoing a massive restructuring, to include subleasing a floor of its Danbury store to the apparel retailer Primark. Other in-house Sears brands include Kenmore appliances and DieHard automotive batteries. In Stanley Black & Decker we have found a great owner that is committed to expanding Craftsman and helping it to reach its potential outside of its current channels, Lampert stated in a Thursday press release. In a Thursday conference call, Stanley Black & Decker executives said they do not expect major cannibalization from Craftsman products the company will push into its retailer base that compete with its own brands like DeWalt and Porter-Cable. It is Stanley Black & Deckers second major tool acquisition in the last several months, after a $2 billion deal to acquire the Newell Tools division from Newell Brands, whose predecessor company Jarden had executive offices in Norwalk. The tool market in particular the hand-tool market is incredibly fragmented and the competition is brutal, Stanley Black & Decker CEO Jim Loree said Thursday. We are continuing to pursue the strategy that weve pursued for quite some time, which is to be a great, diversified industrial company. The fact that weve made several tool acquisitions in recent months should not be misconstrued as a departure from (that) strategy but more a reality that these transactions became available and we were opportunistic. Stanley Black & Decker gets rights to develop, manufacture and sell Craftsman-branded products in other retail channels, with Sears Holdings retaining a license to sell Craftsman in its own Sears and Kmart stores and websites on a royalty-free basis for 15 years, afterward paying a royalty of 3 percent on Craftsman products it sells. Craftsman annual sales total about $1.9 billion, with 40 percent of the total lawn and garden equipment like mowers and leaf blowers; 35 percent hand and power tools; and the rest miscellaneous storage products like tool boxes and shop vacuums. Only 10 percent of Craftsman products are sold outside the Sears channels, primarily in Ace Hardware stores. Stanley Black expects Craftsman to contribute $100 million in revenue annually over the coming decade. Stanley Black & Decker has added 800 employees the past three years at its 11 U.S. manufacturing plants to give it about 3,000 factory workers in all, with Northeast facilities including New Britain and Holliston, Mass. On Thursday, Loree indicated the company considered the possibility of a so-called border adjustment tax under consideration in Washington to tax imports with the goal of persuading companies to bolster U.S. manufacturing, adding that foreign exchange fluctuations have also hit the companys bottom line. The border-adjusted tax is a concept at this point and not a done deal by any stretch, Loree said. We view it more as one of several political movements or concepts that really (has driven) us to this concept of make where we sell ... Its going to be advisable to have more manufacturing in the U.S. An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated the total purchase price Stanley Black & Decker is paying for Craftsman, which is $900 million. Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-354-1047; www.twitter.com/casoulman MoneyTips The convenience of modern digital commerce comes with an unfortunate side effect: it makes identity theft more convenient as well. The 2019 Identity Fraud study from Javelin Strategy and Research found that 14.4 million consumers in the U.S. were victims of identity theft during 2018, to the tune of $14.7 billion. "It may seem time-consuming to research and adopt best practices to prevent identity theft. However, identity theft prevention will ultimately save time in the long run," says Amy Thomann of TransUnion's consumer communications. In the end, the fraud affects you and your creditors and card issuers directly, but your stolen card information can generate multiple transactions before you even see a dime of losses. Identity thieves can choose to sell your credit card information to others instead of using it for their own purposes. If your credit card information is stolen as part of a large breach, it's more likely that your identity and information will be sold at least once as part of a package deal. Along the path to fraudulent purchases your card will be valued based on such factors as whether it is proven to be active (typically with small purchases that may go unnoticed) and whether other information is included such as passwords, Social Security numbers, and birthdates that make it easier to open new lines of credit in your name. Says Steve Weisman, a cybersecurity expert and professor at Bentley University, "On the dark web, credit card information and even Social Security Numbers will go for $5 and $10 a whack." Once your card information ends up in the hands of the final "user," the fraudulent action can take many forms. The thief may make a duplicate card, choose to open fraudulent accounts in your name, or simply use your existing card to buy items that can be resold for cash. Common purchases include expensive items such as jewelry or high-end electronics that are lucrative to resell, gift cards that may be easily cashed in with retailers, online shopping sprees even items that would be considered "costs of doing business" such as website and server expenses. You probably do not care much about which thieves (or how many) take advantage of your stolen information or how they monetize it; you just want to minimize the damage and prevent further losses. That requires a mix of corrective and preventative action. If thieves have already made fraudulent purchases on your account or opened new accounts in your name, you must take immediate action. Call your card issuer immediately to have your current account closed and a new card reissued. File the police reports and other paperwork necessary for your fraud protection. Join MoneyTips to check your credit report for any fraudulent accounts that have been opened in your name, and contact the credit issuer(s) to close any accounts. Apply either a fraud alert (requiring creditors to verify your identity before issuing new credit) or a credit freeze (blocking most access to your credit report) to lessen the chances of more fraudulent accounts being opened in your name. Since September 21, 2018, legislation has made credit freezes free of charge for all Americans. "We should monitor our credit card use and look for evidence of identity theft, but better legislation limits the amount of liability for fraudulent charges to no more than $50," says Weisman. "And I've got to say I have never seen a bank or credit card company that even charged the $50." If you have not had any problems with stolen credit cards or identity theft, count your blessings and take preventative action to keep your good fortune intact. Use strong passwords and do not repeat passwords for each site. Make sure that online purchases are made through legitimate and secure websites, and do not give your credit card information over non-secure public computers or unsecured wireless systems. Check your credit card statement regularly for any fraudulent purchases, no matter how small. "The work necessary to clean up identity fraud can be long and difficult," Amy Thomann explains. "To save yourself the stress, start adopting common sense tips, such as keeping your personal documents in a safe place, shredding financial statements, using a variety of complex online passwords, and being mindful of where and when you share your personal information. It's also a good idea to learn some of the more rigorous best practices, including opting out of pre-approved credit offers, and looking into identity theft insurance and protection services." Still unsettled about identity theft? 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By Indrajit Kundu: An event titled "The saga of Balochistan and Kashmir" has been denied permission by the reputed Calcutta Club due to alleged pressure from the West Bengal state administration and the Kolkata Police. The event which was scheduled for January 7 evening at the Calcutta Club was scrapped at the last moment by the club authorities citing "unavoidable circumstances" and stating that being a private social club they would like to ensure "cordial atmosphere" at the institution. advertisement ORGANISERS PRESSURISED BY COPS TO DENY PERMISSION According to Swadhikar Bangla Foundation, the organisers of the event, the club authorities were pressurised by the Kolkata Police to deny permission for the event as it involves speakers who are known for their "anti-Pakistan" rhetoric. The organisers claim that the Calcutta Club authorities were called for a meeting at Lal Bazar, the headquarters of Kolkata Police where they were told not to allow the program because it may hurt the sentiments of a particular community and result in a law and order situation. "We were told by the club's CEO that they were called to Lal Bazar where they met senior police officers who pressurised them to drop the event. They were told that one of the speakers at the event was famous for his anti-Pakistan rhetoric which might create law and order situation and stoke communal disharmony in the state," claimed Colonel (retd) Diptangshu Chaudhury, founder of Swadhikar Bangla Foundation. PAKISTANI-CANADIAN AUTHOR CRITICISES MAMATA GOVERNMENT Speakers like Pakistani-Canadian author Dr. Tarek Fatah, Kashmir activist Sushil Pandit, retired Army officer, Major General GD Bakshi and Baloch activist Brahamdagh Bugti were supposed to take part in the event. Criticising the West Bengal government for the ban on the event, author Tarek Fatah wrote on Twitter, "Afraid of Islamists, Mamata government forces cancellation of Tarik Fatah's talk on Balochistan." Infact, the club authorities forced the organisers to drop the "Kashmir" word from the poster of the event stating it may fuel unrest in the state. Subsequently, "Kashmir" was dropped from the poster by the organisers unordered to somehow continue with the event. On their part, the Kolkata Police just stated that the club authorities had informed them that the event had been cancelled. "The organisers had sent a letter after which we had sought for a formal submission about the event involving international guests. They first submitted the request and on the next day sent a letter informing us that the event was cancelled," said a top Kolkata Police official. When India Today contacted the CEO of Calcutta Club Ranjit Dutta, he refused to speak on the matter. ALSO READ | National anthem insulted in Jammu and Kashmir Assembly during Governor's address --- ENDS --- advertisement This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate HARTFORD No place would seem more ripe for tension than the Connecticut Senate, where Democrats and Republicans are dead-locked for the first time since 1893. But the chambers top leader avoided handshakes with colleagues on both sides of the political aisle for altogether different reasons Wednesday during the opening of the legislative session. Against the advice of his doctors, Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney, D-New Haven, returned to the divided chamber for the first time since undergoing a kidney transplant December 20. Looneys GOP counterpart and longtime friend, Len Fasano, credited the progressive stalwart with brokering a power-sharing accord from his hospital bed just 24 hours after his surgery. Without it, he said, the Senate, was on a path toward a bitter stalemate. I asked him if he was on any drugs, and he said, Oh yeah, plenty, Fasano said on the Senate floor. Many people questioned whether or not we would have a functioning state Senate. Whether that detente can be sustained over the course of the five-month session one in which lawmakers will grapple with a $1.4 billion budget deficit, cuts to municipal aid, pension reform and a push for the legalization of recreational marijuana is no guarantee. We will not allow the bigotry, cruelty and reckless character assassination that has turned national politics into a cesspool to undermine our public discourse here in Connecticut, Looney said during his return. Republicans picked up three seats in the November election in the Senate, including in the 17th District, where newcomer George Logan, of Ansonia, knocked off 24-year-incumbent Joseph Crisco Jr., of Woodbridge. Looney, 68, stood with the help of a cane during his remarks to the 36-member chamber, which began the session down one Republican and one Democrat. Evening the score Sens. Rob Kane, R-Watertown, and Eric Coleman, D-Bloomfield, each submitted their resignations Wednesday morning, with the expectation that Kane will be appointed to a $180,000-per-year state auditor post and Coleman will get a judgeship. There will be a special election to fill both seats, with each vacancy raising the stakes that much higher in the split chamber. With bipartisan power comes bipartisan responsibility and accountability, Fasano said. A large bottle of hand sanitizer sat conspicuously on the desk of Looney, who was helped back to his chair by fellow Democrat Ted Kennedy Jr., of Branford, son of the late lion of the U.S. Senate Edward M. Kennedy. Looney was sworn-in as Senate president pro tempore by Brian Fischer, a state Superior Court judge who donated a kidney to Looney. I couldnt imagine this chamber today not having Senator Looney here with us, said Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman, who serves as the Senate president. He is a stalwart of this body and the Legislature. Wyman is poised to wield tremendous influence over the knotted Senate as the tie-breaking vote by state law. Both parties will get to pick committee co-chairmen under the power-sharing agreement hatched between Looney and Fasano. The congenial lieutenant governor said she hopes that she wont have to use her tie-breaker vote that often. Id like us to start this term focused on unity, not division, Wyman said. neil.vigdor@scni.com; 203-625-4436; http://twitter.com/gettinviggy This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate NORWALK In an effort to connect local artists with commercial galleries and showcase the arts in Fairfield County, the Cultural Alliance of Fairfield County will make Norwalk its next stop on the second annual Progressive Gallery Tour. Jennifer Bangser, director of marketing and public relations for the cultural alliance, said the event, now in its second year, was so successful in its first rendition that more galleries and artists have signed up to be involved. We have over 200 (artist) members that are part of the cultural alliance so it helps them get into the gallery space and get to know the owners, Bangser said. It gives a chance for that kind of meet and greet. As an artist, part of marketing is that you want to be in the galleries, so its a very informal way to get that acquaintance. Its just a big open house environment for all parties involved. Three of Norwalk's commercial galleries will open their doors Jan. 18 to the cultural alliance and art supporters. The event is free and open to the public. The evening will begin at 6 p.m. at Artists Market at 163 Main St., where owner Jeff Price will talk about the gallery and an exhibition of photographs of political activists from the Watergate era. We have a new exhibit on politics and protest photography from the early 1970s, and Ill be talking about that, our collection of book plates and our collection of M.C. Escher, so it should be interesting, Price said. ... We will also be giving a tour of our frame shop so theyll see how the inner mechanics work. More Information For further details about the tour and how to participate, or for information about how to become a member of the Cultural Alliance of Fairfield County as an artist, cultural nonprofit or creative business, contact David Green, director of programs and membership at David@CulturalAllianceFC.org. See More Collapse Participants will reconvene at the LOVE ART Gallery at 132 Washington St. in SoNo. Owner and artist Cabell Molina will speak about the gallery at 7:15 p.m. The tour will move next door to Galeria Isadora where owner Isadora Gacel will speak at 7:45 p.m. Molina opened the LOVE ART Gallery in March, and said she hopes the event will help introduce more people to the gallery. The gallery doubles as a work space where people can watch artists, including Molina, in the creative process. Most of my artists are local and the point of my gallery is to showcase really talented local artists, Molina said. Im also trying to build a community with this gallery because theres so many local artists. I feel like theres a lot of talent in the area and I would love to connect local artists. My gallery is also different because I mainly have pop art and street art, and I want to try to open peoples minds to that kind of work. The Annual Progressive Gallery Tour was launched by the cultural alliance in 2016 to bring artists, cultural nonprofits and creative business members together to celebrate the variety commercial art galleries across Fairfield County. The tour visits one town each month. The 2017 tour began in September at the C. Parker Gallery and Isabella Garucho Fine Art Gallery in Greenwich. In November, the tour moved on to the Fernando Luis Alvarez Gallery in downtown Stamford. In December, CAFC was able to join the New Canaan Holiday Stroll with three commercial gallery members: Handwright Gallery & Framing, Heather Gaudio Fine Art, and the Sorelle Gallery. In February the tour will visit Westport at the Amy Simon Fine Art Gallery and the Nylen Gallery. This is really highlighting the commercial gallery aspect of Fairfield county because thats really important to the local economy, Bangser said. It shows us how important the arts are to the economy, and gets people out and engaged with the art. Price said he hopes the tour will bring first-time visitors to the galleries. I think once people come into a gallery like ours or others on the tour they will come back, Price said. The biggest stumbling block is getting people in the first time. Each gallery is a very special place and this gives the public a chance to discover that. KKrasselt@scni.com; 203-354-1021; @kaitlynkrasselt This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate NORWALK Piles of road salt stand stacked in the Norwalk Public Works Center storage shed off South Smith Street ready to be loaded onto plow trucks when winter strikes. A six-inch snowfall on Dec. 17 and dusting on Christmas Eve hardly put a dent in the 4,000 tons of treated salt, 1,500 tons of rock salt, and 5,000 gallons of magnesium chloride kept in the shed, according to public works officials. I was in the salt shed last Thursday and weve probably got more than three quarters of our salt reserves maybe 80 percent of our reserves our there, said Norwalk Director of Pubic Works Bruce J. Chimento. I dont see any problems at all. Going into this winter season, the public works department had about 2,500 tons of pre-treated road salt leftover from last year. Atop that, the department purchased an additional 1,500 tons from Cargill at a cost of $88.87 per ton, said Chris Torre, superintendent of operations at the department. We go through about 6,000 tons a year, Torre said. We had some (leftover) from last year. Last year was a relatively mild winter so we purchased about 1,500 tons so far. In a given snow storm, we go through anywhere between 200 tons and 500 tons of salt. The department uses untreated road salt otherwise known as rock salt when temperatures hang near to freezing and pre-treated salt in colder weather. Liquid magnesium chloride, loaded in 100-gallon plastic tanks on the back of each plow truck, is applied with the road salt to speed its activation. Some snowstorms are easier to deal with than others. The best storm would be snow overnight, giving us time to clean it up, sun the next day, temperatures high 30s, Torre said. The worst case is freezing temperatures where it snows and the temperatures never rise and then you get re-freeze every single night. Torre said Norwalk has 626 lane miles of plowable streets and 26 snowplow routes. The public works department has up to 37 plow trucks at its disposable to plow those routes. All these trucks have electronic controllers in them, so we calculate the road pavement temperature, the wind and air temperature and the dew point and set the controllers, because if you put too much salt down, you can get refreeze and its not effective, Torre said. Torre said the department measures how much road salt is loaded upon each plow truck before a snowstorm and how much is returned to the salt shed afterward. The information is needed if the city applies federal reimbursement after a major snowstorm. If the governor declares a snow emergency, some of that (expenditure) is FEMA reimbursable, we can track it in addition to the computers that are in our trucks, Torre said. So far, the Norwalk Department of Public Works has spent 42.28 percent of the $325,000 allocated this winter for snow-and-ice-clearing supplies, according to Torre. The bulk of that expenditure sits unused in the salt shed. For budgetary and other reasons, Torre hopes this winter remains mild. But he wont go out on a limb. No snow emergencies knock on wood. I would hope the winter stays like this, said Torre, standing outside the salt storage shed Wednesday afternoon as the mercury hit 51 degrees in Norwalk. But Ive learned not to expect. Temperatures are expected to drop over the next several days with a low of 15 degrees forecast for Sunday evening. Sun is expected to give way to clouds and a 50 percent of light snow on Thursday. A chance of snow will remain through Friday, according to the National Weather Service. rkoch@hearstmediact.com The 2016 presidential campaign included lots of discussion about the jobs in factories and mines -- jobs that have be vanishing for decades while almost entirely overlooking the explosion of freelance work that will account for 40 percent of the U.S. workforce by 2020, according to some estimates. Thats 60 million Americans. Inexpensive access to high-speed internet has made freelance work technically feasible but the major change propelling the rapid rise in independent work is the Affordable Care Act and the access to health insurance for all Americans, including those without full time employment, it has created. Insurance that protects against catastrophic expense from illness or injury is a major resource for freelancers and the growing subset of the economy they represent. If President-elect Trump follows through, as it appears he and the Republican majorities in Congress appear intent on doing, he will undermine the the future for tens of millions of Americans and countless employers who have come to rely on them. Related: Companies in the Crosshairs? Thanks to the ACA, 2014 was the first year that every American had access to affordable healthcare, but freelancers were signing up as early as 2013. For the first time, everyday Americans were free to leave their jobs to pursue freelance gigs without worrying about losing health insurance coverage. Those who were already freelancing were given a safety net and younger millennial freelancers were able to stay on their parents health insurance until the age of 26. Those policy changes have brought real benefits to peoples lives. Those who were already freelancing found less expensive alternatives than what they were paying, limiting risk without hampering the ability to provide. Individuals with pre-existing conditions could keep the jobs they had without literally risking their lives. Recent grads with a passion and an idea had the chance to take a professional risk without also taking a bodily one. And those opportunities have been seized. For example, millennials make up 75 percent of Fiverrs user base. Some estimates put millennials at 40 percent of the full-time independent workforce. Its the U.S.s largest workforce and a generation of 83 million Americans who value flexibility and setting their own course when it comes to where and how they work. Their attraction to freelancing illustrates how many within our largest working demographic want to pursue their careers, and just how many rely on the ACA. Related: 3 Things to Know About Buying Health Insurance Some examples of the positive impact of the ACA hit closer to home for me. Beth Weisendanger, born with muscular dystrophy, is a Fiverr community organizer living in New York. Beth has been a double amputee for almost her entire life but has been able to seize opportunity thanks in some part to her use of prosthetics. Before working at Fiverr, Beth had a traditional job in addition to freelance musical work, but without the coverage she had under her parents plan she would have had no path to pay for prosthetics that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Beth was fortunate to have health insurance when she needed it, but theres serious concern about whether that window will stay open. President-elect Donald Trump and his team pose a threat to the healthcare safety net many freelancers rely on today. On his campaign website, Trump calls the ACA an incredible economic burden, and unequivocally states that on the first day of his administration, he will call on Congress to repeal it. Though there has been some indication of wiggle room on that point, the message coming forth from Trump Tower has been clear: he hates Obamacare and wants to eliminate it. If you thought that may just be campaign rhetoric, his appointment of Tom Price for health and human services secretary leaves little room for doubt. Its striking how little thought has been given to how changes or a repeal of the ACA will impact millions of Americans who make up the freelance economy. The ACA has been critical to its growth. A study put out this year by Stride Health came to this stark conclusion: the Affordable Care Act is working. The study found that 45 percent of freelance workers plan to shop for a new plan in 2017. Whats going to happen to these people? Related: What the Self-Employed Need to Know About Obamacare What is perhaps most alarming is that even with the exchanges and expanded access, the study found that freelancers are still uninsured at a much higher rate than most Americans. Whats going to happen to them once insurance becomes harder to get? Though Trump may have backtracked some of his most extreme positions on healthcare, Price has not, nor has Speaker of the House Paul Ryan. Its hard to imagine a world without some change and harder still to imagine that whatever change comes wont leave at least some Americans in the healthcare wilderness. This will negatively impact many Americans in the freelance economy; an economy that stands as a real opportunity for many to earn the incomes they need to provide for themselves. Drastic changes will almost certainly result in real people feeling the pain, both from a health and financial standpoint. Trump would be wise to consider the plight of the freelancer, a bloc of (again) 60 million voters. Related: Repealing Obamacare Will be a Disaster for Freelancers and Entrepreneurs Who Rely on Them Stumped For Profitable Business Ideas? Watch This Facebook Live. 5 Marketing Essentials for Your Business to Appeal to Millennials Copyright 2017 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved Idea generator and entrepreneur Ramit Sethi will be hosting a Facebook Like on on Jan 11. at 12 pm EST to help you find a business idea that will make you money. Think you have a great idea for a business? Many people do. Finding an idea that will be successful is more challenging -- and takes a special process. According to Ramit Sethi, a master idea generator, New York Times bestselling author and CEO of GrowthLab.com, a company where entrepreneurs go to launch and grow their online business, it's easy to create a list of random business ideas but without the right framework, you cant tell if these ideas will ever pan out. Image Credit: Ramit Sethi To help people out, Sethi has created a simple exercise to get the ball rolling. Below are some of his tips. Sethi will be digging in much deeper on a Facebook Live on Jan 11. at 12 pm EST giving you even more tools on how to create a business idea that can make you money in 2017. You can sign up at the bottom of the page. To begin generating business ideas, ask yourself these four questions -- all came from Sethi's "The Ultimate Guide to Profitable Business Ideas." Question #1: What do I already pay for? When you think about it, we already pay other people for tons of random stuff. Question #2: What skills do I have? What are you great at? As you make your list, youll start to see what people might pay you for. Question #3: What do my friends say Im great at? Maybe your friends are always saying, Wow, you give amazing relationship advice. Youre the only person I come to. Or, Your apartment is so organized. I wish my place looked like this. Feel free to ask co-workers and family, Question #4: What do I do on Saturday morning? Friend, Ben Casnocha told Sethi, When youre trying to find a business idea, think about what you do on a Saturday morning. Another way to think of this is: If you were locked in a room with your friend, what could you talk about for three hours straight? By the end of these four questions, you should have at least 20 ideas written down. Sethi will share these tips and others in a Facebook Jan. 11 in a Facebook Live at 12 EST. The tools can help you create a business idea that can actually make you money in 2017. In the Facebook Live, Ramit will show you how to: Generate business ideas that work for you and your skillsets Uncover money-making angles for those ideas Share tactics to validate your concept with friends and discover new and unique pain points your business can solve Give you the confidence to move forward on your new venture Sign up to be reminded about the Facebook Live. Entrepreneur will only email this list about Ramit Sethi's Facebook Live session on Jan. 11, 2017. Related: Stumped For Profitable Business Ideas? Watch This Facebook Live. #9 Cost Effective Ideas for Business To Be Profitable in 2017 How to Turn Your Hobby into a Profitable Business Venture Copyright 2017 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved Shakti actress Rubina Dilaik will make contestants meditate along with her, if she ever enters the Bigg Boss house as a contestant. By Parmita Uniyal: Shakti Astitva Ke Ehsaas Ki actress Rubina Dilaik quite enjoyed her appearance on Bigg Boss 10 recently when she entered the house to play fun games with participants; and also did a gig with Salman Khan along with Adaa Khan, Meera Deosthale, Vijayendra Kumeria and Karanvir Bohra. In an exclusive conversation, the Chhoti Bahu star revealed how shooting for Bigg Boss was a refreshing experience for her, after her hectic 15-hour shoot schedule for Shakti. Also read: Rubina Dilaik's mother wasn't exactly happy with her role in Shakti advertisement "It was a very different experience for me. To be honest, I have never followed Bigg Boss, never seen any episode. My friends talk about it, that's how I know about it. Of course, the very big and popular factor of Bigg Boss is Salman Khan. He is an absolute treat to work with. The interaction with him and the contestants just made my day. As a performer, you get something new to attempt. The tasks that happened there, the small gig that we did with Salman, it was so much fun at the end of a 15-hour shift at stretch; shooting for Bigg Boss just refreshed my senses," Rubina told India Today Online. Rubina, in fact, wouldn't mind taking up the next season of Bigg Boss, if offered. Also read: BB10 Weekend Ka Vaar preview: Om Swami and Adaa Khan match steps; Salman Khan lashes out at Gaurav "Why not. I would love to take up everything that makes me push my limits, experience something new," she said. Rubina, will however, do something different altogether as a contestant, if she ever signs on the show. "I have heard how participating in Bigg Boss wreaks havoc on people's so-called images and how the contestants get embroiled in so many controversies. If I enter Bigg Boss, I may make the contestants meditate along with me. The scenario is going to be very different. If I am a part of something, it is bound to be different," Rubina told us. Hope the Bigg Boss makers are listening, Rubina! --- ENDS --- WILTON As 2017 rolls in, the principals of Wilton Public Schools share their reflections about 2016 and their hopes for the rest of the academic school year. Kathryn Coon, Miller-Driscoll School Coon said one of the greatest takeaways from the first half of the 2016-17 school year as Miller-Driscolls new principal is the collaboration of many people who have helped to make work light, in the midst of a busy schedule of school renovations. The renovations will continue throughout the year and is set to finish in time for the start of the 2017-18 school year. I think its been phenomenal. We've both settled into our new spaces and we had our additional move in November. So being in the new addition in the part of the school is wonderful, she said. I think the teachers and the kids have been troupers. As for the 2017, Coon said she hopes to hit the ground running with new and old school initiatives. We do want to continue with the work we've done around school climate ... with the staff, students and parents, she said. And then, as we move into the new year, we really are trying to collect some videos of some of the great work the teachers are doing so that we can kind of have a sharing as kids are transitioning into the next classroom. Jennifer Mitchell, Cider Mill School Mitchell said 2016 has been a celebration of building school community at Cider Mill through school-wide high huddle meetings, the new Library Learning Commons, the three Rs of being respectful, responsible and ready to learn, and the new mascot, Buzzby the Bee. All of these things have been designed to build the culture and community climate here in Cider Mill, she said. I think its been a real success. Moving forward, Mitchell said one of the biggest goals for 2017 is to continue to support the learning that has already begun. I think that theres been so much work and growth made that nows the time to really focus and sit with this for a while before moving onto something new, she said. I think that theres been a lot of effort in the district to learning continually and consistently, specifically K-5, and to really let all of that gel. Lauren Feltz, Middlebrook School (Grades 6-8) Looking back on 2016, Feltz said the first thought that comes to mind is her gratitude for returning to Wilton as the new principal of Middlebrook School. I feel so lucky to come home to Wilton and to be able to join an administrative team thats so heavily engaged in the learning and refining practice, and I think that I am excited to continue the work with them and with the Middlebrook faculty, Feltz said. Theres a really exciting instructional shift, even more than ever before, of putting our kids in the drivers seat in taking an active role as problem solvers. Additionally, Feltz said the schools other main focus has been and will continue to be a full-on commitment to invest in developing meaningful relationships with students. I think the teachers have invested a lot in creating those bonds with those students and I think that those connections are firmly established, she said. We see them maturing and really coming into their own more and more as they not only grow in skill set but in their own personal maturity and awareness of themselves. Its exciting to hear teachers talk about how they want to use what they know and what theyre passionate about in the world both within and beyond the school, she added. Robert ODonnell, Wilton High School ODonnell said 2016 has been year one of implementing exciting, new projects, including the freshmen FLIGHT (Future-focused Learning thats Individualized, Growth-oriented and helps provide a Healthy Transition) program, Lead the Way program, and other initiatives and courses focusing on school climate, diversity and academic performance. Were just extremely proud of all our students. They do so well academically, and thats the big part of it, but they also have so many interests in things that support a little outside of the classroom, he said. Beyond that, weve got a very hardworking and really talented faculty and staff here. What weve been working on, with and through them, is trying to focus on personalization of the school environment for our kids and building connections and strong interpersonal and academic connections with the students so we can maximize their learning. ODonnell said the school looks to maintain its growth and development with new courses in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Initiative, as well as entrepreneurship, among other subjects. SKim@hearstmediact.com; 203-354-1044; @stephaniehnkim WILTON The Wilton public school system, one of the states leading school districts, will see its state funding slashed for the second consecutive year. The state Office of Policy and Management announced last week that the towns Education Cost Sharing Grant would be reduced by 30 percent as a part of the nearly $20 million in reductions being made in state education aid statewide. This reduction brings state funding for Wilton schools to $462,382 in fiscal year 2017, a reduction of $202,441 from what was contained in the state budget passed in May. Since 2015, state funding for Wiltons public schools has been reduced by more than a million dollars. In his annual State of the State Address, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy pointed out that the cuts are the first step toward reining in educational funding that has buoyed up to $4.1 billion at the state level. Of course Connecticut should be spending lots of money on local education. We all believe that investments in education are a down payment on our states future. Our budget must reflect those values, Malloy said in his address. The question is, in a time of scarce state resources, are we spending this money in the best way possible? Are we ensuring that all students, regardless of the life circumstances into which they are born, regardless of what town or city they live in can receive a quality public education? Wiltons loss is just a tiny chunk of the $50 million in mid-year cuts announced by Malloys budget office, which includes $20 million in cuts to municipalities and $30 million from grants for local construction projects. In addition to the ECS cuts, Wilton also faces a complete reduction of the expected amount for the Local Capital Improvement Program (LOCIP) grant, which amounts to nearly $112,895. We were not surprised at all [by the cuts]. The states 2017 budget was built on flawed revenue projects and was overly optimistic about revenue projections, First Selectman Lynne Vanderslice said. Though the cuts may come at an inopportune time in the budget cycle, Vanderslice said that Wiltons revenue surplus for 2017 would help offset the loss of state aid. Thanks to the settlement of delinquent property taxes and other revenue streams, the town was projected for a surplus of $402,000. Even with all of the municipal cuts from the state, Wilton will be nearly $87,000 in the black. The unexpected windfall of revenues may make it so that Wilton doesnt have to make any cuts to jobs or scrap any projects. However, Vanderslice acknowledged that the problem of state funding likely isnt going away any time soon. I expect that we will have further cuts in 2018 I fully expect that our ECS grant will be eliminated in 2018, she said. While the most recent reduction in state aid may not have come as a surprise to many town officials, Board of Education Chairman Bruce Likly said that there comes a point when enough is enough. While we have a district full of extraordinary teachers, staff and administrators committed to doing all they can for Wilton and their students, there comes a point where Hartfords incessant demands for them to do more with less becomes the definition of insanity, Likly said. Though this years reduction represents less than .5 percent of the towns overall budget, Likly said that the states trend of stripping funds from municipal school systems while simultaneously trying to enforce state educational mandates was troublesome. I am hopeful that with reductions in state education funding will also come needed reductions in state education mandates, which often come with significant time and resource commitments that are unfunded or underfunded, Likly said. Betsy Gara, executive director of the Connecticut Council of Small Towns a group that represents some 139 municipalities called for a state moratorium on any new unfunded mandates. We recognize that the state continues to face huge budget challenges, but midyear cuts to municipal aid will leave towns scrambling to address budget shortfalls, Gara said. Towns facing cuts in municipal aid will have little or no choice but to delay or suspend critical projects and/or lay off personnel. Wiltons Board of Selectmen, Board of Finance and Board of Education will hold a special tri-board meeting near the end of January to discuss the impact that the states financial situation will have on the town, among other things. Linda Conner Lambeck contributed to this story ptomlinson@hearstmediact.com; 203-354-1046; @Tomlinson_PE When the ancient philosophers speak of the philosophical life, one thing is immediately clear: It is a life and not a profession of which they are speaking. For the life of philosophy seems to have one reason for beingthe search for truth. By the permanent part of the College in the title of my address, I mean, as you have probably guessed, you, the alumni. That is not just an ingratiating way of speaking devised for the occasion, but it has some facts in its favor. Before I explain myself, let me remind you of an occasion in which many of you have participatedthe presidents Senior Dinner. One part of it that is sometimes quite moving is the Deans Toast to the Republic. If he is feeling thorough, it will have four parts, ascending in order of worldly magnitude and then dropping into intimate immediacy. There will be celebrated the Republic of Plato, which is the worlds first book to set out the program of a true school, the republic of letters which is the commonwealth of all those who love the word, the republic of the United States of America which is the ground and foundation of our worldly being, and finally, St. Johns College, the living community of learning. The question concerning the continuity of all these commonwealths with each other, and of each in itself, in other words, the question in all its range of the continuity of community has always been a preoccupation of mine. As I understand it, it is an aspect of that question that you, as alumni, want me to speak about, and I welcome the occasion for becoming clear about it to myself. So to return to the position of the alumni within the college community. Consider the students at any time attending the College. Presently they graduate, they go to a first degree of academic honor and are students in the strict sense no longer. The Board of the College changes all the time; its members have a fairly short term. Our last president was with us an amazingly long timethe longest or among the longest of any twentieth-century college president. But he has now sworn not to set foot on either campus for a year, for a well-earned period of distance and refreshment. May our new president, whom you will meet later in the year, be with us for that length of time which betokens a good fit!but it will not be permanent. And finally, the tutors themselves, who may seem to you to be truly permanent fixtures at Annapolis and Santa Fethey too must retire late in life and become emeriti, members of the college by reason of their meritorious past but now completed service. Alumni, on the other hand, are alumni for good. Their very name proclaims it they are nurslings who have, presumably, absorbed something of the colleges substance. By the College Polity all students, once matriculated, become alumni of the College, whether they leave with or without a degree, and no one can retire or terminate them. All other membership in the college is by choice; that of alumni alone has in it something analogous to being by nature. So as nurslings of the institution, alumni are first of all asked to nourish it in return. I know very well and have a certain limited sympathy for the complaint that when the college communicates with graduates it is too often about moneyexactly the complaint parents have about their student children. It has to be. Private colleges are charitable institutions that give their services almost half free. Money-raising is the price they pay for their freedom to choose to be what they are. It can be done crudely or tactfully, but done it must be, by our president as by all other private school presidents. Of course, the response is a matter of choice. That choice may well be determined not only by a general sense of responsibility for the continuation of non governmental education but also by gratitude. For example, I have a fixed, and fairly well-kept rule of sending twenty-five dollars to St. Johns whenever the institutions from which I graduatedwhom I respected only as the employers of much admired but very remote professors and loved not at allsolicit me for money. But, of course, the notion that the alumnis relation to the collegeat least to our collegebegins or ends there is absurd. So let me now consider the question what constitutes the after-life of a student from its most specific to its widest aspect. First of all, and this turns out to be by no means a mere formality, the alumni participate in the governance of the college through their board representatives and informally by the weight of their organized opinion. That opinion has on occasion decided issuessuch as the proposed abandonment of our old name. The College, in turn, we all agree, owes its alumni certain reliable services and well organized, substance-informed occasions for their return. Among the first is the prompt and effective composition of letters of reference. Among the second are Homecoming with its seminars, and the exhilarating summer alumni seminars that take place in Santa Fe. Then there are the alumni meetings in the various cities, such as this one. For all of these affairs, the tutors who help with them volunteer their time and efforts, in acknowledgment of the permanent bond between them and their former students. But the tutors have another kind of duty that more informal kind of duty which, were it not such a pleasure to perform, would probably not be very faithfully observed. It is a duty which, even though it is more sporadic than undergraduate teaching, is as serious and as satisfying. It is to be in some practical sense there for alumni, to write to in weal or woe, to visit on the way to a new departure or on a sentimental journey, to bring the conclusions of life to. Those visits from former studentssometimes there is time only for fifteen minutes of conversation in the coffee shopare always talked about among us. Nothing brings home to us the ultimate impotence of the profession of teaching and the deeply dubious character of the program as does a visit from a former student who is lost and who attributes that condition to having been touched by some unassimilable intimation of paradise or of hell in this school. Nothing gives so exhilarating a sense of stability in change as the appearance of alumni who have so well and truly put the college in the past that it is equally well and truly present in them: an oracular saying which I am certain will have some immediate meaning for most of you, and of which I want to say more later. But the feelings with which these encounters leave us, from disturbed regret to a sense that the deliberate benevolance we felt towards you in your student daysgood teachers are never close to their studentsis about to turn into life-long friendship, are not my present point. That point is that alumni are in a more than metaphorical sense returning home, and have a right to be received in that spirit. Those, then, are the continuing relations of the alumni with the College as a home community, made up of officers and two campuses and one faculty. Now I come to the after-life of alumni on their own. How does the college continue with them? It is by far the more problematic topic and a better subject for reflection. Of course, it too has a practical and organizable part. The alumni organizations are, as it were, independent extensions of the College. In bringing former students together in the kind of event which is characteristic of St. Johns, in seminars and lectures legitimated by discussion, they propagate the life of the college and provide members with the means for continuing to live it at their leisure. For us to hear that a city has a lively alumni group is to have a sense of having friends in the world, and to come to such a city, for example, to San Francisco, is a little like the experience of the shipwrecked Greek who, being cast up on a wild coast, saw scratched in a rock the diagram of Euclid I, 47 and said: Here too are humans. (Let me hasten to add that this feeling is absurd. Humans, that is to say, people to talk to, are everywhere. And yet, absurd as it is, it is also humanly sensible, for it is humanly sensible to feel relieved at finding ones own.) This external, organized continuation of college life away from the campuses is, of course, only the expression of any inner individual continuity. Let me again begin at the easy end by giving some plain and practical tutors answers to the questions about alumni life. Alumni should continue reading. I imagine that most of you read quite a bit in the ordinary course of your lives. Much of that reading is in so-called papersnewspapers, position papers, official papers everything I call to myself instrumental junk. Many of you probably also read reams of poetry and of novelsmy own favorite genreof that mean range of excellence which goes down easily and yet nourishes the imagination. Many of you will have emerged from the program hungry for history written to that same standard. I have often thought that the much-bemoaned heavy tread of our program readings has in the best event this happy side effectthat it leaves students with a great appetitesome of you may recall that the Greeks called it boulimia, ox faminefor miscellaneous reading. But this kind of reading, which we share with the rest of the literate world, is not what I have in mind. I am thinking of a very deliberate effort. It involves, first of all, letting the time ripen, by keeping the thought in mind without pressing on to the execution. But then, when you are ready, pick up the program list. Readiness may be that the new ways of life which you have, in a healthy zest for contrast, thrown yourselves into have begun to fail you. It may mean that some specific question has returned to preoccupy you, or that you see its true shape for the first time. It may mean simply that you feel the wave of activity floating you away from the isle of contemplation. Pick up the list and choose a text. Then read it. Read it as experienced grown-ups reread the books of their youth: with a twinge of nostalgia for the circumstances of its first reading and with some wry admiration for the lordly consumption of metaphysics of which you were once capable, but after that with the critical discernment which comes from a well-digested, that is to say, half-forgotten education. That is my small but precise recommendation for doing alumni-deeds. But now the moment has come for matters of larger scope. Let me work my way into them by dwelling on a dilemma often discussed or displayed by visiting alumni, a dilemma at once highly specific to this college and of the widest human importance. Alumni sometimes arrive with a shame faced and apologetic air about them. How have they sinned? They are respected at their work and loved at home, but now they have come to the place of account giving, and they feel wanting. The matter is this: they are not living the philosophic life. Now that is a difficulty that I can only imagine a St. Johnnie as being oppressed by. Other students might be anxious before their teachers for having failed in the world or even for having lost their soul, but they would not usually know much about or honor the philosophic life. I am always charmed by our students anxiety because it shows on their part a willingness to take root in a deep and wise tradition concerning the good life. But I am also, in turn, anxious. Let me backtrack for a moment to be more accurate. Sometimes there really is something amiss in these uneasy visitors. They may have become enmeshed in what I will simply denominate here by its all too instantiable formula, the hassles of contemporary living. Or they are absorbed in the mild miseries of forgetfulness and cant come to. But more often their account of their life is full of shy ardor and quiet intelligence. Then I ask myself: What on earth does he or she, what do we all mean by the philosophical life? So the matter needs to be thought out. Let me give you some of my thoughts, some long in coming, some thought out for the occasion. When the ancient philosophers speak of the philosophical life, the bios philosophikos, one thing is immediately clear. It is a life and not a profession they are speaking of. Professors of philosophy have certain real disabilities in living the philosophical life. For as professors they have a position to maintain in the world, and work, not leisure, is their element. It is just the same with returning graduate students in philosophy. Sometimes they are full of interesting reflections on their activity, but sometimes they are so lost in their profession that it makes ones heart sink. Not that tutors are altogether different. To be sure, one incident that did much to win my heart for the college was a salary report prepared now almost a quarter century ago by Winfree Smith. Its preamble declared that although tutors were paid to live, they were not paid for their work because that was invaluable. It was invaluable both in being a pleasure and the need of their soul to perform and because its value was incapable of being quantitatively fixed. But while it is an inner truth that tutors do not work for wages, it is an external fact that we are the employees of a demanding institution, who converse by appointment, teach on schedule, and study according to a programand to miss any of these official obligations without a reason is highly unacceptable behavior. It follows that we too are professionals, and not free to live a daily life of absorbed contemplation. But perhaps if no one we know lives a philosophical life by reason of even the best-loved profession, it is still true that that life is compatible with any work, and any work can be done in a philosophical spirit. Let me pursue that. The life of philosophy seems to me to have one external condition, leisure, and one reason for being, the search for truth. That leisure is not exhausted time off from work, but the free time for the sake of which the other times of ones life are spent. Of the search for truth let me say only that it is not only a possibility but a necessity for most human beings. In whose life have there not been moments when all considerations have waned but the desire, the exigent desire, to know the truth? The long and short of it is, I think, that like all fundamental human modes the philosophical life comes in graduated versions which are continuous and even complementary, and those who come nearest to living it in some pure form hold its shape in trust for those who, from duty or preference, do the worlds business. For in spite of what I said before, there are protected environments for that life, and the college is the best place I know for study and reflection. Its program and its schedules are, after all, intended to be the ladder and the handholds in the reflective climb; most of us certainly I, myself, need such prescribed paths, since a life wholly free of stimulants and constraints leaves us more melancholy than illumined. The business of our college is in the service of leisure; it is a true school, if I may recall to you the old chestnut, that that word itself comes from schole, Greek for leisure. Of course, it is for that very reason not the so-called real world. No one knows that better than its long-term inhabitants, particularly since they also live out of it, as neighbors, consumers, taxpayers, voters, and worldwatchers. To be sure, in large academic conglomeration theoretical megalomania and practical impotence come together in that Lilliputian preoccupation known as academic politics. But the atmosphere of smaller schools is usually no more strained than that of an intensely close family, while the tutors of St. Johns, because of the common allegiance to a program with integrity, form a remarkable community of friends, willing to talk to and to trust in each other. Not only is the philosophical life best carried on in a special place, it is even most apt to be carried on by distinctive people. That distinction seems to me to be less one of nature or kind than of circumstance and predilection. For example, our students approach the leading of such a life by reason of their being in leisure circumstances, and most of us tutors come near it more through our inclination than capacity for intellection. I know that in saying all this I can be accused of showing myself a child of my time and of depreciating the philosophical life. Those would be heavy charges, but perhaps I must face them in the question period. How then is this special life, the life of philosophy, related to the life of action, if they are not in principle discontinuous? I used to think that the movement back and forth between them was entirely possible. In particular, it seemed to me that someone who had thought deeply about the world should be able to act wisely in it. I was never such a fool as to think that academics or intellectuals would cope particularly well with ruling responsibility, but I was thinking of philosophers, people whose thought is not divorced from the nature of things. The notion of a philosopher kingor queen, for that matterdid not seem impossible to me. I have not totally re-canted, but the facts of life loom larger now. I honor experience more, though that is an argument against the activity of the young as much as of the philosopher. What matters more is that the rhythm and the requirements of the two lives seem to me more irreconcilably different. From the point of view of the life of reflection, the other life seems unbearable for the continual curtailment of thought and its incessantly instrumental use, for the lack of long legatos of development and the hurried forestalling of spontaneous insight it brings with it. From the point of view of the life of action, the inability to reach conclusions without going back to the primal ameba (as Elliott Zuckerman likes to say), the obstruction of progress on mere principle, the lack of feel for possibilities, the sheer impotence of those who represent the other life, must be repellent. I conclude that with whatever freedom we may begin, at some time we become habituated to one or the other of the lives, and we will settle into our profession and our setting accordingly. But there is nothing at all in this against frequent cross-overs. On the contrary, just as those who make reflection the center of their life must keep their worldly wits about them to have anything to reflect on, so those who do the worlds business can and ought to philosophize, either as a steady accompaniment of their work, or intermittently, in their times of leisure whichever fits the economy of their life. I think our alumni often live just that way. Would that they knew how close to us they seem when they do it! That is what I wanted to say about the relations between the college as an institution and its alumni. Now I would like to conclude by considering how alumni might cope with the college insofar as it is a place and a time in their lives. I would like to entitle this section: How rightly to forget the College. By forgetting I mean, to begin with, a phenomenon well known to theorists of learningand of course, to learners. Most learning begins in proud but hesitant self consciousness and later subsides into a latent, yet ever active, condition. Such learning informs the soul as a second natureit reshapes it with good nourishment and right exercise. It is in the hope that something of that sort has happened that alumni are called alumni. I think much of that inner shaping, that passage into the past by which what was once a time in your life becomes a permanent possession, actually takes place in the decade after you have left the place itself, and takes a considerable digestive effort. Let me tell you what seem to me the signs that the passage has taken place. My recital will be illustrative rather than exhaustive, because I am not much enchanted by analytic checklists of the liberal skills and attitudes, and those are, of course, what I am talking about. If you like, we can talk more about these in the question period. And my examples will be given pell-mell, mixing the sublime and the trivialalways remembering though, that trivial originally meant: belonging to the trivium, the triple arts of language, grammar, rhetoric, logic. Here, then, are some of the features of that second, that alumni nature, which we always recognize with deep satisfaction: An unpretentious, companionable closeness to some deep and difficult books. A fairly wide factual learning of the sort that is absorbed incidentally, in the course of trying to understand some matter. A resourceful recalcitrance toward all translation, be it from Greek into Latinate English, from common language into technical jargon, from book onto screen, from original text to popular paraphrase. A long perspective on our modern tradition which avoids either kvetchy caviling or easy riding, because it is based on some knowledge of our roots and our revolutions. Knowing that the plural of eidos is eide. A carefully cherished ignorance that texts of mathematical symbols and of musical notes might be anything but essentially accessible expressions of the human soul. A determinedly naive faith in the possibility of principled political action, supported by a shrewd and ever-evolving theory of human nature which will neither buckle under the weight of the worlds wickedness nor invite more of it. A love for the illuminations of the studies of motion and of life, that is, physics and biology, and no disposition at all to be taken in by them. As a precipitate of many etymologies studied and many meanings discussed, a constitutional inability to use even the most current words without taking thought for their origin and the accumulated burden of sense they bear. A disposition toward that marriage of radical reason with reverent respect which was when you were there, and always will be, the best mood of the College. Let me finish by telling the second way in which the College might pass into a recollection. This way has to do with the fact that it is the place of your youth. It seems to me likely that you never had been, nor ever will be, so young again. Such places of quintessential youth tend to leave a powerful after-image. McDowell Hall and Peterson Student Center become temples through which float diaphanous figures swathed in love and logos. Sometimes when you return, this image may suddenly fit itself onto the realitythe result will be pure romance. However, let me try to be sober about this phenomenon, for it is, I think, an indispensable instrument in the shaping of a good lifebut only if the College has become a true object of recollection. By that, I mean that you have allowed life to carry you cheerfully away from its temporal and spatial coordinates, until the after-image has in it neither regret nor nostalgia and has become a mere vision. When those conditions are met, the inner image can and should serve as a sourcea source, not the sourceof shapes for a good life. Then it may provide a paradigma paradigm, not the paradigmof that earthly paradise I imagine our alumni as forever trying to prepare for themselves: a community of friends held together by a love of learning. Then you will have put the college well and truly behind you. Republished with gracious permission from The St. Johns Review (Fall 1981). The Imaginative Conservative applies the principle of appreciation to the discussion of culture and politicswe approach dialogue with magnanimity rather than with mere civility. Will you help us remain a refreshing oasis in the increasingly contentious arena of modern discourse? Please consider donating now. The featured image is Time Unveiling Truth (between 1740 and 1745) by Pompeo Batoni (17081787) and is in the public domain, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. It has been brightened for clarity. Facebook said, "It presents an image with content that is explicitly sexual and which shows to an excessive degree the body, concentrating unnecessarily on body parts The statue of Neptune. (Credit: Twitter @franxstrax) By Press Trust of India: Facebook blocked the photograph of a 16th-century statue of Neptune posted by an Italian art historian, claiming it as "sexually explicit". The social media giant later apologised saying the censorship was a mistake. ALSO READ: Error or terror: Deleting posts, banning accounts, is Facebook acting as a Censor Board on Kashmir? Here are the details: Elisa Barbari had chosen the statue in the Italian city of Bologna, which shows Neptune naked and holding a trident, to illustrate her Facebook page "Stories, curiosities and views of Bologna". She was asked to remove the photograph as it fell foul of Facebook's privacy policies, the Daily Telegraph reported on Monday. "The use of the image was not approved because it violates Facebook's guidelines on advertising. It presents an image with content that is explicitly sexual and which shows to an excessive degree the body, concentrating unnecessarily on body parts," Facebook said in a statement. "The use of images or video of nude bodies or plunging necklines is not allowed, even if the use is for artistic or educational reasons," it said. The artist responded to the statement on her Facebook page saying: "With incredulity, posting on her Facebook page: Yes to Neptune, no to censorship". "I wanted to promote my page but it seems that for Facebook the statue is a sexually explicit image that shows off too much flesh. Really, Neptune? This is crazy!," she said. "How can a work of art, our very own statue of Neptune, be the object of censorship?," she said."Back in the 1950s, during celebrations for schoolchildren graduating, they used to cover up Neptune," she said, adding that "maybe Facebook would prefer the statue to be dressed again". However, a Facebook spokesperson later said in a statement that the censorship was a mistake. "Our team processes millions of advertising images each week, and in some instances we incorrectly prohibit ads. This image does not violate our ad policies. We apologise for the error and have let the advertiser know we are approving their ad." Facebook's overzealous censoring software has brought the social media giant into controversy with increasing frequency, even as it faces intense criticism on another front for doing too little to prevent the spread of "fake news". advertisement ALSO READ: Facebook report shows less censorship in India in first half of 2016 Facebook allows Napalm Girl photo after outcry over censorship Facebook building censorship tool to make China happy: Report ALSO WATCH --- ENDS --- Nailbiter: Astros survive in Game 5, take control of World Series in 3-2 win The Astros are one win away from the second World Series title in their history because of the greatest bullpen in postseason history. By Press Trust of India: New Delhi, Jan 5 (PTI) Festival of India showcasing the countrys rich culture will be organised in three cities of Cambodia from January 10 to 16. Ramayana performance, folk music and classical dance would be some of the major attractions of the festival, an official release said. An exhibition exploring Lord Buddhas life, teachings and important events would also be organised, it said. advertisement The Festival events will be held in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Battambang cities of Cambodia, the release added. PTI MP DIP --- ENDS --- Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Fitrian Ardiansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, January 5, 2017 12:34 2129 9b519824cb3263083aedb70a0b9b6317 3 Opinion food-security,rice-production,rice,environment,sustainable Free The year 2016 has just ended, but a question remains. Will countries, including Indonesia, be able to supply food for their growing populations, taking into account the constraints of our limited natural resources? The global demand for food, fiber and fuel is on the rise. This demand needs to be matched while we also need to ensure that our resources, landscape and ecosystems will be sustainably managed for the long term. Several projections, including from the Directorate General of Food Crops in 2013, for example, reveal that Indonesias rice consumption would exceed its production starting in 2020, taking into account land availability and climate change. Threats to food security will likely increase as the population continues to soar and economic activities develop, while land availability becomes more limited. Hence, improved productivity and technological developments are necessary. Globally traded commodities produced in Indonesia, namely palm oil, coffee and cocoa, face similar challenges. Palm oil is one of the most efficient crops but the productivity level in Indonesia, especially on small farmers lands, is still relatively low at 3.2 tons of crude palm oil (CPO) per hectare the global average is between 4 and 5 tons. If productivity and practices are not improved, the increased global demand for palm oil could lead to expansion and exploitation of the remaining forests and peat lands and potentially to forest and land fires. However, a decree for conservation has been adopted by the government, which is in tandem with global markets that increasingly support sustainable products. Land cultivated for palm oil needs replanting. In South Sumatra alone, between 2016 and 2021, replanting needs are estimated to be at least 270,000 hectares. The investment required for oil palm replanting could reach US$5,000 per ha. A new financial plan is needed to support replanting, especially if it involves small farmers. Without adequate finances and technical support for replanting, growers and farmers could opt to expand their palm oil cultivation to high risk areas, such as forests and peat lands. Concerning cocoa and coffee, low productivity is a huge challenge as land is often managed and cultivated by small farmers. Low productivity has trapped small farmers in a cycle of poverty and a cycle of debt. The inability of small farmers to access finances and sound agriculture practices has led to reduced quality of input which in turn produces a low level of output (quantity and quality). Without a provision of better input, farmers will have difficulty meeting global standards hence, their struggle to break into the global market. Funding for farmers is even more challenging because financial institutions perceive giving loans to small farmers as a high risk. This perception relates to the unclear land status of farmers, low capability and accountability of farmer organizations and existing debt by farmers. Innovation could help farmers gain agriculture knowledge, input material, improve farmer organizations and reduce investment risks. This is key to producing more with less more productivity with less environmental impact. Models for this have been tested across the globe, including in Indonesia. A good model usually consists of a supply chain company committed as a long-term off-taker of commodities supplied by farmers, a farmer organization or cooperative, a bank that provides a soft-loan for a cooperative with a grace period taking into account the harvesting cycle, a provider of seeds and input materials and a donor or private foundation that provides technical support for farmers. Such models have been applied in Aceh for aquaculture, Riau, Jambi and South Sumatra for palm oil, Lampung for coffee and Sulawesi for cocoa. Individual corporations, organizations and banks or multi-stakeholders platforms, such as Partnership for Indonesia Sustainable Agriculture (PISAgro), are examining these models in collaboration with a number of cooperatives and government agencies. A model in just one supply chain may not be enough as there are many challenges and issues shared among different actors in different supply chains. These shared issues include land legality, water and landscape management, fire prevention and energy provision and require a holistic approach beyond just one farm or supply chain. In Musi Banyuasin district, South Sumatra, a supply shed approach led by its regent is being tested to support the development of integrated sustainable commodities, such as palm oil, rice, rubber and protecting forests and peat lands. This approach has gathered the support of local government agencies, mills and local and international organizations to collaboratively help identify and map independent small farmers and their challenges. A combination of segregated supply chain and integrated supply shed approaches with clear financial support and sound agriculture practices is one of the most effective ways to develop commodities while protecting our fragile ecosystem. The bold part of this journey is to build on these approaches to increase investment, develop commodity production and protect larger areas. It is time for Indonesia to demonstrate its ability to produce more with less. --------------- We are looking for information, opinions, and in-depth analysis from experts or scholars in a variety of fields. We choose articles based on facts or opinions about general news, as well as quality analysis and commentary about Indonesia or international events. Send your piece to community@jakpost.com. For more information click here. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Emanuel Bria (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, January 5, 2017 08:42 2129 9b519824cb3263083aedb70a0b9ad20f 3 Opinion ASEAN,ASEAN-China,#ASEAN,#ASEAN-China,Indonesia,maritime-silk-road,China,geopolitics,investment,diplomacy Free Early last year, Poppy S. Winanti and I wrote about Chinas increased investment in ASEAN, especially Indonesia, and whether China can behave responsibly. Since then The Jakarta Post has published a number of expert opinions on Indonesia and China relations, from the fear of Chinas rise as a regional hegemon to a balanced view on China, dispelling such a fear. But less has been said about one question: why do Indonesia and ASEAN matter to China? What drives China to put billions of dollars in Indonesia following various multilateral and bilateral agreements at the ASEAN level and between Indonesia and China? In 2016, China became the third largest investor in Indonesia after Japan and Singapore. After the signing of the IndonesiaChina strategic partnership in 2005 and the upgrade into a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2013, China is now Indonesias largest trading partner. What does it mean to be a strategic partner for China? One should note that since the early 2000s, China has signed strategic partnership agreements with 47 countries and three international organizations in which ASEAN is one of them. Feng Zhongping and Huang Jing (2014) argue that the boom of Chinas strategic partnerships is a result of Chinas embrace of globalization and multi-dimensional diplomacy. It is a diplomatic instrument to secure Chinas core interests and its peaceful rise as a global power. A comprehensive strategic partnership as articulated by the Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao, in 2004, is an all-dimensional and multilayered, long-term and stable partnership that transcends differences in ideologies and social systems. It seeks to expand converging interests and seek common ground on the major issues while shelving differences on the minor ones. Along with Indonesia, other ASEAN members who have signed strategic partnerships with China are Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Malaysia. The strategic partnership is used by China as a diplomatic tool to protect its core interests, which include state sovereignty, national security, territorial integrity and national reunification. These core interests are reflected well in all documents of Chinas strategic partnerships. The question then is, why do Indonesia and ASEAN more broadly deserve a position as Chinas strategic partner? I would strongly argue that it is to protect Chinas core interest, its national security. In this case, securing its energy supply. Energy security for China, as Downs wrote in 2006, means the acquisition of sufficient energy supplies to protect Chinas core objectives. In recent years China has emerged as a global player in the energy sector. This is a result of soaring economic growth, hovered between 9 and 10 percent per year for three decades since 1980. And since 2012 China still shows impressive growth at a rate of 7 to 8 percent. This is why Chinas demand for energy is massive and propels the country to undertake energy acquisitions worldwide. Domestic energy in China is scarce except in coal, but with low quality. China became a net oil importer in 1993, a net gas importer in 2007, a net coal importer in 2008 and the first global oil importer in 2014. It means that in 2014, China has become a consumer of 30 percent of global oil consumption and 45 percent of global coal consumption. Given this enormous energy demand, China has no other option but to go overseas to secure energy supply. Why is ASEAN strategic for China? It is because about 60 percent of Chinas oil import is transported through the Strait of Malacca. A strategic partnership with ASEAN will help mitigate the risks of disruptions in Chinas energy transport from piracy, congested traffic, terrorist attacks and especially the naval forces of other major powers like the United States and Japan. One way to mitigate the risk in the Strait of Malacca is the construction of the oil and gas pipeline from Maday Island in Myanmar to Yunan Province in China, which has been operational since 2015. It has cut by 30 percent the time needed to transport crude oil to China and reduced the risk of piracy and other risks. Also in November last year, China and Malaysia signed deals on defense. The two parties also agreed to resolve the South China Sea case on a bilateral basis. This further secures Chinas energy interest in the Strait of Malacca and South China Sea. ASEAN countries encompass all of Chinas energy shipping routes from the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. Therefore, it is in Chinas core interest to maintain peace and stability in the region and seek closer economic cooperation with ASEAN member countries including Indonesia. When he came to power in 2014, President Joko Jokowi Widodo projected Indonesia as a maritime power and this has become central in Indonesia-China relations since 2015. It sits well with Chinas Maritime Silk Road ambition. Indonesias diplomacy toward China can be further improved to mutually benefit the two parties when we understand why Indonesia and ASEAN matter to China. --------------- We are looking for information, opinions, and in-depth analysis from experts or scholars in a variety of fields. We choose articles based on facts or opinions about general news, as well as quality analysis and commentary about Indonesia or international events. Send your piece to community@jakpost.com. For more information click here. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Asmara Wreksono (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, January 5, 2017 For those who, like me, spent 2014 and 2015 obsessing over the hit podcast Serial and think they know all the aspects of the once shut-down murder case involving life-sentenced inmate Adnan Syed, think again. You may be surprised to find out that the non-fiction podcast may have only revealed 30 percent of the whole murder drama. On Feb. 28, 1999, a Baltimore high school student, Adnan Syed, was convicted for murdering his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, who died by manual strangulation. Adnan, adamant about being innocent, had to face a life-sentence plus 30 years when he was 19 years of age. Adnan and Hae had been dating for a year prior to the murder, amid the obstacle of very different cultural and religious backgrounds. Coming from a close-knit religious American-Pakistani Muslim family, it was supposedly unthinkable for Adnan to have a relationship with someone outside of his community. Enter Hae Min Lee, a Korean-American who made him fall in love. The two dated until Hae broke it off due to pressure from their cultural differences and started seeing someone else named Don. (Read also: Feel-good books for year-end holiday season) In Jan. 13, 1999, Hae went missing and almost a month later on Feb. 9, 1999, her body was found in Leakin Park. In a sudden turn of events, the spotlight was shone on Adnan Syed, the ex-boyfriend who said he didnt kill Hae but failed to provide a solid alibi. Adnans Story was written by Rabia Chaudry, an attorney and US Institute of Peace senior fellow. She happens to be the sister of Saad, Adnans best friend. Rabia, convinced of Adnans innocence, skillfully and compellingly unravels bits and pieces that were strangely unmentioned or half-mentioned in the Serial podcast, offering new witnesses, never-seen-before letters, stories and analysis of other possible suspects. Rabia provides more than 100 letters and documents throughout the book, and very patiently walks readers through the decades-old case. She satisfies readers with legit fillers for the loopholes found in the podcast. A solid example is the part where readers are informed that Cristina Guttierez, Adnans previous lawyer, had many issues and was disbarred within a few months after Adnan received his verdict. In the Serial podcast, listeners were sympathetic to Cristina, while Adnans Story tells how she might be the biggest culprit in Adnans conviction. (Read also: Annotated version of Hitler's 'Mein Kampf' a hit in Germany) Back in 2014 when the Serial podcast first came out, I was trying stay neutral, not deciding yet that Adnan Syed was guilty or innocent. However, like most Serial fans, I was flabbergasted by the seemingly abrupt end and the sudden change of tone from Sarah Koenig, the podcasts creator, who at first seemed to lean into sticking up for Adnans innocence, and changed perspective at the last moments. Disappointment came again when I found out that Serial decided to tell a different story with a different anti-hero in its second season and left Adnans case open like a gaping wound. Rabia Chaudry did a podcast titled Undisclosed, where she tells Adnans story from her perspective, and I found it enjoyable however not as addictive as the previous podcast. And just when I thought it was time to move on from podcast haven, she came out with this book. I bought Adnans Story out of curiosity, read it on my Kindle, and before I knew it I was hooked and googled past episodes and blogs that talked about Serial. Adnans Story is grippingly authentic because it is about real people, real families and real conviction. Rabias fight to exonerate Adnan is a work in progress, a real-life event that has made a global audience collectively hold their breaths. She also shines the light on how Islamophobia has always been there, even before the 9/11 tragedy, and why Adnan is a victim of a broken justice system. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, January 5, 2017 A work-life balance seems like a foreign concept in Japan. For many Japanese employees, life and work are the exact same thing. "It is 4 in the morning. My body is shaking. I feel like dying," was one of Matsuri Takahashi's tweets not long before she committed suicide last year by jumping off a building. The 24-year-old was an employee of advertising company Dentsu. As reported by kompas.com, Takahashi shared that she was not only overworked, but also harassed by her boss. This scandal later made Dentsu chief Tahashi Ishii resign from his position. He also personally apologized to Takahashi's family. The culture of working until you run out of energy, with a minimum working time of up to 12 hours a day, not only exists in Dentsu, but also in the majority of Japanese companies. Japanese employees work more than 60 hours a week on average and rarely take days off, a situation that leads to stress, the feeling of being pressured and fatigue. It is so common that the Japanese have a term for it: karoshi (overwork death). But karoshi is more than just a phrase; according to the country's Manpower Ministry, there have been up to 200 cases of real karoshi that involved suicide, heart attack and stroke. Many consider the actual number to be much higher. (Read also: Japan overwork deaths among young show lessons unlearned) Karoshi victims are usually workers in their 20s and male, although the number of female victims is reportedly increasing. As stated by The Washington Post, the suicide rate of female workers has gone up by 39 percent in the past four years. "It's not a strange thing in Japan that somebody aged in the early 30s already has a heart attack," said Hiroshi Kawahito, a victim advocacy group's lawyer. The dependents of those who died because of karoshi are able to receive compensation from the government. The claims for such case reportedly increased to 2,310 per year. The Japanese government plans to change the overwork culture and encourage employees to take vacations. However, changing a work culture is no easy thing. For instance, employees in Japan usually stay with one company for a very long time. A Japanese population that is getting older also means fewer young workers, which leads to higher workload. A professor from Kansai University said that changing karoshi needed a huge effort. "Long working hours are the root of all evil in Japan. People are so busy that they no longer have time to complain," he said. (kes) By Press Trust of India: Washington, Jan 5 (PTI) NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps is set to become the first African-American crew member aboard the International Space Station (ISS) when she flies to the orbital post in May next year, the US space agency said today. NASA assigned veteran Andrew Feustel and Epps to missions aboard the ISS in 2018. advertisement Feustel will launch in March 2018 for his first long-duration mission, serving as a flight engineer on Expedition 55 and later as commander of Expedition 56. Epps will join Feustel as a flight engineer on Expedition 56 and remain on board for Expedition 57. "Each space station crew brings something different to the table, and Drew and Jeanette both have a lot to offer. The space station will benefit from having them on board," said Chris Cassidy, chief of the Astronaut Office at NASAs Johnson Space Centre in Houston. Epps earned a bachelors degree in physics in 1992 at LeMoyne College in her hometown of Syracuse, New York. She went on to complete a masters of science in 1994 and a doctorate in 2000 in aerospace engineering from the University of Maryland. While earning her doctorate, Epps was a NASA Graduate Student Researchers Project fellow, authoring several journal and conference articles on her research. After completing graduate school, she went on to work in a research laboratory for more than two years, co-authoring several patents, before being recruited by the US Central Intelligence Agency. She spent seven years as a CIA technical intelligence officer before being selected as a member of the 2009 astronaut class. Feustel and Epps will join a long and distinguished line of astronauts who have crewed the International Space Station since November 2000. Feustel was selected as part of the 2000 astronaut class and, in 2009, flew on the space shuttle Atlantis for the final servicing mission of NASAs Hubble Space Telescope. He made his first trip to the space station in 2011 as a member of the STS-134 crew on space shuttle Endeavours final mission. With the help of the more than 200 astronauts who have visited, the space station enables us to demonstrate new technologies and make research breakthroughs not possible on Earth. Its convergence of science, technology and human innovation provide a springboard to NASAs next giant leap in exploration, including the Journey to Mars. PTI MHN SAR MHN --- ENDS --- advertisement Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Hans Nicholas Jong (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, January 5, 2017 Human rights violations and violence against Indonesian female migrant workers are still rampant, with 66 cases recorded throughout 2016. According to a report by Womens Solidarity for Human Rights, female migrant workers were abused physically and emotionally, targeted as criminals, subjected to human trafficking and murdered throughout the year. The most reports the organization received in 2016 were related to unpaid wages (19 percent), followed by human trafficking (17 percent). Female migrant workers, who usually work as domestic helpers, are vulnerable to exploitation and violence as the government has not acknowledged domestic work as a job, the organization says. Domestic helpers are not considered as workers. Therefore, their rights as workers continue to be violated and its difficult for them to obtain justice, Womens Solidarity for Human Rights program coordinator Nisaa Yura said at the launch of the report on Thursday. She said the governments avoidance of the problem was reflected in its 2017 zero domestic workers roadmap, which contains plans to stop sending domestic helpers to other countries beginning in 2017, as well as the governments decision in 2015 to stop sending domestic workers to Middle Eastern countries. The decision makes it even more difficult for women who are already trapped in poverty to find livelihoods, Nisaa said. Instead of protecting women, the government has produced policy that makes female migrant workers more vulnerable to human trafficking, Nisaa added. (dmr) (Read also: Govt, House set to deliberate bill to improve migrant worker protection) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Hans Nicholas Jong and Apriadi Gunawan (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta/Medan Thu, January 5 2017 The planned ban on all ivory trade in China, the biggest ivory market in the world, might result in ivory from Africa flooding Indonesia, a country where illegal ivory trade is still rampant. China recently announced that it would close down its domestic ivory trade by the end of 2017, a decision hailed as historic and game changing for the future of elephants as it signals an end to the worlds primary legal ivory market, where ivory has become a status symbol among the rapidly growing middle class and used in products like necklaces and table lamps. The decision is also seen by conservation groups as a major boost to international efforts to tackle the elephant poaching crisis in Africa as the majority of ivory traded in China came from Africa. 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 Carla Bianpoen (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, January 5 2017 Arahmaiani is one of the countrys most outspoken artists, known for her strong stances on tolerance and pluralism. Art Stage Singapore will open its doors for the 2017 edition of the art fair on Jan.11. But, in collaboration with the United States Embassy in Singapore, it will first host the Balestier Award for Freedom of Art expression. The third edition of the award has three finalists Indonesian contemporary artist Arahmaiani, Myanmars Aye Ko, and Vietnamese artist Chaw Ei Thein. The winner, which will be announced on Jan. 10, will also take home a cash prize of US$15,000. Born in Bandung in 1961, Arahmaiani is known as one of the countrys most outspoken activist artists, whose fame stretches to the corners of Asia and the West. A rebel in the eyes of her adversaries, she has been lauded for her bravery and strength, daring to stand up against injustice, repressive fanaticism and discrimination of any kind. She has featured in more than a hundred solo and group exhibitions around the world, including the Venice Biennale, the Asia-Pacific Triennial in Brisbane, the landmark 1996 Traditions and Tensions exhibition by the Asia Society in New York City, Gwangju Biennale, Sharjah Biennale, just to name a few. In 2007, during the Global Feminisms exhibition held at the Brooklyn Museum Arahmaiani spoke out against all kinds of conservatism, fundamentalism and dogmatism, regardless if it was coming from religion or from the globalized economy. Her artwork has appeared in institutions in the US, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands and Japan. As a child, she loved to listen to stories about the Prophet which evoked a desire to become a prophet herself. However, she was told she could never be one, because she was a girl. It was her first confrontation with gender issues. Her father, a modern Islamic scholar provided her a strict Islamic education and culture. Her mothers Hindu and Buddhist background, however, enabled her to learn Javanese dances, songs, legends, poetry, and customs. Her upbringing saw the coexistence of both convictions. Tolerance and plurality became ingrained within her very being. Her name alone (Arahma-iani) was a compromise, she said. Arahma has its root in Arabic meaning loving, while iani derives from human being in Hindi. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Haeril Halim and Stefani Ribka (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, January 5, 2017 President Joko Jokowi Widodo has called on Australia to respect and not interfere with Indonesias internal affairs following a report that materials used at a military language training facility in Perth allegedly mocked the state ideology Pancasila. Several teaching materials used in the curriculum of the language learning camp allegedly discredited the Indonesian Military (TNI) and tweaked Pancasila, which means five principles, to become Pancagila, or five crazy principles as found by a TNI language trainer teaching at the camp between October and November. (Read also: TNI temporarily halts cooperation with ADF over insult) The incident prompted the TNI to suspend cooperation on the language exchange program and evaluate other defense agreements signed by the TNI and its Australian counterparts. Jokowi said he had received reports from Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu and TNI commander Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo with regard to the suspension of military cooperation. I think that Indonesia and Australia have agreed to respect each other and not interfere in each others home affairs. I have instructed the defense minister and the TNI commander to resolve the problems, Jokowi said. Jokowi said Indonesia and Australia currently had good bilateral cooperation and the Pancasila incident must be resolved as soon as possible so that the two neighbors relationship was not harmed. On Wednesday, Ryamizard said he would fly to Australia to meet with his counterpart Marise Payne to look for solutions. However, Gatot said on Thursday he would not fly there and demanded Australian representatives come to Indonesia to make an apology. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Kristen Gelineau (Associated Press) Sydney, Ausralia Thu, January 5, 2017 Australia scrambled to calm tensions with Indonesia on Thursday, promising that an investigation was nearly complete into an alleged insult of Indonesian state ideology that prompted Indonesia to suspend military cooperation with its neighbor. The exact cause of the rift between the two allies remained slightly murky one day after Indonesia's announcement of the suspension took officials in Canberra by surprise. Military ties between the two nations have been relatively warm in recent years, having improved since Indonesia downgraded its relations with Australia in 2013 over the alleged bugging of phones belonging to Indonesia's president. Australian Defense Minister Marise Payne said Thursday that the current issue began in November, after an Indonesian military officer raised concerns about some teaching materials and remarks made at an army language training facility in western Australia. (Read also: TNI temporarily halts cooperation with ADF over insult) Indonesian military spokesman Maj. Gen. Wuryanto said there were reports an Indonesian instructor at the facility felt that a "laminated paper" on display was insulting. According to Indonesian media, the paper contained words that demeaned Pancasila a set of vague principles that mandates belief in one God and unity among Indonesia's 250 million people. Wuryanto said the training material was among many factors behind the decision to suspend cooperation with Australia. On Thursday, Payne was asked about reports that the material also suggested West Papua should be given independence from Indonesia, which is battling the remote region's separatist movement. "The issue of West Papua was raised by the Indonesian defense minister, yes," Payne told reporters. Payne said an inquiry was launched in November to look into the incident, and its completion was "imminent." The training material in question had been removed, and would soon be replaced with "appropriate" material, she said. "We have indicated our regret that this occurred and that offense was taken," she said. Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo told reporters in Jakarta that his country's relationship with Australia remained good. "Indonesia and Australia have agreed to respect each other, to appreciate each other and not interfere in each others' domestic affairs," Jokowi said. "We have already agreed on that and now I have ordered the minister of defense and the military chief to address the problem." The neighboring nations, though close partners on many issues including terrorism and trade, have long had a turbulent relationship. Tensions have repeatedly flared over Australia's policy of turning back boats to Indonesia that are carrying asylum seekers from other countries. Indonesia's use of the death penalty which Australia opposes has also strained ties, particularly in 2015 when Indonesia executed two Australians for drug crimes. And in 1999, the relationship suffered one of its most serious blows after Australia led a UN military force into the former Indonesian province of East Timor following a bloody independence ballot. ___ Associated Press writer Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Panca Nugraha (The Jakarta Post) Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara Thu, January 5, 2017 Flash flooding in Bima, West Nusa Tenggara, has left huge social problems, forcing the city administration to extend its emergency relief period which should have ended on Jan. 5, by one week to Jan. 12. The Bima administration recorded that as of Thursday, at least 900 residents were still taking refuge in temporary shelters in nine points across the city. Activities in several schools and community health centers (Puskesmas) have not yet returned to normal as they are still not yet free of garbage and flood debris. Based on the results of the Bima flood mitigation teams meeting, the emergency relief deadline will be extended by seven days to Jan. 12. This decision has been taken to make cleaning easier and because some problems in the management of displaced people have not yet been fully resolved, among other things, Bima administration spokesperson Syahrial Nuryadin said in a statement on Thursday. Bima suffered severe damage following a two-day flash flood on Dec.21 and Dec.23. In the education sector, many schools need special attention. Education facilities in several locations sustained severe damage. Many students are still suffering from trauma and do not yet have proper school equipment, said Syahrial. The joint clean-up team has not yet managed to achieve its target of 100 percent of areas free from garbage and flood debris. The volume of flood garbage taken to temporary trash disposal sites (TPS) has exceeded their capacities, creating more problems for the city administration. In the health sector, only a few areas have been sterilized due to a lack of personnel, equipment and disinfectant. Syahrial said many health facilities had been cleaned of flood debris, but healthcare services were not yet optimal as many medicines and medical equipment had sustained severe damage. (ebf) State-owned coal miner Bukit Asam plans to allocate US$500 million in capital expenditure and issue global bonds worth up to $2.5 billion in 2017 following its plan to develop power plants with a total capacity of 5,000 megawatts (MW) in the near future. Struggling with nosediving coal prices over the past years, the company has found a lifeline from the electricity sector, taking opportunities from the governments ambitious 35,000 MW electricity procurement program, which will run until 2019. At present, Bukit Asam is operating three power plants in South Sumatra with a total capacity of 266 MW. It also has several other power plant projects in the pipeline, where combined will generate a total capacity of around 5,000 MW. Those projects include the Bangko Tengah (Sumsel 8) facility in South Sumatra with a capacity of 2 x 620 MW, the Peranap facility in Riau with a 1,200 MW capacity, and a joint power plant project with state-owned aluminum producer Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Inalum) that is designed to produce 2 x 350 MW in electricity in Kuala Tanjung, North Sumatra. If we want to complete those projects on schedule, we will need an equity boost, Bukit Asam finance director Achmad Sudarto said last Thursday. So, next year [2017] we might issue global bonds with an estimated value of $2.5 billion. We also plan to allocate $500 million in capital expenditure [for the projects]. (Read also: A false dawn for coal) The allocated capital expenditure for this year will mark a significant annual jump of 82.6 percent compared to the Rp 3.68 trillion ($273.8 million) allocated for 2016. In line with those power plant development projects, Achmad, who also serves as Bukit Asam acting president director, said the company aimed to increase its coal production by 20 percent to 30 million tons in 2017 following a recent surge in global coal prices. A surprise change in Chinese government policy has led the country to lower its domestic production, which has encouraged a fuel price rise. Therefore, coal exports to China have also surged, boosting global coal prices to more than $100 per ton in October, before stabilizing at around $85 per ton recently. Contacted separately, Recapital Securities analyst Kiswoyo Adi Joe praised Bukit Asams decision to penetrate deeper into power plant sector, as the company could guarantee the coal supply for the facilities in the long term. Its going to be difficult for them to rely only on the coal sales per se, especially considering the high volatility of the commodity, Kiswoyo said. Bukit Asam owns almost 8 billion tons of coal deposits, around 40 percent of which are mineable. Kiswoyo said the company had also made the right move by expanding its power plant business to neighboring countries in the back of high demand for electricity in the region. Bukit Asam is currently in the middle of negotiations with the government of Myanmar to build a 2 x 100 MW power plant in the country. The construction of the facility is expected to start in 2018 with an investment value of between $200 million and $340 million. We dont need to own a majority stake in the project, but we believe we can supply the power plants entire coal demand, Achmad said. Its going to be difficult for them to rely only on the coal sales per se, especially considering the high volatility of the commodity This article first appeared in our print edition. The first paragraph has been corrected by changing the phrase 'this year' with '2017' - Editor Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Bogor Thu, January 5 2017 The gas-rich Masela block is expected to start commercial operations in 2022 despite lags in the development process. Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan said on Wednesday that the front end engineering design (FEED) for the project would be completed this year, while the final investment decision would be concluded in 2019 at the latest. We hope commercial operations start in 2022, he said following a Cabinet meeting at the Bogor Palace in West Java. Luhut further said based on the governments decision, the contract of the block would be extended seven years after its expiration, set to occur in 2028. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Prima Wirayani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, January 5, 2017 State-owned electricity company PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) will postpone its plan to issue global bonds worth US$1.5 billion after the disbursement of state capital injection and subsidy funds. "It [the issuance] will be a little bit delayed because we just received Rp 23.6 trillion ($1.8 billion) of PMN (state capital injection) and Rp 10.9 trillion of subsidy funds," PLN president director Sofyan Basir said at the Office of the Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister in Central Jakarta on Thursday. Sofyan met with Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan on the same day but he refused to discuss the content of their meeting. (Read also: PLN secures Rp 12t loan from state lenders) "Maybe the [global bond] issuance will be in April," Sofyan said, adding that the amount would remain at a similar figure. No underwriter has been appointed yet. The bonds issuance was previously aimed to help fund the governments ambitious project to build a number of power plants sufficient to produce an additional 35,000 megawatts of electricity for the country. PLN has also secured loans worth up to Rp 12 trillion from state lenders in September last year for the project. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Margareth S. Aritonang (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, January 5, 2017 The police arrested a resident of Tegalrejo Regency in Central Java, a failed legislative candidate identified as Haris Fauzi, on Wednesday over an alleged attempt to bomb a local drugstore. National Police Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Rikwanto said the attack was an act of personal revenge targeting a nearby Islamic boarding school, Ponpes API. He [Haris] was planning to damage the image of Ponpes API by bombing the drugstore located just across from the boarding school, Rikwanto said in a statement on Thursday. (Read also:High explosive bomb prepared to attack State Palace: Police) Rikwanto explained that Haris had a grudge against API leader Gus Yusuf for not supporting him when he ran as a legislative candidate with the National Awakening Party (PKB) and instead associating Haris with the now-defunct Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). By planning the attack, he [Haris] wanted people to avoid Ponpes API, said Rikwanto. The police are charging Haris under Article 7 of the 2002 Government Regulation in lieu of law, Perppu No. 1/2002, on terrorism. (jun) A Defence spokesman said Rawat would be visiting Udhampur, Srinagar, Nagrota and Siachen during his tour. He will also visit formations at Kupwara, Anantnag, Akhnoor and Rajouri. By Ashwini Kumar: Army Chief General Bipin Rawat is on a three-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir from today. A Defence spokesman said Rawat would be visiting Udhampur, Srinagar, Nagrota and Siachen during his tour. He will also visit formations at Kupwara, Anantnag, Akhnoor and Rajouri, where he is going to be briefed about the prevailing security situation by officers there. advertisement Also read | Our army seeks peace along the border but that doesn't mean we are weak: General Bipin Rawat General Rawat lauded the role of the Northern Command in restoring peace and normalcy during the recent unrest. He also commended the soldiers for retaliating strongly against the unprovoked ceasefire violations by Pakistan. Rawat said, "Every soldier of our Army plays an important role in security of the nation because it is the contribution of every soldier that makes the Army efficient and strong." The visit assumes importance as the Northern Command is the first place General Rawat is visiting after taking over as the Army chief. He emphasised that we need to evolve a dynamic strategy to handle the proxy war and defeat the enemy's nefarious designs. WATCH VIDEO --- ENDS --- Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Bambang Muryanto (The Jakarta Post) Yogyakarta Thu, January 5 2017 The Yogyakarta provincial council approved a bylaw on Wednesday that would eliminate the central governments land ownership in the province. The controversial bylaw, which many see as the Sultans last attempt to keep authority over the former kingdom, has caused disputes between residents and the local administration. The bylaw is the implementation of the 2012 law on Yogyakartas special status, which authorizes the sultanate and Pakualaman to own land. The law also enables the monarchs to claim land that has not been registered. These special rights have been rejected by local residents, arguing that the 1960 Agrarian Law eliminated the palaces land rights. Yes, there is no land owned by the central government in Yogyakarta. This matter was criticized by the National Mandate Party [PAN], Yogyakarta Provincial Legislative Council (DPRD) Deputy Speaker Arief Noor Hartanto told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday. Of the seven parties at the DPRD, only PAN opposed the bylaw. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Prima Wirayani and Fedina S. Sundaryani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, January 5, 2017 The lower-than-expected amount of repatriated funds has left a gaping hole in the Indonesian governments flagship tax amnesty, threatening participants with serious consequences. President Joko Jokowi Widodos call in a television commercial urging taxpayers to bring overseas assets back home to develop the country, seems to have fallen on deaf ears. The latest data shows taxpayers have remained reluctant to repatriate their assets, even after they expressed their commitment to do so in the first and second phases of the tax amnesty, which ended in September and December, respectively. According to the Directorate General of Taxation, Rp 141 trillion (US$10.46 billion)-worth of assets had been promised to be repatriated before Dec. 31. The committed amount itself is far lower than the Rp 1 quadrillion initially targeted. However, data from the Financial Services Authority (OJK) which oversees the banking industry as the party that receives the repatriated funds revealed that only 63.5 percent or Rp 89.6 trillion of the committed amount had entered the domestic financial system and most of the funds had been recorded as cash and cash equivalents. The government is not happy with the result, as it wishes to see massive fund repatriation and the money directed toward the financial markets and real sector to move the economy because the state budget remains cash-strapped. Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati confirmed there would be consequences for tax amnesty participants who had committed to repatriating their wealth, but failed to do so. If the participants said they would repatriate their wealth [but didnt deliver by the end of the deadline], I will consult with the taxation director general on whether [their failure] would nullify their asset declaration, she said at the Bogor Palace in West Java on Wednesday. (Read also: Indonesia tax office sets sights on little fish) Another option for the government would be to acknowledge their repatriation commitment and include it in the third and final phase that would end in March, meaning the participants would face a higher penalty rate of 5 percent, instead of 2 to 3 percent set in the first and second phases. This is if they still wish to repatriate their wealth, she added. Tax office spokesperson Hestu Yoga Saksama said it would implement Article 13 of the Tax Amnesty Law and treat the participants assets as income obtained in 2016, subjecting them to regular income tax and to a 2 percent penalty per month for a maximum of 24 months since Jan. 1. Commenting on the fund gap, Yoga argued the tax office had not established an online monitoring system and relied on data from 21 banks that had been appointed to manage the repatriation. We only received a monthly report from the banks, he said, adding that it would receive their full reports on the first and second stages on Thursday. (Read also: Tax office sees surge of tax amnesty applicants as deadline nears) Meanwhile, University of Indonesia economic professor Ari Kuncoro said attracting the funds back home was not an easy task as they were not idle funds. Instead, they are used as venture capitals and invested in various instruments, such as time deposits and equities. Its not easy converting and transferring them to Indonesia. If for example their investment contracts are terminated, they will have to face penalties. So they may think its better to just declare the assets, he said. Center of Reform on Economics (CORE) Indonesia director Mohammad Faisal said the discrepancy between the data on tax offices dashboard and realized amount could jeopardize the offices credibility, which is already at stake in the eyes of the public. Separately, business tycoon Sofjan Wanandi said he had checked with his colleagues and most of them had repatriated their assets. I believe more than 90 percent [of the repatriation amount] has entered [the country], said Sofjan, who is chief economic adviser to Vice President Jusuf Kalla and the prime initiator of the amnesty. Those who have yet to repatriate [their assets] will be imposed a penalty and they, for sure, dont expect that, he added. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Stefani Ribka (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, January 5, 2017 Indonesia revised down its export growth target of non-oil and gas products from 11.9 percent to 5.6 percent due to the slow recovery of global demand. "Because of the current global economic condition, we've set a realistic target this year of 5.6 percent export growth through more products and country diversification," said Trade Minister Enggartiasto "Enggar" Lukita on Wednesday evening. We'll approach local businesses to explore more products that can be exported, he added. (Read also: Indonesia's exports to still rely on primary commodities: HSBC) With the 5.6 percent export growth target, Indonesia expects to earn US$136.2 billion compared to $129 billion last year. Government-projected exports in 2016 would go down by 14.14 percent to $129 billion from $150.2 billion in 2015, hampered by weak global demand. From January to November last year, earnings from exports amounted to $130.65 billion, down 5.63 percent from the figure in 2015, although overall trade balance posted a surplus of $7.79 billion, according to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS). Non-oil and gas exports, the largest contributor to overall exports, dropped by 1.96 percent to $118.8 billion during the period. The World Trade Organization (WTO) has anticipated global trade growth to rise moderately at between 1.8 percent and 3.1 percent, lower than its initial estimate in April last year. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Emanuel Bria (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, January 5 2017 Early last year, Poppy S. Winanti and I wrote about Chinas increased investment in ASEAN, especially Indonesia, and whether China can behave responsibly. Since then The Jakarta Post has published a number of expert opinions on Indonesia and China relations, from the fear of Chinas rise as a regional hegemon to a balanced view on China, dispelling such a fear. But less has been said about one question: why do Indonesia and ASEAN matter to China? What drives China to put billions of dollars in Indonesia following various multilateral and bilateral agreements at the ASEAN level and between Indonesia and China? In 2016, China became the third largest investor in Indonesia after Japan and Singapore. After the signing of the Indonesia-China strategic partnership in 2005 and the upgrade into a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2013, China is now Indonesias largest trading partner. What does it mean to be a strategic partner for China? 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 Grace D. Amianti (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, January 5, 2017 The Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) is convinced that foreign direct investments will keep pouring into Indonesia despite the governments recent termination of partnership with JPMorgan after the investment bank came up with a report that purportedly created negative sentiment toward the country. BKPM chief Thomas Lembong, a former investment banker, said the downgrade was only "short term" and would not create a bad precedent toward Indonesia in the long run. JPMorgan itself wrote that it was only for the short term, while Indonesias structural prospect was deemed pretty well, he said on Wednesday. (Read also: Senior economic minister supports decision on JP Morgan) The government recently terminated all of its deals with the JPMorgan Chase Bank, NA, a subsidiary of New York-based JPMorgan Chase, after it published a research note that downgraded the country two notches from the overweight to underweight position, following the victory of Republican Party candidate Donald Trump in the US presidential election. Thomas pointed out that foreign investors were generally confident toward Indonesia as an investment destination based on his recent discussions with them, particularly due to the governments efforts to reform various aspects in the countrys economy. What the government should do right now is to maintain positive economic fundamentals as Indonesia had the momentum to grow the economy amid tight competition against other countries to attract foreign investments, he added. The BKPM aims to book Rp 678 trillion (US$50.17 billion) in investment this year, up 14 percent from last years target. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Fedina S. Sundaryani and Ina Parlina (The Jakarta Post) Bogor, West Java Thu, January 5 2017 This year, President Joko Jokowi Widodos administration will focus on reducing social and economic disparities. Jokowi called on his ministers on Wednesday to step up the implementation of the governments poverty eradication programs. Although Indonesia slightly improved its Gini ratio, a term that measures national inequality, Jokowis concerns about inequality in the country are not unfounded. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Fedina S. Sundaryani and Ina Parlina (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, January 5, 2017 This year, President Joko Jokowi Widodos administration will focus on reducing social and economic disparities. Jokowi called on his ministers on Wednesday to step up the implementation of the governments poverty eradication programs. Although Indonesia slightly improved its Gini ratio, a term that measures national inequality, Jokowis concerns about inequality in the country are not unfounded. Credit Suisses Global Wealth Report 2016 found that Indonesia was the fourth most unequal country in the world, behind Russia, India and Thailand. The report shows that up to 49.3 percent of Indonesias wealth is controlled by the richest 1 percent of the population. The Gini ratio was reduced to 0.387 in March 2016 from 0.402 in September 2015, according to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS). We have to work as hard as we can. Disparities should be cut down further, both between the wealthy and the poor and also between regions, said Jokowi. Jokowi gave the instruction while meeting all his ministers and the heads of related institutions for the first plenary Cabinet meeting of 2017 at Bogor Palace in West Java. In the meeting, Jokowi also stressed the need to further cut the poverty rate from 10.86 percent in July 2016 to 10.5 percent by the end of this year. As part of the effort to cut down the poverty rate, the President has ordered both the agrarian and spatial planning minister and the environment and forestry minister to speed up the process of redistributing land to people through the formalization of land ownership. This is needed to help people, particularly farmers, use their land to improve their welfare, Jokowi said. Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution said Jokowi also asked his ministers to study the possible correlation between economic growth and factors such as the unemployment rate, economic disparity and peoples incomes. It is true that during the 20152016 period there was some growth, although not a significant amount of it. Meanwhile, unemployment and poverty rates decreased and income distribution improved, Darmin said during a press conference after the Cabinet meeting. The President asked us to closely study what the effects of wide infrastructure development are on poverty. Also speaking during the press briefing, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati emphasized the importance of increasing the ratio of tax to gross development product (GDP) from its present level of 11 percent. She said that increasing it to just 15.3 percent would be equal to Rp 14 quadrillion in new tax revenue. The government is currently running a tax amnesty program that it hopes will increase the nations tax base. The numbers show that if we make taxation more effective, then we can take money from those in a better economic situation and distribute it to state spending that favors those below the 40 percent. Education, health, infrastructure and even cash transfers can be distributed to the poor, she said. In the meeting, Jokowi reminded his ministers not to ignore cultural development and the nations character, arguing that the values of Pancasila were key to countering growing radicalism in the country. The President expects to set up a kind of working unit tasked with instilling the values of Pancasila in daily life. The working unit, which will be under Jokowis direct supervision, is expected to be up and running this month. The issue on Papua, the countrys easternmost region and one of its poorest areas, was also discussed that day. Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Wiranto insisted that the government was pushing for inclusive development in the region where violent incidents and alleged human rights abuses often occur, placing the region in the international spotlight. In the meeting, Jokowi also gave his consent for the establishment of another new body to resolve disagreements and conflicts through peaceful dialogue. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, January 5, 2017 Jakarta Corruption Court has sentenced Xaveriandy Sutanto and his wife Memi to three and two-and-a-half years, respectively, in prison after finding them guilty of bribing former regional council (DPD) speaker Irman Gusman. Presiding judge Nawawi Pamolango also ordered the couple, who own CV Semesta Berjaya, to pay Rp 50 million (US$ 3,712) in fines each or face an additional three months behind bars. [We] declare that the first defendant, Xaveriandy Sutanto, and the second defendant, Memi, are guilty for their roles in corruption practice, said Nawawi, who chairs the panel of five judges, as quoted by Antara on Wednesday. The verdicts are lower than that demanded by prosecutors, who sought three years and an additional Rp 100 million in fines for each defendant. (Read also: Irman Gusman's pretrial motion rejected by judge) The two have been found guilty for violating corruption laws in bribing Irman with Rp 100 million to ask him to increase sugar import quota for their company in West Sumatra. The case started in July when Memi contacted Irman and asked for his help to acquire a sugar import quota of 3,000 tons, as sugar prices in the region were high at time. Irman agreed to assist Memi if he received Rp 300 commission per kilogram. Imran then used his political influence to lobby Bulog president director Djarot Kusumayakti to award Memi's company the import quota. (fac/dmr) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Moses Ompusunggu (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, January 5, 2017 The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) is delving into the possibility that the son of a recently named corruption suspect, Sri Hartini, the regent of Klaten in Central Java, may be implicated in a bribery case in connection with the job promotion process in numerous working offices in the regency. KPK spokesperson Febri Diansyah said Wednesday that investigators of the agency had confiscated more than Rp 3 billion (US$224,400) during a string of raids on numerous places in Klaten, including the official residence of Sri Hartini, a dismissed Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politician. The raids took place after a sting on Dec. 31, which saw the arrest of Sri Hartini. Febri said Rp 200 million was found in a room in Sri Hartini's official residence allegedly used as a bedroom by her son Andi Purnomo, a Klaten councillor from the PDI-P. Some Rp 3 billion was also found in a cupboard, Febri said. (Read also: KPK seals three offices following arrest of Klaten regent) "Having found the money in a room allegedly used by the regent's son as bedroom, we will take a closer look at it [the alleged involvement of Andi]," Febri told a press conference at KPK headquarters in Kuningan in South Jakarta. Febri added that investigators had questioned more than 40 witnesses in the case.Apart from Sri, the KPK has also named Suramlan, an official overseeing junior high schools with the Klaten Education Agency, a suspect for allegedly bribing the regent. (dmr) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Safrin La Batu (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, January 5, 2017 Five days after a fire on board the Zahro Express that claimed at least 23 lives, the authorities are still investigating what caused the blaze. On Thursday, investigators from the National Police's forensics laboratory and the National Transportation Safety Commission (KNKT) were investigating the charred remains of the vessel at a dock in Muara Angke, North Jakarta. A KNKT officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told The Jakarta Post that the KNKT was examining the vessels engine room. "The source of the fire was the boat's engine room," he said without giving further details. (Read also: Passenger overload suspected to be contributing factor in Zahro disaster) Several officers were seen taking items from the engine room for further investigation. The Zahro Express caught fire on Sunday morning when traveling from Muara Angke Port in North Jakarta to Tidung Island in Thousand Islands regency. Most of the passengers intended to celebrate New Year's Eve on Tidung Island. Of the passengers on board, 130 survived, 23 died and 17 were declared missing. On Wednesday, authorities found the body of the one of the 17 missing passengers. If one doesn't want to slip on ice, they should walk the way penguins do. We're not saying it, German doctors are. By India Today Web Desk: German trauma surgeons have advised the public to walk like penguins do in order to avoid slipping on frozen pavements. The advisory came in the light of weather forecast that freezing temperatures may hit nationwide soon. An advisory on the German Society of Orthopaedics and Trauma Surgery website says walking like the aquatic birds involves leaning the torso forward so that the centre of gravity is on the front leg. advertisement A drawing attached to the advisory explains that when humans walk normally, body weight is split almost evenly over both legs, which the surgeons say increases the risk of losing one's balance and falling on slippery surfaces. Berlin municipal authorities were criticised for not dusting the city's pavements with rock salt in January 2014 despite prior warnings of a freeze. This resulted in rescue services receiving over 750 emergency calls that year, and ERs being swamped with patients with bone fractures. This year, temperatures in Berlin are expected to drop as low as -10 degrees Centigrade (14 Fahrenheit) on Saturday. (With inputs from Reuters) --- ENDS --- Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Safrin La Batu (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, January 5, 2017 Local residents of Tidung Island, Thousand Islands regency, said they were terrified by the Zahro Express boat incident that killed 23 passengers on Sunday morning, saying such an incident had never happened before. Mayasaro, 28, a Tidung Island resident who occasionally travels to Jakarta to meet relatives and buy basic needs, said she now felt afraid for her safety traveling by boat after the fatal incident. But what can I do? I have to cross the sea to get here, Mayasaro told The Jakarta Post as she arrived at Muara Angke Harbor in North Jakarta on Thursday. Spending around two hours on a small boat to reach the port, Mayasaro said she expected safety controls and the supervision of all boats serving Muara Angke-Thousand Islands routes to undergo improvements. (Read also: First body of 17 missing after ferry fire found) Mayasaro, who came to Jakarta for a holiday, said she had never heard of an incident as big as what happened to the Zahro Express motor boat. As a local who travels very often, I hope the safety of passenger services on all boats operating here can be improved very soon," the local said, adding she paid Rp 45,000 (US$3.3) for a one-way ticket. Similarly, another Tidung Island resident, Suhardy, said he was reminded of the incident each time he was on board a boat departing for Jakarta. I still need to travel. I cannot avoid it, he said. The Zahro Express caught fire on Sunday morning on its way from Muara Angke to Tidung Island. Of hundreds of passengers on board, 130 survived and 23 died. The Transportation Ministry earlier said 17 passengers had been missing; however, one of them was reported to have been found on Wednesday. (ebf) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Rendi A. Witular (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, January 5, 2017 Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan, whose task covers the supervision of the energy and mining sector, has insisted the government will not offer further relief in the export of raw and partly processed mineral products. Luhut said there should no longer be any room for such exports, and that the government would stick to fully implementing the 2009 Mining Law as the deadline nears for the total ban on any raw and partly processed mineral products after Jan. 11. "We have to abide by the mining law," Luhut told The Jakarta Post. "I will meet the President on Friday to discuss the issue." The comment came as Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Ignasius Jonan said on Wednesday a draft government regulation (PP), which would offer further relief on the exports of certain commodities, had been submitted to President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo for immediate approval. Jonan said he had been closely coordinating with the Office of the Coordinating Economic Minister for the passing of the draft, and not with the Office of the Coordinating Maritime Affairs. There is no need for another meeting [to discuss the draft]. It just needs the President's signature, Jonan said. The 2009 Mining Law initially included a mineral ore export and concentrate export ban in order to encourage development in the downstream sectors. The law stipulates that mineral ore miners must have completed their smelters by 2014, when the export ban should have been fully put in place. The smelters were expected to bring in added value to the end products, as opposed to exporting ore in its raw form. However, because none of the proposed smelters had been completed, the deadline was extended to 2017 by then-president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono when he issued PP No. 1/2014 as an amendment to PP No. 23/2010 on the management of mineral and coal businesses. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Farida Susanty (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, January 5, 2017 The Transportation Ministry has revoked the license of a pilot who allegedly showed up to work drunk after receiving the results of his initial medical checkup. "We have revoked his license permanently," Transportation Ministry director general for air transportation Suprasetyo said on Thursday. Based on the medical checkup, including an interview and physical test conducted at the Flight Health Agency in Jakarta, the pilot was deemed unfit to fly, the official said. Suprasetyo cited the fact that flight safety "was also about trust and we should prevent accidents from happening" as the main reason behind the license revocation. (Read also: Citilink top executives resign after 'drunk pilot' incident) The pilot, Capt. Tekad Purna, was previously dismissed from his job as a pilot for state-owned low-cost carrier Citilink, a subsidiary of national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia. The incident occurred on Dec. 28 as a Citilink flight prepared to depart from Juanda International Airport in Surabaya, East Java, to Soekarno Hatta International Airport in Jakarta. The flight was scheduled to take off at 5:15 a.m. According to the Transportation Ministrys report, passengers were initially baffled by an unclear announcement from the pilot, identified as Capt. Tekad Purna, raising suspicion that he was drunk. Many passengers decided to disembark from the plane soon after, with nine of them deciding to cancel their flights. Citilink soon replaced the captain with another pilot, and departed to Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in Jakarta with around an hour delay. Citilink president director Albert Burhan also lodged his resignation, along with operational director Hadinoto Soedigno, due to the incident. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Fedina S. Sundaryani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, January 5, 2017 President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo urged on Thursday policymakers to immediately seek new innovation to address Indonesia's skyrocketing fuel demand amid a continuous decrease in domestic supply. "Up to 50 percent of fuel consumed is produced in the country, while we remain dependent on imports for the remaining 50 percent. I feel this is a very dangerous situation for us to be in the future, especially if we cannot come up with new research or new innovation to fully ensure energy security," he said during the opening of the fourth National Energy Board (DEN) meeting. BMI Research, a unit of Fitch Group, has predicted fuel demand will rise to 2.28 million barrels of oil per day (bopd) by 2025 from the current 1.78 million bopd. Although state-owned oil and gas firm Pertamina has set a target to build and upgrade existing refineries to increase its production capacity to 2.6 million bopd by 2030, BMI Research still holds firm that fuel imports will skyrocket to 1.4 million bopd in 2025 from the current 941,000 bopd. President Jokowi said Indonesia should take advantage of renewable energy, such as from crude palm oil (CPO), of which Indonesia is the world's biggest producer. He also suggested further studies on capitalizing biomass and coal. (ren) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Farida Susanty (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, January 5 2017 State shipping firm Pelni will expand into cruise ship operations, as it sees potential business in the countrys tourist industry. Pelni president director Elvin Guntoro said the effort would begin this year, with the company possibly seeking a state enterprise partner to run the cruise ship around the countrys tourist destinations. We will be the operator of the cruise ship, he said on Wednesday. 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 Thu, January 5, 2017 The National Police have announced that they will step up law enforcement efforts against violations of the 2008 Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law in regard to rampant fake information circulating on the internet. National Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Martinus Sitompul said more than 2,700 reports on alleged violations of the ITE law had been lodged last year, 40 percent of which had been settled. We will continue the search for websites, blogs and other social media accounts that distribute fake information. We will develop our cybercrime units to respond to the high number of reports filed by individuals, Martinus said. (Read also: Jokowi declares fight against disseminators of fake news) In dealing with reports of alleged violations of the ITE Law, Martinus said the police were prioritizing reports that involved the victimization of a large number of people and of public figures and state officials. A lack of analysts had forced the police to prioritize even though it should respond to all reports equally, he added. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Safrin La Batu (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, January 5, 2017 The National Police's central forensic laboratory (Puslabfor) conducted a case reconstruction on Thursday, which included the examination of remnants of the Zahro Express motor vessel (KM), to learn what had led it to be set ablaze, killing 23 people on board. Six police investigators and four crew members of the ill-fated boat attended the case reconstruction, which was held in Muara Angke Port, North Jakarta. The crew members were involved in explaining what had happened to the boat during the incident. In the reconstruction, investigators were seen taking several items from the boat that they might need to observe in the Puslabfor. We still cannot expose [what we have found so far]. We are still gathering pieces of evidence before we can conclude what caused the fire," Jakarta Police water police unit director Sr. Comr. Hero Bachtiar told reporters after the reconstruction in Muara Angke. Zahro Express caught fire before it exploded on Sunday morning during its travel from Muara Angke Port to Tidung Island in Thousand Islands regency. Authorities reported 130 survived while the body of one out of 17 passengers reportedly missing had been found on Wednesday. It was suspected the fire in the boat came from the boats engine room, but the police said investigation was underway and there was not yet any conclusion about what had caused the fire. (ebf) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Safrin La Batu (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, January 5, 2017 The Jakarta Police are pursuing the owner of the Zahro Express vessel, on which 23 passengers lost their lives in an onboard fire on Sunday, for questioning, an official has said. An investigation is under way and we are still searching for the owner of the boat, Jakarta Water Police director Sr. Comr. Hero Bachtiar said on Thursday. Hero did not provide details on what information investigators wanted to extract from the boat owner, but Kompas.com previously quoted him as saying that the police wanted to ask about boat safety and matters related to its operation. The police earlier said they had been unable to locate the boat owner at his house in North Jakarta. The police have named the boat's captain, Muhammad Nali, a suspect, charging him with negligence as he had set sail despite the vessel being unseaworthy. Police investigators further revealed that only 100 people had been listed on the boat's passenger manifest while in fact it carried a lot more passengers. If found guilty, Nali could face up to 10 years imprisonment, they said. The Transportation Ministry has also fired the Muara Angke portmaster for alleged negligence in controlling the boat's safety. The Zahro Express caught fire and exploded on Sunday morning while sailing to Tidung Island in Thousand Islands regency from Muara Angke Port, killing 23 people on board. One hundred and thirty passengers survived the incident. (ebf) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Apriadi Gunawan (The Jakarta Post) Medan Thu, January 5 2017 Police have reportedly uncovered the long-time abuse of drug addicts at a rehabilitation center in Binjai, North Sumatra, putting the alleged inhumane treatment of patients in the spotlight. Established in 2010, the center, which was run by the Kasih Anugerah Bangsa Foundation, has been shut down following the head of the foundation and four of its workers being named suspects for allegedly torturing six patients. The alleged victims four recovering addicts and two suffering from depression said they could not stand the ruthless treatment they received from the caretakers at the rehab center. 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 Kim Tong-Hyung (Associated Press) Seoul Thu, January 5, 2017 South Korea is accelerating plans to create a special military unit tasked with decapitating North Korea's leadership in the event of war as it looks for options to counter its rival's nuclear weapons and missiles, an official said Thursday. The brigade, which will aim to remove the North's wartime command and paralyze its function if war breaks out, will be launched this year, according to an official from Seoul's Defense Ministry, who refused to be named, citing office rules. The unit was originally planned to be ready by 2019. The official refused to confirm whether the unit will train to execute pre-emptive strikes. The plan was included in Defense Minister Han Min Koo's policy briefing to Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, who took over as government caretaker following President Park Geun-hye's impeachment over a corruption scandal. North Korea conducted two nuclear tests and a slew of rocket test firings last year in attempts to expand its nuclear weapons and missile program. Following the North's latest nuclear test in September, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff announced plans to strengthen its ability to conduct pre-emptive strikes. It also said a "Korea Massive Punishment and Retaliation" system would use special forces and cruise missiles now under development to destroy areas where North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and the rest of the country's decision-makers are located. By Press Trust of India: Washington, Jan 5 (PTI) A potent malaria vaccine made from genetically modified parasites has been found to be highly effective and safe for use, according to early results of its first human trial. The first-in-human phase 1 study shows a weakened form of the malaria parasite safely activated strong immune responses in 10 healthy volunteers, whose antibodies completely protected mice from malaria infection. advertisement Scientists, including Sebastian Mikolajczak from Centre for Infectious Disease Research in the US, tamed the parasite by deleting three genes critical to liver infection, offering a promising whole parasite vaccine candidate to combat the disease. Half of the global population currently lives at risk of malaria. In 2015, an estimated 214 million people were infected with the disease, leading to 584,000 deaths, researchers said. "The most clinically advanced vaccine in development contains fragments of the malaria parasite and is only partially protective," said James Kublin from University of Washington. Vaccination with whole, live-attenuated parasites offers an alternate approach, but its potential to cause breakthrough malaria infection poses formidable safety challenges. To overcome these hurdles, researchers created genetically attenuated parasites (GAP) by knocking out three genes (GAP3KO) in Plasmodium falciparum that arrested its development within the liver, thereby preventing its advance to blood infection, the stage of malaria that triggers disease symptoms. The GAP3KO vaccine was administered through infected mosquito bites in a controlled setting. The participants, none of whom developed malaria symptoms or signs of infection in the blood, showed strong protective antibody responses, researchers said. When transferred into humanised mice, these antibodies blocked malaria infection in the liver. These promising results pave the way to a phase 1b trial of the GAP3KO vaccine candidate using controlled human malaria infection, the researchers said. The research was published in the journal Science Translational Medicine. PTI SAR SAR --- ENDS --- Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Kim Tong-Hyung (Associated Press) Seoul Thu, January 5, 2017 South Korean lawmakers on Thursday accused President Park Geun-hye of "broadly and gravely" violating the constitution as the country's Constitutional Court began hearing oral arguments in her impeachment trial. The allegations were made as Park's lawyers and lawmakers, who serve as prosecutors in the trial, traded pointed arguments over accusations she colluded with a confidante to extort money and favors from companies and allowed the friend to unlawfully interfere with government affairs. The chief prosecutor in the trial, lawmaker Kweon Seong Dong, said Park abused her position by "broadly and gravely" violating the constitution to commit corruption and turn state affairs into a profit tool for her friend. He said she had to be kicked out of the presidency to repair the damage she had caused to the country's democracy. After Park was impeached in the National Assembly last month, the Constitutional Court has six months to decide if she should permanently step down or be reinstated. If Park is formally removed from office, an election has to hold within 60 days. Park's lawyer, Lee Joong-hwan, said the accusations stated in the impeachment bill "lack evidence and fail to make legal sense" because they were based on allegations and media reports, not criminal convictions. The hearing proceeded without Park, who refused to testify for the second time following her no-show on Tuesday. The nine-justice court cannot force Park to appear. The court had planned to hear testimony from four of Park's former and current aides suspected of helping Park's jailed friend, Choi Soon-sil, but only one appeared. The court was not able to deliver subpoenas to former aides Ahn Bong-geun and Lee Jae-man, who both worked with Park for nearly 20 years since her days as a lawmaker, and Lee Yeong-seon, a current aide, asked to appear at another date, the court said. Park has publicly apologized for putting trust in Choi, but denied accusations by state prosecutors that she colluded with her friend in criminal activities. Prosecutors also indicted Choi's niece and several former government and presidential officials who allegedly assisted Choi in manipulating state affairs and exploiting her connections with Park to amass an illicit fortune. Park's lawyers may prefer her not to testify because their chief argument is that the accusations against Park have not been fully proven, said Han Sang-hie, a law professor at Seoul's Konkuk University. Park rejected requests by state prosecutors to question her and has yet to be questioned by the special prosecution team that has taken over the inquiry. During Thursday's hearings, Seo Seok-gu, another Park lawyer, argued that the investigation into Park was biased and suggested that the massive protests that pushed lawmakers to impeach her were influenced by groups sympathetic to North Korea. Seo accused news organizations that reported on the scandal of demagoguery that he said threatens to make democracy "very dangerous," and compared Park's impeachment to the "unjust" deaths of Jesus Christ and ancient Greek philosopher Socrates. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Stefani Ribka (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, January 5 2017 In contrast with President Joko Jokowi Widodos campaign promise to lift up the welfare of fish farmers, recent statistics show that there have not been any demonstrable improvements to the welfare of fish farmers over the last two years. This has been blamed by some on poorly implemented policies. Fish farmers terms of trade (NTP), a ratio of farmers income to spending, has gone down during Jokowis tenure. It dropped 0.91 percentage points to 98.75 last year, from 99.66 in 2015. It is even worse compared to the NTP in 2014 at 101.36 when the President took office. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Haeril Halim and Stefani Ribka (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, January 6 2017 President Joko Jokowi Widodo expressed on Thursday disappointment over the recent insults to the countrys symbol, Pancasila, at a learning facility organized by the Australian military, marking another bump in diplomatic ties between Jakarta and Canberra. Jokowi could not hide Indonesias resentment over the incident by reminding Australia that the bilateral relationship of the two countries was made based on mutual trust and both countries must prevent themselves from interfering with each others domestic affairs. He also said as a good neighbor, Australia should respect Indonesias sovereignty and dignity. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login TheJakartaPost Please Update your browser Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below. Just click on the icons to get to the download page. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Nurul Fitri Ramadhani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, January 6 2017 As United States president-elect Donald Trump is set to be inaugurated this month, concerns may revolve around his businesses and political connections with top Indonesian politicians, including House of Representatives Speaker Setya Novanto. Setya, the Golkar Party chairman who recently regained the top legislative body post, may attend the inauguration, where Trump will be sworn in as the 45th president, on Jan. 20 at the US Capitol Building. Setya will likely attend the inauguration, Golkar executive Eni Maulani said on Wednesday. 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 Audrey Tan, Lim Yaohui and Chew Hui Min (The Straits Times) Singapore Thu, January 5, 2017 The oil spill that occurred in Johor on Tuesday night following a collision between two vessels has reached the shores of mainland Singapore. Parks along the north-eastern coast of Singapore, including Changi Beach Park, were affected, with black oil stains spotted on the beach and in the shallows. On Thursday morning, National Environment Agency (NEA) contractors were seen bringing up oil absorbents stained with oil onto a vessel while workers packed oil stained sand into trash bags. Workers were also seen putting up sign boards advising people to stay away from the contaminated waters and that the beach was closed. NEA said that an affected 800m stretch of Changi Beach has been closed to beachgoers until further notice as the cleanup is ongoing. A 100m stretch at Noordin Beach at Pulau Ubin has also been affected and is being cleaned. Punggol Beach and Pasir Ris Beach were also affected, but cleaning operations were completed. "Members of the public are advised to exercise caution when visiting these beaches and to avoid the affected stretches where cleaning operations are still ongoing," NEA said. Some patches of oil were spotted off the Changi Airport fuel hydrant installation jetty along Nicoll Drive, and also along the shorelines of Changi Point Ferry Terminal and Changi Sailing Club in the early hours of the morning, the Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) said. A total of 17 vessels and 222 personnel have been deployed in the clean up, MPA added. Oil spill response vessels, containment booms and spill recovery equipment such as harbor busters and skimmers have also been deployed at the affected areas. Port operations remain unaffected, MPA said. A check at the beach near Downtown East - a popular spot next to E Hub shopping mall - showed the waters there were clear. The collision between the two vessels happened off Pasir Gudang Port in Johor on Tuesday night. The incident occurred close to midnight and left 300 tons of oil spillage as a result of damage to one of the vessel's bunker tanks. Besides animals, oil spills also affect trees. Mangrove trees, in particular, breathe through pores in their trunks and stilt roots, which can get clogged by oil. Stephen Beng, head of the Nature Society Singapore's marine conservation group, told The Straits Times that oil spills devastate the marine environment. "Surface oil has direct contact with intertidal coral which kills them. Deeper lying corals are impacted by lighter oil components which mix easily with the water and are often the most toxic. Heavier oils bond with sediments and often get heavy enough to sink and smother corals," he said, noting also that mangrove habitats could be adversely affected by such spills. Pulau Ubin is home to the largest patches of mangroves in Singapore. This article appeared on The Straits Times newspaper website, which is a member of Asia News Network and a media partner of The Jakarta Post Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Nestor Corrales (Inquirer.net) Thu, January 5, 2017 The maritime dispute over the South China Sea will be in the priority agenda during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in the Philippines in November. Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Enrique Manalo said the ASEAN hopes to adopt a code of conduct (COC) in the South China Sea to ease the tension in the disputed sea. The issue of the South China Sea, of course, is in the agenda of the ASEAN. In fact, we will be undertaking ongoing work throughout the year focusing on the unfinished Code of Conduct of the South China Sea and the Declaration of the Code of Conduct and the principles of the Code of Conduct, Manalo said in a Palace briefing on Thursday. In fact, one of our main goals this year in cooperation with China, not only Philippines but ASEAN and China, is to try and arrive at a framework for the Code of Conduct for the South China Sea by the end of the year, that will be one of our main priorities, he added. Asked if the Hague ruling would be discussed during the summit, the foreign affairs official said theres no need to really discuss The Hague ruling because it already exists. Its already a part of the law, of the international law, so its there and the focus will be of course on I think the priority now is to try and get a Code of Conduct, he said. The Hague ruling will not be on the agenda in the sense that its already part of international law. So we really cant discuss the ruling, its there, he added. Manalo said the Philippines hopes for a conducive atmosphere when the issue would be raised during the summit. We will talk to China in a way where we will push forth our interests, just as we expect China will play theirs, put forth theirs and we will see how we can discuss that, he said. But certainly, we need to have a discussion, at least an atmosphere which is conducive for productive discussion and thats what we will aim for, he added. He said the Philippines chairmanship would be guided by our national interest and guided by the concerns of our ASEAN colleagues. This article appeared on the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper website, which is a member of Asia News Network and a media partner of The Jakarta Post Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Associated Press) Beijing Thu, January 5, 2017 Taiwan has protested to Vietnam after the country deported four Taiwanese accused of fraud to its rival, China, alleging that this was done under pressure from Beijing. Scores of Taiwanese have been arrested around the world in the past year in connection with vast telecoms fraud scams targeting Chinese. Countries including Malaysia, Cambodia and Kenya have recently deported Taiwanese suspects to China, in deference to Beijing's claim to sovereignty over the self-governing island. Taiwan has vigorously protested the deportations, saying it should be allowed to prosecute its own citizens. But it lacks diplomatic relations with many of the countries, which have close diplomatic and economic ties to Beijing. The Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said this week that it "regretted" that the Vietnamese government violated the principle of governments exercising their jurisdiction over their overseas nationals. The ministry said mainland officials obstructed Taiwanese attempts to look into the case and visit its citizens, and despite several meetings, Vietnam "forcibly sent the suspects to the Chinese mainland under intense pressure." Beijing contends that Taiwan gives light treatment to the suspects, who are accused of extorting hundreds of Chinese by posing as bank or government officials. Chinese authorities say they should try the cases because their citizens are the primary victims and have been swindled out of millions of dollars. China has upped pressure on Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in recent months, suspending contacts with her administration and waging a diplomatic campaign to further isolate Taiwan after she refused to endorse Beijing's claim that Taiwan and the mainland are part of a single Chinese nation. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Aron Heller (Associated Press) Athens, Greece Thu, January 5, 2017 As a seaside metropolis with a lively outdoor vibe and dozens of picturesque islands beckoning nearby, Athens is more often considered a summer tourist destination than a winter escape. But if you've got more than beaches on your mind, there's plenty of upside to a brief cool visit that avoids the crowds and heat of summer. Athens is one of the world's oldest cities, often called the cradle of Western civilization. Visitors will find monuments to ancient history on nearly every path they take. But with interesting neighborhoods, trendy shops and a variety of cafes and tavernas serving that famous Greek cuisine, Athens' attractions are not all rooted in the past. The city is easy to get around by bus or metro and most major attractions are within walking distance. Temperatures in January average 50 F (10 C). Here's a suggested itinerary for a three-day visit. THE ACROPOLIS The centerpiece of ancient Greece and modern-day Athens, the Acropolis literally stands above everything else and looms majestically over the city. It is particularly striking to view at night, when brilliantly illuminated. A 10-euro entrance fee to the compound takes you along a course of the central structures of Greek mythology as you climb past the Theatre of Dionysus, the Propylaea, the Erechtheion and the Herodeon which still hosts the occasional live performance. A 20-minute walk to the top unveils the most famous structure of all, the Parthenon a former temple dedicated to the goddess Athena, the city's patron. However, the scaffolding of its prolonged restoration project takes a bit away from its grandeur. Most of the Acropolis' treasures are housed in the nearby Acropolis Museum (entrance 5 euros), such as colossal stone statues depicting mythological scenes from ancient Greece. One of the museum's most impressive features is actually the architecture that includes glass floors through which you can see the ruins that lay below. A full view of the Acropolis spreads out from the second and third floor galleries. There are plenty of other ancient sites to visit across the city, but the most comprehensive is likely the nearby Ancient Agora on the Acropolis' northwest slope with its impressive Temple of Hephaistos nestled among ruins overgrown with green foliage from the winter rains. It houses a large assortment of ancient vases, figurines, coins and headless statues. (Read also: Roaming in Rome) In this Dec. 11, 2016 photo, the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, or Herodeon, a stone theatre structure located on the southwest slope of the Acropolis of Athens, is seen against a backdrop of Athens. (AP/Jerrin Heller) LYCABETTUS HILL There are views of the Acropolis from everywhere, but the best one in town is from Lycabettus Hill. After a pleasant but steep hike up a winding trail, a panoramic view of the sprawling city is revealed. There's a little church at the top, Agii Isidori, and ample angles to photograph Athens. An early morning visit will put the sun behind you as you gaze across the city toward the Acropolis with the shores of the Aegean Sea lapping in the distance. Part of the fun is getting there via a stroll from the center of town through the upscale Kolonaki neighborhood, with its bustling cafes and designer merchandise. SYNTAGMA SQUARE This is the heart of the city and site of mass protests in recent years over the Greek economic crisis. The square is right in front of parliament and the tomb of the unknown soldier, where soldiers in kilt-like garments and red leather clogs with black pompoms perform elaborate changing of the guard ceremonies several times a day. To the west, busy Ermou street offers the city's primary shopping district and leads toward the neighborhoods of Monastiraki, which has a large, busy Sunday morning flea market, and Psyrri, with a wide selection of bars and live music tavernas. Eateries include O Kostas (5 Pentelis St.), a hole in the wall known for excellent souvlaki. At Lukumades (Eolou Street and Agias Irinis Square), get the deep-fried doughnut ball doused in honey. (Read also: 10 must-see attractions in Dubai) This Dec. 12, 2016 photo, shows the view from the Temple of Poseidon, an ancient hilltop structure the southern peninsula of Sounion dedicated to the god of the sea.(AP/Jerrin Heller) PLAKA Just south of Syntagma is Plaka, a historical neighborhood built upon the ancient town of Athens. Known as the "Neighborhood of the Gods" because of its proximity to the Acropolis, its maze-like narrow streets are a joy to explore. Amid remnants of archaeological sites, there's street art, small shops and restaurants. A real gem is Psaras, an old-style taverna off the main drag, popular with locals and tourists. The baked feta pastry appetizer dipped in honey and sprinkled with sesame seeds is a treat to warm up a winter day. Besides the Acropolis Museum, the neighborhood is also home the Jewish Museum of Greece (6 euros) and the Museum of Greek Folk Art (2 euros). SOUNION A same-day excursion to one of the three nearby islands of Aegina, Poros or Hydra is possible, but with a limited winter ferry schedule the journey will likely take longer than the actual stay. A more rewarding outing is the 90-minute bus ride along the "Greek Riviera" down to the southern peninsula of Sounion, where the Temple of Poseidon reveals a breathtaking view of the sea. The deep blue waters ripple around the ancient hilltop structure dedicated to the god of the sea. The salty breeze offers an escape from the bustle of Athens, as mountains jut out of the sea and the rocky ancient landscape provides a tranquil parting from Greece. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, January 5, 2017 Citilink, the low-cost subsidiary of national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, is slated to fly from Jakarta to Jayapura in Papua starting Jan. 23. The airline's manager for Java, Bali, Nusa Tenggara, Sulawesi and Papua, Emir Bustaman, told kompas.com on Wednesday that the move was due to high demand from Papuan residents to travel outside the region. "Previously Citilink only focused on expanding its network on Java and Sumatra. Now it's time for us to open our service to the eastern part of the country, which is a huge potential market. Garuda Indonesia's flights to Papua, for instance, are almost always full," said Emir. (Read also: Citilink to expand network to Papua) From Jakarta, Citilink will fly directly to Jayapura. The Jakarta-Jayapura route will go through Makassar in South Sulawesi. "These Citilink schedules will be directly connected to Garuda Indonesia's schedule so that passengers can easily continue their journey to other destinations," said Emir, adding that there were possibilities that the carrier would fly to other Papuan cities like Manokwari, Merauke and Sorong. "We'll open additional routes if the Jakarta-Jayapura flight receives good responses. We will offer affordably priced tickets as well." (kes) The move comes after CM Laxmikant Parsekar sacked two cabinet ministers, Sudin Dhavlikar and Deepak Dhavlikar - both from MGP - for criticising government. By Mayuresh Ganapatye: Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), the main ally of the BJP government in Goa, withdrew its support from the Laxmikant Parsekar-led coalition today. The move comes after Parsekar sacked two cabinet ministers, Sudin Dhavlikar and Deepak Dhavlikar - both from MGP - for criticising government. "We were together since 2012. But now we have decided to withdraw our support from the BJP government. For the upcoming state assembly elections we have declared our sitting MLA Sudin Dhavlikar as MGP's CM candidate," party leader Deepak Dhavlikar. advertisement The MGP, which has three MLAs, has decided to contest on all 22 seats this time. According to sources in MGP, the party is also trying to work out a possibility of a tie-up with Subhash Welingkar's Goa Suraksha Manch Party. 'BJP UNDETERRED BY MGP'S MOVE' "The BJP has a traditional vote bank. The MGP has no voters' base in the state. They were with us in power due to pre-poll alliance we did in 2012. Now they are offering tickets to BJP people," Goa BJP general secretary Sadanand Tanavde said. CONGRESS ALSO EYEING AN ALLIANCE On other hand, the Congress is also trying to forge an alliance with the newly floated Goa Forward Party. Independent MLA Babushu has already announced his support for the Congress. If the alliance is finalised, the BJP will find it tough to fight challenges from several fronts. The ruling party will have to perform really well to counter MGP-Welingkar's-Shiv Sena alliance, Congress-Goa Forward Party and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). ALSO READ: No issues with same polling date for Punjab, Goa, prepared for elections: AAP --- ENDS --- Heres what new on the Lower East Side restaurant scene: Eater reports that Trapizzino, a restaurant concept developed in Italy, will be opening at the end of the month at 144 Orchard St. (thats the former home of Goodfellas Pizza). Blogger Katie Parla actually had the news in late November. The shop will feature Stefano Callegaris triangular white pizza pies, stuffed with seasonal ingredients (like braised oxtail, meatballs, tripe). Trapizzino appears to have plans for U.S. domination. You can read more about the company here. As we mentioned yesterday in our morning newsletter, Jake Dell of Katzs Deli has been named to Forbes 30 under 30 list. The magazine says, Dell has modernized (the) nearly 130-year-old New York institution, by upgrading its technology, expanding catering operations and shipping nationwide. Katzs is getting ready to set up a takeaway shop in Brooklyn. At Lucky, the Avenue B bar, youll learn how to make your own bitters in two workshops scheduled later this month. Other workshops are being offered, including a Love Potion session ahaead of Valentines Day. Check out the workshop schedule here. Conde Nast Traveler calls Bar Goto, the Japanese-inspired cocktail lounge on Eldridge Street, one of the 19 best bars in New York. Attaboy, another great Eldridge Street bar, also made the list. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve on the Orthodox calendar, so Veselka is hosting it traditional 12-plate vegetarian dinner. Heres the menu. Congress seems to be the only party among the main contenders in Punjab that has lagged behind the others in reaching out to the Sikhs by making use of the 'Parkash Parv'. By Kumar Shakti Shekhar: In the 350th birth anniversary celebrations of Guru Gobind Singh, political parties have got an opportunity to woo the Sikh voters ahead of Punjab Assembly elections to be held in less than a month on February 4. The parties are leaving no stone unturned to milk the opportunity. While the ruling Akali Dal-BJP alliance in Punjab seems to have taken the lead, Aam Aadmi Party is not left far behind in attempting to please the Punjabis. Congress seems to be the only party among the main contenders in Punjab that has lagged behind the others in reaching out to the Sikhs by making use of the 'Parkash Parv'. advertisement 1. BJP Prime Minister Modi on Thursday visited Patna, quite close to Patna Sahib which is the birth place of Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth and last guru of the Sikhs. Besides taking part in the Prakash Parv, the Prime Minister also released a commemorative stamp and attended other functions in the capital of Bihar to mark the occasion. Also read | With AAP, SAD-BJP, Congress in fray, Punjab to vote for new government on February 4 In his speech, Modi sang paeans on Guru Gobind Singh. He eulogised the Guru's contribution to the society, his valour and other aspects of his personality. He said, "Gobind Singh Ji fought against social evils to tie society with the thread of unity. We want to implement the same principles throughout the country. He did not believe in any form of social discrimination and treated everyone equally." In a series of tweets, Modi expressed his feelings towards Guru Gobind Singh. Delighted to be a part of #350thPrakashParv celebrations of Guru Gobind Singh ji in Patna today. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 5, 2017 Guru Gobind Singh ji was blessed with indomitable courage & tremendous knowledge. His bravery is etched in the heart & mind of every Indian. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 5, 2017 Guru Gobind Singh ji's entire life was devoted to serving people and fighting for values of truth, justice and compassion. #350thPrakashParv Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 5, 2017 BJP is the junior partner in governing Punjab. Of the 117 Assembly seats, BJP won on 12 seats while the senior partner - Akali Dal - won 56 seats. Akali-BJP combine has been ruling Punjab for the last two consecutive terms. 2. SHIROMANI AKALI DAL Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, Union Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal - all of the Akali Dal - visited Patna Sahib on the occasion. They were present in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's programme in which a commemorative stamp was released. The chief minister also delivered a speech before Modi. On reaching Patna on Wednesday, the CM said, "We will win three-fourth of the total Assembly seats in the Assembly polls in Punjab as there is no opposition against us." advertisement As far as the vote share is concerned, Akali Dal had won the 2012 Assembly elections in the state, garnering 35 per cent of the total votes, while BJP got 7 per cent of the votes. 3. AAM AADMI PARTY Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal visited Patna Sahib on January 2, becoming one of the first senior leaders to visit the shrine. He offered prayers and sought blessings at the Takht Sri Harmandir Sahib, the birthplace of the 10th Sikh Guru. The Delhi government also declared a holiday in the national capital on Thursday and issued newspaper advertisements to mark the occasion. Kejriwal is working hard to win back the Sikhs, who his party has offended on a couple of occasions in the past. Also read | Captain Amarinder wants more star power, invites Priyanka Gandhi to campaign in Punjab AAP's youth manifesto, released on July 3, courted controversy when the party's election symbol, a broom, was printed alongside an image of the Golden Temple. Kejriwal profusely apologised for the faux pas. He even did penance by washing utensils at the Golden Temple. advertisement AAP also drew flak for its leader Ashish Khetan comparing the manifesto with scriptures of the Guru Granth Sahib, Gita and Quran. Even though Khetan apologised for the blunder, a case was registered against him. Kejriwal seems to have learnt a lesson from the faux pas. Care has been taken to avoid any such error in the advertisement issued on Thursday. His head is covered with a scarf and his photograph is smaller and below that of Guru Gobind Singh. It is AAP's maiden entry in the fray in Punjab. After winning four seats in 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the party's chances in the Assembly appeared quite bright till mid-2016. However, the party has been dogged with one controversy after another. 4. CONGRESS Unlike BJP, Akali Dal and AAP, Congress' tallest leaders - party president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi - did not visit Patna on the occasion. They, however, did release routine messages to pay obeisance to Guru Gobind Singh. Also read | No issues with same polling date for Punjab, Goa, prepared for elections: AAP In her message, Sonia said, "Sri Guru Gobind Singh ji was not only the creator of the gracious "Khalsa", but also a renowned spiritual master, warrior, poet and philosopher. He sacrificed his entire life at the altar of safeguarding the rights of the underprivileged and fought against injustice, tyranny and social differences." advertisement Rahul posted a tweet to express his feelings. Guru Gobind Singhji's life &his teachings embody the spirit of courage,sacrifice &service.On his 350th Prakash Parv my greetings to everyone pic.twitter.com/RlWVPC9YqI Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) January 5, 2017 It was left to Punjab Congress president and Captain Amarinder Singh to represent his party in Patna. He offered prayers at Takht Harmandir Sahib on January 3, a day after Kejriwal did. He praised Bihar CM Nitish Kumar for taking personal interest in making elaborate arrangements for it. Singh was accompanied by party in-charge for Punjab Asha Kumari, Congress leader Shakeel Ahmad Khan and state minister Ashok Choudhary. He also posted a tweet on the occasion. Paying obeisance to Shri Guru Gobind Singh ji on his 350th Prakash Utsav. pic.twitter.com/XI6XiFmWpr Capt.Amarinder Singh (@capt_amarinder) January 5, 2017 In the 2012 Assembly elections, Congress won 46 seats, garnering 40 per cent of vote share. With Akali Dal-BJP combine facing double anti-incumbency and AAP's house still not in order, Congress appears to be surging ahead in Punjab. --- ENDS --- By Press Trust of India: New Delhi, Jan 5 (PTI) Renewable energy firm Hero Future Energies today announced raising USD 125 million from International Finance Corp (IFC) for expanding its clean power generation capacities. IFC is picking up equity stake in the company at an investment of USD 125 million, Chairman and Managing Director of Hero Future Energies, the renewable energy arm of Hero Group, Rahul Munjal told reporters here. advertisement However, Munjal did not disclose the quantum of minority equity stake to be given to IFC. He said the investment will help the company expand its renewable energy capacity, provide jobs and facilitate private sector development in renewable energy. IFC, together with IFC Global Infrastructure Fund, a private equity fund managed by IFC Asset Management Company, will invest USD 125 million in equity, enabling the company to set up 1 GW of greenfield solar and wind plants in the next 12 months across India. "I am happy to join hands with IFC in our endeavour to achieve new goal of 2.7 GW renewable energy capacity by 2020," said Munjal. In the backdrop of falling solar tariff due to lower cost of borrowing and cheaper equipment, he opined that the reasonable solar tariff should be in the range of Rs 4-4.3 per unit. At present, Hero Future Energies has a presence in 12 states with a capacity of over 360 MW of solar, wind, and rooftop installations. With 80 per cent of the countrys energy needs still being met through thermal power, renewable energy is increasingly seen as the solution for bringing universal energy access. In 2014, the Indian government announced a plan of setting up 175 GW of solar and wind energy by 2022. IFCs India Lead, Climate Business and Infrastructure, Shalabh Tandon said this partnership will speed up transition of clean energy business to mainstream. He was of the view that through the Global Infrastructure Fund, IFC is also bringing in the support of international institutional investors. IFC is a pioneer in renewable energy in India, investing in the sector since 2009. Its portfolio companies have set up over 3 GW of different forms of renewable power projects in the country. India is IFCs top country exposure globally. IFCs committed portfolio in India is over USD 5 billion as of June 30, 2016. In 2015-16, IFC committed USD 1.1 billion in new investments in the country. PTI KKS ABM --- ENDS --- Its no secret that Donald Trump has been struggling to find people to perform at his inauguration in a few weeks time. Many have rejected the invitation and not held back when explaining their reasons why. But, as shown in a list of the initial line-up released by Trumps inaugural committee, there are some who have decided to accept. Though there is one group who have particularly shocked people. Among the list is the marching band of Talladega College, one of the US oldest historically black universities. Talladega College was founded in 1865 by two black slaves, according to its website And theres been a LOT of backlash as some people have seen this decision as a big contradiction with what it stands for. #TalladegaCollege 1 of oldest black colleges in US will perform for man supported by KKK and other supremacists? Really? Why? How? Jean Brooks (@JeanBrooks68) January 3, 2017 It would be taking steps backwards to support this racial divisive kkk backed embarrassment #talladegacollege Paul (@pecmd317) January 4, 2017 We don't get a lot of exposure like other HBCU's but this is not the exposure we want as alumni. #talladegacollege L Boogie (@lb313) January 4, 2017 Its clearly divided students and alumni, so much so that two opposing petitions are currently doing the rounds for and against the decision. Shirley Ferrill , an alumni of the College from the Class of 1974, wrote in her protest petition: In view of his behavior and comments I strongly do not want Talladega College to give the appearance of supporting him. If you perform at Trump's inauguration, you stand behind everything he has ever said. That makes you a Trump supporter. #TalladegaCollege Mama Nibiru (@MadamSophie88) January 4, 2017 , current Talladega student, wrote in his supportive petition: We believe that this parade is not about politics its about seeing first hand the process of a transition. Its not to support of no political party its about the experience that the students will obtain. Whereas Dollan Young current Talladega student, wrote in his supportive petition: We believe that this parade is not about politics its about seeing first hand the process of a transition. Its not to support of no political party its about the experience that the students will obtain. Hey Talladega College: Dont let Twitter-rage ruin this experience for your students. #talladegacollege Chris Humphrey (@CLHumphrey) January 4, 2017 Wowwwww I love how the owners forgot about me now im really locked inside this store pic.twitter.com/JKVqBzuSgR young slim (@g__guzman) January 2, 2017 Smfhgreat way to start off the new year pic.twitter.com/pZptjAW8tZ young slim (@g__guzman) January 2, 2017 I should've just stayed in 2016 lmao smh young slim (@g__guzman) January 2, 2017 When I came out everybody started cheering and shit lmaoo young slim (@g__guzman) January 2, 2017 Me being locked in a Chinese store that entertaining smh lmao young slim (@g__guzman) January 2, 2017 You know you had the worst day of 2017 when you make headlines in Europe lmaooo wow young slim (@g__guzman) January 3, 2017 When Gennette Guzman discovered the lights were off in the New York premises, staff had left and she was locked in, she did what any self-respecting millennial would do, and decided to live-tweet the experience. The post was retweeted hundreds of times and she told followers that she had gone to the toilet before finding herself locked in Hing Won Express restaurant in Manhattan.Eventually, she called the police. Like any great tale, it had a beginning, middle and a dramatic rescue, when the woman filmed firefighters cutting through the shop fronts door. Waiting to be freed, she reflected on what a rubbish start to the year this had all been.When she emerged from the store she was greeted by well-wishers.She couldnt believe that her story had blown up.And let alone that it had made waves across the Atlantic. 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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Namun jangan khawatir, disini sebagai situs slot gacor MGS88 kami akan memberikan penjelasan lengkap mengenai tentang istilah yang ada di RTP SLOT dibawah ini. By Press Trust of India: Houston, Jan 5 (PTI) A hijab-clad woman and her family were allegedly taunted and called a "bunch of terrorists" at a busy town square near here, the latest in a series of hate incidents in which headscarf-wearing women have been targeted in the US following Donald Trumps win. 21-year-old Shifa Abuzaid and some of her younger cousins and siblings strolled through Sugar Land Town Square, Texas, when a man called them a "bunch of terrorists," she recounted in a Facebook post. advertisement The taunting episode caught the publics attention and soon her post had been shared more than 2,500 times. Abuzaid and her family members had been walking to their car after lunch when they passed the verbally abusive man and a woman, Abuzaid told Houston Chronicle about Saturdays incident. She and her cousins live on the same street near Sugar Land, southwest of Houston. Mayor Joe Zimmerman was swift to condemn the incident, saying, "prejudice of any kind is unacceptable." "We still have racism in Houston and we still have people who hate Muslims in Houston," Mustafaa Carroll, executive director for the local chapter of the Council on American- Islamic Relations, was quoted as saying. Recounting the incident, Abuzaid said she was the eldest of her family members present at the time. The youngest was 10 years old. She was in front as they walked to the car and was the only one with a hijab. When they passed the couple, she said she tried to appear friendly. But the younger kids in her family stopped in their tracks after the "terrorists" remark, she said. They told Abuzaid what they had heard the man say. She felt shocked -- then she decided to try to talk to him about it. She followed the man into a store, Abuzaid said, and asked him politely why he had called them terrorists. She found his reaction confrontational. Her sister began to cry as the man got close to her face, and when her 15-year-old brother stepped in front of her, the man pushed him, according to Abuzaid. The man then began to deny their account, Abuzaid said. A manager at the store stepped in to help. The store had called security, and the man and woman left. A police officer later told Abuzaid he could not do anything because no one was physically harmed, she said. Later, Sugar Land Police Chief Douglas Brinkley said he believed the officer was told no one had been injured but that police planned to look again at it. The incident comes amid a series of such cases of intimidation and assault that have been reported across the country against hijab-clad women following Trumps win. advertisement Last month, a Hijab-clad Muslim student was allegedly struck in the face with a glass bottle in broad daylight at the University of Washington campus in Seattle. PTI ASK AKJ PMS --- ENDS --- An MBA degree holder, Mohammed Mansoor Hussain has been convicted in a robbery case. By Ashish Pandey: Mohammed Mansoor Hussain and Hoor Unisa are desperate to meet their son who has been sentenced to one-year in prison and 300 lashes after being convicted in a robbery case. Their son, who the parents claim is innocent, is lodged in Wadi Al Dawasir jail in Saudi Arabia. In a desperate effort to rescue their son, the parents have sought External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's help. advertisement Here is the story in detail: Mohammed Mansoor Hussain from Malakpet, Hyderabad, was working in Riyadh since 2013. An MBA degree holder, Hussain worked as a marketing auditor for Abdel Hadi Abdullah Al Qahtani and Sons Limited. Hussain's family claimed that on August 25 last year he was on his way to the bank to deposit 1,06,000 Saudi Riyal when he was allegedly robbed at gunpoint by some miscreants. "Two men took the money from him at gunpoint and fled in a car that did not have a number plate. He (Hussain) informed his boss who advised him to lodge a police complaint. When he reached the police station, the authorities took him in custody," Hussain's mother Hoor Unisa said. The 32-year-old's mother has now written to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj seeking her immediate intervention to secure her son's release. "He earlier deposited more than 15 lakh Saudi Riyal to the bank, so how can he steal a smaller amount? The company should think about this," said the inconsolable mother. "He (Hussain) described how the incident took place, but the police did not believe him," she said. Learning about the incident, Member of Parliament from Hyderabad, Asaduddin Owaisi has also requested Sushma Swaraj to intervene in the matter. Meanwhile, the Indian Embassy in Saudi Arabia has assured all possible support to Hussain and the family. The Indian embassy in Saudi Arabia has extended help to the family. ALSO READ: No borders for daughters: When Sushma reached out to scared Pakistani girls in India India to bring back 10,000 workers from Saudi Arabia: Sushma Swaraj ALSO WATCH --- ENDS --- Latest opinion poll by Axis My India for the India Today Group indicates that the grand old party is likely to end up close to the majority mark in Punjab. By Rahul Kanwal: Captain Amrinder Singh seems set to assume the mantle of the Chief Minister of Punjab once again. The latest Opinion Poll done by Axis My India for the India Today Group suggests that the Grand Old Party could end up very close to the majority mark in the state. Axis projects that Congress could bag between 56-62 seats in the 117 seat state assembly. If this opinion poll result is to hold on counting day then it would come as great relief for Rahul Gandhi and the beleaguered Congress party which has faced one electoral debacle after another since 2014. advertisement Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party is projected to finish second with a tally in the range of 36-41. The opinion poll done by Axis suggests that the tally of the ruling Alkali Dal-BJP combine could crash to between 18-22. The previous opinion poll for Punjab had been put out by Axis My India in October 2016. When the results of the two opinion polls are compared, it emerges that the Congress' campaign in the state has been gaining momentum. Congress' tally has gone up by 7 seats over the last three months. On the other hand the Aam Aadmi Party's campaign, which had peaked at the beginning of 2016, has been on a decline over the past three months. Also read: India Today-Axis Opinion Poll on Punjab: Congress to make stunning comeback, AAP second largest party AAP LIKELY TO HAVE SIX SEATS AAP is projected to have lost six seats in the last three months. AAP was hit by a series of local level controversies and high profile exits in the last few months and the party does not seem to have recovered fully from those blows. The Akalis were down and out in October. Over the last three months the Akali campaign seems to have recovered to some extent. The Akali-BJP vote share in December (24 per cent) is 2 per cent more than the alliance's projected vote share in October. Congress' Amrinder Singh is by far the top choice to be the state's next Chief Minister with 34 per cent of the respondents indicating that he's their preferred choice. The incumbent Prakash Singh Badal comes in second with 22 per cent support. Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, who has not indicated whether he is willing to move to Chandigarh, comes in third in the popularity sweepstakes, with 16 per cent support. DRUGS A MAJOR CONCERN IN PUNJAB Despite the loud protestations of Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal and others in the Akali leadership, 70 per cent of the respondents in the India Today poll felt that drugs was a major problem in Punjab. Roughly the same number of respondents (69 per cent) blame politicians of the ruling Akali-BJP government for the drug problem in the state. However, when asked which issue would determine their voting preference, the majority of respondents put employment (41 per cent), and development (33 per cent) well ahead of drug control (8 per cent). advertisement Respondents in Punjab seemed more inconvenienced by demonetisation than voters in Uttar Pradesh. In UP, 58 per cent of the respondents said they were facing problems because of the PM's move on demonetisation. In comparison, a whopping 82 per cent of the respondents in Punjab said that they were facing problems because of demonetisation. Despite the problems that are being faced, 72 per cent of the respondents said they supported demonetisation. Also read: India Today-Axis Opinion Poll on Uttarakhand: BJP ahead in direct fight with Congress The India Today-Axis My India Opinion Poll was done using the face to face interview method between Dec 12-22 2016. A team of 26 dedicated surveyors did the poll with a sample size of 3081 respondents. AAP MOST POPULAR AMONG YOUTH The data for age wise vote share in the opinion poll makes for interesting reading. Among all age categories, Aam Aadmi Party's popularity is highest amongst the youth with 32 per cent of the youth saying they back AAP. This is 3 per cent more than the party's overall vote share of 29 per cent. Despite not having a prominent Sikh face, AAP seems to have penetrated the Upper Caste Sikh vote bank as well. advertisement About 30 per cent of the upper caste Sikhs said they would vote for Kejriwal's party. This is the same as the number of Upper Caste Sikhs who said they would vote for Congress. The Congress' popularity seems highest amongst upper caste Hindus and Hindu OBCs. Despite its image as a saviour of the Sikh faith, the Akalis have lost favour with Upper Caste, OBC and SC Sikhs. Also read: India Today-Axis Opinion Poll on Goa: AAP eyed, BJP takes the cake in key state While the general impression around AAP is that Kejriwal's party is an urban phenomenon with limited appeal in the villages, the Axis My India poll suggests that AAP's popularity is actually higher in rural areas than it is in urban pockets. The Congress' popularity peaks in urban areas while the Akalis are fairly poorly both in the cities and in the villages. advertisement Axis My India will be putting out its final opinion poll for Punjab in the last week of January, just ahead of the crucial elections scheduled for February 4. WATCH: India Today Axis-Opinion Poll: Congress to make comeback in Punjab, BJP set to conquer Uttarakhand and Goa --- ENDS --- Asia Pop 40 top songs of 2016 countdown on Live 89.5 Throughout January, the regions first and only syndicated radio chart countdown program, Asia Pop 40, will be counting down the most popular 140 songs from 2016, over four weekly installments. By The Phuket News Thursday 5 January 2017, 03:55PM Phuket listeners can tune in to hear the epic 2016 countdown on Live 89.5 FM on Fridays from 9pm-12am and Saturdays from 1-4pm. This year marks the third annual countdown of the top 140 songs on the Asia Pop 40 chart, based purely on their ranking in the chart and the number of weeks they appeared. Creator and Executive Producer of Asia Pop 40, Rob Graham, stated, We have always been committed to creating a year-end highlight package of the show and in previous years our listeners have reacted very positively to the round-up. What better way to showcase 52 episodes, or 156 hours, of programming? We believe our annual countdown is another first for Asian radio and were very proud of that. Graham added, As per previous years, we will be honouring the Asia Pop 40 No. 1 Song Of 2016, and the The Asia Pop 40 No. 1 Artist Of 2016. We have added another award this year: The Asia Pop 40 No. 1 Group/Duo Of 2016. The 2016 countdown will also include the announcement of the brand new fan selected Asia Pop 40 Artist Of The Year. Over the month of November, we asked fans to vote for their favourite artist of the year, and we had an overwhelming response with nearly 11 million votes. The Asia Pop 140 chart of 2016: 56 collaborations 44 tracks from solo female artists 50 tracks from solo male artists 46 tracks from groups 77 tracks from the Americas 8 tracks from Australia/New Zealand 15 tracks from Europe 36 tracks from the United Kingdom Apart from airing the top 140 songs of 2016, the Asia Pop 140 will also air interviews with artists including The Chainsmokers, 5 Seconds Of Summer, Major Lazer, Alan Walker, Charlie Puth, The Veronicas, George Maple, Agnez Mo, Slot Machine, Daya, Cookin On 3 Burners, Yuna, Sheppard, R City, Steve Aoki and New Empire, as well as highlights of the year. The Asia Pop 140 will air throughout January, culminating with the announcement of the No. 1 song for 2016 on Saturday 28 January, 2017. Listen on your radio or online at Live 89.5 One can tell that tourists are back, wobbling all over the road and even stopping in the middle. Its...(Read More) Patong hunt called off for foreign joyriders who borrowed barbers motorbike PHUKET: Police have called off the hunt for two foreign men caught on CCTV borrowing a motorbike from in front of a barber shop in Patong. patongtransportcrimepolicetourism By Eakkapop Thongtub Thursday 5 January 2017, 05:26PM The two men were caught on CCTV, but got away with 'borrowing' the barber's motorbike. Image: CCTV / Patong Police The men later left the motorbike parked neatly beside the police box on the bustling Phra Metta Rd. The alarm was raised by Anan Detruang, who reported to police yesterday (Jan 4) that his motorbike had been stolen from in front of his unnamed barber shop on Nanai Rd. Mr Anan said that he had left the key in the motorbike. When he came out, his motorbike was gone. So he checked the CCTV for the building and saw that two foreigners had turned up outside his shop (at about 9:41pm), explained Col Somsak Thongklieng of the Patong Police. One of the men got on the bike and casually rode off, without wearing a helmet. Police soon found the motorbike parked by the police box at the southern end of Phra Metta Rd, Col Somsak said. So I went and locked the wheel of the motorbike so it could not be stolen again, and I fetched Mr Anan so he could collect it, he added. Police tried to track down where the two foreign joyriders went, but the trail soon went cold, he added. These two broke the law, and Mr Anan is lucky to get his motorbike back, Col Somsak said. Phuket Floating Market complainants want action PHUKET: Three months after having lodged a complaint with the Kathu District office, and having not received any response, a representative for vendors from the Phuket Floating Market visited the Damrongdhama Centre at Phuket Provincial Hall at 2pm yesterday afternoon (Jan 4) demanding that someone provides them an update on the situation. tourism By Yutthawat Lekmak Thursday 5 January 2017, 10:45AM Vendor representative and stall holder, 45-year-old Mrs Phimwilai Promphila. Photo: Yatthawat Lekmak On September 20 last year, angry vendors from the Phuket Floating Market filed a formal complaint with the Kathu District Chief calling for compensation from the markets operator after promises of hordes of tourists flooding the market failed to materialise. (See story here.) The representative who went to the Damrongdhama Centre yesterday, 45-year-old Mrs Phimwilai Promphila, who also owns a stall at the market, said, Three months, on September 20, we lodged a complaint with the Kathu District office about our predicament but with have received no update and nobody seems to want to take responsibility. Vendors at the market are facing a big problem as they have lost a lot of money after investing in market stalls at the market, she said. No office that we have complained to has taken any responsibility, and we want to know why the Phuket Floating Market hasnt shown any responsibility. We want to know whether officials from the Damrongdhama Centre have sent our complaint to Governor Chockchai Dejamornthan or not. We want to cancel our contract with the floating market and find somewhere else. We all want our money back, she added. When contacted by The Phuket News, an officer from the Damrongdhama Centre, who declined to be named, refused to comment on the issue. Police arrest 59,000 for drink driving NATIONWIDE: More than 59,000 people have been arrested for drink-driving and driving while unfit and more than 4,200 vehicles have been seized over the past six days of the New Years Seven Dangerous Days road safety campaign, National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) deputy spokesman Sirichan Ngathong said. accidentsdeathalcoholtransport By Bangkok Post Thursday 5 January 2017, 09:21AM Deaths and injuries from road accidents nationwide during the Seven Dangerous Days. Photo: Post Today On Tuesday (Jan 3) alone when people returned to Bangkok from their long New Years holiday out of town, a total of 7,370 motorcycle riders were arrested for drink-driving with 458 vehicles seized. A total of 38,168 motorcycle riders and 20,889 drivers are facing legal action following arrests with 2,965 motorcycles and 1,243 cars being impounded between Dec 29, 2016 and Tuesday, Col Sirichan said yesterday (Jan 4). The final toll of the seven-day highway carnage is to be released today (Jan 5). While a total of 3,924 drivers were arrested for violating traffic regulations with 132 cars being impounded, she added. Launched by military officers, the New Years Seven Dangerous Days road safety campaign runs between Dec 29, 2016 and today with the objective of urging road users to strictly follow traffic regulations to help cut the number of accidents. Reckless driving and driving while unfit were still the main reasons behind road accidents, Col Sirichan said. This year, authorities adopted tougher measures to cut the number of accidents and intensified their efforts to prevent accidents. However, a horrific crash between a public van and a pickup truck was reported on Monday in Chonburi, leaving 25 dead. Meanwhile, a total of 3,579 road accidents were reported with 426 fatalities 3,761 injuries between Dec 29, 2016 and Tuesday, according to the Road Safety Centre. Lt Gen Theerawat Boonyawat, who also represents the NCPO, announced the road accident figures yesterday. The province with most fatalities was Chonburi (33), of which 25 were in a single van-pickup collision on Monday. There are five provinces Phang Nga, Mae Hong Son, Yala, Ranong and Satun with no road fatalities. The province with the most injuries was Udon Thani (156), he said. Meanwhile, Chayapon Thitisak, deputy permanent secretary for the Interior Ministry, said provincial governors are required to submit reports on the number of accidents, casualties and injuries in their provinces including an analysis on what caused the accidents. The figures will be used as reference points for officials who will find ways to cut the number of road accidents during festivals, he added. Earlier, the ministry ordered provincial governors to set up road safety centres to record accidents. Read original story here. The defence ministry is of the view that the vessels should be commissioned in service only if they are ready for deployment in operations moments after they are commissioned into the service. By Ajit Kumar Dubey: Seeking to change the old practice of inducting incomplete warships, the defence ministry and the Indian Navy are now planning to induct the first Scorpene-class submarine INS Kalvari only when it is full ready for operational deployment. READ: Amid India-Pakistan tension, Navy strengthens its submarine fleet Major change in thinking This is a major change in thinking of the government as earlier the shipyards would hand over warships to the Navy and then would continue trials on the systems on board and the vessels would be made fighting fit long after their official induction. advertisement "The defence ministry is of the view that the vessels should be commissioned in service only if they are ready for deployment in operations moments after they are commissioned into the service," Navy sources told MAIL TODAY here. "That is why, we have asked the original equipment manufacturer Mazagon Dockyards Limited and the French DCNS to complete all trials, including sensors and weapon fitment, before it is handed over to the Navy for operations," they said. PM Narendra Modi to induct INS Kalvari into Indian Navy Given the importance of the vessel for the country, it is most likely that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would induct the submarine into the navy in presence of Parrikar. INS Kalvari is first of the six Scorpene-class submarines The INS Kalvari is first of the six Scorpene-class submarines being built by the MDL in Mumbai with DCNS under a Rs 23,000- crore project and is delayed by four years due to issues related to make in India equipment for the vessels. This can result in the navy waiting for a few more months before it gets to lay its hands on its first new conventional submarine to be inducted after gap of almost two decades. The 'Kalvari' (Tiger Shark) was planned to be inducted by the Navy by the end of 2016. Modi brings change in warship commissioning philosophy The issue of changing the warship commissioning philosophy was first felt when Prime Minister Modi commissioned the indigenous warship INS Kolkata in MDL in 2014. While inducting the vessel, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said induction of Kolkata would deter the enemies of the nation, it was soon pointed out that the INS Kolkata was not really complete. Several key weapon systems and sensors were missing and were either being developed or yet to be procured including the Barak-8 air defence missiles and towed array sonars which could give it the capability to detect enemy submarines in waters. "The thinking is now that the manufacturer should complete each and every work related to the submarine and hand over a fully complete vessel to the force," said navy sources. Parrikar had launched the submarine in March last year for sea trials where the vessel has sailed for over 1,000 hours till now. --- ENDS --- advertisement One of the pictures by Ankit Kumar that won the award. Picture courtesy: www.tpoty.com By India Today Web Desk: It's an annual award that receives entries from over 100 countries. It's also an award that has some of the most beautiful picture you'll ever see as its entries. We're talking about the Travel Photographer Of The Year award 2016, which was founded by photographers Chris and Karen Coe in 2003. Ending 2016 on a beautiful note were these two teenagers from India who were declared the best in their respective categories. Darpan Basak, 14 years of age, won the Young Travel Photographer Of The Year, and Ankit Kumar, 13, won the Young Travel Photographer (14 years old and under) in the Places and Experiences category. advertisement Darpan, a self-taught photographer, started taking photography seriously in 2012. According to Huffington Post, the judges had this to say about the young boy's pictures, "Conveys the experience of landing the catch, getting into the action and giving a sense of the excitement." Here's a glimpse of what impressed the judges: Picture courtesy: www.tpoty.com Ankit, on the other hand, is newer to photography. He became fond of photography after being gifted a camera on his 13th birthday. Yes, he's 13 still. And yes, pictures like these have been clicked by him: Picture courtesy: www.tpoty.com --- ENDS --- 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. After the flight 6E 024 took off from Dubai airport, a passenger turned unruly and was not only refusing to follow the in-flight security rules but behaving violent. By Anindya Banerjee: Imagine you taking a flight and your co passenger turning violent while the flight on airborne. So much so he had to be overpowered and tied down to his seat. Something similar happened with passengers of an Indigo flight from Dubai to New Delhi. READ: Jet Airways Goa-Mumbai flight with 161 on board skids off runway, all passengers evacuated advertisement On Tuesday little after the flight 6E 024 took off from Dubai airport, a passenger turned unruly. Sources say he was not only refusing to follow the in flight security rules but behaving violent. He even allegedly threatened the crew. At this point the cabin crew contacted the chief pilot of 6E 024 who is the commander in chief who instructed the passenger to be overpowered. In an unprecedented situation he was tied down to his seat. Upon arrival at Indira Gandhi international airport in New Delhi, CISF detained the man who was later handed over to Delhi Police that is investigating the matter. Delhi Police sources suggest an alcohol test has also been taken of the passenger to ascertain whether he has been under influence of alcohol or not. The report is awaited. READ: Bengaluru-bound flight makes emergency landing at Hyderabad airport due to technical snag But such instances on in-flight ruckus are not new. In December last year, a Jet Airways Mumbai-Bhopal flight was delayed after a group of passengers, who were part of a marriage party virtually hijacked the flight. The flight was reportedly over-booked due to a technical glitch. The same month in an individual flight a passenger started behaving crazy under influence of alcohol. And earlier in September, religious leader Asaram Bapu's devotees created ruckus aboard a Jet Airways Jodhpur-Delhi flight, refusing to be seated and shouting slogans throughout the length of the flight. But this time around the passenger had to be tied down to ensure safety of others. --- ENDS --- By Press Trust of India: New Delhi, Jan 5 (PTI) Japan has decided to associate itself with India in developing Chennai, Ahmedabad and Varanasi as smart cities. During a meeting of Japanese Ambassador to India Kenji Hiramatsu with Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu here today, he said, Japan is "quite interested" in urban development initiatives of the government and decided to be a partner, an official release said. advertisement Responding to Naidus observation about the need for speedy action, the Japanese envoy said "We would like to match the action oriented approach of the government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi." Meanwhile, British High Commissioner Dominic Asquith also met Naidu and discussed converting into action the MoU signed between the two countries on cooperation in urban development sector. The MoU was signed during the recent visit of British Prime Minister Theresa May to India. Asquith said institutionalising "Government to Government cooperation" for smart city development has huge potential. So far, various countries have come forward to be associated with development of 15 smart cities. These include United States Trade Development Agency (USTDA) for Visakhapatnam, Ajmer and Allahabad, UK for Pune, Amaravati and Indore, France for Chandigarh, Puducherry and Nagpur and Germany for Bhubaneswar, Coimbattore and Kochi. PTI MP SMJ --- ENDS --- Arthur Conan Doyles second novel featuring Sherlock Holmes, The Sign of Four was published in 1890 and was the work that first introduced Holmes as a flawed and eccentric to the readers. It is the second novel featuring Sherlock Holmes written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle wrote four novels and 56 stories starring the fictional detective. His assistant, Dr. Watsons future wife is introduced in this novel. Holmes is painted as a loner who cannot understand emotional connection. Yet he is not devoid of empathy, perhaps a reason why he is so devoted to solving crime. He needs Watson by his side since the doctor has quality that he lacks. The Sign of Four demonstrated Doyles ability to write complex yet engrossing and intriguing plots. The story is set in 1888. The book has a complex plot involving service in East India Company, India, the Indian Rebellion of 1857, a stolen treasure, and a secret pact among four convicts and two corrupt prison guards. It presents the detectives drug habit and humanises him in a way that had not been done in the preceding novel, A Study in Scarlet (1887). The story deals with a beautiful yet distressed woman, Mary Morstan, whose father vanished 10 years ago, come to meet Sherlock Holmes at 22 Baker Street. Miss Morstan explains to Holmes that after her father disappeared under mysterious circumstances some ten years ago; she had begun receiving a large pearl in the mail at annual increments. She further elucidates that she has received a letter instructing her to go, with the accompaniment of two friends, to Lyceum Theatre. The letter itself hints that some injustice has been done to her. Holmes and Watson agree to accompany Miss Morstan. As they reach Lyceum Theatre, both are whisked away to a desolate house where Mary comes in touch with a weird gentleman named Thaddeus Sholto. He informs that not only has her father passed away, but that she is partial heir to a great hidden treasure. The story takes a new turn further and to know what waits till the end, one must grab a copy of this book. Conan Doyles title is well crafted enticing the reader without revealing too much. Driven by its complexity, Holmes and Watson slowly begin to unravel the mystery. Simply by the title the author engaged his readership before they have begun. It is indeed a good read for those who loves mystery. Class IX, Good Shepherd School, Bagdogra, Darjeeling. The Bengaluru Police on Thursday arrested four persons in connection with the molestation case of a woman on New Years day in Kammanahalli in the citys eastern region. The main attackers have been identified as Aiyappa who is a delivery boy and another IIT student. Police informed that the culprits had been stalking the girl for a few days and after the New Year celebration, they molested her. Aiyappa molested the girl, there was no friendship or any such thing except that they stay close by, police said. More arrests are likely in the case, police informed. The horrifying incident came to light on Tuesday night when a resident of the area gave the police video footage captured by a CCTV camera he had installed at his house. The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a plea by expelled AIADMK MP Sasikala Pushpa and an NGO seeking CBI or a judicial probe into the death of late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J.Jayalalithaa. Dismissing the pleas, the bench of Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose and Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman said that they were not inclined to entertain the plea as a similar matter was already pending before the Madras High Court. "We are not inclined to entertain the matter as a similar one is already pending before the Madras High Court. The petitions are dismissed," the court said. A petition on the same lines was filed by Tamil Nadu Telugu Yuva Sakthi. Sasikala Pushpa had sought direction to the central government, the Tamil Nadu government and the Apollo Hospital where the late leader was treated to give to the court in a sealed cover the report on the ailment of the departed leader and the line of treatment. She had contended that everything about Jayalalithaa's treatment was kept guarded and not made public. The Annual K.G. Concert was held on 17 December, 2016 at the Centre for Performing Arts of Sushila Birla Girls School. The concert Rumble in the Jungle was a musical show which presented the talents of 117 little performers. The blooming buds of K.G. showcased the evergreen and all-time favourite Jungle Book through their acting skills and amazing dancing moves. The vibrant and colourful costumes, foot tapping music added an extra edge as a visual treat for the audience. Each character of the story was enacted by the children. The concert provided students an opportunity to display individual talent of the budding actors. A grand fest Udaan Vrrikshya, the annual inter-school fest, organised by the Nature Club and Interact Club of South Point High School was held on 17 December 2016. As many as 150 students from six different schools participated which included Apeejay School (Park Street), Patha Bhavan, Silver Point School, The BSS, The Scottish Church Collegiate School and the host school. The theme for the fest this year was Transition from Calcutta to Kolkata. Some of the events included were Nail It! (Talent Hunt), Musical Cacophony (unconventional orchestra), Nritt Ananda (Fusion Dance), Kol-o-Taan (Eastern Solo), Dhaker Taaley (Dhunuchi Dance), Tailspin (Creative Writing), Ballistic (Throw-ball), On Your Toes (Ekka Dokka), Charnocks Trail (Treasure Trail), Splash (Graffiti and Poster Making) and many more. Mr and Miss Udaan and Vrrikshya-2016 were also declared that went to Tuneer Sengupta from Apeejay School (Park Street), while Ritwaja Barai from Patha Bhavan received the Miss Udaan and Vrrikshya 2016 title. The star of Udaan and Vrrikshya-2016 award went to Sarthak Das Sharma of South Point High School. The school was also declared the winner of the fest while Patha Bhavan and Silver Point School were the first and second runners up respectively. The event came to an end with a performance by the band- The SNB Project. Saronyo Lal Mukherjee, Class XI, Coordinator, South Point High School. The Victoria Memorial celebrated the World Heritage Week from recently in November 2016 with a colourful and interesting line-up of events. The five days culminated into some remarkable moments for the audience who were dazzled with the glimpses of culture reflecting the rich treasury of heritage that the city could afford along with global glimpses from some of the most cherished intellectuals of our times. At the Western Quadrangle with Warren Hastings overlooking Calcutta or as we would call Kolkata, voiced its heritage of idol-makers, as Professor Surendra Munshi started his discussion on Making Gods; Shaping Excellence: Lessons from Kumartuli Image-Makers in Calcutta. The lecture was a result of his year-long research from 1999-2000 of the area and its artists. As a retired professor of Sociology at the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata he attempted to juxtapose the organisational form of work at Kumartuli with that of the management perspective of the best organisational behaviours guaranteeing success and excellence to the multi-national companies. He shared his wonder at how a number of unlettered people have been able to adapt to the grammar of producing and delivering excellent idols every year without any institutional training and have been doing so for generations in the most inconvenient circumstances whatsoever. There is an ebullient organisational form of work at Kumartuli and they have this functional and creative mode of working. We wonder at how simple people have created modes of functioning that are fantastic not only from an artistic perspective but also in terms of management precepts, Prof. Munshi said. We heard him keenly as he took us down the path of Kumartuli alleys where the artists strive every day with expenses and material, share their food on a single thali or how they disregard any hierarchy when the best of the artisans or the owner perhaps cook for the other labourers. We learned how they store the materials in small measures as they do not have big storage room. This made us realise how the Indian management institutes send trainees and students to Japan every year to study this method of working in small space while we already have such instances in our own city. Once the lecture was over the audience had a visual treat from Ranajit Ray who featured his National Award winning film Kumartuli Clay Image-Makers: Ordinary People Extraordinary art followed by an interaction with the director. The film was originally commissioned by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, which brought individual voices of the artists residing within the mazy alleyways of Kumartuli. Their words recounting bits of their lifelong experience, informed the spectators that many of them had come from different parts of the country as well as abroad, the gradual procedure of making idols, the amount of endeavour involved, the sacrifices on the parts of the workers, coming originally from different villages of the state and Krishnanagar in particular, work day and night to make ends meet for their families. Some of the old artisans, to mention a few Nemai Chandra Pal, Netai Pal and Dilip Pal gave anecdotes on how despite promises from the previous government, the Kumartuli people still have to live in the unhealthy and slum-like situation with only the gap of some plastic sheets between a heavy monsoon and the half-finished idols. Their daily fare is depicted in the most humane way pleading for better provisions and help for the artists at Kumartuli, as Prof. Munshi points out, this is the world of the image-makers and it is all that they have. The event had a deep impression on those present as they were quite amazed with the truth behind the grandeur of Durga puja and how a community of artists despite having huge contributions to this annual tradition are faring no better than a average slum-dweller. There was also a workshop day at the Western Quadrangle for the members of the Activity Club of the Victoria Memorial Hall on the art of pottery as clay has always been an integral part of the Bengali culture and heritage with Mr. Chanchal Ahmed and his team pivoting the participants around the different moulds of our divergent culture. Two successive events were organised the next day. First was a performance by the nachnis (dancers) reminding the metro people of this dying art form that the artists in the regional parts of Purulia and Birbhum are trying to uphold through their lyrics bringing in the whiff of local soil with the sentiments and expressions of these half-forgotten people and their culture in association with the Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee. In the evening Professor Margaret Olin, Senior Research Scholar, Divinity School and the Department of the History of Art, Yale University gave a presentation on Conversations on the Periphery: Berlin-Bethlehem where she presented the audience with some remarkable observations on the wall-art and the tradition of mural painting in and around the troubled parts of Berlin and Palestine. In Berlin only the relics of the political voice remain on the wall and around the check-points that are at some places converted to museums telling the people what transpired in another temporal and political era. She then went on to the tradition of mural painting at Dheisheh, a Palestinian refugee-camp located south of Bethlehem where the politically murdered ones or the martyrs occupy their space on the walls and the children of Dheisheh grow up around these murals of the dead ones with death looming on their poor souls. This series of events came to the end with the musical performance where the heterogeneous voices and genres of baul, urban folk and Swiss twists mingled with each other producing melodious moments with the half-lit grand-dame of the Victoria Memorial glimmering in the dark evening. Student, Statesman Print Journalism School. The issue of criminal contempt of court has been the subject of intense debate in recent times. It has been taken up for utterances by eminent people like ex-Supreme Court judge Markanday Katju while blogging about the apex court judgment in the Soumya rape case and again when he referred to a judge as Mister during the court hearing. It has also been taken up when plaintiffs, defendants or their lawyers have either made written or oral derogatory remarks against the court. But the Delhi High Court, in the case Kuldeep Kapoor vs Sushanta Sengupta, had initiated contempt proceedings against the accused for not answering questions posed by the court. The matter came up before the Supreme Court in Court on its Own Motion vs Kuldeep Kapoor and ors. recently. The Supreme Court ordered that there can be no contempt in the instant case as the behaviour of the appellants was not contemptuous. In the Delhi High Court, the order was written by Justice Swatanter Kumar (now retired) who had in the case Court on its own Motion vs Gulshan Bajwa had earlier held forth on contempt thus, the meaning of the expression contempt in normal parlance is an act of state of despising, the conduct that defies the authority or dignity of a Court. It is so because such conduct interferes with the administration of justice and is liable to be punished. Even in its liberal construction, it conveys a strong feeling of combined dislike and lack of respect. In order to protect the dignity of Court and ensure proper administration of justice, the Legislature has enacted the Contempt of Courts Act, which deals with the various situations and varied conduct of parties, counsel or any person to ensure that the orders of the court are implemented and administration of justice is not hampered. Every citizen has a Fundamental Right of personal liberty and freedom of expression. Despite such Right, this Act granted jurisdiction to the court to punish for contemptuous behaviour made in writing or verbally. While reasonably protecting these rights and circumventing the Courts jurisdiction to punish for contempt, the initial Contempt of Courts Act, 1926 was replaced by the 1971 Act. The Legislature intended to caution the Courts that even where prima facie a contempt was committed, it still may not punish such a contempt if it had not substantially interfered with due course of justice and the defence was bona fide. Whatever be the enactment or the situation neither the Legislature is intended nor the courts vested with the duties of administration or dispensation of justice can condone acts of substantial interference with the administration of justice coupled with contempt in the face of the Court. These acts of contempt may be attempted by the party, their counsel and for that matter any person. The mode of committing such offence may be by filing applications, affidavits or submissions etc. Whosoever including an Advocate for a party, who are also called Officers of the Court, commits grave offences of contempt with the feeling of impunity and repeatedly, then there can hardly be any scope left for any Court to hold that they are entitled to the benefit of the provisions of Section 13 of the Act. While the above lucidly describes situations where contempt can be applied, the judge perhaps forgot to consider sub-section 3 of Article 20 of the Constitution while ordering contempt proceedings against Kuldeep Kapoor in the instant case. The sub-section states that no person accused of any offence shall be compelled to be a witness against himself. It is a well established principle of law that no one can be forced answer questions in court that can be used later to incriminate him in another case. Kuldeep Kapoor and others were accused of submitting forged documents and affidavits in court and for providing false addresses in them. When the court asked him why he had provided false addresses in the papers submitted in court, the accused refused to answer the question. Taking this as an affront to the court that lowered its dignity and impeded justice, the court ordered contempt proceedings. But if the accused refused to answer the question, he was protected by sub-section 3 of Article 20 of the Constitution. He had allegedly submitted fabricated documents in court. If he answered the question about the address, whether in the affirmative or not, he could have been pulled up under Section 191 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). So in refusing to be a witness against himself, the accused was protected under Article 20 and no contempt proceedings could be initiated for that reason alone. The Supreme Court was clear about this and hence dismissed the case in Kuldeep Kapoor and ors. vs Court on its own Motion in very short order. While stating that the accused did not behave in a manner that could be construed as contemptuous, it also stated that proper notice was also not served on them under Section 15 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971. While the apex court did not refer to the right under Article 20, it is implicit in the manner in which the court chose to set aside the contempt order. The court said we feel that the entire exercise done under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 was not proper and therefore we set aside the impugned order imposing punishment upon the appellants. Judges have been initiating contempt proceedings very liberally. This will have the effect of diluting the real reason for which the contempt section exists in the statute books. While thinking of contempt, judges should keep only one thing in mind whether the accused has behaved in a manner that is likely to lower the prestige and dignity of the court, thereby making a mockery of the legal process, rule of law and the laws of the country. To pull up anyone for contempt just because he refuses to answer questions put to him by the court is not correct, especially if he or she has the right to remain silent under sub-section 3 of Article 20. The writer is Editor-in-Chief of www.indiacommentary.com Giving back to society encompasses a range of aspects. It involves working selflessly for humans or as the voice of the voiceless. Ranjana Rajpal, who has been working for the cause of stray animals since she was 14-years-old, has dedicated herself to the feeding, sterilisation and care of animals for the past 50 years. Over this period, she said, her hobbies took a back seat as did her own needs but she has absolutely no regrets. Her belief in a higher being gave her the strength to pursue this calling. Siddharth Arora, a student of Class X, said he and his friends save food items and collect material like cardboard boxes or old clothes, especially for puppies born in winter. He stressed on the need for awareness drives, including preventive and protective measures both for animals and humans. "True happiness" is the common response from most animal lovers, workers and activists, when asked what drives them. Suman Virwani, engaged in animal welfare for almost 30 years, agreed. She said each day is a new challenge and hopes the Animal Welfare Bill is passed in Parliament. She is one of the driving forces behind the "India Unites for Animals" movement, whose sole objective is to get this Bill passed. Her passion for the cause is reflected in a simple incident she cited. "Puchi, a rescued desi dog, stopped eating after my dad passed away in 2005, as a result of which she lost her life too. So deep was the affection that though we moved on, she just could not." Geeta Seshamani, vice-president, Friendicoes Seca, said her first inspiration was her father, who loved animals and thought that the best birthday gift for his five-year-old daughter was a new born pup, that had just lost its mother. Animals speak to her in the same way as humans communicate with one another. She added that attributes like patience, endurance, sensitivity and tolerance are the biggest lessons she learnt through her long association with animal care. All that matters to her, she added, is the unconditional love that the animals shower her with. That is the biggest reward. The milestones that have been achieved are many: enhancement of infrastructure and space for Friendicoes, launch of sterilisation/vaccination programmes, birth of Wildlife SOS and, most importantly, trying and saving each animal in need of care and love. This effort crosses borders too. Amanda Seth, who is Scottish, has been involved with Friendicoes for almost 30 years. Notwithstanding the challenges of space and finances, she applauded the fact that enhanced awareness, especially among the youth, has gone a long way to develop a win-win situation for both animals and humans. Ranjana said every day is a milestone and offers a learning curve. She said earlier she would face aggression for her activities but now things have changed to a large extent. People have become more aware and accepting. That includes her family too. Sterilisation and vaccination drives have made her colony almost puppy-free and people are less worried about any untoward incidents. However, the loss of a beloved animal still hurts, though coming to terms with grief and letting go is an important lesson she has learnt in these years of service. Of course, individuals cannot make as much of a difference as society jointly can. So, how can society contribute? Geetas advice is: "Try and keep an animal or help at a shelter. Save an animal from the street. Over the years, we have lost something very preciousa spontaneous familiarity and tolerance for animals in our landscapethe old rural partnering of man and animals Ranjana suggested generation of more awareness through the media and stringent laws to prevent animal cruelty. Even small gestures like leaving a bowl of water outside the house during summer can go a long way, she said. In the words of Buddha, "All beings tremble before violence. All fear death, all love life. See yourself in others. Then whom can you hurt? What harm can you do?" The Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Amendment Act, 2016, which came into force on November 1 last, is an amendment to the earlier Act of 1988. The amendments have been put into place to stem transactions in assets bearing front (third and unrelated party) or fictitious names and check evasion of law through dubious means. The Government amended the earlier Act instead of introducing a new one, effectively blocking an escape route for those who had entered into benami transactions since 1988. The reason it did this is because penal provisions contained in a new law cannot be applied with retrospective effect, and all violations prior to its enactment would have otherwise circumvented action. Definition of benami A transaction is deemed benami if: The underlying property is acquired and held in the name of one person, but has been paid by another person who is the actual beneficiary and will enjoy the immediate or future privileges associated with that property. Effectively, the owner merely acts as a front and does not enjoy the asset, per se. However, properties bought in the name of ones spouse or child, or those held jointly with siblings or lineal ascendant or descendent will not be treated as benami if they have been paid for from known sources of the individual. Likewise, assets held by (i) a Karta, or a member of Hindu undivided family for his benefit or benefit of other members in the family provided the consideration for such property has been provided or paid for from known sources of the Hindu undivided family or (ii) a person in a fiduciary capacity e.g. a trustee, executor, partner, director of a company are also not treated as benami. The underlying property is in a fictitious name, meaning the so-called owner does not exist, or is otherwise untraceable. The Government also has power to exclude properties held by charitable or religious organi-sations from this definition. The term property has been defined comprehensively to include all categories of assets whether movable (such as gold, stocks, mutual fund holdings and bank deposits), immovable (such as flats or land), tangible, intangible, corporeal, or incorporeal, any conversion into other form of such property and also the proceeds from such property. It includes any right, interest, legal documents or instruments that prove the title to or interest in the property. The person on whose name the property has been bought is called the benamidar and the property acquired is benami property. The person who finances the deal is the real owner. Although the Government had enacted the Act in 1988 to curb benami transactions, the law was never enforced due to lack of provisions in the Act for its implementation. The Amendment Act bars the real owner from re-transferring the property held benami from the benamidar or front. Re-transfer of a benami property will be deemed to be void. Properties held benami are liable for confiscation by the Government without payment of compensation. Any person found guilty of engaging in benami deals risks rigorous imprison-ment for a term ranging between one and seven years, in addition to a fine which may extend to 25 per cent of the fair market value of the property. Under the earlier Act the penalty for entering into a benami transaction was imprisonment up to three years, or a fine, or both. Unearthing benami properties There are several ways in which benami transactions may get uncovered. Some of them are: Ascertaining disproportionate income: The tax department keeps a check on high-value transactions. These transactions provide an inkling to the tax authorities to look into the persons sources of income to ascertain whether he has the means to purchase such a property. Once it is established that the person does not have the income to purchase the underlying property, they will try to find the real owner. Search and seizure: During such operations, if the tax authorities find bank pass books/shares/property documents in the names of other individuals in the custody of the person whose premises is being searched, it is quite likely that the assets will be benami. The dispute route: In case there is a dispute between the real owner and the benamidar, the real owner may approach the court for relief. If the court holds that the property is benami it will in addition to dismissing the proceedings also notify the tax department. The Amended Act stipulates penalties for providing false information. If any person required to furnish information under the Amendment Act knowingly submits false information or document, he faces rigorous imprisonment of anything between six months and five years. He shall also be liable to a fine of up to 10 per cent of the fair market value of the property. No prosecution shall be instituted against any person without previous sanction of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT). The Amended Act provides a complete execution mechanism and gives the Initiating Office or the Approving Authority or the Adjudicating Authority the power to require any officer of the Central or State Government or local body or officer responsible for registering and maintaining books of accounts or documents containing records of transactions relating to properties or any other person to furnish information in relation to any person or matter related to a benami deal. It directs Income tax authorities, officers from Customs and Central Excise, Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, Securities and Exchange Board of India, Reserve Bank of India, Foreign Exchange Management Act etc. to assist the authorities in enforcement of the Amended Act. The Initiating officer can provisionally attach a property if on the basis of data available with him he believes that the benamidar may alienate the benami property. The Amended Act also provides for an appellate mechanism consisting of an adjudicating authority and appellate authority. Appeals against orders ofthe appellate tribunal will lie in the high court. People generally enter into Benami transactions in order to park their untaxed money. With the implementation of the Amended Act, exit from such Benami investments especially real estate, will become not only difficult but unpopular as well, due to the severe penalty such transactions attract. People will be inclined to renounce such property rather than make an attempt to reclaim it because the externalities are so high. With the enforcement of the Amended Act, an archived catalogue of land across India will become available to the Government, which will enable it to fast-track the process of providing affordable housing to the indigent and reduce the rising scarcity of land. People trying to escape the clutches of the law by selling off such Benami assets or depositing the black money into the accounts of their employees will not be let off the hook because proceeds from sale of such properties as well such deposits are also considered Benami under the Amended Act and will attract stringent penalties, including imprisonment. The Amended Act is also likely to impact the process of bringing transparency in the real estate market and minimising title risks by adopting the practice of providing authentic names in property transactions thereby boosting investments and transactions in the real estate sector. Henceforth, proper implementation of the Amended Act will induce confidence in investors and increase accountability for black money. This new piece of legislation is well curated and if implemented diligently it could have a substantial impact in curbing the circulation of black money and restricting benami transactions. The Government will do well to build in adequate safeguards ensuring that the power vested in officers to confiscate properties or otherwise prosecute individuals isnt misused, and that the common man is not at the receiving end of unnecessary and unwarranted harassment. The writer is a partner at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co. The views expressed are personal. By Press Trust of India: From Sajjad Hussain Islamabad, Jan 5 (PTI) Claiming that Kashmir was an "integral part" of Pakistan, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif today needled India yet again by praising slain Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani as a "vibrant and charismatic leader". Addressing the inaugural ceremony of a two-day international parliamentary seminar on Kashmir here, Sharif also praised the spirit and determination of the Kashmiri people for their struggle for the right to self-determination. advertisement "Our hearts beat and sink with our Kashmiri brethren," Radio Pakistan quoted Sharif as saying. The world needs to tell India that "enough is enough" with regard to its policy towards Kashmir, he said, while asserting that Kashmir is an "integral part" of Pakistan. He claimed the "martyrdom of vibrant and charismatic Kashmiri leader Burhan Wani has given a new turn to the Kashmiri movement". He regretted the "Indian aggression" against Kashmiri people in the wake of protests triggered by the killing of Wani by security forces on July 8. Sharif said supporting the Kashmiri struggle for their right to self-determination is faith of every Pakistani. He said Pakistan will continue to extend moral, political and diplomatic support to the Kashmiri people in their indigenous struggle and continue to shake the conscience of the international community for their rights. Sharif said Pakistan had sent special envoys to important countries to sensitise them about the situation in Kashmir. He said that he personally raised the dispute in his address to the UN General Assembly session. Referring to the four points he presented before the UN, Sharif once again urged the world community to make all out efforts for the realisation of the promise it made to the Kashmiri people seventy years ago. He said the UNSC resolutions should be implemented and the continued sufferings of Kashmiri people must come to an end now. Sharif while addressing a joint session of Parliament in October last year had praised Wani, drawing a strong reaction from India which said this shows Pakistans attachment to terrorism. He had also praised the militant during his address to the UN General Assembly on September 21, describing him as a "young leader". India had strongly criticised Sharifs speech at the UN, describing it as an act of "self-incrimination" by Pakistan. Speaking at todays seminar, Sharifs Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said that Kashmir issue "is a stigma on the international process". He said both Kashmir and Palestine are the two longest unresolved items on the UNSC agenda. advertisement He pointed out relentless struggle is continuing despite the hardest measures adopted by India. (more) PTI SH NSA AKJ NSA --- ENDS --- Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat will on Thursday visit Jammu and Kashmir in his first official trip after taking over as India's 27th Chief Of Army Staff. According to top army sources, he will be visiting army formation in Jammu. This will be his median tour to J&K after taking over as new army chief. Gen Rawat last week took over as the chief of the 1.3 million strong Indian Army succeeding Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag, who retired after 42 years of service. Gen Rawat superseded two senior most Lt Generals, Praveen Bakshi and P M Hariz. Rawat was commissioned in the Fifth Battalion of the Eleven Gorkha Rifles in December 1978 from IMA, Dehradun. He was awarded the 'Sword of Honour' at the academy. Gen Rawat has vast experience in high altitude warfare and counter-insurgency operations. He commanded an infantry battalion, along the Line of Actual Control in the Eastern Sector, a Rashtriya Rifles Sector and an Infantry Division in the Kashmir Valley, a Corps in the Eastern theatre and the Southern Command. Gen Rawat has held important staff appointments at Directorate General of Military Operations and Military Secretary's Branch at Army HQ. On the 350th birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said the 10th Sikh guru had inspired mankind 350 years ago. "Guru Gobind Singhji has inspired mankind 350 years ago, the world should know it," said Modi as addressed a gathering of devotees on the occasion of Prakash Utsav at Gandhi Maidan in Patna. "Guru Gobind Singhji put knowledge at the core of his teachings and inspired so many people through his thoughts and ideals," added Modi. The Prime Minister also offered prayers and served langar (community lunch). Modi was received by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Governor Ramnath Kovind. He is expected to return to Delhi later in the day. (With inputs from agencies) Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived here on Thursday to attend 'Prakash Utsav', marking the 350th birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh, officials said. Modi reached Patna in an Indian Air Force aircraft, Senior Superintendent of Police Manu Maharaj said. The Prime Minister will return to Delhi later in the day. He was received by Governor Ramnath Kovind and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Modi will offer prayers and serve 'langar' also. Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and a large number of Sikhs from India and abroad will also take part in the event. He will also issue a postal stamp of Guru Gobind Singh. Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav on Thursday left for New Delhi to again stake his claim on the party symbol, the 'cycle'. He was accompanied by his brother Shivpal Yadav. Close aides said Mulayam Singh would give a sworn affidavit to the Election Commission buttress his claim vis-a-vis his leadership of the party. The Election Commission has served notices to both the Mulayam Singh and Akhilesh Yadav factions to provide supporting documents and evidence in their favour for claiming the party symbol. Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, who has rebelled against his father, has called a meeting of party legislators here. The poll panel has reportedly given both sides time till January 9. Uttar Pradesh will elect a new assembly between February 11 and March 8. Akhilesh Yadav late on Wednesday revoked the suspension from the party of four district chiefs suspended by Shivpal Yadav. Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Thursday paid obeisance to Guru Gobind Singh on his 350th birth anniversary, hailing him for fighting against injustice, tyranny and social differences. "Guru Gobind Singh ji was not only creator of the gracious "Khalsa" but was a renowned spiritual master, warrior, poet and philosopher. He sacrificed his entire life at the altar of safeguarding the rights of underprivileged," Gandhi said in a statement. "He fought against injustice, tyranny and social differences. It is a day to rededicate ourselves to the ideals of equality,..of leading an honest, truthful and virtuous life continues to guide and inspire entire humanity," she added. Guru Gobind Singh was the 10th Sikh guru. A group of Trinamool Congress (TMC) MPs were detained here on Thursday as they took out a protest march against the arrest of TMC leader and parliamentarian, Sudip Bandyopadhyay. Shouting slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the around 50 TMC MPs from Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, including Saugata Roy and Derek O'Brien managed to reach South Block, which houses the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). As the angry protesters tried to enter the high-security PMO, they were detained by Delhi Police. TMC has a total strength of 45 MPs in both the houses and almost all of them turned up for the protest. "We are protesting against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's demonetisation and political vendetta against the Trinamool Congress. So, the protest will go on. Wherever we get opportunity, we will protest," Roy said before being whisked away. The protestors gathered just when a pre-Budget meeting of financial regulators at the finance ministry opposite South Block got over. Bandyopadhyay was arrested by CBI in Kolkata on Tuesday in connection with the Rose Valley chit fund scam, prompting West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to allege that Modi was using central agencies against political rivals who were criticising demonetisation. With inputs from agencies There's no better way to spruce up ones home during this season than with candles and fragrances. SMJ Venture Private Limited, Kolkatas leading fast moving consumer goods player, has launched its fragrant brand of incense sticks Maayas Deep across Bengal. The group is now contemplating to launch incense sticks using the fragrance of orchids from Sikkim. Established in 1994, the small organisation was involved in making ceramic caps but has transformed into a popular FMCG group. The incense sticks market is growing at fast rate in the country. Assini Jaiswal, executive director, SMJ Venture Private Limited explained, The incense sticks market in India is largely unorganised and is worth Rs 1,800 crore while the market in Bengal accounts for Rs 100 crore. Our products are now on offer only in the retail outlets of Jharkhand and West Bengal. West Bengal has the largest consumption of incense sticks in the country and very soon, we plan to display them in retail outlets in the North-eastern region and other states of eastern India as well. We expect to have a one per cent share in the incense sticks market of India in future. The FMCG major has around 3,000 dealers across West Bengal and is on a rapid expansion path. The brand Maayas Deep offers five different kinds of fragrances that include Astha, Desires, Natural, Live and Morning Flower. Jaiswal said, The fragrances of our incense sticks go well with peoples mood and generate good feelings. The fragrance of Morning Flower brings freshness of mind, rejuvenates the soul and makes one vibrant. The company is known for its production of battery vent caps and battery spares across the country and its products have global buyers in countries like Oman, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Argentina and Chile. When it comes to making high quality camphor, the FMCG player just cant have enough. It stands high in its production and occupies around 15 per cent of the market share in West Bengal. Camphor forms an essential ingredient in lighting festival lamps during Diwali and come in jars and pouches. The group enjoys a market share of more than 30 per cent in camphor production in North Bengal. Jaiswal siad, The people of West Bengal are not too aware about the use of superior quality camphor. We are thinking of offering camphor free of cost along with incense sticks to our customers during Diwali. The FMCG player is looking to clock a growth of 25 per cent every year. Around 80 people drown every day in India, which comes to more than 29,000 every year. This data was released by the National Crime Records Bureau. In fact, from 2010-14, each year recorded an average of 25,000 deaths by drowning. The World Health Organisation reports that, on a global scale, 1,008 people die every day due to drowning thus it is the third leading cause of unintentional death across the world with more than half the number being below 25 years of age. These statistics articulate a clarion call to safeguard people from such disasters. But does one plan for such an arduous task? India is a vast country, and with its diversity, gives the matter of logistics some challenges. A person with calibre, conforming to this role, may successfully meet the demands of synchronising activities, and adopting a methodology, which encompasses the length and breadth of India introduce life-saving skills that will benefit every man, woman and child. An organisation called Rashtriya Life Saving Society-India has been formed and incredible as it appears, India has been blessed by a personality from the Indian Navy who has resolved to help redeem a series of tragedies, which entail drowning. PD Sharma, Rear Admiral (Retired), crystallised a vision that both he and his wife, Kavita, decided to first study as a microcosm by scrutinising a map of the sub-continent and then expanding a programme to embrace every part of the country into their fold. The journey that unfolds is mind-boggling because of the fact that the entire plan has cruised along ever since RLSS-I was founded on 2 August 1998. Both Rear Admiral PD Sharma and Kavita, the president and vice-president respectively, were presented the Commonwealth Award on 22 November last year by Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace. RLSS-I teach people to protect themselves from drowning be it a village pond covered with an impenetrable mass of water hyacinth, a swimming pool, a river or even the mighty ocean. The Pune-based organisation engulfs just about everything with its humble ethos, which is a cornerstone of its amazing pursuits the RLSS-I is a non-profit making endeavour. Theirs is a service to the nation, one that every citizen of our vast country must be enlightened about. The indefatigable and tenacious efforts of this husband and wife team have elucidated an extraordinary dimension to the word, protection. Rear Admiral Sharmas determination came into effect when he read the horrifying details of the number of people who drowned every year in India. Both he and Kavita began an incredible journey thereafter. Their training programmes in Kerala were highlighted by the government there interestingly, Kerala has many water bodies and that intensified the involvement of RLSS-I in the state. They went through central India, onto West Bengal and into Assam where they began with the Assam Valley School owned by the Williamson Magor Group, it ensures that every student is trained to swim, taught to help rescue another swimmer, and administer first aid, if necessary. The RLSS-I have included Assam and Arunachal Pradeshs fast flowing rivers, into their training programmes as their waters have taken away many lives. Rear Admiral Sharma has designed a manual with simple but effective rules for fast-flowing rivers, such as never going into a river alone; never jumping from a great height like a tree or bridge and making sure both feet are firmly on the river bed. To gauge the current, one should check by throwing a piece of wood or a bottle, and assess the speed of it drifting. He warns of the dangerous difference when a river has a separate rate of a current on the surface compared to the current in its depths. Apparently humans are not good swimmers and this is a principle that must be borne in mind because it excludes the possibility of taking risks. The core value of this programme is not preparing a learner for the Olympics. On the contrary, it teaches people to be safe in the water and to be of help to other swimmers around. In addition, the organisation conducts certifications in resuscitation (CPR), first-aid, lifeguards, and life saving. Rear Admiral Sharma was elected the president of the International Life Saving Federations Asia-Pacific Region in 2012 the first from Asia to hold such a position. It may not be eerily reminiscent of the coal mine catastrophe at Chasnala, near Dhanbad, in December 1975, but the tragedy in Jharkhands Lalmatia open-cast coalfields has yet again thrown up the defects in maintenance and safety. With 17 killed and at least 50 miners still gasping under mounds of coal and rubble, the focus of the investigation will hopefully be riveted to the inherently fragile construction. That mining wasnt in progress when the walls caved in is of academic interest to the technologically inclined; the casualties would have been far higher if extraction of coal was on. However, this version has been contested by a section of the Eastern Coalfields (ECL) staff, who claim that work did not stop even when one of the walls of the mine started collapsing. This isnt the moment to engage in a discord over the mining schedule. What matters most of all is that there were what the ECL authorities call landslides down under. The plural form of the geological phenomenon is critical in the greater scheme of things. It is now fairly confirmed by the management that landslides in the hard rock area below ground zero led to the collapse of heaps of earth from the upper portion of the site. No one denies that this is something rare; it is pretty much obvious though that the minimum precautionary measures were not in place to avert the kind of disaster that befell Lalmatia last week. The accident lends no scope for any feeble excuse in the face of an ugly truth, still less an attempt by ECL to cover its tracks. The fact that Jharkhands Chief Secretary and DGP swiftly left Ranchi for the disaster site in Godda is suggestive of the magnitude of the tragedy. That magnitude was borne out by the Chief Secretarys assertion that we will not spare anyone found guilty of negligence. It remained for the administration in Ranchi to intervene before an FIR was filed against Eastern Coalfields, which had hired the miners from a Gujarat firm. The public sector subsidiary of Coal India is palpably on the mat. Direly imperative, therefore, is to ensure safety and maintenance if ECL is to avoid egg dripping down its face. In the aftermath of the Lalmatia disaster, it shall not be easy to dispel the dominant impression of negligence that has overwhelmed the mining belt. Also to be probed is whether the collieries boast emergency teams in suitable strength to countenance an accident. Personnel of the National Disaster Response Force and units of the CRPF and CISF were sent from Ranchi to supplement the inadequate local effort. Every minute counts when an accident occurs on the rail track or inside a coal mine. And yet negligence plagues both the Railways and the collieries. After taking oath on 31 December as chief minister of a full-fledged BJP government, Pema Khandu said, The lotus has finally bloomed in Arunachal Pradesh the people will see a new dawn in 2017 under the new government. Khandu had taken over in September after the Supreme Court annulled Presidents rule and restored the Congress government headed by Nabam Tuki. But after a few days he merged his entire Congress team of 42 members with the regional Peoples Party of Arunachal Pradesh. The new development the merger with the BJP came about after the PPA temporarily suspended Khandu and some of his colleagues from the party for their anti-party activities without even serving them show-cause notices. What possibly could have forced Khandu to take the prompt decision to team up with the BJP is perhaps his realisation of the uncertainty of his continuation with the support of the regional party. And he was well aware that when opportunity arises the regional party is certain to give him the short shrift. Ever since Governor JP Rajkhowa (since dismissed) advanced the date of the assembly session, apparently to help the Congress dissidents who had sought Tukis removal, the states politics had beena rancorous sore. The year also saw Kalikho Pul, a dissident leader, fulfilling his desire to become the chief minister. He held the officefor about four months. Sadly enough, within weeks of being ousted, he allegedly committed suicide. The swearing-in of four chief ministers in a year is in itself a sad commentary on the working of multi-party democracy. The frequent changes in leadership have already put on hold any meaning of development plans, mostly building of infrastructure. If Khandu has opted for the ruling party at the Centre with the main objective of rapid development of his state, he has done the right thing. Congress Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gave an assurance that by 2013 the 1,800-km Trans-Arunachal Highway would be ready but it is still under construction. Sadly enough even the strategic Miao-Vijayanagar Road, that will open up the most underdeveloped region in the interior, is behind schedule by many years. The plan for a green airfield at Itanagar is also taking a long time. It may not even come up at all what with the state authorities now keen on using the militarys advanced landing grounds for civilian purposes. CBI raids my office, pressurises officer to implicate me. CBI raids Satinder Jain's office. Why are you so scared of us Modi ji? Chill, tweeted Kejriwal. By Indo-Asian News Service: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today took on Prime Minister Narendra Modi after former aide Rajendra Kumar, seeking retirement from government service, alleged that the CBI was pressurising him to implicate the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader. CBI raids my office, pressurises officer to implicate me. CBI raids Satinder Jain's office. Why are you so scared of us Modi ji? Chill, Kejriwal tweeted, referring to CBI's December raid on Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain's Officer on Special Duty Nikunj Aggarwal's office and Kumar's allegations. advertisement IAS officer Rajendra Kumar, Kejriwal's former Principal Secretary, earlier said he has tendered voluntary retirement request claiming officials at the Central Bureau of Investigation were pressurising him to name the Chief Minister. ALSO READ: Kejriwal's former principal secretary Rajendra Kumar seeks VRS, blames CBI for harassment ALSO READ: Shoe hurled at Arvind Kejriwal in Rohtak; Delhi CM blames PM Modi ALSO READ: Rahul Gandhi lacks guts to expose Modi, says Kejriwal --- ENDS --- Twenty years ago, Hong Kong was handed over to China by Britain, its colonial master for 156 years. The decision had been made earlier by Chinas diminutive but doughty leader Deng Xiaoping, and the reputedly unbending Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher had little choice but to acquiesce. The thinking was that with the whole world watching, China would live up to its treaty commitments and, under the one country, two systems policy, allow Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy. At the time, Hong Kong had a lot going for it. It had a highly successful economy, considered one of the Four Tigers of Asia, along with Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. China, by comparison, was still poor, with the majority of its people living in the countryside. China was and is the worlds most populous country, with a 1996 population of 1.2 billion people and a GDP of $856.1 billion. Hong Kong, which accounts for perhaps 1 per cent of Chinas overall territory, had a GDP of $160 billion, or roughly 20 per cent of Chinas national GDP. Hong Kongs per capita GDP was $24,818, far exceeding Chinas $703. Hong Kong was the goose that laid golden eggs. No Chinese leader in his right mind would do anything to harm the territorys interests, it was believed. Besides, there was the question of face. Hong Kong was a superlative success under the British. If it started to go downhill after sovereignty changed hands, it would look pretty bad for China. Twenty years later, where are we? Well, in terms of figures, Hong Kong has moved ahead to a GDP of $316 billion, or $36,117 per capita, making it very much a developed economy. China is now the worlds second largest economy, with a GDP of $11.39 trillion and per capita GDP of $6,416. On an overall basis, the Hong Kong economy is now a mere 2 per cent of the Chinese economy. And on a per capita basis, mainland Chinese have moved up from 1/35th to 1/6th that of their Hong Kong counterparts. That is a very dramatic change. In other words, China has many more geese laying golden eggs and is much less reliant on Hong Kong than it was 20 years ago. In fact, the shoe is now on the other foot and Hong Kong is increasingly dependent on the mainland to grow its economy. That is why Hong Kong has asked to be made part of Chinas five-year economic plan. Twenty years ago, on the eve of the handover, people in Hong Kong were most fearful of losing the rights and freedoms that they enjoyed under the British. To be sure, even then those rights were not absolute, and the government had powers to rein in such freedoms as the right to assembly and to a free press. Today, those rights and freedoms are largely intact, though recent reports of Chinese agents exercising law enforcement functions in Hong Kong are deeply worrying, as was the horrifying 2014 knife attack on Kevin Lau, former chief editor of Ming Pao. But the most sensitive issue is democracy. Under Britain, there was little democracy to speak of. Only after London agreed to return Hong Kong to China did the British introduce limited forms of democracy, such as functional constituency elections, indirect elections and finally a few directly elected seats before the 1997 handover. But China stated in Hong Kongs mini-constitution, the Basic Law, that the ultimate aim was to have the chief executive and the entire legislature chosen through universal suffrage. Hence there has been much pressure in Hong Kong to implement such promises pressure that has been strongly resisted by the Chinese government. China made an offer in 2014 on universal suffrage elections for chief executive an offer that was rejected by the Hong Kong legislature in 2015. China insisted on mechanisms that allow it to vet candidates by defining the Election Committee that currently elects the chief executive as the Basic Laws broadly representative nominating committee whose job it is to nominate candidates in universal suffrage elections for chief executive. Not surprisingly, this was rejected by pro-democratic legislators. The ball is in Beijings court. During this anniversary year, it should take action to end the impasse by agreeing that the nominating committee should be much more broadly based than the current 1,200-member Election Committee. Such a move would be consistent with the Basic Law; it would show Chinas goodwill, improve the political environment and, hopefully, allow Hong Kong to move ahead not only in the debate on democracy but in other areas as well. (The China Post/ANN.) The heinous bloodbath at a swanky nightclub on the banks of the Bosphorus in Istanbul brought what had already been a terrible year for Turkey to an exceptionally brutal conclusion. It was a year peppered with terrorist attacks, but its centrepiece was arguably a coup attempt in July that apparently came close to succeeding, followed by a sweeping wave of state repression that has deepened fractures in Turkish society amid shifting allegiances on the Syrian front that have resulted in a Nato stalwart effectively allying itself with Russia. If the idea behind the assassination a fortnight ago of the Russian ambassador to Turkey was to precipitate a stand-off between Moscow and Ankara, it has predictably failed. The assassin, an off-duty policeman, was killed immediately afterwards, so his precise motivations may never be known, but his Remember Aleppo! slogan while performing his dastardly act offers obvious pointers. Syrias largest city was recently wrested from rebel control by forces allied to the government of Bashar al-Assad, with the Russians and Iranians instrumental in producing this result. It has been claimed that Turkeys president Recep Tayyip Erdogan helped out by persuading his Islamist allies among the Syrian rebels to facilitate the evacuation of eastern Aleppo. The Erdogan government was involved in the Syrian conflict long before its troops directly stepped in, and its assistance to Islamist factions included turning a blind eye to international recruits many of them attracted by the militant Islamic State group entering the war-torn country through the Turkish border. ISIS turned against Turkey once this route became a lot more restricted, and after Ankara had second thoughts about its initial refusal to permit American and other Nato forces to use Turkish bases as a launching pad for airstrikes against IS on Syrian territory. Turkeys relations with the US have frayed markedly since the abortive coup in July, partly over Washingtons refusal to extradite Fethullah Gulen, who is accused of having masterminded the attempt to overthrow his former ally Erdogan. Whether the advent of the Trump administration will improve relations remains to be seen. Meanwhile, Turkey had visibly bristled at Russias intervention in Syria on behalf of Assad, and things came to a head after its forces shot down a Russian warplane that had allegedly strayed into Turkish airspace. Vladimir Putin resisted any temptation he may have had to ramp up the confrontation, instead using the incident as a lever to forge an unlikely informal alliance that had the twin advantage of facilitating his aims in Syria while driving a wedge between leading Nato members. It was thus Russia and Turkey, alongside Iran, that jointly announced a truce in Syria shortly before the Istanbul atrocity, and successfully sought the imprimatur of the UN. The cessation of hostilities does not include ISIS, and is anyhow not expected to last very long, but it apparently does cover Al Nusra, an organisation once formally allied with Al Qaeda that has played a key role in the rebellion against Assad and enjoyed Turkish favours in the bargain, but is also likely to have borne the brunt of Russian bombing campaigns. By some accounts, the primary purpose of Erdogans Syrian adventure has always been to forestall the likelihood of a de facto Kurdish state on Turkeys border, and he strove hard to prevent Turkish Kurds from aiding their Syrian comrades. A ceasefire between the Turkish state and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) broke down in 2015, and the latter claimed responsibility for some of last years terrorist attacks, directed chiefly against security forces the PKK claims not to target civilians and roundly condemned the Reina nightclub massacre. The Americans have heeded some of Erdogans concerns while broadly backing the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) in their fight against ISIS (and potentially Assad). But then the US strategy in Syria has anyhow been all over the place, and last months truce announcement conspicuously excluded Washington, demonstrating the extent to which it has been sidelined. Turkey under Erdogan, meanwhile, finds itself besieged on three fronts by the Gulenists, Kurds and ISIS, which belatedly claimed responsibility for the 39 deaths and dozens of injuries at the Reina nightclub. The presidents reaction to Turkeys multiple woes has largely revolved around clamping down on all dissent and extending the breadth and depth of his autocracy, blaming everyone but his own often contradictory policies for all that is going horribly wrong in a nation that not long ago seriously aspired to become a fully fledged European state but has lately been sucked right back into the Middle Eastern cauldron, with its present blighted and its future increasingly uncertain. Dawn/ANN Women in Bangalore suffered physical and mental agonies on New Years Eve. Women across the country were subjected to a high degree of shame when political elements came up with the customary male chauvinistic line that the victims had asked for it. Alas, both the action and reaction are not uncommon. Yet what really sickens all right-thinking people, regardless of their sex, is the silence of the mama-beta leadership of the Congress party. Was it not honour-bound to take to severe task the home minister in its government in Karnataka who initially made light of the outrageous behaviour, which set the tone for the indifferent attitude displayed by the city police, and actually facilitated the subsequent flood of misogynistic comments that confirm the burden with which Indian women are laden? Condemnation from Sonia Gandhi was expected not because of the fact of her gender but because the political party she heads prides itself on being modern, progressive and liberated from the archaic thinking that dominates its major rivals. This was an occasion to convince young India that it was so different from most other political elements: it failed to do so. And in this age of instant communication there was no valid reason for Sonia or Rahul to hold back and not strike out in favour of the harassed Indian woman. The minister who ought to have been served with immediate marching orders does not wield the kind of political clout that should have made the high command wary of publicly admonishing him. True that the comments from G Parmeshwaram were not as disgusting as what was mouthed by a Samajwadi Party neta in Mumbai: the difference being that the Congress projects itself as being different. Or is that difference being obliterated as it seeks some kind of a tie-up with the Samajwadi for the upcoming poll in UP? That none of the Congress spokespersons broached the subject for three days confirms that it would prefer to sacrifice the interests of women rather than call its Karnataka government to account. Indian misogyny, it is obvious, cuts across party lines. For the people of Bangalore it has been a double whammy. Their state government has hardly earned a reputation for efficiency, now the police has disgraced itself. The strong force deployed at MG Road/Brigade Road did little to contain the wanton hooliganism, now the cops seek formal complaints before taking criminal action. The induction of new officers on December 31 points to gross administrative incompetence. And now a salvage operation is being launched the image of Bangalore is being mischievously tarnished, so goes the chant. Image is a reflection of reality: the truth was told at MG Road before 2017 dawned. Judges should be of stern stuff and tough fibre, unbending before power, economic or political, and they must uphold the core principle of the rule of law which says, Be you ever so high, the law is above you. This is the principle of independence of the judiciary which is vital for the establishment of real participatory democracy, maintenance of the rule of law as a dynamic concept and delivery of social justice to the vulnerable sections of the community. These words of the Supreme Court of India evidently elucidate the expectation from its judges. Mr. Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar, perhaps more than any other contemporary Indian judge, has demonstrated this stern stuff and tough fibre. Erudite, possessed of intellectual sensitivity and judicial courage, he led the five-judge constitution bench which struck down the NJAC Act. Justice Khehar also headed a historic bench that reinstated the Congress-led Arunachal Pradesh Government and held all the actions of the Governor violative of the Constitution. Alluding to S R Bommai v. Union of India [(1994)3 SCC 1] the bench avowed that it had all the powers to put the clock back. Justice Khehar on the occasion of Constitution Day responded to the diatribe from Attorney General for India, by saying that the judiciary is functioning within its lakshmanrekha. The two judgements of Justice Khehar had placed government in an uncomfortable situation; therefore speculation about a third supersession was obvious in corridors of Supreme Court. However, perhaps because of his being a Sikh and from Punjab facing assembly elections or for whatever other reason, he has taken oath today as the 44th Chief Justice of India. It was Justice J.S. Khehar who gave new life to the collegium after declaring the governments NJAC law unconstitutional, although the majority view was reprimanded by the dissent of Justice Chelameshwar as repugnant to the spirit of the Constitution. Criticizing the functioning of present collegium system, Justice Chelameshwar observed that absolute independence of any one of the three branches is inconsistent with core democratic values and the scheme of our Constitution. The amendment only seeks to restore such balance and therefore cannot be said to be destructive of the basic structure of the constitution. Later, he refused to participate in meetings of the collegium. Khehar proceeded to invite public opinion on ways to improve the opaque collegium system of judicial appointments and after receiving over 11,500 views from the public, the Bench directed the government to draft a new Memorandum of Procedure (MoP). This MoP is a persistent bone of contention between the Centre and the Supreme Court. The first challenge before the new Chief Justice therefore would be to give meaning to this dream of the majority in NJAC case. It is now inevitable for the Chief Justice of India to unknot the predicament by addressing genuinely queried issues of transparency and accountability in the collegium for otherwise the conscience of people will be intimidated. Delay in filling vacancies in the sanctioned strength of Courts and in increasing the sanctioned strength to meet the increase in the institution of cases renders the judiciary inadequate to deliver its constitutional mandate. Bringing the judiciary into this state of adequacy has been the singularly constant finding of all Government Committees and Commissions on Arrears in Courts. All these fact-finding bodies have unvaryingly recommended increasing the strength of judges [See Rankin Committee 1925 to the 189th Law Commission Report of 2004]. These recommendations as well as those of the All India Chief Justices Conference have remained unimplemented. same applies to the implementation of the orders of the Supreme Court in All India Judges Association case [(1993) 4 SCC 288] followed by Brij Mohan Lal case [(2002)4 SCC247]. Even as there is a national debate on arrears, new arrears accumulate daily. Putting courts in a situation whereby Judges are unable to deliver the publics fundamental right to timely justice is to deny access to justice and thereby undermine the sole purpose of judicial independence and constitutionalism. Hence, the second major challenge before Justice Khehar would be to foster the relationship where appointments are made smoothly. is no magic wand to resolve the present judicial crisis. Increasing judges strength through an emotional outburst as by Justice Thakur will not fix problems. The government and civil society are constantly asking what initiatives Supreme Court has taken for ensuring more accountability in the judicial wing. Why do constitutional courts in India still follow the archaic ritual of long vacations? Why is the Supreme Court not able to take concrete steps to abolish the culture of adjournments? Why have initiatives not been taken to reform the Bar and to make it more accountable? Justice Khehar must make some hard decisions. He must set the ball rolling by taking some positive reformative measures otherwise the judiciary of the largest democracy will succumb under the weight of its own responsibility and it will be difficult to resuscitate the diminishing confidence of people in the judiciary. Justice Khehar will retire on 27 August with a discourteous summer vacation of one and half months in between. In such a short stint, no one will be able to accomplish his dream. Thus, questions on the functionality of the ritual that the senior most judge shall be the Chief Justice too become relevant. In the absence of any constitutional provision this convention was nurtured (with two exceptions) to avoid any controversies. But this convention unleashes rapid succession of CJIs with short stints of one, two or a few months. Within the Supreme Court structure all powers revolve around the office of Chief Justice and in the absence of a fixed minimum tenure, no chief justice can hope to reform the judiciary and thereby ensure its independence on aspects other than appointment of the CJI. The writer is Deputy Registrar, Supreme Court of India. Prime Minister Narendra Modis assertion that the people we see queuing up for withdrawing money from the banks and ATMs is a line to end all lines. This perception is of a piece with what Sir Karl Popper once called utopian social engineering. Utopians attempt to establish an ideal state in which two acts are performed simultaneously ~ (a) conflicts in social life are resolved satisfactorily; and (b) some presumed ultimate human ends are met. The crux of the problem arises when any such scheme calls for a radical overhaul of the existing edifice. It calls for decisive intervention in the interests of a societal whole and the intervention is to lessen the birth pangs, to quote Marx. Popper contends that such utopian social projects are only superficially attractive as they lead to several unintended and negative consequences. The reason for a wide gap, as we have noticed in the present demonetisation drive, between the expectation and the consequences, is because the social world is extremely complex and our knowledge of the same is incomplete, in spite of ones best efforts. It is this inherent limitation that renders an untested grand design normally ineffectual. Popper observes: The greater the holistic changes attempted, the greater are their unintended and largely unexpected repercussions forcing on the holistic engineer the expedient of piecemeal improvisation or the notorious phenomenon of unplanned planning. Even the most carefully planned action is fallible; which is why Popper once asked, Who plans the planners? The inherent assumption is that individuals are pawns in a larger social system and are subordinated to social forces beyond their control and this inevitably leads to the emergence of authoritarian regimes. Centralised planning leads to concentration of power in the hands of a few or even in one person, paving the transition from democracy to authoritarianism. There is a certain hostility to public criticism, which stops the essential flow of feedback and the real impact of policies. This further curtails the effectiveness of such policies. Popper says that a such a situation makes the utopian planners totally indifferent to miseries that such plans can cause. Suffering is assumed to be an essential part of such a process as the undefined utopia would justify such hardships for the present. The line to end all lines surely falls in this category. While developing this impressive theory, Popper changed the important question ~ Who should rule to a novel one: How can we so organise political institutions that bad or incompetent rulers can be prevented from doing too much damage. This institutional design is only possible within democracy as problems can be solved by providing a non-violent and institutionalised mechanism of change to get rid of bad rulers. For Popper, the intrinsic value of democracy is not the sovereignty of the people as the people do not rule anywhere, it is always governments that rule. In the mass democracies of today the role of the people is to get rid of incompetent, corrupt or abusive leaders at regular intervals. Narendra Modis demonetisation scheme perfectly matches Karl Poppers prescriptions of utopian social engineering. It has been a futile attempt to achieve a grand transformation within 50 days, marked by different and often contradictory clarifications in 40-odd days to the scheme that was announced on 8 November 2016. Formal institutional and parliamentary channels were bypassed. Subsequent changes left enough scope to legalise black money. From a crusade against black money the goal post was changed to cashless economy and digital payments reducing the policy from a tragedy to a farce. It never differentiated between black economy and black money, the latter always a small portion as the tax evaders keep a small amount in cash and the rest is invested in real estate, bullion, foreign currency and accounts in tax havens beyond the reach of law. It has not stopped the generation of black money in new currency notes. The limited demonetisation of the Morarji Desais government was no deterrent to accumulation of black money. The unintended consequences of demonetisation are the deaths of many people who stood in the queues for hours, loss of jobs in the unorganised sector, slowing down of demand, sluggish economy, fear of substantial fall in growth rate, foreign investments and tourists and above all erosion of faith in cash. The BBC observed that India received 8 million tourists in 2016 and predicted that next year, it would be half of this number and the many who came this year would never ever revisit India. Before invoking demonetisation, the reasons for which were more political than economic, the Modi government should have analysed our own capacity to replace such huge currencies and the costs involved in doing so. The US, whose currency is the most sought after, has never thought of demonetisation. It faces considerable problems while dealing with black money and dirty cash especially when a large chunk is held outside the US. But it has never declared its own currency illegal since the introduction of currency notes in 1862. The US knows that its currency is the essential basis of its financial strength and credibility, on which the entire world has unshakeable confidence. Many have commented on the rise of an invasive and a maximalist government as there is an attempt to undermine the citizens right to privacy and choice about the mode of payments. The crux of the matter is that a currency note is a solemn promise which under any circumstances is to be honoured. Demonetisation by the Modi government has undermined that one cardinal principle, thereby denuding our position on the comity of nations, specifically as a democracy which is far from perfect. It is a setback that will take decades to heal, if it is totally healed ever. (The writer is retired Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Delhi) Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus has said that he believes "foreign intelligence services" could be behind the Istanbul nightclub attack that claimed 39 lives, as it was carried out way too "professionally", the media reported. "I am of the opinion that it's not possible for the perpetrator to have carried out such an attack without any support. It seems like a secret service thing. All these things are being assessed," Kurtulmus told the Hurriyet daily on Wednesday. However, he declined to go into details about which secret services he was referring to. Kurtulmus expressed concern that with support from external intelligence other potential attackers could evade Turkish security radars. "As they are supported by some organisations with intelligence capacity, they can conduct terror acts in the way your security system may not even be able to think of," he said. Earlier on Wednesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu stated that authorities managed to identify the Islamic State (IS) militant behind the Istanbul's Reina nightclub. While refusing to release the identity of the shooter, Cavusoglu said that "efforts to capture him continue", and added that the house where the suspect lived "has been searched." The Turkish media identified the attacker's code name in jihadist circles as "Abu Muhammed Horasani". Initial police reports suggested that the jihadist was from Kyrgyzstan. US President-elect Donald Trump has quoted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to voice new doubt about the findings by US intelligence agencies that Russia has intervened in the 2016 presidential election. "Julian Assange said 'a 14 year old could have hacked (John) Podesta' why was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info!" Trump said on Twitter on Wednesday, referring to the Democratic National Committee (DNC), Xinhua news agency reported. Emails of Podesta, the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign manager, were released by WikiLeaks during the campaign. US intelligence had concluded that the hack and release of the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton staff emails was ordered by the Kremlin and was designed to put the Republican real estate mogul in the Oval Office. Trump has repeatedly refused to accept the conclusions. Moscow also denied the accusations. On Tuesday, Trump also suggested that a briefing he was scheduled to receive on the hacking issue was delayed to give intelligence officials more time to build their case. "The 'Intelligence' briefing on so-called 'Russian hacking' was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange!" he tweeted. However, US intelligence officials said there had been no delay in the briefing schedule, according to US media reports. Turkey on Wednesday warned that planned Syrian peace talks co-sponsored by Russia were at risk, calling on the Damascus regime of President Bashar al-Assad to halt violations of a ceasefire. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Iran, the main backer of Assad along with Russia, must put pressure on allied Shiite militias to abide by the truce that is to form the basis for a ceasefire. If the truce is properly observed, he said the peace talks would start on January 23 in Kazakhstan's capital Astana under the auspices of Turkey and Russia. "If we do not stop the increasing violations, the Astana process could fail. After the ceasefire, we see violations," Cavusoglu told the state-run Anadolu news agency in an interview. "When we look at who commits these violations, it is Hezbollah, in particular Shiite groups and the regime," he added, referring to the powerful Lebanese Shiite movement supporting Damascus. Last month, a process sponsored by regime ally Russia and rebel backer Turkey saw the start of a truce which is meant to lead to negotiations in Astana this month. But earlier this week, the process was already under threat after a dozen Syrian rebel factions suspended talks on negotiations accusing Assad of violating the four-day-old ceasefire. Cavusoglu called on Iran to "put pressure on Shiite militias and the regime" to stop such violations. The deal, brokered by Turkey and Russia, saw a ceasefire begin late December and the "main forces of the armed opposition" sign a document expressing a readiness to start peace talks. While Moscow is Assad's most powerful ally, Turkey has repeatedly called for Assad to go. But as the countries continue their warming relationship, they have been working together closely on Syria. Moscow and Ankara are guarantors of the talks and the ceasefire but Tehran, conspicuously, is not. Cavusoglu also said Russian officials would be coming to Turkey on January 9 and 10 to discuss the Astana process. More than 310,000 people have been killed and millions forced to flee their homes since the conflict broke out in March 2011. The UN Security Council is welcoming an agreement in Congo calling for President Joseph Kabila to leave power after an election by year's end. The New Year's Eve accord followed months of unrest that left dozens dead and threatened to further destabilize the Central African nation with a history of dictatorship and civil war. Kabila was barred from seeking a new term after his mandate expired Dec 19. But a court ruled he could stay on until elections, and his party said those weren't possible before mid-2018. The council said in a statement by its president yesterday it was encouraged "by the spirit of flexibility and compromise" shown in reaching the agreement. It stressed the importance of taking "all necessary steps to accelerate preparations for the elections without further delays." The US Army has issued a new regulation under which servicemen who wear turbans, hijabs or beards can now be enrolled in the military, making the force more inclusive of minority religions and cultures. The new set of rules, issued by Secretary of the Army Eric Fanning, allows religious accommodations to be approved at the brigade-level. Previously it was at the level of Secretary. Once that approval occurs, the change will ensure that the religious accommodation is enduring and applies to most positions within the US Army. "This is a major progress, not just for the Sikh-American community but for our nation's military. Sikh-Americans love this country and want a fair chance to serve in our country on equal footing. Today's announcement will help do just that," Congressman Joe Crowley said welcoming the directive issued by the US Army Secretary. "We are a stronger nation, with a stronger military because of our respect for religious and personal freedom," he said. The move has been welcomed by Sikh-Americans and US lawmakers who have been on the forefront of a national campaign in this regard for the past several years. Before the January 3 changes announced by the US Army, Sikh-Americans and others had to be granted a limited accommodation or permission to serve in the army while maintaining their articles of faith. Such accommodations were neither permanent nor guaranteed, and had to be renewed after virtually every assignment. Service members had also been required to remove their articles of faith while their accommodation request is pending, once again subjecting them to the difficult position of choosing between their faith and job. Sikh-American Coalition, which has been on the forefront of such a campaign, welcomed the move, but said that this is still short of what they have been asking for. "While we still seek a permanent policy change that enables all religious minorities to freely serve without exception, we are pleased with the progress that this new policy represents for religious tolerance and diversity by our nation's largest employer," said the coalition's legal director Harsimran Kaur. The new provisions updates rules governing religious liberty that significantly improve the standards for Sikhs and other religious minorities who seek to serve their country with their religious articles of faith intact, she said. Under the new policy, Brigade commanders must grant religious accommodations for unshorn beards, unshorn hair, turbans and Muslim hijabs unless the requestor's religious belief is not sincere or the army identifies a specific, concrete hazard. According to intelligence sources, the NIA has got some leads on the missing people suggesting that they are at Nangrahar in Afghanistan. By Jitendra Bahadur Singh: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) suspects that the 22 Kerala youths, who disappeared a few months ago, may have joined the Islamic State training camp in Afghanistan. According to intelligence sources, the agency has got some leads on the missing people. The NIA believes that these people are at Nangrahar in Afghanistan. MISSING KERALA YOUTHS: NIA FINDS FOOTPRINTS After months of tracking the footprints of the 22 Kerala youths, the NIA has got information about them receiving terror training at an ISIS camp in Afghanistan. ISIS is running a terror camp at Nagrahar near Jalalabad in Afghanistan's tribal area. These missing youths reached Nangrahar in Afghanistan via Dubai and Abu Dhabi. According to intelligence sources, there could be around 1,000 to 3,000 people living in the Nangrahar camp. These recruits have been brought from various countries. The security agencies are of the view that following the setbacks in Mosul and Raqqa, the Islamic State is looking to shift its base from Iraq and Syria to Afghanistan. The agencies also believe that the ISIS has sent those Kerala youths to the Afghan terror camps. The NIA is still working on the gather more details about the missing 22 youths. advertisement ALSO READ: More than 30 youths from Kerala attended Islamic State training camps in Afghanistan: NIA ALSO WATCH: --- ENDS --- Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Thursday said the world needs to tell India "enough is enough" vis-a-vis its policy towards Jammu and Kashmir. Sharif was addressing an International Parliamentary Seminar on Kashmir here. "Seventy years of brutal repression and Kashmiri struggle in the face of that oppression have shown cries of freedom cannot be stifled by sounds of bullets," he said. He called for an end to the "continued suffering" in Kashmir, where a separatist campaign which New Delhi says is armed and financed by Islamabad has left thousands dead. Sharif called militant Burhan Wani, whose killing in July last year triggered widespread unrest in the Kashmir Valley, as a "vibrant and charismatic leader" who "has become a rallying point" for Kashmiris. He said India and Pakistan had promised to recognise the Kashmiri people's right to self-determination. Sharif said Pakistan would continue to support the separatist struggle in Jammu and Kashmir. Toby Keiths I Love This Bar & Grill at Patriot Place was one of three Foxboro venues cited in a report in the last place a convicted drunk driver said he/she was served a drink. 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. By Press Trust of India: Bhopal, Jan 5 (PTI) A farmer in Madhya Pradeshs Sheopur district was shocked to receive Rs 2,000 currency notes without the image of Mahatma Gandhi from a branch of a public sector bank. Laxman Meena, a farmer from Bichchhugawadi village, received three notes of Rs 2,000 when he withdrew money from the banks branch at Baroda town in Sheopur. advertisement "I was given three notes of Rs 2,000 on withdrawal from my account on Tuesday (December 3). I later found that there was no image of Mahatma Gandhi on those," Meena told PTI over phone today. "I was in the market when I discovered that there was no picture of Mahatma Gandhi on the notes. I then went to the bank and and showed it to the manager," he said. Meena said the branch manager told him to deposit those notes. "Initially, the manger told me that I must have examined the notes on receiving them. Later, he, however, told me to deposit the notes and get them replaced," the farmer said. The bank manager also clarified to him that the currency was genuine and there might have been a printing error. Meena said the bank replaced the notes yesterday. Meanwhile, the in-charge branch manager of the bank told PTI over phone that he has sent the information to the lead bank manager of the district. "I have nothing more to say. I have already submitted the information in this regard to the lead bank manager," he said. PTI ADU MAS GK GVS --- ENDS --- 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 ... By Press Trust of India: Lucknow/New Delhi, Jan 5 (PTI) Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh today continued attempts to claim ownership of Samajwadi Party even as further efforts were being made for a rapproachement between the warring factions led by the father and the son. Akhilesh, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh who was on Sunday made President of SP by his faction in place of Mulayam, appointed heads of seven more district party units, demonstrating his strengthening grip on the party. advertisement State SP president Naresh Uttam appointed district presidents in Mainpuri, Moradabad, Fatehpur, Etawah, Farukhabad, Hardoi and Firozabad "on directives of national president Akhilesh Yadav", said a press release issued by the Chief Ministers camp. The existing presidents of these district units were also sacked with immediate effect to pave the way for new faces. Yesterday, Akhilesh had named party unit chiefs of four districts -- Deoria, Kushinagar, Azamgarh and Mirzapur. Presidents in all these districts were dumped by Shivpal Yadav, who is state president of another faction of SP backed by his elder brother Mulayam Singh Yadav. This came even as the rival factions raced against time to garner support of party MPs, MLAs and delegates to prove majority before the Election Commission to claim Samajwadi Party name and Cycle symbol. Mulayam and Shivpal rushed to the national capital this morning to furnish details of support he enjoys in the embattled party to the poll panel. But Akhilesh stayed put at his official residence in Lucknow, collecting signed affidavits to back his claim of majority support. There was a claim that he had secured signed affidavits of over 200 MLAs and MLCs. SP MP Naresh Agarwal, who is close to Akhilesh, claimed a majority of the party MLAs, MLCs and MPs were with him. He was confident that EC would allot the cycle symbol to the Akhilesh camp. In Delhi, Mulayam held a meeting his close confidante Amar Singh amid a talk that they may approach the Election Commission with letters of support from over 50 per cent of the legislators and office bearers. Mulayams close aides said he had sought time from the Commission to put forth his stand but the poll panel firmly denied that any appointment had been sought. Hours later, Mulayam returned to Lucknow along with Shivpal, without approaching the Commission. Sources in the poll watchdog said they have not received any document from the SP founder. advertisement "In fact, his side is yet to submit the letter removing Ram Gopal Yadav as National General Secretary," an official claimed. After Mulayams return to Lucknow in the evening, SP leader Azam Khan, who has been working for a patch-up, met Akhilesh for the second time in the day. PTI ABN NAB SMI SK AKK AKK --- ENDS --- Officers of Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) Mumbai Customs recovered about 5 kilograms of drugs worth Rs 5 crore from Mumbai airport. By Virendrasingh Ghunawat: Officers of Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) Mumbai Customs recovered nearly 5 kilograms of narcotic drugs from Mumbai airport on Wednesday evening. The drugs were seized from a passenger identified as Rabeekhan Abdulah. The accused who held an Indian passport was reportedly departing to Kuala Lumpur. Upon suspicion, the officials inspected the accused. A detailed examination revealed that the accused was in possession of 2,680 grams of metamphetamine and 2,073 grams of ephedrine. advertisement DRUGS CONCEALED IN ROTI MAKERS Interestingly, the drugs were concealed in 15 roti makers. The drugs were stored under the aluminium foil plastic pocket in the roti maker. The drugs have been seized under the provisions of NDPS Act, 1985. The passenger has been arrested and will be produced before court. Further investigation is underway. Also read: Ranveer is peddler, Alia is cocaine, Sultan is kingpin: Mumbai cops decode underworld code Government to scan drug stocks with doctors --- ENDS --- Supreme Court, on Thursday, dismissed plea of expelled Rajya Sabha MP Sasikala Pushpa seeking probe into the death of former Tamil Nadu chief minister J.Jayalalithaa, reported PTI. In her petition, Pushpa had alleged that mystery shrouded the death of Jayalalithaa, as her medical condition was not disclosed and no one was allowed to visit her. She sought for the details of health conditions of the late chief minister to be delivered to the apex court. President-elect Donald Trump voiced new doubts on Wednesday that Russian hackers attempted to influence the US election on his behalf, saying WikiLeaks had denied Moscow was behind documents it made public during the campaign. Trump, writing on Twitter, continued to raise questions about the findings by US intelligence agencies that Russia was behind a series of leaks that embarrassed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign before the November 8 vote. The tweets prompted White House spokesman Josh Earnest to ask, "Who are you going to believe?" Documents stolen from the Democratic National Committee and John Podesta, Clinton's campaign manager, were leaked to the media in advance of the election. One email showed the Clinton campaign received a question in advance of a town hall forum. Trump resumed sending notes on Twitter about the hacking issue on Wednesday, saying, "(WikiLeaks founder) Julian Assange said 'a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta'why was DNC so careless? Also said the Russians did not give him the info!" Trump also quoted Assange as telling Fox News that US media coverage of the matter was "very dishonest." Asked about the tweets, Earnest said the president-elect's public comments have pitted the Russians and Assange against 17 US government intelligence agencies, outside cyber experts and lawmakers from both parties. "There's a pretty stark line that's been drawn, and the president-elect will have to determine who he's going to believe," he said at a daily news briefing. Vice President-elect Mike Pence defended Trump as simply voicing a "very sincere and healthy American skepticism about intelligence conclusions" he has been hearing. "Given some of the intelligence failures of recent years, the president-elect has made it clear to the American people that he's skeptical about conclusions from the bureaucracy," Pence told reporters at the US Capitol. But the top ranking elected Republican, House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, had harsh words for Assange, whose group released the hacked emails. "I think the guy's a sycophant for Russia, he leaks, he steals data and compromises national security," Ryan told radio host Hugh Hewitt. President Barack Obama last month ordered an investigation into malicious cyber activity and foreign intervention in the 2016 presidential election before he leaves office on January 20. Earnest said the intelligence community will meet the deadline with ample time to spare. Separately, five Democratic US senators introduced legislation urging the creation of an independent, nonpartisan commission to investigate any Russian interference in the election. Several lawmakers, including a few of Trumps fellow Republicans, have backed calls for an investigation. Trump and Pence were scheduled to receive a briefing from intelligence officials on the hacking issue on Friday. The United States will transfer four detainees to Saudi Arabia from the Guantanamo Bay military prison in the next 24 hours, US officials said on Wednesday, in President Barack Obama's final push to shrink the inmate population there despite pressure from the president-elect to halt such releases. It will be the first in Obama's final flurry of transfers aimed at sending as many as 19 prisoners to at least four countries, including Italy, Oman and the United Arab Emirates, before Donald Trump is sworn in on January 20. If the final transfers go according to plan, only about 40 prisoners will remain at Guantanamo, despite Obama's pledge to close the controversial facility at the US naval base in Cuba. Trump, however, has vowed to keep the Guantanamo military prison open and "load it up with some bad dudes." The Obama administration last month notified Congress of its intention to make the additional transfers, Reuters has reported. Those being transferred make up the bulk of the 23 prisoners declared in parole-style hearings to be safe for repatriation or resettlement in other countries. Trump on Tuesday signaled his view that all of those held at Guantanamo should remain, despite lengthy inter-agency reviews that deemed many of them eligible to leave. "There should be no further releases from Gitmo," he tweeted. "These are extremely dangerous people and should not be allowed back onto the battlefield." The White House dismissed Trump's objections and said transfers from Guantanamo, opened by former President George W. Bush to hold terrorism suspects rounded up overseas following the September 11, 2001 attacks, would continue until Trump takes office. The two US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, were unable to provide the nationalities of the prisoners who were headed to Saudi Arabia. Last April, the desert kingdomone of the top US allies in the regionaccepted nine Yemenis under a long-negotiated deal between Washington and Riyadh. Of the 59 prisoners remaining at Guantanamo before the latest transfer, 10 face charges in military commissions, including alleged plotters of the September 11 attacks, while about two dozen have not been charged but have been deemed too dangerous to release. Obama, who inherited 242 detainees at Guantanamo Bay when he took office in 2009 and has called it a "recruiting tool" for terrorists, has slowly whittled the number downward. Under Bush, the prison came to symbolise aggressive detention practices that opened the United States to accusations of torture. Obama's efforts to close the prison have been blocked by mostly Republican opposition in Congress, which has barred him from moving any prisoners to the US mainland. Foot-dragging by Pentagon officials has also been blamed for slowing transfers. Administration officials have also made clear that Obama has no intention of resorting to the legally risky option of using executive action to close the prison before leaving office. The robbers posed as CBI officials, walked inside and after robbing 42-kg of gold and Rs 1 lakh cash fled in a black Scorpio SUV. By Ashish Pandey: The Cyberabad Police is all set to solve the day-light heist at Muthoot Finance office on December 28 where a gang of 5 persons, two of them were carrying small firearms, had robbed the finance company. The robbers posed as CBI officials, walked inside the bank and after robbing 42-kg of gold and Rs 1 lakh cash fled in a black Scorpio SUV. advertisement "We have got definite clues about the person who was the leader for the crime. He behaved like a Sikh and a CBI officer. He formed a 5-member gang that included men from Mumbai and other southern states. We are waiting for an opportunity for them to come together," said commissioner of police Sandeep Sandilya while interacting with India Today. Sources say that a strong team of elite Greyhound is keeping a close surveillance on the gang leader who drove the Scorpio SUV used by the robbers. During the investigation the police team which involves almost half of the Inspectors Sub-Inspectors ACP's DCPs lead by Joint CP of Cyberabad , with the help of 35 CCTV footages has established that the Scorpio SUV and one bike was used by the suspects to do recce on December 23-24. "During the night the suspects took shelter in a Dhaba 10 km away from the crime scene. After recce the suspects left towards wadi town of Giulbarga while they left the bike at The bike was parked at Parigi bus stand closer to crime scene. December 25 all the six accused met in Wadi with a plan of robbery" said an officer privy to investigation. The investigation has also revealed that the gang had attempted robbery on December 27. "They took shelter in the Dhaba for the night on December 27 and again started from the Dhaba the next day. Till now the Scorpio was using a MH (Maharastra) number plate but the day of offence they changed the vehicle number with an AP (Andhra Pradesh) plate. All the 6 suspects have left for Mumbai by train," added the officer. All the 6 interstate hardened criminals involved in crime met and further execute their plans successfully. The gang was also involved in many sensational robberies and dacoities in Telangana, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka earlier. HOW IT HAPPENED Posing as CBI officials, four unidentified persons looted 45 kg gold from Muthoot Finance in Hyderabad. The con men escaped with gold ornaments valued at about Rs 12 crore after threatening the staff with weapons at the Ramachandrapuram office of the company on the outskirts. Four persons came to Muthoot Finance branch in the morning and told the staff that they were CBI officials and wanted to check records and gold in the lockers. When the employees said they were not in a position to show the lockers without permission from top officials, the unidentified men threatened action against the staff for disobeying orders of CBI officials. When the lockers were opened, the intruders started collecting the golden ornaments in their bags. As the employees raised objection, one of the men whipped out a gun, threatened the employees and locked them in a bathroom. The robbers also took away the hard disk of CCTV cameras with them. advertisement --- ENDS --- The Information and Technology ministry will illustrate the advantages of PM Narendra Modi's demonetisation measure and his pitch for digital banking at the 68th Republic day parade. By Manjeet Negi: India exhibits its military might and cultural diversity every Republic Day. But this year's January 26 parade will feature an additional element - a float highlighting the prime minister's signature drives. READ: In address to the nation on New Year's Eve, PM Modi calls demonetisation drive 'shuddhi yajna' Modi's pitch for digital banking The information and technology ministry's float participating in the upcoming pageant, highly-placed defence sources told India Today, will illustrate the advantages of PM Narendra Modi's demonetisation measure and his pitch for digital banking. advertisement It will serve as a fitting metaphor for the prime minister's cashless-economy campaign, a top defence official said. In all, twenty-one floats from different states and ministries will participate in this year's Republic Day parade, India's 68th. Delhi, Uttar Pradesh sending in their tableaus After a gap of several years, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh are also sending in their tableaus this time, defence sources said. Abu Dhabi's crown prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to be the chief guest Abu Dhabi's crown prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan will be the chief guest in the parade. A contingent of the UAE army will take part in accordance with the new practice to honour the foreign dignitary. The UAE, a strategic alliance partner of Pakistan, has signed resolution with India against state support and sponsoring of terrorism against other countries. There are more than 2.6 million Indians who have been employed in various sectors in the UAE. It is estimated that the large expatriate community sends an remittance of around `95,000 crore very year. The UAE is also India's third largest trading partner. NSG, CRPF, CISF to showcase its contingent A unit of NSG, the federal force responsible to undertake counter-terror and counter-hijack operations across the country, will also showcase its contingent for the first time in the parade. The unit will include commandos from both the army and paramilitary-based units of the force. This year's contingent will include 60 black cat commandos drawn from its Manesar station. Thus far, NSG personnel have only been operational in sanitising the parade path and surrounding areas in view of security threat on the Republic Day. Among para-military troops, the Central Reserve Police Force's anti-riot unit and the Central Industrial Security Force columns will also participate in the parade. There was indecision over two other para forces, namely Indo- Tibetan Border Police and Sashashtra Seema Bal. The Rajpath extravaganza for the first time comprises a unit of retired military personnel who will drive past in a float instead of marching, official sources said. advertisement India's missile power also on display Besides, T-90 tanks, supersonic BrahMos, Akash and Smerch will showcase the nation's missile power in the event. This time, floats of the three services will carry a distinct flavour of Modi's Make-in-India program, a senior official said. Republic day preparations in full swing. Read here: ITBP dogs' unit to ensure safety during Republic Day parade --- ENDS --- Guru Gobind Singh ji has inspired mankind 350 years ago, the world should know it,PM Narendra Modi told a gathering of devotees at Gandhi Maidan in Patna on the occasion of 'Prakash Utsav'. By Indo-Asian News Service: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said Guru Gobind Singh had inspired mankind 350 years ago. "Guru Gobind Singh ji has inspired mankind 350 years ago, the world should know it," Modi told a gathering of devotees at Gandhi Maidan here on the occasion of 'Prakash Utsav'. "Guru Gobind Singh ji put knowledge at the core of his teachings and inspired so many people through his thoughts and ideals," Modi added. advertisement Also read: In Patna, PM Modi, Nitish Kumar bond at Prakash Parv celebrations Also read: Narendra Modi all set for Patna visit: All about the 350th Prakash Parv celebrations --- ENDS --- According to the Regavim watchdog organization, the United Nations Headquarters building located in the Armon HaNatziv neighborhood of the capital is illegal as is the large UNRWA facility located near Ammunition Hill. Regavim explains the enormous structures lack the required permits and the aerial drone photographs verify that there is an illegal gas station in the premises as the international organization permits itself to do as it pleases. Regavim has filed complaints with Jerusalem City Hall as well as sending a report to the Prime Ministers Office. The Jerusalem Municipality responded, stating that while the construction is not new, the report will be studied. (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem) [PHOTOS IN EXTENDED ARTICLE] For the second time in a week an illegal LP gas business was uncovered in Bnei Brak, once again endangering homes and businesses in the area. The tanks were found in a closed off area slated for demolition. Police counted 96 cylinders of LP gas on the location. The appropriate agencies were notified to expedite safe removal of the gas cylinders from the area. the owner of the area was brought in by police for questioning. (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem/Photo Credit: Police spokesman unit) During an event in the chassidus on Tuesday evening the eve of 6 Teves, the Sanzer Rebbe Shlita addressed hundreds of avreichim and supporters of the Mevatzer Hatorah network of kollels. The rebbe said In recent years there have been combined forces to get avreichim out of the kollel. We must emphasize to all that yishuv Eretz Yisrael is only by the merit of these kollelim and the limud HaTorah. The rebbe says the correct response is additional tenacity towards strengthening the very same kollelim they wish to close. He calls for strengthening the askanim who are also moser nefesh to keep the kollels operating. Here is Eretz Yisroel will live by miracles and only by the merit of the Torah. Tens of thousands are involved in limud against those who express concern over what will tomorrow bring. We will all remain in kollel..We must lean on this path and cling to Limud HaTorah. Every child must aspire to this. Therefore, this must be planted in the home; and the father must set the example of learning in kollel (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem) The reading of the verdict in the manslaughter trial of IDF Sgt. Elor Azariya took over 2.5 hours on Wednesday morning 6 Teves. During that reading it was quite clear the court was heading to guilty plea. It was during the televised sentencing hearing (voice/no camera) that Miri was interviewed by Channel 2 News and already announced she will lead the battle to have Elor pardoned. Calls for a pardon were also heard from Transportation Minister (Likud) Yisrael Katz. On the other side of the political spectrum, Arab MK Dr. Ahmed Tibi praised the court and questioned why other soldiers who Shot and killed innocent Palestinians are not tried and sentenced as should be the case. Surprising many, MK (Machane Tzioni) Shelly Yacimovich explained the court acted professionally in its decision and she feels a pardon should be considered now that he was been found guilty. (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem) The one-day warning strike held by Egged in Jerusalem on Wednesday, 6 Teves, will be quite costly. It is going to be fined NIS 14 million for failing to comply with the terms of its operating license. Transportation Ministry officials add that in addition, during recent months there has been a decline in the companys service around the country, particularly in Jerusalem. Ministry officials learned that 6% of all trips, amounting to 7.8 were not services, once again in violation of its operating license. In Jerusalem alone, the company failed to carry out 2.6 million rides as commuters were compelled to wait for buses that never came. Ministry officials began realizing Egged was cutting corners and a probe was launched. As a result, the ministry is going to hold back NIS 9 million in state subsidies while holding back an additional NIS 50 million for failing to comply with its contract to service lines that were ignored. (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem) By Siddhartha Rai: Amid tumultuous politics in the wake of assembly polls in five states, including the crucial poll battles ahead of the BJP in UP and Punjab, the Narendra Modi government is holding a four-day session to assess the performance of various ministries and chalk out future roadmap for improving governance. READ: In address to the nation on New Year's Eve, PM Modi calls demonetisation drive 'shuddhi yajna' advertisement Ministries get 4 days to present their presentation to PM Top sources in the government told MAIL TODAY that secretaries from across ministries had been making presentations to the Prime Minister, starting Tuesday, in the presence of the Cabinet ministers as also those with independent charge. The exercise that is expected to last till Sunday, barring Saturday in the wake of the slated national executive meet of the party, is where ministries are making presentations. The ministries have been divided into five groups for the purpose of these presentations. The move aims to make governance more effective Sources in the government told MAIL TODAY that the brainstorming session is centred on the theme of 'how to make governance more effective and friendlier for the people of the country.' "All the ministries that had been divided into five groups by the PM are broadly presenting the contours of their thinking on how to make governance better and how to make the policies and programmes more effective so as to get maximum and desired results. The exercise started yesterday and will last for four days. The presentations are being made to the Prime Minister himself. "Ministries are also presenting ways to reform," a Union minister, wanting anonymity, told MAIL TODAY. Ministries informed only 2-3 days ago Also, government sources told MAIL TODAY that information for such an exercise had not been given much in advance. "We received the information around two three days ago," said the office of another minister in the Modi government. Meanwhile, as the dates of polls in five states was declared by the Election Commission of India on Wednesday, the Opposition parties cried foul, expecting the Modi government of using the coming Union budget to give sops. Opposition question Modi's move to present Union Budget before state elections CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Wednesday said the move to present Union Budget on February 1 is a bad idea. "As we see it, this is a short-term political move done with an eye on UP and Punjab elections, so that the BJP government can announce enough sops while bypassing the model code of conduct, he said. advertisement Finance Minister Arun Jaitley defends the move While rivals opposed presentation of the budget before polls, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley defended the move. He asked why opponents were afraid of it when they also claimed demonetisation was an unpopular move. "These are those political parties which say that popularity of demonetisation is very low. So, why they are afraid of the Budget," he said. Sharad Pawar criticises Modi PM Modi was also criticised by NCP president Sharad Pawar on Wednesday who condemned the slew of announcements made by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the eve of the New Year. As the budget was around the corner, it was not appropriate to make such announcements, Pawar said. Some of these schemes were already in existence, he added. "The PM asked the people to bear with him for fifty days after the demonetisation, after which he said the situation would improve, but the things had not improved at all," Pawar said. advertisement The situation will remain the same for the next at least eight months, the NCP chief said. Opposition cries foul over presentation of Union Budget ahead of state assembly polls. Read more on it: No Budget before state elections, demands Opposition; constitutional duty, says Arun Jaitley --- ENDS --- Former Jerusalem Mayor (Shas) Eli Simchayof has been released from prison after serving 11 months in jail following his conviction in the Holyland real estate case. He was released on Wednesday, 6 Teves. Shortly following his release, Simchayof headed to the Sanhedria Cemetery to be mispallel at the tziyun of HaGaon HaRav Ovadia Yosef ZTL. When asked if he feels he was treated unfairly, Simchayof stated I accept the ruling from Shomayim with love and have no complaints with Above. In line with the terms of his release, Simchayof will have to report once every other week to a police station and remain under house arrest at home between the hours of 22:00 and 06:00 in the morning. Simchayof was originally sentenced to 3.5 years in prison but the High Court of Justice reduced the sentence to 18 months and he was released early on good behavior. (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem) July 16, 2009: Henry Louis Gates Jr., a black professor at Harvard University, is arrested by a white police officer after trying to open a jammed door at his home; a suspected burglary had been reported. Days later Obama weighs in, saying hes unsure what role race played in the incident but that theres a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. That creates a stir, and Obama invites Gates and the officer to the White House for what becomes known as the Beer Summit. Sept. 9. 2009: During Obamas address to a joint session of Congress on health care, Rep. Joe Wilson, a South Carolina Republican, shouts You lie! The statement is seen by many observers and commentators as a breathtaking show of disrespect aimed at a black president. Jan. 17, 2010: On his first Martin Luther King Jr. holiday as president, Obama speaks at the Vermont Avenue Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., where King himself once spoke. He reflects on difficulties faced in pushing his agenda through Congress and the periodic distractions stemming from remarks about his race. Referring to the post-racial and post-partisan shift in the country that some had predicted would flow from his election, Obama says, That didnt work out so well. April 27, 2011: The White House releases copies of Obamas long-form birth certificate to prove he was born in Hawaii. The president had been dogged by the birther movement, led by Donald Trump, which spread the falsehood that Obama was born in Africa. Many Obama supporters saw the birther conspiracy as an effort to delegitimize the first black president. 2012: Obamas race for a second term against Republican Mitt Romney features a slew of racist remarks, incidents and bumper stickers, including one showing a picture of a chimpanzee next to Obama 2012. July 19, 2013: Neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman is acquitted in Florida in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, a black teen. After Martin was killed in 2012, Obama said he could have been my son. Following Zimmermans trial, Obama again weighs in, trying to explain black Americas reaction to the case: Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago. And when you think about why, in the African-American community at least, theres a lot of pain around what happened here, I think its important to recognize that the African-American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that doesnt go away. Some black activists praise Obama, while conservative commentators denounce the remarks as divisive. Aug. 9, 2014: Eighteen-year-old Michael Brown, who was black and unarmed, is shot and killed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, setting off protests that bring national recognition to the then-fledgling Black Lives Matter movement. December 2014: A grand jury declines to indict an NYPD officer in the choking death of Eric Garner, a black man who was suspected of selling loose cigarettes. Protests follow. Not long after, Obama announces the creation of the Task Force on 21st Century Policing to examine how to strengthen public trust and foster relationships between law enforcement and local communities. March 7, 2015: Obama delivers a speech at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, to mark the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, when peaceful protesters were beaten by the police as they tried to cross the bridge. The march, one of the seminal moments in civil rights history, led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. We just need to open our eyes and our ears and our hearts to know that this nations racial history still casts its long shadow upon us, Obama tells a crowd that included some activists who participated in the 1965 protest. We know the march is not yet over; we know the race is not yet won. June 17, 2015: Dylann Roof, a white man who would later admit he wanted to start a race war, fatally shoots eight black worshippers and their pastor at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. The next week, Obama delivers the eulogy for the slain Rev. Clementa Pinckney, speaking about the symbolism of the Confederate flag and how racial bias infects everyday life. He ends by leading the audience in singing the hymn, Amazing Grace. A movement to remove the Confederate flag from state and federal buildings, license plates and elsewhere follows. April 30, 2016: Comedian Larry Wilmore performs at the White House Correspondents Association dinner and ends with, Yo Barry, you did it, my na an N word reference that sparks criticism. Obamas press secretary says afterward that the president appreciated the spirit of the remark. July 7, 2016: A sniper ambushes five Dallas police officers at an otherwise peaceful protest against the police killings earlier that week of Alton Sterling in Louisiana and Philando Castile in Minnesota. With racial tensions rising, Obama speaks days later at the officers memorial service, praising law enforcement officials for their courage while also expressing the need to understand the grievances of African-Americans whove protested racial bias. Im here to say we must reject such despair, the president says. Im here to insist that we are not as divided as we seem. And I know that because I know America. I know how far weve come against impossible odds. Sept. 24, 2016: Obama dedicates the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., by ringing a bell from an 18th century black church. This is the place to understand how protest and love of country dont merely coexist but inform each other; how men can proudly win the gold for their country but still insist on raising a black-gloved fist; how we can wear an I Cant Breathe T-shirt and still grieve for fallen police officers, Obama tells dignitaries gathered on the National Mall. Were not a burden on America, or a stain on America, or an object of pity or charity for America. Were America. (AP) A federal judge says hes sticking with a March trial date for a man accused of setting off bombs in New Jersey and New York City. Judge Richard Berman rejected arguments from defense lawyers for 28-year-old Ahmad Khan Rahimi that they need more time to prepare his case. Rahimi has pleaded not guilty to charges that he detonated a pipe bomb along a charity race in Seaside Park, New Jersey, and planted two pressure cooker bombs in Manhattan on Sept. 17. One device did not explode. The other one detonated in the Chelsea neighborhood, injuring 30 people. The Afghanistan-born U.S. citizen was hospitalized for weeks for treatment of wounds suffered in a police shootout during his Sept. 19 capture outside a bar in Linden, New Jersey. (AP) Cuomo today announced high-speed, open-road cashless tolling has begun at the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel (Brooklyn Battery Tunnel) as part of his initiative to reimagine New York crossings for the 21st Century. The Hugh L. Carey Tunnel and the Hendry Hudson Bridge are currently the only two New York City crossings with cashless tolling. At these crossings, cameras suspended over the highway on structures known as gantries read E-ZPass tags and take license plate images, so vehicles no longer not have to stop and pay the toll. Cashless tolling on the Queens Midtown Tunnel goes into effect on January 10. The state will also deploy 150 State Troopers beginning in January at major crossings, including MTA bridges and tunnels, to enhance security at key checkpoints, bolster counter-terrorism efforts and hold scofflaws accountable. We are taking action to streamline travel, reduce congestion and increase safety at some of New Yorks busiest crossings, Governor Cuomo said. The beginning of cashless tolling at the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel is an important milestone in our efforts to modernize our transportion infrastructure to meet the needs of current and future generations of New Yorkers. Open road tolling will be completed at all MTA bridges and tunnels by the end of 2017. The schedule is as follows: Rockaway Bridges Spring 2017 RFK Bridge Summer 2017 Verrazano-Narrows Bridge Summer 2017 Throgs Neck Bridge Fall 2017 Bronx-Whitestone Bridge Fall 2017 Open road tolling is projected to save commuters up to 21 hours of drive time every year. Additionally, it reduces emissions and significantly decreases amount of fuel burned by drivers, who will no longer have to stop and start waiting to pay tolls. This will conserve approximately one million gallons of fuel and save $2.3 million each year. Vehicles with E-ZPass tags are automatically charged at the crossings. Non-E-ZPass vehicles have their license plates recorded and a bill is mailed to the registered owner of each vehicle every 30 days. Customers who pay tolls by mail will pay the same toll rate as previously paid by cash customers, and E-ZPass customers with New York Service Center tags will continue to get at least a 30 percent discount. E-ZPass tags should be mounted inside the vehicles front windshield. Open road tolling has been successfully tested on the West Side of Manhattan. To make it easy for drivers to pay their tolls, the MTA has introduced a number of programs. Customers can sign up for E-ZPass and save 30 percent to 50 percent on MTA tolls at MTA.info/E-ZPass even if they do not own a car. There are many ways to maintain E-ZPass accounts, including automatic replenishment from a credit or debit card, linking to a checking account to pay as you go, and by using the MTA Cash Reload Card at any Visa ReadyLink location. Drivers who receive a Tolls By Mail bill can pay it online at the Tolls By Mail website; by mail; over the phone; or in-person, and payment options include check, credit card, checking account, or cash. Customers who call **826 from a mobile phone will receive a text with a link to the Tolls By Mail website and information on how to set up a Pay Toll Now account that can also be used by rental car customers. Customers who do not pay their Tolls By Mail bills are subject to late fees, violations of $50 to $100 per toll, vehicle registration suspensions, and other enforcement actions. (YWN Desk NYC) Israels prime minister has called for a pardon for a soldier convicted of manslaughter in the shooting death of a wounded Palestinian terrorist. With his comment, Benjamin Netanyahu has plunged into a raging political debate that has divided the country, putting himself at odds with the military. The prime minister made the remarks just hours after Sgt. Elor Azaria was convicted on Wednesday. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years. Azarias defense team has already said it will appeal. On his Facebook page, Netanyahu wrote: I support giving Elor Azaria a pardon. He also urged the public to support the army and its commanders. The countrys president, Reuven Rivlin, has authority to issue pardons but has said he will wait for the legal process to run its course before making a decision. (AP) Aharon and Esther W. are not sure what the future holds for their special daughter. Tzipora must always be on a soft surface or wear a helmet because at any moment she can fall down and hit her head when trying to walk, or she may experience an unexpected but powerful seizure. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ When Tziporas mother Esther was expecting her newest child, doctors noticed something unusual in prenatal testing but they couldnt determine exactly what the issue was. Nevertheless she and her husband Aharon were overjoyed at the birth of their daughter Tzipora about four and a half years ago. They couldnt wait to get to know their baby and raise her in their Jerusalem home with their beautiful family. Tzipora grew each day as expected until something unexpected happened when she was three months old. She experienced an episode of unusual muscle spasms. Esther and Aharon took Tzipora to the doctor and didnt want to believe what they heard: Tzipora was having a seizure, and after further testing she was diagnosed with Aicardi syndrome, a rare disorder (there are only about 1,000 documented cases in the U.S. and several thousand worldwide) where missing nerve fibers in the brain prevent the left and right sides from communicating. CLICK HERE to help Tzipporah Aicardi syndrome is characterized by seizure activity. Many children with the condition have difficulties walking or speaking and experience developmental delays (because the brain isnt sending complete messages to the body). Sadly in Tziporas case, as she got older it became clear that she was affected in all of these ways. Tziporas parents did everything possible to get all the help they could, for their daughter. She underwent various therapies for an extended time but they noticed that she wasnt making significant progress in any of the areas she was lacking. They were discouraged and didnt know what to do. Finally they learned some new information after getting in contact with other parents whose children had the same condition: There was a physiotherapist in Canada who specialized in developing treatment plans for Aicardi children. Esther and Aharon scrambled for funds to take the trip abroad and see him. The investment was a costly one. Aharon and Esther went into substantial debt to cover the three week trip-something the hard working couple never would have expected to be forced to do. It also threw family life into upheaval, as the parents tried to figure out how to make arrangements for the other children left at home. But the well-being of their daughter was paramount and thankfully the investment paid off. The therapist developed a course of unique treatments that could be implemented by his students in Israel, which the family began immediately upon their return. Not long into the therapies Aharon and Esther began to see improvements in Tziporas abilities: When approaching a step while using her walker and leg braces, she now knows it is a sign for her to lift her leg. She is better at bringing a piece of bread closer to her mouth than she used to be. She is working on learning to drink from a cup. These seemingly simple types of activities are big milestones for this smiley, happy four and a half year old. CLICK HERE to help Tzipporah The results have brought some encouragement into the lives of Aharon and Esther, although they face a frightening hurdle. There is a window of ideal time to work with Tzipora , with a main goal of getting her to walk using this specific method, but it is only open for one more year. Still in significant debt from their previous trip abroad, they know Tzipora has a long road ahead of her and they cant imagine how they will be able to fund additional consultations and treatments. We can help Tzipora-we need to. But the clock is ticking and we cant help her without you. Our goal is to raise $18,000. With these funds we will be able to make a lifetime investment ourselves, in the future of a little girl. Money will go toward another appointment with the specialist and cover the resulting costs of flights, the vital therapies themselves and loss of income due to the trip. We hope these therapies will improve Tziporas quality of life. Please help us get Tzipora the vital help she needs and say a Tefilla for Tzipora Feiga bat Esther. CLICK HERE to help Tzipporah Milkas Fund, founded and managed by Yad Eliezer is a safe and secure way of donating money to help individuals with compassion and enable them to live a life with their problems solved. By Rabbi Yair Hoffman for the Five Towns Jewish Times The DPA News agency reported that German Police informed them that a man in western Germany ran into a wall, literally, as he opened his front door to leave the house this past Monday morning. The man was heading out of his house in Mainhausen, near Frankfurt, but found that unknown perpetrators had built a wall in the doorway during the night. Police spokesman Ingbert Zacharias explained late Tuesday that officers dont know whether the wall was on account of a prank, a dare, or an act of revenge. IF THE OWNER WAS JEWISH What concerns us, however, is an entirely different issue. What would be the implications of this bizarre case if the owner of the house was Jewish? Our question involves a halachic concept called taaseh velo min haassui. This concept means, do it (place the Mezuzah) and not from something that was already done. In other words, a pre-affixed Mezuzah is considered invalid. So if the homeowner were Jewish, and he were to place the Mezuzah on the doorpost under these circumstances, and then remove the brick wall, that placing of the Mezuzah was invalid. The door did not need a Mezuzah at the time that the wall was there because the door was useless. It must be removed and then placed back on the doorpost after that brick wall is knocked down. A MEZUZAH MUST ONLY BE AFFIXED ONTO AN OBLIGATED DOORPOST The halacha is that a Mezuzah must be actively affixed onto an obligated doorpost. The Mezuzah may not be pre-affixed. Another example is if the Mezuzah was affixed onto the doorpost before the doorpost itself was attached to the house. In such a case the Mezuzah must be removed and reaffixed. IS THE PROBLEM OF PREAFFIXED BIBLICAL OR RABBINIC? We first see the concept of Taaseh velo min haAssui in regard to Tzitzis. Regarding Tzitsis, the concept is of biblical origin. It is unclear whether this requirement regarding Mezuzah is of biblical origin or of rabbinic origin. Rashi in Menachos 33a seems to indicate that it is of biblical origin since he states, for it is derived from Tzitzis. The Mabit states that is of rabbinic origin (Kiryat Sefer, Mezuzah 5). The Levush indicates that it is a drasha similar to the concept of Taaseh velo min HaAssui Uchsavtam al mezuzos baisecha that the Mezuzah should be placed while the doorpost (Mezuzah) is affixed to the house. The Talmud Menachos 32b (see Rashi 32a) discusses a case of Taaseh velo min haAssui where the Mezuzah was affixed onto the doorpost while the doorpost itself was not yet affixed in the doorway. In this case the Mezuzah must be removed and reaffixed. A blessing is recited when the Mezuzah is reaffixed. OTHER PRE-AFFIXED SCENARIOS The Achronim discuss other scenarios for the disqualification of a pre-affixed Mezuzah. In each of these cases the Mezuzah must be removed and re-affixed, but without a blessing. A] The Mezuzah was affixed when there was something lacking in the doorway. For example, according to the Rambam, a doorway requires a Mezuzah only when there is an actual door in the doorway. If the Mezuzah was affixed before the door was hung on the doorway, we have a case of a pre-affixed Mezuzah. B] The Mezuzah was affixed while there was something lacking in the house or room itself. Thus, if the Mezuzah was attached to the doorpost while the ceiling was not yet constructed, this is considered a pre-affixed Mezuzah. If when the Mezuzah was first affixed the room was less than four amos by four amos but was subsequently expanded, this is considered a pre-affixed Mezuzah. C] The Mezuzah was affixed while there was something lacking in the obligation of the resident of the house. Of these four possible cases, the case stated in the Talmud is clearly a disqualification. The Mezuzah must be removed immediately and replaced again with a blessing. The other three possible cases are the subject of debate. Since these other cases are subject to debate one should reaffix the Mezuzah in a manner in which it is not pre-affixed. However, one should not recite a blessing when doing so (Shach 286:25). For example, if a Mezuzah was affixed upon an entranceway that did not have a door, and one is now going to install a door, the Mezuzah should be reaffixed after the door has been installed. BACK TO OUR CASE But what would happen if the Mainhausen homeowner already had his Mezuzah affixed and then the pranksters put up the brick wall? Would the door which is now no longer usable as a door, now require its Mezuzah to be re-affixed anew after the brick wall was removed? The answer is that it does not. If when the Mezuzah was first affixed the room and doorway were of those that necessitated a Mezuzah, and subsequently the room or doorway fell into a state of disrepair and exemption, the Mezuzah is still valid later. The Pischei Teshuvah (286:13) rules that this is not considered a problem of a pre-affixed Mezuzah. The issue is also discussed in the response of Rav Tzvi Pesach Frank (Har Tzvi OC Vol. I #7). Hopefully, however, such shailos will not arise in our communities. The author can be reached at [email protected] Mezuzah a Comprehensive Guide by the author is available for purchase on Amazon.com. His other Seforim are also available on Amazon. New York state lawmakers began their work for 2017 Wednesday with a vote to prohibit the use of cellphones as recording devices in the Senate chambers. The ban is intended to protect the chambers decorum, according to lawmakers who included it in the Senates internal rules. Democrats, however, called it an infringement of free speech that could make it harder for journalists and the public to share information about state government. Its an insult to New Yorkers, said Sen. Brad Hoylman, D-Manhattan. We are curtailing an opportunity to bring transparency to this chamber. Photojournalists have long had permission to take pictures from the Senate gallery, a practice that Deputy Majority Leader John DeFrancisco said would continue. He dismissed concerns over the ban, noting that live Senate proceedings are already broadcast on the Senates website and that traditional photojournalists will still be allowed to shoot photos from the public gallery. Its pretty logical, DeFrancisco, R-Syracuse, said of the rule change, which passed on a voice vote. We are as transparent as (we) could possibly be. Highlights of the six-month session will likely include state voting laws, Ubers proposal to expand upstate and a proposal from Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo to make state university tuition free for middle-class residents. Other proposals expected to draw debate this year include bills to end the practice of prosecuting and imprisoning 16- and 17-year-old offenders as adults and to authorize people with terminal illnesses to request life-ending drugs from a physician. Speaker Carl Heastie, a Bronx Democrat, said lawmakers will also work to resist President-elect Donald Trump if he and congressional Republicans move to rein in abortion rights, immigration, health care benefits or efforts to fight climate change. There is little doubt that the change in our federal government will create serious challenges for us in New York, he told the Assembly. We will continue to stand guard for all of the constitutionally-protected freedoms and inclusive public policies that we have always championed. Republicans, however, said lawmakers must devote the year to improving the states business climate. Were going to stay very, very, very focused on job creation, said Senate Leader John Flanagan, R-Long Island. Cuomo skipped the Legislatures first day. He has had frosty relations with lawmakers in recent months and chose to hold an event in New York City at the exact hour the Legislature was set to convene. Cuomo is also choosing to forego the traditional state of the state address to lawmakers this year, instead planning a series of six regional addresses delivered next week at locations around the state. Many lawmakers blamed Cuomo late last year when talks about a legislative pay increase the first in 18 years fell apart. (AP) Two former allies of Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie are pinning hopes of having their George Washington Bridge lane-closing convictions reversed on a Massachusetts corruption case that was thrown out last month. Attorneys for Bridget Kelly and Bill Baroni filed letters with a federal judge in Newark on Tuesday spelling out the similarities between the cases and why they feel those justify their motions for a new trial. Kelly, Christies former deputy chief of staff, and Baroni, one of his top appointees to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, were convicted in November of conspiracy and wire fraud in a plot to use traffic jams to punish the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee, who wouldnt endorse Christie for re-election. Prosecutors say Christies allies closed lanes near the bridge to create traffic headaches in Fort Lee. The bridge, one of the worlds busiest, connects Fort Lee and New York City. Christie has said he didnt know about the lane closures beforehand and didnt authorize them, and he was not charged. Former Port Authority official David Wildstein was charged, pleaded guilty and testified against Kelly and Baroni. The sentencing for Kelly and Baroni is scheduled for next month, but that could be delayed by the appeals process. Among numerous issues Kelly and Baroni raised before and after the trial, they argued the government twisted federal law to criminalize actions realigning lanes near the bridge that were, at worst, ill-advised or perhaps even unethical. That notion aligns with the First Circuit Court of Appeals decision to overturn the convictions last month in the Massachusetts case, Kellys attorney, Michael Critchley, wrote to the judge on Tuesday. In that case, US v Tavares, three people were convicted in a scheme to hire certain employees for the states probation office in exchange for favorable legislation. In overturning the convictions, the appeals court wrote that, while the defendants actions could be deemed distasteful, the government overreached in charging them with federal crimes. We find that the Government overstepped its bounds in using federal criminal statutes to police the hiring practices of these Massachusetts state officials, the court wrote. That standard should be used in the so-called Bridgegate case, Critchley wrote. Like the statutes utilized in the alleged politically based hiring scheme in Tavares, the statutes utilized in this case have never been applied to facts even remotely similar to the facts alleged here, he wrote. The U.S. attorneys office had no comment on Wednesday. The office has until Jan. 16 to respond to Tuesdays filing. U.S. District Judge Susan Wigenton is expected to rule on Baronis and Kellys motions after that. (AP) The online petition states Citizens of Israel bestow this citation on IDF soldier and hero, Sgt. Elor Azariya. It will be presented to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu with a letter explaining why he should receive a citation and not a manslaughter conviction. The petition is the initiative of Major (reserves) Eliyahu Nissim, who signs the letter. On Thursday morning 7 Teves there were 70,000 signatures. (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem) PM and Nitish, both are known to have bitterness if not hatred for each other but ending all kind of animosity, both leaders looked completely at ease triggering speculations. By Rohit Kumar Singh: It was the chemistry between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar which dominated the show at the Prakash Parv festival celebrated in Patna on Thursday. A reserved body language at the beginning slowly gave way to smiles, pleasantries, handshakes, and then a candid discussion which did not go unnoticed. PM and Nitish, both are known to have bitterness if not hatred for each other but ending all kind of animosity, both leaders looked completely at ease triggering speculations. It may be remembered here that it was Nitish who took the first step towards breaking the ice. advertisement All you need to know about PM Modi-Nitish bonhomie As the function proceeded, Nitish Kumar spoke ahead of Prime Minister as per protocol and drew the attention of PM Modi on how he has imposed prohibition in Bihar last year which has resulted in a social revolution being witnessed in the state. Kumar also praised Narendra Modi who as the chief minister of Gujarat strongly imposed prohibition in the state. We have imposed prohibition in Bihar on the occasion of 100th year of Mahatma Gandhis Champaran Yatra which has brought a social change in the state. Also Narendra Modi as Gujarat CM took strong steps to enforce prohibition is commendable, said Nitish Kumar. Nitish Kumar showering praise on Narendra Modi was soon reciprocated when PM began by congratulating Bihar CM for a splendidly organizing the Prakash Parv event in Patna. I have been told that Nitish Kumar used to come regularly at the Gandhi Maidan to carry out review of the preparations of the Prakash Parv, said Narendra Modi. It was soon followed by Prime Minister solidly extending his support to Nitish Kumars ambitious prohibition program. Appreciating the Bihar CM on prohibition, PM said that the step taken by Nitish would continue to bring social changes for years to come. He also hinted prohibition in Bihar could become example for other states to follow. I congratulate Nitish Kumar for imposing prohibition in Bihar. His efforts will save several lives for ages to come. I appeal everyone in Bihar to make this program a success, said Narendra Modi. The mutual admiration of both leaders have now triggered speculation over possibility of Nitish softening his stand towards BJP. ALSO READ: PM Modi's big praise for ex-ally Nitish Kumar over Bihar liquor ban Nitish reiterates support to PM Modi over demonetisation, but denies cosying up to BJP --- ENDS --- A poll commissioned by Channel 2 News, carried out by iPanels, shows most Israelis stand behind IDF Sgt. Elor Azariya. 51% of respondents state they do not agree with the military courts guilty verdict while 36% stand by the conviction. Regarding a pardon, 67% support pardoning Azariya following the conviction while 19% are opposed. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu following the conviction announced he supports pardoning Azariya. Azariyas attorneys announced they plan to file an appeal. (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem) A sikrik who on last Friday night attacked Deputy Minister Meir Porush and his son Elad Mayor Yisrael Porush is in custody. As reported by YWN-ISRAEL, the two were walking in the Ezras Torah neighborhood of the capital when attacked without provocation by sikrikim. While Deputy Minister Porush would not file a police complaint, police launched an investigation nonetheless due to the stature of the two victims. The suspect was among those taken into custody at a stormy protest on Wednesday afternoon 6 Teves on Rashi Street, outside the IDF Jerusalem Induction Center. It appears Porush and his son were at the hadlokas neiros tisch of the Slonim Rebbe Shlita and from there headed to kabolas shabbos and that is when they were attacked. When the suspect was arrested on Wednesday, police found he was in possession of a number of documents attesting to his psychiatric condition as he is eligible for induction into the IDF. The documents were obviously for him to receive a mental discharge from service. He was questioned and arraigned on Thursday morning. (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem) Talks between Jerusalem City Hall and the Finance Ministry are not progressing as Mayor Nir Barkat insists he needs NIS 400 million more than Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon is willing to sign on. Kahlon is willing to allocate NIS 600 million but the mayor says that is a far cry from the NIS 1 billion the city is supposed to receive. As such, Barkat announced on Thursday 7 Teves that he is done playing games announcing that beginning on Monday, 11 Teves, the city will be observing a general strike, halting all services. It appears the religious parties are on board too, explaining the treasury under Kahlon has been cutting Jerusalem short and it can no longer operate without a full budget. The citys PTA organizations is asking the mayor not to shut schools. The mayor is yet to respond. (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem) Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit plans to move ahead with a criminal indictment against MK Basel Ghattas, who smuggled mobile phones and components into Ketziot Prison for imprisoned Arab terrorists. The MK has given up his parliamentary immunity and can now be charged with a crime. It appears an indictment for conspiracy to commit a crime is likely along with charges of breach of trust and violating Israel Prison Authority regulations. Last week, the Knesset Ethic Committee decided to distance Ghattas from the Knesset plenum for a half year but he continues to receive his salary during the suspension period. (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem) The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said Thursday that every American should be alarmed by Russias meddling in the 2016 presidential election, and lawmakers pressed intelligence officials about foreign cyberthreats. There is no escaping the fact that this committee meets today for the first time in this new Congress in the aftermath of an unprecedented attack on our democracy, said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. In their assessment, U.S. intelligence agencies say Moscow interfered in the election to help Republican Donald Trump win against Democrat Hillary Clinton. A report on Russian and other foreign meddling in elections was delivered to President Barack Obama on Thursday. In prepared testimony, intelligence officials said Russia poses a major and growing threat to U.S. government, military, diplomatic and commercial operations as well as Americas critical infrastructure. Russia is among at least 30 nations that are developing capabilities to launch cyberattacks, according to their statement. The hearing comes a day before the president-elect receives a briefing by the CIA and FBI directors along with the head of national intelligence on the investigation into Russias alleged hacking efforts. Trump has criticized their findings and even seemed to back WikiLeaks founder Julian Assanges contention that Russia did not provide him with hacked Democratic emails. In new tweets early Thursday, Trump backed away from his apparent embrace of Assange. Trump blamed the dishonest media for portraying him as agreeing with Assange, whose organization has been under criminal investigation for its role in classified information leaks. The media lies to make it look like I am against Intelligence when in fact I am a big fan! Trump wrote. The committees session is the first in a series aimed at investigating purported Russian cyberattacks against U.S. interests and developing defenses sturdy enough to blunt future intrusions. Appearing before the committee were James Clapper, the national intelligence director; Marcel Lettre, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence; and Adm. Michael Rogers, National Security Agency chief and the top officer at the U.S. Cyber Command. Accusations Russia interfered in the 2016 election by hacking Democratic email accounts have roiled Washington for weeks. President Barack Obama struck back at Moscow in late December with penalties aimed at Russias leading spy agencies, the GRU and FSB, that the U.S. said were involved. The GRU is Russias military intelligence agency. The FSB is the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB. But Trump easily could rescind the sanctions. So far, he has publicly refused to accept the conclusion that Russia is responsible for the attacks. Trump this week escalated his criticism of U.S. intelligence professionals, such as Clapper, by tweeting, without evidence, that an upcoming briefing on the suspected Russian hacking had been delayed until Friday, and said, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange! Intelligence officials said there had been no delay. Trump suggested Wednesday in a tweet that one of Russias primary targets, the Democratic National Committee, could be to blame for being so careless. The penalties imposed by Obama came after he pledged a proportional response to the hacking of the Democratic Party and presidential nominee Clintons campaign chairman. Emails stolen during the campaign were released in the final weeks by WikiLeaks. CIA Director John Brennan said in a Dec. 16 message to employees that the FBI agreed with the agencys conclusion that Russias goal was to support Trump in the election. Brennan wrote that he also had spoken with Clapper and said there is strong consensus among us on the scope, nature, and intent of Russian interference in our presidential election. Moscow has denied the hacking allegations and dismissed Obamas sanctions as an attempt to harm Russian-American ties. Although Russian President Vladimir Putin rebuked the Obama administration for trying to punish Russia, he said his country would not immediately retaliate and would instead wait for a new U.S. approach after Trump takes office. Trump praised Putins move and called him very smart. To buttress the case for sanctions imposed by Obama and to expose Russias cybertactics, the Homeland Security Department released a report prepared with the FBI that for the first time officially tied cyberattacks into the DNC email accounts to hackers affiliated with the GRU and FSB. (AP) By Press Trust of India: Kharagpur, Jan 5 (PTI) Googles India-born chief Sundar Pichai today said the prices of entry-level smartphones in India need to come down further to around USD 30 to improve access to the Internet and digital services for people. Pichai, who was speaking at his alma mater IIT-Kharagpur, said the focus is also on areas like local language support and improving connectivity in India as the country becomes a global player in the digital economy. advertisement "I would love to see cheaper smartphones, entry-level smartphones. I think to really we need to bring the prices down even more, maybe at USD 30 level (about Rs 2,000) for India for entry level smartphones," he said addressing an audience of 3,500 students and teachers. In 2014, Google had launched its Android One programme, partnering with handset makers, to launch high-quality, yet affordable Android devices for consumers in emerging markets like India. A few handsets were launched with partners like Micromax, Karbonn and Spice. The devices launched that time were priced at Rs 6,399 onwards, but since then many more affordable smartphones with better specifications have hit the market. Currently, there are smartphones available even for sub-Rs 1,000 but most of the aspirational devices are priced above Rs 3,000. Pichai said the company has also been able to roll out many programmes for Digital India through "effective public-private partnerships". He cited examples like partnership with RailTel for offering wi-fi services at railway stations and with NPCI for digitising payments. When asked about by when India would be able to catch up with China on the digital front, Pichai said he is confident that India will be a global player in the digital economy. "I think I am absolutely, with full certainty, convinced that India will be a global player in the digital economy and it will be competitive with any country in the world in the digital economy. We have all the foundation," he said. He added that the startups in India, that is building products for India and the world, will ensure that happens. Stating that connectivity is "extraordinarily important", Pichai said Google is also working on a number of projects like Internet Saathi to educate people on Internet, especially in rural areas, as well as to get them online. Besides, Google is also working on making its services available in as many local Indian languages as possible. "English is spoken only by a small segment of the overall population. So just getting Google to work in other languages is a big focus". advertisement "We have made progress today in Android, with search, we support many languages but we want to do all that better so that it works even in rural situations with the right dialects and so on," he said. PTI SR SBT MKJ --- ENDS --- By Press Trust of India: Shimla, Jan 5 (PTI) Four Nepal-based labourers were killed after debris of rocks collapsed on them during a construction work on Kashapat road in Rampur area of Shimla district, police said today. The labourers were inspecting the road last night after removing the debris when the rock suddenly caved in and all four of them were buried under it, they said. advertisement The rescue teams reached the spot but the darkness and threat of more landslides thwarted the efforts to pull them pout, Rampur DSP Som Dutt said. The rescue operations were resumed in the morning by the districtadministration with the help of the locals and the bodies were recovered. The labourers were identified as Ajay (38), Ram Bahadur (40), Lokendra (40) and Harendra (22). "We continued the rescue operations on the narrow road and also kept constant watch on the movement of rocks to avoid any major tragedy," Dutt, who supervised the rescue operations, said. The bodies were handed over to their family members after post mortem and immediate compensation of Rs 10,000 has been given to the next of kin of each victim. PTI ASV --- ENDS --- Whether it turns out to be less maligned than 2016 or not, 2017 is a year that will see great change. Never mind the unknowns yet to surface, the known elements already floating about should see to that. In Europe, we should see Brexit begin, while in the US, Donald Trump will become president. Whether you think both, either, or neither are a good idea, Britain invoking Article 50 and Trump arriving in the White House represent a break with the status quo for the Wests powerhouse continents. We've looked into the future to see what 2017 might hold for your finances, but what are the stories that you would like to see? Closer to home and importantly for us at This is Money, closer to your pocket I suspect we will see change too. Over the past week, weve gathered together articles looking forward to what might affect your finances in 2017 and rounded up the top stories you read last year. But New Year is also a time for wishful thinking, so here too are the five headlines Id like to see in 2017. Tax tricks axed as Chancellor says Ill play fair Tax should be seen as what we pay for our society, but people need to feel it is fair. Tax is now riven with little tricks that detract from that feeling of fairness: from basic rate taxpayers really paying 32 per cent not 20 per cent thanks to NI, to the effective 60 per cent marginal tax rate as the personal allowance is removed above 100,000. It would be nice to see the Chancellor promise to eliminate all the little catches, with a message that if people pay up and play fair, so will he. Stamp duty cut to 1% A stamp duty cut to 1 per cent across the board. Surely not? But we survived perfectly well with such a system until Gordon Brown started the trend for cashing in. Lets see if we can get more homes onto the market by bringing it back. Interest rates rise The economy's resilience since Brexit shows that we could have managed to raise the base rate from 0.5 per cent at some point, instead we got a cut to 0.25 per cent. Even just one rise would only take us back to 0.5 per cent. Go on the MPC, we dare you. Government lays out clear and fair plan for diesel cars After years of being encouraged to buy diesel cars, we were then told they are worse. Councils are now cooking up muddled piecemeal restrictions, owners dont know where they stand, diesel still accounts for 50 per cent of cars being sold, and we all need to know the facts on pollution. The Government must get its act together and not just hit existing owners with punitive charges. UK and EU seek best possible friendly mutual deal on Brexit As the FTSE 100 finished at a record high for a sixth day, a downbeat outlook from JP Morgan sent Rolls-Royce shares spiralling. The stockbroker slashed its target price for the engineering giant from 890p to 730p and said it had concerns about the civil aerospace unit. JPM warned that earnings at the firm, which has issued five major profit warnings in recent years, could be highly depressed over the next few years. Shares tumbled 4.2 per cent, or 28p, to 639.5p. It was the biggest faller on the FTSE 100 for the day, but it didnt stop the stock market setting a sixth consecutive closing high. The FTSE 100 climbed 0.1 per cent, or 5.57 points, to 7195.31. It is now the longest stretch of record closes since May 1997. Earlier in the day it had set a new record intra-day high of 7211.96. Shares plunge: JPMorgan slashed its target price for Rolls-Royce stock from 890p to 730p and said it had concerns about the civil aerospace unit Housebuilders were at the top of the table for a second day after Persimmon, which was up 7.2 per cent, or 130p, to 1940p, reported revenue for the year was up 8 per cent to 3.14billion. Fastjet took off as it announced plans to raise 23.4million from investors. The airline business wants to use the cash to increase its working capital and improve cash flow. Fastjet has also entered an agreement with Johannesburg-based commercial aviation company Solenta, in which Solenta will provide and operate three aircraft and supply other services over the next five years. Solenta will acquire some 95.6m Fastjet shares as part of the deal, giving it a 28 per cent stake in the firm. It will also have the right to nominate two directors to the firms board. Fastjet said the agreement would help grow the business in a flexible and cost-effective way. Shares flew up 9.8 per cent, or 1.62p, to 18.25p. STOCK WATCH - SCIENCE IN SPORT Science in Sport soared as sales surged 30 per cent to 12.2million in 2016. The firm develops sports nutrition products, such as powders, gels and cereal bars. The group said investment in its website and operations had seen direct sales double year-on-year. Growth in the US and Italy will be a particular focus for 2017 after Australia delivered ahead of target last year. While costs have increased, the firm said a more efficient product line meant margins were improving. Shares gained 7.7 per cent, or 5.5p, to 77p. Support services outfit Babcock has won a defence contract with the French Air Force. Babcock France will provide new training aircraft, simulators and training facilities in an 11-year deal worth more than 427million. Shares edged up 0.5 per cent, or 4.5p, to 955.5p. Cape climbed as it revealed full-year results are now likely to be materially ahead of expectations. The industrial services provider said strong trading in the final two months of the year, particularly in Asia, meant results were now set to be better than expected. Cape has also won additional work at a natural gas project in Western Australia where it will provide painting, insulation, fire proofing and other services. Shares rocketed 17.4 per cent, or 26.5p, to 178.5p. PureCircle plunged as it revealed that sales had slipped after US Customs and Border Protection had detained a shipment earlier in the year of stevia a type of natural sweetener. It was detained in June amid allegations the shipment contained products produced using forced labour. PureCircle said the allegations were incorrect and it was committed to human rights and the proper and fair use of labour. The shipment was released after four weeks. But, with a third of the companys sales coming from the US, the incident had a knock-on effect and PureCircle said gross margin, earnings and profit were likely to be lower. While growth had been strong in the six months to December 31 and demand for stevia-based products is increasing, sales were down 14 per cent to 38million. The group is expecting a net loss of 1.6million, compared with a profit of 4million a year ago. However, PureCircle said increased awareness of obesity and implementation of sugar taxes by governments is driving demand for alternative sweeteners. Shares dropped 4.3 per cent, or 10.75p, to 240.25p. Software firm Intercede revealed it had received one of its largest ever orders. The deal with the US Government, worth around 2.4million, had been expected in the first half of the year but was delayed. The order is for software licenses and annual support and maintenance for its MyID identity and credential management software. A crack trio of City dealmakers have shared 37million of profits after getting involved in a string of mega-mergers. Sir Simon Robey, Simon Warshaw and Philip Apostolides pocketed the cash after helping secure huge takeovers such as Shell's 40billion acquisition of rival oil giant BG Group. The three run investment bank Robey Warshaw from a Georgian townhouse in Mayfair after founding it in 2013. Accounts show they almost doubled profits and turnover in the year to the end of last March. Revenues rocketed from 23.9million to 43.3million and profit rose from 19.4million to 36.6million. Cashing in: Sir Simon Robey, Simon Warshaw and Philip Apostolides pocketed the cash after helping secure huge takeovers such as Shell's 40bn acquisition of rival oil giant BG Group The three partners will split this cash between them. Robey Warshaw's other 11 staff took home more than 5million in wages, or around 455,000 each. David Buik, of stockbroker Panmure Gordon, said: 'They've had a phenomenal run. Virtually any deal which has been half worth doing in London they seem to have been involved in and well done them.' The BG deal generated fees for advisers worth 235million a portion of which would have gone to Robey Warshaw. The bank also worked on SABMiller's 79billion acquisition by AB InBev. This landmark tie-up, which finally went through in October, created the world's largest brewer, responsible for a third of global beer. Robey Warshaw acted for SAB and would have picked up a share of the 91million fees it paid to financial advisers. It is also working for the London Stock Exchange on takeover talks with German rival Deutsche Borse. It will be entitled to a slice of 85.6million in fees if the sale goes ahead. Sir Simon Robey Sir Simon Robey, 56, made his name as joint head of mergers and acquisitions at Morgan Stanley during the Big Bang of the 1980s. He went to boarding school in Surrey before reading English at Magdalen College Oxford, where he was also a choral scholar. He joined adviser Lazard in 1983 before moving to Morgan Stanley four years later. The married father of three shot to prominence in 1995, helping defend Wellcome from the hostile takeover by GlaxoSmithKline. In 2012, he launched the firm that would become Robey Warshaw and was knighted last year for his work in the arts world. Simon Warshaw Simon Warshaw spent 27 years with Swiss bank UBS building up a reputation as a top dealmaker. His long-time friend Sir Simon Robey had repeatedly tried to lure the 51-year-old colleague away and finally succeeded four years ago. Warshaws contacts book is thick a FTSE 100 boss described him as like family. He is known as a calmer figure than the often forthright Robey. And as the son of Michael Warshaw, who built hair salon Molton Brown into a luxury cosmetics giant, business success also runs in his blood. A regular theatre-goer, Warshaw shares his partners appreciation for high culture. And since the period covered by the accounts, it helped secure the sale of ARM Holdings to Japanese company Softbank for 26billion, sharing a 90million fee pot. Other, smaller deals have included Aviva's 5.6billion purchase of rival Friends Life and the 374million sale of Chime Communications to Providence and WPP. Robey Warshaw came to prominence in 2014 when it joined the defence of AstraZeneca from a politically charged power grab by rival pharma giant Pfizer. There were fears the US firm's attempt to buy its British competitor could cost up to 7,000 people their jobs and see prized expertise moved overseas. But after months of wrangling, Pfizer finally admitted defeat a rare failure for a company with a 15-year history of ruthlessly buying up other large businesses. Robey Warshaw then worked for RSA, the owner of car insurer More Than, during a 5.6billion takeover bid from Zurich, which ultimately came to nothing. The SAB deal came next a high-profile battle in which its chairman, Jan du Plessis, held clandestine meetings in Robey Warshaw's office with InBev boss Carlos Brito. The bank does not have the capacity to offer huge loans, instead securing multi-million-pound fees through the quality of its advisers and the strength of their contacts. Its other key asset is cost. Although the fees involved are vast, they remain low compared with the bills likely to come from a global behemoth such as Goldman Sachs. In an interview earlier this year, a boss of a top London private equity firm said contacts, experience and a cool head went a long way. 'In a deal situation, what you really want is someone with a lot of experience say, 30 years and real nous,' he said. Dealmakers earn their fees in private, sometimes by bringing together chief executives from rival companies and persuading them a tie-up is worth doing. They are also experts in regulation, handling prickly shareholders and ruthless defence or attack during hostile bids. There is growing demand for smaller boutique banks made up of respected individuals whose own names carry as much weight as that of their organisation. Other top rainmakers of recent years have included Zaoui & Co and Ondra, both launched by exiles from global investment banks. The Zaoui brothers, Michael and Yoel who are famously called the Messi and Ronaldo of banking have advised on 120billion of deals with a staff of nine. Former Lehman Brothers bankers Benoit d'Angelin and Michael Tory have seen their business Ondra play a central role in deals across Europe. Addressing fire safety Living in San Diego County, the threat of fires is constant, that is why I have made fire safety one... Supporting animals As a trained Project Wildlife Native Songbird Rehabilitator, my experience raising orphaned and injured songbirds and returning them to the... By Press Trust of India: Washington, Jan 5 (PTI) Scientists have developed a new compound that reduces the spread of melanoma cells by up to 90 per cent, an advance that may pave the way for a potential new drug to fight the deadly skin cancer. The man-made, small-molecule drug compound goes after a genes ability to produce RNA molecules and certain proteins in melanoma tumors. advertisement This gene activity, or transcription process, causes the disease to spread but the compound can shut it down. Up until now, few other compounds of this kind have been able to accomplish this. "Its been a challenge developing small-molecule drugs that can block this gene activity that works as a signaling mechanism known to be important in melanoma progression," said Richard Neubig, professor at Michigan State University (MSU) in the US. "Our chemical compound is actually the same one that weve been working on to potentially treat the disease scleroderma, which now weve found works effectively on this type of cancer," said Neubig. Scleroderma is a rare and often fatal autoimmune disease that causes the hardening of skin tissue, as well as organs such as the lungs, heart and kidneys. The same mechanisms that produce fibrosis, or skin thickening, in scleroderma also contribute to the spread of cancer. The findings are an early discovery that could be highly effective in battling the deadly skin cancer. It is estimated about 10,000 people die each year from the disease. "Melanoma is the most dangerous form of skin cancer with around 76,000 new cases a year in the US," said Kate Appleton, a postdoctoral student at MSU. "One reason the disease is so fatal is that it can spread throughout the body very quickly and attack distant organs such as the brain and lungs," said Appleton. Researchers found that the compounds were able to stop proteins, known as Myocardin-related transcription factors, or MRTFs, from initiating the gene transcription process in melanoma cells. These triggering proteins are initially turned on by another protein called RhoC (Ras homology C) which is found in a signaling pathway that can cause the disease to aggressively spread in the body. The compound reduced the migration of melanoma cells by 85 to 90 per cent. The team also discovered that the potential drug greatly reduced tumors specifically in the lungs of mice that had been injected with human melanoma cells. advertisement "We used intact melanoma cells to screen for our chemical inhibitors. This allowed us to find compounds that could block anywhere along this RhoC pathway," Neubig said. Being able to block along this entire path allowed the researchers to find the MRTF signaling protein as a new target. Appleton said figuring out which patients have this pathway turned on is an important next step in the development of their compound because it would help them determine which patients would benefit the most. PTI MHN SAR MHN --- ENDS --- Miss Swaziland Linda Hutchinson posing with children and their parents at the Good Shepherd Hospital Childrens Ward. This was soon after the beauty queen had handed gifts to the children. (Pic: Khulekani Nene) SITEKI Miss Swaziland Linda Hutchinson, played Santa Claus when she delivered belated Christmas gifts to sickly children who are currently admitted at Good Shepherd Hospital in Siteki. Despite that Christmas has passed, the children were overwhelmed with joy upon receiving the gifts from the beauty queen, owing to that most of them missed Christmas due to hospitalisation. Accompanied by a family member, the beauty queen, who is also a student at the University of Swaziland (UNISWA), handed over toys and books to the children. In a brief address, Hutchinson stated that she saw it important to share the little that she can afford with the children. She said the books contain short stories which the children would find interesting, adding that the toys will also keep the children entertained during their stay at the hospital. In an interview later, Hutchinson explained that the donation was the genesis of a charity programme she will embark on during the course of her reign. It was the first donation but I will be visiting other places this year, she said, in a soft tone. She revealed that all the items she donated are worth E1 200. She further mentioned that some of the funds that were used for purchasing the items were donated to her by friends. By Press Trust of India: Washington, Jan 5 (PTI) Scientists have developed a breakthrough technique that uses light to activate a drug stored in circulating red blood cells so that it is released exactly when and where it is needed to treat diseases and eliminate the side effects. The work, by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the US, has profound implications for the field of drug delivery by using red blood cells to carry drugs and then using light to release them in precise locations. advertisement The technique, which overcomes a decades-long scientific hurdle, could drastically reduce the amount of a drug needed to treat disease and thus side effects. "Using light to treat a disease site has a lot of benefits beyond the is-not-that-cool factor," said Professor David Lawrence, who led the research. "Those benefits could include avoiding surgery and the risk of infection, making anaesthesia unnecessary and allowing people to treat themselves by shining a light on a problem area, such as an arthritic knee," Lawrence said. Lawrence and his team attached a drug molecule to vitamin B12 and loaded the compound into red blood cells, which can circulate for up to four months, providing a long-lasting reservoir of medicine that can be tapped as needed. They then demonstrated their ability to overcome a longtime technical hurdle: using long-wavelength light to penetrate deep enough into the body to break molecular bonds; in this case, the drug linked to vitamin B12. Long-wavelength light can penetrate much more deeply into the body, but it does not carry as much energy as short wavelength light, and cannot typically break molecular bonds. To activate the drug with long-wavelength light, Lawrence and his team had to figure out how to do it in a way that required less energy. "Thats the trick, and that is where we have been successful," said Lawrence. Lawrences team solved the energy problem by introducing a weak energy bond between vitamin B12 and the drug and then attached a fluorescent molecule to the bond. The fluorescent molecule acts as an antenna, capturing long wavelength light and using it to cut the bond between the drug and the vitamin carrier. Lawrence pointed to some complex and deadly cancers where physicians might have a better chance of helping the patient if a wide array of anti-cancer agents could be used. "The problem is when you start using four or five very toxic drugs youre going to have intolerable side effects," he said. "However, by focusing powerful drugs at a specific site, it may be possible to significantly reduce or eliminate the side effects that commonly accompany cancer chemotherapy," said Lawrence. advertisement The research was published in the journal Angewandte Chemie. PTI SAR SAR --- ENDS --- By Press Trust of India: Washington, Dec 5 (PTI) Determined to save his legacy and signature healthcare reform law, US President Barack Obama has appealed to fellow Democrats to "look out for the American people" and not "rescue" Republicans as the incoming Trump team vowed to repeal Obamacare their top priority. With less than three weeks left to end his eight-year stint at the White House, Obama met Democratic lawmakers yesterday on Capitol Hill with a mission to save his healthcare reform law as Republicans are moving quickly to unroll the Affordable Care Act. advertisement In a two-hour session, Obama urged fellow Democrats to not "rescue" Republicans by helping them pass replacement measures, CNN quoted sources who attended the closed-door meeting as saying. He also floated this idea: Start referring to the Republican Partys new plan as "Trumpcare." As he walked by a group of reporters, Obama would only say this about the Democratic Partys message: "Look out for the American people." The healthcare law has extended health coverage to an estimated 20 million Americans. ObamaCare is a US healthcare reform law that expands and improves access to care and curbs spending through regulations and taxes. But some reports say the 2010 Affordable Care Act law has been hit by soaring premium costs and major insurers withdrawing from the scheme, leaving Americans with fewer choices for coverage. After the meeting, a White House aide said Obama used "Trumpcare" as an indication he was open to Trump taking credit for improvements. The feisty remarks from the outgoing President came as Republicans also huddled on Capitol Hill yesterday to chart their path forward repealing Obamacare. Vice President-elect Mike Pence visited with Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill in what became a morning of dueling meetings on Day Two of the new Congress. Pence told reporters following the meeting: "Make no mistake about it: Were going to keep our promise to the American people -- were going to repeal Obamacare and replace it with solutions that lower the cost of health insurance without growing the size of government." Pence said they would bring about a "smooth transition to a market-based healthcare reform system". He said repealing and replacing Obamacare was "first order of business" for President-elect Donald Trump and Congress. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said Republicans - who have voted more than 50 times to try to repeal all or part of Obamacare - "have a plan" and "plenty of ideas." But Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer warned that scrapping the law would throw the insurance marketplace into turmoil and - in a play on Mr Trumps campaign slogan - "Make America Sick Again". PTI AKJ AKJ --- ENDS --- advertisement Sign up for our amNY Sports email newsletter to get insights and game coverage for your favorite teams By Gina Martinez A Guyanese man was shot and killed while visiting New York for his grandmothers funeral when he and his brother were robbed early Monday morning in Richmond Hill, police said. At 3:25 a.m. police arrived outside 104-32 124th St. where they found 31-year-old Ricky Kalisaran with a gunshot wound in the chest and his brother Sunny, 24, with a gunshot wound to his back. The brothers were taken to Jamaica Hospital, where the older Kalisaran was pronounced dead and his brother Sunny was in stable condition, police said. According to police, the brothers were walking toward heir car after leavingThe Underground Lounge, a bar one block away on 123rd Street near Liberty Avenue when they were approached by a male who attempted to rob them. Sunny was reportedly wearing a flashy gold chain at the time. The brothers resisted and the suspect shot both of them after a struggle for the gun, police said. The suspect fled in a dark-colored, two-door sedan, possibly a Mercedes Benz, police said. There have been no arrests and the investigation was ongoing, police said. Their mother, Anita Kalisaran, was in tears as she talked to reporters in her Cypress Hills home. They killed my son! she told the New York Post Last night, he asked me if he could go out and I said, Yes, go. Then they shoot him. He was the best son. My son wanted to buy me a house. A co-worker told the New York Post that he thinks Sunnys gold chain may have prompted the robbery. Even at work, we tell him, You cant dress like that. Hes said hes gotten in fights over his chains before, the co-worker told the paper. The killer must suffer like my sons suffer, Kalisarans mother said. My son worked very hard. He fought to protect his brother. They killed him for what? A gold chain? Family members were gathered in the Cypress Hills home Tuesday, preparing to attend the grandmothers wake, which was the reason for Rickys visit to New York. A $1,000 reward has been posted by community members for information leading to an arrest. State Sen. James Sanders (D-South Ozone Park) was planning on holding a candlelight vigil Friday at 6 p.m. at the scene of the shooting. I stand with the victims family, the Guyanese community and all people of good will to condemn this senseless act of violence that ended in the death of Ricky Kalisaran and injured his brother, Sanders said. The start of a new year is supposed to be filled with joy and hope, but instead we have a time of tragedy and loss. I call upon the perpetrator of this heinous crime to turn himself in. You will not find refuge in this community. We will not put up with this kind of madness. You will be caught, and you will be brought to justice. Community Board 9 board member Richard David said he was sad to see another life lost senselessly to gun violence. Ricky was just a tourist visiting our great city, enjoying Little Guyana, he said. Our national epidemic of gun violence is too real in South Queens. Its actually quite shocking and it proves yet again that we have tremendous work to do stamping out this thug life. How many more young men will we lose? My condolences to his family and I join others in praying for his brothers full recovery. I hope we find the culprits and they face justice for this crime. 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United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe Two Kerala men haven't returned to their homeland in 20 years from Oman, for a crime they were accused of. Know about Shahjahan and Santhosh's ordeal. By Revathi Rajeevan: After endless appeals for justice and a 20-year-long wait, two Kerala families are on the verge of giving up and are greatly counting on the Indian government. Shahjahan, a man hailing from Kollam in Kerala was jailed in Oman twenty years ago to serve a life imprisonment for a theft case. He had returned to Oman after a brief vacation, but never went back. Shahjahan's children haven't seen their father since twenty years; all four of them were below the age of 10 when he left for Oman. advertisement "After fifteen years in jail, he said they will let him go during Ramzan. He has been telling me that every year. It's been twenty years. This year too, he said he will return during Ramzan", said Abida Shahjahan, Shahjahan's wife. Another knot in the case: About hundred kilometers away from Kollam, another family in Alappuzha has been waiting since 20 years for the release of Shahjahan's colleague Santhosh Kumar. Santhosh's mother filed bundles of mercy petitions begging for his release, but could not fight it longer and died without seeing her son. Santhosh's mother left four daughters and three sons after her. "The two were working in a flour mill. After work they were sitting at a fellow Malayali's shop when two Pakistani men came asking for a gas cutter. Those men later killed two Omani men. Our Shahjahan and Santhosh were also arrested for giving them the saw. They don't even have murder charges against them," Maheshan, Santhosh's brother told India Today. The Last resort: Both the families knocked all the possible doors to try to get Santhosh and Shahjahan back to India but failed miserably. All they hope for now is that they both come back to at least die in their own country. Both the families are seeking for immediate help from the government to get both the men back. --- ENDS --- 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. While addressing a press conference in Delhi today afternoon, the former chief minister of Punjab said, "Am a soldier first and then politician. One shouldn't forget his/her first love." By Supriya Bhardwaj: Admist his hectic campaign schedule for the upcomimg Assembly elections, Punjab Congress Committee chief Captain Amarinder Singh never forgets his first love - Army. "Am a soldier first and then politician. One shouldn't forget his/her first love and mine is Army," said the ex-Armyman. While addressing a press conference in Delhi today afternoon, the former chief minister of Punjab said, "Am a soldier first and then politician. One shouldn't forget his/her first love." advertisement Later while talking to India Today, Captain Amarinder added, "Army is my first love is Army and till I die it will remain so." ONCE A SOLDIER ALWAYS A SOLDIER Interesting, before the start of the high profile political briefing Captain Amarinder asked politicians, army officers and media persons to observe two minute silence for the brave soldiers who die in Kashmir and other parts of the country. Interesting, during the briefing on numerous occasions Captain Amarinder interrupted the press conference when his colleagues were addressing and named the colleagues and other army officials present at the venue. He fondly told the media how each officer fought against Pakistan or in Kashmir. SELFIE WITH CAPTAIN The ex-servicemen and their family members surrounded the former Amritsar MP and were keen to click selfies with Captain Amarinder Singh. Such was the scene at Congress headquarter's lawn that even journalists - keen to do an interview with the Punjab Congress head - were pushed back. --- ENDS --- ALBANY -- Troopers arrested 17 environmental protesters who intentionally blocked a hallway in the Capitol Wednesday afternoon, State Police said. The protesters gathered outside the Executive Chambers and called for Gov. Andrew Cuomo to stand up to President-elect Donald Trump's denial of climate change. Gasoline prices will hit a three-year high in 2017, an industry monitor said Wednesday. GasBuddy, in its Fuel Price Outlook 2017 said prices, which have fallen steadily since 2012, will climb as oil producing nations reduce supply. In the Capital Region, prices are projected to peak in the range of $3.10 to $3.35 a gallon sometime in May or June, said Gregg Laskoski, senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy. Laskoski cautioned that "there's a lot of uncertainty because you have a lot of moving parts." It's not clear, for example, how the election of Donald Trump might affect global markets. "What that also means is Iran may not be able to produce the crude oil it was hoping to produce because there may be more sanction imposed," Laskoski said. The resulting dropoff may put upward pressure on crude prices. That, plus planned production cuts by other producers, including Russia and Saudi Arabia, could propel crude prices higher. But Laskoski said if they go high enough, say $65 a barrel, for long enough, "a lot of the projects that were suspended, a lot of that fracking is going to get back up in full swing," boosting supply and lowering crude prices. Another boost to supply could come from the Keystone oil pipeline, which Trump has supported. "Even if it doesn't bring a single drop of Canadian crude to the U.S., it will still benefit Americans," Laskoski said. "The extra crude helps to put downward pressure on international oil prices." While the price of crude is likely the primary driver of retail gasoline prices, other factors include refinery and pipeline outages, weather, political turmoil in producing nations, and the strength of the nation's economy. Even a switch from winter-blend gasoline to the more expensive "summer blend" tends to boost prices as motorists enter the peak summer driving season. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and features with our afternoon newsletter. In the Capital Region, the average price for a gallon of gasoline climbed more than 6 cents in the past week to $2.457 on Wednesday, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge report. It's up more than 16 cents in the past month and nearly 30 cents higher than a year ago. But it's still well below its all-time high of $4.210, set on July 8, 2008. ALBANY -- Two Midwesterners caught speeding on the state Thruway Wednesday were driving in a stolen car, State Police said. The Chevrolet Impala was stopped at 9:43 a.m. on I-87 by a trooper who determined it was reported stolen to the Worcester Police Department. It wasn't immediately clear if police are referring to the Massachusetts city. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate The contracts have been signed, and the deal is done: Albany Medical Center and Saratoga Hospital are affiliates. Under the new arrangement, first announced in October 2015, the health systems will not merge, but collaborate on joint projects and eventually negotiate with insurance companies as a single entity, giving them more clout to demand higher fees. The alliance was approved by a state advisory panel in October 2016. Each institution will retain its own governing boards, executives, medical staffs and other employees, according to the health systems. The alliance is similar to one finalized a year ago between Albany Med and Hudson-based Columbia Memorial Health. Initially, their focus will be on looking where gaps in services need to be filled or expanded, executives from both institutions said on Wednesday. "It's first intended to look at the services that are being provided, over a 110-mile geography," Steven Frisch, senior executive vice president at Albany Med, said of the alignment of the three health systems. "And that's going to be over years." Saratoga Hospital Chief Executive Angelo Calbone pointed to an interventional cardiology collaboration between the two institutions that is already underway as an example of how Saratoga Hospital could benefit from the new affiliation. Saratoga Hospital officials knew there was a need to provide catheter-based procedures like angioplasty in their community. But getting such a unit started required an investment of resources that Saratoga Hospital did not have on its own. They were able to do it with Albany Med's specialists overseeing the operation, Calbone said. The collaboration also helped Saratoga Hospital recruit medical talent that may have hesitated to come to a small community hospital, Calbone said. As the affiliation brings Saratoga Hospital expertise and resources, it allows Albany Med to extend its geographic reach. Current health reforms reward institutions for improving health through the entire community, something that requires a significant base of patients over a large geographic area. Frisch said that the three health systems would not immediately seek to negotiate contracts together, but that eventually they would. Among the questions that must be answered first, he said, is what value to place on services at such different institutions. Albany Med is a large academic medical center, while Saratoga and Columbia Memorial health systems are anchored by community hospitals. "What we've got to figure out is, what are the appropriate price points across the delivery system," Frisch said. A recent study from the New York State Health Foundation showed market power, sometimes created by consolidations and affiliations, can increase hospital prices. Frisch said that's always a concern, but is not the point of bringing the institutions together. "We're not intending to re-contract the market," he said. "This is not intended to be sort of a hostile movement." chughes@timesunion.com 518-454-5417 @hughesclaire Bethlehem A Capital Region businessman who wanted to build a large mixed-use real estate development that would have transformed a stretch of River Road in Glenmont has been told by town planners that he needs to go back to the drawing board. Last month, Jim Horvath had submitted preliminary plans for a development called Beacon Heights to the town of Bethlehem. It was to be built on a parcel between River Road and Glenmont Road that is a mix of vacant land and industrial businesses like the Air Products gas yard, a used car lot and a power plant. Train tracks also run through that area of town toward the Port of Albany to the north. The project envisioned 434 apartments, some of them duplexes, as well as 123,000 square feet of mixed use space, which often includes both retail and office space. It would be a short drive from downtown Albany. "It would be great for young professionals," Horvath told the Times Union Wednesday. There has been a building boom in Bethlehem, which like other municipalities has been pushing for mixed use development in connection with new residential apartment construction. However, in the case of Beacon Heights, town planners say the project won't fly because new zoning rules recently put in place for that side of River Road in Glenmont don't allow large apartment buildings. The area is zoned as "rural light industrial," and the town recently changed what types of house projects are allowed in such districts, eliminating large apartment buildings from the mix. Although one- and two- family homes are still allowed to go up, the changes limit subdivisions to one lot per year. Horvath presented his plan to the town's development planning committee on Dec. 15, the day after the Town Board adopted the new changes. The committee is a sounding board that developers go to before officially submitting plans to the town for approval. He was told that the project was prohibited under its current design. His plans envisioned 24 buildings with 14 apartments each, as well as 49 two-family apartments. "The Town Board's recent zoning law amendments have prohibited multi-family housing units in this industrial zoning district," Bethlehem Planning Director Robert Leslie told the Times Union. "As a result, the developer was encouraged to prepare a proposal for industrial uses that are consistent with the (zoning law)." Although he says he was disappointed because he had drawn up plans for Beacon Heights before the zoning change took place, Horvath says he is not going to give up on building in Bethlehem. "We're going to come back with another plan," Horvath said. lrulison@timesunion.com 518-454-5504 @larryrulison The federal government is stamping out a program that enabled Staples to sell postal supplies, long a source of contention for the union that represents postal workers. The U.S. Postal Service announced in a letter to the American Postal Workers Union that the deal between the U.S. Postal Service and Staples is coming to an end. Senior leaders from 16 Opposition parties will now knock on the doors of President on Friday. By Supriya Bhardwaj: The Opposition is leaving no stone unturned in order to get the upcoming Budget session of Parliament postponed. After raising the issue with Election Commission of India, senior leaders from 16 Opposition parties will now knock on the doors of President on Friday. According to sources, Opposition leaders have sought time from the President's office, said sources. This year, Parliament's Budget Session will start from January 31st and the Union Budget will be laid on the table on February 1. Earlier, budget used to placed on February 28. advertisement The assembly elections in five states will commence from February 4 with Goa and Punjab going to poll. The Opposition parties are now demanding that the entire Budget Session should now be postponed till March as the announcement made during Union Budget by central government might influence the voters. Also read: Demonetisation may slow down economy: President Pranab Mukherjee FULL TEXT: President Pranab Mukherjee's speech on why demonetisation is bad news for India --- ENDS --- Three New Year Eve's celebrations ended in felony arrests for alleged domestic violence, Saratoga Springs police said. Lt. Robert Jillson, spokesman for Saratoga Springs police, said New Year's Eve is historically busy because of the number of visitors coming into the city for First Night. But this year was unusual for domestic complaints. "Usually, we get a few DWIs," said Jillson. "But this year it was domestic calls. It was definitely higher than usual. Couples go out to celebrate and something goes wrong." The three arrested were: Michael D. Rosebrook, 31, of Church Street, Saratoga Springs; Lester E. Lolley, 33, of Marvin Street, Saratoga Springs; Erin M. Brown, 34, of Washington Street, Saratoga Springs. Each was charged with criminal mischief, a felony, Jillson said, because of the amount of damage caused to the residences where the incidents occurred. Jillson said Lolley was also charged with felony possession of cocaine. TROY An Albany man pleaded guilty Wednesday to selling heroin as jury selection was to begin in his Rensselaer County Court trial, District Attorney Joel Abelove's office said. Carlos Fulmore, 46, entered plea to third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance. Fulmore, a former Troy resident, was accused of selling heroin to an undercover police office three different times as charged in a six-count indictment. The Obamas just finished their last Hawaiian vacation as the first family. Their 16-day winter vacation included a luau at a friend's house, dinner at local restaurants and a visit to the Center on US-Asia-Pacific Relations. According to toptenrealestatedeals.com, "the President and his family's location of choice has been the once sleepy area of Kailua Bay on the windward side of the island. From 2008 to 2011, the home they rented was Plantation Estate at Paradise Point, located on a jut of land at the far end of the long crescent of Kailua beach." New York President-elect Donald Trump appeared to side with controversial WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange over U.S. intelligence officials Wednesday, citing the activist's assertion that Russia did not provide his organization with the hacked Democratic emails that roiled the 2016 election. Trump's latest challenges to the intelligence community which has assessed that Russia interfered in the election on the Republican's behalf comes as the government rushes to finished a highly anticipated report on the hacking. The president-elect is expected to be briefed on the report Friday by CIA Director John Brennan, FBI Director James Comey and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. Clapper is also testifying on Capitol Hill Thursday. But he could be limited in what he can say about the report's conclusions given that Trump and perhaps President Barack Obama, who ordered the report will not have been briefed by the time he steps before lawmakers. The gulf between the intelligence community's assessment and the public information available to support that assessment has given Trump an opening to question whether Russia was behind hacking of the Democratic National Committee and John Podesta, a top aide to campaign rival Hillary Clinton. Trump's resistance has put him at odds with Obama and lawmakers in both parties, raising questions about why an incoming American president appears to believe Russia's denials over the intelligence agencies he will soon oversee. Trump's posture has appeared to stem in part from concerns that the allegations of Russian election interference delegitimized his victory. But Trump aides have argued Trump's position isn't personal, but based on what he sees as incomplete or inconclusive information. Spokesman Sean Spicer said Wednesday that Trump has received "raw data" on the hacking during daily intelligence briefings. But he said the president-elect was "more skeptical of the conclusions that are drawn." Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who met with lawmakers on Capitol Hill Wednesday, said Trump was expressing "his very sincere and healthy American skepticism" about intelligence conclusions. "Given some of the intelligence failures of recent years the president-elect's made it clear to the American people that he's skeptical of conclusions from the bureaucracy and I think the American people hear him loud and clear," Pence said. The nature of the presidency gives the commander in chief discretion to decide how to respond to intelligence assessments. But any skepticism about the agencies' conclusions usually plays out privately in the Situation Room and Oval Office, not on Twitter Trump's main forum for challenging the intelligence community and others. On Wednesday morning, Trump tweeted about a Fox News interview in which Assange denied Russia provided WikiLeaks with Podesta's emails. WikiLeaks released thousands of Podesta's files throughout the final weeks of the presidential election. "Julian Assange said 'a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta' why was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info!" Trump wrote. The United Group in North Greenbush is moving to settle a 2-year-old legal dispute with a Vermont couple over one of the developer's troubled real estate investment funds. The negotiations appear to be another indication that United Group is making progress getting past years of legal struggles over the funds and a local money manager who pitched them to his clients. You might recall Amrose & Sable. Located on Hudson Street in Albany's Center Square neighborhood, the quaint gallery became a mainstay of the resurgent visual culture scene in the mid-2000s when Albany Underground Artists was at full tilt and First Friday was launched. Aside from keen exhibitions of regional artists both established and emerging the communal dinners and film nights instilled a salon-like atmosphere where people met and mingled amid the art, forming a vibrant community around the creative process. But its short stint as small hub for culture ended when it closed in 2009. Elizabeth Dubben, the for-profit gallery's founder and proprietor, then chose a different direction, earning an MBA at the College of Saint Rose focusing on nonprofit management and becoming exhibition and development coordinator at Saratoga Arts. Last March, she became the first executive director of Collar Works, a fledgling nonprofit community arts organization in Troy. Although Collar Works has been around as a roaming arts collective for several years, it recently incorporated as a 501(c)3 organization. Located at the newly opened Hudson Arthaus housing development on upper River Street, Collar Works' programming is already showing Dubben's influences, with touches from the Amrose & Sable days. We sat down and talked with Dubben about upcoming plans. Q: First of all, what attracted you about the position at such a fledgling organization and were you aware of its history? A: Ever since I experienced Collar Works' first pop-up exhibition of emerging artists in a storefront on River Street in 2009, I was immediately hooked. The synergy between myself and the culture of the organization; the ambition, vision and enthusiasm of its board of directors; the provocative nature of programming; the incredible potential for growth; and the strong creative community of Troy were some of the biggest attractors for me. Q: Through its mission and vision, what are the unique qualities about Collar Works that distinguishes it from other similar organizations? A: When I think back over the past seven years, some of the freshest, most invigorating contemporary art exhibited in the Capital Region has been at Collar Works. Collar Works provides a unique platform for emerging artists and curators to exhibit spirited, challenging and culturally relevant works fueling interesting dialogue and pushing boundaries. The opportunities artists and curators have to take more risks, and explore ideas in unconventional ways, in a newly renovated 4,000 square foot industrial arts space unlike any other in the area, is a distinguishing characteristic. Q: You've been there almost a year, what are some of the initiatives you've developed and what can we expect to see in terms of programming and projects during the coming year or so? A: Collar Works was founded in 2009 as an artist collective, but more recently became an official 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. That being said, much of my energy these past eight months have gone into strengthening our operations as a nonprofit, starting a strategic planning process, growing relationships and partnerships in the community, ramping up visibility and programming, and beginning to build and diversify our contributed revenue in support of programs that directly benefit artists and the community. It is an exciting time to be a part of Collar Works. One initiative I've helped launch this year and am very excited about is our Collard Greens Dinner + Dialogue Series, which brings the community together with artists to share a meal and conversation around topics in the arts. Some others include our open calls for artists, and our partnership with the Bloomberg Philanthropies Public Art Challenge winner, "Breathing Lights," to develop and host a conversation on public art and social practice with national experts from the Public Art Fund, Philadelphia Mural Arts and Americans for the Arts, with the aim to help spark ideas for what is possible for public art in the Capital Region. Collar Works has always operated similar to a laboratory, and we are excited to launch a new initiative called "The LAB" a mini-incubator space for emerging curators to explore and present unique projects and concepts. Q: How does being located in Hudson Arthaus impact the community aspect of the Collar Works? What is the relationship between the two separate entities? Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and features with our afternoon newsletter. A: The Hudson Arthaus motto is "Shelter for the body, Art for the soul," and this resonates strongly with Collar Works, because we want art and life to commingle in interesting, meaningful ways. We have a unique relationship with Hudson Arthaus. They have partnered with us to provide gallery space, and we work with them to develop arts opportunities for residents who identify as creative, many of whom are emerging, underrepresented artists that need a maker-space, or have a desire to experience the arts and be a part of a creative community. It's a great fit and true to our mission. Q: Where do you think Troy is in terms of culture, particularly visual, and how do you see Collar Works engaging on that level? A: Troy has been well on its way to positioning itself as the epicenter for cutting-edge, contemporary art and culture in the Capital Region for quite a few years now. With hundreds of artists living and working in the city, along with thousands spending time creating, exhibiting and performing throughout the year, together with our strong arts organizations, and creative businesses, I feel Troy will continue to strengthen and thrive while becoming the leading destination for art and culture in the region. I see Collar Works being an important venue in that effort, especially through our involvement with the Troy Cultural Alliance and its member organizations. Troy has always had an intrinsic creative culture, full of innovation and entrepreneurship, Collar Works is excited to become a permanent part of what fuels and keeps it moving forward. Tim Kane is a frequent contributor to The Times Union. Albany The American Red Cross and Dunkin' Donuts have 720,000 reasons to celebrate. After a decade of teaming up for the "Dunkin' Donors Make a Difference" campaign and closing in on 1 million blood and platelet donations, the partnership remains vital to keeping local blood donation levels steady after the holiday season. The campaign part of National Volunteer Blood Donor Month, celebrated in January since 1970 offers incentives to motivate donors to give over the winter. More Information Give blood now The American Red Cross urgently needs donations of all blood types. To make an appointment, go to redcrossblood.org See More Collapse More than any other time of year, January presents the most challenges in recruiting people to donate. "The need for blood doesn't break for winter weather," said Donna M. Morrissey, director of national partnerships, Red Cross Biomedical Services. "Donating blood or platelets helps to save lives, and with Dunkin' Donuts' support, we can help ensure donations meet our current critical need for blood donations." The Red Cross, which supplies about 40 percent of the nation's blood and hears every excuse in the book for not donating, is experiencing a blood shortage and has issued an emergency request for donors of all blood types. Whether it's a lack of information or fear of needles, most people are well-meaning, but many don't take the time to roll up their sleeves. The act itself, though altruistic, is somewhat impersonal, even with the knowledge that one donation can help save up to three lives. Right now, the need is so urgent that the nonprofit is offering a $10 e-gift certificate to anyone who donates by Jan. 29. "We are (asking people) to please make an appointment to give the gift of life through a blood or platelet donation," Morrissey said. These donations are being distributed to hospitals faster than donors are coming in to give. Winter storms cause accidents and injuries on roadways and increase the need for donations. At the same time, severe weather can result in blood drive cancellations, and increased cold and flu symptoms keep even the most dedicated donors from making or keeping an appointment. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and features with our afternoon newsletter. People who give blood or platelets at Red Cross drives this month in parts of New York, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont will also receive a $5 Dunkin' Donut Donor Card through the "Dunkin' Donors Make a Difference" campaign. The card features a Red Cross logo, is reloadable and can be enrolled in the DD Perks Rewards program. It can be used toward the purchase of any item at participating restaurants. "We're proud to partner with the Red Cross once again to thank blood donors this January," said Eric Stensland, field marketing manager for Dunkin' Donuts. "The Dunkin' Donors Make a Difference campaign clearly resonates with donors and benefits countless people and communities in need." To give, donors must be at least 17 years old, should be in good general health and weigh at least 110 pounds. Previous donors can save time by using RapidPass to complete their pre-donation reading and health history questionnaire online on donation day prior to arriving at a blood drive. Go to http://redcrossblood.org/RapidPass. For information about donating, call 800-733-2767 or download the American Red Cross Blood Donor app at http://redcrossblood.org. jpatterson@timesunion.com @JenSPatterson 518-454-5340 This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Editor's note: A previous version of this story did not mention that the Tobias invested in a United Group fund known as United Group Income Fund II that did not invest in the college dorm projects or lose value. The United Group is in settlement talks with a Vermont couple who sued the North Greenbush real estate development company in 2015 over their $652,000 investment in a United Group investment fund. The talks may go a long way toward the United Group getting past years of legal struggles over several of its investment funds, some of which lost millions of dollars in value after three upstate college dorm buildings United Group built experienced financial woes. In October, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit brought against the United Group by an Arkansas Masonic temple, which had also claimed to have lost money invested with the United Group. However, several other suits are still pending, including one that was filed last month by a Poughkeepsie doctor who invested $1.78 million in the one United Group fund known as the DCG/UGOC Equity Fund. The Tobias put their money into a separate fund called the United Group Income Fund II in 2011 that did not invest in the failed dorm projects or lose value. The Tobias are seeking a refund of their investment. Last month, Thomas Fallati, an Albany attorney for the Vermont couple, Robert and Frances Tobia, wrote a federal magistrate judge that he and attorneys for the United Group were in settlement talks. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and features with our afternoon newsletter. "The United defendants and plaintiffs have made progress in settlement discussions and have exchanged drafts of a settlement agreement," Fallati wrote U.S. Magistrate Judge David Peebles. A settlement in the case would appear to be the first by United Group in any of the cases against it, although it is not known what the terms of the settlement would be and if it would result in the Tobias receiving any money or legal expenses. Fallati did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither did United Group's attorney, Michael de Leeuw of New York City. By Press Trust of India: Islamabad, Jan 5 (PTI) In a fresh rhetoric, Pakistan Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa today said his forces are fully geared to respond to "any aggression" by India as he rejected claims that India carried out "surgical strikes" on Pakistan. "Pakistans armed forces are fully geared to respond to any aggression by India," the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) spokesperson Major Gen Asif Ghafoor quoted Gen Bajwa as saying. advertisement Maj Gen Ghafoor tweeted that Gen Bajwa rejected the "self defeating claims" of Indian Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat about so called surgical strikes and its possible recurrence. India maintains that its forces last year conducted surgical strikes in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, targetting terrorists and destroying their training camps. Gen Rawat, who took over as the 27th chief of Indian army on December 31, has said India will give a calibrated "hard" response to terror activities that will compel Pakistan to completely rethink its strategy on supporting insurgency and terrorism. "We will calibrate the response in a manner it hits them hard and compels them to think in the long run whether they need to completely rethink their strategy on supporting insurgency and terrorism in our state," said Gen Rawat, who as the Vice Chief was actively involved in the surgical strikes on terror camps across the LoC. PTI ZH AKJ ZH --- ENDS --- Here at the Tipperary Star were always interested in the big questions in life: like how do you maximise the time youve got on Earth and fulfill those dreams. Well, the Premier County has a few locations which you might want to check off your bucket list.. So here goes, the top 10 things to do in Tipperary before you die. If you think were not thinking big enough, email more suggestions to news@tipperarystar.ie@tippstar or comment on our Facebook page. 1. Supporting the Blue & Gold army in Semple Stadium at a Munster Final in Semple Stadium: if the Colosseum was the beating heart of Rome, then Semple is the heart and soul of the Premier. Tickets might be rarer than hens teeth, but this is a once in a lifetime display of passion and courage. Stop into Hayes Hotel or Lar na Pairce afterwards to see how the GAA was born. 2. Climbing Galtee Mor in the snow on New Years Day: Ireland's highest inland mountain range with the highest peak, Galteemore, rises to 919m, and its the fifth highest in Ireland. A top treat for the most adventurous, this one is for the brave and hardy only, but youll be rewarded with stunning views from the top. 3. Tour the Rock of Cashel and relive the glory days of the Kingdom of Munster: iconic is a word that is often overused, but it surely applies to Tipperarys greatest architectural wonder. Enjoy a guided tour through this 1,700-year-old gem perched overlooking the Golden Vale, and steeped in the historic town of Cashel. 4. Go Horsetrekking in unspoiled mountain pastures: think of Tipperary and for many its Coolmore, Aidan OBrien and the finest racehorses in the world. If you want to give it a try, you couldnt do better than book a weekend with Tipperary Mountain Trekking Centre, based at Rusheen, Borrisoleigh. There you learn to ride a horse in safety, with some of the finest off-road riding that you will experience in Ireland. 5. Enjoy a drink or a cosy night by the fire in one of Tipperarys top pubs: McCarthys in the medieval town of Fethard and Jim O The Mills in Upperchurch just ooze character and are consistently voted some of Irelands top 10 pubs. If the walls could talk, theyd have some stories to tell here 6. Similarly, you cant beat a good cuppa tae: the Loughmore Cottage Teashop has been voted the Best Tearoom in the country. This community based Co-Op sells local produce, arts & crafts, and is the perfect place to spend time with the family 7. Take a cruise down Tipperarys waterways: with Lough Derg and the Shannon in the north west, and the Suir and its tributaries snaking their way through the Premier, boaters are spoiled for choice. The villages of Holycross and Golden are lovely spots to go fishing whilst whiling away the hours until sunset. 8. Cahir Castle and the Swiss Cottage: this is where they filmed the epic Excalibur, and you too can still see the cannon balls embedded in the impressive Castle walls - walk out by the Suir to the Swiss Cottage on a Summers day, a real hidden gem buried in oak forest. 9. Tipperary is renowned for its festivals and culture: but which one to choose from? The Taste of Roscrea, Dromineer Literary Festival, the Cashel Arts Festival, Clonmel Junction Festival, or Thurles Harvest and Country Festival - culture vultures are spoiled for choice 10. Get married and have your wedding picture taken on the balcony of Aherlow House Hotel: nestled in the Glen of Aherlow with breath taking views of the Galtee Mountains, and possibly the most spectacular settings in Ireland, this is one which will require a bit of planning, but youll remember it forever. [January 05, 2017] Axonics Sacral Neuromodulation System Receives Marketing Approval from Health Canada Axonics Modulation Technologies, Inc. announced today that it received a Homologation d'un instrument medical (medical device approval) for the first rechargeable Sacral Neuromodulation (r-SNM) System to treat Overactive Bladder (OAB), Fecal Incontinence and Urinary Retention. The Health Canada license confirms that the Axonics product meets all of the Canadian Medical Devices Regulations, Section 36, for Active Implantable Medical Devices and enables Axonics to market its r-SNM System throughout Canada. Axonics previously received ethics committee approval from the University of Toronto to treat patients in Canada as part of the Company's post-market clinical follow-up study and anticipates treating patients in Canada in the first quarter of 2017. "The Health Canada approval provides Axonics with another important marketing approval. Along with our European CE mark, it gives us the ability to sell our r-SNM System in two large international territories. Additionally, we anticipate IDE clearance from the US FDA to treat patients in the US in the near term," said Raymond W. Cohen, Axonics' Chief Executive Officer. "To date, Axonics has implanted nearly 40 patients in Europe with excellent clinical results. These results confirm that our miniaturized implantable neurostimulator is meeing its promise to advance the state of the art for sacral neuromodulation and improve the quality of life of patients suffering from urinary and fecal dysfunction." OAB affects an estimated 85 million adults in the US and Europe. Another 40 million are reported to suffer from fecal incontinence. SNM therapy is an effective and durable treatment that has been widely used and reimbursed in Europe and the US for the past two decades accounting for more than $600 million in revenue in 2016. Over 200,000 patients have benefited from the therapy to date. SNM is the only OAB treatment with proven clinical superiority to standard medical therapy and OAB patients who receive SNM report significantly higher quality of life than patients undergoing drug treatment. About the Axonics rechargeable Sacral Neuromodulation (r-SNM) System The Axonics r-SNM System is an implantable neuromodulation system that modulates sacral nerve activity for the management of urinary and fecal dysfunction. The System includes, among other innovations, a miniaturized implantable pulse generator that is 60% smaller than currently marketed non-rechargeable SNM technology and promises to last at least 15 years. In addition, the Axonics r-SNM System features a key-fob sized patient-friendly remote control and an intuitive clinician programmer that will guide and support physician implanters throughout the procedure, from lead placement to programming. About Axonics Modulation Technologies, Inc. Axonics, based in Irvine, CA (News - Alert), is a privately held company developing novel implantable neuromodulation technology directed toward a number of clinical indications. Investors include Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners, Advent Life Sciences, NeoMed Management, Legend Capital, Cormorant Asset Management and The Alfred E. Mann Foundation. For more information, visit the Company's website at www.axonicsmodulation.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170105005516/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 05, 2017] California Life Sciences Community Congratulates Congresswoman Mimi Walters on Appointment to Prestigious House Energy & Commerce Committee California Life Sciences Association (CLSA), the premier statewide public policy and business leadership organization representing California's leading life sciences innovators, issued the following statement congratulating Congresswoman Mimi Walters (R-Irvine) on her appointment to the prestigious U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce. This statement can be attributed to Todd Gillenwater, CLSA's Executive Vice President of Advocacy & External Relations: "California Life Sciences Association (CLSA) congratulates Congresswoman Mimi Walters on her appointment to the prestigious House Energy and Commerce Committee, which holds broad authority and jurisdiction over matters that are critical to the continued success of California's life sciences sector, such as FDA regulatory policy and this year's renewal of FDA drug and device user fee programs, biomedical research policy and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) coverage and payment policies. "Throughout her career as a public servant, and as exemplified in her first two years in Congress, Mimi Walters has distinguished herself through principled and thoughtful leadership on policies that bolster biomedical research, investment and innovation. Because of this commitment, we were privileged to present her with a CLSA Visionary Award in 2016. "On behalf of our membership and California's statewide life sciences communit - a sector which employs nearly 300,000 Californians including over 43,000 in and around her district in Orange (News - Alert) County - we congratulate Congresswoman Walters on this appointment, and look forward to working with her and the Energy & Commerce Committee to advance policies that improve patient health and well-being." View press release recognizing Walters as CLSA's 2016 Visionary Award Winner. To learn more about California's life sciences industry, visit www.CALifeSciencesIndustry.com. About California Life Sciences Association (CLSA) California Life Sciences Association (CLSA) is the state's largest and most influential life sciences advocacy and business leadership organization. With offices in Sacramento, San Diego, South San Francisco, Los Angeles and Washington DC, CLSA works closely with industry, government, academia and others to shape public policy, improve access to innovative technologies and grow California's life sciences economy. CLSA serves biotechnology, pharmaceutical, medical device and diagnostics companies, research universities and institutes, investors and service providers throughout the Golden State. CLSA was founded in 2015 when the Bay Area Bioscience Association (BayBio) and the California Healthcare Institute (CHI) merged. Visit CLSA at www.califesciences.org, and follow us on Twitter (News - Alert) @CALifeSciences, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170105006368/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 05, 2017] CyberLink Launches "2017 I Love This City" Photography Contest CyberLink Corp. (5203.TW), the world's leading consumer multimedia software company, debuts its "2017 I Love This City" competition. The contest invites photography enthusiasts from around the world to capture and edit their most impressive city images and turn them into masterpieces, using CyberLink's award-winning PhotoDirector software or PhotoDirector Mobile App. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170105005037/en/ CyberLink Launches "2017 I Love This City" Photography Contest (Photo: Business Wire) Following the resounding success of CyberLinks's "2016 I Love Travel" video contest, with several hundred video entries from around the world, CyberLink announces the inaugural "2017 I Love This City" photography contest, offering prizes worth thousands of dollars for inspiring PhotoDirector users to reach the heights of their creativity. Participants will have a chance to win great prizes including a Dell XPS 13 sponsored by Intel (News - Alert), Gear 360 camera sponsored by Samsung, and many other prizes ranging from DJI Drones to a Samsung Galaxy S7 edge, and even CyberLink's Director Suite. Photo entries should convey a story about a city that the contestant has resided or visited, and create an emotional connection with the audience. "With more than 30 million users worldwide, PhotoDirector supports both Windows and Mac users, as well as Android (News - Alert) and iOS smartphones," said Dr. Jau Huang, CEO of CyberLink. "The 'I Love This City' contest allows travel lovers to present the true nature and fascinating appearance of cities by giving different perspectives, as well as a chance to experience the power and flexibility of PhotoDirector." The "I Love This City" contest runs from January 5 through March 7, 2017, with winners announced on March 29, 2017. The contest is open for submissions worldwide. Contestants can download the free trial version of PhotoDirector or PhotoDirector Mobile App to create their submission. For the complete list of prizes and rules, please visit the "2017 I Love This City" contest website. About CyberLink CyberLink (5203.TW) is a world leader in multimedia software design. Since 1996, CyberLink has transformed how people enjoy and create media on PCs, mobile devices and in the Cloud. The company's award-winning products are sold to all major PC manufacturers as well as millions of customers worldwide. Headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan, CyberLink also runs regional operations through offices in the US, Japan, Europe and Asia-Pacific territories. Further information about CyberLink can be found at cyberlink.com. All companies and product names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and are the sole property of their respective owners. Copyright 2017 CyberLink Corp. All rights reserved. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170105005037/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Nitish had broken off his Janata Dal (United)'s 17-year association with the BJP after Modi was declared the BJP's prime ministerial candidate in the run-up to the 2014 election. By Sujeet Jha, Rohit Kumar Singh: In what could easily be called the picture of the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar were seen talking to each other and even sharing a laugh at the Prakash Parv celebrations at Patna's Gandhi Maidan today. Nitish apparently initiated the conversation, which Modi responded to. The two were soon seen laughing over something Nitish said. This was their first meeting after Nitish, in a surprise move, backed Modi's demonetisation. advertisement Later, while addressing the meeting, Modi thanked Nitish for hosting the 350th birth anniversary of Sikh Guru Gobind Singh celebrations. "I thank Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the Bihar government and the people of the state for organising this special event. I was told Nitish ji personally managed it," Modi said. Modi mentioned Nitish Kumar not less than a dozen times during his address to praise him for holding the Prakash Utsav and his decision of total prohibition. "Nitish Kumar has worked hard, day and night monitoring and personally inspecting preparations for the Prakash Utsav for months. He deserves credit for this mega event," the Prime Minister said. Modi termed Nitish Kumar's decision of prohibition a "brave step" for social change. "Taking an initiative for social change is very difficult, but Nitish Kumar has initiated it by enforcing prohibition. All people including political parties should back him for it." Nitish returned the compliment by reminding the crowd of the good work done by Modi as Gujarat Chief Minister. "Our Prime Minister was a Chief Minister for 12 years and he implemented prohibition of liquor very effectively in Gujarat," Nitish said in defence of his controversial move to ban liquor in Bihar. WHY THE BONHOMIE MATTERS It should be remembered that Nitish had broken off his Janata Dal (United)'s 17-year association with the BJP after Modi was declared the BJP's prime ministerial candidate in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha election. In the Bihar election in 2015, Nitish's party had allied with Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal to form a Grand Alliance that dealt a major blow to the BJP in the state. However, Nitish surprised many recently by openly supporting Modi's demonetisation - a move that is being bitterly challenged by some even within the Bihar Chief Minister's party. Nitish's support to the banning of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes is also being seen as his attempt to keep his ambitious ally, Lalu Prasad, in check. ALSO READ: Congress irked by Nitish Kumar's support to demonetisation, hopeful of him taking a U-turn ALSO READ: Narendra Modi all set for Patna visit: All you need to know about the 350th Prakash Parv celebrations advertisement WATCH: PM Modi praises Bihar CM Nitish Kumar for liquor ban initiative --- ENDS --- [January 05, 2017] HDTV Gathers Pace at Eutelsat HOTBIRD Neighbourhood: all Rai Channels Now Available in HD in Tivusat Platform Regulatory News: Viewers in Italy of the Tivusat TV platform that broadcasts exclusively from Eutelsat's (News - Alert) (Paris:ETL) HOTBIRD neighbourhood can now benefit from HD quality of the full line-up of TV channels produced by Rai. Rai YoYo, Rai School, Rai Gulp, Rai Storia and Rai News24 were the last of 13 Rai channels to transition to HD. The operation was completed this week with the collaboration of Rai Way that operates the signal transmission and broadcasting network for Italy's national public broadcaster. Tivusat was set up to ensure that everyone in Italy has access to free digital TV. By reaching all areas of Italian territory, viewers can access all national DTT channels and a diverse line up of national and international channels. Tivusat's full line-up now comprises over 100 channels, of which 24 in HD and 80 in Standard Digital, plus 33 radio stations. A total of 2.9 million Tivusat smartcards have been activated. Renato Farina, CEO of Eutelsat Italy, said: <>"Ensuring that all Italian TV homes can access the highest signal quality is a priority for Eutelsat. We are delighted to be part of the effort to accelerate Tivusat's HD offer and to take part in other exceptional ventures such as the documentary "Tonight at St Peter's" that was produced by Rai in Ultra HD and broadcast to Tivusat homes on 27 December." About Eutelsat Communications Established in 1977, Eutelsat Communications (Euronext Paris: ETL, ISIN code: FR0010221234) is one of the world's leading and most experienced operators of communications satellites. The company provides capacity on 39 satellites to clients that include broadcasters and broadcasting associations, pay-TV operators, video, data and Internet service providers, enterprises and government agencies. Eutelsat's satellites provide ubiquitous coverage of Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia-Pacific and the Americas, enabling video, data, broadband and government communications to be established irrespective of a user's location. Headquartered in Paris, with offices and teleports around the globe, Eutelsat represents a workforce of 1,000 men and women from 37 countries who are experts in their fields and work with clients to deliver the highest quality of service. For more about Eutelsat please visit www.eutelsat.com View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170105005756/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 05, 2017] More Than 66% of the Incremental Growth in the Global Mosquito Repellent Market to Originate from APAC: Technavio The global mosquito repellent market is expected to grow at a CAGR of close to 5% 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/20170105006211/en/ Technavio has published a new report on the global mosquito repellent market from 2017-2021. (Graphic: Business Wire) In this report, Technavio covers the market outlook and growth prospects of the global mosquito repellent market for 2017-2021. By product type, this market is segmented into a coil, vaporizer, spray, mat, and other segments. The global mosquito repellent market is forecast to grow to USD 10.63 billion by 2021, with 66.6% of the incremental growth originating from APAC. The major drivers responsible for this growth will be the rising number of mosquito-borne diseases, marketing, and government initiatives promoting the use of mosquito repellents, and advancements in technology and innovations. Technavio's research study segments the global mosquito repellent market into the following regions: APAC EMEA Americas APAC: largest mosquito repellant market "APAC is the largest market segment in the global mosquito repellent market, holding a market share of over 55% in 2016. Analysts at Technavio forecast that this region will continue to hold market dominance through the forecast period due to growing awareness of the benefits of using household insecticides. Aggressive marketing through television advertisements will lead to high adoption rates of these products in tier 2 and tier 3 cities to fuel the market's growth," says Poonam Saini, one of the lead analysts at Technavio for retail goods research. The sub-tropical climate prevalent in a majority of the countries in APAC is favorable for mosquito breeding. This has resulted in a rising incidence of mosquito-borne diseases, thereby driving the demand for mosquito repellents in the region. China holds the largest share within APAC, with mosquito coils being the most demanded product. Manufacturers are focusing on strengthening their distribution networks by offering proucts through different retail formats, and focusing on building a solid brand reputation. Other important contributors from the region are India and Thailand. Request a sample report: http://www.technavio.com/request-a-sample?report=55464 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: fastest growing mosquito repellent market EMEA is forecast to be the fastest-growing market segment, with a CAGR of 6.55% through the forecast period. In recent times, Europe has been recording a high number of malaria, chikungunya, and West Nile fever cases. With the rising instances of mosquito-borne diseases, consumers are also becoming more conscious and have started taking more preventive measures, thus driving the demand for mosquito repellents in the region. France is the largest consumer of mosquito repellents in the region. This segment is driven by the weather conditions which are favorable for the proliferation of insects, which has resulted in an increased consumption of mosquito repellents. S. C. Johnson & Son is the biggest player is this market, holding over 65% of the market (2015 figures). France is followed by Germany, where extreme climatic conditions facilitate high rates of mosquito growth during high temperature and mild winter, thereby bringing in high demand for mosquito repellents. Americas: market segment driven by high demand from the US "This relative young market is seeing the entrance of many vendors in recent times, especially in regions like Latin America. For example, MosquitNo is growing rapidly in the Latin American mosquito repellent market by marketing itself as a brand that offers natural mosquito repellents. The company also offers innovative and eco-friendly products such as insect repellent fabric conditioners," says Poonam. The US holds over 70% of this market segment, putting it in the lead. Innovative product releases continue to bring in new demand from this region, ensuring continued sales and customer acquisition. For instance, Spectrum (News - Alert) Brands introduced a new product AccuShot, which is a novel, push-button spray with refills. This brought in significant revenue to the market, and more product launches like this will keep the market on an upward trend. Brazil is the next biggest market segment from the region, where there is a high demand for mosquito repellents due to frequent incidences of dengue. S. C. Johnson & Son with its flagship brands Baygon and Raid, and Reckitt Benckiser Group with its flagship brand Mortein are the leading players in this market. The top vendors in the global mosquito repellent market highlighted in the report are: Godrej Consumer Products Reckitt Benckiser Group S. C. Johnson & Son Spectrum Brands Browse Related Reports: Global DIY Tools Market 2017-2021 Global Ornamental Plants Market 2017-2021 Global Home Outdoor Pest Control Devices 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 cosmetics and toiletry, pet supplies, and retail systems. 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/20170105006211/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 05, 2017] Reinsurance Group of America Announces Fourth-Quarter Earnings Release Date, Webcast Reinsurance Group of America, Incorporated (NYSE:RGA) plans to release fourth-quarter earnings on Monday, January 30, at approximately 4:15 p.m. Eastern Time. The release will be issued via newswire and will also be available through RGA's website, www.rgare.com. RGA will host a conference call to discuss the fourth-quarter results beginning at 11 a.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday, January 31. Interested parties may access the call by dialing 1-877-741-4253 (719-325-4782 international). The access code is 377223. Participants are asked to call te assigned number approximately 10 minutes before the conference call begins. A live audio webcast of that conference call will be available on RGA's website, www.rgare.com. A replay will be available at the same address following the conference call. A replay of the conference call will also be available via telephone at 1-888-203-1112 (719-457-0820, international), access code 377223, until Wednesday, February 8. RGA is among the largest global providers of life reinsurance, with operations in Australia, Barbados, Bermuda, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States. At September 30, 2016, RGA had assumed approximately $3.1 trillion of worldwide life reinsurance in force, and had total assets of $54.8 billion. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170105006098/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 04, 2017] Giving Peace of Find: Pixie Technology Announces Commercial Availability of Its Latest Tracking Solution Powered by a Reengineered Location of Things Platform LAS VEGAS, Jan. 4, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Pixie Technology, a pioneer and leader in the emerging Location of Things (LoT) sector, has today unveiled a completely new Pixie experience set to become the most advanced location tracking solution on the market. Unlike outdated Bluetooth trackers that rely on beeps to guide people to lost items, Pixie uses signaling technology based on GPS principles and a magical augmented reality interface to actually SHOW people the location of misplaced objects. Like Pokemon Go for your keys, Pixie is a game changer in location tracking technology and makes finding lost items fun, fast and frustration free. It will be commercially available January 25, 2017. Achieving Peace of Find How It Works The new Pixie solution follows a robust year-long beta program with pre-sale customers and an $18.5 million investment round announced in July 2016. The solution uses Pixie PointsTM, the world's most advanced tags to give every day physical items a digital identity that can be quickly located with the Pixie app powered by the Location of Things platform. To Pixify items, Pixie Points affix to everything from keys, wallets and remotes to toys, passports and luggage, allowing them be quickly located with an iOS device. To find Pixified items, users simply open the Pixie app and tap the misplaced item they need to find, e.g. car keys. The app immediately says whether the item is close by and guides users to its location in the following three simple steps: Map it - With a motion similar to taking a panoramic photo, a simple scan of the room maps the immediate environment and locates Pixified items' positions relative to the user. - With a motion similar to taking a panoramic photo, a simple scan of the room maps the immediate environment and locates Pixified items' positions relative to the user. Show it - The Pixie app reveals and points users to the location of the item with the Pixie Pointer, an arrow icon that shows both the direction and distance from the object. Pixie also has a unique, new trick up its sleeve Pixie Dust! Pixie displays an augmented reality overlay consisting of Pixie Dust that swarms to show where the item is in the room. The Pixie Dust and Pointer can even see through walls and objects to guide users to items that are hiding behind a cushion, in a drawer or in an adjoining room. - The Pixie app reveals and points users to the location of the item with the Pixie Pointer, an arrow icon that shows both the direction and distance from the object. Pixie also has a unique, new trick up its sleeve Pixie Dust! Pixie displays an augmented reality overlay consisting of Pixie Dust that swarms to show where the item is in the room. The Pixie Dust and Pointer can even see through walls and objects to guide users to items that are hiding behind a cushion, in a drawer or in an adjoining room. Grab it - Once users are within five fee of the lost item, the Pixie app acts like a metal detector to accurately zero-in on the target. The Pixie app provides visual and audio guidance to tell users if they are getting closer or farther away from the exact location of the object. Powering the Search Engine of Life The magic and accuracy of Pixie is the product of a highly advanced Location of Things (LoT) platform that creates micro-mesh networks in which all Pixie Points continually signal and communicate their relative distance from one another so that maps of all the Pixie Points can be calculated using similar principles to that of GPS systems. It is an entirely new technology architecture that was a significant and formidable undertaking, taking over three years to develop resulting in 10 patents to date. This first of its kind platform is one of the most completed location technologies ever created. While IoT technology allows objects to connect and be controlled via the internet, the Pixie LoT platform maps the location of connected objects. With the Pixie LoT platform, we will soon be in a world where everything around us can be given a digital identity and is instantly locatable. One Pixie Point is attached to a mobile phone to act like the anchor with the remaining points affixed to Pixified items. Each Pixie Point acts like a small satellite, providing distance information from each other just like GPS. They constantly communicate with each other through their internal, innovative signaling technology that continually triangulates their positions relative to each other within a 150 foot outdoor or 50 foot indoor range. The more Pixies in a network the greater the accuracy of the maps. "Current tracking solutions use basic technology and rely on sounds and alerts to approximate locations," said Amir Bassan-Eskenazi, CEO and co-founder of Pixie Technology. "With Pixie Points and our LoT platforms, we take the guess work out of tracking an object by showing people where an item is hiding through walls and down to inches. We will soon be in a world where everything around us can be given a digital identity, and Pixie looks forward to delivering a future where lost and misplaced items are a thing of the past." Availability With a 12 month battery life Pixie Points are 47mm x 35mm x 3.2mm in size and water and dust resistant to IP67 standards. They can be purchased on January 25, 2017, in a range of different packages at www.getpixie.com. For $99.99, a package of four Pixie Points can be purchased along with a Pixie Point housing iPhone case. A two pack along with iPhone cases will cost $49.99. Android capabilities and additional functionalities will follow with announcements later in 2017. About Pixie Technology Inc. Pixie Technology is the creator of the Location of Things (LoT) technology platform that makes location an exact science by allowing anyone to create a digital map of their things on the fly. Pixie uses beautifully designed tags called Pixie Points to establish a personal digital map of all tagged items so that it can help users locate lost items within inches. Pixie Technology is a privately held global company with offices in Los Altos, Boston and Israel, funded by top tier VCs Spark Capital, Cedar Fund, OurCrowd and private investors. Learn more at www.getpixie.com. Pixie Technology Contacts: Pixie Technology Contacts: Ian Twinn / Tandem Marketing Communications [email protected] | (917) 306-7270 To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/giving-peace-of-find-pixie-technology-announces-commercial-availability-of-its-latest-tracking-solution-powered-by-a-reengineered-location-of-things-platform-300384764.html SOURCE Pixie Technology Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 04, 2017] Clayton, Columbus Consolidated Government, DeKalb, Fulton, Macon-Bibb and River Valley Regional Commission Join Cobb and Gwinnett Counties in Lawsuits Against Telephone Service Providers to Recover More than $56 Million Owed for Vital 911 Services MARIETTA, Ga., Jan. 4, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Nineteen more local governments in Georgia have filed lawsuits against telephone service providers alleging they failed to properly bill, collect, report and remit 911 charges that help fund 911 emergency service operations. The suits were brought under a Georgia law that permits local governments to audit the books and records of service suppliers related to the collection and remittance of 911 charges. These cases follow similar suits filed by Cobb and Gwinnett counties in December of 2015. The local governments have hired The Barnes Law Group, Evangelista Worley, and Harris Penn Lowry to represent them, and have contracted with Expert Discovery, a telecommunications firm specializing in forensic analysis of 911 remittances. The suits allege as many as 55 telephone service providers in Georgia have been making inaccurate reports on the types and number of phone lines for which 911 fees are charged and paid, and that the shortfall causes significantly less funding for local governments to deliver critical 911 emergency services. Earlier this past summer, Gwinnett County Superior Court Judge Randolph G. Rich denied BellSouth's and Earthlink's request to dismiss the Cobb and Gwinnett lawsuits, a decision they have appealed. Thirteen other suits brought by Cobb and Gwinnett in state and federal courts are currently on hold pending the outcome of the appeal. The Georgia Court of Appeals has scheduled arguments for the cases in January. One of the lawyers representing Cobb and Gwinnett Counties is former Georgia Governor Roy E. Barnes, who says: "In total, 37 suits have now been filed to recover more than $100 million for 21 different local governments in Georgia that have asked for assistance, and more local governments are considering whether to bring similar suits." Another lawyer representing the local governments, Dave Worley, of Atlanta's Evangelista Worley, LLC, says: "These suits are necessary because the telephone service providers have a fiduciary responsibility to properly collect and remit 911 charges on behalf of the local governments. Based on the evidence we've reviewed, we believe that responsibility has not been met and our investigation over the last several years suggests the underbilling practice is as widespread in Metro-Atlanta as it is in the rural parts of the state." The suits allege that several telephone service providers in Georgia, including AT&T, Bandwidth and Windstream to name a few, "have failed to bill, collect, report, and remit 911 charges in accordance with the law." Thealleged underbilling practices are mostly geared to Georgia businesses in order to gain a competitive advantage over other telephone companies that follow the law. The suits allege that local governments in Georgia have been forced to use their operating and capital funds to close the shortfalls to keep the 911 centers operating. Barnes further says that: " Residential customers are being forced to pay a disproportionate share of 911 expenses, through increased 911 rates or property taxes, and that was never the intent of Georgia's 911 Act." According to Roger Schneider, founder and president of Expert Discovery, confidentiality provisions, the lack of technical knowledge and telecommunication expertise allow telephone service providers to keep these under-billing practices from being detected. The real driver is that they're under tremendous competitive pressure since the break-up of the Bell system to retain customers or win new ones that are increasingly shopping almost exclusively on price. "What is most unfair is a residential customer often ends up paying more than business customers. For example, a residential customer with one house line, one home business line and three cell phones in the family, pays the full freight of 911 charges, but a large business with 300 lines -- each capable of initiating a call to 911 -- is being charged a fraction of 911 charges for all those lines," said Schneider. "To be clear, it's not the fault of any business as they are just paying the bill they receive. These billing practices, however, are completely illogical, unfair and indefensible. The telephone service providers know it, yet they continue to do it the same way. We intend to shed light on these practices so that courts can decide whether telephone service providers are meeting their obligations under the law." The lawsuits were filed on January 4, 2017 in six different courts throughout Georgia. The Defendant telecommunication companies have 30 days to respond. A list of the Counties, Courts and Defendants listed in the lawsuits follows. LIST OF GEORGIA COUNTIES PURSUING RECOVERIES Clay, Cobb, Crisp, DeKalb, Dooly, Gwinnett, Fulton, Macon-Bibb, Marion, Muscogee, Quitman, Randolph, Talbot, Taylor, Schley, Stewart, Sumter and Webster UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF GEORGIA, ATLANTA DIVISION 1. Bandwidth.com CLEC, LLC and Bandwidth.com, Inc.; 2. Level 3 Communications, LLC and TW Telecom Holdings, LLC; 3. XO Communications Services, LLC; 4. Windstream Communications, LLC, Windstream NuVox Communications, LLC, US LEC OF GEORGIA, LLC, (DELAWARE), LDMI Telecommunications, LLC, Talk America, LLC F/K/A/ Talk America, Inc., and Network Telephone, LLC F/K/A Network Telephone Corporation F/K/A Network Telephone, Inc.; 5. Verizon Communications, Inc., Verizon Enterprise Solution LLC, Verizon Long Distance LLC, Verizon Wireless (VAW) Inc., ALLTEL Communications, LLC and MCIMetro Access Transmission Services, LLC (DELAWARE); 6. YMAX Communications Corp.; 7. Comcast Business Communications, LLC, Comcast Phone of Georgia, LLC, Comcast IP Phone LLC, Comcast IP Phone II, LLC and New Global Telecom, Inc.; 8. BroadRiver Communication Corporation and Virtual Citadel, Inc. F/K/A/ BroadRiver, Inc.; 9. Broadvox, LLC, Broadvox-CLEC, LLC, Broadvox, Inc. and Cypress Communications, LLC (DE); 10. Peerless Network of Georgia LLC, Peerless Network, Inc., and Peerless Enterprise Cloud Services, LLC; 11. Inteliquent, Inc.; 12. Charter Fiberlink Georgia, LLC and Charter Advanced Services (GA), LLC; 13. Cox Georgia Telcom, LLC and Cox Communications, Inc.; 14. Knology of Georgia, Inc. and Knology Broadband, Inc.; 15. Local Access, LLC; 16. Mediacom Communications Corporation, MCC Telephony of Georgia, LLC and MCC Georgia, LLC; SUPERIOR COURT OF BIBB COUNTY, GEORGIA 17. Public Service Telephone Company; SUPERIOR COURT OF GWINNETT COUNTY, GEORGIA 18. BellSouth Telecommunications, LLC d/b/a AT&T GEORGIA, AT & T Corp., New Cingular Wireless PCS, LLC; 19. Earthlink, Inc., Earthlink, LLC, DELTACOM, LLC, Business Telecom, LLC; 20. Cbeyond Communications, LLC, Birch Communications, Inc., Birch Telecom of the South, Inc. d/b/a Birch Communications; SUPERIOR COURT OF PULASKI COUNTY, GEORGIA 21. ComSouth Telecommunications, Inc., ComSouth Telenet, Inc., ComSouth Teleservices, Inc. and ComSouth Telesys, Inc.; SUPERIOR COURT OF SUMTER COUNTY, GEORGIA 22. Citizens Telephone Co., Inc. CONTACT: John R. Bevis The Barnes Law Group (770) 227-6375 | [email protected] To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/clayton-columbus-consolidated-government-dekalb-fulton-macon-bibb-and-river-valley-regional-commission-join-cobb-and-gwinnett-counties-in-lawsuits-against-telephone-service-providers-to-recover-more-than-56-million-owed-for-v-300385821.html SOURCE The Barnes Law Group [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 04, 2017] Sungrow Wins a Contract Supplying 200MW PV Inverters to Blue Capital Management Co., Ltd. in Japan TOKYO, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Sungrow, the world's leading PV inverter manufacturer, has recently signed an agreement with Blue Capital Management Co., Ltd, a Japanese developer, for the supply of 200 MW of central inverters in Japan. Tokyo-based developer Blue Power noted that they felt confident in the agreement "as Sungrow has excellent manufacturing operation and provides reliable inverters with proven quality". The plant will be completed in three years. And Blue Power plans to build total 500MW in the future. The project will employ Sungrow's SG2000 central inverter. he inverter features a containerized design which saves costs related to logistics and installation. The SG2000 enables all components to be accessed without entering the container, and like all other Sungrow products, reaches up to 99% efficiency. "Sungrow remains dedicated to bringing green and effective energy to markets in need all around the world. We will continue to offer class-leading products and services to our Japanese partners." said Professor Renxian Cao, President of Sungrow. About Sungrow Sungrow is the world's leading PV-inverter manufacturer with over 26GW installed globally. Founded in 1997 by the University Professor Renxian Cao, Sungrow is the global leader in research and development in solar inverters, with numerous patents and a broad product portfolio offering solutions for residential, commercial and industrial applications. With a 20-year track record of growth and success, Sungrow's products are available in over 50 countries, and have maintained a market share of over 30% in China. In 2015, Sungrow successfully occupied a over 20% market share in Germany. Sungrow topped the world with PV inverter shipments in 2015 totaling 8.9GW. To learn more about Sungrow, please visit http://www.sungrowpower.com. Photo - http://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20161228/0861614133 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 04, 2017] Robins Kaplan LLP Appointed Co-Lead Counsel in Class Action Antitrust Lawsuit Alleging Collusion Among Suppliers of Saline to U.S. Hospitals National trial firm Robins Kaplan LLP announced today that it has been appointed co-lead counsel in a class action antitrust lawsuit against the three dominant suppliers of IV saline solution, a vital medical supply used in hospitals nationwide. Robins Kaplan filed the first complaint in the country in November 2016 alleging that defendants Baxter International, Baxter Healthcare, and Hospira-which together control approximately 90 percent of the market-orchestrated an artificial rise in prices under the pretext of a supply shortage. "The complaint alleges that the defendants created a public health crisis-one that was avoidable and that unnecessarily drove up the cost of healthcare for hospitals and vulnerable patients," said Hollis Salzman, co-chair of Robins Kaplan's Antitrust and Trade Regulation group. "We look forward to pursuing this action, obtaining redress for hospitals and others that have paid a higher price resulting from the defendants' allegd collusion." According to the allegations in the complaint, beginning in 2013 the defendants undertook extensive efforts to create a supply shortage that would justify price increases, including allocating the volume of product that each would place on the market. In addition, as the purported shortage extended over time, it became the subject of Congressional scrutiny. Approximately one year ago, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators urged the Federal Trade Commission to investigate possible collusion among saline suppliers, which it noted "are reported to have increased their prices by 200-300 percent." The letter continued: "This equates to increased annual costs to individual hospitals in the range of hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars." As court-appointed co-lead counsel, Robins Kaplan represents a proposed class of direct purchasers, including hospitals, that purchased IV saline solution after January 1, 2013. Providers of IV saline solution generate in excess of $1.2 billion in annual revenue. Hollis Salzman, as well as Robins Kaplan of counsel Eamon O'Kelly and associate Meegan Hollywood, are representing the plaintiffs. The case is Washington County Health Care Authority, Inc. et al. vs. Baxter International Inc., et al. It is pending in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois before the Hon. John J. Tharp, Jr. About Robins Kaplan LLP Robins Kaplan is among the nation's premier trial law firms, with more than 220 lawyers located in Boston; Los Angeles; Minneapolis; Naples, Fla; New York; and Silicon Valley. The firm litigates, mediates, and arbitrates high-stakes, complex disputes, repeatedly earning national recognition. Firm clients include-as both plaintiffs and defendants-numerous Fortune 500 corporations, emerging-markets companies, entrepreneurs, and individuals. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170104006550/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 04, 2017] Bahrain Petroleum Company Leads MENA Oil & Gas Sector with First Avaya Fabric Network MANAMA, Bahrain, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco), the national oil company of Bahrain, has chosen Avaya's technology to transform its network infrastructure. In line with its business objectives of rebranding and digital transformation, Bapco will deploy Avaya's next-generation Fabric technology to power the corporate network across its locations in Bahrain, enabling the company to add services and devices securely and seamlessly in the Internet of Things (IoT) era. (Photo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/453208/Avaya_Fabric_Network.jpg ) The first company to discover oil in the Arabian Peninsula in 1932, Bapco will become the first company in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region's oil & gas sector to deploy Avaya's next-generation Fabric ntworking solution. The technology chosen will give Bapco a future-proof infrastructure, providing simplicity and reliability for the deployment of new services as and when needed. With minimal configuration touch points, the technology reduces human error, and guarantees the resiliency necessary to avoid outages and impact on business processes. The new network infrastructure will provide connectivity for a range of services, including voice, data, CCTV, video, digital signage, and more. The technology chosen allows Bapco to benefit from emerging trends such as cloud, mobility and the IoT safely and securely. By enabling Bapco to create stealth, hyper-segments within their network, Avaya provides the elasticity to protect the 'everywhere perimeter,' delivering end-to-end network segmentation. Devices and services can be provisioned quickly and easily, reducing rollout time. Bapco is a regional leader in the oil & gas sector and an important contributor to modern Bahrain, accounting for a significant portion of the region's energy-related activities. Wholly-owned by the Government of Bahrain, Bapco's activities include refining, storage, production, marketing, training and development, and environmental initiatives in the kingdom. Quotes "Bapco has never stood still and we are always looking at how we can use technology to further our leadership in the oil & gas sector. We require a networking infrastructure that can meet our needs for today and enable us to deliver the services required in the future. Avaya's state-of-the-art technology will deliver the resiliency, scalability and security to ensure there is no impact on business processes, while simplifying the provisioning of new services as and when required." Mr. Daij Khalifa, Manager - Information Technology, Bapco For more information, please visit www.avaya.com [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 04, 2017] Chubb Life Bagged Six Awards at the Benchmark Wealth Management Awards 2016 HONG KONG, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Chubb Life, the global life insurance division of Chubb, today announced that its life insurance subsidiary in Hong Kong has been awarded the title of "Best-in-Class", the highest accolade, in three categories, namely Critical Illness Insurance, Human Capital Development and Social Media Engagement at the esteemed BENCHMARK Wealth Management Awards 2016 ("the Awards"). Apart from the "Best-in-Class" titles, Chubb Life in Hong Kong was also honored with the "Outstanding Achiever Award" in three categories, namely Retirement Product, Universal Life Insurance (All Currencies) and Customer On-boarding. Winning such prestigious accolades in these Awards for four consecutive years demonstrates Chubb Life's commitment to providing innovative and diverse insurance solutions that benefit customers and society. Organized by WealthAsia Media, publisher of its flagship magazine BENCHMARK, the Awards aim to recognize the financial institutions who execute and implement the best practices over the year. This year, the Awards have been split into "Insurance" and "Banking" sectors, aiming to recognize insurers who trive for best practice, whilst adding value for customers in wealth management. Ben Ng, Chief Marketing Officer of Chubb Life in Hong Kong, said, "We are proud to have achieved the BENCHMARK Wealth Management Awards across a diverse range of categories, which recognizes our excellent capabilities designed to innovate, enhance growth, retain talent and drive customer interaction, resulting in closer client relationships and higher satisfaction. By offering a wide array of quality products, Chubb Life is committed to providing strategic and effective insurance solutions to cater to the short-term and long-term needs of our customers at different stages of life." Now in its seventh year, the Awards comprise 26 categories covering industry best practice in products and capabilities, and is assessed by a panel of independent jurors including industry judges, peers and customers. A public engagement element was also introduced to the competition this year, asking the social media followers of shortlisted finalists to share their opinions of their insurers, to further evaluate the performance of these companies through direct engagement with their customers. About Chubb Life in Hong Kong Chubb Life is the global life insurance division of Chubb, the world's largest publicly traded property and casualty insurance company. With operations in 54 countries, Chubb provides commercial and personal property and casualty insurance, personal accident and supplemental health insurance, reinsurance and life insurance to a diverse group of clients. As an underwriting company, we assess, assume and manage risk with insight and discipline. We service and pay our claims fairly and promptly. The company is also defined by its extensive product and service offerings, broad distribution capabilities, exceptional financial strength and local operations globally. Chubb Limited, the parent company of Chubb Group, is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: CB) and is a component of the S&P 500 index. Chubb's core operating insurance companies are rated AA for financial strength by Standard & Poor's and A++ by A.M. Best. Chubb maintains executive offices in Zurich, New York, London and other locations, and employs approximately 31,000 people worldwide. With both general and life insurance operations, Chubb has been present in Hong Kong for more than 90 years, via acquisitions by its predecessor companies. To meet the financial protection and security needs of its broad range of customers in Hong Kong, Chubb Life in Hong Kong (Chubb Life Insurance Company Ltd.) offers a comprehensive array of quality life and medical insurance products and services. More information can be found at life.chubb.com/hk. Photo - http://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20170105/8521700078 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 04, 2017] Living in Digital Times Offers Press Breakfast Series at CES 2017 LAS VEGAS, Jan. 4, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- What new trends and lifestyle tech should we watch for at CES 2017? Join Living in Digital Times for a press breakfast series showcasing more than 30 of the most innovative technology products for families, kids and education, as well as wearables and digital money, while highlighting some of the most dramatic market changes. Breakfast will be served each morning and all three press conferences will take place at Tech West, Venetian, Level 2, Bellini 2003. "The innovations you'll see and hear about at our press conferences offer press insight into the hottest trends at the show this year and get them up to speed on all the emerging lifestyle tech they need to know about," said Robin Raskin, founder and president, Living in Digital Times. "Plus, you get a great breakfast to start the day." Here's a preview of what you'll see at each press conference: Kids, Family and Education Technology Thursday, January 5, 2017 10:00 AM -11:15 AM Tonda Bunge Sellers, producer, Living in Digital Times, will kick off the series with a look at kids, family and education tech. Augmented and virtual reality, AI are among the innovative tech creating a new generation of screen-less kids, while the internet of things and smart home products are freeing up parents and giving them back some much-needed family time. For education, technology is transforming the industry from early learning to lifelong learning, to meet the needs of a changing population through deep machine learning and hyper-personalized curriculums. Companies that will be showcasing their exciting new products at the press breakfast include: Wonder Workshop Square Panda NeoBear ASTRA The Lego Group Edwin the Duck AvatarMind Jyro Pearl Automation MOTO Group Intelligent Steward Shenzhen DIT Security Yantai Wiscloud Capella Wearables Friday, January 6, 2017 9:00 AM - 9:45 AM Robin Raskin will lead the discussion at the first press conference of the day. We'll look at how the wearables market is quickly feeling at home in places beyond our wrist. From high tech fabrics to headwear and hearables, wearables are freeing us from our mobile devices, making otdoor activities safer and helping improve our health and well-being. Here's a look at some of the companies who will have hot new products at the press breakfast: TrackR Tappy Technologies Boltt OrCam Wistiki HButler Mobvio Ming Young Biomedical KimAscend Livall Digital Money Friday, January 6, 2017 9:45 AM -10:15 AM Alistair Croll, Founder, Solve for Interesting, will host the press conference focusing on the tech that is helping to transform our economy into a digital one. We're speeding towards a world of "digital money." Robo-advisors are helping us manage our wealth, mobile payments are making transactions easier and faster and the emerging Internet of Things are all playing a role. Here's a look at some of the companies who will have hot new products at the press breakfast: National Merchants Association Creditcards.com NXP Simiconductors PaySe USA Technologies Technologies Modo Payments After the press conferences and throughout CES, be sure to check out the latest innovations at the Family & Technology, Kids & Technology, Education & Technology, Wearables, Marketplace exhibits at Tech West, Sands, Level 2, Halls A-C. Tweet this: Exclusive #CES2017 press conference & breakfast @LIDTEvents #lidtevents http://bit.ly/1MzXhad About Living in Digital Times Founded by veteran technology journalist Robin Raskin, Living in Digital Times brings together the most knowledgeable leaders and the latest innovations impacting both technology and lifestyle. It helps companies identify and act on emerging trends, create compelling company narratives, and do better business through strong network connections. Living in Digital Times produces technology conferences, exhibits and events at CES and other locations throughout the year by lifestyle verticals. Core brands include Digital Health Summit, Digital Money Forum, FitnessTech, BabyTech, [email protected], Family Tech Summit, TransformingEDU, FamilyTech TV, BeautyTech, Wearables and FashionWare runway show, Mobile Apps Showdown, Last Gadget Standing, Robots on the Runway and the KAPi Awards. The company also works with various foundations and manages the Appreneur Scholar awards program for budding mobile entrepreneurs, as well as the 10 Under 20: Young Innovators to Watch awards recognizing student STEAM innovations in New York City. For more information, visit www.LivinginDigitalTimes.com and keep up with our latest news on Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook. About CES: CES is the world's gathering place for all who thrive on the business of consumer technologies. It has served as the proving ground for innovators and breakthrough technologies for 50 yearsthe global stage where next-generation innovations are introduced to the marketplace. As the largest hands-on event of its kind, CES features all aspects of the industry. Owned and produced by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), the technology trade association representing the $287 billion U.S. consumer technology industry, it attracts the world's business leaders and pioneering thinkers. Check out CES video highlights. Follow CES online at CES.tech and on social. Media Contact: Karen Pineman LKPR, Inc. for Living in Digital Times [email protected] 917-453-6887 (mobile) To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/living-in-digital-times-offers-press-breakfast-series-at-ces-2017-300386048.html SOURCE Living in Digital Times [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] By Saurabh Vaktania: Man booked for Powai boat capsized incident, assaulted manager and workers of Maharashtra state Angling Association (MSAA) after being expelled from the club membership. The whole incident occurred on Wednesday and captured on CCTV camera. On December 23 night, a group of eight friends had gone to party on the Powai lake before the Christmas eve. The boat overturned after hitting rocks. Five people were saved but three died after drowning. advertisement After the incident an filed FIR was filed and boat owner Newton Joshua, 49 was arrested. Boat navigator Abu Mandal, 25 and manager Maqbool Sheikh, 45. Joshua was later released on bail .ACCUSED TERMINATED FROM MSAA The MSAA in the matter took urgent meeting and terminated membership of Newton Joshua. Attached the letter copy of termination letter from MSAA. Joshua angered over the termination went inside the office and assaulted the staff members on Wednesday. He even took his two dogs with him in the office and threatened to unleash the dogs on them. In CCTV footage, Joshua is seen slapping one of the staff. He even damaged the electronic items present in the office. CO-WORKERS IN SHOCK The incident shockwaves among the co-workers who were present at the office. He also hit a worker with a rope kept for boating. Senior police inspector Bhai Mahadeshwar of Powai police station speaking to India Today said, "Joshua is accused on the boat capsize incident. He was arrested and later released on bail. In the current case we have registered NC in the matter." Also read: Three drown as boat capsizes in Mumbai lake --- ENDS --- [January 04, 2017] Increased Ransomware and Targeted Attacks Generate Double-digit Growth Opportunities for Asia-Pacific Network-based Advanced Malware Analysis Solutions KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Jan. 4, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- In the Asia-Pacific region, network-based advanced malware analysis solutions (NAMA) are in high demand due to a rise in advanced malware, ransomware, state-sponsored and cyber-attacks on government agencies, bank systems and critical infrastructures. Organisations and governments are seeking effective, real-time advanced detection technologies and security solutions to prevent potential security breaches, liabilities, and financial and reputation losses. "Ransomware, zero-day and other targeted attacks have caused several banks and finance institutes in the region to invest in advanced threat detection as legacy security technologies are unable to identify evolving threats," said Frost & Sullivan Cyber Security Industry Analyst Vu Anh Tien. "While NAMA solutions can address this issue, the cost and complexity of implementation and the increasing competition from other signature-less detection technologies hinder market penetration and adoption." Asia-Pacific Network-based Advanced Malware Analysis (NAMA) Solutions Market is part of Frost &Sullivan's Cyber Security Growth Partnership Service program, which tracks the evolving threat landscape across the following strategic and operational areas: critical national infrastructure, managed scurity services, cyber security solutions, and cyber competitive environment. Click here for complimentary access to more information on this analysis and to register for a Growth Strategy Dialogue, a free interactive briefing with Frost & Sullivan's thought leaders. The Asia-Pacific market recorded vendor revenues of US$133.9 million in 2015, representing tremendous growth of 66.5 percent over the previous year. Japan led the market, generating US$32.9 million in 2015, followed by Australia-New Zealand contributing US$32.0 million. ASEAN was the third-largest contributor with 92.7 percent growth over the previous year for 2015. The Greater China region experienced a robust growth of 75.5 percent, making it the fourth-largest revenue contributor in the Asia-Pacific region. "Local managed security providers must build partnerships with NAMA solution vendors to drive growth and adoption for enterprises in Asia-Pacific," noted Tien. "Networking appliance manufacturers can form original equipment manufacturer partnerships with cloud-based NAMA providers to bring advanced protection against malware attacks in the network and drive adoption of NAMA technologies." About Frost & Sullivan Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, works in collaboration with clients to leverage visionary innovation that addresses the global challenges and related growth opportunities that will make or break today's market participants. For more than 50 years, we have been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector and the investment community. Contact us: Start the discussion Asia-Pacific Network-based Advanced Malware Analysis (NAMA) Solutions Market P948-74 Contact: Carrie Low Corporate Communications Asia-Pacific P: +603 6204 5910 F: +603 6201 7402 E: [email protected] www.frost.com To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/increased-ransomware-and-targeted-attacks-generate-double-digit-growth-opportunities-for-asia-pacific-network-based-advanced-malware-analysis-solutions-300386083.html SOURCE Frost & Sullivan [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 04, 2017] Samsung Unveils Laundry Game-Changer at CES 2017 with New Four-in-One Laundry System New FlexWash + FlexDry incorporates capabilities of two washers and two dryers into one incredibly versatile system to deliver an advanced, flexible laundry solution for today's families MISSISSAUGA, ON, Jan. 4, 2017 /CNW/ - Samsung Electronics Canada introduced its revolutionary FlexWash + FlexDry laundry system at CES 2017 in Las Vegas. This versatile laundry pair was designed to offer two washers and two dryers in one system, providing Canadians more choices to do laundry the way they want, in all types of situations. Incorporating a range of core Samsung laundry technologies, FlexWash + FlexDry is an intuitive innovation that provides an advanced, flexible laundry solution to meet the needs of today's busy families. Within the two machines, each distinct laundry compartment includes features to tackle washing needs. The FlexWash front-loader is equipped with 5.8 cubic feet of capacity among the largest in its class1 to handle normal or bulky loads. Meanwhile, the FlexWash top-loader adds another 1.1 cubic feet of capacity and is built to wash smaller loads separately from the main load. To power through big laundry loads, users can operate both washers at the same time with different settings. To dry fabrics, FlexDry has the ability to tackle large laundry loads with the added flexibility to dry a few delicate items at the same time. Users can lay clothes flat in the unique Delicate Rack zone at the top of the dryer and gently dry delicates with a controlled, heated air flow. The special zone adjusts the heat between room temperature and 35 degrees Celsius automatically depending on the type of fabric being dried. The main dryer compartment also uses MultiSteam technology to freshen and disinfect clothes while reducing odours and wrinkles. "Everyone has different ways o caring for their clothes," said Warner Doell, Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Digital Appliances, Samsung Canada. "Finally, FlexSystem is an intuitive laundry system ideal for time-pressed consumers who can complete two wash loads and dry loads at the same time. We strive to provide Canadians the freedom and flexibility to adjust the laundry process for the way they live." The new FlexSystem laundry approach was developed to transform the marketplace as consumers discover an efficient and effective way to sort on the fly and tackle the laundry process. The ability to operate all four compartments separately and simultaneously addresses strong consumer demand to wash clothes faster while still keeping items separate. The new FlexWash washer uses three core Samsung laundry technologies: SuperSpeed, PowerFoam and Vibration Reduction Technology (VRT). SuperSpeed shortens wash cycles to as little as 30 minutes from the usual 60 minutes, while PowerFoam technology uses an innovative mixture of water, air and detergent to deep clean event the bulkiest items with the power of foam. VRT is engineered to minimize vibration and keep the noise level down. For ease of use and installation, the FlexWash washer does not require two separate water lines. Additionally, easy-to-reach top-load areas on each washer and dryer unit allow consumers to more comfortably load or unload laundry. And transparent glass on the top-load compartments makes it simple to check on laundry cycles at a glance. Finally, FlexSystem is IoT-enabled, backed by smart features that will allow users to control the FlexWash + FlexDry machines with their smartphones2, using the Samsung Smart Home app. They will be able to start, stop and monitor every cycle for both machines. FlexWash + FlexDry are both CES Innovation Award honourees in 2017, continuing a string of wins for innovations including activewash in 2015 and AddWash in 2016. About Samsung Electronics Canada Samsung Electronics Canada inspires the world and shapes the future with transformative ideas and technologies. The company is redefining the worlds of TVs, smartphones, wearable devices, tablets, cameras and digital appliances. In 2016, Samsung was ranked in the top 10 most influential and reputable brands in Canada, based on studies by Ipsos Reid & Leger. Committed to helping Canadians live connected and make a difference, its Samsung Hope for Children corporate giving program supports children's education, sustainability and health-related issues in communities across the country. To discover more, please visit www.samsung.com. Follow Samsung Canada at facebook.com/SamsungCanada, on Twitter @SamsungCanada ______________________ 1 Among the largest capacity washing machines in their class based on manufacturers' published specs of front load washers with a width of 27 inches. 2 The Samsung Smart Home app supports Android OS 4.0 (ICS) or later which is optimized for Samsung smartphones (Galaxy S and Galaxy Note series). This app also supports iOS 7 or later models. Smart Home App available in App Store and Play Store. SOURCE Samsung Electronics Canada [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 04, 2017] Huawei Mate 9 Breakthrough Smartphone Lands in the U.S. LAS VEGAS, Jan. 4, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Today at a pre-CES event, Huawei Device USA revealed that its highly-acclaimed Huawei Mate 9 will be available in the United States starting January 6, 2017. Building on Huawei's renowned innovation, the beautifully-designed Mate 9 delivers an all-new Android experience, featuring fast computing performance for 18 months with the new Kirin 960 chipset and machine-learning algorithm, SuperCharge technology for safe and fast charging, and a stunning new photo experience. "Response to Huawei Mate 9 has been extremely positive, resulting in numerous industry awards and accolades," said Zhendong Zhu, President, Huawei Device USA. "With Mate 9, we set out to improve every element of the smartphone experience, creating a dynamic and powerful device that takes a big step forward in what consumers expect in a smartphone. We're excited to introduce the Mate 9 flagship device to the U.S. market." Huawei Mate 9 features a dynamic interplay of industry-leading hardware and advanced software that work together to keep users a step ahead. Key features include: Kirin 960 chipset, the world's highest performing smartphone processor*, machine learning to make the phone smarter, data stored locally Born fast and stays fast for 18 months addressing the nagging issue of phone lagging after use for a while SuperCharge technology that delivers a full day's charge in roughly 20 minutes Second-generation Leica dual-lens camera with 12-megapixel RGB sensor, 20-megapixel monochrome sensor featuring Hybrid Zoom, and superior 2x magnification EMUI 5.0, an intuitive user interface that streamlines the user's experience with the OS Amazon Alexa, a cloud-based voice service, that helps customers easily perform everyday tasks like controlling their smart home or checking the daily news using just their voice. Mate 9 is the first announced smartphone with a pre-installed voice-interactive app with Amazon Alexa. Maximum Performance and Speed with Kirin 960 With over 100-million units sold, Huawei's Kirin chipsets deliver fast, reliable mobile devices. Huawei Mate 9 is the first Huawei device powered by the premium Kirin 960 chipset which features a Machine Learning Algorithm that helps deliver a fast and smooth experience, even after 18 months of continuous use. The Kirin 960 is the world's first chipset to feature an ARM Cortex-A73/A53 Octa-core CPU and Mali G71 Octa-core GPU. The CPU delivers the best multi-core performance among all smartphone SoCs, while reducing power consumption by 15 percent. Compared to its predecessor, the GPU boasts a 180 percent performance uplift and a 40 percent improvement in energy efficiency. The Kirin 960 also takes full advantage of the pioneering Vulkan graphics standard on Android 7.0, increasing graphics performance by up to 400 percent. Safer, Faster Charging Battery The Huawei Mate 9 features 4000 mAh high-density battery and advanced power-saving technology to provide over two days of uninterrupted performance. In addition, Mate 9 supports 5A fast charging with new SuperCharge technology. Just a 10-minute charge provides enough power to watch two full movies. The Mate 9 battery sets a new standard in charging technology safety, with Super Safe 15-gate protection, which features real-time voltage, current, and temperature monitoring to eliminate safety hazards. A New Standard in Smartphone Photography Following the success of the Huawei P9 smartphone, the Mate 9 features the second-generation dual-lens camera co-engineered with Leica. Huawei and Leica have continued to improve and enhance the optical performance of the camera module, which now includes a 12-megapixel/F2.2 RGB sensor and a 20-megapixel/F2.2 monochrome sensor. In addition, Mate 9 features enhanced image fusion algorithms that work together to produce more stunning photography. The RGB sensor captures true-to-life colors, while the monochrome sensor captures intricate details and depth delivering on the iconic Leica Image Style. Paired with a dual-lens camera Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) solution and the industry's first dual-camera pixel-binning technology, the Huawei Mate 9 has superior night-shot capability. The Huawei Mate 9 camera also features Hybrid Zoom and a 4-1 Hybrid Auto-focus that utilizes laser focus, phase detection focus, depth focus, and contrast focus to capture the perfect picture. The Android Experience Reimagined With the introduction of EMUI 5.0, Huawei Mate 9 reimagines the native Android operating system using Linux to improve the experience, aesthetics, and functionality. EMUI 5.0 makes the Huawei Mate 9 even more intelligent and efficient over time by enabling the UX to learn consumers' behavior patterns and ensures high-priority applications are given preference, subject to system resources. This guarantees a long-lasting, smooth experience, slowing down the performance erosion that smartphone devices experience. EMUI 5.0 also introduces a new, intuitive interface design. With EMUI, more than 50 percent of features can be reached with two clicks, while over 90 percent can be reached within three clicks. Mate 9 - First introduced Smartphone with Amazon Alexa Huawei also announced it will bring Alexa, Amazon's cloud-based voice service, to the Huawei Mate 9. Customers can ask Alexa to set an alarm, or build to-do lists; get the weather, traffic reports, and more. In addition, Alexa can also control a broad array of smart home devices. Available in early 2017, access to Amazon Alexa will be pre-installed in an app on Mate 9, providing customers with a natural, convenient user interface to perform tasks and get information. For existing Mate 9 owners at that time, it will be available by over-the-air update. Huawei and Amazon will collaborate to develop rich voice activated consumer experiences for mobile users. Pricing and Availability The HUAWEI Mate 9 is available in Space Gray and Moonlight Silver Priced at MSRP $599.99 , HUAWEI Mate 9 will be sold in more than 600 Best Buy stores and on BestBuy.com, as well as on e-retailers Amazon (www.amazon.com), Newegg (www.newegg.com), and B&H (www.bhphotovideo.com). *Geekbench 4.0.0 multi-core CPU performance and DDR performance. About Huawei Consumer BG Huawei's products and services are available in more than 170 countries, and are used by a third of the world's population, ranking third in the world in mobile phone shipments in 2016. Sixteen R&D centers have been set up in the United States, Germany, Sweden, Russia, India, and China. Huawei Consumer BG is one of Huawei's three business units and covers smartphones, mobile broadband devices, home devices and cloud services. Huawei's global network is built on 20 years of expertise in the telecom industry and is dedicated to delivering the latest technological advances to consumers around the world. For more information, please visit: http://consumer.Huawei.com/ For more information, visit Huawei Consumer BG online: consumer.huawei.com/us. For regular updates on Huawei Consumer BG, follow us on: Facebook: facebook.com/huaweideviceusa Twitter: twitter.com/HuaweiDeviceUSA Google+: plus.google.com/+HuaweiDeviceUSA YouTube: youtube.com/user/HuaweiDeviceUSA Instagram: instagram.com/huaweideviceusa Media contacts: Raphel Finelli Huawei Device USA [email protected] 408-667-5970 Natalie Sauve High Road for Huawei Device USA (613) 688.1187 [email protected] To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/huawei-mate-9-breakthrough-smartphone-lands-in-the-us-300386023.html SOURCE Huawei [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 05, 2017] WISeKey Makes Available Its Cryptographic Root of Trust to IoT Manufacturers (OEMs) and Service Providers (SPs) Worldwide to Protect Their Devices and Services WISeKey International Holding Ltd (WIHN.SW) ("WISeKey") today announced that it has made available its Cryptographic Root of Trust (RoT) to IoT manufacturers (OEMs) and service providers (SPs) worldwide allowing them to add the RoT at the IoT hardware level to encrypt the communication and authenticate their devices. WISeKey is already working with many IoT manufactures in China and India and has developed an IoT center of excellency in both countries. WISeKey will be cooperating with local companies participating at these IoT centers of excellence on building points of view, proof of concepts, policies, educational materials including addressing all the distributed ledger capabilities across different Blockchain schemes (public, consortium and private), with industry verticalization and domain specialization (IoT, transactions, messaging, etc.), underpinned by the best underlying technologies from startups, its key partners and from the community. WISeKey is currently offering IoT manufacturers the possibility of deploying large scale IoT ecosystems using its Cryptographic RoT and NFCTrusted technology. This trusted technology integrates wearable technology with secure authentication and identification, in both physical and virtual environments, and empowers IoT and wearable devices to become secure transactional devices. WISeKey has patented this process in the USA as it is currently used by many IoT providers, for more information, click here. The RoT serves as a common trust anchor, which is recognized by the operating system (OS) and applications, to ensure the authenticity, confidentiality and integrity of on-line transactions. With the Cryptographic RoT embedded on the device, the IoT product manufacturers can use code-signing certificates and a cloud-based signature-as-a-service to secure interactions among objects and between objects and people. At the heart of this strategy is the OISTE-WISeKey Cryptographic RoT which has been actively used since 1999 by over 2.6 billion desktop, browsers, mobile devices, SSL certificates and IoT devices. The OISTE WISeKey Cryptographic RoT is a universal technology and a pioneer in the identification of objects. The WISeID NFCTrusted can be embedded in a connected device without requiring device modification or app downloads. WISeKey's NFCTrusted technology is an evolution of the WISeAuthentic solution that WISeKey has already deployed with several leading luxury brands, including over 1 million watches digitally tagged and for which WISeKey recently obtained a US patent (http://goo.gl/ozgOQm). Addressing fast growing IoT market The ability to authenticate and remotely manage millions of networked, automated devices and equipment is becoming pervasive - from factory floors, to hospital operating rooms, to residential homes - including billions of objects and devices from refrigerators, watches, wearables to wine bottles - everything that can connect and communicate via the Internet. The IoT security market is expected to grow from $6.89 billion in 2015 to nearly $29 billion by 2020 according to a report published by Markets and Markets, thus growing at an annual rate of 35%. These massively deployed connected objects are facing regular attacks hence generating a large need for trusted end-to-end cybersecurity solutions. This problem is affecting billions of people and IoT devices worldwide, and manufactures of these devices could be forced or incentivized to spend money to make their devices secure, as regulators might impose liabilities on them. The rapid growth of the number of connected devices is driving the shift from the current traditional mobile payment method to highly secure transactions from wearable devices using trusted communications and authentication technology. WISeKey's Cryptographic RT and NFCTrusted technology enables these wearable devices to connect safely and make secure payments and other transactions. Our computers and smartphones are as secure as they are because there are teams of specialized security experts working in companies like Google, Microsoft (News - Alert), Apple etc. ensuring their customers are protected. These companies spend a lot of time testing their code before it's released, and quickly patch vulnerabilities when they're discovered. Those companies can support such teams because those companies make a huge amount of money, either directly or indirectly, from their software and, in part, compete on its security. This isn't true for IoT hardware manufacturers putting unprotected IoT on the market sold at a much lower margin, and are often built by offshore third parties. The companies involved simply don't have the expertise to make them secure. "The combination of IoT Cybersecurity technologies developed by WISeKey with Artificial Intelligence solutions are a game changer in our industry. This new platform opens up many possibilities for improving the overall security functionalities and creating new business processes by taking advantage of the world of digital identification at the object level, which once combined with big-data allows us to gather and process all available information and generate actionable insights," said Carlos Moreira, Founder and CEO of WISeKey. About WISeKey WISeKey (SIX Swiss Exchange: WIHN) is a leading cybersecurity currently deploying large scale Internet of Things ("IoT") digital identity ecosystems. WISeKey's Swiss based cryptographic Root of Trust ("RoT") integrates wearable technology with secure authentication and identification, in both physical and virtual environments, and empowers IoT and wearable devices to become secure transactional devices. The RoT serves as a common trust anchor, which is recognized by the operating system and applications, to ensure the authenticity, confidentiality and integrity of on-line transactions. With the cryptographic RoT embedded on the device, the IoT product manufacturers can use code-signing certificates and a cloud-based signature as a service to secure interactions among objects and between objects and people. WISeKey has patented this process in the USA as it is currently used by many IoT providers. Interested about WISeKey's latest news - subscribe to our Newsletter or visit WISeKey the Investors Corner. Disclaimer: This communication expressly or implicitly contains certain forward-looking statements concerning WISeKey International Holding Ltd and its business. Such statements involve certain known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of WISeKey International Holding Ltd to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. WISeKey International Holding Ltd is providing this communication as of this date and does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities, and it does not constitute an offering prospectus within the meaning of article 652a or article 1156 of the Swiss Code of Obligations or a listing prospectus within the meaning of the listing rules of the SIX Swiss Exchange. Investors must rely on their own evaluation of WISeKey and its securities, including the merits and risks involved. Nothing contained herein is, or shall be relied on as, a promise or representation as to the future performance of WISeKey. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170104006612/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 05, 2017] Not Just a Selfie, But an Attitude; Bestie Teaches You How to Shoot the Most Beautiful YOU CHENGDU, China, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Selfies and photo enhancements have become part of the daily lives of more and more people. Lately, a wildly popular App "Bestie" has taken Asia by storm; winning Apple's Best App of the Year award once again in Thailand for 2016. In the past few years, selfie apps have been pouring into the market. Since its launch in early 2015, "Bestie" has been striving to satisfy female tastes for beautiful and enhanced selfies, while endlessly continuing to optimize effects, making users' skin look more rosy and natural. Other than skin enhancement functions, Bestie has provided user with hundreds of filters, super cute stickers and even big-head sticker cameras, allowing girls to maximize their creativity and discover unlimited possibilities with selfies. At the same time, the product has continuously worked to simplify steps for users. Today, all you need to do is to lightly swipe the screen to adjust enhancement levels. You can also see real time previews of skin effects, giving a true feeling of "what you see is what you get." For users, "Bestie" isn't just a selfie machine, but a record of times past and an attitude towards life. For girls who love living life to the fullest, this is where they'll find the true joy of taking selfies. In the world of young adult females, "Bestie" doesn't just give them a chance to capture their beautiful selves at a moment's notice; but also a display of their unique characters, and confident disposition. From a product point of view, "Bestie" was developed by Chengdu PinGuo Technology Co., Ltd., the same team that brought outstanding mobile photography apps like Camera360 and MIX to the market. With such a solid foundation, it's without doubt that "Bestie" has done so well for itself. Since its launch in August of 2015, it's already been recommended globally on the App Store, and was one of App Store's 2015 featured apps. Overseas, "Bestie" isn't lacking either. Other than Korea's App Store and popular Japanese website recommendations, it's also won Google Play's Best App award in Indonesia in December of 2015. Excellent product quality and interesting features are what made "Bestie" a favorite among users of all ages and regions in such a short time. Photo - http://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20170105/0861700121 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 05, 2017] Dr. Malte Peters to Become New Chief Development Officer of MorphoSys AG The Supervisory Board of MorphoSys AG (Frankfurt Stock Exchange: MOR; Prime Standard Segment, TecDAX; OTC: MPSYY) has appointed Dr. Malte Peters as Chief Development Officer. Dr. Peters will take up the position on March 1, 2017 and will succeed Dr. Arndt Schottelius, who is leaving to pursue other opportunities. Dr. Peters joins MorphoSys from Sandoz, where he serves as Global Head, Clinical Development Biopharmaceuticals. Dr. Peters built his career in early and late-stage clinical development over the last 18 years. Prior to his latest role at Sandoz, he spent 12 years in various managerial positions within Novartis focusing on management of clinical development projects in oncology. Before that, Dr. Peters served in positions as Medical Director at Micromet AG and as Head of Translational Research and Pharmacogenomics at Merck KGaA. "Dr. Peters is an ideal addition to the Management Board of MorphoSys at this stage of the Company's growth. Drawing on his deep operational and medical experience in oncology and immunology, he will focus his efforts on the development of our clinical and pre-clinical programs, the most valuable assets driving our future growth. We look forward to welcoming him to MorphoSys." commented Dr. Gerald Moller, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of MorphoSys AG. "We would like to thank Dr. Schottelius for his invaluable contribution over the past eight years. He has built up the development area and was instrumental in transforming MorphoSys into a credible development organization with a very promising product portfolio. We wish him the very best for the future." Dr. Malte Peters' picture and CV can be downloaded here: www.morphosys.de/download About MorphoSys MorphoSys developed HuCAL, the most successful antibody library technology in the pharmaceutical industry. By successfully applying this and other patented technologies, MorphoSys has become a leader in the field of therapeutic antibodies, one of the fastest-growing drug classes in human healthcare. Together with its pharmaceutical partners, MorphoSys has built a therapeutic pipeline of more than 100 human antibody drug candidates for the treatment of cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and Alzheimer's disease, to name just a few. With its ongoing commitment to new antibody technology and drug development, MorphoSys is focused on making the healthcare products of tomorrow. MorphoSys is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol MOR. For regular updates about MorphoSys, visit http://www.morphosys.com. HuCAL(R), HuCAL GOLD(R), HuCAL PLATINUM(R), CysDisplay(R), RapMAT(R), arYla(R), Ylanthia(R), 100 billion high potentials(R), Slonomics(R), Lanthio Pharma(R) and LanthioPep(R) are registered trademarks of the MorphoSys Group. This communication contains certain forward-looking statements concerning the MorphoSys group of companies. The forward-looking statements contained herein represent the judgment of MorphoSys as of the date of this release and involve risks and uncertainties. Should actual conditions differ from the Company's assumptions, actual results and actions may differ from those anticipated. MorphoSys does not intend to update any of these forward- looking statements as far as the wording of the relevant press release is concerned. Language: English Company: MorphoSys AG Semmelweisstr. 7 82152 Planegg Germany Phone (News - Alert): +49 (0)89 899 27-0 Fax: +49 (0)89 899 27-222 E-mail: [email protected] Internet: www.morphosys.com ISIN: DE0006632003 WKN: 663200 Indices: TecDAX Listed: Regulated Market in Frankfurt (Prime Standard); Regulated Unofficial Market in Berlin, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Hanover, Munich, Stuttgart, Tradegate Exchange View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170104006614/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 05, 2017] Magellan Navigation App Debuts In SUBARU STARLINK Multimedia System For 2017 Models LAS VEGAS, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- CES 2017 Magellan, a leader in GPS navigation, announced today that its Magellan Navi navigation app for connected cars is now available in select 2017 SUBARU models, including the Impreza and BRZ, via the SUBARU STARLINK multimedia system. Magellan Navi brings powerful GPS satellite navigation features, the latest maps and routing accuracy by seamlessly connecting the smartphone app to the car's infotainment display. Magellan Navi is a featured app in the SUBARU STARLINK app, which can be downloaded on the Apple App Store and Google Play beginning today. The Magellan Navi app will be demonstrated on a Subaru (Impreza) at CES in the Magellan booth, LVCC North Hall booth # 4115. Magellan Navi connects to the car's head-unit display via Bluetooth or USB to deliver a voice-guided full navigation experience with lane guidance, millions of Points of Interest (POI) and more. A simplified, easy-to-use interface is designed to promote distraction-free driving. "Working together with a well-respected manufacturer like Subaru to bring best-in-class navigation solutions to their drivers is an honor," commented Pierre Parent, president of Magellan. "As a GPS industry pioneer, Magellan' navigation and routing engines have been developed and proven through years of R&D and testing. We're excited to be entering this new era of connected cars." "The excitement of the Magellan partnership, and the advanced technology, is that it allows us to leverage the SUBARU STARLINK infotainment system to essentially deliver a powerful navigation system to drivers who do not have an onboard navigation option," said Anthony Landamia, Manager, Infotainment Products for Subaru. For more information on Magellan's navigation products, please visit www.magellangps.com. About Magellan: Headquartered in San Dimas, CA, MiTAC Digital Corporation, manufacturer of the Magellan (www.magellangps.com) brand of portable GPS navigation devices, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of MiTAC International Corporation. Magellan, the industry leader for innovative GPS navigation devices since 1986, globally markets award-winning products in multiple categories including auto, RV, outdoor, mobile, fleet and autoOEM. Continuing its spirit of innovation, Magellan is developing new cloud-based technologies, OEM and B-to-B solutions to meet the changing needs of today's consumers and businesses. Follow Magellan on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. About Subaru of America, Inc. Subaru of America, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. of Japan. Headquartered at a zero-landfill office in Cherry Hill, N.J., the company markets and distributes Subaru vehicles, parts and accessories through a network of more than 620 retailers across the United States. All Subaru products are manufactured in zero-landfill production plants and Subaru of Indiana Automotive Inc. is the only U.S. automobile production plant to be designated a backyard wildlife habitat by the National Wildlife Federation. For additional information visit media.subaru.com. All products/services and trademarks mentioned in this release are the properties of their respective companies. 2017 MiTAC Digital Corp. All rights reserved. To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/magellan-navigation-app-debuts-in-subaru-starlink-multimedia-system-for-2017-models-300365693.html SOURCE Magellan [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 05, 2017] Netsurion Launches Managed SIEM Capabilities, Brings Advanced Threat Protection to Multi-location Businesses FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla., Jan. 05, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Netsurion, a leading provider of managed data and network security services for multi-location businesses, today announced the launches of two security information and event management (SIEM)-based advanced threat detection solutions, marking significant breakthroughs in cybersecurity for highly-distributed companies edge locations, including franchisees and branch offices. The first is a managed SIEM solution called SIEM-at-the-Edge, designed specifically to protect multi-location businesses through the implementation of leading SIEM technology directly on workstations, combining security event monitoring capabilities with managed detection and response (MDR). The second offering, Breach Detection Service, is an automated breach alerting platform designed specifically for businesses looking for advanced threat detection capabilities that augment anti-virus, firewall, and other traditional security measures. Powered by the award-winning EventTracker security management platform, these services give businesses an affordable level of protection from cyberthreats that was previously only available inside the perimeter of large enterprisesfor as low as $20 per month per location for SIEM-at-the-Edge and $10 per month per location for Breach Detection Service. Without the proper security technology and services, it takes an average of 265 days to discover a data breach. Reputational damage and revenue loss from a breach headline not only impact individual edge locations, but the corporate brand as well. Recent major breaches at Fortune 500 companies and household names across the retail, restaurant, and hotel sectors demonstrate that anti-virus, anti-malware, and firewalls alone are not enough to secure businesses from the ever-evolving threat landscape. Clearly, more needs to be done to secure each and every location under a brand umbrella. Filling this void, SIEM-at-the-Edge provides advanced cybersecurity technology through an industry-leading SIEM and MDR solution uniquely tailored to be effective and affordable for small and medium-sized multi-location businesses. Underpinning SIEM-at-the-Edge, the EventTracker security management platform provides easily deployed sensors that protect critical endpoints, like point-of-sale (POS) systems. Real-time alerts and recommendations about critical security events are automatically sent to the customer, and in certain situations, the sensor can perform automated response actions, neutralizing the threat before damage to a network can occur. SIEM-at-the-Edge perfectly complemnts Netsurions existing offerings of network security, resilience, and PCI compliance, resulting in a comprehensive managed security solution scalable for businesses of any size, said Kevin Watson, CEO of Netsurion. Cyberattacks are succeeding at alarming rates, and the impact of data breaches on multi-location brands, individual franchisees, and other small businesses can be catastrophic and unrecoverable. Adding these advanced SIEM services to our portfolio enables us to give our customers even stronger protection without the costs and complexity of full-time, dedicated resources. Our recent merger with EventTracker made this possible, and we are thrilled to introduce this capability to businesses that previously were unable to afford and manage such sophisticated security measures. As a cost effective way to know when events that are highly indicative of a possible breach occur in a network environment, Netsurion is offering its Breach Detection Service platform. This fully-automated system alerts businesses to potential breach threats in real time, including system changes, such as the installation of unknown or unsigned applications, unexpected user behavior, and connection with poor reputation IP addresses. This low-cost system is an added layer on top of firewall and anti-virus solutions, alerting businesses to possible zero-day viruses and ransomware. Balancing the need for added security without further over-complicating the IT environment is a challenge for all businesses, especially those whose IT resources are already stretched thin. Breach Detection Service directly addresses that problem through a very simple-to-install application that adds the next layer of protection beyond anti-virus and firewalls, said Watson. We designed the service to alert on those specific breach-related events that require immediate action, such as the installation of a potential ransomware application, and to provide actionable intelligence to our users. For more information, please visit http://www.netsurion.com/solutions/advanced-threat-protection. Tweet this: [email protected] launches managed #SIEM capabilities, brings advanced #threatprotection to multi-location businesses http://bit.ly/2iE8yOo Resources Netsurion Security Blog Netsurion Success Stories EventTracker YouTube EventTracker Case Studies About EventTracker EventTrackers advanced security solutions protect enterprises and small businesses from data breaches and insider fraud, and streamline regulatory compliance. EventTrackers platform comprises SIEM, vulnerability scanning, intrusion detection, behavior analytics, a HoneyNet deception network and other defense-in-depth capabilities within a single management platform. The company complements its state-of-the-art technology with 24/7 managed services from its global security operations center (SOC) to ensure its customers achieve desired outcomessafer networks, better endpoint security, earlier detection of intrusion, and relevant and specific threat intelligence. The company serves the retail, hospitality, healthcare, legal, banking, and financial services, utilities, and government sectors. EventTracker is a division of Netsurion, a leader in remotely-managed IT security services that protect multi-location businesses information, payment systems, and on-premise public and private Wi-Fi networks. www.eventtracker.com. Twitter: @logtalk. About Netsurion Netsurion is a leading provider of remotely-managed IT security services that protects multi-location businesses information, payment systems, and on-premise public and private Wi-Fi networks from data breaches and other risks posed by hackers. Its new service offering SIEM-at-the-Edge is powered by its subsidiary, EventTracker, which helps deliver comprehensive security benefits to edge locations that normally would not have the means to leverage such a solution. Netsurions award-winning remote network security services and PCI compliance solutions help keep businesses of any size secure. Any sized branch or remote office, franchise, or sole proprietor operation can use Netsurion without the costs of onsite support. The company serves the retail, hospitality, healthcare, legal, and insurance sectors. www.netsurion.com CONTACT: Deb Montner, Montner Tech PR (203) 226-9290 [email protected] [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 05, 2017] Namely raises $50M; Adds time management to help mid-sized companies nationwide better manage their workforces NEW YORK, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Namely, the leading HR platform for mid-sized companies, today announces the close of a Series D round of financing. This $50M round brings the total financing raised to $157.8M and represents the largest venture capital round in the fast-growing core HR technology industry in the past year. New investors Altimeter Capital and Scale Venture Partners lead the round, alongside previous investors, which include Sequoia Capital, Matrix Partners, and True Ventures. "Namely has built an exceptional HCM product for the mid-market and is well positioned as the industry continues to shift to cloud-based end-to-end solutions," says Nikhil Sachdev, Partner at Altimeter Capital. "Altimeter is excited to partner with Namely and support their continued growth." In addition, Namely is introducing time management as a core feature on the platform. Namely's time and attendance solution includes both software and hardware to manage hourly employees. By adding time management together with HR, payroll, and benefits, Namely now supports all the core HR needs of mid-sized companies. Hourly workers make up 58.5% of the American workforce, and this new offering is especially impactful for those industries that employ a large number of hourly workers, including healthcare, retail, and manufacturing. To help employers tackle another key challengerising healthcare costsNamely is also announcing the company's new benefits offering. Namely Health Advantage allows mid-sized companies to offer their employees flexible, high-quality healthcare plans at preferred rates typically available only to larger cmpanies. "From day one, our mission at Namely has been to create an HR platform that employees love to use," says Matt Straz, Founder and CEO of Namely. "We're proud to fulfill this promise for mid-sized companies. These are the companies driving innovation, and we're fortunate to support them in building better workplaces where their people can do amazing things." The Series D investment speaks to the company's tremendous growth. To date, Namely supports over 650 clients, representing 120,000 employees and $4B in annual payroll processed. In 2016, the company hired over 100 employees, expanded its New York headquarters to include a product and technology floor, moved into a new office in San Francisco, and opened an office in Austin to better support its fastest-growing region, the central United States. To support the expansion, Namely has enlisted an experienced leadership team. The company has recently welcomed VP of Product, Brian Crofts (formerly of TurboTax, QuickBooks), Chief People Officer, Nick Sanchez (formerly of LinkedIn, Trulia), and VP of Legal & Compliance, Manuel Martinez-Herrera (formerly of MetLife). "Namely is truly the leading HR platform for mid-sized companies everywhere," adds Stacey Bishop, partner at Scale Venture Partners. "They've made HR a differentiator for their clientsproviding the best possible experience for employers and employees alike. We are thrilled to partner with Namely as they continue to transform the industry." About Namely Namely is the first HR platform that employees actually love to use. Namely's powerful, easy-to-use technology allows companies to handle all of their HR, payroll, and benefits in one place. Coupled with dedicated account support, every Namely client gets the software and service they need to deliver great HR and a strong, engaged company culture. Namely is used by over 650 clients with over 120,000 employees globally. Headquartered in New York City, the company has raised $157.8 MM from leading investors, including Altimeter Capital, Scale Capital, Sequoia Capital, Matrix Partners, and True Ventures. For more information, visit www.namely.com. Important Notice Namely provides employee benefits-related insurance services through Namely, Inc., Namely Employee Benefits, LLC, or other Namely affiliates ("Namely"). Namely is domiciled in Delaware and has its principal place of business at 195 Broadway, 15th floor, New York, NY, 10007. All Namely employees that sell, solicit, negotiate, consult or provide advice about insurance are also appropriately licensed as individual insurance producers in the corresponding states where they perform such activities. To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/namely-raises-50m-adds-time-management-to-help-mid-sized-companies-nationwide-better-manage-their-workforces-300385847.html SOURCE Namely [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 05, 2017] Cereve Raises $38 Million to Fuel Launch of Insomnia Device in New Financing Led by KKR Cereve Inc., a privately-held health care company preparing to launch its FDA-cleared insomnia device, announced today the closing of a $38 million Series B round of financing led by KKR, a leading global investment firm. Also participating in the financing are existing shareholders Versant Ventures, Arboretum Ventures, and Partner Ventures. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170105005480/en/ Fifty-five million Americans have insomnia, not only experiencing problems getting to sleep but also serious impairment in their daytime activities. Currently, sleeping pills are the most common medical treatment for insomnia. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, nearly nine million Americans have taken prescription sleeping pills in the last 30 days. Unfortunately, these pills come with well-established safety risks, including decreased mental alertness the morning after use, along with impairment of driving and other activities that require an individual's full attention -- leading physicians and consumers alike to seek the kind of drug-free alternative that Cereve is bringing to the market. "We are thrilled to bring on KKR as a business partner to join our very strong and supportive current investor group and look forward to working together as we finalize preparations for our 2017 U.S. market launch," stated Craig Reynolds, CEO of Cereve. "Beyond the launch, this funding will enable rapid expansion to meet pent-up physician and patient demand for a safe, effective insomnia treatment." As part of the transaction, Justin Sabet-Peyman, Director on KKR's Health Care investing team, will join the company's Board of Directors. "Cereve has developed a safe and differentiated solution for millions of people who suffer from insomnia," said Mr. Sabet-Peyman. "We are very excited to be partnering with an accomplished management team that has significant sleep sector expertise to bring this innovation to the market." Earlier this year, Cereve received FDA clearance for its isomnia therapy device that reduces the time it takes people with insomnia to get to sleep. Three independent clinical studies conducted on more than 230 patients over 3,800 research nights demonstrated the safety and efficacy of this novel device. With eight issued and twenty-one pending patents, the Cereve System is comprised of an intelligent bedside device that precisely cools and pumps fluid to a forehead pad worn throughout the night. Clinical subjects found the device easy to use and to wear, and commented that it was a calming and comfortable experience. Cereve will initially deploy its funding to build out its infrastructure and prepare for product launch during the second half of 2017. For KKR, the investment is part of the firm's health care growth equity strategy, which is focused on high-growth companies for which KKR can be a unique partner in helping reach scale. About Cereve Based near Pittsburgh, PA, the privately-held company was formed in 2008 after the company's Founder, Eric Nofzinger M.D., performed pioneering brain imaging studies on patients with insomnia at the University of Pittsburgh. The Cereve management team includes former executives from Respironics, a global leader in sleep and respiratory markets that was acquired by Philips (News - Alert) in 2008 for $5 billion. For more information, or to receive updates as Cereve becomes available, visit www.cerevesleep.com. About KKR KKR is a leading global investment firm that manages investments across multiple asset classes including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate, credit and hedge funds. KKR aims to generate attractive investment returns by following a patient and disciplined investment approach, employing world-class people, and driving growth and value creation at the asset level. KKR invests its own capital alongside its partners' capital and brings opportunities to others through its capital markets business. References to KKR's investments may include the activities of its sponsored funds. For additional information about KKR & Co. L.P. (NYSE:KKR), please visit KKR's website at www.kkr.com and on Twitter (News - Alert) @KKR_Co. SOURCES: Roth T, Coulouvrat C, Hajak G, et al. Prevalence and perceived health associated with insomnia based on DSM (News - Alert)-IV-TR; International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision; and Research Diagnostic Criteria/International Classification of Sleep Disorders, Second Edition criteria: results from the America Insomnia Survey. Biol Psychiatry. 2011;69(6):592-600. Chong Y, Fryar CD, Gu Q. Prescription sleep aid use among adults: United States, 2005-2010. NCHS data brief, no 127. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2013. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db127.htm View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170105005480/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] "Demonetisation, while immobilising black money and fighting corruption, may lead to temporary slowdown of the economy," Mukherjee said. By India Today Web Desk: President Pranab Mukherjee today, while acknowledging that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's demonetisation drive immobilised black money and fought corruption, had a word of caution too: it may lead to temporary slowdown of the Indian economy. "Demonetisation, while immobilising black money and fighting corruption, may lead to temporary slowdown of the economy," Mukherjee, who had called note ban a "bold step" two months ago, said today. advertisement Also read | FULL TEXT: President Pranab Mukherjee's speech on why demonetisation is bad news for India The President said we all will have to be "extra careful" to alleviate the sufferings of the poor following the banning of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes in a shock announcement by Modi on November 8. "We need to be extra careful to alleviate the sufferings of the poor that might become unavoidable for the expected progress in the long term," he said. The President's words of caution came when he was addressing the Governors and Lt Governors through video-conferencing from Rashtrapati Bhavan. Mukherjee said that while he appreciates the thrust on transition from entitlement approach to an entrepreneurial one for poverty alleviation, he is not too sure that the "poor can wait that long". Also read | Demonetisation: AAP urges President Pranab Mukherjee to launch Supreme Court probe "They need to get succour here and now so that they can also participate actively in the national march toward a future devoid of hunger, unemployment and exploitation," the President said. TEN DAYS AGO, HE WAS OPTIMISTIC Barely ten days ago, while addressing an event in Hyderabad, President Mukherjee was a lot more optimistic about the Indian economy. "India is on the cusp of a leap towards a higher economic growth trajectory. A decade after the 2008 global economic crisis, major economies of the world are still limping. But, the Indian economy is growing fast", he had said on December 23 while addressing the Centenary Year Celebrations of the Federation of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry in Hyderabad. Also read | For God's sake, do your job, says President Pranab Mukherjee on repeated Parliament disruptions Interestingly, the word demonetisation - arguably the word of 2016 along with surgical strikes - found no mention in the President's Hyderabad address. On November 9, a day after Modi's televised announcement on note ban, Mukherjee had welcomed the move "which will help unearth unaccounted money and counterfeit currency". --- ENDS --- advertisement [January 05, 2017] Enterprises Prefer Microsoft Azure While SMBs Favor Google Cloud Platform, According to New Survey on Top Cloud Providers WASHINGTON, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- A new survey by Clutch, a leading B2B IT ratings and reviews firm, found that enterprises strongly prefer Microsoft Azure, while small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) gravitate toward Google Cloud Platform. The survey was conducted in order to gain more knowledge on the "Big Three" cloud providers: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and Microsoft Azure. Nearly 40% of Azure users surveyed identified as enterprises. In comparison, only 25% identified as SMBs and 22% identified as startups/sole proprietorships. Conversely, 41% of GCP users surveyed identified as SMBs. The trends among enterprises and SMBs reflect the strengths of each platform. "It goes back to the trust and familiarity issues," said Nicholas Martin, Principal Applications Development Consultant at Cardinal Solutions, an IT solutions provider. "Windows Server and other Microsoft technologies are prevalent in the enterprise world. Azure provides the consistency required by developers and IT staff to tightly integrate with the tools that Microsoft-leaning organizations are familiar with." Meanwhile, Dave Hickman, Vice President of Global Delivery at Menlo Technologies, an IT services company, said that "small businesses tend to lean more on pricing than security or toolsets." Thus, GCP's lower pricing can be more platable for an SMB. Clutch's survey also investigated the primary reasons respondents selected one of the three providers. The largest percentage of users (21%) named "better selection of tools/features" as their top reason, while "familiarity with brand" and "stronger security" nearly tied for second place. Experts emphasized how users will choose a provider based on the selection of tools or features it offers. "Infrastructure-as-a-service will reside mainly on AWS, cloud services will be on Microsoft's side, while Google will dominate analytics," said Brian Dearman, Solutions Architect at Mindsight, an IT infrastructure consulting firm. "Even though every platform offers each type of service, people will want the best." The survey included 85 AWS users, 86 GCP users and 76 Microsoft Azure users. While these totals do not reflect each platform's market share, the nearly even number of respondents using each provider allowed Clutch to analyze opinions and behaviors more equally. Based on the survey findings, Clutch recommends that companies consider the following: If your business is an enterprise, requires Windows integration, or seeks a strong PaaS (platform-as-a-service) provider, consider Microsoft Azure. For heavy emphasis on analytics or if you are an SMB with a limited budget, look into GCP. If service longevity, IaaS (infrastructure-as-a-service) offerings, and a wide selection of tools are important to you, AWS may be your best option. For more information, contact Riley Panko at [email protected]. For the complete report, please visit: https://clutch.co/cloud/amazon-web-services-vs-google-cloud-platform-vs-microsoft-azure About Clutch A B2B ratings and reviews firm in the heart of Washington, DC, Clutch connects you with the agencies and software solutions that can help you enhance your business and meet your goals. Our methodology maps agencies and software solutions based on consumer reviews, the type of services offered, and quality of work. Contact Riley Panko [email protected] 202.899.2779 To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/enterprises-prefer-microsoft-azure-while-smbs-favor-google-cloud-platform-according-to-new-survey-on-top-cloud-providers-300386161.html SOURCE Clutch [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 05, 2017] Wipro's Digital TV Middleware Solution Powers Hisense 4K TVs Wipro (News - Alert) Limited (NYSE: WIT, BSE: 507685, NSE: WIPRO), a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company, today announced that its Digital TV Middleware solution has successfully enabled Hisense (News - Alert) 4K TVs in Japan. Hisense Co. Ltd. is a multinational white goods, brown goods and electronics manufacturer. The Wipro solution supports Hisense 4K TV product features - ISDB-T/S Broadcast and HD-PVR - to enable a premium viewing experience for customers. Wipro was selected by Hisense as the middleware partner for its 4K TV segment in Japan. As a part of its engagement with Hisense, Wipro integrated its market-ready software stack with Hisense's 4K TV product portfolio. It also helped the company accelerate the product development lifecycle of its recently launched product variants of 4K LCD TV. Wipro's middleware solution is fully compliant with the latest Japanese Association of Radio Industries and Businesses (ARIB specifications) (ISDB-T/S) and is Integration-Ready for Android (News - Alert) TV, Linux, QNX and other operating systems. Wipro's solution enables key Smart TV features such as Hybrid Multi-Tuner (Terrestrial & Satellite), Antenna Diversity, One and Full Segment Services, BS/CS, BCAS Verifier, support for Fixed and Mobile Receivers, and Advanced HD-PVR scenarios. Anita Ganti, Senior Vice President and Global Head, Product Engineering Services, Wipro Limited said, "We are delighted to partner with Hisense in the launch of their 4K TV products in Japan. The successful deployment is a testament to the best-in-class quality of our Digital TV Middleware Solutions and reinforces our commitment to become a partner of choice for the global media industry." Wipro's expertise in providing Digital TV Middleware solutions based on ATSC, DVB, ISDB and other interactive standards have been leveraged by partners, worldwide. Wipro's middleware solutios have been powering Digital TV, Set-Top-Box (News - Alert) and Automotive Infotainment devices across the globe for over fifteen years. About Wipro Limited Wipro Limited (NYSE: WIT, BSE: 507685, NSE: WIPRO) is a leading information technology, consulting and business process services company that delivers solutions to enable its clients do business better. Wipro delivers winning business outcomes through its deep industry experience and a 360 degree view of "Business through Technology." By combining digital strategy, customer centric design, advanced analytics and product engineering approach, Wipro helps its clients create successful and adaptive businesses. A company recognized globally for its comprehensive portfolio of services, strong commitment to sustainability and good corporate citizenship, Wipro has a dedicated workforce of over 170,000, serving clients across 6 continents. For more information, please visit www.wipro.com. Forward-looking and Cautionary Statements Certain statements in this release concerning our future growth prospects are forward-looking statements, which involve a number of risks, and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding fluctuations in our earnings, revenue and profits, our ability to generate and manage growth, intense competition in IT services, our ability to maintain our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which we make strategic investments, withdrawal of fiscal governmental incentives, political instability, war, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, unauthorized use of our intellectual property, and general economic conditions affecting our business and industry. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. We may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. We do not undertake to update any forward-looking statement that may be made from time to time by us or on our behalf. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170105005633/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 05, 2017] Global Water Technologies prepares for growth in 2017 INDIANAPOLIS, Jan. 05, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Global Water Technologies (OTC Pink:GWTR) is taking steps to prepare for growth in 2017, including expansion of its consulting team and strategic positioning for deployment of smart water solutions. The company outlined accomplishments over the past year in its annual shareholder letter that is posted on its web site and includes updates on work with non-chemical water treatment, smart water solutions and trenchless technologies. The company also has issued new shares of restricted common stock to secure additional consulting services in the coming year. Those include business development services in the East Coast, West Coast and Midwestern United States and intellectual property legal services. As a result, the number of common shares has increased from 21,645,146 as reported at December 31, 2016 to 22,745,146 on January 4, 2017. The number of free-trading shares remains at 5,895,503. As part of its move to raise capital and prepare for additional growth, the company also pproved an issuance of stock warrants as part of an executive compensation package to be completed by June 30, 2017. The warrants to purchase 2,000,000 shares of common stock at the existing share price of $0.0155 expire in five years. Global Water Technologies is also pleased to announce that it will participate in the first event for the North American Alliance of the Smart Water Networks Forum (SWAN) that will be held at Qualcomm headquarters in San Diego on January 25. More information about these activities and the companys shareholder letter are available on its web site at: gwtr.com. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENT: Statements in this press release relating to plans, strategies, economic performance and trends, projections of results of specific activities or investments, and other statements that are not descriptions of historical facts may be forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Forward-looking information is inherently subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors, which include, but are not limited to, risk factors inherent in doing business. Forward-looking statements may be identified by terms such as "may," "will," "should," "could," "expects," "plans," "intends," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," "forecasts," "potential," or "continue," or similar terms or the negative of these terms. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. The company has no obligation to update these forward-looking statements. Erik Hromadka [email protected] [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 05, 2017] Ubiquity Global Services Announces Corey Besaw As Innovation Head NEW YORK, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Ubiquity Global Services, a multinational business services organization, today announced that Corey Besaw has been appointed the company's senior vice president of innovation. Besaw will lead the company's efforts to deliver innovative customer experience management solutions to the marketplace. "I'm delighted to take on this new role and look forward to positioning Ubiquity for growth and thought leadership in a rapidly evolving industry," Besaw said. "We believe the next decade will bring substantial disruptions to the way companies and customers interact, and this initiative will position us to take a leading role." Ubiquity president and chief executive officer Matt Nyren commented, "Ubiquity is committed to the long-term success of our employees, clients and shareholders. In this spirit, we believe it's essential for us to go beyond operational excellence and position ourselves on the leading edge of industry innovation. This is particularly true given the increasing importance of technology ad automation in our space." In conjunction with Besaw's appointment, Ubiquity will be establishing an innovation lab in 2017. This team will work with the company's operations around the world to refine solutions under real world conditions, drawing on the diverse expertise of the Ubiquity team. Ubiquity's executive chairman Ray Iglesias added, "As we move into the next chapter of our company's development, I am confident that we're positioned to emerge as one of the leading innovators in our industry." About Ubiquity Global Services Ubiquity Global Services, Inc. (www.ubiquitygs.com) is a multinational business services organization offering a wide variety of support services designed to improve customer satisfaction while reducing operating costs. The company's offering includes live customer experience management services, interactive voice response (IVR) solutions, multi-channel correspondence servicing and risk management solutions. Ubiquity has developed a next-generation technology platform engineered for operational excellence while delivering its clients meaningful and actionable business intelligence. Headquartered in New York City, the company's expanding network includes service delivery locations in the United States, Hungary, Portugal, El Salvador and the Philippines. Together with its clients, Ubiquity is pioneering a new approach for maximizing the potential of every customer contact. Contact: Ubiquity Global Services Contact: Stuart Littler Phone: +1 646-679-4903 Email: [email protected] To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ubiquity-global-services-announces-corey-besaw-as-innovation-head-300386346.html SOURCE Ubiquity Global Services, Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 05, 2017] Docupace Repositions Key Executives to Better Serve Broker-Dealer & RIA Clients LOS ANGELES, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Docupace Technologies, LLC, the financial services industry's leading provider of Straight-Through Processing solutions, announces that Chief Information Officer John Cunningham will fill the additional position of Chief Information Security Officer. Mr. Cunningham takes over from Tom Embrogno, who will step into the newly created role of Global Strategic Advisor. In his new position, Mr. Embrogno will drive Docupace partnerships with Broker-Dealers and RIAs to create innovative, cost-effective solutions that empower these institutions to better connect with their clients while improving operational efficiencies. Mr. Embrogno will continue to work with Mr. Cunningham and the rest of Docupace's senior leadership team to drive strategy across the Docupace enterprise and advise Docupace clients on compliance-related matters. Mr. Embrogno co-invented Docupace's core system, the ePACS Productivity Suite. He brought to market the first cloud-based, SEC/FINRA-compliant supervisory and storage system which satisfied SEC rules 17a3 and 17a4. Mr. Cunningham joined Docupace as Chief Information Officer in 2016 and manages the information technology strategy, infrastructure systems, and professional services and support organizations that enable Docupace's clients. In his expanded role as Chief Information Security Officer, Mr. Cunningham will continue to oversee the delivery of Docupace offerings through the ePACS platform, as well as the firm's Cybersecurity solutions and Information Security policies and procedures. Mr. Cunningham has 29 years of combined technology and security experience, with over 17 years in financial services industry, supporting technology, security, service delivery, and risk management. He has previously held titles of Chief Information Security Officer and Chief Information Risk Officer and is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), as well as a credentialed retired federal law enforcement officer. "This repositioning is part of the natural progression and growth of Docupace. We are dedicated to empowering Broker-Dealers and RIAs with innovative technologies that help drive enhanced SEC/FINRA-compliance along with the myriad operational and cost advantages of Straight-Through Processing," said Michael Pinsker, CEO and President of Docupace Technologies. "This transition will enhance Docupace's focus, which is aligned with our dedication to client success. The Docupace client ecosystem has grown exponentially, and the leadership provided by both Mr. Embrogno and Mr. Cunningham will help us tailor our solutions so that these institutions can not only securely streamline document-processing workflows and comply with new regulations, but also improve engagement with their clients while strengthening their bottom line." About Docupace Docupace Technologies, LLC pioneered and implemented Straight-Through Processing technology for financial services companies that help drive SEC/FINRA compliance. Docupace's cybersecurity and document management and workflow solutions simplify the process of capturing, organizing, routing and accessing information for Broker-Dealers and Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) that, under new government regulations, must keep thorough, secure records of documents that explain how they formulated recommendations that are in the best interests of investors. Docupace's innovative products have been proven to significantly reduce not-in-good-order (NIGO) conditions on document processing submissions for financial services companies. Docupace currently services over 1 billion stored documents from more than 500 Broker-Dealers and RIAs. For more information, please visit www.docupace.com or follow @docupace (https://twitter.com/docupace). Media Contact: Dana Taormina JConnelly (973) 850-7305 [email protected] To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/docupace-repositions-key-executives-to-better-serve-broker-dealer--ria-clients-300386425.html SOURCE Docupace Technologies, LLC [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 05, 2017] Discover Recognized as a Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality For the fourth consecutive year, Discover Financial Services has been named a Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality by the Human Rights Campaign's Annual Corporate Equality Index (CEI). Discover earned a perfect score of 100 in the report for advancing corporate practices, policies and benefits related to LGBTQ employees. The CEI is a national survey and report on corporate policies and practices related to LGBTQ workplace equality. The index provides an in-depth analysis and ratings of U.S. employers, their policies and practices pertinent to LGBTQ employees. "Diversity is a foundation to success at Discover. When we tap into our employees' differences we are able to come up with diverse perspectives and solutions that benefit the company," said David Nelms, chairman and chief executive of Discover. "Discover's CEI perfect score demonstrates the value we place on having a diverse workforce and practicing inclusive behaviors. We will continue to promote an environment that brings out the best in our employees so they can better serve our customers." Discover's effort to create an inclusive culture includes employee resource groups which represent Asians, Latinos, African Americans, women, young professionals, more experienced leaders, veterans, the LGBTQ community and other related-interest groups. PRIDE, the resource group that supports LGBTQ employees, is one of more than 35 employee resource groups at Discover. These grassroots groups work with Discover leadership to drive business results, foster an inclusive environment, and promote company success in the marketplace and community. Approximately half of Discover's 15,000 employees are registered members of at least one group. "Through 15 editions of the annual Corporate Equality Index, major private sector employers have demonstrate over and over that inclusion is not just the right thing to do, it makes for a stronger, more successful business," said Deena Fidas, Director of HRC's Workplace Equality Program. "From centuries-old companies to those that have existed for just a few years, major employers have adopted LGBTQ-inclusive policies and benefits at rates that continue to outpace lawmakers and lead the way forward." This year, a total of 887 businesses have been rated in the 2017 CEI. Of those, 517 major businesses spanning nearly every industry and geography earned a top score of 100. The Human Rights Campaign is America's largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. The organization works to end discrimination against LGBTQ and achieve fundamental fairness and equality for all. For more information about Discover's corporate responsibility and benefits, visit www.discover.com/company/corporate-responsibility/. For more information on the 2017 Corporate Equality Index, or to download a free copy of the report, visit www.hrc.org/cei. About The Human Rights Campaign Foundation The Human Rights Campaign Foundation is the educational arm of America's largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. By inspiring and engaging all Americans, HRC strives to end discrimination against LGBTQ citizens and realize a nation that achieves fundamental fairness and equality for all. About Discover Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS) is a direct banking and payment services company with one of the most recognized brands in U.S. financial services. Since its inception in 1986, the company has become one of the largest card issuers in the United States. The company issues the Discover card, America's cash rewards pioneer, and offers private student loans, personal loans, home equity loans, checking and savings accounts and certificates of deposit through its direct banking business. It operates the Discover Network, with millions of merchant and cash access locations; PULSE, one of the nation's leading ATM/debit networks; and Diners Club International, a global payments network with acceptance in more than 185 countries and territories. For more information, visit www.discover.com/company. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170105005405/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 05, 2017] Terumo Chooses Xenex LightStrike Germ-Zapping Robots to Disinfect Healthcare Facilities & Improve Patient Safety in Japan Terumo Corporation, one of the world's leading medical device manufacturers and distributors, and Xenex Disinfection Services, the market leader in ultraviolet (UV) room disinfection technology, today announced that Terumo is the exclusive distributor of Xenex LightStrike Germ-Zapping Robots in Japan. Healthcare Associated Infections (HAIs) caused by pathogens such as Clostridium difficile (C.diff), Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) are a global problem, and the Xenex pulsed xenon ultraviolet (UV) room disinfection technology is a proven solution that destroys these deadly microorganisms before they can pose a threat to patients and healthcare workers. The Xenex Germ-Zapping Robot has been proven effective against the Ebola virus and Anthrax, and can easily be incorporated into a facility's disease containment and biodefense strategy. "We have carefully analyzed the room disinfection industry and evaluated the various technologies that are being used to combat HAIs. In Xenex, we found an environmentally-friendly and evidence-based UV technology that has been shown to reduce hospital infecton rates in multiple peer-reviewed published outcome studies, and this is why we have partnered with Xenex," said Tsuyoshi Tomita, Division President, General Hospital Products Division, General Hospital Company at Terumo Corporation. "We are dedicated to combatting infections, as evidenced by being the first company to launch disposable syringes in Japan. Helping hospitals bring down their infection rates is our goal, and we are confident that the Xenex LightStrike system will enable hospitals in Japan to reach this goal." Studies show that less than half of the surfaces in a room are disinfected properly in between patients. Xenex robots help hospitals reduce the risk of infection by destroying the microscopic germs that may be missed during the manual cleaning process. Xenex's germ fighting robots take room decontamination to the next level by using pulsed xenon, an environmentally-friendly noble gas, to create full spectrum, high intensity UV light that quickly destroys infectious germs. The robot destroys C.diff spores, MRSA and other microorganisms in less than five minutes. Hospitals using Xenex devices have published outcome studies in peer-reviewed journals showing 50-100 percent decreases in C.diff, MRSA and Surgical Site Infection rates when those hospitals used the Xenex robots to disinfect rooms. "Like Xenex, Terumo was founded by scientists and has been a leader in helping hospitals reduce their infection rates for many years. They share our passion for patient safety, and we are very proud to partner with them to provide our LightStrike Germ-Zapping Robot technology to hospitals in Japan," said Joseph Authement, Senior Vice President of Global Sales at Xenex. "The robot is very efficient and its speed enables it to disinfect areas and rooms quickly so they can be used throughout the entire facility, including multi-bed wards, to help reduce the risk of infection throughout the hospital." The Xenex LightStrike Germ-Zapping Robot is designed for speed, effectiveness and ease of use, which allows hospital cleaning staff to operate the robot without disrupting hospital operations. With a four- or five-minute disinfection cycle (depending on robot model), the robot can disinfect 30-62 hospital rooms per day (according to Xenex customers), including patient rooms, operating rooms, equipment rooms, emergency rooms, intensive care units and public areas. More than 400 hospitals, Veterans Affairs, Department of Defense, skilled nursing, ambulatory surgery centers and long-term acute care facilities in the U.S., Africa, Canada and Europe use Xenex robots for room disinfection. About Terumo Corporation Tokyo-based Terumo Corporation is one of the world's leading medical device manufacturers with over $5 billion in sales and operations in more than 160 nations. Founded in 1921, the company develops, manufactures and distributes world-class medical devices including products for use in cardiothoracic surgery, interventional procedures and transfusion medicine; the company also manufactures a broad array of syringe and hypodermic needle products for hospital and physician office use. Terumo contributes to society by providing valued products and services to the health care market and by responding to the needs of health care providers and the people they serve. Terumo Corporation's shares are listed on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (No. 4543, Reuters (News - Alert) symbol <4543.T>, or Bloomberg 4543: JP) and is a component of the Nikkei 225, Japan's leading stock index. Xenex Disinfection Services Xenex's patented Full Spectrum (News - Alert)TM pulsed xenon UV room disinfection system is used for the advanced disinfection of healthcare facilities. Due to its speed and ease of use, the Xenex system has proven to integrate smoothly into hospital cleaning operations. Xenex's mission is to save lives and reduce suffering by eliminating the deadly microorganisms that cause hospital acquired infections (HAIs). The company is backed by well-known investors that include Malin Corporation, Battery Ventures, Targeted Technology Fund II, Tectonic Ventures and RK Ventures. For more information, visit Xenex.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170105005790/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Sqrrl's Leading Threat Hunting Solutions Now Available on DLT GSA Schedule DLT Solutions, an award-winning technology partner to the public sector, announced today Sqrrl's leading threat hunting solutions are now available on its GSA (News - Alert) IT Schedule (GS-35F-267DA). Sqrrl's threat detection platform enables organizations to target, hunt, and disrupt advanced cyber threats employing User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA), machine learning, petabyte scalability, and link analysis. Threat hunting is the proactive and iterative search for threats that have evaded other security defenses which has become imperative to federal agencies. Inclusion on the GSA Schedule allows for providing agencies direct access to products and services from certified industry partners. "One of the reasons Sqrrl chose to partner with DLT Solutions was because of their extensive government procurement expertise and relationships," said Sqrrl CEO, Mark Terenzoni. "Inclusion on the GSA Schedule will accelerate the government's ability to quickly leverage our industry leading threat hunting capabilities." DLT has been working with public sector customers for 25 years and has developed the in-depth technical capabilities that government agencies require to stay secure and compliant in a constantly evolving IT field. Sqrrl has been a partner with DLT since March 2016. Sqrrl's platform will provide critical security coverage for public sector customers and help them protect their mission while enhancing DLT's ability to provide customers with the best possible partner-based cybersecurity solutions. "DLT is committed to serving its public sector customers and supplying the best possible security platforms through well-known and trusted procurement vehicles," said Jeremy Young, Vice President of Cybersecurity at DLT. "Threat hunting is a huge emerging market for the public sector, presenting DLT a significant opportunity in partnering with Sqrrl." About DLT Solutions DLT is a leading technology partner to the federal, state and local government, education, utilities and healthcare markets. For more than 25 years, the company's dedication to helping the public sector make smart technology choices and simplify their technology procurements ensures its customers have the best options for Cybersecurity, Cloud, Application Lifecycle, Digital Design, IT Consolidation and IT Management solutions. The DLT advantage includes strategic partnerships with industry leading and emerging technology companies - including Amazon Web Services, Autodesk, Dell Software, Google, Informatica, Oracle, Red Hat, SolarWinds, Symantec (News - Alert) and Veritas - whose products and services can be easily procured through DLT by leveraging its broad portfolio of government IT contracts including, GSA, SEWP V, U.S. Communities and Texas DIR. To learn more, visit DLT's Resource Center, call 800.262.4358 or email [email protected]. Also on LinkedIn (News - Alert) and Twitter (@DLTSolutions). About Sqrrl Sqrrl is the Threat Hunting Company that enables organizations to target, hunt, and disrupt advanced cyber threats. Sqrrl's industry-leading Threat Hunting Platform unites link analysis, User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA), and multi-petabyte scalability capabilities into an integrated solution. Sqrrl's unique approach enables security analysts to discover threats faster and reduces the time and resources required to investigate them. Sqrrl was founded in 2012 by creators of Apache Accumulo. With their roots in the U.S. Intelligence Community, Sqrrl's founders have deep experience working at the intersection of advanced cybersecurity and Big Data problems. To learn more, visit http://sqrrl.com/. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170105005199/en/ [January 05, 2017] GDU Launches the Open Platform Partner Program for New Drone Development LAS VEGAS, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- GDU, the leading consumer drone manufacturer focusing on power and portability, today officially announced that the company launched the Open Platform Partner Program to encourage participation with partners for new and exciting modular accessories for the company's popular Byrd Universal Flying Platform. The program will be open to most dealer or drone manufacturer, camera manufacturer, sensor manufacturer and software developers. GDU will be at booth #25417 in the South Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center to show case their Universal Flying Platform gimbals and discuss the new program with prospective partners. The Open Platform Partner Program will allow for partners to quickly and easily develop new accessories, applications and services that can be launched to the drone market in collaboration with GDU. The new partner program combined with GDU's unique modularity capability will help make the GDU Byrd platform the best entry level drone for both the consumer and commercial applications. "GDU is the only drone manufacturer in the world with a highly customizable and modular platform," stated Nicolia Wiles, GDU Director of Digital. "At GDU, innovation is the number one focus we were the first to develop and release a folding drone and we are now the first and only to develop a modular flyin platform." Open Partner Program Details: GDU Mobile SDK: By using the GDU Mobile SDK, partners can customize the app for GDU Byrd's product line, and conduct highly specific flight missions for different uses and industries. GDU provides the complete SDK files for the Byrd app on both iOS and Android mobile devices, which includes both the decoded video interface and control interface, the video interface including gimbal control command, aircraft control command and camera control command. Developers can obtain images and data according to different development missions, and control the aircraft for specific missions. By using the GDU Mobile SDK, partners can customize the app for GDU Byrd's product line, and conduct highly specific flight missions for different uses and industries. GDU provides the complete SDK files for the Byrd app on both iOS and Android mobile devices, which includes both the decoded video interface and control interface, the video interface including gimbal control command, aircraft control command and camera control command. Developers can obtain images and data according to different development missions, and control the aircraft for specific missions. GDU Payload: GDU provides unlimited possibilities to meet the loading requirements for different applications because of Byrd's industry leading payload capability. GDU provides complete load interface files, which includes the load installation interface, connector signal and interface definition, digital image transmission protocol and series port control protocol. The developer can create any mission load to meet the different application scenarios. GDU provides unlimited possibilities to meet the loading requirements for different applications because of Byrd's industry leading payload capability. GDU provides complete load interface files, which includes the load installation interface, connector signal and interface definition, digital image transmission protocol and series port control protocol. The developer can create any mission load to meet the different application scenarios. GDU Remote Controller: By using the GDU Remote Controller, partners can expand other functions of the controller unit. GDU provides the unique controller communication program, developing environment and underlying driver for the developer to create other functions of the controller unit. For more information, visit www.gdu-tech.com/partner or email [email protected] About GDU GDU, formerly known as ProDrone, created the first consumer UAV that folded up easily into the size of a backpack, without sacrificing any performance. We also created the first interchangeable camera gimbals. GDU is transforming the industry through truly innovative ideas that consumers want. What makes us different is aside from our focus on comprehensive research, development, design and production of unmanned aerial vehicles, we offer concierge-style customer service, which addresses the number one complaint from consumers regarding consumer UAVs of all brands. All Byrd models are ruthlessly tested in the world's harshest climates to guarantee unconditional quality. Media Contacts: Jennifer Gooding PRIME|PR O: 512.477.7373 M: 310.927.1829 [email protected] This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. For more info visit: http://www.newswire.com/. To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/gdu-launches-the-open-platform-partner-program-for-new-drone-development-300386354.html SOURCE GDU [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 05, 2017] Ruffwear Partners With NetRush To Optimize Brand's Amazon Customer Experience VANCOUVER, Wash., Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Ruffwear, the leader in performance dog gear, has formed an exclusive retail partnership with NetRush, an agency that manages brand and customer experience strategies on the Amazon marketplace. For Ruffwear, the partnership is an opportunity to better serve, educate, and reach customers on the Amazon channel. Ruffwear customers will benefit from the experience and infrastructure NetRush has in place for brand partners, including its content, logistics, and marketing teams. "We are excited to partner with the NetRush team because our customers will benefit from an excellent experience on the Amazon platform," said Dove Gibson, Ruffwear's Director of Sales. "Amazon is always evolving and innovating. The marketplace has become an important space to tell your story, lisen to customer data, and react to the needs of consumers," said Brian Gonsalves, NetRush CEO. Through NetRush's retail model, Ruffwear is continually positioned to get the most value from the Amazon marketplace. "We're very happy to contribute to Ruffwear's continued success." NetRush and Ruffwear will be at the upcoming Outdoor Retailer Winter Show in Salt Lake City, Utah, from January, 9-12, 2016. About Ruffwear Ruffwear's mission is to build performance dog gear to enhance and inspire exploration for outdoor adventurers and their human companions. Ruffwear Performance Dog Gear combines technology, quality, fit, function, and safety to meet the needs of active and adventurous canines and their humans. Ruffwear is committed to enhancing the lives of all dogs and their human companions through relationships with Best Friends Animal Society and The Conservation Alliance. By protecting wild places for their habitat and recreation values through membership in The Conservation Alliance, Ruffwear works to ensure there are plenty of wild, open spaces for dogs and their humans to enjoy together. About NetRush NetRush is a digital retail agency that actively manages brands on the Amazon platform. As collaborative contributors, NetRush teams provide long term solutions that sustain a brand's health and drive growth on the Amazon marketplace. To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ruffwear-partners-with-netrush-to-optimize-brands-amazon-customer-experience-300386468.html SOURCE NetRush [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] By Press Trust of India: New Delhi, Jan 5 (PTI) The presidents of Kenya and Rwanda will be here on bilateral visits next week during which India will look to expand ties with the two African nations. Kenya President Uhuru Kenyatta will be on a three-day visit beginning January 10 during which he will hold extensive talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi here and attend the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit at Gandhinagar. advertisement He is expected meet President Pranab Mukherjee while Vice President Hamid Ansari, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar are expected to call on Kenyatta. The Kenyan President is likely to be accompanied by several ministers, the Ministry of External Affairs said. Rwanda President Paul Kagame will visit India from January 9-12. He will also attend the Vibrant Gujarat Summit and will be addressing a business seminar on Rwanda. Kagame will hold talks with Modi in Gandhinagar on January 9. PTI MPB ZMN --- ENDS --- [January 05, 2017] Incipio Announces Global Partnership with B&O PLAY to Launch Mobile Device Accessories Incipio today announced a global partnership agreement to launch mobile device solutions with B&O PLAY. Renowned for their distinctive design and innovation in contemporary audio products, the B&O PLAY premium mobile accessory range will be available in stores and online soon with additional solutions launching in the coming months. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170105006006/en/ B&O PLAY Spring 2017 Mobile Accessories (Photo: Business Wire) B&O PLAY delivers stand-alone products with clear and simple operations - portable products that are intuitive to use, easy to integrate into your daily life, and deliver excellent high-quality experiences. An extension of the B&O PLAY foundation, the co-operation offers B&O PLAY audiences the opportunity to experience thoughtfully designed premium accessories for their personal mobile device that are iconic, flexible, fashionable and engineered to enrich everyday exeriences. The initial mobile device accessory offering includes versatile, protective, and stylish solutions for the iPhone (News - Alert) 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. Designed with curated materials ranging from genuine leather to anodized aluminum, the range features a selection of colors and multi-faceted options, including a folio-style solution. The complete line of mobile device accessories will also include portable power solutions to charge devices on-the-go. "B&O PLAY is a true leader in uniting technology and design," said Kristen Roney, Vice President of Licensing, Incipio (News - Alert). "Through our partnership, we are excited to extend B&O PLAY's heritage of empowering moments through portable, high-quality design with a range of well-crafted products to allow these meaningful experiences to go even further, on a truly mobile level." "The co-operation with Incipio provides a great opportunity to showcase B&O PLAY's expertise in design excellence in portable products," says Pia Kleist, Global Director of Brand Partnering, B&O PLAY. "The accessory lineup is a perfect extension to the existing B&O PLAY products and will reinforce our positioning as a lifestyle brand." The partnership will allow Incipio to manufacture and oversee the global distribution of the B&O PLAY mobile accessory solutions guided by the design direction and principles representative of the B&O PLAY brand. Meet us at the Las Vegas Convention Center from January 5-8th, 2017 - North Hall, Booth #8619 for a sneak peek at the debut collection. Select B&O PLAY solutions for iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus will be available in stores and online soon. ABOUT INCIPIO Incipio is a global consumer technology solutions platform operating a diverse portfolio of owned and licensed brands at the intersection of design and functionality. Founded in Southern California in 1999, Incipio's strategy begins with a passion for building amazing product and a commitment to serve its customers. Incipio's portfolio of brands offers compelling solutions that meet the needs of today's active mobile consumers, who demand more out of the products they use. For more information, please visit www.incipiogroup.com. ABOUT B&O PLAY Firmly grounded in decades of design excellence, craftsmanship and product innovation from Bang & Olufsen, B&O PLAY interprets the same values for a new type of contemporary products aimed at design-conscious urbanites with an active lifestyle. The B&O PLAY portfolio is made up of products, that are intuitive to use and easy to integrate into your daily life - at home or on the move. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170105006006/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 05, 2017] James Mullery joins Prudential Annuities to lead Distribution and Sales James Mullery has been named senior vice president and head of Distribution and Sales for Prudential Annuities, where he will develop and drive the distribution and sales strategy for the business. Prudential Annuities is a business of Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE:PRU). This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170105006011/en/ James Mullery, senior vice president and head of Distributionand Sales for Prudential Annuities (Photo: Business Wire) In this newly created role, Mullery will report to Lori Fouche, president of Prudential Annuities, and join her senior leadership team, effective today. Driving innovation "As we continue executing against our strategic priorities, Jim's vast experience will enable us to strengthen our distribution approach," said Fouche. "In addition to creating a sales strategy that best supports customers' needs, I'm confident Jim's proven track record and rich understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing our industry will help to drive innovation across our business." Mullery brings more than 25 years of financial services experience to Prudential. At BlackRock Asset Management, he served as managing director of the Retail Financial Institutions Group, where he had overall responsibility for leading their insurance sub-advisory business including sales, product development and administration. Before joining BlackRock in 2012, Mullery served as president of the distribution arm for Guggenheim Partners - Security Benefit. He has also held positions of increasing responsibility at AXA Equitable, Fred Alger and Company, and UBS PaineWebber. Mullery received his undergraduate degree from the University of Scranton and is a past member of its Board of Trustees. He holds his NASD Series 63, 65, 7 and 24 licenses. About Prudential Financial, Inc. Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE: PRU), a financial services leader, has operations in the United States, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Prudential's diverse and talented employees are committed to helping individual and institutional customers grow and protect their wealth through a variety of products and services, including life insurance, annuities, retirement-related services, mutual funds and investment management. In the U.S., Prudential's iconic Rock symbol has stood for strength, stability, expertise and innovation for more than a century. For more information, please visit http://www.news.prudential.com. The Prudential Insurance Company of America, Newark, N.J., and its affiliates. 0300437-00001-00 View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170105006011/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 05, 2017] Brown Gibbons Lang & Company (BGL) Announces the Sale of HR Solutions Provider Personnel Management Systems CHICAGO and CLEVELAND, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Brown Gibbons Lang & Company (BGL) is pleased to announce the sale of Personnel Management Systems, Inc. (PMSI) to Asure Software, Inc. (NYSE: ASUR). BGL's Business Services team served as the exclusive financial advisor to PMSI in the transaction. Personnel Management Systems (PMSI) is one of the largest providers of HR services in the Pacific Northwest. The company operates a full-service HR outsourcing model to address HR issues for small- and mid-sized businesses in the following areas: employment, group benefits, management resources, policy and procedures, HR administration, wage and salary issues, employee relations, training and development, safety and drug programs, and recruiting. PMSI was founded in 1987 and is based in Seattle, Washington. With the acquisition, Asure will expand into HR consulting and enhance its software and service offering. Asure's suite of offerings ranges from HCM workforce management solutions, time and attendance to workspace asset optimization and meeting room management solutions. PMSI President, Jack Goldberg, commented, "I want to sincerely thank the Business Services team at BGL for their advice and effort throughout the process that culminated in the sale of PMSI to Asure Software. As the leading provider of HR services in the Seattle area for over 25 years, we are very proud of our people and the quality of our work. Asure Software is an excellent partner. The acquisition provides us with new client tools and resources, and allows us to expand our model nationwide and eventually on a global scale." The BGL Business Services team is a leading advisor in the HR and HR technology sector. PMSI is the third closed transaction in the space in the last six months. About Brown Gibbons Lang & Company Brown Gibbons Lang & Company is a leading independent investment bank serving the middle market. BGL specializes in mergers and acquisitions advisory services, debt and equity placements, financial restructuring advice, and valuations and fairness opinions, with global industry teams in Business Services, Consumer, Environmental & Industrial Services, Healthcare & Life Sciences, Industrials, and Real Estate. BGL has offices in Chicago, Cleveland, and Philadelphia and real estate offices in Chicago, Cleveland, Irvine, and San Antonio, in addition to Global M&A partner offices in more than 50 countries across 5 continents. BGL is able to deliver to our clients unparalleled access to strategic relationships, investors, and opportunities globally. For more information, please visit www.bglco.com. To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/brown-gibbons-lang--company-bgl-announces-the-sale-of-hr-solutions-provider-personnel-management-systems-300386481.html SOURCE Brown Gibbons Lang & Company [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 05, 2017] Senet, STMicroelectronics, and myDevices Showcase the Benefits of Low-Power Wide Area Network Technology at CES 2017 LoRa Alliance members myDevices, the Internet of Things solutions company; Senet, the first and fastest growing North American provider of public, low-power, wide-area networks (LPWANs) for long-range Internet of Things (IoT) applications built on the LoRaWAN protocol; and STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM), a global semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications, today announced that they have collaborated to showcase demonstrations of the first real-time, multi-target location tracking using the LoRaWAN low-power, wide-area network (LPWAN) protocol along the Las Vegas Strip during CES 2017. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170105006017/en/ Illustrating the ability to rapidly deploy commercial LPWAN and the ease in which fully functional real-world IoT solutions can be brought to market, this live, real-time demonstration is part of STMicroelectronics' delivery of a personalized experience for their customers and partners attending CES (News - Alert). Key components of the demonstration include LoRaWAN-supported radio technology and automotive-navigation chips from ST, custom application dashboards from myDevices (News - Alert), and public LPWAN connectivity and services delivered by Senet. CES attendees can view the demonstrations at the myDevices IoT Creation Suite at Mandalay Bay and by invitation only to ST's private demo suites. "ST has enabled its STM32 microcontrollers and other relevant components to operate on the LoRa network," said Bob Krysiak, Executive Vice President Global Mass Market and Online Marketing Programs and President Americas Region, STMicroelectronics (News - Alert). "ST's leadership in Internet-of-things (IoT) solutions is enhanced by partnerships with market pioneers like Senet and myDevices and we're leveraging that technology strength during CES 2017 to show a unique multi-target, LPWAN-based location-tracking application." LoRaWAN-supported radio technology: ST has integrated the LoRaWAN network stack into its STM32 Cube firmware infrastructure and will be installing its TESEO III automotive-navigation ICs into limousines transporting guests to multiple CES event locations around Las Vegas. GPS data will be converted to encrypted packets sent to LoRaWAN-supported radios for lcation tracking. Public low power wide area network: The commercially available Senet network provides secure data transmission for the CES demo and is fully operational now to support IoT application development and commercial IoT solution rollouts throughout the Las Vegas area. LPWANs based on the LoRaWAN protocol are unique in their ability to handle devices in motion, making them the ideal technology for asset tracking and other mobile IoT applications. With broad experience in nationwide network rollout and the resources for rapid expansion, Senet deployed fully operational LPWAN coverage in Las Vegas in less than 30 days from start to finish. View Senet's coverage map for commercial deployments throughout North America. "As proven by the rapid commercial rollout of our network in Las Vegas, Senet is the only LPWAN operator able to deliver commercial grade LPWAN services at a low cost and with speed and scale across North America - ranging from 60 days or less for broad outdoor coverage and as little as a few days to a few weeks for indoor coverage," said Will Yapp, Vice President of Business Development for Senet. "This collaboration with trusted partners ST and myDevices is yet another example of how businesses can gain valuable insights from actionable data that hasn't been available until now." IoT Application enablement: Leveraging the asset tracking capabilities of myDevices' Cayenne IoT project builder, individuals can visualize real-time and historical sensor data to display the locations of the limousines transporting guests. Within the context of this demo, the ability to examine and visualize data for business insight will help STMicroelectronics maximize its return on investment at CES. "STMicroelectronics and Senet are members of our IoT Ready Program which enables device manufacturers and connectivity providers to integrate their products and services directly inside our Cayenne IoT Project Builder. Over 100,000 Cayenne developers can now drag-and-drop Senet and ST products and services directly into their IoT projects," said Kevin Bromber, CEO of myDevices. "The collaboration involved with developing this real-time location tracking demonstration illustrates the speed in which partners within the LoRa Alliance can easily prototype and deploy complete IoT enterprise solutions. Our goal is to offer an on-ramp for developers to quickly prototype and deploy real IoT and LoRaWAN solutions." About myDevices myDevices, an IoT solutions company, is the creator of Cayenne, the world's first drag-and-drop IoT Project Builder, which enables customers to bring their IoT projects from prototype to mass production. The company also hosts a vibrant online community of IoT developers where users collaborate and share information. myDevices' connectivity and device-agnostic technology empowers engineers and enterprise partners to easily develop and deploy IoT solutions into their existing infrastructure and business. myDevices is headquartered in Los Angeles, CA (News - Alert). For more information, please visit www.myDevices.com. About Senet, Inc. Senet, a contributing member of the LoRa Alliance, is the first and only public provider in North America of low-power, wide-area networks (LPWANs) with its class-leading LoRa modulation for IoT/M2M applications. LPWANs enable value-driven solutions that can unlock immediate ROI by enabling devices to connect over very long ranges (approximately 15 miles) while delivering very long battery power life (approximately 10 years) for an extremely low total cost of ownership. For applications that require low cost, low power, and long range, the secure Senet network has distinct advantages over cellular, Wi-Fi, and other emerging connectivity technologies for the IoT market. For additional information, visit: http://www.senetco.com. About STMicroelectronics ST is a global semiconductor leader delivering intelligent and energy-efficient products and solutions that power the electronics at the heart of everyday life. ST's products are found everywhere today, and together with our customers, we are enabling smarter driving and smarter factories, cities and homes, along with the next generation of mobile and Internet of Things devices. By getting more from technology to get more from life, ST stands for life.augmented. In 2015, the Company's net revenues were $6.90 billion, serving more than 100,000 customers worldwide. Further information can be found at www.st.com. About LoRa Alliance The LoRa Alliance is an open, non-profit association that has grown to more than 330 members since its inception in March 2015, becoming one of the largest and fastest growing alliances in the technology sector. Its members are closely collaborating and sharing their experience to promote the LoRaWAN protocol as the leading open global standard for secure, carrier-grade IoT LPWA connectivity. With the technical flexibility to address multiple IoT applications, both static and mobile, and a certification program to guarantee interoperability, the LoRaWAN is already being deployed by major mobile network operators and is anticipated to widely expand in 2017. About LoRaWAN The technology utilized in a LoRaWAN network is designed to connect low-cost, battery-operated sensors over long distances in harsh environments that were previously too challenging or cost prohibitive to connect. With its unique penetration capability, a LoRaWAN gateway deployed on a building or tower can connect to sensors more than 10 miles away or to water meters deployed underground or in basements. The LoRaWAN protocol offers unique and unequaled benefits in terms of bi-directionality, security, mobility and accurate localization that are not addressed by other LPWAN technologies. These benefits will enable the diverse use cases and business models that will enable deployments of large scale LPWAN IoT networks globally. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170105006017/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 05, 2017] Seeing Machines' FOVIO Unit Announces Technology Demostrations at 2017 CES Show FOVIO, the automotive unit of Seeing Machines Ltd. (AIM:SEE), announces FOVIO-powered Driver Monitoring System demonstrations at the 2017 CES (News - Alert) Show in Las Vegas (January 5-8). Strong growth in demand for Driver Monitoring Systems (DMS) is evident from the increase in the number of automotive manufacturers and suppliers showcasing DMS this year. The increased industry adoption is driven by the need for intelligent advanced driver assistance (ADAS) systems, including driver distraction and drowsiness protection, as well as needs in enhanced driver information systems and semi-autonomous vehicles. Since its 2015 CES debut alongside Jaguar [http://www.landroverusa.com/our-story/news/driver-attention-monitoring.html], interest in FOVIO DMS technology has grown significantly. Additional automotive OEMs and their suppliers showcasing FOVIO technology this yearinclude Bosch, Takata, and Volkswagen. Bosch's vehicle demonstrates new intelligent driver interaction capabilities made possible by FOVIO precision eye-gaze technology. vehicle demonstrates new intelligent driver interaction capabilities made possible by FOVIO precision eye-gaze technology. Takata demonstrates steering-wheel integrated FOVIO DMS, enabling enhanced safety features made possible through understanding the state of the driver. demonstrates steering-wheel integrated FOVIO DMS, enabling enhanced safety features made possible through understanding the state of the driver. Volkswagen demonstrates a vehicle cockpit concept with integrated FOVIO DMS, using driver attention data for advanced driver information concepts. Mike McAuliffe, CEO of FOVIO, noted: "We're seeing a groundswell of demand from industry leaders for our leading-edge Driver Monitoring technology. Our partnerships at CES this year are a testament to the growing awareness of the importance of our technology for driver safety ADAS, secure automated driving technology, more intuitive information systems and next generation in-car human machine interfaces (HMI)." About Seeing Machines Seeing Machines, (AIM: SEE) is a leader in human sensing, operator/driver monitoring and safety intervention technologies and services. Based on over 15 years of market leading experience, Seeing Machines delivers advanced detection and analysis technologies to analyze head, face and eye movements in order to robustly monitor fatigue, drowsiness and distraction events (such as cell phone use), enable precision eye-tracking applications, which it delivers in machine learning based algorithm form and Fovio Vision Processor (News - Alert) solutions. It further offers commercial customers full DMS system solutions backed by real-time monitoring and intervention services, which improves operator/driver safety, reduces road risk and better preserves assets. Seeing Machines' technology is used by leading global customers across the automotive, mining, transport and aviation industries, as well as many of the leading academic research groups and transportation authorities. Seeing Machines is headquartered in Canberra, Australia and has offices in Arizona, Detroit and Silicon Valley,California. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170105006026/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 05, 2017] Rajat Modwel named Chief Executive Officer of RTI Global India NEW DELHI, Jan. 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Rajat Modwel has been named chief executive officer of Research Triangle Institute Global India, a wholly owned subsidiary of RTI International. To help India address development challenges, RTI maintains a permanent presence in India. RTI experts serve clients in air, water, sanitation, energy, health, skills and education by providing quality research and impact evaluation, developing and supporting the commercialization of innovative technologies, and providing project implementation support to drive sustainable impact. Modwel joins RTI from McKinsey & Company where he was Senior Vice President at the Centre for Government & Public Enterprises based in India. His rior experience spans government (in the Indian Administrative Service), management consulting and industry. "We were impressed with the depth of Rajat's sector experience and his strong leadership skills," said Jim Gibson, RTI's chief operating officer. "He has the all of the attributes that we were looking for as we look to develop RTI Global India's presence in India. We were especially pleased to find a leader in Rajat who shares our commitment to improving the human condition through research and evidenced based practices." Modwel has experience across global markets in developing and delivering strategic, governance and organizational solutions and driving business operations. While at McKinsey he engaged on cities, transportation, education, regulatory policy and infra finance. He served previously at Prometric, Hay Group, American Express and the Government of Rajasthan, and started his career as a lecturer of economics at the University of Delhi. He has received an MBA from the London Business School, an MA in economics from the Delhi School of Economics and a BA in economics from St Stephen's College, University of Delhi. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 05, 2017] Port of Portland Files Lawsuit against Monsanto for PCBs The Port of Portland has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Oregon against Monsanto Company for widespread PCB contamination impacting Port properties. The Port is the 10th public entity in the West to sue Monsanto for PCB contamination. The U.S. District Court case number is 17-cv-00015, filed January 4, 2017. Monsanto was the sole manufacturer of PCBs for more than 40 years (1935-1979). PCBs were banned by the federal government in 1979, but persist in the environment. They are associated with extensive human health impacts, including cancer and damage to immune, reproductive and endocrine systems. PCBs were widely used in industrial and commercial businesses and are found in paint and caulk, in electric transformers and capacitors, in wire and cable coatings, and in coolants, sealants and lubricants. /p> "Any decision to conceal facts about human health should have consequences," said Curtis Robinhold, Port of Portland deputy executive director. "Monsanto reaped huge profits from the manufacture and sale of PCBs, and it is entirely appropriate for those faced with the cost of cleaning up this contamination to hold them accountable." "It's time Monsanto do the right thing and contribute to the clean-up of their own toxic chemicals," said John Fiske, an attorney hired to help prosecute the case. PCBs are the primary contaminant driving cleanup in the Lower Willamette River and the Portland Harbor Superfund site. The Port has invested millions of dollars studying the legacy contamination in and along the Willamette River and Portland Harbor. However, the impact of PCB contamination is broader than the Superfund site, including McBride Slough at Portland International Airport. The Port is represented by the national law firm of Baron & Budd, P.C. and Gomez Trial Attorneys, which also represent the cities of Portland, Seattle, Spokane, San Jose, Oakland, Berkeley, Long Beach, San Diego, and the State of Washington. ABOUT ECOLAWYERS Ecolawyers is a joint venture launched by the law firms of Baron & Budd and Gomez Trial Attorneys to fight for environmental justice and hold polluters and manufacturers of pollutants accountable for contaminating water, land, and other natural resources. The two national law firms have achieved landmark results for public entities and individuals who have suffered environmental harm. Ecolawyers is led by attorneys Scott Summy, John Gomez, and John Fiske and is based in Solana Beach, California. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170105006109/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 05, 2017] ICL Announces Changes in its Global Executive Management TEL AVIV, Israel, January 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- ICL (NYSE and TASE: ICL) today announced the following changes in its global executive management: Mr. Nissim Adar, President of ICL Essential Minerals, is expected to retire from his position on March 31, 2017 after 37 years of service with the Company. Mr. Adar will be replaced by Mr. Ofer Lifshitz, Executive Vice President, currently manages ICL's cost efficiency and cash flow optimization program. Mr. Lifshitz joined ICL in 1996 and has served in various positions, among others, as an Executive Vice President and head of a Bromine and Bromine compounds' business unit in ICL industrial products' segment. Furthermore, Mr. Lifshitz was the managing director of ICL's in China during the years 2002-2005. Mr. Lifshitz managed the recent integration of the YPH JV and was lately nominated as the chairman of the board of the JV and as board member of Yunnan Yuntianhua (CH: 600096). Mr. Lifshitz will be based in ICLs offices in the Negev, Israel. Mr. Mark Volmer, President of ICL Specialty Solutions, informed the Company's Chief Executive Officer of his wish to resign from his position as of January 31, 2017. Mr. Volmer will be replaced by Mr. Eli Glazer, Executive Vice President, currently CEO of ICL Europe. Mr. Glazer joined ICL in 1983 and served in various positions, among others, as the CEO of ICL Performance Products in Europe & Asia Pacific for a period of 5 years and as the CEO of ICL China for a period of 5 years. Prior to that, Mr. Glazer served in various positions in ICL industrial products' segment, including as the head of the Bromine and Bromine compounds' business unit. Mr. Glazer will be based in ICL's offices in Ladenburg, Germany. The Board of Directors and the management team thank Mr. Nissim Adar and Mr. Mark Volmer for their contributions to the Company and its achievements, and wish success to Messrs. Ofer Lifshitz and Eli Glazer in their new positions. Name of the authorized signatory on the report and name of authorized electronic reporter: Lisa Haimovitz Position: SVP, Global General Counsel and Company Secretary Signature Date: December 8, 2016 INVESTOR RELATIONS CONTACT Limor Gruber Head of Investor Relations, ICL +972-3-684-4471 [email protected] PRESS CONTACT Gadi Ohana Debby Communications +972-3-5683000 [email protected] SOURCE ICL [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] SHAREHOLDER ALERT: Levi & Korsinsky, LLP Announces an Investigation Concerning Possible Violations of Federal Securities Laws by Certain Officers and Directors of General Cable Corporation Levi & Korsinsky announces it has commenced an investigation of General Cable Corporation (NYSE:BGC) ("General Cable") concerning possible violations of federal securities laws by the Company and/or certain of its officers and directors. On December 29, 2016, General Cable disclosed that it would pay $82.3 million to resolve an investigation into inappropriate payments made to public officials in Egypt, Angola, Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, and Thailand. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, General Cable "subsidiaries paid approximately $13 million to third-party agents and distributors, a portion of which was used to make unlawful payments to obtain business" between 2002 and 2013. To obtin additional information, go to: http://zlk.9nl.com/general-cable-bgc or contact Joseph E. Levi, Esq. either via email at [email protected] or by telephone at (212) 363-7500, toll-free: (877) 363-5972. Levi & Korsinsky is a national firm with offices in New York, New Jersey, California, Connecticut and Washington D.C. The firm's attorneys have extensive expertise in prosecuting securities litigation involving financial fraud, representing investors throughout the nation in securities and shareholder lawsuits. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170105006287/en/ [January 05, 2017] Wireless Telecom Group Announces European Distribution Partnership with AR Europe Wireless Telecom Group, Inc. (NYSE MKT: WTT), today announced an agreement with AR Europe for the distribution of its Boonton Electronics and Noisecom products throughout Europe. AR Europe's RF expertise and instrumentation experience along with their sales and distribution reach will place the full Boonton and Noisecom product portfolios of RF power meters, USB power sensors, and noise generation devices in front of design and test engineers, system integrators, and field service technicians across Europe. Wireless Telecom Group, Inc. is committed to working with Europe to provide the highest quality customer service, technical support and RF instrumentation solutions. "AR Europe's focus on both commercial and military aspects of communications, compliance, automotive and aerospace sectors are well aligned with our focus and our products," said Dan Monopoli, General Manager of Wireless Telecom Group Inc.'s Test and Measurement segment. "Their approach to relationship building and customer service, as well as the complementary nature of their current product portfolio will help us find new opportunities and growth across Europe." Mark Reeve, Director of Operations for AR Europe added, "We are very pleased to be appointed the European distribution partner for Wireless Telecom Group, Inc. The Boonton and Noisecom brands are well established, respected and recognized in the industry for offering a range of high quality, innovative products which are a perfect fit for us." About AR Europe AR Europe supplies countries throughout Europe with the most advanced and innovative power amplifiers, antennas, and modules for EMC (News - Alert) testing, wireless, medical and industrial applications. The company also provides the highest level of support. AR's trained engineers perform installations, verification & calibration services, technical support, repairs, maintenance, and more from its service centers in the UK, France, Benelux and Germany. About Wireless Telecom Group, Inc. Wireless Telecom Group, Inc. is a global designer and manufacturer of radio frequency ("RF") and microwave-based products for wireless and advanced communications industries. We market our products and services worldwide under the Boonton Electronics ("Boonton"), Microlab/FXR ("Microlab") and Noisecom brands. Wireless Telecom's products help telecom carriers and equipment companies, cable companies, cell phone and amplifier manufacturers, radar and avionics firms, and base station and in-building systems integrators, and military and aerospace to optimize their wireless and communications technologies. These technologies include RF, microwave, WiMAX (News - Alert), WCDMA, LTE, jitter, PIM, DAS, satellite, cable communications, antennas, power-splitters, single point of interface, and high-speed serial communications. Key customers include Ericsson (News - Alert), Verizon, AT&T, Rogers, Thales, Boeing, Raytheon, Varian, FAA, US Navy, US Air Force and many other technology leaders. Wireless Telecom Group, Inc.'s website address is www.wtcom.com. Except for historical information, the matters discussed in this news release may be considered "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. Such statements include declarations regarding the intent, belief or current expectations of the Company and its management. Prospective investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could materially affect actual results. Such risks and uncertainties are identified in the Company's reports and registration statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170105006303/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] CM Narayanasamy had instructed that government officials should not be a part of any group such as WhatsApp or interact with seniors bypassing administrative hierarchy. By Pramod Madhav: Puducherry Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi has cancelled a government order stating that government officials should avoid using social media for official communication. Earlier, Chief Minister Narayanasamy had noted that government officials were using Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter for official communication and cautioned them against doing so as these organisations have their servers installed abroad and officials documents can be downloaded or tampered with. advertisement Calling this a violation of the Official Secrets Act, Narayansamy had asked government officials to desist from using social media for official communication. Also read | 'Action woman' Kiran Bedi gets cracking in Puducherry, bans sirens on VIP vehicles CM Narayanasamy instructed that officials should not be a part of any group such as WhatsApp or interact with seniors bypassing administrative hierarchy and the proper official channel to go about it, failing which disciplinary action would be taken against the officer. GOVERNMENT ORDER ISSUED ON JAN 2 The order was issued on 2nd January after a high-ranking government officer was suspended for forwarding an obscene video on a WhatsApp group created by Kiran Bedi for official communication purposes. Tech-savvy Bedi has been using WhatsApp and Twitter to a great extent and encouraging her staff to follow suit. Also read | Kiran Bedi takes bicycle tour around Puducherry, raises concern over alarming level of pollution in Delhi Differences between CM Narayansamy and Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi surfaced after an IAS officer was suspended and arrested by the police and kept in a police station for a day without being charged. Chief Minister Narayanasamy had issued the order cautioning government officials against use of social media. But for unexplained reasons, Lieutenant Governor declared the order null and void. WATCH: Kiran Bedi appointed as Lt General of Puducherry --- ENDS --- [January 05, 2017] Robins Kaplan LLP's $5.7 Million Trial Victory for Inventor Over La-Z-Boy Validated by Court Ruling After securing a $5.7 million jury award for an inventor's company in a license dispute over royalties against furniture maker La-Z-Boy Inc. in 2016, national trial firm Robins Kaplan LLP has received an order by a Florida federal court rejecting all of La-Z-Boy's remaining defenses. "We are gratified by the court's ruling, which required La-Z-Boy to honor the promises it made to our client," said Ronald J. Schutz, chair of Robins Kaplan's national Intellectual Property and Technology Litigation group and lead counsel for the plaintiff in the litigation. Robins Kaplan represented Megdal Associates LLC, a company co-founded by the late inventor Paul Megdal, who, in the late 1990s, designed mechanisms to power the furniture giant's popular recliners. The case stemmed from a 2002 license agreement in which La-Z-Boy agreed to pay Megdal Associates royalties on sales of products that incorporated its technology for use in La-Z-Boy's furniture. In November 2014, Robins Kaplan filed suit on behalf of Megdal Associates against La-Z-Boy fo breach of the license. After a March 2016 trial, a jury found that La-Z-Boy violated the license agreement by failing to pay royalties on three different successful product lines and awarded Megdal Associates $5.7 million in damages. Yesterday's ruling rejected five different equitable defenses asserted by La-Z-Boy, which the court considered independent of the jury. "The Court's detailed and thorough opinion has now resolved all of La-Z-Boy's defenses in favor of Megdal Associates," said Robins Kaplan principal Patrick M. Arenz, who handled oral argument on these defenses and tried the jury case with Schutz. "This decision, along with the jury verdict, vindicates Paul Megdal's work and contribution to La-Z-Boy's successful line of power motion furniture." In addition to Schutz and Arenz, the Robins Kaplan team included Ari B. Lukoff, Emily E. Niles, and Shira T. Shapiro. The case, Megdal Associates, Inc. v. La-Z-Boy Inc., was heard before the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida by the Hon. William J. Zloch. About Robins Kaplan LLP Robins Kaplan is among the nation's premier trial law firms, with more than 220 lawyers located in Boston; Los Angeles; Minneapolis; Naples, Fla; New York; and Silicon Valley. The firm litigates, mediates, and arbitrates high-stakes, complex disputes, repeatedly earning national recognition. Firm clients include-as both plaintiffs and defendants-numerous Fortune 500 corporations, emerging-markets companies, entrepreneurs, and individuals. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170105006410/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 05, 2017] EQUITY ALERT: Rosen Law Firm Announces Filing of Securities Class Action Lawsuit Against General Cable Corporation - BGC Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, announces the filing of a class action lawsuit on behalf of purchasers of General Cable Corporation securities (NYSE:BGC) from February 23, 2012 through February 10, 2016, inclusive (the "Class Period"). The lawsuit seeks to recover damages for General Cable investors under the federal securities laws. To join the General Cable class action, go to http://rosenlegal.com/cases-1018.html or call Phillip Kim, Esq. or Kevin Chan, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] or [email protected] for information on the class action. NO CLASS HAS YET BEEN CERTIFIED IN THE ABOVE ACTION. UNTIL A CLASS IS CERTIFIED, YOU ARE NOT REPRESENTED BY COUNSEL UNLESS YOU RETAIN ONE. YOU MAY ALSO REMAIN AN ABSENT CLASS MEMBER AND DO NOTHING AT THIS POINT. YOU MAY RETAIN CUNSEL OF YOUR CHOICE. According to the lawsuit, throughout the Class Period Defendants issued materially false and misleading statements to investors and/or failed to disclose that: (1) General Cable paid millions of dollars in bribes to government officials in foreign countries, including Angola, Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Indonesia, India, and Thailand, in order to secure business; (2) the foregoing conduct was in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1997; (3) General Cable's revenues were therefore in part the product of illegal conduct, and, as such, subject to disgorgement and unlikely to be sustainable; (4) the foregoing conduct, when it became known, would subject General Cable to significant regulatory scrutiny and financial penalties; and (5) as a result, General Cable's statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than March 6, 2017. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation. If you wish to join the litigation, go to http://rosenlegal.com/cases-1018.html or to discuss your rights or interests regarding this class action, please contact Phillip Kim, Esq. or Kevin Chan, Esq. of Rosen Law Firm toll free at 866-767-3653 or via e-mail at [email protected] or [email protected]. Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170105006469/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] A 54-year-old woman in town from Georgia was arrested this week at a local hotel after she allegedly left her dog and cat in a car overnight and into the next day without food and water and the windows shut. The cat was rescued; the dog did not survive. https://www.toacorn.com/articles/hotel-guest-accused-of-animal-abuse/ An MLA in Meghalaya has gone absconding after being accused of raping a minor girl twice. By Manogya Loiwal : Accused of raping a 14-year-old girl twice, Meghalaya MLA Julius Dorphang has been absconding after a non-bailable warrant was issued against him in Laitumkhrah. Dorphang is known to have been a militant and chairman of the banned insurgent outfit, HNLC, and had surrendered in 2007. He then contested in the 2013 elections and was elected from Mawhati constituency. advertisement Complainants claim that the guest house at Rilbong where the rape took place belongs state Home Minister HDR Lyngdoh and his son. Sources say the case looks much like a sex racket involving government officials, ministers and officials. Reports have it that some top politician is helping Dorphang hide. A public rally will be organised on January 11 in Meghalaya demanding Home Ministers resignation. (With inputs from Anuraag Baruah) --- ENDS --- The RBI said the aggregating of accounting entries made at the various currency chests still requires to be reconciled with the actual cash balances in order to eliminate accounting errors and double counting. By Indo-Asian News Service: Reacting to media reports about the quantum of demonetised currency that has been returned to the banks, the Reserve Bank of India today said such estimates may not be correct. The RBI said the aggregating of accounting entries made at the various currency chests still requires to be reconciled with the actual cash balances in order to eliminate accounting errors and double counting. WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR "We are trying to expeditiously complete the counting process and will release figures of notes tendered after that," the central bank said. The RBI said it is reconciling junked notes tendered during the 50-day period with physical cash balances to eliminate any accounting errors. On Wednesday, a PTI report said the RBI is believed to have received deposits close to Rs 15 lakh crore of the estimated Rs 15.4 lakh crore worth of junked Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes that were in circulation from the 50-day demonetisation exercise that ended on December 30. When asked if Rs 15 lakh crore has come back to the system till December 30, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday said, "I don't know the number." Both the government and the RBI are yet to come out with the official statement on how much money has been deposited in various banks by December 30. The last official number on deposits was release on December 10 when the RBI said that the old notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000, which have been returned to the central bank and the currency chest amounted to Rs 12.44 lakh crore. The Finance Ministry said there were a lot of areas where double counting could have happened. advertisement ALSO READ:Demonetisation hits state elections, all expenses above Rs 20,000 to be cashless ALSO READ:Demonetisation woes: Who should we listen to? Modi or RBI, ask harrowed citizens in Kolkata WATCH: Post demonetisation Rs 15 lakh crore in old currency notes back in system --- ENDS --- A picture of a 16-month-old Rohingya baby washed up dead on the banks of river Naf will remind you of the haunting photo of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi. The heart-breaking photo also highlights what the Rohingya refugee crisis is all about. By India Today Web Desk: A picture of a 16-month-old Rohingya baby, who washed up dead on the banks of river Naf on the Bangladesh-Mynamar border, will remind you of the haunting photo of Aylan Kurdi, a three-year-old Syrian refugee lying dead on a Turkish beach. A striking similarity between both is that they were escaping violence. Mohammed Shohayet, a 16-month-old Rohingya refugee, and his family were crossing Naf river to make their way into Bangladesh and escape the violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state. However, during the journey their boat sank and Shohayet's mother, uncle and a three-year-old brother drowned too making his father the lone survivor. advertisement Also read: After Aylan Kurdi, another drowned child washes ashore in Turkey The 16-month-old baby's body was found washed up ashore river Naf. "There is no point in me living in this world", said Shohayet's father while talking to CNN . "In our village, helicopters fired guns at us, and the Myanmar soldiers also opened fire on us," said Alam. "We couldn't stay in our house. We fled and went into hiding in the jungle." "My grandfather and grandmother were burnt to death," he added. "Our whole village was burnt by the military. Nothing left", he added. Also read: Painter creates a "parallel universe" for these victims of tragedy Thousands of Rohingya people, an ethnic minority, have fled from Myanmar to escape getting persecuted by the Myanmar military. The ethnic minority has claimed that the security forces have raped, murdered and arsoned many. Myanmar government has refused to recognise Rohingya as one of the country's ethnic minorities and described them as Bengalis or illegal immigrants from neighbouring country- Bangladesh. They are considered 'stateless entities' and in 2015 mass migration of thousands of Rohingya people from Myanmar started. Also read: Drowned Syrian boy highlights Europe's refugee horror --- ENDS --- The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is the best big-screen phone yet, thanks to its versatile dual cameras, S Pen improvements and beautiful 6.3-inch screen. Why you can trust Tom's Guide Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test . Samsung's Galaxy Note 8 is a big-screen phone that commands your attention and not just because it's a sequel to a device the company was forced to recall. It's because the Note 8 ushers in a new class of smartphones that is super-premium. Priced between $930 and $960 (depending on the carrier), Samsung's new phablet has the loftiest price tag of any mainstream Android handset yet. But the Note 8 tries to justify its high price with the first dual-camera setup ever on a Samsung phone; the biggest screen ever offered by Samsung, at 6.3 inches; and a host of new tricks for the S Pen. The Note 8 also offers more RAM than the Galaxy S8 and S8+, as well as a smart new way to multitask. Is all of that worth about $80 to $100 more than the already large-and-in-charge Galaxy S8+? After living with the Note 8 for more than a week, I would say "yes." We've updated our review of the Galaxy Note 8 based on our in-depth smartphone drop tests. See the results below. Design: The pinnacle of phablets With its curved Infinity Display that goes from nearly edge to edge, the glass front of the Galaxy Note 8 is simply stunning. In fact, it makes other big-screen phones like the LG V30, Google Pixel XL and iPhone 7 Plus look downright dowdy. I know what you're wondering: Is 6.3 inches too big? Not really, and I have pretty small hands. That's because this phone has the same narrow 18.5:9 aspect ratio as the Galaxy S8 and S8+. I found I could reach across the screen with my thumb, but because the Note's design is so tall, I sometimes had to reposition the phone in my hand to target items on the top or bottom of the display. Samsung purposely made the curves on this screen less severe than those on the S8 or S8+, which gives you more usable real estate for the pen. I dig these more slanted edges, as they also help visually differentiate the Note 8 from its siblings. However, I do wish Samsung would offer more color options in the U.S. to make this phone truly pop. U.S. carriers are offering midnight black and orchid gray, but I want to see the gold and blue versions that are available overseas arrive stateside, too. Around the back, you'll find the dual-lens cameras and a fingerprint reader to the right of the flash. I'm not a fan of this somewhat awkward placement, as it would be easier if the sensor were beneath the camera. It also didnt always work on the first try; fortunately, you can log in via facial recognition or iris scanning. MORE: Which Carrier Has the Best Note 8 Deal? Measuring 6.4 x 2.9 x 0.34 inches and weighing 6.9 ounces, the Note 8 is on the heavy side, but it feels pretty balanced in my hand. By comparison, the S8+ is slightly shorter, at 6.3 inches, but significantly lighter, at 6.1 ounces. That's to be expected, though, because the Note 8 carries a stylus. Durability: It could be tougher As with the Galaxy S8, the Note 8 is water-resistant. It's also pretty tough; I accidentally stepped on the screen, and it didn't crack. But to get a better sense of the phone's durability, we tested the toughness of the Galaxy Note 8 by dropping it on its face onto wood from a height of 4 feet and 6 feet; we then dropped it on its edge and face onto concrete from 4 feet; we then dropped it on its edge and face from 6 feet onto concrete. Samsung's phablet withstood 4- and 6-foot drops on its face onto a wood surface without any difficulty. A 4-foot fall on its edge onto concrete caused some minor scratches on the bottom edge, but a 4-foot drop on its face cracked the screen in a number of places, including in front of its front-facing camera, which gave selfies a very artistic look. A 6-foot face drop onto concrete caused the Note 8's screen to start flashing white, black and green, and the touch screen was completely unresponsive. As a result, the Note 8 earned a low toughness score of 4.3 out of 10. To see the results of other smartphones, as well as our complete scoring methodology, check out our smartphone drop tests. Galaxy Note 8 Specs Price $930 to $960, depending on carrier Display: A big and beautiful canvas with more purpose The 6.3-inch Infinity Display on the Note 8 makes your jaw drop even before you put it in your hands, and Samsung devised a clever new way to make the most of the phone's billboard-like real estate. For starters, the Note 8's screen is deliciously colorful. I was mesmerized by the multifaceted silver armor of Cyborg in the Justice League trailer, as well as his piercing red eye. When playing Mortal Kombat X, I marveled at how grotesquely awesome the gooey brains of my splayed enemy looked when they spilled out of his head. MORE: The Best Smartphones Available Right Now In our lab tests, the Note 8's display covered 204.8 percent of the sRGB color gamut. By comparison, the Moto Z2 Force's OLED screen hit 199.7 percent, and the LG G6's LCD displayed 134 percent. The Note 8's display delivers accurate hues, too, as it registered a Delta-E score of 0.5; a score of 0 is perfect. The Z2 Force notched 1.06, and the LG G6 scored 1.1. Because the Note 8's panel supports HDR (high dynamic range), you should be able to enjoy better contrast and more colors when streaming HDR content. To maximize this phone's ultrawide screen, Samsung introduced a feature called App Pair with the Note 8. When you swipe in from the right side of the screen, you can launch two apps on the screen at once side by side or on top of each other, depending on how you hold the phone. It's also pretty easy to create pairs. I liked being able to have the Email app open on the left and the Calendar app on the right, or the browser on one side and YouTube on the other. Dual Cameras: Amazing photos, great flexibility Samsung isn't just playing catch-up with the dual cameras on the Note 8. It has leaped ahead of the iPhone at least for now. That's because both 12-megapixel cameras on this device offer optical image stabilization; the iPhone 7 Plus' telephoto lens doesn't have that feature. What can you do with these dual shooters? For starters, you get a 2x optical zoom with a simple tap on the screen. In Union Square, I could easily zoom in on a statue from afar without losing any detail. You also get a new Live Focus mode, which is similar to the Portrait mode on the iPhone 7 Plus, which blurs the background and makes your subject pop. But only the Note 8 lets you adjust the intensity of this effect both before and after you snap the photo. I felt like a pro when I snapped an image of purple flowers in front of a fountain. The iPhone 7 Plus did a better job than the Note 8 of blurring the background more consistently through the frame, but I liked that I could control how much of the fountain I could see. I also really like the Dual Capture feature on the Note 8, which snaps both a close-up and a wide-angle photo at the same time, and then lets you toggle between both views in the gallery. One pic I took of the New York City skyline looked so good that a woman sitting next to me on the bus asked me to text it to her. Even in a moving vehicle, the picture turned out fairly sharp, thanks to the optical image stabilization. My only complaint is that I sometimes had to tap more than once on the screen to switch between the close-up and wide-angle views. In terms of image quality, the Note 8 delivered the same type of remarkably sharp and colorful pics that made the Galaxy S8 our top camera phone. Compared with a shot taken with the iPhone 7 Plus, a Note 8 photo of trees and a statue in Union Square had richer greens and slightly more refined details around the edges when zoomed in. However, as with most iPhone photos, its colors were warmer than the Note 8's, and the Samsung image ran a bit cooler and nearly blew out some of the highlights. S Pen: Neat new tricks (with some kinks) Samsung has been broadening the appeal of the S Pen for the past few years, and the Note 8 takes it to the next level. For starters, you can now take up to 100 pages of notes using the Screen Off memo feature. You just take out the pen and start writing. It's easy to pin notes to the always-on display and to edit notes in place. I found this feature handy when crossing off items on my to-do list and shopping lists. The coolest new S Pen feature is Live Message, which turns your scribbles into animated GIFs to share with others. For example, I wrote "Love you" on top of a photo with a fun sparkle pen tip and then tried to send it to my wife via text message. I say "tried" because I got an error message that said "Maximum total size of attachments exceeded." Strangely, other times, I didn't get that error, so it might depend on the size of the image captured. The other noteworthy new S Pen feature is the ability to translate full sentences into different languages just by hovering the pen above the screen. This worked well when I visited the French site Le Monde and highlighted a few rows of text. For those so inclined, the S Pen remains a viable tool for sketching and drawing. I handed the Note 8 off to a colleague to create a couple of sketches, and he found the pen to be fairly accurate. However, he wished that the pen offered more nuanced control, as the Apple Pencil does on the iPad. Battery Life: Surprisingly good We'll have to wait and see whether the Note 8's battery lives up to Samsung's safety claims, but I can say that the phone lasts quite a long time on a charge. Although the battery's 3,300-mAh capacity is a bit lower than that of the battery inside the ill-fated Note 7, as well as the battery in the Galaxy S8+ (both 3,500 mAh), it turned in excellent results. On the Tom's Guide Battery Test, which involves continuous web surfing over 4G on 150 nits of screen brightness, the Note 8 lasted a very strong 11 hours and 11 minutes on T-Mobile's network. That's even better than the 11:04 that the S8+ turned in and the 10:39 runtime from the S8, both also tested on T-Mobile. It's possible that the Note 8's extra RAM makes it slightly more efficient. MORE: Smartphones with the Longest Battery Life By comparison, the iPhone 7 Plus lasted 10:38, and the Moto Z2 Force ran for 10:23. The LG G6 mustered only 8:39. Performance: More RAM, serious power The Note 8 has the same Snapdragon 835 processor as other current Android flagships, but it ups the ante with 6GB of RAM. Most other phones make do with 4GB of RAM; exceptions include the OnePlus 5, which comes with up to 8GB of RAM. In everyday use, the Note 8 was very swift, whether I was jumping right into the camera from the lock screen instantly (just double-press the home button) or playing Injustice 2 with silky-smooth frame rates. However, there were more than a couple of times when I had to tap the screen more than once for the phone to do what I wanted. On Geekbench, which measures overall performance, the Note 8 scored 6,564 on the multicore portion of the test. That's better than the Galaxy S8 (6,124), a bit better than the Moto Z2 Force (6,489) and just slightly faster than the OnePlus 5 with 8GB of RAM (6,542). When it comes to graphics performance, the Note 8 more than holds its own. It notched 39,834 on the 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited test, which beat the Galaxy S8 (35,903) and edged out the Z2 Force (39,807) and the OnePlus 5 (39,576). Software: Bixby is underrated Other than the added capabilities of the S Pen and the App Pair feature for split-screen multitasking, Bixby is the highlight software feature on the Note 8, which runs Android 7.1.1. It's best not to think of Bixby as a direct Siri competitor but rather more of a personal assistant that speeds up tasks that typically take multiple taps. For instance, I said, "Capture a screenshot, and show it to me in the gallery," and the Note 8 did both tasks in succession successfully. I also liked that I could add specific items to my to-do list by saying them aloud, such as "Add 'approve vacation day' to my task list." At first, Bixby thought I said "A prove," but the mistake was easy to correct. MORE: Galaxy Note 8: Features to Enable and Disable The other main highlight is the Apps Edge menu, which makes it easy to pull up your favorite apps without having to go back to the home screen. You can also quickly access your favorite contacts from this menu. Accessories Aplenty The Galaxy Note 8 has a new design, so you're definitely going to need a new case for this 6.3-inch monster. The good news is that there are plenty of options to choose from already, including a suede-like Alcantara cover that's available in multiple colors. My favorite is green. MORE: 11 Best Galaxy Note 8 Accessories The Note 8 also supports a new version of the Gear VR headset ($129) for people who want to get into virtual reality. The headset comes with a motion controller to make the VR experience more immersive. DeX Station If you want to leverage the full power of the Note 8 on a bigger screen, check out the DeX Station, which costs about $125. With this dock, you can run Android apps on a full-size HD monitor, and get a desktop-like experience with a mouse and keyboard connected to the peripheral. More developers are starting to support this accessory, including Zoom, which lets you seamlessly continue your conference call after you plug the phone into the dock. Bottom Line Spending nearly $1,000 on a smartphone seems a bit nuts when you can get a very good phone, like the OnePlus 5, for less than $500. But the Note 8 isn't just very good it is awesome. The combination of its glorious 6.3-inch Infinity Display, excellent dual cameras and more versatile S Pen makes it the big-screen phone to beat. Some people may want to wait for the iPhone 8, but if you're an Android fan, you need look no further. The Note 8 could be better in some ways. The fingerprint sensor is located in an awkward spot, and the Live Message feature (as novel as it is) doesn't always work the way it should. Then, there's the price. If you don't have a need for the S Pen and you just want a big screen, you'll be plenty happy with the $850 Galaxy S8 Plus. But I'd spend the extra dough on the Note 8 simply because of its dual-lens camera and what you can do with it. Credit: Shaun Lucas/Tom's Guide The Samsung Galaxy S8 is a very good value because of its captivating infinity display, strong performance and long battery life for under $500. Why you can trust Tom's Guide Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test . The Galaxy S8 has been around for a couple of years, but it's still a strong choice for those looking for flagship-level design and solid performance for under $500. The Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ boast 5.8- and 6.2-inch infinity displays, which go from edge to edge, and these handsets feature Qualcomms relatively zippy Snapdragon 835 processor for speedy performance. Were still not fans of the fingerprint sensors location. But when you add in excellent battery life and improvements to a camera that was already very good, you have two winning handsets with the Galaxy S8 and S8+. See our best phones list for all of our top picks. Galaxy S8 price and release date The Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ were released in April of 2017. You can now get the Galaxy S8 starting at $499 with 64GB of storage. The larger Galaxy S8+ isn't as readily available, but it retails for about $589. However, we've seen this phone for as low as $364 on Amazon (opens in new tab). You may want to keep an eye out for Black Friday deals and Cyber Monday deals to see if these phones get discounted during the holiday season. Design: It feels like the future The Galaxy S8 exemplifies a nearly bezel-free phone done right. Samsung didnt just take away the bezels on this phone; it crafted a space-age work of art with a new infinity display that stretches from edge to edge. The Galaxy S8 not only has a slightly bigger screen-to-body ratio than LGs phone but also looks sleeker because of the way the Gorilla Glass curves toward the edges on the front and back. Other Android phones look like blah, flat slabs by comparison. The S8 is also thinner and narrower than the G6. The screen on the S8 is 5.8 inches, versus 6.2 inches on the S8+. But other than the difference in display size, the S8 and S8+ have the same design. Overall, we prefer the bigger screen on the S8+, but if you have small hands, youll likely find yourself repositioning the phone in your hand to reach certain buttons, including the home button, which is now a virtual button instead of a physical key. The button worked well in our testing, providing solid haptic feedback. Its flanked by the Recent Apps and Back buttons. Whats remarkable about the Galaxy S8 is how much more screen real estate it gives you compared with the S7, while still offering a compact and lightweight design. The S8s 5.8-inch screen is housed in a 5.5-ounce, 2.7-inch-wide chassis, whereas the 5.1-inch S7 weighed 5.4 ounces and had the same width. The S8 is taller, but its still easy to use with one hand. With its 6.2-inch screen, the 6.1-ounce S8+ is heftier than the 5.5-ounce, 5.5-inch S7 Edge. But the S8+ makes the iPhone 8 Plus (6.2 x 3.1 x 0.29 inches, 7.13 ounces) look positively bloated. Plus, unlike the latest iPhones, the S8 and S8+ have headphone jacks. No matter which size you choose, it wont be long before you see fingerprint smudges on the back of the phone. The smudges were especially prominent on the midnight black version of the S8 and S8+, but you can also choose the lighter orchid gray or arctic silver, which dont show smudges as easily. Galaxy S8 Galaxy S8+ Price From $499 From $589 Display (Pixels) 5.8 inches (2960 x 1440) Super AMOLED 6.2 inches (2960 x 1440) Super AMOLED Camera (Back) 12 MP, f /1.7 aperture 12 MP, f /1.7 aperture Camera (Front) 8 MP, f/ 1.7 aperture 8 MP, f/1.7 aperture Biometric Scanning Facial recognition, iris scanner, fingerprint reader Facial recognition, iris scanner, fingerprint reader CPU Snapdragon 835 Snapdragon 835 RAM 4GB 4GB Storage 64GB 64GB microSD up to 256GB up to 256GB Battery 3,000 mAh 3,500 mAh Battery Life (4G) 10:39 11:04 Size 5.9 x 2.7 x 0.3 inches 6.3 x 2.9 x 0.3 inches Weight 5.5 ounces 6.1 ounces Colors Midnight Black, Orchid Gray, Arctic Silver Midnight Black, Orchid Gray, Arctic Silver Android Version 7.0 Nougat 7.0 Nougat Charging USB Type-C USB Type-C Wireless Charging WPC and PMA WPC and PMA About that fingerprint sensor We were worried that the fingerprint sensors placement right next to the camera on the back of the Galaxy S8 and S8+ might be a problem. And it was, initially. Because the sensor is fairly narrow, its difficult to target it without looking. We got used to it after a couple of days, but we still wish it were below the lens. If you dont want to reach around the S8 to unlock your phone, you can choose from a couple of other biometric options that Samsung gives you. Theres facial recognition, as well as iris scanning. Iris scanning unlocks your phone faster and even works in the dark, but it doesnt work in direct sunlight; your eyes need to be fully open, so squinting isnt an option. The facial recognition is not only slower but also had trouble in direct sunlight and doesnt work in the dark. Our advice? Use the iris scanning everywhere except in the sun, and when there is bright light, just use the fingerprint scanner. Display: The perfect screen is here Apple is bringing an OLED screen to the iPhone X, but you have to pay a grand for the privilege. Sporting a resolution of 2960 x 1440 pixels, both the Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8+ turned in nearly perfect scores on our tests, offering a very bright picture, amazingly vivid colors and near-perfect color accuracy. The extra-wide 18.5:9 aspect ratio doesnt work well with some apps, but overall, we like how immersive the experience is when watching video and playing games. When watching the new Star Wars: The Last Jedi trailer, we could make out every wrinkle in Reys hands as she seemed to levitate the rocks around her with the Force, as well as every rising ring of smoke around Kylo Rens smoldering mask. As the camera panned around to the island where Luke was training Rey, it was hard not to be impressed by the golden sunshine that reflected off the water, as well as the lush, green foliage dotting the mountains. The S8 backed up our experience by reproducing a superb 183 percent of the sRGB color gamut. That blows away the LG G6s 134 percent, but the AMOLED screen on the Google Pixel scored an even higher 191 percent. (However, when you turn on Adaptive Display mode on the Galaxy S8, it can reach as high as 255 percent.) If youre looking for accurate color, the S8 can deliver that, too. In its AMOLED photo mode, the display notched a Delta-E score of 0.28 (0 is perfect). The LG G6 was closest, at 1.01, but the Pixel XL was way behind, with 5.88. Like the LG G6, the Galaxy S8s screen is HDR certified, which means you can enjoy a wider range of colors and better contrast on videos that support the standard. Amazon, Netflix and YouTube offer a growing variety of HDR-ready movies and shows. The 18.5:9 aspect ratio doesnt work well with every app. For instance, in Super Mario Run, we noticed unsightly bars above and below the game. But Samsungs own apps are optimized, and you can fill the screen by pushing a button while watching YouTube and Netflix, even if the video looks a bit stretched out. Since our initial review, some users complained about a red tint appearing on their S8 screens, but Samsung has released a fix. Audio: Poppin For a small speaker, the Galaxy S8 pumps out pretty sweet sound. When we listened to Justin Timberlakes Cant Stop the Feeling, on this phone, the lyrics were clearer, and the volume was louder, than the same track on the LG G6. The latter handset sounded slightly muffled by comparison. However, you dont get stereo sound from the Galaxy S8 as you do from the HTC U Ultra. The S8's Snapdragon 835 muscle blitzes every other Android phone on the market. Performance: A handheld powerhouse The Galaxy S8 goes boldly forward into a new era of speed, thanks to Qualcomm's Snapdragon 835 system on a chip (at least in the U.S.; in other regions, the S8 will have Samsung's Exynos 8895 chip). The S8 also comes with a healthy 4GB of memory, 64GB of storage (twice the amount you get from base models of the LG G6 and the Google Pixel) and microSD card expansion for people who need even more space. When you put it all together, the S8's muscle blitzes every other Android phone on the market, but it falls short of the iPhone 8's A11 Bionic chip. The S8 almost always feels exceedingly snappy, no matter if you're vaulting over Goombas in Super Mario Run or mowing down aliens in N.O.V.A. Legacy. We didnt experience any lag when using multiwindow mode for chatting with friends while streaming video on YouTube. If you pay close attention, you may notice that some of the transitions when switching between apps aren't 100 percent smooth, but that seems mostly cosmetic. In terms of benchmark performance, the Galaxy S8s multicore score of 6,295 in the Geekbench 4 overall performance test was more than 50 percent higher than that of its closest Android competitor, the Snapdragon 821-powered Google Pixel XL (4,146). However, the iPhone 8 scored above 10,000 on this test. The Galaxy S8's graphics power was also quite impressive, as it hit 36,508 on 3DMark's Ice Storm Unlimited test. Other Android adversaries, like the LG G6 (29,611) and the Google Pixel XL (28,182), were farther behind. But the iPhone 8 scored a much higher 64,532. New for the S8 is Samsung's Device Management tab, which is best accessed by swiping in from the Edge tab. It offers a quick look at the status of your device, including battery status, power mode (optimized, performance, game or entertainment), available storage and your current memory usage. There's even an optimization button that cleans up any lingering apps and clears your cache, which is a handy tool for people who go weeks or months without actually turning off their devices. Cameras: Better on both the front and back When we first found out that the S8's 12-megapixel rear camera is ostensibly the same as the one on last year's S7, we were a bit disappointed. But that rush of emotion was a bit premature, because under the hood, Samsung made some important software enhancements. And then you toss in a new, higher-resolution, 8-MP front cam, and you get a phone that produces noticeably better pictures no matter which shooter you're using. The most important tweak comes in the form of Samsung's new multi-image photo processing, which mimics the operation of the Google Pixel's HDR+ mode by taking multiple pictures when you press the shutter, selecting the best one, and enhancing that image with extra details and info from the remaining two pics. When we took both the S8+ and a Pixel XL out for some side-by-side testing, it was clear that Samsung's adjustments have had a pretty positive effect. At a nearby farmer's market, the S8 captured a crate full of apples with better contrast, richer colors and better details than the Pixel XL. And when I continued down the street, the S8+ topped the Pixel XL again when I snapped a pic of some flowers, this time offering better white balance than Google's phone, as evidenced by the greenish hue on the white flower's petals. But it wasn't a clean sweep for the S8+. When I really tried to push both cameras to the limit by shooting a backlit scene pointing straight at the sun, the Pixel XL stunned us with a shot featuring big, bold colors and sharp details, even though there was some serious lens flare going on. Inside, in pretty much ideal conditions, the S8+ and the Pixel XL were again neck and neck. The one difference is that the Pixel's cool color tone brought out the green in the pistachio macaroon, while the pic from the S8 sported a more neutral white balance, which led to a more pleasing overall photo. Finally, at a local bar with even less light to work with, both the Pixel XL and the Galaxy S8 impressed us with photos that were brighter than the scenes in real life. Small differences included less blown-out highlights in the S8's pic, which was countered by more detail in the darker areas of the scene in the Pixel's photo. When it comes to tweaking your photos or changing modes, Samsung has added new Snapchat-like filters that let you decorate faces with various animal masks, hats and other silly emojis. But if that doesn't strike your fancy, the camera also comes with modes for shooting panoramas, food, slow-mo and more. And as with all good camera apps, there's also a Pro mode that lets you adjust settings manually. As for selfies, the S8 and S8+ sport new 8-MP cams with a wide-angle lens, which makes it easy to snap you and all your besties at once. However, compared with the Pixel XL's 8-MP camera, the S8's selfies can sometimes be a little lacking. We compared photos shot by the S8 and the Pixel XL outside on a sunny day. The Pixel XL's photo had an extra level of sharpness and detail we didn't get from the S8+. Our face looked a little too smooth and perfect on the Samsung, to the point where we were wondering whether Beauty Mode was kicking in even when we had it set to 0. The Galaxy S8s camera can shoot 4K video at 30 frames per second and slow-mo video at up to 240 frames per second at 720p. (In comparison, the LG G6 shoots at just 60 fps in slow-mo.) To test the Galaxy S8s video quality, we shot some footage of a pond with fish swimming about in 4K. The S8s footage looked crisper and more vibrant than what the iPhone 7 Plus captured, even if the colors looked a bit oversaturated. However, when we put both phones on a mount to test image stabilization, the iPhone 7s video looked smoother; we saw a bit of stuttering in the S8s footage as we walked up a grassy hill. For a hallmark feature on a flagship phone, Bixby feels pretty half-baked right now. Bixby: Still a work in progress The Galaxy S8 introduces a new personal assistant, Bixby, to take on the likes of Apple's Siri and Microsoft's Cortana. And for a hallmark feature on Samsung's flagship phone, Bixby feels pretty half-baked right now, even after Samsung has rolled out voice controls to its virtual assistant. The main difference between Bixby and other digital assistants is that it lets you use voice commands to control your phone in lieu of tapping the screen, which can save you time and energy. You can also use Bixby to tell you the weather or look up the definition of quixotic, but its real purpose is giving you a whole new way to control your phone. For instance, you can ask Bixby to show you emails from a specific person by name, and it will slickly pull up all your conversations in just a couple seconds. That's way faster than tapping to open the email app, hitting search and then typing in that person's name. Bixby can also understand complex commands with contextual language, so you can do things like ask Bixby to post the last photo you took to Instagram and add a caption, all with one command. You can also change almost any setting on the S8 using your voice, which is often much faster than trying to dig through a modern phone's increasingly complex array of menus and tabs. Or at least, that's how things should work. The big problem is that Bixby's voice-command functionality, while now available, was pretty erratic when we tested it. Sometimes Bixby will fail to understand your language at all, while other times, Bixby will get confused and try to open the wrong app or adjust incorrect settings. But every once in a while Bixby will get everything right and you won't even be able to tell that its voice commands are still a work in progress. Currently, simple commands have the best success rate. MORE: 11 Coolest Things Bixby Voice Can Do on the Galaxy S8 As of August 22, Samsung announced that the Bixby voice command feature is now available in more than 200 countries and territories, though you'll still need to use either English or Korean to make it work. Support for additional languages, as well as more third party apps, is in the works. Then there's Bixby Vision, which leverages the S8's camera along with object recognition to identify items in the world. We found this worked pretty well when we pointed the S8 at various household items, such as shampoos, snacks and aluminum foil. It also works for books. After pointing the Galaxy S8's camera at any object, we could check prices online on Amazon. Say you're at the liquor store and want to know the rating of that wine or what food to pair it with. Bixby has also partnered with Vivino to identify that bottle and spit back information. However, at a wine store in New York, the feature was more miss than hit, as it seemed to have trouble with the bright lights. At home, however, Bixby identified three wines correctly, though we were greeted with a home server error. Bixby's other talents include the ability to set reminders and a Bixby Home tool with a card-based interface that shows you your schedule, what's trending on Facebook, the weather, news and other info. All told, Bixby is a frustrating mix of success and failures, though there is a lot of potential should Samsung work out all the kinks. Thankfully, though, you can turn to the Google Assistant, which also comes preloaded on the S8. Software: Feature-rich but accessible Running Android 7.0 Nougat, the Galaxy S8 still has a skin on top of Android, but its fairly intuitive, and Samsungs minimalist, line-drawn icons are easy to understand. We like that you dont have to tap a button to see all of your apps from the home screen; just swipe down from the middle of the screen, and then swipe left to see more apps. If you swipe down from the very top of the screen from wherever you are, youll see your notifications and Samsungs quick-settings shortcuts. Finally, swiping in from the left provides access to Edge screen shortcuts, such as a customizable list of apps, a device maintenance screen (for battery, choosing performance mode, etc.) and a Smart Select tool for selecting an area of the screen and sharing it or pinning it to the top of your display. Youll also find a ton of advanced features. The ones at the top of our list include a one-handed mode that you can activate by tapping the home button three times to shrink the screen, as well as the ability to quickly launch the camera by pressing the power key twice. At least on the T-Mobile S8 we tested, there was minimal bloatware. T-Mobile included just five of its own apps: Device Unlock, T-Mobile, T-Mobile Name ID, T-Mobile TV and Visual Voicemail. Accessories: Way beyond Gear VR The Galaxy S8 works with the new Gear VR for those who want to experience virtual-reality games and content, but thats not the only interesting accessory. The new DeX ($149) is a dock that lets you use the S8 and S8+ as a mini PC. The dock can connect to a full-size monitor via its HDMI port, as well as a keyboard and mouse via Bluetooth. It also has an Ethernet jack and a USB port. Out of the box, the Samsung Connect app will let you access and control various Samsung-branded smart home gear. For instance, you can start your Samsung robot vacuum ($549) or peek inside your Samsung Family Hub fridge (about $2,900) to see what you need from the store while youre out. But youll get a lot more possibilities if you buy Samsung's $169 Samsung Connect Home a combination mesh Wi-Fi router and SmartThings hub that will let you control other items, such as Philips Hue lights and Netgears Arlo security camera. Samsung offers a slew of other accessories, including an LED View cover for always having the time in view, a wireless charging stand and more. Check out our roundup of the Best Galaxy S8 accessories and Galaxy S8 cases. Battery Life One concern about a phone with this much screen is how that extra real estate might impact battery life. The Galaxy S8+ has a slightly smaller battery than last years S7 Edge (3,500 mAh versus 3,600 mAh), and yet the S8+ improved almost 1 hour, to 11 hours and 4 minutes, on the Tom's Guide Battery Test (continuous web surfing on 4G LTE using T-Mobile's network). The standard Galaxy S8s 3,000-mAh battery endured for 10:39 on the same test, improving on the Galaxy S7's (8:47) time by nearly 2 hours. We obtained these results with the phones resolutions set to their max 2960 x 1440 pixels. They come with the less demanding 2220 x 1080 setting on by default. MORE: Smartphones with the Longest Battery Life Compared to the Galaxy S8+, the Pixel XL's battery life was just a bit longer, at 11:11. The iPhone 8 Plus hit 11:16, while the smaller iPhone 8 lasted 9:54. LG G6 finished way behind, with a time of just 8:39. On top of that, the S8 has battery smarts that let it learn about your usage patterns to help extend its longevity even further. And when you need to juice the phone back up, you can take advantage of the S8s fast-charging capabilities via its included USB Type-C cable or use one of Samsung's slick wireless chargers (available separately). Bottom Line Its clear that, with the Galaxy S8 and S8+, Samsung set out to create more than a phone. Its trying to build a more Apple-like ecosystem, with devices ranging from the Gear VR and the DeX dock to the new Samsung Connect app for controlling smart home gear and the Bixby assistant. Its also evident that Samsung hasnt yet reached that goal, as Bixbys voice features can be hit or miss. But even with that shortcoming, the Galaxy S8 still beats the Android competition while surpassing the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus in terms of design, display quality and features. The iPhones are better, though, when it comes to sheer speed and their cameras. Some shoppers will prefer a newer Android phone in the same price range, like the $479 Pixel 3a XL, but overall the Galaxy S8 and S8+ remain good values for those who prefer Samsung handsets. Credit: Jeremy Lips/Tom's Guide; Comparisons: Samuel Rutherford/Tom's Guide. 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. While Kevin Parker has spent much of his time recently rubbing shoulders with the Josh Hommes and Lady Gagas of the music world, hes still a Perth native through-and-through, and showed out recently to join in a protest gig in his hometown under his moniker DJ Defs Worth It. The free gig, billed as LIVE! In The Wetlands, also featured sets from the Parker-produced Koi Child, Pow Negro, The Waifs Donna Simpson and more, and was organised by Families For The Wetlands to push back against the recently-approved Roe 8 highway extension. Construction has already begun on the project, which has been met with fierce opposition from locals, and slammed as wasteful and destructive by the event organisers due to the environmental and economic impact. The gig followed protests from the local community on the proposed sites, which have caused minor disruptions. Its always good to see big names turn out for a good cause, and Kevs no stranger to playing smaller gigs, of course, having recently slipped back into the country for a secret show with his old outfit Mink Mussel Creek, featuring Pond frontman Nick Allbrook. Loving live music isnt just about attending music festivals and seeing an international artists massive arena show. Even the biggest of big-name headliners started in the trenches, on the sticky carpets and bandrooms of your local bars and pubs which is exactly where you should be if you want to discover your new favourite band or venue. Here are our picks for this weeks best local gigs from Aussie talent from Perth to the East Coast and all for the price of a good meal. Drunk Mums Where: The Foundry, Brisbane QLD When: 8pm 11pm, Saturday Jan 7 Why: The Mums celebrate the release of their first ever 7 record, Leather four tracks of pure punk and classic rock, just as wed expect. You can already pick this one up from Pissfart Records (love it), but why not swing down to The Foundry and grab a copy in person? Supports from Draggs and Voiid, too, so youre in for a good one. Tickets & Info: $12.75, more info here. The Tambourine Girls Where: Slyfox, Sydney NSW When: 7pm 3am, Thursday Jan 5 Why: The project of former Deep Sea Arcade guitarist Simon Relf, the eclectic guitar outfit The Tambourine Girls bring us into the new year with a free gig tonight, joined by Sydneysiders Easy Street as well as Lennie Tranter and the Bagism Revelation. Tickets & Info: Free, more info here. Nice Biscuit Where: The Foundry, Brisbane QLD When: 8pm 12am, Thursday Jan 5 Why: Get down to The Foundry tonight to catch a band with seven members for only ten bucks. Throw in supports, and thats an even bigger bargain. How do they even afford beers after the set? Youll get a ripper set from groovers Nice Biscuit as they launch their new single Upside Down, joined by The Delicates and Gooby Jim. Tickets & Info: $10, more info here. Total Giovanni DJs Where: Fat Controller, Adelaide SA When: 10pm 5am, Saturday Jan 7 Why: The official after-party for stacked local festy Heres To Now will see Melbourne party-starters Total Giovanni take to the decks to keep the choons rolling at Fat Controller long after the festival is over. These guys bring it wherever they play, live or on the ones and twos, so youll be in very safe hands. Tickets & Info: $12.90, more info here. Hayden Calnin & More Where: Gasometer When: 6:30pm 11am, Thursday Jan 5 Why: This one tonight is an absolute bargain, and its all for a good cause. Hayden Calnin, Cousin Tonys Brand New Firebird, Fan Girl and plenty more cram into the Gaso to raise money for mental health organisation Headspace and its local Collingwood branch. What a way to spend a Thursday evening, and make a bit of a contribution. Tickets & Info: $10, more info here. Coronation II Where: Badlands Bar, Perth WA When: 7pm 1am, Saturday Jan 7 Why: Badlands keeps it as heavy as ever with a self-described demonic gathering of acts, both local and international. Hometown heroes Wardaemonic lead the charge, joined by Singaporean visitors Balberith, and a host of other heavy bands from VIC and WA. For those still missing Soundwave, this is a very tidy mini-fest for just $15 although maybe even a little heavier. Tickets & Info: $15, more info here. Faux Bandit Where: The Brightside, Brisbane QLD When: 8pm 11pm, Thursday Jan 5 Why: This Brissy duo impressed us yesterday with their new EP Flex, packing a big sound for a two-piece, and are launching the record tonight at their hometown haunt of The Brightside, with Ornifex, Alastyn and Fox Ache supporting, all for a tenner. Tickets & Info: $10, more info here. Winter Moon & More Where: The Evelyn, Melbourne VIC When: 8pm 1am, Friday Jan 6 Why: Friday brings us Rock For The Rainforest, a night of rock, psych and punk at The Ev all in aid of protecting our rainforests, with proceeds being donated to GECO, a grass-roots environment group. Winter Moon and The Dead Amigos head the lineup with a whack of rock and blues, rounded out by Monkey Grip, Creek and The Hustle should be a great night of choons. Tickets & Info: $12, more info here. The Australian Blues Music Festival returns to Goulburn next month, celebrating its 21st year as one of the countrys finest showcases of Aussie and international talent. 2016 was the most successful year to date for the mammoth regional festival, but one look at the lineup for next months event suggests that record will be broken once again. Headlining the festival is Australias longest-serving blues outfit The Foreday Riders, who celebrate a whopping 50 years as a working band. There have been lineup changes, sure but two of the original 1967 members are holding steady: the King Brothers, Ron (harmonica, vocals) and Jeff (guitar, Dobro). Also high on the bill is Detroit-bred bluesman JJ Thames, festival favourites Dreamboogie, founder of legendary Aussie pub band Chain, Phil Manning, Canadian soulstress Anna Vriend, and Australias best bar-room blues pianist Don Hopkins. There are over 70 acts performing across 11 stages in Goulburn, plus festival markets in Belmore Park. Best of all, its completely free and completely worth a road trip. It all goes down on 9-12 February, in various venues around Goulburn, NSW. More information can be found here, and you can check out the entire lineup below. Full Artist Line-Up The Foreday Riders Phil Manning Fiona Boyes & The Fortune Tellers Claude Hay Trio JJ Thames (USA) Sweet Felicia & The Honeytones Dreamboogie Jesse Valach & The Blues Mountain The Blues Preachers The Groove Kings Lazy Eye Fiona Boyes (Solo) Doc White Pearlnoire & Don Hopkins Iseula Hingano & Jesse Valach Dorothy-Jane With Richard Steele Don Hopkins (Solo) Cass Eager Catfish Voodoo Key Grip Halfway To Forth Ann Vriend & The Rooster Davis Group (Canada) Bailey Judd Miss Whiskey Wilson & White Simon Kinney- Lewis Band Big Erle Nick Wildgoose With Special Guest Eddie Boyle White Lightning The Mighty Bluzicians Jarrod Shaw Daniel Hopkins Blues & Blessings At St. Saviours Cathedral. CHECK THIS BIT OF OUTRAGE AGAINST JACKSON COUNTY PROSECUTOR JEAN PETERS BAKER FOR HER EFFORTS TO REDUCE THE JAIL TIME OF AN ALLEGED CAREER CRIMINAL CONVICT!!! From the Jackson County Prosecutor's Office: "In 1994, Jackson County prosecutors recommended a prison sentence of 20 years for a man, who had been convicted of 2nd Degree burglary and stealing. A Jackson County judge sentenced to 80 years in prison. Today, the maximum sentence for such conviction would be 7 years in prison. Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker recently sent a written request to Gov. Jay Nixon, agreeing to a reduction in sentence for time served, nearly 22 years in prison . . ." "So Jean Peters Baker is enabling CRIME & criminals in KC, To push her agenda, and to punish Voters in Kansas City for NOT supporting the "Communist Criminal Coddling Liberals", who want to TAX everybody to death and give all kinds of FREEBIES to foreigners at TAX Payers expense and then lie about it!!!! NOTICE : The FOX 4 Reporter nor the KC Star ever points that out,,, tho the KC Star only would admit to saying other convictions or crimes without purposely giving the exact amount, to keep the readers clueless in the dark and to push their phony agenda and to provide cover for Jean Peters Baker to help push her phony fake agenda as well!!" "The sentences which he received were not disproportionate in light of his fourteen prior felony convictions. Under recidivist statutes like 558.016 and 558.019, the duration of sentence is "based not merely on that person's most recent offense but also on the propensities he has demonstrated over a period of time during which he has been convicted and sentenced for other crimes." SHOULD WE START FORGIVING CONVICTS IN KANSAS CITY OR IS THIS ATTEMPT TO OVERRIDE THE ORDERS OF JUDGES AND JURIES A POLITICAL PLOY BY THE JACKSON COUNTY PROSECUTOR??? While the injustice of the so-called "prison industrial complex" makes for. . . The reality of letting convicted criminals back onto the local streets is a bit more complex.Accordingly . . .We omitted the name because the guy is probs gonna get out and I don't want anybody else trying to sneak down into the basement HQ trying to kill me.the precedent set is far more important and doesn't bode well for the future. Take a look:MSM pretty much repeated the news tidbit without many questionsBut better and more satisfying than ranting . . .And so . . .You decide . . . By Press Trust of India: New Delhi, Jan 5 (PTI) The Supreme Court today dismissed pleas, including that of Rajya Sabha MP and expelled AIADMK leader Sasikala Pushpa, seeking a CBI probe or a judicial investigation by an apex court judge into the death of J Jayalalithaa. A bench of Justices P C Ghose and R F Nariman said that a similar petition is pending before the Madras High Court. advertisement "We are not inclined to entertain the matter as a similar one is already pending before the Madras High Court. The petitions are dismissed," the bench said. The apex court, besides Pushpas plea, also dismissed a writ petition of an NGO on similar lines. Pushpa had moved the Supreme Court on December 18, 2016 alleging that former Chief Minister Jayalalithaas death was "suspicious" as her actual medical condition was not disclosed, no one was allowed to visit her, her funeral photographs showed embalming marks and everything from her hospitalisation to her death "was kept under wraps". She had sought directions to the Centre, the Tamil Nadu government and Apollo Hospital, where Jayalalithaa was hospitalised, to disclose details of her health report and treatment in a sealed cover to the apex court. A similar plea was filed by Tamil Nadu Telugu Yuva Sakthi claiming that doubts have been raised over the circumstances of the AIADMK leaders death and her medical reports needed to be examined by experts. PTI MNL SJK AG DV --- ENDS --- The Cyprus problem would have been solved by now, it were up to the Cypriots only, UN Secretary General Special Adviser Espen Barth Eide has said The Cyprus problem would have been solved by now, it were up to the Cypriots only, UN Secretary General Special Adviser Espen Barth Eide has said on Wednesday, after a meeting Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias. He added that his conversation with Kotzias as very stimulating and creative. Speaking to the press, he expressed the strong feeling that if it was only up to the Cypriots now, this problem will be solved. He noted that the key questions that are outstanding are those pertaining to security and guarantees, which will be the main focus of the conference next week, in Geneva. Eide said that the conference will be open-ended and that all parties are heading there with the ambition of finding solutions, or at least a framework for a solution, that will lead to a final settlement. Looking for solutions It is not going to be easy he said, noting however that in all quarters, here and in Turkey, in the UK, on the island, there is a will to think outside of the box and look for solutions. So I think that the possibilities are higher than they ever were. So, while it will be difficult, I dont think it has ever looked better than it does right now, and the more I work on this, the more I get the reconfirmation of that sense. Because I think the other key players that are involved, they may have their differences on many issues, but they all seem to think that a solution to the Cyprus problem is better for whatever broader agendas they have than the opposite of a solution. And I think that the choice now is very much about using this opportunity or losing it, he said. Eide said that the inability to solve the Cyprus problem this time will not mean that there will not be another chance in the future and encouraged everybody to use that opportunity now. He reiterated that he is in favour of a meeting between Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan. Replying to a question, he said that Tsipras and Erdogan will be present in Geneva, as well as the members of the Security Council. There is agreement that consultations can be held with all the players, which would include the Security Council, he said, adding that the EU and international financial institutions could also be present. The future of UN presence The Special Adviser noted that the Security Council will play a very important role as it will need to endorse and support and think about the future of UN presence in the case of a success in Geneva. According to Eide, the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres will be in Geneva when the international conference starts, on January 12. He said that the talks in Geneva could last more than a few days, if needed, but we go there with the ambition of solving it now, and then we will see how things develop when we are there. Of course my preference would be for a very good solution that came quickly. But, if I have to choose, I want the solution to be good and owned by all players, and if that takes more than a few days, we will give it more than a few days. But we go there with the ambition of solving it now, and then we will see how things develop when we are there. Sometimes people can be positively surprised, and maybe things come up, when the key players are there, that we have not been able to fully achieve in the preparations. So that is exactly why we need an international conference at this stage, he said. Source: CNA 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 Science fiction often speculates about robots that are virtually indistinguishable from humans. However, while there are examples of humanoid robots being developed, the majority of robots will not take after their creators, says GlobalData. Iranian Railway Company has signed contract with Siemens of Germany to acquire some 3,000 wagons by the end of March, Babak Ahmadi Naqedi, senior official with Islamic Republic of Iran Railways said on Wednesday. The company decided to put out of service all the wagons built more than 55 years ago, Ahmadi Naqedi was quoted as saying in an Irna report. He said that according to a new approval, the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways has plans to put out of service the wagons with the age of 45 years this year. Noting that Tehran-Mashad trains will be electricity-powered and the plan is passing its final stages, he said that some 70 electricity-powered locomotives have been allocated to the project. He said that modernization of the railway is one of the four main priorities of the country. Ukraine offers various investment opportunities to Iranians, particularly in the agriculture sector, according to a senior Iranian offical. Irans merchants and business people should take advantage of the opportunity to work on some 300 projects that the Ukrainian government is handing over to the private sector, Iranian ambassador Mohammad Beheshti Monfared was quoted as saying in an Iran Daily News report, citing Tasnim News Agency. Monfared made the comments while addressing an economic meeting in Iran's northern city of Rasht yesterday (January 4). Referring to Ukraine's advanced agricultural machinery, fertile soil, high precipitation levels and low-cost labour, the ambassador highlighted the good grounds for extraterritorial agriculture in Europe's second largest country which has a population of 46 million. Monfared said industries in Gilan Province can begin marketing programmes to sell pharmaceutical products in Ukraine, added the report. The Saudi Food and Drug Authority has imposed a temporarily ban on imports of poultry meat, eggs, their products and equipment from provinces and districts in five countries due to outbreak of high virulent Avian Influenza. The Authority said in a statement, carried by Saudi Press Agency, that the ban on import included Bacs-Kiskun County in Hungary, Kherson province in Ukraine, Lubuskie province in Poland, Friesland County in the Netherlands and provinces of Tarn-et-Garonne and Aveyron in France, reported Wam, the official Emirates news agency. More than 200 leading organisations, including Honeywell, Emerson Automation Solutions, Verwater, Endress+Hauser, Siemens and Silverwing, will showcase their latest solutions at StocExpo Europe 2017, to be held later this year in the Netherlands. StocExpo Europe 2017, a leading international event for the tank terminal industry, will take place from March 28 to 30, at the Ahoy Rotterdam convention centre and arena, in Rotterdam. The event will feature innovation spanning the entire supply spectrum from pumps and valves, loading equipment and coatings through to roofing, tank cleaning and degassing, said a statement. Implico Group will be introducing its new handheld solution for railcar handling. By allowing staff at trackside to be directly connected to the terminal management and automation system OpenTAS - workers can enter current loading data without detours or delays, speeding up the entire process, it said. Michael Martens, managing partner, Implico Group, said: The event is more than just a trade fair for us. Weve been exhibiting our software and cloud solutions for the optimisation of terminal management processes at StocExpo for many years. We feel connected to the people and the industry. Its always like coming home, he added. Pascal Vande Velde, CEO and founder at Avalon Automation, said: We are attending the event because we simply cant afford not to. It is the must-attend event for anyone playing a significant role in the liquid storage industry. Avalon Automation will be presenting the latest release of Alias, its configurable TAS solution which offers contracting, order management, scheduling, inventory control, order based loading, order to cash, conditional billing, KPI reporting, and more. It helps to drive down risk, avoid human errors, and structurally reduce operational costs, it added. After listening to its community of operators Arflu has designed a Dual Expanding Plug valve that eliminates the common problems that occur during operation. Being showcased at the upcoming event, the valve has a backseat, the stem packing is accessible from the outside and it can easily be changed even under pressure. The Lightning Master stand will feature its movable arm grounding system Mags. This patented bypass conductor system for external floating roof tanks is simple, gravity-powered and reliable, having been through a simulated wind test in excess of 2,000,000 cycles without wear or failure, said a statement. Jennifer Evans, director of marketing at Lightning Master Corporation, said: We view the event as the worlds premier industrial exhibition focused on bulk storage of petrochemical material. Many of the industrys best and brightest gather here to exchange new ideas and information, he said. FSP-Tech produces tank safety showers for indoor and outdoor applications. It will be demonstrating how these showers, made from stainless steel, save costs and increase safety when compared to conventional safety showers, it said. Verwater will be displaying its full spectrum of industrial and tank-related maintenance and project services, such as jacking, civil works, piping and mechanical, turnarounds, protective coatings, E&I, panel building and engineering, it added. StocExpo Europe 2017 provides Jabitherm Rohrsysteme with the perfect platform to showcase its pre-insulated pipes which are ideally suited for those involved in the chemistry and oil/gas/LNG-transfer industries. Nick Powell, portfolio event director, StocExpo & Tank Storage, said: We have such a diverse level of innovation on show this year covering the whole tank storage supply chain. I think this year more than ever we have something for everyone. We are thrilled to have the major names on board, but we are also very pleased to have so many smaller, highly innovative first-time exhibitors signing up for the show, he said. This mix means decision-makers at our show will not only meet all of their major potential suppliers under one roof, but theyll have access to a supply base which they might otherwise, never have the time or opportunity to see, he added. TradeArabia News Service The Supreme Court issued a notice to the West Bengal government on the plea of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration. By Anusha Soni: The Supreme Court today issued a notice to the West Bengal government on the plea of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) challenging refusal to transfer administrative powers to it. The court also sought the West Bengal government's response over non transfer of administrative powers to the GTA. The apex court in September last year agreed to examine GTA's plea challenging the state government's refusal to transfer administrative power and various subjects to it despite the tripartite agreement that was reached between West Bengal and the Union government in 2011. advertisement 'IMPINGING UPON RIGHTS' GTA member Binay Tamang had earlier claimed that the state government's decision was "impinging upon the fundamental rights of the Gorkha people living in the hill areas of the district of Darjeeling". The bench headed by the then Chief Justice TS Thakur asked the 2011 notification issued by the West Bengal government promising transfer of power in terms of a memorandum of agreement (MoU) to be presented before the court. However, the officials then had said that the petition alleging state government's refusal to transfer administrative power is misleading. "We are progressing with the matter as in a timely fashion. Of the 59 subjects, 55 have been handed over to GTA," said a senior home official. WHAT IS IN THE TRIPARTITE AGREEMENT The Union government, the West Bengal government and the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) signed a tripartite agreement on July 18, 2011 to create Gorkhaland Territorial Administration. The administration will have greater financial and administrative autonomy. The tripartite pact gives Gorkhaland Territorial Administration powers to generate revenue. Elections to the GTA will be held within a few months and all parties will be free to participate in the electoral process. The GTA will have authority over civic bodies, departments of electricity and IT in the proposed Gorkhaland area. It will also be given power to control tea gardens and the crucial tea industry. The home and police departments will, however, stay with the state government. The state and the Centre will provide money to run the administration. (with inputs from agencies) ALSO READ: Gorkhaland row: Once called Queen of Hills, Darjeeling now bleeds to retain its glorious past West Bengal: Gorkhaland tripartite agreement to be signed today ALSO WATCH --- ENDS --- The potential of tourism in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region will be examined during the International Tourism Fair in Spain (FITUR), taking place from January 18 to 22 in Madrid. A ministerial discussion forum jointly organised by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and Casa Arabe will focus on sustaining growth and strengthening the resilience of tourism in the Mena region. Meanwhile, more than 20 ministers of tourism from Africa will debate the opportunities that the sector can bring to the continent at the fair. The fair comprises a number of events organised by UNWTO. Activities will have a special focus on sustainable tourism, including the official presentation of the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development 2017 on January 18. UNWTO has prepared a number of events to be held at FITUR, starting with the presentation of the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development 2017. Also on January 18, the 13th edition of the UNWTO Awards on Innovation and Excellence in Tourism will commend some of the best examples of sustainable tourism around the world. Preceding the ceremony on January 16, the Awards Forum will serve to present the 12 projects shortlisted from 139 initiatives that were received from 55 countries. - TradeArabia News Service Turkish Airlines will add Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine, to its flight network from March 30. Kharkiv flights will be operated four times weekly on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. This figure will increase to seven times per week as of May 30. Round trip fares are available from Istanbul to Kharkiv starting from $109, including taxes and fees. Additionally, for the first six months of operation to the new destinations, there is a special offer for Miles&Smiles members, with a 25 per cent reduction in the miles needed to redeem either award tickets or upgrades, a statement said. TradeArabia News Service The CBI court asked the investigating agency to provide the names of 'unknown bankers' mentioned in its chargesheet. By Pramod Madhav: While sentencing sand mining baron J Sekhar Reddy and his two associates K Srinivasulu and Prem Kumar to two-day police custody, the CBI Special Court instructed the investigative agency to provide the names of the bankers involved in the money laundering scam. Here's all you need to know: Till now, the Central Bureau of Investigation has arrested five people, including Sekhar Reddy, for allegedly attempting to convert demonetised currency worth crores of rupees to new currency. The Income Tax department reportedly seized Rs 34 crore in new Rs 2000 currency notes from the sand mining baron's premises. Subsequently, the CBI has filed a chargesheet against Sekhar Reddy, his two associates and unknown bankers for laundering money. The CBI court asked the investigative agency to provide by tomorrow (January 6) the names of the 'unknown bankers' involved in the scam. The court also asked why the Reserve Bank of India's south zone chief was not yet inquired in relation to the case. Judge K Venkatasamy, suspecting involvement of senior bank officials in the case, reminded CBI of its duty to bring the corrupt bank officials before the court. The CBI's FIR copy on the money laundering case against Sekhar Reddy claimed that the sand mining baron used a certain number of unknown public servants and bank employees to change the demonetised currency into new notes. "The bank officials who were trusted with the new currency notes to be distributed to the public, as per the instructions given to the bank from time to time by the RBI, defying the same they helped the accused persons for a consideration," claims the FIR. Following the raids and arrest of Sekhar Reddy, Tamil Nadu's chief secretary Rama Mohan Rao's residence was also raided. Soon after, he was removed from his post. advertisement ALSO READ: Sekhar Reddy used public servants to change demonetised currency, says CBI's FIR ALSO READ: IT raids: Five points that need a deeper look in sacked Tamil Nadu chief secretary's statement ALSO READ: ED arrests Kolkata businessman Paras Mal Lodha for money laundering ALSO WATCH --- ENDS --- National Geographic has just released their new book, entitled The World's Most Romantic Destinations: 50 Dreamy Getaways, Private Retreats, and Enchanting Places to Celebrate Love. This book revealed the most romantic places in the world, where you and your life partner can wander and make good memories. It doesn't matter what type of romantic adventure you and your partner prefer, these 50 spellbinding locations offer varying types of activities that would make you fall in love even more. Here are some of them: Bora Bora, French Polynesia. It's not surprising that Bora-Bora is included on the list, since it has been the perfect tropical destination for lovers since ever. Dubbed as the "Romantic Paradise" among the French Polynesia Group of Islands, this island is the best lover's dream. Stunning clear waters, unpolluted air, cozy, romantic beach bungalows-what more could you ask for? Central Park, New York. An instant burst of nature inside the Big Apple, walking along Central Park is a favorite pastime of lovers. Especially in autumn, when the trees and leaves are golden, Central Park appears to be more beautiful. Pack a picnic basket and pick a perfect spot in the grass with your significant other, and watch the sun go down in each other's arms. Machu Picchu, Peru. Want a little taste of history with your Partner? Go to Machu Picchu in Peru. It was built around 1450 AD and a symbol of the ancient Inca civilization, and in 2007, it was voted as one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Hike through the Inca Trail and immerse yourselves in one of the most ancient cultures in the planet. The trip is much more special if you have someone to share it with. Victoria Falls, Africa. Test your adventure spirit with your partner and head off to the adventure capital of Africa. Several fun activities are in store for you that will make your adrenaline rise up. Try the freefall bungee jumping in the Victoria Falls bridge, brave the white water rafting in the Zambezi River, and at sunset, hold hands with your loved one as you watch the sun go down in the Zambezi River Sunset Boat Cruise. See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018 Due to its colossal religious significance, Israel is one of the few places in the Middle East that is known to welcome a multitude of outsiders. It has been that way since early medieval period with Jewish and Christian pilgrims. Now the overall inclusion of visiting foreign cultures covers a worldwide scope. Normally, more people meant an increased cost of living (permanent or temporary). However, it is not impossible to enjoy the sights and sounds of the holy nation while on a relatively tight budget. Here are the ways to spend less while traveling in Israel: Accommodations There are simple dos-and-don'ts when it comes to seeking temporary living quarters. Do book your stay in hostels (inns), and avoid hotels as much as possible. Hostels only cost between $20 and $30 while hotels can be twice more expensive. By comparison, the return of investment swings in favor of hostels, especially those that already offer complimentary meals. Shopping If you're planning to buy some groceries, Israel's local markets charge a ridiculously cheaper bargain compared to your local US supermarkets. They provide a better deal than convenience stores in terms of natural foods and resources. More importantly, it is permitted to haggle with sellers (the locals are very adept and consider this a pleasant pastime). Dining The best way to enjoy one's dining experience in Israel is to eat like a local. Street foods like hummus and falafel are a staple delight for tourists on the go. More importantly, street stalls are a whole lot of a cheaper bargain than restaurants. The most expensive street food budget per meal would not exceed $12. Transportation Of all the important elements of tourism which one can gain the most bargain, transportation is the most important issue worth discussing. Rule of thumb: avoid taxis as much as possible. Taxi drivers tend to overcharge, if not give passengers a less pleasant experience. The best rides all over the country is a shared minivan called 'sherut.' These vehicles drop passengers at the exact location. However, most of the interesting sites within each city are accessible within walking distance. If you're not moving to another city, it is best to simply go on foot. See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018 The rise of the Islamic militant group Islamic State signified a nosedive for the Middle East's tourism economy except in the regions of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Attacks in European countries including Paris, France and Munich, Germany have also deteriorated tourism in the region. Severely affected is Turkey with its recent nightclub attack and the dwindling tourism in Egypt -- before, a powerhouse of tourism -- given the lack of management of heritage sites. The Mastercard 2016 Global Destination Cities Index indicates that the series of attacks in Paris in 2015 and 2016 have turned many international tourists to Dubai, UAE and even Bangkok. Egypt's Russian and UK visitors have less frequented the country with only 5 percent of visitors coming from the two countries in 2016 compared to being 40 percent of Egypt's total number of tourists in 2014. According to The Daily Mail, Egypt is facing a "shaky economy following years of (civil) unrest" and is currently facing a struggle to "preserve its fabled archeological heritage." The news website cites Archeologist and Former Antiquities Minister Zahi Hawass who said the country's heritage suffered immensely as insufficient revenue to keep 38,000 individuals who maintain the heritage sites including the ancient pyramids and tombs. Turkey's nightclub attack -- claimed by the Islamic State -- has triggered a mass exodus of foreign nationals after respective governments of their countries called for them to stay vigilant or take the next flight back to their country. According to CNN Money, Turkey was one of the world's most popular tourism spot in 2014. The news website said a failed coup and Islamic State attacks had tourist visitor population drop by 21% in 2016. The news website cited ForwardKeys CEO Olivier Jager's statement that Turkey's New Year's Eve nightclub attack will "fuel concerns about the safety of the [country]." The travel company's data showed Istanbul and Turkey bookings have fallen by 69% after the June 2016 Istanbul Airport bombing. See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018 Travelers traveling with kids less than 10 years old limits your choices to either Disneyland, a country with a great amusement park, or one that has great outdoor, water or ski sports. Travelers planning a Euro trip with their youngsters may not have known that their children can be key to a great experience in Thailand -- where locals love children -- or wildlife adventures in India or in the Carribean. According to Lonely Planet, Denmark's Tivoli is a "fairy tale of a central amusement park" that dates to 1843. This means Denmark's history has always loved children. Lonely Planet said it features fireworks, great food, amazing music and the world-famous "Legoland." Even adult travelers would want to see a truly amazing amusement park. Lonely Planet also lists Belize in the Carribean as one great potential "boon for families," namely those going on trips with young ones. The affordable Carribean trip features historic and natural sites that feature monkeys and crocodiles to Mayan ruins and jungle lodges. According to Britain's Rough Guide's list of 30 best places to travel with kids, India is the top of the list. In Kerala are national parks, elephant spotting and bamboo rafting for kids old enough to ride the waters. Houseboats are also an adventurous way to spend the night during travel. Rough Guide also lists England's West Midlands Safari Park and Birmingham's Sea Life Center as kid-friendly travel sites -- both areas interesting for its historic and wildlife content. Back in South America, Costa Rica's natural rainforests are great for outdoor activities including hiking, camping and horse riding but it may not be suitable for little ones younger than seven. In America is Utah's Arches National Park featuring large sandstones of natural formation. If travelers and children are not up for natural rock formations and sunsets, then Alabama's US Space and Rocket Center should intrigue families' curiosities about space and the world beyond the Earth. See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018 As numbers of Chinese tourists flock Helsinki Airport, the Finish premier airport introduced the use of payment method Alipay. Helsinki is one of the first airports in Europe, along Munich and Frankfurt, to provide Alipay to its Chinese passengers. Alipay was made available this past Holiday season. The administration of the said airport has decided to offer Alipay due to increasing numbers of Chinese travellers either visiting the Finish capital or waiting for their connecting flights. Having a familiar option to pay for their needs is expected to increase their buying capability in safe and fast manner. "Chinese passengers are the most rapidly growing customer group at Helsinki Airport, and the group that use the most money,'' says Elena Stenholm, commercial services director of the airport. She added that by giving an easy way to pay will make Chinese travellers feel a hassle-free and safe travel. At present, there are seven commercial service centres that accept Alipay. These numbers are expected to grow as more shops are introduced to this payment option. M-box, Iitalla, Lindroos, Moomin and Finspiration were the first shops to receive payment via Alipay. So far, Alipay is well-received on its first month. Chinese tourists now have more options to pay aside from China UnionPay which is already widely used. Stenholm sounds positive believing that more shops will be accepting Alipay soon if commercial operators will also accept Alipay's payment services. Alipay is part of a global giant Alibaba. In China alone, it has an estimated 400 million users. The number of Chinese passengers to fly in Helsinki is expected to increase as Alitrip estimates that it will bring 50,000 tourists this year in Rovaniemi. Most of them want to visit Lapland, a must-see destination for any traveller. Meanwhile, for more must-see destination in Finland, check this article from Travelers Today. See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018 Brad Pitt's Christmas this year is far from perfect. It was his worst in years. He cried many times and was not ashamed to do it anymore. Aside from losing his wife, he also lost the physical presence of his kids. He is not satisfied with the occasional visits he is allowed to. His request for a prolonged time with his kids has been turned down as suggested by the therapists. Friends of the "Allied" actor shared that this was his worst Christmas. An insider, according to Mirror, said that, "He desperately misses having his kids with him for Christmas and New Year." The insider added, "He's broken down in tears so many times - he's not ashamed to cry anymore. Brad is like a broken man." Brad Pitt's Christmas alone is too much for him as he is used to pamper with kids with gifts during the holiday. The divorce has been taking its toll on the actor specifically with his emotional state. He was deeply affected when private information about the kids was divulged in public because of the custody cases. The actor's lawyers filed a memorandum in court on December 21 airing his side as to why he wants information about the divorce and the custody of their six children hidden from the public. He accuses Angelina Jolie of jeopardizing their children's privacy and compromises their welfare according to TMZ. Superior Los Angeles Court Judge Richard Burdge, Jr. did not rule out sealing relevant documents especially those pertaining to the couple's children. This week, lawyers (the couple failed to attend the hearing) for both sides submitted information through emails that shed light on the intensifying dispute involving visitation rights to the six children. On the last week of November, Pitt's lawyers made a request in court that the "Troy" actor be allowed longer visits for December. However, the "Maleficent" actress denied the request. Her lawyer Laura Wasser declared that Pitt and his team of lawyers are ignoring the decision of the therapists that protects the welfare of the kids. Jolie wants to have the sole physical custody of the children. The court hearing is scheduled this January 2017. How will the court rules on the custody fight between the Hollywood A-list former couple? Will Brad Pitt's Christmas next year be a brighter and happier one? Only the court can decide on his fate. See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018 Number 4: North Korea Submarine-launched Ballistic Missile This is one of the exciting North Korean Secrets. What is interesting about this is that military activities inside the country are rarely announced to the world. It was only through Google Earth that a missile launcher in the form of a submarine has been discovered along the coasts of North Korea. According to a report from BBC, the submarine has been doing continuous testing since August. A powerful military machine, it has urged many countries in the world to monitor military activities from the Hermit Kingdom. Number 3: The PyongYang Metro One of the hidden secrets of North Korea is their lavish, luxurious Pyongyang metro. Walls are made of beautiful marble and there are chandeliers in the ceilings, the Pyongyang metro is a definite stunner. One of the deepest in the world at 100 meters, it is one of North Korea's important and hidden technological gems. Although normal tourists are allowed to stop by and take photos, there are certain stations which are prohibited to foreigners. Number 2: DMZ Infiltration Tunnels The DMZ or the Demilitarized Zone in between North and South Korea is a large expanse of land that literally separates the two countries. At both sides, there are military men guarding their homelands. An intriguing North Korean Secret, it has been discovered that there are large and long tunnels in between the DMZ. According to CNN, this is an attempt by the North Korean Military to 'infiltrate' South Korea through a stealth attack. Although there are no detailed reports as to whether or not they succeeded, it is still a mystery if more tunnels are going to be discovered. Number 1: The 'Permissible Haircuts' If you have ever wondered why some North Koreans look as if they are from old photographs, this is because their hairstyles are literally from age-old photos. According to Time Magazine, there is a total of 28 State-Approved hairstyles in the country for both men and women. Although it is not much of a hidden secret of North Korea, if not followed accordingly, there are might be a price to pay. The good news is, there are some theories that the younger leader is not as particular about hair, unlike his father. See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018 Spanning a total 12,000 kilometers, the China-Britain Freight train is the first direct rail system that connects China and the UK. This particular rail system has been launched the first week of January and is expected to complete its maiden voyage in a whopping length of 18 days. After the infamous Brexit, this might be one of the most ideal economic move of Britain as an independent from the European Union. It has been generally designed to strengthen China's growing economic and diplomatic ties with Britain. The great thing about it is that it will certainly benefit countries that the rail will traverse. A modern Silk Road, according to Bloomberg, it is expected to bring with it goods from the People's Republic of China to many different places in the world. It has been in the works since 2013. Now four years later, China has made their ambitions come true as the freight train has made its maiden voyage and has made headlines all over the globe. It has always been a dream for many solo travelers and backpackers to traverse travel straight from Asia to Europe without the use of a boat or a plane. As of the moment, sadly, this particular rail system is only available to transport goods through intercontinental tunnels. However, it would seem that there are plans to provide human transport in the future through the same means. On a similar note and seeing this as a potential for tourism boom, the Trans-Siberian rail system seems to be doing some expansion as well. According to a report from the Daily Mail, a new Japanese plan has been in the works and has conceptualized to use the Trans-Siberian railway to allow passengers to travel from Tokyo to Britain. It would be best to hold on to those backpacking gears as it is only a matter of time to know which railway would be successful first. See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018 Enticing private lagoons are the hottest travel destinations today; it seems travelers are looking out for new adventures other than the sun-drenched sands and the tropical mountains. Definitely, the Philippine's hidden beauty, Miniloc Beach Lagoon, will be the next top world destination due to it. For travel ideas 2017, get ready to find where this secret tourist spot is in South East Asia's pearl. The Philippines is already known for its Boracay white sand beaches, Chocolate Kisses Hills, Banaue's wonder of the world rice terraces, and more. Remarkably, the country received one of the most nature abundant gifts. Seemingly, these treasures are still a lot, and many of them are still unexplored. According to Daily Mail, one of the hottest Travel option for vacationing 2017 is Miniloc Island. They praised it for the place's surprisingly beauty; it's technically hidden as traveler still needs to squeeze themselves into a small cliff before seeing the view. Despite, it's a noteworthy adventure to try. But for tourists looking for a more convenience, some places around the Palawan's secret lagoon also have resort getaways. It's actually connected to the same island but they have well-maintained accommodations. El Nido's Resorts Eco-Discovery Island Resort and Lagen Island Resort are one of the best places to stay in the area; they offer nice hotels with lots of activities. In a report by Forbes, it highly recommends for travelers to pick Palawan as their next travel idea. Supposedly, the province amassed great beaches and diving areas in the world. And, the two stated getaways can provide that. Moreover, it will not only be Miniloc Island which the vacationers can enjoy, they can also hop Bacuit Bay, Snake Island, Cadlao Lagoon, Pinagbuyutan Island, and a lot more. There will be no shortage of adventure in the area. For more travel tips and ideas, keep following Travelers Today. See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018 The petition was filed by an NGO led by lawyer Prashant Bhushan. Earlier the Delhi High Court had dismissed the plea saying that the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is already looking into the matter. The petition alleged that the decision to purchase of 111 aircraft for national airlines which cost about Rs 70,000 crore, taking a large number of planes on lease, giving up profit-making routes and timings in favour of private airlines, and the merger of Air India and Indian Airlines "ruined the national carriers". The Supreme Court while disposing off the plea expressed hope that Central Bureau of Investigation would adhere to the timeline and conclude the probe into the case by June 2017. Presently, the PAC and the CBI are already looking into the matter and are due to submit their report. "If there is any challenge to the CBI report than it must be made," said a bench led by Chief Justice of India J S Khehar. In its petition before the apex court, the NGO had alleged that the decisions of the then civil aviation minister "ruined our national carriers, cost the national exchequer tens of thousands of crores". The petition alleged that the "only beneficiaries of the above decisions were foreign aircraft manufacturers, private and foreign airlines". The Land of Sorry will be apologizing even more as the city of Montreal will celebrate its 375th birthday. As preparations for their birthday bash, it seems like Canadians have to knock on someone's door and say, "Sorry!" But they shouldn't be asking for forgiveness as they open their gates for people to celebrate with them for a whole year with 175 programs lining up. Three Montreal Symphonic Orchestra will get to play at Mount Royal in line with the celebration of the year. The OSM, the Orchestre Metropolitain, and the McGill Symphony Orchestra will tune up for the public free of charge. Expect different improve troupes in the city depicting the history of Montreal. From art shows to the Illumination of the Biosphere, to circuses and literature, 2017 is a good year to visit the city. Or, generally, Canada. The country will be celebrating its 150th birthday. Canadians will be having a grand time this year. It was on May 17, 1642 when a French colony settled to Montreal. General Manager of The Society for the Celebration of Montreal's 375th Anniversary, Alain Gignac told Globe and Mail, "It's true, 375 isn't a significant number, But why not celebrate? We were starting to get used to a kind of gloominess. We thought, why not mark the moment, give Montreal a little energy and pride, and a sense of belonging to Montrealers so that they can get into the party." This January, their activities take you to a BARBEGAZI winter obstacle course to win $5,000. Another chilly celebration will be the IGLOOFEST where there will be music, competitions, and good food. Giving importance to cultural diversity, Aime comme Montreal will get visitors to tackle issues of a multicultural city with book and photography exhibits. Even family activities at Parc Jean-Drapeau for Fete des Neiges will be held. See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018 Not all cities are the same, as the more seasoned tourists are aware and conscious of scams that usually victimizes travelers. Bangkok in Thailand is one place to be careful of because there are many tourists there. This becomes an opportunity for those with crooked intentions. It therefore pays to be aware and careful. These are some of the most common scams in Bangkok, Thailand that preys on tourists: If you are not an expert on gems, then we strongly suggest you to be careful of the Thai Gem Scam. Do not take the word of other people on how much money you can make if you sell these gems on return to your own country. People have lost a lot of money there. Do not make the mistake that you are different from the other victims. The Grand Palace scam can happen near any tourist attraction, but happens mostly outside the Grand Palace. As you approach, someone will tell you that the Grand Palace is closed for various reasons. Ignore them as you will end up in either a gem store or a tailor shop. Many people in Phuket and Pattaya are being scammed after renting Jet Skis. When you come back after renting it, they will point out scratches and dents in the jet ski and they will demand you to pay for damages. What they will not say is that other customers have already paid for those scratches. If you rent anything, be it jet ski, motorcycle or car, make sure to first document all scratches and dents. The Bar/Cafe Scam is perpetrated by young, local girls. They target single male travelers by approaching them and getting them to go to a local bar or cafe. They get you to buy drinks and by the time the bill comes, they will be gone. Then when you get your bill, you will be shocked of the amount you have to pay. Always remember, most scammers are successful because they play on the greed of their victims. If something is too good to be true, then it probably is. Thai people are generally kind and shy. If you are approached by a well-spoken Thai person on the street, then the chances are high that this person is a scammer. Of course, this does not apply to all. One must be able to discern and be careful. See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018 When it comes to traveling in Jordan, tourists do not often regard the capital city in the same level of significance as Petra, Wadi Rum, The Dead Sea, Jerash, and Aqaba. In fact, to some extent, Amman is more likely considered a mere landing zone prior to visiting the top 5 destinations in Jordan. Nowadays, Amman is becoming a popular destination among tourists. Although the nationwide scale considers the capital city to be relatively expensive, Amman remains cheap by international standards. Here are some bargain tips for traveling to Amman: Picking an airline: When traveling on a tight budget, booking a flight to Amman is one of the most expensive things one can purchase. Choosing the right airline can save a bit of cash. From the United States, one of the best international flights to choose from is the Emirates, Qatar Airways, and the Royal Jordanian. A place to stay: In terms of seeking a temporary home in the capital city, it is difficult for travelers to find a suitable hotel due to the lack of knowledge and/or availability. For this reason, the most recommendable course of action for a low-cost travel plan is to seek boarding houses. Most hostels only cost somewhere between $.7.95 and $12.66. But if one chooses to stay comfortably in hotels, there are affordable types throughout the city. These hotels include Jordan River Hotel ($7.09), Arab Tower ($12.35), Boutique Hotel ($15.38), and Farah Hotel ($17.20). Cheap restaurants: Budget meals in Amman can range from $2.82 to $7.04 per meal. Rule of thumb for most experienced economical travelers, always seek low-key street cafes and avoid fancy restaurants. However, there are also good bistros that are categorized as cheap. The following recommendations include Habibah Sweets, Tawaheen al-Hawa, Hashem, and Pizza Roma Cafe. Tourist attractions: The most affordable tourist attraction in Amman is Roman Amphitheatre. Adult admission only costs $1.41. The Amman Citadel charges an admission fee of $2.82 per head. By comparison, the most expensive tourist attraction is National Archaeological Museum which entails an admission fee of $7.04. See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018 The Spanish capital has evolved throughout the years in terms of International cuisine. With the improvement and increase of modern restaurants in Madrid, sometimes you forgot how good it is as it offers a fusion of flavors that just makes the dish more complicated yet very delicious and traditional as the same time. Here are some of the most historic restaurants in Madrid that offers traditional and authentic Spanish cuisines. Taberna La Bola offers an excellent Spanish cuisine for which it is well known of. Gentle cooked in individual clay pots over a bed of charcoal aroud it as its recipe is from the well know madrileno classic which has remained the same since Tabera La Bola opened. According to The Culture Trip, This dish has even earned the a restaurant award for its traditional Spanish cuisine it entitles. Casa Labra opened its doors to the public in 1860. The restaurant has a wooden type dining roon and bar, they serve the best salt cod croquettes and some deep fried tajada de bacalao which is one of madrid's famous dishes. One of the best places to visit Madrid to feel that old classic vibe is Salvador. According to According to TimeOut, their traditional soup which is the lentil soup is made up of scrambled egg with some seafoods, beef with fries and asparagus to top it all off. If you want to check out the best wine bars stop by Taberna Tempranillo. It does not only offer wine but food as well. While taking a sip of their famous local wine, try one of the creative tostas or toast or the raciones which is a full plated dish wherein a group can share on it. There is also the foie gras ang magret de pato which is a duck leg with caramelized onion that taste tremendously good said Lonely Planet. Casa Jacinto is a local favorite and is very busy when there is a senate hearing because it is near the Senate and Plaza Spain Monument. Their best dishes include steak which is cooked in front of you on a hot stone and the oxtail stew. They also have the wild mushroom and clams if you want to try something different. For more of the latest news and current events around the world, 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 From spectacular one of a kind temples to jaw dropping natural wonders, the world's largest continent is home to the best heritage sites in the world. Its huge size makes it exceptionally different to the other continents culturally, ethnically and in terms of its natural resources and beauty. Here are some of the best Asian World Heritage site both natural and man made as well. The Rice Terraces of the Philippines. Located in the Cordillera region of Northern part of Luzon, these spectacular man made rice terraces were carved by human hands into the mountainside over 2000 years ago by the Ifugao people of the region. The stone and mud terraces feature complicated engineering systems that harvest water from the mountaintops. According to Rough Guides, the people in the region still place rice deities in the fields to avoid evil spirits to enter the land. Ha Long Bay, Vietnam. The clear waters of the Gulf of Tonkin in north-eastern Vietnam are surrounded by limestone formations covered by nature of the forest.According to Vietnamese people, legend has it that the country had to fight against invaders a dragon descended to the sea which means Ha Long and scattered emeralds all over from its mouth to form a defensive wall around. After thousands of decades the wall broke down piece by piece and turned into the majestic pillars of different shapes and sizes that we see today. Bagan, Myanmar. Bagan is the ancient capital of the Burmese empire. The natural beauty and huge space that consists of over 4,000 pagodas and temples have been placed on the tentative list to be potentially nominated to become the next UNESCO site, making it an one of the most memorable places to visit. Wulingyuan, China. Wulingyuan National Forest's quartz-sandstone spires were formed by a unique combination of glacial and environmental erosion, quakes and tectonic shifts that naturally happens in the area. If you want to try something new it is best to explore the emerging steep spires via walkways, steps and bridges that create a sky world that's over 1,000 ft above the canyon and gorges where nature is carved by streams and waterfalls, pools and caves overall a sight to be seen. Jantar Mantar, Delhi, India. Created by Maharaja Jai Singh II in the early 1700s as requested by Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah, the 'Temple of Instruments' as whaat it is known resembles a playground, but for light and time. According to Asia Spa, it is said that Jantar Mantar, along with similar observatories around the area, Singh created in Ujjain, Varanasi and Mathura, which was built to this scale as he found existing instruments too small to be precise. For more of the latest news and current updates 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 Do you sometimes have that urge to travel after watching a movie? There are lots of movies set in stunning places that will just make you get off your seats and inspire you to go that place. If you're planning to go on a vacation but still don't have any idea where to go, here are the top 5 movies that will inspire people to travel. The Jungle Book Believe it or not, but the whole set of "The Jungle Book" was all filmed in Los Angeles. According to The Telegraph, it was all CGI trickery and they didn't really go to India but it did inspire most people to go that country. The stunning scenes in the movie and the exotic wildlife are so enticing that you'd want to book the first flight to India. Moana The movie is about a Polynesian princess who's on an adventure to help save here tribe. The animated film shows the gorgeous clear waters, white sand beaches and rich marine life of the Polynesian islands. It gave viewers the curiosity to check the place out if it's really a paradise. Legend Of Tarzan The film was mostly filmed in the Warner Brothers Studios but some scenes were set in Gabon, which is near Congo. If you've watched the movie, you'd probably want to visit the wide grasslands, amazing waterfalls and have a safari trip in the wilds. The Eagle Huntress This movie is a documentary about a young Khazak girl from Mongolia wanting to become the first eagle huntress of their tribe. The setting is so beautiful and it's rich with ethnic culture and traditions that you might also want to experience. The Lord Of The Rings According to Bus Around The World, one of the most famous movie trilogies of all-time, the movie is set in New Zealand with jaw-dropping landscapes and bodies of water. Up to this day, the popular Hobbit village, The Shire, is still open for viewing to tourists. There are still lots of movies out there with fascinating settings but you might want to try these top 5 movies that inspired people to travel first. It would be an unforgettable experience. See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018 Thailand is one of the most visited places in South East Asia because of its rich culture and stunning natural wonders. From amazing beaches, exotic wildlife and ancient temples, there's just a lot of things to do there. If you're a first-timer you'd be confused what to do so here are some travel tips for things to do in Thailand for first-time travelers. Grand Palace Tour The Grand Palace is one of the main attractions in Thailand. It's located in Bangkok and for about 150 years, it served as the home for government and the king. According to The Crazy Tourist, the area is 218, 400 sq. meters wide so it's definitely worth a visit but tourists should take note that there's a strict dress code. Elephant Trekking It's totally a different experience seeing elephants in their natural environment. In Thailand, you'd even have the chance to go swimming with them and ride them bareback. The Mahawangchang Elephant Camp is a must see for first-time travelers and it's about a 4-hour drive from Bangkok. Experience Authentic Thai Massage You've probably had Thai massage before but it's totally different experiencing authentic Thai massage in Thailand. It's one of the most famous massages in the world known for a combination of stretching and pushing pressure points. It will really make you feel relaxed and invigorated. Similan Islands These rock formations and islands are about an 8-hour boat ride away from Phuket. It's a marine national park which means there is lots of wildlife in the area. It's best for people who love to enjoy snorkeling and diving in is crystal clear waters. According to Hotels.com, Similan means nine, so the name refers to the nine islands in the area. Floating Markets You haven't been to Thailand if you didn't go to the floating markets. The place is just around Bangkok and it will really give you a feel of Thailand. There are also other floating markets in Thailand so you can avoid huge crowds of vendors and tourists. For those first-time travelers, Thailand is a must see. Now that you know some things to when in Thailand, all that's left is to pack your bags and book a flight. See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018 There's no better way to start the year than to travel somewhere else. Traveling is just healthy for the body both physically and emotionally, but of course, it comes at a price. But take note that there are some places you can go to on a low budget and here are the top 5 cheapest travel destinations of 2017. Northern Vietnam Vietnam is already a cheap place to travel to but most travelers sometimes forget that the northern part is a must see as well. According to Forbes, Northern Vietnam is where stunning sceneries and rich culture can be found. Prices would range from $10-$15 for a night and food can go as low as fifty cents. Lisbon, Portugal Lisbon is a city full of culture and arts. There's quite a good mix of modernity and history in the city which is shown by historic architecture and an eclectic nightlife. If you want to go to Europe without spending so much then this is the city for you. Hotel accommodations would cost around $30 a night. Seoul, South Korea Seoul is a wonderful place where you can find almost everything. From ancient castles, gigantic skyscrapers, authentic Korean food and natural wonders, you can experience all of these at a friendly cost. Cape Town, South Africa According to National Post, Cape Town is one of the cheapest travel destinations in 2017 because of the low exchange rates. The place is already one of the most visited places on Earth because of the attractions that it can offer but it would probably gain even more visitors this year. Bucharest, Romania If you're fond of century-old architecture, then Bucharest is the perfect place for you. The place is just full of ancient structures and historical sites for travelers to explore. In addition to that, there's some vibrant nightlife and cheap food as well. Before you book that flight to your chosen destination, you might want to consider these top 5 cheapest travel destinations of 2017 first. It might just save you a lot of money and still have an enjoyable experience. See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018 Curtis Stone's travel tips are amazingly practical and got lots of wisdom. He is a celebrity chef, author, and television personality nicknamed "The Quiet Terminator." Stone is Coles Supermarket's ambassador in Australia since 2010. With his travel experiences, he is the authority when it comes to traveling. He says, "All I know is that I fly to Australia at least five times a year and I cross the United States around 20 times." Here are his tips for travelers as shared by Sydney Morning Herald: Always pack a suitcase full of dirty clothesThe renowned chef advises that when traveling, it is wise to pack a bagful of dirty clothes. He reasoned that clean clothes will get wrinkled upon arrival when packed in a suitcase. Upon arrival, he calls the housekeeping of the hotel he is billeted and asks for laundry service. True enough in just a matter of hours clothes are neatly folded and pressed. Keeping assorted currencies in a special partition in your wallet. Doing this will ensure that taxi fares, terminal tickets, and tips can be taken care of. Always bring along IDs that can prove your identity in case you get stranded or in any emergency situation. Be friendly. If possible always talk to your seatmate in a train. Curtis Stone shared that on one of his flights, he talked to his seatmate in the plane. It so happened that his seatmate is a 70-year-old man who was a father to triplets. He was able to get parenting tips from the man. Make your flight the best way to rest. Get on board tired. Travel after a day of work. In this way, you are tired and want to sleep really well. You can have the most relaxing sleep while on board. Never compromise an important travel and memorable event because you want to save. Stone shared that there was a time in one of his travels that he got stingy. They were in the Tutankhamen's tomb. To go inside, they were to an extra $10. He thought that it is not practical. However, he realized that he saved the money but he failed to see the tomb of the famous pharaoh in history. Avoid the room service menu. Food served inside your hotel room can be unhealthy. Just request for something in the kitchen not included in the menu. You will be served food that you desire. The practical chef is already a successful entrepreneur. Thrillist reported that he was able to put up his own restaurant, Maude (which is the name of his grandmother). More tips from the expert cook? You can find the best restaurants in town by using his strategy. You can ask the suggestion of the cook of the restaurant on where the chefs mostly dine in the area. Curtis Stones travel tips are really practical and tested. He himself experienced them, so the next time you travel, check Stone's warnings and advises See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018 The Election Commission has also announced the schedule for polls of three Legislative Council seats in the state. By Indo-Asian News Service: All government publicity hoardings in the Uttar Pradesh capital were pulled down after the Model Code of Conduct came into force following the poll dates announcement, an official said on Thursday. Most of these hoardings with Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav's pictures and describing various government schemes and projects were taken down late Wednesday night. ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW The state electoral officer's team has ensured that all of them would be removed over the next 24 hours, said the official. With the Model Code of Conduct in place, the state government was also directed not to initiate any bureaucratic transfers and asked not to go ahead with any new launches, announcements and inaugurations. Meanwhile, the Election Commission has also announced the schedule for polls of three Legislative Council seats in the state. Notification of these polls would be issued on January 10, nominations could be filed till January 17, and voting would take place on February 3. advertisement ALSO READ: Modi's BJP weathers demonetisation storm, set to win Uttar Pradesh: Key takeaways from India Today-Axis Opinion Poll Akhilesh vs Mulayam dangal in Samajwadi Party: CM loyalists may contest UP election on their own Kaun Banega Uttar Pradesh CM: 33 per cent voters want Akhilesh Yadav to return, says India Today-Axis survey --- ENDS --- When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. You can find out more about our use, change your default settings, and withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future by visiting Cookies Settings, which can also be found in the footer of the site. By Press Trust of India: From Lalit K Jha Washington, Jan 5 (PTI) Al-Qaeda leader Hamza bin Laden, the son of the terror groups slain leader Osama bin Laden, was today designated as a "global terrorist" by the US. The US move comes nearly year and half after Hamza was officially announced by al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri as an official member of the group. advertisement Hamza, who is in his mid-twenties, has become active as an Al-Qaeda propagandist since his fathers death in 2011. The designation by the State Department imposes sanctions on foreign persons determined to have committed, or pose a serious risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of US nationals or the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States. As a result of this designation, all property subject to US jurisdiction in which Hamza has any interest is blocked and US persons are generally prohibited from engaging in any transactions with him. The State Department said on July 9, 2016, al-Qaeda issued another audio message from Hamza bin Laden threatening revenge against the United States and warned Americans they would be targeted in the United States and abroad. "In 2015, (Hamza) bin Laden called for lone offender attacks against US, French and Israeli interests in Washington, D.C.; Paris, France; and Tel Aviv, Israel," it said. "Additionally, in 2016, (Hamza) bin Laden called on Saudi Arabian-based tribes to unite with al-Qaedas affiliate in Yemen to wage war against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," the State Department said. Simultaneously, the State Department also designated Ibrahim al-Banna, a senior member of Al-Qaeda in Arabian Peninsula, as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. Al-Banna has served as AQAP security chief and provided military and security guidance to AQAP leadership. A 2010 edition of AQAP?s English online magazine, Inspire, contained an article by al-Banna describing the 9/11 attack as virtuous and threatened to target Americans both domestically and elsewhere, in response to US actions overseas, the State Department said. Before joining AQAP, al-Banna was a leader of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad in Yemen from 1996 to 1998 and subsequently was in-charge of the training and intelligence sectors for the group. "Al-Banna is also subject to a US government reward of up to USD 5 million," the State Department said. PTI LKJ ZH --- ENDS --- The State Department said Hamza bin Laden had been added to its Specially Designated Global Terrorist list after he posed a serious risk of committing acts of terrorism against security of US nationals. By AP: The Obama administration imposed sanctions on Thursday on a son of September 11, 2001 terror attack mastermind Osama bin Laden, saying the younger bin Laden poses a risk to U.S. national security. The State Department said Hamza bin Laden has been added to its Specially Designated Global Terrorist list after he was "determined to have committed, or posed a serious risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security." Hamza bin Laden was officially named an al-Qaeda member in 2014 by his father's successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri. advertisement Also read | Osama bin Laden's son threatens revenge for father's assassination in audio message The State Department says the younger Laden in a 2015 audio message called for acts of terrorism in Western capitals. In an audio message last year, he threatened revenge against the U.S. and warned Americans they would be targeted at home and abroad. LONE WOLF ATTACKS AGAINST U.S., FRENCH INTERESTS Hamza bin Laden has also called for lone wolf, or solo-operative, attacks against U.S., French, and Israeli interests in Washington, Paris and Tel Aviv. "Hamza bin Laden is actively engaged in terrorism," the State Department said, adding that terrorism designations deny individuals access to the U.S. financial system and "can assist or complement the law-enforcement actions of other U.S. agencies and other governments." Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. special forces in Pakistan in 2011. AL-QAEDA LEADER ALSO PENALISED The State Department also announced penalties against Ibrahim al-Banna, a senior member of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Al-Banna served as that group's security chief and provided military and security guidance to its leadership. He wrote a 2010 article in an English-language magazine, hailing the September 11 attacks as virtuous, according to the State Department, and threatened to target Americans both domestically and abroad. --- ENDS --- Tribune News Service Amritsar, January 5 The police have started investigation into the government wheat seizure case. More than 600 bags of government-procured wheat were seized from a private godown located in a narrow lane of the Kubbi Beri area yesterday. Assistant Commissioner of Police (Central), Yadwinder Singh said the police had registered a case in the daily diary report and further investigations had been launched to unearth the entire nexus. We are going to scrutinise all records from the District Food and Civil Supply Department, regarding the wheat bags stored in the private godown. We will see from which government godown these were released and how they came here, he said. Congress leaders, headed by District Congress Committee (urban) president Jugal Kishore Sharma and Congress MLA from the Central constituency Om Parkash Soni, had held a demonstration outside the godown yesterday. They had alleged that the godown belonged to a close relative of senior BJP leader of the area and it was to be distributed during the elections to influence voters. They had demanded a high level probe and registration of case against the BJP leader whose posters were found from the godown along with blue cards. Raminder Singh Bath, District Food and Civil Supply Officer said that the department had given in writing to the police that the wheat bags should be considered illegal until owners of the building provide any documents to prove their claim. He said the police officials were urged to carry out investigations and take necessary action. Tribune News Service New Delhi, January 5 Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said the governments measures to eliminate the shadow economy and tax evasion are expected to have a positive impact, both on the GDP and on fiscal consolidation in the long run. He said this while chairing the 16th meeting of the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) today. Jaitley said though the world economy is quite fragile yet India appears to be much better placed today on the back of improvement in its macro-economic fundamentals. It was attended by all financial sector regulators, including RBI Governor Urjit Patel and senior officers of the Ministry of Finance. The Council reviewed the major issues and challenges facing the economy. Arvind Subramanian, Chief Economic Adviser (CEA), made a presentation on the state of economy. The Council noted that India appears to be much better placed today on the back of improvement in its macro-economic fundamentals. The regulators offered their suggestions for the upcoming Budget 2017-18, which were deliberated upon by the Council. The Council also reviewed the present status of NPAs in banks and the measures taken by government and RBI for dealing with the stressed assets and discussed on further action in this regard. The Council also discussed issues pertaining to Fintech, digital innovations and cyber security. The FSDC also discussed about the various initiatives taken by the government and regulators for promoting financial inclusion and financial literacy efforts and discussed further measures for promoting the same. A brief report on the activities undertaken by the FSDC sub-committee, chaired by RBI Governor Urjit Patel, was placed before the FSDC. The Council also undertook a comprehensive review of the action taken by members on the decisions taken in earlier meetings of the Council. Arun Joshi IT was nearly an year ago that Mufti Mohammed Sayeed took his last leave of Jammu and Kashmir. He was a politician who had a statesman's vision to restore peace to Kashmir guaranteed by the outcome of talks with stakeholders in the Valley and also Pakistan. His daughter adopted his vision as her mission before she ascended to the throne of thorns when she became the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir in April last year. Now when she is preparing to observe the first death anniversary of Mufti Sayeed on January 7, she finds that all her name and fame as the Chief Minister was subservient to fatherly love and teachings. She knows things have gone wrong in 2016, particularly after the killing of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen Commander Burhan Wani on July 8 last year. What happened thereafter brought irreparable breaches in the healing touch which was the signature tune of her father and the Peoples' Democratic Party. With more than 90 killings, scores losing their eyesight, and thousands of others injured, she lost her moorings while following her father's politics of reconciliation and upholding the virtues of the healing touch. The healing touch defined Mufti's politics. It was a shield against the oppression and intrusion into the personal lives of the people. And, at the same time, it was to lift restrictions on the day-to-day life of the masses whose daily brush with militancy and counter-terrorism operations had left them sandwiched between two guns. The change was palpable to the people in Kashmir when they got rid of night raids, Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), security check points, and found the hitherto forbidden high- security roads open to them in the first three years of the PDP-Congress rule from 2002 to 2005. These measures epitomised the healing touch. But the unfortunate events of 2016 have somewhat reversed the meaning of healing touch and now this phrase sounds hollow and duplicitous to the people in Kashmir. When the seeds of the unrest sought to be sown soon after she took over in April, when five people were killed while protesting against the alleged molestation of a young girl in Handwara by a soldier, she rushed to the place to reach out to the families of victims. Peace was restored. Her script of peace moved ahead with her own election to the Assembly from Anantnag, amid high-spirited celebration of Eid-ul-Fitr with the thousands of tourists in the Valley. On July 8 evening after she had finished her "maghrib prayers," her phone rang. The Inspector General of Police S J M Gilani informed her that Burhan had been killed. She knew that trouble was in the offing, for the militant leader had carved out a niche as a militant among the youth through the use of social media. She demanded preventive action and deployment of police and paramilitary forces. Deploying the Army was not on her mind that time because it would have sent out the signal that she was using the Army to manage an ordinary law-and-order situation. The Army knows how to open fire at the trouble-makers and she did not want her people to come in harm's way. This was in line with the thinking of her father who always wanted local forces to handle such situations. What Mehbooba Mufti missed was that through the civil administration, her father always kept the Army on stand-by mode. More than 20 precious lives were lost as the protestors charged toward Army and police camps, forcing the forces to use bullets to quell the violence. Kashmir being Kashmir, such casualties are hailed as "martyrdom" and since the society is well-knit, the mosques became bush telegraph. The social media with graphic accounts fuelled an already volatile situation. Mehbooba was on a testing ground. Flabbergasted by the turn of events and the rising death count, with the injured succumbing to their injuries and fresh clashes, she had no one to look up to. Had he (Mufti Sayeed) been alive, this would not have happened, was the sentiment which she shared with some of her colleagues. Unfortunately for her, he was not there. Instead of taking a decision, the trait that she showed before she agreed to become the Chief Minister, she was lost in her own dilemma. South Kashmir, the belt which is the political bastion of the Muftis erupted. She did not want to take any harsh measures that would distance the people from her and the party. At the same time, she hoped that the things would be brought under control. But that was not to be. This is where her administrative inexperience and the absence of trusted colleagues made things worse. Encouraged by the administrative inaction and the matter being sorted out in streets between the stone- throwing crowds of youngsters and police, more and more sections, including government employees joined and gave a momentum to the protests. In normal circumstances, her appeal for calm would have worked. Children for whom she had visited interrogation centres to get them released in the past, had picked up stones. The protests were becoming a part of a violent movement. This thing had never happened during her father's time. The violent crowds, with children as young as six or seven years, started losing faith in the healing touch, because on the ground they were facing bullets, pellets and teargas shells. There were deaths, blinding of the youth and some were losing their limbs. It was unprecedented. The credibility in the dialogue-oriented politics and as an alternative to the gun-versus-gun culture suffered erosion. The elders could discern that the control of the events had shifted to the Hyderpora residence of the separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani. Kashmir has shown signs of normalcy because of heavy presence of the military, display of forces at every few yards. Also, fatigue has set in among the people who suffered because of the prolonged shutdowns and absence of economic activity. The credit for this fragile normalcy did not go to her. Mehbooba is missing her father, while his legacy of reconciliation, dialogue and peace is a tall order for her as of now. ajoshi57@gmail.com By Press Trust of India: Hyderabad, Jan 5 (PTI) Nearly USD 14 billion worth of defence offset obligations would be discharged in India by foreign original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) by 2028, MoS for Defence Subhash R Bhamre said today. Reading from a prepared text of his speech, he also said that the government has emphasised on "indigenous manufacturing to reduce the defence budget by 50 percent within a decade". advertisement However, Defence Ministry spokesperson in New Delhi said what the minister meant was reducing the expenditure on account of defence imports by 50 per cent through indigenous manufacturing. Addressing a DRDO function here, he said the defence industry has the potential to become a huge foreign exchange earner and also lead the country to its professed goal of self-reliance. "Nearly USD 14 billion worth of defence offset obligations will be discharged by the foreign OEMs by 2028," he said while delivering the inaugural address at seminar - Leveraging defence expenditure as a tool for nation building - organised by College of Defence Management here. He noted that India has the 3rd largest armed forces in the world and spends approximately 40 per cent of its total defence budget on capital acquisitions, and about 60 per cent of defence requirements are met through imports. "There is an urgent need for innovation in the defence manufacturing sector with increased focus on R&D and to prepare a pool of human resource expertise which will help in making equipment and technologies cheaper," he said. Thanks to the Centres Make in India campaign, the defence sector has moved from the periphery to the core of Indian manufacturing, he pointed out. "The sector not only has the potential to augment manufacturing but also add nearly one million direct and indirect jobs," Bhamre said. He also said the government is taking steps to bring in a framework that encourages collaboration between public and private sector companies for defence export based on public private partnership model. "The DPSUs (Defence Public Sector Undertakings) and private sector should also put in place a system to share the capability and capacity to support overseas sales, servicing and maintenance throughout the life of the product," he said. Pointing out that the human resource capacity in the private sector has already demonstrated its worth in fields of automobile, IT and service sectors at global platform, he said the government is trying to replicate the same model by inducing private sector and foreign OEMs to invest in defence manufacturing. PTI RS ARS SAP VSC --- ENDS --- advertisement Nonika Singh In 2012, a barbaric gang-rape consumed a woman's life. Mercifully, India rose in one voice and reacted with outrage that all but became a movement. As dreams died young, an awakening was born and India vowed to develop zero tolerance against rapists and molesters. Countdown to 2017 and Bengaluru, one of the more modern cosmopolitan cities in the country, ushered in the New Year with what is being now termed as mass molestation. As scores of women were allegedly pawed, groped and mauled in public domain right under the watchful eyes of the police it should have, at the very least, evoked disgust and elicited concerted action against the hooligans. Yet what you get is yet another nonchalant, couldn't-care-less attitude and a sermon from none other than G Parameshwara, the Home Minister of Karnataka, responsible for the safety of women. The argument he has used is time-old rhetoric that follows the simple logic: when you can't protect women simply blame them. And blaming becomes easier when they don't fall into the traditional stereotype. Western ways are the culprit, reasoned Parmeshwara. Mark his pearls of wisdom, They tried to copy the westerners, not only in their mindset but even in their dressing. These kinds of things do happen. If Newton propounded every action has a reaction, our ministers believe every action against women calls for a sermon, which by the way is invariably a dressing- down for women and women alone. So if the minister sahib had his way he would dress all women like decent and proper Kannadigas. But what he and his ilk can certainly percolate down rather emphatically is a mindset that anyway finds a resounding echo among the political class. As a rule, the regressive mentality cuts across the political divide. A politician from the BJP, Babulal Gaur has a reputation of making the most insensitive sexist comments that lay the blame on women for all perverted acts. Mulayam Singh Yadav infamously said, Ladkon se galti ho jaati hai. Sharad Yadav branded women with short hair as parkatein auratein. And women politicians too think no differently. Rather, it's these demeaning utterances that fuel the herd mentality of men which views women as not merely unequal but as objects that can be trifled and toyed with. The signal such remarks give out each time is explicit and implicit. It's ok to tease/ molest / paw if she is wearing a short dress. It's fine to assault a woman if she is not cast in the Sati-Savitri image. In short, if a woman shows her mind and independence openly, more importantly if she is shown to be enjoying in full public glare, she is fair game. She needs to be taught some taming rules. Our Prime Minster Narendra Modi, otherwise not know for socially correct ripostes, in one of his rousing speeches roared, Correct sons don't question daughters However, the men in-charge of law and order would not dare to question drunk and unruly men. For men are meant to be men, the privileged gender, born with the spoon of privileges and little responsibilities. Their right to misbehave continues to draw sustenance from each other and men such as Parameshwara. As for the woman's right to dress, celebrate, enjoy and be herself it's all at the mercy of misguided men and their misogynist beliefs. Collectively they chorus and tell the women observe the Cinderella hour or be ready to lose your modesty. Who can veto their regressive thinking? Certainly not hapless women who as on the night of New Years eve must have wondered: have we moved forward to another year or back to the dark ages. For only in a world of pagans, what should have been a night of shame for the country and its powers that be, the wanton acts of the shameless are used to shame those who merit protection. The bogey of cultural deprivation as being raised by some rational thinkers or reducing the mayhem just to an insider-outsider debate is no excuse for molesters to go unpunished. The Bengaluru police's claim that it's working though silently may or may not be a befitting modus operandi. Yet the message that such reprehensible wantonness will not be accepted has to be loud and crystal clear. In free democratic India a few chosen men and women's convoluted social values can't become a veneer to cover up what the law clearly defines as illegal. nonikasingh@tribunemail.com The Union budget this time is scheduled to be presented on February 1 just three days before voting starts in five states. Either due to lack of foresight or because of clever political calculations the Modi government has put the Election Commission in an inconvenient situation where it has been called upon to intervene and decide for the first time whether it can, and should, postpone a budget. It is well recognised that governance at the Central level cannot be put on hold just because of a few state elections. A budget is a national-level exercise that cannot be delayed since, as the BJP says, every year, some election or the other takes place. However, this time it is different. Post-demonetisation, the budget is expected to provide relief. Finance Minister Jaitley himself has hinted at taxes coming down. The government may try to ease the pain of demonetisation with sops. Secondly, after the proposed merger of the railway and main budgets this year any concessions to rail users would be seen as a deliberate attempt to bribe and sway voters in favour of the ruling BJP, which is one of the contenders of power in the poll-going states. Jaitley argues that even in 2014, the budget was presented before the polls. He may not like to be reminded that the budget was postponed in 2012 when the assembly elections in these states were held. Besides, elections should not only be free and fair but also appear so. If opposition parties feel that the budget timing gives the ruling party an unfair advantage ahead of the assembly elections there is no reason why the President or the Election Commission should not listen to their reasoning. In fact, it is in the BJPs own interest that it should not give opposition parties any excuse to complain about lack of a level-playing field later. More so, if the party is so sure of its electoral success in the states going to the polls, of peoples support for demonetisation and of the drive against black money and corruption and, more importantly, of Narendra Modis leadership. Sunit Dhawan Tribune News Service Rohtak, January 5 A suspected case of killing a newly-wed girl for honour has been reported in the district yet again. Acting swiftly on a complaint lodged by the girls husband, a police party recovered her half-burnt body from the pyre, sent it for autopsy and arrested her parents. The matter came to light when Pradeep of Harisingh Colony in the town, who had married his neighbour Seema a few days ago, informed the police today that his wife had been killed by her parents. Seemas family members were cremating her when the police reached the cremation ground. Seemas semi-burnt body was recovered from the pyre and sent for a post-mortem examination. We have registered a case under Sections 302, 201 and 34 of the IPC and sent Seemas body for post-mortem. Her father Khushi Ram and mother Angrejo Devi have been arrested and a hunt is on to nab her brother, DSP Pushpa Khatri told The Tribune. Seema and Pradeep had married against the wishes of their parents. Theirs was an inter-caste marriage which got solemnised in a court on December 21, 2016. After the marriage, Pradeeps family members reportedly accepted Seema as their daughter-in-law. Following that, the couple returned to Pradeeps home. Pradeep said mother also tried to convince Seemas parents to accept the marriage. Subsequently, Seemas parents also agreed to accept our marriage. Then, they asked me to send her to their home. We sent her to her parents home. This morning, I was told that Seema had died and was being taken for cremation. I immediately informed the police, said Pradeep. As per the police investigators, the cause of death is yet to be ascertained, though prima facie, it seems to be a case of strangulation. Police sources maintained that the womans mother had changed her statement, which raise suspicion. First, she reportedly said Seema had a heart-attack, but later maintained that she had hanged herself. An intensive probe has been launched to get to the bottom of the matter, they asserted. Sushil Manav Tribune News Service Chandigarh, January 5 With a percentile of 94.74, Ranbir Singh topped the screening test for the post of assistant professor (college cadre) in Punjabi conducted by the Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC). However, the high percentile was not enough for him to be among the candidates selected because he could get only five marks out of 20 in the interview. Ravi Tripathi, a topper in geology with 86.17 percentile, got three marks in interview. He met the same fate as Ranbir did in Punjabi. In contrast, Arjun Singh Kadian and Jaipal scored much lower percentile than Ravi, but were selected because they got 18 and 17 marks, respectively, in the interview. Anil Kumar Pandey, topper in the screening test for mass communication, got merely three marks in the interview, but was lucky enough to find himself among the candidates selected due to high percentile. Eyebrows are being raised over the manner in which very low marks, ranging between three and five, have been awarded in interview to candidates scoring high percentile in screening test and very high marks 17, 18 and even 19 have been given to those scoring lower percentile. Questions are also being raised over the lack of transparency in awarding of marks out of 30 reserved for personal achievements in the selection criteria. It is not clear what the criteria are for awarding marks under the personal achievement head. The HPSC must spell out the criteria for awarding marks under this head, said a university professor on the condition of anonymity. Ankur Chhabra, an RTI activist, had earlier raised the issue of transparency in recruitment when the HPSC refused to divulge selection criteria. He said awarding very low marks to some candidates with high percentile in screening test and very high to some others with average percentile raised doubts about the HPSCs transparency. He said several judgments of the Supreme Court had held that such an act on the part of recruitment commissions was a valid ground for challenging the selection process. Karan Singh Dalal, Congress MLA from Palwal, alleged that the HPSC had been working under pressure of the BJP government and the selections were far from being transparent. The HPSC is in the process of selecting assistant professors (college cadre) in various subjects. The results for Punjabi, mass communication, geology, defence studies, tourism and physical education have been announced and the process is on for other subjects. Manbir Singh Bhadana, Chairman of the HPSC, said marks scored by candidates in screening tests were not known to members conducting interview since these were kept under sealed covers. Bhadana said the HPSC was not in a position to announce criteria for 30 marks reserved for personal achievements, which were for education qualification etc at this stage. However, the criteria would be made public after the completion of the selection process, he stated. Amir Karim Tantray Tribune News Service Jammu, January 5 On his first visit to Jammu and Kashmir after taking over as the 27th Army Chief, General Bipin Rawat called for evolving a dynamic strategy to handle the proxy war and defeat the enemys nefarious designs. He doesnt want the Army to be reactive to events but to think two steps ahead of the enemy and terrorists so that their plans are shattered before they are implemented, said sources. The Army Chief emphasised the need for evolving a dynamic strategy to handle the proxy war and defeat the enemys nefarious designs, the defence PRO said, giving details of the visit. Commending the soldiers for strongly reciprocating the unprovoked ceasefire violations by Pakistan, General Rawat said every soldier of the Army played an important role towards the security of the nation and it was the contribution of every soldier that made the Army efficient and strong, the PRO added. The Army Chief today began his three-day visit to the state by visiting Jammu, Northern Command headquarters at Udhampur, Army formations in Rajouri and Poonch and 16 Corps headquarters at Nagrota. He was briefed on operational preparedness by top Army officers. Sources said the Army Chief was also briefed on the November 29 fidayeen attack in Nagrota, LoC situation and the ceasefire violations in the past few months. Within a week of taking over as Army Chief, General Rawat chose the Northern Command for his debut visit, making his priorities clear. General Rawat lauded the role of the Northern Command in restoring peace and normalcy during the recent unrest in the Valley, the defence PRO said. General Rawat will be visiting 15 Corps headquarters in Srinagar, and formations at Kupwara, Anantnag and Siachen during his tour. The Army is fighting Pakistan-sponsored proxy war in Jammu and Kashmir since the early 1990s and many of its soldiers have laid down their lives fighting militants in the hinterland and the Pakistani army on the Line of Control. Tribune News Service Jammu, January 5 Gurpurb was celebrated across Jammu today with people, especially the Sikhs, visiting gurdwaras to mark the day. This year, it is the 350th prakash parv of Guru Gobind Singh who fought against the repressive and brutal Mughal empire. All gurdwaras were beautifully decorated as thousands of devotees thronged and offered special prayers throughout the day. An impressive function was held at Digiana Ashram and Bibi Chand Kour Gurdwara. Heads of various Sikh organisations also attended the programmes and offered prayers. Another function was organised at Nanak Nagar Gurdwara and Rani Talab Gurdwara. Meanwhile, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, Kavinder Gupta, announced Rs 50 lakh in favour of setting up a Chair of Guru Gobind Singh at the University of Jammu. He also promised to fulfil the demand of the community to instal a statue of Baba Banda Singh Bahadur at Kunjwani Chowk. Chairman of the National Sikh Front, Varinderjeet Singh, welcomed the announcement by the Speaker. Manika Ahuja They have never been afraid of pushing the glass ceiling with the mightiest force, and they equally relish applying their creative forces to silently disseminate the message of equality through their artworks. Thoughts on similar lines engulf one when one runs ones eyes through as many as fifty works on display by ten women artists as part of a five-day exhibition Colours On Life Canvas at Chandigarhs Punjab Kala Bhawan. The locations they hail from are different- with six participating artists being from Punjab, and two from overseas (Sydney and Bahrain). But it does not take long to see some common threads emerging from the array of exhibits. One of the senior-most participating artists of the exhibition, 62-year-old Sushma Pamneja from Jalandhar, enlists some of the subtle qualities that give women artists an upper hand over their male counterparts, Women are natural creators, for they create life. Art, therefore, functions as a great outlet for their creative energies. All-women exhibitions like this one, helps us females show the sense of pride that rushes through us by the virtue of being women. Being women Sonika Varshney, who hails from Delhi, has as many as five works on display, and interestingly, each one of them celebrates womanhood in its own unique way. From a newly-wed bride, to a purdah clad woman and two paintings showcasing a mother caressing her child, all her works salute femininity. As you can see, women are my canvas heroes, she exclaims. Varshneys sentiments find an echo in one of the youngest participating artists, Rajwant Kaur. She says, Women are creative beings and representative of beauty, which is why artists will never tire of capturing their myriad emotions . Digital touch With technology taking over, it was only natural to stumble across an artwork made by utilising the digital medium. Agrees Chandigarh-based artist, Monika Grover, whose six works in digital medium are up for all to see as part of the ongoing exhibition, The new generation is more inclined towards digital medium. But that is not to say that it is lacking in emotions. Nods Guranjan Pal, who is serving as the Head of Department of Fine Arts at Jalandhars BD Arya Girls College, The young brigade prefers working in a digital medium instead of painting manually. But having said that, nothing beats the pleasure of getting doused in colours and inhaling their scent. Of art and life Anant Vikas, curator for the exhibition says, There is no life without colours, which is why the name Colours On Life Canvas was coined . Beijing, January 5 China on Thursday dismissed as "untrue" allegations of double standards by India by blocking its bid to list JeM leader Masood Azhar as global terrorist by the UN, claiming that it had adopted a "just, objective and professional" attitude in deciding the matter. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) "With regard to the listing matter of the security council 1267 committee the so called double standards adopted by China on this relevant issue is not true. We take action based on solid evidence that is the standard upheld by us," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told media briefing here. Responding to remarks made by Minister of State for External Affairs M J Akbar on Azhar's issue during the press conference in New Delhi yesterday Geng said, "We have taken a responsible and constructive part in relevant discussion in a professional and objective way". "Relevant members differed on this issue. The purpose of China to put forward technical hold on that issue is to create enough time for the committee and relevant parties to consult with each other on the relevant issue," he said. Akbar yesterday had said, "We really do expect China to hear the voice of the world, not just voice of India on terrorism." Referring to Pakistan's support to terror, India also hoped that as a "responsible and a mature" nation, China will understand the "double standards" and "simply self-defeating and suicidal" approach of Islamabad to terrorism. China was the only country among the 15-member 1267 counter terrorism committee of the UN Security Council which has objected to India's application to list Azhar who is accused of masterminding the Pathankot terror attack. China had put two technical holds on India's move -- first for six months followed by a second one for a period of three months ending Dec 31 -- after which India has to file a fresh application to get the Pakistan-based Azhar listed as a terrorist by the UN. When pointed out that China was the only member among the 1,267 committee members to have objected, Geng said "relevant attitude and action of China comply with the resolution of the UNSC and rules of procedure of the committee." "China takes a very objective and just and professional attitude on that. Up to now the Committee is yet to come to an agreement on this issue and we would like stay in communication and coordination with all relevant parties including India on this," he said. The issue remained unresolved even after the two countries have held several rounds of talks on this issue. Elaborating on China's position, Geng said, "It is regrettable that an agreement is yet to be made. Relevant actions taken by China in the committee is to safeguard the authority and effectiveness of the committee. PTI Bhopal, January 5 A farmer from Sheopur in Madhya Pradesh was shocked to receive Rs 2,000 currency notes without the image of Mahatma Gandhi from a branch of a public sector bank. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) Laxman Meena, a farmer from Bichchhugawadi village, received three notes of Rs 2,000 when he withdrew money from the bank's branch at Baroda town in Sheopur. "I was given three notes of Rs 2,000 on withdrawal from my account on Tuesday (January 3). I later found that there was no image of Mahatma Gandhi on those," said Meena. "I was in the market when I discovered that there was no picture of Mahatma Gandhi on the notes. I then went to the bank and showed it to the manager," he said. Meena said the branch manager told him to deposit those notes. "Initially, the manager told me that I must have examined the notes on receiving them. Later, he, however, told me to deposit the notes and get them replaced," the farmer said. The bank manager also clarified to him that the currency was genuine and there might have been a printing error. Meena said the bank replaced the notes yesterday. PTI Islamabad, January 5 Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Thursday said the world needs to tell India "enough is enough" vis-a-vis its policy towards Jammu and Kashmir. Sharif was addressing an International Parliamentary Seminar on Kashmir here. "Seventy years of brutal repression and Kashmiri struggle in the face of that oppression have shown cries of freedom cannot be stifled by sounds of bullets," he said. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) He called for an end to the "continued suffering" in Kashmir, where a separatist campaign which New Delhi says is armed and financed by Islamabad has left thousands dead. Sharif called militant Burhan Wani, whose killing in July last year triggered widespread unrest in the Kashmir Valley, as a "vibrant and charismatic leader" who "has become a rallying point" for Kashmiris. He said India and Pakistan had promised to recognise the Kashmiri people's right to self-determination. Sharif said Pakistan would continue to support the separatist struggle in Jammu and Kashmir. IANS Ahead of the much anticipated Uttar Pradesh elections, BJP, SP,BSP and Congress have upped the ante. The Braj region is witnessing brisk political canvassing by different political parties. By Siraj Qureshi: With the declaration of assembly elections in five states including Uttar Pradesh, the political activities in the Braj region have begun showing a sharp spike as the entire region, except Mainpuri, elects their MLAs in the first stage of polling on February 11. If polling in this region goes according to the Election Commission's guidelines without major disruption, it will be a good sign for the remaining six stages of election in the remaining regions of Uttar Pradesh and rest of the states. advertisement However, currently the political parties are highly unsure of the mood of the voters in this region as the vote equations in this region are highly convoluted. Only Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) appears confident at this point, partly owing to the fact that there has been no significant opposition of demonetisation in the region and the general sentiment among people towards PM Modi's radical step has been positive. POSSIBLE VOTE POLARISATION Senior citizen Uma Shanker Sharma told India Today that there has been some major issues in this region that could form the basis of vote polarisation and will definitely get exploited by the political party. The Jawaharbagh firing and arson issue will be used against the ruling Samajwadi Party by both the BJP and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). The internal strife in the Yadav clan will also adversely affect the vote-gathering potential of the Samajwadi Party (SP) candidates and since SP has been the dominant force in this region, losing seats here could mean a big blow to the party. Also read: Kaun Banega Uttar Pradesh CM: 33 per cent voters want Akhilesh to return, says India Today-Axis survey From Firozabad of Agra division, SP General Secretary Ram Gopal Yadav's son Akshay Yadav is a member of parliament. From Mainpuri, Lalu Yadav's son-in-law Tejvir Singh Yadav is MP. Both of these candidates won their respective seats at a time when the Modi wave was sweeping through the country. GENESIS OF BJP'S IDEOLOGY But the most important factor that could influence the elections would be BJP's focus on this region which is also known for being the birthplace of BJP's ideological guru Deen Dayal Upadhyay. The party has also held two major rallies in the region in Agra and Farah (Mathura) with PM Modi and Amit Shah addressing them. RSS has also been significantly active in this region and that could become a big factor during the elections. Also read: Modi's BJP weathers demonetisation storm, set to win Uttar Pradesh: Key takeaways from India Today-Axis Opinion Poll advertisement The BJP is yet to declare the names of its candidates for the elections and this could be the biggest weak point in the party's otherwise solid looking facade. A senior party leader said that the party is waiting for the month of 'Paush' in the Hindu calendar to end to declare the names of its candidates as this month is considered inauspicious for any new work. As the month of Paush ends on January 12, the declaration of names could take place during that time. GROUND FOR SOCIAL ENGINEERING For the BSP too, the region holds importance as the party had won 6 out of 9 seats in the Agra district in 2012, mostly because of its experiments in social engineering. Agra is often called the Dalit capital due to its large population of Dalits and Mayawati begins her electoral campaign from Agra. But this time, the social engineering factor of Mayawati has weakened a lot and that in return has made the BSP totally dependent on Dalit and Muslim votes, which may not bode well for it during the elections. The Rashtriya Lok Dal has always followed a Jat-centric agenda and the Braj region, especially the Mathura-Agra-Hathras belt comprises of a large population of Jat voters so the party may be looking at tapping this vote potential like the previous elections in order to maintain a presence in the UP assembly. advertisement Also read: BJP set to win Uttar Pradesh: India Today-Axis Opinion Poll shows demonetisation is good for Modi Party president Ajit Singh's son Jayant Chowdhary has made Mathura his electoral headquarters, while his father is focusing on the second most prominent Jat belt of the region in Meerut-Saharapur-Bagpat area. CONGRESS - THE WEAKEST CONTENDER Probably the weakest contender of all is again the Congress, even though the UP Congress President Raj Babbar has been the member of Parliament from both Agra and Firozabad for three terms and was also born in Tundla (Firozabad). Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi recently held a road-show and khat sabha in this region to build some support for the Congress. It remains to be seen in view of these equations, which political party establishes its dominance in this region as the results from the Braj could very well reflect all over the state. --- ENDS --- Our Correspondent Fazilka, January 5 Twenty-five people, including some SAD leaders and Fazilka assistant jail superintendent Jashandeep Singh, were on Thursday booked in the sub-jail raid case. The police also impounded seven luxury cars reportedly used by the accused to travel to the jail; currency amounting to Rs 3.48 lakh was also seized from a car. They have been booked under Sections 448, 188 and 120-B of the IPC. District Election Officer cum Deputy Commissioner Isha Kalia said a detailed report had been sent to the Chief Election Officer and Principal Secretary, Jails. On the instructions of the Election Commission, Kalia, accompanied by Fazilka SSP Narinder Bhargav, raided the jail on Wednesday evening and found 24 people there reportedly conducting a secret meeting with liquor baron and former SAD Abohar halqa incharge Shiv Lal Doda. The meeting was allegedly being held in connivance with jail authorities. Doda is in jail in connection with the murder of Abohar Dalit youth Bhim Sain. Sources said the accused were reportedly working out a strategy regarding Dodas contesting election from Abohar. Doda had contested the 2012 Assembly election from Abohar as an independent candidate. Deepkamal Kaur Tribune News Service Jalandhar, January 5 Having contested Assembly elections six times since 1986, former Congress minister Avtar Henry has been rendered ineligible to re-contest this time as his re-issued vote was on Thursday cancelled on the orders of the Returning Officer of Jalandhar North constituency. The orders were passed by RO Jalandhar North Barjinder Singh after objections had been filed by three voters from his constituency seeking cancellation of his re-issued vote. The vote and the Indian passport of Henry had been cancelled on November 30, 2012, on the orders of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs. But he first got his Indian passport re-issued on compassionate grounds on the orders of a local court and then on the basis of it, he even got his vote re-issued on November 3, 2016, vide orders of Assistant RO Paramjit Singh on the basis of the re-issued Indian passport. The RO took into account the fact that the orders issued by the Union Ministry of Home (foreigners division), on August 16, 2012 still stood. Also, Henry has so far not been able to acquire Indian citizenship again, which ceased since he acquired a British passport in 1969. However, Henry had got his passport renewed twice taking plea from the court, on the basis of which he even got his new vote made two months ago. His case pertaining to Representation of Peoples Act is still pending in the district court. The Congress is yet to announce its candidate from the seat, for which there are several contenders, including former Improvement Trust chairman Tajinder Bittu and Henrys son Bawa Henry, whom he has been grooming for three years since the cancellation of his vote. Patna, January 5 Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday praised Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for organising a mega Parkash Utsav here, marking the 350th birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh. He also hailed Nitish Kumars decision of imposing prohibition in the state and urged all political parties and people to back his move. Nitish Kumar, his government and the people of Bihar deserve credit for making arrangement on such a large scale for holding the Parkash Utsav, Modi said while addressing the main function in the Darbar Hall of a makeshift gurdwara in a tent city, set up in historical Gandhi Maidan, in the heart of Patna. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) Modi mentioned Nitish Kumar not less than a dozen times during his address to praise him for holding the Prakash Utsav and his decision of total prohibition. Nitish Kumar has worked hard day and night, monitoring and personally inspecting preparations for the Parkash Utsav for months. He deserves credit for this mega event, the Prime Minister said. Modi said such mega Parkash Utsav in Patna would inspire all across the country. He termed Nitish Kumars decision of prohibition a brave step for social change. Taking an initiative for social change is very difficult, but Nitish Kumar has initiated it by enforcing prohibition. All people, including political parties, should back him for it. Modi shared stage with Nitish Kumar and was seen talking to him. He also released special commemorative stamps on Prakash Utsav. Earlier in the day, the Prime Minister arrived here in an Indian Air Force aircraft to attend the Prakash Utsav, said SSP Manu Maharaj. He was received by Governor Ramnath Kovind and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Modi offered prayers and also served during the langar. Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Union ministers Ram Vilas Paswan and Ravi Shankar Prasad and a large number of Sikhs from India and abroad took part in the event. IANS Tribune News Service New Delhi, January 4 The elections to Punjab, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Goa and Manipur Assemblies will be held between February 4 and March 8, while the verdict will be out on March 11. An announcement to this effect was made by the Election Commission of India here today. The polling for the 117 Punjab Assembly seats will be conducted in a single phase on February 4, for which the notification will be issued on January 11. Edit: Over to poll panel The polling in Uttar Pradesh will be held in seven phases between February 11 and March 8, while Uttarakhand will go to the polls on February 15, Goa on February 4 and Manipur on March 4 and March 8 (two phases). The model code of conduct has comes into force with immediate effect. Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi confirmed that the commission had received a letter questioning the timing of the Union Budget (proposed to be presented on February 1), just three days before the polling in Punjab and Goa. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) These elections will see 16 crore voters, including 1.92 crore in Punjab, 73.81 lakh in Uttarakhand and 13.85 crore in UP, cast their votes at 1.85 lakh polling stations in five states. The identification of voters at polling booths will be mandatory. Zaidi said every family would be given a voter guide detailing relevant information about these elections, including the list of identification documents that can be used at polling booths. The limit of expenses per candidate is Rs 28 lakh in Punjab, UP and Uttarakhand. It is Rs 20 lakh in Manipur and Goa. Separate polling stations will be set up for women in areas where women, due to social practice, shy away from interacting with men. Electronic voting machines (EVMs) will be used for polling and voters will be provided with paper trail in specified constituencies. Ballot papers will have the pictures of candidates. Voters in military and paramilitary will be allowed to cast their votes through electronic transfer. The Press Council of India will participate in identifying cases of paid news. Channels owned by candidates or parties will be monitored and the expenses of publicity propaganda, if any, added to the accounts of the party or the candidate concerned. The commission also assured a quick decision on Samajwadi Partys poll symbol cycle. UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and his father Mulayam Singh have staked claim to it. Zaidi said, We will examine the documents before us and take an appropriate decision at the right time. Washington, January 5 The US Army has issued a new regulation under which servicemen who wear turbans, hijabs or beards can now be enrolled in the military, making the force more inclusive of minority religions and cultures. The new set of rules, issued by Secretary of the Army Eric Fanning, allows religious accommodations to be approved at the brigade-level. Previously it was at the level of Secretary. Once that approval occurs, the change will ensure that the religious accommodation is enduring and applies to most positions within the US Army. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) This is a major progress, not just for the Sikh-American community but for our nations military. Sikh-Americans love this country and want a fair chance to serve in our country on equal footing. Todays announcement will help do just that, Congressman Joe Crowley said welcoming the directive issued by the US Army Secretary. We are a stronger nation, with a stronger military because of our respect for religious and personal freedom, he said. The move has been welcomed by Sikh-Americans and US lawmakers who have been on the forefront of a national campaign in this regard for the past several years. Before the January 3 changes announced by the US Army, Sikh-Americans and others had to be granted a limited accommodation or permission to serve in the army while maintaining their articles of faith. Such accommodations were neither permanent nor guaranteed, and had to be renewed after virtually every assignment. Service members had also been required to remove their articles of faith while their accommodation request is pending, once again subjecting them to the difficult position of choosing between their faith and job. Sikh-American Coalition, which has been on the forefront of such a campaign, welcomed the move, but said that this is still short of what they had been asking for. While we still seek a permanent policy change that enables all religious minorities to freely serve without exception, we are pleased with the progress that this new policy represents for religious tolerance and diversity by our nations largest employer, said the coalitions legal director Harsimran Kaur. The new provisions update rules governing religious liberty that significantly improved the standards for Sikhs and other religious minorities who sought to serve their country with their religious articles of faith intact, she said. Under the new policy, Brigade commanders must grant religious accommodations for unshorn beards, unshorn hair, turbans and Muslim hijabs unless the requestors religious belief is not sincere or the army identifies a specific, concrete hazard. Last week, the New York Police Department (NYPD), in a move aimed at inclusiveness, said it would allow its Sikh officers to wear turbans and maintain beards. According to the latest regulation, accommodations must be granted across all duty positions except in certain limited circumstances. The army intends to conduct additional testing for the use of protective equipment by bearded soldiers. The Sikh articles of faith have always been consistent with the best of American values and we are pleased that the burden no longer rests with Sikh soldiers to prove this through a lengthy administrative process, said Amandeep Sidhu, partner at McDermott Will and Emery. In 1981, a prohibitive ban was placed on Sikh-American soldiers. Last year, four Sikh-American soldiers, including the decorated Captain Simratpal Singh, filed a lawsuit against the US Army in this regard. My turban and beard represent my commitment to pluralism and equality. This policy change underscores the militarys commitment to these values and is a sign of meaningful progress that will ensure the strength of our democracy, said Major Kalsi, who was the first Sikh-American in more than a generation to be allowed to serve in the US military without violating his articles of faith. PTI New Delhi, January 5 Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh chaired a meeting of the High-Level Committee (HLC) here on Thursday for central assistance to Uttarakhand and Karnataka, affected by flood and drought, respectively. According to a release, the committee examined the proposal based on the reports of the Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT), which had visited these states. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) "The HLC approved the assistance from the National Disaster Relief Fund (NDRF) and National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP) in respect of Uttarakhand to the tune of Rs 208.91 crore (Rs 188.91 + Rs 20.00)," reads the release. It added that the committee also approved an amount of Rs 1,782.44 crore from the NDRF for Karnataka. IANS Tribune News Service Haridwar, January 5 Senior BJP leader and three-time MLA from the city seat Madan Kaushik is getting a stiff challenge from former BJP district president Om Prakash Jamdagni, who also has staked his claim to the party ticket. Jamdagni, sub-coordinator of the BJP media committee for the region, said he had apprised members of the party screening committee, all five parliamentarians of the state and party state president Ajay Bhatt about his claim. Jamdagni said in the last three decades he had served the party in various capacities from youth wing to main body and had worked for the party candidate win in the elections. My claim is based on my contribution to the party and not to oppose fellow party leader and sitting legislator Madan Kaushik. He is a three-time legislator but still he too would have laid claim for the party ticket. Similarly, I am a local resident and ticket aspirant from the city segment. If given a chance I will work for the overall development of the area and if not then too will work sincerely for the partys eventual candidate, asserted Jamdagni. On being close to local MP Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, who is bete noire of city legislator Madan Kaushik, Jamdagni said, He is also close to Pauri Garhwal Member of Parliament BC Khanduri, Nainital MP BS Koshyari and such rumours are either created by rivals or media to make the political talks spicier. Alleging bias by Congress Chief Minister Harish Rawat towards all segments which have BJP legislators including city segment, Jamdagni said despite this all BJP legislators of the district had lived up to the expectations of the people. All BJP legislators have ensured mass development and full utilisation of the granted funds. There is certain pro BJP wave in the entire state and from 11 Assembly segments of the Haridwar district its quite possible that BJP will make a clean sweep, claimed Jamdagni. Tribune News Service Dehradun, January 5 The 350th Prakash Utsav of Tenth Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh was celebrated in Uttarakhand today. The main progamme was held in Dehradun where a large number of devotees converged at the Race Course Gurudwara. Starting with netnaam, Bhai Shamsher Singh threw light on the life of the tenth Sikh Guru. He reminded the gathering about the sacrifices made by the Guru for the betterment of mankind. Bhai Prem Singh of Gurdwara Bangla Sahib recited number of shabad kirtans. It was followed by a mass feasting. Gurudwara Guru Singh Sabha president Rajendra Singh Rajan, the Leader of Opposition and state BJP president Ajay Bhatt and Dehradun Cantt BJP MLA Harbans Kapoor was prominent present on the occasion. Reports of celebrations of Prakash Utsav have also been received from various parts of the state. Celebrations in Mussoorie The 350th Prakash Parv of 10th Sikh Guru Gobind Singh was celebrated with fervour in Mussoorie today. Devotees, in large numbers, visited gurdwaras, joined in the shabad kirtan and ate langars organised by the Guru Singh Sabha Trust at a gurdwara in Landour Bazaar. The gurdwaras were illuminated with ornamental lights on the occasion. Ravinder Singh and Jagjit Kukreja said the day was celebrated in the memory of supreme sacrifice made by the 10th Sikh Guru Gobind Singh whose two children sacrificed their life to safeguard the interests of Hindus. The day is also celebrated to spread the message of communal harmony among people from various communities. Similar celebrations were seen in Haridwar and other parts of the state. Ankara, January 5 A car bombing rocked the Turkish city of Izmir on Thursday, killing at least two people and triggering a shootout that left two suspected militants dead, as authorities chased the fugitive killer behind the New Year attack in Istanbul. Turkey is on edge after the shooting rampage at the Reina nightclub unleashed shortly after revellers rang in 2017 which killed 39 people and was claimed by the Islamic State group. A top official said the gunman may be a Turkic Uighur and several people of Uighur origin were arrested today. Just four days after the nightclub carnage, a car bomb exploded outside a courthouse in the Aegean city of Izmir this afternoon. State-run Anadolu news agency said a policeman and a court worker, reportedly a bailiff, were killed. Police battled "terrorists" in a clash which saw two militants killed while another escaped, according to Anadolu. Several ambulances rushed to the scene after the blast in the usually peaceful port city, Turkey's third largest metropolis. The mayor of the local Bayrakli municipality, Hassan Karabag, had told NTV television that 10 people were wounded, while the Dogan news agency put the injury toll at 11. There has so far been no claim of responsibility or an indication of who may have carried out the attack, the latest bombing after a year of bloodshed in the Muslim-majority NATO member. Turkish authorities meanwhile were seeking to close in on the Istanbul club attacker, who slipped into the night after spraying 120 bullets at terrified partygoers celebrating New Year. Of the 39 dead, 27 were foreigners, including citizens from India, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Iraq and Morocco. A top official said the attacker was likely a Turkic Uighur and reports have indicated the authorities are looking into the possible existence of a cell, also including other jihadists from Central Asia. IS took responsibility for the massacre in a statement on Monday, the first time it has issued a clear and undisputed claim for a major attack inside Turkey. The extremist group said it was a response to Ankara's military operation against the jihadists in northern Syria, where Turkish armed forces are supporting opposition fighters retaking territory from IS. Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak told A Haber broadcaster today that the attacker was "probably" of Uighur origin as he sought to play down fears that the gunman would escape Turkey. Most Uighurs, an eastern Turkic group, live in the Xinjiang region of China, although there are also significant populations in ex-Soviet Central Asian states. Previous reports had said the killer could be from Kyrgyzstan or Uzbekistan. AFP The latest opinion poll by Axis My India for India Today TV - released on the day the Election Commission announced the schedule of elections in five states- shows the ruling party at the Centre is in pole position to end its 14 year vanvaas in UP. By Rahul Kanwal: The BJP appears poised to bag the crucial battleground state of Uttar Pradesh despite the inconvenience faced by citizens after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's surprise announcement on demonetisation in November. READ: BJP set to win Uttar Pradesh: India Today-Axis Opinion Poll shows Modi gains from demonetisation The latest opinion poll by Axis My India for India Today TV - released on the day the Election Commission announced the schedule of elections in five states- shows the ruling party at the Centre is in pole position to end its 14 year vanvaas in UP. advertisement The survey projects that the BJP will secure a majority by bagging between 206 and 216 seats in the seven-phase Uttar Pradesh elections to be held in February- March. This is about 30 seats more than the number thrown up in the first UP opinion poll done by Axis My India in October. People support demonetisation An overwhelming 76 per cent of the respondents supported demonetisation though people are split on whether the common man has been inconvenienced by the move. While 58 per cent reported that they have been facing problems because of the note ban, 42 per cent said they have not faced hassles. The jump in the BJP's vote share in this poll indicates that despite the inconvenience caused, people believe that the PM's move will ultimately benefit the nation. More than half the respondents (51 per cent) say they believe demonetisation will help eliminate black money and fake notes. Samajwadi Party to emerge as the second largest party The polls in the state of more than 200 million people will be crucial to Modi's long-term plan for re-election in 2019. The ruling Samajwadi Party in its current avatar is projected to emerge as the second largest party, bagging between 92-97 seats. Despite the infighting, in the past three months the SP's graph seems to have risen while the BSP has slipped from second to third place. Mayawati fails to go beyond its traditional Dalit vote bank Mayawati's party is likely to bag 79-85 seats, down from 115-124 predicted by the previous survey. The reason behind the decline seems to be its inability to get incremental voters beyond its traditional Dalit vote bank. In 2007, BSP had won on the back of Brahmins joining the Dalit bandwagon. A decade later, the party's appeal among non-Dalits appears limited. Prashant Kishor's electoral plans makes no difference for Congress Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi's high-voltage campaign and strategist Prashant Kishor's electoral planning seems to have made no difference to the party's fortunes. Its tally is projected to decline to 5-9 seats from 28 in the 2012 elections. The BJP's projected vote share has gone up to 33 per cent from 31 per cent in the opinion poll done by Axis My India in October. Though both SP and BSP have 26 per cent votes, the state's ruling party is likely to bag more seats because it's vote share is concentrated, unlike the rival whose votes are spread across the state. The BJP's attempts to break into the SP's Yadav vote bank is not making much headway. 72 per cent of the Yadav's polled said they will vote for the undivided SP. advertisement Reason for BSP's falling graph One of the reasons behind the BSP's falling graph is that the Muslims of UP who were earlier divided between the SP and BSP now seem to be gravitating towards the former. 71 per cent of the Muslims polled in December said they will vote for the SP while in October the party's Muslim support stood at 58 per cent. In the same period, the BSP's support among Muslims has fallen from 21 per cent to 14 per cent. UP youth support Akhilesh The SP's support is highest among the youth, thanks to the image Akhilesh has been able to build among the state's youngsters. The BJP is most popular among the 60+ voters of UP where it has 37 per cent support, four per cent more than its overall vote share. advertisement Young Akhilesh Yadav is the top choice to be the state's next CM, with 33 per cent of the respondents backing him for the job. Mayawati comes in second with 25 per cent support. Though Home Minister Rajnath Singh has indicated he's not in the race, he's still the BJP's best bet with 20 per cent respondents backing him. As has been the case in previous opinion polls, Mayawati has the highest approval ratings when it comes to the question of who's best placed to handle law and order in UP. 48 per cent of the respondents thought that she would do the best job while 28 per cent backed Akhilesh Yadav. Axis My India opinion poll The opinion poll has a sample size of 8,480 and was carried out by a team of 35 surveyors from December 12-24. The survey does not factor in the impact of any possible split in the Samajwadi Party nor does it look at the impact of an alliance among the SP, Congress and RLD. In a multi-corner race with small margins, the coming together of "secular forces" can change all current calculations. advertisement Explaining what could change from here on, Pradeep Gupta, the lead pollster for Axis My India, told India Today TV, "As of now, Muslim votes are consolidated behind SP. But if it splits, Muslims will have to rethink their support. Minorities could once again swing towards BSP or pick the Akhilesh and Congress alliance. A Dalit and Muslim alliance can pose a serious challenge for BJP." Battling demonetisation headwinds, the BJP believes it will do even better than the survey suggests. Party general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh, Om Mathur, told India Today TV, "For the last two and a half years, BJP workers have been working on every booth in the state. Our efforts will deliver even better results than what your poll shows. Our own calculation shows we will get more than 300 seats. You can take this in writing from me." BSP leaders refused to comment on the findings, saying polls always tend to underestimate the party's vote share. Reacting to the poll findings, SP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia told India Today TV, "The current differences in the party will be resolved by dialogue and the party will fight as one united front. We are confident that on the plank of development, Akhilesh Yadav will lead SP to victory again." Read more about the Axis My India for India Today TV survey: Modi's BJP weathers demonetisation storm: Key takeaways from India Today Axis Opinion poll on UP --- ENDS --- Walk in the Woods: Late autumn is a great time for hiking Although many people think of hiking as a summer activity, it can be argued that the fall season is actually the best time to be in Nova Scotia's outdoors. Temperatures, while cooler, are actually far more comfortable if you are walking briskly. The ... By Press Trust of India: New Delhi, Jan 4 (PTI) Nepals CG Foods, makers of the popular Wai Wai noodles with a sizeable marketshare in India, today announced a foray into the European market by opening its first manufacturing plant in Serbia. Positioned strategically at Ruma in Serbia in Central Europe, the Wai Wai plant will help the company cater to the neighbouring countries, CG Foods said in a statement. advertisement With this plant, CG Foods total units producing Wai Wai noodles goes up to 15, of which 8 are based in India. Commenting on the development, CG Corp Chairman Binod Chaudhary said: "The plant in Serbia is not just a step forward for the Nepal enterprise, it also coincides with the emergence of Europe as a market open to innovation in taste. Wai Wai is an innovator, both in texture and taste. I am confident it will go down well with the European palate." CG Corp Global has collaborated with the local government and entrepreneurs to establish the Serbia unit. The plant aims to employ more than 1,200 individuals in its Serbian unit, the statement said. The company claimed that Wai Wai has a 27 per cent market share for instant noodles in India. "With an annual sale of 2.2 billion packets, it occupies 2.2 percent market share of the global noodle market," it said. CG Foods is part of the Nepal-based, trans-national conglomerate CG Corp Global that has interests in diverse sectors including hospitality, banking, power, retail and social entrepreneurship. PTI KRH JM --- ENDS --- (By Tsem Rinpoche) Early Years Bill Porter was born on 3 October 1943 in Los Angeles, California. His father, William A. Porter, was a convicted bank robber who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in Michigan in the 1920s. During this unfavourable time, Williams sisters Pearlie and Pauline moved to Michigan to be closer to their brother. Both Pearlie and Pauline worked as waitresses in an upscale restaurant where the Michigan governor at the time often dined. Both women seized this opportunity to tell the governor about their brother. Fortune started to shine on the Porter family when the governor decided to issue a pardon for William A. Porter. By the time he was released, William A. Porter only served six out of the 20-year prison sentence. After his release, William A. Porter secured a job in the hospitality industry and eventually became a wealthy man by establishing his hotel chain. Following his success, William A. Porter became a big sponsor of the Democratic Party and a close friend of the Kennedy family. Porter grew up in a privileged environment. He attended prestigious boarding schools in Los Angeles and San Francisco but unlike most privileged children, Porter became disillusioned with wealth. He could see the superficiality of many people who surrounded those with money. In his later years, misfortune came back to haunt his father William A. Porter. Williams marriage ended in divorce and his hotel business was crumbling from a series of lawsuits. He quickly lost most of his wealth, and his family was back to experiencing financial hardship. However, instead of lamenting the misfortune, Porter was relieved that he did not have to inherit a vast fortune. He was happy to be released from the social pressure of having to act like people with money. In his later years, Porter revealed his feeling about the loss of his fathers fortune: Meeting powerful people and seeing what facades their characters were, how false they were. I didnt realise what I was being introduced to, but I realised that money and fame are not worth seeking and are even worth avoiding. I still remember how good I felt when I realised my father was losing all his money because then I realised I wouldnt have to inherit it. Not that I couldnt use a little money right now, but at the time I was so turned off by it because of all these fake people I met all the time as a child. Formative Years After he finished high school, Porter enrolled at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1961. However, he was not mentally ready for college and consequently, he dropped out from the university and two other junior colleges. In 1964, he received the draft notice and subsequently joined the military. He went on a three-year tour to Germany in his capacity as a medical clerk. After completing his military tenure, Porter went back to the University of California, Santa Barbara to major in Anthropology. It was in college that he developed an interest in Buddhism after having read a book by Alan Watts titled The Way of Zen and another book by Edward Conze titled Introduction to Buddhism. Porter recalled his thoughts when reading the two books: It was then that I finally felt Id found something that made sense to me about what was going on in this life. But, I was really still looking on these books as something I was doing on my own, on the side. After obtaining his bachelor degree, he enrolled at Columbia University as a graduate student in anthropology and Chinese language. He spent his junior year at the University of Goettingen in Germany and realised that his real interest was Buddhism. Porter recalled his feeling then: Everything I was studying then started to dovetail with Buddhism. They all were saying the same thing to me in terms of how to discover whats real. I was ready for Buddhism when it came along. But the thing about Buddhism was that it was so much broader in scope, far more poetic as well a way of life as well as a way of thinking. When he came back to Columbia University, his interest in anthropology had waned. He found it challenging to write papers, and felt that the subject would not serve his purpose to find the meaning of life. He started to attend meditation classes taught by a Hua-Yen Buddhist monk, Ven. Shou Yeh, on weekends at a temple that was located north of New York City. He was never able to communicate properly with Shou Yeh because he could not speak fluent Chinese, and Ven. Shou Yeh only spoke limited English. However, Porter enjoyed observing Ven. Shou Yehs calm and peaceful demeanour. In 1972, Porter made a decision to drop out of Columbia University to join a Buddhist monastery in Taiwan. His schoolmate informed him of a newly established monastery in Taiwan, Fo Kwang Shan Monastery. He wrote a letter to the monastery to express his interest in joining them. Much to his surprise, the abbot of Fo Kwang Shan agreed to let him stay. Porters supportive father bought him a one-way ticket to Taiwan and gave him US$200 to enable him to fulfil his desire to study Buddhism. Two Decades in Asia Fo Kwang Shan and Hai Ming Monastery Initially, Porter wanted to stay longer at Fo Kwang Shan Monastery because the monastery offered many classes on Buddhist teachings and sutras. However, as a western Buddhist practitioner who lived in the monastery, he attracted unwanted attention. Porter felt distracted by the visitors who were curious to see him. He recalled: All the people there thought it was the strangest thing to have a foreigner studying Buddhism. It was like being on a foreign planet. When the public came through the monastery it was sort of touristy, and I got tired of being gawked at so I decided to go Therefore, after staying at Fo Kwang Shan Monastery for only one year, Porter decided to move out and enrolled himself at the College of Chinese Culture majoring in Philosophy. He lived in the dormitory together with other students, and took classes on philosophy, Chinese arts and Taoism. He particularly liked the classes taught by Prof. C.H. Wu who had published an English translation of Tao Te Ching, a fundamental Chinese text on Taoism. It was in this university he met the woman who would later become his wife, Ku Lien Chang. After about one year, Porter became disinterested with academic life. He dropped out of college and joined Hai Ming Monastery, about 20 km outside Taipei, Taiwan. At the time, Hai Ming Monasterys abbot was Ven. Wu Ming, the personal master of Chiang Kai Shek. Ven. Wu Ming had previously written commentaries and published the poems by the Tang Dynasty poet Cold Mountain, also known as Hanshan. Although not much was known about Cold Mountains personal life, he was regarded as an emanation of the Bodhisattva Manjushri. Cold Mountain is believed to have written over 600 poems, out of which only over 300 poems survived to this day. Porter was very much attracted to the Cold Mountains poems and decided to translate them. He recalled: Cold Mountain really spoke to my heart. It was the first deep voice I had encountered who spoke so simply and so truly about living a simple life and not being distracted or seduced by the things that bothered me when I was younger, wealth and power and all that sort of stuff. Porter was given the name Victorious Cloud at the monastery, where he would spend most of his time studying and meditating. He recalled, I had got hold of all these classic texts with both Chinese and English characters, and I went through most of the sutras. He also improved his grasp of the Chinese language by doing the translation of sacred Buddhist scriptures and Cold Mountains poems. He ended up studying there for about 2.5 years. During his stay in the monastery, Porter was still courting Ku Lien Chang and would travel to Taipei on weekends to see her. Ku introduced him to intellectuals who gathered at the Astoria Bakery / coffee shop. When the time came for Porter to decide whether or not to become a monk, he decided to leave the monastery. Before he left however, he took the lay precepts vows, to commit himself to Buddhism. The lay precepts are the basic ethical code of conduct for lay Buddhist practitioners. Becoming Red Pine After he left the monastery, Porter rented a stone farm house in Bamboo Lake, Yang Ming Mountain. Around this time, he decided to adopt the pen name Red Pine. He recalled: one day Im coming down the mountain on a bus, and it came to a stop right next to a billboard advertising Black Pine Cola. I say thats the name! But black is not a Chinese colour. Red is a Chinese colour. Red Pine! Thats my new name. Several months later, Porter found out that Red Pine was also the name of a great Taoist master, the rain master of the Yellow Emperor. He used the name Red Pine because he was inspired by Chinese poets such as Cold Mountain or Stonehouse who used symbolic names. After many years of courtship, Porter finally married his long-time partner, Ku Lien Chang. In 1982, the union bore a son named Red Cloud and in 1987, a daughter named Irish. The financial pressure of a growing family led him to take a full-time job as a national news editor at the International Community Radio in Taipei. During his stay in Bamboo Lake, Porter continued to translate Cold Mountains poems. He submitted his translation work of Cold Mountains poems to several publishers such as Shambala, Weatherhill and Tuttle, but he was rejected by all three. Refusing to give up, Porter sought an advice from a famous writer and translator, John Blofeld (1913 1987), who would become his mentor. Blofeld encouraged Porter to translate all the surviving poems by Cold Mountain and helped him by giving valuable feedback throughout the process. Upon completing the translation of Cold Mountains poems, Porter submitted his work to Copper Canyon Press to be considered for publication. This time he was successful. In 1983, Cold Mountains translated poems were published as a book titled The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain under his pen name, Red Pine. Blofeld wrote an introduction to the book. Although the quality of the translation was good, The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain was not a best seller book. Excerpts from The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain: Today I sat before the cliff, sat a long time till mists had cleared. A single thread, the clear stream runs cold; a thousand yards the green peaks lift their heads. White clouds the morning light is still. Moonrise the lamp of night drifts upward. Body free from dust and stain, what care could trouble my mind? Following on from the modest success of his first book, Porter persevered in his effort and continued to translate other Chinese poems. His subsequent works, Pu Mings Oxherding Pictures and Verses in 1983 and From Temple Walls: The Collected Poems of Big Shield & Pickup in 1984 were published by Empty Bowl Press. Empty Bowl Press specialised in publishing artistic and bohemian writing works targeted at a unique audience. Porter started to receive serious acclaim after his book The Mountain Poems of Stonehouse containing a collection of poems by Stonehouse was published by Copper Canyon Press. The process of translating Stonehouses poems made a deep impression on Porter. He felt a strong connection to and was moved by the poems that described the life of a Zen hermit with all the hardships and happiness. Stonehouse, born in Changshu, China in 1272, was a Zen master, hermit and poet who eventually became a highly respected Dharma master in the Chinese Zen Buddhist tradition. The following is the excerpt from The Mountain Poems of Stonehouse: Snow-filled nights a fire is my lone companion frost-covered dawns I hear a gibbon howl my tattered monks robe isnt easy to mend I cut a new patch when a cloud rolls in From outside my round pointed-roof hut who would guess at the space inside all the worlds in the universe are there with room to spare for a meditation cushion The poems that Stonehouse composed elegantly describe his Zen hermit lifestyle and, in an honest and humorous way, describe his experience when meditating on a mountain. The poems often mention the tiny stove that was used by Stonehouse during his solitary retreat to provide warmth and to make tea and simple meals. Stonehouses rare poems, combined with Porters ability to express the poets intention in his own words, made The Mountain Poems of Stonehouse a big success in the heart of its readers and secured positive reviews for Porter. After the success of The Mountains Poems of Stonehouse, Bill Porter soon returned to work. He translated the teachings of Bodhidharma for his next book titled The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma. Bodhidharma was a Buddhist monk who lived between the 5th and the 6th centuries and is often regarded as the practitioner who brought Chan Buddhism to China. Although not much is known about this monk, he is often depicted as a big-eyed and bearded man who hails from Central Asia. Bodhidharmas teachings focused on the Lankavatara Sutra and meditation. In Japan, Bodhidharma is known as Daruma. The first edition of The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma was published by Empty Bowl Press in 1987 and the second edition was published in 1989 by North Point Press. Porter confessed that The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma is the first book translated in his own voice: With Stonehouse it was somewhere in between. I think I didnt really discover my translation voice until I did Bodhidharma, which gave me a chance to find the rhythms of my language. Porter regards the Chinese language as abstract and telegraphic, and many Chinese authors focus more on the substance and not the form. Therefore, good translators should be able to understand the meaning and context of the words prior to executing the translation to their native languages. Porter on translating Chinese poems: Its like I see a beautiful woman dancing on the dance floor and Im so attracted [and] I want to dance with her but I dont hear the music. Im deaf. I have no idea whats impelling her to dance but I want to dance with her, so I do. But I would never want to put my feet on top of her feet to dance. This is what most people think is translation dancing with your feet on top of someone elses feet. That way its literal and its accurate but its not because it kills the dancer. And you cant dance across the room either. You have to get close enough to feel the energy. After Porter completed the translation of Cold Mountains and Stonehouses poems, he wondered if Buddhist hermits still exist in modern times. To fulfil his curiosity, Porter applied for a grant from the Guggenheim Foundation to engage in research in this area. However, before he heard the news from the Guggenheim Foundation about the status of his application, he had a chance to interview the son of the wealthiest man in Taiwan, Winston Wong Wen-Young from Formosa Plastics, one of largest plastic companies in the world. Porter informed Wong that he was waiting to hear from the Gunggenheim Foundation about the grant to research about Buddhist hermits. Wong told him that if Porter did not obtain the grant, he would be happy to help. As it turned out, the Guggenheim Foundation rejected Porters application, leading Wong to help to fund his research. In total, it took him 1.5 years to complete his first book, Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits. The book was published by Mercury House in 1993. After completing Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits, Porter had another project in mind. He wanted to research the origins of Chinese culture, and he contacted Wong to request the necessary funding which was around US$9,000 to pay for his three-month journey to China. Once again, Wong agreed. During his research, Porter focused his attention on the Yellow River and the surrounding areas in China because he believed that they were the centre of cultural assimilation between the native Chinese and other nationalities who came to trade via the Silk Road route. After Porter came back from his research, his superior at the radio station in Taiwan, Bryan Curtis, was offered an opportunity to become the head of a new radio station, Metro News. Curtis asked Porter to come with him, and Porter agreed. In Hong Kong, Porter pitched his idea to produce his own radio series on Chinese history called Yellow River Odyssey. The idea was accepted and he signed a two-year contract. In total Porter successfully wrote and produced five radio series covering Silk Road to Islamabad, the tribes who lived on the hill in southern China, Jiangnan region, and the Three Gorges. After working in Hong Kong for two years, Porter saved enough money to return to the United States with his family and put a down payment on the house the family is now still living in. In 2014, Porter rewrote the radio scripts into a book titled Yellow River Odyssey. The book includes photographs of his travels and information about religious sites that are connected to Confucius, Mencius, Laozi and Zhuang Zhou. Returning to the United States After working in Hong Kong for two years, Porter saved enough money to return back to the United States with his family. In 1993, Porter and his family moved to the United States and settled down in Port Townsend in Washington State, a coastal town of 8,000 people. Prior to this move, Porter had visited the city several times before because Copper Canyon Press that published many of his books was based in Port Townsend. He was particularly enamoured with the fresh and peaceful nature that the city offered. The family bought a house for US$93,000 and they have been living in that house ever since. Initially, the family experienced financial hardship. For some time, Porter had to work two jobs in a bakery and a restaurant as a waiter to support his family. Juggling two jobs was challenging and left Porter too exhausted to do his translation and writing works. After one year of focusing on his jobs, Porter realised that he missed writing and translation work, and decided to prioritise these over his two jobs. He started using credit cards to pay for his family expenses. Although his literary aspirations were fulfilled, debt quickly accumulated and although he was able to write book, however, the proceeds from the book royalties were insufficient to cover his familys living expenses. At the time, Porter had 15 books in print and he was able to sell 1,000 books a year on average. He earned US$1.50 per book as his royalties, and therefore was making US$15,000 per year on average. For some time, the family lived frugally and relied on food stamps. In interviews, Porter has seriously and sincerely thanked the U.S. Department of Agricultures Food Stamp Program and the Port Townsend Food Bank for providing meals for his family. Bill Porters View on Zen Buddhism Porter is very much interested in Zen Buddhism. Zen Buddhism is a branch or school of Mahayana Buddhism that teaches its practitioners to exercise self-control and meditation. It encourages practitioners to understand the nature of Lord Buddha so they can also practise their understanding of every aspect of their daily lives for the benefit of sentient beings. The teachings of Zen Buddhism are believed to have been brought by Bodhidharma to China during the 5th or 6th century. Porter has previously expressed that he agrees with the idea of Zen Buddhism to free ones mind from concepts, languages and attachments. Porters belief that Zen Buddhism is more a way of life than a religion, has compelled him to write and translate books related to the subject, such as The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain, The Zen Works of Stonehouse, The Mountain Poems of Stonehouse, The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma and Zen Baggage. To Porter, the belief that Zen Buddhism is more a way of life has fuelled his interest in Buddhist Zen hermits because their commitment to live in isolation to meditate is the true essence of Zen Buddhism. A Conversation on Zen Buddhism with Bill Porter Or view the video on the server at: https://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/ConversationwithZenMaster.mp4 Bill Porters Impact on Modern Chinese Readers One fateful day, Porter met Tang Xiaoming, the manager of Beijing Reader Publishing in the Cypress Grove Monastery, Beijing. Porter was visiting the monastery to do research for his upcoming book, The Zen Baggage. At the time, Tang Xiaoming had started to become interested in Buddhism, and he was impressed with Porters work and how he conveyed the substance of Chinese poetry and writers. As a result, Tang Xiaoming was interested in publishing Porters works, although Beijing Reader Publishing usually only publishes business-related books. In 2001, Porter had published a book titled Secluded Orchids in a Deserted Valley about Buddhist hermits and other noble characters. In Tang Xiaomings opinion, the previous publisher of this book did not represent the text well. Thinking that the time had come for the Chinese to reconnect with their religious roots, Tang Xiaoming decided to re-publish the book in 2009. He was right. Secluded Orchids in a Deserted Valley received positive reviews in China and sold over 100,000 copies. Porter became a foreign sensation in China, and a page in Baidu Baike, the Chinese version of Wikipedia was dedicated to him. In addition, the book prompted hermit tourism in China. Porter believed the reason behind his books success was because many Chinese readers were eager to learn about their cultural heritage. In 2009, Porters English versions of The Heart Sutra and The Diamond Sutra, along with his commentaries, were translated back into Chinese. The publisher felt that compared to the original Chinese version, Porters translations were easier to understand after being translated back to Chinese. In 2011, Tang Xiaoming released the Chinese version of Porters The Zen Baggage in China. The book received critical acclaim and 50,000 copies were sold. For the first time in his life, Porter received a commission and down payment to write a book based on his old radio show script in Hong Kong, Yellow River Odyssey. In 2012, it became known that Porter had earned US$30,000 from his book sales in China alone. After several years of struggle, he was finally able to provide for his family without relying on the governments Food Stamp Program. Awards and Grants One of Porters books titled In Such Hard Times: The Poetry of Wei Yingwu was awarded the 2007 PEN Translation Fund Grant from PEN American Center. In 2010, the same book also won the American Literary Translators Associations inaugural Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize. Future Plans In 2011, Porter received a grant from the Guggenheim Foundation after being rejected seven times in a row. The grant was utilised to fund his research in 20 locations in China that are associated with poetry. Porter used the information from the trip to write a book about the ancient Chinese poets titled Finding Them Gone: Visiting Chinas Poets of the Past. The book was released in 2016. Now that Porter is in his 70s, he will soon be retiring from the literary world. Initially, he used Buddhist texts as a functional way to understand the Chinese language and had not planned on translating them into English. These days, Porter finds more meaning connecting with other people, instead of going around China to research for his books. He has plans to visit Europe where he used to serve as a medical clerk for three years, and to visit Taiwan. Although Porter does not plan to write or translate any more books, he will always be remembered as a gifted translator and prolific author who pours his heart into his works. Promotional Video on Finding Them Gone Or view the video on the server at: https://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/FindThemGone.mp4 W.S. Merwin, a National Book Award-winning poet, once gave a thoughtful comment on the translation work of Red Pine, especially for his book titled The Mountain Poems of Stonehouse: theyre not like any others. Love of language, love of tradition, accuracy and power of language. I am so indebted to him (Bill Porter). Ill be reading his Stonehouse translations for the rest of my days. List of Bill Porters books: No. Book Title Publisher Year 1. The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain (translator) Copper Canyon Press 1983 2. Pu Mings OXHERDING PICTURES & VERSES (translator) Empty Bowl Press 1983 3. From Temple Walls: The Collected Poems of Big Shield & Pickup (translator) Empty Bowl Press 1984 4. The Mountain Poems of Stonehouse (translator) Empty Bowl Press 1986 5. The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma (translator) North Point Press 1987 6. Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits (author) Mercury House 1993 7. Guide to Capturing a Plum Blossom (translator) Mercury House 1995 8. The Zen Works of Stonehouse: Poems and Talks of a 14th-Century Chinese Hermit (translator) Mercury House 1997 9. The Clouds Should Know Me By Now: Buddhist Poet Monks of China (translator) Wisdom Publications 1998 10. Secluded Orchid in a Deserted Valley (author) Contemporary China Press 2001 11. The Diamond Sutra (translator) Counterpoint Press 2002 12. Poems of the Masters: Chinas Classic Anthology of Tang and Sung Dynasty Verse (translator) Copper Canyon Press 2003 13. The Heart Sutra (translator) Counterpoint Press 2004 14. Platform Sutra (translator) Counterpoint Press 2006 15. Zen Baggage: A Pilgrimage to China (author) Counterpoint Press 2005 16. Lao-tzus Taoteching (translator) Copper Canyon Press 2009 17. In Such Hard Times: The Poetry of Wei Ying-wu (translator) Copper Canyon Press 2009 18. The Lankavatara Sutra: Translation and Commentary (translator) Counterpoint Press 2012 19. Yellow River Odyssey (author) Chin Music Press 2014 20. Finding Them Gone: Visiting Chinas Poets of the Past (author) Copper Canyon Press 2015 21. South of the Clouds: Travels in Southwest China (author) Counterpoint Press 2015 22. South of Yangtze (author) Counterpoint Press 2016 23. The Silk Road (author) Counterpoint Press 2016 Addendum Hermit: a documentary Or view the video on the server at: https://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/Hermit.mp4 Cold Mountain Or view the video on the server at: https://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/ColdMountain.mp4 Ksitigarbha, Buddha Amitabha and Dorje Shugden. Click on image to enlarge or for more high resolution thangka downloads click here Three Saints of the Western Pureland Amituofo, Dashizhi and Kuan Yin together with Dorje Shugden. Click on image to enlarge or for more high resolution thangka downloads click here Buddha Amitabha and Kuan Yin together with Dorje Shugden. Click on image to enlarge or for more high resolution thangka downloads click here Kuan Yin (Goddess of Compassion), Wei Tuo and Dorje Shugden. Click on image to enlarge or click here for more beautiful thangkas. Sources: http://www.kyotojournal.org/the-journal/fiction-poetry/dancing-with-words/ https://royhamric.wordpress.com/2010/08/14/red-pine-language-poetry-translation/ http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-caw-paperback-writers19-2009jul19-story.html http://www.oregonlive.com/books/index.ssf/2013/12/post_47.html http://old.seattletimes.com/html/books/2001845874_redpine29.html http://www.drbu.org/blog/poem-cold-mountain http://beijingbookworm.com/happenings/meet-the-author-bill-porter/ http://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/07/17/q-and-a-bill-porter-on-travel-writing-in-china/?_r=0 https://www.coppercanyonpress.org/pages/browse/book.asp?bg={92D32EA4-CD76-4275-AC49-F64217BC9D0B} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Pine_(author) http://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1495760/my-life-red-pine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanshan_(poet) http://terebess.hu/zen/mesterek/RedPine.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanshan_(poet) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tao_Te_Ching http://www.eclectica.org/v18n4/purdy_pine.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhidharma https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen For more interesting information: Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 13 of the Malaysian Copyright Act 1987, allowance is made for fair dealing for purposes such as non-profit research, private study, criticism, review or the reporting of current events. The Operator and author(s) of TsemRinpoche.com, a not-for-profit blog, do not claim ownership on the intellectual property rights of the contents, images and/or videos reproduced in this article. Any subsisting intellectual property rights shall belong to the legal owner of the contents, images and/or videos. By Press Trust of India: Kolkata, Jan 4 (PTI) Stating that law-and-order was a state matter, West Bengal Education Minister and TMC secretary general Partha Chatterjee today questioned how CRPF personnel could be deployed outside the BJP head office in the city. Alleging that the Centre was trying to "disturb" the federal structure of the country, he said Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi had not recommended the deployment. advertisement "How was the CRPF deployed on the basis of (BJP national secretary) Rahul Sinhas words? Who has given them the rights to do so...They (the Centre) are trying to disturb the federal structure of the country. Law-and-order is a state matter," Chatterjee told reporters at the state secretariat. "I spoke to the Governor today...He said he had not recommended the CRPF deployment," he added. Hours after the arrest of Trinamool Congress MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay by the CBI yesterday in connection with the Rose Valley chit fund scam, the BJP office in central Kolkata was attacked allegedly by the activists of the TMCs student wing. Subsequently, CRPF personnel, meant for Sinhas personal security, were deployed outside the office which triggered a controversy. Sinha later said the CRPF personnel were called for his own security. "I get CRPF protection. For my security, more CRPF personnel have been deputed in view of the ongoing violence," he had said. Continuing his tirade against the BJP, Chatterjee alleged that the saffron partys "jallad bahini" (henchmen) and the CPI(M)s "harmads" (the term derived from the Portuguese word for pirates) had "joined hands to disrupt the development works in the state". "For 34 years, CPI(M)s harmads have destroyed the state...Now, BJPs jallad bahini has joined them to stall the development works taken up by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee," the TMC leader said. (MORE) PTI SCH SUS RC --- ENDS --- Hi, my name is Scott C. Waring and I wrote a few books and am currently a ESL School Owner in Taiwan. I have had my own UFO sighting up close and personal, but that's how it works right? A non believer becomes a believer when they experience their first sighting. You witnessed it, your perceptual field changes, so now you need to share it. I created this site to help the UFO community get a little bit organized. I noticed that there was a lot of chaos when searching for UFO sighting reports, so I hope this site helps. I wanted to support those eyewitnesses who have tried to tell others about what they have seen, yet were laughed at by even closest of friends. More and more each day the governments of the world leak bits and pieces of UFO information to the public. They have a trickle down theory in hopes of slowly getting citizens use to the idea that we are not alone in universe and never have been. The truth is being leaked drop by drop until one day we look around and find ourselves neck high in it. The discovery of alien species in existence is the most monumental scientific event in human history, suppression of that information is a crime against humanity. About me: I live in Taiwan. I OWN MY OWN ENGLISH SCHOOL, AND ONCE HAD 5 SCHOOLS. Am Former USAF at SAC base (flight line). Age: 42 Educ: BA in Elem ed. Masters in Counseling ed. I had two UFO sightings, (30+bus size orbs) in military and in 2012 personally saw the UFO over Taipei 101 building on New Years Day (and recored it). The Kyiv Court of Appeals has postponed consideration of the appeal against extension of the arrest of former leader of the Party of Regions faction in the Verkhovna Rada of the previous convocation Oleksandr Yefremov until January 17. This is reported by 112 Ukraine TV channel. "The court hearing was put off until January 17 due to incomplete composition of the court board," the article reads. As a reminder, the custodial term of Oleksandr Yefremov was extended for two months, until January 22, 2017, in late November. Yefremov is suspected of organizing seizure of the building of the Luhansk Regional State Administration; accessory in the capture of the administration building of the Security Service of Ukraine in the Luhansk region; state treason; activities deliberately undertaken by a citizen of Ukraine to diminish the nation's sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence established by the Constitution; supporting and establishing a terrorist organization - the so-called "Luhansk People's Republic". ol The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine expects that the size of the IMFs fourth tranche under EFF program will total $1 billion. Ukrayinski Novyny Ukrainian news agency learnt this from an informed source in the government. The source stressed that the two sides discussed the possibility of providing the fourth tranche of about $1.8 billion in November. The final size of the tranche is most likely to be agreed upon after President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko meets with IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde during the World Economic Forum in Davos, scheduled for January 17-20. Ukrainian authorities expect to get the IMFs fourth tranche in February. ol Belarus has imposed a ban on poultry imports from Chernivtsi Region today due to the cases of avian influenza recorded within the region. An Ukrinform correspondent reports this citing Director of the Veterinary and Food Control Department at the Ministry of Agriculture and Food of the Republic of Belarus Aliaksandr Subotsin. The ban will come into effect from January 5, but it will be temporary. Now we are revoking all permits previously issued to Bukovyna entrepreneurs, the report states. The list of banned products includes live poultry; eggs; wild, zoo and circus animals; poultry meat; egg products; down and feathers. The import deliveries of poultry feed additives and poultry management equipment were also restricted. A reminder that the death of 29 swans from avian influenza was registered at the lake in the village of Chortoryia (Kitsman District, Chernivtsi Region) as of January 5, 2017. On January 4, 2017, the death of 12 chickens was registered in one of private households within the region. mk The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has received a letter from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) with a request to agree an initiative for imposing a ban on entering the territory of Ukraine for far-right French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, according to Olena Vashchenko, the Deputy Head of Foreign Ministrys information policy department. Vashchenko recalled that the Foreign Ministry in a statement expressed its indignation at that fact and warned that such statements and actions, which violate the Ukrainian legislation, will definitely have consequences, as it has already happened in the case of certain French politicians who were banned from entering Ukraine. As earlier reported, on Tuesday Le Pen said that she does not believe the joining of Crimea to the Russian Federation to be in violation of international law. iy The refusal from the Euro-Atlantic and European integration would be a surrender of independence, sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Ukraine. Presidential Administration Head Kostiantyn Yeliseyev in such a way commented on Victor Pinchuks opinion that Ukraine must give up Crimea, aspirations for NATO and EU membership in exchange for Peace in Donbas, which was published in a Wall Street Journal op-ed on December 30. I agree with his [Pinchuks] noble appeal for peace in Donbas (eastern Ukraine) but cannot agree with the appeal for compromises based on worries. Fear and weakness are bad advisers. They play into Russias appetites, invite even more aggression and greater human suffering, Yeliseyev said. He added that reversal in European and Euro-Atlantic integration would mean a surrender of independence, sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Ukraine. No trade in the territory of Ukraine, be it Donbas or Crimea. These territories cannot be part of a trade-off for peace, he noted. The head of the Presidential Administration says Ukraine must not be weak and must not agree on the Kremlin conditions. No elections in Donbas with Russian boots on Ukraines soil. Ukraine stands for local elections there, but only based on Ukraines law and Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe standards. The Kremlin would definitely like to legalize its hybrid occupation and puppet regimes in Donbas by Ukrainian hands. No one should fall into this trap, Yeliseyev stressed. iy Many Thanks to our Advertisers When choosing between competing products and services, please consider our advertisers, who help support Brand New. President-elect Donald Trump is busy building his administration With his transition team in place, it looks like a throwback from "The Apprentice" is going to happen. Because Omarosa Manigault, a previous contestant in season 1, is going to work on Trump's public engagement. Omarosa Manigault was considerably one of the most controversial contestants on "The Apprentice." She was accused of blindsiding, alienating and who could forget her acrimonious tactics on the show. She was tagged as the woman America loved to hate. Now, she is allegedly going to be one of the nine members that will comprise President-elect Donald Trump's cabinet, as reported by The Associated Press. This is no strange thing as Omarosa was one of Trump's most vocal African-American supporters during his presidential campaign. Check out her statement regarding Trump below: Through out her career, she has worked in different fields of expertise. But she is no stranger to politics. She used to work under Vice President Al Gore during Bill Clinton's administration. However, according to reports, she was not successful in her job. Omarosa's job was to answer invitations received by the Vice President. She did not do her job right, as reported by Heavy. Omarosa Manigault insisted that she was not trained to do her job properly, during that time. On "The Apprentice," she was fired before Donald Trump decided to hire her again. Regardless of her controversial tactics in "The Apprentice" season 1, she was able to accumulate a net worth of $1 million. Her profile includes being a Miss America pageant contestant with a Bachelor's of Arts degree in Radio and TV Broadcast Journalism. She graduated from the Central State University in Ohio. She also majored in Mass Communication from Howard University and is pursuing a PhD in Communication Studies. It is not yet clear what she will be specifically leading under Donald Trump's administration. Trump's transition team, according to the Associated Press, did not respond to comments about Omarosa Manigault's role. New York governor Andrew Cuomo has announced that students from low-income families will be qualified for his free college plan. Senator Bernie Sanders, a vocal supporter of free tuition, was there for the announcement. TIME reported that students from families earning $125,000 or less per year will be eligible for the proposal. They may be able to go to state, city and even community colleges for free. It was noted that New York is already spending $1 billion every year on a tuition assistance program. Its awards cap is at $5,165. About one million families with college students will be able to qualify. The plan is said to cost $163 million. According to New York Daily News, the program, which still needs the approval of Legislature, is named The Excelsior Scholarship. It is expected to help low-income students fight the rising costs of college as well as the debt loads that come with it. Officials believe that the program would affect over 940,000 homes. It will be offered for several colleges but will not include room and board. Senator Sanders praised Cuomo for the proposal, describing it as "a revolutionary idea for higher education." Hillary Clinton also expressed her delight over the announcement on Twitter. Legislators, on the other hand, were cautious. The program may be included in the upcoming negotiations for the state's 2017-2018 budget. Hillary Clinton has always been vocal about her stand on free tuition at in-state public colleges and universities for working families that earn up to $125,000. During her campaign, she also revealed her plans to implement a three-month moratorium on loan payments for all federal borrowers. With that, students would be able to consolidate their loans or enroll in other plans that can help cut costs. The Washington Post noted that Trump's election seemed to have made the prospect of free college fade. However, Cuomo's proposal, along with other proponents, is proof that the fight still continues. Microsoft's Windows-based Surface Pro line will once again have a special spot in the market, as Microsoft is reportedly planning to release the Surface Pro 5 in the first quarter of 2017. The Microsoft Surface Pro 5 is said to launch with killer features. A number of manufacturing partners have hinted that the Surface Pro 5 rolls out in March 2017, and the Surface Pro 5 2-in-1 device will come along with a magnetic charging stylus and a 4K Ultra HD display. The Surface Pro 5 is expected to be packed with an Intel Kaby Lake processor. In terms of storage, rumor has it that Surface Pro 5 will have a 512GB+ SSD, as well as a USB Type C and Thunderbolt 3 support, according to DigiTimes. The Surface Pro 5 2-in-1 device is said to have a 16GB of RAM. The base model of the device could have a starting price of $899, while the top-tier variant Surface Pro 5 could cost as much as $1,599. The production of the Microsoft Surface Pro 5 will apparently be handled by the Taiwanese electronics manufacturing company, Pegatron Technology. There are speculations that Quanta Computer might also be brought on board to provide assistance with the process. Nonetheless, Pegatron Technology is the same firm that Microsoft has outsourced the manufacturing of the Surface Studio and the older Surface Pros. The Redmond, Washington based tech giant is also reportedly planning a new Surface Pen to support the upcoming Surface Pro 5 that will utilize a magnetic charging, and the feature will also be the first of the company's Surface Pro line, Economic Times reported. Nevertheless, as Microsoft still not confirmed anything regarding the upcoming 2-in-1 device and there are still around three months for the Surface Pro 5 launch, things may change in the meantime. Thus, there may be changes in certain aspects of the upcoming Surface Pro 5 when it eventually rolls out. Watch The Video Here: SpaceX is all up for its upcoming project "Red Dragon" in search for a new habitat where humans can thrive to live. Elon Musk envisioned the future living in another planet specifically Earth's neighbor, Planet Mars. According to Space News, SpaceX's "Red Dragon" expedition will send out an unmanned space probe to planet Mars to know if it can pull off a soft landing on the Red Planet. Mars has a long-standing notoriety of being able to host human lives. Hence, more research is needed to prove such claims. Hence, Elon Musk simply focused the direction of SpaceX exploration in being the first space research entity to prove Mars capacity of supporting human lives. Musk plans to field heavy payloads on Mars to pave the way for human settle men in the Red Planet. SpaceX will launch series of unmanned "Red Dragons" at every probable time starting 2018. Such timing, however, only arrives every 26 months when Earth and Mars align. The Dragons will land the Red Planet equipped with SuperDraco thrusters as it goes through the Martian atmosphere. No other space agency used this tactic before that is why NASA is uncertain with its position for the probe. That is why NASA has denied Elon Musk's SpaceX the scientific equipment support for its Mars probe. NASA's Planetary Science Division Head Jim Green said during the annual fall meeting of American Geophysical Union (AGU) that the organization will wait for a result of SpaceX Mars mission before it spends millions of dollars. However, the company has pledged its technical support for "Red Dragon" in part of Space Act Agreement whereas they will receive data and findings from the Mars Landing. On another news, NASA has awarded another two contracts for SpaceX for space taxi trips to and from the International Space Station. Elon Musk's space agency now has sic contracts in total, Geek Wire reported. "Thicker than Water" star Brooklyn Tankard is out to do some charity work. Known for the 2013 television series on Bravo, Brooklyn is using her status to give back to the urban youth community. Known as Queen Brooklyn on TV, Tankard has endeavored to be the next ambassador for education in "Bridge Da Gap." And she is seriously excited to get to work. BDG is a non-profit organization that aims to provide awareness, education and empowerment to thousands of youth in the nation and maybe, soon, globally. "Bridge Da Gap" was founded by Kevin "Khao" Cates who has worked with Snoop Dogg, R. Kelly, Ludacris and more. Cates infused the BDG with music as a form of social-emotional curriculum. It is a relevant method to engage the youth by using pop culture. It teaches the kids to build character while making education fun. BDG combines hip hop music, education and mentoring. The organization also teaches life skills applicable in today's socially challenged environment. Currently, BDG has been implemented in schools across the United States as well as in the Bahamas, as featured in the official "Bridge Da Gap" website. A "Bridge Da Gap" tour is planned for this year (2017), as reported by Eurweb.This is where Queen Brooklyn Tankard comes in. She is lending her support. After all, she has recognized Khao is an amazing person to work with. She also knows how Khao is passionate about "Bridge Da Gap" and wants to be a part of BDG. Brooklyn Tankard explained that there are three things she loves. They are kids, music and giving back. BDG is a perfect combination of all three of her passions. Her role in BDG is to expose the goal of BDG on a national platform. She will be going to schools and colleges to connect with students and provide awareness. Other celebrities who are supporting BDG include Ronnie Lott, Dr. Ben Carson and Meagan Good. Learn more about "Bridge Da Gap" in the organization's video below: American University will be removing the statue of Leonard Peltier, who was convicted of killing two FBI agents. This comes after the school faced intense criticism after its installation. Local source WTOP.com reported that the statue of Leonard Peltier was placed in the campus last month. Clemency activists believe that prosecutors in Peltier's trial forced witnesses and withheld evidence. This has sparked outrage in the school community, though. Peltier was convicted in the killings of two FBI agents, Jack Coler and Ron Williams on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in 1975. It was noted that the two agents attempted to pull over a car with Peltier in it. They were shot in the head at close range, though, before they were able to get out of their car. Afterwards, Coler's gun was found in a vehicle used by Peltier in Oregon. His thumb print was on the bag that contained the gun. He was apprehended and convicted of two life sentences. Tom O'Connor, president of the FBI Agents Association, said that the agents were executed. He sent a letter to American University requesting the school to remove the statue. According to Fox 5 News, the Leonard Peltier statue was taken down on Tuesday. The university issued a statement saying that they still support their Art Museum's mission to be thought-provoking and educational. However, the institution clarified that the statue may have improperly suggested that the school has become a clemency advocate for Peltier. The publication added that the museum offered to help the artist find another organization willing to exhibit the art. The Washington Times noted that, earlier this month, the university announced the statue's installment as "part of a major clemency push by supporters." President Obama pardoned over 70 people last month and has shortened the sentences of more than 150 others. Peltier's case, though, was condemned by groups like Amnesty International, the Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights and the Soviet Peace Committee. Some Hollywood celebrities also believe that he should be released. Researchers have recently discovered that dinosaur eggs took months to hatch. This made them vulnerable to harsh environmental conditions and may have even played a significant role in their extinction. New research from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that dinosaurs were similar to modern reptiles when it came to hatching babies. The new finding was discovered from studying the teeth of dinosaur embryo fossils. Researchers studied the fossils of Protoceratops, a sheep-sized creature from Mongolia's Gobi Desert, as well as the Hypacrosaurus, which is a large duck-billed dinosaur found in Alberta, Canada. Growth lines on the teeth confirmed that the baby Protoceratops stayed in its egg for at least three months while the Hypacrosaurus stayed for six months. The Washington Post noted that the dentin layers allowed the scientists to calculate an estimate of the incubation times for the two creatures. David Varricchio, a paleontologist at Montana State University, described this method of calculating incubation duration as "a compelling one." According to a press release, scientists previously theorized that dinosaurs had similar incubation duration as birds, which ranged from 11 to 85 days. However, that was not the case. It was noted that the long incubation put eggs and their parents at risk from environmental risk factors, starvation and predators. Moreover, the biggest implication of the discovery comes with the dinosaurs' extinction. Florida State University Professor of Biological Science Gregory Erickson, who led the study, expects that their findings will be of great help in understanding why dinosaurs went extinct at the end of the Cretaceous period. This could also explain why other creatures such as amphibians, birds, mammals as well as other reptiles were able to make it through. Inverse added that the long incubation period for the dinosaurs may not have been beneficial for the creatures since a lot could go wrong during that period of time. Birds and reptiles may have been able to build their populations much faster, making the species more likely to escape extinction. NASA's Mars rover, Spirit, has recently celebrated its 13th anniversary. Exactly 13 years ago, on Jan. 3, the space agency began its Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission with the six-wheeled robot. Space.com reported that Spirit landed on the Red Planet on the night of Jan. 3, 2004. Its twin, named Opportunity, came to Mars three weeks later. The two rovers were tasked to look for signs of past water activity in the area where they landed. Initially, the search was only supposed to last for three months. However, both Spirit and Opportunity kept on for years. NASA officials confirmed that Spirit got stuck on soft Martian sand last Apr. 2009. It was not able to reorient its solar panels to track the sun and eventually froze to death. Its last communication arrived to Earth in Mar. 2010. A year later, Spirit was declared dead - after putting in a total of 4.8 miles (or 7.73 kilometers) on its odometer. According to Space Flight Insider, Spirit was responsible for several "firsts" in its Mars mission. it was able to identify the rocks surrounding Gusev Crater to be majorly basaltic in make-up, which suggested that the area had had water and volcanic forces. Spirit also took pictures of Earth from Mars. This made it the first explorer to take an image of our home planet from the surface of another planet. In 2006, Spirit lost one of its wheels and drove in reverse afterwards. At one point, it was able to find freshly-dredged soil which was bright white in color. Scientists believe that this could have been silica. On Earth, silica was formed when some minerals react with hot water. This suggested that the area may have been, at one point in time, wet and warm enough to be favorable for habitat. Spirit has definitely paved the way for NASA's future Mars plans. Other companies have also stated their plans to go on the Red Planet. Recently, China vowed that it will work double time on the development of its space industry. Along with the 2020 Mars probe announcement, the country has also announced that it aims to be the first to land a probe on the far side of the moon by 2018. Scientists were able to develop self-repairing material that is expected to increase the lifespan of electronic devices. This discovery is also believed to pave the way for the development of self-repairing robots. The Christian Science Monitor reported that a team of scientists from around the world described the first synthetic ionic conductor, which is a material that is see-through, self-repairing and highly-stretchable. Their study has been published in the journal "Advanced Material." The material was said to be inspired by Wolverine. The Marvel antihero has the ability to regenerate his cells and heal himself. Author Chao Wang, a material chemist at the University of California Riverside, said that the creation of this type of material has, for years, been a puzzle for researchers. Dr. Wang added that they are still looking into how the material can be used. According to UCR Today, the project was inspired by wound healing. Self-repairing materials can help lower the cost of devices since it heals the damage caused by wear and tear. It was noted that one of the major challenges of the project is in identifying the bonds that are stable and reversible when exposed to electrochemical conditions. Typical self-repairing polymers are held together by noncovalent bonds, which can be unstable at times. Dr. Wang and his team were able to solve this problem by using ion-dipole interactions. This is a mechanism that uses forces between charged ions and polar molecules that are highly stable under electrochemical conditions. They mixed a polar, stretchable polymer with a high-ionic-strength salt. This resulted to the material that had the properties they were looking for. The soft, rubber-like material developed is low-cost and easy. It can also be stretched to 50 times its original length. When it's cut, it can reattach in 24 hours at room temperature. Moreover, after just five minutes of healing, it can be stretched to twice its original length. January 5 2017 Glasgow City Council is proposing to build a new Carntyne Primary within the grounds of the existing school at Redford Street within the citys east end.Designs drawn up by Holmes Miller call for the creation of a new school and community facility integrated within an established residential area, pending the partial demolition and reconfiguration of the existing facility.The resulting linear stack of classrooms will be faced with areas of curtain wall glazing and fibre cement panels separated by vertical brick piers.In their design statement the architects observed: Careful attention to brickwork detailing adds interest and craftsmanship to the facades, and is used to highlight building entrances and points of interface. The brickwork wraps around the gable elevations and continues along the North facade of the building.Playground spaces will be situated to the north on the footprint of the existing school which will be fully cleared post-completion. Church News October 20, 2022 LIGHT OF THE VALLEY LUTHERAN CHURCH Needing Answers We want God to be like FedEx and deliver overnight. Things dont happen that way, but in... Church News October 13, 2022 LIGHT OF THE VALLEY LUTHERAN CHURCH Natures Therapy The pine tree with its solemn dignity lifts its branches to the sky as if to give... Social security official gives out social insurance books to citizens.-VNA/VNS Photo Nhung came from northern Ha Nam Province and is being treated at K2, the second centre of the Viet Nam National Cancer Hospital (K Hospital) located in the capitals Thanh Tri District. Every year for the last 4 years, as the year comes to an end, Nhung has had to withdraw her health insurance card from K2 and redo several procedures so that she could continue using her health insurance at the centre over the coming year. I even had to pay to be transferred to the central K Hospital, she said. If I didnt pay, I would be kept at the local hospital because they said my illness could be cured there. Nhung has last-stage throat cancer that has spread to her bones. She came to the centre every 20 days for treatment, twice per day. Four years of treatment has cost her some VND300 million (US$13,200). The situation is not new to patients at K2, most of whom have been identified as having late-stage cancer. At the end of every year when their health insurance is about to expire, like Nhung, patients that are being treated at central hospitals have to withdraw their health insurance cards, return to their hometowns, and redo all admission and hospital transferring procedures at local hospitals if they want next years medical expenses covered by health insurance. Sixty-year-old Pham Thu Thuy in the capitals Hoang Mai District has bone cancer and has been receiving treatment at K2 for more than 2 years. It was easy to ask to be transferred from my district hospital to the regional Ha Dong General Hospital, Thuy said. But I had to pay a commission fee to be transferred from that regional hospital to the central K Hospital. I agreed to pay because having a straight transferring record will help cover 80 per cent of my medical expenses. Otherwise only 30 per cent will be covered, she said. The patients desire to be treated at central hospitals is understandable. The experience that sixty-year-old colon cancer patient Pham Thi Binh from the central Nghe An Province had at her local hospital was not a pleasant one. According to Binh, she was diagnosed as having stomach pain from appendicitis by the Nghe An Friendship Polyclinic Hospital; they even performed surgeries on her, but the illness persisted. Only when her personal connection asked for consideration from the hospitals leaders did she get transferred to the central Bach Mai Hospital in Ha Noi, where she was diagnosed with cancer. She was terrified on knowing she had to go back to the local hospital and complete the procedures to renew her health insurance, she said. Improvement for the people Viet Nam Social Security (VSI) recently issued official dispatch No. 5243 which clarifies the processes of renewal and extension of health insurance for this year. According to the dispatch, for poor and nearly-poor people, people of ethnic minorities living in extremely difficult regions and people living in commune and district islands, local authorities will send a list of people requiring health insurance cards to VSI after it has been reported to the Government. Health insurance cards will be made immediately and sent to the people once the Prime Minister approved the list. If the list has not been completed by the end of 2016, provincial social security will report to provincial Peoples Committees for further directions. In this case, late health insurance participants can still enjoy their benefits from January 1, 2017. Health insurance covered 81.7 per cent of the nations population by the end of last year, exceeding the target set by the Prime Minister by 2.7 per cent, said Nguyen Minh Thao, general director of VSI yesterday. The number of participants in health insurance reached 75.9 million, compulsory social insurance was 12.9 million, 11.1 million in unemployment insurance, and 203,000 in voluntary social insurance, he said yesterday at a public administration reform and task allocation for this year. The number of citizens participating in social insurance, health insurance and unemployment insurance was 76.1 million, with an increase of 5.9 million people compared to 2015, he added. The social security sector was estimated to have paid health insurance for 144 million people, totaling VND69.4 billion (US$3,1 million), exceeding the years health insurance fund by VND5.1 billion ($224), according to VSI reports. Forty-five provinces overspent their health insurance funds, top among them were An Giang, Binh Dinh, Ca Mau, Da Nang, Nghe An, Quang Nam, Quang Ninh, Thai Binh and Thanh Hoa provinces. The VSI will continue implementing social insurance and health insurance policies for the benefit of all, as well as improving the management process. The social security sector will continue carrying out public administrative reforms with a focus on improving public services as well as applying technology in management activities, digitalising the sectors activities and developing a modern, professional, and effective social security system. Local lenders are in the midst of a delicate juggling act Last week, the State Bank said the government insisted on 25 per cent credit growth this year, indicating that more cash will be injected into the recovering economy in the coming months. The governments target is to lower interest rates to support economic growth. The State Bank expects local lenders to cut deposit rates from 11 to 10 per cent per year and lending rates from 13 to 12 per cent per year within the next one or two months, said Nguyen Van Binh, deputy governor of the State Bank. Local banks total outstanding credits by the end of June expanded by 11.36 per cent from the end of 2009, while total deposits grew by 14.64 per cent, according to the latest State Bank data. Credit growth is on track to reach a full-year target of 25 per cent fuelling the countrys efforts to secure an economic growth of 6.5 per cent in 2010. In the first half of 2009, credit and deposit growth hit 17.01 and 16.2 per cent respectively. At the moment, local lenders are still cutting deposit rates step-by-step closer to 11 per cent per year. VietBank offers the highest interest rate at most terms at 11.2 per cent per year applied from July 13. Meanwhile, from July 9, Military Bank also set maximum deposit rates at 11.2 per cent per year. Previously, larger banks such as Vietcombank, ACB or Maritime Bank have lowered deposit rates to 11.1-11.2 per cent per year. A Vietcombank official said that deposit rate cutting was a sensitive move and normally banks must do it in many small steps. If the depositors do not find lower interest rates attractive enough, they shift to other investment channels, then sometimes we have to raise deposit rates right back, said the Vietcombank official. Stock market brokerage firm VinaSecurities said that the process of lowering interest rates was time-consuming with at least three interest groups involved in each purpose. The first phase of agreeing to a deposit rate level at 11.2 per cent, per year was apparently achieved. Then the next phase will be arriving at a lending rate. We remain hopeful that this can be entirely resolved in a month or so. Then credit could begin flowing more freely into the economy and the stock market as well, it said. By Thai Thao Lynx cubs at the captive breeding center of the Donana National Park, southern Spain. (AFP Photo/Ho Iberian Lynx Conservation Breeding Programme) Crunching huge amounts of data, they unveiled a global "threat map" detailing the impact on endangered species of exports to the United States, China, Japan and the European Union. To procure beans for that coffee or tofu, for example, forests have been cleared in Sumatra, Indonesia and in Brazil's Mato Grosso, adding incrementally to the habitat loss driving dozens of animals and plants towards extinction. The global supply chain of manufactured goods - from iPhones to Ikea furniture - can also contribute to wildlife decline. Focusing on nearly 7,000 land and marine species classified as threatened by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the researchers traced "hotspots" of biodiversity loss to hundreds of commodities and their distant markets. In earlier work, they concluded that 30 per cent of worldwide species threats are due to international trade. The new study, published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, reveals which nations' consumers drive species loss most. It also suggests where conservation efforts should be focused. ANIMAL HABITATS RAZED Currently, 90 per cent of the more than US$6 billion (5.75 billion) mobilised each year for species conservation is spent within rich nations where money is raised. "Yet these countries are rarely where threat hotspots lie," said senior author Keiichiro Kanemoto, a professor at Shinshu University in Matsumoto, Japan. The study provides tools to calculate what percentage of the species threat in one country is due to consumption of goods in another, he told AFP. About 2 per cent of the total threat to the endangered stub-footed toad in Brazil, for example, can be attributed directly to logging linked to goods exported to the United States. Timber harvested in Malaysia and exported mainly to the EU and China has similarly robbed the Asian elephant, the greater spotted eagle and the Sun bear of habitat. And forests cleared in southern Brazil's highlands for beef production encroaches on the woolly spider monkey, along with many other species. "MASS EXTINCTION EVENT" "We identified biodiversity threat hotspots that are predominantly driven by just a small number of countries," Kanemoto told AFP. "This should make it easier to initiate direct collaborations between producers and consumers." Finding new solutions for species loss has become urgent. Earth has entered a "mass extinction event" in which animals and plants are disappearing up to 1,000 times more quickly than just a few centuries ago, according to scientists. There have only been six such wipeouts in the last half-billion years, some claiming up to 95 percent of all lifeforms. Trade-related threats to wildlife can be indirect, and occur in unexpected places. A large and growing demand for olive oil from Spain and Portugal, for example, could help push the endangered Iberian lynx into oblivion due to the construction of dams to control irrigation. The calculations do not cover illegal trade in wildlife, such as ivory from elephant tusks or rare birds and reptiles sold as pets. On paper, many threatened animals and plants are protected under the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). But cross-border traffic, worth up to US$150 billion a year, in these species - live or as body parts - remains brisk. Nor do they take into account other factors such as urban sprawl, local hunting for food, or climate change. The study found that trade-related threats are highly concentrated geographically, at both ends of trade routes. For those driven by US consumption, for example, the 5 per cent of land area most affected accounts for nearly a quarter of the country's total impact. In the oceans, the 5 per cent of area most affected by US appetites includes more than 60 per cent of threatened species habitats. Photo : nasa.gov The US space agency had already pushed back the launch by a day to Tuesday. If technicians are able to finish their repairs as planned, Discovery and its six American astronauts will now launch from Florida's Kennedy Space Center at 3:52 pm (1952 GMT) Wednesday, NASA test director Jeff Spaulding said. The flight to the orbiting International Space Station is the fourth and final shuttle flight of the year, and the last scheduled for Discovery, the oldest in the three-shuttle fleet that is being retired in 2011. The National Election Committee (NEC) on Tuesday released its new voter registration list in an effort to promote transparency ahead of local elections scheduled for June. More than 8,000 duplicate names were discovered on the list and swiftly removed. Officials and voters welcomed the release of the new list, following a contentious period of voter registration, saying new methods of registration, such as requiring a photograph to accompany an entry, would help combat fraud. Trerng Samray, 70, a Phnom Penh resident, said the new list format had made it easier to crosscheck information. The new list attaches a photo, so its more accurate. If I find any errors, Ill complain to the authorities, he said. Hak Sarom, 48, an Environment Ministry official, said the voter registration process, on the whole, had run more smoothly than in the past. My familys and my name are all correct. It didnt take much time to verify. Hang Puthea, NEC spokesman, said the voter list would be publicly available until January 14 so that Cambodians could verify if it was accurate. If they find any incorrect information, they can file a complaint to the commune officer to correct it for them. And if they arent satisfied with the solutions offered by the commune officer, they can also report it to the NEC and Constitutional Council. Sam Kuntheamy, executive director of election watchdog NICFEC, however, said publicizing the voter registration list online would not reach the wider public unless it went viral. Its very important to make the announcement go viral. Not so many people know about this and will come to cross-check their information. The new voter list is available online at: http://voterlist.org.kh. Interior Minister Sar Kheng has scolded Ratanakkiri Provincial Governor Thang Savun for pretending he had an appointment with him to avoid meeting ministers on a visit to the northeastern province. Savun had told Chea Sophara, minister of land management, Uk Rabun, minister of rural development, and Say Sam Al, environment minister, that he could not attend a requested meeting with the senior officials because he already had a scheduled appointment with Kheng, the interior minister said. But when they [the ministers] arrived in Ratanakkiri province, the governor or his deputy reported that he [Savun] came to meet with [me]. I never saw him coming to have a meeting with me in the last few days. I didnt have any meeting, he said. Savun declined to comment. Chhay Thy, provincial coordinator for local rights group Adhoc, said the move showed that Savun was shirking the responsibilities of his office and should be blamed. Savun is the son of Bu Thang, a ruling party senator, and nephew of Bu Lam, a ruling party lawmaker in Ratanakkiri. The wife of an American author who disappeared on a research trip in Afghanistan more than two years ago appealed for his freedom on Thursday in a Pakistani newspaper. Paul Overby, 74, went missing in Afghanistan's eastern Khost province shortly after May 17, 2014, the last contact he had with his family. He was hoping to interview Sirajuddin Haqqani, head of the Taliban-allied Haqqani militant network, and was trying to cross from Afghanistan into Pakistan's volatile North Waziristan region, according to the Pakistani daily the News. His wife, Jane Larson, told the newspaper she believed her husband was kidnapped and she appealed to his captors "to return him as soon as possible and show the mercy of Allah to unite an aging couple who have been apart too long." Sources in the Taliban and the Haqqani network, however, told the News they were not holding Overby and it was unclear what happened to him. Overby is the author of 1993's "Holy Blood: An Inside View of the Afghan War", based on his research and travels in Afghanistan during a U.S.-sponsored "mujahadeen" insurgency against a Soviet-backed government. Last month, the Taliban released a Haqqani network video of American Caitlan Coleman and her Canadian husband, Joshua Boyle, who were abducted in 2012 while on a backpacking trip. The video also showed two sons born to the couple while in captivity. Every afternoon, dozens of teenage girls at the school for displaced children line up on the grounds, dressed in white uniforms with belts of various colors: yellow, blue, white. They kick high and jump with glee before settling into their exercises, shouting in Japanese as they punch into the air. The reason many of these girls are in this class is sobering: They want protection from their own country's military. Mostly between 13 and 16, they have lost their homes, and in some cases their families, to the long-running civil war in Myanmar's Kachin state - a war in which soldiers have been repeatedly accused of raping girls and women, but rarely prosecuted. This karate class offers some small sense of power to the vulnerable. For all the girls, we teach them how to protect themselves when someone tries to sexually assault them and how to fight back, instructor Hkun Naw said. Basically teaching the girls to make themselves safe. We wanted to make sure all the internally displaced children have the right to do something that gives them joy, and to be confident. More than 100,000 people in Kachin state, in Myanmar's north, have been forced from their homes by fighting between government troops and ethnic Kachin rebels who have sought greater autonomy for decades. A 17-year-long cease-fire ended in 2011. Je Yang is among the most crowded camps, with more than 8,000 people, including 16-year-old Hkawn Ra. She fled fighting in her village of Man Dung while she was at school five years ago, when she was 11. She has not seen her parents since. She once dreamed of becoming a nurse, but no longer. Because of the political situation and civil war, I cannot become who I want to be, and I am not angry about it anymore, she said. Hkawn Ra is, however, learning karate, after hearing about rapes and sexual violence against women in the region. A community-based organization operating under the Kachin Independence Organization has held karate classes in Kachin-controlled areas since the year the cease-fire ended, seeking to teach girls and boys self-defense and self-confidence. They (the military) rape women and that's why I was interested, and decided to learn karate to protect myself at least, Hkawn Ra said. Women organizations say the military has been long using rape as weapon of war. The Women's League of Burma says it has documented more than 100 cases of rape and sexual violence against ethnic women by the military army since 2010. The government and the military have remained largely silent on the issue. This fall, Muslim Rohingya and rights groups have said soldiers and police have repeatedly raped members of the ethnic minority in northwestern Rakhine state. Authorities have been conducting sweeps of the region since October, when nine border guards were killed by unknown attackers. The government has blocked foreign media from the area, but Rohingya who fled to nearby Bangladesh report rapes and murders by security forces, and satellite images back up their claims of village-burning. At a recent press conference, military spokesman Soe Naing Oo denied that soldiers in Rakhine were committing any human-rights violations or sexual violence. The Kachin Women's Association of Thailand and the Legal Aid Network last year released a report on investigators' lack of progress in the brutal 2015 rape and murder of the two Kachin volunteer teachers. Dozens of soldiers were housed closed to the rape scene, and several left shortly before the bodies were discovered, but no suspects have been identified. Prosecutions have been few. In 2014, a soldier was sentenced to 7 years in prison for raping a 7-year-old Kachin girl in northern Shan state. Accused Myanmar soldiers normally face a military tribunal, but in that case lawyers successfully pressed for a civilian trial. Ethnic minorities overwhelmingly voted for Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy last year, helping it replace an elected but military-dominated government. But many are now disappointed with her government's efforts to resolve a host of ethnic conflicts and what they see as the military's impunity. Without talking about human-rights violations and ignoring the truth and justice for the victims, there won't be a real peace and national reconciliation in our country, said Julia Marip, secretary of the Women's League of Burma. With little confidence that soldiers will be held to account for misdeeds, the girls in the karate class hope to at least deter them from committing any to begin with. They compete with each other, and some have dreams of fighting professionally. Our instructor said we can go abroad to learn more skills, and I want to go overseas and be a professional fighter, said 14-year-old Nu Ja. When they know how to defend themselves, said Hkun Naw, the instructor, they will be able to protect their families, their people and their country. The U.S. Army has taken new steps to make it easier for Sikhs, Muslims and other religious minorities to obtain approval to dress and groom themselves according to their religious customs while serving in the military, a spokesman said Thursday. Army Secretary Eric Fanning, in a memorandum signed this week, revised the uniform policy to set appearance standards for people seeking religious accommodations to wear beards, turbans and head scarves. The new rules also enable brigade-level commanders to approve the religious accommodations, an authority that previously rested with the Army secretary. Denial of a religious accommodation may be appealed as high as the Army secretary. An approved religious accommodation will continue throughout the soldier's career and may not be revoked or modified without approval of the Army secretary, the memo says. The accommodation will not affect job specialties or duty locations, except in a few limited cases, the memo says. "Our goal is to balance soldier readiness and safety with the accommodation of our soldiers' faith practices, and this latest directive allows us to do that," Lieutenant Colonel Randy Taylor said in a statement. Sikh Coalition 'pleased' The Sikh Coalition welcomed the new rules. "We are pleased with the progress that this new policy represents for religious tolerance and diversity," said coalition legal director Harsimran Kaur. Sikhs have a long tradition of military service in India and elsewhere and have served in the United States as far back as World War I. But uniform reforms after the Vietnam War made it difficult for them to serve without violating the tenets of their faith. The new rules permit religious accommodations for beards, but they may not be longer than 2 inches unless rolled or tied up. Soldiers with a religious accommodation may wear a turban or under-turban known as a patka. Soldiers with religious accommodations still must be able to wear combat helmets and other protective headgear and must modify their hairstyles to achieve a proper fit. The new rules allow head scarves, or hijabs, for Muslim women. They must be of a similar color to the uniform and be free of designs or markings, unless they are camouflage and worn with a camouflage uniform. Hair grooming rules have been amended to allow for braids, cornrows, twists or locks, the memo said. Artisanal charcoal will become the first legal Cuban export to the U.S. in recent history this month under a new deal between the Cuban government and the former lawyer for imprisoned U.S. government contractor Alan Gross. Attorney Scott Gilbert has sought to build economic ties between the two countries since Gross' release. He said Thursday that a company he founded will buy 80 tons of charcoal made from the invasive woody plant marabu. The charcoal is produced by worker-owned cooperatives across Cuba and has become an increasingly profitable export valued for its clean-burning properties often used in pizza and bread ovens. Gilbert's company will pay $420 a ton, significantly above the market price. The first delivery is scheduled for Jan. 18, two days before the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump. Vice President Joe Biden is developing a partnership with the University of Delaware that will focus on economic and domestic policy, a Biden aide said Wednesday, rounding out the vice president's plans for after he leaves the White House. In addition to working with the Delaware school, Biden's alma mater, he also plans an affiliation with the University of Pennsylvania. The Ivy League school in the state of his birth will house Biden's activities on foreign policy and global engagement initiatives, said the aide, who requested anonymity because the partnership hasn't yet been publicly announced. The two partnerships shed new light on how Biden will spend his time as a private citizen after more than four decades in public office. First elected to the Senate in 1972, Biden served there until becoming the vice president in 2009. Over the years, Biden has focused intensely on foreign policy, becoming the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, and on domestic issues including violence against women and middle-class economic issues. All are expected to remain part of Biden's work after the Obama administration. He also plans to continue with his more recent cancer moonshot effort to accelerate developments toward a cure. The initiative was launched after his son, former Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, died from brain cancer in 2015. With backing from President Barack Obama, it has focused on trying to streamline efforts of the many cancer research institutions and increase sharing of data about specific tumors that can be used to develop targeted treatments. Biden was driven to establish a relationship with the University of Delaware because of his fondness for his alma mater and desire to stay connected to the state he represented in the Senate, the aide said. The vice president graduated in 1965 from the school, which has its main campus in Newark and campuses in other Delaware communities. He was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, a two-hour drive from Philadelphia, where the University of Pennsylvania is located. The vice president appeared to reference the project at Penn on Tuesday when he was heard on a hot mic discussing his plans while swearing in new senators at the Capitol. He's expected to release more details about the work he'll perform at both universities after his term as vice president ends on January 20. Biden, who considered running for president in 2016, has said recently he could consider running again in 2020. In a clash of current and future administrations, President Barack Obama went to Congress Wednesday hoping to preserve his signature healthcare law, while Vice President-elect Mike Pence visited the Capitol to solidify a Republican agenda that will take aim at Obamas legacy once Donald Trump becomes president later this month. The dueling appearances brought a highly unusual spectacle: the leader of an outgoing administration and a principal of the incoming administration lobbying lawmakers at the same time to diametrically opposed ends. House and Senate Democrats, still smarting from last years election results, emerged from a closed-door presidential pep talk saying they were heartened and determined to fight for core principles and beliefs long after Obama, their most potent ally, leaves office January 20. He [Obama] was very inspiring, said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York. We have a great deal of optimism that the good things that have happened in ACA [Affordable Care Act] are going to stay. President-elect Donald Trump criticized the Democrats' stance on the healthcare plan in a series of tweets Thursday. "The Democrats, lead by head clown Chuck Schumer, known how bad ObamaCare is and what a mess they are in," Trump tweeted. The ACA, also known as Obamacare, has broadened the opportunities for Americans to buy private health insurance and dramatically reduced the number of people who lack coverage. Critics have focused on certain compulsory aspects of the program and its cost. The healthcare program, approved by Congress without any Republican votes during the president's first term in the White House, has seen many insurers drop out of the program or raise premiums sharply - in some cases, more than doubling subscribers' costs. Obama did not speak with reporters at the Capitol, but Pence reaffirmed his partys intention to end Obamacare. The American people have sent new leadership here because Obamacare has failed and has been rejected by the American people, the incoming vice president said. I was here in March 2010 when Obamacare was signed into law. I remember all those promises. We were told if you like your doctor you can keep it - not true. We were told if you like your health insurance you can keep it - not true. We were told the cost of health insurance was going to go down - not true. While eager to make good on a campaign promise, Republicans have yet to agree on a detailed plan for replacing Obamacare, or even whether such a plan must be enacted at the same time the ACA is scrapped. Theyve got nothing to replace it with Democrats are pouncing, warning of major disruptions in healthcare if Republicans repeal with no substitute at the ready. Theyve got nothing to replace it with. The reason they dont is because its hard, said Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri. Theyve had seven years to figure out how to replace Obamacare. That they have nothing - nada, bupkis, zero - to put in front of the American people as a replacement should show how bankrupt this idea is. Rather than repealing Obamacare, Democrats say Republicans should work with them to preserve and improve the law. Failure to do so, according to Democrats, means Republicans will be fully and solely responsible for any negative consequences going forward. They [Republicans] want to repeal it and then hang it on us [Democrats], Schumer said. Not going to happen. Its their responsibility, plain and simple. Republicans counter that Obamacare is already in a death spiral of higher costs and dwindling insurers, and that disruptions in healthcare coverage were inevitable even if Congress did nothing. The law is failing as we speak, said House Speaker Paul Ryan. We need to reverse the damage that has been done. Then, once we repeal this law, we need to make sure there is a stable transition to a truly patient-centered system. Trump echoed that message on Twitter. [M]assive increases of ObamaCare will take place this year and Dems are to blame for the mess. It will fall of its own weight, the president-elect wrote. In a barb aimed at the new Senate minority leader, Trump also tweeted, Dont let the Schumer clowns out of this web Hours later, Schumer responded, saying, Republicans should stop clowning around with the peoples health care." Republicans can use their House majority to repeal Obamacare anytime they schedule a vote. Senate Republicans, meanwhile, are crafting ACA repeal as a budgetary item, which would make it subject to a simple-majority vote and prevent Democrats from using a procedural blocking tactic known as a filibuster. VOA's Katherine Gypson and Ken Bredemeier contributed to this report. Senators at next week's confirmation hearing will confront competing versions of Jeff Sessions, the Alabama senator who is President-elect Donald Trump's pick for attorney general. His supporters will frame the 70-year-old Republican, who grew up in the segregated Jim Crow South before a career as a local GOP leader, prosecutor and elected official, as an unyielding but fair-minded conservative. Opponents looking at the same record will cast it as evidence Sessions should not wield power on sensitive matters including immigration, civil rights and national security. Sessions, who would be a profound change from the Obama administration's Justice Department, will almost certainly draw support from Republicans controlling the Senate and its Judiciary Committee. But the proceedings nonetheless could be a rocky opening to Sessions' tenure and foreshadow how Democrats and like-minded advocacy groups will combat the incoming Trump administration. "There are some gaping holes and some grave questions ... about his commitment to fair and even enforcement of the law," said Kristen Clarke of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Similar concerns cost Sessions a federal judgeship in 1986, when he confronted and denied allegations that he'd made racist comments as a U.S. attorney under President Ronald Reagan. The Judiciary Committee denied him the post, and civil rights advocates have since raised objections to his positions on voting rights, hate crime prosecutions and immigration. Yet in Wilcox County, Alabama, where Sessions was a leading student in the all-white public high school class of 1965, and in Mobile, Alabama, where he became a local Republican Party leader and federal prosecutor, Sessions' longtime friends speak fondly of a polite Eagle Scout and devoutly religious man they contend is unfairly caricatured. "The man I know is an upright individual," said Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson, who met Sessions before either held elected office. "He is eminently qualified to uphold the laws and Constitution of the United States." Greg Griffin, a black Alabama judge who worked as a state attorney when Sessions was Alabama attorney general, said Sessions "always treated me with respect" and called him "one of the best bosses I ever had." Sessions arrives at his second confirmation hearing Tuesday as one of Trump's most prominent early supporters and a fierce critic of Obama administration policies. He opposed the Senate's 2013 immigration overhaul as too permissive and has advocated broad presidential powers to curtail illegal immigration, connecting lax border security to the terrorism threat. He has opposed efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, has questioned whether terrorism suspects captured overseas deserve protections of the civilian justice system and as attorney general may endorse more aggressive scrutiny of Muslims. His record on civil rights has stirred particular concern from advocacy groups. He opposed expanding the federal hate crime definition to include violence based on sexual identity or gender orientation. He called the Voting Rights Act "intrusive" legislation long before the Supreme Court gutted a key provision of it in 2013 and has repeatedly sounded alarms about the frequency of voter fraud, which current Justice Department leaders consider virtually nonexistent. Hank Sanders, a Democratic state senator in Alabama, points to cases Sessions pursued as a prosecutor against civil rights activists in the 1980s. "They called them voter fraud cases," said Sanders, who won acquittals for the defendants. "I called them voter persecution cases." Yet Sessions voted to confirm Obama's first attorney general, Eric Holder, the first black man to lead the Justice Department. He also worked with Democratic colleagues on efforts to combat prison rape and to reduce federal sentencing disparities between crack cocaine and powder cocaine offenses, saying the gap unfairly targeted the "African-American community simply because that is where crack is most often used." His spokeswoman, Sarah Flores, says Sessions has devoted himself to the rule of law and ensuring public safety. "Many African-American leaders who've known him for decades attest to this and have welcomed his nomination to be the next attorney general," she said in a statement. As U.S. attorney, Sessions' office investigated and helped secure convictions in the 1981 Ku Klux Klan lynching of Michael Donald, a black teenager found hanging from a tree. Barry Kowalski, a retired Justice Department civil rights attorney in Washington, worked with Sessions during the investigation and said he was instrumental in securing an agreement for James Knowles to testify against fellow Klansman Henry Hays, who was eventually executed. Sessions, Kowalski said, "couldn't have been more helpful." But a black attorney working as a Sessions' assistant at the time contended that Sessions referred to him as "boy," among other racially charged comments, during the investigation. Thomas Figures, who died in 2015, detailed his allegations at Sessions' 1986 hearings. Kowalski said he never heard such comments. George Alford, a Sessions friend from high school, said the scrutiny is understandable given Sessions' biography, down to his Southern accent and given name: Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III. "That sounds like a Confederate general," Alford joked. "And any fella from Wilcox County in our generation, with that accent? Of course you're going to get those questions." At least 200 million women alive today in 30 countries have been subjected to the painful procedure known as female genital mutilation, a practice the U.N. says is deeply rooted in tradition in some cultures. About half of those women come from Egypt, Somalia and Ethiopia. But in Ethiopia, the nonprofit organization KMG has made major progress against the practice. KMG began educating people about the harmful effects of female genital mutilation in the southern region of Kembatta-Tembaro in 1998. In 1999, almost 97 percent of the people favored FGM in Kembatta-Tembaro, an area of about 680,000 people, according to a UNICEF study. By 2008, less than 5 percent supported the practice. And in Ethiopia as a whole, 74 percent of women and girls were mutilated out of a population of 94 million, according to 2005 statistics. A decade later, national prevalence of FGM had dropped to 65 percent, according to a 2016 government report. The United Nations Population Fund credits KMG with a big reduction in FGM. Elders educated first Beyebo Eresado, a 50-year-old farmer and village elder, says that at first, he did not believe what he heard. No, weve been doing it a long time, he said. It cant be harmful. Its our culture. Were doing it to benefit the girl. The procedure can cause hemorrhaging, scarring, infections and psychological trauma. In Kembatta, the practice commonly took the form of cutting off the clitoris and the inner and outer labia. This can cause major health problems, especially during childbirth. Eresado estimated it took four years for his community to start changing its attitude toward FGM. As a village elder whose opinion is respected, he played an important role. The shift happened through the work of KMG. The core of its work is holding community conversations in groups of 50, including people from all walks of life men and women, young and old, elders and laborers. KMG facilitators guide regular meetings where people discuss issues until they reach consensus. When KMG started out, issues such as womens rights were abstract concepts to struggling poor people. So, it addressed day-to-day needs, such as repairing broken bridges and addressing HIV and AIDS. Over time, even taboo subjects such as FGM and gender violence were discussed openly. KMG and its founder KMG was founded by 63-year-old Bogaletch Gebre, who grew up in Kembatta-Tembaro and was cut as a girl. During her childhood, girls were not expected to go to school. Gebre, however, went on to study biology at universities in Israel and in the state of Massachusetts in the United States as a Fulbright Fellow. Gebre says including people in community conversations and letting them reach their own conclusions was crucial in changing deeply rooted practices. We dont dictate, we just discuss, Gebre said. We facilitate. We allow them to talk. In the conversation nobody is wrong, nobody is right, nobody has better knowledge than the other. Every single one has spoken in that group has a value. Theres no judgment. That makes people comfortable to speak their mind. Women for the first time learn that they have something of value that people listen to them. People began to learn the health risks of FGM. And they learned there is no religious basis for it in the Bible or Quran. Those ideas were absorbed by the next generation of women and men. Merhun Abebe, 18, was a boy when KMG started working in Kembatta. He says he remembers community conversations about FGM. Now the community has accepted the change, he said. KMG has been successful because it is working closely with society. They are not coming in and saying, Do this; dont do that. They just facilitate the community to identify its own problem, discuss the problem and provide solution. French authorities on Thursday began an operation that could see up to 1 million ducks culled from the countrys main foie gras-producing region in an attempt to contain an outbreak of a dangerous bird flu strain. Duck farmers in southwestern France will kill the birds to stem the tide of an outbreak of the H5N8 virus that has been detected in at least 13 other European countries since October. French authorities and duck farmers have engaged in several culls in the past month, but until now those culls have only taken place on farms with infected birds. The cull will affect free-range ducks that may have come in contact with wild birds carrying the virus. While the virus is extremely harmful to birds, it doesnt transmit through food and has not been found doesnt affect humans. French authorities expect the cull to end by January 20 and say as many as 1 million ducks could be slaughtered. The fast spread of the bird flu made the cull necessary, they said. In the past year, 89 bird flu outbreaks have been reported in France. Farmers will receive compensation from the French government for the birds that are destroyed. A French activist farmer facing potential prison time defended his aid to illegal African migrants in court Wednesday, calling it an act of humanity and not a crime. Helping someone is not an offense!' read a placard at a protest in support of farmer Cedric Herrou outside the Nice courthouse where he went on trial Wednesday. The case has called attention to those who have resisted Europe's anti-migrant sentiment and are offering food, lodging or other aid to people from impoverished or war-torn countries coming to Europe illegally. There has notably been an outpouring of support in the Roya valley in the Alps, where Herrou has taken in dozens of migrants over the past year. Herrou went on trial charged with helping illegal migrants enter France, travel in France and stay in France. His lawyer Zia Oloumy pleaded for acquittal, insisting a crime hasn't been proven. The prosecutor asked for an eight-month suspended prison sentence and confiscation of Herrou's vehicle. The court could sentence him to up to five years in prison and 30,000 euros in fines if a guilty verdict is delivered February 10. Herrou says he is doing his civic duty and will keep helping the migrants, who are mainly from Eritrea and Sudan. The law is against me, against actions to help people in need, so we have to change the laws, he told reporters. Lucia Palermo, a 36-year-old artist from the Italian border town of Vintimiglia, was among several people demonstrating in support of Herrou. I'm concerned by the fact that if we show solidarity with a European, there is no problem. But if you show solidarity with a migrant ... it's a problem. This concerns me a lot, Palermo said. The past week has seen Gambian President Yahya Jammeh's rhetoric grow increasingly defiant and hawkish as his government clamps down on dissent. Jammeh has continued to dig in his heels with less than two weeks to go before the scheduled inauguration of President-elect Adama Barrow. Jammeh has shut at least three private radio stations, and according to local new sites authorities have arrested people wearing t-shirts with the slogan Gambia Has Decided, a known statement of Barrow supporters. The head of the electoral commission fled to neighboring Senegal after Jammeh said in his New Years address the elections chief had falsified results. Jammeh added that no one would cheat him. It was seen as a veiled threat. The Senegal regional director of rights group Article 19, Fatou Jagne Senghor, says activists still hope for a peaceful transfer of power. You see it has been very clear that after the reversal of his decision, he targeted the electoral commission and after that he sealed their office, and all those days, this institution was not functioning. So you never know what the security apparatus is capable of doing in such a difficult situation, she said. The Jammeh government has been accused of numerous rights abuses during its 22 years in office, including arbitrary arrest, torture, and forced disappearances. The U.S. State Department Human Rights report said, Officials routinely used various methods of intimidation to retain power. Jammeh initially accepted defeat in the December polls, but reversed course, calling for new elections. But the international community has recognized Barrow as the winner. West African regional bloc ECOWAS put its standby force on alert, with Senegal at the lead. Jammeh hit back in his New Years speech saying an ECOWAS deployment would be a declaration of war. But the regional approach appears to be negotiation and Senegalese President Macky Sall says military intervention should be a last resort. The founder of the West African Citizens Think Tank, Gilles Yabi, says there may still be a path to a peaceful exit. I think it is true that Jammeh is a very special person and it is difficult to imagine traditional diplomatic pressures having some impact on Jammeh. But I think that when you think about pressures, it is not just about official threats or traditional diplomatic ways," he said. "I think it is also about changing the calculation of the people who are around Jammeh. The military leaders of the country, the objective of ECOWAS could be to make them change their minds by making it very clear that Jammeh will not stay in power. This week, Gambias army chief reaffirmed his support for Jammeh in a letter published in a pro-government newspaper. International military historian at the University Felix Houphouet-Boigny in Abidjan, Arthur Banga, says the Gambian military would likely be no match for ECOWAS forces. He said hopefully it will not come to that. He says it would look very bad for the ECOWAS region, and democracy in Africa in general, if Jammeh is still in power two or three weeks from now. Ghana is getting ready to inaugurate its new president and swear in members of parliament Saturday. The peaceful transfer of power is celebrated as a key win for one of Africas most stable democracies. But it was also a defeat for the countrys former ruling party, the National Democratic Congress, which has now embarked on some soul searching. The 2016 elections in Ghana saw something new happen. The incumbent lost. John Mahama leaves office as a one-term president. I dont think I was the only one who saw the writing on the wall, said Jerry Rawlings, Ghanas political godfather and former president. He is a member of the NDC but was notably absent from Mahamas re-election campaign. Our general negativity, impunity, disrespect and corruption was taking us further and further downhill. We had lost so much goodwill. If we all dont do some careful introspection and openly show remorse for the betrayal of the peoples trust we might not recover in time for the next election, Rawlings said. The NDC came to power in 2009 with the election of President John Atta Mills. Three years later, Mills died in office and Mahama, his deputy, took over and then won the election later that year. But President-elect Nana Akufo-Addo defeated Mahama at the polls in December by a margin of one million votes. The NDC also lost its majority in parliament. Parallels drawn Some have drawn parallels to the fall of the People's Democratic Party in Nigeria. The 2015 elections saw an opposition coalition push the PDP out at all levels of government, including the presidency. Mahama now joins his former Nigerian counterpart, Goodluck Jonathan, in the small club of single-term African presidents. Some of the reasons behind their downfall were similar - economic hardship, lack of reliable electricity, corruption and rising unemployment. In Ghana, political analyst Bossman Asare says poor performance by the government and overconfidence cost the NDC the election. Over the years, the democratic space has been expanding. Transparency has been increasing. Voters are increasingly becoming more sophisticated. So weve gotten to a point in our democracy just like many advanced societies like Britain, Germany, USA where incumbency is no longer significant, he said. Asare believes that internally, too, the NDC has made mistakes. The NDC for many years has been relying on the rural voters. When you look at Ghana, the voting dynamics within main Accra, the NPP will win but once the villages come, then you realize the NDC will be leading. So I think the NDC took that for granted that no, these are people who will always come home, Asare said. And that may be a lesson for the NPP and President-elect Akufo-Addo as they now take the reins of the country. Voters are expecting results. The marching band of a historically black college in Alabama will perform in President-elect Donald Trump's January 20 inaugural parade, despite a barrage of criticism, the school's president announced Thursday. Talladega College President Billy Hawkins confirmed what the Presidential Inaugural Committee had announced December 30. It was the first official word from the school. The committee's announcement last month ignited passionate debate on the campus and across the nation. In announcing that the Talladega College Marching Tornadoes would participate, Hawkins said students could learn lessons from the experience that could not be taught in a classroom. "We respect and appreciate how our students and alumni feel about our participation in this parade," Hawkins said in his statement. "As many of those who chose to participate in the parade have said, we feel the inauguration of a new president is not a political event but a civil ceremony celebrating the transfer of power," he added. Plenty of debate The announcement followed several days of intense debate on social media. Shirley Ferrill of Fairfield, Alabama, a member of Talladega's Class of 1974, said she didn't want her alma mater to appear to be supporting Trump. "After how black people were treated at Trump's rallies, you're going to go and shuck and jive down Pennsylvania Avenue? For what?" another opponent of the plans, Seinya SamForay of Chicago, said in an interview. Others said the inauguration would be a unique and worthwhile trip for the students. "It will be a wonderful learning experience for the students in the band," Talladega College alumnus and Hampton University President William Harvey said in a statement. "It will be a teachable moment for them to understand the importance of supporting the leader of the free world, despite one's political viewpoint." "After all, the reason for being of any college or university should be to promote learning and not to enhance a political agenda," Harvey added. Talladega bills itself as Alabama's oldest private, historically black liberal arts college. The college traces its beginnings to 1865, when two former slaves pledged to provide a school for the children of former slaves of the community. The school was founded two years later, according to historical accounts on its website. Condo purchase The parade lineup highlights some overlaps between Trump's new political role and his business empire. Talladega College Board Chairman Harry L. Coaxum and his wife, Donna, purchased a $900,000 condominium in the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago in May 2014, public records show. The condo purchase hasn't been mentioned amid the controversy over Talladega's band, and there's no indication it played any role in the parade plans. Messages left at a number listed for Coaxum were not immediately returned. Presidential Inaugural Committee spokesman Boris Epshteyn didn't respond to questions about the purchase Wednesday or Thursday. A similar situation involves another small school in the inaugural parade. The president of Olivet Nazarene University and his wife purchased a $2 million condo in the same Trump Tower in Chicago in March 2015, according to records from the Cook County Recorder of Deeds. President John Bowling told the Chicago Tribune that he's never met Trump or any of his relatives and that he "made no contact regarding the invitation" given to his university's band. Talladega and Olivet Nazarene are among about a half-dozen college bands, at least eight high school bands and several military groups that have been announced for the parade lineup so far. House Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday that Republicans would slash federal dollars for Planned Parenthood as part of the GOP effort to repeal the health care law. Ryan spoke a day after a special House panel issued a report criticizing the organization, which provides birth control, abortions and various women's health services, for its practices regarding providing tissue from aborted fetuses to researchers. The Wisconsin lawmaker's comments, while expected, were the first official word that repeal legislation would also renew the congressional assault on the group. "The Planned Parenthood legislation would be in our [repeal] bill," Ryan said. Last year's Obamacare repeal measure also contained the effort to defund the group, which receives government reimbursements from the Medicaid program for non-abortion health services to low-income women. It also receives reimbursements for contraception services from a different government account. Loss of care The defunding measure would take away roughly $400 million in Medicaid money from the group in the year after enactment, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, and would result in roughly 400,000 women losing access to care. One factor is that being enrolled in Medicaid doesn't guarantee access to a doctor, so women denied Medicaid services from Planned Parenthood may not be able to find replacement care. "Defunding Planned Parenthood is dangerous to people's health, it's unpopular, and it would leave people across the country without care," said Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards. "They cannot afford to have basic reproductive health care attacked. Planned Parenthood has been here for 100 years and we're going to be here for 100 more." Trump's mixed signals President-elect Donald Trump sent mixed signals during the campaign about the 100-year-old organization. He said "millions of women are helped by Planned Parenthood," but he also endorsed efforts to defund the group. Trump once described himself as "very pro-choice," but now opposes abortion rights. Cutting off Planned Parenthood from taxpayer money is a long-sought dream of social conservatives, but it's a loser in the minds of some GOP strategists. Planned Parenthood is loathed by anti-abortion activists who are the backbone of the GOP coalition. Polls, however, show that the group is favorably viewed by a sizable majority of Americans 59 percent in a Gallup survey last year, including more than one-third of Republicans. The defunding effort could also complicate Obamacare repeal in the Senate, where at least one GOP member, Susan Collins of Maine, cited the defunding language in opposing the repeal effort in late 2015. Last year's elections thinned Republican ranks in the Senate to 52, so only a handful of GOP defections are possible if the repeal measure is going to pass. Asked Wednesday about party efforts to tie the effort to defund Planned Parenthood to Obamacare repeal, Collins said, "That's of concern to me as well, but I don't want to prejudge what's in the ... bill." Activists' videos Most GOP lawmakers have long opposed Planned Parenthood because many of its clinics provide abortions. Their antagonism intensified after anti-abortion activists released secretly recorded videos in 2015 showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing how they sometimes provide fetal tissue to researchers, which is legal if no profit is made. The House GOP report issued Wednesday accused the group of violating federal laws by altering abortion procedures to obtain fetal tissue, disclosing patients' private information to firms that procure the tissue and "a general disinterest in clinical integrity." Planned Parenthood has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, and did so again Wednesday. The group has strong support from Capitol Hill Democrats. A supporter of the defunding effort said it may not have much of an effect on the number of abortions performed in the country, but that federal dollars to Planned Parenthood indirectly support abortion. "A lot of the ongoing support in the structural finances for Planned Parenthood goes to build the buildings, the infrastructure that provides abortion," said Senator James Lankford, an Oklahoma Republican. Israeli authorities said Thursday that they were taking action to contain a backlash against military officials following the rare conviction of a soldier who killed an already badly wounded Palestinian assailant in the West Bank last year. The case has deeply divided Israelis and also cast the government in a dispute with the Israeli military. A military court on Wednesday convicted Sergeant Elor Azaria of manslaughter charges in the March shooting, a verdict that could deliver up to 20 years in prison. The proceedings have also sparked an unprecedented campaign of support for Azaria and against the military establishment, long the country's most admired body. In protests outside the courtroom, demonstrators chanted veiled death threats against military chief Lieutenant General Gadi Eizenkot. The trial's three military judges and the lead prosecutor have also faced threats and according to Israeli media have been assigned bodyguards. Israel's Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit said Thursday that he was launching a probe into the chants on suspicion that they amounted to incitement to violence. The protesters had chanted: "Gadi, be careful, Rabin is looking for a friend'' a reference to slain Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated by a Jewish extremist in 1995. Police said Thursday that they arrested an Israeli man for inciting on Facebook against military judges who convicted Azaria. Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said another Israeli woman was also questioned over Facebook posts. She said police would act against those inciting to violence against public officials. Brittle diplomatic ties between Serbia and Kosovo came under further strain Thursday in a row over international arrest warrants issued by Belgrade for former Kosovar guerrillas, including an ex-premier detained in France. Ramush Haradinaj, a guerrilla commander during the 1998-99 war against Serbian rule who served briefly as prime minister in 2004 and 2005, was arrested on Wednesday and remanded in prison by a French court Thursday. Kosovo asked the European Union on Thursday to press Serbia to drop the warrants against him and others, and angry government and opposition leaders in Pristina called for a halt to EU-mediated normalization talks between Belgrade and its former, mainly ethnic Albanian province. The talks are a precondition for both countries to make progress toward membership of the bloc. As Serbia which still formally considers Kosovo part of its territory confirmed it would seek Haradinaj's extradition, Kosovo canceled a visit by Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic to a mainly ethnic Serb town in Kosovo scheduled for Friday, the eve of Christian Orthodox Christmas Day. A Serbian government official who asked not to be named said Nikolic's forward team was "harassed" at the border crossing and could not perform necessary security checks. "The visit will not proceed as planned, this is likely related to the Haradinaj arrest," the official said. Primitive acts Serbia has charged him with murders of Serbs in the late 1990s war, while the majority of Kosovo's 1.8 million population are opposed to any trials of ex-guerrillas they see as freedom fighters. A security source in Pristina told Reuters that, in all, there were currently around 20 Kosovo citizens subject to Interpol Red Notice arrest warrants mainly ex-members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) that fought Serbian security forces. Kosovo's minister in charge of the EU-brokered dialogue with Serbia, Edita Tahiri, said she had written to Brussels asking it to use its leverage to make Serbia withdraw the arrest warrants. "With these primitive acts, Serbia is not only hurting the spirit of the dialogue to have good neighborly relations, but is proving that it is a destabilizing factor in the whole region, and international partners should be seriously worried," Tahiri told local media. Serbia hopes to complete accession talks with the EU by 2020. Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008, has signed a trade and association pact with the EU but remains far from membership due to serious corruption and organized crime. Extradition request Haradinaj appeared late Thursday at the appeals court in Colmar, eastern France, which ruled he would remain in prison until Serbia made a formal request for his extradition. That would then be studied by the relevant institution, the court said. Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said Thursday that, if France did not extradite Haradinaj, West European states should stop "patronizing" Serbia about judicial reforms it had undertaken to help qualify for EU accession. After his stints as premier, Haradinaj was tried and acquitted twice of war crimes at a U.N. tribunal in The Hague. At the time, Kosovo was a ward of the United Nations. The war ended after NATO bombed Serbia for 11 weeks to compel it to withdraw forces who had killed some 10,000 Albanian civilians in counterinsurgency operations. In June 2015, Haradinaj, now an opposition party leader, was arrested by Slovenian police but freed after two days following diplomatic pressure. Around 130,000 people were killed in a decade of conflict following the breakup of old federal Yugoslavia, and its successor states were loath to prosecute their own ethnic kin. Western governments that believed prosecutions of all sides were needed to bring reconciliation and stability to the region and move it closer to the EU set up two international criminal courts one for former Yugoslav republics (ICTY) such as Bosnia, and one for Kosovo, both based in The Hague. Set up in 1993, the ICTY is due to complete its work this year, having prosecuted and jailed mainly Bosnian Serbs. The Kosovo court came into being only at the beginning of this year and indictments must wait until judges, none of whom has yet taken office, have drawn up rules of procedure. Mercedes-Benz is recalling nearly 48,000 SUVs in the U.S. to fix a sensor problem that could stop the front passenger air bag from inflating in a crash. The recall covers certain GL, GLE and GLS models from the 2016 and 2017 model years. Mercedes says in documents posted by U.S. safety regulators that a sensor in the front passenger seat may be calibrated incorrectly. It can classify passengers as child seats and deactivate the air bag. It was unclear from the documents if the problem had caused any injuries. A Mercedes spokesman says he's seeking information on the recall. Mercedes will notify owners and dealers will update the sensor software for free. The recall is expected to start this month. More than 800 girls were subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM) in northern Tanzania last month, a local government official said, despite a police crackdown to stop the practice that affects millions of girls in the east African country. Twelve women suspected to have carried out the ritual, which involves the partial or total removal of the external genitalia, have been arrested as the police investigate the case, Tarime District Commissioner Glorious Luoga said. "The police operation is still going on. We will not relent until all the perpetrators have been arrested and charged," Luoga told Reuters. FGM affects an estimated 140 million girls and women across a swathe of Africa and parts of the Middle East and Asia, and is seen as a gateway to marriage and a way of preserving purity. Up to 7.9 million girls and women in Tanzania are thought to have undergone FGM, with the illegal procedure often carried out in secret initiation, or rite of passage, ceremonies. The ancient ritual causes numerous health problems that can be fatal. In Tarime, girls are usually cut between the ages of 12 and 17 in initiation ceremonies performed by circumcisers known as ngariba, often in unhygienic conditions. On Tuesday, a senior official in the Ministry of Health warned communities to stop embracing the harmful tradition. "FGM should be made history in Tanzania," the ministry's permanent secretary Sihaba Nkinga told girls who had completed an alternative rite of passage in Tarime involving reproductive health education. "As a government, we can't afford to see such acts continuing to happen. It is not something to be proud of," she said. Nigeria has resumed payments of cash stipends to former militants agreed under a 2009 amnesty in the country's Niger Delta oil hub, a government official said on Thursday. The government has been holding talks with militants to end attacks on crude pipelines which reduced Nigeria's output by 700,000 barrels a day for several months last year. Authorities had originally cut the budget for cash payments to militants to end corruption but later resumed payments to stop pipeline attacks crippling vital oil revenues. "Two months of the ex-militants' stipends were paid yesterday ... The rest of their stipends will be paid later in batches by [central bank] CBN," said Piriye Kiyaramo, an officer in the government's Amnesty Office. He said the paid stipends covered August and September. Each former militant is entitled under the amnesty to 65,000 naira ($206.68) monthly plus job training. Eric Omare, spokesman for the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), which represents the Delta's biggest ethnic group, said former militants had complained to the region's top negotiator handling talks with the government about payment delays. President Muhammadu Buhari met Niger Delta leaders and representatives for the militants in November to discuss their demands but little progress has emerged publicly since then. The militants and residents who sympathize with them say they want a greater share of Nigeria's oil wealth to go to the impoverished region. Crude sales make up about 70 percent of government revenue and the attacks have deepened an economic crisis brought on by low global oil prices. Nigeria currently produces "close to" 1.8 million barrels a day of crude, its oil minister said last month, the latest official figure. Output had been 2.2 million bpd at the start of 2016 when a wave of pipeline attacks began. ($1 = 314.5000 naira) President Barack Obama called for a smooth handover of control of the U.S. military to incoming commander in chief Donald Trump, as the outgoing president met Wednesday with military leaders for the last time. "We've got to make sure that during this transition period that there is a seamless passing of the baton, that there's continuity,'' Obama said. He said it was critical to ensure that "we are doing everything we can to make sure that the next president will benefit from the same kinds of outstanding advice and service that these people around the table have provided me.'' Obama's comments as he sat down with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the military's combatant commanders came amid concerns in military and diplomatic circles about how Trump may handle national security challenges. Over the last few days, Trump has disputed the U.S. intelligence community's assessments about Russian hacking, insisted without explanation that North Korea won't develop a nuclear weapon that could hit the U.S. and questioned the worth of the United Nations. Obama pointed to a handful of conflicts that Trump will inherit when he takes office on Jan. 20, including the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria and in the Iraqi city of Mosul, the biggest IS stronghold in Iraq and last major Iraqi city where the extremist group still has control. He also noted that the conflict in Afghanistan "is still active.'' In praising the military, Obama appeared to call attention to traditions that Democrats are most concerned that Trump may not uphold. Trump has nominated retired Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis for defense secretary despite the prohibition on recently departed military members running the civilian-led Pentagon, and at one point in the campaign, Trump called for reinstating waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques. Obama said he was optimistic about the country's future because the military upholds "the values of rule of law and professionalism and integrity, and recognizes our constitutional structure and maintains strict adherence and respect for civilian authority and democratic practices in determining how we use the awesome force of the American military.'' The president was also honored at a farewell ceremony at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, a short drive from the White House. Addressing a room of men and women from the various branches of the military, Obama praised their service and sacrifice. He said there is "no greater privilege and no greater honor'' than serving as commander in chief. "As I reflect on the challenges we have faced together and on those to come, I believe that one of the greatest tasks before our armed forces is to retain the high confidence that the American people rightly place in you,'' Obama said. "We must never hesitate to act when necessary to defend our nation, but we must also never rush into war because sending you into harm's way should be a last and not first resort.'' Prior to his remarks, Defense Secretary Ash Carter presented Obama with the Medal of Distinguished Public Service as a token of appreciation for his service as commander in chief. Russias suspected interference in the 2016 U.S. election is the subject of two U.S. Senate hearings Thursday, as well as a briefing for President Barack Obama. The president ordered the intelligence community to review potential foreign interference dating back to the 2008 election that first brought him to the White House. A U.S. official confirmed to VOA that Obama will hear the results of the probe Thursday, and that President-elect Donald Trump will get the same briefing Friday. The Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have both concluded that the Russian government was behind the 2016 hacking and intentionally divulged the documents via WikiLeaks to disrupt the election. The Senate Armed Services Committee is hearing testimony from Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, National Security Agency Director Admiral Michael Rogers, and Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Marcel Lettre. In his opening remarks, Committee chairman Senator John McCain said "every American should be alarmed" by Russia's actions. He said "Congress must set partisanship aside" in probing and preventing cyber attacks on America. WATCH: McCain on Russia hacking On Wednesday called the Russian interference an act of war. If you try to destroy the fundamentals of democracy, then you have destroyed a nation, McCain told reporters on Capitol Hill. And by the way, there are various gradients of acts of war. Im not saying its an atomic attack. Im just saying that when you attack a nations fundamental structure, which they are doing, then its an act of war. The Senate Foreign Relations Committees closed-door hearing will feature Homeland Security cybersecurity official Danny Toler and State Department officials Victoria Nuland and Gentry Smith. Obama sanctions Obama responded to Russia last week with a set of sanctions targeting the countrys leading spy agencies and the expulsion of 35 intelligence operatives. Reuters reported Wednesday that according to several U.S. officials, the Obama administration received intelligence after the November 8 election that it considered to be conclusive evidence Russia gave information from the hacks on the Democratic National Committee to WikiLeaks through a third party. The officials said that information played a role in the presidents actions against Russia. Trump doubts Trump has repeatedly expressed doubt that Russia meddled in the vote. In a series of tweets starting late Tuesday, Trump taunted the CIA, FBI and other agencies, suggesting they still dont have proof that Russia penetrated Democratic party computers and gave the documents to WikiLeaks. The Intelligence briefing on so-called Russian hacking was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange! Trump said. And then early Wednesday, after WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange appeared on Fox News denying the Russian government gave WikiLeaks stolen Democratic documents, Trump followed up: Julian Assange said a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta - why was DNC so careless? Trump was referring to thousands of emails and documents that hackers took from the computers of the Democratic National Committee and from Hillary Clinton campaign chief John Podesta, which were published by WikiLeaks in the weeks leading up to the election. CIA chief urges restraint Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a Trump critic, sharply questioned the president-elects reliance on Assange. Assange has a record of undermining the United States, Graham said on Twitter. I dont believe any American should give a whole lot of credibility to anything Julian Assange says. Trump fired back at critics via Twitter Thursday saying "The dishonest media likes saying that I am in Agreement with Julian Assange - wrong. I simply state what he states, it is for the people to make up their own minds as to the truth." Central Intelligence Agency chief John Brennan told the Public Broadcasting Service, I would suggest to individuals that have not yet seen the report, who have not yet been briefed on it, that they wait and see what it is that the intelligence community is putting forward before they make those judgments. The VOAs Michael Bowman contributed to this story. Have tweets on world affairs by President-elect Donald Trump since his election in November undermined the end of the tenure of the incumbent secretary of state? John Kerry on Thursday, at what he termed his final State Department news conference, declined to directly comment on what he said is "effectively still politics." With two more weeks in the job, Kerry said, "I still have a couple of trips which are important and conversations I intend to be having on behalf of our country, things we still want to get done." After Trump's inauguration on January 20, "I will have plenty of opportunity to speak out if I see fit and I will do it at the appropriate time," he added. Kerry spent the bulk of his time at the State Department podium Thursday afternoon touting what he regarded as the administration's wide-ranging top foreign policy accomplishments, from the Iran nuclear deal to the Paris climate change agreement. "Nobody can predict what choices this [next] administration is going to make," Kerry said. "I think the question a lot of people ask is, Do they know?'" Trump has made almost daily policy pronouncements some of them radical departures from existing U.S. positions on the Twitter social media platform, unsettling diplomats at home and abroad. The Trump tweets, in 140 characters or less, are the antithesis of the traditional bureaucratic method of nuancing foreign policy through carefully written speeches and lengthy papers. Kerry, who chaired the Senate's Committee on Foreign Relations for four years, expressed hope that "solid thinkers and patriots" would come forward and put their ideas on the table for the new administration. In his most direct public comment yet about Trump's surprise victory over Hillary Clinton, who was Kerry's predecessor as secretary of state, the former senator said, "It was a lot about people's disappointment with government, writ large." Asked if he thought Russian President Vladimir Putin directed the hacking of the Democratic National Committee during the presidential campaign, Kerry replied, "I accept the judgment of the intelligence community that this went to the highest level" of the Russian government. Trump has nominated Rex Tillerson to succeed Kerry at the State Department. Tillerson, who spent his entire career at one company in the oil and gas industry, if confirmed by the U.S. Senate, would become the first secretary of state with no prior government or military experience. Tillerson is certain to be grilled during his January 11 confirmation hearing about his ties to Putin, about which powerful lawmakers from both parties have expressed concern. As the chief executive officer of ExxonMobil, Tillerson in 2011 signed a $300 billion agreement with Russia for rights to drill for oil in the Arctic Ocean. But Obama administration sanctions imposed against Moscow three year later for the Kremlin's moves against Ukraine derailed the project. A smartphone application enabling women to report incidents of harassment to police in Pakistan's Punjab province went live this week as authorities step up efforts to promote women's safety in one of the worst provinces for crimes against them. With a click of a button, users who feel threatened can call an emergency response police team who should be able to track their location via a built-in global positioning system (GPS). "Though the app primarily covers street harassment, it also has a feature for woman who is inside the house and is suffering physical violence to call for help," said Fauzia Viqar, chair of the Punjab Commission on the Status of Women, a body promoting women's rights, which was involved in the launch of the app on Thursday. She said users can also use the app to mark unsafe locations and access a toll-free helpline which provides information on laws to protect women's rights among other services. Domestic abuse, economic discrimination and acid attacks make Pakistan the world's third-most-dangerous country for women, a 2011 Thomson Reuters Foundation expert poll showed. About 500 women are killed in Pakistan every year at the hands of relatives over perceived damage to family "honor" that can involve eloping, fraternizing with men or any other infraction against conservative values. A study by the Aurat Foundation, a Pakistani women's rights group, in 2013 found that Punjab province alone accounted for 5,800 crimes against women - 74 percent of crimes against women in the whole of Pakistan. Women's rights campaigners welcomed the launch of the app but expressed concern not all women would have access to it. "It can ensure timely rescue. But it may not be effective in rural areas where people are generally poor and do not have smartphone," said Romana Bashir, who heads women's rights organization, the Peace and Development Foundation. She also said there was a need to raise awareness among police officers of violence against women. "We often have complaints of police themselves sometimes misbehaving with the complainants of harassment. They need to be educated on gender issues so that women trust them," Bashir told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Last year, the province of Punjab, Pakistan's largest, passed a law giving legal protection to women from domestic, psychological and sexual violence. But since the law's passage, many conservative clerics and religious leaders have denounced it as being in conflict with the Muslim holy book, the Koran, and the constitution. U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter says President-elect Donald Trump's administration should maintain partnerships with NATO and allies in the Asia-Pacific, while also holding Russia accountable to its stated mission of battling terrorists in Syria and help end the war. The recommendations came in a memo that Carter, like the other Cabinet secretaries, prepared to highlight what their departments achieved during the eight-year presidency of Barack Obama. The documents were released Thursday, along with a letter from Obama, about two weeks before Trump takes over the White House. Carter highlighted U.S. responses to Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea, including boosting joint military exercises and prepositioning equipment in the region. "The United States must remain engaged with NATO an alliance of principled and like-minded members backed by strength to ensure continued progress and to deter and defend against Russian aggression in Europe," he said. Holding Russia accountable Russia launched its military operation in Syria in late 2015 in support of President Bashar al-Assad, a move that Carter said has only made the conflict there "more dangerous and violent, and potentially more prolonged." Syrian forces have scored major victories against rebel groups since Russia began backing them, including last month retaking full control of the city of Aleppo. Russia entered the conflict saying it was there to go after terrorists, but many of their airstrikes have struck areas controlled by moderate opposition fighters. Carter also focused on Iran, saying its backing of Assad, the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah and Houthi rebels in Yemen are examples of the "malign influence" Iran has in the Middle East. Defending Iran agreement But he also pointed to the agreement that Iran reached with a group of six world powers to curb the country's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. U.S. ally Israel has denounced the deal, and Trump has expressed his opposition, including calling it "the worst deal ever negotiated." "The International Atomic Energy Agency has confirmed that Iran is complying with its international commitments, and it is in our best interest to maintain the agreement to check Iran's nuclear ambition," Carter wrote. He said a priority for Trump should be the continued partnership with Israel, which has a commitment to receive $38 billion in security assistance over the course of 10 years. The Pentagon chief highlighted other security deals in the region, including partnerships with members of the Gulf Cooperation Council and the sale of more than $100 billion in arms to Gulf partners. Troops drawdown The major change in the Defense Department under Obama was the winding down of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which began under his predecessor, President George W. Bush. Combat operations in Iraq ended in 2011 and in Afghanistan in 2014 as security control went into the hands of local forces built up with the help of the U.S. In his own letter issued Thursday, Obama touted the lack of any foreign terrorist attack carried out in the U.S. during his term as well as the ongoing efforts to defeat Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. "We've drawn down from nearly 180,000 troops in harm's way in Iraq and Afghanistan to just 15,000," Obama wrote. "With a coalition of more than 70 nations and a relentless campaign of more than 16,000 airstrikes so far, we are breaking the back of ISIL and taking away its safe havens, and we've accomplished this at a cost of $10 billion over two years -- the same amount that we spent in one month at the height of the Iraq War." Carter cited the 2011 U.S. operation that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and last year's killing of Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansur. Airstrikes Under Obama, the military, as well as the Central Intelligence Agency, drastically ramped up the use of drones to carry out attacks against terrorists. Carter said the military's unmanned aircraft pilots now outnumber its pilots in manned aircraft. But those increased airstrikes came with concerns about who was being hit and how the strikes were being approved. Carter's memo talks about efforts to promote transparency in U.S. military actions, including the release of reports about civilian casualties and discussing the legal and policy bases for certain actions. The White House has released reports about the number of civilians killed in its airstrikes, but those were met by criticism from outside groups whose estimates were far higher than the official totals. The Obama administration also released an 18-page document last year about the decisions for targeting of terrorists in drone strikes and safeguards for preventing civilian casualties. Cultural changes at Pentagon Carter's document touched on cultural changes within the military during the past eight years. He said the Pentagon has shown a "renewed resolve" to prevent soldier suicides, and prioritized eradicating sexual harassment. He pointed to Obama's decision to end the military's policy against gay service members serving openly and to end the ban on transgender service members. Obama also opened all military positions to women. The outgoing Pentagon chief directed some criticism at Congress, saying his department became smaller and more capable while dealing with hundreds of billions of dollars in reductions stemming from a 2011 budget battle. Carter said the military faced "significant impediments presented by Congress" that included efforts to micromanage the Defense Department. The leader of a militant group in the Philippines suspected of sympathizing with Islamic State was killed Thursday in a shootout with police. Police said Mohammad Jaafar Maguid, founder of a group known as Ansarul Khilafa Philippines, was shot at a beach resort on the southern island of Mindanao. Regional police chief Cedric Train said Maguid's group carried out bomb attacks that killed people at festivals, including a grenade blast that killed a police officer. The Indonesia-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict said the group was behind an attack that claimed the lives of two civilians in Mindanao in 2008, as well as a series of other crimes. Train said the militant group has flown Islamic State flags in their camps and Maguid, along with other local militant group leaders, appeared in a video circulated last year, pledging allegiance to IS. Interior Secretary Ismael Sueno warned of violent revenge attacks. "They might retaliate so we have to double our preparations," he said, noting that large Catholic festivals are scheduled in the Philippines later this month. Under mounting pressure to free convicts as a last act, President Barack Obama is planning at least one more batch of pardons and commutations before leaving office in two weeks, but don't expect many famous offenders to make the list. The list of bold names appealing to Obama for compassion in his final weeks includes accused leaker Chelsea Manning, former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, and supporters of Edward Snowden, to name a few. Yet White House officials say Obama's final grants are expected to remain focused on the nonviolent drug offenders he's sought to help during his second term. That's a contrast with former presidents like Bill Clinton, who ignited a major controversy with a last-minute pardon for fugitive financier Marc Rich, the ex-husband of a major Democratic fundraiser. But Obama has viewed clemency as a tool to promote policy goals, not to "clean out the barn'' on his way out, said the officials, who requested anonymity to discuss internal White House deliberations. "The process that I put in place is not going to vary'' at the end, Obama said in August. He said he'd make the calls ``based on the merits, as opposed to political considerations.'' Presidents have two clemency options: commutations, which reduce sentences being served but don't erase convictions, and pardons, which generally restore civil rights like voting often after a sentence has been served. Earlier in his presidency, Obama was unsatisfied with the cases he was receiving, officials said, and so in a 2014 initiative the Justice Department created specific criteria focusing on nonviolent individuals like drug offenders who have served 10 years and, if convicted under today's more lenient sentencing guidelines, would have received shorter sentences. All told, Obama has granted 1,176 commutations and 148 pardons fewer pardons than some presidents, but more commutations than any other, the White House said. Obama's goal in taking on the commutations project was to spur action in Congress on a criminal justice overhaul. That seemed initially promising, but the momentum petered out. "It's politically risky. You commute somebody and they commit a crime, and the politics of it are tough,'' Obama has said. Some commutation recipients have had firearms violations related to their drug crimes. A handful were unrelated to Obama's criminal justice push but received clemency as part of diplomatic deals with Iran and Cuba. The more recent batches have included some that met the spirit but not the letter of Obama's guidelines, such as people who have served eight or nine years, but not 10. Mary Price of the advocacy group Families against Mandatory Minimums said Obama's commutations had increased awareness about decades-long sentences for drug crimes. "I think that that's very positive,'' Price said, though she added she would have liked even more. But Obama has also been criticized for being too lenient including by President-elect Donald Trump, who has accused the president of putting "bad dudes'' on the street and warned Americans, "Sleep tight, folks.'' Steve Cook, the National Association of Assistant United States Attorneys president, faulted Obama for feeding the perception that federal prisons are "full of low-level, nonviolent offenders.'' He said Obama was eroding prison's deterrent effect by granting clemency to people with multiple felony convictions and firearms charges. "When you grant somebody like that clemency, you're sending a message to the entire drug trafficking world,'' Cook said. There will be a backlog of applicants when Obama leaves office, officials said, just as a backlog awaited Obama. But most whose cases won't be resolved are people convicted of serious crimes like murder. Rather than expend limited resources issuing formal denials, the administration focused on approving those eligible under Obama's guidelines. A look at the higher-profile cases vying for last-minute clemency: Edward Snowden The former National Security Agency contractor took secret documents and leaked them, revealing massive post-9/11 domestic surveillance programs in the U.S. government. He fled to Hong Kong, then Russia, to avoid prosecution, and a recent congressional report said Snowden remains in contact with Russian intelligence services. Snowden hasn't formally petitioned for a pardon, the Justice Department said, but his supporters and the American Civil Liberties Union have been calling for one. Yet Obama takes a dim view on Snowden. He told the German newspaper Der Spiegel last month he was disinclined to consider a pardon request until Snowden returns to the U.S. to face charges. Rod Blagojevich The former governor of Illinois has petitioned Obama for a commutation of his 14-year sentence, being served at a minimum-security federal prison in Colorado. But it's unlikely that Obama would grant it, given Blagojevich's involvement in an effort to trade an appointment to Obama's former Senate seat for campaign cash. Chelsea Manning The ACLU and LGBT groups have lobbied Obama to commute Manning's sentence. The transgender soldier leaked classified government and military documents to WikiLeaks, and has since tried to commit suicide at least twice. Manning is serving a 35-year sentence, at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas. Bowe Bergdahl The U.S. Army sergeant could garner some sympathy from Obama, given that an Army Sanity Board Evaluation concluded that Bergdahl suffered from schizotypal personality disorder when he left his post in Afghanistan in 2009. Obama hasn't commented in detail on Bergdahl, who has said he left his post to alert higher-ups to problems with his unit and faces desertion and misbehavior charges. Bergdahl was captured and held by the Taliban and its allies for five years. Two soldiers who went searching were seriously wounded. Obama exchanged Bergdahl in 2014 for five Taliban prisoners. Because of his military involvement, both the Justice Department and Defense Department must evaluate Bergdahl's pardon request. Scientists have been creating antibiotics to kill deadly bacteria for nearly 80 years. Unfortunately, the bacteria that cause disease can adapt so quickly, some have evolved into superbugs that are resistant to all antibiotics, and making new drugs is a long, expensive, involved process. Thats why scientists at the University of Colorados Biofrontiers Institute are looking beyond biologically-based medicine. Theyre developing an antibiotic that they can update with the click of a keyboard. Quantum dots In a high-tech lab at the University of Colorado, Anushree Chatterjee wears safety goggles and purple gloves as she carefully reaches into a sterile container to examine Petri dishes that hold some of the worlds most dangerous microbes: disease-causing superbugs that are hard to stop with traditional drugs. They were resistant to, in some cases, more than 20 different antibiotics," she explained. "They can actually live in pretty high levels of antibiotics. Not only can they survive but they can actually thrive in the presence of antibiotics. It takes years to develop traditional, biologically based antibiotics to fight them. Chatterjees husband and colleague, Prashant Nagpal, says that in the meantime, were losing the race against superbugs. But he had an idea: "Lets develop a system that adapts, if not faster, then at least at the same rate as the microbes do. To reach this goal, Nagpals lab analyzes the DNA of superbugs, then creates a highly targeted antibiotic, not in years, but in just a few days. He does this by making the antibiotics out of quantum dots - tiny semiconductor particles. "Anytime we think of semiconductors," he says with a laugh, "we always think, oh, its going to end up in a camera, or on top of our rooftops. What we've shown here, is you could use the same semiconductors, shrink them down and put them inside cells. Each quantum dot is 20,000 times smaller than a living cell. When millions are mixed with water, ultraviolet light reveals different varieties that glow in beautiful colors of yellow, orange and green. For stopping a superbug, Nagpal says a tube as small as a thimble can pack a mighty punch. And if the superbugs adapt quickly, researchers can quickly change the next round of quantum dots. One of the exciting things about this therapy is we have these tiny little quantum dots, but if you start taking one atom off the surface or add one more, its going to change the radicals it potentially forms, it changes its potential," Nagpal said. "So if the bugs adapt to this particular free radical, we have a lot more options. We can change the composition. . . we can change the size, we can change the shape of these dots. Tiny light-activated missiles Once inside a body, the dots dont do anything until a beam of light touches them. Having a patient sit in a lighted room would be enough to activate the dots throughout the body. Or for a more targeted approach, Nagpal says doctors could administer the quantum dots in a dark room then target the light. He gives, as an example, infection close to the liver. "You could shine that light wand close the liver and [the dots] would be completely benign to the rest of the body. So weve thought about some of these questions, and we would love the opportunity to test their effect through clinical trials," Nagpal said. Once activated, Nagpal says the dots send out atom-sized free radicals specifically designed to damage the superbug theyve been programmed to kill. The dots make these minuscule missiles from something simple. They just use oxygen and water and they create these radical species that specifically harm the microbes, but are not harmful to our mammalian cells, our host, our human cells, he said. Chatterjee has tested the quantum dots on roundworms that usually succumb to superbugs. The quantum dots killed the deadly microbes without any harm to the worms. Thats where this therapeutic becomes extremely exciting," she says. "Because it turns out that this particular method can actually eliminate a large fraction of these very highly resistant clinical isolates. Chatterjee and Nagpal say that years of testing lie ahead before these quantum dots will be safe for human use. But their results so far make them hopeful that someday, their tiny semiconductor particles will help doctors keep up with the superbugs. A local worker for the International Committee of the Red Cross was shot dead in the northern Mali town of Gao late on Wednesday night, a spokesman for the aid organization and local residents said. "We are trying to confirm the details, but we can confirm the worker was killed," Saoure Barthelemi said on Thursday, without providing further details. The Malian man was not working at the time of the shooting and was visiting family, Barthelemi said. Kader Toure, a resident of Gao, said the worker had been shot by two men on a motorcycle late at night. He was taken to hospital where he died from his wounds, Toure said. Northern Mali has been beset by attacks over the past year from resurgent Islamist groups, including al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Gao - seized by Islamist militants in 2012 before French forces drove them out a year later - is considered the most secure town in northern Mali, with multiple U.N., French and Malian army checkpoints along main roads. Even in Gao, however, problems persist. A French aid worker was kidnapped there on Dec. 24, and in November the offices of the U.N. peacekeeping mission located next to the city's airport terminal were razed by a truck-bomb explosion. Rex Tillerson, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of state, won over Republicans during meetings at the U.S. Senate on Wednesday, but Democrats want more time to consider his record, especially his ties to Russia. Senator Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, described Tillerson as very much in the mainstream of U.S. foreign policy thinking. Tillerson, Exxon Mobil's former chairman and chief executive, drove the company's expansion in Russia and opposed sanctions imposed over its annexation of Crimea. McCain has concerns Many lawmakers, including Republicans, have expressed concerns about Tillerson's relationship with Moscow, given its differences with Washington not only over Ukraine but the civil war in Syria. Asked on Wednesday if he could support Tillerson, Republican Senator John McCain, a leading U.S. critic of Russia, told reporters: Sure. There's also a realistic scenario that pigs fly, the Houston Chronicle reported. U.S. intelligence officials have concluded that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help the Republican Trump. Corker, whose committee will conduct Tillerson's confirmation hearing, which is expected to start on January 11, told reporters he was comfortable Tillerson would lead a robust U.S. policy toward Russia. Cardin undecided Senator Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the foreign relations panel, said after his meeting with Tillerson that he had not reached any conclusion on him. We're just at the beginning of the process, Cardin told reporters after spending about an hour with the nominee. Tillerson did not speak to reporters. Russia and Tillerson's view of sanctions are expected to be a focus of Tillerson's confirmation hearing, which could last for two days next week. Democrats have called for a delay before Tillerson's hearing, given the complexity of his financial records and ties to Exxon after spending decades at the oil giant. Cardin said it was too soon to discuss Tillerson's agreement announced late on Tuesday to sever all ties to Exxon Mobil to comply with conflict-of-interest requirements. Coons 'encouraged' Senator Chris Coons, another Democrat on the foreign relations panel, said next week may be too soon for the hearing, given Republicans' plans to vote at the same time to repeal Democratic President Barack Obama's healthcare law. It strikes me as trying to get too many things done at the same time, he said. Coons said he was generally encouraged by some of Tillerson's answers during their 1-1/2-hour meeting but had not decided whether to support his nomination. Slovenia's government approved amendments to its law on foreigners Thursday to enable police to seal the country's borders to illegal migrants for a limited period if needed. The changes, expected to be ratified by parliament, are meant to prevent a repeat of a six-month-long flood of migrants across Slovenia that ended in March 2016, when several countries to its south closed the main Balkan migration route. Around 500,000 illegal migrants crossed Slovenia, the smallest country along the migration corridor, on their way to desired destinations in wealthier west European countries. Interior Minister Vesna Gyorkos Znidar said Slovenia would not be able to endure another migrant flow of that kind, especially as its northern neighbor Austria and other west European states were closing their doors to migrants. "The new legislation will be used only if migration would be endangering the public order and internal security of Slovenia," Znidar told a news conference. She said the government also decided to establish a special Office for Migration to coordinate policy on migrants. Amnesty International, in a statement, urged parliament to reject the legal changes as they "would deny refugees and asylum seekers the protections to which they are entitled under international and EU law." Znidar said the number of asylum requests in Slovenia had risen fivefold in the past year. In the first 11 months of 2016 Slovenia received 1,170 requests, of which 148 were approved, while about 230 requests were still being processed. A committee appointed by Sri Lanka's government has recommended that both local and international judges be appointed to the court that will investigate allegations of war crimes from the country's civil war. The U.N. high commissioner for human rights called for a hybrid court in 2015. Sri Lanka agreed to the participation of foreign judges, then backtracked. It now insists that local courts investigate the allegations. The civil war ended in 2009 when Sri Lanka's military crushed the Tamil Tiger rebels who had fought for an independent state for ethnic minority Tamils in the country's north and east. Both sides were accused of war crimes, particularly in the final months of fighting. The recommendation for a hybrid court was made in a report released this week by the Consultation Task Force on Reconciliation Mechanisms, which sought public views on the proposed mechanism for transitional justice and reconciliation. The court should have "a majority of national judges as well as a sufficient number of international judges" to ensure at least one foreign judge per bench in case of absences, the task force's report said. It also said foreigners should be part of the office of the Special Counsel of prosecutors and investigators and contribute technical assistance. Phasing out foreigners "International participation should be phased out once trust and confidence in domestic mechanism are established and when the required expertise and capacity has been built up, nationally," the executive summary of the report said. Task force member Gamini Viyangoda said the members were not aware of the government's next step on the recommendations. "But, we believe this report will pressure the government to take some positive steps, because this report contains the views of the people of this country," he told reporters Thursday. Sri Lanka has faced criticism for failing to properly investigate alleged human rights abuses amounting to war crimes during the final phase of the civil war. According to U.N. estimates, up to 100,000 people were killed in the 26-year war, but many more are feared dead, including up to 40,000 civilians in the final months of the fighting. Queen Silvia says one of the Swedish royal family's palaces is haunted - but the phantoms are pretty friendly. There are ghosts, many, Silvia says of the Drottningholm Palace in a documentary to be aired Thursday on public television channel SVT. You feel you get a little excited when talking about them, she adds, smilingly. Asked whether Sweden's longest-serving queen had experienced the ghosts herself, she replied of course. But they are friendly. Located on an island in Stockholm's archipelago, the royals' private residence was originally built in the late 16th century. Drottningholm Palace is listed on the UNESCO world heritage list, and has been the royal family's residence since 1981. Silvia, born in Germany as Silvia Renate Sommerlath, is married to King Carl XVI Gustaf, Sweden's ceremonial head of state. The pair met at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, and wed in 1976. The royal family, whose role is ceremonial, is hugely popular in Sweden and the monarchy enjoys widespread support despite the egalitarianism that otherwise characterizes society in the Nordic country. At least nine people were killed Thursday when a car bomb exploded in a coastal town in Syria the first such explosion reported since a new cease-fire was implemented last week, according to state media. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll in Jableh, a government stronghold, at 14. The cease-fire in Syria appeared fragile even before this attack as government forces escalated their offensive near the capital, Damascus, and a coalition of rebel groups said they would suspend their participation in preliminary peace talks set for later this month. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who was speaking with new Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in New York on Thursday, spoke to reporters on his way out of the United Nations. "Unfortunately, the violations continue in Syria. We have this understanding, we are the guarantor of this understanding, that both the regime and opposition signed," Cavusoglu said. "It seems there are different groups from [the] regime side violating the cease-fire. So we need to go to Astana and then to Geneva for the political process. "But for a political solution and genuine talks, we need to maintain this cessation of hostilities all over Syria," he said. Talks in Kazakhstan Negotiations are scheduled to be held in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, although the rebels indicated they were withdrawing because of what they said was the Syrian government's violation of the cease-fire agreement, which was reached on December 30. The peace talks are being organized by Russia, Iran and Turkey, which also played key roles in negotiating the cease-fire. The countries have yet to comment on the rebels' decision to suspend preliminary talks. Asked whether sanctions were possible over the cease-fire violations, Cavusoglu said they were considering what sanctions "any sides that violate the deal" should face. "There should be a sanction, actually. Otherwise, you cannot control this and you cannot go to the political talks in Astana or Geneva," he said. The cease-fire excludes extremist targets in the war-ravaged country, including rebel-held territory on the outskirts of Damascus. VOA's Margaret Besheer at the United Nations contributed to this report. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is attacking Japan's Toyota company, the world's biggest automaker, for its plan to build its Corolla model in Mexico and then sell the compact car in the United States. "NO WAY!" Trump said in a Twitter message Thursday. "Build plant in U.S. or pay big border tax." Trump's attack on Toyota came two days after he criticized the biggest U.S. automaker, General Motors, for its plan to build its Cruze compact cars in Mexico and then sell the vehicles in the United States. Both GM and Toyota can make their cars with cheaper labor in Mexico and then take advantage of Mexico's free trade agreements with 40 countries, including the U.S., to ship the cars to overseas dealers. Trump, who assumes power in 15 days, assailed U.S. trade deals during his lengthy presidential campaign, including the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement the U.S. has with Mexico and Canada. He says the trade deals have cost American workers their jobs. The president-elect has vowed to impose a 35 percent tariff on products U.S. companies make overseas and then send back to the United States for sales to American customers. But he would need congressional approval for the tariff and risks starting a trade war with other countries if a sharply higher levy is imposed and higher costs for American consumers buying foreign-made goods. Toyota says that starting in 2019 its new $1 billion plant in Guanajuato, Mexico, will produce about 200,000 Corolla compact cars a year for the North American market. It is the second-best-selling compact car in the U.S., with 360,000 sales last year trailing only those of Honda's Civic model. Toyota already builds the Corolla in the southern U.S. state of Mississippi and in Ontario, Canada, two of 15 manufacturing plants it operates in North America. Toyota president Akio Toyoda told reporters at a New Year's gathering Thursday that the company wants to grow employment in whatever countries it operates manufacturing plants, including the U.S. Toyoda said he "would like to closely watch various decisions" Trump makes, including whether he renegotiates the terms of the U.S. trade deal with Mexico and Canada. General Motors dismissed Trump's attack on it, saying that it already makes the vast majority of its Cruze models in the U.S. GM said it only expanded its operations at an existing Mexican plant because its Lordstown, Ohio operation in the U.S. industrial heartland was at full capacity and could not meet consumer demand for the car. Ford Motor, the No. 2 U.S. car maker, this week scrapped its plan for expanded Mexican manufacturing and said it would add 700 jobs in the United States. Since Russias forceful takeover of Crimea in 2014, both Moscow and NATO have deployed troops and weapons along old lines as tensions have grown to their highest since the end of the Cold War. Analysts warn the dangers of a military confrontation are growing. Russia has deployed nuclear-capable Iskander missiles to its westernmost exclave of Kaliningrad, which borders NATO members Poland and Lithuania. Moscows S-400 surface-to-air missile batteries have also been stationed along its western frontiers. The Kremlin has staged regular military exercises along its western flank. In response, NATO has put 300,000 troops on high alert and made so-called tripwire deployments in frontline states. Communication was largely severed following Russias invasion of Crimea and that raises the prospect of an accidental escalation, warns NATOs former information officer in Moscow, John Lough, now of the Chatham House research organization. It seems to me that it is actually very important to have mechanisms in place that allow the military establishments to communicate when needed. Both sides should see that there is the capacity here for some sort of accident, he said. NATO is deploying an extra 4,000 multinational troops to the Baltic states and Poland in the coming months. The core NATO principle of collective defense is being revitalized, said Lough. NATO is starting if you like from a low base in terms of rebuilding this defensive capability. Its not the sort of thing that happens overnight; but, I would argue that the evidence of political will here in fact is probably more important, he said. Donald Trumps victory in the November U.S. election has triggered uncertainty over the future commitment of NATOs primary force. The U.S. spent $66 billion on defense in 2016; second-placed Britain spent less than a tenth of that figure. President-elect Trump has questioned the U.S. financial burden and Russia analyst Sarah Lain of the Royal United Services Institute says Moscow is watching with interest. Collective defense has actually I think psychologically at least been a huge deterrent for Russia. Trump may change that calculation, if he certainly pledges not to come to NATO allies help in a situation of need if they havent paid their 2 percent defense spending, said Lain. President-elect Trumps praise for Russian leader Vladimir Putin has rattled Ukraine, which is battling pro-Kremlin rebels in the east. That will allow or embolden Russia to maybe test the boundaries of NATO and test the unity of NATO even further, she said. John Lough argues it is premature to assume that Trumps early overtures to Moscow will translate into improved relations that will last. There are going to be areas where they will disagree. The perception of Iran, for example, is one of them and I think that will come to the fore quickly, he said. Trump also faces divisions at home within his own Republican party. U.S. senators, including former presidential candidate John McCain, visited Estonia and Georgia recently to reassure them of U.S. support in the face of Russian aggression. Analysts say the rapid rearmament on both sides has raised the stakes and the new U.S. administration will likely herald yet more uncertainty in an increasingly tense environment. Arrow' invalidity declarations was rejected by Carr J While many of us were recovering from excessive helpings of turkey and Christmas pudding, a fascinating interim decision was handed down by Mr Justice Carr on 29 December in the biosimilars battle of Fujifilm Kyowa Kirin Biologics Co., Ltd and Others v AbbVie Biotechnology Limited [2016] EWHC 3383 (Ch) . This concerns AbbVie's latest attempt to avoid a UK trial on its dosage regime patents covering its Humira product, in the form of an application for summary judgment, and strike out for abuse of process. A previous attempt by AbbVie to avoid a trial in the UK concerning the utility of '' invalidity declarations was rejected by Carr J at first instance , as previously reported by the AmeriKat here . That earlier decision is currently under appeal (the appeal hearing took place on 28 and 29 November 2016, judgment has been reserved). Biosimilars battle: keeping Carr J busy What has changed to justify a further application? AbbVie has now taken the following steps to try and avoid the UK trial scheduled for 16 January 2017: 1. AbbVie has de-designated the UK from one of the two patents that forms the subject of the trial (the '044 patent - see details of patents in issue below); 2. It has 'disapproved the text' of the other patent in issue - leading to its revocation (the '322 patent); and 3. AbbVie has offered an undertaking not to obtain patent protection in the UK that would be infringed by the Claimants' product as a result of their dosage regimens for the indications specified in the declarations sought. In light of the above developments, the Court now had to consider whether there was a real prospect that the declarations of invalidity sought would serve a useful purpose. The answer from the Court is yes. This might seem counterintuitive in the abstract, but the Court's reasoning is firmly rooted in what it described as the "most unusual facts of this case". Background Sharp-eyed IP Kitten Fujifilm Kyowa Kirin Biologics (FKB) and Samsung Bioepsis and Biogen Idec (SB) issued separate proceedings in 2015 and 2016 to revoke two of AbbVie's dosage regime patents (EP UK 2,940,044 and EP UK 1,944, 322) in an attempt to clear the way for their proposed biosimilar product launches after the SPC on Humira expires in Oct 2018. [The sharp-eyed IP Kitten notes that the earlier decision of the Court concerned another of AbbVie's patents - the '656 patent, rather than the '044 patent. This is because the '656 patent was 'disapproved' and withdrawn by AbbVie after proceedings had been issued in the UK. The '656 patent was replaced by the '044 divisional patent which was granted on 16 November 2016, and which claims the same subject matter as the '656 patent. The Claimants' pleadings were amended accordingly]. It is worth noting that AbbVie has now applied for a fifth divisional patent, the contents of which are not yet known to FKB and SB as it has not yet been published. SJ: Would the declarations sought serve a useful purpose? The Court disagreed for a number of reasons which included the following: Although AbbVie has taken steps to avoid the UK trial, it has refused to submit to judgment or provide an acknowledgement in terms of the declarations of invalidity sought. This suggests that there is a useful purpose to the Claimants in obtaining the declarations; The declarations would serve a useful purpose in protecting the Claimants' supply chains to the UK and Europe. There was evidence that certain components for SB's product are to be sourced in parts of Europe. In addition, AbbVie's threats of worldwide litigation are likely to have a chilling effect on competition from biosimilars, including on third party suppliers; A useful purpose of the declarations is to provide clarity, including in the UK. In this respect, the undertakings offered by AbbVie are complex (and are currently in their fourth draft). Such clarity is necessary for the Claimants and third parties given AbbVie's conduct to date. The court acknowledged that there would be 'spin-off value' in a declaratory judgment from the UK Court on other European jurisdictions, but observed that had this been the only 'useful purpose' relied upon, the continuation of litigation may not have been proportionate. Strike out: abuse of process? Will the Arrow declarations hit the target? Carr J concluded that it would not be a disproportionate use of resources for the UK court to allow the January trial to proceed, and that it would not be unfair to AbbVie. There is a real prospect that the court will consider that the grant of the declarations will serve a useful purpose. The Court also noted that this is a case "where a great deal is at stake. The size of the UK market is huge." What next? It would appear to be full steam ahead. The trial of the first Fujifilm and Samsung actions are due to comence on 16 January 2017. A second trial concerning another of Abbvie's dosage regime patents is scheduled for June 2017. The IPKat will keep you updated. The dispute concerns the antibody adalimumab, marketed by AbbVie under the trade mark Humira. Humira is the highest selling prescription drug in the worl by global sales, with net sales in 2014 in excess of $12.5 billion. Humira is approved for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis and psoriasis. The dosage regimes for those indications include the administration of 40mg of adalimumab every other week as a single dose via subcutaneous injection. AbbVie has obtained or applied for a number of patents and divisionals for adalimumab which claim the use of this dosage regime.FKB and SB alleged that AbbVie's actions set out at 1-3 above are consistent with its well-established strategy of dragging out proceedings for as long as possible, causing maximum expense and inconvenience to its opponents, and then throwing in the towel just before its patents are scrutinised by the court, whilst covering the same subject matter with further divisionals. The Claimants referred to AbbVie's previous activities at the EPO to support this contention, and also relied upon statements made by AbbVie's CEO where he expressed an intention to seek injunctive relief to prevent 'at-risk' launches of products which are biosimilar to Humira. Carr J. considered that there is at least a good arguable case that the trial judge will accept that AbbVie's actions are part of the strategy outlined above.In its summary judgment application, AbbVie argued that there was no real prospect of the Court at trial exercising its discretion to grant the declarations sought in light of the changed factual circumstances. In essence, the Claimants have achieved the nullity and commercial purpose of thedeclarations sought in the proceedings in that they would have freedom to operate in the UK after October 2018. Further, AbbVie submitted that the English Court should not act as an advisory body for other Courts around Europe, which would be a disproportionate use of Court resources. Hawaii grandmother Teresa Shook wanted to share her outrage with other women the night after Donald Trump was elected president, but she had few options in her remote island community. So she went on Facebook and in a popular political group wrote the first thing that came to mind: I think we should march. Four weeks later, organizers credit Shook's quiet plea with igniting what could be the largest demonstration in the nation's capital related to a presidential election. More than 125,000 people from across the country have signed up to march in Washington on January 21, the day after Trump's inauguration in support of women's rights. Sister protests are planned in London and Frankfurt and online interest has grown to hundreds of thousands. "I didn't have a plan or a thought about what would happen," Shook told Reuters by phone from the island of Maui. "I just kept saying, I think we should march." After a bruising election campaign marked by Trump's comments on women, organizers say his presidency could threaten access to women's healthcare, erode protection against sexual violence and roll back aid to struggling mothers. "I was in such shock and disbelief that this type of sentiment could win," said Shook, a retired lawyer from Indiana with four grandchildren. "We had to let people know that is not who were are." Snowball effect Shook first floated the idea of a women's march in a private Facebook group, Pantsuit Nation, which became a widely popular discussion page for supporters of Trump's rival, Hillary Clinton. After getting a response to her post from a single woman in the chatroom, Shook said she created a private Facebook event page for the march and invited a few dozen online friends to join before going to sleep. Overnight, a link to Shook's event page was posted in Pantsuit Nation and possibly sent to similar groups. "When I woke up it had gone ballistic," Shook said. More than 300,000 people are now "interested" in the event on Facebook, including many of those who said they would participate. Women from across the United States contacted Shook and began to guide the effort. Supporters say they were galvanized by Trump's insults against high-profile women, as well as by fresh fears the U.S. Supreme Court ruling Roe v. Wade legalizing abortion could be at risk when Trump appoints the next Supreme Court justice. And they were outraged when a 2005 video surfaced in which he bragged about kissing women without permission and grabbing their genitals. Trump apologized for the comments. But the remarks opened wounds for assault victims, and they were followed by several women who accused him of sexually assaulting or harassing them. Trump denied the allegations. "Going through the whole election cycle was traumatizing for so many women," said one of the early organizers, Fontaine Pearson. "I think it politicized or woke up a lot of them." Beyond women While support for the march grew quickly, it also drew criticism for lacking diversity. Nearly all of the initial organizers were white. The name, which started as the "Million Women March," was bashed on social media for mirroring the title of a march in Philadelphia 20 years ago to empower black communities. In response, the name was changed to the "Women's March on Washington" and several veteran protest organizers working on behalf of minority groups were enlisted as national co-chairs. They included Tamika Mallory, who led a criminal justice reform march from New York to Washington last year. "Women of color needed to be included," Mallory said. Bernice King, whose father, Martin Luther King Jr., famously delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech in a march on Washington a half-century ago, encouraged women's march organizers in a phone call last week, the organizers said. The march's mission was also expanded to include concerns about racism, xenophobia, and the targeting of Muslims and gay people. The alt-right movement, which includes white supremacists and anti-Semites, has been emboldened by Trump winning the White House. The Southern Poverty Law Center reported a sharp spike in hate crimes following Trump's victory. 'Just about showing up' The protest route, security and speaker lineup are shaping up. Hotels in the Washington area have received calls from many prospective marchers, said Solomon Keene, president of the Hotel Association of Washington, D.C. "It's just about showing up," said Gretchen Kryss, 29, a trainee psychologist who is driving to the rally from Cleveland with her fiance and a group of friends. The only other similar demonstration in recent memory was at the first inauguration of George W. Bush in 2001, but the several thousand who turned up were focusing on the contested election, not the new president. This time, the focus appears to be Trump himself, said Mark Peterson, chair of the Department of Public Policy at the University of California, Los Angeles. Peterson, a Washington native who is an expert on politics and political campaigns, said logistical challenges, including heightened security during presidential inaugurations, could hamper the women's march. But the level of anger voiced by many women over Trump's comments, including calling a former Miss Universe "Miss Piggy" and saying women should face punishment for abortions, could drive the demonstration to success, he said. "My hope for this march is that for people who are scared, who are marginalized in America, will feel safer and know they have allies," said Lisa Fetterman, a 29-year-old San Francisco resident flying to Washington to march with her husband. Police conducted more raids Thursday in their hunt for the gunman that killed 39 people at an Istanbul nightclub, detaining several people at a housing complex in the citys outskirts, the state-run news agency reported. Anadolu Agency said gendarmerie police and special operations teams conducted raids in the Silivri district, detaining an undisclosed number of people from Chinas Muslim Uighur community. The report said that those rounded up were suspected of aiding and abetting the gunman. At least 39 other people, including 11 women, are in custody because of suspected links to the attack on Istanbuls upscale Reina nightclub during New Years celebrations. The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the massacre, saying it was in reprisal for Turkish military operations in northern Syria. Most of the victims of the attack were foreigners from the Middle East. Gunman identified The government says the gunman, who reportedly escaped in a taxi, has been identified but authorities havent revealed his name. Turkish media have widely published images of the suspect, including a selfie video filmed at Istanbuls Taksim Square. Sabah newspaper, which is close to the government, said the suspect is a Kyrgyz national who was born in 1988. Security has been tightened around Istanbul and at border crossings and airports to prevent him from leaving Turkey. Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus suggested in an interview with the Hurriyet Daily news newspaper and other sister publications that foreign intelligence services could be behind the attack, because of what he called the professional manner in which it was carried out. I am of the opinion that its not possible for the perpetrator to have carried out such an attack without any support. It seems like a secret service thing. All these things are being assessed, Hurriyet Daily News quoted Kurtulmus as saying in the interview published Thursday. About 20 suspects were detained Wednesday in a police operation in Izmir, western Turkey. Anadolu said the suspects are from the largely Muslim Russian republic of Dagestan, as well as members of Chinas Muslim Uighur minority and from Syria. They are thought to have lived with the gunman in an alleged IS cell house in the central Turkish city of Konya, the agency reported. About 20 children who were with the detainees were also taken to a police station. Turkish authorities detained more people Thursday in connection with the New Year's attack at an Istanbul nightclub that killed 39 people. The latest raids, reported by the state-run Anadolu news agency, happened on the outskirts of Istanbul. The report said police detained several people from China's Muslim Uighur community. Since the attack early Sunday, about 40 people have been detained, though none of them is the shooter, who is still at large. Officials said Wednesday they know the attacker's identity, but have not revealed it to the public. There have been images made public taken from a security camera and Turkish media widely showed a video they said was of the suspected shooter walking around Istanbul's Taksim square. The attack began with the gunman killing a police officer and a civilian outside the nightclub before going inside. There were about 600 people, many of them foreigners, in the club at the time. In addition to those killed, about 70 people were injured. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility, saying in part it was done in retaliation for Turkey's involvement in fighting the militants in Syria. A Turkish court on Thursday sentenced two military officers to life in prison for their alleged roles in last year's failed coup attempt. The verdict handed down in Erzurum, in eastern Turkey, was the first ruling related to the plot to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last July. Many more trials are expected in the coming months, in what is seen as the biggest legal process in Turkish history. Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency reported the two defendants, Staff Colonel Murat Kocak and Staff Major Murat Yilmaz, were convicted of violating the constitution while acting on orders from Turkish exile Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim imam who has been living in the United States for nearly two decades. The two former officers denied any involvement and asked to be acquitted. Separately, Turkish authorities broadened their hunt for alleged coup collaborators Thursday, reportedly detaining nearly 400 businessmen in connection with investigations of financial backing for the coup, reputedly in cooperation with the Gulen network. Among those detained were top executives of the Dogan Group, a major business conglomerate that has substantial news media holdings. Since July, Turkey's government has arrested 40,000 people and ousted more than 100,000 civil servants, teachers, judges and others believed to be linked to Gulen or involved in the plot to overthrow Erdogan. The government also has suspended all activities by hundreds of civic groups. At least 81 journalists are imprisoned in Turkey, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, and dozens of media outlets have been closed since the failed coup attempt. Critics, including Western governments and human rights organizations, have voiced concern that the purge has gone beyond the scope of those suspected of direct involvement in efforts to oust Erdogan, and is also targeting many organizations that oppose Erdogan's policies. Gulen, who came to the United States in 1999 and has since sought asylum, once was closely allied with Erdogan, but they split nearly 10 years ago. From his exile headquarters in the state of Pennsylvania, the 75-year-old imam has denied any involvement in the coup attempt. The Erdogan government has accused Gulen of multiple crimes, allegedly committed on his orders from afar, and has demanded his extradition. U.S. authorities have said they will consider Turkey's request when full evidence against Gulen is presented and evaluated. The U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee is to hold a briefing Thursday for members to learn more about the Obama administration's response to suspected Russian interference in the 2016 election and harassment of American diplomats. Committee chairman Senator John McCain on Wednesday called the Russian interference "an act of war." U.S. intelligence officials, including national intelligence director James Clapper, are expected to testify. "If you try to destroy the fundamentals of democracy, then you have destroyed a nation," McCain told reporters on Capitol Hill. "And by the way, there are various gradients of acts of war. I'm not saying it's an atomic attack. I'm just saying that when you attack a nation's fundamental structure, which they are doing, then it's an act of war." President Barack Obama hit back at Moscow last week with a set of sanctions targeting Russia's leading spy agencies, which the U.S. has accused of meddling in the presidential campaign. The administration also kicked out 35 Russian diplomats in response to what it said has been Russia's harassment of American envoys. Trumps skepticism Two days before he will receive a highly anticipated intelligence briefing, President-elect Donald Trump continued Wednesday to question the view that Russia meddled in the presidential election by hacking confidential information and leaking it selectively before Americans voted. In a series of tweets starting late Tuesday, Trump taunted the CIA, FBI and other agencies, suggesting they still don't have proof that Russia penetrated Democratic party computers and gave the documents to WikiLeaks. "The 'Intelligence' briefing on so-called 'Russian hacking' was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange!" Trump said. And then early Wednesday, after WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange appeared on Fox News denying the Russian government gave WikiLeaks stolen Democratic documents, Trump followed up: "Julian Assange said 'a 14-year-old could have hacked Podesta' - why was DNC so careless?" Trump was referring to thousands of emails and documents that hackers took from the computers of the Democratic National Committee and from Hillary Clinton campaign chief John Podesta, which were published by WikiLeaks in the weeks leading up to the November 8 presidential election. Some of the documents were embarrassing to the Clinton campaign, and analysts say they likely contributed to Trump's victory over the former secretary of state. The Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have both concluded that the Russian government was behind the hacking, and intentionally divulged the documents via WikiLeaks to disrupt the election. Another U.S. Senate committee, Foreign Relations, will hold a closed-door meeting on the same issue. Hacking report U.S. intelligence chiefs and Obama have pointed the finger at Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying no such operation could go on in Moscow without the highest level of approval. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a Trump critic, sharply questioned the president-elect's reliance on Assange. "I don't believe any American should give a whole lot of credibility to anything Julian Assange says," Graham said on Twitter. Later, he added, "Assange has a record of undermining the United States." A U.S. official confirmed to VOA on Wednesday that the intelligence community's review of potential foreign interference in the U.S. elections is now complete. The official also said Obama will be briefed about the matter Thursday, one day before Trump will receive the same briefing. Again via Twitter, Trump indicated Tuesday that he believed the intelligence briefing was delayed because the experts' review of "so-called 'Russian hacking'" was still in progress. However, a U.S. official told VOA on the condition of anonymity that, given the sensitivity about the president-elect's intelligence briefings, "there was no delay" in briefing him. Central Intelligence Agency chief John Brennan told the Public Broadcasting Service, "I would suggest to individuals that have not yet seen the report, who have not yet been briefed on it, that they wait and see what it is that the intelligence community is putting forward before they make those judgments. "He does receive routine intelligence briefings," the official added, indicating Trump was briefed Tuesday, although there might have been a "disconnect" regarding Trump's expectations for the briefing. Last week's statement by U.S. security officials expanded on the intelligence community's public assertion in October that Russia directed the hacks of U.S. officials and political organizations and the subsequent leaks of the material to websites like DCLeaks.com and WikiLeaks. The statement blamed the activity on Russian intelligence services and said it was "part of a decade-long campaign of cyber-enabled operations directed at the U.S. government and its citizens." The United Nations Security Council has condemned in the strongest terms Tuesdays killing of two Moroccan U.N. peacekeepers in the Central African Republic. The peacekeepers were accompanying fuel trucks about 60 kilometers west of the town of Obo when they were attacked by unknown assailants who fled into the bush. In a statement released Wednesday, the council said attacks targeting peacekeepers may constitute a war crime and stressed that those responsible for the attack shall be held accountable. The Central African Republic has been mired in chaos since 2013 when primarily Muslim rebels took control of the majority Christian nation and ousted then-President Francois Bozize. In December of that year, the U.N. dispatched about 13,000 peacekeepers to the country with the primary responsibility of protecting the population. U.N. sanctions monitors said last month that violence was spreading even though successful democratic elections were held last February. Many isolated regions of the country effectively remain outside the governments control. The Lords Resistance Army, a Ugandan rebel group, has been active for several years in the area around Obo, in the southeastern part of the country. Human Rights Watch said a new, armed group has killed at least 50 civilians as it attempts to gain control over parts of C.A.R.s northwestern region. The U.N. Security Council on Wednesday welcomed a political agreement in Congo calling for President Joseph Kabila to leave power after an election by the end of the year and urged swift implementation. The council said in a presidential statement that it was encouraged by the spirit of flexibility and compromise demonstrated by Congolese political leaders in reaching the agreement. Council members stressed the importance of the government and its partners taking all necessary steps to accelerate preparations for the elections without further delays, within the timeframe. Kabila, who became president in 2001 after his father's assassination, was constitutionally barred from seeking a new term after his term expired Dec. 19, 2016. But November elections were never held and a court ruled he could stay in power until a vote is held. His party said voting wasn't possible before mid-2018 for logistical reasons. The agreement to move up the election date was reached on New Year's Eve with mediation by Roman Catholic Church officials, following months of unrest sparked by Kabila's apparent attempt to stay in power. Dozens of people have died and the clashes threatened to further destabilize the vast Central African nation with a history of dictatorship and civil war. France's U.N. ambassador, Francois Delattre, who sponsored the Security Council resolution, said after the vote that it's a very important and positive move. Responding to reporters' questions before the vote over how the agreement can be implemented if Kabila reportedly has not yet signed it, Delattre said: If the Security Council is fully behind the text, we believe it will be a strong encouragement for every player to implement it. The council reiterated its commitment to support implementation of the agreement in close cooperation with the African Union. Council members also called on Congo's friends and economic development partners to support efforts to ensure establishment of sustainable peace and security in the country. The Security Council said it will follow Congo's respect for human rights, security conditions on the ground, and efforts to successfully conclude the electoral process, and to act accordingly. In South Korea the process for removing a democratically elected leader from office seems to be to impeach first and ask questions later. In early December the National Assembly voted overwhelmingly to impeach President Park Geun-hye on charges of abuse of power, bribery, and infringement of press freedom in connection with an alleged multi-million dollar influence peddling scandal. The impeachment motion also charges the president with negligence for the governments purported inept response to the 2014 Sewol ferry disaster that killed over 300 people, many of them school age children. However, the vote was held before a newly appointed independent counsel began its investigation into possible executive branch wrongdoings, and before a special legislative committee began holding televised hearings on the allegations of misconduct by the president. Both of these investigations are still underway. It is an upside down procedure. Approval of the impeachment motion itself has very important legal significance, but it is problematic that (the approval) was done politically, without clear facts, but with suspicions, said Lee In-ho, a professor of law at Chung-Ang University in Seoul. Court hearings Now it is up to the nine judges on the Constitutional Court to uphold the impeachment vote or reinstate Park, who has been suspended from office, but continues to live in the presidential Blue House. The judicial review process is being conducted as a trial where Park and her lawyers can mount her defense and prosecutors representing the National Assembly can make the case for her removal from office. To uphold the impeachment ruling, Professor Lee says, the Constitutional Court will require clear evidence the president committed a grave violation of constitutional law. Park is accused of colluding with her longtime friend, Choi Soon-sil, to force or bribe Korean conglomerates to donate over $65 million to two dubious foundations, and to turn a blind eye while Choi funneled some of the funds and lucrative side contracts to companies owned by herself and her friends. After the impeachment vote the president said she would plead her case before the Constitutional Court but she has refused to appear when called at the first two hearings this week. Professor Lee says the prosecution has been hampered by constitutional constraints that restrict the ability of the judicial and legislative branches to investigate the president or force her to testify in court. It is impossible to investigate the president in principle, but the prosecution can try to find, through its investigation procedure, how deep the president is involved. It is the important issue of the impeachment, but such evidences have not (yet) been presented, said Lee. Park recently met with reporters to deny the charges against her as fabrication and falsehood. She also claimed she has been totally framed, but said she could not elaborate as the matter is under investigation. The suspended president maintains that her support for the foundations were in the national interest, and insists she never personally benefited during her 18 years of public service. Prior to the impeachment vote the president offered three public apologies for not being aware that some of her close associates may have been involved in some wrongdoings. Rep. Kwon Seong-dong, who leads the National Assembly's judiciary committee, criticized Park for talking to the press while refusing to appear in court. On Thursday Park was represented in court by Lee Joong-hwan, a former prosecutor, and Kwon Sung-dong, a leader of the ruling Saenuri Party legislators on the parliamentary impeachment proceedings committee. Co-conspirators The president cannot be charged with a crime while in office but could be indicted if the impeachment is upheld. Justice Ministry prosecutors have named Park an accomplice of her friend Choi Soon-sil, who has been charged with abuse of authority, coercion and attempted fraud, and is currently in custody in a Seoul detention facility. On Thursday Choi was brought to the Seoul Central District Court to face the first hearing of her criminal trial. Choi told the court she is "facing much unfairness." Lee Kyung-jae, Choi's lawyer, denied the charges saying, "There is no truth in saying the accused (Choi) was involved in collecting funds for foundations from conglomerates." One of Parks aides faces similar charges and another has been indicted for leaking government secrets to Choi, who held no official position or security clearance. Both are still awaiting trial. Chois daughter Chung Yoo-ra is being held in custody in Denmark, as she tries to fight extradition to South Korea. Chung has not been charged but investigators want her to answer allegations that she received favors in the form of admission to a prestigious university and corporate funding for her equestrian Olympic training because of her mothers ties to the president. Race against time By not cooperating, Park and her defense team may be trying to delay the proceedings to take advantage of impending term limits for two justices that could deadlock the court. The nine member Constitutional Court must reach the required quorum of six justices voting to uphold the impeachment motion. However the term of the court's Chief Justice Park Han-chul ends in late January and a second Justice Lee Jung-mi ends his tenure in March. The Constitutional Court justices cannot be replaced until the impeachment issue is resolved. The impeachment trial can last up to 180 days but if it lingers into March there will be only seven justices left on the bench, but an impeachment ruling will still require six justices to vote to uphold. Public anger President Parks single five-year term ends in 2018 but she has lost virtually all public support due to the scandal. The weeks prior to the impeachment vote were marked by massive weekly protests across Korea. Parks approval rating dropped to just 4 percent and a recent poll found that 80 percent of South Koreans support her impeachment. If the court rejects the impeachment motion, it is expected that large-scale demonstrations would again erupt to force the president to resign. If the court upholds the impeachment vote, Park will be the first democratically elected South Korean president to be forced from office. In 2004, the National Assembly impeached then-president Roh Moo-hyun, but after 63 days of deliberation the court overturned the motion and returned Roh to power. Much of the public outrage over this scandal has been driven by the portrayal in the Korean media of Choi Soon-sil as a malevolent shaman who secretly controlled the naive Park, directing both presidential policies and subordinates without holding an official position in government. Parks relationship with Choi dates back to the 1970s, when Park's father, Park Chung-hee, ruled South Korea for 18 years after coming to power in a coup. Chois father, Choi Tae-min, a religious cult leader who founded a sect called the Eternal Life Church, became a mentor to Park while she was acting as first lady, after her mother was killed during an assassination attempt on Park Chung-hee. The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits dropped significantly last week, a sign of a robust job market. THE NUMBERS: Weekly requests for jobless aid fell 28,000 to a seasonally adjusted 235,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. That is barely above the 233,000 jobless claims achieved in late November, the lowest weekly total since 1973. The less volatile four-week moving average for claims fell 5,750 to 256,750. During the past 12 months, the number of people receiving benefits has tumbled 5 percent to 2.1 million. THE TAKEAWAY: This historically low level of applications for unemployment benefits suggests that employers are holding onto workers and likely looking to add jobs. Weekly claims have stayed below the critical threshold of 300,000 for 96 straight weeks, the longest streak since 1970. KEY DRIVERS: Employers see the economy as continuing its seven-year expansion into 2017. The stock market ended last year on a relatively strong note, while there are signs of greater consumer confidence among Republicans following Donald Trump's presidential victory. Employers are expected to add roughly 175,000 jobs in the government's December jobs report, which will be released Friday. This would mark a net monthly gain as the overall economy has added 2.25 million jobs over the past year. Worldwide natural disasters caused $175 billion in damages in 2016 the highest since 2012, according to German reinsurance giant Munich Re. The secondary insurance company's figure shows a nearly two-thirds increase in financial impact from the previous year, though the number of casualties caused by natural disasters was much lower than 2015, at 8,700 deaths compared to 25,400. The costliest natural disasters took place in Asia two earthquakes cost Japan $31 billion in losses, and flooding in China over the summer cost $20 billion. North America faced 160 natural disasters the highest number for the continent in a single year since 1980. The costliest and deadliest was Hurricane Matthew, which killed at least 550 in Haiti alone and caused $10 billion in damage. The United States and Canada also faced widespread wildfires and floods in 2016. A series of storms in Europe caused $6 billion in damage and also contributed to record flooding around the world. Floods accounted for 34 percent of all financial losses in 2016 an "exceptional" figure compared with the average of 21 percent over the last decade. "A look at the weather-related catastrophes of 2016 shows the potential effects of unchecked climate change," said Peter Hoeppe, head of Munich Re's Geo Risks research unit, though he specified that individual events cannot be directly attributed to climate change. Approximately 70 percent of the losses recorded by Munich Re were uninsured, the company said Wednesday. On Thursday 29th December last year Dehghan visited an exhibition named IRGCs power in construction. He said that by the end of the year the 50 best-laid plans in the national economy will be consigned to Khatam-al Anbiya Headquarter. A report by Shargh, a state-run newspaper, entitled everything about Khatam-al Anbiya Headquarter was published on Saturday 31st December 2016. It stated that Khatam-al Anbiya Headquarter is the largest private contractor in Iran. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the Mayor of Tehran, has a high position in Khatam-al Anbiya Headquarter and it is thought this is the reason for large construction jobs such as the building of bridges being given to sub-groups of the company such as Qaem, Nouh, Karbala and Kowsar. The report also emphasised that the companys economic activities commenced during Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjanis presidency. Activity in the company will not be limited to one area it takes big projects and micro-economic plans. Projects they will be involved with include the Sadr Highway in Tehran, Gatun Dam, the phases 15 and 16 of South Pars gas-condensate field and the highway project that connects the two holy shrines from Qom to Mashhad. The report claimed: Khatam-al Anbiya Headquarter is provided with special privileges such as tax exemptions that facilitate its economic activity. It has also power and permeability in governmental organizations and economic sections. With such dominance, the legal barriers will be removed and the projects will be channeled for Khatam-al Anbiya. In addition to that, unlike other economic actors, this headquarter does not endure any ordeal by monitoring bodies. It added: As the Supreme Audit Court of Iran stipulates, the General Inspection Office and other monitoring bodies (even the Intelligence Organization of IRGC) do not have the right to enter and inspect the activities of Khatam-al Anbiya Headquarter. The only authority that supervises the headquarter is the Intelligence Protection of IRGC which does not basically monitors the economic activities or it cannot have an audit or financial tracking in the performance of the headquarter. In such situation, the corruption is expected to grow. In about two weeks, Donald Trump will be sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. He faces a wide range of domestic issues, several of which were key in securing votes in swing states during the November election. Since then, however, President-elect Trump has ventured into diplomatic waters through his tweets. Once he takes office, Trump also will have to deal with a number of pressing global concerns. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may be the first to present a challenge to a newly-inaugurated President Trump, after Kim signaled that the North would conduct an intercontinental ballistic missile test. Its a weapon, when perfected, that could reach the continental United States. The EastWest Institutes Jonathan Miller says while many people carefully analyzed the nuances of outgoing President Barack Obamas messages, Trumps tweets should be viewed with broader strokes. My biggest concern, with regards to the Trump administrations policy on North Korea, says Miller, is that it needs to maintain solidarity with its allies, such as Japan and South Korea. So theres a concern that Trump might just go it alone and look for bilateral negotiations. Thats exactly what the North is looking for. Trump taking a call from Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen will also present some diplomatic challenges, since he has publicly questioned the longstanding tradition of honoring the One China policy. When Washington established ties with Beijing in 1979, it cut diplomatic relations with Taiwan, recognizing the communist-led Peoples Republic of China as the sole government of China, or one China. Miller, however, says, I also think the South China Sea is going to continue to be an area where the U.S. loses leverage. We even saw that in the final days of the Obama administration, so I think China is going to continue to press hard in the South China Sea. During the U.S. election season, territorial concerns in the South China Sea were not a major part of Trump's campaign. It is not clear how the incoming president will approach the issue once he takes office. The subject marks Asia's most expansive sovereignty disagreement involving six claimant governments. The United States is not among them. Each year, more than $5 trillion in trade passes through the South China Sea, which is filled with rich fishing grounds and believed to hold oil and natural gas. Moving forward, Miller says its important to focus on the interactions the incoming president has with other nations, since he expressed ideas in a transactional matter. It looks like he might engage with allies and partners in a bilateral perspective. Weve definitely seen that in a trade realm But we could potentially see this from a security perspective, too, said Miller, referring to regional multilateral organizations, like ASEAN, or trilateral meetings, such as the US-Japan-South Korea summits. How President Trump proceeds in that area towards Asia, is one factor Miller says to watch. African Union (AU) Commission chairperson, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, says African leaders should stop brutalizing people in their nations. In her 2017 message, Dlamini-Zuma said, Our governments and leadership are there to protect the vulnerable, to serve the people; not to be the cause of the peoples suffering and retrogression. Several successful elections were held in membersStates, and we congratulate the peoples and governments for their commitment at each election, ensuring smooth transitions, and moving a step further towards realizing the spirit and letter of the African Charter on Elections, Governance and Democracy. We urge member states with electoral disputes to respect the will of the people, abide by their national and international obligations, as well as resort to all non-violent and legal means in resolving electoral disputes. Dlamini-Zuma said the AUs top priority would be to focus on young people. As we begin 2017, the theme is Harnessing the Demographic Dividend through investment in Youth. The youth constitute over 70% of the African population and remain a critical part of our most precious resources. We look forward to working with regional economic communities, civil society, AU organs, member states and all partners in furthering the youth agenda. She added that in keeping true to the theme, the AU Commission is heading a focused End Child Marriage Campaign so as to ensure that the girl child is not diverted from attending school. She noted that the Special Envoy on Women, Peace and Security also embarked on a Stop Violence against Women in South Sudan Campaign in response to the violent atrocities committed against women and children in South Sudan in the background of an internal military conflict. We have repeatedly stated that Africa and the world cannot stand by and witness the suffering inflicted on the children, women, men and young people of South Sudan. Enough is enough. Africans deserve better, and we must all work towards better days, and towards peace, stability and development, not only in South Sudan, but also in Burundi, Central African Republic, The Gambia and others. Our people deserve peace & development. She said the AU remains committed to work with member states to ensure that lasting peace is restored under Agenda 2063 flagship project, Silencing the Guns by 2020. In 2017, Heads of States and Government will elect a new chairperson of the AU Commission at their 28th Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. For the first time, five candidates participated in a live televised Debate, termed MjadalaAfrika. It was organised by the AU Leadership Academy on December 9, 2016. Dlamini-Zuma said, It gave the African citizenry an opportunity to hear the plans of their would-be chairperson. This debate was unprecedented and a milestone our history. We hope we can have more debates of this nature, around critical issues, including employment, economy, migration and many more. An outbreak of typhoid in Zimbabwe's capital has killed two people and is affecting dozens more, raising fears that the southern African country's water and sanitation problems are far from over. Officials say that so far, 126 cases of typhoid have been confirmed in Harare since the start of the rainy season in Zimbabwe about two months ago. There are more than 1,000 other suspected cases nationwide. But Dr. Prosper Chonzi, who heads the Harare health department, said there was no need to panic. "What we are doing is to educate the public on awareness issues to do with typhoid what it is, how it is spread, how to avoid getting it," Chonzi said. "We are also discouraging people from consuming food from undesignated premises." Harare city crews, he added, were clearing blocked sewer pipes in Mbare township and trying to ensure supplies of fresh water in affected areas. Problems persist However, a visit to those and other parts of Harare on Wednesday told a different story. Faucets were dry, sewer water could be seen flowing, and some people were using water from open sources like lakes and rivers. Itai Rusike, executive director of the Community Working Group on Health, said President Robert Mugabe's government did not learn much from the 2008-09 rainy season, when an outbreak of cholera killed more than 4,000 people in Zimbabwe. "The fundamental health issues that were supposed to have been attended to from the earlier crisis have not been attended to," Rusike said. "Authorities are taking advantage of the outdated Public Health Act that we are using, enacted in 1924. Public health trends have changed [since then]. This is why you find that it is easier for the city of Harare to pollute our water bodies and pay the fine, [a] very small fine." The pollution he referred to is raw sewer water discharging into rivers, which some people rely on for daily use. Those using the contaminated river can easily contract waterborne diseases such as typhoid and cholera. Typhoid, an infectious bacterial fever, can be treated with antibiotics, but it still kills more than 220,000 people worldwide each year, according to an estimate from 2014 reported by the World Health Organization. Some journalists have described the late Zimbabwean journalist and novelist, William Bill Saidi, as a fearless writer and professional mentor. Veteran journalist Cris Chinaka said Zimbabwe and Africa have lost one of the best local journalists. Chinaka said Saidi was always willing to impart journalism skills and knowledge to upcoming and practicing journalists. Another Zimbabwean journalist, Columbus Mavhunga, who worked with Saidi at the Daily News and Media Institute of Southern Africa, said the late journalist and novelist will be greatly missed in the journalism fraternity. Foster Dongozi of the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists said, As a union we are deeply saddened by the death of the veteran journalist who has been in all manner of speaking seen it all in the industry and was a reservoir of knowledge and history pertaining to the media industry and that of the nationalist movement. Saidi (79), who died while visiting one of his relatives in Zambia, was once employed by the Zimbabwe Newspapers Group as editor of the Sunday News. He was also editor of the Daily News and worked for Horizon Magazine and several publications in Zimbabwe and other African nations. His published novels include The Hanging, Return of the Innocent, Day of The Baboons, Gwebedes Wars and The Brothers of Chatima Road and others. Photo-Illustration: Maya Robinson/Vulture Its almost fitting that in a year as wretched as 2016, the most consistently interesting, entertaining, and satisfying genre of cinema was horror. The years best scary movies provided an opportunity to work through collective fears, escape from the bleakness of the real world, and channel a national climate of fear and distrust. So 2017 has a lot to live up to, but fans looking for onscreen thrills already have plenty of titles to get excited about. Heres a rundown of the spookiest, scariest, and goriest movies were looking forward to this year, with an assist from Christian Parkes, co-founder of Beyond Fest; Tim League, founder of Fantastic Fest; Kier-La Janisse of Australias Monster Fest; and Charlie Reff, senior programmer for the Sundance Film Festival. (Note: Some of them recommended films are playing their own festivals, but we used our own editorial discretion in choosing which movies to spotlight.) Split (January 20) In the middle of his career, M. Night Shyamalan abandoned his horror roots and started making movies for kids The Last Airbender, After Earth that werent up to his previous standards. Its fine, everyone is allowed to go on a creative walkabout, but thankfully, Shyamalan returned to his roots with 2015s The Visit, which confirmed that the director had not lost his masterful puzzle-box brain. Split is his next thriller, and it follows a man (James McAvoy) whose head is full of competing split personalities, all of whom work in the service of a dark beast that forces them to abduct a trio of teens. The great thing about Shyamalan is that he always swings big, and trusts his imagination. Keep a close watch on the strange and intriguing young talent Anya Taylor-Joy, who broke out in The Witch last year and continues to take offbeat genre roles. A Cure for Wellness (February 17) Remember The Road to Wellville, the 1994 movie with Anthony Hopkins and Matthew Broderick about an early-20th-century health facility that put people through bizarre treatments to alleviate their (fake) illnesses? A Cure for Wellness looks a lot like that, but legitimately terrifying instead of incidentally so; if youve been unsure about what the movies first trailer is selling, those in the know assure us the film is indeed a straight-up horror movie. Its about a young company man (Dane DeHaan) sent to a strange retreat center in the Swiss Alps to retrieve his CEO, who has been holed up seeking treatment for a mysterious ailment. The place is, of course, not what it seems, and getting out turns out to be a lot harder than getting in. Wellness comes from Gore Verbinski, whos been busiest over the last decade making Pirates of the Caribbean movies. This looks a whole lot more twisted than those Disney outings, but charged up with the same grandeur and ambition that makes the directors later work so visually immersive. XX (February 17) When V/H/S became an unlikely little sensation a few years ago, it briefly catalyzed a renewed fervor for horror anthologies. By the time the sequel V/H/S: Viral came out and wasnt very good the enthusiasm had faded, but now, XX is here to, hopefully, breathe new life into the format. The four vignettes here come from The Invitations Karyn Kusama, Roxanne Benjamin, Jovanka Vuckovic, and Annie Clark (more famously known as rock goddess St. Vincent), and considering the dearth of opportunities for female directors, its extra heartening to see these four getting a special spotlight. I Dont Feel at Home in This World Anymore (February 24) This one sounds like a genre-bender. Ruth (Melanie Lynskey) is a woman in a serious personal rut; when she returns home one day to find her house burglarized, she decides shes had enough and sets out to retrieve her stolen property. Ruth teams up with her strange neighbor (Elijah Wood) to crack the case, with the pair eventually becoming embroiled in a sordid criminal adventure. The movies Sundance page describes it as a blood-soaked foray into a twisted moral universe, and with these two actors onboard it will surely provide the quirkiest of indie thrills. In Lynskey we trust. Get Out (February 24) Key & Peeles Jordan Peele makes his directorial debut with this horror film about a black man meeting his white girlfriends parents for the first time at their country home. Its all very awkward but well-intentioned until the boyfriend (Skins Daniel Kaluuya), starts recognizing the other people on the property and realizes theyre all missing persons. Peeles transition into horror feels like a natural one; in standout Key & Peele sketches like Make-A-Wish and Aerobics Meltdown, the duo was often at their best when they were at their weirdest and most disturbing. Logan (March 3) Yes, as in the Marvel Logan, the adamantium-infused superhero played by Hugh Jackman. This is not exactly a horror film, but two of our festival consultants who have seen the first 40 minutes of the movie say it is a downright bloodbath. Deadpool earned its R-rating with gleeful gore and an abundance of dirty jokes, but it sounds like Logan is going to get there with a level of violence ripped from the comic-book pages. The DC films have given dark superhero films a bad name; hopefully this one will be able to turn the subgenre around. Six blades up! Raw (March 10) With Raw, French director Julia Ducournau hasnt just made one of the best horror films of the year to come, shes also managed to make its best coming-of-age movie, too. Young Justine (Garance Marillier) is a first-year veterinary-school student following in the footsteps of the rest of her family. Unfortunately, despite being raised as a strict vegetarian, she soon realizes that shes got a taste for flesh all kinds of flesh. What comes next is a unique process of self-discovery, as the bookish Justine navigates sexual identity, party politics, drug culture, intimate friendships, sibling rivalry, academic challenges, and a deeper understanding of her role in her own family. Its an eminently modern take on a classic kind of tale, and writer/director Ducournau is at the start of a special career. Personal Shopper (March 10) The summary for Shopper sounds like the plot of a supernatural thriller: A young woman is overwhelmed by a mysterious spirit when she tries to communicate with the ghost of her dead brother. The intrigue comes in the reunion of filmmaker Olivier Assayas and Kristen Stewart, who starred in the directors understated and emotionally asphyxiating Clouds of Sils Maria in 2014. That movie balanced negative space with fraught confrontations between its lead characters; had any one of them been a few tics darker, Sils Maria would have made a fine, All About Evestyle horror flick. The French brand of angst seems to drape over Stewarts shoulders like an elegant Chanel jacket; shes onscreen for every tense moment of Personal Shopper, and shes rarely been better. The Belko Experiment (March 17) Are you ready for an adult Hunger Games? Or maybe Office Space meets Battle Royale? Belko finds a group of happy-go-lucky office workers whose day takes a turn for the horrible when their whole building locks down and a dispassionate voice comes over the intercom demanding that they murder each other. (As usual, everyones got secret chips in their heads that will kill them if they dont.) This looks like one for the gore hounds, but the best part of Belko Experiment is that it was directed by Greg McLean, who brought us Wolf Creek, and written by James Gunn as in Guardians of the Galaxys James Gunn. Alien: Covenant (May 19) Based on the first trailer for Covenant, Ridley Scott is stripping his sci-fi franchise back to its bones for the sixth installment of the Alien series. The crew of the spaceship Colony is on the hunt for a new paradise planet to call home, but what they find is yet another dark and terrifying world (there are a lot of those in the Alien universe) inhabited by the most perfect killing machines in the universe: the xenomorph. Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup, Demian Bichir, Jussie Smollett, James Franco, Guy Pearce, and Noomi Rapace star in this brutal-looking return to form from science fiction icon Ridley Scott. On desolate planets riddled with facehuggers, no one back on Earth can hear you scream. Suspiria (TBD) Remaking a classic is always dicey, especially when that classic comes from a legend like Dario Argento. But heres what makes a new Suspiria so compelling: Its being directed by Luca Guadagnino and co-stars Tilda Swinton. The two have collaborated twice before, on I Am Love and A Bigger Splash, two beautifully rendered character dramas. The two arent afraid to get weird together, and the fact that an Italian auteur is bringing new life to Argentos seminal work makes it feel like the project is in the right hands. Chloe Grace Moretz will star as the American ballerina at a prestigious German dance academy, and besides Swinton she will be joined by Mia Goth, Dakota Johnson, and even the original Argento ballerina from 1977, Jessica Harper. The film is being produced by Amazon Studios, which has recently demonstrated a commitment to beautiful, bold genre pictures like The Neon Demon and The Handmaiden. Maniac Cop (TBD) This one is only in the embryonic stages, but its still a very exciting prospect. Cop will be loosely based on a 1988 film of the same name, an exploitation movie about a killer dressed in a police uniform who goes on a killing spree throughout the streets of New York. From what producer Nicolas Winding Refn has indicated, the new version will serve as more of a commentary on the current sociopolitical climate. Its reported that Maniac will serve as the first movie in a new trilogy, and theres a wild alchemy going on with Refn producing, Ed Brubaker (Captain America: The Winter Soldier) writing, and frequent Jean-Claude Van Damme collaborator John Hyams directing. This thing seems like its going to be violent and crazy, and considering how horror films have served as a mirror for cultural fears over the decades, it will be interesting to watch the first wave of new movies directly tackling issues of police violence. Killing Ground (TBD) Making its international premiere at Sundance, Killing Ground should be setting you on edge already just because its Australian, and Australians are nuts with their horror. When a couple goes camping and finds a derelict tent with no occupants, its a bad sign. When that couple finds a distressed, lonely child wandering around in the woods, its a very bad sign. Horror films from the Land Down Under are known for their brutal thrillers (Wolf Creek, The Loved Ones, Wyrmwood), so if high intensity and stark violence is your game, keep an eye out for Killing Ground. Thoroughbred (TBD) The most exciting part of about Thoroughbred is the cast. Olivia Cooke (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl), Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch), and the dearly departed Anton Yelchin star in this movie about a pair of teenage girls who, in the process of rebuilding their estranged friendship, discover an affinity for killing. Being a teenager can be a horror show on its own, and being a teenage girl entangled in toxic friendship with another teenage girl is truly one of societys great natural terrors. Taylor-Joy and Cooke both have the stuff to play some seriously weird disaffected youths, and if their chemistry pops, this could be a wonderfully weird emotional journey with murder! Berlin Syndrome (TBD) Another Australian thriller. Teresa Palmer, coming off an excellent lead performance in the summer surprise Lights Out, stars in this movie about a woman who has a one-night stand with an alluring man and wakes up to find shes been locked in his apartment. Seeing Palmer in another claustrophobic thriller is an exciting proposition, and Berlin gets a special nod for its female director, Cate Shortland. Housewife (TBD) The bits and pieces of information available about Housewife are very exciting. For starters, its the first English-language feature from Turkish director Can Evrenol, who took audiences on a brief tour of hell in the well-received (and very fucked) Baskin from 2015. Second, Evrenol told Screen Daily that the new movie will continue to explore the themes of his previous work sexuality, family, social claustrophobia, and nightmares except this time, there will be a female lead, a a woman who starts to lose her grasp on reality 20 years after her mom killed her sister and father. If Baskin was his John Carpenter homage, Evrenol says, Housewife will be a nod to Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci. Its not definite that Housewife will land next year, but it would be a huge bonus if it does. A Dark Song (TBD) This small Irish film premiered at Fantastic Fest 2016 where it was incredibly well received, and it sounds like an eerie, disturbing foray into the horror of the occult. In the wilds of north Wales, a grieving woman hires an occultist, whose strange ritual will take six months to complete. The less known before going into this movie the better, so we wont disclose any more details here, but the ritual itself sounds incredibly freaky. The Girl With All the Gifts (TBD) This heartfelt zombie feature ran through the festival circuit in 2016, and is scheduled for mass consumption here in the States at the end of 2017. Like many thrillers about the undead, The Girl With All the Gifts takes place in a world where the infected have taken over the Earth, while those who are still able-bodied go on the run in hopes of surviving and rebuilding civilization. Where this movie sets itself apart is in its central relationship. A young infected girl named Melanie belongs to a rare crop of kids, flesh eaters who have maintained their consciousness, which are humanitys best chance at finding a cure to the zombie pandemic. When their containment facility is overrun, Melanie escapes with her teacher, and the two must survive in the wild with both the undead and the British military at their heels. Tense and rich and filled with empathy for every character onscreen, The Girl With All the Gifts is the best zombie movie you will see in 2017. Photo: Getty Images. Photo: Joe Scarnici/Getty Images for Fortune Since Sundancegoers wont be able to march on Washington, people in Park City have put together their own iteration of the demonstration protesting Donald Trumps inauguration. Chelsea Handler will lead the Womens March on Main, named for Park Citys Main Street. Sundance has always been a platform for change: not only for filmmakers and filmmaking, but also for big ideas for the future, Handler said in a release. If theres anything I learned in the last year, its that we need to be louder and stronger than ever about what we believe in, so I joined some incredible women from around the country to bring our voices together in the streets of Park City. The Womens March on Main will be an opportunity for the creative community and those in Utah to stand beside those in D.C. The event, which will be held during the festival, is not sponsored by Sundance nor a part of its programming. The organizers estimate the walk will be one of over 200 inauguration demonstrations. *Correction: This post originally said that the Womens March on Main is sponsored by the Sundance Film Festival. The demonstration is being organized independent of the festivals activities. Photo: Tom Hill/WireImage/Getty Images The prospect of a full-fledged Talking Heads reunion has been slim to none for fans of the American rockers ever since the band permanently disbanded in 1991. Despite a short performance for lucky attendees at the quartets Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2002, as well as members Jerry Harrison, Chris Frantz, and Tina Weymouth voicing their keen interest in a reunion, front man David Byrne has refused and consistently voiced his general disdain. However, in a new interview with The Creative Independent, Byrnes stance has softened somewhat on the subject, and he chose to weigh the pros and cons of a potential reunion without the interviewer even bringing up the topic. For those contemplating doing a little bit of what I do, that kind of variety of things, I would say you need to be ever-vigilant. For example, a Talking Heads reunion might be incredibly successful for a specific generation, or maybe for many generations, he explained. It would make me a lot of money and get a lot of attention. It would also probably be quite a number of steps backwards as far as being perceived as someone who does a lot of different things. Despite that relative ambiguity, Byrne ultimately still doesnt put on an optimistic front. I feel like I have to sacrifice something, whether its money or name recognition or whatever in order to be able to do a little bit more of what Id want to do, he said. In other words, you cant have it all. So a road to nowhere for now, unfortunately. Photo: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic Like Spider-Man and Deadpool, Marvels hero and antihero whose respective spindly gallantry and dark humor finally earned them a full-fledged buddy comic last year, Run the Jewels is an unusual pairing but also a natural fit. Since the late 90s, rapper/producer El-P has preached about terror behind closed doors and distrust for heads of state as a member of the New York indie luminaries Company Flow as well as in his solo work. Down in Georgia, Killer Mike has been a streetwise philosopher since debuting on Outkasts 2000 cut Snappin and Trappin telling an adversary, Our shit dont mix like yay and lukewarm water. Both were mutual acquaintances of Adult Swim and Williams Street Records Jason Demarco, who, sensing a kinship, introduced Mike to El. The two have scarcely worked apart since. Rap careers dont unfurl like this. Most dont end up in a new group in their third decade rapping, and they certainly dont earn their biggest accolades and audiences in the process. And yet, after three self-titled Run the Jewels releases, Killer Mike and El-P are selling out venues they never believed they could fill and soaking up adulation that eluded them early on. Its a happy second chapter for Mike, who has counted a few Southern rap giants as friends and collaborators but never quite received the glowing reception he deserved, and for El, whose landmark (but now defunct) rap label Definitive Jux often sufficed at the cost of his aspirations as a solo artist. Released just in time for Christmas, Run the Jewels 3 is the one that proves this union is as versatile as the music is volatile. Beats are both darkly sexy and cinematically foreboding, while the raps zip between smart gallows humor and deep personal reflection. The brew is strange enough to pull in everyone from X-rated rap aficionados Danny Brown and Trina to thoughtful rock front men like Tunde Adebimpe of TV on the Radio and Rage Against the Machines Zack de la Rocha. The record is heftier than its predecessors at no loss to Run the Jewels and Run the Jewels 2s sense of urgency. Its the rare rap sequel that might be better than the first entry; instead of closing out a trilogy without breaking anything, it points to all the crazy places the series can go in the next installment. I spoke to El-P on a rainy afternoon in Brooklyn about people whove mistaken his group for a side project and what it feels like to watch the spooky dystopian future hes been warning us about since 1999s Patriotism creep closer to our new reality. For a long time theres been a sense among rap fans that you and Mike are these serious doomsayer types, which is weird because youre hilarious on and off record. Is music your means of processing darkness in the world, or is comedy a way to cut through it? The thing that I love about Run the Jewels is that its given both of us an excuse to be both of those things. Thats the reason why I love doing this shit with Mike. We take being stupid just as seriously as we take being serious Ive always felt like even in my solo career there was a humor in it that was maybe missed to a degree because there was a lot of heavy shit involved as well. I couldnt tell if it was my fault or whatever the case was. I love the fact that were allowed to be both of these things, and I think thats the reason why were still interested and still invigorated by doing this shit together. We dont sit around in a bad mood all day. We sit around and get high and make jokes with each other. And thank fucking God thats reflected in the music. The answer to the question is that yeah, we use the music to get that shit out. If the heaviness that we can indulge in on some of the moments on these records was something that didnt have an outlet or was just lodged in your personality on a daily basis, youd pretty much be a miserable fuck. In conversational form, I cannot be the guy that wrote Thursday in the Danger Room. Its just too goddamn dark. I just cant do it. I have to be able to wake up and go about my day. If my mind were consumed by all the shit that I used the music as an outlet for, Id be truly fucked as a person. Another quality that sets you apart from a lot of new rap is that you make brutally uncompromising music thats at least in part about being stand-up guys and good boyfriends. Why does that feel rare? Isnt that weird? Our rebelliousness is somehow intertwined with trying to just be good dudes. I think about that sometimes. Like, Did I just make a fuckin really nasty-ass rap jam about being a good boyfriend? And does that make me boring, or did I somehow manage to pull off the impossible and make that sound cool? But, you know, thats the way we are, man. We are 41 years old. We are who we are. It takes you a long fuckin time to get comfortable with that and to know that. One of the distinct advantages to being where were at in our lives, and to being fuckin 41, is that were having this moment where were blowing up already having formed who we are. To some degree, theres a swagger and a rebelliousness in just simply fucking being sure of who you are. Me and Mike are on the same with that shit. It doesnt make us any less of an asshole. It doesnt make us any less silly. But the fact of the matter is Im not gonna put up a front for anybody. Our music is inspired by our lives, and Run the Jewels is so much like a family operation that it makes its way into it. When we tour together, our women will roll. Not the whole time, but theyll come through, and itll be a family thing. But yeah, its something Ive definitely thought about. How am I getting away with this? Do you think raps a little too obsessed with bad guys? I dont really think of it like that. I dont think theres anyone thats too obsessed. Were obsessed with bad guys. We look at ourselves as antiheroes. I think that more so than rap being obsessed with bad guys, I think that people are too confused about what goodness is. I think that people dont understand that goodness is just as grimy and just as fucked up as the opposite of that. And it has to be, in order to be competitive. In order for us to actually be humans, in order for us to fight for a bigger picture, we have to embrace the gritty, and we have to acknowledge the fact that our allies and the people with the same hearts as us are not gonna come in a predetermined package thats clean, that makes sense to everybody. I think that one of the ways that we all fuck ourselves is by demanding that not only do people do the right thing, but they also act the right way or say the right thing all the time. I think that thats false. Victories are won by embracing the fact that the filth and the dirt and the humor of goodness are just as valid as the pretense and the proper sort of intellectual mind frame. I like the fact that me and Mike can kinda be assholes and also be good at the same time when we write these lyrics. In our minds, were characters. In our minds, were the Blues Brothers. You like the Blues Brothers, right? Theyre fuckin assholes, but you like em I think youre doomed if you start trying to present yourself as anything more than someone thats trying to do the right thing. I think that people who put themselves up on a pedestal of integrity and moral high ground are making a huge mistake, especially when it comes to music and art. It doesnt leave a whole hell of a lot of room to indulge all the shit in your head. It doesnt leave a whole hell of a lot of room to write. I think that there are plenty of people who have gotten trapped into that mode in music, even, and in rap, who cant find their way out of it, who felt like they had something important to say but also forgot that they had something that wasnt important to say. Is that what happened to conscious rap? I think that its a typical trap that people can fall into, for sure. Jumping into the new album a bit, its striking because Ive always thought of Run the Jewels records as action movies, and thats a field where the third part doesnt always hold up. This new one is your longest album as a group, but it doesnt feel like a second of it is wasted. How do you keep refining and expanding? Thank you. Its funny because we have a friend in film. He writes, and hes a big supporter and a big friend. He forced us to give him the new record early, and what he said when he hit us back was, If the last one was a Tarantino film, this shit is a Christopher Nolan film. We started something, and it was growing, but we wanted it to grow in its natural pace. These days a lot of people expect artists to take some gigantic, shocking, surprising leap. Shock the world with their new approach Once Run the Jewels came through, and we kinda flexed a few other muscles that we hadnt at first, we were like, Man, we can really flesh this out and make this something that goes deeper and at the same time doesnt lose what we love about doing his Run the Jewels shit. We were a little bit nervous about putting a longer record out at first. When we looked at it, we were like, Shit, this is longer than anything wed ever done. Wed peaked at 32 or 34 minutes but this one was 51 minutes. At the end of the day, we were just like: (a) I think weve earned it, and (b) when we put it together, we didnt walk away feeling like that shit was too long. We didnt walk away feeling like, Oh man, I had to fast forward. And thats all you want as a producer and as someone making a record. You just want the record to feel like it flows from front to back You want people to feel like they dont want to skip; they need to listen to track two as much as they need to listen to track ten. Thats all I try and do. As a producer, Im hyperaware of that shit. If the record felt too long, I wouldve felt it as well. Im the biggest critic of the shit that we do. Im glad to hear you say that. It makes me feel great, cause its always a bit of a gamble. To jump off of what you said about wanting 3 to flow from front to back, it does, and Im wondering if thats a function of how long youve been doing what you do. No question. Yeah. Every record my entire career before that record is a rehearsal for this one. Thats how I look at music. I look at every record like, What have I learned? How far have I come? I spent a fuckload of time on this record on all these records. Me and Mike get together for concentrated periods of time, and we write. Then Mike goes away, and I sit there, and I chip away at that shit endlessly. Im a perfectionist, but Im also more confident in my skills as someone who can be a producer of a record than I ever have been, and that just comes with time. Ive fallen on my face. Ive made mistakes. Ive got plenty of records where I listen back and I think, I wouldntve done that. Every time you go into it, you get a little closer to being able to nail it down I love the art of the album. I love the idea that longform can be a real art in the same way that I dont think you want to read the chapters of a book out of order I try and do my best every time I do these records and Im fucking grateful that I even get the chance to do em. Coming back to the art of the album, I wanted to talk about the journey between the cover art from the first Run the Jewels album and the new one. In my mind, moving from the charred zombie flesh of the first two releases to solid gold on this one is a statement about permanence. We kinda felt like we had brought Run the Jewels, with this record, out of a cartoonish sort of vibe because everything was really big and over the top and explosive with Run the Jewels 2. We knew that this record was a little bit more internal. We knew that it was a bluer record, as Mike likes to say. He calls this our blue phase. So it kinda felt like we were bringing it into a human realm even further. The first one, there were these sorta zombie hands. The second one, they were bandaged up, and you could say maybe they were injured. Maybe they had been through something. Thats where some of the more emotional content started to come through, like Crown and Early. It signified a slight change for us. For the third one, we imagined that the bandages had come off, and, in some transformative metamorphosis, revealed to you that the idea of taking something someone else has run the jewels is a declaration, someone saying gimme that changed for us It sounds cheesy when you write it down, but you are the jewel. The jewels are something thats internal, theyre there within you, there to be mined. It reminds me of Iron Maiden, sort of. They have this zombie character, this guy named Eddie on every cover. Yeah! I was never an Iron Maiden fan, but I always loved those fuckin T-shirts. They have this one album called Powerslave thats got the blue and gold background. Its a 51-minute record also, and the one where they sorta expanded on some things. Wow! Thats crazy. I gotta peep that. Speaking of your Twitter, the other day you tweeted RTJ isnt a phase me and Killer Mike are going thru. This is our group. Do you feel like there are still people who think this thing is a lark? I think that there are. I started to see some people talk about us as though, Theyre wrapping up the story about Run the Jewels. You know what I mean? Here it is, this is the end of the trilogy. And we never said it was a trilogy. Quite frankly, we never said there were gonna be two records either. We just did it. But now we know. Now we really understand that this is what were doing. This is who we are. We took great pains to make sure that Run the Jewels was something that we can grow, to be something that we could both as men make our creative outlet and walk away from it not feeling like we compromised, that we were doing something that was even more special. I wanted to make that statement to people so they could get it out of their head that what they were writing about here was the the last chapter in a saga. I know its weird that we popped out of nowhere having had 15-year careers on our own. Its hard to completely think about us as a group, but thats what we became, and thats what we are. I wanted to put people at ease about that and let them know that this is not the end of the story. This is, in a way, just the beginning for us. So, are you thinking about future solo albums, or is that on hold for the time being? Honestly, man, Im not. It doesnt mean I wont do jams or Mike wont do jams or that there wont be projects down the line. But Im so thrilled by Run the Jewels right now, and its been so fun. Weve gotten it to the point where Im walking away from this shit feeling like I really was myself on this record. I really could say something from the heart on this record. So no, were not thinking like that at all. Were pretty psyched about Run the Jewels to be honest. Right now we feel like we released the album of our careers. We usually expect one from you every five years, and weve gotten three in the last three, so this is a good situation. I spent a long chunk of my career divesting my energy. I spent a long chunk of my career not fully concentrating on my music and doing other shit like running a record label and producing other peoples stuff. One of the things I realized once I was done with that part of my life is how prolific I can be when Im just doing what I love to do. So Ive been obsessed with making sure that Im constantly making music. There are a lot of people whove hit Mike and I up that are fans that are also saying, We also love what you do on your own, and I respect that, and I appreciate it, but were trying to find that place where were merging who we are. I started in Company Flow. This isnt my first shift. Being back in a group has been a joy. Mostly cause Im not to blame for the results fully. I can point at Mike, too. [Laughs.] This year feels a lot like a world that youve have been warning us about on record this whole time is coming true. Are you worried about the future? Fuck yeah, Im worried about the future. Id be a fuckin fool not to be. I think that were all in for a fight, and I dont really mean a physical fight, but that may be the case at some point someday Im ready for hands. I think that were all in for a spiritual fight, though. For sure. And for our part, for Run the Jewels part, I think the thing that we can contribute to that, if there is something we can contribute to that I dont wanna call it hope, but Ill at least call it an unwavering fuck you in the face of destruction. Thats the thing that I can be a part of. Yeah, man, it would be ridiculous for us to not be a little bit worried about whats going on. That being said, for a lot of people, including me Ive felt this dread pretty much my entire life. I think we live in a bit of a bubble here. And that bubbles popping. Everybodys like, Holy shit, things might not be fine if we turn the TV off. I dont doubt that were all having to confront the reality of who we are collectively in a bigger way than our coddled asses have ever had to. But there are a lot of fuckin people in this country who have existed under an iron fist for a long time and have been ignored. So, yeah, its not great. But I still truly believe that Darkness does not truly have sway. I think that its weak. I think that it has its moments. I think that it has its victories, but its in for a surprise. John Carpenters They Live. Photo: Universal Entertainment In a perfect world, maybe art could indeed speak for itself, but, what with white supremacy and neo-Nazism running around all footloose and fancy-free, its safe to say that such a presumption of good faith has gone the way of the dinosaurs. John Carpenter learned that lesson the excruciating way when he felt compelled to explain that no, his 1988 sci-fi thriller They Live is not an allegory for Jewish supremacy and the resistance that needs to be mounted against it. That theory comes from a small, but, of course, vocal segment of They Lives cult fandom that, below the movies surface-level plot about unrecognized aliens accumulating American wealth, sees clear support for the inexhaustible paranoia that Jewish people hide in plain sight and control society by hoarding wealth. As Gizmodo points out, the dark web has produced such ravings about They Lives supposed Jewish supremacy themes since at least 2008, with message boards proclaiming sentiments like, This is, by far, the best pro-white movie ever. (Sucks to suck, Song of the South.) Its no surprise, though, given the general Trumpism of the times, that the anti-Semitic reading of the film has built up support of late, enough to get the attention of John Carpenter, who wrote and directed the film. Taking to Twitter with a definitively non-Nazi treatise on the film, Carpenter denied any alleged white-supremacist overtones, instead confirming the popular reading of the film as a satire of Reaganomics and 80s greed. He wrote: THEY LIVE is about yuppies and unrestrained capitalism. It has nothing to do with Jewish control of the world, which is slander and a lie. Ah, well, given the basic decency and good sense of the people involved, that should settle things, right? Alas, the trolls-and-eggs contingent of Twitter immediately bombarded Carpenters mentions with tweets, memes, and other evidence of their theory. Oh, but for the simple days of reading too much into Westworld. THEY LIVE is about yuppies and unrestrained capitalism. It has nothing to do with Jewish control of the world, which is slander and a lie. John Carpenter (@TheHorrorMaster) January 4, 2017 Neither AFP nor other outlets that have reported on the dispute have given much detail on its geopolitical context, but in any event it is reasonable to regard the incident as an example of consistently difficult relations between Iran and its actual or prospective trading partners, during the new period of economic activity following the nuclear agreement between Iran and six world powers. The Turkmenistan dispute is a relatively minor one. But any newfound challenges to Irans international relations could have knock-on effects among Irans other wary partners, insofar as they could reinforce perceptions of Iranian belligerence or untrustworthiness. And of course, these perceptions are already promoted by non-economic matters including the increasingly visible Iranian interventions in regional conflicts beyond its borders. This apparent imperialism has created serious political and diplomatic strain between Turkey and Iran, even at a time when the two countries appeared to be expanding economic relations and generally putting aside longstanding differences. On Wednesday, Reuters reported that Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu had made public statements criticizing Iran for standing in the way of the enforcement of a ceasefire that had been negotiated for Syria after the conquest of Aleppo by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad. Cavusoglu specifically noted that Iran-backed Shiite militias had violated that ceasefire and were clearly not being reined in by Tehran. Turkey has long supported factions opposed to the Assad government and eventually joined a US-led coalition committed to fighting ISIL in Syria. But Turkeys criticism of Iran now seemingly threatens the cooperation between Tehran and Moscow, which are pro-Assad allies in the Syrian Civil War. Despite their shared backing of Assad, the two foreign governments have frequently been described as having separate and sometimes adverse interests. The post-Aleppo ceasefire seems to have gone a long way toward highlighting these differences, as Iran is undermining a ceasefire that Russia helped to negotiate and has guaranteed to uphold. If this situation does indeed diminish the partnership between Iran and Russia, it will not be the only recent loss of foreign clout for the Islamic Republic. On the other side of the world, Iran had reportedly enjoyed cooperative relations with Argentina under the government of former President Cristina Kirchner, in spite of the fact that Iran had been reliably implicated in a 1994 terrorist attack in Buenos Aires which killed 85 people. Near the end of Kirchners presidency, she became embroiled in scandal over accusations that her administration had helped to cover up Irans complicity in the attack, in order to retain favorable trade agreements involving Iranian oil and Argentine agricultural products. Kirchners policy of cooperation with Iran ended immediately after her successor took over the presidency. But whats more, Tablet reported on Wednesday that an Argentine appeals court had reopened the case against Kirchner over the alleged cover-up. The report also noted that a criminal investigation remained open regarding the apparent murder of Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who was found dead in his home the day before he was scheduled to present evidence of the conspiracy and the Iranian role in the bombing. The continued pursuit of Kirchner over these issues seems to demonstrate not only a reversal but a repudiation of the policies that Tablet described as privileging economic relationships over justice. Such developments may have a psychological effect on a range of other countries who face a similar choice between these two priorities at a time when Iran has been freed from economic sanctions but is still engaging in many objectionable behaviors including regional interference, anti-Western rhetoric, and crackdowns against domestic activists and persons with connections to Western countries. Human rights groups have accused those Western powers of focusing too narrowly on the preservation of the nuclear agreement and the pursuit of trade deals, thereby distracting attention away from human rights issues, including those affecting Western nationals. The tension between these priorities has arguably influenced the British response to the arrest last April of Iranian-British charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, and to her subsequent five-year sentence on unspecified national security charges. Her husband, Richard Ratcliffe has described her as a bargaining chip being used by extract economic concessions from the British government. He has also harshly criticized the UK for its consistent lack of action on the case. Zaghari-Ratcliffe attended a three-hour trial to appeal her sentence on Wednesday, according to the Evening Standard. But the report seems to imply dim prospects for a favorable outcome, considering that the trial remained shrouded in secrecy and was heavily attended by the hardline Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. Foreign pressure could theoretically help to counterbalance the organizations influence, but this does not appear to be present in the case, other than in the form statements from human rights groups and Zaghari-Ratcliffes independent advocates. But the apparent reticence could still diminish if further dealings with Iran begin to appear untenable, unfavorable, or both. To some extent, this appears to already be happening. One indicator of this is the decision by the UK oil giant BP to voluntarily withdraw from a list of companies pre-approved by the Iranian government for participation in new oil contracts. The decision was attributed primarily to concerns over more hawkish Western policies toward and barriers to trade with the Islamic Republic under the administration of incoming US President Donald Trump. L-R: Rita Moreno and Justina Machado in One Day at a Time. Photo: Michael Yarish / Netflix Even though it airs on a streaming service, Netflixs reimagining of Norman Lears One Day at a Time is close to a perfect example of old-school, all-things-to-all-people broadcasting: smart but not hifalutin, blunt but not crass, politically and culturally aware (often self-aware) but never academic or theoretical, and proudly old-fashioned in its methods. The 1975 Lear original was about a divorced, working-class white woman (Bonnie Franklin) raising her strong-willed children while navigating the emotional minefield of single life. The new incarnation, executive produced by the 94-year old Lear but overseen mainly by Gloria Calderon Kellett (iZombie) and Mike Royce (Men of a Certain Age), keeps the core concept but changes the details. The family here is very specifically Cuban-American; the mother (Justina Machados Penelope) is an Army veteran who served in Afghanistan and now works as a nurse, and her reasons for leaving her husband are much darker than they were in the original. The landlord, Schneider, is a reedy, urban hipster type (played by Todd Grinnell) who just got his five-year sobriety chip and wants to seem down with everyone in the family. The dialogue broaches topics that are specific to our current era: The pilot revolves around the sexual politics of a quinceanera, while a follow-up sees Penelope bonding with another female vet over their feelings of alienation, and arguing with her super-left-wing teenage daughter, Elena (Isabella Gomez), about whether they should buy a new (used) car or start taking public transportation to reduce the familys carbon footprint. And yet, the series still feels like comfort food. Thats because the newness of Penelope and her world is nestled within the tradition of the stage-bound, multi-camera, shot-before-a-live-audience comedy, as well as within the more specific Norman Lear tradition of creating major characters that represent distinct political viewpoints without denying their humanity, then pitting them against each other in verbal combat without giving up on the idealistic notion that theres common ground to be found somewhere if you look hard enough. The dialogue is 1970s community-theater broad, thick with declarations and denunciations, muttered asides and kiss-offs. And the various sides taken by the major players arent as monolithic as they initially seem. Theres a lot of chest puffing in the squabbles, and none of the characters are as entrenched in their viewpoints as they want others to believe. Given the choice between maintaining absolutist positions and amending them or folding outright in the name of family solidarity, they always go with the second option. Their practicality is rooted in the hard realities of class: This is a family that struggles to find stable ground in the new economy and often seems to be one or two paychecks ahead of ruin. I know were not rich, says Penelopes brand-conscious, spendaholic teenage son Alex (Marcel Ruiz), but are we poor? Were fine, his mother replies. Elenas battles with her religious and politically reactionary grandmother, Lydia, a Cuban immigrant played by Rita Moreno, are a consistent highlight. Theyre burnished mirrors of the showdowns that Rob Reiners Mike Stivic used to have with Archie Bunker on Lears All in the Family, and that Sherman Hemsleys George Jefferson used to have with his wife and kids on The Jeffersons. Morenos hilariously self-possessed acting is sure to turn her character into a folk hero of the right, just as Carroll OConnors did for Archie; you could say that she steals every scene shes in if it werent obvious that her co-stars are happy to hand them to her out of respect. Elena brags that using a bus for all her after-school errands took her outside her comfort zone and asks her grandmother, Whens the last time you did that? Lydia replies, When I moved here as a 15-year old girl without my family, and not-a speaking the language. Is that well ever gonna run dry? her granddaughter asks. Lydia waits a beat, then deadpans, They took our well. Also noteworthy is the way this One Day continues the 70s sitcom tradition of shifting between broad comedy and quietly despairing drama and back again. The revelations and anecdotes always come from psychology and personal history rather than from any evident desire on the part of the writers to unnerve or shock us, and such scenes always find a graceful way to climb down from that jagged emotional peak and return to lighthearted sitcom mode. The show also takes advantage of Netflixs all-at-once release model by filling the script with foreshadowing of plot twists and guest appearances to come, and these nearly always pay off, though not as you might expect. I should stop now because I dont want to seem like Im overselling the shows virtues. Suffice to say that this is the sort of series that makes difficult things seem easy, so easy that you often dont realize how artful it is until you think back on it. Up La La Land Is there really a La La Land backlash? According to Film Twitter, La La Land is a white-savior story that ignores gay people, and critics are wrong to like it. Here, though, is where I think most pundits are caught up in their own bubble: If you ask a 75-year-old Oscar voter what she thinks of La La Land, shes not going to mention some hot take on Slate, or act abashed for loving it shes just going to mark it down as her number one vote. All this online chatter is simply a reminder that La La Land remains the Best Picture front-runner, a weathervane contender attracting everyones lightning strike. Its peaking at the right time, too the film is tracking well in its expansion and is on a trajectory to likely clear $100 million, which would make it the highest-grossing Best Picture nominee so dont expect the buzz to die down anytime soon. The band in action. Despite significant backlash from the greater university community over the past few days, it has been confirmed that the Talladega College marching band will be performing at Donald Trumps presidential inauguration parade later this month. Talladega is a small historically black college in central Alabama, and the marching band called the Tornadoes has more than 200 student members. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the schools president, Billy Hawkins, announced the decision Thursday morning, calling it a teachable moment for both the band and the college as a whole, saying lessons students can learn from this experience cannot be taught in a classroom. We respect and appreciate how our students and alumni feel about our participation in this parade, Hawkins explained. As many of those who chose to participate in the parade have said, we feel the inauguration of a new president is not a political event but a civil ceremony celebrating the transfer of power. The marching band joins the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Americas Got Talent contestant Jackie Evancho, and the Rockettes in performing for the president-elect on January 20. Arnold Schoenberg was one of the most prominent and groundbreaking composers of the 20th century. He was a thoroughgoing Modernist known for his relentless experimentation with musical structure, key signatures and scale patterns, at one time or another eschewing pretty much every single convention when it came to music. Some of his works are difficult to understand or even to listen to. He himself seemed to understand this, commenting in 1928 that art is from the outset naturally not for the people. Over the course of the decades, other Modernists have said similar things, and this is certainly true for a good bit of their output. But I sometimes wonder if almost all art is a poor fit with todays culture. All serious art whether a Brahms symphony, Basquiat street art, a Stravinsky ballet or a Coleridge poem requires some level of understanding, patience and mental energy on the part of the spectator. The pop culture in which were immersed isnt like that at all. Intentionally the opposite, it traffics first and foremost in familiarity and marketable ease. My thoughts about this were triggered by a recent visit to Austin. As I always do when Im there, I picked up a copy of the citys venerable alternative newspaper, the Austin Chronicle, a weekly that began publication in 1981 and still provides a thorough accounting of the Austin art scene, particularly its music. When I lived there, the Chronicle gave its readers the clearest sense that something special was percolating in Austin, long before marketers turned the city into the Live Music Capital of the World. Perusing the Chronicle was the way to find out who was playing where, and the amount of coverage given to music and the arts convinced working musicians that this was a place they wanted to be. To get a mention in it was to feel as though youd arrived on the scene. The countrys first alternative newspaper was The Village Voice, established in 1955 in Greenwich Village in New York City by novelist Norman Mailer and two other writers, all of whom were convinced that the mainstream news outlets completely ignored most of the citys real artistic energy. In general, theres far more that goes on in any city than the local papers are able to cover, and thats even more true today in our age of shrinking newspapers. The widespread abandonment of arts coverage and many times the forced retirement of skilled journalists and critics whove been covering the arts and culture for decades now hardly warrants notice any more, even when it happens in major papers like The Wall Street Journal. As this trend continues, todays alternative newspapers play an even more important role in a citys art scene precisely because the arts are increasingly understood as some sort of unnecessary adjunct to everyday material concerns rather than being an elemental part of what constitutes a good life. All that isnt utilitarian in our culture today, whether in public schools or news broadcasts, becomes disposable, becomes alternative in a sense. This is the great power of alternative newspapers: They represent a different testimony of what could be important if materialism and utilitarianism werent so dominant in their power. While a regular alternative newspaper isnt a creator of a vibrant arts scene, its often the symptom of one. Right now, it could be that Waco is simply too small for a regular alternative weekly. It could also be that theres still not enough curiosity in our city about things that arent completely mainstream, which, as in many other cities, an art scene simply isnt. Amnesty International described the charges against Ebrahimi as ludicrous and explained that she was effectively being punished for using her imagination. But much more attention was focused on her case over the past two months as a result of the actions of her husband, Arash Sadeghi, who had been imprisoned ahead of her, on vague national security charges stemming from his peaceful human rights activism. Ebrahimis release on Tuesday finally prompted Sadeghi to end a hunger strike that had lasted a staggering 71 days. The judiciarys decision to end her detention may very well have saved his life. Some of Sadeghis supporters had emphasized that after more than two months of starvation, just a few hours delay in action could be the difference between life and death. Support for his protest became a top trending topic on Twitter at the start of this week, even though the social network is banned in Iran as part of the theocratic regimes strict control over social sentiment and the flow of information. The widespread use of Twitter appears to be one sign that that control is eroding in spite of a recent security crackdown of which Sadeghi and Ebrahimi are almost certainly a part. Another sign of that same trend is the fact that remarkable numbers of Iranian activists are still willing to risk arrest and violent reprisal by gathering in support of causes like the release of Golrokh Ebrahimi and the preservation of her husbands life. In all likelihood, the judiciarys action on Ebrahimis case was not motivated by concern for the life of Arash Sadeghi. Rather, it was presumably a response to the outcry from hundreds of activists who had gathered outside of Evin Prison on Monday, and more specifically to the regimes fear of another popular uprising like that which it dealt with in 2009 after the disputed reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Four years after the 2009 uprising was violently suppressed, the election of Hassan Rouhani was heralded by some as a victory for moderation and a partial vindication of that protest. But harsh critics of the Islamic Republic rejected this prospect, including various Western officials and Irans domestic resistance movements, chiefly the Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran. They tended to view Rouhani as an established regime insider and an unlikely agent of change. And more than three years later, the ongoing plight of the Iranian people and of political prisoners like Sadeghi and Ebrahimi gratifies their skepticism. Sadeghis hunger strike is a particularly attention-grabbing activist cause, but the protestors outside of Evin Prison were almost certainly responding to more than just his case. The Iranian people are keenly aware of the persistently criminal behavior of their own government. And more than that, the recent efforts of prominent activists have also made them more aware of the past crimes for which the regime has never been made to answer. Last summer, an audio recording from a former regime official brought to light new information about a 1988 incident in which as many as 30,000 political prisoners were hanged over the course of just a few months. The massacre, which sought to destroy the Peoples Mojahedin, had long been subject to a conspiracy of silence but has lately become a hot-button issue, discussed almost openly across society in spite of the threat of government reprisal. The activist community has done its part to keep focus on that topic, even as more recent political violence and unjust imprisonment is being added to the catalogue of headlines. For instance, PMOI activist Maryam Akbari Monfared has used her own seven-year imprisonment as a platform for challenging the clerical regime over the death of her siblings in the 1988 massacre. While serving a sentence for enmity against God through her membership in the dissident group, she has filed a formal complaint demanding investigation into the nearly three-decade old incident. According to the PMOIs parent organization the National Council of Resistance of Iran, several other political prisoners have followed suit. And their actions parallel those that the NCRI itself is taking on the global stage, urging the United Nations to establish a commission of inquiry into the 1988 massacre of political prisoners. This is only one way in which the international community can and should bring human rights issues into the forefront of its dealings with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Apart from the obvious fact that it is the right thing to do, the recent protest actions throughout Iran strongly suggest that such international activity has a high likelihood of being effective. Western powers and international human rights groups have large numbers of well-organized partners inside the Islamic Republic who are clearly eager for the support they need in taking on a repressive government. Acting virtually on their own, those domestic activists were able to compel a notably fearful regime to release one of its prominent political prisoners and to prevent the death of another. In the wake of that victory, it is inspirational to think of what else they could accomplish if they had the full support of the international community. The Blasian Asian 202 S. University Parks Drive / 254-640-2940 / On Facebook Hours: 11 a.m.-2 p.m. and 5-9 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. Price: $ (guide below) Takeout: Yes Alcohol: No On the menu: Cambodian dishes including jakak (grilled beef, pork or chicken on skewers), chicken curry, pad thai, fried rice, egg and spring rolls. Good to know: Customer favorites are the chicken curry and jakak combo plates. Restaurant origin: Owners Chavrat Chevy DuBose and her husband Mike DuBose found Cambodian cuisine lacking in Waco after moving here in 2015. Barnetts Public House 420 Franklin Ave. / 254-714-1356 / www.barnettspublichouse.com and also on Facebook Hours: 4-11 p.m. Tuesdays-Wednesdays; 4 p.m.-midnight Thursdays; 10:30 a.m.- 1 a.m. Fridays; 10 a.m.-1 a.m. Saturdays; and 10 a.m.- 8 p.m. Sundays. Closed Mondays. Price: $-$$ (guide below) Takeout: Yes Alcohol: Full bar with specialty cocktails, local craft beers. Wassail available through January. On the menu: Gourmet sausages served with flatbread, shrimp and jalapeno grits, cheese-based appetizers. Soups on Fridays. Weekend brunch features locally sourced specials, three versions of eggs Benedict, artisan breads. New menu debuting January will include street tacos, more vegetable offerings and lighter fare. Good to know: Four-course, four-cocktail prix fixe specialty dinner at 7 p.m. Fridays; reservations required. Fuzzys Taco Shop 215 S. University Parks Drive, Suite 107 / 254-732-1818 / www.fuzzystacoshop.com and also on Facebook Hours: 7 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 7 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday. Price: $-$$ (see guide below) Takeout: Yes Alcohol: Full bar On the menu: Baja-style Mexican food including fish tacos, burritos and nachos plus enchiladas and fajitas plates; salads; and all-day breakfast items including migas, huevos rancheros. Good to know: Indoor and outdoor patio seating with pet-friendly outdoor seating. Specialties include The Big Fuzz breakfast sandwich (two fried eggs, bacon, potatoes and jalepenos on teleras bread) and a Fuzzy Rita (peach margarita) Laurentiu and Casie Cernat and Mike and Sandy Sandlin opened the Waco location Nov. 4. Dunkin Donuts 1200 N. Valley Mills Drive / 254-732-0629 / dunkindonuts.com Hours: 5:30 a.m.- 10 p.m. daily. Price: $ Takeout: Yes Good to know: Extensive coffee offerings including espresso, cappuchino and latte; blended coffee drinks and cold brew. The Mad Hasher University Parks Drive at Franklin Avenue / 254-299-7971 / madhasherwaco.com / On Facebook, Twitter, Instagram Hours: 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Tuesdays-Wednesdays, 10 a.m.-midnight Thursdays-Saturdays. Price: $ (see guide) Takeout: Yes Alcohol: No On the menu: Breakfast hashes (basics of fried potatoes, meat and cheese, topped with fried eggs) with multiple optional toppings; and sandwiches (Cuban, two with breakfast sausage/ground sirloin patties, two jalapeno waffle sandwiches). Good to know: Vegetarian The Green Thumb hash is locally sourced. Candied bacon featured on some sandwiches. Waffle sandwiches have fillings of fried chicken and maple syrup or brisket with barbecue sauce. Restaurant origin: Owned by Jonya Williams of Rio Brazos Catering Company and opened by Williams and general manager Dean Covic in early September. Moroso Wood Fired Pizzeria 4700 Bosque Blvd. / 254-235-6000 / morosopizzeria.com / On Facebook, Instagram Hours: 11 a.m.- 2 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 5-9 p.m. Tuesdays-Wednesdays, 5-10 p.m. Thursdays and Saturdays, 5-11 p.m. Fridays. Price: $-$$ Takeout: Yes Alcohol: Yes Beer, imported and craft, and Italian wines On the menu: 13 types of Neapolitan pizza (dough from 00 flour, fresh yeast, sea salt and purified water; San Marzano tomatoes; cooked at very high temperature); appetizers including aranchini (fried ravioli balls), made-from-scratch meatballs, charcuterie board; salads; desserts including cannoli, risotta cheesecake and torta al cioccolato (flourless chocolate cake). Good to know: Tomatoes and flour are imported from Italy with Italian sausage custom-made in Texas. Pizza oven, dough mixer designed for neapolitan pizza. Many recipes are from owner Dan Morosos family. Restaurant origin: Dan Moroso trained in restaurant and hotel service before following a career as a television production and writer. He and his wife Robyn, a Baylor University graduate with family in Waco, moved to Waco after 17 years in Miami to set up their own restaurant. Guide: $ main dishes less than $10; $$ $10 to $20; $$$ more than $20. A jailed Iranian activist on hunger strike in protest at the detention of his writer wife has taken social media by storm. The hashtag #SaveArash topped Twitter trending on Friday as fellow Iranians and others showed solidarity with Arash Sadeghi, euronews reported . Amnesty International has issued an Urgent Action call, and criticized Tehran. The Iranian authorities are putting the life of imprisoned human-rights defender Arash Sadeghi at grave risk and should release him and his wife, Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee without further delay, they demanded. On December 31 Iranian authorities set $450,000 bail for the temporary release of Sadeghi and his wife. According to the couples lawyer, the bond for Iraee was delivered the next day. However, authorities delayed her release, citing bureaucratic procedures. After Sadeghis long hunger strike, with authorities hindering his access to medical aid, various reports indicate he is vomiting blood and experiencing severe respiratory, heart, kidney and gastrointestinal problems. Iranians have rallied outside Tehrans notorious Evin Prison for the past several days, marching and demanding Sadeghis release. Reports also indicate that Hossein Sadeghi, Arashs father, joined his sons struggle. [T]o support my son, I have started my hunger strike since Friday, December 3rd to protest against the authorities, he announced. A temporarily release on bail was arranged for Iraee, following international pressure, which prompted Sadeghi to end his hunger strike, who is currently serving a 19-year prison sentence on charges of conspiracy and propaganda against the state. He completely denies these allegations. Sadeghi was arrested by Iranian authorities for his political activities previously, twice in 2009 on July 9 and December 23 and again on May 5, 2014. His family was always able to provide the bail for his release. His last arrest was on October 2016, and he remains behind bars since then. Already criticized for its human rights violations, Iran is alleged to also have terrible prison conditions, with a large population of political prisoners. Many such detainees feel as if they have no other recourse but to launch hunger strikes, to legally challenge their unjust detentions. Unfortunately, the Wests appeasement policy approach and silence about human rights abuses allows so many dissidents to be unfairly imprisoned under appalling conditions. Another political prisoner serving a 15-year sentence, Maryam Akbari Monfared, has also raised serious concerns, as authorities continue to deny her access to medical care. In a call made from inside the prison, Monfared demanded that senior Iranian officials be held accountable for the summer 1988 massacre of over 30,000 political prisoners, mostly members and supporters of the opposition Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). She is facing reprisals after filing a formal complaint that seeks an official investigation into the mass killings of political prisoners, including her siblings, in the summer of 1988, Amnesty warned. Condemnation of Iran by the international community is necessary, so the regime understands that it must comply with international standards relative to dissent. Otherwise, Iran will continue pressuring political prisoners, believing that the international communitys silence and inaction gives them the freedom to do so. Home and auto sales continued to purr in November, but general spending and home construction took a nosedive, causing the Greater Waco Economic Index to decline for the month compared to Octobers all-time high, Amarillo-based economist Karr Ingham reported this week. A total of 180 homes changed hands in November, a 14 percent increase from the same month in 2015, and the year-to-date total remains well into record territory, up by nearly 5 percent compared to the first 11 months of last year, Ingham said. He prepares a monthly snapshot of local economic trends for the First National Bank of Central Texas and the Waco Tribune-Herald. He uses data dating to the year 2000 to track consumer spending, employment and construction. The raw index reached a record 124.2 in October but slipped to 123.8 in November, which still topped the 120.9 of November 2015. That marks the first month-to-month decline in 10 months and only the fifth since the current expansion began in earnest in February 2012, Ingham said in his summary. Retail spending in November, the month in which consumers typically start their holiday shopping, totaled $329 million, a 2.8 percent increase from November the previous year. Ingham called that respectable and said real taxable spending for the first 11 months of 2016 was up 2 percent from the same period in 2015, which in turn was up by 4.5 percent compared to the first 11 months of 2014. The cities for which sales tax is analyzed include Waco, Bellmead, Beverly Hills, Hewitt, Lacy Lakeview, Lorena, McGregor, Robinson, West and Woodway. Hewitt stands to see its sales tax revenue increase considerably with a new Wal-Mart superstore scheduled to open Jan. 25 at Interstate 35 and Sun Valley Boulevard. In related news, Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar reported Wednesday that state sales tax revenue totaled $2.44 billion in December, a 4.9 percent increase from December of 2015. A portion of sales taxes collected by local entities goes to the state, which refunds a percentage through monthly sales tax rebates. Sales tax revenue growth was led by collections from sectors driven by consumer spending retail trade and information services, Hegar said in a press release. Tax receipts from oil-and-natural-gas-related sectors continued to decline relative to the previous year. Sales tax revenue is the largest source of money for the state budget, accounting for 58 percent of all tax collections, according to the Comptrollers Office. Jobs added The local economy added 2,200 jobs during the 12 months through November. The Waco Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes McLennan and Falls counties, saw its jobless rate dip to 3.7 percent in November from 3.9 percent in October and 4 percent during the same month in 2015. On the negative side, the rate of employment growth slipped to 1.9 percent in November after averaging 2.2 percent per month through October. The continuing growth in home sales in Greater Waco has created upward pressure on the prices of those homes. The average price of a home sold during November was $181,208, which is 4.3 percent more than the $173,778 average a year earlier, according to Inghams findings. CoreLogic, a global company that specializes in analyzing real estate data, came out this week with its monthly Home Price Index. It reported that Waco home prices in November increased 10.3 percent compared to those in November a year earlier. Spokeswoman Lori Guyton said CoreLogic goes beyond calculating the prices of homes sold in a given month to create an average and uses its database to track the sales and price history of each piece of property that changes hands. Nationally, home prices increased 7.1 percent year-over-year through November, according to CoreLogic, and those in Texas increased 7.0 percent. The city of Waco issued 26 permits to build new homes in November, a 35 percent drop from the previous year, but 366 were issued during the first 11 months of the year, which was a 4.9 percent increase from the 349 issued during the same period a year earlier, Ingham said in his report. Scott Bland, president of the Heart of Texas Builders Association, said the one-month dip in securing permits should cause no alarm. New ordinance I still contend that builders with plans to place homes in Waco moved up their permitting to avoid the citys new ordinance related to home construction, Bland said, referring to new rules that became effective Oct. 1 and mandated the use of energy-saving materials and strategies that could add to the cost of new homes. They did everything they could to get their permits pulled in time to avoid those price increases, Bland said. November and December are typically slow months anyway, but this November was down from last year, in part because the local homebuilding market has been so hot. He said production builders including D.R. Horton have moved heavily into the Waco market. The next couple of years, I think home construction is just going to get bigger, Bland said. Baylor University has grown so much, and Waco and the Greater Waco Chamber have done a great job of getting industry to locate here. Waco has kind of become the sweet spot in the state. The more traffic congestion one sees in Austin, Dallas and Houston, the more people find our quality of life appealing. You can make people stay in traffic for three hours a day for just so long. Building permits Building permit activity for projects other than residential construction was off sharply for the third straight month. In fact, the last two months permit valuation totals were the lowest of the year and were down by 64 percent and 77 percent, respectively, year-over-year, Ingham said. That pulled the year-to-date total into negative territory for the first time in 2016, down by more than 13 percent compared to last year. Raw figures show building permits valued at $320 million were issued through the first 11 months, down from $370 million. Consumers continue to visit local vehicle dealerships in droves and make purchases when they get there. They paid $44 million for new and used cars and trucks in November, a month-over-month increase of more than 13 percent. For the year, automobile spending is up more than 8 percent, Ingham reported. Local lodging establishments continue to benefit from the popularity of attractions including Magnolia Market at the Silos, with revenues from the hotel and motel tax running $43 million through November, an increase of almost 16 percent from the same period in 2015. Friends and associates remembered Waco broadcaster and businessman M.N. Buddy Bostick, who died Wednesday at St. Catherines Center, as a pioneer for Central Texas broadcasting and a savvy businessman who balanced attention to costs with an eye to the future. He was 98. Bostick founded KWTX-TV in 1955 and grew the station from a fledgling independent to an established market leader, adding stations in Bryan, Sherman and Lafayette, Louisiana, over the years before selling to Gray Television Group in 1999. Bostick also was well-known in local banking, chartering American National Bank in 1982 with partner W.W. Callan and overseeing its growth to $370 million in assets by the time he stepped down as board chairman in 2012. Im not sure people fully understood how far ahead of the curve Mr. Bostick was in terms of radio and television broadcasting, said Mike Wright, vice president and CEO of KWTX-TV, in a statement late Wednesday. It is an honor to be entrusted with the operation that Buddy regarded as one of his most prized possessions. Born in 1918 on a farm near Moody, Bostick attended Baylor University, graduating with a fine arts degree in 1939 and moving on to radio jobs in Little Rock, Arkansas; Memphis, Tennessee; and Dallas before World War II intervened. His Army Air Corps experience instilled a love for flying that lasted much of his life. After the war, he set up shop in Waco, where radio station KWTX went on the air in 1946. Nine years later, Bostick saw an opportunity for a television station in Waco and convinced KWTX Broadcasting Co. shareholders to start one, even though radio rivals WACO and KANG, which had powerful Texas politician Lyndon Johnson behind its license, had the major networks locked up. Undaunted, the scrappy Bostick worked out a deal in which KANG gave up its network affiliation for a share of KWTX ownership. He later added KBTX-TV in Bryan-College station, KXII-TV in Sherman and KLFY-TV in Lafayette, Louisiana, while starting radio stations KWTX-FM and Victorias KNAL. Broadcasting trial live Under Bostick, KWTX-TV became the first station to broadcast a trial live, the 1955 murder trial of Harry Washburn, and one of the first two Texas stations to use portable color videotape cameras in 1975. KWTX made weather coverage a priority, becoming a local leader in weather radar, and its 1,600-foot broadcast tower in Moody was the tallest in the Southwest at the time. Coupled with the then- new circular-polarized transmission, KWTXs signal clarity and reach into Killeen and Temple made it a Central Texas fixture. He was an innovator and such a forward thinker, former KWTX executive and son-in-law Ray Deaver said. Deaver was with KWTX-TV for 36 years before his retirement in 2001 as president and general manager. Former KWTX, WFAA and Belo broadcaster Craig Harper credits Bostick with inspiring him to go into broadcasting, starting with allowing him permission to watch the stations studio in action as a 9-year-old boy. Harper later worked for eight years as KWTXs maintenance engineer and returned in 1997 after seven years with Dallas WFAA and Belo Broadcasting for a nine-month stint as KWTX vice president of operations. Mr. Bostick was still mentoring me at that time, he said. Bostick combined a sense of responsibility to viewers and shareholders with practical advice on running a business and managing personnel. Buddy was a wheeler-dealer. He knew what to do and when to do it, said Harper, now a national manager with Sony Faith. He used to tell me, Be very proud of the fact that youre called a broadcaster. . . . I was very fortunate Mr. Bostick took a liking to me and mentored me in a lot of ways. Bostick stepped down as KWTX Broadcasting board chairman in 1999 but continued to leave a mark in Waco banking circles, serving as American Banks board chairman for 30 years before his retirement in 2012. He oversaw American Banks iconic round building in Bellmead and then the construction of American Plaza, the banks current location and the home to Bostick and his wife, Virginia, for nearly 30 years. American Bank President and CEO David Hicks remembered Bostick as one focused on process as well as result. Bank chairman As bank chairman, he was not a hands-on banker, but more a representative of the shareholders. He demanded strong processes, well-thought-out action plans and committees, Hicks said. Many of his oversight processes are still in place today. . . . He definitely was frugal but was usually agreeable when he thought the bankers had thought out something well. He evaluated your thought process. I learned that from him. Bostick will be buried in a private ceremony in Moody Cemetery. His wife died in 2014. He is survived by his daughters, Ellen Deaver and Martha Phipps. Grandchildren are Waco Mayor Kyle Deaver, John Deaver, Jenny Powers and J.B. Phipps. He also has six great-grandchildren. The family requests any memorials be made to a charity of ones choosing. Chip Gaines admits he and his wife, Joanna, suffered a few insecurities about placing a housing subdivision in the heart of Waco and not in the exploding areas of Hewitt and China Spring. But Bill Falco, Wacos planning director, said the city wants developers to take on the sometimes difficult task of building on vacant land tucked away here and there, in a process he described as infill. Another local builder, Steve Sorrells, is progressing with an inner-city subdivision called Cameron Heights. He thinks young professionals will like the home prices and its proximity to a downtown experiencing a comeback. He said he admires the Gaineses and their Magnolia Villas, saying hes seeing more builders choose a central location instead of urban sprawl and smaller subdivisions instead of hundreds of housetops. Sure, we were nervous, Chip Gaines said about Magnolia Villas, but when we got our head around it, we thought it was the right move. And we believe it will be successful. The Gaineses own 36 lots on 6 acres just behind OakCrest Funeral Home at North 46th Street and Bosque Boulevard. They have sold eight lots, and six homes are under construction or have been completed. Work began on the subdivision this year, and the Gaineses hoped to sell 10 lots by December. If we sell two more by the end of the year, we will be right in line with projections, Chip Gaines said, adding he hopes to have the subdivision completely built out by 2013. Magnolia Villas is meant to appeal to empty-nesters and pre-nesters, Chip Gaines said, meaning mature couples whose children have moved away and young couples who dont yet have youngsters. Buyers can choose from 11 floor plans, and the Gaineses build the homes and oversee every phase of construction. The homes range from 1,500 to 2,000 square feet and sell for $150,000 to $200,000, including lot prices. Peggy Williams, 78, moved into her new home in Magnolia Villas earlier this week. She and her husband lived many years on a 41-acre ranch between Waco and Valley Mills, but now he is in a nursing home and she needs less space. She and a son, Waco attorney Dale Williams, found the answer on Bosque Boulevard. I like the fact its a gated community, and I love that they are maintaining my yard. I dont have to worry about that, Williams said. The kitchen is smaller than Im used to, but I dont cook that much anymore. The finishing touches . . . are so attractive. Williams still drives, and her home came with a two-car garage and a patio. City planner Falco said hes excited about Magnolia Villas and Cameron Heights. Weve always encouraged infill development, but havent had much success until the last five to 10 years, Falco said. I believe young people and empty-nesters are placing more emphasis on convenience and being close-in. Residents of Magnolia Villas, Falco said, have a short drive to the H-E-B grocery store at Bosque Boulevard and Wooded Acres Drive, the Target Greatland shopping center on Bosque and several restaurants. Falco said nearly all real estate ventures come with risk, but infill development probably carries more than others. To a certain extent, it is still a new trend. It is a pioneering effort, Falco said. The development must be right, in terms of quality, amenities and location. Most people who tackle them have done market testing. Falco said hes impressed with the approach the Gaineses took with Magnolia Villas. It is a gated community, but the houses face other homes in the area and entrances line up with the existing street system. It is an urban enclave of single-family homes, Falco said, but it is very much a part of the neighborhoood. Jim Moshinskie, manager and president of OakCrest Funeral Home, said the Gaineses have been good neighbors. They have communicated with us every step of the way, and everything they have told us they were going to do, they have done, Moshinskie said. The houses are cute, and I understand they are selling well. Preparing the property Gaines said he spent close to seven figures preparing the Magnolia Villas site for development. He had to cut streets, build curbs and gutters and install infrastructure to make water and sewer service available. The development includes a gazebo, sidewalks and green space. Chip began his career developing rental property near Baylor University, while Joanna managed her fathers Firestone dealership in Waco. They later formed Magnolia Homes, and Chip used his construction expertise and Joanna her eye for design to create a following for their custom homes and remodeling. And then we decided to take this plunge at 46th and Bosque, Chip Gaines said. Steve Sorrells, part of the Sorrells and Gunn homebuilding team, likes what hes seen of Magnolia Villas. Its a good development in an interesting location, said Sorrells, whose company has launched a multimillion-dollar infill project of its own called Cameron Heights at North Fourth Street and Bosque Boulevard. Construction of homes priced between $120,000 and $180,000 will begin in about 30 days. I think BRIC will become one of the biggest game-changers when it comes to living near downtown and the Brazos River. I can see someone coming home after work and taking a run along the water, Sorrells said. BRIC, short for the Baylor Research and Innovation Collaborative, is a plan by Baylor University, Texas State Technical College and local economic development groups to convert the former General Tire & Rubber Co. plant into a research center for students and industry. Industries wanting to tap into the discoveries at the center will have access to land adjacent to the complex, where they may build and create well-paying jobs. 757-5736 But what if the president-elect can save Syria from the calamity caused by the Obama administrations inattention without explicitly seeking to change the regime? Tanter asks. Pressuring countries with foreign fighters in Syria to get them to leave would be a good way to start. Aleppo is in the hands of the regime, so Russia has no incentive to support Assad, and may be amenable to a peaceful transition of power in Syria without him as president. According to Tanter, it is Islamic Republic of Iran who is desperate to retain Assad. This is part of Tehrans regional strategy since the Civil War began in 2011. Tanter says that Irans Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and Quds Special Force Commander Qassem Suleimani convinced Russia to remain directly involved in the conflict. Therefore, Tanter concludes, Tehran, more so than Moscow, is the problem in Syria. Irans desperation stems from its own lack of domestic legitimacy. The Iranian peoples opposition to the clerical regime makes it necessary for Tehran to extend its hand beyond its borders. The goal is to reinforce an image of indispensability, writes Tanter, who adds, The alternative would be to redirect IRGC assets toward the goal of eliminating the domestic opposition. But Tehran knows this policy is a nonstarter: It would result in even greater opposition to the regime. In 2009, the crackdown on demonstrators in Iran severely affected the support for the unelected ayatollahs who rule Iran. Members of the leading opposition group, the Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) were targeted, whose presence in Iran is growing, while the populace turn against the regime. Tanter writes about the Massacre 1988. The Supreme Leader ordered a fatwa, which resulted in the systematic executions of Iranian political prisoners, most of them affiliated with the MEK. Estimates a high as 30,000 people were hanged over the course of a summer. Still, the MEK survived the ordeal, and grows stronger. Today, the MEK is part of an international network, and is the leading constituent in the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). The MEK strongly supports the Syrian opposition. Those leaders regularly attend rallies of the NCRI in Paris and elsewhere. Tanter asks us to, Think of President Obamas outreach to Tehran and turning his back on Israel with the vote on December 3 at the United Nations. Thus, there is good reason to believe Washington is withdrawing from the Middle East. That vacuum is bring filled by the Islamic State and related Islamist terror organizations like Jabhat al Nusra, the al Qaeda affiliate in Syria. It is noteworthy that President-elect Trump has a plan to destroy such terrorists, rather than simply going after their leadership with drone strikes as Obama has been doing. He adds, If Obamas policies were to continue, it will be difficult for the Syrian opposition to survive Assads brutality. If Assad were deprived of foreign support, the opposition can recover and thrive. It earns legitimacy from patient suffering of its supporters. But its prospects would brighten if Iranian fighters were to be pressed by Russia and America to depart. President-elect Trumps nominees have stated that it is a priority to end the efforts of Tehran to support Assads brutality, during congressional hearings. Tanter believes that it is unnecessary for Washington to become directly involved in ousting Assad from power. What is necessary is that the end of the Syrian Civil War be between the popular will of the Syrian people and the Assad regime, without the outside support of the militant mercenaries of Iran. Facing no serious consequences from Western powers, because they are fixated on preserving the Iran nuclear deal, allows Iranian power to expand across the region. President-elect Trump has already stated that he will adopt a much more assertive policy toward the Islamic Republic. In so doing, Trump may encourage the democratic opposition to dictators not only in Syria but in Iran as well. In short, Trump can save Syria by getting Iranian fighters out. Then, America will truly demonstrate its greatness, Tanter concludes. So what part of drain the swamp do House Republicans not get? In the most bone-headed, tone-deaf, politically myopic move by members of Congress in recent memory, House Republicans who loudly joined the Donald Trump bandwagon in 2016 proved how out of touch they actually are with his rallying cry. They conspired in secret to weaken the Houses independent ethics office, even defying House Speaker Paul Ryan and Republican Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who wisely grasped the damning optics behind such a move. Yes, some Republicans who took part in this plot claim they meant only to reform the office, not gut it. But earnest ethics reform is undertaken on a bipartisan basis and in complete transparency not behind closed doors over weeks, whipped along partly by Republican lawmakers who faced allegations of ethical wrongdoing. Thats self-serving skullduggery, pure and simple. Thanks to alert news media (Politico, The New York Times and The Washington Post among others), outraged constituents on both the left and right lost no time Monday night letting Republican lawmakers feel their anger. Even the fiercely conservative investigatory group Judicial Watch strongly condemned the move. And when President-elect Trump tweeted his disfavor, the jig was up, the plot unraveled and the rats scrambled for cover. One wonders about the intellect of the Republican conspirators involved. Even if the Houses ethics office requires reform, Trump is right: Way too many constituents expect selfless governance from Washington and, with Republicans in control of Congress and soon the White House, the first move by Republican House members shouldnt be to shed a level of public accountability because it inconveniences them. As McCarthy told fellow Republicans: Did they campaign on repealing Obamacare or neutering the ethics office? And what does this episode right out of the congressional gate say of hypocrisy? Plenty. For more than a year, Republicans have hounded former Secretary of State and Democrat Hillary Clinton over her email and Clinton Foundation problems, reveled in chants of Lock her up at rallies, issued campaign signs reading Hillary for Prison and talked of reviving inquiries into her sins. That might be hard to swallow after ducking scrutiny regarding their own improprieties. We can only express surprise and disappointment that Republican Congressman Bill Flores, whose district includes Waco, supported this effort to weaken the Office of Congressional Ethics. He describes it as a creation of Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi. Maybe, but Republicans who claim to occupy higher ethical ground than Democrats should be demonstrating daily that they meet those standards not skulking about in the shadows, undermining their ethics watchdogs. WAHOO Nebraska Department of Roads (NDOR) is looking at over $20 million in proposals put before them by counties across Nebraska as part of the County Bridge Match Program. The match program, as part of the Transportation Innovation Act, will dispense $40 million to counties until the year 2023, but the DOR has not yet decided how the funds will be allocated and at what pace, said Saunders County Public Works Director Steve Mika. There are five Nebraska Association of County Officials (NACO) districts. And Saunders County is in the southeast district, where 40 to 45 percent of bridges are structurally deficient and are apt to get nearly half of the funds allocated across the districts. The second largest district is the northeast district and could potentially receive 30 percent of the funds allocated. The percentage of funds is based on the percentage of structurally deficient bridges and number of bridge feet, Mika said. Mika, who is on the bridge match working group, said NDORs first proposal for fund allocation was closer to $4 million, but the state might increase that number in the first amount doled out due to the $20 million in requests presented. NDOR has the say on which proposals are approved, Mika said. Saunders County made seven proposals and is collaborating with Cass and Otoe counties on some of the proposals. Mika said that if counties have similar bridge sizes and issues, they could work together and bundle the purchase of items, like culvert pipes and engineering costs. One of the countys pro- posals includes two bridges that would replace the bridge with culvert pipes. Not all of the bridges on the proposals submitted are on the one and six year plan, but with the potential for help now, Mika said theyll do what they can, when they can. Of the countys 435 total bridges, 115 are structurally deficient, Mika said. The biggest thing is to help the farming economy. To make sure the farmers get to and from the field with their product, Mika said. NDOR should have the list of approved project proposals in January, Mika said. WAHOO Bumpers of all makes, models and uses began to display an assortment of new Nebraska licenses plates beginning Jan. 3. But the rush Saunders County Treasurer Marilyn Kelley anticipated was not in anticipation of the new Sower plate. The state changed the way they do farm and commercial plates and there is no law or statute that says owners have to have the same numbers, Kelley said. Kelley said that farm trucks will now have the letter R at the end and commercial plates will have a letter A at the end. According to the Nebraska Department of Motor Vehicles, the additional letters were added to plates due to an increase in errant parking notices across the state. The new plate numbering sequence will eliminate approximately 500,000 duplicate numbers, according to the Nebraska Department of Motor Vehicles. On Jan. 3 at 8 a.m. it was first-come, first-serve on all farm truck license plates. This means, however, that farm trucks with license plate numbers that have been together for potentially four decades, will now be separated due to the addition of a letter at the end of the license plates. Ive had a lot of people say they will be here as soon as we open to get the number one tag, Kelley said last week. But not all county residents have been eager to simply be first in line. Kelley said shes had many people request special accommodations to obtain specific plates prior to Jan. 3. Even in the courthouse, some have asked for special treatment, Kelley said. When one individual was told he could not have special accommodations for a plate, he fussed that Kelley would not get re-elected over this. She considered asking for a sheriff deputy to be on site for what she believes might be a competitive struggle for first in line. In addition to the new Sower, farm and commercial plates, there are several other new plates available. These plates include a Husker, mountain lion, breast cancer, Nebraska Cattlemen, Nebraska Corn Growers, Ducks Unlimited and sesquicentennial in addition to the normally offered military and university plates. Kelleys office has been stocked with most of these plates in addition to the 14,000 Sower plates. There is an additional cost for some of the new plates, but not all. For example, there is no cost for the breast cancer plate, unless the purchaser orders a specialty message on it. The cost for a mountain lion plate will be $5, but an additional $40 for a specialty message. The sesquicentennial plate will cost purchasers $70 for the plate and $70 additionally for personalized message, but a portion of those funds goes to local cities where purchased for sesquicentennial events. Another new license plate option this year is for owners of cars that do not come with a front license plate bracket on them. Instead of installing an after-market front bracket, these cars will have a rear plate at a cost of $50 and a sticker on the front windshield that will cost an additional $100, Kelley said. This option is for cars that come from the manufacturer without the bracket, she said. Though there are many new options, Kelley said this will not assuage those looking strictly for their old farm truck license plate number. Kelley said she planned to tow the line and start the morning with 6-1R. And if the first guy has five trucks, hell get one through five, Kelley said. RAYMOND For Raymond Central FFA Alumni members, one event has marked the beginning of a new year for nearly two decades now. And, its that time again. Thousands of buyers and sellers from across the region will venture Jan. 8 to the northeast corner of 14th Street and Agnew Road for the annual Alumni Auction. This go-around marks the events 19th year, said Les Hornung, one of the auctions organizers. What started out as helping a neighbor with an auction turned out to be an annual thing, he said. Its a real good deal. In recent years, as many as 2,000 people have attended the auction, braving frigid temperatures in search of deals on farming equipment, tools, lumber, tractors and much more. Hornung expects at least that many people to show up this coming Sunday. Itll be about the same as recent years, Hornung said, adding that he estimated 1,500 to 2,000 people would attend. But it depends on the weather. It looks like next weeks to be cold. As of Thursday morning, Temperatures on Sunday were forecast be in the low 30s with a low of about 20 degrees. But, cold weather hasnt stopped auction-goers in the past. Weve got people coming from other states, Kansas, South Dakota, Hornung said. It draws quite a little crowd. Welton Auction of Malmo will be running auctions in three rings Jan. 8, continuing a long tradition. Its been Welton Auction since day one, Hornung said. A list of items for sale can be found at weltonauction.com. The alumni began accepting consignment drop-offs Dec. 31 and will continue accepting items until Jan. 7 at 5 p.m. Portions of all sales will go back to the FFA Alumni, which will then use the money to fund events for the Raymond Central FFA, Hornung said. The money helps pay to send students to conventions, along with funding scholarships. Most of it goes back to kids with scholarships, he said. This is our largest fundraiser. Hornung has been with the auction since day one, so hes seen it grow over the years. That first auction started when a neighbor needed help selling items brought in about $50,000. Recent auctions have seen buyers spend as much as $600,000 altogether. Community support plays an essential role in the auctions success. The local support is just unbelievable, Hornung said. Its just amazing, really. It takes about 60 volunteers to make it happen. The volunteers deserve a lot of credit, he added. Were doing it for the kids, Hornung said. Nobody gets a paycheck. Its a good opportunity for people to pitch in. [January 04, 2017] Encore Networks Category M1 Routers First to be Certified on Verizon's 4G LTE Network Encore Networks Class M1 EN-400 router has been certified compliant for use on the Verizon 4G LTE (News - Alert) Category M1 (CATM) network. After rigorous compatibility testing, the EN-400 is the first router to be certified on the first commercially launched LTE CAT M1 service in the US with planned nationwide coverage by the end of Q1 2017. LTE CAT M1 provides a low-cost option for cellular connectivity and offers the low bandwidth perfect for many IoT M2M verticals. CAT M1 competes in low-data connectivity markets such as ATM's, refrigeration, HVAC, point-of-sale, kiosk, sensor, and remote monitoring and control devices. It provides enhanced network coverage, including improved in building/in-ground, and at lower power requirements than current LTE offered services. As the first commercial Class M1 router to launch on Verizon's (News - Alert) LTE network, the EN-400 is specifically designed for low bandwidth IoT applications requiring lower cost cellular connectivity. Additionally, the EN-400 provides a migration path for customers with existing 2G deployments at the end of their serviceable life that want to take advantage of the nation's largest, most reliable LTE network. The EN-400 also delivers increased cyber security feaures such as VPNs, firewalls and encryption, including IPsec, AES, and 3DES not previously available in low bandwidth markets. Related Article: Verizon Makes Good on Category CAT M1 Promise to Launch by Year's End http://www.fiercewireless.com/tech/verizon-makes-good-cat-m1-promise-to-launch-by-year-s-end For more information, contact Encore Networks (News - Alert) at 703-318-4325 or email [email protected] About Encore Networks Encore Networks www.encorenetworks.com is a leading manufacturer of commercial enterprise and industrial hardened routers. Encore Routers embed 4G cellular modems and feature IP, SSL, VPN, Firewall, Ethernet Switching, Legacy Copper Line POTS replacement, and serial data to IP interworking. Made in the USA, Encore's BANDIT and EN routers are purpose built for numerous Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and M2M applications including SCADA, Smart Grid, Security, Transportation, Lottery, Retail and Banking industries. Encore's enCloud Management System enables users to manage, monitor and configure distributed enterprises from a central location through the cloud. Encore enables companies to reduce total cost of ownership by reducing dependence on high cost wireline connections and converting them seamlessly to next generation cellular connections while protecting their embedded equipment investment. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170104006255/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 04, 2017] VISIOMED GROUP is revolutionizing telemedicine with VISIOCHECK, the first mobile, connected telemedicine station in the world weighing under 300 grams PARIS, Jan. 4, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- VISIOMED GROUP (FR0011067669 ALVMG), a company specializing in new-generation medical electronics presents its very latest technological revolution at the CES in Las Vegas: VisioCheck BW-X07HD. This is the first mobile, connected universal telemedicine station in the world weighing under 300 grams, integrating all the medical devices necessary for remote tele-monitoring of patient vitals anywhere and in any circumstances. Concentrating the latest innovations from VISIOMED GROUP VisioCheck features several medical devices needed for the constant measurement of physiological vital signs: an arm-band blood pressure meter; a touchless thermometer equipped with ThermoFlash technology; an electrocardiogram (5 electrodes, 7 derivations); a pulse oximeter; a blood sugar monitor. VisioCheck thus helps to simply, reliably and quickly take vital signs that are usually done during a classic medical consultation in a doctor's office or at home. The medical devices integrated into VisioCheck also allow for constant monitoring of certain physiological constants to create, for example, a polysomnogram (monitoring issues related to sleep, including apnea), EKG Holter or blood pressure Holter. In this case, the data collected can be sent to a medical supervision platform available 24/7. VisioCheck will soon integrate other innovative medical devices from the BewellConnect line such as a spirometer, an electronic stethoscope and even a mini-biological analysis laboratory. Also, VisioCheck aims to be interoperable and open to all other medical systems via a simple Low Energy Bluetooth connection. VisioCheck: the new-generation health assistant Equipped with a 4" 16-million-color touch LCD screen, a high-definition camera and a high-intensity flash, VisioCheck can also film or photograph wounds, sores, injuries, trauma, and even scan the throat and tonsils, etc. and sent snapshots instantly and securely, or simply store the health data collected on a secured HDS-certified cloud server (authorized in France to host health data). VisioCheck: 298 grams of pure technology No bigger than a smartphone and developed using Google's Android operating system, the VisioCheck mobile, connected telemedicine station weighs 298g, also featuring all the functionalities of a smartphone. VisioCheck allows for video conferencing via Wi-Fi or 2G/3G/4G networks and for sharing the data collected between health professionals or between patients and healthcare professionals VisioCheck has been designed to facilitate the daily medical practice of health professionals of all kinds, anywhere and in any circumstance (doctors, nurses, pharmacists, hospital staff, etc.), and is also meant for certain populations (the chronically ill, traveling employees, etc.) who need daily monitoring while remaining mobile. As a IIA-class-certified medical device currently applying for CE certifiations and registration with the FDA, VisioCheck is an ultra-portable "all-in-one" scalable solution that facilitates, simplifies and improves the experience of all uses of telemedicine and connected health services. The VISIOMED GROUP is planning for the commercial launch of VisioCheck in mid-2017. It will be available either for suggested retail purchase price of 2,500 (excluding tax) plus monthly access to the services for a cost varying from 49 excluding tax to 79 excluding tax depending on the options desired by the user, or only through a monthly subscription fee of 199 excluding tax to 249 excluding tax depending on the options selected. VisioCheck: the ideal solution to fight against insufficient medical coverage areas The VisioCheck will first be deployed in health institutions (retirement homes, hospitals, clinics, health centers, pharmacies, with nurses, etc.) but is also meant to be commercialized to insurance companies, assisters and large companies. Beyond this, VisioCheck is linked to a platform of doctors available 24/7, and is the perfect tool to respond to and fight against areas with insufficient medical coverage. Every town can now have an affordable telemedicine stations to let inhabitants be monitored and consult with doctors remotely, at any time. VisioCheck: the multipurpose telemedicine tool for all healthcare professionals The VisioCheck is an actual mobile, connected telemedicine station that facilitates all uses of telemedicine, both in freelance and hospital situations, in terms of: - tele-expertise between healthcare professionals, - tele-consultation between patients and healthcare professionals, - tele-monitoring between patients and medical platforms. A preview of this innovation is being presented at the CES in Las Vegas, while in the Official Journal, a decree has just been published pertaining to the coverage of treatment of certain long-term afflictions by tele-monitoring. This decree, which is an extension of Article 47 of the Law for Funding Social Security in 2017, will help to specify the funding of telemedicine. The law allows doctors to be able to take part in teleconsultation and/or tele-expertise in certain regions for patients suffering from certain long-term afflictions, i.e. those suffering from chronic illness. Teleconsultations are paid based on the rates set by the Ministerial Order of April 26, 2016, or 26.00 to 43.70 per consultation depending on the doctor's specialty, or 3 more than traditional rates. Currently, the Order covers three chronic pathologies, which are chronic heart failure, chronic respiratory failure and dialysis and transplanted kidney failure. A new Order is expected in early 2017 pertaining to complex diabetes. Eric Sebban, the Founder and CEO of VISIOMED GROUP says, "With this new connected medical device, the VISIOMED GROUP simply wants to revolutionize the practice of telemedicine. We have always been a partner to healthcare professionals in designing each of our medical devices. With the creation of VisioCheck, we have come up with a universal and mobile system for doctors to facilitate the practice of medicine while traveling or working remotely." Discover VisioCheck live at www.bewell-connect.com You can discover VisioCheck and all the innovations presented by the teams at BewellConnect at the CES in Las Vegas through the Direct Live system, exceptionally available on the website www.bewell-connect.com. About VISIOMED GROUP Founded in 2007 by Eric Sebban, the VISIOMED GROUP is a company specialized in new-generation medical electronics. The laboratory develops and markets innovative health products in the promising areas of medical self-diagnostics and well-being. VISIOMED is known as the inventor of the ThermoFlash, the first clinical, infrared non-contact thermometer. VISIOMED products incorporate innovation, technology and design to provide solutions for prevention and non-drug treatments based on simplicity, comfort and the well-being of users. In 2014, the VISIOMED GROUP announced the launch of its "BewellConnect" range of healthcare products, becoming the first medical electronics laboratory to penetrate the very high-potential market of the Internet of Things (IoT). Based in Paris, the VISIOMED GROUP relies on a team of 105 employees including sales forces dedicated to commercialization in pharmacies (OTC), among health professionals (hospitals, clinics and retirement homes) and, since late 2010, mass distribution. In 2014, the Group generated revenue of more than 13 million. VISIOMED GROUP was described as an "Innovative Business" by Bpifrance. VISIOMED GROUP was ranked 2nd in the national competition at the 2014 edition of Deloitte In Extenso Technology Fast 50 and 2nd in Europe in the Health/Biotech/Pharma sector of Deloitte Technology Fast 500. In 2016, the VISIOMED GROUP More information at www.visiomed-lab.com. To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/visiomed-group-is-revolutionizing-telemedicine-with-visiocheck-the-first-mobile-connected-telemedicine-station-in-the-world-weighing-under-300-grams-300385813.html SOURCE VISIOMED GROUP [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] WATERFORD is the most sunny city in Ireland and the county is second in the sunshine league, being pipped to first place by our... Waterford Fine Gael Senator John Cummins has described the progress which has been made on the purchase of the former Waterford Crystal site for... THE road to the classroom is to be made safer and easier for four Waterford primary schools. They have been selected for inclusion in... CHANGES to the junction between New Street and Barrack Street have backfired, becoming yet another source of traffic chaos in the heart of the... When you buy online, you have the right to the same protections under consumer law as buying in a shop. Online shopping is at an... These days the butt of jokes, the Leyland P76 started out as a good car. The only one specifically designed for Australia, it had a roomy interior, good stability, excellent fuel economy for a car of its size and excellent prospects. In 1973 Wheels magazine named it car of the year. In part that was because of the fanatical devotion of its quality control team. Nothing left the yard unless it was perfect. But then its parent, British Leyland, ran into financial troubles. It sent over a new Australian chief who over-ruled the quality control team and released onto the market a flood of cars with faults. British Leyland got the cash, destroyed the car's reputation, and wound up the entire operation, costing 5000 jobs. The Centrelink robo-debt debacle won't cost as many jobs, but its impact will be worse. It'll dwarf that of the bungled census, for which the Prime Minister declared that heads would roll. In the lead-up to Christmas tens of thousands of Australians received notes embossed with the Centrelink logo telling them the income their employer had reported to the Tax Office was different to the income they had reported to Centrelink. Unless they explained why within 14 to 21 days, they would have an assessment made against them and be hit by a 10 per cent recovery fee. [January 04, 2017] Magneto Resistive RAM (MRAM) Market - Global Industry Analysis, Trend, Size, Share, and Forecast 2016 - 2024 NEW YORK, Jan. 4, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Global Magneto Resistive RAM (MRAM) Market: Overview MRAM or Magneto-resistive random-access memory technology has been under development since the 1990s. MRAM is a non-volatile random access memory technology that utilizes magnetic charges for storing data instead of electric charges as in the case of DRAM (dynamic random access memory) and SRAM (static random access memory) technologies. Unlike DRAM and SRAM technologies, that requires constant flow of electricity to maintain data integrity, MRAM retains data even if power is turned off and requires very less amount of electricity in order to store data bits in it. MRAM, by combining the inherent advantages of both DRAM in terms of density and SRAM in term of read and write speed has the potential of becoming a universal memory in the coming years. The global MRAM market is predicted to have tremendous growth opportunity in the coming years as a nonvolatile solid state memory in order to replace other electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) and flash memory where high write endurance is required. Surge in the demand of flexible and wearable electronics market is the primary factor predicted to boost the demand of MRAM during the forecast period from 2016 to 2024. Currently rapid technological advancements is taking place in the field to flexible and wearable consumer electronics. Flexible magnetic memories forms an integral part of the flexile and wearable consumer electronic devices for storing and processing data. Moreover, the major challenge of fabricating high performing memory chips on soft flexible substrates without reducing the performance is also eliminated by technologically advanced MRAM technology. MRAM outperforms the traditional NAND memory used in wearable and flexible electronics in terms of data retention capacity after power cut off, low power consumption along with increased processing speed. In addition, MRAM has the capability of operating in extreme temperature condition and can resist very high radiation. Thus, MRAM is also pedicted to witness huge demand from various aerospace and military applications in the coming years. Global Magneto Resistive RAM (MRAM) Market: Segmentation For the purpose of providing detailed study of the market, the global MRAM market has been segmented on the basis of product type, application and geography. MRAM is available in two different product types including toggle MRAM and second generation MRAM (STT-MRAM). In order to track the market accurately, the third generation MRAM that is predicted to get commercialized by the beginning of 2019, has also been considered within the scope of research. MRAM also finds its application across different product segments such as consumer electronics, robotics, automotive, enterprise storage, aerospace and defense and others. The others segment includes application of MRAM in sensing devices, medical devices and smart meters. Geographically, the market has been segmented into Asia Pacific , North America , Europe , Latin America and Middle-East and Africa (MEA). In terms of revenue and growth, the Asia Pacific region is anticipated to drive the market of MRAM in the coming years due to rapid growth in computationally intensive applications and rising demand for highly scalable memory solutions. Global MRAM market report provides an in-depth study of the current market trend and future forecast during the period from 2016 to 2024 in terms of revenue (USD Million). Global Magneto Resistive RAM (MRAM) Market: Competitive Landscape This report also provides an exhaustive study of the global MRAM market including the key strategies adopted by leading players, market attractiveness analysis by product type, value chain analysis, industry evolution and comparative advantage of MRAM over other memory solutions. Moreover, the penetration rate of MRAM across various industry verticals during the period from 2014 to 2018 is also highlighted in this report. In addition, detailed analysis of the drivers, restraints and opportunities that are predicted to affect the market in the coming years is provided in this report. Some of the major players operating in the global MRAM market includes Everspin Technologies Inc. (U.S), Avalanche Technologies (U.S) and Spin Transfer Technologies (U.S) among others. Global MRAM market is segmented into:- By Product Type Toggle MRAM Second Generation MRAM (STT-MRAM) By Application Consumer Electronics Robotics Automotive Enterprise storage Aerospace and Defense Others By Geography North America Europe Asia Pacific Middle-East and Africa (MEA) Latin America Read the full report: http://www.reportlinker.com/p04547534-summary/view-report.html About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place. http://www.reportlinker.com __________________________ Contact Clare: [email protected] US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/magneto-resistive-ram-mram-market---global-industry-analysis-trend-size-share-and-forecast-2016---2024-300385888.html SOURCE Reportlinker [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] A New Zealand politician has labelled Senator Malcolm Roberts's call for sanctions against New Zealanders in Australia "absolutely nuts", passing it off as using "the politics of hate and division for self-promotion". Opposition MP Kelvin Davis, who has used his position as Labour's Corrections spokesman to fight against the Turnbull government's changes to immigration policy, which sees long-term visa holders deported if they are sentenced to one or more years in prison, said Senator Roberts's call to put sanctions on New Zealanders living in Australia was "just crazy". In a statement released on Wednesday, Senator Roberts lashed out against New Zealand's decision to co-sponsor a United Nations Security Council resolution censuring Israel and calling for an immediate end to any settlement activities in disputed zones, saying it was a betrayal of a close ANZAC ally and akin to "stabbing [Israel] in the front". "At the very least, we should look at further cutting benefits for New Zealanders living in Australia," he said. Indonesia's hardline military chief Gatot Nurmantyo has little love for Australia. In March 2015, when he was army chief of staff, General Gatot said that efforts for East Timor to secede from Indonesia were a proxy war on the part of Australia to secure the oil field in the Timor Gap. (A proxy war is a conflict between two powers in which neither engages the other directly.) Hints of the lead-up to Indonesia's dramatic decision to suspend military ties with Australia can be found in General Gatot's public lectures over the past two months, posted on YouTube. He said he pulled a special forces officer from Indonesia, who was teaching at an army base in Perth, after the officer was offended by a homework assignment that said Papua should have independence because it was part of Melanesia. [January 04, 2017] Gawker Media Pays Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai, Inventor Of Email, $750,000 Settlement BOSTON, Jan. 4, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Gawker Media has paid Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai a $750,000 settlement payment and later this month will permanently remove its libelous article about him, which denied Dr. Ayyadurai's invention of email. Victory over Gawker Media "This is a historic victory for truth," declared Dr. Ayyadurai. "Americans have no tolerance for fake news, lies or cyberbullying. A 14-year-old kid working in Newark, New Jersey in 1978 invented email. This settlement honors that innovation." There is no reasonable dispute that Dr. Ayyadurai is the inventor of email. The full press kit contains more than 20 testimonials from leading technology experts and numerous Ph.D.s. The press kit also includes two extensive research papers prepared by well-respected academic university professors and scientists explaining why Dr. Ayyadurai is the inventor of email, and how the few doubters are wrong. New Lawsui against TechDirt.com On January 4, 2017, Dr. Ayyadurai filed a new lawsuit against TechDirt.com for defaming him in 14 different articles published from September 2014 through November 2016. Dr. Ayyadurai seeks a minimum of $15 million in damages in the new lawsuit. Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai holds four degrees from MIT, including a Ph.D, and is a world-renowned systems scientist, inventor and entrepreneur. He is founder and CEO of multiple successful businesses including CytoSolve, Systems Health and EchoMail. He has published in major scientific journals such as IEEE, Nature Neuroscience and CELL's Biophysical Journal, and has authored ten books, including the just-released The Future of Email (General Interactive, LLC, Nov. 2016) which discusses the history of email, its present and its future. Dr. Ayyadurai is represented by attorneys Charles J. Harder of Harder Mirell & Abrams LLP in Los Angeles, California, and Timothy Cornell of Cornell Dolan, P.C. in Boston, Massachusetts. Full Press Kit: www.InventorOfEmail.com/PressKit To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/gawker-media-pays-dr-shiva-ayyadurai-inventor-of-email-750000-settlement-300385899.html SOURCE Harder Mirell & Abrams LLP [January 05, 2017] Black is the New Black: Libratone at CES Unveils ZIPP Nordic Black, A Sleek New Addition to its Family of Award-Winning Wireless Speakers LAS VEGAS, SANTA CLARA, Calif., and COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Today at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nev., Libratone introduced an ultra-stylish addition to its family of premium audio products that further redefines wireless speakers as it focuses on flexibility around the home: the ZIPP Nordic Black, a sleek, dusky new take on the company's best-selling ZIPP portable Wi-Fi speaker. Continuing Libratone's award-winning design heritage, the ZIPP Nordic Black is a modern Scandinavian interpretation of the traditional black speaker, with its lush dark base, top and touch interface, that features the ZIPP's 360-degree sound; the ability to connect up to six speakers via Wi-Fi; and a removable CoolWeave mesh fabric cover that allows music lovers to customize the look of their speaker. The ZIPP Nordic Black extends the design-heritage bloodlines of the ZIPP, Libratone's best-selling premium audio product and the winner of numerous accolades, from the PC Magazine's Editors' Choice Award to the prestigious Red Dot Award for its innovative and high quality. With its combination of clean lines, soft curves, and a matte finish to its rich, dark surface, ZIPP Nordic Black keeps alive a design tradition as it also caters to the passion for flexibility perfectly suited to today's elastic lifestyle. Like previous ZIPP models, the Nordic Black is impeccably styled with removable covers that come in four different colors with three alternate shades also available and with a distinctive silver-gray zipper with a red accent. "The ZIPP from day one sported a striking, singular, Scandinavian design that stood out as an alternative to the clunky, boxed-shape wire-bound speakers" said Libratone CEO Jan McNair. "Further liberating listeners, the wireless ZIPP Nordic Black delivers the same kind of elegant flexibility that plays off of the all-too-common, all-too-staid traditional black speaker. It's unique, rich dark design, with changeable mesh covers, gives music aficionados an unprecedented way to prsonalize their speaker." Ideally suited for a multi-room experience in the home, the ZIPP Nordic Black has such premium features as the SoundSpace Link, which lets you connect up to six speakers via Wi-Fi and position them anywhere in any room or in multiple rooms to optimize your listening space. The Nordic Black, with a handy leather strap and rechargeable battery, is portable enough to place wherever you want premium sound to fill the home. "We set out to deliver another way for the music lover to enjoy their favorite music especially those who have an eye on design and embrace the flexibility that comes with even more options," said Libratone president Mike Culver. "Along with getting the same lush sound quality that users can stream via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, which they can play in different rooms or around a listening zone, we now give fans of our best-selling speaker yet another choice this time with a sublimely deep, dark matte finish." Like all ZIPPs, the ZIPP Nordic Black features include: Wi-Fi + Bluetooth - Use Wi-Fi for longest range and highest music quality, or Bluetooth to stream from any device 360-Degree Sound - Unique acoustic technology sends sound waves in every direction, filling any room Multi-Room Music - Pair up to six speakers together in the same room, or in multiple rooms - Pair up to six speakers together in the same room, or in multiple rooms Spotify Connect - Play your Spotify music directly from ZIPP, so you're free to use your phone while playing your favorite songs Stream Anything - YouTube, Netflix or any audio or video service if you can stream it, ZIPP can play it Easy to Use - Touch controls and the Libratone App make it easy to set up and use Hush Feature Silence the music by placing your hand over the touch interface Portability Unplug it, go completely wireless and move around your home, with 10 hours of battery life Personalization - Change your cover in just seconds to match your mood or decor The ZIPP Nordic Black comes with a money back "no questions asked" return policy because Libratone knows you want to hear the speakers in real life. Simply buy the speakers at www.libratone.com and try them out for 30 days. A pre-paid return label is included in the box, so if you're unsatisfied, you can ship it back. Shipping is free both ways. The ZIPP Nordic Black will be available in late February for $299. About Libratone Founded in 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark, Libratone was launched by sound and design engineers hailing from the esteemed likes of Bang & Olufsen and Bower & Wilkins, with a focus on blending the best in Scandinavian design with innovative, wireless acoustic technology products for consumers who enjoy music on the go. Libratone specializes in high-performance audio speakers and audio products that deliver a warm, deeply immersive listening experience while meeting the needs of today's Elastic Lifestyle. Press materials can be found at: www.libratone.com/press Facebook: www.facebook.com/Libratone www: libratone.com Twitter: @Libratone Instagram: @Libratone Shop: libratone.com For more information, please contact: Mark de la Vina Consort Partners for Libratone [email protected] 415-282-4795 To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/black-is-the-new-black-libratone-at-ces-unveils-zipp-nordic-black-a-sleek-new-addition-to-its-family-of-award-winning-wireless-speakers-300386100.html SOURCE Libratone [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 05, 2017] Fugue Names Technology Industry Luminaries Wayne Jackson and Ron Bernal to Board of Directors FREDERICK, Md., Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Fugue Inc. today announced that Wayne Jackson, CEO of Sonatype, and Ron Bernal, Venture Partner at New Enterprise Associates (NEA) have joined its Board of Directors. The board appointments come on the heels of an approximately $41 million Series D financing round. Fugue is the creator of the dynamic cloud orchestration and enforcement system that radically simplifies cloud infrastructure operations at scale. "We are very pleased to welcome Wayne Jackson and Ron Bernal to our Board," said Fugue Co-founder and CEO, Josh Stella. "We look forward to leveraging their extensive and diverse experience as we accelerate our go-to-market strategy. After closing our Series D and bringing these outstanding individuals onto our board, Fugue is very well positioned to drive cloud technology innovation and grow our presence in the fast-growing cloud market." Wayne Jackson is the CEO of Sonatype, a leading provider of enterprise tools to automate and scale DevOps-style software development, a role he has held since 2010. Prior to Sonatype, Jackson served as the CEO of open source network securiy pioneer Sourcefire, Inc., which he guided from fledgling start-up through an IPO in March of 2007, later acquired by Cisco for $2.7 billion. Jackson also co-founded Riverbed Technologies, a wireless infrastructure company, and served as its CEO until the sale of the company for more than $1 billion in March of 2000. Ron Bernal joined New Enterprise Associates (NEA), a worldwide venture capital leader, in 2010 as a Venture Partner to focus on information and software technology investments. Bernal currently serves on numerous NEA portfolio company boards and has previously held board positions with technology innovators such as Data Domain (acquired by EMC), Gainspeed (acquired by Nokia), Nicira (acquired by VMware) and Solidfire (acquired by NetApp). Prior to NEA, Bernal spent the first 24 years of his career in the high-technology operating world as an entrepreneur and business executive, co-founding two successful companies and running large businesses at Silicon Graphics and Cisco Systems. About Fugue Fugue Inc. radically simplifies cloud operations with its software-defined system for dynamically orchestrating and enforcing cloud infrastructure at scale. Teams can use Fugue to declare the desired state of cloud infrastructure and policies in a collaborative, human-friendly programming language and automate the provisioning, management and teardown of complex cloud environments, while continuously enforcing infrastructure state and policy compliance. Fugue has eight patents granted and sixteen pending. The company is privately held and headquartered in Maryland, with investments by New Enterprise Associates, Future Fund, Maryland Venture Fund and Core Capital Partners. To learn more about the company, visit www.fugue.co. To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fugue-names-technology-industry-luminaries-wayne-jackson-and-ron-bernal-to-board-of-directors-300385908.html SOURCE Fugue Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] S&P 500 3,719.89 DOW 32,001.25 QQQ 260.49 Harnessing Neuroplasticity Allows You to Actually Change the Way You Think. Here's How. New Battery "Could Eat Lithium's Lunch" (Ad) eBay or Etsy: Which Is The Better Buy? Paypal Shows Promise With Strong Buy Rating Reclusive trader scores 20 straight years of winning trades. Learn how (Ad) Energy Transfer Raises Guidance, But Stock Lower On Revenue Miss Papa Johns Falls Flat On Earnings, Shares Set To Rise New Battery "Could Eat Lithium's Lunch" (Ad) Bank of England makes biggest interest rate hike in 30 years Mid-Caps CommScope, Dycom Outperform Broader Telecom Industry S&P 500 3,719.89 DOW 32,001.25 QQQ 260.49 Harnessing Neuroplasticity Allows You to Actually Change the Way You Think. Here's How. New Battery "Could Eat Lithium's Lunch" (Ad) eBay or Etsy: Which Is The Better Buy? Paypal Shows Promise With Strong Buy Rating Reclusive trader scores 20 straight years of winning trades. Learn how (Ad) Energy Transfer Raises Guidance, But Stock Lower On Revenue Miss Papa Johns Falls Flat On Earnings, Shares Set To Rise New Battery "Could Eat Lithium's Lunch" (Ad) Bank of England makes biggest interest rate hike in 30 years Mid-Caps CommScope, Dycom Outperform Broader Telecom Industry S&P 500 3,719.89 DOW 32,001.25 QQQ 260.49 Harnessing Neuroplasticity Allows You to Actually Change the Way You Think. Here's How. New Battery "Could Eat Lithium's Lunch" (Ad) eBay or Etsy: Which Is The Better Buy? Paypal Shows Promise With Strong Buy Rating Reclusive trader scores 20 straight years of winning trades. Learn how (Ad) Energy Transfer Raises Guidance, But Stock Lower On Revenue Miss Papa Johns Falls Flat On Earnings, Shares Set To Rise New Battery "Could Eat Lithium's Lunch" (Ad) Bank of England makes biggest interest rate hike in 30 years Mid-Caps CommScope, Dycom Outperform Broader Telecom Industry [January 05, 2017] Heptagon Launches BELICE - Innovative Miniaturized Illumination Platform for Cost-Efficient High-Quality 3D Vision Stereoscopy Heptagon (www.hptg.com) today announced the introduction of BELICE, a stereoscopy illumination platform including a suite of advanced algorithms and software solutions to enable very cost-efficient and high-quality 3D vision. The proprietary infrared dot pattern reduces the computational complexity compared to passive stereoscopy. This extends battery life in mobile applications and increases refresh frequencies. The solution delivers high-quality 3D vision at very competitive price points, enabling 3D vision in new applications. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170105005619/en/ Heptagon BELICE Innovative Miniaturized Illumination Platform for Cost-Efficient High-Quality 3D Vision Stereoscopy (Photo: Business Wire) "Many emerging markets such as augmented reality and virtual reality, mobile, drones, or IOT products require cost-efficient miniaturized 3D vision technology," says Dr. Erik H. Volkerink, Chief Business Officer of Heptagon, "The BELICE illumination platform enables highly configurable, cost-efficient stereoscopy, optimized for this specific application, without third-party infrared interference issues." /p> The platform can be optimized according to cost, resolution, field-of-illumination, power, and frequency, depending on specific application needs. In applications, such as automotive cockpits, aerospace cockpits, or very large touchless displays, creating a 3D vision system that covers the desired space, under all lighting conditions, and with minimal shades, is challenging. The BELICE platform solves this by mounting multiple illuminators at different locations to ensure the space is well illuminated, while the proprietary pattern prevents negative interference between patterns. One of the main challenges in infrared-based image systems is interference by other systems (e.g., other 3D vision systems, security cameras). The BELICE proprietary pattern solves this issue without needing to enable communications between the systems. In addition, the pattern allows fast identification of outdoor issues through a simple Fast Fourier Transform, enabling adaptive stereo where the stereoscopy system incrementally moves from active to passive stereo for outdoor performance. "We are delighted to introduce the new BELICE platform," says Matthias Gloor, General Manager of the Illumination Business Unit. "The defocus-free dot pattern is generated by Heptagon's wafer-level integration with proprietary replicated optics, and with its high density of dots, BELICE delivers superior performance." BELICE also includes a proprietary package encapsulating the lens on the side, providing an extra security layer for eye safety and suppressing stray light sideways. The module is compatible with state-of-the-art assembly processes and is reflow solder compatible. It features a compact package size with reduced z-height, which can be thermally mounted directly onto the chuck, and is ideal for use in mobile devices for both indoor and outdoor use. BELICE achieves its high optical efficiency by maximizing thermal conductivity for optimal heat management. To see the BELICE platform, please visit Heptagon booth # 41354 at CES (News - Alert). About Heptagon Heptagon (www.hptg.com) provides complete, simple and seamless 3D imaging, illumination, sensing, and connectivity solutions powering the Interface of Things and Mobile Innovation. We enable new and unique ways for people to interact and interface with a smart connected world. With over 2 billion units shipped and 20 years of industry firsts in miniaturizing and integrating complex optical, mechanical, electrical, wireless and software systems, Heptagon has industry leading technology and services to enhance our customer's competitiveness. Backed by world-class investors, Heptagon is a global company with research and development, sales and customer services teams located in Singapore, Switzerland, Silicon Valley and Hermosa Beach USA, Taiwan and China. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170105005619/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] S&P 500 3,719.89 DOW 32,001.25 QQQ 260.49 Harnessing Neuroplasticity Allows You to Actually Change the Way You Think. Here's How. 5 Diamonds in the Rough (Ad) eBay or Etsy: Which Is The Better Buy? Paypal Shows Promise With Strong Buy Rating These 5 Microcap Stocks (Ad) Energy Transfer Raises Guidance, But Stock Lower On Revenue Miss Papa Johns Falls Flat On Earnings, Shares Set To Rise 5 Diamonds in the Rough (Ad) Bank of England makes biggest interest rate hike in 30 years Mid-Caps CommScope, Dycom Outperform Broader Telecom Industry S&P 500 3,719.89 DOW 32,001.25 QQQ 260.49 Harnessing Neuroplasticity Allows You to Actually Change the Way You Think. Here's How. 5 Diamonds in the Rough (Ad) eBay or Etsy: Which Is The Better Buy? Paypal Shows Promise With Strong Buy Rating These 5 Microcap Stocks (Ad) Energy Transfer Raises Guidance, But Stock Lower On Revenue Miss Papa Johns Falls Flat On Earnings, Shares Set To Rise 5 Diamonds in the Rough (Ad) Bank of England makes biggest interest rate hike in 30 years Mid-Caps CommScope, Dycom Outperform Broader Telecom Industry S&P 500 3,719.89 DOW 32,001.25 QQQ 260.49 Harnessing Neuroplasticity Allows You to Actually Change the Way You Think. Here's How. 5 Diamonds in the Rough (Ad) eBay or Etsy: Which Is The Better Buy? Paypal Shows Promise With Strong Buy Rating These 5 Microcap Stocks (Ad) Energy Transfer Raises Guidance, But Stock Lower On Revenue Miss Papa Johns Falls Flat On Earnings, Shares Set To Rise 5 Diamonds in the Rough (Ad) Bank of England makes biggest interest rate hike in 30 years Mid-Caps CommScope, Dycom Outperform Broader Telecom Industry by Sidney Sweeting DDS It was reported in the magazine of Rotary International (The Rotarian) that 1.4 billion people live on $1.25 a day . In the Bahamas our government has spent 20 million dollars on Carnival (which is nothing more than a contest to see which female can wear the least amount of clothing without being arrested for indecent exposure they certainly would not be able to register to vote). A lot of Bahamians are struggling to pay for necessities with the addition of VAT yet no one seems to know what the funds from VAT are being used for. Our Prime Minister borrowed $200 million from the NIB pension fund to keep the Bank of Bahamas from folding. Are there any plans to pay that money back? Maybe when VAT is increased to 15%? Please, Mr. Prime Minister, it is time for you and your Government to step down so we can find a government that can show some fiscal responsibility so, hopefully, our dollar will not be devalued. Fort Polk, LA (71446) Today Cloudy this morning followed by isolated thunderstorms this afternoon. High 83F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 30%.. Tonight Thunderstorms. A few storms may be severe. Low 58F. S winds shifting to WNW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected. Governor: Kentucky on course for record budget surplus again Advertisement By West Kentucky Star Staff Jan. 04, 2017 | PADUCAH, KY By West Kentucky Star Staff Jan. 04, 2017 | 07:57 AM | PADUCAH, KY A Murray man is behind bars after a traffic stop in McCracken County, and faces multiple charges for escaping jail and drugs. The McCracken County Sheriff's Department reported that a deputy pulled over a vehicle just before 1 am Wednesday after it left suspiciously from behind Hucks convenience store in Reidland. It was determined that the driver had a suspended license, and eventually the deputy got consent to search the vehicle. As the passenger got out of the car, he admitted that he had brass knuckles in his pocket. Deputies also say they determined that the man, 38-year-old Joshua Dehaven of Murray, had initially given a false name, and there was a warrant for his arrest from Jefferson County for 2nd degree escape. The vehicle search allegedly yielded a metal box that contained three baggies of suspected methamphetamine. Two glass pipes with meth residue, a set of digital scales, and 10 Diazepam pills were also found and seized, according to deputies. They say Dehaven admitted all of the items were his. Dehaven was arrested on the warrant, and was also charged with giving an officer a false name, carrying a concealed weapon, possession of an open alcoholic beverage in a vehicle, possession of a controlled substance - methamphetamine, possession of a controlled substance 1st degree, trafficking in a controlled substance within 1,000 feet of a school, possession of drug paraphernalia, and possession of a controlled substance 3rd degree - Diazepam. He was taken to McCracken County Regional Jail. Deputies say the driver, who was not identified in a press release, was cited at the scene, and left with another licensed driver. This Account has been suspended. Advertisement By West Kentucky Star Staff Jan. 05, 2017 | WILLIAMSON COUNTY, IL By West Kentucky Star Staff Jan. 05, 2017 | 01:44 PM | WILLIAMSON COUNTY, IL Four people were injured Thursday morning in a crash on I-57. According to Illinois State Police, two Federal Bureau of Prisons vans stopped shortly after 6:00 am on the right shoulder of I-57 Northbound at mile post 49 to render aid to the occupants involved in an earlier crash. The FBOP vans had their hazard lights flashing, and all 20 occupants of the two vans, employees of FBOP on their way to a training exercise, had exited the vehicles. Police said 24-year-old Mitchell Ussery lost control of his vehicle while approaching the vans and slid into the rear van. He then continued on and struck the front van, pushing the vans into the FBOP employees. Four of the FBOP employees were struck by the vans and were taken to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. By West Kentucky Star Staff Jan. 04, 2017 | 09:56 PM | MAYFIELD, KY A shoplifting incident turned into multiple charges for a local woman. According to the Mayfield Police Department, officers were called on Saturday to Walmart in reference to a shoplifting complaint. Officers said Tammy Roberts had left the store with merchandise without paying for it. Police said Roberts was under the influence of a controlled substance. Roberts also reportedly gave officers someone elses name, social security number and date of birth. Roberts was arrested and charged with shoplifting under $500, public intoxication and theft of identity. She was lodged in the Graves County Jail. Advertisement By West Kentucky Star Staff Jan. 04, 2017 | TRIGG COUNTY, KY By West Kentucky Star Staff Jan. 04, 2017 | 06:00 PM | TRIGG COUNTY, KY A Hopkinsville burglary suspect was critically injured Wednesday afternoon, after police say he shot himself in the head while being pursued by officers. According to Kentucky State Police, troopers responded shortly after noon to a field near Lindsay Lane in Trigg County, after the Trigg County Sheriffs Office responded to a home on Caledonia Road in reference to a burglary in progress. When deputies arrived several people fled the scene, on foot and in a vehicle. A Trigg County deputy was able to detain one of the suspects, and units continued to search for the others. A Cadiz Police officer later found 42-year-old Michael Mosby of Hopkinsville, who matched the description of one of the suspects, in a field near Lindsay Lane. Police said Mosby exited a thicket in the back of the field armed with a handgun, and shot himself in the head. Mosby was later flown to Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville with life threatening injuries. Police said the incident was captured on video by a body worn camera. Mosby's condition has not been released. By The Associated Press Jan. 04, 2017 | 08:27 PM | FRANKFORT, KY Kentucky's Republican House Speaker says it is likely the state legislature will meet on Saturday to pass the first bills of the year. Speaker Jeff Hoover said passing the bills so quickly would "make a statement" that Republicans are serious about getting things done. Bills that could be voted on Saturday include banning mandatory union membership, repealing the prevailing wage law, requiring a woman to have an ultrasound before undergoing an abortion and banning all abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Lawmakers opened the 2017 session on Tuesday. They normally take the first week to organize themselves before returning to work in February. But this year, Republicans appear willing to take advantage of their majority to push through priority bills that have died in previous sessions. 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. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 05/01/2017 (2129 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. The term lightning in a bottle inevitably arises when describing Million Dollar Quartet, the rock n roll musical that lifts the curtain on 2017s Winnipeg theatre scene. Co-scripted and originally directed by Floyd Mutrux, an American filmmaker whose work includes the 1978 Alan Freed biopic American Hot Wax, the play examines the once-in-a-lifetime circumstances of December 1956, when Memphis record producer Sam Phillips gathered four rising stars in his Sun Records studio, including Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins, for an impromptu, legendary recording session. The real event was perhaps not as dramatically tantalizing as the play, in which the assembled musicians perform a set list of classic rock tunes including Blue Suede Shoes, Great Balls of Fire, Hound Dog and Folsom Prison Blues. In reality, the music the men performed was mostly spirituals culled from their collective experience of deep-rooted southern Christianity, along with a healthy sampling of some comparatively obscure blues songs. Nevertheless, for lovers of classic rock, the work offers a glimpse of these embryonic talents, especially Elvis Presley before he really became Elvis and Johnny Cash before he was the Man in Black. For the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre production, directed by Steven Schipper, the roles of Cash and Presley went to performers of different backgrounds. Greg Gale, who plays Cash, is a seasoned Canadian actor who works out of Toronto and whose resume includes stints in Macbeth and The Taming of the Shrew. ROBERT TINKER PHOTO Matt Cage channels the King in Million Dollar Quartet The Toronto-born Matt Cage won the role in his capacity as an Elvis impersonator, which is a cultural cottage industry unto itself in Canada and the U.S. I dont get bent out of shape about it, but in the industry, theyre called Elvis tribute artists, corrects Cage, who frequently gigs at a permanent Elvis tribute show in Las Vegas. Personally, I dont draw any distinctions myself. The role required Cage to up his game, because it required acting talents well beyond the replication of a just-so lip curl or Presleyan pelvic thrust. Its unlike the standard musical show that I would do. It does require a lot of acting and following direction, Cage says. I did some community theatre before I got into the tribute-artist world, so I have a little bit of comfort doing this. It made me investigate (Elvis) a little more heavily than I had before, just to get into his mind frame of where he would have been at that time, Cage says, claiming the research process illuminated early Presley for him in some ways. In the play, hes very confused about the direction of his career and he kind of wants to go back to his roots. And he really was feeling that way overwhelmed. He really did want to go back to his good old days. Gale, who had already performed the role of Cash in a Citadel Theatre production in Edmonton, says taking the role of the iconic country artist would not have occurred to him before he was asked to audition. I never really saw myself much as Johnny Cash and there are certainly people out there, tribute artists, who look a lot more like him, Gale says. But then as I started preparing for auditions, I realized this is also an acting role and its something theatres wanted an actor for, because I consider it less about impersonation and more about telling a story about these people and their lives, something that an actors skills are lent to. ROBERT TINKER PHOTO Matt Cage won the role in his capacity as an Elvis impersonator. That said, Gale says his co-star rose to the task of portraying Presley in a theatrical sense. I think Matts a special impersonator, because hes also a talented actor, Gale says. But I find theres more freedom in considering it an acting role as opposed to a tribute impersonation. I really fell in love with it a lot more than I thought I would. It was really important to me in terms of not playing a generic, overarching thing of what peoples ideas are of what Johnny Cash is. Everybody has a preconceived notion of the Man in Black, and he was very popular in the 70s and 80s and through those years when he was much older, says Gale, who was interested in what the songwriter was like as a young man and what inspired him at the beginning of his career. Music was in his blood but he wasnt that good at it, Gale says. He wasnt as good as a lot of the other guys who walked into Sun Records in terms of playing, but he was an incredible songwriter. And that was a unique thing back then, because they often just stole other peoples songs and it was quite common to perform other peoples songs. He did that too, but he had this really particular set of skills and a particular look and a unique way of approaching music, which is what Sam Phillips saw in him and saw that was something they could play with and expand. What made him iconic was his uniqueness, his singular voice and his stage presence and all those things, and what was fun as an actor was to explore and expand those things a bit, Gale says. I was a real Johnny Cash fan before, but not nearly as much as I am now, having learned the ins and outs of his life and what really motivated him. randall.king@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @FreepKing If you value coverage of Manitobas arts scene, help us do more. Your contribution of $10, $25 or more will allow the Free Press to deepen our reporting on theatre, dance, music and galleries while also ensuring the broadest possible audience can access our arts journalism. BECOME AN ARTS JOURNALISM SUPPORTER Click here to learn more about the project. ROBERT TINKER PHOTO From left: Elliot Loran, Greg Gale, Kris Ulrich and Matt Cage. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 05/01/2017 (2129 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Weve seen the desperation of refugees risking their lives crossing the Mediterranean Sea to get to Europe, but we havent seen any risking their lives crossing the frozen prairie to get to Canada until now. On Dec. 24, Seidu Mohammad nearly froze to death walking from North Dakota toward the Canadian border at Emerson. The man from Ghana spent more than seven hours walking outside and expects to lose most of his fingers. It hurts, he said, through peeling lips from his hospital bed. It was cold. My eyelids, my ears, they were frozen. He said hes grateful that frostbite didnt take his feet. I will be able to walk. Mohammad was wearing three jackets and gloves and thought he was prepared for the cold. On that day, the temperature in southern Manitoba dropped to -20 C, but there was also a wicked wind gusting to 33 km/h, Environment Canada data show. Mohammad said a fellow refugee claimant from Ghana with him was taken to hospital in Morris with less severe injuries. They walked through deep snow to avoid alerting U.S. officials and reach the Canada Border Services Agency at Emerson, he said. It was up to my hips. I cant go back What kept them going was knowing that if they gave up before getting to Canada, they would be taken to a detention facility in the United States, then be deported to Ghana. SUPPLIED Seidu Mohammad, a refugee claimant from Ghana, expects to lose his fingers after he walked for more than seven hours toward the Canadian border on Dec. 24. I cant go back, Mohammad said. He had to flee Ghana because of his sexual orientation, he said. They knew that if they managed to get to the Canadian border, they could file a refugee claim and make their case before the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. Canadas immigration system is seen by human rights advocates and lawyers as more fair and thorough than that in the U.S. When they realized they would likely freeze to death before getting to their destination, they started walking along the highway hoping someone on that frozen Christmas Eve night would pick them up. We tried stopping cars, Mohammad said. Nobody stopped. Picked up by trucker Then, an older man driving a truck saw them and stopped. Mohammad said he was so weak, he could barely get inside the vehicle. My feet were nearly frozen. If it werent for the trucker, who helped him get inside, he doesnt think hed have survived. I would lose my life. The doctors and nurses are saying Im lucky because in another hour or two hours, things would have been so different. On Wednesday night, Mohammad was surrounded by visitors fellow refugees and refugee claimants from Ghana who arrived in Canada earlier. One man, who identified himself only as Mohammad, said he walked over the border into Canada from the U.S. on Dec. 3, when it was -3 C. It was cold, but not this cold, said the man who met Seidu Mohammad at an immigration detention facility a camp in the U.S. where they were held for eight months. Their refugee claims were dismissed, as most are. Spike in Ghanaian refugee claimants Lately, there has been a spike in the number of refugee claimants from Ghana crossing into Canada at Emerson, said Ghezae Hagos, an inland protection counsellor working with refugee claimants at Manitoba Interfaith Immigration Councils Welcome Place. Until recently, it has been Somalis travelling the now well-worn route in which theyre driven from Minneapolis, Minn., to a point just south of the town of Emerson. There, theyre dropped off and told to walk the rest of the way to the Canadian side of the border where they can legally make a refugee claim. Hagos is helping Mohammad and his travelling companion prepare their refugee claims. He hopes that news of what happened to Mohammad and his friend nearly perishing in the cold will deter other refugee claimants. But he doubts it. I dont think it will stop them. For Mohammad who left his home in Ghana in 2015 and spent six months on planes, boats and buses to get to the U.S. before hoofing it into Canada the perilous journey was worth life and limb. I dont regret it, the 32-year-old said. Thats life trying to survive. carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca SUPPLIED Seidu Mohammad with fellow refugees and refugee claimants from Ghana who arrived in Canada earlier. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 05/01/2017 (2129 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Winnipeg travellers with thoughts of cheap direct flights this summer to enjoy Buckingham Palace and trendy London high street shopping will have fewer to choose from. Last year, WestJet launched seasonal, weekly, low-fare direct flights between Winnipeg and London Gatwick $279 one-way to much hoopla. And by all accounts there was lots of demand. The season ran from May to October last year. DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS files The Calgary-based WestJet has decided to offer seasonal direct flights from Winnipeg to London on a condensed timeline. But this year the season will be much shorter. Service from Winnipeg will only be available from late June to the end of August, much to the surprise of some travellers who reported May flights were available on the WestJet website as recently as Monday. WestJet officials said they have reconsidered the service, and to better manage the long-haul flights it has decided to cut back the service this year. Our inaugural year of Winnipeg/Gatwick service was very successful, and we thank the community for their support, said WestJet spokeswoman Lauren Stewart. We are pleased to bring back the route for our summer 2017 schedule, however, on a condensed timeline compared to summer 2016. We revisit the utilization of our fleet on a regular basis to ensure that WestJet provides the best possible experience for our guests across Canada. WestJet will still offer daily connections to London through Toronto for those travelling outside the peak season. Last year, servicing of WestJets newly acquired fleet of four Boeing 767-300ERW extended-range aircraft proved more problematic than anticipated, resulting in many delayed flights from across its network. (In addition to Winnipeg, last year the Calgary-based airline simultaneously launched seasonal direct flights to Gatwick from Vancouver, Edmonton and St. Johns as well as Calgary and Toronto routes flying year-round.) In a video posted to WestJets internal YouTube channel last June, WestJet CEO Gregg Saretsky, acknowledged there were growing pains with the introduction of the flights and the inclusion of the wide-body Boeing 767s including two- to three-day waiting periods for spare parts for the popular aircraft. In the mid-June 2016 video, he said WestJet had already carried 40,000 people to and from Britain and congratulated his team for muscling through the challenging scenario he characterized as a hobbled operation. And those delayed flights proved costly to WestJet as European Union regulations require refunds calculated according to the length of delays causing missed connections to other flights in the EU. Tyler MacAfee, director of corporate communications and public affairs at the Winnipeg Airports Authority, said, It is a business decision of WestJets. What we saw last year and what WestJet saw was a great response from the community for the flights. There was lots of interest from travellers. While he would not be specific, MacAfee said there will be fewer flights this year. But the message is there will still be the opportunity to get that direct flight to London Gatwick this year, he said. We have a great working relationship with WestJet. Were always talking with them about routes and capacity. WestJet cleared an institutional hurdle just before Christmas by announcing its 1,380 pilots voted in favour of the companys wide-body operations, something that was required under the its agreement with the WestJet Pilots Association. WestJet currently operates four Boeing 767-300ER aircraft in its winter schedule on non-stop routes to London (Gatwick) from Toronto and Calgary; to Hawaii from Edmonton and Calgary; and on select transcontinental routes including between Toronto and Calgary. martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 05/01/2017 (2129 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. THE list of problems keeps growing for MyPillow, the popular Minnesota-based pillow maker known for its late-night TV informercials and celebrity endorsements. Just months after settling a class-action lawsuit alleging false and deceptive advertising, MyPillow has taken a hit over a different set of consumer complaints. On Tuesday, the Better Business Bureau announced it had revoked MyPillows accreditation and lowered its rating from an A-plus to an F, saying the companys long-standing buy one, get one free offer was unfair and confusing to customers. The BBB said the offer violated the organizations code of advertising by marketing pillows in a two-for-one deal that was in fact the regular price. Consumers might have thought they were getting a special deal, the BBB found, but they were really paying the full cost of the product, as the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported. Continuous BOGO offers, which can then be construed as an items regular, everyday price, violate not only BBBs Code of Advertising, which all BBB-accredited businesses agree to abide by, but also other state and national organizations rules, said Dana Badgerow, president of BBB in Minnesota and North Dakota. Losing BBB accreditation doesnt carry any legal or financial penalties, but it does strip MyPillow of a widely used industry certification designed to help establish consumer trust in a company. The F rating is the lowest mark a company can receive in the BBBs rating system based on a companys complaint history. A companys rating can be lowered when the bureau determines that the business is not being transparent about its marketplace conduct, among other reasons, says the BBB website. Founded in 2005, MyPillow touts its product as the most comfortable pillow youll ever own. The infomercials, a staple of late-night television, have claimed the pillow can prevent sleep loss associated with a range of ailments. The company has sold some 18 million pillows in the past decade at about US$50 each, pulling in US$100 million annually, as the Star Tribune has reported. The BBB said they received a pattern of complaints about MyPillows buy one, get one offer. Bureau officials said they began urging MyPillow founder and spokesman Michael J. Lindell to discontinue the marketing ploy and were left with no choice but to dock the companys rating when he didnt respond, the Star Tribune reported. Barb Grieman, senior vice-president for the BBB in Minnesota, said the bureau seldom gives out F ratings because companies tend to comply. We cant understand why hes not making the changes, Grieman told the Star Tribune. Were not saying he cant offer a BOGO, just not continuously all year long. According to the BBB, MyPillow should have ended the offer after 30 days. Its unfair to businesses in the same industry, Grieman said. We want advertising to be clear. Lindell said Tuesday he was disappointed in the BBBs decision. He told KARE he wouldnt be able to stop the sale at the moment but would make unspecified changes later this year. In a tweet Tuesday he said he was sorry about the new rating as my customer service is the most important thing to me. Washington Post Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 05/01/2017 (2129 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. In 1885, English surgeon Frederick Treves gave a series of talks at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Treves most famous moment in abdominal history treating Edward VII, a few days prior to the kings coronation, by draining an abscess in the royal appendix would come decades later. But even by the late 19th century, Treves was known among his peers as an expert of the guts. He spoke at length to his fellow doctors about the digestive tract, having examined it in a hundred or so cadavers. The medical field was receptive to his findings. It remained so. As recently as 2008, textbooks such as the 40th edition of Grays Anatomy echoed descriptions Treves presented in his lectures. But Treves research contained an error that persisted for more than a century, wrote a pair of scientists in the Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology journal, published in November but spotted recently by the Independent: Treves neglected to give the mesentery, a double sheet of connective tissue that curls through the abdomen, the importance it deserved. Treves declared the mesentery existed only sporadically, in disjointed ribbons, dispersed among the intestines. That was not so, the researchers wrote in the new report. SUPPLIED J. Calvin Coffey, a surgeon at the University of Limerick, Ireland, and the author of the study. The anatomic description that had been laid down over 100 years of anatomy was incorrect. This organ is far from fragmented and complex, said J. Calvin Coffey, a study author and surgeon at the University of Limerick, Ireland, in a statement. It is simply one continuous structure. Coffey, and his fellow scientists, argued the mesentery was not separate sections of connective wrap. As a single entity, it could be classified as an organ. (By most counts, tissues of the human body are lumped into 78 organs. The mesentery, then, would be No. 79.) We are now saying we have an organ in the body which hasnt been acknowledged as such to date, Coffey said. Next to the thumping heart and the brains enigmatic mass, the mesentery may seem a humble thing. It is a fatty membrane that holds the intestines in place. Though the classification as an organ is new, the mesentery itself is not a contemporary discovery; what appears to be the mesentery can be seen in a drawing by Leonardo da Vinci. The metaphors the mesentery inspires are a far cry from stomach butterflies or broken hearts. If you were to imagine the guts as dress fabric, as 19th-century physician Worthington Hooker did in his book Human Physiology, the mesentery would be a ruffle encircling the puffed edging of the intestines. Without the mesentery, though, bound on one end to the backbone, the intestines would slop around in the belly. Coffey and his colleagues confirmed the mesentery was continuous, stretching from the rectum to the small intestine at the base of the stomach, in a series of studies in 2012 and 2014. After revealing its structure, the scientists argued they had enough evidence to justify designation of the mesentery as an organ. Coffey went as far as to argue life without the mesentery is impossible without it you cant live, he said to Discover Magazine. If there existed a scientific organization charged with naming the organs, it was unclear even to surgeons such as Coffey. (I actually dont know who the final arbiter of that is, he told Discover; Coffey was unable to respond to a request for comment from the Washington Post early Wednesday.) But, typically, anatomists classify organs not only by their continuity but also by a common function. The complete function of the mesentery remains a mystery. Many, but not all, organs have a distinct functional unit, the researchers wrote in the Lancet report. The functional unit of the mesentery is unknown, and whether a distinctive cell type is primarily responsible for its functionality should be investigated. Nor do the researchers know if doctors should view the body part as belonging to the intestinal system, they wrote, or if it would be better classified as part of the vascular system, the endocrine system or another system altogether. Perhaps it does not fit neatly into one. Evidence suggests the mesentery is more than a connector, too; the mesentery may regulate the migration of white blood cells throughout the intestines, the scientists wrote. Coffey hoped shining a light on a body part not normally so exposed could widen the field of mesenteric science, offering a new target in the fight against gut diseases such as Crohns. In places, it appears a change, however small, has already begun: the mesentery, noted the study authors, was described as continuous in the 41st and most recent edition of Grays Anatomy. Washington Post Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 05/01/2017 (2129 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. The months-long spat waged in Manitoba and Thunder Bay between retail giants Walmart and Visa is over. Starting Friday Walmart customers in Manitoba and Thunder Bay will once again be able to use their Visa cards to make their purchases. Walmart stopped accepting Visa credit cards at its three Thunder Bay stores in mid-July and then did the same at its 16 Manitoba stores in late October. It had said that it was going to roll out that policy across its entire 400-plus Canadian store network. But not any more. Starting Friday Walmart customers in Manitoba and Thunder Bay will once again be able to use their Visa cards to make their purchases. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz Neither side would share any details of the resolution that pitted one of the largest retailers in the country which pays $100 million per year in credit card fees and the credit card company that controls 60 per cent of the Canadian credit card market. Alex Roberton, a spokesman for Walmart Canada said, The negotiations and the agreement itself are confidential. There is very little information that is new today except the fact that we will continue to accept Visa at all our stores. He said the company had made a decision to stop accepting Visa because the fees were too high. Now we are not going to do that, he said. We have come to an agreement with Visa that allows as to continue to offer Visa as a form of payment to our customers at all our stores and at the same time we are going to re-instate Visa in Thunder Bay and Manitoba. Visa spokeswoman, Carla Hindman, issued a short statement saying, Visa cardholders can once again use their Visa credit cards as a form of payment in all Walmart stores across Canada. We have come to an agreement with Walmart through which Visa credit cards will be accepted at all Canadian Walmart stores, including in Manitoba and Thunder Bay, Ontario, starting on Friday, January 6. martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 05/01/2017 (2129 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. A former pastor is serving a prison sentence after he admitted to secretly videotaping women and girls in washrooms and watching child pornography on his work computer at church. Dean Marco Funk, 36, was a pastor at the Gretna Bergthaler Mennonite Church for several years before he was charged with two counts of producing child pornography, two counts of voyeurism and possession of child pornography more than two years ago. He was sentenced in Steinbach last week to four years and eight months in prison for crimes provincial court Judge Ken Champagne decried as a breach of trust and a violation of the victims privacy and sexual integrity. The breach of trust and its not just the trust of a man whos a leader in the church, whos a pastor, who has a large following it goes beyond that. Its the trust of a friend, the judge said. Funk has a lifelong journey of rehabilitation ahead of him, the judge said, noting Funks attraction to child pornography intensified prior to his arrest. Where was this going? How would this end? This offending behaviour was escalating. I think he recognized that and there was a sense of relief at being caught, Champagne said. Funk was charged in May 2014 after a lengthy police investigation prompted by the discovery of his cellphone inside a girls change room at a pool party several weeks earlier. The girls who had been recorded inside the change room found the phone which Funk later admitted to planting deleted the videos, reporting the incident to police. Funk later confessed to that and other child-pornography offences. He admitted he did research on voyeurism websites while attempting to capture images of unsuspecting victims, court heard. In May 2012, about two years prior to the pool incident, Funk recorded video inside a washroom in Moose Lake during a camping trip, capturing images of two 14-year-old girls. During the Canada Day weekend that same year, he again hid his cellphone inside the washroom of a cabin in the Whiteshell area, capturing images of adult women. In a victim-impact statement, one of the people whose images he captured said she never feels safe from prying eyes and now checks for cameras every time she uses a washroom. I look at everyone around me and I wonder what their true intentions are toward me, she said. I will never truly be able to trust anyone again. Funk admitted to accessing child pornography from 2009 to May 2014 after police found 174 images on a computer turned over to investigators by church administration. Funk had been deleting the images after he viewing, but police were able to recover them. They also found evidence that the same computer may have been used to view child pornography prior to Funks employment at the church. Funk has been going to counselling and is a member of Sex Addicts Anonymous. His defence lawyer, Ian McNair, said Funk eventually hopes to contribute to his secular and religious communities. In front of a full courtroom gallery, Funk apologized to the victims, to the church in Gretna and to the larger community, saying he had sinned against them and against God. Im grateful for the courage shown by the victims who brought my actions to light because my arrest and these past 2 1/2 years have helped me to begin to understand what was going on with me, he said. What I did was wrong and Im sorry. I profoundly lament the man that I was, the things I did, and I am committed to not doing these things again. Champagne, remarking on the tremendous increase in child pornography cases making their way through the courts in recent years and the resulting harsher minimum sentences that have been imposed, said these kinds of crimes lead to a long and everlasting trail of victims, and that rehabilitation is key for offenders such as Funk. This isnt something hes going to fix when hes inside an institution, the judge said. Its something that hes got to work on day in and day out for the rest of his life. katie.may@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @thatkatiemay Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 05/01/2017 (2129 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. A crowdfunding page has been started by the sister of Winnipegs first homicide victim of 2017. The page is to assist the family of Tyler Kirton, 25, who died Tuesday after he was found by police lying in the roadway on Thames Avenue near Watt Street in Elmwood at about 9:55 p.m. Police had been responding to a report of gunshots heard in the area when they found Kirton. GoFundMe A crowdfunding page has been started by the sister of Tyler Kirton, 25, Winnipeg's first homicide victim of 2017. Members of the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service transported him to hospital where he was pronounced dead. Though police have not yet said how Kirton died, a relative on Facebook said he was shot. The gofundme page is called Help give Tyler a peaceful ending was created by Raina Scott and is asking for donations towards $8,000 in funeral costs. On Jan. 3, one of the most humble, giving, and most hilarious person was taken from us. He went out of his way to protect his family, including all of his brothers and sisters and both parents, the narrative on the gofundme page said. Whoever knew Tyler all had the same opinion, you couldnt help but love him because there was never a time he wouldnt make you laugh. At 25 he didnt get to experience life to the fullest, but the life he lived he made worthwhile. At a press conference on Wednesday, police would not say whether the man lived in a home in the area, whether the killing was gang-related or whether there were injuries to any other people during the violent event. Police said few details were being released at this time because it is still early in the homicide units investigation but said there are no concerns for the safety of citizens in the area. Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 204-986-6508 or Crime Stoppers at 204-786-TIPS (8477). Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 05/01/2017 (2129 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Manitobas public-sector labour leaders failed to get a direct answer Thursday on their most pressing fears about government austerity: will the province freeze their wages and attack existing collective agreements? They talked about potential legislation in bargaining. They didnt give any details, Manitoba Federation of Labour president Kevin Rebeck told reporters after the unions took part in an hour-long meeting with Finance Minister Cameron Friesen. We did ask directly if that was something they were going to do, he said. Were very curious about that we didnt get an answer. They did talk about exploring legislation that might impact bargaining. WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS From right: Manitoba Federation of Labour president Kevin Rebeck; Michelle Gawronsky, president of Manitoba Government and General Employees' Union; and Kelly Moist, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, arrive at the meeting with Finance Minister Cameron Friesen in the Manitoba Legislative building Thursday morning. Minutes later, Friesen told a news conference that he remains steadfast that everything about public sector wages is on the table whether it be rollbacks, freezes or reopening of existing contracts. However, its a mystery how Friesen would use legislation hes keeping his cards close to his chest. Clearly there was disagreement in the room, he said. Certain people in labour think the path forward should rely on tax hikes. I think, historically, labour has said that government has the ability to raise taxes. I think that as a government we have been very clear in saying this is not the time to raise taxes. Rebeck said Friesen has asked the unions to form a committee with government to explore options for bringing the provinces finances under control. But the unions could be walking into a trap, warned University of Manitoba labour studies Prof. David Camfield. Any legislation that interferes with bargaining would stand a better chance in court if the government shows that it consulted beforehand in good faith. Creating a joint committee to explore options is a potential trap, in which the government would try to have unions agree to cut their own wages, Camfield said. The government is operating on the basis there is a fiscal crisis, which it would also have to prove in court, he said However, Camfield predicted, the province t may find it difficult to argue it is consulting in good faith: The government is clear on what it wants to get. I dont think theres any question of the governments objectives. Labour leaders pointed out repeatedly during the meeting that the province previously said it has an eight-year plan to fix Manitobas financial situation. Whats the urgency? What the rush here to work on legislation? I wasnt entirely thrilled about the answer, Rebeck said. There was some talk about getting the committees going sooner rather than later, but not necessarily about reaching any agreements before the provincial budget expected in March, he said. We believe the bargaining process should be respected. It would be extremely unfair to open up existing agreements. The labour leaders said theyre willing to talk about the number of collective agreements within the provinces health-care system, something Premier Brian Pallister raised last month in his state of the province address. They pointed out that the Tories have promised not to cut front-line workers. In short, Rebeck said, Thursdays meeting didnt offer any clarity on the provinces plans. We have more questions than answers, he said. Friesen later reiterated that the provinces fiscal crisis includes a deficit of more than $1 billion. We need to all understand that government ability to pay must be kept in mind, he told reporters. We had profitable conversation, we found areas of agreement, there were some points in which we disagreed. Novembers throne speech outlined plans to introduce legislation that will allow government ability to pay be taken into account during labour negotiations. Friesen said he described that plan to the unions, but offered no hints into what the legislation would look like or how the government will define ability to pay. Friesen was the lone cabinet minister or MLA at the table along with representatives from the MFL, MGEU, Canadian Union of Public Employees, Manitoba Teachers Society, the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals and United Food and Commercial Workers. The Manitoba Nurses Union did not attend. This was the first time the unions met with the government after months of signals from the Tories that a public-sector wage freeze and the reopening of existing contracts could be on the agenda in an effort to trim spending. Their agenda is set, NDP labour critic Tom Lindsey said, calling it the illusion of consultation. Pallister should have been at the table, he said. Obviously, hes the one in charge, hes the one whos been talking in the press. He so far has not given a definition of what a front-line worker is, and I dont think that he intends to do so. Late in 2016, during mediation prior to a three-week strike, the University of Manitoba and the U of M Faculty Association issued a joint statement that that said the province had directed them to take a pause year with a one-year deal with a wage freeze. They subsequently settled for a wage freeze in a one-year collective agreement that achieved gains in working conditions for faculty. UMFA president Prof. Mark Hudson said Thursday that the faculty associations and other public unions should have been invited to the meeting. We were not invited to this mornings meeting with the finance minister, which I think is unfortunate. Many public sector unions were excluded from that meeting, and they clearly should have been part of the conversation, Hudson said. Neither Pallister nor Friesen has used the words zero or freeze publicly, but both have made it clear that everything is on the table in bringing the provinces finances under control. kristin.annable@freepress.mb.ca nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 04/01/2017 (2130 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. The much-anticipated showdown between Finance Minister Cameron Friesen and public-sector unions comes to a head today, which prompted a whos who of Manitoba labour leaders to hunker down Wednesday and prepare for battle. For the first time in years, representatives from Manitobas 11 public-sector unions met to prepare for todays meeting. The unions pored over the agenda provided to Manitoba Federation of Labour president Kevin Rebeck and discussed what surprises the government could spring on them at the meeting. The brief agenda provided to Rebeck offered few details of what topics could be on the table, he explained. (Wednesdays) meeting says that we are facing for the first time in a long time a government that isnt having any regular conversations with us. So, when we know we are going to have one, we need to get together and have a talk, said Rebeck after the two-hour meeting Wednesday afternoon. WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES MGEU president Michelle Gawronsky. We had a lot to discuss, and (Premier Brian) Pallister has been talking a lot about us, but not with us. The meeting included Michelle Gawronsky, president of the Manitoba Government and General Employees Union the largest union in the province and Kelly Moist, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees. Representatives from the unions who represent Manitobas teachers, nurses, engineers, heath-care professionals and a host of other public-sector employees were also in attendance. A much smaller group, consisting of Rebeck, Moist, Gawronsky along with the Manitoba Nurses Union, United Food and Commercial Workers and Manitoba Teachers Society will meet this morning with Friesen at the legislature. This is the first time the unions will face the government after months of the government signalling to the media a public-sector wage freeze and the reopening of existing contracts could be on the table as it looks to trim spending. Pallister said at his state of the province address last month there are too many union bargaining units in Manitobas health sector, and hed like to see the process streamlined. Out of respect to the government, union reps said they would not share the meetings agenda with the media. The Free Press was told by a union source it was a brief agenda, with few words, and the first item on the agenda was an update on the provinces finances. Item one comes as no surprise given Friesen and Pallister have been sounding the alarm for months that the Progressive Conservatives inherited a fiscal mess from the NDP April 19. Pallister has been steadfast in his comments that he needs all hands on deck when it comes to fixing Manitobas finances, including public-sector unions. Moist said she is unsure if the more contentious subjects, such as a wage freeze, will be broached by Friesen today. One thing is certain, the unions have agreed to play nice and give the government a chance to say its piece, she said. WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Manitoba Federation of Labour president Kevin Rebeck. Were happy that there is a meeting happening. We have been asking for this for a long time, and we are hoping there is follow up with this so we are going to listen, said Moist. We are prepared as much as we can be for anything going into this meeting and if it is to discuss our economy and our alleged fiscal crisis, we are very happy to do that. CUPE Manitoba represents 26,000 members, the majority within the provinces health-care system. Moist has publicly voiced her disappointment that Pallister will not be at the meeting. She said her biggest fear is that this meeting is just going to be about checking a box. My biggest fear is that we dont leave with further intent to dialogue and speak on important issues, Moist said. Gawronsky said she is happy to finally hear what the government plans for public-sector unions and wages. Her union represents roughly 16,000 civil-service members and others who work at health-care facilities, social-service agencies and in other areas. And I am happy we are going to hear it from them instead of reading about it and hearing about it through the media, she said. BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Finance Minister Cameron Friesen talks about the deficit forecast outside his office at the Manitoba Legislative Building during a news conference on Dec. 20. kristin.annable@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @kristinannable Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 05/01/2017 (2129 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. The RCMP is investigating the construction of Canada Posts Winnipeg mail-processing plant, built by the company under investigation in the controversial police headquarters project. Caspian Construction completed work on the Canada Post facility near the James Richardson International Airport in 2010 at a cost of more than $100 million. The two-storey building has 250,000 square feet of mail processing space and approximately 45,000 square feet of retail, office, cafeteria, kitchen and training space. Canada Post was first contacted by the RCMP on Feb. 2, 2016 regarding their investigation and has been fully co-operating. As this is a police matter, it would be inappropriate to comment further, said Canada Post spokesman Phil Legault. JOE BRYKSA / FREE PRESS FILES The new Canada Post sorting facility is located near the airport. Caspian was the general contractor for the downtown project that converted the former Canada Post warehouse into the new police headquarters, which city council approved in 2010 at a cost of $135 million. The final price tag for the conversion was $214 million, prompting city council to have two independent audits conducted. Manitoba justice officials asked the RCMP to launch an investigation into suspected criminal activity. The CBC reported that documents related to the postal plant were uncovered in December 2014 when the RCMP raided Caspians McGillivray Boulevard offices, seizing records and computer files. I can confirm that the commercial crimes section of the Manitoba RCMP is investigating the construction of the Canada Post mail processing plant located at 1870 Wellington Ave., RCMP spokesman Robert Cyrenne said. As this is an ongoing investigation and to maintain the integrity of the case, we are not able to provide any additional details at this time. The CBC quoted documents submitted in court by the RCMP in February in a request to search financial records, alleging that Armik Babakhanians, owner of Caspian Construction, arranged to have city hall replace the project manager for the police headquarters building with an individual whom he had worked with before and then promised the new project manager a $600,000 commission for his assistance in replacing key personnel, including the architect and the engineering consultant all with the goal of facilitating fraudulent billings. In court documents supporting the December 2014 search, RCMP allege Babakhanians and another Caspian employee were involved in submitting fraudulent invoices for the HQ project at inflated costs, for work done elsewhere, and for work that wasnt done. Last February, the RCMP outlined a scenario in its request for another search warrant that broadened the fraud, alleging Babakhanians arranged to have other individuals and firms brought on to the project who could facilitate fraudulent billings. Babakhanians has denied the allegations. Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman told Winnipeg Free Press in a year-end interview last month that the citys position is that a public inquiry might be necessary but he wants to see the outcome of the RCMP investigation before taking that step. with files from Aldo Santin Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 04/01/2017 (2130 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Patients looking to avoid long waits at Winnipeg walk-in clinics can now go online to get an idea how long itll take to see a doctor at various locations. A Vancouver-based company, Medimap Systems Inc., already offers the online service in three other provinces. It is just beginning to sign up clinics here. Its goal is to get all 52 locations it has identified in the city on board. Blake Adam, the companys co-founder, said patients will benefit from being able to compare wait times across the city and learn when a clinic is full-up for the day. Clinics will benefit from having to handle fewer phone calls, he said. Its all about improving access to care for patients by letting them be able to see what the availability is in the community, said Adam, 27. He said the service can also potentially reduce the strain on hospital emergency rooms by providing more information on alternatives for patients. It aims to kind of reduce the unnecessary usage of ERs by letting patients see where available resources are at walk-in clinics in the community, Adam said. Medimap.ca was launched Sept. 1, 2015 in White Rock, B.C. As of Wednesday, it had enrolled 240 clinics across Canada, including six in Winnipeg; several more are expected to sign up in the next week. The company started quietly in Winnipeg. Wed like to get a certain number of clinics on board before we start marketing it to patients, Adam said. The more clinics that join in a particular community, the more effective the service is, he said. Currently, the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority lists wait times online for care at hospital emergency rooms. But there is no central online location for walk-ins. A woman who answered the phone Wednesday at the St. Norbert Clinic on Pembina Highway said the service has promise, but its too early to tell how valuable it will be. We just got it, she said, adding patients dont know about it. She said the clinic should probably put signs up on its doors to advertise the service. Adam said there is no charge to the clinic or to patients to access the information. The company plans to obtain revenues in the future by offering premium services, such as having clinics add the wait times to their own websites. Clinics joining the service update wait times every 30 minutes. The website shows the clinics office hours, address, phone number and offers directions. It also lists how much time has elapsed since the last wait-times update. larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca Opinion Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 05/01/2017 (2129 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Many people see physicians as experts in the science of medicine. In my three decades of practising as a family physician, I have learned being an expert in the art of medicine is equally important. Underlying this art are the therapeutic and caring relationships we build with our patients. I am there for patients during the big moments in life births, illnesses and deaths and the not-so-big moments, such as when someone has a concern and needs some reassurance or has a question about what is best for their health. The way I have built and strengthened these important relationships with my patients over the years is through good conversation. When I see patients, I try to understand what underlies their concerns and how I can provide reassurance. And reassurance doesnt always come from ordering a test or treatment. DARRYL DYCK / THE CANADIAN PRESS Files Good communication from doctors can make patients and their family members more content with the care they receive. In fact, sometimes a test or treatment may not be needed and can lead to harm. For example, guidelines have changed and we do not offer the Pap smear annually for women. Instead, certain age groups are screened every three years and others not at all. Same goes for ECGs (electrocardiograms). This test isnt useful in routine checkups for people without heart-disease risk factors or family history. In fact, an ECG can sometimes show commonly found and harmless abnormalities leading to undue anxiety and further testing and treatments. I always encourage my patients to come in for an annual health visit to discuss questions or concerns. Even when there are specific health concerns, a test may not be the right course of action. For example, a common complaint we see in family medicine is lower back pain. Many patients want an X-ray or MRI, but large studies have shown patients who undergo imaging do not fare any better than those who dont. Imaging can reveal spinal abnormalities completely unrelated to the pain. This may cause worry and may lead to unnecessary followup tests and procedures such as injections or sometimes even surgery. It is human nature to want a quick fix, but evidence shows this sometimes isnt the best way forward. The overuse of antibiotics is another good example. Family doctors see a lot of parents bringing in their kids complaining of painful ear infections. Most ear infections are caused by viruses, not bacteria. But just in case, it has become habit to prescribe antibiotics, which are only effective against bacteria. This doesnt help our patients and, in fact, over-the-counter pain-relief medications can better ease the childs pain. Antibiotic misuse harms us all, and studies show it has led to the spread of powerful, antibiotic-resistant superbugs. In these situations, where doing a test or treatment can cause more harm than good, I try to reassure my patients through a good conversation. Theres a large body of evidence behind the power of communication. It turns out good conversations between doctors and patients are beneficial for patients health and well-being. When patients feel their doctor has communicated well with them, they report a better understanding of their health problems and treatment plan. Good communication also makes patients and their family members feel happier with the care they have received. A study led by a group of Canadian researchers from Ottawa found when doctors and patients used decision aids to help foster conversations in areas of clinical uncertainty, patients felt less conflict and uncertainty and more confidence about difficult medical choices. Another study surveyed family doctors across the United States about barriers to reducing unnecessary care in their own practices. The doctors pointed to a lack of time during the clinical encounter to have a good conversation. But patients have a right to ask critical questions about necessary and unnecessary care options, and these questions can open the door to a healthy conversation. Thats why Choosing Wisely Canada put together some ways to start the conversation between patients and doctors. So whenever you are offered a test or a treatment, ask these questions: do I really need this test, treatment or procedure? What are the downsides? Are there simpler, safer options? What happens if I do nothing? A good conversation with your health provider shouldnt be overly time-consuming for either of you. Both doctors and patients want to make best use of the precious moments in a clinical conversation. Asking these questions is a good way to start. Dr. Lynn Wilson is an expert adviser with EvidenceNetwork.ca, a family physician at Womens College Hospital and vice-dean, partnerships at the University of Torontos faculty of medicine. She is also the primary care co-lead for Choosing Wisely Canada. An alcohol-fueled wrong turn onto a set of Winona railroad tracks resulted in felony charges against a Minnesota woman. Stivalis Yolanda Lizarraga Estrada, 19, of New Hope, Minn., told police she had been drinking Fireball Whiskey before getting behind the wheel Nov. 1, court documents state. Just before 2 a.m. she turned off Sioux Street, mistaking the CP Railroad right-of-way for West Mark Street, and got her automobile hung up on a roadbed designed for locomotives. Attempting to return her vehicle to the pavement before a train rumbled down the tracks, she put her vehicle into reverse, hit the gas and, gaining sudden traction, struck a woman who was trying to help her out of the situation by pushing the vehicle. When officers arrived on the scene, they found the woman with significant injuries lying beside the tracks. She was transported to a Rochester hospital for treatment, court documents state. Police obtained a blood sample from Estrada. Her blood-alcohol content was 0.14. Estrada was charged Tuesday in Winona County District Court with two counts of criminal vehicular operation causing substantial bodily harm. Her first court appearance is set for Feb. 1. In January 1852, Willard Bunnell had second thoughts about the sandbar he had scorned as his home site two years before. Late in the evening, the 15th of October, 1851, three men were put ashore from the steamboat Nominee, and bright and early the next day went about the business of staking claims on the treeless, windswept lowland known as Wabashas Prairie. Bunnell had come to the region nine years earlier as a fur trader and had established good relations with the Indians up and down both sides of the Mississippi. In 1849, he took advantage of his friendship with Wabasha, hereditary chief of the band of Dakota who occupied the west bank of the Mississippi. Wabasha gave Bunnell permission to take up residence on Indian land, making him, his family and his business associate Peter Burns (who would take up a claim in Burns Valley) the first permanent white residents of Winona County. Bunnell passed up the sand prairie, long the location of Wabashas summer village, choosing instead to settle on the high ground in what is now Homer. His choice was not without reason. He recalled how in the high water of 1844 the prairie had been all but submerged, and in conversation with the Indians he had been assured that in times past the land went completely under water. For Orrin Smith, captain of the steamboat Nominee, the scrubby prairie just upriver from Willard Bunnell also held great promise. As he plied the river between his home in Galena, Ill., and St. Paul. Smith saw towns pop up like mushrooms, yielding a tidy fortune to the man who had the foresight to lay first claim to the land. In 1851, agents of the government in Washington came to terms with chiefs of the Dakota bands in Minnesota, gaining treaty title to Indian lands in Minnesota for white settlement. Smith moved quickly. At Wabashas Prairie he had saw a potential others had not. Along the riverfront the river ran deep clear of snags and obstructions, offering two good steamboat landings. He made a deal with Irwin H. Johnson, the carpenter aboard the Nominee. Johnson would go ashore, stake claims and wait for settlers to arrive. For his part, Johnson would earn half interest in the claims plus $25 a month. Smith would provide all necessary supplies. While he waited, Johnson was to busy himself cutting and stockpiling wood to fuel the Nominees boilers. At 10 p.m. on Oct. 15, 1851, Johnson went ashore, taking with him two woodcutters, a yoke of oxen, lumber for a shanty, blankets and other provisions. The next morning, a few blocks east of what is now downtown Winona, they built a little shanty using the riverbank for the back wall and started setting out claim stakes. The second week of November brought their first neighbors. Silas Stevens, George W. Clark and Edwin Hamilton came up from La Crosse, Wis., with the intention of laying claim to a share of Wabashas Prairie. After a bit of negotiation, the men agreed to divide the prime riverfront into six claims, each half a mile square, with Johnson getting pick of the first two, one for himself and one on behalf of Capt. Smith. Relations among the men on the prairie were generally amicable, highlighted by a Christmas dinner hosted by Clark and Hamilton featuring a squirrel pot pie with hot corn bread with wild honey, which Johnson had secured from a bee-tree on the island. The frozen river created a natural highway, and, as winter wore on, a steady trickle of travelers made their way up to Wabashas Prairie to take the measure of what, in some quarters, was being spoken of as a promising settlement. Bunnells post at Homer was a favorite stopping place between the prairie and La Crosse, and all the talk of Wabashas Prairie eventually convinced him to try for a piece of the action. Bunnell decided to take possession of Johnsons second claim, since no one was living on it, and dispatched two of his men to put up a claim shack on the parcel. Johnson was of a contrary opinion, so a week or so later, when Bunnells man was absent, Johnson availed himself of the opportunity to level Bunnells claim shack, cutting the logs and lumber up into fire wood. Enraged, Bunnell took it upon himself to hunt down Johnson. He found Johnson at his shack and the two men quickly came to blows, Bunnell getting the better of the affair. Johnson fled, injured, to Clarks shanty, while Bunnell flattened Johnsons crude domicile, taking the mans revolver and shotgun as trophies. Not one to give in, Johnson obtained a rifle and sent word up to Homer that he would shoot Bunnell on sight if he ever ventured onto the prairie again. Years later Bunnells brother recalled that (Bunnell) became satisfied he would not be able to hold the claim without some serious fighting, and, having no desire to kill Johnson or be killed himself, he decided to abandon his claim speculation on Wabashas Prairie. DECATUR As Wilmer Otto tries to impact changes on a global scale, he turns back to lessons learned early during his business career in the Arthur area. Otto, 69, learned about the value of partnerships and learning from others when establishing his first businesses. It's a lesson he has tried to take with him while recently starting to do business in parts of Africa. Sending in business people is something that hasn't often been done, Otto said. They can benefit from having mentors. Otto spoke about his experience during the Decatur Power Lunch held Tuesday at the Beach House. The monthly luncheons started as an outreach of Maranatha Assembly of God church, said Glen Nordholm of W.G. Nordholm Insurance, who lines up the speakers for the events. The different speakers, including Otto, are inspirational in their messages, said event organizer Brenda Reynolds of Re/Max Executives Plus. Otto's business experience started in the local real estate industry. He has recently remained involved with the Amish community, helping to organize efforts to establish a new Illinois Amish Museum and Heritage Center. His interests expanded internationally by taking advantage of opportunities to export new and used farm equipment to Central and Eastern Europe through the dealership now known as Farm Pride in Arthur. Other companies didn't think outside of the box, Otto said. It developed into a nice business for us. Otto has also been involved with acquiring and restoring historic buildings in Romania as part of a developing tourism industry. Since 2010, Otto has been working in Africa with his Ukrainian business, Agro Capital Management LLC, providing financing for aid efforts primarily in Tanzania. While many worthwhile efforts are under way to help in those areas, Otto said developing more of a middle class can really make a difference in the economy of Tanzania. To do so, he said providing resources to develop financial literacy is necessary. Being able to reach places farther away from his home in Arcola has increased as the ease of traveling and communicating has improved the ability to do business over the years, Otto said. Travel isn't as much a hurdle, Otto said. It's much easier to make global connections. Soybeans are becoming a valuable resource to boost the African economy, Otto said. He said soybeans can be a huge source of protein, so he is involved with efforts to increase soybean growing and discontinue reliance on fish meal. We are open for business once again at the state Capitol. The 2017 legislative session began on Tuesday, and after all members took their oath of office we elected our House speaker for the next two years, appointed some non-partisan House staffers to their official capacities, and established some temporary House rules. As always, I remain humbled by your support and am extremely thankful for the opportunity to serve you. In the coming months, most of our legislative business will take place in House Committees. Along with being named chairman of the Property Tax and Local Government Finance Division, I will also serve on the Taxes, Transportation Finance, and Ways and Means committees. But the bulk of my time will once again be spent seeking ways to make your property taxes more affordable. I was proud of the work our committee accomplished last year. We approved proposals that would have assisted farmers who have been unfairly burdened by school bond construction bond decisions over the years, as well as small business owners throughout Minnesota. We also approved the Property Taxpayer Empowerment Act which would give voters the opportunity to respond to a local government that they believe is being out of touch or fiscally irresponsible with their property tax dollars. Ultimately, no tax relief proposal, other than a break for our veterans, became law last session because of Governor Daytons political games. You have my assurance that I will fight for these tax relief proposals and many others as session moves forward. My goal on this topic is very clear: I want you to keep more of what you earn. Besides a tax relief debate, expect discussion on repealing MNSure and reintroducing market forces into health care in Minnesota. Throughout this session I encourage you to contact me at any time with your questions, concerns, or comments. You can call me at 651-296-2273, drop me an email at rep.steve.drazkowski@house.mn, or send a letter to 591 State Office Building, 100 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., St. Paul, MN 55155. Once again, thank you for the allowing me to serve as your voice at the State Capitol. Policies that prohibit college students from drinking alcohol are lethal. Binge drinking, which produces a blood-alcohol concentration to more than 0.08 percent, is popular among American college students, even though few of them are old enough legally to imbibe. Underage drinkers constitute an estimated 11 percent to 20 percent of the market for alcohol. Many students social-media accounts are filled with keg-stand selfies and Instagram photos of friends chugging bottles of cheap vodka. According to the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, four out of five college students drink. Almost two out of every three engaged in binge drinking. Some experts report that as much as 90 percent of the alcohol consumed by young people is consumed while binge drinking. As a result, nearly 700,000 students between 18 and 24 are assaulted each year by other students who have drunk alcohol. Some 97,000 sexual assaults among college students are attributed to drinking each year. About one in four college students report adverse academic outcomes as a result of their drinking, from missing classes to failing courses. Perhaps most tragically, more than 1,800 college students die every year of alcohol-related injuries, including car crashes. The legal drinking age in the United States is 21. However, this was not the case until 1984, when the National Minimum Drinking Age Act required the 50 states to raise their drinking age to 21 or lose 10 percent of their federal highway money. While this was expected to prevent dangerous behavior, it actually has made young Americans more likely to binge-drink. Economists would call college students demand for alcohol inelastic, which means that even if it becomes more expensive or harder to find, students are unlikely to change their behavior very much. Prohibiting young people from consuming alcohol doesnt stop them from drinking. But it does make drinking much less safe. Instead of drinking at a bar, for example, students drink secretly in dorm rooms or at clandestine parties, where they are much less likely to be supervised and where drinks spiked with drugs are much more likely. If someone overindulges or becomes ill, their friends are less likely to seek medical and other assistance. Why? Because underage drinking is illegal, and calls for help risk self-incrimination. Moreover, banning the sale of alcohol to people under 21 is certain to encourage binge drinking. As already noted, college students demand for alcohol doesnt really change when it becomes more costly. However, what does change is its supply: it becomes less reliable. Since most college students are unable to buy their own alcohol, they have friends, family members, or even strangers buy it for them. But these people are not always available. This lack of a reliable supply makes young drinkers are more likely to overindulge when alcohol is available. Lowering the drinking age would help mitigate or reverse these effects. With a reliable supply, young drinkers would have less incentive to binge. And when binging did occur, they would be more likely to seek help. Current policies do more harm than good. If we really want to make college campuses safer, its time to lower the drinking age. LA CROSSE, Wis. The Macys store in Valley View Mall is one of 68 Macys locations that will close nationwide later this year. The company announced the closings on Wednesday, which will affect 57 employees at the 101,000-square-foot store. Local store officials refused to comment on the decision and its impact. An exact closing date was not announced. Macys officials said the move will eliminate more than 10,000 jobs after a disappointing holiday shopping season. The department store chain also lowered its full-year earnings forecast in a report to investors. Daytons opened with Valley View Mall in 1980, became Marshall Fields in 2001, and was re-branded as Macys in 2006. The two nearest Macys are in Rochester, Minn., and Eau Claire, Wis. The Eau Claire location is also included in the announced closings. Macys also announced Wednesday that it plans to sell its store in downtown Minneapolis, ending more than a century of department store retailing in the heart of Minnesotas largest city. The closing, planned for March, affects 280 employees. The Star Tribune reports the property is being sold to a New York investment firm for more than $40 million. The property consists of three buildings totaling nearly 1 million square feet along Nicollet Mall. Minneapolis City Council President Barb Johnson says Macys representatives cited changing shopping habits and slumping sales for the stores closure. Company officials said the efforts were designed to streamline the companys store portfolio, intensify cost efficiency efforts and are part of the companys real estate strategy. Along with the closings, the company announced it would reorganize the field structure of the remaining stores to improve customer experiences and reduce expenses. The retailer said Wednesday that sales at established stores fell 2.1 percent in November and December compared to the same period last year. Macys Inc. pointed to changing consumer behavior and said it reflects challenges facing much of the retail industry. The moves are estimated to save $550 million annually. Shares in Macys fell more than 8 percent in after-hours trading. With its legal adviser in line for the top job in Sauk County government, the city of Baraboo may have a hire to make. On Tuesday, the County Boards executive and legislative committee voted unanimously to hire Alene Kleczek Bolin, the Baraboo city attorney, as administrative coordinator. The full board is expected to vote on the recommendation Jan. 17. Kleczek Bolin said Wednesday shes interested in the job, for which she was passed over in March. She previously worked in the countys legal office as an assistant corporation counsel for nearly nine years. If she leaves, the City Council will face hiring new legal counsel for the second time in a little more than a year. Kleczek Bolin was hired in February after the death of former City Attorney Mark Reitz. City Administrator Ed Geick said hell bring the possibility of Kleczek Bolins departure to the councils Personnel Committee when it meets Tuesday. However, city leaders hands will be tied until the county takes final action on Kleczek Bolins recommended hiring. Until shes actually appointed on the 17th, I cant say for sure we have an opening, Geick said. This is a bit of a change I dont think any of us were expecting. Kleczek Bolin has vowed to give the city adequate notice before giving up her duties. That would give us time to get a recruitment up and going, Geick said. Kleczek Bolin said she would stay at city hall as long as possible to help with the transition. She doesnt want the city to go too long without in-house legal adviser. Depending on what happens, I can give the city a decent amount of time to prepare for a recruitment and hopefully help someone transition, she said. If it finds itself in need of a new attorney, the city would advertise the position, accept applications and conduct interviews. A search team would recommend a hire, to be voted on by the council. The recommendation to hire Kleczek Bolin marks the latest surprising development in a turbulent effort to hire a county administrator, a position that has turned over several times recently. During a meeting last week, the County Boards executive and legislative committee agreed to review a list of finalists from its previous administrative coordinator search. Kleczek Bolin was not one of the six finalists, yet has been recommended for hire. The prior search culminated in March when the board approved the appointment of Renae Fry, a Minnesota attorney. She held the position until December, when she signed a separation agreement that entitles her to $135,000 over the course of a year. The person who served as interim administrative coordinator before Frys appointment also left under a separation agreement. Brentt Michalek accepted a buyout in June, about three months after he returned to his prior role as a department manager. He was paid nearly $25,000 to resign. Citizens and County Board members have called for a third-party inquiry into the circumstances of previous administrators departures, as well as their separation agreements. Some have suggested starting a new search, rather than turning to candidates from the old one. A pair of lost hikers was found Tuesday night at Devils Lake State Park shortly after calling for help from one of the parks emergency call boxes. According to the Baraboo Scanner Facebook page, the hikers called for help multiple times from the parks west bluff starting at 7:48 p.m. A signal from the call box is broadcast over radio frequencies used by park staff, and a private citizen who heard the call for help on a police scanner reported it to authorities. The Sauk County Dispatch Center sent a sheriffs deputy to investigate just before 8 p.m. The Baraboo Fire Department and EMS rope rescue team also responded to the scene. Baraboo Fire Chief Kevin Stieve said no ropes needed to be deployed and the hikers were found shortly after the rescue team was called. Neither hiker was injured. Stieve said the pair most likely got lost due to nighttime conditions combined with snow-covered trails. He said they had used light from their cell phones to see the path until their phone batteries died. They hiked the west and east bluff before getting lost and may have been exposed for more than three hours, Stieve said. The National Weather Service in Milwaukee recorded a temperature of 15 degrees in Baraboo at the time of the rescue with a wind chill of negative two degrees. Devils Lake State Park Superintendent Steve Schmelzer said park officials usually monitor calls made from the emergency phone boxes year-round, but because the call for help came after park hours, no one was on duty. The park is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. during the winter months. A sign above the call box states it is not monitored 24 hours a day and directs users who do not receive a response to seek other emergency help. Sauk County Board Chair Marty Krueger took steps outside the publics view to bring forth a candidate who may become the countys next chief administrator. Krueger brought that candidate before a committee he chairs Tuesday, but never reached out to other applicants the committee previously told him it wanted to consider. Those revelations raise new questions about the process to replace former Sauk County Administrative Coordinator Renae Fry, who signed a $135,000 separation agreement Dec. 2 after an undisclosed list of allegations against her emerged. Public decision During a Dec. 29 meeting, the boards Executive and Legislative Committee decided the next step to finding Frys replacement should be a review of prior finalists for the position in closed session. Krueger scheduled a meeting Tuesday that went beyond that procedural step. On the agenda, he included a closed-session interview with a candidate he had contacted prior to the Dec. 29 meeting. That candidate was an applicant, but not among the list of six finalists the county identified during the prior search. Private discussion Marty had approached me and asked if I would be interested, so I thought about it, talked to some people, and decided I was interested, said Baraboo City Attorney Alene Kleczek Bolin. He let me know theyd be interviewing me on Tuesday. Kleczek Bolin, who worked for nearly nine years as an attorney in the countys legal office before she accepted the city job, said Krueger contacted her before Christmas. After a nearly three-hour closed session discussion Tuesday, the five-person committee reconvened in open session and recommended Kleczek Bolin for the position. The full board will consider her appointment Jan. 17. Krueger did not return a phone call Wednesday seeking comment, and another committee member said he wont comment on the process that led to Kleczek Bolins selection. That was discussed in closed session, and Im not going to go there, said Supervisor Dennis Polivka of Spring Green. The county board authorized a $24,000 contract with an Appleton firm to coordinate the last search, which ended in March with Frys appointment. Candidates among the prior list of finalists say no one has reached out to ask if they still are interested. Daniel Elsass I havent heard a word about it, said Daniel Elsass, who works as human resources coordinator and risk manager for the village of Deerfield, Illinois. Thanks for the update, but no, they did not reach out to me. Elsass has more than 14 years of administrative experience, including 20 months as the Baraboo city administrator, according to his resume. He also has worked as a government auditor and a consultant on executive recruitment, compensation plans, and organizational restructuring. David Nord Actually, I have not been contacted by anybody, said David Nord, who has a masters in public administration from Northern Illinois University. The Rockford, Illinois, resident has more than 25 years of experience in local government administration. He also has worked for an economic development arm of village government. Nord said if someone from the county would contact him, he would be interested in the position. Id be interested in talking about it, he said. Art Osten Jr. I have not been contacted by Sauk County, Art Osten Jr. said in an email. He has worked in various local government administrative positions since 1983, according to his resume. Osten Jr. currently works as an associate with a local government consulting firm out of Oshkosh. He would not say whether he still is interested in the position, but said he would let the county know if someone were to contact him. Shawn Murphy Portage City Administrator Shawn Murphy could not be reached for comment. A city employee said he is on vacation. Murphy has more than 18 years experience as an administrator with village and city governments. The two remaining finalists included Fry and former Sauk County Interim Administrative Coordinator Brentt Michalek, who signed a separation agreement with the county in June in which he was paid nearly $25,000 to resign. That buyout came about three months after Michalek returned to his prior position as a department manager. The county has offered no explanation for the departure, and Michaleks former oversight committee was not consulted about it. One member of that committee, Supervisor Connie Lehman of Reedsburg, said she had a conversation with Krueger in which he was aware of negotiations related to Michaleks separation agreement. Krueger has said he does not recall the conversation, and had nothing to do with Michaleks departure. This article was updated Jan. 5, 2017, to correct the length of time Kleczek Bolin worked for the county's legal office. The BP Gas Station at 1112 S. Madison St., Beaver Dam, was robbed for a second time in a week at 9:13 p.m. Tuesday and now a $500 reward is being offered. Deepa Garcha, who has owned the BP Gas Station for more than 20 years, said she is puzzled by the recent robberies. I dont want to blame it on the location, she said. The robberies have occurred within the last few years, according to Garcha. The station has become a target with robberies reported Dec. 31, 2016, Dec. 8, 2015, and Jan. 19, 2014. She said this could happen at any gas station in Beaver Dam and she is looking to upgrade some security measures. She said the station does have operating security cameras, despite what she has read online. People are making ridiculous comments on Facebook, she said. Dodge County Sheriff Dale Schmidt announced the reward in a news release Tuesday night. He said the station owners are offering the reward for credible information leading to the arrest and conviction of the man who robbed the station. Garcha said that the sheriffs office has been "amazing." I think they will solve this, she said. The suspect is described as a white male between 5 feet 7 inches and 5 feet 10 inches tall, with a thin build. He was wearing a bandanna or similar item over his face, a hooded sweatshirt and jeans. An undisclosed amount of cash was taken Tuesday. No weapon was displayed in the robbery, but Schmidt said the clerk acted appropriately not knowing if the suspect may have been hiding a weapon. Video cameras are being reviewed but no images are available to be released at this time. The suspect fled on foot in a northerly direction from the gas station toward the Lakecrest Drive apartment complexes. The BP station was also robbed at 9 p.m. on Dec. 31 by a suspect with the same description as in the Tuesday robbery. The man demanded money from an employee in that robbery and was given an undisclosed amount of cash before leaving. Those with information are asked to contact the Dodge County Sheriffs Office at 386-3726, extension 4. Attorney Todd Snow announced on his campaign's Facebook page Wednesday that he will withdraw from the race for Dodge County Circuit Court Judge. Snow wrote: "Due to a family medical issue, I have decided to end my candidacy for judge. This was an easy decision, as my family is the most important thing I have. I thank all those who supported me, and assure you that, when another position opens up in Dodge County, I will run again." Lyle Lidholm, a Korean War veteran from Watertown who has hiked thousands of miles, provided the capstone donation for phase one of the Gold Star Memorial Trail. The trail is the brainchild of Andrew Johnson, a Gold Star father and newspaper publisher. He conceived of a trail that would connect Mayville, Horicon and Beaver Dam as well as the Horicon Marsh and Wild Goose State Trail. Johnson, whose son U.S. Army Lt. David Johnson died in Afghanistan in January 2012, wanted the trail to be a tribute to Dodge County service men and women who lost their lives since 2001. As interest in the trail has grown, the tribute has as well and it is now intended to honor all Wisconsin men and women who have died in military service to the United States as well as their families. The 14-mile trail will be built in a number of phases with the first phase stretching from Mayville to the Horicon Marsh Education Center. Fundraising for the $650,000 needed to complete phase 1 started in 2014. At the start of 2016, $200,000 was needed to complete phase one funding. The Bachhuber Foundation offered $100,000 matching grant if the funds could be raised by the end of the year. Lidholms donation did the job. Johnson wrote in a Dodge County Pionier story: I immediately inquired as to why he was so willing to give this large donation to a neighboring community. He told me that there was a story to tell and that he fought in Korea in 1952-1953. I was so excited that I started to cry because he was combat military and certainly knows what Gold Star means. Johnson and his wife, as well as Gold Star parents Greg and Barb Gassen of Beaver Dam went to Watertown to pick up the donation from Lidholm and hear his story. Lidholm told them that after his service during the Korean War, he worked at Old World Wisconsin was trained in a variety of special construction techniques so he could restore and construct buildings using timber framing construction. He was let go from that job and started his own the timber framing and log home construction business. After he retired, he continued to use his building skills to help build boardwalks and bridges for the Ice Age Trail in Wisconsin. He also built the visitors center at the High Ground Veterans Memorial in Neillsville, Wisconsin. Trails have been a passion for Lidholm since he started hiking as a Boy Scout. For more than 60 years, the 84-year-old Lidholm hiked thousands of miles include all 1,100 miles Ice Age Trail, 850 miles of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail and at age 78, the 1,000-mile Pilgrim Trail in southern France. He read about the Gold Star Memorial Trail in the Watertown Daily Times and soon called Johnson to donate to a project that combines his lifelong support of trails and veterans. Design work on the Phase 1 project is on-going, according to Bill Ehlenbeck, Dodge County Parks & Trails Manager. He said he expects final draft designs to be released at a public meeting in February. Upon finalizing the designs, project construction will be bid out with completion and opening of the trail anticipated by summer. Johnson said there will be an opening celebration once the trail is complete. For more information or to make a donation for future phases, go to goldstarmemorialtrailwi.org. Andrew Johnson of Dodge County Pionier contributed to this story. Patty Clark Patty Jean Clark, Markesan, passed away peacefully Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2016, at ThedaCare Medical Center in Berlin. Born Oct. 26, 1933, in Brownstown, Illinois, Patty Jean was the daughter of Howard and Goldy (Blem) Harre. Her spirited attitude and beautiful smile caught the attention of James Clark and they were united in marriage Aug, 10, 1952, in Clinton, Illinois. They moved to Rochelle, Illinois, where they both worked for Del Monte Corporation; Pat as a telephone switchboard operator. Pat later worked for the Rochelle School District as a closed circuit educational TV coordinator. After a brief stay in Ogdan, Utah, where Pat had various jobs including working for a collection agency and a clothing retail store, they moved to Markesan in 1984. Pat quickly become active in the community and was a member of Markesan United Methodist Church, was a girl and boy scout leader, was an avid bridge (card) player, and was a member of I.O.O.F. Pat also worked at Markesan Resident Home and Slate Law Offices. Pat is survived by her husband of 64 years, James; a son, Stephen James of California; eight grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; nieces, nephews and other relatives and friends. A dedicated wife and mother, she was preceded in death by a son, Martin L. Clark; a daughter, Cheryl (Clark) Macy; a brother, Gary Harre; and a sister in infancy. Visitation will be held from 4 to 6 p.m., Friday, Jan. 6, at Markesan Community Funeral Home, 868 N. Margaret St., and from 9 to 10 a.m., Saturday, Jan. 7, at Markesan United Methodist Church, 74 E. Catherine St. A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m., Saturday, Jan. 7, at the church, with the Rev. Ethan Larson officiating. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the United Methodist Church, 74 E. Catherine St., Markesan. 100 years ago, Jan. 5, 1917 MATTOON -- After an all-night rainfall, snow fell this morning for a short time, the flakes being unusually large and beautiful. Many of the flakes measured from one inch to one and a half inches across. Owing to the ground being wet and without frost, most of the flakes melted immediately. The rainfall, up to 8 o'clock this morning, according to C.L. James, superintendent of the municipal water plant, measured 1.02 inches... MATTOON -- Here are eight hints that will add 10 years to your life. 1. Don't overeat. Too much food clogs the intestines. 2. Don't drink booze. Drink pure water. 3. Sleep with your windows open. 4. Bathe every day. 5. Wash your hands before eating. 6. Keep your teeth in good condition. 7. Take a walk every day. 8. Don't worry over things you can't control... ARCOLA -- Alva Watson of Galton hauled 10 head of pigs to town Monday and sold them to M.J. McCafferty. They were just nine months old and weighed an average of 275 pounds. They brought 10 cents a pound so each porker was worth $27.50. Hogs that grow into money that fast are entitled to ride to market in a limousine. 50 years ago, 1967 CHARLESTON -- Charles L. Talbott today assumed duties as acting police chief. Talbott was named to the position by the Charleston City Council this week. He replaces Leo Carter, who asked to step down as head of the department because "of the pressure of the office." Carter will remain on the police force as a captain... MATTOON -- Miss Mattoon of 1953, a five-year secretary at MGM Studios in Hollywood, now is one of the top rodeo riders in the country. Mrs. Rex Johnson, the former Rosina Alexander, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Alexander of Mattoon, ended the 1966 season as one of the top five money winners in the western circuit as a barrel-race rider. Her husband, Rex, originally is from Omaha, Neb., and always has been around horses. They married in 1958. She began racing in 1962 and now is president of the California Girls Rodeo Association. 25 years ago, 1992 Sunday. No paper. 100 years ago, Jan. 6, 1917 MATTOON -- A Ford delivery car of Faris & Barger, 2011 Western Ave., driven by James Butler, was struck by an eastbound street car at 17th Street and Broadway this morning about 7:15 o'clock. The automobile was dragged about 50 feet, but it was not damaged much, one axle being bent slightly. The fender of the street car was wrecked. Butler drove the Ford away under its own power... MATTOON -- The annual meeting of the Railroad Young Men's Christian Association was held Friday evening. Secretary Starkey showed receipts for the year of $6,576.20, with all bills paid and a balance in the treasury. Officers elected for 1917 were J.W. Bledsoe, president; C.W. Kincaid, vice president; J.H. Nims, recording secretary; and W.E. Fye, treasurer. 50 years ago, 1967 MATTOON -- The birth rate declined slightly in 1966, following a pattern that has been established in Mattoon over the last five years, according to the Mattoon city clerk's office. A total of 606 babies were born in Mattoon Memorial Hospital in 1966, nine fewer than in 1965 and 143 less than in 1962. Over the past five years, births have declined by an average 28.6 babies per year. In 1966, there were 36 more boys born than girls... MATTOON -- Fire losses and calls answered by firemen both showed sizable increases in Mattoon during the past year. The total estimated loss from fires in 1966 was $268,005, according to the annual report prepared by Fire Chief L.R. Metzelaars. This figure is $78,504, or 41.5 percent, more than the 1965 fire loss of $189,505. The biggest fire loss of 1966 occurred on Feb. 2, when the Sun Broom Co. and Royal Crown Distributing Co. were destroyed by flames with a loss set at $61,860. Fire calls in 1966 totaled 335, compared with 286 the previous year. 25 years ago, 1992 CHARLESTON -- Union workers voted overwhelmingly to strike against Trailmobile if a new contract is not reached by midnight Jan. 16. The current contract expires at that time. A spokesman for the Allied Industrial Workers union, the vote was taken Sunday in Mattoon. Trailmobile builds truck trailers for semi-trailers. The company was purchased by a Canadian firm in 1991 CHARLESTON -- Kathy Spence, realtor associate with Linda Nugent & Associates, was recently named Realtor Associate of the Year for 1991 by the East Central Illinois Board of Realtors. She was honored by realtor members in Coles, Clark, Crawford, Cumberland, Douglas and Edgar counties. The selection is based on the agents professional and civic activities on the local, state and national levels, as well as reputation in the community MATTOON R.R. Donnelley and Sons Co. has pledged $40,000 to the Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Foundation in support of the health centers master facility plan. Donnelley officials designated the funds for use in the expansion and renovation of the ambulatory care area. John Campanelli, a Donnelley vice president and the Mattoon Division director, said the company recognizes the importance of the health centers expansion to the good of the community. He said the company wants to do its part to ensure that Donnelley employees and their families have access to quality, cost-effective health care A Madison man who shot and killed his 19-year-old step-daughter before shooting himself in May had argued by text message with his wife about a divorce she wanted shortly before he committed the murder-suicide, Madison police detectives who investigated the case said. The last message Mike Jackson sent to Susan Jackson, his wife and the mother of the slain teen, TuNeija Tornai, on the morning of May 24, read, I love u c u next life time I tried, according to a police account of the incident provided at the request of the Wisconsin State Journal. Police also explained why two guns were on the bed where the bodies were found and how they were fired. The murder-suicide in the family home off Siggelkow Road stunned friends and neighbors of the family in the close-knit Twin Oaks community on Madisons Southeast Side, near McFarland. Tornais friends remembered her as thoughtful, generous and fun-loving, as they addressed a crowd of some 150 people who gathered on the night of the incident and for a vigil outside the familys home two days after the deaths. Madison Police Chief Mike Koval described the incident as domestic violence and a murder-suicide in which the 39-year-old step-father was the aggressor. Koval spoke to reporters a few hours after the bodies were discovered by Susan Jackson in a basement bedroom she shared with her husband, shortly after she arrived home from work that day around 6 p.m. with the couples 14-year-old son. The newspaper asked police for a more detailed narrative of the incident after a search warrant unsealed in December stated investigators discovered two handguns on the bed on which the bodies of Jackson and his step-daughter, each shot once, were found, with Jacksons body at the foot of the bed and Tornais at the top. One gun, a black 9mm semiautomatic pistol found near Jacksons left elbow, was jammed. The other gun, a silver revolver, was found in the center of the bed, according to the search warrant. Test fires of the guns at the state Crime Lab showed the gun that jammed after firing one bullet was the one used to kill Tornai. Similarly, a test firing of the silver revolver produced a round that matched the one taken from Jacksons body. Police determined both guns, which were registered to Mike Jackson, had been fired only once, and Jacksons DNA was found on both weapons. There were no bullet holes in the bedroom, which showed no signs of a robbery or a struggle, except for one defensive wound to Tornais right hand. The house also showed no signs of forced entry, further confirming to police that no one else had been there. Police theorized that Tornais defensive wound, described as a through-and-through gunshot wound to one of her fingers, occurred as she tried to cover her head with her hands as she was being shot in the head by Jackson. Police believe the handgun used to kill Tornai jammed when it was fired because its muzzle was touching her hand. Police theorize Jackson didnt know how to fix the jammed gun, so he left it on the bed and walked to a gun safe in the bedroom closet, from which he retrieved the second gun, loaded it and shot himself in the head with it. Keys to the gun safe were found still in the safes locking mechanism, according to the incident narrative provided to the newspaper by case detectives Mark Hull and Brad Ware and their supervisor, Detective Lt. Melissa Schiferl. Police also noted the autopsy showed Tornais core body temperature was lower than Jacksons, citing that as additional evidence that she was killed first. Police found Mike Jacksons cellphone on the bed on the night of the killings, later extracting from it the series of text messages with his wife about a divorce that police said seem to have prompted his decision to kill himself. Hull said it appeared Jackson also killed Tornai merely because she was the only other person home at the time. An autopsy found no street drugs or alcohol in Jacksons system, police confirmed. Mike Jackson was an employee at East Madison Community Center, where he worked his way up to assistant youth program manager and was described as a genuine and caring co-worker who always wanted to make a difference, the centers executive director, Tom Moen, said a day after the murder-suicide. However, according to a search warrant, Tornai told friends that he threw her down some stairs in 2015, pushed her into walls in an incident in late 2015 or early 2016, and hit or slapped her on a few occasions while she was a student at La Follette High School. Congressman Ron Kind of La Crosse was one of four Democrats to oppose re-electing Rep. Nancy Pelosi as U.S. House Minority leader, saying national Democrats need new leadership after a surprisingly poor showing in the November election. In Tuesday's leadership election, Kind voted for Rep. Jim Cooper, a Tennessee Democrat and member of the centrist "Blue Dog" congressional caucus, Roll Call and other publications reported. "I think someone new would be a breath of fresh air," Kind told the Wisconsin State Journal in an interview. Kind said another concern is the advancing age of House Democratic leaders. Pelosi, D-Ca., Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., and Assistant Democratic Leader James Clyburn, D-S.C., all are at 76 or older. Kind's resistance to Pelosi is not new. Immediately after the closed-door vote that presaged Tuesday's public leadership election, Kind declined to say if he supported Pelosi. After the 2010 elections, when Democrats also took a drubbing and lost control of the House, Kind voted for Cooper in that leadership election. The congressional district Kind represents, western Wisconsin's 3rd district, is emblematic of the Democratic Party's struggles. Made up largely of small- to mid-sized cities and rural areas, the district voted twice for Barack Obama. This time it went for GOP President-elect Donald Trump. Kind said Democrats continue to fare well in areas with booming economies, such as the East and West coasts or, closer to home, places such as Dane County. But in rural areas and small towns, many of which struggled to recover from the Great Recession, Kind said voters increasingly feel overlooked by Democrats. Kind said Democratic elected officials and party leaders need more events and organizing efforts in those communities to understand their concerns -- and show those voters they care. "The Democratic Party has got to show up and listen to people, especially in rural areas," Kind said. After Hillary Clinton became the first Democratic presidential nominee to lose Wisconsin since Walter Mondale in 1984, many have questioned her campaign's decision not to visit the state after the primary election. Kind said Clinton's absence from Wisconsin was a clear misstep. "She didn't set foot in Wisconsin once after the primary. I knew that was going to be a problem," Kind said. Calling opioid abuse a public health crisis, Gov. Scott Walker on Thursday convened a special session of the Legislature to take up a slew of bills on the topic. Rep. John Nygren, who this year is continuing his focus on authoring opioid measures, said a special session will raise awareness of the crisis. Nygren, R-Marinette, said it also will enable lawmakers to focus more intensely on the issue before tackling others, such as the 2017-19 state budget. This is a priority for us as a state, as probably our first initiative right out of the gate in 2017, Nygren said. Bills likely to be taken up in the special session include: Allowing school personnel to administer drugs on school premises to counteract opioid overdoses. Requiring prescriptions for cough syrups currently sold over the counter that contain codeine, which is an opioid. Creating a new charter recovery school for students to simultaneously attend high school and get drug treatment. Permitting relatives to commit a drug-addicted family member for treatment in the same manner as they currently may be for alcoholism. Giving immunity from prosecution for drug possession to people who call 911 to seek medical help for an overdose. This would expand a law providing limited immunity to people who call 911 to report that someone else overdosed. These measures were recommended by an opioid task force led by Nygren and Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch. Nygren and Walker spokesman Tom Evenson said those recommendations will form the basis for the special session bills. Opioids are defined by the state Department of Health Services as any drug, natural or synthetic, with morphine-like effects, including illegal drugs such as heroin as well as prescription painkillers. Abuse of the drugs has become a growing problem nationally. In Wisconsin, opioid-related overdose deaths more than tripled from 194 in 2003 to 622 in 2014, according to the state Department of Health Services. Walker seeks momentum A special session can be called by the governor to address specific bills. Since the 19th century governors have called 93 special sessions, including one at the beginning of the 2011-13 session to spur job creation. Evenson said Walker is calling the latest special session because it provides added momentum and highlights the need to act quickly. Also Thursday, Walker signed three executive orders relating to opioids, including one requesting the special session and outlining bills to pass. Other legislation requested by Walker would allocate funds to medical, criminal and treatment efforts to combat opioids. The funding requests, all for the 2017-2019 budget, include: $63,000 per year to the rural hospital graduate medical training program. $1 million per year for grants to support new medically assisted treatment centers. $500,000 per year for a consultation service for medical professionals to access addiction medicine specialists. $420,000 per year for four additional criminal investigation agents at the state Department of Justice focused on drug interdiction and trafficking. $100,000 per year to expand the Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment training program offered by the state Department of Public Instruction. Another order signed by Walker calls on state agencies to adopt additional recommendations from the opioid task force and ask the Department of Health Services to apply for up to $7.6 million in federal grants made available through a recently passed federal act. U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison, wrote Walker last month, urging him to seek the funding. On Thursday she called his decision to do so a significant step forward and said combating heroin abuse will require action from state and federal lawmakers from both parties. At a Wisconsin Bankers Association luncheon Thursday in Madison, Walker linked the special session on opioid addiction to his goal of getting more Wisconsinites into the workforce. He said of drug addicts: I get you clean, I can find you a job in this state. Those are more people on the sidelines, Walker said. If theyre addicted to drugs theyre not in the game. More legislation coming? Additional measures may be forthcoming beyond the changes sought by the opioid task force. Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, speaking to reporters Tuesday, said lawmakers may need to curtail the ability of medical professionals to prescribe opioids. Measures restricting opioid prescriptions have been adopted in a few other states, despite concerns from medical providers. One is Massachusetts, which last year enacted a law limiting initial opioid prescriptions to a seven-day supply, The Boston Globe reported. Fitzgerald spokeswoman Myranda Tanck said Thursday the majority leader looks forward to working with the governor to expand on the legislation addressing drug abuse that has passed over the last two legislative sessions, known as the HOPE (Heroin, Opioid Prevention and Education) agenda. Nygren said he hopes bills will be formally introduced and committees begin to take them up in the coming weeks. He said lawmakers tentatively aim to begin passing bills in the full Assembly and Senate in early February. Assembly Democratic Leader Peter Barca of Kenosha said in a statement that the opioid epidemic in our state is a very serious issue that requires a very aggressive response. The urgency of this special session is warranted, and I hope Gov. Walker takes the same approach to other incredibly significant issues facing Wisconsin families right now, Barca added. The HOPE agenda so far has included 17 bills signed into law over the past two sessions. They include measures that have: Increased funding by $7 million over the past four years for treatment alternative diversion programs. Required photo ID when picking up narcotic prescriptions. Required emergency responder training to administer the anti-overdose drug Naloxone Narcan. Granted criminal immunity to people who contact police to report someone else has overdosed. Created more reporting requirements for the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program and methadone clinics. Made Narcan available without a prescription. Given the Department of Health Services some oversight of pain management clinics and criminalized production of fake bodily fluids intended to fool a drug test. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker on Wednesday called for a special session of the state Legislature to take up proposals designed to combat heroin and opioid abuse. The call for a special session is one of three executive orders Walker will sign Wednesday at ceremonies throughout the state. The proposals come from a report released by Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch and Rep. John Nygren, R-Marinette, based on recommendations from the governor's task force on opioid abuse. "This is a public health crisis, and thats why Im calling a special session of the Legislature and directing state agencies to ramp up the states response," Walker said in a statement. The effort to fight heroin and opiate abuse from within the state Legislature started several years ago with Nygren, whose daughter has struggled with addiction. In 2014, Nygren ushered a package of bills aimed at curbing heroin abuse and deaths through the Legislature with unanimous support. That set of bills was signed into law by the governor that year. Recognizing prescription opiates as a gateway to heroin use, his second round of bills focused on prescription painkillers, and was again passed unanimously and signed into law by Walker. Attorney General Brad Schimel, who has made fighting opioid abuse a top priority, told the Capital Times late last month he is "encouraged" by the progress state government, law enforcement and the medical community has made in the effort. The executive orders Walker will sign on Wednesday direct state agencies to take further action to combat opioid abuse and addiction based on the report's recommendations, call for a special session and direct the state Department Health Services to apply for federal funding made available by the passage of the 21st Century CURES Act. The act makes available up to $7.6 million per year for two years to Wisconsin for programs responding to the opioid crisis. Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin was one of several senators who led the effort to include that funding in the bill. The bills the governor is asking the Legislature to consider include the following: LRB-1026, relating to opioid antagonist administration in schools; LRB-1327, relating to opioid treatment and diversion programs and providing funding; LRB-1323, relating to limited immunity for people who receive first responder care following a drug overdose; LRB-1325, relating to prescription requirements for certain Schedule V controlled substances; LRB-1328, relating to the civil commitment of people experiencing substance abuse addiction; LRB-0639, relating to the University of Wisconsin System chartering a recovery school; Legislation allocating $63,000 per year of the 2017-2019 biennium to the rural hospital graduate medical training program; Legislation allocating $1,000,000 per year of the 2017-2019 biennium for grants to support new medically assisted treatment centers; Legislation allocating $500,000 per year of the 2017-2019 biennium for a consultation service for medical professionals to access addiction medicine specialists; Legislation allocating $420,000 per year of the 2017-2019 biennium for four additional criminal investigation agents at the Wisconsin Department of Justice (WisDOJ) focused on drug interdiction and trafficking; and Legislation allocating $100,000 per year of the 2017-2019 biennium to expand the Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) training program offered by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI). The recommendations included in the report are "not a silver bullet," Nygren said in a statement. "Well continue to prioritize this issue by expanding upon treatment and diversion programs, working to reduce instances of overprescribing, and further destigmatizing addiction," he said. The timeline for when the bills will be taken up is still in flux depending on when they are introduced. "Speaker Vos is pleased with the call for a special session in order to pass additional legislation in the fight against opioid and heroin abuse and draw more attention to the issue. He is looking to build upon the HOPE Agenda, which produced 17 laws that received widespread support and are making a difference in Wisconsin,"said Kit Beyer, spokeswoman for Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester. The Assembly hopes to hold committee hearings on the new bills by the end of the month, Beyer sad. "The urgency of this special session is warranted, and I hope Gov. Walker takes the same approach to other incredibly significant issues facing Wisconsin families right now, including rebuilding the most diminished middle class in the country. As elected officials, we need to do everything we can to address those who are hurting," said Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, D-Kenosha. Barca said he hopes the committee will receive input from people with firsthand experience with the opiate abuse issue. "We look forward to working with the Governor to expand on the HOPE legislation passed over the last two legislative sessions to continue to fight to address Wisconsins growing heroin and opiate epidemic," said Myranda Tanck, a spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau. The Portage community is rallying around a prominent local family after a Kansas car crash left the husband dead and the wife paralyzed. How are people coming to the aid of the Heisz family? Lets count the ways: Today is red and purple day at Portage High School part of a student-initiated effort to show support for one of their own, 15-year-old sophomore Cameron Heisz, whose father, Lee, was killed in the crash Friday near Chanute, Kansas, and whose mother, Carol, was seriously injured. Red was Lee Heiszs favorite color, said PHS Principal Robin Kvalo, and purple is Carols favorite color so students and staff are being encouraged to wear either color, or both. Tonight, starting at 4:30 p.m., the Portage Pizza Ranch, 2905 New Pinery Road, will donate 10 percent of the proceeds to the Heisz family and offer opportunities for customers to give more. On Friday during school, and at the Portage High School boys basketball game with DeForest, students will hold a bake sale and donate all the proceeds to the Heisz family. The Carol and Lee Heisz Fund, established on the website gofundme.com, as of Wednesday evening has raised more than $13,000 toward the goal of $50,000 for Carol Heiszs ongoing medical and rehabilitation needs. A Lee and Carol Heisz Fund has been established at Bank Mutual, 145 E. Cook St., with all money going directly to the family. Make checks payable to the Lee and Carol Heisz Fund. The Portage Rotary Club, of which Carol is a longtime member, is also collecting donations for the Heisz family. The loss that the family has experienced is overwhelming, said Susan Miller of Merrimac, Carol Heiszs younger sister, who has been with Carol in a trauma center at Joplin, Missouri, where she was flown for treatment after the crash. But the support for the family coming from the community also is astounding, she said. This community is so supportive, I cant believe it, Miller said. I cant believe how many people have reached out to us. Lee Heisz, 47, was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash on U.S. Highway 169 near Chanute, Kansas, as he and Carol were returning from a holiday celebration with his family in Missouri. According to the Kansas Highway Patrol, a 17-year-old driver rear-ended the Heisz car, causing it to run off the road into a ditch. Customer support Carols father, Dennis Daehn who operates the family business, Portage Printing said even customers coming into the shop to order printing jobs, or to check on the status of an order, are inviting him to talk through his grief. And I appreciate the heck out of it, he said. Kvalo said the students and staff at PHS immediately came together to rally around the Heisz family after they got word of the crash. This is just another example of what great students we have at Portage High School, she said. And theyll provide ongoing support for the family. Miller said she hopes Cameron, her nephew, will be at PHS today to experience his schoolmates support, and at Pizza Ranch tonight. The Heiszs older son, Jordan, 21, a 2014 PHS graduate, remains in Missouri with his mother, and is expected to attend his fathers visitation and funeral. A memorial service will be held later in Portage, when Carol is able to attend. Permanent paralysis According to Miller, family members have been taking turns spending time with Carol who is likely permanently paralyzed from the chest down, though she can move her arms. Miller said Carol has small fractures in her neck that are expected to heal on their own, as will fractures in her jaw and left orbital ring. She had surgery to fuse her spine, but is now off the ventilator alert and talking, and aware of what has happened, though she has no memory of the accident. The plan, Miller said, is for Carols medical team in Missouri to get her condition sufficiently stable so that she can be airlifted to a Wisconsin hospital for rehabilitation. Daehn, Carols father, looks forward to the day she can return to work partly because, he said, she understands the computer-electronic aspects of the printing business better than other employees. Meanwhile, people in Portage continue to find ways to be generous in their support. Portage School Board member Connie Shlimovitz said she plans to donate her quarterly stipend for her School Board service $512 and change to the Heisz family. Shlimovitz said she does not keep her School Board compensation, and has donated it to other causes in the past. She inquired, on the Heisz familys GoFundMe page, how to make a cash donation. What I gave, she said, is such a small portion of what they need, and what others are giving. Its just incredible. Lee Loren Heisz Lee Loren Heisz, son of the Rev. Loren Louie and Marylou Sheridan Heisz, was born Aug. 30, 1969, in Richland Center. He departed this life Friday, Dec. 30, 2016, from injuries suffered in a car accident, near Chanute, Kansas, at the age of 47 years. On Oct. 1, 1993, he was united in marriage to Carol Lynn Daehn, and to this union two sons were born. His father preceded him in death. Lee is survived by his wife, Carol, of the home; two sons, Jordan and Cameron Heisz, of the home; his mother, Marylou Heisz, Lebanon, Missouri; two brothers, Lance Heisz, and his wife, Kim, Lebanon, Missouri, and Lowell Heisz, Osage Beach, Missouri; a sister, Lisa Dedrick, and her husband, Jaret, Portage; a number of nieces and nephews; two sisters-in-law, Laura Wentz, and Susan Miller, both of Portage; an aunt, Joan Roberts, and her husband, Woodrow, Boscobel; an uncle, Mark Heisz, and his wife, Theresa, Lebanon, Missouri; as well as a host of other relatives and friends. He was born in Wisconsin, and lived in various locations with his family, including Michigan, Illinois and Oklahoma, while his father was serving in the ministry. After he graduated from high school, he attended Calvary Bible College in Kansas City, Missouri. Most of his life he spent in Wisconsin and in Portage for over 22 years. Lee had worked as a carpenter doing building construction, but was currently employed by Tractor Supply in Portage. Lee had established a deep, personal, quiet faith in God. In his spare time he liked hunting and fishing and also enjoyed working on CJ Jeeps. He had an outgoing personality and never met a stranger. He was well-liked by all of his friends and enjoyed hosting cookouts and social functions. His family was most important to him and being a devoted husband and father was his highest priority. He especially enjoyed spending time with Jordan, Cameron and Carol. Lee was a loving husband, father, son, brother, uncle, nephew, and was a caring neighbor and friend. We celebrate his life and know that his family and friends will treasure the wonderful memories he made for them during his lifetime. Services will be at 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 7, 2017, at Holman-Howe Funeral Home of Lebanon, Missouri. Visitation will be from 1 p.m. until service time at the funeral home. Memorial donations to the Carol and Lee Heisz Fund may be made through Bank Mutual, 145 E. Cook St., Portage, WI 53901. Yes, Simon's Cat is between the covers again The new book is called Simon's Cat vs the World and you can win your own copy, acco... 280 million-year-old fossil reveals origins of chimaeroid fishes Discovery allows scientists to connect the last major vertebrate group to the tree of life. High-definition CT scans of the fossilized skull of a 280 million-year-old fish reveal the origin of chimaeras, a group of cartilaginous fish related to sharks. Analysis of the brain case of Dwykaselachus oosthuizeni, a shark-like fossil from South Africa, shows telltale structures of the brain, major cranial nerves, nostrils and inner ear belonging to modern-day chimaeras. This discovery, published early online in Nature on Jan. 4, allows scientists to firmly anchor chimaeroids the last major surviving vertebrate group to be properly situated on the tree of life in evolutionary history, and sheds light on the early development of these fish as they diverged from their deep, shared ancestry with sharks. The paper was co-authored by Dr Rob Gess, a partner of the South African Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Palaeosciences, who is based at the Albany Museum in Grahamstown. The CoE is hosted at Wits University as part of the Evolutionary Studies Institute. The origin of holocephalan fish (chimaeras) has long puzzled scientists, who had worked out the evolutionary relationships of all other major living vertebrate groups. Chimaeras were clearly somehow related to sharks and rays but they are very different, with a very distinctive skull. All fossil chimaeras were already completely chimaera so there were no recognised in-between forms to bridge the gap between their ancestors and the ancestors of modern sharks, says Gess. Our research demonstrates that Dwykaselachus provides the missing piece of the puzzle, as it has features of certain primitive sharks as well as of chimaeras. We can now anchor chimaeras firmly on the tree of vertebrate life. There are about 50 living species of chimaeras, known in South Africa as the Josef, St. Joseph sharks or elephant sharks. They represent one of four fundamental divisions of modern vertebrate biodiversity and are actually very different from sharks with large eyes and tooth plates, adapted for grinding prey. St Joseph sharks generally live very deep in the ocean, but come into shallower waters to breed in summer. As a result they are often caught in summer as bicatch and are also sometimes deliberately netted on the west coast of the Western Cape. Their meat is however rather oily and they are not a popular dish. Sharks and chimaeras both have skeletons of cartilage, so, other than teeth and fin support spines, fossils of both groups are very rare. None of these had previously shown a combination of characters of both groups, says Gess. The Dwykaselachus fossil resolves this issue. It was originally discovered by amateur paleontologist and farmer Roy Oosthuizen in the 1980s. Oosthuizen discovered the fossil on his farm, Zwartskraal in the Prince Albert district, while he was out in the veld with his son. He found the nodule of rock that had weathered out of 280 million year old mudstone, just 30 centimetres above the top of the Dwyka glacial deposits. Thinking that it might contain a fossil, he asked his son to hold it edge on whilst he hit it with a hammer. It split into 3 pieces, revealing parts of the fossil skull. It was named by palaeontologist Burger Oelofsen in the eighties. The fossil cartilage is however very thin and couldnt be excavated out of the rock, so he could only describe what was visible on the broken surfaces of the nodule. The most important features of the fossil werent accessible at the time. After that it was archived in a small cardboard box in the strongroom reserved for type specimens at the South African Museum in Cape Town. There it remained until 2013 when Wits Evolutionary Studies Institute obtained a micro-CT scanner. At the time I was a South African CoE in Palaeosciences partner at Rhodes University Geology Department, recalls Gess. I immediately requested permission to try scanning some early shark fossils. Initially my main focus was some mid Devonian (420 360 million year old) specimens from the Klein Karoo, however, lead author of the study, Dr Mike Coates, suggested that I should include Early Permian Dwykaselachus in my study. I obtained permission from Iziko Museums to loan it from the South African Museum in Cape. From there I took it up to Wits and we spent days getting the best possible scans. It scanned incredibly well, so our team were able to create a perfect 3D digital image of the skull, inside and out. At the surface, Dwykaselachus appeared to be a symmoriid shark, a bizarre group of 300+ million-year-old sharks, known for their unusual dorsal fin spines, some resembling boom-like prongs and others surreal ironing boards. CT scans showed that the Dwykaselachus skull was remarkably intact, one of very few early cartilaginous skulls that had not been crushed during fossilization. The scans also provide an unprecedented view of the interior of the brain case. When I saw it for the first time, I was stunned. The specimen is remarkable, says Coates, Professor of Organismal Biology and Anatomy at the University of Chicago. The scans show a series of telltale anatomical structures that mark the specimen as an early chimaera, not a shark. The braincase preserves details about the brain shape, the paths of major cranial nerves and the anatomy of the inner ear, all of which indicate that Dwyka belongs to modern-day chimaeras. The scans reveal clues about how these fish began to diverge from their common ancestry with sharks. S&P 500 3,719.89 DOW 32,001.25 QQQ 260.49 Harnessing Neuroplasticity Allows You to Actually Change the Way You Think. Here's How. These 5 Microcap Stocks (Ad) eBay or Etsy: Which Is The Better Buy? 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Paypal Shows Promise With Strong Buy Rating These 5 Microcap Stocks (Ad) Energy Transfer Raises Guidance, But Stock Lower On Revenue Miss Papa Johns Falls Flat On Earnings, Shares Set To Rise These 5 Microcap Stocks (Ad) Bank of England makes biggest interest rate hike in 30 years Mid-Caps CommScope, Dycom Outperform Broader Telecom Industry Credit Suisse Group AG, together with its subsidiaries, provides various financial services in Switzerland, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Americas, and Asia Pacific. The company offers wealth management solutions, including investment advice and discretionary asset management services; risk management solutions, such as managed investment products; and wealth planning, succession planning, and trust services. It also provides financing and lending solutions, including consumer credit and real estate mortgage lending, real asset lending relating to ship, and aviation financing for UHNWI; standard and structured hedging, and lombard lending solutions, as well as collateral trading services; and investment banking solutions, such as global securities sales, trading and execution, capital raising, and advisory services. In addition, the company offers banking solutions, such as payments, accounts, debit and credit cards, and product bundles; asset management products; equity and debt underwriting, and advisory services; cash equities, equity derivatives, and convertibles, as well as prime services; and fixed income products, such as credit, securitized, macro, emerging markets, financing, structured credit, and other products. Further, it provides HOLT, a framework for assessing the performance of approximately 20,000 companies; and equity and fixed income research services. The company serves private and institutional clients; ultra-high-net-worth individuals, high-net-worth individuals, and affluent and retail clients; corporate clients, small and medium-sized enterprises, external asset managers, financial institutions, and commodity traders; and pension funds, hedge funds, governments, foundations and endowments, corporations, entrepreneurs, private individuals, financial sponsors, and sovereign clients. As of December 31, 2021, it operated through a network of 311 offices and branches. The company was founded in 1856 and is based in Zurich, Switzerland. Sen. John Murante of Gretna introduced legislation Thursday to return Nebraska to a winner-take-all presidential electoral vote system and offered a proposed constitutional amendment to authorize creation of voter ID requirements in the state. The voter ID measure would be submitted to a vote of the people. Murante said he also plans to introduce a bipartisan proposal to change Nebraska's congressional and legislative redistricting provisions to distance state senators from the politically charged process of drawing new districts following each U.S. census. Gov. Pete Ricketts vetoed a redistricting reform bill agreed to last year by Murante, a Republican, and former Sen. Heath Mello of Omaha, a Democrat, arguing that a proposed new citizens commission could open the process to "political cronyism." Murante said he is teaming this year with Sen. Kate Bolz of Lincoln, a Democrat, in devising a new legislative proposal that will "try to address all the governor's concerns." The winner-take-all presidential elector bill (LB25) would wipe out Nebraska's distinctive system of awarding three of the state's five electoral votes to the winner in each of the three congressional districts while handing the remaining two votes to the statewide winner. "We ought to speak with one voice," Murante said. "We are more powerful when united." In 2008, Nebraska handed one electoral vote to President Barack Obama because he won metropolitan Omaha's 2nd District while Republican nominee John McCain was sweeping the state. Republican nominee Donald Trump won all five electoral votes last November. A 2016 winner-take-all bill was trapped in the Legislature when proponents fell one vote short of breaking a filibuster. The proposed voter ID constitutional amendment (LR1CA) would authorize the Legislature to devise operative language that would require voter identification at the polls. "The ultimate objective would be ensure the integrity of the election without disenfranchising a single voter," Murante said. He said he'd like to see statutory language that includes free state-issued IDs for voters who may need them. Murante, who once again will be chairman of the Legislature's Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee, said he is not aware of any plans to introduce legislation this year to move Nebraska to a vote-by-mail election system. Two adults and three juveniles were charged Wednesday after a police situation that left a Lexington elementary school on "heightened alert." According to police, someone called them after seeing multiple people in her backyard with guns in the 600 block of Rolling Creek Lane. Police say those people then got into a car that had been reported stolen. When police arrived, they say the suspects got out of the car and ran. Police say the car was left in neutral and started to roll down the hill toward a house, but luckily, police were able to stop the car by parking a police car behind it. Fayette County school officials say nearby Veterans Park Elementary was placed on "heightened alert" as a precaution, meaning that nobody was allowed outside. Police found three people hiding under a deck at a home in the neighborhood. They were arrested for stealing the car. Police also arrested two people who were driving around the neighborhood in a suspicious vehicle during the incident.. 20-year-old Patricia Green, 19-year-old Sugary Hosley, two 16-year-olds and a 14-year-old were arrested and charged with receiving stolen property. Douglas Hartwig took a deep breath and looked down at the photo held out by Deputy Lancaster County Attorney Jan Lipovsky. In it, his son, Josh, is wearing a ball cap and a big smile. Then Lipovsky showed him a picture of Joshua Hartwig after he was shot in the back on Jan. 31, 2016. Doug Hartwig was on the witness stand Thursday morning during the second day of the first-degree murder trial of Anthony Wells, 34, who is accused of shooting Josh Hartwig outside of the apartment he shared with his father at 1800 Knox St. The last time he saw his son alive -- he and Josh's mom called the 25-year-old Special Olympian Bub -- Doug Hartwig said he told him to run. "I saw a muzzle flash and heard a pop." He said he ran himself, falling in front of a car and crawling to the side to hide from the spray of gunfire. "Once I turned running, there were more bullets flying," he said. "... Half a dozen, then pause, and then a half a dozen more." He thought his son had made it safely into their apartment, but when the shooting stopped, Hartwig heard a neighbor shout that Josh had been shot. "We seen a bullet wound on his upper left shoulder," he said. The neighbor, George Winters, started lifesaving efforts and Doug Hartwig ran inside to call 911. But his son died in the parking lot. I think he was dead before he hit the ground, Hartwig said in a February 2016 interview. But his body didnt know it. When police questioned him soon after the shooting, he said he couldn't describe the suspect because it was dark and he was hiding. "I got like, a silhouette of him," he told police, according to defense attorney Kelly Breen, of the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy. "After everything I just witnessed, seeing my son killed in front of me, I started remembering things," he said. "... When you're shot at, you're trying to take cover." The incident began when residents of The Willows apartment complex intervened in an argument between Wells and a woman in the parking lot. Witnesses say Wells left, then came back and opened fire. Breen says Wells couldn't have done the shooting because he was on his way to Council Bluffs, Iowa, at the time. The trial is expected to last two weeks and continues Friday. On Thursday, Lancaster County District Judge Darla Ideus asked jurors multiple times to take short breaks and stand up and stretch. One juror was excused for having trouble staying awake. 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 Seward judge has sentenced a Lincoln man to 44 to 56 years for breaking into a 77-year-old woman's rural home and raping her last summer. Chad E. Drewes, 30, pleaded no contest to robbery and first-degree sexual assault. Prosecutors originally charged him with 10 felonies, including a hate crime due to the victim's age, in connection with a home-invasion robbery June 24 at a rural Seward County home. Drewes had been set for trial in January, but instead entered the plea in November as part of a plea agreement. Seward County District Judge James Stecker sentenced him Tuesday. On June 24, a 77-year-old Seward woman told deputies a shirtless man kicked in a side door to her garage and began strangling her, then bound her feet and hands and dragged her into a bedroom and raped her. Afterward, she said, he untied her and told her to stay in the bathroom, as he ransacked her house. Scared, she stayed there for another hour after he left, then rested out of exhaustion before walking to a neighbor's house to report the attack around 6:30 a.m. Sheriff's deputies working with police found Drewes near the woman's stolen SUV at Ninth and Court streets in Lincoln and arrested him for the crime. Construction milestones at new Chinese units 05 January 2017 Share Installation of the fourth and final reactor coolant pump at the Sanmen 2 AP1000 was completed yesterday, China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) announced. Meanwhile, the boron injection tank has been installed at the second demonstration Hualong One unit being constructed at the Fuqing plant. The last main coolant pump is installed at Sanmen 2 (Image: CNNC) Each AP1000 employs four main reactor coolant pumps - each almost seven metres tall and 1.5 metres wide and weighing some 91 tonnes - which circulate reactor coolant through the core, loop piping and steam generators. Westinghouse is currently constructing four AP1000 units in China, two each at Sanmen in Zhejiang province and Haiyang in Shandong. US manufacturer Curtiss-Wright was awarded a contract by Westinghouse to produce 16 reactor coolant pumps for the units in 2007. Sanmen unit 1, construction of which began in April 2009, is expected to be the first AP1000 to begin operating. First concrete for Sanmen 2 was poured in December 2009. All four Chinese AP1000s are scheduled to be in operation by the end of this year. Four AP1000 reactors are currently being built in the USA - two each at Vogtle and Summer - while three AP1000s are also proposed for the Moorside site in the UK. Progress at Fuqing 6 The boron injection tank was also installed yesterday at Fuqing 6 - the second Hualong One unit under construction at the site in China's Fujian province. The boron injection tank is moved into place at Fuqing 6 (Image: CNNC) The boron injection tank - weighing almost 20 tonnes - will contain a boric acid solution that can be injected into the reactor in the event of a severe accident to shut down the chain reaction in case the control rods are not capable of being inserted into the core. China's State Council gave final approval for construction of Fuqing units 5 and 6 in April 2016. The pouring of first concrete for the reactor basemats for Fuqing 5 and 6 - marking the official start of construction of the units - took place in May and December 2015, respectively. Fuqing 5 and 6 are scheduled to be completed in 2019 and 2020. Construction of two Hualong One units is also under way at China General Nuclear's Fangchenggang plant in Guangxi province. Researched and written by World Nuclear News Related topics Checks on Finnish reactor parts continue 05 January 2017 Share No inadequate or counterfeited documentation related to the manufacture of forged steel parts used in Finnish nuclear power plants has so far been identified by the plant operators. However, the country's regulator has requested detailed investigations be completed by the end of April. In May 2016, the French nuclear safety regulator said an ongoing quality audit at Areva's Le Creusot forge - which Areva bought in 2006 - had identified "irregularities" in paperwork on some 400 plant components produced there since 1965. The issues "comprise inconsistencies, modifications or omissions in the production files, concerning manufacturing parameters and test results", it said. The following month, the Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (Stuk) requested utilities Fortum and Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) investigate whether equipment whose material quality cannot be fully guaranteed had been supplied by the forge to their nuclear power units. TVO submitted its findings for units 1 and 2 of its Olkiluoto plant to Stuk at the end of October. According to TVO's report, Stuk said: "No counterfeits were detected in the parts delivered to the operating units and all inspected devices were compliant." Fortum submitted its report on the Loviisa plant at the end of December, which also concluded no parts had been supplied with deficient or counterfeited documentation. However, the company told Stuk its investigations "partly need to be continued because they are difficult and time-consuming". Fortum is expected to submit further information by the end of March. TVO said it is also continuing investigations concerning parts supplied by the Creusot Forge for use in the EPR under construction as unit 3 of the Olkiluoto plant. TVO supervised the manufacture of these parts at the forge, as did Stuk. In addition, the regulator supervised testing of the parts and also inspected them prior to their installation. Stuk said these are part of the reactor's primary circuit, "so they are very important in view of safety". It noted, "Acceptable specifications are the precondition for obtaining an operating licence." Stuk section head Martti Vilpas said, "We must not leave room for even the slightest doubt, so TVO and the plant provider must investigate the matter thoroughly." Stuk has called for more detailed investigations to be completed by 30 April. The upper and bottom heads of the reactor pressure vessel for the EPR under construction as Flamanville 3 were manufactured at the the Creusot facility in September 2006 and January 2007, respectively. A high carbon content in those parts prompted Areva to review the company's quality process in 2015. The French nuclear safety authority has identified 18 French nuclear power reactors whose steam generators could contain high carbon concentrations. Checks of manufacturing documentation are also being carried out at other reactors around the world incorporating parts supplied by the Creusot facility or by Japan Casting and Forging Corporation. Researched and written by World Nuclear News Related topics The Dominican Republic is one of the countries with the majority of the population being multiracial. Since 1960, the body mandated to collect the statistics refrained from the collection of racial data. Before then, such features were got from observation and not direct interrogation. In the past, it experienced problems with racism in which the whites were considered at the very top of their castes. The multiracial people were in the second place and finally there were the blacks who were disregarded by the rest and often subjected to slavery. Ethnic Groups Of The Dominican Republic Mulatto, Mestizo, Or Multiracial (Mixed Ancestry) They make up about 72% of the entire population. They are the majority in the country. They are descendants from the racial integration between the Blacks and the Whites. They have a total population of over 8 million. White Dominican (European Ancestry) They make up 16% of the entire population. The presence of the whites on the island dates back to the founding of the La Isabela which was one of the European settlements in the Americas. The presence of gold and other precious minerals attracted Spaniards who were seeking easy wealth. Their attempts to enslave the natives were unsuccessful as the natives succumbed to diseases. Those that were left did not make good slaves. Later when the mines were depleted, they left the island for other areas such as Mexico and Venezuela. In the 18th century, there was a surge in the white population again as they came and sought to occupy the region through colonization. When the areas attained their independence, there was again a decrease in their numbers, but some remained behind who are the ancestors of the current white Dominicans. Black Dominican (African Ancestry) They constitute 11% of the countrys population. They are the descendants of the former slaves who were brought into the country. When slavery was abolished, they remained free citizens who could not go back but settled and got married in their new country. Most of their ancestors had come from West and Central Africa regions. Arabs, Asians, And Other Groups Of People They are the minority making up 1% of the whole countrys population. Some of them have been moving to the continent to work on the agricultural lands, mines, and factories among others. Some of them are Jews, Chinese and the Japanese who got into the country to meet the workforce needed in the country in the various sectors of the economy. Integration In The Country The diverse individuals in the country have resulted from years of migration and immigration into and away from the country. The white settlers on the continent who both came to get wealth and colonize the natives are directly responsible for the current population of the white people. The mulatto came from the intermarriage and racial integration between the whites and the blacks. The blacks in the country trace their ancestry to the slaves that were brought to the continent. In spite of the challenges earlier on related to interracial problems, discrimination has ceased and the authorities responsible for the statistics never take racial data. Africa is conventionally divided into five major regions; Southern, Northern, Central, Western, and Eastern Africa. Eastern Africa, also known as East of Africa or East Africa, is one of the largest regions, comprising 18 countries. Within the East African region are other sub-regions, including the East Africa Community, the African Great Lakes Region, and the Horn of Africa. The Horn of Africa is the continents easternmost extension comprising Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, and Djibouti whose culture and history have been connected over the past years. Map showing the Horn of African countries. Definition And Extent The Horn of Africa region occupies Africas easternmost peninsula, which extends into the Guardafui Channel, Somali Sea, and the Gulf of Aden. The peninsulas northern boundary lies on the Red Seas southern coast. The Horn is home to four Eastern Africa countries, Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Eritrea, and disputed Somaliland. However, other definitions of the region exclude parts of Eritrea, Djibouti, and Ethiopia, while a broader definition includes parts or all of Uganda, Kenya, South Sudan, and Sudan. The Somali Peninsula is part of the Horn of Africa and is a term used to refer to eastern Ethiopia and Somalia. Geography A herder with his flock of goats in the Ethiopian Highlands. The Horn of African is a region that is recognized internationally as comprising Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Djibouti. This region covers approximately 2 million square kilometers, with Ethiopia as the largest country, covering over half of the regions area (1.1 million square kilometers). The region contains diverse land features, including the Somalian and Eritrean coast, Ogaden desert, and Ethiopian highlands. It has coastlines on the Gulf of Aden, Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean. Mogadishu beach in Mogadishu, the capital city of Somalia. The Horn of Africa is separated from the Arabian Peninsula by the Bab el-Mandeb Strait (the strait connecting the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden). Up to 18 million years ago, Yemen and the Horn were a single landmass. However, the Gulf of Adens rifting separated the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn region. Part of the region, particularly Somalia, sits on the Somali Plate, which also includes the neighboring Madagascar Island. The Horns arid lowlands contrast the wet Ethiopian mountains, which receive plenty of rain (over 2,000 mm) throughout the year. The lowlands are particularly dry because of the tropical monsoon effects. The tropical monsoons originate from the west, resulting in seasonal rains in Sudan and the Sahel. Thus, the monsoons moisture is lost before reaching Somaliland and Djibouti. The northeasterly winds, common during winter, provides rain only in Somalias mountainous areas. Climate Sunset in Danakil Desert, Ethiopia. The climate varies greatly by region, with lowland areas being hotter while plateaus experience a temperate climate. Addis Ababa experiences highs of 79 degrees Fahrenheit and lows of 39 degrees Fahrenheit. The Danakil Desert is an arid region in southern Eritrea, northeastern Ethiopia, and northwestern Djibouti, covering approximately 100,000 square kilometers. It is one of the driest, hottest areas in the Horns, with daily temperatures reaching over 45 degrees Celsius. Somalia and the disputed Somaliland experience hot conditions throughout the year, with mean daily temperatures ranging from 82 to 109 degrees Fahrenheit. However, higher elevations experience slightly lower temperatures. Flora And Fauna Grevy's zebras The Horn of Africa hosts about 220 mammal species, including the threatened antelope species such as silver dikdik, and Clarks gazelle. Other common species in the region include the Grevys zebra, Dunns gerbil, desert warthog, Somali wild ass, and ammodile. Common predators are Stripped and Spotted hyenas and the African leopard. The Horn also contains numerous bird species, including golden-winged grosbeak, black boubou, and Djibouti spurfowl. The region also hosts the highest number of endemic reptiles than any other part of Africa. Of the 285 reptile species, 90 are endemic. There are about 5,000 vascular plant species in the Horn, of which over 2,000 species are endemic. Most endemic species belong to two plant families; Dirachmaceae and Barbeyaceae Brief History Fasil Ghebbi (Royal Enclosure) is the remains of a fortress-city within Gondar, Ethiopia. It was founded in the 17th century by Emperor Fasilides (Fasil) and was the home of Ethiopia's emperors. The Horn of Africa, mainly through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, served as the southern migration route Out of Africa. The strait was much narrower and the sea level much lower, facilitating easy migration onto the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East. Part of the Horn (Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, and the Red Sea coast) may have been the location for the Punt (gods land). One of the earliest kingdoms that reigned over the region was the Macrobia, reputed for its wealth and architecture. However, the kingdom collapsed, leading to the rise of ancient city-states near Cape Guardafui from the 1st Millennium BC, including Essina, Opone, Nikon, Sarapion, and Damo. These small city-states dominated the Somali Coast and developed competitive trade networks in an ancient region known as Barbaria. The Dmt Kingdom dominated northern Ethiopia and Eritrea from the 8th to 7th Century BC, where they flourished in agriculture and weaponry. The Kingdom of Aksum thrived in Ethiopian highlands and Eritrea from 1st to 7th Century AD and facilitated trade between Ancient India and the Roman Empire by minting their currencies. It was the first major kingdom to adopt Christianity. The birth and spread of Islam on the Arabian Peninsula meant that the new religion influenced the Horn region through merchant and Arabs traders arriving there. The ancient city-states adopted the new religion, eventually transforming into Islamic Mogadishu, Merka, Barawa, Zeila, and Berbera. The Middle Ages were characterized by the emergence of powerful empires, including the Ajuran, Adal Sultanate, Zagwe Dynasty, and Gobroon Dynasty. These empires controlled much of the trade in the region and developed historic cities such as Maduna, Zeila, Berbera, and Abasa. The cities featured numerous shrines, mosques, and courtyard houses. Following the opening of the Suez Canal in the 19th century, the European powers began scrambling for the territory. The Italians occupied Ethiopia and colonized Eritrea, while France occupied Djibouti. The British and Italian shared Somalia. Demographics And Languages Boy sells salt crystals on the shore of Lake Assal, Djibouti. Editorial credit: Truba7113 / Shutterstock.com The Horn of Africa has an estimated 140.7 million people, about 11% of Africas total population. Ethiopia is the regions largest country, with 112 million people, about 80% of the regions total population. Somalia is the second most populated country, with 16.3 million inhabitants. With about one million people, Djibouti is the Horns smallest country. The Horn of African countries are linguistically and ethnically linked. The ethnic groups are divided into two main groups; the Cushite and Highlanders. About 130 languages are spoken throughout the region, including 90 in Ethiopia, 10 in Djibouti, 15 in Somali, and 14 in Eritrea. The major Afro-Asiatic languages include Somali, Oromo, Amharic, Tigrinya, Hadiyya, Afar, Agaw, and Saho. The Omotic languages, spoken mainly in southwestern Ethiopia, include Dizi, Aari, Kafa, and Gamo. Religion Ethiopian men praying at a church in Lalibela. Editorial credit: Tran Qui Thinh / Shutterstock.com Christianity, Islam, and Judaism are the three common religions practiced in the Horn of Africa region. Islam was introduced into the area, mainly the Somali Coast, from the Arabian Peninsula, after the hijra. Zeilas Labo-Qibla mosque is Africas oldest mosque. The population of Djibouti and Somali are predominantly Muslims. Up to 94% of Djiboutis population observe Islam, while 99.8% of Somalians adhere to the religion. In Eritrea, 36% of the population are Muslims. The majority of Eritreans and Ethiopians are Christians. About 63% of Eritreas population practice Christianity. In Somalia, less than 0.1% of the population is Christian, while religion makes up 62.8% of Ethiopias population. In Ethiopia, the Ethiopian Orthodox is the largest Christian group, with 43.5% of the entire population practicing it. The night started with drinks out for a 25-year-old's birthday. It ended with gunfire and a young man dying inches from the front door of his dad's Lincoln apartment. "The state's evidence will be Anthony Wells fired those fateful shots," Lancaster County Attorney Joe Kelly told the jury in opening statements at Wells' murder trial Wednesday. He alleges that Wells argued with the mother of his child in the parking lot of her apartment near 14th and Adams early on Jan. 31, 2016. Neighbors shooed the 34-year-old Omaha man away, but he returned and fired 13 rounds, Kelly said. After the quick burst from a .40-caliber gun, 25-year-old Special Olympian Joshua Hartwig lay motionless, shot in the back, guilty of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But attorney Kelly Breen, of the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy, said the prosecution's theory that Wells shot Hartwig is wrong. He was on his way to Council Bluffs at the time, he said. "No man can be in two places at once." Breen said Wells and his child's mother went out for drinks earlier that night to celebrate her birthday but argued when he took her home before heading to Council Bluffs, Iowa, to pick up his girlfriend and her friend from work at a club there. Breen said she was drunk and upset and refused to get out of Wells' SUV. To George Winters, it looked like Wells was roughing up his upstairs neighbor. When his dogs started barking because of the raised voices, he said, he went outside to tell them to keep it down. They were going to wake up his 3-year-old son. Winters said he didn't know Wells' name, but he had seen him a few times before. That night, he said, he saw Wells slap his neighbor and push her down. She had a bloody lip. He and others confronted Wells, and told him to leave or they'd call the cops. Wells said he wasn't going to fight them all, Winters testified, then got into his SUV and drove away, saying, "I'll be back." A small group had gathered outside Winters' apartment, some of whom confronted Wells. Doug Hartwig had gone out to smoke, and his son, Josh, followed. About 15 minutes after Wells drove away, a man wearing a hoodie, his face mostly covered, walked around a corner of the complex and asked the group, "How's your night?" Winters said he turned and saw a raised Glock, held sideways. "I turned and said, 'Gun, gun, gun,'" he told the jury. Then, he said, he heard pops and saw sparks on the ground 6 feet away. Winters testified that the shooter's voice was Wells. He'd heard it two or three times before. "My eyes scanned over and I seen a body laying on the ground. It was Josh," Winters said. "Is the person who shot in the courtroom today?" Kelly asked Winters. Yes, he answered. "The face, the haircut, the eyes, it all looked like the defendant," he said. Breen said prosecutors' theory that Wells changed his clothes after the argument, went back and fired at eight people at 1:26 a.m., then sprinted more than a city block over a hill to a vehicle, disposed of evidence and got to Council Bluffs, by 2:10 a.m. to pick up his girlfriend was just that, a theory. "There are a lot of young men, dangerous young men in this community, and they wear hoodies and they have guns," he said. But Kelly, the prosecutor, said Wells had made good on his promise to return. At the end of what is expected to be a two-week trial, he'll ask jurors to find Wells guilty of first-degree murder, use of a firearm to commit a felony, possession of a firearm by a prohibited person and discharge of a firearm at an occupied dwelling. A young man wanted to make a point about racism in the United States, but his plan backfired when he was exposed for a liar by police. 20-year-old Khalil Cavil of Texas was working at the Saltgrass Steak House in Odessa when he claimed he was discriminated against because of his Muslim name. Cavil took Latigra Charell Ervin Heath By: Wayne Morin WorldWideWeirdNews.com (Scroll down for video) A young woman stripped naked in front of her young children after being paid to clean a barber shop, according to police in South Carolina. Rock Hill police said that they have arrested 28-year-old Latigra Charell Ervin Heath, after being accused of wearing red lingerie before exposing her breasts in front of a group of men and her four young children. Heath has been charged with one count each of indecent exposure and unlawful conduct towards a child. She was booked into the York County jail, and her bail has been set at $25,000. According to the criminal complaint, on Sunday around 1:30 p.m., police were called to the Gaston Barber Shop on Saluda Street, where officers saw Heath exposing herself to a group of men. Heath told police that she was being paid to clean the business while wearing red lingerie. Police told her to stop because her four children and other people could see her through the windows. Around 3:00 p.m., police received another call from a different person who reported that Heath was outside the business and stripping. When officers arrived, they found the front door locked and saw Heath sitting inside the barber shop in red lingerie with her breasts exposed. Officers then saw Heath walk to the back of the store, where she was joined by her four children. A man in the United Kingdom, who was forced into a police holding cell, lost three of his fingers when officers slammed the door on his hand. 28-year-old Jamie Clark of Llanelli, was arrested after an altercation with his girlfriend. He was accused of resisting police officers and assaulting them at the police station. Police then stripped him naked and forced him into a holding cell. A video of the incident shows the officers dragging Clark into the holding cell. He was pepper sprayed and stripped naked before being dragged into the holding cell. As the officers left the cell, Clark got up and ran towards the door. Clark placed his hand on the door frame as the officers shut the door. As a result, Clark lost three fingers of his left hand. It took officers several minutes to realize what had happened. Clark was taken to a hospital, but doctors could not save his fingers. Clark is preparing to file a lawsuit against police, demanding compensation for his lost fingers. Lincoln and southeastern Nebraska received a blanket of snow Wednesday that forecasters expect will lock in the cold air over the coming days. Snowfall depths ranged from 1 to 3 inches Wednesday, with the deepest accumulation reported in Fairbury at 2.5 inches, where snow continued to fall around 10 p.m., according to the National Weather Service in Valley. Meterologist Cathy Zapotocny said the snow was expected to continue pushing through the area into the early hours Thursday. Cold temperatures are expected to follow the winter storm's departure from the area Thursday morning, a continuation of the frigid weather that saw a high in Lincoln on Wednesday of 14 degrees. Thursday morning, expect single-digit temperatures that could feel much cooler with wind chills possibly dipping to 10 degrees below zero, Zapotocny said. "The fresh blanket of snow is going to be a precursor to very cold temperatures Friday morning," Zapotocny said. Below-zero air temperatures that morning could mix with a steady wind to drive wind chills to 20 below zero, she said. City officials Wednesday night credited the cold for helping maintain safe driving conditions on streets, as only 11 accidents were reported since noon. Twenty rigs were deployed to clear roads Wednesday, with an additional 24 on standby should conditions warrant their use, a city spokesman said in a news release. At 8:50 p.m., arterial streets were in good driving condition, with some snow and ice-covered areas while residential streets were snow-covered and slick, the city reported. Lincoln got just 1.7 inches of snow in December, and just 14.8 inches in 2016. It was the least snow in a calendar year since 1988. Humanism + Dynamite = The Soviet Photomontages of Aleksandr Zhitomirsky , at the Art Institute of Chicago until January 10. An exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago, Humanism + Dynamite = The Soviet Photomontages of Aleksandr Zhitomirsky, features the work of leading Soviet photomontage artist and designer, Aleksandr Zhitomirsky (1907-1993). The comprehensive exhibition, showcasing over one hundred of Zhitomirskys works and spanning a convulsive half-century, is the first significant display of the artists photomontages since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. There are captivating and original works in the show. At his sharpest, Zhitomirsky utilizes photomontage (the process of cutting, rearranging and overlapping photographs to create a distinct result) and other techniques to blend striking images and typography to powerful effect. His designs are darkly satirical critiques of world politics in the middle of the 20th century and beyond. He shines most in his scathing critiques of American and European capitalism, as well as in his portrayals of the crimes of fascism and imperialist war. Of course, the emergence of counterrevolutionary Stalinism has to be taken into account in considering his artistic and political evolution. Many of Zhitomirskys works feel remarkably contemporary and true. Quite a few have an artistic and social significance that endures beyond their immediate historical and political context. There are also less well-executed works, which seem to suggest their character as hurried propaganda efforts. His very weakest works include those glorifying the Stalinist bureaucracy (not on display at the Art Institute). Not surprisingly, given the ruthless censorship in place in the USSR, he was not able to make any public artistic appraisal of daily life in the Soviet Union. Still, the current exhibition is significant. Zhitomirsky was born in 1907 in Rostov-on-Don, in southwestern Russia, a decade before the October Revolution of 1917. He died in the summer of 1993, a year and a half after the dissolution of the USSR. Zhitomirsky had a prolific career in the graphic arts that spanned virtually the entire Soviet era. He rose to genuine prominence during World War II, producing anti-fascist photomontages for leaflets that would be dropped on German troops from the air. Zhitomirsky grew up in a period of intense political and social conflict within the Russian workers state and internationally, an epoch dominated by the breakdown of capitalism, by war, revolution and counterrevolution. Zhitomirsky matured in the shadow of titanic political conflicts and pursued his art work under conditions of the cultural and political stranglehold of the Stalinist bureaucracy. In June 1941, Nazi Germany launched Operation Barbarossa, invading the Soviet Union, and catching the Stalinist apparatus disastrously off guard. Millions of Soviet citizens died in the war as a result of Stalins policies. Despite the bureaucracy, the Nazi war of annihilation provoked immense resistance within the Soviet population. Zhitomirsky rose to the challenge of producing powerful leaflets, addressed to German soldiers and the Soviet masses. Zhitomirskys most effective leaflets sought to appeal to the thoughts and emotions of German soldiers. The propaganda material rightly blamed the conditions the latter faced on the Eastern front on the Nazi leadership. Images of fallen soldiers, of death and suffering and of the overall horrors of war predominate. Other leaflets showed what would happen to German soldiers if they surrendered: photos of German prisoners-of-war receiving food, medical care, etc. Life was rarely as happy in reality, but deserting troops were spared their lives (although large numbers died from hunger, disease and mistreatment). One of the most haunting examples of Zhitomirskys anti-fascist propaganda efforts appeared in September 1941. A soldier lies dead in the foreground, his mouth agape, eyes closed, chest slightly raised and head arched backwards. The nocturnal horizon is covered in explosions and smoke. Above the haze float images of his family and friends, happier memories. The caption reads, Life could be beautifulif Hitler did not exist! He wants you to diefor his interests and for the interests of the plutocrats. The contrast of life and death is made even more explicit in leaflets like Choose! Like This or Like That (1941). Abovethe barbaric aftermath of war; belowthe prisoners of war eating together in better circumstances. A scathing and haunting work, in the vein of German artist John Heartfield, shows Hitler leading an army of skeletons, titled This is the Fate of the German Soldiers of the Eastern Front (1942). Zhitomirsky indicated his purposes and thinking when he remarked, In my photomontages I spoke to the single soldier who at that moment held the magazine in his hands. I related to him and put myself in his place. I was his interested interlocutor. After World War II, Zhitomirsky turned his artistic mirror chiefly toward the predatory aims of American imperialism in the Cold War. Some of his most striking and brilliant works can be seen in this period. A Wolfish Appetite (1947) satirizes a Wall Street about to consume the world. It is a memorable composite image of a businessman with the head of a dollar, fork and knife ready, about to devour the globe, with the Manhattan skyline in the background. Zhitomirsky takes aim at the Marshall Plan, which sought to stabilize the European and world economy through American financial and political domination. President Harry Trumanthe butcher of Hiroshima and Nagasakiis roundly satirized as a puppet of Wall Street and its warmongering aims. Harry Truman: The Hysterical War Drummer (1948) conveys the danger of fascism in the shadows. The image is evocative, distinct and original. The Right to Hang and the Right to Be Hanged (1948) depicts the Statue of Liberty with a lynched African-American man hanging from her wrist, as she holds up the torch of democracy and freedom. The American Chief Justice (1949) shows a bloated judge, his body a sack of gold, vastly out of scale to the street he is walking on, wearing a pendant that reads Wall Street. His head is the American silver dollar and he holds on his right hand a bundle of papers that reads, lies, slander and forgeries. The photomontage was a reference to the Smith Act trial against the US Communist Party leadership. These ruthless and ironic critiques of the reality of life under American capitalism showcased its brutality, racism and corruption. Many of the images he produced in this period also offer a withering critique of colonialism and imperialism more generally. The sincerity and convictions of artists like Zhitomirsky and Heartfield should not be questioned. However, the use to which their work was put by the international Stalinist movement was thoroughly cynical. To maintain credibility before the Soviet population and the millions of supporters of the various Communist Parties worldwide, who mistakenly believed that the Kremlin regime represented the continuity of the Russian Revolution, the Stalinists on occasion stridently denounced imperialism and its crimes. At the same time, the Stalinist parties did everything in their power to suppress social revolution and Moscow feverishly sought ties and accommodation with global capitalism under the banners of peaceful co-existence and detente. After the war, outbursts of anti-Semitism were revived and encouraged by the Stalinist bureaucracy. By 1949, many Jews were purged from the professions in the USSR and many were imprisoned. People close to Zhitomirsky were arrested and even executed for their Jewish ethnicity and cosmopolitan outlooks. Photomontage as an art form increasingly came under fire in 1951-1952 as a formalist deviation from socialist realism, the official artistic trend in the Soviet Union. (As Leon Trotsky noted sardonically, the realism consists in the imitation of provincial daguerreotypes of the third quarter of the last century; the socialist character apparently consists in representing events which never took place.) Zhitomirsky was effectively blacklisted for a decade. It was not until the late 1950safter the death of Stalin and during the thaw period under Nikita Khrushchevthat Zhitomirsky was able to more freely take up photomontage work again. By 1961, Zhitomirsky was once again making strong photomontages. Sits and Begs (1962) is a sharp critique of the role of the American press as the lapdog of Wall Street and finance capital. We see a silhouette of a dog, covered head to paw with the names of the major capitalist press (New York Times, Time, Fortune, Newsweek, Wall Street Journal, New York Herald Tribune, etc.), who begs for a silver dollar. It is a remarkably contemporary image. It is worth quoting from Zhitomirskys own essay, The Art of Political Photomontage (1983). He asks, What gives the power of dynamite to the photo-poster pamphlet? Foremost, its motto is humanism. And, of course, the ability to see in subjects something new that others do not see but that they by all means should see. The best of his work deserves an audience today. The public education system in Australia is beset by myriad funding cuts, all of which compromise the ability of teachers and schools to provide the best possible education to their students. One of the most egregiously under-funded areas is the provision of services to students with disabilities. Across the countrys six states there is a patchwork of different funding models for such students. Everywhere, however, the trend is the samegovernments are moving to cut funding for disability services, providing more profit-making opportunities to various corporate interests, and placing mounting pressure on under-trained and under-resourced teachers to individually address an array of complex physical, psychological, intellectual and other disabilities. The situation is most advanced in the state of Victoria. Victorias Program for Students with Disabilities (PSD), first established in 1995, provides schools with targeted funding for students who qualify under one of seven categories: physical disability, visual impairment, hearing impairment, severe behaviour disorder, intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorder, and severe language disorder. All students who qualify for the PSD are allocated annual funding of between $6,000 and $51,000 each, depending on the assessed severity of their disability. The largest proportion of eligible students (approximately 40 percent) receive $15,000 a year, while another 25 percent receive $24,000. The majority of this money is usually allocated to Education Support staff, who support the student in the classroom and schoolyard for a part of the school week, though funds can also be spent on equipment and teacher training. The governments own figures make clear the inadequacy of the PSD. Just 4 percent of the public school population qualify, while another 11 percent are estimated to have a disability, yet receive no targeted funding. School administrators and teachers are nevertheless legally obligated, under disability and equal opportunity legislation, to provide reasonable adjustments to allow all those with disabilities to fully participate in school life. According to one government document, reasonable adjustments may include, but not be limited to, infrastructure adjustments, the use of ES [Education Support] staff, or adjustments in teaching approaches or styles to adapt to the strengths and needs of particular students. The vagueness of these formulations is undoubtedly deliberate. It has worked to divert parent frustration and anger away from the government, and led to a situation where, in some public schools, parents of disabled children who do not qualify for PSD funding have bitterly clashed with overworked teachers and school administrators over rival assessments of what constitutes a reasonable adjustment within the classroom and the school. Such angry reactions on the part of parents are not confined to those whose children fail to qualify. Many parents of children who do qualify complain that their funding is inadequate and blame schools and teachers for failing to provide enough services and support. Parent complaints to regional and higher educational authorities, beyond the local school, including threats of legal action, are becoming more prevalent, and these place immense pressure on under-resourced schools, principals and teachers to meet ever-increasing demands. Disabled students who qualify, including those in wheelchairs with disabilities, are not always given full-time education support staff for every hour of the school day or week. This means that for several hours in a school day, when classes in art or physical education, for example, are being held, students with disabilities have no additional support. Teachers are expected to carry the burden: to teach their classes, provide continuous one-on-one support to their disabled students, as well as deal with their other students who may have learning, social, emotional or behavioural issues. It is not uncommon for teachers to have several students in their classrooms who have just missed out on disability funding by one percentage point. The governments denial of urgently needed funding to 11 percent of public school students is a product of its extraordinarily stringent eligibility criteria. For example, for students on the autism spectrum to qualify for PSD funding, they require three separate assessmentsfrom a paediatrician, a psychologist, and a speech pathologistconfirming not merely that they have autism, but also that they demonstrate significant deficits in adaptive behaviour and significant deficits in language skills. This latter criterion is exceptionally difficult to satisfy, because a significant deficit effectively means that the child cannot understand simple instructions or verbalise basic needs and demands. Students with autism can therefore display comorbid health issues, severe learning difficulties, violent and other challenging classroom behaviours, and yet be immediately denied funding on the basis that they are able to engage in extremely limited verbal communication. A report issued by the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission in 2012, Held Back: The experiences of students with disabilities in Victorian schools, noted the perverse incentive for parents to make their childs disability seem as bad as possible. One parent told the Commission: We took our son off all his medication prior to his last assessment to ensure he presented as badly as possible as that was the only way we could easily gain access to a special school for secondary school. For two of the designated disability criteriasevere language disorder and intellectual disabilitythe government contracts out the task of assessing children to a multi-billion-dollar corporation. In 2007, the former Victorian Labor government of John Brumby imposed the Outsourced Assessment Service that remains in operation today. Currently, 63 percent of all students who qualify for the PSD, do so on the basis of the intellectual disability criterion. This means that a large proportion of funding applications for students with disabilities go, not to the state Education Department, but to a private business, Assessments Australia (AA). AA is owned by MAX Solutions, which is itself a wholly owned subsidiary of the US-based MAXIMUS. MAXIMUS reported $US2.4 billion in revenue for the fiscal year 2016. The company operates outsourced and privatised health, welfare, education, and administrative services in countries including the US, Canada, Britain, Australia and Saudi Arabia. In Australia, MAXIMUS profits from the notorious work for the dole scheme, which forces unemployed workers to take on onerous and menial jobs merely to keep receiving unemployment entitlements. A 2015 article in the Saturday Paper reported: The US company now dominates the welfare business in Australia, having picked up 27 employment services contracts across the country, including 14 of the 51 regional Work for the Dole co-ordinator contracts. Within the Victorian education system, a teacher can now spend many hours filling out lengthy pre-screen reports on a students physical, academic, communicative, social and other abilities as part of an application for intellectual disability funding, only to have MAXIMUS deny the funding after sending one of its employees to the school to spend 45 minutes testing the student. The state Labor government is preparing further regressive measures. In April 2016, it issued a report reviewing the PSD, much of which was focussed on creating additional obligations for classroom teachers, such as further reasonable adjustments for those students diagnosed with autism or dyslexia. The review also proposed investigating a new funding model for the PSD, utilising new and more efficient disability assessment procedures, which are being introduced with the rollout of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). Precisely what this will entail remains to be seen, but the report notably promoted New Zealands Ongoing Resources Scheme as an alternative funding proposal. The NZ scheme allocates disability funding to just 1 percent of all NZ students, one-quarter the percentage of students being funded in Victoria. It is clear that new and major funding cuts are in the pipeline. They will exacerbate an already dysfunctional public school system, undermining even further the democratic right of all young people, including those who are disabled, to a high-quality, fully-resourced public education. The author also recommends: An exposure of high-stakes testing in Australias public schoolsBeautiful Failures by Lucy Clark [15 December 2016] Australia: New South Wales government bumps up standardised testing in schools [16 November 2016] Australian primary teachers resign in protest at standardised, assessment-based education [14 March 2016] In the aftermath of the November 8 US presidential election, sections of the Democratic Party, the intelligence services and the media have intensified unsubstantiated pre-election claims that the Russian government hacked into Democratic Party email servers to undermine the campaign of Hillary Clinton. The immediate purpose was to distract from the content of the leaked emails, which exposed a conspiracy by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee to undermine her challenger in the primaries, Bernie Sanders. With Trumps victory, it has become the focus for a ferocious struggle within the ruling elite over foreign policy centred on the issue of what order the US should first aggressively escalate its diplomatic, economic and military offensiveagainst Russia or China. More fundamentally, its aim is to brand anyone raising questions about foreign policy as the dupe of a foreign power and to justify further sweeping censorship, above all against social media. The same applies to the manufacturing of the fake news scandal in Europe. The divisions within the US over foreign policy are mirrored within and between national ruling elites across the continent. What all agree on, however, is that, whatever side eventually wins out, the agenda of militarism and war requires police-state methods. This is the content of the resolution passed by the European Parliament on November 23, on EU strategic communication to counteract propaganda against it by third parties. The declared aim of the extensive resolution is to combat third-party actors aiming to discredit the European Union (EU) that do not share the same [European] values. The resolution then defines as the main actors Russia and Daesh (or ISIL) and it is Russia that occupies most of the resolution. It equates Russia with transnational terrorist and criminal organisations that have repeatedly engaged in a strategy of deliberate deception and disinformation, especially in the new media, social networks and the digital sphere Accusing Russia of information warfare, the resolution asserts that it is employing a wide range of tools and instruments to challenge democratic values, divide Europe, gather domestic support and create the perception of failed states in the EUs eastern neighbourhood The resolution specifically cites think tanks such as Russkiy Mir, the RT channel, Sputnik, alongside internet trolls and cross-border social and religious groups No evidence is presented to back up these claims. Nor is the content of the disinformation that it alleges ever specified. Rather information warfare is presented as any reportage, regardless of whether it is true or false, that undermines the interests of the European bourgeoisie. While not all criticism of the EU or its policies necessarily constitutes propaganda or disinformation, the resolution states, instances of manipulation or support linked to third countries and intended to fuel or exacerbate this criticism provide grounds to question the reliability of these messages It is on the basis of such spurious equations that Julian Assange of WikiLeaks and Edward Snowden have been forced into hiding and exile, accused of treason and threatened with imprisonment and worse. Just as sinisterly, the EU resolution decrees information warfare to be an undeclared act of war. Such methods form an integral part of modern hybrid warfare, which is a combination of military and non-military measures of a covert and overt nature, deployed to destabilise the political, economic and social situation of a country under attack, without a formal declaration of war, the resolution states, targeting not only partners of the EU, but also the EU itself, its institutions and all Member States and citizens irrespective of their nationality and religion The claim that Russia is engaged in a de facto war against the EU stands reality on its head. There is no doubt that Moscow engages in propaganda against aspects of EU policy, but its actions are only a pale reflection of the unending campaign conducted by the US and the EU over the last period. Washington, in particular, serves as the largest manufacturer of fake news in the world, as evidenced by the criminal lying claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction to justify pre-emptive war in 2003. But not far behind it are the major European powers, who are supporting US disinformation regarding the Syrian civil war, which they helped to ignite, with the same aim. The fake news scandal is part of active and far-advanced efforts, led by the US, to destabilise Russia and encircle it militarily. It was US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland who admitted, in 2014, that Washington had spent $5 billion to secure regime change in Ukraine, just after the so-called Euromaidan protests succeeded in forcing the pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych out of office. Representatives from Germany, Poland and France performed the official benediction on his overthrow on behalf of the EU. The resolution was passed just two weeks after the announcement of NATOs largest troop deployment against Russia since the Cold War. Its incumbent response force is being tripled to 40,000 and hundreds of thousands of troops have been placed on higher alert levels. This month, an additional 4,000 NATO forces are being deployed along Russias border in breach of the 1997 Russia-NATO Founding Act. Poland has been the most aggressive in demanding such deployments. It is no coincidence that the resolution to the European Parliament was prepared by Polish Deputy, Anna Fotyga, former Minister of Foreign Affairs and a member of the European Parliament Subcommittee on Security and Defense (SEDE), aligned with NATO. By declaring Russia to be engaged in a de facto war against the EU, the resolutions supporters are seeking to politically legitimise this massive escalation in NATOs provocations against Moscow. Any criticism or campaign against European support for NATOs warmongering is to be deemed the work of Russian trolls or terrorists. The motion describes as hostile propaganda anything that has the effect of provoking doubt, dividing Member States, engineering a strategic split between the European Union and its North American partners and paralysing the decision-making process, discrediting the EU institutions and transatlantic partnerships The text indicates the social and political factors driving the resort to authoritarianism. It complains that the financial crisis and the advance of new forms of digital media have posed serious challenges for quality journalism, leading to a decrease in critical thinking among audiences, thus making them more susceptible to disinformation and manipulation.. In other words, the huge social gulf that exists between working people in Europe and the ruling elite as a result of the 2008 financial crisis and the EUs unending policy of austerity means the overwhelming majority of people are hostile to the political establishment and its official media, which they correctly regard as nothing more than propaganda outlets for the interests of the super-rich. This insight, which the resolution slanders as a decrease in critical thinking, makes the population far less susceptible to the efforts to dragoon them behind militarism and war. On this basis, the resolution calls for an intensification of EU and NATO efforts to combine forces, in particular to step up counterintelligence efforts aimed at countering so-called fake news operations. Daesh/ISIL is also introduced here from the standpoint of justifying a clampdown on social media and new measures against hate speech, which is never defined. The resolution was passed by 304 to 179, with 208 abstentions. However, a minority opinion tabled against the resolution made no mention of the threat to democratic rights through the escalation of state censorship. Its objections centred on complaints that Russia should be regarded by the EU as an ally in the Middle East. As the resolution was being debated, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told the Bundestag that public opinion was being manipulated on the internet and that it would be necessary to regulate it. Simultaneously it was announced that Helsinki is to be the hub for a NATO/EU research centre into hybrid warfare directed against Russia and ISIL, while in the Czech Republic a new interior ministry department began operations January 1, known as the Centre Against Terrorism and Hybrid Threats. State Secretary for European affairs, Tomas Prouza, said it was directed against Russian propaganda aimed at building negative images of the European Union and NATO Divisions within the US state over allegations of Russian hacking of Democratic Party emails grew more embittered and public Wednesday following statements by Donald Trump that further distanced the president-elect from the CIA and other US intelligence agencies. In a Twitter post late Tuesday, Trump questioned the veracity of a soon-to-be-released official report by the CIA, FBI and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper on the alleged Russian intervention into the 2016 US election. The intelligence officials are due to brief leaders of Congress on Thursday and Trump on Friday. To date, no evidence has been presented to the public to substantiate the charges of Russian government hacking of the Democratic Party and the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton. Trump alluded to this fact when he tweeted: The Intelligence briefing on so-called Russian hacking was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange! He followed this up with a tweet on Wednesday quoting approvingly from an interview conducted by Shawn Hannity of Fox News with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange: Julian Assange said a 14 year old could have hacked Podestawhy was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info! In the interview, Assange reaffirmed his earlier statements that the documents WikiLeaks published were not provided by the Russian government or any state party. He said that the email hacks of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Clinton Campaign Chairman John Podesta were likely the result of the Democratic Partys amateurish security practices. Podesta gave out that his password was the word password, Assange said. This is something a fourteen-year-old kid could have hacked. Trumps comments left Democrats and the intelligence agencies aghast and outraged. The Wall Street Journal reported, White House officials have been increasingly frustrated by Mr. Trumps confrontations with intelligence officials, quoting one official as saying, Its appalling No president has ever taken on the CIA and come out looking good. The mood was summed up by Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (Democrat of New York), who issued a thinly veiled threat against the president-elect. Let me tell you, you take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you, Schumer told MSNBCs Rachel Maddow. So even for a practical, supposedly hard-nosed businessman, hes being really dumb to do this. Democrats combined their denunciations of Trump for not accepting the statements of intelligence agencies and for being too close to Russian President Vladimir Putin with an escalation of the witch-hunt against Assange. Today, Trump sided with Julian Assangean alleged sex offender who has hidden out in the Ecuadorian embassy for years and has dumped millions of classified State Department documents that put US persons at riskrather than our countrys own intelligence professionals, declared Representative Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. Republicans more closely aligned to the CIA also spoke out against Trumps comments. We have two choices: some guy living in an embassy on the run from the law who has a history of undermining American democracy and releasing classified information to put our troops at risk, or the 17 intelligence agencies sworn to defend us, said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. In an indication of the policy disputes behind the conflict, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday evening that Trump is working with top advisers on a plan that would restructure and pare back the nations top spy agency prompted by a belief that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has become bloated and politicized. The Journal reported that Trumps advisers are working on a plan to restructure the Central Intelligence Agency, cutting back on staffing at its Virginia headquarters and pushing more people out into field posts around the world. A source close to the president-elect told the Journal, Mr. Trump shares the view that the intelligence communitys position that Russians tried to help his campaign is an attempt to undermine his victory or say he didnt win. The highly public conflict only two weeks before the inauguration of Trump points to the depth of the divisions that have arisen in the American state. There is no progressive side in this faction fight. On the part of the White House, the CIA and substantial sections of the Republican Party, together with the majority of the American media, the hacking charges are aimed at creating as much pressure as possible to prevent any shift away from the Obama administrations highly provocative and confrontational economic, diplomatic and military campaign against Russia. The faction that has coalesced around Trump favors a more aggressive US policy first of all against China. Trump spokespeople have sought in comments and interviews to redirect the furor over alleged cyber-attacks away from Russia and toward China. It is significant that the Democrats, while signaling their willingness to cooperate with Trump on pursuing aggressively protectionist policies and saying little about the ultra-right-wing cabinet he has assembled, make the defense of the intelligence agencies and the pursuit of a war-mongering policy against Russia the issues on which they remain intransigent. Israels Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit has given the go ahead for police to carry out two separate investigations into allegations of corruption against Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu. The investigations follow months of delay, during which some 50 witnesses have been questioned. At least one of the cases has the potential to lead to a formal indictment. This is only the latest in a series of scandals surrounding Israels political establishment that reflect the putrefaction of Israeli democracy. Netanyahus immediate predecessor, Ehud Olmert, received a jail term for bribery offences when he was mayor of Jerusalem prior to becoming prime minister. Netanyahu and his family have for years faced numerous allegations of corruption and even preliminary investigations. This is the first time, however, that allegations have led to a full-scale criminal investigation of Netanyahus financial relationships. Police questioned him at his official residence for three hours on Monday in relation to the first case. Apparently the smaller of the two, this case involves substantial gifts and benefits from several wealthy businesspeople. These include Ronald Lauder, whose family founded the US cosmetics giant Estee Lauder and who has himself been questioned by the police. Netanyahu has already admitted to receiving $40,000 in 2001 from Arnaud Mimran, a French businessman currently serving an eight-year jail sentence for fraud. Netanyahu was out of office at the time. Mimran testified that he gave one million euros to Netanyahu during his 2009 election campaign. If true, this would violate Israeli law that bans the foreign funding of elections. The second case is apparently more serious, although no details have been released to the press. Police will question Netanyahu about it on Friday. It follows Mendelblits announcement last July that he had ordered a preliminary investigation into a potentially corrupt relationship, with specific accusation emerging three months ago. He said that the allegations were new and did not relate to any previous rumours or investigations. The daily Haaretz says that the case is being described as a bombshell, an earthquake and other such explosive adjectives and relates to a well-known Israeli business figure who would benefit commercially from Netanyahus support. Unlike other allegations, this case seems to have accelerated quite rapidly. Being the subject of a criminal investigation does not require Netanyahu to resign. However, an indictment, which could take months if it happens at all, would put him under enormous pressure to step down. That in turn could trigger early elections, which are not due until late 2019, if the ruling coalition cannot agree on a successor. Mandelblit, a former cabinet secretary and military advocate general, is a close associate of Netanyahu who has sought to protect the prime minister and his wife Sara from other allegations, dismissing some and postponing the current probe for as long as possible. To the extent that he has approved the two current investigations, it may indicate that the evidence is too strong to simply ignore. Netanyahu has responded in a predictably belligerent manner, listing on his Facebook page each accusation with Nothing and I repeat and say there will not be anything because there is nothing. He told members of his Likud Party, We hear the celebratory spirit and winds blowing through the television studios and in the corridors of the opposition. He added, Hold off the celebrations; dont rush. Ive told you before and will tell you again--this will come to nothing, because there is nothing. Corruption scandals are often the mechanism through which vicious political battles within ruling elites are fought out. In this case, the lack of information makes it difficult to ascertain what precisely is at issue. Nevertheless, it takes place in the immediate aftermath of the UN Security Councils toothless resolution condemning Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem, President Barack Obamas support for the resolution and Secretary of State John Kerrys speech affirming support for the two state solution. Netanyahu, as soon as he heard that the Obama administration was proposing to abstain rather than veto the resolution, contacted Presidentelect Donald Trump to lobby for a veto. Emboldened by the prospect of an openly pro-settlement supporter in the White House, and fearful of being outflanked by his right-wing coalition partners, Netanyahu launched a vitriolic attack on the Obama administration, provoking uproar in Israel among those who fear that the unanimous vote of the Security Council has left Israel dangerously isolated. Former Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon, who quit the coalition government last May over policy disagreements over Iran and the West Bank, speaks for this layer. He opposed the resolution but criticized Netanyahu, saying that Israel had to maintain a dialogue with its friends around the world despite disagreements, not punish or boycott them. He added, More responsible leadership could have prevented the resolution. Yaalon and others are concerned that Trumps repudiation of the two state solution and support for Israels ultra-nationalist politicians and settler movement will pave the way for the outright annexation of much of the West Bank, ethnic cleansing and the destabilisation of the entire region. It would also further weaken the Arab states that play the Palestinian card for their own domestic purposes and with whom Israel is working covertly in Syria and against Iran. This conflict over the two state solution was one of the factors underlying the prosecution of Olmert. He became become increasingly isolated after his attempts to impose a deal on the Palestinians on Israels terms, and to reach some accommodation with Syria in a bid to secure an end to Syrias close relationship with Iran and its proxy, Hezbollah, in Lebanon. His attempts to overcome this impasse via murderous wars against Lebanon and Gaza in 2006 and then against Gaza in 2008-09 were political disasters that sealed his fate. Netanyahu has called on the media to apologise for its campaign against him. His office claimed that his opponents were mounting a witch-hunt, issuing a statement lambasting the media for premature and politically motivated reports. It said, Try replacing the Prime Minister at the ballot boxas is customary in a democracy. Netanyahus supporters are seeking to introduce a bill that would make it impossible to investigate a sitting prime minister for fraud, bribery and breach of trust, although it is difficult to see how this could be applied retrospectively even if passed. Israels bourgeois left and centrist parties have responded decidedly timorously. Isaac Herzog, the leader of the Zionist Union, formerly the Labour Party, said merely that it was a tough day for Israel when a prime minister is under investigation and We are not expressing satisfaction at anothers misfortune. Yair Lapid, the leader of Yesh Atid, which is ahead of the Likud Party in opinion polls, said, The presumption of innocence applies to every Israeli, including the prime minister. He called for a speedy investigation, saying, A person who is being investigated is a person under pressure. On Wednesday, at the height of the morning rush, a Long Island Railroad (LIRR) commuter train slammed into the bumper block at the end of the line at the Atlantic Avenue Terminal in downtown Brooklyn, New York. The two front cars derailed and crashed into a room beyond the end of the track. Reports indicate that at least 103 people suffered injuries, mostly minor. Eleven people were hospitalized. Luckily, there were no fatalities. The LIRR train was carrying over 400 passengers, most bound for work in New York City. Commuters can connect with nine subway lines at Atlantic Terminal, next to the Barclays Center, making it one of the citys busiest transit hubs. This accident is similar to one that occurred last September at NJ Transits Hoboken terminal in New Jersey, across the Hudson River from Manhattan. In that incident, one person was killed and 114 people were injured, many seriously. The relatively low level of injuries in Brooklyn is likely due to the slow speed of the train, which was reportedly traveling at only between 10 and 15 miles (16 and 24 kilometers) per hour. This is in contrast to the Hoboken train, which approached the terminal at twice the speed limit. An investigation of the Hoboken incident concluded that the train engineer suffered from undiagnosed sleep apnea, which causes drowsiness, possibly resulting in a loss of control. However, safety technology known as Positive Train Control (PTC) would have automatically slowed the trains approach, had it been in operation. In 2008, the federal government mandated that PTC be installed throughout the rail system by 2015, but many railroads, including both NJ Transit and the LIRR, have delayed, claiming a lack of funds. Before a National Transportation Safety Board investigative team even reached the site of the Brooklyn accident, Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Tom Prendergast and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo both immediately blamed human error as the likely cause. The reason why the train did not stop before the bumper is, as yet, unknown. One passenger, Aaron Neufeld, told ABC News, It didnt seem like we were going unusually fast... I dont think it was anything out of the norm. The train crew is being interviewed and the trains event recorder, the so-called black box, is being examined. There are many possible reasons for the accident, including equipment malfunction. No firm conclusions can be drawn as to the cause of the accident until the investigation has been completed. The Atlantic and Hoboken terminal incidents are by no means isolated events. These are only a few of the many rail transportation incidents that are occurring with remarkable frequency in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area in recent years. Just last October a LIRR train derailed near New Hyde Park, on Long Island, injuring 33 people, including four seriously. A Metro North passenger train headed for Manhattan derailed in December 2013 while taking a sharp curve at high speed, killing four and injuring 67, 11 critically. If PTC had been in place, this accident would likely not have happened. While each incident has specific characteristics, the pattern points to a criminal lack of investment in safety and maintenance. In recent years, audits of both NJ Transit and Metro North found numerous safety violations and a prioritization of on-time performance over safety. In other words, speedup and cost cutting were putting both passengers and workers at risk. The author also recommends: More than 30 injuries in Long Island Rail Road collision [10 October 2016] US transit agency launched safety probe before fatal New Jersey train crash [03 October 2016] Following death of workers, report indicts safety at New York Metro-North rail system [27 March 2014] US President-elect Donald Trump has reacted to the latest North Korean announcement last Sunday, claiming it is preparing to test an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), with provocative tweets directed against China, as well as Pyongyang. Trumps first tweet on Monday seized on the North Korean statement that it is in the final stages of developing a nuclear weapon capable of reaching parts of the US and flatly declared: It wont happen. The president-elect followed up less than an hour later with a second tweet blaming Beijing for failing to strong-arm Pyongyang into dropping its nuclear programs. China has been taking out massive amounts of money & wealth from the US in totally one-sided trade, but wont help with North Korea. Nice! it stated. Trumps tweets triggered a wave of speculation especially in the American media as to what measures the new administration might adopt to prevent North Korea from developing a nuclear-capable ICBM. The possibilities ranged from doing a deal with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to imposing further economic and diplomatic sanctions, and carrying out pre-emptive military strikes on North Korean missile, nuclear and military sites. Trumps scanty remarks on North Korea in the course of last years election campaign have been self-contradictory. On the one hand, he has branded Kim as a bad dude and a maniac while on the other suggesting that he might sit down for a talk with the North Korean leader over a hamburger. Trump has also hinted that he would use economics to force China to rein in North Korea. His latest tweet on Chinas one-sided trade with the US is in line with his stream of anti-China abuse during the election and threats to take drastic trade war measures, including imposing tariffs of 45 percent on Chinese goods. Trump has also threatened to abandon US adherence to the One China Policy, which has been the cornerstone of diplomatic relations between the two countries for four decades. Under the One China policy, Washington recognised Beijing as the sole, legitimate government of all China including Taiwan. Beijing has dismissed Trumps tweets. Foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang declared on Tuesday that Chinas efforts to denuclearise the Korean Peninsula were clear for all to see. He referred to Beijings sponsorship of the six-party talks on North Koreas nuclear programs that have included the US, Japan, Russia, China and the two Koreas, as well as its support for UN sanctions on Pyongyang over its nuclear tests. China has been engaged in a difficult balancing act. It has sought to block North Koreas development of nuclear weapons, which give the US a pretext to ramp up its military presence in North East Asia and could prompt Japan and South Korea to seek nuclear arms. At the same time, Beijing does not want the collapse of the Pyongyang regime, which has acted as a buffer against the US and its ally, South Korea. A comment in the state-owned Xinhua news agency also on Tuesday rebuked Trump for using twitter. Everyone recognises the common sense that foreign policy isnt childs play and even less is it like doing business deals, it stated. Trumps tweets, however, are a further indication that he intends to put North Korea high on his foreign policy agenda as another means of exerting pressure on China over a range of issues. Last weekend Reuters cited a senior US intelligence official saying that Trumps first, and at that time only, request for a special classified intelligence briefing was for one on North Korea and its nuclear weapons program. Trumps focus on North Korea coincides with a push by hard-line sections of the US military and foreign policy establishment for tougher action over Pyongyangs nuclear weapons, including military strikes. Last September, the US Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) issued a task force report which warned that Pyongyangs accelerating nuclear and missile programs pose a grave and expanding threat to the territory of the US allies, to US personnel in the region, and to the continental United States. The report declared that Obamas policy of sanctions had failed and the US had to present North Korea with a sharper choice: seek a negotiated settlement to return to compliance with UN resolutions on nuclear weapons, or face severe and escalating costs. It called for a series of moves culminating in more assertive diplomatic and military steps, including some that directly threaten the regimes nuclear and missile programs and, therefore, the regime itself. Speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies last month, the former top American commander in South Korea, retired General Walter Sharp, explicitly advocated pre-emptive military strikes against impending North Korean missile and nuclear tests. This is very doable, he said. We got to make sure that we have strong defences and the strong will, and that he [Kim] knows that if he responds after we take one of his missiles out that there is a lot more coming his way. Such reckless military action has the potential to precipitate a full-scale war on the Korean Peninsula that would draw in other powers including China. Trump has left the world guessing as to how he intends to deal with North Korea but nothing can be ruled out. He has tweeted just prior to Christmas that the US must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear [weapons] capacitya clear warning that he sides with the most reckless and militaristic sections of the US ruling elites that are determined to ensure American supremacy even at the risk of nuclear war. President Obama appeared on Capitol Hill Wednesday to urge congressional Democrats to defend his signature domestic measure, the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Vice President-elect Mike Pence also made an appearance, reiterating that President-elect Donald Trumps first order of business will be the repeal of the program popularly known as Obamacare. The Republican-controlled Senate voted 51 to 48 Wednesday to take a first step toward repealing the ACA by agreeing to take up a budget resolution that will clear the way for repealing major provisions of the health care law. It is unclear at this point what form this will take, but through the budget reconciliation process, Republicans aim to repeal or nullify provisions of the law that affect spending and taxes. Trump and the Republicans have indicated that they may seek to retain some of the programs more popular features, such as allowing young adults to stay on their parents plans until age 26 and prohibiting insurers from discriminating against people with preexisting conditions, although it is unclear how this would be funded. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and other Democrats appeared at a press conference Wednesday saying that repealing the ACA will make America sick again and lead to grandma living in the guest room. But while the drama over the fate of Obamacare plays out on Capitol Hill, proponents of the legislation have come forward to make clear what, in fact, their defense of Obamacare is really about. The health care overhaul was never about providing universal or even near-universal, decent quality health care for the American people. It was about restructuring the US health care system so as to sharply reduce costs for corporations and the government, at the expense of the health and longevity of working people. An extensive article in Mondays New York Times, which begins on page one and fills two entire inside pages, enthusiastically outlines far-reaching changes in the delivery of health care already implemented under Obamacare, and makes clear the changes are driven by an agenda of slashing costs, not for consumers, but for the insurance companies, hospital chains and pharmaceutical corporations. The article quotes Nancy-Ann DeParle, a White House aide, who recalls Obama telling her he wanted a health care reform that would do away with the creaky old delivery system. The two major elements of the old system Obama targeted for destruction were employer-provided health insurance, deemed too generous and expensive, and the so-called fee for service model, in which insurance companies had to cover most or all of the cost of each exam, procedure or prescription ordered by health care providers. By means of financial penalties and inducements to doctors, hospitals and other health care providers, Obamacare aims to replace fee for service with a so-called value-based system. As the Times article makes clear, the overriding criterion for value is not the quality of care, but rather the costthe lower the cost to corporate interests and the state, the higher the supposed value. Value-based is a euphemism for the rationing of health care along class lines. The wealthy get the best care money can buy. The working class and poor get poorer care while paying higher out-of-pocket costs. As Dr. R. Michael Meneghini, an orthopedic surgeon with Indiana University Health in Fishers, Indiana, told the Times, These reforms are all intended to slow down the consumption of health care resources in the United States. We are careening at a rapid rate to a two-tier system. The public who cant afford it goes to a public hospital and gets free health care. Those who have money get to pay for really nice care. The extension of health insurancestripped down and loaded with high premiums, high deductibles and high co-paysto less than half of the tens of millions of uninsured Americans was always a subordinate aspect of the Obama administrations health care overhaul. That part of the plan was designed to benefit the insurance companies by forcing those not insured by their employer or the government, via Medicare or Medicaid, to purchase private insurance. It also benefited the hospital chains by reducing the number of uninsured they were forced to treat at their own expense. And it served a marketing function, allowing the administration to package a deeply regressive program as a progressive social reforma step in the direction of universal health care. Under Obamacare, Medicare and Medicaid are used to push through cost-cutting innovations that are then extended throughout the entire health care system. In 2015, the Obama administration set a goal for half of all payments to Medicarethe government program that covers 55 million seniors and the disabledto be tied to the quality of care provided by doctors and hospitals, instead of the quantity, by 2018. This measure passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. In its January 3 article, the Times provides the example of the Indiana University Health (IU) system, which performed 3,900 hip replacements and knee replacements in the year ended June 30. Doctors there are under pressure from Medicare and private insurers to manage and coordinate care for their patients before and after surgery. And, they say, payment for their services is continually being squeezed. For example, in an effort to slash costs, operating rooms at IU are now stocked with color coded value trackers that give a green light to lower-cost surgical products, a red light to high-cost products, and a yellow light to those in between. The Times, which has been the leading champion of Obamacare from its inception, expands on the virtues of these cost-cutting measures in an opinion piece by Tina Rosenberg posted on Wednesday, in which she writes that the transformation of Americas health care system under the ACA moves health care away from a fee-for-service model, which pays doctors and hospitals according to the number of procedures they do, toward value-based care, which pays based on what helps patients get better. The columns headline, A Bipartisan Reason to Save Obamacare, points to the right-wing basis of its defense of Obamacare. Rosenberg hails the fact that under the ACAs Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, more than a third of Medicare payments to providers now depend on value instead of volume. She praises the ACAs reform showpiece, the Accountable Care Organization, a team of providers that has financial incentives to keep the patient healthy and hold down costs. An op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal makes a direct appeal in defense of Obamacare to private insurance companies and large employers on the basis of a benefit near and dear to their hearts: bigger profits. Titled Stand Up for ObamaCare, CEOs, the piece is co-authored by Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, a chief architect of the Affordable Care Act. The piece argues that the replacement proposal for the ACA offered by House Speaker Paul Ryan would lead to 4 million fewer insured people by 2026, while 9 million would lose coverage under another Republican plan. Even though these people would be unable to pay for care, the authors write, they would end up in emergency rooms and urgent care centers, and the costs will be rolled into the line item uncompensated carewhich is ultimately paid for by higher prices on every one else. Dr. Emanuel has predicted that with Obamacare as its model, employer-sponsored health care, a benefit won in bitter struggles by American workers in the last century, will become a thing of the past by 2025, with employers providing small stipends to their employees to purchase private insurance, or dumping their coverage altogether. Trumps pick to head the Department of Health and Human Services, Tom Price, advocates the total or partial repeal of Obamacare as part of a scheme to begin the dismantling of both Medicare and Medicaid and their transformation into voucher programs, in which seniors and poor people would be given government subsidies that would cover only a fraction of the cost of private insurance. The current debate over the Affordable Care Act is a debate between thieves. Neither Obama and the Democrats nor Trump and the Republicans have in mind the interests of the American population. Their sole aim is the defense of the capitalist system and the profits of the health care industry. A genuine solution to the health care crisis requires putting an end to medicine-for-profit and providing free, high-quality health care for all as a basic social right. This can be taken forward only by establishing socialized medicine under a workers government based on socialist principles, including the nationalization of the health care corporations and their transformation into publicly-owned and democratically controlled institutions. Police in the US began 2017 by continuing their wave of violence and murder against the working class. According to killedbypolice.net, which tracks police killings reported in the media, 12 have died in the first four days of the year because of violent encounters with police. The number, roughly three a day, is roughly in line with the average in 2016, during which police killed at least 1,152 people. Off-duty Chicago cop kills unarmed man Monday morning, an off-duty police officer shot and killed a man in Hermosa, a predominantly Hispanic working class neighborhood on Chicagos northwest side. According to witnesses, the two got into an argument, during which the cop pulled out his gun and shot the man, Jose Nieves, 38, multiple times. Joses sister, Angelica, told ABC7 that her brother had previously been threatened by the cop, but was ignored when he reported him to the Chicago Police Department. He would complain about the guy pulling out his gun at him, him coming home from work. More than once, hes called 911. Theyve gone to the apartment. Theyve gone there. They dont do nothing about it. Hes an officer, she said. Angelica also indicated that the cop shot her brother in the back, saying, You got him in the stomach, on the lower body, and the back. So he was turned around when he got him in the back. Thats the bullet that killed him. The off-duty cop, a 57-year-old officer assigned to the citys mass transit unit who has yet to be identified, has been relieved of his police powers and placed on paid administrative leave. Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson appeared at the scene of the shooting Monday afternoon, telling reporters, I have a lot more questions than I do answers at this time. So I came out because I wanted to make sure this investigation was done properly. Johnson, an African American, was chosen by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a Democrat and close ally of President Barack Obama, to replace former Superintendent Garry McCarthy last year. McCarthy had been sacked by Emanuel in late 2015 in an effort to contain the widening political crisis sparked by the cover-up by police and city officials of the video documenting the brutal murder of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. Following prominent media coverage over a spike in gun violence in Chicago in 2016, President-elect Donald Trump, set to be inaugurated in just over two weeks, tweeted recently that Emanuel must ask for federal help. Trump made repeated appeals to bolster law-and-order during his campaign, and Emanuel, for his part, is embarking on a plan to hire 1,000 more officers this year. In another Chicago-area police killing earlier on Sunday night, a sheriffs deputy in Villa Park, a western suburb, shot and killed a teenager, 17-year-old Trevor Johnson. The deputy, responding to a report of a domestic dispute, reportedly got into a fight with Johnson and shot the youth multiple times. Johnson was unarmed, according to his family. The deputy has also been put on paid administrative leave. Also on Sunday, Chicago police shot an unarmed man after a car chase. The police began to pursue the unidentified man for allegedly running a stop sign, after which his vehicle ran onto the sidewalk and collided with several other cars, include a police car. When the officers approached the man and attempted to restrain him, he struggled, at which point one of them shot him twice in the chest. He was taken to a nearby hospital but is reported to have survived. New York City police kill two within hours in separate incidents On Tuesday, police in New York Citys Brooklyn borough shot and killed two people within hours of each other in separate incidents. In the first, police responded to a 911 emergency call from the sister of James Owen, a 63-year-old who was psychologically distressed. Owens sister, Daisy Wright, said that she called 911 because her brother, a recovering addict, was feeling woozy. When the police arrived, Owen went into the kitchen and retrieved a knife. The police allege that they attempted to use a stun gun on him after he refused to drop the knife, and when that was unsuccessful, they shot him three times, killing him. Owens sister and brother, who were present at the scene, disputed this account, saying that the police did not tell Owen to drop the knife, and did not use the Taser until after they had already shot him. Daisy told the New York Daily News that the police were not in any danger from her brother: They were about 10 feet away from [him]. He was holding a knife. He wasnt even charging at them. They shot him without any warning ... before he did anything. The cops didnt say drop it, didnt try to talk him down, didnt do nothing. They just shot him. They shot him three times. She added, I was surprised I didnt get shot. I was right behind him, and I could feel the ricochet of the gun. In another incident later Tuesday night, police on patrol allegedly saw a gun being fired into a club in the Crown Heights neighborhood. After they confronted a suspect, later identified as 18-year-old Joshua Martino, the youth fled. Police claim that Martino turned towards the pursuing officers with a gun in his hand while running away, at which point they shot him. He was later taken to a hospital and pronounced dead. No one at the club was reported to have been injured. Twitter video shows North Carolina school officer slamming 15-year-old student to the ground A widely shared cellphone video on Twitter depicted a school resource officer in North Carolina lifting up a student into the air and slamming her audibly onto a cafeteria floor. After lying stunned briefly on the ground, she is then lifted up by one arm by the officer and led away while she holds her chest. The girl, 15-year-old Jasmine Darwin, is a student at Rolesville High School. Local police claim that the school officer was responding to a fight in the cafeteria. According to the student who took the cellphone video, however, Jasmine was herself attempting to break up the fight, which was taking place between her sister and another student. Jasmines mother, Desiree Harrison, said that her daughter suffered a concussion. She told the media, Thats not how you handle a child. Shes only 100 pounds. He couldve killed her. Arizona man dies while in police custody A man died after being restrained by police in Phoenix, Arizona Wednesday afternoon. Police responded to a report of the man acting erratically at a community center. According to media reports, the 43-year-old man was a transient and had attacked an employee of the center. After the man refused to leave, somewhere between six to eight officers restrained him. While en route with police from the scene in handcuffs, he began to throw up and become medically distressed. Police claim they removed his restraints and attempted to perform CPR. He was later taken to a hospital and pronounced dead. The medical examiners office is planning to issue a report on the cause of death. The police involved were reportedly wearing body cameras. The department has said it is conducting an investigation into the incident, and is reviewing surveillance footage. Do people really think closing Whiteclay will solve any problems in Pine Ridge ("The cost of a can of beer," Jan. 1)? Reality is that this will just move more liquor sales to Gordon. The problems in Pine Ridge cannot be solved with one simple solution and they should not be ignored. They have already been ignored for far too long and it is costing taxpayers millions. We would be money ahead to address the issues on the reservation headlong. High suicide rates seem to indicate a lack of hope and pride. We should put some money into better schools, better hospitals and better treatment programs. Teach Native American culture and give kids pride in who they are. Better education gives people options and hope for a better future. There is no simple solution but this seems like a good common-sense start. Speaking to the state-run Anadolu news agency on January 4, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu stated that authorities had identified the perpetrator of the New Years Day massacre at the Reina nightclub in Istanbul. He did not give any further details, and the gunman is still at large. Meanwhile, Turkish authorities issued photos of the alleged member of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), who reportedly entered Turkey from Syria and stayed in the Central Anatolian province of Konya with his wife and two children, where he rented a flat. His family members remain in custody. Information about the attack remains unclear and unreliable. Previously, Turkish authorities circulated photos of a man thought to be the perpetrator, but it proved to be an innocent Kazakh. According to the media, a Kyrgyz site published an interview with a second Central Asian-looking man whose photo was also circulated as the likely assailant. On January 4, five suspects linked to ISIS were detained in the Aegean city of Izmir after fleeing there in the wake of the Reina nightclub attack. At least 27 people, including two foreigners, have been detained in connection with the New Year massacre, as Turkish police forces continue their raids in districts of Istanbul that are largely inhabited by people from Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. None of the information that has emerged sheds any light on the most remarkable question posed about how the massacre was carried out: How could an ISIS gunman evade detection by tens of thousands of police on high alert and carry out a massacre undisturbed at a nightclub located directly across the street from a police station? Authorities have simply continued to deny any responsibility for successive terror attacks in Turkey that have cost hundreds of lives. The New Year massacre is part of a deep crisis of the international order that is shaking both Turkish-US and Turkish-Russian relations. Since August of last year, the Turkish army, along with its proxy forces within the Syrian opposition militias of the so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA), has been fighting ISIS in Syria. Turkey launched its Operation Euphrates Shield after a suicide bombing at a wedding killed more than 50 people in the southeastern province of Gaziantep. Since then, according to Turkish officials, they have killed more than 1,270 militants. With Russian support, the Turkish army has now encircled al-Bab, a stronghold of ISIS in Syria, in an operation that apparently has received covert approval from the Syrian government. Yesterday, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim repeated Ankaras claim that only Turkey really fights ISIS, adding: The others are engaged in a fake struggle. America isnt doing a damn thing, nor are the others. Yildirim also blamed the US government for arming the Syrian Kurdish militia Peoples Protection Units (YPG), Washingtons main ally in Syria. On the same day, US-led coalition jets carried out maneuvers in support of Turkeys ongoing operation to take the Syrian city of al-Bab. However, they did not carry out any air strikes. Meanwhile, just a day after the New Year massacre in Istanbul, some ten Syrian rebel groups announced that they had frozen their participation in peace negotiation talks in Syria. Accusing the Syrian government of violating the truce, they said in a joint statement that they respected the ceasefire across the whole of Syria but the regime and its allies have not stopped shooting and have launched major and frequent violations. Following the ceasefire deal between Damascus and the opposition brokered by Turkey and Russia, Ankara and Moscow called for a meeting in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, on January 23, to establish a permanent cease-fire and political solution in Syria. Speaking to Anadolu on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu blamed forces supporting the Syrian regime, presumably the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, for violating the truce, which went into effect on December 30. If we cannot stop the increasing violations, the Astana process could fail, he said. Cavusoglu also criticized the US-led coalition forces for failing to provide air support to opposition forces participating in Turkeys Operation Euphrates Shield. He asked, If you dont support us in the most significant operation, then why are you based at the Incirlik Airbase? After this latest in a string of official Turkish comments harshly critical of Washington, he nevertheless added, The US is an important ally; we have cooperation in almost every field. However, the truth is [that we have] a confidence crisis with the US, adding that Washington is preferring terrorist organizations over its ally [Turkey]. Addressing local officials yesterday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan emphasized the importance of the ongoing efforts of Moscow and Ankara to establish a permanent cease-fire and political solution in Syria. It is my greatest wish that this process will be completed successfully and the sufferings of our Syrian brothers will end soon, he said. Erdogan stated that they were determined to clear out other regions where terrorist organizations have settled, particularly Manbij. As diplomatic talks and Turkish military offensives in northern Syria intensify, the political context and significance of the shooting at the Reina nightclub is becoming clearer. ISIS, which received support from Turkey earlier in the war and still has a considerable logistical presence there, is sending a signal that it can retaliate for attempts by Turkey and its allies to restructure the region in ways that would be too hostile to US interests. Today, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim is set to pay a two-day visit to Baghdad and Arbil in Iraq. Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus told reporters on Monday that Yildirim would meet Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi in Baghdad, and then Massoud Barzani, the president of the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government, in Arbil. One of the main issues in Yildirims talks with Iraqi and Kurdish authorities will be the Kurdistan Workers Partys (PKK) military bases in northern Iraq. Relations between Baghdad and Ankara have severely deteriorated due to the Iraqi reaction to Turkeys establishment of a military training camp in Bashiqa, near Mosul, to train local Sunni groups, supposedly against IS. For months, the Turkish military has deployed thousands of troops, backed by tanks, howitzers and armored vehicles to the Turkish Syrian and Iraqi border, as part of its preparation to invade the Kurdish enclave in northern Syria, as well as Iraq, in a fight against the PKK and its Syrian offshoot, the Democratic Union Party (PYD). TALLAHASSEE, FL (WTXL) -- A Tallahassee doctor accused of killing his wife nearly three years ago is ready to stand trial in a few weeks. Adam Frasch was in court Wednesday as his attorney and state prosecutors agreed to move forward without delaying trial any further. Both sides are prepared for trial on January 23. Frasch practiced podiatry in Thomasville and lived in Tallahassee's Golden Eagle neighborhood with his wife Samira. The two were in the process of getting a divorce, when she was murdered in February 2014. Samira was found dead at the bottom of their swimming pool. Frasch was arrested and served jail time but has released in September 2015 after posting a $250,000 bond. Wednesday, Frasch's attorney told the judge the defense is ready to proceed. The defense team is working on getting a medical examiner expert and a cell phone expert -- both of whom the state would like to question before the trial. If Frasch is found guilty, he will not face the death penalty. The state agreed to exclude it as an option for sentencing in exchange for a jury of six jurors instead of the typical 12. TALLAHASSEE, FL (WTXL) -- A Tallahassee restaurant was forced to shut down after a routine health inspection resulted in more than 30 violations Tuesday. Hobbit American Grill on Pensacola Street was closed starting Tuesday afternoon when the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation reported 34 violations, including live roaches, mold presence, and unsanitary conditions by the hand-washing sinks. Sherri Capece, an assistant to the restaurant's owners, said the forcible closure of Hobbit's was "embarrassing." "Oh, my gosh. It was devastating," she said. "Didn't know how to handle it." Hobbit has served customers in Tallahassee for 35 years. Capece said this is the first time the restaurant has closed due to violations. "A lot of them were fixed on site," she said. "Some of them were maintenance -- cosmetic things that we were not aware of." The staff spent Tuesday night and Wednesday morning working to correct each of the violations. "We've been here cleaning and reorganizing, after we had Florida Pest Control come in," Capece said. The violations come at a critical time for Hobbit, as college students return to Tallahassee next week. The restaurant, Capece said, wants to make sure it's open to serve them. "I think people see it. They don't understand it -- how hard it hits you," she said. Hobbit American Grill said it has fixed all of the issues outstanding in the inspection report. "Can't wait to get back open and start doing what we do," Capece said. A health inspector visited Hobbit's Wednesday afternoon, but the restaurant remained closed for the day. WTXL has reached out to the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation to learn more about the inspection. Your article on the proposed chicken plant in Fremont didn't quite cover all the aspects of the poultry industry ("Chicken plant raises environmental concerns," Jan. 2). The poultry industry has powerful lobbyists. Their lobbyists have successfully convinced our state legislators into voting in a new law allowing corporate ownership of livestock in Nebraska, thus dismissing a long-held ban of ownership of livestock by corporations. The old law protected family farmers, and the new law allows the poultry industry a foothold in our state. The poultry industry also says it is for helping and promoting agriculture and family farmers, but how can that be when it has been lobbying since 2012 to keep corn prices low by limiting the opportunity for corn growers to market their grain? How is that helping agriculture and family farmers? As a third-generation farmer, I'm a little confused on how industrial poultry farming is good for agriculture or family farmers when the industry I am growing for has steadfastly lobbied against my ability to prosper. The poultry industry also says it wants to be a good neighbor and follow all regulations. The poultry industry lobbyists have been very successful in keeping the Department of Agriculture from creating any regulations on the poultry industry. The citizens of Fremont are finding out that the poultry industry is not always honest and forthcoming with its true intentions, ranging from the magnitude of what it intends to do to the expected cost to taxpayers. Unfortunately, the citizens of Fremont don't have powerful lobbyists. Nancy Clausen, Fremont RUSHVILLE -- Sheridan County residents defended Whiteclay's embattled beer stores Thursday, telling local leaders that shutting them down would "scatter" alcohol-related ills and lead to more drunk driving. The four stores sold the equivalent of 3.5 million cans of beer last year a few hundred yards south of South Dakota's Pine Ridge Reservation, where liquor is banned but alcoholism is rampant. State regulators in Nebraska ordered the stores to reapply for their liquor licenses after questions were raised about adequacy of law enforcement in Whiteclay, an unincorporated village with a dozen permanent residents. If the stores close, people drinking Whiteclay beer will just move along to nearby Chadron, Rushville, Gordon or Hay Springs, said Jeff Erquiaga, a Rushville business owner. "Until we fix the demand, youre not going to fix the problem," Erquiaga told members of the Sheridan County Board during a series of public hearings, one for each beer store. "Closing Whiteclay does not fix the problem. All it does is scatter it out. Activists countered that Whiteclay's existence allows Sheridan County to keep Pine Ridge's systemic vagrancy, violence and fetal alcohol syndrome at arm's length while profiting off the misery. "Out of sight, out of mind does not mean the problem goes away," said Drew Trenerry of Lincoln, who wants the licenses denied. "It just means that you dont have to deal with it. For four hours Thursday, beer store owners and their proponents sparred with activists who want county commissioners to recommend the liquor licenses be denied. About 60 people attended the hearings at the local American Legion post, and tempers flared as the day dragged on. Some activists accused county residents and officials of ignoring Whiteclay's problems because they mostly affect Oglala Lakota people, not their white neighbors. Others took direct aim at the beer store owners, repeatedly calling them "predatory." I can understand why you guys are fighting," said Kim Greager of Rapid City, South Dakota. "You found paydirt. Congratulations. But its evil. The three commissioners mostly listened, but they joined beer store owners in actively disputing a key point raised by activists: that demand for law enforcement and emergency services represented a material change in circumstances at Whiteclay. In an October hearing at the state Capitol, Commissioner Jack Andersen said the county "absolutely" lacks adequate resources for law enforcement. The statement was among the items cited by the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission when it ordered the beers stores to reapply for their licenses instead of having them automatically renewed this year. Andersen said Thursday that he misspoke and meant to say Sheridan County taxpayers were footing an unfair share of the costs to police Whiteclay. County Attorney Jamian Simmons said she and Sheriff Terry Robbins are still trying to determine exactly how much county time and resources are spent in Whiteclay. She disputed figures cited by some activists, which were based on statements by Commissioner James Krotz, that Whiteclay consumes 35 percent of the county's law enforcement budget. Simmons said the percentage was oversimplified and based on a 2008 review of Pine Ridge residents in the county's jail population. More recent reviews have shown that Whiteclay accounts for about 20 percent of arrests in the county, and 14 percent to 16 percent of the county's 911 dispatches, she said. Beer store owner Steve Sanford said it's no different than when his family first purchased D&S Pioneer about nine years ago. "I dont believe the conditions have changed in Whiteclay since the day we were granted our license," he said Thursday. Abram Neumann, who works at Whiteclay's Lakota Hope ministry, said he has feared for his safety but assumed law enforcement was so far away they "would only be there to scrape my body up off the pavement." Owners of the other three beer stores -- Arrowhead Inn, Jumping Eagle Inn and State Line Liquor -- also spoke, along with Gordon City Manager Jacob Sheridan, who read a statement by the city council supporting the liquor licenses. "Removing the alcohol from Whiteclay does not remove the addiction from those who currently shop there," Sheridan said. One woman submitted a petition containing what she described as 300 signatures from current and former Sheridan County residents who support keeping the beer stores open. Several people encouraged Pine Ridge tribal leaders to reconsider the alcohol ban. Former tribal president Bryan Brewer asked them to trust the tribe's decision, which is based on firsthand knowledge of alcohol's impact on the reservation: We know what it does to our people. Most studies show decreasing access to alcohol leads to fewer drunk driving incidents, not more, argued activist John Maisch, a former liquor regulator from Oklahoma. Other social ills that might spread elsewhere if the beer stores are closed already exist in Whiteclay, Neumann said. "If its unacceptable in Rushville, it should be unacceptable in my community as well," he said. Commissioners will meet again Tuesday to make a decision. Besides recommending approval or denial, they could also do nothing and simply let the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission handle the issue. A 64-year-old man was critically wounded when he was stabbed multiple times by his brother Wednesday afternoon, authorities said. Local Washington Education Association members at the state Supreme Court after a McCleary case hearing in September. The state highest court has ruled that Washington is violating its constitution by failing to cover the full cost of providing a basic education at public schools. (Erika Schultz/The Seattle Times) You are the owner of this article. 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. The New Year catches the Arab world between the sixth anniversaries of the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia and the Tahrir Revolution in Egypt. While the street did kick out its leaders, there is no cause for celebration. After all, these two dramatic events have yet to end. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter True, they did get rid of dictators - Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and Hosni Mubarak. One disappeared to a spacious palace in the Saudi deserts, and the other spends his days at the guarded wing of the Maadi Military Hospital in Cairo. But the young people who filled the streets have been rejected and are being ignored by the new government. Aleppo, Syria. If 2016 goes down in history as the year that produced heartrending images, 2017 won't be much better (Photo: AFP) Tunisia is considered the only success among the shaken countries, but it also the No. 1 exporter of recruits and volunteers to ISIS. And the dictators heavy shadow still hovers above the squares where assembly is still forbidden. The most striking conclusion from the Arab Spring events is that the countries which expelled their dictators are now being swept away by waves of nostalgia. In Iraq, people miss Saddam Hussein, who knew how to hold the country together, before the murderous terror militias took over it. A movement called Oh Rais, We Apologize has been founded in Egypt as a sort of popular homage yearning for Mubarak. And in Libya there are those who believe that if Muammar Gaddafi were alive today, ISIS would not have succeeded in dictating an agenda of violence in the country. Only few of the experts who pretend to know everything about the Arab worlds countries are willing to provide a prediction map for the coming year. If 2016 goes down in as the year that produced heartrending images, 2017 won't be much better. No matter how deep we dig into the list of the 22 Muslim countries, its hard to pull out any good news. Even the body we have been referring to as the Arab world is collapsing and falling apart. In the eyes of the onlooker, the region is holding onto a division between the moderate Sunni camp and the Shiite axis of evil. Above them, the voice of the Arab League umbrella, which is supposed to unite, sounds weak and frail if it can even be heard. If last years Man of the Year was Russian President Vladimir Putin, this years Man of the Year is expected to be US President-elect Donald Trump. What do we know about his world view on issues related to the situation in the Middle East? Only what he writes on Twitter. Commentators are willing to predict that Trump will focus his efforts on creating a new order in his home field. Only if he is left with no other choice, he will get the people he appoints to intervene in the neighborhoods urgent affairs. There are optimists in the neighborhood too. They are clinging to the fact that Trump comes from the business world and believe that he will shape his foreign policy according to a profit and loss key. It wont be simple. The new year is dragging along the threats and conflicts of 2016. The discreet pursuit of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who the world lost trace of three weeks ago, will continue. As ISIS grows weaker, the al-Qaeda terror organization and its branches are expected to rear their head. Despite the ceasefire agreement, Syria will keep bleeding. Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are preparing to divide the Syrian loot between them behind Syrian President Bashar Assads back. Why should Assad care? As long as he controls Damascus and its suburbs and continues called "rais" (president), Bashar will obey Putin. The intelligence writers predict that Trump is preparing to team up with Putin. It wont be an equal division of tasks. Putin is already here and Trump is reluctant to get involved, but the coordination will be tighter. Its interesting to see another evaluation, which all experts are fixated on: At least one leader in our region will be murdered in 2017. Who will it be? Each expert has theirown guess, each commentator has their own scenarios. No one will take the risk of putting the name of the designated assassination victim in writing. Against a background of ministers and politicians calling on the government to grant pardon to Sgt. Elor Azaria, who was convicted of manslaughter on Wednesday morning for shooting dead seriously wounded terrorist Abed al Fatah al-Sharif who carried out a stabbing attack just moments earlier in Hebron last year, the possibility of such an outcome actually does exists for the near future, albeit a slim one. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter According to the law, Azaria is able to submit a full pardon request even before receiving his sentence, which is expected to be given in approximately one month. He is also able to submit his request after a sentence is given and he begins serving his time in a military prison. Elor Azaria (C) (Photo: Miriam Alster/Flash 90) As a soldier, Azaria is able to submit his request to one of two officials: the relevant general in the IDF or President Reuven Rivlin. Meanwhile Minister Miri Regev has already sent a letter to Rivlin requesting that he pardon Azaria. However, the President's Office responded to Regev's request by stating that only the convicted individual, a close relative or an appointed representative can request a presidential pardon. The president or the general are only able to make a decision after the request has been submitted and received the support of the Manpower directorate, the chief military prosecutor, the IDF chief of staff and the minister of Defense. In the meantime, Rivlins office said it will consider a pardon for Azaria at the appropriate time, but that a decision is a long ways away. His office issued a statement on Wednesday, saying that a pardon request would be weighed only "following a conclusive judicial ruling." With Azaria still facing sentencing and an appeals process, that means the matter may not come before the president for some time. The statement gave no indication whether Rivlin would support a pardon, only that if a request is made, the president will consider it "in accordance with standard practices and after recommendations from the relevant authorities." A military pardon for Azaria unlikely Regardless of Rivlin's decision, it seems rather implausible that the relevant military personnel will decide to pardon: IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot has already taken a stand against Azaria's actions and against interfering with the court's decision; IDF Spokesperson Moti Almoz, who is set to take over as IDF Manpower directorate, has spent the last six months representing the IDF's official stance admonishing Azaria's actions; and Chief military Prosecutor Sharon Afek is not expected to support such a pardon, either. The biggest question mark hangs above Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who vowed to stick with Azaria while still a part of the Opposition. As Defense minister, though, he has voiced his displeasure with the verdict, but called on the public to respect the court's ruling The chances that GOC Central Command Roni Numathe relevant major general who can decide to pardon Azariamight decide to exercise this option are even slimmer, as Numa was one of the investigators in the Hebron shooting incident. Upon its conclusion, the investigation found that Azaria acted against IDF engagement procedure with a threatening individual, and that there was no justification for him to open fire in this particular case. The possibility of a pardon aside, Azaria could still in theory be out of prison before he completes his sentence in fullhowever long it may be. This would be through an appeal to a special parole committee comprised of legal experts and military personnel, asking that his sentence be shortened. The option of appealing to such a committee is open to any soldier sentenced to more than a year. As opposed to a similar committee in the civil justice system, which can decide to shorten a prisoner's sentence by one third, such a military committee can order that half of the prisoner's sentence be taken off. However, such a decision would require that the convicted person express remorse and exhibit good behavior during his time in prison, as well as take into account the prisoner's personal and familial circumstances. However, legal military expert Shlomo Rachvi said that the chances for such an intervention are not high, either. "Military mitigation of a sentence require extreme circumstances. In the past few years there almost haven't been any cases where a major general decided to mitigate a sentence that was decided in military court, as opposed to sentences decided in a disciplinary hearing, in which they have been known to weigh in." A sentencing is due to be given one month after the verdict. According to legal military experts, Azaria's conviction was no surprise, considering that Central Command Chief Justice Col. Maya Heller systematically rejected all of Azaria's defense arguments for over two-and-a-half-hours before handing down his conviction. Their assumption is that Azaria's sentencing will follow along a similar path, and that the court will not be lenient with him. "My estimation is that it'll be no less than three years," said Attorney Shlomo Zipori, a military legal expert who had served in top positions within the IDF Defense. "The verdict was detailed and explained at length, and will doubtless affect the sentencing." He added that Heller "referred to each clause and claim, thereby preventing the possibility that the lawyers could claim that since certain claims were not addressed, a new trial is in order." SYDNEY - Australia scrambled to calm tensions with Indonesia on Thursday, promising that an investigation was nearly complete into an alleged insult of Indonesian state ideology that prompted Indonesia to suspend military cooperation with its neighbor. The exact cause of the rift between the two allies remained slightly murky one day after Indonesia's announcement of the suspension took officials in Canberra by surprise. Military ties between the two nations have been relatively warm in recent years, having improved since Indonesia downgraded its relations with Australia in 2013 over the alleged bugging of phones belonging to Indonesia's president. Australian Defense Minister Marise Payne said Thursday that the current issue began in November, after an Indonesian military officer raised concerns about some teaching materials and remarks made at an army language training facility in western Australia. Indonesian military spokesman Maj. Gen. Wuryanto said there were reports an Indonesian instructor at the facility felt that a "laminated paper" on display was insulting. According to Indonesian media, the paper contained words that demeaned Pancasila -- a set of vague principles that mandates belief in one God and unity among Indonesia's 250 million people. Wuryanto, who like many Indonesians uses one name, said the training material was among many factors behind the decision to suspend cooperation with Australia. NOFOLK - A federal judge on Wednesday ruled that a Virginia man must remain in jail until trial on a charge that he tried to aid a terrorist group in Iraq, while his public defender argued that he was "entrapped" by undercover FBI agents over "bravado and talk." Magistrate Judge Lawrence R. Leonard said Lionel Williams, 26, of Suffolk, Virginia, poses too much of a danger to society. Williams allegedly swore allegiance to the Islamic State group in Iraq on Facebook. After undercover FBI agents approached him as people aligned with the group, Williams gave $250 to help them buy weapons, according to court documents. Williams also owned an AK-47 assault rifle and allegedly told undercover agents that he wanted to commit a local "martyrdom operation" before his arrest in late December. The judge said that even without his AK-47, which the FBI confiscated, Williams could pose a threat "as we've seen in Berlin and Nice" where terrorists struck pedestrians with trucks. OMAHA Douglas County officials are trying to resolve an issue with its 911 system that gives callers a rapid busy signal during a system outage, but it could take years to fix. Officials said that it could take years to fix. In September 2015, as many as 225,000 cellphone users in Douglas and Sarpy counties encountered the problem for nearly 13 hours. Nebraska Public Service Commission member Crystal Rhoades said it's unacceptable the county doesn't have a backup plan. "This is ridiculous," Rhoades said of the outages, which totaled more than 60 in the state during fiscal 2015. "It happens all the time and people aren't aware of it." Mark Conrey, the county's former 911 director, said most of the problem will be resolved with system upgrades that could be years away. Other than giving a rapid busy signal, 911 systems can also choose to reroute their calls to an administrative line or another county in the event of an outage. Conrey said the county's emergency infrastructure isn't advanced enough to reroute 911 calls and that the county handles too many calls to have them absorbed by a smaller center. In 2015 Douglas County's 911 received more than 469,900 calls, four times as many as any other Nebraska county. "You should always do the most that you can. In some cases, that might be sending calls to a fast-busy," National Emergency Number Association government affairs director Trey Forgety said. "I wish I could tell you that there is some universally applicable best practice." Conrey said the county decided on a rapid busy signal because they expected that the majority of outages would be due to a system overload, such as a storm or when multiple cellphone users witness a public accident. Police have arrested a 54-year-old man from Jerusalem and a 22-year-old woman from Kiryat Gat who are suspected of inciting to violence against the judges who convicted Sgt. Elor Azaria of manslaughter. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter The Azaria family came out against the posts of incitement and expressions of violence on social media, particularly those aimed at the judges panel. "The family has no connection and is not responsible for anything that happens outside the courtroom and a connection between the two things should in no way be made. Obviously, the family members disagree with all expressions of violence and completely condemn them," a statement from the family said. An image of the three judges with Hitler moustaches The Jerusalem District Police said the Jerusalem man wrote a post on Facebook "expressing radical criticism of the judges' decision to convict the soldier Elor Azaria." He was arrested after the police received the State Attorney's Office's approval to investigate the post. "I express my support in a full acquittal (for Azaria) and do publicly declare: Col. Maya Heller will not finish her year. 'She passes the judgment of the land and I give her the judgment of the heavens' so that all should see and beware across the generations," the man wrote in the post that was later removed. He went on to say that "those who support the conviction of a 'soldier in God's army' will receive a bitter fate and all of the curses written in the Torah will plague them and their families until their end." The man was put on house arrest under restrictive conditions. He is not allowed to come near Judge Heller and is barred from using any media device over the next 14 days. The woman was questioned and released under restrictive conditions after writing: "Take a grenade and blow up the judge and scatter all of her parts in different places, let the dogs eat her. God will make her pay for everything." Woman calls to throw grenade at judge "The Israel Police regularly monitors internet activity that deviates from the limits of legitimate expression of opinion and is suspected of being inciting," the police said in a statement. "The Israel Police will not allow any incitement to violence against government and judicial institutions and will take a hard line against any publication that is considered incitement and could lead to actual harm to public officials," the statement went on to say. After the military court found Azaria, who shot dead an already-neutralized terrorist in Hebron last year, guilty of manslaughter on Wednesday, social media has been flooded with swear words, harsh language and incitement against the head of the judges' panel, Judge Col. Maya Heller. As a result, the IDF decided to assign a security detail to protect the three judgesLt. Col Yaron Sitbon, Col. Maya Heller and Col. Carmel Wahabias well as the chief military prosecutor in the case, Lt. Col. Nadav Weissman. Users on social media claimed that Heller was the sister of Tali Fahima, a left-wing activist who was convicted for her contacts with Zakaria Zubeidi, Jenin chief of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades and served two years in prison. Post claiming Judge Heller is the sister of Tali Fahima "It's a disgrace for the State of Israel to allow an Israeli hater to judge a soldier, or to judge in the State of Israel at all," one poster wrote. Another post said: "Maya Heller, you should be ashamed of yourself. Just like you destroyed this family's joy of life and health, so will God repay you." Yet another poster wished the judge "to be in a terror attack." One poster lashed out against the top echelons of the defense establishment, journalist and "the Nazi judge Maya Heller." That poster warned that "God is counting every tear shed by a mother. You will pay for thissooner or later. God works in mysterious ways. I wish you torment. May you never have a single moment of happiness until your dying day." Post wishing: 'May you never have a single moment of happiness until your dying day' Two others wished "rape and death by burning" to Judge Heller. A Facebook page titled "Elor Azaria, the people are with you," which has 1,500 followers, was also flooded with harsh posts against the judge. "Who are you and who gave you the right to convict Elor?" the page's managers wrote, concluding their post with "We will remember you and the prosecution eternally in disgrace. You are the Judenrat of this generation." Post asking: 'Who are you and who gave you the right to convict Elor?' There were also calls for soldiers to rebel against the IDF. One poster, alongside a photo of weapons, wrote: "Elor is going to jailwe're all going to jail." Post saying: 'Elor is going to jailwe're all going to jail' Ran Carmi-Buzaglo, one of the leaders of the public struggle for Azaria, said: "We will continue to fight with determination to release this soldier who is part of us all. The struggle is based on fierce belief in the righteousness of the way and is conditioned on appropriate behavior. We will continue to act based on the law and in accordance with the principles of democracy. Those lawbreakers were first seen at the (initial) hearing in Qastina and they appeared again nine months later. They do not, in any way, represent the spirit of the struggle." The incitement began outside the court on Wednesday, when Azaria supporters chanted to the IDF chief of staff, Gadi Eisenkot: "Gadi, Gadi, beware. Rabin's looking for a friend," referring to the slain Israeli prime minister. MK Basel Ghattas (Joint List) was indicted on Thursday for smuggling cellphones to Palestinian security prisoners in Israel jails. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter The offenses Ghattas will be charged with are: Bringing in documents not through the prison administration, bringing in communication devices, use of property for purposes of terrorism, fraud and breach of trust by a public worker, fraudulently obtaining benefits under aggravated circumstances. The indictment points to the ties between Ghattas and terrorist Walid Dakawho is serving a life sentence since 1984 for his involvement in the murder of IDF soldier Moshe Tamamand with prisoner Basel Bizra, a Fatah member. MK Ghattas at court (Photo: Motti Kimchi) "The defendant conspired with Walid Daka, Bizra, and Daka's brother Assad to bring cellphones into the prison and deliver them to Bizra so he could deliver them to Daka and other security prisoners," the indictment states. According to the indictment, "Walid contacted Ghattas from prison using a cellphone that was brought into the prison without authorization and was unlawfully kept by Walid. As part of the aforementioned ties and to promote said ties, the defendant asked to visit Walid and Bizra in prison. His declared reason for visiting was hearing the prisoners' complaints over the conditions of their imprisonment and trying to find out if there is an option to ease their conditions." The indictment describes the December 18, 2016 meeting between Ghattas and Walid Daka's brother, Assad, in which the Joint List MK received packages meant for the prisoners. "The defendant received at the gas station Dor Alon-North on Highway 6 from Assad four packages containing: 12 cellphones, 16 SIM cards, two charges and an earpiece." The communications equipment Ghattas tried to smuggle into prison. Later that day, at 11:55am, Ghattas arrived at Ktzi'ot Prison, where Walid Daka is serving his sentence. "The defendant entered the prison while carrying the packages that were hidden under his shirt, as well as other documents," the indictment stated. "When the defendant entered the prison, he passed through the metal detector, which went off. The defendant then claimed to the prison guard that the detector's alert was caused by his belt buckle. When the guard asked the defendant to go through the metal detector again without his belt on, the defendant refused to do so and told the guard that he has immunity from being searched because he is an MK. Due to that, the guard avoided searching him," according to the indictment. Shortly thereafter, Ghattas met with prisoner Walid Daka. "When the defendant and Walid were alone in the room, the defendant gave Walid documents. Walid folded the documents and put them in his pants. When Walid left the room, the prison guards searched him and found the documents." The indictment also describes another meeting with prisoner Basel Bizra. "At 1:35pm, the defendant met with Bizra. When they were both alone in the room, the defendant unbuttoned his shirt and removed from under it the packages with the communications equipment and then gave them to Bizra. Bizra put the packages down his pants ... When Bizra left the room, the prison guards searched him and found the equipment." The indictment went on to state that "The defendant delivered the communications equipment to Bizra while knowing that it is more than likely the equipment will be used to endanger human lives, cause serious harm to people, undermine state security, or to aid a terror organization." Ghattas will be brought in front of a judge on Thursday for a remand extension of his house arrest and of the restrictive conditions placed on him. In the wake of the investigation launched against him, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein revoked Ghattas's parliamentary immunity to allow the police to arrest him and search his home and office. He spent several days in police custody, following which he was put on house arrest. Ghattas claimed he did not know what the envelopes he gave prisoners contained. On Monday, the Knesset's Ethics Committee barred Ghattas of parliamentary activity for the next six months. The MK will not be able to speak at committees or at the plenum and will not be allowed to submit bill proposals, but will still be able to vote and get paid. The committee dubbed Ghattas's actions a "severe ethical breach," while Ghattas dubbed the decision "vindictive." ISTANBUL - Turkey's state-run news agency says police have conducted more raids in their hunt for the gunman that killed 39 people at an Istanbul nightclub, detaining several people. Anadolu Agency said Thursday that anti-terrorism teams, acting on tips, conducted raids in Istanbul's outskirts, detaining a number of people from China's Muslim Uighur community. The report didn't provide any numbers, but said they were suspected of "aiding and abetting" the gunman. At least 39 other people are already in custody over suspected links to the attack on Istanbul's upscale Reina nightclub during New Year's celebrations. The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the massacre, saying it was in reprisal for Turkish military operations in northern Syria. The government says the gunman, who reportedly escaped in a taxi, has been identified. A Bedouin junk peddler reported to the police that a man dressed as an ultra-Orthodox Jew with a beard attacked him on HaAtsmaut street in Ashdod on Thursday after hearing him speaking in Arabic. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter The Bedouin man, in his 40s, was lightly wounded in his hand and was taken to the Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon for treatment. Police launched a search for a suspect matching the description of the Bedouin man and other eye witnesses. Scene of the attack (Photo: Police) While the incident was initially thought to be nationalistically-motivated, police now say it is likely criminal in nature. Earlier in the day, a Bedouin man in his 20s was arrested after snatching a weapon from a security guard in Be'er Sheva in what is also suspected to be a nationalistically-motivated incident. ISTANBUL -- Police on Thursday conducted more raids in their hunt for the gunman that killed 39 people at an Istanbul nightclub, detaining several people at a housing complex in the city's outskirts, the state-run news agency reported. Anadolu Agency said gendarmerie police and special operations teams conducted raids in the Silivri district, detaining an undisclosed number of people from China's Muslim Uighur community. The report said that those rounded up were suspected of "aiding and abetting" the gunman. At least 39 other people -- including 11 women -- are already in custody over suspected links to the attack on Istanbul's upscale Reina nightclub during New Year's celebrations. Republican Senator Ted Cruz submitted a bill proposal to the new US Congress on its very first day calling for the United States to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's eternal and undivided capital and to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter The Texan senator's bill, which was also sponsored by Florida Senator Marco Rubio and Nevada Senator Dean Heller, includes an article that suggests Congress would delay the transfer of budgets to the State Department until the move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is done. Jerusalem is the eternal and undivided capital of Israel, Cruz, who lost to Donald Trump in the Republican primaries, said in a written statement. US Senator Ted Cruz (Photo: AP) Unfortunately, the Obama administration's vendetta against the Jewish state has been so vicious that to even utter this simple truthlet alone the reality that Jerusalem is the appropriate venue for the American embassy in Israelis shocking in some circles," he added. "But it is finally time to cut through the double-speak and broken promises and do what Congress said we should do in 1995: formally move our embassy to the capital of our great ally Israel. The Republican majority in Congress and President-elect Trump's repeat promises to move the embassy make it likely the bill will pass. But implementing it would be problematic, as the Palestinians have already threatened that if the embassy is moved to Jerusalem, it would lead to rioting and violence, while the PLO leadership will rescind its recognition of the State of Israel. Hundreds came to pay their final respect on Thursday to Guy Kafri, who was murdered on Tuesday in what was likely a terror attack, as he was laid to rest at the Moshav Ofer cemetery in the Haifa area. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter "All evidence point to the fact Guy was murdered because he was Jewish," said Guy's brother-in-law, Shahar Dror, adding that the family was receiving updates on the investigation. Police are still searching for the suspect who shot Guy to death and wounded another man, Yehiel Illuz from Migdal HaEmek. Guy Kafri, left, being laid to rest (Photo: Zohar Shahr) As Guy's mother Berta eulogized her son, his father Yigal and sister Keren wept alongside his friends. The 48-year-old Kafri was shot on HaGiborim Street in Haifa. He worked as a driver, transporting disabled children. "Guy was one of the most charming and kind hearted people I know, who always loved to help everyone. No one had a bad word to say about him. He was a driver for disabled children and did so out of a sense of mission. He loved the childrenand they him," brother-in-law Dror said. "It's clear to us he had no conflict with anyone and that this shooting was a mistake." Guy Kafri being laid to rest (Photo: Zohar Shahr) A manhunt continued on Wednesday through the Halisa neighborhood, where the police's main suspect was reportedly seen. Border Police and Police officer raided an abandoned house in the neighborhood following a tip received by the Shin Bet. Residents of the neighborhood and other Haifa residents called on security forces to release the suspect's name and photo, after a gag order barred it. "If they know there's such a dangerous suspect who is involved in murderbe it nationalistic or criminal in naturewhy haven't they released his photo and name? Perhaps there are people who saw him by chance and could tip (police) off to his location? We don't want a situation in which he carries out another serious act that could end with disaster." AMMAN - A car bomb exploded on Thursday in the centre of the Syrian town of Jableh in the coastal Mediterranean province of Latakia with reports of casualties, state television said. State media said scores of cars were on fire and shops were also damaged by the blast in a bustling commercial part of the town that lies in President Bashar Assad's minority Alawite sect's heartland. Hundreds of students from the Beit Yerach high school in the Jordan Valley gathered on Thursday morning to mark the 23rd birthday of Sgt. Oron Shaul, an alumnus of the school who was killed during the 2014 Operation Protective Edge and whose body was snatched by Hamas. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Zehava Shaul, Oron's mother, made an emotional speech at the ceremony, which was also attended by Brig. Gen. Rassan Alian, who was the Golani Brigade commander during the Gaza war. "This is the third year that we have to celebrate Oron's birthday without him," Zehaba Shaul said. "Every day that passes without my darling son is a long day that wouldn't end. The nights are sleepless, the holidays and Shabbat dinners include an empty chair. Oron, you are always on my mind and these thoughts are difficult ones. Are you warm, are you cold, are you eating, are you drinking, do you have comfortable sleeping conditions? All of this bothers me, every day, all day." Zehava Shaul (Photo: Avihu Shapira) Zehava also spoke about the time that has passed since her son was killed. "It's been 898 days since Oron was kidnapped. A cursed day when we were told Oron was killed inside an APC along with his friends. Several hours later, Hamas announced that it was holding the soldier Oron Shaul. Since then, we've been living in a nightmare of uncertainty, fears, hopes and disappointments," she said. Students marking Oron Shaul's birthday (Photo: Avihu Shapira) She raised the option her son might still be alive. "Five days after the kidnapping, on Friday afternoon, an hour before Shabbat began, the Chief Military Rabbi, Rafi Peretz, came to our home and told us that he, along with the rabbinical court, decided to declare Oron a fallen soldier whose place of burial is unknown and that we need to sit shiva (the Jewish period of mourning). We asked for explanations, but the answer we got was that the rabbi had to return home before Shabbat. We've been waiting for answers since," she said. "Why was Peretz in such a rush to declare Oron dead, in contradiction with all procedures and Jewish law? Does Judaism permit declaring the death of a soldier who is known to have been captured alive? "I still have hope that my son will return to me. The duty to return my son to me is that of the Israeli government and the IDF. They sent him to a war that lasted 51 days and it is their responsibility to bring him home. I believe they will fulfill this obligation," she added. Brig. Gen Rassan Alian, center, who was the Golani Brigade commander at the time (Photo: Avihu Shapira) Zehava Shaul sent her condolences to the family of Maj. Hagai Ben-Ari, who was wounded during Operation Protective Edge and succumbed to his injuries earlier this week. "Rabbi Peretz, you must know Oron's injury was no different than that of the late Hagai or of hundreds of other soldiers who suffered similar injuries. I hope you can sleep well at night, because I don't." Students marking Oron Shaul's birthday (Photo: Avihu Shapira) One person whose absence at the ceremony stood out was Oron's father, Herzl Shaul, who passed away in September after losing his battle with cancer. "He wanted to see Oron return home as well, but he didn't have enough strength, and he left us a few months ago," Zehava said of her husband. "He stays with me in my dreams, giving me strength, hope and faith. His last words to me were: 'please don't let go, do everything to bring Oron home.' These words won't leave me, they're etched into my heart, and I intend to carry out his will. Zehava Shaul also had a message for IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot. "Mr. Chief of Staff, you know my family and I value, respect and appreciate you very much as a commander. Oron didn't cross the border by accident. He's an excelling Golani soldier who asked to be the first to go into Gaza and protect the homeland. He may not be everyone's child. He's the child of Zionist parents who were born in Israel to Iraqi immigrants, who taught him there is nowhere else in the world for the Jewish people except for the land of Israel, and that it must be protected for the generations to come. The values of friendship and comradeship between the IDF's soldiers and commanders are what sets it apart from any other army in the world and are what gives parents the peace of mind and confidence to send their children to serve in the IDF." Zehava concluded with a message to her son. "Oron, my love. You should know there isn't a day that I don't fight to have you back in my arms. You should know that the people of Israel are embracing us and strengthening us every day and won't let us give up. "Every day I read the text message you sent me for my birthday, five months before you went to war in Gaza, in which you wrote: 'To the best mother in the world. I wish you a lot of happiness, wealth, joy, love, success, fun, peace, quiet, and most importantly health. Thanks for everything, for the education you gave me, for the love I get from you to this very day. Thank you, I am where I am today thanks to you.' "Oron, my love. I'm sorry about where you are today. I'll do the best I can to get you out of there. Happy birthday, my beloved son. I love you and look forward to your return as soon as possible." IZMIR - An explosion believed to have been caused by a car bomb in front of a courthouse in the western Turkish city of Izmir on Thursday wounded some 10 people, a local official said. Two of the suspected attackers were killed in an ensuing shootout with police. District Mayor Hasan Karadag told NTV television that one of the wounded was in serious condition. A firefight between three of the suspected attackers and police erupted after the explosion, and two of the assailants were killed, he said. Turkey's state-run news agency said police are looking for a third suspect, described as wearing a black coat and a white beret. Several ambulances and police were dispatched to the scene. The explosion occurred near an entrance used by judges and prosecutors, several media reports said. The Rehovot Magistrate court has released MK Basel Ghatas (Joint Arab List) frpm house arrest after being indicted for smuggling cell phones to convicted terrorists in prison Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter However, he must be accompanied by a police escort wherever he goes. He has also been forbidden from approaching all Israeli Prison Service facilities. The prosecution originally asked for him to be held in detention for an additional 30 days, a request denied by the judge. MK Ghattas at his trial (Photo: Yariv Katz) The judge, Menachem Mizrahi, said that I believe that, since the investigatory period has been completed, and since the respondent was under house arrest and didnt violate the terms of his arrest, and has he has been prohibited from leaving the country and has had his passport confiscated, along with the fact that he is a sitting member of the Knesset and must be able to carry out his parliamentary duties, a more appropriate form of detention should be considered. Upon leaving the courthouse, MK Ghattas said the judges decision to not accede to the request to lengthen my detention by 30 days is the right decision. I will insist on my rights to due process and immunity. I am exposing myself to the attorney general so that I may be treated with equality. It is time for us to begin fighting back. Ghattas defense attorney Namir Edelby said that we are satisfied with the courts decision which was both brave and just. We must give MK Ghattas his rights. We are happy that he will be returning to serve his constituency, and that he will continue his parliamentary work. OSLO- Norway is set to become the first nation to start switching off its FM radio network next week, in a risky and unpopular leap to digital technology that will be closely watched by other countries considering whether to follow suit. Critics say the government is rushing the move and many people may miss warnings on emergencies that have until now been broadcast via the radio. Of particular concern are the 2 million cars on Norway's roads that are not equipped with Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) receivers, they say. Sixty-six percent of Norwegians oppose switching off FM, with just 17 percent in favour and the rest undecided, according to an opinion poll published by the daily Dagbladet last month. Nevertheless, parliament gave the final go-ahead for the move last month, swayed by the fact that digital networks can carry more radio channels. GAO- Officials say a Malian employee of the International Committee of the Red Cross has been killed. Jean-Nicolas Marti, the organization's director in Mali, said Thursday that a colleague in the northern city of Gao was shot to death by armed men. Residents told The Associated Press that two armed men on motorcycles shot the aid worker while he was in front of a store and then sped off. The shooting takes place amid an increase in violence in Gao, where almost two weeks ago a French-Swiss woman was abducted. Authorities believe she is being held by jihadists, though there has been no official claim of responsibility for that attack. Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Thursday that government ministers and Knesset members should shut up about the conviction, coming appeal and eventual sentencing of Sgt. Elor Azaria, who was convicted Wednesday of manslaughter for the killing of a neutralized Palestinian terrorist in Hebron last March. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter However, Lieberman also defended his comments Wednesday that he is not happy about the verdict, and also defended his appearance last year in military court to show support for Azaria. Asked by Army Radio whether it is appropriate for a defense minister to express an opinion about a military trial, especially one that hasnt run its course, Lieberman said that everybody has an opinion no one wants to run away from their feelings, no one wants to run away from reality. Everybody must accept and respect the decision, regardless of their personal feelings about it. Defense Minster Lieberman and Education Minister Bennett (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky, Yair Sagi) Lieberman also said that many people are throwing around empty phrases without having read either the verdict. I expect all ministers to control themselves, or to shut up and to let the defense establishment deal with this issue responsibly and carefully, Lieberman said. Regarding a potential pardon for Azaria, Lieberman stressed that consideration of the issue can only happen once Azaria has been sentenced, and that a request can only be forwarded by Azaria himself, his attorney or immediate family members. Anyone else talking about a pardon is only speaking to further their own interests and not in support of Azaria. The statements by Education Minister Naftali Bennett, Prime Minister Netanyahu, and others are for their own (political) purposes. That is all. Despite BDS calls to boycott goods produced in the West Bank, a recent report has revealed that West Bank goods are more in demand than ever before. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter At the Shahak industrial park being built in the northern West Bank, over 100 dunams have been sold to developers. The Barkan industrial park outside of Ariel - which already has 160 factories and companies has registered a further 60 companies who want to relocate to the area. Due to this huge increase in demand, another industrial park is set to open. Called the Nahal Rabah Gates of Shomron Industrial Park, it will be located next to Shaar Tikvah and Oranit, putting it within a 20 minute drive of Petah Tikvah. Palestinian workers at a factory in the Barkan Industrian Park (Photo: AFP) The industrial park will include both manufacturing and hi-tech companies, and will be owned by the Shomron Regional Council in conjunction with the Oranit and Elkana local councils. Head of the Shomron Regional Council Yossi Dagan was one of the drivers behind the opening of the new industrial park. He said on the one hand, international companies dont really comply with EU decisions. On the other hand, Israeli companies arent ready to give up on the advantages (of operating in these areas), and are marketing their products to places other than Europe, such as Africa, India, and China. Israeli police said on Thursday they arrested two people for inciting violence on social media against three military judges who convicted a soldier of manslaughter for shooting dead a wounded Palestinian attacker. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter One person wrote that someone should take a grenade and blow up (Judge Maya Heller), and spread the remaining bits of her around so that her body will be eaten by dogs. G-d will pay her back for this!!!! The judges found Sergeant Elor Azaria, 20, guilty of the charge on Wednesday, and supporters have set up several Facebook pages urging Israel's president to pardon him. Attorney-General Avihai Mandelblit later ordered an investigation into incitement to violence by demonstrators who warned they would take retribution against IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant- General Gadi Eisencott, who has spoken strongly against Azaria's actions. Protestors inciting against IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisencott Protestors chanted Gadi Gadi be careful, Rabin is looking for a friend, referencing the assassination of Former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. At Rabins funeral, then US President Bill Clinton departed from the Israeli prime minister saying in Hebrew goodbye friend. Another protestor even grabbed a microphone and yelled at Maj. General Eisencott "Inciting language against judges, military officers, law enforcement officials, or any person is unacceptable," Mandelblit said in a statement. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said officers had arrested a man in Jerusalem and a woman in the southern town of Kiryat Gat whose social media comments constituted "incitement to violence" against the judges. Ten months ago, Azaria was an army medic serving in the city of Hebron in the West Bank when two Palestinians stabbed a fellow soldier. One of the assailants was shot dead by troops. The other, Abd Elfatah Ashareef, 21, was wounded and lay on the ground incapacitated when Azaria shot him in the head with an assault rifle. A poll published on Wednesday by Israel's Channel 2 television showed that 67 percent of respondents favor a pardon for Azaria. Many right-leaning politicians advocate the same. AMMAN- Jordan's government spokesman warned on Thursday of "catastrophic" repercussions if President-elect Donald Trump makes good on a campaign promise to move the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Such a move could affect relations between the US and regional allies, including Jordan, Information Minister Mohammed Momani told The Associated Press, addressing the issue publicly for the first time. An embassy move would be a "red line" for Jordan, would "inflame the Islamic and Arab streets" and serve as a "gift to extremists," he said, adding that Jordan would use all possible political and diplomatic means to try and prevent such a decision. The Western Wall Plaza (Photo: Eli Mendelbaum) The US considers pro-Western Jordan as an important ally in a turbulent Mideast. The Hashemite kingdom is a key member of a US-led military coalition against ISIS in neighboring Syria and Iraq, and maintains discreet security ties with Israel. Jordan also has a stake in Jerusalem, serving as custodian of Islam's third holiest shrine in the city's eastern sector. Israel captured east Jerusalem from Jordan in 1967 and annexed it to its capital. It is the home of the holiest site for Jews the Western Wall. Momani, the Jordanian minister, said that moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem "will have catastrophic implications on several levels, including the regional situation." He said countries in the region would likely "think about different things and steps they should take in order to stop this from happening." "It will definitely affect the bilateral relationship between countries in the region, including Jordan, and the parties that will be related to such a decision," he said. Last month, Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway was quoted as saying that moving the embassy to Jerusalem is a "very big priority" for the president-elect. Trump's choice for US ambassador in Israel, David Friedman, has said he looks forward to working from Jerusalem. The Palestinians want to establish the capital of a future state, and various UN resolutions have negated or ignored Jewish history in the city. Most countries, including the United States, maintain their embassies in Tel Aviv. The Kearney Hub If Nebraskans were uncertain how tightly intertwined their states economy is with agriculture, all doubts were erased in 2016 when low commodity prices, a heavy tax load and costly federal regulations dominated headlines. The downturn for Nebraska farms and ranches crept into small town main streets across the state. Its little wonder that the downturn in the ag economy was the story of the year for 2016, according to the Nebraska Farm Bureau. One out of every four jobs in Nebraska is generated from agriculture and agriculture businesses. Its impossible for the states broader economy not to feel the impact of a third straight year of decline in farm incomes, said Axtell farmer Steve Nelson, president of Nebraska Farm Bureau. Nelson predicts the low prices for corn, cattle and almost everything else produced in rural Nebraska will remain low for a while. Its bad news for farm and ranch families and a challenge to all Nebraskans, especially policymakers who must address the need to ease tax and regulatory burdens on Nebraskas No. 1 industry. While 25 percent of Nebraska jobs are tied to agriculture, so is the support for the governmental services Nebraskans rely upon. Roads, bridges, law enforcement, social welfare and many other services arent possible without tax support. Thats an obvious fact, but how Nebraska policymakers ease the tax and regulatory burdens may not be so simple, given the gravity of the problem. For example, much of the $1 billion revenue shortfall facing state government can be traced to Nebraskas weak farm economy. And it could get worse before it improves. USDA believes profitability on Nebraska farms and ranches in 2016 will drop to half of what it was in 2013, declining from $7.5 billion to just over $4 billion. If theres a silver lining, its in the growing awareness that costly government regulations stunt the ag economy. That reality fueled several successful efforts in 2016 to put the brakes on government red tape. Rural Nebraska needs more of the same progress against over reach and to create some breathing room on taxes. Its time for the Nebraska Legislature and Gov. Pete Ricketts to rein in spending, consolidate and contain long-term costs, and find a strategy to shift the burden away from property taxes, especially on farm ground. We can think of no better motivation for lawmakers and officials than our sputtering state economy. Amazon does right on taxes The Lincoln Journal Star The playing field for Nebraskas brick-and-mortar retailers will become more fair on Jan. 1, when online giant Amazon.com starts collecting state and local sales tax for purchases made by the states residents. Give the innovative company some credit for the move. Its been under increasing pressure for years to collect the tax, but it made the move voluntarily, rather than kicking and screaming until it was forced to do so. Nebraska State Tax Commissioner Tony Fulton said Amazon is exhibiting responsible corporate citizenship. The tax is owed, he said. So the announcement will just help Nebraskans to comply with the existing law. Consumers are supposed to report and pay sales tax on online purchases, but hardly anyone does. The number of states to which Amazon remits sales tax will top 30 when Nebraska and Iowa join the ranks starting in 2017. The change means tens of millions more in tax revenue for state government, and hundreds of thousands more for Lincoln city government and other cities that have a local sales tax. Interim Lincoln Finance Director Don Herz estimated the city might collect an additional $500,000 to $900,000 next year. A report done for the American Booksellers Association estimated that in 2015, sales to Amazon alone equated to $18.3 million in lost revenue for Nebraska state government and $4.4 million in local sales tax. A few years ago the Nebraska Retail Federation estimated that state government was losing about $37 million in sales tax revenue to Amazon and the host of other smaller online retailers due to a loophole that allows them to avoid collecting the tax unless they have a brick-and-mortar presence here. The unfairness of the situation has been evident for years. As Sen. Deb Fischer said in 2013, Government should not be in the business of picking winners and losers. By giving online sellers a free pass from collecting state sale tax, the federal government is actively undermining millions of small business owners who invest in our communities and create jobs. The truth and strength of that argument, however, has never carried the day in Washington, where Congress has been mired for years in self-defeating partisan games. Next year, when Republicans control the presidency and both houses of Congress, one of the items on the agenda should be to pass a version of the Marketplace Fairness Act that has been bogged down for years. Amazon is so efficient and profitable it can afford to do the right thing voluntarily. Other online sellers need the federal government set the same rules for everyone. For the sake of local businesses, the loophole should have been closed long ago. YORK How much food can 40,000 chickens consume as they grow in their first 16.5 weeks of life? The answer was provided by Jason Perdue Tuesday afternoon at he and wife Karahs new pullet barn, but more on that later. The Perdues and their four children epitomize the forward-thinking, diversified, family agribusiness that can only be good for their personal economy and for Nebraskas economic health overall. Jason and Karah Perdue, with members of their families, industry representatives and an overflow crowd at or above 400 people by one estimate, hosted an open house in their brand-new 35,000 square foot, state-of-the-art pullet barn Tuesday afternoon and evening at the site located east of York on Road 13. The Perdues will receive day-old chicks from Canada and nurture them the first 16.5 weeks of their lives in cycles of 40,000 birds at a time. The first occupants of the barn are to arrive next Tuesday. The Perdues own the building and its contents. They will grow birds owned by Hendrix Genetics under contract. After their four-plus months near York the pullets will be taken to a laying barn where they will begin producing eggs at 20 weeks or so. Their eggs will go to a hatchery in Grand Island which will sell that generation of birds into the industry where eggs are produced for direct consumption. Hendrix reports the U.S. population gobbles up nearly 260 eggs per capita in a years time. Jason Perdue told the people crowded inside the as-yet-unused barn about how the idea hatched in conversations he had last year at the first-ever York Ag Expo. Tuesday, a year later almost exactly, the result of those exchanges of information and ideas was launched. I cant think of a better young family to be involved in agriculture, said Mat Habrock when his turn with the microphone arrived. The states assistant ag director noted the pullet barn, Is one of the first new facilities since York County achieved a livestock friendly designation. He said the contract between the family and Hendrix Genetics is a good opportunity in a tough ag economy. Andrea Bakker of Hendrix said, Definitely we are here for the family farm. She said plans call for some 11 buildings to go up across the area in support of the companys three layers of production: raising chicks to egg-laying age followed by the laying phase and, finally, the hatchery. Perdue said computers run the feed and water systems with tight precision, while also monitoring everything and sending them a warning should anything go wrong. The open floor plan seen in the accompanying photo is designed entirely with the chickens in mind. Purdue said Job 1 is to keep the birds comfortable, constantly fed and watered. Those over-arching goals will be accomplished by providing an environment in which temperature (93.5 and not a half-degree more or less), engineered light, fulltime access to food and water are all provided. Orange feed pans by the hundreds will be kept constantly filled by an auger system that worms feed from the bins outside through the piping that links long lines of pans together. Each tiny yellow nozzle of which there must be thousands holds - and never drops - a single bead of water. Chickens drink by pecking the drops one at a time, which the system instantly replaces. Motioning toward his children playing in wood shavings nearby, Perdue said, This is truly going to be a family operation they can be involved with as they, too, grow into adulthood. His building jammed full of the unexpectedly large reception crowd had Perdue still smiling Wednesday morning. It was great to see support from the community. It was a great celebration of livestock and agriculture, he commented. Those attending included prospective Hendrix contractors who came from elsewhere to see and learn more, poultry experts from the University of Nebraska and representatives of the many ag-related businesses and organizations whose support was key to the project becoming reality. As to the question in the opening sentence: Perdue said consumption by all those fuzzy little birds will ripple out over other agribusinesses within the local economy and, over a years time, will run to 20,000 bushels of corn, 45,000 tons of dried distillers grains and 145,000 tons of soybean meal. Malika Wilson, a senior at Coe College, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and a graduate of Lincoln East High School, was recently named a finalist for the Rhodes Scholarship, generally considered the most prestigious academic award available to American college graduates. The Rhodes is the oldest and best known award for international study. Wilson was one of 230 applicants from 95 different colleges and universities across the country who reached the final stage of competition. Rhodes Scholarships provide all expenses for up to four years of study at the University of Oxford in England. In Coe history, only three students or alumni have been Rhodes finalists, including Wilson. Paul Engle 31 in 1933 and Darryl Banks 72 in 1972 both received the award and went on to study at Oxford. At Coe, Wilson is a neuroscience and biology major with a minor in chemistry. She is applying to medical school and would like to specialize in emergency medicine. Wilson is also passionate about improving accessibility for health care. During her sophomore year, Wilson first learned about the Rhodes Scholarship. She was strongly encouraged to apply for the national fellowship award by Provost and Dean of the Faculty Paula OLoughlin during a meeting last May. Wilson said the Rhodes interview gave her additional confidence in her abilities and the value of the Coe educational experience. People who graduate from Coe can be really, really competitive when applying for national fellowships, said Wilson. I feel like we (at Coe) are more competitive than we make ourselves out to be. As an additional benefit, Wilson says that applying and interviewing for the Rhodes has served to make her a better-prepared candidate for the medical school admission process. With the Rhodes process seemingly daunting at times, Wilson is now encouraging other Coe students to apply for national fellowships. Youve already told yourself no if you dont do it, so what do you have to lose? said Wilson. Even when I didnt win the Rhodes, its an honor to have made it that far. Wilson has been an active member of Coe Student Senate and served as the president of the Coe student body. Among many other co-curricular activities at Coe, Wilson has served as president of the Coe Student Ambassadors, BSEO treasurer, a violinist for Coe orchestra, a Coehort mentor and a resident assistant. She was named outstanding sophomore for STRATA. A native of Lincoln, Nebraska, Malika is the daughter of Catherine Wilson. RACINE A West Bend man has pleaded not guilty to accusations that in 2015 he sexually assaulted a woman who was incapacitated by alcohol and drugs. The incident reportedly took place on Nov. 29, 2015, but charges werent filed against the defendant, 27-year-old James A. Orosz Jr., until late last month. Sitting in Racine County Circuit Court on Wednesday in Racine County Jail scrubs, Orosz entered a not-guilty plea to the single felony charge of second-degree sexual assault he faces. Probable cause was found to pursue the charge against him after he agreed to waive his preliminary hearing. The charge against Orosz comes about four months after the Racine County District Attorneys Office received a toxicology report from the Wisconsin State Crime Lab revealing the victim had Oxycodone in her system on the night the alleged assault occurred. The charge also comes about three months after the Crime Lab sent results of a rape kit revealing that DNA matching Orosz was collected from the victim on the day of assault. According to the criminal complaint, Racine police were called to a residence in the 3400 block of Third Avenue at 5:13 p.m. on Nov. 29, 2015, on a report that the victim had been assaulted by Orosz, her friend of roughly nine years. The victim reportedly told police that she, her cousin and Orosz had been out drinking the night before. The group went to at least a couple of bars, the complaint states, and the victim told police she probably had several drinks as well as about six or seven shots of different liquors. Her cousin bought most of her drinks, but Orosz wasnt drinking with them, she said. The next thing the victim remembered of the night, the complaint states, is waking up on her back in her bed with Orosz assaulting her. She added that was only partially dressed and couldnt control anything. She couldnt tell Orosz to stop, she reportedly told police, and she couldnt speak. Detained for questioning later that day, Orosz reportedly agreed to a search of his vehicle. During that search police allegedly recovered a pill bottle containing eight amphetamine pills and about 11 tablets of generic Xanax, a sedative. On Wednesday, Oroszs attorney Christopher M. Glinski asked if the court would consider lowering the defendants $20,000 bond, stating his client could not afford to post that much money. Assistant Racine County District Attorney Rebecca Sommers objected to any change in bond stating that the charges facing the defendant are extremely serious. Orosz bond remains at $20,000. What's wrong with three strikes and you're out for OWIs? Why not a stiffer penalty on the first offense? Maybe they would think twice the next time. I collected 10 OWIs out of The Journal Times from Aug. 3 to Dec. 16. Two were first offenses, there were four OWIs or more, and two had fatalities. I found one from Jan. 21, 2016, in which the offender had a small child in the car. He got 60 days for an OWI crash. A breathalyzer test showed he was three times over the 0.08 legal limit in Wisconsin. Wisconsin needs to step up to the plate and help pass tougher drinking laws, especially the Republicans. Not so long ago, there was a bill in the legislature having to do with drinking and the Republicans voted it down. How many people have to be hurt and/or killed before we say enough is enough? Now I see Senator Wanggaard is proposing the fourth offense will be a felony. Why not the third? Again, why not make the first offense tougher? After all, you broke the law, so you should get punished. What kind of message is that sending? Not much of one as far as I am concerned. Trudy Rozzoni Racine By DN Singh It has become a usual feature of the wildlife wing of Orissa to get off their state of inertness once the damage is done. A similar kind of amateur action threw three lives off balance. But thanks to the intervention of media and judiciary, the damage was undone. Earlier, a speechless animal is within the concrete confines of a zoo, trying hard to recover from the trauma after the sudden shift of habitat. One was put behind bars for taking its care. And third: a three-year-old child was made victim of a senseless and knee-jerk decision. With least regard to the ground realities, the top brass in the Wildlife Department still frown at the jailed tribal, supposedly the villain of the entire episode. And the lonely inmate in the zoo, an eighteen-month year old sloth bear brought from Keonjhar portrays a tale of tragic separation, shock, trauma and of a shattered symbiotic bond. About 18 months back a tribal, Ram Singh Munda, from Ruplisila village in Keonjhar district, stumbled upon a bear cub battling with illness in a ditch inside the jungle, perhaps after being separated from its mother. Unable to locate the mother anywhere around, Ram brought it home. The sick bear cub slowly recovered from her illness and the love and care of the man breathed a new lease of life into the little soul. Within months the cub not only became a part of the family but a real darling of the household; more so, the sweetheart of Ram`s three-year-old motherless daughter. A bond that can be best described as an example of symbiosis. Named Rani, the cub grew in absolute freedom, moving around, playing with the daughter and other kids of the village and even sleeping near Ram or his daughter. As she grew, Ram grew a little worried about her safety and once even informed the forest authorities. However, despite his meager family income, Ram never allowed Rani to be treated differently from his own daughter. This exemplary bond between man and animal could not escape media attention. A few days back it hogged the headlines and after that the forest department of Keonjhar suddenly came out its state of stupor and acted in a very amateurish manner. Dubbing his action as a gross violation of the Wildlife Act 1972, they dragged Ram out of his house and put him behind the bars and literally lifted Rani out of her home and dumped her in a concrete enclosure at the Nandankaanan zoo. Two souls were shattered with shock. Ram was left to languish in jail and Rani was abandoned in the confines of the zoo in absolute trauma. Almost for three days, the bear refused to touch food and water. And this became a cause for the soaring worries of the zoo keepers and the safety of Rani is still under a question mark. Can she survive the sudden alienation from her habitat and the love of Ram and her daughter? "The forest officials have in a knee jerk reaction seized the sloth bear " says Biswajit Mohanty, an ardent wildlife activist adding that " they have, in their zeal, forgotten to keep the interest of the bear in mind- which might die of loneliness after being abruptly detached from its keeper." An eighteen-month-old fairy tale has hit the block of an absolutely mindless decision taken by the babus in the Forest Department of Orissa who, of course, enjoy the unenviable reputation of being incapable in such exigencies. When this reporter contacted the state`s Principal Chief Conservator of Wildlife about the department`s wisdom behind detaching Rani from Ram and imprisoning the latter, the officer`s reaction could startle any one. "The action taken in this case was taken by the officers who belong to the Territorial wing, so I can not comment much on that.` That comes from an officer who heads the wildlife wing. Ironically, in this whole episode, the PFA played a catalysts role behind the bear cub`s immediate release from Ram Singh`s clutches and was found baying for the tribal`s blood for violation of the Wildlife Act ` 72. But, interestingly, in a press release in Bhubaneswar, the PFA Secretary had urged the state government not to arrest Ram Singh as the latter had never made any commercial gain out of Rani nor had tortured her! And the worst that has happened is that, after Ram Singh`s arrest, back in his home, his three year old daughter has been left to her fate. The child is in total trauma and there is nobody to take care of her. A reality that has not struck the minds of either the forest or the district authorities. As an after thought the local authorities have decided to offer alms to the child in the shape of food, twice a day. Nothing could be more appalling than this; an innocent child who is already sinking in a brooding gloom of separation, her fate has been entrusted to a few officials. On Monday, the tribal was granted bail by the local court, as its attention was drawn to the child`s fate. Now that Ram is out on a bail from the court, philanthropy is in the air. The state that earlier appeared anything but just, now, thanks to media and the judiciary, has thought of supporting Ram`s daughter in her studies and food etc.. Even the local unit of PFA also has gone a step forward. It has not only volunteered to take total care of Rams daughter, but it has also suddenly found a hidden virtue in Ram Singhs behaviour and expressed its willingness to employ him. For them, it appears, Ram can be a real animal caretaker. It was bound to be Deja Vu! Mr S(The Aspiring Singer) and Saurav back together for another trip. The last trip we had together was the "Triund" trip and it was bloody darn good one. The trip started on a bad note(as usual)as it took me 200 bucks to go from Kalkaji to Old Delhi Railway station. A railway station always brings the Metrosexual Indian to ground Zero...the crowd,the collective sweat,the cacophony all combine together to form that unique orchestra that Luciano Pavarotti would have been proud of.

On 25th Oct'08 morning we reached the Kotdwara Station. A small cute station, Kotdwara is also the tipping point for all things ahead that are called "Garhwali". We boarded a shared jeep to Landowne and after a journey that lasted one hour, we finally reached our destination -"Blue Pine Resort".

The Hotel deal that I got from an online company was a good one. Three Nights/Four Days package for two at 3800 INR...well,that's no bad,eh? The view from the Balcony was amazing!

The hotel room was also really cute with colourful drapes and a real cozy feel to it. Sitting idle has never been a habit of mine nor Mr S'. So we set off...to Lansdowne. Actually our hotel was located in Deriyakhal, which is about 5 Kms from Lansdowne Cantonment. The walk that one takes through the twisted roads has to be one of my favourites till now.

Lansdowne is all about the Garwal Rifles. Garhwal Rifles is a well known infantry rifle regiment of the Indian Army. During the World Wars and the wars fought after Independence, the regiment not only showed exemplary courage but also maintained its unique identity. Mainly made up of Garhwali soldiers, this regiment fought with great valour during the Kargil conflict. More than 25,000 soldiers of this regiment are at present engaged in the task of safeguarding the motherland.

The cleanliness that this cantonment town maintains is mind blowing. Not only is it clean, but the discipline is exemplary. About 4000 soldiers, at least 40,000 civilians...yet there was so much harmony between SILENCE and CHAOS!

Mr S, a born shopper, was thrilled to be in the Lansdowne market. Right from Diwali crackers to Himesh Reshamiya CDs to an imported DVD player, this market which is a km from the cantonment is chaotic, crowded and THRIVING! We decided to have our own fun anyway...After shaving ourselves clean,we even wanted to take a studio photo with me in a Toy Car and Mr S with a 70's Sunglass doing a John Travolta :-), but we never found an appropriate studio:-(

The road back to the hotel was as exhilarating as the ascent. The evenings were amazing. It was as if the sun came down the hill and took away our sweat...our tears...our worries...our paradoxical problems! Human Rights versus California Politicians- which right of self-defense do we have? By Greg Hopkins and Rob Morse. December 29th, 2016 Article Source Is there a human right to self-defense? The answer might change once Republicans control the federal government. Legislative and judicial decision will rest on who makes the rules rather than who makes the best arguments. The argument will not be if there is a right of self-defense, but rather which particular right of self-defense is recognized. Here is what is at stake. As a concrete and current example, California can regulate the cars that California citizens can drive. So far, you can visit California with a non-California compliant car. California applies a different standard to visiting gun owners. California does not recognize any other states concealed carry permits. California also requires customized guns and ammunition, just as they require customized automobiles. California refuses to recognize your right to self defense. In California, even local governments have the right to infringe on your right to self-defense. You dont have much of a right left if the state, county, and city can establish their own regulations. It shouldnt surprise you that California state politicians and the police are exempt from these same firearms regulations. California gun laws are stranger still. It seems that some local control is approved, but some local control isnt. Regulation only goes one way. One government body can say some guns are outlawed, but a second government body can not say everyone must be armed because guns save lives. Before you think a law like that is absurd, remember that there is already legal precedent for exactly such a law. The US Supreme Court recently ruled that citizens can be forced to buy health insurance. Therefore, citizens can also be forced to buy firearms, and be fined if they dont. Its only a tax. to quote Chief Justice Roberts. You see, rules matter after all. Determining the rules will determine who defines the right of self-defense. A recent ruling by the 9th Circuit leaves individual sheriffs to decide which California citizens may carry a gun in public. That decision is based on nothing more than each sheriffs personal prejudices. Civilians and law enforcement look the same on the firearms training range, yet, ultimately a sheriff gets to arbitrarily decide who lives and who dies out on the streets. It is ironic that law enforcement officials disarm honest gun owners, yet violent felons remain armed. Criminals ignore our gun laws, including the licensing requirements that disarm private citizens. Lives are at stake. As I say in my book, self-defense is the difference between you getting to tell the cops what happened; and cops guessing what happened as they draw a chalk line around your body. In California, the courts and legislature are perfectly okay with the risk to your life by letting sheriffs make the rules. This patchwork application of a fundamental right is clearly a violation of equal protection under the 14th Amendment. What kind of right do we have? Is the right of self-defense a super-right, like the right to abortion? Judges ruled that the failure of government to provide subsidized abortion everywhere was the loss of a human right. If the right of self-defense is treated the same way, then we should subsidize guns, ammunition, and shooting ranges for poor people in remote areas. Is the right of self-defense granted by law, or is it merely recognized by law? The Supreme Court of the United States ruled that we have the ancient right of individuals to keep and bear arms. In other words, the natural right of self-defense, and the necessary tools to exercise that right, do not depend on the Constitution. The Constitution merely recognized this God-given right which is inherent to every person. In sharp contrast, California passed a law in 2015 that any person alleged to be mentally unstable or dangerous can, without a hearing, have their guns seized until a hearing is held. This tramples the 2d Amendment and also the 4th Amendment right of individuals to be secure in in their persons, houses papers and things. In California, youre no longer innocent until proven guilty. Since the right of self-defense is a fundamental right, can local governments forbid it? The Supreme Court said the right of self-defense must be preserved, but can be regulated. For example, felons and the mentally ill may be denied the use of firearms. Guns may also be restricted in some sensitive areas like courthouses. These restrictions have been recognized for hundreds of years. The founders allowed ordinary citizens to own cannon, yet today, California restricts the legally allowed color of guns that ordinary citizens can possess. In addition, California dictates the smallest details of a firearm. That sure sounds like infringement to us. Is the right of self-defense a fundamental right? We can easily make this case: -An armed populace is critical to the government interest of public safety. (Remember that the cops are not there to protect you.) -Acknowledging the right to be armed imposes the fewest restrictions on the general public compared to the broad regulation necessary to provide the same level of public safety. -Armed civilians offer the greatest scope of private action compared to the oppressive police state required to achieve the same degree of public safety. Is regulating the right of self-defense in the interest of the general public, or are politicians regulating for their narrow benefit? Politicians usually take the political positions which get them the largest campaign contributions. Are the gun laws that restrict your rights motivated by statistical research into public safety, or are they motivated by campaign donations. Sadly, we can follow the money to determine which legislators will deny your right to self-defense. Politicians are lured by more than money. Some politicians love to exercise power over others. Like Hollywood celebrities, these politicians will have armed security with them for the rest of their lives. They travel and are protected at taxpayer expense, while at the same time these politicians deny you the right to protect your family in public. Many politicians would deny you the right to own guns altogether if they could. Do legislators only have to offer up a good sounding justification for regulation, or do legal restrictions actually have to make us safer? Politicians and their hired consultants will provide mountains of excuses why they had to restrict our rights in the name of the public good. Politicians will claim that private gun ownership interferes with the police powers of the state. History shows us the bloody results when governments are armed and citizens are left defenseless. (and here, and here) Politicians will tell us the science is settled, but a politicians opinion isnt historical fact. There is no real data that conclusively shows the benefits of gun control in reducing the rate of homicide. In contrast, weve seen the rate of gun ownership double in the last few decades. Homicide rates declined by half over the same time period. Those are the nature of the arguments that will be made, both for and against the right of self-defense. Unfortunately, politicians and regulators will continue to accept campaign donations and violate our rights until they are prosecuted in court for doing so. Is the right of self-defense merely a matter of politics? Elected officials may resort to brute politics to get their way. Federal officials may say to the states, Do what I say, or no highway and school funding for you. Weve seen that done before. As we stated, the right of self-defense is a fundamental, inherently human, and preexisting right affirmed and enshrined by the 2d Amendment. It is the life part of the self-evident truths of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Without the right to life, and the right to defend it, then liberty and the pursuit of happiness are moot points. Fundamental rights should not be subject to politics except to make them inviolable by courts or legislatures. It is up to citizens like us to hold our legislatures to their true purpose of protecting our rights. Back to Top I haven't stopped at Logee's Greenhouses in Danielson, Connecticut, for many years. Some things had changed, like the size of the place--the number of greenhouses has been reduced. Some things hadn't changed, though--the incredible beauty and quality of the plants. I have to say the display greenhouses are even more beautiful than I remember their being. With less to care for, the staff can doubtless spend more time grooming the plants. I was bowled over by their health and beauty. For a phytophile like me, it doesn't get any better than this...descending from the civilized entryway into the humid green heaven of Logee's first display greenhouse. The chalked sign over the vine-draped entry reads, "Flowers always make people better, happier and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine for the soul." Luther Burbank No kidding. Some people medicate with booze and pills. I prefer sunshine and flowers. Humidity and the smell of wet soil helps, too. And then there are miles...checking my Fitbit, it shows 7 plus today. No wonder I feel better. It was afternoon by the time I left White Memorial Conservation Center, though I'd meant to leave in the morning. I just couldn't tear myself away from Gerri and the snow buntings. By the time I made Danielson, the sun was sinking fast. I knew I'd have to race through the greenhouses. I was stunned by the walls of greenery and flowers. I couldn't even see how they got in there to water everything. It was a seamless mass of beauty. Their Dichorisandra (Weeping Blue Ginger) looks a whole lot happier than mine. Begonia "Looking Glass." I used to grow that one. Loved it. Saw their new trademarked begonia "Autumn Ember" and plan to get it. Woweee!! I recognized some things I'd seen in Costa Rica (orange) and South Africa (blue) but I couldn't stop to read tags, if there were any. I was passing through at high speed, racing the dying light. Turns out this is Blue Skyflower Thunbergia grandiflora. Why, I grow a Thunbergia called Black-eyed Susan Vine every summer! Pycnostachys urticifolia Woweee!!! What a blue! It's called "Blue Witches Hat." Looks like a mint to me. Fabooo!! As you might imagine, by now the plant collector in me was twitching. I saw so many beautiful plants I wanted. But I was a gypsy, just at the beginning of a ten-day swing through New England, with temperatures predicted in the teens at night. There was absolutely no way I could travel with plants, even if I had had an inch of room in my car. I was going to pick up all my Baby Birds paintings in Canton, MA, and the car would be crammed past capacity. So I looked, but didn't touch. I took equal joy in the things that had been planted and the adventitious seedlings that were making their way up the frosted plastic windows of the greenhouses. How cool! This little tropical waif was making a beautiful pattern as its leaves hugged the bright wall. I'd seen Showy Medinilla Medinilla magnifica from the Philippines in the Logee's catalogue and wondered if it were as elegant in person as it was in photos. Answer: Oh yes. Show-stopper. Someday...gack. Someday. Monkey cups! I'd seen a photo of an orang sipping from one in National Geographic when I was a kid. Now I know it was probably a set-up with a zoo animal, but at the time I thought it marvelous. It's a carnivorous plant, from the looks of it a wetland species. And look at those lovely anthuriums pointing fingers at the sky behind it. Arrgh. This was almost painful, not to be able to take anything home. But that's OK. I have no business increasing the amount of stuff I need to care for right now. Nepenthes hybrid "Lady Luck," a Tropical Pitcher Plant, a cross between N. ventricosa and N. ampullaria. I had two pilgrimages to make. First, I wanted to see the famous Meyer lemon tree I'd admired when I last visited maybe 25 years ago. I figured it'd be even more amazing. The tree grows right up out of Connecticut soil in the floor of the greenhouse. From Logee's website: "Logees Greenhouses was started by William D. Logee in 1892 in Danielson, Connecticut. He started as a cut flower business and soon became interested in tropical and unusual plants. In 1900, he bought a small Ponderosa Lemon tree from a grower in Philadelphia. It was known as the American Wonder Lemon due to the size of the fruit, which could get as large as 5 pounds. The tree was a must for the Logee collection. It was shipped via train, then picked up by horse and buggy and directly planted into the ground in the original greenhouse. The same tree in the same greenhouse (appropriately called the Lemon Tree House) still stands today, and is reliably producing 5-pound lemons every year. Hundreds of thousands of propagations have been harvested from this original tree. And there it was. Bigger by far than I remembered it being. It's impossible to get a good photo of this tree because in the cramped confines of the greenhouse, you can't get far enough away from it even to appreciate it properly. But oh. So wonderful. It grows down to the ground, up to the ceiling, and down to the ground umpteen times, and it makes a carefully-pruned Wall o' Lemons along both walkways on either side. They are still propagating from it. So you can buy a clone of this tree. See why I love plant propagation so much? You can grow a piece of history! Logee's is still owned by the same family who started it. That in itself is a small miracle. Maybe the same highly intelligent magic that has kept Logee's thriving keeps its plants immaculate and pest-free. I believe in magic, especially when driven by the indomitable human spirit. My hand and a huge Meyer lemon from this amazing tree. Signs ask that visitors not pick them; they are selling the fruit in the front of the store. So cool. As one who has tried to grow citrus over the years, and who has harvested exactly two delicious Ruby Red grapefruit from a 1' tall "tree" in my Ohio "greenhouse" before it succumbed to scale and chlorosis and God knows what else, I am most hopelessly, grovellingly impressed that this tree was apparently scale free. I. Do. Not. Understand. How. You. Do. This. For. 116. Years. (much less two or three.) I had one more pilgrimage to make, and that was to find the hibiscus section, so I could see where my darling hib "The Path" came from. Healthy cuttings for sale, around a sign touting the many virtues of this great hibiscus. Mine, two days ago: This is the Understudy I mentioned in my post, "That Which No Longer Serves." I spray her and Creole Lady every day. Every. Day. Now given, I'm using a pretty innocuous homemade soap spray, but still. HOW DO YOU DO IT, LOGEE'S??? I stopped a young woman who works there and asked her just that. I just cannot understand it, and her answer put me no closer. "We find that when the plants are healthy, they're resistant to pests." Oh. Does my plant look unhealthy? I mean, there HAS to be a secret here. Seeing the look on my face, she added, "We release beneficial insects..." Hmmm. But how do you keep scale off a Meyer lemon that's 116 years old and the size of a master bedroom? HOW? HOW. How. How??? I guess that will have to be a mystery. A nice, happy mystery. Logee's has beautiful, no, exquisite plants, and that is something to celebrate. I can't remember walking through a greenhouse with more beautiful plants. Huzzah!! I just ran down to the greenhouse and sure enough, the bud Creole Lady was unfurling at dusk had burst open. Is there any better way to answer a 26 degree snowy day? Well, going for a walk in it works, too. Planning that. Creole Lady is never more beautiful than when she first opens. Like a cinnamon roll, best when hot out of the oven. Another Logee's specialty. What beauty you bring to my world, Logee's!! As the last light of a winter day faded, I raced through the camellia house, found a pale pink one that was fragrant (swoon!) and photographed a fruiting kumquat in Connecticut. This one's for Floridacracker. And it was over. It was dark. It was time for me to go. I found my way back out the door and stopped for a last look at this little piece of Paradise, plopped in a sweet little otherwise sort of ordinary town in wintry Connecticut. I hadn't bought a thing. And that was OK. I'd made a pilgrimage to Logee's , and that was enough. I do want to grow this Abutilon "Red Tiger" someday. What a gorgeous little blossom, on a big lanky plant.Lookit all them baby cacti! I wondered--these must be grown from seed. Amazing.I was just in time for the big bloom of their Christmas cacti, in early December. I swooned. Look at those colors, those glorious plants. I think I need to start mine over; they used to be nice and shiny green like this but now they're sort of limp and reddish.They bloom, but they don't look happy at all. I think I'll root some pieces and start over. I want mine to look like these beauties!Someday, too, on this cheery cherry-red trumpet of a. I think it's "Full Moon," though it looks a lot bluer in the catalogue. How cuuuute!!! I'd grown the blue ones but oh! and that solid red, I'll take that too, someday. It was truly wonderful to have a chance to ground-truth the catalogues I drool over. To find the plants even more beautiful in real life (IRL for you slang-slingers out there).Some kind of ginger? Maybe. Weird, cool, think I've seen it in Costa Rica... New Haven, Conn. - One of the world's largest ocean circulation systems may not be as stable as today's weather models predict, according to a new study. In fact, changes in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) -- the same deep-water ocean current featured in the movie "The Day After Tomorrow" -- could occur quite abruptly, in geologic terms, the study says. The research appears in the Jan. 4 online edition of the journal Science Advances. "We show that the possibility of a collapsed AMOC under global warming is hugely underestimated," said Wei Liu, a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at Yale University and lead author of the study. Liu began the research when he was a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and continued it at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, prior to coming to Yale. AMOC is responsible for carrying oceanic heat northward in the Atlantic Ocean. It consists of a lower limb of denser, colder water that flows south, and an upper limb of warm, salty water that flows north. The system is a major factor for regional climate change, affecting the Atlantic rim countries, especially those in Europe. "In current models, AMOC is systematically biased to be in a stable regime," Liu said. "A bias-corrected model predicts a future AMOC collapse with prominent cooling over the northern North Atlantic and neighboring areas. This has enormous implications for regional and global climate change." A collapse of the AMOC system, in Liu's model, would cool the Northern Atlantic Ocean, cause a spreading of Arctic sea ice, and move tropical Atlantic rain belts farther south. While a calamity on the order of the fictional plot of "The Day After Tomorrow" is not indicated, the researchers said a significant weather change could happen quickly in the next few centuries. "It's a very provocative idea," said study co-author Zhengyu Liu, professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences, and of environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Climatic Research in the Nelson Institute. "For me it's a 180-degree turn because I had been thinking like everyone else." The researchers stressed that their new model may require additional refinement, as well. They said detailed information about water salinity, ocean temperature, and melting ice -- over a period of decades -- is essential to the accuracy of AMOC models. The researchers also noted the major impact that climate change itself has on AMOC patterns. Additional carbon dioxide, for example, warms the cold water of the North Atlantic. Such developments would have an impact on AMOC behavior, the researchers said. ### Other co-authors of the study are Shang-Ping Xie of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Jiang Zhu of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China funded the research. Thank you for responding to this Weblog (blog). We wish to maintain a high level of integrity and responsibility among our participants. In the spirit of camaraderie of the blogsphere, interested parties are welcomed to reproduce or quote materials published in this weblog WITH THE CONDITION that they are credited to akadirjasin.blogspot.com/akadirjasin.com to avoid misunderstanding.Thank you. DENVER, Jan. 05, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Foothills Exploration, Inc. (OTC.QB:FTXP) (the Company or FTXP), an independent oil and gas exploration company engaged in the acquisition and development of oil and gas properties in the Rockies and Gulf Coast, announced today that it has entered into a purchase and sale agreement (the Agreement) with Total Belief Limited (TBL), a British Virgin Islands limited liability company and a direct wholly-owned subsidiary of New Times Energy Corporation Limited (NTE), a Bermuda limited liability company whose shares are listed on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited for oil and gas interests and assets located in Utah and Wyoming. Acquisition Summary This purchase provides the Company with an entry point into the Uinta Basin and a basis from which to seek other bolt-on acquisition opportunities in the Rockies. The transaction delivers the Company a licensed and bonded operator in Utah with bonds in place with the BLM, state and BIA. Through the acquisition, the Company has also obtained six shut-in wells in the Natural Buttes Field, Utah, that it plans to workover and produce in Q1 2017 to re-establish production and generate cash flows. The transaction provides the Company with the rights to an agreement to acquire up to 6,000+ acres and up to 16 shut-in oil and gas wells with proved and proved undeveloped reserves on Tribal lands in the Uinta Basin. These properties provide in-field drilling potential, the ability to bring online shut-in wells and behind pipe development. Five shut-in wells located on fee lands in the Altamont-Bluebell Field that are undergoing title curative have the potential to achieve near term production with stimulation and the addition of surface equipment. Furthermore, this acquisition delivers to the Company an additional 40% working interest in the Ladysmith Prospect covering 3,060 acres in the Greater Green River Basin, Wyoming, bringing the Companys total working interest in the prospect from 35% (pre-acquisition) up to 75%. Lastly by this agreement the Company acquired 13,166,667 shares, constituting 55.63% of the outstanding shares of Grey Hawk Exploration, Inc. (Grey Hawk), a British Columbia, Canada company. Grey Hawk owns a non-operated working interest in two producing wells in the southern portion of the Natural Buttes Field. A third party independent study conducted on behalf of the Company in Q4 2016 estimates a total of 1.28 million barrels of net proved reserves for the Uinta Basin properties from the Green River and Wasatch Formations. Total consideration for the acquisition is $10.75 million in a combination of cash, stock and promissory note consisting of: $750,000 to be delivered within 10 business days of Closing, 2,083,334 shares of the Companys restricted common stock valued by the parties at $4,000,000 at a deemed price per share of $1.92, Promissory note in the principal amount of $6,000,000 due and payable in full 18 months from Closing Date and accruing no interest during its term, and is subject to the Companys obtaining at least Two Million Two Hundred Fifty Thousand and No/100s US Dollars ($2,250,000) in financing within ten (10) Business Days following the Closing Date. The assets acquired as part of the Agreement provide the Company with access to additional proved and proved undeveloped acreage, low-risk rework opportunities and significant upside development potential capable of delivering substantial value accretive to future earnings, said B.P. Allaire, the Companys CEO. We continue to execute on our stated objective to acquire dislocated and underdeveloped oil and gas assets in the Rockies and maximize those assets to create shareholder value, added Allaire. Although the Company has received non-binding assurances that this amount will be funded, no assurance can be given that the Company will be able to satisfy this contingency. About the Company FTXP, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Foothills Petroleum, Inc., a Nevada corporation (FPI), is an early stage, independent oil and gas exploration company engaged in the acquisition and development of oil and gas properties in the Rockies and Gulf Coast. Foothills Exploration Operating, Inc. (FEOI), a wholly-owned subsidiary of FPI is focused on exploration and production of oil and gas wells in the Rocky Mountains. FTXP, FPI and FEOI all maintain principal executive offices in Denver, Colorado. Forward-Looking Statements All statements, other than statements of historical facts, included in this release that address activities, events or developments that we expect, believe or anticipate will or may occur in the future are forward-looking statements. These statements are based on certain assumptions we made based on management's experience, perception of historical trends and technical analyses, current conditions, capital plans, drilling plans, production expectations, our abilities to raise adequate additional capital to support our acquisition, development and drilling activities, anticipated future developments, and other factors believed to be appropriate and reasonable by management. When used in this release, words such as "will," possible, "potential," "believe," "estimate," "intend," "expect," "may," "should," "anticipate," "could," "plan," "predict," "project," "profile," "model," "strategy," "future" or their negatives or the statements that include these words or other words that convey the uncertainty of future events or outcomes, are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain such identifying words. In particular, statements, express or implied, concerning our future operating results and returns or our ability to acquire or develop proven or probable reserves, our ability to replace or increase reserves, increase production, or generate income or cash flows are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance. Such statements are subject to a number of assumptions, risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control. While forward-looking statements are based on assumptions and analyses made by us that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances, whether actual results and developments will meet our expectations and predictions depend on a number of risks and uncertainties which could cause our actual results, performance, and financial condition to differ materially from our expectations. As a result no assurance can be given that these assumptions are accurate or that any of these expectations will be achieved (in full or at all) or will prove to have been correct. We are currently a pre-revenue company and our securities are subject to considerable risk. Investors are cautioned to review FTXPs filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a discussion of risk and other factors that affect our business. Any forward-looking statement made by us in this news release speaks only as of the date on which it is made. Factors or events that could cause our actual results to differ may emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict all of them. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future development or otherwise, except as may be required by law. 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 Asus is giving its VivoMini line of compact desktop PCs a Kaby Lake upgrade. New models include support for up to an Intel Core i7 processor, and thanks to improvements in Intels graphics technology in recent years, each model can support 4K displays. But some models also have NVIDIA graphics if you need a bit more power from your GPU. Heres an overview of the new models: VivoMini UN65U : 5.2 x 5.2 x 2 PC with dual storage bays, Kaby Lake CPU, DDR4 memory, M.2 storage support, and 802.11ac WiFi : 5.2 x 5.2 x 2 PC with dual storage bays, Kaby Lake CPU, DDR4 memory, M.2 storage support, and 802.11ac WiFi VivoMini VM65 : Up to a Core i7 CPU, NVIDIA GeForce 930M, USB 3.1, and 802.11ac : Up to a Core i7 CPU, NVIDIA GeForce 930M, USB 3.1, and 802.11ac VivoMini VC66: 55 mini STX motherboard (with support for upgradable CPUs), support for two 2.5 inch drives and an M.2 SSD, and HDMI, DIsplkayPort, and DVDI ports Theres no information about the price or release date for any of the new VivoMini PCs yet. And my loosely-gathered thoughts are: 1) I really don't like Twitter. It's just not natural for me. Some people are funny and smart in 140 characters. I am not. I need, maybe, 200 characters to warm up, and I never feel like what I'm writing on Twitter is as clear or as sensical as I want it to be. 2) 140 characters or less breeds misunderstandings. It just does. Fights escalate quickly. People attack other people over things they didn't actually say. Mean and pithy are rewarded by retweets. I'd wager that the platform is more positive than negative, but the negative is really exhausting. 3) I have no idea if Lindy West will stay away. As she's pointed out in another interview, she has the "luxury" of staying away. She is already well-known in her field. Her book publisher will publicize her books for her. She has a column in a mainstream media platform. For some people, who are not as far along in their careers, it's a necessity to stay and slog it out. Man, though, is it ever a slog. Ronald Reagan The value of a man should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive. Albert Einstein If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack. Winston Churchill It isnt so much that liberals are ignorant. Its just that they know so many things that arent so. With integrity nothing else counts; Without integrity nothing else counts. Winston Churchill Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life, but define yourself. Harvey S. Firestone It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office. H. L. Menken Referenda insure all have a voice in land use decisions. U.S. Supreme Court Listen carefully to first criticism of your work. Note just what it is about your work the critics don't like - then cultivate it. That's the only part of your work that's individual and worth keeping. Jean Cocteau 11th Chitwan Mahotsav to begin from Monday Chitwan Mahotshav 2073 will kick off at Naryanghat on Monday with a host of events ranging from trade fair, cultural shows, food festival and water sports. Credit: Michigan State University Michigan State University researchers have discovered that a chemical compound, and potential new drug, reduces the spread of melanoma cells by up to 90 percent. The man-made, small-molecule drug compound goes after a gene's ability to produce RNA molecules and certain proteins in melanoma tumors. This gene activity, or transcription process, causes the disease to spread but the compound can shut it down. Up until now, few other compounds of this kind have been able to accomplish this. "It's been a challenge developing small-molecule drugs that can block this gene activity that works as a signaling mechanism known to be important in melanoma progression," said Richard Neubig, a pharmacology professor and co-author of the study. "Our chemical compound is actually the same one that we've been working on to potentially treat the disease scleroderma, which now we've found works effectively on this type of cancer." Scleroderma is a rare and often fatal autoimmune disease that causes the hardening of skin tissue, as well as organs such as the lungs, heart and kidneys. The same mechanisms that produce fibrosis, or skin thickening, in scleroderma also contribute to the spread of cancer. Small-molecule drugs make up over 90 percent of the drugs on the market today and Neubig's co-author Kate Appleton, a postdoctoral student, said the findings are an early discovery that could be highly effective in battling the deadly skin cancer. It's estimated about 10,000 people die each year from the disease. Their findings are published in the January issue of Molecular Cancer Therapeutics. "Melanoma is the most dangerous form of skin cancer with around 76,000 new cases a year in the United States," Appleton said. "One reason the disease is so fatal is that it can spread throughout the body very quickly and attack distant organs such as the brain and lungs." Through their research, Neubig and Appleton, along with their collaborators, found that the compounds were able to stop proteins, known as Myocardin-related transcription factors, or MRTFs, from initiating the gene transcription process in melanoma cells. These triggering proteins are initially turned on by another protein called RhoC, or Ras homology C, which is found in a signaling pathway that can cause the disease to aggressively spread in the body. The compound reduced the migration of melanoma cells by 85 to 90 percent. The team also discovered that the potential drug greatly reduced tumors specifically in the lungs of mice that had been injected with human melanoma cells. "We used intact melanoma cells to screen for our chemical inhibitors," Neubig said. "This allowed us to find compounds that could block anywhere along this RhoC pathway." Being able to block along this entire path allowed the researchers to find the MRTF signaling protein as a new target. Appleton said figuring out which patients have this pathway turned on is an important next step in the development of their compound because it would help them determine which patients would benefit the most. "The effect of our compounds on turning off this melanoma cell growth and progression is much stronger when the pathway is activated," she said. "We could look for the activation of the MRTF proteins as a biomarker to determine risk, especially for those in early-stage melanoma." According to Neubig, if the disease is caught early, chance of death is only 2 percent. If caught late, that figure rises to 84 percent. "The majority of people die from melanoma because of the disease spreading," he said. "Our compounds can block cancer migration and potentially increase patient survival." MediSwitch is the number one organisation in the country when it comes to switching electronic transactions between healthcare professionals and medical schemes. Its 12 000 healthcare businesses include all retail pharmacies in South Africa. Given the nature of its business, data security is of paramount importance to MediSwitch, and issues related to it informed the move. Andrew Brown, managing executive of MediSwitch, says that having the most robust security measures possible is important from a customer perspective and required from a legal one. The latter is particularly important in light of the enforcement of the Protection of Personal Information (POPI) Act. Given that healthcare information is explicitly referenced in the Act, our industry has to do everything possible to ensure that it is compliant and that it takes all reasonable steps to protect critical information, says Andrew. By moving our data centre to one of the most secure facilities in the country, we did exactly that. The ACS centre is managed and monitored by highly skilled network, security and infrastructure engineers, who provide round-the-clock operational support. It is also ISO 27001 certified, meaning that ACS meets the stringent international requirements for establishing, implementing, maintaining and continually improving the information security management of the data centre. Another key consideration is uptime. Without reliable computing facilities, a business such as MediSwitch would be unable to deliver services effectively. The ACS facility, with its Tier 4 N+1 fault tolerant rating, meets all the uptime requirements. Tier 4 data centres are specifically designed to host mission critical servers and computer systems, says Andrew. Furthermore, they offer fully redundant subsystems, in the form of cooling, power, network links and storage, to name a few. ACS provides MediSwitch with 99.95% guaranteed service availability a promise it is likely to exceed, given that the Linbro Park centre boasts an impressive track record of zero hours downtime in the last five years. Adding to the data security and redundancy features, is the facilitys physical security features. These include CCTV and biometric access control devices. Back-up power is provided by two generators with enough fuel capacity to run the facility for three weeks non-stop. Two Internet service providers offer full network redundancy and the centre even has a backup water supply. MediSwitch has a second data centre, hosted at Continuity SA, that provides levels of security and redundancy similar to the ACS facility. For more information visit the ASC Altech website. South African Internet service providers have been driving broadband adoption, especially fibre-to-the-home, in South Africa. While ISPs are not as well-resourced as large telecoms operators, they are often much closer to consumers and play an important role in the South African broadband ecosystem. ISPs know what South African consumers want and are an important voice in the local telecommunications market. MyBroadband asked South Africas top ISPs what they would like to see from the government in 2017 to improve broadband and their operating environment. Vox Telecom We need to reach finality on the National ICT Policy White Paper Vox Telecom CEO Jacques du Toit said the government should reach finality on the National ICT Policy White Paper. Once that is agreed upon, the spectrum auction and allocation must follow. Without this, we dont stand a chance in moving forward, said du Toit. Afrihost Consistent and clear regulation and policy Afrihost director Greg Payne said they would like the government to be consistent and clear on regulation and policy. He said the government should make decisions quickly and make it easy for companies to do business in the ISP industry. Cybersmart Less Cybersmart CEO Laurie Fialkov said for him the operative word is less when it comes to the government. Less interference, less regulation, less reporting, and less licencing fees, said Fialkov. Webafrica Put pressure on Telkom to reduce IPC pricing and introduce naked ADSL Webafricas Greg Wright said he would like the government to put pressure on Telkom to reduce IPC pricing and introduce naked ADSL as a service. He also urged the government to release more spectrum to enable lower mobile data prices. An improved and more efficient wayleave approval process will also help to speed up fibre roll-out in the country, said Wright. YEREVAN. Returning from Dadivank, we stopped near a village shop to buy water. An elderly woman approached and asked where we were from and then said: Have you been to Istisu? Hearing a negative answer, the woman returned a verdict: So you have not seen Kelbajar. Go and see. You will not regret it, for sure, the woman said noting that Aliyev's wife liked to have a rest here. After some discussion, we decided to go to Istisu in spite of the fact that it was getting darker and we were willing to return to Yerevan. The road to the hot spring was quite dangerous: destroyed bridges, tunnels dug in the mountains, narrow footpaths, thickets. After 40 minutes we saw natural a jacuzzi" on the river bank. The elderly woman from the village was right: this should be seen. Coming back to Yerevan, I began studying hot spring. It became clear that there were many hot springs in the territory of Kelbajar. The most famous were near the village of Jermajur (12 km from Kelbajar) and the village of Zulfuqarli (22 km from Dadivank). The first is known for its healing properties. The geyser near the village of Zulfuqarli is a limestone with a depth of a meter and 2.5 meters in the diameter, the stream of hot mineral water jets in the center of it. Water temperature is so high that even in the coldest weather it is possible to swim, without risking to freeze. According to geologist Hakob Mkrtchyan, the highest temperature was registered on 9 September 1958, water temperature in a hot spring was 84 degrees. The geologist said that this group of mineral springs is located on the bank of the Tartar River in Artsakh. Springs meet directly near sanatorium and go further two kilometers to the south. The chemical composition is similar to mineral water of Jermuk, Karlovy Vary, Zheleznovodsk. According to the specialist, Istisu has good prospects to become a holiday resort. YEREVAN. In no case, there take place a complete return of refugees, after conflicts have been settled, said the Russian political scientist Alexander Skakov in an interview with Armenian News - NEWS.am. The point is about returning to the areas that will be (if any) returned to Azerbaijan. No other regions can be considered, while talking about the return of refugees. As it is, for example, the return of Armenians to Baku or Sumgait. It is impossible to place a UN peacekeeper to each refugee. In no case, a complete return of refugees was possible, after the conflict had been resolved. Even if the conflict was resolved within the framework of a single state. Russians didnt go back to Chechnya and Ingushetia, did they? What about the return of Armenians and Greeks to Turkey, Germans to Sudetenland and the Eastern Prussia, French to Algeria and so on? All these are a fiction. Unfortunately, there happens, what is called an exchange of populations, and there is no getting away from it, stated the expert. YEREVAN. In fact, none of the parties to Karabakh conflict want to see deployment of peacekeepers, it would inevitably tie their hands, Russian political scientist Alexander Skakov told Armenian News-NEWS.am. And none of the mediating countries is excited about sending their peacekeepers to this region. It is a big responsibility and is very dangerous, the expert explained. At the same time he specified that, of course, if there is a peace process, deployment of peacekeepers will become inevitable. Of course, countries will never take the responsibility for this, only collective forces can do that. Now it is more realistic to resolve an issue of observers, but here there are many obstacles, too. Anyway Russia won't definitely stay away from these processes, Alexander Skakov noted. President appoints Ruben Vardanyan as Karabakh Minister of State US embassy expresses concern about human rights violation in Azerbaijan Ibrahim Kalin says Turkey will become an important gas center one way or another Biden: We're gonna free Iran Reuters: G7 countries and Australia agrees on fixed price for Russian oil World oil prices dropping Wizz Air to launch new flights between Venice, Yerevan EU assesses Armenia, Azerbaijan border commissions meeting in Brussels as constructive Artsakh President convenes enlarged working consultation Envoy: China supports Armenians Azerbaijan MOD disseminates disinformation, Armenia army did not fire Quake jolts Turkey Newspaper: Armenia PM once again manipulates topic of negotiations, Karabakh conflict Newspaper: Studies underway on Armenia MPs business involvement US wants to prevent Germany, other allies from working together with China Protests turn violent in Iran's Alborz Province 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 An interview of Armenian News-NEWS.am with the Canadian actress and producer Arsinee Khanjian about relations between Armenia and Diaspora, Diaspora's participation in Armenia's domestic life, the attitude toward the Armenians from Diaspora in Armenia, and other issues. What should be the relations between Armenians living in Armenia and Diaspora? To what extent should Diaspora be involved in Armenia's internal political processes? Is it possible to ensure the full involvement of Diaspora from outside or there should be established mechanisms for them to return home and participate in Armenias domestic developments? It seems, that the Diaspora made efforts to return and settle in Armenia, after Armenia had declared independence. The Diaspora made those attempts; some people returned to Armenia, but conditions did not allow them to stay. First, they werent citizens, and, as it seems, they visited to participate in Armenias activities like guests. Unfortunately, they have remained guests. When I go somewhere with an intention to get involved in a process, there are always people who make me feel like a guest. It means, that I either have to accept the situation to be allowed to stay, or say, that I will help myself and soon will go back. I think, that Diaspora is currently in a difficult condition, because of different experiences we have had together, interacting with each other for 25 years or without it. I have some ideas, in this regard. However, I do not want to reveal them, since they need to be well developed, and first of all developed with the will of the colonies and the people who are there. It should be made clear, what return to Armenia means, and how people can come to Armenia. For the new Diaspora, its a return, whereas for the historical Diaspora, its their first visit. But, in which way? For example, the Prime Minister urges and allows the Diaspora to come to Armenia and get involved in business activities. Is it the only participation of the Diaspora, though? Shall it be the business sector only? Doesnt Diaspora in Armenia have a role other than that? I think, it is a narrow-minded approach towards Diasporas duties and capacities. We have resources, which Armenia needs. It is not true, that Armenia still survive alone. Armenia has founded itself in a very difficult situation, taken into account the Armenian reality, not only individual interests but the interests of Armenia accepting, that there are people and their voices should be respected. And, this is because of internal pressures. Over the last 100 years the history of Armenia and Diaspora has been manifested in different forms. Why cant we create a relationship with each other? Look at the example of Israel. Today Israel, being an independent country, is called Israel, not the Jewish state. There are many Jews in Diaspora, but these Jews, regardless of their citizenship, French or Italian, apart from providing material support, fully enjoy the created conditions, in which their opinion is respected. How can these circumstances be molded? There are many forms. The Ministry of Diaspora, which was established in 2009, has been unable to develop any, though. All the created platforms are cosmetic and, in general, rather weak to unite Armenia and Diaspora. I believe, that the reason is not the weakness, or ignorance. There exists a policy beyond it, which does not necessarily imply the importance of uniting, but the position, that you can only take part in this way, and when we honor you, you must feel delighted. This approach is no longer tolerable. It is not a matter of powers coercion, but of national survival. What is your vision of the future of Armenia, taken into account nowadays Armenian reality? 25 years is a long period. A child turns into 25 years old during this time and becomes an independent person, who should make decisions for his/her future. There took place a lot of good things in Armenia, but there are still a lot of problems. I think, that there can be [a positive change], if relationship becomes modest from both sides. I say it modest, because, apparently, there is an issue of glory. Everyone wants to establish and maintain its strength and will. It cannot be the case. Armenia's authorities should address this issue for the sake of the people and the state, so that the state, the people, and the government have their own identity and independence. There should be a relationship between them, which is not enforced, but rather clean and clear. If the Armenian government refers to this issue, it should be the same in Diaspora. The Diaspora institutions should also realize, that we have a lot of young people who are Armenians, but they do not want to be instructed, how to prove their identity. Today, there are many ways of proving it, but also necessary conditions should be created. I think, that in the next 25 years, the situation will either improve or get even more complicated. Why do I think so? Look at the history and development of humanity. We shouldnt think, that if we are Armenians, we are different. In fact, we arent different, and its us, who inflict the most damage to us. I hope, that we will be able to create an environment, in which we will be able to listen to each other without a fear of danger. It is unacceptable, when we are offending each other. I say it directly, since what I witnessed I saw people, citizens around me, who would approach and say: "Please, go back and tell Diaspora not to send us financial assistance. We do not need your assistance." When I hear this, I cannot leave my responsibilities. My best experience over the years in Armenia has been with people, who on different occasions approached me in the street and said: Mrs. Khanjyan, we all love you very much. What a beautiful phrase is it, I thought. It is the greatest gift, that I have ever received. The word love is very delicate and beautiful. Then, I thought, that I should have an answer. I replied, that I was grateful, but I didnt feel, that it was enough. Today, I can say, that I am very fond of you. I am very fond of my people, because I feel, that Armenia is my country, no matter if I am granted a right, have an Armenian passport or not. I do not know, whether it creates discomfort for the government, but I think, if one lives with a sense Armenian identity, one should also feel free to express oneself. Now people are approaching and saying: "We love you very much" as well. But, they also have a message, which they didnt before. And this message is addressed to the Diaspora. They feel, that the Diaspora is an inseparable of Armenia. A large number of people from Diaspora have Armenian citizenship; they have families in Armenia. Therefore, it should be make clear, that if I preserve the right to speak, I am doing it not for myself, but because I feel people's expectations. If I can feel these expectations, there is no way, that the government doesnt know about them. I am neither a governmental representative, nor have a wish to be. However, if I have a possibility to address this issue, how can I refrain from doing so, and how the government can refrain from listening and addressing the needs of the people. Do you feel in Armenia like a guest, or like a citizen? I do not feel like a guest in Armenia. In the first years of independence, when I was coming to Armenia, I was like a guest, since I knew, that I should return. Being a western Armenian, I dont feel I belong to somewhere specific in the world. Ive lived in Canada for more than forty years. I am a Canadian citizen and have an Armenian identity. Thus, no matter, whether I am in Lebanon, the US, or France, I feel that my identity is different. When I come to Armenia, I feel, that I am in a natural environment, although there is still much to learn to understand, what it really means to live in Armenia, by live everyday Armenian life. I dont know, if I will ever have a chance to come and live in Armenia; there are people, who did it. I would never think, that today I could be here and talk about these things. I also feel, that I belong to Diaspora. This relationship is a major of me, and it is this relationship, which I now develop. 33 kg gold seized at Tribhuvan Int'l Airport, 3 arrested Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police arrested three persons and seized 33 kg of gold from their possession at the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) in Kathmandu on Thursday. Private prison stocks have soared in light of recent American political developments, and they may be poised to climb even higher. Donald Trump's election and his subsequent announcement of plans to nominate Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions as Attorney General have sent investors rushing to private prison stocks in recent months. Since Election Day, shares of The GEO Group (GEO) have climbed more than 50%, and shares of CoreCivic (CXW) have surged over 70%. The cause of the rally is two-fold, said Michael Kodesch, analyst at research firm Canaccord Genuity -- Trump won, and Hillary Clinton lost. "It's not necessarily all about what Trump's policies are but also about what Clinton's policies would have been," he said. The Democratic nominee, who was widely expected to win the election, had called for an end to private prisons and the closure of family detention and private immigration detention centers. A single tweet from the former Secretary of State caused shares of Geo and CoreCivic to plunge in September. The Obama administration has also taken a critical stance on private prisons. Shares plummeted in August when the Department of Justice issued a memo to the Bureau of Prisons announcing plans to phase out their use. "Once Trump was elected, all of that went away," Kodesh said. Trump is likely to be more private prison-friendly. He expressed his support for such entities in an interview with MSNBC's Chris Matthews in March, and his policies -- specifically those related to immigration -- bode well for the industry. At an October campaign speech in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Trump proposed a two-year mandatory minimum prison sentence for illegal immigrants reentering the U.S. after deportation and a mandatory five-year minimum for illegal criminal immigrants reentering. Such a measure would likely result in the detention of more illegal immigrants by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and from that perspective, private prisons are a massive player. About two-thirds of immigrant detainees are kept in private facilities (as opposed to about 15% of federal inmates). According to data from the Austin, Texas-based organization Grassroots Leadership, the private prison industry is expected to acquire 80% of any future immigrant detention beds. GEO CEO George Zoley said the private sector is the "really the only logical solution for organizations that can move quickly and meet the detention standards" ICE needs for residential centers in a November conference call. "That's probably the biggest opportunity from a Trump administration coming in," Kodesh said. For now, prison stocks have been set free The August DOJ memo to the BOP still stands, but if confirmed, Sessions is likely to reverse course. Regardless, facilities run by both GEO and CoreCivic have received contract renewals since then, albeit with smaller bed allotments. To be sure, not all is working in the private prison industry's favor. The U.S. prison population shrunk to its smallest in a decade in 2015, falling by 2% to 1.5 million prisoners at the end of that year. GEO recently ended a contract with the Vermont Department of Corrections for a prison that was at about 15% capacity. California voters in November voted in favor of Prop 57, a proposal for increasing parole and good behavior opportunities for felons convicted of nonviolent crimes. According to the Associated Press, the measure makes about 7,000 inmates immediately eligible. At the start of 2016, there were about 25,000 nonviolent California felons who could seek early release and parole under the measure. California voters approved similar measure, Prop 47, in 2014, which reduced nonviolent, non-serious crimes to misdemeanors and improved the chances of parole consideration for more inmates. The measure "picked a lot of the low-hanging fruit," Kosech said, and it took several months to make a notable impact on prison populations. Something similar could happen with Prop 57. "We're probably not going to see anything happen at first until these prisoners go through its process," he said. CoreCivic has more exposure to California sentencing reform than GEO. There are a number of political forces in play at well. In August, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson asked the Homeland Security Advisory Council to examine whether the agency should pull back from the use of private facilities. The resulting report sent mixed signals. The six-person subcommittee that prepared the report determined fiscal and capacity issues made it necessary for DHS to use private for-profit entities. However, one of the members, Marshall Fitz, dissented, and more than two-thirds of the council members objected to its conclusion and instead recommended Fitz's dissent to the DHS. It will ultimately be Johnson's successor who will decide what to do. Trump has tapped retired General John Kelly to head the department. Lobbying activity may have an effect as well. According to data from the Center for Responsive Politics, GEO spent $580,000 on lobbying efforts in 2016 and CoreCivic, formerly Corrections Corp of America, $890,000. GEO also gave $125,000 to a pro-Trump super PAC during the presidential campaign. "We look forward to strengthening our partnership at the Federal level as we have for the last 30 years under both Republican and Democratic administrations and believe we are uniquely positioned to provide high quality services in safe, secure and humane residential environments while maximizing cost savings for taxpayers," said GEO spokesman Pablo Paez in a statement. CoreCivic representatives did not return request for comment. "Despite the recent run-up, we could see more upside on both stocks," wrote Kosech and fellow Canaccord Genuity analyst Ryan Meliker in a recent analyst note. In other words, it might not be too late for investors to hop on board. 95 percent work of Sundarijal Water Treatment Plant complete State Minister for Water Supply and Sanitation Dipak Khadka today inspected the Sundarijal Water Treatment Plant which is under-construction by the Melamchi Water Supply Project. Chicago Metal Container Manufacturer Faces $81K in Penalties after Third Worker Amputation It was the third such injury in just 17 months According to a report, OSHA has issued B-Way Corp. of Atlanta one repeated and one serious safety violation after the third amputation injury in 17 months. The injury occurred when a machine amputate a temporary workers right middle finger tip after it came in contact with the machines operating parts as he cleared a jam. It turns out the employer did not properly install the machines safety guards, and did not properly instruct workers in procedures designed to prevent machine movement during maintenance. "Each year, manufacturing workers suffer hundreds of preventable injuries because employers fail to install safety guards properly and train workers in machine safety procedures," said Kathy Webb, OSHA's area director in Calumet City. "BWay Corp. needs to review its machines' operations corporate-wide immediately to ensure they have adequate and properly installed safety guards. They must also be sure that workers are using lockout/tag out procedures to prevent them from coming in contact with operating parts." Driver Ariel Jatton (L) and co-driver Gaston Daniel Scazzuso of Argentina pose inside their Acciona Eco Power ahead of the 2016 Dakar Rally on January 1, 2016 Spanish energy firm Acciona said Monday it will compete in the Dakar Rally next month in Latin America for the third straight year with the only electric vehicle of the gruelling off-road race. "Next January in Asuncion (Paraguay) we will once again cross the starting line of the Dakar, and we will again be the only zero emissions vehicle," the company said in a statement. "We compete in Dakar 2017 with an electric vehicle because we believe 100% in the potential of renewable energy," it added on the Facebook page of its Dakar Rally team. Some 316 vehicles, including 83 cars and 146 motorbikes, are registered for the 39th Dakar Rally, which will be staged over nearly 9,000 kilometres (5,600 miles) from January 2-14 in Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay. The race will set off from the Paraguayan capital of Asuncion, with race sporting director Marc Coma promising "the toughest edition in the history of South American rally-raiding". Acciona entered its car in the 2015 Dakar Rally, making it the first zero-emissions vehicle to compete in the event, but it pulled out after just three days due to a navigation system malfunction. The Team Acciona car, which features a lithium battery pack that is supplemented by solar panels, was disqualified from the 2016 Dakar Rally after it failed to make it to the start line for the 11th stage on time. The map with the route of the 2017 Dakar Rally was revealed during a press conference in Paris on November 23, 2016 Founded in 1997, Madrid-based Acciona focuses on the development and management of renewable energy projects and infrastructure around the world. It posted a net profit of 348 million euros ($364 million) during the first nine months of the year, more than double the 166 million euros it made during the same period last year. 2016 AFP Its lower cost has made it popular in commercial food production, but after being blamed for deforestation in Asia, palm oil plantations are now getting a similar rap in Africa Its lower cost has made it popular in commercial food production, but after being blamed for deforestation in Asia, palm oil plantations are now getting a similar rap in Africa. The sheer scale of land required is having an impact in Gabon, Cameroon and the Congo Basin, environmentalists say. With financing coming from American, European and Asian agri-businesses, palm bunches are cultivated then cut from trees and sent to factories where oil is extracted by hot pressing. But the production process accelerates deforestation, contributes to climate change and threatens fauna and flora in vulnerable areas, opponents argue. However the companies say that palm oil is not only less expensive than soya or sunflower oil but requires much less land to produce and provides much-needed jobs. Gabonwhere forest covers 80 percent of the territoryis feeling the brunt. Brainforest and Mighty, two environmental groups, investigated the activities of Olam, an agri-business from Singapore, which said it has planted 58,000 hectares of palm trees in Gabon. "It is estimated that Olam has deforested 20,000 hectares in its Gabonese concessions of Awala et Mouila since 2012," the groups said in a report released in mid-December. "Investigators on the scene witnessed and filmed bulldozers knocking down huge trees en masse." Olam said palm trees had been planted on 25,000 hectares of land which had previously been forested, but that this had been "highly logged and degraded secondary forest" and represented just 0.1 percent of Gabon's forests. In response to the report Olam published advertisements touting the almost 11,000 jobs it has created, the 1,100 hectares of food crops planted and 251 kilometres (150 miles) of roads built. A wider impact But the impact appears wider. In their report, the environmental groups expressed fears that the Congo Basin, considered the lung of Africa, could go the same way as forests in Sumatra, Indonesia and on Borneo. With financing coming from American, European and Asian agri-businesses, palm bunches in Gabon, Cameroon and the Congo Basin are cultivated then cut from trees and sent to factories where oil is extracted by hot pressing "A few decades ago, these places were almost entirely covered with forests, a paradise for orangutans, rhinos, elephants and exotic birds. Today, only 20-30 percent of the forest cover exists." The report was released in Libreville when an environmental film festival honoured the French documentary "Et Maintenant Nos Terres" (And Now Our Land). Its directors, Julien Le Net and Benjamin Polle, chronicled how villages in Cameroon and Senegal were being affected by what they called "land grabs" by multinational companies. In southwest Cameroon 244 farmers have filed a trespassing complaint against a company that intends to plant 20,000 hectares of palm trees. Hearings in the case against Sustainable Oils Cameroon, formerly a subsidiary of American company Herakles Farms, were postponed after reports of unrest in the area in November. Greenpeace has asked Cameroon not to renew the company's concession which expired at the end of November, and it cited "six years of illegal foresting, trampling of locals' rights, unfulfilled investments and destruction of forest". A petition signed by 180,000 people against renewal of the contract was sent last week to Cameroon President Paul Biya, Greenpeace said. The government has not yet made a decision but Greenpeace said it hoped it would hear the voices of "thousands of Cameroonians". Meanwhile the plantations of Socapalm, a subsidiary of the Luxembourg company Socfin in which the family firm of French businessman Vincent Bollore owns a large minority stake, were targeted by protests in November. "No to pollution and massive environmental destruction" read one banner, while another urged the company to open a dialogue with residents. "More than 5,000 hectares has been used," a resident called Ebeneser Ekango told AFPTV at the time, complaining there wasn't enough land to plant the staple crop cassava. "What do we eat?" Greenpeace, which has complained that Socfin concessions have included old-growth forests, applauded the company publishing in December a responsible management policy commits to "eliminating deforestation". 2016 AFP Credit: Andras Barta Today energy crowdfunding platforms and investors experience many problems if they want to finance projects that cross the legal boundaries between the EU member states. International experts are striving to harmonise to European regulations in the sector Renewable energy crowdfunding involves three different parties: the fundraising platform, the investors who generally expect a return, and project developers needing money. They may come from different nations. And that is surely a complication, since there isn't one legislative framework for this business sector, nor one that is so recent and linked to the use of the web. This challenge has been under the lens of international lawyers, such as Osborn Clarke legal practice, who has produced a lot of relevant material. In the release named Crowdfunding crossing borders, they observe that if a platform aims to expand its business into other EU member states, it will need legal advice in those countries. And an investor wishing to invest in a cross border project listed on a foreign platform, should be aware of how the law differs from his or her home country. The same applies if the investment is related to a project owner abroad. Thorge Drefke, an Osborne Clarke associate in Koln, Germany, explains that already in late 2014 the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published its opinion/advice on investment-based crowdfunding, which clarifies how crowdfunding models fit within existing EU legislation such as MiFID, Prospectus Directive, AIFMD and other financial regulations. ESMA affirms that, where crowdfunding platforms operate within MiFID (the "Markets in Financial Instruments Directive" has been in force since 2007. It will be updated in 2018 to increase transparency across the EU financial markets), the current EU regime provides a reasonable degree of risk mitigation, due to disclosure requirements and classification of risk profiles of the investors. But for platforms operating outside MiFID, investor protection could be mitigated by measures at local level as national legislation doesn't require compliance with the directive. Regarding the Prospectus Directive, it stipulates that producing a prospectus is not mandatory if the amount payable for all shares offered over a period of 12 months in aggregate across all Member States, is less than 5 million. But EU countries have chosen different thresholds under national law for the minimum size of offers for which a prospectus must be produced. ESMA assumes that the strong incentives for project sizes to be kept below the relevant offer size threshold, imposed under national regimes, pose challenges to the viability of the crowdfunding platform business model. Some platforms could limit the type or the number of investors in projects in order to benefit from one of the exemptions set out in the Prospectus Directive (which is currently under review and should increase the size limit to 8 million). In 2016, for the first time, the European Parliament asked the European Commission to present an initiative to regulate and harmonise crowdfunding practices across the EU. "The main issue for platforms is that they cannot actively market investment opportunities across different member states without complying with each country's requirements", says Oliver Gajda, executive director of the European Crowdfunding Network (ECN). Alex Raguet, founder of the French crowdfunding platform Lumo, confirms that few players have licenses for crossing borders. "We are only regulated for France. I can't translate my site into English, but we have a lot of English people living in France and we would like them to invest in our platform", he says. To find solutions to such issues, ECN and Lumo have joined the international network of the European project CrowdFundRES, which aims to unleash the potential of crowdfunding for financing renewable energy projects. The European Commission published a report on crowdfunding in May 2016. "This report gives a detailed description of the regulatory environment of crowdfunding in the EU", says Drefke, "But the EC states that currently, as crowdfunding remains largely local and the sector is changing rapidly, there is no strong case for a EU level framework. However, the EC will keep developments in the sector under close review, and meet twice per year with regulators and the sector". Which legislation could be a benchmark for harmonising the regulatory situation? "According to our experience, for example, Austria and the UK have crowdfunding regulations which could be called advanced", Drefke points out. Austria has a specific Crowdinvesting act, called Alternativfinanzierungsgesetz, providing for a legal framework for crowdfunding platforms. In the UK the specific regulations are left to administrative provisions published by the Financial Conduct Authority FCA, which allows for a flexible response to economic or social developments of crowdfunding business. "In France you can't do nothing for two years while you wait for inspections and authorisations. In London small frameworks are required to let business start", Raguet says. Bearing in mind that 81% of the whole European crowdfunding market volume in 2015 (including any types of crowdfunding such as peer-to-peer, equity or lending or reward donation crowdfunding etc.) is generated in the UK, the liberal British legislation playing a role in this strong market position. Chinese customs have seized over three tonnes of pangolin scales - an estimated 7,500 of the creatures could have been killed to make up the trafficked shipment Chinese customs seized over three tonnes of pangolin scales, state media said, in the country's biggest-ever smuggling case involving the animal parts. Shanghai Customs found around 3.1 tonnes of pangolin scales mixed in with a container of wood products imported from Nigeria, state broadcaster CCTV reported Tuesday. It estimated up to 7,500 of the creatures could have been killed. The reclusive pangolin has become the most trafficked mammal on Earth due to soaring demand in Asia for their scales for traditional medicine and their flesh, considered a delicacy. State media have previously said the scales fetch around 5,000 yuan ($700) per kilogram ($700) on the black marketwhich would make the seizure worth more than $2 million. Although the international pangolin trade is illegal in China and they are listed as one of the most-protected wild animals, law enforcement remains weak. Customs officers stand guard over seized pangolin scales at a port in Shanghai Pangolins are also farmed in the country and an online site selling traditional Chinese medicine offers them at 7,000 yuan per kilogram. The scales are nothing more than keratin, the same substance that makes up fingernails. Yet it has been falsely touted as a cure for multiple ailments, including cancer, among some practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine. Shanghai Customs arrested three suspects who were suspected of smuggling the scales from Africa since 2015, the report said. 2016 AFP Dr. Paul DeLaune discusses cover crops at a field day at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research station south of Chillicothe. Credit: Texas A&M AgriLife photo by Kay Ledbetter Adoption of cover crops in the Rolling Plains has been slow as questions persist on water use and benefits. But after compiling economic data this past year, one Texas A&M AgriLife researcher is asking producers, "Can you afford not to adopt cover crops?" Dr. Paul DeLaune, Texas A&M AgriLife Research environmental soil scientist in Vernon, said irrigated producers especially could potentially be reaping more dollars per acre if they include a cover crop on their continuous cotton. DeLaune has been researching conservation tillage and cover crop effects on soil moisture and soil properties for the past eight years in the semi-arid environment of the Rolling Plains, with much of the data collected during an exceptional drought period. He will be talking in detail about agronomic and economic impact of cover crops in cotton systems at the Beltwide Cotton Conference in Dallas Jan. 5-7 and the Red River Crops Conference in Childress Jan. 24-25. "Water is often the limiting factor to crop production, so anything that is perceived to reduce the capability of soils to capture and retain rainfall hinders adoption," he said. Conservation tillage, which has shown benefits in regard to rainfall retention and storage, has been a hard sell in Texas, DeLaune said, with only about 16 percent adoption. So he expects cover crops to have an even lower adoption rate. However, there has been much more promotion and excitement for cover crops due to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service Soil Health Initiative, he said. DeLaune said it is true after five years of research, he had hoped to see a buildup of organic carbon but didn't. But he did see a reduction in the overall soil compaction and an improvement in water infiltration. "The stored soil water at the time of termination of a cover crop will be lower, but when the rain does come, the infiltration rate is higher, and prior to the cash crop being planted, it seems to be recharging well," DeLaune said. Termination date can be important. Too early and the beneficial residue is lost, he said, adding they terminate about a month before planting. "If you terminate early, the residue goes away quickly," DeLaune said. "So when do you pull the trigger on termination? Let it get a little further along so the residue remains. Our infiltration data shows it will definitely be a benefit." In continuous cotton systems, he said his research has shown that infiltration did not differ between conventional till and no-till systems. "But we did see a significant increase in infiltration when a terminated wheat cover crop was added to the system. In a low-residue system such as continuous cotton, no-till alone does not seem to be as beneficial in regard to infiltration, although we have seen alleviation of plow pans with no-till." The continuous dryland cotton system he has researched included trials of conventional till, no-till and no-till with a mixed species cool-season cover crop, as well as monocultures of crimson clover, hairy vetch, Austrian winter field pea and wheat cover crops. Over a three-year average, expenses were significantly lower for the no-till system than all other systems except the wheat cover crop system, he said. Seed is a major factor and wheat has a much lower seed cost compared to other evaluated cover crop options. In less humid regions, it is important to consider reasonable cover-crop seeding rates and not try to emulate high seeding rates that may be seen in cooler or wetter climates, DeLaune said. Within the dryland study, economic returns were not significantly different between cover crop and non-cover crop treatments. "Although we have seen significant soil moisture use by cover crops, we have maintained lint yields with cover crops," he said. On irrigated cotton, the lint yield and net return were higher for the mixed cover crop and wheat cover crop systems in the third year of the trial. On the three-year average, per-acre net returns were $355 for no-till, $367 for conventional till, $398 for wheat cover crop and $406 for mixed species cover crop systems. Added residue, either through crop rotation or cover crops, is a benefit to cotton systems in semi-arid environments, he said. Risks are much greater in dryland systems, but success can be found with educated management decisions. Anthropologist Samy Alim argues that the relationship between race, language and racism plays such a key role in reflecting and defining the way human societies are structured that it deserves study as a separate field, which he calls "raciolinguistics." Alim examines the connection between language, race and power in a new book, co-edited with John Rickford and Arnetha Ball. The book, Raciolinguistics: How Language Shapes Our Ideas About Race, compiles recent scholarly research on different societies around the world. Stanford News Service interviewed Alim, the book's lead editor and director of the Center for Race, Ethnicity and Language, about the emerging field of raciolinguistics and his research. You say that today more than ever, American society is hyperracial and hyperracializing. What do you mean by that and why do you think that is so? When the U.S. elected its first black president eight years ago, some proclaimed the U.S. to be a "postracial" society, where race doesn't matter. But every social indicator, from the income gap to incarceration rates and medical statistics on infant mortality, among others, paints a picture of a nation deeply structured and divided by race. It is now nearly impossible to ignore social scientific research of all stripes, which demonstrates that, rather than postracial, American society is in fact hyperracial or hyperracializing. That is, we are constantly orienting to race while at the same time denying the overwhelming evidence that shows the myriad ways that American society is fundamentally structured by it. When racist speech is prevalent in mainstream U.S. political arenas such as the racializing words of President-elect Donald Trump and other Republicans in the 2016 presidential primary the possibility for violence increases, as we've seen with the recent attacks on U.S. Muslims and Mexicans. This type of language has breathed new life into white supremacist movements like the so-called "alt-right," the term itself being a perfect example of how language can be used to obscure and sanitize what are overtly racist movements. Can you give specific examples from your research that highlight this connection between language and identity? I studied Barack Obama's speech patterns and I've found that his speech changed depending on his audience. Because of prevailing racist, xenophobic and Islamophobic ideas about who he was, he had to speak in such a way that made as many people comfortable with him as possible. Obama used a "black preacher style" to appeal to the African American community, linking himself to familiar black figures like Martin Luther King Jr. At the same time, he used "standard" English when he talked to more general audiences. But his "black preacher style" was not only important for the black electorate; he also alleviated some white American fears that he was "not American" and "not Christian." He was caught between discriminatory discourses of race, language, citizenship and religion, and he needed to navigate between them in order to not be seen as "the African, Muslim boogeyman" that the far right made him out to be. Language and race work together here in very important ways. I argue that Obama's ability to switch between different linguistic varieties has been an advantage in his political career. His speech can be seen as an example of transgressive, transracial politics. What do you believe is the biggest takeaway from the research compiled in this book? As leading scholars argue in the book, language is often overlooked as one of the most important cultural means that we have for distinguishing ourselves from others. But rather than being fixed and predetermined, we argue that racial identities can shift across contexts and even in moment-to-moment interactions. We use the knowledge gained from our studies to argue for a new kind of politics a transgressive, transracial politics that considers both the powerful ways that race is taken up by people of color in contexts of racial inequality and the ways that we challenge the very process of racial categorization itself. Race is both a social construct and an important social reality. So how do we develop a new politics around that in this current moment? What is raciolinguistics and why was it important to establish this field? Raciolinguistics examines how language shapes race and how race shapes language. It's a field that grew out of a need to understand that there is a close relationship between race, racism and language and how these processes impact our lives across domains like politics and education. Some linguists study language in a vacuum without theorizing race at all. On the other hand, race scholars that do think a lot about race oftentimes neglect the central role that language plays in processes of racialization. So, in this book, we bring together cutting-edge, innovative scholars interested in explicating the increasingly vexed relationships between race, language and power in our rapidly changing world from the U.S.-Mexico border to Brazil, Spain, South Africa, Israel and the United Kingdom. What are your next steps for establishing raciolinguistics as a new field? I founded the Stanford Center for Race, Ethnicity and Language (CREAL) in 2010 to help grow the field. It was the first and only center of its kind in the world. From there, in 2012, I served as founding director of the program in Race, Inequality and Language in Education (RILE), which now receives the most applications of any program in the Graduate School of Education. There are several next steps, but the biggest two, for me, are these: I am now editing The Oxford Handbook of Language and Race with other leaders in the field, Jonathan Rosa, Angela Reyes and Mary Bucholtz. This is an explicit effort to build the field. Further, I have just begun editing a book series for Oxford University Press, Oxford Studies in Language and Race. Raciolinguistics is a collective effort, and scholars all over the country and the world are building it with us. Facebook sparked fearand angeramong Thailand's social media users after its Safety Check feature triggered a false bomb alert in Bangkok. The check-in feature allows users to signal to friends that they are safe after an event in their area such as a terror attack or natural disaster. But it appeared to misfire late Tuesday, creating an alert called "The Explosion in Bangkok" that said a blast in the capital had been confirmed by "multiple sources". The page gave no other details about the incident but linked to articles about a bombing in Bangkok in August 2015 which killed 20 people. After numerous city residents marked themselves as safe, the alert was deactivated around an hour later at 10pm, leaving netizens relieved but also frustrated over the false alarm. "Facebook issued false news that has destroyed Thailand's image," wrote Thai user Prasit Silhanisong. "It's close to the New Year and now tourists might not come," he added, calling on the social media giant to apologise. Facebook swiftly defended the algorithm, saying the alert was activated by reports of small explosives that a protester had thrown near Government House earlier on Tuesday. The incident, which caused no injuries or damage, was covered in the local press. "Safety Check was activated yesterday in Thailand following an explosion," a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement to AFP, adding that a "trusted third party" had confirmed the incident. It is not the first time the check-in feature has caused controversy. In March the company apologised after a bug sent a Safety Check notification to users around the world following a deadly suicide bombing in Pakistan. The social network also faced criticism in November 2015 for selectively activating the feature after attacks in Paris but not in Beirut. 2016 AFP Banda affects normal life; 83 held, freed Normal life and traffic in Kathmandu Valley was partially affected on Wednesday due to banda called by the Road Expansion Struggle Committee. The 18-segment gold coated primary mirror of NASAs James Webb Space Telescope is raised into vertical alignment in the largest clean room at the agencys Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, on Nov. 2, 2016. The secondary mirror mount booms are folded down into stowed for launch configuration. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is now deemed "sound" and apparently unscathed, engineers have concluded, based on results from a new batch of intensive inspections of the observatory's structure, after concerns were raised in early December when technicians initially detected "anomalous readings" during a preplanned series of vibration tests, NASA announced Dec. 23. After conducting both "visual and ultrasonic examinations" at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, engineers have found it to be safe at this point with "no visible signs of damage." But because so much is on the line with NASA's $8.8 Billion groundbreaking Webb telescope mission that will peer back to nearly the dawn of time, engineers are still investigating the "root cause" of the "vibration anomaly" first detected amidst shake testing on Dec. 3. "The team is making good progress at identifying the root cause of the vibration anomaly," NASA explained in a Dec 23 statement much to everyone's relief! "They have successfully conducted two low level vibrations of the telescope." "All visual and ultrasonic examinations of the structure continue to show it to be sound." Starting late November, technicians began a defined series of environmental tests including vibration and acoustics tests to make sure that the telescopes huge optical structure was fit for blastoff and could safely withstand the powerful shaking encountered during a rocket launch and the especially harsh rigors of the space environment. It would be useless otherwise unable to carry out unparallelled science. To carry out the vibration and acoustics tests conducted on equipment located in a shirtsleeve environment, the telescope structure was first carefully placed inside a 'clean tent' structure to protect it from dirt and grime and maintain the pristine clean room conditions available inside Goddard's massive clean room where it has been undergoing assembly for the past year. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is the most powerful space telescope ever built and is the scientific successor to the phenomenally successful Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The mammoth 6.5 meter diameter primary mirror has enough light gathering capability to scan back over 13.5 billion years and see the formation of the first stars and galaxies in the early universe. The Webb telescope will launch on an ESA Ariane V booster from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana in 2018. Technicians work on the James Webb Space Telescope in the massive clean room at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, on Nov. 2, 2016, as the completed golden primary mirror and observatory structure stands gloriously vertical on a work stand, reflecting incoming light from the area and observation deck. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com "The James Webb Space Telescope is undergoing testing to make sure the spacecraft withstands the harsh conditions of launch, and to find and remedy all possible concerns before it is launched from French Guiana in 2018." However, shortly after the vibration testing began technicians soon discovered unexpected "anomalous readings" during a shake test of the telescope on Dec. 3, as the agency initially announced in a status update on the JWST website. The anomalous readings were found during one of the vibration tests in progress on the shaker table, via accelerometers attached to the observatories optical structure known as OTIS. "During the vibration testing on December 3, at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, accelerometers attached to the telescope detected anomalous readings during a particular test," the team elaborated. So the team quickly conducted further "low level vibration" tests and inspections to more fully understand the nature of the anomaly, as well as scrutinize the accelerometer data for clues. "Further tests to identify the source of the anomaly are underway. The engineering team investigating the vibe anomaly has made numerous detailed visual inspections of the Webb telescope and has found no visible signs of damage." "They are continuing their analysis of accelerometer data to better determine the source of the anomaly." The team is measuring and recording the responses of the structure to the fresh low level vibration tests and will compare these new data to results obtained prior to detection of the anomaly. Work continues over the holidays to ensure Webb is safe and sound and can meet its 2018 launch target. After thoroughly reviewing all the data the team hope to restart the planned vibration and acoustic testing in the new year. "Currently, the team is continuing their analyses with the goal of having a review of their findings, conclusions and plans for resuming vibration testing in January." Webb's massive optical structure being tested is known as OTIS or Optical Telescope element and Integrated Science. It includes the fully assembled 18-segment gold coated primary mirror and the science instrument module housing the four science instruments NASAs James Webb Space Telescope placed inside a clean tent in Nov. 2016 to protect it from dust and dirt as engineers at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland transport it out of the relatively dust-free cleanroom and into a shirtsleeve environment to conduct vibration and acoustics tests to confirm it is fit for launch in 2018. Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn OTIS is a combination of the OTE (Optical Telescope Assembly) and the ISIM (Integrated Science Instrument Module) together. "OTIS is essentially the entire optical train of the observatory!" said John Durning, Webb Telescope Deputy Project Manager, in an earlier exclusive interview with Universe Today at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "It's the critical photon path for the system." The components were fully integrated this past summer at Goddard. The combined OTIS entity of mirrors, science module and backplane truss weighs 8786 lbs (3940 kg) and measures 28'3" (8.6m) x 8"5" (2.6 m) x 7"10" (2.4 m). The environmental testing is being done at Goddard before shipping the huge structure to NASA's Johnson Space Center in February 2017 for further ultra low temperature testing in the cryovac thermal vacuum chamber. The 6.5 meter diameter 'golden' primary mirror is comprised of 18 hexagonal segments looking honeycomb-like in appearance. And it's just mesmerizing to gaze at as I had the opportunity to do on a few occasions at Goddard this past year standing vertically in November and seated horizontally in May. Each of the 18 hexagonal-shaped primary mirror segments measures just over 4.2 feet (1.3 meters) across and weighs approximately 88 pounds (40 kilograms). They are made of beryllium, gold coated and about the size of a coffee table. The Webb Telescope is a joint international collaborative project between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). Webb is designed to look at the first light of the Universe and will be able to peer back in time to when the first stars and first galaxies were forming. It will also study the history of our universe and the formation of our solar system as well as other solar systems and exoplanets, some of which may be capable of supporting life on planets similar to Earth. Credit: Shutterstock By integrating energy management systems the EU funded BESOS project contributes to the efficiency and sustainability of 'smart cities', while further empowering citizens to make informed choices. For a city to be considered 'smart', where its inhabitants have their daily needs met in the most efficient and sustainable way, requires the coordinated management of resources, whether material, environmental or human, by urban authorities (public and private). Currently however, the running of many urban services is distributed across multiple suppliers. With energy provision, supply for services such as urban heating and lighting is run by various Energy Management Systems (EMS) that are not integrated and so miss opportunities for increased efficiency and cost savings. The EU-funded BESOS project set out address this lack of coordination by developing an advanced, integrated, management system. This system was designed to enable neighbourhoods to have access to support tools for making public infrastructure decisions. Crucially, another objective was to provide citizens with access to more information to also help them make decisions. Information platform for decision making support The BESOS approach enabled disparate IT management solutions to connect and share data through the creation of what it called an Open Trustworthy Energy Service Platform (OTESP), also accessible to third party applications. The OTESP functions as an information hub designed for different energy stakeholders. Its development involved a number of stages. Firstly, the specification of requirements, use-cases and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for specific scenarios such as public lighting or heating/cooling systems had to be generated. Next a common architecture and data models were developed and deployed such that they were adoptable by the end users, whilst also ensuring the integrity of data privacy. Crucially, it was designed to be able to interact with a neighbourhood's different Energy Management Systems (EMS). The methodology was targeted principally at both the infrastructure owners, typically municipalities, and the Energy Service Companies (ESCOs), or operators. The data sharing platform supplied infrastructure owners with a Business Balance Score Card utilised to assess the actual performance of Service Level Agreements (SLAs) with Energy Service Companies and Facility Managers. To be able to monitor and control infrastructure and implement integrated energy efficiency strategies, they also had access to a Decision Support System (DSS) Cockpit. The project also created an Energy Forecast Engine which the Project Coordinator Manuel Serrano Matoses refers to as, 'One of the main outcomes of the project, as it is able to forecast the production of wind mills and PV panels, but also the consumption of different assets - i.e. Buildings, public lighting, EV, etc. so a crucial tool for planning.' The trial had access to a range of public infrastructure assets such as public lighting, public buildings, residential buildings, Photovoltaic micro-generation (55 installations), wind turbines, smart heating, cogeneration, electrical vehicle charging points, and mobility systems. In total the trial encompassed 168 MWh/year of produced electricity and >250GWh/year of consumed electricity and was conducted in both Barcelona and Lisbon, exercising different scenarios in each. 150 experts and citizens were involved in evaluating the project results which found that in terms of cost-benefit, participating cities would recoup their investment within 4-5 years and demonstrated a reduction of costs by more than 30%. The pilots also surpassed their 20 % CO2 emissions reduction target (20.65% in Barcelona, 23.91% in Lisbon), resulting in what Mr Serrano describes as, 'A notable improvement in quality of life for EU citizens.' He elaborated that, 'considering the current economic situation and the dependency on energy resources, providing a tool for better management and monitoring of electricity, as an information tool for public authorities, will help stabilise citizens' and service suppliers' budgets.' New opportunities for digital pioneers As the BESOS system is open access, as well as being open for stakeholders such as ESCOS and public authorities, it is also open to domestic users. In this way aside from increasing service efficiency, one of the immediate impacts of BESOS, is the empowerment of consumers and citizens to make decisions which can keep costs down and by increasing efficiency, contribute to overall sustainability. Indeed, it is anticipated that this consumer empowerment will inspire digital entrepreneurs to come up with new business opportunities. As the technology is designed to integrate into EMS devices of various complexities, the project results are highly transferable and scalable to other worldwide capital cities, regardless of size or location. The project has already identified business opportunities for 2017 and intends to bring to market a range of products such as 'smart cities cockpits' and the 'energy forecast engine'. Additionally, to encourage uptake of the technology, the BESOS project consortium is involved with various international alliances seeking to advance the smart city agenda. More information: Project website: besos-project.eu/ Provided by CORDIS Donald Rosenberg, executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary of Qualcomm Inc., enters the Fair Trade Com mission's sentence room at the government complex in Sejong, South Korea, Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2016. South Korea's antitrust regulator slapped a 1.03 trillion won ($865 million) fine on Qualcomm Inc. Wednesday for allegedly violating competition laws.(Ahn Jung-hwan/Yonhap via AP) South Korea's antitrust regulator slapped a 1.03 trillion won ($865 million) fine on Qualcomm Inc. Wednesday for allegedly violating competition laws. The Fair Trade Commission said that the San Diego, California-based company had engaged in unfair business practices in patent licensing and chip sales, including refusing to let rival chipmakers license patents essential for chip making. The FTC said Qualcomm allegedly used its dominant position in the modem chip market to force handset makers to pay license fees for a broad set of patents under terms it set unilaterally and to coerce handset makers into signing licensing contracts. The fine, the biggest ever levied by the antitrust regulator, "will restore fair competition in the mobile communications industry," Shin Young-sun, secretary general at the Fair Trade Commission, told reporters at a briefing. Qualcomm rejected the ruling, saying it plans to appeal it in court. Qualcomm made $25.1 billion in 2015 from collecting patent royalties and selling modem chips. South Korea, home to the world's largest smartphone maker Samsung Electronics, accounts for about 20 percent of its global revenue. 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. Peru's Cordillera Blanca. Credit: Syracuse University Researchers in the College of Arts and Sciences are closer to understanding how the loss of glaciers in the Cordillera Blanca of Peru is affecting water resources in a region responding to global climate change. Laura Lautz G'05, associate professor of Earth sciences, is part of a multinational, interdisciplinary research team doing fieldwork in the northern Peruvian Andes. She and other researchers from A&S have been studying the groundwater hydrology of proglacial valleysareas formed by glacier recessionin the ice-capped mountains, home to the world's highest density of tropical glaciers. Their findings are part of a major article in Hydrological Processes, co-authored by scientists and engineers from McGill University and Ecole de Technologie Superieur, both in Montreal; The Ohio State University (OSU); and the French Research Institute for Development in Marseille. "Tropical glaciers in the Andes are retreating at an alarming rate," Lautz says. "Meltwater from these glaciers is important because it sustains stream-flow during the driest months of the year. As glaciers retreat and disappear, so does the amount of meltwater. Therefore, groundwater stored in the alpine valleys of the Cordillera Blanca may become increasingly important to downstream areas." The Andes contain 99 percent of the world's tropical glaciersslow-moving rivers of ice whose high elevations are virtually unaffected by balmy tropical temperatures. Such glaciers, however, are vulnerable to climate change. One study posits that, since the 1970s, Peruvian glaciers have lost nearly half of their surface area. Given the density of glaciers in the Cordillera Blanca, communities downstream rely on groundwater discharge and glacier meltwater for their water supply during the dry winter months (i.e., May-September). Runoff from proglacial streams also supports small-farm and commercial agriculture, hydroelectric power generation and transnational mining operations. "Because of the region's remoteness and difficult access, there are few field studies that have effectively identified the spatial distribution of groundwater discharge," Lautz says. "We're changing that." Whereas meltwater comes from the melting of ice and snow, groundwater is the result of precipitation that soaks into the Earth's surface; is transported underground and then returns to lakes, marshes and streams. Lautz estimates that approximately half the discharge in the Cordillera Blanca's proglacial streams comes from groundwater. What is not understoodand is the thrust of her researchis the spatial distribution of the groundwater discharge. Using a model called HFLUX, Lautz and her team, including postdoctoral research associate Ryan Gordon G'13, Earth scientist AnneMarie Glose G'13 and Ph.D. candidate Robin Glas G'18, have created an energy balance model of a stretch of river in Peru's Huascaran National Park. "We've incorporated stream temperature observations, meteorological measurements and time-lapse, ground-based infrared imagery," says Lautz, who has built a career on studying how hydrologic processes affect water quality and movement through watersheds. "This information has enabled us to determine gross and net groundwater inputs to a reach of the Quilcay River, originating in the Cordillera Blanca." Lautz's team found that 29 percent of the stream discharge at the reach outlet came from groundwater. Moreover, dye tracing revealed that 49 percent of the stream water exchanged with subsurface water. "These insights into pathways of groundwater-surface water interaction can help improve hydrological modeling of proglacial catchments throughout South America," Lautz says. Annual trips to the Cordillera Blanca are standard for Lautz's research group. Because of the high altitude (upwards of 13,000 feet) and lack of oxygen, she and her team travel lightlymostly by foot and pack-animaland work for a week at a time. Lautz marvels at the number of people, many of whom are alumni, involved with her projects. Recently, she, Glas and Ph.D. student Emily Baker G'18 conducted a seismic tomographic survey of part of the Cordillera Blanca, using equipment belonging to Assistant Professor Robert Moucha. They were assisted by Marty Briggs G'12, a research hydrologist at the U.S. Geological Survey; Jeff McKenzie G'00, G'05, associate professor of Earth and planetary sciences at McGill; and Bryan Mark G'01, professor of geography at OSU, where he also works in the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center. "It takes a village to pull off these projects," Lautz says. "Students and alumni are vital to our success, on campus and in the field." More information: Lauren D. Somers et al. Quantifying groundwater-surface water interactions in a proglacial valley, Cordillera Blanca, Peru, Hydrological Processes (2016). DOI: 10.1002/hyp.10912 The dishes of the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array are seen making thefirst-ever precision localization of a Fast Radio Burst, and therebypointing the way to the host galaxy of FRB121102. Credit: Danielle Futselaar (artsource.nl) One of the rare and brief bursts of cosmic radio waves that have puzzled astronomers since they were first detected nearly 10 years ago has finally been tied to a source: an older dwarf galaxy more than 3 billion light years from Earth. Fast radio bursts, which flash for just a few milliseconds, created a stir among astronomers because they seemed to be coming from outside our galaxy, which means they would have to be very powerful to be seen from Earth, and because none of those first observed were ever seen again. A repeating burst was discovered in 2012, however, providing an opportunity for a team of researchers to repeatedly monitor its area of the sky with the Karl Jansky Very Large Array in New Mexico and the Arecibo radio dish in Puerto Rico, in hopes of pinpointing its location. Thanks to the development of high-speed data recording and real-time data analysis software by a University of California, Berkeley, astronomer, the VLA last year detected a total of nine bursts over a period of a month, sufficient to locate it within a tenth of an arcsecond. Subsequently, larger European and American radio interferometer arrays pinpointed it to within one-hundredth of an arcsecond, within a region about 100 light years in diameter. Deep imaging of that region by the Gemini North Telescope in Hawaii turned up an optically faint dwarf galaxy that the VLA subsequently discovered also continuously emits low-level radio waves, typical of a galaxy with an active nucleus perhaps indicative of a central supermassive black hole. The galaxy has a low abundance of elements other than hydrogen and helium, suggestive of a galaxy that formed during the universe's middle age. The origin of a fast radio burst in this type of dwarf galaxy suggests a connection to other energetic events that occur in similar dwarf galaxies, said co-author and UC Berkeley astronomer Casey Law, who led development of the data-acquisition system and created the analysis software to search for rapid, one-off bursts. Extremely bright exploding stars, called superluminous supernovae, and long gamma ray bursts also occur in this type of galaxy, he noted, and both are hypothesized to be associated with massive, highly magnetic and rapidly rotating neutron stars called magnetars. Neutron stars are dense, compact objects created in supernova explosions, seen mostly as pulsars, because they emit periodic radio pulses as they spin. "All these threads point to the idea that in this environment, something generates these magnetars," Law said. "It could be created by a superluminous supernova or a long gamma ray burst, and then later on, as it evolves and its rotation slows down a bit, it produces these fast radio bursts as well as continuous radio emission powered by that spindown. Later on in life, it looks like the magnetars we see in our galaxy, which have extremely strong magnetic fields but rotate more like ordinary pulsars." In that interpretation, he said, fast radio bursts are like the tantrums of a toddler. This is only one theory, however. There are many others, though the new data rule out several suggested explanations for the source of these bursts. "We are the first to show that this is a cosmological phenomenon. It's not something in our backyard. And we are the first to see where this thing is happening, in this little galaxy, which I think is a surprise," Law said. "Now our objective is to figure out why that happens." Law, team leader Shami Chatterjee of Cornell University and other astronomers on the team will present their findings today at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Grapevine, Texas, in the scientific journal Nature, and in two companion papers to appear in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. Looking for transients Fast radio bursts are highly-energetic - though not energetic enough to blow a star apart - and very short-lived, lasting one to five milliseconds. These bursts of radio waves have remained a mystery since the first one was discovered in 2007 by researchers scouring archived data from Australia's Parkes Radio Telescope in search of new pulsars. The burst they found occurred in 2001. There now are 18 known fast radio bursts, all discovered using single-dish radio telescopes that are unable to pinpoint the object's location with sufficient precision to allow other observatories to identify its host environment or to find it at other wavelengths. The first and only known repeating burst, named FRB 121102, was discovered in the constellation Auriga in November of 2012 at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, and has recurred numerous times. Law has been working for the past few years on methods to quickly find transient radio bursts like these, which require collecting about one terabyte of data every hour. At the VLA, he currently uses 24 computer central processing units (CPUs) in parallel, both to record and search the data for brief radio bursts. "The overall theme, first with the Allen Telescope Array and now with the VLA, is to use these interferometers as high-speed cameras, taking the sensitive imaging capabilty of the telescope, cranking up the data rate and improving our algorithms to get access to these millisecond time-scale transients," he said. "We really pushed hard to capture this terabyte-per-hour datastream reliably and set up a real-time platform for extracting these very faint fast bursts from that massive datastream." The first burst was found in the data just a few hours after it was recorded on Aug. 23, Law said. "We observed for about 40 hours earlier last year and saw nothing," he said. "Then we started a new campaign in the fall of 2016, and in our first observation we saw one. Then we observed for another 40 hours or so and saw eight more bursts. So this thing just suddenly turned on." Law hopes soon to switch to 64 dedicated and more powerful GPUs - graphics processing units - so that real-time analysis is possible. While Law has his pet hypothesis about the origin of fast radio bursts - a magnetar surrounded by either material ejected by a supernova explosion or material ejected by a resulting pulsar - there are other possibilities. One alternative is the galaxy's active nucleus, with radio emission coming from jets of material emitted from the region surrounding a supermassive black hole. The source of the fast radio burst is within 100 light years of the continuous radio emissions from the core of the galaxy, suggesting they are the same or physically associated with one another. "Finding the host galaxy of this FRB, and its distance, is a big step forward, but we still have much more to do before we fully understand what these things are," Chatterjee said. Other members of the team are the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under a cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.; West Virginia University; McGill University in Montreal, Canada; and the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy. Credit: Israel Antiquities Authority (Phys.org)A group of hikers exploring caves over Hanukkah week in the Israeli Judean Shephelah lowlands has found what appear to be ancient religious etchings on the walls of a cistern,an underground reservoir holding rainwaterinitial analysis of the etchings, a menorah and a cross, by experts with the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) suggests they could be thousands of years old, perhaps dating back to the Second Temple period. Dating the etchings by conventional means such as carbon dating is impossible, of course, but the remoteness and difficult access to the site suggest that the etchings were likely not made in modern times, IAA representative Sa'ar Ganor said in an interview. Also, interestingly, the menorah etching featured seven branches (three on either side and one in the middle for lighting) rather than the nine commonly used today. This, Ganor pointed out, suggests that the menorah etching was likely created during the time of the Second Temple, when candelabra were used to light the temple, from approximately 516 BCE until 70 CE, when it was destroyed. In modern times, followers of the Jewish faith light the eight small candles on either side of a menorah from the candle in the middle as part of a Hanukkah ceremony to commemorate the restoration of the Temple in Jerusalem. In the same cave, the hikers also found an etching of a cross, a symbol that has been used by Christians to express their faith for thousands of years. How the two etchings came to exist in such close proximity is a mystery, though Ganor notes they likely were made hundreds of years apart by people hiding in the caves for very different reasons. Near both of the etchings was yet another etchingone depicting a key, which has not been studied well enough to reveal its possible identity or meaning. Ganor called the discovery an exciting find and hinted that there may be other etchings involved, as wella team has been assembled to study the caves, though the actual site is being kept hidden to prevent amateur enthusiasts from causing damage. 2017 Phys.org A variety of factors determine mating success in the sex-role reversed pipefish, according to new research. Credit: National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis In the upside-down world of the pipefish, sexual selection appears to work in reverse, with flashy females battling for males who bear the pregnancy and carry their young to term in their brood pouch. But new research shows even more factors appear to play a role in determining mating success. For most species, males compete for access to femalesthink, a peacock's tail or a buck's antlers. But in some species, the sex roles are reversed and males carry the brood, as in the case of pipefish and other members of the Syngnathus family like the seahorse. In these cases, females must compete for access to available mates, and indeed, researchers have found secondary sex traits, such as brightly colored ornamentation, evolving in female pipefish instead of males. Previous studies have also found that large female pipefish, which are able to transfer more eggs to the male's pouch, are more attractive to the males. But, in new study published in the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, researchers found that the size of male pipefish matters too. The paper can be read here. A team of researchers in the United States and Sweden sampled a population of broad-nosed pipefish (Syngnathus typhle) at the beginning of the breeding season in shallow eelgrass beds in Kyllaj, Gotland, Sweden. They found that larger males bred first and their offspring had a better chance of surviving. Large males with larger embryos invested more energy per embryo than smaller males, produced more newborn offspring, and their offspring survived predation better as compared to the offspring from small males. The study suggests that larger males have a clear reproductive advantage in the wild over the smaller males. And timing is important tooif they breed earlier, they increase their chances of being able to have more pregnancies before the end of the breeding season. "From a research standpoint, pipefish are interesting because of the unique opportunity they provide to study sexual selection in reverse, which can tell us a lot about how variation works in mating and reproductive success," said lead author Sarah Flanagan, a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis. "This study shows that there are many factors at play in this system, more than perhaps we ever realized, but it's that variation in traits and fitness which allows for sexual selection to work," Flanagan said. At NIMBioS, Flanagan is extending the research by exploring the role that genetics plays in complex systems in species like pipefish. More information: Sarah P. Flanagan et al, Mate quality and the temporal dynamics of breeding in a sex-role-reversed pipefish, S. typhle, Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology (2016). DOI: 10.1007/s00265-016-2255-3 Journal information: Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology Cuculus canorus is in the air with the transmitter on its back. Credit: Palle Srensen Movement of migratory birds is closely linked to seasonal availability of resources. The birds locate the areas with the most resources across continents. Researchers from the Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, University of Copenhagen, have tracked three long-distance migratory birds. By comparing their migration routes to climate projections, the scientists show that finding food may become a challenge to the birds by the end of this century. Migratory birds need to schedule their annual trips properly in order to reach areas with sufficient food resources during wintering. A new paper published today in Science Advances shows that common cuckoos, red-backed shrikes and thrush nightingale closely follow the complex seasonal vegetation changes occurring within their non-breeding grounds in sub-Saharan Africa. Bird migration researcher and first author Professor Kasper Thorup from the University of Copenhagen says, "We show that all three birds cross continents to match highest levels of resource supply. The bird's migration program guides them to areas where food availability has been high in the past. So what is interesting now is the bird's ability to adjust their migration patterns to match future changes in food availability." In total, 38 individual birds were tracked to establish the migration routes. The common cuckoo was tracked using satellite tracking, while the smaller red-backed shrikes and thrush nightingale were tracked using light loggers. Thorup explains, "All three species have complex migration routes covering large parts of Europe and Africa with many stops along their way. Mapping their routes has only been possible using the newest available technology from satellite telemetry in cuckoos to small tags that log light-levels in red-backed shrikes and thrush nightingales." Results of bird tracking in Europe and Africa. Credit: Science Advances The study shows that the migration pattern in cuckoos matched high levels of green vegetation, whereas migration matched local vegetation peaks for red-backed shrikes and nightingales. Both green vegetation and vegetation peaks are presumably related to abundant food availability. Red-backed shrikes (Lanius collurio) on a branch. Credit: Per Ekberg The scientist compared the observed migration route to projections of food availability for 2080. This showed a mismatch between seasonal resources and the birds' expected presence. Co-author Professor Carsten Rahbek from Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate says, "We believe that birds' innate programmes to guide them over long distances must be adapted to the long-term average of food availability. Our results suggest that by the end of this century, climate change and other impacts on the food source like land use changes could negatively influence the birds' chances to find sufficient food." More information: Resource tracking within and across continents in long-distance bird migrants, Science Advances, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1601360 Journal information: Science Advances A composite image of the Western hemisphere of the Earth. Credit: NASA The government of a low-lying island nation is considering the construction of a seawall to protect its capital and economic hub from the rising seas brought on by climate change. The length and expense of the project depends on how high the wall needs to be3 feet? Four? A wall that's too high would be needlessly expensive and intrusive. One that is too low would make the effort to protect the soon-to-be inundated city in vain, sapping resources that could have been put toward other preventative measures. Doing nothing could be disastrous. Policymakers such as those in that island nation have little room for error when it comes to responding to the climate crisis. Yet they must take specific measures based on numerous projections of the Earth's future climate that are drawn from the work of thousands of researchers around the world. Political leaders may be left to wonder how all that work was vetted and condensedand who exactly put in the work, in order to have confidence in the result. For that reason, a group of preeminent climate scientists have evaluated the consequences of the most recent projections from the world's foremost climate-science organization, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), as to how the impact of climate change would be felt if Earth's temperature rises to more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels. Their aim was to elucidate the inevitable expert judgments that go into an assessment of such a sprawling and uncertain aspect of science. In a report published Jan. 4 in the journal Nature Climate Change, the researchers examine the scientific work and expert judgments that went into the five-part frameworkknown as "reasons for concern"the IPCC used to gauge the potential ecological, social, economic and meteorological repercussions of climate change. The scientists examined the framework from the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report released in October 2014. The IPCC, which is under the auspices of the United Nations, periodically evaluates the current and potential effects of climate change based on thousands of scientific studies. Its analyses are published for policymakers and the public as "assessment reports." The researchers found that even when they updated the report with findings from the past two years, and identified the limitations in how the report was initially compiled, the judgments by and large remained valid. Transparency in the name of more effective policy was the driving force, said Michael Oppenheimer, second author of the paper and Princeton's Albert G. Milbank Professor of Geosciences and International Affairs and the Princeton Environmental Institute. Oppenheimer and his co-authors of the Nature Climate Change paper were all authors on the Fifth Assessment Report. Decision makers can act more decisively in response to climate change if they understand how the hundreds of scientists writing the assessment reports reached certain conclusions about the future climate, he said. "The process by which scientists give advice to policymakers should be the exact opposite of the climactic scene in 'Wizard of Oz'we want them paying attention to the people behind the curtain," Oppenheimer said. "The driving question was, how can we make what we're doing understandable enough so people can use it to make good decisions," he said. "We want them to have a hand in their own fate and not just trust experts congregating in a closed room. Policymakers facing crucial decisions related to climate change need to have confidence that these issues were looked at carefully." As new data comes in quicklyand policymakers have presumably less time to respond to impending climate crisesthere needs to be absolute clarity as to how that information is being analyzed so that scientists and politicians can work together quickly and efficiently, Oppenheimer said. (Oppenheimer co-authored a perspective piece published Dec. 16 in the journal Science examining recent, rapid changes in the Antarctic ice sheet that calls on the public policy and research sectors to cooperate in protecting coastal areas from rising sea levels.) "Our knowledge is expanding fast, but changes to parts of the climate system are expanding fasterthat's why there are always surprises," he said. "The climate keeps throwing things up at us that we need to try to understand." First author Brian O'Neill, a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, said that the paper provides a "fuller, more detailed accounting of how the judgments were arrived at, where we have a lot of confidence in those judgments and where the evidence base needs to be strengthened." An obstacle in communicating climate change science is that policymakers ultimately are interested in the risks to people and the ecosystems that society depends on, O'Neill said. Most scientific studies, however, focus on future changes to the climate system and stop short of the consequences to human populations. "The science related to how climate change will affect society is improving every year, but we still have fewer studies than we'd like that project, for example, how many people might die from extreme heat and where, as opposed to just projecting how many heat waves there might be," O'Neill said. "That's hard because these risks are affected not just by climate change, but also by how vulnerable or resilient a society is," he said. "These kinds of challenges of assessing future risk make it even more important that we're clear on how expert judgments are made." Introduced in the Third Assessment Report in 2001, the five reasons for concern relate to specific areas that will be most affected as the global temperature rises. These areas are: Risks to unique and threatened ecosystems. The occurrence of extreme weather events. The uneven distribution of negative climate effects on poor countries and disadvantaged peoples. Combined global losses such as the economic costs of natural disasters and the loss of species biodiversity. An increase in large-scale singular events such as sea-level rise, the rapid disintegration of ice sheets and changes in ocean circulation. A temperature threshold for detecting impactsand subsequent repercussionsis identified for each of the reasons for concern. From those assessments, policymakers have established an overall temperature limit beyond which the planet begins to experience environmental upheaval. These areas have been used to produce what is known as the "burning embers" diagram, a color-coded scale that shows the risk in each area relative to the increase in global temperature. For instance, risks to unique and endangered ecosystems are high at 1 degree Celsius above preindustrial temperatures, whereas the risk from large-scale singular events becomes high around 3 degrees. The authors also assess recent additions to the burning embers scale: the impact on species and ecosystems by the rate of climate change; the consequences for marine life of ocean acidification caused by carbon dioxide emissions; and the risk to coastal settlements and natural areas from sea-level rise. At the UN climate change conference in November 2015, the five reasons for concern contributed to the policy discussions that resulted in countries establishing the goal of limiting warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial temperatures, which is integral to the Paris Agreement that went into effect Nov. 4. Now, Oppenheimer said, the same framework is prompting some countries to call for lowering the preindustrial-temperature threshold to 1.5 degrees Celsius. In the Fifth Assessment Report, the risk for each of the five reasons for concern was shown to move from neutral to moderate or high between 1 and 2 degrees Celsius. "This further buttresses the argument that the 2 degree target might be too high," Oppenheimer said. "But attaining either objective will be very, very difficult without immediate, comprehensive and focused action." More information: Brian C. O'Neill et al, IPCC reasons for concern regarding climate change risks, Nature Climate Change (2017). DOI: 10.1038/nclimate3179 Journal information: Nature Climate Change Berlin truck attack: Man held who had dinner with killer Amri Berlin police have detained a Tunisian man suspected of eating dinner with Anis Amri the night before he drove a lorry into a crowded Christmas market. Reports from Abuja suggest that certain unidentified security operatives, raided the house of former First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan at Igbeti Rock street in Abuja. Unknown security operatives storm Abuja, raids Patience Jonathan's house According to Vanguard, the unknown security operatives took with them an envelope whose content is yet to be disclosed. READ ALSO: Buharis anti-graft war: Why looters will not go unpunished Monarch The security operatives who broke into the house with several weapons like hammer, chisel, pliers also overpowered a security guard at the house after telling him they were looking for a Barrister. Earlier, on Wednesday, January 4, there were reports that security operatives raided an Abuja house belonging to a brother-in-law to Nigerias former President Goodluck Jonathan. Premium Times reports that the house besieged, is located in Maitama, one of the enclaves of Nigerias rich in Abuja. The spokespersons for the headquarters and Abuja command of the police said they were not aware of the operation, but security sources confirmed that police officers in uniform carried out the raid. Source: Legit.ng Staff of the erstwhile ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have appealed to the third arm of the Federal government, the judiciary, to save them from poverty by reopening the partys Wadata plaza secretariat. PDP national secretariat According to a report by Punch, the workers who demonstrated under the aegis of the PDP Staff Welfare Forum in Abuja on Tuesday, 3 January, the workers also demanded the re-opening of the party secretariat, which had been sealed off by the police about eight months ago. READ ALSO: Southern Kaduna killings: MASSOB spits fire While appealing to the judiciary to speedily dispense justice in cases involving the party in different courts, they said this would save the nations democracy from degenerating into a one-party state. Mr Dan Ochubaiye the Secretary of the PDP Staff Welfare Forum said; The forum frowned on the incessant petitions by a party in the case and described it as a delay tactic to subvert justice. The (members of) staff of the secretariat believe that the delay is only beneficial to the petitioner, who is being sponsored by the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress, in order to weaken and silence the only opposition party. Members of staff of the PDP National secretariat hold the judiciary in high esteem and believe in it to remain unbiased and dispense justice that will maintain the sanctity and independence of the rule of law and the court. Ochubaiye added that; Certain elements want to ensure that the PDP National Secretariat is perpetually under lock and key. No court in the country gave the order for the lockdown of the PDP National Secretariat by the Nigerian Police Force and therefore we demand the immediate and unconditional reopening of the secretariat to allow workers gain entrance into their offices for routine party activities. It is only fair and just for the members of staff to be allowed into their legitimate offices while the police is duty-bound to provide adequate security for them as provided for by the Nigerian constitution. READ ALSO: Niger-Delta militants to resume bombing of oil facilities - Edwin Clark Ochubaiye called on all the organs and stakeholders of the party to urgently support the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee in order for the party to survive. He regretted that the party had lost some of its workers during the current struggle for power by its leaders. Source: Legit.ng 8 Hipster Cafes in Singapore Where You Can Enjoy a Main Course For No More Than $15 Everyone loves a good, sit-down restaurant meal every now and then, but lets be honest herecafes are definitely the stars of Singapores F&B scene right now. Even if youre not an Instagrammer who insists on posting photos of hip cafe interiors every two seconds, theres just something about sitting down to a cup of steaming hot coffee and an eggs benedict thats bleeding Hollandaise sauce. The only problem is that cafes tend to price their offerings on the high side. At some point you realise youre spending $25 to $30 on coffee and eggs, which is not cool. Were here to help. Here are eight cafes with stylish interiors that offer main courses for under $15: Penny University 402 East Coast Road Singapore 428997 This place is an institution for people living in the Siglap area, and youll see local youths hanging around outside every weekend. With prices that are a cut below your typical hipster cafe, its easy to see why. All the items on their breakfast and brunch menu cost no more than $12, with the eggs benedict with turkey ham and croque monsieur being the most expensive items on the menu. Scrambled eggs on bruschetta and cheese toasties can be had for a wallet-friendly $4.50. NOM 400 Kallang-Paya Lebar Way, Macpherson Community Club Level 1, Singapore 379131 This cafes claim to fame is its location at a community club, and its arrival has resulted in a sudden change in the ratio of hipsters to aunties. The interiors were designed by two architects, so dont think it will look uncool just because of its location. The most expensive items on the menu cost less than $15, with quesadillas served with fries and salad on the side going for $14.90, waffles going for $9.90 to $14.90 and hearty salads going for $8.90. Necessary Provisions 21 Eng Kong Terrace Singapore 598993 The fact that so many people are willing to drive all the way to the ulu Eng Kong neighbourhood just to visit Necessary Provisions is a testament to the popularity of this cafe. Theyve got not just pretty interiors but also a strong menu featuring many items in the $9 to $12 range. All rice and noodle dishes, including Thai basil chicken rice and buta (pork belly don) are $12 and below, while burgers are priced at $11. Story continues Bakehouse 321 Alexandra Road #01-14 Alexandra Central Mall Singapore 159971 The folks behind Carpenter and Cook have opened another outlet called The Bakehouse in the Queenstown area, focusing on more substantial meals including pasta, pizza and sandwiches. Their pizzas range from $14 to $17, while pasta and sandwiches are priced at $15 to $25. The Entertainer app gives you one-for-one on all mains, which means you pay only $7 to $12.50 per person. Sarnies 136 Telok Ayer Street Singapore 068601 Those working in the Shenton Way area might already be familiar with Sarnies. Once you step into the interior of the cafe, you feel like youre in Tiong Bahru rather than the CBD. Theyve got an extensive lunch menu featuring salads starting at $15 and a range of sandwiches costing $14.50 to $16.50. With The Entertainer, you get one-for-one on any of these mains, which means that huge steak sandwich you just stuffed your face with is going to cost you about $8. Drury Lane 94 Tanjong Pagar Road Singapore 088515 This cafe offers pretty good value in spite of its central (read: expensive) location. Pastas (including chilli crab and kale, and smoked salmon and mushroom) are all $15, while their baked eggs on multigrain toast and sides like beef sausage or smoked salmon and kale are priced at $12. Their sandwiches are also a good deal at $8 to $9, and all-day breakfast generally costs between $8 to $17. With The Entertainer, slash the price of your meal furtherthe one-for-one deal means you can have eggs benedict for a mere $6 per person. Bread Yard 1 Fusionopolis Place #01-23/24 Galaxis Singapore 138362 Located at Fusionopolis, this place offers some of the better value brunches in Singapore. Their Norwegian breakfast which includes smoked salmon, asparagus and two eggs costs $14, while $15 will get you a huge breakfast with bacon, mushrooms, sausages and eggs. Sandwiches cost $7 to $12 apiece, and there are also main courses available for $14 to $15. Lolas Cafe 5 Simon Road Singapore 545893 Those who are willing to travel all the way to Hougang just to have a meal can be rewarded by a visit to Lolas Cafe. Their brunch and dinner menus contain nothing over $20, with several items priced at $15 and below. Their avocado eggs benedict is $14, while their spicy swimmer crab tomato cream pasta is $15. Where are your favourite cafes in Singapore? Share your recommendations in the comments! The post 8 Hipster Cafes in Singapore Where You Can Enjoy a Main Course For No More Than $15 appeared first on the MoneySmart blog. MoneySmart.sg helps you maximize your money. Like us on Facebook to keep up to date with our latest news and articles. Compare and shop for the best deals on Loans, Insurance and Credit Cards on our site now! More From MoneySmart (Bloomberg) -- In a Japanese-style apartment, Maria Del Bago learns how to properly bow, clean traditional tatami floor-matting and decipher instructions for a high-tech toilet. But shes not in Tokyo. Shes 3,000 kilometers (1,860 miles) away in Manila. Bago, a 37-year-old computer science graduate who previously worked as a housekeeper for an Arab family, is one of 26 experienced cleaners selected by Pasona Group Inc. to undergo more than 400 hours of language and skills training in the Philippine capital. They are set to begin work in Japan in the spring. Id like to think Im a faster learner, Bago said. I also trust that the training that I get will let me adjust easier and avoid being culture shocked. The program is the latest step toward opening up Japan to more foreigners, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abes government seeks ways to counter a shrinking labor force that threatens to hamstring the worlds third-biggest economy. But with a majority of Japanese opposed to a mass influx into a largely homogeneous society, the government and the firms involved have adopted an exacting admissions process. Step Forward Its inadequate, Robert Feldman, chief economist at Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities Co Ltd. in Tokyo, said of the housekeeper policy. However, the fact that theyre doing it at all is a piece of progress. Given whats happening in the rest of the labor market, its at least one step forward. The admission of cleaners from overseas -- first to Kanagawa and Osaka and later to Tokyo -- is aimed at making housekeeping services affordable for the middle classes and getting more Japanese women into the workforce. These women are needed to help buck a current trend that could see the labor force of about 65 million collapsing by more than 40 percent by 2060, according to a government panel projection. Heizo Takenaka, a former economy minister who now serves on a government panel on special economic zones and as chairman/director at Pasona, sees the housekeeping program as Japans first serious attempt at bringing in the workers needed to put the economy on track. While immigration opponents fear a rise in crime if rules are eased, he cited Singapore as an example of a country with many foreigners and low crime. Story continues This wont change things drastically, Takenaka said of the housekeeping program. It is a very Japanese way of doing things. We couldnt have them flooding in like they do in Hong Kong. Humility Wanted Under the new visa category created for special zones, cleaners must be employed full time by agencies, rather than individuals, and be paid as much as their Japanese colleagues. Rather than living with a family, recruits must be provided with their own accommodation. They must also speak basic Japanese. Attitude is as important as skills, said Contessa Tadena, a trainer in the Philippines who works at Magsaysay Center for Hospitality and Culinary Arts, whose sister organization Magsaysay Global Services Inc. dispatches the maids. I teach my students the value of honesty, respect and politeness. You have to be kind as a whole, aside from being hard-working. Two participants have already been rejected from the course for failing to show sufficient humility. Abe touted the idea of foreign cleaners and elderly-care workers in a speech at Davos in January 2014. But with employers required to jump through so many hoops, it has taken three years to get the first couple of dozen workers ready even though there is no set limit on how many can enter. Delays, Regulations The delay occurred in part because 2014 was an election year, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said on Thursday. We are doing this for the first time, so there was some coordination, Suga said. Anyway, at last it will start next month. It is our responsibility to create a system that can be widely used. Over-regulation risks stifling the project, according to Yuki Takahashi, a founder of Tokyo-based housekeeping company Bears KK, which also plans to employ a handful of staff from the Philippines. If the regulations arent relaxed, this will be a loss-making venture for the companies concerned, Takahashi said. Japanese housekeepers dont need qualifications -- if someone is of good character we can hire and train them. Why cant we do the same with the foreign workers? While maids are commonplace in Asian cities such as Singapore and Hong Kong, outsourcing chores has largely been the preserve of the rich in Japan -- one reason why many women have to give up their careers after giving birth. While the ratio of women in work has risen to about 50 percent from 48 percent when Abe came to power in 2012, many hold poorly paid part-time positions. Pasona will price its cleaning services at 5,000 yen ($43) for two hours, making them affordable for many dual-income households. Maid Shortage Japanese citizens currently arent allowed to employ foreign maids. A small number of highly skilled expatriates are allowed to bring foreign housekeepers into Japan, with about 1,000 such domestic workers living in the country as of June last year. This compares with about 300,000 in Hong Kong, whose total population is about half that of Tokyo alone. While the number of foreign workers in Japan doubled to a record of 908,000 between 2008 and 2015, many are employed in manufacturing, where they have relatively little contact with the native population. Net migration was just under 100,000 people in 2015 -- the highest in 14 years. Complex regulations could also hamper a fresh attempt to bring in more foreign elderly care workers. The health ministry projects a potential deficit of 377,000 workers by 2025 -- prompting the government to expand a controversial trainee program for foreigners that critics say has conditions tantamount to forced labor. Click here for more on the training program Still, Miyoko Miyazawa, an adviser at Eisei hospital in the Tokyo suburb of Hachioji who supervises its use of foreign workers, said Japan has no option but to use the trainee system to accept more overseas caregivers. The labor shortage is really becoming serious, she said. Some facilities cant even open for a lack of staff. Among her success stories is John Denmark Pineda, a 31-year-old nurse. He came to Japan from Manila in 2009 and is now a popular staff member at the hospital, chatting to elderly patients in a mixture of Japanese and English. Strict regulations mean that only about 2,600 nurses and caregivers from Southeast Asia are working in Japan. Pineda, now married to a Japanese citizen and aiming to pass the countrys notoriously difficult nursing qualification, said that migrant workers should be allowed to play a bigger role. It might sound cheeky, but we foreigners are very keen and hardworking, he said. If more want to come, I think they should be accepted. (Updates with cost of new service in 17th paragraph.) --With assistance from Emi Nobuhiro To contact the reporters on this story: Isabel Reynolds in Tokyo at ireynolds1@bloomberg.net, Norman P. Aquino in Manila at naquino1@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Daniel Ten Kate at dtenkate@bloomberg.net, Andy Sharp 2017 Bloomberg L.P. In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian citizens gather next to damaged cars at the scene where explosion hit a commercial street, in the costal town of Jableh, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017. A large explosion hit a Syrian government-held coastal town on Thursday, killing and wounding several people, according to Syria's state TV an attack that undermined a nearly week-old and already shaky Russia- and Turkey-brokered cease-fire. (SANA via AP) BEIRUT (AP) A large explosion rocked a Syrian government-held coastal town on Thursday, killing at least 10 people and wounding dozens an attack that was a stark remainder of the prevailing insecurity in the war-torn country despite a nearly week-old cease-fire brokered by Russia and Turkey. The explosion shook a main street in Jableh, in the coastal Latakia province, a stronghold of President Bashar Assad and the heartland of Syria's Alawites, a Shiite offshoot to which Assad's family also belongs. It was the first such large-scale bombing since the cease-fire was agreed on last week, to prepare the way for peace talks between Assad's government and opposition in Kazakhstan later this month. Videos from the scene of the blast, which state media said was a car bomb, show extensive damage to shops lining a commercial street near the town's municipal stadium. Blood pooled on the pavement and several cars lay charred or overturned as fire fighters scrambled to put out fires. Qusay al-Khalil, the head of the local hospital, said the blast also severely wounded at least 30 people. "The explosion shook the town," he told state TV, adding that it prompted a state alert at his hospital. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the civil war, put the death toll at 15, including a son of a leading Syrian military commander. The monitoring group relies on a network of activists on the ground in Syria. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing. Although explosions are rare in government-controlled Latakia, Jableh was rocked in May last year by a string of blasts that first hit in a crowded bus station, then outside a hospital receiving the wounded, killing a total of about 120 people. Those attacks were claimed by the Islamic State group. IS and the al-Qaida-linked Fatah al-Sham Front are not part of the broad truce that the Syrian government and the opposition agreed on last week. Story continues The cease-fire, which came into effect on Dec. 30, has mostly held but not altogether halted fighting in the country. Fierce clashes continue in the Barada Valley, a major source of water for Damascus, and in other isolated regions. Both the government and the rebels have accused the other side of violating the truce. The United Nations said Thursday it has received reports that at least 7,000 people have been displaced by fighting in the Barada Valley. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said an estimated 45,000 people live in the area. Dujarric also said the U.N. has rehabilitated and equipped 120 wells in and around Damascus that cover about one-third of the city's daily water needs. Syria's al-Qaida-linked group in comments published Wednesday called the cease-fire "humiliating" and said that those who agreed to it made a "big mistake." Latakia province police chief Yasser al-Shariti told state TV the explosion hit during rush hour, when government employees and students would have been crowding one of the town's busiest streets. Others said the area was packed with shoppers, many coming from or going to a popular vegetable market nearby. Jableh is also home to thousands of internally displaced Syrians who have sought refuge in the relative calm of the government-controlled town. Under the new cease-fire, Russia and Iran are tasked with ensuring compliance by the Syrian government and its allies, while Turkey is serving as a guarantor for the rebels. On Wednesday, Turkey called on Iran to rein in the pro-government forces. Tehran countered by accusing the opposition of dozens of violations and called Turkey's comments "unconstructive." The government in Damascus says the truce does not apply in the Barada Valley because of the presence of al-Qaida-linked fighters. But activists and rebel groups have challenged the government claim, with some arguing the militants don't operate in the area. The rebels have said all areas not ruled by IS are covered under the agreement. In Geneva, the U.N. envoy for Syria said Thursday he welcomed preparations for the Russia- and Turkey-brokered peace negotiations in Astana, Kazakhstan's capital, saying the gathering could undergird new U.N.-mediated talks between the warring sides. Staffan de Mistura acknowledged violent "incidents" in Syria the truce began, but added that he believed the powers would "succeed in overcoming them." However, nearly a dozen rebel groups announced on Monday they were suspending talks about the negotiations because of cease-fire violations. A senior Iranian lawmaker Alaeddin Boroujaerdi, on a visit to Damascus, stressed on Thursday that as the al-Qaida-linked group and IS are not part of the agreement, "matters are settled with them on the battlefield." Boroujaerdi, who is in charge of foreign policy and national security portfolios in Iran's Shura Council, said that for any truce to hold, all militant groups must leave Syria. The presence of al-Qaida-linked militants, who fight alongside other rebel factions and have been credited with some of their biggest victories, has undermined past truce attempts. The Fatah al-Sham Front, formerly known as the Nusra Front, announced last year that it had severed tied with al-Qaida, but is still widely believed to be linked to the global terror network. Fatah al-Sham spokesman al-Shafei said in an interview published late Wednesday by Al-Jazeera Net that the current truce only protects Assad and allied Iranian-backed militias. "The people of (Syria) didn't offer all these sacrifices to be handed this humiliating agreement," he was quoted as saying. The Syrian rebellion "today needs someone to ... strengthen its political position by battlefield achievements," he said. The rebels demand that any future solution for Syria include Assad's exit from power. But Boroujaerdi said peace talks should not put any conditions on the Syrian leadership. He also chastised Turkey for sending troops into northern Syria as one in a series of Ankara's policy "mistakes." He added that any troops in Syria without the government's approval or permission should leave "immediately." __ Associated Press writers Sarah El Deeb in Beirut, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report. AFP News Pope Francis warned in Bahrain on Friday that "opposing blocs" and global divisions have put humanity on a "delicate precipice", a veiled reference to the Ukraine war. "We are living at a time when humanity, connected as never before, appears much more divided than united," he said during a speech to religious leaders in the Gulf kingdom. "We continue to find ourselves on the brink of a delicate precipice and we do not want to fall." Francis, who has made religious dialogue a pillar of his papacy, was speaking on the first full day of his trip to the tiny island state, where he arrived on Thursday afternoon. His visit comes with the Ukraine war in its ninth month, and tensions growing on the Korean Peninsula. In his speech on Friday, Francis warned that "a few potentates are caught up in a resolute struggle for partisan interests, reviving obsolete rhetoric, redesigning spheres of influence and opposing blocs." "Instead of cultivating our surroundings, we are playing instead with fire, missiles and bombs, weapons that bring sorrow and death, covering our common home with ashes and hatred," he said. Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand imam of Cairo's prestigious Al-Azhar mosque and centre of Sunni learning, also addressed the gathering. Tayeb warned that "market economics, monopolisation of resources, greed and arms sales to the Third World" were "manufacturing victims of war". Ahead of the pope's speech, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who met Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in September, told journalists that there had been "a few small signs" of progress in negotiations with Moscow. "All peace initiatives are good. What's important is that we carry them out together and that they're not exploited for other goals," he said. The pontiff's 39th international trip since taking office comes three years after he signed a Muslim-Christian manifesto for peace in the United Arab Emirates during the first papal visit to the Gulf region, where Islam was born. The pope's visit to Bahrain has been shadowed by accusations of rights abuses, particularly against Shiites in the Sunni-ruled kingdom, allegations Manama rejects. On Thursday the pontiff criticised use of the death penalty and urged nations to respect human rights. cmk/par/ho/it Transitiional Justice: Boundary dispute leaves bill to amend act in the balance An amendment bill to transitional justice act is unlikely to see the light of day until the debate over provincial boundary is settled. AFP News Zhang Yao recalls the moment he realised something had gone deeply wrong at the Chinese mega-factory where he and hundreds of thousands of other workers assembled iPhones and other high-end electronics. In early October, supervisors suddenly warned him that 3,000 colleagues had been taken into quarantine after someone tested positive for Covid-19 at the factory. "They told us not to take our masks off," Zhang, speaking under a pseudonym for fear of retaliation, told AFP by telephone. What followed was a weeks-long ordeal including food shortages and the ever-present fear of infection, before he finally escaped on Tuesday. Zhang's employer, Taiwanese tech giant Foxconn, has said it faces a "protracted battle" against infections and imposed a "closed loop" bubble around its sprawling campus in central China's Zhengzhou city. Local authorities locked down the area surrounding the major Apple supplier's factory on Wednesday, but not before reports emerged of employees fleeing on foot and a lack of adequate medical care at the plant. China is the last major economy committed to a zero-Covid strategy, persisting with snap lockdowns, mass testing and lengthy quarantines in a bid to stamp out emerging outbreaks. But new variants have tested officials' ability to snuff out flare-ups and dragged down economic activity with the threat of sudden disruptions. - Desperation - Multiple workers have recounted scenes of chaos and increasing disorganisation at Foxconn's complex of workshops and dormitories, which form a city-within-a-city near Zhengzhou's airport. Zhang told AFP that "positive tests and double lines (on antigen tests) had become a common sight" in his workshop before he left. "Of course we were scared, it was so close to us." "People with fevers are not guaranteed to receive medicine," another Foxconn worker, a 30-year-old man who also asked to remain anonymous, told AFP. "We are drowning," he said. Those who decided to stop working were not offered meals at their dormitories, Zhang said, adding that some were able to survive on personal stockpiles of instant noodles. Kai, a worker at in the complex who gave an interview to state-owned Sanlian Lifeweek, told the magazine Foxconn's "closed loop" involved cordoning off paths between dormitory compounds and the factory, and complained he was left to his own devices after being thrown in quarantine. TikTok videos geolocated by AFP showed mounds of uncollected rubbish outside buildings in late October, while employees in N95 masks squeezed onto packed shuttle buses taking them from dormitories to their work stations. A 27-year-old woman working at Foxconn, who asked not to be named, told AFP a roommate who tested positive for Covid was sent back to her dormitory on Thursday morning, crying, after she decided to hand in her notice while in quarantine. "Now the three of us are living in the same room: one a confirmed case and two of us testing positive on the rapid test, still waiting for our nucleic acid test results," the worker told AFP. Many became so desperate by the end of last month that they attempted to walk back to their hometowns to get around Covid transport curbs. As videos of people dragging their suitcases down motorways and struggling up hills spread on Chinese social media, the authorities rushed in to do damage control. The Zhengzhou city government on Sunday said it had arranged for special buses to take employees back to their hometowns. Surrounding Henan province has officially reported a spike of more than 600 Covid cases since the start of this week. - Distrust - When Zhang finally attempted to leave the Foxconn campus on Tuesday, he found the company had set up obstacle after obstacle. "There were people with loudspeakers advertising the latest Foxconn policy, saying that each day there would be a 400 yuan ($55) bonus," Zhang told AFP. A crowd of employees gathered at a pick-up point in front of empty buses but were not let on. People in hazmat suits, known colloquially as "big whites" in China, claimed they had been sent by the city government. "They tried to persuade people to stay in Zhengzhou... and avoid going home," Zhang said. "But when we asked to see their work ID, they had nothing to show us, so we suspected they were actually from Foxconn." Foxconn pointed to the local government's lockdown orders from Wednesday when asked by AFP if it attempted to stop employees from leaving, without giving any further response. The company had on Sunday said it was "providing employees with complimentary three meals a day" and cooperating with the government to provide transport home. Eventually, the crowd of unhappy workers who had gathered decided to take matters into their own hands and walked over seven kilometres on foot to the nearest highway entry ramp. There, more people claiming to be government officials pleaded with the employees to wait for the bus. The crowd had no choice as the road was blocked. Buses eventually arrived at five in the afternoon -- nearly nine hours after Zhang had begun his attempt to secure transport. "They were trying to grind us down," he said. Back in his hometown, Zhang is now waiting out the home quarantine period required by the local government. "All I feel is, I've finally left Zhengzhou," he told AFP. bur-tjx/oho/je/mca/cwl By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - United States interests, including national security, would be harmed if the country retreats from a leading role at the United Nations, U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power warned on Thursday amid a backlash among Washington lawmakers against the world body. President-elect Donald Trump also disparaged the United Nations after the Security Council adopted a Dec. 23 resolution demanding an end to settlement building by U.S. ally Israel. Trump questioned the value of the organization, while some Republican lawmakers threatened to cut crucial U.S. funding. In an exit memo on Thursday, Power - a member of President Barack Obama's cabinet - wrote: "Other nations will follow us if we continue to lead; without our leadership the vacuum on the global stage will prove very harmful to U.S. interests." Among the reasons for continued strong U.S. engagement at the 193-member United Nations, Power listed North Korea's nuclear ambitions, conflicts in Syria, Libya and South Sudan, climate change, the global refugee crisis and Russia. "As Russia continues to menace our allies and attempt to interfere in political systems in Europe and beyond, we will need to show broad condemnation of these actions in U.N. fora," Power wrote in the 13-page memo. U.S. intelligence agencies say Russia was behind cyber attacks before the U.S. election in November that aimed to help Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton. Moscow denies this. Power also promoted the importance of the United Nations in ensuring the success of the a deal between Iran and key world powers to curb Tehran's nuclear ambitions in exchange for relief from economic sanctions. Trump has vowed to scrap the deal. "We must continue to fulfill our own commitments and use U.N. Security Council Resolution 2231 ... to ensure that Iran's nuclear program will remain exclusively peaceful," Power said. Trump plans to replace Power with South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley once she is confirmed by the U.S. Senate. "Working with the U.N. to address these challenges will not be a litmus test of whether one is committed to international norms and institutions or not it will simply be a strategic necessity," said Power, who has been ambassador since 2013. Trump last week described the world body as "just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time." New U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke with Trump on Wednesday and the two had "a very positive discussion on U.S./U.N. relations," a U.N. spokesman said. (Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Michael Perry) AFP News Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan was recovering in hospital Friday after a gunman shot him in the leg, with his supporters vowing the assassination attempt will not derail his "long march" bid to return to power. The attack on his convoy, apparently by a lone gunman, killed one man and wounded at least 10, significantly raising the stakes in a political crisis that has gripped the South Asian nation since Khan's ousting in April. Khan "was stable and he was doing fine" at Shaukat Khanum hospital in the eastern city of Lahore, his doctor Faisal Sultan told AFP Friday. Seemi Bokhari, a lawmaker with Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, said after visiting Khan the former premier was in high spirits. "The doctors are allowing him to move ... He is feeling perfectly well and he will soon be discharged," she told AFP. The 70-year-old former international cricket star had been leading a campaign convoy of thousands since last week from Lahore to the capital Islamabad when he was attacked. Khan suffered at least one bullet wound to his right leg when a gunmen sprayed pistol fire at his modified container truck as it drove slowly through a thick crowd in Wazirabad, around 170 kilometres (105 miles) east of Islamabad. "Everyone who was standing in the very front row got hit," former information minister Fawad Chaudhry, who was standing behind Khan, told AFP. Senior aide Raoof Hasan said it was "an attempt to kill him, to assassinate him". Chaudhry said party officials would meet later Friday to discuss the immediate fate of Khan's campaign march. "The real freedom long march will continue and the movement for people's rights will remain until an announcement on the general elections," he tweeted. - Threats - Party officials also called for supporters to stage rallies and marches across the country after Friday afternoon prayers, the most important of the week. Protesters lit fires and blocked roads in several cities late Thursday as news of Khan's shooting spread. His campaign truck has become a crime scene for now, cordoned off and guarded by commandos as forensic experts comb the area. Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb said Thursday the attacker had been taken into custody. Officials shared an apparent confession video that was circulating online. "I did it because (Khan) was misleading the public," says a dishevelled man in the leaked video, shown with his hands tied behind his back in what appears to be a police station. He says he was angry with the procession for making a racket during the call to prayer that summons Muslims to the mosque five times a day. Pervaiz Elahi, the chief minister of Punjab, said officers who leaked the video would be disciplined. Pakistan has been grappling with Islamist militancy for decades, with right-wing religious groups having huge sway over the population. It has been no stranger to assassination attempts during decades of political instability, and the powerful military has led the country several times. Pakistan's first prime minister, Liaquat Ali Khan, was shot dead at a rally in Rawalpindi in 1951. Another former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, was killed in 2007 when a huge bomb detonated near her vehicle as she greeted supporters in the city of Rawalpindi. - Kicked from power - Khan was booted from office in April by a no-confidence vote after defections by some of his coalition partners, but he retains huge support. He was voted into power in 2018 on an anti-corruption platform by an electorate tired of dynastic politics, but his mishandling of the economy -- and falling out with a military accused of helping his rise -- sealed his fate. Since then, he has railed against the establishment and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's government, which he says was imposed on Pakistan by a "conspiracy" involving the United States. Khan and Shehbaz have for months traded bitter accusations of corruption and incompetence, raising the political temperature in a nation that is frequently at boiling point. Khan has repeatedly told supporters he was prepared to die for the country, and aides have long warned of unspecified threats made on his life. The attack drew international condemnation including from the United States, which had uneasy relations with Khan when he was in power. "Violence has no place in politics, and we call on all parties to refrain from violence, harassment and intimidation," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. sjd/fox/ecl/pbt/dhc If you buy something through our links, we may earn money from our affiliate partners. Learn more. Are you thinking of starting a small business? If so, you will need to create a website to promote your online business and connect with your customers. Building your own website can seem challenging, but it doesnt have to be! In this post, we provide 21 tips for creating your first small business website. Well cover everything from choosing the best web hosting company to designing your site. Follow these tips, and you will be well on your way to having a successful online presence for your business. 1. Choose the Right Hosting Company When it comes to hosting your small business website, you want to choose a hosting provider that is reliable and has a good reputation. You also want to make sure that the company offers good customer service to help you with any questions or problems that arise. The best way to find out which web hosting company is right for you is by reading reviews and learning about each companys pros and cons. Going with Bluehost might be a good idea if you are on a budget since they offer shared hosting plans starting at $13 per month. SiteGround is another good option, and they offer shared hosting plans starting at around $5 per month. In addition, their plan includes a free domain name registration when you set up a hosting account with them. If you are looking for a more robust hosting plan, then WP Engine might be the right hosting provider for you. Their hosting services include managed WordPress hosting plans, and WordPress users can put together a stunning, mobile-friendly website in mere minutes. This type of hosting is perfect if you want a fast, reliable and secure website. 2. Pick Your Website Address Wisely The next step is to pick your website address, and your address URL (domain name) for your entire site will be based on it. It will speak volumes for your business too, and a good website address should be a part of website features list. So when you pick your address, you want to make sure that it is easy to remember and includes the keywords you want to rank for in search engines. Doing so will make it easy for people to find your business online and grow your traffic. An excellent example of this would be if you own a pizza restaurant. You might want to choose a website address like pizza-restaurant-name.com or, even betterpizza.com. If you have a hard time coming up with a good website address, there are plenty of domain name generators online that can help you develop ideas. Just make sure that the website address is available for purchase before registering it. If you really want to optimize your domain name, several fantastic tools exist for finding imaginative domain names. 3. Pick a Good Website Builder Once youve determined that a website builder works for you, its time to choose one. If you are on a budget, then we recommend using WordPresss free website builder. However, while a WordPress website is free to start, you can realistically expect pricing for WordPress software to fall between $11 and $40 per month after shelling out a one-off cost of around $200. There are also plenty of tutorials available online that can help walk you through the process of setting up a WordPress site. If you are looking for other professional website builders, then Squarespace might be the one for you. They offer beautiful templates that are easy to use, and business plans start at $18/month. Plus, they offer a 14-day free trial, so you can test out the platform before committing. Wix is another popular website builder that offers a wide range of templates and features. They also offer a free trial to try out the platform before committing to a paid plan. Wixs unlimited plan for entrepreneurs and freelancers starts at $18/month and increases in price depending on your needs (e.g., more storage space, visitor analytics). Other good website builders include: GoDaddy: This popular website builder is perfect for startups. Plans range from $9.99 to $24.99/month. Weebly: Offering a fantastic free plan, Weebly lets you build a professional website. Later, you can use it to grow along with your online company for under $20/month. SITE123: This website builder is great for small businesses that want site speed reliability without all the bells and whistles. They offer two plansa free plan and a premium plan for under $13/month. Duda: This mobile-friendly website builder is best for pure, polished web design and customization. Duda Plans run from $14 to $44/month. If youre a small business owner whod like to learn about free website builders for your small business, be sure to check out Small Business Trends article about 20 Free Website Builders For Your Small Business. 4. Plan for Future Expansion if you think youll expand your business in the future, its important to plan for it in advance when designing your website. Make sure that your website is easy to update and add new pages as your business grows. Additionally, choose a platform that can handle increased traffic and bandwidth needs. A WordPress site can keep up with a small companys expansion, but some other excellent website platforms that are flexible and powerful enough to grow with you include Wix or Squarespace. Of course, GoDaddy is fine for growth too if you want a no-frills website. Two of the best ones that allow eCommerce and bigger stores to expand are Shopify and BigCommerce. Also, if you are tech-savvy, Joomla and Drupal are great open-source options. 5. Have a Professional Website Design A professionally-designed website is paramount to the overall success of your business. And the best websites are easy to use, fast-loading and optimized for mobile devices. When customers visit your site, they need to know who you are and what you sell within seconds. If they cant figure out how to navigate through your site or find what theyre looking for, then the chances are good that they will leave your site and go somewhere else. Additionally, when you design with a professional touch, the design for a business site should include a logo that speaks to your brand. It should also feature high-quality images and videos, clear calls to action, easy navigation, quick loading time on all pages of the site (including behind the scenes) and security features. Website templates can help you get started with a professional website design. Still, if you dont know where to start, its probably best to hire a professional web designer who understands your business and can create a site that accurately represents your brand. They will be able to help you create a website that not only looks great but also converts visitors into customers. When you hire a professional web design agency, they will be able to help you with everything from choosing the right domain name and website builder to creating an attractive logo that speaks to your brand. See Also: 10 Tips for Building an Effective Online Presence for Your Business Here are some tips for finding the right web design agency: Look for an agency that specializes in small business sites. Request case studies and a portfolio of their work. Ask for references from past clients. Make sure the agency offers a free consultation to discuss your needs and get an estimate. Compare prices before making a decision. Be sure to ask about hidden fees (e.g., design changes). Plus, many agencies offer affordable monthly packages, so you wont have any upfront costs or hidden fees. You can also ask them about other services such as social media management or optimizing your website copy for search engines if youre interested in growing your business online. If your budget is tight, its typically best to start with a free website builder and spend just a few dollars per month for hosting. You can always hire an agency to help build more robust features into your site later on down the road when it makes sense for your business. 6. Get an SSL Certificate Straight Away If you want to accept payments from customers online, its essential that your website has an SSL certificate. An SSL certificate stands for Secure Sockets Layer and is a security protocol used by websites to secure the connection between visitors web browsers and their servers. It encrypts data so hackers cant access it without having an encryption key. SSL certificates are important for small businesses because they help protect customer data and increase customer trust. Even if consumers arent aware of what an SSL is, 78% of them say they are reassured when they see the familiar padlock symbol associated with an SSL certificate in their browser. If your website doesnt have an SSL certificate, then youre at risk of losing customers who might not want to take their chances with a site that doesnt have one (especially if theyre making payments online). Plus, Google can penalize sites that dont have SSL certificates by lowering their search engine rankings. You can get a free SSL certificate from Lets Encrypt or pay for it through your domain registrar or web hosting company. 7. Look at Similar Small Business Websites for Inspiration If youre not sure what you want your website to look like, its a good idea to look at similar small business sites for inspiration. That way you get an idea of the types of features and design elements you might want to include on your site. You can find examples of some by doing a Google search for small business websites or by browsing through some of the top design galleries online. Keep in mind that you dont want to copy another businesss websiteyou should aim to create a site that is unique and reflects your brand. But looking at other small business sites can give you some great ideas for what you might want to include on your own site. Its also a good idea to check out the websites of local small businesses in your area so you can see what theyre doing and get some inspiration for what might work best for you, too. 8. Install Plugins to Boost Your Websites Features Plugins can help you add features for anything from a contact form to a search bar to powerful SEO tools. If you want your website to do more than just show information about your business, then its a good idea to install WordPress plugins to boost its functionality. However, bear in mind that there shouldnt be too many plugins and that there are many free and paid plugins available for WordPress that are excellent. We recommend starting with the following plugins: Yoast SEO Plugin: Optimizes your website for search engines, making it easier for potential customers to find you online. MonsterInsights: Tracks your websites traffic and sees how people are finding your site. Jetpack: Provides a ton of features and options, including social media integration, security enhancements and image optimization. WPForms: Creates custom forms, such as contact forms, payment forms, survey forms and more. SeedProd: Lets you create pages for your site, including a beautiful coming soon page to capture leads while your site is in development. 9. Choose a Suitable WordPress Theme Once youve installed the plugins you need, its time to choose a theme for your website. This theme is the design and layout of your site, and there are thousands of themes available. When choosing one, its important to make sure that it is responsivemeaning it will look good on all devices, from desktop computers to phones and tablets. The following themes are great for small businesses because of their responsiveness, ease of use and mobile-friendly attributes: Divi Divi is a versatile drag and drop page that comes with 46 content elements and 20 layouts that allow you to get ready and create your website immediately. This functionality makes the theme completely unique and more comprehensive in terms of user experience. XTheme X Theme by Theme.co is a multipurpose theme that has four unique designs that you can use for your website. It also includes over 40 modules and 20 widget areas which give you plenty of flexibility when creating your website. OceanWP Offering a free, flexible theme that is highly customizable, lightweight and easy to use, OceanWP is a great option for small businesses. Features that set it apart include mobile-friendly appearance, responsive design and lightning-fast loading capabilities. BeTheme BeTheme has over 650+ pre-built websites that can be quickly customized and put into production without any coding. It also includes a drag and drop builder, 20 header styles, unlimited color options and more. Astra Astra is a lightweight and highly customizable multipurpose theme that integrates seamlessly with popular page builders and eCommerce plugins. Its wide range of features like unlimited layouts and gorgeous appearance make it especially suitable for restaurants, niche-based sites and many other purposes. Lets add a word of warning here about themes that advertise themselves as completely free. Some experts caution against using them since some arent secure as the ones you buy. Still, you dont have to make getting your theme a huge expenseeven investing a small amount of money in one can help keep your site secure. 9. Simple is Better Whether youre working with a designer or just choosing a template, you want to keep the design elements simple on your business website and not have flashy colors (unless, of course, busy and flashy is aligned with your brand). Too much going on will only confuse and distract visitors from what you want them to do, which is buy from you. While simplicity is the goal, you should also know how to pick colors for your business website. A good rule of thumb is to use a maximum of no more than three colors. Likewise, only use two or three different fonts and make sure they are easy to read. 10. Have a Contact Page New customers and long-term shoppers alike need a way to get in touch with you through your business website, so its important to include a Contact Us page or something similar on your site. Your contact page should consist of information like your business address, phone number, email address and a form that allows customers to send you a message. Many WordPress plugins, such as WPForms and Gravity Forms, allow you to create a contact form with ease. Another option is to have a live chat feature that let you have a more personal and meaningful conversation with your online visitors. 11. Search Engine Optimization is Key Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of improving the ranking of your website on search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. The practice matters because it can help your website appear on the first page of search results when potential clients look for the products and services you offer. This is often referred to as organic traffic, and its important because studies show that 75% of users dont go beyond the first page of search results. Some of the best ways to improve your websites SEO and site performance include: Creating high-quality content that is relevant to your target audience and adding keywords and phrases throughout your website Including on-page optimization and optimizing your images for online searches Using social media to share your content and increase your websites exposure Creating a blog and including keywords in the titles and posts Building backlinks to your website from other high-quality websites Adding keywords to your websites title tag, meta description and header tags. Also, the search engine results pages, or SERPS, are constantly changing, so its crucial to stay up-to-date on the latest techniques for improving your sites traffic. 12. Invest in SEO Tools To improve your websites SEO, you need access to the right tools. Thankfully, there are many great SEO tools available that can help you with everything from keyword research to backlink analysis. Some of the most popular SEO tools include: Moz Pro Google Analytics SEMrush Ahrefs Keyword Finder Ubersuggest Google Search Console While all of these tools are great for improving your websites SEO, its important to remember that no one tool can guarantee success. Therefore, its essential to use a variety of different tools and techniques to get the best results. 13. Consider Having a Content Management System A content management system (CMS) is a software application that allows you to create, edit and publish digital content from a central location. A CMS is important because it can help you manage your websites content more effectively, which can improve your websites SEO and traffic. Many dont require deep technical knowledge to use them, either. Some of the most popular CMSs include: WordPress.org Hubspot CMS Hub Wix BigCommerce Ghost Magento Textpattern 14. Optimize Your Website for Mobile To provide a great experience for your mobile visitors, its important to optimize your small business website for mobile devices. You can accomplish this by using a responsive design or creating a separate mobile version of your website. Additionally, you can use tools like Googles Mobile-Friendly Test to check how well your website performs and how user-friendly it is on mobile devices. 15. Internal and External Links are Important Hyperlinks or simply links are an important part of any website, and they can be used to improve your websites SEO and traffic. Internal links point from one page on your website to another. External links, on the other hand, are links that point to pages outside of your website. Internal and external hyperlinks are important because they help Google and other search engines understand your websites structure and content. Additionally, they can help you increase traffic to your website by providing more opportunities for people to click through to your pages. 16. Add Social Media Integration Social media integration can help you improve your websites traffic and engagement. By adding social media buttons to your website, you make it easy for visitors to share your content on their favorite social networks. Additionally, social media integration can help you track how well your content is performing on social media. Here are a few ways to add social media integration: Add a Facebook Like button to your website and blog posts so that visitors can easily like them on Facebook. Install a Twitter Follow button so that visitors can follow you on Twitter without leaving your site. Add a Tweet This button to make it easy for people to share your content with their followers. Auto-publish your blog posts to your social media profiles so that your followers can see them as soon as theyre published. Create a social stream to display your latest social media updates on your website. 17. Have an Online Store or Booking Section If you have a product to sell, its vital to have an online store or booking section on your website. An eCommerce site can help you grow your small business by letting customers purchase your products from their computers, tablets and mobile phones. Additionally, many eCommerce platforms allow you to track sales and inventory so that you know how well your products are selling. 18. Use Professional Photography and Images If youre selling products or services, its important to use professional photography and images on your website. These help visitors understand what you offer and can be used to show off your products or services in action. If you dont have the budget for a professional photographer, there are plenty of options available online. You can purchase stock photos from sites like iStockPhoto, Shutterstock and Dreamstime. However, resist the urge to use low-quality stock images. If you are not willing to invest in professional-looking images, its best just to skip it altogether. Also, from a design standpoint, images should be used sparingly and only if they support the message youre trying to communicate. 19. Use Reviews and Testimonials Small business owners can benefit from reviews and testimonials. So, if you have any from your happy customers, be sure to include them on your website. These can help improve your credibility and convince visitors that they should do business with you. A few ways to incorporate reviews and testimonials into your site are: Add a link in the footer of every page so that visitors can see them no matter where they are. Link to reviews and testimonials in your email marketing campaigns so that new subscribers can learn more about you without leaving their inboxes. Add a link to reviews or testimonials on your social media profiles so that visitors who click through from there can readily find positive feedback about you. 20. Utilize Video Elements Video is an excellent way to engage website visitors and can be used to explain your products or services in more detail. Additionally, including videos on your website can help improve your SEO results. There are a few ways to add videos to your site: Embed videos from popular video-sharing sites like YouTube and Vimeo. Upload videos directly to your websites server. Create a video landing page to introduce visitors to your business and its products or services. 21. Test, Test, Test! The best way to make sure that your website is effective is to test it regularly. This method lets you learn and tweak things as you go. Make sure that you track how well each element performs so that you can make changes as needed. Additionally, use analytics to see how visitors are interacting with your website. This information can help you decide what content to keep, change or remove. Start Creating Your Small Business Website Today Now that you have read the tips, its time to put them into action! Start by creating a list of the most important things you want your website to accomplish. From there, begin designing and building your site using these tips as a guide. And dont forget to test, test, test along the way to make sure that youre getting the results you want. Etymologists believe the word VACATION was first used around the year 1350. For a lot of small business owners, thats the last time theyve taken one. If you think that the end-of-year holiday season is the perfect opportunity to maybe sneak away from the business for a day or two, or maybe three, you didnt read the beginning of this article. No Vacation from Work According to a recent study from Funding Circle, 70 percent of small business owners worked on Thanksgiving even though they had planned to take that whole day off. And on Christmas and Hannukah and New Years Eve the perfect days to get away from your small business? You guessed it. Only 49 percent of small businesses contacted by Funding Circle said they planned to take less than three days off the whole season. Considering how dedicated those same small business owners were to taking the day off on Thanksgiving when almost NO ONE is open its safe to assume the average small business was officially closed about zero days over the holiday season. Sure, a small business owner likely has a passion for his or her work that has driven them to go out on their own. But most are also afraid to leave their business unattended even for 24 hours. In fact, 19 percent of small business owners told Funding Circle they feel guilty getting away from it. Youve Got to Get Away Even If Only For 1 Day Constantly working and refusing to take a day off are both unhealthy practices and counter-productive for your business. As a small business owner myself, I understand the challenges in taking time off and unplugging, but taking vacation is critical to leading a balanced life, Sam Hodges, co-founder and US managing director of Funding Circle says. Solopreneurs should use a day to recharge their proverbial batteries and get a fresher perspective on their work. Small business owners in charge of a team no matter how small should physically get away from their business at least for a day. But dont just run away. Implement an In Case of Emergency plan where the person you trust most with your business in your absence has the ability to reach you. Otherwise, power down your laptop, switch off the smartphone and go take a break! Robert Gilpin, R.I.P. - The Washington Post : His greatest book was written in 1981, but the main theory in it is perhaps more trenchant now... Complex paperwork makes incentives unobtainable Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have complained that they have not been able to get the cash incentive provided by the government for exporting their products because of lengthy and incomprehensible paperwork. "A little fill here and there may seem to be nothing to become excited about. But one fill, though comparatively inconsequential, may lead to another, and another, and before long a great body may be eaten away until it may no longer exist. Our navigable waters are a precious natural heritage, once gone, they disappear forever," wrote the Wisconsin Supreme Court in its 1960 opinion resolving Hixon v. PSC and buttressing The Public Trust Doctrine, Article IX of the Wisconsin State Constitution. DGAP-News: 3W Power S.A. / AEG Power Solutions / Key word(s): Bond The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. - Noteholders of 2014/2019 and 2015/2020 bonds agree to capitalize and defer interest payments to end of maturity and allow for fresh capital to be taken up - Measures significantly improve liquidity as of fiscal year 2017, enabling the company to accelerate its refocusing and achieve sustained profitability - Revenue guidance of approx. EUR160 million in 2017 and EUR180 million in 2018 confirmed, EBITDA margin of approx. 10% achievable after planned cost savings are implemented 5 January 2017, Luxembourg / Zwanenburg, The Netherlands. 3W Power S.A. (ISIN LU1072910919, 3W9K), the holding company of AEG Power Solutions Group, announced today that the noteholders of the 2014/2019 bond (ISIN DE000A1ZJZB9) and 2015/2020 convertible bond (ISIN DE000A1Z9U50) have agreed to capitalize and defer interest payments to the end of the bonds' maturities and allow for fresh capital to be taken up. In a bondholder meeting held today, the 2014/2019 bondholders gave their approval, while the 2015/2020 bondholders already had given their approval in their voting from December 16 through December 20, 2016. This will significantly improve the group's liquidity as of fiscal year 2017. Jeffrey Casper, CEO of 3W Power, said: "These measures will further help us to improve our positioning and focus on our core industrial business. UPS systems and solutions from AEG Power Solutions ensure the continuous availability of power and safe operations for all types of critical applications in infrastructures, industrial processes and Data & IT. For over 70 years, the company stands for rugged reliability as well as world-class engineering in power supply and a global customer base trusts in our solutions. Our goal is to grow from this established position, building on our expertise and developing our product offering." On the next steps of the process, Jeffrey Casper added: "We will commence negotiations with stakeholders in our German subsidiary in the course of January 2017. With the implementation of greater efficiency and reduced fixed costs, our group reorganization that started in 2014 with the aim to focus on our competitive strengths will be nearly completed. Going forward, we must achieve sustained profitability and focus on the needs of our customers as well the services and products in our core ISP business." The group confirms its revenue guidance of approx. EUR160 million in 2017 and EUR180 million in 2018, with an EBITDA margin of approx. 10% being achievable after the planned cost savings, most notably the restructuring of the German subsidiary, are implemented. -- End of Announcement -- About 3W Power: 3W Power S.A. (WKN A114Z9 / ISIN LU1072910919), based in Luxembourg, is the holding company of AEG Power Solutions Group. The Group is headquartered in Zwanenburg in the Netherlands. The shares of 3W Power are admitted to trading on Frankfurt Stock Exchange (ticker symbol: 3W9K). AEG Power Solutions is a leading provider of UPS systems and power electronic solutions for industrial, commercial, renewable and distributed energy markets throughout the world with main sites in France, Spain, Germany, Singapore and China, with further direct 14 sales and service offices worldwide. For more information, visit www.aegps.com Press contact: Tobias Eberle / Thomas Katzensteiner Charles Barker Corporate Communications GmbH Phone: +49 69 79 40 90 24 / +49 69 79 40 90 25 Email: Tobias.Eberle@charlesbarker.de / Thomas.Katzensteiner@charlesbarker.de Investor Relations contact: Christian Hillermann Hillermann Consulting Phone: +49 40 320 279 10 Email: investors@aegps.com This communication does not constitute an offer or the solicitation of an offer to buy, sell or exchange any securities of 3W Power. This communication contains forward-looking statements which include, inter alia, statements expressing our expectations, intentions, projections, estimates, and assumptions. These forward-looking statements are based on the reasonable evaluation and opinion of the management but are subject to risks and uncertainties which are beyond the control of 3W Power and, as a general rule, difficult to predict. The management and the company cannot and do not, under any circumstances, guarantee future results or performance of 3W Power and the actual results of 3W Power may materially differ from the information expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. As a result, investors are cautioned against relying on the forward-looking statements contained herein as a basis for their investment decisions regarding 3W Power. 3W Power undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement contained herein. 05.01.2017 Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by DGAP - a service of EQS Group AG. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. The DGAP Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases. Archive at www.dgap.de By Colin Packham and Bernadette Christina Munthe SYDNEY/JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia and Australia sought to calm tensions on Thursday after Indonesia's military said it had suspended cooperation because of "insulting" teaching material found at an Australian base that questioned Jakarta's sovereignty in Papua province. A day after the shock announcement by Indonesia's army chief, which seemed to blindside not only Australia but parts of President Joko Widodo's government, there was still confusion over the status of ties between the Asia-Pacific neighbours. The countries have extensive military cooperation, which ranges from counter-terrorism cooperation to border protection, President Widodo said ties with Australia were "still in a fine condition" and his defence minister and military chief had been asked to investigate. "We have agreed, Indonesia, Australia, to respect each other, to value each other and not meddle in each other's domestic affairs," Widodo said. There were still, however, contradictory messages. Indonesia's chief security minister Wiranto said only cooperation related to the military's Australia-based language training program had been suspended. But a statement from the office of Indonesia's state secretary said joint training, exchange of officers and bilateral visits had also been suspended. Earlier, Indonesia's Armed Forces Chief Gatot Nurmantyo said training with Australia had been suspended and other areas of cooperation were being re-evaluated pending an investigation. ROCKY MILITARY TIES Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said he looked forward to the matter being resolved "as soon as possible". "I acknowledge and value President Widodos commitment to the strategic partnership between our two countries and value our personal friendship," Turnbull said in a statement. The neighbours have had a rocky military relationship in recent years. Australia stopped joint training exercises with Indonesian special forces (Kopassus) after accusations of abuses by the unit in East Timor in 1999, as the territory prepared for independence. Ties resumed when counter-terrorism cooperation became imperative after the 2002 nightclub bombings on the resort island of Bali that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians. Indonesia most recently suspended military ties in 2013 over revelations that Australian spies had tapped the mobile telephone of then president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. "TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY" Nurmantyo said on Thursday that "unethical" teaching material had been found by an Indonesian officer who had been sent to Australia to teach. The material "discredited the Indonesian military (TNI), the nation of Indonesia and even the ideology of Indonesia," he said, referring to material concerning East Timor and "Papua needing to be independent", as well as mocking the country's founding principles, known as Pancasila. Papua, where a separatist movement has simmered for decades, is a sensitive issue for Indonesia, which took over the former Dutch colony after a widely criticized U.N.-backed referendum in 1969. "That curriculum had been used for a long time," Nurmantyo said, noting it had now been removed. Australian Defence Minister Marise Payne said an investigation into the teaching materials, found at Campbell Barracks in the west Australian city of Perth, would be concluded "imminently". She denied allegations, reportedly made by Nurmantyo in a lecture last year, that Australia had tried to recruit Indonesian soldiers as agents during training. Payne said Jakarta has given no indication of any change in helping Australia to enforce its controversial immigration policy, which includes turning back boats carrying asylum seekers. (Additional reporting by Tom Westbrook in SYDNEY and Bernadette Christina Munthe and Agustinus Beo Da Costa in JAKARTA; Writing by Fergus Jensen and Ed Davies; Editing by Bill Tarrant) By Fergus Jensen and Jonathan Barrett JAKARTA/SYDNEY (Reuters) - Indonesia's military acted alone when it suspended cooperation with Australia's armed forces last week, Indonesian officials said on Wednesday, after what media described as insulting teaching materials were found at a base in Western Australia. A spokesman for Indonesian President Joko Widodo said there had been no discussion of the suspension with the president and the issue had been exaggerated. "This was not a decision of the president," spokesman Johan Budi told Reuters. Ties with Australia were "just fine", said Defence Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu, adding that he only learnt about the matter on Wednesday. "We need to look at this properly first, not just from one side," he added. Australian Defence Minister Marise Payne said only some activities had been "postponed". Military cooperation between the two countries, which ranges from counter terrorism cooperation to border protection, was suspended for "technical reasons", a spokesman for the Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI) told Reuters. "All forms of cooperation have been suspended," Major General Wuryanto said. "There are technical matters that need to be discussed," Wuryanto said, referring to the training material seen at an Australian military base, but he declined to elaborate. It was "highly likely" cooperation would resume once those issues were resolved, Wuryanto said. Concerns were raised by an Indonesian military officer late last year about some teaching materials and remarks at an army language training facility in Australia, said Payne. "As a result, some interaction between the two defence organisations has been postponed until the matter is resolved. Cooperation in other areas is continuing," she said. A spokesman for Indonesia's Foreign Ministry did not answer telephone calls or respond to a written request for comment. "FOUNDING PRINCIPLES INSULTED" Indonesia last suspended military ties with Australia in 2013 over revelations that Australian spies had tapped the mobile telephone of then President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Australia stopped joint training exercises with Indonesia's Kopassus special forces after accusations of abuses by the unit in East Timor in 1999, as the territory prepared for independence three years later. Jakarta and Canberra resumed military ties, saying cooperation on counter terrorism became imperative after the 2002 bombing of two nightclubs on the resort island of Bali that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians. With ties gradually warming, the first joint training exercise on Australian soil since 1995 was staged in the northern city of Darwin in September last year. But relations again became strained after an Indonesian special forces trainer saw training material that insulted the country's founding principles of "Pancasila", which include belief in god, the unity of Indonesia, social justice and democracy, Indonesian newspaper Kompas said. The suspension of cooperation took effect in a Dec. 29 telegram sent by Indonesian military chief Gatot Nurmantyo, it added. Australian media said the offensive material was found at Campbell Barracks in Perth, but officials at the army base declined to answer questions when contacted by Reuters. The offices of Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop declined to comment. The suspension of military ties was met with scepticism by many analysts, who expect the relationship to be quickly mended. A suspension could threaten Australia's controversial policy of turning back asylum seekers, said Greg Barton, a professor of global Islamic politics at Deakin University, but he doubted intelligence sharing would stop. "Everyone acknowledges that the threat of an attack is the highest it has ever been," he added. Visiting Jakarta in October, Bishop said it was "utterly essential" for Australia and Indonesia to share information and work closely to guard citizens against terrorism. Unrest in Jakarta forced Widodo to postpone a trip to Australia planned for November that had aimed to discuss defence ties, among other subjects. (Reporting by Fergus Jensen and Agustinus Beo Da Costa in JAKARTA and Colin Packham and Jonathan Barrett in SYDNEY; Editing by Nick Macfie and Clarence Fernandez) BEIRUT (AP) Turkey warned on Wednesday that repeated cease-fire violations by Syrian government forces threaten to derail peace talks scheduled for later this month. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the talks in Kazakhstan, due Jan. 23, are to be preceded by preparatory meetings between Turkish and Russian experts in Turkey. The Syrian government troops and allied militias have pressed an offensive to take the Barada Valley near Damascus from the rebels despite a cease-fire agreement signed shortly before New Year's. The government says the region was never included in the agreement. Details of the deal have not been publicized. Amid the government offensive, the rebels have retaliated with shelling and raids on government-held areas in other parts of the country. The rebels also accuse the government of carrying out air raids in the rebel-held province of Idlib, where hundreds of thousands of civilians have sought refuge from the civil war, now in its sixth year. Cavusoglu called on Iran, a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad and one of the guarantors of the truce agreement, to address the violations by pro-government forces. Turkey supports the Syrian opposition. Meanwhile, Assad received a top Iranian official in Damascus and called the Shiite country his "partners in the victory that was achieved in Aleppo," referring the city pro-government forces recently wrestled back from rebels, with Iranian help. The Iranian official, Alaeddin Boroujaerdi, in charge of foreign policy and national security portfolios in Iran's Shura Council," called the capture of Aleppo a "big step toward restoring security and stability nationwide." The cease-fire declared last week between the government and the opposition was supposed to prepare the way for the talks in the Kazakh capital of Astana, in what would be the first substantial diplomatic movement toward ending Syria's conflict in nearly a year. Russia, Turkey, and Iran had agreed to broker those talks. Russia is also a key ally of Assad. Story continues Cavusoglu warned in remarks made to Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency that the Astana process "might fail if we cannot stop the escalating violations." The cease-fire agreement has restored some calm, according to figures from the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The group, which tracks the conflict, reported that 11 civilians were killed from fighting in areas contested by the government and rebels since the truce started five days ago a dramatic decrease compared to earlier fatality rates. The Observatory also said that 32 civilians were killed in fighting over areas controlled by the Islamic State group, areas that are not covered by the truce. Cavusoglu said he had received assurances from Russia that the Kurdish Syrian PYD party would not be invited to Astana. Turkey considers the party an extension of its own, outlawed Kurdish insurgency and classifies it as a terror organization. The PYD controls most of the Syrian-Turkish frontier. Its armed wing enjoys the backing of the U.S. military, and is the most effective ground force battling Islamic State militants in Syria. By Matt Spetalnick and Idrees Ali WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will transfer four detainees to Saudi Arabia from the Guantanamo Bay military prison in the next 24 hours, U.S. officials said on Wednesday, in President Barack Obama's final push to shrink the inmate population there despite pressure from the president-elect to halt such releases. It will be the first in Obama's final flurry of transfers aimed at sending as many as 19 prisoners to at least four countries, including Italy, Oman and the United Arab Emirates, before Donald Trump is sworn in on Jan. 20. If the final transfers go according to plan, only about 40 prisoners will remain at Guantanamo, despite Obama's pledge to close the controversial facility at the U.S. naval base in Cuba. The Republican president-elect has vowed, however, to keep the Guantanamo military prison open and "load it up with some bad dudes." The Obama administration notified Congress last month of its intention to make the additional transfers, Reuters has reported. Those being transferred make up the bulk of the 23 prisoners declared in parole-style hearings to be safe for repatriation or resettlement in other countries. Trump on Tuesday signaled his view that all of those held at Guantanamo should remain, despite lengthy inter-agency reviews that deemed many of them eligible to leave. "There should be no further releases from Gitmo," he tweeted. "These are extremely dangerous people and should not be allowed back onto the battlefield." The White House dismissed Trump's objections and said transfers from Guantanamo, opened by former President George W. Bush to hold terrorism suspects rounded up overseas following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, would continue until Trump takes office. "We expect that there will be more transfers," said White House spokeswoman Emily Horne. "We do not comment on the progress of individual detainee transfers until they are completed." The two U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, were unable to provide the nationalities of the prisoners who were headed to Saudi Arabia. Last April, the desert kingdom - one of the top U.S. allies in the region - accepted nine Yemenis under a long-negotiated deal between Washington and Riyadh. Of the 59 prisoners remaining at Guantanamo before the latest transfer, 10 face charges in military commissions, including alleged plotters of the Sept. 11 attacks, while about two dozen have not been charged but have been deemed too dangerous to release. Obama, who inherited 242 detainees at Guantanamo Bay when he took office in 2009 and has called it a "recruiting tool" for terrorists, has slowly whittled the number downward. Under Bush, the prison came to symbolize aggressive detention practices that opened the United States to accusations of torture. Obama's efforts to close the prison have been blocked by mostly Republican opposition in Congress, which has barred him from moving any prisoners to the U.S. mainland. Foot-dragging by Pentagon officials has also been blamed for slowing transfers. Administration officials have also made clear that Obama has no intention of resorting to the legally risky option of using executive action to close the prison before leaving office. (Reporting by Matt Spetalnick and Idrees Ali; Editing by G Crosse and Peter Cooney) Poker Pro Dan Smith Raises $1.7 Million for Charity January 05 2017 Katie Callahan Dan Smith, with the assistance of 134 others, has raised $1.7 million in his 2016 charity drive. Smith said he would match the donations up to $175,000 to the following charities: 350.org, Against Malaria Foundation, Give Directly, Just City, Liberation Prison Yoga, Lineage Project, MAPS (Zendo), Massachusetts Bail Fund, Schistosomiasis Control Initiative (SCI), and GiveWell. Those who wanted to give had to email a copy of their donation receipt to Smith, who would then match it. An anonymous donor said that if the drive hit $175,000, he would match an additional $125,000 to 350.org, Against Malaria and Give Directly. The drive was modified at $600,000 to provide donations to the Against Malaria Foundation, Give Directly and the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative (SCI), due to a donation from DFS sensation Martin Crowley, who matched the challenge with $200,000 in addition to the $325,000 he already matched 1:1. To clarify: This will be in addition to the $325k that I have been matching 1:1. I will only be donating this extra https://t.co/5RoDAjIYaA Martin Crowley (@bigpapagates) Awareness is the first step towards transformation, said Crowley in a blog post on RotoGrinders. Though Id love to see each member of the DFS community step up and give, Im grateful and humbled youve read this far. You dont need to donate six figures to make a difference in fact, simply acknowledging the need is a big step for many of us. So what can you do? Crowleys brother, Tom, known as ChipolteAddict in the DFS world, donated $500,000 when the drive hit $1 million in donations. 2016 ends with a BANG! Tom Crowley surprised us with a $500k donation after we hit $1mm. Final tally $1.7 MILLION!!! https://t.co/eFIFU1mwPN Dan Smith (@DanSmithHolla) The limited details I know of their story are amazing: two guys who plan on making a huge difference in the world by doing the thing they are the best at: fantasy sports, Smith wrote on his blog about the Crowley brothers. I cant say enough great things about these two guys who really epitomize the effective altruism movement. Here is the breakdown of the donations as posted on Dan Smiths blog: Charity Donations 350.org $8,556 Against Malaria Fund $287,535 Give Directly $115,173 Just City $9,750 Liberation Prison Yoga $12,868 Lineage Project $4,000 MAPS $31,100 Zendo 0 Massachusetts Bail Fund $10,325 SCI $13,131 GiveWell Unspecified $7,670 Subtotal $500,408 Dans Match $175,000 Martins Match + Extra $525,000 Toms Donation $500,000 Total $1,700,818 Smith wrote out on his blog what exactly he thought about each place he wanted to provide donations to and what he wanted the money to go toward. He said that he would be interested in running projects for others who dont want to take the time to run a drive, given the right project. If you convince someone else to donate to a cause you believe in, that can make a very real difference. He said he didnt understand why there was a social stigma to donating publicly, that people should focus on the results. If you convince someone else to donate to a cause you believe in, that can make a very real difference. That seems much more relevant to me, he said. Logically, it seems clear to me that being public about donating encourages others to donate. Prior to this drive, Dan Colman and Smith organized a drive, but this year, Smith wanted to do the same thing on a larger scale, with a larger match to accompany the donations. According to Smiths blog, he has received emails from others starting their own drives and was willing to provide advice or assistance if needed. Sharelines Poker player Dan Smith raises $1.7 million for charity. LONDON Britains outgoing ambassador to the European Union has strongly criticized the governments approach to Brexit negotiations in a blistering farewell email to his staff. Ivan Rogers said Prime Minister Theresa Mays government has been hindered by ill-founded arguments and muddled thinking in its approach to the upcoming talks to pull Britain out of the EU. His harsh critiques, likely to embarrass the government in the run-up to complex negotiations with the other 27 members of the EU bloc, were made public when the email was published by British media Wednesday. Rogers abrupt departure reveals the deep uncertainties within the government about how to best protect Britains national interest as it leaves the EU. May on Wednesday evening appointed Tim Barrow, a former U.K. ambassador to Russia, as Rogers replacement. EU Commission spokeswoman Natasha Bertaud said Rogers would be missed. We regret the loss of a very professional, very knowledgeable, while not always easy interlocutor and diplomat who always loyally defended the interests of his government, she said. In probably the most damning passage of his farewell email, Rogers said that senior civil servants dont know what the May governments priorities are in the talks, which will set the course for Britains relations with Europe once it leaves the bloc. We do not yet know what the Government will set as negotiating objectives for the UKs relationship with the EU after exit, he wrote. That implies he is unsure whether May seeks to keep Britain in the single market or the customs union, or to have the country sever those economic relationships. Rogers also said that Britain, unlike its EU adversaries, does not have the serious multilateral negotiating experience needed for the task. The email was sent Tuesday, when Rogers resigned months earlier than expected. May took over after Prime Minister David Cameron resigned following his failure to convince Britons to remain in the EU in the June referendum. She says Britain will formally trigger Article 50 the legal process to kick off the process of leaving the EU by the end of March. She has repeatedly refused to spell out the governments goals, saying that to do so would weaken its hand in negotiations. Her government faces a lawsuit that would require it to obtain parliamentary approval before starting the process. The Supreme Court is expected to decide shortly whether to overturn a lower courts ruling that Parliament must approve before Article 50 is invoked. Rogers had earlier warned it would take longer than expected to reach new trade deals with Europe and that the process might ultimately fail because it would require parliamentary approval from each member state. ___ Raf Casert in Brussels contributed to this report. PHOENIX Police have released the name of a man who died after scuffling with officers at a community center in Phoenix. They say the man has been identified as 43-year-old Muhammad Abdul Muhaymin. Officers responded to a fight call at the Maryvale Community Center around 9:30 a.m. Wednesday. Police say a man was acting erratically and refusing to leave and had assaulted an employee. Officers were attempting to detain him when he began fighting with them. Police say multiple officers were needed to subdue the man, who continued to act violently even after he was restrained and in handcuffs. They say the man then began showing signs of medical distress and was taken to a hospital, where he died. The Maricopa County Medical Examiners Office will determine the cause of death. BEIRUT In Syrias Wadi Barada valley, the six days since a nationwide cease-fire was declared have only brought more bombs. Residents say the bombs have rained down daily, deepening the misery caused by a government-imposed siege that has emptied market shelves and left residents relying on wood fires to stay warm in the winter cold. The fighting threatens the truce deal brokered by Russia and Turkey. meant to spur fresh peace talks as world powers scramble for a solution to a conflict that is more than five years old. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Wednesday urged Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his backers to end violations of the cease-fire. A day earlier, rebels threatened to suspend participation in the new peace talks, set to take place in the Kazakh capital this month, if clashes continued. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government helicopters dropped rockets and at least 15 barrel bombs on the area while Lebanese Hezbollah militants clashed with rebels on the ground. There is no electricity here, no medicines and very little food, said one resident, speaking on the condition of anonymity out of fear for his safety. The barrel bombs are raining on us. The cease-fire has changed nothing. In private, Western officials say the deal meant little from the start in the governments most coveted areas, with the Syrian army saying that the truce would not apply to groups tied to terrorist organizations, including al-Qaeda-linked Jabhat Fatah al-Sham. The group is present in opposition areas across the country, albeit apparently in small numbers around Wadi Barada, which lies northwest of Damascus, the capital. That caveat has appeared to give the Syrian army and its allies cover to pursue strategic objectives, including attempts to win back control of Wadi Baradas Ain al-Fijeh spring, which supplies about 70 percent of the fresh water running through to Damascus. Although the government and rebels had previously kept to an understanding that water services would not be disrupted, that ended when Assads forces and Hezbollah laid siege to the valley last year. That blockade is biting as temperatures drop below freezing. Abu Mohamed al-Baradawi, an activist from the area, said food is running out. There is almost no canned food left, because we rushed to buy it when the bombing started, he said. People are surviving on tiny stocks at home and keeping warm by bundling together or huddling around the fires we build. Wadi Barada, once a popular spot for Damascus families in search of good fish and relaxation, threw off government control in early 2012, less than a year after the uprising against Assads government began. Former and current residents say Wadi Barada and the surrounding areas had become emblematic of the grievances that led people across the country to rise up in the first place, citing government neglect, corruption and land grabs. Families say hundreds of acres of private property was confiscated for state use under new land measures. One area became a horse club. Another is a luxury hotel, still advertised on Facebook as a perfect place to unwind. People were very frustrated to see so much land go to the government, said Mohamed Rabaa, a journalist from the area now living in Sweden. These were luxury developments on other peoples land. Water was also increasingly diverted to Damascus as its population swelled. It made people furious, said the Wadi Barada resident who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Thats why we were among the earliest to join the revolution. On Wednesday, that battle for resources had come full circle as pro-government forces fought to regain control of the valleys most important spring. As boys, we would swim in those beautiful waters, and now theyre the prize in a war, Rabaa said. Habib reported from Stockholm. WASHINGTON Congressional Republicans on Wednesday launched their long-promised effort to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, even as they acknowledged that they may need several months to develop a replacement along conservative lines. Signifying how enormous a priority the issue is for the incoming administration, Vice President-elect Mike Pence met privately to discuss it with House and Senate Republicans. He offered no details afterward about what a new health-care law might look like but vowed to unwind the existing one through a mixture of executive actions and legislation. Meanwhile, President Barack Obama made a rare Capitol Hill appearance, meeting behind closed doors with Democrats from both chambers. He urged members of his party not to help the GOP devise a new health-care law. The dueling high-level visits, on the same day that the Senate opened debate on a budget resolution that would begin rolling back the law, highlighted the sharp political fault lines that surround the future of the governments health policies. The president, who was accompanied by Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., as he entered the Capitol, took no questions from reporters before or after the nearly two-hour meeting. But participants said he told members of his party that they did not have to rescue Republicans and that they should stay strong as the GOP strives to replace the law. Pence told reporters that he and Trump would pursue a two-track approach to chip away at the ACA through executive powers and legislation. Trump is working on a series of executive orders that will enable that orderly transition to take place, Pence said, and is eyeing other policies that can be reversed. Although Pence did not identify other policy targets, Republicans from Western states urged him Wednesday to undo some of the public land protections Obama has created through the 1906 Antiquities Act. Other executive actions, including those providing new safeguards for LGBT Americans and curbing greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change, also could come under fire. According to a lobbyist in touch with congressional aides on the ACA issue, the Trump transition team has been considering ways to strip down the health benefits that insurers must provide in plans that they sell to individuals and small businesses. This list of essential health benefits was envisioned by the law but was defined in a regulation written by the Department of Health and Human Services. As a result, the incoming administration could alter it without help from Congress. Trump took to Twitter on Wednesday morning to urge Republicans to be careful in that the Dems own the failed Obamacare disaster. In a dig at Schumer and his allies, Trump added: Dont let the Schumer clowns out of this web. Less than half an hour after Trumps social-media messages, Schumer tweeted: Republicans should stop clowning around with Americas health care. Dont #MakeAmericaSickAgain. Schumer and other Democrats echoed Obama, saying they did not feel any responsibility to craft a substitute health-care bill. If you are repealing, show us what youll replace it with. Then well look at what you have and see what you can do, said Schumer, who met briefly with Pence on Wednesday. White House press secretary Josh Earnest said that Obama told Democrats that they are well positioned to defend the law, which has extended insurance to more than 20 million Americans. However, Obama also told lawmakers that he recognized that he had not succeeded in selling the law to the public. There was an acknowledgment that so many features were so popular, but there was a failure to communicate that, Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., said. Pence, who was greeted by applause as he entered the House GOP meeting with Reince Priebus, Kellyanne Conway and several other future White House aides, made it clear that Trump, starting on the first day of his presidency, intended to embark on an aggressive campaign to reverse executive actions made by Obama. They didnt enumerate a list, just that which came by the pen can die by the pen, said Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C. The first bill Republicans introduced in the new Senate that convened Tuesday was budget legislation with instructions for House and Senate committees to begin repealing the Affordable Care Act. The bare-bones spending outline requires members of four committees Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce in the House; and Finance, as well as Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, in the Senate to produce bills just seven days after Trumps inauguration that each would save $1 billion over a decade by slashing elements of the heath-care law. House Republicans tasked with writing the repeal legislation said that no final decisions have been made on what it will include. Rep. Patrick Tiberi, R-Ohio, who chairs a House subcommittee that oversees health care, called the incoming administrations Jan. 27 deadline a challenging goal. Among the unanswered questions is whether Republicans will immediately end health-care taxes, such as an additional 0.9 percent Medicare payroll tax and a 3.8 percent investment income tax, that were created to help pay for the Affordable Care Act. Some Republicans have insisted that the taxes should be eliminated immediately, even if lawmakers decide to delay the repeal of other parts of the law. Others worry that repealing the taxes will make it impossible to pay to keep Obamacare afloat while a replacement is finished. Were not sure yet, Tiberi said. Theres just not consensus on this. Rep. Chris Collins, R-N.Y., a member the Trump transition team, said in an interview that we have six months to work out the replacement plan for the sweeping health-care law. Senate rules allow budget resolutions to pass by a simple majority a maneuver that guarantees that the chambers Democratic minority will not have enough votes for a filibuster to block repeal. Only changes related to taxes, spending or the long-term federal budget are eligible for the simple-majority treatment, however. Other parts of the law, such as the structure of the insurance marketplaces, probably would require a veto-proof margin of 60 votes in the Senate, a trickier task since the new Senate has 52 Republicans. Since its passage by Congress in the spring of 2010 entirely with Democratic votes the ACA has spurred the most significant changes to U.S. health policy since the creation of Medicare and Medicaid during the Great Society legislation of the 1960s. It also has faced sustained opposition from Republicans, leading to two Supreme Court cases and a lawsuit over cost-sharing subsidies that is now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The ACA is best known for having expanded insurance coverage, starting in 2014, in two ways: new marketplaces selling private health plans to Americans who do not have access to affordable health benefits through a job, and an expansion of Medicaid in about three-fifths of the states. The marketplaces got off to a shaky start because of computer dysfunction with HealthCare.gov, the federal enrollment website. Three years later, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that the nations uninsured rate had declined to 9.1 percent, with most of a recent decrease coming from people who bought insurance on their own and more who had joined Medicaid. The presidents visit to the Hill was part of a broader, last-ditch effort by his administration to preserve a central element of his domestic legacy. On Wednesday morning, New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) drew attention to the stakes for his state by issuing a county-by-county breakdown of the estimated 2.7 million New Yorkers who would lose coverage if the law were repealed. He pointed out that New York would lose $595 million this year in federal money that has helped the state expand its Medicaid program. HHS officials have been trying to use to their advantage the fact that the change in administrations will take place while the fourth years enrollment period for ACA health plans is underway. On Wednesday, HHS released HealthCare.gov enrollment figures showing that 8.8 million Americans chose or were automatically re-enrolled in ACA health plans between Nov. 1 and Dec. 31 in the 39 states that rely on the federal exchange website. That is about 200,000 more than at the same time a year ago, although the proportion of new customers was lower. The new drive to unwind the health-care law will take time. Senate leaders must allow Democrats to offer a nearly unlimited number of amendments before a final budget vote. Democrats plan to use the process, known as a vote-a-rama, to offer a long string of potentially toxic amendments that could make it difficult for Republicans to vote for the final legislation, Democratic leadership aides said. The Washington Posts Mike DeBonis, Sean Sullivan, David Weigel and Ed OKeefe contributed to this report. Video: President Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Mike Pence each met with lawmakers from their parties, Jan. 4, to discuss plans for the Affordable Care Act. (Video: Sarah Parnass/Photo: Matt McClain/The Washington Post) URL: http://wapo.st/2ib38Hj Embed code: DALLAS Dallas County is suing the state to keep under wraps records on a mans death after a struggle with deputies in the county jail lobby. The Dallas County grand jury had declined any indictments in the August 2015 death of Joseph Hutcheson. The Dallas Morning News (http://bit.ly/2icctOQ) reports his familys attorney requested records under the state Public Information Act, including personnel files of four deputies involved in the struggle. The county said the law allows withholding records in the event of anticipated litigation, but the state attorney generals office decided some records must be shared. The Dallas County medical examiners office ruled the 48-year-old Arlington handymans death a homicide. It cited the combined toxic effects of cocaine and methamphetamine, along with underlying high blood pressure and the stress the struggle. ___ Information from: The Dallas Morning News, http://www.dallasnews.com WASHINGTON J. Dewey Daane, a noted expert on monetary policy who was nominated to serve on the Federal Reserve board by President John F. Kennedy, has died. He was 98. His death Tuesday in Nashville was announced by Vanderbilt University where Daane had been a longtime professor at the Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management. Before joining the faculty at Vanderbilt in 1974, Daane had 35 years of combined government service in the Federal Reserve System and at the U.S. Treasury Department. He served as head of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond and deputy undersecretary for monetary affairs at Treasury. He was nominated by Kennedy as one of seven members of the Feds board in 1963. He remained on the board until 1974. At Vanderbilt, Daane focused on the evolution of the international monetary system and on monetary and fiscal policy. In a statement, former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker said, Dewey never retired. Up until his 98th year, he took enormous pride in the Vanderbilt and Nashville communities, where he became a fixture. Vanderbilt Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos said in a statement that Daanes expertise in monetary affairs established the high standard for our curriculum in finance and financial market research. Survivors include Barbara McMann Daane, his wife of 53 years, and three daughters. RENO, Nev. Stiff winds toppled a towering evergreen tree into an Oregon home, killing an 8-year-old girl, while blizzard conditions closed major highways and triggered a small avalanche in the Sierra Nevada on Wednesday as wet winter storms pummeled much of the West. The child, Zaylee Schlect, was the daughter of a volunteer firefighter who was working during the storm that downed trees throughout the state on Tuesday night. She was killed in Otis, a town near the coast. Others inside the home were uninjured, authorities said. In Nevada, a storm dropped 2 feet of snow, and another foot was expected in the upper elevations around Lake Tahoe. All major Sierra passes were closed Wednesday night, including a 50-mile stretch of U.S. Interstate 80 from about 50 miles east of Sacramento, California, in the foothills near Colfax to Truckee, about 30 miles southwest of Reno, Nevada. We are looking at near white-out conditions, Nevada Department of Transportation spokeswoman Meg Ragonese said earlier Wednesday when they closed the only state highway connecting Reno to Lake Tahoe. Workers planned to trigger man-made avalanches along the Mount Rose Highway and plow the road again before reopening it late Wednesday or Thursday. Earlier, a small avalanche briefly trapped three vehicles on an access road at a nearby ski resort, but no one was hurt. Nevada state trooper Dan Gordon said visibility was near zero at times, but there were no reports of major accidents. Just a lot of slide-offs and roadway conditions that are just horrendous really treacherous, he said. Even cars with chains were getting stuck and sliding off the road, he said. The storm, which was making its way toward Utah and the Rockies, could be a boon for drought-plagued California by boosting the snowpack that provides about a third of the states water in normal years when it melts in warm, dry months. Flash flood watches were issued for most of the Sierra along the Nevada-California line, where the National Weather Service said the potential for another 6 to 12 inches of rain would create serious flooding concerns into the weekend. Some highways flooded in the San Francisco Bay Area, and mud and rockslides were reported in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The San Lorenzo River was swollen and the Big Sur River was also above flood stage. Flood warnings and watches were issued for 11 counties in the region, and forecasters said heavy rains would last through Thursday. Elsewhere, the snowiest day in nearly a century was recorded Tuesday in Medford, Oregon, where more than 8 inches fell at the airport, according to the National Weather Service. Eleven inches of snow fell on a December day in 1919. In Utah, snow that accumulated over several days caused the roof of a business to collapse in Provo. No injuries were reported. Snow was also falling in Wyoming, where a winter storm warning was posted for much of the Interstate 80 corridor, including Cheyenne. Heavy snow was also expected in Colorado. In New Mexico, forecasters said a blustery winter storm will produce significant snowfall and strong winds across much of the northern and eastern parts of the state beginning late Wednesday and peaking early Friday. ____ Bender reported from San Francisco Vice President Joe Biden, who led the Obama administrations cancer moonshot initiative, plans to start a national conversation about the high cost of cancer drugs as part of a nonprofit organization he will create to extend his cancer work, he said in an interview Wednesday. Im going to begin a national conversation and get Congress and advocacy groups in to make sure these treatments are accessible for everyone, including these vulnerable underserved populations, and that we have a more rational way of paying for them while promoting innovation, Biden said. The vice president, who lost his son, Beau, to brain cancer in May 2015, didnt focus much on drug prices during his almost year-long sprint to accelerate progress against cancer. Part of the reason, he said, was that there were many other issues to pursue. But another reason was that Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, a harsh critic of the pharmaceutical industry, had asked him to continue running the moonshot effort after he left the White House, and drug costs was one of the points on the agenda, he said. Now, Biden said, he is getting strong encouragement from throughout the cancer community to grapple with the pricing issue. The researchers, the insurers, all of the major cancer centers . . . want me to pursue it. He added that Greg Simon, executive director of the White House Moonshot Task Force, recently met with the pharmaceutical company officials. They all realize they have a problem, the vice president said. In December, President-elect Donald Trump also spoke out against pharmaceutical-industry price hikes. Im going to bring down drug prices, he told Time magazine. The new cancer nonprofit, which Biden will head, will be based in either Wilmington, Delaware, or Washington. Inside the White House, the organization is being referred to as the Biden Cancer Initiative, but the final name could be different. More details are expected in early February. The group, Biden said, will focus on many moonshot issues, including the need to knock down silos in cancer research and share research data and medical records more widely, boosting participation in clinical trials, and finding new ways to improve treatment provided by community oncologists. He said he also wanted to work on reducing racial disparities in diagnosis and treatment. The new organization wont be affiliated with any particular cancer center a decision designed to avoid the appearance of playing favorites among institutions that compete aggressively for grants, patients and top researchers. The group wont make grants, though it will raise funds to support its own activities. Talk of Bidens post-White House plans has been circulating for some time. In September, he told the publication Stat that he would work on cancer issues for the rest of his life but didnt provide details. In late December, the Cancer Letter, a trade publication, reported that he was planning to continue his moonshot work through a new institute or foundation and that he would work on foreign policy out of the University of Pennsylvania. On Tuesday, in a remark picked up by C-SPAN during the swearing-in ceremony for the Senate, Biden said he planned to continue the cancer work and would be based out of Penn for foreign policy. In Wednesdays interview, Biden said he would have posts at both Penn and the University of Delaware, his alma mater. Penn, he said, wants me to advance their diplomatic profile around the world, and to work on policy and national security issues. At Delaware, he will be working on domestic policy ranging from violence against women to the criminal justice system, he said. He declined to elaborate on the academic affiliations. The White House Cancer Moonshot initiative was announced by President Barack Obama in his State of the Union address this year. The initiative generated some skepticism among scientists who said that beating cancer was far more complicated than putting a man on the moon, and required vast increases in funding and a much greater understanding of the basic biology of the disease. Biden pressed ahead, traveling the country to meet with researchers and clinicians and repeatedly calling, sometimes angrily, for greater data sharing and collaboration. In September, the National Cancer Institutes blue-ribbon panel proposed 10 ways to speed progress against the disease. And late last year, Congress passed the 21st Century Cures Act, which provides almost $5 billion in new funding for the National Institutes of Health, including $1.8 billion for cancer moonshot efforts. In the waning days of the administration, he continues to work on the moonshot. On Friday, he will host a meeting of vendors of electronic health records, physicians and patient advocates on how to make it easier for individual patients to get access to their medical records so they can share them with other doctors or provide the data to researchers. Democrats have an emerging strategy to defend the Affordable Care Act from Republican assault, daring their opponents to defy the Pottery Barn rule: Theyre about to break the health-care system, and that means they will own it. For more than six years, Republicans have attacked unpopular parts of the law without having to proposing alternatives. Those days are over. Emerging from their final huddle with President Barack Obama, congressional Democrats said their plan is essentially to leave it to the GOP to replace Obamacare. And theyre getting an unintended assist from Republicans, who to date have no full plan, only a vague timeline and very few details on how they intend to do it. Theyre gonna own it and all the problems in the health-care system, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said at a press conference after the 90-minute meeting with the president in the Capitol basement on Wednesday. Republicans will discover quickly, Schumer said, that implementing their preferred market-based alternatives will be virtually impossible without a large source of revenue, which would likely require Democratic votes for approval. Now theyre responsible for the entire health care system, and it will be on their backs, he said. And I believe, a year from now, they will regret that they came out so fast out of the box. Its a modified version of how Republicans treated Obama and congressional Democrats in 2009 as they began the early steps of crafting the ACA. After prolonged talks with three Senate Republicans, Democrats moved ahead late in the year to pass the legislation on party-line votes. As a result, Democrats politically owned every mishap, including the systems often-crashing website during the rollout and the decision by insurance companies to abandon some exchanges that ran Obamacare in the states. Republicans have hammered away at Obamacare ever since and made the legislation very unpopular in conservative-leaning states, driving some Democrats out of office in those regions for supporting the law. Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., are adamant that they will not go as far as Republicans did back then in opposing just about every early Obama initiative. They still talk about Trumps position on a large infrastructure bill as a starting point for a bipartisan initiative, and the president-elect and Schumer have similar views on trade and alleged currency manipulation by China. Still, its becoming obvious that Democratic leaders intend to give little early assistance to Trump or other Republicans as they try to undo much of the Obama legacy. Republicans know the so-called Pottery Barn rule well; Colin Powell invoked it when he was secretary of state to warn then-President George W. Bush that he would own a toppled Iraqi government precipitated by a U.S. invasion. Theyre very aware of the trap Schumer is trying to set and are working to portray Democrats are cheering for failure. I understand his political argument. Hes praying and hoping for failure, which means hes praying and hoping for more pain on the part of the American people, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, the No. 2 GOP leader, said Wednesday. I would hope they would get past that and would agree to work with us, because a long-term, sustainable replacement for Obamacare is going to need to be done on a bipartisan, consensus-building basis. This early Democratic strategy is the easy lift do nothing. Democrats privately acknowledge, however, that the party needs to craft a broader agenda than they have relied on for the past four years, which resulted in terrible electoral defeats in 2014 and 2016. That positive agenda is a work in progress, aides say, and will come in the weeks and months ahead. Public opinion of the overall law is split evenly between those who support it and those who dont. But it includes several very popular provisions, particularly one allowing adult children to stay on their parents insurance plans up to age 26, and another forbidding insurance companies from denying coverage to consumers with pre-existing health conditions. With Republicans advancing a repeal, Democrats plan to blame them for trying to end those popular pieces of the ACA. Republicans have tried to assure the public that the popular provisions will eventually become part of a replacement law. Cornyn described the adult childhood insurance issue and the pre-existing condition ban as noncontroversial provisions which I would suspect would be sustained. They are also promising that the new law will not throw the health system into chaos. The status quo will be maintained until theres a replacement. So if people have what they have now, theyll keep that until theres a replacement, Cornyn said. Yet Republicans not said publicly how long the transition period will be to replace the ACA. Nor have they explained how they would fund how they would fund those expensive provisions without other portions of the existing law. Its possible that, after several years of terribly explaining the health law to voters, Democrats are finally in position to make it a political success. Its one thing to say to people this is what we can get, Pelosi said. Its another thing to say this is what will be taken away from you. And that is a different case, and that is a case that we will make. Donald Trump backs Julian Assange over Russia hacking claim President-elect Donald Trump has backed Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in casting doubt on intelligence alleging Russian meddling in the US election. SANTA FE New Mexicos national labs, both in the midst of management transitions, got good marks from the federal government in performance evaluations for the 2016 fiscal year that ended in September. Sandia National Laboratories was rated excellent by the National Nuclear Safety Administration and was awarded a fee for the year of $27,550,800, just short of the $27.8 million available if all performance goals had been met 100 percent. Los Alamos National Laboratory, rocked by less than stellar evaluations in recent years, got a very good rating for fiscal 2016. Its annual fee payment came to $58.9 million, out of a total $65.2 million the lab could have earned. Sandia has consistently gotten excellent ratings for its weapons programs and science, and getting the overall excellent score was gratifying, said Sandia spokesman Jim Danneskiold. In December, NNSA part of the Department of Energy awarded the Sandia management contract to a subsidiary of Honeywell International called National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, bypassing defense giant Lockheed Martin, which has managed the lab for more than two decades. The contract amounts to $2.6 billion a year, and the annual fee award comes on top of the contract dollars. Los Alamos lab director Charles McMillan, in a memo to his employees obtained by the Journal, said, As I have stated many times in the past, the people of the Laboratory are and will remain this institutions greatest asset. The mission and operational successes of 2016 are a tribute to your spirit and character. I continue to anticipate a vibrant future filled with technical challenges worthy of this national laboratory. The current LANL operating contract of about $2.2 billion held since 2006 by Los Alamos National Security LLC a consortium including Bechtel and the University of California runs out in September 2018. The consortium failed to get adequate evaluations to earn contract extensions in recent years and even lost an extension year because of its poor performance for 2014. That year, a drum of radioactive waste improperly packed with a combustible mix at LANL breached at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, causing a shutdown there. The underground storage facility is just now reopening. Despite this years very good rating for LANL, Watchdog group Nuclear Watch New Mexico noted shortcomings that NNSA cited in the evaluation over criticality safety issues related to plutonium work (a nuclear criticality event is an uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction) as the lab moves toward ramping up production of plutonium pits, the cores that trigger nuclear weapons explosions. Parts of the evaluation say that required improvements to the Criticality Safety Program are moving at an unacceptably slow rate and that the leadership in operations management has not prioritized needed criticality safety activities and improvements adequately The number and latency of infractions in the plutonium facility is of concern. After too many years of kicking the fiscal can down the road, the 2017 legislative session must take charge of the chronic budget problems it has been avoiding or else risk having our states house-of-cards economy fall completely apart. No use looking to the governor for leadership in this regard. Her administrations refusal to offer even a rudimentary road map for our fiscal malaise was made absolutely clear during the special session she called last fall right before the election. Instead of any courage or actually even any executive behavior, we were treated to a completely irrelevant exercise in raw politics. To swing public opinion against Democrats, she used the families of crime victims to stir up support for a diversionary get tough on crime agenda that would have only made the states money crisis worse if it had passed. In the absence of any executive blueprint, the Legislature patched together a barely passable fix, scooping up agency balances; reconfiguring capital projects into cash reserves; and enacting one-size-fits-all 5 percent departmental budget cuts. But structural problems with our budget werent solved; they were merely wallpapered. The inescapable reality is that, after a decade of repeated tax cuts, New Mexicos state revenues will be lower in 2018 than they were 10 years ago. We are not over-spending. We are not wasting money. We are rather starving some of the most crucial and valuable public services that any economic recovery will need to have in place. Without them, we are locked in a death spiral: Cuts in necessary services producing lower revenues which then require more cuts; and on and on until state services become so inconsequential, they simply vanish. The notion that any government can slash its way to prosperity is ludicrous. Laying off state employees does not make the private sector healthier; it hurts that sector, too. Cutting contracts doesnt magically generate more business for the private sector; it squeezes that sector further. Repeat these mistakes often enough and we have what New Mexico now faces: zero economic growth; population stagnation; unemployment near the highest in the nation; and continuous out-migration of our best educated young people. If the Legislature is to enact a budget that builds prosperity in our state, it will have to do so over the governors objections. She is determined to resist any attempt at increasing state revenue. Thus, it will be accomplished only if the public is persuaded that cautious, reasonable and understandable tax increases will truly improve our business climate, not hurt it. Then the public will have to express itself to the governor that a 2008 revenue stream cannot rebuild our economy in 2018. This is not to say that close analysis of state agency spending wont find a great many reductions in specific programs that should be taken. That is not an across-the-board meat cleaver approach, but a delicate surgery that spares the most valuable services and programs, while slicing the more expendable such as Education Secretary Hanna Skanderas millions spent on out-of-state consultants or Children Youth and Family Departments millions spent on advertising But we should balance every dollar excised from the budget with a dollar of new revenue. Many tax proposals are on the table. Each of them deserves the same surgical analysis and careful scrutiny by the Legislature as the budget cutting will get, with nothing ruled outside the bounds beforehand. Increasing the gasoline tax to address our deteriorating roads or imposing an in-patient provider fee on hospitals (actually suggested by the Hospital Association) to ensure Medicaid has sufficient revenue to avoid reimbursement cuts are just two of the ways we can jump-start our economy through reasonable taxation policy. Gov. Susana Martinez vow to oppose all tax increases shouldnt be adopted by legislators. We took a different oath: to work for the good of all the people of the state. Thats what is called for at this moment: adult leadership, not sloganeering. If the governor wont lead, the Legislature will have to. Mayor Richard Berrys chief of staff, Gilbert Montano, is offering assurances that a pending multimillion-dollar deal with Taser International to provide new body cameras for city police is diametrically different than the $2 million, no-bid deal Taser cut with APD in 2013. It certainly needs to be. That deal, you may recall, led to a criminal investigation involving former police chief Ray Schultz and other Albuquerque Police Department officials. That investigation, launched by Attorney General Hector Balderas in 2015, is still in the works. Taser is said to have paid Schultz for consulting work while he was technically retired but still on the citys payroll. Other APD officials were said to have received perks from the company, including free trips to Scottsdale, Ariz., where Taser is based. It appears the dark shadow those allegations cast on APD and Taser prompted city officials to take a different route this time. Instead of a no-bid contract, the city drafted a detailed 64-page request for proposals that Montano said drew responses from nine companies. A selection committee that spent months reviewing the proposals included police officers, various city officials, a university researcher, a Community Police Council member and a civilian police oversight investigator. That panel recommended Taser, but the proposal must still be reviewed by the citys inspector general and submitted to the City Council for approval. On-body camera recordings when used properly have improved policing in Albuquerque, one of the first large cities to adopt the technology. Though there are still questions about protocols and editing, recordings have been used both to protect officers from unfounded complaints, and to charge officers with crimes. City officials say the deal is worth millions, but a final figure is subject to negotiations with Taser. City officials should be as judicious with taxpayer dollars as officials are being with vetting Tasers proposal. editorials 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. The University of New Mexico has tapped longtime professor and administrator Christos G. Christodoulou to head the School of Engineering. Christodoulou, now associate dean for research for the School of Engineering, will become dean July 1 when Joseph Cecchi steps down from the post, UNM announced Wednesday. I am very pleased to have Christos join UNMs senior leadership team, UNM Acting President Chaouki Abdallah said in a written statement. Abdallah described Christodoulou as a talented administrator who cares deeply about UNM and the School of Engineering and a distinguished professor in electrical and computer engineering. Christodoulou was selected following a nationwide search, Abdallah said. Christodoulou will lead a program that enrolls 2,314 bachelors students, 367 masters students and 420 doctoral students. As dean, he will hold an endowed chair called the Jim and Ellen King Dean of Engineering and Computing, which is now held by Cecchi. Christodoulou joined the UNM faculty in 1999 as a professor of electrical and computer engineering and director of the engineering honors department. He served as the chairman of the electrical and computer engineering department from 1999 to 2005. He co-founded COSMIAC, the Configurable Space Microsystems Innovations and Applications Center, which performs space electronics research, and directed the center from 2012 to 2014. WASHINGTON Republicans on a now-defunct congressional panel investigating fetal tissue research issued a final report Wednesday asserting that the University of New Mexico and an Albuquerque abortion provider have no protocols for dealing with aborted fetuses that show signs of life after leaving the womb. Republicans on the Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives issued a nearly 500-page report Wednesday outlining its findings after a contentious yearlong investigation. The report provided an extensive recounting of the committees investigation into the connection between abortion providers and fetal tissue researchers and concluded in part that public funding for fetal tissue research and abortion providers need reforming. Democratic members of the panel called the report illegitimate and strongly objected to its release in part because they werent given an opportunity to review or vote on it. Among the reports findings were four pages dealing with UNM and Southwestern Womens Options, an Albuquerque clinic that provides late-term abortions and has sent fetal tissue to UNM for research, and testimony deposed from a physician/administrator at UNM with knowledge of the UNM Center for Reproductive Healths abortion procedures. The report says that neither UNM nor SWWO appears to have any apparatus or procedure to ensure the survival of infants who show signs of life following extraction from the uterus. The report quoted the panels lawyer asking the UNM physician whether any of the doctors involved at UNM, Southwestern Womens Options or Planned Parenthood had reported to you, or discussed with you, that an abortion failed and a live birth resulted? The physician replied: The answer is no at the Planned Parenthood and Southwest Womens Options and the Center for Reproductive Health. There are situations in the hospital where a planned abortion, an induction of labor for a fetus, for example, with severe anomalies is born alive. However, a spokesman for the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center told the Journal that UNM has no record of any induced abortions ever resulting in a live birth. A spokeswoman for Southwestern Womens Options could not be reached for comment late Wednesday. Asked whether fellows from UNM who were training at Southwestern Womens Options would have been trained in what to do if a child was born alive, the UNM physician responded, I dont know. The physician also said there is no training at the UNM medical school curriculum on what to do if a child is born alive because of an induced abortion. Abortion rights supporters contend that fetuses extracted from the womb during a standard abortion procedure conducted before 25 or 26 weeks gestation cannot be born alive. In 2002, President George W. Bush signed the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act that stated for purposes of all federal laws, the term human being includes every infant who is born alive, regardless of whether that birth is the result of labor, Caesarean section or induced abortion. The physician was not familiar with the Born Alive Infant Protection Act, according to testimony. The physician also said UNM complies with requirements through the hospital and through the state. The Republican-led report said the physicians testimony is a startling reflection of the absence of attention given to any standard of care for infants that survive the abortion procedure. The panels report issued Wednesday also recommended halting federal payments to Planned Parenthood, a national organization that provides abortions as well as other womens health counseling and services. SANTA FE Caleb Calandro, already in jail and facing charges for the nonfatal shooting of a man he was riding around Santa Fe with in a van Dec. 17, now is charged with the murder of a second shooting victim who was killed early the same day. Calandro, 33 or 34, was charged Tuesday in Magistrate Court with first-degree murder and tampering with evidence in the death of 37-year-old Rustin Radcliffe. A judge imposed a $1 million cash-only bond. Radcliffe was a longtime Santa Fean recently released from the Florida prison system. His body was found at the city parking lot at Water Street and Don Gaspar Avenue around 12:30 a.m. Dec. 17. Later that same day, Samuel Dillon, 28, was shot several times. He has told police Calandro shot him after Dillon teased Calandro during the ride around town. Calandro was arrested in Albuquerque two days after the two shootings. Last week, police said crime lab results had revealed that .40-caliber casings found at both shooting scenes came from the same weapon. An anonymous tipster provided Calandros cellphone number, leading to his arrest, and said Calandro had bragged about shooting two people, a police statement said. Robert R. Bob Nordhaus originally intended to become a tax lawyer, but being an outdoor enthusiast he gravitated into environmental law and eventually became an influential voice in federal energy policy. Nordhaus helped craft much of the ground-breaking federal energy legislation passed after the 1973 oil embargo first with the House Legislative Counsel and then as counsel to the House Commerce Committee. He was a member of the Energy Policy and Planning Office under President Jimmy Carter, served as assistant administrator of the Federal Energy Administration, and later was general counsel at the Department of Energy under President Bill Clinton. Nordhaus died at his home in Washington, D.C., on Christmas Eve. He was 79 and had been fighting prostate cancer for more than five years, according to his son, Ted Nordhaus. My dad had a very dry, sly wit, and he was a slow, deliberative talker, said Ted, who is the executive director of the Breakthrough Institute, an Oakland, Calif.-based energy and environmental think tank. He was also a great legal mind who went to Washington to become involved in environmental issues, but was not a set-your-hair-on-fire environmentalist. Robert Nordhaus grew up in Albuquerque as part of a prominent family with long ties to New Mexico. He was an avid skier and fly fisherman, spending a lot of time on a family-owned ranch outside Las Vegas, N.M. As an undergraduate at Stanford University, he studied history and competed on the schools downhill and cross-country teams. After serving a year in the U.S. Army Reserve, he attended and graduated from Yale Law School in 1963, where his father, also named Robert, attended law school, and who also had a keen interest in issues related to the environment and natural resources. Early on, Nordhaus wound up as a staff lawyer in the House Legislative Counsels office. There, he worked on a bill that would eventually become the Clean Air Act, and where he crafted a then-controversial provision giving the federal government authority to regulate as-yet unknown pollutants of the future. Nordhaus believed that reducing carbon pollution was crucial to protecting the environment and the economy from the risks posed by climate change, said his son, Ted. Although Nordhaus lived in Washington he continued to maintain a home in Taos and frequently returned to the state. For many years he was a member of the board of directors of the Public Service Company of New Mexico. He had an incredible impact on energy and climate policy from his days at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, part of the Department of Energy, said Pat Vincent-Collawan, chief executive officer at PNM. He provided us with just incredible insights and counsel on our work around the San Juan (coal-fired generating stations) closure and around renewables and climate. He was still on the board when the Facebook (data center) work started, and he really encouraged us to make sure we had a green tariff to serve customers like Facebook. He was very much ahead of the curve. She called Nordhaus an intelligent, warm and caring friend with an incredible sense of humor and said he knew all aspects of regulation and kept up on what was going on everywhere in the country. The Nordhaus family traces its New Mexico roots back to the 1880s when Max Nordhaus came from Germany to help his brother-in-law, Charles Ilfeld, operate what was then one of the largest mercantile firms in the state. Later, Max took over the business and one of his children, Robert J. Nordhaus, became a prominent environmental attorney representing Indian tribes. He was also instrumental in spearheading the drive to create what is now the Sandia Peak Ski Area. Robert R. Nordhaus is survived by his wife, Jean Nordhaus of Washington, D.C.; son Ted Nordhaus of California; daughter Hannah Nordhaus of Colorado; siblings Richard Nordhaus and Elizabeth Messeca, both of Albuquerque, and William Nordhaus of Connecticut; and two grandchildren. The family said it expects to have a memorial service sometime in March in Washington. Editors note: This is the first in a series of stories on issues expected to be debated in the 2017 legislative session. SANTA FE When the state Supreme Court decided last year that terminally ill New Mexicans do not currently have a right to a physicians assistance in dying, it said the issue called for robust debate in the Legislature. Thats what appears to be on the horizon for the coming session. Lawmakers will be asked to approve a bill allowing competent, terminally ill patients to obtain prescriptions from doctors for drugs the patients would self-administer. I think it ought to be a normal part of the options for end-of-life care, said Rep. Deborah Armstrong, D-Albuquerque, who plans to sponsor the legislation in the 60-day session that starts Jan. 17. The debate in the Capitol is likely to mirror the courtroom fight, with some medical and public health groups and the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico supporting the legislation and the Roman Catholic Church and some disability rights groups opposed. Under a 1963 law, assisting in a suicide in New Mexico is a fourth-degree felony. But after two oncologists and a cancer patient challenged that, a state district judge in 2014 ruled that medical aid in dying is a right under the state Constitution. The Court of Appeals reversed the ruling in 2015, and the state Supreme Court the following year upheld the assisted suicide ban. Justice Edward Chavez wrote that it wasnt easy to define a terminally ill patient, or determine how to ensure competency, or to define acceptable medical practices or safe medication. These concerns require robust debate in the legislative and the executive branches of government, Chavez said. The patient who was a plaintiff in the lawsuit, Aja Riggs of Santa Fe, was in remission by the time the high court ruled in June 2016. The opposing sides on the issue dont even use the same terminology. Advocates talk about medical aid in dying; opponents call it physician-assisted suicide. They get all mad at me when we call it assisted suicide, but it is, said Allen Sanchez, executive director of the New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops. Supporters of the legislation contend thats inaccurate, because people using the option are not choosing to die disease is already taking their lives but rather are choosing not to prolong a difficult and painful process. I definitely would argue that when youre imminently about to die, its not suicide, said Erin Marshall, former New Mexico campaign manager for Compassion & Choices, who worked on the lawsuit. Sanchez said the proposal is riddled with too many ethical, legal and moral complications. He rattled off a list of some of the same objections used by the Catholic bishops and others in their opposition to the death penalty for example, the possibility of human error. In the case of aid in dying, that could be an error in diagnosis or prognosis, he said. Because of the poverty in our state, were going to see older poor people being guilted into dying to conserve money to leave their children, he also said. Similar Death With Dignity legislation has been introduced a couple of times before in New Mexico but never got any traction. We believe that we can stop it this year, said Sanchez, who is lining up witnesses to testify against it. Bills are already being filed in advance of the session, but the aid-in-dying legislation is still being fine-tuned, according to Armstrong. She is a physical therapist and New Mexicos former secretary of the Aging and Long-Term Services Department, and has been a caregiver for family and friends at the end of life. She said she understands the concerns of opponents and the need for safeguards to protect vulnerable patients, but that we need to start talking about it and we need to start educating people. Medical aid in dying has been authorized by statute or court ruling in six states Oregon, Washington, Vermont, California, Montana and Colorado and recently was approved by Washington, D.C., officials, although Congress has the final say. WASHINGTON The messaging battle is on over repealing and replacing President Barack Obamas health care law, and the balance of power in Washington may be at stake. Democrats believe they already lost the public opinion fight over the law once, when they pushed through the Affordable Care Act in the first place, and Republicans grabbed hold of the issue to drive Democrats into the minority. Democrats are determined that this time, theyll come out on top. For their part, Republicans are painfully aware that theyre embarking upon the task of repealing and replacing the complex law at their peril. If Democrats get their way, the GOP will own every problem and complication that results from the rework, and there are certain to be many. For both sides, the repeal-and-replace fight represents a risky and unexpected do-over nearly seven years after Democratic majorities in the House and Senate passed the law on a party-line vote. A voter backlash helped send Democrats into the minority in the House in the 2010 midterms, and Republicans have been using the issue to political benefit ever since. In Novembers elections, Donald Trump and GOP House and Senate candidates ran on promises to repeal the law and replace it with something better. Now, Democrats have a chance to fight the messaging war anew, even as they continue to champion the health care law as good policy thats helped the country. And Republicans, whove had political success in attacking the law without offering a unified solution of their own, have a chance to present their ideas and make policy, but risk giving away their political advantage if they become the ones voters blame for problems in the health system. The side that meets the challenge most effectively will help determine who prevails in the 2018 midterms, and in the next presidential election four years from now. On Wednesday, as he unveiled Democrats new attack line against the GOP Make America Sick Again Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said that after the health law passed, voters blamed it for every problem related to health care, and our Republicans colleagues and their message machine did it. Now, theyre gonna own it, Schumer said of the GOP. And all the problems in the health care system, and there have been many throughout the years, no one has solved all of them, are gonna be on their back. Schumer made his comments after Democratic lawmakers met with Obama to discuss combating GOP efforts to undo the law, a new legislative initiative which got under way Wednesday with a procedural vote in the Senate. Obamas message: Not to cooperate with GOP replacement plans that dont offer a good solution for the 20 million Americans who gained health coverage under the law. He advised keeping the focus on those who benefited from the Affordable Care Act, such as people with pre-existing conditions who got coverage, and who might be hurt if their coverage were taken away. And, he took on blame for Democrats failure to sell the public on a law that by some measures has achieved its goals. I will take the responsibility for not having fully communicated with the American people for why this is an extraordinary victory for them, Obama said. Even as Obama huddled with Democrats, Vice President-elect Mike Pence was meeting with Republicans across the Capitol, emerging to offer assurances that Republicans would make good on their repeated promises to repeal the law. The American people know who owns Obamacare. Its the first half of the title. It is Obama and the party of Obama, Pence insisted. What President-elect Trump and I and the leaders in the Congress are determined to do is to keep faith with the American people. Inside the meeting with House Republicans, Pence offered a more urgent message, advising Republicans to go back to districts and lay the predicate that the Democrats own this thing, said GOP Rep. Dave Brat of Virginia. Trump himself castigated Democrats on the issue over Twitter, while offering notes of caution to his own party, writing Thursday, The Democrats, lead (sic) by head clown Chuck Schumer, know how bad ObamaCare is and what a mess they are in. time for Republicans & Democrats to get together and come up with a healthcare plan that really works. Some Republicans are painfully aware that their own political fortunes could be at risk if they fumble the issue. Im here because of Obamacare, said GOP Rep. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, crediting the issue with his victory in 2012. And now, Cramer says, he risks losing his seat over Obamacare, if we let our voters down in places like North Dakota by not acting decisively and swiftly. Yet for now, even as they move toward repealing the law as early as next month, Republicans dont have a replacement plan, or even a timeline for offering one. Theres likely to be a yearslong transition period between the repeal and the replacement, but many House Republicans, who stand for re-election every two years, believe its urgent to get the replacement done before the 2018 midterms, or risk voter wrath. If it hasnt been done by the 2018s, its like, What are you doing?' said GOP Rep. Mark Amodei of Nevada. If after five years of Republicans saying it sucks, we dont do a good job of transitioning and replacing, then Katy bar the door. ___= Follow Erica Werner on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ericawerner LAS CRUCES The Southwest Environmental Center will host a premiere screening Thursday of a new documentary critical of wildlife-killing contests. The film, called Unfair Game: Ending Wildlife Killing Contests, will be shown 7 p.m. Thursday at the Rio Grande Theatre, 211 N. Main St., in downtown Las Cruces. The event is free and open to the public. The film, which includes interviews with scientists, public officials, ranchers, hunters, activists and indigenous peoples, presents an evidence-based argument for banning killing contests in New Mexico and elsewhere, according to a SWEC news release. Among those interviewed is SWECs executive director Kevin Bixby. It is fitting that this film will debut in New Mexico, he said. We are on the verge of becoming the first state to pass a legislative ban on these barbaric and indefensible events. This film will help us achieve that goal. The screening will be followed by a question-and-answer session with a panel of experts, including Bixby; Camilla Fox and Dave Parsons of Project Coyote; New Mexico state Sen.-elect Jeff Steinborn, D-Las Cruces; and hunter David Soules, according to a SWEC news release. Killing contests are unregulated underground hunting competitions that target coyotes and other wildlife thats not protected by state law. Participants and advocates claim to be performing necessary predator management, but science does not back up these claims, the news release states. The indiscriminate killing of wildlife does not effectively manage their populations, and coyotes are an essential part of the ecosystem, keeping rodent populations in check. Many hunters oppose killing contests as unethical and wasteful. The New Mexico State Legislature will be considering a bill to ban coyote killing contests when it convenes in January 2017. SWEC supports the bill. The film is produced and distributed by the nonprofit Project Coyote. The organization was instrumental in a successful grassroots campaign to ban the awarding of prizes at killing contests in California in 2014. SWEC is partnering with Project Coyote, Animal Protection Voters, Wild Earth Guardians, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club in presenting the film. For more information, visit http://www.wildmesquite.org/what-we-do/desert-lands-wildlife/wildlife-killing-contests. 2017 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. _____ Engineers reach Lamjung villages to collect data of quake survivors Twenty months after the devastating Gorkha Earthquake, the government has mobilised engineers in Lamjung district to collect data of the disaster victims. Host Sean Hannity: Can you say to the American people unequivocally that you did not get this information about the DNC, John Podestas emails can you tell the American people 1,000 percent you did not get it from Russia . . . Julian Assange: Yes. Hannity: . . . or anybody associated with Russia? Assange: We we can say and we have said repeatedly . . . Hannity: Right. Assange: . . . over the last two months, that our source is not the Russian government and it is not a state party.- exchange on Hannity on Fox News, Jan. 3, 2017 Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, categorically denied links between the Russian government and the hacked documents his organization released during the 2016 presidential campaign. After the interview aired on Fox News, President-elect Donald Trump pointed to Assanges claim to cast doubt on allegations of Russian involvement in the WikiLeaks emails: Julian Assange said a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta why was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info! We will stipulate that governments regularly spy on each other, and the United States also gathers intelligence on governments like Russia, China and India. The difference here is that intelligence operations allegedly led to the release of information to the public, via WikiLeaks and media coverage. While Assange and subsequently, Trump claim that Russia is 1,000 percent certain not to be the source of the documents published on WikiLeaks, the facts are not nearly as certain. We dug into it. U.S. intelligence officials have formally accused the Russian government of interfering in the 2016 U.S. elections. One of the allegations of Russian involvement is that Russian hackers breached the Democratic National Committees network and provided tens of thousands of internal DNC emails to WikiLeaks. CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm hired by the DNC, said in June 2016 that Russian hackers had breached the DNC network. After CrowdStrikes assessment, a hacker named Guccifer 2.0 publicly claimed credit. Im very pleased the company appreciated my skills so highly))) But in fact, it was easy, very easy, Guccifer 2.0 wrote on its website in June 2016. Then in July, WikiLeaks released thousands of internal DNC emails. Assange did not disclose the source of the leaked emails, but security experts said Russian government hackers may have been involved. After the release, Guccifer 2.0 claimed to be WikiLeakss source of the DNC emails. At least two independent cybersecurity firms have confirmed CrowdStrikes findings that two Russian hacker groups had penetrated the DNC network. One group is believed to have actually stolen and distributed the emails. While the independent analysts suspected that Guccifer 2.0 was linked to the Russian groups that hacked the DNC or were a part of a Russian government influence operation, they did not have hard evidence because the documents were posted anonymously. The FBI is still investigating ties between Russian hackers and the WikiLeaks emails. Then there are the emails of John Podesta, former chairman of the 2016 Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. Private security researchers confirmed that the Russian foreign intelligence service hacked into Podestas email account after tricking him to log in to a fake Google log-in page, then leaked the emails. WikiLeaks obtained these emails and published them on its website, but it is less clear as to who exactly sent the Podesta emails to WikiLeaks. Assange has repeatedly denied claims that the emails came from the Russian government. Yet, in a December interview on Hannitys radio show, he left open the possibility that Guccifer 2.0s activities were linked to the Russians. Now, who is behind these, we dont know, he said. These look very much like theyre from the Russians. But in some ways, they look very amateur, and almost look too much like the Russians. We will note that in general, the public should be skeptical of any definitive statements that Assange makes about WikiLeaks sources. WikiLeaks has a longstanding policy of mutual anonymity with its sources, and allows sources to send information through an anonymous drop box. The Russian government has denied links to the DNC hack or the WikiLeaks releases. Guccifer 2.0 claims to be a single individual from Romania unaffiliated with the Russian government. But some experts believe Guccifer 2.0 may comprise multiple hackers of varying levels of expertise. And others have questioned Guccifer 2.0s proficiency with the Romanian language. Security experts have found links between Guccifer 2.0s malware and hacking activity that are similar to known Russian hackers, and assessed that Guccifer 2.0 likely is a Russian denial and deception effort. Intelligence agencies have identified individuals with connections to the Russian government who provided WikiLeaks with thousands of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and others, including Hillary Clintons campaign chairman, according to U.S. officials. Those officials described the individuals as actors known to the intelligence community and part of a wider Russian operation to boost Trump and hurt Clintons chances, The Washington Post reported. In October 2016, the U.S. Intelligence Community took the extraordinary step of formally naming Russia as the culprit for the breach, and linked Guccifer 2.0 to Russian intelligence: The recent disclosures of alleged hacked emails on sites like DCLeaks.com and WikiLeaks and by the Guccifer 2.0 online persona are consistent with the methods and motivations of Russian-directed efforts. These thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the US election process. Such activity is not new to Moscow the Russians have used similar tactics and techniques across Europe and Eurasia, for example, to influence public opinion there. We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russias senior-most officials could have authorized these activities. Susan Hennessey, fellow in National Security in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, said there is an overwhelmingly strong body of evidence that the DNC emails WikiLeaks published are tied to Russian sources. The U.S. intelligence community tends to be conservative in making public attributions, she said. Is it absolute? Is there any room for margin of error? Sure . . . attribution is quite complex. But thats not the same as saying it isnt the Russians. Maybe its the Chinese, maybe a 14-year-old, maybe a 400-pound hacker thats just not credible, Hennessey said. Short of a videotape of Vladimir Putin at the keyboard himself narrating it, its hard to imagine [Russians were not involved in WikiLeaks]. This really is, from an intelligence standpoint, a dream in the sort of level of intelligence that were seeing here. Other analysts are still skeptical that the Russian government was involved in WikiLeaks, or that Guccifer 2.0 is associated with Russian intelligence. In a December 2016 article, The Intercept wrote that there is not enough evidence to prove Russia hacked the DNC, or that Guccifer 2.0 is, indeed, linked to Russia. The Intercept article notes that federal officials have not disclosed how they arrived at the October 2016 announcement formally accusing Russia: Whats missing is any evidence at all. If this federal confidence is based on evidence thats being withheld from the public for any reason, thats one thing secrecy is their game. But if the U.S. Intelligence Community is asking the American electorate to believe them, to accept as true their claim that our most important civic institution was compromised by a longtime geopolitical nemesis, we need them to show us why. WikiLeaks offered this comment to The Fact Checkers inquiry: We stand by our statement. Assange assured the American public that he is 1,000 percent confident that the Russian government, or anybody associated with Russia, was not the source of hacked DNC emails published on WikiLeaks. But the situation is much less certain than he makes it seem. Guccifer 2.0, a hacking entity, has claimed credit for providing the hacked DNC emails to WikiLeaks. Independent cybersecurity experts have found Guccifer 2.0s links to Russian hackers, noting that Guccifer 2.0s malware and hacking activity are similar to known Russian hackers. Researchers have assessed that Guccifer 2.0 likely is connected to Russians. But Guccifer 2.0 has denied ties to the Russian government. Assange assured the public that he is 1,000 percent sure that there was no Russian involvement, without providing any evidence in the interview or in response to our inquiry. The facts we know contradict Assanges assurance, and the situation is much too complex for him to make such a sweeping statement. Further, he does not disclose any of the independent assessments that have been made about Guccifer 2.0, who has claimed credit for providing WikiLeaks with DNC emails. Obviously, we will also keep an eye on this and update as further information becomes available. RASHIDIN, Syria Samira Sabagh was sitting on the ground when I met her, and the first thing I noticed was that her hands and face were almost black. She was wearing a traditional green dress that smelled of smoke. She was about 65, just one of more than 100,000 former residents of eastern Aleppo forced to leave the rebel-held area under threat of annihilation by the Syrian regime and its Russian and Iranian allies. Sabagh was disoriented. Her children and all her family had been killed in Aleppo, with the exception of a daughter living in Idlib, not far from here. I dont know how to go to Idlib, she said, referring to the rebel-held northwestern Syrian province where many of the displaced Syrians were fleeing. I asked her about the soot on her face. Its bitterly cold in Aleppo now, she explained, and people were living in the streets for a week waiting for the evacuation to begin. So everyone had to burn shoes, plastics anything they could get to stay warm, and that left her face and hands covered in soot. She told me the story through tears. Rashidin, the town on the western edge of Aleppo city where the buses arrived with the newly displaced, is the last place on the Aleppo-Damascus highway that one can reach from rebel territory. Rebels call it point zero. Every exiled Syrian brought here had soot on their hands and faces. Their clothes reeked. Their bodies smelled as if they hadnt bathed for a month. Almost everyone said they had burned their furniture, automobile tires, even clothes and blankets, for heat. And some burned their possessions rather than let them fall into the hands of the pro-government militias. I had driven here with a cameraman from the news bureau I manage in Idlib, a journey of a little more than an hour. In the gas station parking lot where the buses arrived, I heard tale after tale of what residents of eastern Aleppo endured during the devastating bombing campaign and starvation siege of the rebel-held enclave traumas that were exacerbated by the mocking of pro-regime militiamen as they abandoned their city. And now they were stranded in the bitter cold with no idea what comes next, forced to rebuild their shattered lives once more. The Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) and the International Committee of the Red Cross had organized the buses after rebels reached a deal with the government to withdraw from eastern Aleppo in exchange for safe passage for their families and other civilians who feared the revenge of the militias. When they came off the buses, everyone was shivering from the cold. They were hungry, and local charities handed out fruit and small food packages. They looked tired and depressed as they sat on the ground, eating them. The best organized were the rebel groups, which sent buses and minibuses to fetch the families of fighters and transport them to secure lodging. But most had no idea where to go and sat on the ground debating their next move. I hear Atarib is a good town to stay in. I will go and look for an apartment, one man told me, speaking of a town close to the Turkish border that is often the target for regime airstrikes. The only joyful sound came from some of the children, who acted as if theyd landed in paradise. The elders were silent and bewildered, looking as though theyd just stepped out of the grave. I tried to start conversations by offering congratulations to the internally displaced people on reaching safety. But the stories they told were beyond my imagination. For a while, I forgot I was a journalist; I was so affected that I wanted to reach out and hug them. Samer al-Najjar was wearing two leather jackets, on top of three sweaters, when I met him. Aleppo, he said, was like hell: He had been expecting to die at any moment. He told a story of a woman who had nowhere to live giving birth in the street shortly before the buses arrived. It happened after three days of waiting. People carried her to the back of a truck and put up a nylon tent over her, he said. A SARC volunteer helped deliver the baby. Tears welled up as he spoke of her. He didnt know her fate or that of the infant. Ahmad Hamido was about 65. He had a white beard and wore a woolen hat, and his right hand shook as he spoke to another reporter. I saw tears in his eyes and felt he needed someone to talk to rather than another interview. So I stopped playing the journalist, put down my camera and microphone, and placed my hand on his shoulder to comfort him. He started to tell me what happened when his fourth-floor apartment was destroyed and he had to flee from one neighborhood to another to escape the bombing. I tried to console him. Youre alive and sound, and that makes up for everything, I said. Ahmad said none of his close relatives survived the siege. Some of his cousins were killed by snipers when they unknowingly wandered into the vicinity of the militia-held checkpoints. His suffering hadnt stopped even after the arrival of the buses. He said the Syrian militias insulted them before they departed. He said a pro-regime militiaman went on the bus and threatened the passengers, demanding they surrender. No one responded. Nearly all the children I talked to were traumatized. They told stories of bombing and death. Most everyone with whom I spoke had lost at least one family member in the bombing. Israa Mansour was 9, with curly hair, a red jacket and blue jeans, and frayed gloves with holes in them. I asked why her family had left Aleppo. Because Russia and Iran will kill us, she replied. May God punish them. They kicked us out of our homes. Samara, 10, said she hasnt been to school since it was bombed during the barrel bombing campaign that lasted more than two years. She said her younger brother was killed in the bombing. We are going to our relatives in Idlib, she said. Inshallah I will be back to school there. I saw a rebel fighter waiting for a family he hadnt seen for four years. When they arrived, he took his wife in his arms and cried. He picked up his two boys, ages 5 and 7, and hugged his wife. When I looked at him, he hid his face, as if to say, a man in uniform carrying a rifle should not be seen crying. Nearly everyone I met there was poor. You could see it from the clothes they wore and the simple things they were carrying. The rich had left Aleppo long ago. Those who stayed behind had nowhere to go or no means to leave. But even those who were lucky enough to find lodging after the fall of eastern Aleppo are still destitute. The widows house in Idlib city is a second-floor apartment with 10 people living in it. Theres no furniture only two threadbare rugs, two mattresses, and some blankets on the floor, along with a very old stove. Wafaa al-Zein, 44, now the head of the family, greeted us by apologizing that she couldnt offer us anything to drink or eat. The family has a gentle manner, suggesting they had lived well in eastern Aleppo but now have no money and have to rely on charity for food, blankets everything. The apartment itself was a donation from another family. Umm Ali, as Wafaa likes to be called, has four children, ages 9 to 24, and three grandchildren. They have gone through an immense tragedy. A little more than one month ago, on Nov. 28, Umm Alis husband and the husband of her 24-year-old daughter, Amina, were killed by a missile while sitting in front of their temporary home in eastern Aleppo. The son-in-laws body was torn in so many pieces that Amina was unable to bury him. I only could find small pieces of him. I kept looking for his body parts for many days, she said. Two days after the bombing, she found his foot on the roof of a neighbors house. Amina has three children, ages 1 to 4, and says she doesnt know how to raise them alone. They keep asking me when their father will come back. They dont believe he is dead, she said. She put her hands over her face to hide the tears. If only I was able to bury him. Ali, at 19, is now the man of the family. He and his father had a business selling vegetables from a cart in eastern Aleppo until the siege made it impossible for them to replenish their stocks. But he was wounded in the war and is now unemployed he begged for my help in finding a job. Their departure from eastern Aleppo during the evacuation has been seared into his memory he referred to it as the journey of humiliation. Ali wouldnt look me in the face as he described what happened. After boarding the buses in eastern Aleppo and crossing into government territory, some pro-regime militiamen began spitting at the windows of the bus. Others boarded the buses, pulled down their pants and demanded the women look at their genitals. I was so angry, I hit my head on the inside of the bus, he said. I wanted to kill myself. But his mother told him: Forget this. They are worthless people. We should not take them seriously. Like so many others, the whole family had waited in the cold for three days for the buses to take them out of government-held eastern Aleppo. Staying was not an option for Umm Ali. She said she didnt fear death but wanted to preserve her honor and that of her daughter. Without saying the word, her fear was being raped. I was worried about my daughter and about myself, she said. Both her husband and her son-in-law were opposition sympathizers. I was worried they would arrest us and carry out revenge. Roy Gutman contributed to this article from Istanbul. Al-Ahmad is a Syrian journalist based in Idlib Province. WASHINGTON President-elect Donald Trump has selected former Indiana Sen. Dan Coats to lead the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, a role that would thrust him into the center of the intelligence community that Trump has publicly challenged, a person with knowledge of the decision said Thursday. Coats served as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee before retiring from Congress last year. If confirmed by the Senate, he would oversee the umbrella office created after 9/11 to improve coordination of U.S. spy and law enforcement agencies. The person with knowledge of Trumps decision, as well as others who spoke to The Associated Press about intelligence matters involving Trump, were not authorized to discuss the matters publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. Since winning the election, Trump has repeatedly challenged intelligence officials assessments that Russia interfered with the election on his behalf, setting up an unusually public battle with the spy agencies. On Friday, senior intelligence officials will try to justify their claims when they brief Trump on the findings of a full report into the Russian hacking of Democratic groups. The report was ordered by President Barack Obama, who was informed of the conclusions Thursday. On the eve of his briefing, Trump continued to challenge the intelligence communitys assertion that Russia was behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee. He questioned how officials could be so sure about the hacking if they had not examined DNC servers. What is going on? he wrote on Twitter. A senior law enforcement official said in a statement released by the FBI that the bureau repeatedly stressed to DNC officials the importance of obtaining direct access to the servers only to be rebuffed until well after the initial compromise had been mitigated. The official said the FBI had to rely on a third party for information, but did get access to the material it needed. Against that backdrop, Trumps transition team has been considering ways to restructure intelligence agencies part of an effort to streamline operations and improve efficiency, not as retribution. Transition officials have been looking at changes at both ODNI and the CIA, according to a person familiar with the discussions. The person said they reflect the views of intelligence officials who have told Trumps team that there is room for streamlining within the multi-agency intelligence community. The Wall Street Journal first reported Wednesday night that Trump was considering the changes. Trump transition spokesman Sean Spicer said the report was 100 percent false and said transition activities were for information-gathering purposes. The scope of the changes discussed by some in Trumps transition team was unclear. But the prospect of a sweeping overhaul still created blowback, contributing to former CIA Director James Woolseys decision to step aside as a senior adviser to the president-elect. A person with direct knowledge of Woolseys decision said the former CIA chief had not been significantly involved in the Trump teams discussions on intelligence matters and became uncomfortable being labeled as an adviser. In an interview on CNN, Woolsey said he did not want to fly under false colors. In other recent television appearances, Woolsey who was CIA director under President Bill Clinton said he believed Russia was involved in the election-related hackings, though he also said others may have been as well. The CIA declined to comment on potential changes to the intelligence community. Outgoing National Intelligence Director James Clapper told a Senate panel Thursday that his office has not been engaged in such discussions with the Trump transition team. He noted that lawmakers created his office. Congress, I think, gets a vote here, said Clapper, who was testifying on Russias election interference. Coats nomination is likely to soothe those who fear Trump will significantly overhaul the intelligence community. The 73-year-old is a Capitol Hill veteran who served eight years in the House before moving to the Senate in 1989 to take Dan Quayles place when he became vice president. He stayed in the Senate until 1998, then left to become a lobbyist. After a stint as ambassador to Germany under President George W. Bush, Coats joined the high-powered Washington firm of King & Spalding. He helped lead the companys government affairs division and lobbied for pharmaceutical, defense and energy companies. Coats, who earned $600,000 in his final 13 months at King & Spalding, downplayed his lobbying work when he returned to Indiana for a successful Senate comeback bid in 2010. He served one term and did not seek re-election last year. Coats was a harsh critic of Russia and pushed the Obama administration to harshly punish Moscow for its annexation of Crimea in 2014. When the White House levied sanctions, the Kremlin responded by banning several lawmakers, including Coats, from traveling to Russia. Trump has called for improving the relationship between the U.S. and Russia, and has also spoken favorably about Russian President Vladimir Putin. His refusal thus far to accept the intelligence communitys assessment that Russia was meddling in the 2016 election has sparked concern among lawmakers in both parties. Intelligence agencies have concluded that there is no question that Russia was behind hacking of political computer systems something they say could only have occurred with the approval of top Kremlin officials. That conclusion is detailed in the classified report Obama ordered up on Russia and other foreign influence in U.S. elections dating back to 2008. _ AP writers Tom Davies in Indianapolis and Eric Tucker and Josh Lederman in Washington contributed to this report. _ Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC , Deb Riechmann at http://twitter.com/debriechmann , and Jonathan Lemire at http://twitter.com/jonlemire The cup of joe that helped you get through the morning, the must-have chair purchased at that trendy furniture store and the palm oil thats key to a favorite family recipe all have elements ripped from the habitat of a threatened or endangered animal somewhere in the world. Goods that sit in stores across the United States had their origins in areas where monkeys, toads, sea cows and big cats live. Those elements, which animals in shrinking habitats need to survive, are used in products made by 15,000 industries worldwide and consumed in 187 countries, disproportionately in the United States and Europe. More than 6,500 species of wildlife suffer because of it. This was first quantified in 2012, when scientists estimated that trade and exports accounted for a third of all threats to wildlife. But for the first time, a study by researchers in Japan and Norway pinpoints the affected habitats of all those species in the hope of helping to focus the work of conservationists who track the effect of human trade. The researchers, Daniel Moran of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and Keiichiro Kanemoto of Shinshu University in Japan, laid relatively new global supply-chain databases over the habitats of endangered species listed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and BirdLife International. That identified areas the scientists call threatened biodiversity hot spots. The research was published this week in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution. Biodiversity hot spots is a well studied topic, and it is known that the last reserves of biodiversity are harbored in a small number of places, Moran said Wednesday by email. Economic pressure, even at the margin and in small increments, exerts pressure at these places. Almost any human pressure at the places, unless very well managed, will have a big impact on species there. Logging in Brazil to create products that wind up in the United States, for example, cuts down trees used by red-face spider monkeys. Fishery trade and gold mined and bound for Japan affects mangroves off Papua New Guinea that are home to diverse plant species and an endangered sea cow. A hydroelectric dam that traps water to irrigate agriculture, including trees that produce palm oil exported to other parts of Europe and the United States, threatens the Iberian lynx. Product demand in the United States also affects marine hot spots off the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica and Nicaragua at the mouth of the Orinoco around Trinidad and Tobago, the study says. The European Union drives threats [in] hot spots outside Southeast Asia in the islands around Madagascar: Reunion, Mauritius, Seychelles. Despite much attention on the Amazon rain forest, the U.S. footprint in Brazil is actually greater in southern Brazil, the Brazilian Highlands, where agriculture and grazing are extensive, than inside the Amazon basin, although impacts along the Amazon river itself are high, the study notes. Because human encroachment on animal habitats has pushed wildlife together, a small degree of impact resonates widely. For threats driven by U.S. consumption, the 5 percent most intensively affected land area covers 23.6 percent of its total impact on species, and at sea the 5 percent most intensively impacted marine area affects 60.7 percent of threatened species habitats, according to the study. Almost all food and fiber is implicated, Moran said. Yet not every threat to animals can be attributed to industry. Disease kills multitudes of wildlife, and invasive species, another byproduct of international trade, kill native animals and compete with them for habitat. Individual products used by humans are a limited threat, but there are so many products that they amount to death by a thousand cuts. Together they add up, Moran said. In general, it is very difficult to find a specific threat cause; species lose ground due to a combination of factors like habitat loss, habitat fragmentation, pollution, climate change. A 22-year-old man who had been lured to Maryland from New Jersey expecting to rendezvous with a woman after an exchange of Facebook messages was killed and buried in a shallow grave in Montgomery County, according to police documents filed in court Wednesday. The killing, which took place in October, appears to be related to the MS-13 street gang, authorities said. The gang has made a resurgence in the Washington area over the past year. Two suspects in the case Neris Moreno, 19, and Jackelin Leiba-Esperanza, 16, who is being charged as an adult made first appearances in Montgomery District Court on Wednesday. They were jailed Tuesday and charged with first-degree murder in the death of Jordy Mejia. This young mans body was found in the woods, desiccated in a shallow grave, Assistant States Attorney Peter Larson said in court. He was found by some hikers off away from the main road, and left and died there. Larson urged Judge Margaret Schweitzer to hold the two suspects on no-bond status, saying they are extreme flight risks because they are recent immigrants and are in the country illegally. He also said they posed a danger to the community and are in danger themselves. MS-13 has a history of seeking action against co-defendants and witnesses, Larson said, adding that the suspects would be safer in jail. The court hearing Wednesday addressed only the bond status of Moreno and Leiba-Esperanza and aired little information about their version of the alleged events. John Lavigne, a public defender who represented them, said the case at this point is at best very circumstantial. Speaking specifically about Leiba-Esperanza, Lavigne said that the girl and her mother had fled violence in El Salvador. The mother, who was in court Wednesday, declined to comment afterward, as did the family of Moreno. Court records do not say how Mejia was killed. His body was discovered Nov. 12 near Game Preserve Road in the Gaithersburg area. Police initially could not identify the remains, but they keyed in on a distinctive, red-and-black-patterned long-sleeve shirt found on the body. They publicized images of the shirt and were contacted by police in Guttenberg, New Jersey, who said the shirt matched one in a missing person case that they were working on. A fingerprint match was made to Jordy Mejia, according to Maryland court records. Detectives began looking at Mejias Facebook account and found messages with a woman named Shaila Smith, according to charging documents. The records showed Mejia discussing traveling to Maryland on Oct. 15 to meet her. That same day, according to Mejias Facebook account, Mejia arrived in the Germantown area, took a picture of himself next to a street sign, and sent the image to the person he believed to be Smith, according to court records. In the image, according to charging documents, Mejia appeared to be wearing the distinctive shirt. The person claiming to be Smith wrote a return message and gave him a local phone number to call. Investigators obtained phone records for that number and began reviewing other incoming calls to the number, according to court records. That led them to a cellphone for Moreno in New Jersey, police allege. Records for the cell number that police say is tied to Moreno showed the phone traveled to Maryland and back to New Jersey around the time of the killing, court records show. More recently, investigators say they learned Moreno had returned to Maryland and was in the Brentwood area. Undercover officers spotted him getting into a van with a woman, followed the van, and pulled it over. Inside were Moreno and Leiba-Esperanza, police said. When questioned, Moreno acknowledged that he had travelled to Maryland in October, according to Larson. Leiba-Esperanza said she had been dating Moreno for a few months and living with him in New Jersey, according to court records. She told detectives she had left audio messages, posing as Shaila Smith, on the victims phone at the request of Moreno, according to charging documents. As a new presidency nears, a New England sheriff has promised President-elect Donald Trump that inmates in Bristol County, Mass., will help him build his contentious wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson said at his inauguration ceremony Wednesday that he plans to put inmate volunteers from the Bristol County House of Correction to work along the southern border. Its part of Hodgsons proposal for a nationwide network of inmate workers who could help with things like natural disaster cleanup and large infrastructure projects. I can think of no other project that would have such a positive impact on our inmates and our country than building this wall, the Republican sheriff said at Bristol Community College during his swearing-in ceremony for his fourth six-year term in office, according to the Herald News. Aside from learning and perfecting construction skills, the symbolism of these inmates building a wall to prevent crime in communities around the country, and to preserve jobs and work opportunities for them and other Americans upon release, can be very powerful, he said. During the presidential campaign, Trump proposed building a massive wall along the 2,000-mile border, at Mexicos expense an effort to keep out undocumented immigrants, terrorists and illegal drugs. The idea became a focal point at Trumps campaign rallies, with supporters chanting Build that wall! Trump has remained resolute in his plan. Hodgson, a longtime opponent of illegal immigration, said Trumps wall must be built. We wont have legitimate immigration reform in this country until we build a wall, he said Wednesday, according to the Herald News. Amid debate over who would foot the bill for the wall, Hodgson announced Project NICE (National Inmates Community Endeavors), a program aimed at rehabilitating inmates by giving them work skills while also providing free labor for big jobs. He said inmates will respond to needs across the country, including cleanup and repairs after catastrophic events such as earthquakes, hurricanes and tornadoes. They would also work on major projects such as Trumps border wall. Think of how much good could come of 500 or 1,000 extra hands in rebuilding a community after a disaster, and the inmates would learn valuable construction skills and on-the-job training as part of their rehabilitation, Hodgson said Wednesday, according to a statement from the Bristol County Sheriffs Department. Jonathan Darling, a spokesman for the sheriffs office, told The Washington Post on Thursday that getting Project NICE off the ground will be a top priority for Hodgson during his next six years in office. Darling said Hodgson has been speaking to sheriffs across the country about his plan for a national network of inmate workers, which would divide the country into four regions. Then, when a natural disaster strikes, Darling said, inmates in that area who have volunteered to be in the work program will respond. Although Hodgson did not say Wednesday who would pay to transport and secure inmates on-site, Darling said the sheriff is hoping to partner with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), an arm of the Department of Homeland Security, and use federal funding to help cover those costs. Now that the sheriff has announced his plan for Project NICE, he is working to make it official, Darling said. The Bristol County Sheriffs Department will soon give a formal presentation at the annual meeting for the National Sheriffs Association. The sheriffs office has also reached out to Trumps transition team to formally offer to help build the wall; sheriffs officials had not heard back as of Thursday morning, Darling said. Trump transition officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The proposal has drawn rebuke from the American Civil Liberties Union in Massachusetts, which called the sheriffs plan perverse. Its inhumane, and its most likely unconstitutional, Laura Rotolo, staff counsel with the ACLU, told the Boston Globe. Its also likely an attempt by Sheriff Hodgson just to ride this wave and become famous nationally. . . . I hope we dont have to take this proposal seriously. Rotolo said the ACLU is prepared to take the sheriff to court over the matter. If Sheriff Hodgson follows through on this gimmick, the ACLU of Massachusetts is prepared to use every tool in our toolbox, including litigation, to stop him, Rotolo told the newspaper. The wall itself . . . is based on racism and hatred, and no self-respecting Massachusetts official should have anything to do with it. The idea of using modern-day slave labor to send people thousands of miles away from their Massachusetts home to build a wall to keep out other vulnerable populations, its just preposterous, she added. Darling, the Bristol County Sheriffs Department spokesman, stressed that only inmates who volunteer for the work program will be called on. We would never force them to do it, he said. Darling called it a benefit for qualifying prisoners in Bristol County (and beyond) to take part in existing inmate work programs, which help shave time off their sentences and give them vocational skills they can use once they are released. He noted, however, that the Bristol County Sheriffs Department doesnt send violent offenders to help through the inmate work program nor would it expect other departments to do so through Project NICE. Asked about the border wall, Darling said the sheriff thought it would be a good project both for the inmates and the country. Hodgson, he said, hopes to be shovel-ready within six months to a year. ELOY, Ariz. A naked woman stole a sheriffs department pickup truck Thursday and led law enforcement officers on an estimated 70-mile high-speed chase on two Arizona highways before she was taken into custody, authorities said. The unidentified woman was disrobed, disoriented and claimed she had been sexually assaulted when a Maricopa County sheriffs deputy responded to a 9 a.m. call about a naked woman at a gas station in Gila Bend along Interstate 8, authorities said. The deputy put the pickup truck in park with the engine running as he tried to find the woman clothes in the gas station, authorities said. The woman then got into the vehicle and drove off. The deputy jumped on the trucks running board before being knocked off. He was treated at a hospital for injuries on his right side and released, sheriffs Chief Deputy Ben Henry said. The woman drove the stolen truck above 100 mph at times as she got onto Interstate 10 headed to Tucson, he said. Arizona Department of Public Safety troopers and law enforcement authorities from Pinal County and Eloy put spike strips on the road that shredded at least one of the vehicles tires. The chase ended near Eloy when the woman sideswiped a car on the freeway and struck a median. The woman got out of the vehicle and wouldnt comply with orders, Henry said. Fearing that she might step into the roadway, authorities shot the woman in the legs with bean bags to subdue her before she was taken to a hospital for examination and evaluation. Sheriffs investigators planned to talk to the woman about the sexual assault allegation, but Henry said she faces numerous charges in the vehicle theft incident. The deputy had his body camera on when the incident began, and authorities have watched the gas stations surveillance video. He was just trying to get her clothed. You can see the concern, Henry said. The makeup of President-elect Donald Trumps trade team suggests he wasnt joking when he promised voters to shake things up. On the campaign trail, Trump portrayed an America that has been shortchanged by bad trade deals and unscrupulous trading partners, leading to the hollowing out of the nations manufacturing sector. He promised to label China a currency manipulator and renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico. Since the election, Trump has taken aim at individual companies, warning General Motors Co. this week that it could face a big border tax if it doesnt shift production to the U.S. from Mexico. And the track records of his top trade officials signal that his administration will take aggressive steps to boost exports, according to trade experts. Its clear this wasnt just campaign rhetoric. The team that the President-elect has put in place was at the core of advising him during the campaign and has a clear playbook of what it wants to implement, said Mark Wu, an assistant professor at Harvard Law School who worked in the office of the U.S. trade representative under George Bush. Theyve been pretty straightforward about their view of the status quo, which is that it undermines American economic interests. Chinese state media has already criticized all three key players in Trumps trade team as supporters of rolling back globalization, warning the incoming administration about the risks of sparking a trade war. Robert Lighthizer, appointee for U.S. trade representative: Trump this week nominated Lighthizer as his chief trade negotiator. Lighthizer, 69, was deputy trade representative under Ronald Reagan, and is now a partner in the Washington offices of law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. He has extensive experience representing the U.S. steel industry, which has frequently accused China of dumping cheap products in world markets. In a 2011 article published in the Washington Times, Lighthizer said that using tariffs to promote American industry was a Republican tenet harking back to the partys roots. How does allowing China to constantly rig trade in its favor advance the core conservative goal of making markets more efficient? he wrote. Hell face Senate confirmation. Wilbur Ross, Commerce secretary nominee: Ross, 79, is a veteran private-equity investor who has served on the board of companies ranging from Luxembourg-based steel giant ArcelorMittal to the Bank of Ireland. He also happens to be an avid collector of Chinese art, according to a recent profile in Politico Magazine. Before the election, Ross decried what he perceived to be a penchant toward China bashing in the U.S. But during the campaign, he co-authored an unflattering report that described the world as riddled with trade cheaters, with China the biggest culprit. The Senate must approve his appointment. Peter Navarro, head of White House National Trade Council: Ross co-author on that report was Navarro, an economics professor at University of California at Irvine who has been a vocal critic of Chinas trade practices. As the head of a newly formed trade council inside the White House, Navarro will be an influential voice on everything from how the U.S. deals with China to the way it taxes its corporations. Navarro, 67, has blamed the North American Free Trade Agreement and Chinas 2001 entry into the WTO for hobbling the U.S. economy. He directed a documentary called Death By China: One Lost Job At A Time based on a book he co-authored. They see trade as a zero-sum game, said Daniel Ikenson, director of trade policy studies at the Cato Institute, a free-market think tank in Washington. Its Team America against the foreign team, with exports as Team Americas points and imports as the foreign teams points. Bloombergs Jennifer Jacobs and Michelle Jamrisko contributed. ROSWELL, N.M. State officials have asked that the city of Roswell reconsider its refusal to make some personnel records available to the public. The Roswell Daily Record reports (http://bit.ly/2j8JziR ) that the newspaper requested former city zoo superintendent Elaine Mayfields personnel records after learning she was placed on administrative leave as superintendent of the Spring River Park & Zoo. The newspaper filed a complaint with the state Attorney Generals Office in September, alleging the city violated state public records laws by denying the production of records. The Attorney Generals Office has since said the city used an invalid justification to withhold records in Mayfields personnel file from the Daily Record. The AGs Office requested the city re-examine its denial of documents and produce the documents to the newspaper. ___ Information from: Roswell Daily Record, http://www.roswell-record.com RICHMOND Gov. Terry McAuliffe on Thursday issued an executive order banning state contracts with firms that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. The policy applies to all executive branch contracts, including those to build roads and highways, but not to those entered into by the legislature or the courts. McAuliffe, D, said his 61st executive order builds upon his very first, signed on the day he took office three years ago this month. As my first act as Governor, I signed Executive Order 1 to ban discrimination in the state workforce based on sexual orientation, take divisive social issue battles off the table and help build an open and welcoming economy, McAuliffe said in a written statement. Starting today, the Commonwealth of Virginia will not do business with entities that discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Virginia is home to the best state workforce in the country and this policy will ensure there is no question that all Virginians are to receive the full benefits of their citizenship, without regard to their sexual orientation or gender identity. Attorney General Mark Herring, D, stood with McAuliffe as he unveiled the new policy at an event in Charlottesville. If we are going to have the economic future we want, we have to send a clear and inclusive message about what and whom we value, and the kind of respect and opportunities that talented people will find in Virginia, Herring said. The order drew criticism from House Speaker William Howell, R-Stafford. Virginia has historically been a leader in the fight for religious liberty. Thomas Jefferson authored the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom that served as the basis for the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights, he said in a written statement. That is why it is unfortunate that Governor McAuliffe wants to harm religious liberty by discriminating against individuals, businesses, and faith-based charities that provide critical services to the Commonwealth and its citizens. Instead of focusing on improving Virginias declining economic climate, the Governor is choosing to focus on divisive issues that play to his base. The conservative Family Foundation of Virginia blasted McAuliffes move as an act of blatant religious bigotry. This unconstitutional act of intimidation and bullying of businesses and charities that are operated by people of faith, from Christians to Jews to Muslims, is not only unnecessary but dangerous, said Victoria Cobb, the groups president. It is also in direct violation of the Virginia Constitution that states, the right to be free from any governmental discrimination upon the basis of religious conviction . . . shall not be abridged. McAuliffe said his order brings the executive branch in line with federal procurement policy, which already prohibits federal contractors from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. It applies only to new contracts valued over $10,000. Subcontractors whose work reaches that threshold would also be subject to the rule. One exception: The order states that certain private child-placing agencies . . . may also be exempted. Under a conscience clause added to the books in 2012, state government may not deny contracts to adoption agencies that, for religious reasons, refuse to place children with certain people, such as those who are gay. McAuliffe made his announcement just days after one of the General Assemblys most vocal conservatives introduced a bill to regulate transgender peoples use of restrooms in schools, at highway rest stops and in other government buildings. Few people including the bills sponsor, Del. Robert Marshall, R-Prince William, expect it to advance out of subcommittee. Democrats instantly turned the bill similar to a new law that has caused controversy and economic losses in neighboring North Carolina into fodder in this years race for governor. If Republicans continue to prioritize divisive and discriminatory social issues while driving businesses away from Virginia, their electoral destiny will mirror Pat McCrorys, said Virginia Democratic Party spokeswoman Emily Bolton, referring to the North Carolina Republican who lost in November. Four Nepali workers buried in mound fall in Himachal Pradesh Four Nepali workers hired for an under-construction road project in Himachal Pradesh in India died as a mound of earth fell over them while on duty on Wednesday evening. They died on the spot. Copyright 2017 Albuquerque Journal University of New Mexico outgoing president Bob Frank, who is on sabbatical after a dramatic conflict with university regents, has been selected as one of four finalists for president of Ohio University. Frank, who was the 21st president of UNM in its 127 years, left his office Saturday but is still in university housing until March. He has been offered a position at the UNM Health Sciences Center. Ohio University, in Athens, Ohio, announced Thursday that Frank is one of four candidates in the schools search for its 21st president in its 212 years. Frank has been on the job at UNM since 2012. His departure comes after several months of exchanges with regents that included leaked documents critical of Franks managerial style and criticism from local politicians and community members about what some call a revolving door for university presidents. Since 1998, the school has had six presidents. None has had a contract renewed. This week, two prominent school donors and community leaders, Terri Giron-Gordon and her husband Gary Gordon, announced they are withdrawing some of their financial support for the school over the clash between the regents and Frank and instability in the schools presidency, which they blamed on regents. We cannot continue to invest in an institution at which the board (of regents) culture does not allow for long-term presidential leadership, the two wrote in their Wednesday letter to the regents, which was also sent to the Journal. The UNM Foundation and the Alumni Association Board were unavailable for comment Thursday. Frank said Thursday that the news of the Gordons withdrawal of support was both comforting and upsetting. It makes me feel very sad, actually. I love the University of New Mexico and graduates of the University of New Mexico. I deeply appreciate that they care about how I was treated. And Im very sad that this controversy exists, Frank said. But really, Im sad the consequence is anything that hurts this university. Provost Chaouki Abdallah is serving as acting president. 5 Bedonie: Ronchetti can't win with 'me in the way' 2022 election PROVIDENCE, R.I. The Latest on the effort to end homelessness among veterans (all times local): 4:20 p.m. Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald says he expects homelessness among veterans to be solved within a couple of years. He made the comments Thursday in an interview with The Associated Press in which he called on his agency and its partners to house as many veterans as possible in 30 days. He describes President Barack Obamas pledge to end veteran homelessness as an audacious goal that has galvanized people. He says it hasnt been met yet because there were more homeless vets than anyone thought. McDonald says that as outreach and data collection improved, officials realized estimates of homeless veterans were low. Federal officials say veteran homelessness has been effectively ended in Virginia, Connecticut and Delaware. About two dozen nonprofits, government officials and homeless veterans in 17 states spoke with the AP about the effectiveness of the effort and challenges they faced. ___ 3:30 p.m. Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald is calling on his agency and its partners to house as many veterans as possible in 30 days. McDonald told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday that homelessness typically increases after the holidays and that winter is a tough time for the homeless. He describes President Barack Obamas pledge to end veteran homelessness as an audacious goal that has galvanized people. He says it hasnt been met yet because there were more homeless vets than anyone thought. McDonald says that as outreach and data collection improved, officials realized estimates of homeless veterans were low. Federal officials say veteran homelessness has been effectively ended in Virginia, Connecticut and Delaware. About two dozen nonprofits, government officials and homeless veterans in 17 states spoke with The Associated Press about the effectiveness of the effort and challenges they faced. ___ 10:30 a.m. Pledges by President Barack Obama and a national nonprofit organization to end homelessness among veterans did not meet their goal. Federal officials say homelessness among veterans has been effectively ended in Virginia and Connecticut. But many veterans still sleep on the streets elsewhere in the country. Nonprofits helping the homeless say the lack of available affordable housing is the reason why. But as Obamas term ends, advocates call the push a success because many homeless veterans did get homes, and the ambitious goal created urgency. About two dozen nonprofits, government officials and homeless veterans in 17 states spoke with The Associated Press about the effectiveness of the effort and the challenges they faced. The latest exhibition at the British Museum offers an overview of South African art from manuports to Mandela and beyond. Lucia Marchini finds out more. Between 1948 and 1994, when the ruling National Party was enforcing apartheid legislation, the official version of South African history portrayed the country as a terra nullius before European settlement in the 17th century. Contemporary artists have protested against this image of an empty land, and it is powerfully repudiated by South Africas archaeology and precolonial art, often denied and marginalised by the apartheid state. South Africa: the art of a nation brings together some of the worlds earliest artworks, demonstrating that the country had long been home to artistic activity and adding to the picture of the prehistoric continent where anatomically modern humans evolved. These signs of the early development of modern human behaviour have challenged previously held views that behavioural modernity developed in Europe. The oldest object on display, and one that is sometimes described controversially as the worlds oldest artwork, is the Makapansgat Pebble. This jasperite stone was found by Wilfred Eitzmann in Makapansgat Cave in 1925 among the remains of Australopithecines, ancestors of modern humans, who lived there around 3 million years ago. This manuport (an object that has been collected but not modified or used) stands out because of its simple face-like markings, caused by the action of water. Though these markings werent made by Hominin hands, it seems that they attracted the attention of one of the Australopithecines, who brought it to the dolomite cave. There are plenty of other early archaeological riches on display. A thinned and symmetrical ironstone hand-axe, made around 1 million years ago and found with thousands of other stone tools at Kathu Pan, shows how some objects were manipulated, favouring form over function. While shell beads from Blombos Cave, coloured with red ochre and probably strung together by their holes to form a necklace, are the earliest firm evidence for symbolic bodily decoration, c.75,000-78,000 years ago. On the rocks Among the most remarkable of the exhibitions artworks are some impressively well-preserved examples of San|Bushman (hunter-gatherer) rock art. One of these is the Coldstream Stone, found above where the head of a human burial would have lain. The burial dates to c.7000 BC and indicates an early ritual use for rock art. The three graceful human figures painted in ochre on the stone are in such excellent condition that some have claimed they were touched up by the archaeologists who found the stone in 1911, but analysis has since disproved this. In contrast with the small (30cm-high) Coldstream Stone, the striking Zaamenkomst Panel measures 2.5m in length. It depicts a herd of red eland with pale undersides, pursued by hunters armed with bows and arrows and battle-axes; the carefully executed paintings have been well preserved thanks to the ash deposit in which the panel was found, face-down. These two pieces of rock art show an artistic medium in use over what may be a long period of time. Though the date of the Zaamenkomst Panel is recorded just as pre-1900, Khoekhoen (herder) rock art clearly attests to an artistic tradition that continued after the arrival of Europeans, with examples portraying Dutch galleons, four-horse wagons, and settlers in crinoline dresses. European influences can be seen, often unsettlingly, in other objects, such as 19th-century Tsonga headrests carved to resemble the Martini-Henry and Lee-Speed rifles used by British forces. An abundance of snuffboxes and other tobacco-related paraphernalia speak of the importance in 19th-century South Africa of the substance first introduced by the Portuguese in the 16th century. Gold and glory By c.AD 500, long before European colonisation, Bantu-speaking migrants (from whom the majority of the current South African population descends) had settled in parts of the southern continent. They established complex societies, traded across the Indian Ocean, and produced sculptures, sometimes using new technologies they brought with them, like metalworking. Among the artefacts from this period are a group of seven terracotta heads, found near Lydenburg in the 1950s. Two of these heads have eyeholes, and they are large enough to be worn over the head as a mask, perhaps as part of ceremonial performances. Dating from AD 500 to 900, the Lydenburg Heads are the oldest-known three-dimensional figurative artworks from southern Africa. But perhaps the most significant set of precolonial objects are the gold grave goods from Mapungubwe, four of which are on display outside South Africa for the first time. Discovered in three royal graves in what was the capital of the first kingdom of South Africa between AD 1220 and 1290, the treasures include a sceptre, a bowl, bracelets, and figurines of high-status animals. The most iconic of these is a rhinoceros, which has lent its image to the Order of Mapungubwe, the countrys highest honour, first received by Nelson Mandela in 2002. The golden rhino and indeed many of the early artworks in this exhibition shows the important role that archaeology can play in contemporary South African society, after decades of denying these exceptional finds. From the earliest manifestations of creative expression via landmark objects from the modern age, including anti-apartheid badges and a 1994 ballot paper, to bold contemporary art, the astonishing array of pieces on display provide a powerful view of the countrys lengthy history, and highlight how painfully blind it is to ignore archaeological evidence. South Africa: the art of a nation runs until 26 February 2017 at the British Museum; thanks are due to logistics partner IAG Cargo. Tickets cost 12. Visit www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/south_africa.aspx for more information. This review was published in CA 322. Gathabandhan calls on UML to honour SC ruling The Sanghiya Gathabandhan, an alliance of Madhesi and Janajati parties, have urged the main opposition CPN-UML to honour the Supreme Courts ruling and let the constitution amendment bill make its way into Parliament. Govt to reimburse LMW for cost of feasibility study The government has agreed to reimburse Landmark Worldwide Company (LMW) of Korea for the cost of conducting a detailed feasibility study (DFS) of the proposed Second International Airport (SIA) in Nijgadh as it has decided to implement the project itself. Govt to repossess Prerana Shahs dowry land The government has repossessed the land purportedly received by former crown princess Prerana Shah from her father and Ex-King Gyanendra Shah as dowry. Heal the pain Not one perpetrator from the conflict era has been held accountable in the past decade Turkey has warned that repeated ceasefire violations by Syria's government are threatening peace talks scheduled for later this month. Foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the talks in Kazakhstan were scheduled for January 23, to be preceded by preparatory meetings between Turkish and Russian "experts" in Turkey. The Syrian government and allied militias have pressed on with an offensive to take the Barada Valley outside Damascus from rebels despite a ceasefire agreement signed shortly before the new year. The government says the region was never included in the agreement. Rebels have retaliated with shelling and raids on government-held areas in other parts of the country. The rebels also accuse the government of carrying out air raids in the rebel-held province of Idlib, where hundreds of thousands of civilians have sought refuge. Mr Cavusoglu called on Iran, a key ally of Syrian president Bashar Assad and one of the guarantors of the agreement, to address the violations by pro-government forces. Turkey supports the Syrian opposition. The ceasefire was supposed to prepare the way for the talks in the Kazakh capital Astana, in what would be the first substantial diplomatic movement towards ending the conflict in nearly a year. Russia, Turkey and Iran had agreed to broker those talks. Russia is also a key ally of Assad. Mr Cavusoglu warned the Astana process "might fail if we cannot stop the escalating violations", in remarks made to Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency. The foreign minister also said he had received assurances from Russia that the Kurdish Syrian PYD party would not be invited to Astana. Turkey considers the party and its armed wing an extension of its own outlawed Kurdish insurgency and classifies it as a terror organisation. The PYD controls most of the Syrian-Turkish frontier. Its armed wing enjoys the backing of the US military and is the most effective ground force battling Islamic State in Syria. - AP Published On Jan 05, 2017 11:36 AM By Arun for BMW 5 Series 2017-2021 No, we arent talking about hiring a well-trained chauffeur to ferry you in your swanky new 5 Series. BMW has built one that can drive around all by itself. Showcased at the ongoing Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the prototype looks like any other 5 Series, save for the stickering, of course. BMW claims that the driver can hand over complete control of the car including acceleration, braking and steering to the car itself. The German automaker hasnt explained the technology in detail, but does say that the self-driving is the combined output of the on-board sensors, the maps and the lane-keeping technology. On specific route segments, drivers can hand over both longitudinal control tasks and lateral control to the assistance systems, which frees them up to concentrate on other activities, read a press release issued by the manufacturer. What other activities, you ask? Well, when the car is switched to Passenger Mode (read: autonomous mode) it can tell the driver if he/she has enough time to watch a video on Amazon Prime. Were not kidding! The car is clever enough to dim out the interior lights and close the sunblinds when the rear passengers play video as well! This is courtesy the BMW Connected system that also lets you do other cool stuff, such as keeping a tab on your parked car by giving you a 360-degree view on your smartphone, and using Cortana (Microsofts voice assistant) to help you reserve a table at a restaurant. The final party trick is autonomous parking. The prototype links up to the parking areas management system, which notifies it of a reserved parking area. The driver has to simply drive to the drop-off point and alight from the car, post which, the car goes about parking itself. Read More on : 5 Series price Published On Jan 05, 2017 07:51 AM By Rachit Shad It was supposed to break cover in August 2016 Italy is blessed with many things and mouth-watering food is just one of them. It is home to some of the best car marques in the industry, such as Ferrari, Lamborghini and Maserati. These brands already have their prestigious history to build on. However, shaking their place in the supercar category isnt easy. Only one Italian car firm has managed to poke its way into the supercar battle in recent years and that is Pagani. It wowed enthusiasts all over the globe with its striking design language in the Zonda supercar. And with the Zondas successor, the Huayra, the company has reinstated its aim to become one of the all time greats. To get our blood rushing again, teaser images of the Huayra Roadster have surfaced and are hovering around the world-wide-web. Just like Pagani did with the Zonda Roadster, it is likely to keep a simple removable-top layout for the Huayra. The idea is to save weight as adding a convertible system adds considerable amount of kilograms. From the previous work of the Pagani engineers, it would be safe to assume that the Huayra Roadster will have the same power-to-weight ratio as the hard-top one. Another known aspect about Pagani is that it will keep the production extremely limited for this extremely expensive car, all of which are expected to be sold even before the car breaks cover. It will be powered by the same Mercedes-AMG 6.0-litre V12, that puts out 750PS of power and 1,001Nm of torque. The power plant is enough to catapult the car from naught to 100kmph in just 3.3 seconds and reach a claimed top-speed of 370kmph. Last year, Pagani had scheduled an official unveiling of the roadster version of the Huayra. But it wasnt meant to be. Only a handful of people got a chance to see the car behind closed doors in a private party that took place at the companys new factory in San Cesario Sul Panaro, Modena, Italy. Regular earthlings like us will have to wait until the 2017 Geneva Motor Show, when the Italian car firm will finally take the wraps off its open-top Huayra. In recent years, there have been several studies which show that getting physical exercise can help counteract the development of depression. However, researchers have predominantly focused on adults and adolescents when conducting trials. To widen the scope, researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and NTNU Social Research have tested how exercise can affect children's mental health. The findings show that allowing children to run around and actively play lowers the risk of depression as well. "Being active, getting sweaty and roughhousing offer more than just physical health benefits. They also protect against depression," said first author Dr. Tonje Zahl. Protecting against depression The researchers analyzed 800 children over a four-year period between the ages of six and ten. At three intervals, childrens physical activity levels were measured with accelerometers. Parents were also interviewed to gauge childrens mental health. The results showed that physically active six- and eight-year-olds had fewer signs of depression when they were reassessed two years later. The researchers believe this correlation could be important for parents when it comes to encouraging certain hobbies and activities. "This is important to know, because it may suggest that physical activity can be used to prevent and treat depression already in childhood," said co-author Silje Steinsbekk. Less active kids may not be depressed While the study does corroborate past research that extolls the benefits of physical activity, it also differs in some respects. Perhaps most notable is the finding that depressed children tend to also be less active; previous studies on adults had correlated a sedentary lifestyle with depression, but that did not seem to be the case with children. "We also studied whether children who have symptoms of depression are less physically active over time, but didn't find that to be the case, said Steinsbekk. So, what can parents take away from all of this? The researchers say encouraging physical activity is the main thing to keep in mind, but limiting TV and computer time may also be wise. The full study has been published in Pediatrics. IBN to start negotiation with private firms soon Investment Board Nepal (IBN) will soon start negotiations with two private companies for Kathmandu Valley Integrated Solid Waste Management Project. NAFCU President and CEO Dan Berger emphasized the importance of preserving the credit union tax exemption in a letter to House and Senate leaders Tuesday, which laid out the associations top legislative priorities for 2017. Berger said the preservation of the tax exemption would continue to be NAFCUs top priority during the 115th Congress, which opened this week. Altering the tax status of credit unions would have a devastating impact not only on credit union members across the country, but also on consumers and small businesses in general, Berger wrote in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. Eliminating the credit union tax exemption would result in the loss of 150,000 jobs per year, a shrinking of the GDP, and a net loss of revenue to the federal government, he continued. As Congress prepares to tackle tax reform, we urge you to continue to support the credit union tax exemption. The effort to legalize marijuana on the federal level received a high level push in December when Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren joined a group of senators in a letter to FinCEN. Her celebrity status has triggered another round of media coverage; After all, she is already being mentioned as a potential nominee for president with the next election only four years away and she likes to tweet which is a core prerequisite for the office. By joining the most recent letter writing campaign she has once again put the spotlight on the Alice in Wonderland world of legalized pot. It makes perfect sense for the senator to join the push for legalizing cannabis. In November, Massachusetts voters approved a referendum to legalize marijuana for recreational purposes. There are now 29 states, including New York, which legalize the possession of marijuana to some extent. What drives me nuts is that Warren and her fellow senators once again chose to badger FinCEN to approve additional guidance clarifying that banks and credit unions can provide banking services to pot businesses in states in which they are legal. To be clear, I believe that the federal government should legalize the sale and distribution of marijuana in those states where it is legal. I also believe that banks and credit unions should be able to provide services to these legitimate businesses. The senators correctly point out that even though FinCEN issued a 2014 guidance detailing the conditions under which it would allow them to do so fewer than three percent of the nations banks and credit unions are willing to serve this industry. A new year has only just begun, but Lyle Quinn is already looking ahead to the next one. Its a once-in-a-lifetime experience, he says of Dals upcoming 200th anniversary in 2018. Im excited about a shared celebration bringing our campus community closer together. Quinn is a recent alumnus (BA14) and a manager with the universitys Conference Services office. In addition to supporting conferences and special events for Dals 200th anniversary, hes Homecoming chair of the Dalhousie Alumni Associations Board of Directors and a volunteer with the Dal Originals storytelling oral history initiative, helping interview notable individuals from the universitys past and present. Contributing to this project with the University Archives was such a great learning experience, he says. As a Sociology & Social Anthropology major, I geeked out a little when I heard about the project. Randy Barkhouse is president of the Association of Dalhousie Retirees and Pensioners and a couple of generations removed from Quinn (and a three-time Dal alumnus), so he might choose a different term than geeked out to describe his involvement in the universitys 200th. But hes incredibly excited nonetheless. I believe observing such an anniversary provides a few instances to pause and assess the contribution Dalhousie is currently making, and to note all those who have assisted its mission in the past whether as an employee, a board member, a donor, a student, parent of a student, or otherwise, says Barkhouse who, like Quinn, has been volunteering with the Dal Originals project. It is important to know how we got to where Dalhousie is today, and it is also an opportunity to reflect on Dalhousie's mission in higher education and to renew and update. Reflection and celebration Quinn and Barkhouse are two of the hundreds of Dal faculty, staff and students whove already had a hand in the planning process for Dalhousies 200th celebration. With a variety of university-wide, Faculty and community activities, 2018 is poised to be a year that shares Dals stories, opens the universitys doors and builds excitement for the future like never before. Its a chance to reflect on our contributions, our values and our mission going forward, says Chris Moore, dean of the Faculty of Science. Hes a member of several planning committees for the 200th, including serving on the universitys overall steering committee. Two hundred years is a long time. We need to celebrate this landmark and at the same time appreciate that we can build on this foundation and become stronger as we move forward in our third century. This week, one year out from the start of Dals anniversary year, the university has launched dal200.ca. At this early stage, the website highlights just a few of the many events being planned for 2018, with much more to be announced in the coming weeks and months. The site also includes an initial timeline of Dals history, featuring images from University Archives and Special Collections; opportunities for alumni, faculty/staff, students and community members to share their stories and experiences; a social media feed (#Dal200); and an interactive alumni map. As we count down to 2018, content on the site will continue to grow and expand, says Hope McCallum, director of marketing for Dalhousie. Feel free to take a look around, add your story and be part of the celebration. Learn more: dal200.ca A bicentennial celebration is pretty rare only a handful of other Canadian universities have marked this milestone, says Catherine Bagnell Styles, assistant vice-president of Communications and Marketing and 200th planning chair. Its an opportunity to reflect and honor the past and envision the future. Its also a tremendous opportunity to say a huge thank to those who have helped us get to this point our students, alumni, faculty, staff, donors, friends and neighbours, on and off campus. We really want our entire city, region and even our country, to feel this is their celebration, because we wouldnt be here without them. Signature events, community celebrations and more Dals 200th celebrations will include signature activities university-wide programs focused on celebration, inclusion, leadership and legacy alongside Faculty and unit initiatives and prominent partnerships with community organizations. When you celebrate a milestone of this significance, its really exciting, says Michelle Patrick, program manager of PLANS (Promoting Leadership in Health for African Nova Scotians) and co-chair of the Black Faculty & Staff Caucus. Shes been helping organize a special lecture series that will take place in 2018. You think about how much has happened in 200 years, the university going from a single small building and a few people to this major research university that reaches locally and globally. The anniversary is a chance to celebrate, and to think about how the next 200 years can be even bigger and better. A few examples of 200th activities being planned include: The Presidents Bicentennial Address , on February 6, 2018 the anniversary of Lord Bathurst approving Lord Dalhousies request to create a university. , on February 6, 2018 the anniversary of Lord Bathurst approving Lord Dalhousies request to create a university. Dal Originals , a year-long celebration of individuals who have shaped the university and our world. In total, 52 Originals will be profiled weekly throughout 2018, their stories shared online and in video. , a year-long celebration of individuals who have shaped the university and our world. In total, 52 Originals will be profiled weekly throughout 2018, their stories shared online and in video. The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences have confirmed George Elliott Clarke (Dal grad and Canadas Parliamentary Poet Laureate) will compose a poem in honour of Dals 200th. The Faculty is also commissioning a new piece of celebratory music. (Dal grad and Canadas Parliamentary Poet Laureate) will compose a poem in honour of Dals 200th. The Faculty is also commissioning a new piece of celebratory music. Dal Libraries will host an expanded Halifax Word on the Street festival . . The Dalhousie Art Gallery is planning several special exhibits. is planning several special exhibits. The Faculty of Computer Science has an important gender-in-the-classroom project . . The Faculty of Management will be planting 200 new trees on campus. on campus. Ancillary Services will be offering a special 2018 coffee brew. And there is much, much more still to be confirmed. Visit dal200.ca to learn more about the 200th planning. Want to keep tabs on whats to come? Regular updates will be featured in Today@Dal (the universitys newsletter for faculty/staff), and look for Dal News profiles of the people and projects of Dals 200th in the weeks and months ahead. A new look rising The dal200.ca website is also the first place where the universitys new 200th logo comes alive. You may have gotten a first-look at the logo during consultation sessions last summer thanks to all who provided input. Stationery with the new logo is now available from the Dalhousie Print Centre. (Although feel free to continue using what you have purchasing new stationary with the 200th logo is not required.) Find out more about the logo and how to use it here [PDF]. Equity Residential and Equal Rights Center Agreement on Accessible Housing for People with Disabilities Published: 2017-01-05 Author: Matthew Handley | Contact: washlaw.org Peer-Reviewed Publication: N/A Jump to: Main Digest | Publications Synopsis: Equity Residential agreement with the Equal Rights Center with respect to accessible housing for people with disabilities in Equity Residential communities. Equal Rights Center and Equity Residential settle litigation and agree to expand accessible housing. advertisements Main Digest Equal Rights Center and Equity Residential settle litigation and agree to expand accessible housing. In a settlement resolving a long-pending litigation, Equity Residential based in Chicago, Illinois, has reached agreement with the Equal Rights Center (ERC) - a national civil rights organization based in Washington, D.C. - with respect to accessible housing for people with disabilities in Equity Residential communities. Under the parties' agreement, Equity Residential will survey and remediate certain conditions in housing units across the United States at 85 residential properties. "The Equal Rights Center is pleased to reach this Agreement with Equity Residential, and we look forward to working with them to increase significantly the availability of accessible housing," said Melvina Ford, Executive Director of the Equal Rights Center. "We applaud Equity Residential and its senior management for their willingness to proactively address issues of accessibility. The real winners here are the tens of millions of people in this country with disabilities who will now have more opportunities as they choose where they want to live." Added Matthew Handley, the Director of Litigation at the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs: "As Congress recognized in passing the Fair Housing Act Amendments in 1988, barriers in the built environment exclude people with disabilities from living in the housing of their choice. After receiving complaints about the widespread lack of accessible housing, the Equal Rights Center began its initiative to ensure equal housing opportunities for people with disabilities. We are delighted that Equity Residential has joined the ERC's efforts and has agreed to make thousands of units more accessible." Since beginning its accessible housing initiative more than 12 years ago, the ERC has reached agreements with sixteen national, regional, and local multifamily companies resulting in the alteration of more than 25,000 apartment and condominium units at more than 300 complexes across the country, to make them more accessible to people with disabilities. Equity Residential joins other major multifamily companies, including Archstone Smith Trust, Bozzuto, Camden Property Trust, Dittmar, Kettler, and Trammell Crow Residential in multi-year commitments to proactively work with the ERC to improve and ensure accessibility in housing. The ERC was represented in negotiating its agreement with Equity Residential by the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights & Urban Affairs, and the Washington law firms Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC and Blank Rome LLP. Equity Residential was represented by the law firms Baker Hostetler LLP and Saul Ewing LLP. Disabled World is an independent disability community established in 2004 to provide disability news and information to people with disabilities, seniors, their family and/or carers. See our homepage for informative news, reviews, sports, stories and how-tos. You can also connect with us on Twitter and Facebook or learn more about Disabled World on our about us page. advertisements Disabled World provides general information only. The materials presented are never meant to substitute for professional medical care by a qualified practitioner, nor should they be construed as such. Financial support is derived from advertisements or referral programs, where indicated. Any 3rd party offering or advertising does not constitute an endorsement. Cite This Page (APA): Matthew Handley. (2017, January 5). Equity Residential and Equal Rights Center Agreement on Accessible Housing for People with Disabilities. Disabled World. Retrieved November 4, 2022 from www.disabled-world.com/disability/housing/erc.php Permalink: Equity Residential and Equal Rights Center Agreement on Accessible Housing for People with Disabilities A new analysis of an archeological site in the high mountains of Tibet suggests that permanent residents may have set up camp thousands of years sooner than previously thought. Previous analyses estimated that the site's founding residents arrived about 5,200 thousand years ago, but now a more comprehensive analysis by Michael Meyer et al. suggests that it was inhabited, likely on a permanent basis, at least 7,400 thousand years ago, but perhaps as long as more than 12,000 years ago. Upon leaving Africa, humans effectively spread out across most of the Earth, but the timing of their arrival in the highest Himalyan ranges has been unclear. Among some of the best preserved sites for scientists to study is Chusang, a village perched in the central plateau more than 4,000 meters above sea level. The site, discovered in 1998, features 19 human hand- and footprints along the surface of a fossil travertine. In attempts to better date the village, Meyer and colleagues used three different techniques, including thorium/uranium dating of samples taken from and adjacent to the prints; optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) to determine the date of quartz crystals in the travertine; and radiocarbon dating on microscopic plant remains at the site. Their new estimated range for settlement at Chusang, between 7,400 and 12, 6700 thousand years ago, is more in line with results from some genetic studies, the authors note. As well, they highlight how difficult travel from this base camp must have been, with roundtrip routes to other sites likely taking dozens of days and being impassable for most of the year. Therefore, they emphasize that is it very likely that Chusang represents a permanent settlement, before agriculture took hold in the area. Permanent pre-agricultural peopling of the plateau may have been enabled by a wetter climate that prevailed in the region at the time, Meyer and colleagues suggest. ### The Lucy mission to Jupiter's Trojan asteroids has been chosen by NASA for flight under the agency's Discovery Program. Lucy will carry an ASU-designed and -developed thermal emission spectrometer, which will measure surface temperatures on each asteroid the spacecraft visits, said Philip Christensen of the university's School of Earth and Space Exploration. "I'm really excited about this instrument, the third to be built here at SESE," said Christensen, thermal emission spectrometer designer and principal investigator. The device continues a growing tradition of hands-on engineering for exploration that has become hallmark of the school, said Christensen, Regents' Professor of geological sciences. The announcement Wednesday came as NASA also selected for development an ASU-led mission to a metallic asteroid. Both projects were approved through NASA's Discovery Program, a series of cost-capped exploratory missions into the solar system. The Lucy mission was named for the iconic fossil skeleton, since it will investigate a particular collection of primitive asteroids that scientists hope may uncover fossils of planetary formation. Its flight plan calls for a 2021 launch. Among the potential targets for an extended mission is asteroid 52246 Donaldjohanson, named for the discoverer of the Lucy fossil and director of ASU's Institute of Human Origins in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change. Originating at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, the mission is under the direction of principal investigator Harold Levison of the Southwest Research Institute. The target objects for the Lucy mission are asteroids that have never before been studied at close range. These minor planets circle the Sun at same distance as Jupiter, roughly five times farther out than Earth, and in the same 12-year orbit as Jupiter. Through a quirk of orbital dynamics, they remain caught in two swarms, one leading and one trailing Jupiter as it orbits the sun. The first of these asteroids was discovered in 1906 and named for the Greek warrior Achilles from Homer's epic poem "The Iliad." As more asteroids were discovered in similar orbits, astronomers started naming them after Homeric Greek and Trojan warriors. Those with Greek names orbit ahead of Jupiter, the Trojan-named ones orbit behind. Collectively, however, both groups are called Trojans, and there are now nearly 6,200 known asteroids in Trojan orbits with Jupiter. The mission should arrive among the Trojans in 2027 and visit six asteroids by 2033. Because Jupiter's Trojan asteroids orbit far from the Sun, they all have very cold surfaces. The role in the mission for TES, Christensen said, is to measure temperatures with great precision all over each asteroid that the Lucy spacecraft visits. "By mapping how temperatures vary by the local time of day," Christensen explained, "we can map the surface properties of these previously unknown objects." That will help planetary scientists decipher their histories and how they have changed since the solar system's early days. "With each new mission," Christensen said, "we're expanding the types of solar system objects we're studying here are ASU." ### Arizona State University's Psyche Mission, a journey to a metal asteroid, has been selected for flight under NASA's Discovery Program, a series of lower-cost, highly focused robotic space missions that are exploring the solar system. The mission's spacecraft is expected to launch in 2023, arriving at the asteroid in 2030, where it will spend 20 months in orbit, mapping it and studying its properties. It is the first time ASU will lead a NASA space exploration mission. The project is capped at $450 million. "This mission, visiting the asteroid Psyche, will be the first time humans will ever be able to see a planetary core," said principal investigator Lindy Elkins-Tanton, director of ASU's School of Earth and Space Exploration (SESE). "Having the Psyche Mission selected for NASA's Discovery Program will help us gain insights into the metal interior of all rocky planets in our solar system, including Earth." Psyche, an asteroid orbiting the sun between Mars and Jupiter, is made almost entirely of nickel-iron metal. As such, it offers a unique look into the violent collisions that created Earth and the other terrestrial planets. The scientific goals of the Psyche mission are to understand the building blocks of planet formation and explore firsthand a wholly new and unexplored type of world. The mission team seeks to determine whether Psyche is a protoplanetary core, how old it is, whether it formed in similar ways to the Earth's core, and what its surface is like. "The knowledge this mission will create has the potential to affect our thinking about planetary science for generations to come," ASU President Michael M. Crow said. "We are in a new era of exploration of our solar system with new public-private sector partnerships helping unlock new worlds of discovery, and ASU will be at the forefront of that research." Psyche -- a window into planetary cores Every world explored so far by humans (except gas giant planets such as Jupiter or Saturn) has a surface of ice or rock or a mixture of the two, but their cores are thought to be metallic. These cores, however, lie far below rocky mantles and crusts and are considered unreachable in our lifetimes. Psyche, an asteroid that appears to be the exposed nickel-iron core of a protoplanet, one of the building blocks of the sun's planetary system, may provide a window into those cores. The asteroid is most likely a survivor of violent space collisions, common when the solar system was forming. Psyche follows an orbit in the outer part of the main asteroid belt, at an average distance from the sun of about 280 million miles, or three times farther from the sun than Earth. It is roughly the size of Massachusetts (about 130 miles in diameter) and dense (7,000 kg/m). "Being selected to lead this ambitious mission to the all-metal asteroid Psyche is a major milestone that reflects ASU's outstanding research capacity," said Sethuraman Panchanathan, executive vice president and chief research and innovation officer at ASU. "It speaks to our innovative spirit and our world-class scientific expertise in space exploration." Mission instrument payload The spacecraft's instrument payload will include magnetometers, multispectral imagers, a gamma ray and neutron spectrometer, and a radio-science experiment. The multispectral imager, which will be led by an ASU science team, will provide high-resolution images using filters to discriminate between Psyche's metallic and silicate constituents. It consists of a pair of identical cameras designed to acquire geologic, compositional and topographic data. The gamma ray and neutron spectrometer will detect, measure and map Psyche's elemental composition. The instrument is mounted on a 7-foot (2-meter) boom to distance the sensors from background radiation created by energetic particles interacting with the spacecraft and to provide an unobstructed field of view. The science team for this instrument is based at the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University. The magnetometer, which is led by scientists at MIT and UCLA, is designed to detect and measure the remnant magnetic field of the asteroid. It's composed of two identical high-sensitivity magnetic field sensors located at the middle and outer end of the boom. The Psyche spacecraft will also use an X-band radio telecommunications system, led by scientists at MIT and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This instrument will measure Psyche's gravity field and, when combined with topography derived from onboard imagery, will provide information on the interior structure of the asteroid. The Psyche mission team In addition to Elkins-Tanton, ASU SESE scientists on the Psyche mission team include Jim Bell, deputy principal investigator and co-investigator, co-investigator Erik Asphaug, and co-investigator David Williams. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory managed by Caltech is the managing organization and will build the spacecraft with industry partner Space Systems Loral (SSL). JPL's contribution to the Psyche mission team includes over 75 people, led by project manager Henry Stone, project scientist Carol Polanskey, project systems engineer David Oh and deputy project manager Bob Mase. SSL contribution to the Psyche mission team includes over 50 people led by SEP Chassis deputy program manager Peter Lord and SEP Chassis program manager Steve Scott. Other co-investigators are David Bercovici (Yale University), Bruce Bills (JPL), Richard Binzel (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), William Bottke (Southwest Research Institute -- SwRI), Ralf Jaumann (Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft und Raumfahrt -- DLR), Insoo Jun (JPL), David Lawrence (Johns Hopkins University/Applied Physics Laboratory -- APL), Simon Marchi (SwRI), Timothy McCoy (Smithsonian Institution), Ryan Park (JPL), Patrick Peplowski (APL), Thomas Prettyman, (Planetary Science Institute), Carol Raymond (JPL), Chris Russell (UCLA), Benjamin Weiss (MIT), Dan Wenkert (JPL), Mark Wieczorek (Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris), and Maria Zuber (MIT). ### Philadelphia, PA, January 5, 2017 - Treatment with an inhibitor of 12/15-lipoxygenase, an enzyme elevated in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), reverses cognitive decline and neuropathology in an AD mouse model, reports a new study in Biological Psychiatry. The effects were observed after the AD-like phenotype was already established in the mice, which is promising for its potential therapeutic use, as neuropathology tends to develop many years before the appearance of AD symptoms in patients. The study, by senior author Domenico Pratic? and colleagues at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, offers some hope for a new treatment for patients with AD, who currently have no effective therapy options. Past research has focused on prevention of the disease by reducing the levels of proteins that cause brain plaques and tangles and kill nerve cells. "In this exciting new study, the authors provide support for a new experimental treatment approach that works by helping nerve cells digest toxic proteins that might otherwise cause cell death," said John Krystal, Editor of Biological Psychiatry. First author Antonio Di Meco and colleagues used a triple transgenic (3xTg) mouse model that displays an AD-like phenotype, including cognitive decline, and A and tau neuropathology characteristic of the disease in humans. They had already shown that early administration of the 12/15-lipoxygenase inhibitor PD146176 could prevent the onset of these features in mice. To achieve a more real-world scenario in this study, they waited until the transgenic mice were a year old, when both cognitive impairments and neuropathology were established, before administering the drug. "We show for the first time that selective pharmacologic inhibition of the 12/15-lipoxygenase enzyme rescues the entire AD-like phenotype," Pratico said. Untreated 3xTg mice displayed impaired learning and memory as expected, but 3xTg mice that were administered PD146176 for 3 months were indistinguishable from normal mice in a memory test. In the same mice, the researchers found that PD146176 treatment significantly reduced the levels of A and insoluble tau proteins. Inhibition of 12/15-lipoxygenase activated autophagy, the body's natural kill system for cells. The activation was associated with decreased levels of tau, suggesting that the inhibitor works by re-activating the neuronal autophagy machinery to clear cellular buildup of tau. The results indicate that pharmacological inhibition of 12/15-lipoxygenase reverses learning and memory impairments and reduces A and tau neuropathology, even after their onset in aged mice. "Our findings have important translational value since they establish this protein enzyme as a novel and viable therapeutic target with real disease-modifying potential for AD," Pratico said. ### Notes for editors The article is "12/15-Lipoxygenase Inhibition Reverses Cognitive Impairment, Brain Amyloidosis, and Tau Pathology by Stimulating Autophagy in Aged Triple Transgenic Mice," by Antonio Di Meco, Jian-Guo Li, Benjamin E. Blass, Magid Abou-Gharbia, Elisabetta Lauretti, and Domenico Pratico (doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2016.05.023). It appears in Biological Psychiatry, volume 81, issue 2 (2017), published by Elsevier. Copies of this paper are available to credentialed journalists upon request; please contact Rhiannon Bugno at +1 214 648 0880 or biol.psych@utsouthwestern.edu. Journalists wishing to interview the authors may contact Domenico Pratico, M.D., at praticod@temple.edu. The authors' affiliations, and disclosures of financial and conflicts of interests are available in the article. John H. Krystal, M.D., is Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine, Chief of Psychiatry at Yale-New Haven Hospital, and a research psychiatrist at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System. His disclosures of financial and conflicts of interests are available here. About Biological Psychiatry Biological Psychiatry is the official journal of the Society of Biological Psychiatry, whose purpose is to promote excellence in scientific research and education in fields that investigate the nature, causes, mechanisms and treatments of disorders of thought, emotion, or behavior. In accord with this mission, this peer-reviewed, rapid-publication, international journal publishes both basic and clinical contributions from all disciplines and research areas relevant to the pathophysiology and treatment of major psychiatric disorders. The journal publishes novel results of original research which represent an important new lead or significant impact on the field, particularly those addressing genetic and environmental risk factors, neural circuitry and neurochemistry, and important new therapeutic approaches. Reviews and commentaries that focus on topics of current research and interest are also encouraged. Biological Psychiatry is one of the most selective and highly cited journals in the field of psychiatric neuroscience. It is ranked 5th out of 140 Psychiatry titles and 11th out of 256 Neurosciences titles in the Journal Citations Reports published by Thomson Reuters. The 2015 Impact Factor score for Biological Psychiatry is 11.212. About Elsevier Elsevier is a world-leading provider of information solutions that enhance the performance of science, health, and technology professionals, empowering them to make better decisions, deliver better care, and sometimes make groundbreaking discoveries that advance the boundaries of knowledge and human progress. Elsevier provides web-based, digital solutions -- among them ScienceDirect, Scopus, Research Intelligence and ClinicalKey -- and publishes over 2,500 journals, including The Lancet and Cell, and more than 35,000 book titles, including a number of iconic reference works. Elsevier is part of RELX Group, a world-leading provider of information and analytics for professional and business customers across industries. http://www.elsevier.com Media contact Rhiannon Bugno Editorial Office, Biological Psychiatry +1 214 648 0880 biol.psych@utsouthwestern.edu EVANSTON, Ill. --- Julio M. Ottino, dean of the McCormick School of Engineering at Northwestern University, has been awarded a prestigious national education prize for the development and implementation of Whole-Brain Engineering, the school's principal guiding strategy for more than a decade. The 2017 Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education from the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) honors Ottino and his innovative education efforts that have swept across both the McCormick School and the University. Whole-Brain Engineering is a reimagining of engineering education; it merges the analytical and technical components of engineering (left brain) with creativity, design and divergent thinking (right brain). This interdisciplinary approach for developing leaders has led to new Northwestern programs and initiatives for engineers and non-engineers alike and has attracted the attention of other engineering schools worldwide. "Julio's leadership and vision have helped form a new culture of collaboration at McCormick with far-reaching effects across the University and beyond," Northwestern President Morton Schapiro said. "He has made engineering central to numerous initiatives across the University's disciplines -- music, journalism, social sciences and law -- and led collaborative partnerships with premier institutions, including the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Rehabilitation Institution of Chicago," President Schapiro said. The Gordon Prize is the highest honor in the country for engineering education. Ottino will be honored at the NAE's Gordon Prize ceremony May 30 at Northwestern. He will split the $500,000 prize money equally with the McCormick School. "I am pleased to recognize Julio Ottino for his transformational program at Northwestern University," NAE President C. D. Mote Jr. said. "Julio is the personification of a leader who is preparing the next generation of engineers to tackle society's greatest challenges." "It is an incredible honor to be recognized on behalf of the outstanding faculty and staff at McCormick for the work that we have done," said Ottino, who, as both an engineer and an artist, exemplifies whole-brain thinking. "From the beginning, we set out to reframe engineering, emphasizing that engineers should be thought of by how they think, not just by the things that they make. Northwestern has been an ideal environment to build interdisciplinary partnerships that helped put this vision into action." Ottino and his McCormick leadership team have established three key pillars for developing whole-brain engineers skilled in problem solving: design, entrepreneurship, and leadership and personal development. These pillars underpin a wide range of programs and activities -- curricular, extra-curricular and research -- that span and connect students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. "Julio's approach to engineering education mirrors the increased prevalence of engineering and technology in our everyday lives and prepares engineers to work with diverse teams and to understand the needs of the populations they serve," President Schapiro said. Whole-Brain Engineering and its integrated way of thinking are evident in McCormick, across the University and beyond: First-year students are introduced to Whole-Brain Engineering and the problem-solving process in the earliest days of their McCormick education Nearly every engineering student works on a project to enhance the quality of life of a Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC) patient with a disability NUvention, McCormick's flagship interdisciplinary course that exposes Northwestern students to the entire innovation and entrepreneurial life cycle, has grown from one track to eight tracks, ranging from arts and analytics to transportation and therapeutics Design for America (DFA), a student initiative in which students practice social service through design, was founded at McCormick, and DFA studios are now at 36 college and university campuses across the country The Segal Design Institute and its Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation attract students from across Northwestern to its events and courses, including NUvention By augmenting existing programs and developing new initiatives to complement an already strong technical curriculum, McCormick provides a better student experience, prepares engineers to have a bigger impact and imagine new possibilities in solving complex problems and attracts more students into STEM fields. McCormick has developed collaborations with other schools and programs on campus, increasing the centrality of engineering within a comprehensive university. Many new courses bring together students from across disciplines and also partner with local institutions, such as RIC and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Ottino has led the development of Whole-Brain Engineering since 2005. Since making it the cornerstone of Northwestern Engineering's strategy, the number of women in the school has increased by more than 60 percent, and engineering enrollments are at all-time high levels. In addition to his role as dean, Ottino serves as Distinguished Robert R. McCormick Institute Professor, Walter P. Murphy Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering and professor (by courtesy) of mechanical engineering. He is the founder and former director of the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO). Ottino, who has supervised more than 50 Ph.D. theses, previously held positions at the University of Massachusetts Amherst as well as chair and senior appointments at the California Institute of Technology and Stanford University. He is a member of both the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. ### The Gordon Prize was established in 2001 as a biennial prize acknowledging new modalities and experiments in education that develop effective engineering leaders. Recognizing the potential to spur a revolution in engineering education, NAE announced in 2003 that the prize would be awarded annually. The NAE is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, an independent, nonprofit organization chartered by Congress to provide objective analysis and advice to the nation on matters of science, technology and health. Pramod Mishra is a biweekly columnist for The Kathmandu Post. He is the department chair of English Studies at Lewis University in the United States. A new study finds that 50% of the Canadian public is unaware that they suffer from high blood pressure, with most of them unaware of their condition or unwilling to address and manage their high blood pressure. Hypertension is the medical term for abnormally high blood pressure. High blood pressure puts extra strain on people's hearts and blood vessels. Over time, the extra strain increases the risk of serious heart problems, including heart attacks and strokes. A new study published in the American Journal of Hypertension draws attention to the "silent" nature of hypertension and suggests why the gravity and severity of hypertension is often misunderstood. The research also offers suggestions to educate the public about hypertension. In order to detect a general awareness of hypertension, researchers set up mobile clinics at shopping malls, workplaces, hospitals, and community centers in a Northern American city. The clinics measured 1097 volunteers' blood pressure. Researchers found that 50% of participants had high blood pressure. An unexpectedly large number of participants (2%) showed hypertensive results that are of a high health risk. Most of these people were not on medical treatment (if their hypertension was known), were unaware of their hypertensive state, and were unwilling to acknowledge the severity of their high blood pressure readings. The researchers concluded that the reasons for resistance included ignorance of health consequences of hypertension and being unaware of how to manage hypertension properly. "What is particularly significant about this study is that a surprisingly large number of participants exhibited some type of hypertensive urgency or emergency," said Dr. Grant Pierce, Executive Director of Research at St. Boniface Hospital in Canada, "Many of the participants were either unaware of their condition or simply not adherent to their medications. Based on these findings, we determined that a mobile hypertension clinic provides a valuable platform for identifying hypertension in the general public, as well as insight into the management of this condition." ### The paper "Alarming Prevalence of Emergency Hypertension Levels in the General Public Identified by a Hypertension Awareness Campaign" is available at: http://ajh.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2017/01/02/ajh.hpw136 Direct correspondence to: Dr. Grant N. Pierce, St Boniface Hospital Albrechtsen Research Centre, 351 Tache Avenue, Winnipeg, MB, Canada R2H 2A6; 204-235-3206; Fax: 204-235-0793; E-mail: gpierce@sbrc.ca To request a copy of the study, please contact: Daniel Luzer- daniel.luzer@oup.com or 212-743-6113 Sharing on social media? Find Oxford Journals online at @OxfordJournals About 200 countries worldwide committed to protecting 10% of national marine areas by signing the Convention on Biological Diversity. But more ambitious marine reserve coverage policies that target unprotected fishing grounds would benefit millions of people who depend on fisheries for food and livelihoods, argue the authors of an international study, publishing on January 5 in the open access journal PLOS Biology. The research from Nils Krueck, Peter Mumby and colleagues at the University of Queensland, World Wildlife Fund, and the University of Melbourne makes the case for strict protection of 20-30% of fishing grounds, specifically where both biodiversity and fisheries are threatened. The study has an explicit focus on otherwise unregulated fishing grounds. Previous research raised valid concerns that designating parts of the fishing ground for protection can reduce the value of fisheries when they are well managed. However, marine reserves are one of the few means of managing fisheries where conventional regulations, such as catch limits, are too difficult to enforce. "Coral reefs in the south-east Asian Coral Triangle region typify the situation in which marine reserves can be an effective management tool. In much of the region, fisheries are highly diverse, overfishing is commonplace, and catches are largely unassessed and unregulated. Coral reef fisheries in particular should then benefit from closing 20-30% of fishing grounds because fish populations get a chance to recover and are then likely to support the export of young fishes from reserves to fished areas," said study author Dr. Krueck. "Marine reserves alone will not be sufficient to solve the current fisheries crisis in the Coral Triangle," study co-author Professor Mumby said. "But our theoretic analysis of thousands of fisheries scenarios highlights that net declines in catches after more than 10 or so years of recovery should be rare." "Enforcing marine reserves is a relatively simple management action," said Mumby, "but it is still a long way from the currently estimated 1-2% 'effective' protection on coral reefs to the recommended 20-30% strict no-take reserve coverage." ### In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS Biology: http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.2000537 Contact: Nils C. Krueck, nils.krueck@uqconnect.edu.au; Peter J. Mumby, p.j.mumby@uq.edu.au Citation: Krueck NC, Ahmadia GN, Possingham HP, Riginos C, Treml EA, Mumby PJ (2017) Marine Reserve Targets to Sustain and Rebuild Unregulated Fisheries. PLoS Biol 15(1): e2000537. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.2000537 Image Caption: Spanish flag Lutjanus carponotatus fishbase Image Credit: Flickr user, pauljill Funding: Australian Research Council http://www.arc.gov.au/ (grant number LP120200245). This work was supported by an Australian Research Council Linkage Project co-funded by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Indonesia (awarded to PJM, EAT, HPP, and CR). The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. World Bank/GEF (Capturing Coral Reef & Related Ecosystem Services) (grant number). This work was also supported by the World Bank Project "Capturing Coral Reef & Related Ecosystem Services" funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and by the University of Queensland (awarded to PJM). The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. About Biology PLOS Biology is an open-access, peer-reviewed journal published by PLOS, featuring research articles of exceptional significance, originality, and relevance in all areas of biology. For more information visit http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/, or follow @PLOSBiology on Twitter. Media and Copyright Information For information about PLOS Biology relevant to journalists, bloggers and press officers, including details of our press release process and embargo policy, visit http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/s/press-and-media. PLOS Journals publish under a Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits free reuse of all materials published with the article, so long as the work is cited. About the Public Library of Science The Public Library of Science (PLOS) PLOS is a nonprofit publisher and advocacy organization founded to accelerate progress in science and medicine by leading a transformation in research communication. For more information, visit http://www.plos.org. Disclaimer This press release refers to upcoming articles in PLOS Biology. The releases have been provided by the article authors and/or journal staff. Any opinions expressed in these are the personal views of the contributors, and do not necessarily represent the views or policies of PLOS. PLOS expressly disclaims any and all warranties and liability in connection with the information found in the release and article and your use of such information. People who live close to high-traffic roadways face a higher risk of developing dementia than those who live further away, new research from Public Health Ontario (PHO) and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) has found. Led by PHO and ICES scientists, the study found that people who lived within 50 metres of high-traffic roads had a seven per cent higher likelihood of developing dementia compared to those who lived more than 300 meters away from busy roads. Published in The Lancet, the researchers examined records of more than 6.5 million Ontario residents aged 20-85 to investigate the correlation between living close to major roads and dementia, Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis. Scientists identified 243,611 cases of dementia, 31,577 cases of Parkinson's disease, and 9,247 cases of multiple sclerosis in Ontario between 2001 and 2012. In addition, they mapped individuals' proximity to major roadways using the postal code of their residence. The findings indicate that living close to major roads increased the risk of developing dementia, but not Parkinson's disease or multiple sclerosis, two other major neurological disorders. "Little is known in current research about how to reduce the risk of dementia. Our findings show the closer you live to roads with heavy day-to-day traffic, the greater the risk of developing dementia. With our widespread exposure to traffic and the greater tendency for people to live in cities these days, this has serious public health implications," says Dr. Hong Chen, environmental and occupational health scientist at PHO and an adjunct scientist at ICES. Dr. Chen is lead author on the paper titled Living Near Major Roads and the Incidence of Dementia, Parkinson's Disease, and Multiple Sclerosis: A Population-based Cohort Study (embargoed link). "Our study is the first in Canada to suggest that pollutants from heavy, day-to-day traffic are linked to dementia. We know from previous research that air pollutants can get into the blood stream and lead to inflammation, which is linked with cardiovascular disease and possibly other conditions such as diabetes. This study suggests air pollutants that can get into the brain via the blood stream can lead to neurological problems," says Dr. Ray Copes, chief of environmental and occupational health at PHO and an author on the paper. As urban centres become more densely populated and more congested with vehicles on major roads, Dr. Copes suggests the findings of this paper could be used to help inform municipal land use decisions as well as building design to take into account air pollution factors and the impact on residents. This research was conducted in collaboration with scientists from the University of Toronto, Carleton University, Dalhousie University, Oregon State University, and Health Canada. The study was funded by Health Canada. Key findings: Using data held at ICES, the researchers examined records of more than 6.5 million Ontario residents, aged 20-85, and mapped them according to residential postal codes five years before the study started. Between 2001 and 2012, 243,611 cases of dementia, 31,577 cases of Parkinson's disease, and 9,247 cases of multiple sclerosis were identified in Ontario. People who lived within 50 metres of high-traffic roads had a seven per cent higher likelihood of dementia than those who lived more 300 meters away from busy roads. The increase in the risk of developing dementia went down to four per cent if people lived 50-100 metres from major traffic, and to two per cent if they lived within 101-200 metres. At over 200 metres, there was no elevated risk of dementia. There was no correlation between major traffic proximity and Parkinson's disease or multiple sclerosis. ### Public Health Ontario is a Crown corporation dedicated to protecting and promoting the health of all Ontarians and reducing inequities in health. Public Health Ontario links public health practitioners, front-line health workers and researchers to the best scientific intelligence and knowledge from around the world. For the latest PHO news, follow us on Twitter: @publichealthON. The Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) is an independent, non-profit organization that uses population-based health information to produce knowledge on a broad range of health care issues. Our unbiased evidence provides measures of health system performance, a clearer understanding of the shifting health care needs of Ontarians, and a stimulus for discussion of practical solutions to optimize scarce resources. ICES knowledge is highly regarded in Canada and abroad, and is widely used by government, hospitals, planners, and practitioners to make decisions about care delivery and to develop policy. For the latest ICES news, follow us on Twitter: @ICESOntario For more information, please contact: Janet Wong Media Relations Advisor, PHO media@oahpp.ca 647-260-7247 Deborah Creatura Media Advisor, ICES deborah.creatura@ices.on.ca (o) 416-480-4780 or (c) 647-406-5996 The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has become deeply embedded in the contemporary system of international power, politics and policymaking, according to a new book by Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, fellow for the Middle East at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy. He writes about the political and economic developments that have enabled the UAE to emerge as a significant regional power. "The United Arab Emirates: Power, Politics and Policy-Making," published by Routledge, hit bookstores in December. The 270-page book draws on extensive field research in the country and analysis to position the UAE as a major player in the post-Arab Spring reordering of Middle East and North African politics as well as the closest partner of the United States in military and security affairs in the region. The book also explores the seamier underside of that growth in terms of the condition of migrant workers, recent interventions in Libya and Yemen and, latterly, one of the highest rates of political prisoners per capita in the world. The book concludes with a discussion of the likely policy challenges that the UAE will face in coming years, especially as it moves toward its 50th anniversary in 2021. Along with its neighbor, Qatar, the UAE has "challenged the existing academic literature on the role of small states in the international system," said Coates Ulrichsen, whose research examines political, economic and security trends in the Middle East and, in particular, the Gulf Cooperation Council states' changing position within the global order. "Opportunities for small states to make their voice heard have proliferated in today's intensely globalized environment where concepts of power of influence are projected through multiple channels and are less reliant on territorial or population size than ever before." Led by its most populous emirates, Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the UAE has been an independent state only since 1971. The seven emirates that constitute the UAE represent not only the most successful Arab federal experiment but also the most durable, Coates Ulrichsen said. However, the 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath underscored the continuing imbalance between Abu Dhabi and Dubai and the five northern emirates. Meanwhile, the post-2011 security crackdown revealed the acute sensitivity of officials in Abu Dhabi to social inequalities and economic disparities across the federation, Coates Ulrichsen said. "I hope this book will be a vital resource for students and scholars of international relations and Middle East studies as well as for nonspecialists with an interest in the United Arab Emirates and its global position," Coates Ulrichsen said. ### LA JOLLA--Salk Institute scientists have solved the atomic structure of a key piece of machinery that allows HIV to integrate into human host DNA and replicate in the body, which has eluded researchers for decades. The findings describing this machinery, known as the "intasome," appear January 6, 2017, in Science and yield structural clues informing the development of new HIV drugs. "We're particularly excited about the ability to understand and combat mechanisms of viral resistance," says the study's senior author Dmitry Lyumkis, a Helmsley-Salk Fellow at the Salk Institute. "HIV is a clever virus and has learned to evade even some of the best drugs on the market. Understanding the mechanisms of viral escape and developing more broadly applicable drugs will be a major direction in the future." Currently, a class of drugs called integrase strand transfer inhibitors (INSTIs) targets the intasome and are already approved to treat HIV in the U.S. and Europe. Despite being some of the best drugs available, scientists have only gained a limited understanding of the precise mechanism of action of INSTIs, and how the virus mounts resistance, by the inference of structures of a similar retrovirus (called the prototype foamy virus or PFV). That's because the HIV intasome itself has been notoriously difficult to study at the atomic level. "Now we have the very first native blueprint in the context of HIV for studying the mechanisms of INSTIs," says Lyumkis. He and his collaborators are already using the discovery to try to improve the ability of INSTIs to block the virus--"and industry researchers will likely do the same," he adds. As a retrovirus, HIV inserts a DNA copy of its RNA genome into the host's DNA using the intasome, which cuts and pastes viral DNA using enzymes called integrases. In 1994, scientists determined the structure of a small part of the integrase enzyme. Since then, biologists have solved several other pieces of the HIV integrase, as well as the intasomes from other retroviruses. But the entire structure of the HIV intasome remained difficult to solve using conventional techniques. In the new study, Lyumkis and colleagues used a cutting-edge imaging technique called single-particle cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), which has increasingly allowed scientists to image large, complex and dynamic molecules (see Lyumkis's previous development in this area here). The team attached a specific protein to improve the intasome's ability to dissolve in liquid and bathed the intasome in a syrup-like liquid called glycerol, with loads of salt added to prevent it from clumping. These are extreme conditions for a cryo-EM sample, but they were necessary in the case of the HIV intasome. Then, building upon novel technical advances in the field, the scientists cranked up the cryo-EM machine to spray even more electrons at their sample than usual. All retroviral intasomes have core structural components that perform the integration function. The group noticed some differences when they compared the enzyme cores of HIV with those of PFV. "Although these variations are minor, they could be a big deal for drug development and for understanding mechanisms of drug resistance," says the study's first author, Dario Passos, a senior research associate in Lyumkis's lab. To the group's surprise, HIV intasomes are also more intricate and complex than other retroviruses. Scientists already knew that they had a four-part core, but the new study finds that HIV intasomes have many more units, what they call "higher-order" species. Evidence suggests that more complex versions of the intasome serve a purpose in helping HIV integrate itself within the host genome. Lyumkis says the HIV intasome's complexity hints at how nature has shaped its evolution from simpler retroviruses, which are considerably smaller, yet still use the same core pieces of enzyme. HIV can perform functions that its relatives can't, such as gain access to the cell's nucleus through active transport rather than having to wait for the cell to divide. "HIV is like the luxury car whereas other retroviruses are the economy models--they're both cars, but the HIV intasome contains important upgrades to do different jobs," he adds. Based on the different structures present in the samples, the team thinks that the HIV intasome could take multiple routes for assembly. "That's speculative at this point, but it's an intriguing possibility and would build upon mounting evidence that certain macromolecular machines take different routes to assemble the final product," Lyumkis says. (Another large molecular machine called the ribosome also assembles in different ways, according to a separate cryo-EM study by his group.) The current study focused on intasomes after they assemble on host DNA, but future work will study the structures prior to their landing on the host genome and in the context of bound drugs. To this end, the group is also working to push the resolution of their structures higher, from ~4 Angstrom resolution in the new study to ~2 Angstrom, which would allow them to see the chemical bonds in water molecules for example, proving crucial insight for drug discovery and development. "Taking the car analogy further, if you really want to understand how the car works in order to modify its performance, you can't just look at a whole engine. You have to take it apart and dig inside to really understand it inside out," Lyumkis says. "We must do the same with these complex molecular structures to better understand--and target--viruses," adds Passos. ### Other authors on the study are Min Li, Renbin Yang, Rodolfo Ghirlando, and Robert Craigie of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland; Stephanie V. Rebensburg, Nikoloz Shkriabai, and Mamuka Kvaratskhelia of The Ohio State University in Columbus; and Youngmin Jeon of Salk. The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, the Intramural Program of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive Diseases of the National Institutes of Health, and by the Intramural AIDS Targeted Antiviral Program of the Office of the Director of the NIH. About the Salk Institute for Biological Studies: Every cure has a starting point. The Salk Institute embodies Jonas Salk's mission to dare to make dreams into reality. Its internationally renowned and award-winning scientists explore the very foundations of life, seeking new understandings in neuroscience, genetics, immunology and more. The Institute is an independent nonprofit organization and architectural landmark: small by choice, intimate by nature and fearless in the face of any challenge. Be it cancer or Alzheimer's, aging or diabetes, Salk is where cures begin. Learn more at: salk.edu. Large numbers of small algae-grazing sea urchins and fish may take the place of larger grazers to prevent algae from overgrowing reefs Thirty years ago a mysterious disease wiped out long-spined black sea urchins across the Caribbean, leading to massive algal overgrowth that smothered already overfished coral reefs. Now, marine biologists at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) report that smaller sea urchins and parrotfish may be taking the place of the large sea urchins, restoring the balance on degraded reefs. As a STRI short-term fellow, Catie Kuempel joined staff scientist Andrew Altieri to explore a large area of the sea floor in Bocas del Toro, Panama, where corals had died but, surprisingly, algae had not taken over. The most common algal grazers they found were a small sea urchin about the size of a ping pong ball, Echinometra viridis, and a tiny finger-sized striped parrot fish, Scarus iseri, which would be of no interest to fishermen. They propose that these tiny organisms may be able to preempt shifts from coral to algae on degraded coral reefs. They may be small, but there are a lot of them: small grazers comprise up to 95 percent of the biomass of all grazing organisms on the reefs in the study. Their combined weight is roughly equal to that of a smaller number of bigger herbivores on healthier reefs. Intense grazing by the small sea urchins and fish was highest on the most degraded reefs. In an experimental set up involving placing cages on the sea floor to exclude grazers of different sizes, intense herbivory in cages that permitted access to only small herbivores revealed that they can do the job of clearing algae once thought to belong only to the larger species of parrotfish and the long-spined black urchins, Diadema antillarum. In Jan., 1983, STRI staff scientist Harilaos Lessios noticed that long-spined black urchins, but not other species of urchins were dying near the Atlantic entrance of the Panama Canal. He contacted dive shops and was able to track the mass mortality of urchins as it spread across the Caribbean from 1983-1984. Subsequently deprived of this large species of grazer, algae grew unchecked, especially on reefs where overfishing had eliminated large parrotfish. Today, despite the fact that Diadema antillarum has recovered in some areas, the total number of this urchin in the Caribbean is still only about 12 percent of pre-die-off numbers. "Even those of us who had worked extensively with D. antillarum did not expect that its recovery would be so slow or that its absence would contribute so dramatically to changes in complex ecological communities such as coral reefs," wrote Lessios in a review article of observed changes 30 years later. "Its recovery is the only hopeful ray in the gloomy prospects for Caribbean reefs." "Given that the frequency of coral disease will probably increase with global warming and that overfishing can be prevented only in protected areas, which cannot expand indefinitely if people continue obtaining their protein from the sea, the best hope for Caribbean reefs is that D. antillarum will recover," Lessios predicted. Based on their observations in Bocas del Toro, Kuempel and Altieri are more hopeful, suggesting that management and monitoring strategies aimed at preventing phase-shifts from coral to algae on reefs should broaden to include the role and importance of diminutive species of herbivores. "These dollhouse-sized species came the rescue of reefs in Panama, and may be important elsewhere as well," said Altieri. They will continue to explore whether the algae consumption by these small species that tips the balance back from algal domination of dead reefs is clearing the way for new coral growth. ### The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, headquartered in Panama City, Panama, is a part of the Smithsonian Institution. The Institute furthers the understanding of tropical nature and its importance to human welfare, trains students to conduct research in the tropics and promotes conservation by increasing public awareness of the beauty and importance of tropical ecosystems. Website. Promo video. Lessios, Harilaos A. 2016. The great Diadema antillarum die-off: 30 years later. Annu. Rev. Mar. Sci. 8:1.1-1.17 Kuempel, Caitlin D. and Altieri, Andrew H. 2017. The emergent role of small-bodied herbivores in pre-empting phase shifts on degraded coral reefs. Scientific Reports 7: 39670 The exhaustive international trade of wildlife has pushed many species to the brink of extinction. Coincidentally, many of the same species have been introduced to urban centres or wilderness areas outside their natural ranges. In a recent study published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, authors from Hong Kong and Australia find that these introduced populations may provide hope for these threatened species. "Across the planet, poachers have reached into the last remote habitats to harvest wildlife populations used for clothing, eaten, or kept as pets in faraway cities," said Dr. Luke Gibson from the School of Biological Sciences of the University of Hong Kong, who led the study. "In some cases, the traded organisms have escaped and are now thriving in their introduced habitats," he added. In total, the authors identified 49 globally threatened species - those listed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature as Vulnerable, Endangered, or Critically Endangered - which have established introduced populations outside their native distribution. These include amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds, as well as insects and plants, with introduced populations found on all continents except Antarctica. One example is the Yellow-crested Cockatoo, Critically Endangered due to capture for the pet trade. Ironically, many of these pet birds were accidentally or deliberately released in their new environments. Currently, about 200 Yellow-crested Cockatoos - an estimated 10% of the bird's global population - are found on Hong Kong Island, mostly between Pokfulam and Happy Valley. "This is a key example of how Hong Kong - a heavily urbanised city-state - can play a role in the conservation of globally threatened species," said co-author Ding Li Yong, from the Australian National University. Reintroduction of this species to its native range in Indonesia and East Timor could help to buffer populations there, which are rapidly declining due to poaching. Alternatively, the harvest of the introduced cockatoos in Hong Kong could offset demand from its native range. Both approaches could also eliminate threats the introduced population might pose to native species in its introduced environment, such as monopolising nesting sites and triggering population declines of local birds. Combined, augmenting declining populations in their native ranges and eliminating the threats to native ecosystems could "save two birds with one stone," as Gibson puts it. "This creative tactic could be essential to save species imperilled by wildlife trade as well as eliminate threats the same species pose in their adopted territories." ### The article "Saving two birds with one stone: Solving the quandary of introduced, threatened species" published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment is available at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/fee.1449/abstract. Media enquiries: Research Assistant Professor of the School of Biological Sciences Dr Luke Gibson (Tel: +852-2299-0674; email: lgibson@hku.hk) Hong Kong is best known as a bustling harbour, a financial centre and a shoppers' paradise, with a dense burgeoning population of seven million impacting its natural environment. Yet, away from the skyscrapers and the pressures of anthropogenic influence, Hong Kong has a record of 5,943 marine species according to a recent review by a research group led by Professor Gray A. Williams of The Swire Institute of Marine Science (SWIMS) and School of Biological Sciences, the University of Hong Kong (HKU). This 1.5-year study funded by the Environment and Conservation Fund (ECF) was published in Biodiversity and Conservation recently. This first comprehensive review of local marine biodiversity since the beginning of the history of marine science in Hong Kong in 1940s shows that with only about 1,651 km2 marine area (~0.03% of China's total), Hong Kong already accounts for ~26% of the total marine species recorded in China. Hong Kong's marine biodiversity is comparable to many other regions even though its marine area is hundreds to thousands of times smaller than those regions. "We knew Hong Kong was incredibly rich in its marine species but were still very impressed when we figured out the numbers from the study," said project manager Dr Terence Ng Pun-tung from HKU SWIMS. The abundance of the territory's marine biodiversity can be illustrated by simple comparisons ? Hong Kong has more hard corals than the entire Caribbean Sea and it also hosts more mangrove tree species than the whole of East Africa. Hong Kong also contributes to a considerable amount (>30%) of the species records for several groups of organisms such as polychaetes, fish, cephalopods and amphipods in the South China Sea. These findings reaffirm Hong Kong's location within the fringes of the world's marine biodiversity hotspot (i.e. the Western Indo-Pacific region). Hong Kong lies in a transitional geographic position between the temperate and tropical regions, and the mixing of the three ocean currents (Kuroshio, Taiwan and Hainan currents) and suitable climates ('temperate-like' winter and 'tropical-like' summer), bring together both tropical and temperate species to live in Hong Kong. Apart from that, the influence of complex geology, proximity to the Pearl River (creating an estuarine environment in western waters), a relatively long coastline (1,189 km) and diverse marine ecological habitats suitable for different species to live and interact all contributed to mould the highly diverse marine life in Hong Kong. The research team also expected highly diverse marine species in regions near Hong Kong, such as the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand, but biodiversity information in these regions are largely limited. Given the paucity of knowledge on the marine biodiversity in the Southeast Asia, this study contributes to this knowledge gap and marks a milestone for both Hong Kong and the South China Sea. "Understanding the number of species we have in our marine environment is a basic need if we are to protect and conserve our biodiversity. This is vital in today's rapidly changing world, not just here in Hong Kong, but especially in Southeast Asia which holds the world's most diverse marine habitats. SWIMS is playing a major role in trying to measure and conserve these important resources, both within Hong Kong but also, together with its regional collaborators, in Southeast Asia." said Professor Gray A. Williams, the leader of this study and the Director of HKU SWIMS. The enormous array of marine life in Hong Kong, however, has yet to receive its desirable level of conservation as currently only less than 2% of Hong Kong's marine area is protected as marine parks or reserve as compared with approximately 40 % of our terrestrial area. The Government has committed to designate more new marine parks in the coming years. The Brothers Marine Park in the northern Lantau waters will be soon launched soon, which will bring Hong Kong's total protected marine area to more than 2%. The research team welcomed the initiative of the new marine park while also urging the Hong Kong government to move towards the global target of at least 10% marine protected area by the year 2020 under United Nation's Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) as China is one of the 196 signatories of the Convention and the Convention was extended to Hong Kong in 2011. Hong Kong launched Asia's first Register of Marine Species To establish a platform for the international scientific community to access the marine species in Hong Kong for conservation, research and education purposes, the research team, in collaboration with international experts, has also launched the Hong Kong Register of Marine Species (HKRMS) (see http://www.marinespecies.org/hkrms/) under the umbrella of the largest global marine biodiversity database, the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS). Hong Kong is one of only ten regions in the world that has such a regional species database, and was the first in Asia. An editorial team consisting of local experts on different taxonomic groups led by Dr Terence Ng has been established to curate and keep the database up-to-date. The HKRMS, therefore, serves as a knowledge exchange platform to showcase the enormous marine biodiversity in Hong Kong. What's next? Hong Kong classes itself as a world city but unlike Singapore and many western countries, it lacks a central repository for its catalogue of marine species, such as a natural history museum or biodiversity centre that collates, manages and analyses and disseminates data of local species. It is, therefore, difficult to confirm the validity of past records and keep track of the status (i.e. changes in species number and distribution under different anthropogenic impacts such as coastal development, pollution, climate change etc.) of our marine resources. The recent launch of Hong Kong's first Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (BSAP) under the CBD, however, provides a unique opportunity for Hong Kong to 'keep up the pace'. In light of the BSAP and the future development of SWIMS, the current marine species database will be further developed into an information system to facilitate the sharing of information on marine biodiversity to a wider range of stakeholders, for education, research and conservation purposes. A spokesman for the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) welcomed this initiative: "Under the recently launched BSAP, AFCD will explore opportunities to collaborate with local institutions to establish biodiversity centres to disseminate scientific information for the wider community. The Government will work together with external experts to improve sharing of knowledge of biodiversity". The SWIMS research team hopes that this initiative will help conserve the incredibly rich, but largely unrecognized, marine diversity of Hong Kong. It also translates into a better protection of our heritage as Hong Kong originated as a fishing village, and we heavily rely on our marine species and habitats for many economic, recreational and aesthetic benefits. ### The abstract of the article "Hong Kong's rich marine biodiversity: the unseen wealth of South China's megalopolis" published in Biodiversity and Conservation is available at http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10531-016-1224-5 Joshua Bolchover and John Lin, Associate Professors in the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), earlier received the prestigious Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Award for International Excellence as well as the RIBA International Emerging Architect for their ambitious plan for Andong Hospital in Hunan's Baojing County in Mainland China. The award was open to all qualified architects anywhere in the world. The judging for the Award was rigorous. RIBA's governing body for awards, the Awards Group, selected 30 schemes from several hundred entries from around the world. The shortlisted projects were visited by an Awards Group member and an architect from the region local to the building and finally 21 projects were chosen for the awards. Joshua and John's award-winning research lab, Rural Urban Framework (RUF) is part of HKUrbanLab, the research arm of the Faculty of Architecture at HKU. RUF has completed projects in 18 communities across China and Mongolia, which range from small interventions, such as bridge and prototype housing construction, to schools, hospitals and the post-disaster reconstruction of an entire village. RUF is also the recipient of The Curry Stone Design Prize in 2015 and the Ralph Erskine 100 Years Anniversary Award 2014, given for innovation in architecture that "primarily benefits the less privileged in society". The Angdong Hospital Project Location: Baojing County, Hunan Province, China Design: Joshua Bolchover and John Lin, Rural Urban Framework (RUF) Size: 1,450 m2 Rural healthcare in China currently faces a multitude of challenges. Rural institutions are generally unfavourable compared to those in urban locales. Government subsidies and the raising of doctor and hospital incomes also lead to overcharging and needless treatments and exams. Commissioned by a Hong Kong charity, Institute for Integrated Rural Development, this project involves designing China's first charitable hospital whilst helping foster a new attitude toward rural healthcare. Working closely with the charity and government in Angdong Village of Hunan Province, the project team aimed at developing a model rural health care building capable of supporting the many progressive reforms on rural hospital management and care giving. This includes providing basic necessities absent in current establishments, some as simple as waiting rooms. Additionally, seeing that most institutions in China, such as schools and hospitals, are walled off and managed as contained programs, the team was interested in re-introducing the hospital as a publicly-friendly facility. The program of a hospital is re-configured from its conventional form. The design begins with a simple strategy to provide a continuous ramp access to all floors. A wide ramp allows for seating and improves circulation. This also creates a large central courtyard space open for public use. At the ground level, the courtyard provides additional steps for seating and serves as an outdoor waiting area. Materials consist of both recycled traditional bricks, which form the exterior facade, and custom designed concrete screen blocks, which flank the interior spiral passageway. Though from a distance they appear like the common type, these custom blocks are cast in a flexible latex mold. The resulting courtyard exhibits a soft and smoothly changing quality, casting variable shadows throughout the day. ### With a storied history that includes more than a half-century of research, a Nobel Prize, and multiple attempts at practical applications, the story of negative differential resistance--or NDR--reads like a scientific mystery, a mystery that University of Alberta physicists have at last succeeded in unraveling. What does this mean? An opportunity to combine the knowledge with existing technology to create faster, cheaper, and smaller electronic devices, a boon to the continued boom of the digital era. NDR is an odd effect. We can imagine it by thinking of water being pushed through a hose. The greater the pressure, the faster the flow. Electrons in a wire act similarly, except voltage is applied instead of pressure to induce flow. With water, increased pressure equals increased flow, but in special circumstances with electricity, there is sometimes a backwards and counterintuitive effect where flow slows: this is negative differential resistance. The first attempt at a practical application for NDR, the Esaki Diode, named for inventor Japanese physicist Leo Esaki, was received in the 1950s with great excitement, some even proclaiming it to be more important than the transistor. The work was awarded a Nobel Prize. Soon after it became clear that mass production was too difficult, the once-heralded device was relegated to niche applications. Replicating the NDR effect in a way that could be widely deployed remained an enticing goal. Alternatives to the Esaki Diode were found, but those too resisted mass production. The advent of scanning tunneling microscopes in the '80s and the access they provide to nanoscale material properties led to tantalizing NDR signatures from atom-scale structural irregularities in silicon. Excitement was re-kindled, but adequate understanding and manufacturability remained elusive. Fast forward to the present, and a team of physicists led by Robert Wolkow from the University of Alberta have now discovered the precise atomic structure that gives rise to NDR. Furthermore, by accounting for the particular rules quantum mechanics enforces for electron flow through a single atom, Wolkow's colleague, theoretical physicist Joseph Maciejko, has succeeded in accounting for the at-first perplexing reduction in current with increasing voltage. These results point the way to practical and lucrative applications in everyday electronics such as phones and computers. "It turns out that if you can easily see how to neatly and cheaply incorporate this NDR effect into existing electronic transistors, you can make smaller, faster, cheaper devices," says Wolkow. "The value of a hybrid transistor/NDR circuit has been known for decades, but no one has been able to do it efficiently or cheaply enough to make it worthwhile. "Over the years, people have published papers on variants of the same atom-scale effect. Unfortunately, the riddle of the structure and its properties was never solved. But we now know exactly why it happens, we know exactly what constituents need to be there for it to be controlled. We have defined the exact atomic structure that gives rise to NDR, and luckily it is easy to make. As well, we have finally elucidated the mechanism at play-or should I say at work." Wolkow explains that there's now a very realistic potential to combine this NDR phenomenon with everyday electronics in a practical, affordable way, an advance potentially worth billions for the technology industry. "Negative Resistance with a Single Atom" was published December 30 in Physical Review Letters. ### Nepal expedites NAP formulation process The National Adaptation Plan (NAP) formulation process has been expedited to identify appropriate climate change adaptation needs and implement them in the medium and long run. BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - A comprehensive vision assessment should be part of return-to-learn protocols to help determine when children are ready to return to the classroom following concussions -- particularly in children reporting academic difficulty. Researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham reported these findings in the January 2017 feature issue of Optometry and Vision Science Journal -- Eye and Vision Changes from Head Trauma. "As we continue to try to improve concussion protocols, specifically when it comes to children, it is important that we understand the effects of a concussion on a child's ability to learn," said Mark Swanson, O.D., associate professor in the UAB School of Optometry. "Concussed children with vision symptoms, hearing disturbances and difficulty concentrating often have academic difficulty post-concussion." According to the Centers for Disease Control, the estimated rate of childhood traumatic brain injury visits to an emergency department more than doubled between the years 2001 and 2009, and indicated that children are more likely than any other group to present to emergency departments with concussions. The majority of pediatric patients with a concussion resolve within seven to 10 days without complications. Pediatric concussed patients who report lingering symptoms for a longer duration often have academic difficulty. The study shows that vision problems were commonly reported in children with concussions and were independently associated with those reporting academic difficulty. Blurred vision and difficulty concentrating are among the most common symptoms affecting academic difficulty in children with traumatic brain injuries. Researchers from the UAB School of Optometry partnered with the Children's of Alabama Concussion Clinic to study academic difficulties in a cohort of 276 children ages 5 to 18 reporting three or more concussion-related symptoms present for 10 days or more, as well as a primary symptom of vision problems. Of these, 29 percent reported academic difficulty and 46 percent reported vision abnormalities. "Moving forward, physicians treating concussed patients should consider the damage done to the brain, specifically the vestibular and oculomotor functions and how long this will affect a child's progression and learning," Swanson said. The standard treatment for concussion is a period of cognitive rest followed by rehabilitation if symptoms linger, usually balance and/or vestibular therapy. The American Academy of Pediatrics concussion care guidelines say vision problems are common after concussion. "Vision often gets overlooked as a condition that needs checking after concussion, and rehabilitation should be prescribed when appropriate," Swanson said. "Through our continued research, we suggest that vision care providers take a greater role in the assessment of children post-concussion and their readiness to return-to-learn." Extensive literature has focused on "return-to-play" guidelines in the interest of the safety of athletes, where 97 percent of NCAA member institutions have return-to-play policies. Only 67 percent of those institutions have return-to-learn policies. "In order to develop policies around return-to-learn, we need to understand the symptoms associated with academic difficulty," Swanson said. "In Alabama, it is mandated that children with a suspected concussion occurring during practice or a game be removed from play and evaluated by a physician before returning to play. Now, we look to policymakers to further develop these guidelines to protect a child's brain when it comes to returning to the classroom and using their brain to learn." Traumatic brain injuries can cause difficulties with near focus and the ability to coordinate eye movements, which can lead to blurred vision and discomfort. Because these problems are related to near vision, distance visual acuity testing conducted during a standard eye rest may not show problems occurring with deskwork. UAB's VORLab looks at visual biomarkers of TBI through vestibular and oculomotor reaction. The interdisciplinary team is working to identify objective biomarkers to better diagnose concussion, especially for children who cannot properly communicate their problems. "The UAB School of Optometry has a number of researchers looking at the interplay of eye movements, balance and the inner ear as a way to identify the earliest symptoms of brain injury," said Michael Twa, O.D., Ph.D., associate dean for Research and Graduate Studies in the UAB Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences. "A major question that we are trying to answer right now is how to tell when the brain is healed and working properly again," Twa said. "Many symptoms of brain injury come from the visual system, which is connected to every part of the brain." Through interdisciplinary research, faculty at UAB are working to answer the bigger question of how the brain works, specifically when it is injured. Investigators in the UAB School of Optometry, Department of Neurology and Department of Pediatrics are working together to further understand brain injury -- from cellular function to community health as a better way to determine public health policy. ### About UAB Known for its innovative and interdisciplinary approach to education at both the graduate and undergraduate levels, the University of Alabama at Birmingham is the state of Alabama's largest employer and an internationally renowned research university and academic medical center; its professional schools and specialty patient-care programs are consistently ranked among the nation's top 50. UAB's Center for Clinical and Translational Science is advancing innovative discoveries for better health as a two-time recipient of the prestigious Center for Translational Science Award. Find more information at http://www.uab.edu and http://www.uabmedicine.org. EDITOR'S NOTE: The University of Alabama at Birmingham is a separate, independent institution from the University of Alabama, which is located in Tuscaloosa. Please use University of Alabama at Birmingham on first reference and UAB on all subsequent references. VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/uabnews TEXT: http://www.uab.edu/news TWEETS: http://www.twitter.com/uabnews About 15,000 years ago, the ocean around Antarctica has seen an abrupt sea level rise of several meters. It could happen again. An international team of scientists with the participation of the University of Bonn is now reporting its findings in the magazine Scientific Reports. University of Bonn's climate researcher Michael E. Weber is a member of the study group. He says, "The changes that are currently taking place in a disturbing manner resemble those 14,700 years ago." At that time, changes in atmospheric-oceanic circulation led to a stratification in the ocean with a cold layer at the surface and a warm layer below. Under such conditions, ice sheets melt more strongly than when the surrounding ocean is thoroughly mixed. This is exactly what is presently happening around the Antarctic. The main author of the study, the Australian climate researcher Chris Fogwill from the Climate Change Research Center in Sydney, explains the process as follows: "The reason for the layering is that global warming in parts of Antarctica is causing land based ice to melt, adding massive amounts of freshwater to the ocean surface. At the same time as the surface is cooling, the deeper ocean is warming, which has already accelerated the decline of glaciers in the Amundsen Sea Embayment." It appears global warming is replicating conditions that, in the past, triggered significant shifts in the stability of the Antarctic ice sheet. To investigate the climate changes of the past, the scientists are studying drill cores from the eternal ice. Layer by layer, this frozen "climate archive" reveals its secrets to the experts. In previous studies, the scientists had found evidence of eight massive melting events in deep sea sediments around the Antarctic, which occurred at the transition from the last ice age to the present warm period. Co-author Dr. Weber from the Steinmann Institute of the University of Bonn says: "The largest melt occurred 14,700 years ago. During this time the Antarctic contributed to a sea level rise of at least three meters within a few centuries." The present discovery is the first direct evidence from the Antarctic continent which confirms the assumed models. The research team used isotopic analyzes of ice cores from the Weddell Sea region, which now flows into the ocean about a quarter of the Antarctic melt. Through a combination with ice sheet and climate modeling, the isotopic data show that the waters around the Antarctic were heavily layered at the time of the melting events, so that the ice sheets melted at a faster rate. "The big question is whether the ice sheet will react to these changing ocean conditions as rapidly as it did 14,700 years ago," says co-author Nick Golledge from the Antarctic Research Center in Wellington, New Zealand. ### Publication: Antarctic ice shield discharge driven by atmosphere-ocean feedbacks at the Last Glacial Termination, DOI: 10.1038/srep39979 Contact for the media: Dr. Michael Weber Universitaty of Bonn Steinmann Institut Tel. +49 (0)160 / 96635405 E-Mail: mike.weber@uni-bonn.de Call centres can be expensive as well as the source of lots of consumer angst. But companies can get more bang for their buck by doing a better job of coordinating marketing decisions that drive customers to call centres with operational ones about handling them once they get there, says a new study from the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management. The study, co-authored by Professors Philipp Afeche and Opher Baron in the Rotman School's Operations Management and Statistics Area, and Mojtaba Araghi, an assistant professor at Wilfrid Laurier University, provides an integrated marketing-operations framework to help companies design more effective service policies for their call centres and other service channels. The framework builds on a theoretical model that maps the flow of new and existing customers through the call centre and their consumer decisions afterwards, based on their experience. Unlike previous research, the model links call centre capacity, service quality and how that quality influences future consumer behaviour. "Our model highlights that it is important for companies to be able to answer questions like: How does a particular customer behave if they don't get served? What's the chance that they will leave the company -- or spend more, depending on the service quality they've received?" says Prof. Afeche. This can give companies insight into designing different service levels for different types of customers, depending on their value to the company. Too often, says Prof. Afeche, call centres react in response to marketing decisions, rather than the two functions working together to determine which customers to target in a marketing campaign and what capacity needs to be there to serve them. Traditional ways of measuring customer value, meanwhile, can ignore how that value is affected by service quality, leading to poorer decisions about attracting and keeping them. "Our model gives companies a more complete picture of the value of a customer," says Prof. Afeche. Getting things right at the call centre has been shown to be vital to businesses. Previous research has shown that companies use call centres for 80% of their customer interactions and 92% of customers base their opinion of the company on what happens during their call. Four out of ten customers who end their business with a company place the blame squarely on a customer service call that went badly. The study is forthcoming in in Manufacturing & Service Operations Management. ### For the latest thinking on business, management and economics from the Rotman School of Management, visit http://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/FacultyAndResearch/NewThinking.aspx. The Rotman School of Management is located in the heart of Canada's commercial and cultural capital and is part of the University of Toronto, one of the world's top 20 research universities. The Rotman School fosters a new way to think that enables our graduates to tackle today's global business and societal challenges. For more information, visit http://www.rotman.utoronto.ca. For more information: Ken McGuffin Manager, Media Relations Rotman School of Management University of Toronto Voice 416.946.3818 E-mail mcguffin@rotman.utoronto.ca Farm leaders have accused Friends of the Earth (FoE) of unfairly targeting agriculture after the charity stepped up its campaign against neonicotinoids by calling for a ban on their use in wheat crops. The charity launched a report [PDF] at the Real Oxford Farming Conference on Thursday (5 January), claiming the use of Bayers clothianidin on wheat poses a threat to bees, butterflies and birds. But Julian Little, spokesman for Bayer CropScience UK, which manufactures neonicotinoids, said any ban on the use of the pesticides on wheat crops would make no sense at all as the crop is not pollinated by honeybees. NFU vice-president Guy Smith said any ban would be unjustified based on current scientific evidence. See also: Study suggests neonics impair bees buzz pollination FoE claims, however, bees can be harmed because more than 80% of the chemical leaches into the soil where it can be absorbed by other plants. Friends of the Earths latest idea to limit the use of neonicotinoids on wheat is not justified by the available scientific evidence Guy Smith, NFU vice-president High levels of neonicotinoids have been found in wildflowers next to wheat crops, and can enter flowering plants attractive to bees if they are grown after wheat, said FoE in a press statement. Bees can also be exposed to neonics due to dust drifting away from the crop when treated seeds are sown. Neonics ban Three neonicotinoid pesticides were banned on flowering crops, including oilseed rape and sunflowers, in December 2013 after scientists linked their use to bee declines. One of the restricted neonicotinoids, clothianidin, is widely used in wheat. Defra figures for 2014 show that clothianidin seed treatments were used on 721,872ha of wheat grown in the UK, or about 38% of the total wheat area. The use of clothianidin in wheat crops is a critical tool against barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV), applied as a seed treatment and/or spray. BYDV, a viral disease transmitted by aphids, was a significant problem in some arable areas last year. Varroa mite Bayers Dr Little said: Bees survive on a combination of the carbohydrate which they get from the nectar from flowering plants and protein from pollen. What do we really believe the impact on this would be by banning it (neonics) on wheat? It makes no sense at all. The biggest impact on bee numbers is the effect of extreme weather and diseases, such as the varroa mite. If you take these factors into account, pesticides are just a tiny percentage of the problem. That is where the serious work has to be done, rather than blaming the nearest pesticide. Competitive disadvantage NFU vice-president Guy Smith said: Friends of the Earths latest idea to limit the use of neonicotinoids on wheat is not justified by the available scientific evidence and could have serious consequences for farmers ability to grow food sustainably. With no restrictions of this kind anywhere else in the world farmers would be put at an extreme competitive disadvantage without the use of neonicotinoids on wheat. Last month, 18 wildlife and environment groups, including the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), Soil Association, Greenpeace UK, the Woodland Trust and the Wildlife Trusts signed an open letter calling for the restriction on neonics to be kept and extended to protect bees and other pollinating insects. Farmers must be given time to adapt to life without subsidies after the UK leaves the EU, says the NFU. NFU deputy president Minette Batters called for a transitional period from the current system of farm support to a post-Brexit farm policy for the UK. Speaking at the Oxford Farming Conference on Thursday (5 January), Ms Batters said: Something we feel very strongly about is that there is a transitional period. See also: Minister under fire for lack of post-Brexit farm policy Ms Batters was speaking during a panel session at the conference to discuss the policies agriculture might need outside the EU CAP. EU trade deal It would be impossible to develop a fully functioning post-Brexit agricultural policy before the UK had secured a trade deal with the EU, she suggested. Some 38% of UK sheepmeat was exported into the EU single market. Sheepmeat would be subject to a 51% tariff unless a trade deal secured continued full and unrestricted access to the EU single market post-Brexit. If a 51% tariff was imposed, sheepmeat prices could tumble similar to the fall in prices when UK export restrictions were imposed due to the 2001 and 2007 foot-and-mouth outbreaks. We fell off a cliff. Sheepmeat was down to 25 per head. There was one thing that kept those farmers in business and that was the support payment. That was there only survival mechanism. Safety net Speaking to Farmers Weekly afterwards, Ms Batters said: If we are trading with the sheep sector on a 51% tariff, there will have to be a safety net put in place. She added: The cliff edge is there and we have got to avoid it and that is why a transition period is vital and it will all depend on the trade deal. If we have full unrestricted access to the single market, that is going to make things much better. If we dont and we price sheep out of the market it is going to be very different. So it is vital that it is transitional. CAP funding The UK government has guaranteed to maintain the current level of CAP funding until 2020 even if the UK leaves the EU before that date. But support beyond 2020 remains uncertain, with Defra minister George Eustice warning the industry it must move away from the notion of subsidies. Also on the Oxford conference panel was Helen Ghosh, director general of the National Trust, which has more than 250,000ha of farmland and 2,000 tenant farmers. She said: We absolutely accept we need a transition to this new world simply because of the long lead times for running a sophisticated business and indeed thinking about environmental change. But environmental and political activist George Monbiot said he disagreed there should be any transitional period beyond 2020. Farmers had until 2020 to adjust which was quite long enough for the current system, he said. The system is fundamentally unjust it is environmentally destructive [and] we need to get out of it as quickly as possible, said Mr Monbiot. We have until 2020 to make that transition and that is what we should be doing during that period. By 2021 we should be in a new system altogether. Farmers in Scotland could receive higher subsidies than farmers in England after the UK leaves the EU, it has emerged. The Scottish government wants direct subsidies to continue at current levels beyond 2020 at least until it is clear that producers north of the border can survive without them, reporters were told at the Oxford Farming Conference on Wednesday (4 October). However, Defra wants farmers to move away from direct subsidies after Brexit. Instead, it favours a system that rewards farmers who look after the environment, promotes capital investment and helps make the industry more resilient to weather and price volatility. See also: Defra minister lays out plans for farming post-Brexit Scottish National Party rural affairs spokesman Calum Kerr, a Westminster MP who attended the conference in place of Scottish government rural secretary Fergus Ewing, said: The position there is that from 2020, Scotland should receive the same amount of money. Scotland continue to receive the same allocation, which was 16.5% plus a convergence uplift, which Defra had committed to review by the end of last year, said Mr Kerr. They are overdue on that the Brexit vote is not an excuse to fail to deliver on a fair allocation. Agriculture was a devolved matter and it was important that continued, said Mr Kerr. Maintain funding Powers repatriated from Brussels should return to Scotland rather than being centralised in Westminster. The starting point post-2020 is to maintain the level of funding, he said. Defra minister George Eustice suggested devolution arrangements would continue but it was important it was with a framework that ensured farmers within the four UK countries were able to compete on a level playing field. Speaking during an earlier panel debate during the conference, Mr Eustice said it had not yet been decided where the borders of a UK framework for agriculture would be drawn up or how much discretion each country would have to decide their own post-Brexit support schemes. Exploring all options We are not at that stage, but we are exploring all of these options, said Mr Eustice. It was possible there could be a crop insurance scheme in England and something completely different in other UK countries, he agreed, but then again there might not be. You could or you could not, said Mr Eustice. Some of these things may be UK-wide measures, but the principle reasons for having a UK framework is because we dont want to have big distortions in the UK market. We want countries to pursue policies that work for their own agriculture and environment, but to preserve the integrity of the UK market, you will have to have some sort or measures that prevent, for instance, large anti-competitive subsidies in one part of the UK. Officials hope adrift Saarc will get a new lease of life The Saarc process that hit a snag following the postponement of the 19th summit scheduled for November last year in Islamabad sine die after India expressed its inability to participate could see the revival, Haiti - NOTICE : Delivery of certificates to elected, by the CEP Uder Antoine, the Executive Director of the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP), informs the elected of the complementary legislative elections (Deputies and Senators), one third of the Senate and of municipal, that it proceeds this Wednesday at the delivery of certificates. This activity will take place at the institution's headquarters, located in Petion-ville, Stephen Archer Street #72, Wednesday, January 4 according to the following schedule: - 9h00 a.m.- to 1h00 p.m. : Artibonite, Centre, West, Nippes, South and South East - 2h00 p.m. to 4h00 p.m.: Grand'Anse, North, North East and Nord West. Elected may be represented by a representative. Note : To avoid any delays in the delivery of the said certificates, the elected concerned must bring their National Identification Card (CIN) and their tax number. They must respect this programming according to their respective departments and constituencies. HL/ HaitiLibre Gerton Fire & Rescue receives higher rating Related Stories Gerton residents could see lower homeowners insurance costs with the news that the Gerton Fire & Rescue Department has received an improved fire protection rating from the state. Insurance Commissioner and State Fire Marshal Wayne Goodwin announced Tuesday that Gerton received a rating of 4 from the previous 6. (The lower the rating number the better.) An inspection, conducted by officials with the Department of Insurance Office of State Fire Marshal, is required on a regular basis as part of the North Carolina Response Rating System. Among other things, the routine inspections look for proper staffing levels, sufficient equipment, proper maintenance of equipment, communications capabilities and availability of a water source. The fire rating goes into effect April 1 and some homeowners and businesses could see a decrease in fire insurance premiums. "It truly depends on each insurance company" when it comes to premium reductions, said Gerton Fire Chief Jay Alley. Businesses could be more likely to see reductions than homes, he added. "We had increased training, which helped tremendously," he said. "The Grand Highlands water system (on Bearwallow Mountain) helped, too. We now have paid staff." The department has a full-time firefighter covering the station 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Saturday. "We're just excited about it," Alley said. "For us with the limited resource we have to get a 4 is astronomical." "I'd like to congratulate Chief Alley for the department's performance and for the hard work of all the department members," said Commissioner Goodwin. State law requires OSFM officials to inspect departments serving districts of 100,000 people or less, which makes up all but six of the state's fire districts. Volk, Stephens urged no vote on county's HHS plan In advance of a crucial up-and-down vote, Hendersonville Mayor Barbara Volk and Councilman Ron Stephens urged Henderson County School Board members to vote no on the construction plan for Hendersonville High School that the Board of Commissioners had approved. The calls came in the days before the School Board voted, under pressure from the commissioners, to endorse the $53 million construction plan that abandons the historic core classroom building and auditorium as a part of the countys oldest high school. School Board members said in interviews this week that they had received calls from both Volk and Stephens. Two members who spoke with the Hendersonville Lightning, Rick Wood and Michael Absher, voted in favor of the county-endorsed construction plan. Chair Amy Lynn Holt, the most outspoken advocate for continued use of the old Stillwell-designed classroom, said she was aware of the calls but had not received one herself. She assumed that may have been because they figured they had my no vote. They basically were encouraging us to not go to forward to vote no, said School Board member Michael Absher, who voted with the 4-2 majority for the HHS plan the commissioners first OKd last spring. They just felt like they didnt want to be put in an awkward positon. Absher wasnt happy with the communication from Volk and Stephens. It kind of really irritated me, he said, based on public officials shouldnt be calling another public official trying to sway their vote. I didnt think it was right. You didnt hear the county commissioners calling me and saying, Hey, you got to vote this way. (Commissioners had made their position known publicly by demanding the School Board take an up or down vote on the HHS plan and pledging shelve the plans of the School Board voted no.) Yes, she did give me a call, Wood said. I dont remember the particulars so Id rather not quote her. If I remember correctly the overall tone I got was that she would prefer we voted to stop it so that the city didnt have to make a decision on it. I dont remember if she said she was speaking as an individual. When Ron Stephens called me he did make it clear like he did in the School Board meeting that he was speaking as an individual and not as a member of the City Council. She didnt put bigtime pressure. I just got the feeling she would prefer that if we voted to stop it the city wouldnt have to deal with it. What our voters want In one call, Volk suggested that the will of city voters is against the countys HHS plans. I just for very selfish reasons hope that you would vote against the proposal for Hendersonville High School Monday night, she said in a voice mail she left with one School Board member. That throws it into the City Councils lap and I know it would be very defensive for us and (it) very well might get turned down for problems with the parking and what our voters want. I know its a difficult situation for you and I wish you the very best at that meeting and thank you for your consideration. In an interview on Monday, Volk confirmed she had made the calls to School Board members. I called some of them just explaining (that) I hoped they would turn it down because it was going to put the City Council in such an awkward position, she said. It was so controversial and they were putting the decision off on the council. It was putting us between our citizens and the voters. I hoped they would just wait until the strong feelings calmed down and it would be discussed in a less emotional fashion. Stephens defended his public statement at the Dec. 12 School Board meeting in which he accused the Board of Commissioners of bullying the School Board into accepting the all-new HHS plan. Both Stephens and Volk say they saw nothing in their efforts that would disqualify them from hearing and voting on an expected zoning request for the new school. No, I am not disqualified, Stephens said. Before I did that I met with our city attorney and he agreed that if I stated at the beginning that Im not there as a representative of the city but as a taxpayer and a concerned citizen it would not be (a conflict). I never mentioned the zoning. The only way I ever mentioned the high school is that I asked them to postpone that and my main reason was to to ask them to do the (Edneyville) grammar school first. And I am convinced that they are violating the law and I think thats very disturbing. I feel like the Board of Education let the county commissioners bully them and I think they joined the county commissioners in violating the law. I wasnt even thinking about the zoning. Thats not the reason I was there. Stephens acknowledged that the zoning applicants may object to his comments and to Volks behind-the-scenes lobbying. They may try to make an issue out of it but the city attorney strongly feels like I am not disqualified, he said. City Attorney Sam Fritschner said attorney-client privilege barred him from answering a reporters questions about the matter. I cant answer that for you, he said when asked if their comments would disqualify Stephens and Volk. I can only give legal advice to my clients. Nor could he confirm, he said, whether he had spoken with Stephens and/or Volk about their right to express an opinion about the HHS project in advance of a council decision on the matter. Fact-based hearing Mayor Volk said she has not made up her mind about the project and emphasized that in the quasi-judicial setting of a special-use permit her opinion doesnt matter. Its not something that I can really talk about one way or the other because it is quasi-judicial, she said. We have to consider what is presented to us at the meeting. We have to go by what the ordinances say. If they can prove that they have abided by all the requirements it would get approved. If they cant prove it, they would have to go back and make some modifications before we could approve it. In fact, she predicted that HHS supporters may be frustrated that the council wont be able to vote no just because some members disagree with the decision not to use the historic building. In a quasi-judicial hearing we really have to look at the law and whether they have proved that they have fulfilled what the city ordinance requires. Its not just our opinion (or the councils view that) I dont like this, she said. Its kind of like a court case. It has to be legally binding. You cant consider what people would like to see. It has to be what the law will allow. Thats why we have to be very careful. Well just wait and see what happens. Absher also said the city had sent a letter on city letterhead expressing opposition to the county commission-approved plan. The Lightning obtained a copy of the letter. The undated letter was on plain paper and sent to the School Board in a city of Hendersonville envelope. The letter heading said it was from A Taxpayer and Voter in Henderson County and was intended for School Board members. Please vote against the plan the Henderson County commissioners are trying to force upon the taxpayers and HHS, it said. EDITOR'S NOTE: An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to Stephens' last name as Edwards. Class size mandate would cost county $3.5M and could crowd upper grades Related Stories A law ordering smaller class sizes in K-3 classes would cost Henderson County schools $3.5 million a year for new personnel and new mobile classrooms, the School Board learned on Wednesday. And if the schools did not come up with extra money, the class-size mandate could mean bigger classes in higher grades or dropping music, art and other non-core instruction in elementary schools, administrators said. After a site visit at Edneyville Elementary School, the School Board met briefly in the school library and previewed items on Monday night's regular business agenda. Among the items on the docket is a report from Scott Rhodes, the school system's chief human resources officer, on implementing the class-size mandate the Legislature enacted last summer. In a presentation he prepared for the Monday night meeting, Rhodes reports that the mandate would force the school system to add 48 teachers or shift that many from higher grades to kindergarten and first, second and third grades. The personnel cost would be $2.5 million. A second consequence of the law is that the school system would have to add new classrooms to meet the class-size mandate. Rhodes calculated that elementary schools would need to add 21 mobile units to accommodate the new classrooms. "When you start adding 48 positions you have to have some place to put them," Rhodes said. Chair Amy Lynn Holt brought up the class-size mandate on Wednesday and asked whether the Legislature had allocated money for the extra teachers the law would require school districts to hire. It did not, Superintendent Bo Caldwell said. School Board members had little immediate reaction since they had just learned of the cost and potential impact on upper grades or other programs. "In other words, we have to find 48 teachers with no additional money and no additional alotment (of state-funded teachers)," said board member Mary Louise Corn. In interviews on Thursday, Caldwell and Rhodes said school districts are lobbying the Legislature to pull back from the mandate. Although the state House passed a fix that school districts favor during a special session last month, the bill died in the Senate when the General Assembly adjourned. "I think you can find out how other school systems have really started looking at this and how its going to change how we look at class size," Caldwell said. "A lot of schools dont have the extra space for these classes." He cited Atkinson Elementary School as an example. "Hes got to have two more or three more K-3 classrooms. Well, theres no place to put them." Administrators also say putting a request for more money in their budget request for the 2017-18 school year is not a good option because counties adopt their budgets by July 1 while the Legislature often goes into overtime and enacts a budget later in the summer. "There would not be an expectation for that to happen," said Rhodes, of a request for an additional $3.5 million for 48 new teachers and 21 mobile units. "The commissioners have been generous in trying to give the schools what we've asked for. To ask for another $3.5 million, that's not a realistic expectation." Last summer the Legislature ordered the state's school districts to lower the maximum average K-3 class size from 21 students to 18 in kindergarten, 16 in first grade and 17 in second and third grades while reducing the maximum individual K-3 class size from 24 students to 21 in kindergarten, 19 in first grade and 20 in second and third grades. House Bill 13, which local school systems favor, relaxed the changes. The maximum average class size next school year would be 21 students in kindergarten, 19 in first grade and 20 in second and third grades. The bill also would have set the maximum individual class size next school year at 24 students in kindergarten, 22 in first grade and 23 in second and third grades. RPP takes centre stage as parties do the math After a Supreme Court ruling on the constitution amendment bill, which has been interpreted by the governing parties and the main opposition to their liking, the Rastriya Prajantra Party (RPP), has started to take the centre stage. Update 1.52pm: Health Minister Simon Harris said this morning he is "sorry" about the "extraordinarily difficult" situation in the health service recently. Speaking at the Midland Regional Hospital in Tullamore, Co Offaly today, he said: Our hospitals are going through an extraordinarily challenging period of time at the present. "I really am sorry for Irish patients and indeed for the staff working in our hospitals experiencing the conditions that they are having to put up with at the moment. "It isnt acceptable, the health service must do better, and I want to see absolutely everything done to try and improve this situation. "This situation is not helped by the significant outbreak of flu and the particular strain of flu that has seen the flu impacting particularly on older people. Minister Harris says he expects the HSE to redouble its efforts and to do more than outlined in the winter initiative. He is due to meet with the director general of Health Service Executive, Tony O'Brien, at his department this afternoon - as the number of people waiting on trolleys in hospitals reach record highs. The INMO says 578 people were waiting for a bed in hospitals this morning - that's down slightly on figures for the past two days. Update 11.07am: Transport Minister Shane Ross says he expects Simon Harris to kick ass when he meets the head of the HSE today. The Health Minister is due to have talks with Tony O'Brien at his Department, as latest figures show 578 people on trolleys at hospitals around the country. The figure is down from totals of over 600 in the past two days. Minister Ross said that he has been speaking to his cabinet colleague this morning. I think its up to him and I think he intends to do it, to go in and kick ass today when he gets to talk to the HSE, he said. Its unreasonable to expect him, as Minister, to micromanage the service, in other words, to blame him for every time the trolley figures go up or down but there obviously is a big problem there. Earlier: HSE chief Tony O'Brien is to meet with the Health Minister later for an update on emergency department overcrowding. Yesterday, INMO records showed that 602 people were waiting on trolleys in hospitals around the country - the second highest figure ever recorded - down 10 from the day before. Ambulance transfer times usually average at around 20 minutes, but the current overcrowding crisis has increased the transfer time to between one to three hours in some hospitals. Outside Limerick emergency department . 14 ambulances waiting! Pic Austin Florish pic.twitter.com/XR77uZtlAf David Hall (@davidhall75) January 3, 2017 SIPTU health division organiser Paul Bell said that the public needs to be aware of the situation. "It does need to be said to the wider public that just because you're not physically in hospital, it does not mean that what is going on there is not going to impact on you or a family member," he said. "We all rely heavily on the ambulance services. "Our concern is to make sure that the public are aware that the service is being impacted on by what is something beyond our members' control." The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation is expected to give another update later on the number on trolleys awaiting admission to hospital. Investec made the prediction as it set out its favoured stock picks for 2017, saying it expected CRH, Bank of Ireland, Paddy Power, Betfair, Ryanair and Smurfit Kappa Group to do well of the large listed companies. Among the small and mid-sized companies, recruitment firm CPL, hotel group Dalata, sea transport company Irish Continental Group, builders merchant Grafton Group, convenience food company Greencore and Irish Residential Properties REIT would do well, it said. Following on from a momentous 2016 in terms of political surprises, we enter 2017 with the prospect of fiscal reflation from the new US administration. This should drive US GDP towards 3% growth, the highest level in a decade, and see global growth reach 3.7%, according to our economists. Meanwhile, Ireland is expected to outperform the EU for a fifth year in a row, driven by the domestic economy, according to Investec Ireland. The large company picks are firms that can deliver growth while also offering attractive valuation levels, Investec said. Among the small and mid capital companies, Investec said it was looking for similar characteristics, with exposure to Ireland seen as a highly attractive attribute. Investec analysts said that building materials giant CRH, valued at 27bn, is well positioned to benefit from a pick-up in infrastructure spending in the US, with president-elect Donald Trump vowing to inject up to 1 trillion in capital investment. As well as promising to invest in highways, airports and bridges across the nation, Mr Trump has controversially vowed to build a giant wall on the border between the US and Mexico. Packaging giant Smurfit Kappa, valued at 5bn, is also set to benefit from growing markets across Europe and the Americas, according to Investec. Its analysts also said that Ryanair has the aircraft to achieve 8% growth in 2017. Davy Stockbrokers earlier this week had predicted that a number of Irish companies have significant potential in 2017. In its so-called conviction list, Davy recommended many of the same companies as Investec. Other companies that Davy earmarked include insulation manufacturer Kingspan, which it said had a potential upside of 24% this year. Builder Cairn Homes was pinpointed as one to watch by Davy because it has a land bank of close to 12,000 homes, and housebuilding was likely to significantly benefit from Government incentives. A series of areas in Cork and other counties are also likely to be declared rent pressure zones (RPZs) in the coming weeks, which will allow for rate increases to be capped at 4% a year. Speaking to the Irish Examiner, Mr Coveney said: I have a very ambitious vision for Cork. I think as a city, the next 20 years will be the most exciting since independence for Cork city. I think we are going to see a dramatic increase in our population, I think we are going to see a lot of economic growth, a lot of investment from Irish companies as well as multi-nationals. Mr Justice Sean Ryan granted Piotr Skiba a stay against his extradition until the appeal next week. Skiba is wanted in his home country to serve two prison sentences of nine and 18 months for burglaries. Kathleen Leader, counsel for the State, told the court the minister was consenting to a stay being placed on Mr Skibas extradition pending his appeal but asked that it be heard as the earliest possible date. Mr Justice Ryan said he would try to arrange a hearing before three judges of appeal either next Tuesday or Wednesday. When the case came before the High Court two weeks ago, Det Sgt Jim Kirwan told Mr Justice Richard Humphreys that, when brought to the boarding gate by gardai, Piotr Skiba refused to get on the plane and expressed a fear of flying. Mark Lynam, counsel for Skiba, had told the court that Mr Skibas solicitor had on December 9 pre-warned the State Solicitor of his fear of flying. Det Sgt Kirwan said it was December 12 when he had received any indication of Mr Skibas fear of flying and he was sceptical because his dread of flying had been introduced at such a late stage. The High Court had heard that once an extradition order was made by a court the authorities had 10 days in which to deliver up the subject of the extradition request and that time would have expired on Christmas Day. Det Sgt Kirwan said that if the State had to extradite Mr Skiba by sea and land, the Garda authorities would have to notify the security services of every country Mr Skiba would have to cross in order to make arrangements for his transport and delivery to Poland. Approval would have to be sought in each country. The High Court had heard that Skiba, who was married with four children in Ireland, had not been asked for medical evidence to demonstrate that he had a fear of flying. He had not been asked if he had such a fear until he had been taken to the airport. Judge Humphreys had granted the State an extension until today to arrange for Skibas extradition. According to the department, 14 cases brought as a result of the use of the software have been finalised in court, the first in January of 2015, with custodial sentences handed down in nine of those cases. Figures provided by the department showed that as of the end of October last year 135 cases of suspected fraud detected via Cogent Facial Image Matching Software since its implementation have been referred to the Departments Special Investigations Unit and/or the gardai. While 11 cases have been concluded as no issue has arisen with regard to identity, 14 cases have been finalised in court and in 24 cases, formal legal proceedings have been initiated via the DPP under Criminal Justice Law (Theft & Fraud Offences). According to the department, another 71 cases are under investigation. It also said 15 cases have not proceeded for a number of reasons, mainly due to the person leaving the jurisdiction. A departmental spokesperson said: Recorded savings from cessation of related social welfare payments (mainly Jobseekers/ rent supplement) are 375,148. Fraud overpayments of 1,309,698 have or are being assessed in these cases. In one case that was concluded last October the judge remarked how many people coming before the courts were now being detected through facial imaging systems. Judge Melanie Greally, who was hearing a case in Dublin, said: Persons who think that they will get away with social welfare fraud need to wake up. According to the Department of Social Protection, the Standard Authentication Framework Environment programme, which involves the use of the public services card to replace existing cards such as social services cards and free travel passes, has also reduced the potential for forgery and fraudulent use. As part of the introduction of the public services card, the department invested in facial recognition software, Cogent Facial Image Matching Software, to ensure that multiple or fraudulent identities can be detected at the point of registration. According to the departmental spokesperson: Cogent Facial Image Matching Software involves comparing the photograph captured during the registration process with all photographs held on the departments database. This ensures the individual has not already been registered for a public services card using a different PPS number, or a different identity dataset. This gives an enhanced level of assurance and is a key tool in preventing and detecting identity fraud. The software uses a biometric template of a human face digitised from a photograph and through a computer algorithm, the system attempts to identify someone by measuring certain features of their face, like the distance between their eyes or the width of their nose. These features are then used to search for other images with matching features. Every new photograph captured is compared with all other photographs on the database. Where a match arises these cases are immediately sent to the departments special investigation unit. TORONTO, Jan. 5, 2017 /CNW/ -Jaguar Mining Inc. ("Jaguar" or the "Company") (TSX: JAG) is pleased to announce the successful recommissioning of Mill #3 at its Turmalina Gold Mine ("Turmalina"), in Minas Gerais, Brazil. The reconstruction of Mill #3 commenced in April 2016, at a total estimated capital cost of US$1.34 million (approximately R$5.09 million), funded from operating cash flow. Mill #3 was fully commissioned on December 28, 2016 with an estimated installed capacity of 1,600 tonnes per day or 580,000 tonnes per year. Turmalina is expected to process 533,000 tonnes of ore in 2017. Using only Mill #3, Turmalina will be able to achieve the entire through-put capacity of the plant with a lower operating cost, through electricity consumption savings, compared to using both Mill #1 and Mill #2 in 2016. Currently Mill #1 and Mill #2 at Turmalina have been taken off-line for maintenance and will be kept on standby mode. The reconstruction of Mill #3 will allow the processing plant to be run at a full capacity of 2,000 tonnes per day or approximately 720,000 tonnes per year in future years using a combination of mills. Rodney Lamond, President and Chief Executive Officer of Jaguar, stated: "Jaguar has achieved another significant milestone with the recommissioning of Mill #3, which will increase daily processing capacity of the plant to 2,000 tonnes per day. We expect that the increase in process tonnage and lower operating costs for Mill #3 will positively impact Turmalina's unitary costs. Mill #1 and Mill #2 are being reviewed for maintenance and will be kept on stand-by as a part of Turmalina's long-term, organic growth strategy, and other opportunities in the Iron Quadrangle." The Iron Quadrangle The Iron Quadrangle has been an area of mineral exploration for centuries, dating back to the 16th century. The discovery in 1699-1701 of black gold contaminated with iron and platinum-group metals in the southeastern corner of the Iron Quadrangle gave rise to the name of the town Ouro Preto (Black Gold). The Iron Quadrangle contains world-class multi-million ounce gold deposits such as Morro Velho, Cuiaba and Sao Bento. Jaguar holds the second largest gold land position in the Iron Quadrangle with just over 25,000 hectares. About Jaguar Mining Inc. Jaguar Mining Inc. is a Canadian-listed junior gold mining, development, and exploration company operating in Brazil with three gold mining complexes, and a large land package with significant upside exploration potential from mineral claims covering an area of approximately 191,000 hectares. The Company's principal operating assets are located in the Iron Quadrangle, a prolific greenstone belt in the state of Minas Gerais and include the Turmalina Gold Mine Complex ("Mineracao Turmalina Ltda" or "MTL") and Caete Gold Mine Complex ("Mineracao Serras do Oeste Ltda" or "MSOL") which combined produce more than 90,000 ounces of gold annually. The Company also owns the Paciencia Gold Mine Complex, which has been on care and maintenance since 2012. Additional information is available on the Company's website at www.jaguarmining.com. SC ruling paved way for political consensus: PM Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has said that the Supreme Court ruling on a writ regarding the constitution amendment process has paved the way for forging a consensus among political parties. TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Jan. 5, 2017) - All amounts are in United States dollars, unless otherwise stated. Alamos Gold Inc. (TSX:AGI)(NYSE:AGI) ("Alamos" or the "Company") today reported it has received the Forestry Permits required for the development of its Kirazli gold project from the Forestry General Directorate in Turkey. "Kirazli will be low cost to build and operate. It is our highest return project and will be a significant source of free cash flow in the years ahead. This represents a significant breakthrough for the project," said John A. McCluskey, President and Chief Executive Officer. With the Environmental Impact Study and Forestry Permits for Kirazli approved by the federal government, the Company is pursuing the GSM (Business Opening and Operation) permit which is granted by the Canakkale Governorship. Feasibility studies to update the economics for both Kirazli and Agi Dagi, as outlined in the positive 2012 pre-feasibility study, are nearing completion. A preliminary economic assessment is also being conducted on the higher grade Camyurt project. A number of significant changes including weakness in the Turkish Lira and lower diesel prices since 2012 are expected to positively impact what were already attractive project economics. About Alamos Alamos is a Canadian-based intermediate gold producer with diversified production from three operating mines in North America. This includes the Young-Davidson mine in northern Ontario, Canada and the Mulatos and El Chanate mines in Sonora State, Mexico. Additionally, the Company has a significant portfolio of development stage projects in Mexico, Turkey, Canada and the United States. Alamos employs more than 1,300 people and is committed to the highest standards of sustainable development. The Company's shares are traded on the TSX and NYSE under the symbol "AGI". TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Jan. 5, 2017) - Rockcliff Copper Corporation ("Rockcliff" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:RCU)(FRANKFURT:RO0)(WKN:A142TR) is pleased to announce additional drill hole assay and geophysical drill hole survey results from its ongoing phase 2 exploration program on the Talbot Property. The property forms part of Rockcliff's Snow Lake Project centered on the Snow Lake Mining Camp, Manitoba. Highlights: Recently completed drill hole intersects high grade mineralization of the Talbot deposit main lens. Drill hole TB-012 intersects 5.3 metres grading 3.9% Copper Equivalent (Cueq) (2.0% copper, 1.94g/t gold, 0.32% zinc, 20.03g/t silver) Surveying of drill holes locates one of the largest undrilled conductive geophysical anomaly/plate yet discovered below the Talbot deposit north lens with dimensions of 300 metres by 600 metres. At the Talbot deposit main lens, drill hole TB-012 intersected the main lens mineralization confirming continuity of the main lens in an area void of drilling along the deposit's north boundary of the main lens. At the Talbot deposit north lens, the Company completed several drill hole geophysical surveys on historic holes and on its recently completed drill holes TB013 and TB014 which intersected 7.1 metres grading 4.1% Cueq and 2.6 metres grading 2.4% Cueq respectively (please see press release dated November 29, 2016 for additional information). The survey results identified a new drill target that represents one of the largest undrilled conductive plates yet discovered on the property below the existing Talbot deposit north lens mineralization, measuring 300 metres along strike and 600 metres of depth extent. Historic hole TLS007 appears to have intersected the very top edge of the conductive plate intersecting 4.4% Cueq across 2.1 metres. A preliminary longitudinal image of the conductive plate location relative to the Talbot deposit is shown below. Ken Lapierre, President and CEO commented, "All large mines in the Flin Flon-Snow Lake greenstone belt have extensive multiple stacked mineralized lenses that coincide with multiple stacked extensive conductive geophysical anomalies or plates. At Talbot, the fact that we have discovered the largest undrilled geophysical conductive plate immediately below the Talbot deposit is encouraging and a real testament to the significant upside potential on this property located within this prolific world class mineral belt. Our phase 2 drill program will continue immediately and will focus on the discovery of additional mineralized lenses proximal to the Talbot deposit". 3D Longitudinal Section of Talbot Deposit and Buried Untested Geophysical Plate below Deposit To view the image associated with this release, please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/1081829_image.jpg Drill hole information from hole TB-012 is tabled below. Hole # From (m) To (m) Length (m) Cueq (Copper equivalent %) Copper % Gold g/t Zinc % Silver g/t Comments TB-012 847.89 853.19 5.30 3.9 2.0 1.94 0.32 20.03 Talbot deposit-main lens within 840.62 853.19 12.57 2.1 1.2 0.92 0.24 10.2 (m) =metres represents down the hole thickness as true thickness is not currently known, % = percentage, g/t = grams per tonne, *copper equivalent value used US$2.50/pound copper, US1300/ troy ounce gold, US$1.15/pound zinc and US$20 /per ounce silver, 100% metal recoveries were applied, copper equivalent calculation is: CuEq = Cu grade + ((Zn grade%/100 x Zn price) + (Au grade gpt x Au price) + (Ag grade gpt x Ag price))/Cu price x 100. The numbers may not add up due to rounding. TB-012 was drilled at UTM NAD83 co-ordinates 458520E/5997036N, to a depth of 962 metres, along an azimuth of 285 degrees and a dip of -70 degrees. The depositional environment at the Talbot Property is similar to that of present and past producing base metal mines of bi-modal volcaniclastic rocks in the prolific Flin Flon - Snow Lake Greenstone Belt. The gold-rich Talbot copper deposit is defined as a stratabound, VMS deposit consisting of several lenses of stringer to massive sulphides of pyrite, chalcopyrite, sphalerite and pyrrhotite in a quartzofeldspathic gneiss. On February 4, 2016, Rockcliff announced on the Talbot Property an Inferred Mineral Resource as set out in the National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") technical report dated January 25, 2016 and titled "Technical Report on the Talbot Property, Manitoba, Canada" (the "Technical Report"), a copy of which is available on the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com, in respect of an initial Mineral Resource Estimate prepared by Roscoe Postle Associates Inc. ("RPA") for the Talbot Deposit located on the Talbot Property, central Manitoba. The Inferred Mineral Resource Statement prepared by RPA for the gold-rich Talbot copper deposit is detailed below. Mineral Resource Statement, Talbot Deposit, Manitoba, RPA, January 26, 2016 Grades Contained Metal Zone Tonnes (kt) Cu (%) Au (g/t) Zn (%) Ag (g/t) Cu (Mlb) Au (koz) Zn (Mlb) Ag (koz) Talbot Main 1,441.0 3.4 2.6 2.4 61.0 107.0 118.6 76.4 2,827.8 Talbot Main FW 443.9 2.2 2.0 2.4 55.6 22.0 28.5 23.2 793.8 North Lens 283.4 0.7 2.0 1.3 20.6 4.6 18.3 7.9 187.6 Total 2,168.3 2.8 2.4 2.2 54.6 133.6 165.4 107.4 3,809.3 Notes: 1. CIM definitions were followed for the estimation of Mineral Resources. 2. Mineral resources are estimated at a cut-off grade of $140 Net Smelter Return (NSR) (equivalent to a copper NSR cut-off of 2.0%) using metal prices, estimated recoveries and offsite payments. 3. Mineral Resources are estimated using a long-term copper price of US$3.50 per pound, gold price of US$1450 per ounce, zinc price of US$1.25 per pound and silver price of US$22 per ounce. 4. An US$/C$exchange rate of 1.18 was used. 5. A minimum mining width of 2 m was used. 6. The average bulk density is 3.2t per cubic meter. 7. Numbers may not add due to rounding. 8. Given the tonnage, grade and orientation of the deposit, RPA considers the Talbot Deposit to be reasonably amenable to extraction using underground mining methods. 9. Mineral Resources are not Mineral Reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability. Samples of half core are packaged and shipped directly from Rockcliff's field office to TSL Laboratories (TSL), Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. TSL is a Canadian assay laboratory and is accredited under ISO/IEC 17025. Each bagged core sample is dried, crushed to 70% passing 10 mesh and a 250g pulp is pulverized to 95% passing 150 mesh for assaying. A 0.5g cut is taken from each pulp for base metal analysis and leached in a multi acid (total) digestion and then analyzed for copper, lead, zinc and silver by atomic absorption. Gold concentrations are determined by fire assay using a 30g charge followed by fire assay gravimetric and atomic absorption finish. Samples greater than an upper detection limit (3000 ppb) are reanalyzed using a 1 AT charge. Rockcliff inserted certified blanks and standards in the sample stream to ensure lab integrity. Rockcliff can earn a 51% interest in the Talbot Property from Hudson Bay Exploration and Development Company Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hudbay Minerals Inc. Please refer to the news release dated October 11, 2016 for specific terms of the option agreement. Please visit our website at www.rockcliffcoppercorp.com for additional information. Ken Lapierre P.Geo., President and CEO of Rockcliff, a Qualified Person in accordance with Canadian regulatory requirements as set out in NI 43-101, has read and approved the scientific and technical information that forms the basis for the disclosure contained in this press release. About Rockcliff Copper Corporation Rockcliff is a Canadian resource exploration company focused on the discovery, advancement and consolidation of the highest grade unmined metal deposits in the prolific Flin Flon - Snow Lake (FF-SL) greenstone belt specifically centered on Snow Lake, MB. The Snow Lake Project, totalling in excess of 45,000 collective hectares is located in and around the Snow Lake mining camp and hosts the highest grade unmined NI 43-101 copper deposits (the gold-rich Talbot copper deposit and the Rail copper deposit), the highest grade unmined historical zinc deposits (the Lon zinc deposit, the Bur zinc deposit and the Morgan zinc deposit), includes the highest grade former lode gold producer (Laguna) and a Net Smelter Return Royalty (NSR) on the Tower property which includes the T-1 copper deposit in the FF-SL greenstone belt. Rockcliff also owns the near surface MacBride zinc deposit located north of Snow Lake near Leaf Rapids, Manitoba. Additionally, Rockcliff owns a zinc-silver rich NI 43-101 Resource (the Shihan deposit) in Ontario and a royalty on two gold properties in Colombia, South America. Rockcliff is well funded with approximately CDN$2.5 million in its treasury and no debt. OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Jan. 5, 2017) - Cornerstone Capital Resources Inc. ("Cornerstone" or "the Company") (TSX VENTURE:CGP)(FRANKFURT:GWN)(BERLIN:GWN)(OTCBB:CTNXF) announces its subsidiary La Plata Minerales S.A. ("Plamin") has been awarded the "Bramaderos" concession in Ecuador following a public bidding process. The 4,949 Hectares Bramaderos concession is located in Loja province, some 130 km (2 hours drive) from the Loja provincial capital city. Easy access is provided by the PanAmerican Highway crossing the western part of the concession. The Bramaderos property was sporadically explored during the periods 1970 to 1984, 2001 to 2002 and 2004 to 2007. Porphyry style gold-copper mineralization has been found mainly associated to quartz veins stockworks and breccias hosted by a cluster of potassic altered, northeast aligned, quartz-diorite poprhyries showing the typical porphyry alteration and mineralization patterns. An extensive, 5km by 1-2 km, gold and copper (+/- molybdenum) in-soil anomaly located in the central part of the property has been partially tested by trenching and diamond drilling. Several zones have not yet been followed up. A total of 888 rock and 1324 soil samples have been collected, 17 trenches dug and channel sampled, 31 line kilometers of magnetic and Induced Polarization (IP) surveys carried out, and a total of 10,426m of diamond drilling performed to test some of the anomalous areas. Brooke Macdonald, Cornerstone's CEO, said: "Bramaderos has excellent potential to host large-volume gold and copper mineralization. The available data will be fully assessed and a 3D mineralization model developed. Several near drill ready targets have been identified, and the property is available for joint venture". A location map can be seen in PDF format by accessing the version of this release on the Company's website (www.cornerstoneresources.com) or by clicking on the link below: More detailed information, including a more detailed concession map, will be released once all of the data sets have been fully analyzed. Bramaderos is subject to the usual rules under the Ecuadorian Mining Law, including an initial exploration period of four years, followed by four years for advanced exploration (including drilling), followed by two years for pre-feasibility and feasibility studies and definition drilling which period may be extended for a final two years prior to exploitation (mine development). Qualified Person: Yvan Crepeau, MBA, P.Geo., Cornerstone's Vice President, Exploration and a qualified person in accordance with National Instrument 43-101, is responsible for supervising the exploration program at the Cascabel project for Cornerstone and has reviewed and approved the information contained in this news release. About Cornerstone: Cornerstone Capital Resources Inc. is a well funded mineral exploration company with a diversified portfolio of projects in Ecuador and Chile, and a proven ability to identify, acquire and advance properties of merit. The company's business model is based on generating exploration projects whose subsequent development is funded primarily through partnerships. Cornerstone has a 15% interest financed through to completion of a feasibility study in the Cascabel copper-gold porphyry joint venture exploration project in northern Ecuador. SolGold Plc is funding 100% of the exploration at Cascabel and is the operator of the project. Further information is available on Cornerstone's website: www.cornerstoneresources.com and on Twitter. VANCOUVER, BC--(Marketwired - January 05, 2017) - GoldQuest Mining Corp. (TSX VENTURE: GQC) (FRANKFURT: M1W) (BERLIN: M1W) ("GoldQuest" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that the Company has been granted a new 5-year exploration license on the 425 hectare Hoyitos ("Hoyitos") exploration concession. Hoyitos contains the Las Animas Volcanogenic Massive Sulfide ("VMS") deposit. "We are pleased to have been granted a new concession license which will add to the Company's critical mass in the country," commented Bill Fisher, GoldQuest's Executive Chairman, "The government of the Dominican Republic continues to issue exploration licenses to GoldQuest and this support is encouraging as we work with the Ministry of Mines on the Mining License Application for our flagship Romero gold/copper Project." About Las Animas (Hoyitos Conession) All modern exploration on the concession has been carried out by GoldQuest. Previous work includes surface sampling, mapping and geophysics which lead to the drilling which defined the mineral resources. GoldQuest issued the Las Animas deposit's National Instrument ("NI") 43-101 resources on 14th August 2012 (see chart below). The VMS deposit contains resources for gold, copper, silver and zinc. There is potential to expand the mineral resources at depth and for additional zones on the property. Las Animas is located in the Maimon Formation of the central Dominican Republic, 60 km along strike from the Cerro de Maimon mine which also hosts a copper-gold VMS deposit. The Las Animas deposit was defined by 47 drill holes with results up to 142 Meters Grading 2.50 g/t Au, 36.58 g/t silver, 2.59% Cu and 1.91% Zn in hole LA-06 (see Release of 6th June 2007) and has a small oxide resource at surface. The intersection above in LA-06 is not true width of the mineralization. True width was estimated to be up to 23 metres in the resource estimation. While the Company is examining its options to restart exploration at Las Animas, it is important to note that the Tireo Formation remains the focus of the Company. As such, the Company's priorities are to continue the Romero mining application and environmental studies and continue work on the current 40-hole drill minimum program in the Tireo Formation surrounding the Romero deposit. Assay results from the current exploration program will be released in the near future. By the end of 2016 the Company had completed 13 of the planned 40 holes. The Company is currently moving the drill to the next target area and drilling is expected to recommence next week. Mineral Resource Estimate for Las Animas Project by Micon International Limited Indicated Tonnes Au (g/t) Ag (g/t) Cu (%) Zn (%) Sulphide 922,000 2.64 48.16 2.66 2.86 Oxide 89,000 4.28 61.95 0.15 0.04 Total Indicated Resources 1,011,000 2.81 49.58 2.4 2.57 Contained Metal Au (ounces) Ag (ounces) Cu (lbs) Zn (lbs) Total 91,000 1,605,000 54,289,000 58,180,000 Inferred Tonnes Au (g/t) Ag (g/t) Cu (%) Zn (%) Sulphide 431,000 1.66 35.99 2.6 4.76 Oxide 8,000 2.49 80.98 0.35 0.22 Total Inferred Resources 439,000 1.68 36.907 2.558 4.67 Contained Metal Au (ounces) Ag (ounces) Cu (lbs) Zn (lbs) Total 24,000 518,000 24,790,000 45,272,000 Notes: Resource estimate is based on: - Drill core assays from GoldQuest's 2011 drill hole database. - Average specific gravity in sulphide resources is 4.76 g/cc based upon the average of 28 core measurements by the displacement method. Average specific gravity for oxide resources is assumed to be 4.00 g/cc. - A geological model with a cut-off grade of 0.5 g/t Au or 0.5% Cu and a minimum thickness of 2 m. - Block model with regular-shaped blocks measuring (X) 10 m by (Y) 2m by (Z) 10 m and sub blocks measuring (X) 2.5 m by (Y) 2 m by (Z) 2.5 m estimated with Inverse Distance Cubed (ID3) method Micon considers a cut-off of 1.0 g/t Au or 1.5% Cu to be reasonable with potential for economic extraction in a small underground operation. The resource estimate has been classified as Indicated and Inferred based upon the following criteria: - Resource blocks estimated with at least 2 drill intersection within a 60 m radius, based on at least 5 assays were assigned to the Indicated category - All remaining resource blocks within the geological model were assigned to the Inferred category. There has been insufficient exploration to define the inferred resources as an indicated or measured mineral resource. It is uncertain if further exploration will result in upgrading them to an indicated or measured mineral resource category. Effective date of the resource estimate is 31 July 2011 Qualified Person: Jeremy K. Niemi, P.Geo., VP Exploration of the Company, is the Qualified Person who approved the scientific and technical information in this news release. About GoldQuest GoldQuest is a Canadian based gold focused mining company with development and exploration projects in the Dominican Republic. GoldQuest is traded on the TSX-V under the symbol GQC and in Frankfurt/Berlin with symbol M1W. TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Jan. 5, 2017) - Cordoba Minerals Corp. (TSX VENTURE:CDB)(OTCQX:CDBMF) ("Cordoba" or the "Company") and its joint-venture partner, High Power Exploration Inc. ("HPX"), a private mineral exploration company indirectly controlled by mining entrepreneur Robert Friedland's Ivanhoe Industries, LLC, are pleased to announce an initial Mineral Resource estimate for the Alacran Copper-Gold Deposit in Colombia. Highlights (the figures referenced are at end of news release) The initial, pit-constrained, Inferred Mineral Resource for the Alacran Deposit is 53.52 million tonnes at 0.70% copper and 0.37 g/t gold, or 0.95% copper equivalent (CuEq), including 7.37 million tonnes at 2.14% copper and 0.41 g/t gold above 1% copper (Cu) cut off. The Inferred Mineral Resource is contained within a shallow, north-south trending mineralized corridor that is approximately 1.3 kilometres long and up to 355 metres wide. Mineral resources are reported within a conceptual open-pit shell which extends for the full length of the 1.3 kilometre corridor and to a depth of 220 metres below surface (see figure 2 and 4). The broad horizontal widths of mineral resource zones from surface are considered favorable for potential open-pit development at relatively low potential strip ratios, subject to the demonstration of economic viability (see figures 2, 4, 5 & 6). Copper-gold mineralization has been intercepted in drill holes below the conceptual pit shell and also at depths greater than 220 metres below surface; however, this mineralization was not included in the initial Inferred Mineral Resource due to insufficient drilling at the Mineral Resource cut-off date (see figures 4, 5 & 6). This mineralization provides the joint venture with immediate drilling targets which could materially expand the Inferred Mineral Resource. The Alacran mineralized system remains open to depth. Surface copper-gold geochemical anomalies also indicate significant potential for additional mineralized zones to the east and west of the Mineral Resource. The potential for the discovery of the mineralizing source for the high-grade copper and gold at Alacran is considered strong. Drill targets have been identified and will be aggressively tested by the joint venture this year. Table 1: El Alacran Mineral Resource as at October 27, 2016 Inferred Material Grade Metal Copper Equivalent (Mt) Copper (%) Gold (g/t) Copper (Mlb) Gold (Koz) CuEq (%) CuEq (Mlb) >0.3 CuEq 53.52 0.70 0.37 827 644 0.95 1,121 >1.0% Cu 7.37 2.14 0.41 348 98 2.42 393 * Pit constrained mineral resources are reported in relation to a conceptual Whittle pit shell. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability. All figures are rounded to reflect the relative accuracy of the estimate. Mt: millions of tonnes; Mlb: millions of pounds; Koz: thousands of ounces. **Copper equivalent grades are based on estimated copper and gold values, metal prices $2.50/lb Cu and $1300/oz gold (Au). Metal prices are not constant and are subject to change. *** Pit constrained mineral resources are reported at a copper equivalent cut-off of 0.3% and applying assumed metal recoveries of 90% for Cu and 80% for Au. Note no metallurgical test work has been undertaken by Cordoba and the recoveries are estimates only. **** Capped copper and gold assay composites were interpolated by ordinary kriging constrained within geologically constrained copper-gold grade shell boundaries (Figure 3). The Mineral Resource estimate was independently prepared by Mining Associates Limited ("MA"), a leading global geological, resource and mining consultancy, and is reported in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101") and the 2014 CIM Definition Standards. The Inferred Mineral Resource estimate is based on 20,200 metres of diamond drilling completed as at October 27, 2016. Mario Stifano, President and CEO of Cordoba, commented, "We are pleased with the initial mineral resource which demonstrates the potential for the Alacran Project to host a significant tonnage of high-grade, potentially open-pittable copper-gold mineralization. This is just the beginning as our ongoing, aggressive drilling program is aimed at growing the mineral resources in size and confidence levels, extending high-grade copper- and gold-rich mineralized zones and drilling additional exploration targets with potential to add a new and significant exploration front to Alacran." Alacran Location and Geography The Alacran copper-gold deposit is located within the Company's San Matias Copper-Gold Project in the Department of Cordoba, Colombia, an area where access and infrastructure are considered favorable. The Alacran system is located on a topographic high in gently rolling topography, optimal for potential open-pit mining. Copper-gold mineralization at Alacran is largely hosted in a marine volcano-sedimentary package on the west-dipping limb of a faulted antiformal fold structure and partly in dioritic and felsic intrusions with sill-like geometries (Figure 1). The deposit comprises moderately- to steeply-dipping copper-gold mineralized zones, broadly concordant with host litho-stratigraphy and intrusion contacts. The copper-gold mineralization consists of chalcopyrite-pyrrhotite-pyrite veins, replacements (including massive sulfides) and disseminations that locally overprint hydrothermal magnetite-rich zones that are most strongly developed near intrusion contacts. Mineralization occurs over a strike length of more than 1,300 metres with horizontal widths up to 355 metres and has been drill-intersected to depths of 300 metres from surface. Mineral Resource Parameters The drilling database utilized in resource estimation was closed on October 27, 2016 and comprises 76 diamond drill-holes totaling 20,197 metres including 11,230 metres drilled by Ashmont Resources in 2011 and 2012 (see Table 3 for holes drilled by Cordoba). A total of 19,958 assay samples were used to constrain the resource estimation, of which 4,705 samples are copper-gold mineralized, providing 2,202 two-metre assay composites used to form the resource estimate. Composite lengths and high-grade cuts based on spatial distribution and probability plots were applied as follows: Copper and gold assay data was composited to two metres down hole within geological domains; a copper grade cap was applied at the 97.5 th percentile in high-copper domains and 98 th percentile in the lower grade domains. Gold assays were composited to two metres down hole within copper domains and were capped near the 98th percentile. Block model block-size selection (XYZ 20 x 20 x 10m) is based on approximately 1/2 the drill hole spacing in Mina Norte. Sub-blocking is permitted 5x5 x 2.5m for volumes. The block model is screened for LIDAR-based topography by sub-blocks. The geological resource is constrained by sub-block within seven wireframes ("grade shells") in domains based on lithology, structure and a minimum sample grade of 0.3% CuEq and may include minor internal dilution (e.g. Figures 3, 4, 5 & 6). Gold, iron and sulfur are constrained by the low-grade CuEq shells, iron and sulfur are also estimated unconstrained to inform the waste blocks. Separate grade-shells were created for high-grade copper and gold based on grade >1% Cu and > 1g/t Au respectively. The constraining grade shells are modelled within a corridor, elongate approximately 1.3 kilometres north-south, of up to 355 metres horizontal width and interpolated/extrapolated to depths locally reaching 300 metres from surface (Figures 2 and 3). Copper and gold grades were interpolated into the constrained block model by domain using ordinary krige techniques. Kriging parameters are derived from a study of variography by domain. The block model was validated by statistical and visual comparison of data and estimated grades and by alternate estimation methods. Routine bulk density measurements (747) show some variation with an average bulk density of 3.01 t/m3. Bulk density was calculated based on an iron regression, BD=0.0292 x Fe% + 2.5599, utilising block iron contents estimated as outlined above. Mineral Resources have been classified as Inferred. Resource classification is based on confidence in grade continuity and geological models of the primary commodities (Cu, Au). The inferred resource lies above -30 mRL and within a conceptual Whittle pit shell (Figures 2, 5, & 6). Drill spacing in Mina Norte approximates a 40 x 40 m grid, drilling at Mina Seca has one to two holes per section. Mineral Resources are reported at various copper grade ranges, within the 0.3% CuEq shell, clearly identifying the proportion of mineralization below 0.3% copper that is enriched in gold in the resource (Table 2) in both resource domains (Mina Norte & Mina Seca, Figure 3). Tonnages are rounded to the nearest million tonnes, copper grades are rounded to two decimal places and accessory minerals are rounded to one decimal place. Rounding as required by reporting guidelines reflect the accuracy of the estimates and may result in apparent summation differences between tonnes grade and contained metal. Table 2: Inferred Mineral Resource at El Alacran resource at various Copper Cut-offs (total inferred resource above 0.3% CuEq and within conceptual pit)* Inferred Copper Material Grade Metal Copper Equivalent Deposit Cut Off (Mt) Copper (%) Gold (g/t) Copper (Mlb) Gold (Koz) CuEq (%) CuEq (Mlb) Mina Norte 0.0 to 0.3 0.69 0.27 0.31 4 7 0.47 7 0.3 to 1.0 28.82 0.52 0.27 328 255 0.70 445 > 1.0 4.65 1.98 0.34 203 51 2.21 226 Sub Total 34.16 0.71 0.28 535 313 0.90 678 Mina Seca 0.0 to 0.3 4.35 0.24 0.65 23 91 0.68 65 0.3 to 1.0 12.29 0.46 0.49 125 193 0.79 214 > 1.0 2.72 2.41 0.54 145 47 2.78 167 Sub Total 19.36 0.69 0.53 293 331 1.04 444 Total > 0.3% CuEq 53.52 0.70 0.37 827 644 0.95 1,122 *Mineral Resources are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. Mineral resources are reported above a conceptual pit shell, and using a copper equivalent cut-off of 0.3% and apply assumed metal recoveries of 90% for Cu and 80% for Au. No metallurgical test work has yet been undertaken by Cordoba. Outside of the Inferred Mineral Resource, there is unclassified copper-gold mineralization identified in the grade shell models that either lacks confidence in grade and geological continuity (e.g. Mina Este, Figure 4, legend item 4) or is at depth below the -25m RL This mineralization provides immediate drilling targets for potential mineral resource additions. Further drilling may be expected to increase the confidence levels in, and also potentially add, mineral resources. The Company expects to update the Mineral Resources during the second quarter of 2017 after the expected completion of its current drilling program. The Alacran system remains open to depth along much of its strike length and surface copper-gold geochemical anomalies indicate the potential for largely untested mineralized zones to the east and west of current mineral resources. Alacran Option Agreement The Joint Venture has an option (the "Option") to earn a 100% interest in the Alacran Project by completing the remaining commitments (see Cordoba news release dated October 21, 2015): A US$250,000 payment to Sociedad Ordinaria de Minas Omni ("OMNI") on the 24-month anniversary of signing the Letter of Intent ("LOI"). A US$1,000,000 payment to OMNI on the 24-month anniversary of completion of the Definitive Agreement. Cordoba will file with the Colombian government for the relevant approvals to conduct activities of construction and commercial production at Alacran before June 30, 2018. A US$14,000,000 payment to OMNI when the environmental license and all other approvals, permits or licenses required to commence the construction and operation of a commercial mine at Alacran have been granted on a final basis by the Colombian government. OMNI will retain a 2% net smelter royalty with advance royalty payments of US$500,000 commencing three years after receipt of approvals to commence construction at Alacran or six years after filing for approval to commence construction at Alacran. HPX has previously purchased a 50.1% interest in OMNI (see Cordoba news release dated April 6, 2016). Technical Information The current mineral resource estimate was completed by MA, under the direction of Ian Taylor MAusIMM (CP), an independent Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101. The QP visited the El Alacran property and supervised the geological modelling input to the current study. CIMM definitions and guidelines were followed for Mineral Resource estimation based on the parameters outlined above. Readers are reminded that Inferred Mineral Resources do not have demonstrated economic viability. Mr. Taylor has reviewed this news release and consented to the inclusion of extracts from, or a summary of, the technical information prepared under his direction and supervision. A technical report providing details of the Inferred Mineral Resource estimate will be filed on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) within 45 days. The technical content of this news release has been compiled, reviewed and verified by Vic Wall, PhD, a Qualified Person for the purpose of NI 43-101. Dr. Wall is a geologist with over 45 years in the minerals mining, consulting, exploration and research industries and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists (AIG). About San Matias Project The San Matias Copper-Gold Project comprises a 20,000-hectare land package on the inferred northern extension of the richly endowed Mid-Cauca Belt in Colombia. The project contains several known areas of porphyry copper-gold mineralization, copper-gold skarn mineralization and vein-hosted, gold-copper mineralization. Porphyry mineralization at the San Matias Project incorporates high-grade zones of copper-gold mineralization hosted by diorite porphyries containing secondary biotite alteration and various orientations of sheeted and stock-work quartz-magnetite veins with chalcopyrite and bornite. The hydrothermal copper-gold mineralization at Alacran is associated with stratabound replacements and veining of a marine volcano-sedimentary sequence in the vicinity of dioritic intrusions. The nature of mineralization encountered at San Matias is similar to other large high-grade copper-gold deposits. Joint Venture Agreement The San Matias Project is a joint venture between Cordoba and HPX, a private mineral exploration company founded by mining entrepreneur Robert Friedland. HPX has earned a 51% interest in the San Matias Project and has entered Phase Three of the Joint Venture Agreement, whereby HPX can earn up to 65% by carrying the project to feasibility. About High Power Exploration HPX is a privately owned, metals-focused exploration company deploying proprietary in-house geophysical technologies to rapidly evaluate buried geophysical targets. The HPX technology cluster comprises geological and geophysical systems for targeting, modelling, survey optimization, acquisition, processing and interpretation. HPX has a highly experienced board and management team led by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Robert Friedland, Co-Chairman Ian Cockerill, a former Chief Executive Officer of Gold Fields, and President Eric Finlayson, a former head of exploration at Rio Tinto. For further information, please visit www.hpxploration.com. Figure 1: Plan view of Alacran geological model showing generally west-dipping lithostratigraphy, with mafic to intermediate volcanics & volcaniclastics in the east and footwall to the main copper-gold mineralised zones hosted mainly by avolcaniclastic -epiclastic sequence that is intruded by intermediate sills and also larger dioritic bodies in the west and north. Mineralization also locally overprints the intrusions Figure 2: Plan view of copper-gold mineralization "grade" shells, drill-hole traces and conceptual Whittle pit shell Figure 3: 3D view (towards north-east) of west-dipping "grade" shells under Lidar topography, draped by surface imagery Figure 4: Copper-gold mineral resources in the Inferred category and unclassified mineralized material in relation to a conceptual Whittle pit shell and drill-hole traces, 3D view towards northeast Figure 5: Section 855740mN showing drilling results and the broad width of Inferred mineral resource copper grades within a conceptual pit. Copper-gold mineralization may extend to depth below the resource blocks and also below the conceptual pit Figure 6: Section 855720mN showing drilling results and the broad width of Inferred mineral resource copper grades within a conceptual pit. Copper-gold mineralization may extend to depth below the resource blocks and also below the conceptual pit. Figure 4 & Figure 5 may be compared to give an impression of the north-south continuity of mineralization Vietnamese actress Do Thi Hang is seen in a scene of the film "Yen's life" directed by Dinh Tuan Vu. / Courtesy of Vietnam Cinema Department 1st Vietnam Film Day celebrates 25 years of diplomatic ties "Yen's life" (2016) poster Poster for "Yellow Flower On the Green Grass" by Victor Va Posters for "Quyen," or "Farewell, Berlin Wall" (2015), directed by Phan Quang Binh Nguyen By Kim Jae-heun The Vietnam Cinema Department and the Korean Film Council (KOFIC) will co-host the 2017 Vietnam Film Day in Korea from Jan. 12 to Jan. 14 at Lotte Cinema in the World Tower, Jamsil, western Seoul, screening the three top Vietnamese films for free. The 3-day event celebrates the 25th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Korea and Vietnam and established directors like Dinh Tuan Vu as well as movie stars like Do Thi Hang will visit Korea to join the festival. Popular Vietnamese films like "The Scent of Green Papaya" (1993) have previously grabbed local audiences with their uniquely mysterious and distant emotions but it was difficult to find Vietnamese movies in Korean movie theaters. The Vietnam Film Day in Korea will kick off the free screening at 8 p.m. on Thursday with the opening film "Yellow Flower On the Green Grass" by Victor Va, the most influential film director from Hanoi. Based on a successful novel of the same name, the story, set in 1989 in the countryside of Vietnam, depicts a young love story of two boys and a girl. The film of the Vietnamese-American director premiered in the 2015 Cannes Film Festival and was released in theaters on Oct. 2. It was selected as the Vietnamese entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 89th Academy Awards for its solid content and beautiful mise-en-scene. Last year's hit movie "Yen's Life" (2016), directed by Tuan Vu Dinh, will be screened on the second day at the same time in the same place. The drama film is about a 10-year old rural woman in Vietnam who gets married according to the arrangement set by her parents. Yen's Life took the top prize at World Premieres Film Festival in Manila, the Philippines, last year, in the main competition. The last Vietnamese film to be screened at the festival is "Quyen," or "Farewell, Berlin Wall" (2015), directed by Phan Quang Binh Nguyen. The thriller and drama film follows the journey of an Hanoian girl named Quyen (Vu Ngoc Anh) crossing the Russian border into Germany with her husband to seek a new life in the promising land. However, the couple faces bitterness and separation in a foreign land where they happen to spend some 10 years. The story is based on the novel of the same title and the Vietnamese director decided to make the story into a movie after listening to the struggle and plight of Vietnamese people in Germany back then. Vietnamese filmmakers and actors will attend the opening ceremony on the first day as well as participate in various programs during their visit in Korea. The participants will not only introduce themselves and their films to the Korean audience and Vietnamese residents here but also experience Korean food, K-pop performances and Korean fashion shows. A forum will be held on the second day to develop the film industry exchange between Korea and Vietnam and hear lectures from film experts at the Conference Room at the Lotte Hotel in Jamsil from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. The Vietnamese Ambassador to Korea Pham Huu Chi will give a speech in commemoration of the first event celebrating the 25th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Korea and Vietnam, and the chairman of KOFIC Kim Se-hoon will also be at the festival. "This festival is the first event that celebrates the 25th anniversary of Korea-Vietnam diplomatic ties and the Vietnamese Ambassador to Korea has agreed to join the event, praising highly the value of this film festival," said the festival managing company ShowBT CEO Geong Seong-han during the interview with The Korea Times. "The aim of this event is to develop and increase the exchange in the film industry between Korea and Vietnam as well as to send Korean directors to work in the Vietnamese film industry in the future. Also, the Vietnamese community in Korea is large and we want to provide them with a chance to watch movies from their homeland," Geong said. The year 2016 ended with two more dramatic and bloody occurrences: the assassination of the Russian ambassador in Istanbul and the brutal murder of people in Berlin who were peacefully enjoying preparations for Christmas. These events were linked to the bloody morass in the Middle East and more specifically to Syria. The fall of Aleppo represented a decisive turn in the situation. Russia, which was supposed to have been isolated and humbled by the international community (read Washington) now controls Syria and decides what happens there. It called a peace conference in Kazakhstan to which neither the Americans nor the Europeans were invited, followed by an agreement for a ceasefire dictated on Russias terms. In different ways these developments expressed the same phenomenon: the old world order is dead and in its place we are faced with a future of instability and conflict, the outcome of which nobody can predict. The year 2016 therefore represented a turning point in history. It was a year marked by crisis and turbulence on a global scale. Twenty-five years ago after the fall of the Soviet Union the defenders of capitalism were euphoric. They spoke of the death of socialism and communism and even the end of history. They promised us a future of peace and prosperity thanks to the triumph of the free market economy and democracy. Liberalism had triumphed and therefore history had reached its final expression in capitalism. That was the essential meaning of the now notorious phrase of Francis Fukuyama. But now the wheel of history has turned full circle. Today not one stone upon another is left of those confident predictions of the strategists of capital. History has returned with a vengeance. Suddenly the world seems to be afflicted by strange and unprecedented phenomena that defy all the attempts of the political experts to explain them. On 23 June the people of Britain voted in a referendum to leave the European Union a result that nobody expected, which caused shock waves on an international scale. But these were as nothing compared to the tsunami provoked by the result of the American presidential elections a result that nobody expected, including the man who won. Within hours of the election of Donald Trump, the streets of cities all over the United States were filled with demonstrators. These events are the dramatic confirmation of the instability that has afflicted the entire world. Overnight the old certainties have disappeared. There is a general ferment in society and a sense of widespread uncertainty filled the ruling class and its ideologues with deep foreboding. The apologists of capitalist liberalism complain bitterly about the rise of politicians like Donald Trump who represents the antithesis of what is known as liberal values. For such people the year 2016 seems like a nightmare. They are hoping that they will wake up and find that it was all a dream, that yesterday will return and tomorrow will see a better day. But for bourgeois liberalism there will be no reawakening and no tomorrow. Political commentators speak with dread of the rise of something they call populism, a word that is as elastic as it is meaningless. The use of such amorphous terminology merely signifies that those who use it have no idea what theyre talking about. In strict etymological terms populism is merely a Latin translation of the Greek demagogy. The term is applied with the same gusto that a bad painter plasters a wall with a thick coat of paint to cover up his mistakes. It is used to describe such a wide variety of political phenomena that it becomes entirely devoid of any real content. The leaders of Podemos and Geert Wilders, Jaroslaw Kaczynski and Evo Morales, Rodrigo Duterte and Hugo Chavez, Jeremy Corbyn and Marine Le Pen all are tarred with the same populist brush. It is sufficient to compare the real content of these movements that are not only different but radically antagonistic to realise the utter futility of such language. It is not calculated to clarify but to confuse, or more correctly to cover up the confusion of stupid bourgeois political commentators. The death of liberalism In its editorial of 24 December 2016 The Economist chanted a hymn of praise to its beloved liberalism. Liberals, we are told, believe in open economies and open societies, where the free exchange of goods, capital, people and ideas is encouraged and where universal freedoms are protected from state abuse by the rule of law. Such a beautiful picture really ought to be set to music. But then the article sadly concludes that 2016 has been a year of setbacks. Not just over Brexit and the election of Donald Trump, but also the tragedy of Syria, abandoned to its suffering, and widespread supportin Hungary, Poland and beyondfor illiberal democracy. As globalisation has become a slur, nationalism, and even authoritarianism, have flourished. In Turkey relief at the failure of a coup was overtaken by savage (and popular) reprisals. In the Philippines voters chose a president who not only deployed death squads but bragged about pulling the trigger. All the while Russia, which hacked Western democracy, and China, which just last week set out to taunt America by seizing one of its maritime drones, insist liberalism is merely a cover for Western expansion. The beautiful hymn of praise to liberalism and Western values has ended on a sour note. The Economist concludes bitterly: Faced with this litany, many liberals (of the free-market sort) have lost their nerve. Some have written epitaphs for the liberal order and issued warnings about the threat to democracy. Others argue that, with a timid tweak to immigration law or an extra tariff, life will simply return to normal. But life will not simply return to normal or more correctly, we will enter a new stage of what The Economist refers to as a new normality: A period of endless cuts, austerity and falling living standards. In reality, we have been living in this new normality for quite some time. And very serious consequences flow from this. The global crisis of capitalism has created conditions that are completely unlike the conditions that existed (at least for a handful of privileged countries) four decades after the Second World War. That period witnessed the biggest upswing of the productive forces of capitalism since the Industrial Revolution. This was the soil on which the much vaunted liberal values could flourish. The economic boom provided the capitalists with sufficient profits to grant concessions to the working class. That was the golden era of reformism. But the present period is the era, not of reforms but of counter-reforms. This is not the result of ideological prejudice, as some foolish reformists imagine. It is the necessary consequence of the crisis of the capitalist system that has reached its limits. The whole process that unfolded over a period of six decades is now thrown into reverse. Instead of reforms and rising living standards, the working class everywhere is faced with cuts, austerity, unemployment and impoverishment. The degradation of working conditions, wages, rights and pensions falls most heavily on the poorest and most vulnerable sections of society. The idea of equality for women is being eroded by the remorseless search for increased profitability. A whole generation of young people is being deprived of a future. That is the essence of the present period. The elites Marie Antoinette moment The ruling class and its strategists find it hard to accept the reality of the present situation and are completely blind to the political consequences that flow from it. The same blindness can be observed in every ruling class that is facing extinction and refuses to accept it. As Lenin correctly observed, a man standing on the edge of a precipice does not reason. The Financial Times published an interesting article by Wolfgang Munchau entitled The elites Marie Antoinette moment. It begins as follows: Some revolutions could have been avoided if the old guard had only refrained from provocation. There is no proof of a let them eat cake incident. But this is the kind of thing Marie Antoinette could have said. It rings true. The Bourbons were hard to beat as the quintessential out-of-touch establishment. They have competition now. Our global liberal democratic establishment is behaving in much the same way. At a time when Britain has voted to leave the EU, when Donald Trump has been elected US president, and Marine Le Pen is marching towards the Elysee Palace, we the gatekeepers of the global liberal order keep on doubling down. The comparison with the French Revolution is highly instructive. Everywhere the ruling class and its experts have shown themselves to be completely out of touch with the real situation in society. They assumed that the order of things that emerged from the post-war economic boom would continue forever. The market economy and bourgeois democracy were the unquestioned paradigms of the epoch. Their smug complacency precisely resembled that of the unfortunate Marie Antoinette, the Queen of France. It is by no means certain that her famous phrase was ever pronounced, but it accurately reflects the mentality of a degenerate ruling class that has no interest in the sufferings of ordinary people or the inevitable consequences that flow from them. In the end Marie Antoinette lost her head and now the ruling class and its political representatives are losing theirs. The Financial Times article continues: Why is this happening? Macroeconomists thought no one would dare challenge their authority. Italian politicians have been playing power games forever. And the job of EU civil servants is to find ingenious ways of spiriting politically tricky legislation and treaties past national legislatures. Even as the likes of Ms Le Pen, Mr Grillo and Geert Wilders of the far-right Dutch Freedom party head towards power, the establishment keeps acting this way. A Bourbon regent, in an uncharacteristic moment of reflection, would have backed off. Our liberal capitalist order, with its competing institutions, is constitutionally incapable of doing that. Doubling down is what it is programmed to do. The correct course of action would be to stop insulting voters and, more importantly, to solve the problems of an out-of-control financial sector, uncontrolled flows of people and capital, and unequal income distribution. In the eurozone, political leaders found it expedient to muddle through the banking crisis and then a sovereign debt crisis only to find Greek debt is unsustainable and the Italian banking system is in serious trouble. Eight years on, there are still investors out there betting on a collapse of the eurozone as we know it. In 1938 Trotsky wrote that the ruling class was tobogganing to disaster with its eyes closed. The above lines are a graphic illustration of this fact. And Mr Munchau draws the following conclusion quote: But it is not happening for the same reason it did not happen in revolutionary France. The gatekeepers of western capitalism, like the Bourbons before them, have learnt nothing and forgotten nothing. The collapse of the centre Contrary to the old prejudice of the liberals, human consciousness is not progressive but profoundly conservative. Most people do not like change. They cling obstinately to the old ideas, prejudices, religion and morality because they are familiar and what is familiar is always more comforting than what is not. The idea of change is frightening because it is unknown. These fears are deeply rooted in the human psyche and have existed from time immemorial. Yet change is as necessary to the survival of the human race as it is to the survival of the individual. The absence of change is death. The human body constantly changes from the moment of birth; all cells break down, die and are replaced with new cells. The child must disappear in order for the adult to be born. Yet it is not difficult to understand peoples aversion to change. Habit, routine, tradition all these things are necessary for the maintenance of social norms that underpin the functioning of society. Over a long period they become ingrained, conditioning the daily activities of millions of men and women. They are universally accepted, as are respect for the laws and customs, the rules of political life and the existing institutions: in a word, the status quo. Something similar exists in science. In his profound and penetrating study The Structure of Scientific Revolutions Thomas S. Kuhn explains how every period in the development of science is based on an existing paradigm that is generally accepted, providing a necessary framework for scientific work. For a long time this paradigm serves a useful purpose. But eventually small, apparently insignificant contradictions appear that eventually lead to the downfall of the old paradigm and its replacement with a new one. This, according to Kuhn, constitutes the essence of a scientific revolution. Exactly the same dialectical process occurs in society. Ideas that have existed for so long that they have hardened into prejudices eventually enter into conflict with existing reality. At that point, a revolution in consciousness begins to take place. People begin to question what seemed to be unquestionable. Ideas that were comfortable because they provided certainty are shattered on the rock of hard reality. For the first time people begin to shake off the old comfortable illusions and look reality in the face. The real cause of the fears of the ruling class is the collapse of the political centre. What we are seeing in Britain, the United States, Spain and many other countries is a sharp and increasing polarisation between left and right in politics, which in turn is merely a reflection of an increasing polarisation between the classes. This in turn is a reflection of the deepest crisis in the history of capitalism. For the last hundred years the political system in the USA was based on two parties the Democrats and Republicans that both stood for the maintenance of capitalism and both represented the interests of the banks and big business. This was very well expressed by Gore Vidal who wrote our Republic has one party, the property party, with two right wings. This was the solid foundation for the stability and longevity of what Americans regarded as democracy. In reality, this bourgeois democracy was merely a fig leaf to conceal the reality of the dictatorship of the bankers and capitalists. Now this convenient setup is being challenged and shaken to the core. Millions of people are waking up to the rottenness of the political establishment and the fact that they are being deceived by those who claim to represent them. This is the prior condition for a social revolution. Crisis of reformism We see a similar situation in Britain, where for 100 years Labour and Conservatives alternated in power, providing the same kind of stability for the ruling class. The Labour Party and Conservative party were run by solid, respectable men and women who could be relied upon to run society in the interests of the bankers and capitalists of the city of London. But the election of Jeremy Corbyn has upset the apple cart. The ruling class fears that the massive influx of new members into the Labour Party may break the stranglehold of the right wing over Labour. That explains the panic of the ruling class and the vitriolic nature of the campaign against Corbyn. The crisis of capitalism is also the crisis of reformism. The strategists of capital resemble the Bourbons, but the reformist leaders are only a poor imitation of the former. They are the blindest of the blind. The reformists, both of the right and left varieties, have no understanding of the real situation. Though they pride themselves on being great realists, they are the worst kind of utopians. Like the liberals of whom they are merely a pale reflection, they are pining after the past that has vanished beyond return. They complain bitterly about the unfairness of capitalism, not realising that the policies of the bourgeoisie are dictated by the economic necessity of capitalism itself. It is a supreme irony of history that the reformists have fully embraced the market economy precisely at a time when it is breaking down before our very eyes. They had accepted capitalism as something that is given once and for all, that cannot be questioned and certainly not overthrown. The alleged realism of the reformists is the realism of a man who tries to persuade a tiger to eat salads instead of human flesh. Naturally, the realist who attempted to perform this laudable feat did not succeed in convincing the Tiger and ended up inside its belly. Nowhere is the bankruptcy of reformism more clearly expressed than in the fact that they no longer talk about socialism. Nor do they talk about capitalism. Instead they complain of the evils of neoliberalism, that is to say, they do not object to capitalism per se but only a particular model of capitalism. But the so-called neoliberalism is merely a euphemism for capitalism in the period of crisis. The reformists who imagine that they are great realists are dreaming of a return to the conditions of the past when that past has already receded into history. The period that now opens up will be entirely different. In the decades that followed 1945, the class struggle in the advanced capitalist countries was attenuated to some extent as a result of the reforms won by the working class through struggle. Trotsky explained long ago that betrayal is implicit in reformism in all its varieties. By this he did not mean that reformists consciously betray the working class. There are many honest reformists, as well as a fair number of corrupt careerists. But the way to hell is paved with good intentions. If you accept the capitalist system as all reformists do, whether right or left then you must obey the laws of the capitalist system. In a period of capitalist crisis, this means the inevitability of cuts and attacks on living standards. This lesson had to be learnt by Tsipras and Varoufakis in Greece. They came to power with huge popular support on an anti-austerity programme, but were very quickly made to understand by Merkel and Schauble that this was not on the agenda. In the end they capitulated and meekly carried out the austerity programme dictated by Berlin and Brussels. We saw a similar situation in France where Hollande won a massive victory promising an anti-austerity programme, then did 180 turn and carried out even deeper cuts than the previous right-wing government. The inevitable result has been the rise of Marine Le Pen and the Front National. Capitalism in a blind alley In countries like the United States every generation since the Second World War could look forward to a better standard of living than that enjoyed by their parents. In the decades of economic boom workers became accustomed to relatively easy victories. The trade union leaders did not have to struggle much to obtain wage increases. Reforms were considered to be the norm. Today was better than yesterday and tomorrow would be better than today. In the long period of capitalist upswing, the class consciousness of the workers was somewhat blunted. Instead of clear-cut class socialist policies, the workers movement has been infected with alien ideas through the transmission belt of the petty bourgeoisie which has elbowed the workers to one side and drowned out their voice with the shrill declamations of middle-class radicalism. The so-called political correctness with its mishmash of half-baked ideas fished out of the rubbish bin of bourgeois liberalism has gradually become accepted even in the trade unions where the right-wing reformist leaders eagerly seize upon it as a substitute for class policies and socialist ideas. The left reformists in particular have played a pernicious role in this respect. It will take the hammer blows of events to demolish these prejudices that have a corrosive effect on consciousness. But the crisis of capitalism does not permit such luxuries. Todays generation of young people for the first time will face worse conditions of life than their parents enjoyed. Gradually this new reality is forcing itself on the consciousness of the masses. That is the reason for the present ferment of discontent that exists in all countries and is acquiring an explosive character. It is the explanation for the political earthquakes that have taken place in Britain, Spain, Greece, Italy, the United States and many other countries. It is a warning that revolutionary developments are being prepared. It is true that at this stage the movement is characterised by a tremendous confusion. How could it be otherwise, when those organisations and parties that should be placing themselves at the head of a movement to transform society instead have been transformed into monstrous obstacles in the path of the working class? The masses are seeking a way out of the crisis, putting political parties, leaders and programs to the test. Those who fail the test are mercilessly cast to one side. There are violent swings on the electoral front, both to the left and to the right. All this is a harbinger of revolutionary change. In retrospect the period of half a century that followed the Second World War will be seen as an historical exception. The peculiar concatenation of circumstances that produced this situation in all likelihood will never be repeated. What we face now is precisely a return to normal capitalism. The smiling face of liberalism, reformism and democracy will be cast aside to reveal the ugly physiognomy of capitalism as it really is. Towards a new October! A new period opens up before us a period of storm and stress that will be far more similar to the 1930s than the period after 1945. All the illusions of the past will be burned out of the consciousness of the masses with a hot iron. In such a period as this the working class will have to fight hard to defend the gains of the past, and in the course of bitter struggle will come to understand the need for a thoroughgoing revolutionary programme. Either capitalism is overthrown, or a terrible fate awaits humanity. That is the only alternative. Any other course of action is a lie and a deceit. It is time to look truth in the face. On the basis of diseased capitalism there can be no way forward for the working class and the youth. The liberals and reformists are striving with might and main to prop it up. They whimper about the threat to democracy, hiding the fact that so-called bourgeois democracy is merely a fig leaf behind which hides the crude reality of the dictatorship of the banks and big business. They will try to lure the working class into alliances to defend democracy, but this is a hypocritical farce. The only force that has a real interest in democracy is the working class itself. The so-called liberal bourgeoisie is incapable of fighting reaction, which flows directly from the capitalist system upon which its wealth and privileges are based. It was Obama who paved the way for the victory of Trump, just as it was Hollande who has paved the way for the rise of Le Pen. In reality, the old system is already breaking down before our very eyes. The symptoms of its decay are evident to all. Everywhere we see economic crises, social breakdown, disorder, wars, destruction and chaos. It is a terrible picture, but it flows from the fact that capitalism has led humanity into a blind alley. It is not the first time that we have seen such things. The same symptoms can be seen in the period of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire and the period of decay of feudal society. It is no accident that men and women in those days imagined that the end of the world was approaching. But what was approaching was not the end of the world but only the end of a particular social economic system that had exhausted its potential and become a monstrous obstacle in the path of human progress. Lenin once said that capitalism is horror without end. We now see the literal truth of this assertion. But alongside the horrors produced by a decadent and reactionary system there is another side to the picture. Our epoch is a birth-time, and a period of transition from one historical period to another. Such periods are always characterised by pains, which are the pains of a new society that is struggling to be born, while the old society struggles to preserve itself by strangling the child in the womb. The old world is dying on its feet. That it is tottering to its fall is indicated by unmistakable symptoms. The rot is spreading in the established order of things, its institutions are collapsing. The defenders of the old order are seized by an undefined foreboding of something unknown. All these things betoken that there is something else approaching. This gradual crumbling to pieces will be speeded up by the eruption of the working class on the scene of history. Those sceptics who wrote off the working class will be forced to eat their words. Volcanic forces are building up beneath the surface of society. The contradictions are building up to the point where they cannot be endured any further. Our task is to shorten this painful process and ensure that the birth takes place with the least possible suffering. In order to do this it is necessary to accomplish the overthrow of the present system that has become a terrible barrier to the development of the human race and a threat to its future. All those who are trying to preserve the old order, to patch it up, to reform it, to provide it with crutches that will enable it to hobble along for a few years or decades more are playing the most reactionary role. They are preventing the birth of a new society which alone can offer a future to humanity and put an end to the existing nightmare of capitalism. The New World that is struggling to be born is called socialism. It is our job to ensure that this birth takes place as soon as possible and with the least possible pain and suffering. The way to achieve this end is to build a powerful worldwide Marxist tendency with educated cadres and strong links with the working class. One hundred years ago an event took place that the changed the course of world history. In a backward semi feudal country on the edge of Europe, the working class moved to change society. Nobody expected this, on the contrary. The objective conditions for a socialist revolution in Russia seemed to be non-existent. Europe was in the grip of a terrible war. The workers of Britain, France, Germany and Russia were slaughtering each other in the name of imperialism. In such a context the slogan workers of the world unite must have seemed like an expression of bitter sarcasm. Russia itself was ruled by a powerful autocratic regime with a huge army and police force and secret police whose tentacles extended to every political party including the Bolsheviks. And yet, in this seemingly impossible situation the workers of Russia moved to take power into their own hands. They overthrew the tsar and established democratic organs of power, the Soviets. Only nine months later the Bolshevik Party, which at the beginning of the revolution was a tiny force of no more than 8000 members, came to power. One hundred years later Marxists are facing the same task that Lenin and Trotsky faced in 1917. Our forces are small and our resources are meagre, but we are armed with the most powerful weapon: the weapon of ideas. Marx said that ideas become a material force when they grip the mind of the masses. For a long time we were fighting against a powerful current. But the tide of history is now flowing strongly in our direction. Ideas which are listened to by ones and twos today will be eagerly received by millions in the period that now opens up. Great events can take place with extreme rapidity, transforming the whole situation. The consciousness of the working class can change in a matter of days or hours. Our task is to prepare the cadres for the great events that impend. Our banner is the banner of October. 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Please let us know if you have any queries or concerns whatsoever about the way in which your data is being processed by emailing the Data Protection Manager at webmaster@marxist.com The past four months have seen a movement, which has been unprecedented in the history of Kashmir. Nearly 100 people have been killed by the ruthless repression of Indian armed forces while 17,000 people, including women and children, have been injured. A large number of the dead and injured have been youngsters, some less than twelve years old. The pellet guns used by security forces have damaged the faces of 1600 people and more than 1100 people have partially or lost their eyesight completely. In many aspects, this has become the biggest uprising in Kashmir's history. Image: Public DomainKashmir - commonly referred to as "Paradise on Earth" due to its beauty - has a long history of revolts and mass movements against the cruel rulers who throughout history have looted and plundered its wealth. After the bloody partition of India by the British Raj almost seventy years ago, Kashmir has become a festering wound in the subcontinent. The ruling classes of Pakistan and India have fought three wars over Kashmiri territory, leading to the deaths of thousands of people on both sides. Both of these imperialist states have treated the Kashmiri masses in their occupied territories as pawns in their strategic maneuvers in the region. The heavily militarized areas on both sides and continuous shelling at the Line of Control (LoC) has made this place a living hell. Pakistan has maintained a mockery of "Azad (Independent) Kashmir" under its occupation with its puppet legislative assembly, though the army commander has the final say in all political or strategic decisions. On the other side, India has declared Jammu and Kashmir its state with some special autonomous powers. Despite all this, the Kashmiri masses have never accepted this slavery as a fait accompli. The biggest uprising in Kashmir against occupation was in the 1990s, which continued for more than a decade; more than 70,000 people were killed. In 2010 a big uprising of youth was again seen in which they raised the demand of employment along with Azadi (freedom). 119 people were killed in this movement by the repression of security forces. But this movement, which started on 8 July after the killing of 21-year-old Burhan Wani, has surpassed all previous movements in its depth and magnitude. For four months curfew has been imposed continuously and life has been paralyzed in most parts of the valley. This has broken all records, including the last record of seventy two day of continuous curfew. Along with a huge number of killings and injuries, 10,000 have been arrested so far, many under the Special Powers Act in which anybody can be detained without charge for up to two years. Out of these, 1,500 are still in prisons. 2,400 cases were registered in these months. A large number of those killed, injured and arrested are youth. The youngest ones killed so far are eleven year old Nasir Shafi Qazi, twelve year old Danish Sultan Haro and thirteen year old Junaid Ahmed. Many Indian journalists who visited the valley during this uprising have reported that youngsters of even only eight years old have taken to the streets and are throwing stones at the Indian security forces. On almost every wall the slogan of "Azadi" is seen, painted by rebellious youth. Despite heavy repression by the army, they come forward throwing stones and chanting slogans while tearing apart their shirts, taunting the army to go ahead and kill them. But they will never step back from their demands. Indian security forces are using a special pellet gun to crush this rebellion, which has injured a large number of protestors. When they hit the face, these lead pellets damage it and injure the eyes. Those arrested are subjected to severe humiliation and torture inside the prisons. Sixteen-year-old Qaisar of Srinagar who died in an ICU on Sunday 6 November was allegedly given poison when in police custody. He was a student of school year ten. In Kashmir, security forces have a long history of torture and brutality. An excerpt from a recent report in the Guardian sums it up: "Rebellion against Indias rule over Kashmir is neither new nor surprising and the brutality of the states response is equally familiar. In the 1990s, India came down hard on a widespread uprising in the Kashmir valley killing, torturing, disappearing, and imprisoning thousands. Some estimates put the number of people killed since 1989 at 70,000. Some 8,000 non-combatants are thought to have been disappeared, and 6,000 are believed to have been buried in mass graves. Human rights reports have identified thousands of cases of torture, including shocking techniques such as simulated drowning, striping flesh with razor blades and piping petrol into anuses. According to a 2012 report in the Guardian, government documents revealed that one group of security agents had lopped off the limbs of suspects and fed prisoners with their own flesh. (the Guardian, India's crackdown in Kashmir, 8 November) Despite these brutal and horrifying measures, the movement continues to spread and relentless youth keeps on sacrificing their lives for their freedom. Although there is a long history of struggles, this movement is qualitatively different from all previous movements. An important aspect of this movement is that it is not limited to urban areas, as is usually the case. This time the movement has a strong base in the rural parts of South Kashmir. Most of the time, bourgeois analysts have belittled the movements in Kashmir, characterising them as simply a mischievous act of rogue boys living in cities. But this time the movement has its base in far off villages and remote parts of the valley. Sanjay Kak, who made a documentary "Jashn-e-Azadi: How we celebrate Freedom" in 2007 on the uprising in Kashmir, while talking to Al-Jazeera, called this movement a peasant revolt due to its size and depth. Many others have also remarked in similar ways and have tried to persuade Indian authorities that this movement can't be controlled this time through repression alone. Another important aspect of the movement this time is that it has no central leadership. All the parties in the valley are discredited and have deceived the aspirations of the masses many times. This is why nobody is ready to believe their demagogy and is not following any so called leader. The Indian state has tried to send many delegations to start farcical negotiations with separatists to calm the situation down and regain control, but this has not been fruitful this time. Previously, leaders of Huriyat Conference used to issue a calendar of protests and strikes, and the masses followed this calendar. But this time youngsters in every area issue their own calendar and everyone follows it. Muzamil Jaleel writes in Indian Express: "Though the separatists arent in control of the streets and are only reacting to the azadi groundswell that had filled villages and towns across Kashmir, the Hurriyats protest calendar is the reference point for the protesters." The separatist Huriyat Conference, a loose formation of many splinter groups, was itself split for more than a decade; its leaders Syed Ali Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq were not even on talking terms. But the pressure of the movement has brought them together, and on 8 November they held a day-long meeting in which Yasin Malik of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) was also present. The meeting, it was said, also included representatives of different sections of society and announced the formation of the Joint Resistance Leadership to continue the agitation. The meeting included representatives from traders, transporters, religious and political organizations, lawyers and others. In fact, none of these represent the youth on streets, who are ready to sacrifice their lives but will not follow these leaders. The Huriyat Conference and all other parties have become totally irrelevant in this situation. The ruling PDP and its Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti, were discredited when she formed a coalition with the right-wing Hindu fundamentalist BJP two years ago. The National Conference, which has ruled Kashmir for the most part of the last seventy years in coalition with Indian Congress, couldn't deliver anything and was responsible for brutally crushing the 2010 uprising in which 119 were killed. Apart from these parties, there are small outfits involved in armed struggle against the occupation. Most of these have been sponsored and backed by the Pakistani state in the past, but now a phenomenon of homegrown militancy is rising. Burhan Wani was one these militants who joined Hizbul Mujahideen, a militant outfit from the movement in 2010, at the age of fifteen. He was from a new generation of militants who used social media extensively for recruitment. Using his real name and regularly uploading pictures of his militant actions, he was immensely popular among youth. This was confirmed after his death when over 200,000 attended his funeral. At many places his funeral prayers were offered in absentia. This shows a shift away from the Pakistani-sponsored militancy which derailed the movement in 1990s. At that time a large number of Mujahideen (holy warriors) who were fighting Soviet forces in Afghanistan, backed by the US, were also used by the Pakistani state to infiltrate across the LoC in Kashmir and attack the Indian security forces. This gave the Indian state an excuse not only to brutally crush the movement through severe repression, but also to increase the presence of troops up to 600,000, making it one of the most heavily militarized zones in the world. Since the start of this movement, both the imperialist states of India and Pakistan have started accusing each other for the atrocities in Kashmir. An attack on an army camp in Uri, near the LoC, by terrorists killed 19 Indian soldiers and injured many on 18 September. Both have accused each other for this and the exchange of fire across the LoC has intensified after this, killing many civilians and soldiers on both sides. Soon after this attack, India launched a 'surgical strike' inside Pakistani-occupied Kashmir in which they claimed to have killed a number of terrorists who were planning to be launched to the Indian part of Kashmir. The Pakistanis, meanwhile, claimed to arrest an Indian soldier involved in this operation from crossing the LoC. These intensified hostilities are a tactic to drive the attention away from the real issues and derail the movement. India has claimed that a large number of terrorists are infiltrating Kashmir from Pakistan and are attacking Indian forces, which Pakistan denies. However, this has given them an excuse to increase the repression on ordinary rebellious youth. However, the serious strategists of the Indian state have warned them to avoid using the usual tactics to deal with this situation and to first try to understand the realities of this new situation. In an article in The Hindu on October 11, former National Security Adviser and former Governor of West Bengal, M.K. Narayanan, tried to analyze this new situation for the Indian state. The article, entitled "Address the 'new normal' in Kashmir", explains that we are witnessing a whole new situation, unprecedented in history, saying: "History will not, however, spare those who do not make a distinction between current realities and past situations." He describes the new generation of militants as 'unattached', as previously they were linked with Pakistani state-sponsored terrorist organizations. "The death of Burhan Wani in a July 8 encounter (Kokernag, Anantnag district) would in the past have routinely led to a minor flare-up. Pakistans involvement in such instances was a given. Hence, this long spell of continuing violence in the Valley needs somewhat deeper introspection to understand the real causative factors responsible for this situation. "The unattached militant involved in the current violence is a new phenomenon and a far cry from the erstwhile foreign militants. Kashmir had become accustomed since end-1988 to the presence of foreign militants and their involvement in stoking violence." This serious strategist of the Indian state points at the change in the situation on the ground as compared to previous movements. "Treating the current turmoil in the Valley as an extension of the earlier spells of unrest could be highly simplistic. Since end-2013, signs of a change in atmosphere had become visible. This was apparently missed. Even nowno meaningful attempt has been made to understand what is happening beneath the surface. Few seem to think that this could well become a dangerous watershed in the troubled history of Kashmir. "The character of the struggle has also altered, and the reasons for this also need deeper introspection. It is not a case of rumours metamorphosing into a violent movement. The particularly ferocious public reaction to Burhan Wanis death should be troubling to everyone politicians, authorities, the security establishment and even ordinary people. The movement gives the impression today of being on autopilot, without any known leaders. "Hackneyed arguments to explain the current upsurge in Kashmir can prove counterproductive. The Burhan Wani phenomenon will not go away by sympathetic references to the accumulated animosities and suspicions of Kashmiri youth against atrocities perpetrated by the security forces, or by attributing the situation to Delhis lack of understanding of the Kashmiri Weltanschauung. It must not also be mistakenly attributed to a new generation of youth from the educated classes exploiting the social media seeking freedom from India. The basic causes are much deeper. The presence of over 200,000 people at Wanis funeral needs a satisfactory explanation. "...The spontaneity of many mini-uprisings demands a different explanation from earlier ones, for it smacks of near total alienation of an entire generation of young Kashmiris angry with the present state of affairs. Many are even willing to commit suicide to vent their anger." Narayanan also points out the irrelevance of the current political leadership. About the Huriyat Conference he says, "Talking to separatist leaders may make good copy, but they are irrelevant in todays context, and out of sync with the younger generations now in revolt" This clearly shows that alarm bells are ringing amongst the state authorities and they haven't yet found out the 'real reasons' for this change in the situation and the mass movement. Narayanan explains that using force will stoke the anger further. He writes, "Using force of the kind employed against the Lashkar, Jaish and Hizbul against todays 10 and 12-year-old schoolchildren would only inflame passions further." But in the end he has no alternative solution, and only suggests that the assistance of social scientists and psychologists should be sought to deal with this situation. This clearly shows the bankruptcy of the current system and the ruling class that preside over it. The real cause of this unrest is mass unemployment, which has left the youth with no other option but to come out on the streets and fight for a better future. Azadi for the youth means not only freedom from the torture, killings and search operations of occupying forces, but also a bright future with full employment and better living standards. In 2011, Mercy Corps, a development organization in the US, reported that 48% of youth in Kashmir are unemployed. With seventy percent of the 12 million people in Kashmir under the age of 31, this makes a huge number. This figure must have increased in the last five years, with no major breakthroughs seen. This shows that this rotten system cannot offer the youth any future, and they are abandoning classrooms to get an education on the streets by fighting day and night. The last four months have also provided many new lessons for the entire population. Surviving continuous curfews would not have been possible without a collective effort at the community level. Collective kitchens and the sharing of essential items necessary for survival has developed into a new routine. This has given more depth to the movement. In many places, large protests of women have taken place, and children have been seen throwing stones at the Indian armed forces. This is actually the new normal, which cannot be defeated by any armed force in the world. Another tactic of the BJP-led government in Delhi, with their stooges in the valley, will be to stoke the flames of religious hatred amongst the Hindus of Jammu and the Muslims of the Valley - to drown this movement in a religious frenzy once again. Memories of mass rioting in 1948 are once again hyped, with armed militias of the Hindu fundamentalist RSS organizing everywhere in India. For the first time, the BJP got a majority from Jammu in the last elections, giving it the authority to spread its venom among the masses. A bigger threat to the movement is a limited war between two nuclear-armed states occupying Kashmir. Pakistan has kept its 200 million people in hunger and poverty while spending billions of dollars on its nuclear arsenal and huge military personnel, under the pretext of fighting a war with India. It is the same case on the other side. To drive attention away from the real issues facing the 1.5 billion living, the ruling classes of these two countries have used their traditional animosity to curb any internal dissent. But this time, these usual tactics may prove counterproductive. There is a huge movement of the working class in India taking place, which led to the biggest general strike in history on 2 September, in which 180 million participated. A student movement in the elite universities of India is spreading, protesting against 'reforms' in education. Similarly, movements and strikes in various public sectors are emerging on the other side of the border in Pakistan against privatization and other anti-worker policies. Any flare up on the border or scaling up of tensions can also give a new spark to these movements, which can become more widespread and deeper. The only way forward to counter these threats is to build solidarity with the mass movements in both countries along class lines. This can be attained only through connecting with those movements that are also protesting the brutalities of the ruling classes on both sides. The common enemy of the masses of India and Pakistan and the whole world is the capitalist system and the class which is beneficiary of this system. The Pakistani ruling class is exploiting its workers and oppressed nationalities and has thrown them into deprivation, hunger, disease and placed them at the mercy of terrorists and suicide bombers. An independent Kashmir under capitalism will also be unable to provide any jobs to such a huge population and will always be at the mercy of the imperialist powers. Only overthrowing capitalism and building a socialist federation can give the Kashmiri masses Azadi (freedom), not only from the occupying forces, but also from unemployment and poverty. This can be achieved only through a socialist revolution, in which working class and revolutionary youth of India and Pakistan will play a key role. In a socialist federation of South Asia, Kashmir will be free - not only from the oppression of a bourgeois state, but also from the economic tyranny of Capital. This is the only way forward; the only way to guarantee a life full of happiness and pleasure in the 'Paradise on Earth'. 7 November is the anniversary of the 1917 Russian Revolution, which altered the entire course of human history. The below article by Alan Woods (originally published in 1992) gives an excellent overview of the revolution as well as highlighting its main lessons. If you want to learn even more, check out our special page www.bolshevik.info for detailed analysis, reading guides, videos and much more about this momentous event. "The October revolution laid the foundation of a new culture, taking everybody into consideration, and for that very reason immediately acquiring international significance. Even supposing for a moment that owing to unfavourable circumstances and hostile blows the Soviet regime should be temporarily overthrown, the inexpungable imprint of the October revolution would nevertheless remain upon the whole future development of mankind." - Leon Trotsky - The History of the Russian Revolution In this video, Alan Woods explains the events of the October Revolution, in which the workers and peasants of Russia, led by the Bolsheviks, took power. 75 years ago this month, an event took place which altered the entire course of human history. For the first time - if we exclude the brief but glorious episode of the Paris Commune - the working people took power into their own hands and began the gigantic task of the socialist re-construction of society. Now, on the eve of this great anniversary, the masses of the former Soviet Union are faced with the spectre of capitalist counter-revolution. Amidst the most appalling scenes of economic and social chaos, all the dark forces which had been swept aside by the revolutionary flood-tide, are creeping back. Private property, speculation, the Orthodox church, racism, nationalism, pogroms, prostitution, unemployment and inequality - like a swarm of grotesque and poisonous insects from under a stone. And this is hailed as a "new dawn" by the Western media. People capable of identifying such monstrosities with "progress" are capable of stopping at nothing. No lies are too great for them, no distortion too vile. And the avalanche of lies has already begun. In order to justify the capitalist system, it is necessary to blacken the name of socialism, and especially of scientific socialism, as expressed in the ideas of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky. Above all, it is necessary to show that revolution is a bad thing, that it represents a horrible deviation from the "norms" of peaceful social evolution, which inevitably ends in disaster. Not long ago, we celebrated the 200th anniversary of the French revolution. Despite the fact that this was a bourgeois revolution, despite the fact that it occurred two centuries ago, nevertheless, the ruling class in France and elsewhere could not refrain from denigrating the memory of 1789-93. Even such a distant historical event was an uncomfortable reminder to the rich and powerful of what happens when a given socio-economic system reaches its limits. They even propose to change the terrible words of the "Marseillaise"! Yet revolutions happen, and not by accident. A revolution becomes inevitable when a particular form of society enters into conflict with the development of the productive forces, which form the basis of all human progress. One of the greatest books of the twentieth century is Leon Trotskys History of the Russian Revolution. This monumental study of the event of 1917 has never been equalled. It is an outstanding example of the use of the method of historical materialism to elucidate the processes at work in society. The events leading up to October are not merely recounted, but explained in a way which has a validity and an application far more extensive than the Russian Revolution itself. In an effort to discredit the October Revolution, the ruling class, through the agency of its hired hacks in the Universities, has assiduously cultivated the myth that the Bolshevik Revolution was only a "coup detat" pulled off by Lenin and a handful of conspirators. Intervention of the masses Lenin, Trotsky and the masses / Image: Wikimedia Commons In reality, as Trotsky explains, the essence of a revolution is the direct intervention of the masses in the life of society and politics. In "normal" periods, the majority of people are content to leave the running of society in the hands of the "experts" - the parliamentarians, councillors, lawyers, journalists, trade union officials, university professors, and the rest of them. Over a period, which may be a protracted period of years or even decades, society may acquire the appearance of a certain "equilibrium." This is particularly true in a prolonged period of capitalist economic upswing, like that which lasted for nearly four decades after the end of World War Two. In such periods, the ideas of Marxism are not readily accepted or understood, because they appear to fly in the face of "the facts." On the contrary, the illusions of the reformists Labour leaders of a slow, gradual, evolutionary change - "today better than yesterday, and tomorrow better than today" - achieve a widespread audience. However, beneath the apparently calm surface, powerful currents are building up. There is a gradual accumulation of discontent and frustration in the masses, and an increasing malaise among the middle layers of society. This is particularly felt by the intellectuals and students, who are a sensitive barometer reflecting the changing moods of society. In a marvellously graphic phrase, Trotsky refers to the "molecular process of revolution", which goes on in uninterrupted fashion in the minds of the workers. However, since this process is a gradual one which does not affect the general political physiognomy of society, it goes unnoticed by everyone - except the Marxists. In just the same way, the ground appears to be solid and firm under our feet ("as steady as a rock," as the saying goes). But geology teaches that rocks are by no means steady, and that the ground is constantly shifting beneath our feet. The continents are on the march, and in a state of perpetual "warfare," one colliding with another. Since geological change is not measured by years or even centuries, but aeons, the continental shifts remain unnoticed except for specialists. But fault-lines build up, subject to unimaginable pressures, which eventually erupt in earthquakes. Wars and revolutions Patrol of the October Revolution / Image: Wikimedia Commons Similar fault-lines exist in the best-ordered societies. The sudden eruption of wars and revolutions obey approximately the same laws as earthquakes, and are just as inevitable. The moment inevitably arrives when the mass of people decide that "things cant go on like this any longer." The break occurs when the majority move to take their lives and destiny into their own hands. This, and nothing else, is the inner meaning of a revolution. For the well-fed academic, a revolution is an aberration, a "freak," a deviation from the norm. Society temporarily goes "mad," until eventually "order" is restored. For such a psychology, the most satisfactory mental image of a revolution is that of a blind herd which has suddenly panicked, or, better still, a conspiracy hatched by demagogues. In reality, the psychological changes which occur with extreme abruptness in any revolution, are not accidental, but are rooted in the whole previous period. The human mind, in general, is not revolutionary, but conservative. As long as conditions are generally acceptable, people tend to accept the existing state of affairs within society. Consciousness tends to lag far behind the changes which occur in the objective world of the economy and society. Only in the last resort, when there is no alternative, do the majority opt for a decisive break with the existing order. Long before this, they will try by every means to adapt, to compromise, to seek the imagined "line of least resistance." That is the secret of the appeal of reformist politics, especially in a period of capitalist upswing, but not exclusively. The October Revolution was the product of the entire preceding period. Before finally opting for the Bolsheviks, the Russian workers and peasants had already passed through the experience of two revolutions (1905 and February 1917) and two wars (1904-5 and 1914-17). Tsarist Russia, which was numbered as one of the principal imperialist states with a powerful army, was nevertheless an economically backward capitalist power. By the law of combined and uneven development, large-scale industry was established in a handful of centres (mainly Moscow, St. Petersburg, the Western region, Urals and Donbass) as a result of Western investment. However, the vast majority of the population were peasants, sunk in conditions of almost medieval backwardness. In many respects, the social composition of Russian tsarism was similar to that of many Third World countries today. Despite its numerical smallness, the Russian working class set its stamp on events very early on. In the stormy strike wave of the 1890s, it announced its existence to the world. From that moment, the "labour question" was to occupy a central position in Russian politics. The stormy growth of industry in the early years of this century led to a rapid growth of the working class. Unlike Britain, where capitalism experienced a slow, gradual, organic growth for 200 years, the development of capitalism in Russia was telescoped into a couple of decades. As a result, Russian industry did not have to pass through the phase of handicrafts, small cottage industry, through manufacture to large-scale enterprises. Huge factories were established with the most modern techniques imported from Britain, Germany and the USA. Along with the most modern technology imported from the West, came the most modern and advanced ideas of socialism. From the 1890s onwards, Marxism succeeded in displacing the old terrorist and utopian socialist trend of Narodnism as the dominant tendency in the workers movement. Narodniks The more sophisticated critics of Bolshevism try to draw a distinction between civilised "Western" Marxism, and crude, barbarous Leninism, a product, allegedly, of Russian backwardness. As a matter of fact, there is little or nothing of a specifically Russian character about the ideas of Lenin, who spent all his life tirelessly combating the Narodniks for their "Russian road to socialism." Both Lenin and Trotsky dedicated their lives to the defence of socialist internationalism. Their ideas can no more be considered "Russian" than Marxs ideas be portrayed as "German." Lenin and Trotsky developed and expanded Marxism, but defended the fundamental ideas and principles worked out by Marx and Engels from 1848 on. The first great test for the Russian Marxists came in 1905. The deep social crisis was brought to a head by the Russo-Japanese war, which ended in a military disaster for tsarism. On the ninth of January 1905, the working people of St. Petersburg assembled, with their families, for a peaceful demonstration on the square of the Winter palace. Their aim was to present a petition to the tsar - the "little father." The bulk of these workers, most of whom had only recently come from the villages, were not only religious, but monarchists. The Marxists (or Social Democrats, as they were then called) had very small forces, and were split between Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. When they tried to distribute leaflets denouncing the monarchy, in several places the workers tore up the leaflets and even beat them up. Yet within nine months the same workers had organised a revolutionary general strike and a soviet, and by the end of the year, the workers of Moscow had risen in armed insurrection. In all the urban centres the Social Democrats become transformed into the decisive force. The 1905 revolution was defeated in the main because the movement in the countryside only got underway after the workers in the towns had suffered a defeat. For a number of years (1907-11), Russia was plunged into the dark night of reaction. Yet by 1911-12, there was a new beginning, characterised by a massive strike wave (partly reflecting an upturn in the economy), which, beginning with economic demands, rapidly took on a political character. During this period the Bolsheviks gained a decisive majority in the organised working class. They broke with the opportunist Menshevik wing in 1912 and set up the Bolshevik Party. It should be remembered, however, that the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks had been tendencies in the existing traditional mass party of the workers - the RSDLP (Russian Social Democratic Labour Party), and even after 1912, the Bolsheviks still called themselves the RSDLP (B). First World War World War One / Image: fair use On the eve of the First World War, Russia stood once more on the brink of revolution. It is possible that the Bolsheviks could have come to power then, but the situation was cut across by the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914. During the war, the Bolshevik party was decimated by arrests and exile. The youth, which was the partys main avenue of recruitment, was conscripted into the army, where the worker element was scattered in a sea of backward peasant soldiers. In exile, Lenin was in contact with maybe a couple of dozen collaborators. In 1915, at the Conference of socialist internationalists in Zimmerwald, Lenin joked that you could put all the internationalists in the world into two stage-coaches. At a meeting of Swiss young socialists in January 1917, Lenin said that he probably would not live to see the socialist revolution. Within a few weeks, the tsar had been overthrown, and by the end of the year, Lenin was at the head of the first workers government in the world. How to explain such a dramatic turn of events? Vulgar historians explain revolution as the product of extreme misery. That is one-sided and false. If that were true, as Trotsky explains, the masses in a country like India would always be in revolt. The victory of reaction in the period of 1907-11 was facilitated by the economic crisis which, coming after a political defeat, temporarily stunned and disoriented the workers. As Trotsky predicted, it took an economic revival (1911-12) to allow the movement to recover. Booms and slumps Female textile workers strike in Petrograd / Image: Wikimedia Commons In reality, neither booms nor slumps in and of themselves cause revolutions. But it is the rapid successions of boom and slump, the interruption of the "normal" pattern of existence, which provokes general uncertainty and instability, and causes people to question the existing state of things. Even more profound are the shocks caused by wars, which turn the world upside down, uproot millions and compel men and women to shed their illusions and finally stand face to face with reality. The February revolution was a concrete expression of the fact that the old regime had reached an impasse. As in 1904-5, the sledge-hammer of military defeat served to expose the inner rottenness of tsarism. But to expose something is not to cause it. The crisis on international finance markets and the run on the pound recently exposed the chronic weakness of the British economy. But the decay of British capitalism has taken place gradually over a period of decades, disguised by the general upswing of the world economy. This was explained by the Marxists decades ago. The difference now is that, under the relentless pressure of world capitalist crisis, the mass of the British people are beginning to wake up to the fact. Beginning even during the war, the strike movement in Petrograd assumed sweeping proportions at the start of 1917. The mood of discontent emanating from the industrial centres found an echo in the ranks of the army, suffering from defeat and exhaustion. The crisis of the regime anticipated the movement of the masses. Every revolution begins, not at the bottom, but at the top. Its first manifestation is a series of crises and splits in the ruling class, which feels itself to be in a blind alley, and unable to continue to rule in the old way. Trotsky expresses it in the following sense: "A revolution breaks out when all the antagonisms of a society have reached their highest tension. But this makes the situation unbearable even for the classes of the old society - that is, those who are doomed to break up." The smell of corruption and scandal always hangs around a regime which has outlived itself. The present-day epidemic of political and financial scandals in Britain, Japan, the USA, Italy, are no more an accident than the Rasputin regime at the court of "Nicholas the Bloody," or the "Pompadour factor" of the Ancient Regime in France. Cossacks Cossacks / Image: Wikimedia Commons Despite all its armed might, its police, its Cossacks, its secret police, tsarism fell at the first serious challenge, like a rotten apple in a puff of wind. The army collapsed like a pack of cards, once the workers confronted it with a manifest determination to change society. The working-class as a whole learns from experience - especially the experience of great events. The experience of 1905, despite the defeat, had left an indelible impression which immediately re-emerged in February with the creation of the Soviets - elected committees of workers and soldiers - which were at the same time organs of struggle and, potentially, organs of a new power. As has happened many times in history, in the February Revolution, the workers had the power in their hands, but did not recognise the fact. With correct leadership, the working class could have immediately carried out the socialist revolution. But under the leadership of the Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries, the February revolution ended in the abortion of "dual power." Revolution means the explosive entry onto the political stage of millions of men and women with no previous experience of politics, in search of a solution to their most pressing problems. Inevitably, in the first instance, the masses seek the line of least resistance, the easiest solutions, the well-known political figures, the familiar political parties. In the case of Russia, the war itself had a fundamental effect on the balance of class forces. Here, the "masses" represented, first and foremost, the peasantry, which had been the backbone of the tsarist army. Up to 1914, the Bolsheviks had the leadership of four-fifths of the organised working class. But that situation was altered by the war. In the February revolution, the entire balance of class forces was changed by the explosive emergence on the scene of the mass of politically untutored workers, who tended to back the Mensheviks. The decisive element in the equation was the army, and here the peasants had a crushing preponderance. The peasant soldiers, recently awakened to political life, looked, not to the Bolsheviks, but to the "moderate" Socialist leaders the Mensheviks and especially the Social Revolutionaries. The workers, after the experience of 1905, were fearful of a rupture with the peasants in uniform, and, for the time being, were prepared to wait. The combined weight of the peasantry and the politically inexperienced mass of workers swung behind the Mensheviks and the SRs, reducing the Bolsheviks to a small minority in the first stages of the revolution. Mensheviks The masses placed their trust in the reformist labour leaders. And the latter, as always, placed their trust in the "liberal" wing of the bourgeoisie, which in turn, was desperately striving to defend the monarchy and put an end to the revolution. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, the reactionary generals were preparing a counter-coup. Not for the first or last time, the workers had fought and conquered, only to be cheated of the fruits of victory by their leadership. The SR and Menshevik leaders were obsessed by a single idea: to hand back the power as quickly as possible to the bankers and capitalists. The Provisional Government which emerged from the February Revolution was a government of landlords and capitalists calling themselves "democrats." The right-wing Labour ("Trudovik") leader Kerensky entered the government as Minister of Justice. The war minister was the big Moscow industrialist, Guchkov. The "liberal" Milyukov became Foreign Minister. Worker activists The worker activists were deeply distrustful of the government. But among the mass of society there was a wave of euphoria. The masses had illusions in their leaders, and regarded Kerensky as their spokesman in the government. The prevailing atmosphere of revolutionary democratic intoxication even affected some of the Bolshevik leaders in Petrograd. Lenin was still in exile in Switzerland. The main leaders in Petrograd were Kamenev and Stalin, who succumbed to the pressure for "unity." Instinctively, the Petrograd Bolsheviks came out against the Provisional Government, which they correctly characterised as a counter-revolutionary government. However, Kamenev and Stalin steered the party into a close alliance with the SRs and Mensheviks, and even proposed re-unification with the latter. From the exile in Switzerland, Lenin watched the situation with alarm. His first telegrams to Petrograd were utterly intransigent in tone and content: "Our tactic: absolute lack of confidence; no support to the new government; suspect Kerensky especially; arming of the proletariat the sole guarantee; immediate elections to the Petrograd town council; no rapprochement with other parties." After Lenins return in April, the Bolshevik Party entered into a crisis. This is a law in a revolutionary situation, when the pressure of alien class forces bears heavily upon the party and its leadership: the pressure for "left unity," the fear of isolation, and the rest. The tension between Lenin and the majority of the leaders was so great that, immediately after his return, Lenin was compelled to publish his April Theses in Pravda under his own signature. At the April Conference, where fierce struggle occurred, Lenin warned that, rather than accept the position of Kamenev and Stalin, he would prefer to be alone "like Karl Liebknecht, one against 110" (referring to Liebknechts courageous anti-war stand in the parliamentary faction of the German SPD). Lenin explained that the revolution had not achieved its central objectives: that it was necessary to overthrow the provisional government; that the workers must take power, allied with the mass of poor peasants. Only by these means could the war be ended, the land be given to the peasants and the conditions established for a transition to a socialist regime. In essence, these ideas were identical to the perspectives brilliantly worked out by Trotsky in 1904-5, and known to history as the "permanent revolution." Lenins ideas won the day. However, the Bolsheviks remained a minority in the Soviets, and the Soviet leaders - the SRs and Mensheviks - were backing the Provisional Government. And here we see the flexible tactics of Lenin, far removed from ultra-left adventurism. Under the slogan: "Patiently Explain," he urged the Bolsheviks to face to the Soviet workers to put demands on the reformist leaders, to demand action instead of words, to publish the secret treaties, to end the war, to break with the bourgeoisie and take power into their own hands. If they would do these things, Lenin repeated many times, then the struggle for power would be reduced to the peaceful struggle for a majority in the Soviets. Taking power Kerensky and the Provisional Government / Image: Wikimedia Commons However, the Mensheviks and SR leaders had no intention of breaking with the bourgeois Provisional Government. In reality, they were terrified of taking power, and were more afraid of the workers and peasants than the counter-revolutionary general staff. The truth was that the Provisional Government was an empty shell. There were only two real powers in the land, and one or the other had to be overthrown. On the one hand, the Soviets of workers and peasants deputies; on the other, the remnants of the old state apparatus, grouped around the monarchy and the general staff, which, under the protective shadow of the Provisional Government, was preparing for a showdown with the Soviets. Explosive growth One of the main features of a revolutionary situation is the suddenness with which the mood of the masses can change. The workers learn quickly on the basis of events. Thus a revolutionary tendency can experience explosive growth, passing from a tiny minority to a decisive force, on one condition; that it combines flexible tactics with implacable firmness on all political questions. At the beginning, Lenin was derided by his opponents as a hopeless "sectarian," who was doomed to impotence by keeping out of the "left unity." However, the tide soon began to flow strongly in the direction of Bolshevism. In a revolution, Trotsky wrote, "the more extreme always supersedes the less." The workers come to understand the correctness of the ideas of the revolutionary tendency from their own experience, especially the experience of great events. These are absolutely necessary in order that the workers convince themselves of the need for a radical transformation of society. The different stages in the growth of consciousness of the class are reflected by the rise and fall of successive political parties, trends, programmes and individuals. The failure of the bourgeois Provisional Government to solve a single one of the basic problems of society provoked a sharp reaction in the main working class centres, especially Petrograd, where the militant proletariat was combined with the revolutionary sailors (who, unlike the infantry, were usually drawn from the factory proletariat, especially the skilled workers). The constant increase in prices, the cut in the bread ration, caused a ferment of discontent. Above all the continuation of the war raised the temperature to boiling point. The workers reacted by a series of mass demonstrations starting in April, which indicated an ever-increasing shift to the left in the mood of the workers. In a parallel move, the forces of reaction attempted to mobilise on the streets, leading to a series of clashes. Demonstration Political demonstration at Petrograd / Image: Wikimedia Commons The Bolsheviks called a demonstration in April, to put pressure on the reformist leaders, and test the mood of the capital. Resolutions from the factories and workers districts flooded in to the Soviet Executive, demanding a break with the bourgeoisie. Workers came to the local committees asking how to transfer their names from the Mensheviks to the Bolsheviks. By the beginning of May, the Bolsheviks already had at least one third of the workers in Petrograd. "Every mass action," wrote Trotsky, "regardless of its immediate aim, is a warning addressed to the leadership. This warning is at first mild in character, but becomes more and more resolute. By July it has become a threat. In October we have the final act." The apologists for the ruling class always seek to present revolution as a bloodthirsty event. The reformist leaders throw in their two-hapence, by posing as peace-loving parliamentary democrats. But history demonstrates the falsity of both assertions. The bloodiest pages in the history of social strife occur when a cowardly and inept leadership vacillates at the decisive moment, and fails to put an end to the crisis of society by vigorous action. The initiative then passes to the forces of counter-revolution which are invariably merciless, and prepared to wade through rivers of blood to "teach the masses a lesson." In April 1917, the reformist leaders of the Soviet could have taken power "peacefully" - as Lenin invited them to do. There would have been no civil war. The authority of these leaders was such that the workers and soldiers would have obeyed them unconditionally. The reactionaries would have been generals without an army. But the refusal of the reformists to take power peacefully made bloodshed and violence inevitable, and put the gains of the revolution in jeopardy. In the same way the German Social Democratic leaders handed back the power won by the German workers and soldiers in 1918, a crime for which the whole world paid with the rise of Hitler, the concentration camps, and the horrors of a new world war. Instead of taking power, the Menshevik and SR leaders entered the first coalition government with the bourgeois leaders. The masses at first welcomed this, believing that the socialist Ministers were there to represent their interests. Once again, only events could bring about a change in consciousness. Inevitably, the socialist ministers became the pawns of the landowners and capitalists, and above all of Anglo-French imperialism, which was impatiently demanding a new offensive on the Russian front. These same "socialists" who had held a pacifist position earlier, once they crossed the threshold of the Ministry, instantly forgot their Zimmerwald speeches and enthusiastically backed the war. A new offensive was announced. Measures to re-introduce discipline in the army reflected an attempt to re-assert the power of the officer caste. The mood of the workers in Petrograd was near boiling point. As a warning shot and a trial of strength, the Bolsheviks considered an armed demonstration to put pressure on the Congress of Soviets in June. The party was giving voice to the growing feeling of frustration of the Petrograd workers, summed up in slogans, directed at the reformist leaders of the Soviet: "Take over state power!" "Break with the bourgeoisie!" "Drop the idea of a coalition and take the reigns of power into your own hands!" The idea of an armed demonstration caused an hysterical reaction on the part of the middle-class leaders who launched a campaign of slander, misrepresenting it as an attempted coup. The Menshevik Minister Tsereteli warned ominously that "people who did not know how to use arms must be disarmed." As a small minority in the Congress of Soviets (which the demonstration was planned to coincide with), the Bolsheviks decided to retreat. The idea of an armed demonstration was dropped. In its place, the Congress of Soviets itself called an unarmed demonstration on July 1st. This attempt to out-manoeuvre the Bolsheviks backfired. Growth of consciousness Riot on Nevsky prospekt in Petrograd / Image: Wikimedia Commons The workers and soldiers came to the "official" demonstration carrying placards with the slogans of the Bolsheviks: "Down with the secret treaties!" "Down with the ten capitalist ministers!" "No to the offensive!" All Power to the Soviets!" In a revolution, even such extremely democratic and flexible organisations as the Soviets were not capable of reflecting the rapid shifts of mood of the masses. The Soviet lagged behind the factory committee, the factory committees lagged behind the masses. Above all, the soldiers lagged behind the workers, and the backward provinces lagged behind revolutionary Petrograd. The process of the growth of consciousness is never uniform. Different layers arrive at different conclusions at different times. There is always a danger that the more advanced layers of the class will go too far too soon, and become separated from the majority, with calamitous consequences. Infuriated by the offensive, the most radical sections of the Petrograd garrison were preparing for an armed demonstration. Realising that the provinces were not yet ready for a showdown with the Provisional Government, the Bolsheviks tried to restrain the soldiers, but eventually were compelled to put themselves at the head of the demonstration in order to prevent a massacre. As the Bolsheviks had warned, the government seized on the opportunity to crack down on the movement, leaning on more backward regiments. The "July Days" ended in a defeat, but thanks to the responsible leadership of the Bolsheviks, the losses were kept to a minimum, and the effects of the defeat were not long-lasting. A revolution is not a one-act drama. Neither is it a simple, forward-moving process. The Russian revolution unfolded over nine months. The Spanish revolution took place over seven years - from the fall of the monarchy in 1931 to the May Days of Barcelona in 1937. Within the revolution, there are periods of breathtaking advance, but also periods of lull, of defeat, even of reaction.Thus the February revolution was succeeded by the reaction that followed the July Days. The Bolsheviks were accused of being German agents and mercilessly hounded, arrested and imprisoned. Lenin was forced to go into hiding, and then move to Finland. Counter-revolution General Kornilov and his staff / Image: Wikimedia Commons From February onwards, the counter-revolution had been biding its time, hiding behind the coat-tails of the Provisional government. The offensive, and the crushing of the Bolsheviks in July, now tilted the pendulum to the right. The officer caste began serious preparations for a coup detat, culminating in General Kornilovs uprising at the end of August. Only the courageous reaction of the workers and soldiers saved the revolution. The railway workers, risking their lives, refused to drive the trains, or misdirected them. Kornilovs army found itself without supplies, without petrol, disorganised and disoriented. Agitators, mainly Bolsheviks, got to work among Kornilovs troops and won them over. Kornilov ended up a general without an army. Reluctantly, the Mensheviks and SRs were forced to legalise the Bolsheviks. But by now the masses had begun to realise the true state of affairs. In an early article on the revolution, written between sessions at the Brest-Litovsk peace negotiations in 1918, Trotsky recalled events still fresh in his mind: "The growth of the influence and strength of the Bolsheviks was undoubted, and it had now received an irresistible impetus. The Bolsheviks had warned against the Coalition, against the July offensive, and had foretold the Kornilov rebellion. The popular masses could now see that we had been right." Panicked by the advance of Kornilovs "savage division," the reformist Soviet leaders had been compelled to arm the workers. The position of the Bolsheviks now became decisive in the Petrograd soviet. Moreover, the time was growing near for the second All-Russian Congress of Soviets, at which the Bolsheviks were assured of a majority. At one point, the counter-revolutionary policies of the reformist leaders of the Soviets had inclined Lenin to consider dropping the slogan "All power to the Soviets," and substituting for it the idea of taking power through the factory committees. This fact shows the extreme flexibility of Lenins tactics. There was no question of making a fetish out of any organisational form, even the Soviets. However, the Soviet form of direct elections from the workplaces and garrisons represented a far more democratic expression of the will of society than any regime of bourgeois parliamentary democracy known to history. One of the most blatant lies about October is that the Bolsheviks were "undemocratic" because they based themselves on Soviet democracy rather than a parliament ("Constituent Assembly"). The argument is that Lenin and Trotsky represented, not the masses, but only a small, tightly disciplined group of conspirators. For these critics, October was not a revolution, but a "coup." The truth is very different. The Soviet system in 1917 and the years immediately following the revolution was the most democratic system of representation of the people ever known. Even the most democratic models of bourgeois parliamentarianism cannot compare with the simple and direct democracy of the Soviets. Incidentally, the Russian word "soviet" merely means a "council" or "committee." The Soviets were born in 1905 as extended "strike committees." In 1917, the workers soviets were broadened to include representation by the soldiers, who were overwhelmingly peasants in uniform. Representatives to the soviets were elected directly by their workmates and instantly recallable. Compare this to the present system in Britain, where parliaments are elected every four years on average. There is no means of recall. Once a parliament is elected, it cannot be removed until the next general election. Governments are free to renege on their promises - and invariably do so, in the knowledge they cannot be removed. Most of the parliamentarians are professional politicians, with no contact with the people who elected them. They live in another world, with high salaries and expenses which puts them in a different social category to the people they are supposed to represent. In a revolutionary situation, where the moods of the masses change rapidly, the cumbersome mechanisms of formal bourgeois democracy would be utterly incapable of reflecting accurately the situation. Even the soviets, as we have seen, often lagged behind. In his 1918 work, Trotsky characterises the democracy of the Soviets in the following way: "They depend on organic groups, such as workshops, factories, mines, companies, regiments, etc. In theses cases, of course, there are no such legal guarantees for the perfect accuracy of the elections as in those to municipal councils and zemstvos (a kind of elected district council in the rural areas under tsarism, AW), but there is the far more important guarantee of the direct and immediate contact of the deputy with his electors. The member of the municipal council or zemstvos depends on an amorphous mass of electors who invest him with authority for one year, and then dissolve. "The Soviet electors, on the other hand, remain in permanent contact with one another by the very conditions of their life and work: their deputy is always under their direct observation and may at any moment be given new instructions, and, if necessary, may be censured, recalled, and replaced by somebody else." The right wing socialists tried by all means to prevent the soviets from taking power. First, they organised the so-called "Democratic Conference," calling for a "responsible " Ministry. This satisfied no-body, and was attacked from the right and the left. The rapid polarisation between the classes doomed all the manoeuvres of the "centre" to defeat in advance. The endless intrigues and combinations of the politicians contrasted with the desperate position on the front that cold and wet Autumn. The mood in the villages was increasingly impatient. The right wing socialists argued that the peasants should wait for the election of the "Constituent Assembly." The Bolsheviks demanded the immediate transference of the land to the peasants committees. The slogans of "peace, bread and land" won the mass of the peasants over to the side of the Soviets. By October, the stage was set for the last act in the revolutionary drama. Contrary to a widespread prejudice, revolution is not the same as insurrection. Nine-tenths of the work of the revolution consisted in winning over the decisive majority of the workers and soldiers by patient political work, summed up by Lenins slogan: "Patiently Explain!" The main blows of the Bolshevik propaganda and agitation were directed, not against the right-wing labour leaders, but against the class enemy - the monarchy, the landowners, the capitalists, the Black Hundreds (fascists), and the liberal bourgeois Ministers in the coalition government. Bolshevik majority 1917 Petrograd Soviet Assembly / Image: Wikimedia Commons By October, the Bolsheviks had a clear majority in the Soviets. Trotsky insisted that the date of the insurrection should be timed to co-incide with the opening of the Congress of Soviets, where the Bolsheviks would win the majority of the Executive Committee, and could therefore act with the full authority of the Soviets, which comprised the decisive majority of society. A point is reached in every revolution where the question of power is posed point-blank. At this stage, either the revolutionary class goes over to a decisive offensive, or the opportunity is lost, and may not return for a long time. The masses cannot be kept forever in a state of agitation. If the chance is lost, and the initiative passes to the counter-revolution, then bloodshed, civil war and reaction will inevitably follow. This is the experience of every revolution. We saw it in the period of 1918-23 in Germany, and in Spain from 1931-37. In both cases, the working class paid for the crimes of the leadership with a ghastly defeat, the fascist dictatorships of Hitler and Franco and the Second World War, which nearly resulted in the destruction of civilisation. Such is the importance of leadership that, ultimately, the fate of the Russian revolution was determined by two men - Lenin and Trotsky. The other leaders of the Bolsheviks - Stalin, Kamenev, Zinoviev - repeatedly vacillated under the pressure of middle-class "public opinion" - in reality the prejudices of the upper layers of the middle class, the intelligentsia and educated liberal leaders masquerading as socialists. These leaders represented the first confused, amorphous strivings of the masses to find a way out by the shortest road. Cruel deception However, the workers and peasants learned by experience that this alleged short-cut represented a cruel deception. This experience, together with the correct policies, strategy and tactics of Lenin and Trotsky, prepared the ground for the massive shift of opinion in the direction of Bolshevism. This would never have been possible if the line of the conciliators had been accepted. Lenin was constantly being accused of "sectarianism" by the enemies of Bolshevism - and by a section of the Bolsheviks leaders who wanted a "broad left front" with the Mensheviks and SRs, and were terrified of being "isolated." This fear was even more pronounced after the experience of July. With the exception of Lenin and Trotsky (who joined the Bolsheviks in the period of reaction during the Summer, together with an important group of non-party Marxists, the Mezhrayontsy), most of the other prominent Bolsheviks favoured participating in the "Democratic Conference" and even in the fake "pre-parliament" which was set up at this Conference - a "parliament" without any powers, elected by nobody and representing only itself. The old party leaders reflected the past of the workers and peasants, not their present or their future. Finally, the Bolsheviks demonstratively walked out of the "pre-parliament," to the general applause of the workers and soldiers - and the horror and indignation of the conciliators. Thanks mainly to the work of Trotsky, the Petrograd garrison was won over to the Bolshevik cause. Trotsky made use of the Military Revolutionary Committee, set up by the reformist-led Executive of the Soviet, to arm the workers in defence against the reactionaries. The workers in the arms factories distributed rifles to the Red Guard. Mass meetings, demonstrations and even military parades were held openly on the streets of Petrograd. Far from being the work of a tiny, secret group of conspirators, the preparations for the insurrection involved a massive participation by workers and soldiers. John Reed, in his celebrated book Ten Days that Shook the World gives a graphic eye-witness account of these mass meetings, which were held at all hours of the day and night, addressed by Bolsheviks, left SRs, soldiers recently arrived from the front, and even anarchists. Even in the February revolution, there had been few meetings such as this. And all spoke with one voice: "Down with Kerenskys government!" "Down with the war!" "All power to the Soviets!" Revolutionary Petrograd Red Guard Vulkan factory / Image: Wikimedia Commons The power base of the Provisional Government had shrunk practically to nothing. Even those conservative regiments drafted in from the front became infected by the mood of revolutionary Petrograd. The support for the Provisional Government in the capital collapsed immediately the workers began to move. The insurrection in Petrograd was a virtually bloodless affair. Some years later, the celebrated Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein made a film called October, which contains a famous scene of the storming of the Winter Palace, during which there were a few accidents. More people were killed and injured then than in the actual event! The propaganda of the bourgeois against the October revolution is a crude falsification of history. The actual seizure of power took place smoothly, and with very little resistance. The workers, soldiers and sailors occupied one government building after another, without firing a shot. How was this possible? Only a few months earlier, the position of Kerensky and the Provisional Government appeared to be unassailable. But in the moment of truth, it found no defenders. Its authority had collapsed. The masses deserted it and moved over to the Bolsheviks. The very idea that all this was the result of a clever conspiracy by a tiny group is worthy of a police mentality, but will not stand a moments analysis from a scientific point of view. The overwhelming victory of the Bolsheviks at the Soviet Congress underlines the fact that the right-wing reformist leaders had lost all their support. The Mensheviks and SRs won only one-tenth of the Congress - about 60 people in all. The Soviets voted by a massive majority for the assumption of power. Lenin moved two short decrees on peace and the land which were unanimously approved by Congress, which also elected a new central authority, which they called the "Council of Peoples Commissars," to avoid the bourgeois ministerial jargon. And power was in the hands of the working people. A New October Leon Trotsky / Image: Wikimedia Commons Now, seventy five years later, the film of history appears to be being played in reverse. The Soviet working class has paid a terrible price for the crimes of Stalinism. The collapse of the bureaucratic regime has been the prelude to an attempt to move back to capitalism. However, as Lenin used to say "history knows all sorts of transformations." On the road of capitalism, there is no future for the working people. On the basis of their experience, the workers of the former USSR will come to understand that fact. The old ideas, programme and traditions will be re-discovered. The basis will be laid for a new edition of the October Revolution, on a qualitatively higher basis, not only in the former Soviet Union, but on a worldwide scale. Alan Woods November, 1992 Aleppo has fallen. After four years of bloody war of attrition, the pre-civil war commercial hub and Syrias largest city is once again under the complete control of the Assad regime. For the rebels and their foreign backers this represents a humiliating blow which will have major consequences internationally and domestically. Aleppo Citadel - Photo: Public DomainThe price of these four years of war has been thousands of dead, tens of thousands maimed, and hundreds of thousands driven out of their homes. Aleppo sums up the tragedy of the Syrian civil war. An ancient city, with a modern people, rich with culture, turned into bloody piles of rubble and dust. The effect of the crimes committed here will be felt by generations to come. Since August, the rebel stronghold of Eastern Aleppo has been de facto under siege. For the past month, a meticulously planned operation led by Syrian, Iranian, Lebanese, Iraqi and Palestinian militias has advanced steadily, with close air support from Syrian and Russian jets and bombers. Day in and day out we are constantly told that the Russians and the Syrians are commiting war crimes. Of course we have no illusions either in Assad or in Putin. They act out of self-interest with no regard to the interests of the Syrian people. But there is a deafening silence concerning the barbaric conduct of the socalled rebels and their American, British, Saudi and Turkish backers. A history of atrocities and hypocrisy To find the truth about this reactionary war one has to dig through a mountain of lies, deception and stinking hypocrisy. The leaders of the so-called free world are all in tears, with the mass media pouring scorn on the brutal Russian and Syrian forces that have fought in Aleppo. They condemn Putin and Assad for bombing, shooting and killing people (in a war!). Yet they have no problems with their own moderate militias doing exactly the same, and in no more humane ways than those of Putin. While the media have been flooded with stories about the bombing of the last hospital of Aleppo every week for the past year or so, no mention has been made of the constant and indiscriminate shelling of Western Aleppo or the Kurdish neighbourhood of Sheikh Maqsood. One can only imagine the scale of horror and destruction had the opposition militias themselves had an air force. Murder seems only to be a crime when it is carried out by Western ruling classes opponents. The war crimes of Western imperialism throughout history are endless: the killing of hundreds of thousands in Hiroshima and Nagasaki; the bombing of the civilian population of Dresden in WWII, with almost 4000 tons of bombs killing more than 25,000 people; the murderous Operation Rolling Thunder bombing campaign which killed hundreds of thousands of civilians in Vietnam. These are hushed up - or even glorified - in the history books. The behaviour of these ladies and gentlemen in modern times in the Middle East is no any better. A 2015 investigation by Physicians for Social Responsibility concludes that, the wars have, directly or indirectly, killed around 1 million people in Iraq, 220,000 in Afghanistan and 80,000 in Pakistan, i.e . a total of around 1.3 million. (...) The total number of deaths in the three countries named above could also be in excess of 2 million, whereas a figure below 1 million is extremely unlikely. Put together, the murderous deeds of Assad, Putin and even of ISIS would not reach the levels or destruction unleashed by Western imperialism in the Middle East. The criminal war in Iraq, meanwhile, completely destabilised the country and the region and unleashed the most backward and reactionary forces. The tragedy goes far beyond the mere numbers - albeit huge - of killed. Even today, the siege and indiscriminate bombing of Yemen by Saudi planes, closely supported by US and British forces, has left more than half of the 28 million population at risk of starvation. And yet this humanitarian disaster and tragedy is conveniently ignored by politicians and the press in the West. A UN humanitarian coordinator in Yemen said that the war is "probably one of the biggest crises in the world but it's like a silent crisis, a silent situation and a forgotten war." At least one child dies every 10 minutes in #Yemen because of preventable diseases such as diarrhoea, malnutrition & respiratory infections. pic.twitter.com/k56a1SmVGd UNICEF Yemen (@UNICEF_Yemen) December 12, 2016 Likewise nothing is mentioned of the civilian casualties caused by the siege and onslaught on the city of Mosul, which holds far more civilians than eastern Aleppo. Ironically, some of the same groups in Aleppo that are being criticised by the West have been hired to do the dirty work in Mosul with Western air-cover. Our dear leaders are full of concern for the plight of their Syrian people. But their actions tell a different story. A recent internal UN report leaked by The Intercept characterises Western sanctions on Syria as some of the most complicated and far-reaching sanctions regimes ever imposed. They report that the U.S. sanctions are exceptionally cruel regarding provision of humanitarian aid [our emphasis]. Another UN leak in the same publication names sanctions as a principal factor in the degradation of the healthcare system. In addition, it is deeply ironic that these peace-loving gentlemen and women have now promised to pour more arms and money into Syria following the fall of Aleppo. Yes, our dear democratic friends are quick to point fingers. But they are equally quick to forget the terror and barbarism they have unleashed and continue to support throughout the region. Syria In Aleppo itself, the latest atrocities could have been avoided had the US agreed to a ceasefire deal with Russia and the Assad regime only one month ago. The deal fell after the US planes bombed and killed up to 100 Syrian regime troops fighting against ISIS in the besieged enclave of Deir Ezzor. According to the Middle East Eye, a recent report by the US central command clearly 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 result of this strike was not only to break the ceasefire in Aleppo, but also to act as a major blow to Syrian forces who have been besieged by ISIS for more than two years. Following the collapsed ceasefire, the Russian and Syrian aerial bombing campaign over Aleppo was halted for a three-week period, during which eight exit routes were created for civilians and militants to leave Eastern Aleppo and be transported either to regime areas, where rebels would be granted amnesty upon laying down arms, or to rebel controlled areas in Idlib along with their light arms(!). But the response of the moderate friends of the West in Aleppo was to shoot and shell anyone who tried to leave the area. In effect, the opposition militias took the whole of East Aleppo as hostages and turned them into human shields. Yet Western media continues to support these moderate rebels, portraying them as freedom fighters who represent the people against the Assad regime. But who are these moderate groups? They are not directly mentioned anywhere by name. But looking at the groups in Aleppo, the strongest ones have been: Jabhat Fatah Al-Sham (JFS), the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda originally set up by what is now ISIS; Ahrar Al-Sham (AAS), which has been running the whole of Idlib governorate along with JFS for several years, and which almost fused with it a few years ago; and finally, the Nour al-din al-zinki group, which is an Islamist group with close ties to the US. Last summer the Zinki group gained international fame for beheading a 14 year old boy. In one the many videos of the execution, the Zinki men are heard saying we are worse than ISIS. So, yes, these men might be moderate - but in relation to what? The fact is that the rebels, as in many other urban areas in Syria, never enjoyed much support within the city of Aleppo. Aleppo only fell into opposition hands initially after an attack coming from the countryside. The Guardian, reported in August 2012: Opposition fighters around 3,000 of them are almost the only people moving around the eastern half that the Free Syrian Army now controls. The small numbers of non-fighters who remain seem to pay them little heed. Few seem openly welcoming. Yes it's true, said Sheikh Tawfik Abu Sleiman, a rebel commander sitting on the ground floor of his fourth new headquarters the other three were bombed. Around 70% of Aleppo city is with the regime. It has always been that way. The countryside is with us and the city is with them. We are saying that we will only be here as long as it takes to get the job done, to get rid of the Assads. After that, we will leave and they can build the city that they want. In fact, once the initial revolution began to disintegrate into a sectarian conflict dominated by Islamist groups, the vast majority of the population, many of whom were sympathetic to the initial movement, swung back behind the regime. Seeing the revolution destabilising the Assad regime in 2011, Western imperialism and their allies - Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Jordan and the Gulf states - began funnelling billions of dollars into Islamist groups in Syria. One revealing report by the Defence Intelligence Agency - the intelligence agency of the Pentagon - in 2012 stated: Internally, events are clearly taking a sectarian direction (...) The Salafist, the Muslim Brotherhood, and AQI [Al Qaeda in Iraq and precursor to JFS and ISIS] are the major forces driving the insurgency in Syria. The West, Gulf countries, and Turkey support the opposition; while Russia, China, and Iran support the regime.(...) There is the possibility of establishing a declared or undeclared Salafist principality in eastern Syria (Hasaka and Deir Ezzor), and this is exactly what the supporting powers to the opposition want, in order to isolate the Syrian regime Instability This is the real reason behind the hue and cry raised by the West. All of their plots for the country have fallen apart. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, a seasoned diplomat who measures his words, told journalists that he was "tired of hearing this whining from our American colleagues. The fall of Aleppo is a complete humiliation for Western imperialism. While the annexation of Crimea - in itself a big humiliation for US imperialism - was in the neighbourhood of Russia, in Aleppo you have the public humiliation and crushing of US proxies in the middle of what the US has traditionally seen as its domain. As was evident in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, US imperialism has always thought that it could do whatever it wanted in the Middle East. But in Aleppo the limitations of US imperialism have been openly on display. It is no coincidence that the most serious negotiations surrounding Aleppo have been between Russia and Turkey, without US participation. When the Pentagon disrupted the ceasefire in October, it was from a position of arrogance and defiance towards Russia. But then Russia, Iran and Syria proceeded to crush the US proxies - right in front of US (and Turkish) armed forces who were literally stationed a few dozen miles away...and the US was impotent to do anything about it. The West and its allies, who are used to calling the shots, have been reduced to mere spectators in Aleppo. Not only did they invest a great deal in Aleppo itself, but the fall of the city means that the rebels have now been pushed out of all major urban areas in Syria. While the civil war could drag on for years to come, it is clear that the threat to the Assad regime has been shattered. The following collapse of morale amongst the rebels will add to this consolidation of power. All the plans of the interventionist powers are in ruins. This will have serious consequences. The public display the US impotence means that it will come under pressure from a number of lesser powers internationally, who will test the limits of US imperialism and the US dominated world order. These allies and enemies will begin to assume a role that will be more independent from the US and its interests. This in turn will lead to even greater instability internationally. In Turkey, the fall of Aleppo is a major blow to Erdogans neo-Ottoman plans of dominating the Middle East, seriously damaging his prestige, and coming just at a time when the Turkish economy could be headed for a serious crisis, which in turn could see an explosive development in the class struggle. In Syria, Erdogan is only aided slightly by the fact that Russia has allowed Turkey a certain presence in the northern Aleppo countryside - although even this pocket might come under pressure in the next period. In effect, all that is left from Erdogans policy in Syria is the utopian aim of defeating the Kurdish enclave of Rojava. But this itself could at a certain point backfire and lead to the breakup of Turkey. The largest blow, however, was dealt to Saudi Arabia, which is rapidly seeing its international position decline. The reactionary kingdom no longer has any significant bargaining chip in Syria, with most of its proxies confined to their Islamic emirate in the Idlib governorate where they do not pose a threat to anyone. The failure of the Saudi interventions in Syria and Iraq, and the coming defeat in Yemen, will have major ramifications inside the kingdom, which is entangled in a web of social, economic and political crises. What is to be done? Many people are justifiably disgusted by the tragedy in Aleppo. What can we do?, those with genuine concern ask. Some propose that a no-fly zone should be imposed, as if a war without bombers is somehow more humane. But in real practical terms, the demand for a no-fly zone is just another way of calling for an aerial campaign by the West in support of the rebels and against the Assad regime. Far from being more humane, it would mean giving air cover to some of the most reactionary forces on the planet. Such an intervention would also prop up support for the Assad regime amongst the Syrian population. Western intervention would not lead to anything progressive in the Middle East. In fact, it is at the root of all of the barbarism which we witness in the region today. As the history of Western intervention outlined earlier shows, these governments do not take action out of humanitarian concerns, but for their own narrow imperialist interests. They curse the crimes of Putin and Assad, crying crocodile tears over the tragedy in Aleppo; and yet, at the same time, they sweep their own war crimes in Yemen and elsewhere under the carpet. The interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Yemen have not led to democracy and freedom, but have completely destroyed the foundations of civilised life in those countries. This should be a clear indication of what we could expect from any Western intervention in Syria. If we want to do something; if we want to effect any kind of change, the first thing would be to begin a serious struggle against our own capitalist and imperialist ruling classes - which have committed the greatest crimes in the history of the Middle East. Lenin once commented that capitalism is horror without end. Behind this aphorism there is a profound truth. War and instability are an inherent part of capitalism - a system that is based on anarchic self-interest, competition, and profit motives, and over which no-one exerts any real control. In a period of crisis - when the class struggle is sharpened, the world economy is destabilised, and competition between the various nation states increases - internal conflicts and the general instability intensifies. The fact is that all the powers with interests in the Middle East want stability in the region - but only on their own terms, which are always in antagonism to and to the detriment of the other powers. To defend their own positions and narrow interests, they are willing to drown the whole region in a sea of blood. The war in Syria, however tragic it is, will not be the last war of this nature. Capitalism will continue to produce more such wars until the day it is overthrown by the working masses. The only real thing to do is to prepare a revolutionary force that can hasten the downfall of this rotten system internationally. Electoral results provide an important, albeit imperfect snapshot of the mood in society at any given time. Although they cannot reflect the full complexity of the subterranean changes taking place, they do provide valuable insights. Processes that have been quietly evolving over years and decades suddenly surface and take form. In these results, over time, you can trace the demographic, economic, social, and ideological changes taking place beneath the surface of society, as reflected at the ballot box. Image: Socialiste Appeal (US)At times there are prolonged periods of relative stasis, followed by dramatic transformations and changes. Parties and politicians that seemed immutable outlive their historical usefulness and are swept from the stage of history, and replaced by otherswhich rise and fall in turn. Sometimes, old political shells are filled with new social contentthe names remain the samebut the social forces they represent do not. In the final analysis, political parties reflect the interests of different classes or layers of classes. As the underlying economic basis for capitalist rule enters into crisis, so too do the systems political and ideological forms. This is a complex and contradictory process, not a direct and mechanical one. Nonetheless, the bases for these crises are rooted in the economic framework of society. The Democrats and Republicans, both of which represent the interests of the capitalist class, have controlled American politics for over 150 years. They were able to ensure their dominance by leaning on the working class, playing one layer against another, offering crumbs to some while viciously oppressing others, to cobble together the semblance of an electoral base of support. This continued into the 21st century on the basis of the post-WWII economic boom, social inertia, and the pernicious role of the labor leaders, who refused to break with these parties and offer a working class political alternative. But the economic boom is long over. It has taken several waves of crisis to burn away the fat, derail the inertia, and shake peoples confidence in the system. The 2008 crisis has accelerated the process. On November 8, we saw the latest political manifestation of the crisis. This, in turn, will feed back on the economic and social crisis, and vice versa. The relative stability of the last few decades is dead and buried. A search for answers Part of the process of finding a way out of the crisis is the testing of existing parties and leaders. With no traditional mass working class party, American workers must go through a particularly strange variant of this experience. Fumbling around in the dark without a lead from the labor leaders, they will have to bang their shins and stub their toes in the process. Eventually, however, the lights will turn on, and the reality of what theyve been dealing with and the need for a very different way of doing things will become apparent. Once the American workers conclude that new parties, leaders, and methods of struggle are needed, it will be lights out for capitalism. In the span of just a few months, weve seen the ignominious fall of Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton, the hand-picked inheritors of their entrenched political dynasties. Weve also witnessed the spectacular ascent and crash of Bernie Sanderswho drove himself into the river by not breaking with the Democrats and running as an Independentand the eventual upset victory of the ultimate upstart, Donald J. Trump. Although Trump and Sanders, each in their own way, helped their respective parties maintain their relevance through another electoral cycle, the forces they unleashed will speed up the eventual demolition of these pillars of capitalist rule. The liberal-right-wing of the ruling class was given eight years to solve the working classs problems, but failed. A combination of disillusionment, abstention, the Electoral College, and the crystallization of a form of urban-rural working-class sectionalism that tipped the balance in a few key states, handed victory to the conservative-right wing. But as we shall see, he has no real mandate. Trump is now putting together his cabinet, surrounding himself with reactionary ideologues and bankers such as Stephen Bannon, Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani, Steven Mnuchin, and more. We will explore this rogues gallery in detail in future articles. Suffice it to say that this veritable thieves kitchen will only accelerate the decomposition of the winning partywhich also has control over Congress. Trump will have no excuses for not delivering on his bombastic domestic and foreign policy promises, many of which are contradictory and at odds with his partys platformnot to mention unrealizable in full or even in part under capitalism. Confidence in the entire system and all its institutions are already at record lows and even though some people will give him a chance at first, Trump will end up driving confidence in the system even lower. I dont regret not voting This lack of confidence was on full display on election day as voter participation remained stagnant despite the panicked appeals by both sides to get out the vote. Just 58.4% of eligible voters bothered to vote, a far lower rate than most developed countries, and even lower than countries like Turkey and Mexico. The reason is clear: tens of millions abstain because they instinctively know that their vote wont change anything. Overwork, low wages, debt, stress, and insecurity will continue no matter who wins. This year saw the two most despised candidates in recent memory engage in a personal war of attrition that offered little but negative options to defeat the other candidate. And without standardized voting machines and proceduresand the fact that voting takes place on a Tuesday workdaymillions couldnt be bothered to make it to the polls. However, even 58.4% is an exaggeration. The media reports on the participation of eligible votersnot the total voting age populationto inflate the numbers. Some 231 million Americans were legally eligible to vote in 2016. However, this does not include the 20 million or more voting-age residents of the US who are unable to weigh in because they are in prison, are convicted felons, or who, due to their immigration status, have no rights despite working and paying taxes in this country. According to the Pew Research Center, the US ranked 31st out of 35 mostly OECD countries for voter turnout based on the voting age populace. In the end only 24.7% of the voting age population voted for Trumpeven fewer than the 25.4% who voted for Clintonhardly a mandate. Neither candidate won a majority of the votes cast in any state except Washington, DCwhich isnt even a stateand which, tellingly, voted 90% for Clinton. In only six states plus Washington DC was turnout high enough that one of the candidates won more votes than the total that abstained: Iowa and Wisconsin for Trump and Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire and DC for Clinton. To put things into recent historical context, consider the following totals for the winning candidate in the last three elections: 2008 (Obama): 69.5 million 2012 (Obama): 65.9 million 2016 (Trump): 61.9 million This fall in votes for the winner is even more dramatic when one considers that the population has grown by an estimated 21 million over the last eight years. On top of all of this, 14 statesincluding important swing stateshad new voting restrictions in place this year which were clearly intended to reduce voter participation among eligible minority voters. When all of this is taken together, it is no wonder the idea that these elections reflect the will of the people rings hollow. The key to understanding the result is the fact that an estimated 9 million fewer people voted in 2016 as compared to four years agoand about 7 million of those had voted for the Democrats in 2012. Although some 1.9 million of them switched their votes to the Republicans, most of these former Democratic voters simply stayed home. As the New York Times put it, The election was notable as much for the people who did not show up, as for those who did. A few examples concretely illustrate the electoral effects of 30 years of working class decline and betrayal by the worker-friendly Democrats: In a Brigade app poll held before the election, 2% of registered Republicans said they would vote for Hillary, while 40% of registered Democrats said they would vote for Trump. More Democratic Party women indicated they would move over to vote for Trump than men. One-third of 700 counties that previously voted for Obama flipped and voted for Trump. Clinton received 129,000 fewer votes in heavily Democratic Detroit than Obama did four years ago and lost the state by around 61,000 total votes. Clinton received 95,000 fewer votes in heavily Democratic Milwaukee than Obama did and lost the state by 73,000 total votes. As one Milwaukee barber expressed it: I dont feel bad. Milwaukee is tired. Both of them were terrible. They never do anything for us anyway. 29% of Latino voters, including 26% of Latina women who supported Donald Trump. More white women53%voted for Trump instead of Clinton. Only 1% of women voters overall shifted to the Democrats. Many women clearly saw her as more concerned with breaking glass ceiling for herself while defending a system that keeps working women and all workers in chains. NY Times exit polls showed that younger voters shifted towards the Republicans by +5%, and that across the country, all ethnic groups shifted towards the Republicans: +1% of whites, +7% of blacks, +8% of Latinos. 50% of union members voted for Trump, despite the frantic efforts of the labor leaders to keep them in line and voting for Clinton. Obamas presidency will end with Democrats in possession of 11 fewer Senate seats, more than 60 fewer seats in the House of Representatives, at least 14 fewer governorships, and more than 900 fewer seats in state legislatures than when he took office. The Democrats controlled Congress from 2008 to 2010, and what did they deliver? As far back as 2008, the ground was being laid for the smashing of the incumbents in 2016. Democracy, American Style What about the pesky detail that Clinton actually received 1.7 million more votes than Trump? How is it possible that the winner can take office while receiving that many fewer votes? As we wrote before the election in US Election 2016: On the Eve of Armageddon And lets not forget about the Electoral College. For all the fuss about democracy and the will of the majority, not a single American will vote for president on November 8. The Electoral College is one of many safety valves built into the US Constitution to ensure the masses don't take democracy too literally. It is weighted towards the more conservative rural constituencies and means that voters actually cast ballots for unelected electors who are not legally bound to vote for the candidate most voted for by the electorate in their district. Remember: this is democracy for the bourgeoisie, not the working class. To win the keys to the White House, a candidate must receive a minimum of 270 electoral votes. Electors are allocated in the same ratio as members of Congress, with each state receiving two electoral votes for each Senator, and a varying number of electors equal to the number of members of the House of Representatives. Washington DC is also allocated three electors, though they have no representation in Congress. As of this writing, not a single person has yet voted for President of the United States. In fact, the 538 electors will not meet to vote until December 18. So why is it that Clinton meekly accepted defeat and has fallen off the public radar? Those who watched the debates will recall the pressure that was put on Trump to say he would acknowledge the results, which he repeatedly said were rigged. He finally relented and said that he would accept the resultsif he won. Confident of victory, Clinton vowed to play by the rules, and she is now bound by them. Ironically, Clinton spoke against the Electoral College some years ago but did nothing to bring about its end. Now she and the US ruling class, who overwhelmingly preferred her to Trump, must live with the poisoned fruits of this archaic institution. 2016 marks the fifth time since 1820 that the winner of the popular vote lost the presidency (the others were in 1824, 1876, 1888, and 2000). Most recently, George W. Bush was declared the 43rd president despite receiving 540,000 fewer votes than Al Gore. Seeking to avoid a major controversy, Gore accepted defeat after the unelected Supreme Court decided that Bush had in fact won Florida on the basis of hanging chads. The Electoral College was one of the many compromises between Southern slave-owning plantation owners and Northern merchants and bankers who cobbled together the US Constitution. Since Southern states had much smaller populations than the North, and since such a large proportion of their populations were slaves without rights, they needed a way to ensure they had a say in federal government. The compromise was one of the results. In short, part of the Founding Fathers vision was to count black slaves as of a human being. This would help pad the population rolls just enough to grant Southern states a few more members of Congress and electoral votes. Not surprisingly, four of the first five US presidents were from the slave-owning state of Virginia, and the countrys capital was moved from New York City and Philadelphia to a malaria-ridden swamp across the Potomac river from Virginia. Although slavery has ended, the desire to counter the growing weight of the urban working class has compelled the ruling class to keep the Electoral College in place as a counterbalance. Rural areas tend to be more conservative, and especially after the labor struggles of the 1930s, the anti-democratic violation of one person, one vote has been kept in place, despite a steady decline in the rural population. So, for example, both the states of Wyoming and of California receive two Senators. But in the case of Wyoming, each Senator represents roughly 291,000 residents, whereas each of Californias Senators represents 19.2 million people. Wyoming only receives one representative in the US House, and California receives 53. But the balance is still overwhelmingly in favor of rural, conservative Wyoming, which received one Electoral College vote per 194,000 residents, as compared to 697,000 residents per Electoral College vote from California. Multiply this across the huge rural expanse of the country, and you have a statistical edge in favor of the more conservative voters. This is just one of the many checks and balances in the Constitutionintended to check the power of the working majority. Funnily enough, the President-Elect seems to agree that the Electoral College makes a mockery of the system. After Obamas re-election, Trump tweeted: The electoral college is a disaster for democracy. Now that he has won on the basis of this very mechanism, he told CBSs Lesley Stahl that he still agrees with his 2012 tweet: Im not going to change my mind just because I won... I would rather see it where you went with simple votes. You know, you get 100 million votes, and somebody else gets 90 million votes, and you win. Though he says he doesnt agree with it, Trump, as always, is happy to play by the rules written by the rich and powerful for the rich and powerful, whether its tax-time or election-time. Constitutional crisis? The idea that the system is rigged gets a wide echo for a reason. Tens of millions of Americans can see that the system is riggedin favor of the wealthy. Even if the Electoral College were abolished and the president was elected by a simple majority of the popular vote, there are no viable options for the working class. This is why we supported neither Clinton nor Trump, despite the lesser evil cacophony of the Democrats. This is why we insist on the need to build a mass socialist party to represent the working class. But the fallout over the Electoral College raises some important questions about the long-term viability of the worlds oldest existing republic. As history shows time and again, a social formation in crisis will have its legal framework stressed, questioned, and eventually broken. In addition to the compromise, the original US Constitution disenfranchised women, most white men, Native Americans, many freed blacks, immigrants, etc. It took two centuries of class struggle to amend the Constitution to the point where, at least on paper, we are all equal. But everyone knows this is not the case in reality. A major reason Clinton accepted her humiliating defeat without a peep is that the ruling class desperately wants to avoid drawing too much attention to the Electoral College and other inconvenient facts about the Constitution, which most Americans havent even read. They prefer to use other measures to try and keep Trump under control. Were they to mobilize people on the streets in defense of the winner of the popular vote things could quickly get out of control. A constitutional crisis and even elements of civil war could not be ruled out. As we have explained, the US Constitution is an unholy mix of contradictions of libertarian and centralized government forms. These are rooted in the revolutionary and counterrevolutionary origins and genesis of this country. Thomas Jefferson, who drafted the Declaration of Independence, was himself a mess of contradictions. But he had unequivocal views on the question of the Constitution, as outlined in a 1789 letter to James Madison: Every constitution, then, and every law, naturally expires at the end of nineteen years. If it be enforced longer, it is an act of force, and not of right. Decades later, in 1813, he maintained the same basic view in a letter to John Wayne Eppes: The generations of men may be considered as bodies or corporations. Each generation has the usufruct of the earth during the period of its continuance. When it ceases to exist, the usufruct passes on to the succeeding generation free and unencumbered and so on successively from one generation to another forever. We may consider each generation as a distinct nation, with a right, by the will of its majority, to bind themselves, but none to bind the succeeding generation, more than the inhabitants of another country. He based his figure of nineteen years on the average generational unit of his epoch. By any measure of what constitutes a generation at 227 years since the adoption of the Constitution, at least Jefferson would agree that its high time to revisit the legal statutes that rule us. A few things have changed since it was adopted by a tiny handful of the population at the time. The US has been transformed from a small ex-colony of England to the worlds greatest economic and imperialist superpower, its territory has expanded dramatically, and its population has grown nearly a hundred-fold from 3.5 million to 320 million. For our part, we believe that in a genuine democracy, the working class majority should have the right to determine their destiny, including the right to amend or rewrite the constitution altogether, to be approved through a popular referendum. As it happens, Article V of the US Constitution contains provisions for the calling of a constitutional convention. Several state legislatures have already symbolically voted to invoke this process. To date, most efforts to rewrite the constitution have come from conservatives in the South, who think the countrys guiding statutes are too liberal. Until the majority of Americans move in this direction, we are of course compelled to live under the present statutes. However, we have plenty of ideas for what a new constitution should look like, for example: Equal protections, voting, and citizenship rights for everyone living in the United States Guaranteed civil liberties for all, in the spirit of the present constitutions Bill of Rights Direct, participatory democracy on the basis of elected councils, with all elected officials subject to immediate recall and earning no more than an average skilled worker Public ownership and democratic administration of any company too big to fail, starting with the Fortune 500 A constitutional guarantee to a quality job with union pay and protections or a place in education Robust health, safety, and environmental protections The right to free, high-quality, universal health care and education, safe, affordable housing, and efficient public transportation for all A dramatic reduction in the workweek and generous paid holidays and parental leave As we have explained many times, we live in a democracy for the rich. We are granted the semblance of a voice only because it is easier to rule people through the semblance of democracy than through naked force and there is not enough force at their disposal to keep us all down. In the future, a socialist constitution would establish a new set of parameters for what we can expect from life on this planet. No mandate! As we have seen, Trump was elected by a small minority of the population, many of whom saw him as a protest vote and middle finger at the status quo. He currently has a mere 42% approval rating, the lowest of any first-term president since records began after WWII. Nonetheless, this is higher than at any time during the campaign, as many fatigued by the election are willing to wait and see what he does in office. We can be sure that they wont have to wait long in order to see what he represents. Millions who were indifferent to the elections are not indifferent now that he is preparing to take power. Millions of others have already hit the streets and are preparing to do their part in the years of stress and strain ahead of us. While many recoil in horror at the mess society finds itself in, Marxists take the long view of history. We understand that what we are experiencing are the belated birth pangs of a new society. Capitalism is pregnant with the potential for a dramatically different way of organizing human production, distribution, and exchange. The material potential for socialism has been present since at least the 1920s, but the lack of a sufficiently strong and revolutionary working class leadership has condemned us to suffer the contradictions of capitalism for many decades. A change is long overduelike a baby many months or years post-termand this gives the process a particularly distorted character. The task of Marxist revolutionaries is to facilitate the birth as swiftly as possiblelest both the old society and the new die in the process. We are confident that the present generation can end this misery once and for all. Join the fight for socialist workers democracyin which the majority truly rules. Join the IMT and help us speed the day! Were excited to announce that metalbulletin.com is now part of fastmarkets.com. A new look and an improved experience means you can still stay ahead of this fast-moving metals 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. Kwadwo Nkansah aka Lil Win 05.01.2017 LISTEN The 2016 edition of the annual Kumawood Akoben Film Festival and Awards (KAFF) slated to take place on December 5 has been postponed to April, 2017. According to the organizers of the award, Kumawood Multimedia, the 6th edition could not be held due to the ban on drumming and noise making in Kumasi as a result of the Asantehemaa's death. The awards scheme is an annual event being organized to recognise and reward deserving movie icons such as actors and actresses, writers, directors, producers, technicians and other personalities for their hard work, dedication and contribution to the growth of the movie industry. In a statement, the organizers led by the CEO of Kumawood Multimedia, Samuel Kwabena Darko, apologized for any inconvenience that the change of date to host the event may have caused. He added we will like to use this opportunity to thank the media for your unflinching support to KAFF Awards all these years and we salute your professionalism and dedication to the course of Kumawood Multimedia. Beatwaves gathered that nomination forms will soon be made public and stakeholders who want to be nominated in any of the competitive categories of this prestigious awards scheme can visit the offices of the organizers to file their nomination forms after submitting their works. The tug-of-war between the Registrar of the Ghana Medical and Dental Council (MDC) on one hand and Dr. Dominic Obeng Andoh owner of Obengfo Hospital is getting personal. According to Dr. Dominic Obeng Andoh, the registrar is embarking on a personal agenda against him by making defamatory and malice-filled statements in sections of the media to make him look like some kind of a quack. He said the recent visitations by the police to the Advanced Bodysculpt Centre of the Obengfo Hospital on the instructions of the Registrar of the Council Dr. Eli Kwesi Atikpui were part of the agenda to force him out of the profession. Patients including celebrities and other high-profile Ghanaians have been attesting to what can be described as mouth-watering transformations due to the unique artistic way excessive fats from the body are withdrawn without being cut but the registrar insists that Dr. Obeng Andoh is not licensed to conduct such a procedure. Genesis Giving the genesis of the issues, Dr. Obeng Andoh said Dr. Eli Kwesi Atikpui himself filed a complaint at the Medical and Dental Council of which he is a part that I was advertising unfairly and in performing countless hernia surgeries around 2010, adding that So he together with the MDC sat on the case without even inviting me to defend their concocted false charge and succeeded in sentencing me from the medical profession for three years in 2012 for having a sign board that had a hernia drawing on when my clinic was located in Mataheko, Accra. I was never invited as natural justice demands even to defend myself against the bogus charge but they passed a one-sided judgment in my absence saying that I should be suspended from practice. I saw my lawyer and we filed an appeal at the High Court. Dr. Obeng Andoh said the court then asked the MDC to file their so-called proceedings that led to the decision to suspend me but they didnt and havent been able to defend their bogus judgment against me till date. The case is still pending. He said since then, the registrar has been condemning him through the media at the least opportunity saying he calls me a quack Doctor and asked everybody not to come to my clinic. Dr. Obeng Andoh further said he asked Accra Reginal CID to come and arrest me when an appeal against that bogus suspension had been filed at the court which meant that they had no right to follow through with their orchestrated suspension and should have left me alone to work. He said that again in 2013 I heard Dr. Eli Kwesi Atikpui attacking me in the media that I only have a medical licence that allowed me to do only consultations and had teamed up with some journalists and some doctors in publishing false, fabricated stories that I was actually killing unnamed clients in my clinic when in actual fact no such medical misconduct nor negligence had ever been found against me. He said when Dr. Stephen Opuni was at the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA, the registrar allegedly used the authority to harass him (Dr. Obeng Andoh) without any justification. He teamed up with Dr. Opuni who is believed to be his classmate to arrest me on a false charge of advertising on a hernia surgery, adding after the needless arrest and the false charge the case was never heard. He said as a result of the registrar's pronouncements against him in the media, I had to sue Multi media, CEO KwesiTwum, Manesseh AzuriAwuni, and Seth Frimpong Boateng and late Isaac Yeboah of P&P in the process for publishing defamatory stories about me and Obengfo Hospital. The case is still pending. He said the Council has continuously rejected his application for renewal of licence without justification since he took them on in court. From 2012 till date I have all my certificates and money available, but they will not accept my application and turn around to make me look bad in the eyes of the public, he complained. He said some elements in the council are using the police to harass him even without any express orders of the court saying No medical negligence nor misconduct has ever been found against me in my medical practice in any of the thousands of surgical procedures done by me both in Ghana or internationally. Most of my clients are highly educated and know what they want. Celebrities, journalists, doctors, pastors, pastors' wives, doctors' wives, lawyers, Chiefs, beauticians, politicians and the like. No death, no Life-threatening complications have been caused through my surgical practice in my hospital. I can boast of very successful outcome of surgery with the over 20 thousand surgical procedures in my highly esteemed hospital. By William Yaw Owusu Ghanaian actress, Yvonne Nelson prior to the Christmas celebrations was in Lagos, Nigeria for a movie shoot and then, later missed her flight back to Ghana. Pending this, the beautiful actress decided to go live on Facebook and share the moment with her fans and followers while waiting for her next flight. In the video, Yvonne Nelson took time to show her fans her friends in the beautiful Lagos city and she also answered questions from her fans. Watch the video below Cairo (AFP) - Egyptian prosecutors extended the detention of an Al-Jazeera journalist accused of incitement and fabricating news for another 15 days on Wednesday, officials said. Mahmoud Hussein, 51, an Egyptian national, flew to Cairo two weeks ago for a family holiday but was stopped and interrogated at the airport for several hours before being released. Police raided his Cairo home on December 23 and arrested him. After being questioned again, he was ordered to be detained. It was the latest move against the Qatar-based broadcaster which Egypt accuses of supporting the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood of ousted president Mohamed Morsi. The interior ministry said after Hussein's arrest that he was implicated in an Al-Jazeera "plot" aimed at "fomenting discord and inciting against state institutions... and broadcasting false news as well as fabricated news reports and documentaries". In November, Al-Jazeera broadcast a documentary called "The Soldiers" in which former conscripts spoke about compulsory military service in Egypt, drawing criticism from the media. Al-Jazeera Managing Director Yasser Abu Hilalah denounced Hussein's arrest, saying the broadcaster "will continue to cover Egypt and we don't succumb to pressure". Egypt provoked international condemnation in 2013 when it arrested three Al-Jazeera journalists, including a Canadian and an Australian, and sentenced them to jail on similar accusations. They were later released. Their arrest, months after the military overthrew Morsi who had been backed by Qatar, coincided with a massive crackdown on his supporters and the Muslim Brotherhood being blacklisted. A member of "Bring Back Our Girls" movement carries placard to press for the release of the missing Chibok schoolgirls in Lagos, on April 14, 2016. By PIUS UTOMI EKPEI (AFP/File) 05.01.2017 LISTEN Abuja (AFP) - The Nigerian army on Thursday said another Chibok schoolgirl kidnapped by Boko Haram jihadists almost three years ago had been rescued along with her six-month-old baby. Rakiya Abubakar was one of over 200 schoolgirls abducted from the northeast Nigerian town of Chibok in April 2014, army spokesman Sani Usman said in a statement. He said soldiers had "during investigation of arrested suspected Boko Haram terrorists discovered... Rakiya Abubakar, with her six-month-old baby." He said she was a senior school student at the time of her abduction but did not specify when or where she was found. Of the 276 girls initially seized, scores escaped in the hours after the kidnapping. There are currently 195 schoolgirls still missing. Abubakar is one of three other schoolgirls who have been found in the past year by Nigerian troops as they fight Boko Haram Islamists. In October, 21 Chibok girls were released by Boko Haram after negotiations with the Nigerian government brokered by the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Swiss government. The release was hailed as a breakthrough that would lead to the recovery of remaining girls in captivity. The Chibok girls drew global attention to the Boko Haram insurgency engulfing the country when US First Lady Michelle Obama joined the #BringBackOurGirls online movement. Despite winning back swathes of territory from the jihadists, President Muhammadu Buhari has faced intense criticism for failing to recover the young captives, who became the defining symbol of Boko Haram's brutal campaign to establish a fundamentalist Islamic state in the country. Boko Haram still poses a threat to the war-torn region, launching sporadic raids on remote villages in Nigeria and deadly attacks on soldiers in neighbouring Chad and Niger. Nigeria has recently trumpeted a major victory in its battle against Boko Haram, claiming in late December that its army has routed the jihadists from their Sambisa forest stronghold. N'Djamena (AFP) - Chad announced Thursday that it has closed its border with Libya due to the threat of a "potential terrorist infiltration" and is boosting its military presence in the region. "Faced with the perils that threaten all of the nation's territory, the government decided for one thing to close our land border with Libya, and for another to declare the regions bordering Libya military operation zones," said Prime Minister Albert Pahimi Padacket in a message broadcast on radio and television. The Tibesti desert border regions are sparsely populated but are used for dealing in contraband by those living on both sides of the border, mainly the ethnic Tubu people. The premier explained that the measures were taken because "following their defeat, some isolated terrorist groups have gathered in the south of Libya, putting the northern frontier of our country potentially exposed to a serious threat of a terrorist infiltration." He did not however provide information on the identity of these "terrorist groups" or what "defeat" they suffered in Libya. The north African country has been mired in chaos since the 2011 downfall of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi. Chad is seen as a key ally of the West in its fight against jihadists in Africa. President Idriss Deby Itno is supported by France and the United States, who need the cooperation of the Chadian military in the region. The country is part of the regional alliance fighting Boko Haram Islamists who have spread their insurgency from northern Nigeria to the border regions of neighbouring Chad, Niger and Cameroon. Lubumbashi (DR Congo) (AFP) - At least 15 people from DR Congo's Bantu community were killed Thursday in an attack blamed on Pygmies in an area of the southeast that has seen repeated ethnic clashes, local sources said. "Clashes between Bantus and Pygmies in the village of Piana Mwanga have left 15 Bantus dead, 37 injured and 65 houses burned," Paul Kwanga, bishop of the southeastern town of Manono, told AFP. Kamona Lumuna, the interior minister of Tanganyika province where the assault took place, confirmed the attack but said the precise toll was not yet known. "A team will be sent from tomorrow to investigate what really happened in the village," Kamona told AFP by telephone. Local civil society leader Modeste Kubali said 17 people had been killed and 47 injured, with 65 homes torched. "The village has been emptied of its population and the injured have been abandoned to their sad fate," Kubali said. Pygmies from the ethnic Twa group have been seeking recognition of equal rights with other citizens in the vast, unstable Democratic Republic of Congo, but they regularly come into conflict with Bantus who regard them as second-class. Since December 2013, northern Katanga -- a region as large as Spain that was split into four provinces in 2015, including Tanganyika -- has been the scene of multiple deadly clashes between the Pygmies and Bantus from the ethnic Luba group. In October, 20 people were killed in three days of bloodshed over a tax paid to Bantus on harvesting caterpillars -- a staple food for Pygmies. Recent years have seen a cycle of revenge killings, looting and the burning of entire villages. More than 200 people were reported dead in violence in 2014-2015 and tens of thousands fled fighting that pitted bows and arrows against machete blades. In September, four Bantus were sentenced to 15 years in jail for crimes against humanity over the conflict. Tensions between the two peoples stretch back before DR Congo gained independence from Belgium in 1960, with the land-owning Bantus accused of exploiting the hunter-gatherers, paying them meagre wages, or paying them in alcohol and cigarettes for labouring the land. Today, the nomadic lifestyle of the hunter-gatherer Pygmies has come under threat from deforestation, mining and the expansion of Bantu farmlands. The latest flare in violence comes after a year of relative calm following talks mediated by local authorities and the UN's mission in DR Congo, MONUSCO. Have you taken time to observe the countenance of the defeated president of Ghana after the declaration of the results of the 2016 General Election? Just visit any abattoir near you and see the face of a dead goat and you will understand why I am asking you this question. The face of the man looks like that of a dead goat. If you watch him closely you will see two things: either he cried in the night or fought with somebody before facing the cameras. It seems Mr. Mahama will surely wet his pillow with tears the day after Nana takes over the reins of power in January 7. The motorcade which will lead his convoy on that day to the Black Star Square will be the same motorcade which will take him to his residency on that day. After that, no motorcade will lead his convoy for the unforeseeable future. That is why the sages say whatever goes up comes down. In no time, it will dawn on Mr. Mahama that his driver will have to stop at the traffic lights when the devices signal red. Yes, in no time Mr. Mahama's driver will have to join the long traffic jam in Accra and for the first time in eight years, Mr. Mahama will feel the pain of being stuck in traffic. That is how life is. Mr. Mahama had not seen any electoral defeat before. On three occasions he was voted to become the Parliamentarian of the people of Bole/Bamboi. Then he inherited the presidency when Professor Mils died and later declared the winner of the 2012 presidential election by Atuguba and his other four judges at the Supreme Court election petition. So when defeat came knocking on his door on 7th December 2016, the man became devastated. President Mahama cannot simply bear the pain of defeat. He is not courageous enough. But who is to blame? This is a man who has criss-crossed the length and breadth of Ghana telling whosoever cared to listen that he will win the election hands down because according to him he has done so well that Ghanaians will never hesitate to give him the nod for the second time. He went about mocking Nana Akufo Addo that if God says you will not be a president you will never be president and that he has been ordained by God to be president of Ghana. For the past six months, a day never passes without the president commissioning one project or the other. He claimed that no president had ever performed so well as he did and that posterity will judge him. The man did not recognize the works of the founder of the party he was leading and neither did he even recognize the works of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah not to talk about the works of Mr. Kufour. The pride in him did not allow him to give due respect to these gentlemen who did their best to bring the country this far. President Mahama opened his ears so wide and ready to listen to only good news about himself. His handlers and party big wigs competed among themselves to tell him only the good news and promised him that winning the election was a done deal and he too believed in their stories. Some shameless chiefs who knew the realities on the ground collected V8 cars and told him that they and their people will vote for him because only he will be able to develop the country. There was this particular chief from the Brong Ahafo Region, Nana Krawiri, the Omanhene of Sunyani Traditional Area who told John Mahama that he will win eighty to ninety percent of the votes in the region. The man did not know that even his close family members will vote against the president. At the end of the day, the NPP won all the two constituencies in his domain. Nana Addo won almost all the constituencies in the Brong Ahafo Region. Nana Krawiri, what are you promising Mr. Mahama again? Speak up because chiefs are not supposed to tell lies! As for the Gbese Mantse, he has no shame in his dictionary. It was this disgraceful chief who said he will abdicate his stool if Nana Addo won the election. I thought he would be courageous enough to go by his words but there he sits with his protruding stomach and giggling as if he had seen the testicles of his father in-law. Another chief also threw decency to the dogs and told the president when he visited his palace that if no chief is bold enough to say it, he will say it and followed it with JM Toaso. All over the country, these shameless chiefs were falling over each other and worshiping the president more than the way they worship God because they all wanted favors. Now that the scale has turned, I wonder what they will say next. Animguase akwaaba! Mr. Mahama did hide behind his attack dogs and paid them to go on an insulting spree, targeting his number one opponent in the person of Nana Addo. These disrespectful, uncouth and uncultured boys went haywire and took Nana Addo to the cleaners. Led by this idiotic guy called Salifu Maase alias Mugabe, these upstarts threw caution to the dogs and insulted the statesman to the extent that people asked: Why are they insulting the man this way? What has Nana done to them? Can't the president call his boys to order? Thankfully, Nana Addo kept quiet and went about campaigning and appealing to the conscience of Ghanaians to vote for a change. You see, people voted for Nana Addo out of anger. The man, Nana Addo believes that the gentleman does the kindest thing. He believes people are basically good, and have the right to be free. He believes bigotry and prejudice are the worst things a person could be guilty of. In fact, he believes in the Golden Rule and in the power of prayer. All along, Nana Addo continues to believe that Ghana is not just a place in Africa, but the hope of Africa. That is why he said he believes in Ghana. WHEN HONOUR IS PEELED FROM RICHES No Jupiter can convince me that the out-going President Mr. John Dramani Mahama and his wife, Madam Lordina Mahama and their family members are not fabulously rich. I am yet to see someone who can put his or her hands in the fire and swear the Asantehene's great oath that Mr. Mahama and his wife are poor. The truth is that, until Mr. Mahama became the president of Ghana and ordered the create, loot and share brigade to go out there to steal from the nation's coffers, the man and his wife were not as rich as they are today. The numerous mansions, the Dubai Connection and the fat foreign bank accounts attest to the fact that Mr. Mahama did serve himself but surely not Ghanaians. One is not saying that it is not good to be rich but to be rich at the expense of the poor man walking the streets is unacceptable. Today, the name John Mahama, his wife Lordina Mahama and his functionaries are synonymous to corruption. So you now understand why I say honour is peeled from riches? Despite the riches and other landed properties, the man will forever live with a disturbed conscience. Mr. Rawlings ruled this country for eight years and left behind an enviable track record. During his tenure of office, an appointee dared not steal and he made sure they were whipped into line. When Mr. Kufour held the reins of power, he announced to the whole world that he would have zero tolerance for corruption. After his tenure of office none of his appointees went to jail for being corrupt or doing anything untoward. He too left office after serving the nation for eight years and still carries his shoulders high. The one-term presidency of Mr. Mahama is replete with a chain of corruption and thievery. The man will be remembered for leading a government of looters and history will write his name in bronze. If Mahama has any dream of becoming the president of Ghana again, he should drop the yam because Ghanaians will never do the mistake again to give him any chance to mess up the economy the way he did. Ghanaian voters have sent a very clear message to politicians that they will punish any politician who will take their votes for granted. Appointees of President Akufo Addo should take note that we are all going to be watchmen over them. Some of us will never hesitate to spill the beans when we see corruption camped anywhere. Some supporters of the NPP were maimed and beaten into pulp before and during the last elections. These people will never sit down for a few government appointees to muddy the waters. Four years is just around the corner and as such, the NPP should not allow a few persons to destroy the party by doing anything that will give the NDC guns to fire at the party. Nana Addo told Ghanaians that he is not corrupt, has never been corrupt and will never be corrupt. If a leader makes such pronouncement, it means whosoever works with him should tow that line. I rest my case for now while I fly into the firmament where angels dwell, to rest. Eric Bawah 05.01.2017 LISTEN By Edwina Ocansey, GNA Accra, Jan. 4, GNA - Residents in Okaikoi Central, despite representation in successive governments, continue to register displeasure over unpleasant conditions in the Constituency. A stroll through vicinities within the Constituency shows common sights such as haphazard layout of buildings, scenes of refuse and human excreta, poor drainage systems, poor demarcation of roads, presence of gangsters (wee smokers), lack of dustbins among others. Though quite resourced, Okaikoi Central is beset with the lack of proper toilet facilities. It is on record that many households do not have toilet facilities, which has consequently created a situation whereby the people indiscriminately dispose faecal matter anywhere especially at night. The presence of a huge unattended drain compounds the problem even more. This huge gutter has remained as a fertile breeding ground for mosquitoes and has served as an avenue for disposing refuse, of all sorts, choking the drain without recourse to the resultant health implications. This situation coupled with the poor layout of settlements, residential or otherwise has inadvertently led to flooding whenever there is prolonged rainfall. A locality such as Botwe and environs are flooded due to the inability of the water to pass through the drain as it is choked beyond measure. Many residents and even the Member of Parliament; Mr Patrick Boamah, for the area have given confirmation of the occurrence of health-related issues resulting from poor sanitation. Madam Josephina Mettle, a resident said previously, in the absence of the household toilet facility, they used to have what she referred to as the 'pan latrine'. However, the government demanded that they quit its usage. She narrates that immediately after they stopped using the pan latrines, a private agency came to initiate the process to build a proper toilet. However, after they dug the manhole and procured other materials, they disappeared. Daniel Tetteh Bodey, another resident also explained that it seemed as though the 'government has forgotten about this particular area'. He said inroads connecting the interior areas to the major streets have been encroached upon by residents posing a great difficulty in accessing the main roads. To him, laws have failed to work and enforcement agencies, it seemed were more relaxed than necessary. He said he could not understand why a road linking the blue gate to the main station had been blocked preventing vehicular access to that route. Meanwhile residents point accusing fingers toward the Assemblyman of the area. In their estimation, he has not done anything in his capacity to develop the area with regard to the provision of social amenities and infrastructure. He noted that in 1996, the construction of the main roads was awarded to the then Assemblyman. In 1998 the project was commenced and was not completed until 2008-2011. Quite unfortunately however, the work was improperly supervised. Consequently, some portions of the road have developed potholes. Residents are therefore pleading with the authorities in the Constituency to enforce laws and ensure that the right things are done. They also request the District Assembly and the Accra Metropolitan Assembly to address their grievances as a matter of urgency to help prevent the outbreak of a pandemic in the area. GNA By William Fiabu/Julius K. Satsi, GNA Accra, Jan. 4, GNA - The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) has announced the opening of application to support young businesses in Africa with 5,000 dollars seed capital as part of its third cycle entrepreneurship programme. The programme is currently accepting application from African entrepreneurs with business ideas that has the potential of transforming the fortunes of Africa. Tony O. Elumelu, the Founder of TEF, told the Ghana News Agency on Wednesday that: 'Our programme is a deliberate effort to institutionalise luck and provide the essentials for business growth to Africa's next generation of business leaders. 'It is a demonstration of my faith in this generation's ability to transform the African narrative from the single story of disease and poverty to one of enterprise and opportunity,' he said. The TEF programme is expected to provide a mentorship programme which will guide successful applicants in creating a robust business plan and also provide 5,000 dollars non-returnable seed capital and access to 5,000 dollars convertible loan. It is also expected to provide critical tools for entrepreneurial success which includes a 12-week intensive training on setting-up and managing businesses. One thousand entrepreneurs are expected to be selected based on the viability of their business idea which hinges on market opportunity, financial understanding, scalability, as well as leadership and entrepreneurial skills demonstrated during the application process. To be eligible, the business must be based in Africa and must be for profit as well as having been in existence between zero to three years. Applicants must be at least 18 and a legal resident or citizen of any African country. The TEF programme, which had supported over 2,000 entrepreneurs since its inception, has opened application until midnight of March 1, this year, and interested entrepreneurs could complete application at: www.tonyelumelufoundation.org/programme. Ms Parminder Vir Obe, the Chief Executive Officer of the Foundation, said: 'We encourage women, French, Arabic and Portuguese speakers and business ideas from every region across Africa, to apply'. Our 2,000 alumni are already growing their businesses and improving lives. If you have a transformational business or an idea we have an opportunity for you,' she added. TEF is a foremost African philanthropic organisation with a belief that the private sector holds the key to unlocking Africa's economic potential and, therefore, the need to serve as catalyst to economic and social development in Africa through entrepreneurship. GNA Accra, Jan. 4, GNA - The Ghana Institution of Surveyors (GhIS) salutes Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, the President Elect, and the New Patriotic Party for winning the 2016 Presidential and Parliamentary elections. 'We also congratulate President John Dramani Mahama and the National Democratic Congress for handling the outcome of the elections graciously and with a high sense of maturity. 'The task of nation building and national reconstruction has always been an onerous undertaking. It has never been easy, neither in the past, nor will it be now,' the GhIS said in a statement signed by Mr Emmanuel Martey, its President, and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra. The GhIS also commended all those who contested in both the presidential and parliamentary elections. 'We have, as a people, again proved to the whole world that we are a special nation with a magnificent destiny upon us. The greatness of our nation is unfolding gradually and systematically, and there are great signs that we are marching steadily towards the glorious unveiling of the fullness of that destiny. 'It is so clear that in this fourth republic, Ghana has got it right with our elections and electoral processes. Never mind if there were apprehensions prior to all our elections. The apprehensions only lead us to put the right structures in place for wonderful results,' he said. The Institution of Surveyors also commended the Chairman of the Electoral Commission and their numerous staff who were deployed to man the over 29,000 polling stations as well as the political parties, security agencies, the various observer groups, and the Ghanaian voter. 'All these people formed a great team and worked together to deliver a splendid result for the homeland. The GhIS salutes all and render our heartfelt congratulations. 'We must expect to have more difficult challenges because among other things, our population is increasing and the proportion of young people is high, therefore, there will be the need to cater adequately for them. 'If we can see these challenges properly as opportunities for growth, then we can confront the inadequacies threatening the nation such as inadequate electricity and water supply, unemployment, post-harvest losses, accommodation challenges, and corruption,' the statement said. It called on the President-Elect to be guided by God to choose capable men and women who would form a strong team to continue the nation building effort. 'As citizens we must also commit ourselves to working hard and maintaining some reasonable level of consistency so as to move to the next level and collectively enjoy the fruits of our endeavours. 'Ghana must shine in the comity of nations not only as a good example in conducting elections but advancing in all spheres of human endeavor,' the statement said. It called on Ghanaians to rise up to continue the good works of the outgoing government and improve the areas that need attention. The statement challenged Ghanaians to come to terms with the continuous deteriorating language in national discourse and urged the incoming government to tackle this head on. 'Our national politics must be known for decency, words well-chosen and carefully thought of, as we find ways to build our country. Again, the nation as a matter of urgency must address all essential requirements about land,' it said. GNA 05.01.2017 LISTEN Accra, Jan. 4, GNA - The Ghana Veterinary Medical Association (GVMA) has congratulated Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, the President-elect, on his resounding victory in the 2016 elections. In a press statement copied to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) and signed by Dr Fenteng Danso, President of the Association, said 'we admire the determination and perseverance, which were exhibited'' during the campaign and subsequent election of the Nana Akufo Addo ". The Association pledged to make their expertise available towards the realisation of the New Patriotic Party's manifesto goals in the area of livestock and fisheries development. It said the livestock sector including fisheries and poultry is an important integral component of agriculture in Ghana and plays a multifaceted role in providing livelihood support to many Ghanaians the in rural areas. They appealed to the in-coming government to address the slow pace of growth and development of the livestock sub-sector to reduce the importation of frozen meat, poultry and fish into the country. Following the 'the numerous challenges facing the livestock sector, we call for the implementation of the recent livestock policy documents and strategies to unearth the full potential of the sector,'' it added. Members of the GVMA also pledge to 'offer their technical and professional expertise for the positive growth and transformation of the livestock sector'. 'We pray that the Almighty grants you wisdom, patience and fortitude to enable you make Ghana great and strong,' the statement said. GNA The Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly has ordered political parties and other organisations to remove campaign posters and other advertising materials from all public places within one week. The directive comes ahead of next weeks burial of late Asantehemaa, Nana Afia Kobi Serwaa Ampem II. The Assembly says the nuisance created by posters and banners of various organisations cannot be tolerated. Public Relations Officer, Godwin Okumah-Nyame in an interview with Nhyira News warns recalcitrant offenders will face sanctions. During the election campaign, we informed various political parties that after the election they have to remove their posters most importantly those at unauthorised locations. During our general assembly, we came up with a resolution to remind them of the need to remove their posters. We are not limiting this order to only the political parties. Various peace ambassadors and organisations that have their banners at the various roundabouts and unauthorised locations are included, he warned. According to him, the assemblys by-laws frown on the erection of political party posters at unauthorised places. The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) also issued a similar directive last week. The AMA issued a 3-day ultimatum to political parties to remove all their publicity materials displayed at public places without the relevant authorisation. The Assembly said churches and other institutions that have also posted their materials at such unauthorised places especially on bridges and flyovers, must also remove them. Information gathered by Citi Business News indicates that a former Chief Executive Officer of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) Mr. John Attafuah will reassume the position after the swearing in of president-elect Nana Akufo-Addo. On April 17, 2009, Mr. Attafuah was directed by the then Professor Mills government to proceed on his accumulated leave for Alex Mould who previously worked with the Standard Chartered Bank as Executive Director to take the position. Mr. Attafuah worked at the NPA for four years, from 2005 to April 2009. He will take over from Moses Asaga. In recent times, he has been vocal on issues that affect the petroleum industry. He for instance warned the NPA to check the petroleum product pricing regime to avert the rise of a cartel since it will be detrimental to the industry. In January 2015, Mr. Attafuah described as unjustifiable, the NPA's decision to maintain fuel prices in its price review. At the time, the NPA reviewed fuel prices in 2014 by 10 percent, but maintained it in 2015. Commenting on the development at the time, Mr. Attafuah described the decision as unfortunate, adding that the decision might destroy confidence of Ghanaians in the NPA. By: citibusinessnews.com/Ghana It has been several weeks of grueling preparations for the Winneba Fancy Dress Festival. I think I should rest; you dont think so? But when you have your MP constantly reminding you that he has been reading your articles, when your Municipal Chief Executive calls you at dawn just to inform you that he had just finished reading your article, and demand to read the previous one he missed, when you have people you so much respect cheering your column on, when you have your editor sending you text messages, reminding you of the timelines, just making sure that he does not deny his readers the column they so much love, then you feel the obligation to do more. So it all went down in Winneba. I was hugged, I was mobbed. I was forced to give autographs, but I was also insulted for nothing. I obviously did a massive publicity, so several hundreds of people came to witness this years event. Over twenty thousand people on one park, to witness the Festival. The gods came down, and I will like to congratulate Tumus ( group number three) for winning the most coveted trophy in Winneba, the Winneba Masquerade trophy, for the 2017 festival year. I will like to pay a special tribute to the team at NYCE MEDIA, the media company rebranding some festivals in Ghana, for their effort, so far, in rebranding the Winneba Fancy Dress festival. I dont see any reason why NYCE MEDIA should not win the tourism media company of the year award. Let me pause to acknowledge our great sponsors; Yabmaud Enterprise, retailers of musical instrument at Zongo lane who provided the program with clear, gripping sound equipment, Fan Milk Ghana Ltd, who refreshed patrons with their new refreshing FanYogo (mango and passion), Guinness Ghana Ltd who supported the event with their Orijin Zero and Tappers, while Run-Off Ltd provided support. So group by group, color by color, glamour after glamour, all the groups poured onto the park, roll by roll, each one of them was a delight, each one of them got the royal celebration that the audience felt in them. Although I was busy helping with issues, I could not resist the temptation to once in a while stop to bow to them, to celebrate the heroes of our time. I got wet many times along the line, and I felt proud that I had the privilege to be part of it. I felt really worn out. Several times I felt sick, really sick, but when I saw the thick crowd inside the park, when I saw the big crowd of people who wished to enter the venue but are unable to do so due to lack of space, when I saw little boys and girls in their costumes, standing and dancing long hours, then my strength knew no bounds. At some point I wished I was asked to just do nothing other than celebrating the masqueraders. I wished they asked me to clean their feet, just for me to feel important. I wished they had used me as their errand boy. These are young boys and girls who carried the entire town on their shoulders, so high, that I felt so little, so small to be associated with them. These are individuals who, year after year, sacrifice their own resources, invest their energies into creating glamour, glamour in dance, glamour in costumes, and they go through several weeks of designing heaven on earth. As all the groups poured onto the Winneba Advanced Park, I rushed to the front; I left all that I thought I was doing, just to celebrate them. And as I surveyed them, individual after individual, roll by roll, group by group, as they stood there in military fashion, I looked at the efforts that had gone into their own creation, and as the sun came down on their little glitz, little crystals, the sparkling that unfolded, I just smiled, bowed, thanked Winneba, and walked away. So when finally the curtains were brought down, and I saw the thick crowd moving, with the convoys of the dignitaries struggling to navigate their way out of the crowd, I saw the fruit of determination, and I said to myself; Winneba, the land of my birth. So with Winneba Fancy Dress behind me, I have to come back to realities. I momentarily forgot that I have a column to write, and in fact I even forgot that we are having a new song, Onaapo! I was lost in all the conversations. I had even forgotten that Simpa Panyin column needs to wrap up the year 2016. So here I am, back to Simpa Panyin. I think I did some of the fine articles in 2016. The Simpa Panyin column started early in 2016 with the first article titled I see Zenator Rawlings becoming Ghanas President. It was only Peacefmonline which was publishing Simpa Panyin. I was attacked profusely, although the article itself enjoyed one of the biggest readings. People seem not to like my prophecy, that Zenator Rawlings could become the president of Ghana. Well, today Zenator Rawlings is a Member of Parliament, and possibly, I dare say, that she is on her way to the presidency. My second article was equally controversial. The title was Nana Akuffo-Addo Reloading Atta Mills. For four weeks this article maintained its lead, as the most read, the most discussed, and the most emailed online publication. That article basically predicted that Nana Akuffo-Addo could soon become the president of Ghana. Well, today Nana Akufo-Addo is our President-elect. I am not sure if I am becoming one of the prophets on the land. So it has been one short year of writing nearly every week, and one short year of using the pen name Simpa Panyin. I have had very good reviews on my pieces, and some really bashing comments as well. Most people I have spoken with chose Should I Heal them, or I should Kill Them? as their best Simpa Panyin. I admit, that, that article was dangerously humorous. Some described it as a movie scene in print. It was related to the Montie 3 saga, and their Kpokpogbligbli syndrome, the disease that made them lose their minds, and made them looked like diseases. Honestly I foresaw President Mahama was going to lose the election, and he lost it. The handling of the Montie 3 issue, the obvious complicit on the Woyome money, the general body arrogance of young ministers, and the never-ending corruption in government circles; I had not done any scientific research, but I used my street observation, and I, painfully, had no doubt about the level of lost that was coming the way of our president. Nana Akuffo-Addo has won the presidency, and I believe he has earned it. But I have mixed feelings; is it time for another group of people to make money out of government, or it is time for us to witness positive change in governance? I will like to take advantage of the new feeling of positive business environment. How much of corrupt hurdles would I have to overcome before being able to establish my businesses? It will be a grave difficulty for me if I do not see change in its real sense. Change, not in one District one factory, change, not necessarily in one village one dam; for me, change has to come for the passing of the Right to Information Bill, change has to come for transparency in procurement, change has to come for mortal people to remain mortals, as God remains God, that for me is change. Change, for me, is the predictable treatment of all citizenry as equals; that the law has to work, and has to work equally. We cannot continue to apply the law only when it suits the selfish interests of the law enforcement agencies. That is not rule of law; that is rule of men. Personally the most difficult article I wrote in the year 2016 was and I realized I was dreaming. This was my personal lamentation on how our Judges were handled during the Montie 3 Saga. I felt so sad, so low, so weak, so much so that I wrote that article in tears. James Kofi Annan The promise by President-elect Akufo-Addo to create a Special Prosecutor, as should be expected, has generated much controversy. Political interference with criminal prosecutions is not new to Ghana. Military governments seized power with the promise of ending corruption and proceeded to clean the corruption of previous governments by creating new institutions and appointing the key players to that end. The war against corruption has also been a campaign promise of presidential candidates and incumbent presidents. Usually, in realizing these promises governments are usually criticized as being selective because their own members are not prosecuted. Whilst many have discussed the usefulness and propriety of the creation of a special prosecutor, few have discussed its legality. This article will attempt to discuss solely the constitutional issues that arise and make some recommendations. BACKGROUND The NPP manifesto, at page 39 provides that the NPP will establish, by an Act of Parliament, an Office of the Special Prosecutor, who will be independent of the Executive, to investigate and prosecute certain categories of cases and allegations of corruption and other criminal wrongdoing, including those involving alleged violations of the Public Procurement Act and cases implicating political officeholders and politicians.. President-elect Akufo-Addo explained further in a BBC interview that the rationale was to rid the fight against corruption of politics and to avoid screams of witch hunting. It is noteworthy that President-elect Akufo-Addo himself had been in charge of prosecution as Attorney-General from 2001-2003. CONSTITUTIONALITY OF THE OFFICE OF THE SPECIAL PROSECUTOR. The issues of constitutionality that arise are: Will the Act of Parliament be an Act to amend the constitution or an ordinary Act of Parliament? Can an ordinary Act of Parliament confer the power to investigate and prosecute cases of corruption? An Act of Parliament inconsistent with the Constitution is void pursuant to article 1(2) of the 1992 Constitution (hereinafter referred to as the Constitution). If the creation of the Special Prosecutor will be by constitutional amendment, pursuant to article 289 of the Constitution the only relevant consideration is that the constitution has been complied with in the amendment process. According to article 291(3) of the Constitution where the amendment is not affecting a provision that is entrenched, two-thirds of all MPs (184 MPs) must vote for the amendment. On the other hand, where there is an amendment of an entrenched provision, article 290(4) of the Constitution requires a minimum voter turnout of 40% and acceptance by 75% of those who voted. Where an ordinary Act of Parliament is used in creating the Special Prosecutor, it is likely that it will be declared unconstitutional because the exclusive authority to investigate corruption and prosecute people for corruption is given to the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and the Attorney-General respectively. Article 218(a) and (e) of the Constitution makes CHRAJ the body with the jurisdiction to investigate corruption. The Supreme Court per Brobbey JSC decided in the case of Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa v Attorney-General and Jake Obetsebi Lamptey that CHRAJ had the exclusive authority to deal with conflict of interest situations as the Constitution gave that power CHRAJ only. Parliament recently followed this decision where Speaker Adjaho dismissed a motion to investigate the President Mahama for conflict of interest. Thus, the Special Prosecutor cannot perform the function of investigating corruption as the Constitution gives CHRAJ alone that power. Article 88(3) of the Constitution puts beyond doubt the exclusivity of the Attorney-Generals power to initiate and conduct prosecutions of criminal offences. As article 88(3) of the Constitution forms part of the entrenched provisions pursuant to article 290(1) of the Constitution, for there to be a Special Prosecutor a referendum will be necessary. It is doubtful, that an amendment of article 218(a) and (e) of the Constitution which makes CHRAJ the body with the jurisdiction to investigate corruption by two-thirds of all Members of Parliament will be necessary since a higher threshold will be satisfied. RECOMMENDATIONS It is suggested that CHRAJ should be empowered to perform its constitutional duty to investigate corruption in order to prevent the multiplicity of jobs to the taxpayers detriment. Also, Attorney-General, in line with article 284 of the Constitution, must not have any involvement in prosecutions where there is a conflict of interest. The Attorney-General should be required by law to give reasons for refusal to prosecute cases, especially when recommended by CHRAJ, Commissions of Enquiry, or Parliament. The Attorney-General should consider delegating some of his prosecutorial powers to CHRAJ. Parliament may also consider, in line with article 17 of the Constitution, making the establishment of a violation of the rights to equality under the law, and freedom from discrimination a defence to crimes. In order to protect individuals from witch-hunting by prosecutors. Our wise elders have warned us that if a man dies by stumbling over a stone, we do not run to his funeral. For the fear of also stumbling, we walk carefully to such funerals. Perhaps, it is because of this conventional wisdom that some people grumble that President-elect Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has made a dangerous gamble. They say this may cause him to stumble and eventually tumble into his political tomb. Not long ago, a certain youthful president of our republic surrounded himself with equally youthful young men and women. He was accused of debasing the Presidency and running the state like a game of candy crush. His critics thought he should have hired experienced hands to handle the affairs of the state. Their beef was not so much about the ages of President Mahamas appointees. Their main concern was the appointees notoriety as vicious attack dogs, which some of them mistook for popularity. They were young men and women whose tongues were sharper than a coconut sellers cutlass. Most of them were PhD holders in insults and vilification of perceived political enemies. Former President and Founder of the NDC, Jerry John Rawlings, referred to them as babies with sharp teeth. Some people believe they were the reason President Mahama lost the election. The attitudes of some people in the Flagstaff House lowered the dignity of the highest office of our republic. In an article titled, Is the Chief of Staff a Leper? which I published on this platform, I stated the reasons. When Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo got the opportunity to be driven in the only vehicle with the Ghana Coat of Arms as its number plate, one of the main expectations was that he would restore dignity to the Presidency. But when he named the people who would be helping him in the Flagstaff House (which he intends to revert back to its original name, the Jubilee House), hell came crashing onto mother earth. When 33-year old Samuel Abu Jinapor was named as a Deputy Chief of Staff, some people from the Presidents party raised eyebrows. Then yesterday, the President-elect named the full list of his core staff at the Presidency. They included 39-year-old Francis Asenso-Boakye, also a deputy Chief of Staff; 33-year-old Eugene Arhin, the Director of Communications at the Presidency; and 30-year-old Clara Napaga Tia Sulemana, a Presidential Staffer. With these names above, can we say Nana Akufo-Addo repeated Mahamas mistake of surrounding himself with young, inexperienced and incompetent babies with sharp teeth? This question is difficult to answer with a yes or no unless the components of the question are treated separately. Some of them are young. That is a fact. They may fit into the description of babies. They have, however, been mixed with old and middle-aged staffers. The director of State Protocol, Hassan Ahmed, is 62; while the Director of Research, Victor Newman; and the Chief of Staff, Akosu Frema Osei-Opare are both 69 years old. The Director of State Protocol, Laud Commey, is 48; and the Secretary to the President, Nana Bediatuo, Asante is 53; the same age as the Personal Assistant to the President, Saratu Atta. Do the young people in this team have sharp teeth or tongues? No! Unlike a number of the young men who served in Mahamas government, it is very difficult to point to any of the above youth as uncouth, insulting or a loose canon. They are disciplined young professionals. My elder brother often says, the alcoholic content in power is 80% so they must be careful it doesnt get into their heads if they want to keep their sanity. Are the young people in this team experienced and competent enough for their positions? In the Ghanaian context of experience, they are not experienced. In our society, we like to be introduced as a journalist with 40 years of experience. Nobody cares if in those 40 years, their neighbours did not know they were journalists. Motivational Speaker and author Caroline McHugh says not all people who tell you about their years of experience at something are actually experienced: The people that say to you they have fifteen years experience when they mean one year fifteen times? They literally repeat themselves year after year The work at the presidency is more of administrative duty and not policy matters that requires technocrats. It doesnt require rocket science to do that. Any young, loyal, dedicated, intelligent and well-mannered man or woman can do it very well, provided there are responsible adults to whip them into line when they go wayward. Clara Napaga Tia Sulemana, 30, (pictured above with President-elect Akufo-Addo) has been appointed a presidential staffer It is too early for the NDC to start gloating and comparing Akufo-Addos boys and girls with those of President Mahama. The question they should ask is whether Akufo-Addos boys have sharp teeth like Mahamas boys. They should ask whether Akufo-Addos babies will refer to Uhuru Kenyata as the President of Ghana in an anniversary brochure. Will Akufo-Addos Director of Communications attack journalists and destroy their gadgets without being punished? Will they pack journalists into a rusty tipper truck to cover a colourful ceremony at the Independence Square? Will Akufo-Addos boys and girls be as incompetent, arrogant and repulsive as some of Mahamas young appointees? We cannot say Akufo-Addo has repeated Mahamas blunder until we watch how his young appointees perform. On account of how some young people conducted themselves in the past administration, it has become very difficult to appoint the youth into responsible positions in government. Nana Akufo-Addo has taken a huge, bold gamble. These young people must reciprocate this gesture by serving with humility and dignity. They should serve in a way that will bring honour to the President, the Presidency and to themselves. But they should be firm and adhere to what the Holy Bible teaches us in 1Timothy 4:12: Dont let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. They should not corrupt themselves. They should appreciate the enormity of the task ahead of the man they are helping to deliver on their partys electoral promises. They should not turn themselves into goro boys and goro girls on the corridors of power. If they fail, they will fail Nana. They will fail their party. They will fail their nation. They will fail the young people who look up to them for hope and inspiration. But they will be the ultimate losers. People like Nana Akufo-Addo will soon outlive their usefulness. Theres nothing much for them to aspire to. But those in their 30s have a lot ahead of them. They should know that they have been given these positions not because they were the loudest attacks dogs who were unleashed on political opponents. At the end of their tenure, we need to see maturity. Fiifi Kwetey the NDC propaganda secretary did not sound differently from Fiifi Kwetey the MP and Minister of state, but people like Samuel Okudjeto Ablakwa matured considerably in their new roles. I wish the young people who have been given and will be given the opportunity to serve in the government well. Yours is a referendum on the character of the youth. You have been given an opportunity to put Nana Akufo-Addo to shame or to make him proud. Those of us on the touchlines can only offer suggestions and advice. In your hands lie the ultimate choice. To Nana Akufo-Addo, my advice remains the same: God gives us our neighbours but we choose our friends. And it is we, not God, who will suffer the consequences of whatever choice we make. You have no say in who becomes a member of the NPP. But you have a say in who serves in your government. You may make a mistake or two in your appointment but if they mess up, dont hesitate to fire. After your tenure of office, let it not be said that your appointees let you down. That will be a lame excuse because on the ballot paper we saw you, and not your appointees. You have the power to appoint and fire. Always remember God gives us our neighbours, but we choose our friends. May God grant you the wisdom and grace to excel in your government. The writer, Manasseh Azure Awuni, is a journalist with Joy 99.7 FM. His email address is [email protected] The views expressed in this article are his personal opinions and do not reflect, in any form or shape, those of The Multimedia Group, where he works. Expectations are high within the Ghanaian Business Community ahead of the swearing in of the countrys President elect Nana Akufo Addo on January 7. The President elect prior to the last years general elections promised to slash taxes and create a more congenial environment for the private sector to thrive. After winning the elections by a huge margin, the president-elect now has a huge task of fulfilling his promises to voters. Major promises Paramount among his promises are establishing factory in every district of Ghana, constructing dams in every district particularly in the northern zone of the country and reducing tax on financial services. Businesses consider this significant if executed since that will help grow their operations. Lobbying Even before the new president takes office officially, various Business Associations have started lobbying to be involved in executing some of the promised projects. The Association of Ghana Industries, the umbrella body that represents the interest of industries in some critical sectors of the economy has said it is better positioned to partner government in making its One district one factory policy a reality. Its President, James Asare Adjei is optimistic the Associations presence across the entire country in various sectors makes it a viable partner for the success of the project. We are going to do everything possible to support the policy because we cover over twenty three sectors of the economy he said. It also wants the incoming government to increase the allocation of budgets from the current 1 percent of government budget. Energy The Industrial and Commercial Workers Union of Ghana (ICU) has also asked the incoming president to ensure that businesses dont collapse and lay-off workers as a result of another power crisis. Statistics from the ICU indicates that about thirteen thousand workers lost their jobs since 2015 in the heat of power crisis that crippled the manufacturing sector of Ghana over the past two years. The outgoing government put in place some measures to fix the crisis by resorting to emergency power plants, but the General Secretary of the ICU, Solomon Kotei said the incoming government must prioritize fixing challenges within the power system. We will expect a lot from the incoming government as to how they will stabilize the power sector, he said adding that there were earlier indication from the Ghana Grid Company about an imminent power crisis due to Ghanas indebtedness to Nigeria for Gas supply. Kotei said. He further added that Maybe the truth about the situation must be made known to the incoming government to avoid any possible job cuts within the first year of the new government. He wants the incoming government to carry out an assessment of the power sector and how it intends solving the problem. Textiles Industry The Ghana Federation of Labour is also pushing for the creation of a congenial environment to help revive the ailing textile industry of Ghana. Currently only three firms are operating with a workforce of 1,900 compared to the 25,000 workers twenty years ago. This is as a result of the influx of fake textiles into the country from China which has forced many local companies out of business. Secretary-General of the Ghana Federation of Labour Abraham Koomson wants the newly elected government to help fix challenges in the sector to create more jobs. Surviving companies should be invited by the New Trade and Industry Minister to understand the challenges of the companies and how best they can help revive the sector he said. I dont think the challenges have to do with capital but the unfair competition and influx of pirated textiles which is crippling their businesses, Koomson said. Ghana is estimated to be losing close to 20 million dollars as a result of Textile piracy and smuggling annually. Many analysts of Ghanas economy have predicted that the president-elect, Akufo Addo will have a lot of work to do to put the countrys economy back on track when he takes office on January 7. President-elect Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo yesterday made public his first batch of appointees to run his office as president when he takes over the reins of government from Saturday, January 7. That was moments after outgoing President John Dramani Mahama took him on a tour of the Flagstaff House, the seat of government, where he would be operating from after he has been sworn in. Names Key on the list of those who got mentioned were former Deputy Minister of Manpower Development, Youth and Employment under the erstwhile Kufuor-led New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration, Akosua Frema Osei Opare; Nana Asante Bediatuo, a private legal practitioner; former Interior Minister, Albert Kan Dapaah; Samuel Abdulai Jinapor and Francis Asenso-Boakye the man who served as his political assistant during the electioneering campaign. The rest are his long-standing comrade, Victor Newman; Saratu Atta who has served as his personal secretary for the past eight years; Brigadier General Emmanuel Okyere, former General Officer Commanding the Southern Command of the Ghana Army; Joshua Kyeremeh, former Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) boss and Napaga Tia Sulemana. However, the appointments have generated furore with some questioning the credentials of some of the appointees. Positions High on the cards was that of Chief of Staff which went to Frema Osei-Opare, with Francis Asenso-Boakye and Samuel Abdulai Jinapor serving as her deputies. Frema-Opare, 69, is said to be a development consultant and a labour and employment expert, with 40 years of experience in these fields. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Home Science from the University of Ghana and a Master's degree in Foods from the University of Guelph, Canada. She was a lecturer at the University of Ghana, Legon, from 1976-1982; Consultant for the United Nations in the 'Women in Fisheries' programme in countries such as Uganda, Ethiopia, Congo, Kenya and Namibia before dabbling in politics. She was also a Deputy Minister for Manpower, Youth and Employment from 2005 to 2008, and became a two-term Member of Parliament (MP) for Ayawaso West Wuogon. She is married with four children. Deputy Chief of Staff Until his appointment as Deputy Chief of Staff, Francis Asenso-Boakye, 39, was the Political Assistant to the president-elect. He holds a BSc. degree in Development Planning from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, a Master's Degree in Public Policy and Administration from the Michigan State University and a Certificate in Public Sector Management from Tulane University, Louisiana, USA. He is a development planning, project management and policy specialist, with over 15 years of professional experience in his field. He is married with three children. His colleague Deputy Chief of Staff, Samuel Abu Jinapor, whose appointment generated some furore ahead of its announcement, is 33 and legal practitioner. He first graduated from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology with a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics. He obtained a Bachelor of Law degree from the University of Ghana in 2010, and was subsequently called to the Bar as a Solicitor and Barrister of the Supreme Court of Ghana in 2012. He is married with a child. Secretary To The President Fifty three-year-old lawyer Nana Asante Bediatuo, with over 20 years' experience practising law, was named Secretary to the President. He was educated in Ghana, the United Kingdom and the United States, where he obtained a Doctor of Law degree from the New York University of Law. Chief Bed, as some of his friends call him, was called to the Bar in New York and Ghana. He is married with four children. National Security Coordinator Even though speculations were rife that the president-elect was likely to appoint a certain Commissioner of Police to serve as the National Security Coordinator, he emerged yesterday with a fresh name Joshua Kyeremeh said to be a former Director of BNI. A product of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Joshua Kyeremeh is said to have worked at the BNI for about 22 years, where he served at command levels in the Northern, Upper East, Ashanti and Greater Accra Regions. He also served as head of the Investigations Unit of the Bureau and rose to become the Deputy Director and ultimately the Director from 2005 to 2009. National Security Advisor Nana Addo has also appointed Brigadier General Emmanuel Okyere, a military engineer with an Executive Master's Degree in Governance and Leadership from the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA). He is also said to be a graduate of the Ghana Military Academy, touted with solid military background, having done almost 40 years of distinguished service with the colours. Brig. Gen. Okyere served in various capacities in both the military and local government and later served as the Metropolitan Chief Executive of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly from 1995 to 1996; and from 2006 to 2010, he was the General Officer Commanding the Southern Command of the Ghana Armed Forces. National Security Minister The president-elect also named former Interior Minister, Albert Kan Dapaah, as Minister-designate for National Security. That would, however, have to go through parliament for approval. Director Of Research Nana has named one of his long-standing friends and 69-year-old, Victor Newman as Director of Research. Newman is an economist, consultant, financial and research analyst with a Bachelor of Science degree in Agric Economics, and postgraduate qualifications in Development Planning and Budget and Financial Management. He has worked at the Economic Research and Planning Services of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Western Castings Limited and the Ghanaexim Economic Consultants. From 2008 till 2016, he has served as the Director of Research for the President-elect's electioneering campaign. He is married with four children. Director Of State Protocol The position of Director of State Protocol went to Ambassador Hassan Ahmed, a 62-year-old diplomat with a Master's Degree from the Georgetown School of Foreign Service. He has been a career diplomat with Ghana's Diplomatic Service for 34 years, having served in Saudi Arabia, Denmark, Cuba and Japan where he was Deputy Chief of Mission. He was Chief of Protocol at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs when Nana Akufo-Addo was Foreign Minister. His last posting took him to the Islamic Republic of Iran, where he served as Ghana's Ambassador from 2008 to 2012. In 2013, he took an appointment with the United Nations as the Head of Office for the United Nations African Union Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID), Khartoum, Sudan a position he still holds. He is married with four children. Director Of Communications Nana has also announced his 33-year-old Press Secretary, Eugene Arhin, as Director of Communications at the presidency. Eugene graduated from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in 2006 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Materials Engineering and worked as a Teaching Assistant in the Department of Materials Engineering for a year. He later joined the Danquah Institute as a Research Analyst in 2008 and stayed on till February 2014 when he became Press Secretary to the president-elect. He is married with one child. Director Of Operations That position of Director of Operations at the presidency went to former NPP National Organiser, Laud Commey. Commey, 48, has been described as an accomplished entrepreneur and astute politician known for his tactical, operational and organisational acumen. He was National Organiser of the NPP for eight years. Prior to that, he served as the Greater Accra Regional Secretary of the party and became the Director of Operations for the party's presidential campaign in 2012, and in 2016 worked in the office of the president-elect as the officer responsible for Monitoring and Compliance. Laud is married with three children. Personal Assistant Nana Akufo-Addo could not but appoint the woman he credits for managing his life and schedules for the last couple of years, 53-year-old Saratu Atta, as his Personal Assistant. She is a graduate of the University of Warwick, UK, and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Politics and International Studies. Saratu worked as a Securities Trader at First Securities Discount House in Lagos, Nigeria, from 1993 -1997, and then went on to establish her own security printing company in Lagos. She was appointed NPP Campaign Secretary in 2008, and has been Office Manager and Executive Assistant to Nana since 2009. She has one child. Presidential Staffer Thirty-year-old Napaga Tia Sulemana, one of his campaign aides, was also named Presidential staffer. She is a graduate of the University for Development Studies, and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Integrated Development studies, specialising in social, political and historical studies. Napaga worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for a year and has also worked on contract with the Ghana Health Service and the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) on maternal health issues. She was a campaign aide to the president-elect prior to last December's polls. By Charles Takyi-Boadu Outgoing President John Dramani Mahama will give his last State of the Nation' address in parliament today which would be his last public appearance before he officially hands over power to President-elect Nana Akufo-Addo on Saturday, January 7. President Mahamas valedictory State of the Nation address will definitely stoke emotions as the majority National Democratic Congress (NDC) Members of Parliament (MPs) will bid him farewell, while the minority New Patriotic Party (NPP) MPs who will be in the majority in the next parliament will be relishing their overwhelming victory during the last elections as they say 'good bye' to the president. It would be mixed feelings today in parliament but the minority might be heckling President Mahama if he comes to trumpet his infrastructural achievements and play down the economic woes facing Ghanaians under his administration. The NPP MP for Trobu, Moses Anim, told DAILY GUIDE that he expects the outgoing president to be candid to himself about the economic mess he has created before leaving office for a new government to take over. President Mahama is going to bequeath to Nana Akufo-Addo a weakened economy. GDP was 9.1% when the NDC government took over power in 2008, but it has dropped to 3.7%; the agricultural sector which is the mainstay of the economy, has grown negatively from 7.4% to 2.5% in eight years under this government, while a huge loan burden is going to be left by this government, Mr Moses Anim said. He stressed that the present government borrowed over GH100 billion in eight years as compared to GH9.5 billion borrowed by all governments from independence to 2008 when the present government took over. He said if the president comes to do any propaganda as he did last year with his so-called evidence-based State of the Nation address, it would be a big dishonesty on his part. President Mahama is leaving office on January 7 but is now actively rushing people into official employment to create problems for the incoming president, the noted, adding that the president must admit that he had left the economy in a much more terrible state than he came to meet it. The MP for Dome/Kwabenya, Adwoa Safo, said that she expects the president to tell the nation how much was actually invested in his so-called infrastructural projects as against the total amount of loans his government secured for development projects. By Thomas Fosu Jnr Tripoli (AFP) - After several days at sea the migrants spotted land, thinking it was Italy. Several drowned trying to swim ashore. But when the survivors reached dry land they found they were still in Libya. The treacherous and ultimately futile journey by 80 mostly Senegalese migrants had begun in Sabratha in western Libya three days earlier, one survivor recounted. After setting off, the boat was buffeted by rough seas and eventually ran aground on a beach in Tripoli some 70 kilometres (40 miles) to the east. Members of the Libyan Red Crescent and policemen inspect illegal immigrants who were aboard a boat that arrived to the shore of the Andalus district of the capital Tripoli, on January 4, 2017 "We thought we had already arrived in Italy," one of the survivors told AFP. Witnesses said several people had jumped from the boat to try to reach the beach but were unable to swim and drowned. Those who made it to the shore alive included two women -- one pregnant -- and a child, and they were all in shock. The pregnant woman sat in tears on the beach next to what was believed to be the body of her brother. She was later hospitalised. The Libyan Red Crescent said it had recovered the bodies of five passengers from the beach on Wednesday and taken 80 people to shelters. People-smugglers have exploited the chaos in Libya since the 2011 uprising that overthrew dictator Moamer Kadhafi to traffic migrants in boats to Italy 300 kilometres away. According to the United Nations, more than 5,000 migrants and refugees died last year while trying to cross the Mediterranean. Kinshasa (AFP) - DR Congo President Joseph Kabila gave the green light Wednesday for the Catholic Church to pursue mediation to end the crisis sparked by his refusal to step down, sources said. The country's influential bishops brokered a New Year's Eve deal to sketch a timetable under which Kabila will stay in office before new elections are held in late 2017, in a bid to prevent more bloodshed in a crisis that has already claimed dozens of lives. "Things are clear after the exchange between the bishops and the president, who asked them to do everything to implement the deal," a clerical source told AFP. A close aide to the president confirmed that Kabila had met with the bishops but declined to give details of their discussions. The president, who has been in power since 2001, was due to step down on December 20 at the end of his second and final mandate, but has shown no signs of wanting to leave office. Scores of people have been killed in clashes before and since the deadline, with the Church leading efforts to reach a deal between the government and opposition on a way out of the crisis. On Tuesday the ruling coalition said Kabila should have the right to approve Catholic mediation to haul the vast country out of a dangerous impasse, warning it might otherwise not join negotiations. The bishops had asked both the government and opposition to submit written proposals Wednesday on arrangements for issues including the naming of a new prime minister and the size of the government. Until the elections now due at the end of next year, a transitional body will be set up, headed by 84-year-old opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi, and a prime minister will be named from opposition ranks. Christophe Lutundula, who signed the agreement for the opposition, said the next talks would be about "specific arrangements" for the transitional body, named the National Council for Overseeing the Electoral Agreement and Process (CNSAP). Issues include methods for appointing CNSAP's 28 members and "the composition of the (transitional) government," Lutundula told AFP. Kabila took office after his father Laurent was assassinated in 2001 at the height of the Second Congo War. He was confirmed as leader in 2006 during the first free elections since independence, and re-elected for a second term in 2011 in a vote marred by accusations of fraud. Endowed with natural resources but chronically poor, sapped by corruption and politically unstable, the Democratic Republic of Congo has never witnessed a peaceful transfer of power since it gained independence from Belgium in 1960. The former colonial ruler has joined others in the international community in piling pressure on the political factions to stick to the agreement. United Nations (United States) (AFP) - The UN Security Council called Wednesday for the rapid and complete implementation of a deal to end the political crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In a unanimous vote approving the measure proposed by France, the 15 members of the council reaffirmed the importance of organizing credible elections before the end of the year. "The Security Council is encouraged by the spirit of flexibility and compromise demonstrated by Congolese political leaders in reaching this agreement, for the stability, peace, development and consolidation of constitutional democracy in the DRC, and calls on all Congolese actors to preserve this spirit in the discussions to come in order to swiftly resolve all pending issues, especially the practical modalities of the inclusive management of the executive during the pre-electoral and electoral period," the UNSC said in a statement. "The Security Council encourages the political parties which didn't sign the agreement to do so," it added. The deal reached Saturday, which was mediated by the Roman Catholic Church, sketches a timetable under which President Joseph Kabila will stay in office before new elections are held. President John Mahama will today deliver his final State of the Nation Address (SONA) as he comes to the end of his four-year tenure. The address is in fulfilment of Article 67 of the 1992 Constitution and is expected to highlight some of the nations achievements and challenges. Some governance experts say the outgoing President's address my be reconciliatory. 10:14 Speaker, Edward Doe Adjaho takes his seat. says a short prayer. Majority and Minority leaders called to join spekaer to receive President Mahama in Parliament's lobby. 10:19 President Mahama ushered into the chamber. 10:22 President Mahama begins the speech by wishing members and Ghanaians a happy new year. Thanked Vice president, chief justice and members of the house for the corporation they afforded him during his tenure. The global economic downturn couples with climate change are wreaking havoc on countries across the globe. But Ghana has had to thirve in these tiems. Education Shortage of teachers and textbooks resulted in a situation where the children shared text books. The resulted in the slow performance in BECE and WASSCE. His government took it up not to only improve the situation. More children have more access to text books and no longer have to share. Schools under trees have been replaced and teachers are more available. Teacher absenteeism has also gone down The construction of new community day high schools will keep children in school. A situation the president says has improved the education system. Ghana has over the last three years taken the three top spots in the WASSCE exams. Tertiary level, constirctuon of additional universities have improved access to education Conversion of polytechnics into universities, among others. Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com The Paramount Chief of Abease Traditional Area in the Pru District of the Brong Ahafo Region has appealed to chiefs and queen mothers in the country to learn a crucial lesson from the recent general elections in which Ghanaians chose a new administration to steer the affairs of the country for the next four years. Obrempong Kru Takyi II disclosed this to DAILY GUIDE at Abease during this year's Kwabena Yam Festival. The chief was hopeful other traditional leaders would take his simple message in good faith. Obrempong Kru Takyi II said the 1992 Constitution guides the citizens on how to conduct themselves and go about their duties. The constitution says chiefs should not take part in active party politics and this statement is simple and understandable. This clearly shows that chiefs cannot openly throw their weight behind any political party, and it is unfortunate that some individual chiefs got trapped in this. He said chiefs occupied very high positions in the society when governments were not in existence. Even before the white man came to the shores of Ghana, chiefs ensured peace and unity. One of the best ways to avoid partisan politics is to set a good example for our subjects to follow in order not to cause any problems, he added. Since our subjects are politically divided, any support to a particular party may bring the chieftaincy institution into disrepute. Obrempong Kru Takyi II seized the opportunity to congratulate the President-elect, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the Vice President-elect Alhaji Bawumia and the NPP on their electoral victory. He said the unprecedented victory showed that Ghanaians wanted change. The chief said he would continue to pray to God for protection and guidance. Nana Obrempong appealed to the incoming NPP government to construct a factory in his area since raw materials like mango, cashew, among others, are abundant in the area. Obrempong Kru Takyi II also appealed to Ghanaians to forget about the past and rally behind Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his team to move Ghana forward. By Eric Bawah A former Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) says the change in leadership has brought sanity on the airwaves. Professor Stephen Adei observed with amazement that the last two public utterances of President John Dramani Mahama after his defeat in the December 7 polls have been very presidential. Even before we see the installation of a new president, the atmosphere has become better, he told Joy FM's Super Morning Show host Nhyira Addo Tuesday. The educationist said when new leaders take office, they do not need to continue with attitude exhibited by the previous leaders. He said they are responsible for giving a new vision to the entity by modelling a new set of culture to change the current one. Names of potential ministers have been put out just four days to the inauguration of President-elect, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. The President-elect has announced Professor Frimpong Boateng as his Environment and Science Minister. He has also done same for Alan Kyerematen as the incoming Trade Minister. But Professor Adei has cautioned the incoming government to be wary of the Ghanaian culture where subordinates initially kowtow to demands of the new leader only to change later. He stressed that his experience has shown that once a leader has integrity, competence and cares for the people, they would know the person is all business. They [appointees] know that you are prepared to take the hard decisions. Even the worst Ghanaians start conforming; they would try to undermine youespecially if you are a minister, they would malign you for you to be moved, he said. I am looking forward to a President who would be a person of integrity, leadership is a cause and everything else is effect, he added. He said Ghana has had a bad history with corruption, arrogance and impunity being exhibited by government officials. Ghanaians are used to such behaviors, he said, stressing that a lot of things are changing. The first phase of the University of Ghana (UG) Medical centre, a world class hospital with specialized services has been officially opened by outgoing President John Dramani Mahama in a short ceremony in Accra. The ultra modern 617 bed facility hospital, constructed with a $217m loan from Israel, comprises seven buildings offering different specialized health services. The medical centre which is the first of its kind in West Africa will be a referral centre for tertiary and regional hospitals and provide specialized services for accidents and emergency, imaging, obstetrics & gynaecology, pediatrics, internal medicine and surgery among others. It also has a walk-in facility for patients who are desirous of specialist care. The centre will add to the teaching facility of the University of Ghana Medical School offering students the state of the art facility for health professionals. Officially opening the facility, President Mahama observed that the completion of the 1st phase of the project reflects a milestone in the country's quest for quality health care delivery. He said the 2nd phase of the project will include securing budget for salaries of staff of the hospital in the first five years and utilities such as water and waste management as well as the cost of the construction. Mr. Mahama said it was his hope the in-coming government of the New Patriotic Party(NPP) led by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo will pay personal interest and continue the work done at the centre to make the project fully operational in the shortest possible time. He believed that after the five years, the hospital should be in a position to raise enough revenue to exist on its own as an autonomous centre. I have no doubt in my mind that the impact of this health facility in health care delivery and the training of health care professionals in this country is going to be enormous, he said. Prof. Ebenezer Oduro Owusu, Vice Chancellor, University of Ghana in a statement indicated that the coming on board of the new medical centre with the state of the art facilities for teaching, service and research at a specialist level will provide a platform for enhancing not only the collective output of the College of Health Sciences but also health service delivery in the country. He said as part of the loan package, about 71 medical personnel had received short-term training at Sheba Medical Centre in Israel in preparation for the commencement of operations of the hospital. The Vice Chancellor, however, noted that the progress notwithstanding, there are a few issues that needed government's prompt attention including the approval of request for financial clearance by the Ministry of Finance for recruitment of staff, approval of cabinet memo for phase 2, approval of the 2017 budget for the UGMC and the approval of seed capital for purchase of drug and non-drug consumables. We are extremely hopeful Your Excellency, that these issues will receive prompt attention so that this magnificent hospital can commence its operations without further delay, Prof. Owusu stressed. The Phase one of the Medical Centre is about 98 percent complete. By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri A group calling itself Critical Thinkers International (CTI) says the executives of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) must investigate circumstances surrounding the death of former President Prof John Atta Mills instead of the party's 2016 electoral defeat. The move by the NDC is rather unnecessary, waste of money and time because even a two-year-old baby can easily tell the reasons for the party's defeat in the December polls, according to CTI. The NDC recently established a 13-member fact finding committee, chaired by former Minister of Finance and current Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Professor Kwesi Botchway to investigate the cause (s) of the party's abysmal defeat in the 2016 general elections. A statement issued in Accra by the party said, The Functional Executive Committee of the NDC, with the approval of the Council of Elders, has established a 13-member committee to investigate the cause(s) of the party's abysmal loss to the NPP in the 2016 general elections and recommend the way forward. According to the NDC, the committee is expected to interact with the rank and file of the party and solicit views from members of the party across the country for the restructure of the party. But the CTI insists the death of the former president, an issue the NDC has ignored, is also worthy of investigation. In a statement issued in Accra yesterday, titled why an investigation into the NDCs defeat but not Mills death? Adiepena Mirekua Sarpong, spokesperson for the group said, CTI feels that something of importance which needs to be tackled urgently by the NDC should be the death of the late President Professor Atta Mills. He claimed for the past four years, Ghanaians have been calling for an investigation into the death of the late President Mills but to no avail, insisting Ghana lost a very prominent person who was the President and also the flagbearer of the NDC under very strange and absurd circumstances. So for the NDC to set up a committee to probe their defeat which is known by all, and not the mysterious death of the late President especially considering the controversy surrounding his death means the NDC truly has something to hide from the family of the late President and Ghanaians as a whole. Sarpong continued: If a mad man even gets the chance to have his death investigated, then CTI will plead with the President-elect to honour the memory of our late President by investigating the cause of his death immediately he forms the next government since the NDC has continuously shown no interest in doing so. By Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson [email protected] AFTER SERVING as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Nhyiaeso in Kumasi, the Ashanti Regional capital, for 20 years on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Richard Anane is no longer going to represent his constituents in the legislature as he prepares to step down on Friday. A public function was held at the Police Training School at Patase where Dr. Richard Anane officially announced to his constituents that his 20-year service to them as MP had come to an end. Several groups and individuals in the constituency, including assemblymen, women groups and the aged, attested to Dr. Anane's effective leadership style and separately presented citations to him. Dr. Anane, in his statement, thanked the chiefs, assemblymen opinion leaders, church and Muslim leaders as well as the people of Nhyiaeso for giving him the honour to serve them for 20 years as MP. During that long time, he said with the support of his constituents, he managed to bring total transformation to his people, spanning from his days as Bantama MP and later as Nhyiaeso MP after the division of the Bantama Constituency. According to Dr. Anane who once served as Roads and Transport Minister during the President Kufuor-led NPP administration areas such as education, roads, health, electricity, water and other vital sectors witnessed massive transformation when he was MP for the area. He stated that he had laid a solid foundation with the able support of his constituents, expressing the hope that his successor would also work tirelessly to continue the development agenda. The outgoing MP, who currently serves as Vice Chairman of Network of the African Parliamentary Committees on Health, announced that thousands of brilliant but needy students in the constituency had benefitted from a scholarship scheme that he set up. In 1997 Dr. Richard Anane served as the ranking member for Food and Agriculture in parliament. He was later appointed a minister when the NPP won political power in 2000. FROM I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi MEMBER OF the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mallam Ali Yusif Isa, has pointed accusing fingers at the Party's top hierarchy for the overwhelming defeat in the December 7 elections. At a press briefing dubbed, The Truth Is Bitter, an embittered Mallam Isa stated that the abysmal performance of the outgoing NDC in the 2016 general election could be attributed to the neglect of the grassroots by the party's big men. According to him, in an election which saw Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo-led New Patriotic Party (NPP) gaining a significant 400,000 votes over what it obtained in the 2012 election, his party the National Democratic Congress (NDC) lost over 1.2 million votes mainly through what he termed 'voter apathy.' He revealed that he was tasked to head a presidential team which combed all the cocoa growing areas in the Ashanti, Western and Brong Ahafo Regions, to get first-hand information on the plight of farmers of Northern descent settling in the aforementioned regions as well as canvas for their support in the run-up to the 2016 general election. Upon leading the team and touring the aforementioned regions, community-to-community, village-to-village, hamlet-to hamlet for close to two months, the revelation that greeted our ears as tear-shedding, Mallam Isa added. He said at places like Nsuta-Beposo Kwamang Constituency in the Ashanti Region, communities like Nkodjuah Afram Plains, Denkyera-Krom, Boami, Asasibon, Frafra Line, Dagarti Line and Konkomba Line, the electorate disclosed to the dismay of his team that they had not set eyes on any party official or government official since the 2012 general election. Disrespect To Grassroots According Mallam Isa, the gross disrespect by some party executives, Members of Parliament (MPs) and other government appointees towards the plight of the grassroots led to the party's electoral defeat. He also stated that at places like Odaa-Kotuaso in the Western Region for instance, cocoa farmers who are mainly Northerners and believed to be supporters of the NDC, were put into groups of 15 and given just a bottle of Confidor to share, with each farmer having between 10 to 35 hectares of farm lands. Mallam Isa called on the party's executives to take into consideration the issues raised and re-strategize in order to reclaim power in 2020. BY Ernest Pappoe Isaac Osei, the outgoing Member of Parliament (MP) for Subin, is set to assume the position of the Managing Director (MD) of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR). DAILY GUIDE has gathered that the legislator has been holding meetings with the outgoing MD, Kingsley Kwame Awuah Darko at the facility located in Tema as part of the transition process. The former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) and High Commissioner to the United Kingdom (UK) is expected to start work on January 9, 2017. The lawmaker has worked with the World Bank, United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the UK Department for International Development (DFID), among others. He has been holding transition meetings with Mr Kwame Awuah Darko to stay abreast with the operations of the company, a source at the facility told DAILY GUIDE. President John Dramani Mahama appointed Mr. Awuah-Darko as MD of Bulk Oil Storage and Transport (BOST) and Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) in June 20a15 after the CEO, Dr. Alphone Kwao Dorcoo, a petrochemical engineer, was relieved of his duty. Some workers wonder whether Mr. Osei would steer the affairs of the two strategic state institutions. From Vincent Kubi, Tema Goldenlink Savings and Loans, a new and reputable financial institution located at Tesano, Accra, is now opened to the general public for business, BUSINESS GUIDE has gathered. It started its operations on Tuesday ahead of the anticipated grand launch. Goldenlink Savings and Loans seeks to provide excellent services, including Money Transfer, E-Banking, Bank Assurance and Investments. Goldenlink currently has three branches at Circle and Adum in Kumasi, as well as the headquarters at Tesano. It will operate from 8 am to 5 pm from Mondays to Fridays, and 9am to 3pm on Saturdays. The financial company promises to deliver excellent banking services to meet the needs of existing and prospective customers. Outgoing Ghana president John Dramani Mahama has described his stay in office as a rare privilege as he gets set to pave way for a new administration. Mahama, the fourth president under the current Fourth Republican constitution, lost woefully in the December 2016 elections. He becomes the first sitting president in the history of Ghana to have lost an election. Veteran opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo will from January 7, 2017 take over the reigns of governance as the fifth president under the 1992 Constitution, having won the last poll with a wide margin of 1.5 million votes. Addressing parliament on Thursday to wrap up his tenure in office, Mahama said it has been an honour to serve my nation as he touts his achievements over the last four years. He said a lot has been achieved in the various sectors of the economy, especially in the areas of education, energy, sanitation and health among others. I have done my best, Mahama said as he prepares to hand over what he termed the baton of leadership to Nana Akufo-Addo. The address was in accordance with Article 67 of the 1992 Constitution which states in part that: The president shall at the beginning of each session of Parliament and before a dissolution of Parliament, deliver a message on the state of the nation. Mahamas final address to the nation was earlier slated for Thursday, December 22, 2016 but was rescheduled. The rescheduling, the acting Public Affairs Director of Parliament, Kate Addo explained was due to challenges. The leadership has to take the decision due to some challenges that we are trying to resolve and as soon as that is cleared, we will inform the general public on the new date. It is not a cancellation as being reported, it is a constitutional mandate so it must be done, she told Onua FM on Tuesday, December 20, 2016. President John Mahama has urged the incoming administration to continue with Ghanas Extended Credit Facility arrangement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) until the end of this year. According to him, continuity in the implementation of the deal will ensure debt sustainability and macroeconomic stability in the Ghanaian economy. We entered the IMF agreement with the best of intentions and it is important that we continue a diligent implementation of the IMF programme until the end of 2017, he told parliament in his last State of the Nation Address Thursday. A total of US$918 million is being disbursed to Ghana under the three-year programme with the Breton wood institution. The president also noted that his government could not achieve its growth target for 2016 due to the shortfalls in revenue collections. We could not achieve the targets we set for ourselves due to the inability to achieve revenue targets and also the inability to draw the full expectation of oil from the Jubilee Fields. Mr. Mahama who is so far Ghanas first one term President leaves office on Saturday January 7, after losing the December 2016 elections. Nana Akufo-Addo who won at his third attempt at the presidency will be sworn in at the Black Star Square on January 7. THE INCOMING New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration has been tasked to quickly probe circumstances that led to controversial politician, Akua Donkor, receiving two cars and a house from President Mahama. A Ghanaian national, who works as a Crown Prosecutor in the United Kingdom (UK,) Major Rtd Kwaku Adarkwa Adjei, who made the appeal, said Akua Donkor has not rendered any meaningful service to the country to deserve the booty. He therefore suggested a committee of inquiry be put in place by the incoming Nana Akufo-Addo's government to investigate what triggered President Mahama's donation to the Ghana Freedom Party (GFP) leader. According to him, if it is proven that President Mahama used his personal money to purchase the decent house and flashy cars to Akua Donkor, then the controversial politician should keep the gifts. Major Rtd Adarkwa Adjei, however, stated that if it is revealed that the president used state resources to acquire the house and the cars for Akua Donkor, then the gifts must be confiscated by the state. He argued that Akua Donkor has not carried out any important assignment or task which benefitted the country and its people therefore it is not right for the president to use state resources to reward her at the expense of other Ghanaians. The UK Crown Prosecutor, who was speaking in a telephone interview with Nhyira FM in Kumasi, also called for asset declaration of National Democratic Congress (NDC) government officials, who are due for ex-gratia. According to him, any NDC government official that would be found culpable of amassing wealth illegally during the party's stay in government should not be allowed to receive their share of the ex-gratia. Major Rtd Adarkwa Adjei also questioned President Mahama's decision of cutting sod for new projects, especially a university in the Eastern Region, after he lost the December 7 elections. He insisted that President Mahama should provide funding for such last-minute projects, indicating that he would be extremely sad and surprised if the president is intentionally cutting the sods to make governance difficult for the NPP administration. FROM I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi THE STAGGERING US$ 4.4 million Rattray Park project in Kumasi, constructed by the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA,) will face possible probe in the coming months. The incoming New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration, headed by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has given strong indications of investigating the project to ascertain its cost. Projects which figures we have doubts about, especially the Kumasi Rattray Park which cost US$ 4.4 million and the Kumasi Airport rehabilitation works, where huge figures were quoted, would be probed. Deputy General Secretary of the NPP, Nana Obiri Boahen, who made the remarks, said the NPP won the polls, mainly because the electorates were fed up with corruption under the NDC administration. According to him, the NPP government would therefore do great disservice to the country and its people If we failed to set up committees to thoroughly investigate these doubtful projects under the NDC government. Park History The capital intensive project was constructed during the time of the ex-Kumasi Mayor, Kojo Bonsu, under the current President Mahama-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration. Residents in the city, especially some assemblymen, have raised doubts about the project's cost in the past. They therefore requested for investigations to be done to determine the veracity of the cost. Predictably, the President Mahama-led government, which would leave office this coming Saturday, has parried the requests, an action which had sparked anxiety among the residents. Crack Whip Nana Obiri Boahen stated that the incoming Ghana's president, Nana Akufo-Addo abhors corruption therefore anybody that would be found culpable of wrongdoing or corruption during the aforementioned projects, would be prosecuted. Speaking with Kofi Asante of Nhyira FM, he expressed huge doubts about the Rattray Park's cost in particular, saying If we fail to act on the corrupt practices under the NDC regime, nobody will campaign for us in 2020. FROM I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi Amma Busia 05.01.2017 LISTEN Hon Amma Busia, a member of the New Patriotic Party's (NPP) Council of Elders has saluted the rank and file of the party for working so hard to bring the Danquah-Dombo-Busia tradition back to power the second time in 40 years after the overthrow of the Busia administration in 1972. In a statement she issued yesterday, the veteran politician said worthy of commendation especially is the man who bore the flag of the party into the fiercest electoral battle in living memory. He fought so hard even as he committed the electoral battle into the hands of the Lord. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the President-Elect, contained the odds to reach the presidency at long last, she said, adding that Nana Akufo-Addo has always demonstrated industriousness and faith in what he does. He is an inspiration to the youth and a good role model. While doffing her hat for the numerous campaign teams across the country for their invaluable contributions, she said they worked with their hearts, hands and minds to take us where we are today. To the people of Ghana she said they have showed more than ever before that they understand what democracy stands for and that it is not an alien concept about which they know little or nothing about. Those who think that they can take Ghanaians for granted will soon learn that their position is no longer tenable and that even when they dish out monies to them to buy their conscience they would not be able to achieve their objective. The average Ghanaian has grown past the time when they could be convinced with money to vote for what they did not believe in. The recent election results show how Ghanaians are now politically sophisticated and would no longer allow themselves to be toyed with by politicians in total disregard for their social contract with the people who voted them into power. She assured the people of Ghana that the Nana Addo, that she knows, will deliver good governance and fulfill the promises that he made to them. Let us as a people show commitment to letting our country work again after the long lull during which state institutions started showing signs of stress and malfunction. Nana Addo's presidency will be a turning point in the lives of Ghanaians she said. The former Member of Council of State and one-time First Deputy National Chairperson of the NPP appealed to the rank and file of the party to give their utmost to the service of Ghana and their party. To those who would be given appointments, she said let them maintain the party's zero tolerance for corruption in all their endeavours. We should always bear in mind that the best way we can help Nana Akufo-Addo as President is to avoid all forms of corruption and be diligent in our work. By A.R. Gomda Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire; Hands that the rod of empire might have sway'd Or wak'd to ecstasy the living lyre.. Thomas Gray: Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard MUCH INK WILL CONTINUE to be spilled (or in modern technological world without the use of ink, but facebook and internet: many megabytes will continue to be spread; many keyboards will continue to be worn) over the historically momentous devastation of the NDC by the NPP (171 104 MPs) and the demonstrably overwhelming votes of Nana Addo over John Dramani Mahama (5,716,026 to 4,713,277) Analysts will not get exhausted doing what they are wont to do best: The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing and it is marvellous in your eyes? (Matthew 21:42) Dr Arthur Kennedy, the sulking politician's book: Chasing the Elephant into the Bush: The Politics of Complacency might require a review, the title changing to Retreat of the Elephant which is the very title of Mark Elvin's environmental book on China of some four thousand years ago. Professor Atta Mills's advocacy was 'wonsesa mu': 'you must change', simpliciter. Those who say 'history repeats itself' may note that Hans George Gadamer suggests that History does not belong to us, we belong to it. J.J., Papa J, the owner of the NDC cannot be tamed with a rope tied round his neck, unlike what Asiedu Nketia (General Mosquito) thought. He yammers and booms: The Mahama led administration is no more attractive because the rank and file of the NDC have lost their integrity and confidencejust as we were bound to lose when President Mills was in office, fortunately God took him away and gave a new hope to this partyour general negativity, impunity, disrespect and corruption were taking us further and further downhill I kept providing the warning once again the uncouth and uncultured in our party and government chose to insult and disrespect some of us. Sociologically, Hegel remarked that all facts and personages of great importance occur twice, but Karl Marx refined it by adding: The first time as tragedy, the second as farce. When Robert Penn Warren wrote 'All the King's Men' in 1946, he chose the title from the nursery rhyme: Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall, All the king's horses and all the King's men Could'nt put Humpty together again. How could the King's men put Humpty (an egg) together again? Difficult to reconstruct and as Willie Stark notes: One must go out of history into history and the awful responsibility of Time. But Kofi Adams, the National Coordinator of President John Mahama's Campaign Team 'reveals' that the party's Information Technology system set up to monitor the election results did not help the ruling party on the election day. I think there was a systems failure! The million dollar question is: How would the system have helped the results if it was functioning properly? Is the suspicion that the Electoral Commission was in bed with the NDC not solidly founded? The truth must be told, because, as John Donne puts it, truth stands. The Republican Party in the U.S. under President Richard Nixon was planning evil against the Democratic Party. It took two reporters of the Washington Post, Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) and Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) to undertake the risky enterprise of exposing the 1972 burglary of the Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate apartment complex. It led to Nixon's resignation. The title of the book was well chosen: All the President's Men. For the NDC, the advice from Barrack Obama is apposite: History helps us to recognise the mistake that we've made and the dark corners of the human spirit that we need to guard against. With the return of the elephant, Nana Addo has shaken off the spell that the fatalistic doomsayers and false prophets said had been poured upon his family. Oh, adesa. J.B. Danquah, William Ofori Atta and Akufo Addo (three of the 'Big Six') will be jubilating and revelling in their graves. So too will Professor Adu Boahen and Obetstebi Lamptey. This should be comforting for the people who had been tagged as an inveterate opposition and disruptive, unprogressive group. Nana Addo is reported to have started the ball rolling. He has whispered the names of some likely Ministers the first was Alan Kyeremateng for Trade. Smart alecky. The message is that, after all, Nana is not vindictive. In Shakespeare's Macbeth, Malcom tells Macduff: Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell; though all things foul would wear the brows of grace, yet grace must still look so. More names are being dropped: Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto (Agriculture), Professor Kwabena Frimpong Boateng (Science and Technology), Isaac Asiamah (Youth and Sports), et cetera, la creme de la creme. Be careful. Experience yes; degrees and certificates why not; but some people are suggesting throwing into the fray some of the unknown and unsung young men and women. Boys abre, oo. They are quick to cite the case of J. A. Kufour who at age 28 was a deputy Minister at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He knew how to 'wash his hands' nonpareil in comparison to the acidic mouthed 'babies with sharp teeth' of the NDC. You may remember Maria Feodorvna, the wife of Tsar Alexander III who saved a life by altering a death sentence. Alexander had written against one name: 'Pardon Impossible, to send to Siberia'. Maria changed it to read: 'Pardon, Impossible to send to Siberia'. The power of punctuation marks! Remember the KNUST professors led by Dr Kwabena Boadu who took a risk, professionally, by galvanising support for NPP, because they saw that the NPP had the intellectual capability and policies to develop Ghana. They could not look on unconcerned while the country fell into an abyss. There were Kwesi Biney, Professor Ansu Kyeremeh and Kwame Gyasi the veteran writers whose writings exposed the greed and corruption of the NDC regime. Nor can we forget Bugri Naabu, Mohammed Awal and Adisa Dagomba who deflated the NDC's ego and exposed their lies in the Zongos. Now the Zongos are NPP strongholds yes, the name NPP originates from the North. To the North we will all go. All that some of the people need is the 'human touch'. They do not pray to go home with a pay packet of GH25,000 per month (non taxable) like President Mahama whose room mate, Yaw Boadu Ayeboafo of Daily Graphic may go home with something less than 10% of the President's. We may dry the ink and break the quill on NDC matters. If they decide to restructure the party, that should be their cup of tea. All we remember are: Ede bii keke; zu za; Usain Bolt gesture; no abaaba se; or at best, the mundane and humdrum message of infrastructure (schools, hospitals, roads) with inflated prices charged by sole-sourced contractors. Bravo, Chairman Wontumi, bravo Onipa -nua Ayisi, bravo Blay, bravo Kennedy Agyapong, bravo the man from NASA, bravo everybody who sacrificed their time, money and other resources to make the win possible. But remember Nana Addo's warning: For money, join another party. Some people add: Fair is foul and foul is fair Do not give up, the heart with 'celestial fire' will get a wooden forest to burn. Africanus Owusu-Ansah [email protected] Outgoing President John Mahama says he has served Ghana with the best of intentions, prioritizing the interest of the citizens in his actions. He said when he assumed office there was mass dissatisfaction of Ghanaians with the road network in the country and he dedicated much of his attention to fixing it. "Many hours sitting in traffic caused frustration and discomfort for urban commuters. Poor feeder roads and pothole-riddled highways increased maintenance cost for drivers and in-turn led to increased fares and transport charges for goods," he noted. He said he went to work. His government fixed the Achimota-Ofankor road, the Awoshie road, continued the Sofo line interchange in Kumasi, completed the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange, started the Kasoa Interchange, continuation of the Eastern Corridor Road Project and completed the Airport-Burma Camp road. He, however, said there are more to be done. He cited the Tema Motorway Roundabout, expansion of the Flower Pot road at Spintex and the earmarked Obetsebi Lamptey Interchange. But delivering his final State of the Nations Address in Parliament, Thursday, he said Ghana can now boast of a good road network in West Africa because of the most massive investments in the road sector. More soon... Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Austin Brakopowers | [email protected] President John Mahama has disclosed that the power situation in Ghana has stabilised to the point that the country is now heading towards the generation of excess power. According to him, Ghana through effective measures, has managed to fix the energy crises popularly called Dumsor - that bedevilled the country from August 2012. The situation, which lasted for more than two years, caused a load shedding regime. Delivering his last State of the Nation address before Parliament Thursday, the President noted that the shortage of power led to a very unpopular load management programme which hobbled the growth of the economy with many businesses resulting to generators to survive. After taking responsibility for the crises, President Mahama said, it has taken a lot of hard work and effort. Fast-tracking the deployment of emergency plants and speeding up the completion of ongoing plants ensured that we added more than 800 megawatts of power over an 18-month period. He opined that, the measures implemented by his government has increased generation, in addition of the Energy Sector Levy, and ongoing works to restructure the Legacy Debt of the power utilities, has helped to stabilise the power situation in our country. With the expectation of more domestic gas from the TEIN and Sankofa fields, Ghana is entering into an era of energy self-sufficiency, President Mahama assured Ghanaians. Indeed, the warning signals have started sounding about the danger of overcapacity and excess redundancy in our power generation sector. We have agreed to work with World Bank to rationalise the addition of new plants and ensure that we achieve optimum utilisation of existing plant capacity, he added. President Mahama revealed that, access to power under his administration has continued to increased. Ghana has one of the highest access to electricity estimated to be above 80% currently. He added that, additional pending electrification programmes like the China Water Company programme and the Hunan Energy project will bring more communities onto the national grid. Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Ernest Dela Aglanu (Twitter: @delaXdela / email: [email protected]) The incoming National Security adviser Brigadier General Emmanuel Okyere is a top soldier and fit for the job, the outgoing Member of Parliament (MP) for Ablekuma South, Fritz Baffour has said. President-elect Nana Akufo-Addo at a press conference on Wednesday named the Brigadier General as his national security advisor. Speaking Thursday on Morning Starr from Ghana's parliament House ahead of President John Mahama's final State of the Nation Address, Mr. Baffour, who is also the chairman of Interior and Defense Committee of Parliament said the national security advisor who's to come in Brigadier Okyere is a first class soldiertop notch soldier. Short Profile of Akufo-Addo's security appointment Brigadier General Okyere is a military engineer and holds an Executive Master's Degree in Governance and Leadership from GIMPA. He's also a graduate of the Ghana Military Academy, has a solid military background, having done almost 40 years of distinguished service with the colours. He served in various capacities in both the military and local government. He served as the Metropolitan Chief Executive of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly from 1995 to 1996; and from 2006 to 2010, he was the General Officer Commanding the Southern Command. The president elect, also named the former Director of the Bureau of National Investigation (BNI), Josuah Kyeremeh as his National Security coordinator, and former Interior Minister under the erstwhile Kufuor administration Albert Kan Dapaah as the minister designate for the National Security. By appointing a substantive security minister, it is good for the rule of law because parliament can hold the security and intelligence services accountable, Dr. Emmanuel Kwesi Aning said of Kan Dapaah's nomination as minister- designate for national security on Onua FM. He added: Furthermore, this fulfils the requirements under Act 526 of 1996. According to him, the planned security structure is a good move by the President, especially taking into consideration the fact that Dr. Sam Amoo under former President John Agyekum Kufuor, both late President John Atta Mills and out-going President John Dramani Mahama, never appointed a substantive Security Minister. -Starrfmonline Following President-elect Nana Akufo-Addos naming of his backroom staff, some have suggested that he may have breached portions of the Presidential Office Act, but a constitutional lawyer and Dean of the GIMPA Law School, Dr. Kofi Abotsi, says such claims are unfounded. The Act states that, a president of the republic appoints the presidential staff team in consultation with the Council of State, however, Dr. Abotsis rebuttal to this is that, the President-elect Nana Akufo-Addo remains just the President-elect till he is sworn in, and is not bound by the Act. The Act is specifically dealing with the President, the person who is in office as President, he indicated on the Citi Breakfast Show. Dr. Abotsi also explained that, the announcements Nana Akufo-Addo made were also simply a proposal which only becomes effective once he assumes the office of the President. What Nana Akufo-Addo has actually done now is more or less a preparation towards entering the office. Now, until and unless he becomes the President, he actually has no office to appoint anyone to, and so technically all these persons who have been appointed, they have been appointed by him in anticipation of him becoming the President. Consultations with Council of State Another point called into question has been which Council of State Nana Akufo-Addo will be taking counsel from; the current one advising the John Mahama administration, or the one he is yet to set up. At any given point in time, there must be a Council of State and that Council of State must be consulted, Dr. Abotsi said. This notwithstanding, he noted that, In principle, the Council of State being a constitutional body continues. But that is in principle and the reason is because the Council of State is supposed to be an advisory chamber to the President in practice, you hardly find members of the Council of State moving from one regime to the other. Dr. Abotsi further expounded on the doctrine of necessity which comes into play if there is gap between the formation of the Council of State between two regimes. He explained that if it happens that there is no Council of State, the doctrine of necessity would either allow the previous Council of State to continue in office until such a time that there is a new Council of State or a person whose office requires him to consult the Council of State will have the authority to act without the Council of State if the action to be taken is of such a necessity that the opposite can simply not be countenanced. Whichever way you look at it, there is no prospect of Nana Addo having to consult Council of State which is not in existence and by reason of which his hands will be tied. That cannot happen. In essence, Dr. Abotsi said Nana Akufo-Addo is allowed to act without having to consult the Council of State. Either there is the Council of State by the doctrine of necessity or there is no Council of State. But he will be allowed to act in accordance with his own thinking once there is a statute that requires him to make certain appointments. By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana Outgoing President John Dramani Mahama and incoming president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo Outgoing President John Dramani Mahama has said he has respect for incoming president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo dating back to their days as Members of Parliament. Mr Mahama, delivering his last State of the Nation address in Parliament on Thursday January 5, described his opposite number as a worthy opponent especially because they have both contested and won a presidential election. Mr Mahama told parliament: I first entered this house as MP for Bole Bamboi in January 1997. It was, perhaps not coincidental, the same year that Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo entered as MP for Akyem Abuakwa. Taking breaks from the business of the house to grab something to eat at the snack bar, Nana Akufo-Addo always stood at the end of the counter, his signature white handkerchief tucked into his sleeve. 'Johnny', he would shout in greeting as he preferred to call me. Incidentally we both served three terms in this house, departing together in January 2009. This is how long I have known the president-elect and worked with him. I have the utmost respect for him. Given our history, especially that we have each had our turn on each side of a presidential election, it would seem only natural for us to be considered opponents 'worthy opponents' is the description generally used in the world of sports. Mr Mahama added. Mr Mahama wished the incoming Akufo-Addo administration well and advised other political opponents not to wish failure for the NPP. We cannot afford as a nation to wish or hope for the failure of any president and his or her government. Ensuring accountability is not the same as leveling insult or encouraging apathy. We have history as prove that we have been better and that we have done better and that we will and we must do better once again, he noted. Mr Mahama will hand over power as president to Nana Akufo-Addo on Saturday January 7, having lost the 2016 election to the NPP flag bearer. -Classfmonline When death is closing in on any soul, it renders that individual blind and deaf so that he/ she can see not see nor hear the footsteps of death Such is the situation the NDC found itself in when from 2013 I began chronicling series of actions and activities of the NPP Chairman of Ashanti, Bernard Antwi Boasiako and its consequential effect on the fortunes of the NDC Indeed, I am now convinced beyond any reasonable doubt that, the NDC led by President John Dramani Mahama created the Monster who vowed and waged a relentless campaign to unseat the NDC in the just ended 2016 elections. I saw it coming and I cautioned my own party people to cease tormenting that gentleman prior to the invasion and destruction of mining concession in 2013, at a time that the NPP business guru had not attempted to meddle in national politics, yet the NDC out of vilification heeded not my advice some of which were contained in several articles. In one such article I stated that Mr. Wontumi wouldnt have joined national politics if the NDC has not attacked his business interest. It was obvious that Chairmans quest to become a regional chairman was borne out of his determination to see to the collapse of the NDC government as a retaliatory measure for destruction of his businesses. The result of his contribution to the NPP victory of 2016 could be seen way back in 2014 when he began a relentless campaign to oust the NDC in Ashanti through mammoth demonstration. I took the opportunity to caution the NDC at the time and urged them to pay attention to the activities of this youngster in Ghanas politics but again I was ignored by those who matter in the party. In another article, titled Is Chairman Wontumi becoming a prophet? and published through this link http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Is-chairman-wontumi-becoming-a-prophet-311263 I cataloged series of actions of the Mahama administration which chairman Wontumi had allegedly commented on during a reported rally at Obuasi in the Ashanti region and asked the party leadership to pay attention to. Sooner I heard that brother of the President, Ibrahim Mahama has dragged Chairman Wontumi to court for alleged defamatory comments. I felt that was politically intolerant on Ibrahims behalf and by extension the President. Several appeals from various quarterses for Ibrahim Mahama to drop the suit against Chairman Wontumi fell on death ears. A direct appeal from the Ashanti King did not even awaking the listening spirit within Ibrahim Mahama as he kept on pursuing the matter, which am reliably informed is still lingering on. An act of disrespect to the golden stool by all measurable standards! As if these acts of persecutions were distracting for the youngest ever regional chairman in the history of the NPP, it rather served as a catalytic impetus for Chairman Wontumi who kept vowing to the Ghanaian electorates on the need to unseat the NDC/ John Mahama administration. From these fall outs, one may not be far from right to believe that, the maltreatment meted out to Bernard Antwi Boasiako (Chairman Wontumi) motivated him to campaign vigorously against the NDC. Perhaps the lesson here is that, never again should a government decide to perpetuate such acts of political vendetta against any Ghanaian businessman irrespective of ones political affiliation Alhaji Inusah Abudulai Fuseini Ph.D. Texas, USA E-mail: [email protected] President John Mahama has touted his administration's achievement in what he describes as a major turnaround in the country's power sector. According to him, the increased generation capacity and a relative stable supply system has lessened the plight of consumers recently. The President made the remarks when he gave his final State of the Nation Address in Parliament on Thursday, January 5, 2017. The increased power generation in addition to the energy sector levy and ongoing works to restructure the legacy debts of the power utilities, have helped to stabilize the power situation in our country, he said. Mr. Mahama added, With the expectation of more domestic gas from the TEN and Sankofa fields, Ghana is entering into an era of energy self sufficiency. Meanwhile the government has announced that it is engaging the World Bank to optimize the use of the increased generation capacity. Indeed the warning signals have started sounding about the danger of over capacity and excess redundancy in our power generation sector. We have agreed to work with the World Bank to rationalize the addition of new plants and ensure we achieve optimum utilization of existing plant capacity, John Mahama said. Industrial and domestic users of power have gad to bear the brunt of a reeling power sector for at least the past three years. The development also led to massive job layoffs and a major distortion to economic growth targets for the period. Though the situation has stabilized for some time now, industry watchers have cautioned of a likely resumption of load shedding if nothing is done to secure enough gas for power generation. In the meantime President Mahama is optimistic the impressive trends will continue even with the inauguration of a new government. Access to power under my administration has continued to increase Ghana has one of the highest access to electricity estimated to be 80% currently. Additional pending electrification programs like the China Water Company Programme and the Hunan Energy Projects will bring even more communities onto the national grid. The President's assertions comes a day after the Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union (ICU) warned of a redundancy if government fails to heed threats of disruption in gas supply for the first quarter of 2017. The Union argues the decision will become inevitable if industry is unable to sustain possible hikes in operational costs. By: Pius Amihere Eduku/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana 05.01.2017 LISTEN Legal luminary and former President of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) Samuel Okudzeto has described President John Mahamas last minute appointments as a blatant violation of the Transition law. He says the appointments which come less than a week to the official inauguration of the incoming President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo were "complete nonsense. More soon... Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Abubakar Ibrahim |[email protected] As outgoing President John Mahama took his final bow addressing Parliament Thursday, he said he has done his best and given his all in service to the nation. He said he would allow history to be the judge of how he has served the nation in his last Sate of the Nation Address (SONA). I have done my part in running my lap of the relay. What that verdict will ultimately be, I cannot say, he told Members of Parliament (MPs), members of the diplomatic corps and several dignitaries including ex-President Rawlings and J.A Kufuor. President Mahama, whose four-year tenure expires on midnight of January 6, said he is holding the baton of leadership and prepared to pass it on with pride to pass it on to President-elect, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. He urged Ghanaians to cheer on the incoming President as he runs his portion of his leadership relay for the nation. Political opposition: President Mahama delve into the nature of Ghanas politics and why it has to be purged of acrimony and division. Although he asserted that political opposition and differences of opinion are vital to the health and growth of Ghanas democracy, he urged for balance. He said political parties are formed when people of similar ideology come together to move their agenda forward in a way that best serves their country. He, however, did not doubt Ghana was following the same trajectory, but said actions of both citizens and leadership should be in the interest of the country. Partisanship for its own sake, in the end, is no better than dictatorship. If we look around the world, we can so clearly see the deep divide that blind partisanship is creating in nations with democracies far older than ours, he noted. The political divide, he said is taking shape in Ghana and called the citizens to be mindful about that. Already, it has taken a toll on our morale and our sense of optimism. It has given way to a cynicism that is as dangerous to the incoming political party as it was to ours, he said. President Mahama said Ghana cannot afford to have citizens who would wish for the failure of their leaders because of partisanship. Ensuring accountability is not the same as leveling insults or encouraging apathy. We have history as proof that we have been better and we have done better. And we will, we must, do better once again, he charged. Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Abubakar Ibrahim |[email protected] Kano (Nigeria) (AFP) - Three teenage girls suspected of planning a triple suicide bomb attack in a town frequently targeted by Boko Haram have been shot dead, a local government official said on Thursday. Civilian vigilantes opened fire on the trio near the town of Madagali when they refused to stop for a security check, the town council's chairman, Yusuf Muhammad, told AFP. "Explosives strapped to two of the girls exploded from the impact of the shooting, while those on the third girl were defused by soldiers," he added. Boko Haram Islamists have regularly used young women and girls as human bombs in a nearly eight-year insurgency, which has left at least 20,000 people dead and made more than 2.6 million homeless. Some of the bombers have been as young as seven and are unlikely to have been aware of their actions, said experts who track the conflict. Civilian "soft" targets such as mosques, churches, markets and bus stations have been hit repeatedly to cause mass civilian casualties. Madagali Muhammad said the girls were intercepted at Bakin Dutse village, some five kilometres (three miles) from Madagali, and were believed to be heading to the town's market. Last month, at least 45 people were killed in twin suicide attacks at Madagali's busy markets, a year after a similar strike killed 17. Madagali is in the far north of Adamawa state on the border with Borno state, which has borne the brunt of the violence since 2009. Islamic State Group affiliate Boko Haram's Sambisa Forest hideout is nearby. In August 2014, Madagali fell to the jihadists but was reclaimed two months later, although attacks continue. Nigeria's military claims to have driven Boko Haram out of Sambisa and the attacks are the last throw of the dice for the rebels. But, as the militant fighters scatter, it is thought the conflict may move elsewhere, including into the Lake Chad area that forms the border with Niger, Chad and Cameroon. Political promises are much like marriage vows. They are made at the beginning of the relationship between candidate and voter, but are quickly forgotten (Dick Gregory). ADDITIONAL POLICY QUESTIONS FOR PRAGMATIC CONSIDERATION Now, with Akufo-Addo and his incoming government yet to assume office next year, are we thinking of real change in cosmetic (temporary) or sustainable (permanent) terms? Are the promised factories going to provide employees with living wages? Are these factories going to be cottage industries or large-scale industrial factories that can compete with their counterparts in the West, Japan, Brazil, China, Australia, and South Korea? Or that they are going to be merely white elephants, as costumed scarecrows in any countryside chosen to house one? In other words, can these proposed factories advance comparative advantage and pragmatic nationalism? Do we have men and women with superior technical, managerial, scientific, and technocratic knowledge, competence or expertise who can efficiently manage these factories? Do we have unlimited supply of energy or power to run these factories? Do we have adequate supply chain management systems and maintenance regimen in place to coordinate the operational activities of these factories and their maintenance, respectively? Do we have a reliable supply of raw material to feed these factories? Do we have ready markets to absorb the products these proposed factories will churn out? What strategic and tactical measures have we put in place to ensure that our products compete well with others on the international stage? How favorably do our statistical quality/quality control techniques, for instance, compare with others in the industrial world, say Japan or the United States? And with the typical Ghanaians taste for foreign products and ideas, and abject hatred of things Ghanaian and African, what measures have we put in place to ensure Ghanaians at least patronize locally manufactured goods and services? Do we have men and women with employable skills to keep these factories operationally afloat? Do we have men and women and monitoring systems in place to guard against members of crime syndicates or organized crime from smuggling factory products out of the country and selling them at uncompetitive prices to Ghanas potential competitors? We are referring to men and women trained in the techniques of industrial espionage! What about the dams promised? Are they going to be modern industrial-scale dams or some cheap 15-century earth-fill dams? How are we going to maintain these dams? What measures do we have in place to combat the harsh realities of global warming both foreseeable and unforeseeable, including drought and desertification? What criteria are the $1-million-per-constituency-a-year disbursements to be based on? Population size? Giving out the same amount every year whether or not one constituency contributes to the nations wealth, public purse/GDP than the other? How do we expect one constituency with a larger population size to be given the same amount of money as another constituency but of a smaller population size? What measures have we put in place to ensure these monies do not end up in private pockets, that is, to prevent another pathetic round of create, loot and share as happened under the Mahama and Kufuor presidencies? Do we have competent and patriotic men and women to handle these monies? What exactly are these monies to be used for? And who determines what exactly these monies are to be used for? Do the criteria include only ideas for regional or constituency development that is totally divorced from any national program of development? Do citizens of these constituencies have a say as to how they want their monies used and, if so, will it be based on a referendum? If not, how? What if there are serious disagreements, say deadlocks in referenda, as to how these constituencies want to use their monies in a way that do meet the expectations of a national program of development? Are these monies taxable? And then how do we factor in the so-called Zongo Development Fund? Does every constituency across the country have a Zongo? What if one constituency has multiple Zongos? What of other non-Zongo communities with similar levels of poverty and material deprivation as our typical Zongos? Do such non-Zongo communitiessuch as Christian ones, to mention but onehave a right to similar funds? Can we create a similar fund for National Association of Head Potters (Kayayes), for surviving trokosi girls and women, and for the Unemployed Graduates Association of Ghana (UGAG)? In other words arent there non-Zongo communities that are equally deprived and deserving of similar funds? What are our expectations? How do we measure the success of these funds? Have we put strategic measures in place to ensure these funds are not channeled into other unpatriotic and subversive activities such as terrorism, into building more makalanta rather than S.T.E.M-based learning institutions, and/or into supporting other disruptive activities against the non-Muslim community? Can this Fund breed dependency complex? What other qualitative measures have we put in place to ensure we effectively deal with the root causes of the problems in the Zongos and not merely to treat their symptoms? Could the Zongo Development Fund be basis for discriminatory charges by non-Zongo communities against the Akufo-Addo government? Should these policy activities not have been the responsibility of strong local governments, rather than of the corrupt executive office? Finally, how can a helplessly corrupt political organization like the NPP guarantee that these monies do not mysteriously end up in the pockets of private persons? And, oh yes, we have a billion template of questions to ask about all the other pre-election promises Akufo-Addo and Bawumia made to Ghanaians. In other words the list of unanswered questions is almost endless FOOD FOR THOUGHT There is no question in our minds that, indeed, Akufo-Addo and his incoming government have a herculean task on their hands. This includes the untechnical, unscientific grounding of our educational system. The current state of our educational system is such that it cannot support the kind of radical transformation Akufo-Addo and Bawumia have been touting. Significantly, sustainable change and transformation go beyond a passing knowledge of attitudinal change in the national character. For what its worth, we believe the two must go hand in hand. This will require intelligent, bold, visionary, technocratic and anti-corruption leadership and the proactive collaboration of Ghanaians and civil society organizations to make this happen. In fact, any policy strategy and technocratic vision short of this will not augur well for the kind of policy transformation and change Akufo-Addo and Bawumia have been proposing all along. Only a scientific or technical revolution can bring about this radical transformation and change, which among other things means serious policy consideration for and implementation of the concepts of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S.T.E.M.) and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in our dying educational system, and outright rejection of the chew-and-pour methodology or learning-by-rote pedagogy our educators and students are known for. We have more to learn from South Korea, Japan, Brazil, China, India, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Malaysia. Even so Akufo-Addo (and his incoming government) must carry Ghanaians, Africans and other members of the rest of the world along as he implements his campaign promises. Members of his government and all well wishers should engage the Ghanaian particularly, the youth and women as well, through education and gender equality, affirmative action programs aimed at why these programs are needed to boost the national economy and at why their continued support for and successful operation of these programs will largely depend on the Ghanaians participation in the entire process. These programs must be people-centered. All hands on deck! CONCLUDING REMARKS The probity, transparency and accountability rhetoric of the Fourth Republic has been nothing positive other than a hypocritical political sermon favoring, or coded language endorsing, institutional corruption. In the Fourth Republic we have seen the physical attributes of Ghanaian leadership change from Rawlings, to Kufuors, to Mills, and to Mahamas, yet the only real, substantive change any one can point to in the country that is constant has no doubt been the suffocating stench of open defecation, institutional corruption, children studying under trees, trokosi, mass poverty and illiteracy, proliferation of criminal lies, unmotorable network of roads, a schadenfreude politics of insults, political ethnocentrism, steep decline in the critical faculties of Ghanaians, mushrooming of clerics as the new deities of latter-day disorganized religion and organized religion, and so on. This change that has remained constant in the Fourth Republic also has been palliative, largely unsustainable at best. Thus, for Akufo-Addo and Bawumia to achieve a semblance of the radical transformation and change they have been promoting, they must among other things do away with organized crime at our harbors, borders, and airports, as well as distribute the national cake equally among the regions. Finally, revenue collection at the harbors and airports is to be closely monitored so that it does not end up in private pockets. Also, corporate social responsibility is another important area of technocratic pursuit they must never ignore. Among other policy strategies therefore, this new leadership involving Akufo-Addo and Bawumia should formulate progressive tax policies aimed at courting foreign and indigenous investment, to promote local industries, namely policies that are certainly antithetical to unfavorable corporate tax repatriation, tax evasion, and illicit financial flows from Africa, as well as to local or indigenous entrepreneurial initiatives. In other words, there is an imperative need to get rid of all bureaucratic bottlenecks that stand in the way of comparative advantage, pragmatic nationalism, and progressive investment strategies. It goes without saying that we need strong institutions for the implementation of these policy propositions to work, beyond the dog-whistle politics and grandiose implicatures of our duopolistic boobocrats. This calls for an independent judiciary, parliament, and special prosecutor. The BNI and the CID should be re-constituted and retooled to make them more independent of political influence and patronage. Further, the Indemnity Clause and its adnate offspring, executive dominance, must both disappear from our national constitutional for good without any imaginable trace of their potential rebirth or reappearance in the Ghanaian body politic. Combating galamsey and galamsey-related pollution as well as, if possible, renegotiating all the contracts we entered into regarding our natural resourcesminerals, gas/oil, primarilyare a must. This somehow ties into a progressive understanding of land economy, forest and wildlife management, environmental engineering and awareness issues, historic preservation, hospitality ethics, and absolute eradication of open defecation, and finally, into investment management strategies regarding the service industry which accounts for a sizeable portion of Ghanas GDP. It is high time we realized natural resources are not, in and of themselves, wealth. Science, technology, industrialization, hard work, good leadership, strong institutions, patriotism, good citizenship, quality education and critical pedagogy, comparative advantage, and Afrocentric Pan-Africanism are true wealth. Again, it is high time we began living this true wealth. But then again, at the same time Akufo-Addo and Bawumia and the incoming government must prove Dick Gregory wrong. Surely we must also do away with the schadenfreude politics of insults, abuse of incumbency, arrogance of power, political ethnocentrism, extreme partisan politics, phallocentric politics and male chauvinism, crony capitalism, institutional corruption, executive dominance and Indemnity Clause, political propaganda and agitprop, social media abuse of politicians, biased muckraking, and the winner-takes-all kleptomaniacal democracy. With that said, we will also add that Akufo-Addo and his incoming government are in for the long haulno doubt! We shall return Niamey (AFP) - Around 20 more members of the jihadist group Boko Haram have surrendered in Niger, the government says. "About 50 Boko Haram fighters have now given themselves up" since December 27, Niger's interior minister, Bazoum Mohamed, said in an interview broadcast late Wednesday on the state TV channel Tele Sahel. The combatants surrendered at Diffa, in southeastern Niger, a Boko Haram stronghold close to the border with Nigeria, where 31 fighters turned themselves in at the end of last month. Mohamed attributed the success to a military squeeze on the group, launched in July, coordinated with security forces in Nigeria and Chad, where the group also operates. More surrenders will follow, he said, adding "in some sectors, the war (against Boko Haram) is already over." But he warned that "organised Boko Haram elements are training" in the marshes of Lake Chad, a zone that straddles the three countries. Three Niger soldiers were killed and seven wounded on the night of New Year's Eve when Boko Haram fighters attacked their position at Baroua, in the Diffa region, the military say. Fifteen assailants were killed and another one was captured, they say. Boko Haram is waging a seven-year-old uprising against the Nigerian state that has claimed more than 20,000 lives, with the insurgency spilling over the West African nation's borders into neighbouring states. The violence has left around 2.6 million people homeless, sparking a dire humanitarian crisis, with the United Nations warning the affected region faces the "largest crisis in Africa". Diffa is one of the worst-hit regions, with around 300,000 people supported by a local population which is already chronically poor. Republicans have promised to repeal and replace the ACA. They are now in a position to actually do that and, low and behold, they have no replacement. They want to repeal it and wait for another 2 years to replace it. Suddenly, people are entertaining the possibility that they might actually be cut off from any possibility of getting health insurance. One doesnt have to be Sherlock Holmes to recognize that making health insurance affordable for low-income people is not a high priority for some politicians. I wonder how many of the people who have recently signed up for insurance have spent the last few years parroting the talking points about tyranny of the ACA. As Josh Hill noted, there is something grimly amusing about this situation. It is ridiculous on the face of it. Yes, it is ridiculous for us to have to stress over whether Congress is going to cancel the affordable care act, leaving people with no insurance. If this program needs tweaking, do so, dont drop it. Maybe the carriers themselves deserve some scrutiny; they are notorious for raising rates every year, Obama care or not. I am a medical doctor well-versed in health policies, but it doesnt take an advanced degree to know that what the Republicans are proposing defies common sense. ACA could use some tweaks, easy to make. The people I have talked to are pleased to have benefits, although theyd like to see premiums kept down. It needs improving, not a death knell. People need to flood social media in support of Healthcare for all, not only those with great jobs, or the wealthy. What a bizarre world we live in. People voting for a party that says they will repeal the ACA and then the same people rush to sign up for it in case they really meant theyd take it away. Make America Sick Again, a veiled reference to Trumps campaign slogan Make America Great Again being parroted by Congressional Democrats may seem to be a partisan theme but in reality throwing away the ACA will definitely guarantee more Americans left with limited options when they get sick. So, does a Trump Administration desire to return to pre-Obamacare era and deny healthcare from more than 20 million Americans? ACA didnt just make health care insurance available for 22 million (or so) Americans. 137 million Americans saw improvement in their own health insurance by expanding coverage for preexisting conditions, ending lifetime caps, making coverage for offspring up to age 26, and other insurance reforms. A wide swath of the public needed the ACA and found relief. Only in America can a one week stay in the hospital cost more than your average middle income earners entire annual salary. Repealing the law would throw all those millions of Americans back to the sharks, to be ripped off by rotten insurance plans that take fat premium payments from us and refuse to cover illness when needed. Repeal and replace strategy doesnt actually solve any of the problems. In fact they will make most of them worse. All of the major components of the affordable care act work together and you cant just kill some of them without messing everything up. Simplest explanation is the old joke about a motorist who runs over a pedestrian, then tries to fix the damage by backing up.and runs over the victim a second time. The linchpin in the whole thing is the individual mandate which is the one component that is most unpopular. Everything else is pretty popular. You cant kill the individual mandate and keep the prohibition against denying coverage for preexisting conditions or the lifetime limits. Not unless you want insurance markets to completely collapse in a death spiral of rising costs. ACA has been portrayed as collapsing under its own weight, unable to hold down health costs or provide the insurance choices its advocates promised. Now, lets throw a spanner in the works of this argument. regarding the higher than expected health costs and subsequent bailing of insurers, wasnt this attributed to the pent-up demand for medical care of patients? Many had not had medical care for years prior to the ACA. As such, their medical conditions went untreated and were worse, and thus more expensive to treat, than if they had medical care all along. If the population is too sick to profitably insure, then perhaps the private insurance market is not the right model to use. Health care for profits is a violation of basic human right! I always thought that when these insurers go to church for show and hear the priest/pastor say that its better to give than to receive they are all laughing inside their hearts and minds and goingright!, only for suckers. Like Jesus, healing the sick for free, thats nuts! Pathetic lack of humanity and empathy vacuumisnt it? Perhaps the ACA needs a public option as a complement to the private insurers. Or, perhaps we need Medicare for all to provide a basic and humane level of care, with private insurers filling the demand for supplemental coverage. I think health care shouldnt be a privilege; it should be a right for all. If you are wealthy enough for the bells and whistles, lovely, but your wealth should not determine your treatment. Just remember, a healthy population is a productive population. Healthy people work, start businesses, and pay taxes. Dr. Osy Ekwueme Medical Professional and policy analyst The government of President Yahya Jammeh, defeated in Gambias December presidential election, has arbitrarily arrested opposition sympathizers and closed three independent radio stations in the past week, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said today. Jammeh is required under Gambias constitution to cede power to president-elect Adama Barrow by January 19, 2017. Since December 31, intelligence agents have arrested and briefly detained at least six people for wearing or selling t-shirts bearing the logo of the #Gambiahasdecided movement, which has called for Jammeh to respect the election results and step down. Several senior members of the movement have fled Gambia after receiving credible threats from alleged National Intelligence Agency (NIA) officers. On January 1, intelligence agents forcibly closed three private radio stations, depriving Gambians of independent sources of information during this critical period. The targeting of the #Gambiahasdecided movement and the closure of private radio stations threaten the rights of Gambians to express their opposition to Jammehs attempt to stay in power, said Jim Wormington, West Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. Its at times like this that free expression is most crucial. Jammeh publicly conceded defeat the day after the December 1 election, but then rejected the results on December 9, criticizing what he called the treacherous Independent Election Commission (IEC) for its lack of independence. Gambian security forces on December 13 evicted Alieu Momarr Njai, the commission chairman, and his staff from their headquarters. Njai subsequently told Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International that he feared for his safety, and on December 30 he left Gambia to seek refuge abroad. Jammehs party, the Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC), on December 13 filed a challenge to the election results in the Supreme Court. Because the Supreme Court has no permanent associate judges, and so hearing the case would require Jammeh to appoint new justices, the Gambian Bar Association has said this appeal is fundamentally tainted. Jammehs refusal to accept the election results has been widely condemned internationally, including by the United Nations Security Council, the African Union, and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). On December 17, ECOWAS said that when Jammehs term ends on January 19, Barrow must be sworn in and promised to take all necessary actions to enforce the election results. Sources in Gambia described to Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International how intelligence agents detained two men, Alpha Sey and Muhammed Kuyateh, wearing #Gambiahasdecided t-shirts on the evening of December 31. One witness said five men in civilian clothes forced Sey into a white pickup truck. They asked to have a word with him and, after a brief conversation, they just pushed him into the car, the witness said. Sey was the only one wearing a #Gambiahasdecided t-shirt, and I heard him say, Theres no need for me to get in the car, I can just take it off. But they forced him in anyway. Another witness described how on December 31 men in civilian clothes forced Kuyateh into a vehicle in Bakoteh, a suburb of Banjul, apparently for wearing a #Gambiahasdecided t-shirt. Kuyateh and Sey were held incommunicado at NIA headquarters, then released on bail on January 3. Intelligence officers detained three store managers selling #Gambiahasdecided merchandise in the Westfield area of Serrekunda on the evening of December 31. Ebrima Sambou, Mamie Serreh, and Isatou Jallow told Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International that the intelligence officers came to their shops and confiscated t-shirts and other materials featuring the text #Gambiahasdecided or graphics supportive of president-elect Barrow or the opposition coalition. They were then taken to the intelligence agency headquarters in Banjul, where they were questioned about the suppliers of this merchandise, and released a few hours later. The store merchandise has not been returned. Serreh said that before she was released, an intelligence officer told her, Anything you say about this, it will come back to you. The wife of another of the store managers left Gambia soon after his release, fearing for her safety. Intelligence officers also reportedly detained a coalition supporter, Wandifa Kanyi, for selling t-shirts in Serrekunda on January 2. Kanyi was released on January 3. Two founding members of the #Gambiahasdecided movement, Salieu Taal and Raffi Diab, fled Gambia on December 31 after receiving what they believe was credible information of their imminent detention by the intelligence agency. The agency has a long track record of arbitrarily arresting opposition activists, many of whom were tortured and sometimes killed while in agency custody. Taal, the movements chair, said that NIA officers nearly intercepted him outside his house on December 31. I believe Jammeh is trying to send a message, to stop us from resisting his attempt to stay in power, he told Human Rights Watch and Amnesty. But we wont be intimidated. On January 1, intelligence agents forced three private radio stations, Teranga FM, Hilltop Radio and Afri Radio, to go off air. Although Afri Radio was reopened again on January 3, it is not currently airing news-related material. Given the governments control of state television and radio, private radio stations provide an important outlet for Gambians to access dissenting views and opinions, although the security forces history of arresting and intimidating journalists have caused many to self-censor. Teranga FM and Hilltop Radio were two stations that discussed diverse political news in local languages. Emil Touray, president of the Gambia Press Union, told Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International that the radio closures, denied Gambians several essential media outlets during a crucial phase in the countrys history. Teranga FM has been closed three times in recent years and the station's managing director, Alhagie Ceesay, was arrested in July 2015, beaten and tortured at the NIA headquarters and then charged with sedition. He escaped from custody and fled abroad in April 2016. As the deadline for Jammeh to leave office and transfer power nears, the Gambian authorities and security forces should respect and protect the rights of all Gambians to freely and peacefully express their political views and opinions, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said. Private radio stations should be free to operate without government interference or fear of reprisals. The risk of a crackdown against independent and critical voices will only increase as calls for Jammeh to step down intensify prior to the January 19 deadline, said Sabrina Mahtani, West Africa researcher at Amnesty International. The Gambian authorities must send a clear message that human rights abuses, including by members of the security forces, will not be tolerated and that those responsible for abuses during the transition will be adequately investigated and prosecuted. For more Human Rights Watch reporting on Gambia, please visit: https://www.hrw.org/africa/gambia For more Amnesty International reporting on Gambia, please visit: https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/africa/gambia/ Accra, Jan. 5, GNA - Players in the financial sector shakes trading on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) on Wednesday as at the close of trading, activities were registered in ten equities with four price changes; with all the market movers from the financial sector. The benchmark GSE-Composite Index rose by 0.3 per cent to close at 1,703.3 points. The GSE-Financial Stock Index also gained 0.4 per cent to close at 1,562.7 points, the Nordea Capital Investment stock market analysis made available to the Ghana News Agency in Accra, revealed. According to the Nordea Capital Analysts the SIC Insurance led the advancers by appreciating 8.3 per cent to close at GH0.13 per share; whilst Societe Generale and CAL Bank gained 6.5 per cent and 2.6 per cent each to close at GH0.66 per share and GH0.78 per share respectively. The GCB Bank inched up by 0.3 per cent to close at GH3.61 per share, whilst Liquidity and Turnover however declined by 97.1 per cent and 96.8 per cent respectively compared to the previous session Nordea Capital is an investment bank, licensed by the Securities and Exchange Commission and offers a comprehensive range of services in asset management, research and strategy, corporate finance and private equity to institutional, corporate and private clients. GNA Accra, Jan 4, GNA - Unilever Ghana Limited has appointed Mr Yeo Ziobeieton as the new Managing Director of the Company with effect from January 1, 2017. Mr Ziobeieton assumes his new role with 14 years experience with Unilever Cote d'Ivoire, Dakar, Durban, Kenya and South Africa, an official statement, has said. He takes over from Ms Maidie Arkutu, who took up a new role as the Vice President of Francophone Africa, within the Unilever Group, on the same date. On November 1, 2016, Mr Edward Effah was appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors, replacing Mr. Ishmael Yamson, who resigned after a successful 12-year run as a Non-Executive Chairman of the Unilever Ghana Board, having already served as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman for 18 years. Mr Effah, who is currently the Group CEO and Chairman of the Fidelity Group, has more than 15 years of experience in senior executive positions in finance and treasury management. He is a Chartered Accountant by profession and a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and also a member of the Institute of Directors (UK). The appointments are in line with the regulatory requirements and Unilever's company policies following the completion of the successful tenure of office by the outgoing directors. All the appointments take effect on January 17, 2016, with the exception of that of the Chairman of the Board of Directors. Mr Yaw Nsarkoh, the new Executive Vice President of the Ghana/Nigeria cluster and Mrs Adesola Sotande-Peters, new Chief Finance Officer for Ghana/Nigeria have also both been appointed as Non-Executive Directors of Unilever Ghana. Until his appointment as the Executive Vice President Ghana and Nigeria, Mr Nsarkoh served as the Managing Director, of Unilever Nigeria. Luc-Olivier Marquet, Vice President of Unilever West Africa, has also moved into a new role as the Executive Vice President of Unilever's South Africa business, while Miguel Marquez, the Finance Director of Unilever Ghana, moved into another role within the Unilever finance chain. The new Directors come with a wealth of experience having served in various leadership and top executive positions within and outside of the Company, the statement said. Mrs Sotande-Peters, is a Finance Executive with a strong business finance leaning and with more than 22 years varied professional experience, spanning various organisations such as the British Broadcasting Corporation, UK, Informa Group UK, Openwave Telecoms UK, Diageo Plc (Guinness Nigeria Plc, East African Breweries Limited (Kenya), and Guinness Cameroon SA). She has held various senior finance roles in commercial/strategic finance, financial management consultancy/analysis, with a strong focus on people development/mentoring. GNA By Edmund Quaynor, GNA Huhunya (E/R), Jan 05, GNA - The Eastern Regional branch of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) alumnae, has donated assorted items, costing over GHE4,000.00 in support of the 'Hour of Grace Children's Home', an orphanage at Huhunya, near the Boti Falls. These included bags of rice, biscuits, soft drinks, toiletry, and large quantity of exercise books. Medical professionals in the group used the occasion to assist deworm the children. Mr. Bright Boateng, the Regional Chairman, said it was their contribution towards efforts at helping to take care of the orphans. He pledged not only to make regular visits to the Home but to also register every child there for the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to enable them to have access to quality healthcare. Mr. Lawrence Gbengor, the Founder, said they were grateful to the KNUST alumnae for of the gesture, adding that, it could not have come at a better time - the Yuletide. The orphanage provides shelter and care for 45 children. GNA By George-Ramsey Benamba, GNA Accra, Jan 5, GNA - President John Dramani Mahama on Thursday delivered his last State of the Nation Address (SONA) to Parliament stating that he would not do self-appraisal but would allow history to judge his performance in governance. He said:"Politics is about continuity and the desire to advance the development agenda of the country and I believe I have played my part diligently during my tenure of office." The SONA gives the sitting President the opportunity to tell the citizens, what government has done for their advancement and other measures, programmes and projects that were underway for the benefit of all. Having given similar addresses in 2013, 2014 and 2015, this SONA served as the last for President Mahama as President of the Republic as he is handing over power on Saturday, January 7 this year. The programme was also attended by Vice President Paa Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur, Former Presidents Jerry John Rawlings and John Agyekum Kufuor, Chief Justice Georgina Theodora Wood and members of the Diplomatic Corps. President Mahama said although, multi-partisanship was essential for the growth and development of democracy and governance, there was the need to avoid the use of entrenched positions to create unbridled political division. "Belonging to different political parties is acceptable, but when people take advantage of that to break our moral fibre through insults and other abusive languages it becomes another thing." President Mahama said the essence of continuity in governance was to make the citizens feel comfortable with the rate of development irrespective of which political party was in power. "President Jerry John Rawlings during his tenure introduced some economic reform programmes, President John Agyekum Kufuor introduced the Highly Indebted Poor Countries programme that brought about a lot of dividends and the late President John Evans Atta Mills and my administrations have also brought in a lot of economic reforms and that's what I am talking about." On President-elect Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo, President Mahama said the two of them had worked together since 1997 when they both entered Parliament as Members of Parliament for their respective constituencies and he had since developed a lot of respect for the President-elect. He said as politicians with different political backgrounds it was only normal for them to carry out 'political exchanges' that were useful for democracy, but now that he had lost, he would continue to wish Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo success in his term of office. On transport and roads, President Mahama said his administration had built the Kwame Nkrumah Circle Interchange, expanded the Tamale and Kumasi Airports and began work on the Ho and Wa Airports. He said expansion programmes at the Tema and Takoradi ports had reached advanced stages and would create a number of jobs and reduce the number of days in clearing goods. GNA Accra Jan. 5, GNA - President John Dramani Mahama has eulogized the President elect, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo saying they both entered Parliament in 1997 as parliamentarians. "I started my political carrier in holding first public office in parliament and i end it today here in Parliament". According to him, he and Nana Akufo Addo served Parliament on five consecutive times for their respective constituencies namely Akyem Abuakwa and Bole Bamboi respectively. President Mahama eulogized the Nana Akufo Addo in his last state of the nation address ahead of the dissolution of the sixth Parliament on Friday January 6 in Accra. The President's final statement of the nation address was in accordance with Article 67 of the 1992 Constitution. President Mahama said they had an encounter during the murder of some Ghanaian youth in the Gambia and during their interactions they become so close that Nana started addressing him as "Johnny". He asked Ghanaians to give the President elect the support they offered him, adding he was also happy that Nana Addo had promised to continue with his infrastructural developments. GNA By D.I. Laary, GNA Accra, Jan. 4, GNA - The incoming Government has been urged to introduce new and realistic housing policies to address the growing accommodation shortfalls, and open up more employment opportunities for the youth. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Danywise Estate and Construction, Mr Frank Aboagye Danyansah told the Ghana News Agency that the new administration, scheduled to take office on January 7, ought to look at ways of finishing all the 4,900 housing units started during President John Agyekum Kufuor's era. He said the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo's Government should also complete the 5,000 units that were almost completed by the National Democratic Congress as part of austerity measures to deal with joblessness. The World Bank, in May last year, reported that about 48 per cent of the youth from 15 to 24 years in Ghana did not have jobs and estimated that the figure would peak in the coming decade, thus raising concerns about the preparedness of managers of the economy to deal with the problem. But the construction expert said the unemployment challenges could be solved substantially by paying attention to the housing industry - which had a value chain that could engage more than 80,000 unwaged youth. 'I am expecting this new government to come up with new and pragmatic policies to address this huge unemployment problem facing our country. As a country, let us set our priorities right. 'This will help close the worrying housing deficit, and I think the construction industry is the sector to look at,' he said. The country's housing shortfall is pegged at 1.7 million units, and expected to climb to two million by 2018. This implies that government will have to build 190,000 to 200,000 units each year for the next 10 years to bridge the widening gap, Mr Danyansah said. 'To the incoming government, the construction industry deserves better if [the incoming government] is really serious about creating jobs for our teeming young graduates without work,' he said. Mr Danyansah noted that the active private sector involvement in the Government's affordable housing project that had been abandoned for sometime now, but this could help bridge the growing housing deficits if Nana Akufo-Addo's Government should initiate the right polices. GNA Accra, Jan. 4, GNA - The Accra North-East District Youth of the Accra City Conference of the Seventh - day Adventist (SDA) Church has trained the youth in the Obo-Kwahu Community in the Eastern Region in beads and soap making. The beneficiaries were trained during an annual camp programme organised by the mission, to enhance their livelihood. The camp was aimed at fortifying the spiritual upliftment of the citizenry in the communities they visit. Pastor Theodore Gyamfi, the District Pastor in an interview with Ghana News Agency, said this year's programme was unique due to the inclusion of community impart activities. He advised the youth to venture into entrepreneurship to earn a living. As part of activities of the camp, the youth undertook a street evangelism to share the love of God through music and the distribution of bible tracts. GNA President John Mahama has urged Ghanaians to shun cynicism and divided front as Nana Akufo-Addo takes over as President Saturday. We can see, too, the divide that it is threatening to create in ours if we are not careful. Already, it has taken a toll on our morale and our sense of optimism. It has given way to a cynicism that is as dangerous to the incoming political party as it was to ours. We cannot afford as a nation to wish or hope for the failure of any president and his or her government. Ensuring accountability is not the same as leveling insults or encouraging apathy. We have history as proof that we have been better and we have done better. And we will, we must, do better once again, Mr. Mahama said in his last State of The Nation Address to parliament Thursday. The President also noted that he did his best for the country while in charge over the last four years. As I have said before, I will allow history to be the judge of how I have served our nation, how well I have done my part in running my lap of the relay. What that verdict will ultimately be, I cannot say. I can only say that I have done my best, given my all and done so with the best intentions for my country, our country. This is why I stand here today, Mr. Speaker, holding the baton of leadership prepared to pass it on with pride, goodwill and determination, to Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and ask all Ghanaians to cheer him on as he runs his portion of this relay for Ghana. -Starrfmonline Outgoing Majority Chief Whip, Mubarak Mohammed Muntaka says Parliament would be unable to pass the Right to Information Bill (RTI), less than 24 hours to the dissolution of the House. He said discussions between New Patriotic Party (NPP) and National Democratic Congress (NDC) Members of Parliament (MP) over the passage of the bill were not positive. Speaking to Evans Mensah, host of Joy FM's Top Story programme Thursday, the Asawase Constituency MP was doubtful if the bill would see the light of day before midnight of January 6. Outgoing President John Mahama has charged MPs to build consensus to ensure the passage of the RTI bill when he delivered his final State of the Nation Address. He thanked the House for passing the many bills his government has brought before it, saying Ghanaians would be proud if the longest bill in the history of the country is passed into law. But Mohammed Muntaka who is the Minority Chief Whip designate for the seventh Parliament said it would be difficult for the outgoing President's wish to be honored because of the lack of consensus in the House. "I doubt with all sincerity and apologise that we will not be able to do the wish of the outgoing President," he said. Ranking Member of Parliament's Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee, Joe Osei Owusu described the outgoing President's wish as laughable. He said President Mahama's call for the passage of the RTI bill was coming at the wrong time after he had failed to push for the passage of the bill during the eight years of the NDC government. "It is a wish, but didn't come in good time to be respected." The current global political, and security environment remains chaotic, dangerous, and unstable. While the Obama Administration has done its best to address them, there is no doubt that the incoming Donald Trump Administration will inherit one of the most difficult and challenging set of problems since the end of the Second World War. Under Obamas presidency, America has seen its global leadership challenged by China in the South China Sea and by Russia in the Middle East and Ukraine. In 2015, United States' allies in Europe including UK, France, Germany and Italy defied US to join Chinas newly established World Bank-style Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Australia and South Korea (two key US allies in Northeast Asia) have indicated that they would join China's AIIB. Philippines, a long-time US ally is moving towards Chinas orbit. Chinas $45 billion investment in infrastructure building in Pakistan (part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor) has seen Islamabad move ever more closer to Beijing. Africa and Latin American countries are also deepening their relationship with Beijing in an unprecedented fashion. But that is not all. Under Obama's leadership, cybersecurity threats and other non-traditional security threats have grown greatly from states and nonstates alike including Russia, China, North Korea, ISIS, al Qaeda and other terrorist networks with the US claiming that its November 7, 2016 presidential and congressional elections were influenced by Russias cyber intrusion. Much of the chaos we are witnessing (cybersecurity threats; the growth of ISIS and terrorism; instability in Ukraine, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, Yemen) are partly the result of Obama's idealist foreign policy strategic thinking. Unlike the realists Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping who think their countries are in a perpetual geopolitical struggle and competition with the United States for global power and dominance (including economic, military, political, technological and cultural dominance), an idealist Obama does not share such thinking. In fact, while for example Putin is obsessed with power and revival of Russias lost global influence, Obama has been more concerned with the welfare of humanity, and how to help America recover and restore its tattered image after its disastrous invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan. Indeed, since assuming the presidency, Obama has made a number of foreign policy decisions that are different from the hawkish policies of his immediate predecessor. One of such foreign policy actions was his decision to withdraw US troops from Iraq at the time when Al Qaeda was not completely defeated and was still causing havoc in the country. That decision to withdraw US troops led to the lightning rise of ISIS and the danger it continues to pose to Europe, Africa and the Middle East. However, the decision to withdraw the troops is located in Obamas belief that the world and particularly the Middle East would be more peaceful without the United States permanently stationing troops in Iraq. That thinking also informed Obamas planned (and later botched) troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. Obama's idealist philosophy was clearly demonstrated when he became reluctant to use force against Assad of Syria. Even after Assad had crossed Obamas redlines several times, the US President still did not order troops to attack Assad as was anticipated. Besides, Obama gave a tepid support to Syrian rebels fighting to unseat Assad. While Obama ordered US planes to bomb ISIS positions in Raqqa, he provided only limited military assets to the rebels which contributed to their poor performance on the battlefield. On the other hand, the insertion of Putin in the Syrian conflict on the side of Assad, strategically changed the direction of the conflict in favour of Assad. In December 2016, Aleppo, Syrias biggest city fell to Assad after Russias increased bombardment from the sky. Obama's idealist leaning also explains his less than enthusiastic support for Ukrainians against Russia's incursions into Ukraine and subsequent annexation of Crimea. Putins aggressive posture in Ukraine is in line with his thinking that the United States and her European allies were trying to undermine Russia by encroaching on Moscow's sphere of influence. Putin saw the collapse of the pro-Russia government of Viktor Yanucovich as the final proof that the United States and Europe were determined to limit Russias influence in its own neighbourhood. Putin therefore reacted in a typical realist fashion: the immediate deployment of Russias military and cybersecurity capabilities. Putin annexed Crimea and provided direct military support to the rebels in Eastern Ukraine. Rather than Obama providing huge military support to enable the government in Kiev to regain control of the eastern provinces, he rather mobilised European countries to impose sanctions on Moscow, a proof that he was less enthusiastic in escalating the conflict with Putin. The sanctions did not cause Putin to alter his behaviour in Ukraine. There are also other decisions Obama made which point to his lack of belief in guns and tanks as a way of resolving global conflict. President Obama was initially reluctant to fight ISIS in Iraq and Syria. When ISIS swept across northern Iraq and took Mosul and begun pursuing Yazidis, Christians and other minorities, Obamas immediate response was to fly humanitarian supplies to those who fled to the Sinjar Mountain to escape the ISIS onslaught. Even when Obama resolved to fight ISIS in Iraq, he decided to let Iraqi soldiers take the lead in the fight to recapture Mosul. That decision is a continuation of Obamas earlier decision in Libya where he decided to let the United States lead from behind. Rather than let the United States lead the war against Gaddafi, Obama took a back seat and allowed France and Britain to lead the fight. Similarly, when Houthi rebels seized Sanaa, Yemens capital, and ousted President Mansour Hadi, it was King Salman and Saudi Arabia (not Obama and the United States) that became the decider. President Obama decided to let regional powers take the lead in regional wars as against say in 1990 when US intervened to oust Iraqi forces from Kuwait during the Gulf War I. Meanwhile Putin was very decisive when Mikheil Saakachvilis government in Tbilisi provoked Moscow in 2008. Putins quickly made it clear to the leadership in Georgia that they would risk destroying their country if they continued to provoke Moscow. Putins defeat of Mikheil Saakachvili was very humiliating for George Bush who did nothing to help its caucasus ally. Putin is the opposite of Obama. To paraphrase Robert Kagan, Putin is from Mars. Obama is from Venus. Obama believes in the rule of law; multilateral approach to addressing global problems. He is sensitive to domestic and international public opinion, has a strong faith in diplomacy and negotiation as tools to resolving regional conflict. Putin on the other hand favours unilateralism, and the use of hard power. While President Putin is aggressively asserting Russia's influence in Russia's neighbourhood (e.g. in Ukraine, Georgia, Belarus, and in the Middle East e.g. Syria), Obama has done little to counterbalance Putin in the geopolitical struggle for control of Eurasia i.e. Europe and Asia. In Asia, China's rise as a great power continues to overwhelm both the US and China's neighbours particularly Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea etc. For several decades the United States was the leading trading partner of Japan and South Korea. However, in 2004 China replaced the United States as South Korea's s leading trading partner. Similarly in 2007 China overtook the United States as Japan's leading trading partner. China's growing trade relations with Japan and South Korea has altered the balance of power in Northeast Asia in favour of China. Indeed, Beijing's growing global economic clout and the accompanied rising military muscle have enabled China to challenge US primacy and as a hegemon in Asia. Obama responded to China's assertiveness with several policies including the huge free trade agreement with 12 Asia-Pacific nations commonly called Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and the pivot to Asia policy (the transfer of US military assets and alliances with Asia countries intended to encircle and contain China, and boost US position in Asia). Meanwhile China has countered the pivot and the TPP through a series of strategies including Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP), the Silk Road Economic Belt strategy, the Maritime Silk Road strategy and adamantly continuing to develop and build military assets on the disputed South China Sea littoral islands. Obama was hailed as a pacifist trying to bring peace rather than war in the world and was rewarded with a Nobel Peace Prize. Under his 8 year tenure as POTUS (President of the United States), Obama made it a top priority to end the more than half a century old conflict between Israelis and the Palestinians. Though he did not succeed, his effort to bring peace to the region was more genuine than some of his predecessors. Obama also attempted to reset US relations with Russia and tried hard to work cooperatively with the Kremlin. One of his major efforts was to denuclearise the world by engaging Russia to cut the number of their nuclear stockpiles. US and Russia currently possess about 90% of the close to 20,000 nuclear stockpiles in the world. Both countries combined have 3000 nuclear warheads that can be deployed at any time. It was Obamas belief that the world will be more peaceful without nuclear weapons hence his insistence on reaching nuclear deal with Iran. Indeed, Obamas negotiations with Iran to freeze to Tehran's nuclear activities and to free the Middle East from arms race and weapons of mass destruction could not have happened under any Realist president. Obama's decision to end more than 50 years of animosity with its southern neighbour i.e. Cuba, represents a major paradigm shift in US foreign policy calculations. His visit to Cuba is a testament to his in peace and good neighbourliness. That Americans and Cubans can freely visit each other, do business together can only happen under a leader who does not believe in a zero sum foreign policy making. Indeed Obamas Cuba gestures has brought the final chapter of the Cold War to an end. Climate change has been touted as one of the leading political, economic, social and environmental threats of our time. Obama has recognised the threat a warming planet and changing climate pose to humanity. He has pushed for emissions cut with major polluters like China, the European Union, India and other major polluters. The Paris climate agreement represents a hope for humanity. On the home front, when Obama took office in 2009, the US economic and financial systems were on the brink of a total meltdown, a problem which also threatened the health of the global economy and finance. But today the economic and financial meltdown have been brought under control. US financial and automobile corporations have seen their fortunes revived. More than 11 million jobs were created. How will history judge Obama? In my opinion Obama will be judged as a president whose love for humanity, global peace (as against Putins narrow national interests) forced him to take decisions that made his enemies gear for his blood while his admirers wished he had governed for a long time. 5 January 2017 Rabat (AFP) - Morocco has ordered the closure of schools it says are linked to a US-based Islamic preacher that Turkey blames for a failed coup last year, the interior ministry said. "Investigations on the establishments of the Mohamed Al-Fatih group, linked to Turkish national Fethullah Gulen, showed they use education to spread the group's ideology and ideas contrary to the principles of the Moroccan educational and religious system," a ministry statement said. After a series of warnings from the education ministry, "it was decided all the group's educational establishments would be closed within a delay of one month", it said. The statement did not say how many schools or pupils would be affected but said the government would strive to ensure the students continued their education in other schools. Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999, has denied any involvement in the July 15 failed coup aimed at toppling Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The preacher heads the Hizmet group which includes schools, associations and companies. Turkey, which calls it the Fethullah Terror Organisation (FETO), has embarked on a massive crackdown of the group. Since the coup, Turkey has piled pressure on the United States to extradite Gulen, a one-time Erdogan ally. In August, an official Turkish delegation visited Morocco to convince the authorities of the danger of Gulen's group. A school director from the Mohamed Al-Fatih group at the time rejected any link with Gulen for seven schools teaching 2,500 students including 2,470 Moroccans. He said 90 percent of their teachers were also Moroccan nationals. Minutes after mid-night Friday, Prof Mike Ocquaye will be proposed and most likely sworn-in as Speaker of Parliament for the Seventh Parliament of the 4th Republic. This was confirmed by Joe Osei Owusu who himself has been proposed for a First Deputy Speaker role and will be sworn-in tomorrow. With a unanimous endorsement from the caucus of the Majority in Parliament, which in the next few hours will shrink into minority, Alban Bagbin has been elevated to the position of second Deputy Speaker and will most likely be sworn-in as well. Per Parliamentary practice, the Majority will propose two names for the Speaker and Deputy Speaker role hoping to get the support of the House and be voted for. With the lopsided Parliament, it will be a spectacular oddity for the two Speakers not to be sworn in by the overwhelming majority. The Minority will also propose its Second Deputy, hoping the Majority will accept their proposal and vote for him The confirmation of Prof Ocquaye, Osei Owusu and Bagbin come days after lobbying, speculations as to who will steer the affairs of the House for the next four years. These confirmations and the swearing in of the personnel also effectively ends the tenure of President John Mahama whose second term bid was terminated in a horrendous election defeat. Speaking to Joy News', Evans Mensah, the incoming First Deputy Speaker Joe Osei Owusu said he never hoped for a career in the Legislature but for the interest of the party and the development of the country he will give off his best. He has been eying for a job in the executive arm of government. The Executive is where my hopes were. I never thought I would have a career in Parliament," he said. "It is not what I want but what the team believes deems fit," he pointed stating that as Deputy Speaker he will firm but fair in the discharge of his duties. He said there is a real desire to see a new image of Parliament and do well to check the actions of the executive. Story by Ghana|Myjoyonline.com|Nathan Gadugah A former Chief of Staff under the Kufour Administration, Kwadwo Mpiani, has made a staggering revelation that he is surprised president- elect Nana Addo won the December 7 ,2016 polls with 53.85% The President- elect and Leader of the opposition New Patriotic Party, Nana Addo Danquah Akuffo Addo won the elections with 5,716,026 votes representing 53.85% by beating his closest contender, John Dramani Mahama who polled 4,713,277 votes representing 44.40% based on 271 out of 275 constituencies declared. Surprisingly, I was shocked Nana Addo could poll such votes, I never dreamt about it Kwadwo Mpiani, the former chief of staff under the President John Agyekum Kuffours administration told HOT FMS Political Show Host BOAMAH DARKO ISAAC in a live interview Thursday afternoon. Nana Addo Danquah Akuffo Addo won the elections with a difference of 1,002,749 votes representing 9.45%. He indicated he has called to congratulate the President elect and urge him to appoint young and energetic people as ministers and do away with the aged because the youth need to tap experience from the old. He advised the NDC conduct an investigation to ascertain why the NDC lost the elections and take a cue from that so they may not fail Ghanaians. With all his bad mouth and loud noise, Yaya Jammeh is least prepared for the war against ECOWAS forces. Should he refuse stepping down when his mandate expires on 19 January 2017 December electoral defeat here are simple facts at hand that suggest Yaya Jammeh does not have what it takes to win war on him: 1. Yaya Jammeh is not a trained army commander By provision of Gambian constitution Yaya Jammeh assumes the title Commander-In-Chief Gambia Armed Forces. In reality, Yaya Jammeh is not trained to command even active scouts group let alone armed forces. After 22 July 1994 coup that placed Jammeh in the seat of Gambian presidency by forced rule he has no interest about management of the army. Jammehs preoccupation is all about getting rich quick. Gambian army only exists by name with senior personnel being bribed to play in Jammehs interest. They enjoy the loot with him and pretend to be captains or generals by name. 2. Gambia does not have warring army It is an open secret that Gambia does not have a warring army. Captains and generals acquired their colourful titles on the sofa chair and not at war front. In the event of any serious war, many of those captains and generals will run for their life broad day light. They are not prepared for war and their commander-in chief (Yaya Jammeh) has never commanded even basic military exercise. He spent over 22 years stealing Gambian public money and squandering resources. 3. Untested, rusted weapons in the hands of untrusted soldiers Over the 22 years of his dictatorial misrule Yaya Jammeh also engaged in drug dealings, arms trade and money laundering. He bought some weapons stored at various locations. Some of these weapons have not been tested and for the longest time collecting dust. There is no doubt lot of Jammehs weapons have gone rusted. Besides, Jammeh was all the scared to arm Gambian soldiers just in case they may decide to dislodge him by coup. So we are thinking about an army with rusted weapons. They are not trained to use those weapons. Jammeh stored weapons as cover up but never seriously prepared for real war. He is unfit and unprepared for war. 4. Jammeh is unable to manage crisis He seized by dislodging an established government. Jammeh however is so deficient in managing anything good. By occasion of his total incompetence, Jammeh mismanaged entire government. He broke down all structures, deviated standards, and created total lack of orderly dispensation. If we have to go by experience of Yaya Jammeh regarding management he is total failure. Someone who is unable to manage orderly process is most certainly at risk of failure in managing crisis. When Jammeh invites ECOWAS for war by his refusal to step down, he will be seriously defeated. He cannot manage crisis and has nobody around him prepared for what real war entails. 5. Putting his supporters in trouble, shame and scandal Supporters of Yaya Jammeh are put to shame and trouble. In the event of war Jammeh is unable to create safety for his already petrified, hopeless supporters. The whole nation will be facing same terrible situation. It is big shame, scandalous, and highly troubling that a man who bragged about his commitment in advancing Gambia is now bent on bringing war as reward for those who believed in his loud mouth rantings. When Jammeh manages to escape after war starts or even before, he will leave his supporters with tongue biting regrets. None of his past and present generals or retired ranks of Gambia army will stand the heat. They all want good life and will avoid getting killed. In the end, ECOWAS forces will prevail, giving Gambians lasting confidence that their tormenting dictator Yaya Jammeh is no more. Jammeh lost elections he will never recover. Gambia has population of over 2 million out of which better choice can be made for suitable leadership. Jammeh is seen to be so deluded by his imagination that right thinking Gambians will accept his return as ruthless tyrant and selfishly grabbing economic criminal. He is calling for war most certainly too heavy to keep him in that seat. GAMBIA DECIDED. Game over for Yaya Jammeh along his gang of economic criminals and ruthless murderers. There is end of tyranny. Beyond dark days lasting 22 years is now light for better times in Gambia. Reports from Abuja suggests that security operatives, on Wednesday evening, raided an Abuja house belonging to a brother-in-law to Nigerias former president Goodluck Jonathan. Premium Times reports that the house besieged is located in Maitama, one of the enclaves of Nigerias rich in Abuja. BREAKING: Tension rocks Abuja as EFCC raids Goodluck Jonathan's brother's house The spokespersons for the headquarters and Abuja command of the police said they were not aware of the operation, but security sources confirmed that police officers in uniform carried out the raid. According to our sources, the operatives searched all the rooms in the house. The house was allegedly bought for her brother by Patience Jonathan, who was said to be in Port Harcourt when the raid occurred on Wednesday. Although Mrs. Jonathans has been having a running battle with the anti-graft agency, EFCC, over the ownership of a controversial $15 million, sources at the commission said the EFCC did not carry out the raid. Earlier on their were speculations that the EFCC had raided the home of former President Goodluck Jonathan and whisked him away. Some post on Facebook speculated that the EFCC had taken the ex-president to an unspecified location. More details have emerged of the search of the residence of a brother to Jonathan, although no agency has owned up to the search. Witnesses and security operatives told newsmen that the raid was conducted by police officers, police spokespersons said they were not aware of it. A lawyer to Mrs Jonathan, Charles Ogbole, who was at the residence when the raid was conducted, told newsmen that about 20 to 25 police officers were at the Maitama house on Wednesday to carry out the raid. According to Ogbole, a leader of the police team claimed they came on the order of the Inspector General of Police. But immediately another man in mufti said the raid was ordered by the Attorney-General of the Federation. That one (the man in mufti) was the one who recorded their activities and took inventory, he added. When contacted, Saliu Isa, the spokesperson for Attorney General Abubakar Malami, told newsmen he was not aware his principal ordered the raid on the house. But I will find out, he said. Providing more details, Ogbole said that while the raid was ongoing, Mrs. Jonathan spoke with the operatives through the house guards phone, querying their mission at her brothers residence. I asked one of the policemen and he told me they were actually looking for a Judges house in that area which they could not locate with certainty. So he said they broke into the house (Jonathans in-laws) unsure of who the owner was, Mr. Ogbole claimed. He added that no search warrant was presented by the raid team. Sources close to the Jonathan family told the press that the house was built by Mrs Jonathan for her brother. Source: Legit.ng The chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, (CAN), Southwest Zone, Archbishop Magnus Atilade has shared some of his thoughts on the demonic forces in Aso Rock. In this interview with Sun News, he also spoke begged President Buhari to take urgent action concerning the delivery of dividends of democracy to millions of Nigerians who he noted are presently going through hard times. When asked about the declaration by Dr Reuben Abati, the spokesman of former President Goodluck Jonathan when he was in office,where he said that some demonic forces occupies Aso Rock and that they were responsible for some unpopular decisions, anti-masses policies and even strange behavior by our leaders whenever they were in Aso Rock, he had this to say: "I will say that we should not just dismiss Abatis assertions with a mere wave of the hands as some people want Nigerians to do. Abati is not a kid, if he had not seen anything, he would not have talked. READ ALSO: Accidental discharge in Aso Rock villa leaves staff wounded "For one, we all know that principalities and powerful forces exist and they can occupy anywhere. It is only power of prayers that can subdue them. "If principalities and power have not occupied Aso Rock, how would you explain the actions of some of our leaders that have at one time or the other been the landlords at Aso Rock, even including the present landlord there? "Some of our leaders before getting to Aso Rock would make a lot of promises to Nigerians but on getting to Aso Rock, they become changed persons, they become inaccessible, and Nigerians now become baffled as to what has gotten over them. "Of course, it is those principalities, and demons that are responsible. We need to carry out spiritual cleansing of Aso Rock. "However, in doing that, I will advise President Buhari to organize inter-faith prayers that will bring about Christian and Islamic leaders to pray and purge Aso Rock of any demonic influence, and this should be done very fast." READ ALSO: What former Abia governor Orji Uzor-Kalu discussed with Nnamdi Kanus parents Meanwhile, he also warned the president saying: he also warned the president saying: My appeal to President Buhari is that he should be careful on issues relating to religion. There are some Nigerians who already viewed him as a religious bigot. "Buhari should not play into the hands of those who have such views. He should realize that as the nations leader, he should not show bias for any religion or give preference to one over another." Below is a video of Reuben Abati speaking in 2015: Source: Legit.ng - A Biafra group has called on all group agitating for Biafra to be united - The group said it would take an offensive action against the government - It gave a one month ultimatum for the release of Nnamdi Kanu Biafra National Guard (BNG) which is a pro-Biafra group has given a one-month ultimatum to the federal government to release Nnamdi Kanu and other Biafra agitators in detention. The Sun reports that the group warned that it would carry out an offensive against the government unlike the first Biafra war which was more of a defensive one led by Odumegwu Ojukwu. READ ALSO: What former Abia governor Orji Uzor-Kalu discussed with Nnamdi Kanus parents The group said it has launched Operation Python Cry which is a parody of the Operation Python Dance launched by the Nigerian Army in 2016. BNG said it was in support f the activities of the Indigenous People Of Biafra and the Niger Delta Avengers and called on all Biafra groups to unify. Mr. Ruben Okoro who is the public relations officer of the group called for a collective army to fight internal and external enemies. The statement read: Lets forget our leadership tussles; rather, lets go like our fathers by casting lots and inquiring to find out from our gods who our fearless David is who holds our Offor Biafra, that is Biafras symbol of authority. This will help us confront and wage this war against our todays Goliath and Pharaoh. Our Biafran fathers fought only a war of self-defence from 1967-1970, but we Biafran youths will fight both offensive and defensive war to make the entire Biafraland safe. READ ALSO: Igbos have what it takes to be politically dominant in Nigeria - Ndigbo leader We now launch Operation Python Cry and hereby urge the Federal Government to release Kanu, Orji, Onwuka and other Biafra freedom fighters in jail. This must be done as quickly as possible on or before January ending, or else, all the pythons that are now dancing, will turn around and cry. To guard, defend and protect Biafraland and its territorial integrity is a task that must be done. Source: Legit.ng - Federal government has approved that airport security officers can now carry gun - The new aviation security arrangement will take the form of the United States Transportation Security Administration (TSA) With the fleeing of Boko Haram insurgents from Sambisa forest, the federal government has approved that security personnel at the nations airports will now bear arms as a measure to improve the general security at the airports and guard against any possible terror attacks. Federal government approves guns for airport security officers The government also assured that Nigeria will have a national carrier before the end of this year. In a related development, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the completion of Kaduna airport terminal building at the cost of N1 billion. READ ALSO: Unknown security operatives storm Abuja, raids Patience Jonathan's house Minister of state for aviation, Hadi Sirika, disclosed these to state house correspondents after the FEC meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential villa, Abuja. Sirika asserted that the federal government is very serious about aviation security, saying that, just last week, the president approved that aviation security personnel should bear arms. He explained that the new aviation security arrangement will take the form of the United States Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Sirika said: So we are trying to make them take the form and shape of TSA of the US with K-9 dogs, handcuffs, the guards, the batons, light weapons, etc. The minister of interior is helping us in that regard, with the directive of Mr. President. They are partnering with us and other stakeholders to keep our airports secure. All these will be unveiled at the next stakeholders meeting. On the issue of national carrier, the minister said it will be wholly private sector-driven. He contended that, with the exception of Ethiopian Airline, it had been proved that government does not do well with this kind of venture. He said: When we came in, we were very clear on our targets and goals and what we set out to achieve. And we did say that Nigeria does not have a national airline. The national airline will be one that the government will have no hand in; normally it can have three per cent. It will be private sector-led, private sector-driven. We are going to have a national carrier; it is on course, and because it is a Public-Private Project (PPP) thing, it has to go through IC and C, and it also has to follow all the due process. So it is time consuming, but I hope that, very soon, before the end of the year, we will have a very strong, viable national airline. For me, if any airline will have the capacity to deploy several aircraft with seamless operation, non-disruptive, provide the service, go the long haul, take advantage and give other international airlines a run for their money, we dont need to get involved; it is because there is none. The aviation minister recalled that the Nigerian Airways used to do all of this, but that in the wisdom of the then government, it liberalised the sector, adding that because of the absence of Nigerias capacity, most of these airlines came and left as fast as they came in. Sirika, however, gave the assurance that the government was addressing all of these concerns. We are going to establish this national carrier and it will give good service. This is the solution, because Nigeria has the market: we are 180 million (in population); we are sitting in West Africa, and in the West African market, we are 450 million (in population) and Nigeria is the major player." Sirika also revealed that FEC had approved the completion of the Kaduna terminal building for the sum of N1 billion. He noted that the contract for the project was awarded in 2011 and work commenced in 2012. READ ALSO: Be very careful of religious issues, Buhari warned According to him, the variation of contract sum became necessary when during the rehabilitation of the terminal building, a contractor noticed some structural damage to the building itself and then increased the scope of work to be done. On how to manage the closure of Abuja airport and construction of Kaduna terminal, he said that there is another elaborate terminal robust enough to take the passengers for the duration of six weeks. He said: It will not hinder it; it will not stop them also from working. It may be also a bonus if the contractor is able to run through and finish before March, but whether it is finished or not, it will not affect the operations because there are enough buildings to carry out the operations of the airport. Meanwhile, British Airways cabin crew has decided to embark on a 48-hour strike from January 10, 2017. The strike is as a result of an ongoing pay dispute. The decision to embark on a strike came after union members voted by 7 to 1 to reject a pay offer from the airline. Watch a video of some airline passengers fighting at the airport below: Source: Legit.ng Former aviation minister Femi Fani-Kayode has gone on rampage on social media and released very gruesome pictures of the alleged murders that took place in Southern Kaduna. Fani-Kayode claims the gory pictures he released on Twitter were those of gruesome murders in Southern Kaduna. Fani-Kayode tweeted the really graphic photos of Nigerians who were killed in the northern state by Fulani herdsmen. READ ALSO: Nigerian Army deploys troops in Southern Kaduna to stop killings The former media director of the Goodluck Jonathan campaign tweeted the pictures with the words: Behold the works of the Fulani militants and herdsmen. Southern Kaduna, 24th and 25th December 2016. A group of bodies of people allegedly killed in Southern Kaduna. Fani-Kayode has always claimed that the killings in the predominantly Christian-populated Southern Kaduna were a religious attack. Many of the pictures released by Fani-Kayode on his @realFFK handle were too graphic to be published. Photos of kids reportedly killed in Southern Kaduna READ ALSO: Tension in Niger state: Herdsmen kill 400, kidnap many girls The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria has said that the killings were reprisals for the 2011 post-election attacks on Fulanis in the region. Bodies of people purportedly killed in Southern Kaduna strewn everywhere in a compound. The federal government has denied reports that the attacks are religious-based and also warned opinion and religious leaders against giving the crisis in Southern Kaduna a religious connotation. Speaking to the press on Tuesday, January 3 Dambazau, who is a retired military general said that the crisis is between herdsmen and farmers. Source: Legit.ng - Five cultists were killed when they clashed with the Nigerian Army at Omoku in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni local government area, popularly called ONELGA - The troops also recovered five AK 47 assault rifles from cultists in the area since Sunday, January 1 Troops of the Nigerian Army in training: They say they have killed at least five cultists. The Nigerian Army has killed not fewer than five cult members during a gunfight with the criminals in Rivers state. READ ALSO: Massive Boko Haram bomb factory uncovered at Ngoshe News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the clash occurred between troops of 6 Division, Nigerian Army and the cultists at Omoku in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni local government area, popularly called ONELGA. The fight and casualties were confirmed by Kasimu Abdulkarim, General Officer Commanding (GOC) 6 Division, Port Harcourt, who said the battle was part of Operation Cleanup of cultists and militants terrorising residents in that region of Rivers. Army 6 Division has recorded appreciable successes in its bid to rid the local government of cultists and brigands, Abdulkarim said. The troops have also recovered five AK 47 assault rifles from cultists in the area since Sunday, January 1. READ ALSO: Just In: Army arrest to local government officials sponsoring Boko Haram NAN reports that a witness said the suspected cultists invaded Omoku town on Tuesday, January 3 night and shot dead two unidentified young men before making attempt to escape. After killing the men, they shot sporadically before soldiers closed in on them, the witness said. The clash comes just days after the Nigerian Army announced the recovery of weapons and uniforms of late DSP Mohammed Alkali and his police orderly who were killed in Rivers state during the last rerun election. Abdulkarim, the General Officer Commanding 6 Division of the Army in Port Harcourt, Rivers capital revealed this to newsmen on Sunday, January 1. Source: Legit.ng National dailies in Nigeria are reporting on various issues including the raid of Patience Jonathan's brother's home, an accidental discharge inside Aso Rock, the war of words between ex-president Obasanjo and Awujale of Ijebu land. Punch Newspaper Punch newspaper is leading with a report that an accidental discharge from a gun of one of the security agents attached to the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Wednesday, injured a female worker. The incident occurred at about 2.30pm at a security checkpoint at the Administrative Reception near a clinic, located on the premises. READ ALSO: Be very careful of religious issues, Buhari warned The operative was said to be trying to empty the weapon before submitting it at the security point when the bullet went off. The woman, who sustained injuries on her abdomen, back and thigh, was quickly taken to the clinic for first aid treatment. Nation Newspaper On the front page of The Nation is a report that former President Olusegun Obasanjo has dismissed as tissues of lies and untruths some aspects of Oba Sikiru Adetonas autobiography. READ ALSO: PDP workers beg judiciary to reopen partys secretariat The Awujale and Paramount ruler of Ijebuland, in his Awujale: The autobiography of Alaiyeluwa Oba S. K. Adetola, Ogbagba II (Mosuro Publishers 2010, pp. 187-195) tells of how Obasanjo frustrated Globacom chairman Mike Adenugas bid to obtain a GSM licence, despite being a beneficiary of the businessmans generosity. Obasanjo noted that Adenuga did not need to send anything to satisfy him or establish his innocence but only needed to satisfy the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Vanguard Newspaper Vanguard is leading with a news that the Police in Abuja, yesterday, raided a Maitama property believed to be owned by former First Lady, Mrs. Patience Jonathan. Eye witness accounts said policemen numbering about 20, stormed the house located on Igbeti Rock Street and forcibly gained entry into the house after overpowering the single security man keeping guard over the house. Mrs. Jonathan was not in the house at the time and it could not be confirmed, as at press time, yesterday, if she lives in the house. Guardian Newspaper Guardian newspaper is leading with a report that attempt to lift the immunity against prosecution being enjoyed by the president, vice president, state governors and their deputies has suffered a setback in the Senate. READ ALSO: Niger-Delta militants to resume bombing of oil facilities - Edwin Clark The newspaper learnt that the Senate has suspended the consideration of the bill which sought to amend Section 308 (2) of the 1999 Constitution to allow for the prosecution of the affected leaders on matters relating to economic and financial crimes even when in office. Sponsored by Ovie Omo-Agege (Labour Party, Delta State), the Senate Bill 329 which has already been gazetted and introduced to the lawmakers was referred to the committee on constitution review chaired by the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu last December. Source: Legit.ng - Patience Jonathan, a former first lady of Nigeria, has said that the police searched her family house contrary to widespread report that it was a raid conducted by the EFCC - She also claimed that only cheque books were found on the premises and not the money that they sought -She however called the police search which occurred late on Wednedsay, January 4 night is an embarrassment to her person Patience Jonathan says police searched her family house but found nothing incriminating Patience Jonathan, wife of the former president Goodluck Jonathan, has said members of Nigeria police force searched her family house but found nothing incriminating. The former first lady who spoke through her lawyer Charles Ogboli claimed that only cheque books, including one from Diamond Bank were found in the premises. According to The Punch, she explained that contrary to widespread reports that it was an EFCC raid; it was actually the police that conducted the search. READ ALSO: UPDATED: Tension rocks Abuja as EFCC raids Goodluck Jonathan's brother's house She further stated that the police said that they were forced to search her premises as a result of the security mans attitude. Mrs Jonathan however decried the embarrassing situation where a building will be searched in the absence of the occupant. She said: EFCC came last year and conducted a search in the absence of the occupant of the house. The NDLEA also searched the same building. This also happened last year between November or thereabouts. It is an embarrassment. I dont know what they are actually looking for. Why are they searching a premises in the absence of the occupant? It appears there is something they want to do there." Going further, she added: Today, it is not EFCC, but in the past, from November 2016, EFCC raided the place. It is a family house meant for the brothers and sisters; the siblings. It is a family house of the former First Lady in Maitama, Abuja. READ ALSO: Newspaper Review: EFCC raid GEJ's brother's house as Obasanjo fires Awujale EFCC raided the place last year. Thereafter, NDLEA raided the place and throughout their raid, they found nothing incriminating. Today, I got information that there were several policemen numbering about 20 to 28 of them. So, when I got there, I demanded to see the leader of the team and I was directed to an Assistant Commissioner of Police, who was in mufti and known as Williams. I asked him which of the command are you from and he said they were from IGs Special Unit. Somebody also in mufti intervened and said they are from the AGF, Attorney Generals office He told me that they came to search the house of a judge, but because of the attitude of the security man, they decided to now move into the house (Patience Jonathans family building) and search the house. They forced the door open and searched everything. At the end, they asked the security man to sign that nothing incriminating was found. They took away three cheque books and a company iron seal. The company seal does not belong to the former first lady because she is not staying there. The company is not known to the first lady. Meanwhile, the speculations that the EFCC had raided the home of former President Goodluck Jonathan and whisked him away has now been proved to be completely false. Source: Legit.ng - NUPENG orders immediate shut down of Total plc - The order came as a result of Total terminating appointments of some workers for joining union The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas (NUPENG) workers on Thursday, December 5, ordered stoppage of loading activities at Total Nig. Ltd. depots nationwide over termination of workers appointment. Workers block entrance of Total Blending Plant with two trailers. READ ALSO: PDP blames APC for continued closure of national secretariat The south-west chairman of the union, Alhaji Tokunbo Korodo, in a statement said the management of Total has been resisting the unionisation of workers under its contract programme in Lagos, Kaduna and Koko in Delta blending plants. The chairman said that the management of Total had moved further to terminate those workers who had joined the union in spite of the union efforts to resolve the issue amicably. Korodo said: In view of this, the union has directed all workers in Total downstream to stop work until the management allows workers to unionise and slave labour introduced are cancelled. This action should commence immediately. According to Punch's report, angry workers have blocked the entrance of Total Blending Plant, Apapa's gate with two trailers. The workers were seen with various placards with inscriptions: Nigerians enslaving Nigerians in Nigeria, Total and Jomog want to sack us because we joined NUPENG. The zonal vice-chairman, south-west chapter of NUPENG, Mr. Rotimi Benjamin, said that the management of Total had summoned the union to a meeting to resolve the issue. Benjamin, however, said that the union would not go back on its action until all the issues were resolved. READ ALSO: Be very careful of religious issues, Buhari warned Meanwhile, pump prices of fuel may become high as the importation of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) into Nigeria is to gulp extra cost of over N2.369 billion per day from federal government and marketers. This came as oil prices hit their highest levels since July 2015 with Brent reaching $58.37 and $55.24, before paring gains on the strong dollar. Buoyed by this, the federal government is already mulling total deregulation of the downstream sector. Watch NUPENG south-west chairman speak on fuel scarcity below: Source: Legit.ng Sahara Reporters is reporting that troops of the Nigerian Army have rescued another one of the more than 200 Chibok schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram insurgents in 2014. According to the report, the girl was rescued with her baby near Sambisa Forest. Nigerian Army rescues another Chibok girl Rakiya Abubkar with her baby near Sambisa. Sahara Reporters quotes a government source as saying that the name of the girl rescued is Rakiya Abubakar and she was carrying baby that appears to be hers. READ ALSO: Five dead as Nigerian Army, cultists clash in Rivers The rescue was made by troops of the 27 Brigade of the Nigerian Army around Alagarno near Ajigin in Damboa local government area of Borno state. Rakiya makes the 29th Chibok girl rescued out of the more than 200 girls abducted by Islamist Boko Haram fighters in April 2014 while preparing for their secondary school examinations. This rescue comes just hours after the Bring Back Our Girls Group said it will commence another round of protests to demand the release of the remaining over 190 girls still in the captivity of the Boko Haram terrorists. In a statement on Tuesday, January 3, the #BBOG group said its protest will begin on Sunday, January 8, 1000 days after the over 200 girls were abducted by the terror group from their secondary school in Chibok, Borno state. Meanwhile, check out three things the Nigerian Army discovered about Rakiya Abubakar here Source: Legit.ng - President Muhammadu Buhari has directed NEMA to carry out an assessment of the situation in the southern part of Kaduna to determine the level of response required for urgent aid to the victims of the violence - Garba Shehu says the Nigerian Army is in the process of setting up two battalions in southern Kaduna - Buhari sends his condolences to the people of southern Kaduna, who have lost loved ones in the recent violence President Muhammadu Buhari has issued orders to security agencies in a bid to stop the violence in the southern part of Kaduna. President Muhammadu Buhari has given orders that decisive measures be taken to end the recurring acts of violence and destruction in the southern part of Kaduna state. READ ALSO: Fani-Kayode releases alleged photos of gruesome murders in Southern Kaduna The president has equally directed the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to carry out a joint assessment of the situation with the sister agency in Kaduna, SEMA, to determine the level of response required for urgent aid to the victims of the violence. The senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity, Garba Shehu, on Thursday, December 5, said Buhari gave the orders over the past week with the aim bringing an end to the recurring acts of violence in the area. Shehu said following the presidents directive, the inspector-general of police, Ibrahim Idris, was in the affected areas on Saturday and Sunday, December 31 and January 1, to assess the situation at first hand. He said in addition to the conventional policemen deployed in the area, a squadron of mobile policemen has now been stationed there. READ ALSO: Tension in Niger state: Herdsmen kill 400, kidnap many girls The presidential spokesman added that the Nigerian Army is also in the process of setting up two battalions in Southern Kaduna while the military continues to carry out air surveillance across flash points of the area. He said the president has sent condolences to the people of southern Kaduna, who have lost loved ones in the recent violence. Meanwhile, Catholic bishops have lamented the incessant killings in different areas of the country, noting that such killings are tantamount to a declaration of war on helpless and innocent Nigerians. Arch Bishop Ignatius Kaigama, the President, Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), noted that the level of wanton destruction of lives and properties is at an alarming rate in the country. In a statement released on Thursday, January 5, the Bishop urged Nigerians to have a rethink of their attitudes toward humanity. He noted that people had rough and tough times when innocent Nigerians lost their lives in places like Agatu, Madagali, Gwoza, Yobe, Plateau, Taraba, Nasarawa, Anambra, Abia and now Southern Kaduna. Source: Legit.ng Troops of Operation LAFIYA DOLE on Thursday, January 5, discovered one of the abducted Chibok School girls, Rakiya Abubkar, the Nigerian Army has revealed. According to a statement by Brigadier General Sani Kukasheka Usman, the director Army Public Relations, Rakiya Abubkar was discovered during investigation of arrested suspected Boko Haram terrorists. The newly rescued Chibok girl Rakiya Abubkar and her baby READ ALSO: Catholic bishop warns of negative effects of killings in Southern Kaduna, others But aside Abubkar's discovery, the Nigerian Army also made other discoveries about the Chibok girl. Legit.ng has listed three discoveries made by the Nigerian Army. 1. Rakiya Abubkar was rescued alongside her six months old baby. 2. According to preliminary investigation, it was discovered she is the daughter of Abubakar Gali Mulima and Habiba Abubakar of Chibok. 3. Abubkar says she was a student of Senior Secondary School Class 3B (SS 3B), before her abduction along with her colleagues on 14th April 2014 by the Boko Haram terrorists. Meanwhile, Abubkar is presently undergoing further medical investigation and would soon be released to the Borno state government. Source: Legit.ng - Governor Ayodele Fayose says he has always known that President Muhammadu Buhari will not perform in government - The Ekiti state governor said the change mantra which President Buhari promised Nigerians is not working - Fayose calls on President Buhari to save Nigerians from agony since they voted for change Fayose has said the mantra that President Buhari promised Nigerians is not working. Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti state has said all his predictions that President Muhammadu Buhari will not perform in government have all come to pass. READ ALSO: N5000 stipend: Choose who to believe between Buhari or Fayose Presidency to Nigerians Fayose told Vanguard in an interview on Thursday, December 5, that he has always known that President Buhari will not perform in government. The Ekiti state governor said the change mantra which Buhari promised Nigerians is not working. He said: The question to ask is that; every observation, every comment, all I said before the President became President of Nigeria, theyve all come to pass. The truth lies in the fact that I know the President will not perform. I know he will be taken over by a cabal and theyve taken him over. Nigerians are suffering. You can read between the lines. Forget about the messenger, think of his message. This change is not working. Fayose called on the president to save Nigerians from agony since they voted for change. READ ALSO: APC lambasts Fayose over petition to CJN alleging impeachment He said millionaires of yesterday have become paupers because they are losing money. The governor said the average man can no longer eat and asked how long Nigerians need to wait for the promises which he said were empty promises. Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ekitit state chapter has warned against the alleged renewed plot to impeach Governor Ayodele Fayose. PDP declared that, if such is eventually carried out, it would lead to the total collapse of President Muhamadu Buhari administration. The opposition party branded Fayose as a man of the people and the leader in the country, who commands enormous followership across the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria. Barr. Gboyega Oguntuase, the PDP state chairman, speaking on Wednesday, January 4, said the letter written earlier that day by the governor to the Chief Justice of the Federation, Justice Walter Onnoghen to inform him on the alleged moves to manipulate a section of the judiciary to effect the move was justifiable. Oguntuase who maintained that the move would create crisis of monumental proportion that would be difficult for the Nigeria Army to curtail said: removing Governor Fayose from power is like removing the whole Ekiti who voted for him in all the 16 local government areas of this state. Any war wage against our governor will be resisted by the people from all these zones. Source: Legit.ng News Release Salt of the Earth Ltd., has appointed David Hart as business unit director. He will report to the CEO and be responsible for global business of Mediterranean Umami, an all-natural sodium reduction solution. We are excited to have David join our team," said Dovik Tal, CEO for Salt of the Earth. His extensive experience, especially at the nexus of food and health, is a significant addition of capabilities that will drive the growth of our Mediterranean Umami business around the world." Hart has more than 12 years of international experience in food, functional food and health ingredients markets. He has held commercial positions in the industry since 2004, including at multinationals LycoRed and Frutarom. In his most recent position, he served as vice president of marketing at Qualitas Health; responsible for the creation of global sales and marketing infrastructure for Almega PL, an award-winning, plant-based omega-3 ingredient. Hart holds an M.Sc. in Agricultural and Resource Economics from University of California, Davis. Mediterranean Umami is an on-trend sodium-reduction solution for the food industry, and a great example of Israeli innovation," noted Hart. In addition to its outstanding organoleptic properties, Mediterranean Umami is an all-natural ingredient that enables a clean label in food products. Given regulatory requirements in many countries, food manufacturers are searching for technologies to effectively reduce sodium and enhance umami flavor. It is an honor to join one of the pioneers of the Israeli food industry, and I look forward to contributing to the success of Mediterranean Umami and Salt of the Earth." The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued guidelines for reducing salt intake to less than 5 g/d (less than 2,000 mg sodium/d), from the current levels of 9 to 12 g/d. Per the WHO, reducing salt intake has been identified as one of the most cost-effective measures countries can take to improve population health outcomes as salt intake of less than 5 grams/day for adults helps to reduce blood pressure and risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke and coronary heart attack. The governments of the UK, Israel and the U.S. are among those who have issued regulations regarding sodium-reduction in foods. Given this public health need and regulatory trend, Salt of the Earth has invested significantly in technologies for sodium reduction. Sorry! This content is not available in your region In response to shifting ideas about gender, many of the remaining womens colleges redefined themselves as an antidote to the sexism that feminists were increasingly identifying in society. Womens colleges argued that they offered a unique environment where every student leader was a woman, where female role models were abundant, where professors were far more likely to be women and where the message of womens empowerment pervaded academic and campus life. All that seemed to foster students confidence. Womens colleges say their undergrads are more likely to major in fields traditionally dominated by men. Wellesley alumnae in particular are awarded more science and engineering doctorates than female graduates of any other liberal-arts college in the nation, according to government data. Its alums have become two secretaries of state; a groundbreaking string theorist; a NASA astronaut; and Koreas first female ambassador. As womens colleges challenged the conventions of womanhood, they drew a disproportionate number of students who identified as lesbian or bisexual. Today a small but increasing number of students at those schools do not identify as women, raising the question of what it means to be a womens college. Trans students are pushing their schools to play down the women-centric message. At Wellesley, Smith, Mount Holyoke and others, they and their many supporters have successfully lobbied to scrub all female references in student government constitutions, replacing them with gender-neutral language. At Wellesley, they have pressed administrators and fellow students to excise talk of sisterhood, arguing that that rhetoric, rather than being uplifting, excludes other gender minorities. At many schools, they have also taken leadership positions long filled by women: resident advisers on dorm floors, heads of student groups and members of college government. At Wellesley, one transmasculine student was a dorm president. At Mills College, a womens school in California, even the president of student government identifies as male. Whats a womens college to do? Trans students point out that theyre doing exactly what these schools encourage: breaking gender barriers, fulfilling their deepest yearnings and forging ahead even when society tries to hold them back. But yielding to their request to dilute the focus on women would undercut the identity of a womens college. While women in coed schools generally outpace men in enrollment and performance, the equation shifts after college: Recent female graduates working full time earn far less than their male counterparts, and more experienced women are often still shut out of corporate and political leadership all of which prompts womens-college advocates to conclude that a four-year, confidence-building workshop still has its place. Sisterhood is why I chose to go to Wellesley, said a physics major who graduated recently and asked not to be identified for fear shed be denounced for her opinion. A womens college is a place to celebrate being a woman, surrounded by women. I felt empowered by that every day. You come here thinking that every single leadership position will be held by a woman: every member of the student government, every newspaper editor, every head of the Economics Council, every head of the Society of Physics. Thats an incredible thing! This is what they advertise to students. But its no longer true. And if all that is no longer true, the intrinsic value of a womens college no longer holds. A few schools have formulated responses to this dilemma, albeit very different ones. Hollins University, a small womens college in Virginia, established a policy several years ago stating it would confer diplomas to only women. It also said that students who have surgery or begin hormone therapy to become men or who legally take male names will be helped to transfer to another institution. Mount Holyoke and Mills College, on the other hand, recently decided they will not only continue to welcome students who become trans men while at school but will also admit those who identify on their applications as trans men, noting that welcoming the former and not the latter seemed unjustifiably arbitrary. But most womens colleges, including Wellesley, consider only female applicants. Once individuals have enrolled and announced that they are trans, the schools, more or less, leave it to the students to work out how trans classmates fit into a womens college. Two of those students hashed it out last fall after Kaden Mohamed, then a Wellesley senior who had been taking testosterone for seven months, watched a news program on WGBH-TV about the plummeting number of womens colleges. One guest was Laura Bruno, another Wellesley senior. The other guest was the president of Regis College, a womens school that went coed in 2007 to reverse its tanking enrollment. The interviewer asked Laura to describe her experience at an all-female school and to explain how that might be diminished by having men there. Laura answered, We look around and we see only women, only people like us, leading every organization on campus, contributing to every class discussion. There's never a dull moment at NYU, but this has been an especially momentous year in the life of the University. Here are just few of the changes, announcements, and accomplishments that made 2016 one to remember. NYU welcomed our 16th president, Andy Hamilton, who started work on January 1 and was officially installed during an Inauguration Celebration Week in September. Katherine Fleming, formerly NYU's Deputy Provost and Vice Chancellor for Europe, was named provost and began her new role on September 1. We also bid a sad farewell to NYU's 13th president, 11-term Indiana Congressman John Brademas, who passed away in July. Under President Hamilton's leadership and with the guidance of the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Advisory Task Force, the University undertook several specific actions to ensure that all members of our community feel like they belong at NYU, including beginning a search for a Chief Diversity Offer, embarking on a campus climate study, establishing a bias response hotline, and increasing funding in the Center for Multicultural Education and Programs. President Hamilton and the Affordability Steering Community and Working Group also announced some first steps toward lessening the financial burden of getting an education at NYU, including setting the lowest year-to-year increase in cost-of-attendance in 20 years, freezing housing and meal plan costs on our New York campuses for 2016-17, piloting an intergenerational homestay option to reduce housing costs, partnering with the Scholly app to help students find additional scholarships, and reducing meal plan requirements for freshmen. In March, President Hamilton also announced plans to raise the minimum wage for all student workers to $15/hour over the next three school years. In April, the College of Nursing received a $30 million gift (the largest ever gift to an established nursing school) from Howard and Rose-Marie "Rory" Meyers, becoming the Rory Meyers College of Nursing. For Memorial Day, the University announced that it was tripling the "Yellow Ribbon" grant award for students pursuing an undergraduate education here. On Veterans Day we installed a memorial in honor of all those in the University community who have served in the Armed Forces since NYU's founding in 1831, and profiled 12 currently enrolled student veterans. In December, the University released architectural renderings and floor plans for 181 Mercer Street, a new multipurpose building that will be home to 58 classrooms, state-of-the art performing arts spaces, an air-conditioned gym, student and faculty housing, and more. This year, you will have no excuse not to travel as $69 flights to Europe are becoming available. By 2018, travelers can fly one-way between Edinburgh and New York for less than a weekends worth of meals at the airport. Norwegian Air will receive six new Boeing 737Max aircrafts this April, and the cheap flight routes will be offered shortly after their arrival. Norwegian Air CEO Bjorn Kos explains that the decrease in price is a direct result of the 737Max aircrafts modern engines allowing them to be much more fuel efficient. Kos goes on to explain that the new routes will use secondary airports in New York City (this excludes JFK) to cut costs further for travelers. The specific airports Norwegian intends to use have not yet been determined; however, they plan to increase number of flights to as many as 21 each week beginning with routes to Scotland, Ireland, Norway and England. Grace Williamson is a travel intern with Paste and a freelance writer based out of Athens, Georgia. By: Best Western PLUS Fort Myers Beach Jeff and Tim Malbon of Best Western PLUS Beach Res End -- Racking up numerous awards year after year sounds like an extraordinary accomplishment that should have Jeff Malbon, general manager, and Tim Malbon, managing general partner, of the Best Western Plus Beach Resort Hotel on Fort Myers Beach toasting themselves with pride. But the pair of cousins, who run the hotel along with several other family members, see the acclaim merely as recognition of providing what they believe should be the normal standard of service provided by all hotels.Tim Malbon said, "Well, you know, it's a "" work in progress," Jeff Malbon said, finishing the thought, with the pair seeming more like brothers than first cousins.Tim continued, "It's family owned being pretty much family owned and operated one of us is here pretty much every day overseeing the staff. Just being here on property has a lot to do with it.""Hands on," Jeff added."Yeah, very hands on and in tune to the guests' needs, looking for the guests to have the best experience they can," Tim continued. "It's pretty much treating the guests and our staff like family."This year, the hotel is the only Best Western in Florida to win the chain's M.K. Guertin Award, given to recognize hotels that best exemplify the service, quality and value the chain's founder envisioned for the brand. This is the fourth consecutive year that the Malbon family has brought home Best Western's highest honor."The M.K. Guertin award, there's a lot of criteria that goes into that," Tim said. "The majority of it is guest satisfaction."Also demonstrating the Malbon family's dedication to guest satisfaction, the hotel is a six-year winner of Best Western's Champion Customer Care Award and a 2015 winner of the chain's Green Award, recognizing commitment to conserving resources and reducing carbon footprint.Tim Malbon also serves on the 300-member Best Western board of governors. The 4,100-plus properties in the chain are independently owned, so owner-representatives come together to deliberate and vote upon initiatives and policies for the chain as a whole. He has come a long way from when he and his cousin first moved down from Virginia Beach in the early '90s to help their two fathers with running the hotel. On his first day of work, the elder Malbons tasked Tim with picking up litter from the beach."We pretty much started from the bottom up," Tim said."We've done it all," Jeff said.Recognition of the Best Western Plus Beach Resort Hotel's excellence extends beyond its chain. Upon winning the Certificate of Excellence for five consecutive years, Tripadvisor has inducted the hotel into its Hall of Fame. Smith Travel Research recognized the hotel as its Best Performing Upper Midscale Hotel for 2012, and the readers of the "Fort Myers Beach Observer" voted it their favorite motel in the 2011 Best of the Beach awards. And true to their philosophy of treating staff like family, the Lee County Visitor & Convention Bureau named Jeff and Tim Malbon winners of its Best Tourism Boss award for 2016.All the acclaim comes as Best Western rolls out a rebranding campaign featuring a half dozen distinctive brands to help travelers discern, by logo, the different amenities available at the various types of Best Westerns. The plus-branding of the Best Western Plus Beach Resort Hotel indicates that the property offers additional amenities both onsite and in the rooms that distinguish the destination resort from roadside Best Westerns."It's a logo refresh to bring the brand image up," Tim said. "We just finished a multiyear design excellence review at all properties, and this will explain how each property is unique and a little different from the others. All Best Westerns are separately owned and operated, so there's really not a cookie-cutter property out there. With the brand refresh, they'll be putting that out to the public."With the chain's design excellence review coming after a renovation the Malbons did in 2008, the property already exceeded nearly all of the new standards for the Best Western rebranding campaign. Again, it serves as another example of the Malbon family seeing what others regard as exemplary to be merely their standard, everyday level of service."It's kind of hospitality 101 excellent customer service, a clean room, friendly staff and everything in working order," Tim said. "Everything else from there is pretty easy. It should be the norm not the exception. If you read 10 of our Trip Advisor reviews, you'll get that same feel."BREAKOUT BOXIf you go:What: Best Western Plus Beach Resort HotelWhere: 684 Estero Blvd., Fort Myers BeachInfo: 239-463-6000;www.bwbeachresort.com The success of an engagement campaign, whether a basic or comprehensive one, is about the attendee experience and engaging all event stakeholders. Join us for a free webinar and learn how to engage your attendees from the moment the signup happens. By: Eventinterface Engaging conference attendees. From basic to complex campaigns. Contact Eventinterface ***@eventinterface.com Eventinterface End -- In today's experience-driven world, engaging and motivating your meeting and incentive guests is essential. However, marketers as well as meeting planners struggle with developing and managing engagement strategies that provide positive guest experiences;align with brands and meet business objectives. In this complimentary webinar you will learn how to achieve success and delight your attendees.Join Eventinterface & Triple V for this free webinar on Wednesday, January 11, 2017 at 8:00 p.m. SGT (7:00 a.m. Eastern, 1:00 p.m. Central European Time).https://www.eventinterface.com/registration?eventid=engage_attendees&t=rd1. Apply simple methodology of engaging your attendees.2. Use the right social media platforms to market and engage your attendees.3. Implement mobile and responsive tools and engagement platforms.4. Use content and gamification to engage your attendee.5. Evaluate your engagement success.Vivien HoeDirector of HappinessTriple V Pte LtdVivien Hoe started her career in the MICE Industry 30 years ago. Throughout her career, she has been in the sales and marketing role, and has helped her clients in designing effective marketing solutions. In recent years, she has moved on to consultancy role where she helps her clients in relooking at their marketing campaigns and helped them save more than 100% in cost and in the course generate more than 300% sales funnel revenue.As an advocate for life long learning, she believes in surrounding herself with the latest trends and technologies to keep herself abreast in an ever changing economy.A strong believer in empowerment, Vivien Hoe is often invited to industry forums and talks to share her insights and knowledge, as well as corporations.AI WynantCo-Founder and CEOEventinterfaceAl Wynant brings 28 years of meeting management expertise to the table. He has planned and managed meetings and events from 50 to 125,000 attendees in six countries on two continents. He intimately understands the many aspects of meeting management, and how technology can make the complicated process of managing events easier. Al is the co-founder and CEO of event technology platform Eventinterface a full-featured and cost-effective SaaS platform to manage and engage attendees while providing measurable ROI for all stakeholders. Eventinterface was founded on the belief that event technology should be affordable for all planners, provide a comprehensive and easy to use toolset, and help facilitate exceptional human connections. ServiceMaster by Doran has announced its offer of emergency 24-hour restoration services for households and businesses in Indianapolis, IN. To reach ServiceMaster by Doran for service, call 317-783-6109. By: ServiceMasterbyDoran.com End -- ServiceMaster by Doran has announced its offer of emergency restoration services for households and businesses in Indianapolis, Indiana. These services can be performed at all hours of the day or night.ServiceMaster by Doran is available for all kinds of restoration solutions including water damage restoration, fire damage restoration, smoke damage restoration, storm damage restoration, and cases of vandalism. ServiceMaster by Doran will provide a full damage assessment, cleanup service, sanitization if needed, and then full restoration services. ServiceMaster by Doran can respond to emergencies promptly and 24 hours a day.Those in need of emergency restoration services in Indianapolis can contact ServiceMaster by Doran by phone at 317-783-6109 or through the contact form found on the ServiceMaster by Doran website. Additionally, those wishing to learn more about the range of services provided by ServiceMaster by Doran can visit the ServiceMaster by Doran Facebook page.ServiceMaster by Doran provides professional carpet cleaning, hard surface floor cleaning, tile and grout cleaning, wood floor cleaning, post construction cleaning, upholstery cleaning, and air duct cleaning along with professional emergency disaster restoration services including serious water damage restoration, flooding damage restoration, fire damage restoration, and smoke damage restoration. ServiceMaster by Doran services the Indiana communities of Greenwood, Carmel, Fishers, Indianapolis, and other nearby locations. This company is available for professional emergency restoration service 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, including Holidays. Those in need of professional emergency restoration service can contact ServiceMaster by Doran directly at http://servicemasterbydoran.com or by phone at 317-783-6109. MotchiRotchi listed as a top agency / organisation in Advertising, Digital Marketing and Media Productions regarding to it's professionalism and work in Egypt & United Kingdom this Year. By: MotchiRotchi Ltd Media Contact mohamed@motchirotchi.com +201007711163 +201007711163 End -- MotchiRotchi listed as a top agency / organisation in Advertising, Digital Marketing and Media Productions regarding to it's professionalism and work in Egypt & United Kingdom 2016 / 2017MotchiRotchi is the leading Advertising & Marketing Agency in Egypt & United Kindgom. Also Digital Marketing, Media Productions & Post Productions are our muscles.MotchiRotchi is known for its outstanding creative ideas that generate powerful emotional connections between consumers and products.With our unique love marks methodology, we're in the business of getting people to fall in love with our clients' brands, products and services. Through our creative ideas across all media and all disciplines, we set out to turn brands into Lovemarks which, unlike brands, generate loyalty beyond reason.WE HAVE A PURPOSE, NOT A MISSION STATEMENTMost companies have a mission statement. We don't. Instead, we have a Purpose:Our Inspirational DreamTo be revered as the hothouse for world changing creative ideas that transform our clients' businesses, brands and reputationsOur FocusTo fill the world with LovemarksOur SpiritOne Team, One Dream Nothing is Impossible.Peak Performance is about excelling at all times. Peak Performance calls for love and passion. Peak performers love what they do. Love doing what they do better. And doing it better than anyone else. Characteristically, peak performers dream it, then they do it. And then they aim for a higher peak.And, as our Purpose defines, we have an unshakeable belief and unbeatable attitude from day one at MotchiRotchi that 'Nothing is Impossible'. Smarter, Faster & Easier. Online, Face-To-Face, 24/7. And, It Saves Big Money. By: Quick Title Real Estate Insider Richard Lee Contact In The Public Eye 702.498.9808 barbarakenig@ gmail.com 7024989808 In The Public Eye702.498.98087024989808 End --Makes you think about Elon Musk landing a Falcon rocket tail first, or Uber turning gypsy cabs into a unicorn, or well,. Ironically, plenty of meaningful change isn't that noisy; but it can be way more important for average Americans.Case in point: Think about homebuying. Is there anything more tiresome, annoying or just plain frustrating than slogging through the closing?It's your biggest purchase. Scary; but buying the house went pretty well.You met a Realtor who knew the market, and narrowed-your choices. Found the perfect house in a great neighborhood near work and school. They even accepted your first offer.You rocketed through your mortgage, online. Found a mover, online too. Everything smooth as silk. Then comes closing.Piles of paper (that don't make sense,) countless signatures and initials. Tons of time away from home or work (at their office, on their schedule) and forking over thousands. For? A ritual that's pretty much the same since Bob Cratchit. There has be a better way.That's QkTitle.Easy. Online. Anytime, anywhere. Go live with a QkTitle agent, face-to-face, 24/7. Everything is secure, and the entire process gets done, quickly and easily. Review documents on screen; get answers that make sense; then click to sign when you're sure. You can even have your agent online with you, if you'd like. And it's far cheaper.QkTitle brings an old, slow business up to speed, thanks to industry innovator Richard Lee.At First American and Ticor Title, Lee was the industry go-to guy; a consummate insider and opinion leader, to whom decision makers turned for guidance. Nearly three decades in, after reaching top tier in the industry's top companies, Lee knew it was time for change.He stepped away from day-to-day real estate, to. And, what Richard Lee realizedwill quietly disrupt and reinvent how the title and escrow industry does business.; built to save time, money and aggravation.At the same time companies likeUber and Rocket Mortgage are rocking their worlds, closings still shuffle papers by snail mail. Customers spend hours signing their arms sore. And, they pay a big price for the privilege. Despite technology, title and escrow remains quill-pen ancient.The way Lee sees it, "Why lose a day's work? Why sign the same document over and over when a click can do it? Why spend all that time and money, when QkTitle makes everything quicker, a lot more convenient and way more cost effective."QkTitle closings are on the customer's schedule: Anywhere, anytime; from a desktop, laptop, even a smartphone. It's face-to-face, faster and far more secure; less time and less money. It's title and escrow for the next generation; developed exclusively by Richard Lee and product innovation leaders at Evr Design."After 25 years in the business, this old dog learned some new title and escrow tricks that are about to reinvent my old industry. It's about time."QkTitle comes online, as a secure, efficient, money saving alternative for home buyers, home sellers and real estate pros. It's launching early in 2017.More info? Like to talk with Richard Lee? Email Barbara Kenig, barbarakenig@gmail.com, call/text 702.498.9808 or visit www.QkTitle.comOver decades at the top of his industry, Richard Lee came to be a touchstone for real estate, title and escrow; the go-to guy for insight,info and industry resources. Through times of constant change, Richard remains a trusted voice on whom leaders rely.From sell-out events, to private summit sessions around the world, Rich Lee guides decision makers, and informs everyone from top politicians to real estate agents. "I heard it from Richard Lee," carries real weight. Lee has his arms around the market and delivers insight it takes to get deals done.A senior executive for First American Title and Ticor Title, Lee was honored by InBusiness magazine as "One of the Most Influential Men in Nevada." The Idaho native, is a BYU graduate, has taught development for UNLV, and is a director for both boards of the Boy Scouts and Southern Hills Hospital.www.QkTitle.com 1000 Marina Boulevard in Brisbane, Calif. Contact Anne Monaghan / Monaghan Communications ***@monaghanpr.com Anne Monaghan / Monaghan Communications End -- Meridian, a full-service office property developer in California, is pleased to announce the purchase of 1000 Marina, a six-story 105,000-square-foot office building in San Mateo County, Calif. The seller was TA Associates, a private equity firm based in Boston, Massachusetts. Meridian paid just under $29 million for the 90%-leased building located in the Sierra Point Submarket in the city of Brisbane. The purchase closed in the final week of 2016 and represented Meridian's second major office transaction in northern California since September when the firm sold The Atrium, a 77,000-square-foot office building in Pleasanton.According to Dan Rosenbaum, Meridian's Senior Vice President of Acquisitions in northern California, "This acquisition represents our largest general office acquisition to date. The building is located in northern San Mateo County in a very vibrant sub-market. South San Francisco and Brisbane are the epicenter of the biotech universe and we think that 1000 Marina will continue to benefit from that."Rosenbaum added, "Google, through its YouTube subsidiary, has purchased a tremendous amount of multi-tenant office space in San Bruno over the last year. As YouTube grows into those owned buildings, those displaced tenants will need to move somewhere. This was one of the drivers in our decision to buy this building. As is the case in most buildings that we buy, we will perform some significant upgrades to the building, including common areas and exterior gathering places. This purchase is consistent with our value-add approach towards general and medical office. We perceived that the in-place rents were below market and there were some aesthetic and livability upgrades to perform. While the building is not located within walking distance of public transportation, 1000 Marina has the Sierra Point Commuter Shuttle, which connects office workers to both BART and Cal-Train often and effectively."John Moutsanas, Vice President of Acquisitions at Meridian added, "Working with CBRE investment brokers Joe Moriarty and Seth McKinnon was great. They created a process in which the purchase negotiations, due-diligence and closing went very smoothly. The existing CBRE listing team of Simon Clark and Matt Mulry has been doing a great job bringing the asset's rents to market and will continue on as our listing agents."A division of Marcus & Millichap Company, San Ramon, Calif. based Meridian is a full-service real estate developer having completed over one million square feet of innovative and integrated commercial office, and medical office, since its inception in 2000. Meridian's services are broad in scope but meticulous in detail -- from site evaluation and land acquisition to entitlement and planning to construction and management. For more information, see mpcca.com ( http://www.mpcca.com/ ). Contact Texila e-Learning ***@texiladigiguru.com Texila e-Learning End -- Texila American University is all set to take part the in upcoming IIK Education Expo 2017. The IIK Expo 2017 is going to take place on 6& 7January 2017 at Hotel Crown Plaza, Farwaniya, Kuwait.After the grand success of IIK Education Expo in March 2014, January 2015 and January 2016, this popular community has announced yet another Education Expo which will be held in January 2017 in Kuwait. This Expo is an excellent opportunity for the students who aspire to do their medical studies abroad.This mastermind enterprise will be the right destination that caters to the requirements of young expats in Kuwait. This EXPO will give aspiring students a chance to meet representatives from renowned Universities and Institutions directly and get their queries answered.Texila American University was entrenched in September 2010 with only the Medicine program in Guyana Campus. Today, the University has opened its campuses in Fujairah (UAE) and Zambia to cater the needs of the students' community across the globe. In addition to that, the new campus which is spread across 4 acres of space in Guyana is being constructed. Currently, TAU houses 4000+ students from more than 70 countries for its various program verticals.Visit us : http://www.tauedu.org/ education-fair- worldwide.html Contact Simon Cooper ***@cifalgroupe.fr Simon Cooper End -- CIFAL, a French services firm that has been supporting large Western industrial companies for several decades in the markets of Central Asia and Russia, announced it intends to sue Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin for non-compliance with its commitments due under a project to modernise a thermal power plant in Uzbekistan, completed in 2016.The project - worth more than $500 million - was launched by Uzbekistan in 2006.Jurgen Krahn, General Director of CIFAL, feels he was manipulated:"We were involved in this important energy project right from the start. When we had to look for international expertise, we went to SNC-Lavalin in Canada because it had interesting references in engineering projects of this type, even if its weakness was to have never worked in Uzbekistan."In 2008 SNC-Lavalin signed a service contract with CIFAL to represent it in the country and assist it in order to win the engineering contract with the consortium which had been designated by the Uzbek government to carry out this project. Driven by CIFAL, SNC-Lavalin signed the first agreement ("Engineering and consulting services agreement") with the leader of the consortium, the Slovak company SYNECTA, in April 2009.Moving forward, it took a lot of technical and commercial work in order to accommodate the modifications made to the project by the client, in which CIFAL took its active part, bringing in its country as well as energy sector expertise. However, the economic downturn in Asia began to impact Uzbekistan's economy which, in turn caused the project to slow down and eventually be frozen after failing to attract sufficient international funding.Subsequently, the Polish subsidiary of SNC-Lavalin, which had been entrusted with the follow-up of this project, announced that it no longer intended to go forward with its involvement in the project. Given this decision by SNCLavalin, CIFAL had no choice but to also reduce its personnel and financial commitment in the country.However, it appears that, without informing CIFAL, SNC-Lavalin kept in close contact with the partners who they had initially been introduced to by CIFAL. CIFAL later discovered, when the project restarted in 2012, SNC Lavalin had resumed their full involvement, which continued until completion in 2015. Despite it being the same project, with the same consortium, the same scope of work, and the same client, SNC Lavalin cut out CIFAL, who had secured them the contract in the first place.Today CIFAL is convinced that it has been manipulated by the Polish subsidiary with the support of the Quebec headquarters. CIFAL claims the compensation they consider to be due to them under the contract signed in 2008."We have invested in the project for five years, we took our own risk and spent more than half a million euros in personnel, office and travel costs to assist SNC-Lavalin,"explains Jurgen Krahn. "Our company is 70 years old and we have never faced such bad faith. We were not suspicious because we did not know at the time that SNC-Lavalin was accustomed to such business practices. Since their management changed and the main project executives have left the company, nobody answers our mail. The only people we are in contact with are lawyers who seem to be just playing for time," Mr. Krahn added.Despite repeated attempts at dialogue with SNC Lavalin to resolve the dispute, CIFAL is now left with no choice but to take legal action against SNC Lavalin. It has chosen the Quebec law firm LCM Avocats to represent it.This additional litigation for SNC-Lavalin comes at a time when Uzbekistan, a key country in Central Asia, is of particular interest to the international community since the death of its first and only president Islam Karimov and, the election of his prime minister as successor. By: The Malaga Food Guide End -- True Malaga Foodies have a new resource in 2017 for all things that celebrate the magnificent food scene across the entire province. When I say a new resource this is in fact a redeveloped and reformatted version of the food "bible" ~ Malaga 29640; which was originally launched in May 2014 as the brainchild of Management Accountant turned Food and Travel Blogger, Jan Price, who as a resident of Fuengirola for over eight years was continually being asked for recommendations for good restaurants and food venues.29640 went on to establish itself as the leading Restaurant and Bar Guide initially as the title suggests for Fuengirola, quickly attracting a huge subscriber base and social media network and over its first two years expanded its presence along the coast with reach as far as Nerja in the east to Estepona in the westJust under three years later the retitled Malaga Food Guide has been incorporated as part of the European Food Guide Portfolio by Gibraltar based Online Media Group IntermediaOMG and although just released from beta mode is already ranking as the leading Gourmet's Guide for Residents & Visitors to Malaga Province.While Price remains as Editor, she is joined by a highly experienced team of Food Writers, Critics and Specialist Bloggers; content quality is maintained with all venues listed having been visited and continually monitored by members of their mystery evaluation team and recommended for inclusion based on their four key criteria of Quality of Food, Value for Money, Customer Service & Hygiene.Updated Daily with the latest Food News together with current Restaurant Reviews and Recommendations, including Fine Dining Establishments, Gastobars and Great Tapas Venues, Food Events & Tours and seasonal recipes written by a panel of Guest Chefs and a SmartApp launch scheduled for 1May this year, to coincide or their third year anniversary ~ The Malaga Food Guide promises to be the go-to resource for Foodies across the province.The Malaga Food GuideThe Gourmet's Guide for Residents & Visitors to Malaga Province; Updated Daily with the latest Food News together with Restaurant Reviews, Food Events & RecipesVisit us at http://themalagafoodguide.blogspot.com By: Bavarian Inn Restaurant End -- To mark the State of Michigan's 180birthday, the Bavarian Inn Restaurant's (http://www.bavarianinn.com/)Michigan on Main Bar and Grill is having a "Michigan's Firkin Birthday Celebration"on Thursday, Jan. 26. The fun begins at 6 p.m.The featured beer that evening is Chocolate-Covered Cherry Flavored Milkshake Stout, produced by the Rochester Mills Beer Company of Rochester, Mich. The special brew features two favorite state-sourced flavors Traverse City-grown cherries, and Bavarian Inn chocolate.In addition to the "Firkin Birthday" flavor of the day, Michigan on Main plans several food and drink specials for the state birthday celebration, in addition to its full menu of locally and regionally sourced and inspired appetizers, salads, and entrees, all served in a fun, casual atmosphere.What's a firkin, one may ask? The term originates in Great Britain, and equals a fourth of a barrel of beer, or 10.79 U.S. gallons.For more information, call the Bavarian Inn at 1-800-BAVARIA or (989) 652-9941.Celebrating 125 years of service in 2013, the Bavarian Inn Restaurant has become a Michigan landmark. Generations of diners, lodgers and tourists from around the globe have discovered true Bavarian hospitality thanks to Dorothy and her late husband William "Tiny" Zehnder. Guests experience the old-world European charm of the Bavarian Inn whether it's the famous chicken dinners, fresh baked goods or Michigan's greatest selection of German beer. Bavarian Inn also prides itself on being one of the top consumers of Pure Michigan agricultural products. Nestled within a backdrop of authentic German architecture, a variety of shops and other fun activities, a trip to Frankenmuth would not be complete without a visit to the Bavarian Inn Restaurant. Learn more at www.bavarianinn.com Bavarian Inn online press room: http://www.logos- communications.com/ bavarianinn/ Contact Cassandra Casey Marketing Manager ***@pro-linkglobal.com Cassandra CaseyMarketing Manager End -- Pro-Link GLOBAL is proud to announce that their Amsterdam office is celebrating its one-year anniversary. The office is comprised of seven expert global immigration professionals who have processed over 900 cases since the office first opened on January 3, 2016. Strategically-located within the EMEA region, the office not only enlarges Pro-Link GLOBAL's worldwide footprint but provides its multinational clients with lightning-fast service delivery of customized, country-specific process workflows; comprehensive tracking mechanisms; and best-in-class immigration case support.Since the beginning, our Dutch team has embodied Pro-Link GLOBAL's fundamental principles of solution-oriented client support and a true, personal understanding of both the stresses and joys of an international assignment. These guiding tenets were especially on display during a particularly complex and urgent case the new team faced earlier this year. A married couple from Russia relocated to the Netherlands in 2015 and, a full year after they had been legally working and living in Amsterdam, the employee received a letter from the Dutch Immigration Office (IND) informing him that his wife's permit has been revoked due to a perceived non-compliance with the couple's address registration.The client immediately contacted Pro-Link GLOBAL's Amsterdam office for advice and assistance. Timing was critical: not only does Dutch law provide a mere four weeks to file a written appeal of the notification, but the employee's wife was out of the country at the time and planned to return to the Netherlands in four days. Left unresolved, she would have been banned from re-entering the Netherlands.The Dutch team quickly sprang into action to identify the root cause of this notification from the IND and to formulate an action plan for the appeal. After a swift and thorough review of the couple's application package from 2015, it became clear that the Municipality of Amsterdam made a mistake and did not register the employee's wife in their system. Fortunately, many of the Dutch team had previously worked for the IND and understood how to get the fastest response and results from the department. Escalating this matter to the highest authority, the Dutch team members simultaneously prepared the written appeal to the IND and accompanied the employee to the Municipality of Amsterdam to submit their evidence of the department's error. The Municipality authorities agreed with the findings, retroactively registered the employee's wife from the end of 2015, and sent an official letter to the couple confirming the registration had been completed. In the meantime, the IND received the written appeal from the Dutch team and, with the system updates made by the Municipality of Amsterdam, issued a verbal indication that the outcome of the appeal would be in favor of the employee and his wife. At the time of this writing, the client is awaiting the final written verdict from the IND who has six months to release the official decision.Throughout the entire process, the client and their employee were overjoyed with such positive results. They were astounded at Pro-Link GLOBAL's sense of urgency, the team's empathy with the employee and his spouse during such stressful times, and their ownership in solving this significant challenge.Pro-Link GLOBAL Co-Founder and CEO, Andrea Elliott shared, "Our vision is to make obtaining work and residence permits a delightful experience for every transferee and dependent. Everything we do is driven by this vision and our Amsterdam location is an integral part of our business model. I couldn't be more proud of their successes over the past year and look forward to continued growth in 2017."Pro-Link GLOBAL experienced a record-breaking 2016: not only did they win Immigration Team of the Year by Relocate Magazine ( https://pro- linkglobal.com/ pro-link-global- wins-immigrati... ), but they also opened offices in Australia, The Netherlands, India ( https://pro- linkglobal.com/ pro-link-global- launches-india... ), and are currently expanding their world headquarters (https://pro-linkglobal.com/pro-link-global-expands-world-headquarters/)in Bradenton, Florida USA. The company is excited to continue providing industry-leading service to its clients and expanding on its success in 2017. VIP Vacations was honored with winning Disney Destination's Silver EarMarked Award for 2016. VIP Agents Celebrating their Disney Earmarked Award Contact Liz Moran ***@vacationsbyvip.com Liz Moran End -- VIP Vacations, Inc. has received Disney Destinations' prestigious Silver EarMarked Award, based on its strong support in selling Disney vacations in 2016!Over the years, VIP Vacations has gained specialized knowledge on vacations to the Disneyland Resort, Walt Disney World Resort, Disney Cruise Line and Adventures by Disney vacations and has used that knowledge to become a top producing Disney Destinations agency.VIP Vacations, an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner, has many agents who have received extensive training on Disney Destinations theme parks, resorts, cruises, vacation packages and more, and can provide the utmost in professional assistance in planning customized Disney vacations. In fact, one reason the agency attained the Silver EarMarked status is that all the frontline leisure travel agents are College of Disney Knowledge graduates. The College of Disney Knowledge is an in-depth comprehensive course that allows agents to develop their expertise regarding the Disney Destinations knowledge that consumers can take advantage of when planning a Disney vacation.VIP Vacations Inc. is a full service travel agency that has been in business since 1994 with offices in Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey. VIP Vacations has won numerous awards from Sandals Resorts, Palace Resorts, Karisma Resorts, and also received the Caribbean Tourism Organizations' highly touted "Romance in Travel Award". President, Jennifer Doncsecz is the featured travel expert for Martha Stewart's Weddings Magazine and destination wedding blogger for Bridal Guide. VIP Vacations specializes in destination weddings and honeymoons.For more information on VIP Vacations, visit www.vacationsbyvip.com or call 610-865-1055 Diners waste far less food when they're schooled on the harm their leftovers can inflict on the environment. But if they know the food is going to be composted instead of dumped in a landfill, the educational benefit disappears. When composting enters the picture, educated diners waste just as much as those who haven't learned about shrinking landfill space, dangerous greenhouse gas emissions and water and soil pollution, a new study found. This presents a tricky situation for policymakers figuring out how to manage food waste, because the top tactics are prevention (through education) and diversion (through composting), said lead researcher Danyi Qi, a graduate student in agricultural economics at The Ohio State University. "When you do both, they cancel each other out -- they work at cross purposes," said Qi, who is presenting the findings this week at the annual meeting of the Allied Social Science Associations in Chicago. The discovery could help shape decisions by government, businesses and others looking to chip away at the vast amount of food that lands in trashcans instead of on the tables of those in need, said Qi and co-author Brian Roe, a professor of agricultural, environmental and developmental economics and a member of Ohio State's Food Waste Collaborative, which is exploring ways to reduce waste and create a more sustainable food system. Qi and Roe recruited 266 students, staff, faculty and Columbus residents to participate in the study, which took place over two months in the summer of 2016. The participants were monitored during a meal provided by the researchers. The diners didn't know what the study was about, specifically, just that the research team was examining eating behavior. advertisement Participants were given information cards with either education on food waste harms or on financial literacy. About half of both of those groups were told that leftovers would be composted, and that it would reduce methane emissions and provide nourishment for plants. The other half were told that their uneaten food was destined for a landfill. The participants could take as much food as they wanted, in a single trip. They chose from sandwiches, chips and apple slices. Neither sharing nor doggy bags were permitted. The researchers weighed the diners' trays after the meal to determine how much food the study subjects left behind. Education in the absence of composting had a marked effect. The diners who'd read about the harm related to waste left behind almost 77 percent less as a group than those who'd received the financial literacy material. The educated diners were 39 percent more likely to clean their plates. But the benefits of food-waste awareness vanished when the study participants knew their uneaten food was going to a "good" place. "We were very curious if these common policies work in harmony or in conflict," Qi said. advertisement "It seems that if they feel that the social and environmental cost is lower, they may feel less guilty and that may cause them to waste more." The trouble is that composting comes at a financial and societal cost and policymakers are striving to find ways to limit waste regardless of where it will end up, Qi said. Roe said this work is likely to be most useful to food service institutions seeking ways to address waste. "There are many new and innovative approaches being proposed to reduce food waste and to minimize its environmental impact. However, there exists little thought about whether various approaches are complementary or competitive," he said. "This study is one of the few to consider how various approaches might interact." For individuals looking to be good environmental stewards, the study highlights the importance of first attempting to limit waste. Composting or donating unused food is great, but buying and preparing only what you'll eat is better, Roe said. "And if someone else says they will do something positive with food scraps, it shouldn't diminish your own good intentions and efforts to reduce food waste," he said. People over the age of 85 are significantly more likely to suffer social exclusion than those in the 65 to 84-year-old bracket, according to new research. In a study* of more than 10,000 people over the age of 65, social policy researchers found the so-called 'oldest old' -- classed as those 85 and over -- have more trouble accessing services such as healthcare and food shops, with 16 per cent reporting 'significant' problems, compared with only four per cent of their younger counterparts. And women were found to be less likely to be able to access services than men. The study, led by social policy researchers at the University of Lincoln with colleagues from Sheffield Hallam University, found that while only 17 per cent of respondents aged 65 to 84 said they do not go out socially, the number increased to nearly half of those in the oldest old bracket. Women in that age group were less likely to go out with friends, but surprisingly, rural respondents were more likely to go out than urban residents. The older respondents were also less likely to go out socially even when cohabiting, suggesting that those in that age group are at greater risk of social exclusion regardless of whether they live alone, researchers said. Similarly, 19 per cent in the 85+ bracket reported it being 'very difficult' to visit family when they need to, compared with nine per cent of those in the younger age bracket. The Office for National Statistics estimates there will be 3.2 million people aged 85 or over in the United Kingdom by 2039. Dr Wesley Key, from the University of Lincoln's School of Social & Political Sciences, said: "As people in western nations are living longer, it is now necessary to differentiate the 'oldest old' from what could be termed the 'younger old', or those aged 65 to 84. Our analysis found that those people are at greater risk of experiencing social exclusion compared with the 65-84 age group. "We examined whether this risk was down to declining health among this age group, yet the analysis shows that those aged 85 and above are still at greater risk of social exclusion even if we take poor health into account. "We know that a loss of social contact can damage physical and mental health, and furthermore, older people are more likely to need care from external providers if they live alone, something which is more likely among the oldest old. This places more pressure on statutory health and social care services. "Measures must be taken to help them continue living in their own homes for as long as possible, whilst maintaining adequate social relations and being able to access services. As first steps, awareness and availability of technology such as Skype, telecare and online banking/shopping should be improved." Researchers said that third-sector provision such as Telephone Befriending Services and Dial-a-Ride community transport schemes have attempted to alleviate loneliness and isolation, but geographical variations can place it beyond the reach of some people. It also warned that voluntary organisations could not be responsible for ensuring the UK's ageing society does not exclude older members of the population. Dr Key added: "The government has a responsibility to ensure that the most vulnerable citizens are able to participate fully in social life within, and beyond, their home neighbourhoods. Even if the moral argument is not deemed sufficiently powerful, as life expectancy increases and the age profile of western nations pushes upward, the needs of future cohorts of the oldest old will become impossible to ignore." The findings have been published in the journal Social Policy and Society. The thawing and erosion of Arctic permafrost coasts has dramatically increased in the past years and the sea is now consuming more than 20 metres of land per year at some locations. The earth masses removed in this process increasingly blur the shallow water areas and release nutrients and pollutants. Yet, the consequences of these processes on life in the coastal zone and on traditional fishing grounds are virtually unknown. Scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) urge to focus our attention on the ecological consequences of coastal erosion in the January issue of the journal Nature Climate Change. According to the scientists, an interdisciplinary research program is required, and must involve policy-makers as well as inhabitants of the Arctic coasts right from the onset. The difference could hardly be greater. In the winter, when the Beaufort Sea is frozen around the Canadian permafrost island of Herschel Island (Qikiqtaruk), the sea water in the sample bottles of the AWI researcher Dr Michael Fritz looks crystal clear. In summer, however, when the ice floes are melted and the sun and waves start to wear the cliff away, the water sample of the Potsdam geoscientist contains a cloudy broth. "Herschel Island loses up to 22 metres of coast each year. The thawed permafrost slides down into the sea in the form of mud slides and blurs the surrounding shallow water areas so much that the brownish-grey sediment plumes reach many kilometres into the sea," reports the polar researcher. His observations of Herschel Island can now be transferred to large parts of the Arctic. 34 percent of the coasts around the world are permafrost coasts. This means, especially in the Arctic, that its soil contains a large amount of frozen water, which keeps the sediments together like cement. If the permafrost thaws, the binding effect fails. The sediments as well as animal and plant remains, which are frozen in the permafrost, are suddenly released in the water and are washed away by the waves. In this process, greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane are released and lead to even greater global warming. The eroded material also contains a lot of nutrients and pollutants such as nitrogen, phosphorus or mercury. These substances enter the sea, where they are further transported, degraded or accumulated and permanently alter the living conditions in the shallow water area. "We can until now only guess the implications for the food chain. To date, almost no research has been carried out on the link between the biogeochemistry of the coastal zone and increasing erosion and what consequences this has on ecosystems, on traditional fishing grounds, and thus also on the people of the Arctic," says Michael Fritz. For this reason, Michael Fritz, the Dutch permafrost expert Jorien Vonk and AWI researcher Hugues Lantuit call on the polar research community to systematically investigate the consequences of coastal erosion for the arctic shallow water areas in the current issue of the journal Nature Climate Change. "The processes in the arctic coastal zone play an outstanding role for four reasons. Firstly, the thawed organic material is decomposed by microorganisms, producing greenhouse gases. Secondly, released nutrients stimulate the growth of algae, which can lead to the formation of low-oxygen zones. Thirdly, the addition of organic carbon increases the acidification of the sea, and fourth, the sediments are deposited on the seabed or are transported to the open ocean. This has direct consequences for the biology of the sea," the authors say. The urgency of the topic also increases with the warming of the Arctic: "We believe that the erosion of the Arctic coasts will increase drastically as a result of rising temperatures, the shrinking of the protective sea ice cover, and the rising sea level," says AWI permafrost expert and co-author Professor Hugues Lantuit. He adds that "during the ice-free season the waves can hit the coast higher and affect more land." An erosion of that magnitude will without a doubt alter the food web in the coastal zone, and will affect those people who depend on fishing and who cultivate their traditional way of life along Arctic coasts. The main reason why research on this topic has not been carried out so far is linked to logistics. Much of the arctic coastal and shallow water zones are not accessible either by car or plane, or by large icebreakers. There is also no arctic-wide station network at the coast that could be used by researchers to collect reliable data. "Politics and science must find common solutions here, for example within the framework of the EU research program Horizon 2020. In order to make concrete statements on the consequences of erosion, we need an interdisciplinary research program that includes policy-makers and the Arctic population from the beginning," says Michael Fritz. People who live close to high-traffic roadways face a higher risk of developing dementia than those who live further away, new research from Public Health Ontario (PHO) and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) has found. Led by PHO and ICES scientists, the study found that people who lived within 50 metres of high-traffic roads had a seven per cent higher likelihood of developing dementia compared to those who lived more than 300 meters away from busy roads. Published in The Lancet, the researchers examined records of more than 6.5 million Ontario residents aged 20-85 to investigate the correlation between living close to major roads and dementia, Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis. Scientists identified 243,611 cases of dementia, 31,577 cases of Parkinson's disease, and 9,247 cases of multiple sclerosis in Ontario between 2001 and 2012. In addition, they mapped individuals' proximity to major roadways using the postal code of their residence. The findings indicate that living close to major roads increased the risk of developing dementia, but not Parkinson's disease or multiple sclerosis, two other major neurological disorders. "Little is known in current research about how to reduce the risk of dementia. Our findings show the closer you live to roads with heavy day-to-day traffic, the greater the risk of developing dementia. With our widespread exposure to traffic and the greater tendency for people to live in cities these days, this has serious public health implications," says Dr. Hong Chen, environmental and occupational health scientist at PHO and an adjunct scientist at ICES. Dr. Chen is lead author on the paper titled Living Near Major Roads and the Incidence of Dementia, Parkinson's Disease, and Multiple Sclerosis: A Population-based Cohort Study. "Our study is the first in Canada to suggest that pollutants from heavy, day-to-day traffic are linked to dementia. We know from previous research that air pollutants can get into the blood stream and lead to inflammation, which is linked with cardiovascular disease and possibly other conditions such as diabetes. This study suggests air pollutants that can get into the brain via the blood stream can lead to neurological problems," says Dr. Ray Copes, chief of environmental and occupational health at PHO and an author on the paper. As urban centres become more densely populated and more congested with vehicles on major roads, Dr. Copes suggests the findings of this paper could be used to help inform municipal land use decisions as well as building design to take into account air pollution factors and the impact on residents. This research was conducted in collaboration with scientists from the University of Toronto, Carleton University, Dalhousie University, Oregon State University, and Health Canada. The study was funded by Health Canada. Key findings: Michigan's expansion of Medicaid health insurance coverage has boosted the state's economy and budget, and will continue to do so for at least the next five years, according to a new University of Michigan study. The expansion's total economic impact will generate more than enough funds for the state budget to cover the cost of the program in the current fiscal year, the researchers report in the New England Journal of Medicine. The expanded Medicaid program will continue to have this self-paying effect even as the state's share of its cost increases every year until fiscal 2021 under federal law, they project. Over the next five years, the state will end up with more money in its coffers because of the program than it actually spends on the program. A wide range of economic effects The analysis looks at the total economic impact of the Healthy Michigan Plan, which began in April 2014 and currently covers about 600,000 low-income Michiganders. Most were uninsured before enrolling in the plan, which is mainly supported by federal funds under the Affordable Care Act. The maximum income a single adult can have to enroll in the Healthy Michigan Plan is about $16,400. But besides the enrollees, other Michiganders are benefiting from the expansion, the U-M team shows. advertisement The ripple effects generate more than 30,000 new jobs every year -- one-third of them in health care and 85 percent in the private sector. These jobs yield about $2.3 billion more in personal spending power each year for Michigan residents. The new jobs and related personal spending are generating approximately $150 million in income and sales tax revenue annually for the state. The state will also continue to save money it would have spent on other safety net programs if Medicaid had not expanded. "The economic impact of Medicaid expansion extends well beyond health care providers and the wallets of those who formerly had no insurance," says John Z. Ayanian, M.D., M.P.P., lead author of the new study and director of the U-M Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation. "We hope that our findings will provide needed evidence to Michigan lawmakers as they consider the future of the program, as well as informing decisions about Medicaid expansion in other states." Ayanian and U-M health economist Helen Levy, Ph.D., conducted the study with Gabriel M. Ehrlich, Ph.D., and Donald R. Grimes, M.A. from the Research Seminar in Quantitative Economics, a U-M economic modeling and forecasting unit. The team used the same economic model that this unit employs to advise the state for fiscal planning. Under Ayanian's direction, IHPI is also leading the federally required independent evaluation of how the Healthy Michigan Plan is affecting enrollees, health care providers and the state. That effort is funded by a state contract. The new study was supported by a grant from the Commonwealth Fund and conducted separately from the evaluation project for the state. advertisement "The Healthy Michigan Plan has not only covered more than 600,000 Michiganders -- most of whom had been uninsured -- it has also lightened the economic load on the state, on families and businesses, and on health care providers. Federal spending through Medicaid gives a big boost to the state's economy," says Levy, a research professor in the U-M Institute for Social Research. Five-year forecast The study modeled the impact of the Healthy Michigan Plan from its launch in April 2014 through the end of fiscal year 2021. Starting in the 2017 fiscal year that began in October 2016, the state will pay five percent of the cost of care for those enrolled. By 2020, that share will rise to 10 percent of the total cost of the program. For 2017, the researchers find, the economic impact of expansion means the state will finish with $432 million more than its share of the program's cost, because of new tax revenue and avoided spending. In 2021, the state will end up with $162 million more than its share of the cost. The researchers accounted for $20 million that the state spends to administer the program, and $235 million a year that it saves on selected health services that it previously funded but are now covered through the Healthy Michigan Plan. Those services include some health care for prisoners, community mental health services, and prior programs for extremely impoverished adults. Hospitals and many other providers previously absorbed the cost of caring for uninsured people, so their ability to spend those dollars in other ways was included -- as were the contributions they make to the state to support part of the cost of the expansion. Increased taxes paid by the privately run health plans that enroll Healthy Michigan Plan participants were also included. The increase in personal spending power includes the estimated $490 that each uninsured person likely spent, on average, for his or her health care every year before the expansion took effect. Spending power also takes into account the premiums on employer-sponsored or private insurance plans that some Healthy Michigan Plan participants had before transitioning to the new option. The law that authorized Medicaid expansion in Michigan allows the program to be ended if the state's costs exceed new revenue and savings for the state budget. Nineteen other states have not expanded the program, under an ACA provision that allows for coverage for all adults with incomes under 138 percent of the federal poverty level. New research done in Singapore shows that slightly raising indoor temperatures and equipping office workers with smart fans saves significantly on overall office building energy costs while maintaining employee comfort. The research was conducted by a consortium of engineering specialists in the US and Asia led by College of Environmental Design Assistant Professor of Architecture Stefano Schiavon. Published in the latest issue of Indoor Air, a team of interdisciplinary researchers from UC Berkeley, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and Stanford University led by Schiavon laid out the results of experiments conducted in the tropical city-state of Singapore. According to the study, 50 percent of electricity in Singapore is consumed by commercial and residential buildings, mainly to supply air conditioning for occupant comfort and to dehumidify air conditioned spaces. Key findings in the report include: -- Thermal comfort, perceived air quality and symptoms of sick building syndrome are reported to be equal or better at 26 Celsius and at 29C, rather than at the common "set point" of 23C, if a personally controlled fan is used. - The best cognitive performance, as indicated by task speed, was recorded at 26C; at 29C, the availability of an occupant-controlled fan partially mitigated the negative effect of the elevated temperature. The typical Singaporean indoor air temperature set point of 23C yielded the lowest cognitive performance. - In the United States, about 75 percent of electricity is used in buildings. Meanwhile, in the U.S. and worldwide, air conditioning accounts for 40 percent of total energy use and relative greenhouse gas emissions. "In 2050, most of the world population will live in the tropics, and the use of air conditioning is already exploding in tropical countries. Forecasts for an even hotter, more densely populated and wealthier planet just add to the significance of our research," explained Professor Schiavon, who is also a researcher at Center for the Built Environment. advertisement A principal investigator on the Singapore research, Schiavon worked with fellow members of Singapore Berkeley Building Efficiency and Sustainability in the Tropics (SinBerBEST), a wide-ranging group of researchers from UC Berkeley, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and the National University of Singapore (NUS). It is a program of the Berkeley Education Alliance for Research in Singapore (BEARS). For the cognitive tests, Schiavon collaborated with a doctoral student from Stanford. Air conditioning is needed to provide comfortable and productive working and sleeping environments, but its impact on the environment and the electrical grid is large, the team said. Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's prime minister from 1959 to 1990, called air conditioning "a most important invention," without which work on the island city-state would be limited to cool early morning hours or dusk. "The first thing I did upon becoming prime minister was to install air conditioners in buildingsThis was key to public efficiency," Lew wrote in a 2009 article for the New Perspectives Quarterly. The team's objective was to show that it is possible to provide the same or more comfort with less energy. The typical set point for office building indoor temperatures has for decades been 23C in Singapore, where the yearly average outdoor temperature during the day is 29C (84F). But Schiavon and his team wanted to see what would happen when they turned up the thermostat. They conducted five experiments in the summer of 2014, with 56 participants dressed in typical Singaporean office attire -- long pants, a short-sleeved shirt, socks and closed-toe business shoes -- and assembled in a room at Nanyang Technological University featuring an open-office layout, with no cubicles. During the 90-minute tests, researchers asked participants to gauge their comfort levels when temperatures were adjusted to 23C (73.4F), 26C (78.8 F) or 29C (84.2F). Relative humidity was controlled at 60 percent, a typical indoor level in Singapore. In two of the tests (26 and 29C), subjects were allowed to control air movement with personal electric fans if they wished. The tests used smart, energy-efficient desk fans that run on more efficient, direct-current (DC) motors using between 3 and 17 watts, rather than alternative-current (AC) motors that use around 100 watts. Increasing the indoor temperature set point to values in the range of 26-29C (79-84F) and simultaneously providing occupants with personally controllable fans could be a cost-effective, sustainable and energy-efficient option for providing thermal comfort in new and existing buildings in the tropics, said Schiavon. "If applied to commercial building in Singapore, we could save up to 35 percent of the energy for air conditioning," he said. "Moreover, we are now working on smart fans that can adapt to the environmental conditions and provide the needed comfort" explained Schiavon, adding that his team has a provisional patent on a smart control for a system of fans and is applying for a full patent. Asian longhorned beetles (ALBs), which are harmful to many broadleaf trees, have been spotted in eight European countries to date. The city of Winterthur (Switzerland) is the first place in Europe to eradicate a large beetle infestation in just four years; elsewhere, this has so far only been achieved in over ten years. According to an ALB specialist from the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) writing in the Wald und Holz journal, the recipe for success requires systematic action against the beetles, well-coordinated control measures and active information of the public. The Asian longhorned beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis) is one of the ten most dangerous quarantine pests in the world. Over 30 ALB infestations have been reported in eight European countries to date; six of these infestations have now been eradicated. In most cases, it took more than 10 years to wipe out the beetle population in large outdoor infestations. Winterthur (Switzerland) has recently shown that it is possible, however, to eradicate even large outdoor infestations within the statutory minimum period of four years. This requires decisive action right at the start of an outbreak, because only the best and most experienced people on the ground can isolate the infested area in the first year. The outdoor infestation in Winterthur could only be eradicated quickly because measures to combat and control the beetles were introduced and meticulously and properly coordinated shortly after the infestation was detected in 2012. The federal government, the Canton of Zurich, the WSL and the city of Winterthur worked closely together for over four years. The federal government relieved the city and canton of their monitoring duties in December 2016. Success factors Determining the boundaries of an infestation in the year of its discovery is key to quickly eradicating an outdoor infestation as large as that in Winterthur. This requires as many well-trained ALB-certified tree surgeons and sniffer-dog teams as possible. Inexperienced teams cannot effectively combat the beetles on their own. Of course, qualified personnel are more expensive but saving money here would only lead to far higher subsequent costs overall due to monitoring. Additional experts serve as a further source of support. advertisement Another factor for success is ensuring that all parties involved work competently and transparently, and communicate openly, efficiently and promptly with each other, local residents and the media. Any attempts to combat this beetle will fail without the understanding and cooperation of the affected residents over a number of years. This dangerous quarantine pest can only be eradicated if we work with, not against each other! Experts from WSL supported the other partners from beginning to end, from identifying beetles, larvae, pupae, eggs and signs of infestation (incl. genetic analyses) to documenting the entire infestation (outdoor report sheet, database, collecting photos). WSL also trained experts on site, produced visuals and provided sample material for the sniffer dogs. WSL is providing the same support for the other outdoor infestations in Switzerland that are still being monitored. Most of these infested areas were also isolated in the year they were discovered -- most recently 2013 in Brunisried (Canton of Freibourg). At that point, the boundaries of the infestation no longer needed to be corrected during annual monitoring as no more longhorned beetles were found. Through WSL specialists' close-knit network with colleagues abroad, all parties involved in Switzerland could always benefit from the most up-to-date advice. Focus on information Together with the federal government, WSL published an ALB leaflet and an identification guide (available in Switzerland's three official languages), which were successfully used in operations, training and the provision of information to the public. Furthermore, in 2016 training was provided to stakeholders in the green industry to teach them how to identify further outbreaks as early as possible. WSL also educated inspectors from the Swiss Federal Plant Protection Service, who deal with cross-border goods transportation and package-wood controls. As a result of the Winterthur infestation, the Canton of Zurich is imposing restrictions on the use of granite from Asia in public tenders with a view to preventing future ALB outbreaks. Stone importers are now taking preventive action, too. All these efforts have led to the eradication of individual infestations and greatly restricted ALB entry routes into Europe. However, the danger is not yet averted. Like other countries, Switzerland is potentially still home to undiscovered infestations, so stay vigilant! The sooner an outdoor infestation is spotted, the smaller it is, which makes it much easier to control. The exhaustive international trade of wildlife has pushed many species to the brink of extinction. Coincidentally, many of the same species have been introduced to urban centres or wilderness areas outside their natural ranges. In a recent study published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, authors from Hong Kong and Australia find that these introduced populations may provide hope for these threatened species. "Across the planet, poachers have reached into the last remote habitats to harvest wildlife populations used for clothing, eaten, or kept as pets in faraway cities," said Dr. Luke Gibson from the School of Biological Sciences of the University of Hong Kong, who led the study. "In some cases, the traded organisms have escaped and are now thriving in their introduced habitats," he added. In total, the authors identified 49 globally threatened species -- those listed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature as Vulnerable, Endangered, or Critically Endangered -- which have established introduced populations outside their native distribution. These include amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds, as well as insects and plants, with introduced populations found on all continents except Antarctica. One example is the Yellow-crested Cockatoo, Critically Endangered due to capture for the pet trade. Ironically, many of these pet birds were accidentally or deliberately released in their new environments. Currently, about 200 Yellow-crested Cockatoos -- an estimated 10% of the bird's global population -- are found on Hong Kong Island, mostly between Pokfulam and Happy Valley. "This is a key example of how Hong Kong -- a heavily urbanised city-state -- can play a role in the conservation of globally threatened species," said co-author Ding Li Yong, from the Australian National University. Reintroduction of this species to its native range in Indonesia and East Timor could help to buffer populations there, which are rapidly declining due to poaching. Alternatively, the harvest of the introduced cockatoos in Hong Kong could offset demand from its native range. Both approaches could also eliminate threats the introduced population might pose to native species in its introduced environment, such as monopolising nesting sites and triggering population declines of local birds. Combined, augmenting declining populations in their native ranges and eliminating the threats to native ecosystems could "save two birds with one stone," as Gibson puts it. "This creative tactic could be essential to save species imperilled by wildlife trade as well as eliminate threats the same species pose in their adopted territories." About 15,000 years ago, the ocean around Antarctica has seen an abrupt sea level rise of several meters. It could happen again. An international team of scientists with the participation of the University of Bonn is now reporting its findings in the magazine Scientific Reports. University of Bonn's climate researcher Michael E. Weber is a member of the study group. He says, "The changes that are currently taking place in a disturbing manner resemble those 14,700 years ago." At that time, changes in atmospheric-oceanic circulation led to a stratification in the ocean with a cold layer at the surface and a warm layer below. Under such conditions, ice sheets melt more strongly than when the surrounding ocean is thoroughly mixed. This is exactly what is presently happening around the Antarctic. The main author of the study, the Australian climate researcher Chris Fogwill from the Climate Change Research Center in Sydney, explains the process as follows: "The reason for the layering is that global warming in parts of Antarctica is causing land based ice to melt, adding massive amounts of freshwater to the ocean surface. At the same time as the surface is cooling, the deeper ocean is warming, which has already accelerated the decline of glaciers in the Amundsen Sea Embayment." It appears global warming is replicating conditions that, in the past, triggered significant shifts in the stability of the Antarctic ice sheet. To investigate the climate changes of the past, the scientists are studying drill cores from the eternal ice. Layer by layer, this frozen "climate archive" reveals its secrets to the experts. In previous studies, the scientists had found evidence of eight massive melting events in deep sea sediments around the Antarctic, which occurred at the transition from the last ice age to the present warm period. Co-author Dr. Weber from the Steinmann Institute of the University of Bonn says: "The largest melt occurred 14,700 years ago. During this time the Antarctic contributed to a sea level rise of at least three meters within a few centuries." The present discovery is the first direct evidence from the Antarctic continent which confirms the assumed models. The research team used isotopic analyzes of ice cores from the Weddell Sea region, which now flows into the ocean about a quarter of the Antarctic melt. Through a combination with ice sheet and climate modeling, the isotopic data show that the waters around the Antarctic were heavily layered at the time of the melting events, so that the ice sheets melted at a faster rate. "The big question is whether the ice sheet will react to these changing ocean conditions as rapidly as it did 14,700 years ago," says co-author Nick Golledge from the Antarctic Research Center in Wellington, New Zealand. Page Content The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has released a new question-and-answer guide on national origin discriminationa user-friendly document designed to help the public interpret the anti-discrimination law. The guide defines what national origin discrimination is, describes how employers can avoid engaging in such discrimination and gives examples of "promising practices" to reduce the risk of violations. The new document is part of the EEOC's recently updated enforcement guidelines on national origin discrimination. Those guidelines reflect the commission's interpretation of the law, taking into account recent court rulings and other legal, social and technological developments, said EEOC spokeswoman Christine Nazer. National origin discrimination is covered under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The EEOC defines such discrimination as "treating people (applicants or employees) unfavorably because they are from a particular country or part of the world, because of ethnicity or accent, or because they appear to be of a certain ethnic background (even if they are not)." Fiona Ong, an attorney with Shawe Rosenthal LLP in Baltimore, said the updated guidelines can be especially helpful to employment attorneys and businesses at a time when U.S. political rhetoric has sometimes emboldened people to discriminate against co-workers from diverse backgrounds. Ong added that businesses must make sure that they provide the guidelines to managers and employees, translate the guidance into the languages used by employees, and hold training to convey what's in the guidelines. [SHRM members-only platform: SHRM Connect] The number of national origin discrimination charges increased from approximately 8,500 in 2000 to just over 10,000 in 2015 and include: --A case filed by the EEOC on Nov. 15, 2016, in which the commission claimed that a "temporary staffing firm violated federal law by subjecting Latino workers to unequal working conditions and failing to provide accommodations to those with disabilities." --A case that the EEOC settled in April 2016, in which the commission claimed that a food company "discriminated against three applicants and a class of African-American and non-Hispanic applicants by failing to hire them into entry-level jobs because of their race." --A case that the EEOC settled in February 2016, in which the commission claimed that the manager of a Colorado condominium complex sexually harassed "Mexican female employees, including attempted rape." When workers "complained to management, they were met with anger and indifference," the EEOC wrote in a press release. Nazer and Ong said national origin discrimination may be more widespread than the number of claims represents. Ong noted, for instance, that in certain cultures, such as Chinese culture, it is preferable to avoid speaking publicly about discrimination. Of the national origin discrimination claims filed with the EEOC in fiscal 2015, the commission found "no reasonable cause" to pursue the complaint in about 69 percent of the cases. Of the remaining 31 percent, about half were closed because of administrative problemssuch as difficulty finding or communicating with the claimant. About 15 percent of the claims were resolved by merit resolutions, which means the outcomes were favorable to the charging parties. Such outcomes include negotiated settlements, withdrawals with benefits, successful conciliations and unsuccessful conciliations. Alison E. Curwen is a freelance writer based in Mercersburg, Pa. 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Here's How. The Safest Option in Trades! (Ad) eBay or Etsy: Which Is The Better Buy? Paypal Shows Promise With Strong Buy Rating The Safest Option in Trades! (Ad) Energy Transfer Raises Guidance, But Stock Lower On Revenue Miss Papa Johns Falls Flat On Earnings, Shares Set To Rise The Safest Option in Trades! (Ad) Bank of England makes biggest interest rate hike in 30 years Mid-Caps CommScope, Dycom Outperform Broader Telecom Industry S&P 500 3,719.89 DOW 32,001.25 QQQ 260.49 Harnessing Neuroplasticity Allows You to Actually Change the Way You Think. Here's How. The Safest Option in Trades! (Ad) eBay or Etsy: Which Is The Better Buy? Paypal Shows Promise With Strong Buy Rating The Safest Option in Trades! (Ad) Energy Transfer Raises Guidance, But Stock Lower On Revenue Miss Papa Johns Falls Flat On Earnings, Shares Set To Rise The Safest Option in Trades! (Ad) Bank of England makes biggest interest rate hike in 30 years Mid-Caps CommScope, Dycom Outperform Broader Telecom Industry S&P 500 3,719.89 DOW 32,001.25 QQQ 260.49 Harnessing Neuroplasticity Allows You to Actually Change the Way You Think. Here's How. The Safest Option in Trades! (Ad) eBay or Etsy: Which Is The Better Buy? Paypal Shows Promise With Strong Buy Rating The Safest Option in Trades! (Ad) Energy Transfer Raises Guidance, But Stock Lower On Revenue Miss Papa Johns Falls Flat On Earnings, Shares Set To Rise The Safest Option in Trades! (Ad) Bank of England makes biggest interest rate hike in 30 years Mid-Caps CommScope, Dycom Outperform Broader Telecom Industry This week, wildlife advocates got some devastating news. A Bornean pygmy elephant famous for his backward tusks was found dead in the forest in Sabah, a region in the Malaysian section of Borneo. Last year, Sabah's Wildlife Rescue Unit (WRU) had relocated the elephant - affectionately known as Sabre, from his resemblance to a saber-toothed tiger - from a palm oil estate into an area of protected forest. He was fitted with a satellite collar, and the team at the Danau Girang Field Centre, a research and training facility managed by the Sabah Wildlife Department and Cardiff University, had been tracking his movements ever since. Dodo Shows Soulmates Dog Goes Everywhere In His Dad's Kangaroo Pouch In late November 2016, Sabre's radio collar showed that he was no longer moving. Yet Benoit Goossens, director of the Danau Girang Field Centre, wasn't initially alarmed. "I thought that the unit dropped, which happens often for males," Goossens told The Dodo. "They find ways to get rid of the unit on the belt by rubbing on trees. And since it was in a protected forest reserve, and that WRU was busy with other rescues, I did not worry too much." WARNING: Disturbing images below Then, on December 26, the team at WRU discovered a shocking scene - the body of a 40-year-old male who had been brutally murdered for his ivory. It wasn't Sabre, but this other elephant had been killed about a mile from the location of Sabre's satellite collar. So Goossens asked the WRU to investigate. "I had a really bad feeling about it," Goossens said. "And indeed, my team and the Wildlife Rescue Unit found Sabre's remains with the collar next to it." Sabre's death is a huge blow to Bornean pygmy elephants, according to Goossens. There are between 1,500 and 2,000 Bornean pygmy elephants left in Borneo, and 95 percent of them are in Sabah, according to Goossens. Their most noticeable characteristic is their height - they're slightly smaller than normal Asian elephants. The Asian elephant (of which the Bornean pygmy elephant is a subspecies) is currently listed as endangered. The main threat to Bornean pygmy elephants is people who destroy their habitats to build farms and palm oil estates. When elephants wander onto farms and eat the crops, farmers will often kill them. Another issue, of course, is ivory poaching. "Any individual killed is a huge loss, especially a male like Sabre who was about 20 to 25 years old, at its prime age for mating," Goossens said. "The other bull was older, around 40 years. Losing two mature males is a huge blow for the population." A family of pygmy elephants | Shutterstock For years, the biggest names in tech crammed the Consumer Electronics Show floor with fridges, light switches and microwave ovens to preview a futuristic world where you could control every appliance in the home with your voice. But most of these products, bogged down by glitchy software and hard-to-navigate interfaces, failed to go mainstream. This year may be different. Aided by new artificial intelligence software that makes it easier for gadgets to understand speech, tech giants led by Amazon.com Inc. are locked in a race for dominance of digital home assistants. People are a bit disappointed with assistants, because there are no clear use cases, said Greg Gerard, creative chairman of Holi, which is debuting a $199 smart alarm clock called Bonjour. We have one. Gerard must show regular consumers the value of smart assistant technology. But he doesnt need to convince big technology firms, which all believe voice-based interactions with devices will explode in popularity. Almost every major tech company has or will soon introduce a digital assistant product powered by AI. And theyre making a concerted effort to spread the technology everywhere. Alphabet Inc.s Google is using CES to tout tie-ups with its smart Home speaker, a device similar to Amazons Echo. Microsoft Corp. has invested heavily in its assistant, Cortana. Samsung Electronics Co. is set to unveil its assistant tech for its phones and other devices in 2017. Last month, Facebook Inc. chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg showed off a smart home assistant he said he coded himself. Behind the scenes at CES, these tech behemoths will fight to get their voice-based systems into televisions, cable boxes and every home appliance, not just smartphones and PCs. Analysts expect several dozen announcements around voice-systems at this weeks event in Las Vegas, including new functions for internet-connected devices and cars. Ford Motor Co. unveiled an integration with Alexa on Wednesday. Then there are the specialized assistants, ranging from the Bonjour clock, which Gerard said will arrive later this year, to a personal home robot from startup Jibo a compact, futuristic device designed to recognize human emotions, said company chief executive officer Steve Chambers. Research firm Tractica estimates about 40 million homes will use a voice-activated digital assistant by 2021. Amazons version, Alexa, introduced in 2014 in the U.S. on the Echo speaker, works with more than 6,000 applications, according to a company spokeswoman. On Tuesday, Amazon announced a partnership with Whirlpool Corp., adding voice command capabilities to Whirlpool washers, dryers, ovens and refrigerators. Amazon has built an effective developer outreach strategy and introduced a $100-million investment fund for startups creating products around voice applications. Unlike other tech peers, Amazon has a dominant sales channel for its voice-assistance partners. Amazon has been brilliant about it, said Mark Beccue, an analyst at Tractica. They might be the best trigger to the smart home, to making it a mass-market product. Last year, Biz Stone revamped his startup, Jelly Industries Inc., as a search engine something that puts it up against Google. But when Google began hunting partners last month for its Home speaker, Jelly was among the first to sign on. Google was a zealous suitor. Employees treated him to lunch and when the deal closed, a Google operative sent him an animated GIF of Seinfeld characters dancing. Theyve been a joy to work with, said Stone, who co-founded Twitter Inc. Googles aggressive courtship is understandable; its behind Amazon. Since inception, Googles business was based on keyboard-based searches. Now the web giant is refocusing its strategy around its voice assistant, a system that sits in its speaker, Pixel smartphone and if Google succeeds every device imaginable. On Tuesday at CES, Google announced a partnership with Hyundai Motor Co. that lets drivers control some car functions by talking to the Home speaker. Its expected to unveil more assistant partnerships with devices like smart TVs. Google has an edge in building voice technology, thanks to its unmatched repository of search data. But the company must prove it can distribute its assistant widely. Hurdles exist. The same month Google debuted its Pixel phone, Samsung, the largest Android phone manufacturer, acquired Viv Labs, a startup building a voice-powered assistant. Samsung plans to roll out an AI platform for its devices this year, the company said in a statement. Apple Inc., which tightly controls about 40 per cent of U.S. smartphones, is investing in a similar push with its Siri voice assistant. Microsoft already has software tools for developers to embed Cortana into devices, and its automotive partners will announce new integrations at CES, said Matthew Quinlan, Cortanas director of product marketing. For Cortana to do her job, she needs to be in a lot of different devices. And theres Facebook. The company has said that Zuckerbergs smart-home tech was merely a demonstration. Yet the social network is testing more bot integrations with the AI-assistant in its popular Messenger chat app, a product Google has struggled to deliver. Still, Amazon remains the one to catch. For developers building voice-assisted tools, the company offers support from its already popular cloud-computing platform, giving it another edge. You are not going to see a clear no. 2 emerge in 2017, said Forrester analyst Mike Gualtieri. Technologically, Google is the closest competitor. But in terms of Googles ability to get it into homes, I question that. Another question is how to make money from a voice-controlled home. Profit margins on hardware sales are usually thin and voice-controlled computers may throw a wrench in established business models, like text-based web search. Some investors backing the technology arent concerned. There are lots and lots of ways you can monetize when you control the interface, said John Lilly, a venture capitalist with Greylock Partners. You control information flow. You can route requests. You can certainly ship people stuff. Read more about: SHARE: CHICAGORay Kroc opened the first franchised McDonalds restaurant in the Chicago suburb of Des Plaines in 1955. More than six decades and 36,000 restaurants later, moviegoers will get a chance to see a dramatized version of the burger giants beginning, and a portrayal of a complicated, driven salesman-turned-self-proclaimed founder. The Founder, set to be released Jan. 20, stars Michael Keaton as Kroc, the man widely considered McDonalds creator. McDonalds tells the story of Kroc as a symbol of the American dream: a man who worked hard for everything he had, with an eagle eye for quality and hyperfocus on efficiency and execution. But the film touches on questionable methods Kroc used to gain control of the company. The filmmakers characterize Kroc, who died in 1984, at times as a power-hungry, unscrupulous salesman desperate to expand the McDonalds brand, according to the films trailer and publicity materials. The films wide U.S. release comes at a critical moment for McDonalds. The company, under CEO Steve Easterbrook, is two years into an ambitious repositioning that has included the introduction of all-day breakfast, a new McPick 2 value menu and the removal of antibiotics from chicken and preservatives from McNuggets. Next up is one of the most significant changes ever in the look and experience of eating at its restaurants the introduction of kiosk ordering and Bluetooth-enabled table service updates that will take shape just as a film is released that casts a shadow on the burger behemoths beginnings. Kroc, a Chicago-area native, was a 52-year-old milkshake machine salesman when he first encountered McDonalds, opened by two brothers, Richard and Maurice McDonald, in California. Amazed by the efficiency of the operation and speed of service, Kroc inked a deal with the brothers to open a franchise in Des Plaines in 1955. Other openings followed and within just three years, McDonalds had sold 100 million hamburgers. Within eight years, it had 500 restaurants. Today, it has 14,000 U.S. locations and 22,000 more around the globe. The details of the companys first years are disputed. In a number of interviews over the years, the McDonald brothers and their descendants said Kroc swindled them, eventually squeezing them out of the business. In his 1977 autobiography Grinding it Out, Kroc wrote that the pair were difficult to deal with and battled his efforts to expand the business from the start. They were obtuse, they were utterly indifferent to the fact that I was putting every cent I had and all I could borrow into this project, Kroc wrote of one frustrating early restaurant construction. In 1961, Kroc paid the brothers $2.7 million for the rights to the McDonalds name. Ray has a vision of global domination for McDonalds and does not want the two small-town hamburger guys slowing him down, the filmmakers say in their plot outline. Keaton is getting Oscar buzz for his portrayal of Kroc. The actor was nominated for his leading role in 2014s Birdman but has never won an Oscar. McDonalds declined to discuss the movie and its potential impact. The Weinstein Company, the films production company, didnt return requests for comment. McDonalds has seen popular culture take aim at its image before. The 2004 documentary Super Size Me led to significant changes not just under the Golden Arches but throughout the fast-food industry. At McDonalds, super-sized fries and drinks went away and the companys Go Active campaign promoting healthy eating and exercise was ushered in. Most experts believe a dramatization of McDonalds founder, even an unflattering portrayal, wont dent the company the way Super Size Me did, although some say the film may further polarize consumers who already had a negative perception of the corporations power and influence. Moran Cerf, a marketing professor at Northwestern Universitys Kellogg School of Management, said The Founder echoes recent high-profile biopics in the way it highlights a driven entrepreneur, and the dark side of that drive. Is (Ray Kroc) the good guy because McDonalds is one of the biggest employers in the country, or a bad guy because they have such super-control of society? Cerf said. You could say that about Mark Zuckerberg or Steve Jobs. Zuckerberg, played by Jesse Eisenberg, was the main character in the film The Social Network, and Steve Jobs was portrayed most recently in an eponymous film starring Michael Fassbender as the Apple founder. With 36,000 restaurants globally, McDonalds has unrivaled influence on culture and eating habits around the world. It has three times the sales of its closest rival, Subway. I cant think of many companies who are more of a mirror image of us, Cerf said. It has become a symbol of American values all over the world. A target of activists protesting everything from low wages to unhealthy food and agricultural practices, McDonalds has long had to balance the original vision spearheaded by the McDonald brothers and grown and nurtured by Kroc an efficient, homogenous operation where a cheeseburger tastes the same no matter whether youre in Omaha or Ontario with catering to the tastes of rapidly changing consumers, who want to know where their food comes from and increasingly prefer healthier options. You can attack them in so many different ways: the menu, the minimum wage. . . . In a sense they are always in a war, its just a matter of figuring out which one theyre in, Cerf said. McDonalds has taken a number of steps to quell anger directed at its iconic Golden Arches over the years, including everything from searing burgers and toasting buns longer, to raising wages at its company-run restaurants. Its also made strides in recent years to make the brand more relevant with younger consumers who prefer better burger rivals. It recently started testing delivery via UberEats in Florida. Later this year, it is set to unveil mobile order and pay. And in 2018, it will leave its custom-built suburban Chicago headquarters for the citys trendy West Loop neighbourhood. Robert LaPata, founder and principal of restaurant consulting firm Forefront Hospitality, said the movie is most likely to hurt McDonalds reputation with consumers who already didnt like the company. I definitely think there are some individuals who are going to care, and that would be detrimental to McDonalds, he said. But McDonalds will always have a market for what it serves. Read more about: SHARE: NANAIMO, B.C.An embattled mayor on Vancouver Island is being taken to court by his own city over allegations he leaked confidential information to an employee, while at the same time a group of residents has launched a separate court petition to have him removed from office. A document filed in B.C. Supreme Court says Nanaimo Mayor Bill McKay breached his duties by providing Marilyn Smith with a private email from the citys chief administrative officer that the lawsuit says she used to support a claim against the city. Coun. Bill Bestwick said in an interview Wednesday that the claim was an employment matter and was settled out of court late last year for an undisclosed amount. Smith was an administrative assistant to the mayor and council. She was preparing to sue the city at the time of the alleged incident, the statement of claim says. The citys lawsuit, which was filed on Dec. 28, accuses the mayor of obstructing city staff and not acting in the best interests of the municipality. The mayors improper disclosure of confidential information to Ms. Smith was not inadvertent, the notice of civil claim alleges. Ms. Smith used the confidential information to support her claim against the city, it says. None of the allegations have been proven in court and no statement of defence has been filed. McKay, who was elected mayor in November 2014 after serving one term as a councillor, wasnt available for comment. However, the mayor told CHEK news on Tuesday that he hadnt been served with the documents, but that he would vigorously defend himself with respect to the allegations. Bestwick, the Nanaimo councillor, said the lawsuit against the mayor was initiated by councillors and city managers to ensure there are consequences for what the city alleges is inappropriate behaviour. In todays political climate, citizens are seeking openness and transparency, Bestwick said. The legal action follows a protracted squabble between McKay and council members that became public last November when councillors asked the RCMP to investigate the mayor for allegedly breaching his financial disclosure obligations. An RCMP spokeswoman said Wednesday that officers outside the Mounties Nanaimo detachment opened a file on McKay after council members passed a motion alleging that the mayor failed to properly declare gifts he had received and entered into a non-disclosure agreement without councils knowledge or approval. A November statement from council members posted on the citys website accused McKay of failing to report to council a free trip it said he had accepted from Clipper Navigation, a company interested in launching a fast-ferry service between Nanaimo and Vancouver. The statement also alleges that McKay did not disclose gifts he received while on an official trip to China in 2015, including a return plane ticket from the chair of the Nanaimo Economic Development Corp. A statement from the mayor issued in November said he had done nothing wrong and that councils actions were based on speculation and innuendo intended to discredit and humiliate him. I wish to make my position clear that the allegations of wrongdoing are false, McKay said in a statement. It is nothing more than petty politics and does not serve our community in any positive way. A separate legal action filed on Dec. 22 by 10 Nanaimo residents petitions the B.C. Supreme Court to disqualify the mayor from holding office because of the alleged conflicts of interest. The petition alleges that the mayor took gifts and services from Clipper and Nanaimos development corporation in a legal application, and it accuses the mayor of abusing his position of influence. The desired result is to maintain public confidence by promoting transparency and ensuring that elected local government bodies are free from impropriety, the document reads. A statement of defence has not been filed in reply to the petition. Read more about: SHARE: Nearly one year ago, Canada was ordered by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal to stop discriminating against 163,000 indigenous children and grant them equal access to services. But two national indigenous organizations say Ottawa has failed to properly respond to the tribunals ruling, that the discrimination is continuing and they had no choice but to file another motion accusing Canada of being non-compliant. The First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada, led by Cindy Blackstock, and the Assembly of First Nations, filed a motion on Dec. 16, 2016, asking the tribunal to find the federal government guilty of failing to comply with the tribunals orders regarding Jordans Principle, or, providing indigenous kids living on reserve with the same essential services as non-indigenous children. The Canadian government and the Caring Society have been locked in a legal fight about indigenous childrens rights for nearly 10 years. The principle is named after Jordan Rivers Anderson, a 5-year-old member of Manitobas Norway House First Nation who died in hospital in 2005 without ever having spent one night at home due to his medical needs. Jordan was capable of living at home but neither the federal or provincial government could decide who should pay for his medical bills so he had to remain in a Winnipeg hospital. Blackstock said the Canadian government responded to the motion by saying they do not have capacity, or, enough staff, to manage this motion of non-compliance and they want this to be rolled into a hearing in late March, 2017. A hearing is already scheduled in March regarding child welfare non-compliance matters, she added. She finds the governments argument surprising considering the Caring Society has only one full-time employee and three part-time employees, yet the Attorney General of Canadas office could be described as the largest law firm in the country, she noted. It is, to use a generous word, quite tacky that the government of Canada is raising that argument, and it isnt the first time they have done so. They have raised it consistently throughout the 10 years of this case, she said Wednesday. You can imagine what has happened in childrens childhoods over the decade that the case has been winding its way through. And these little stall techniques from Canada have an additive flavour in among themselves they dont sound so bad but when you add them up that is how we have gotten to the 10 years, she said. Regardless of any capacity concerns, it should not overshadow the right of 163,000 children to live free of racial discrimination, she said. Last January, 26, 2016 after a near nine-year legal fight, the tribunal ordered Canada to comply with Jordans Principle, which unanimously passed in Parliament in Dec. 2007. On April 26, 2016, the tribunal order articulated a clear definition of Jordans Principle to apply to all First Nations children and all jurisdictional disputes. They later clarified that all children meant kids living both on and off reserve. But the government of Canada has a different definition of what Jordans Principle means and to whom it applies. They are saying children with critical illnesses and disabilities (only) and even with that they are saying they have helped 900 kids already, she said. That gives you a window of how great the scope of discrimination is. When you open the window of equity very narrowly to that group only and you get 900 kids, imagine how many are actually being racially discriminated against by Canada, she said. Last March, $382.5 million over three years was committed to improve services for indigenous kids, but Blackstock says the bulk of the money wont be seen until year three and before that there is little funding support. In July, Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett and Health Minister Jane Philpott said the $382 million will be used to put the needs of children first and to fix service-access disputes to make sure all levels of government work together. The unresolved issue has left a black eye on Canadas international reputation concerning human rights. Last December, Blackstock went to Washington, D.C. and appeared before a hearing of the Organization of American States Inter-American Commission on Human Rights regarding the issue. A ruling by the commission should be revealed this month. SHARE: CALGARYThe case of a Sunwing Airlines pilot charged with being impaired in the cockpit has been put over until Jan. 25. Miroslav Gronych, a 37-year-old Slovakian national, is accused of having care and control of an aircraft while impaired and with having a blood-alcohol level above .08. Gronych did not appear in Calgary court Thursday, but the matter was addressed by a lawyer on his behalf. His legal counsel was not immediately available for comment. The Sunwing flight was scheduled to leave Calgary early Saturday with stops in Regina and Winnipeg before continuing on to Cancun, Mexico. Police allege Gronych, the captain, was found slumped over in his seat and then escorted off the plane. Gronych was released on $1,000 bail and was ordered to turn in his passport. He was also prohibited from flying a plane in Canada while on bail. The allegations against Gronych have not been tested in court. On Wednesday, a spokesman for federal Transport Minister Marc Garneau said he is asking airlines to confirm their measures for assessing pilots fitness to fly, and to ensure they are strictly enforced. Marc Roy said the letter will ask the airlines to provide confirmation that their protocols and safety management systems are up to date and are being enforced with all required resources, including measures designed to confirm pilots fitness to fly. Roy said the objective is to ensure the highest safety standards. According to Transport Canada, Canadas largest passenger airlines have safety management systems in place to help them identify risks before they become bigger problems to ensure that safety is part of their everyday culture. That includes having proper procedures in place to ensure pilots are competent and fit to fly. The department has said it is reviewing Sunwings protocols to ensure the airlines handling of Saturdays incident complied with its safety management system and Canadian regulations. It has also said it will not hesitate to take enforcement action if necessary, including issuing fines and revoking licenses if appropriate. Under Canadian Aviation Regulations, members of a flight crew are prohibited from working within eight hours of consuming alcohol or while under the influence of alcohol. It is up to each airline to ensure those regulations are followed. Sunwing has said it has a zero-tolerance policy on crew members consuming alcohol within 12 hours of going on duty. The company said it also trains all employees to look for and report any unusual behaviour. Read more about: SHARE: Councillor Ron Moeser and recent thorn-in-Mayor-John-Torys-side Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti were the most absent from their council seats in 2016. The Star analyzed voting records for city council the one meeting where all 45 members are required to attend to determine how often Tory and councillors were absent. I am there for all the important votes and to make sure that the interests of my community are protected, Mammoliti (Ward 7 York West) wrote the Star in an email. Spending never-ending hours listening to endless rants from councillors pushing a socialist downtown pet project agenda on a dysfunctional council is indeed a Herculean task. Apart from Moeser, who was diagnosed with cancer in March, Mammoliti (Ward 7 York West) was missing in action more often than his colleagues absent for 38.8 per cent of the votes. That was a slight improvement over his 2015 attendance when he missed 40.8 per cent of the votes. Mammoliti missed two important votes on the rehabilitation of the Gardiner in March and December, despite his recent vocal concerns over the possibility of tolling the expressway and stated change of heart over the decision to rebuild the eastern section. He also missed votes on the citys transit network plan, poverty reduction strategy and affordable housing. He did not respond to a follow-up question on whether he considered those votes important. Mammoliti appears to have been absent for the entire first, two-day session of council in February, missed a special meeting on contract negotiations with city workers later that month, missed most of a three-day meeting in March, most of a day in July, and other votes during meetings he otherwise was present for. The councillors phone bills, filed publicly with his office expenses, show he was travelling internationally during the first meeting in February. Council members were asked to push their red or green buttons for recorded votes 1,118 times in 2016. Those votes do not include quick votes that are done more informally using a show of hands. The council average for missed votes was 14.6 per cent and the median councillor (23rd place) missed 13.2 per cent of the votes. Heres how the numbers break down: Most truant Moeser, who been undergoing cancer treatments missed 81.4 per cent of the votes in 2016. In an earlier email to the Star, his staff explained his doctors had recommended minimal contact due to a high risk of infection. Though he attended a November meeting, Moeser (Ward 44 Scarborough East) has missed every other meeting since March. Councillors can lose their seat if they miss more than three consecutive council meetings in a row, unless council excuses their absence which has been done in Moesers case. Moesers office said he has been able to stay in touch with his community. They said inquiries were made about the possibility of an extended leave, but the city clerks office informed the councillor no mechanism is in place to provide representation or a proxy at council or committees. Councillors have to treat each other in a humane way. We have a longstanding practice of being flexible when someones ill, Councillor Gord Perks told the Star. I think that (at) some point, though, it becomes incumbent on the office holder to reflect on whether or not theyre exercising their privilege in a way thats fair to the people who elected them. In close contention for third and fourth most absent were Councillors Shelley Carroll (30.6 per cent) and rookie councillor Justin Di Ciano (30.3 per cent), followed by Frank Di Giorgio (29 per cent). Carrolls office said she had the flu during the December council meeting and missed a meeting in October while at a conference in Hong Kong. Di Ciano and Di Giorgio did not respond to a request for comment. Best in class Councillor Perks (Ward 14 Parkdale-High Park) did not miss a single council vote in 2016. He topped last years record of missing just three votes and bested his colleague Stephen Holyday (Ward 3 Etobicoke Centre), who missed a single vote last year. The two tied in 2015. Public service is an incredible privilege, Perks said in a message to the Star. Apart from Councillor Frances Nunziata, who is councils Speaker, top marks also went to Ward 2 (Etobicoke North) by-election winner Michael Ford, who missed just one vote which he abstained from in December because it related to misconduct of his uncle and former councillor Doug Ford. Parkdale-High Parks other half, Councillor Sarah Doucette (Ward 13), missed just three votes, while rookie Councillor Jon Burnside (Ward 26 Don Valley West) missed just four. Executive split While some of Mayor John Torys hand-picked executive were incredibly attentive Councillor Mary-Margaret McMahon (Ward 32 Beaches-East York) missed just eight votes others were out of the chamber more often, like Councillors Michelle Holland (Ward 35 Scarborough Southwest), who missed 28.4 per cent of the votes; James Pasternak (Ward 10 York Centre), who missed 26.5 per cent; and David Shiner (Ward 24 Willowdale), who missed 18.2 per cent. Tory, while still fulfilling a breakneck schedule as the citys leader, was in his chair more often in 2016, missing 17.6 per cent of the votes compared to 22.5 per cent in 2015). Most improved Denzil Minnan-Wong (Ward 34 Don Valley East), who was named Torys deputy mayor at the beginning of this term, was firmly in his chair in 2016, missing just 7.6 per cent of the votes compared to 24.4 per cent in 2015. Executive member Councillor Michael Thompson (Ward 37 Scarborough Centre), who is often travelling internationally as part of his role as chair of the economic development committee, was also present more often last year, missing just 13.8 per cent of the votes compared to 33.8 per cent in 2015. Quorum call Several key votes last year saw noticeable council absences. Nearly a quarter of councillors were missing for votes on a strategy to improve the lives of Toronto Community Housing residents and a late night vote on the citys poverty reduction strategy, which included approval of a low-income pass for the TTC. A quarter missed votes approving the citys budgets for water and solid waste in December. SHARE: Its been 42 years but the Peters family still cant bring themselves to exit the subway at St. Patrick station. In 1975, 16-year-old Mariam Peters, was brutally murdered in the stations darkened passageways. Mariam, a Grade 11 student at A. Y. Jackson Secondary School, was leaving St. Patrick station on Nov. 7, 1975 around 8 p.m. to visit her sick grandfather at Mount Sinai Hospital when she was stabbed 16 times. Police found her on the escalator and she died four days later from her injuries. Im a father of four girls. None of my girls, none of my family get off at the St. Patrick station. A lot of it due to the memory, Jeffrey Peters, who was 13 at the time of his sisters murder, said. I have one daughter who went to school just south of the Mount Sinai Hospital. She would get off at a different subway stop and walk many blocks to go to school every day in order to avoid that subway station. Following Mariams death, the Peters family, especially Mariams mother Merle Peters, were vocal in their push for the installation of closed circuit television scanners to watch the deserted parts of the subway stations. When I went down to that subway, I was choked. I had a feeling I was trapped in a dungeon, Merle, who was unavailable for comment for this story told the Star in a 1976 interview, after returning to the spot of her daughters attack. There was nowhere I could get help from. I can see that when Mariam was attacked, she did not have a chance, especially at St. Patrick. In the subway, it was like being cut off from the world. But a joint TTC-Metro police study ruled out closed-circuit TV on the grounds of cost. Officials said installation would cost $1.5 million and salaries would be required for 50 to 150 additional employees. Instead, the TTC adopted $302,000 in other security measures. Modern-day CCTV cameras started getting installed in the late eighties and cameras have been added on the Yonge-University line subway cars. But the Bloor Danforth line subway cars have yet to be equipped with cameras as it would be costly and they are eventually to be replaced, according to Stuart Green, senior communications specialist for the TTC. CCTV cameras will be added when the cars are upgraded to the latest model, the Toronto Rocket. Jeffrey said the fact that technology available for so long is still not fully installed is unconscionable. Today, there are approximately 15,000 to 16,000 closed circuit television cameras across the TTC with 1,700 specifically at subway stations, according to Green. There are plans to install more around the system in the coming years through the Stations Transformation Project. I love my city. I love Toronto. I think that transit is a major component in any urban city, Jeffrey said. But can it be better? Absolutely. The murder of Mariam, which is unresolved, traumatized the city. A person of interest was identified at the time, and was also linked to another stabbing of a woman that occurred 10 minutes later at Simcoe and Wellington Sts. But no prosecution or arrest was available in either case due to the lack of direct evidence, according to Sgt. Stacy Gallant, head of the Toronto Police cold case squad. Mariams funeral was attended by 1,500 people, some who knew her, some who didnt, but all affected by her death. The stabbing also led to a patrol of uniformed police on the Metro subway line, for the first time in its then 21-year history. A larger safety initiative that was a direct result of the murder was also put into place, according to Green. While taking the subway through downtown Toronto, riders may not notice two sealed off passages at St. Patrick and Queens Park stations. One may pass by them unaware everyday. But the inconspicuous white walls, installed as part of the initiative following Mariams death, are one of the only visible reminders of her brutal murder. Shortly after the homicide, two cross passages, one at St. Patrick station and one at Queens Park station, were sealed off to eliminate potential hiding places for lawbreakers, according to an article in the April 1977 edition of the TTCs employee newsletter, The Coupler. Mariams brother, Jeffrey, said he was unaware the cross passages had been closed, and that it had anything to do with his sisters death. The TTC also installed passenger safety alarms on subways, telephones on subway platforms and operator alarms on surface vehicles. In the case of these two stations, the cross passages were originally there to protect for a future staircase and permit access between the northbound and southbound platforms, Green wrote in an email to the Star. Since each station has two other cross passages, the third could be closed with no real customer inconvenience. With files from the Toronto Star Archive SHARE: York Regional Police are calling 2016 one of the worst years theyve seen recently for impaired driving deaths, after nine people were killed in drunk-driving incidents. There were 1,265 total drunk-driving incidents in 2016, an increase of 10 over the previous year. Its surprising and baffling, to be honest, especially when we had the tragedy that we did last year, said Const. Laura Nicolle. In September 2015, three children and their grandfather were killed in a crash with an SUV driven by a drunk driver in Vaughan. Marco Muzzo, whose blood alcohol level was nearly three times the legal limit, pleaded guilty to impaired driving and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. You would think that seeing something like that, no one would ever make those same calls, but, unfortunately, thats what were seeing this year, Nicolle said. More than 1,625 impaired driving charges were laid last year in York. This turns out to be down about 70 from 2015. But impaired driving charges climbed from about 1,240 in 2013 to 1,470 in 2014. A Star data analysis previously showed that driving while intoxicated is an increasing problem in parts of the GTA. Impaired driving charges are growing in some suburban areas, while rates are still higher, even in the regions where the number of charges are starting to drop. In York, the charges in 2016 include 81 drug-impaired driving offences, an increase of 69 per cent over the previous year, for substances such as marijuana, cocaine, ketamine, fentanyl and prescription medications. York police called the numbers alarming as they precede the pending legalization of marijuana. Of the drivers arrested in 2016, 85 per cent were men and 15 per cent were women, according to York police. About half of the men arrested were between 22-34 years old while nearly 50 per cent of women were 26-45. Police say there was also an increase in the number of people charged who had been drinking at a private residence, not a bar or club. In an effort to expand the enforcement capabilities of police officers, Canada could be on the way to allowing police to conduct random roadside breath tests. Bill C-226, tabled early last year by Conservative MP and former Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney, would allow police to demand that any driver provide a breath sample any time or anywhere, whether or not their vehicle is in motion. The bill has passed second reading in the House of Commons and was referred to committee in June. Andrew Murie, CEO of Mothers Against Drunk Driving Canada, said the bill, if passed, would change the issue over night. Any death is unacceptable, Murie said. Until the federal government gives police the ability to mandatorily screen anybody for alcohol and drugs anywhere, this issue will continue to be a problem and itll continue to cause fatalities. It will continue to cause great frustration for police. Police across the country can currently demand a roadside breath sample if they have reasonable suspicion to believe the driver was drinking. The police are put in a very unfortunate position, Murie said. Its really like a police officer trying to do their job with one hand tied behind their back. They need to give the police the tools to do their job. Nicolle said police have attempted to combat the issue through various programs, including RIDE spot-checks and various education campaigns. One, the #ImTHATPerson campaign, puts the onus on those who witness someone drinking to call a taxi or offer them a place to stay overnight. Everybody is in those scenarios where youre at lunch or dinner and youre watching somebody consuming alcohol and you know that theyre driving, she said. Were just trying to remind people to take that step and say, Youve had quite a bit and we dont think you should be driving. York police recently introduced a video campaign which reminds people of the financial cost of getting caught drinking and driving and compares it to paying for a cab ride or the price of a hotel room. Its very disappointing that were still seeing this kind of thing, said Nicolle. I dont know what it will take, but, obviously, were not going to give up. SHARE: Mohammed Shamji, the Toronto neurosurgeon accused of first-degree murder in the death of his wife, a family doctor and mother of three, remains in custody after a brief court appearance Thursday. Appearing before a north Toronto court via video, Mohammed Shamji, 40, wore an orange jumper, had sunken eyes and said little besides his name. His case was rescheduled to be heard January 26. The former Toronto Western Hospital neurosurgeon is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Dr. Elana Fric-Shamji. The couple was married for 12 years and had three children together. Shamjis family was not present at court, but Fric-Shamji's cousin looked on from the gallery. Michelle Vrbanek spoke briefly to reporters outside court, saying only that she came to show her support for her friend and cousin. Court documents show police believe Shamji killed Fric-Shamji, 40, some time between Nov. 30 and Dec. 1. Her body was discovered inside a suitcase in Vaughan on December 1, next to the West Humber River. Police say she had been strangled and had suffered from blunt force trauma. Fric-Shamji, who was a physician in Scarborough Hospitals family practice teaching unit, had filed for divorce from Shamji just days before, according to her friends. The couples three children are currently living with Fric-Shamji's parents. Shamji was previously charged with assault and uttering threats in a 2005 incident involving Fric-Shamji. The newlywed couple was living in Ottawa at the time. The charges were withdrawn after Shamji signed a peace bond. SHARE: TTC-branded mugs, T-shirts, and water bottles were flying off the shelves of the transit agencys new online shop faster than a speeding streetcar this past holiday season. According to TTC spokesperson Brad Ross the online store, which relaunched with an expanded range of products on Nov. 28, sold $60,000 worth of merchandise in its first month in operation. Ross said the TTC considers the revamped website a success. People want the TTC to succeed and theyre super excited to have TTC products they didnt have before, he said. The transit agency only gets to pocket a portion of the proceeds from retail sales, however. The store is operated by a company called SVS Marketing, which takes a cut of the profits in exchange for sourcing products, shipping orders, and collecting payment. Ross said he couldnt reveal how the revenue was split between the TTC and SVS because it was propriety information for the marketing firm. But the transit commission plans to publicly report its revenues from the store in December, once its been in operation for a full year. Other cities have shown theres money to be made in trading on their public transit agencys brand. New York Citys Metropolitan Transportation Authority generates more than $600,000 a year in revenue from licensing its trademarks, according to the agencys 2015 annual report. Official outlets of Londons Transport Museum sell everything from model trains to limited edition Fender guitars emblazoned with the iconic map of the citys Underground system. The BBC has reported the shop nets Londons transport authority the equivalent of about $4 million a year. No matter how successful the TTCs new store is, retail revenues wont amount to more than a drop in the bucket for an organization that has an annual operating budget of $1.9 billion.But the TTC is hoping that the shop helps ongoing efforts to improve its reputation among the public. Its about supporting the brand and supporting all the work were doing, Ross said. Its an important part of keeping the TTC relevant in the 21st century. That may be the goal, but the online shop also proved fodder for some of the transit agencys more sardonic critics. Soon after the revamped shop launched, it inspired a parody website peddling relatable transit merch that highlights the sometimes frustrating experience of riding the TTC. Items for sale on the Not In Service website include buttons that say Expect Delays All Ways and shirts immortalizing garbled subway disruption announcements. The relaunch of the TTC shop doesnt appear to have hurt local retailers who already sell transit-themed products. Spacing Magazine has sold TTC-related items for years, and this year the publications store on Richmond St. W. offered subway station buttons, streetcar toys, coasters shaped like tokens, and guitar picks made out of old Metropasses, among other products. Spacing co-founder Matthew Blackett said they were again some of the stores most popular items this holiday season. Im of the mind, the more the merrier, he said of the TTCs new shop. Theyre not putting us out of business or anything. The outlet has obtained permission from the TTC to use its copyright in some cases, according to Blackett, but the transit agency doesnt get a cut of the profits. Prior to relaunching the store last November, the TTC only sold a handful of products like vintage posters. But the new shop offers everything from T-shirts, fridge magnets, phone cases, shower curtains, and even blinds made out of decommissioned streetcar signs. The most popular items in the first month were mugs adorned with the Bloor-Yonge subway line font, more than 200 of which were sold at a cost of $9.95 each. Mugs bearing the logo of TTC subway lines were the second-hottest item, followed by water bottles and T-shirts. All 50 of the subway sign blinds, which cost $250 each and came with a warning that they may contain brake dust, stains and grime, sold out. By marketing products based on Torontos transit system, the TTC is following the lead of other transit agencies around the world. Correction - January 12, 2016: This article was edited from a previous version that mistakenly referred to the $250 blinds as being streetcar signs. SHARE: A member of the Canadian Forces is under investigation by military police for voyeurism at a GTA defense facility, a military spokesperson says. The investigation into this incident began in the summer of 2016, military spokesperson Daniel Le Bouthillier said on Thursday. As the incident is currently under investigation, no further details can be released at this time, Le Bouthillier said in an email. Le Bouthillier declined to give the exact location or particulars on the case. The CBC earlier quoted an unnamed source as saying that the investigation began when a female soldier in Downsview discovered a cell phone taped under a sink in a womens change room. The Canadian Forces Military Police take all allegations seriously, Le Bouthillier said. In all cases, investigations are conducted to determine the facts, analyze the evidence and, if warranted, pursue appropriate charges, Le Bouthillier said. SHARE: Face down in the mud, chubby arms in a water-soaked yellow T-shirt, feet tucked in this image of a 16-month-old Rohingya baby circulating on social media delivers an unforgettably poignant message. Mohammed Shohayet died trying to escape the country he was born in. His father wants to share his tragedy with the world to highlight the plight of the Rohingya, a Muslim minority that is fleeing persecution in Burma into neighbouring Bangladesh. When I see the picture, I feel like I would rather die, Zafor Alam, Mohammeds father, told CNN. There is no point in me living in this world. The photo of Mohammed is being compared to that of Alan Kurdi, the Syrian toddler who was found dead on a Turkish beach in 2015, after a boat carrying his family to Europe capsized. Kurdis image did much to draw the worlds attention to the Syrian refugee crisis, and Alam hopes his sons photo will likewise galvanize the world to address the Rohingya crisis. He also hopes it will pressure Aung San Suu Kyi, Burmas de facto leader, to address reports of state-sanctioned violence against Rohingya villages in Rakhine state. Many Rohingya, who number about one million, have lived in Burma for generations, but many in Burmas Buddhist majority consider them illegal immigrants, and Suu Kyi has seemed largely indifferent to their plight since her party won landmark elections last March. Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 and earned international praise in the West for her pro-democracy activism as a political prisoner, has done little to halt, or even acknowledge, violence against the Rohingya. Last June, she told the United Nations her government will avoid using the term Rohingya, continuing the previous military governments policy of using the term Bengalis, which implies the Rohingya are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Suu Kyi is not Burmas president she is its foreign minister but she is widely considered the countrys true leader, although the military still wields some power. The latest round of violence stems from an October attack that left nine border guards dead in Rakhine and sparked what Burmese authorities call a counterinsurgency campaign. Human rights activists say that the scale of the campaign has been disproportionate to the threat and that hundreds of Rohingya have died in operations that included rapes and killings in their villages. More than a dozen fellow Nobel laureates recently wrote an open letter to the UN Security Council calling on Suu Kyi to halt the bloody crackdown, warning of a tragedy amounting to ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. Despite repeated appeals we are frustrated that she has not taken any initiative to ensure full and equal citizenship rights of the Rohingyas, noted the letter. (Suu Kyi) is the leader and is the one with the primary responsibility to lead, and lead with courage, humanity and compassion. Alam told CNN the last words he heard his son say were Abba, abba father, father in a phone call on Dec. 4, before his family tried to make their escape into Bangladesh across the Naf River. Alam said he and his family were forced to flee their home when soldiers opened fire in their village last month. After he made it across the river, which is on the border, Alam said he contacted a boatman asked him to bring his wife and two children into the country. When the (Burmese) police got a sense that people were preparing to cross the river, they opened fire, Alam told CNN from a refugee camp in Teknaf, in southern Bangladesh. Hurriedly, the boatman took all people on board to escape the firing. The boat became overloaded. Then it sank. The next day, someone sent him picture of his sons body, Alam said. Its very difficult to for me to talk about my son. He was very fond of his father In our village, everyone used to love him. A Burmese government spokesperson told CNN that Alams account was propaganda. The New York Times reported Wednesday that the government has detained four border police officers after a video surfaced on Facebook that appears to show the officers beating unarmed men in Rakhine. According to the Bangladeshi Foreign Ministry, about 50,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled and taken shelter in Bangladesh since October. An Amnesty International report released last month found that Burmas security forces are unlawfully killing, raping and burning down houses in a campaign of violence against the Rohingya. The deplorable actions of the military could be part of a widespread and systematic attack on a civilian population and may amount to crimes against humanity, the report said. Aung San Suu Kyi has failed to live up to both her political and moral responsibility to try to stop and condemn what is unfolding in Rakhine state. Suu Kyis partys victory in last years elections ended decades of junta rule in Burma; however, under the army-drafted constitution, the military still controls the three most powerful government ministries: home, defence and border affairs. With files from Star wire services Read more about: SHARE: WASHINGTONHardening battle lines for the brawl to come, President Barack Obama urged congressional Democrats to look out for the American people in defending his legacy health care overhaul, while vice-president-elect Mike Pence stood firm Wednesday in telling Republicans that dismantling Obamacare is No. 1 on Donald Trumps list. Were going to be in the promise-keeping business, Pence declared at two separate Capitol news conferences. Just 16 days before Trump takes over the Oval Office, he said repealing and replacing Obamas law will be the president-elects first order of business. The American people voted decisively for a better future for health care in this country, and we are determined to give them that, Pence said. The Democrats, outnumbered in the new Congress, didnt sound confident in stopping the Republicans cold, but they signalled they wouldnt make the GOPs job any easier. New Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said that if the Republicans do scuttle the health care law, they will have to come up with a replacement plan before Democrats consider whether to help them revamp the system. That adds pressure on Republicans, who for years have battled among themselves over what a new law would look like, including how to finance its programs and whether to keep Obamas expansion of Medicaid for more lower-income people. Theyre repealing, were not. Its their obligation to come up with a replacement, Schumer said, a sentiment he said he believed was unanimous among Democrats. Obama and Pence held duelling strategy sessions with lawmakers at the Capitol as the new Republican-led Congress commenced its drive to dissolve the health care statute. The 2010 overhaul, which has extended coverage to 20 million people and reshaped the nations $3 trillion-a-year health care system, has long stood as one of Obamas proudest triumphs and the ascendant GOPs top target for extinction. The two sides traded insults through the day. Dont let the Schumer clowns out of this web, Trump wrote on Twitter. Said Schumer: The Republican plan to cut health care wouldnt make America great again, it would make America sick again. Previewing an attack line sure to be heard again in this years debate, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said the GOP is aiming to also scuttle Medicaid and Medicare, going after programs that are very personal in the lives of the American people. Even with White House and congressional control, annulling Obamacare and replacing it looms as a daunting task for the GOP. Leaders hope to have legislation voiding much of the law on Trumps desk by next month, Republicans said. But after six years of failing to unite behind an alternative, GOP leaders are discussing postponing when repeal would take effect for 18 months or longer, allowing more time to craft replacement legislation. Trump has provided few details about how he would redesign the law, but has said he wants to retain popular provisions like ensuring coverage for people with pre-existing medical problems. Republicans will also need to figure out how to protect health coverage for millions of Americans during a transition period and how to avoid marketplace bedlam as nervous insurance companies stop selling policies or boost rates. Seemingly acknowledging that danger, Trump tweeted warnings to GOP lawmakers. Seemingly acknowledging that danger, Trump tweeted warnings to GOP lawmakers. Massive increases of ObamaCare will take place this year and Dems are to blame for the mess, he wrote. It will fall of its own weight be careful! Republicans said Pence told them in their private meeting to argue that Democrats broke the health care system and Republicans will fix it. Trumps team is already working with GOP congressional leaders on plans to undo Obamas law with both legislation and executive action that the president and federal agencies would be able to take, Pence said. Lawmakers said that according to Pence, Trump would sign some orders the day he takes office. Pence did not specify what those actions would be. But House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., told reporters they would involve transition relief. In the Democrats meeting, Obama urged his partys lawmakers to focus on emphasizing how the law has helped people. And he accepted some blame for not sufficiently promoting it. The president said, I guess we all could have done a better job of messaging to the American people, said Rep. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y. Obama made his remark about looking out for the American people as he left the meeting. Meanwhile, the Senate voted 51-48 Wednesday to begin debating a budget that, once approved, will prevent Democrats from using a filibuster to block future Republican legislation to void the health care law. Republicans control the Senate by 52-48, but it takes 60 votes to end a filibuster, a procedural roadblock that can kill legislation. The Senate is expected to complete the budget by next week, with House approval to follow. SHARE: PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITIA former rebel leader who is wanted on U.S. drug charges, and was recently elected to the Haitian Senate, was arrested Thursday as he appeared on a live radio talk show, a witness said. Guy Philippe was being interviewed live on the show with another recently elected lawmaker when the host abruptly announced that police were outside the studio in the Petionville district of the capital to arrest him. The host came back on air and said that authorities had taken him away. Radio host Gary-Pierre Paul Charles later told The Associated Press the police were members of the Haitian anti-drug unit and fired shots into the air to disperse a crowd that had gathered. It was shocking. People were running everywhere, he told the AP. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which barely missed capturing him in a 2007 raid, had no immediate comment on the arrest and it wasnt clear whether he was going to be extradited. Authorities in Haiti and Philippes lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment. A photo being circulated on social media in Haiti appeared to show Philippe, smiling in a white dress shirt, being led out of the studio by police. Philippe recently won election to the Senate representing a district in southern Haiti but had not yet been sworn into office. He is wanted on drug-trafficking charges including conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States. The indictment charging him is sealed and federal prosecutors have declined to discuss it. In Haiti, he is a divisive figure who was one of the leaders of a violent 2004 rebellion that led to the ouster for then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Philippe has spent most of his time in recent years in a remote, mountainous part of southern Haiti, where he had extensive family and business connections and it would have been difficult for authorities to locate and arrest him. Still, he would frequently appear in public and gave an extensive interview to the AP for an August 2016 profile. In that interview, he insisted that he is innocent of any crimes, blaming the accusations on enemies trying to silence him. The path I chose, the way I chose, is not easy. But I chose it and Im willing to die for it, he said at the time. In 2000, he was police chief of the northern city of Cap-Haitien, the countrys second largest city, when he fled to the neighbouring Dominican Republic after accusations he was plotting a coup. While in exile, he was accused of masterminding attacks on Haitian police stations and other targets. He returned in 2004 to join the uprising against Aristide, taking over a band of rebels that captured Cap-Haitien. Aristide left the country aboard a U.S.-supplied jet before Philippes rebels reached the capital. After rolling triumphantly into Port-au-Prince, Philippe proclaimed himself military chief. But he gave up his arms as a U.N. stabilization force geared up. He ran for president in 2006, finishing a distant ninth. A year later, heavily armed U.S. and Haitian anti-drug agents raided his home in Les Cayes but found only his family and a maid. U.S. agents came in several Black Hawk helicopters. SHARE: GRAY, FRANCEGray is a dying town, its residents lament. Big businesses have moved away, taking jobs with them. Though it still lives up to its nickname Gray la jolie, or Gray the pretty, many stores now lie vacant, with fading to rent signs in their windows. But for one Syrian family, the picturesque streets, red-tiled rooftops and quiet river walks offer hope of rebuilding their shattered lives, away from the fear of death lurking around every corner in their homeland. I will start to love life another time, said Abd Alwahab Alahamad, a 43-year-old Damascus oncologist. Because sometimes (in the) last two years, I thought it will be very difficult to stay alive. Like hundreds of thousands before them, the Alahamads risked everything to escape war and the dark brutality of the Daesh group, embarking on a perilous and uncertain journey through checkpoints, bombs and a nightmarish sea crossing to Greece. But after months of uncertainty and doubt, their luck began to change. Alahamad, his wife Iman Mshanati and their three children 5-year-old Nora, 2-year-old Ahmed and baby Layan, born in Greece six months ago were among the fortunate few accepted so far into an ambitious European relocation program. Launched in late 2015, the program was designed to relieve pressure on Greece and Italy, the main entry points for more than a million people fleeing into the European Union. But it has come under fire for moving too slowly. Of the 66,400 people who should be relocated from Greece by this September, just 7,286 had been resettled by the end of December, according to figures from the International Organization for Migration, which organizes the transfers. France has taken in the most refugees from Greece, 2,420. The next highest-receiver is the Netherlands, which has taken 836. Applicants cannot choose their destination. The Alahamads were assigned to France, a country neither the Russian-trained doctor nor his wife, a 33-year-old nutritionist and beautician, had ever visited. We are going into the unknown; We do not know the city, the people, nothing, said Mshanti in a small apartment in Athens the day before the familys flight to Paris, three small suitcases sitting neatly packed on the floor. But we hear from people who had left before us that they are happy, and we felt relieved. The family had never intended to leave Syria. They didnt expect the 2011 street protests against Syrian President Bashar Assad to turn into a full-blown civil war. At first everybody thought not only me that it will finish tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, Alahamad said of the early days of the rebellion. The trials of their months-long journey are etched on their faces. In 2014, warned government forces were looking for him after he treated a man for gunshot wounds, Alahamad fled Damascus. He moved the family to an eastern town near the city of Deir-e-Zor, where his parents are from, and quickly found a job in a private clinic. But the war followed. The area was overrun by Daesh extremists who imposed strict Islamic rule. Mshanti had to wear the all-enveloping black abaya; Alahamad was questioned for treating female patients, and forced to watch a public killing. A family friend was beheaded, his body left on the street for three days. Relentless bombings claimed the lives of relatives and friends. After a particularly close call, when rockets landed near their home, wounding relatives, Alahamad decided the time had come. I left. I left everything behind, he said. With two young children and a pregnant wife, the journey was harrowing. The nighttime treks and border crossing, the smugglers, the ride jammed into the back of a truck with nearly 100 others. But nothing compared to the boat crossing from Turkey to Greece. Nora cried, clutching her fathers hand. She was convinced they would die. Their first try failed. The couple paid $800 each, for four spots in an overcrowded dinghy that nobody on board knew how to drive. They went round in circles on the Aegean Sea until the Turkish coast guard intercepted the boat and took all its passengers to a detention centre. On their second attempt, a fellow passenger motored for hours through rough seas to the Greek island of Chios. The family reached mainland Greece 10 days later. Alahamad spent months working as a volunteer doctor in refugee camps housing some of the more than 62,000 asylum seekers stranded in Greece by border closures and a deal between the EU and Turkey intended to stem the flow of migrants into Europe. He and Mshanti thought of staying, but Greeces asylum system was overwhelmed. So they applied for relocation. Months of waiting ensued, punctuated by interviews with authorities for the relocation procedure and Layans birth. Then in September, the news they had been waiting for: Their application was successful. The Alahamads were assigned to Gray, a pretty, sleepy medieval town in eastern France of about 6,000 people on the River Saone just before it flows into Burgundy. They would be part of the second group of families sent there from Greece. The first arrived in March, with a maximum 29 people arriving each time. Grey Mayor Christophe Laurencot stipulated the town would accept only families, and each would be assigned a social worker. The families are given housing while they apply for asylum, a process that normally takes about four months in the fast-track relocation procedure, said Guillaume Germain, regional director of the French Immigration and Integration Office. Once granted refugee status, they can stay in state housing for another six months while searching for jobs and living arrangements of their own, but are free to move elsewhere in France if they prefer. Of the first five families to arrive in Gray, four have moved elsewhere. But small, close-knit towns do not always embrace outsiders. To facilitate integration, Laurencot decided the best tactic was full transparency and informed residents about the program before the first arrivals in March. We had reactions straight away, he said. Good, less good or bad, I had them all. Some residents offered overwhelming generosity, while others questioned why the state should help foreigners. But, Laurencot said, France is after all a country of hosts, a country of reception, a welcoming country. And its not enough to say it; we had to do it. So far, the mayors tactic appears to be working. Its very, very good, we see them pass by, there are no worries on that account, everything is going well, said Stephanie Vanhee, who runs an optical shop in Gray. Toddler Ahmed squealed with joy at being allowed to pet her puppy, Morito, during the familys first tour around town. It must be done, you know. We must receive them. Clothing store owner Roberte Fouillot said reactions were more or less positive, although there was some initial reticence to the idea, what with the recent terror attacks by Islamic extremists and demands on social services by needy French people. But images of the war in Syria in the media shocked her. These poor kids, these poor families who are suffering its unacceptable in our day and age, Fouillot said. As for the issue of integration, Fouillot does not foresee problems. They are people like everyone else. We all have our religion, she said. Today, if everyone reached out to each other, well, there might be less wars, less misery in the world. The Alahamads arrived in Gray on a foggy mid-December night. Allocated a bare but warm apartment, Alahamad and Mshanti breathed a sigh of relief. They look forward to learning French, finding work and sending the children to school. Alahamad hopes France will recognize his Russian medical degree. An exploratory walk, with Nora and Ahmed playing excitedly in a small playground near the river, cemented their impression: The town was perfect. The worst, they hoped, was finally behind them. Its difficult. We lost many things, Alahamad said. I want to start a new life. Now, I think we have a chance. Read more about: SHARE: WASHINGTONUnder mounting pressure to free convicts as a last act, President Barack Obama is planning at least one more batch of pardons and commutations before leaving office in two weeks, but dont expect many famous offenders to make the list. The list of bold names appealing to Obama for compassion in his final weeks includes accused leaker Chelsea Manning, former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, and supporters of Edward Snowden, to name a few. Yet White House officials say Obamas final grants are expected to remain focused on the nonviolent drug offenders hes sought to help during his second term. Thats a contrast with former presidents like Bill Clinton, who ignited a major controversy with a last-minute pardon for fugitive financier Marc Rich, the ex-husband of a major Democratic fundraiser. But Obama has viewed clemency as a tool to promote policy goals, not to clean out the barn on his way out, said the officials, who requested anonymity to discuss internal White House deliberations. The process that I put in place is not going to vary at the end, Obama said in August. He said hed make the calls based on the merits, as opposed to political considerations. Presidents have two clemency options: commutations, which reduce sentences being served but dont erase convictions, and pardons, which generally restore civil rights like voting often after a sentence has been served. Earlier in his presidency, Obama was unsatisfied with the cases he was receiving, officials said, and so in a 2014 initiative the Justice Department created specific criteria focusing on nonviolent individuals like drug offenders who have served 10 years and, if convicted under todays more lenient sentencing guidelines, would have received shorter sentences. All told, Obama has granted 1,176 commutations and 148 pardons fewer pardons than some presidents, but more commutations than any other, the White House said. Obamas goal in taking on the commutations project was to spur action in Congress on a criminal justice overhaul. That seemed initially promising, but the momentum petered out. Its politically risky. You commute somebody and they commit a crime, and the politics of it are tough, Obama has said. Some commutation recipients have had firearms violations related to their drug crimes. A handful were unrelated to Obamas criminal justice push but received clemency as part of diplomatic deals with Iran and Cuba. The more recent batches have included some that met the spirit but not the letter of Obamas guidelines, such as people who have served eight or nine years, but not 10. Mary Price of the advocacy group Families against Mandatory Minimums said Obamas commutations had increased awareness about decades-long sentences for drug crimes. I think that thats very positive, Price said, though she added she would have liked even more. But Obama has also been criticized for being too lenient including by president-elect Donald Trump, who has accused the president of putting bad dudes on the street and warned Americans, Sleep tight, folks. Steve Cook, the National Association of Assistant United States Attorneys president, faulted Obama for feeding the perception that federal prisons are full of low-level, nonviolent offenders. He said Obama was eroding prisons deterrent effect by granting clemency to people with multiple felony convictions and firearms charges. When you grant somebody like that clemency, youre sending a message to the entire drug trafficking world, Cook said. There will be a backlog of applicants when Obama leaves office, officials said, just as a backlog awaited Obama. But most whose cases wont be resolved are people convicted of serious crimes like murder. Rather than expend limited resources issuing formal denials, the administration focused on approving those eligible under Obamas guidelines. A look at the higher-profile cases vying for last-minute clemency: Edward Snowden The former National Security Agency contractor took secret documents and leaked them, revealing massive post-9/11 domestic surveillance programs in the U.S. government. He fled to Hong Kong, then Russia, to avoid prosecution, and a recent congressional report said Snowden remains in contact with Russian intelligence services. Snowden hasnt formally petitioned for a pardon, the Justice Department said, but his supporters and the American Civil Liberties Union have been calling for one. Yet Obama takes a dim view on Snowden. He told the German newspaper Der Spiegel last month he was disinclined to consider a pardon request until Snowden returns to the U.S. to face charges. Rod Blagojevich The former governor of Illinois has petitioned Obama for a commutation of his 14-year sentence, being served at a minimum-security federal prison in Colorado. But its unlikely that Obama would grant it, given Blagojevichs involvement in an effort to trade an appointment to Obamas former Senate seat for campaign cash. Chelsea Manning The ACLU and LGBT groups have lobbied Obama to commute Mannings sentence. The transgender soldier leaked classified government and military documents to WikiLeaks, and has since tried to commit suicide at least twice. Manning is serving a 35-year sentence, at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas. Bowe Bergdahl The U.S. Army sergeant could garner some sympathy from Obama, given that an Army Sanity Board Evaluation concluded that Bergdahl suffered from schizotypal personality disorder when he left his post in Afghanistan in 2009. Obama hasnt commented in detail on Bergdahl, who has said he left his post to alert higher-ups to problems with his unit and faces desertion and misbehaviour charges. Bergdahl was captured and held by the Taliban and its allies for five years. Two soldiers who went searching were seriously wounded. Obama exchanged Bergdahl in 2014 for five Taliban prisoners. Because of his military involvement, both the Justice Department and Defence Department must evaluate Bergdahls pardon request. SHARE: GAO, MALIOfficials say a Malian employee of the International Committee of the Red Cross has been killed. Jean-Nicolas Marti, the organizations director in Mali, said Thursday that a colleague in the northern city of Gao was shot to death by armed men. Residents told The Associated Press that two armed men on motorcycles shot the aid worker while he was in front of a store and then sped off. The shooting takes place amid an increase in violence in Gao, where almost two weeks ago a French-Swiss woman was abducted. Authorities believe she is being held by jihadists, though there has been no official claim of responsibility for that attack. Gao was under the control of jihadists for about a year before a French-led operation in 2013. Read more about: SHARE: WASHINGTONThe Obama administration imposed sanctions Thursday on a son of Sept. 11 mastermind Osama bin Laden, saying the younger bin Laden poses a risk to U.S. national security. The State Department said Hamza bin Laden has been added to its Specially Designated Global Terrorist list after he was determined to have committed, or pose a serious risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security. Hamza bin Laden was officially named an al-Qaida member in 2014 by his fathers successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri. The State Department says the younger Laden in a 2015 audio message called for acts of terrorism in Western capitals. In an audio message last year, he threatened revenge against the U.S. and warned Americans they would be targeted at home and abroad. Hamza bin Laden also has called for lone wolf, or solo-operative, attacks against U.S., French, and Israeli interests in Washington, Paris and Tel Aviv. Hamza bin Laden is actively engaged in terrorism, the State Department said, adding that terrorism designations deny individuals access to the U.S. financial system and can assist or complement the law enforcement actions of other U.S. agencies and other governments. Al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. special forces in Pakistan in 2011. The State Department also announced penalties against Ibrahim al-Banna, a senior member of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. Al-Banna served as that groups security chief and provided military and security guidance to its leadership. He wrote a 2010 article in AQAPs English-language magazine, Inspire, hailing the Sept. 11 attacks as virtuous, according to the State Department, and threatened to target Americans both domestically and abroad. Read more about: SHARE: AMMAN, JORDANJordans government spokesman warned on Thursday of catastrophic repercussions if President-elect Donald Trump makes good on a campaign promise to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to contested Jerusalem. Such a move could affect relations between the U.S. and regional allies, including Jordan, Information Minister Mohammed Momani told The Associated Press, addressing the issue publicly for the first time. An embassy move would be a red line for Jordan, would inflame the Islamic and Arab streets and serve as a gift to extremists, he said, adding that Jordan would use all possible political and diplomatic means to try and prevent such a decision. The U.S. considers pro-Western Jordan as an important ally in a turbulent Mideast. The Hashemite kingdom is a key member of a U.S.-led military coalition against Islamic State extremists in neighbouring Syria and Iraq, and maintains discreet security ties with Israel. Jordan also has a stake in Jerusalem, serving as custodian of Islams third holiest shrine in the citys eastern sector. Israel captured east Jerusalem from Jordan in 1967 and annexed it to its capital. The Palestinians want to establish the capital of a future state in the citys eastern sector. Addressing the conflicting claims in the city would be central to any renewed Israeli-Palestinian negotiations on the terms of Palestinian statehood. Jerusalem looms large in rival Israeli and Palestinian national narratives, and disputes over holy sites there have sparked several rounds of deadly violence over the years. Much of the world has not recognized Israels annexation of east Jerusalem and most countries, including the United States, maintain their embassies in Tel Aviv, Israels vibrant commercial centre and seaside metropolis. Momani, the Jordanian minister, said that moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem will have catastrophic implications on several levels, including the regional situation. He said countries in the region would likely think about different things and steps they should take in order to stop this from happening. It will definitely affect the bilateral relationship between countries in the region, including Jordan, and the parties that will be related to such a decision, he said. Trump said during the presidential campaign that he intended to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. Last month, Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway was quoted as saying that moving the embassy to Jerusalem is a very big priority for the president-elect. Trumps choice for U.S. ambassador in Israel, David Friedman, has said he looks forward to working from Jerusalem. Read more about: SHARE: The news that Ontario is reviewing the use of solitary confinement in its jails has me thinking of Adam Capay. Capay is the 23-year-old Anishinaabe man who spent close to 1,600 days over four and a half years locked in a 5-by-10-foot cell, the lights on 24 hours a day. Some excellent journalism has exposed the provinces immoral treatment of Capay since his situation was first brought to light by Ontario Human Rights Commissioner Renu Mandhane in October. But one aspect appears to have been lost on most commentators to date: Capay was a teenager when he first entered that solitary confinement cell. This fact is especially relevant in light of recently announced changes to the provinces Child and Family Services Act. For years now, politicians and bureaucrats alike have bristled at the use of the term solitary confinement. We dont have that in Ontario, they argue. Instead, we have administrative segregation or, in the case of children and youth, secure isolation that is, the locking up of a young person, alone, often in a special cell designed solely for that purpose. Even this alias has fallen out of vogue recently, and in future the province plans to refer to the locking of children in empty cells as secure de-escalation. This wordplay is the only significant change to the practice in the provinces proposed child and youth legislation. How does changing the official term applied to a practice affect a young persons experience of it? Names matter, but not to a child locked in an empty cell, under fluorescent lighting, with nothing to do to pass the time, their only interaction with other humans restricted to a slot in the door. Sorry the ministry also objects to the use of the term cells. Apparently theyre bedrooms and they arent located in jails, either. These are youth centres, the ministry says. Segregation, isolation, separation, cellular, lockdown, Supermax, the hole, Secure Housing Unit ... whatever the name, solitary confinement should be banned by States as a punishment or extortion technique, UN Special Rapporteur on torture Juan E. Mendez told the UN General Assembly in 2011. Mendez called on all countries to ban the practice of solitary confinement except in very exceptional circumstances, and called for an absolute prohibition in the case of juveniles. The UN ultimately concluded that the practice amounts to torture, and is only exacerbated by a young persons psychology: research has suggested that two weeks in isolation would feel like years in the mind of a teenager. Under the current legislation, secure isolation can be used in situations where the childs or young persons conduct indicates that he or she is likely, in the immediate future, to cause serious property damage or to cause another person serious bodily harm and no less restrictive method of restraining the child or young person is practicable. These criteria are subject solely to the discretion of detention centre staff. In exceptional circumstances where a child is under 12 years old, or where the isolation lasts more than an hour, approval of a supervisor or a ministry director is supposed to be required. These guidelines are vague enough to be widely misapplied, and they have been. In a 2015 systemic review of secure isolation in Ontario youth justice facilities, the Office of the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth found that secure isolation often lasted longer than 24 hours, and occasionally lasted more than a week. One youth was held in secure isolation for 17 days thats 24,170 minutes of torture. The same review also found a general trend toward less use of secure isolation in Ontario youth justice facilities. Many facilities have secure isolation cells that havent been used in months, if not years. The fact that some facilities use secure isolation often, while others dont use it at all, suggests both staff and inmates can be kept safe without resorting to solitary confinement. Toronto criminal lawyer Annamaria Enenajor, who has called for a complete ban on solitary confinement, calls the practice a form of detention that has no place in a civilized society. I agree and I worry that we will never end solitary confinement if we refuse to recognize the specific damage it does to children and young people. Michael Coteau, the provincial Liberals Minister of Children and Youth Services, should end the practice of secure isolation for children and youth in Ontario. It doesnt matter if you call it solitary confinement, administrative segregation, secure de-escalation, or anything else. Lets just call it something we used to do, that we dont do anymore. Desmond Cole is a Toronto-based journalist. His column appears every second Thursday. SHARE: The news of New Years Eve attack on Istanbuls Reina nightclub was sadly not unique in 2016. Similar attacks happen seemingly every week in some part of the world. But Reina holds a personal significance for a number of Canadians and a growing network of young people across the globe. Reina was one of the Istanbul venues that hosted hundreds of young entrepreneurs from around the world including dozens of Canadians during the 2015 G20 Young Entrepreneurs Alliance Summit. The Alliance Secretariat is based in Toronto and traces its origins to the 2010 G20 summit in that city. Each year, the Alliance summit brings together young entrepreneurs to share ideas, build new relationships and talk about the world they want to create. During my last visit to Reina, I talked with young people from countries as diverse as the U.S., Poland, Australia, Italy, Japan, and Brazil about their ideas. I met young Turkish women and men who were hungry to meet others from around the world. I heard from Mexicans who were fighting government corruption, from Indians who were seeking connections in Europe and North America, from Saudis who wanted to help their society evolve in a new direction. With the broad span of the Bosporus bridge arching overhead in the night sky, young people from incredibly different cultures and backgrounds met, danced and talked about their futures. It was a club full of optimism and music and dancing, fuelled by a belief that tomorrow would be better than today. The contrast between that happy memory and the grainy footage of the gunman walking through those same rooms on New Years Eve could not be more pointed. Indiscriminately spraying bullets into the crowd. Returning to the fallen to shoot them again and again. Casually committing incredible violence against people who merely wanted to celebrate and enjoy life. It would be too trite to say terrorists do this because they hate our way of life. The reality is a bit more nuanced. Extremists of all stripes want a polarized world where the divide is clear between us and them. The Reina that I and hundreds of others enjoyed represents a future that is directly opposed to that divisive ideal. Our natural reaction in the face of such violence is to turn away from each other. To raise the level of our rhetoric. To introduce more barriers, more walls, more ways to isolate each other. But if we truly want to honour the more than 100 people who were killed or injured in that attack, we should redouble our efforts to do exactly what I saw young people doing in Reina during the G20 Young Entrepreneurs Alliance Summit. Find new ways to talk with each other. Build bridges across cultures. Enjoy life and dream of a better life for us and for others. I was reminded of an incident in 2011, early in the history of our G20 group. Our French colleagues hosted a summit in Nice, bringing speakers such as Mohammed Yunus to challenge and inspire us at a time when Europe was beginning its fiscal crisis. One panel discussion featured French bankers, industrialists and others who were decidedly pessimistic about the future of Europe. Yet the young people in the audience had other ideas. They talked about their dreams for a growing and confident Europe, one that could encourage more young people to travel and start companies no one had yet thought of. With a mixture of irritation and admiration, one of the panellists responded by saying Oh, you young people and your enthusiasm! And that is the point. That is why we need a thousand Reinas across the world. That is why we need to encourage the bonds between people and cultures that only freedom, true personal and economic freedom, can help create. Because it is those new bonds that will show those who think problems are only solved through violence and walls that a better way is indeed possible. Alex Gill is a Toronto-based social entrepreneur and activist who has moderated the G20 Young Entrepreneurs Alliance since 2010. SHARE: The Trump Organization has reversed course on business plans in a handful of countries as inauguration day approaches. Donald Trump's namesake company has canceled a "memorandum of understanding" to continue discussions with local partners over possible office towers in Rio de Janeiro, Trump attorney Alan Garten told the Associated Press on Wednesday. The firm will also discontinue "exploratory" talks over projects in Pune, India, and in Buenos Aires, Argentina. At the end of 2016, the Trump Organization called off licensing deals for hotels in Brazil, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Trump has stakes in approximately 500 companies, according to his lawyers, across about 20 countries. As the AP notes, some of those appear to be set up for tax or legal reasons and do not have any underlying business operations. Possible conflicts of interests related to the Trump Organization and the president-elect's business ties have become a major point of controversy since the real estate magnate's November 8 election. Trump has insisted that his businesses are no longer important to him and that even though he could run both his firm and the country at the same time, he won't. "I don't care about my company," he told the New York Times soon after the election. In November, the Trump Organization said that it was "in the process of vetting various structures" for the transfer of its management and portfolio to the president-elect's children, but since then, few details have been provided. Trump cancelled a press conference scheduled for December 15 where he was set to discuss his businesses. He has since rescheduled the event for January 11, characterizing it as a "general news conference." He said on Twitter in December that the Trump Organization will be helmed by two of his children, Eric and Donald Jr., and other executives. (His daughter, Ivanka, and her husband, Jared Kushner, are reportedly moving to Washington, D.C.) He also said it would do "no new deals" while he is in office. Trump's somersaults, ethics experts say, are insufficient in eliminating conflicts of interest. Norm Eisen, a former Obama administration ethics adviser, has been a vocal critic of Trump's maneuvers in relation to his business activities since the election. "[Trump's actions] are not enough. They are baby steps, when what we need is a giant leap," he said in a recent interview with NPR. Experts, including Eisen, say Trump would need to completely divest all of his business holdings and place them into a blind trust to eliminate any conflicts of interest or risk of violating the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, which bars the president from taking any type of "emolument" (compensation for labor or services) from foreign governments. "For a candidate who ran on the promise of draining the swamp and cleaning up corruption in D.C., it would be a real disservice to his supporters and to America at large for him to run the most conflicted White House in the history of the nation," said Paul S. Ryan, vice president of policy and litigation at Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group Common Cause, following Trump's election last year. The Argentina project came under scrutiny last year after reports originated by local reporter Jorge Lanata that Trump tried to speed it along in a congratulatory call from President Mauricio Macri. The Argentine government denied the claims. The project, a 35-story Trump Tower on Buenos Aires' principal avenue, 9 de Julio, appeared to be advanced but has since been suspended indefinitely, local developer YY Development Group told Argentine outlet La Nacion. Juan Jose Cugliandolo, director of the firm, said the Trump family decided to deactivate all projects outside the United States that weren't already underway. "The reality is that because of the change of the political map in the United States, we are leaving up to them the steps they want to take in the future. There's nothing concrete," said Cugliandolo. YY Development Group is completing the construction of Trump Tower in Punta del Este, Uruguay, which is remains ongoing. The Bank of Portugal has chosen Dallas-based private equity house Lone Star Funds as "the best-placed" bidder for the acquisition of Novo Banco, the so-called good bank pulled from the wreckage of collapsed lender Banco Espirito Santo in a 2014 bailout. But in a statement issued late on Wednesday, Jan. 4, the bank made clear the negotiations are not exclusive and the field is still open for rival bidders to improve their offers. The Portuguese central bank invited Lone Star to bolster its own proposal in further talks, claiming that the current bid still presents a risk to the public purse. Lone Star is reportedly demanding that the government underwrite any risks from a "side bank" that manages Novo Banco's problem assets. Portugal's central bank, which owns Novo Banco through its Bank of Portugal Resolution Fund, said the primary objectives of a sale are ensuring the stability of the financial system and building confidence in Novo Banco's future. "At the current stage of the negotiations, the proposal of the potential investor Lone Star is the one which best assures these objectives," the central bank said in a Portuguese-language statement, "but presents conditions, notably a potential impact on the public accounts, which the deepening of negotiations now beginning will attempt to minimize or remove." The other contenders in the auction are Hong Kong-listed China Minsheng Financial Holding, as well as Lone Star's U.S. rivals Apollo Global Management and Centerbridge Partners. Domestic lenders Millennium BCP Bank and Banco BPI are also reported to be in the race. Lisbon stepped in with a 4.9 billion ($5.15 billion) rescue in 2014, when the family holding behind the Espirito Santo Group collapsed under the weight of its debts. An initial attempt to sell the bank fell apart in 2015 when talks with the preferred bidder of the day, China's Anbang Insurance Co., ended without a deal. Portugal also rejected what it felt were low-ball offers from Apollo and Fosun International. That disappointment was swiftly followed by a European Central Bank stress test that uncovered a 1.4 billion capital hole at the good bank. The government controversially chose to fill the hole by moving senior notes totaling nearly 2 billion from the good bank to the legacy BES bad bank, a move which was seen as signaling that senior creditors rather than the taxpayer would be on the hook for any future rescues. The government later decided to restart the auction and has said it is looking for either a direct strategic sale or a deal which involves floating part of Novo Banco on the stock market. The government said this week that Lone Star's rivals, all of whom have made offers in one of the two bidding processes, have indicated they are prepared to come back with improved proposals. The Azerbaijani oil will be supplied to Kremenchuk oil refinery, the press service of Naftogaz of Ukraine NJSC reports. It is good news for both oil refiners and Ukrtransnafta which could use additional orders, the report states. According to report, a considerable obstacle to this project was the replacement of the Russian process oil Urals contained in the Odesa-Kremenchuk pipeline with the Azerbaijani oil Azeri. This obstacle has already been removed. Therefore, the Odesa-Kremenchuk pipeline, which used to stand idle, will resume operation, and Ukrtransnafta will add 1.3 million tonnes to the scheduled oil flow volume, the press service noted. A reminder that Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev had a meeting in July 2016 and agreed to resume the Odesa-Brody crude oil pipeline project. mk At the PACE session in Strasbourg in January, the Ukrainian delegation will raise the issue of illegal detention of Ukrinform journalist Roman Sushchenko and illegal imprisonment of filmmaker Oleg Sentsov in Russia, as well as persecution of Crimean journalist Mykola Semena and Crimean Tatar media in Crimea. Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Permanent Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Volodymyr Aryev said this in a commentary to Ukrinform. "I will present a report on the freedom of expression in Europe. I will outline the situation of Roman Sushchenko in a separate subparagraph... There will be a call for his release, for release of Sentsov. I will touch upon the persecution of the Crimean Tatar media in Crimea, persecution of journalist Crimean journalist Mykola Semena," he said. ol The Administration of the President of Ukraine has presented the selection Year in Photos 2016. The photos are posted on the website of the Presidents press service. "The photos show the main events involving President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and his wife Maryna Poroshenko during the ceremonies and public events, meetings, working visits, and visits abroad. In particular, there are unique photos depicting visits to the Donbas frontline, the sidelines of the Davos Economic Forum, the Munich Security Conference and the UN General Assembly, meetings with world leaders," the statement reads. The gallery includes 258 best and most interesting photos; some of them were not published earlier. ol UNICEF/UN035681/LeMoyne UNICEF teams were among the first to arrive in affected areas after hurricane Matthew. For multimedia content click http://weshare.unicef.org/Package/2AMZIFM2233 PORT-AU-PRINCE, 4 January 2017 Almost three months after hurricane Matthew, UNICEF and its partners continue to deliver humanitarian aid to those most affected by the category 4 storm. Over 2 million people including 900,000 children were affected by the hurricane, of which 1.4 million require humanitarian assistance including 600,000 children. In addition to the personal losses of homes and crops, over 716 schools, and many health facilities and the existing sanitation infrastructure all suffered damage. Together with the government of Haiti, UNICEF and its partners have been able to ensure safe water is available daily to over 281,000 individuals, including over 118,000 children. UNICEF contributed to the cholera vaccination campaign, in November that reached 807,395 people, ensuring the delivery also of information regarding the prevention of cholera. Over 309,213 children between the ages of 1-14 years are included in this figure. In the health sector, UNICEF has restored the cold-chain systems of 37 facilities, has equipped 35 malnutrition outpatient treatment centers in GrandAnse and South and two inpatient facilities in each of these departments. In education, UNICEF has completed the restoration of 14 schools, with another 107 in various stages of progress. These restored schools have made it possible for 4,200 students to return to class. In total, its expected that over 36,000 students will return to the schools rehabilitated by UNICEF. UNICEF works closely with communities on malnutrition that continues to affect children and adults as they struggle to recover from the extended drought and the subsequent effects of hurricane Matthew including persistent risk of disease and loss of livelihood. UNICEF protection interventions are supporting families that have lost their livelihoods, aimed at preventing child separation; it is common for parents to place their children in residential care facilities in the often-false expectation that they will receive access to education that parents can no longer afford. Economic stress is also known to lead to violence, and increased social tension which combine to increase the potential for child abuse and neglect. To be closer to the population and improve delivery of services to the affected children and their families, UNICEF has opened two sub-offices: one in Les Cayes in the South department and the other in Jeremie in the Grand'Anse department. "Three months after Matthew, we can already see improvements: safe water is increasingly available, the vast majority of schools have reopened as have a number of health facilities; and areas that are the most difficult to access are receiving assistance. UNICEF is continuing to fulfil its mandate and obligations to emergency and development efforts, "said Marc Vincent, UNICEF Representative in Haiti. To provide these interventions, UNICEF needed funding. UNICEF's appeal for Haiti grew from a pre-hurricane amount of US$ 13.4 million to US$ 36.6 million after hurricane Matthew, and was over 85% funded by year-end as a result of the generosity of donors and their constituents. These funds help UNICEF to cover the most urgent needs of the families and children of Haiti in terms of water and sanitation, health, nutrition, education and protection.Much remains to be done in the coming year, to enable Haitian children and their families to benefit from safe water, sanitation and the dignity that comes with these, as well as access to protection, education and healthcare services. Once again, UNICEF relies on donors' generosity so that it can continue its mission and remain true to its mandate, which is: a fair chance for every child. ### Ayelet Waldman would like you to know that shes just a regular mom. Like you, she lives in her yoga pants, Instagrams her indulgent desserts, bickers with her husband and (four!) children: Im the woman standing behind you in Starbucks ordering the skinny vanilla latte, the one getting a mammogram in the room next to yours, the one digging through her too-full purse looking for her keys while you wait impatiently for her parking spot, she writes in A Really Good Day. The author Ayelet Waldman (Claire Lewis) But Waldman the everywoman is also Waldman the outlaw. She has not only taken LSD but has also written a book about it. A Really Good Day is a chronicle of her one-month search for emotional balance by taking small doses of a drug most people associate with Timothy Leary or CIA experiments. Dabbling in an illegal substance wasnt just a hippies midlife lark though the 52-year-old novelist does live in Berkeley, Calif. It was a desperate attempt to find happiness. For years, Waldman writes, she has struggled with severe mood swings, anxiety, insomnia and chronic pain. I was suffering, she writes. Worse, I was making the people around me suffer. I was in pain, and I was desperate and it suddenly seemed like I had nothing to lose. Waldman is no stranger to controversial subjects. Her 2009 book, Bad Mother, was a boldly opinionated take on the demands on modern moms that sprang from a much-discussed essay about her relationship with her husband , the novelist Michael Chabon, whom she said she loved more than her children. [Why shouldnt Ayelet Waldman complain?] In A Really Good Day a mix of anecdote, science and policy Waldman again unpacks her heavy emotional baggage. She also empties the shelves of her overstuffed medicine cabinet. Over the years, she tells us, shes tried Celexa, Lexapro, Prozac, Zoloft, Effexor, Adderall, Cymbalta, Xanax, Ambien, Wellbutrin and more. She has spent hundreds of hours in the offices of psychiatrists and psychologists, social workers and licensed family therapists; nattered on to Freudians and diligently filled out the workbooks assigned by cognitive behavioral therapists; tried yoga , meditation and other alternative therapies . Yet her cycle of depression, anger, guilt and shame remained crushingly intact. "A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life," by Ayelet Waldman (Knopf) In these pages, Waldman comes off as a combination of an endearingly wired best friend and oversharing malcontent. She spares no detail about her odd neuroses her nut allergy is not to nuts themselves but to the sound of people chewing them and she cops to often being volatile and irritable. Few are spared from her anger, she tells us, including herself. At one point, Waldman writes, in a moment of despair, she considered driving her car off a bridge. Turning to LSD may have been a last resort for Waldman, but microdosing taking very small, regular doses of either LSD or psilocybin (a psychedelic compound in some mushrooms) to treat anxiety and other ailments has become something of a fad. Since the publication of his book The Psychedelic Explorers Guide in 2011, psychologist James Fadiman has been gathering testimonies from people who have tried the technique. In Silicon Valley, LSD is becoming the latest tool for improving performance. Among the many people Waldman talks to is self-help guru Tim Ferriss, who has boasted that the billionaires I know, almost without exception, use hallucinogens on a regular basis. Mainstream researchers are beginning to work with psilocybin as a treatment for depression in cancer patients. [LSD could make you smarter, happier and healthier. Should we all try it?] Waldman, a self-described nerd, is well aware of all of this. In fact, she goes right to the source, consulting with Fadiman for guidance on her own LSD experiment. The biggest hurdle for a vanilla latte-drinking mom, however, is finding the drug even in Berkeley. But through connections and a bit of good fortune, Waldman is greeted one day with a package, return address Lewis Carroll, and she begins her journey toward self-enlightenment. (Initially, Waldman, a former federal public defender familiar with drug laws, tells only her husband and two close friends, though on one peppy day she also blabs it to her physical therapist and later, ill-advisedly, to a couple at a dinner party.) Waldman is a diligent guinea pig, recording her every mood, sensation and ache, journal style. The trees look prettier today than usual; I miss the peace of yesterday afternoon; I noticed the beauty of my neighborhood . . . the smell of jasmine. After lunch, I felt slightly nauseated; and so on. Woven throughout are informative passages about drug policy and the science of psychedelics. At times Waldmans book resembles that too-full purse: There are riffs on her parenting style (an advocate of harm-reduction, she stocks her teen kids bathroom cupboard with condoms), a transcript of a text conversation with Chabon when she was under the heavy influence of Ambien (Put screen away, says the man who also patiently tracked her menstrual cycles so she could time her medications) and a long discussion about the couch in her writing studio. But push past the sometimes amusing asides and youll be rewarded with an intriguing and thorough look at the therapeutic possibilities of an illegal drug. Waldman really is a nerd (in a good way), and her book is an engaging and deeply researched primer on a taboo subject and a compelling case for more research on it. As for Waldman (spoiler alert!), microdosing does help quell her roiling moods (Like, when youre angry, youre super-chill, one of her kids tells her) and allows her to focus better on her work. But she realizes that the benefit isnt worth the legal risk. The real blessing of the experiment, she writes, is to show her that happiness, though delightful, is not really the point. A really good day, it turns out, is a lot simpler and more attainable even without the help of a drug. Nora Krug is an editor and writer in Book World. On Feb. 12 at 5 p.m., Ayelet Waldman will be at Politics and Prose, 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, D.C. 20008. (Ji Yoon Hwang/Korean Cultural Center, Washington D.C. ) Things are just a little askew at the Korean Cultural Center. Ji Yoon Hwang and Soyoung Kim, the artists of Surreal Dialogue, are not extremists. Hwang has mastered landscape painting in oil, and Kim is expert in upholstery and small-scaled pictures in water-based pigments. The dialogue they conduct is not with each other, but with the conventions of their chosen genres. Kim offers several chairs and a sofa constructed of quilted, candy-colored modules, alongside fabric wall sculptures that employ similar techniques and shapes. Its her paintings that most clearly display the shared pattern: The interlocking parts mimic legs and arms, so that sitter and sat-upon are both made of flesh-like trunks and limbs. In an installation flanked by banners, faceless dolls lounge on the coach, also melding furniture and the human body. For Kim, theres a unbreakable link between where we live and who we are. Soyoung Kims Exquisite Corpse, mixed media (2016). (Soyoung Kim/Korean Cultural Center, Washington, D.C. ) The human presence is just as submerged in Hwangs work. Tiny people or houses exist in Hwangs pictures but are dwarfed by skies and mountains. This proportion is actually typical of ink-painted East Asian landscapes, which often place a miniature hermit or traveler amid the scenery. Hwang invokes this tradition by mounting most of her pictures on wooden rods, like ancient scroll paintings. Yet she paints in a detailed, naturalistic Western mode. The East-West juxtaposition isnt the only tweak of expectations. Where Asian landscapes customarily depict nature as serene, these scenes are more ominous and strange. Dark storm clouds mass in the sky, glowering across a five-panel epic skyscape. Thick white mists cloak a butte in Cloud Island but dissipate at the bottom to show that the peak is detached from the ground below. Such surreal touches are rare in Hwangs art but common enough to reveal that her realist vistas are actually fantasies. Surreal Dialogue: Ji Yoon Hwang & Soyoung Kim On view through Jan. 10 at the Korean Cultural Center, 2370 Massachusetts Ave. NW. 202-939-5688. koreaculturedc.org. Material as Medium Fabric art can be overly precious, because it enshrines substances that are usually found on hangers, in drawers or on the bathroom floor. Target Gallerys Material as Medium sidesteps this problem, partly by including pieces that are meant to be touched. Also, many of these 16 artists use unconventional ingredients or devise strong textural contrasts. Kathleen Kennedys Pelt, which slumps off a pedestal onto the floor, is made of hundreds of found keys, chained tightly together to simulate (at least from a distance) the look of fur. Meaghan Westfalls Tube is genuinely fuzzy, but only on the inside: Its a concrete tube lined with a bath mat that can be felt by an inserted finger or hand. Suzanna Scotts Bound Scissors eliminates the dangers of running with scissors by upholstering them; visitors are encouraged to rearrange the dozens of small, cloth-covered tools however they like. Among the light-industrial components are plastic sacks and potato-chip bags. One piece features a more old-timey everyday item: a rocking chair, wrapped in patchwork, so its contours are obscured. Among the few contributors who manipulate actual clothing is Hannah Hiaasen, whose Ventilated Workwear is a pair of coveralls incised with a grid of vertical rectangles. Here, its the pattern, not the material, thats the medium. Material as Medium On view through Jan. 15 at Target Gallery, 105 N. Union St., Alexandria. 703-838-4565, Ext. 4. torpedofactory.org/partners/target-gallery . Tim Otto Roths Flora Domestica, on view at the Goethe-Institut. (Franz J. Wamhof/Tim Otto Roth/Goethe-Institut Washington) Tim Otto Roth Almost as old as photography itself, camera-less photograms are produced by arranging objects on light-sensitive paper and then briefly illuminating them. Photograms, often called rayographs after noted exponent Man Ray, began with black-and-white images. But they can be made in color, as Tim Otto Roths Flora Domestica demonstrates. This wall-filling suite of gauzy yet vivid floral close-ups is the brightest star of Light From the Other Side, at the Goethe-Institut. Visitors must use 3-D glasses to view part of the German artists show at the Goethe-Institut. (Franz J. Wamhof/Tim Otto Roth/Goethe-Institut Washington) Old-fashioned 3-D glasses are required to view another section of the German artists show, which consists of two projections of computer-generated video. Theres a virtual model of Man Rays clothes-hanger mobile whose elements appear to dangle and revolve, casting eerie shadows as they seem to approach and recede. More immersive is Sterea Skia, a phantom thicket of illusory trees that occupies another wall. A wintry landscape of bare trunks and branches, this piece is as stark as Flora Domestica is lush. Both are equally intangible, composed of light forms that merely simulate the natural ones familiar to the naked eye. Light From the Other Side: Shadowgraphs by Tim Otto Roth On view through Jan. 13 at Goethe-Institut Washington, 1990 K St. NW (entrance on 20th Street). 202-847-4700. goethe.de/washington. Brian Duponts Logaoedic Collapse, at the Adah Rose Gallery. (Brian Dupont/Adah Rose Gallery) Brian Dupont& Alan Steele Parsing The Impulse of Keeping a Record involves a lot of reading between the lines. Both artists in the Adah Rose Gallery show, Brian Dupont and Alan Steele, are New Yorkers whose work incorporates text, although Duponts is wordier. Dupont paints on aluminum panels that hug the wall or protrude from it. His palette is mostly white, gray, black and rust red, with occasional splashes of brighter hues. The principal features of his pictures are stenciled letters and numerals, but these are smeared, overpainted or obscured so as to become partly abstract, and thus akin to the artists wordless brushwork. The text includes literary quotations, court transcripts and the names of German Expressionist film directors. Although these may be carefully chosen, the overall effect is impromptu. Dupont mixes pop arts taste for mass-produced symbols with abstract expressionisms preference for spontaneity. Alan Steeles Modern Equipment 92. (Alan Steele/Adah Rose Gallery) Steele combines drawing, painting and collage. His principal motifs are tight patterns, rendered in fine lines and suggesting labyrinths, city plans and circuit boards. These are set off by blocks of color, usually vivid and simple and sometimes in the yellow, blue and red bars of Venezuelas flag. (Steele was born in Caracas.) Sections of ribbed cardboard and free-form gestures contrast the intricate lines, but Steele doesnt always seek complications. One striking minimalist drawing consists of small black marks that cross the center of a white expanse. It looks like a straightforward path out of the urban bustle Steeles other pieces evoke. The Impulse of Keeping a Record: Brian Dupont and Alan Steele On view through Jan. 15 at Adah Rose Gallery, 3766 Howard Ave., Kensington. 301-922-0162. adahrosegallery.com. Props to NBC for the sense of adventure it sometimes brings to the one-hour drama format. Where CBS churns out highly rated but exceedingly similar crime procedurals and ABC sticks mainly to a house style of sudsy scandalousness, NBC has, over the past few years, offered up a few shows that were intriguing, risky and, alas, usually cancel-prone. Im thinking here of the 1960s noir drama Aquarius, which starred David Duchovny as an L.A. detective crossing paths with the Manson family. Or American Odyssey, about a female Army sergeant caught up in a shocking terrorist plot. Or the more successful Shades of Blue, a crooked-cop drama starring Jennifer Lopez and Ray Liotta, scheduled to return in March. Now heres the networks Emerald City, a gloomy, violent and often sluggish take on L. Frank Baums storybook world of Oz that premieres Friday night. Long in development (it was touted on NBCs menu a season or two back, then vanished, then returned), Emerald City vividly imagines an Oz that more closely resembles the worst of Westeros, the chaotically dangerous continent of HBOs Game of Thrones. Most of us know Oz mainly from the Technicolor wonders seen in the 1939 MGM musical version of The Wizard of Oz. While it could certainly be a fearsome place, at least it had lollipops. This Oz is bleaker, steampunkier and far more cruel and if you havent clued in already, Emerald City is not a good choice for younger viewers. An adult Dorothy Gale (Adria Arjona), a small-town Kansas nurse with all sorts of unanswered questions about her real parents, seeks shelter in a police car during a tornado and is swept away through a dimensional portal, crash-landing in Eastern Oz. (A German-shepherd K9 is in the car with her and becomes her loyal companion, Toto.) A fierce tribe of locals, believing Dorothy has killed a witch, begrudgingly sends her off on a pollen-dusted stone path (a.k.a. the Yellow Brick Road) to the Emerald City and the all-powerful, deeply neurotic wizard (Vincent DOnofrio) who rules there. It isnt long before Dorothy and Toto come upon the ruins of a burned village, where they free a man named Lucas (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) who has been tarred and feathered and left on a cross to die. Beset by amnesia, he offers to accompany them to see the wizard. Other basic outlines of Oz lore are similarly established bit by bit, with little cues and symbols to reward fans of Baums entire oeuvre which, as childrens literature goes, was always an acquired taste. Unlike some other inventive modern adaptations (such as the Broadway musical Wicked), Emerald City is devoid of charm, relying mostly on malevolence as its central theme. Its tone is far more bitter than ABCs storybook drama Once Upon a Time, yet the seriousness doesnt rise to a Game of Thrones level. A dourness persists through all 10 episodes, which were written and conceived as an epic film. Tarsem Singh, a movie director with a background in music videos, directed the entire series; the visual qualities that make Emerald City so intriguing cant make up for a meandering narrative that chugs and sputters along, with no one to really root for. The characters are flat, and the actors playing them seem as befuddled as the viewer about the ambiguous shades of good and evil from one scene to the next. Glinda (Joely Richardson), ostensibly a good witch who surrendered her magic to the Wizard, is running some sort of unhappy boarding school for girls, while the wicked witch from the west (Ana Ularu), who simply calls herself West, is an opium addict with doubts about her inner nature and the uses of magic. My hunch is that those whove read and studied all 14 of Baums Oz books will find more to appreciate here than the casual Oz visitor; they may also take umbrage at some of the pick-and-choose ways that Emerald City has adapted the saga and its metaphors to modern use. Further subplots follow the woes of Jack (Gerran Howell), who, after a traumatic injury, has his limbs replaced with tin and his heart replaced with an artificial ticker; and Tip (Jordan Loughran), a boy who becomes a girl, who, a Baum reader may well presume, is destined to become Princess Ozma. Theres a lot here to sort through; unfortunately, the makers of Emerald City are not particularly skilled at the sorting process necessary for a sprawling tale. Oz is a fascinating place at first, but, like Dorothy, one soon gets the itch to leave. Emerald City (two hours) premieres Friday at 9 p.m. on NBC. An elephant crosses a road in the Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwes wildlife agency said Thursday that it has sold 35 elephants to China to reduce overpopulation and raise money for conservation. (Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/AP) Zimbabwes wildlife agency said Thursday that it has sold 35 elephants to China to reduce overpopulation and raise funds for conservation. Animal-welfare activists who are against taking elephants out of the wild announced last week that the animals were headed to China. This once-wealthy countrys economy has fallen apart, and Zimbabwes government has said it needs to sell wildlife to support its people and conservation efforts. The government also has tried to sell its ivory stockpile for millions of dollars. The Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority did not say how much China paid for the 35 elephants but said it was turning to friendly countries to extract value out of our wildlife. Zimbabwe had not confirmed the December 23 sale before Thursday. The wildlife agency didnt say whether the elephants were adults, which has been a concern for some conservation groups. Why is it done [secretly] and then announced two weeks later? Because we know that at times calves have been taken away from their mothers, conditions have been atrocious and the money, no one really knows how it is used, said Johnny Rodrigues, whose Zimbabwe Conservation Taskforce has criticized elephant sales to China. The statement by Zimbabwes wildlife agency said its conservation efforts have been limited by restrictions on selling the countrys ivory stockpile and on trophy hunting of certain species. Zimbabwes government does not set aside money for conservation; the wildlife agency raises its own funds. In 2014, the United States banned the import of sport-hunted elephant trophies from Zimbabwe. Zimbabwes wildlife agency has said this wildlife-rich southern African country has at least 36,000 more elephants than it can support. The 35 elephants were captured from Hwange National Park and flown to Chinas Shanghai Exhibition Park, Beijing Wildlife Park and Hangzhou Wildlife Park, the agency said. It said it followed international regulations in the sale, adding that it previously sold other animals to Europe and the United States. Reader: One of our employees, a young woman in her late 20s, attempted suicide and was hospitalized. After a paid leave of absence and all the support we could offer organizationally and individually, she came back to work after about six weeks. Many of us urged her to take more time, but she is anxious about endangering her job and says being at work feels better than being home alone while her husband works. Yet shes not stable. She is able to do her job adequately, but she leans heavily on one senior staffer in and out of her office all day crying and that staffer is exhausted from the strain. Meanwhile, those of us who best know the depressed colleague are worried about another suicide attempt. Our boss feels under legal constraints to make no observations about her health or suggestions, for fear of violating employment law. This feels like a life-or-death matter, yet nobody knows what we can or should be doing. Karla: You are right to be worried for your co-worker. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2014, suicide was the No. 2 cause of death for Americans ages 25 to 34. And while your collective supportiveness is laudable, you should also be concerned about the ripple effect on you. Your boss and HR department should immediately consult a mental health expert, either through an employee assistance program or through a suicide hotline, such as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK. The exhausted staffer and other concerned co-workers also should be directed to these resources, in part to learn how to compassionately set protective personal boundaries. While the Americans With Disabilities Act discourages employers from speculating about or trying to diagnose employees medical conditions, it doesnt prohibit pointing out when workers conduct is disruptive to their performance or others. Also, your boss is generally permitted to make the employees return to work contingent on a medical evaluation, if there is a reasonable belief that her condition is impairing her performance or poses a threat to herself or others. He or she could also turn to the Labor Departments Job Accommodation Network for confidential consultations about how to offer accommodations without violating your co-workers ADA rights. All these resources should help your boss guide your co-worker to support from qualified professionals while providing workplace support. If she needs more time off for treatment, the Family and Medical Leave Act requires up to 12 weeks of job-protected unpaid leave in a year, with some states and employers offering even more. Thanks to the Society for Human Resource Management. Ask Karla Miller about your work dramas and traumas by emailing wpmagazine@washpost.com. Read more @Work Advicecolumns. For stories, features such as Date Lab, Gene Weingarten and more, visit The Washington Post Magazine. Follow the Magazine on Twitter. Like us on Facebook. Email us at wpmagazine@washpost.com. Land St. Georges Caye Resort in Belize is offering 25 percent off stays in a private, thatched cabana between Jan. 26 and Feb. 11. Five nights in an overwater sunset cabana, including three meals a day, costs $1,657 per couple, with tax. The regular price is $2,225. Rate includes unlimited use of kayaks, sailboats, stand-up paddleboards and snorkel gear. Four-night minimum required. Use promo code WP-Winter. Booking info: 800-813-8498, reservations@gooddiving.com. General info: www.st-georgesresort.com. Book by Jan. 30 and save $100 on a camper with Peace Vans Rentals. The Seattle-based company rents Vanagon and Eurovan Volkswagen vehicles, which comfortably fit four travelers and come with kitchens ideal for exploring the Pacific Northwest. Prices vary, depending on vehicle and season. For example, a mid-May adventure in an Ohanapecosh, a 1987 Volkswagen Vanagon, costs $1,542 for six nights, including discount, tax and insurance fee. Six-night minimum required. Info: 206-467-7368, www.peacevansrentals.com. Hotel Riu Plaza New York Times Square has discounted rooms for stays from Friday through March 31. Nonrefundable rate starts at $153 per night, including taxes, a savings of $91. Refundable rate starts at $160 a night, a savings of $96. Lowest price is sold out on some dates. Info: 888-748-4990, www.riu.com. Sea Princess Cruises is offering shipboard credits of $150 to $600 per cabin on select cruises departing summer through spring 2018. Credit varies by stateroom category and trip length. For example, book an interior cabin on a six- to nine-night cruise and receive a $150 credit; a balcony cabin on a cruise of at least 13 nights earns $600. Also, reserve a balcony or higher cabin and receive free specialty dining privileges, a value of about $39 per person per dinner. Book by Feb. 28. Info: 800-774-6237, www.princess.com/sale . Air Southwest has a sale on nonstop flights to U.S. cities and destinations in the Caribbean, Central America and Mexico. For example, the round-trip fare from Reagan National to Orlando starts at $160, including taxes; fare on other airlines starts at $192. Restrictions vary by destination. For most domestic flights, sale fares are available daily except for Fridays and Sundays, from Jan. 24 to May 24. Twenty-one-day advance purchase required. Book by Jan. 26 at www.southwest.com. Qantas has a sale on flights from New Yorks JFK to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, Australia. Round-trip air to Sydney starts at $999, including taxes. Other carriers are charging at least $1,300. Travel Feb. 18-June 15, July 24-Sept. 6 and Nov. 1-30. Book by Monday at www.qantas.com/us/en.html. Package Spend a week in Thailand for $1,599 per person double with Pacific Delight Tours. The trip includes round-trip airfare from New York to Bangkok, with return from Chiang Mai; four nights at Well Hotel Bangkok Sukhumvit 20; flight from Bangkok to Chiang Mai; three nights at Duangtawan Hotel Chiang Mai; seven breakfasts and one lunch; two tours; airport transfers; and taxes. Depart Feb. 12, March 12 or April 9. Priced separately, trip costs about $1,748. Info: 800-221-7179, www.pacificdelighttours.com. Carol Sottili, Andrea Sachs Prices were verified at press time Thursday, but deals sell out and availability is not guaranteed. Some restrictions may apply. John B. Geer was fatally shot in 2013 by a Fairfax County police officer in the doorway of his townhouse in Springfield, Va. ( Jeff Stewart) Virginias largest jurisdiction is seeking applicants for a new nine-member civilian panel that will review police abuse cases. Fairfax County approved the creation of the civilian review panel last month, part of ongoing police reforms in the county of 1.1 million residents spurred by controversy over the 2013 fatal shooting of John B. Geer outside his home. Fairfax officials are also wading through applications for an independent police auditor who will review police department investigations of cases in which use of force caused a death or serious injury. In a news release Thursday, the office of Sharon Bulova (D), the chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, said the members of the civilian review panel will be appointed to three-year terms, with one person serving as chairman. Board appointments to the panel will be based on previous civic involvement, expertise in law enforcement and an applicants reputation in his or her community. The board will seek racial and ethnic diversity and will try to appoint members from each of the countys nine magisterial districts. The panel will not be open to current county employees, former county law enforcement officers or any of their immediate relatives. Elected officials or political candidates also are excluded from serving on the panel. The Talladega College marching band will perform at President-elect Donald Trumps inaugural parade Jan. 20 after all. Billy Hawkins, president of the historically black college in Alabama, confirmed the decision in a news release Thursday morning. The schools 200-member Marching Tornado Band first announced that it would perform in the parade Dec. 21. But since then, the school has faced a backlash from alumni and on social media by those who expressed opposition to Trump and felt that a historically black college founded by former slaves should not perform for someone whose views, they say, encouraged prejudice and anti-black sentiment. Hawkins acknowledged the blowback the school has received and said he respected the divergent viewpoints on the issue. But, Hawkins wrote, the decision to perform was not a political one but rather a chance to participate in a civil ceremony celebrating the transfer of power. It will be a wonderful learning experience for the students in the band. It will be a teachable moment for them to understand the importance of supporting the leader of the free world, despite ones political viewpoint, Harvey said. After all, the reason for being of any college or university should be to promote learning and not to enhance a political agenda. [Historically black college faces backlash over bands plan to perform at Trump inauguration] Shirley Ferrill, a 1974 Talladega graduate who set up a online petition asking the school to change its decision, has said that she would be very disappointed and upset if the school went ahead with the parade. To perform at the inaugural smacks of some level of support for Trump, Ferrill said. The man has been consistently nasty and vile to African Americans in general. I find him totally reprehensible. But Dollan Young, a senior and a member of the band, launched his own online petition stating support for taking part in the parade. We believe that this parade is not about politics its about seeing first hand the process of a transition, Young wrote. We are not one-track thinkers and believe everyone is entitled to [their] own beliefs. The parade, which is expected to last about three hours and will include approximately 8,000 participants representing more than 40 organizations, is slated to begin on Pennsylvania Avenue NW near the Capitol and will head west toward the White House. There, Trump, his family, guests and dignitaries will look on from a viewing stand. Two other colleges sending bands to the inauguration Marist College in New York and Olivet Nazarene University in Illinois also are facing criticism on social media from students and alumni for taking part in the event. THE DISTRICT Sentence in sex abuse in State Dept. housing The husband of a former U.S. Embassy official was sentenced Wednesday to 30 months in federal prison after he sexually abused a woman working in State Department housing in Morocco, federal prosecutors said. Labib Chammas, 65, of McLean, the husband of the former deputy chief of mission in Rabat, forced the woman to massage his genitals and attempted to force her to perform oral sex while living at the State Department residence between 2010 and 2013, the U.S. attorneys office for the District of Columbia said in a statement. He threatened to fire the woman, a longtime employee of the household in Moroccos capital, if she didnt comply, the statement said. In October, Chammas pleaded guilty to one count of sexually abusive conduct; he was sentenced Wednesday to 30 months in prison, according to the statement. He also must pay a $15,000 fine and register as a sex offender for 15 years, prosecutors said. Justin Wm. Moyer MARYLAND Mans body found in Savage River Forest Maryland Natural Resources Police say a man has been found dead and a woman is being treated for hypothermia after both were reported missing in a western Maryland state forest. Spokeswoman Candy Thomson told the Cumberland Times-News that the mans body was spotted Wednesday morning by searchers in a state police helicopter. She said the woman walked out of the Savage River State Forest near Barton earlier Wednesday. Thomson says the search began at 2:15 a.m. after someone reported that the pair had driven to the forest and had not been seen since 5 p.m. Tuesday. Associated Press 2 Metro workers hurt making track repairs A Metro employee suffered an electrical shock Wednesday while making track repairs, and a second worker was injured while coming to his aid, the transit agency said. The agency said the incident happened just before 3:30 p.m. on the tracks between Fort Totten and West Hyattsville. Metro said a worker suffered an electrical shock when a metal rod he was carrying touched the electrified third rail. A second employee attempting to help him also was injured. Metro initially classified the event as a medical emergency. Both were taken to hospitals with injuries that were not life-threatening. The incident is under investigation. Faiz Siddiqui Its like a Cinderella story, honestly, the woman said. But she meant the first part of the tale, before the ball and the prince and the glass slippers. She had done it all for her young daughter, the woman explained: entered the world of Internet matchmaking, relocated the two of them to the United States from their home in Eastern Europe, moved in with an American man she thought she knew and planned to marry. I was just looking for a good person to be a good father for my daughter, she told me. The woman asked me not to share her name. I dont want him to understand its me, she said. Even now, many years after it all started, the nightmare is too easily conjured. After the two connected online, the man traveled to her country to meet the womans family. He seemed kind, a good provider. And so several years ago the woman came to the United States with her daughter on whats called a fiancee visa. But within two weeks the man had changed. The relationship started to be very different with him, she said. He became critical of her skills. Her English wasnt good enough, he said. She could not run an American household to his standards, operate American appliances, cook food the way his children liked it . . . The man soon made it clear he would not go through with the marriage, but would wait for the womans three-month visa to run out and then send her home. I realized he just kept me there to do all the housework until he could just get rid of me, she said. He demanded certain other things from her, too. She has difficulty talking about it. I was not allowed to go to my daughter in the night, she said. I had to be in his bedroom. I felt like he used me in every way. Sometimes, she would walk around the suburban neighborhood where they lived, feeling trapped in an unfamiliar world. There is nobody to talk to about it, she said. You dont know the area. You cannot go anywhere. Its just many big houses. . . . It feels horrible and lonely. But there was someone the woman could talk to, someone she met at a church she briefly attended. And it was that person who took the woman and her daughter to a shelter in Northern Virginia. After nearly a year of living in shelters, the mother and her daughter were placed with Homestretch, a charity that helps homeless families in Fairfax County and is a partner in The Washington Post Helping Hand. Homestretch provided a fully furnished apartment and gift cards for clothing. It provided tutoring for the girl. Homestretch helped the woman sign up for a certificate course that gave her the skills to land a full-time job in the medical administration field. It helped the woman save and manage her money. At the same time, the Tahirih Justice Center, a District-based nonprofit group that works with immigrant women who have been victimized, took the womans case. They helped her secure whats known as a T visa, one thats reserved for victims of human trafficking. The visa, the woman said, is for when you are used like a slave. She received her green card, too, and hopes, in a few years, to apply for U.S. citizenship. The woman was a Homestretch client for a little more than two years, graduating from the program in 2015. Today, she and her daughter share a one-bedroom apartment. She no longer receives public assistance, and she pays the rent herself. She has learned to drive and has a car given to her by Homestretch. I cant believe I went through it, she said, meaning both the lows and the highs of the past five years. I didnt believe I could do it. I cant believe now Im driving or have a full-time job. But its still scary. Psychologically, Im traumatized. Its always there. Fortunately, Homestretch is always there, too. You can help This is the last column of this years Helping Hand campaign. So far readers have donated $147,800. Thats an incredible number, but about $80,000 short of our goal of $225,000. If youve ever considered giving, now is the time to act. To make an online donation to Homestretch, visit posthelpinghand.com. To donate by mail, make a check payable to Homestretch and send it to: Homestretch, 303 S. Maple Ave., Falls Church, Va. 22046, Attn: Nan Monday. At any one time, about 50 families in Fairfax County are enrolled in Homestretchs two-year program. More than 90 percent of the households are headed by single mothers; 60 percent are homeless because of domestic violence or human trafficking. Your contribution can help heal those wounds. Twitter: @johnkelly For previous columns, visit washingtonpost.com/johnkelly. Montgomery County Police Chief Tom Mangers presentation to parents at Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville on Wednesday evening about the post-Election Day spike in hate crimes came with a singular plea: Please report what you see and hear. Be a good witness, Manger said at a community forum co-sponsored by the school and the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington. Those who decide not to report an incident dont give us a chance to investigate the case to find the people responsible, he said. Manger noted that the county uses a more expansive definition of hate crimes than the FBI, which reported far fewer than the 87 logged by Montgomery police last year up from 66 in 2015. While a swastika etched on a bus at a Jewish school may not reach the FBIs threshold, it is a serious matter in the county, he said. But as parents told their stories to Manger and a panel of local leaders that included County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) and Schools Superintendent Jack Smith, they made it clear that reporting what they see and hear is not always enough. Parents alarmed about what their children are experiencing in school said they sometimes find themselves dealing with reluctant officials. (YouTube/Montgomery County Police Dept.) Stephanie Murdock said that is what happened after her ninth-grade son at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School reported that a student sitting next to him in math class was drawing swastikas on his paper. Her son took a picture of the paper with his phone and reported it to his teacher. Murdock said she waited several days, anticipating a call from the school. When it finally came, an administrator said the school had spoken to the boy and his parents but could tell her nothing more. Murdock said later that, at a minimum, the incident should have been the basis for some kind of classroom discussion. Another parent, Taly Lind, said that by Mangers definition, hate crimes are rampant at Westland Middle School, where she has a 12-year-old son. In November, police investigated two incidents of swastikas in a boys bathroom. Lind said the issues are more pervasive. There are hate crimes going on at that school on a regular basis in terms of slurs being used against homosexuals, said Lind, who moved her family to Montgomery County after 10 years overseas because she wanted to live in an open, progressive community. I think there is some kind of ugly underbelly going on that a lot of adults at the school are just not aware of, Lind said, adding that part of the problem was an anti-hate curriculum that is eyeroll-worthy from the perspective of the students. The situation calls for something more compelling, she said. Smith conceded the curriculum is probably not what is exactly needed in 2017. He praised last years student project at Stedwick Elementary School, a video called The Lie, in which fourth-graders looked straight into a camera and recited racist canards and stereotypes. (Africans arent smart or Asians cant play sports.) Kathy Katz said her 10th-grade son was on his way home from Beth Sholom Congregation in Potomac recently when he passed a house on Gainsborough Road he had walked by for years. Katz said her son told her that the man living there emerged from a car in front of the house and asked: Are you a Jew? I dont want you bringing bad luck on my house. From now on you walk on the other side of the street. Katz said the man walked into his house and slammed the door. We felt terrible. We felt horrible about it, she said. But police told her there was little they could do. Manger acknowledged that the incident fell short of a hate crime, but he suggested that when her son was older and felt more confident, he should consider continuing to walk past the house. Katz said the whole family does just that. And we also put our middle fingers up, she said. Good for you, Manger said. The surge in hate crimes, locally and nationally, has coincided with Republican Donald Trumps election after a campaign that many political and religious leaders said emboldened and enabled expressions of anti-Semitic and racist sentiments. Panel members generally stayed clear of commentary about Trump, focusing instead on how to improve current conditions. Im not here to rehash the election. The American people have spoken, Leggett said. Manger, head of the Major Cities Chiefs Association, a group of law enforcement executives from 70 U.S. and Canadian cities, said he was planning to work with the Trump administration going forward, just as he has with past presidents. He added this caveat: The federal government only has so much influence and little control over how I deliver police services in Montgomery County . . . Montgomery County is policed the way Mr. Leggett wants it policed and the way I want it policed. Polly Kraft, a painter who turned quotidian objects and scenes a sliced red apple still bearing its seeds, an unmade bed cluttered with mail, a filleted fish vibrant even in death into works of art resonant with meaning, died Jan. 1 at her home in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington. She was 89. The cause was pancreatic cancer, said a son, Mark Stevens, an art critic who with his wife, Annalyn Swan, co-authored the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography de Kooning: An American Master (2004). Mrs. Kraft spent a half-century at the center of the Washington establishment as the wife of Joseph Kraft, the syndicated newspaper columnist, and later, after Krafts death in 1986, of Lloyd Cutler, the high-powered lawyer who was White House counsel to Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. Cutler died in 2005. Her marriages took her into the thick and thicket of social life in the capital a world, she once remarked, where politicians were mixed in with intellectuals, mixed in with academics, mixed in with movie stars. She counted among her friends members of the Kennedy family, former Washington Post chairman and publisher Katharine Graham, former Post executive editor Benjamin C. Bradlee and diplomats W. Averell and Pamela Harriman. Although oft cited as a doyenne of Georgetown hostesses, Mrs. Kraft professed that she relished neither politics nor Washingtons breed of socializing, which at times approached the intensity of a competitive sport. Mrs. Kraft died Jan. 1 at 89. (Family photo) She took refuge in her still lifes, earning a reputation as an artist capable of imbuing significance into even the most ordinary tableau. When it comes to the poetry of dishevelment, Polly Kraft is one of our more rewarding practitioners, art critic John Russell wrote in the New York Times in 1981. She specializes in the domestic pileup cushions knocked out of shape, books and magazines left askew, hasty departures acted out in verismo style. The point of the paintings lies in the contrast between this archetypal havoc and the order that Mrs. Kraft has imposed upon it. Her paintings, mainly watercolors and oil paintings, appeared at venues including the Corcoran Gallery of Art and Addison/Ripley Fine Art in Washington and the Fischbach Art Gallery in New York City. Particularly during her marriage to Kraft, she sought out shows beyond Washington, she told People magazine in 1982, because I didnt want to make it by being Joes wife. Rhoda Norton Winton was born in Spokane, Wash., on July 15, 1927, and spent part of her youth in Minneapolis, where her father helped run the family lumber operation. She studied French and French literature at the University of Geneva before marrying Whitney Stevens, a scion of a textile-manufacturing family, with whom she had two sons. They resided in New York, where she worked for a period for Flair magazine. I was like most women of those times, she told People, alone all day trying to raise two tiny kids, sitting by the sandbox, kind of miserably desperate. The marriage ended in divorce. In 1960, she married Kraft, a speechwriter for John F. Kennedys successful presidential campaign that year. Kraft later penned a column that appeared in more than 200 newspapers, among them The Post. Pillows, Shawl, Mail (1984), watercolor on paper, by Mrs. Kraft. (Family photo) As a Washington wife, Mrs. Kraft told People, I tried to do it all, but it is tough to entertain, cook and paint at the same time, and I was becoming more and more frustrated. Eventually, she and Kraft reached an accommodation. Look, I never got a story at a Georgetown dinner, and I tend to feel uncomfortable discussing politics at social gatherings, he said. Lets call a halt and just see our friends. Mrs. Kraft painted and exhibited her portraits, among them renderings of Bradlee and James Wolfensohn, the investment banker who served as president of the World Bank. She also painted landscapes inspired by the vistas at her second home, on the East End of Long Island. Besides Mark Stevens, of New York, survivors include another son, David Stevens, a psychoanalyst, of Denver; a brother; and four grandchildren. Mrs. Krafts artwork exuded a timelessness not often celebrated in Washington, a city of transients where fortunes shift with each incoming presidential administration. Arts critic Ferdinand Protzman, writing in The Post, likened her work to the poetry of William Carlos Williams, who also found meaning in everyday things: so much depends / upon / a red wheel / barrow, the poet wrote, glazed with rain / water / beside the white / chickens. In an earlier version of this article, the headline incorrectedly reported Mrs. Krafts age. She was 89, not 87. Police found a small child uninjured inside a vehicle that fled from a traffic stop in Southeast Washington and led police on a chase that ended in Northern Virginia, D.C. police said. One D.C. police officer suffered minor injuries in the 1800 block of Gainesville Street SE, where police attempted a traffic stop about 8:30 p.m., said Officer Hugh Carew, a police spokesman. No other injuries were immediately reported. During the stop, the officer got out of the police car but was injured diving out of the path of the suspect vehicle as it suddenly backed into the police car. The vehicle then fled and ultimately was later stopped by Virginia State police in the Springfield area, Carew said. Police took one suspect into custody and found a young child inside the vehicle, police said. It was not immediately clear if the vehicle was stolen or if the child was related to the person who was arrested. A man wanted for failing to show up to court in a prostitution case in the District on Wednesday led police on a pursuit hours later that started in Southeast Washington and ended in a crash on the Capital Beltway in Virginia, according to authorities. Officials said there was a 1-year-old boy in the 2001 Audi A6 that was being chased, and that the youngster suffered serious but non-life threatening injuries when the vehicle collided with a Virginia State Police cruiser on I-495 at the I-95 interchange in Springfield. Police in Virginia identified the driver of the Audi as Branden J. Dixon, 24, of Temple Hills, Md. He was charged with felony eluding police, child endangerment and driving without a license, and was being held without bail at the Fairfax County Detention Center. Corinne N. Geller, spokeswoman for the Virginia State Police, said the 1-year-old boy is not related to Dixon. D.C. police said the father of the boy had gotten a ride from Dixon about 8:30 p.m. and had gone inside a building in the 1800 block of Gainseville Street SE, leaving his son behind in the Audi. [Man with 1-year-old in Audi leads police on chase through District, Virginia] While the father was inside, police said a D.C. officer rode up on the vehicle for what was described as routine traffic stop. Police said the officer got out of his cruiser and the driver backed into the patrol car, forcing the officer to dive out of the way. He suffered minor injuries. District police pursued the vehicle and enlisted the help of Virginia State Police troopers when the chase got onto the westbound lanes of the Beltway, or I-495, and crossed the Woodrow Wilson Bridge Police said the driver of the Audi tried to get onto an exit ramp leading to I-95 but struck a Virginia State Police patrol car, causing the Audi driver to lose control and strike a Jersey wall. Dixon was treated for minor injuries at Inova Fairfax Hospital. The child was also treated at the same hospital. Dixon had been arrested Nov. 3 by D.C. police and the FBI who alleged that he was pimping women for prostitution from a motel on New York Avenue in Northeast Washington, according to an arrest affidavit. Authorities allege that he advertised the women on the Internet in Maryland, D.C. and Virginia. He was charged with felony pandering. Dixon had been scheduled to appear in D.C. Superior court for a status hearing on Jan. 4. The court dockets shows that he did not attend the hearing and a judge issued a warrant for his arrest. A 22-year-old man who had been lured to Maryland from New Jersey expecting to rendezvous with a woman after an exchange of Facebook messages was killed and buried in a shallow grave in Montgomery County, according to police documents filed in court Wednesday. The killing, which took place in October, appears to be related to the MS-13 street gang, authorities said. The gang has made a resurgence in the Washington area over the past year. Two suspects in the case Neris Moreno, 19, and Jackelin Leiba-Esperanza, 16, who is being charged as an adult made first appearances in Montgomery District Court on Wednesday. They were jailed Tuesday and charged with first-degree murder in the death of Jordy Mejia. This young mans body was found in the woods, desiccated in a shallow grave, Assistant States Attorney Peter Larson said in court. He was found by some hikers off away from the main road, and left and died there. Larson urged Judge Margaret Schweitzer to hold the two suspects on no-bond status, saying they are extreme flight risks because they are recent immigrants and are in the country illegally. He also said they posed a danger to the community and are in danger themselves. Neris Moreno (Montgomery County Police) MS-13 has a history of seeking action against co-defendants and witnesses, Larson said, adding that the suspects would be safer in jail. The court hearing Wednesday addressed only the bond status of Moreno and Leiba-Esperanza and aired little information about their version of the alleged events. John Lavigne, a public defender who represented them, said the case at this point is at best very circumstantial. Speaking specifically about Leiba-Esperanza, Lavigne said that the girl and her mother had fled violence in El Salvador. The mother, who was in court Wednesday, declined to comment afterward, as did the family of Moreno. Court records do not say how Mejia was killed. His body was discovered Nov. 12 near Game Preserve Road in the Gaithersburg area. Police initially could not identify the remains, but they keyed in on a distinctive, red-and-black-patterned long-sleeve shirt found on the body. [Body found in shallow grave was homicide victim, police say.] They publicized images of the shirt and were contacted by police in Guttenberg, N.J., who said the shirt matched one in a missing person case that they were working on. A fingerprint match was made to Jordy Mejia, according to Maryland court records. Police say information they posted about a shirt and shoes found on a victims remains helped learn the victims identity and aided in arrests of suspects. (Montgomery County Police/Montgomery County Police) Detectives began looking at Mejias Facebook account and found messages with a woman named Shaila Smith, according to charging documents. The records showed Mejia discussing traveling to Maryland on Oct. 15 to meet her. That same day, according to Mejias Facebook account, Mejia arrived in the Germantown area, took a picture of himself next to a street sign, and sent the image to the person he believed to be Smith, according to court records. In the image, according to charging documents, Mejia appeared to be wearing the distinctive shirt. The person claiming to be Smith wrote a return message and gave him a local phone number to call. Investigators obtained phone records for that number and began reviewing other incoming calls to the number, according to court records. That led them to a cellphone for Moreno in New Jersey, police allege. Records for the cell number that police say is tied to Moreno showed the phone traveled to Maryland and back to New Jersey around the time of the killing, court records show. More recently, investigators say they learned Moreno had returned to Maryland and was in the Brentwood area. Undercover officers spotted him getting into a van with a woman, followed the van, and pulled it over. Inside were Moreno and Leiba-Esperanza, police said. When questioned, Moreno acknowledged that he had travelled to Maryland in October, according to Larson. Leiba-Esperanza said she had been dating Moreno for a few months and living with him in New Jersey, according to court records. She told detectives she had left audio messages, posing as Shaila Smith, on the victims phone at the request of Moreno, according to charging documents. President-elect Donald Trump answered questions under oath in New York on Thursday in connection with the multimillion-dollar lawsuit he filed against a celebrity chef who pulled out of an agreement to open a restaurant in Trumps Washington hotel. Trump and his attorney, as well as attorneys for the chef Jose Andres, met for a little more than an hour in Trump Tower, according to one of those present. In short, the parties entered into a valid and enforceable lease, which the tenant clearly breached by walking out and failing to perform its obligations, thereby entitling the landlord to recover damages in the form of unpaid rent, cost of build out, lost profits and other expenses, Alan Garten, Trumps general counsel, said in a statement. The breach-of-contract lawsuit was filed in D.C. Superior Court. In a court filing last month, Trumps attorneys said the president-elect was too busy to venture to Washington for the deposition as he prepared for the Jan. 20 inauguration. The attorneys agreed to meet with Trump in New York. The Trump-Andres legal battle began in July when the chef backed out of a deal to open a restaurant in Trumps luxury hotel complex in the Old Post Office on Pennsylvania Avenue. Andres cited Trumps derogatory comments about illegal immigrants from Mexico, saying those remarks made it impossible for him to run a successful dining establishment in the Trump property. Trumps hotel opened in September. In court documents, Trumps attorneys argued that Trump had two months to find an alternative restaurant to open in the space vacated by Andres. Trump secured BLT Prime by David Burke as a replacement. Under his contract with Andres, Trump would have obtained a percentage of revenue from Andress operation once it reached a monthly benchmark. Trump has filed a similar lawsuit against celebrity chef Geoffrey Zakarian, who also bowed out of Trumps hotel deal, he said, because of Trumps comments regarding illegal immigrants. Trumps attorney argued that the hotel was not able to find a restaurant to replace Zakarians and instead was forced to turn the space into a ballroom and meeting space. On Tuesday, attorneys for Zakarian and Trump said they were at an impasse in settlement talks. A judge set a pretrial conference hearing for May 17. Trump originally filed $10 million lawsuits against both chefs. But in the Zakarian lawsuit, economists estimated that Trumps losses were closer to $14 million. Trump was deposed in the Zakarian lawsuit last summer. In a recent tweet, Andres suggested ending the legal dispute and instead donating money to a veterans organization. Mr. @realDonaldTrump can we end our lawsuits and we donate $ to a Veterans NGO to celebrate? Why keep litigating? Lets both of us win, Andres tweeted. Drew Harwell contributed to this report. People make their way down Main Street in Mount Airy. (Logan Cyrus/for The Washington Post) From a perch on Main Street, the home town of actor Andy Griffith looks this day like it was plucked right out of the television show that bears his name. And it was. Residents and tourists from far-flung states mill along the thoroughfare, past the quaint low-slung shops made of Mount Airys famous white granite and named, like Floyds City Barber Shop, for references in The Andy Griffith Show, the folksy comedy set in the idyllic fictional small town of Mayberry that first aired in 1960. And yet even as this city of about 10,000 nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains fills its coffers by selling nostalgia, many of its residents would agree with the now-popular saying Were not in Mayberry anymore. If only the real Mount Airy, which has experienced decades of economic and social decline, were like the Mayberry facade, muses Mayor David Rowe. If only his city and the rest of America could return to the 1950s again. Now its about secular progressivism, not the values you get out of this book, such as honesty and hard work, said Rowe, 72, jabbing his finger at the leather Bible on his office desk. But as Donald Trump prepares to move into the White House, Rowe and many of his constituents are hoping for a return to the past. Were going to hold him to it, said Brad Thomas, 42, who used to work as an engineer building turbine blades for power plants before his job was moved to Mexico. A yearning for an earlier time, especially prevalent in rural American towns and cities like Mount Airy, helped spur white evangelical Christians to vote overwhelmingly for Donald Trump. For these voters, the desire for change also could be viewed as a desire to change back, to what they perceive as a more wholesome and prosperous time, when high-paying manufacturing jobs were plentiful, white Protestants were indisputably in charge and same-sex marriage and the Black Lives Matter movement were unthinkable. Seventy-four percent of white evangelicals believe American culture has mostly changed for the worse since the 1950s more than any other group of Americans compared with 56 percent of all whites, according to a 2016 survey by the Public Religion Research Institute. In sharp contrast, 62 percent of African Americans and 57 percent of Hispanic Americans think the culture has changed for the better, the survey said. With his promise to Make America Great Again, Trump appealed directly to this sense of dispossession, and 81 percent of white evangelicals voted for him, according to exit polls. You think back to the 1990s, and conservative Christians could throw around the phrase moral majority, and there was a kernel of truth to that, said Robert P. Jones, chief executive at PRRI and author of The End of White Christian America. Even in 2008, they could say the country is on our side on [same-sex marriage], and thats changed so quickly in this last decade. The election hit on fundamental questions about what America is and should be. Tourism isnt enough A Marine Corps Corporal stands with an American flag after the Veterans Day parade in downtown Mount Airy. (Logan Cyrus/for The Washington Post) Scissors the size of gardening shears hang from a coat rack in the mayors office. They are reserved for Rowes primary job of cutting ribbons, he said, and have been used a lot downtown, where just a few empty storefronts remain on Main Street. An old-fashioned sheriffs squad car drives tourists for $35, stopping at local favorites and ending at Andy Griffiths childhood home. Visitors to Surry County spent $116.62 million in 2015, compared with $66 million 12 years ago, according to Jessica Icenhour Roberts, who heads tourism partnerships for the county, whose largest city is Mount Airy. But Mount Airy cannot live on tourism alone, the mayor said. We try to live the good old days, but its hard, Rowe said. Just down the street from a bronze statue of Griffith and a museum dedicated to his memory, out of sight of the boutiques selling Norman Rockwell and Thomas Kinkade artwork, sit many dilapidated textile mills that have closed in the past decade. From early 2000 to about 2010, about 9,000 private-sector jobs were lost when factories that made clothes went overseas. Mayor David Rowe poses for a portrait outside of his home in Mount Airy. (Logan Cyrus/for The Washington Post) Just off Main Street in downtown Mount Airy are defunct mills left over from a once-thriving textile industry. (Logan Cyrus/for The Washington Post) Three of the economic pillars symbolized on the city seal tobacco leaves, a chair representing furniture makers, a spool of yarn for the textile mills are largely relics of the past. Now, granite is really the only thing left, the mayor said. The city is home to the worlds largest open-face granite quarry, which continues to provide a boost to the economy and has earned Mount Airy the moniker of The Granite City. Despite the steady stream of tourists, business owners are still struggling to create new jobs that will attract a younger generation, said Lizzie Morrison, 30, who runs an art studio and is the Main Street coordinator with Mount Airy Downtown. Morrison said the citys younger residents tend to be socially liberal, while most in the older generations look to the past. That tension makes it harder for someone like her to push for new ideas, she said. You deal with a lot of white, middle-aged men who might call you Sweetie and belittle you a little bit, she said. Its interesting to navigate that in a small community in trying to create jobs and be taken seriously. A group of developers has been working on a project to redevelop an old mill, Morrison said, but the proposal has moved slowly because of resistance from residents. Similarly, Vann McCoy, who runs a whiskey shop called Mayberry Spirits, said that residents recently opposed a traffic roundabout because there is no traffic circle visible on The Andy Griffith Show. Meanwhile, some residents said they are having a hard time finding the kind of skilled manufacturing jobs available in the past. Thomas, who blames the loss of his $75,000-a-year factory job on Obama, now makes $18,000 working in his friends gun store and pawnshop. He is hopeful Trump will bring jobs back. A Trump flag hangs inside The Gift Box off Main Street in Mount Airy. (Logan Cyrus/for The Washington Post) His colleague, Dreama Staples, 53, said people are bringing in their prized possessions to sell so they can buy groceries and gas. At 4.8 percent, the unemployment rate in Surry County is similar to the national figure, but Staples said that finding full-time work with benefits is difficult. She said she has grown angry over what she considers government overreach. Were losing control of our freedoms, Staples said. The government was taking away our rights. Taxes are higher, our jobs are gone, and it just feels less Christian. Memories at odds with facts Many Mount Airy residents applauded the president-elects promise to revoke the Johnson Amendment, which effectively bars pastors from endorsing a candidate from the pulpit, Rowe said. They were heartened by his suggestion that Christians will be able to once again see Merry Christmas signs in department stores. But the mayor acknowledges that the 1950s and 60s were not idyllic for all Americans. He wouldnt, for example, want to go back to the days when there were separate water fountains at the local Sears for whites and blacks. At the same time, he said, African Americans often bring hardship on themselves. Asked to explain what he meant, he amended the statement to mean young blacks. When youre my age and you see an African American boy with pants at their knees, you cant appreciate them, he said, noting that he would never employ someone who dressed that way. Im worried about when a person chooses to dresses like that, what kind of effect will that person have on society. He noted that the Hispanics he has hired to work at his construction company are hard workers. He doesnt encounter people who arent white in social settings much because folks tend to self-segregate, he said. Mount Airy is 84 percent white, 8.2 percent black and 6.7 percent Hispanic, according to 2010 census data. Not everyone is nostalgic for the 1950s. Ron Jessup, 68, who grew up in Mount Airy during that era, found the place generally friendly then, he said as long as he and other blacks obeyed the racist laws and social mores of the time. If African Americans went to the theater, they sat upstairs, he said. If they went to the restaurants, they avoided the counter. We understood what was considered our place, said Jessup, who is retired from his job as a high school principal in nearby Winston-Salem. Even now, all five Surry County commissioners are white. Fictional Mayberry only represented part of the Mount Airy story because it only portrayed a white America, Jessup said. White residents tend to view the citys history through rose-colored glasses, he said. Even Andy Griffith said the show wasnt based on his home town, Jessup noted. Indeed, in a 1998 television interview, Griffith said the idea of Mayberry came from the producers. Ive argued about this too long. I dont care, he said of people in Mount Airy. Let them think what they want to think. Andy Griffith never returned to live in his home town either, dying in 2012 at his coastal home in Dare County. Ironically, when the show first aired in 1960, the intent was to hark back to an even earlier era the 1930s, Griffith has said. As for Trump, Jessup believes his Make America Great Again slogan was code for take America back again, and a reaction to President Obamas election. Sometimes we use Christianity when its convenient for what we want, Jessup said. You cant allow someone to have racist remarks and then go to church and talk about Jesus as the center of your life. God and country White Plains Baptist Church Pastor David Tucker and his wife, Thresa, stand in the front of the sanctuary. A painting can be seen above their baptismal pool. (Logan Cyrus/for The Washington Post) When she travels with her pastor husband, Thresa Tucker hands out an evangelistic tract that uses The Andy Griffith Show as an entry point for talking about Jesus. When they return home to Mount Airy, she said, she is reminded of how good they have it, pointing out the red barns that dot views of the Blue Ridge. Tucker and her husband, David, said they voted for Trump because they want a more limited federal government. They mentioned social issues such as abortion, same-sex marriage and school prayer. The Tuckers were also dismayed when their health insurance bill skyrocketed. Before Obamacare, they had no health insurance and paid out of pocket. Their monthly bill will rise from $115 a month now to $435 next year, Thresa Tucker said. Many of those who have lost jobs seek help at White Plains Baptist Church, where her husband is preacher. But not all who seek help are worthy of it, she said. The church has to be a good steward of its money, so there are criteria for assistance, and she asks whether people attend church regularly. African Americans who have voiced concerns over what Trump will do for the poor would have a different perspective if they tried harder to help themselves, she said. I think black people think theyre owed something, she said. I think if they acted differently, people would be apt to help them. She later added that some white people expect handouts, too. I believe Trump will get people back to working, she said. David Tucker said people resent it when the government tries to supplant the role of local ministries in helping those in need. Dont try to change us into something like New York, he said. All we really want is for the government to leave us alone and to worship the way we want to. Nostalgia for Christian America John Eaton, from Flat Rock, N.C., holds up a sign on the corner of Pine and Main streets in downtown Mount Airy. (Logan Cyrus/for The Washington Post) After settling into a bright blue booth at Olympia Family Restaurant, Rowe said he has a lot to be thankful for. He has a good job, a wife, two kids, one grandchild and another on the way. He has a beautiful home near the country club with a view of the mountains. But he notes that while his home town looks picturesque from the outside, it has faced some of the same issues as urban areas, including drugs and divorce. Things might have turned out differently if religion had maintained its role in the culture, he suggested. People just arent committed to church, anymore, he said. The church he attends used to attract up to 600 people on a Sunday in the 1960s, but is lucky to get a third of that now. Young people leave for college and come back with more progressive, secular values, he said. Even so, as the man he voted for is about to take office, Rowe is a bit wary. For one thing, he said, he does not want to have to defend Trump for the next four years. If Ive learned anything while being a mayor, he said, you have to think before you speak. Im not sure Donald Trump has learned that. If Trump does manage to make America great again, Rowe said it will involve preventing the government from encroaching on religion. Christianity has come under attack in America, he said. Its subtle, not in your face, but thats the way Satan works, he said. Dig deeper: Religion + U.S. Cities Want to explore how religious communities impact American cities? Check out our curated list of stories below. Understanding the decline in Jewish communities in the U.S. Many synagogues in small towns have shuttered because of a decline in attendance. In one such town, a millionaire offered $50,000 for a Jewish family to move to Alabama as a way to build the community and prevent anti-Semitism. Context matters: W hy buildings of worship matter Capitol Hill lost 40 percent of buildings for worship in 10 years. For researchers of civic life, this decline is cause for alarm because these buildings had communal value and offered services. Understanding how e vangelicals view on America impacts politics During the 2016 election, 74% of white evangelicals believe American culture has gotten worse since the 1950s, while most people of color think the opposite. Metro has fired at least one additional worker as part of an investigation into falsified track inspection reports, with union officials saying that two others also have been terminated as part of a string of disciplinary actions that have decimated the department. At a news conference with union officials Wednesday, former Metro track inspector Trap Thomas said he was called into his supervisors office Wednesday morning and informed he was being fired for falsifying reports. Metro spokesman Dan Stessel declined to comment, saying the process is ongoing. But Jackie L. Jeter, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689, said a total of seven rank-and-file employees have been fired three more than announced by Metro last month. She said the allegations that workers falsified reports are untrue, and that Metro has provided no evidence or documentation to prove that workers did anything wrong. Specifically, what did they do? Jeter said, calling on Metro to release a copy of the audit it performed on inspection reports. Give it to us in writing. The union will fight the firings, she said. [Metro fires six after derailment probe finds that inspectors falsified records] Thomas, a nine-year veteran, said he never filed falsified reports in fact, he said, on multiple occasions dating back to 2011, he tried to draw attention to egregious track defects in urgent need of repair. He said that when he did so he experienced retaliation in one instance, he was hauled into an office for a barrage of drug and alcohol tests, for no apparent reason, he said. Thomas made similar allegations in interviews with Metro officials during the investigation into the July 29 derailment of a Silver Line train, transcripts of which were published last month by the National Transportation Safety Board. Thomas said he filed complaints with the Metros Office of Inspector General, as well as the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration. I want them to know how dangerous it is, Thomas said Wednesday. [NTSB: Metro knew of potentially dangerous track conditions more than a year before July derailment] Metro captured headlines last month when Metro General Manager Paul J. Wiedefeld announced that he was firing, suspending or disciplining 28 track inspectors and supervisors nearly half of the track inspection department after an investigation into the July 29 derailment at East Falls Church suggested that it was a widely accepted practice within the department to complete reports for inspections that had not actually been performed. Wiedefeld said that four inspectors and two supervisors were terminated, though he warned that more firings might follow. This review revealed a disturbing level of indifference, lack of accountability and flagrant misconduct in a portion of Metros track department, which is completely intolerable, Wiedefeld said at the time. In a statement released during Wednesdays union news conference, Wiedefeld said his actions last month were necessary to hold ourselves and each other accountable. We cannot condone falsification of documents, and I stand by the actions we have taken that hold both front line and management employees accountable, Wiedefeld said. After those terminations became public, union officials argued that any wrongdoing by workers was likely a product of poor training and bad management, rather than intentional negligence. In the internal Metro interviews published by the NTSB, Metro managers surmised that the inspection reports were falsified because the exact same measurements of track widths and heights appeared over and over again, month after month, without almost no fluctuations which they said was highly unlikely. But Thomas insisted Wednesday that the measurements stayed the same month after month because the tracks hadnt moved. Only in the days leading up to the derailment, when the crossover between tracks was in constant use because of SafeTrack single-tracking, did the tracks begin to spread apart to a dangerous width. Union officials also offered a memo published by Metro in 2010, highlighting the agencys own policies which state that such crossovers are supposed to be inspected twice per day when they are used for single-tracking, because of the additional wear and tear. If managers were enforcing that protocol, union officials argued, the dangerous width of the tracks would have been caught before the derailment. You cannot have a systemic problem and reduce it to one issue. It doesnt work like that, Jeter said. [Metro believes track defect caused Friday derailment] News of the additional firings came during a news conference at the AFL-CIOs Washington headquarters, where union officials and several outside consultants argued that Metro was unfairly blaming low-level employees for safety lapses and failing to punish managers and supervisors who had allowed or encouraged lapses in safety protocol for years. The decision-makers at [the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority] are being shielded and protected, while our employees are being scapegoated and silenced, Jeter said, though she added that she believes at least three supervisors have also been fired within the past month. The dispute also comes in the midst of contentious contract negotiations between Metro and its largest union. Jeter said that Metro has failed to respond to requests from the union that language be included in the contract that would clarify and define workers and managers safety responsibilities. She pointed out that nine Metro workers have been killed on the job in the last 11 years. Union officials also used the occasion to air some of their grievances against Wiedefeld, who stepped into his role at the top of Metro just over a year ago. That is just another form of intimidation, said Lawrence Hanley, ATU international president. Hes firing people at the bottom of the food chain. The union also brought out Metro track walker Rodney Hawkins, a 27-year veteran, who said that Metro management has declined to make changes to inspection protocol that would increase safety for workers or help them perform more exhaustive inspections. In particular, Hawkins said track walkers should be assigned to inspect in pairs, rather than individually, to ensure they dont miss any defects. Additionally, he said, the agency should provide inspectors with lights or beacons to warn operators of oncoming trains that people are on the tracks. This is an important measure, union officials said, because inspectors are often fearful of spending too much time at interlockings where two sets of tracks cross over each other because traffic could come from four different directions. This is a disaster waiting to happen, said Roger Toussaint, a former New York City track walker and union official who is now an ATU consultant. People are going to be killed because of unsafe flagging procedures that WMATA has institutionalized. Stessel said the beacons are being considered by safety managers. [Metro workers will wear alarms to let them know when trains are on the tracks] RICHMOND Former Virginia congressman Tom Perriello told senior Democrats on Wednesday that he intends to run for governor, a surprise move that would belatedly thrust Gov. Terry McAuliffes hand-picked successor into a primary battle. Until now, Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam has been the only Democrat seeking to succeed McAuliffe, who is barred by the state constitution from seeking back-to-back terms. In a round of phone calls Wednesday, the one-term congressman told leading Democrats that he plans to jump into the race, according to four Democrats familiar with the conversations. Perriello called Northam directly to tell him that he was running and said he would publicly announce his plans Thursday, according to two of the Democrats, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. Perriello did not respond to a message seeking comment. But his potential candidacy was confirmed by Emily Bolton, communications director for the state Democratic Party. She said an announcement would come Thursday. Former Virginia congressman Tom Perriello. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post) Some leading Democrats were upset that Perriello would just five months before the June 13 primary threaten to disrupt what had been an unusually unified Democratic front. While Republicans have been tearing one another apart in crowded primaries for governor and lieutenant governor, Democrats have been lined up behind Northam for more than a year ever since Attorney General Mark R. Herring (D) decided in September 2015 to seek reelection instead of the governorship. [The GOP race for lieutenant governor is getting ugly in Virginia] Some senior Democrats hoped to persuade Perriello, who has worked overseas for the State Department under President Obama, to stay out of the contest. Hes got a better chance of flapping his wings and flying to the moon than getting within 50 points of that nomination, said state Senate Minority Leader Richard L. Saslaw (D-Fairfax), who had not heard directly from Perriello. Ive heard of some harebrained things, but this takes the cake. Perriello rode Obamas coattails in 2008 to narrowly defeat a longtime GOP incumbent in a red-leaning central Virginia congressional district. He lost the seat two years later. His potential entry into the gubernatorial race was first reported by the New York Times. [Va. attorney general to seek reelection, wont run for governor in 2017] Northam, a widely liked but low-key former state senator, is a native of the Eastern Shore, a graduate of Virginia Military Institute, a Gulf War veteran and pediatric neurologist. His campaign issued a statement saying that he still enjoys the support of the states leading Democrats. Ralph Northam is proud to have the support of Governor McAuliffe and Democrats across Virginia, including all of our statewide elected officials, and will continue to fight back against attempts by Republicans to discriminate against the LGBT community and limit womens access to reproductive health care, Brad Komar, Northams campaign manager, said in an email. Brian Coy, a spokesman for McAuliffe, said Northam still has the governors backing. He continues to believe that Lieutenant Governor Northam is the best candidate for governor, Coy said. Amy Dudley, a spokeswoman for Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), confirmed that the senator still supports Northam. But one Democratic elected official who supports Northam said Perriellos entry into the race could be a positive development. I think competition usually is a good thing, as long as they dont tear each other down and use up too many resources, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to talk freely about the race. There are many voices within our party, he said. Gregory S. Schneider contributed to this report. People hold up signs before marching to Trump Tower during a protest organized by the New York Immigration Coalition against President-elect Donald Trump on Dec. 18. (Darren Ornitz/Reuters) Immigration activists plan to protest potential policy changes under Donald Trumps presidency during a Day of Action next week that will feature rallies and marches in the District and about 20 states. Organizers said the Jan. 14 action is meant to build momentum in their fight to stop Trump from fulfilling campaign promises to pursue mass deportations and other initiatives. [Hopes dashed for millions after Supreme Court deadlock] This is a new world, and we are getting ready for the fight of our lives, Kica Matos, an immigrant rights director at the Washington-based Center for Community Change, said in a telephone news conference Thursday. Theres no question that we will have to use every tool in our arsenal to fight against the xenophobia and bigotry that has infected Trumps plans when it comes to immigration, Matos said. Is civil disobedience on the menu? Absolutely. And, unfortunately it will happen sooner rather than later. Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks declined to comment on the planned protests. In the District, up to 2,500 people are expected to rally inside Metropolitan AME Church the morning of Jan. 14, six days before Trump is sworn in. Other vigils or marches will be held in Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami and a host of smaller cities. Chief among the concerns of activists is the possibility that Trump will end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, an executive action under President Obama that has shielded from deportation about 700,000 people who came illegally to the United States as children. Trump has also pledged to cut all federal funding to local and state governments with so-called sanctuary policies, which prohibit cooperation with federal immigration authorities; to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border; to increase penalties for people who overstay their visas; and to push for mandatory jail time for anyone previously deported who is caught reentering the country without proper permission. Rocio Saenz, international executive vice president of the SEIU service employees union, said Trumps agenda will create an atmosphere of fear in the country that could affect wages and workplace rights for all immigrant workers. This could allow employers to exploit immigrant workers, driving down wages for workers throughout the economy because people will be afraid to speak out, Saenz said. Cristina Jimenez, executive director of the United We Dream group for DACA recipients, said immigration activists hope to be a thorn in the side of Trumps White House in the coming years. There is no way that we will stand in the shadows and not fight back, she said. There is no way that were going to give up on the victories that our movement has fought so hard to win. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) has issued an executive order banning state contracts with outfits that discriminate against gay and transgender people. (Steve Helber/Associated Press) Gov. Terry McAuliffe on Thursday issued an executive order banning state contracts with firms that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. The policy applies to all executive branch contracts, including those to build roads and highways, but not to those entered into by the legislature or the courts. McAuliffe (D) said his 61st executive order builds upon his very first, signed on the day he took office three years ago this month. As my first act as Governor, I signed Executive Order 1 to ban discrimination in the state workforce based on sexual orientation, take divisive social issue battles off the table and help build an open and welcoming economy, McAuliffe said in a written statement. Starting today, the Commonwealth of Virginia will not do business with entities that discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Virginia is home to the best state workforce in the country and this policy will ensure there is no question that all Virginians are to receive the full benefits of their citizenship, without regard to their sexual orientation or gender identity. Attorney General Mark R. Herring (D) stood with McAuliffe as he unveiled the new policy at an event in Charlottesville. If we are going to have the economic future we want, we have to send a clear and inclusive message about what and whom we value, and the kind of respect and opportunities that talented people will find in Virginia, Herring said. The order drew criticism from House Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford). Virginia has historically been a leader in the fight for religious liberty. Thomas Jefferson authored the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom that served as the basis for the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights, he said in a written statement. That is why it is unfortunate that Governor McAuliffe wants to harm religious liberty by discriminating against individuals, businesses, and faith-based charities that provide critical services to the Commonwealth and its citizens. Instead of focusing on improving Virginias declining economic climate, the Governor is choosing to focus on divisive issues that play to his base. The conservative Family Foundation of Virginia blasted McAuliffes move as an act of blatant religious bigotry. This unconstitutional act of intimidation and bullying of businesses and charities that are operated by people of faith, from Christians to Jews to Muslims, is not only unnecessary but dangerous, said Victoria Cobb, the groups president. It is also in direct violation of the Virginia Constitution that states, the right to be free from any governmental discrimination upon the basis of religious conviction . . . shall not be abridged. McAuliffe said that his order brings the executive branch in line with federal procurement policy, which already prohibits federal contractors from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. It applies only to new contracts valued over $10,000. Subcontractors whose work reaches that threshold would also be subject to the rule. One exception: The order states that certain private child-placing agencies . . . may also be exempted. Under a conscience clause added to the books in 2012, the state government may not deny contracts to adoption agencies that, for religious reasons, refuse to place children with certain people, such as those who are gay. McAuliffe made his announcement just days after one of the General Assemblys most vocal conservatives introduced a bill to regulate transgender peoples use of restrooms in schools, at highway rest stops and in other government buildings. Few people including the bills sponsor, Del. Robert G. Marshall (R-Prince William) expect it to advance. [Virginia lawmaker proposes a bill to restrict public bathroom use by transgender people ] Democrats instantly turned the bill similar to a new law that has caused controversy and economic losses in neighboring North Carolina into fodder in this years race for governor. If Republicans continue to prioritize divisive and discriminatory social issues while driving businesses away from Virginia, their electoral destiny will mirror Pat McCrorys, said Virginia Democratic Party spokeswoman Emily Bolton, referring to the North Carolina Republican who lost in November. Former congressman of Virginia Tom Perriello made a late and startling entry into the race for governor Thursday, challenging Gov. Terry McAuliffes chosen successor in what had been a clear path to the Democratic nomination. Perriello (D), who started spreading word of his candidacy the night before, made it official in the morning with the release of a slick campaign video that hit on populist themes and an appearance in a coffee shop in a region of the state hit hard by the loss of manufacturing jobs. The name of the Danville shop jibed with the jolt Perriello was delivering to Democratic leaders who, for more than a year, had been confident that Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam (D) would have no primary opponent: Brewed Awakening. The American Dream started right here in Virginia, but our faith in it has been shaken, Perriello says in the video. Politicians from Washington to Richmond write their own, self-serving rules and seem committed to dividing and distracting us while they rig the system against the middle class. Until now, Northam had been the only Democrat seeking to succeed McAuliffe, who is barred by the state constitution from seeking back-to-back terms. In a round of phone calls Wednesday, the one-term congressman told leading Democrats that he would jump into the race. Some of them were upset that Perriello would just five months before the June 13 primary threaten to disrupt what had been an unusually unified Democratic front. While Republicans have been tearing one another apart in crowded primaries for governor and lieutenant governor, Democrats have been lined up behind Northam for more than a year ever since Attorney General Mark R. Herring (D) decided in September 2015 to seek reelection instead of the governorship. [The GOP race for lieutenant governor is getting ugly in Virginia] Some senior Democrats hoped to persuade Perriello, who has worked overseas for the State Department under President Obama, to stay out of the contest. Hes got a better chance of flapping his wings and flying to the moon than getting within 50 points of that nomination, said state Senate Minority Leader Richard L. Saslaw (D-Fairfax), who had not heard directly from Perriello. Ive heard of some harebrained things, but this takes the cake. Perriello rode Obamas coattails in 2008 to narrowly defeat a longtime GOP incumbent in a red-leaning central Virginia congressional district. He lost the seat two years later. [Va. attorney general to seek reelection, wont run for governor in 2017] Northam, a widely liked but low-key former state senator, is a native of the Eastern Shore, a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute, a Gulf War veteran and pediatric neurologist. His campaign issued a statement saying that he still enjoys the support of the states leading Democrats. Ralph Northam is proud to have the support of Governor McAuliffe and Democrats across Virginia, including all of our statewide elected officials, and will continue to fight back against attempts by Republicans to discriminate against the LGBT community and limit womens access to reproductive health care, Brad Komar, Northams campaign manager, said in an email. Brian Coy, a spokesman for McAuliffe, said Northam still has the governors backing. He continues to believe that Lieutenant Governor Northam is the best candidate for governor, Coy said. Amy Dudley, a spokeswoman for Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), confirmed that the senator still supports Northam. But one Democratic elected official who supports Northam said Perriellos entry into the race could be a positive development. I think competition usually is a good thing, as long as they dont tear each other down and use up too many resources, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk freely about the race. There are many voices within our party, he said. Apparently, Virginia has its very own Minister of Private Parts. His name is Del. Robert G. Marshall (R-Prince William), and the residents of his district keep electing him to keep talking about other peoples nether regions. Im not exaggerating here. Marshalls legislative record reads like a conversation between my 10-year-old son and his friends. Its all potty this and p---y that. (Okay, my 10-year-old doesnt say p---y, but the president-elect does.) Its hard to believe that Marshall is a 72-year-old man. He has devoted much of his public life to peoples sexual and reproductive behavior, questioning the intelligence of women who use long-term contraception, arguing that some incest is voluntary, pushing for women to be legally required to have transvaginal ultrasounds before abortions, worrying that U.S. troops would catch sexually transmitted diseases if they had to serve alongside gay colleagues, calling porn a public health hazard. [Virginia lawmakers womb obsession is hard to fathom] And this is from a guy who identifies with the party of small government. So much for personal freedom. Just in time for the new year and a new session of the General Assembly, Marshall has crawled even deeper into the sewer and unleashed his version of a transgender bathroom bill. It will limit people, kids in school especially, to using the bathrooms of their gender at birth. Because he cant stop worrying about kids going potty, I guess. Marshall explained that his bill is based on his fear that men and boys will pretend to be transgender to infiltrate bathrooms and locker rooms used by women and girls. Some guys will use anything to make a move on some teenage girls or women, he said. Mere separation of the sexes should not be considered discrimination. Too much information there, Bob. Because Im not sure all guys are onboard with your teenage get-the-girl capers. The Physical Privacy Act, as he ironically calls it, is just like the irrational bathroom bills being considered in other states, which are designed to arbitrate who can use which toilet in schools and other government buildings. Under this scenario, Marshall and all the legislators in other states who have pushed this issue, as well as the freaked-out parents who show up at school board meetings believe that an ill-intentioned guy is willing to go all Mrs. Doubtfire to be able to pee in the stall next to a super-cute cheerleader? Its not like that. A transgender kid usually spends years feeling trapped and confused, trying to figure out the discrepancy between his or her mind and body. If that child is fortunate, his or her gender transition is guided by parents, doctors and psychologists, based on decades of studies and science. Its not a Porkys remake, sneaking a peek at the girls locker room. And stigmatizing that transition could be devastating. This whole psychological blind spot could be solved if Marshall and a few others did a little bit of research and talked to some trans folks. Heck, one of the most influential transgender women is right in Marshalls neighborhood. Before Caitlyn Jenner, there was Diane Schroer. [From the archives: The right person for the job] I met her in 2005, right after she left her life as David Schroer, a former Special Forces colonel who had jumped from airplanes, had grueling combat training, commanded hundreds of soldiers and was one of the Pentagon anti-terrorism specialists who regularly briefed Donald H. Rumsfeld and Richard B. Cheney after the 9/11 attacks. Schroer left the military and was about to take a big job at the Library of Congress. But the library rescinded the job offer after Schroer told them that David would start work as Diane. Schroer sued and eventually won in federal court, three years later, setting a powerful precedent for transgender folks everywhere. I double-dog-dare Marshall to try to force Schroer, in her long hair and high heels (and combat training), to use the mens potty between high-level meetings at defense industry offices. Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) has made it clear that he would veto Marshalls ridiculous bill, if it ever made it to him. Its not going to even make it that far in Virginia. And that makes it even more preposterous that Marshall is spending his valuable time and his constituents trust to troll the very tiny transgender population in Virginia. This is that real swamp everyones talking about: Politicians who fixate on their personal obsessions rather than putting their power to work solving real issues in their districts schools, traffic, unemployment, housing deserve our scorn. Try keeping private parts private, Bob. Its what adults do. Twitter: @petulad ILLINOIS Six convicted in Chicago gang trial Federal jurors at the biggest gang trial in recent Chicago history on Wednesday convicted the core leadership of the Hobos, whom prosecutors called an all-star team of the type of ruthless gangs police largely blame for an alarming spike in homicides last year. The nations third-largest city logged 762 homicides last year, its highest tally in 20 years and more than the 2016 totals for the two largest U.S. cities New York and Los Angeles combined. More than 50 people were shot and 11 killed over the long Christmas weekend alone as some gangs sought out and shot rivals gathering at holiday parties, police said. Accused Hobos boss Gregory Bowlegs Chester, alleged hit man Paris Poe and four others were found guilty of a racketeering conspiracy. Prosecutors alleged the conspiracy included the murder of at least nine people, from gang rivals to government witnesses. Prosecutors say the Hobos cultivated a reputation for brutality, once even torturing robbery victims with a hot clothing iron, to extend their power on Chicagos South Side. After three months of testimony, 12 panelists deliberated for six days. The most serious charge in a 10-count indictment was racketeering conspiracy, a charge designed as a legal tool to go after all forms of organized crime. The nine other counts included drug and gun charges. So feared are the Hobos that some witnesses were visibly nervous testifying in front of its alleged leaders. One refused outright to speak against the gang. He was held in contempt and given a 60-day sentence. Their alleged crimes included the fatal shooting of government witness Keith Daniels in 2013 in front of his screaming stepchildren to stop Daniels from testifying, and the robbery at gunpoint of then-NBA player Bobby Simmonss $200,000 diamond-and-gold chain outside a nightclub. Associated Press SUPREME COURT Investment leads to chief justices recusal Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said Wednesday he will no longer participate in deciding a patent infringement case because he discovered he owns shares in the parent company of one of the parties. Roberts took part in arguments last month in the dispute between California-based Life Technologies and Wisconsin-based Promega. A letter Wednesday from court clerk Scott Harris said Roberts has learned Life Technologies is owned by Massachusetts-based Thermo Fisher Scientific, in which Roberts owns shares valued at about $175,000. Harris said the ordinary conflict check inadvertently failed to find this potential conflict. Federal law prohibits judges from hearing a case if they have a financial interest in a participating company. The case involves a dispute over the international reach of U.S. patent laws. Associated Press SOUTH CAROLINA Legislator faces charge of domestic violence A South Carolina legislator accused of beating his wife was indicted Wednesday on charges that could net him up to 25 years in prison. An Aiken County grand jury indicted Rep. Chris Corley (R), 36, on felony charges of domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature and pointing a firearm, state Attorney General Alan Wilson said. The domestic violence charge alone can bring a maximum sentence of 20 years. Corley was arrested last week on a charge of first-degree domestic violence, which carries up to 10 years. Associated Press A CHARLESTON, S.C., jury convicted racist murderer Dylann Roof of hate crimes last month, and now the only question is whether the state will put him to death. We oppose the death penalty even for the Dylann Roofs of the world. But if the jury disagrees with us, at least it would hand down the ultimate punishment in retribution for a truly unusual crime and without a shadow of doubt about Mr. Roofs guilt. The same cannot be said for many other cases that resulted in death sentences over the past several decades, in which the punishment was meted out too often, without the restraint that even death-penalty advocates should favor. That is why we were heartened to read through the Death Penalty Information Centers year-end report, which came out Dec. 21. The group found that 30 new death sentences were handed down in 2016, a drop of 19 from 2015s historic low. In fact, 2016s total represents the lowest number in decades. Twenty people nationwide were executed, which is the lowest number in 25 years, and only five states carried out executions, the lowest number in 33 years. As usual, a few states stood out. Texas and Georgia put the most people to death. But even in these states, attitudes may be changing: The death penalty was issued only four times last year in Texas, and no one was sentenced to death in Georgia. In fact, California led the pack in death sentences, with nine, four of which were issued in Los Angeles County alone. Thats right: L.A. County equaled the entire state of Texas in death sentences. Ohio tied with Texas for the second-most death sentences. There are many possible reasons for the waning use of the death penalty. Over the past several years, anti-death-penalty advocates have attempted to sabotage the machinery of capital punishment, making it difficult for states to source the drugs they inject into the veins of the condemned. With crime rates still near historic lows, one would also expect fewer death sentences around the country. But we hope the trend also reflects shifting attitudes. It has long been clear that the death penalty is extremely expensive for the government to administer, ineffective as a deterrent to crime and too often has resulted in innocent people being sentenced to die. The practice of killing human beings, even with all the due process in the world, is also in tension with the inherent dignity Americans should ascribe to human life. The sooner the United States gets to zero executions, the better. Every country suffers from corruption, but not every country is a kleptocracy. Kleptocracy, or rule by thieves, arises when a countrys elite begin to systematically steal from public funds on a vast scale. They do so by undermining democracy and the legal system, gaining control over vital economic assets (usually the banking and natural-resource sectors), and ultimately amassing unimaginable wealth. As political science professor Karen Dawisha recently put it, kleptocrats manage to nationalize risk while privatizing profits. Examples are as diverse as Russias oligarchs under President Vladimir Putin, Chinas sprawling Communist Party and South Sudans violently failed state. Could the United States join these ranks? To answer that question, we need to dispel some common myths. Myth No. 1 Kleptocracies exist mostly in the developing world. The word kleptocracy often conjures Cold War imagery of despotic tyrants in poor, faraway places. And it is true that many of the worlds most corrupt countries are in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. But a kleptocracy is no longer a corrupt political system in a few poor nations: It is a sophisticated global network whose members include world leaders and powerful business people. Kleptocrats send money around the world with the click of a button, aided by unscrupulous professionals with the expertise to launder it through anonymous offshore companies and secure it in luxury assets in the West. According to the International Monetary Fund, as much as 5 percent of the worlds gross domestic product is laundered money, and only 1 percent of it is ever spotted. Illicit cross-border financial flows have been estimated at $1 trillion to $1.6 trillion per year. A 2012 study put the total private wealth held offshore at up to $32 trillion and suggested that, since the 1970s, elites from 139 low-to-middle-income countries had parked as much as $9.3 trillion in offshore accounts. Some of the money is hidden right here. As the driving force behind global economic reform for the past three decades, the United States has played an important role in the rise of the globalized kleptocrat. America has become one of the leading secrecy jurisdictions . Delaware, South Dakota, Wyoming and other states do not require disclosure of corporate ownership, meaning that kleptocrats arent parking their assets just in exotic locations like the Cayman Islands or the British Virgin Islands anymore. U.S. real estate then provides an attractive conduit for securing and legitimizing the laundered funds. A New York Times investigation revealed that, of the properties purchased for more than $5 million in Manhattan in 2014, more than half were bought by anonymous companies that disguised the buyers identities. Myth No. 2 Kleptocraciesare strong. Today, some of the most powerful countries in the world are kleptocracies. Russia, for example, currently seems to be dictating global affairs. China, another classic, is the second-largest economy in the world. Kleptocracy doesnt necessarily make governments weak. But the skewed priorities of greedy autocratic rulers and the looting of resources that should be used for public services mean that the countries are much weaker than they should be. Russia, for instance, cant afford to honor its obligations to impoverished pensioners , but there is apparently plenty of money available for Putins former judo partner to build a bridge to occupied Crimea and for a new Kremlin propaganda channel in France. A 2016 report showed that developing countries collectively had lost $16.3 trillion to illicit leakages since 1980. While their people struggled, starved and died, exported corruption effectively made these governments net creditors to the world economy. In such circumstances, it is hardly surprising that people begin to see government as a criminal racket instead of a legitimate provider of public services. In extreme cases where elites have given up any pretense of government, this includes security: It is no coincidence that the worlds most corrupt countries are also the most internally divided and violent. In the long run, then, kleptocracy doesnt just weaken governments. It destroys them. Myth No. 3 The United States is already a kleptocracy. Were living in a kleptocracy, Salon claimed in 2015 . America robs from its poor while its infrastructure crumbles. According to a 2015 Gallup poll, 75 percent of Americans believed corruption to be widespread in their government, a sentiment Donald Trump capitalized on with his promise to drain the swamp. Few would argue that corruption doesnt exist in the United States, but fewer seriously believe that it is the sole purpose of their government. Unlike the average Russian, Americans havent watched their presidents friends loot 5 percent of GDP in the past decade. Unlike one-quarter of Ukrainians, the average American hasnt had to pay a bribe to get officials to do their jobs. And unlike the Chinese, Americans dont feel impelled to send trillions of dollars overseas illegally. The United States has strong constitutional safeguards that guarantee democratic participation, free speech and, most important, rule of law. Prosecutors wield a robust set of mechanisms to address official corruption when it does occur. The United States is far from perfect, but despite the uproar on alternative and social media, it is not a kleptocracy. Myth No. 4 American institutions will shield us from kleptocracy. In the wake of Trumps election, major news outlets ran pieces on what U.S. institutions could do to protect the country from collapse. Vox told readers, Its now on Americas institutions and the Republican Party to check Donald Trump. Slate argued that professional bureaucrats could slow Trumps progress. Writing in the New York Times, Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt reassured that no democracy as rich or as established as Americas ever has collapsed (though they said theres reason to worry). Unfortunately, key political, financial and cultural institutions have yet to be firewalled against new methods of interference and infiltration by bad actors. In Washington, well-remunerated K Street firms exploit weaknesses in foreign-lobbying laws to advance the interests of violent kleptocracies on the Hill (the Kremlin is currently hiring for $30 million to $50 million per year). In the financial world, major U.S. banks are routinely implicated in money laundering scandals and fined huge sums. Even Hollywood is not immune: The Wolf of Wall Street was allegedly produced partly with cash stolen from Malaysias 1MDB development fund. We are making some progress. The Justice Departments Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative has frozen $2.8 billion in 28 cases since 2010. In July, the Treasury Department announced geographic targeting orders that make it impossible to complete anonymous all-cash purchases of high-value real estate in New York, Miami and four other key jurisdictions. And through the Magnitsky Act and other sanctions regimes, the U.S. government has made life so difficult for some kleptocrats that relief is consistently cited as a major Kremlin priority. At the moment, the United States is simultaneously the worlds leading enabler and opponent of kleptocracy. Myth No. 5 Donald Trump is setting himself up to rule as a kleptocrat. Alarm bells on this subject began ringing soon after Trump was elected. The Washington Posts Plum Line blog warned of the coming Trump kleptocracy. New York magazine wrote that Trumps kleptocracy is so astounding it already feels like old news. There are reasons for concern. Trumps personality-based populism, his refusal to release his tax returns or place his assets in a blind trust, the prominent roles played by his family during the transition, financial ties between some members of his inner circle and Russia, and his own stance toward the Kremlin have all raised questions about how he intends to conduct himself in office. On the other hand, Trump campaigned on the principle that his enormous personal wealth would insulate him from financial temptations, which made sense to the millions of Americans who voted for him to drain the swamp. Ultimately, only Trump knows what his plans for the highest office are. But U.S. constitutional safeguards and institutions are significantly more robust than those in countries where corruption has taken over. If Trump really wants to establish a kleptocracy, there are easier countries to do it in. Twitter: @KleptocracyIntv Five myths is a weekly feature challenging everything you think you know. You can check out previous myths, read more from Outlook or follow our updates on Facebook and Twitter. We are following a foreign policy which is the outward expression of the democratic faith we profess. We are doing what we can to encourage free states and free peoples throughout the world, to aid the suffering and afflicted in foreign lands, and to strengthen democratic nations against aggression. Harry S. Truman, State of the Union, 1949 Since President Truman spoke those words nearly 70 years ago, every successive U.S. president has, consciously or otherwise, taken them to heart. The ideas that the United States should strengthen democratic nations against aggression and maintain a network of free states and free peoples around the world led to the creation of powerful alliances in Asia, as well as a whole host of transatlantic and European institutions that have kept Europe safe, free, prosperous and allied with the United States: the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance, the Council of Europe, the European Union. Some of these institutions came with costs for the United States, but because they are the bedrock of American power in the world because Americas allies promote American values and its interests around the world no U.S. administration in seven decades has ever sought to undermine them. When Donald Trump is inaugurated this month, that will no longer be the case. Trump has made clear that he is no longer interested in promoting Americas democratic faith, or an America that maintains a special relationship with free states and free peoples. We already know that he envisions, instead, an America that does deals in the name of a narrowly defined national interest. But will he go further than that? (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post) In the past few weeks, some of Americas oldest and closest allies in Europe have begun to fear that Trumps White House may not just neglect them, which has happened often enough in the past, but actually seek to undermine them and their institutions. The link between Trump, his senior counselor and chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon and Breitbart News, the website Bannon was running until he went to work for Trump, is what worries them most. Flush from its success in the United States, Breitbart now seeks to monetize anti-immigration and racist sentiment in Europe, too, promoting it, selling it and using it to elect populist politicians who are just as skeptical of NATO as Trump, and who will do their best to destroy the European Union as well. First up are Germany and France, where Breitbart has announced, in advance of imminent German and French elections, that it intends to open new German- and French-language websites. The worldview of these future sites can be predicted: Breitbart has produced gushing coverage of the National Front, the radical right-wing French political party that is openly funded by Russian money and that advocates, among other things, the end of NATO and a French withdrawal from the European Union. Soon after the U.S. election, Marion Marechal-Le Pen, niece of Marine Le Pen, the National Front leader, tweeted, I answer yes to the invitation of Stephen Bannon, CEO of @realDonaldTrump presidential campaign, to work together. Breitbart also frequently and approvingly quotes the Alternative for Germany (AfD), Germanys new anti-immigration party, producing banner headlines and articles composed entirely of attacks on Angela Merkel, the German chancellor. Does Bannon support the rapid growth of the AfD as well as the National Front? It too has leaders who express admiration for Russia, deep dislike of the United States and skepticism of NATO. More to the point, does Trump support anti-American politicians? We dont know, but there are reasons he might. The answer could lie in Bannons nihilism, in Trumps own stated belief in the restorative power of crisis and violence (When the economy crashes, when the country goes to total hell . . . youll have riots to go back to where we used to be when we were great) and, perhaps, in this White Houses close links to Russia. Of course the destruction of the transatlantic alliance and the European Union could cause uncertainty and a decline in living standards for Europeans, not to mention violence or real chaos. Of course instability in Europe is not in the interests of U.S. business or politics, either. But a few would benefit. Russia would once again become a major European player. Plutocrats could make money out of the disaster hedge funds famously prefer instability. In the wake of the revolution, all kinds of unexpected people might rise to power. Clearly there are other members of Trumps team who wont like the idea of chaos in Europe. Its hard to imagine the collapse of NATO appealing to a James N. Mattis or Rex Tillerson. But because no one knows who will have the presidents ear, Merkel, in the words of one German weekly, has already started preparing for the worst. Its an existential moment for all of Europes leaders, most of whom are only just beginning to grapple with the fact that Russia wants to destroy the Euro-American alliance. A few generations after Truman, will they have to prepare for an American government that wants to do so too? Read more from Anne Applebaums archive, follow her on Twitter or subscribe to her updates on Facebook. NOT FOR the first time, a North Korean leader is attempting to command the attention of an incoming U.S. president. In a New Years Day address, Kim Jong Un, who has been racing to develop his regimes nuclear warheads and missiles, claimed it was close to test-launching an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), thereby demonstrating a capacity to strike the United States. President-elect Donald Trump quickly took the bait, tweeting that it wont happen and then blaming China because it wont help with North Korea. It remains to be seen if Pyongyang will really manage to launch an ICBM. If it does so successfully, the regime will pose a grave threat to the U.S. homeland. Some experts believe that is improbable in the near future. But Mr. Trumps response empty promises of stopping it or rhetorical assaults on China is unlikely to be helpful. Mr. Kim, who turns 33 on Sunday, has been on a breakneck mission to establish North Korea as a nuclear power capable of deterring the United States. Last year saw a flurry of tests and demonstrations, including the launch of a three-stage rocket carrying a satellite that could, in theory, be reconfigured as an ICBM. Pyongyang has also paraded prototypes of two other three-stage missiles and carried out ground tests of several of their components. In September, it conducted its fifth test of a nuclear warhead . The young rulers haste has had costs beyond the tightening of U.N. sanctions. Seven of the eight tests of its midrange Musudan missile, which might be able to reach Guam, failed. John Schilling, an aviation expert who writes on North Korea for the website 38 North, concluded last month that the new long-range missiles will require years of flight testing to reach operational status, with no doubt many more catastrophic failures. He estimated they were unlikely to be operational before 2020. The Obama administration may believe the threat is more imminent: President Obama raised North Korea with Mr. Trump during their first transition conversation, after which the president-elect sought a rare intelligence briefing. But it is unlikely Mr. Trump was told anything that would justify his pledge that an ICBM test will not happen. The United States lacks the capacity to shoot down such a missile at launch, and the system deployed in Alaska and California to destroy ICBMs in midcourse is unreliable at best. Attempting to preempt a rocket test would require military action that could trigger a devastating war. Stopping Mr. Kim consequently may require working with China, which supplies North Korea with most of its energy and food, or negotiating with the regime. Both strategies have been tried unsuccesfully by previous U.S. administrations. Mr. Trump may believe that his aggressive approach to China on a range of issues, including trade and U.S. relations with Taiwan, may ultimately provide leverage on North Korea. But inducing Beijing to bring serious pressure to bear on its neighbor will probably be possible only if the United States makes clear that it is prepared to use force to prevent a North Korean ICBM. Failing that, Mr. Trump may have little choice but to try the tactic he hinted at during the campaign: Eating a hamburger on a conference table with Mr. Kim and trying to strike a deal. Jenny Rogers is an assistant editor for Outlook at The Washington Post. The release of nearly two dozen Nigerian girls last fall seemed a rare flash of good news in the saga of the 2014 Boko Haram kidnappings, when 276 schoolgirls were snatched from the town of Chibok by the Islamic terrorist group. But after the 21 girls were freed, the BBC reported that the former captives werent allowed to return to their families for Christmas and instead were forced to stay at a Nigerian politicians house until after the holiday. The governments meddling in and bungling of the girls return outraged the families. What should have been a moment of joy instead provoked new anguish and further fed the narrative that the Nigerian government is not up to the task of handling the crisis. Nigerian poet Helon Habilas tale of the kidnappings, The Chibok Girls, arrived too early to capture this latest development, but the botched release of the girls serves as a fitting epilogue to a book focused on the agony of the country and its people in the face of this 1,000-days-and-counting abduction. When Habila traveled to Chibok to meet girls who had earlier escaped their kidnappers, he and his travel companions came upon a terrible bus accident that left a man in a blood-soaked shirt screaming for help. The travelers stopped, and their driver transported several victims to a hospital, forcing Habila to catch a ride in another car to complete his journey. A video distributed last August shows an alleged Boko Haram soldier in an unknown location standing in front of a group of girls alleged to be some of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls. (Militant video /Site Institute via AP) At first, the incident seems out of place in a text about the Chibok kidnappings and Islamist militancy. But Habilas book isnt a news account or a history; his slim volume reads more like a novel that moves through his home country, introducing characters and scenes that dont appear to advance the story of the missing girls. A fatal bus accident, in its randomness and tragedy, doesnt tell us about terrorism, but it does tell us something about Nigeria. The narrative weaves and wanders its way to Chibok, both structurally and literally: The author has to take a 500-mile detour to get to the town because the most direct route is under Boko Haram control. After numerous checkpoints (which appear to be more about extorting money from travelers than ensuring their safety), Habila arrives in Chibok, but the few girls who had escaped are away at school. As the poet awaits his encounter with the girls, he ponders his country, the most populous and one of the most educated in Africa. He writes about the Harmattan, a wind that draws Saharan sand into the nostrils and cracks the lips; about Nigerian parents who, less hung up on gender norms than their American counterparts, wrap their baby boys in pink blankets; and about the golden age of Nigeria, the cash-flush 1970s, when education was free and all graduates were guaranteed a job, before the descent into kleptocracy. Habila doesnt blame anyone in particular for the violence and disarray that have roiled Nigeria, though he takes a dim view of the past and current presidents, Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari, who have ignored or bungled the response to Boko Haram and the Chibok kidnappings. In 2015, new President Buhari declared victory, technically, over the terrorist group on the BBC; his information minister led 33 journalists to areas retaken by the military, boasting that Boko Haram had been so diminished by military might that the terrorists can no longer hold on to any territory just as they can no longer carry out any spectacular attack. Days later, Boko Haram countered with suicide bombings in Madagali and Maiduguri that killed dozens and injured more than 100. Habila offers a short history of Boko Haram, illuminating the regional, religious and ethnic divisions that help explain its rise. But the author is most concerned with the pain the terrorist organization has inflicted on the country. Chibok, a poor place made miserable by Boko Haram, lacks electricity and running water; soldiers dominate the marketplace, and the town is a target for suicide bombings. The staff of the girls school has been questioned by authorities and even accused in editorials of conspiring with the kidnappers. Grief hangs in the air. It was like going to Hamelin and feeling the weight of the absent boys taken by the Pied Piper, Habila writes. The terrorist devastation extends far beyond Chibok. Habila passes through ghost towns of burned schools, destroyed bridges and roofless houses with nothing inside but tall grass. He reflects on the 2009 Boko Haram uprising in Maiduguri that left so many bodies in the streets they had to be brought by dumpster trucks to the mortuary. When the mortuary was filled, the dead were piled up in the yard. The decomposing bodies smelled so bad, Habila writes, that people in the neighborhood deserted their homes. The roundup of the Chibok girls has had a profound psychological impact on the community. Since the kidnappings, at least 18 parents have died of stress-related illnesses. A local woman tells Habila that one father said he couldnt live anymore, knowing that his daughter was a Boko Haram prisoner; he died soon after of heart failure. Another father went missing and was found days later, wandering in the hills, shouting his daughters name. The woman tells Habila that the parents walk through the village as if there was no blood in their bodies. Near the end of the book, Habila finally meets with a few of the escapees. But the conversations, which were anticipated through the entire story, leave the tragedy unresolved. If we hoped to discover the meaning of their countrys ordeal, we cant help feeling a bit disappointed. The girls, who have told their stories many times, recount their escape in unremarkable, matter-of-fact language. They just decided to leap from a truck after their abduction. They avoided a life of forced marriage and managed not to be recaptured only by sheer luck. Surely, Habila writes, there had to be something more, some individual act of valor, some unique observation? But there wasnt. The shocking banality of it. Perhaps making sense of these horrific kidnappings is just as futile as trying to understand a random, fatal bus crash. The best Habila can offer us is his compelling portrait of a troubled land. What does President-elect Donald Trump really mean when he praises Russian President Vladimir Putin? No one knows yet; perhaps Trump doesnt even know. But its curious, isnt it, that so many of his critics take his flattery to be genuine expressions of his attitude, when everything else about his speech and conduct suggests that he often does not mean what he says. Thats not quite the same thing as saying hes a liar. If Trump is a liar, he is an unconventional one. His inventions and madcap exaggerations seem intended less to deceive than to scandalize and provoke. When he claimed in 2015, for example, that he had watched as thousands and thousands of Muslims cheered the news of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, he must have known that this was an easily refutable claim. He didnt care. Asked to support his statement on ABCs This Week, he didnt cavil or lapse into an obfuscatory defense. He didnt insist, as an ordinary politician would have, that his words were taken out of context or that he meant something different from what was attributed to him. He simply reasserted the claim. It did happen. I saw it. It was on television. I saw it. There was a lot of talk last year about the term post-truth, Oxford Dictionaries 2016 international word of the year, made popular across the Anglophone world by the Brexit referendum in Britain and the U.S. presidential election. The latter event, particularly as embodied by Trumps campaign, was said to be uniquely bereft of respect for factual truth. Well, maybe; but surely we arent prepared to say that American political culture pre-Trump was characterized by reverence for truth. Long before Trump got here, our political debates teemed with disinformation of every variety: gross hyperbole, calculated non sequiturs, culpable omissions, unfalsifiable accusations, deliberate vagueness, outright lies. It seems wrong to associate only Trump with this allegedly new era of untruth; thousands before him did their part. What makes Trump different is not that he treats the truth with contempt. What makes him different is that he does so openly, almost gleefully, as if he has discovered the phoniness of a myth that holds everyone else in check. That myth was a Protestant-evangelical ethic of honesty that defined American political culture from the Second Great Awakening of the 19th century to the Social Gospel of the early 20th century to the Billy Graham crusades of the 1960s and 70s. It was an effort, in one way or another, to make America a Protestant Christian society. Even in our permissive and morally pluralistic culture, the words honesty and integrity are still the most important terms in our political discourse. Almost every campaign speech and political ad will appeal somehow to the ideal of honesty; the candidates words must match his or her actions; rhetoric must match conduct. We rarely appreciate how American this fixation on honesty is. Other political cultures are not similarly disposed. One example: No high-level married politician in the United States could get away with having an openly discussed relationship with a mistress while still living with his wife, as is frequently done in France. Such a relationship, in American terms, is living evidence that the politicians words are not always the same as his deeds. French voters accept this disjunction in their leaders; most American voters do not. Of course, plenty of American politicians have affairs, but our political culture demands that they pretend they do not and never have. That Protestant-evangelical ethic has become brittle in recent decades. Trump is the first, or the most important among the first, to snap it. He isnt preoccupied with maintaining a reputation for integrity. He likes to be thought of as honest, but only in the sense that he will say things others wont; he isnt afraid to misstate facts or manufacture his own facts or exaggerate them a hundredfold. He will call others liars and do so with abandon, but he doesnt get too exercised about others calling him a liar. He will say one thing today and another next week, and make only the meagerest effort to pretend he didnt contradict himself. If he wants to do an about-face, he just does one. Trump perceived, correctly in my view, that political rhetoric in the United States had become empty, a vast collection of platitudes and bogus phrases that no longer bore any real connection to the truth. Everyone else pretended to mean what they said when they didnt; Trump simply dropped the pretense. The result is a post-Christian political discourse of a distinctively American sort: blunt and self-assured and largely free of the obligation to express yourself with sincerity. The new post-Christian discourse uses words, not as vehicles to express thoughts and arguments, but as weapons as instruments to wrong-foot adversaries and keep them guessing while you seize the advantage. I find it hard to lament the quickening demise of the old honesty-based political culture. It had become cheap and false. If Trump hadnt snapped it, somebody else would have. John Maynard Keynes wrote that gut feelings or animal spirits, as he called them were often more important to investment decisions than a mathematical expectation. President-elect Donald Trump, too, understands animal spirits. Its just that the animal he has in mind is a sheep. Or so it seems from the way he is forcefully herding American automakers back across the U.S.-Mexico border, like so many wayward ovines with Twitter as his digital crook. And if the companies response to this blatant political strong-arming of their supposedly free enterprises is any indication, Trump has read Detroit right. Ford announced Tuesday that it will not be building a planned $1.6 billion small-car plant in Mexico, which Trump had condemned as a betrayal of U.S. workers. Explaining the capitulation on CNBC, Ford chief executive Mark Fields acknowledged his duty to shareholders, but added, We have to make sure, at the same time, that we have good relations with the various governments that are in power. Now theres a profile in courage. To be sure, Detroits suits were never likely leaders of the Resistance, if there is to be one. As Fieldss remark suggests, they long ago ceased being swashbuckling capitalists. Auto companies are more like bureaucratic Gullivers, tied down by union contracts and fuel-efficiency mandates. And thats not counting the mother of all political entanglements, the 2009 federal bailout of General Motors and Chrysler, begun under President George W. Bush and completed under President Obama. Managing one of the Big Three is a constant exercise in the art of the possible, which is no doubt why Fields decided Mexico was not the hill to die on. Hes eyeing a really, really shiny object deregulation and tax cuts from Trump and the Republican Congress, which could indeed boost Ford, if and when they materialize. He better hope they do, because otherwise his cave-in to Trump could be a costly move as well as a craven one. Fields, of course, was right about the economics of moving to Mexico: Only pickups, crossovers and SUVs are profitable to assemble in most U.S. factories, because only those better-selling, larger vehicles offset higher U.S. labor costs. Mexicos other advantage is free trade with markets around the world, not just with the United States (where small-car demand is weak due to low gas prices). Global openness makes our southern neighbor a good export platform, to which Japanese, Korean, German and American carmakers are flocking. Trumps next target is General Motors, which has annoyed him by importing some Chevrolet Cruze hatchbacks from Mexico. GM produces the rest of the relatively few Cruzes it manages to sell in the United States at Lordstown, Ohio, which also happens to be in a county Trump carried in November. Make in U.S.A. or pay big border tax! Trump tweeted threatening to punish General Motors for the good deed it did by designing and promoting the Cruze, in compliance with federal fuel-economy standards, and building it in Lordstown, to be a good, grateful, corporate citizen after the bailout. The Cruze has been such a flop that GM recently had to announce cutbacks at Lordstown though at least it kept that car plant open, unlike bailed-out Fiat Chrysler, which is ceasing U.S. passenger-car production to focus on pickups and the like. What a role reversal for the two parties: During the bailout, when the Obama Treasury Department actually owned the automakers, these Democratic officials scrupulously kept out of the companies business decisions, lest they be politicized, in perception or reality. What a reversal for the United States and Mexico: The latter once epitomized protectionism and crony capitalism, before free-market reforms recommended by a bipartisan succession of American presidents. Its hard to say where the new Republican presidents attitude toward private property and free enterprise might lead. Perhaps Trump is just putting showy pressure on corporate America to offset, in advance, the criticism hell get from Democrats for showering the private sector with tax cuts and regulatory relief after Inauguration Day. At least thats what all the investors who are bidding up stock prices must be thinking. Or perhaps Trump really does intend to pour money on companies with one hand while tugging on a short leash with the other. If so, Wall Street bulls may come to regret betting on him; Fields and other chief executives may regret appeasing him. American workers could lose out, too autoworkers included. When a president can punish you for killing jobs, the smart business plan is not hiring anyone in the first place except robots. Americas business climate is strong. The way to weaken it is to give a politician say-so over investment, even, or maybe especially, if that politician calls himself a businessman. Read more from Charles Lanes archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook. Regarding the Jan. 1 front-page article Regions homicide toll holds steady: I would like to read about the effect these homicides have on families and communities. Two of these homicide victims were students from my Prince Georges County school, Largo High School, and had a deep impact on students and faculty. First was freshman Davonte Washington, a member of my Air Force Junior ROTC, who was shot and killed at a bus stop in the District in March in front of his mother and sisters. Then Allyssa Banks, a 2016 graduate and former Air Force Junior ROTC member, was shot in late October while with her boyfriend. I am still dealing with the feelings associated with losing two students and having to speak at two funerals this past year. The worst part was talking with their parents, magnificent mothers who conducted themselves with phenomenal dignity and grace under the circumstances. A colleague of mine lost a nephew to gun violence in the District in 2015. I remember Post articles on homicides when I was on active duty at Andrews Air Force Base in 1984 and 1985. Given the number of unsolved murder cases since that time, I often wonder about the number of murderers who live among us. These homicides, when added to other events in Prince Georges County Public Schools this past year, contributed to a very challenging 2016. Gerald W. Barnes, Greenbelt Will Donald Trump deprive President Obama of what we have come to think of as a normal post-presidency, the relatively serene life of reflection, writing, philanthropy and high-minded speeches to friendly audiences? In recent decades, we have become accustomed to the idea of ex-presidents who leave political combat behind. They might occasionally speak out on behalf of their party: Bill Clinton was an effective explainer in chief for Obama at the 2012 Democratic National Convention. But with some exceptions (Jimmy Carter on the Middle East comes to mind), they usually avoided trying to influence policy. In their above-the-fray roles, former commanders in chief sometimes improved their standing in the polls. George W. Bush is a prominent example of the less-controversy/more-affection dynamic. But former presidents have not always pulled back from politics. John Quincy Adams had the most unusual post-White House career. Two years after leaving the presidency, he embarked on a nearly 17-year stint in the House of Representatives where he was one of the countrys most eloquent agitators against slavery and for Indian rights. [Obama was indeed transformational, unfortunately] Martin Van Buren and Theodore Roosevelt both left the White House only to seek the presidency again on third-party tickets Van Buren in 1848, TR in 1912. Its already clear that Obama, leaving office at a young 55, intends to pursue something more than the quiet life. He is already laying down markers, meeting with members of his party in the House and Senate on Wednesday to plot strategies for defending Obamacare. He plans to deliver a farewell address next Tuesday. Obama has also signaled that he wants to energize a new generation of Democrats and help rebuild a party that he will leave in less than optimal shape. Democrats control neither the House nor the Senate and have seen their share of governorships and state legislative seats decimated. He is already lined up to work with Eric H. Holder Jr., his former attorney general, to help Democrats in gubernatorial and legislative races. Their goal is to fight Republican gerrymanders by influencing the drawing of congressional district boundaries after the 2020 Census. And it would be good to see Obama visit Appalachia and the old factory towns and cities where Trump did well to connect with white working-class voters who have soured on progressive politics. But Obama could be pushed toward a larger role if Trump proves to be as profound a threat as his opponents fear. It may fall to the president of hope and change to become the national spokesman for opposition and even resistance on civil liberties, civil rights, press freedom, the rights of immigrants and religious minorities, and the United States standing in the world. A largely offstage but lively debate is already unfolding over Obamas coming role. In one view, Obama should recede and allow new voices in his party to take the lead. The Democrats path back to power, this argument goes, will best be blazed by a younger generation that can declare its independence from the politics of the past exactly what Obama himself did in 2008. A related argument sees Obama as inciting a negative reaction if he becomes too vocal too quickly. Even if the apolitical post-presidency has rather shallow historical roots, it has become something of a norm that Obama ought to be careful about challenging. 1 of 74 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad Heres what President-elect Donald Trump has been doing since the election View Photos He has been holding interviews and meetings as he prepares to transition into the White House. Caption He has been holding interviews and meetings as he prepares to enter the White House. Jan. 19, 2017 President-elect Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, visit the Lincoln Memorial before the Make America Great Again concert. Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue. [The farewell message Obama wishes he could give: Youre welcome!] But these qualms might be most useful as a guide to how and when Obama should engage. In the unlikely event that Trump governs in a more moderate way, Obamas activism might not be necessary. And even if Obamas voice is needed to rally dissent, it would be a mistake for him to jump into the debate too quickly. His witness should be seen as an emergency measure, the actions of a leader who could not sit by while his country was in peril. Obama can take risks in confronting Trump that more conventional politicians, with their futures ahead of them, might not. He has the capacity to seize the countrys attention on the issues that matter. Here, the accustomed behavior of ex-presidents could work in Obamas favor. His fellow citizens would see him as speaking out reluctantly and despite his desire to move on to a new phase in his life. He would have to calibrate his interventions. He doesnt want to become a daily commentator on all things political. But his popularity as he departs and the record he leaves behind on job creation and growth give him added credibility with a broad swath of Americans. My hunch is that Obama would prefer to hang back from politics. My expectation is that Trump will not give him that option. Read more from E.J. Dionnes archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook. He has been holding interviews and meetings as he prepares to enter the White House. He has been holding interviews and meetings as he prepares to transition into the White House. He has been holding interviews and meetings as he prepares to transition into the White House. Heres what President-elect Donald Trump has been doing since the election Heres what President-elect Donald Trump has been doing since the election Jim McDermott, a Democrat, represented Washington in the House of Representatives from 1989 until his retirement this week. As the new Congress begins its work this week, President-elect Donald Trump continues to call for repeal of the Affordable Care Act. However, rather than propose wholesale repeal as many on the right would prefer he is seeking to maintain some of the laws most popular provisions. We dont have the full details of Trumps plan or any Republican health-care plan, for that matter but we are starting to see its bones develop. There will be no individual mandate or similar mechanism to bring healthy Americans into the system, but Trump has indicated he wants to retain the requirement that insurers cover everyone, including patients with serious preexisting conditions. Trump is telling Americans what he thinks they want to hear: that they can have all their dessert consumer protections without eating their vegetables an individual mandate. This might be an effective rhetorical technique, but it is not the truth. The reality is that such an approach would result in devastation to the health-care system. This prediction isnt based on speculation or unproven economic theory. Republicans already tried Trumps approach in my home state of Washington. The result was a well-documented disaster. In 1993, Washington designed a state-level health-care reform package that included consumer protections, such as a ban on medical underwriting and a requirement that insurers cover patients with preexisting conditions, paired with provisions to help balance the risk pool, including an individual mandate. These provisions were intended to go hand in hand. Consumers would have guaranteed access to affordable coverage, while insurers would still have a sustainable business model because they would cover not just sick, but also healthy patients. (The Washington Post) However, the fate of health-care reform took a sharp turn after Republicans won control of the state legislature in 1994. They quickly unraveled the law by scrapping key provisions, including the individual mandate. But they kept in place many of the consumer protections, including the requirement that insurers sell policies to people with preexisting conditions. It quickly became clear that this was unsustainable. Without an incentive to maintain coverage at all times, people could simply wait until they needed care to enroll in a policy. The Seattle Times reported on one particularly expensive case of a woman who purchased a policy from Premera Blue Cross only after she became pregnant. After the insurer paid her medical bills, she had no further use for the coverage and canceled her policy. She became pregnant again the next year and enrolled in a new policy. And, again, after her expenses were paid, she simply canceled. This was not an unusual case. Insurers faced catastrophic losses as individuals enrolled in coverage only when they needed it. This wreaked havoc on the individual insurance market, causing dramatic premium spikes and an industry death spiral. By 1999 there were virtually no individual policies offered in the state. We face a remarkably similar situation today. Trump and congressional Republicans plan to unravel the Affordable Care Act and disrupt the delicate balance between consumer protections and insurance market reforms. If they follow through on this, we know how the story will play out. After years of denigrating the law and offering no reasonable alternative, Republicans are now in complete control of the federal government. The American people recognize that whatever happens over the next four years, Trump and his fellow Republicans will be responsible for the consequences. Republicans would be wise to brush up on their history before they act. President-elect Donald Trump tweeted some praise on Tuesday for a man most Republicans wanted nothing to do with. He had seen Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, defend himself during an hour of friendly, prime-time questions on Fox News. And he was impressed. Julian Assange said a 14-year old could have hacked Podesta, Trump wrote. Why was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info. It wasnt the first time Trump had praised WikiLeaks. During his campaign for president, Trump had gleefully highlighted emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clintons campaign. By October, just the mention of WikiLeaks could start a roar of applause at Trumps rallies. Since then, Trump has continued praising the radical transparency group, harshly criticized by President Obama and other officials for what they describe as damaging national security leaks. He has defended its founder, who has lived in the Ecuadoran Embassy in London since August 2012 to avoid extradition on a rape allegation in Sweden. And Trump has been in sync with conservative media, once critical of WikiLeaks, which increasingly embraces Assange as a hero. [Julian Assanges claim that there was no Russian involvement in WikiLeaks emails] WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is seen Feb. 5 in London in the Ecuadoran Embassy, where he continues to seek asylum after an extradition request from Sweden in 2012. (Carl Court/Getty Images) Republicans have been slow to climb on board. In interviews, members of the congressional intelligence committees either declined to comment on WikiLeaks or made it clear that they wanted the organization shut down. Julian Assange is no hero, said Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) Someone who steals property is not bringing transparency hes taking information thats not his to give. In a statement, Rep. Will Hurd (R-Tex.), a former CIA officer, said that Assange was not a credible source for Trump or anyone else. The same people who condemned Secretary Clinton for making sensitive and classified information vulnerable by using an unsecure server should be equally outraged that Assange continues to carelessly leak sensitive documents, Hurd said. On CNN, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) a Trump critic who has asked for hearings into possible Russian meddling in the election urged the incoming president to look more closely at Assanges tactics and motivations, and to take seriously U.S. intelligence estimates that contradict Assanges descriptions of the hacks. Its the Democrats today; it could be the Republican Party tomorrow, he said. None of us should be gleeful when a foreign entity hacks into our political system to interfere with our elections, and thats what the Russians did. [Trumps criticism of intelligence on Russia is dividing Hill GOP] Increasingly, reactions like those dont jibe with the way Assange is portrayed by the sort of conservative sources that generally give Republicans glowing treatment. Assanges interview with Fox News was conducted by Sean Hannity, who had evolved from a critic to a frequent booster. From Assanges room in London, Hannity presented WikiLeaks in its favored terms as a source of true, incorruptible journalism, bringing down the political elite. Hannity, who told Assange last month that he had done us a favor, said Tuesday that he believes every word Assange says. You exposed a level of corruption that I for 30 years on the radio as a conservative knew existed, and I was shocked at the level of corruption, duplicity, dishonesty, manipulation, Hannity told Assange. Knowing what WikiLeaks revealed about the Podesta emails on Clinton corruption, on pay to play, on Bernie Sanders being cheated, all of this is revealed. Not a lot of this was covered. With little pushback from Hannity and just as little demand for proof, Assange denied that Russian hackers had anything to do with its troves of hacked Democratic emails. With Hannitys urging, Assange said he was surprised that elites had failed to elect Clinton; he had said, before the election, that Trump would not be allowed to win. We are happy to have credit for exposing the corruption and behavior that was occurring in that Clinton team and the DNC fixing things against Bernie Sanders, Assange said. We are quite happy to accept that. The Fox interview won other fans: Sarah Palin, who had once compared Assange to the editor of an al-Qaeda magazine, apologized on Facebook and credited him with releasing important information that finally opened peoples eyes to democrat [sic] candidates and operatives. At less-mainstream news outlets, where Trumps run and victory were celebrated, this praise had been echoing for months. The Drudge Report has linked videos with speculation that Assange has been aided by government insiders; Alex Joness InfoWars, which once criticized Assange for slow-walking the stolen Clinton campaign documents, is rife with rumors that Assange has been silenced by the government, and full of mockery for the Republicans who criticize him. This treatment of Assange is a stark departure from what was, until recently, a near-universal condemnation of the Australian by conservative pundits and politicians as well as the national security establishment. Assange has inspired both admiration and hatred sometimes by the same individuals since his anti-secrecy organization first made global headlines in 2010. That was the year that WikiLeaks published thousands of stolen, heavily classified Pentagon documents that shed light on U.S. actions in the Iraq War. Most famous were the Iraq War logs, which included cockpit video footage of American helicopter pilots opening fire on two Reuters journalists after mistaking them for insurgents. That same year, WikiLeaks published the first of more than 250,000 pilfered State Department cables containing sensitive and often candid assessments of foreign governments and politicians. Obama administration officials said publicizing the confidential records damaged relationships with key allies and put diplomats and intelligence operatives at risk. Assange, a former computer programmer and journalist who founded WikiLeaks in 2006, has defended the organizations tradition of publishing massive volumes of unfiltered intelligence, calling the release of confidential material a necessary antidote against excessive government secrecy. In a news release issued on the eve of last years U.S. presidential election, Assange said of his groups goals: We publish material given to us if it is of political, diplomatic, historical or ethical importance and which has not been published elsewhere. When we have material that fulfills this criteria, we publish. The releases that started in 2010 prompted calls in conservative media for Assanges prosecution, or worse. Conservative commentator Jeffrey Kuhner, in a Washington Times op-ed piece that year, suggested that the U.S. government should have him assassinated. Julian Assange poses a clear and present danger to American national security, Kuhner wrote. The WikiLeaks founder is more than a reckless provocateur. He is aiding and abetting terrorists in their war against America. The administration must take care of the problem effectively and permanently. On Fox News, legal experts debated the best legal course against Assange, who was decried by one guest as a deeply flawed individual. A column in the conservative publication National Review Online questioned why Assange wasnt dead already perhaps garroted in his hotel. Trump himself, in one of his then-frequent calls to Fox, called WikiLeaks disgraceful and added that there should be like death penalty or something for its releases. Lawmakers and national security officials were only slightly less harsh. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) described WikiLeaks publication of Pentagon and State Department documents the greatest, most damaging security breach in the history of this country. Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.), who would become chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, suggested that WikiLeaks be designated as a terrorist organization. As recently as late 2015, Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Tex.), the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said WikiLeaks publication of classified documents had certainly helped our primary adversaries and inflicted just enormous damage to the country. Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr., who oversees U.S. intelligence collection, went further, accusing Assange of putting lives at risk, particularly intelligence operatives working abroad. Assanges most fervent praise in the United States did not come from Democrats. It came from libertarians. Then-Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.), who ran for president in 1988, 2008 and 2012, asked in a floor speech which has resulted in the greatest number of deaths: lying us into war or WikiLeaks revelations or the release of the Pentagon Papers? Assange, who does not often talk about domestic politics, appeared to notice where his defenders were coming from.In a 2013 discussion, streamed live from the Ecuadoran Embassy, Assange brushed aside the idea that Democrats or political independents were capable of reforming the United States. The Republican Party, insofar as how it has coupled together with the war industry, is not a conservative party at all, Assange said. The libertarian aspect of the Republican Party is presently the only useful political voice in the U.S. Congress. In the 2016 Republican primaries, the partys libertarian wing lost badly. But elements of their ideas, especially Pauls criticism of the national security state, were adopted successfully by Trump. The rest of the Republican Party has been slower to adopt or adapt. In 2010, as the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, then-Rep. Pete Hoekstra had called for decisive action against WikiLeaks and Assange. In an interview Wednesday, he said it should still be a goal to do everything we can, legally, to shut down his networks. But Hoekstra argued that Trump was not praising or egging on Assanges publication of hacked material. I feel bad for John Podesta that he got his emails hacked, Hoekstra said. Id feel bad if mine were hacked. The reality in todays world is that if youre not extremely careful, youre vulnerable. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) speaks with U.S. service members on Jan. 2 on a visit to the NATO-Georgia Joint Training and Evaluation Center in Krtsanisi, outside Tbilisi, Georgia. (Zurab Kurtsikidze/European Pressphoto Agency) President-elect Donald Trumps broadside against the intelligence community is dividing Capitol Hill Republicans, with some ready to pounce on Trumps skepticism that Russia interfered with the U.S. elections and others urging a more cautious approach. The resulting schism could widen as Congress begins probing the CIAs charges that Russia intervened in the November elections in an attempt to help Trump, potentially becoming one of the first significant intraparty breaches of the Trump presidency. U.S. critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin, such as Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), want to go full-bore on holding Russia to account for its suspected election interference. But they may be slowed by GOP senators who prefer to wait to hear the intelligence communitys evidence and for Trump to be installed in the White House. When asked whether he would be influenced by Trumps Tuesday tweet about a supposedly delayed Intelligence briefing on so-called Russian hacking, McCain said flatly, No. [Secret CIA assessment: Russia was trying to help Trump win White House] (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post) McCain will hold a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Thursday on foreign cyber threats that is expected to center on Russia. Intelligence officials including Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr., Defense Undersecretary for Intelligence Marcel J. Lettre II and U.S. Cyber Command and National Security Agency Director Michael S. Rogers will testify, and some Republicans are hoping they will present evidence that Russia meddled in the elections. The point of this hearing is to have the intelligence community reinforce, from their point of view, that the Russians did this, Graham said. You seem to have two choices now some guy living in an embassy, on the run from the law for rape, who has a history of undermining American democracy and releasing classified information to put our troops at risk, or the 17 intelligence agencies sworn to defend us. Im going with them. Graham was referring to Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder accused of helping Russia leak emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee. He has few fans in Congress on Wednesday, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) called Assange a sycophant for Russia. Assange has denied he received leaked emails from the Russians. Trump echoed Assange in a tweet Tuesday in which he said a 14-year-old could have hacked Podesta, referring to Hillary Clintons former campaign chairman, John Podesta. Trump also tweeted support for Assanges comment that the media is dishonest. Assanges first claim may be narrowly accurate Russias intelligence services used middlemen to deliver the purloined files, said senior U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information. But U.S. spy agencies are in full agreement that Russia directed the hacking and orchestrated email dumps to WikiLeaks to help Trump win a finding at the heart of a classified assessment completed this week. Trumps online endorsement of Assange is his latest insult to the U.S. intelligence community and is likely to intensify the antagonism between the president-elect and U.S. spy agencies. He has repeatedly disparaged their work and skipped most of the daily briefings prepared for a future White House occupant. CIA veterans said the level of open hostility is extraordinary. I cant think of any transition during my career as seemingly fraught as this one, said John Rizzo, the CIAs former acting general counsel. 1 of 74 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad Heres what President-elect Donald Trump has been doing since the election View Photos He has been holding interviews and meetings as he prepares to transition into the White House. Caption He has been holding interviews and meetings as he prepares to enter the White House. Jan. 19, 2017 President-elect Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, visit the Lincoln Memorial before the Make America Great Again concert. Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue. Trump is slated to meet with U.S. spy masters this week when Clapper, CIA Director John Brennan and FBI Director James B. Comey brief him in New York on the intelligence surrounding Russias involvement in the election hacks. Retired Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, whom Trump previously named as his national security adviser, will probably be present, adding to the tension he was fired by Clapper as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. Trump has been weighing an overhaul, but not elimination, of the office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) for weeks, a matter that has factored into the delay in nominating someone to serve in that position, according to members of Trumps inner circle. Trumps top advisers on intelligence matters are deeply skeptical of the value of the DNI position, an office that was created to spearhead post-Sept. 11 reforms of the intelligence community but has become the center of its own swelling bureaucracy. Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and a senior member of Trumps transition team, has voiced doubt about the value of the DNI role. The threat to dismantle the DNI office, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, may also be designed to send a message in advance of the high-stakes intelligence briefing on Friday, reminding Clapper and others scheduled to attend that Trump holds significant power over the fates of their agencies. Trump has been sharply critical of the CIA, particularly its conclusion that Russia waged a cyber campaign to help Trump defeat Hillary Clinton. But his pick to lead the CIA, Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.), has not indicated in recent conversations with current and former agency employees that he is planning a major shake-up, former U.S. intelligence officials said. Rep. Adam B. Schiff (Calif.), ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said any move to arbitrarily slash the [DNI] office will diminish its effectiveness and reverse many of the important gains we had made since 9/11. Moreover, Schiff said in a statement issued Wednesday, to propose changing the CIAs operational structure because of loose allegations of politicization claims based on nothing more than the Agencys willingness to contradict the President-elects preferred version of events would be a mistake of the highest order. The Armed Services Committee hearing Thursday will give intelligence chiefs an early chance to publicly contradict Trumps position. But some committee Republicans said it was appropriate at this point for Trump to be openly challenging the assertions of intelligence officials. You live by the sword, then be prepared to fight by the sword, said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), referring to the intelligence community. You release information before youre prepared to put out the facts, then be prepared for people to react to that. The intelligence community some time ago back said they had compelling evidence that there was an issue, Tillis said. Well, maybe they should have waited and leaked that when they could produce the evidence, and then they could have eliminated this whole discourse. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will also hear from State Department officials Thursday in a closed-door briefing to kick off its investigation into Russian hacking. Clappers office on Thursday will brief President Obama on a promised classified report into the allegations of Russian hacking; Trump will be briefed on it Friday. Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) suggested it was natural for Trump to be skeptical until that briefing, given he is not yet president. She also implied that some transition politics between Obamas and Trumps teams may be at work. Mr. Trump hasnt been briefed by the intelligence community is my understanding, Fischer said. There is a report thats coming out, and the president has frozen all briefings. Ive tried to have a classified briefing before the hearing, and I was told that was not possible, that its been frozen. Hopefully, [the Obama] administration will give access to the Congress, as well, Fischer said. This is the first time Ive been turned down for a classified briefing, and Ive been on the committee four years. Congressional Republicans, with a few exceptions, are far more skeptical of Russia than Trump has been during and since the campaign, when he praised Putin and touted the benefits of friendlier relations. Even those willing to give Trump some room on the issue say Russia is a bad actor, citing Moscows annexation of Crimea, its bombing campaign in Syria and continued aggression against border states in Europe. Republicans are staking their hopes on the idea that once Trump takes office, he will come around to their point of view on the Kremlin. Its good to question our intelligence community. I have no problem with him being skeptical. But just listen with an open mind, Graham said, offering Trump unsolicited advice for his Friday briefing. When General Mattis said Give me a pack of cigarettes and a cold beer; I can get more information than waterboarding, that impressed the president-elect, Graham added, referencing Trumps pick for defense secretary, James Mattis. Im hoping after Friday he will be more convinced. Senior Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), have stressed the need for investigations into Russias activities, expressing support for existing sanctions as well as the pursuit of additional punitive measures. McCain, Graham and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) all said Wednesday that they were in discussions with Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (Md.), the Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking Democrat, to join forces behind a bill, expected this week, to impose sanctions against Russia. The sanctions in Cardins bill address Russias alleged election-related hacks, its interference in Ukraine and its conduct in the Syrian war, which Secretary of State John F. Kerry said last year warrants a war-crimes investigation. The bipartisan heads of the Senates Foreign Relations, Armed Services and Intelligence committees met Wednesday to coordinate how to conduct the Russian-hacking investigation over the next weeks and months. After the meeting, Democrats expressed hope that Trumps attacks on the intelligence community would not complicate their efforts. The most important role of the intelligence community is to speak truth to power, said Sen. Mark R. Warner (Va.), lead Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, noting that Trumps rather dismissive attitude of the intelligence community concerns him. There is broad-based bipartisan concern that weve got to do this investigation in an appropriate manner as quickly as possible, Warner added. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) speaks to reporters with Democrats from both the House and Senate, including Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), left, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), after a meeting with President Obama Wednesday at the U.S. Capitol. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Democrats have an emerging strategy to defend the Affordable Care Act from Republican assault, daring their opponents to defy the Pottery Barn rule: Theyre about to break the health-care system, and that means they will own it. For more than six years, Republicans have attacked unpopular parts of the law without having to propose alternatives. Those days are over. Emerging from their final huddle with President Obama, congressional Democrats said their plan is essentially to leave it to the GOP to replace Obamacare. And theyre getting an unintended assist from Republicans, who to date have no full plan, only a vague timeline and very few details on how they intend to do it. Theyre going to own it and all the problems in the health-care system, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said at a news conference after a 90-minute meeting with the president in the Capitol basement on Wednesday. Republicans will discover quickly, Schumer said, that implementing their preferred market-based alternatives will be virtually impossible without a large source of revenue, which would probably require Democratic votes for approval. Now theyre responsible for the entire health-care system, and it will be on their backs, he said. And I believe, a year from now, they will regret that they came out so fast out of the box. It is a modified version of how Republicans treated Obama and congressional Democrats in 2009 as they began the early steps of crafting the ACA. After prolonged talks with three Senate Republicans, Democrats moved ahead late in the year to pass the legislation on party-line votes. [Obama tells Democrats to stay strong protecting his signature health-care law] As a result, Democrats politically owned every mishap, including the systems often-crashing website during the rollout and the decision by insurance companies to abandon some exchanges that ran Obamacare in the states. Republicans have hammered away at Obamacare ever since and made the legislation very unpopular in conservative-leaning states, driving some Democrats out of office in those regions for supporting the law. Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) are adamant that they will not go as far as Republicans did back then in opposing just about every early Obama initiative. They still talk about Trumps position on a large infrastructure bill as a starting point for a bipartisan initiative, and the president-elect and Schumer have similar views on trade and alleged currency manipulation by China. Still, it is becoming obvious that Democratic leaders intend to give little early assistance to Trump or other Republicans as they try to undo much of the Obama legacy. Republicans know the Pottery Barn rule well; Colin Powell invoked it when he was secretary of state to warn then-President George W. Bush that he would own a toppled Iraqi government precipitated by a U.S. invasion. They are very aware of the trap Schumer is trying to set and are working to portray Democrats as cheering for failure. I understand his political argument. Hes praying and hoping for failure, which means hes praying and hoping for more pain on the part of the American people, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), the No. 2 GOP leader, said Wednesday. I would hope they would get past that and would agree to work with us, because a long-term, sustainable replacement for Obamacare is going to need to be done on a bipartisan, consensus-building basis. This early Democratic strategy is the easy lift do nothing. Democrats privately acknowledge, however, that the party needs to craft a broader agenda than they have relied on for the past four years, which resulted in terrible electoral defeats in 2014 and 2016. That positive agenda is a work in progress, aides say, and will come in the weeks and months ahead. Public opinion of the overall law is split evenly between those who support it and those who dont. But it includes several very popular provisions, particularly one allowing adult children to stay on their parents insurance plans up to age 26, and another forbidding insurance companies from denying coverage to consumers with pre-existing health conditions. With Republicans advancing a repeal, Democrats plan to blame them for trying to end those popular pieces of the ACA. Republicans have tried to assure the public that the popular provisions will eventually become part of a replacement law. Cornyn described the adult childhood insurance issue and the pre-existing condition ban as noncontroversial provisions, which I would suspect would be sustained. They are also promising that the new law will not throw the health system into chaos. The status quo will be maintained until theres a replacement. So if people have what they have now, theyll keep that until theres a replacement, Cornyn said. Yet Republicans have not said publicly how long the transition period will be to replace the ACA. Nor have they explained how they would fund those expensive provisions without other portions of the existing law. It is possible that, after several years of terribly explaining the health law to voters, Democrats are finally in position to make it a political success. Its one thing to say to people this is what we can get, Pelosi said. Its another thing to say this is what will be taken away from you. And that is a different case, and that is a case that we will make. Read more from Paul Kanes archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook. Emergency services at the scene of an explosion in Izmir, Turkey, on Jan. 5. Two suspected attackers were killed in a shootout with police. (Associated Press) Militants wielding assault rifles exchanged gunfire with police outside a courthouse in western Turkey on Thursday, killing at least two people and setting off a car bomb in the latest of a string of attacks that have the country on edge. Police fatally shot two of the attackers outside a courthouse in the city of Izmir, and another assailant escaped, the local governor said, according to the state-run Anadolu news agency. A police officer and courthouse official were also killed. Local officials have blamed the assault on the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, which is fighting a war for autonomy for ethnic Kurds. The violence in the Aegean coastal city of Izmir came as Turkey expanded a manhunt for a gunman who stormed a nightclub early Sunday and killed 39 people at a New Years event. [After nightclub carnage, raids and detentions] Police raided homes Wednesday in Izmir in search of the suspect and detained at least 20 people. Security forces also found military equipment at the scene, Anadolu reported. The Islamic State claimed links to the nightclub assailant, but Turkey has also faced repeated attacks from Kurdish separatists such as the PKK. There was no immediate claim of responsibility in Thursdays attack in Izmir, where video posted on social media carried sounds of sustained gunfire. The attackers were armed with Kalashnikov-style rifles and grenades, Izmirs regional governor, Erol Ayyildiz, told reporters, according to the Associated Press. [Opinion: Secular Turks have never felt so alone] Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak, also speaking to reporters at the blast site, said a much larger attack was apparently being planned. Based on the preparation, the weapons, bombs and ammunition seized, it is understood that a big atrocity was being planned, Kaynak told reporters in comments broadcast live, according to the Reuters news agency. The rampage Sunday marked one of the worst mass killings in Turkey in recent memory. The country has been reeling from a steady stream of violence, including the assassination of the Russian ambassador last month and earlier bombings targeting police and tourist sites. On Wednesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu gave no further details on the suspects identity but said authorities are investigating. Police have conducted raids across the country. Murphy reported from Washington. Read more: Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news The Tunisian man who plowed a truck into a Berlin Christmas market had lived under 14 aliases and was so well known to German officials that a key counterterrorism committee had discussed his case seven times, suggesting the scale of the missed opportunities to thwart the Dec. 19 attack. The fresh details about Anis Amri shot dead in Italy four days after the attack emerged Thursday during testimony in the regional parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia, where the suspect once lived. German officials have already said that Amri had previously been flagged as a terrorism threat. But Ralf Jager, the states interior minister, described for lawmakers in Dusseldorf how the Joint Counter-Terrorism Center, an institution coordinating the work of Germanys security agencies, had discussed his case repeatedly. He also said that six months of surveillance had yielded nothing concrete, suggesting an operative highly skilled at hiding his resolve, or a failure of German law enforcement to adequately monitor him. Speaking to reporters on the day of the hearing, Jager said that German officials felt they did not have enough on Amri to detain him. We live in a legal state, where suspicion and hearsay do not suffice to take someone into custody, he said. And I think that is a good thing. A legal state needs to demonstrate in a court-proof manner that someone is planning a concrete crime. 1 of 32 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad Photos from the scene of the Berlin Christmas market attack View Photos The suspect in the attack, 24-year-old Anis Amri, was killed in a shootout with police in Milan on Dec. 23. 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 case has become the latest example of stumbles by European authorities in the handling of terrorism suspects and has fueled more criticism of Chancellor Angela Merkels decision to open the door to more than 1 million asylum seekers, many of whom were inadequately screened, security analysts say. After a string of attacks in 2016, she described Islamist terrorism last week as being Germanys greatest threat. German authorities are continuing the search for possible accomplices in the December attack. On Tuesday, they arrested a 26-year-old Tunisian man at a Berlin migrant shelter, saying he had met Amri at a restaurant and had intense conversations with him around 9 p.m. on the night before the attack. The Germans were not the only ones facing questions. Amri appears to have traveled across at least four neighboring countries before being shot by the Italian police four days after the attack. Security footage at Berlins Zoo train station showed him holding his index finger into the camera. Two days later, he was filmed in the Dutch city of Nijmegen, according to Frauke Kohler, spokeswoman for the federal attorney generals office. He is believed to have arrived there from Brussels via Amsterdam. Yet despite an international manhunt, Amri somehow managed to get as far as Milan, where two Italian officers questioned him, thinking he was a burglar. After he pulled a gun, they engaged him in a firefight. One officer was wounded, and Amri was shot dead. Stephanie Kirchner contributed to this report. Read more: (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post) ISIS-linked news agency releases video of Berlin attacker swearing allegiance Suspect in Berlin market attack was radicalized in an Italian jail Attack may be part of ISIS strategy to sharpen divide between Muslims, others Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news The decision by President Yoweri Museveni to pay out Shs 6 billion in oil tax money to selected government officials has been condemned by a section of Civil Society Actors, who say it was done in contravention of the Public Finance Management Act. Julius Mishambi the Director of Programmes at the Uganda Debt Network says the move by the government to go behind tax payers and reward a group of individuals is a sign of disrespect to the millions of Ugandan taxpayers. Citing article 153 and 154 of the constitution, Mishambi says all public funds must kept in the consolidated fund and any withdrawal should be done with the authorization of parliament or appropriations Act, or supplementary requests in accordance with the law. Yesterday Daily Monitor quoted Finance Ministry Spokesperson Jim Mugunga justifying the pay out to 42 government officials saying the Shs. 6 billion that was shared is less than the one per cent of the Shs 1.4 trillion the country received when it sued Tullow and Heritage oil companies for failure to pay capital gains tax. Some of those reported to have received the cash reward include URA Executive Director Doris Akol, KCCA Boss Jennifer Musisi, Former Attorney General Peter Nyombi, and Attorney General Fred Ruhindi among others. At the center of the Israel Museums newest art exhibit stands an imposing, life-size marble figure of Jesus. The sculpture, titled Christ Before the Peoples Court, would not be out of place in a church in Rome. Yet in this depiction, the Christian savior wears a Jewish skullcap. The sculpture, created by Russian Jewish artist Mark Antokolsky in 1876, is part of a collection of more than 150 artworks by 40 Jewish and Israeli artists who have used Christian imagery to challenge long-held taboos in both communities. It showcases the evolving attitudes of Jewish, Zionist and Israeli artists toward a figure whose place in Jewish history has been negotiated and reinterpreted over more than two millennia. It is a risky statement for an Israeli museum. Throughout history, Jews have traditionally shunned Jesus and his gospel. And while the Holy Land might be his accepted birthplace, for Jews in the modern state of Israel there is often resistance to learning about or even acknowledging Christianity. Marc Chagalls Yellow Crucifixion shows the suffering of Jewish Holocaust victims through the image of Jesus Christ as a Jew. (Avshalom Avital/The Israel Museum) This stems mainly from a fear of centuries-old anti-Semitism, especially in Europe, where the crucifixion of Jesus was used as an excuse to persecute Jews. We are talking about a 2,000-year-old tension between Judaism and Christianity and the fact that anti-Semitism grew in Christian thought and theology, said the exhibitions curator, Amitai Mendelsohn. Mendelsohn said he was surprised at just how many Jewish artists throughout history, and today in Israel, have used Jesus and Christian themes as inspirations for their work. It is a delicate subject for Jews everywhere, including in Israel, but artists by nature are attracted to something that is forbidden for them, he said. Ziva Amishai-Maisels, a professor emeritus at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem who specializes in Christian imagery in Jewish art, said that religious Jews, who might be opposed to such depictions, would probably stay away from the exhibition. Those who do go might be stunned, she said, but I dont think they will react badly. Some of the works, though, could offend pious Christians, she said. They might feel the images are sacrilegious, but the wall texts are explanatory enough if they read them, it should calm them down. While some of the older works by European Jews challenge Christian anti-Semitism or look at how Jesus Jewish roots could act as a bridge between the two religions, more-contemporary pieces explore Jesus as an anti-establishment figure who suffered at not being understood. Ronit Steinberg, an art historian from Jerusalems Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, said the appeal for Jewish artists in depicting Jesus has changed over the years, but all are tied together by a common thread. In the 19th century, the main issue was the Jewish artist feeling emancipated, and it was important for those artists to connect with their surrounding and the time. For Israeli artists, its also a kind of emancipation from the heavy Jewishness of their country, she said. Theres the Yellow Crucifixion, a 1943 Marc Chagall painting showing Jesus as a Jew. Hued in yellow, perhaps representing the star the Nazis forced Jews to wear, Jesus is strung from a cross wrapped in a Jewish prayer shawl and phylacteries. Another artist, Moshe Hoffman, a Hungarian Jew who survived the Holocaust, used his art to question Christianitys role in the genocide. In one work, Six million and 1, Hoffman shows a Nazi guard attempting to pull Jesus from the cross to make him Jewish prisoner number 6,000,001. Others used Jesus as a Jew to connect their Jewish identity to Christian surroundings. While Antokolsky was the first Russian Jewish artist to be accepted by his peers, he suffered an identity crisis from being Jewish and Russian. As the exhibit, which is arranged chronologically, arrives at works from the past few decades, a theme develops in which Jewish Israelis use Christian iconography to question their political and national identity. One such work is by Igael Tumarkin. His monogram is the metal frame of a standard-issue Israeli army cot twisted to form a cross. Flanked by material that appears to be a shredded Israeli flag, the piece was created in 1984 and was a protest against the war Israel was fighting in Lebanon at the time. The title, Mita Meshuna, means both strange bed and strange death in Hebrew. Perhaps the best-known contemporary artwork on display is Adi Ness depiction of Leonardo da Vincis Last Supper, which substitutes Israeli soldiers for the apostles. Ness photograph sold at Sothebys for $250,000, the highest an Israeli photograph has ever fetched. And the image has become a cultural icon for Israelis, suggesting perhaps that Christian themes are becoming more acceptable in Jewish culture. Read more With Israel divided, soldier convicted in killing of wounded Palestinian assailant Frankincense and myrrh are making a comeback in the Holy Land Venezuelan Jews are moving to Israel to escape deepening poverty Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news Secretary of State John F. Kerry is preparing to leave office after four decades in public life. (Cliff Owen/AP) Secretary of State John F. Kerry, in an exit memo written with the incoming administration in mind, on Thursday called for the United States to continue resettling refugees from the Middle East and to keep up the battle against climate change. It would be a moral failing of the highest caliber to turn our backs on those in need including and especially from countries like Syria and Iraq, Kerry wrote in a memo that was among about two dozen released by the White House from cabinet secretaries enumerating their accomplishments. Kerry devoted a significant share of his 21-page summary to climate change, which he said he had raised in virtually every bilateral relationship since becoming secretary in 2013. If we can build on this course in the decades to come, there is at least a chance that our children and our grandchildren will look back at the last years of this administration as the moment the world finally woke up to the threat, he said. [John Kerry wanted to see how Antarctica was changed. When he returned, the entire world had. ] The Kerry summation is another marker in his long goodbye as he prepares to leave public office and a career in public service. He has been showered with awards on trips abroad. He has several public speeches lined up in the next two weeks, though none is expected to be as controversial as one he gave last week on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the dwindling prospects for creating an independent Palestinian state. There was a poignant quality to Kerrys arguments, as many of the very policies he championed could soon be discarded or weakened. As a candidate and lately as president-in-waiting, Donald Trump has repudiated many of Kerrys initiatives: the Iran nuclear deal, the insistence that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must step down, support for refugees from largely Muslim countries torn apart by war and terrorism. Kerry directly mentions neither Trump nor his own nominated successor, Rex Tillerson. But aides said it is hoped that the incoming administration will read the case Kerry makes and consider taking the same path. The secretary is laying down a stark message about the consequences if some of these things are rolled back, said a senior State Department official. He sees it as his responsibility as a statesman, as someone who has been a public servant for over 40 years. The memo starts with Obamas 2009 inauguration, when the country was fighting two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Eventually, 160,000 troops came home even as the war against al-Qaeda and the Islamic State intensified. After eight years of relentless counterterrorism efforts, the al-Qaeda that perpetrated 9/11 is today a shadow of what it was on Jan. 20, 2009, Kerry wrote. He said much progress has been made in dismantling the Islamic States caliphate, with the United States and its coalition partners helping to recapture 40 percent of the territory Islamic militants held in Iraq and more than a quarter what it controlled in Syria. Kerry does not directly address what many foreign policy analysts consider the administrations greatest foreign policy failure, after Obama said Assad would cross a red line if he used chemical weapons, and then did nothing. Instead, Kerry notes the United States, working with Russia and the United Nations, destroyed 1,000 tons of Syrias stockpiles. He acknowledged, unfortunately, other undeclared chemical weapons continue to be used ruthlessly on the Syrian people. He also shows his frustration that Israelis and Palestinians never resumed peace talks, which Kerry spent nine months trying to make happen. I sincerely hope for the future of both Israelis and Palestinians alike that their leaders will make the difficult choices necessary to advance the prospects for peace, he said. Kerry describes the security relationship between the United States and Israel as stronger than it has ever been. There is no reference to the tension over an anti-settlement Security Council resolution passed without a U.S. veto, nor Trumps promise things will be different after he is sworn in. Kerry provides a lengthy list of policies that Trump has criticized or contradicted. The outgoing secretary of state argues for an aggressive stance against Russia, citing cyberattacks and its military intervention in Syria and Ukraine. Trump wants to improve ties between Moscow and Washington. [John Kerry urges war crimes probes into Syrian and Russian bombing of civilians] Kerry defends international trade pacts that Trump has trashed. He argues for closing the detention center in Guantanamo Bay; Trump has vowed to refill them with some bad dudes. He defends the Iran nuclear deal, which Trump called a disaster and the worst deal ever negotiated. Kerry argues that with the deal, we took a major security threat off the table without firing a single shot. He praises international agreements to combat climate change. Trump has expressed some skepticism about the science of climate change. Kerry warns other countries will react in a highly unfavorable manner if we abdicate our responsibility. But Kerry ends on a graceful note that reflects how he relished his four years as Americas top diplomat, sending best wishes for his and Obamas successors while representing the greatest country on earth. Rex Tillerson, former chief executive of ExxonMobil and President-elect Donald Trumps nominee for secretary of state, meets with Sen. Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.) on Wednesday. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg) Rex Tillerson, President-elect Donald Trumps choice to become secretary of state, disclosed personal wealth of as much as $400 million, including a Texas cattle and horse ranch, ahead of Senate confirmation hearings expected next week. Tillerson, who met with members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and others this week, promised to sell and restructure assets and resign from outside organizations that might pose a conflict. The newly retired ExxonMobil chief executives federal financial disclosure filing shows that he directly holds stock in his former employer worth more than $50 million that he has pledged to sell within 90 days if he is confirmed as the countrys top diplomat. Tillerson has separately reached a $180 million retirement agreement with ExxonMobil involving additional stock that would be placed in trust. He also pledged to recuse himself from any government decisions involving ExxonMobil for one year unless he is specifically authorized to participate. The State Department sometimes helps energy companies as they seek resources, markets and contacts around the world, and it advises many large corporations. During the decade that Tillerson led Exxon, the State Department supported some of the oil giants deals and opposed others, most notably a 2011 agreement with the semi-autonomous Kurdish government in northern Iraq. That deal, which took U.S. officials by surprise, directly contradicted the U.S. goal of a federal oil deal that would benefit Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites. The listing of Tillersons stock and bond holdings shows that he invested in competing energy companies including Total and Royal Dutch Shell while running Exxon. His portfolio includes American and international businesses ranging from Walmart and Walt Disney to Novartis, Sony and Yum China Holdings, which franchises KFC and other fast-food chains in China. Federal disclosure requirements call for the value of individual holdings or proceeds to be given as a range, so it is not possible to pinpoint Tillersons net worth. Tillerson said he has already resigned from the American Petroleum Institute, a trade group, and would resign from the Boy Scouts of America, the board of Fords Theater and other organizations. He pledged to remove himself from business decisions surrounding the ranch in Bartonville, Tex., although he would continue to receive passive income from it. I am committed to the highest standards of ethical conduct for government officials, Tillerson wrote in an accompanying letter to a State Department ethics lawyer. If confirmed as secretary of state, I will not participate personally and substantially in any particular matter in which I know that I have a financial interest directly and predictably affected by the matter, Tillerson wrote. The financial disclosure material was sent to the Office of Government Ethics on Wednesday. Senate Democrats say they still want to see Tillersons tax returns before holding what Republicans have said could be a two-day hearing Jan. 11-12. Like Trump, Tillerson has refused to provide Congress with his tax returns, promising only tax return information upon request, and he has complex business interests from which he must disentangle himself to hold public office. Tillersons energy-related work in Russia and his ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin are expected to dominate his confirmation session. Tillersons Capitol Hill tour does not appear to be winning new supporters, but it is convincing certain senators that when it comes to sanctions, he may not be as pro-Russia as he seems. The top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Ben Cardin (Md.), said after meeting with Tillerson for over an hour on Wednesday that the businessman was pretty forthcoming on sanctions and understands the importance of sanctions and recognizes that you need to have the ability to get results. He was referring to U.S. sanctions implemented against Russia in 2014 over its annexation of Crimea and Moscows support for separatists in eastern Ukraine. Cardin, the Senates chief architect of comprehensive new Russia sanctions, has not indicated his support for Tillersons nomination. Sen. Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.), with whom Tillerson also met Wednesday, told NPR that he had a productive 90-minute meeting that included tough questions on Russia. Coons said he has not decided how to vote. Tillersons close personal and business ties to Russia sparked an early backlash from senators, including a handful of key Republicans, who found alarming his acceptance of the Kremlins Order of Friendship award in 2013 and his recorded opposition to Ukraine-related Russia sanctions in 2014. One of those Republicans, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), met with Tillerson on Wednesday, but he did not appear more favorably disposed to the businessman. When asked whether he would support Tillersons nomination, McCain told a gathering of reporters sure theres also a realistic scenario that pigs fly. Karoun Demirjian contributed to this report. Senior officials in the Russian government celebrated Donald Trumps victory over Hillary Clinton as a geopolitical win for Moscow, according to U.S. officials who said that American intelligence agencies intercepted communications in the aftermath of the election in which Russian officials congratulated themselves on the outcome. The ebullient reaction among high-ranking Russian officials including some who U.S. officials believe had knowledge of the countrys cyber campaign to interfere in the U.S. election contributed to the U.S. intelligence communitys assessment that Moscows efforts were aimed at least in part at helping Trump win the White House. Other key pieces of information gathered by U.S. spy agencies include the identification of actors involved in delivering stolen Democratic emails to the WikiLeaks website, and disparities in the levels of effort Russian intelligence entities devoted to penetrating and exploiting sensitive information stored on Democratic and Republican campaign networks. Those and other data points are at the heart of an unprecedented intelligence report being circulated in Washington this week that details the evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign and catalogues other cyber operations by Moscow against U.S. election systems over the past nine years. The classified document, which officials said is over 50 pages, was delivered to President Obama on Thursday, and it is expected to be presented to Trump in New York on Friday by the nations top spy officials, including Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. and CIA Director John Brennan. (Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post) Given the president-elects skepticism about the intelligence community particularly its conclusions about Russia the Trump Tower briefing has taken on the tenor of a showdown between the president-elect and the intelligence agencies he has disparaged. [Top U.S. intelligence official testifies on Russian interference in election ] The Russians felt pretty good about what happened on Nov. 8 and they also felt pretty good about what they did, a senior U.S. official said. U.S. officials declined to say whether the intercepted communications were cited in the classified version of the report commissioned by Obama, and they emphasized that although the messages were seen as strong indicators of Moscows intent and clear preference for Trump, they were not regarded as conclusive evidence of Russian intelligence agencies efforts to achieve that outcome. There are a variety of different exhibits that make the case, different factors that have provided the intelligence community with high confidence that Russia sought in part to help elect Trump, said a second senior U.S. official who has reviewed intelligence findings on Russias cyber operations. Officials emphasized that signals intelligence, as such communication is known, is treated by analysts with caution because statements can be taken out of context and sophisticated adversaries including the Kremlin are adept at spreading disinformation. U.S. officials who have reviewed the new report said it goes far beyond the brief public statement that Clapper and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson issued in October, accusing Russia of having directed cyber operations to disrupt the U.S. election, and concluding, in a reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin, that only Russias senior-most officials could have authorized these activities. The new report incorporates material from previous assessments and assembles in a single document details of cyber operations dating back to 2008. Still, U.S. officials said there are no major new bombshell disclosures even in the classified report. A shorter, declassified version is expected to be released to the public early next week. Russias alleged role in the 2016 election and the question of how the United States should respond have become bitterly polarizing issues in Washington, sowing discord among Republicans on Capitol Hill, complicating the transition between the Obama and Trump administrations, and exacerbating an increasingly toxic relationship between the president-elect and U.S. spy services. Senior lawmakers have called for a full investigation of the Russian hacking. Appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday, Clapper said that Moscows cyber assault on the election went beyond interference and into activism. At Thursdays hearing, Clapper said that U.S. spy agencies stand actually more resolutely behind conclusions they reached last year on Russias determination to undermine the U.S. election. He also appeared to take aim at Trumps social media sniping at U.S. intelligence services, saying that theres a difference between skepticism and disparagement. Obama last week announced a series of measures designed to punish Russia, actions he characterized as a necessary and appropriate response to efforts to harm U.S. interests. Obama moved to impose economic sanctions on Russian intelligence agencies, expelled dozens of alleged Russian intelligence operatives from the United States, and shuttered two compounds that for decades had purportedly served as retreats for Russian diplomats but were described by the administration as locations for espionage activities. Meanwhile, Trump continued his string of Twitter attacks, accusing U.S. intelligence agencies with the word intelligence set off in quotation marks of delaying a planned briefing on Russia and the election, a charge that U.S. officials disputed. He also appeared to side with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has denied that his organization got the hacked emails from Russia, over U.S. spy agencies, which think that WikiLeaks got the material through middlemen with ties to the Kremlin. [How Julian Assange evolved from pariah to paragon] Trump appeared to retreat on Thursday, accusing the dishonest media of misrepresenting his comments about Assange. The media lies to make it look like I am against Intelligence, he said, when in fact I am a big fan! U.S. officials said the captured messages, whose existence has not previously been disclosed, added to the confidence level at the CIA and other agencies that Putins goals went beyond seeking to undermine confidence in Americas election machinery and ultimately were aimed at tilting a fiercely contested presidential race toward a candidate seen as more in line with Moscows foreign policy goals. Even so, the messages also revealed that top officials in Russia anticipated that Clinton would win and did not expect their effort to achieve its goal. Russian officials were as surprised as the rest of the world, said the second U.S. official who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters. In this case, you do learn things after the fact based on how they feel about it, the first official said, adding that the intercepts added to the intelligence communitys shifting level of confidence. The intercepts also echoed some public comments in Moscow. Trump understood the mood of the people and kept going until the end, when nobody believed in him, Putin said at a news conference last month, adding with a wry smile, except for you and me. U.S. intelligence officials think that Putin has for years held a grudge against Clinton, whom he accused of fomenting demonstrations in Moscow in 2011 and 2012 that embarrassed Putin and rattled the former KGB operatives confidence in his grip on power. Russias elite spy services have for years used cyberespionage capabilities to gather information on U.S. policymakers and political candidates as the United States does on Russia. But Moscows decision to dump thousands of stolen emails into public view on WikiLeaks was seen as a provocative departure from the traditional lanes of espionage, U.S. officials said. Clapper on Thursday said there is a difference between an act of espionage, which we conduct, as well, and other nations do, versus an attack. U.S. officials said that Russias goals appear to have shifted over time. Moscows initial hacking operations targeted almost every major candidate, including Trumps Republican primary rivals, as part of a fairly typical clandestine collection program. Russias initial objective may have been merely to meddle and undermine the legitimacy of an assumed Clinton victory. But as Trump captured the GOP nomination and showed that he could remain competitive with Clinton, Russias aims became more ambitious, officials said. The final months of the race saw a steady stream of leaked emails that damaged Clintons candidacy, without any corresponding release to embarrass Trump. Russia also used social media and fake news platforms as an accelerant to try to boost Trump and undermine Clinton, the second official said. Julie Tate contributed to this report. Read more: Putin to Democratic Party: You lost, get over it U.S. intelligence officials say Russian hacks prioritized Democrats Obama administration announces measures to punish Russia for 2016 election interference High Court Kampala is today expected to rule on an application filed by Rubaga South MP Paul Kato Lubwama seeking to appeal against its decision that allowed a voter to challenge his academic qualifications. Justice Margaret Oumo Oguli on December 19th allowed Rubaga South voter to file an election petition against Kato Lubwama challenging his academic qualifications. But Lubwama being dissatisfied with the decision filed an application asking the judge allow him appeal. Justice Oguli in her ruling said there is unchallenged evidence on court records showing that Kato Lubwama lied to the Electoral Commission that he possessed a valid O level certificate from Old Kampala SSS yet the same is not registered by the Uganda Registration Services Bureau. Habib Buwembo voter and petitioner insists that Lubwama scored aggregate 7 which could not be relied on to sit mature age entry exams to be admitted for a diploma in Music Dance and Drama at Makerere University. Buwembo this week filed a main election petition challenging Lubwamas election but it is yet to be fixed for hearing. The ruthlessness and brutality of Germanys authorities against refugees now knows almost no bounds. In 2016 alone, some 25,000 desperate people were deported. Again and again, families are torn apart, children repatriated despite serious illness to war-torn homelands and refugees snatched from their beds without warning in the middle of the night. The number of so-called voluntary returners is even higher, reaching some 55,000 in 2016. The voluntary nature of the return lies in the fact that following rejection of their asylum claims, refugees are given an ultimatum: either leave the country within a specified time period and receive some minimal support for their departure, or be forcibly deported and often bear the cost of it themselves. Those in this category are then banned from re-entry to Germany. Not infrequently, part of a family is deported, so the remaining members follow them. This too is recorded as a voluntary return. The Left Party celebrates this particularly insidious form of brutality as a humane alternative to deportation. Thuringia, the only German state under Left Party rule, with 1,726 so-called voluntary returns between January and November 2016, ranks second among the states behind Saxony. In addition to these ruthless deportation practices, Der Spiegel recently published a survey revealing that refugees are treated badly as soon as they arrive in Germany. In nearly 1,500 cases over the past two years, property was confiscated from refugees. The sums involved totalled at least 863,000 euros [$US 903,000], according to the news weekly. The leader in this practice is the Christian Democratic Union (CDU)-Social Democratic Party (SPD) coalition ruling Saxony, which has seized a total of 328,432 euros in 411 cases. This act of mass theft occurred despite the fact that Saxony only accepted five percent of asylum seekers under the Konigstein formula, which forms the basis for the distribution of refugees in Germany. This operation is based on Paragraph 7a of the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act. According to this law, a surety can be demanded from those entitled to benefits. An exception is made for an allowance of 200 euros. Bavaria and Baden Wurttemberg each permit a higher allowance. Patrick Irmer, spokesman for the Saxony Refugee Council, told Der Spiegel he knew of at least four cases in which those affected were only allowed to keep a minimal 50 euros, although the relevant regulations on the allowance were already in force. Under the current legislation, the confiscation of money from refugees can take place forcibly and without warning. In Bavaria, North Rhine Westphalia and Schleswig Holstein this means that asylum seekers are routinely searched if they are suspected of having any items of value on their person. While most German states only confiscate cash, Rhineland Palatinate and Middle Franconia impound automobiles too. This imposes a massive curtailment of freedom of movement on refugees and increases the pressure on them to voluntarily return. The vehicles are only returned upon their leaving the country. Hamburg, by its own account, is the only state where no such actions are carried out. According to Der Spiegel, Brandenburg, Bremen, Saxony Anhalt and Lower Saxony dispense with the seizure of assets, but in return they provide accommodation and meals on account or pay out lower benefits. These confiscations bear startling similarities to the Nazi regimes actions against the Jewish population in the 1930s. Before the construction of the large extermination camps, Jews were forced to sell their property well below its value, or it was simply taken from them. They were excluded from social life, through being denied access to public buildings and events, and their children were not allowed to attend state schools. Eighty years later, the same politicians who solemnly declare in speeches that the memory of the rupture of civilization of the Shoah must be maintained, now rail against asylum seekers. The list of vile measures taken by the authorities and reactionary media campaigns is growing: it includes the hysteria over alleged mass sexual attacks by asylum seekers in Cologne on New Years Eve 2015-16, for which no serious evidence has yet been produced; the restriction on access to public pools in Bonn; the inhumane accommodation in gyms, former hangars and container villages; the demands for a burqa ban; and the seizure of the already minimal assets of asylum seekers. These actions can only be understood as a fundamental attack on the rights of the entire working class. This deeply anti-democratic and authoritarian trend has culminated recently in the first mass deportations to Afghanistan. On its website, the German foreign ministry warns against travel to Afghanistan. Whoever still travels there, it explains, must be aware of the risk from terrorist or criminal acts of violence. Naturally, the ministry does not mention that for 15 years Germany has been a belligerent power directly responsible for this violence. Now German authorities are forcing people fleeing the war and terror to return to Afghanistan, thus again endangering their lives. Rarely has a party been so thoroughly exposed as Beppe Grillos Five Star Movement (M5S) in Rome. The election of its member Virginia Raggi as mayor of the Italian capital in summer 2016 was regarded as their greatest success to date. Now Raggi, who had promised a radical new beginning in the name of honesty and transparency, is engulfed in a corruption scandal. On December 16, Raffaele Marra, head of personnel of the Rome City Council, was arrested for corruption. A few days prior, Paola Muraro, responsible for waste disposal as part of the environment brief, resigned because she was being investigated by the state attorney for abuse of office. Earlier, in September, Raggi had to completely reshuffle her cabinet when five leading members of the city government resigned in protest. Several building contractors have been placed under house arrest, accused of bribing members of the city administration in relation to a school renovation programme. They are suspected of pocketing up to 20 percent of the budget for the renovation as bribes. Also on December 16, police seized documents belonging to the mayor to examine her hiring practices. Grillo, the founder and leader of the Five Star Movement, has kept an iron grip on Raggi. On his blog, he wrote on December 17: Mistakes have been made. Virginia has recognised that she had trusted the wrong people. From today, the line of approach has been changed ... We will fight tooth and nail to change Rome. On January 2, Grillo proposed an amendment of the M5S code of ethics, to be voted on via the internet, which would stipulate that a minister from M5S does not automatically have to resign if the judiciary is investigating him or her. This alone is decided by the guarantor of the movement, namely Grillo himself. In the Italian press, the change has been nicknamed decreto salva-Raggi (Raggi Rescue Decree). The fight against corruption has long been a central issue in the propaganda of M5S. Grillo has exploited accusations of corruption in order to channel the widespread anger with the ruling elites behind his own movement, which claims to be neither left-wing nor right-wing. In reality, however, the M5S advocates a right-wing, nationalist and pro-capitalist programme. The Five Star Movement has risen to become the second largest party in the country, just behind the ruling Democrats (PD), and won the runoff ballot for Rome mayor with 67 percent of the vote. Raggi has only needed six months to expose the real character of Grillos movement. It represents the interests of petty-bourgeois layers who want to climb the social ladder and enrich themselves, and is linked very closely with the old, corrupt elites. Its tirades against government waste are directed primarily against workers in the public sector, and its demands for stricter immigration controls are aimed at the most vulnerable sections of the working class. M5S has increasingly gathered right-wing and far-right elements around itself. This is also shown by the recent exposures of the Rome city administration. Raggi enjoys the best relationships with well-known and very right-wing circles in Rome. The 38-year-old lawyer had worked at the law firm of Pieremilio Sammarco, whose brother, the star lawyer Alessandro Sammarco, has defended both ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi, as well as his advisers Marcello DellUtri and Cesare Previti. It is reported that Raggi completed an internship 13 years ago at Cesare Previtis firm. Previti had helped Berlusconi obtain his villa in Arcore and was co-founder and later parliamentary leader of his Forza Italia party. He was defence minister in Berlusconis first cabinet in 1994. The long-time adviser and Berlusconi lawyer, a member of the scandal-ridden P2 Lodge, was later convicted for bribing judges (but was only imprisoned for one day). The Sammarco law firm enjoyed good relations with a predecessor of Raggi, the extreme right-wing mayor Gianni Alemanno (2008-2013). In his era, the so-called Mafia Capitale flourished unhindered. The accusations against Marra and Paola Murora go back to the Alemanno era. Marra, who is also known as Rasputin from the Capital because of his influence over Raggi, last worked as the senior employer of 23,000 municipal workers. Under Alemanno, he was chief of the housing policy department, and in this capacity, was embroiled in several cases of real estate corruption. Arrested at the same time as Marra, Rome real estate mogul Sergio Scarpellini was said to have helped Marra acquire a private property in 2013 for half a million euros below the market price. In return, Marra is said to have granted him lucrative contracts. Marra is also said to have concluded contracts worth millions with another contractor, the engineer Fabrizio Amore, who is also being investigated in connection with the Mafia Capitale. City councilor Murora, who was supposed to clean out the nepotism in the department responsible for refuse (AMA), was also part of the insider network. For 12 years, also under Alemanno, she worked as a highly-paid consultant for the AMA, and in this capacity was able to pocket over a million euros in fees. Murara is under investigation for environmental crimes related to the garbage disposal service. Since 2012, the extent of the Mafia Capitale has been uncovered by investigative journalist Lirio Abbate, the newspaper L Espresso and the Attorney General Giuseppe Pignatone. According to him, known Mafiosi such as Massimo Carminati and Salvatore Buzzi controlled whole sections of the city administration. Carminati came from the neo-fascist terrorist organization Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari (Revolutionary Armed Cells) and his business entertained the best relations with both political camps. Under Alemanno, Carminati and Buzzi led a so-called cooperative holding, with up to a thousand employees and a turnover of tens of millions of euros, which they used to put former prisoners or immigrants to work. They also managed to take over the management of reception centres for refugees. Here, they pocketed the 30 to 45 a day paid for each refugee by the Italian statea business worth millions that proved more profitable than drug dealing. Carminati and Buzzi are now in custody. After Marras arrest, and after intensive discussions with Grillo, Raggi severed ties with two other close associates in December: Deputy Mayor Daniele Frongia and the Secretariat Director Salvatore Romeo. As the Espresso has revealed, Raggi has long been known by Marra, Frongia and Romeo. The quartet had forced the top candidate of the Five Star Movement in Rome, Marcello De Vito, out of the race for city government in early 2016 through intrigue. Raggis election victory in June 2016 was mainly due to the fact that she was a new, fresh face, while the two large political camps were completely discredited. Mafia Capitale had blossomed under the Alemanno regime, but it also subsequently brought the centre-left camp no improvements. When Ignazio Marino took over the leadership of the capital in 2013, with the support of the Democrats (PD) and various pseudo left organizations, the city faced bankruptcy and Marino pushed the crisis onto the working class with an austerity decree. He quickly lost all support and resigned voluntarily at the end of 2015, although the corruption allegations raised against Marino proved to be unfounded. Raggi brought Marra, Frongia and Romeo into the municipal administration as a conspiratorial clique, where they occupied highly-paid positions. The so-called magic circle (alluding to Raggis name raggio magico, magical radius) first came to public notice when the cabinet chief, Judge Carla Raineri, resigned in early September in protest against Marra, who apparently pulled all the strings. On the same day, the councillor responsible for financial affairs and three other senior officials left the city administration. A January 3 survey by the Winnpoll agency showed the Five Star Movement had lost two percentage points in the polls as a result of the revelations. If parliamentary elections were held now, Beppe Grillos party would still receive 26.4 percent. However, the winners would be a new coalition of the right-wing, with 34.4 percent (14.1 percent for Lega Nord, 13.2 Forza Italia, 4.4 Fratelli dItalia), while Matteo Renzis Democratic Party would win 27.5 percent and the pseudo-left less than 5 percent (Sinistra Italiana 4.4 and Rifondazione Comunista 0.5). Chef Edgar Beas may seem too young to be executive chef of Rosewood Inn of the Anasazi in Santa Ferecognized as a top destination worldwide by leading travel organizations and magazines, including Conde Nast Traveler, Forbes and AAAbut dont confuse his lack of grey hair for absence of culinary... Chef Edgar Beas may seem too young to be executive chef of Rosewood Inn of the Anasazi in Santa Ferecognized as a top destination worldwide by leading travel organizations and magazines, including Conde Nast Traveler, Forbes and AAAbut dont confuse his lack of grey hair for absence of culinary expertise. A graduate of the San Diego Culinary Institute, Baes began his formal culinary career as a line cook at Addison Restaurant in San Diego. He then joined El Bizcocho as chef de partie, and later trained in Spain at Martin Berasategui Restaurant, where he learned from acclaimed Spanish chef Berasategui himself. Upon his return to the U.S., Beas held the executive chef position at San Franciscos Chez Papa Bistrot before transitioning to Madera, the Michelin-starred signature restaurant of Rosewood Sand Hill in Menlo Park, California. During his tenure there, chef Beas honed on his development of new dishes that elevated vegan and gluten-free dining while integrating seasonal produce from Northern California. Since his arrival to his latest post in The City Different, Beas has lead the talented culinary team in the hotels renowned Anasazi Restaurant, Bar and Lounge, continuing to innovate in the kitchen with new seasonal dishes emphasizing the vibrant flavors of the Southwest. We recently had the pleasure of sampling a tasting menu of his unique disheslike the perfectly seared foie gras with dehydrated red chile and dark chocolate atop toasted brioche, served with a side of juniper berries cooked in gin and lavender, and garnished with nasturtium flowersand to chat with the driven chef. The Daily Meal: What would you say is your utmost guiding culinary principle? Chef Edgar Baes: The main focus for me in cooking is perfecting techniques and highlighting ingredients. I believe that sourcing local quality ingredients is key in creating delicious food. I strive to approach food with respect and a deep appreciation for execution. You are known for your imaginatively complex gluten-free and vegetarian disheswhat interests you most in creating these "specialty" plates? I really enjoy cooking with vegetables. They have an amazing variation in taste and texture, and are also visually appealing. What is your favorite ingredient you have found in Santa Fe that you haven't been able to source anywhere else? Edible flowers, tiny leaves, fresh seeds, and the fresh pinon that we harvest. What about Santa Fe initially attracted you to cook here? [pullquote:right] Moving to Santa Fe was such an incredible opportunity for me. Not only am I able to move forward in my career and lead the kitchen at a highly regarded restaurant, but am also able to explore new culinary styles and try different ingredients that I never worked with before. The culture in Santa Fe is so vibrant and interestingunlike anything Ive ever experiencedand that has inspired me to be create new dishes and cooking techniques for our menus, and the people couldnt be more welcoming or supportive of what Im doing here at the Anasazi Restaurant. What has surprised you the most thus far in your time in the kitchen at Rosewood Inn at the Anasazi? Coming from Northern California, I was exposed to an abundance of produce that I didnt expect to find here in Santa Fe. However, the high level of ingredients that Ive found while working with local farmers has exceeded my expectations. Mother of Toddler Trapped Under Fallen Dresser Speaks Out: I Felt Like the Worst Parent Ever The mother of a 2-year-old boy who was trapped under a fallen dresser and rescued by his twin brother is speaking out about the scary ordeal that was captured on a nanny cam. My heart sank, Kayli Shoff told Good Morning America in an interview aired on Wednesday. I honestly felt like the worst parent ever. It was such an easy thing for me that I couldve done to prevent what happened to my children. Bowdy and Brock Shoff were playing on a dresser in the nursery of their Orem, Utah, home when the furniture fell over, pinning Brock underneath. Bowdy sprang into action, pushing the dresser and freeing his brother. Shoff said she didnt know what had happened until she checked the baby monitor. I ripped off the covers, ran downstairs, flung open the door and saw them quietly playing in the corner by their crib, she told GMA. The boys were uninjured and Shoff said she has since bolted the IKEA dresser to the wall. The mother gushed about her sons quick action to GMA. He said, What do I need to do to save my brother? My brothers in pain, hes struggling. Ive got to help him, she said. He sat there for about 8 or 10 seconds and just looked at him, and went to try to lift it up, she continued. Wasnt working that way, pushed with all of his might and it was like butter, it was smooth, it just pushed right off of him. She added that she and her husband, Rick, applauded Bowdy for his heroic act. Were so proud of you, Bowdy, you saved your brother, she recalled. And he just told us that he wanted to watch his show. Photo credit: Drew Angererundefined From Esquire (Optional Video Accompaniment To This Post) The Pew Research Center on Religion and Public Life has produced a study that either indicates a profound theological dissonance between the American people and the people whom they elect as their representatives in Congress, or it indicates that a great number of those representatives lie to people who take surveys. The group that is most notably underrepresented is the religiously unaffiliated. This group also known as religious "nones" now accounts for 23% of the general public but just 0.2% of Congress. As noted above, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona is the only member who describes herself as religiously unaffiliated. As we always should be aware, because the Constitution expressly forbids religious tests for any political office, the American people have decided to create them ad hoc based on their general impression of the various candidates under consideration. Someone who agrees with you on, say, tax cuts or the environment is presumed to agree with you on the Trinity or transubstantiation. Piety in our politicians is simply assumed even when it's as silent as the "W" in "wrong." [contentlinks align="center" textonly="false" numbered="false" headline="Related%20Story" customtitles="Congress%20Does%20Not%20Reflect%20the%20People%20It%20Serves%20When%20It%20Comes%20to%20Religion" customimages="" content="article.52011"] In addition, "Christian" has become such a baggy term in our politics that it's come to mean almost anything. In its most effective political form-and, therefore, in its most common citations-it means a certain splinter of American Protestant fundamentalism. It's a political signifier as much as it is a statement of belief. That may change because, as the Pew study shows, there are now more members of Congress from other faiths than there ever have been before. But, for the moment, I suspect "Christian" in politics will continue to be defined more in terms of the Billy Graham Crusade than anything else. Story continues Meanwhile, the drift away from the various formal monotheisms in the general population, as is described in the Pew survey among others, has yet to develop a political salience of its own. It is very unlikely to do so any time soon, either. There is a deep suspicion, easily inflamed by ambitious mountebanks, of any politician who publicly claims to be unchurched. Why open that can of sanctified annalids when you don't have to, and when you can just genuflect in the general direction of a largely amorphous Savior? And, of course, an overwhelming majority of people who identify their politics with their fundamentalist Protestant religious principles just voted in a president who, by any reasonable definition, is as close to a heathen as anyone we've ever elected. Photo credit: Congressional Quarterlyundefined Keeping religion in its proper place was a topic of heated debate at the time of the country's birth. At the Massachusetts convention called to consider ratification of the new Constitution, the Reverend Daniel Shute argued that the opposition to religious tests for office was universal and absolute. Far from limiting my charity and confidence to men of my own denomination in religion, I suppose, and I believe, sir, that there are worthy characters among men of every other denomination among the Quakers the Baptists the Church of England the Papists and even among those who have no other guide, in the way to virtue and heaven, than the dictates of natural religion. I must therefore think, Sir, that the proposed plan of government, in this particular, is wisely constructed: That as all have an equal claim to the blessings of the government under which they live, and which they support, so none should be excluded from them for being of any particular denomination of religion. These were not fearful men, nor were they people unfamiliar with religious persecution. In Massachusetts, for example, the government was a little more than a century removed from a) hanging Mary Dyer for the crime of being a Quaker, and b) defining Catholicism as a crime worthy of the same punishment. We've come a long way from those days, though. Now we'd rather elect people who feign a faith in public from which we all are drifting in private. We argue about "faith-based" politics, because that's easier than grappling with the question of faith itself. Respond to this post on the Esquire Politics Facebook page. You Might Also Like For more news videos visit Yahoo View, available now on iOS and Android. Although President-elect Donald Trump has yet to take office, the newly sworn-in Republican Congress is already taking steps to attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act while President Obama is simultaneously taking steps to try and preserve the law thats tied to his legacy. Obama met with Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill Wednesday to encourage them to stay strong in the face of Republican opposition to Obamacare Obama told the lawmakers not to rescue Republicans in their effort to overturn and replace Obamacare, CNN reports. Obama encouraged us to fight, Democratic Representative Elijah Cummings told reporters after the Obama meeting, per Reuters. In two weeks I will no longer be a politician, but Ill still be a citizen. I envy you so much right now, because I would love to be on the field, Obama also reportedly said. Look out for the American people, Obama also told a group of reporters after the meeting. Related Video: PEOPLE at the White House: The Final Interview with The Obamas After their meeting, Democrats introduced the slogan Make America Sick Again to try and pin any future healthcare mishaps on the Republicans. The Republican plan to cut healthcare wouldnt make America great again,' Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer reportedly said after the meeting. It would make America sick again and lead to chaos instead of affordable care. Obamas meeting comes on the very same day Vice President-elect Mike Pence met with Republican lawmakers and declared that repealing the 2010 law is the first order of business for the Trump administration. The first order of business is to keep our promise to repeal Obamacare and replace it with the kind of healthcare reform that will lower the cost of health insurance without growing the size of government, Pence said at a news conference alongside House Speaker Paul Ryan, Reuters reports. Although the pair offered few details on what an alternative Republican plan might entail, Ryan said that their proposed changes would not pull the rug out from anybody. Meanwhile, Trump took to his favorite medium Twitter to weigh in on Obamacare Wednesday, warning Congressional Republicans in a series of tweets that they should not let the Schumer clowns out of his web. Obi-Wan Kenobi prepares to face Maul (Disney/Lucasfilm) While we Kenobi-philes wait for that Obi-Wan standalone movie or to see if the old Jedi still has a role to play in Episode VIII (perhaps in relation to a certain budding Force aficionado?) the folks at Lucasfilm have thrown us a bone. Our hero-in-hiding bookends the latest trailer for Star Wars Rebels, a fan-servicing clip jam-packed with familiar faces from the Star Wars films, including Rogue One. Clocking in at three minutes, 15 seconds, the trailer (watch it above) teases events for the second half of the shows current third season. It begins with a hologram warning from an Obi-Wan circa Revenge of the Sith seen by the shows young hero, wannabe Jedi Ezra Bridger. We then get glimpses of other key players in the nascent Galactic Civil War: Mon Mothma, Wilhuff Tarkin, and Saw Gerrera, with Forest Whitaker reprising his role from Rogue One. Mon Mothma addresses the Alliance (Disney/Lucasfilm) Tarkin appears via hologram (Disney/Lucasfilm) Saw Gerrera joins the Rebels team (Disney/Lucasfilm) The clip closes with an older Tatooine-dwelling Obi-Wan firing up his lightsaber at the approach of a shadowy figure who appears to be his old Phantom Menace nemesis, Darth Maul, still stewing over that bisection. Obi-Wan Kenobi (Disney/Lucasfilm) Maul readies for a rematch (Disney/Lucasfilm) Rebels, the Disney XD animated series, is set in roughly the same time frame as Rogue One, when disparate freedom fighters opposed to the growing tyranny of the Galactic Empire begin to form the Alliance. It has woven together characters and plot points from various pieces of the Star Wars galaxy, with callbacks to George Lucass original saga, the prequel films, and the old Expanded Universe of books and video games. The design of the main crew is taken from Ralph McQuarries unused early concept art from A New Hope. The second season closed with a memorable confrontation between Ahsoka Tano, the fan-favorite character from Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and her former master, Darth Vader. Such core Star Wars movie characters as Princess Leia, Bail Organa, Wedge Antilles, and Maul, have appeared on the show (a Season 2 episode featuring the Organas, A Princess on Lothal, was just nominated for a Writers Guild Award), and the current third season has seen the addition of Thrawn, a major villain from the EU. The new trailer also features both Rogue Ones Death Troopers and the Dark Troopers from the old Dark Forces video-game series. Story continues The Rebels team finally crossed over into the cinematic universe in Rogue One. During the early scenes set on Yavin 4, their ship, the Ghost, can be seen parked outside the hangar, while Cranky astromech droid Chopper briefly appears on screen and the intercom namechecks the ships pilot, Hera Syndulla (shes paged as General Syndulla). Chopper (far left) speeds by on Yavin 4 (Disney/Lucasfilm via StarWars.com) The Ghost is also part of the climactic battle over Scarif, and the Hammerhead Corvette, the vessel which knocks a Star Destroyer into the space gate protecting the planet, was first seen in Rebels. The Ghost prepares for the battle of Scarif in Rogue One (Disney/Lucasfilm via StarWars.com) Rebels returns on Saturday, Jan. 7, with the two-part episode Ghosts of Geonosis. Amid reports that Charles Manson has been taken from his California prison cell to a hospital, a state corrections official would confirm only that the 82-year-old killer and cult leader was still alive. The late Sharon Tate's younger sister does not have hate in her heart toward Charles Manson and his followers for their grisly murders in Los Angeles decades ago, but she does believe he should already be dead. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday, a day after Manson was transported to the hospital from California's Corcoran State Prison because he is reportedly severely ill, Debra Tate said she is not sure how she will feel when the infamous cult leader finally dies, but for now, she is not wishing it to happen. "He has got a gastrointestinal problem, but I was not given the impression it is fatal. But because of his advanced age, anything can become a problem," Tate told THR of the 82-year-old. "I know people wish him ill ... but because of my Christian upbringing, I don't wish ill will on any of these people." California State Prison officials have been mum on any update concerning whether Manson was transferred to a hospital or why, but they did confirm he is still alive. As for why any prisoner would be taken off site to a hospital, Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections, told THR, "Under the Eighth Amendment, we are required to provide prisoners with adequate medical care." Manson is serving a life sentence for his part in the 1969 Manson Family murders, which included the murder of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and six others. Manson and his convicted followers' capital sentences were commuted because of a California Supreme Court ruling in 1972. Debra Tate continues to find that decision unacceptable. "I agree that all of these people should have gotten the death penalty and things should have been taken care of in the proper manner back then," she tells THR. "My only agenda now is to make sure they remain incarcerated until their time of death because they are a danger to the public. They are sociopathic, and that's not anything that goes away." Story continues Tate, the middle of three children, who resides in Los Angeles, says she hopes those upset that Manson is allegedly getting great care for his medical condition make their ire known to lawmakers. "People need to know in the state of California, these inmates get better physical care than almost anyone other than the filthy rich," she said. "And personally, I don't think that is a punishment. I would rather all these people who feel so strongly [about Manson's fate] join me and try to change the system, so perhaps we could take that money and spend it on something that will have the possibility of contributing something positive to society as opposed to helping people we have already deemed unworthy to live a free lifestyle. It is really a kind of waste." Tate has attended numerous parole hearings thorough the years for Manson and his followers in an effort to ensure none of them is ever released. "This is just something I have to deal with," she says. "Sharon and I were extremely close. She was my world. There was no one who knew her longer or better than I did." Read more: Charles Manson Follower Seeks Parole 47 Years After Killings The defence hearing of an assault case against former Old Kampala DPC Joram Mwesigye is expected to resume today at Buganda road court. On December 7th 2016 ASP Mwesigye told the same court that all the charges that were preferred against him in relation to assaulting WBS Journalist Andrew Lwanga were false. Mwesigye also denied the allegation that he is the one who damaged Lwangas Camera and that of New vision journalist Joseph Ssetimba whose kaki trousers were also torn. ASP Mwesigye is today expected to produce his witnesses before courts grade one magistrate Gladys Kamasanyu. The alleged offence was committed on 12/January/2015 at Florina bar and guest house along Namirembe road, during a demonstration by the unemployed youths, who had first gathered at JEEMA Offices in Mengo that morning. Applications belonging to the New York Times have been removed from Apples App Store in China, following moves by Chinese regulators. Apple took down the apps on Dec 23, 2016, the paper said Wednesday. For some time now the New York Times app has not been permitted to display content to most users in China and we have been informed that the app is in violation of local regulations, said Fred Sainz, an Apple spokesman, quoted by the paper. The papers website has been blocked in China since 2012 when Chinese authorities moved against it and other international publications including The Wall Street Journal and The Financial Times. But readers in China could continue access content through the papers English and Chinese-language apps. Although Apple did not specify the details of the take down request by Chinese authorities, the Cyberspace Administration of China says that apps may not publish prohibited content. The move represents another incremental tightening of government control over the Internet in China. The restrictions on speech and expression in China have grown steadily in China over the past four years. President Xi Jinping has argued strongly that each country should have sovereignty over the Internet within its own borders. Last year Apple was ordered to remove its iTunes Movies and Books services from its virtual store in China. Disney saw its DisneyLife joint venture with Alibaba shuttered after just four months of operation. China is one of Apples biggest markets for iPhones. It also makes a large proportion of the phones in Chinese factories operated by Taiwans Foxconn. The New York Times said that it had been preparing a news story on the Chinese governments hidden subsidies provided to the Foxconn factory at the time that its apps were taken offline. Related stories Apple App Store Subscription Revenue Hits $2.7 Billion in 2016, Up 74% CCTV International Channels Relaunched as CGTN 'Passengers' Locks China Release Date By Jessica McKinney Goodbye student debt? On Tuesday (Jan. 3), Governor of New York Andrew M. Cuomo reportedly announced his plan to offer free tuition at state colleges to thousands of low and middle income families, The New York Times confirms. Gov. Cuomo is expected to announce his proposal for the Excelsior Scholarship at an event at LaGuardia Community College in Queens, alongside Senator Bernie Sanders. Under this new legislation, any college student who is accepted into a New York state (or city) university or 2-year community college, will be eligible to receive free tuition, so long as their family earns $125,000 or less annually. The idea of the scholarship fund is to pay off tuition payments for thousands of students by utilizing existing state and federal loan and grant programs, NYT reports. Although how the program will be funded has not been disclosed, the state administration has said that nearly $1 billion has been donated in support of tuition assistance already, Politico reports. Costs for the program would be around $163 million, although that number could vary, according to reports. As for when students and families can expect for the program to be implemented, the governor reportedly has high hopes to begin with a three-year rollout of the plan come Fall 2017. But the proposal will require legislative approval. Current tuition at a four-year state university or college is $6,460, and $4,350 for a two-year college. In the event it is approved, Gov. Cuomo predicts they will be able to assist nearly one million New York families or independent adults. This post Cuomo Plans To Offer Free Tuition At State Colleges For Low Income Families first appeared on Vibe. By Desire Thompson Six civil rights activists, one including the CEO and President of the NAACP, were arrested on Tuesday (Jan. 3) for a non-violent protest at the office at US Sen. Jeff Sessions, the attorney general nominee picked by President-elect Donald Trump. CNN reports NAACP President Cornell William Brooks helped lead the sit-in with other members when they quietly sat in Sessions Mobile, Ala. office. They were identified as Devon Crawford, Stephen A. Green, Joe Keffer, Lizzetta McConnell and Bernard Simelton with local or national titles in the NAACP. Trump named Sessions his attorney general pick in November. He is a world-class legal mind and considered a truly great Attorney General and U.S. Attorney in the state of Alabama, Trump said at the time. Jeff is greatly admired by legal scholars and virtually everyone who knows him. It didnt take long for the public to discover Sessions run-ins with racist rhetoric. During his time with the Ronald Reagan administration, Sessions reportedly made insensitive comments towards African-Americans and once mentioned he didnt have issues with the Ku Klux Klan until he learned that they smoked marijuana. Brooks and the group of activists said they would remain in Sessions office until he withdrew himself from the nomination or until they were arrested. We are asking the senator to withdraw his name for consideration as attorney general or for the President-elect, Donald Trump, to withdraw the nomination, Brooks said.In the midst of rampant voter suppression, this nominee has failed to acknowledge the reality of voter suppression while pretending to believe in the myth of voter fraud. The group shared the experience on Facebook Live and on Twitter, where they were seated on the floor. Brooks was critical of Trumps campaign the White House and denounced the businessmans organization for their views against immigrants and the lower class. The fact of the matter is this is hateful. It is racist. It is bigoted. It is xenophobic. It represents a kind of Jim Crow with hairspray and a blue suit, he said to CNN in March 2016. Lets not underestimate what were dealing with. This is a very, very ugly moment in America. Story continues Before their arrest, the group peacefully complied and said a prayer. As their mugshots began to surface on social media, Brooks took the moment to embrace them by sharing them several times on Twitter. After the @jeffsessions sit-in, these mug shots arent pretty, but theyre pictures of @NAACP determination. #RestoreTheVRA & #stopsessions, he tweeted. Mugshots Credit: Washington Post A rep for Sessions called the racist claims recycled and assured the senator would be sure to prosecute government corruption during his time as attorney general. Many African-American leaders whove known him for decades attest to this and have welcomed his nomination to be the next attorney general, Sarah Isgur Flores said in a statement. These false portrayals of Sen. Sessions will fail as tired, recycled, hyperbolic charges that have been thoroughly rebuked and discredited, she said. This post NAACP President Arrested For Protest Of Trump Attorney General Nomination first appeared on Vibe. So you binge watched Netflixs The Crown over the holiday season, and now youre at a loss, wanting to know more about the Queens palace, state dinners, corgis, and the good old red box. To feed your regal fix until season 2, EWs compiled a list of royally fascinating reads about Queen Elizabeths life and reign. Toast some crumpets and dive right in. Tim Heald, Princess Margaret In The Crown, Queen Elizabeth always has to sacrifice her wants and desires for the role she must play, while her younger sister Prince Margaret often gets to have plain, simple fun. Margaret also encountered some trying times namely her forbidden romance with Group Captain Peter Townsend but all that passion, angst, and betrayal makes for an even more gripping read in her biography, written by Tim Heald. With help from the Princess eventual husband, Lord Snowden, and her son, Lord Linley, as well as some of her ladies in waiting, Heald dives into the conflicting private and public worlds of the queens little sister. Sally Bedell Smith, Elizabeth the Queen This ones juicy. Detailing Elizabeths early days as Heiress Presumptive, her determination to marry Prince Philip despite her parents protests, and all the ups and downs of her 60-plus-year reign, this best seller goes behind the queens perfectly presented public poise to explore the wit and charm that is rarely given the chance to flourish outside the palace walls. Gyles Brandeth, Elizabeth & Philip: Portrait of a Royal Marriage If Claire Foy and Matt Smiths portrayal of Elizabeth and Philips romance was your favorite part of The Crown, this ones for you. The course of true love never did run smooth, and thats certainly true for the young queen and her overshadowed husband (and distant cousin). Despite living their entire married life in the public eye, very little is known about what actually goes on between the couple behind palace walls. Read this biography to find out if the Duke of Edinburgh was really as surly as the Netflix show suggests. Plus, the book includes a selection of Prince Philips family photographs as well as pictures from the Queens royal collection. Story continues Marion Crawford, The Little Princesses Written by Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margarets nanny of 16 years, Marion Crawford (Crawfie), The Little Princesses tells of the girls royal upbringing and Crawfords attempt to expose the children to the ordinary world outside of the palace. However, scandal followed the publication of the book, dubbed the original nanny diaries, as the press went after Crawford for divulging royal secrets and the Queen Mother who had given the nanny permission to write the book never spoke to her again. Philip Eade, Young Prince Philip Charming, truculent and often times not entirely politically correct, Matt Smiths Prince Philip is one of the best parts of The Crown. Despite having been married to the queen for more than 60 years, the early life of the man whose grandson and future king, Prince William described as a legend is rather mysterious. This book focuses exclusively on the future Duke of Edinburghs young life, before Elizabeths coronation, including his mothers commitment to a psychiatric clinic when he was just nine years old, his turbulent upbringing across Greece, France, Nazi Germany, and Britain, and later his time serving in the Royal Navy during the Second World War. William Shawcross, The Queen Mother No monarch has ever been as publicly adored as the queen mother. She lived to the impressive age of 101, so you know theres plenty of royal living to pack these pages. Shawcross was awarded unrestricted access to the queen mothers personal papers, letters, and diaries to put together this biography. The queen mothers life spanned two world wars, and she was also witness to the abdication of her son and the death of her younger daughter, Princess Margaret, making this one a gripping reading. Cecil Beaton, Queen Elizabeth II: Portraits English photographer, designer, and diarist Cecil Beatons collection of stunning photos offers a glamorous glimpse into royal living with accompanying descriptions of how these royal portraits shaped the monarchys public image from the 1930s to the late 1960s. Brian Hoey, Not in Front of the Corgis No, Not in Front of the Corgis isnt told from the point of view of one of the Queens adorable pups. Instead, its told from the perspective of the palace staff. Deep within the pages are fun facts about the Queens television and music preferences, insight into whats served at Prince Charles and Camillas dinner parties, and admissions about which royals really get on the serving staffs nerves. Perfect for the reader who wants to believe the royal family members are just like us. Kitty Kelley, The Royals Imagine if The Crown had aired on the CW rather than Netflix. Thats what you get with The Royals, packed with scandals including marriage dissolutions, affairs, and the ruined lives of regal children. With accusations of Prince Philips bisexuality and Princess Margarets anti-Semitism, its a juicy, shocking page-turner and, most definitely, an unauthorized biography. Dickie Arbiter, On Duty with the Queen In this unique look at royal life, former press secretary to the royal family, Dickie Arbiter, reveals the day-to-day workings of Buckingham Palace as well a day in the professional life of the queen. Arbiter has four decades of experience covering the queen and is the only royal commentator to have witnessed the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, covered her Silver, Golden, and Diamond Jubilees, and join Her Majesty for dishwashing chores after a picnic in Balmoral Castle. Those classy credentials make for fascinating and insightful reading. Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f337874%2fc76dfc99-c004-498b-92b2-61219aa29dc0 Alex Loznak is about to head into the second semester of his sophomore year at Columbia University, but he's not your typical student. He's one of 21 people, ages nine to 20, suing the federal government for failing to protect them from the damaging effects of climate change. Loznak, 19, and his fellow plaintiffs are hoping to advance their case, which is set to go to trial as early as this summer, by deposing current ExxonMobil CEO and Trump administration secretary of state nominee Rex Tillerson. SEE ALSO: Prominent climate-denying politician gets schooled by science, again According to Loznak and the legal team fighting the case, Tillerson is in the best position to speak to the "collusion" between fossil fuel companies and the government to maintain a fossil fuel-centric economy despite well-known evidence that burning fuels like coal and oil cause global warming. Tillerson served on the board of the American Petroleum Institute and other trade groups that have long opposed policies to reduce emissions, although he says he is in favor of the Paris Climate Agreement. Secretary of State-designate Rex Tillerson pauses during a meeting with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky. on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2017. Image: AP/EVAN vucci Tillerson's deposition is scheduled for Jan. 19, just one day before Trump's inauguration. The notice requesting the deposition asks for all documents relating to Tillerson's participation with a group known as the Global Climate Coalition, a fossil fuel industry-backed group which conducted an effective climate science disinformation campaign during the 1990s through 2001. It also seeks information on his role in particular decisions the George W. Bush administration made, such as walking away from the Kyoto Protocol in 2001. The case, brought by the nonprofit group Our Children's Trust, has already established a landmark precedent when a U.S. District Court Judge, Ann Aiken, ruled that the case can proceed to trial sometime this year. Her ruling stated that the federal government and fossil fuel industry's failure to stem global warming may violate the defendant's constitutional rights. Story continues "This action is of a different order than the typical environmental case," she wrote in her ruling. Global surface temperature departures from average during Nov. 2016. Image: nasa giss "It alleges that defendants actions and inactions whether or not they violate any specific statutory duty have so profoundly damaged our home planet that they threaten plaintiffs fundamental constitutional rights to life and liberty. The court said that the plaintiffs had asserted a right to a climate system capable of sustaining human life, and that the defendants may be endangering that. The effects of climate change are becoming more evident each year, with 2016 almost certain to set the record for the warmest calendar year on record. The year was marked with a devastating global coral bleaching event that killed parts of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, along with record low sea ice and unusually high temperatures in the Arctic. Loznak and his fellow plaintiffs are seeking to hold the federal government, fossil fuel companies and their trade associations accountable for failing to act swiftly and effectively to curb the emissions of greenhouse gases causing human-caused global warming, despite their knowledge of the science of climate change. Five of the 21 youth plaintiffs in a federal climate change lawsuit against the federal government, seen on Thursday, Nov. 10, 2016, in Eugene, Ore. Image: Chris Pietsch/The Register-Guard via AP The fact that the case is likely to proceed to trial is a surprise to many legal scholars, who thought the case would have been dismissed like many other climate lawsuits. The fact that were going to trial has surprised a lot of people," Loznak said in an interview with Mashable. Loznak, along with his legal team, see Tillerson's testimony as key to their case. Nobody knows better than Rex Tillerson, I think, how much collusion has gone on between the fossil fuel industry and the government in this country, Loznak said. Investigative reporting during the past two years from the Los Angeles Times, Columbia Journalism School and InsideClimate News has shown that Exxon researched climate change as early as the 1970s, yet chose to ignore the dangers of its fossil fuel products, and instead funded disinformation campaigns to confuse the public and politicians about the issue. The implications of a victory in this case could be unusually far-reaching. If we win at trial that means the court is going to order the government to reduce emissions [at rates] consistent with science, Loznak said, which means about 6 percent reductions per year, far faster than what is currently planned. Exxon Mobil's Billings Refinery in Billings, Mont., seen in Sept. 2016. Image: AP The case, known officially as Juliana v. United States, takes a different approach than previous climate change litigation in the U.S., which have mainly focused on violations of specific legal statutes, such as the Clean Air Act. Tillerson could try to change the date or avoid giving a deposition entirely, but so far his lawyers have not requested either of those outcomes, according to Julia Olson, executive director and chief counsel of Our Children's Trust. Michael Gerrard, who directs the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University Law School, said it's unlikely Tillerson will end up testifying, given his position at the company. "It would be common procedure in such a case for a corporation to resist the deposition of its CEO, he told Mashable. And often such motions are granted. Mashable reached out to Exxon for comment but did not hear back by deadline. Mr. Tillerson needs to show up for the deposition on the 19th absent a court order allowing him not to be deposed, Olson told Mashable. We have every expectation we will be deposing him on Jan. 19th and we look forward to it. Environmental groups are vehemently opposed to Tillerson's nomination to lead the State Department, although most of the media attention so far has focused on his ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, rather than his history dealing with climate change. Olson said the discovery process has produced documents detailing the extent of the influence that the fossil fuel industry and its trade groups have had over government decisions on energy policy. All of this evidence is going to come out in ways that will shock people, she said. It is beyond what has already been published. For his part, Loznak sees the court case as a way to fight back against the political environment which has suddenly turned hostile to climate action. All hope is not lost. It may seem like it, especially with some of the president-elects cabinet picks, but I think this is the worst possible time to be apathetic," he said. This is the time to really get involved, to get organized. Veteran character actor and This Is Us standout Gerald McRaney has joined Foxs 24 franchise reboot 24: Legacy as a series regular. The new series, starring Straight Outta Comptons Corey Hawkins, chronicles a real-time race against the clock to stop a terrorist attack on U.S. soil. McRaney will play Henry Donovan, the father of presidential candidate John Donovan (Jimmy Smits). A powerful oil man and passionately devoted father, Henry is dedicated to putting his son in the White House, no matter what the obstacles. This is a familiar territory for McRaney, who recurs on Netflixs House of Cards as Raymond Tusk, a billionaire businessman who yields strong influence in Washington. McRaney also has been recurring on NBCs breakout new drama series This Is Us as Dr. K. He will be back when the show returns from hiatus this month. McRaney is repped by Stone Manners Salners Agency and Course Management. Related stories Deadline's Top 10 New Shows Of 2016 - Part I 'A Cure For Wellness' Trailer: No One Ever Leaves This Creepy Swiss Alps Spa 'The Exorcist' EP Teases Tonight's Finale, Season 2 Renewal & Adaptation Twists hb2 transgender bathroom north carolina Lawmakers in three states have filed bills that would regulate bathroom access in public buildings, despite cries from critics who call the bills discriminatory against transgender residents. Language used in the proposed "bathroom bills" filed in Texas on Thursday, and Virginia and Kentucky earlier this week mirrors that of North Carolina's House Bill 2, a law that polarized the nation and led to hundreds of millions of dollars of lost statewide revenue. All three bills would effectively force transgender residents to use the public restrooms and locker rooms that correspond to their biological sex as listed on their birth certificates, rather than their gender identity. While none of the proposed bills use the word "transgender," LGBT advocates are already condemning them, arguing they needlessly single out the transgender community. "Across the country lawmakers are making clear that transgender people will again be the relentless targets of discriminatory legislation," Chase Strangio, an attorney with the ACLU who is a transgender man, wrote in a blog post on Wednesday. "Unconstitutional, unenforceable, and harmful, these bills send the message to trans people that our very existence is a problem for the lawmakers charged with protecting us." Meanwhile, the lawmakers behind the bills insist they are necessary to protect female bathroom users from male sexual predators. "Some guys will use anything to make a move on some teenage girls or women, said Robert G. Marshall, the Republican delegate who introduced Virginia's bill. Mere separation of the sexes should not be considered discrimination." Texas Lieutenant Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican and champion of the Texas bill, said the "Privacy Protection Act" will be a top priority of the state's Republican-controlled legislature. Story continues "Transgender people have obviously been going into the ladies' room for a long time, and there hasn't been an issue that I know of," Patrick said, according to a local ABC affiliate. "But if laws are passed by cities and counties and school districts that allow men to go into a bathroom because of the way they feel, we will not be able to stop sexual predators from taking advantage of that law, like sexual predators take advantage of the internet." Opponents of North Carolina's HB2 law limiting bathroom access for transgender people protest in the gallery above the state's House of Representatives chamber as the legislature considers repealing the controversial law in Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S. on December 21, 2016. Patrick has been an outspoken proponent of North Carolina's HB2, which on top of the bathroom provision, also prevents local governments from passing non-discrimination ordinances to protect LGBT residents. Since HB2's passage in March, North Carolina has seen businesses boycott the state and freeze major expansions, high-profile musicians cancel shows, and the NBA relocate the 2017 All-Star Game, originally scheduled for Charlotte. The economic fallout in Texas could be even more damaging. A St. Edwards University study unveiled this week found that anti-LGBT laws could cost Texas as much as $8.5 billion and 185,000 jobs. Robert Marshall, the Virginia delegate, did not respond to a request for comment, nor did Democratic Rep. Rick Nelson, architect of Kentucky's bill, or Republican Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, who wrote the Texas bill. NOW WATCH: 'They haven't played by the rules': Trump accuses China of 'massive theft of intellectual property' and unfairly taxing US companies More From Business Insider Path On Wednesday, Hulu CEO Mike Hopkins revealed a bunch of details about the company's upcoming live TV service, a cable TV competitor that he said would cost under $40 a month. Hulu's live product will work much like a regular cable or satellite TV package, except that it will be delivered over the internet to your smart TV, phone, tablet, and so on. The big question was whether Hulu's product would be able to make a splash in a 2017 streaming TV market already crammed with the likes of AT&T, Dish, Sony, and perhaps YouTube and Amazon. But based on the details Hopkins shared on Wednesday, Nomura Instinet analyst Anthony DiClemente said the answer is a probable "yes." In a note on Thursday, DiClemente wrote that Hulu's new service would likely benefit from "strong subscriber growth," and that he now sees upside to his estimate that it could get roughly 550,000 subscribers in 2017. Here's a rundown of the factors DiClemente sees leading to success for Hulu: Attractive price. Hopkins said the service will be less than $40 a month, which is not a promotional price, unlike rival AT&T's DirecTV Now initial release. This includes Hulu's current $7.99 ad-supported on-demand product, which subscribers will get for free. "Though a final price has yet to be announced, we believe that at $39.99 month the service will be attractive to a large subset of Hulu's current 10-12 million SVOD" subscription video on demand "subs, as the incremental cost will be $7.99 below the retail list price," DiClemente wrote. A lot of content. Hulu announced Wednesday that CBS will be in the package, adding to Disney, Fox, and Time Warner. NBCUniversal isn't on board yet, but Hulu seems to believe it will be. "In our view, the seamless integration of Hulu's linear content with its SVOD product presents a compelling content proposition that is largely unmatched across [competitors]," DiClemente wrote. Hulu also says it will have the "vast majority" of local affiliate stations signed on a problem that has plagued some competitors like DirecTV Now and Dish's Sling TV. Industry-leading features. In his presentation, Hopkins highlighted the availability of a cloud-based DVR, something that DirecTV Now doesn't yet have. Also, given Hulu's expertise in the on-demand world, DiClemente said he's confident Hulu Live "will provide subscribers seamless integration between live, on-demand, and recorded content." Story continues The question marks Hulu will enter a bloodbath in the streaming TV market in 2017. Besides DirecTV Now, Sling TV, and Sony's Vue, YouTube is working on its own package, and Amazon is rumored to be doing the same. To compete, Hulu will have to nail two things: content selection and technical performance. What remains to be seen is exactly how robust Hulu's channel lineup will be. While DirecTV Now initially offered a whopping 100-plus channels for $35 a month, that tier will begin to cost $60 a month on January 9. AT&T's standard $35 option will include 60-plus channels. Can Hulu do better than that with its under-$40 tier? The other big question for Hulu's service will be technical performance. The two big names in the space, Sling TV and DirecTV Now, have been plagued with technical issues, as has Vue to some extent though Vue reportedly has a much smaller subscriber base than Sling. There is room for Hulu to make a dent. But the final question for Hulu is, with all the competition, can the company actually make money on this? "Profitability remains a question mark," DiClemente wrote. "Though Mr. Hopkins did not comment on a timeline to free cash flow profitability, he clearly ruled out the possibly of Hulu losing cash in perpetuity." That said, DiClemente said he sees the "aggressive" sub-$40 price point as a sign that "profitability is likely not a near-term event." NOW WATCH: Weed, crab legs, and a mermaid inside the massive marijuana-mansion party thrown by Instagram's 'Marijuana Don' More From Business Insider BY AMOS NGWOMOYA At least 123 applications by foreigners to get Ugandan citizenship have been rejected by the government. These applications for registration and naturalisation by foreigners were filed between January 2015 and December 2016. According to Internal Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Jacob Siminyu, The applications were rejected because they did not meet the requirements for issuance by the Uganda Citizenship and Immigration Control Board. Siminyu says that they received a total of 2,211 applications for dual citizenship, naturalization and registration and that out of these, 123 applications were rejected while 2,088 certificates were issued between 2015 and 2016. Those rejected, he says had forged documents from their countries of nationality while others had poor health records. He says the ministry receives at least 1000 applications every year. He revealed that a certification of registration goes for $1000(About Shs. 3.5m) whereas a certificate of naturalisation goes for shs.100, 000. The Trump rally has helped push the broad markets to new highs, and with earnings season just around the corner we can find out if this rally is fundamentally sound. But in the meantime there are a few other major companies reporting that might give us an idea of what to expect from their counterparts that report later this month and in February. 24/7 Wall St. has put together a peek of few companies that have just reported their most recent earnings. We have included the consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters as well as a recent trading history and consensus price target. ALSO READ: 2017 Bull-Bear Case for Health Care: J&J, Merck, Pfizer, UnitedHealth Constellation Brands Before the markets opened on Thursday, Constellation Brands Inc. (STZ) reported its fiscal third-quarter financial results. The company posted $1.96 in earnings per share (EPS) and $1.81 billion in revenue, versus consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters that called for EPS of $1.71 and $1.81 billion in revenue. The same period of last year reportedly had $1.42 in EPS and revenue of $1.64 billion. Shares of Constellation Brands were trading down nearly 6% at $148.82 on Thursday, with a consensus analyst price target of $180.06 and a 52-week trading range of $130.23 to $173.55. Monsanto When Monsanto Co. (MON) released its fiscal first-quarter earnings report before the markets opened, the company said that it had $0.21 in EPS and $2.65 billion in revenue. The consensus estimates had called for a net loss of $0.04 per share and revenue of $2.28 billion. The first quarter from last year had a net loss of $0.11 per share and $2.22 billion in revenue. ALSO READ: What Could Help Exxon and Chevron Repeat 2016 Gains in 2017 Monsanto shares were trading relatively flat at $105.72. The consensus price target is $119.50, and the 52-week range is $83.73 to $114.26. Walgreens Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. (WBA) posted its fiscal first-quarter results as well. The company said it had EPS of $1.10 and $28.5 billion in revenue. The consensus estimates were $1.09 in EPS and revenue of $29.24 billion. In the same period of last year, the retailer reported EPS of $1.03 and $29.03 billion in revenue. Story continues Walgreens was last seen at $82.60, up fractionally, in a 52-week range of $71.50 to $88.00. The consensus price target is $93.15. Related Articles They say the best way to know a culture is through its food. And in Los Angeles, you can travel to all corners of the globe simply by sampling its eclectic cuisine. From taco stands to fine dining, there is something from everywhere, for everyone. "With so much diversity in the city, the food scene is ever-evolving, which is such a gift to Angelenos," says Jennifer McLaughlin, editor-in-chief of Los Angeles Travel Magazine. U.S. News asked McLaughlin and other local experts about their favorite restaurants and neighborhoods for great cultural cuisine. Here's what they said. Meat for miles in Koreatown Perhaps the best way to take a cross-cultural Angeleno food tour is to visit Koreatown, home to the largest Korean population in the United States, as well as a huge variety of Latino and South Asian populations. The borders of this porous neighborhood, just west of downtown, bleed into Hollywood (to the north) and Mid-Wilshire (to the west), creating a variety of ethnic food microcultures. Roy Choi, whose Kogi BBQ taco truck is credited with starting the food truck explosion, has two brick-and-mortar establishments inside the Line Hotel: Commissary, which serves "California American" fare, and Pot, which serves grab-and-go rice bowls. [Read: 5 Off-the-Beaten-Path Neighborhoods to Visit in Los Angeles.] Korean barbecue, consisting of thin-sliced raw meat prepared at the table by diners (usually in unlimited quantities), is a Koreatown specialty. Start with a few local favorites, Chosun Galbee, Genwa Korean BBQ and Parks BBQ, if you are so inclined. But really, it's hard to go wrong. Old-school Greek hole-in-the-wall Papa Cristo's and authentic Oaxacan Mexican restaurant Guelaguetza are equally hallowed establishments on Koreatown's south side. In north Koreatown, South Asians swear by the spicy tandoori meats at casual Biriyani Kabob House. Eat local by the beach in Venice When it comes to artistic trendsetting, Venice simply radiates healthful California dining. "L.A. is definitely known for California cuisine," says W Hollywood concierge Ali McCormack. "You go to other places in the country and they don't have kale salad or pear martinis or avocado on every single dish." Story continues The farm-to-table trend, focused on dishes filled with local vegetables and from-scratch ingredients, is popular all over the city, but especially in Venice. Gjelina is the hottest table in Venice -- literally, a long, communal-style table, where friendships are forged among L.A. foodies. The restaurant's popular brunch menu features artisan plates like duck confit-potato hash, grilled local squid with salsa verde, and a local seaweed and cucumber salad. Can't get a reservation? Retreat to Gjusta, the same owners' casual marketplace eatery, which sells the best loaf of sprouted rye in the city. Upscale raw food restaurant Plant Food + Wine is an unconventional but delicious place to enjoy a night out, and The Tasting Kitchen and Fig (in neighboring Santa Monica) offer some of the most inspired fusion Mediterranean cuisine in the city. Discover diversity in downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles is a chef's dream and a foodie's paradise. Roy Choi's Kogi BBQ taco truck can often be found downtown. "Their following of customers have been dedicated since day one," says McLaughlin of the short rib Korean barbecue taco purveyor. Irene Chen, concierge at The Ritz-Carlton, Los Angeles, has a list of recommendations that will take diners across Europe: Enjoy fine Italian at Bestia, Spanish fusion at Baco Mercat, and French pastries and wood-fired oven pizza at Bottega Louie. "Kids love the bakery because it's like a candy store," she says. Of course, Chen reserves her highest praise for The Ritz-Carlton's own WP24, a Wolfgang Puck eatery. "It's a very tasty twist on classic Chinese food. The bao buns have spicy, garlicy pork inside, but these buns are encrusted with black sesame seeds so they're crispy on the bottom, which is divine," she says. [Read: 7 Best Cocktail Bars in Los Angeles.] Closer to home, downtown's Mexican scene is lively, too. Its upscale options, like Broken Spanish and Mas Malo, offer experimental dishes inside gorgeous, early-20th century interiors. For more low-key street tacos dressed up in homemade tortillas, try Ray Garcia's BS Taqueria or local favorite Guisados. Unique, authentic eats in Little Ethiopia One of the most unique food neighborhoods, stretching for a few blocks along Fairfax Boulevard in the Mid-Wilshire area, is Little Ethiopia. "I've never seen anything like it," says Ryan Fisher, concierge at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows in Santa Monica. Restaurants are spread across two blocks, each serving their take on authentic Ethiopian fare, which usually consists of a stew of lamb, beef, trout or foul, surrounded by various lentil, potato, cabbage, collard greens and tomato dishes. These dishes are served family-style, atop a giant, spongy crepelike bread called injera, which has a tangy sourdough flavor. Diners grab a handful of injera and use it to scoop out the main dishes with their hands. The bright, fresh Meals by Genet eatery spends days simmering stews and preparing each perfect meal, all for shockingly reasonable prices. For more of a "homestyle" atmosphere, complete with colorful Ethiopian cloth and traditional seating, Merkato Ethiopian Restaurant & Market offers cozy tables. Vegetarian feasts in Silver Lake and Echo Park Looking for that hallmark healthy cuisine on the eastside is a great reason to dine in the neighborhood districts of Silver Lake and Echo Park, along Sunset Boulevard between downtown and Hollywood. "International travelers come to Los Angeles expecting a mecca of juices and acai bowls and vegetarian options, and they're not disappointed," says Casey Duggan, former head concierge at the Viceroy Santa Monica and current head concierge at The Ritz-Carlton, Buckhead in Atlanta. "Los Angeles is really pushing the envelope when it comes to health-conscious, creative, cool restaurants." In Echo Park, Elf Cafe's entirely vegetarian menu of locally sourced, vegetarian dishes satisfies both your taste buds and conscience. Next door, Mohawk Bend blends craft beers with (mostly) vegan bar food. Nearby in Silver Lake, musician Moby recently opened his vegan California cuisine space, Little Pine. [Read: The Best Things to Do in Los Angeles.] However, lest carnivores despair, there is still meat on some eastside menus. Silverlake Ramen, a strip mall ramen joint, is known throughout the city for its pork-based tonkotsu ramen. Scroll the vast menu at fresh and flavorful Cliff's Edge, which serves up a variety of vegetable-only dishes, for a few meaty plates near the bottom. To experience more of what Los Angeles has to offer, check out the U.S. News Travel guide. More From US News & World Report A record 455 scripted original series aired in 2016, and Peak TV may not have hit its actual peak yet. A Dec. 21 study from FX Networks found the annual tally jumped another 8 percent year-over-year and a whopping 137 percent from just a decade ago. And the biggest gains came from such streaming services as Netflix, YouTube Red and Seeso, all of which have promised even more scripted output in 2017. (Broadcast, premium and basic cable actually slid from 2015.) "It seems very likely that the estimate will hover around 500 for the next few years," FX Networks executive vp research Julie Piepenkotter tells THR. "Growth will continue to be overwhelmingly fueled by the streaming services." With spending estimated at $6 billion on originals, it should come as little surprise that Netflix topped all five broadcast networks with a total of 43 originals. The tally illustrates the "astonishing" ease with which consumers have embraced digital delivery systems, says Piepenkotter: "The technological transformation of the past decade in media alone is arguably more dramatic than that of the half-century prior." This story first appeared in the Jan. 13 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe. Read more: CBS Joining Hulu's Live Television Service On Jan 4, we issued an updated research report on the largest independent maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) provider in North America AAR Corp. AIR. AAR Corp. provides various products and services to the aviation and defense industries worldwide. Recently, it reported second-quarter fiscal 2017 results, wherein earnings registered a year-over-year improvement. However, revenues were down from the year-ago tally. The company is focused on getting rid of its debts and expects an uptrend in cash flow driven by strong fundamentals. It is reducing its debt level and repurchasing shares using proceeds from asset divestures. Moreover, the company expects its supply chain to see strong growth and continued demand in MRO businesses, backed by a strong position in the thriving global aviation services market. The company continues to expand its MRO business footprint. In Dec 2016, it inaugurated the sixth MRO facility in Rockford, which will allow it to maintain every commercial aircraft up to and including the A380. The companys MRO businesses are expected to see an improvement throughout the year. Moreover, the company expects Aviation Services to benefit in fiscal 2017 from its strong position in the growing global aviation market. The company expects to see a favorable trend in both commercial and government, and defense customers for comprehensive supply chain and maintenance programs as these customers continue to look for ways to reduce operating costs. On the flip side, the company operates in a highly competitive space and is subject to stringent government regulations. In addition, AAR Corp. is exposed to currency fluctuation risks due to its geographically expanded client base and operations beyond the U.S. Adding to its woes, AAR Corp. generated nearly 39% of its fiscal 2016 revenues from government contracts, including defense deals. Though the current budget environment is conducive for defense players, any downward revision in the future may hurt the companys top line. The U.S. governments reduced role in Afghanistan as a result of troop drawdown might have an adverse impact on the companys expeditionary airlift fleet operations. Price Movement AAR Corp.s share price gained 31.5% in the last one year, outperforming the Zacks categorized Aerospace-Defense Equipment industrys gain 14.1%. Note that the company is presently in a transformation process, focusing on its service business and selling off its large manufacturing operations. Its performance is broadly on par with the other major players in the same space like Raytheon Company RTN, Ducommun Inc. DCO and Spirit AeroSystems Holdings, Inc. SPR, all of which have outperformed the industry. Story continues Zacks Rank AAR Corp. currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 (Strong Buy) Rank stocks here. 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Click to get this free report AAR CORP (AIR): Free Stock Analysis Report SPIRIT AEROSYS (SPR): Free Stock Analysis Report DUCOMMUN INC DE (DCO): Free Stock Analysis Report RAYTHEON CO (RTN): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. PureWow There was a small royal family reunion last night and theres a brand-new portrait to prove it. Yesterday evening, King Charles and and Queen Consort Camilla hosted a reception dinner to celebrate the sporting athletes who won the gold, silver and bronze medals at the 2020 Tokyo and 2022 Beijing Winter Games. ISABEL INFANTES/AFP via Getty Images And other royal family members decided to join in on the party: Prince Edward (the Earl of Wessex), Princess Anne (the Princess Royal and Charless sist Brussels (AFP) - Rights groups said Thursday that Germany's EU Commissioner Guenther Oettinger was unfit to run the human resources portfolio because of his divisive record of "racist, sexist and homophobic" remarks. Oettinger, previously the digital services commissioner, was named in October by commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker to take on the budget and human resources dossier from Bulgaria's Kristalina Georgieva after she left for the World Bank. But in early November Oettinger was forced to apologise for referring to Chinese people as "slitty eyes" and making disparaging remarks about women, gay marriage and Belgian politicians in a speech. In an open letter to the European Parliament, which will publicly quiz Oettinger next Monday, NGOs including Oxfam International and Transparency International said that Oettinger was not suitable for the new job. "Commissioner Oettinger has made racist, sexist and homophobic remarks on several occasions in the past, most recently at a speech he gave in an official capacity in Hamburg on 26 October," it said. The groups said that at a "crucial moment for the EU" the human resources commissioner should "lead by example" and "speak out against racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia and transphobia." "In our view, Commissioner Oettinger is not the right person for this task." European Commission spokeswoman Natasha Bertaud said it took note of the letter but had no comment to make on Oettinger's appointment, which became effective on Sunday. Oettinger's remarks about Chinese people prompted a scathing response from Beijing and red faces at the Commission. He apologised but said they were meant to give Germany a "wake-up call" over China's increasing power and a debilitating political correctness at home. The German got into hot water again just days later over accepting a lift in a Kremlin lobbyist's private jet to Budapest without reporting it under disclosure rules. The commission insisted he broke no ethics rules. For their part, the NGOs said this episode showed "Oettinger is unfit to inspire compliance with existing ethics and transparency rules among Commission staff and his peers." adam-driver-kylo-ren-feat LucasFilm Adam Driver will be reprising his role as that emo little Sith Kylo Ren in Star Wars: Episode VIII. In an interview with Larry King, Driver opened up a bit about the the upcoming film, perhaps because he feels comfortable talking to someone who resembles Snoke. According to Driver, his character (whatever name you choose to call him I prefer space edgelord) will be showing more humanity is Episode VIII. This is a character who stores his enemies ashes in a litter box, so any humanity at all will be a stretch (and make for good jokes). When asked by Larry King, Whats one aspect about Kylo Ren youre excited for fans to see in the next film? Driver answered: I think maybe this is such a general answer but you know humanity. Even though its very much a blockbuster movie, there was no taking that for granted and that we were forced to be general. There was a lot of plot points that we knew were operating in the first one, that we get to explain more in the second one, to make both of them make sense. But they do kind of feel socially active to me, and George Lucas originally a lot of Star Wars was in response to Vietnam and a lot of what I remember talking about with JJ and Rian was this idea of terrorism, and two sides being morally justified to behave however they wanted to to get whatever they thought was absolutely correct. You can watch the interview on video over here. You dont have to look at it if you dont think its cool. star-wars-darth-vader-kylo-ren-out-here-throwing-lightsabers-1a Via dauntlesssubconscious star-wars-darth-vader-kylo-ren-out-here-throwing-lightsabers-1b Via dauntlesssubconscious star-wars-darth-vader-kylo-ren-out-here-throwing-lightsabers-1c Via dauntlesssubconscious star-wars-darth-vader-kylo-ren-out-here-throwing-lightsabers-1d Via dauntlesssubconscious (Via ONTD, Ora TV, and dauntlesssubconscious) Workers and Kampala capital city authority have disagreed with the China railway seventh company limited demanding for the resignation of the human resource over mistreatment. This followed a sit down strike of workers who went on strike on Tuesday accusing their Boses over sexual harassment, under payment, mishandling by the human resource,failure to observe labour law among others . The mayor of Kampala Lukwango gave the company two days to address the grievances of workers or else their contract be revoked,which Culminated into a meeting which is underway now. However, workers and the mayor of Kawempe serujonji Emmanuel have disagreed with managment over the issue of the human resource whom workers insist that he should resign because he has been mistreating workers much as management insists that they can not expelle him. Workers also insist that the Sociologist who is on the grievance handling committee which connects workers and management should resign immediately failure they do not return to work. This attracted heavy deployment since workers ran out of hand and the negotiations and meeting is underway amidst tight security. Photo credit: undefined From ELLE Adwoa Aboah may not quite be a household name just yet, but expect that to change any moment. That's because Ms. Aboah, a London native who has modeled for Marc Jacobs, Fendi, and on Rihanna's Paris Puma catwalk, is about to have a massive 2017, thanks to the perfect storm of fashion cred and feminist creed. You see, the 24 year old is more than just a model. In addition to stomping catwalks, she's founded Gurls Talk, a web hub devoted to hosting and supporting female-focused dialogue. Recent themes include Anxiety and Art, Chronic Illness vs. Teen Independence, and a Q&A on plastic surgery with Lykke Li. Aside from shaking the internet and posing for Donatella, Aboah's got more kicks than a Rockette, thanks to her never-ending sneaker addiction. So it's fitting we should meet the model at the Adidas #TLKS series in Miami, where we speak about activism, chatbots, and sharks. Real ones, not cartoons. Just in case you were wondering... Photo credit: Vicky Grout for GurlsTalk Adidas is launching their first chat bot. Scary or cool? So a chat bot is a one-on-one automatic personal responder, right? It's a very cool idea. Do you want a chat bot? I have a very bad memory. So I would like a chat bot to just remind me of everything I forget. I spend my entire life on Google trying to remember stuff. But for GurlsTalk, we actually do need a chat bot, don't we? We need it to communicate with all the wonderful women who get in touch with us worldwide. To help us keep track of everyone's insights. Photo credit: undefined When you launched GurlsTalk, did you have any anxiety about the inherent tensions between being a model and being a feminist thought leader? No, because activism goes with every different job, I think. Fashion, music, film, everything. It's about cultural forums and movements and collectives of people taking a stand. That's all activism is. I've been lucky enough to have been given a platform through modeling, so now I can use it as an activist. But you've got to be specific in your issues. Like diversity in fashion is still an issue, right? That's something that needs to be talked about still, and people are probably thinking, "This is getting to be a boring conversation. Haven't we seen enough black models? Haven't we seen enough Asian models?" Ehh. In each collective, in each group we stand within, we can do something. Story continues How do you make a female-focused website into an inclusive space for all types of women? Can you? Should you? Well, I guess I've always been like, "You don't have to identify as a feminist to be part of GirlsTalk." I mean, if you want to be a part of GurlsTalk, you most probably are a feminist, and you just don't know what the word means. Not to be mean about it, but yeah [Laughing.] Definitely, yeah. That does keep me up at night, though. I want to get all women involved to express whatever they want to express. It's a learning tool for me as well. I've just been going through a breakup, and Alice [Joiner] came on our site to talk about her love life, and I just identified with her story so much! So I'm just giving people an available space where they can meet up and talk. Photo credit: undefined Can we talk about sneakers? Please. Am I allowed to call them sneakers, or do I have to call them "trainers" because you're British? I call them "trainers" but that's because if I tried to call them "sneakers," I'd sound like a dork and everyone would make fun of me. My mum calls them "running shoes." You can definitely call them sneakers, but I feel like I probably can't! What were the first sneakers / trainers / running shoes you ever bought with your own money? Ohhh, it was a pair of camo army print Adidas Originals shell toes. I lived in them until my parents threw them away because they were so trashed. I was about 11, and I bought them with my allowance. I really saved up for them. I wore them with gray skinny denim jeans and a dress on top. My mum [fashion agent Camilla Lowther] brought the jeans back from a trip to New York City. It was before you could really get skinny jeans everywhere, and so this outfit was a really big deal for me. The shoes made it. I've lived in shell toes since then. I'm wearing them now. As a model and a style expert- Ha. Are you really writing that? Probably, yeah! Okay, where is is not okay to wear sneakers? Red carpets? Black tie? How far can you take this shell toe obsession? Oh, I'm the wrong person to ask. I wear trainers everywhere. Weddings, parties, definitely red carpets and fashion events. It's bad. And listen, I love shoes. I love high heels. But I buy trainers all the time. Photo credit: undefined And because 2017 will require some escapism: beach or pool? Pool. Definitely pool. But my favorite is a salt water pool. The ocean is literally a salt water pool. No. I don't like the sea because there's too many animals. You're a badass and you're afraid of... like, sharks? It's frightening to me! You don't know what's down there! You Might Also Like Photo credit: The Licensing Project From ELLE I started that Monday morning with a purloined waffle-knit cardigan: a thin, light gray, cotton/silk blend, edged with ivory lace, no buttons. It might have been from Abercrombie, or from Brandy Melville, that temple of monochromatic adolescent-wear, whose stores I wander through with my teenage daughters secretly coveting some skimpy camisole or a sublimely soft cropped sweatshirt with BROOKLYN spelled across the front. But I don't buy much weekend wear anymore (even of the age-appropriate variety). I save my money for more dramatic pieces, like the formfitting black dress with cutout shoulders that I recently found for fall. Not to mention that if I were to indulge in Melville attire, I'd lose my maternal moral authority. I couldn't sigh and say to 16-year-old Edie, or 13-year-old Tess, "You're gonna buy another one of those?" The psychology is a bit twisted, I concede. Hence, my lust for the cardigan. I'd spotted it lying on the couch after Tess's birthday party, and it was still there on Monday when the girls left for school. "Hey, ask around and see if anyone's missing that sweater," I casually told Tess as she was walking out the door. "Okay, but no one's mentioned it. Bye." I snatched the cardigan from the sofa with the glee of artist Robert Rauschenberg strolling the streets of lower Manhattan in the 1960s and happening upon the perfect rusty wheel to incorporate into one of his "Combine" pieces. For me, getting dressed is a creative act but a relatively low-stakes one, which keeps it fun, and the closest I'll ever come to being a visual person. It's a process of mixing this texture with that color, throwing one element to the floor, combing through my closet to find a replacement, regarding the new mash-up critically, and repeating the whole operation again. I'm an action painter! It's a routine rich with associations from my past as well as hopes for my future-even if that future is only eight hours away and involves meeting my boyfriend, J., for a drink. Story continues Bargains add a bad-girl frisson to the enterprise, like I'm getting away with something. In fact, in the case of the (temporarily) purloined cardigan, I was meeting my boyfriend later, but for lunch in Central Park. An important caveat: I don't put this much thought into getting dressed every single day, which allows me to revel in the experience when I do. When I'm exhausted after a bad night's sleep, or preoccupied with work, I give myself what I call "punt days." This is a fringe benefit of having a job that sometimes requires only that I huddle in my office and fiddle with ideas. I don't always have to be "on," to "represent" to the outside world. So when I'm punting, I'll just put on a comfortable dress, like the blue-and-brown plaid poly-knit, '70s-esque jumper I bought seven years ago from Target for $17 (ha! Bargains add a bad-girl frisson to the enterprise, like I'm getting away with something). I still get compliments on that thing. Same with the short-sleeved teal corduroy dress, buttoned down the front and belted, that I bought for even less-five dollars-a decade ago at the Rose Bowl flea market in Pasadena. I was visiting my sister. We were free of family obligations for a few hours, the sun was hot, and I love my sister beyond measure-that's the dress to me. On some punt days, I obviously still appreciate the backstory and the aesthetics of my chosen garb, but on my puntiest punt days, not so much. I'll wear jeans and some old black shirt. And while I take satisfaction from the internal/external synchronicity of wearing black when I'm feeling down-from literally wearing my heart on my sleeve-I truly don't care at these times what message my clothes are transmitting. I'm just doing, not appearing. A palate cleanser, you might say, or a necessary break from being a girl. Being a girl, however, can be a great pleasure, which brings me back to the cardigan. I wanted to look soft and sexy that day, in anticipation of lunch with my boyfriend. Although my feminism was formed 30-plus years ago, when wanting to look pliable and pretty for a man could be considered suspect, I never worried about hewing to a PC dress code. Is that be- cause I'd absorbed the values of the patriarchy? Because I thought I was a "good enough" feminist in other ways that I could dress how I wanted? Because I knew that expecting my sexual desires and my politics to line up neatly was a fool's game? A little bit of all three, I think. The day of the lunch, there was a nip in the air, after a steamy summer. That meant I could wear jeans-my favorites are by Lucky and make my butt look good, but they're not so insanely tight that they interfere with, say, lolling around on a picnic blanket. Then there was the challenge of what to wear under the cardigan. I tried a white, short-sleeved T-shirt that my ex-mother-in-law had given me (my closet is full of hand-alongs from her, my sister, my best friend-it's a party in there), but it was too loose, the proportions too similar to the flowy cardigan. I needed a tank toplike fit. I found a gray one (again, formerly my ex-mother-in-law's, though I don't think she gave it to me; I borrowed it from her summer house one year and never returned it), but it muddied the gray cardigan. (Grays are hard to mix.) I ran to Edie's room to check out her offerings, and considered a long-sleeved, off-white lace shirt, but too much lace with the cardigan-too high-necked, not right. Undeterred, I returned to my own drawers to dig around anew, finally landing on an ivory cotton camisole, with a touch of lace-I'd forgotten I even owned it. From there, the pace quickened. I opted for a wide, woven brown leather belt (Gap, 2000?), with the only step remaining the shoes. I'd been fantasizing about the masculine edge Edie's burgundy Converse high-tops might add to my ensemble, but when I tried them on...eh, they looked more juvenile than anything. The answer came in the form of my well-worn mauve leather thong sandals, with a few crystals left along the strap. If they'd been new, it might have been too much, but they looked lovingly scuffed up, the Velveteen Rabbit of footwear, and went nicely with my chipped pale-pink toenail polish. Revealing the mental loop-de-loops involved in covering my nakedness, I feel naked before you. Am I the only one who writes Mrs. Dalloway in her mind when she gets dressed? Then, too, I wonder how what I've said might be perceived by the next-wave feminists I've lately read and listened to online discussing clothes and the objectification of women (check out, for one, the YouTube star Laci Green-so smart and sane). One solution to the predicament they offer is that women and girls dress for themselves. But what does that mean? I dress for a man; I dress for my mostly female colleagues (many of whom are professional-grade curators of style); I dress for fashiony after-hours work events; I dress with the knowledge that I'll be sitting at Tess's volleyball game later in the day, and she loves what she calls the "Brooklyn mommy" look: chunky black boots, cool jeans. She'll spot me watching her from the stands and smile. All this said, I always feel like I'm dressing for myself-and I don't think I'm just a victim of false consciousness. I'm a fan of something called relational psychoanalysis, the theory of which, according to one of its founders, Stephen A. Mitchell, is that "human activity and human mind are not things that reside in the individual, but rather are generated in interactions among individuals; personalities...are not understandable unless that complex, interactive honing process is taken into account." From this perspective, the ritual of dressing is so creative because, well, I contain multitudes. Specifically, multitudes determined by my relationships. There is no me without you...and you and you and you. So tonight, J., I'm going to wear a black Calvin Klein halterdress that I procured for an ELLE party in Hollywood a few years back. It hugs my (admittedly modest) curves. I think we'll both like it. This article originally appeared in the January 2017 issue of ELLE. You Might Also Like In its latest push into logistics, Alibaba Group Holding Limited BABA has reportedly sealed a partnership with Maersk, a unit of Denmark's A.P. Moller-Maersk and the worlds biggest container shipping line, to offer online reservation of space on Maersks vessels. The service eliminates freight forwarders from the booking process and limits their services to haulage. For the last one year, the stock has outperformed the Zacks Internet-Commerce industry. It has returned 15.11% compared with the industrys return of 12.10%. The stock jumped 2.16% in yesterdays trading. Per a Reuters report yesterday, Maersk has commenced this service on Alibabas OneTouch booking website on Dec 22. As a part of the initial plan, OneTouch will offer advance booking of cargo spaces on selected routes from eight Chinese ports against a pre-paid deposit. The platform offers export services such as logistics and custom clearance and is the fastest growing part in Alibabas business-to-business division The news also highlighted Maersks plans to initiate more pilot programs on third party portals as it aims at digitizing customer services. Alibaba Steers Toward Logistics, Raises Game Against Amazon The move underscores Alibabas growing interest in the global logistics business. The company has been exploring this space with investments in couriers and warehouses in the recent years. It has opened its own logistics service known as Alibaba Logistics. Recent news from Reuters, Bloomberg and others show that Amazons AMZN Chinese arm (Beijing Century Joyo, which it acquired some years back) has filed with the authorities as a handler of goods bound for ports in Japan, Europe and the U.S. In the U.S., it is registered as an ocean freight forwarder. Amazon has been investing heavily in fulfillment centers, trucks and containers and its Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) service has been doing well. It recently bought some planes and also has self-designed drones in the works. Story continues However, since Alibaba does not hold its own inventory, it has more freedom compared with Amazon to invest in its own infrastructure that expands from logistics to payments. ALIBABA GROUP EPS Diluted (TTM) ALIBABA GROUP EPS Diluted (TTM) | ALIBABA GROUP Quote The company is leaving no stone unturned to extend its e-commerce reach to mobile, video and distribution business with its eyes now set on China ships. Our Take Timeliness has become one of the most important factors in the e-commerce space. As competition intensifies, Alibaba needs to up its game. With the integration of its own logistics service platforms, Alibaba could build a solid logistics platform for small and medium-sized Chinese businesses. Zacks Rank and Stocks to Consider Currently, Alibaba is a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock. Better-ranked stocks in the broader technology sector include NVIDIA Corporation NVDA and Control4 Corporation CTRL, each sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. For the current year, estimates for NVIDIA and Control4 have gone up by 30.6% and 2.3%, respectively. Zacks Best Private Investment Ideas In addition to the recommendations that are available to the public on our website, how would you like to follow all Zacks' private buys and sells in real time? Our experts cover all kinds of trades from value to momentum . . . from stocks under $10 to ETF and option moves . . . from stocks that corporate insiders are buying up to companies that are about to report positive earnings surprises. You can even look inside exclusive portfolios that are normally closed to new investors. Starting today, for the next month, you can have unrestricted access. Click here for Zacks' private trades >> 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 AMAZON.COM INC (AMZN): Free Stock Analysis Report NVIDIA CORP (NVDA): Free Stock Analysis Report CONTROL4 CORP (CTRL): Free Stock Analysis Report ALIBABA GROUP (BABA): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research (Adds conference call details) Jan 5 (Reuters) - Allergan Plc, taking a more "realistic" approach to its forecast, said on Thursday it expects mid-single digit net revenue percentage growth this year, helped by key products and new launches. Chief Executive Brent Saunders said that Allergan was now moving away from "aspirational goals". Allergan, which has snapped up a number of smaller drugmakers since its planned $160 billion merger with Pfizer Inc collapsed in April, reported disappointing quarterly earnings in November and cut its 2016 forecast. "This is an important step in setting appropriate expectations," RBC Capital Markets analyst Randall Stanicky said. Mizuho Securities USA analyst Irina Koffler also noted that Allergan's guidance serves as a realistic baseline that should prevent last year's unexpected disappointments. The company, which promised it would limit its price increases to 10 percent in September as part of a "social contract", is not planning to have another round of hikes in June, Saunders said at the Goldman Sachs healthcare conference on Thursday. Drug pricing has become a lightning rod for criticism with several drugmakers coming under federal investigation for price gouging. Saunders said he did not expect his peers to subscribe to this policy, but was encouraged by what he had seen so far. "It seems the industry is taking pricing seriously." The company, best known for Botox, sold its Actavis generics business to Teva Pharmaceutical Industries for $40.5 billion in August, freeing up cash for deals. Allergan has agreed to 12 deals in 2016, including the $1.7 billion acquisition of Tobira Therapeutics Inc, maker of an experimental treatment for fatty liver disease, and $639 million acquiring Vitae Pharmaceuticals Inc, maker of an experimental drug to treat psoriasis. Dublin-based Allergan, which will report its fourth-quarter results in February, also said it expects to achieve double-digit adjusted earnings growth in 2017. Story continues "We are not surprised by these conservative expectations as the company is still managing the declines of some of its established products while its newer launches ramp," Mizuho's Koffler wrote in a note. Analysts on average expected 2017 adjusted earnings of $16.04 per share and revenue of $15.31 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Allergan's 2016 adjusted net revenue from continuing operations is expected to be $14.45 billion-$14.65 billion and adjusted profit $13.30-$13.50 per share. The company's shares were marginally up at $217.06. The shares had fallen 36 percent last year. (Reporting by Ankur Banerjee and Natalie Grover in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta) The CEO of one of the nations largest insurance providers, Allstate, said the transportation industry is on the verge of dramatic changes and self-driving vehicles are just the tip of the iceberg. CEO Tom Wilson discussed why his company is betting on innovation during an interview with the FOX Business Networks Dagen McDowell at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The entire [transportation] system is going to change and we have to change with it so we can serve our customers, he said. Car innovation is the single biggest opportunity that exists to raise household incomes, Wilson said. Allstate created a company called Arity that collects driver data from a vehicle to determine driver risk. Wilson said Arity will make insurance prices more accurate, improve the driving experience and help lower the cost of driving. A 20 percent improvement in the cost and effectiveness in the transportation system is worth 5 percent improvement in personal income in America, he said. Wilson says Allstate currently has over 1 million cars connected and collects over 700 million miles a month of data. Related Articles Legal hassles continue for Alphabet Inc.s GOOGL Google as it faces a lawsuit from the U.S. Department of Labor. It has been alleged of not revealing employee pay information that the department seeks regularly for compliance evaluation. For the last one year, the stock has outperformed the Zacks Internet-Services industry. It has returned 6.07% compared with the industrys return of 4.88%. The Allegation Google being a federal contractor with over $10,000 in business is required to abide by rules against racial or religious discrimination and cooperate with government audit of its equal opportunity program. However, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) has charged the company of denying submission of compensation data since Sep 2015. Googles Defense Google has cited information safety as the reason behind withholding the data. A Google spokesman stated that the company has provided a lot of records over the last one year but some of the requests, if entertained, will interfere with employee privacy. ALPHABET INC-A EPS Diluted (TTM) ALPHABET INC-A EPS Diluted (TTM) | ALPHABET INC-A Quote Our Take If Google continues to mess with the government over compensation data, it may end up getting its current federal contracts cancelled and debarred from entering future contracts. Apart from a drain on revenues, it will earn the company a bad name on privacy concerns. The good news is that the company has had extraordinary success in the courtroom and with government officials around the world. However, its streak of good luck can change at any time and so investors remain wary. Zacks Rank and Stocks to Consider Currently, Alphabet is a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock. Better-ranked stocks in the broader technology sector include Daktronics Inc. DAKT, NVIDIA Corporation NVDA and Control4 Corporation CTRL, each sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Story continues For the current year, the consensus estimate for Daktronics has gone up by 45.5% in the past 60 days. Estimates for NVIDIA and Control4 have gone up by 30.6% and 2.3%, respectively over the same time frame. Zacks Best Private Investment Ideas In addition to the recommendations that are available to the public on our website, how would you like to follow all Zacks' private buys and sells in real time? Our experts cover all kinds of trades from value to momentum . . . from stocks under $10 to ETF and option moves . . . from stocks that corporate insiders are buying up to companies that are about to report positive earnings surprises. You can even look inside exclusive portfolios that are normally closed to new investors. Starting today, for the next month, you can have unrestricted access. Click here for Zacks' private trades >> 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 DAKTRONICS INC (DAKT): Free Stock Analysis Report NVIDIA CORP (NVDA): Free Stock Analysis Report CONTROL4 CORP (CTRL): Free Stock Analysis Report ALPHABET INC-A (GOOGL): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Some people go home and listen to the Hamilton soundtrack nonstop after seeing the Broadway show. But Charlie Day went home and wrote a musical episode of Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia. The episode, titled The Gang Turns Black, features the main fivesome waking up as black versions of themselves (played by black actors) in a world where (mostly) everything is communicated via song. But it wasnt always that way: Day tells EW someone pitched the idea of a regular episode featuring the gang watching The Wiz in the middle of the electrical storm and then turning black. It was one of those ideas you say because you think its actually too extreme, he says. Like, We cant do this. And then the more we talked about it, we were like, what if we did do it? So they went for it to poor results at first. That initial idea an electrical storm interrupts their The Wiz viewing, spurring the ensuing events remained, but the script just wasnt working the way Day and co-creators and costars Rob McElhenney and Glenn Howerton had hoped. It was only after Day found himself inside the room where it happens when he thought to make it a musical episode, like season 4 standout The Nightman Cometh. I had recently seen Hamilton on Broadway, and when Lin-Manuel Miranda was taking his bow, he pointed at myself and , and he said, Holy sh, Charlie and the Waitress!' Day recalls, laughing. Afterward, he said he was a big Sunny fan, and he said the Dayman Song was stuck in his head while on stage. I was so moved and inspired by his work, and I was just thinking, Gosh, Id love to write some music or a show,' Day continues. So when the script wasnt working, I had an idea. After checking with McElhenney and Howerton, Day wrote the songs that would later make their way into The Gang Turns Black. From there, it was all about figuring out how to walk that fine line of, lets do some social commentary without trying to be too preachy. Some of the issues touched on during the episode include the Black Lives Matter movement, police brutality, racial profiling, and other hot-button topics. Story continues But Its Always Sunny is no stranger to taking risks they kicked off the entire series with pilot The Gang Gets Racist and later donned blackface in a season 6 episode where they recreate the Lethal Weapon franchise which is something Day says makes him proud, especially as we become a more increasingly sensitive world. Sometimes thats a good thing, and weve seen a lot of good come out of that, and sometimes its a bad thing, and theres a tendency for people to become sort of addicted to outrage, he adds. Im thankful that weve been able to continue to make these big swings and that we have a platform for doing it and that we have an audience that understands our intentions. See their latest big swing when season 12 premieres Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET on FXX. Battle Rifle Company will display its new 2017 BR4 Cutlass rifle in a fish tank filled with water at SHOT Show this year to emphasize its intended use as a maritime rifle. The Cutlass is based on Battle Rifle Company's best-selling Spectre Rifle, and is specifically designed for maritime security, or MARSEC, operations and shipboard usage. "We built the Cutlass so that no direct ferrous, metal-to-metal contact is made throughout the entire rifle, ensuring corrosion-free operation, even after months at sea," Chris Kurzadkowski of Battle Rifle Company said in a press release. "This rifle is perfect for shipboard operations, both coastal and riverine. If you live or work on the water, this gun is perfect for you!" The Cutlass is built with care to ensure long-lasting life in extreme conditions. Its extended rail and low-profile gas block allow for more accessories to be installed, making it well-suited for shipboard, coastal and all-weather operations. Additionally, Battle Rifle Company is introducing a new color for 2017. The MARSEC rifles will be available in the all-new Battle Rifle Ocean Blue: a marine gray-blue which provides a great contrast to this special rifle, BRC officials maintain. SHOT Show will be held from January 17-20 at the Sands Expo Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. Amazon is reported to be in the running to acquire American Apparel's bankrupt business. The rumored deal immediately raised speculation about Amazon's growing ambitions in the fashion business. But an acquisition of the struggling clothing retailer could also solve one of Amazon's biggest ongoing problems: tension with President-elect Donald Trump. Trump, who frequently criticized Amazon during his campaign, won his way to the White House in large part by promising to keep manufacturing jobs in the US. He has already taken credit for keeping thousands of jobs from moving overseas at companies including Carrier in Indiana. American Apparel, best known for its "Made in the USA" slogan, says it's the largest clothing manufacturer in North America. With 4,500 workers employed, it also calls itself the "largest sewing facility in North America." So by acquiring American Apparel, Amazon could save thousands of US manufacturing jobs and win Trump's support. With the starting price to buy part of American Apparel currently at $66 million, according to Reuters, Amazon could score a big win by spending a relative pittance (Amazon had roughly $12 billion in cash on its balance sheet at the end of the most recent quarter). Of course, there are a lot of unknowns in Amazon's reported bid, and it's unclear whether Amazon even wants to buy American Apparel's manufacturing facilities. The only official bid, from the Canadian clothing brand Gildan, just includes the rights to American Apparel's brand, with an option to buy its manufacturing operations and inventory. Gildan's bid doesn't include American Apparel's 110 retail stores, according to Reuters. Also, Amazon may have to convince shareholders of the logic behind acquiring a failing apparel business that has hundreds of million dollars in debt. With Amazon reportedly accelerating its investments in other areas, like logistics and grocery stores, investors may not welcome the idea of taking on American Apparel's mounting losses. Story continues Screen Shot 2017 01 04 at 4.36.01 PM But if Amazon could somehow pull off a deal for all of American Apparel's factories and retail stores, there are a lot of other potential business benefits to go along with the political and public-relations benefits, especially given that Amazon is forecast to pass Macy's as the top US apparel seller in 2017. Some of them include: - Increased brick-and-mortar presence: Amazon has been introducing private-label brands over the past year. Having a physical space to showcase its product could significantly increase its sales and brand awareness. - More channels to promote Prime: Amazon has already made its bookstores pretty much Prime-exclusive, making it another channel to promote Prime's many benefits. Also, one of its private-label brands, Buttoned Down, is available only to Prime members. American Apparel's retail network could help Amazon promote Prime in other parts of the US. - Solves the biggest structural flaws of online apparel sales: Most people still want to try on clothes before buying them online. They also like to return to a physical store. Ownership of American Apparel stores would solve both problems. This certainly makes for a very interesting play in Amazon's growing ambition in fashion retail. But it could also very well just be one of the many speculations involving Amazon. In 2015, for example, Amazon was reported to be in the running for Radio Shack, which turned out to be just a rumor. Amazon's representative wasn't immediately available for comment. NOW WATCH: Weed, crab legs, and a mermaid inside the massive marijuana-mansion party thrown by Instagram's 'Marijuana Don' More From Business Insider Amazon's voice-assistant Alexa is coming to a smartphone for the first time. That's according to a billboard, first spotted by Digital Trends' Andy Boxall, at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) currently being held in Las Vegas. The billboard says the Chinese smartphone maker Huawei's Mate 9 will be the "first smartphone with Amazon Alexa," adding it'll be available on January 6 through Amazon, Best Buy, Newegg, and B&H. The announcement is a big move for Alexa, which first gained popularity through Amazon's speaker device Echo. Amazon has been aggressively pushing for Alexa to become more widely used in other devices, like tablets and gadgets made by third parties, under the goal of making it a broader platform. Amazon's representative wasn't immediately available for comment. Here's the photo of Huawei's billboard, shared through Boxall's Twitter account: It's not official yet, but this sign reveals Huawei's AI plans: the #HuaweiMate9 will come with Amazon #alexa.#dtces pic.twitter.com/eB84K5VSym Andy Boxall (@AndyBoxall) January 5, 2017 NOW WATCH: Apple revealed why some iPhones are randomly shutting down despite having battery life left More From Business Insider Well, it looks like Amber Rose and Val Chmerkovskiy are officially official. The couple, who have teased us with PDA pics over the last few months, finally sealed the deal -- with a kiss -- on Rose's Instagram on Wednesday. WATCH: Amber Rose and Val Chmerkovskiy Spend Halloween Together Following Dating Rumors "My Love ," she captioned a snap of herself and Chmerkovskiy smooching. My Love A photo posted by Amber Rose (@amberrose) on Jan 4, 2017 at 6:13pm PST RELATED: Amber Rose Shares Sexy Snap of Herself Posing in Lace Bodysuit -- See the Pic! Chmerkovskiy also posted a pic, kissing his lady love's hand, captioning it with a rose emoji. Earlier in the day, Rose opened up about her relationship with the Dancing With the Stars pro on Loveline on the Play.it podcast network. "It's amazing. It's so good," she shared. "It's been four months now and it's awesome. I love his family and everyone's so great. He's great." "Right now, and it's absolutely amazing and I'm super, super happy," she added. A photo posted by Valentin (@iamvalc) on Jan 4, 2017 at 8:07pm PST "I didn't want to put it out there [early on] because I wasn't sure about us yet. We were just kinda talking," the 33-year-old model said. "It's so exciting though." RELATED: Amber Rose Breaks Social Media Silence Because She Just Can't Get Enough of 'Bae' Val Chmerkovskiy's Hot Pics While Rose and Chmerkovskiy have kept their romance on the DL, the two definitely showed signs of heating up as they held hands while leaving a club in Hollywood last month. See more in the video below. Related Articles Photo credit: Instagram / Jack in the Box From Esquire Americans have their pick of all sorts of fast food delicacies, but a mystery remains: Why the hell do they keep eating Jack in the Box tacos? As Wall Street Journal points out, the thin, arguably revolting tacos have been described as "a wet envelope of cat food," but Americans eat over 554 million of them a year. The taco is a tortilla wrapped around "beef filling," then dunked in a fryer before being topped with (American) cheese, lettuce, and hot sauce. One woman interviewed by WSJ called the creation "vile and amazing"-but can these two adjectives coexist? Apparently, since Jack in the Box sells approximately the same amount of tacos as McDonald's sold Big Macs in 2007. "You can't look at [the taco] too long before you eat it. You just kind of have to get it outside of the sleeve and into your mouth," Mike Primavera told WSJ, adding that the tacos manage to have a "soggy, nasty middle" with a "rim of crunchiness on the outside." Well, if there's one thing America does right, it's eating garbage. (H/T Wall Street Journal) You Might Also Like During meetings with Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Vice President-elect Mike Pence offered a preview of President-elect Donald Trumps inaugural address later this month. There will be plenty of talk, Pence suggested, about repealing and replacing Obamacare and toughening immigration policies. Trump will promote his $1 trillion plan for new infrastructure, as well as trillions more in major tax cuts and beefing up the military. Related: The GOP May Get a Taste of Its Own Medicine on Supreme Court Nominations But Trump frequently said on the campaign trail that his three-part agenda could best be summed up as Jobs, jobs jobs. And a new survey by Morning Consult and Politico released yesterday suggests that on the issue of jobs and economic growth, Trump and the public are very much in sync. Asked what they want Trump to focus on most when he delivers his inaugural address on January 20, 75 percent of American voters said keeping manufacturing jobs in the U.S. and bringing jobs back from overseas. Whats more, 52 percent said they want to hear the new president discuss his threats of slapping tariffs on imported goods made in China and Mexico. While many voters are eager for him to speak out on issues that dominated the campaign, including immigration reform, building a wall along the southern border and temporarily banning Muslims from entering the country, the nation also yearns to hear conciliatory rhetoric from the new 45th president of the United States. Related: Senate Dems Plan to Slam the Brakes on Trumps Cabinet Seventy-four percent of the 2,000 voters surveyed December 28 and 29 said they want to hear from Trump on the importance of healing the country after one of the dirtiest and most divisive presidential campaigns of modern times. A sizeable majority (62 percent) also said it was important for Trump to talk about his plans for selecting a new Supreme Court justice to succeed the late conservative jurist Antonin Scalia. Story continues Voters are also interested in hearing from Trump on several issues that he may not want to talk about. Those include the real estate moguls efforts to separate himself from his family business interests to avoid a conflict of interest, and revelations of Russian hacking of the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clintons campaign, which Trump has repeatedly scoffed at. Fifty-three percent would like to hear about the hacking and 61 percent are keenly interested in the billionaires potential conflicts of interest. But those voters interviewed were most interested in jobs, and presumably what Trump has in mind to fulfill his promises. Since winning the election November 8, Trump has focused on preserving or bolstering manufacturing jobs in the U.S. Through a series of tweets and off-handed comments, Trump has aggressively jawboned the auto industry and other manufacturers into keeping some jobs in this country or bringing them back from Mexico and overseas. Related: Why Trump Needs to Take the Economy More Seriously Those efforts ranged from persuading an Indiana air conditioning and heating manufacturer to keep 800 jobs in the state that were slated for transfer to Mexico to badgering Ford Motor Co. to jettison plans this week to build a $1.6 billion small-car factory in Mexico. Trump is spoiling for more run-ins with U.S. corporations that operate overseas and import their products back here, or that are considering plans to move more jobs overseas. And he is promising hard-edged bargaining with China, Mexico and other trading partners to lower overseas obstacles to U.S. products by threatening retaliatory import duties and tariffs. Trumps choice of attorney Robert Lighthizer as the U.S. Trade Representative, billionaire businessman Wilbur Ross as Commerce Secretary and economist Peter Navarro as the head of a new government trade council, will bring together three veteran trade experts who share Trumps determination to shake up the international trade scene to the advantage of the U.S. House Republicans have drafted a border tax plan to discourage imports, according to The Wall Street Journal. Trump and his advisers have proposed a tax or tariff of 35 percent on goods produced by companies that shift production crews overseas. Top Reads from The Fiscal Times: Peter Buttigieg South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg on Thursday became the third major candidate to seek the top spot at the Democratic National Committee. "It's time for new leadership to deliver the fresh start our party needs," Buttigieg said in an announcement video shared on Facebook. Buttigieg emphasized his focus on a laundry list of Democratic priorities, including curtailing "dishonest banking practices, student debt, and politically motivated restrictions on women's healthcare." The announcement highlighted Buttigieg's personal connection to key issues championed by Democrats, including how the Affordable Care Act allowed Buttigieg's partner's mother to afford chemotherapy treatments, as well as his status as a Navy Reserve officer. "This is personal for me," Buttigieg said. "I could be ordered back to war by a reckless president." The mayor also acknowledged the extensive losses the Democratic party experienced in state and local elections throughout the Obama administration. "Today, I see our party needing a fresh start as well. Right now, as Democrats, we're at our lowest level of national, state, and local influence in over a century," Buttigieg said. "It's time to make a new plan for our future." Buttigieg is the third major candidate to throw his hat in the ring, following outgoing Secretary of Labor Tom Perez and Rep. Keith Ellison. Ellison has nabbed endorsements from the Democratic Party's progressive leaders, like Sen. Bernie Sanders, and Perez is perceived as the pick for many former Obama administration officials. It's unclear, however, whether Buttigieg has an existing power base within the party to help support his bid. Though he could provide a conduit to disenchanted former Democrats in his native Indiana and surrounding Rust Belt states, he's relatively unknown outside of media circles and local politics. Speaking to The New York Times, Buttigieg appeared to take a slight shot at his two opponents, saying it's "not a time to relitigate an old battle." Story continues "Weve got to transcend the narrative that this is some kind of proxy fight," Buttigieg said. Watch his announcement video below: NOW WATCH: 'They haven't played by the rules': Trump accuses China of 'massive theft of intellectual property' and unfairly taxing US companies More From Business Insider By Ian Simpson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Civil rights lawyers threatened on Thursday to sue the U.S. government agency that manages much public land in Washington, accusing it of quashing dissent by not issuing permits for protests of Republican Donald Trump's presidential inauguration. Up to 900,000 people are expected to pack into the nation's capital for the New York businessman's Jan. 20 swearing-in to his first political office. Some plan to criticize Trump's more controversial promises, including plans to build a wall along the Mexican border and deport illegal immigrants. Only three of the more 30 groups seeking to stage rallies either protesting or celebrating Trump's election independently of the Trump Presidential Inaugural Committee have received permits. The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund on Thursday said it would sue the National Park Service, which manages spaces including the inaugural parade route and the grassy Ellipse near the White House, if the permits are not issued by Friday. "Fifteen days before the inauguration, the National Park Service and the Trump Presidential Inaugural Committee are stonewalling and refusing to release permits that are vitally needed by organizers in order to plan and execute peaceful, lawful free-speech activities," Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, the fund's executive director, told a news conference. The Park Service has maintained it is following a procedure in place since 2008 by turning over control of sites, including along the parade route from the Capitol to the White House, to Trump's Presidential Inaugural Committee. After the lawsuit threat, National Park Service spokesman Mike Litterst said the inaugural committee had withdrawn its control of the Ellipse for Jan. 21. "We look forward to making announcements in the coming days regarding additional permits that have been issued," Litterst said in an email. He said the agency was working with more than 30 permit applicants and was still receiving requests. Representatives of the civil rights group did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Park Service's statement. Three liberal groups, the ANSWER Coalition, the American Constitution Society and the Black is Back Coalition, have been permitted to hold events near the parade route, but only ANSWER was granted one for Inauguration Day. WOMEN'S MARCH GOES AHEAD Protesters will be among the 800,000 to 900,000 people who Chris Geldart, the District of Columbia's homeland security director, estimates will attend Trump's swearing-in. Some 3,000 police officers and 7,000 National Guard troops from outside the District will be on hand to help provide security, Geldart said in a phone interview. The biggest inauguration protest, the Women's March on Washington on Jan. 21, will go on regardless of the dispute since it will be held on city streets. At least one protest could come with a cloud of marijuana smoke, as the DCMJ pro-pot lobbying group, which spearheaded the legalization of the drug in Washington in 2015, plans to distribute 4,200 joints near the inaugural site. Smoking marijuana along the parade route would violate the laws of both the District of Columbia - which allows it only in private spaces - and the federal government, which bans it outright. (Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Scott Malone and Leslie Adler) One of the jewels of the film industry, the Sundance Film Festival, is kicking off the new year as the location for an anti-Donald Trump protest. The Womens March on Main is organizing a march for anyone who respects human rights, civil liberties, diversity, according to their official Facebook page. The protest will reportedly be attended by a mix of actors and filmmakers in town for the film festival, according to The Wrap, Occurring in the midst of one of the most important weeks for the Hollywood community, the march was created as a way for those in the creative and Park City communities to stand in solidarity with the rest of our country in demonstrating our respect for freedom, human rights, our safety and health, and in recognizing that the diversity of our country is our greatest strength, as stated on their Facebook page. The event is similar to the Womens March on Washington, D.C., which has over 100,000 committed to attend so far. Other American cities are planning sister marches of their own on the same date, Jan. 21, including Los Angeles and New York City. The Sundance Film Festival is not affiliated with the march. Attendees for the festival include Salma Hayek, Jennifer Aniston, Sarah Paulson, Rooney Mara and more. We plan to make a bold and clear statement to this country on the national and local level that we will not be silent and we will not let anyone roll back the rights we have fought and struggled to get, said Tamika Mallory, a veteran organizer and gun-control advocate who is one of the marchs main organizers, who spoke to The Washington Post about the D.C. march. Although organizers for the D.C. event have insisted that the march is not anti-Trump, many within the group have fiercely opposed his political agenda. RELATED VIDEO: Michelle Obama Breaks Her Silence About the Night Donald Trump Was Elected: I Went to Bed Donald Trumps election has triggered a lot of women to be more involved than they ordinarily would have been, which is ironic, because a lot of us thought a Hillary presidency would motivate women, Dana Brown, executive director of the Pennsylvania Center for Women and Politics at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, told the Post. A lot of women seem to be saying, This is my time. Im not going to be silent anymore.' Story continues Sundance officials predict nearly 30,000 people to attend the festival this year, The Wrap reports, while the Womens March on Main event has about 1,000 RSVPs. The festival runs from Jan. 19 to Jan. 29. Tech giant, Apple Inc. AAPL will contribute $1 billion to SoftBanks massive tech fund. The Japanese giant is looking to set up a $100 billion fund to make big investments, going ahead. At a meeting with President-elect Donald Trump in December, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son had said that half of the funds will be directed toward investments in startups and creation of 50K jobs in the U.S. SoftBank is one of the biggest telecom and Internet companies in Japan. The company has an 80% stake in Sprint Corp. In fact, SoftBank has secured the "exclusive" rights of selling iPhone in Japan. Apple and Softbank CEOs, reportedly, share a good rapport and both the companies have had inked numerous collaborations in the last few years. An Apple spokesperson was quoted as saying We've worked closely with SoftBank for many years and we believe their new fund will speed the development of technologies which may be strategically important to Apple." APPLE INC Price APPLE INC Price | APPLE INC Quote Apart from Apple, SoftBank is itself contributing $25 billion to the fund and is reportedly trying to convince Saudi Arabias Public Investment fund to add $45 billion to the pool. Other tech giants like Qualcomm Inc. QCOM and Oracle Corp. ORCL are also reportedly interested in contributing to the fund. Analysts observe that Apple has so far kept its investment strategy limited to buying smaller stakes in tech startups. However, after making a $1 billion investment in DidiChuxing, Apple has been amending its investment roadmap. Citing sources familiar with the matter, WSJ had earlier pointed out that Apple could benefit from investing in the funds as it will gain insight on emerging technologies. Apple is one of the worlds most valuable companies in terms of market value and boasts a cash pile of over $200 billion. At present, Apple carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). In the past one year, Apple has underperformed the broader market. Shares of Apple have grown over 12.96% compared with the Zacks Computer Mini industrys gain of 14.06%. Story continues A better-ranked stock worth consideration in the broader tech space is LivePerson, Inc. LPSN, which carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. LivePerson has delivered an average positive earnings surprise of 56.43% over the trailing four quarters. 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Click to get this free report LIVEPERSON INC (LPSN): Free Stock Analysis Report QUALCOMM INC (QCOM): Free Stock Analysis Report APPLE INC (AAPL): Free Stock Analysis Report ORACLE CORP (ORCL): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. La Adela (Argentina) (AFP) - Firefighters in Argentina said Thursday they were bringing under control three wildfires that have devastated nearly a million hectares (2.5 million acres) of the country's famous pampas, or plains. Driven by strong winds, high summer temperatures and drought, the fires sent huge swathes of farm and pasture land up in smoke in the central provinces of La Pampa and Buenos Aires, two of agricultural powerhouse Argentina's most productive regions. The wind grew even stronger Thursday, leaving firefighters struggling to extinguish the fires and stop them from spreading to populated areas. Provincial fire management coordinator Marcelo Mosiejchuk reported "major difficulties" in fighting the fires. But he later said: "There were three hotspots and one has been stopped from spreading." "The other two are still active but we expect we will cut off the perimeter of the fire between Friday and Saturday," Mosiejchuk told AFP. He said no lives were in danger from the fires. No human deaths or evacuations have been reported. The blazes killed wild animals and livestock and cut off several roads. The biggest fire was about 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of the village of La Adela, population 4,000. It was started by a lightning strike on New Year's weekend and is 10 kilometers across, according to firefighters. An Arizona police officer has resigned nearly two months after online video surfaced showing him punching a woman in the face during an eviction proceeding, PEOPLE confirms. Officials tell PEOPLE that Officer John Bonars resignation on Tuesday comes after an independent investigation of the Nov. 16 incident. The results of that investigation a copy of which was obtained by PEOPLE allegedly prompted department administrators in Flagstaff to recommend termination for Bonar, who was suspended from the job soon after his confrontation with Marissa Morris. In the video, first posted to Facebook, the 30-year-old Flagstaff woman seems to resist Bonars attempts to place her in handcuffs. As she continues to fight, Bonar appears to strike Morris twice in the face, soliciting angry rebukes from nearby civilians. 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 investigations findings, Bonar had been called to Morris home to assist with an eviction. Thinking she had an active arrest warrant, he allegedly told investigators he tried to detain Morris. But in fact there was no outstanding warrant for Morris. Bonar alleged she started to struggle, kicking him in his groin and knees. Bonar allegedly told the independent investigator Sgt. Michael OHagan from the Northern Arizona University Police Department that his two punches were meant to distract Morris, according to the findings. OHagans final report alleges Bonar said he believed Morris was under the influence of drugs during their encounter. Additionally, Bonar allegedly defended his actions, and downplayed the force of the blows. It wasnt a choke, it wasnt a strike, it was just part of the struggle of me trying to get away from her, he allegedly said, noting the first punch yielded the effect he wanted. He told OHagan his punches packed only 30 percent of his available power. Story continues OHagan concludes in his findings that Bonars actions did not appear to be reasonable, or necessary to make the arrest, in accordance with Officer Bonars department policy or state law. Over the course of his investigation, OHagan stated he interviewed both Bonar and Morris as well as several witnesses. At least one person at the scene said Morris never made contact with Bonar, who was allegedly acting frazzled, according to the findings. 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. Other officers who had been dispatched to the chaotic scene described his conduct as unprofessional, noting Bonar should have exerted more restraint when dealing with Morris. OHagan concluded that the level of force exhibited by Bonar during the incident was not necessary to arrest Morris. OHagans findings were initially turned over to the Coconino County Attorneys Office, which has since transferred the entire case to the Mohave County Attorneys Office for review. Mohave County Attorney Matthew Smith tells PEOPLE his office only received the case file Wednesday evening. Smiths office will eventually determine whether Bonar faces criminal charges for his conduct. Smith would not comment on the case, citing the open nature of his offices investigation into the Nov. 16 incident. Morriss attorney, Benjamin Taylor, tells PEOPLE his client has been suffering from significant physical and emotional distress since her encounter with Bonar. Taylor says his client is exploring possible civil litigation against the officer and the department. We will make sure Ms. Morris receives justice, says Taylor. She is not doing that well right now, as would anyone who is assaulted by a police officer. It has been a very stressful thing for her. Taylor adds, I commend the NAU Police Department for doing a thorough and fair investigation. There are good officers out there, however former Officer Bonar makes their job harder. Bonar did the right thing today by resigning. Bonar was unavailable for comment. LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) An outgoing Arkansas state lawmaker pleaded guilty Wednesday to conspiring with a state senator and others to arrange kickbacks from government funding earmarked for economic development, federal prosecutors said. Rep. Micah Neal, 42, a Republican from Springdale, said in U.S. District Court in Fayetteville that he received $38,000 from funds awarded to two entities by the Northwest Arkansas Economic Development District. One was a nonprofit corporation set up to arrange manufacturing jobs for disabled veterans, disadvantaged youth and those recovering from substance abuse. The other was a nonprofit college in Springdale. "He's acknowledging what he did was wrong," lawyer Shane Wilkinson of Bentonville said. "I suspect that as these things unfold that Micah will be perceived on the low end of the totem pole of culpability." According to prosecutors, Neal conspired with others, including "Senator A" whom they described as a House member from 2007-2012, a senator since 2013 and the sponsor of a 2013 bill granting eight development districts up to $2 million each in state funds. Neal last year opted against seeking re-election and his replacement takes office Monday. The money in question came from the state's general improvement fund, a pot of money only available during a state surplus. Lawmakers have traditionally tapped the fund for one-time projects or grants, often in their districts. Gov. Asa Hutchinson, speaking Wednesday at a pre-legislative session sponsored by the Arkansas Associated Press Managing Editors, said the conduct described in the charges was "reprehensible for a legislator." The governor says his proposed budget for 2017-18 fiscal year doesn't anticipate a surplus that could be used by lawmakers after other state obligations are met. "While it can be used well in circumstances, it can also be abused and it's a grey area there," he said. Story continues Americans for Prosperity, a conservative advocacy group, said Arkansas' use of the fund "breeds a culture of public corruption." "The Legislature and the governor should abolish this practice, much like Congress has put an end to earmarks at the federal level," said David Ray, the Arkansas director of the group. Neal pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit honest services fraud. A sentencing date was not announced. Under his plea agreement, he faces up to 20 years in prison, though under sentencing guidelines and with anticipated cooperation with prosecutors he likely will face a lesser term. Neal, whose family owns a Springdale restaurant, won the Republican Party's nomination for Washington County judge last year but dropped his bid abruptly four months later. Neal cited business- and family-related reasons for ending his campaign. According to the government, Neal and the senator directed $400,000 to the jobs program, from which Neal received $20,000. The college received $200,000, with $18,000 kicked back to Neal, the prosecutors said. ___ Associated Press Writer Andrew DeMillo contributed to this report. Three black teens and one 24-year-old were charged with hate crimes Thursday in relation to the brutal attack of a white man with special needs. News of their arrests had sparked a fierce debate on social media over whether the assault which was broadcast via Facebook Live should be called a hate crime. Screenshot: Facebook via Reuters Video The victims name has not been released, but police have identified the man as an 18-year-old from suburban Chicago who suffers from mental health challenges and was reported missing by his parents on Monday. His assailants reportedly shouted racially charged taunts during the assault, including f*** Donald Trump, f*** white people, while they held they young man captive in an apartment and physically abused him. In an earlier statement to media, Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi stopped short of describing the incident as a hate crime, sparking outrage on social media. He said that despite the fact that the suspects made terrible racist statements, investigators were still not sure of the motive. We do not believe the victim was targeted because of his race or because of a political affiliation, Gugliemi said then. The incident comes shortly after Chicago closed out its deadliest year in almost two decades, with 762 recorded murders in 2016. @IngrahamAngle @CNNPolitics This should be a HATE crime plain and simple. Why it is NOT being treated the same exposes THE double-standard. Danny Dennelo (@dennelo67) January 5, 2017 This is patently insane. It's ON TAPE. https://t.co/pGmCHR6p8G Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) January 5, 2017 The details of the incident are violent and disturbing. The young mans parents said that, shortly after reporting their son missing to police in the suburban community of Streamwood, they began receiving text messages from someone who claimed to be holding their son captive. The texts led area officers to a Facebook video depicting [the man] being verbally and physically abused, CNN reported. Not long after, officers in Streamwood received a call from Chicago police, who said theyd found the man, bloodied and disoriented, after responding to a domestic battery call on the citys West Side. Story continues The 30 minute video which was reportedly widely shared before it was removed from Facebook appeared to show the victim tied up, his mouth covered, as he is beaten and berated by a group of young African-American men and women as they yell profanities about white people and president-elect Donald Trump. At one point, one of the men is reportedly seen cutting a patch of the victims hair, causing his head to bleed. By Wednesday, Chicago police had arrested four suspects. Initial reports stated that all four of the suspects were both African-American and 18 years old, however the Cook County States Attorneys Office later announced that felony criminal charges had been filed against 18-year-olds Jordan Hill, Brittany Covington and Tesfaye Cooper, and 24-year-old Tanishia Covington. The suspects are expected to appear in court on Friday, where all four will face charges of aggravated battery, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated unlawful restraint, in addition to the hate crime charges. At a press conference Thursday afternoon, Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson described the actions depicted in the Facebook video as deplorable and reprehensible, adding that such actions, along with racism, have absolutely no place in the city of Chicago or anywhere else for that matter. Johnson also clarified that there was no question whether this attack should be investigated as a hate crime, given the victims mental health status as well as the racial epithets recorded in the video. Police Cmdr. Kevin Duffin offered new details Thursday on the timeline of events, telling reporters that the victim was last seen by his parents on Saturday, New Years Eve, when they dropped him off at a local McDonalds to meet and spend the night with his friend, Jordan Hill. Duffin said that Hill arrived at the McDonalds in a van that, unbeknown to the victim, hed just stolen in Streamwood. The two then drove to the West Side of Chicago and spent the next two days driving around and sleeping in the stolen van. Eventually, they arrived at the home of sisters Brittany and Tanishia Covington where, the victim told investigators, he and Hill got into a play fight that escalated into him being tied up in a corner and assaulted both physically and verbally for the next five to six hours. The victim finally managed to escape when Chicago police officers arrived at the Covingtons apartment in response to a noise complaint from the sisters downstairs neighbors at around 5:15 Tuesday evening. Thats when Officer Michael Donnelly said he spotted the victim bloodied, battered and disoriented, walking outside wearing sandals, jean shorts and a tank top turned inside-out and backward. After a brief hospitalization, officials said, the victim is now back in the custody of his parents. Amid the the flurry of reactions that circulated across social media late Wednesday, claims also began to spread that Black Lives Matter was to blame for the horrendous incident, despite the fact that, as Chicago police clarified Thursday morning, there is no evidence to suggest that the suspects were in any way affiliated with the activist group. Prominent tweeters like alt-right author Mike Cernovich and conservative commentator Glenn Beck had already broadcast the rumor to their tens of thousands of followers. By Thursday morning, #BLMKidnapping was trending on Twitter, as the groups Chicago chapter attempted to maintain its innocence. Some people are disgusting. Your making jokes!?What happened to the teenager is terrible & tragic. However it has nothing to do with BLM. pic.twitter.com/f7qit5Ym6z BLMChicago (@BLMChi) January 5, 2017 Donnelly said Thursday that there was certainly no premeditation when the initial play fight broke out between Hill and the victim, but that the totality of the circumstances that ensued, including the victims diminished mental capacity as well as the assailants use of racial slurs, is what led the police to pursue hate crime charges. Asked why the attackers posted the incident on Facebook, Donnelly replied, I cant understand why anyone puts anything on Facebook. HAVANA (AP) Artisanal charcoal will become the first legal Cuban export to the United States in decades under a deal announced Thursday between Cuba's government and the former lawyer for imprisoned U.S. government contractor Alan Gross. Attorney Scott Gilbert, who has sought to build economic ties between the two countries since Gross' release, said a company that he founded will buy 40 tons of charcoal made from the invasive woody plant marabu. The charcoal is produced by hundreds of worker-owned cooperatives across Cuba and has become an increasingly profitable export, valued for its clean-burning properties and often used in pizza and bread ovens. Gilbert's company will pay $420 a ton, which is significantly above the wholesale market price of about $360. The first delivery is scheduled for Jan. 18, two days before the inauguration of Donald Trump as U.S. president. Products of privately run or cooperative farms in Cuba can be exported to the United States under measures introduced by President Barack Obama after the Dec. 17, 2014, declaration of detente with Cuba. The measures loosen a 55-year-old trade embargo on Cuba. The charcoal is sold by cooperatives to a local packager, which sells it on to state-run export firm CubaExport. Each middleman takes a 1 percent or 2 percent commission, CubaExport general director Isabel O'Reilly said. CubaExport said the charcoal would be the first legal export to the United States in more than five decades, and it hoped to expand the deal to include honey and coffee. The charcoal will be sold to restaurants and online to consumers in 33-pound bags under the brand name Fogo, Gilbert said. Cuba sells about 40,000 to 80,000 tons of marabu charcoal annually to buyers in Italy, Germany and about a half dozen other countries, O'Reilly said. Gilbert said he was confident the Trump administration would allow the deal to continue, even though the president-elect has promised to reverse much of Obama's opening with Cuba unless the island's communist government makes political concessions. Story continues "I think that once they have examined this situation and looked at all the facts, that they will be supportive of increased engagement and the economic changes that it will bring," Gilbert said. Under Obama's changes, American visitors to Cuba can return with unlimited rum and cigars, but state-run companies cannot export those products to the U.S. ___ Michael Weissenstein on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mweissenstein ___ This story has been corrected to show that the deal involves 40 tons of charcoal. Today in 5 Lines President Obama urged Democrats on Capitol Hill to defend the Affordable Care Act, while Vice President-elect Mike Pence met with Republicans to discuss its repeal. Senate Republicans took the first step toward dismantling the health-care law by moving to begin a 50-hour debate on a budget resolution that could repeal key parts of it through reconciliation. President-elect Donald Trump chose Jay Clayton, a Wall Street lawyer, to serve as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and named several White House staffers, including Joseph Whitehouse Hagin, who worked as deputy chief of staff for operations under President George W. Bush. President Obama thanked the Armed Forces during a farewell ceremony at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Virginia, saying, Im a better man having worked with you. Dylann Roof, who faces the death penalty for killing nine black parishioners in South Carolina in 2015, told jurors there is nothing wrong with me, psychologically. Recommended: Why Working-Class Whites Might Miss Obamacare Today on The Atlantic The Trump Legacy?: Despite climate deniers in the Trump administration, a group of Republican environmentalists known as the eco-right are hoping Trump will make climate change policy a key focus during his presidency. (Kate Aronoff) Fruitless Effort: Republicans have proposed delaying the Obamacare phase-out to help those insured under the law. But, writes Vann R. Newkirk II, the mere announcement of a legally-binding repeal or pledge to end government support for federally-backed markets could cause severe disruptions in how those markets operate. Damage Control: After a series of major losses in the 2016 election, the Democratic Party is preparing to become more active on the state and local level to regain some power. Why did the party ever neglect local politics? (Emma Green) Follow stories throughout the day with our Politics & Policy portal. Story continues Snapshot People are transported after a commuter train derailed at Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn, New York City. Alex Wroblewski / Reuters Recommended: My President Was Black What Were Reading Make America Sick Again: In an interview with Politico, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer reveals the new messaging campaign Democrats plan to deploy across the country to resist Republican attempts to repeal Obamacare. (Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer) Widespread Misconduct?: A 2013 memo obtained by The Intercept alleges that OneWest, the bank run by Donald Trumps treasury secretary pick Steven Mnuchin from 2009 to 2015, repeatedly violated Californias foreclosure laws under Mnuchins leadership. Will this affect his upcoming Senate confirmation hearings? (David Dayen) Change of Plan: Donald Trumps election likely means that President Obamas life after the White House will be different from what he anticipated, argues Gregory Korte: Instead of helping to nurture his Democratic Party as an elder statesman, he'll be helping to rebuild it finding new generational leaders who can carry the banner in future elections. (USA Today) The Battle Wages On: Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards spoke with Rolling Stone about how the Trump administration might affect the organization and womens health-care services. Whatever the outcome, she pledges: We will not go without a fight. (Tim Dickinson) The Optics of Trump: Pro-wrestler Shane The Franchise Douglas can spot an act better than most, writes Ben Terris. But he also appreciates a good one. And he thinks Trumps belligerent shtick has value. (The Washington Post) Recommended: U.S. Intelligence Officials Testify About Russian Hacking Visualized Memory Lane: The unemployment rate has dropped, the number of undocumented immigrants has been declining, and anti-Muslim hate crimes have increased. The New York Times takes a look back in these graphics. (Steven Rattner) Question of the Week The 115th Congress was sworn in Tuesday, including a few new lawmakers. What team-building exercises would you suggest to help the newly-elected members adjust to the pace and demands of life in Congress? Send your answers to hello@theatlantic.com, and our favorites will be featured in Fridays Politics & Policy Daily. -Written by Elaine Godfrey (@elainejgodfrey) and Candice Norwood (@cjnorwoodwrites) Read more from The Atlantic: This article was originally published on The Atlantic. In a self-driving car demo, CES attendees can ride in the back seat of an Audi Q7 piloted driving concept car that has no one behind the wheel. (Nvidia Photo) Nvidia may be best-known for video games, but its deal with Audi to provide the smarts for an autonomous vehicle in 2020 demonstrates that its not just playing games in the artificial intelligence realm. The expanded Audi partnership, announced this week at CES in Las Vegas, is just one of several hookups that the California-based chip company has forged with automakers. Audi of America Presdient Scott Keogh announced NVIDA partnership with NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang at CES 2017 (GeekWire Photo/Kevin Lisota) Tesla Motors is using Nvidias Drive PX2 AI computing platform in all of its cars, including the yet-to-be-produced Model 3. BMW, Honda and Volkswagen are on board with Nvidias AI hardware as well, and Nvidia itself tricked up a Lincoln MKZ luxury sedan to use as its BB8 self-driving test vehicle. Nvidia has been working with Audi on autonomous car development for some time now. Later this year, Audi is due to roll out its A8 luxury sedan, which takes advantage of Nvidias system for Level 3 autonomy. Level 3 means that within limits, the cars operator can safely turn attention away from driving tasks but has to be ready to take back control. In comparison, Tesla Autopilot is said to approach Level 3 autonomy today. This weeks announcement commits Audi and Nvidia to go further, resulting in a Level 4 autonomous vehicle in just three years. Level 4 means that the cars AI system will be able to handle routine driving situations without a drivers intervention. Nvidia is pioneering the use of deep-learning AI to revolutionize transportation, the companys founder and CEO, Jen-Hsun Huang, said during Nvidias keynote on Wednesday night. This is really huge, said Scott Keogh, president of Audi of America. Nvidia also announced partnerships with Bosch and ZF to make the Drive AI computer hardware available through their supply chains for auto parts. The race to perfect self-driving cars is accelerating: Ford says its planning to mass-produce Level 4 vehicles for ride-hailing and ride-sharing services by 2021. GM is producing a fleet of autonomous Chevy Bolt electric cars for testing on public roads around Detroit. And the Google spin-off for self-driving cars, Waymo, is working with Fiat Chrysler on autonomous vehicles. Story continues Watch the complete Nvidia keynote here: More from GeekWire: Indonesia appeared to back down Thursday from a decision to suspend all military cooperation with Australia in a row over teaching materials, with a senior minister saying only language training had been put on hold. The Indonesian military said Wednesday that military cooperation with Canberra, including joint exercises and exchange programmes, had been put on ice last month after teaching materials deemed offensive to Jakarta were found at an Australian army base. The row erupted after a visiting Indonesian officer raised concerns about the materials at a language training facility in Perth. Indonesia's military chief General Gatot Nurmantyo told reporters it involved "unethical stuff" which "discredits Indonesia and its military, even the nation's ideology". He said it concerned East Timor -- which seceded from Indonesia after a bloody occupation -- the Papuan region's independence movement and the nation's founding philosophy "Pancasila", all deeply sensitive topics for the Indonesian military. But following the military's announcement, leaders of both Australia and Indonesia publicly insisted ties were strong before Indonesian Security Minister Wiranto announced Thursday he was giving a "clarification" after receiving information from Nurmantyo. The military "has temporarily suspended cooperation in language training," said the minister in a statement, adding it was due to "a small incident that has offended our dignity as a nation". But he said Indonesia was not "completely stopping all cooperation", contradicting the earlier military statement. Indonesian and Australian forces cooperate on a range of issues from border protection to counter-terrorism. "The suspension is temporary and will be resumed after Australia clearly takes measures to resolve the matter," he added. - 'Relationship strong' - The Australian Broadcasting Corporation also broadcast footage Thursday of Nurmantyo giving a lecture in November, voicing fears Canberra was trying to recruit soldiers sent to Australia for training. Story continues "Every time there is a training programme -- like recently -- the best five or 10 students would be sent to Australia. That happened before I was chief so I let that happen," he said in translated remarks, according to the broadcaster. "Once I became chief commander of the national forces, it (the students being sent) did not happen again. They will certainly be recruited." Australian Defence Minister Marise Payne denied Canberra had targeted Indonesian soldiers to be potential agents. She added that an investigation into the teaching materials that sparked the spat was almost complete and the government took the concerns seriously. Despite the row, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said relations with Canberra remained robust. "I think the relationship between Indonesia and Australia is in good condition, but perhaps on the operational level it still needs to be discussed so things will not heat up," he said. But he added the dispute about teaching materials was "a matter of principle" that needed to be cleared up. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull later said that Widodo "and I share a firm commitment to continue to build on the close relationship between our countries, based on common interests and mutual respect. "I look forward to this matter being resolved as soon as possible." It is the latest tiff between the key allies and neighbours, whose relationship has been beset in recent years by disputes over Jakarta's execution of Australian drug smugglers and Canberra's hardline policy of turning migrant boats back to Indonesia. Tensions also emerged over the role of notorious Indonesian unit Kopassus' part in human rights abuses in East Timor in 1999 as the then-Indonesian territory geared up for independence. By Colin Packham and Bernadette Christina Munthe SYDNEY/JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia and Australia sought to calm tensions on Thursday after Indonesia's military suspended ties because of "insulting" teaching material found at an Australian base that questioned Jakarta's sovereignty in Papua province. Papua, where a separatist movement has simmered for decades, is a sensitive issue for Indonesia, which took over the former Dutch colony after a widely criticized U.N.-backed referendum in 1969. Australian Defense Minister Marise Payne expressed regrets and promised a thorough investigation of the row, which highlighted the sometimes prickly relationship between the neighbors. Indonesian President Joko Widodo said ties with Australia were "still in a fine condition" and that his defense minister and military chief had been asked to investigate. "We have agreed, Indonesia, Australia, to respect each other, to value each other and not meddle in each other's domestic affairs," Widodo said. Military cooperation between the two countries ranges from countertenors programs to border protection. But the neighbors have had a rocky military relationship in recent years. Australia stopped joint training exercises with Indonesian special forces (Kopassus) after accusations of abuses by the unit in East Timor in 1999, as the territory prepared for independence. Ties resumed when counter-terrorism cooperation became imperative after the 2002 nightclub bombings on the resort island of Bali that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians. Australia's defense minister said an investigation into the teaching materials, found at Campbell Barracks in the west Australian city of Perth, would be concluded "imminently". "We have indicated our regret that this occurred and that offence was taken. I think that's appropriate when a significant counterpart raises their concerns with you," Payne told reporters in Sydney. Australia would present the findings of the report to Indonesia's government and military, Payne said. She denied allegations, reportedly made by Indonesia's Armed Forces Chief Gatot Nurmantyo in a lecture last year, that Australia had tried to recruit Indonesian soldiers as agents during training. "TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY" Gatot said on Thursday that "unethical" teaching material had been found by an Indonesian officer who had been sent to Australia to teach. The material "discredited the Indonesian military (TNI), the nation of Indonesia and even the ideology of Indonesia," he said, referring to material concerning East Timor and "Papua needing to be independent", as well as mocking the country's founding principles, known as Pancasila. "That curriculum had been used for a long time," he said, noting it had now been removed. Training with Australia had been suspended and other areas of cooperation were being re-evaluated, Nurmantyo said, adding that the suspension did have presidential approval. Presidential spokesman Johan Budi said Widodo had ordered the defense minister and military chief to brief him on the situation "so as not to give rise to misunderstandings that can heat things up". On Wednesday, Budi said the military had not discussed the suspension with the president. The Australian defense minister said all training documents would now be "culturally appropriate" and that Australia recognised "Indonesia's sovereignty and territorial integrity." Indonesia most recently suspended military ties in 2013 over revelations that Australian spies had tapped the mobile telephone of then president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Indonesian and Australian officials said on Thursday that the bilateral relationship had not stalled, unlike in 2013. Australia needs Indonesia's help to enforce its controversial immigration policy, which includes turning back boats carrying asylum seekers. Payne said Jakarta has given no indication of any change. (Reporting by Colin Packham and Tom Westbrook in SYDNEY and Bernadette Christina Munthe and Agustinus Beo Da Costa in JAKARTA; Writing by Fergus Jensen; Editing by Paul Tait and Bill Tarrant) A group advocating for Australia to remain under the British monarchy has told its members to start preparing for Queen Elizabeth II's death amid her growing health problems. The longest serving monarch is suffering from a heavy cold that forced her to skip annual royal holiday celebrations, including Christmas and New Year services. Australian Monarchists League warned its supporters that after the queen's death it will be as though a safety net has disappeared. National chair of the league, Phillip Benwell, wished the monarch a "speedy recovery" but urged supporters to seriously consider life after her reign, according to the Guardian. "The Queen has been a part of the lives of all her subjects for over 60 years," he wrote. "Most were born during her reign. It will be as though a safety net has disappeared because we have always had a sort of assured faith that the Queen is there to protect us. "That faith won't be there when Charles becomes king because it is something that is earned and is not automatic," he added. Tristan Rogers, from the Australian Monarchists Leagues Queensland branch, told the Daily Telegraph he believed most Australians would accept Prince Charles as the new king. Prince Charles is a different person but most people recognise the monarchy renews and refreshes and is more than just a person, he said. When the Queen passes, he will grow in the job. Meanwhile, the 90-year-old has reportedly resumed her royal duties more than fortnight after her illness. On Wednesday, reports said that the queen gave an honor to a member of her staff in a private ceremony, resuming official duties as she continued to recover from her illness. The queen on Tuesday gave Raymond Wheaton, the insignia of a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order, an honour that usually rewards personal service to her or the monarchy. According to a palace spokeswoman, the private ceremony took place at Sandringham. However, it is unclear when the queen will be next seen in public. Story continues On Tuesday, the queen also sent a personal message of condolence to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan following the New Year's Eve attack on a nightclub in Istanbul that killed 39 people. Following reports of the queen's illness, several false news stories reporting the queens death circulated on social media. A fake BBC news account tweeted that the queen had died forcing the Palace to issue a statement denying the tweet, saying the queen is still alive. Queen Elizabeth's health condition has also sparked questions about who will succeed her if she decides to give up the throne or if she dies. Her eldest son Prince Charles is the first in line for the throne of England followed by Prince William, Prince George and Princess Charlotte. The queen took the throne in 1952 after King George VI's death, who did not have any sons. In Britain, the crown is normally passed from the monarch to the eldest son. But in 2011, the Act of Settlement was changed before Prince Georges birth to ensure succession would not be affected by gender of the child. Related Articles FRANKFURT, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Austrian bank BAWAG PSK , backed by US financial investor Cerberus, is bidding for German private bank Oldenburgische Landesbank , two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday. Bawag is currently doing due diligence on OLB, one source said, indicating the sale process is at an advanced stage. The bank is currently 90 percent owned by insurer Allianz , which put it up for sale in the autumn. Sources have said that U.S. private equity group Apollo and Germany's Commerzbank have submitted offers for the bank, which has assets of 13 billion euros ($13.6 billion). BAWAG declined to comment specifically on OLB, but said its financial position allowed it to grow both organically and via acquisitions. "BAWAG remains interested in acquisitions, but we will not comment on concrete plans at present," a spokeswoman said. Allianz also declined comment on the sale process. ($1 = 0.9533 euros) (Reporting by Alexander Huebner; Additional reporting by Alexandra Schwarz-Goerlich in Vienna; Writing by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Edward Taylor) BERLIN (Reuters) - Austria's defense minister has drafted a plan that would overhaul the European Union's migrant policy by establishing a ceiling for migration and only permitting applications for asylum from outside the EU, Germany's Bild newspaper reported on Thursday. Hans Peter Doskozil, a Social Democrat, told the newspaper the changes were urgently needed to create a more orderly system of legal migration for those entitled to asylum in the bloc. "It's about ending the failed European asylum policies. We must admit to ourselves and be honest that the EU has limited capacity to absorb more migrants. We must stop illegal immigration," Bild quoted the minister as saying. Doskozil will present the plan at a meeting of the Central European Defence Cooperation (CEDC) in February and aims "to promote the plan forcefully in Brussels," his spokesman said. Bild said Doskozil's plan calls for an EU migration ceiling based on limits set by member states, which would effectively force countries like Germany that do not currently have such a limit to establish one. Doskozil's plan also calls for the creation of asylum centers in countries such as Niger, Jordan and Uzbekistan, potentially using existing facilities of the United Nations Refugee Agency. Migrants who were denied asylum or those who entered the EU illegally but could not be returned to their home countries would be transferred to "protective zones" that were linked to asylum centers, the newspaper said. The ministry spokesman, citing the plan, said those migrants judged to be in need of protection would be transferred to an EU country, depending on the capacity of that country for integrating more migrants. Asylum applications would be evaluated by teams of experts from EU member countries, the spokesman said. Doskozil told the newspaper that his plan would also benefit potential asylum seekers who needed help but had not been able to apply in the past because they could not afford the passage to Europe. Austria's centrist government tightened migration laws last year amid strong gains for the anti-immigrant Freedom Party (FPO), whose candidate Norbert Hofer made it to a December presidential election run-off. Austria announced a cap on asylum claims of 37,500 last year after taking in 90,000 asylum seekers during Europe's migration crisis in 2015. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal in Berlin and Kirsti Knolle in Vienna; Editing by Hugh Lawson) A baby in a laundry basket was found abandoned inside a Minnesota Catholic cathedral this week. Police say the little boy was wrapped in blankets and uninjured when paramedics arrived to the Cathedral of St. Paul Wednesday night. Watch: Woman Abandoned in Phone Booth 20 Years Ago Reunites With Man Who Saved Her The baby, believed to have been very recently born, was discovered by an employee conducting regular rounds of the building. Custodian Nathan Leonhardt said the boy appeared to have been recently born and not yet washed. His umbilical cord was cut and clamped with a binder clip. The custodian immediately alerted Cathedral Rector Father John Ubel, who called 911, according to The Catholic Spirit, the official publication of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. As they waited for police to arrive, Father Ubel baptized the child and christened him Nathan John. The boy has since been placed in the care of Ramsey County Child Protective Services. "I am profoundly grateful that this beautiful baby is healthy and safe and that whomever dropped him off at the Cathedral felt that this was a safe place where he would receive the care he needs and deserves as a child of God," Ubel said Thursday. While Minnesota does have a safe haven law that allows a mother to leave a baby at a safe place within seven days of birth, a house of worship is not listed among those safe places. Read: Babysitter Arrested After Abandoning 3 Kids in Unlocked House Because It Wasn't Clean However, St. Paul police want the mother to know they do not intend to pursue any criminal charges in the incident. "Were happy that the baby is safe, but were also concerned that theres a mother thats out there that possibly gave birth to this child without medical care and thats possibly in need of some help also," Sgt. Mike Ernster of the St. Paul Police Department told the Pioneer Press. We would encourage her to call 911 or go to a hospital without any fear of the police looking at this as a criminal matter." Story continues Watch: Babysitter Robs Bank While Watching 2 Little Kids, Police Say Related Articles: Dubai (AFP) - Bahrain's prosecution on Thursday extended by two weeks the detention of Shiite opposition leader Nabil Rajab over spreading "false information" about the Sunni-ruled kingdom, his lawyer said. The human rights activist "was interrogated by the prosecution, who decided to extend his pre-trial detention by 15 days over the accusation of spreading rumours and false information," Mohammed al-Jishi said. This accusation is linked to television interviews given by Rajab in 2014 and 2015, the lawyer said, adding a request to free him had been rejected. On December 28, the prosecution said Rajab would remain in custody to be questioned over "spreading false news about the situation in the kingdom", despite being granted bail in another case over tweets deemed hostile to Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, for which the next hearing is on January 23. In that case he is accused of "spreading false news and rumours and inciting propaganda during wartime which could undermine the war operations by the Bahraini armed forces and weaken the nation". Bahrain is part of a Saudi-led coalition since March 2015 battling Shiite Huthi rebels in Yemen. Rajab, who had been pardoned for health reasons last year, was rearrested in June and is on trial on a list of charges, including insulting a state institution and Saudi Arabia in online postings. Rajab was questioned recently in custody over letters critical of the authorities that were published in September in The New York Times and in December in French daily Le Monde. Several rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have pressed Bahrain's authorities to release Rajab, a co-founder and president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights. Rajab has been repeatedly detained for organising protests and publishing tweets deemed insulting to the Gulf state's Sunni authorities. He previously served two years in jail on charges of taking part in unauthorised protests in the Shiite-majority kingdom. Home to the US Navy's Fifth Fleet, Bahrain has been rocked by unrest since security forces crushed Shiite-led protests in 2011 demanding a constitutional monarchy and an elected prime minister. Nicosia (AFP) - Bank of Cyprus, the Mediterranean island's largest lender, Thursday announced it had paid back in full the 11.4 billion euros in Emergency Liquidity Assistance it received in an international bailout. "Bank of Cyprus announces that it has today fully repaid the ELA funding it has been receiving from the Central Bank of Cyprus," the bank said in a statement. It said it was "another significant milestone in the journey back to strength since 2013". In March 2013, Cyprus clinched a 10-billion-euro loan from the European Union and International Monetary Fund to bail out its troubled economy and oversized banking system. Under the terms of the deal, the government was required to close the island's second-largest bank, Laiki, and impose a 47.5 percent haircut on deposits above 100,000 euros at Bank of Cyprus. The bank has since undergone major restructuring, which included absorbing the good assets of the former Laiki Bank and selling assets. The full repayment of the ELA "should further strengthen stakeholders' confidence that the bank is becoming a stronger, safer and a more focused institution capable of delivering appropriate shareholder returns over the medium term," bank CEO John Patrick Hourican said. The bank, which is applying for a listing on the London Stock Exchange, intends to maintain a listing on the Cyprus Stock Exchange but will no longer be listed on the Athens Exchange. Bank of Cyprus hopes to become eligible for inclusion in the FTSE UK Index series. Barry Diller, who famously lost a bidding war for Paramount Pictures two decades ago, says the movie business has unattractive economics that have been crimped by internets disruption of the media ecosystem. Movie companies rarely make a lot of money, Diller said during a keynote session Thursday at the 2017 CES trade show in Las Vegas Thursday. A standalone movie studio today is a hardly a great business proposition, he said, allowing that Disney is an exception in the industry. Movie studios today are centered around huge, blockbuster movies that have to do $500 million to break even I mean, that is not a creative enterprise, said the septuagenarian media mogul, who is founder and chairman of IAC and chairman of Expedia. The fact we get any good movies is almost a miracle. Dillers comments come after the movie industry notched a record $11.4 billion in North American box office revenue in 2016. Whats changed for the movie business in the last few years, according to Diller, is that internet streaming and over-the-top video services have weakened the powerful hold media conglomerates used to enjoy with respect to downstream distribution. In the past, media congloms could be a highwayman taking the toll from anyone who wants to cross the media road, said Diller. After Diller lost out to Viacom in 1994 for Paramount after a six-month battle, he issued a terse statement saying: They won. We lost. Next. As for pay TV, a business in which Diller was once himself a notable player as owner of USA Networks, he predicted that the internet is poised to bring further disruption. The advent of skinny bundles from the likes of Hulu, DirecTV, Sling TV and others will reach its ultimate conclusion with consumers picking and choosing which networks and services they want rather than purchasing a bundle, he suggested. I think mostly, you will curate (TV content) yourself. You will decide: I like Netflix, Amazon, ESPN, whatever, Diller said. Why would you let someone else warehouse those for you? Story continues Diller also address the issue of fake news, which became a hot-button issue after the 2016 U.S. presidential election. He said one of the biggest problems is programmatic advertising because that lets marketers blindly buy ads without knowing where theyll appear. Unless you put some human barricades, barriers so to speak, in front of it, this is going to proliferate, he said. Diller, who has criticized Donald Trump as a bad clown and huckster in the past, tangentially addressed the incoming president in his remarks Thursday. Im only marking this new presidency in one-year increments, he said during the keynote session, moderated by Michael Kassan, CEO of consulting firm MediaLink. Last fall Diller claimed he would either leave the U.S. or join the resistance if Trump were elected president. (He evidently has not emigrated at this point.) Commenting on his approach to acquisitions wearing both his IAC and Expedia hats Diller said his companies do not merely stick to their knitting. Were open field, he said. We actually truly have no blinders on. We dont want to. We would have never gotten as far as we have in internet life if we had. Related stories Netflix Beats Porn by 40x for Hotel Room Entertainment Cirque Du Soleil Gets New Virtual Reality Experience 'Dreams of O' 'Planet of the Apes' Is Getting a Virtual Reality Experience Photo credit: Getty Images From Woman's Day If you work hard, then you deserve to relax hard, too-and that's exactly what one company wants their associates to do. Gary Bertch, the co-owner and president of Bertch Cabinets in Waterloo, Iowa, announced in December that all 800 employees of his manufacturing company will be rewarded with a free 5-day cruise in the Caribbean, ABC News reports. Bertch wanted to reward his employees with a vacation to say thank you for all their hard work, and for meeting all of the company's financial and quality goals in 2016. On January 8, 600 employees and their spouses will take a chartered flight from Waterloo to Miami where they will board a Carnival cruise ship and tour the Caribbean. The remaining 200 employees chose the company's alternate reward option: a week off and a $900 cash bonus. "We gave people the option of the cash bonus or the vacation," Gary Bertch told ABC. "We'd love to have everyone come on vacation with us, but know it isn't possible for all for personal reasons, so we wanted to have that alternative available to them." From 1989 to 2005, annual paid trips and vacations were the norm at Bertch Cabinets, but soon after, the company had to halt the practice due to the recession. Now, both the company leaders and employees are happy to bring back the tradition. In addition to the cruise activities, Tony Means, a Bertch employee, is looking forward to spending time with his coworkers. "This is a really unique opportunity," he said. "We're just all very thankful to the Bertches." And praise for the firm doesn't end there. When the company announced their exciting plans on Facebook, there were several past employees and current customers who were thrilled to hear the news. "Nice going Bertch Cabinets," Lillian Little wrote. "Well done for looking after your employees like they've looked after you." Let's hope that the positive feedback and publicity will inspire more corporations to follow suit! Story continues (h/t ABC News) You Might Also Like Barack Obama is going out with a bang. The outgoing president and First Lady Michelle Obama are said to be planning a so-called "grown up" party at the White House this Friday night, with the likes of Beyonce and Jay Z, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, Usher and Eddie Vedder among the stars rumored to be on the guest list. Fellow Chicagoan Chance the Rapper confirmed his attendance on Twitter. "Bout to fly 21 hours to DC to bid farewell to the greatest president in US history. God bless you Potus," the hip-hop star tweeted. Bout to fly 21 hours to DC to bid farewell to the greatest president in US history. God bless you @Potus - Lil Chano From 79th (@chancetherapper) January 5, 2017 Movie directors George Lucas and JJ Abrams, talk show great Oprah Winfrey and actors Samuel L Jackson and Bradley Cooper are also expected to take their seats for the A-list soiree at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, which will serve as one of the POTUS' final gestures before becoming a private citizen. The inauguration ceremony for his successor, the Republican president-elect Donald Trump, is set for Jan. 20. There's no official word from the White House just yet on the Obamas' final bash. The value of bitcoin surged above $1,100 on Thursday as the digital unit continues a dizzying rise that made it the best-performing currency of 2016. Analysts have suggested a host of reasons for its appreciation, from global uncertainty and a strengthening dollar to demonetisation in India and capital controls in China. Here are some key facts about bitcoin. What is it? Bitcoin is a virtual currency that is created from computer code. Unlike a real-world currency such as the US dollar or the euro, it has no central bank and is not backed by any government. Instead, its community of users control and regulate it. Advocates say this makes it an efficient alternative to traditional currencies because it is not subject to the whims of a state that may wish to devalue its money to inflate away debt. Just like other currencies, bitcoins can be exchanged for goods and services -- or for other currencies -- provided the other party is willing to accept them. Where does it come from? Bitcoin was launched in 2009 as a bit of encrypted software written by someone using the Japanese-sounding name Satoshi Nakamoto. Last year secretive Australian entrepreneur Craig Wright said he was the creator, but some have raised doubts over his claim. Other digital currencies followed but bitcoin was by far the most popular. Transactions happen when heavily encrypted codes are passed across a computer network. The network as a whole monitors and verifies the transaction in a process that is intended to ensure no single bitcoin can be spent in more than one place simultaneously. Users can "mine" bitcoins -- bring new ones into being -- by having their computers run complicated and increasingly difficult processes. However, the model is limited and only 21 million units will ever be created. What's it worth? Like any other currency, it fluctuates. But unlike most real-world analogues, bitcoin's value has swung wildly in a short period. When the unit first came into existence it was worth a few US cents. Its price topped out at $1,165.89 on the Bitcoin Price Index, an average of major exchanges, in 2013. Story continues At around 0430 GMT Thursday, a single bitcoin was worth about $1,140 on the BPI. There are presently more than 16 million units in circulation. Some economists point to the fact that because it is limited its price will increase over the long run, making it less useful as a currency and more a vehicle to store value, like gold. But detractors point to bitcoin's volatility, security issues and other weaknesses as flaws that will eventually undermine it. Why has its value risen in recent months? Analysts have suggested a number of reasons, including investors buying bitcoins as a hedge against currencies that are weakening against the US dollar. Other reasons include the currency turning into a virtual safe haven at a time of global economic uncertainty sparked by factors such as Donald Trump's US election victory, as well as country-specific issues such as the chaotic withdrawal of high-value notes in India, and Chinese controls on the purchase of foreign currency. The currency may also have been strengthened by the rise of digital payments and the dwindling supply of new bitcoins. What's the future? Some commentators say that like many technological developments, the first iteration of a product will encounter difficulties, possibly terminal ones. But the trail it blazes might smooth the way for the next crypto currency. Problems include an apparent vulnerability to theft when bitcoins are stored in digital wallets. A major Hong Kong-based bitcoin exchange suspended trading last year after $65 million in the virtual unit was reportedly stolen by hackers. The virtual currency movement also faces legitimacy issues because of the way it allows for anonymous transactions -- the very thing that libertarian adopters like about it. Detractors say bitcoin's use on the underground Silk Road website, where users could buy drugs and guns with it, is proof that it is a bad thing. If bitcoin does become more widely accepted, experts say, it could lead to more government regulations, which would negate the very attraction of the bitcoin concept. By Guillermo Parra-Bernal and Mathieu Rosemain SAO PAULO/PARIS (Reuters) - Vivendi (VIV.PA) has tapped Amos Genish, the former head of Telefonica's (TEF.MC) Brazil unit, to lead efforts to converge the French media company's content, platforms and media distribution strategies. The move comes as Vivendi, led by billionaire and corporate raider Vincent Bollore, has been building up its stake in Italian broadcaster Mediaset (MS.MI) as part of a strategy to expand in southern Europe. European media and telecoms groups are betting on the convergence of TV content with Internet and phone services as they face increasing competition from online providers such as Netflix (NFLX.O) and Amazon (AMZN.O). Genish's task will be to foster greater collaboration between Vivendi's wide range of assets in the newly created role of chief convergence officer, which the French group announced late on Wednesday. Bollore has made no secret of his intentions to create a southern European powerhouse able to compete with the likes of Time Warner (TWX.N) and Rupert Murdoch, whose Twenty-First Century Fox (FOXA.O) struck a $14.6 billion deal last month to buy European pay-TV firm Sky (SKYB.L), uniting a media empire across two continents. Since becoming Vivendi's chairman in 2014, Bollore has hired and fired top management and taken key strategic decisions, including the company's big bet on Telecom Italia (TLIT.MI), in which Vivendi built up a 24 percent stake, becoming the biggest shareholder. Genish, 56, an Israeli citizen, sold Brazilian phone carrier GVT SA to Vivendi in 2009. He became CEO of Telefonica Brasil (VIVT4.SA) after Vivendi sold GVT to the local unit of Spain's Telefonica SA in 2015. Under his tenure, Telefonica Brasil grew at the expense of rivals and became Brazil's most profitable carrier in spite of the worst recession in more than eight decades. He stepped down as CEO in October, citing unspecified personal reasons. RISING INFLUENCE Vivendi's stake building in Mediaset has riled the Italian government amid concerns that Bollore, who is influential in Telecom Italia's strategy and is a key shareholder in Italian bank Mediobanca (MDBI.MI), could end up with even greater influence in Italy's corporate world. Story continues Vivendi said last month that it now controls 29.94 percent of Mediaset's voting rights along with 28.8 percent of the company's share capital - just below the 30 percent stake at which a full bid for Mediaset would be required. Vivendi, whose biggest unit is French broadcaster Canal Plus Group, also acquired French mobile video games maker Gameloft last year and has built up a 25 percent stake in Gameloft's larger sister company Ubisoft (UBIP.PA). Genish will be based in London and Paris, Vivendi said in its statement announcing his appointment. Telefonica Brasil said on Wednesday that Genish had resigned from the company's board, turning his seat over to Jose Maria Del Rey Osorio. He also quit his post as head of the company's strategy committee. He was replaced as CEO in October by Eduardo Navarro. (Reporting by Guillermo Parra-Bernal and Bruno Federowski; Editing by Susan Fenton) 1. PG IS THE NEW PG-13 The prevailing wisdom is that older kids will avoid a PG movie, animated or otherwise, hence the rush for a PG-13. But in 2016, four of the top 10 films worldwide - and three of the top five in North America - were PG and lured demos of all ages, not just families. 2. HALF FULL, HALF EMPTY Felicity Jones starred in the biggest hit of the holidays, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. But the same weekend Rogue One topped all rivals, her other film, A Monster Calls, flopped. 3. SEQUELITIS More reboots and sequels - including Ghostbusters, Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising and Star Trek Beyond - trailed their predecessors. (One exception was Universal and Blumhouse's The Purge: Election Year, which earned $118 million compared with $111 million for 2014's Anarchy). That's troubling because 2017 is packed with more sequels (Vin Diesel's XXX: The Return of Xander Cage, Cars 3) and reboots (Baywatch, Jumanji). Read more: Box Office: 'Captain America: Civil War' Leads 2016 With $1.15B 4. SINGING IN SOUTH KOREA Oscar hopeful La La Land isn't just a phenomenon in the U.S., where it has earned $37 million as of Jan. 2 from only 750 theaters. Overseas, it has earned $27.8 million - led by a surprising $17.7 million in South Korea thanks to the K-pop industry. La La Land already has beaten Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice there ($16.5 million). 5. EUROPE LOVES BRIDGET Bridget Jones's Baby bombed in the U.S. with $24 million. But it grossed $188 million internation- ally, including a massive $61 million in the U.K., where it was the No. 2 title of 2016 behind The Jungle Book ($66 million), and $11.5 million in the Netherlands, where it was No. 1 for the year. This story first appeared in the Jan. 13 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe. SAO PAULO, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Brazilian Justice Minister Alexandre Moraes said Thursday the government would increase cooperation with neighboring drug-producing countries in a bid to slow the flow of narcotics and arms across its border. Moraes was giving details about the government efforts to create a new national security plan just days after the country's worst prison uprising in two decades resulted in the deaths of 56 inmates at the hands of fellow prisoners. The minister said the government would build five new maximum-security federal prisons - more than doubling the current number - and release funds to improve Brazil's woeful penitentiary system. Moraes also called for reforms to laws that put non-violent offenders in prisons for long periods, adding to severe overcrowding. (Reporting by Brad Brooks; Editing by Bill Trott) Brasilia (AFP) - Brazilian President Michel Temer said Thursday the country will build new prisons in every state to relieve overcrowding after a "horrific" riot that left 56 inmates dead. It was Temer's first public reaction to the grisly riot in Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state, where jailed gang members beheaded and mutilated their rivals in a 17-hour bloodbath Sunday and Monday. "I want to first of all express my solidarity with the families that lost their loved ones in this terrible incident," Temer said at a press conference after meeting several of his ministers. "It's not enough to just diagnose what went wrong. We have to act." He announced the federal government would spend 800 million reals ($250 million) to build at least one prison in each of Brazil's 26 states to deal with chronic overcrowding blamed for a string of deadly riots. The new prisons will each have two separate buildings, enabling authorities to separate inmates convicted of minor crimes from the most violent criminals. The federal government will also build five new maximum security prisons and transfer "highly dangerous" gang leaders to them, Temer said. High-tech equipment to block cell phone signals -- preventing inmates from using contraband phones for criminal activities -- will be deployed in 30 percent of all prisons in every state, he said. The latest riot, which also enabled 184 inmates to escape, has cast a spotlight on Brazil's underfunded prisons. Prisons are often controlled in Brazil by drug gangs, whose turf wars are fought inside as well as outside prison. Overcrowding exacerbates the problem, human rights activists say. Brazil's justice ministry said in a 2014 report that the country's prisons need 50 percent more capacity to handle the current number of inmates: 622,000. That is the world's fourth-largest prison population after the US, China and Russia, according to the report. The latest riot was the deadliest in Brazil since police killed 111 inmates in a crackdown on an uprising at the Carandiru prison in Sao Paulo in 1992. RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) After days of silence, Brazilian President Michel Temer said on Thursday that the killing of 60 inmates in two Amazon prisons was a "dreadful accident" and that public agencies have no clear responsibility because the prison where most died was run by a private company. Four prisons in the Northern state of Amazonas saw riots Sunday and Monday and one of them suffered the worst bloodshed at a prison of the South American country since 1992, with half of the slain beheaded and several others also dismembered. "I want to offer my solidarity to the families that had their inmates killed in that dreadful accident that happened in the prison of Manaus," Temer said at a Cabinet meeting in the capital, Brasilia. After being ridiculed on social media for his description of the slayings, Brazil's president responded with a tweet. "Synonyms of the word 'accident:' tragedy, loss, disaster, disgrace, fatality," he said. Temer also said federal and state authorities were not to be blamed for the killings. "The prison was outsourced and privatized and therefore there was not an objective, clear and defined responsibility of the public agents," he said. Brazil's Justice Minister Alexandre de Moraes preferred to blame company Umanizzare for not running the prison properly. "It is obvious to say there was a problem with the company. It is not possible that blades, knives, pieces of metal and firearms get in," Moraes said in a press conference. "The authorities took every measure to avoid this." Umanizzare said in a statement that security and vigilance at the unit are up to the Amazonas state government and that one member of the state's prison administration secretariat oversees treatment of inmates. The company also blamed authorities for the crowded jails. "It is up for the public authorities to determine how many places will be used in each prison," the company said. Story continues Claudio Lamachia, the chairman of Brazil's bar association, disagreed with Temer and Moraes. "The fact that the prison was run by a third party does not exempt the public agents from surveilling, following up and policing the facility," Lamachia told The Associated Press. The Amazonas section of the bar association is suing the state government, accusing it of negligence, and a judge has given state Gov. Jose Melo until the end of the week to respond to the accusation. If courts determine the governor was negligent, he potentially could be ousted. State authorities say the incident began when local Family of the North gang attacked members of Sao Paulo-based First Command, Brazil's biggest criminal organization. The two fight over the control of prisons and drug routes in northern Brazil. Temer also promised to build five prisons to address overcrowding nationwide. He did not detail where those would be placed nor when they would be built. A total of 184 inmates escaped from Amazonas prisons in the disturbances. Only 65 had been recaptured as of Thursday afternoon, according to police. London (AFP) - British Finance Minister Philip Hammond has warned that Brexit negotiations would be difficult, but said he hoped to maintain strong economic ties with the European Union. "Of course the negotiations will be tough and they will be complicated," Hammond told CNBC Arabia television in an interview aired on Thursday. "We have spent 40 years integrating our economies and now we have to separate them," he added during the interview in Kuwait, where he was visiting as part of a tour of the Gulf. Britain will have two years to negotiate a deal with the EU once it triggers Article 50 of the bloc's Lisbon Treaty, formally beginning the withdrawal process. Despite the daunting complexity and scope for conflict, Hammond said he hoped to secure a strong trading relationship with the rest of Europe. The divorce "will take time and it will take effort, but we have mutual interest in maintaining a close economic, commercial and trading relationship," he said. "Hundreds of thousands of jobs on the continent of Europe depend on exports to Britain and hundreds of thousands of jobs in Britain depend on our services being delivered into the European Union, particularly financial services from the city of London," he told the broadcaster. Hammond was criticised by pro-Brexit leaders last month when he backed a transitional deal to smooth the Brexit negotiations. His call for a deal is in line with British industry leaders, in particular in the powerful financial sector, who are concerned about the effect of a so-called "hard Brexit" that would see the country quit Europe's free-trade area and lead to the potential for tariffs and red tape. Prime Minister Theresa May is under increasing pressure to reveal details of her negotiating demands and strategy ahead of her March deadline for triggering Article 50. May was also rocked when Ivan Rogers, Britain's ambassador to the EU, quit on Tuesday, criticising "ill-founded arguments and muddled thinking". London (AFP) - Britain's new EU ambassador is a veteran diplomat chosen to bring toughness and experience but also to calm civil servants restive over London's cryptic Brexit strategy, former colleagues and experts said Thursday. Tim Barrow, the man charged with ironing out the path to Brexit, has handled Britain's rocky relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the past six years as the ambassador to Moscow. He is also an old hand in the corridors of Brussels, having done two stints in the mission he now heads, and spent years in key Europe roles in the Foreign Office. British civil servants are reportedly frustrated by a lack of clarity from Prime Minister Theresa May's government, as she prepares to trigger two years of EU exit negotiations within the next three months. Barrow, as London's permanent representative to the European Union, will play a key role in thrashing out Britain's future relations with the bloc. Tom Fletcher, a former British ambassador to Lebanon and ex-foreign policy adviser to three prime ministers, said: "It's the toughest negotiation in our lifetimes and I think he is up to it." "I have seen him in Brussels. He knows the corridors, he knows the characters," he told BBC radio. "I saw him in Moscow where he was incredibly resilient as ambassador there, dealing with Putin in a very testing time in our relationship and Tim had a reputation of being bulletproof out there." Before becoming the ambassador to Russia, Barrow was at Britain's EU embassy in Brussels as the UK representative to the bloc's political and security committee and ambassador to the Western European Union from 2008 to 2011. - 'Muddled thinking' - He replaces Ivan Rogers, who quit nine months early on Tuesday so that his successor could see through the whole divorce process. But Rogers left with sharp words ringing in the ears of civil servants, amid claims he had been undermined by ministers who did not like what he was telling them from Brussels. Story continues He sent an email to staff condemning "ill-founded arguments and muddled thinking" over Brexit and made it clear even he was still in the dark over May's objectives. The Times newspaper said civil servants were getting restive over the whole situation. Stephen Wall, ambassador to Brussels from 1995 to 2000, was quoted as saying: "What most civil servants actually want is clear political direction. "The sense I get is that at the moment, that isn't there." Newspapers suggested the speed of the appointment meant Barrow had strong support from May, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Brexit Secretary David Davis, and that Downing Street may have already been putting thought into Rogers' replacement. - 'Someone who knows Brussels' - A European diplomatic source in Brussels told AFP that Barrow getting the job was a victory for the Foreign Office. "We have someone who knows Brussels and knows diplomacy. However, it is not certain that he is up to speed with the technical subjects to be dealt with," having been noted as a Russia expert. "Perhaps this reflects a recalibration of the post or a takeover by London and the Brexit ministry on the negotiations," the source added. Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform think-tank, called Barrow an "inspired choice". The Financial Times newspaper said his appointment would calm nerves in the London ministries and his appointment marked a return to "more traditional diplomatic leadership". It quoted a former colleague as saying he was "not obviously eurosceptic". An EU diplomat formerly based in Brussels told AFP that Barrow was "an amiable, well-disposed kind of guy, succinct and confident. He negotiates well. He can be tough when required." The main opposition Labour Party welcomed the appointment but said fundamental questions remained unanswered on May's Brexit strategy. The anti-EU UK Independence Party's Brexit spokesman Gerard Batten said: "This appointment is a disappointment because the last thing we need is another career diplomat wearing a Brussels jersey." London (AFP) - British Prime Minister Theresa May will visit Donald Trump this spring, following his inauguration as US president, Downing Street announced on Thursday. May's joint chiefs of staff Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill travelled to the US last month to meet Trump's team. "This was part of a process leading towards the PM's first visit with President-elect Trump," a Downing Street spokesman told AFP. "During the second phone call with President-elect Trump, the prime minister suggested it would be a good idea for key staff from both teams to meet. President-elect Trump agreed this would be useful." May had previously spoken to Trump following his election in November, during which he invited her to visit "as soon as possible". The prime minister's office said the visit was secured after her aides met with Trump's team. "We are pleased to have been able to make that happen and the prime minister looks forward to visiting the new president in the spring," the spokesman said. The British government would not confirm a date for the visit, which Sky News reported as scheduled for February. Trump is due to be sworn in as US president on January 20. Following the US election the first call between the pair reaffirmed the "very special" relationship between their two countries, while May emphasised their "long history of shared values" and of standing together "when it counts the most", her office said. May at the time emphasised her wish to strengthen trade and investment with the US as Britain leaves the European Union following a June 2016 referendum on membership of the bloc. Maintaining strong ties to Washington could help London as it faces economic uncertainty outside the EU, although so far Trump has not been viewed as making Britain a priority. Commentators were quick to question why he waited more than 24 hours after his election before calling the British premier. Trump's relationship with a key right-wing UK politician has also proven unsettling for the establishment. Story continues Nigel Farage, former leader of the UK Independence Party, had joined Trump during his election bid and in November became the first British politician to meet him after the vote. The meeting was an upset for the British government and worsened still when Trump tweeted that Farage "would do a great job" as Britain's ambassador to the US. Downing Street and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson both stressed that there was "no vacancy". The Broadway community will honor the legacies of Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds Friday night. Lights across theater marquees will be dimmed for one minute at 7:45 p.m. ET in memory of the mother and daughter who died just one day apart, on Dec. 27 and 28. Both women made their Broadway debuts in the 1973 musical comedy revival Irene, with Reynolds receiving a Tony nomination for her performance in the title role of an immigrant shop assistant introduced to Long Island's high society. Fisher appeared as a debutante in the ensemble of the show, a hit that ran for 594 performances. Coincidentally, beloved Broadway veteran George S. Irving, who won a Tony Award for the same production, died on Dec. 26, one day before Fisher. Reynolds returned to Broadway in two subsequent productions, bringing her song-and-dance act, Debbie, in 1976, and stepping in as a replacement in the lead role of TV news personality Tess Harding in the 1981 musical Woman of the Year. Lauren Bacall had originated the role, with Raquel Welch replacing her until Reynolds joined the company. In addition, Reynolds toured successfully in the Broadway musicals Annie Get Your Gun and The Unsinkable Molly Brown; the latter was also one of her signature screen roles. Fisher appeared on Broadway in a short-lived 1980 musical comedy called Censored Scenes From King Kong and was a replacement in the title role of Agnes of God during that 1982 play's 18-month run. However, Fisher's most memorable Broadway work was in her 2009 solo show, Wishful Drinking, a wry account of growing up as a child of Hollywood and being catapulted into the Star Wars firmament, which also dealt candidly with her struggles with addiction, depression and bipolar disorder. The show was published in book form and turned into a documentary for HBO. A more recent documentary about Fisher and Reynolds, Bright Lights, will debut Saturday on HBO. Read more: 13 Photos of Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher Tupiza (Bolivia) (AFP) - Defending motorcycle champion Toby Price of Australia was forced out of the Dakar Rally on Thursday after breaking his left leg in a fall, race officials said. Price suffered the injury when he tumbled off his KTM motorbike after 371km of the fourth stage from San Salvador de Jujuy in Argentina to Tupiza in Bolivia as the 9,000km race climbed into the dizzying altitudes of the Andes. Earlier in the day, Qatari two-time auto winner Nasser Al Attiyah was also forced to pull out, his Toyota team said. The 46-year-old, the 2011 and 2015 champion, did not start Thursday's stage after losing the wheel of his car during the previous day's special, leaving him down in 25th in the overall standings overnight. In the closing months of 2016, all of Southeast Asia seemed to be pivoting toward China. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak was hailed as a visionary leader by fellow Malaysian politicians for tilting to China. Thailand agreed to build an arms-maintenance and production center for Chinas Peoples Liberation Army, and the president of the Philippines declared in a speech delivered in Beijings Great Hall of the People: In this venue I announce my separation from the United States. Americans have been left to ask: What did we do wrong? What has caused the leaders of Southeast Asia to turn away from Washington and toward Beijing? It is tempting to look for the answer to these questions in the policies of the Obama or Xi administrations, or blame it on shifting fortunes in the balance of power. But focusing on the spectacle of Sino-American rivalry masks the dozens of smaller dramas and power plays that usually escape the attention of Western observers. Often it is these smaller conflicts of interest that drive lesser powers into the arms of the great ones. There is no better example of this than Cambodia, one of the first countries in the region to openly align itself with China. Cambodias position became clear in 2012, when it prevented ASEAN from issuing a joint communique that mentioned the South China Sea. Long-standing Cambodian dictator Hun Sen has reaped many rewards for this decision: In October, China granted Cambodia $237 million in direct aid, $90 million in canceled debt, and an additional $15 million in military support. Yet there is more behind Cambodian support for China than the size of Beijings pocketbook. In the minds of many Cambodians, the most difficult geopolitical challenge facing their country is not balancing the demands of the United States and China, but managing its relationship with Vietnam, an undertaking that cannot be successful without Chinese cooperation. Ethnic disharmony is not hard to spot in Southeast Asia, but few of its prejudices outside of the Myanmese hatred toward the Rohingya, at least can match the distrust and disgust the average Khmer feels toward the Vietnamese. Recall how conservative Americans talked about the Soviet Union at the height of communist power, add the way their counterparts in modern Europe discuss Arab immigration now, and then throw in a dash of the humiliation that marked Germany in interwar years, and then you might come close to getting a fair idea of how wild and vitriolic a force anti-Vietnamese rhetoric is in Cambodian politics. Cambodians have not forgotten the centuries of warfare that led Vietnamese armies to pillage the Khmer heartland and strip away more than half of its territory. Cambodian nationalists still pine for Khmer krom (Lower Khmer), a term used to describe both the ethnic Khmer living outside Cambodia and the lands they inhabit. Without the intervention of the French in the 1860s, which transformed Cambodia into a French protectorate and southern Vietnam into a French colony, Cambodia would have been totally swallowed by the Vietnamese maw. French imperialism brought peace, but not harmony: Relations between the two groups only worsened under colonial control, as the French gave the Vietnamese a privileged status, and imperial policy supported Vietnamese migration to the Cambodian heartland. The subsequent governments that came to power in post-colonial times the Sisowath, Lol Non, and Khmer Rouge regimes relied on anti-Vietnamese rhetoric to legitimize their rule to the Cambodian people. Historically informed Cambodians are quick to point out that the Khmer Rouge was a creation of the Viet Cong; the more conspiratorial of their countrymen insist that the Khmer Rouges massacres were directed by them as well. Conspiratorial or not, Cambodians remember that 150,000 Vietnamese soldiers invaded Cambodia in 1978 and then occupied their country as foreign conquerors for the next 10 years. Though that decade-long war was not entirely the fault of the Vietnamese (China, Thailand, and the United States would support their own armed proxies), the violence of Vietnams counterinsurgency operations slowly eroded what goodwill they had earned by removing the Khmer Rouge from power. During this time the spigot of Vietnamese migrants moving into Cambodia was opened once again, sharpening fears that Vietnam sought to permanently subvert Khmer autonomy. Although both Vietnamese immigration and government influence has waned since Hanoi ordered its troops to withdraw from Cambodian territory, distrust of Vietnams government and disgust toward Cambodias Vietnamese minority remain. You can see this even in the Khmer communities of the United States. To walk the streets of an American Cambodiatown is to see a half-dozen posters warning of Vietnamese aggression, or (if you speak Khmer) be pressed to attend activist get-togethers or donate to help fight Vietnamese imperialism. Many of these donations go straight into the coffers of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), the opposition to Hun Sens ruling regime. The CNRP faces a stacked deck when squaring off against hostile authorities, but anti-Vietnamese agitation is a game they cant lose. When the Vietnamese overthrew the Khmer Rouge, the man they chose to head their new puppet regime was none other than Hun Sen. The party he now heads is a direct descendant of the party the Vietnamese created to rule Cambodia. While Westerners sometimes call Hun Sen a Chinese puppet, his domestic enemies are far more likely to attack him as a Vietnamese figurehead. His regimes abuses are regularly blamed on Vietnamese designs I have friends who insist that the soldiers who broke up the January 2014 election protests were all Viet and everything from the prime ministers fluency in Vietnamese to his refusal to deport all ethnic Vietnamese from Cambodia is used as irrefutable proof of his traitorous intent. There is a kernel of truth behind these accusations. Hun Sen has worked hard to nip anti-Vietnamese sentiment before it grows to explosive (or violent) levels, and he has proven extremely hesitant to rock the boat with his old and far more powerful patrons in Hanoi. Hun Sen no longer tolerates organized attempts to use anti-Vietnamese rhetoric against him. Last month, in response to a 2016 CNRP media campaign designed to expose Vietnamese incursions into Cambodian territory, Sam Rainsy, former head of the CNRP, and Sok Hor, a CNRP senator, were sentenced to five and seven years in jail, respectively. Likewise, Hanoi still has a powerful voice in Cambodian affairs. The Vietnamese state-owned enterprise Viettel operates the only Cambodian telecom company whose coverage reaches across the entire country, Phnom Penh constantly needles away at boosting cross-border trade and investment with Vietnam, illegal Vietnamese logging and smuggling operations are tacitly sanctioned by the government, and with the occasional diplomatic warning aside, the government turns a blind eye to Vietnamese construction near the areas where the two countries border has not been clearly demarcated. However, Viet-Cambodian relations are no longer what journalist Sebastian Strangio labeled the quasi-colonial relationship of Hun Sens early years. Hun Sen is no longer accompanied by Vietnamese minders while on government business, nor must he report his decisions to Vietnamese commanders. It is within this context that Sino-Cambodian relations must be understood. In geopolitical terms, Beijings flowering relationship with Phnom Penh is a powerful check on Cambodias neighbors. The United States, a longtime ally of the Thais and newfound courter of Vietnamese affection, could not be trusted to put Cambodian interests above the other powers in the region. In Beijing, the Cambodians see a more reliable great power an ally that not only has a fractious relationship with Cambodias traditional enemy, but one that has demonstrated a willingness to go to war with that country to preserve a favorable balance of power in Southeast Asia. Indeed, the last war China waged was not only against the Vietnamese, it was against them in defense of Cambodia. Beijings decision to send troops across Vietnams northern border as the bulk of the Vietnamese army was fighting an insurgency in Cambodia, and then to keep a threatening military presence on that border through the next decade, badly hampered the Vietnamese push to become the premier armed power in Southeast Asia. For Cambodia, the strategic benefits of friendship with China could not be clearer. Playing spoiler in ASEAN meetings is a small price to pay to guarantee this friendship. In Cambodian terms, Hun Sens decision to tilt Cambodian foreign policy toward Beijing is quite moderate. Other voices in Cambodian politics advocate even closer ties to China in hopes of generating more leverage vis-a-vis the Vietnamese. Rainsy declared in 2014 to a group of CNRP party supporters that his party is on the side of China, and we support China in fighting against Vietnam over the South China Sea issue. The islands belong to China, but the Viets are trying to occupy them, because the Viets are very bad. He would later defend these comments in a post on his Facebook page, arguing, when it comes to ensuring the survival of Cambodia as an independent nation, there is a saying as old as the world: the enemy of my enemy is my friend. The CNRP, acutely aware of its image in Western circles, has since distanced itself from Rainsys comments, but his logic is solid. If Vietnam truly does threaten the sovereignty of Cambodia, closer relations with China is a geopolitical imperative. Cambodias politicians have depended, since French colonialism if not earlier, on foreign sponsors. But being tarred as a friend of the Vietnamese is the most toxic slur in Cambodian politics. For Hun Sen or Rainsy, leaning toward China doesnt send a message of dependence on Beijing, but of hostility toward Hanoi. Even radical changes in Cambodias internal politics are unlikely to produce a revolution in Cambodias foreign relations. Hun Sens patronage machine requires huge influxes of money to maintain. China provides that. It does so without asking Hun Sen to protect the liberties of average Cambodians in return. But even if the machine were to fall apart and the opposition were to rise to power, Cambodias new leaders would face strong political pressure to give Beijing pride of place. Cambodia is a small country tucked between its historical enemies. The grip anti-Vietnamese sentiment has on the Cambodian masses only strengthens this geopolitical anxiety. As long as Cambodian nationalism defines itself in opposition to the Vietnamese, Cambodian politicians will never stop searching for a great power that can stand as a bulwark against Vietnam. For the foreseeable future, that country will be China. Next to this, the perceived balance of power between China and the United States will never be anything more than a sideshow. Photo Credit: TANG CHHIN SOTHY/AFP/Getty Images OTTAWA (Reuters) - There is no question of separating the Canadian and U.S. economies, Canadian Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Thursday when asked about the potential impact of a Donald Trump presidency. Trump, who will formally become President on Jan. 20, has vowed to either scrap or renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, under which Canada sends 75 percent of its exports to the United States. Trump has recently attacked auto manufacturers which plan to expand capacity in Mexico, promising to impose taxes unless they shift production to the United States. The Canadian and U.S. auto industries are highly integrated and Canada's economy could suffer badly if Trump took aim at plants north of the border. "With respect to relations between Canada and the United States, I think it's very important to understand that this is a very balanced relationship," Freeland told a televised news conference in Montreal when asked whether U.S. investors might be less keen on Canada under Trump. "Both the Canadian and U.S. economies have a very close relationship. There is no question of separating those two economies," she said. Amid fears of a protectionist Trump administration, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reached out in a video address to the new U.S. Congress on Tuesday to stress the two nations' tight economic links. (Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Chris Reese and Andrew Hay) Istanbul (AFP) - A car bombing blamed on Kurdish militants rocked the Turkish city of Izmir on Thursday, killing at least two people and triggering a deadly shootout as authorities chased the fugitive killer behind the New Year attack in Istanbul. The new attack intensified alarm in Turkey after the shooting rampage at Istanbul's Reina nightclub unleashed shortly after revellers rang in 2017, which killed 39 people and was claimed by the Islamic State group. Just four days after the nightclub carnage, a car bomb exploded outside a courthouse in the Aegean city of Izmir, with authorities blaming the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). A policeman and a court worker, reportedly a bailiff, were killed, Deputy Prime Minister Veysel Kaynak told reporters. Police battled "terrorists" in a clash which saw two militants killed. Another escaped, he added. The state-run Anadolu news agency said two suspects had been detained but it was not clear if they included the pursued militant. It added that security forces carried out a controlled explosion on a vehicle that the attackers may have been looking to use as a getaway car. The usually peaceful port city, Turkey's third largest metropolis, is the gateway to the plush beach resorts of the Aegean and rarely sees violence on this scale. It is well west of the PKK's main theatre in southeastern Turkey. Izmir governor Erol Ayyildiz said initial evidence suggested the PKK -- which has fought a deadly insurgency for over three decades -- was behind the attack. He said the slain policeman tried to stop the car before it exploded and the "terrorists" then sought to escape as the charge was detonated, triggering the gunfight. Up to seven people were wounded, Ayyildiz added. Officials praised policeman Fethi Sekin as a hero for preventing a far higher toll by stopping the car and then chasing down the attackers. "Our brave martyred policeman prevented an even greater disaster from happening," said Prime Minister Binali Yildirim. Story continues Reports said that two Kalashnikovs, seven rockets and eight grenades were seized, indicating the attackers may have planned a rampage inside the court complex. In a statement, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed that Turkey would not allow terror to "strike fear into the nation and polarise society". German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he was saddened that Turkey "within just a few days has again become victim of an attack". - 'Uighur origin' - Turkish authorities meanwhile were seeking to close in on the Istanbul club attacker, who slipped into the night after spraying 120 bullets at terrified partygoers celebrating New Year. Of the 39 dead, 27 were foreigners including citizens from Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Iraq and Morocco. Kaynak said the attacker was likely a Turkic Uighur and reports have indicated the authorities are looking into the possible existence of a cell, also including other jihadists from Central Asia. Most Uighurs, an eastern Turkic group, live in the Xinjiang region of China, although there are also significant populations in ex-Soviet Central Asian states. IS took responsibility for the massacre in a statement on Monday, the first time it has issued a clear and undisputed claim for a major attack inside Turkey. Kaynak told A-Haber television that airports had taken measures to ensure the killer did not flee Turkey and Dogan news agency reported that authorities had tightened land borders. "The security forces are aware of who the terrorist is. We are also aware of the probable place where he might be," Kaynak added, without giving further details. Kaynak described the massacre as "sophisticated and well planned", suggesting the gunman is part of a "well formed cell". - Families detained in Izmir - Special forces detained several people of Uighur origin suspected of links with the Istanbul attack on the outskirts of the city on Thursday, Anadolu said. Excluding the latest arrests, at least 36 had been detained in the probe by Wednesday. Authorities had on Tuesday detained 20 adults -- along with 20 of their children -- from three families in Izmir. There was no indication of any link to the bombing in the city. Those held had moved to Izmir on December 10 from the central city of Konya, where they are suspected of having been in touch with the Istanbul killer during his stay there. Police are investigating possible links to IS of the suspects, who include Uighurs, Kyrgyz citizens and suspects from the Russian Caucasus region of Dagestan. The latest attacks come after Turkey suffered a bloody year in 2016 when multiple bombings blamed on Kurdish militants and IS jihadists killed hundreds of people. BAGHDAD (AP) Several attacks in and around Baghdad, including a suicide car bombing in a busy commercial area after nightfall on Thursday, killed at least 27 people in a particularly brutal day in the Iraqi capital. The suicide bomber, who targeted shops and food stands near a bus station in the city's busy Bab al-Muadam area, killed 11, a police officer said. He says the bombing also wounded at least 22 people. Earlier in the day, bombings elsewhere in and around Baghdad killed at least 16 people and wounded dozens, officials said. A medical official confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release information. No one immediately claimed responsibility for any of the attacks but they bore the hallmarks of the Islamic State group, which has carried out a string of bombings in Baghdad over the past week, killing nearly 100 people. Earlier Thursday, a car bomb tore through a Baghdad market, killing nine people while four other attacks mostly by bombs that went off in commercial areas or targeted security forces killed at least seven. In the Baghdad market attack, the car bomb was parked near outdoor fruit and vegetable stalls in a mostly Shiite neighborhood. The fatalities included two policemen. The Sunni extremists frequently target Iraq's security forces and civilians in Shiite neighborhoods. IS has managed to carry out a series of attacks across Iraq while also putting up stiff resistance in the northern city of Mosul, where U.S.-backed Iraqi forces have been waging a massive offensive since mid-October to retake the city, Iraq's second-largest, from the militants. Mosul, about 360 kilometers (225 miles) northwest of Baghdad, is the extremist group's last major urban bastion in the country. Iraqi forces have retaken around a quarter of the city since the offensive began. Iraq announced a new operation on Thursday to recapture IS-held towns near the Syrian border. Story continues Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Mohammadi said the troops would try to dislodge IS from Rawah, Anah and Qaim, towns in the western Anbar province that fell to the extremists in the summer of 2014. U.S.-backed Iraqi forces drove IS from the two main cities of Anbar, Ramadi and Fallujah, last year. ____ Associated Press writer Murtada Faraj in Baghdad contributed to this report. Beirut (AFP) - At least 15 people were killed Thursday in a car bombing in Syria's coastal city of Jableh, a bastion of the regime, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said. Syrian state television also reported the blast near the town's municipal stadium, blaming it on a suicide bomber. A local health official told the station the town's hospital had received the bodies of nine dead and was treating 25 wounded. Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said it was not clear whether those killed were civilians, regime troops or loyalist fighters. He said security services had cordoned off the area around the stadium where the explosion took place. State television showed a burning car surrounded by onlookers. It said the attack had taken place in a crowded street. In May last year, a series of suicide attacks in Jableh and Tartus claimed by the Islamic State group left more than 170 dead. We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form (IZMIR, Turkey) Suspected Kurdish militants on Thursday opened fire at police who stopped them at a checkpoint in the western city of Izmir before detonating their explosives-laden vehicle and escaping, the provinces governor said. A policeman and a courthouse employee were killed in the attack while two assailants were shot dead. Gov. Erol Ayyildiz said preliminary indications pointed to the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, which has carried out a string of attacks in the past year and a half, mainly targeting Turkeys security forces. ISIS militants have also carried several deadly attacks in the country. The information so far suggests it is the PKK. Such a conclusion was reached after we assessed the attack and IDd the people, Ayyildiz said. The governor did not refer to earlier reports that a third attacker was on the run. Ayyildiz said the attackers were carrying two automatic rifles, rocket launchers and eight hand grenades. The attack occurred near a courthouse in Izmirs Bayrakli district, close to an entrance used by judges, prosecutors and other employees. Ayyildiz said six or seven people were also wounded in the attack, adding that police vigilance had foiled a possible more serious attack. Earlier, Turkeys state-run news agency said police were looking for a third suspect who was on the run, described as wearing a black coat and a white beret. The incident follows a string of attacks, carried out by ISIS or Kurdish militants, which have left Turkey on edge. Thirty-nine people were killed in a nightclub attack in Istanbul during New Years celebrations. ISIS claimed that attack. On Wednesday, police had detained some 20 people in Izmir believed to have links to the nightclub attacker who is still at large. Actor turned documentarian Fisher Stevens and his partner Alexis Bloom use the present tense when they speak about Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, the subjects of their new film, Bright Lights, which debuts Jan. 7 on HBO. "When you put a camera on Carrie, she's wired for truth. It's part of her DNA," Bloom says of capturing their singular mother-daughter relationship onscreen. "Her mother is wired for dignity above all else, from her training at MGM. She reserves her private face for her family and close friends, and that was the challenge." Introduced to Fisher by a mutual friend, Stevens and Bloom were sitting around one day in 2014 when Fisher began talking about how she couldn't believe her mother still was performing: At 82 and ever the trouper, Reynolds had booked dates at casinos in Connecticut and Las Vegas. "Somebody should be filming her," she added. Fisher Family Archives/Courtesy of HBO At first, Reynolds wasn't quite sure what the filmmakers were looking for. "She didn't understand the concept of a documentary," Stevens recounts. "She literally asked for lines. 'What should I say?' Ultimately, she was doing it for Carrie, and Carrie was doing it for Debbie." And while Carrie was at ease when Bloom and Stevens first interviewed her, "when she realized we were getting deeper and deeper, you could feel her getting less and less comfortable," Stevens adds. When the film was finished, Reynolds, whose health had taken a turn for the worst, watched it at home with her family and enjoyed the clips from her old movies and performances, but when Fisher first viewed the final results, she found it difficult. "It's a very intimate film, and she watched it and cried, and we had lots of talks and hand-holding," says Bloom. But Fisher came to love the film, traveling with it to such festivals as Cannes, Telluride and New York. "It was a tribute to her mother in her mind," says Stevens. "And it was a nice moment for her where she didn't have to be Princess Leia, but could be herself." This story first appeared in the Jan. 13 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe. Read more: Debbie Reynolds' Close Friend Ruta Lee Recalls Yacht Trip With Alex Trebek and a Search for Hot Dogs in Monaco Cate Blanchett is making her Broadway debut in The Present, an adaptation, directed by John Crowley, of an early Chekhov play. For her, the production now in previews for a Jan. 8 opening brings to mind recent political upheavals, ranging from Brexit to the election of Donald Trump. You cant present anything at the moment without thinking of the state the world is in, she says in a rehearsal room in New York City. Were in a real state of Blanchett stops and thinks I was going to say transition, but I think its more of a realization of what weve lost. Weve lost the state of passivity, perhaps, that weve all been in, no matter what side of the political spectrum you are. When actors and creatives reunited in New York for a production first mounted in 2015 by the Sydney Theater Company, they discovered that The Present had taken on a notable resonance with, well, the present. The playwright Andrew Upton, Blanchetts husband and the former artistic director of STC, has lifted the late 19th-century events of Chekhovs early, ungainly play Platonov and set them in 1990s Russia, as the oligarchs rose to power at the end of the Soviet era. Hearing it all again, a year and a half after we first did it, you notice the feeling of powerlessness of the people in the face of the government, Upton says. Theres a kind of free-for-all going on that feels oddly familiar. That, and the disparity between the rich and the poor, is a very strong element inside the world of this play, and its speaking quite loudly at the moment. Although the production marks Blanchetts first time on Broadway, the actress has always made time for the stage. With Upton, she was co-artistic director of the STC from 2008 to 2012, and some of her performances there were transferred to New York, including Uncle Vanya in 2012 and The Maids, opposite Isabelle Huppert, in 2014. In The Present, she portrays the landowner Anna Petrovna, one of the women in love with disillusioned schoolmaster Mikhail Platonov, played by Richard Roxburgh. The two actors have worked together multiple times onstage, including in the New York Vanya. Story continues Because theyve known each other and worked together on and off over the years,the depth of that relationship is available to them effortlessly, says Crowley, a Broadway veteran who also directed the Oscar-nominated film Brooklyn. They work very differently as actors. Rox is like an anchor in a scene, whereas Cate is like a clown one second, then a tragedian a second later. He adds, The energy and the tone is very different from the work weve come to know of her from film, which is more poised and still. The Present will run during the first months of the presidency of Donald Trump a man Blanchett once said shed play in a heartbeat. Does she still feel the same way? I dont necessarily think its about playing Donald Trump or [the Australian politician] Pauline Hanson or whoever it is, she says. I think its more about doing work that looks at how weve ended up where weve ended up. Related stories Mark Ruffalo to Return to Broadway in 'The Price' Rosie O'Donnell, Debra Messing Among Celebrities Signing Anti-Trump 'Fascist' Warning Omarosa to Join Trump White House in Public Engagement Role (Report) By Zack Baddorf BANGUI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Blindfolds secured tightly, more than a dozen men and women are led by their partners around leafy plants and trees in the compound of an international charity in the Central African Republic's capital, Bangui. The occasional stumble sends nervous laughter around the group of Christians and Muslims who have been paired up at random for the experiment - an exercise in building trust between communities torn apart by conflict. At the end of the session, those guiding the 'blind' along cracked concrete and pebble paths spoke of having to be patient, responsible and compassionate. "We all have a need for each other," community worker Nicaise Gounoumoundjou told the group. For a long time, Hada Katidja Siba was skeptical. One of the participants, Siba saw her house burned to the ground in 2013 when mainly Muslim Seleka rebels toppled the government in the majority Christian nation, sparking a backlash from Christian anti-balaka militias. Thousands of people were killed in the ensuing ethnic cleansing and the country's defacto partition between the Muslim northeast and Christian southwest. For Siba, a Muslim, seeing her home disappear in flames caused her to anger 'very easily', and to distrust and fear Christians. "I would see a Christian coming toward me and I would just think: 'What is he coming to do to me? Is he coming to kill me or to do something to me?'" she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "READY FOR REVENGE" Despite successful polls in 2016 - regarded as essential to ending the violence - and a new, elected government, reconciliation has barely been addressed in the country of 4.6 million save for grassroot efforts like last month's workshop. Florence Ntakarutimana, a trauma healing specialist from Burundi, who led the workshop, said most Central Africans have experienced some form of depression and shame from the crisis. Many suffer from insomnia, loss of appetite and bad dreams. Others react to trauma with anger and aggression. Ntakarutimana said some people lose interest in activities that they previously cared about, like going to their church or mosque. "They say: 'Where was God when we were suffering?'" She has conducted dozens of healing workshops across Central African Republic, starting each one with a song led by a participant, followed by prayers led by a minister or imam. The Central Africans are given a chance to share stories of witnessing killings, experiencing sexual assault or losing their family, friends and homes. Many tears are shed. "When someone is not healed, he's not ready for social cohesion. He's not ready for reconciliation. He's not ready for livelihood activities," Ntakarutimana said. Reverend Senjajbazia Nicolas Aime Simpliec, a 46-year-old Protestant, became 'very nervous' after a close friend was killed in 2014. "I started making bad decisions," he said. "Even though I was a pastor, I wanted to act. I was ready for revenge." But he said the workshop has taught him that vengeance is not the solution - a lesson he plans to share with his community and congregation. "It's about forgiving and living with what happened and going beyond it, so I can reconcile even with those who have killed my colleague," Simpliec told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. MOVING TOWARD TRUST The workshop involves the participants sharing some characteristics they appreciate in each other, switching seamlessly between French and the local language Sangho. It ends with discussions on how they could uproot mistrust in their communities. On an easel, the participants wrote that they planned to provide 'sincere apologies,' 'love,' 'trust,' and 'dialogue' in order to 'search for common ground'. These efforts are part of the CAR Interfaith Peacebuilding Partnership, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). In partnership with the Catholic Relief Services, World Vision and Islamic Relief aid agencies and Palo Alto University, the five-year project aims to promote reconciliation by supporting local religious leaders, improving opportunities to make a living and providing psychosocial trauma healing. "Religious actors are the bedrock of society in countries where institutions are fragile," said Andreas Hipple of GHR Foundation, which co-funded the project. "The religious leaders can not just guide people in their faith but also help them deal with the challenges of life." The workshop is just the start, Ntakarutimana said. "They will continue to have those scars but it's not really bleeding like a fresh wound," she added. After meeting and partnering with Christian victims of the conflict, Siba said she had renewed hope in the future. "Even though the situation we have now is difficult, with God's mercy, we can rebuild our country and reconcile with each other." (Reporting By Zack Baddorf, 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) On Wednesday, Complex published a ranking of Kanye Wests studio albums and reignited one of hip-hops enduring debates in the process: What exactly is the definitive ranking of Wests discography? Theres perhaps no person more qualified to answer the question than Chance the Rapper, who West has tapped as his protege and on Thursday morning, the Chicago MC weighed in on the topic. After tweeting out some criticism of the list Wednesday night How am I supposed to keep reading this after you put Late Registration 2nd to last?? *Tyra Banks We were all rooting for you gif*, Chance wrote he delivered his personal rankings: 1) LR 2) TCDO 3) MBDTF 4) Graduation 5) WTT 6) TLOP 7) Yeezus 8) 808's@Complex Lil Chano From 79th (@chancetherapper) January 5, 2017 //platform.twitter.com/widgets.js For West neophytes, LR and TCDO represent 2005s Late Registration and 2004s The College Dropout, his first two albums. MBDTF is his sprawling 2010 opus My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy; WTT is his decadent 2011 collaboration with Jay Z, Watch the Throne; TLOP is last years The Life of Pablo which Chance himself contributed to extensively, between his revered Ultralight Beam guest verse and co-writing credits on Famous and Waves. Wests early output coincided with the 23-year-olds formative years and Chance has been vocal about the influence of The College Dropout and Late Registration on his work. In 2004 Kanye changed the way I viewed music when he released College Dropout, a year later he did it again #LateRegistration, he tweeted in August 2015. And in May 2011, nearly a year before releasing his debut mixtape, 10 Day, Chance tweeted, this #10day tape is my College Dropout, as weird as it sounds, i want n-s to look back at this when Im 30 and say I miss the old chano.' Chances third mixtape, Coloring Book, features West on its opening song, All We Got, and ranked among EWs best albums of 2016. He capped the year with performances on Saturday Night Live and the release of Merry Christmas Lil Mama, his collaborative Christmas mixtape with Jeremih. And his 2017 is off to a promising start: On Wednesday, New Yorks Governors Ball festival announced Chance would headline its 2017 installment. This week Chanel announced a star-studded cast for its upcoming ad for the "Gabrielle" bag, with four heavyweight names from the world of fashion, including brand ambassadors and stars close to the brand. The campaign will be officially unveiled April 3, 2017. Three big-name Chanel brand ambassadors Kristen Stewart, Caroline de Maigret and Pharrell Williams will be joined by Cara Delevingne in the upcoming campaign, designed once again by Karl Lagerfeld, the fashion house's creative director. The four names have been carefully selected for their distinct personalities, reflecting the versatility of the "Gabrielle" bag -- named after the legendary fashion designer and label founder, Gabrielle Chanel -- as an accessory that suits all moods and situations. Revealed for the first time at Chanel's spring/summer 2017 fashion show in Paris last October, the "Gabrielle" bag is a stylish creation. Its supple lightweight body is fitted on a rigid, thermoformed base to strengthen and stabilize the design. Available in several colors, including black and white, it has an adjustable cross-body strap featuring two chains of braided leather and gold and silver metal. It can be worn on the shoulder, across the body, or both at the same time. Kristen Stewart has starred in fashion and beauty campaigns for the French fashion house for several years. Pharrell Williams teamed with the brand on the short film for Chanel's Paris-Salzburg collection in 2014, along with Cara Delevingne, a friend of the label, and Karl Lagerfeld. Caroline de Maigret is a Chanel brand ambassador, producer and model who recently launched a lifestyle platform, CdMdiary by Caroline de Maigret, in partnership with Chanel. The upcoming campaign for the "Gabrielle" bag will be unveiled April 3. Charles Manson, the 82-year-old serial killer serving nine life sentences for the grisly killings of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and six other people during a two-day spree in 1969, is not a model prisoner, says a California prison official. He has had over 100 violations since he was incarcerated, which has been a very long time, Kristina Khokhobashvili, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, tells PEOPLE. On Sunday, Manson was taken from Californias Corcoran State Prison and transported to a hospital in Bakersfield for gastrointestinal bleeding, the Los Angeles Times reports. The Times reports that Manson is seriously ill. Mansons most recent rules violations at Corcoran where he has been since 1989 have included getting caught with three contraband mobile phones, failing to provide a urine sample for random drug testing, threatening prison staff, possession of a weapon and assault. He was a nasty prisoner, retired Los Angeles County prosecutor Stephen Kay, who helped convict Manson, tells PEOPLE. He threw hot coffee on a guard and spit on a guards face. He had a saw blade in the sole of a shoe. He was making little dolls, but they were like voodoo dolls of people, and he would stick needles in them hoping to injure the live person the doll was fashioned after. He said his main activity was making those dolls. 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. Manson, Kay says, had a particular dislike for female prison guards. He was especially nasty to the female guards, he says. He never had any respect for women. Women were to be used. On one occasion in 1982, prison guards searching Mansons cell at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville found a hacksaw blade, marijuana and LSD, according to the Times. Also discovered were a nylon rope and a catalogue indicating how to purchase a hot-air balloon, objects that made officers believe he might have been planning a prison escape, the paper reports. Story continues Related: Watch TV shows, interviews and more on Yahoo View, available now on iOS and Android. Kay says Manson, who was known for his outlandish and violent behavior behind bars, had enemies in prison. They were in the model shop and Manson got into a religious argument with a Hare Krishna, and the Hare Krishna poured lighter fluid on him and lit him up, Kay says about the Vacaville 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. Kay adds, He has a lot of scarring on his upper body. I dont know if he started it but he didnt finish it. He was in the general prison population, and after that incident they decided they couldnt have him in general population anymore. He was at risk of being severely injured. Manson first came to the publics attention after he was arrested for the series of gruesome murders that he and his followers committed in 1969. The murders were part of a twisted plot by Manson to start a race war he called Helter Skelter, after the Beatles song. Manson and his so-called family of followers were convicted in 1971. He has been denied parole 12 times and has spent time in San Quentin, Vacaville and Corcoran prisons. Paris (AFP) - The editor of Charlie Hebdo believes the world has become less tolerant of the French satirical newspaper's black humour but he staunchly defends the right to offend, two years after jihadist gunmen killed many of its staff. Charlie Hebdo marked the grim anniversary in typical style with a front-cover cartoon showing a laughing man staring down the barrel of a jihadist's AK47 rifle with the caption: "2017, at last, the light at the end of the tunnel." On January 7, 2015, in an attack that tore the heart out of the paper, brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi forced their way into the low-key Paris office building where it was based and killed 11 people, including star cartoonists Cabu, Charb, Wolinski and Tignous. The slogan "Je Suis Charlie" was quickly picked up as an estimated one million people marched in a mass outpouring of solidarity in Paris, and it soon became a rallying cry for freedom of expression around the world. The newspaper had long been a target for Islamic extremists because it was one of a handful of European publications that printed cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. Riss, the man who took over from Stephane "Charb" Charbonnier as editor following the attack, now wonders how much support he would get if he repeated that controversial move now. "We get the impression that people have become even more intolerant of Charlie," he told AFP. "If we did a front cover showing a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed now, who would defend us?" - 'More threats' - Riss, whose real name is Laurent Sourisseau, said the number of threats received by the staff was increasing. "Before they told us to be careful of Islamists. Now we must look out for Islamists, Russians and Turks," he said. That was partly a reference to a protest from Russian President Vladimir Putin over a cartoon Charlie Hebdo published in December after dozens of members of a Red Army choir were killed in a plane crash. Story continues It showed a choir member in uniform singing the wailing sound "AAAAA" as the plane plunges, under the title: "The Red Army choir's repertoire is expanding." The anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo murders was marked on Thursday -- two days early -- in low-key ceremonies in Paris led by the city's mayor Anne Hidalgo. The killings continued after the attack on the offices. One of the Kouachi brothers shot dead a policeman in cold blood as the officer lay injured on the pavement. As the Kouachis went on the run, another France-based jihadist, Amedy Coulibaly, took up the baton by first killing a policewoman and then taking hostage Jewish shoppers in a kosher supermarket. He killed four men before police stormed the building and shot him dead. The Kouachi brothers, who carried out the attack in the name of Al-Qaeda's branch in Yemen, were themselves killed in a shootout with police after a siege northeast of Paris. The man said to have inspired the Charlie Hebdo killers, Farid Benyettou, this week published a book about what he says is his move away from extremism, called: "My jihad, the journey of a reformed character." For the first time, he admitted in interviews that he was partly to blame for the bloodshed. "I share part of the responsibility, I can't deny it," the 35-year-old said in an interview with Le Parisien newspaper on Thursday. Amid the soul-searching in the aftermath of the attack, Charlie Hebdo made millions from the sales of special editions and used some of the proceeds to launch a German-language edition last year. The CW is adding another reboot to its development slate. Following a prolonged negotiation, the network is reteaming with Jane the Virgin showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman for a Charmed reboot, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. The drama is described as a reimagining of the original TV series set in 1976. The reboot will be connected to the original series in some fashion, though it's not entirely clear at this point how that will come to pass. Jane the Virgin writers Jessica O'Toole and Amy Rardin created the story. The script will be written by O'Toole and Rardin. Propagate Content's Ben Silverman, who executive produces Jane alongside O'Toole, Rardin and Urman, will serve in the same capacity. Jane director Brad Silberling also will exec produce and direct the pilot. Read more: 'Charmed' Stars on CBS Reboot: It's Too Soon The project, which received a script commitment, hails from CBS Television Studios, where both Urman and Silberling are under overall deals. The Charmed reboot comes more than three years after CBS announced plans to remake the original series, which ran on The WB Network for eight seasons from 1998-2006 and starred Shannen Doherty, Holly Marie Combs, Alyssa Milano and Rose McGowan. The original was created by Constance M. Burge and exec produced by Aaron Spelling. CBS Television Studios, which owns the rights to Spelling's vast TV library, was attached to exec produce the CBS reboot in 2013. That project hailed from Party of Five co-creator Chris Keyser and Sydney Sidner. The CBS reboot, which never went beyond the development stage, did not receive support from original stars Milano and McGowan. "The thing about them doing a #charmed reboot is it just it feels like yesterday. It feels too close," Milano wrote. McGowan, meanwhile, thought the project lacked originality. "They really are running out of ideas in Hollywood," she wrote, adding: "lame lame lame lamertons." Story continues For The CW, the Charmed reboot arrives as the younger-skewing network is poised to say farewell to The Vampire Diaries with the future of its spinoff, The Originals, unclear without the flagship. Charmed also marks the latest reboot in the works for The CW, which is already prepping Dynasty with The O.C. grads Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage. Read more: 'Charmed' Reboot in the Works at CBS Reboots continue to remain in high demand as broadcast, cable and streaming outlets look for proved IP in a bid to cut through a cluttered scripted landscape that is quickly approaching 500 original series. Key to the remakes is having the original producers involved in some capacity as more studios look to monetize their existing film libraries. (With Charmed, CBS TV Studios owning the rights to the Spelling library fulfills that commitment.) Already in the works this season are reboots of Car Wash (ABC), Sneakers (NBC), Enemy of the State (ABC), War of the Worlds (MTV), Magnum P.I. (ABC), The Lost Boys (The CW), Varsity Blues (CMT), The Departed (Amazon), Let the Right One In (TNT) and L.A. Law, among others. As if there wasnt enough spectacle at Sundance every year, Chelsea Handler will lead a womens march down Main Street in Park City from 9-11 AM January 21 the day after Donald Trumps inauguration. Called the Womens March on Main, the event will coincide with the Womens March on Washington in D.C. Intended to highlight womens issues such as birth control, choice, health care and the like in a political era soon to be dominated by hostility to them, the March on Washington will be accompanied by more than 50 sister marches in cities across the world. Among the celebrities reported by news outlets to be participating in the Womens March on Main are Jennifer Aniston, Geena Davis, Salma Hayek, Melissa Leo, Elizabeth Olsen and Rooney Mara. Sundance has always been a platform for change not only for filmmakers and filmmaking but also for big ideas for the future, Handler said in a statement. If theres anything I learned in the last year, its that we need to be louder and stronger than ever about what we believe in, so I joined some incredible women from around the country to bring our voices together in the streets of Park City. The Womens March on Main will be an opportunity for the creative community and those in Utah to stand beside those in D.C. The event is not affiliated with the Sundance Film Festival. Mashable first reported Handlers involvement in the march. Related stories Arnold Schwarzenegger Responds To Donald Trump's 'Celebrity Apprentice' Ratings Takedown Donald Trump Savages Arnold Schwarzenegger's 'Celebrity Apprentice' Ratings, Blames Clinton Endorsement For Slide Greta Van Susteren Hit By Left And Right For Jumping From Fox To MSNBC Where She "Thinks" She Can Book Donald Trump New research has shown that children get more out of watching TV when they do it with their parents, compared to watching alone. Carried out by Eric Rasmussen, an assistant professor of public relations and Justin Keene, an assistant professor of journalism and electronic media, both in the Texas Tech University College of Media & Communication, the study examined the physiological behavior of children who watched television with a parent, and those who watched alone. Parents and their children were shown a video, either a clip from the television show "Man vs. Wild" or a whale documentary, with each clip about 11-12 minutes long. At times parents were asked to watch the clip sitting right beside their child on a couch, and at other times the child watched alone while the parent was in another room. While watching, the children were connected to a heart rate monitor and a skin conductance monitor, which measured the sweatiness of their palms and therefore how good they are at conducting electricity. Both physiological responses were measured as an indicator of how much effort the children put into learning from the TV program, suggesting that they think the program is more important if the parent is also watching it. The monitors showed that both heart rate and palm sweatiness in a child increased when the parent was in the room compared to when the parent was out of the room, indicating a heightened effort to learn by the child. The results now suggest that parents who want their children to learn more and have a better understanding of the programs they are watching need to be present with their child also watching the program, known as "co-viewing." Commenting on the findings Rasmussen said, "Researchers have shown that kids are more interested in activities in which the parents are involved, whether that's at school or reading or whatever. It makes sense then that kids would be more interested in TV if the parent is more interested in that as well. I think parents being involved in a kid's life means a lot to kids whether they know it or not." "If parents are watching with them, they should know the kids learn things more if they watch with them, whether it's violence, sex, language, whatever," he added, "This really suggests that parents need to be more aware of their influence because parents have that influence whether they think they do or not. Just being there is making a difference." The team are now looking into studying any physiological changes in parents as well as in the children to study the effect of co-viewing on parents. Donald Trump Chinese state media chided Donald Trump for his use of Twitter this week, discouraging the president-elect from using Twitter as an instrument of foreign policy. Trump has repeatedly bashed China on Twitter, and earlier this week he tweeted: "China has been taking out massive amounts of money & wealth from the US in totally one-sided trade, but won't help with North Korea. Nice!" China's state news agency, Xinhua, responded with a commentary article headlined, "An obsession with 'Twitter foreign policy' is undesirable," according to The New York Times. "Everyone recognizes the common sense that foreign policy isn't child's play, and even less is it like doing business deals," the article stated. "Twitter shouldn't become an instrument of foreign policy." Trump's advisers have signaled that he will continue using his Twitter account in the same way as president. The president-elect has relied on the platform as a way to get his message out to supporters and the world at large without relying on traditional media outlets. Xinhua observed that "issuing tweets has become a habit for Mr. Trump" and speculated that "issuing hard-line comments and taking up sensitive issues may perhaps add to his chips for negotiating with other countries." Twitter is banned in China. NOW WATCH: Donald Trumps connection with Vince McMahon and WWE spans decades More From Business Insider Beirut (AFP) - The United Nations warned Thursday that sabotaging water supplies was a war crime after the main source for Syria's capital was cut, leaving more than five million people facing shortages. Water supplies from the rebel-held area of Wadi Barada near Damascus have been severed since December 22, with the regime and rebels trading blame. The head of a UN-backed humanitarian taskforce for Syria said Thursday the shutdown had already had "dramatic" consequences. Jan Egeland said water supplies to 5.5 million people had been hit "because of fighting, or because of sabotage or because of both". "To sabotage and deny water is of course a war crime, because it is civilians who drink it and civilians who will be affected by waterborne diseases" if supplies are not restored, he told reporters in Geneva. The shortages have sent prices for water in Damascus soaring. Residents said they have been forced to buy bottled water at twice the normal price as their supplies have run low and what little tap water is available is undrinkable. "We used to complain about power cuts, but now we can see that it's nothing compared with the lack of drinkable water. Water is life," said Faiz, a 50-year-old civil servant. The shortages have prompted a regime assault to retake Wadi Barada. Rebel fighters clashed with government forces backed by Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah there Thursday, even as a nationwide ceasefire brought quiet to other parts of Syria. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said regime forces hit the area with air strikes, mortars and artillery. Syria's main opposition coalition urged the United Nations Security Council Thursday to put an "immediate" halt to what it said were regime violations of the truce. It accused the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of "violations and war crimes" in Wadi Barada. The regime says forces in Wadi Barada include former Al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham Front, previously known as Al-Nusra Front, which Moscow and Damascus say is excluded from the ceasefire. Story continues Rebels deny the group is in the area. The relative peace was also rocked by a car bombing on Thursday in Syria's coastal city of Jableh, a regime bastion, leaving at least 15 dead, the Observatory said. Syrian state television also reported the blast near the town's municipal stadium. - 'Critical phase' - The fighting threatened a truce aimed at paving the way for peace negotiations later this month in the Kazakh capital Astana. Despite backing opposite sides in the conflict, Ankara and Moscow have worked closely to broker the ceasefire and plan the Astana talks, which Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said could take place on January 23. The ceasefire and Astana talks are the latest bid to resolve nearly six years of conflict in Syria, which has been ravaged by violence since an uprising began in March 2011. The UN Security Council has backed the process, despite the fact it offers a competing track to UN-sponsored talks set to resume in Geneva in February. "We, the UN, welcome such efforts," the UN's Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura told reporters in Geneva Thursday. He said any effort that consolidates the cessation of hostilities "is certainly welcome". Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said fighting had eased considerably since the truce came into force. "The number of casualties has fallen a lot, with only 13 dead in the areas covered by the ceasefire since the truce began. That would have been the toll of a single air strike before it came into force," he told AFP. Karim Emile Bitar, professor of international relations at Saint-Joseph University in Beirut, said Syrian ceasefires had become "merely a continuation of war by other means". "This one is already shaky but has not yet completely collapsed," he said. "Russia and the Syrian regime have an interest in temporarily prolonging the ceasefire if only to consolidate their gains and prepare for the next battles." Cloud9 acquires The Imperial. (Red Bull) North American esports organization Cloud9 has announced a new Dota 2 roster, returning to the scene after a nearly year-long absence. The news was announced on Red Bull, where it was revealed that Cloud9 has acquired Denmark team The Imperial. The line-up is as follows: Marcus Ace Hoelgaard (Captain) Jon BabyKnight Andersen Christopher Ryze Winther Mikki HeStEJoE-RoTTeN Morch Junget Danny NoiA Morch Junget Dota 2 is and will continue be a top esports title for the foreseeable future, CEO Jack Etienne told Red Bull. Cloud9 is always looking to participate in the most exciting and relevant esports titles. We are a team that will stick together even when times are tough, said BabyKnight. Every team has issues and the easy thing to do is to throw in the towel, look for another team or just quit altogether. Sticking together and learning from your mistakes, not being too hard on one another but instead looking inwards and improving as a player and a human being is what sets apart good teams from the best. The Imperial is a European esports organization. They acquired their Dota 2 roster in June 2016 when they signed Danish Bears. The team ended in 4th place at DreamLeague Season 6 and took home first place for WESG 2016 Europe & CIS Finals. However, the team failed to qualify during The Boston Major 2016 Europe Qualifiers, placing 5th-10th. Cloud9s previous Dota 2 squad was released in November 2015 following a string of disappointing results. The announcement of a new squad comes just a few days before the roster lock period kicks in. It will be interesting to see how the new line-up performs at the next big Dota 2 event, the Kiev Major 2017, scheduled to take place April 20-23 in Kiev, Ukraine. A fire broke out on an oil production platform in the Gulf of Mexico early Thursday, forcing four workers to evacuate by lifeboat before the blaze was extinguished. There were no injuries and inspectors found no sign of pollution, authorities said. The blaze was reported about 2:30 a.m. on a platform about 80 miles south of Grand Isle, Louisiana, and was extinguished nearly four hours later, the Coast Guard said in a statement. The four workers were rescued by the crew of the 130-foot Mary Wyatt Milano, a supply vessel, the Coast Guard said. They were flown to a hospital in Houma to be evaluated, the Interior Department's Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said in a statement. The company that owns the platform, Renaissance Offshore LLC, has suspended oil production on it and a second platform it owns, the statement said, adding that 17 oil wells associated with the two platforms were similarly "shut in" before the workers were evacuated. Company and government inspectors confirmed that no oil is leaking into the water from either the platform or the wells, said Renaissance spokesman Oliver Marsh. "Initial efforts were made by the crew to extinguish the fire, (but) the decision was made to discontinue those efforts and abandon the platform due to heavy smoke," Marsh wrote in an email. Crew members aboard the Mary Wyatt Milano and three other vessels battled the blaze. An HC-144 Ocean Sentry airplane from Mobile, Alabama, also responded, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Third Class Travis Magee. Clean Gulf, a nonprofit oil industry cooperative that responds to spills and provides equipment to help clean them up, was on its way to the platform Thursday. An oil platform exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010, killing 11 workers. Millions of gallons of oil spewed into the Gulf for weeks before the oil well could be capped. ___ Associated Press Writer Bernard McGhee in Atlanta contributed to this report. ___ This story has corrected the rank of Magee to petty officer third class. Guatemala City, Guatemala 2016 saw the most cocaine seizures in the last decade for Guatemala, according to the country's anti-drug prosecutor. Guatemalan authorities intercepted 27,397.3 pounds of cocaine last year, Aldo Chapas said, according to La Hora. The majority of the amount was seized at the port of San Jose, on the country's Pacific coast, and at the port of Santo Tomas, on the country's Caribbean coast. One of the more recent seizures came on December 3, when the country's naval special forces detected vessels manned by four Guatemalans at sea in the Atlantic. They captured just over 3,600 pounds of cocaine valued at close to $22.3 million. Chapas attributed the seizures to narco-trafficking structures operating in the country to shunt drugs from South American countries to Guatemala for either local distribution or for further transport north, through Mexico into the US. "They transfer the drug from Ecuador or Colombia, they depart it from the port and they bring it to Guatemala via maritime" routes, Chapas explained. "There it is received by a structure that transfers it to its destination, like Mexico, or distributes it among local structures, which in turn distribute it to other structures." Guatemala cocaine seizure drugs Chapas also attributed the increase in seizures to a "strengthening in investigations on the part of the public prosecutor's office" and to coordinated work between naval forces and the antinarcotics section of the national police. Guatemala, and neighboring Honduras, have long been major hubs for narco trafficking. Honduras intercepted more than 6 tons of drugs in 2016 10 tons less than were seized in 2015. Among that haul were 1,763 pounds of cocaine and just over 12,000 pounds of marijuana. Story continues Honduran authorities also reported destroying 26 clandestine runways, which, along with fast boats (called "colombinas" locally), are used by traffickers to move drugs from South America to points in Central America and beyond. In recent years, Guatemala has had success avoiding the intense violent crime and proliferation of criminal groups that has been seen in Honduras and El Salvador, which join Guatemala to make up the Northern Triangle region. Drug plane seized Honduras But, in Guatemala, as in other parts of the region, success in combating larger and high-profile traffickers has opened space for other, smaller criminal groups. One estimate puts the number of different criminal groups in Guatemala at 54, according to Evan Ellis, a research professor of Latin American Studies at the US Army War College Strategic Studies Institute. However, those fragmented groups do still work to move drugs through Guatemalan territory and do maintain contacts with larger criminal organizations, including the powerful Jalisco New Generation and Sinaloa cartels. Recent reports indicate that the Sinaloa cartel funnels most of the cocaine produced in Colombia through Guatemala, relying on a network of ports that connect South American to Central America and Mexico. The Sinaloa cartel has had a long-standing presence in Guatemala. Sinaloa cartel chief Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was previously apprehended there in 1993. NOW WATCH: Theres a region over South America where NASA shuts down its satellites More From Business Insider READING, Pa. (AP) A graduate of a Pennsylvania college has been sentenced to more than 13 years in prison for sexually assaulting two of his fraternity brothers as they slept. The Reading Eagle (http://bit.ly/2je6aih) reports Robert Convery Jr., of Williamstown, New Jersey, was convicted of assaulting the two Albright College students. Each attack occurred after the victim fell asleep after fraternity parties. Prosecutors say Convery sexually assaulted one fraternity brother on separate occasions in 2013 and 2014. The second victim was assaulted in 2015. Convery says he made a mistake. Both victims testified at Convery's sentencing Wednesday in Reading. Judge Paul M. Yatron also read a four-page letter from the victim who was assaulted twice. The 23-year-old Convery will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. ___ Information from: Reading Eagle, http://www.readingeagle.com/ (The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.) By Mark Miller CHICAGO, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Anyone nearing retirement - or already retired - should pay very close attention to the doings of the 115th Congress that was sworn in this week. Repeal of President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act (ACA) tops the agenda for Republicans, who will control the White House as well as both houses of Congress when Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20. That will place a heavy financial toll on millions of older Americans who do not have access to employer-sponsored insurance or Medicaid, and who are too young to enroll in Medicare. But repeal of the ACA will also raise the cost of Medicare for current and future enrollees. The details surrounding the repeal of what became known as Obamacare - and how it will be replaced, if at all - are unknown. But it is clear that Republicans, rather than fix the existing system's problems, intend to gut the most important social insurance legislation since the passage of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965. And this is despite the fact that a strong majority of Americans actually like what the ACA has brought them. Last year, 77 percent of adults in marketplace plans, and 88 percent of those who received Medicaid coverage under the ACA expansion, were either very or somewhat satisfied with their coverage, according to polling by the Commonwealth Fund, a foundation focused on healthcare research. For older Americans, ACA repeal will mean higher premiums and out-of-pocket costs. Most Republican proposals that have been circulated loosen or eliminate restrictions on higher policy prices for older buyers. The program's income-related tax subsidies, which aim to make premiums affordable for middle- and lower-income households, likely would be replaced by a flat tax credit that shifts costs to enrollees. Some repeal-and-replace plans also weaken the current ban on covering people with pre-existing conditions. Story continues ACA AND RETIREMENT The ACA, enacted in 2010, typically is not considered retirement-related legislation, but it has made a big difference for millions of workers in the critical years leading up to retirement. Despite the improving economy, many older Americans have never fully recovered from the Great Recession (http://reut.rs/2iIf86F). Before the ACA, it was near impossible for jobless older workers to find quality insurance in the individual insurance market. Insurers were permitted to charge much higher premiums for older customers than for young. Coverage of catastrophic health events, such as cancer or a stroke, was weak or absent entirely. In 2013, before ACA coverage fully kicked in, 14 percent of workers aged 55-64 were uninsured. The percentage dropped to 9.1 in 2016, meaning there were 3.1 million previously uninsured people who now had health insurance. Adults in this age bracket have the lowest uninsured rates of any age group, Commonwealth reports. The foundation's research also finds that the ACA helps people bridge coverage gaps when they temporarily lose employer-based insurance. "If you think about what the world looked like prior to the ACA for people who had to retire early or didn't have an employer plan, really their only option was the individual insurance market," said Sara Collins, vice president of Commonwealth. Repeal of the ACA would also have a direct impact on Medicare spending and costs to beneficiaries. Full repeal would increase Medicare spending by $802 billion from 2016 through 2025, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), primarily by restoring higher payments to health providers and Medicare Advantage plans. That would lead to higher Part A (hospitalization) deductibles and copayments, and higher premiums and deductibles in Part B (outpatient services). Repeal also would worsen the long-range outlook for the Part A trust fund. Prior to the ACA, Medicare's trustees projected the fund would lack revenue to meet all its expenses starting this year; the law's cost savings and new taxes pushed that date back to 2028. MEDICARE REFORMS Congress may also take up conservative Medicare reform proposals that could hit the pocketbooks of future retirees. Premium support, an idea long advanced by House Speaker Paul Ryan, would replace today's defined set of promised Medicare benefits with an annual voucher that enrollees would use to buy health insurance in a market exchange. Competing plans could include traditional Medicare and plans offered by commercial insurance companies. The impact on premiums would depend on the specifics of whatever program might be enacted. Meanwhile, conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation has proposed raising the eligibility age for Medicare from 65 to "at least 68" over a period of 10 years, and then indexing it to life expectancy. Unless they are still working, these folks would rely on whatever replaces the ACA for health insurance. It all adds up to a period of frightening uncertainty about coverage and cost over the next few years for people close to retirement, and possible higher Medicare costs for those already in retirement. One thing it does not sound like is a formula to make healthcare great again. (Editing by Matthew Lewis) Updated 6:01 p.m. EST The Army has issued a new regulation: Effective immediately, brigade-level commanders will be able to grant accommodations to servicemen and women who wear beards, turbans, or hijabs for religious reasonsthe three most common requests for waivers to current guidelines on grooming and dress, according to a letter from the Secretary of the Army, Eric Fanning. The new guidelines also revise hairstyle standards for female soldiers: They can now wear dreadlocks in addition to cornrows and twists, which were allowed in a revision made in 2014.* Like other hairstyles, locks must be relatively small, uniform, neat, and tied off inconspicuously, and women dont have to request an accommodation to wear them. This might seem like an odd choice for a policy directive in the final days of the Obama administration. It came about largely in response to litigation and advocacy from Sikh servicemen who wear beards and turbans for religious reasons, and who wanted to be able to keep them while actively serving. While this ruling will make a big difference for those soldiers, there are very few of them. Eric Baxter, an attorney at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, one of the firms that has been advocating on behalf of the Sikh soldiers, attributed the timing to fear of continued litigation. The pressure of the lawsuit was a significant factor in deciding this needs to be finished, he said. The time had just come when it was no longer possible to make excuses for why Sikhs need to be excluded. Its possible that the Army felt it had no options and wanted to put the issue to rest, but also possible the directive reflects some other unstated motive. Regardless of the intent, though, this regulation sends a signal: It makes the Army more inclusive of minority religions and cultures, right as Donald Trump prepares to take office. Recommended: Why Working-Class Whites Might Miss Obamacare Story continues The new regulations are a response to a long-standing issue within the military. In the 1986, the Supreme Court heard a case brought by an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, Simcha Goldman, who had been forbidden by the Air Force to wear a yarmulke while on duty and in uniform. The Court deferred to the military. In response, Congress passed a rule stating that servicemen should be able to wear religious apparel. When you look at the legislative history for that law, Congress spoke openly about the need to accommodate Sikhs and Jews, said Baxter. But the military has always construed it as only applying to the yarmulke. Over the years, military officers have regularly dealt with requests for religious exemptions to various rules. Douglas Carver, a Southern Baptist minister who is the former chief chaplain for the Army, said he faced his first religious exemption requests almost as soon as he became a chaplain. When he retired from service in 2011, the conversation about a possible dress-code revision had already been happening for years, he said. The military is strong on tradition and order. When youre going to have someone who looks different in the ranks, it takes a lot of discussion and exploration and advisement. Recently, Sikhs have taken up the cause. Within the last year, several serviceman have sued the Army to be able to keep their turbans and beards. Until now, the Army has responded with temporary fixesexemptions granted on a limited, case-by-case basis. The military expressed safety concerns about the way beards or other headwear might undermine the effectiveness of gear, and began conducting studies about the feasibility of broader exemptions. Recommended: My President Was Black Over time, these exemptions provided evidence that soldiers could successfully serve while wearing non-standard dress, according to Fannings letter. Now, officers across the military will be able to address requests for religious exemptions with the guidance of the Chaplain Corps, which is responsible for training service units on the new rules. Once an accommodation has been granted, it can only be permanently revoked by the secretary of the Army or his designee. The military will also continue testing for safety hazards; for now, soldiers with religious accommodations are restricted from serving in positions involving toxic chemicals and other potentially dangerous substances. Carver sees the new regulation as an accomplishment for the Army. Faith is a major part of many service members lives; religious affiliation is even listed on soldiers dog tags, he pointed out. You are prepared to go into harms way, even to die, and practice of your religious belief brings courage and calmness, he said. A soldier should not have to feel that hes about to give his life for his country, but that he doesnt want to compromise his individual faith or practices. The new policy seems to be in keeping with other military policies set during the Obama administration. In June, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced a new policy allowing transgender service members to serve openly. We cant allow barriers unrelated to a persons qualifications prevent us from recruiting and retaining those who can best accomplish the mission, he said. The new regulations on religious dress and hairstyles address a different issue, but they still accomplish the same basic goal: They make the largest branch of the military more inclusive, and allow more Americans to serve their country. * This article originally stated that a new Army regulation allows female soldiers to wear dreadlocks, cornrows, and twists. While dreadlocks are newly authorized, cornrows and twists had previously been allowed under a revision made in 2014. We regret the error. Read more from The Atlantic: This article was originally published on The Atlantic. January 8 will mark what would have been the 70th birthday of David Bowie, who died in 2016. To honor the iconic musician, a new walking tour will begin in London on Sunday, while a Brixton concert will mark the start of a series of global shows honoring the artist. Sunday will mark the launch of a new walking tour visiting spots in Bowie's hometown of Brixton, London. The two-hour guided tour, organized in conjunction with the Lambeth Council, promises to be "an all-encompassing journey from birth to death" and will include anecdotes from the artist's life. Leading the tours will be lifelong Bowie fan and musician Nick Stephenson, who, guitar in hand, will perform songs including "Starman," "Heroes" and "Life on Mars" over the course of the tour and encourages others to sing along. After the initial Sunday launch, the walking tour will be held on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Find out more about the tour at bowietourlondon.co.uk. On Sunday evening, the O2 Academy in Brixton will host a concert in honor of David Bowie featuring actor Gary Oldman, a friend of the late performer, and a large ensemble of musicians, including some of his former band members. "This is the first and last time this inner circle will do anything like this and these shows are likely to be the last time that they perform his music together; sadly, this may be the closest anyone will come to a David Bowie live experience ever again," states a concert announcement. The London show will be part of a global series of concerts called "Celebrating David Bowie" and with proceeds going to local charities. At each show, a touring ensemble of 30 musicians will be joined by 40 or more local musicians. Next up is New York on January 10, followed by Los Angeles and Sydney in January and Tokyo on February 2. Follow news of the "Celebrating David Bowie" tour at celebratingdavidbowie.com. Keeping its trend alive, Constellation Brands Inc. STZ posted superb third-quarter fiscal 2017 results, following which it raised its earnings outlook for the fiscal. During the quarter, both earnings and sales saw double-digit year-over-year growth, alongside exceeding expectations. While the quarter marked the companys ninth consecutive earnings beat in a row, Constellation Brands has surpassed sales estimates for seven straight quarters now. Apart from having a superb earnings history, Constellation Brands has displayed solid stock performance over the past one year. Evidently, this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) stock has improved 10.4% over one year, crushing the Zacks categorized Beverages Alcoholic industrys dip of 0.7%. Results improved due to the companys effective integration and growth of its recently acquired brands, higher margins across its portfolio along with strong consumer demand. Further, strength in the companys beer business, improving trends at its wine and spirits business and solid overall depletion trends boosted the beat. Q3 Highlights The companys adjusted earnings for the third quarter of fiscal 2017 rose 38% year over year to $1.96 per share, clearly outperforming the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.72. Reported earnings came in at $1.98 per share, up 49%, year over year. FindTheCompany | Graphiq Net sales advanced 10% to $1,810.5 million, driven by strong organic sales growth and gains from acquisitions. On a currency adjusted basis, organic sales grew 7%. Moreover, the top line exceeded the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1,784 million. Sales also benefited from strong volumes, favorable pricing and Ballast Points contribution, at the beer business which drove 16% sales growth at the segment. Organic net sales for the segment grew 12%. The segment recorded double-digit sales and profit growth in the third quarter, alongside capturing significant market share in the premium beer space across the U.S. This was backed by growth across all core brands. Wine and spirits sales improved 5% year over year, on the back of Prisoner wine acquisition and favorable mix, somewhat negated by soft volumes. Further, during the quarter, the company successfully integrated the newly acquired Charles Smith and High West businesses into its portfolio. Also, the wine business generated solid IRI volume and dollar share in the quarter, helping it emerge as the top share gainer across the U.S. wine space. Cost and Margin Performance Adjusted gross profit for the quarter improved 16% year over year to $884.4 million. The adjusted gross profit margin expanded 260 basis points (bps) to 48.8%. Constellation Brands' comparable operating income grew nearly 12% to $531.6 million, with the comparable operating margin expanding 40 bps to 29.4%. This was backed by solid operating income growth at both the beer (26%) and wine and spirits (4%) businesses. The beer segment gained from higher organic volume and effective pricing, while growth at the wine and spirits segment was attributed to the Prisoner acquisition, favorable mix and reduced cost of goods sold. This was partly offset by soft volumes and higher SG&A and marketing expenses. Financial Position Constellation Brands ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $197.3 million. As of Nov 30, 2016, the company had $7,362.5 million in long-term debt (excluding current maturities) and its total shareholders equity was $6,997.7 million. In the first three quarters of fiscal 2017, Constellation Brands generated $1,415.7 million in cash from operations and free cash flow of $824 million. In Nov 2016, the company announced a share buyback program of $1 billion. This buyback program is in addition to the companys existing repurchase authorization of $1 billion. During the third quarter, the company bought back 2.4 million shares for $367 million, taking its total repurchases to 5.4 million shares for $823 million, as of Dec 31, 2016. Consequently, the company concluded its previous buyback authorization of $1 billion, and had shares worth $847 million remaining under its latest program. On Jan 4, 2017, the company declared a quarterly dividend of 40 cents per share for Class A and 36 cents for Class B shares. The dividend is payable on Feb 23, to shareholders on record as of Feb 9. Other Developments During the third quarter, Constellation Brands made small investments in Catoctin Creek Distilling Company and Bardstown Bourbon Company. While Catoctin Creek is a manufacturer of superior quality rye whisky and gin (prepared organically), Bardstown Bourbon is the largest new distillery in the country. Further, Constellation Brands recently completed the sale of its Canadian Wine business to Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, which is Canadas largest single-profession pension plan. Under the sale, the company disposed off its Canadian wine brands like Jackson-Triggs and Inniskillin, vineyards, facilities, wineries, offices, along with Wine Rack retail stores. Also, during the third quarter, Constellation Brands agreed to buy the Obregon Brewery from Grupo Modelo, a subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV BUD. The Obregon Brewery, situated on Mexicos west coast in the state of Sonora, is expected to generate nearly four million hectoliters of production capacity on the deals closure. The acquisition will enable Constellation Brands to capture immediate functional brewery capacity that will help serve its high-end Mexican beer portfolio, alongside providing it with the flexibility for future innovation strategies. Finally, Constellation Brands concluded the buyouts of Charles Smith Wines and High West Distillery for $121 million and $137 million, respectively, in Oct 2016. Fiscal 2017 Outlook Encouraged by robust year-to-date results, management raised its adjusted earnings guidance to a range of $6.55$6.65 per share, from $6.30$6.45, projected earlier. On a reported basis, earnings per share (EPS) for fiscal 2017 are now anticipated in the range of $7.55$7.65, compared with $6.25$6.40 guided earlier. Story continues CONSTELLATN BRD Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise CONSTELLATN BRD Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise | CONSTELLATN BRD Quote Further, the company continues to expect net sales for the beer segment to grow in the 1617% range. Operating income at this segment is anticipated to increase at the high teens level. This outlook also accounts for the gains coming from the recent Ballast Point acquisition. Also, the company reiterated its wine and spirits sales and operating income view. Sales at this segment are still projected in the mid single-digit range, while operating income is expected to grow in the mid-to-high single-digit range, including gains from the High West, Charles Smith, Meiomi and Prisoner acquisitions, partly offset by effects from the sale of its Canadian wine business. Certain other factors were taken into consideration before providing the earnings guidance. These include an interest expense expectation of $335$345 million, an approximate adjusted tax rate of 27%, and weighted average diluted shares outstanding of approximately 204.5 million. The company now anticipates capital expenditure for fiscal 2017 in the range of $825$925 million, compared to $1.125$1.225 billion expected earlier. The companys free cash flow expectation for fiscal 2017 lies in the range of $575$675 million. Operating cash flow is projected in the range of $1.4$1.6 billion. Other Stocks to Consider The Boston Beer Company, Inc. SAM with a Zacks Rank #2 is worth considering in the same industry. Another stock worth considering in the broader consumer staples sector includes Dean Foods Company DF with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Boston Beer has a long-term EPS growth rate of 12%. Also, the company has a favorable industry rank that ranks in the top 34% out of over 250 industries. The companys VGM score of B also makes it a sound bet. Dean Foods has to its credit a long-term EPS growth rate of 12% and positive estimate revisions over the past 60 days. Further, the companys earnings have outperformed estimates by an average of 5.4% in the trailing four quarters. Zacks Best Private Investment Ideas In addition to the recommendations that are available to the public on our website, how would you like to follow all Zacks' private buys and sells in real time? Our experts cover all kinds of trades from value to momentum . . . from stocks under $10 to ETF and option moves . . . from stocks that corporate insiders are buying up to companies that are about to report positive earnings surprises. You can even look inside exclusive portfolios that are normally closed to new investors. Starting today, for the next month, you can have unrestricted access. Click here for Zacks' private trades >> 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 Anheuser-Busch Inbev SA (BUD): Free Stock Analysis Report Boston Beer Company, Inc. (The) (SAM): Free Stock Analysis Report Dean Foods Company (DF): Free Stock Analysis Report Constellation Brands Inc (STZ): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Constellation Brands Inc. STZ, a leading international producer and marketer of beverage alcohol brands, released solid third-quarter fiscal 2017 results, wherein adjusted earnings of $1.96 a share surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.72. Moreover, the bottom line rose nearly 38% from $1.42 a share earned in the year-ago quarter. Constellation Brands raised its fiscal 2017 earnings forecast, projecting adjusted earnings per share of $6.55$6.65 and GAAP earnings of $7.55$7.65, based on lower tax rate expectations. Earnings Estimate Revision: The Zacks Consensus fiscal 2017 Estimate portrays an upside in the last 30 days. Constellation Brands performance in the trailing four quarters (including the quarter under review) gives a positive picture. The company outperformed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by an average of 6.7% in the trailing four quarters. CONSTELLATN BRD Price and EPS Surprise CONSTELLATN BRD Price and EPS Surprise | CONSTELLATN BRD Quote Revenues: Constellation Brands generated net sales of $1,811 million that increased 10% year over year and outdid the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1,784 million primarily due to higher organic sales as well as benefits from the acquisitions. On a constant-currency basis, organic sales grew 7%. Key Events: Constellation Brands successfully completed the sale of its Canadian Wine business to Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, which is Canadas largest single-profession pension plan for C$1.03 billion. The sale forms a part of the companys strategy to focus on premium, margin accretive, growth opportunities. The company bought the Obregon Brewery from Grupo Modelo, a subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch for $600 million. The acquisition will enable Constellation Brands to capture immediate functional brewery capacity that will help serve its high-end Mexican beer portfolio, alongside providing it with the flexibility for future innovation strategies. Further, the company expanded its premium wine and spirits portfolio with the acquisitions of Charles Smith Wines and High West Distillery. The company also repurchased about 2.4 million shares for $367 million during the quarter. Zacks Rank: Currently, Constellation Brands carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) which is subject to change following the earnings announcement. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Stock Movement: Constellation Brands shares jumped nearly 1.1% during pre-market trading hours following the earnings release. Investors developed a positive sentiment following the companys better-than-expected results and raised FY17 view. Check back later for our full write up on Constellation Brands earnings report! The Best Place to Start Your Stock Search Today, you are invited to download the full, up-to-the-minute list of 220 Zacks Rank #1 ""Strong Buy"" stocks absolutely free of charge. Since 1988, Zacks Rank #1 stocks have nearly tripled the market, with average gains of +26% per year. Plus, you can access the list of portfolio-killing Zacks Rank #5 ""Strong Sells"" and other private research. See these stocks free >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report CONSTELLATN BRD (STZ): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research (Reuters) - Constellation Brands Inc (STZ.N), which makes most of its beer in Mexico, reported a higher-than-expected quarterly profit, but investors remained jittery about President-elect Donald Trump's proposals to tighten cross-border trade. The company's shares, which makes beers such as Corona and Modelo in Mexico and imports them to the United States, fell as much as 8.9 percent to $144. "There is a high level of investor skittishness around the stock due to potential tax changes from the new administration," SunTrust Robinson Humphrey analyst William Chappell Jr. wrote in note. Trump and congressional Republicans have called for sweeping corporate tax reforms, including one on foreign imports called "border adjustability." The proposal, which is meant to boost U.S. manufacturing, would tax U.S. imports at the corporate income tax rate making them 20 percent more expensive, while exports would be exempt. A specific aspect of border adjustability could disallow a deduction for foreign-sourced cost of goods sold (COGS), which companies such as Constellation currently enjoy. Constellation said it had modeled several potential scenarios to offset any of the proposed tax reforms, including border adjustability. The company said in case the proposal does come to pass in its current form, it would consider measures including sourcing natural gas in the United States instead of Mexico to produce glass bottles. "That's just one example of things we can do in our supply chain so we turn that into a US cost instead of a Mexican cost and we then have a deductible expense for U.S. tax purposes," Constellation said on an earnings call with analysts. Currently, the United States accounts for 40 percent of Constellation's COGS for beer including freight, while Mexico accounts for the rest. The company has breweries in Nava, Mexicali and Obregon in Mexico. FORECAST RAISED Constellation also raised its adjusted profit forecast to $6.55-$6.65 per share for the year ending February, from $6.30-$6.45 it had previously expected. Story continues Beer sales rose 16 percent on higher volumes and pricing, and a boost from its acquisition of craft beer maker Ballast Point last year. The Victor, New York-based company's sales rose 10.3 percent to $1.81 billion, in-line with the average analyst estimate, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Net income attributable rose 50 percent to $405.9 million, or $1.98 per class A share in the third quarter ended Nov. 30. Excluding certain items, the company earned $1.96 per share, beating the average estimate of $1.72 per share. (Reporting by Gayathree Ganesan and Siddharth Cavale in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty) MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) -- A receiver overseeing the Jay Peak ski resort following allegations of massive fraud by its owner will offer contractors partial payment for unpaid bills. In a court motion approved Wednesday, receiver Michael Goldberg said contractors may either take a 33 percent payment and get the rest when the properties they worked on sell or get a total of 60 percent of the amount owed, The Burlington Free Press reported (http://bfpne.ws/2j8dNm5 ). Goldberg said he reserves the right to require some contractors to take the first option if too many opt for the second option, "which may require too much cash." The money is coming from a $13.3 million settlement with Citibank. Contractors for a partially built Jay Peak project and the Burke Mountain resort hotel allege they are owed $6 million, Goldberg said. Jay Peak Resort owner Ariel Quiros and former resort president Bill Stenger were accused by Vermont and by the Securities and Exchange Commission of misusing $200 million raised from foreign investors. Stenger has settled with the SEC. Lawyers for Quiros, a Miami businessman, have said he will be cleared of wrongdoing. Republican Gov. Phil Scott said in statement on Wednesday, the day before he took office, that he was happy with the court's decision to approve the partial payments to contractors. "This progress is a welcome step towards ensuring small businesses are compensated for the work they provided as fairly and as quickly as possible," he said. ___ Information from: The Burlington Free Press, http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com Photo credit: Twitter From Harper's BAZAAR Update, 1/19: That supposed Supreme and Louis Vuitton collaboration is real after all, and it just hit the runway. The French fashion house unveiled the collection at its menswear show in Paris today. The range includes co-branded leather handbags (such as backpacks and fanny packs), denim and camo jackets and a number of accessories like scarves, hats, sneakers, a trunk and even monogrammed skateboards. The collection incorporates Supreme's signature red-and-white color scheme and New York-inspired feel. "You can't have the conversation of New York menswear without Supreme right now, because it's such a massive global phenomenon," Kim Jones, the men's artistic director for Vuitton, told WWD. Supreme collab pieces on the Louis Vuitton Men's Fall/Winter 2017 runway #LVMenFW17 pic.twitter.com/3zqmsCzGe8 - MRBLD (@MRBLD_) January 19, 2017 First look Supreme x LV pic.twitter.com/rncX5bYEXH - FREofficial (@officialfre) January 19, 2017 First Look: Louis Vuitton x Supreme pic.twitter.com/uIlu0iGLw9 - Outlander (@StreetFashion01) January 19, 2017 And there we have it ... Supreme x Louis Vuitton pic.twitter.com/53sCd6wZSD - Supreme ATC (@Supreme_ATC) January 19, 2017 "When I was at college, I used to work unpacking boxes of Supreme at a company in London that distributed it when it was just starting out, so it's something I've known all my life," Jones added. "I just feel that the strength of its graphic versus the strength of the Louis Vuitton graphic, and that kind of pop-art feeling - it works together perfectly." Although the two brands hit a rough patch in 2000-when Supreme illegally used the LV logo on a number of products, resulting in a lawsuit-it was actually Louis Vuitton that approached the streetwear brand for the collaboration. The collection will launch on July 17th. Original post, 1/4: Hypebeast meets high fashion in this highly-suspected brand collab. According to allegedly leaked photos online, Louis Vuitton could be teaming up with streetwear cult favorite, Supreme. The rumors stem from a photo taken by Kim Jones, the men's artistic director at Louis Vuitton, who posted an image of a Supreme sticker atop the French brand's staple leather print, hinting that the two could join forces. He promptly deleted the photo from his Instagram, which makes the post even more suspicious. Photo credit: Kim Jones Instagram/Screenshot by Highsnobiety Photos of a sweatshirt with embossed Supreme and Vuitton logos also made its way to the internet. The image was reportedly taken by a model at a Vuitton casting, according to a Supreme fan account. This might not be the first time you've seen Vuitton and Supreme emblems side by side. Back in 2000, Supreme released a range of skateboards and other products featuring the LV print without the French brand's permission (as seen in the topmost photo). A lawsuit ensued and as a result, the streetwear brand had to recall all the unsanctioned items within two weeks. Seventeen years later, it seems the brands have reconciled, and they couldn't have done so at a better time. As streetwear and skate brands continue to reign in the street style scene (looking at you, Thrasher), we can already tell this collab will be quick to sell out-if it ever releases. Photo credit: Getty You Might Also Like Havana (AFP) - Cuban opposition activists said Thursday that the number of arbitrary arrests of dissidents on the communist island soared to nearly 10,000 last year. "In 2016, we documented a total of 9,940 arbitrary detentions," the highest count since 2010, the Cuban Human Rights and National Reconciliation Commission (CCDHRN) said in a report. It said incidents of dissidents being forbidden from leaving their homes to demonstrate increased in the run-up to US President Barack Obama's landmark visit to Cuba in March. The group gave no current figure for the number of dissidents currently in jail. In June 2016, it had put the figure at 82. The government in the one-party state denies holding any political prisoners. Cuba's longtime revolutionary leader Fidel Castro died on November 26 at age 90. He was hailed by supporters across the world as a hero who stood up for the poor. But many branded him a dictator who tolerated no dissent. He handed the reins of power in 2006 to his brother Raul, who became full president in 2008. The CCDHRN, led by dissident activist Elizardo Sanchez, is illegal like all opposition groups in Cuba, but is currently tolerated in practice by the government. Human rights group Amnesty International has listed Cuban graffiti artist Danilo Maldonado as a prisoner of conscience. He was arrested on November 26 for writing messages on public walls about the ex-leader's death. VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / January 5, 2017 / CVR Medical Corp. (TSXV: CVM) (B3BN.F) (CRRVF) ("CVR Medical") will be joining Energous Corporation at the upcoming CES, one of the premier, annual emerging technology events in North America. Energous will be demonstrating its device's applications with CVR's "Carotid Stenotic Scan (CSS)." CVR Medical Corp., in conjunction with CVR Global Inc, has patented and developed a sub-sonic sound analysis technology to detect and diagnose atherosclerosis and stenosis within the human arterial system. The first application of the technology, the CSS, is a non-invasive medical device designed to measure carotid arterial stenosis. Energous Corporation's WattUp technology is an RF-based, revolutionary wire-free charging technology. WattUp receiver technology will be integrated into CVR's Carotid Stenotic Scan's sensor array, while the cart will contain WattUp transmitter technology as part of the charging cradle. CVR Medical CEO Peter Bakema states, "As we've developed our own technology with the potential for significant impact, we've kept our eyes open for those who share our core beliefs of providing consumers with efficiency and value. Energous presents the sort of partnership opportunity that can take our device to the next level, and we look forward to exploring that at CES." For additional information on the organization, leadership, and current news please visit the newly launched company website www.CVRMed.com About CVR Medical CVR Medical is a company that is involved in an equal parts joint venture with CVR Global Inc. (the "Joint Venture"). The Joint Venture operates in the medical industry focused on the commercialization of a proprietary subsonic, infrasonic, and low frequency sound wave analysis technology and has patents to a diagnostic device designed to detect and measure carotid arterial stenosis. CVR Medical is managed by a proven technical team. CVR Medical trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol CVM. Story continues ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD: (signed) "Peter Bakema" CEO, President & Director For further information contact: Brisco Capital Partners Corp. Scott Koyich, President Telephone: (403) 262-9888 This press release contains forward-looking information that involves various risks and uncertainties regarding future events related to the Joint Venture. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, performance or developments to differ materially from those contained in the statements and are not guarantees of future performance of the Company. No assurance can be given that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will occur or, if they do occur, what benefits the Company will obtain from them. These forward-looking statements reflect management's current views and are based on certain expectations, estimates and assumptions which may prove to be incorrect. A number of risks and uncertainties could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including: (1) a downturn in general economic conditions in North America and internationally, (2) the inherent uncertainties and speculative nature associated with commercialization of technology and the practice of medicine, (3) a change in health regulations, (4) any number of events or causes which may delay or cease commercialization and development of the Joint Venture, (5) the risk that the Company or the Joint Venture does not execute its business plan, (6) inability to retain key employees, (7) inability to finance operations and growth, and (8) other factors beyond the Company's control. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release and, except as required by law, the Company assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results differed from those projected in the forward-looking statements. THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE INC. HAS NEITHER APPROVED NOR DISAPPROVED THE CONTENTS OF THIS PRESS RELEASE. 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: CVR Medical Corp. PRAGUE (Reuters) - A new Czech Interior Ministry team set up this week to monitor and analyse "hybrid threats" to security such as disinformation campaigns has come under fire from the office of the country's own president. The Centre Against Terrorism and Hybrid Threats (CTHH) comprises a team of 20 officials tasked with identifying threats from political radicalisation and terrorism and from foreign disinformation campaigns targeting the public. The initiative follows warnings from the country's counter-intelligence service that Russia is actively targeting Czech public opinion over NATO, the European Union and other issues through cyber-warfare, propaganda, puppet groups and support for populist and extremist groups. But President Milos Zeman, who is viewed as strongly pro-Russian, and his administration have led criticism of the new outfit, arguing that it could infringe free speech. Zeman's spokesman, Jiri Ovcacek, has likened the centre to the communist-era censorship office, CUTI, and set up a special Twitter account on Monday to criticise the unit. He had tweeted 56 messages on the topic by Wednesday afternoon. "A fundamental law applies in a democratic and free society: nobody can have monopoly for truth. The Interior Ministry's CUTI trampled over this law," said one of the tweets from Tuesday. In a Dec. 26 address - prior to the centre's opening on Jan. 1 - Zeman said "we do not need censorship, we do not need idea police". The new centre's chief, Eva Romancovova, said such criticism was puzzling as the president's office had been consulted over the creation of the unit during a national security audit and had raised no objections at the time. "LACK OF UNDERSTANDING" "The CTHH will not and cannot in any way censor any media or internet content," she told Reuters. "We consider this to be a very unfortunate lack of understanding of our work." Zeman, who has taken the Kremlin's side on the conflict in Ukraine and has called for a lifting of Western sanctions against Moscow, has few executive powers as president under the Czech constitution, though he is chief of the armed forces and appoints governments. He is also popular with Czech voters. Alarmed by what they see as Russian attempts to undermine their political and economic systems, a number of other European countries including Poland and the Baltic states have also established strategic communication teams in various government departments. Finland has said several NATO and EU countries are planning to establish a centre in Helsinki to research how to counter "hybrid" warfare. Germany's domestic intelligence agency said last month it had seen a striking increase in Russian propaganda and disinformation campaigns aimed at destabilising German society and targeted cyber attacks against political parties. (Reporting by Jan Lopatka; Editing by Gareth Jones) Photo credit: Getty From House Beautiful Before the late Debbie Reynolds shot to fame with a starring role in Singin' in the Rain, she was your average girl next door in Burbank, California. Unlike the rest of her life, her childhood wasn't glamorous, which is evident from the quaint home she lived in during her adolescent years: A one-story ranch built in 1940 that just happened to go on the market a month ago for $749,000. The 1,246-square-foot house still boasts the same footprint it had when Reynolds lived there, which includes three bedrooms and a pool out back. While there are some original '40s-era design details (we're talking pink tiles in the second bathroom and the original outdoor fireplace), key rooms like the kitchen and master bedroom have been renovated over the years. Since Burbank is located near Los Angeles, it was the perfect location for an aspiring actress like Reynolds. She even had the neighborhood to thank for her big break. After all, it was after she won the title of Miss Burbank at the age of 16 that she was discovered by Warner Bros. scouts. We bet it was in this very house that she got at least one (if not more) exciting phone calls regarding her budding career. Take a look inside: Photo credit: Martha Benedict Photo credit: Martha Benedict Photo credit: Martha Benedict Photo credit: Martha Benedict Photo credit: Martha Benedict Photo credit: Martha Benedict [h/t Realtor.com] You Might Also Like I first met Debbie Reynolds after I had been elected to the board of The Thalians. I came to her wonderful house on Greenway Drive in Beverly Hills. We went there every month for our meetings, and that first one for me was kind of wonderful. She and this amazing Chinese couple who worked with her cooked fabulous food, and I was so impressed that this major movie star was just a plain kick-ass girl. Debbie noticed that I had the same kind of work ethic that she had and any assignment she gave me - she was the president at the time - I would follow through on. She taught me that you can ask anybody for anything in this world, as long as it's not for yourself. You can go to the jeweler or the washroom attendant and just ask. That's a lesson that has stood me in good stead through all of these years of fundraising. She honored me by assigning me those tasks and eventually putting me in charge of The Thalians. She was the first to say, "Don't struggle, just go, go, go! Do it, honey." Boy did we have fun working it together. She was the first one to say that she had terrible taste in husbands but wonderful taste in girlfriends. It's so true. I lived through a lot with her. I was happy to support her left, right and sideways, both personally and doing whatever had to be done with The Thalians. What always stood out to me was that no matter how tired or how occupied or preoccupied she was with her personal situations, she always had time to hear and listen and give a moment's advice for the organization. She was never too tired for that. But she was very quiet about the miseries in her life. There were times when she slept in her car, but you would never hear her complain about it. She assumed all the debt that Harry Karl [Reynolds' second husband, who burned through her savings in the 1960s] left and she tap-danced her ass off making up that debt. She refused to go into bankruptcy, so she did it all very honorably - the Girl Scout forever. Read more: Carl Reiner Remembers Debbie Reynolds, Carrie Fisher as "Absolutely Different People" She can wear diamonds and beautiful clothes by Helen Rose and she could also clean a toilet. That's who Debbie Reynolds was. We were joined at the hip for a lot of years, and Debbie was the kind of friend that did not cry the blues if you didn't call her that week or that month. Time would go on and we would pick up the conversation a month later. One of the most fun experiences we had was my darling June Haver and her husband, Fred MacMurray, were being honored. Debbie and I did a special performance as the Dolly Sisters. We had swings installed onstage, hanging from the Century Plaza Hotel. We were wearing gorgeous dresses with long trains that we swung out from under us, out over the audience. Debbie, being the clown that she was, pretended she was falling off her perch. It was an exciting and beautiful moment. When I think of the shows we created in 55 years, it's just amazing. I was performing her Broadway show, Irene, in Fort Worth and Dallas, and the costumes arrived and they were horrendous - just awful. Someone called up Debbie and told her that I was in a desperate state of affairs so she not only sent her original costumes but she sent the costumer to help me through all of it. That's the kind of lady that Debbie Reynolds was. Read more: Debra Messing Remembers Being "Starstruck" by Debbie Reynolds on 'Will & Grace' Set One time, on a yacht trip with her best friend, Paula Kent Meehan, who co-founded Redken, everybody got desperately hungry for hot dogs. We were with Alex Trebek, and we all went traipsing around Monaco looking for hot dogs. Eventually, we found some cold but very delicious hot dogs. You can imagine the jokes that flew around after that on the boat. It was a silly moment but so wonderfully indicative of the crazy humor Debbie had. She always appeared to be this darling little lady who was super serious about everything, but two glasses of wine later, the cat was out of the bag. I'm honored to have been one of her friends and will always have a smile and a giggle in my heart for her. Debbie made life so much happier for me, but also for people she will never know, people whose lives she brightened with her performances, and people whose lives she saved through her work with The Thalians. She will be in their prayers, as she is in mine, thanking God for making life brighter and better. Both Debbie and Carrie were fabulously big klieg lights and now that they've gone out, the world has become a dimmer place. A version of this story first appeared in the Jan. 13 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe. Read more: Debra Messing Remembers Being "Starstruck" by Debbie Reynolds on 'Will & Grace' Set Well, it looks like Degrassi: Next Class fans are finally getting some answers. The Netflix shows second season ended on a cliffhanger after a bus accident left the fates of a bunch of the schools students (including Jonah, Zig, Tiny, Maya, Grace, and Tristan) fates in the air. However, as the exclusive trailer (above) shows, while most of the in-peril characters suffered an injury or worse, they wont be the only characters struggling. Many of their friends and family members will also be trying to work through the trauma of what happened, most notably Miles, whose boyfriend Tristan was caught in the crash. And the bus crash isnt the only drama people will be facing when the show returns, as it appears that Goldi (Soma Bhatia) will be trying to work through feeling different, and Yael and Hunter will also be dealing with some issues of their own. But it wont be all doom and gloom in Season 3. As EW previously announced, the current class of students will be welcoming two new faces, Saad AlMaliki and Rasha Zuabi (played by Parham Rownaghi and Dalia Yegavian), two new students who are Syrian refugees. Degrassi: Next Class premieres on Netflix on Jan. 6. Godfather Part 2 Robert De Niro Paramount It looks like the latest fad of using CGI to make iconic actors look like their younger selves isn't stopping soon. The producer of Martin Scorsese's next movie "The Irishman," which will reunite both the Oscar-winning director with Robert De Niro as well as De Niro and Al Pacino, has revealed that it will feature technology that will make De Niro and his fellow costars look younger. "Well, it's an extraordinary technology that we've been looking at," producer Gaston Pavlovich told Cinemablend. "You don't use prosthetics, makeup, they have acting and the technology is able to have them go through different time ages without the prosthetics. So we've seen some tests and it looks extraordinary. We were able to film Bob and just do a scene, and we saw it come down to when he was like 20, 40, 60, so we're looking forward to that, from that point of view, for 'The Irishman' ... Imagine seeing what De Niro looked like in 'The Godfather 2' days, that's pretty much how you're going to see him again." Like Scorsese's latest release "Silence," "The Irishman" has been on the shelf waiting to be made for years. A big reason for was matching the schedules of its huge stars, who include not just De Niro and Pacino but also Harvey Keitel and possibly Joe Pesci (he hasn't confirmed involvement). young robert downey jr captain america civil war final Based on the Charles Brandt book "I Heard You Paint Houses," the story looks at the hitman Frank Sheeran, who admitted to killing Jimmy Hoffa. De Niro will play Sheeran in the movie. Sheeran's recollection of his days in the mob will involve flashbacks in which De Niro and the rest of the cast will look how they did in the 1970s. In the last few years, we've seen this technology used in a number of movies. A younger version of Michael Douglas was featured in "Ant-Man," a younger Robert Downey Jr. was in "Captain America: Civil War," and just recently in "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story," a young Carrie Fisher shows up as Princess Leia. Story continues But you'll have to wait a little longer to see CGI De Niro, Pacino, Keitel, and Pesci on the screen. "The Irishman" isn't slated for released until 2018. NOW WATCH: Sony and Marvel just dropped the first new 'Spider-Man' trailer and it looks amazing More From Business Insider Montevideo (AFP) - Acclaimed filmmaker Emir Kusturica doesn't hide his admiration for the subject of his latest film, Uruguayan ex-president Jose Mujica, a leftist rabble-rouser nicknamed "the world's poorest president." To the Serbian director, he is simply "The Last Hero" -- the title of the documentary he has just finished shooting at Mujica's run-down farmhouse. He describes the project as the culmination of a long love affair with the Latin American left, which has few heroes these days. "I am a born idealist," said Kusturica, a two-time winner of the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival, the Palme d'Or. "I developed a special vision of the world that is linked to the people I admired from my youth, from Che Guevara to (Fidel) Castro," he told AFP. "Since I couldn't make anything with these two" -- both deceased -- "when I heard about a man who was a president and still driving his tractor and fixing his house... I said, 'This is my man.' And I was not wrong." Mujica rose to fame during his presidency (2010-2015) by living in his rustic farmhouse, driving himself around in his beat-up Volkswagen Beetle and donating most of his salary to charity. Now an 81-year-old senator, Mujica made waves as president by delivering tirades against unfettered capitalism and consumption at the United Nations and international summits. A colorful character known as much for his devotion to his three-legged dog as his landmark initiatives legalizing marijuana, abortion and gay marriage, Mujica is simply called "Pepe" in Uruguay -- his nickname among both admirers and critics. And there are plenty of the latter, even if Mujica remains popular. Disgruntled allies on the left say he failed to keep promises such as education reform. Across the aisle, enemies blame him for rising crime and revile his past as an urban guerrilla. "Some people in Uruguay do not like what he does, which is natural," said Kusturica. Story continues "However popular he is around the world, he is not as popular as I wish. He is not a mainstream popularity man." - Unlikely film star - With his rumpled sweaters and bushy gray eyebrows, Mujica makes an unlikely film star. But to Kusturica -- director of such films as "Black Cat, White Cat," "Time of the Gypsies" and "Underground" -- he is an icon. "The complicated history of this country and any other country is synthetized in the experience of Mujica," he said. As a young man, Mujica was caught up in the revolutionary movements then sweeping Latin America. In the 1960s and 70s, he was a leader in the Tupamaros, an urban guerrilla movement inspired by the Cuban Revolution. Captured and jailed, he spent 14 years in prison -- much of it in squalid conditions, held at the bottom of an old well by the military regime then in power. Freed under a 1985 amnesty law after the restoration of democracy, he became a lawmaker, minister and eventually president -- all while keeping up work on his humble farm outside the capital, Montevideo. "I want to get into the deep connection between his personality... and his connection to the land," said Kusturica. "He's almost religiously... connected to the land." The documentary, which combines interviews with archival footage from Mujica's presidency, centers on his final day as president, handing power to his successor and ally, Tabare Vazquez. Kusturica recently wrapped up filming at Mujica's "chacra," or farm, where the ex-president has hosted such dignitaries as Spain's former king Juan Carlos. With his sleeves rolled up, wearing a hat, baggy pants and plastic sandals, Mujica answered Kusturica's questions. He was luke-warm when asked how he felt about the project. "It will help people get to know Uruguay. It has a lot to offer the world," Mujica said of his country of 3.4 million people and three times as many cows. "I don't know what Kusturica will do with it, because he's half" -- he broke off, signaling "crazy" with one hand -- "and half genius. But I respect him a lot." He hopes the film will send a message of "humility and commitment," he said. Kusturica meanwhile said he hopes to have the film ready in time for the Venice Film Festival in September. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper says the Russian governments interference with the United States election went far beyond the now highly publicized hacks of Democratic email accounts, which were merely one part of a multilayered campaign of propaganda and deception. The intelligence leader outlined various methods wielded by Moscow to interfere with U.S. institutions during Thursday morning testimony on cyberattacks before the Senate Armed Services Committee. The testimony comes at a point of tension between the U.S. intelligence community and Donald Trump. The president-elect, set to meet with intelligence brass on Friday, has repeatedly cast doubt on the U.S. governments conclusion that Russian state-sponsored cyberattacks sought to influence the election. At the hearing, Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., asked Clapper if he could address not only classified information but also the relevance of publicly available information in seeing the full picture of Russias activities. While there has been a lot of focus on the hacking, this is actually part of a multifaceted campaign that the Russians mounted, Clapper told the committee. Clapper pointed to the Kremlin-funded TV channel RT, previously called Russia Today. Of course RT, which is heavily supported, funded by the Russian government, was very, very active in promoting a particular point of view, disparaging our system, he continued. James Clapper speaks on Capitol Hill. (Photo: Alex Brandon/AP) He said Russia would exploit any crack in the United States integrity such as the nations alleged hypocrisy about human rights through social media, fake news, propaganda and so on. The totality of Russias effort, regardless of its ultimate impact, was a concern to Clapper as both an intelligence official and as a U.S. citizen, he said. Earlier in the testimony, Clapper said the campaign against the U.S. also entailed the kind of classical propaganda that Russia has long used, especially when promulgating disinformation. Story continues Marcel Lettre, the under secretary of defense for intelligence, said the U.S. needs to look at ways to impose costs against adversaries for such actions on a case-by-case basis as they arise. The U.S. can work to deter and respond to attacks through methods like President Obamas recent sanctions, but they can be much broader as well, he said. From the militarys perspective, were concerned not only with Russias cyberhacking but also with a range of aggressive actions by Russia across multiple regions of the globe. So we look to impose costs on Russia by a range of measures across multiple regions in partnership with our allies, through NATO, where we can to push back Russian actions and deter future actions. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., did not appear too impressed with this case-by-case tactic. Its not a strategy, he said. Earlier, McCain suggested that if Russia had in fact succeeded in altering the outcome of an election that it would constitute an attack on the United States. He asked Clapper if he agreed with that assessment. Whether or not that constitutes an act of war I think is a very heavy policy call that I dont believe the intelligence community should make, Clapper replied, but would carry in my view great gravity. (WASHINGTON) President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday escalated his blunt public challenge to the U.S. intelligence agencies he will soon oversee, appearing to embrace WikiLeaks founder Julian Assanges contention that Russia did not provide his group with the hacked Democratic emails that roiled the 2016 election. Trumps defiance has increased the pressure on intelligence officials to provide decisive evidence of Russian election interference. A full report was ordered by President Barack Obama last month, and Obama will receive the report and be briefed on it Thursday, according to a White House official who wasnt authorized to speak to reporters and requested anonymity. High-level intelligence officials are heading to New York Friday to brief Trump on the classified findings. The Obama administration also plans to make an unclassified version public before the president leaves office Jan. 20. Russia not only meddled in the election, but did so to help Trump win, according to the intelligence agencies assessment. But the administration has so far released only limited information to support that conclusion. And in the absence of such public evidence, the president-elect has seized on some Americans skepticism of U.S. intelligence in general, citing high-profile missteps that led to the Iraq war. But this Trump campaign has so far been a lonely one in Washington. His views put him at odds with Obama and leaders in his own party who see Moscow as a growing threat. And they put him in line with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Assange, whose organization has been under criminal investigation for its role in classified information leaks. Since 2012, Assange has been in the Embassy of Ecuador in London, unable to leave without being arrested for breaching his bail conditions. Taking to Twitter on Wednesday, Trump noted that Assange said Russians did not give him the info referring to the trove of emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee and John Podesta, a top aide to Democrat Hillary Clinton. Story continues Vice President-elect Mike Pence commended Trump for his very sincere and healthy American skepticism. Given some of the intelligence failures of recent years, the president-elects made it clear to the American people that hes skeptical of conclusions from the bureaucracy, and I think the American people hear him loud and clear, Pence said after a meeting on Capitol Hill with Republican lawmakers. Trump is to be briefed on the hacking report Friday by CIA Director John Brennan, FBI Director James Comey and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. Brennan, in an interview Tuesday with PBS NewsHour, said the report will include what was collected, what was disclosed and what the purpose and intent of that effort was. Clapper is testifying on Capitol Hill Thursday. But he could be limited in what he can say about the reports conclusions given that Trump and perhaps Obama may not have been briefed by that time. Indisputable evidence of responsibility for hacking is difficult to come by and often technical. The information the administration has released so far does not lend itself to firm conclusions. The most recent information has come from a joint analysis by the Homeland Security Department and the FBI that ties Russian government activities to the hacks of the DNC and others. The analysis includes a list of internet addresses identified by the administration as potentially tied to Russian hackers. Many other addresses are untraceable. The Associated Press found at least 20 percent of the addresses had traced back to computer servers that help users browse the web anonymously, often for legitimate purposes. That web service, called Tor, was initially funded by the U.S. government and is now used prominently by activists and journalists working in hostile countries who need to keep their identities secret. Other internet addresses released by DHS trace back to servers at several American universities, as well as tech giant Yahoo Inc. The government cautioned that the addresses werent automatically tied to Russian malicious activity, but instead were indicators that computer security experts should investigate further. Trump aides say that while he has received raw data on the Russian hacking, he is skeptical of the conclusions being drawn. Steven Hall, a retired chief of Russia operations at the CIA, set expectations low for the public hacking report, saying agencies typically lean toward protecting intelligence-gathering techniques. The more information that is revealed, the more likely it is that sources and methods could be compromised, thereby limiting our ability to collect in the future, Hall said. At the White House, press secretary Josh Earnest noted that all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies had agreed on the assessment about Russias activities and added of Trump: Who are you going to believe? The decision he makes about that I think will have long-term consequences for the way he chooses to govern the country, Earnest said. Indeed, Trumps challenges to the intelligence community since winning the election have been striking. The nature of the presidency gives the commander in chief discretion to decide how to respond to intelligence assessments. But any skepticism about the agencies conclusions usually plays out privately in the Situation Room and Oval Office, not on Twitter . Trumps posture has appeared to be driven in part by concern that evidence of Russian meddling would raise questions about the legitimacy of his election. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., one of his partys fiercest Russia critics, said the issue was not about the validity of the election, but the fact that a foreign entity hacked into a political party. When you compromise one political party, you compromise all political parties, Graham said. ___ Associated Press writers Tami Abdollah, Jack Gillum Laurie Kellman, Deb Riechmann and Josh Lederman contributed to this report. In Donald Trump's latest Twitter rebuke of an automaker, the president-elect threatened Toyota Motor (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 7203.T-JP) on Thursday with a large border tax if it builds a new plant outside the U.S. Following the tweet, the company's U.S.-listed shares ticked about 0.7 percent lower, hitting a session low of $120.32. In response to Trump's tweet, Toyota said in a statement to Reuters that the new Mexican plant will not cut its U.S. employment, adding that it "looks forward to collaborating with the Trump administration to serve in the best interests of consumers and the automotive industry." The threat about the Japanese automaker's planned new plant in Mexico is just the latest from Trump, who already has gone after two other automakers. Earlier this week, Trump issued a separate ultimatum to General Motors (GM): Make its Chevy Cruze cars in the U.S. or expect to pay a big border tax. He has also been pressuring Ford (NYSE:F) about its own plans for Mexico. Two days ago, Ford announced it was canceling its plans to build a Mexican plant, but insisted Trump was not the main factor for the decision. Toyota announced on Tuesday that it is beginning to move hundreds of jobs out of its northern Kentucky headquarters as part of a nationwide consolidation. After Trump's tweet Rep. Jeb Hensarling , R-Tex., said on CNBC's " Closing Bell " that he does not favor a border tax. Hensarling, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, argued the reason jobs are moving out of the United States is because America doesn't have a competitive, simple tax code. "I prefer carrots over sticks, and I prefer tax reform over taxes," Hensarling said on Thursday. "What we need to do is make America the most attractive place to site a business, to grow a business, to create a business." Story continues The Associated Press contributed to this story. More From CNBC Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f336974%2f3c555467-8f7d-416a-b009-9b8fca6f243c While there's no hint that this sheriff was inspired by Bruce Willis' character in Die Hard, he certainly is having a "yippee-ki-yay" moment as his friend lassoes a cow from the hood of his moving car. Sheriff Monte Belew of Henry County, Tennessee, uploaded a Facebook video Tuesday in which his "ole buddy David Bevill" can be seen riding on the front of the sheriff's car, trying to rope a rogue calf who's trotting down the highway. And "rope him" he did. Because he's cowboy as AF. SEE ALSO: Oh nothing, just a terrifying snake eating another freaking snake on video Belew shared the video he recorded behind the wheel with his 5,000 Facebook followers, captioning it "Hats off to my ole buddy David Bevill!! We had a calf running down Hwy 79 and he came & helped us..Bevill rode on the front of my car & roped the calf!!" It's truly a sight to behold. Especially when Belew sees that Bevill has successfully captured the calf, laughing and saying, "Tie him to the front of my car!" The cheeky bovine was successfully returned to his owner, according to the Paris Post Intelligencer. Meanwhile, Belew's video has been viewed millions of times. After all, it's not every day you see a real-life cowboy in action. They sure do make some entertaining content in those parts. For more news videos visit Yahoo View, available now on iOS and Android. Dylann Roof offered no apology for the June 2015 murders of nine black people at a historically black South Carolina church in a jailhouse manifesto read during his sentencing trial on Wednesday. I would like to make it crystal clear I do not regret what I did, Roof wrote in the jailhouse journal seized by authorities in 2015, according to the New York Times. I am not sorry. I have not shed a tear for the innocent people I killed. In December, a jury of three black people and nine white people found Roof guilty of hate crimes, religious obstruction and firearms violations in the June 2015 attack. Roof had pleaded not guilty. Roof sat alongside his victims for about an hour inside the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston before opening fire. In that moment, a man of immense hatred walked that room shooting person after person after person, stopping only so he could reload more magazines and kill more people, assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Williams told the jury in December, according to the Post and Courier. It was an act of tremendous cowardice, shooting people as they have their eyes closed in prayer, shooting them on the ground. The victims were: Tywanza Sanders, 26; Rev. Clementa Pinckney, 41; Cynthia Hurd, 54; Rev. DePayne Middleton-Doctor, 49; Ethel Lance, 70; Myra Thompson, 59 and Rev. Daniel Simmons Sr., 74. Prosecutors said Roof planned the massacre carefully, scouting the church nearly two years before the attack and even traveling six times from his home 90 minutes away in Eastover. He has admitted that hoped to start a race war, according to the New York Times. Rejected Mental Health Defense Roof has represented himself in trial and at sentencing. Although Judge Gergel called the move strategically unwise, Roof had a legal right to serve as his own lawyer after being found competent to stand trial, according to the New York Times. Story continues He rejected a defense based on his mental health which might have been his best defense to avoid the death penalty, according to the Times. I want state that I am morally opposed to psychology, Roof wrote in a journal found in his car. It is a Jewish Invention, and does nothing but invent diseases and tell people they have problems when they dont. Earlier this month, Roof wrote to Judge Gergel that he would not be calling mental health experts or presenting mental health evidence. The 22-year-old did not call any witnesses or present any evidence during the sentencing phase of the trial, WLTX reports. Prior to the sentencing, Judge Gergel issued an order banning Roof from approaching the jury, the witness stand or the bench during his remarks, CNN reports. As the beginning of the sentencing phase on Wednesday, Roof declared, Theres nothing wrong with me psychologically, according to CNN. Three people who sat in the section of the court room reserved for the family of the victims walked out during Roofs opening statement. Cairo (AFP) - Egypt has released political activist Ahmed Maher, a leading figure in the 2011 revolt that toppled the government, after he completed his jail term, his lawyer and a security source said Thursday. Maher, 36, was a founder and spokesman of the April 6 protest movement that was influential in the uprising that overthrew longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak. A security source told AFP that Maher was released from jail on Wednesday evening while his lawyer, Anas Sayed, said he will be under judicial supervision for three years. Maher was arrested in November 2013 while protesting in Cairo against a law banning public gatherings not pre-authorised by the interior ministry. He was convicted alongside prominent activists Mohamed Adel and Ahmed Douma, who as of Thursday were still incarcerated. Rights groups say President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's government has tried to repress all opposition since the former army chief overthrew his Islamist predecessor Mohamed Morsi in 2013. Cairo (AFP) - Egypt has released political activist Ahmed Maher, a leading figure in the 2011 revolt that toppled the government, after he completed his jail term, his lawyer and a security source said Thursday. Maher, 36, was a founder and spokesman of the April 6 protest movement, one of the main groups that campaigned for more freedom under longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak. A security source told AFP that Maher was released from jail on Wednesday evening. But he must still spend every night at a police station, from six in the evening until six in the morning, for three years, his lawyer Anas Sayed told AFP. His release was welcomed by Nobel peace prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei, a former UN atomic agency chief. "You and your colleagues were at the forefront of those defending rights and supporting the oppressed," ElBaradei, a key Egyptian opposition figure, wrote on Twitter. Founded in 2008 with calls for democratic change and social justice through methods including social disobedience, April 6 later became one of the influential groups in the uprising that overthrew Mubarak. Its co-founder Mohamed Adel and activist Ahmed Douma were handed three-year sentences along with Maher in December 2013 after they were accused of organising an unauthorised protest. All three defendants were leading dissidents under Mubarak and rose to prominence during and after the uprising. As of Thursday, Adel and Douma were still incarcerated. In April 2014, an Egyptian court banned the April 6 youth movement, whose coordinator Amr Ali is serving a two-year prison sentence. Maher and Douma were arrested after Maher's supporters allegedly scuffled with police outside a Cairo court in November 2013, when Maher handed himself in for questioning on suspicion he had organised an illegal protest. Days earlier, the government issued a law banning public gatherings not pre-authorised by the interior ministry. The law was issued amid a crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood movement after then army-chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi led the military ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013. Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood was blacklisted after the overthrow of the Islamist, who was Egypt's first freely elected leader. Sisi was elected president the following year. Rights groups accuse the authorities of trying to repress all opposition in a crackdown whose targets included secular activists. President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence watch as employees work during a visit to Carrier factory, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2016, in Indianapolis, Ind. It's not an exaggeration to say that Elon Musk and Donald Trump have the most diametric brains on the planet. They also differ widely in their views on a hot-button political issue: climate change. The Tesla CEO is the world's most prominent proponent of using innovation to do something about global warming, while the president-elect has said climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese. But with the opening on Wednesday of Tesla's battery manufacturing factory in Nevada, Musk has suddenly wound up with a "surprising alignment of interests with the new presidential administration," says Adam Jonas, Morgan Stanley's lead auto analyst. Jonas, one of the most strident Tesla bulls on Wall Street, made the comment in a research note in which he assessed the Gigafactory's opening and reiterated his view that the company's Model 3 mass-market vehicle won't launch on schedule at the end of 2017. But the alignment "really seemed to sneak up on people," he added. Of course it did until you think about where the two line up. Tesla's a high-tech domestic hiring machine. Here's Jonas, writing about the Nevada plant: "As the bus drove up to the massive plant yesterday morning, one could not help but notice the hundreds of cars in the parking lot from the construction crew (yes, roughly 1/2 of the vehicles were pickup trucks), part of 2,100 construction workers running two shifts per day. "To the extent that the creation of high-tech manufacturing jobs in the United States is a priority of the incoming administration, we believe Mr. Musk might have some interests that could be very much in alignment with those of President-elect Trump." Old versus new manufacturing It's worth pointing out that the Obama administration was also supportive of high-tech manufacturing and that it's unclear whether all US manufacturing jobs are equal in the eyes of Trump and the GOP. And don't forget that constructing Tesla's Nevada Gigafactory involved old-school labor, while the manufacturing of battery cells inside could eventually be almost completely automated. Story continues But Jonas is onto something by highlighting what could be an unexpected and potentially awkward shared interest of Trump and Musk. The Tesla CEO did, after all, make the pilgrimage to Trump Tower along with the rest of the Silicon Valley tech elite. However, all of Musk's companies require a type of government support that's futuristic rather than retro. Electric cars are a threat to the oil business. Solar power Tesla just acquired SolarCity has benefitted from government subsidies to gain a foothold against traditional grid electricity provided by burning coal and natural gas. SpaceX has NASA as its biggest customer. Musk is a shining example of a businessperson who's making America great now. It remains to be seen if Trump can digest that reality and come to terms with how that reality has been achieved. NOW WATCH: Watch Tesla rival Faraday Future debut its first car by having it back itself into an empty parking spot More From Business Insider Paris (AFP) - Beatrice, a busy 50-year-old manager at an airline in Paris, sounds like she would benefit from France's new "right to disconnect" law that guarantees all employees freedom from their work smartphone and email. "It often happens that I'm interrupted by urgent problems in my free time, or need to reply to emails out of hours," she told AFP, asking for her real name and her company's not to be used. "No one forces me to do it, but I get work email on my telephone and other managers have the same thing," she added. Since January 1, French companies with more than 50 employees must work up a charter defining employees' right to switch off. No sanctions are foreseen for non-compliance but an employee could sue for having their rights infringed. The new labour law in a country famous for its tightly regulated workplace was prompted by the blurring of the boundary between work and private life by new technology and ways of working. Requests from Beatrice's team of six intruded frequently into a recent holiday, meaning she couldn't switch off as she would have liked. "I could have said 'I don't care', but then it puts other people in difficulty," she confided. While generally aware of potential health problems for employees, the company is trying hard to cut costs, she says. The result is senior managers want the same outcome with fewer people. - Work addicts - Yet others believe that it is not simply over-demanding bosses that are to blame for them checking mail during dinner or before going to bed, illustrating the difficulty of regulating how people work in their own time. Some confess that their own work ethic and ambition spurs them on, or simply a lack of willpower to ignore unopened mail. Mathilde, a 26-year-old employee of a cultural agency in the Opera area of central Paris, says she over-checks her messages due to curiosity rather than pressure. Story continues "If there was an expectation (that I'd reply), then it would make me anxious," she told AFP. A hard-charging young banker who works on mergers and acquisitions says his employer cuts access to work email for his team from 10:00 pm to 6:00 am every night to prevent over-work. "It's a choice whether you check your phone or not. Telling me I have to switch off pisses me off," the 24-year-old admitted before striding off in his suit. - Collective action needed - Peter Fleming, an expert on the workplace at the University of London, says many employees suffer from the "hard-work culture" of their companies, but also an "obsessive attachment to their work identity." "For many people, a job has moved from something we do and become something that we are," he told AFP. "24/7 email really amplifies that trend." Company-wide policies on disconnecting -- whether prompted by the law in France or by companies themselves elsewhere -- are therefore welcome and in some cases necessary. Fleming says the ambitious MBA business students at his university would be instinctively opposed to disconnecting out-of-hours because they would be worried about being judged harshly. "It has to be collective, not individual. If I know that all my co-workers aren't connected, then I might not be too," he said. People working in the finance, technology, law or health professions are seen as particularly vulnerable to the risks of overload and burnout, but an increasing number of top companies are waking up to the risks. - Words into practice - It is no coincidence that telecom group Orange was asked to help draft France's "right to disconnect" legislation after a scandal over 35 suicides among its workforce in 2008-09. The company, working with trade unions, drew up new guidance on disconnecting in September, three months before the law came into force, group human resources director Jerome Barre told AFP. Orange's 150,000 employees now benefit from a promise they will not be penalised for failing to check email out of the office. Everyone is discouraged from sending messages outside working hours. Managers are being trained to understand that "if a boss sends an email in the middle of the weekend his employees will feel obliged to reply", Barre said. At the same time, no one is prevented from catching up on work at home and the rules contain flexibility for people who work remotely or unusual hours. "If in my personal way of working it's more comfortable for me to finish something at the weekend, we can't ban it," Barre explained. "But I don't necessarily have to send the result of my work on Sunday night. It can wait until Monday morning." B52 Bomber One of the eight engines powering a Boeing B-52 bomber flying over Minot Air Force Base on Wednesday quite literally fell right off the aircraft. The unarmed aircraft, which was on a training flight at the North Dakota base, landed safely and none of the crew were injured, an Air Force spokesman told Defense News. The service has already initiated an investigation into what went wrong. All crew members of a B-52 that crashed in May 2016 escaped without injury, though a 2008 crash killed all six crew members on board. The B-52 is a long-range, heavy bomber jet aircraft powered by eight Pratt & Whitney engines. It was first introduced in 1955, though it has continually been upgraded and maintained. The Air Force has just over 75 B-52s still in service today, which are slated to last into 2040, according to Defense News. The B-21 Long Range Strike Bomber is expected to replace the aging B-52 fleet once it's introduced some time in the mid-2020s. NOW WATCH: A survival expert reveals what to put in your 'go-bag' in case disaster strikes More From Business Insider Looks like the Queen of social media is back and brought her selfie game with her. After taking an extended break from social media in the wake of her terrifying Paris robbery back in October, Kim Kardashian West has officially returned to her various platforms to share family snapshots, possible new Kimojis and, of course, a perfectly lit selfie. The reality superstar, 36, broke her extended silence on Tuesday with two family-centric posts on her website and Instagram accounts, and in the days since, has shared quite a few more glimpses into her life post-robbery. After updating her Twitter and Instagram profile pictures, she posted a sweet home video of her family, which featured footage of her cuddling with husband Kanye West, going snow tubing with daughter North, 3, and showing son Saint, 1, taking his first steps. //platform.twitter.com/widgets.js Along with the video which she shared a few hours later on Twitter, to the delight of her fans Kardashian West posted an Instagram photo of herself with West and their children, wearing matching white outfits, which she simply captioned, Family. The next day, she posted another photo to Instagram, this time featuring herself holding Saint, alongside the heart-filled caption, My son. Later that day, she officially returned to Snapchat with two of her now-signature type of posts: a shot of her artfully destroyed jeans, which she captioned Torn, and a selfie. The snapshot, which she noted was her first selfie of 2017, shows Kardashian West with her mother, Kris Jenner, throwing up a peace sign and rocking a lip ring that she was first spotted wearing at the familys Christmas Eve party. Then, on Thursday, Kardashian West made up for lost time by posting more adorable photos of Saint and North to her website and app, offering even more glimpses into what family time at the Kardashian-West household is like. In one picture, North, wearing a white sundress, offers her hand to lead her little brother, wearing a tiny red sweatshirt and pants, while in another, she and her father goof around outside. Story continues Kardashian West followed that up with another photo of her children, in which Nori appears to be tending to her baby brother; this one is captioned with heart emojis. Of course, since no Kardashian West social media spree would be complete without an artfully composed photo of the reality star herself, she also posted a picture of her gazing down at Saint, while he plays out of frame. In addition to giving fans some insight into Kardashian Wests sweet home life, these new photos seem to be hinting at a new style phase for the reality star, one that features waist-length, straight hair, relaxed clothes and some edgy accessories. (Fans shouldnt stress too much, though: theres still plenty of her signature lampshading to be found.) Its good to have you back, Kim. Instagram just wasnt the same without you. Even if nobody really knows who the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is or why we should care who they anoint with their golden touch every January, theres no debating they know how to throw a party. Oscars looser, boozier cousin kicks off awards season with as much focus on luscious dinners as gushing winners. The big story of the night is as likely to be who casts the most side-eye as who takes home a statue. Heres a primer for the 74th Golden Globes, which air at 8 p.m. ET on NBC Sunday night. Jimmy Fallon is hosting, and it wouldnt be altogether surprising if the show plays like a star-studded, extended Tonight Show episode. The pendulum has swung about as far as it could from Ricky Gervais mean-spirited jabs to Jimmy Fallons human puppy dog in constant search of a loving noogie (that is, when hes not the one doing the noogying). But Fallon will be performing for a room packed with A-listers, and its a safe bet hell continue in his usual mode of playfulness over politics. Hes hinted at an opening number spoofing a nominated film, with cameos galore. In his words, the night will be fun, and friendly, and joyous, and cool. Sounds fun. And cool! Presenters include Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), Batman (Ben Affleck), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and also a few mortals. Statues will be furnished by several of last years acting winners (Brie Larson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon and Sylvester Stallone), future onscreen mother-daughter pair Goldie Hawn and Amy Schumer, and several possible same-night winners, including Viola Davis and Emma Stone. There will be Hamm, there will be candy, everyone will be famous and fabulous. Last year was so sad that the Globes are finally considering adding an In Memoriam segment. The Globes doesnt usually include a weepy tribute to fallen stars because, as executive producer Barry Adelman recently told Variety, Weve always kept the show as a celebration and as a party. But the wrath of 2016and particularly the double-gut-punch finale of Carrie Fisher and her mother Debbie Reynolds consecutive deathshas producers in last-minute discussions about how to acknowledge, at the very least, the most recent losses. Story continues Expect a showdown between Moonlight and La La Land on the movie side. La La Land leads with seven nominations going into the evening, followed closely by Moonlight, which has six. The beauty of this show, which separates dramas from musicals and comedies, is that both could walk away with a Best Picture win. Manchester by the Sea enters strong with five nominations, with Casey Affleck and writer-director Kenneth Lonergan favorites to pick up Best Actor in a Drama and Best Screenplay. But the HFPA loves a good surprise (Stallone over Michael Shannon and Mark Rylance, anyone?) and has been known to overlook critical favorites (Spotlight won zero Globes before going on to win Best Picture at the Oscars), so maybe make your bets with pennies. And did we mention superheroes? As a reminder of how hip and cool the HFPA is, Deadpool and its star, Ryan Reynolds, are nominated in the comedy/musical category. Its the first live-action superhero movie to be nominated for Best Picture, so even though the movie has virtually no chance of beating out La La Land, just getting in the room is a feat for the foul-mouthed superhero. On the TV end, bet on a big night for The People Vs. O.J. Simpson. FXs ambitious miniseries about Simpsons 1995 murder trial landed five nominations, more than any other show this year. As they were last year, this years TV nominations recognize the new over the old: of the seven series that received at least three nominations, all but one (Black-ishwhich wasnt nominated until now, in its third season) debuted in 2016. Expect acting awards to recognize both newly minted stars, like Issa Rae, and seasoned performers (slash comeback queens) like Winona Ryder. The title of Miss Golden Globe will be jointly held by a trio of sisters with stardom coursing through their veins. The alliteratively named Sophia, Sistine and Scarlet Stallone, progeny of Rocky, will serve jointly as Miss Golden Globe(s) this year. The job (which consists of helping to hand out awards and escorting winners offstage) was originally bestowed upon up-and-coming film and television actresses, but since the 1970s has gone to celebrity offspring from Melanie Griffith to Corinne Foxx (daughter of Jamie) to the occasional mister (a la Freddie Prinze, Jr.). The Stallone daughters are, respectively, a student at the University of Southern California, a model and a high school track star. Miscellany: Attendees will eat Chilean sea bass, filet mignon and mushroom risotto. After-parties will, fingers crossed, not be hindered by the same logistical nightmare, involving lone lines for shuttle buses (it even had its own hashtag, #shuttlegate), that kept revelers from their Dom Perignon this time last year. The actor with the most nominations ever, Meryl Streep, will be in attendance for her 30th Globe nod. As the saying goes, the more things change, the more Meryl Streep is always there. Photo credit: Alan Place/University of Limerick From Cosmopolitan University of Limerick scientists believe the mesentery, a double-layered sheet of abdominal connective tissue, should be classified as an organ, according to a recent article in The Lancet gastroenterology and hepatology journal. After extensive research, they reveal they already have reason to believe the mesentery plays a role in many gut diseases - and that further research into the tissue could provide pivotal information on how to treat them. The Irish researchers believe the mesentery had long been ignored because important medical texts (including Grays Anatomy) had mistakenly described it as a disjointed ribbon, a piece of anatomy that only existed some of the time. The anatomic description that had been laid down over 100 years of anatomy was incorrect. This organ is far from fragmented and complex, study author and surgeon J. Calvin Coffey (pictured above) said in a statement. It is simply one continuous structure. The belief that it was not one piece was what originally disqualified it from classification as an organ. Coffey told The Independent, the outlet that picked up the November news, establishing the tissue as an organ is incredibly important: When we approach it like every other organ we can categorize abdominal disease in terms of this organ. Now we have established anatomy and the structure. The next step is the function. If you understand the function you can identify abnormal function, and then you have disease. Put them all together and you have the field of mesenteric science. The Independent also reports med students are already being taught about the change and that Grays Anatomy now reflects the new information as well, though Coffey said hes unsure who the final arbiter of deciding what is officially an organ is. According to Discover Magazine, the mesentery serves as a belt, holding intestines in place. It begins at the pancreas and loops around the small and large intestines, securing their structure. Coffey believes it is necessary to live and that theres never been a human without one. Story continues The recognition of the mesentery provides hope for research and treatment of incurable digestive diseases like Crohns disease, the Washington Post notes. The mesentery, when officially reclassified, will be the 79th recognized organ in the human body. Follow Tess on Twitter. You Might Also Like (Reuters) - A former employee has dragged Snapchat to court accusing the messaging app of misleading investors and trading partners to drive up its initial public offering, the Hollywood Reporter said citing a court document. In the lawsuit filed on Wednesday in a California court by Anthony Pompliano, who earlier worked with Facebook Inc, also alleged he was fired for being a whistleblower, the magazine reported. http://bit.ly/2iRTH07 Snap Inc, Snapchat's parent company, rejected the allegations. "We've reviewed the complaint. It has no merit. It is totally made up by a disgruntled former employee," a Snap spokeswoman told Reuters in an emailed statement. The ex-employee, who led Snapchat's growth team during his three weeks with the company, said he learned of misrepresentations and urged executives to rectify the problems. Pompliano claimed he was pressurized to breach Facebook's confidential and proprietary information, the magazine said. "Snapchat fraudulently induced Pompliano away from Facebook to run Snapchat's new user growth and engagement team by falsely representing to him, among other things, the company's growth," the Hollywood Reporter quoted his counsel as saying in the court document, a partially obscured copy of which was posted on the magazine's website. Snapchat filed for an IPO in November and is one step closer to the biggest U.S. stock market debut since 2014. The case was filed in the Superior Court of the State of California for the County of Los Angeles. (Reporting by Rama Venkat Raman and Subrat Patnaik in Bengaluru; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier) Washington (AFP) - Donald Trump has chosen for his director of national intelligence someone who could provide a counterweight to the president-elect's alleged soft spot for Moscow: a former senator banned by Russia. Dan Coats, 73, will be nominated by Trump to serve as the powerful coordinator of 16 intelligence and security agencies, according to multiple US media reports Thursday. Coats, who served as a Republican senator from Indiana from 1989 to 1999, and then from 2011 to the end of his term on Tuesday, was one of six US legislators and three White House aides blacklisted by Moscow in 2014 in reprisal for US sanctions placed on the country for its seizure of Ukraine's Crimea region. Coats, who had advocated tough sanctions against Russia, called the ban an honor. "While I'm disappointed that I won't be able to go on vacation with my family in Siberia this summer, I am honored to be on this list," he tweeted at the time. Coats, who was US ambassador to Germany from 2001 to 2005 under the George W. Bush administration, served on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence as well as economy-related committees during the past six years. His nomination will have to pass Senate confirmation. He will replace James Clapper, director of national intelligence under outgoing President Barack Obama from 2010 to the present. The DNI oversees coordination between disparate agencies including the Department of Homeland Security, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National Security Agency and others, acting as the president's principal advisor on their work. As a senator in 2013, Coats defended the NSA after former contractor Edward Snowden revealed it was secretly collecting Americans' phone records en masse. "The intelligence community is doing exactly what the American people asked for," he wrote in the Wall Street Journal. "These programs represent some of the most effective means available to protect the country from terrorist organizations like al Qaeda." Story continues According to reports, Trump wants to reshape and possibly slim down the US intelligence apparatus, a job which could fall to Coats. Trump spokesman Sean Spicer rejected earlier Thursday a Wall Street Journal report that Trump wants to scale back the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and restructure the CIA. "There is no truth to this idea of restructuring the intelligence community infrastructure. It is 100 percent false," Spicer told reporters. But Senator John McCain said Thursday that he understood that some changes are in the works. "They're talking about changing the composition of it and stuff, but they're not talking about doing away with the director of national intelligence," he said. No Yes, a light case Yes, two or more light cases One serious case Two or more serious bouts Vote View Results Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's divorce battle continues. The 41-year-old actress slams Pitt in new court documents obtained by ET on Wednesday, saying that her estranged husband is insistent on sealing divorce docs pertaining to custody because he's "terrified that the public will learn the truth." WATCH: Brad Pitt Accuses Angelina Jolie of Having 'No Self-Regulation Mechanism' In New Court Docs While Jolie agrees that sealing custody-related records would be in the best interest of the couple's six children -- Maddox, 15, Pax, 13, Zahara, 11, Shiloh, 10, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 8 -- the new court documents, filed by the star's attorney, Laura Wasser, in Los Angeles on Tuesday, slam the recent motion filed by Pitt's lawyers to seal information related to their temporary custody agreement. Pitt's attorney, Lance Spiegel, filed court docs supporting Pitt's request to have custody documents sealed on Dec. 21, after his request for an emergency hearing about the case was denied weeks earlier. In his motion, Pitt accused Jolie of disregarding their children's "privacy rights when she believes it may benefit her," claiming that the actress "exposed the children by making public the names of their therapist and other mental health professionals." Jolie "apparently has no self-regulation mechanism to preclude sensitive information from being placed in the public record," Pitt's documents stated, "or she has other motives pursuant to which she seeks to disseminate information in this proceeding which will be immediately made public, where the children can access it or where people in the general public will have access to it for their own uses." WATCH: Angelina Jolie and Kids Spent New Year Holiday in Colorado -- No Sign of Brad Pitt In Jolie's filing on Tuesday, the actress' lawyer accuses Pitt of trying to "deflect from [his] own role in the media storm which has engulfed the parties' children." Story continues "There is little doubt that [Pitt] would prefer to keep the entire case private, particularly given the detailed investigations by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Dept. of Children and Family Services into allegation of abuse," the documents state. Though Pitt has been cleared by both the FBI and Department of Children and Family Services after investigations following an incident during a family flight home from Europe in September, a source tells ET that "it doesn't mean he didn't do anything wrong." "The kids are clearly traumatized, and Angelina has been protecting the kids by not revealing what really happened on the plane," the source says. "The interest since the onset of this has not changed, and all along that has been to protect the well-being of the children." WATCH: Brad Pitt Saw His Children Over Christmas Weekend Amid Divorce Drama With Angelina Jolie A source close to Pitt, meanwhile, tells ET that Jolie cooperated with both investigations. "Clearly her claims were considered legitimate enough to impact those conclusions. And if she held back information which, we don't believe that she did, then isn't she then not representing the best interests of her children by holding it back?" "Thankfully after four months of on record statements, leaks and unnecessary and intrusive filings she is coming around to realizing that confidentiality is actually in the best interests of her children and family," the source adds. Jolie was granted full custody of all six kids on Dec. 2. Court documents stated that Pitt would continue to have agreed-upon therapeutic visits with his kids, as determined by the family's therapist, who "shall at times consider the best interests of the minor children." See more on Pitt and Jolie's divorce battle in the video below. Additional reporting by Rande Iaboni and Carolyn Greenspan Related Articles By Nevzat Devranoglu and Tuvan Gumrukcu ANKARA (Reuters) - Suspected Kurdish militants clashed with police and detonated a car bomb in western Turkey on Thursday after their vehicle was stopped at a checkpoint, killing a police officer and a court employee, officials said. The explosion and gunfire outside the main courthouse in Izmir, Turkey's third largest city, highlighted the country's deteriorating security after a gunman killed 39 people in a New Year's Day mass shooting at an Istanbul nightclub. "Based on the preparation, the weapons, the bombs and ammunition seized, it is understood that a big atrocity was being planned," Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak told reporters. The local governor said the arms included Kalashnikov rifles, hand grenades and ammunition for rocket-propelled grenade launchers. Izmir police shot dead two of the attackers and were hunting a third, a police source and the state-run Anadolu agency said. "Our heroic police officer martyred in this attack, Fethi Sekin, prevented a much bigger disaster happening, sacrificing his own life without a thought for it," Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said in a statement, condemning the "heinous" attack. Two people, believed to have sold the vehicle used in the attack to the assailants, were subsequently detained, security sources said. CCTV footage obtained by Reuters showed a passerby fleeing as the vehicle exploded in a fire ball. Initial findings suggested that Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants were behind the attack, Izmir governor Erol Ayyildiz said. Dozens of people rushed to the scene of the blast and chanted "God damn the PKK" and other slogans against the militant group. A helicopter was seen flying overhead. Ayyildiz said a second vehicle had been detonated in a controlled explosion. Anadolu said police suspected the attackers had planned to escape in this vehicle. NATO member Turkey is part of the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State in Syria and is also battling an insurgency by the PKK in the largely Kurdish southeast. It regularly bombs PKK camps in northern Iraq and its military operations in Syria also aim to stop Kurdish militias it sees as an extension of the PKK from gaining territory there. "Turkey will be instrumental in its region. These (attacks) will never prevent us from being present in areas like Iraq and Syria, which produce terrorists like viruses," Kaynak said. INCREASINGLY DEADLY ATTACKS Ayyildiz said the clash outside Izmir's main Bayrakli courthouse erupted after police officers tried to stop a vehicle at a checkpoint and that the attackers detonated the car bomb while trying to escape. The PKK - deemed a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and European Union - and its affiliates have been carrying out increasingly deadly attacks over the past year and a half, ever further from the largely Kurdish southeast, where they have fought an insurgency for more than three decades. A PKK offshoot claimed responsibility for twin bombings that killed 44 people, most of them police officers, and wounded more than 150 outside an Istanbul soccer stadium on Dec. 10. A car bomb a week later killed 13 soldiers and wounded 56 when it tore through a bus carrying off-duty military personnel in the central city of Kayseri, in an attack President Tayyip Erdogan also blamed on Kurdish militants. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack in Izmir, a liberal coastal city which had largely escaped the violence that has plagued Istanbul and the capital Ankara in recent months. Police detained 20 suspected Islamic State militants thought to be of Central Asian and North African origin in Izmir on Wednesday, in raids Turkish media said were linked to the Istanbul nightclub attack. (Additional reporting by Ece Toksabay and Orhan Coskun in Ankara, Humeyra Pamuk, Can Sezer, Ceyda Caglayan Birsen Altayli and Daren Butler in Istanbul; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Ralph Boulton) (Reuters) - Apple Inc removed the New York Times Co's news apps from its app store in China on Dec. 23, following a request from the Chinese authorities. An Apple spokesman said the company had been informed that the app was "in violation of local regulations". While data from ASO100, a firm which analyses app store data, indicates that hundreds of apps are removed from China's app store a day, the removal of the New York Times' app is among the most high-profile deletions. The following apps have been removed from Apple's Chinese store in the past. Reuters has not individually verified these stories, but the apps are no longer available in the store. October 2015 - Apple disabled its news reading app, Apple News, in mainland China, the New York Times reported in October 2015, citing a person with direct knowledge of the situation. (http://tinyurl.com/nlasvg8) November 2013 - FreeWeibo, an app that allows users to read sensitive postings on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo service, was deleted by Apple on grounds of "illegal content", its developer Radio Netherlands Worldwide said on its website.(http://tinyurl.com/gso9her) October 2013 - OpenDoor, a free app that allowed users to jump over firewalls and access restricted sites, was removed from the Chinese app store by Apple for including "content that is illegal in China", the app's developer said in a blogpost on anti-censorship watchdog GreatFire.org. (http://tinyurl.com/h2d7jpk) April 2013 - Jingdian Shucheng, an app that allowed users to access books banned by the Chinese government, was removed, the Financial Times reported citing the app's developer Hao Peiqiang. Hao said the reason was that it included "content that is illegal in China". (http://tinyurl.com/j6jqdkx) (Reporting by Brenda Goh and SHANGHAI Newsroom; Editing by Himani Sarkar) LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May has appointed a senior career diplomat as her envoy to the European Union, replacing an official who criticised the government's Brexit strategy in his resignation letter. Tim Barrow, political director at the Foreign Office, will replace Ivan Rogers. His appointment marks a return to a candidate from the foreign ministry after the post was filled twice by veterans of Britain's finance ministry. Government officials say that Barrow is "a seasoned and tough negotiator, with extensive experience of securing UK objectives in Brussels" and will complement what they say are teams with strong EU knowledge based in Britain and in Belgium. Some commentators say Rogers' departure was a positive step to allow his successor to follow the Brexit process from start to finish. Rogers was due to step down in November. But others have said it is the latest loss of a senior civil servant with knowledge and experience of the EU, with one Rogers ally describing his departure as part of the "wilful and total destruction of EU expertise". Following is a list of the top civil servants with EU experience who have left their posts over the last five years: (Sources of information: gov.uk, Wikipedia, local press) Ivan Rogers, who resigned as the UK Permanent Representative to the EU, has had several roles in British government including working for former prime minister Tony Blair as his principal private secretary in 2003. After five years in the private sector at banks, Rogers returned to the civil service in 2012 as the prime minister's adviser for Europe and Global Issues and the head of the European and Global Issues Secretariat. Rogers moved to Brussels in 2013. Jonathan Faull, 62, was head of a special Commission task force on negotiating a package of reforms to try to persuade British voters to stay in the European Union before June's referendum. The Brexit task force ended late last year and Faull, who joined the Commission in 1978 and held many positions, announced his retirement. Shan Morgan, 61, was deputy to Rogers after a career which saw her become Director European Union in the Foreign Office in 2006, responsible for negotiations on the Lisbon Treaty and management of the UK parliamentary process of ratification. British Ambassador to Argentina and Paraguay between 2008-2012. On Nov. 9, 2016, it was announced that Morgan had been appointed as the new permanent secretary for the Welsh Government. Tom Scholar, 48, is a veteran of Britain's finance ministry, working in several positions since 1992. He became the British representative on boards for the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in 2001 and then worked at the British embassy in Washington before returning to London as the principal private secretary to former prime minister Gordon Brown in 2007. In 2013, former prime minister David Cameron put Scholar in charge of the European and Global Issues Secretariat in the Cabinet Office, a role in which he was Cameron's main EU adviser during his renegotiation. Scholar returned to the Treasury on March 11, 2016, as permanent secretary. Jonathan Hill was Britain's EU commissioner, responsible for financial services. He resigned two days after the Brexit vote last June. Hill had campaigned for Britain to stay in the bloc and said he didn't believe it was right for him to carry on "as though nothing had happened". Hill, a former Conservative leader in the upper house of parliament, had become a popular figure among EU colleagues during his 18 months in Brussels. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker described him as a "true European" whom he had tried to persuade to stay on. A former lobbyist, Hill had also served as chief of staff to Conservative prime minister John Major in the 1990s. Robert Madelin, who spent more than 20 years in senior posts at European institutions after 13 years working for the British civil service mainly in London and Brussels, also stood down last year. During his career he had negotiated for Britain and Europe in trade, investment and services. (Reporting by Elizabeth Piper and Kylie MacLellan, editing by Larry King) When Staci Maneage saw the smiling photo of the 3-year-old girl that her friends were headed to China to adopt in April 2013, her heart leapt. To Staci, the young girl whose image was posted on the Facebook page of her neighbor Paige Galbierz looked like a duplicate of Stacis own daughter, Ellianna, at the same age. Ellianna, then 7, had been adopted from China three years earlier. Once Paige, 48, and her husband Steve, 49, brought their new daughter Kinley home, Staci thought the girls similarities loomed even larger: they shared mannerisms, facial expressions, even a feisty drive. The two families live three minutes apart outside of St. Louis in Weldon Spring, Missouri, and had met and become fast friends through an adoption class at their church, where Stacis mom began to teach Kinley in Sunday school. Shed tell me all the time, Its just like Ellianna, says Staci, 50, who stressed the girls resemblance so much to her husband Jim, 53, that he told her to drop it. A connection seemed impossible, says Jim. The girls had lived in Chinese provinces two hours apart, in a country of 1.3 billion people, and were adopted from different orphanages through two different agencies. But for two years Staci couldnt shake the divine weight on her heart urging her forward. She says she didnt want to answer to God if she had failed to pursue a possible connection for the girls, who separately had come from so far away, only to wind up so near each other and develop an affectionate bond. To learn more about the surprise siblings, pick up this weeks issue of PEOPLE on newsstands Friday. When Staci finally urged a DNA test, Jim said that Paige and Steve would think she was crazy. Theyre my friends, Staci answered. They already know Im crazy. So she prayed, believing that if God had a plan, it would happen and three days later, Paige unexpectedly asked Staci to meet for coffee. Shed been talking about similarities, says Paige. Never did it cross my mind more than that. Story continues After Paige agreed in April 2015 to the DNA test (Thisll finally shut her up, Paige playfully thought), Staci submitted the girls cheek swabs to a testing lab and in August 2015, the results came back 99.99 percent conclusive that the girls shared a biological parent. Now, the two families talk of combined vacations, and maybe even side-by-side homes where Kinley and Ellianna schoolmates at Independence Elementary, where Kinley, now 7, is in 1st grade and Ellianna in 5th, and who attend church and weekly Chinese cultural classes together along with regular playdates can grow even closer. I think all of us were just looking at the odds, says Jim, who put aside his early dismissal of his wifes intuition and joined her in sharing the news with Ellianna. She was literally out-of-her-mind excited, he says of their daughter. She had that grin on for a couple of hours. Since then, Ellianna has warmed to the responsibility of sibling role model. Im the boss, like the bigger sister, she says. Is that a lot of pressure?, asks Staci, who adds, We understand this to be a complete miracle. Ellianna offers a mischievous grin. To a 10-year-old, she answers, yes! The sight of a fisherman reeling in a shark at a Western Australian beach drew a crowd of startled onlookers on Monday, January 2. Dorothy Symonds was taking her dog for a walk along Warnbro Beach with her husband Andy when she spotted four men wrestling with what appeared to be a sting ray. When those present realised it was a shark, swimmers were quick to get out of the water. It took the four men about 30 minutes to reel in the creature after casting out 100 metres from shore, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. This report stated the animal was a tiger shark. In the footage, the fisherman can be seen removing the hook from the sharks mouth before gently helping it back to deeper water. I was so surprised as I have been swimming there all my life and never saw anything like this, Symonds told Storyful. Credit: YouTube/Dorothy Symonds via Storyful A federal judge in New York has ordered former MF Global CEO Jon Corzine to pay $5 million to settle a regulator's complaint about his role in the firm's misuse of roughly $1 billion in customer funds, ending a five-year legal ordeal for the former New Jersey governor. The order, obtained by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, says Corzine failed to adequately supervise the activities of the brokerage firm's officers and employees and their handling of customer funds from August through October 2011, when the firm filed for bankruptcy. As part of the settlement, Corzine, an ex-co-chairman of Goldman Sachs and a former Democratic senator, is banned from registering with the CFTC in any capacity and from trading other people's money in the futures industry. He's also prohibited from acting as a futures commission merchant. Today, @CFTC announced the NY Federal Court issued a ruling on Jon. S. Corzine & Edith O'Brien (MF Global case) https://t.co/dSBbNTfAsP CFTC (@CFTC) January 5, 2017 All three of the regulator's current commissioners approved the settlement, according to a person familiar with the situation. The arrangement allows Corzine to avoid a much-anticipated trial, where he likely would have been required to testify. When MF Global filed for bankruptcy, after disclosing considerable exposure to European sovereign debt, more than $1 billion in customer funds was found to be missing. Questions subsequently emerged about whether the futures brokerage firm tapped into customer-segregated accounts for its own proprietary trading, and Corzine told the agriculture committee of the U.S. House of Representatives that December that he was stunned to learn that client funds couldn't be accounted for. "I simply do not know where the money is, or why the accounts have not been reconciled to date," he said at the time. "I sincerely apologize, both personally and on behalf of the company, to our customers, our employees and our investors, who are bearing the brunt of the impact of the firm's bankruptcy." EXCLUSIVE OFFER: See inside Jim Cramers multi-million dollar charitable trust portfolio to see the stocks he thinks could be potentially HUGE winners. Click here to see his holdings for FREE. GREEN COVE SPRINGS, Fla. (AP) A former pain management doctor in Florida will be going to federal prison for two years after a judge rejected sentencing guidelines that recommended a six-month sentence. U.S. District Judge Brian Davis issued the sentence for Russell Sachs on Wednesday in Clay County. The Florida Times-Union (http://bit.ly/2iBXW2g ) reports Sachs had 10 patients die of drug overdoses. In making his ruling, Davis said the deaths and the fact that Sachs had sexual relations with eight of his female patients justified a longer sentence. Davis said Sachs was running a "pill mill." Sachs pleaded guilty last June to one count of prescribing controlled substances to patients for no legitimate reason. As part of the agreement, three other charges were dropped. He must report to prison by March 8. ___ Information from: The (Jacksonville) Florida Times-Union, http://www.jacksonville.com Its one thing to parrot warnings that a silver tsunami of retirements will reduce the ranks of health care workers, as if were all gonna die: Merely repeating that old diagnosis wont cure what ails the system. Its quite another to triage the situation in a quest for cures instead of just hanging up the bedpans, Coulee Region hospital officials contend. What we need to do is find solutions, said Phil Stuart, CEO of Tomah Memorial Hospital who has heard the Paul Revere wail for years, dating to his chairmanship several years ago of the Wisconsin Hospital Associations Council on Workforce Development. The WHAs recently released annual report echoed those of other years, predicting a dearth of nurses, in particular, and other health care professionals. But it upped the ante, saying, in a nutshell, that increasing numbers of retirements will leave above-average vacancies on hospital payrolls. Retirements are outstripping hospitals ability to fill the vacant positions they leave behind. Wisconsin could soon see an unprecedented shortage of key health care professionals, WHA Vice President Steven Rush said in the news release accompanying the report. It persists for several reasons, but primarily because the demand for health care is increasing as baby boomers approach retirement. Its like a double whammy: The age of our workforce is a direct reflection of the average age of our population, Rush said. The issues have not gone away, Stuart said during an interview last week. The report reflects what I have known. The report also mirrors Stuarts advice, noting, Wisconsin hospitals would best be served by staying ahead of the silver tsunami by paying special attention to hiring and retention strategies focused on the millennial adult. Health care ventures in the Coulee Region are doing just that, with examples including: The Health Science Academy in La Crosse, which Stuart described as a prime example designed to mitigate education gaps and incubate health careers among high school students. The academy, created in 2009 in a partnership among the La Crosse School District and Gundersen Health System through the La Crosse Medical Health Science Consortium, is a two-year program that prepares juniors and seniors for careers in the health science industry through career exploration, job shadows, clinical experience, health science labs, mentoring, internship opportunities. One of the consortiums pivotal prescriptions for success is its broad representation, including not only the school district and Gundersen but also Mayo Clinic Health System-Franciscan Healthcare, the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, Viterbo University and Western Technical College. At Tomah Memorial, Stuart said, We are a training site for nursing schools. We embrace that it benefits training at the same time students get to know the hospital setting. Gundersens new program offering employees the chance to enter an educational program to become medical assistants, a pool of workers who support doctors in clinics. The program, which began in the summer of 2015 in a partnership with Kaplan University and saw its first 13 graduates in November, helps Gundersen fill gaps in those roles at the same time it offers workers advance their own careers, said Mason Quackenbush, who directs Gundersens human resources and recruitment services. Analyzing workforce data such as that from WHA, its own statistics and figures from throughout the industry are propelling such programs not only for medical assistants but also certified nursing assistants, lab techs and other jobs facing shortages, he said. We have been strategizing, and it opened our eyes that out job in recruitment is to create our own supply line, Quackenbush said. Mayo-Franciscan is tapping into students from Winona State University, Viterbo and Western, as well as partnering with Gundersen and the Health Science Academy, said Diane Holmay, chief nursing officer for the systems southwest Wisconsin region. Having a nice relationship with academia really helps, she said, citing especially the ability to provide training for medical assistance in cooperation with local higher education facilities. For medical assistants, we have a nice pipeline from Western. In addition, Mayos own dedicated education unit has gone really well, Holmay said. Providers and academic institutions need to think outside the box. Mayo-Franciscans simulation lab includes mannequins so students dont have to wait for a patient to practice techniques, and they can teach and learn together, Holmay said. Vernon Memorial Healthcare is creating an internship program its employees who want to become surgical technicians, said Kyle Bakkum, CEO of the Viroqua-based system. Although shortages in positions such as CNAs are perennial, lags in surgical techs are a particular problem at Vernon Memorial, he said. Were starting our own internships ourselves, if they would stay on and be educated at technical schools, Bakkum said. We have a thriving surgical department here but thats difficult to do without surg techs. The effort not only will help the hospital but also boost employee morale by showing confidence in them, he said. Team-based care model more vital Throughout the regions hospitals and other health care systems, including nursing homes, lags in one sector of professionals or another make the team-based care model that has emerged during the past decade even more important, officials say. The growing demand for nurse practitioners and physicians assistants will support the growing provider gap, Mayo-Franciscans Holmay said. We have to use our staffs differently, with nurse practitioners and physicians assistants providing replacements, especially for outpatients, and also hospitalists. Holmay and Quackenbush underscore the importance of the tripod of support from UW-L, Viterbo and Western. Were very, very fortunate to have Viterbo for nursing and Western and UW-L and lab sciences, Quackenbush said. Because of that, we can maintain our pace. Im optimistic, and still concerned. There is no shortage of enthusiasm among the millennials and Generation Xers entering health care professions to don the scrubs of the retiring Baby Boomers. I love it, Alyssa Scovell says of her second year as a surgical nurse at Mayo-Franciscan. I decided in high school I wanted to be a nurse, said Scovell, 25, a graduate of West Salem High School who still lives in West Salem. I feel like health care jobs always will be there, and for nursing, there is job security, she said. But I wanted to be a nurse, regardless. Scovell, who started working at Mayo-Franciscan in July 2015, said her first year provided a great foundation. I met a lot of patients and learned a lot. Ive seen more of direct nursing with patients and been an advocate. Returning to school remains an option for her, she said, adding, I want to be a nurse anesthetist. I picked that in high school, too, and I shadowed a nurse anesthetist in OR at UW-L. Scovell finds the profession rewarding, saying, Its fulfilling when somebody comes in worried, and you can make them feel better. This isnt always the easiest place to be, but when you can make them feel at ease, its fulfilling. Chuck Finley isnt who you think he is. The real Chuck Finely is a retired MLB pitcher (left-handed), who was active from 1986-2002, primarily as a dependable according to Wikipedia thrower for the Angels. But theres another Chuck Finley, in Sorrento, Florida. This one is an insatiable reader, checking out 2,361 books at the East Lake County Library over a nine-month period. Hes also totally made up. The fictional Finleys reading list consisting of titles ranging from John Steinbecks Cannery Row to Ann Fullicks Why Do My Ears Pop? was the concoction of George Dore, the librarys branch supervisor, and library assistant Scott Amey and consisted of titles in danger of being purged from the librarys shelves. Dore told the Orlando Sentinel who broke the story that he wanted to avoid having to later repurchase books removed from the shelf, and alleged the practice is common among libraries. Thats a serious accusation, because nine city-run libraries that are part of the countys system receive funding based on circulation levels. However, the six county libraries including Dores dont get a cut of the approximately $1 million budget doled out to the city libraries every year, so the scheme technically had no financial motive it simply meant saving the titles. But an anonymous source tipped the Lake County clerk of courts inspector generals office to the pairs ruse, and the county has since ordered a system-wide audit of its libraries. More and Ameys scheme had one serious flaw besides the sheer volume of the fake Finleys library record: Dozens of books were checked out and then in again in the same hour, which had the desired effect the East Lake County Librarys circulation increased by nearly 4 percent thanks to Finley even if it was an easy paper trail to follow. Dores interviews with the inspector generals office allege that other libraries have had dummy patron cards and institutional cards and that there was a lot of bad blood between the libraries because of money wars. Story continues Dore has been placed on administrative leave pending a hearing. The inspector generals office has recommended termination, which Dore is fighting. On the discipline form recommending his dismissal, he calls the decision an overreaction to an action that only had one purpose and that was to save items for potential patrons use. Neither Dore nor Amey would answer questions about the story, according to the Sentinel, but it was apparently Amey who contributed Finleys who was also furnished with an address and drivers license nom de guerre. No word on whether hes an Angels fan. (By the way, if this whole thing reminds you of the story arc in The Wire where McNulty invents a serial killer in order to scare the city and the Baltimore Police Department into providing adequate resources for his own investigation, youre right.) ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) Police said a 10-year-old Florida boy shot and killed himself Thursday after his mother "was addressing a behavioral issue" before school and now they're investigating how the firearm was stored. Clearwater police spokesman Rob Shaw said Thursday afternoon that Ian Sevostjanov's mother had sent him to his room that morning. According to a news release, the boy was sent to a room in his family's apartment, where he obtained the gun. Ian, who was in fifth grade, died from a single shot. Paramedics tried to save him but he died in the family's apartment. His mother, Olga Grusetskaja, 50, was home when the shooting happened, police said. The boy's father and brother were not home. The chief said the handgun was owned by someone in the apartment. Slaughter also said detectives are interviewing family members, who are in distress. The apartment complex is near downtown Clearwater, west of Tampa on the Gulf Coast. Photo credit: undefined From Good Housekeeping No more excuses -if you're among the 60% of Americans without this year's flu shot, don't procrastinate any longer. Confirmed cases are surging across the United States, and doctors everywhere are begging people to get vaccinated. Outpatient visits for flu-like symptoms are officially above the national baseline, and four states are seeing especially high activity: Alabama, Arizona, Georgia and Oklahoma. The virus is also spreading rapidly in New York City and Puerto Rico. "It definitely looks like flu season is here," CDC epidemiologist Lynnette Brammer told WebMD. Photo credit: Centers for Disease Control Although experts recommend getting vaccinated in the fall, it's not too late. "While seasonal flu outbreaks can happen as early as October, activity usually peaks between December and February and can last through May," pediatrician Anna Baldino wrote on Philly.com. That means you still have plenty of opportunities to become a sniffling, sneezing mess. As for that rumor about contracting the flu from the shot, have no fear. "The flu vaccine cannot give you the flu because the virus it contains is inactive," Baldino said. And if you got immunized last year: no dice. Only the most recent edition offers optimal protection against not-so-great symptoms like a fever, cough, sore throat and muscle aches. Even if you're not concerned about a potential week of pure misery (or worse, hospitalization), receiving the vaccine can help others, too. The shot protects people around you, including at-risk groups like babies, children, the elderly and people with serious health conditions. Story continues "Run, do not walk, to get your flu shot," infectious disease specialist William Schaffner told WebMD. "Do it on your lunch break today." Doctor's orders, people! Check vaccinefinder.org for nearby locations that offer the flut shot. [h/t ABC News] You Might Also Like Ford will build in Michigan and sell in North America, Europe, and Asia, an electric SUV capable of traveling more than 300 miles on a single charge, the automaker announced Tuesday. The electric car would go on sale by 2020. Ford chief Mark Fields outlined the automaker's wide-ranging plans for 13 all-electric or hybrid vehicles by the end of the decade, which includes a Ford F-150 Hybrid model and a Ford Mustang Hybrid variant as well. Fields said the automaker would spend $700 million on upgrades to Ford's Flat Rock Assembly Plant, which currently builds the Mustang and Lincoln Continental, to build the new electric SUV. According to Ford, the SUV built in Flat Rock would be sold in North America, Europe, and Asia. ALSO SEE: Ford will sell self-driving taxi by 2021 In 2015, Ford announced it would spend $1.6 billion to build a new vehicle plant in Mexico that would eventually build the Focus and slow-selling hybrid C-Max, but the automaker scrapped those plans Tuesday and said the money would be redirected toward upgrades for Flat Rock. The new electric SUV could take on directly the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV and coming Tesla Model III, which both deliver more than 200 miles of electric range at a lower price. Although the Bolt EV is shaped like a small hatchback, rival General Motors insists on calling the Bolt EV a "crossover," noting the car's taller seating position. It's not immediately clear what the new electric SUV from Ford will look like. Last year Ford announced that it would sell in the U.S. a smaller crossover than its Escape, dubbed Ecosport, that would be builtat least initiallyin India. The new SUV could be based on that platformor take an entirely different shape when it arrives by 2020. According to Hau Thai-Tang, VP of global purchasing for Ford, the electric SUV will be sold in all 50 states and across the world. Ford said its $700 million investment in Flat Rock would cover both the electric SUV and a self-driving car that will be used for ride-sharing services, but didn't specify size or the cars' intended segments. It wasn't clear if the self-driving car and the electric SUV would share the same platform either. By Alexandria Sage LAS VEGAS, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co is expanding the use of Amazon.com Inc's Alexa personal assistant in its vehicles to allow drivers to talk to their cars - demanding anything from a nearby cheeseburger to a weather forecast - marking a leap by the Detroit automaker to incorporate a technology initially targeted for home use. The expanding alliance between Ford and Amazon, announced on Wednesday at the CES tech show in Las Vegas, underscores the importance to both automakers and internet commerce companies of connecting consumers on the move to a richer array of digital services. Don Butler, Ford's executive director of connected vehicle and services, told Reuters the technology represented the "deepest integration of any OEM (carmaker) inside a vehicle with Alexa." The two companies are talking about how to take the Alexa partnership further, according to Butler. "Digital assistant is one tool that is increasingly prevalent in the industry," he said. Rival General Motors Co plans to roll out IBM's Watson artificial intelligence software in its OnStar system early next year in order to market services to drivers in their cars. Similarly, Daimler's Mercedes-Benz will use Alphabet Inc's Google Assistant, a rival product, to let car owners interact with their vehicles from home via Google Home. Ford's move follows its October announcement that it would use Alexa in three of its vehicle models by the end of 2016 to allow drivers to communicate with their smart home devices, such as heaters, lights or security systems. Automotive personal assistants are being studied by every major automaker, according to Gartner research director Michael Ramsey, who said: "There's a lot of vetting going on." One company that stands to benefit is Nuance Communications Inc. The supplier to Ford, GM and other carmakers provides natural language speech command technology to allow drivers to speak more or less conversationally to digital assistants. Story continues Nineteen percent of the 160 million cars that use Nuance's technology over the past 15 years have come out just in the past year, said Fatima Vital, Nuance's senior director of marketing automotive. One major decision auto companies must make is whether to give consumers a version of the smartphone systems they already use - Apple Inc's CarPlay or Google's Android Auto - or a third option. By using their own systems, carmakers can retain full control of valuable data that otherwise could be captured by Apple and Google from vehicles. SHARED APP PLATFORM Currently, personal assistants are enabled using either phones as their mode of connectivity, such as at Ford, or through modems built directly into vehicles, as GM and the German automakers have done. Ford plans to have 10 million vehicles in North America and 20 million globally equipped with embedded modems by 2020. Ford cars will talk with Alexa through a new mobile app connected to SmartDeviceLink, an open-source platform that allows developers to create apps compatible with all automakers within the system, avoiding the need to adapt them to the specifications of each carmaker individually. Carmakers and their suppliers who have joined Ford in the SmartDeviceLink ecosystem, announced Wednesday, are Toyota , Peugeot, Mazda, Suzuki, Elektrobit, Luxoft and Xevo. (Additional reporting by Paul Lienert; Editing by Bill Rigby) The Daily Beast Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty ImagesDonald Trumps desperate attempts to escape the wrath of the New York Attorney General were halted Thursday when a state judge there took the remarkable step of putting the former presidents company under court supervisionand preventing the billionaire from quietly shifting his money to avoid paying millions in fines.Justice Arthur F. Engoron intervened at the AGs request, ordering the appointment of an independent monitor to ensure that the company cant sec Gao (Mali) (AFP) - Former Tuareg rebels on Thursday entered Gao, the main city in northern Mali, to begin joint patrols with government troops, a key part of a peace accord for the troubled region. "This is the first group of the CMA that has entered Gao to start mixed patrols," said Malick Ag Cherif, coordinator of the former rebel organisation, known as the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA). In 2015, the rebel alliance signed a peace deal with government and loyalist militias. The hope was to bring stability to a region that was the cradle of several Tuareg uprisings and a sanctuary for Islamist fighters. Since then, rival armed groups have repeatedly violated the ceasefire, threatening attempts to give the north a measure of autonomy to prevent separatist uprisings. A key component of the deal -- joint patrols between regular troops, pro-government militia and former rebels -- remained unfulfilled until now. On December 30, the CMA complained a "group of armed men hostile to the CMA" had prevented some 200 of its men from entering government-held Gao for the patrols. Malian Colonel Rhissa Ag Sidi Mohamed said there had been a problem between CMA dissidents and pro-government groups, but insisted: "The state has taken a major step and resolved the problem." He said fighters from the other groups in the alliance were expected "to join us in the coming weeks and take part in the mixed patrols." Mali regained control of the northern cities from the jihadists after a French-led international military intervention in January 2013, but insurgents remain active across large parts of the region. VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / January 5, 2017 / Forum Uranium Corp. (TSX-V: FDC) (OTC PINK: FDCFF) is pleased to announce that, due to a strong response from investors, the Company has increased its non-brokered private placement financing to $1,650,000 from the initially targeted $1,500,000 as set out in the Company's news release dated December 15, 2016. The amended financing will be completed through the issuance of a combination of units ("Unit") and flow through shares ("FT Share") at a price of $0.08 per each Unit and FT Share. Each Unit will be comprised of one common share and one share purchase warrant (a "Warrant"). Each whole Warrant is exercisable to purchase one common share of the Company at a price of $0.12 per share for a period of two years from the date of closing of the financing. The private placement is subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval and all securities are subject to a four month hold period. Finder's fees will be payable in connection with the private placement, all in accordance with the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange. The proceeds from this financing will be used for exploration of the Company's 100% owned Fir Island, Maurice Point, Highrock, and Key Lake Road uranium projects and for working capital. 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. Story continues 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 SOURCE: Forum Uranium Corp. By Timothy Mclaughlin CHICAGO (Reuters) - Four young African-Americans were charged on Thursday with hate crimes in the videotaped torture of a white man with diminished mental capacity after they streamed it live on social media. The victim, who was not identified, was picked up on Saturday by one of his abductors in a northwestern suburb of Chicago where his parents had dropped him off at a McDonald's restaurant, police told a news conference. Jordan Hill, Tesfaye Cooper and Brittany Covington, all 18, were each charged with aggravated kidnapping, hate crime, aggravated unlawful restraint, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and residential burglary, prosecutors said. Tanishia Covington, 24, faces the same charges, except for residential burglary. Hill was also charged with robbery and possession of a stolen vehicle. The victim, 18, was missing for days, police said. They said Hill was an acquaintance of the victim, and that he picked him up in a stolen van. While the victim's parents reported him missing, their son and Hill spent the next two days together, visiting friends and sleeping in the van. On Tuesday, a "play fight" between the two in the Covington sisters' apartment escalated, Kevin Duffin, a police commander, said at the news conference. The victim was tied up for four or five hours, gagged and beaten. His scalp was cut and he was forced to drink toilet water, Duffin said. In the Facebook Live video, the attackers could be heard making comments about "white people" as the victim cowered in a corner, his mouth taped shut. At least one of the attackers could also be heard saying obscenities about President-elect Donald Trump. Police said they did not know whether the victim was a Trump supporter. "Let me be very clear, the actions in that video are reprehensible," Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said. Police officers located the victim on Tuesday after neighbors complained about noise coming from the apartment. He was outside in freezing weather wearing only a tank top, shorts and sandals, police said. Story continues He was taken to a hospital and later released. Members of the public alerted investigators to the Facebook Live video. The four suspects are due to appear in a Chicago bond court on Friday. (Editing by Alan Crosby and Matthew Lewis) Globe University is pulling out of its Wisconsin and South Dakota locations by the end of the year. The announcement, which can be found on the Globe University website, states the company will cease operations at those campuses at the end of the month. Globe, which operates a campus in Onalaska, will transfer administration of those campuses to Utah-based Broadview University, and students will have the option to complete their program at the campus or online through an agreement approved with Broadview. This holiday season will not be so happy for the thousands of students forced to complete their programs elsewhere, the hundreds of employees losing their jobs, or the communities that depend on a skilled workforce, according to a statement on the Globe website. We will continue to work with regulators to seek more reasonable actions and for our other programs to continue. According to the most recent federal numbers, the Onalaska campus enrolled more than 170 students and had an average annual tuition of $18,756. Nearly 75 percent of students received an average of $4,200 in Pell Grants, and more than 80 percent receive an average of $7,100 in federal student loans. Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swansons office filed a lawsuit against for-profits Globe and the Minnesota School of Business in 2014, claiming the institutions used deceptive practices to enroll students in criminal justice programs. In the aftermath of the judges ruling in favor of the suit, state officials took steps to close the Minnesota campuses of Globe University and its sister institution Minnesota School of Business. More recently, the U.S. Department of Education revoked access to federal student aid programs, a decision which globe officials have said they are appealing. In a statement, education department officials said the university preyed on those looking to become public servants and abused taxpayer funds. Western Technical College officials have reached out to former Globe students about opportunities to continue their studies at the public two-year college. Details about transferring, including registration, can be found on Westerns website, and questions can be directed to Enrollment Services and registration assistant Lacey Hemmersbach at hemmersbachl@westerntc.edu or 608-785-9884. Tucker Carlson Tonight Editor's note: This story was initially published on December 5, 2016. It has been republished below after Fox News announced on Thursday that Tucker Carlson will be promoted to the network's 9 p.m. time slot to replace outgoing host Megyn Kelly. *** It was the 7 p.m. hour on Fox News and famed New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof found himself in the hot seat, forced to defend a column he had authored, in part, about President-elect Donald Trump's supporters. "I guess what I'm here for is empathy," host Tucker Carlson told Kristof, noting the Times journalist had an extensive background traveling to some of the most troubled places on the globe. "I've never read a column by you that suggests the people in those places who support dictators oftentimes are racists or bad people," Carlson said, as he placed a printed copy of the column on the studio's glass desk. "You would never write that about a poor person in the third world. But you're implying that about your fellow Americans." Kristof rejected Carlson's characterization of his work, but the newly minted Fox News primetime host, who previously hosted shows on CNN and MSNBC, calmly pressed forward. "You've thought a lot about the suffering of people in other countries. You've thought a lot about it," Carlson said. "It doesn't seem you've thought that deeply about the suffering of your fellow Americans." For anyone familiar with Carlson, the sentiment he was expressing on his show, "Tucker Carlson Tonight," was not new. His show, which premiered in the week after the election, has already become a standout in Fox News' nightly programming. Carlson, a conservative journalist who most recently founded The Daily Caller, a right-leaning online publication, holds ardent views about small government, excessive regulation, and a multitude of other issues typically shared among Republicans. But the issue he perhaps is most passionate about these days cuts across party lines: He describes it as a distaste for elitism, particularly among political journalists who reside in the Acela corridor. Story continues "What bothers me is the lack of self-awareness. I don't know if I have ever met a group less self-aware than political reporters," Carlson told Business Insider in a recent interview. "They honestly don't believe that there are legitimate alternative views of anything. And like most small-minded and dumb people they are very, very quick to dismiss anything they don't understand as crazy." 'No one believes anything unless it comes from The New Yorker' Following Trump's unforeseen election victory, the journalism community went into self-evaluation mode, hoping to understand how it had failed to see a Trump win on the horizon. One of the immediate conclusions was that reporters had become too encapsulated in some sort of bubble. They had failed to detect, and thus understand, the sentiment of Americans residing in the heartland. That was a conclusion with which Carlson wholeheartedly agreed. Referencing a widely circulated quote from conservative Wisconsin-based talk-radio host Charlie Sykes, in which he suggested conservative voters were stuck in a bubble and only accepting news from right-wing sources, Carlson said the same was true of the mainstream media. GettyImages 80876419 "It's the mirror image of the world I live in," Carlson said. "In Washington, no one believes anything unless it comes from The New Yorker, New York Times editorial page, or The Washington Post. There's not just one bubble." Carlson also threw cold water on some of the other theories that have been floated by political journalists and analysts aiming to explain Trump's victory. "All the explanations have one thing in common," Carlson said. "They don't take voters seriously." "So whether you believe that the Russians somehow rigged the system or you believe that somehow voters were hypnotized by demagoguery from the alt-right. Or if you think they were hoodwinked by fake news," he continued. "All of these are ways of saying that voters didn't know what they were doing, voters weren't making a rational choice." The suggestion voters were too uninformed to make a wise decision while casting their ballots, Carlson posited, was exactly the attitude that blindsided the media this cycle. "What I would say is that clearly voters are mad at the establishment and have contempt for the establishment. But the establishment has greater contempt for voters," he said. "If you think your average Trump voter in Ohio hates Washington, you should see what Washington thinks about the Trump voter in Ohio." Carlson said that "the core irony" of the political system is that "the people who are running the democracy don't believe in democracy." "That's why they are calling for a recount, that's why the financial community called for another election after Brexit, and it's why the Republican establishment tried to take the nomination away from Trump at the convention," he explained. "Because they are not interested in allowing voters to make these choices." "And that's fine if it's an oligarchy, you can get away with stuff like this. But if you tell people it's democracy, and then you can't as if it isn't, it really gets people mad." 'Chaos and division' One thing that does worry Carlson about the growing distrust of the media these days is that individuals on various sides of the political spectrum are moving away from a common fact set in which they form their opinions. Conservatives refuse to trust legacy outlets like CNN and the Times, while liberals are skeptical about reporting from outlets like Fox News. "You need, in order to run a country as diverse as ours, a prominently recognized news source. You do," he explained. "You need if there's a crisis. And I've seen this in other countries. I saw it in a bunch of countries. Where there's a crisis and nobody can agree on what the basic facts are." "That's a source of disunity and that creates chaos and division," Carlson said. The Fox News host continued: "I hate the mainstream media, but I'm not against the idea of the mainstream media. I am for it, actually. I think it would be nice if there were news organizations that in the end, everybody agreed were on the level." AP16308794971590 Carlson said, however, that the so-called mainstream media discredited itself this cycle, prompting a large chunk of the country to turn to alternative outlets for their news. "The reason people don't agree [the traditional media outlets] are on a level is because they are not on a level," Carlson said. "That's kind of the point." "Maybe the reason people don't trust The New York Times is because maybe it's not trustworthy. Maybe that's the point?" he rhetorically asked. "So whoever is mad about Breitbart and Alex Jones well, we wouldn't have Breitbart and Alex Jones if the gatekeepers had done their jobs. But they didn't." Some news outlets, following introspection in the aftermath of the election, have suggested they will make changes to better represent the views of the broader American population. But Carlson thinks it's too late. These outlets, he said, will never regain the trust of the readers they lost. "It's over," he bluntly told Business Insider. How he tries to combat it Regular viewers of Carlson's show know that one institution in particular has earned his scorn: the higher-education system. It's his way of pushing back against what he views as a system dominated by elites. Part of the reason he has taken a keen interest in the higher-education system, he said, is because he has two children currently enrolled in college. But he said he was "also struck by how very much modern academia resembles the Medieval Church." "It's an institution that everyone is required to revere, you send in your tithes, all of us are saving money for college, we give more to colleges than our churches, and you are not allowed to ask hard questions, you are not allowed to question what happens there," he explained. In the month since his show premiered, Carlson has made a habit of interviewing both students and administrators from various colleges. In fact, his show has a reoccurring segment called "Campus Craziness." In one lengthy segment, he pressed a Hampshire College student over why he didn't believe the American flag should fly on campus. In another, he grilled Michael Roth, the president of Wesleyan University in Connecticut, over his plans to have his school be a "sanctuary campus" throughout Trump's presidency. Carlson said journalists "rarely" seem to ask hard questions about the people making decisions in the US higher-education system. "If there was a for-profit company and its CEO made a million dollars a year with subsidized housing, and tons of servants, with a guaranteed five-year contract, and a massive payout at the end, who was taking more than half his budget from the taxpayer the rest of us would feel like we kind of have a right to know what he's doing, wouldn't we?" he asked. "I kind of think we would!" *** Carlson's show marked the first change to Fox News' primetime lineup since founding CEO Roger Ailes departed the network. The addition of his program also came as Megyn Kelly, considered by many observers to be the outlet's most valuable talent, subtly feuds with network heavyweights like Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity. But Carlson said he has no part in it and insisted the world he lives in is "entirely drama free." "There's a little cloud of happiness around my head. If there's drama going on, I am literally the last one to know," he said. "Everyone in my world is nice. I am friends with everybody. Everybody involved in this stuff, at every level, I like." GettyImages 51250179 "And I'm not just saying this," he added. "You can ask ask anybody. I am not involved in any of that. And when I see people in the hall it's always totally happy. I don't know any details, you know, and I don't seek to." Instead, the cable news veteran said he was impressed by the "confidence at Fox that shows in the way they treat people." "I've been here seven years. Nobody has ever told me not to say something, or to say something," he said. "I have never had any kind of editorial mandate of any kind." (Carlson later backtracked the comment to note that there was one time the network forced him to do something: Get a haircut for his new show. "It was brute force," he explained.) While his show has debuted during a turbulent time for Fox News, and politics in general, it has proved to be a ratings hit thus far. On the show's inaugural night, 3.7 million viewers tuned in, making it Fox News' most watched telecast of the year in the time slot. For the month of November, Carlson posted double-digit increases from last year in the key 25-54 demo. And he's done so with a consistent message one he delivers to begin the show each night. "Good evening and welcome to Tucker Carlson Tonight,'" he says, "the show that is the sworn enemy of lying, pomposity, smugness, and groupthink." NOW WATCH: This is what it's really like at Trump Tower which is disrupting life in New York More From Business Insider Tucker Carlson is getting a plum new time slot. Beginning Monday, Jan. 9, the Fox News anchor will follow Bill OReilly at 9 pm, filling a vacancy left by the departing Megyn Kelly, according to The Drudge Report. (The eponymously titled Tucker Carlson Tonight currently airs in the 7 pm hour. Martha MacCallum will take over Carlsons former slot.) RELATEDMegyn Kelly Leaving Fox News to Host Daytime and Sunday Shows on NBC News of Carlsons promotion comes just days after Kelly announced she would be leaving Fox News to join NBC, where she is set to host a daytime show, a Sunday evening news magazine, as well as participate in NBCs coverage of politics and other major news events. The final episode of The Kelly File is penciled in for Friday, Jan. 6. Tucker Carlson Tonight first debuted in November, replacing Greta Van Susterens On the Record. Is Tucker Carlson the right choice to replace Megyn Kelly in the post-OReilly Factor hour? Related stories Bill O'Reilly Hasn't Read Megyn Kelly's Book, Says 'I'm Not Interested in Making My Network Look Bad' Fox News' Election Night Coverage Upstaged by 'Chandy' the Chandelier Feuding Fox News Stars Megyn Kelly and Sean Hannity Bury the Hatchet France ordered a large-scale killing of ducks on Wednesday in three areas where a severe bird flu outbreak is currently underway, according to a Reuters report. The countrys agriculture ministry said the highly contagious H5N8 bird flu virus has spread quickly through poultry populations in southwestern France, with 89 cases reported in total so far. So the ministry ordered that the free range ducks and geese in the administrative departments of Gers, Hautes-Pyrenees and Landes be culled in response with an estimated total of 800,000 in the next week, Reuters reports. The principle is to quickly kill the species most affected to date by the virus, the ministry said in a statement, according to Reuters. The statement added that the ducks to be killed were owned by foie gras producers. Marie-Pierre Pe from foie gras-maker CIFOG told Reuters that the number of ducks killed could continue to increase if authorities fail to stem the spread of the virus. The ministry gave a deadline of Jan. 20 for the culling, but an official said they could stop earlier if the outbreak is contained. Both the Czech Republic and Slovenia announced the first outbreaks of this bird flu strain Wednesday. By Simon Carraud and Jack Stubbs PARIS/MOSCOW, Jan 5 (Reuters) - France's far-right National Front says it is scrambling to find funding to fight its 2017 presidential election campaign, accusing French banks of playing politics by refusing to lend cash. Marine Le Pen's National Front (FN) has borrowed about 6 million euros from her estranged father and party founder Jean-Marie - an ironic twist since she threw him out of the party, but a vital move now with her back to the wall over financing. At the same time, Russia has started legal proceedings to recover a 9 million euro ($9.45 million) loan from the FN after the bank the party borrowed from in 2014 had its licence revoked. The impact this will have on the party's finances is unclear. "We have additional funding to find. We'll find it," Marine Le Pen told reporters. "It's half (of what we need), but we'll find it," she said, adding that she was unfazed by this but without giving further details. "We'll end up finding it. We will find one bank somewhere in the world that is willing to lend us that money," she said. The FN said in December it needed 27 million euros for presidential and parliamentary election campaigning. The FN received the 9 million euro loan from First Czech-Russian bank to cover other election campaigning costs. But the bank later lost its licence to operate. Potential Russian influence over western elections has become a sensitive issue since U.S. intelligence agencies accused their Russian counterparts of seeking to disrupt the U.S. election through hacking and cyber attacks. Moscow has denied the allegations. There is a lot at stake for Le Pen, who has moderated her party's image to broaden its appeal before the spring election and who pollsters say has a good chance of getting through to the runoff vote for the Elysee in May. Asked by journalists recently if her party was knocking on Russian banks' doors this time round too, Le Pen frankly admitted she was scouring all corners for cash. Story continues "I'm looking everywhere, including in the United States, including in Britain, absolutely everywhere," she said. Le Pen said that, unlike mainstream parties, the FN had not managed to secure any loans from French banks. "French banks are playing a political role," she said, suggesting her party was being unjustly marginalised because of its far-right programme. Le Pen has the support of around a quarter of French voters according to opinion polls, but campaign funding for the anti-immigrant and euro-sceptical party has long been an issue. There is a funding ceiling that candidates in French presidential elections cannot overshoot. In 2012 that was 16.85 million euros for candidates taking part in the first round and 21.51 million for those taking part in the second round. FN Secretary General Nicolas Bay shared Le Pen's views on the behaviour of French banks. "They are acting in an anti-democratic way," he told reporters on Wednesday. "Democracy would require banks to lend to all candidates." Le Pen's party has struck a deal with her father for his mini-party Cotelec to lend it some 6 million euros in tranches, her campaign director David Rachline told Reuters at the end of December. "The deal (on the loan) was concluded months ago," Rachline said, without giving further details. The split between Le Pen senior and his daughter, who took the helm of the party in 2011, ended up with the father being kicked out of the party in August last year. As for the older loan, Russia's state Deposit Insurance Agency told the RNS news agency in late December it had acquired the right to recover the defunct bank's assets. "Before the bank's operating license was revoked, the right to claim under the credit agreement with the French National Front party was ceded to a third party. Currently, this transaction is being disputed in court," RNS quoted the agency as saying. Reuters in Moscow could not reach the Deposit Insurance Agency for comment. (Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Richard Balmforth) By Simon Carraud and Ingrid Melander PARIS (Reuters) - France's far-right National Front is struggling to raise millions of euros it needs to fund its presidential election campaign, but leader Marine Le Pen vowed: "We will find one bank somewhere in the world that is willing to lend us that money." Le Pen - who has been tipped to make it through to the second-round runoff in May - accused French banks of playing politics by refusing to lend money to her party, suggesting it was being marginalised because of its far-right policies. The National Front (FN) said in December it needed to raise 27 million euros ($28 million) to fund its campaigning for the presidential and parliamentary elections in April-June. [nL5N1EH3UR] It has borrowed about 6 million euros from a political fundraising association headed by Le Pen's estranged father and FN founder Jean-Marie - an ironic twist given she threw him out of the party in 2015. "We have additional funding to find. We'll find it," Le Pen told reporters on Wednesday. "It's half (of what we need), but we'll find it," she said, without specifying how much of the 27 millions euros the party had raised so far. "We'll end up finding it. We will find one bank somewhere in the world that is willing to lend us that money," she said. Separately, Russia has started legal proceedings to recover a 9-million-euro loan from the FN after the Moscow-based bank from which the party borrowed the money in 2014 had its operating licence revoked because it held insufficient capital. The impact this will have on the party's finances is unclear. Asked by journalists if her party was knocking on Russian banks' doors again to ease its funding squeeze, Le Pen said: "I'm looking everywhere, including in the United States, including in Britain, absolutely everywhere." There is a lot at stake for Le Pen, who has sought to moderate the image of her anti-immigration and eurosceptic party to broaden its appeal, and has the support of around a quarter of French voters according to opinion polls. Le Pen said that, unlike mainstream parties, the FN had not managed to secure any loans from French banks. "French banks are playing a political role," she said. The French Banking Federation declined to comment. DONATIONS CAP Political parties often look to bank loans to bolster their war chests as under French law donations are capped at 7,500 euros per person, per year, and cannot come from companies or foreigners. The financial risk for banks is limited, since candidates who gather more than 5 percent of the votes get almost half of their campaign spending reimbursed by the state. Le Pen's party has struck a deal with her father for his funding association Cotelec to lend it about 6 million euros in tranches before the presidential election in April-May, her campaign director David Rachline told Reuters in December. "The deal (on the loan) was concluded months ago," Rachline said, without giving further details. Jean-Marie Le Pen set up Cotelec in 1988, when he was FN leader, to help finance the party's campaigns. The split between Le Pen senior and his daughter, who took the helm of the party in 2011, ended up with the father being kicked out of the party after he described the Holocaust as "a detail" of Second World War history. As for the older loan, Russia's state Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA) told the RNS news agency in December it had acquired the right to recover the defunct First Czech Russian Bank's assets. "Before the bank's operating license was revoked, the right to claim under the credit agreement with the French National Front party was ceded to a third party. Currently, this transaction is being disputed in court," Russia's RNS quoted the DIA as saying. Reuters could not reach the DIA for comment. FN Treasurer Wallerand de Saint-Just said he was not concerned about the case and added that he was unclear about the details. Separately, the FN is facing a judicial investigation that was opened by the Paris prosecutor in December over the employment of assistants to the party's lawmakers in the European Parliament, a judicial source said on Thursday. The inquiry was opened on suspicion of breach of trust, fraud and concealed employment, the source said. It followed a complaint by the European Parliament which suspected the assistants were working for the party as a whole rather than solely for the lawmakers. De Saint-Just denied any wrongdoing by the FN. ($1 = 0.9485 euros) (Additional reporting by Jack Stubbs in Moscow and Marine Pennetier in Paris; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Richard Balmforth and Pravin Char) (Adds judicial investigation) By Simon Carraud and Ingrid Melander PARIS, Jan 5 (Reuters) - France's far-right National Front is struggling to raise millions of euros it needs to fund its presidential election campaign, but leader Marine Le Pen vowed: "We will find one bank somewhere in the world that is willing to lend us that money." Le Pen - who has been tipped to make it through to the second-round runoff in May - accused French banks of playing politics by refusing to lend money to her party, suggesting it was being marginalised because of its far-right policies. The National Front (FN) said in December it needed to raise 27 million euros ($28 million) to fund its campaigning for the presidential and parliamentary elections in April-June. It has borrowed about 6 million euros from a political fundraising association headed by Le Pen's estranged father and FN founder Jean-Marie - an ironic twist given she threw him out of the party in 2015. "We have additional funding to find. We'll find it," Le Pen told reporters on Wednesday. "It's half (of what we need), but we'll find it," she said, without specifying how much of the 27 millions euros the party had raised so far. "We'll end up finding it. We will find one bank somewhere in the world that is willing to lend us that money," she said. Separately, Russia has started legal proceedings to recover a 9-million-euro loan from the FN after the Moscow-based bank from which the party borrowed the money in 2014 had its operating licence revoked because it held insufficient capital. The impact this will have on the party's finances is unclear. Asked by journalists if her party was knocking on Russian banks' doors again to ease its funding squeeze, Le Pen said: "I'm looking everywhere, including in the United States, including in Britain, absolutely everywhere." There is a lot at stake for Le Pen, who has sought to moderate the image of her anti-immigration and eurosceptic party to broaden its appeal, and has the support of around a quarter of French voters according to opinion polls. Story continues Le Pen said that, unlike mainstream parties, the FN had not managed to secure any loans from French banks. "French banks are playing a political role," she said. The French Banking Federation declined to comment. DONATIONS CAP Political parties often look to bank loans to bolster their war chests as under French law donations are capped at 7,500 euros per person, per year, and cannot come from companies or foreigners. The financial risk for banks is limited, since candidates who gather more than 5 percent of the votes get almost half of their campaign spending reimbursed by the state. Le Pen's party has struck a deal with her father for his funding association Cotelec to lend it about 6 million euros in tranches before the presidential election in April-May, her campaign director David Rachline told Reuters in December. "The deal (on the loan) was concluded months ago," Rachline said, without giving further details. It is unclear if Jean-Marie Le Pen set up Cotelec in 1988, when he was FN leader, to help finance the party's campaigns. The split between Le Pen senior and his daughter, who took the helm of the party in 2011, ended up with the father being kicked out of the party after he described the Holocaust as "a detail" of Second World War history. As for the older loan, Russia's state Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA) told the RNS news agency in December it had acquired the right to recover the defunct First Czech Russian Bank's assets. "Before the bank's operating license was revoked, the right to claim under the credit agreement with the French National Front party was ceded to a third party. Currently, this transaction is being disputed in court," Russia's RNS quoted the DIA as saying. Reuters could not reach the DIA for comment. FN Treasurer Wallerand de Saint-Just said he was not concerned about the case and added that he was unclear about the details. Separately, the FN is facing a judicial investigation that was opened by the Paris prosecutor in December over the employment of assistants to the party's lawmakers in the European Parliament, a judicial source said on Thursday. The inquiry was opened on suspicion of breach of trust, fraud and concealed employment, the source said. It followed a complaint by the European Parliament which suspected the assistants were working for the party as a whole rather than solely for the lawmakers. De Saint-Just denied any wrongdoing by the FN. ($1 = 0.9485 euros) (Additional reporting by Jack Stubbs in Moscow and Marine Pennetier in Paris; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Richard Balmforth and Pravin Char) Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's proposal to make the state's public colleges free for hundreds of thousands of middle-class students is seen as one of the nation's most ambitious efforts to tackle skyrocketing higher education debt. But many questions remain about how much it will cost, how it will affect one of the country's largest public college systems and whether other states will follow suit. ___ Q: What's the plan? A: Full-time New York students whose families earn less than $125,000 a year would pay no tuition to attend two- or four-year colleges in the State University of New York or City University of New York systems. The plan, if approved by state lawmakers, would be phased in over three years, beginning this fall for residents making up to $100,000 a year. The income threshold would increase to $110,000 in 2018 and $125,000 in 2019. ___ Q: So college would be free? A: No. Students wouldn't have to pay the $6,470 yearly cost of tuition ($4,350 for two-year programs), but they'd still have to pick up the cost of room and board if they live on campus ($12,590), along with fees ($1,590) and books. They would also have to graduate on time, meaning in two years for an associate degree and four years for a bachelor's, if they want to avoid tuition bills. ___ Q: How much will this cost? A: Cuomo's office estimates the state's cost at $163 million a year once the program is fully phased in, a figure that's seen by some critics as too low. "If it costs so little, why haven't we done it before?" asked Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, a Manhattan Democrat who chairs the Higher Education Committee. More financial detail may come when the governor releases his budget proposal later this month, but his administration says the program will leverage the state's existing aid programs, particularly the Tuition Assistance Program, which provides nearly $1 billion in grants to students with taxable incomes of up to $80,000 a year. Under Cuomo's program, students would still receive TAP, along with any federal grants, and the state would pay the tuition difference. Story continues ___ Q: Won't this create a rush on SUNY/CUNY schools, possibly making it more difficult to get accepted? A: SUNY leaders say it's too soon to estimate the impact on applications and enrollment, but the Cuomo administration says it's confident the 64-campus, 440,000-student system can absorb what it projects will be a 10 percent enrollment increase. The system remains selective, though, and SUNY said its academic standards aren't expected to change. The state's 29 four-year schools received 309,408 applications for the fall of 2015 and accepted 162,673 students, according to the state. ___ Q: Will this program affect private colleges? A: Yes and no. The program doesn't cover tuition for colleges outside SUNY and CUNY. Operators of those schools, though, say leaving them out of the college affordability discussion could leave them at a disadvantage when it comes to attracting applicants in a highly competitive landscape. "There will be a real pull that SUNY and CUNY have on students that our not-for-profit privates will not always be able to match," said Mary Beth Labate, president of the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities. More than 490,000 students are enrolled in the state's more than 100 private, not-for-profit colleges. The schools provided $5.1 billion in financial aid to their students in 2014-15 and directly employ 196,300 people, Labate said. The independent colleges would rather see the state expand TAP, increasing awards or raising the income threshold, which Labate said would preserve student choice because the grant follows the student. The requirement that federal aid, as well as state aid, is factored in doesn't sit well with advocates for poor students, who say they'll be left with less to pay for transportation, food and housing. ___ Q: Will this idea spread? A: "If New York state does it this year, mark my words, state after state will follow," independent Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders said when Cuomo announced the program this week. Sanders made tuition-free public higher education a key proposal of his Democratic campaign for president, and Hillary Clinton picked up on it as the Democratic nominee, but Republican nominee Donald Trump had different ideas about how to make college affordable. Trump, who won the election, said he wants to work with Congress to make sure colleges only get access to certain federal tax breaks and other benefits if they "make good-faith efforts to reduce the cost of college and student debt." Democratic President Barack Obama proposed free community college in 2015, saying six states and communities had created programs similar to what he proposed. He said lawmakers in more than 10 other states have introduced legislation providing for free community college. Tennessee and Oregon have enacted programs to cover residents' tuition costs at community colleges, but New York's would be the first statewide plan to cover four years of tuition, Cuomo's office said. By Emmanuel Jarry PARIS (Reuters) - A leading French minister expressed support on Wednesday for a bid by Italy's Fincantieri's (FCT.MI) for shipbuilder STX France, adding that the government would aim to keep the shipbuilder's main site running at Saint Nazaire. "We said we wanted a European, industrial company ... Fincantieri is a European, industrial company. So it would be hard for us to say 'no' to them," French Industry Minister Christophe Sirugue told RMC Radio. The sale of STX France, which specializes in building cruise ships at the Saint-Nazaire shipyard and is profitable, forms part of a broader sell-off of businesses following the demise of the South Korean STX shipbuilding group. The French state owns 33 percent of STX France, and Sirugue said the government was keen to keep the Saint Nazaire site in the west of the country. Italy's 230-year old Fincantieri makes a wide range of vessels from cruise ships to military aircraft carriers, and acquiring STX France would boost its presence in the cruise shipbuilding part of the market. Sirugue said France wanted state-controlled military shipbuilder DCNS, in which Thales (TCFP.PA) holds around 35 percent, to take a minority stake in STX France that would definitely be below 50 percent of the company. Saint Nazaire's high point last year was production of the largest passenger ship ever built, the 'Harmony of the Seas'. (Reporting by Emmanuel Jarry; Writing by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Richard Balmforth) Police in eastern France searched a forest on Thursday for the body of a missing Japanese student as a chilling video emerged in which a man thought to be her fugitive Chilean ex-boyfriend threatens her. Narumi Kurosaki went missing in the city of Besancon, where she had been studying French, on the night of December 4. French authorities believe the 21-year-old was murdered by her ex-boyfriend, who is believed to have fled to Chile, and have issued an international warrant for his arrest. Chile's justice ministry said Wednesday it was assisting the French "in the identification of certain suspects as of their latest movements", without giving further details. In a video published by French and Japanese media, the suspect, identified as Nicolas Zepeda Contreras, threatens Kurosaki with unnamed consequences if she did not fulfil unspecified conditions. Speaking in English in a video dating from September, he says he loves Kurosaki, whom he identifies by first name, but accuses her of doing "bad things". Holding up two fingers he gave her a two-week deadline until September 21 to meet his conditions, which he said applied "some for her whole stay in France and some, actually, forever." "She needs to build trust and she needs to pay a little cost of what she did and assume (sic) that she cannot go around making those kinds of mistakes with a person who loves her," he added. The case has caused shock in Japan as well as in France. Kurosaki's fellow students in Besancon described Kurosaki as a "lovely person" who was "always smiling". On Thursday, police with sniffer dogs searched a vast forest on the outskirts of Besancon for the body of the petite student. Le Parisien newspaper reported that signals from the suspect's phone had been traced to Chaux forest. The prosecutor's office and police refused to confirm the report. On Tuesday, Besancon prosecutor Edwige Roux-Morizot said the investigation had shown the student's Chilean ex "was in France, in Besancon, at the time of her disappearance". Story continues "The evidence tells us it is extremely likely that the young woman is dead," she said. The prosecutor ruled out suicide, describing Kurosaki as a "young girl full of life" who was happy in a new relationship. "There is sufficient evidence to launch a murder investigation," she said, describing the suspect as having an "intrusive, disturbing personality". - 'Horror film' - Kurosaki, who had been studying in Besancon since September, met the Chilean teaching assistant in Japan but the pair later split. Several students living on the same floor of her university residence said they heard a loud cry on the night of December 4. Anne-Laure Saillet, 20, told AFP she heard "bangs on the doors and furniture and afterwards I heard a very shrill cry, very sharp and loud. It was a woman's cry. "At first I thought it was a horror film but when it continued I became worried." Roux-Morizot said Tuesday that tests were being carried out on reddish traces found on the steps of the building to determine whether they were bloodstains. Virgin Airlines says former Real Housewives of New Jersey stars James and Amber Marchese are members of the frequent liars program. In a countersuit filed Wednesday in federal court in New Jersey, Virgin America claims that the Marcheses not only fought during an April 2016 flight from Los Angeles to Newark, but lied about it afterwards. The Marcheses filed suit against Virgin America in October, claiming that an alleged brawl that a Virgin America employee told the police about and which caused the Marcheses to be removed from the flight never happened. In their suit, the Marcheses alleged defamation, negligence and false imprisonment. Also Read: Kim Richards Sued Over Dog's Alleged Crotch-Biting Incident But Virgin America is sticking by its story in the countersuit, claiming that the airline employee heard James Marchese tell Amber, If you want to be on equal fing playing fields, then carry the fing bags. The airline also asserts that James Marchese closed his hands around his wifes neck and told her, Bitch, if you do that again, I will fing kill you before releasing his grip around her neck. Virgin America, which alleges defamation in its countersuit, claims that the Marcheses made numerous defamatory statements to the news media and on their social media accounts saying that the airline and the employee lied to law enforcement and fabricated the domestic disturbance for their own self-promotion and to attract publicity. Virgin America and its employee are seeking unspecified damages. Pamela Chelin contributed to this report. Related stories from TheWrap: 'Real Housewives' Husband Joe Giudice Starts 41-Month Prison Sentence 'Real Housewives' Husband Kordell Stewart Sues Man Who Claimed They Had Gay Encounter 'Real Housewives' Star Kim Richards Sentenced in Drunken Hotel Meltdown A minor miracle happens every month at Shepherd of the Hills Church in Onalaska. Thanks to a pastor, Dr. John Reinke, the deaf can hear and learn about faith issues. Reinke carries the title Missionary at Large to the deaf. He pastors two deaf churches in southern Wisconsin and maintains an overseas teaching ministry to the deaf in a handful of different countries. He also makes a monthly teaching visit to Onalaska. Since Biblical times, the deaf have been the focus of special ministry. In the New Testament, the Gospel writer Mark records Jesus miracle of restoring hearing to a deaf person in the Decapolis region (modern day Israel). Lacking any direct divine intervention, however, Reinke uses religious sign techniques, specially prepared curriculum and technology to advance Bible knowledge for the deaf through an outreach called Jesus Signs. Reinkes ebullience overflows when he teaches. Outside of his salt and pepper beard, every inch of his face smiles. A dynamo of dramatic energy, he acts out lessons and introduces new faith concepts in creative ways. His voice rises and falls with inflection and he signs as he talks. He treats every class member like hes known them for years. He also wears a black, wide-brimmed hat. Reinke grew up hard-of- hearing in a small country church in Gaylord, Minn. Even as a young man, he knew he wanted to become a pastor, so after high school, he enrolled at Concordia College in St. Louis, Mo., and later entered Concordia Seminary. While in Seminary, Reinke and his wife, Dacia, came in contact with a deaf church and it was then that he began to realize the barriers that kept the deaf from attending church or even understanding spiritual concepts. Its more than the obvious impairment problem. (Reinke himself wears two hearing aids. Without them, hes almost totally deaf.) When deaf people are taught to sign, they learn words about how to function in the public marketplace, Reinke explains, But how do you teach sign vocabulary for the Bible? The barriers rise from not only the lack of words in the sign vocabulary, but also from the confusion over the meaning of existing Biblical words. The word must be conceptually accurate or theyll (deaf people) miss the meaning, he said. You simply cant take English and translate it and expect them to understand. Another barrier to understanding is their thought process. Deaf people think concretely, he said, which makes abstract spiritual concepts like original sin difficult to explain. So Reinke often places those concepts into a story or an analogy. Picture a brownie with all the best ingredients money can buy, he says. Everythings perfect. But just for looks, he continues, Ill sprinkle just a pinch of something that resembles barnyard material on top. Still perfect? He makes his point. You can live the best way, but one mistake spoils the whole thing. Youve got to have a picture story, he said. Reinke served for seven years as Missionary to the Deaf in the Nebraska district of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and it was during this time in 1997 that he was tasked with his first overseas ministry to the deaf in Ghana, Africa. It became a watershed experience. That really changed my perspective on how we did ministry, he said. During this time, Reinke began to re-write curriculum, but also realized that he had to train teachers and leaders first. He also needed tools to teach parents who had a deaf child. Signing is another language, he said. Its three-dimensional. Today, through his work, a whole curriculum is available through the Lutheran Deaf Outreach. Some of that curriculum is an adaptation of Reinkes doctoral dissertation on teaching spiritual concepts to the deaf. His dissertation will eventually become a book titled, The Spitting Jesus. Far from being sacrilegious, its title accurately reflects the mysterious, but compelling way Jesus used to heal the deaf man in chapter seven of Marks Gospel. Since Reinkes first visit to Africa, hes followed up with nearly 20 more, as well as trips to India (30 million deaf), Latvia and Brazil. He has a trip planned to Australia in January. In the U.S., his goal is to reach one million deaf people (98 percent unchurched) by launching a Jesus Signs ministry in every state. Reinke raves about the boon that technology has been to the world of the deaf. He knows all the newest electronic wizardry to help the hearing impaired. He uses video conferencing for live worship and YouTube for deaf programming. But for Reinke, the phone is basic. Deaf people love their cell phones, he said with a grin. We can text or better yet, theres an app similar to Skype for deaf people. He points out obvious advantages of the app that include signing, lip reading and facial expression. Soon, Reinke hopes to have his entire list of classes available worldwide by phone. But for all his high-tech involvement, Reinke still relies on a very low-tech option to improve his hearing his black hat. The wide brim captures the sound making the words crisper, while at the same time, blocking out the background noise, he said. This increases my comprehension of words by 50 percent, he said, grinning and adjusting the hat. And he turns and starts another class. More information about the deaf ministry can be found on the Shepherd of the Hills website at www.sothonline.org or by phone at 783-0330. BOSTON (Reuters) - Police captured on Thursday a Massachusetts man who escaped from a Rhode Island jail where he was awaiting trial on charges of stealing weapons from a U.S. Army Reserve facility. James Morales, 35, escaped from the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Rhode Island on Saturday, prompting a manhunt that spanned both states. Police located him when a man matching his description robbed a bank in Cambridge, Massachusetts, just outside Boston, on Thursday morning. After an hours-long search by police helicopters, officers found Morales in nearby Somerville and arrested him, the Massachusetts State Police said on Twitter. Morales is suspected of stealing six military rifles and 10 handguns from a U.S. Army Reserve Center in Worcester, about 45 miles (70 kms) west of Boston, in 2015. He broke into the facility through a kitchen window, federal prosecutors said, citing surveillance video and an electronic monitoring bracelet Morales had been ordered to wear by a court as a condition of release on bail for a separate sexual assault charge. Morales had gone to the facility earlier that week to pick up copies of his military discharge papers. (Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) (Reuters) - Apparel retailer Gap Inc (GPS.N) reported a surprise rise in December comparable sales, helped by strong demand for its Gap and Old Navy brands, a bright spot in the overall retail gloom. The company's shares rose 7.4 percent to $24.98 in after-market trading on Thursday. Gap, which is also shutting stores and reducing overhead costs, said it now expected full-year 2016 adjusted profit to be modestly above the higher end of the previously forecast range of $1.92 per share. The company's comparable sales for December rose 4 percent, while analysts on average had expected a fall of 0.7 percent. (Reporting by Gayathree Ganesan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila) SEEON, Germany (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives and their Bavarian allies on Thursday floated the idea of a flexible target for how many asylum seekers Germany should accept each year as a compromise to end a row between them over immigration. The proposed compromise reflects worries among both the Bavaria-based Christian Social Union (CSU) and Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) that divisions over a refugee cap, which Merkel has rejected, would harm them at the ballot box. "The proposal envisages a concept for the establishment of a 'breathing' benchmark for the possible admission of people in need of protection in Germany," CSU lawmaker Stephan Mayer and his colleague Armin Schuster of Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) wrote in a letter to the chancellor and CSU leader Horst Seehofer. The CSU wants a yearly cap of no more than 200,000 refugees, and Seehofer has said it is not a given that his lawmakers will join a coalition led by Merkel after a general election in September. The conservatives have been bleeding support to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), and Seehofer has faced criticism that his tough stance on immigration was a reaction to the rise of the populist party. Seehofer is also looking ahead to a regional election in Bavaria in 2018, worried about losing votes then to the AfD, which now has seats in 11 of Germany's 16 federal states. The proposal contains no exact numbers, but calls for Germany to set a new target each year based on the humanitarian situation in crisis zones worldwide and on Germany's ability to absorb newcomers. The state of the labor market, the size of federal funds for the integration of refugees and capacity at reception centers in Germany's 16 states are mentioned as criteria for setting a limit on immigration. "I believe it is in the interests of both the CDU and CSU sister parties that we enter the federal election campaign united," Mayer told CSU members at an annual retreat. Schuster told Reuters it was critical to resolve the issue. "We have a bone of contention that is overshadowing all unity between the CDU and the CSU. That is why we must clear it up." Seehofer also said on Wednesday that a "reconciliation summit" he is due to hold with Merkel in Munich in February was still planned but that the program was not set. (This story adds Seehofer's first name on first reference, paragraph 3) (Reporting by Joern Poltz and Thorsten Severin; Writing by Joseph Nasr; Editing by Larry King) Accra (AFP) - Ghana's outgoing president John Mahama urged his compatriots to get behind his successor, Nana Akufo-Addo, during his last state of the nation address on Thursday. Mahama told parliament in the capital, Accra, that he was happy to step down and let his long-time rival take the helm of one of Africa's most stable democracies. Akufo-Addo will be inaugurated as president on Saturday. "I stand here today, Mr Speaker, holding the baton of leadership prepared to pass it on with pride, goodwill and determination to Nana Akufo-Addo and to ask all Ghanaians to cheer him on as he runs his portion of this important relay for Ghana," said Mahama. Opposition leader Akufo-Addo defeated Mahama in the hotly contested December 7 elections on a platform promising to rejuvenate the economy and stamp out government corruption. Ghana is a shining example of democracy in a region where dictators have been desperately trying to cling to power. Gambian President Yahya Jammeh has refused to acknowledge his defeat in a December 1 election he lost to Adama Barrow, challenging the result at the Supreme Court. In Democratic Republic of Congo, where President Joseph Kabila is constitutionally barred from seeking a third term of office, new elections have been delayed by a year. In 2015, Mahama was forced to go to the International Monetary Fund for a $918-million (873 million euros) bailout to try to turn around an economic slump caused in part by ballooning government debt and a crippling power shortage. But in his speech, 58-year-old Mahama defended his time in office, saying that despite "sailing against strong headwinds", he was able to deliver many infrastructure projects as well as healthcare and water services to millions of people. "Ghana is entering into an era of power sufficiency," he said. "I took responsibility." Akufo-Addo, an erudite 72-year-old human rights lawyer, has pledged to put Ghana "back on the path of progress and prosperity". In his election manifesto, he laid out a plan to restore economic stability and encourage investment by slashing corporate tax and abolishing taxes on everything from real estate sales to domestic flight tickets. Los Angeles (AFP) - Hollywood's elite hits the red carpet on Sunday for the Golden Globes, launching a fiercely-contested awards season that looks set to reward escapist fantasy and gritty drama in equal measure. The Globes has a reputation for delighting in its eccentric picks so its record in predicting Oscars glory has been patchy over the years, but it is a huge draw for the stars and remains for many a solid bellwether for Academy Awards success. "The Globes is known as one of the most fun parties of the year. There are only about 1,200 seats, and they're hard to get. So that 'insider' status is tantalizing," Tim Gray, awards editor for trade magazine Variety, told AFP. "And Hollywood knows that the Globes reach a big audience, so it's important to get their films out there, to increase public awareness." Leading the pack of films vying for top honors is Damien Chazelle's "La La Land," a tribute to the Golden Age of Hollywood musicals set in modern-day Los Angeles. It picked up seven nominations, and pundits see it as the overwhelming favorite for best comedy/musical film, ahead of "20th Century Women," "Deadpool," "Florence Foster Jenkins" and "Sing Street." "La La Land" is also in a strong position to pick up awards for its stars Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, best director for Chazelle and best score and song, according to a poll of experts by awards website Gold Derby. - 'Very tight race' - "'La La Land' could win all of its categories. It's either the frontrunner or in second place, I believe, in all seven. The safest for them are comedy/musical best picture, Emma Stone and for score," Gold Derby managing director Chris Beachum told AFP. "They could win for Gosling, director and song but the Globes voters tend to want to spread things out more than that. You don't generally see a movie winning more than three or four." Story continues Barry Jenkins's coming-of-age tale "Moonlight," with six nominations including for the director and cast members Naomie Harris and Mahershala Ali, has been monopolizing attention on the drama side of the contest. Another frontrunner is Kenneth Lonergan's unflinching "Manchester by the Sea," which earned the filmmaker nods for best directing and screenplay while Casey Affleck is a favorite for best actor and Michelle Williams vies for best supporting actress. Gold Derby's experts have it just ahead of "Moonlight" as favorite for best dramatic motion picture, with Mel Gibson's war movie "Hacksaw Ridge," heist thriller "Hell or High Water" and family drama "Lion" rounding out the category. "On our website it's razor thin. Our experts go with 'Manchester' but if you combine all people voting and predicting, it's slightly in favor of 'Moonlight,'" said Beachum. "It's a very tight race. I think both will win a couple of awards." - 'A chintzier affair' - For best actress in a drama, Natalie Portman is expected to pick up the award for her intense, critically-acclaimed turn as Jackie Kennedy in "Jackie," which chronicles the days immediately following John F. Kennedy's 1963 assassination. Maren Ade's "Toni Erdmann," a German comedy about a troubled father-daughter relationship, is leading the betting in the foreign language category after sweeping the board at the European film awards in December. It will vie for the prize with three French films -- "Divines," "Elle" and "The Salesman," a joint French-Iranian production -- as well as Chile's "Neruda." On the television side, FX true crime anthology "The People vs O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story" is expected to enjoy a winning night with five nominations. AMC crime drama "The Night Manager" will be close behind, with four nominations, while "Black-ish," "The Crown," "The Night Of," "This is Us" and "Westworld" have three each. HBO comfortably leads the television nominations with 14. Hollywood A-listers Drew Barrymore, Sylvester Stallone, Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon will add glitz to the annual party as awards presenters while host Jimmy Fallon is seen as a safe pair of hands compared with another Globes regular, caustic British comedian Ricky Gervais. "The Globes are always a slightly chintzier affair when compared to the Oscars or the Emmys," wrote Jack Mirkinson, an editor at US pop culture website Fusion, of the upcoming ceremony. "But they're often way more fun to watch, especially because all the stars involved get progressively drunker as the night goes on." The San Jose Sharks have had trouble scoring this season. Their next opponent has been prolific at keeping the puck out of the net. In a matchup pitting two of the stronger teams in the Western Conference, the Sharks host the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night. San Jose (23-13-2) looks to avoid losing three straight for the first time in two months. The Sharks dropped a 3-2 decision on Saturday in Los Angeles before falling 2-1 to the Kings in overtime in the finale of the home-and-home set Tuesday. "We're not finishing right now, and really all season," said Logan Couture, who scored San Jose's goal. "It's tough to win in this league when you score only one." The Sharks scored only 93 goals, led by 15 from Brent Burns, a former first-round pick of the Wild in 2003. Minnesota (23-9-4), meanwhile, has given up only 74 goals. The Wild, who begin a three-game road trip through California, enters this contest trailing the Central Division-leading Chicago Blackhawks by one point. Minnesota's 12-game winning streak was snapped with a 4-2 loss Saturday that also extended the Columbus Blue Jackets' run to 15 games. "We can't look at one loss as we've been playing poorly or anything like that and get us down," Minnesota's Jason Zucker told the Wild's official website. "We have to use it as a reset and say, 'Alright, the streak's over, but we have the chance to start a new one now.'" Minnesota got balanced scoring over the last 13 games with five players each recording at least 10 points, led by Charlie Coyle (four goals, 11 assists), and Zucker and Eric Staal (six goals each). But Minnesota struggles at SAP Center, where they have dropped 10 of the last 12 meetings and surrendered 16 power-play goals in 46 chances. This game should feature two of the league's top goaltenders in Minnesota's Devan Dubnyk and San Jose's Martin Jones. On Tuesday, Dubnyk was named the league's third star of the month for December after helping the Wild post a 12-1-1 record. Dubnyk was 10-1-1 with a 1.88 goals-against average, a .934 save percentage and recorded his NHL-best fifth shutout. Story continues Dubnyk is 19-7-3 and leads the league with a 1.75 GAA and .941 save percentage. However, in 15 games against San Jose, Dubnyk is 5-8-2 with a 3.07 GAA and a .908 save percentage At SAP Center, he's 3-2-1 with a 2.88 GAA and a .920 save percentage. He's yet to face the Sharks in San Jose while in a Minnesota uniform. Dubnyk's last appearance in northern California came Nov. 22, 2014 with the Arizona Coyotes. He made 40 saves through overtime and turned away all three attempts in the shootout to secure a 4-3 victory. Jones' numbers aren't quite as good as Dubnyk's -- 19-12-2 with a 2.10 GAA, a .920 save percentage and two shutouts. But his play at home has been sparkling. In 15 games, Jones is 10-4-1 with a 1.67 GAA and .932 save percentage. All four losses have come when he has surrendered exactly three goals. Sharks captain Joe Pavelski was held off the scoresheet in the two losses to the Kings, and remains three points shy of 600 for his career. In 16 career home games versus Minnesota, the Wisconsin native has 11 goals and 10 assists. San Jose defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic, currently on injured reserve with facial injuries suffered Friday in a win over the Philadelphia Flyers, is expected to miss his third straight game. Jimmy Fallon shares what might be overheard at the Golden Globe Awards when he hosts on Sunday night. On Thursday's episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, the Tonight Show host plays a game of "Speak Out" where he attempts to recite lines that might be said at the awards show while wearing a mouth gear of sorts. "Why is this show so long?" Fallon says with a mouthful of plastic. "I thought Tina and Amy were hosting." WATCH: Golden Globes 2017 Movie Snubs and Surprises -- Deadpool, Mel Gibson and More! The TV personality jokes that he speaks better with the mouth gear than without, and then proceeds to kiss DeGeneres while wearing the apparatus. Also during his time on Ellen, Fallon recalls one of his more embarrassing awards show moments that occurred when he was asked to present an award to Smokey Robinson that he thought was for the music icon's work with UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund). Fallon remembers hitting the red carpet and recounting his fond memories of UNICEF, only to find out that Robinson was being honored for his contributions to the UNCF (United Negro College Fund). EXCLUSIVE: The Crown Star Claire Foy Says She'd Have an 'Existential Crisis' If the Queen Reached Out "I read the email wrong," he quips. "Smokey has probably done a lot of stuff for UNICEF as well, I don't know." Fallon spoke with ET earlier this week, and teased his Golden Globes cold open and the star-studded cameos that viewers can expect. "We have a fun, surprise, pre-taped opening that is honestly cameo after cameo," Fallon gushed. "We've already shot half of it. It's so good! I won't say anyone's name -- Ryan Reynolds. I'm just so excited. I want you to see it." Related Articles Last years Golden Globes after-parties were most memorable for how hard they were to get into even for invited guests. Heightened security saw the vast majority of invitees funneled through a shuttle service running from Century City to the Beverly Hilton. That system proved fatally flawed, with some guests waiting as long as three hours to get in, and others abandoning their party plans to head home. This year, organizers are taking steps to prevent a repeat of the phenomenon that prompted the Twitter hashtag #Shuttlegate. The fun bus with Jaime King.. The line for it not so fun #Shuttlegate #GoldenGlobes #LaLife pic.twitter.com/Y4D1HnJBrF Natalie Posner (@NataliePosner) January 12, 2016 The Beverly Hilton, home to the annual Globes ceremony, will host four parties Sunday night: Amazon, HBO, NBCUniversal, and the Warner Bros.-InStyle joint party. Guests attending those events will again be asked to park at the garage at 1999 Century Blvd., then take a shuttle bus to the Hilton. The Fox and Netflix-Weinstein Co. parties will be held next door to the Hilton at 9900 Wilshire Blvd., the former Robinson-May department store site being developed by Wanda Group. Organizers of those parties will run their own separate security and transportation. Last year, guests queued up in one line at the Century City garage to pass through one of two metal detectors to get on one of eight buses running to and from to the Hilton. This year, organizers will attempt to break that bottleneck. Story continues We have been working with all concerned parties throughout the past year to develop a transportation plan that will allow the guests attending the events surrounding the Golden Globes to be transported in a timely manner, while still maintaining the safety and security of our guests, Sandy Murphy, general manager at the Beverly Hilton told Variety in a statement. We have increased the number of shuttles, given dedicated space to each after party, as well as reworked the path of travel. We are looking forward to celebrating a successful 74th Golden Globes, live from the Beverly Hilton on January 8, 2017. This year each of the Hiltons four onsite parties will have its own line. Each line will have its own security check-in and security screening area. There will also be two metal detectors at the front of each line a 300% increase in metal-detection capacity. The number of buses running between Century City and the Hilton will increase by 50%. Last years #Shuttlegate crisis so dire that professional actresses were driven to discard their heels and tread barefoot across parking-garage floors was the source of such industry angst that party hosts convened a meeting with officials from the Hilton and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in the Globes wake to immediately begin planning for this years festivities. The Hilton anticipates transporting 1,000 fewer guests along its shuttle routes this year, as Fox and Netflix-Weinstein Co. guests will travel along separate routes. Fox guests will park at the studios lot in Century City. Netflix has not yet notified all confirmed guests of parking details. Hilton buses will enjoy expedited passage through security checkpoints and travel primarily along roads closed to other vehicles, Murphy said via email. We anticipate this years experience to be five star and encourage guests to use this new upgraded arrival process. Shuttles from Century City will begin running at 8:30 p.m., half an hour after the Globes ceremony is scheduled to end. Related stories Golden Globes Considers Paying Tribute to Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds Drew Barrymore, Laura Dern and Jeffrey Dean Morgan Among Golden Globe Presenters (EXCLUSIVE) Golden Globes Predictions: Which Films Will Be Nominated? We may have a bumpy ride, but the US economy will not be derailed. Thats the message Goldman Sachs Private Wealth Management has just telegraphed to its high-net-worth, multimillionaire clients. In a somewhat gloomy 90-page note, Goldman Sachs Sharmin Mossavar-Rahmani and Brett Nelson warn that the bull market is getting stretched and that valuations look rich. Since the trough of the global financial crisis, we have consistently emphasized US preeminence and maintained a strategic overweight to US equities relative to global market capitalization-weighted benchmarks, they said. Tactically, we have had an overweight allocation to US equities and US high yield bonds from as early as mid-2008. Even when US equities became more expensive, we continued to recommend that clients stay fully invested at their strategic allocations. How are the wealthy investing? Nevertheless, they recommend that investors stay fully invested in US equities. [N]ow we have crossed into the 10th decile of valuations: US equities have been more expensive than current levels only 10% of the time in the post-WWII period, they noted. Yet we continue to recommend staying the course. We are duly aware that this recommendation is long in the tooth, particularly given such high valuations and the unusually high level of policy uncertainty. Heres their rationale verbatim: Our eight-year US preeminence theme is intact and continues into its ninth year. As Professor Jeremy Siegel of the University of Pennsylvania wrote 23 years ago in Stocks for the Long Run and recently repeated in a Wall Street Journal interview, Stocks are the best long-run asset. We refine that view by saying US equities are the best long-run asset. We think that the policy backdrop in the US will be particularly favorable for the economy, with looser fiscal policy, relatively easy monetary policy and a less stringent regulatory environment. We expect US growth to continue through 2017. We expect global growth to improve modestly, from 2.5% in 2016 to 2.9% in 2017, with looser fiscal policy and still easy monetary policy in key countries. And last but not least, we expect that while President-elect Trumps initial policy measures with respect to tariffs and trade agreements risk jolting financial markets, as a self-described deal maker he will likely adjust and change course as necessary to achieve his desired results. Story continues In brief, they are affirming the historical and Trumponomic bullish forces weve been hearing across Wall Street. Belows a look at their outlook for various asset classes. As you can see, the numbers are pretty lackluster. What Goldman Sachs is telling its richest clients. Geopolitical risks and Trump Mossavar-Rahmani and Nelson spend quite a bit of time laying out the many outstanding political risks facing the world. Policy uncertainty, both economic and political, abounds globally: uncertainty with respect to Brexit (the how and when), upcoming elections in Germany and France (the who), transitional government in Italy (the how long followed by what) and new appointments to the Standing Committee in China and their significance (the who and what of any reform agenda), to name a few, they said. And then, of course, theres the elephant in the room. In Donald Trump, the US has elected an unconventional president in many respects, including his more US-centric approach to China. If China responds to, say, imposition of US tariffs on imports of Chinese products by sharply devaluing the renminbi, significant downside volatility and tighter global financial conditions will follow, they noted. The note is an interesting and meaty read for the average investor. Read it at GoldmanSachs.com. Sam Ro is managing editor at Yahoo Finance. Read more: ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Initial findings suggest the Kurdish PKK militant group was behind a car bombing outside a courthouse in the western Turkish city of Izmir on Thursday which killed two people, provincial governor Erol Ayyildiz said. "A clash erupted after our police officers wanted to stop a vehicle at a police check point in front of Bayrakli courthouse. In this clash, terrorists detonated the car bomb while trying to escape," Ayyildiz told reporters in comments broadcast live. A police officer and a courthouse employee were killed in the attack, he said. He also confirmed that police had shot dead two of the attackers, and said they were armed with Kalashnikov rifles and grenades. (Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk, Tuvan Gumrukcu and Ece Toksabay; Writing by Nick Tattersall) Weve had a lot of excellent employees at our dairy over the years, but weve also had several that wouldnt be accurately described by that adjective. Some made great progress in thinking about the consequences of their decisions. Others never did. My father taught me common sense will get you further in life than a Ph.D. Unfortunately he never had that discussion with a few of our employees. These are the most memorable employee poor decision moments I can recall. 10. It was spring. The snow had all melted. Everything, including the concrete, was muddy. A trainee from South America decided to take a shortcut through the grass with a skidsteer. After going about 30 feet, he buried the skidsteer. Before asking for help he had three skidsteers stuck in a scene that looked very much like a mud bog. Fifty feet of cable initially would have saved a lot of time. 9. For some time, we milked three times a day. We milked four pens of cows and the hospital pen. We had started a new employee in the barns. He was doing his first shift solo. He brought each pen of cows to the parlor to be milked and then cleaned the pen with a skidsteer while the cows were being milked. He had brought the second pen of cows to the parlor to be milked. The milker was initially concerned the cows had very little milk in their udders, but then realized this was the same group of cows he had just finished milking 5 minutes ago. 8. We had just finished our new manure storage facility. In the past we had hauled manure daily, usually two or three loads. Nobody noticed. Now we had storage, so manure hauling was more of an event. Over a hundred loads a day for several days. The neighbors would notice, so I was trying to do everything as correctly as I could. We had started hauling manure that morning. I noticed one of the manure haulers and another car had stopped out in front of the dairy on the highway. There was initially some shouting between the two, which progressed to a fistfight on the double stripe. Apparently the two had gotten into an argument the night before at a tavern, and when the manure hauler met the other partys car on the highway, they both stopped and the altercation progressed. I had to break up the fight. I had never read anything about brawls in my 590 Nutrient Management Plan. 7. We had a farm pickup we used to carry milk bottles to the calves. An employee burned out the clutch getting stuck in sand without locking it into four-wheel drive. OK, the truck had more than 100,000 miles. I could live with replacing the clutch. Two days later the same employee told me the truck smelled burnt again. He had burnt out the new clutch in two days. 6. A good employee with mechanical experience was assigned to changing the motor oil and filter on a tractor. He thought the used oil looked awful dirty, so he decided on his own to rinse the crankcase out with diesel fuel. He turned over the engine until the engine seized up. We had to replace the engine. 5. A new employee without any training was given a fill job for an hour cleaning rain gutters on the barns until Julie could start training him to feed calves. I explained how to set up the ladder and use a square spatula to clean out the gutter. I told him to move the ladder as needed. Julie came in the office and told me I better check on the fellow cleaning gutters, he was on the roof. I went out to check, and there he was on a wet steel roof, 12 feet in the air, bending over and cleaning out the gutters 6 inches below his feet. I got him before he fell. 4. This is very common when its bitterly cold. The gate pin blew up when I drove by with the skidsteer. This should not be confused with hitting the gate with the skidsteer and breaking the gate bolt. In 20-plus years I think Ive heard this excuse four times. 3. It was Super Bowl Sunday and minus-10 was the afternoon high. An employee was to spread a load of manure. He broke a shear bolt on the spreader when he was spreading the load. The next morning after a minus-25 night we found a totally frozen manure spreader full of manure. It took five days in a neighbors heated shop to thaw it out. 2. A calf feeder had been directed to give a scouring calf electrolytes midday. Julie asked the employee how the calf drank. Oh, she wouldnt drink, so gave it to the calf next to her. 1. We had just poured 10 yards of concrete and I had just finished with the bull float. An employee came along in a skidsteer to pickup something in the feed shed. He drove the skidsteer right through the wet concrete leaving big ruts. I was so amazed at his ineptitude that I didnt even say anything. When he drove back through going the other direction, I lost it. My mother would not have been proud of what I said to this young man. I can laugh about most of these situations now. At the time, I doubt joking about it was my first response. Several of these employee moments could have been prevented if the boss me had done a more thorough job explaining the job at hand. Some of it could not have been prevented. My dad was right, even though he had a Ph.D. common sense trumps everything on a farm. My father taught me common sense will get you further in life than a Ph.D. Unfortunately he never had that discussion with a few of our employees. Mexican pay-TV and broadcasting behemoth, Grupo Televisa S.A. TV recently secured authorization from the U.S. telecom regulator Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to own up to 40% of U.S. Spanish-language TV network Univision Inc.'s voting stock and up to 49% of its common shares. Further, the FCC approved a move to raise the total number of shares in Univision that can be held by foreign investors to 49% from 25%. In 2007, Univision was acquired by a consortium led by billionaire Haim Saban for a total consideration of $13.7 billion. Other investors were Madison Dearborn Partners, Providence Equity Partners, TPG and THL Partners. In early 2012, Televisa effectively purchased a 35% stake in Univision for $1.2 billion. Per the agreement, Televisa paid $130 million in cash for a 5% stake and purchased convertible debt for the remaining 30% stake. Moreover, Televisa holds the right to buy an additional 5% stake over the next five years, which would effectively increase its potential ownership in Univision up to 40%. Currently, Televisa effectively holds a 38% (8% in equity and 30% in convertible debt) stake in Univision. This leaves scope for buying 2% stake in 2017. Univision is the fifth largest TV network in the U.S. The companys portfolio consists of two leading Spanish-language broadcast networks, several cable channels, TV stations and a chain of popular Spanish-language radio stations. Currently, a considerable share of Televisas income is generated from its U.S. operations, which includes the sale of content, website and cable TV. Televisa allows Univision to access its content and then rebroadcast it on TV and the Internet for a royalty. In the first half of 2016, Televisas royalty from Univision was $154 million, up nearly 9.4% year over year. In 2014, the government of Mexico had introduced reforms within its telecommunications sector, which included the pay-TV segment as well. Factoring this development, the Mexican telecom regulator the Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT) allowed Televisa to enter into the nations wireless market. However, the company is yet to take any decision. Story continues Notably, the companys reluctance is mainly due to the presence of large incumbent wireless operators such as America Movil SAB AMX, Telefonica SA TEF and AT&T Inc. T. America Movil currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. On the other hand, the pay-TV market in Mexico is vastly untapped. Several industry researchers estimate pay-TV penetration in the country at roughly 60%, reflecting a massive opportunity for growth. Moreover, the U.S. Hispanic TV market is highly lucrative and is growing at a remarkable pace. Consequently, Televisa is poised to gain significantly as Univision will pay higher royalty. Price Performance of Televisa 2016 was not a good year for Televisa. The stock lost a substantial 19.74% value in the last year in contrast with a 1.76% gain exhibited by the Broadcast Radio and TV industry. Growing competitive pressure in the Mexican pay-TV market from peers like TV Azteca and others along with shrinkage in operating margin are the near-term concerns. This is the primary reason behind the stock currently carrying a Zacks Rank #5 (Sell). We will closely monitor whether management can introduce any effective turnaround strategy in 2017. Zacks Best Private Investment Ideas In addition to the recommendations that are available to the public on our website, how would you like to follow all Zacks' private buys and sells in real time? Our experts cover all kinds of trades from value to momentum . . . from stocks under $10 to ETF and option moves . . . from stocks that corporate insiders are buying up to companies that are about to report positive earnings surprises. You can even look inside exclusive portfolios that are normally closed to new investors. Starting today, for the next month, you can have unrestricted access. Click here for Zacks' private trades >> 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 AT&T INC (T): Free Stock Analysis Report TELEFONICA S.A. (TEF): Free Stock Analysis Report GRUPO TELEVISA (TV): Free Stock Analysis Report AMER MOVIL-ADR (AMX): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f336644%2ff60f03da-4044-4ddf-a66c-e68e705d86ea A rising number of U.S. children are allergic to peanuts, and doctors still aren't sure why. But experts are increasingly convinced that feeding peanut-containing foods to infants can lower their chances of developing an allergy later in life. To that end, a national panel of allergy specialists has created the first-ever guidelines that show parents and health care providers how and when to introduce all infants to peanuts. SEE ALSO: FaceTime away: Doctors ease screen time limits for children The guidelines continue the broader shift away from earlier advice that parents shouldn't introduce babies to peanuts before their first birthdays. Researchers say their goal is to shield future generations of children from dangerous food allergies. "You can take a major health issue off the table before it even starts," said Matthew Greenhawt, who chairs the food allergy committee of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI). "We're hoping to decrease as many cases of peanut allergy as possible ideally in tens of thousands of children," he told Mashable. Greenhawt co-authored the new guidelines as a member of the 26-person panel, which was sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infections Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health. The guidelines, published Thursday in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, suggest that parents can introduce infants to peanut-containing products around the age of 6 months. Certain restrictions apply to high-risk babies who have eczema or egg allergy, and all parents should discuss the guidelines first with their child's pediatrician before taking action. Experts also stress that they don't mean giving whole peanuts to infants that's a choking hazard. Peanut-containing foods might mean watered-down peanut butter or purees containing peanut. Experts don't know why peanut allergies are becoming more prevalent in the U.S. Image: AP photo/patrick sison Story continues Peanut allergy is a growing public health problem in the U.S. and other countries, yet it still lacks any treatment or cure. Common allergic reactions to peanuts include hives, rashes and itchy skin. In more severe cases, people can have a life-threatening reaction that hinders their breathing and sends their body into shock. About 2 percent of U.S. children or 1 in 50 kids is allergic to peanuts, according to a 2011 national survey. That's up from just 0.4 percent of children in 1999. Greenhawt said allergy and pediatric experts still don't know why peanut allergies are becoming more prevalent, although researchers are studying whether it has to do with children's lack of early exposure to peanuts, low levels of Vitamin D in kids or our immune system's bizarre reaction to the decline in infectious diseases. The first hypothesis that a lack of peanut exposure results in allergy has gained the most traction, especially in light of a landmark 2015 study. The clinical trial involved hundreds of babies in London, where children typically don't consume any peanut-containing foods early in life, and in Tel Aviv, Israel, where babies often eat peanut-containing foods before they can walk. Researchers found that babies who ate the equivalent of 4 heaping teaspoons of peanut butter every week starting when they were between 4 and 11 months old were about 80 percent less likely to develop an allergy by age 5. "It seems that the earlier you give the [peanut-containing] food, there's a window where the immune system just doesn't see it as dangerous," said Greenhawt. "The body can be educated in a different way and tolerate the food." The 2015 study prompted U.S. allergy and pediatric experts to develop the new guidelines. They are, in brief: For low-risk children (with no eczema or egg allergy): Once infants can eat solid foods, introduce them to peanut-containing foods at around 6 months. For moderate-risk children (with mild-to-moderate eczema): Parents can introduce infants to peanut-containing foods at home, starting at around 6 months. For high-risk infants (with severe, persistent eczema and/or egg allergy): Introduce peanut-containing foods as early as 4 to 6 months. Parents should first check with their infant's health care provider, who may choose to do an allergy blood test or send the infant to see a specialist. The results of these tests will help decide if and how peanuts should be introduced into the infant's diet. Last year, the American Academy of Pediatrics endorsed similar recommendations to give high-risk infants peanut-containing foods around ages 4 to 11 months. Major allergy groups from Canada, Europe, Japan and beyond have also backed this approach. Thursday's guidelines are the first to encourage parents to take a proactive steps for all infants. "We're actively saying, 'Do this, and it's associated with a risk-reduction benefit,'" Greenhawt said. "It's a much stronger and more targeted recommendation." Sony Guillermo Del Toro is always an interesting filmmaker, whether hes making movies about giant robots punching giant monsters or a Gothic horror movie. And his next movie The Shape Of Water sounds fascinating, even before you realize a character in it sounds just a little familiar. Doug Jones, the actor best known for wearing extensive makeup and being one of Del Toros favorite actors, talked a bit about the plot of the movie, where a cleaning woman falls in love with a creature at a secret government facility. See if his character sounds familiar: Related Links: Im a fish man thats kind of a one-off. Im an enigma, nobody knows where I came from; Im the last of my species so Im like a natural anomaly. And Im being studied and tested in a U.S. government facility in 1963, so the Russian Cold War is on, the race for space is on, so theres all that backdrop and that undercurrent. Fans of Hellboy are already wondering if Del Toro is trying to sneak in an Abe Sapien movie on us. Abe, for those who havent seen Hellboy in a while, is a fish man who appears to be the last of his species and who, when found, is whisked away to a government facility where hes narrowly saved from vivisection by Hellboy and the BPRD. Hes played, naturally, by Doug Jones, with David Hyde Pierce providing the voice. And if youve read Abes solo comic over the last few years, its a careful, meditative book about personal relationships and emotional connections. Of course, this could just be a script idea that Del Toro repurposed as it seems Hellboy 3 is never going to happen, but well find out what Del Toro is up to later in 2017. (Via io9) Production designer Barry Robison had his work cut out for him on Hacksaw Ridge, the Lionsgate-released biopic about conscientious objector Desmond Doss, who, as a soldier without a gun, displayed extraordinary courage and heroism during the Battle of Okinawa in World War II. The first challenge was reproducing the landscapes of Doss hometown of Lynchburg, Va., in Australia, where the film was shot. Robison was aware that director Mel Gibsons pre-scouting efforts had left everyone frustrated: Its not easy to find landscapes Down Under that look like the Mid-Atlantic U.S. Using resources such as satellite searches and local location experts, though, Robison finally found a small town outside Sydney with a cluster of British Colonial buildings. Carefully panned camera angles allowed one intersection to stand in for all required downtown scenes. Interior scenes also required ingenuity. Robison and his team painted walls with pastel colors. Working with set decorator Rebecca Cohen, he chose minimal decoration in order to play up the simplicity of the times. And he collaborated with DP Simon Duggan to achieve a color palette several tones distant from the war footage that was to follow. We wanted it to look real to stand out from the battlefield, says Robison. Neutral tones allowed the focus to be on the family. When Doss enters the military, the palette shifts to browns and reds and to greens and grays during the battle scenes. When Doss is jailed early in his training, Robison again broke the color scheme and fashioned the interior of his cell after a monks quarters he once visited in Europe, using a black-and-white look to reflect Doss state of mind. The camera placement determined how much white and how much black was seen, Robison says. But the greatest challenges came with creating the battlefield sequences. First, Robison had to find a lot large enough, not only for the action, but also for the needs of the crew and equipment. The solution came in the form of a dairy farm, which was converted into a mini-backlot where Robison and his crew designed all the necessary structures as well as the open killing fields. Story continues To help achieve the realism Gibson wanted, Robison sculpted a scale model of the battlefield, eight feet wide and 12 feet long, where the director and the effects team could plan and coordinate its moves. Once the practical effects were mapped out, Robison and his team used backhoes and bulldozers to build a complicated battlefield set consisting of layers of earth and a drainage system that allowed fog and explosions to be integrated safely into scenes. Related stories Faith, Hope, & Clarity: Hollywood Again Shows Respect in Films for Spiritual Ideas Denzel Washington Praises the Team That Helped Him Build 'Fences' Oscars: 'Rogue One,' 'Hacksaw Ridge,' '13 Hours' Mix It Up in Sound Categories Exactly one year ago to the day, Polands minister of defense, Antoni Macierewicz, was quoted as saying he wanted to grow Polands army from 100,000 to 150,000. He called it the minimum which is necessary to respond to military threats. Macierewicz did add 50,000 troops. But they did not join the military, per se. Rather, they were considered a separate entity volunteer troops to trained and ready in three years and equipped with Polish-made materials; who focus not on operational maneuvers, but on local tasks; and who are not in the military structure, but are answerable to the Ministry of Defense. The territorial defense brigades were one part of a larger change in Poland over the past year. It included the government returning military manufacturing to Poland and giving more control to the Ministry of Defense. Yet as Warsaw and the world looks ahead to an incoming U.S. president who has been openly critical of NATO, the reforms also perhaps have undermined Polands own national defense in the process. In addition to the territorial defense brigades, the return of Polish military manufacturing makes sense in terms of domestic politics, said Marek Swierczynski, senior analyst at Polityka Insight. But it is less logical in terms of geopolitics namely, the always-looming threat of Russia and need to meet certain NATO standards, particularly at an uncertain time. Macierewiczs Law and Justice party came to power in late 2015 on a platform of returning to Polish values and social programs for Polish people. Admittedly, the previous ruling party had put in place a very expensive armament program. But the current government almost turned upside down what is being procured, Swierczynski said in an interview with Foreign Policy. It postponed and reduced, for example, the purchase of search and rescue helicopters for the Navy (and will now likely not meet NATO and the EUs search and rescue requirements), and will instead focus on the purchase of small drones. Story continues This is in part because of the extensive social programs promised by the Law and Justice party, which probably cannot be enacted if the government is also spending 8 to 10 billion zloty annually on new military equipment. Moreover, the military equipment being bought can be made in Poland specifically, in eastern and central Poland, home to the Polish defense industry, and also to many Law and Justice voters. To be clear, Poland has not entirely stopped purchasing from foreign countries (like, for example, from the United States, which recently sold Warsaw state-of-the art JASSM-ER missiles). But Law and Justice, which cancelled a deal with Frances AirBus and said last month it would instead buy locally-manufactured helicopters is re-industrializing Poland. Its very much like Donald Trump, actually, Swierczynski explained Law and Justice is making Poland great again, one small Polish drone at a time. But they are doing so for political reasons, and not, necessarily, because that is will best serve the army or, by extension, the safety and security of Poland. Perhaps more unsettlingly for the future of Polands military is the reality that Macierewicz and the Defense Ministry spent the past year making changes to the army without consulting its most senior personnel. The chief of defense was not consulted when the ministry replaced his deputies. People are appointed to positions without the necessary ranking required. The NATO-Corps deputy commander is supposed to be a two-star general, but a colonel was given the post instead. The Washington military attache also at least a one-star position has been empty since April. The lower ranks, Swierczynski explained, are quite pleased with these changes. They have been getting more pay raises and promotions. They are allowed to serve as privates for as long as they like now (there used to be a 12 year limit, after which they were expected to try to move up the ranks). Now, they can gain pension entitlements without being promoted. But the higher ranks are displeased. On Dec. 15 and 16 the same day Warsaw was engulfed in protest after the government tried to pass a law limiting media access to parliament Miroslaw Rozanski, commander general of the armed forces and Adam Duda, in charge of purchasing for the Polish army, resigned. Adam Gocul, chief of general staff and Polands only four-star general, also is said to be leaving soon. Polish Defense Ministry Undersecretary Tomasz Szatkowski told Foreign Policy that Polish allies understand personnel changes are natural, and suggested that the generals resignation was in part because he did not agree that efforts should be concentrated around Eastern Poland. The ministry puts real professionals into these posts, he stressed. But Macierewicz has the mentality that professionalism is not of the utmost importance. His belief is that You can gain professionalism in due time, Swierczynski said. First, you have to be loyal. Thats what was seen in 2016. Whether the Polish military will be better served by loyalty than it was by professionalism in the age of a potential alliance between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will be seen in the year, and years, to come. Foreign Policys Robbie Gramer contributed reporting to this post. Photo credit: Sean Gallup/Getty Images Philippine security forces killed Thursday the leader of a Muslim militant group that has carried out deadly attacks on civilians to win support from Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria, authorities said. Mohammad Jaafar Maguid, founder and leader of Ansarul Khilafa Philippines, was tracked down and shot at a beach resort on the southern island of Mindanao shortly after midnight, while three "cohorts" were arrested, a police report said. Ansarul Khilafa is one of several violent Islamic militant groups on Mindanao, homeland of a large Filipino Muslim minority where a decades-old separatist rebellion has claimed more than 120,000 lives. "He's wanted for bombing incidents. They use improvised explosive devices, killing people at town festivals," Chief Superintendent Cedric Train, the regional police chief, told AFP. "They fly the ISIS flag in their camps. They want to be recognised by the ISIS," Train added, referring to the Islamic State group by one of its acronyms. The military killed eight Ansarul Khilafa members in a clash in November 2015 at Maguid's Mindanao hometown of Palimbang, 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) south of Manila. Interior Secretary Ismael Sueno warned of potential violent repercussions from the death of Maguid, more widely known by his nickname of Commander Tokboy. "They might retaliate so we have to double our preparations," Sueno said, citing large Catholic religious festivals in the Philippines this month. Ansarul Khilafa was behind an attack that left two civilians dead on Mindanao in 2008 as well as a series of robberies and other crimes, according to Sidney Jones, director of the Indonesia-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict. Maguid was arrested in 2009 but escaped eight months later, Jones said in a research paper published in October last year. Train said the authorities had also been looking into Ansarul Khilafa's role in a bombing in Davao, Mindanao's largest city in September last year that killed 15 people and injured dozens of others. Maguid, who Train said was aged 32, appeared in a video circulated on social media networks last year with the leaders of other local militant groups pledging allegiance to IS. barack obama President Barack Obama on Thursday laid out his view of his administration's legacy and achievements. In a Medium post, Obama reflected on the dire economic environment he inherited when he took office in 2009 amid the financial collapse. "In the depths of that winter, on January 20, 2009, I stood before you and swore a sacred oath," Obama wrote. "I told you that day that the challenges we faced would not be met easily or in a short span of time but they would be met. And after eight busy years, we've met them because of you." Obama hailed the effort to reform healthcare, expanded access to green energy, a lower unemployment rate, the withdrawing of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, and greater civil-rights protections as key touchstones of his administration. "This is where America stands after eight years of progress," he wrote. "By so many measures, our country is stronger and more prosperous than it was when we started a situation I'm proud to leave for my successor. And it's thanks to you to the hard work you've put in; the sacrifices you've made for your families and communities; the way you've looked out for one another." But the president also acknowledged his failed legislative goals, including comprehensive immigration reform and gun control, and warned Republicans against undoing his achievements. He said Republicans seeking to roll back the Affordable Care Act, his signature legislative achievement, could be taking away a major entitlement helping many of the same voters whose anxieties propelled President-elect Donald Trump to office. "What won't help is taking health care away from 30 million Americans, most of them white and working class," Obama said. Read the full memo below: To my fellow Americans, Eight years ago, America faced a moment of peril unlike any wed seen in decades. A spiraling financial crisis threatened to plunge an economy in recession into a deep depression. The very heartbeat of American manufacturing the American auto industry was on the brink of collapse. Story continues In some communities, nearly one in five Americans were out of work. Nearly 180,000 American troops were serving in harms way in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the mastermind of the worst terror attack on American soil remained at large. And on challenges from health care to climate change, wed been kicking the can down the road for way too long. But in the depths of that winter, on January 20, 2009, I stood before you and swore a sacred oath. I told you that day that the challenges we faced would not be met easily or in a short span of time but they would be met. And after eight busy years, weve met them because of you. Eight years later, an economy that was shrinking at more than eight percent is now growing at more than three percent. Businesses that were bleeding jobs unleashed the longest streak of job creation on record. The auto industry has roared its way back, saving one million jobs across the country and fueling a manufacturing sector that, after a decade of decline, has added new jobs for the first time since the 1990s. And wages have grown faster over the past few years than at any time in the past forty. Today, thanks to the Affordable Care Act, another 20 million American adults know the financial security and peace of mind that comes with health insurance. Another three million children have gained health insurance. For the first time ever, more than ninety percent of Americans are insured the highest rate ever. Weve seen the slowest growth in the price of health care in fifty years, along with improvements in patient safety that have prevented an estimated 87,000 deaths. Every American with insurance is covered by the strongest set of consumer protections in history a true Patients Bill of Rights and free from the fear that illness or accident will derail your dreams, because America is now a place where discrimination against preexisting conditions is a relic of the past. And the new health insurance marketplace means that if you lose your job, change your job, or start that new business, youll finally be able to purchase quality, affordable care and the security and peace of mind that comes with it and thats one reason why entrepreneurship is growing for the second straight year. Our dependence on foreign oil has been cut by more than half, and our production of renewable energy has more than doubled. In many places across the country, clean energy from the wind is now cheaper than dirtier sources of energy, and solar now employs more Americans than coal mining in jobs that pay better than average and cant be outsourced. We also enacted the most sweeping reforms since the Great Depression to protect consumers and prevent a crisis on Wall Street from punishing Main Street ever again. These actions didnt stifle growth, as critics predicted. Instead, the stock market has nearly tripled. Since I signed Obamacare into law, Americas businesses have added more than 15 million new jobs. And the economy is undoubtedly more durable than it was in the days when we relied on oil from unstable nations and banks took risky bets with your money. The high school graduation rate is now 83 percent the highest on record and weve helped more young people graduate from college than ever before. At the same time, weve worked to offer more options for Americans who decide not to pursue college, from expanding apprenticeships, to launching high-tech manufacturing institutes, to revamping the job training system and creating programs like TechHire to help people train for higher-paying jobs in months, not years. Weve connected more schools across the country to broadband internet, and supported more teachers to bring coding, hands-on making, and computational thinking into our classrooms to prepare all our children for a 21st century economy. Add it all up, and last year, the poverty rate fell at the fastest rate in almost fifty years while the median household income grew at the fastest rate on record. And weve done it all while cutting our deficits by nearly two-thirds even as we protected investments that grow the middle class. Meanwhile, over the past eight years, no foreign terrorist organization has successfully planned and executed an attack on our homeland. Plots have been disrupted. Terrorists like Osama bin Laden have been taken off the battlefield. Weve drawn down from nearly 180,000 troops in harms way in Iraq and Afghanistan to just 15,000. With a coalition of more than 70 nations and a relentless campaign of more than 16,000 airstrikes so far, we are breaking the back of ISIL and taking away its safe havens, and weve accomplished this at a cost of $10 billion over two years the same amount that we spent in one month at the height of the Iraq War. At the same time, America has led the world to meet a set of global challenges. Through diplomacy, we shut down Irans nuclear weapons program, opened up a new chapter with the people of Cuba, and brought nearly 200 nations together around a climate agreement that could save this planet for our kids. With new models for development, American assistance is helping people around the world feed themselves, care for their sick, and power communities across Africa. And almost every country on Earth sees America as stronger and more respected today than they did eight years ago. All of this progress is due to the service of millions of Americans in intelligence, law enforcement, homeland security, diplomacy, and the brave men and women of our Armed Forces the most diverse institution in America. Weve also worked to make the changing face of America more fair and more just including by making strides towards criminal justice reform, making progress towards equal pay, repealing Dont Ask, Dont Tell, and advancing the cause of civil rights, womens rights, and LGBT rights. I appointed two extraordinary women to the Supreme Court, marking the first time in history that three women sit on the bench, including the first Latina. And today in America, marriage equality is finally a reality across all fifty states. This is where America stands after eight years of progress. By so many measures, our country is stronger and more prosperous than it was when we started a situation Im proud to leave for my successor. And its thanks to you to the hard work youve put in; the sacrifices youve made for your families and communities; the way youve looked out for one another. Still, through every victory and every setback, Ive insisted that change is never easy, and never quick; that we wouldnt meet all of our challenges in one term, or one presidency, or even in one lifetime. And for all that weve achieved, theres still so much I wish wed been able to do, from enacting gun safety measures to protect more of our kids and our cops from mass shootings like Newtown, to passing commonsense immigration reform that encourages the best and brightest from around the world to study, stay, and create jobs in America. And for all the incredible progress our economy has made in just eight years, we still have more work to do for every American still in need of a good job or a raise, paid leave or a dignified retirement. We have to acknowledge the inequality that has come from an increasingly globalized economy while committing ourselves to making it work better for everyone, not just those at the top, and give everyone who works hard a fair shot at success. And heres the thing over the past eight years, weve shown that we can. Last year, income gains were actually larger for households at the bottom and the middle than for those at the top. Weve also made the tax code fairer. The tax changes enacted over the past eight years have ensured that the top one percent of Americans pay more of their fair share, increasing the share of income received by all other families by more than the tax changes in any previous administration since at least 1960. Simply put, weve actually begun the long task of reversing inequality. But as the global economy changes, well have to do more to accelerate these trends, from strengthening unions that speak for workers, to preventing colleges from pricing out hardworking students, to making sure that minimum wage workers get a raise and women finally get paid the same as men for doing the same job. What wont help is taking health care away from 30 million Americans, most of them white and working class; denying overtime pay to workers, most of whom have more than earned it; or privatizing Medicare and Social Security and letting Wall Street regulate itself again none of which middle-class Americans voted for. We will have to move forward as we always have together. As a people who believe that out of many, we are one; that we are bound not by any one race or religion, but rather an adherence to a common creed; that all of us are created equal in the eyes of God. And Im confident we will. Because the change weve brought about these past eight years was never about me. It was about you. It is you, the American people, who have made the progress of the last eight years possible. It is you who will make our future progress possible. That, after all, is the story of America a story of progress. However halting, however incomplete, however harshly challenged at each point on our journey the story of America is a story of progress. Recently, I asked each member of my talented and dedicated Cabinet to prepare a detailed report on the progress weve made across the board these past eight years, and the work that remains to make this country we love even stronger. Today, Im sharing them with you. And I hope youll share them with others, and do your part to build on the progress weve made across the board. It has been the privilege of my life to serve as your President. And as I prepare to pass the baton and do my part as a private citizen, Im proud to say that we have laid a new foundation for America. A new future is ours to write. And Im as confident as ever that it will be led by the United States of America and that our best days are still ahead. Sincerely, Barack Obama NOW WATCH: These are Stratfor's chilling predictions for 2017 More From Business Insider Donald Trump Even before Donald Trump has taken office as president, his tweets are adding another dangerous layer to America's delicate relationship with the world's second-largest economy, China. An editorial posted on the state-controlled media outlet Xinhua this week basically told Trump to cool it with the tweets. "An obsession with 'Twitter foreign policy' is undesirable," the headline said, according to a translation by The New York Times. The article said, according to The Times: "Everyone recognizes the common sense that foreign policy isn't child's play, and even less is it like doing business deals." Now, on one hand Chinese leaders have said they will not take Trump's tweets as US policy statements a relief considering the minefield of complex issues between the two countries including trade and security in the South China Sea. On the other hand, the current political climate in China could make doing that very difficult. Living on the edge This year the Chinese Communist Party will be holding its 19th National Congress, in which President Xi Jinping is expected to consolidate his power over the state. According to Evan Medeiros, a managing director at Eurasia Group, that means we're about to witness a China "on edge." In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Medeiros said the past year's politically charged environment could produce a China "that overreacts." Trump's tweets could become a catalyst for that if they distract Xi from his party's congress. It's not just that. People who study Chinese culture know that the concept of "face" should be taken very seriously. Face is how people measure an individual's respect, prestige, and/or status. It's not a totally foreign concept of course we all talk about "saving face" and Americans too might expect their political leadership to respond to hostility from abroad, even in the form of a tweet. But it's enough of a cultural dynamic in China that diplomats and business leaders know to take it seriously there, and it might make it harder for Xi to just ignore Trump's provocations. Story continues So, how could China retaliate? Medeiros offers that the government could easily go after US companies in China. Business Insider asked the chief economist at the Institute of International Finance, Gene Ma, a similar question last month. We asked what China could do if Trump were to start a trade war with China, and Ma said the country did indeed have the means to hit the US back in a meaningful way. "Beijing has many options for possible retaliation," he said. "For example, China can replace Boeing jets with Airbus and US soybeans with those from South America. A trade war will also jeopardize progress with the US-China Bilateral Investment Treaty, which is currently under negotiation." And that's just how it starts. Who knows how it ends. NOW WATCH: Watch Yellen explain why the Federal Reserve decides to raise rates More From Business Insider Before filming the movie "Hidden Figures," which will be widely released Jan. 6, the cast and crew studied up on the history of NASA in the 1960s and America's civil rights movement to immerse themselves in the lives of those who worked for the space agency during the height of the space race a time when racial segregation was still legally enforced in the United States. Space.com spoke with the film's director and lead actors to ask how they prepared for the most challenging aspects of getting it right. In addition to re-creating the feel of NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia on set in Atlanta, the creators strived to get the details right, using actual artifacts from the time period or very close replicas. "We re-created NASA's mission control with the help of Wynn Thomas, our production designer, and we used NASA archival footage and NASA archival photos and a lot of help from our historians at NASA," Ted Melfi, the film's director, told Space.com. "We basically duplicated it exactly the way it was." ['Hidden Figures' Movie Probes Little-Known Heros of 1960s NASA (Gallery)] Additional touches also connected the film's set with Langley. For instance, two paintings on the set depicting the history of air travel were actual paintings that hung in Langley's main administration building during the 1960s (the third actual painting was damaged, so it was missing from the set). Beyond the physical location, the actors worked to place themselves in the early 1960s, internalizing what that meant for the burgeoning field of spaceflight and for the civil rights movement. "I had all the actors watch a great NASA documentary called 'When We Left Earth,' Melfi said. "It's just a great look at the entire space program, but the first section is the Mercury missions," which sent the first American astronauts into space, Melfi said. "[I also assigned] a civil rights documentary called 'Eyes on the Prize.'" Story continues In the upcoming film "Hidden Figures," Katherine G. Johnson, played by Taraji P. Henson, is joined by her co-workers Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monae) as she greets astronaut John Glenn (Glen Powell), the man destined to become the first American to orbit Earth. Hopper Stone Melfi had the actors look through civil rights images by photographer Gordon Parks, as well, to find the movie's place in history. Taraji Henson played Katherine Johnson, the mathematician at the film's center, and the actress had more than background research to work with; Henson met with Johnson, who's 98 years old, to get a feel for the character and how the mathematician viewed her time at NASA. "Katherine Johnson is still very much alive so I have to meet her, first thing first," Henson said. "What I got from her was her humility, her selflessness. She never once said, 'I.' She said, 'We.'" Henson said she tried to bring that selflessness to her depiction of Johnson. Discussing the most challenging parts to film, Octavia Spencer, who played Dorothy Vaughan, told Space.com that individual scenes weren't challenging, but that it took some effort to place herself in the overall mind-set of the era. "The time in our history that women, African American people, didn't have a voice in diplomacy, they didn't have the right to vote the entire time was challenging, and therefore having the camaraderie with my castmates let me get beyond that," she said. "What was challenging for me was all that running in heels," Henson added. "And I have bad knees and then we had to run in the rain. I should have considered that when I read the script." Janelle Monae played Mary Jackson, who takes steps to become an engineer over the course of the film, including suing to gain access to required night classes at a segregated school. Mary Jackson (Janelle Monae) offers help to NASA mission specialist Karl Zielinski (Olek Krupa) in a shot from "Hidden Figures." Hopper Stone "As Octavia mentioned, the mind-set [was the biggest challenge]. Mary didn't have the freedom of speech that we have today, and her brothers and sisters were being lynched for merely looking at a white person in a way that they may not have deemed to be respectful," Monae said. "So I had to be very strategic. I had to go in and look at it like a chess game how can I get this judge to empathize with me? How can I connect? "She had to study her enemy, and so I had to really problem-solve how to get what I needed," Monae said. "Ultimately, she did prevail she did win." To research his character, an engineer who wasn't based on any historic individual, Jim Parsons studied the career paths and backgrounds of real engineers who were a part of the Space Task Group, in order to create an original character who would be a credible product of that time period. "I felt pretty clear pretty quickly about what my role was in the telling of the story, which was to be an impediment to somebody," Parsons said. "The chance to engage in scenes with somebody where you are being an impediment to them is actually enjoyable, because there's a friction to it. But I was very grateful to play what I felt was an important part of the progress of the story, even if it wasn't necessarily a shining example of humanity always." Kevin Costner who plays Al Harrison, an amalgam of three heads of NASA Langley's Space Task Force poses in the meticulously recreated mission control for the 2017 film "Hidden Figures." Hopper Stone Throughout scriptwriting and filming, the movie's creative team consulted with NASA to ensure that details about the mathematics and science, as well as about how the organization worked, were true to life. The filmmakers simplified or synthesized some things for the film, Melfi said, like Parson's engineer character, or the head of the Space Task Group, played by Kevin Costner, whose character was an amalgam of a few different directors. But the team tried to capture the essence of the women's stories, Melfi said. "I think the most important thing to get right historically [for] this movie was the real story about these three women and be true to their experience, both the struggles they had as well as the successes they had," said Bill Barry, NASA's historian. "I think that was a central part, and I think the movie's done a spectacular job of being true to the real story of these women and their struggles." In filming the women's story, the actors said they hope to reveal truths about the time period as well as the extraordinary accomplishments of the women portrayed in the movie. "It's our history, and we would do well to know more about our history," Costner told Space.com. "It can be thrilling. It can be embarrassing. There can be points where you're ashamed, but you can also be thrilled and realize that you can be part of history, too, by altering the way you're going to behave going forward." Email Sarah Lewin at slewin@space.com or follow her @SarahExplains. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com. Editor's Recommendations One of the more popular measures of stock market value, the forward price/earnings (P/E) multiple, is so high that one closely-followed economist warned that buying stocks now would be like picking up nickels in front of a steam roller. Indeed, while stock prices (P) have surged, analysts published forecasts for earnings (E) have gone sideways. But that is far from the whole story. One narrative thats been flying under the radar is how Donald Trumps election is impacting the analysts forecasts for earnings. Keep in mind, the E in forward P/Es are 12-month forecasts for earnings. While most strategists agree that Trumps proposals should they be enacted would be a big net positive for earnings, few have actually tweaked their earnings outlooks. The P is up but the E is effectively stale, RBC Jonathan Golub said to Yahoo Finance. [We have] a market that has a P/E lower than the stated number and an E thats lower than the stated number. In other words, this forward P/E measure that has people freaked out is actually a bit of a mirage. Analysts are bullish on Trump, but they have yet to upgrade their official forecasts for profits. A similar phenomenon is occurring among economic forecasters who are calling for lackluster US GDP growth. The consensus essentially sees growth running in place at 2.2%, which is about how the US economy has fared since the end of the recession, Renaissance Macros Neil Dutta said. This is particularly conservative considering that data has generally been surprising on the upside over the last six months with GDP typically tracking above 2.5%. That is higher than the highest primary dealer estimate on Wall Street for 2017 2.4%. Nowcasts of economic activity suggest growth remains strong into the New Year. Thus, we see more room for upward revisions to the consensus. Economists have yet to revise up their GDP forecasts. So, what gives? Analysts tend to be cautious in adjusting estimates following breaking news, acting only after ascertaining company-specific impacts, Golub said. Investors, by contrast, are quicker to respond to incomplete information. Story continues In other words, Golub is saying that investors are already pricing in the expectations for better earnings growth, which is driving up the P. Meanwhile, most analysts have yet to pull the trigger on their post-Election updated forecasts for earnings. This timing difference creates the false impression that valuations are stretched, and should correct as analysts catch up to the market, Golub said. So then, whats taking so long? Belski attributes this issues within the business of forecasting where, as he says, analysts are almost always wrong. We are so afraid of being wrong that we dont wanna be right, Belski said, speaking to the issue of career risk. This message is echoed in a recent Wall Street Journal story aptly titled, Wall Street Strategists Feel Better Together in 2017. As Yahoo Finances Myles Udland reported on Wednesday, markets will be antsy as they await clarity on policy. Even the Federal Reserve is on watch for what may come of fiscal policy. And it certainly is no help that Wall Streets forecasters are similarly awaiting clarity before they decide to offer more precise guidance. Fortunately for some folks, there are a minority of Wall Street analysts willing to go out on a limb. The conditional forecast [T]here is no reason not to expect President-elect Trump to accomplish many of his primary legislative goals such as pro-growth tax reform, which we believe is at the top of the new Administrations list of policy priorities, Deutsche Bank Chief US Economist Joe LaVorgna asserted on Wednesday. Unlike Presidents Reagan and Bush, neither of whom had control of both branches of Congress, President-elect Trumps party has majorities in both the House and the Senate, he continued. Hence, it substantially raises the probability that the new president will be able achieve much of his tax goals. David Bianco, LaVorgnas colleague and Deutsche Banks Chief US Equity Strategist, has told clients the banks clients that his official forecast is for the S&P 500 to rally to 2,350 by the end of 2017 on earnings of $130 per share. However, he also offered an alternative forecast of 2,400 on $140 EPS should the incoming administration get the statutory corporate tax rate cut to 25% from 35%. Folks bidding up prices on the expectation for tax cuts will probably find some utility in Biancos scenario-based forecasts. To their credit, Belski and Golub have their money where their mouths are. For 2017, Belski expects the S&P 500 to rally to 2,350 on EPS of $134, which is the highest official EPS forecast of strategists followed by Yahoo Finance. Meanwhile, Golub is the most bullish strategist we follow with an S&P target of 2,500 target on EPS of $128. Both Belski and Golub expect 2017 to be a year where earnings estimates are gradually revised up. This post includes large excerpts from a post published on January 3, 2017. Sam Ro is managing editor at Yahoo Finance. Read more: The Houston County Board of Commissioners has approved up to $75,000 for the highway departments new service truck on Dec. 27. The current service truck has had issues with its oil leaking into its antifreeze, which has occurred three times in less than two years. The cost of repairing the trucks transmission and parts would lead to more than the truck was originally purchased for. There has been $38,000 worth of repairs already made on the 2003 vehicle. Currently, the department is looking at selling it and applying that money toward a vehicle from 2012. Id like to stay in three-year-old unused; beyond four years, dont care to go there, Commissioner Steve Schuldt said. There is a 2012 vehicle in Pennsylvania that has only 19,000 miles on it that the department plans to look into. Salaries After the previous weeks salary confusion, sheriff Mark Inglett, treasurer Donna Trehus and attorney Sam Jandt asked for a 3 percent salary increase. All other elected officials had been granted the increase last week except for the three. I can definitely justify my increase; many things have been added to the treasurers office that I can account a lot of revenue for and there are still only two of us in the office, Trehus said. A lot is done now that wasnt done before with the same people, working quite a lot of hours. Inglett added that he was confused as to why there was a discrepancy amongst the elected officials salaries. I dont understand the need to treat us any differently, he said. Im not here to say that I am underpaid because I dont feel that way, but I am well below the average for a sheriff. I am not here to ask to be put at the average which well exceeds $100,000 for sheriffs, I am just asking to be treated the same as the other elected officials. Last week, the board voted to give elected officials a zero percent increase. This was somewhat muddied when two elected officials asked for a 3 percent increase and were granted it. I made the motion for zero percent. I stand behind that and I always have, Commissioner Justin Zmyewski said. Ive talked to Mark about that. What comes in after that motion is made, we had two individuals come in and get a different outcome and they got it, different than others, and I think thats where you guys are coming from, and the second motion is making the problem. The increase is based upon an hourly equivalent basis rather than the salaries the officials receive. I have no problem for the 3 percent increase, Commissioner Teresa Walter said. My misunderstanding was that we had approved across the board the 3 percent. The motion for a consistent 3 percent increase was approved. Sheriffs business Inglett also presented a five-year contract with Motorola to lock in the price of this year. The price of this years service agreement had a 5 percent increase from last year, and this prompted the department to look into the five-year contract. Im not a big fan of maintenance agreements, but with this case, you guys are 24/7 and you positively, absolutely need this for your equipment, Schuldt said. The contract allows the departments dispatch center equipment to be a top priority for Motorola; they would have to fix it within two days. The price per year will be $11,778.12. The motion was approved. Inglett also brought forward a discussion on the potential use of a municipal lease program. Only one squad car is currently budgeted for the next year, while the sheriffs truck will also need to be replaced. My current car is just under 100,000 miles, Inglett said. The way I understand it, the resale value drops after hitting that mark. Itll be nine years old this year and the maintenance is going up on it. The lease program would allow the sheriff to get a 2017 Chevy Tahoe. With leasing, you do get a higher amount of interest and acquisition fees, he said. But the way I see it, it may be better than having a larger amount of money next year that wasnt budgeted or spread it out. We have $15,000 left over from this year that we can put down. An amount of $6,198.33 would be due every March until 2020. It would be softer on the budget than one lump sum. Its just an idea I thought I would present to board to get feedback, he said. After hearing about the lease agreement, the board agreed it would table the discussion. Inglett ended his portion of the meeting by asking for the boards approval of the annual donation to the K9 program of $5,000. The motion was approved. In other news Human services director John Pugleasa proposed that the human services accounting technician and the human services collection officer report to the fiscal officer. That would make the fiscal officer a supervisor. It changes the direct lines of supervision with two accounting staff (who) currently report directly to me, Pugleasa said. Weve been spending some time getting on top of those contracts, so having one person where that is housed makes sense to me. The motion was approved. The Community and Economic Development Associates general agreement was approved for 2017. The county receives services of 14 hours a week. The amount paid in 2016 was identical to 2015, while the 2017 agreement has a 2 percent increase to that hourly base $36,577, beginning on Jan. 3. Pugleasa presented two contracts to the board. Erik Sievers, who has historically provided clinical supervision for social workers in the areas of adult and children mental health, will be contracted in to the county. He provides a required service that has used him as a 67-day employee. It would not exceed $15,000. A group of 14 contractors, for guardianships and conservatorships, was approved to be given $120 a month. The county pays the difference of the $120 with whatever public assistance will cover. The motion was approved. Finance director Carol Lapham presented budget amendments that needed to be approved on the 2016 budget. The net projections will reduce the budget deficit $83,527 from around $200,000. The meeting ended with the board going over 2016 budgetary items and the adoption of the 2017 budget. Kim Kardashian's return to Instagram has the social media world in a tizzy. The reality star posted her first photo on Jan. 3 after taking a break from a steady stream of image sharing in the aftermath of being robbed during Paris Fashion Week in October. Since then, she's posted four blurry images and a grainy video of children and family that has The New York Times weighing in on how Kardashian is stage-managing her unreal reality a la Donald Trump and The Cut calling the video "more Kennedy than Kardashian in its carefully-curated domestic myth-making." A photo posted by Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian) on Jan 4, 2017 at 9:54am PST A deglamourized montage of candid moments with Kanye West and the kids - first steps, juice boxes and toddler spit-up - set to Jeremih's "Paradise," the video reminds me a bit of Beyonce's Lemonade in its raw truthiness and could signal a new beginning for the star. pic.twitter.com/OnhF8d9rMV - Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) January 4, 2017 The Instagram snaps seem to be in the same hazy nostalgic style. Of course, when it comes to style, Kardashian leads, and people, including her nearly 90 million followers, want to know the secret to the blur. For some clarity, I reached out to a few Hollywood and fashion image makers. A photo posted by Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian) on Jan 5, 2017 at 9:23am PST "If you look at her whole Instagram, she's playing with negative space and using the whole page by posting several images in the same style," says L.A.-based events and advertising photographer Stefanie Keenan. "She's using Instagram more as an artistic expression, and it's more intimate." "She may have felt like she needed to switch things up a bit, and she's done that," says New York-based fashion and runway photographer Jonas Gustavsson. "Her shots are slightly off-kilter in composition and angles. They look like slightly untrained-photographer family photos from the '80s. She might have a new assistant or friend shooting for her." Story continues As for how Kardashian is creating the blurry effect, he says, "It could be one of many things. She might be shooting them on Snapchat, filtering them and then importing them into Instagram and filtering them again, thus the heavy, blurry almost grainy film look." "She does tend to be very uniform in her approach to how she shoots and what filters she uses, so one can only assume she will be using this approach for a while. She may also have an inside track to a filter that Instagram or Snapchat will be releasing soon," says Gustavsson. Happy Holidays pic.twitter.com/fxLFQQWJG7 - KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) December 27, 2016 Others wonder if she could be digitally photographing old-school film prints. "It certainly has that look. Using film is very trendy right now, for reasons that are beyond me," says Gustavsson. "It looks to me like they were shot with a Polaroid camera and afterward re-photographed with the phone," says L.A.-based photographer and Getty lensman Donato Sardella "I'm starting to see more people carrying the old Polaroid cameras. I saw the stylist Jeanne Yang taking Polaroids at a Dior event a couple weeks ago. I think people like the old vintage look of photos from the past--that they are real and not digitally-manipulated," added Sardella. Hubby West may be the architect behind Kardashian's new posting style. About six weeks ago, he posted 99 blurry Maison Martin Margiela look-book photos on his Instagram, some of which include his finger in the shot. His holiday photo on Twitter also had a hazy look. A photo posted by Kanye West (@kanyewest) on Nov 20, 2016 at 3:57pm PST To create your own Kardashian-like images, Keenan suggests using Photoshop's Gaussian Blur, followed by a purple and blue filter. "It creates an intimate feeling," says Keenan, who likens Kardashian's and West's current social media visual style to that of famous photographers Terry Richardson and Nan Goldin. A photo posted by Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian) on Jan 5, 2017 at 9:29am PST - By Subia Khan Hornbeck Offshore Services (HOS) and its subsidiaries provide marine transportation, subsea installation and accommodation support services to exploration and production, oilfield service, offshore construction and U.S. military customers. The company operates offshore supply vessels (OSVs) and multi-purpose support vessels (MPSVs). Further, it provides logistics support and specialty services to the offshore oil and gas exploration and production industry in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, Latin America and internationally. Hornbeck Offshore currently has 62 new generation OSVs and six MPSVs in their operating fleet. Upstream outlook According to the Energy Information Administration, worldwide consumption of oil and gas will rise from around 80 million barrels per day in 2016 to around 100 million barrels per day by 2020. The decline in current production needs to be replenished to meet the forecasted consumption levels. This would drive the drilling industry. Large discoveries of hydrocarbons in deepwater regions further act as a driver for the drilling industry. Also, since deepwater wells are at a greater distance from the shore of the Gulf of Mexico and Brazil, with transit time ranging from six to 24 hours, companies like Hornbeck Offshore would be well positioned to meet the logistically demanding projects. Aggressive stacking strategy Hornbeck has been aggressively involved in the stacking of its new generation OSVs. As of Sept. 30, the company has already stacked 75% of its fleet. This is primarily to withstand the unstable economic condition and volatility in the oil and gas industry. Stacking will help reduce operating expenses from between $500 to $1,500 per day per vessel and improve their EBITDA margin. At the same time, it will defer cash outlays for vessel dry dockings until markets recover. Moreover, the company currently aims to capture the market share by working on downsizing their fleet, which would help them to materialize their existing fleet and also meet the challenge of re-entry. Market diversification and blue-chip customers What I like about Hornbeck is the company's urge to meet the need of its customers. This is reflected in the company's aim to develop cutting-edge technologies for the fleet and hiring people who would meet the goal of being the industry's company of choice. The company also has a well-diversified market strategy to cater to different sections of the industry. The company is geographically present in five markets with a majority of its presence in the Gulf of Mexico. Hornbeck also operates in four different service lines with a primary focus on oilfield supply, followed by oilfield specialty and military service contracts. For fiscal 2016, the company estimates 64% of its revenue is from integrated U.S. oil companies. Therefore, I believe contracts with blue-chip companies and the U.S government would provide stability and have a positive impact on the company's revenue generation. Financials and liquidity From a financial perspective, the company has been generating gross and operating margins better than industry peers. Considering tight market conditions and volatile oil prices, I believe Hornbeck has been successful in creating margins better than its peers. Investors need not worry about the company's high debt of $1.08 billion. The company has sufficient liquidity to meet its short-term obligations. The net book value of Hornbeck is 3.1 times its debt, which provides ample asset buffer for debt holders. As of Sept. 30, Hornbeck had total liquidity of $425 million. This comprises $225 million of cash and cash equivalents and $200 million of an undrawn revolving credit facility. With no debt maturity until 2019, the company has sufficient liquidity to meet its capital expenditure requirements in fiscal 2017. Conclusion With one of the youngest fleets in operation, the company has a leading presence in its core markets. With improving oil prices, Hornbeck will have the confidence to increase its capital expenditures, ultimately leading to more contracts for drillers. Thus, I believe Hornbeck will be back on track if OEPC continues to cut its production and oil prices rise further. In my view, investors can consider accumulating this stock in small portions on any correction in the broad markets. Disclosure: No position in the stock discussed. Start a free 7-day trial of Premium Membership to GuruFocus. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. For the fourth time in recent years, many members of the House will take part in a public reading of the Constitution in Congress on Thursday morning. C-SPAN is expected to broadcast the reading at 10:00 am local time in Washington, D.C. And as in past years, there could be a few bumps along the way in the proceeding. When the event first happened in 2011, in the aftermath of the Tea Partys win in the 2010 midterm elections, the 84-minute ceremony was preceded by bickering and followed by public criticism about the version of the Constitution read by the House. There was a brief floor debate started by then-Representative Jessie Jackson Jr. about the proposed omission of the Three-Fifths Compromise, which is found in Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3 of the Constitution. It was of consequence to us, Jackson argued about the compromise in 1787 that counted slaves as three-fifths of the population for voting and taxation purposes. At time, the version obtained by Representative Robert W. Goodlatte of Virginia was the amended version of the Constitution. Goodlatte said he consulted with the Congressional Research Service and the Library of Congress on the exact text. The amended or edited version removes passages that were superseded by constitutional amendments. Members of the Republican and Democratic parties took part in that first reading, and they accidentally skipped two other sections when they double-turned a page. The Washington Post followed the event and found that seven significant passages were omitted from the reading, including the 18th Amendment, which established Prohibition. Democrats James E. Clyburn of South Carolina and Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland also objected to using an edited version of the Constitution in 2011. The Constitution is the basis of our laws, but it is also a historical document whose text demonstrates the potential for growth present from the beginnings of our nation. While portions of the Constitution have been amended, those portions have not been deleted, nor have they been excised from history, he said in a statement. Story continues John Lewis of Georgia, a civil rights movement figure, has read the 13th Amendment, as recently as in 2015. Two years ago, many of the House members chosen to read from the Constitution made sure their constituents knew it, via Twitter. Recent Stories on Constitution Daily Timing of Trumps Supreme Court nominee could be historic 10 Supreme Court cases to watch in 2017 Historically, odds were stacked against any President seeking a third term Supporters have donated thousands of dollars to help a mentally disabled Chicago teenager who was seen on disturbing Facebook Live video being beaten and taunted while tied up. Hundreds of people as of Thursday evening have given more than $16,000 to go toward the unidentified young man who was bloody, bound and gagged while his attackers menaced him, sliced up his clothing with a knife, forced him to drink from a toilet, repeatedly called him out for being white and invoked the name of President-elect Donald Trump. For those of you that have seen the horrific torture and trauma recently inflicted on a young man in Chicago, it is not something you will soon forget, Razor Sheldon, who is organizing the fundraiser from California, wrote on the page. The perpetrators have been apprehended and hopefully swift justice will be served. But lets take an opportunity now to show this young man and his family some financial support during this difficult time of recovery and let him know there are many out there that are here for him. It wasnt immediately clear Thursday when or whether the funds would reach the family. Both Sheldon and GoFundMe were trying to contact the victims family to ensure theyd receive the money. The 18-year-old victim has not yet been publicly identified. Police said he goes to school with of one of the attackers and went with that person voluntarily at first. The suspectsJordan Hill, 18, Tesfaye Cooper, 18, Brittany Covington, 18, and Tanishia Covington, 24were charged Thursday with multiple crimes, including hate crime, aggravated kidnapping, robbery and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. They are set to appear in bond court Friday, prosecutors said. James Baldwin was one of the Civil Rights eras most fiercely outspoken voices, a friend of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Medgar Evers all of whom were assassinated in the 1960s whose fiery writing on the subject of race made him a controversial firebrand. His prose takes center stage in the new documentary I Am Not Your Negro, and in advance of the films upcoming theatrical debut (after an awards-season qualifying run in select markets), its now released its bracing first trailer, which you can watch above. Related: Ava DuVernay on Importance of Her Prison Doc 13th: Black People Should Have More Than a Steady Diet of Marvel Movies The promo accurately reflects both the anger and mournfulness of director Raoul Pecks non-fiction effort (it was on my list of 2016s ten best documentaries for Esquire). With Samuel L. Jackson reading passages from Baldwins work in a low, gravely tone that suggests weariness and fury in equal measure, I Am Not Your Negro lays out Baldwins thoughts on the historical and present (circa 1960s) oppression of African-Americans at the hands of their white countrymen. Bolstered by video interviews of its subject as well as a wealth of archival material, the resulting film is less a straightforward biopic of Baldwin than an incisive peek inside his mind and at his worldview. Related: 13th, Gleason Lead Critics Choice Documentary Nominations After its well-received premieres at last years Toronto International Film Festival and New York Film Festival, as well as early-December runs in New York and L.A., I Am Not Your Negro will arrive at theaters across the country on Feb. 3. I Am Not Your Negro: Watch the previous teaser trailer: By Manoj Kumar and Mayank Bhardwaj (Reuters) - India is resisting tech giant Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) demand for tax incentives to make iPhones in the country, with the trade minister saying on Thursday that the government may not make exceptions for the U.S. company. Apple wants to open its own stores in India, but has been asked by the government to locally source at least some of the components, as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's bid to boost manufacturing in the country. Apple has sought tax concessions, including lower import and manufacturing duties, to make iPhones locally, according to a government official familiar with the situation. Trade Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said if India were to agree to any concessions, they would likely apply to all smartphone manufacturers, and not just Apple. Apple declined to comment. Apple's Chief Executive Tim Cook met Modi last May to talk about its plans to enter the Indian manufacturing and retail space. Cupertino, California-based Apple wants to boost iPhone sales in India, where it has only a roughly 2 percent market share, as sales in the United States and China slow. Smartphone component maker Wistron Corp (3231.TW), which counts Apple among its customers, has applied for permission to expand its plant in Bengaluru, a regional government official told Reuters on Monday. The tech giant had earlier asked for a permanent relaxation of rules requiring 30 percent local sourcing for foreign retailers setting up single-brand outlets, which was rejected by the finance ministry. India has relaxed these rules for just three years for single-brand foreign investors. India had also refused to allow Apple's proposal to import and sell refurbished mobile phones in India. The company has again sought a permanent waiver from local sourcing condition as it imports most of the handsets to sell in India and other countries, another official said. India offers capital subsidies for companies manufacturing electronics goods in India, coupled with tax incentives for investments in special economic zones and allows tax-free imports of some components used to make mobile handsets. "We have sent Apple's file to the revenue department," a top industry department official told Reuters. He said an inter-ministerial panel of the trade, electronics and finance ministry could take a final decision. (Additional reporting by Sankalp Phartiyal in MUMBAI; Editing by Susan Thomas and Mark Potter) SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd has set an initial production target of 10 million Galaxy S8 smartphones, South Korea's Electronic Times reported on Thursday, citing unnamed sources. Samsung is counting on the S8 to rejuvenate sales after it scrapped the Galaxy Note 7 smartphones last year in one of the biggest product safety failures in tech history. The firm has yet to disclose what caused some Note 7 phones to catch fire on their own. The newspaper said the world's top smartphone maker would start production in March and planned to start selling them in April. Galaxy S7 phones went on sale in March last year. A Samsung spokesman said the company did not comment on speculation. (Reporting by Se Young Lee; Editing by Nick Macfie) Two letters of recommendation and a one-page essay are what led Cassie Buehler, a safety and training officer with the La Crescent Fire Department, and Sandy Graves, director of Neighbors in Action, to San Antonio, Texas, in mid-November. They attended a conference Nov. 14-16 hosted by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) entitled Remembering When: A Fire and Fall Prevention Program for Older Adults. I had been talking to the fire chief about the increased number of calls and lift assists that we have been responding to, Buehler said. The fire chief then forwarded her an email about the conference that the organization had sent to him. I looked into it and I am familiar with Neighbors in Action, so I contacted Sandy and we wrote the scholarship application, she said. The requirements to attend the event, which had a deadline of Aug. 15, included the written documents and the fire departments collaboration with an organization in the community that focuses on the elderly. For Buehler, Graves and Neighbors in Action was the right choice. Our (Neighbors in Actions) goal is to keep the elderly in their home, Graves said. Thirty percent of people over the age of 65 are involved in a fall that results in injury or death. The NFPAs goal is to reduce that number. Buehler has volunteered with Neighbors in Action for years, along with many other organizations, including the American Red Cross. She also works as a nurse at Gundersen Health System. Thirty-four percent of medical calls that we respond to are due to falls and lift assists; its a large proportion, Buehler said. We want to have a proactive approach rather than a responsive one. The conference, which is open to people from all 50 states and Canada, has been hosted for the past 10 years. The two days are packed with workshops, networking and practical information. All costs were covered by the scholarship, valued at about $4,500 each. There are 16 keyseight focused on fall/home safety and eight focused on fire safetythat are taught to the participants. Those keys can range from anything like being aware of uneven surfaces to planning your escape routes around your abilities. After the conference, the participants are supposed to bring back the keys they learned to their community in the form of group presentations and home visits. Graves and Buehler have their first group presentation planned for Feb. 7 at 1 p.m. at the La Crescent Community Center. We have a vision, we just have to get there, Buehler said. What I liked the most were the people who attended last year and showed us how they implemented it into the community one year later. The logistics of home visits are still being worked out, but Buehler and Graves ask anyone interested, whether they are an elderly person, a family member or caregiver, to call Graves at Neighbors in Action. We will be going into homes and assessing their risks, Graves said. We want to put together some more resources. We want to be able to get some grab bars and smoke detectors and install them for free before we leave. That way, they will literally be safer when we leave. The American Red Cross has already offered to give out free fire detectors. Graves and Buehler are focused on all of Houston County; they are trying to organize group presentations in La Crescent and Caledonia. The duo will have to check in with NFPA in six months with the progress that they have madehow many group presentations they have hosted and how many people they have reached. They will check in again in 12 months. These are not uncommon challenges, Graves said. The older we get, its easier to become complacent. Graves shared a story about her dental hygienists in-law falling six times; he is around 92 years old. Hes losing his muscle strength. You dont think about it as a big deal, but it makes sense, she said. If you are at the point of risk, there are resources we can suggest; we want to keep you in your home. Thats our mission to give you resources so you can age safely. If you are interested in attending a group presentation or having a home visit, or both, call Graves at 895-5155. They are also looking for volunteers to help install fire detectors and grab bars in homes. Anyone is welcome to attend the group presentations. This case was featured on Monday nights People Magazine Investigates. Now go deeper with PEOPLEs complete digital coverage. For the past 47 years, former Green Beret surgeon Jeffrey MacDonalds account of what happened the night his entire family was murdered has remained the same. MacDonald has said four intruders killed his wife, Colette, 26, and daughters Kimberley, 5, and Kristen, 2, at their Fort Bragg, North Carolina, home on Feb. 17, 1970. One of the intruders, he has said, was a woman with long blonde hair, wearing a floppy hat, holding what appeared to be a candle and chanting, Acid is groovy. Kill the pigs. When military police arrived at their home, MacDonald was lying next to his wife in their bedroom; he says hed been trying in vain to resuscitate her and their two daughters. He was unconscious, with head injuries, several stab wounds and a partially collapsed lung. But three months later, the Army charged MacDonald with three counts of murder. Though ultimately cleared after a six-week hearing, MacDonald was charged again in 1975, this time by federal prosecutors. In August 1979, a jury found him guilty and he was sentenced to three consecutive life terms. WATCH: Exclusive clip from People Magazine Investigates: The Accused MacDonalds case was the focus of the People Magazine Investigates season finale, The Accused, which aired Monday night on Investigation Discovery. To this day, debate still rages over MacDonalds guilt. On Jan. 26, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments on MacDonalds claims of innocence. Watch the full episode of People Magazine Investigates After Show, streaming now on People/Entertainment Weekly Network (PEN). Go to PEOPLE.com/PEN, or download the app for Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xumo, Chromecast, Xfinity, iOS and Android devices. Over the past 37 years, MacDonald and his defense team have accumulated what they hope is enough evidence to exonerate him. Some of it is from the governments own files and obtained via Freedom of Information Act requests, but none of it was heard by the jury that convicted him. A website started in 2000 by his second wife, Kathryn MacDonald, yielded some of the new witnesses for the appeal. Story continues The newly discovered evidence includes: DNA tests on hairs found beneath one of Kristens fingernails, on her bedspread and beneath his wife; blonde wig hairs, 22 and 24 inches long, which the defense believes might match the female intruder MacDonald described; candle wax; black wool fibers found on one of the murder weapons, Colettes biceps and her mouth that dont match anything in the home and multiple alleged confessions from two different suspects. Both Helena Stoeckley and Greg Mitchell, who were boyfriend and girlfriend at the time, confessed their involvement to multiple people up until their deaths in the early 1980s. Related: 5 Things to Know About the Case and Its Twists and Turns U.S. Attorney John Bruce declined to comment on the specifics of the case, saying in a statement to PEOPLE: When cases are pending court proceedings, it is the practice of our office to litigate the case in court through evidence and argument in hearings and in written filings with the court rather than through the news media. With President-elect Donald Trump leveling near-daily attacks against the intelligence community and its conclusion that Russia intervened in the U.S. election, American spy chiefs finally fired back Thursday, trooping to Capitol Hill to insist that the Kremlin directed the hacking and leaking campaign. We assess that only Russias senior-most officials could have authorized the recent election-focused data thefts and disclosures, based on the scope and sensitivity of the targets, James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, said in a joint statement with National Security Agency Director Michael Rogers and Marcel Lettre, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence. Clapper said Thursday that the evidence backing the intelligence communitys findings that Russia directed the campaign has only grown stronger since the election. I think there is an important distinction here between healthy skepticism which policymakers to include policymaker No. 1 should always have on intelligence, but I think theres a difference between skepticism and disparagement, Clapper added, in a thinly veiled reference to Trump and his repeated denigration of the intelligence communitys conclusions. On Thursday, multiple media outlets reported that Trump was expected to tap former Indiana Sen. Dan Coats to be director of national intelligence, installing a relative novice at the head of a body some Trump advisors want to gut. A former ambassador to Germany and four-term congressman before entering the upper chamber, Coats served on the Senate Intelligence Committee before his retirement this year. Trump advisors have floated a plan to strip the office Coats will lead of funding and perhaps to also make cuts at the CIA, reforms that Coats may lack the experience to effectively carry out. If youre going to do some surgery, you need to understand how it works, said a former senior intelligence official, adding that Coatss predecessors have typically had experience serving as intelligence officers. Story continues In one way, though, Coatss selection marks a surprising turn: He has been tough on Russia after its 2014 invasion of Crimea. While Trump urged closer ties to Moscow, and cabinet picks like ExxonMobil boss Rex Tillerson, tapped for secretary of state, have been lukewarm on Russian sanctions, Coats pushed for tougher action than President Barack Obamas administration wanted. That could set up additional clashes between Russia hawks and doves inside the Trump camp. U.S. intelligence officials will release next week an unclassified copy of a report examining Russias election interference, which was commissioned by the White House, Clapper said Thursday in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee. But in his testimony, Clapper refused to go beyond his prior public statements on the issue and offered scant clues as to the contents of the forthcoming report. Trump views blaming Russia for interfering in the U.S. election as an attempt to undermine the legitimacy of his victory, and the next flash point in that conflict will come next week when intelligence officials make public the report. The forthcoming report, Clapper said, will show Moscows broader strategy, a multipronged campaign that spanned hacking, leaking information, propaganda, and fake news stories. Private cybersecurity researchers largely agree with the intelligence communitys findings. Russian operatives, including intelligence agencies and RT, the Russian state-funded news outlet, used any fissure they could find in our tapestry and exploited it to their benefit, Clapper said. The hearing highlighted some of the divisions between the Republican president-elect and GOP lawmakers. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the chair of the Armed Services Committee, convened the hearing, though cyberissues usually fall under the purview of the Senate Intelligence Committee, headed by Trump ally Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.). Unless we demonstrate that the costs of attacking the United States outweigh the perceived benefits, these cyberattacks will only grow, McCain said. In recent days, Trump has sided with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in questioning Russias responsibility for the hack. Assanges website published the stolen Democratic National Committee emails, and Reuters reported Thursday that U.S. officials determined after the election that Russia passed the stolen information on to WikiLeaks through a third party. On Thursday, Clapper struck back at the Australian exile as an enemy of the United States. Hes holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London because hes under indictment, I believe, by the Swedish government for a sexual crime, Clapper said. (Assange is wanted for questioning over rape allegations but is not under indictment.) Assanges disclosures, Clapper said, have routinely put people at risk. I dont think those of us in the intelligence community have a whole lot of respect for him, he said. On Thursday, Trump tried to downplay his conflict with the intelligence community, despite a tweet storm calling into question U.S. spooks conclusions about the hacks. The media lies to make it look like I am against Intelligence when in fact I am a big fan! he tweeted. Trump will be briefed on the White House report Friday, hard on the heels of reports that he is considering cutting funding for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and possibly for the CIA. Clapper said Thursday that he had not been contacted by the Trump team on those plans. Sean Spicer, a Trump spokesman, denied the Wednesday report in the Wall Street Journal that Trumps transition team is planning aggressive intelligence reform. Trumps repeated questioning of the intelligence communitys findings hurts morale among the 17 different agencies, Clapper said. I havent done a climate survey, but I hardly think it helps it, he noted. I dont want to lose good, motivated people because they feel theres not room for them to contribute, Rogers added. Some GOP lawmakers, like McCain, are pressing for tougher actions against Moscow, not accommodation. The Obama administration expelled diplomats and sanctioned some Russian intelligence officials, but critics want more. I think what Obama did was throw a pebble. Im ready to throw a rock, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Thursday. Clapper appeared to endorse such a move. Im a big fan of sanctions against the Russians, but thats just me, he said. But just how to deter adversaries remains a topic of debate among U.S. officials and cybersecurity experts. Clapper argued Thursday that it is difficult to create the substance and psychology of deterrence in cyberspace, because the risks of using the weapons are poorly understood. Unlike nuclear weapons, hacks leave no devastating mushroom cloud as in Hiroshima, making bad actors like Iran and North Korea more likely to use potentially destabilizing cyberweapons. They view it as a relatively low-cost act that can cause havoc, Clapper said. They keep pushing the envelope as their capabilities improve. Photo credit: JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images London (AFP) - Letters handwritten by the late Princess Diana, including one describing how her son Prince Harry was "constantly in trouble", sold for 15,100 ($18,600, 17,500 euros) at a London auction on Thursday. Among the six letters sent to royal butler Cyril Dickman in the 1980s and 1990s was a note describing how her eldest son Prince William showered Harry with "an endless supply of hugs and kisses" when he was a newborn. The notes, described as "the private letters between a trusted butler and the royal family", went on sale at Cheffins auction house in central London. In a letter written five days after Harry's 1984 birth, Diana wrote it was a "particularly happy time". "William adores his little brother and spends the entire time swamping Harry with an endless supply of hugs and kisses, hardly letting the parents near!" she wrote. Diana, who died in a car crash in Paris in 1997, told Dickman of Harry's discipline problems ahead of a 1992 trip to Asia. "The boys are well and enjoying boarding school a lot, although Harry is constantly in trouble!" she wrote. "We are off to Korea in November for a visit so a good place to do the Christmas shopping!" The complete collection of 40 lots, including Christmas cards, a piece of cake from the Queen Elizabeth II's 1947 wedding and a note sent from the queen, achieved 55,000 in total. Dickman was a much-respected figure in Buckingham Palace before his retirement in 1992, and is credited with helping Diana deal with the death of her father in the same year. On his retirement, the princess wrote: "Cyril, you will be greatly missed by this particular Lady -- thank you from the bottom of my heart for being so kind to me throughout the years and take great care of yourself, fondest love from Diana x." Dickman died in 2012, aged 85. IRVINE, CA / ACCESSWIRE / January 5, 2016 / Khang & Khang LLP (the "Firm") announces that it is investigating claims against Rent-A-Center, Inc. ("Rent-A-Center" or the "Company") (RCII) concerning possible violations of federal securities laws. If you purchased shares of Rent-A-Center and want more information, and a free consultation, please contact Joon M. Khang, Esquire, of Khang & Khang, 18101 Von Karman Avenue, 3rd Floor, Irvine, CA 92612, by telephone: (949) 419-3834, or by e-mail at joon@khanglaw.com. The investigation concerns whether Rent-A-Center and certain of its officers and/or directors violated federal securities laws. On July 28, 2016, Rent-A-Center announced that issues with its new Point-of-Sale ("POS") system were fixed and alleviated. On October 11, 2016, the Company announced it was experiencing issues with the POS system which would have a negative effect on its sales. If you have any questions concerning this notice or your rights, please contact Joon M. Khang, a prominent litigator for almost two decades, by telephone: (949) 419-3834, or by e-mail at joon@khanglaw.com. This press release may constitute Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions. Contacts Joon M. Khang, Esq. Telephone: 949-419-3834 Facsimile: 949-225-4474 joon@khanglaw.com SOURCE: Khang & Khang LLP TEHRAN, Iran (AP) The lawyer of an imprisoned Iranian activist who just ended a 71-day hunger strike says his client has yet to be taken to a hospital. Lawyer Amir Raisian told The Associated Press on Thursday that Arash Sadeghi remained at Evin prison despite judicial officials approving his transfer to a hospital. Raisian said prison authorities had offered no reason why Sadeghi had not been transferred, though he remained "hopeful" his client would be moved soon. Sadeghi is serving a 15-year prison sentence for several charges. He ended his hunger strike Tuesday after his wife, imprisoned in a separate case, won a temporary release. Amnesty International has criticized the delay in Sadeghi's transfer, saying he "must receive specialized, urgent and potentially life-saving treatment without any further delay." Tehran (AFP) - Iran has hit back at "unconstructive" Turkish allegations that Tehran's allies were violating a fragile ceasefire in Syria, accusing rebels of breaking the truce. "The current ceasefire in Syria has been violated repeatedly by the anti-government armed opposition groups," foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said Wednesday. "(Turkey) should take necessary measures to deal with several instances of ceasefire violation by these groups and at the same time refrain from taking unreal stances and accusing other parties." He was responding to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who on Wednesday accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government of violating a ceasefire Ankara brokered with regime backer Moscow last week. Cavusoglu warned that the "violations" were jeopardising planned peace talks in Kazakhstan later this month. Ghasemi criticised the "unconstructive remarks" and said they could "further complicate the current situation" in Syria. Despite backing opposite sides in the conflict, Ankara and Moscow have worked closely to broker the ceasefire and plan the Astana talks, which Cavusoglu said could take place on January 23. Regime ally Iran is also involved in organising the talks, and top official Alaeddin Boroujerdi was in Damascus on Wednesday for talks with Assad. Lydia Bashaw has surely conquered challenging university courses and tough professors, as she is a recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point with a degree in environmental education and interpretation. She faced a different kind of challenge before Christmas, as she ventured to Crucifixion School in La Crescent on Dec. 21 to teach the elementary-aged students more about adaptations of animals and the environment. Bashaw had been in the school a week prior as part of a show-and-tell activity for her niece, who is in preschool at Crucifixion. After she led a few activities for the students in that class, she was invited back as a guest speaker for the older students in the school. Bashaw was happy to return. Its really important that we instill these environmental values in kids at a young age because its been proven that if they have this exposure at a young age, it continues into adulthood and we know that our planet is in jeopardy right now, she said. Bashaw spoke to the students about a variety of topics, including adaptations of different animals in order to survive tough Minnesota winters. She brought animal hides with her, including that of a deer, raccoon and muskrat. Some students couldnt believe that some of the animals had hair that was hollow, and others just wanted to talk about the fun animals like crocodiles and elephants. A few shared stories about their dogs. As long as the kids learned something new, Bashaw is happy with her presentation. I just hope that they learn something new and share it with others because the more that we pass these things around, the more we will all learn together, she said. Kindergarten teacher Janine Ausdemore said the presentation was a big hit with her students. Anytime kindergartners can move around and see the real thing, they learn so much more, she said. We have been studying hibernation and animals, so the fit was there. I want them to respect and love nature. The more they learn and understand, it will strengthen that love for nature. Bashaw will be moving to Lake Superior, where she will work at Lutsen Resort as an activities guide, giving tours and teaching about the environment, animals, geology and more. Shes worked at the resort in the past. Before she left, however, she was glad she could install some information into the minds of the future patrons of the planet. She had some words for adults, too. We all need to have some sort of environmental value, whether its using reusable grocery bags, shutting off the water while you brush your teeth, or even just taking your kids out for a walk every week to see the environment. Baghdad (AFP) - Iraqi forces launched an offensive against the Islamic State group near the Syrian border Thursday, piling further pressure on the jihadists' crumbling "caliphate". Baghdad and its allies also turned up the heat on IS in its last remaining Iraqi stronghold of Mosul, where the US-led coalition said it had doubled the number of its advisors. "A military operation has begun in the western areas of Anbar (province) to liberate them from Daesh," said Lieutenant General Qassem Mohammedi, head of Jazeera Operations Command, using an Arabic acronym for IS. He said the operation was led by the army's 7th division, police, and fighters from local tribes that have opposed the jihadists, with aerial backing from the coalition. The main targets of the operation are Aanah, Rawa and Al-Qaim, the westernmost Iraqi towns along the Euphrates Valley. The jihadist hub of Al-Qaim, which lies 330 kilometres (200 miles) northwest of Baghdad, is still a long way down the road and the most immediate target is the town of Aanah. "Our forces started advancing from Haditha towards Aanah from several directions," Mohammedi told AFP. Haditha was never seized by IS when the group swept across much of Iraq's Sunni Arab heartland in 2014 and is home to a tribe that has led the fight against the jihadists in the area. "Zero hour has come to liberate the western areas," Nadhom al-Jughaifi, a commander with the Haditha tribal fighters, said. In 2016, Iraqi forces retook large parts of the vast province of Anbar, including its capital Ramadi and the city of Fallujah. Anbar is a desert area traversed by the Euphrates that borders Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria. Security in reconquered areas remains precarious and jihadists continue to move across the province. - '200,000 buildings' - IS has lost more than half of the territory it once controlled in Iraq and the loss of Mosul would deal a major blow to the "caliphate" it proclaimed there in June 2014. Story continues Tens of thousands of Iraqi forces are currently involved in an offensive to retake the main northern city, which is also IS's last major stronghold in the country. The operation launched on October 17 is Iraq's largest in years and while significant territory was reconquered around Mosul, the going has been tough inside the city itself. After a lull in operations, Iraqi forces launched a fresh push last week and appear to have found new momentum. "Iraqi security forces have made significant progress since initiating phase two of their operation to liberate Mosul," Colonel John Dorrian, the coalition's spokesman, said on Wednesday. He said that was partly owed to increased coalition involvement in the battle, with a doubling of the deployment of advisors there to about 450. "We have increased the number of advise and assist forces that are there with the ISF (Iraqi Security Forces) command elements to help advise them as they move forward and to synchronise operations," he said. On Wednesday alone, coalition aircraft conducted seven strikes in the Mosul area, destroying a large number of IS targets, including five buildings, four mortar positions, four fighting positions, and damaging 27 supply routes. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi promised that his forces would rid Iraq of IS by the end of 2016 but commanders have admitted they were surprised at how stiff jihadist resistance was in the city. According to a top commander in the Counter-Terrorism Service that has spearheaded the battle in Mosul, Iraqi forces have now retaken about two thirds of the city's eastern half. Dorrian said the presence inside the city of hundreds of thousands of civilians had slowed progress. "There are more than 200,000 buildings in Mosul. And really, in order to do this properly, given the way that the enemy has conducted themselves, you end up having to clear each one," he told reporters. By Stephen Kalin and Isabel Coles ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi forces have retaken around 70 percent of eastern Mosul from Islamic State militants and expect to reach the river bisecting the city in the coming days, Iraq's joint operations commander told Reuters. Lieutenant General Talib Shaghati, who is also head of the elite counter-terrorism service (CTS) spearheading the campaign to retake the northern city, said the cooperation of residents was helping them advance against Islamic State. In its 12th week, the offensive has gained momentum since Iraqi forces backed by a U.S.-led coalition renewed their push for the city a week ago, clearing several more eastern districts despite fierce resistance. "Roughly 65-70 percent of the eastern side has been liberated," Shaghati said in an interview late on Wednesday in the Kurdish capital of Erbil. "I think in the coming few days we will see the full liberation of the eastern side". The western half of the city remains under the full control of Islamic State, which is fighting to hold on to its largest urban stronghold with snipers and suicide car bombs numbering "in the hundreds" according to Shaghati. The Mosul assault, involving a 100,000-strong ground force of Iraqi government troops, members of the autonomous Kurdish security forces and mainly Shi'ite militiamen, is the most complex battle in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. The commander of a U.S.-led coalition backing the Iraqi offensive told Reuters on Wednesday that increased momentum was due largely to better coordination among the army and security forces. He said the Iraqis had improved their ability to defend against Islamic State car bombs. Although vastly outnumbered, the militants have used the urban terrain to their advantage, concealing car bombs in narrow alleys, posting snipers on tall buildings with civilians on lower floors and making tunnels and surface-level passageways between buildings. They have also embedded themselves among the local population. HUMAN SHIELDS The presence of large numbers of civilians on the battlefield has restricted Iraqi forces' use of artillery but the cooperation of residents has also helped them target the militants. "They give us information about the location of the terrorists, their movements and weapons that has helped us pursue them and arrest some and kill others," Shaghati said. In the run-up to the Mosul offensive, Iraqi officials expressed hope that residents would rise up against Islamic State, accelerating the group's demise in the city. But mass executions seem to have discouraged widespread resistance. An Iraqi victory in Mosul would probably spell the end for Islamic State's self-styled caliphate, which leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared 2-1/2 years ago from Mosul's main mosque after the militants overran the city. But in recent days, the militants have displayed the tactics to which they are likely to resort if they lose the city, killing dozens with bombs in Baghdad and attacking security forces elsewhere. An attack claimed by Islamic State killed six people on Thursday on the capital's eastern outskirts. CTS pushed into Mosul from the east in late October and made swift advances but regular army troops tasked with advancing from the north and south made slower progress and the operation stalled for several weeks. The roughly 10,000 members of CTS, established a decade ago with support from the U.S. forces, are considered the best-trained and equipped fighters in Iraq. Shaghati described the role of the international coalition, providing air support and advising Iraqi forces on the ground as "outstanding" and said Islamic State was crumbling under pressure. "Daesh (Islamic State) devised many plans to obstruct and block us but they failed. We were able to surpass them and these areas were liberated with high speed," Shaghati said. "We have intelligence that (Islamic State) leaders and their families are fleeing outside Iraq." (Writing by Isabel Coles; Editing by Janet Lawrence) Jerusalem (AFP) - Israel's attorney general has given his approval for an indictment against an Arab Israeli lawmaker accused of smuggling mobile phones to Palestinian prisoners, the justice ministry said Thursday. Basel Ghattas of the Joint List, a coalition of Arab Israeli parties, was detained last month and has been under house arrest since December 27 until a court released him from house arrest later Thursday. He is to be charged with the use of property for terrorist purposes and breach of public trust, among other accusations, the ministry said in a statement. Israeli media have reported that 12 mobile phones were found on two separate prisoners in searches after the 60-year-old parliament member visited. One of the prisoners is serving time for the kidnapping and murder of an Israeli soldier in 1984, news site Ynet reported. Ghattas is suspected of using his parliamentary immunity to avoid being searched in order to smuggle in the phones. In a recorded message to Channel 10 television, Ghattas accused the police of attempting to contaminate the legal process by leaking to the media details of the investigation. Ghattas reiterated he had not handed telephones or any other form of communication. "Everything I gave was printed material, for humanitarian reasons," he said on Thursday. Arab lawmakers from the Joint List, the third largest force in parliament with 13 seats, frequently clash with Israel's leaders. Arab Israelis make up some 17.5 percent of the country's population, and are descended from Palestinians who remained on their land after the creation of Israel in 1948. JERUSALEM (AP) Police questioned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday for the second time over allegations that he improperly accepted gifts from wealthy supporters, pressing ahead with a probe that has threatened to challenge his long leadership of Israel's government. Netanyahu has adamantly denied wrongdoing. Police said investigators went to Netanyahu's official residence in Jerusalem in a case that local media say arose from allegations involving high-profile figures in international business and Hollywood. Police said investigators questioned Netanyahu for five hours about suspicions that he "allegedly received benefits" as well as about another undisclosed affair. His questioning on Monday lasted more than three hours. Few details of the allegations against Netanyahu have been officially released, with Israel's Justice Ministry revealing only that the prime minister was being questioned "on suspicion of receiving benefits from business people." But Israeli media have reported that Netanyahu accepted "favors" from businessmen in Israel and abroad, allegedly including billionaire Ronald Lauder and Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan. Israeli Channel 2 TV has said Netanyahu is the central suspect in a second investigation that also involves family members. Netanyahu has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, portraying the accusations as a witch hunt against him and his family by a hostile media opposed to his hard-line political views. He has pointed to previous suspicions raised against him, none of which resulted in any criminal proceedings, as a sign that he has done nothing wrong in this most recent allegation as well. "There won't be anything because there is nothing," Netanyahu has said frequently. Serving his third consecutive term with a stable coalition government, Netanyahu is on track to become Israel's longest-serving leader, should he complete his full term in office in 2019. He does not appear to have any serious foreseeable challenger to his rule. Story continues While the probe is still in its infancy, a mounting investigation could put pressure on Netanyahu to step down. His predecessor, Ehud Olmert, did so in 2008 just months before he was formally indicted on corruption-related charges. Olmert is now serving a prison sentence after being convicted of accepting bribes. After eight years in office, in addition to an earlier term in the 1990s, Netanyahu has garnered a reputation as a cognac-swilling, cigar-puffing socialite who is as comfortable rubbing shoulders with international celebrities as he is making deals in parliament. Scandals have dogged him and his wife, Sara, over their lavish tastes. They have been chided for excessive spending on anything from pistachio ice cream to scented candles to ringing up $127,000 in public funds for a special sleeping cabin for a five-hour flight to London. Rome (AFP) - Italy's terror threat level is lower than in other European countries but radicalisation is on the rise and more must be done on prevention, a government-appointed panel reported Thursday. "The threat remains low," commission head Lorenzo Vidoni told journalists, but "there is an increasing number of young people and women in our country who are becoming radicalized". Prisons are hotspots for radicalization, as is the internet, he said. While Italy has so far escaped largely unscathed, Vidoni said the country was "now seeing some of the tendencies we saw 10 years ago in countries like in Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands". Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, who welcomed the report, said the government would be implementing some of the committee's suggestions on establishing channels for dealing with cases of potential radicalisation in schools, work and social environments. "Prevention, prevention, prevention," he said, adding that Italy was "very well equipped in terms of security" but needed to encourage "the Islamic communities living in our country" to "get involved in preventative activities". Prison rights group Antigone said the situation in Italy's jails was critical, with a lack of prison guards who speak Arabic and imams generally not admitted. - No guarantee - "This sees inmates select from among themselves who should lead the prayer, without any guarantee about what is then preached," it said. According to Antigone, Italy has nearly 54,000 prison inmates, some 6,000 of whom say they are Muslim. The country is on the frontline of the worst immigrant crisis since World War II. Over 180,000 people were rescued from the Mediterranean and brought to safety in Italy last year, causing severe overcrowding in reception centres. Gentiloni dismissed claims the large number of arrivals increased the risks of an attack on Italian soil, but the interior ministry has said it will step up deportations following the Berlin Christmas market attack. Story continues The minister visited Tunisia this week to "renew" a deal to repatriate Tunisians and he is set to head soon to Libya for talks on how to prevent the near daily departures of rubber boats full of migrants from its coast. Vigoni said the number of foreign fighters was significantly down on elsewhere in Europe, with some 1,500 people setting off from France to join the so-called Islamic State (IS), 1,000 from Germany, 600 from Belgium, 350 from Austria 350 and 100 from Italy. Italy does not have a high number of second and third-generation immigrants either, "the type which have been the most radicalised in other European countries". It also has a policy of expelling foreigners at the first sign of radicalization or plotting, a tactic which has "undoubtedly been efficient" in stopping in their tracks those who risked "infecting" others or committing attacks, he said. Some 133 suspects were expelled in 2016, according to the interior ministry. Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst introduce Senate Bill 6, known as the Texas Privacy Act. It provides solutions to the federal mandate of transgender bathrooms, showers and dressing rooms in all Texas schools. (Photo: Ralph Barrera/Austin American-Statesman via AP) Conservative Texas lawmakers are championing a new bathroom bill that makes it illegal for transgender people from using bathrooms they feel match their gender identities. On Thursday, Texas Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, filed Senate Bill 6, also known as the Texas Privacy Act, which she said provides clear guidance for public schools and government buildings in providing sufficient levels of privacy. Its already been denounced for what supporters of the LGBT community consider discrimination against transgender people. Many civil rights groups criticize the legislations supporters for peddling what they consider an offensive myth of men claiming to identify as women in order to harass or leer at female bathroom-goers. Law enforcement officials have said such instances are rare or nonexistent. Ive often been asked, Why do we need such a bill? It wasnt that we brought this fight to the people. The fight was brought to us, she said during a press conference in the Senate Conference Room at the state Capitol in Austin. Kolkhorst said the bill, which was previously called the Womens Privacy Act, was written in response to the federal governments May 2016 edict to Texas schools permitting students to use restrooms that align with their internal sense of gender. The bill requires that each dressing room, locker room and restroom be designated for use by people according to their biological sex, she said. Exceptions are allowed for emergencies, custodial purposes, parents of small children and the disabled, among others. The bill also allows school districts to make accommodations upon request by those preferring an alternative arrangement. A similar bill in North Carolina, House Bill 2, was roundly denounced by LGBT advocates as discriminatory. It legislated that people can only use bathrooms that correspond with their biological sex as indicated on their birth certificates. Protesters try to drown out a press conference with Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst as they introduce Senate Bill 6, known as the Texas Privacy Act at the state Capitol, Jan. 5, 2017. (Photo: Ralph Barrera/Austin American-Statesman via AP) Kolkhorst said she has studied the problem for months and hopes her bill will be a practical, common-sense solution to a sensitive issue. The legislation, she continued, will reserve the right of private businesses to determine their own policies about these intimate settings. Story continues With this bill and in the spirit of free enterprise, Texas businesses are left to make their own decisions on how they want to handle these intimate settings, she said. To further defend those decisions, any local government is also prevented from considering these policies when awarding government contracts. Protesters who gathered at the state Capitol held signs with slogans such as Nix SB6 and Flush the bill and booed as the press conference proceeded. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said Senate Bill 6 is not about discrimination and praised it as an instance of standing up for common decency. The people of Texas elected us to stand up for common sense, common decency and public safety. This legislation is supported by an overwhelming majority in every poll of Texas, from both parties, Republicans and Democrats, from Hispanics, African-Americans, Anglos, men and women, he said at the press conference. You can mark today as the day that Texas draws a line in the sand and says No, the privacy and safety of Texans is our first priority not political correctness. He dismissed suggestions that passing a bathroom bill would result in financial fallout and touted Texas position as one of the largest economies in the world. We know its going to be a tough fight. The forces of fear and misinformation will pull out all the stops, both in Texas and nationally, Patrick said. But we know were on the right side of the issue and the right side of history. Rebecca Robertson, the legal and policy director of the ACLU of Texas, released a statement saying its shocking that the lieutenant governor would be so dedicated to pursuing a bathroom bill after the debacle in North Carolina. Its unnecessary, discriminatory and inconsistent with the constitutional value of equal protection for all, Robertson said. And thats to say nothing of the havoc it will wreak on the Texas economy should it pass. Make no mistake the invidious intent of SB6 is to deny transgender Texans the ability to participate in public life. Her colleague, Terri Burke, executive director of the ACLU of Texas, released a similar statement: The Texas State Legislature has exactly one constitutionally assigned duty: to pass a budget. If theyre planning on spending the session on SB6 and spiteful legislation like it, wed much rather they restrained themselves to that one duty, packed up their circus tents and went home. But if the Lieutenant Governor is truly worried about the safety of women and children, he would cease his assaults on womens well-being, repair Texass moribund CPS program, and see to the millions of uninsured children whose lives and futures have been compromised by our lawmakers warped priorities. Photo credit: Jim Watsonundefined From Esquire It seems that some folks are finding the concept of Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions just a tad too 1957 for their liking. Were you a historically minded type, you might even say the idea is encountering massive resistance. Down in Alabama, at Sessions' local office, the NAACP is taking rather direct action, as CNN informs us. The protesters arrived earlier Tuesday and said they would stay until Sessions is no longer the nominee or they were arrested."We are asking the senator to withdraw his name for consideration as attorney general or for the President-elect, Donald Trump, to withdraw the nomination," Brooks said Tuesday afternoon from Sessions' office. "In the midst of rampant voter suppression, this nominee has failed to acknowledge the reality of voter suppression while pretending to believe in the myth of voter fraud." Earlier in the day, Alabama NAACP President Benard Simelton said he and 15-20 others were there "conducting business as usual" and would remain until "Sessions meets our demands or the arrest -- whichever he chooses." The protesters did indeed get hauled off on trespass charges, but they're not the only ones pointing to ol' JeffBo as throwback to the bad old days and worse. Deval Patrick, the former governor of the Commonwealth (God save it!), is speaking out against the nomination. As The Boston Globe reports, Patrick and Sessions have something of a history, as do Sessions and the ongoing attempts to fit Jim Crow for a new suit of clothes on election day. Patrick sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee and the letter was so tough Patrick probably had to pull a pin before he mailed it. [contentlinks align="center" textonly="false" numbered="false" headline="Related%20Story" customtitles="The%20Next%20Attorney%20General%20Is%20Coming%20for%20Your%20Weed" customimages="" content="article.51032"] Story continues In 1985, Patrick took up the defense of one of three civil-rights activists in Alabama who'd been hauled into court by then-U.S. Attorney JeffBo on meretricious charges of voter fraud, because they'd helped elderly African-Americans in Perry County vote. Patrick and his colleagues beat Sessions like a drum in the courts, and the fact that Sessions brought the case at all probably helped torpedo his chances at becoming a federal judge in 1986. (God, ol' Ronnie could pick 'em, he could.) Now, with Sessions preparing to appear before the Judiciary committee, Patrick left very few words unminced about his opposition to the nomination. From Patrick's letter: The theory of Mr. Sessions's case was that it is a federal crime for someone to help someone else to vote or to advise them how they should vote-even if and when they ask for such helpPursuing that case was an act of extraordinary quasi-judicial activism. Voting is a civic and even sacred right in our country. Extending it to black voters in the Alabama Black Belt was a significant national challenge. Making access real-through the Voting Rights Act, and countless acts of civil disobedience-represents an equally significant national triumphTo use prosecutorial discretion to attempt to criminalize voter assistance is wrong and should be disqualifying for any aspirant to the Nation's highest law enforcement post. Patrick is joined in opposition by 1,100 law professors who, according to The Washington Post, also have sent a letter to Judiciary chairman Charles Grassley. They said, in part: "Nothing in Senator Sessions' public life since 1986," the letter states, "has convinced us that he is a different man than the 39-year-old attorney who was deemed too racially insensitive to be a federal district court judge." As it happens, I think the president-elect picked this guy because Sessions was one of the very first Republicans of note to get enthusiastic about his candidacy. I also think that the transition team down at Camp Runamuck is throwing Sessions out there as a reward for all those law-enforcement groups who lined up behind the Trump campaign as a reaction to the protests regarding police violence. That race is inextricably marbled within that issue, too, is just a bonus for a lot of the people who helped put him in office. He's more like Reagan than many Republicans would like to admit. Respond to this post on the Esquire Politics Facebook page. You Might Also Like Jesse Watters Fox News correspondent Jesse Watters' segment "Watters' World" is getting its own full weekly hour-length treatment. According to an announcement from Fox News on Thursday, "Watters' World" has been bumped up from a monthly special and bi-weekly mini-segment to a weekly show set to air weekly on Saturdays at 8PM ET. The show will feature the man-on-the-street-style interviews about pop culture and politics that Watters has executed as a correspondent on "The O'Reilly Factor," where "Watters' World" has grown from an off-shoot interview to a bi-weekly segment. Watters will also conduct interviews with high-profile figures, and host a panel where guests will debate current events. "I am humbled that FOX News Channel has given me this opportunity. I look forward to viewers entering my world more often and wouldnt be in this position if it werent for Bill," Watters said in a statement. A Bill O'Reilly protege, the correspondent has spent over a decade at the network ambushing interview subjects and talking to Americans on the street for "The O'Reilly Factor," eventually getting his own segment on the show which O'Reilly dubbed "Watters' World." Watters told Business Insider that the anchor likes to tease the five minute segments at the top of the show, and hold them for the end to keep viewers tuned in through the entire program. Recent episodes showed Watters interviewing Canadians about President-elect Donald Trump, asking Florida residents about a prominently displayed local pentagram, and asking New Yorkers and tourists about their New Years resolutions. Watters' segments have occasionally garnered criticism over the Fox correspondent's ambush-style interview tactics and insensitivity toward interview subjects. Last October, Watters visited New York's Chinatown, where he interviewed invoked numerous racial stereotypes of Asian-Americans, quizzing onlookers about whether it was the "year of the dragon" and inquiring about karate lessons, among other gags. Story continues The correspondent apologized after organizations like the Asian-American Journalists Association and lawmakers like New York Mayor Bill de Blasio slammed the segment. Watters himself admitted that his show is "controversial," but told Business Insider in December that he never wants to "intentionally cause anybody to be upset." NOW WATCH: Fashion designer Nicole Miller reveals what Donald Trump is really like More From Business Insider LONDON (AP) Jill Saward, a survivor of rape who became a powerful British campaigner against sexual violence, has died. She was 51. Saward's family said she died Thursday at a hospital in Wolverhampton, central England, after suffering a stroke on Tuesday. Saward, the daughter of an Anglican minister, was 21 when she was raped by men who broke into her father's London vicarage in 1986. The rapists were convicted, but the judge said he was lenient in sentencing because Saward's trauma "had not been so great." He gave the perpetrators longer sentences for burglary than for rape, triggering strong criticism. Saward waived her legal right to anonymity and wrote a book, "Rape: My Story." She went on to make frequent media appearances and advised police and judges in dealing with sexual assault cases. She co-founded the group Jurors Understanding Rape Is Essential Standard (JURIES) to campaign for mandatory trial briefings about myths and stereotypes about sexual violence. British Attorney General Jeremy Wright said Saward's "tireless campaigning opened the eyes of many politicians." In a statement, Saward's family said she had "dedicated the past 30 years of her life to helping other people" and had continued to help by becoming an organ donor. Saward is survived by her husband, Gavin Drake, and their three sons. Last year, 2016, was truly remarkable. Beloved celebrities died, Donald Trump was elected president, terrorists staged attacks, petitions were made, petitions were signed, an endless war kept on waging, the media kept on talking, social media created mass hysteria, and most people were highly offended by just about any and everything not agreed on or suggested by them personally (and ready to protest it). Police shootings occurred, a recount was recounted, pipelines were blocked, and unbiased justice was served for a few, but certainly not for all. And now that most of America is reeling, coming unglued, ideologically hungover or still drunk, waking up, or completely up in arms about it all, I am here to tell you that America will be OK. This I posit because one thing I have come to understand about America in my 29 years is that for most of the negative things that occur, things that have taken place in our great country. I cite just about any and every atrocity, observed or not, from 1492 on by progressive historians. We, as Americans, have something positive: we, as a unique group, tend to get back up, we tend to learn from our mistakes, and we tend to be better off than when we so pugnaciously started. We surpass imposing plight; we grow out of our struggles. So now is that opportunity, now is that time when trials have tested us, impossibles are ubiquitous, tribulations have drawn us apart. It is time to regroup and become more sturdy, more wisen and hard. Dry our fervid tears. It is time to look at the way we do things past, present and future, for instance, amendments and legislation and make change. Perhaps make change by assessment; 2016 was the year of our national audit, it seems, a time to reflect on how we may just coast and stop, or go in an entirely new direction unknown, surprisingly, inevitably. Now is the time, the opportunity, to view our chartered course and make tangible alterations for better. Perhaps, America can be highly positive and extremely prosperous for many for many who purchase the American Dream (whatever that may be), yet, in the same vein, even for those non-purchasers who dont, it also touches them, believe it or not. Each citizen here has a birthright beyond that of those living in non-free states, in more oppressed countries and nations and governments. Here, we are able to make, recreate, change, do and inspire share our ideas to benefit the world. We take hopelessness and create outstanding achievement, we take empty spaces and turn them into brotherly cities with heartbeating, brainstorming, and lung-breathing societies, thoughtful people caring communities, who obviously, not silently, do still vest in the outcome and posterity of our United States of America. That is why, America, we are OK, and OK we will be. We have the opportunity to see our past failures and turn them into todays blueprints for tomorrows big successes. We have the ability to moan, bemoan and move on if we lose take the hollowed-out shell of what we thought was our dream diminished and turn it into our reality present, here. To rise up from the ashes of an election season that seemed an indefatigable and ceaseless furnace of hatred, aggression and divisiveness, from both sides, and make us stronger together, and make us great again. (These are taglines that can hold on even if their candidates dont.) That is what I believe. There is proof. Because those are things that we do have, because we are America, Americans, and we are going to be okay. Surely. fallon-trump NBC It was the hair tousle seen round the world. Less than two weeks before the first presidential debate, which seems like a million years ago, Donald Trump dropped by The Tonight Show and let host Jimmy Fallon mess with the bird nest on top of his head known as hair. Fallon was roundly criticized for humanizing Trump, including from Full Frontal with Samantha Bee producer Jo Miller, who told the New York Times, If he thinks that a race-baiting demagogue is OK, that gives permission to millions of Americans to also think that. Fallons defense for making Trump who called Mexicans rapists and wants Muslims banned from entering the United States seem like Americas best friend was that hes never too hard on anyone, which is fine when hes bobbing for apples with Josh Gad, or whatever. But, as our own Jason Tabrys noted, Maybe Fallon could have just curbed the cuteness and done a straight interview with boring questions (like he does with most guests) instead of allowing himself to be used. Thats, obviously, not what happened, and now Donald Trump and Jimmy Fallon are preparing for their next gigs: being the 45th President of the United States of America and hosting the Golden Globes. Fallon spoke to the Hollywood Reporter about what people should expect during Sundays ceremony. If I hit somebody, its a very subtle hit, and everyones in on the joke, he said about his nice-guy personality (especially in contrast to last years acidic and divisive host, Ricky Gervais). I want to make sure everyones laughing and having a good time. And Im hopefully going to book the people in this crowd the next week, so Ill be edgy, but its all in good fun, and I know how far I can take it. Will there be jokes at Trumps expense? Yeah, Fallon replied. The whole night wont focus on that, but it will be a week before the inauguration, so it will be on everyones mind Its the first and maybe the last party that well have in 2017. Fallon who will be the first non-Gervais or Tina Fey/Amy Poehler emcee since John Larroquette and Janine Turner (!) in 1995 shouldnt be worried. Half the crowd will be checking Twitter to see what Trump thinks about the ceremony, anyway. (Via the Hollywood Reporter) It is jobs day in America. On Friday at 8:30 a.m. ET, the BLS will release the December jobs report, the final report of 2016 (and also the first report of 2017, depending on how you see it). Economists are looking for nonfarm payrolls to grow by 175,000 in December, which would be slightly less than the 178,000 we saw in November. This would, however, be enough to push yearly job gains over 2 million for the third-straight year. The unemployment rate is expected to tick up slightly to 4.7% from 4.6%, while average hourly earnings are expected to rise 0.3% month-on-month after a 0.1% decline in November. Compared to the prior year, average hourly earnings are expected to rise 2.8%, which would match the post-crisis high we hit back in October. Later on Friday morning well also get the November reading on factory orders and the final reading on Novembers durable goods figures. Jobs preview Via Goldman Sachs economist Spencer Hill: We forecast that nonfarm payroll employment increased 180k in December, after an increase of 178k in November and 142k in October. On balance, labor market indicators were moderately strong in December, with improvement in the employment components of many service-sector and manufacturing surveys and a rise in consumer confidence to a 15-year high. The key labor market subcomponent of consumer confidence also hovered near its post-crisis high, despite a modest pullback from November. We also expect above-trend payroll growth in the transportation and warehousing industry, driven by elevated hiring related to strong online holiday shopping. On the negative side, initial jobless claims drifted higher and continuing claims posted the largest survey-week-to-survey-week increase in nearly a year. Decembers relatively cold payroll survey week could also constrain payroll growth in weather-sensitive industries such as construction, particularly after the warmer-than-usual November. We do not expect the end of the election to be a major factor this month. Story continues And while Hill and the team at Goldman do not see the election being a major factor in Decembers report, he added that industry-specific readings potentially in energy, financial services, or healthcare could show signs of an impact from the election. Trump tweets Today, it was Toyotas (TM) turn. In an afternoon tweet, President-elect Donald Trump said, Toyota Motor said will build a new plant in Baja, Mexico, to build Corolla cars for U.S. NO WAY! Build plant in U.S. or pay big border tax. Source: Twitter/@realDonaldTrump Toyotas plans to open a factory in Guanajuato not Baja Mexico, however, would take jobs from a factory in Canada. In a statement, the company said that it, looks forward to collaborating with the Trump administration to serve in the best interests of consumers and the automotive industry. This sentiment is mostly similar to what we heard from General Motors (GM) earlier this week after Trump attacked the company for plans to move a small portion of production to Mexico. But consider what else happened this week in the automotive space: Ford (F) scrapped plans to build a $1.6 billion factory in Mexico and instead build cars at an existing factory in Mexico and also invest $700 million at a plant in Michigan. So, the company will still build cars in Mexico, it just wont make a new factory to do it. The Michigan investment will see Ford create 700 jobs, almost nothing for a company that employs nearly 200,000 people. No amount of investment of job creation or loss, however, seems too small for Trump to target or attack. And while it remains to be seen if GM and Toyota have more to say following Trumps tweets, it seems clear that other companies will find themselves in Trumps crosshairs. And theyll probably find out on Twitter. Myles Udland is a writer at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @MylesUdland Read more from Myles: Photo credit: undefined From Esquire On a hot mic after swearing in a new legislator, Vice President Joe Biden more or less confirmed his plans after he and President Obama leave office. With a mere 16 days (and counting) until Donald Trump is sworn in, Biden told an unidentified woman after the ceremony that he would be continuing his work with foreign policy and cancer research, Quartz reported. Biden, who lost his son Beau to brain cancer in 2015, launched Cancer Moonshot last year, with President Obama making the announcement in his 2016 State of the Union. The initiative is intended to get cancer therapies to more patients and to encourage researchers to be more open with their findings. As Biden said Tuesday on CSPAN's hot mic, he will set up "The Biden Trust," which won't be "so much about raising money or philanthropy-though there will be some of that-but it's more about keeping these guys cooperating and changing the culture." [contentlinks align="center" textonly="false" numbered="false" headline="Related%20Story" customtitles="Will%20Joe%20Biden%20Really%20Run%20in%202020?" customimages="" content="article.51321"] Biden's foreign policy work will be based at the University of Pennsylvania, he said, but he is "deliberately not associating with any one medical center" in pursuing The Biden Trust. One of the last pieces of bipartisan legislature signed into law by Obama was a $6.3 billion research bill to fund cancer and other disease research. Biden campaigned hard for the bill, and upon its passing, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced the law's cancer program would be named after Beau. You Might Also Like (WASHINGTON) Americas top intelligence official said Thursday that Russia undoubtedly interfered in Americas 2016 presidential election but stopped short of using the explosive description an act of war, telling lawmakers such a call isnt within the purview of the U.S. intelligence community. In a joint report that roiled the presidential campaign last fall, the Homeland Security Department and the intelligence community said the U.S. was confident of foreign meddling, including Russian government hacking of Democratic emails. In its assessment, the intelligence community has said Moscow interfered to help Republican Donald Trump win. We stand actually more resolutely on the strength of that statement than we did on the 7th of October, James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, told the GOP-led Senate Armed Services Committee. Pressed by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., on whether the actions constituted an act of war, Clapper said that was a very heavy policy call more appropriate for other entities in the U.S. government to decide. Clapper pushed back against a barrage of criticism leveled against U.S. intelligence agencies by Trump in recent days and the president-elects apparent embrace of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. During an exchange with Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., Clapper said there is an important distinction here between healthy skepticism and disparagement. He said the intelligence community is an organization of human beings and isnt perfect. But he said U.S. spy agencies also dont get the credit they deserve for foiling terrorist plots and other successes too secret to discuss. Clapper said Assange is holed up in the Embassy of Ecuador in London, unable to leave without being arrested for breaching his bail conditions. Swedish authorities have investigated Assange for a possible rape, which he has denied. Story continues Assange has put people at risk by leaking classified information, Clapper added. President Barack Obama has received a report on the Russian interference and other foreign meddling in the U.S. election, according to Clapper. He and other senior U.S. intelligence officials said Russia poses a major threat to U.S. government, military, diplomatic and commercial operations. Clapper said lawmakers will be briefed on the Russian hacking report next week and an unclassified version is tentatively scheduled to be released to the public shortly after that. CIA Director John Brennan said in a Dec. 16 message to employees that the FBI agreed with the agencys conclusion that Russias goal was to support Trump in the election. Brennan wrote that he also had spoken with Clapper and said there is strong consensus among us on the scope, nature, and intent of Russian interference in our presidential election. Clapper on Thursday declined to discuss whether Russias interference was aimed at backing Trump win. But he said Russias hacking did not change any vote tallies. McCain, the chairman of the Armed Services committee, said every American should be alarmed by Russias meddling in the 2016 presidential election. There is no escaping the fact that this committee meets today for the first time in this new Congress in the aftermath of an unprecedented attack on our democracy, McCain said. The hearing comes a day before Trump receives a briefing by the CIA and FBI directors along with Clapper on the investigation into Russias alleged hacking efforts. Trump has criticized their findings and even seemed to back Assanges contention that Russia did not provide him with hacked Democratic emails. But in new tweets early Thursday, Trump backed away from Assange. Trump blamed the dishonest media for portraying him as agreeing with Wikileaks founder, whose organization has been under criminal investigation for its role in classified information leaks. The media lies to make it look like I am against Intelligence when in fact I am a big fan! Trump wrote. In fact, Trump has been dismissive about the certainty of the intelligence communitys assessment of Russian hacking with a reminder of past failures, specifically their reporting on the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq in the lead-up to the war. Since then, Trump has derided the intelligence profession on Twitter, which has been widely reported by The Associated Press and other news organizations. Appearing before the Armed Services Committee were Clapper; Marcel Lettre, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence; and Adm. Michael Rogers, National Security Agency chief and the top officer at the U.S. Cyber Command. Obama struck back at Moscow in late December with penalties aimed at Russias leading spy agencies, the GRU and FSB, that the U.S. said were involved. The GRU is Russias military intelligence agency. The FSB is the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB. But Trump easily could rescind the sanctions. So far, he has publicly refused to accept the conclusion that Russia is responsible for the attacks. Trump this week escalated his criticism of U.S. intelligence professionals, such as Clapper, by tweeting, without evidence, that an upcoming briefing on the suspected Russian hacking had been delayed until Friday, and said, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange! Intelligence officials said there had been no delay. The penalties imposed by Obama came after he pledged a proportional response to the hacking of the Democratic Party and presidential nominee Hillary Clintons campaign chairman. Emails stolen during the campaign were released in the final weeks by WikiLeaks. John Stamos apparently couldn't find a barber while in Berlin, Germany. On Wednesday, the Fuller House star revealed in an Instagram video that he gave himself a "DIY" haircut. While we wouldn't recommend trying this at home -- or in Berlin for that matter -- Stamos still looks pretty good after his trim. PHOTOS: The Weeknd Debuts Dramatic Haircut to Announce Album Stamos' trip to Germany comes just a week after he made headlines upon visiting a patient named Amanda at Long Beach Memorial Hospital. In an effort to cheer Amanda up, Stamos called her ex-boyfriend, Jorge, on the phone to let him know what he was missing. DIY #haircut #berliner A video posted by John Stamos (@johnstamos) on Jan 4, 2017 at 3:52pm PST "Jorge, this is John Stamos," he said in a voicemail. "I'm with Amanda, my new girlfriend. Apparently you guys broke up and I swooped right in. So, your loss, Jorge -- your loss, because Amanda is a great gal." WATCH: Tom Brady Has a New Haircut and Now Everyone's Got Jokes Here's a look at what the 53-year-old actor told Jorge when he later got him on the phone. Related Articles Josie Marans new Argan Reserve product will combat your dry winter skin Argan oil is no secret. We love it on our hair, our skin, our lips. Its pretty much magic! Going back to the ancient ways of using all available ingredients, Josie Marans new limited edition Argan Reserve goes above and beyond with a a trinity of Argan oil, Argan leaves, and Argan Press Cake. Our minds are blown! Lets break it down: the Argan oil we all know and love is produced from the kernels of the Argan tree in Morocco. The leaves can be pressed, just like the kernels are, and can produce even more nutrients. The press cake is the protein-rich Argan that is left over from the kernels being mashed for oil. We can kiss dry winter skin goodbye with this triple nourishing oil, and we love that we can layer it over our serums and moisturizers! We have a feeling 2017 is going to be all about skincare and this product proves it! Waste not, want not we cant believe that we have been content with just the Argan oil for so long! My new limited quantity Argan Reserve is sourced entirely from the ancient, nutrient-rich Argan Tree using a Vital Argan Trinity of Argan Oil + Argan Leaves + Argan Press Cake to soothe, brighten, and nourish skin. #ArganReserve #JosieMaran #ReserveYourRight A photo posted by Josie Maran (@josiemarancosmetics) on Jan 2, 2017 at 9:35pm PST Argan Reserve is 11x concentrated! Thats a lot of punch packed into a little bottle! Only 2 to 4 drops at a time are used, which means this highly concentrated oil will go a long way. You can use it alone or on top of serums and moisturizers. Argan Reserve provides skin clarity while texture and resilience are noticeably improved. Fine lines and wrinkles are visibly minimized due to the plumping of the Argan oil in the skin. Reserve your right to age beautifully. Introducing Argan Reserve Healthy Skin Concentrate. Limited quantity, hand signed, hand numbered supercharged superfood for your skin sourced from the WHOLE Argan tree. Get yours now at josiemaran.com #ArganReserve #ReserveYourRight #JosieMaran A video posted by Josie Maran (@josiemarancosmetics) on Jan 2, 2017 at 1:49pm PST We love superfoods that feed our bodies inside and out! Argan Reserve will be available at Sephora on January 6th if you want to try it in person! By David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Volkswagen AG and former Chief Executive Officer Martin Winterkorn must defend an investor lawsuit in California over the company's diesel emissions cheating scandal, a U.S. judge has ruled. The plaintiffs, mostly U.S. municipal pension funds, have accused VW of not having informed the market in a timely fashion about the issue as well as understating possible financial liabilities, according to the 41-court document seen by Reuters. The pension funds include those representing Arkansas State Highway Employees and Miami Police. The lawsuits said VW's market capitalization fell by $63 billion after the diesel cheating scandal became public in September 2015. The plaintiffs had invested in VW through American Depositary Receipts (ADR), a form of equity ownership in a non-U.S. company that represents the foreign shares of the company held on deposit by a bank in the company's home country. "Volkswagen is convinced that the accusations raised by buyers of the corporate securities (so-called American Depositary Receipts) lack any foundation," a spokesman at VW's German headquarters said by email. "It's our intention to make this clear in the further course of proceedings," he added. VW shares did not react to the latest legal developments and were trading up 0.7 percent at 139.7 euros as of 1115 GMT. SECRET SOFTWARE U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer rejected a request by VW brand chief Herbert Diess to have the proposed securities fraud lawsuits tossed out of a California court. Other defendants include VW's U.S. unit and its Audi of America unit and the former head of its U.S. unit, Michael Horn. Volkswagen argued that German courts were the proper place for investor lawsuits. Breyer said in his ruling that "because the United States has an interest in protecting domestic investors against securities fraud" the lawsuits should go forward in a U.S. court. CEO Winterkorn resigned days after the scandal became public and much of the company's management has changed since 2015. VW in September 2015 admitted using sophisticated secret software in its cars to cheat exhaust emissions tests, with 11 millions vehicles worldwide affected. The cheating allowed nearly 580,0000 VW's U.S. diesel vehicles sold since 2009 to emit up to 40 times legally allowable pollution levels. The lawsuits said VW and its executives misled the investing public "assuring them to the contrary namely, that the diesel vehicles met all applicable emissions standards" and it "understated the liabilities that it would suffer as a result of its known emissions non-compliance." Volkswagen has agreed to spend as much as $17.5 billion in the United States to resolve claims from owners and federal and state regulators over polluting diesel vehicles. Volkswagen could still spend billions of dollars more to resolve a U.S. Department of Justice criminal investigation and federal and state environmental claims; come under oversight by a federal monitor and face other conditions. The Justice Department and VW are in settlement talks and it is possible a deal could be reached before Jan. 20, when President Barack Obama leaves office, according to sources briefed on the matter. (Additional reporting by Andreas Cremer in Berlin) Julian Assange WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange told Fox News host Sean Hannity that he was sure that the Russian government was not the source of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign chairman John Podesta. But Assange's own website seems to disprove his assertion. "We can say, we have said, repeatedly over the last two months that our source is not the Russian government and it is not a state party," Assange said, in response to Hannity asking whether he could tell the American people 1,000 percent that the emails did not come from Russia. On its face, Assange's claim that the emails were not from a state party could check out. For example, a criminal organization in possession of the documents (that were, theoretically, given to them by a state) could still leak that information to WikiLeaks, which would give Assange plausible deniability. But WikiLeaks prides itself on anonymity for its sources. How does Assange even know anything about the source of the emails, let alone be absolutely certain they did not come from Russia? It's an interesting question, considering what it says on WikiLeaks' own about page: "Like other media outlets conducting investigative journalism, we accept (but do not solicit) anonymous sources of information. Unlike other outlets, we provide a high security anonymous drop box fortified by cutting-edge cryptographic information technologies. This provides maximum protection to our sources." WikiLeaks' anonymous drop box can only be accessed through the encrypted Tor browser, which hides a user's IP address. This is what it looks like: wikileaks upload screen The interface claims that it encrypts the files that are uploaded immediately. Further, WikiLeaks' "About" page says that "we can not provide details about the security of our media organization or its anonymous drop box for sources because to do so would help those who would like to compromise the security of our organisation and its sources." Story continues It continues: "What we can say is that we operate a number of servers across multiple international jurisdictions and we we do not keep logs. Hence these logs can not be seized. Anonymization occurs early in the WikiLeaks network, long before information passes to our web servers. Without specialized global internet traffic analysis, multiple parts of our organisation must conspire with each other to strip submitters of their anonymity." In other words, the site's anonymous drop box keeps no record of who submits documents, does not offer or require any identifying information, and there is no single WikiLeaks employee with the power to unmask an anonymous source. At least, that's what WikiLeaks claims. There are other avenues through which the emails could have made their way to WikiLeaks; an insider could have brought it to their offices, for example, or mailed it. But documents brought in person or mailed by an insider don't really line up with how the hack was carried out a large-scale phishing campaign against nearly 2,000 accounts, most of which were Western military and government officials, journalists critical of Russia, and businesses with Russian ties. And why would anyone with such a rich cache of electronic documents decide to mail them, or out themselves in person in lieu of just using WikiLeaks "high-security anonymous drop box" to protect their documents and themselves, while transferring the files in mere minutes? The US intelligence community has its own sources and methods to conclude that the most likely culprit is Russia, and it plans to release a report of its findings next week. But Assange has nothing of the sort. He just has an anonymous drop box. Or, that drop box may not be anonymous after all. This is an important Q not just re: DNC & Russia, but also to anyone considering submitting to Wikileaks: how safe is your identity, really? https://t.co/SoIHFlazfl Adam Weinstein (@AdamWeinstein) January 5, 2017 Genuine question: @wikileaks is engineered for mutual anonymity. Even if source IDs himself, how could WL know he isnt laundering RU docs? Barton Gellman (@bartongellman) January 4, 2017 NOW WATCH: Rare footage shows the successful testing of the most powerful weapon known to man More From Business Insider By Erica Teichert (Reuters) - A U.S. jury in Ohio ordered DuPont on Thursday to pay $10.5 million in punitive damages to a man who said he developed testicular cancer from exposure to a toxic chemical leaked from a Dupont plant, the plaintiff's lawyer Robert Bilott said. The federal jury had awarded Kenneth Vigneron $2 million in compensatory damages in December. Bilott said the jury also awarded attorneys' fees, to be determined at a later date. This is the third and largest verdict that jurors in the Columbus, Ohio, federal court have issued against DuPont for injuries linked to perfluorooctanoic acid, known as PFOA or C-8, which is used to make Teflon. The $12.5 million in damages is more than double the amount awarded in a case decided in July. "The jury has sent a strong message that we hope DuPont will listen to," Bilott said in an email to Reuters. DuPont faces more than 3,400 lawsuits over the leak of the chemical from its Parkersburg, West Virginia, plant. The leak allegedly contaminated local water supplies and has been linked to six diseases, including testicular and kidney cancer. Vigneron claimed he developed testicular cancer from the chemical exposure. DuPont has used C-8 at the West Virginia plant since the early 1950s. Vigneron alleged the company leaked the chemical from the facility during the course of its operations. While DuPont is the named defendant in the litigation, it has an agreement that its performance chemicals spinoff Chemours Co will cover the costs of such lawsuits. Chemours spokeswoman Cynthia Salitsky said Dupont was directly liable for damages and Chemours may have defenses to any potential indemnification claim. She also noted the majority of remaining lawsuits claim the chemical caused high cholesterol or thyroid disease, not cancer. DuPont spokesman Dan Turner said the company was disappointed in the verdict and planned to appeal. "We believe the verdict was the result of trial rulings that misrepresented the findings of an independent science panel and misled jurors about the risks of C8 exposure," Turner said. Story continues DuPont has lost two other recent trials over C-8. The first ended in October 2015 with an award of $1.6 million to a woman who claimed the chemical caused her to develop kidney cancer. In July 2016, a jury in a case involving a plaintiff with testicular cancer found Dupont acted with actual malice. The jury returned a verdict of $5.1 million, which was later bolstered with $500,000 in punitive damages. Those two trials were test cases, or bellwethers, meant to determine the major issues and gauge the scale of liability for the remaining litigation. Vigneron's case is the first non-bellwether trial in the consolidated litigation, with 39 more cases slated to go to trial in Columbus over the next year. (Reporting by Erica Teichert in New York; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Alan Crosby) SARASOTA, FL / ACCESSWIRE / January 5, 2017 / Kali, Inc. (OTC PINK: KALY) today announced plans for this January to initiate business development activities direct toward expanding marina management operations in the Caribbean. KALY announced last month a $10 million contract with Harbormaster Development to manage the development of a new marina slated for a specific property in Puerto Rico. KALY and Harbormaster management will meet in Puerto Rico later this month to initiate the development project. The two Companies plan to visit additional prospective new harbor sites in the Caribbean in conjunction with Puerto Rico meetings. The two Companies are actively engaged in negotiations regarding three additional potential marina development projects. KALY's $56 Billion Market Opportunity Last year, KALY announced its entry into the $5 billion fragmented and underserved marina management market sector with the acquisition of Wave Marine & Yacht Services as the first acquisition in a comprehensive roll-up strategy. Since KALY's initial entry into the marina management sector, the Company has subsequently announced expanding into additional market sectors complimentary to marina management. Between the marina management sector and the complimentary sectors, KALY's total market sector opportunity encompasses over $56 billion. SEE KALY's STRATEGIC OVERVIEW AND MARKET EXPANSION UPDATES Learn more about KALY: wavemarineservices.com This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act"), and as such, may involve risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements relate to, amongst other things, current expectation of the business environment in which the company operates, potential future performance, projections of future performance and the perceived opportunities in the market. The company's actual performance, results and achievements may differ materially from the expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements as a result of a wide range of factors. Story continues CONTACT: Kali, Inc. 941.444.6994 management@wavemarineservices.com SOURCE: Kali, Inc. (Reuters) - Midfielder N'Golo Kante said he hoped Chelsea would make a swift return to winning ways after their record-equalling 13-game winning streak in the Premier League came to an end in Wednesday's 2-0 loss at Tottenham Hotspur. Despite the deflating defeat by their London rivals at White Hart Lane, Chelsea still hold a comfortable five-point cushion at the top of the table after 20 games but Kante said it was vital that Chelsea won their next game to regain momentum. "We have to show character now, focus on the next game. We lost, we have to accept that and to come back stronger, with strong character and with a desire to win. It's game after game now," the 25-year-old Frenchman told British media. "We are not thinking about making another long run, we just need to win the next game and make sure we come back strongly. We will see now. I think we are a good team and we must show good character for the next game to make sure we win. "It's important for the confidence and to keep our advantage in the league. We must fight to stay at the top. We must stay in front for as long as possible." Chelsea host third-tier side Peterborough United in the third round of the FA Cup on Sunday before a trip to face league champions Leicester City six days later. (Reporting by Shravanth Vijayakumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Clare Fallon) Washington (AFP) - US Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday that both he and President Barack Obama personally complained to Russian leaders about efforts to interfere with the American election. Asked why the White House had not accused the Kremlin of hacking US political targets before the November vote, Kerry said it had not wanted to be accused of influencing the result. Obama said last month he had confronted President Vladimir Putin over the hacking allegations when they met ahead of the US election, telling him to "cut it out" and promising a firm response. "Both the president and I personally raised this issue with the Russians," Kerry told reporters, shortly after US spy chief briefed Congress on the hacking operation. The winner of November's election, President-elect Donald Trump, has called into question the US intelligence finding that Russia was behind the hacking of Democratic Party targets. Trump has pledged to mend ties with President Vladimir Putin's government, and is angered by suggestions that his victory was aided by illegal Russian interference. Kerry said he did not wish to be drawn into a political row, but paid tribute to the US intelligence agencies behind the investigation and said he accepted their findings. These agencies, he said, assessed "that the government of Russia engaged in a concerted effort to influence and interfere with the integrity of our electoral process." Asked whether Putin himself had directed the hacking, Kerry said: "I accept the judgment of the US intelligence community that this went to the highest level." Asked if he agreed with Senator John McCain's claim that the cyber attack was an "act of war", Kerry said: "You can call it what you want... it's obviously a very serious matter." And asked why the White House had not made its suspicions public before the vote, Kerry said there had been an intense discussion within the administration. Story continues "It was very carefully done," he said, "so that it wouldn't allow people to be alleging that the president and the White House and intel community were somehow trying to effect the outcome of the election." The United States has expelled 35 Russian diplomats since the allegations became public, and Kerry dropped a hint that the US may have also launched a more covert retaliation. "You don't know, and I can't say, what the president may have chosen to do or not to do," he told reporters. (Adds more quotes, details) By Lesley Wroughton WASHINGTON, Jan 5 (Reuters) - The United States is encouraging Syria peace talks being prepared by Russia later this month in the Kazakh capital Astana and hopes they will produce a step toward peace, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday. "We're encouraging a meeting in Astana. We hope that could produce a step forward," Kerry told reporters during his final news conference at the State Department. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Dec. 26 that Russia, Iran, Turkey and Syrian President Bashar al Assad had all agreed to hold the talks in Astana although no date has been set. Kerry said he had talked to U.N. Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and the objective remained "to get to Geneva where the real meat of the talks is going to take place." But Kerry said a Dec. 30 ceasefire brokered by Russia and Turkey had run into difficulties with numerous violations. "The fighting is continuing, it's difficult and the Assad regime seems to be playing the same card that it was playing previously," he said. After several failed ceasefire attempts brokered by Kerry and Lavrov, the United States remained out of the latest Syrian talks. It is unclear whether the United States will attend the Astana talks. Russia and Iran both back Assad, but Turkey, a NATO member, has long made clear it would prefer that Assad step down. Ankara, however, has 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. With two weeks left in the Obama administration, Kerry said it was unclear what the new administration's approach to foreign policy would be under President-elect Donald Trump. "Nobody can predict what choices this administration is going to make. I don't know. I don't think you do," said Kerry, "The question a lot of people are asking is: Do they know? We're going to have to wait and see what choices they make." Story continues Trump has nominated Rex Tillerson, the former head of Exxon Mobil, as secretary of state although it is unclear when his confirmation hearing will take place. While Tillerson appeared to win over Republicans during meeting at the U.S. Senate on Wednesday, Democrats want more time to consider his record, especially his ties to Russia. (Reporting by Lesley Wroughton; Writing by Mohammad Zargham; Editing by Eric Walsh and Sandra Maler) Photo credit: Hearst Communications, Inc. All rights reserved From Cosmopolitan In March 2015, Denise Huskins was held at gunpoint, drugged, and kidnapped for ransom. But at first, police - and the public at large - thought she was making it all up, in a plot similar to the book and movie Gone Girl. It turns out the kidnapping was real, but People reports that her doubters are still harassing her online to this day. The day after the harrowing incident, her boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, called the police to report the kidnapping, saying strangers demanded $8,500 in ransom and took her away. The next day, an audio recording featuring Huskinss voice was emailed to the San Francisco Chronicle. And a day after that, Huskinss father received a voicemail saying she had been left safely at his house. At first, questions rose about why Quinn took so long to report the kidnapping, and police could not confirm the supposed events. Police said they would not refer to her as a victim, and said this event appears to be an orchestrated event and not a kidnapping. They even called their efforts to find her a wild goose chase. That notion changed four months later. On July 13, 2015, the FBI arrested lawyer Matthew Muller for home invasion and kidnapping after becoming a suspect in a case that was very similar to Huskinss account. He pleaded guilty, and Huskinss family demanded the police apologize. Later, two possible suspects emailed a local San Francisco reporter, and said they had intended to kidnap another woman and mistakenly took Huskins. She and Quinn have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city of Vallejo, California, and its police department. Because of polices initial judgment, there are still people who doubt her allegations - and they apparently threaten her with horrific messages constantly. On Sunday, Huskins posted on Facebook an example of the typical messages she gets. Are you that horrible lying woman who faked her own kidnapping? Oh wow you are such a horrible person, a total stranger wrote to her on Facebook, before launching into a litany of misogynistic slurs. Huskins wrote that his message sent her into one of my many PTSD episodes of terror, causing her entire body to shake in sobs. All I did was survive, and I was criminalized for it. Quinn also posted the message, noting, Denise endured unimaginable horrors and should have been treated like a hero when she got home but instead she continues to endure vile messages such as this one. Story continues Huskins was met with a flood of support online, and posted again Monday to thank everyone and push for more love and kindness online. There have been many unbelievable and awful things about this experience, but what I do know and am so grateful for is that Aaron and I have such an amazing support system, she wrote. Follow Megan on Twitter. You Might Also Like Kim Kardashian West is fully embracing mommy mode! The 36-year-old reality star continues her social media comeback with even more personal family photos, sharing sweet snaps of her kids -- North, 3, and Saint, 1 -- on Twitter and Instagram. In one photo, North is seen doting over her baby brother. In another, mama Kim looks on from over the side of a couch. A photo posted by Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian) on Jan 5, 2017 at 9:29am PST A photo posted by Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian) on Jan 5, 2017 at 9:23am PST WATCH: Khloe Kardashian Says Kim's Paris Robbery 'Redefined Her Priorities' Kim took to her app to share even more family moments, including an adorable solo shot of Saint and a daddy-daughter moment between North and Kanye West. KimKardashianWest.com KimKardashianWest.com KimKardashianWest.com WATCH: Kim Kardashian's Makeup Artist Got Very Intimate While Preparing Her VMA Look! See the Pics The posts come after a three-month hiatus from social media following Kim's Paris robbery in October. She made her return to the digital world on Tuesday with a gorgeous family photo, followed by her first selfie of the new year on Snapchat. But perhaps most telling, Kim shared a sentimental highlight video on Tuesday showing off personal family moments set to the sound of Jeremih's heartfelt song, "Paradise." WATCH: Kim Kardashian Shares Intimate Family Moments With Kanye West, North and Saint in Emotional Video "She's feeling really good -- and strong," a source told ET on Wednesday. "She had three months off and was able to spend an amazing chunk of time with her kids and Kanye, and I don't think she would trade that in for anything, but she is ready to get back into a routine and back into the swing of things. She's in a very good place and is ready to move on." Story continues Kim's first official appearance is scheduled for Jan. 13 in Dubai, where she's set to participate in a makeup tutorial class with her makeup artist, Mario Dedivanovic. For more on Kim's return to the spotlight, watch below. WATCH: Kim Kardashian Feeling 'Strong' as She Returns to Spotlight: 'It Was Time to Get Back to Normal' Related Articles Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fstory%2fthumbnail%2f32590%2f866ab397-2d22-46dd-b35e-2bb76cb2e443 Thank your lucky stars that you don't have to dive into the uncertain waters of 2017 without proper selfie leadership. The queen is back and she brings us peace. Kim Kardashian West shared her first selfie in over three months late last night, restoring some order into the chaos of our unforgiving universe. Image: kimkardashian/snapchat Kardashian West returned to social media earlier this week after a hiatus following the Paris robbery with a couple grainy family photos and a sweet home video. But it's not real until she's taking selfies again. So now that we possess this most precious gift, it's critical that we don't squander it. Here are some important details we can move forward with as we take our own selfies: Peace signs are still cool. Moms are cool and make great accessories. Removable lip rings are cool. Blazers are cool. Strobing is cool. Contouring is still uncool. Teeth are uncool. Selfies are very cool. Go forth and pose, content creators. BONUS: Doug the Pug recreates Kim Kardashian's selfies The new movie Hidden Figures, which opens in wide release on Friday, tells the story of the real African-American women whose mathematical prowess helped launch the United States into the space ageeven though, due to their race and gender, they went largely unacknowledged. (Perhaps unsurprisingly, a look at TIMEs coverage of the era reveals that the women were not mentioned, by name or as a group, even in stories specifically about the people behind the scenes in the space program.) And as the film helps women like Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson (played by Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monae) finally get their due, it also shines a light on a lesser-known center of American innovation. Though sites like Cape Canaveral and Houston may be more famous today for their roles in NASA history, the movie is set somewhere else: Hampton, Va. The National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA), a precursor to NASA, was created by Congress in 1915, and its Virginia lab at Langley Fieldestablished in 1917quickly became a hub for big ideas amid the aviation boom of the early 20th century. By the early 1930s, it was home to the largest wind tunnel in the world. Later in that decade, as U.S. involvement in World War II came to seem inevitable, and as it became clear that in this war technology would matter more than ever before, the military implications of aviation drew new attention to Langley and its innovations. Those included a wing with less drag and a way to reduce the fire hazard of jet fuel, among others. And the war was important at Langley for another reason too: the Presidential mandate to end segregation in the defense industry applied there, as well, opening the doors to the women portrayed in Hidden Figures. After the war ended, the NACA continued its work at Langley on high-speed aviation and missile technology until 1958, when the lab was given to new leadership: NASA. Story continues Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter When the first seven American astronauts were selected for Project Mercury in 1959, Langley was to be their destination before any trip to space: Operating from Langley Research Center at Hampton, Va., the Astronauts will work along with the engineersas experimental test pilots always do, TIME reported. Each man will help design one component of the space capsule: communications system, propulsion, instrumentation, etc. To toughen up for the physical trials and psychological terrors of space, they will spend hours in low-pressure chambers, wind tunnels, human cocktail shakers; they will be jolted on supersonic rocket sleds, flown in balloons and supersonic aircraft and eventually test-rocketed by Army Redstone missiles at 4,000 m.p.h. more than 100 miles from Cape Canaveral down the Atlantic firing range. The Mercury mission eventually moved to a new base in Texas, but the Langley women of Hidden Figures played a crucial role in achieving one very important project goal in 1962, when their work helped John Glennwho died in 2016become the first American to orbit the Earth. NASA still operates the Langley Research Center to this day, and will celebrate its 100th birthday in 2017. Seoul (AFP) - The impeachment trial of South Korea's President Park Geun-Hye got under way Thursday, with her lawyers arguing there is no evidence to back the corruption allegations that threaten to force her from office. Parliament voted to impeach Park last month over an influence-peddling scandal that has brought hundreds of thousands of protesters onto the streets every week demanding her removal. Park is accused of colluding with a longtime friend, Choi Soon-Il, to strong-arm donations worth tens of millions of dollars from top firms which were then funnelled to dubious foundations. The president is also accused of using her influence to ensure the merger of two Samsung units in 2015 to help facilitate a father-to-son power succession of Samsung's founding family, allegedly in return for bribes given to Choi. The National Assembly, which must have its vote upheld by the Constitutional Court, accused Park of a "serious breach of the constitution" during the first full hearing in the impeachment case. "The court is requested to fire the president so that impaired constitutional order can be restored", said Kwon Seong-Dong, a lawmaker representing the parliament. "The president has betrayed the trust and mandate from the people", he added. The Constitutional Court's initial hearing on Tuesday was curtailed after Park failed to attend. It decided to proceed on Thursday regardless of whether she was present. Park's lawyers said there was no proof the president had issued any directive, oral or written, to tell her aides to ensure the National Pension Fund -- the largest shareholder of one of the two Samsung units -- voted for the merger. - 'No solid evidence' - They urged the court to overturn the impeachment vote, saying the motion had been based on "likelihood at best" and insisted she be reinstated as president immediately. "There is no solid evidence to back the impeachment", Park's lawyer Lee Jung-Hwan told the court. Story continues 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. Park also allegedly failed to carry out her official duties as the head of state during her response to the 2014 Sewol ferry disaster that claimed more than 300 lives, mostly schoolchildren. The court has asked Park's lawyers to clarify the mystery surrounding her seven-hour absence at the time of the disastrous sinking. Unconfirmed media reports have suggested a wide range of theories about Park's whereabouts, including a romantic liaison, participation in a shamanistic ritual, cosmetic surgery or a 90-minute haircut. Park has repeatedly denied the corruption allegations in sometimes tearful televised addresses, while apologising for lapses. At a separate criminal court trial Thursday, Choi also repeated her denial of all charges levelled against her. "I think I was victimised" by groundless allegations, said Choi. Her lawyers have denied allegations Choi was involved in peddling influence or extortion. In a rare meeting with journalists, the president said Sunday that she had only sought to listen through Choi to ordinary citizens' opinions on her polices and speeches. She also insisted the donations to the foundations were made voluntarily by companies to help develop the country's culture and sports. The president also argued she reacted properly at the time of the ferry tragedy, ordering all possible efforts to rescue the victims. But massive demonstrations have been taking place in Seoul and other cities every Saturday for the past 10 weeks, with protesters calling for Park's immediate departure from office. By Fatos Bytyci PRISTINA (Reuters) - Brittle diplomatic ties between Serbia and Kosovo came under further strain on Thursday in a row over international arrest warrants issued by Belgrade for former Kosovar guerrillas, including an ex-premier detained in France. Ramush Haradinaj, a guerrilla commander during the 1998-99 war against Serbian rule who served briefly as prime minister in 2004 and 2005, was arrested on Wednesday and remanded in prison by a French court on Thursday. Kosovo asked the European Union on Thursday to press Serbia to drop the warrants against him and others, and angry government and opposition leaders in Pristina called for a halt to EU-mediated normalization talks between Belgrade and its former, mainly ethnic Albanian province. The talks are a precondition for both countries to make progress toward membership of the bloc. As Serbia - which still formally considers Kosovo part of its territory - confirmed it would seek Haradinaj's extradition, Kosovo canceled a visit by Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic to a mainly ethnic Serb town in Kosovo scheduled for Friday, the eve of Christian Orthodox Christmas Day. A Serbian government official who asked not to be named said Nikolic's forward team was "harassed" at the border crossing and could not perform necessary security checks. "The visit will not proceed as planned, this is likely related to the Haradinaj arrest," the official said. Serbia has charged him with murders of Serbs in the late 1990s war, while the majority of Kosovo's 1.8 million population are opposed to any trials of ex-guerrillas they see as freedom fighters. A security source in Pristina told Reuters that, in all, there were currently around 20 Kosovo citizens subject to Interpol Red Notice arrest warrants - mainly ex-members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) that fought Serbian security forces. Kosovo's minister in charge of the EU-brokered dialogue with Serbia, Edita Tahiri, said she had written to Brussels asking it to use its leverage to make Serbia withdraw the arrest warrants. "With these primitive acts, Serbia is not only hurting the spirit of the dialogue to have good neighbourly relations, but is proving that it is a destabilizing factor in the whole region, and international partners should be seriously worried," Tahiri told local media. Serbia hopes to complete accession talks with the EU by 2020. Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008, has signed a trade and association pact with the EU but remains far from membership due to serious corruption and organized crime. FRANCE TO STUDY EXTRADITION REQUEST Haradinaj appeared late on Thursday at the appeals court in Colmar, eastern France, which ruled he would remain in prison until Serbia made a formal request for his extradition. That would then be studied by the relevant institution, the court said. Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said on Thursday that, if France did not extradite Haradinaj, West European states should stop "patronizing" Serbia about judicial reforms it had undertaken to help qualify for EU accession. After his stints as premier, Haradinaj was tried and acquitted twice of war crimes at a U.N. tribunal in The Hague. At the time, Kosovo was a ward of the United Nations. The war ended after NATO bombed Serbia for 11 weeks to compel it to withdraw forces who had killed some 10,000 Albanian civilians in counter-insurgency operations. In June 2015 Haradinaj, now an opposition party leader, was arrested by Slovenian police but freed after two days following diplomatic pressure. Around 130,000 people were killed in a decade of conflict following the break-up of old federal Yugoslavia, and its successor states were loath to prosecute their own ethnic kin. Western governments that believed prosecutions of all sides were needed to bring reconciliation and stability to the region and move it closer to the EU set up two international criminal courts - one for former Yugoslav republics (ICTY) such as Bosnia, and one for Kosovo, both based in The Hague. Set up in 1993, the ICTY is due to complete its work this year, having prosecuted and jailed mainly Bosnian Serbs. The Kosovo court came into being only at the beginning of this year and indictments must wait until judges, none of whom has yet taken office, have drawn up rules of procedure. (Additional reporting by Thomas Escritt in Amsterdam and John Irish in Paris; Editing by Ivana Sekularac and John Stonestreet) KELOWNA, BC / ACCESSWIRE / January 5, 2017 / Laguna Blends Inc. (CNSX:LAG) (OTC PINK: LAGBF) (LB6A.F) (the "Company" or "Laguna"), announces the LOI for Laguna Blends Inc and Carlsbad Naturals, LLC dba CBD Naturals expired on December 31, 2016. With new management coming into Laguna Blends, both parties have agreed to new terms and conditions regarding the prior LOI. A new agreement regarding this transaction will be announced prior to January 13, 2017. Laguna Blends CEO Ray Grimm Jr stated, "Unfortunately, we were unable to get this deal completed under the original terms and conditions prior to year-end 2016. However, we are working on new terms and conditions and look forward to completing the new agreement within the next 10 business days. Laguna Blends is continuing to execute on our business plan by bringing new Hemp/CBD products to the market while evaluating potential acquisitions in this growing sector of the market." About Laguna Blends Inc. Laguna Blends is a market leader in the distribution of Hemp and CBD products. Laguna's growth strategy includes acquiring and incubating companies who formulate and or manufacture Hemp products. Laguna Blends markets Hemp products utilizing its B to B Network along with driving traffic to its online marketplace. It's Laguna's intent to provide the highest quality hemp product experience for the end user, utilizing a proprietary nanotechnology in many of its consumable and topical skin care products. Laguna is currently seeking joint ventures and acquisitions to expand its portfolio and will aggressively begin international expansion into Asia and Europe in 2017. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD "Ray Grimm Jr" CEO, President & Director CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS: Howe & Bay Suite 600 - 535 Howe St. Vancouver BC V6C 2Z4 1.604.449.5302 COMPANY: Laguna Blends ir@lagunablends.com www.lagunablends.com https://cbdskincream.com/ Join Us On Face Book: https://www.facebook.com/LagunaBlends/ Twitter: @LagunaBlends Story continues Forward-Looking Information: This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws relating to statements regarding the Company's business, products and future the Company's business, its product offerings and plans for sales and marketing. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward looking information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Readers are cautioned to not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Such forward looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, performance and developments to differ materially from those contemplated by these statements depending on, among other things, the risks that the Company's products and plan will vary from those stated in this news release and the Company may not be able to carry out its business plans as expected. Except as required by law, the Company expressly disclaims any obligation, and does not intend, to update any forward looking statements or forward-looking information in this news release.Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward looking information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct and makes no reference to profitability based on sales reported. The statements in this news release are made as of the date of this release. SOURCE: Laguna Blends Inc. Joanne Klees will lead an Owl Journaling Workshop the weekend of Jan. 13 to 15. This program includes seeing the owls up close, working from feathers, owl-themed treats and three owl center programs. An Owl Prowl will be held at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 14. Guests will hear wild owls and and have a close-up look at a live owl. Registration is required for both programs. To register or for cost information, visit www.InternationalOwlCenter.org. WASHINGTON (AP) The Latest on accusations that Russia meddled in America's presidential election to help Donald Trump win (all times local): 1:45 p.m. The White House says President Barack Obama is being briefed on a classified report about Russian and other foreign meddling in U.S. elections. Spokesman Josh Earnest says senior members of Obama's national security team are briefing him. Earnest says Obama has asked intelligence officials to also brief members of Congress and the incoming president. President-elect Donald Trump's briefing is scheduled for Friday in New York. Russian hacking was also the subject of a Senate Armed Service Committee hearing at which Director of National Intelligence James Clapper declined to characterize the hacking as an "act of war." Earnest also declined to characterize the hacking as war, but he says Obama takes the issue "quite seriously." ___ 11:35 a.m. The Director of National Intelligence says attempts to deter foreign hackers don't work, despite President-elect Donald Trump's plans for a buildup of defensive cyber capabilities. James Clapper told the Senate Armed Services Committee during a hearing Thursday that the U.S. cannot put stock in what he called cyber deterrence. He says cyber weapons are different than nuclear weapons because they are ephemeral and difficult for enemies to see and evaluate. Clapper says that makes it hard to create what he calls "the substance and psychology of deterrence." During the presidential campaign, Trump said he will develop offensive cyber capabilities needed to deter attacks and, if necessary, to respond appropriately. ___ 10:51 a.m. Asked about President-elect Donald Trump's frequent criticism of U.S. intelligence agencies, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper says there is a difference between skepticism and disparagement. Clapper made his comments in response to a question from Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri during a hearing Thursday before the Senate Armed Services Committee. Story continues McCaskill asked Clapper who benefits from the president-elect "trashing" the intelligence agencies. President-elect Donald Trump has been critical of U.S. intelligence agencies and their conclusions that Russia is behind the hacking of the 2016 election. Trump appeared to reverse course earlier Thursday, tweeting that he is a "big fan" of U.S. intelligence. ___ 10:23 a.m. Top intelligence officials are belittling WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (ah-SAHNJ'), saying his work has put American lives at risk. National Intelligence Director James Clapper is telling Congress he believes Assange is responsible for the publication of names which put lives in danger. He did not elaborate. WikiLeaks immediately responded on Twitter by accusing Clapper of lying to Congress. Wikileaks has been under criminal investigation for its role in leaks of classified information. Sen. John McCain is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. At a committee hearing, McCain asked Clapper whether Assange has any credibility. Clapper said "No," and his assessment was seconded by Adm. Mike Rogers, director of the National Security Agency. ___ 10:04 a.m. The Director of National Intelligence says he won't discuss details about the Obama administration's comprehensive report on Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election early next week. James Clapper said Thursday at a hearing on foreign cyber threats to the U.S. that he understands there is enormous public interest in the report's conclusions but said he won't be discussing them. He says an unclassified version of the report will be publicly released next week. He says Congress will also be briefed on the report early next week. The classified version of the report was delivered to President Barack Obama on Thursday. U.S. intelligence services have concluded that Russian civil and military intelligence services used hacking to interfere in the election process. ___ 9:40 a.m. U.S. intelligence officials have delivered the classified report on Russian and other foreign meddling in American elections to the White House. A U.S. official said Thursday that President Barack Obama has received the report. President-elect Donald Trump is to be briefed on the report on Friday. The official was not authorized to publicly discuss the issue and spoke on condition of anonymity. Director of National Intelligence told Congress that an unclassified version of the report is tentatively scheduled to be released early next week. By Deb Riechmann. ___ 9:36 a.m. Top U.S. intelligence officials say Russia poses a major and growing threat to U.S. government, military, diplomatic and commercial operations as well as America's critical infrastructure. National Intelligence Director James Clapper and other intelligence officials are testifying at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing focused on Russia's meddling in the U.S. presidential election. They say Russia is among at least 30 nations that are developing capabilities to launch cyberattacks. President-elect Donald Trump has expressed skepticism that Russia was behind the election hacking. U.S. intelligence agencies disagree. The officials aren't expected to disclose details of a report on foreign influence in U.S. elections before President Barack Obama gets a briefing on that report Thursday. ___ 3:11 a.m. Top U.S. intelligence officials are set to testify at a Senate hearing to be dominated by accusations Russia meddled in America's presidential election to help Donald Trump win. The Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday comes a day before the president-elect is to be briefed by the CIA and FBI directors along with the director of national intelligence on the investigation into Russia's alleged hacking efforts. Trump has been deeply critical of their findings. He's even appeared to back controversial WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's contention that Russia did not provide him with hacked Democratic emails. Slated to appear before the Armed Services Committee are the national intelligence director, James Clapper; the undersecretary of defense for intelligence, Marcel Lettre; and the National Security Agency chief, Navy Adm. Michael Rogers. By Harriet McLeod CHARLESTON, S.C. (Reuters) - Convicted murderer Dylann Roof said on Thursday tearful testimony by family members of those slain in the South Carolina church massacre was excessive and would prejudice jurors who will decide whether he should be sentenced to death. The 22-year-old white supremacist, found guilty last month of killing nine black people at Charleston's Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in 2015, said in written motions it was unfair for federal prosecutors to pile on given he does not plan to present any mitigating evidence. Roof is serving as his own lawyer during the penalty phase of his capital trial. Roof objected to prosecutors' initial plans to call 38 survivors and friends to detail the effects of the murders because that was the same number of witnesses who testified against Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh after he was convicted of killing 168 people. "If I don't present any mitigation evidence, the victim-impact evidence will take over the whole sentencing trial and guarantee that I get the death penalty," Roof said in one of several motions decrying prosecutors' tactics. U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel urged prosecutors to pare down their witness list as jurors heard from victims' loved ones for a second day. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Richardson said prosecutors were making adjustments but noted the large number of victims resulted from Roof's choices. Nine family and friends remembered Myra Thompson, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, DePayne Middleton Doctor and the Reverend Daniel Simmons, who attended the Bible study meeting where Roof opened fire. Thompson's daughter, Denise Quarles, said she was angry Roof killed her in their beloved church. "It pisses me off, but I won't let what happened in that church stop me from being there," Quarles told jurors. Roof offered no defense or apology for his crimes during his brief opening statement on Wednesday, instead insisting to jurors he is not mentally ill. He has asked no questions of the prosecution witnesses and has not objected in court to any testimony. Prominent capital defense lawyer David Bruck, who represented Roof during the guilt phase of the trial and now serves as his standby counsel, said the defendant's actions proved he was incapable of mounting a proper defense. "This man cannot protect his own rights," Bruck argued. "He cannot do it." Gergel refused to let Bruck make objections on Roof's behalf. Roofs trial on state murder charges, set for Jan. 17, was delayed indefinitely on Thursday. (Writing by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Leslie Adler and Matthew Lewis) (Adds one more dead, more details) AMMAN, Jan 5 (Reuters) - At least ten people were killed in a car blast on Thursday in the Syrian coastal Mediterranean province of Latakia where two Russian bases are located, state television said. State media said scores of cars were on fire and shops were also damaged by the blast in a bustling commercial district of the town of Jableh that lies in the heartland of President Bashar al Assad's minority Alawite sect. Senior medical officer Ghassan Findi told state television the death toll was expected to rise with rescue operations still continuing and scores of injured still being rushed to nearby hospitals. Jableh's hospital director said many among around thirty people injured were in critical condition. "It was a strong explosion, from the nature of the wounds we received," Qusai al Khalil told state owned Ikhbariyah. State television showed footage of mangled cars and shutters of shops damaged and blown apart as rescue workers cleared the debris amid a heavy security presence in the bustling commercial area near a popular vegetable market and a garage depot. The head of the local police force told state media initial investigations suggested a car parked in the area that was remotely detonated may have been responsible for the blast. At least 150 people were killed and 200 wounded in May when bombs hit the town and the port city of Tartous on the Mediterranean coast where Russian military bases are located. Latakia province hosts Moscow's naval base in Tartous port while Hmeymim air base is Russia's main launching ground for an intensive bombing campaign against rebel-held territory. Islamic State claimed the May attacks in a statement posted online saying its fighters had targeted "gatherings of Alawites" deploying suicide bombers to inflict the heaviest losses. Hardline Sunni militants consider Alawites heretics. Latakia city, which is north of Jableh and capital of the province, has been targeted on a number of occasions by bombings and insurgent rocket attacks. But these government-held coastal cities have been largely spared the widescale violence seen elsewhere in the war-torn country. (Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Editing by Ralph Boulton) By Se Young Lee SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's LG Display Co Ltd said it was in talks with Samsung Electronics Co Ltd about a supply agreement for television display panels. "If we do supply (Samsung) it likely won't be a one-time thing," LG Display Chief Executive Han Sang-beom told reporters on Wednesday on the sidelines of the CES trade show in Las Vegas. Specifics of the deal have not been decided, he added. A Samsung Electronics spokesman confirmed the news on Thursday, a day after local media reported the two sides were in talks about a potential liquid crystal display panel supply deal, citing the head of Samsung's TV business. This news comes on the heels of a report by Japan's Nikkei newspaper that a joint venture company between Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd and Sharp Corp will halt the supply of LCD panels to Samsung Electronics sometime in 2017 as Hon Hai helps boost Sharp's TV business. Samsung Electronics, the world's top TV maker, has avoided buying components from LG Group firms as it competes with LG Electronics Inc - LG Display's top shareholder - in various markets including smartphones and televisions. But analysts say Samsung Electronics may lack viable alternatives other than LG Display given its display-making unit - Samsung Display - is cutting LCD production to focus on making more organic light-emitting diode screens for smartphones. Neither LG Display nor Samsung commented on specifics, including the potential size of a supply deal. (Reporting by Se Young Lee; Editing by Himani Sarkar) The little black dress Melania Trump wore on New Years Eve is now sparking an online firestorm against its designer. Read: Schwarzenegger Steps In for Trump as 'New Celebrity Apprentice' Host, Reveals Catchphrase It all started after the dress' designer, Stefano Dolce of Italian label Dolce & Gabbana, thanked her on Instagram. @corriere grazie A photo posted by stefanogabbana (@stefanogabbana) on Jan 4, 2017 at 10:31pm PST Melania Trump has been a longtime supporter of the high-end company based in Milan, and the creators remark led to a flood of criticism. No! Whether she's beautiful or not, would you be proud to dress Eva Braun? So wrong, read one comment. The dress retails for $3,000 at Saks Fifth Avenue in New York City. It's made of wool and spandex and it's adorned with bejeweled bows. The Italian designer has fired right back at online critics, calling them "ignorant" and saying: Please you dont buy anymore my fashion please!!! It's now just 15 days until the inauguration. The Obamas will be moving out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue just as the Trumps will be moving in. The whole process will take about six hours. Read: Inside Ivanka Trump's $5.5 Million D.C. Mansion, Around the Block From the Obamas' Post-White House Digs Its organized chaos, according to former White House chief usher Stephen Rochon. "Wallpaper sometimes has to come down, touch up painting, even flowers are changed out to the liking of the incoming first lady," he told Inside Edition. Rochon is a U.S. Coast Guard Admiral who was appointed chief usher by President George W. Bush. He supervised the move of the Obamas into the White House on Inauguration Day in 2009. He added: "No one wants to sleep on someone elses mattress, even the beds have to be changed." Story continues Cameras have caught moving vans already parked at Americas most famous address, getting ready to export one first family and import the next. Watch: Passenger Removed From JetBlue Flight for Berating Ivanka Trump: 'Your Father Is Ruining the Country' Related Articles: Nvidia (NVDA) CEO Jen-Hsun Huang outlined his vision for the chipmaker's role in self-driving cars in the CES keynote late Wednesday, and Investor's Business Daily's Alissa Coram spoke with Nvidia Automotive Director Rob Csongor about the company's efforts. For more tech news and stock analysis from CES 2017 in Vegas this week, check out our full coverage. RELATED: CES: Nvidia CEO Details Bold Plans To Push Self-Driving Cars Living close to a busy road may be linked to dementia, new research reveals. Scientists on behalf of Public Health Ontario monitored 6.6 million residents of the Canadian city aged between 20 and 85. Incidences of dementia, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease were recorded for the eleven years between 2001 to 2012. Cases of dementia were seven percent higher in those living within 50 meters of a major traffic road, and four percent higher for those 50 to 100 meters away. The findings of the study were published in British medical journal The Lancet Thursday. The results showed that 243,611 cases of dementia were recorded, and approximately 9,000 and 32,000 cases of multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease respectively. No link between participants living close to busy roads and the latter two diseases was recorded. Dr. Hong Chen, one of the scientists behind the work, said in a widely reported statement that "increasing population growth and urbanization has placed many people close to heavy traffic, and with widespread exposure to traffic and growing rates of dementia, even a modest effect from near-road exposure could pose a large public health burden." This is not the first time pollution has been linked to brain disease. Last September, researchers from Lancaster University in the U.K. found microscopic air pollution particles in human brains , which have been associated with causing brain diseases such as Alzheimer's. According to the World Health Organization in April 2016, nearly 50 million people worldwide suffer from dementia. CNBC reported last October that one in three seniors in the U.S. dies with either Alzheimer's or dementia. But, the latest research does not confirm a causal link between busy roads and dementia, Dr. David Reynolds, chief scientific officer at Alzheimer's Research UK said in a statement. "Conditions like dementia have multiple risk factors including age and genetics, and other social factors relating to where people live in cities could also be playing a part," he explained. Story continues Follow CNBC International on Twitter and Facebook. More From CNBC While some fashion capitals, like Paris, seem relatively resistant to change, London has upped the pace this season with new schedules and formats gaining ground for the upcoming menswear shows. The "see now, buy now" model and combined menswear and womenswear shows are more than ever on the agenda in the British capital. Fashion week returns to London Friday, January 6, with a round of menswear shows widely known as "London Collections Men" or "London Fashion Week Men's." This new season will no doubt bring an air of rejuvenation to the British fashion scene, with a growing number of combined menswear and womenswear runways and -- although less widespread -- collections immediately availability for purchase. Combined collections A key trend for this season's men's shows will be combined menswear and womenswear catwalk events. A host of labels and fashion houses are trying out this new approach this season. Vivienne Westwood, for example, has merged her menswear and womenswear labels, and now plans to hold just one combined fashion show per season. The brand will present all of its collections in London, January 9, the last day of this season's menswear fashion week. Other brands taking the plunge with mixed shows include Nigel Cabourn (Friday, January 6), Katie Eary (Saturday, January 7), YMC (Saturday, January 7), Casely-Hayford (Saturday, January 7), Agi & Sam x The Woolmark Company (Saturday, January 7), maharishi (Sunday, January 8), Christopher Rburn (Sunday, January 8), Sibling (Sunday, January 8), Belstaff (Monday, January 9) and John Smedley (Monday, January 9). See now, buy now Although less prominent this season, the "see now, buy now" trend is still making waves in the fashion world. Fashion houses have so far proved less enthusiastic about putting collections on sale straight after their runway shows than mixing menswear and womenswear, but an increasing number of labels are shaking up the schedule with "see now, buy now" collections. In London, Barbour International (Friday, January 6) has opted for a "see now, buy now" model this season, along with Edward Crutchley (Saturday, January 7), maharishi (Sunday, January 8), Chester Barrie (Sunday, January 8) and John Smedley (Monday, January 9). London is the first of the four fashion capitals to host its fall/winter 2017-2018 menswear collection previews. The next rounds of shows will be held in Milan, January 13-17, then Paris, January 18-22, and New York, January 30 to February 2. The Bank of Portugal has chosen Dallas-based private equity house Lone Star Funds as "the best-placed" bidder for the acquisition of Novo Banco, the so-called good bank pulled from the wreckage of collapsed lender Banco Espirito Santo in a 2014 bailout. But in a statement issued late on Wednesday, Jan. 4, the bank made clear the negotiations are not exclusive and the field is still open for rival bidders to improve their offers. The Portuguese central bank invited Lone Star to bolster its own proposal in further talks, claiming that the current bid still presents a risk to the public purse. Lone Star is reportedly demanding that the government underwrite any risks from a "side bank" that manages Novo Banco's problem assets. Portugal's central bank, which owns Novo Banco through its Bank of Portugal Resolution Fund, said the primary objectives of a sale are ensuring the stability of the financial system and building confidence in Novo Banco's future. "At the current stage of the negotiations, the proposal of the potential investor Lone Star is the one which best assures these objectives," the central bank said in a Portuguese-language statement, "but presents conditions, notably a potential impact on the public accounts, which the deepening of negotiations now beginning will attempt to minimize or remove." The other contenders in the auction are Hong Kong-listed China Minsheng Financial Holding, as well as Lone Star's U.S. rivals Apollo Global Management and Centerbridge Partners. Domestic lenders Millennium BCP Bank and Banco BPI are also reported to be in the race. Lisbon stepped in with a 4.9 billion ($5.15 billion) rescue in 2014, when the family holding behind the Espirito Santo Group collapsed under the weight of its debts. An initial attempt to sell the bank fell apart in 2015 when talks with the preferred bidder of the day, China's Anbang Insurance Co., ended without a deal. Portugal also rejected what it felt were low-ball offers from Apollo and Fosun International. Story continues That disappointment was swiftly followed by a European Central Bank stress test that uncovered a 1.4 billion capital hole at the good bank. The government controversially chose to fill the hole by moving senior notes totaling nearly 2 billion from the good bank to the legacy BES bad bank, a move which was seen as signaling that senior creditors rather than the taxpayer would be on the hook for any future rescues. The government later decided to restart the auction and has said it is looking for either a direct strategic sale or a deal which involves floating part of Novo Banco on the stock market. The government said this week that Lone Star's rivals, all of whom have made offers in one of the two bidding processes, have indicated they are prepared to come back with improved proposals. EXCLUSIVE OFFER: See inside Jim Cramers multi-million dollar charitable trust portfolio to see the stocks he thinks could be potentially HUGE winners. Click here to see his holdings for FREE. On a scale of 1 to 10, lower back pain can register somewhere between "I need an aspirin" to "please jack me up with morphine." Those suffering from such discomfort might feel moderate to mild pain that is not debilitating. In severe cases, they could feel like a giant electrified claw has claimed the lower part of their back, tearing into each nerve in that part of the body. The smallest of movements -- getting up from a chair, walking or even coughing -- can feel torturous. Maybe the lower back is as stiff as hardened concrete and as sensitive as an exposed nerve. A simple lumbar support device, or back brace, can provide short-term relief, research shows, according to an analysis of 28 studies published in the September 2016 issue of the Annals of Physical Rehabilitation Medicine journal. While these devices won't cure the underlying condition, they're simple and relatively inexpensive. In the 2016 meta-analysis, researchers concluded that lumbar support devices are useful for improving function and reducing pain among those suffering from subacute back pain, which means it's past the acute stage -- which is sudden and short in duration -- but not long-lasting enough to be chronic. [See: 11 Items That Help Protect Your Health.] "Lumbar support devices provide enough compression and support for the lower back to allow healing to occur," says Christopher Cousins, a physical therapist based in the District of Columbia. "The compression on the abdomen means there's less pressure on your lower back discs, ligaments, muscles and spine." Lumbar devices typically fit around your waist and are secured with Velcro. They often have a steel or plastic plate attached to the section that would press against the patient's lower back to provide support; some have over-the-shoulders straps. Most over-the-counter lumbar support devices cost between $25 and $130, and they're available at many drug stores, Target and Wal-Mart, plus online without a a prescription. Custom-made lumbar support devices, which are contoured to the natural curvature of the patient's spine, cost from a few hundred dollars to about $1,000, Cousins says. Story continues People who suffer mild to moderate subacute back pain should put on a back brace as soon as their discomfort sets in, says Scott Bautch, a chiropractor in Wasau, Wisconsin, and president of the American Chiropractic Association's council on occupational health. "You want to give yourself bracing so you can move," Bautch says. "Inactivity or immobilization is the worst thing for a back. You want to remain active, and a brace can help you do that." Some studies have shown that wearing a lumbar support device could lead to negative effects, such as skin lesions, muscle wasting, gastrointestinal disorders, higher blood pressure and higher heart rates. Those issues are rare and typically occur with people who wear a back brace for an extended period of time, for more than the week or two most experts recommend, Bautch says. If a back brace fits well, is worn properly -- that is, it's not too snug -- and is not overused, it shouldn't create any health problems, Bautch says. During the course of his 30-year career, Bautch says, hundreds of his patients have worn lumbar support devices. None of them developed any problems, aside from a handful who had minor skin irritation where part of the brace rubbed their body, Bautch says. He remedied that issue by having his patients wear an undershirt between the lumbar support device and their skin. [See: 11 Ways to Cope With Back Pain.] Searing, subacute back pain is caused by an array of conditions, including a herniated disc, in which the soft, jelly-like center inside the disc pushes out through a tear in its tough exterior and irritates nerves. A herniated disc can cause sciatica, a painful condition that affects the back, hips and legs and is caused by the compression of a spinal nerve root in the lower back. Spinal discs degenerate with age, and a herniated disc can occur without a physical injury, says Dr. Neel Anand, director of spine trauma at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. "Think of your disc like your car tire -- it's going to wear out," Anand says. Before getting a lumbar support device for your lower back pain, experts recommend these steps: 1. If you have severe pain, see a physician quickly. If your back pain or stiffness is so bad you can't move without tremendous discomfort, see a doctor as soon as possible, Bautch says. If your pain and stiffness are that severe, a back brace may not be of much immediate use, he says, adding that it may be helpful once the pain and stiffness subside to a tolerable level where you can move. Moderate to mild lower back pain often subsides after five days or so, but if your discomfort persists beyond that or worsens, see a doctor, adds Dr. Megan Cortazzo, medical director of clinical documentation improvement and health information management at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. A doctor can test for and rule out serious potential causes, such as kidney stones, an abdominal aneurysm and cancer, Cortazzo says. Doctors can order an array of tests, such as an X-ray, MRI or CT scan, to arrive at the correct diagnosis, which will help lead to the most effective treatment plan, she says. The goal of most treatment regimens is strengthening the patient's core muscles supporting the spine so the pain doesn't recur. Treatment could include physical therapy, a stretching routine, yoga or Pilates. Many people also find chiropractic adjustments helpful, says Robert Hayden, a chiropractor based in Griffin, Georgia. 2. Find a lumbar support device that fits you. Once you've been diagnosed, look for a lumbar support device that fits the natural curvature of your spine, says Dr. Jeremy Smith, an orthopedic spine surgeon at the Hoag Orthopedic Institute in Irvine, California. Try on a few at the store before buying one, he advises. If you buy the device online, you can return it if it doesn't fit. "It needs to naturally contour and fit, kind of like a glove, so all surface areas are in contact with your back. It should help remind you to keep good posture," Smith says. "The device should be snug, but not too tight. It shouldn't constrict your breathing." 3. Don't become reliant on your back brace. Patients should wear a back brace for no longer than a few days to two weeks at the most, Bautch says. "Longer than that, and your muscles start to adapt and get accustomed to the brace, which means they can lose strength, which can lead to more injuries," he adds. "If you use the back brace for more than two weeks, you can become brace-dependent." A lumbar support device can be useful in the short term, but strengthening the core muscles that support your back is important in the long run, Bautch says. [See: 10 Seemingly Innocent Symptoms You Shouldn't Ignore.] 4. Learn your capacity. Figure out your physical limits to avoid reinjuring your back -- both when you're wearing a back brace and after you've stopped using it, says Robert Shapiro, a physical therapist and certified orthopedic manual therapist based in Huntington, New York. "You're not Superman when you're wearing your brace," he says. Exceeding your physical boundaries could cause a recurrence of low back pain. "You have to learn what your limits are and not to exceed them," Shapiro says. "You may be able to lift a box of books, but shoveling snow may cause pain. Your physical limits may change as you exercise and strengthen your core." 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. Finland just rolled out a pilot program to test universal basic income, or UBI . And while the idea of regular cash handouts may sound tantalizing, out-of-work Americans shouldn't hold their breath. The Scandinavian country announced yesterday that 2,000 randomly selected, unemployed individuals between the ages 25 and 58 will receive a monthly cash payment of 560 euros ($582.90) for two years. The payments will continue even if the recipient finds work . The goal, according to the Finnish government, is to increase employment. A privately funded pilot program is in the early stages in California, but the United States as a whole is well behind Finland in implementing any kind of guaranteed income. "Finland is ahead of the U.S. in lot of progressive ideas," says Karl Widerquist, the founder of Basic Income News and an associate professor at SFS-Qatar, Georgetown University, in an email with CNBC. "Finland already has universal health care. The next step is a universal right to a basic income. With Finland's more progressive politics, it's not surprising they're ahead of the U.S. in the movement for basic income," says Widerquist. Taxes are higher in Finland, too, which makes it more feasible for the government to pay its citizens, Martin Ford, author of The New York Times-bestselling novel "Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future," tells CNBC. "They have the means to pay for a basic income by converting existing programs," he says. Although unemployment benefits in Finland are generous, the way they're currently structured can, perversely, keep job-seekers from taking new positions. "Many workers in Finland who used to have good jobs with Nokia, for example, are now unemployed. Lots of these people have skills and could try to start businesses or maybe work for another small business at lower pay. But the traditional unemployment program doesn't allow this. If they earn any money, they lose all their benefits," says Ford. Story continues "So a basic income is a way to structure the safety net so that unemployed workers have an incentive to work to the extent they can, without the fear of losing their benefits." Also, while there are about 5.5 million people living in Finland, there are more than 320 million in the United States. Diversity in the U.S. makes it harder for some Americans to feel compassion for each other, suggests writer Misha Chellam, founder of the start-up training company Tradecraft. Chellam is also a signatory of the Economic Security Project, a newly founded research organization dedicated to learning more about the implications of UBI. "It may be an empathy gap," says Chellam. "Finland is a small, homogeneous country with less than six million people. This may make Finns more empathetic toward fellow Finns' struggles, as they share many cultural similarities. The sense of 'Americanness' can be a bit harder to pin down in a nation of almost 320 million people hailing from all parts of the world." The U.S. will only adopt UBI if automation results in mass unemployment, Ford believes. "I don't expect it to happen smoothly. I expect that, especially here in the United States, it's going to happen when we have a crisis. We will have a big problem first," he says. Despite cultural resistance, Widerquist insists that cash handouts are a viable idea even in the U.S. "Basic income works everywhere. We can all realize it. We just have to give up the belief that the rich should have the right to tell the poor what to do," he says. More From CNBC The impact of challenging retail landscape, stiff competition from online retailers and waning store traffic was clearly evident in the Macys, Inc.s M holiday sales results that came below expectations. The lackluster performance compelled management to trim its fiscal 2016 earnings projection. All these factors were enough to punish the stock, as it plunged over 10% during after-market trading hours on Jan 4. Even the announcement of strategic measures to streamline operations failed to cushion the stock. Comparable sales on an owned plus licensed basis decreased 2.1% during November and December period combined, while on an owned basis, comparable sales fell 2.7%. Macys informed that digital business remained robust and registered double-digit growth at both macys.com and bloomingdales.com. However, the changing consumer behavior hurt store sales. The companys apparel business showcased strength predominantly active and cold-weather merchandise. Fine jewelry, furniture and bedding categories also marked strong sales but softness prevailed at handbags and watches. As a result of dismal holiday sales, Macys now envisions fiscal 2016 earnings in the band of $2.95 to $3.10, down from a range of $3.15 to $3.40, forecasted earlier. Management expects comparable sales on an owned plus licensed basis to come in at the lower end of the previously announced sales guidance of 2.5% to 3% decline. On an owned basis, comparable sales are expected to be roughly 50 basis points below. Evidently, after disappointing holiday sales results Macys will struggle to find place in investors good books, and management is also not unaware of this fact. The company in a bid to calm investors jitters, announced slew of measures revolving around stores closures, cost containment, real estate strategy and investment in omnichannel capabilities. The company is closing 68 Macys store out of 730 stores, as a part of its planned closure of about 100 stores announced in Aug 2016. Further, it will realign operations and focus on curtailing costs. Management said that these measures will result in annual savings of about $550 million, beginning in 2017, and would allow the company to invest an additional $250 million in enhancing digital business, store-related growth initiatives, Bluemercury, Macys Backstage and China. Story continues Moreover, Macys pointed that store closures will lower its 2017 sales by approximately $575 million. Beside this, management also said that four new Macys and Bloomingdales stores are currently planned or are under construction. Additionally, new Macys and Bloomingdales outlets are expected to be launched in Abu Dhabi, and one Bloomingdales store in Kuwait., The company will also undertake massive restructuring of the organization that may result in headcount reduction of 6,200. Although heading in the right direction, it is still to be seen how these efforts will help lift the performance of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company in the near future, whose shares have increased 6.7% in the past six months, compared with the Retail-Regional Department Stores industrys gain of 10.6%. Stocks to Consider Better-ranked stocks in the retail sector include Best Buy Co., Inc. BBY, The Children's Place, Inc. PLCE and Burlington Stores, Inc. BURL, all flaunting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Best Buy delivered an average positive earnings surprise of 25.7% in the trailing four quarters and has a long-term earnings growth rate of 11.9%. The Children's Place delivered an average positive earnings surprise of 36.3% in the trailing four quarters and has a long-term earnings growth rate of 10.3%. Burlington Stores delivered an average positive earnings surprise of 25.6% in the trailing four quarters and has a long-term earnings growth rate of 19.9%. Zacks Best Private Investment Idea In addition to the recommendations that are available to the public on our website, how would you like to follow all Zacks' private buys and sells in real time? Our experts cover all kinds of trades from value to momentum . . . from stocks under $10 to ETF and option moves . . . from stocks that corporate insiders are buying up to companies that are about to report positive earnings surprises. You can even look inside exclusive portfolios that are normally closed to new investors. Starting today, for the next month, you can have unrestricted access. Click here for Zacks' private trades >> 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 CHILDRENS PLACE (PLCE): Free Stock Analysis Report BEST BUY (BBY): Free Stock Analysis Report MACYS INC (M): Free Stock Analysis Report BURLINGTON STRS (BURL): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research For a nation that isnt officially at war against another nation, the United States dropped an awful lot of bombs on a pretty large number of countries last year, according to research by Micah Zenko, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and research associate Jennifer Wilson. According to their calculations, based on data released by the Pentagon as well as information collected by think tanks and news organizations, the U.S. dropped some 26,171 bombs across all its weapons platforms, on targets in seven different countries. Related: Trump Plays War Games on Twitter, and Americans Are Getting Worried The biggest recipients were Syria (12,192) and Iraq (12,095), where the U.S. is participating in the effort to destroy the terror group ISIS, which still controls parts of both countries. Next on the list was Afghanistan where, despite having pulled out the vast majority of combat troops years ago, the U.S. saw the need to drop 1,337 bombs. The only other country in triple digits was Libya, which was hit with 496. Smaller targets included Yemen (34), Somalia (14) and Pakistan (3). The total number of bombs dropped was up 3,027 over the previous year, they found. Related: The VA Doesnt Need to Be Privatized, and Our Vets Know It Writing on his blog, Zenko admits, This estimate is undoubtedly low, considering reliable data is only available for airstrikes in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and Libya, and a single strike, according to the Pentagons definition, can involve multiple bombs or munitions. Zenko added, As President Obama enters the final weeks of his presidency, there will be ample assessments of his foreign military approach, which has focused on reducing U.S. ground combat troops (with the notable exception of the Afghanistan surge), supporting local security partners, and authorizing the expansive use of air power. Whether this strategy worksi.e. reduces the threat posed by extremists operating from those countries and improves overall security and governance on the groundis highly contested. Yet, for better or worse, these are the central [tenets] of the Obama doctrine. Top Reads from The Fiscal Times: Mark Ruffalo will appear on Broadway for the first time in more than a decade, signing on to headline the Roundabout Theater Companys upcoming revival of Arthur Millers The Price this spring. Last on Broadway in Lincoln Center Theaters Awake and Sing! in 2006, Ruffalo will step into the role that was initially set to be played by John Turturro in The Price. Turturro has since had to bow out of the show due to the filming schedule of his screen commitments, according to reps. Ruffalo will play Victor, a man who returns home to sell the remains of his parents estate. As previously announced, Tony Shalhoub, currently appearing in the well-reviewed Off Broadway musical The Bands Visit, stars as Victors estranged brother, with Danny DeVito making his Broadway debut as a furniture dealer and Jessica Hecht on board as Victors wife. Along with Awake and Sing!, for which he was nominated for a Tony, Ruffalos prior theater credits include the 1996 Off Broadway premiere of Kenneth Lonergans This Is Our Youth as well as the Off Broadway play The Moment When. On screen, the actor will next be seen in Thor: Ragnarok, due for release in November. Directed by Terry Kinney, The Price begins previews Feb. 16 ahead of a March 16 opening at the American Airlines Theaters. Related stories Jake Gyllenhaal to Sing on Broadway in 'Sunday in the Park With George' Lynn Nottage's 'Sweat' Will Move to Broadway Robert De Niro, Chazz Palminteri Retell 'A Bronx Tale' on Broadway The upcoming Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's 1968 drama The Price has lost a key castmember with the exit of John Turturro, but gained a notable replacement in three-time Oscar nominee Mark Ruffalo. He joins Tony Shalhoub, Jessica Hecht and Danny DeVito in the Roundabout Theatre Company revival, which begins previews Feb. 16 at the American Airlines Theatre, with an official opening set for March 16. Turturro was forced to withdraw from the play due to a conflicting film project. Ruffalo will take his place in the lead role of Victor Franz, a bitter man who abandoned his dream of an education to support his father after the family suffered crippling losses in the Great Depression. The play explores Victor's struggle to make peace with the past three decades later, when he returns to his childhood home to sell off what remains of his parents' estate. Steppenwolf Theatre Company co-founder Terry Kinney will direct the production, with Shalhoub as Victor's estranged brother Walter, a successful doctor; Hecht as Victor's wife Esther; and DeVito making his Broadway debut as Gregory Solomon, a shrewd Russian furniture dealer hired to appraise the family's possessions. Ruffalo was last on Broadway in 2006, in a Tony-winning revival of Clifford Odets' Awake and Sing!, which also featured Ben Gazzara, Zoe Wanamaker, Lauren Ambrose and Pablo Schreiber. He first gained attention by starring in the original 1996 off-Broadway production of Kenneth Lonergan's This is Our Youth. Oscar-nominated for his work in The Kids Are All Right (2011), Foxcatcher (2015) and Spotlight (2016), Ruffalo will next be seen on the big screen reprising his role of Bruce Banner/Hulk in Thor: Ragnarok and Avengers: Infinity War. The limited engagement of The Price is scheduled to run through May 7. Read more: Broadway Celebrates New Year With Record Weekly Grosses Maybelline is taking a page out of CoverGirl's playbook and enlisting its first-ever male brand ambassador. The makeup brand has tapped YouTube talent Manny Gutierrez, who's known as Manny MUA on the video-sharing website, to advertise its Volum' Express: the Colossal Big Shot Mascara. The social media star, who has more than 5 million followers combined on Instagram, Twitter and YouTube, stars in the campaign alongside popular beauty blogger Shayla Mitchell. A video posted by Manny Gutierrez (@mannymua733) on Jan 3, 2017 at 6:01pm PST "2017 you are off to an AMAZING START OMG! So excited to finally announce that I am part of the @maybelline #bigshotmascara campaign!" Gutierrez captioned on Instagram. "Honestly I couldn't be more honored thrilled! Thank you to Maybelline for taking a chance on me! I look forward to working together so much more." Gutierrez and Mitchell star in two videos for Maybelline called That Boss Life that shows them prepping for a party with the new mascara. The duo follows in the footsteps of supermodels Gigi Hadid, Jourdan Dunn, Adriana Lima and Christy Turlington in promoting the New York-based beauty label's products. President-elect Donald Trump has appeared comfortable with the idea of cozying up to Russia when he is sworn into office later this month but his party isnt all on board with that approach. As the Senate prepares for confirmation hearings on the incoming presidents cabinet picks later this month, including the secretary of state post, tensions over alleged Russian cyber-attacks are simmering between some Republicans. Arizona Sen. John McCain and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, both known for their devotion to American military interests, have found themselves at odds with an incoming president of their own party, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. While Trump has chosen to push Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson known to have close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin to run the State Department, the likes of McCain and Graham are sounding the alarm to try and explore the threats Russia poses to the United States. McCain has scheduled a Senate hearing Thursday to examine foreign cyber threats like the alleged Russian hacking of the 2016 election. The Arizona senator, alongside Graham, has also pushed for harsher sanctions against Russia than the ones imposed by President Barack Obama following the election tampering. The Obama administration announced increased economic sanctions on Russia last month and expelled 35 Russian diplomats in the last few days of 2016. The retaliatory measures announced by the Obama Administration today are long overdue. But ultimately, they are a small price for Russia to pay for its brazen attack on American democracy, the senators wrote in a press release last week. We intend to lead the effort in the new Congress to impose stronger sanctions on Russia. McCain and Graham arent the only major figures in the U.S. government concerned about the threat of Russia. Following the 2014 invasion of Ukraine and the increased Russian military presence in the ongoing Syrian conflict, several high level military officials have indicated that the former Cold War foe is currently the biggest threat to American interests. Related Articles Mexico City (AFP) - Gunfire erupted as protesters clashed with police in Mexico during another day of looting and demonstrations against a gasoline price increase that has infuriated the population. Five officers and eight civilians were hurt and taken to hospitals after the violence in the central town of Ixmiquilpan, but authorities did not specify whether the injuries were the result of gunshot wounds, or say who had fired. The clash came on the fifth day of nationwide demonstrations and highway blockades that began when the government hiked gasoline prices by 20.1 percent on January 1. More than 600 people have been arrested while business leaders estimate that some 1,000 shops and companies have been looted or vandalized this week as others closed over fears of being robbed. The protests claimed the life of a police officer in Mexico City who died on Wednesday when he was struck by a car while preventing a theft at a service station. In Ixmiquilpan, the Hidalgo state authorities said federal police tried to negotiate the peaceful removal of a roadblock on Thursday but protesters threw firecrackers and rocks at the officers. "To deter the disturbances, the officers used tear gas, but the protesters did not withdraw and continued their aggressions, (and) gunfire was heard at the scene," the state public security department said in a statement. - President defends price hike - President Enrique Pena Nieto used a nationally televised New Year's address late Thursday to defend the increase again. "It is a difficult change but as president it is precisely my responsibility to take difficult decisions in the present to avoid major problems in the future," said Pena Nieto, whose approval rating has fallen below 25 percent in recent months. He said the government could not maintain "artificial" prices as the international price of oil rose last year. Keeping the same prices would have cost the government $9.3 billion, forcing the suspension of health care and welfare programs, he said. Story continues "I ask you, what would you have done?" Pena Nieto enacted a sweeping energy reform in 2014 that ended the monopoly held by state firm Pemex, inviting private firms to drill for oil as well as own service stations for the first time in decades. The hike was imposed as the government prepares to stop fuel subsidies and let the market dictate gasoline prices from March. But the steep increase shocked Mexicans in a country where nearly half the population lives in poverty. - More protests, looting - Thousands of people marched in the northern industrial city of Monterrey, where a small group of masked demonstrators launched fireworks at the Nuevo Leon state government building and broke three windows. In the neighboring state of Coahuila, riot police dispersed a small protest with tear gas. Some 100 people marched peacefully in Mexico City. "I have grandchildren and I would be ashamed to know that I did nothing" against the price increase, said Emma Cabrera Albarran, a 58-year-old shopkeeper at the Mexico City protest. The national confederation of chambers of commerce, CONCANACO, estimated that between 700 and 800 small and medium-sized companies had been vandalized nationwide. Separately, the National Association of Self-Service and Department Stores reported looting at nearly 250 shops in the capital and six other states. "It's out of control," association executive Manuel Cardona told Radio Formula. He called on federal forces to intervene. Dozens of people stormed a supermarket in the central city of Puebla, leaving with televisions, toys and king cake, which is eaten during the Catholic feast of the Epiphany, which falls this year on Friday. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has named the man behind his controversial meeting with Donald Trump last August to a new position as Foreign Minister, as the country readies to deal with the new U.S. President. Luis Videgaray, who was forced to resign from his post as Finance Minister after Trumps trip to Mexico, was named Foreign Relations Minister on Wednesday, according to the Guardian. With the change of government in the United States on Jan. 20, the instructions for Secretary Videgaray is to accelerate dialogue and contacts so that from the first day the bases for building a constructive relationship can be established, Pena Nieto said during a press conference. It should be a relationship, which will allow us to strengthen bilateral ties in security, immigration, commerce and investment. The meeting between Pena Nieto and Trump was widely viewed as negative by people in Mexico following the President-elects vows to build a wall along the countrys border and nix trade deals with Mexico. Videgaray reportedly urged the meeting. Mexico City (AFP) - Mexico got a potential taste of life under Donald Trump's incoming presidency after Ford abruptly canceled plans to build a new factory in the country. The US automaker's decision was widely interpreted in Mexico as the result of Trump's repeated criticism of the $1.6 billion project in the northern state of San Luis Potosi. "Obviously it's not good news for us," Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo told local radio on Tuesday. While Ford took into account a drop in demand for small vehicles that would have been built at the plant, Guajardo said the company was also influenced "by its particular situation" with regards to Trump. The president-elect, who succeeds Barack Obama on January 20, thanked Ford for cancelling the project and creating 700 new jobs in the United States instead. "This is just the beginning -- much more to follow," Trump tweeted. Trump has lambasted US companies that ship jobs to Mexico for its low wages and threatened to impose a 35 percent import tariff on them. The Republican billionaire has also vowed to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Mexico and Canada, or withdraw from the pact. Trump's priority is to "fulfill his election promise to not allow jobs to leave the United States," said Juan Francisco Torres Landa, corporate lawyer at international law firm Hogan Lovells. Raymundo Tenorio, director of the finance program at the Monterrey Institute of Technology, said Ford's decision could be an example of the protectionist era that Mexico faces under Trump. "The Republican government and Donald Trump are willing to negotiate any sort of (tax) incentives so that companies remain in the United States," Tenorio said. To lead bilateral talks with the new US administration, President Enrique Pena Nieto brought his former finance minister Luis Videgaray back to his government, naming him foreign minister on Wednesday. Story continues Videgaray had resigned in disgrace in September after it was revealed that he had orchestrated Trump's much-criticized pre-election meeting with Pena Nieto in Mexico City. After taking his new post, Videgaray told foreign ministry officials, without naming a country, that "the challenge is enormous, the threats are there, but the opportunities and our strengths are also enormous." - Decision 'hurts' Mexico - For Mexico, Ford's decision meant the loss of 2,800 direct jobs in San Luis Potosi, where the plant was supposed to begin operations in 2018. Instead, Ford, which has produced cars in Mexico since 1925, will invest $700 million over the next four years to expand its Flat Rock Assembly Plant in Michigan to build electric and self-driving vehicles. The Ford Focus that was to be produced in San Luis Potosi will be made at an existing plant in the northwestern Mexican city of Hermosillo. Ford's move also means that Mexico is losing new tax revenue while a dozen auto-part companies are losing business in San Luis Potosi, Tenorio said, adding that 75 percent of those firms are from Asia, Europe and the United States. "Ford's decision hurts Mexico, but also American consumers and its shareholders because the company will lose competitiveness," former president Felipe Calderon wrote on Twitter. Calderon said that Ford, General Motors and Chrysler were "almost bankrupt" during the 2009 crisis but "their investments in Mexico saved them." Before Ford made its announcement, Trump took GM tasks, threatening to impose import tariffs on the company's Mexican-made Chevy Cruze models. GM responded that the vast majority of its Cruze cars sold in the US are made in Ohio, with just a small percentage imported from a plant across the southern border. - Mexico 'ready' for dialogue - Guajardo downplayed concerns that other automakers may follow Ford's lead, saying the company's case was isolated. But the economy minister reiterated Mexico's willingness to sit down with the Trump administration and Canada to "modernize" NAFTA. "We are ready to begin dialogue immediately," he said. Torres Landa said he did not see "a devastating scenario" for Mexico because "the fundamental decisions of efficiency and competitiveness remain present, independently of what Mr. Trump is saying." (Adds statement not ruling out further intervention, updates peso) By Miguel Gutierrez and Adriana Barrera MEXICO CITY, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Mexico's central bank sold dollars in Mexico and New York on Thursday to fight off the peso's nose dive to record lows amid fears U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's protectionist policies could further hammer Latin America's second-biggest economy. The central bank sold at least $1 billion in U.S. currency in morning trade, four traders told Reuters, asking not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The bank kept the amount confidential. Mexico's currency commission said in a separate statement that the move was aimed at providing liquidity and combating recent volatility in the peso, adding that it could not rule out further discretionary intervention to support the currency. The dollar sales mark the bank's first currency intervention since February 2016, when it sold $2 billion to prop up the sinking peso. The peso depreciated 20 percent last year alone and was among the world's worst performing currencies. Banco Base said in a report following the intervention that the decision was aimed at combating "speculative positions" that had built up against the peso. Mexico's peso strengthened after the intervention was reported, but trade was choppy and it pared gains to trade flat around 21.48 per dollar after Trump threatened Toyota Motor Corp with a "big border tax" if it followed through on plans to build a new factory in Mexico to build cars for the U.S. market. The peso posted a record low at 21.624 per dollar on Wednesday after minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve's Dec. 13-14 meeting hinted that faster rate hikes could be needed under Trump. Historically the impact of Mexico's currency interventions have tended to be short-lived, and the peso has continued to trend lower. Juan Garcia, director of national operations for the central bank, confirmed the surprise sales and said they would continue through the day, but he declined to specify volumes. Story continues Prior to the February intervention, the Banco de Mexico had sold dollars in rules-based auctions since a deep slump in the peso in 2014. The February dollar sales were a major policy shift and marked the first time the bank opted for direct dollar sales since the 2009 financial crisis. On Tuesday, the peso was rocked by Ford Motor Co's decision to cancel a planned $1.6 billion investment in central Mexico. Also, a major fuel price hike that took effect on Jan. 1 has stirred inflation fears and provoked numerous protests and some looting. President Enrique Pena Nieto on Wednesday defended the hike. The currency fall continued on Wednesday and was compounded by the Fed's minutes showing policymakers were concerned that quicker economic growth under Trump could require faster interest-rate increases in the United States. Trump's election win drove the Mexican currency steadily lower, with the sell-off fueled by his threats to scrap a trade deal between Mexico and the United States, and to levy punitive tariffs on Mexican-made goods. On the campaign trail, Trump threatened to halt money transfers from Mexican nationals in the United States unless the country agreed to pay for the massive wall he has vowed to build on the U.S. southern border to keep out illegal immigrants. (Additional reporting by Roberto Aguilar, Paulina Osorio and David Alire Garcia; Writing by Simon Gardner; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Alan Crosby) Michelle Obama will honor the school counselor of the year on Friday, dedicating her final public remarks as first lady to an issue she has championed during her tenure in the White House. Terri Tchorzynskia counselor at the Calhoun Area Career Center in Battle Creek, Mich.was named the 2017 School Counselor of the Year by the American School Counselor Association, which awards the title based on leadership skills, contributions to student achievement and creative and effective counseling programs. I just do my job to the best of my ability, so to be honored at a national level like this is just awe-inspiring, Tchorzynski, 37, told TIME. This whole experience is just shocking to me because I do what I love. You dont think about the awards that may come with that, she added. In 2015, Obama began a tradition of honoring the school counselor of the year as part of her Reach Higher initiative to encourage post-secondary educationan issue she has said she will continue to work on after leaving the White House. To have the first lady say school counselors are important to the success of our studentsits just a tremendous thing to have her on our team, said Jill Cook, assistant director of the American School Counselor Association. The Calhoun Area Career Center, which serves high school juniors and seniors, focuses on career and technical education. Cook said Tchorzynski was selected in part because of her role in that program. She has implemented an exemplary comprehensive education program, Cook said. What she has done there and the structures they have set up for opportunities for these students is really quite remarkable. Cook said one student, for example, graduated from the Calhoun Area Career Center as a certified emergency medical technician and is now planning to pursue medical school. During high school, Tchorzynski helped to place him in several job-shadowing programs at a hospital. Story continues Both President Obama and the first lady have also spoken out about the value of career and technical education as an alternative to a traditional four-year college education. Theres a lot of conversation right now around career and technical education and the fact that its not that shop class that we may have in our heads when we think about career and technical education, Cook said. We need to destigmatize the notionand our economy needs to destigmatize the notionthat the professions that require more technical training are less important than those that require a four-year college education. Tchorzynski, a former high school English teacher who has been a counselor for seven years, said counselors played an important role in her own education, and the profession stood out above everything else as an opportunity to help kids. Theres not a mountain shes not willing to climb if thats what it takes to help a student, said Jamie Hess, another counselor at the Calhoun Area Career Center. If thats what that kid needs, thats what shes going to do to make it happen. Tchorzynski said her own kidstwo sons, aged 7 and 5are excited about their trip to the White House, though theyre too young to understand what it means. But Tchorzynski said she is looking forward to meeting the first lady. Ill be in a unique position to thank her personally, she said. Brisbane (Australia) (AFP) - Defending champion and top seed Milos Raonic cruised into the quarter-finals of the Brisbane International with a regulation 6-3, 6-2 win over Argentine Diego Schwartzman on Thursday. Raonic, who beat Roger Federer to win the 2016 Brisbane title, will now take on Rafael Nadal for a place in the semi-finals after the Spaniard crushed Germany's Mischa Zverev 6-1, 6-1. Raonic broke Schwartzman once in the first set and three times in the second to wrap up the match in 69 minutes, but said he wasn't happy with his start. "At the beginning I really struggled that first service game, and had another close service game before I started to get in on his games," Raonic said. "Then I could feel I started imposing myself on him. He started making some mistakes and I was able to create some things as well. "I have to be glad with how I finished." Nadal wasted no time in his 55 minute demolition of Zverev to the delight of the packed crowd in Pat Rafter Arena. The 14-time Grand Slam singles winner gave Zverev no chance, blasting 30 winners across the two sets and making only seven unforced errors. Nadal was troubled by illness and injury in 2016 and said he was thrilled to be back on court fully fit. "After injuries and hard times it's so special to be back on court," he said. "Tomorrow (against Raonic) it's going to be a very hard match. "He likes this court and he's had some good results here. I hope to play at my best and If I do I'll have a good chance." Fourth seeded Austrian Dominic Thiem saw off huge serving Australian Sam Groth 7-6 (7/5), 6-3. The Australian was granted a wildcard into the tournament and won his first round match against Pierre-Hugues Herbert. But once his serve dropped off slightly in the second set Thiem was able to secure a comfortable win. "I'm pretty satisfied with the victory because he served very well, especially in the first set," Thiem said. Story continues "He had over 70 percent first serves in and if he has this it's very tough to break him. "But I played a good tiebreak and in the second set I started to return better and luckily I got one break." Thiem will play Bulgaria's seventh seed Grigor Dimitrov in the quarter-finals following Dimitrov's 6-2, 6-4 win over Frenchman Nicolas Mahut. Dimitrov broke Mahut twice in the first set and once in the second to make the final eight in Brisbane for the second year in a row. BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) An Alabama inmate who authorities said was released from jail early based on a fake judicial order was captured Thursday after seven weeks of freedom, but questions remained about how he got out in the first place. Prison officials said Bobby Campbell, 37, of Clio, was arrested with another man at a motel in Montgomery less than a day after Corrections officials realized Campbell was mistakenly released from the Barbour County Jail. Corrections spokesman Bob Horton said the other man, 24-year-old Mitchell Shane Worthy, was suspected of helping Campbell escape, but his alleged role wasn't immediately clear. Campbell was serving time for having sexual relations with a teenager when was transferred to the Barbour County Jail from Fountain prison on Nov. 17 based on a supposed court order, said Horton. Campbell was freed the same day by jailers, as a judge seemed to mandate. But that document apparently was a fake, Horton said, and officials are trying to determine how it made it into the court system. Prison officials didn't discover Campbell's release until Wednesday during a review of the inmate's file, Horton said. Campbell was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2004 after being convicted of the second-degree rape of a 13-year-old, records show. Campbell claimed the sex was consensual. The man also faced charges including theft and possession of drug paraphernalia through the years. The document which Corrections officials said was a fraud remained in the state's online court system on Thursday. Bearing what appeared to be the signature of a judge, it ordered that Campbell be transferred from prison to Barbour County and released with an electronic ankle monitor to complete his sentence. Barbour County Chief Deputy Ricky Dollar declined comment on how Campbell got loose. "It is still under investigation," he said. Horton said the document was initially sent by fax to the Barbour County Sheriff's Office, which forwarded it to the prison. The document appeared to come from the court clerk's office in Barbour County. "Right now we are unsure about the real source of that fax and the origin of the document," Horton said. A mother was ordered Thursday to spend 30 years behind bars for the murder of her 5-year-old son in a well-known case that went unsolved for more than two decades. Michelle Lodzinski, 49, wiped away tears in a New Jersey courtroom as Superior Court Judge Dennis Nieves admonished her behavior following the disappearance of little Timothy Wiltsey. Read: Mom is Convicted of Killing 5-Year-Old Son in Notorious Cold Case From 1991 You lied, you lied, you lied, you lied, you lied, Nieves told the woman. Lodzinski first told police her son had disappeared at a traveling carnival when she went to buy a soda. Later, she claimed he had been abducted. His young face was one of the first to appear on milk cartons after he vanished on May 25, 1991. His mother refused to address the court before her punishment was read. Prosecutor Christine Bevacqua had argued for a life sentence. A mother who kills her child should spend the rest of her life in prison, she said. Timmys skeletal remains were found in a marsh about one year after he went missing. Police suspected his mother, but had difficulty building a case, which consisted of circumstantial evidence. There were no witnesses to the killing. Read: Woman, Baby Dead in Apparent Murder-Suicide After She Tells Husband, 'You Don't Deserve to Have a Son' Ultimately, a blanket found with the body was determined to have come from the boys home. "No other killer could get this," Bevacqua said in her opening statements last year. She said Lodzinski killed Timmy because he was "a burden." Lodzinski was arrested in 2014 at her Port St. Lucie home in Florida, where she lived with two teenage sons. Her trial lasted eight weeks, but jurors debated for only four hours before finding her guilty of murder. Watch: 26-Year-Old Mom Streams Her Death on Facebook While Holding Her 1-Year-Old Son Related Articles: By Alan Baldwin LONDON, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Force India will be one of the first teams to show off their 2017 Formula One car after announcing a Feb. 22 launch at their Silverstone home base. The Mercedes-powered team, who have a changed driver lineup with 20-year-old Frenchman Esteban Ocon joining Mexican Sergio Perez in place of Germany's Nico Hulkenberg, finished a best ever fourth overall last year. The team rolled out their 2016 car in Barcelona last February, before principal Vijay Mallya had his Indian diplomatic passport revoked in April with a judge in Mumbai issuing a non-bailable warrant for his arrest. Indian authorities trying to recover about $1.4 billion from his collapsed Kingfisher Airlines want to question Mallya, who last March flew to Britain where he has an indefinite right of residency. Mallya attended only one race in 2016, the British Grand Prix at the circuit across the road from the team's Silverstone factory, and watched the rest remotely. World champions Mercedes will launch their new car at Silverstone on Feb. 23, with Ferrari next out on the 24th in Italy. Pre-season testing starts in Barcelona on Feb. 27 with other teams expected to present their cars at the Circuit de Catalunya on the opening day. Teams usually leave launches as late as possible, unless they are just to show off a new livery on an old car, to give themselves as much time as they can to finalise new developments. They will want to start testing with the new cars, however, because 2017 sees new rules with bigger tyres and changed aerodynamics that could shake up the pecking order. (Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Toby Davis) YANGON (Reuters) - Human rights groups said Myanmar's government is trying to cover up abuses against civilians in a Muslim-majority part of Rakhine State after an investigation panel dismissed claims a government crackdown there amounts to "genocide". A commission appointed by the government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi issued interim findings refuting allegations of abuses by security forces on Wednesday, even as authorities were still investigating alleged police abuses after a video emerged appearing to show officers beating and kicking Rohingya villagers. Troops have poured into northern Rakhine since insurgents believed to be from the mostly stateless Rohingya minority attacked border posts on Oct. 9, killing nine police officers. At least 86 people have died and an estimated 34,000 have fled across the border to Bangladesh. Rohingya residents and refugees accuse security forces of summary executions, arbitrary arrest, rape and burning down homes as part of what the government has termed its "clearance operations" in search of attackers. Myanmar's government has flatly denied allegations that abuses have been committed, but has prevented independent journalists and aid workers from accessing parts of northern Rakhine. Under international pressure Suu Kyi ordered the commission to investigate the attacks and the abuse allegations. "The Bengali population residing in Maungtaw region, the increasing population of Mawlawi (Islamic scholars), mosques and religious edifices are proof that there were no cases of genocide and religious persecution in the region," said the report. Many in Myanmar refer to the Rohingya as "Bengalis" as they see them as interlopers from Bangladesh. The panel also said it had so far found "insufficient evidence" for legal action on allegations of rape by soldiers. "No cases of malnutrition were found in the area, due to the area's favourable fishing and farming conditions," it added, despite concerns from international aid organisations that tens of thousands of people who were receiving food aid before Oct. 9 are now cut off. Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at New York-based Human Rights Watch, said the panel was "looking more and more like the Myanmar government whitewash mechanism that we feared it would be," highlighting that the panel chair Vice President Myint Swe, is a former army lieutenant general. Robertson said it was "astonishing" that the commission could conclude from the presence of mosques that the Rohingya are not being persecuted. "Judging by what is written in this interim report, the commission has so far acted to discount out of hand what it calls 'external allegations' rather than seriously investigate them and risk uncovering the litany of rights violations against the Rohingya," he said by email. Matthew Smith, founder of campaign group Fortify Rights, said the commission's report was sharply at odds with accounts collected by researchers interviewing civilians in northern Rakhine and those who have fled to Bangladesh. "The army has committed atrocity crimes and this commission is attempting a whitewash. Ministries led by Suu Kyi have charted the path of denial, waging a shameful propaganda campaign," Smith said by email. (Reporting by Simon Lewis, Yimou Lee and Shwe Yee Saw Myint; Editing by Michael Perry) MyPillow, a Minnesota-based pillow company, had its accreditation revoked by the Better Business Bureau (BBB) after complaints from consumers who cited deceptive advertising. Among other issues, BBB has attempted to persuade MyPillow to discontinue their buy one get one free (BOGO)/other discount offers without success, Dana Badgerow, president and CEO of BBB of Minnesota and North Dakota, said in a statement. MyPillow, which employs about 1,500 people in the U.S., saw its BBB rating drop to an F following the consumer protection agencys decision. They told me in August Ive been running my ads too long, I should take away my specials to the people, MyPillow founder Mike Lindell told the FOX Business Network. I wouldnt do it and they went from an A+ to an F. Lindell defended running his ads, saying he wants what is best for consumers. I wanted people to get a good deal for Christmas. Im not going to tell my customers and all the media that Im going to pull my ads because of their regulations, he said. A passionate supporter of President-elect Trump, Lindell said the rating drop came after he first met the then GOP presidential nominee. We had a meeting in August and hes going to be the greatest president this country has ever seen, Lindell said. I believe that with all my passion and I put everything behind him. I made that public in Minnesota and I actually spoke at the rally he did there. Related Articles By David Schwartz PHOENIX (Reuters) - A naked woman who told police she was sexually assaulted stole a sheriff's vehicle on Thursday and led authorities on a long high-speed chase that ended in the middle of an Arizona highway, a sheriff's deputy said. The woman, who authorities have not identified, was taken to a hospital after she was subdued by a "stun bag" when she left the sheriff's truck on a median along Interstate 10 in southern Arizona, Maricopa County Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Ben Henry told reporters. Sheriff's officials said the incident began on Thursday morning when a deputy was called to a gas station and encountered the naked woman standing outside, Henry said. The deputy said the woman appeared distraught and disoriented, Henry said. The deputy, who left his vehicle running, tried to cover the woman with a blanket but she climbed into the car and sped off, the officials said. Henry said the deputy tried to stop her by jumping on the running board but was unsuccessful and tumbled to the ground, sustaining minor injuries. He was treated at a local hospital and released, Henry said. He took up the pursuit in a civilian's car and alerted other authorities. The woman hit speeds of more than 100 miles per hour (160 kph) during the roughly hour-long chase that spanned parts of two interstate highways in southern Arizona over 70 miles (113 km). At one point, the stolen car's tires were punctured by nail-studded strips deputies had laid down. The pursuit ended when the woman collided with another vehicle and came to a stop near Eloy, Arizona. Sheriff's officials said in a statement they hit her with the stun bag because she was initially non-compliant and they were afraid she was going to cross the freeway to avoid capture. Stun bags contain pellets and are designed to stop someone without killing them. The passengers in the vehicle were not injured. Sheriff's officials are investigating the woman's reported sexual assault but have not yet interviewed her, Henry said. It was not immediately known why she took the deputy's vehicle. (Reporting by David Schwartz in Phoenix, Arizona; Editing by Eric M. Johnson and James Dalgleish) Two American astronauts, one a spaceflight veteran and the other a rookie, will launch to the International Space Station in 2018, NASA announced today (Jan. 4). NASA astronaut Andrew Feustel. NASA Veteran NASA astronaut Andrew Feustel and first-time flyer Jeanette Epps will each visit the space station next year as part of the Expedition 55-56 and Expedition 56-57 crews, NASA officials announced in a statement. Feustel will launch to station in March of 2018 as an Expedition 55 flight engineer, then take command of the station's Expedition 56 crew a few months later. Epps, meanwhile, will launch to the station in May 2018 as an Expedition 56 flight engineer and then stay on during the Expedition 57 mission. Feustel is from Lake Orion, Michigan and a veteran of two NASA space shuttle missions. He joined NASA's astronaut corps in 2000 and flew aboard Atlantis on STS-125, the last mission to the Hubble Space Telescope, in 2009. Feustel returned to space in 2011 on STS-134, the final flight of the shuttle Endeavour. which visited the International Space Station. He has degrees in Earth sciences and geophysics (from Purdue University) and a doctorate in geological sciences from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario in Canada. NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps. NASA Epps is from Syracuse, New York and will make spaceflight history during her Expedition 56-57 mission when she becomes the first African-American crewmember of an International Space Station expedition. She will join Feustel during the Expedition 56 phase of her flight. Epps joined NASA's astronaut ranks in 2009 after serving seven years as a technical intelligence officer with the Central Intelligence Agency. Before joining the CIA, Epps earned a bachelor's degree in physics from LeMoyne College in Syracuse, followed by a master's of science (in 1994) and doctorate (in 2000) in aerospace engineering. "Each space station crew brings something different to the table, and Drew and Jeanette both have a lot to offer," NASA Chief Astronaut Chris Cassidy at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston said in a statement. "The space station will benefit from having them on board." Story continues The International Space Station is currently home to a crew of six; three Russian cosmonauts with Roscosmos, two Americans representing NASA and one French astronaut from the European Space Agency. The crew makes up Expedition 50, the 50th mission to the space station since the first crew Expedition 1 took up residence in November 2000. Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com. Editor's Recommendations NASA's next low-cost planetary missions will attempt to unravel the mysteries of some seriously bizarre asteroids. The space agency has selected projects called Lucy and Psyche via its Discovery Program, which funds highly focused space missions to destinations throughout the solar system. The Lucy project will investigate the Trojan asteroids, which share an orbit with Jupiter, while Psyche will journey to the asteroid belt to study a huge, metallic asteroid named 16 Psyche that resides there. "This is what Discovery Program missions are all about boldly going to places we've never been to enable groundbreaking science," Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C., said in a statement today (Jan. 4). [NASA Mission to Metal Asteroid Psyche (Images)] Lucy is scheduled to launch in October 2021. If all goes according to plan, the probe will visit an asteroid in the main asteroid belt located between Mars and Jupiter in 2025, and then go on to study six Trojan asteroids between 2027 and 2033, NASA officials said. (Left) Artists illustration of the Lucy spacecraft flying by the Trojan asteroid Eurybates. Trojans are fossils of planet formation and so will supply important clues to the earliest history of the solar system. (Right) Psyche, the first mission to the metal world 16 Psyche, will examine a landscape unlike anything explored before. Psyche will teach us about the hidden cores of the Earth, Mars, Mercury and Venus. SwRI and SSL/Peter Rubin There are two streams of Trojan asteroids. One trails Jupiter, and the other leads the giant planet around the sun. Scientists think both streams may be planetary building blocks that formed far from the sun before being captured into their current orbits by Jupiter's powerful gravity. "This is a unique opportunity," Lucy principal investigator Harold Levison, of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, said in the same statement. "Because the Trojans are remnants of the primordial material that formed the outer planets, they hold vital clues to deciphering the history of the solar system. Lucy, like the human fossil for which it is named, will revolutionize the understanding of our origins." Psyche will explore one of the oddest objects in the solar system a 130-mile-wide (210 kilometers) metallic asteroid that may be the core of an ancient, Mars-size planet. Violent collisions billions of years ago might have stripped away the layers of rock that once lay atop this metallic object, scientists say. Story continues "This is an opportunity to explore a new type of world not one of rock or ice, but of metal," said Psyche principal investigator Lindy Elkins-Tanton, of Arizona State University. "16 Psyche is the only known object of its kind in the solar system, and this is the only way humans will ever visit a core. We learn about inner space by visiting outer space." Psyche is scheduled to launch in October 2023 and arrive at the asteroid in 2030, NASA officials said. Lucy and Psyche were among five Discovery finalists that NASA announced last year. One of these other finalists, the dangerous-asteroid-hunting Near-Earth Object Camera (NEOCam), will get an additional year's worth of funding for continued development, NASA officials said. The Discovery Program, which was founded in 1992, supports relatively low-cost planetary missions; development costs for the current crop are capped at about $450 million apiece, NASA officials said. The agency has funded 12 other Discovery missions in addition to those announced today, including the planet-hunting Kepler space telescope, the Dawn mission to the huge asteroids Vesta and Ceres, and the InSight Mars lander, which is due to launch next year. Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com. Editor's Recommendations Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f337741%2f9d6e9b9b-3be5-436b-9ff2-90363b3fa6a7 NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps is set to become the first African-American crewmember on the International Space Station when she flies to space next year, the space agency announced Wednesday. Epps' months-long trip should begin in 2018, and it will mark the first time she has traveled to orbit, following in the footsteps of the women who inspired her to become an astronaut. SEE ALSO: This is what astronauts see when they look out their window "It was about 1980, I was nine years old. My brother came home and he looked at my grades and my twin sisters' grades and he said, 'You know, you guys can probably become aerospace engineers or even astronauts,'" Epps said in a NASA video interview. "And this was at the time that Sally Ride [the first American woman to fly in space] and a group of women were selected to become astronauts the first time in history. So, he made that comment and I said, 'Wow, that would be so cool.'" Not your typical resume While other African-American astronauts have flown to the Space Station for brief stays during the outpost's construction, Epps will be the first African-American crewmember to live and work on the station for an extended period of time. "Robert Curbeam, Stephanie Wilson, Joan Higginbotham, Al Drew, Leland Melvin and Robert Satcher, along with their space shuttle crewmates, helped to complete the space station during its first 11 years," space historian Robert Pearlman, who runs the website collectSPACE.com, told Mashable. Melvin actually encouraged Epps to apply to become an astronaut when the space agency put out a call for their 2009 class, Epps said. And that encouragement paid off. Epps was selected as one of 14 astronaut candidates in NASA's 2009 class. NASA received 3,500 astronaut applications that year. The International Space Station. Image: NASA Her astronaut selection wasn't the first time she worked with the space agency, however. Story continues Epps was a NASA fellow while at the University of Maryland for graduate school in aerospace engineering and then worked in a lab at Ford Motor Company for more than two years, according to the space agency. From there, Epps' path to becoming an astronaut takes a decidedly atypical turn. Most astronauts come to the Astronaut Corps either through training in science or as a military officer, but after Ford, Epps spent more than seven years at the Central Intelligence Agency as a technical intelligence officer. "I did a lot of scientific stuff, but I also did a lot of operational stuff," Epps said. "We worked in non-proliferation issues, which was great. It's reverse engineering at its best." Epps also volunteered to go to Iraq with the CIA for four months to help search for weapons of mass destruction. Life as an astronaut Culmination of a great week of training in Star City. pic.twitter.com/gUU1y319fM Jeanette J. Epps (@Astro_Jeanette) December 10, 2016 Since being selected as an astronaut, Epps hasn't simply waited for a flight assignment. She worked in mission control, communicating with the astronauts on the Space Station, and has served in other roles supporting the program without ever getting off the ground. Epps also worked as an "aquanaut" underwater with the NEEMO program for a nine-day mission in 2014. Her crew of six the same number of people usually on the Space Station simulated what it would be like for astronauts to drill into an asteroid, a possible mission NASA could launch in the coming years. "I always wanted to do NEEMO," Epps said. "When I first saw it, I thought it was one of the best analogs to space. You can't just leave, you're kind of stuck with these people." BONUS: Here's an important demonstration of how astronauts 'go to the loo' in space It felt like representatives of Manchester by the Sea were presenting or accepting awards for almost all of the three-plus-hour National Board of Review's 88th annual awards ceremony Wednesday night at Cipriani 42nd Street. That's partly because those who got up to the podium were a bit on the longwinded side, but also partly because so many of them got up to the podium: Kenneth Lonergan (accepted best film and best original screenplay), Casey Affleck (presented best original screenplay and accepted best actor), Lucas Hedges (accepted best breakthrough actor) and Matthew Broderick (presented best film). In other words, there was no question - and had been no question from the moment this year's winners first were announced back on Nov. 29 - about which movie the NBR, a rather opaque organization comprised of roughly 130 "film enthusiasts," loved the most in 2016. Unlike some years in which there were fireworks at the NBR Awards, this year's ceremony, emceed by NBC's Willie Geist, went rather smoothly and uneventfully. The winners were rather gracious to the other films and filmmakers with which they will compete the rest of the way to the Oscars on Feb. 26. Lonergan, in accepting best film, hailed Damien Chazelle's La La Land, the best picture Oscar frontrunner that was shut out of the NBR Awards, save for ceremonial inclusion on its top 10 list. Affleck, in accepting best actor, praised Barry Jenkins, who already had accepted the best director prize for Moonlight, for having a far better way with words than he. Speaking of Moonlight, it did just fine on a night in which films and filmmakers of color were prominently highlighted. Jenkins became the first black person in the history of the NBR Awards to win best director, a fact he highlighted in his acceptance speech - "There was a time when someone like me just wasn't considered" - following an introduction by the noted author on race Ta-Nehisi Paul Coates, who praised Jenkins for not succumbing to pressure to present black characters in a "positive" light, but rather presenting them in a "productive" light. Meanwhile, his film's Naomie Harris was presented with the best supporting actress award by her co-star Mahershala Ali, who was passed over for the best supporting actor prize in favor of Hell or High Water's Jeff Bridges (who, in turn, dedicated his win to "all those people who are physically at Standing Rock [Indian Reservation, near North Dakota and South Dakota] and all who are supporting them"). Story continues Additionally, Hidden Figures was honored with the best ensemble award. Astronaut Yvonne Cagle presented to Octavia Spencer, Aldis Hodge and Ali, who appears in that film, too, cheering the film's "diversity that launches discovery ... inclusion that fuels inspiration ... and giving voice to figures hidden for far too long." Ezra Edelman's O.J.: Made in America, the 7 1/2-hour look back at the O.J. Simpson murder trial and the context in which it occurred, won best documentary. Edelman said, "People want the truth," a possible reference to President-elect Donald Trump's apparent aversion to it. And The Fits' Royalty Hightower was presented with the best breakthrough actress award by its recipient from five years ago, Quvenzhane Wallis. Other big winners included Arrival's Amy Adams for best actress, introduced as a "badass" by Chris Messina; and Silence's Jay Cocks and Martin Scorsese for best adapted screenplay, introduced by the film's supporting actors Adam Driver and Liam Neeson. (Adams, Cocks and Scorsese also were feted earlier in the day with a Paramount-hosted, Academy member-packed luncheon high above Manhattan in Rockefeller Center's Rainbow Room; many attendees of that gathering subsequently hustled over to the 21 Club, where Lonergan and Affleck were at the center of a similar event, hosted by Manchester distributors Amazon Studios and Roadside Attractions; and later to The Monkey Bar, where The Weinstein Co., which was shut out of the NBR Awards, toasted Lion lead actor Sunny Pawar, supporting actor Dev Patel and supporting actress Nicole Kidman.) Oscar-winner Laura Poitras presented the Freedom of Expression Award to Kirsten Johnson, her collaborator on three films, for Johnson's Oscar-shortlisted doc Cameraperson. Rebecca Miller applauded Asghar Farhadi, the director of the Iranian best foreign-language film winner The Salesman (Farhadi twice previously won this same award), as a "master of suspense." Riley Keough called Trey Edward Shults, the director of the micro-budget indie Krisha, for which he won best directorial debut, "a remarkable human being." And Kubo and the Two Strings director Travis Knight was awarded best animated film. One of the funnier moments of the night came when writer/director Peter Berg and actor Mark Wahlberg were presented with a special award, by their Patriots Day collaborator Kevin Bacon, in recognition of their work together over the course of three recent films (the other two are Lone Survivor and Deepwater Horizon). Berg joked, "Our next film? Mark's actually directing me in a remake of Last Tango in Paris," to which Wahlberg responded, "This time it's gonna be age-appropriate casting: it's gonna be Pete and my mom." And one of the heavier moments came when Lonergan, accepting the best film award at the end of the evening, said in reference to the election of Trump, "We are living in troubled times ... It might be bad trouble like we've never seen ... [Thankfully, some films] offer a way to approach the next four years." Photo credit: Twitter From Cosmopolitan A Rolesville, North Carolina, teen tweeted a video Tuesday that appears to show a school police officer slamming a fellow student to the ground in the middle of the cafeteria, the News & Observer reports. The officer, Ruben De Los Santos, has been placed on paid administrative leave while the school and police further investigate the incident. As seen in the video, the student remained limp on the ground for a moment after she was hurled down. The officer pulls her up and walks her out of frame with her hands restrained. Other students yell in the background. Staff attorney for the states ACLU Irena Como told The Guardian the organization is also investigating and considering filing a lawsuit: This use of force is very disturbing and is never justified, especially in schools where kids are supposed to go to learn and be safe and to concentrate on their school work. Very disturbing video. Students should never be treated this way. Please contact us if you know more about incident. https://t.co/ESGSRMqx70 - ACLU-North Carolina (@ACLU_NC) January 3, 2017 According to the News & Observer, De Los Santos was called to the cafeteria after reports of a fight around 7:10 a.m. Tuesday. Its unclear how the woman in the video was involved in the earlier altercation, but the woman who tweeted the video originally responded to commenters questions saying, the girl in the pink was trying to defend her sister who was fighting another girl. Then the cop came outta nowhere. She also wrote the woman is okay, she has a few minor injuries, nothing extremely serious. Story continues Footage obtained by ABC 11 appears to show the preceding incident. #BreakingNews - UPDATE - Rolesville High student shares video of fight that led to another student getting slammed to the ground by officer pic.twitter.com/qiL0na7IVc - ABC11 EyewitnessNews (@ABC11_WTVD) January 3, 2017 A statement from Rolesville High School principal Dhedra Lassiter explained she, like many students, was deeply concerned about what [she] saw in the video and that the school contacted the police department upon learning of t. Follow Tess on Twitter. You Might Also Like Jerusalem (AFP) - Police questioned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Thursday for a second time as part of a probe into whether he illegally accepted gifts from wealthy supporters, police said. According to a statement, investigators questioned Netanyahu for five hours at his Jerusalem residence as part of a corruption probe, the second such interrogation in four days. The questioning dealt with another affair as well, police said in a statement, adding that a second suspect had been interrogated in the past days. Netanyahu's office declined to comment. Netanyahu is suspected of receiving gifts from business people, according to Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, who is overseeing the investigation. He has provided few other details. Israeli media reports say he allegedly received tens of thousands of dollars in such gifts. His first questioning on Monday lasted some three hours. The probe has shaken the country's political scene and raised questions over whether Netanyahu, 67 and in his fourth term as prime minister, would eventually be forced to resign. US billionaire and World Jewish Congress president Ronald Lauder has been among those questioned in the probe over gifts he allegedly gave Netanyahu and alleged spending on trips for him, reports have said. Lauder, whose family founded the Estee Lauder cosmetics giant, has long been seen as an ally of Netanyahu. Netanyahu has also acknowledged receiving money from French tycoon Arnaud Mimran, who was sentenced to eight years in prison in France over a scam involving the trade of carbon emissions permits and taxes on them. Netanyahu's office said he had received $40,000 in contributions from Mimran in 2001, when he was not in office, as part of a fund for public activities, including appearances abroad to promote Israel. Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing, saying repeatedly that "there will be nothing because there is nothing". The inquiry has led to fierce debate in Israeli politics, with Netanyahu's allies accusing opposition politicians and some in the media of unfairly pressuring the attorney general. Others have accused Mandelblit of moving too slowly in the intensely watched probe. Newlywed Troian Bellisario and her hubby are on vacay, and its so dreamy Immediately after the awesome Troian Bellisario and Patrick J. Adams honeymoon trip to Sydney, they decided to grab their passports, hop on another plan, and hit up a tropical getaway. Newlywed Troian Bellisario is sharing some seriously gorgeous photos and videos to her Instagram story, and were seriously grateful for all the travel inspo. Do we need to take a major vacation? Heck yes! And now were thinking a nice, quiet island could be just the right place. See you soon, Troian! JK, JK, obv. While wed kill to vacation alongside the PLL fave, were sure shes living it up with her new husband at her side. We have so much love for this couple, and were so happy it seems like theyre having so many grand adventures already! Newlywed Troian Bellisario and her hubby kicked things off by posting a couple shots of their travel, which features a passport in an oh-so-glam bag and a leather backpack, aka the perfect travel essential. Too, she shared a shot of the super blue, and super beautiful, ocean below them. The flight seemed pretty decent, though Patrick J. Adams was hilariously shy in front of the camera. Awww! With a selfie and a gorgeous shot of the beach, it was time for their next adventure to begin! Were so pumped about Troians new pink hair, and were obviously loving those aviators. Heres to protecting that sensitive skin from the sun! She captioned the second shot with, Paradise, and were definitely getting paradise vibes. We hope these cuties have the best trip, and continue to document it on social so we can live through them! Nicole Kidman just donned a dress that literally stole our hearts and ran away with them At the 28th Annual Palm Springs Film Festival, Nicole Kidman pretty much cemented her place as fashion royalty by wearing a dress that is quite literally holding our hearts hostage. Its not like we didnt know that the Australian actress tends to be a total knockout at any event she attends, but this is a little excessive. Her dress is gorgeous, but so whimsical and unique that were totally obsessing. Its so ~her~ that wed like her to offer an online class on how to take our personal styles to this level of perfection, please and thank you. Her whole look was amazing, but take special note of the heart on the bodice of the dress thats definitely our heart and she can KEEP it because we love this dress so much. 28th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival Film Awards Gala - Arrivals Obvi, Nicole herself looked totally stunning in simple makeup with a killer red lip. We also looooove her purple necklace. Its a great pop of color since the dress, though kinda busy, is fairly neutral overall. 28th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival Film Awards Gala - Arrivals She kept her nail polish similarly neutral, but again her ~accessories~ made the whole look a little brighter and more fun. PLUS, look at the amazing detail on that dress. It should be exhibited in a museum, tbh. 28th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival Film Awards Gala - Arrivals Were also totally in love with the way the bottom of her dress bunches when she holds it up. Her whole look is so romantic and lovely, we feel like shes about to step off of the red carpet and into a fairy tale. 28th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival - Red Carpet In that fairy tale she is the benevolent, magical queen who raises us in her image. Obviously. Ahem. Abuja (AFP) - The Nigerian army on Thursday said another Chibok schoolgirl kidnapped by Boko Haram jihadists almost three years ago had been rescued along with her six-month-old baby. Rakiya Abubakar was one of over 200 schoolgirls abducted from the northeast Nigerian town of Chibok in April 2014, army spokesman Sani Usman said in a statement. He said soldiers had "during investigation of arrested suspected Boko Haram terrorists discovered... Rakiya Abubakar, with her six-month-old baby." He said she was a senior school student at the time of her abduction but did not specify when or where she was found. Of the 276 girls initially seized, scores escaped in the hours after the kidnapping. There are currently 195 schoolgirls still missing. Abubakar is one of three other schoolgirls who have been found in the past year by Nigerian troops as they fight Boko Haram Islamists. In October, 21 Chibok girls were released by Boko Haram after negotiations with the Nigerian government brokered by the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Swiss government. The release was hailed as a breakthrough that would lead to the recovery of remaining girls in captivity. The Chibok girls drew global attention to the Boko Haram insurgency engulfing the country when US First Lady Michelle Obama joined the #BringBackOurGirls online movement. Despite winning back swathes of territory from the jihadists, President Muhammadu Buhari has faced intense criticism for failing to recover the young captives, who became the defining symbol of Boko Haram's brutal campaign to establish a fundamentalist Islamic state in the country. Boko Haram still poses a threat to the war-torn region, launching sporadic raids on remote villages in Nigeria and deadly attacks on soldiers in neighbouring Chad and Niger. Nigeria has recently trumpeted a major victory in its battle against Boko Haram, claiming in late December that its army has routed the jihadists from their Sambisa forest stronghold. MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) - Nigerian soldiers have found a schoolgirl who was one of more than 200 pupils kidnapped by Islamist militant group Boko Haram from their school in the northeastern town of Chibok in April 2014, an army spokesman said on Thursday. The troops had found Rakiya Abubkar wandering around near Algarno, a former Boko Haram stronghold, the spokesman said. She had a six-month-old baby with her. A total of 276 schoolgirls were abducted by Boko Haram from Chibok in 2014 in one of the most infamous actions of their insurgency. More than 20 were released in October in a deal brokered by the International Red Cross. Others have escaped or been rescued but about 200 are believed to be still in captivity. Boko Haram has killed 15,000 people and displaced more than two million during a seven-year-old insurgency aimed at creating an Islamic caliphate in northeast Nigeria. The group controlled an area about the size of Belgium in early 2015 but has been pushed out of most of that territory over the last year by Nigeria's army and troops from neighbouring countries. Last month, the army said it had seized a key Boko Haram camp in its last enclave in Nigeria in the vast Sambisa forest. The jihadists still stage suicide bombings in northeastern areas and in neighbouring Niger and Cameroon. (Reporting by Lanre Ola, Alexis Akwagyiram and Ulf Laessing; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Dominic Evans) LAGOS (Reuters) - The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers ordered on Thursday a strike at Total fuel truck depots across the OPEC member nation in protest against sackings. "We have stopped the operation of Total. We are at the table with Total discussing the situation of the workers," Tokunbo Korodo, union chairman in the southwest of the country, said. (Reporting by Alexis Akwagyiram and Tife Owolabi; Editing by Ulf Laessing and Susan Thomas) When 6-year-old Connor Guillet, who is non-verbal and has a chromosomal disorder that causes extreme physical and mental delay, met foster dog Ellie it was love at first sight. Ellie, a 3-year-old boxer, is deaf and responds to sing language commands perfect for Connor who uses sign language to communicate. Connors parents, Brandi and Chad Guillet, welcomed the pup into their home through Coastal Boxer Rescues foster care program located in their hometown of Cocoa, Florida, over the holidays. They kind of need each other in a way, Brandi, a 42-year-old full-time mom, tells PEOPLE. I know Connor looks to Ellie for support and comfort and I believe Ellie goes to him for comfort and support too. Theyre best friends. Connor, who has DiGeorge syndrome, often bursts into uncontrollable fits, according to his mother. But when hes with Ellie, he is immediately comforted. If hes melting down she licks him and he, 99 percent of the time, stops, says Brandi. Hes distracted and his mood instantly lifts with her kisses. Need a little inspiration? Click here to subscribe to the Daily Smile Newsletter for uplifting, feel-good stories that brighten up your inbox. She adds, He loves Ellie, treats her just like a human! The Guillet family took the pup in after Connor met Ellie at a rescue event. We went because Connor loves dogs, and when we met Ellie, it was like everything felt perfect, says Brandi. There was a trainer there who said she knows sign commands. Connor kissed her face and I knew it was just meant to be. Brandi and Chad are in the process of adopting Ellie and cant wait to be her full legal guardians. Connor and Ellie play together all the time, they are always in the backyard jumping on the trampoline, says Brandi. And when Connor is sleepy, Ellie will nudge his arm around her and they snuggle. Connor has spent every waking moment together since Ellie joined his family. I cant explain it, there is something extremely special about this dog, says Brandi, holding back tears. When Connor signs to her and tells her to sit or wags his finger like, No, no its just so evident there is an amazing bond. Its the most beautiful thing Ive ever seen. A male law enforcement officer in North Carolina was placed on administrative leave after he body slammed a female high school student and dragged her body off camera. An 8-second cellphone video of the incident, which was posted Twitter Tuesday, soon went viral. The officer in question, Ruben De Los Santos, was a school resource officer at Rolesville High School in Wake County, which is roughly 17 miles north of Raleigh, North Carolina. He has worked at the high school of about 2,200 students since 2013, according to local reports Wednesday. Desiree Harrison, the mother of the 15-year-old victim Jasmine Darwin, told CNN Wednesday her daughter suffered a concussion. "That's not how you handle a child," Harrison said. "She's only 100 pounds. He could've killed her." Dhedra Lassiter, the schools principal, said the incident happened after the officer responded to a physical altercation in the schools hallway. Lassiter was "deeply concerned about what I saw in the video," she said in an official letter on the school's website Tuesday. "The safety of our students is always our first priority. Our school district works with many dedicated officers who protect our students. It is vital that our children have a positive relationship with these law enforcement officials. Those relationships are built on mutual respect," she said. "Immediately after becoming aware of Tuesdays incident, we reached out to the Rolesville Police Department," the principle added. "I appreciate the quick action of Chief Langston, who placed the school resource officer on administrative leave and began an immediate investigation." Rolesville police Chief Bobby W. Langston II asked the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation to launch a full investigation into the incident. "We ask the community and all members involved to be patient while we investigate this matter," Langston told local reporters Tuesday. Story continues The American Civil Liberties Union responded to the incident. "Were very disturbed by what we saw in the video," ACLU staff lawyer Irena Como told the News and Observer Tuesday. "This kind of force, especially with kids in schools, is never justified." The ACLU rushed to the aid of another female high student in October of 2015. She was dragged out of her desk by a school resource officer and thrown across the classroom in South Carolina when she refused to give up her cellphone. But the officer from the video, Ben Fields, was not charged with criminal wrongdoing in September 2016, even though a cellphone video of the altercation went viral. Related Articles By Andreas Rinke SEEON, Germany (Reuters) - Britain lacks experience in international negotiations due to its long membership of the European Union and this can slow talks, the prime minister of non-EU Norway told Reuters, adding that she feared "a very hard Brexit". British Prime Minister Theresa May intends to launch by the end of March the two-year process of negotiating to leave the EU. They are expected to be some of the most complicated international talks Britain has engaged in since World War Two. Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg said she hoped Britain would be able to negotiate an agreement that keeps it very close to the EU but said it would be a difficult task. "And we do feel that sometimes when we are discussing with Britain, that their speed is limited by the fact that it is such a long time since they have negotiated" alone on such issues, she said in an interview late on Wednesday while attending a meeting of the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU)in southern Germany. "I fear a very hard Brexit but I hope we will find a better solution," she added. Though not in the EU, Norway is a member of the bloc's single market and allows free movement for EU workers. It also contributes to the EU budget and participates in Europe's open-border Schengen agreement. Some Britons favor a Norway-style close relationship with the EU after Brexit. Others argue for a 'hard Brexit' that would take Britain out of both the single market and the bloc's customs union. Britain has never joined the Schengen scheme. Prime Minister May has so far said little publicly about her negotiating position, arguing that to do so would weaken London's hand in the talks. In a move that highlighted tensions at the heart of the British government over how to handle Brexit, Britain's ambassador to the EU, Ivan Rogers, resigned this week. In his letter of resignation he also referred to a lack of negotiating experience within the British civil service. "Serious multilateral negotiating experience is in short supply in Whitehall, and that is not the case in the (European) Commission or in the (European) Council," he wrote. The Commission in Brussels handles trade and some other negotiations on behalf of the EU's member states. Britain joined the bloc in 1973. Solberg said it would be very hard for Britain to accept the EU's "four freedoms" - of movement of goods, capital, people, and services - without having a vote in the EU Council. "I hope that we will find a solution that leaves Britain as a partner in a lot of the European activities that we need them to be a partner in," the Norwegian leader added. (Reporting by Andreas Rinke; Writing by Paul Carrel; Editing by Gareth Jones) Photo credit: Farm From a Box via Twitter From Country Living What happens when you combine the container home trend with the movement for local food production? A farm in a box, or as this San Francisco-based startup dubs it, "Farm From a Box." That's right: a tricked out $50,000 portable shipping container with everything you need to power a two-acre farm-well, except the land and seeds, of course. With one unit, you can grow any crop, specifically enough food to feed up to 150 people for a year or potentially earn up to $150,000 annually. Founders Brandi DeCarli and Scott Thompson were inspired after working together on a youth center in Kenya, where containers provided resources like health and education-but not food. "The greatest fine art of the future will be the making of a comfortable living from a small piece of land." https://t.co/KrHnd1Ti0v pic.twitter.com/hP6gXBrWBi - Farm from a Box (@farmfromabox) December 15, 2016 "There's a bit of a missing infrastructure that occurs in a lot of underdeveloped areas, and even here within the U.S," DeCarli told Smithsonian Magazine. "So we thought, let's provide communities with the tools they need to be able to grow and sustain their own crop so that the resilience is actually built up from the ground itself." "Farm from a Box brings some much needed innovation to the agriculture sector." -Investor #187 Join us! https://t.co/B3acWAK0px pic.twitter.com/jRJQBE9kHa - Farm from a Box (@farmfromabox) December 15, 2016 The goal? To "shift the focus from mass food production to food production by the masses, and reinvent the small farm," says the startup's crowdfunding page on Republic. The self-described "Swiss-Army knife" of sustainable farming, each starter kit comes equipped with basic farm tools, a seedling house, ICT and data mapping, plus solar power, pumping, water purification, and irrigation systems. Not to mention other bells and whistles like training materials, wifi and cloud, a charging area, and sensor technology. All of this means the farm can essentially be started anywhere. We are growing rapidly! Now you can be a part of our growth, too! https://t.co/D4yzyp54kp pic.twitter.com/Ub9P6yPLPj - Farm from a Box (@farmfromabox) August 10, 2016 The first Farm From a Box prototype, aptly named "Adam," at Shone Farm in Sonoma, California, is "going amazingly well," DeCarli said to Smithsonian. "It's actually more efficient than we had even planned, which is a good problem to have." Up next, the startup will deploy another unit in California to aid refugees from Nepal, Bhutan, and Afghanistan, as well as a Virginia box for veterans. (h/t Curbed) [contentlinks align="center" textonly="false" numbered="false" headline="Related%20Story" customtitles="10%20of%20the%20Most%20Popular%20Tiny%20Houses%20of%20the%20Year" customimages="" content="gallery.3969"] [contentlinks align="center" textonly="false" numbered="false" headline="Related%20Story" customtitles="The%20%22Agrihood%22%20Trend%20Is%20Taking%20Off" customimages="" content="gallery.3341"] You Might Also Like PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) Pledges by President Barack Obama and a national nonprofit organization to end homelessness among veterans did not meet their goal. But advocates see improvement, and the head of the Department of Veterans Affairs said Thursday that "we should be there" within a couple of years. Homelessness among veterans has been effectively ended in Virginia, Connecticut and Delaware and in about 35 communities, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. But many veterans still sleep on the streets elsewhere. Still, as Obama's term ends, advocates call the national push a success because many veterans did get homes, and the ambitious goal created urgency. About two dozen nonprofits, government officials and homeless veterans in 17 states and Washington spoke with The Associated Press about the effectiveness of the effort and the challenges they faced. "It has been the best kind of failure I've experienced," said Chris Ko, director of homeless initiatives for the United Way of Greater Los Angeles. "It's black and white. Did we reach it? No. Did we succeed in the broader effort? Will we end veteran homelessness because of this national push? Yeah." The Obama administration set a goal in 2010 of ending homelessness among veterans in 2015, and first lady Michelle Obama challenged mayors nationwide to do so in 2014. Though the deadline passed without the goal being met, the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness says it won't rest until every community has reached the goal. The nonprofit Community Solutions also ran a campaign to end veteran homelessness by the end of 2015 and chronic homelessness one year later, called "Zero: 2016." That work continues under a new name, "Built for Zero." VA Secretary Robert McDonald called on his agency and its partners Thursday to house as many veterans as possible in 30 days, saying that homelessness typically increases after the holidays and that winter is a tough time. Story continues Obama's "audacious" goal galvanized people, McDonald told the AP in an interview. As outreach and data collection improved, he said, officials realized estimates were low. "I think we're going to make a big dent this year, and I would say within a couple of years, we should be there," McDonald said. The number of homeless veterans nationwide is down 47 percent, or about 35,000 people, since 2010, but there are still roughly 40,000 more, HUD said in August. To get homeless veterans into permanent homes, the Obama administration used a program that was created in 2008 and combines rental assistance from HUD with case management and clinical services from the VA. Nearly 90,000 so-called HUD-VASH vouchers have been awarded, with $635 million appropriated for vouchers from 2008 to 2016. Many places were able to house most of their homeless veterans, but vouchers became harder to use as the housing market tightened. Some areas harbor enough resources to solve the problem, but they're spread across multiple agencies, making coordination difficult, Community Solutions said. Officials in communities that have effectively ended veteran homelessness, including Bergen County, New Jersey, and San Antonio, say the key was better coordination among government agencies and nonprofits. There has also been a national shift in how people who are the hardest to house, including addicts and the mentally ill, are helped. They used to have to get medical treatment, get sober or take other steps to qualify for housing. That wasn't working, HUD says, so now they get housing first, then are pointed toward help to confront root causes of their homelessness. New Mexico reduced its number of homeless veterans from roughly 1,000 in 2015 to about 115. "The most important thing we've learned in the last couple of years is we can make veteran homelessness almost completely go away," said Hank Hughes at the New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness. Hughes and others worry momentum will stall if President-elect Donald Trump cuts funding for social programs. Trump's team didn't respond to a request for comment for this article. He has said he wants to rein in government spending and reform the VA but didn't say much about homelessness during the campaign. Navy veteran Stephen Matthews, 55, lost his job as a parts clerk last year because of an injury and couldn't pay his rent in Warwick, Rhode Island. He and his wife lived in their car before his stepdaughter let them move in temporarily. Matthews received a voucher for about two-thirds of his rent, but he struggled to find an apartment where he could afford the balance. He finally got one in West Warwick in late December after six months of searching. "It's too hard for the working class and less advantaged people to find safe and affordable housing," he said. Los Angeles voters approved a bond in November to raise $1.2 billion for up to 10,000 permanent units, and a refurbished building is opening in February in Jacksonville , Florida, as apartments for homeless veterans, but some plans to build more elsewhere have stalled because of local opposition. In Chicago, nearly 3,000 homeless veterans have been housed since January 2015, leaving slightly less than 650 awaiting housing, according to the nonprofit All Chicago. "Would it have been great if everyone met their goal? Of course it would've," said Traci Strickland, who supervises homeless programs at a community mental health center in West Virginia. "It was lofty, and to make the amount of headway that has been made in Charleston, West Virginia, and in cities across the country, that's huge. We didn't meet the goal for everybody, but we met the goal for a lot of people." COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Boarded-up property will no longer be synonymous with blight in Ohio. The state became the first in the nation this week to outlaw the use of plywood on properties certified as vacant and abandoned. The prohibition was tucked into one of 28 bills signed Wednesday by Republican Gov. John Kasich. It takes effect in 90 days. It's a boon for a practice known as clear boarding, which has been catching on around the country. Fannie Mae, the federal government-sponsored mortgage association, has been using the clear polycarbonate windows and doors for several years and, in November, declared plywood unacceptable for securing vacant properties. A zoning committee in Chicago debated the issue this spring. Robert Klein, founder of Cleveland-based clear board maker SecureView, said the Ohio law makes a bold statement against urban decay. "This is a significant advancement for those engaged in the battle against neighborhood blight in Ohio," Klein said. "Plywood is an outdated solution to a growing modern-day problem." Plywood has been an industry standard for securing vacated housing for so many decades that the very act of doing so is called "boarding up" the property. It's widely available, easy to use and inexpensive. However, supporters of using a different material say plywood is susceptible to break-ins and vandalism, obstructs the visibility for first responders and sends a visual signal that depreciates surrounding property values. Marilyn Thompson, of APA-Engineered Wood Association, said the trade organization representing North American plywood makers views the debate as primarily aesthetic. "Plywood has very good structural properties, so we wouldn't see any significant difference in terms of security," she said. "In terms of aesthetics, if building owners want to have the option to use that, that's fine. But to ban the use of plywood and to make it mandatory to use the clear boarding really removes options for property owners and puts an additional burden on them by removing lower cost options." Story continues Thompson said a 4-by-8-foot sheet of plywood that's 15/32 inches thick costs $17 to $20, while a similar-sized sheet of clear polycarbonate costs about $115. In Ohio, the plywood ban comes close on the heels of another new law that sped up foreclosures on vacant and abandoned properties, sometimes called zombie properties because they languish like the living dead. It establishes a fast-track system trimming Ohio's foreclosure process from two years or more to as little as six months. Rep. Jonathan Dever, the bill's sponsor, said the plywood ban applies only to properties sent through that process, which should now be turned over much more quickly. The Cincinnati Republican said they represent a fraction of Ohio's total annual foreclosures. "If you drive through a neighborhood and there's boarded-up houses, what does that tell you? Nobody's there," Dever said. "The idea is, if you're going to foreclose on a house, let's not advertise that it's empty. Let's avoid break-ins and vandalism and let's get it sold as soon as possible." The bill doesn't specify any penalties for breaking the ban. (Adds additional Cooperman comments) NEW YORK, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Hedge fund investor Leon Cooperman, the chief executive of Omega Advisors, told CNBC on Thursday his firm's assets had shrunk to $3.4 billion after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's insider trading charges. Cooperman, whose firm managed roughly $10.7 billion about two years ago before being charged by the SEC last September, said the agency's charges had damaged his business. "I was truly surprised at the destructive power the SEC has," Cooperman told the television network. "They've done substantial damage to my business, and I think, in the end, for no reason." The government accused Cooperman of benefiting from trades he made after using his position as a large shareholder to gain information about a planned sale that others did not know about. Cooperman said his firm's credit fund gained 16 percent last year, his equity-only fund 10 percent, and his diversified strategy 8 percent. He said his firm owned shares of Facebook , Amazon and Alphabet, with the last constituting 4 percent of the fund's assets. He said the U.S. stock market was "fully valued" and that he would turn bearish on stocks if they continued climbing higher over the next two months. The S&P 500 has gained about 6 percent since Donald Trump's U.S. presidential victory on Nov. 8. Cooperman also said his firm had added to its position in Gulfport Energy and that he expected oil prices to rise to between $65-70 a barrel in a year. U.S. crude last traded at $53.63 a barrel on Thursday afternoon. (Reporting by Sam Forgione; Editing by Bernadette Baum, Bernard Orr) One Day at a Time In a new Netflix reboot, the 1970s sitcom One Day at a Time has been reimagined as the story of a Cuban-American family in present-day Los Angeles. Its warm, its goodhearted, it sends out positive messages. What it isnt is funny. This One Day, whose 13 episodes begin streaming on Friday, stars Justina Machado as Penelope Alvarez, a 38-year-old single mom whos also a nurse and an Afghanistan War veteran. She lives with her two children, played by Isabella Gomez and Marcel Ruiz, and her mother, Lydia, played in a showcase star-turn by Rita Moreno. And remember the original shows randy handyman, Schneider, played by Pat Harrington Jr., who died just last year? Well, the new Schneiders been refashioned into a young stud played by Todd Grinnell. The show has been reconceived by veteran producer Norman Lear along with producers Gloria Calderon Kellett and Mike Royce to accommodate debates about such topics as immigration and deportation, the struggles of our armed-services veterans, and the efficacy of antidepressants. Too often, the show is like a Bill OReilly Talking Points Memo, but with reverse-politics and a laugh track. (Come to think of it, OReillys Memos could use a laugh track.) In between groaning rib-ticklers about rebellious teenagers and Uber drivers, the show manages to stage arguments about stuff as heavy as the very existence of God or, at least, the superiority of Catholicism. The studio audience helped a little by some laugh track sweetening, most likely guffaws uproariously when Lydia puts a picture of the pope on the refrigerator. When Penelope invokes the word Protestant, devout Catholic Lydia yells, There is no need for name-calling! The show wants to have it both ways, playing up to various cultural stereotypes while insisting that this family defies stereotyping. There are loads of jokes that play off of Lydias pronunciation of certain words. When Lydia applies a beautifying sheet mask, much is made of how much it sounds like a certain four-letter word, with yuks about how the sheet will hit the fan. Story continues The cast is good, with the obvious standout being Moreno, who plays her broadly drawn character so lustily, its a wonder she doesnt wink at the camera and then just walk up and give it a big wet kiss. Morenos outsized talent is well-deployed. On the other hand, the excellent character actor Stephen Tobolowsky is squandered in the trite role of Penelopes doofus boss. Norman Lear has produced a lot of good television over the decades. My personal ranking of his best would be Maude, The Jeffersons, and All in the Family, with both Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman and Fernwood 2 Night shuffled somewhere in there as well. I vastly prefer the harder-edged ethnic humor that emanated from characters like Sherman Hemsleys George Jefferson and John Amoss James Evans in Good Times to the sentimental-leaning creations in the new One Day at a Time. But for a lot of people, it may be enough to have such a warm, loving Cuban-American family portrayed in a sitcom, a format that has not presented people from such a culture with much understanding in the past. One Day at a Time begins streaming Friday on Netflix. david bianco Deutsche Bank's David Bianco has been given a bigger role at the bank. The well-known Wall Streeter is moving from his role as US equity strategist to Deutsche Asset Management, where he will serve as the chief investment strategist for the Americas and head of equities in the US. "David is a well-respected and familiar face within our industry and will be a key public figure for us in presenting to our clients Deutsche Asset Managements global views on markets, economies and policies," said Bob Kendall, head of Deutsche Asset Management in the Americas. In his new role, he will lead a team of investors responsible for stockpicking in the Americas, and help clients construct their own portfolios. Bianco has more than 20 years of experience in the industry. Before joining Deutsche Bank in 2012 as the US equity strategist, he held the same role at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. He previously worked at UBS. Not long after the financial crisis, he caught Wall Street's attention by making big, bullish calls on the S&P 500 when few other strategists were willing to. He's also bullish heading in to 2017. "The S&P 500 should be 2,250 by inauguration and 2,300 upon a sizable corporate tax rate cut," he said recently. His appointment follows that of Petra Pflaum as chief investment officer for responsible investments at Deutsche Asset Management. She was previously cohead of global research and global head of small & mid cap equities. Deutsche Asset Management had around $750 billion in assets under management at the end of September 2016. NOW WATCH: Watch Yellen explain why the Federal Reserve decides to raise rates More From Business Insider Investors in Energy Transfer Equity, L.P. (ETE) need to pay close attention to the stock based on moves in the options market lately. That is because the January 6th, 2017 $16.5 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 Energy Transfer Equity shares, but what is the fundamental picture for the company? Currently, Energy Transfer Equity is a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) in the Oil and Gas Production pipeline industry that ranks in the Top 29% of our Zacks Industry Rank. Over the last 60 days, no analyst has increased their earnings estimates for the current quarter, while 3 analysts has revised the estimate downward. The net effect has taken our Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current quarter from earnings of 28 cents per share to earnings of 23 cents in that period. Given the way analysts feel about Energy Transfer Equity 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: Story continues 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 ENERGY TRAN EQT (ETE): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Pakistan police arrested 160 people Wednesday at a rally to celebrate the assassination of a liberal provincial governor who called for the country's tough blasphemy laws to be reformed. Salman Taseer was gunned down in Islamabad by his own security guard Mumtaz Qadri on January 4, 2011 after he spoke out for Asia Bibi -- a Christian mother on death row over blasphemy. Blasphemy is a hugely sensitive issue in Pakistan, and anyone even accused of insulting Islam risks a violent and bloody death at the hands of vigilantes. Qadri was hanged last year in a step liberals hailed as progressive, but which brought hardliners onto the streets supporting Qadri and demanding Bibi be killed. Police said around 300 clerics attended two separate rallies in Lahore on Wednesday blocking main roads, under the banner of "Save Islam Movement" and "Lubaik Ya Rasool Allah movement" -- referring to the collective name of some hardline Islamist groups. "We have arrested some 160 people who clashed with police," senior police official Haider Ashraf told AFP. Another police official said clashes erupted when barricades were placed on roads to prevent the rally from reaching Liberty Market, where Taseer's supporters were to hold a candlelight vigil to mark the anniversary of his assassination. Last week hardliners also filed blasphemy charges against Taseer's son, Shaan Taseer, and issued a fatwa calling for his death after he posted a Christmas video on his Facebook page calling for a review of the blasphemy law and supporting Bibi. Mohammad Zulfiqar, an organiser of Lubaik Ya Rasool Allah movement, criticised Wednesday's arrests. "The purpose was to defend Islam and express solidarity with Muslims in Kashmir and Burma (Myanmar)," he said of the rallies. "We also held them to stop the burning of candles for a blasphemer and celebrate the assassination (of Taseer) because on this day Mumtaz Qadri sent a blasphemer to hell." Rights groups complain the blasphemy law is often abused to carry out personal vendettas, mainly against minority Christians. ISLAMABAD (AP) Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has praised a slain Kashmir rebel leader and reiterated his condemnation of Indian "repression" in the disputed region, in remarks likely to re-ignite tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals. Addressing a Kashmir conference held in Islamabad on Thursday, Sharif referred to 22-year-old Burhan Wani, whose killing in July sparked months of violent demonstrations, as a "martyr." More than 70 people have been killed since then in clashes with Indian forces, who use live ammunition and pellet guns to disperse the crowds. India blames the violence on Pakistan-based militants, charges denied by Islamabad. In recent months, the two countries have exchanged fire on several occasions alongside the so-called Line of Control, which divides Kashmir into Pakistani and Indian-ruled zones. Both countries claim the region in its entirety. Pakistan on Thursday freed 219 Indian fishermen who had strayed into its waters, an official said, calling it a "goodwill gesture" ten days after a similar number were also released. The fishermen, some of whom had been in jail for more than a year, will be handed over to Indian authorities at the Wagah border, Sindh provincial official Mohammad Naseem Siddiqui told AFP. A further 100 fishermen remain in prison, waiting for the Indian High Commission to confirm their nationality as they serve sentences of at least six months each, he said. Dozens of Indian and Pakistani fishermen are captured in the Arabian Sea each year after straying across maritime borders. They often languish in prison even after serving their sentences, as poor diplomatic relations between the bitter nuclear foes hamper bureaucracy. Relations between India and Pakistan have plummeted since a deadly attack on an Indian army base in the disputed region of Kashmir in September, that New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based Islamist group Jaish-e-Mohammed. There have since been repeated outbreaks of cross-border firing, with both sides reporting deaths and injuries. Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since the end of British colonial rule in 1947. Both claim the Himalayan territory in full and have fought two wars over the mountainous region. The parents of the Utah toddler who pushed a dresser off his twin brother are defending themselves against claims that video of the incident is fake. Read: Mom of Boy Who Pushed Dresser Off Twin Reveals Moment She Saw Rescue: 'It Was Just Heart-Wrenching' Kayli Shoff told Good Morning America: that her "heart sank" after she watched surveillance video of her 2-year-old twins climbing the dresser before it toppled over, pinning her son, Brock, underneath. After trying and failing to lift the dresser, Brock's twin brother, Bowdy, was eventually was able to push it aside, freeing the boy. Comments on social media sparked ridicule as some claim the video, which has been viewed 12 million times on YouTube, was a hoax. This whole thing is a scam!" read one comment. I'm calling it now seems like hoax! was another. The Shoff family appeared on Good Morning America Thursday to answer to skeptics. So they would get into the drawers, pull all the clothes that we had in the drawers and put them out and just throw them all over their room during nap time," the boys father, Ricky Shoff, said: So we just decided the easiest thing was to empty the drawers and put all their clothes in the closet." Noting that Ricky works for a company that makes surveillance cameras, skeptics asked why the camera appears to be trained on the dresser. Read: IKEA Issues Second Safety Warning After Third Toddler Is Killed by Falling Furniture We have cameras throughout our whole house and that camera is just positioned in the best angle to see the entire room," he told GMA. "So it wasn't positioned to have just the dresser, Kayli told Inside Edition earlier this week that the dresser has since been anchored to the wall. Watch: All About That BASE: Jumper Survives Near-Fatal Fall, Says He Will Leap Again Related Articles: On January 5, officials including Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo paid their respects to the victims of the attack on the offices of the magazine Charlie Hebdo and several related incidents in January 2015. They also visited a kosher supermarket where four people were killed in a siege two days later. The supermarket attack was carried out by Amedy Coulibaly, a friend of the two Hebdo attackers, Said Kouachi and Cherif Kouachi. Credit: Anne Hidalgo via Storyful After being tongue-lashed and expelled from his own party, the leader of India's largest state had two options: bow to the will of his father or commit political patricide weeks before an election. "Giving up power in old age is something that doesn't happen in India ... so we now have a patricidal war in Uttar Pradesh," said PR Ramesh, an editor at the Delhi-based Open magazine. Politics in India has long been a family affair, dominated by clans such as the Gandhis who have provided three prime ministers and now lead the main opposition party. But even in a country used to dynastic feuds, the battle between Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and his father Mulayam Singh Yadav has been gripping stuff. After paving the way for his Australian-educated son to become chief minister following state polls five years ago, the 77-year-old Mulayam continued to lead the socialist Samajwadi Party (SP). During his term in charge of the state -- which has a population of around 215 million -- Akhilesh has frequently bitten his tongue following criticism from his father, a former Indian defence minister. The older man has also been a source of embarrassment, especially after saying of a high-profile rape case that "boys will be boys". But with multi-round state elections starting next month, the 43-year-old Akhilesh has been trying to assert his authority by publicly admonishing his father and sacking an uncle. - Hostile takeover - A furious Mulayam responded by expelling his son from the SP on Friday but then found the tables had been turned as Akhilesh engineered a hostile takeover of the party and was elected its president. "Who made him chief minister?" Mulayam said to reporters. "He doesn't seem to understand that his future is now doomed. He is not even listening to my advice." Analysts say part of the fascination of the Yadav saga is Akhilesh's refusal to follow convention and yield to his father. Story continues Rahul Gandhi -- whose father, grandmother and great-grandfather were all premiers -- was the centre-left Congress's frontman in the last general election but his 70-year-old mother Sonia remains party president and calls the shots. The 89-year-old Prakash Singh Badal is bidding to remain chief minister when Punjab holds state elections next month, meaning his son and deputy Sukhbir Singh Badal, 54, will again have to bide his time. And in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, five-time former chief minister Muthuvel Karunanidhi is clinging on as leader of the DMK party aged 92 while two sons position themselves as his political heir. Sunita Aron, author of a book called 'The Dynasty: Born to Rule', said it was frowned upon for India's political princelings to criticise their fathers -- regardless of the provocation. - Respect for elders - "Akhilesh was humiliated from day one but... no one can afford to be seen to be harsh to their elders," she told AFP. "As long as he's alive, it is the father who is the head of the family, and takes all the decisions on the family and business front." The analyst Ramesh agreed any show of disrespect does "not go down well with the public" and was the reason why Akhilesh still stressed his love for his father. In his speech after ousting his father, Akhilesh said: "No matter what happens, nothing can change our relationship. He is my father and I am his son." Despite being the world's largest democracy, the cost of campaigning means candidates often have to rely on family connections when running for office at national or state level. A quarter of MPs elected in the 2014 election are from political dynasties while a study by The Hindu newspaper found all five Samajwadi representatives in the Lok Sabha were related to the Yadavs. The new year is off to a sunny start for Patrick Schwarzenegger. After hitting the slopes with father Arnold Schwarzenegger in Idaho, the 23-year-old headed to warmer weather in Los Cabos, Mexico. The model, who is vacationing with family members and girlfriend Abby Champion, spent the first days of 2017 hitting the beach. Donning turtle-print swim trunks, he also took to the water in a yellow kayak. Champion, a 19-year-old model who has been dating Schwarzenegger since early last year, rocked a white and pink striped one-piece bathing suit as she hung out in the sand. She also shared an adorable snap with her beau on Instagram on Tuesday. Best way to start 2017, she captioned the sweet shot of her sitting between Schwarzeneggers legs near the edge of the water. Schwarzenegger also rocked braids for the day, showing off his new do on Twitter in a selfie while his girlfriend smiles in the background. However, the hairstyle didnt last long. The following day, he shared a photo of his crimped hair after taking the braids out. //platform.twitter.com/widgets.js When you take your braids out pic.twitter.com/MgcVR95aRd Patrick Shriver (@PSchwarzenegger) January 3, 2017 //platform.twitter.com/widgets.js Schwarzenegger also took to Instagram to share a photo with his younger brother, 19-year-old Christopher, trying on large hats during their tropical getaway. The brothers mother, Maria Shriver, was also part of the getaway. The former first lady of California was photographed on the beach wearing a strapless bathing suit and black hat to shield her from the sun. A day after calling WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange a sycophant for Russia, House Speaker Paul Ryan said its clear Moscow tried to meddle in the U.S. presidential election but that wasnt the reason for President-elect Donald Trumps stunning victory in November. He won fair and square, Ryan said during a Thursday press briefing in Washington. He won clearly and convincingly. Russia didnt tell Hillary Clinton not to go to Wisconsin or Michigan. They didnt put the server in her basement or put the stuff on Anthony Weiners laptop. The Wisconsin Republican said the United States would never condone any foreign actor, any outside interference from trying to mess with our elections. But lets just put this in the proper perspective, Ryan said. Lets deny those who are trying to delegitimize a presidency before it starts, while doing what we need to do to make sure going forward that outside actors dont interfere with our political system. Paul Ryan speaks to the media Thursday during his weekly news conference. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images) Ryans comments came as intelligence officials testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Russian meddling in the election. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said the Russian governments involvement went far beyond the now highly publicized hacks of Democratic email accounts, which were merely one part of a multilayered campaign of propaganda and deception. The hacks led to the disclosure of politically embarrassing emails on WikiLeaks, driving weeks of negative news coverage during the campaign. While there has been a lot of focus on the hacking, this is actually part of a multifaceted campaign that the Russians mounted, Clapper told the committee. Early Wednesday, Trump cast doubt on the conclusion by U.S. intelligence officials that Russia was behind the hacking of Clinton campaign chief John Podesta and the Democratic National Committee, and suggested that he believes Assanges claims more than the CIAs. Julian Assange said a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta why was DNC so careless? Trump tweeted. Also said Russians did not give him the info! Story continues In an interview that aired Tuesday, Assange told Fox News Sean Hannity that Russia was not the source of the stolen documents. Similar to Ryan, Assange said that those who say otherwise are trying to delegitimize Trumps election victory. Related: Intel chief: Russias election interference went far beyond hacks They are trying to say that President-elect Trump is not a legitimate president, Assange said in the interview, which was conducted Monday at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, where Assange has been living in exile for more than two years. We can say, we have said repeatedly over the last two months, that our source is not the Russian government and it is not a state party, he told Hannity. Despite Assanges claims, the U.S. intelligence community has said it is certain that Russia was behind the cyberattacks that led to the WikiLeaks disclosures. In an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Wednesday morning, Ryan was asked for his thoughts on Assange. None, other than I think the guy is a sycophant for Russia, Ryan said. He leaks, he steals data and compromises national security. On Thursday, Trump denied backing Assanges version of the events. He tweeted that it is for the people to make up their own minds as to the truth. But Trump has also attacked the U.S. intelligence assessment about Russia and the cyberattacks. He and his transition team have repeatedly pointed to the intelligence failure regarding weapons of mass destruction in the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Well, they dont always get everything right. Weve seen that clearly, Ryan said Thursday of U.S. intelligence. I do have faith that our men and women in our intelligence community are doing an incredible job, sacrificing for our country. But theres always room for improvement. A petition started to make Star Wars' Leia an official Disney princess in the wake of Carrie Fisher's untimely death is gaining momentum. As of Thursday, the petition on change.org had more than 35,000 signatures. Disney purchased Lucasfilm for $4 billion in 2012. "After the tragic loss of Carrie Fisher, we feel that it is only fitting for Disney to do away with the rule that an official Disney princess must be animated and make Leia a full-fledged princess," states the petition. "What we are asking is that the Walt Disney Corporation hold a full ceremony inducting Leia as the newest Disney princess as well as a special service in memory of Carrie Fisher." The campaign was started by Cody Christensen of Cedar City, Utah, who claims the petition will be delivered to Disney CEO Bob Iger. Fisher died last month after suffering a heart attack. She was laid to rest on Thursday, along with her mother, actress Debbie Reynolds, who passed a day after Fisher. Since Fisher's death, practically all of her Star Wars family, in front of and behind the camera, have expressed their heartbreak and sorrow. Disney did not respond to request for comment. Read more: 'Star Wars' Braintrust Sets Meeting to Plot Leia's Life After Carrie Fisher's Death PHILADELPHIA, PA / ACCESSWIRE / January 5, 2017 / It may have just been a coincidence, or it may have lead to the deaths of two young women. Earlier this month, two teens were in a car on I-380 outside Scranton when the driver decided to record, live, on Facebook. Moments later they were both dead after being rear ended by a truck. Philadelphia car accident lawyer Rand Spear says drivers should never use social media while driving. The teen driver held up her cellphone while on the highway near Tobyhanna. "Are you going live?" her passenger asks her. Recorded next on the video are flashing lights, the sound of screeching tires, then the video goes dark as the tractor-trailer plows into the rear of the car. Both women were declared dead at the scene, according to the Scranton Times-Tribune1. According to the Pennsylvania State Police, the car was using a spare tire "doughnut." Due to the intense fire that destroyed the car, the police aren't sure about the condition of the car prior to the accident, and the teens' bodies couldn't initially be identified. The truck driver was not hurt and hadn't been criminally charged in connection with the collision when the article was published. A 17 year old friend of both teens, of Scranton, was in the car with the two prior to the accident. She told the reporter she was thankful she got out of the car, "But I feel like if I went, I could have stopped it somehow." The driver was a student at West Scranton High School. The video continues, black, for seven minutes before a man can be heard speaking and there's a blurry but bearded face seen before the video ends. State police said they will use the video as part of their investigation. What may have happened is, because the car was partially disabled because of the tire problem, it was travelling slowly on the highway when it was rear ended. Whether the driver could've done something to avoid or lessen the accident if she weren't focused on going Facebook Live, we may never know, adds injury lawyer Spear. Story continues A luckier driver who broadcast live on Facebook is a 20-year old who is still alive. For some reason he needed to drive extremely dangerously and show the world how good he was at it. Until the collision occurred. He was in Rhode Island, travelling as fast as 115 mph, weaving in and out of traffic, sometimes driving on the shoulder to pass other vehicles earlier this month. In the video, loud rap music is playing while the driver yells, "Lets get it, papi!" Then he skids across three lanes and crashes into the back of a dump truck and a road barrier, according to ABC News2. "How lucky we are that no one else was hurt," a Capt. of the Rhode Island State Police is quoted as saying. "It's a grand slam of things not to do." The driver was reportedly in fair condition at a hospital. No one else was injured in the accident. Police said he will be charged with driving with a suspended license and reckless driving. There are simply some things you shouldn't do when you drive, states car accident attorney Spear. That includes driving recklessly and using social media while driving. As a driver, you need to focus on driving, not entertaining the rest of the world with your video. If you do, it may be the last mistake you ever make. If you or a loved one have been injured by a distracted driver in a vehicle accident in Pennsylvania or New Jersey, contact Philadelphia car accident lawyer Rand Spear at 888-373-4LAW today so you can set up a free consultation to discuss the accident, how the law may apply in your situation, and what you should do next to protect your rights to compensation for your injuries. Press Contact: Rand Spear Personal injury lawyer 888-373-4LAW Footnote: 1 Scranton Times-Tribune: http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/teen-driver-was-live-video-broadcasting-self-online-at-time-of-fatal-crash-1.2127605 2 ABC News: http://abcnews.go.com/US/man-live-streams-high-speed-crash-facebook-live/story?id=43921533 Source: http://randspear.com/2016/12/30/dont-video-driving-warns-philadelphia-car-accident-lawyer-rand-spear/ SOURCE: Rand Spear via Submit Press Release 123 MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine security forces killed the leader of a militant group supporting Islamic State in a clash early on Thursday, the country's police chief said, warning against possible retaliation. President Rodrigo Duterte recently cautioned against Islamic State taking root in the southeast Asian country, saying it needed to avoid "contamination". "I strongly believe that we have effectively broken the backbone of the militant Ansar Al-Khilafah Philippines (AKP)," Ronald Dela Rosa told a news conference to announce the death of the group's leader, Mohammad Jaafar Maguid. Three AKP colleagues of Maguid were also arrested in a police operation shortly after midnight at a resort in the southern province of Sarangani, he added. "He is the recognized ISIS leader in that area," Dela Rosa said, adding that Maguid, who goes by the alias "Tokboy", was the "most wanted person" in the country's south, sought for his involvement in crimes ranging from arson and murder to bombings. Police recovered two armalite rifles, a hand grenade, and M-16 magazines, from Maguid and the three men, identified as Matahata Dialawe Arboleda, Ismael Sahak, and Morhaban Veloso. The AKP and the Maute militant group, which has also pledged allegiance to Islamic State, are among a handful of small groups authorities blame for years of unrest in the Philippine south. The killing and the arrests would "momentarily weaken" the group, Dela Rosa said, but a new leader could emerge eventually and launch fresh attacks. "We expect some retaliation from the ISIS-inspired groups," he added. "We should expect, and we should be very vigilant against, this possible retaliation." Philippine security forces are on full alert ahead of Monday's feast of the Black Nazarene in the capital Manila. It usually draws millions of devotees for a procession through the streets that runs for hours. (Reporting by Enrico dela Cruz; Editing by Clarence Fernandez) MANILA (Reuters) - An arbitration court ruling that rejected China's claims to the South China sea and strained Chinese relations with the Philippines will not be on the agenda of this year's Southeast Asian summit, a senior Philippine official said on Thursday. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte reiterated last month he wanted to avoid confrontation with China and saw no need to press Beijing to abide by the July ruling that went in favor of the Philippines. "The Hague ruling will not be on the agenda in the sense that its already part of international law," Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Enrique Manalo told reporters ahead of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting chaired by the Philippines in April. "So we really can't discuss the ruling. It's there." The July 2016 ruling rejected China's territorial claims over much of the South China Sea. Beijing declared the decision as "null and void", but called on countries involved in the dispute to start talks again to peacefully resolve the issue. What the 10-member ASEAN will focus on is the completion of a framework for a code of conduct to ease tension in the disputed waters, Manalo said. "We hope we will have a pleasant scenario during our chairmanship. We will talk to China in a way we will put forth our interest just as we expect china will put forth theirs," Manalo said. Since 2010, China and the ASEAN have been discussing a set of rules aimed at avoiding conflict. China claims most of the energy-rich waters through which about $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. Neighbors Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims. At the ASEAN summit last year, China's closest ASEAN ally, Cambodia, blocked any mention of the court ruling against Beijing in a joint statement. Duterte made a stunning U-turn in foreign policy a few months ago when he made overtures toward China and started berating traditional ally the United States. (Reporting by Karen Lema; Editing by Nick Macfie) The Arizona police officer who made headlines when a viral video showed him punching a woman in the face has resigned. Officer Jeff Bonar preemptively quit his job with the Flagstaff Police Department Wednesday after officials ruled he'd violated policies on unreasonable and excessive force and should be fired, KPHO reported. Read: Black Lives Matter Takes on Mannequin Challenge With Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland Depictions In cell phone footage reportedly taken November 16, Bonar is seen punching a woman in the face as he attempted to place her under arrest while she demanded to know if there was a warrant out in her name. It was subsequently revealed that the woman, 30-year-old Marissa Morris, had no active warrants. Police said following the incident that all warrants against Morris had been resolved a month earlier. Flagstaff Police Chief Kevin Treadway said at the time that Bonar believed he recognized Morris as having failure to appear warrants. He said Bonar was attempting to detain Morris while he ran a check for the warrants. Morris has also denied a claim by Bonar that she kicked and kneed him in the groin before he threw the punch. Read: Shocking Mugshot Shows Former Football Star's Fall From Grace After Drugs Arrest "Bonars conduct is not reflective of the way we police this community," Treadway said at a news conference held Wednesday. The Coconino County Attorney's Office has referred Bonar's case to the Mohave County Attorney, who will decide whether or not to pursue criminal charges. Watch: Girl, 9, Tearfully Appeals for Peace Following Fatal Police Shooting: 'I Can't Stand How We're Treated' Related Articles: (Adds details, forecasts) By Alberto Alerigi SAO PAULO, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Brazil's auto sector has revised downwards its expectations for a rebound in vehicle sales this year to just 4 percent from the high single digits, the Anfavea automakers association said on Thursday, with political uncertainty and a recession still weighing on a market that saw sales slump 20 percent last year. Anfavea President Antonio Megale said that while production of vehicles in Brazil would jump by 11.9 percent this year to 2.4 million units, sales of new vehicles would only creep up 4 percent to 2.13 million units. Exports are forecast to climb 7 percent this year to 558,000 units, he said, helped by stronger sales to Colombia, Chile and Ecuador. A trade deal with Argentina helped boost exports last year by 25 percent. "We had a forecast for a much stronger number (for sales) but we have reduced it to 4 percent because of the economic situation and, principally, because of the political environment that we are facing," Megale told a news conference. Megale had said late last year that he expected a sales increase for the industry as a whole this year in the high single digits. Yet corruption allegations implicating Brazilian President Michel Temer and his party are casting doubt on his ability to remain in office and causing cracks in his coalition, amid growing calls for early elections. That could destabilize a return to economic growth expected this year and derail Temer's agenda of restoring fiscal discipline, which has been welcomed by business leaders and foreign investors. The tepid rebound in auto sales this year comes after a painful 2016 as Brazil's worst recession in more than a century slashed demand for new vehicles. Anfavea said sales of newly produced cars in Brazil fell by 20.2 percent in 2016 to 2.05 million units, while production slumped 11.2 percent. In a sign of recovery, vehicle sales in December rose by 14.7 percent month on month, the association said. Story continues The recovery in sales is unlikely to spell a major return to hiring by the sector, Megale said, as the industry as a whole has about 50 percent idle capacity. Anfavea's more modest growth forecast for this year was in line with a prediction by the car dealership association Fenabrave that sales would grow 2.3 percent in 2017. (Reporting by Alberto Alerigi; Editing by Daniel Flynn and David Gregorio) Incomes vary considerably across the country as well as within states. The income gaps between each state's richest county and poorest county also vary considerably, with some states more equal than others. Still the states' poorest counties have much in common, and with one exception, median household incomes in all are lower than the national median income. The only exception is the poorest county in Connecticut, where the typical household earns $59,392 annually, more than the $53,889 income of the typical American household. Loudon County, Virginia is the richest county in the United States, with a median household income of $123,453 a year. McCreary, Kentucky is the poorest U.S. county, with a median household income of $19,328 a year. ALSO READ: Cities Where You Don't Want to Get Sick To highlight how income levels vary geographically, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed annual median household incomes in every county, in every state. Income is one of the principal determinants of well-being, and when income falls below a certain threshold, financial hardship that can affect many areas of life becomes considerably more likely. In low-income areas, poverty is far more common than elsewhere, especially when compared to other, wealthier areas in the state. In all but nine states, the poorest countys poverty rate is at least double that of the richest county. And in most states, residents of the poorest county are more than three times as likely than residents of the richest county to live in poverty. Educational attainment is one of the best predictors of future income levels. Compared with state measures and those of nearby rich areas, low-income counties tend to have lower college attainment rates. In only four cases, adults living in a states poorest county are more likely to have gone to college than adults nationwide: Madison, Idaho; Jackson, Illinois; Berkshire, Massachusetts; and Whitman, Washington. Incidentally, major colleges or universities operate in the vicinity of these four counties, and in each area there are above average shares of residents currently enrolled in college. Story continues Education levels in rich areas exceed those in poor areas in every state except for Washington and Montana. In a majority of states, the highest income county reports a college attainment rate at least double that of the poorest county. County population and density also appear related to income levels, as most states rich counties are considerably more populated and more dense than the poor counties. Of the 50 low-income counties on this list, all but eight are more sparsely populated than their states respective richest county. To identify the poorest county in each state, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed median annual household incomes from the U.S. Census Bureaus American Community Survey (ACS). In order to be considered, counties or county-equivalents had to have a population of at least 10,000 people. We also reviewed in each county the percentage of adults who have completed at least high school and at least college, as well as poverty rates, the percentage of owner-occupied housing units (the homeownership rate), median home values, and the percentage of area adults who identify as American Indian or Alaska Native from the ACS. All ACS data are five-year averages for 2011-2015. Unemployment rates are from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and are for November 2016, the most recently available period. Population density came from the Census Bureaus 2010 decennial census. These are the poorest counties in each state. 1. Sumter, Alabama > County median household income: $19,501 > State median household income: $43,623 > Poverty rate: 42.7% > Nov. unemployment: 7.3% The typical household in Sumter earns less than $20,000 annually -- the lowest of any county in Alabama and nearly the lowest of the over 2,000 U.S. counties reviewed. For reference, the federal poverty threshold for a household of three is just over $20,000. In Sumter, 42.7% of people live in poverty compared to 18.8% of residents statewide and 15.5% of Americans nationwide. 2. Bethel Census Area, Alaska > County median household income: $51,012 > State median household income: $72,515 > Poverty rate: 25.2% > Nov. unemployment: 12.1% Alaska has the second highest median household income of all states. Even in the states poorest region, the Bethel Census Area, the typical household income is $51,012, which is only slightly below the national median income. The area comprises much of the territory of the state occupied by the Yupik people. More than 80% of the census areas population consists of Native Americans, a demographic that has historically suffered from poverty. 3. Apache, Arizona > County median household income: $31,757 > State median household income: $50,255 > Poverty rate: 36.6% > Nov. unemployment: 10.2% Native Americans are some of the nations most economically disadvantaged people, and Apache -- the poorest county in Arizona and one of the poorest in the country -- is a case in point. Native Americans comprise over 70% of the countys population. The Navajo Nation, the nations largest Native American tribe, spans over half of Apache Countys land area. At 36.6%, Apaches poverty rate is more than double the state poverty rate of 18.2%, itself eighth highest compared with other states. 4. Phillips, Arkansas > County median household income: $26,844 > State median household income: $41,371 > Poverty rate: 34.1% > Nov. unemployment: 5.1% The typical household in Phillips, Arkansas earns just $26,844 a year, almost $30,000 less than in Benton, the states wealthiest county. Educational attainment is one of the strongest determinants of regional income, and Phillips' residents are much less likely to have the education levels needed to earn a higher than average income. Nearly one in four Phillips County adults lacks a high school diploma, and barely one in 10 have a bachelors degree, each among the worst attainment rates of any county in the country. 5. Trinity, California > County median household income: $34,974 > State median household income: $61,818 > Poverty rate: 19.5% > Nov. unemployment: 6.4% Trinity, a rural county in Northern California, is the poorest in the state. The typical area household earns only about $35,000 a year, well below the median income statewide of $61,818 a year. A relatively weak job market likely contributes to financial hardship in the county. Trinitys 6.4% unemployment rate is higher than the statewide unemployment rate of 5.0%. Nearly one in five county residents live in poverty, larger than the states 16.3% poverty rate. 6. Otero, Colorado > County median household income: $32,311 > State median household income: $60,629 > Poverty rate: 24.3% > Nov. unemployment: 3.8% The typical household in Otero, Colorado, earns just $32,311 annually, well below the median income of $60,629 for the state and about $61,000 less than the typical household in Douglas, the states wealthiest county. While 12.7% of Colorado and just 4% of Douglas residents live in poverty, Oteros poverty rate is 24.3%. Rural populations tend to have lower incomes, and Otero is a sparsely populated county. There are just 14.9 residents per square mile in Otero, much less dense than across the United States, where there are 87.4 residents on average for each square mile. 7. Windham, Connecticut > County median household income: $59,392 > State median household income: $70,331 > Poverty rate: 10.7% > Nov. unemployment: 3.9% With a median household income of $70,331 a year, Connecticut is one of the wealthiest states in the country. Even Windham, the poorest county in the state, is relatively well-off financially compared to the nation. The typical household earns $59,392 a year, well above the national median income -- Windham is the only county on this list where this is the case. Similarly, Windhams poverty rate of 10.7% is far lower than in other relatively poor counties. ALSO READ: The Next 14 States to Legalize Marijuana Lower incomes in Windham partially the result of lower-paying jobs. Higher educational attainment correlates with higher-skilled, higher-paying jobs. In Windham, only 23.1% of adults have at least a bachelors degree, a far lower share than the 37.6% of Connecticut adults. 8. Sussex, Delaware > County median household income: $53,751 > State median household income: $60,509 > Poverty rate: 12.6% > Nov. unemployment: 4.1% Of the three Delaware counties with 10,000 or more residents, Sussex is the poorest. The typical county household earns $53,751 annually, just under the national median of $53,889 and well under the state median household income of $60,509. Still, people in Sussex, while poorer than Delaware residents as a whole, do not have nearly as low incomes as in many other areas on this list. For example, the countys poverty rate of 12.6% is lower than the national rate of 15.5%. Also, the countys unemployment rate of 4.1% is only slightly higher than the rate in Delawares richest county, and it is lower than the national jobless rate of 4.6%. 9. Putnam, Florida > County median household income: $31,715 > State median household income: $47,507 > Poverty rate: 28.7% > Nov. unemployment: 5.9% Educational attainment is one of the strongest determinants of income levels in a population, and in parts of the country where fewer adults have completed high school or college incomes tend to be lower. This is clearly the case in Putnam, the state's poorest county. Across the state, 86.9% of adults have at least a high school diploma, and 27.3% have a bachelors degree. Just 78.5% of adults in Putnam have a high school diploma, and only 11.8% have a bachelors degree. 10. Telfair, Georgia > County median household income: $26,449 > State median household income: $49,620 > Poverty rate: 28.5% > Nov. unemployment: 8.8% Economic conditions in Telfair, Georgia are poor. The typical area household earns only $26,449 annually, the lowest in the state and less than half the income the typical American household earns in a year. Low incomes in the area are underscored by rampant poverty. Approximately 29% of the countys 16,400 residents live in poverty, almost double the nationwide poverty rate. For many working-age adults in Telfair, gainful employment is elusive. With an 8.8% unemployment rate, hundreds of Telfair residents who want to work are unable to do so. 11. Hawaii, Hawaii > County median household income: $52,108 > State median household income: $69,515 > Poverty rate: 19.5% > Nov. unemployment: 3.4% Hawaii county is the poorest in a relatively wealthy state. The typical county household earns $52,108 a year, only slightly less than the typical American household income of $53,889. While income levels are only slightly below-average, financial hardship is far from uncommon. Countywide, 19.5% of the population is in poverty, well above the 11.2% statewide poverty rate and the 15.5% nationwide rate. Unlike many of the poorest counties in other states, relatively few Hawaii County residents are struggling to find a job. In November, 3.4% of the areas labor force was unemployed, well below the corresponding 4.6% national rate. 12. Madison, Idaho > County median household income: $32,233 > State median household income: $47,583 > Poverty rate: 35.7% > Nov. unemployment: 2.3% Extremely low homeownership is usually a sign of a very urban metropolitan area, or low incomes. Madison, Idahos poorest county, is certainly not an urban area -- its population density of about 80 residents per square mile is slightly below the national population density. Yet, just 47.6% of Madison housing units are owned by their occupants, significantly lower than the states 68.9% homeownership rate. The county poverty rate of 35.7% is not just the highest in Idaho, but one of the highest in the nation. 13. Jackson, Illinois > County median household income: $33,871 > State median household income: $57,574 > Poverty rate: 30.5% > Nov. unemployment: 5.0% Jackson has the lowest median household income of any county reviewed in Illinois. The typical household earns only $33,871 annually, versus the state median income of $57,574 and national median income of $53,889. Homeownership can increase personal net worth, and ultimately improve economic well-being. However, homes in Jackson have far less value than homes across the state and the country. Countywide, the typical home is worth only $103,000, significantly lower than the typical home value across Illinois of about $173,800. 14. Blackford, Indiana > County median household income: $38,190 > State median household income: $49,255 > Poverty rate: 14.0% > Nov. unemployment: 4.8% In Blackford, just 10% of adults have a college degree. By contrast, 30% of adults nationwide, 24% of adults statewide, and 56% of adults in Indianas richest county have at least a bachelors degree. Because college-educated adults tend to earn higher incomes than less educated adults, the low educational attainment in Blackford helps explain the countys low income levels. The typical county household earns $38,190 annually, the lowest in the state. Compared with other low-income areas, however, Blackfords poverty rate of 14.0% is exceptionally low. 15. Appanoose, Iowa > County median household income: $41,394 > State median household income: $53,183 > Poverty rate: 13.7% > Nov. unemployment: 4.6% Unlike the poorest counties in most states, poverty in Appanoose, while more common than across the state, is well below the national poverty rate of 15.5%. Low incomes are reflected in other economic measures for the county -- low-income housing markets tend to have less valuable homes, for example. The homeownership rates in both Iowas poorest and richest counties are similar. However, the typical home in Appanoose is worth about $78,200, one of the lowest home values nationwide and more than $100,000 lower than the median home value in Dallas, Iowas richest county. 16. Crawford, Kansas > County median household income: $36,534 > State median household income: $52,205 > Poverty rate: 22.0% > Nov. unemployment: 4.4% Crawford is Kansas poorest county, with a median household income of just $36,534 a year, close to $40,000 less than the median income in Johnson, the states wealthiest county. The counties' incomes are reflected in their poverty rates. While 22% of Crawfords population lives below the poverty line, only 6.2% of Johnson's population does. Because home values tend to generally reflect the purchasing power of residents and the desirability of an area, poorer parts of the country tend to have less valuable property. In Crawford, the typical home is worth just $86,000, less than half the U.S. median home value of $178,600. ALSO READ: The Most Expensive City in Each State 17. McCreary, Kentucky > County median household income: $19,328 > State median household income: $43,740 > Poverty rate: 41.0% > Nov. unemployment: 5.8% McCreary is the poorest county in Kentucky and the poorest in the United States. The typical area household earns only $19,328 a year, less than half the median income statewide. Low incomes across McCreary are closely tied to the countys educational attainment rate. Only 7% of county adults have a bachelors degree, far less than the 30% of adults nationwide. Many area jobs likely do not require higher education degrees, common requirements of the nations high paying jobs. The low incomes in the area are underscored by the countys 41% poverty rate, which is more than double the 15.5% national poverty rate. 18. Madison, Louisiana > County median household income: $23,854 > State median household income: $45,047 > Poverty rate: 38.4% > Nov. unemployment: 8.0% Louisiana is a relatively poor state with a median household income of $45,047 a year, about $8,800 below the national median. Madison is extremely poor, even by state standards. The typical Madison household earns $23,854 annually, the lowest in the state and one of the lowest in the country. While 15.5% of Americans live below the poverty line, Madison's poverty rate is 38.4%, the ninth highest of any U.S. county with at least 10,000 people. 19. Aroostook, Maine > County median household income: $36,923 > State median household income: $49,331 > Poverty rate: 18.5% > Nov. unemployment: 5.7% Rural counties tend to have fewer job opportunities, particularly high-paying ones. Aroostook, where just 11 people live per square mile on average, is one such county. The low median household income in Aroostook, Maines poorest and northernmost county, is partially the product of a relatively weak job market. With a 5.7% unemployment rate, nearly 1,800 county workers are unable to find work. The typical county household earns just under $37,000 annually, well below the $49,331 statewide median income. 20. Somerset, Maryland > County median household income: $35,154 > State median household income: $74,551 > Poverty rate: 24.7% > Nov. unemployment: 6.6% With an annual median household income of $74,551, Maryland is the wealthiest state in the country. However, not all corners of the state are equally prosperous. In Somerset, the poorest county in the state by median household income, one in four residents live in poverty compared with about one in every 10 Maryland residents. For many area residents, financial hardship likely stems from a lack of available jobs. As of November last year, 6.6% of the countys labor force was out of a job, or roughly 600 people. In comparison, only 4.1% of the Maryland labor force is out of a job and looking for work. 21. Berkshire, Massachusetts > County median household income: $49,956 > State median household income: $68,563 > Poverty rate: 13.0% > Nov. unemployment: 2.9% Berkshire is the poorest county in one of the nations wealthiest states. The $50,000 median household income in the county is about $18,600 less than the median across Massachusetts, but only about $4,000 less than the median income nationwide. In many poor counties, a tough job market can partially explain the low median income. This is not the case in Berkshire, however. The countys 2.9% unemployment rate is only slightly higher than the 2.6% statewide jobless rate, and far better than the 4.6% national unemployment rate. 22. Lake, Michigan > County median household income: $30,439 > State median household income: $49,576 > Poverty rate: 28.7% > Nov. unemployment: 6.3% In Lake, Michigan, the typical household earns only $30,439 a year, about $19,000 less than the typical household across the state. Approximately 29% of the countys 11,400 resident live in poverty, a far higher share than the state and national poverty rates of 16.7% and 15.5%, respectively. Low incomes in Lake are indicative of low-paying jobs that require little in the way of education. Fewer than 10% of area adults have a bachelors degree, a far smaller share than the roughly 30% of American adults. 23. Wadena, Minnesota > County median household income: $41,906 > State median household income: $61,492 > Poverty rate: 16.4% > Nov. unemployment: 4.5% With a median household income of $61,492 a year, Minnesota is one of the richest states. While the high incomes are not perfectly distributed across the state, the median household income in the states poorest county, Wadena, is $41,906 a year, far from the lowest of all U.S. counties. Still, as is generally the case in low-income areas, Wadena residents are far less likely to have completed at least college than their statewide and nationwide peers. Of adults in the county, 12.7% have a bachelors degree, far lower than the state and national percentages of 33.7% and 29.8%. 24. Holmes, Mississippi > County median household income: $20,732 > State median household income: $39,665 > Poverty rate: 43.4% > Nov. unemployment: 9.3% Holmes is the poorest county in the poorest state. The typical household earns less than $21,000 a year, the third lowest median household income of any U.S. county. With low incomes, poverty is rampant. Of the 18,800 county residents, approximately 43.4% live in poverty, far higher than the 22.5% statewide poverty rate, itself the highest of all states. Low incomes are largely the product of poor economic conditions. Jobs in the county are not only low paying, but also hard to find. Nearly one in 10 workers in Holmes are unable to find work, more than double the national unemployment rate and far higher than the 5.2% unemployment rate statewide. 25. Mississippi, Missouri > County median household income: $28,347 > State median household income: $48,173 > Poverty rate: 29.2% > Nov. unemployment: 5.6% Mississippi County is the poorest in Missouri and one of the poorest in the nation. The typical household brings in just $28,347 each year, about $20,000 less than the state median income. Home values tend to reflect the earning potential of an area, and Mississippi County, not surprisingly, has extremely inexpensive housing. The typical area home is valued at just $67,700, far less than the state, the nation, and nearly every U.S. county. For reference, the U.S. median home value is $178,600. 26. Glacier, Montana > County median household income: $29,640 > State median household income: $47,169 > Poverty rate: 33.2% > Nov. unemployment: 7.7% Incomes are lower in Glacier than anywhere else in Montana. The typical household earns less than $30,000 annually, and one in three county residents live in poverty. The area is home to the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, one of the largest tribes in the United States. Social and economic disadvantages are very common in Native Americans reservations. ALSO READ: America's Most Successful Companies in 2016 Like many of the poorest counties in other states, Glacier is very rural. Located in northern Montana, with Glacier National Park to the west and Alberta, Canada to the north, there are an average of only 5 people per square mile in the county. In comparison, there are roughly 87 people per square mile nationwide. 27. Red Willow, Nebraska > County median household income: $42,931 > State median household income: $52,997 > Poverty rate: 10.6% > Nov. unemployment: 2.3% While a low unemployment rate is often an indication of a healthy economy, it is not always indicative of affluence. In Red Willow, only 2.3% of the labor force is out of a job, half the national unemployment rate in November. Due in part to the relative prevalence of jobs, only 10.6% of county residents live in poverty, a smaller poverty rate than both the state and national rates of 12.7% and 15.5%, respectively. Despite the low unemployment and poverty rates, not many jobs in the county are especially high paying. The typical household in Red Willow earns $42,931 a year, the lowest median income of any county in Nebraska. 28. Nye, Nevada > County median household income: $41,712 > State median household income: $51,847 > Poverty rate: 18.2% > Nov. unemployment: 6.6% The typical household in Nye earns $41,712 annually, about $10,000 less than the typical Nevada household. The presence of relatively few job opportunities may be partially behind the countys relatively low median income. The areas 6.6% unemployment rate is higher than both the national and statewide rates of 4.6% and 5.0%, respectively. Like many of the nations low-income areas, the population density in Nye, at an average of only 2 people per square mile, is one of the lowest in the United States. 29. Coos, New Hampshire > County median household income: $42,312 > State median household income: $66,779 > Poverty rate: 14.1% > Nov. unemployment: 3.6% At just 8.9%, New Hampshire's poverty rate is the lowest of all states. Poverty levels even in the states poorest county, Coos, are not nearly as bad as in many other relatively poor areas. Coos poverty rate of 14.1% is lower than the national poverty rate of 15.5%. Similarly, only 3.6% of the countys labor force is out of work, slightly higher than the state's jobless rate but still well below the national unemployment rate of 4.6%. 30. Cumberland, New Jersey > County median household income: $49,984 > State median household income: $72,093 > Poverty rate: 17.9% > Nov. unemployment: 6.2% In Cumberland, the poorest county in New Jersey, the typical household earns approximately $50,000 a year, about $22,000 less than the statewide median income. Higher paying jobs are typically associated with higher educational attainment. In Cumberland, only 14.6% of adults have at least a bachelors degree, the smallest share of any New Jersey county. New Jersey is one of the wealthiest states in the country. So despite Cumberlands status as the poorest county in the state, it is not especially poor relative to the nation. The typical American household earns only about $4,000 more than the typical Cumberland household. 31. Luna, New Mexico > County median household income: $27,476 > State median household income: $44,963 > Poverty rate: 29.6% > Nov. unemployment: 15.5% Lunas economy is relatively concentrated in agriculture and retail trade, industries in which seasonal employment fluctuations are common. The agricultural, forestry, fishing and hunting, and mining sector employs 8.7% of the countys workforce, and retail trade employs 13.6%, each higher than the state and national percentages. Even at its lowest point in the year, in September 2016, unemployment in Luna stood at roughly 10% -- double the national rate. The relatively difficult job market partially explains low incomes and high poverty in Luna, where the typical household earns just $27,500 a year and nearly 30% of people live in poverty. 32. Bronx, New York > County median household income: $34,299 > State median household income: $59,269 > Poverty rate: 30.7% > Nov. unemployment: 7.1% While New York has a number of poor, rural areas, the poorest county is in one of the state's urban areas and is surrounded by wealthy counties. The Bronx is less than an hour from the states wealthiest counties, including New York County (Manhattan) and Nassau County. Nassau's median household income of nearly $100,000 a year is almost triple the Bronx's median household income of $34,299. More than 30% of Bronx residents live in poverty, while Manhattan's poverty rate is 17.9% and Nassau's is 6.2%. 33. Bertie, North Carolina > County median household income: $30,027 > State median household income: $46,868 > Poverty rate: 22.3% > Nov. unemployment: 6.0% Higher educational attainment is often associated with higher incomes. In Bertie, only one in 10 adults have at least a bachelors degree, only about a third of the comparable share nationwide. The county's low educational attainment is a bellwether of low paying jobs. The typical area household earns $30,027 a year, the lowest median income of any county in North Carolina. With lower incomes, poverty is more common in Bertie than it is statewide. More than 22% of county residents live in poverty, about 5 percentage points higher than the statewide poverty rate. 34. Rolette, North Dakota > County median household income: $33,277 > State median household income: $57,181 > Poverty rate: 35.5% > Nov. unemployment: 7.1% The typical household in North Dakota earns $57,181 annually, about $3,300 more than the typical American household. While incomes are relatively high in the state, Rolette is an exception. The typical county household earns only $33,277 annually, the lowest of any county in the state. Many area households earn very low incomes. More than a third of the countys 14,500 residents live in poverty, more than triple the 11.5% poverty rate statewide. 35. Athens, Ohio > County median household income: $33,872 > State median household income: $49,429 > Poverty rate: 33.0% > Nov. unemployment: 5.1% The typical household in Athens County earns $33,872 a year, which is about $58,000 less than the typical income in Delaware County, Ohios wealthiest. One in three Athens residents live in poverty, more than double the state's poverty rate and many times Delaware County's poverty rate of 4.5%. Homeownership can be common even in very poor areas. In Athens, however, just 56.3% of housing units are owned by their occupants, compared to a statewide homeownership rate of 66.3%. ALSO READ: The Best Charities to Donate to This Year! 36. Choctaw, Oklahoma > County median household income: $30,617 > State median household income: $46,879 > Poverty rate: 28.8% > Nov. unemployment: 8.1% The typical Choctaw household earns only $30,617 a year, about $16,000 less than the typical Oklahoma household and less than half the median income in Canadian County, the wealthiest in the state. Low incomes are partially the product of a poor job market. Choctaw is one of four counties across Oklahoma where the unemployment rate is higher than 8%. Many of the hundreds of unemployed Choctaw residents are likely also among the 28.8% of people in the county living in poverty. 37. Malheur, Oregon > County median household income: $35,418 > State median household income: $51,243 > Poverty rate: 25.5% > Nov. unemployment: 4.8% Like many low-income areas, Malheurs population is relatively small, and the county is not densely populated. There are an average of 3 people per square mile in Malheur, versus the population density of 40 people per square mile across the state, and 731 people per square mile in Washington County -- Oregons richest. Just over one in four Malheur residents live in poverty, well above the state and national rates of 16.5% and 15.5%, respectively. 38. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania > County median household income: $38,253 > State median household income: $53,599 > Poverty rate: 26.4% > Nov. unemployment: 6.3% Many of the poorest counties in each state are far more rural than most counties in the state. As one of the most densely populated and urban counties in the United States, Philadelphia is a notable exception. Despite the benefits of a diverse urban economy, Philadelphias median household income of $38,253 is the lowest of any county in Pennsylvania. A low median income is partially the result of high unemployment and a relatively large share of residents are extremely poor. The 6.3% unemployment rate in the county is slightly higher than the 4.9% statewide unemployment rate. Also, the countys 26.4% poverty rate is far higher than Pennsylvanias 13.5% poverty rate. 39. Providence, Rhode Island > County median household income: $49,743 > State median household income: $56,852 > Poverty rate: 17.7% > Nov. unemployment: 5.0% Of the five Rhode Island counties with at least 10,000 residents, Providence is the poorest. The county contains the city of Providence as well as residents to the north and west of the city. Rhode Islands population is relatively small and financially well-off. Even as the poorest county, Providence is not as poor as many other poorest counties in other states. While residents earn much less than residents in Washington County, Rhode Islands richest area, the income disparity is one of the smallest within states. A typical Washington County household earns $23,000 more a year than the typical Providence household. The average income gap between the poorest and richest counties is approximately $44,000. 40. Williamsburg, South Carolina > County median household income: $28,297 > State median household income: $45,483 > Poverty rate: 29.8% > Nov. unemployment: 5.9% The median household income in South Carolina is only $45,483 a year, about $8,400 less than the median income nationwide. In Williamsburg, the poorest county in the state, the typical household earns only $28,297 a year. An relatively rural county, job opportunities are few and far between in Williamsburg. The county's unemployment rate of 5.9% is one of the highest in the state and well above the 4.6% U.S. unemployment rate. Further, because fewer college educated adults suggest fewer high paying jobs, those employed full-time in Williamsburg likely do not earn especially high wages. Only 11.3% of county adults have a bachelors degree compared to 29.8% of adults nationwide. 41. Oglala Lakota, South Dakota > County median household income: $26,369 > State median household income: $50,957 > Poverty rate: 53.3% > Nov. unemployment: 10.5% Residents of Native American reservations tend to face social and economic disadvantages far greater than almost anywhere else. These areas often have long histories of hardship. The poorest county in South Dakota, Oglala Lakota, is contained within the Pine Ridge Reservation -- and over half of all area residents live in poverty, the highest poverty rate of any U.S. county. The typical county household earns only $26,369 a year, roughly half the income a typical South Dakota household earns annually. The Pine Ridge Reservation is home to the Wounded Knee Memorial, a commemoration to the 150 Native Americans who were massacred by a federal cavalry regiment in December 1890. 42. Grundy, Tennessee > County median household income: $27,373 > State median household income: $45,219 > Poverty rate: 28.7% > Nov. unemployment: 6.9% With a median household income of $45,219 a year, Tennessee is one of the poorest states. And with a median household income of $27,373 a year, Grundy is not just the poorest county in Tennessee but one of the poorest in the nation. Close to 30% of county resident live in poverty, well above the state poverty rate of 17.6%, itself one of the highest poverty rates among states. By contrast, Tennessees richest county, Williamson, has a poverty rate of just 5.1% and the typical household earns nearly $100,000 annually. As is generally the case, Tennessees richest county is relatively large, with about 200,000 people, while the states poorest county is relatively small, with a population of just 13,524. 43. Starr, Texas > County median household income: $26,172 > State median household income: $53,207 > Poverty rate: 36.6% > Nov. unemployment: 12.3% With a median household income of $26,172 a year, few counties in the United States are as poor as Starr, Texas. The rural county along the Mexican border offers few job opportunities -- high-paying and otherwise. Across the county, 12.3% of the labor force is out of a job, nearly triple the 4.2% statewide unemployment rate. Many of the thousands of unemployed area residents are also likely living in poverty. Of Starr's 63,000 residents, approximately 36.6% live in poverty, a larger share than in all but a few other counties nationwide. 44. San Juan, Utah > County median household income: $41,484 > State median household income: $60,727 > Poverty rate: 28.1% > Nov. unemployment: 5.7% Utah is wealthier than most other U.S. states. Still, not all corners of the state are especially prosperous. In San Juan County, the typical household earns only about $41,500 a year, or about $12,400 less than the typical American household. In San Juan, many people earn very low incomes. The countys 28.1% poverty rate is more than double Utah's 12.3% poverty rate. ALSO READ: Cities With the Longest Life Expectancy in Every State 45. Orleans, Vermont > County median household income: $42,831 > State median household income: $55,176 > Poverty rate: 15.5% > Nov. unemployment: 4.3% Orleans has the lowest median household income of any county in Vermont. The countys 15.5% poverty rate, while higher than the 11.5% statewide rate, is in line with the national poverty level. Orleans encomposses a remote area known as the Northeast Kingdom bordering Canadian national forest. Unlike in other low-income, relatively rural areas, joblessness is not a major problem for Orleans residents. Only 4.3% of the areas labor force is out of a job, a slightly smaller share than the 4.6% of unemployed American workers. 46. Martinsville City, Virginia > County median household income: $29,587 > State median household income: $65,015 > Poverty rate: 23.6% > Nov. unemployment: 6.7% A relatively wealthy state, Virginias $65,015 annual median household income is about $11,000 higher than the national median income. Still, not every corner of the state is as prosperous. Martinsville -- an independent city and county equivalent -- is one of four areas in the state where the median household income is below $30,000 a year. Nearly 24% of Martinsville residents live in poverty, more than double the statewide poverty rate. The low incomes are partially the result of a relatively weak job market. As of November, 2016, 6.7% of the county's labor force was out of a job. In comparison, only 4% of Virginias workforce was unemployed at that time. 47. Whitman, Washington > County median household income: $36,631 > State median household income: $61,062 > Poverty rate: 31.2% > Nov. unemployment: 4.2% The median household income in Whitman is only $36,631 a year, the lowest of counties in Washington. While incomes are well below what is typical nationwide, home values are higher than they are across the country. The $181,800 median home value in Whitman exceeds the national median home value by over $3,000. The disparity between incomes and real estate values makes homeownership prohibitively expensive for many Whitman residents. As a result, the countywide homeownership rate of 44.5% is among the lowest of any U.S. county. 48. McDowell, West Virginia > County median household income: $24,921 > State median household income: $41,751 > Poverty rate: 35.5% > Nov. unemployment: 10.8% McDowells median household income of $24,921 a year is the lowest of any county in West Virginia and one of the lowest nationwide. Well over a third of McDowells 20,800 residents live in poverty, and unemployment is relatively common. With more than one in 10 county workers looking for work, the countys economy ranks among the worst in the United States. Many of the jobs that are available to county residents are likely low skill and low paying as educational attainment rates are some of the lowest in the United States. Only 5.1% of area adults have at least a bachelors degree, about one-sixth of the comparable national educational attainment rate. 49. Rusk, Wisconsin > County median household income: $39,194 > State median household income: $53,357 > Poverty rate: 16.0% > Nov. unemployment: 4.4% Rural counties are often poorer than urban counties, and with an average of only 16 people per square mile, Rusk is one of the most rural counties in Wisconsin. The typical household in Rusk earns only $39,194 a year, less than in every other county in the state. Despite relatively low incomes, the areas poverty rate is similar to the nationwide rate. In Rusk, 16% of residents live below the poverty line, only half a percentage point higher than the national poverty rate. 50. Goshen, Wyoming > County median household income: $42,689 > State median household income: $58,840 > Poverty rate: 17.9% > Nov. unemployment: 2.7% Goshens median household income of about $42,700 is the lowest of any county in Wyoming. Also, only about 23% of county adults have at least a bachelors degree, far less than the 30% of American adults with similar educational attainment. In the vast majority of states, the poorest county is more sparsely populated than the state as a whole. However, even with only 6 people per square mile, Goshens population density matches that of Wyoming, which has the lowest population density in the country after Alaska. Related Articles Pop culture brand Laser Kitten just released an L.A.-themed collection and youre going to want it all Pop culture lifestyle brand Laser Kitten just came out with an L.A.-themed collection, and we will take one of every single item, please! The company that brought you the Prince-and-Bowie-riding-a-unicorn and Hollywood Boulevard neon sign designs has blessed us with the perfectly pastel L.K. Loves L.A. Collection, and its so dang cute. The Los Angeles-based brand pays tribute to their home turf in this delightful array of clothes, accessories, and housewares. Every item was created exclusively for the line by the super-talented illustrator Yoko Honda (@yokopium). We think it captures the kitschy glory of Hollyweird just swimmingly! Even if youre spending your winter in foggy London or the frozen Midwest, you can do a little California dreaming with these adorable items. Check em out: Not-so-mean muggin with these babies. Chug your green juice or Intelligentsia coffee out of one of six different designs. Snag some sexy leggings for hot yoga or a sassy mini for those hot Hollywood (or DTLA) nights. Story continues Laser Kitten Be the most low-maintenance babe on Rodeo Drive in this comfy white hoodie. A tote-ally rad bag to haul all of your extra bikinis to the pool or the beach. Laser Kitten Oh my god Becky. Look at her crop! Malibu Barbies NEED this top. It comes in white or black (for the Goth Barbz.) Laser Kitten Lay your weary head on this cushion and dream of the City of Angels. By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis on Thursday encouraged victims of Italy's recent earthquakes that killed some 300 people to "rebuild hearts" as well as houses by seeking the reconciliation that can come from tragedies. The pope delivered an impromptu talk to several thousand people from areas hit by a string of powerful earthquakes from August to November that flattened entire towns in the Umbria, Lazio and Marche regions. "Some of you have lost so much, not only your homes but also children and parents ... but miracles can come from times of pain, such as reconciliation (among neighbors)," he said. "Those are the times when we re-discover ourselves, with a kiss or an embrace, with mutual assistance, and even with tears. Crying alone does good .... but crying together is better. We re-discover ourselves by crying together," he said. A number of people in the Vatican's vast audience hall were moved to tears when he urged them to "rebuild hearts" with hope, even though they would carry the scars of the quake with them for the rest of their lives. Francis spoke for about 20 minutes with no text after listening to several people who recounted their experiences, and the crowd applauded when he said, "I wanted to take your words and make them mine because in your situation the worst thing that one can do is deliver a sermon." One of the quakes had a magnitude of 6.6, making it the strongest to strike Italy for 36 years. Each has been followed by thousands of aftershocks, and thousands of people are still living in tents and temporary housing. Francis made a surprise visit on Oct. 4 to the towns hit by the first series of quakes. The quakes have reshaped more than 600 square km (230 square miles) of land, lowering areas around the epicenter by up to 70 cm (28 inches), according to data released by Italy's National Institute for Geophysics and Volcanology. (Editing by Hugh Lawson) Washington (AFP) - Marijuana legalization advocates plan to pass out joints -- 4,200 of them -- at Donald Trump's inauguration, defying the president-elect and the seamless Republican rule he's bringing to Washington. Since February 2015 it has been legal here to grow up to six cannabis plants at home and possess up to two ounces of pot, so long as you are 21 or older. But it is illegal to smoke the stuff in public, and especially to buy or sell it. That is because Congress, which largely oversees the US capital, barred it from regulating sales of marijuana. So pot's legal status in Washington is fragile. And it could vanish altogether if the upcoming Republican Congress votes simply to cancel the legalization that was approved here in a referendum. "By giving away marijuana at inauguration, we're setting up the battle flag," said Adam Eidinger, 44, initiator of the 2014 pot referendum and founder of the DC Marijuana Coalition. "We're about to lose our right." At his home, six pot plants are growing out on the balcony. A fire burns in the fireplace as three colleagues -- Elizabeth, Natalie and Felicia -- roll joint after joint on a coffee table. Eidinger reckons 4,200 joints are about four pounds (just under two kilos) and worth around $20,000. To abide by the limit on how much any single person can possess, the reefers will be handed out by 50 people on Inauguration Day, January 20. Elizabeth takes about a minute to roll a joint, and Felicia just 40 seconds. It is just pot, with no tobacco mixed in. Adam has contributed from his own private stash of high power pot, rich in tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active chemical in cannabis. The goal is for everyone to light up on the National Mall precisely four minutes and 20 seconds after Trump begins his inauguration speech from the steps of the Capitol to the vast crowd that will gather below. 4/20 is a universal code for marijuana lovers. There is just one problem: Marijuana is still illegal on any federal land, such as the Mall. So the people who get the free joints will have to make a decision. "They can go home and smoke it and watch the inauguration on TV. Or they can choose to commit an act of civil disobedience, and smoke on the Mall and make a statement," said Eidinger. Asked if they will fire up, the three joint rollers answered, Greek chorus style, "oh yeah." President-elect Donald Trump has been deposed in conjunction with his lawsuit against chef Jose Andres, reports CNN. Trump transition team spokeswoman Hope Hicks told the cable channel that the deposition was completed early Thursday, but would not comment on where it took place. However, Politico reported that attorney Rebecca Woods who represents Trumps business in the restaurant suit was seen arriving and leaving Trump Tower on Thursday. The 70-year-old president-elect sued Andres for breach of contract after the Spanish chef backed out of a plan for a restaurant in Trumps Washington, D.C., hotel. Andres pulled out of the agreement after Trump made disparaging comments about Mexicans while announcing his candidacy for president in 2015. Alan Garten, executive vice president and general counsel for the Trump Organization, told CNN that the taped deposition lasted just over an hour. He added in a statement about the case, In short, the parties entered into a valid and enforceable lease, which the tenant clearly breached by walking out and failing to perform its obligations, thereby entitling the landlord to recover damages in the form of unpaid rent, cost of build out, lost profits and other expenses. RELATED VIDEO: Physically Attacked by Donald Trump a PEOPLE Writers Own Harrowing Story Trump is also suing chef Geoffrey Zakarian, who also reneged on an agreement to open his own restaurant at the hotel. Just this week, lawyers in the Zakarian case told a judge that they have not been able to reach a settlement in the suit, according to CBS News. Originally, Trumps legal team asked for the Andres deposition to be canceled or capped at two hours. A judge declined however, and allowed the chefs legal team up to seven hours to depose the president-elect, Politico reported. Jan 5 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Wall Street Journal. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. - Apple Inc headlines a growing list of investors in SoftBank Group Corp's $100 billion technology fund, which is expected to include Foxconn Technology Group Ltd and the family office of Oracle Corp Chairman Larry Ellison, the Japanese telecommunications giant said Wednesday. http://on.wsj.com/2hUvJ5W - Online retailing giant Amazon.com Inc plans to open its first New York City bookstore in Manhattan's Time Warner Center, the company said. http://on.wsj.com/2hUu1BE - Macy's Inc said it will slash more than 10,000 jobs and detailed plans to close dozens of stores after another holiday season of weak sales, providing more evidence that department stores have lost their once-central place in American retailing. http://on.wsj.com/2hUzEzD - Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc said that senior management pressured staff to get customers to order its flagship drug earlier than needed to meet financial targets. http://on.wsj.com/2hUqJOS - U.S. light-vehicle sales hit a second consecutive annual high, aided by a fourth-quarter surge in demand that exceeded expectations and bolstered the outlook for an industry that has been a key engine for economic growth. http://on.wsj.com/2hUCtRu - A former foreign-exchange trader at Barclays Plc pleaded guilty Wednesday to conspiring to manipulate currency rates, the first individual publicly charged in an investigation over collusion at top global banks to move the rates. http://on.wsj.com/2hUD59B - Apple Inc has removed the New York Times from its app store in China, following a request from Chinese authorities. http://on.wsj.com/2hUNwd5 - LG Electronics Inc is doubling down on its smartphone strategy by launching a new model after a turbulent year. http://on.wsj.com/2hUtVtH - Ride-hailing service Lyft Inc more than doubled its quarterly ridership from a year before, a welcome boost as it seeks to keep apace with larger rival Uber Technologies Inc. http://on.wsj.com/2hUyowi (Compiled by Subrat Patnaik in Bengaluru) Jan 5 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the New York Times business pages. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. - Apple Inc, complying with what it said was a request from Chinese authorities, removed news apps created by The New York Times from its app store in China late last month. http://nyti.ms/2iS9agQ - Struggling with sagging sales over another crucial holiday shopping season, Macy's Inc announced on Wednesday that it was eliminating more than 10,000 jobs as part of a continuing plan to cut costs and close 100 stores. http://nyti.ms/2hUMHBj - The digital publishing company Medium on Wednesday laid off 50 employees - a third of its staff - as part of a larger redefinition of its business model, its founder announced in a blog post. http://nyti.ms/2iKHKMk - Genetic engineering start-up Synthego said Wednesday that it had raised $41 million in a new round of financing. The round includes the participation of Jennifer Doudna, the biochemist who helped discover the Crispr-Cas9 gene-editing technique that made altering DNA significantly easier. http://nyti.ms/2iDfAmm - Hulu, one of several companies vying to create a lower-cost alternative to cable bundles, will include CBS when its streaming television service is unveiled this year, the company announced on Wednesday. http://nyti.ms/2j6OYqB (Compiled by Rama Venkat Raman in Bengaluru) British royalty has garnered a lot of attention in recent weeks due to Queen Elizabeths illness. The 90-year-old monarch skipped traditional annual Christmas and New Year celebrations as she is battling a lingering heavy cold. Her illness sparked false reports on social media that claimed the worlds longest reigning living monarch had passed away. The Palace was forced to deny these reports and issue a confirmation that the queen was still alive. However, the events led to many wondering what will happen to British monarchy following her death. The 90-year-old was crowned queen in 1953, becoming the sixth woman to ascend the British throne. If the queen wishes to retire, abdicate or if she dies, the eldest of her four children Prince Charles would be her successor. While Charles will be crowned king, it is unclear if his wife Camilla Parker Bowles will be named queen, a largely ceremonial title. Queen Elizabeths husband Prince Philip is referred to as the royal consort and not the king. Prince Charles married Camilla in 2005. She was previously Charles mistress, playing a major factor in ending Charles previous marriage with Princess Diana, one of the most popular members of the royal family in recent times. A Relationship In Crisis - Charles And Di, November 1992 Photo: GETTY IMAGES Queen Elizabeth herself encouraged Diana to divorce Charles a year before the princess of Wales was killed in a car crash in Paris. The death of the peoples princess further affected the publics opinion of Camilla. However, public opinion of the duchess of Cornwall has shifted over the years. Her past has affected her standing in the royal family. Charles official website states Camilla would not be named queen when he ascends the throne. As was explained at the time of their wedding in April 2005, it is intended that The Duchess will be known as HRH [Her Royal Highness] The Princess Consort when The Prince of Wales accedes to The Throne, a statement read. Story continues While public opinion is not a deciding factor in these matters, the decision to name Camilla queen will be left to Charles when he comes to power. He had reportedly indicated earlier that he was in favor of the move. british royals Photo: REUTERS/Dominic Lipinski/Pool/File Photo Related Articles LONDON (Reuters) - A collection of handwritten notes by the late Princess Diana, one of which reveals that her younger son Prince Harry was constantly in trouble at school, went under the hammer on Thursday, selling for well above target prices. The six notes, sold at Cheffins auction house in Cambridge, were written to Cyril Dickman who served as chief steward of Buckingham Palace for over 50 years. Diana's sons Princes William and Harry feature prominently. One message dated Sept. 20, 1984, five days after Harry's birth, reads: "William adores his little brother and spends the entire time swamping Harry with an endless supply of hugs and kisses, hardly letting the parents near!..." "The reaction to one tiny person's birth has totally overwhelmed us and I can hardly breathe for the mass of flowers that are arriving here!" That note sold for 3,200 pounds ($3,950), comfortably exceeding its estimate of 400 to 600 pounds. Another, from October 1992, says how both young princes "are well and enjoying boarding school a lot, although Harry is constantly in trouble!". It fetched 2,400 pounds, against an estimate of 600 to 900 pounds. Other items auctioned by Dickman's family included letters, cards and photographs from other members of the royal family, including Prince Charles, Princess Margaret, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip. (Reporting by Ritvik Carvalho; editing by Stephen Addison) Private prison stocks have soared in light of recent American political developments, and they may be poised to climb even higher. Donald Trump's election and his subsequent announcement of plans to nominate Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions as Attorney General have sent investors rushing to private prison stocks in recent months. Since Election Day, shares of The GEO Group have climbed more than 50%, and shares of CoreCivic have surged over 70%. The cause of the rally is two-fold, said Michael Kodesch, analyst at research firm Canaccord Genuity -- Trump won, and Hillary Clinton lost. "It's not necessarily all about what Trump's policies are but also about what Clinton's policies would have been," he said. The Democratic nominee, who was widely expected to win the election, had called for an end to private prisons and the closure of family detention and private immigration detention centers. A single tweet from the former Secretary of State caused shares of Geo and CoreCivic to plunge in September. The Obama administration has also taken a critical stance on private prisons. Shares plummeted in August when the Department of Justice issued a memo to the Bureau of Prisons announcing plans to phase out their use. "Once Trump was elected, all of that went away," Kodesh said. Trump is likely to be more private prison-friendly. He expressed his support for such entities in an interview with MSNBC's Chris Matthews in March, and his policies -- specifically those related to immigration -- bode well for the industry. At an October campaign speech in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Trump proposed a two-year mandatory minimum prison sentence for illegal immigrants reentering the U.S. after deportation and a mandatory five-year minimum for illegal criminal immigrants reentering. Such a measure would likely result in the detention of more illegal immigrants by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and from that perspective, private prisons are a massive player. Story continues About two-thirds of immigrant detainees are kept in private facilities (as opposed to about 15% of federal inmates). According to data from the Austin, Texas-based organization Grassroots Leadership, the private prison industry is expected to acquire 80% of any future immigrant detention beds. GEO CEO George Zoley said the private sector is the "really the only logical solution for organizations that can move quickly and meet the detention standards" ICE needs for residential centers in a November conference call. "That's probably the biggest opportunity from a Trump administration coming in," Kodesh said. For now, prison stocks have been set free The August DOJ memo to the BOP still stands, but if confirmed, Sessions is likely to reverse course. Regardless, facilities run by both GEO and CoreCivic have received contract renewals since then, albeit with smaller bed allotments. To be sure, not all is working in the private prison industry's favor. The U.S. prison population shrunk to its smallest in a decade in 2015, falling by 2% to 1.5 million prisoners at the end of that year. GEO recently ended a contract with the Vermont Department of Corrections for a prison that was at about 15% capacity. California voters in November voted in favor of Prop 57, a proposal for increasing parole and good behavior opportunities for felons convicted of nonviolent crimes. According to the Associated Press, the measure makes about 7,000 inmates immediately eligible. At the start of 2016, there were about 25,000 nonviolent California felons who could seek early release and parole under the measure. California voters approved similar measure, Prop 47, in 2014, which reduced nonviolent, non-serious crimes to misdemeanors and improved the chances of parole consideration for more inmates. The measure "picked a lot of the low-hanging fruit," Kosech said, and it took several months to make a notable impact on prison populations. Something similar could happen with Prop 57. "We're probably not going to see anything happen at first until these prisoners go through its process," he said. CoreCivic has more exposure to California sentencing reform than GEO. There are a number of political forces in play at well. In August, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson asked the Homeland Security Advisory Council to examine whether the agency should pull back from the use of private facilities. The resulting report sent mixed signals. The six-person subcommittee that prepared the report determined fiscal and capacity issues made it necessary for DHS to use private for-profit entities. However, one of the members, Marshall Fitz, dissented, and more than two-thirds of the council members objected to its conclusion and instead recommended Fitz's dissent to the DHS. It will ultimately be Johnson's successor who will decide what to do. Trump has tapped retired General John Kelly to head the department. Lobbying activity may have an effect as well. According to data from the Center for Responsive Politics, GEO spent $580,000 on lobbying efforts in 2016 and CoreCivic, formerly Corrections Corp of America, $890,000. GEO also gave $125,000 to a pro-Trump super PAC during the presidential campaign. "We look forward to strengthening our partnership at the Federal level as we have for the last 30 years under both Republican and Democratic administrations and believe we are uniquely positioned to provide high quality services in safe, secure and humane residential environments while maximizing cost savings for taxpayers," said GEO spokesman Pablo Paez in a statement. CoreCivic representatives did not return request for comment. "Despite the recent run-up, we could see more upside on both stocks," wrote Kosech and fellow Canaccord Genuity analyst Ryan Meliker in a recent analyst note. In other words, it might not be too late for investors to hop on board. EXCLUSIVE OFFER: See inside Jim Cramers multi-million dollar charitable trust portfolio to see the stocks he thinks could be potentially HUGE winners. Click here to see his holdings for FREE. The Producers Guild of America has announced its nominee picks in TV and digital for an annual award ceremony on January 28, 2017, including newcomers "Atlanta," "Stranger Things," "Westworld" among a field of established contenders from 2016's Primetime Emmys. Awarded to the relevant producer or producers on each show, the Long-Form Television award in 2017 will go to one of "Black Mirror," "The Night Manager," "The Night Of," "Sherlock: The Abominable Bride" and "The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story." It was the latter, "The People v. O.J. Simpson," which scooped a leading 5 wins at the 68th Primetime Emmys in September 2016, for those that like to draw connections between the awards show voting patterns; going into the Golden Globes, "The People v. O.J. Simpson" has 5 total nominations with "The Night Manager" on 4. Up for Episodic Television, Drama are "Better Call Saul," "Game of Thrones," "House of Cards," and new series "Stranger Things" and "Westworld." "Game of Thrones" was also victorious at the Emmys with three category wins. In comedy, the debut season of "Atlanta" has it join "Black-ish," "Modern Family," "Silicon Valley," and "Veep," which has won for two years in a row. Recognizing the cream of online and streaming distribution is the Digital Series award, whose nominees are "30 for 30 Shorts," "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee," "Epic Rap Battles of History," "Marvel's Agents of SHIELD: Academy" and "National Endowment for the Arts: United States of Arts." The Producers Guild is to announce its nominations in live action and animated motion pictures on January 10, after the Golden Globes' film and television award ceremony takes place on January 8. Photo credit: undefined From Harper's BAZAAR A public memorable for Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds is reportedly being planned by family members of the iconic mother-daughter duo, and it has the potential to turn into a star-studded Hollywood event. Meryl Streep, who was said to be a close friend of Fisher's and starred in her autobiographical 1990 film, Postcards from the Edge, has been asked to give the keynote address at the public memorial, according to TMZ. Some of Fisher's Star Wars cast members, such as Mark Hamill, are also expected to attend and pay tribute to their late co-star. Photo credit: undefined There is no set date for the public memorial, but the private funeral service for Fisher and Reynolds will be held on Thursday at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, where the two are expected to be buried next to each other, according to TMZ. As of now, there are no serious plans for Billie Lourd, the daughter of Fisher and the granddaughter of Reynolds, to speak at the funeral, but she is driving force behind the public memorial. The public memorial is also said to include Reynolds classic costumes from Singing In The Rain, and possibly Fisher's Star Wars costumes as well. It's a fitting tribute for Reynolds, who fought to preserve some of Hollywood's most famous outfits. You Might Also Like Several Simon & Schuster authors are revolting after their publisher signed a $250,000 book deal with Milo Yiannopoulos an editor with Breitbart News and vocal leader within the alt-right, a white nationalist movement. (And the same man who bathed in pigs blood at a pro-Trump art show.) Danielle Henderson, a writer for HBO, has a memoir scheduled for publication by Simon & Schuster next year and took to her private Twitter account to voice her outrage. According to The UK Times she tweeted, Im looking at my @simonschuster contract, and unfortunately theres no clause for what if we decide to publish a white nationalist. She was joined by fellow Simon & Schuster author and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Karen Hunter, who tweeted, I am rethinking my relationship with @simonschuster #Milo. On Hendersons Twitter profile she wrote that she switched her account to private through January so I can work on my book instead of blocking racist trolls all day. Yiannopoulos was himself banned from the social media platform after instigating a racist Twitter attack against Saturday Night Live star Leslie Jones in July. And while Simon & Schuster tweeted a statement in which they argued we do not and never have condoned discrimination or hate speech in any form and that the books they publish do not reflect either a corporate viewpoint or the views of our employees, for Jones that line of reasoning isnt enough. On Monday she tweeted, @SimonBooks @threshold_books @simonschuster yea but you still help them spread their hate to even more people. The three women arent the only ones outraged. According to The Bookseller, Simon & Schuster UK refuses to publish the book. Dangerous, due for release in March, is reportedly about free speech and has already risen to become a number-one bestseller on Amazon.com. In contrast, its U.S. counterpart asks that readers withhold judgment until they have had a chance to read the book. But for many, there is fear that the publication of the book will only help to normalize bigotry. The Chicago Review of Books shares that view, and announced on Twitter that it will not review a single Simon & Schuster book in 2017, because they view the Yiannopoulos deal a disgusting validation of hate. Denver, CO-based Pure Cycle Corporation PCYO posted a loss of a penny in the first quarter of fiscal 2017 (ended Nov 30, 2016), narrower than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 2 cents. The company had reported break-even results in the first quarter of fiscal 2016. Total Revenue In the reported quarter, Pure Cycle recorded total revenue of $0.19 million, up 46.2% from the year-ago quarter figure of $0.13 million. The upside was driven primarily by fracking water sales. Highlight of the Release Total operating expenses were up 8.8% year over year to $0.52 million due to a 5% increase in general and administrative expenses, and a 40% increase in Other expenses. As of Nov 30, 2016, Pure Cycles cash and cash equivalents declined to $27.34 million from $27.88 million as of Aug 31, 2016. Other long-term liabilities as of Nov 31, 2016 were $1.38 million, down from $1.39 million as of Aug 31, 2016. PURE CYCLE CORP Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise PURE CYCLE CORP Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise | PURE CYCLE CORP Quote Price Movement Over the last one year, Pure Cycle has underperformed the Zacks categorized Utility Water Supply industry. The companys shares gained 13.4%, compared with the industrys return of 27.8%. Rising interest levels might make it difficult for the company to get the necessary or desired amount to fund capital improvements on favorable terms. Upcoming Peer Releases American Water Works AWK is expected to release fourth-quarter 2016 earnings on Feb 23. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarter is pegged at 63 cents. American States Water Company AWR is expected to release fourth-quarter 2016 earnings on Feb 22. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarter is pegged at 29 cents. Connecticut Water Service, Inc. CTWS is expected to release fourth-quarter 2016 earnings on Mar 13. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarter is pegged at 23 cents. 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Click to get this free report CONN WATER SVC (CTWS): Free Stock Analysis Report AMER WATER WORK (AWK): Free Stock Analysis Report AMER STATES WTR (AWR): Free Stock Analysis Report PURE CYCLE CORP (PCYO): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Tupiza (Bolivia) (AFP) - Qatari two-time winner Nasser Al Attiyah has been forced to pull out of the Dakar Rally on Thursday, his Toyota team confirmed. The 46-year-old, the 2011 and 2015 champion, would not start Thursday's fourth stage after losing the wheel of his car during the previous day's special. Al Attiyah came to a halt for over an hour when he damaged a wheel on his vehicle. "The damage to his Toyota Hilux is too extensive to be repaired by his team," organisers added. Al Attiyah had been among the pre-race favourites and was sitting second in the overall standings ahead of Wednesday's stage. The fourth day of the Dakar Rally is 521km from San Salvador de Jujuy in Argentina to Tupiza in Bolivia with French driver Sebastien Loeb leading the race. Watch out, Your Majesty! Queen Elizabeth once had a close call with a guard at Buckingham Palace who could have shot her after confusing her for an intruder during a late night walk, The Times of London reported on Wednesday. When she is struggling to sleep, the 90-year-old royal will occasionally head outside and go for a stroll, according to the outlet. During one such 3 a.m. outing within the Palace walls, the patrolman came across a figure in the darkness and assumed the worst, according to the newspaper. However, when he called out to see who was there, it turned out to be the Queen herself. Bloody hell, Your Majesty, I nearly shot you, the guard reportedly told her after realizing his mistake. Thats quite all right, she responded. Next time Ill ring through beforehand so you dont have to shoot me. The Times did not specify when the incident took place and Buckingham Palace had no comment on the report. RELATED VIDEO: Queen Elizabeth IIs Record-Breaking Reign By The Numbers Prince William and Harrys grandmother has been struggling with a cold for the past few weeks. The illness caused her to miss annual church services on Christmas and New Years Day. Queen Elizabeth has not been seen in public since the annual diplomatic reception at Buckingham Palace on Dec. 8. She then hosted the royal family at a special pre-Christmas parties at the palace, and her helicopter was spotted leaving for Sandringham on Dec. 22, one day after canceling her annual train trip to her winter retreat. Although there are currently no official future engagements listed for the Queen, she could make an appearance as early as Sunday, if she is feeling well enough. For more celebrity videos visit Yahoo View, available now on iOS and Android. - Qatari two-time winner Nasser Al Attiyah has been forced to pull out of the Dakar Rally, his Toyota team confirmed. The 46-year-old, the 2011 and 2015 champion, would not start Thursday's fourth stage after losing the wheel of his car during the previous day's special. Al Attiyah came to a halt for over an hour when he damaged a wheel on his vehicle. "The damage to his Toyota Hilux is too extensive to be repaired by his team," organisers added. Al Attiyah had been among the pre-race favourites and was sitting second in the overall standings ahead of Wednesday's stage. The fourth day of the Dakar Rally is 521km from San Salvador de Jujuy in Argentina to Tupiza in Bolivia with French driver Sebastien Loeb leading the race. AFP Jan 5 (Reuters) - Two times Dakar Rally winner Nasser Al-Attiyah withdrew from the event on Thursday after damage to his stricken Toyota proved too great to fix. The 2011 and 2015 champion, and early favourite for this year's honours, ripped a wheel off the car in Wednesday's third stage in Argentina and lost more than two hours as he limped to the finish. Organisers said the 46-year-old 2012 Olympic shooting bronze medallist had not started the fourth stage from San Salvador de Jujuy to Tupiza in Bolivia. Al-Attiyah had won this year's first stage, was runner-up in the second and was poised to retake the overall lead in the third from France's nine times world rally champion Sebastien Loeb when he went off-track and crashed into a hole. He had recognised on Wednesday that his hopes of a third overall win had disappeared. "Game over. A bad day," he told the Dakar website (www.dakar.com) after ending the day 32nd overall but still hoping to continue competing. "We stopped to repair but we could not. We don't have all the parts. "It was a mistake ... it's bad luck but this is the race. This is how the Dakar is. We were doing a really good job, we were leading but there you go." The Qatari had already had a lucky escape on the opening day when his car caught fire after a leak sprayed oil on the exhaust. In other drama, it emerged on Thursday that Slovakian KTM motorcycle rider Ivan Jakes had been hit by lightning 300km from the finish on the previous day's stage. He continued riding but was taken to hospital for checks after reaching the finish. Doctors later cleared him to continue in the race. (Reporting by Alan Baldwin; Editing by Hugh Lawson) Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f337362%2f01193c0c-2bfa-46cc-a5e8-cfebded11e3b A BBC comedy skit mocking the British women who left the country to join ISIS in Syria has caused mixed reactions online. The "Real Housewives of ISIS" features four brides of jihadi fighters showing off suicide bomb vests and taking selfies. In one scene, a woman says: "It's only three days until the beheading, and I've got no idea what I'm gonna wear." Another shows two women arguing because they're wearing the same suicide vest. The comedy segment, which went viral on Facebook with more than 14 million views, is part of the BBC Two show Revolting written by Bafta-winning directors Heydon Prowse and Joylon Rubinstein. It has caused heated reactions on social media: Constructing an image of Muslim women as oppressed and fond of terrorism at a time of widespread gendered Islamophobia is deeply sinister. Harry Shotton (@HarryShotton) January 4, 2017 So BBC are "spoofing" ISIS by recreating a "funny" version.. thoughts? Because I'm disgusted pic.twitter.com/uqKoE9NoE8 S. (@sedsational) January 4, 2017 However, others, including the British comedian Ali Shalalom, welcomed the sketch, describing it as "very funny" and stressing that he was not offended: Its a shame that the humourless and perpetually offended do not see this for what it is progress.https://t.co/SrNHvROMQS Stephen Knight GS (@GSpellchecker) January 5, 2017 BONUS: In case you can't keep all the versions of Sherlock Holmes straight, we recapped the BBC version Photo credit: Hearst Communications, Inc. All rights reserved From Cosmopolitan Not everyone who goes to the gym gets results, but it's not because they're bad at working out. It turns out that some people are actually "non-responders" and don't benefit from certain kinds of exercise. But a new study recently published in PLOS One suggests that there is a workout that works for every person. When Canadian researchers assessed the physical fitness of 21 healthy men and women before and after they did 30 minutes of steady stationary biking (aka endurance training) four times a week for three weeks, only two-thirds of the participants surfaced in better shape, at least aerobically. (The researchers didn't measure other outcomes, like change in weight, strength, mood, appetite, or any other factors affected by exercise, at least in theory.) A few months later, after the results of all that initial effort wore off, the researchers repeated the experiment on the same group. This time, participants switched up their pedaling pace, doing 20 second sprints followed by 10 seconds of rest (aka interval training). Again, about a third of the participants saw little if any improvements at the end of the three weeks. Still, every single participant responded to at least one of the exercise programs, suggesting there is no one-size-fits-all approach to exercise, according to study author and associate professor of kinesiology Brendon Gurd, who spoke to the New York Times. If your current routine doesn't seem to be working, aerobically - i.e., you're going through the motions, but feel no better equipped to chase a bus or scale a staircase - consider switching up your pace (going from steady cardio to intervals, or intervals to steady cardio) to really see a difference. Follow Elizabeth on Instagram and Twitter. You Might Also Like Vatican City (AFP) - Pope Francis stressed the importance of rebuilding "hearts as well as homes" on Thursday, as he welcomed to the Vatican several thousand people affected by Italian earthquakes. In August, 297 people were killed and hundreds hurt after a powerful quake struck mountain villages in a remote area of central Italy, with the devastated town of Amatrice the worst-hit. Several more were hurt in October as two further earthquakes rattled Italy, the most powerful registering a magnitude of 6.1. The pope listened carefully to the stories of a local man and a priest before declaring that "the wounds will heal but scars will remain." "I am proud of the priests who did not abandon their lands, pastors who did not flee when they saw the wolf," said the pontiff, speaking off the cuff. "Only hope can rebuild," said the pope. Recounting nights spent in cars or tents in the open air, one priest from the affected zone told the pope: "We lost our homes but we became a big family." The pope was due on Sunday to baptise eight newborns from Amatrice in the Sistine Chapel. In October, he had surprised residents with a visit, praying alone amid the rubble and encouraging survivors. Washington (AFP) - US Republicans will seek to defund US women's health care provider Planned Parenthood through a bill that repeals President Barack Obama's landmark health care reform, the top Republican in Congress said Thursday. "Planned Parenthood legislation would be in our reconciliation bill," House Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters when asked how his party would attempt to defund the organization now that the White House and both chambers of Congress will be in Republican hands when Donald Trump is inaugurated president on January 20. Reconciliation is a special congressional procedure by which legislation can bypass Senate blocking tactics and need only a simply majority to pass, rather than a 60-vote supermajority in the 100-member chamber. Planned Parenthood has been perennially attacked by conservatives. Many Republicans have long sought to end all federal funding to the decades-old network, which reportedly received more than $550 million in government funding in 2014, about half its total revenue. Conservatives have accused the decades-old network of serving as an abortion factory. Outrage swelled in 2015 when video secretly recorded by anti-abortion activists showed a Planned Parenthood official discussing the scientific research community's demand for fetal tissue, and the best abortion techniques for preserving certain organs. The groups assailed the organization for trafficking in fetal tissue, a charge sternly denied by Planned Parenthood. In August 2015, at the start of the presidential race, Senate Republicans introduced a controversial bill to halt federal funding to Planned Parenthood, but Democrats were able to block the legislation. US law has barred federal funding for abortions since 1976, but health providers that offer abortions are allowed to use government funds for other services. Planned Parenthood is described by its supporters as a vital supplier of health care services, including contraception, family planning, HIV prevention and cancer screenings for millions of women in the United States. Story continues It operates some 650 clinics nationwide. Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, slammed Ryan's plan as "dangerous" to people's health and "unpopular," and warned it would leave women across the country without care. "Planned Parenthood... the one in five women who have come to Planned Parenthood, the entire public health establishment and the millions of supporters across the country are ready to defend care with everything we've got," Richards said. Democratic lawmakers also reacted swiftly. "Shame on Speaker Ryan and House GOP," wrote congressman Jerrold Nadler on Twitter. "Defunding @PPFA will hurt thousands of women and families." By Susan Cornwell and Richard Cowan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama exhorted fellow Democrats on Wednesday to preserve his legacy-defining healthcare law as Republicans moved ahead with their long-sought bid to scrap it in what Vice President-elect Mike Pence called the "first order of business" of Donald Trump's administration. The emerging Democratic strategy is to warn that Republicans risk throwing the entire U.S. healthcare system into chaos by moving to dismantle the 2010 Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, without a plan to replace it. Republicans argue the system is already broken and that they will help more people gain coverage by repealing the law while working to minimize disruptions to those who depend on it. Both Obama and Pence visited Capitol Hill for closed-door discussions on Obamacare. Pence, the Indiana governor and a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, met Republican lawmakers to plot the path forward on scuttling the law. "The first order of business is to keep our promise to repeal Obamacare and replace it with the kind of healthcare reform that will lower the cost of health insurance without growing the size of government," Pence told a news conference. Down the hall from Pence, Obama, who hands over the presidency to Trump on Jan. 20, urged Democratic lawmakers to protect his signature domestic policy measure. He told reporters his message was: "Look out for the American people." Democrats acknowledge they lack the votes needed to stop repeal legislation being pushed by Republicans, who will control the White House and both chambers of Congress when Trump takes office. But they are warning of the risks of the repeal legislation in hopes of spurring a public backlash against it. Without a replacement by Republicans, as early as 2018, the roughly 20 million people who gained insurance under the law could see their coverage in jeopardy. "The Republican plan to cut healthcare wouldn't 'make America great again,'" Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer told reporters, invoking Trump's campaign slogan. "It would make America sick again and lead to chaos instead of affordable care." Since the law was enacted, Republicans in Congress have voted more than 50 times to try to repeal all or part of it and conservatives have filed suits to try to invalidate it. Republicans criticize Obamacare as an excessive government intrusion into the healthcare market and contend it is harming job growth by adding burdens on businesses. REPUBLICANS 'HAVE A PLAN' Republicans on Wednesday stepped up their rhetorical attack on Obamacare, with House Speaker Paul Ryan saying the law ruined the American healthcare system. Trump wrote on Twitter that Republicans "must be careful in that the Dems own the failed ObamaCare disaster, with its poor coverage and massive premium increases." Pence said Trump would work with congressional leaders for a "smooth transition to a market-based healthcare reform system" through legislative and executive action. Republicans have offered few details, however, on what a replacement for Obamacare would look like. Ryan said lawmakers would take action that did not "pull the rug out from anybody" and that the party had "plenty of ideas." Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow said Republicans were pulling the string that's going to unravel the whole (healthcare) system. Schumer said any effort by Republicans to shift the blame to Democrats would fail: "They want to repeal it and then try to hang it on us. Not going to happen. It's their responsibility, plain and simple." The House Republican Study Committee, composed of the most conservative members of the chamber, signaled they were aware of the risk of appearing not to have a plan and filed a bill on Wednesday that could constitute a replacement. House Republicans last year offered a proposal that would, among other things, provide refundable tax credits to help people afford their medical insurance premiums. Obamacare helped people obtain insurance by increasing funding to states to expand the Medicaid healthcare program for the poor and providing government subsidies to help people obtain coverage from private insurers through government-run exchanges. Republican Senator Rand Paul, who is a doctor, joined the Democrats in voting against beginning consideration of the Obamacare repeal resolution. While Paul said he supported repealing the law, he added the current proposal would increase the government debt by $9.7 trillion in the next 10 years. Is that really what the Republican Party represents? Paul said during Senate floor debate. The United States has a more complicated healthcare system than some other rich nations whose governments provide medical coverage. Many Americans get health insurance through their employers. Others buy policies directly from private insurers or are eligible for government-run programs for elderly and low-income people. About 29 million had no medical insurance in 2015, according to the most recent government statistics. The U.S. population tops 320 million people. Trump has vowed to protect some popular parts of Obamacare, such as barring insurance companies from denying coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions. (Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu and Ayesha Rascoe; Writing by Will Dunham and Ginger Gibson; Editing by Leslie Adler and Peter Cooney) BANGKOK (Reuters) - More than 400 people died in road accidents in Thailand over the New Year period, statistics released on Wednesday showed, despite a government road safety campaign in one of the most dangerous countries in the world to drive a car. The Department of Land Transport said 426 people died in 3,327 accidents between Dec. 29 and Jan. 3, up from 340 in the year-earlier period. Thailand's road death rate is the highest in the world apart from war-ravaged Libya, according to a 2015 World Health Organization report. The mounting figures come despite a government campaign to make Thailand's roads safer, including an increase in police presence and public information campaigns. Laws that mandate the use of seat belts and crash helmets are rarely enforced while drunk driving is common. "Unfortunately the number of fatalities has increased despite a campaign from the government and law enforcement to increase safety," government spokesman Weerachon Sukondhapatipak told Reuters. "Road safety is something we will have to continue working on continuously and not just during the new year period." On Monday, 25 people died when a van collided with a pick-up truck in Chon Buri province south of Bangkok - the highest death toll in a single incident over the holiday period. Excessive speed is the top cause of road death, according to the Metropolitan Police Bureau. Road and boat accidents involving tourists are common in Thailand, where safety standards are sometimes well below international norms. Despite its woeful road and sea safety record, Thailand remains a magnet for foreign visitors. The tourism ministry had forecast a record 32.4 million arrivals in 2016. It has yet to release final figures for the year. (This version of the story has been refiled to fix spelling in penultimate paragraph) (Reporting by Cod Satrusayang; Additional reporting by Amy Sawitta Lefevre; Editing by Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Nick Macfie) January Issue Reveals 21 Exciting Jaunts, Journeys, and Adventures for the Year Ahead NEW YORK, NY (January 5, 2017) Robb Report, the global voice of real luxury, welcomes the new year with its highly anticipated Travel Issue. For the 2017 edition, Robb Report dives deeper into the years most dynamic destinations and highlights the most sophisticated sojourns and enthralling experiences to check off your travel list, from an underwater adventure in the Seychelles to an around-the-world getaway for gourmands. Our ninth annual Travel Issue celebrates our readers ever-increasing appetite for unique and exceptional experiences, says Robb Report Editorial Director Bruce Wallin. We dug deeper than ever to find 21 one-of-a-kind trips that are sure to entice even the most seasoned travelers. From Cuba (No. 3) and Abu Dhabi (No. 15) to Tanzania (No. 10) and Uruguay (No. 16), Robb Reports Top 21 caters to every travelers tastes, passions, and interests. Coming in at No. 7, the Cayman Islandslong known primarily as a tax havenare emerging as the latest laidback luxury escape thanks to a new wave of development that, more than a decade after Hurricane Ivan, includes extraordinary and distinct resorts. Robb Report Editor in Chief Brett Anderson offers his firsthand account of the revitalized Caymans with an insiders look at the luxury hot spots turning the Caribbean tide. If youre planning to jet off in 2017, do so with panache courtesy of Robb Reports list of the latest accessories and apparel sure to make any trip smoother, smarter, and more stylish. From an ergonomically designed trolley case to dual-time-zone watches and a packable water-resistant jacket, Robb Report Executive Editor Jill Newman presents a selection of eminently useful pieces that scream first-class. And find out which destinations Robb Reports editors are dreaming about for 2017 in The Robb Perfect 10, from a charter trip on Alaskas Prince William Sound to a tour of the soon-to-be-opened Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town, South Africa, debuting this fall. Story continues Along with the start of a fresh year comes the inevitable attempt at resolutions. Whether they be focused on nutrition, fitness, or overall self-improvement, Robb Reports Health & Wellness Editor Janice OLeary spotlights the significance of a good nights rest to all of them. In Dream Trips, discover 10 tips to upgrade your travel experiencesand your lifeby getting premium sleep while away from home. Be sure to check out RobbReport.com for more great escapes for the discerning traveler, including new ski chalets in Switzerland and beyond, a beachside retreat in Anguilla, and an AMG driving experience in New Zealand. Robb Report is available as a digital edition for the iPad and iPhone via the iTunes App Store and through Zinio. More From Robbreport.com Andrea Bocelli Walks the Stefano Ricci Runway How a Few Adventurous Philanthropists Are Changing the Face of Conservation Architectures Great Minds Have Bathed This Thermal-Springs Resort in High Style Sneak Peek: Phukets Renovated Trisara Resort Is a Picturesque Piece of Paradise The Balvenies Pop-Up Offers Core Pours at Waldorf Astoria New York Highlights from the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show that Will Convince You the Future Is Now By Megan Brooks (Reuters Health) - A survey of young patients with type 1 diabetes shows that the process of transitioning away from care by pediatricians could be improved. We still have some work to do in implementing the current practice guidelines regarding transition preparation and care coordination, Dr. Katherine Garvey of Boston Children's Hospital told Reuters Health by email. We need to develop systems to help providers provide efficient, standardized transition preparation education and counseling for youth with diabetes. Dr. Garvey and her colleagues evaluated transition experiences via electronic survey in two groups of young adults with type 1 diabetes - 303 who were still receiving pediatric care and 299 who had already transitioned to adult care. In the group still being cared for by pediatricians, the average anticipated age at transition to adult care was 22 years. Two thirds of this group were still in pediatric care because of emotional attachment to their provider. This attachment has previously been identified as a barrier to transition in patients with type 1 diabetes as well as more generally in pediatric patients with chronic health conditions and their parents and is an important area to directly address in patient counseling, the authors note in their report in Diabetes Care. More than 80 percent of respondents in the pediatric care group had discussed general diabetes self-management with their providers; 60 percent had discussed prescription refills and appointment scheduling; 55 percent had reviewed the need to transition or a specific transition plan; and fewer than 20 percent had received any written transition materials. The group receiving care from "adult" doctors had transitioned away from pediatric care at age 19, on average, mainly after a recommendation by their pediatric provider; 63 percent said they had received a specific referral for an adult diabetes provider and 66 percent felt mostly/completely prepared to transition - and these patients had less diabetes-related distress and higher treatment adherence. However, 21 percent of the adult-care group reported a gap of more than six months between pediatric and adult diabetes care. Those with fewer pretransition pediatric visits or who felt unprepared for transition were more apt to have a gap more than six months between pediatric and adult care. Transition preparation counseling was not associated with self-reported blood sugar control in either group. This study offers a national perspective of young adult diabetes care experiences on both sides of the transition, the authors note in their paper. Recommended components of transition preparation include counseling on diabetes self-management and health risk behaviors, written transition plans, and specific adult provider referrals, they point out. We are still seeing deficiencies in important components of pediatric transition preparation counseling, Dr. Garvey told Reuters Health. Prioritizing transition preparation and planning may increase young adult engagement in care across the transition, and help protect them from gaps in care and adverse outcomes. SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2hQWncN Diabetes Care, online December 22, 2016. MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian state holding company Rosneftegaz on Wednesday closed a deal with the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and commodities trader Glencore (GLEN.L) to sell a 19.5 percent stake in state-owned oil major Rosneft (ROSN.MM), Rosneft said. The privatisation deal, which Rosneft Chief Executive Igor Sechin called the largest in Russia's history, was announced by Rosneft in a meeting with President Vladimir Putin in December. Its success suggests the lure of taking a share in one of the world's biggest oil companies outweighs the risks associated with Western sanctions imposed on Russia over the conflict in Ukraine. "The technical procedures for closing (the deal) required the preparation and signing of more than 50 documents and agreements," Rosneft said in a statement. "All this reflects the unprecedented complexity of the deal." Italy's Intesa Sanpaolo (ISP.MI) said on Tuesday it would provide a loan for up to 5.2 billion euros ($5.4 billion) to help the QIA and Glencore purchase the stake. (Reporting by Katya Golubkova and Jack Stubbs; Editing by Mark Potter) Jimmy Fallon and Rachel Dratch (Photo: NBC) Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon is set to toast and roast movie and TV stars Sunday night as emcee of the Golden Globe Awards. But for our Saturday Night Live throwback this week, were toasting and roasting Fallons time on the late-night sketch-comedy show. Fallon was an indispensable cast member in his six years on SNL, creating memorable impressions of Barry Gibb, Carson Daly, and Jerry Seinfeld, and co-hosting Weekend Update with Tina Fey. Related: Golden Globes 2017: The Complete List of Nominees But perhaps hes best known for breaking character in many sketches from cracking a smile after a ridiculous line to outright laughing in tears. And often Fallons breaking was the funniest part of the sketch! Heres a look back at nine times Fallon broke character: Donnies Party (Season 25, Episode 13) Fallon falters from almost his first line (irregardless is a funny word) and then cant keep it together when host Ben Affleck goes full Boston on him. Behind the Music: More Cowbell (Season 25, Episode 16) It was clear from the start that the combination of Christopher Walkens deadpan delivery and Will Ferrells teeny shirt could only lead to Fallon breaking. Jeffreys (Season 26, Episode 12) Fallon can barely keep it together throughout the entire sketch, but host Sean Hayes holds up until Ferrell shows up. Hot Tub Lovers (Season 27, Episode 16) Fallon breaks first, but Ferrell and Rachel Dratchs over-the-top lovemaking (with spiced meats) soon causes everyone to giggle. The Leatherman (Season 28, Episode 6) The squeaking leather sounds, plus breaking-character-partner-in-crime Horatio Sanzs ridiculous dance, equals Fallon unable to contain himself. Aquarium Repairmen (Season 28, Episode 11) Whenever Fallon and Sanz team up, they cant keep straight faces particularly when they deploy terrible Jersey accents. The Barry Gibb Talk Show (Season 29, Episode 2) Fallon does crack a little bit, but he actually stays in character a bit better than the rest of the sketchs players, including Justin Timberlake and, of course, Sanz. Story continues Debbie Downer (Season 29, Episode 18) Rachel Dratchs most famous character is responsible for making Fallon and the rest of the sketchs players completely lose it. Everyone ends up in tears by the end. Pat N Pattis Backpack Shack (Season 29, Episode 19) This isnt a major break, but Fallon does smile ruefully when he messes up his rhyming jingle lines as a stock boy at the Backpack Shack. A team of researchers poring over data collected by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft during its July 2015 flyby has found evidence for the existence of features that, until now, had only been seen on Earth. Their research, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, suggests that these icy structures known as penitentes may even exist on other planets where the environmental conditions are similar. On Earth, penitentes are found on high altitude glaciers, such as those in the Andes mountains. Scientists believe these structures, which consist of blade-like spires around the edge of bowl-shaped depressions, are formed due to sublimation of ice and erosion. In order to see if Pluto had such structures, the researchers used a model similar to the one used by meteorologists on Earth to forecast weather, and a computer simulation of the physics of evaporating ices. Doing so revealed evidence of penitentes in a region of the dwarf planet named Tartarus Dorsa. Pluto Photo: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI "This test of our terrestrial models for penitentes suggests that we may find these features elsewhere in the solar system, and in other solar systems, where the conditions are right," study lead author John Moores from York University, Toronto, said in a statement. However, unlike those on Earth, the penitentes on Pluto are made from methane and nitrogen ice. They are also much larger and more widely spaced than the terrestrial penitentes. "This gargantuan size is predicted by the same theory that explains the formation of these features on Earth," Moores said. "In fact, we were able to match the size and separation, the direction of the ridges, as well as their age three pieces of evidence that support our identification of these ridges as penitentes." Related Articles Irish researchers say the human body has an additional organ that has been misunderstood for at least a century. J. Calvin Coffey, a professor at the University of Limerick's Graduate Entry Medical School, says the mesentery, which connects the abdomen to the intestines, is not a fragmented group of tissues as the scientific community has long held, but a single, unified organ. So now, the human body has 79 organs, as noted by The Independent, which first picked up the story. The researchers published their findings in the peer-reviewed journal The Lancet. The identification of the organ has already led to an update to one of the world's most famous medical textbooks, Gray's Anatomy. And it is the basis for a whole new field of science, noted Coffey in a news release. A clearer understanding of the mesentery as a single organ could make surgeries less invasive, reduce complications and speed recovery time, as well as reduce costs, the release noted. More from Modern Medicine: How to prepare for the next epidemic Why America is losing the battle against its No. 1 killer disease Parkinson's linked to bacteria in the gut More From CNBC - By Sydnee Gatewood Sears Holdings Corp. (SHLD) announced it is selling its well-known Craftsman tool brand to Stanley Black & Decker (SWK) and will be closing 150 stores today. Stanley Black & Decker will pay Sears $525 million at the close of the deal. After three years, it will pay $250 million. After that, Sears will be paid 2.5% to 3.5% of Craftsman sales for the remainder of a 15-year period. The total payment is estimated to amount to $900 million. According to the terms of the agreement, Stanley Black & Decker will develop, manufacture and sell Craftsman-branded products in non-Sears channels. Sears will continue to sell Craftsman products in all its retail channels under a license agreement. For the first 15 years after the close of the agreement, Sears' license will be royalty-free. From then on, it will pay 3%. The companies project Craftsman sales will be significantly increased due to exposure in previously untapped channels. "Craftsman is a legendary American brand with tremendous consumer awareness built on a legacy of producing quality products at a great value," Stanley Black & Decker President and CEO James M. Loree said. "This agreement represents a significant opportunity to grow the market by increasing the availability of Craftsman products to consumers in previously underpenetrated channels. We intend to invest in the brand and rapidly increase sales through these new channels including retail, industrial, mobile and online." Loree went on to explain the company's plan to accommodate the growth of the brand by expanding manufacturing in the U.S., thereby creating more jobs. Stanley Black & Decker has increased its manufacturing headcount by 40% in the last three years. A Sears representative confirmed the unlimited lifetime warranty for Craftsman hand tools will remain. The transaction is expected to close later in 2017 after regulatory approval. Story continues In regard to the closing of Sears Holdings stores, the cash-strapped retailer disclosed they will be shutting down nonprofitable locations including 109 Kmart locations and 41 of its namesake stores. Sears has been struggling from a decrease in sales over the last few years. Chairman and CEO Edward Lampert (Trades, Portfolio) said the store closings are "a difficult but necessary step as we take actions to strengthen the company's operations and fund its transformation." In addition to the store closings, the company has increased its liquidity. At the end of December, it announced it had obtained a secured standby letter of credit of up to $500 million. It also entered a $500 million real estate backed loan. According to the company, these measures will provide Sears with additional liquidity and flexibility as it closes the sales of the aforementioned assets. Additionally, Sears' board of directors created a committee in order to raise over $1 billion through the sale of certain real estate properties. Among the gurus invested in Sears, Bruce Berkowitz (Trades, Portfolio) holds the largest position with 25.9% of outstanding shares. This represents 20.8% of his total assets managed. Lampert holds the second-largest position. Among the gurus invested in Stanley Black & Decker, Barrow, Hanley, Mewhinney & Strauss holds the largest position with 2.7% of outstaning shares, which represents 0.7% of its total assets managed. In total, 11 gurus hold positions. After the announcement, shares of Sears jumped 4.4% in early trading. Stanley Black & Decker rose 2.5%. Sears has a market cap of $1.2 billion; its shares were trading around $10.88 on Thursday with a price-sales (P/S) ratio of 0.04. Stanley Black & Decker has a market cap of $17.9 billion; its shares were trading around $119.17 on Thursday with a price-earnings (P/E) ratio of 18.14, a price-book (P/B) ratio of 3.04 and a P/S ratio of 1.6. Disclosure: I do not own stock in any companies mentioned in the article. Start a free 7-day trial of Premium Membership to GuruFocus. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Photo credit: Getty/Betsy Farrell From ELLE Women, we've had a tough go of it-in 2016, sure, and for centuries before that, too. Across all levels of government and in most every business, our voices are less heard, less represented, less accounted for. The status quo is still white, male, and fairly geriatric. That's why it's more essential than ever to support the women who can and do speak for us. On Tuesday, 15 new women were sworn into office. 12 Democrats and 3 Republicans took a solemn oath to stand for justice and freedom and fairness. We have to hold them to those promises. And when they fulfill them, we have to be the first and loudest to applaud. Below is our first Indian-American congresswoman and senator, the first Vietnamese-American women to serve in the House of Representatives, the first African-American and woman to represent Delaware on Capitol Hill, and so many more. Tammy Duckworth, Democrat, Illinois Meet Sen. Tammy Duckworth, who is a literal hero. The veteran lost both her legs in the Iraq War after the helicopter she was co-piloting was shot down. In 2013, she was elected to the House of Representatives. In 2016, she triumphed over the former senator, Mark Kirk. She's been known to wear a t-shirt that says, evidently referring to her husband, "Lucky for me, he's an ass man." Yes. Yes, Tammy. And, sure, the clothes don't make the woman, but it should be noted that she did wear head-to-toe leather to her swearing-in ceremony. Photo credit: undefined Photo credit: undefined Now take two valuable minutes and watch Joe Biden interact with a tiny child. Around 1:28, he spots her bedazzled shoes. Today I begin my service as Illinois' US Senator. Im honored to serve the people of Illinois, and ready to get to work pic.twitter.com/ArtXPImbFj - Tammy Duckworth (@SenDuckworth) January 3, 2017 Kamala Harris, Democrat, California Story continues Hello, Sen. Kamala Harris and welcome to the Senate! Three cheers! Harris is the first African-American elected to represent her state in the Senate and only the second black black woman to serve there. She is the first Indian-American ever to win a seat in the Senate. She invited her sister, Maya Harris, a former senior policy advisor to Hillary Clinton, to tag along. Luckily for us, she took pictures: Nice to start the new year on a happy note-excited to see my sister, @KamalaHarris, sworn-in as a new U.S. Senator. pic.twitter.com/pMsPQmuKiX - Maya Harris (@mayaharris_) January 3, 2017 As she was taking the oath of office, Harris kindly gave us a perfect demonstration in the face one makes when she's got the power: Photo credit: undefined Maggie Hassan, Democrat, New Hampshire Ahoy, Sen. Maggie Hassan! Congratulations! Winning a seat from state of New Hampshire, former New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan is now a senator. She is evidently looking forward to working with her new colleagues. If your new officemates looked this good, wouldn't you? The first-ever all-female, all-Democratic congressional delegation sits down w/ @JoshWMUR to discuss the work ahead to get results for NH pic.twitter.com/xDx5U72etZ - Sen. Maggie Hassan (@SenatorHassan) January 3, 2017 Catherine Cortez Masto, Democrat, Nevada A drumroll for Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, please. She prevailed over Republican Rep. Joe Heck in a close race, becoming the first ever Latina to serve in the Senate. She was previously the attorney general of Nevada. Clearly, she picked a decent husband. Nobody is prouder of me today than my husband Paul. pic.twitter.com/LNpMOxxmPE - Senator Cortez Masto (@SenCortezMasto) January 3, 2017 Photo credit: undefined Nanette Diaz Barragan, Democrat, California Make way for Rep. Nanette Diaz Barragan. She is the first Latina elected from the 44th Congressional District in California and the daughter of Mexican immigrants, dedicated to ending gender discrimination, raising the minimum wage, and protecting the environment. Spot Barragan-the one in the cherry-red and pearls-below. Honored to stand with these women as we start the 115th Congress. #115thcongress #women pic.twitter.com/Ez8qOYmRrk - Nanette Barragan (@Nanette4CA) January 3, 2017 Liz Cheney, Republican, Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney is a newly elected congresswoman from Wyoming, winning the seat that was once occupied by her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney. Her father looking on admiringly, here she is at her swearing-in ceremony: Photo credit: undefined Val Demings, Democrat, Florida Rep. Val Demings joins Congress from Florida, where she once served as the chief of police in Orlando. She was the first woman ever to hold the position. Under her, the city saw the most dramatic decrease in violent crime in its history. To get to Washington this week, she took a 17-hour train from Orlando. Must be because Demings has-what's the word? Oh, yes-stamina. We made it. The family is here checking out the new office. #115thCongress #FL10 pic.twitter.com/hc2PirPo4z - Val Demings (@val_demings) January 2, 2017 Jenniffer Gonzalez, Republican, Puerto Rico Rep. Jenniffer Gonzalez is the first woman to represent Puerto Rico in Congress. Go, Jenniffer! On Tuesday, she said she plans to submit a statehood bill for the territory as soon as she takes office and will submit for additional measures that will give residents in Puerto Rico the same access to Medicaid and Medicare as citizens in the the United States. Here she is laughing at the fools who doubted her, probably: Photo credit: Twitter Colleen Hanabusa, Democrat, Hawaii Technically, Rep. Colleen Hanabusa has served in the House before, winning two terms that kicked off in 2011. But she lost a race for Senate in 2014 and then completed the term of Rep. Mark Takai, who died of cancer in July. Now she's back, having won her own election in the fall. As a lawyer, she has represented Hawaii State Teacher's Association and served on the board of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation. Nice to see you, Colleen! Photo credit: undefined Pramila Jayapal, Democrat, Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal is the first Indian-American woman elected to Congress, winning the 7th Congressional District in Seattle. Jayapal immigrated to the United States at 16 and wasted no time getting involved in the issues that mattered to her most. She founded OneAmerica, an advocacy group, and became a Washington State senator. Here is a picture of her from earlier this month, which you are free to recall whenever you feel you've accomplished something big. Like: Winning a congressional election. Or asking for a raise at work. Or running for your local school board. Or doing the dishes. Photo credit: undefined Now excuse her, if you don't mind. She has work to do: Having personal experience with proud immigrant moms, this picture of now Congresswoman @PramilaJayapal gives me all the feels. pic.twitter.com/xMXYljUpCX - Paul Quinonez (@ptjmwa) January 4, 2017 Stephanie Murphy, Democrat, Florida Rep. Stephanie Murphy is the first Vietnamese-American woman elected to Congress, nabbing a win in the 7th Congressional District in Florida. Her parents, fleeing communist Vietnam, immigrated to the United States when Murphy was just one. They were rescued at sea by the U.S. Navy. This was her first bid for public office, having previously served as a national security specialist at the Department of Defense and as a professor at Rollins College. Today was all the more special because I had these two amazing kids by my side. Fighting for their futures & all children. #ProudMom #FL07 pic.twitter.com/tKN4qp0Fbd - Rep Stephanie Murphy (@RepStephMurphy) January 4, 2017 Lisa Blunt Rochester, Democrat, Delaware Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester made yet more history on Tuesday, becoming the first African-American and woman to serve in Congress from Delaware. At a reception she hosted on Tuesday afternoon, she showed off a scarf her sister had made for her. It's printed with a document her great-great-great-grandfather, a former slave, signed with an "X" to vote in Georgia during Reconstruction. "This represents where we've come from," she said. "We have the right to stand up. We have the right to serve." Vice President Joe Biden, who represented Delaware in the Senate for three decades, stopped by towards the end of the festivities. "Don't tell me that change is not possible," he said. "Now we've got a brilliant, beautiful, principled, competent person, and people looked beyond color, beyond gender and they picked the very best Delaware has to offer." Here is a photo of Lisa from last month, which we will just leave here on this website for whenever you need it most: Photo credit: undefined Jacky Rosen, Democrat, Nevada You go, Rep. Jacky Rosen. Rosen won the seat the Rep. Joe Heck vacated to run for Senate-a race he lost to Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto. Before running for Congress, Rosen was a software developer and computer programmer in Nevada. She is the President of Congregation Ner Tamid, the biggest synagogue in her area. Here she is at the ballot box: Couldn't wait until Nov. 8! I voted early today with my husband Larry, daughter Miranda & hardworking campaign team there beside me. #NV03 pic.twitter.com/SSZEUA6q7x - Jacky Rosen (@RosenforNevada) October 30, 2016 Carol Shea-Porter, Democrat, New Hampshire Rep. Carol Shea-Porter became the first woman to represent New Hampshire in Congress in 2006. She held that seat from 2007 to 2011 and from 2013 to 2015, but lost it to former Rep. Frank Guinta. She and Guinta faced off for her old seat in this most recent election, and Shea-Porter triumphed. Welcome back, Carol! Here she is with Rep. John Lewis: Thank you @repjohnlewis for standing up for freedom of speech in Congress. pic.twitter.com/WVZ2ofIovD - Carol Shea-Porter (@TeamSheaPorter) January 3, 2017 Here she is with a very delicious-looking milkshake: Photo credit: undefined Applause! Claudia Tenney, Republican, New York Rep. Claudia Tenney is the first woman to represent the 22nd Congressional District in New York, which covers eight counties across the state. She previously served as a New York State Assemblywoman. To her swearing-in ceremony on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, her son, Trey, wore his Marine uniform and held a bible for her while she took her oath of office. Here she is in her brand new office! Our new office in Cannon! Stop by tomorrow for our open house from 9-12 #NY22 pic.twitter.com/agekMtpEVa - Claudia Tenney (@claudiatenney) January 2, 2017 You Might Also Like Third times the charm for Nicole and Michael Phelps. After secretly marrying in June, then having a second ceremony in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico last October, the couple celebrated their wedding again on New Years Eve at the Waldorf Astoria Arizona Biltmore Resort. Of course, they did so in serious style, all the way down to the cake details. The six-tiered, black and gold Art Deco-style dessert went perfectly with their 1920s-themed bash featured in BRIDES. The Phoenix-based bakery Heart Sweet Cakes used half vanilla cake with strawberry buttercream and vanilla bean buttercream and half chocolate Devils food cake with Reeses peanut butter cup buttercream and chocolate buttercream. The stunning monogrammed creation sat on a glittery table with a sign that read, A little cake never killed nobody. WATCH THIS: Michael Phelps and Nicole Johnson Share Wedding Ceremony Photos For more food details from celebrity weddings, follow People Food on Facebook. But ahead of cutting into the cake right before midnight, the couple served a menu made up of penne Arribiata with chicken, Bulgogi beef short rib tacos, sloppy joes, waffle fries, chicken fingers, grilled cheese, and potato chips with Old Bay seasoning. Oh, and they also had a sundae bar. Nicole who wore another Julie Vino grown says they wanted a constant flow of food all night so that our guests wouldnt go hungry from all the dancing! Techdirt founder Mike Masnick will be going toe-to-toe in court with Charles Harder, the Hollywood attorney who famously represented Hulk Hogan in the sex tape lawsuit that brought down Gawker. On Wednesday, Harder's client Shiva Ayyadurai filed a $15 million libel lawsuit in Massachusetts against Masnick, Leigh Beadon and Techdirt parent company Floor64 Inc. over articles that doubted Ayyadurai's claim to have invented email. Ayyadurai previously sued Gawker in a lawsuit that many suspected was funded by Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel. Ayyadurai recently settled the claim for $750,000. He and Harder now have a new legal target. For Techdirt, Masnick writes a wonky tech policy blog that has earned a loyal following for taking strong stances on issues like copyright, net neutrality, security issues and other topics. His name provokes eye-rolling among many studio lawyers thanks to his frequently hostile attitude toward aggressive intellectual property actions. He was one of the noisiest antagonists toward the Stop Online Piracy Act a few years ago. He's also credited with coining the term, "The Streisand Effect," to describe the phenomenon of how attempts to censor information often lead to more awareness of the very information someone is trying to hide. The phrase came after entertainer Barbara Streisand aimed more than a decade ago to suppress photographic images of her Malibu, Calif., residence. Masnick has been on the receiving end of many cease-and-desist demands through the years - he isn't shy about writing about them - but mostly has escaped lawsuits. Until now. Ayyadurai first takes issue with an article posted Sept. 2, 2014, headlined, "Why is Huffington Post Running a Multi-Part Series to Promote the Lies of a Guy Who Pretended to Invent Email?" The article in question accused Ayyadurai of perpetuating a "fake story" of what he supposedly invented at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in 1978. Story continues "By all accounts, it was a perfectly decent email system that allowed the UMDNJ staff to send electronic messages," wrote Masnick at the time. "Further, no one doubts that, in 1981, Ayyadurai registered the copyright on his program, which was called EMAIL. The problems are that (1) email was invented long before 1978, (2) the copyright is merely on the specific software code, not the idea of email, and (3) while Ayyadurai may have independently recreated the basics of email (and even added a nice feature), none of his work was even remotely related to what later became the standards of email. What's most sickening about this is that as part of this new PR campaign, Ayyadurai is ridiculously arguing that the reason no one believes him isn't because he's simply wrong, but because they can't stand to believe that 'a dark-skinned immigrant kid, 14 years old,' invented email, and that it was done in 'one of the poorest cities in the US' rather than at a famous university. " Masnick wrote more stories on the topic, including several more in September 2014, saying the Huffington Post was sticking by Ayyadurai's "completely bogus" email claims and that "fact checking is dead," and the mainstream media "goes nuts repeating debunked claims by the fake inventor of email." In 2016, the controversy resurfaced, especially when Ayyadurai sued Gawker right around the time Hulk Hogan was going to trial. The May 11, 2016 headline? "Guy Who Didn't Invent Email Sues Gawker for Pointing Out He Didn't Invent Email." Later, when Univision acquired Gawker's assets in bankruptcy and pulled stories including the Ayyadurai one, Masnick again went on the attack. In November, he headlined a piece, "Ridiculous: Nick Denton Settles Remaining Charles Harder Lawsuits, Agrees To Delete Perfectly True Stories," reprising the statements that Ayyadurai has "staked his entire identity" on inventing email, is obsessed with the claim, and is "blatantly misrepresenting history." A follow-up post laid out the case once again that Ayyadurai hadn't invented email. Since truth is a defense to allegations of defamation, the history of the invention of email obviously will be explored in the litigation. Masnick also will get to square off against Harder, who currently is representing Melania Trump in a defamation suit against the parent company of Daily Mail and has a notable view of the First Amendment and the supposed advantages enjoyed by media in court. Masnick has been critical of Thiel's involvement in Harder-led lawsuits, although it's not clear whether Thiel plays any role in this one. Masnick didn't immediately respond to a request for comment, though it won't be surprising if he soon writes about the lawsuit on Techdirt. Besides defamation, Ayyadurai is claiming intentional interference with prospective economic advantage and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Here's the full complaint. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham cautioned President-elect Donald Trump not to undermine intelligence officials during a Senate hearing Thursday where legislators discussed Russias interference with the U.S. presidential election. The Republican lawmaker issued the warning to Trump, who has challenged U.S. intelligence reports that say Russia meddled in the election to help Trump win the White House. I want to let the President-elect know that its OK to challenge the intel, Graham said, according to the Cortez Journal. Youre absolutely right to want to do so. But what I dont want you to do is undermine those who are serving our nation in this arena until youre absolutely sure they need to be undermined. And I think they need to be uplifted, not undermined. Trump was not in the room during the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. On Tuesday, Trump suggested in a tweet that intelligence officials didnt yet have enough evidence to support their claims. The Intelligence briefing on so-called Russian hacking was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange! he wrote. The "Intelligence" briefing on so-called "Russian hacking" was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2017 Graham also urged Trump to remember that the intelligence community serves to protect Americans. If it were up to me, we would all live in peace. But Putin is up to no good and he better be stopped. And Mr. President-elect, when you listen to these people, you can be skeptical, but understand, theyre the best among us, and theyre trying to protect us, he said, according to Newsmax. NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / January 5, 2017 / The following statement is being issued by Levi & Korsinsky, LLP: To: All Persons or Entities who purchased CEB Inc. (CEB) stock prior to January 5, 2017 . You are hereby notified that Levi & Korsinsky, LLP has commenced an investigation into the fairness of the sale of CEB Inc. to Gartner, Inc. (IT). Under the terms of the transaction, CEB shareholders will receive $54.00 in cash and 0.2284 shares of Gartner common stock for each share of CEB stock they own, representing an approximate value of $77.25 per share. To learn more about the action and your rights, go to: http://zlk.9nl.com/ceb or contact Joseph E. Levi, Esq. either via email at jlevi@zlk.com or by telephone at (212) 363-7500, toll-free: (877) 363-5972. There is no cost or obligation to you. Levi & Korsinsky is a national firm with offices in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, California, and Washington D.C. The firm's attorneys have extensive expertise in prosecuting securities litigation involving financial fraud, representing investors throughout the nation in securities lawsuits and have recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for aggrieved shareholders. For more information, please feel free to contact any of the attorneys listed below. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes. Levi & Korsinsky, LLP Joseph E. Levi, Esq. Eduard Korsinsky, Esq. 30 Broad Street - 24th Floor New York, NY 10004 Tel: (212) 363-7500 Toll Free: (877) 363-5972 Fax: (212) 363-7171 www.zlk.com SOURCE: Levi & Korsinsky, LLP A little over three years ago, Sheryl Crow took her career in a radically different direction with the release of her debut country LP, Feels Like Home. Despite a relentless touring schedule and promotional campaign, the album didn't make much of an impression with country fans and no single placed higher than Number 72 on the Hot 100. "It was still a great experience and I learned a lot," says Crow. "But I gotta say that the country market is commerce at its most fully realized. Right now, I want to have an experience that feels detached from anything in commerce." That was her mindset when she recorded her upcoming pop record Be Myself, which was cut with her Nineties collaborators Jeff Trott and Tchad Blake, the team responsible for hits like "My Favorite Mistake" and "Everyday Is a Winding Road." The album is slated for release in late March or early April. "I really wanted to get back to how I got started on my second record and third record," Crow says. "I wanted to revisit that sound and that feeling. It was a complete blast and the most effortless thing I've ever done." Crow has worked consistently with songwriter/producer Trott during the past two decades and they remain close, but reuniting with Blake was another story. "It began with Jeff and I saying, 'What would complete this?'" she says. "We both said, 'Tchad Blake!' I thought in a million years he wouldn't come over because he lives in Wales and I haven't seen him in 15 years. But I emailed him and he said, 'When do you want me there?' He flew over and stayed with me in an apartment over my garage. Every day at 5 p.m. we'd drink a Guinness. He went through cancer treatment a year ago, and so we both had that in common. It felt profoundly sweet having him and Jeff here." Once the trio that created 1996's Sheryl Crow and 1998's The Globe Sessions had reassembled, new songs began coming quickly. Over a period of just three weeks in September and October, they had created 17 compositions. More than anything, Crow wanted to make sure she wasn't overthinking the work. "As you get older you start making records that are more calculated and you're trying to compete with what you've done and not repeat yourself," she says. "You get more methodical and more analytical about the music and that doesn't necessarily make it better. I wanted to have the feeling I had when I made my first two records, which was like being a kid playing with my friends and writing about whatever came to mind." Story continues Chad Blake The record was finished before Donald Trump won the presidential election, but the chaos that overtook the world in 2016 is still heavily reflected in the lyrics. "Fear is definitely present in the songs," Crow says. "I think the election really incited a feeling of us against them, and a feeling of trying to get back to reason, so thematically there's a lot of that on the record. Also, technology, for better or worse, is a theme. I really think that so much vitriol in our dialogue is partially due to the fact that people communicate over technology without having a sense of empathy." One track Crow is excited to share with her fans is "Heartbeat Away." "I wrote it before that was any discussion of Russia," she says. "But it's about espionage and a guy who is burying his money off the coast of the Cayman Islands and Russia is hacking. Cut to the election and it became really foreboding, very eerie. It ends with a guy with a red face getting on a private jet and flying off into space. I almost changed it to an orange face, but I decided to just keep it red." Another song, "Halfway There," reflects on divisions in America and is a contender for the first single, which may come out shortly after Trump's inauguration. "I am a liberal, which I think most people know," Crow says. "And I've seen Nashville change a lot in the past 10 years that I've been here. The idea of the song is that even though you may drive a big Chevy truck and I drive my hybrid, or you may wear designer clothes and I wear ripped jeans, that doesn't mean we don't want the same things in life and the same things for our kids in the future. The message is we need to agree to disagree and just try and meet halfway there." Returning to her Nineties roots may come off to many as a complete rejection of her short-lived country period, but Crow doesn't see it that way. "It's not a rejection at all," she says. "It's just that a fair portion of my songs where inspired by the Rolling Stones during their Let It Bleed and Exile periods when they were doing their version of country, and the Flying Burrito Brothers and people that rocked. That doesn't get played at country radio, so I don't know why I would ever get played at country radio. I'm not shunning country music. I'm just not part of that format." "I'm not shunning country music. I'm just not part of that format." Even if she were part of the format, the country-radio promotion game isn't something she enjoyed. "It was more political than I expected," she says. "You do lots of free playing for radio stations in trade for getting played between three and four in the morning. And that's just not how other formats work, and that goes against my grain. I'm too old to allow that for myself and to spend any night away from my kid for that is not justified." Crow plans to promote Be Myself with a huge tour. At one point there was talk about doing an "Outlaws" tour with Neil Young and Willie Nelson, but she's not sure if that is still happening. "They're still putting it together," she says. "They've asked us to do it, and I'd be fully on board. Then we'll do a bunch of our own dates." In the meantime, she's also working on an all-star record with Don Henley, Stevie Nicks, Willie Nelson, Vince Gill, Kris Kristofferson and many others. Several of the songs are new, though she's duetting with Keith Richards on the 1994 Rolling Stones tune "The Worst" and Johnny Cash's estate has allowed her to cut a virtual duet with the Man in Black on "Redemption Day," a songs of hers he covered toward the end of his life. She hopes to get the album into stores near the end of the year. In the meantime, Be Myself seems poised to reconnect with old school Sheryl Crow fans, but she says that isn't the goal. "I don't know who I'm gonna connect with," she says. "I don't know how it gets played at Spotify or other subscription services. I don't look at it and think I'm gonna make a ton of money and I'm gonna have big hits cause I know that's not how it works anymore. But I would love for people to hear it, and I would love for them to enjoy it and have the experience that I used to have when I'd hear a song and go, 'Oh, my gosh, I totally get it.'" Related Content: The Shins anticipated fifth studio album finally has a title and release date. The group revealed Thursday morning that the set will be called Heartworms and is due for release March 10 via Aural Apothecary/Columbia Records. Following their Halloween surprise release, Dead Alive, they also shared another track, the sunny Name For You, which is a rallying cry for female empowerment inspired by Mercers three daughters. The song is streaming below. When EW spoke to frontman James Mercer late last year about the set he said his guiding principle for the collection was a return to the DIY approach. I wanted to do something more handmade, says the 45-year-old. I wanted to get back into the production and engineering side of the work as well as the writing. He also said that the most unexpected part of this recording which he started 18 months ago in the converted carriage-house studio of his Portland, Oregon home was that there are traditional pop themes that I elaborate on on this record. I think thats, to me, the most surprising . Name For You, along with track listing and world tour dates, are available below. Heartworms is currently available for preorder. Track Listing: Name For You Painting A Hole Cherry Hearts Fantasy Island Mildenhall Rubber Ballz Half A Million Dead Alive Heartworms So Now What The Fear Tour: March 2 Albuquerque, NM El Rey Theatre March 4 Pomona, CA Fox Theater March 6 San Diego,CA Observatory North Park March 7 San Diego, CA Observatory North Park March 28 Paris, FR Le Trianon March 29 London, UK Apollo Hammersmith March 30 Amsterdam, NL Paradiso JUNE 15 Brooklyn, NY Prospect Park Bandshell By Fathin Ungku SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore prosecutors on Thursday filed 16 charges against the local branch manager of Swiss-based Falcon Private Bank AG, as part of an ongoing investigation tied to scandal-hit state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB). The bank, which is also under investigation at home, was the second Swiss lender whose Singaporean unit was ordered to cease operations last year after BSI Bank Ltd. The action came as the city-state tried to repair the reputation of its financial centre which played host to some 1MDB-related activity. 1MDB, founded by Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak, is the subject of money laundering investigations in at least six countries, including Switzerland, Singapore and the United States. U.S. investigators traced nearly $700 million that was sent from an account at Falcon in Singapore in 2013 to accounts in Malaysia belonging to "Malaysian Official 1", which U.S. and Malaysian officials have told Reuters refers to Najib. Najib, who also chaired 1MDB's advisory board, has denied wrongdoing and said Malaysia will cooperate with international investigations. 1MDB has also denied wrongdoing. In Singapore on Thursday, prosecutors filed 10 charges of providing false information, five charges of failing to disclose suspicious information and one charge of failing to submit suspicious transactions against Swiss national Jens Sturzenegger, who headed Falcon's local branch. Falcon is owned by Abu Dhabi's International Petroleum Investment Co PJSC. The charge sheet states Sturzenegger, who was arrested in October, gave false information to officials at the Monetary Authority of Singapore and Singapore Police Force's Commercial Affairs Department. In one instance, Sturzenegger said he became aware of Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho through press articles though he knew him "in person", the charge sheet showed. Singapore authorities previously identified the financier, commonly known as Jho Low, as a person of interest in 1MDB-related investigations. Low is also named in civil lawsuits filed by the U.S. Department of Justice, which allege more than $3.5 billion was misappropriated from 1MDB. Story continues Authorities in Singapore have frozen Low's assets though the 34-year-old has not been charged with any offence related to 1MDB. Reuters could not reach Low for comment. Falcon's Sturzenegger intends to plead guilty at a hearing on Jan. 11, his lawyer Tan Hee Joek from Tan See Swan & Co told the court. It was not immediately clear on which charges he would plead guilty. Singapore last year jailed three ex-BSI bankers, seized assets and sanctioned several lenders in what it has called its most complex, sophisticated and largest money-laundering case. (Reporting by Fathin Ungku; Editing by Christopher Cushing) CIA shakeup. The CIA might be in for a major overhaul if President-elect Donald Trump and his administration get their way. The Wall Street Journal has discovered that Team Trump is working on a plan to restructure the Central Intelligence Agency, cutting back on staffing at its Virginia headquarters and pushing more people out into field posts around the world, Damian Paletta and Julian Barnes report. The proposal sounds quite a bit like what Michael Flynn Trumps national security advisor wanted to do while director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, and Flynn and Rep. Mike Pompeo (R., Kan.), whom Trump named as his nominee to be the next CIA director, are reportedly pushing the planning. Flynn and Pompeo, according to the WSJ share Mr. Trumps view that the intelligence communitys positionthat Russia tried to help his campaignis an attempt to undermine his victory or say he didnt win, the official close to the transition said. Flynns blueprint. Take a look at this October 2013 interview Flynn did with James Kittfield for DefenseOne. Flynn talks about how intelligence agencies and U.S. Special Operations Forces have integrated operations in the field over the past 15 years, and given his SOF history, he says Washington bureaucracies need more of that. Theres this tendency to view Washington as at the center of things, Flynn said, with everything else happening out there on the edge. But the edge is where really important things are happening, which means we need to change the mindset in Washington. Those people and organizations in the field should be seen as the center of gravity. We need to make them the centerpiece of everything we do. On the Hill. Speaking of Russian influence on the U.S. presidential election, senior U.S. intelligence officials are heading to Capitol Hill Thursday to testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee on that very subject. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers and Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Marcel Lettre are expected to appear before the panel at 9:30 a.m., which is chaired by Republican John McCain, a noted critic of Putin. Livestream here. FP will have full coverage of the hearings. Story continues More hack fallout. In response to Trumps tweet Wednesday backing up Wikileaks Julian Assange and his denials over receiving stolen DNC emails from Russian intelligence, Trump spokesperson Kellyanne Conway said her boss should pay significant attention to Assange. Not so much, countered Sen. Lindsey Graham, who said again that the hacking was done by the Russians, and I hope by Friday, President-elect Trump will come to that realization and ignore Mr. Assange. Not only should he ignore Julian Assange, he should condemn him for what hes done to our country, putting our soldiers at risk, putting our foreign policy at risk. Julian Assange is no friend of America and hes no friend of Democracy. Russia wants a reset with NATO? Maybe. After several years of increasingly testy relations between Moscow and the Atlantic alliance, Andrei Kelin, the Russian Foreign Ministrys Department of European Cooperation said this week, we need to build normal relations with NATO and renew what we had before, reports FPs Robbie Gramer. But, he adds, Kelins comments may have more to do with being the first litmus test for a NATO-Russia rapprochement when Trump steps into the Oval Office, than an actual attempt to reset relations. U.S. troops in Mosul. The number of US advisors embedded with Iraqi forces in and around Mosul has doubled in recent weeks, hitting a high of about 450 troops, a U.S. military spokesman told reporters at the Pentagon Wednesday. And for the first time, the military has acknowledged that U.S. troops have been inside the besieged city. They have been in the city at different times, U.S. Air Force Col. John Dorrian said. There are currently about 5,000 U.S. forces in Iraq helping to train local forces, with Special Operations Forces carrying out occasional raids. Israel and the UN. Israels dream of a seat on the 15-nation U.N. Security Council is dimming as the government of Benjamin Netanyahu retaliates against countries that opposed settlement expansion, FPs Colum Lynch and John Hudson write in a new piece. The U.N. Security Council vote condemning Israeli settlements last month not only struck a significant blow to the Jewish states international credibility, but the resolution also threatened something far more tangible: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus behind-the-scenes push to win Israel a seat on the 15-nation security body. Netanyahus response, and the Republican-controlled Congress moves to prepare legislation to cut U.S. funding to the United Nations, have all but scuttled that dream, however. 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 Donald Trump had a chat with the new U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Reuters reports, and, at least according to the readout from the U.N. side, things appear to have gone well. The talks come after Trump thundered at the U.N. via his Twitter account following the Security Councils vote to pass a resolution condemning Israeli settlements. Guterress spokesman says he had a very positive discussion with Trump about the U.N.s relationship with the United States. Trump spokesman Sean Spicer said his foreign policy team will work to demand some reform and change from the organization. Its official. Someone in South Korea has been given the job of keeping the countrys foreign affairs ministry up to date in real-time on President-elect Trumps various Twitter rants. Joongang Daily reports that the ministrys North American Affairs Bureau has hired someone to sit and watch Trumps Twitter feed to keep officials apprised of his various policy declarations on social media. Trumps penchant for talking international affairs on social media, apparently unfiltered by staff, has shaken up the region, including his tweets on the U.S. relationship with Taiwan. SecDef Ret. Marine Gen. James Mattis is a hit with Republicans but Senate Democrats arent so sure whether they want to grant the former general a waiver to serve as secretary of defense. Military Times reports that at least two Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sens. Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY) and Tammy Duckworth (R-IL) have said theyre inclined to vote against giving Mattis a waiver from a law designed to ensure civilian control of the military. Gillibrand emphasized the increasing number of civilians in the Defense Department. She said found Mattis thoughtful on a number of important issues and respected his service but nonetheless believed civilian control of the military was fundamental to the Constitution. Syria Ceasefires in Syrias civil war tend to be short-lived and hotly contested and the most recent truce negotiated by Turkey and Russia is proving no exception. Now, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu is calling on Iran to reign pro-Assad regime forces, accusing them of carrying out a number of ceasefire violations, the AP reports. Fighting has ticked up in the Barada Valley outside the capital of Damascus and the source of much of the citys water. Cavusoglu warned that the agreement would fall apart if violations continue. Indonesia The Australian and Indonesian militaries are making up after a brief incident at a training facility that prompted Indonesia to briefly suspend military relations with Canberra, according to the AP. Details of the price trigger for Indonesian officials offense are still hard to come by but it appears as though an Indonesian instructor at the training center took exception to printed materials which may have suggested support for independence for West Papua from Indonesian rule. Indonesias defense minister raised the issue with his Australian counterpart but relations between the two countries are back on track following an expression of regret by Australia. Colombia Staff from the U.N. Mission in Colombia are in deep trouble with the U.N. mothership for getting caught dancing with FARC rebels on New Years Eve. Reuters reports that the mission staff are supposed to be monitoring the demobilization portion of a peace deal between the Marxists guerillas and the government but the video suddenly cast the impartiality of the staff into doubt. Colombias U.N. ambassador Maria Emma Mejia wrote in a letter to the U.N. the activity in the video distorts the professionalism and neutrality that should characterize. Navy Outgoing under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology, and logistics Frank Kendall just green lit the Navy to move into the engineering and manufacturing development phase, known as Milestone B, for the Columbia-class nuclear missile submarine, according to Breaking Defense. The plan is to eventually build a dozen subs. The subs are expected to cost $96 billion along with the $29 billion for research and development, adding up to a projected $125 billion price tag overall. Congress has already shelled out $773 million for design work to begin on the Columbia subs, which are expected to replace the current Ohio-class submarines. Photo Credit: TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images SEOUL, South Korea (AP) Prosecuting lawmakers accused South Korean President Park Geun-hye of "broadly and gravely" violating the constitution as the Constitutional Court began hearing oral arguments Thursday in her impeachment trial. While the lawmakers, functioning as prosecutors in the trial, argued Park should be removed from the presidency, her lawyers said the accusations lacked evidence. Park is accused of colluding with a longtime friend to extort money and favors from companies and allowing her friend to interfere with government affairs. As the impeachment hearing was taking place, Park's friend, Choi (pronounced Chwey) Soon-sil, appeared in another court in Seoul where she told the judge she denies the allegations against her. Also in the courtroom were former presidential secretaries Ahn Jong-beom, who allegedly pressured companies which gave tens of millions of dollars to foundations Choi controlled, and Jung Ho-sung, charged of passing government secrets to Choi, such as information on ministerial candidates. The chief prosecutor in the impeachment trial, lawmaker Kweon Seong Dong, said Park (pronounced Bahk) abused her position by "broadly and gravely" violating the constitution to commit corruption and turn state affairs into a profit tool for her friend. He said Park must be removed from office to repair the damage she had caused to the country's democracy. Parliament voted on Dec. 9 to impeach Park, suspending her powers and making the prime minister the government caretaker. The Constitutional Court has less than six months to decide if Park should be removed or reinstated, and if it removes her, an election has to be held within 60 days. Park's lawyer, Lee Joong-hwan, said the accusations stated in the impeachment bill "lack evidence and fail to make legal sense" because they were based on allegations and media reports, not criminal convictions. The hearing proceeded without Park, who refused to testify for the second time and cannot be forced to do so. The court had planned to hear testimony from four of Park's former and current aides suspected of helping Choi, but only one appeared. Story continues Besides the corruption allegations, the court will also hear accusations included in the impeachment bill that blamed Park for restrictions on media reporting and for government inaction during a 2014 ferry sinking that killed more than 300 passengers. Yoon Jeon-chu, who has been Park's aide since 2013, did not answer directly most of the questions asking about her interactions with Choi and what Park did on the day of the ferry disaster. The court said it was not able to deliver subpoenas to former aides Ahn Bong-geun and Lee Jae-man, who both worked with Park for nearly 20 years since her days as a lawmaker, and said another current aide, Lee Yeong-seon, asked to appear later. Briefing reporters, Kweon criticized the witnesses who he said deliberately avoided the hearing and also denied accusations by Park's lawyers that they were leaking investigation details to reporters. Park has publicly apologized for putting trust in Choi, but denied accusations that she colluded with her friend in criminal activities. Prosecutors also indicted Choi's niece and several former government and presidential officials who allegedly assisted Choi in manipulating state affairs and exploiting her connections with Park to amass an illicit fortune. Park's lawyers may prefer her not to testify because their chief argument is that the accusations against Park have not been fully proven, said Han Sang-hie, a law professor at Seoul's Konkuk University. Park rejected requests by state prosecutors to question her and has yet to be questioned by the special prosecution team that has taken over the inquiry. During Thursday's hearings, Seo Seok-gu, another Park lawyer, argued that the investigation into Park was biased and suggested that the massive protests that pushed lawmakers to impeach her were influenced by groups sympathetic to North Korea. Seo accused news organizations that reported on the scandal of demagoguery that he said threatens to make democracy "very dangerous," and compared Park's impeachment to the "unjust" deaths of Jesus Christ and ancient Greek philosopher Socrates. Theres no rest for the wicked and even less for those who try to stop them in Sleepy Hollows upcoming season, according to series star Tom Mison. In the exclusive sneak peek above, Mison gives a quick refresher on the revamped dramas new direction (Ichabods now the head of a secret, Washington, D.C.-based organization set up to fight the supernatural) as we watch the Revolutionary War captain and new partner Diana (played by True Bloods Janina Gavankar) come face-to-face with the aforementioned undercover collective which just looks like a couple of nerds hanging out in a giant library. RELATEDSleepy Hollow Newbie Janina Gavankar: Im Mourning Abbie, Too Fellow cast members Lyndie Greenwood and Jeremy Davies also weigh in, with the former getting excited about the heralded return of the Headless Horseman and the latter calling his new gig a deliciously preposterous supernatural saga. Mison also discusses how the death of his fellow Witness at the end of Season 3 gives him a whole new mission. His only comfort zone in the modern world was Abbie, and now shes gone, he says. He has to find himself again, and not only that, but find himself in a new city and with new people around him. RELATEDSleepy Hollow Season 4 Premiere: 10 Things You Need to Know Its not all gloom and literal doom, though. In one glimpse of a future episode, we see Crane tackle that most evil and foul of adversaries: putting together a piece of Ikea furniture. Sleepy Hollow returns Friday (Fox, 9/8c). Press PLAY on the video above to see what else is ahead. Launch Gallery: Sleepy Hollow Season 4 Photos Related stories Ratings: Grimm Steady With Its Final Premiere, Sleepy Hollow Hits Lows Sleepy Hollow Season 4 Premiere Recap: Witness Relocation Ratings: New Girl Surges in New Time Slot, Bones Expectedly Returns Down DENVER (AP) As the Southeast prepared for treacherous winter weather, skiers in the West flocked to resorts Thursday to take advantage of deep, fresh snow. At Deer Valley in Utah, Emily Summers said her boss kicked her and her co-workers out of the office and told them to hit the slopes and take advantage of a winter that only comes once a decade. "This is the snow we dream of," said Summers, a spokeswoman for the resort. The storms pounded parts of California, Utah, Colorado and other states as they made their way east, creating difficult driving conditions and closing roads. Small avalanches and white-outs were reported in some areas. More than 6 feet of snow had fallen in the upper elevations of the Sierra Nevada since Sunday. In Idaho, snow accumulating for several weeks reached 15 inches in Boise. Uber driver Jesse Lowman said the record snowfall has been good for business in the city. "We've got a lot of people stuck, calling in to get rides all the time. It's pretty fun," he said. Most of the side streets in the city haven't been plowed because the highway district is focusing on keeping main roads and feeder streets open. Some neighborhoods were tough for Lowman's pickup to traverse. In Sandy, Utah, A.J. Simmons took advantage of his day off to go sledding with his 2-year-old son for the first time. His son, Everett, mostly cried as his father pulled his sled slowly down a small hill at a park in frigid temperatures. After one run, Simmons put his son in the warm car with his wife and took a few trips down the hill himself. The turbulent weather was expected to spread a wintry mix of rain, sleet and snow across large swaths of Alabama, the Carolinas and Georgia, with 2 inches of snow forecast for Atlanta. Ski resorts in the West used their social media accounts to spread the news of the snow and to lure skiers who have been anxiously waiting to hit the slopes. But some encountered problems, and the storm proved to be deadly. Story continues A skier was rescued Wednesday after dangling from a Colorado chairlift after his backpack got caught. Luckily, a professional slackliner a type of tightrope walker known for acrobatic tricks climbed the lift tower and slid across the cable to reach him. Mickey Wilson was able to cut the strap, sending the skier falling about 10 feet into the snow below, where a paramedic and ski patrollers waited at the Arapahoe Basin Ski Area. He was taken to a hospital and released. "Just seeing a person get the life sucked out of them. I kind of stopped thinking and just starting acting," Wilson, who works as a part-time ski instructor for the resort, told The Denver Post about the rescue that was captured in images posted online. On Thursday, one of two missing backcountry skiers found in the central Colorado mountains died while he was being treated for hypothermia. The Lake County Office of Emergency Management posted on its Facebook page that Brett Beasley and a boy he was skiing with were found near Turquoise Lake west of Leadville. The boy, whose name and age have not been released, was uninjured and was taken from the area on a snowmobile to be reunited with his family. Beasley was treated for hypothermia but did not survive. The two had not been heard from since Wednesday. The storm also brought heavy snow and strong winds that raised the avalanche danger in much of Colorado's high country. Some passes were shut down so crews could reduce the chance of slides. The National Weather Service reported that Salt Lake City International Airport saw nearly 5 inches of snow overnight. With a threat of freezing rain in parts of the Deep South, forecasters urged residents to be on guard and avoid driving if conditions deteriorate. "If you have a four-wheel-drive vehicle and you think you're safe, you're not," said Mike Schichtel, lead forecaster at the federal government's Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland. ___ Associated Press writers Rebecca Boone in Boise, Idaho, Michelle Price in Salt Lake City, Jeff Martin in Atlanta and Thomas Peipert in Denver contributed to this report. ___ This story has been corrected to say the storm is moving toward Southeast, not Southwest Sophie Turner arriving at LAX totally looks like the sunglass Snapchat filter Whoa, augmented reality. Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner looks like the sunglass Snapchat filter and its so cool. On Thursday, Turner arrived at Los Angeles airport and her style was SO on point. When the 20-year-old actress stepped out of LAX she looked very chic and stylish, and totally modern. In fact, her most stylish accessory might be her silver-platted sunglasses. These funky and fun mirrored sunnies are pretty much the sassy Snapchat filter that weve all been using for months, except her glasses arent virtual. Dont know what were talking about? Check out all the fun filter shots that are almost identical to Turners look below. Come on these shiny glasses are so similar to the British actresss airport style. They might not be real, but these filtered glasses eerily resemble Turners own all-real pair. The silver accessory are so similar to the filter that we cant stop geeking out over it. While we know that Snapchat filters cant really inspire someones wardrobe, Turners overall look does look like the sunnies filter even if it was unintentional. Now that youve seen the Snapchat filter similarities we have to talk about the young stars whole airport ensemble. Its so freaking fierce! Turner donned an all-black wardrobe, including a textured vest, leggings, sneakers and matching snake-skin clutch. Could she be any cooler? Do you think that Turners sunglasses are pretty much a trendy Snapchat filter? Or do you think they look like retro 60s glasses? Either way, we love the GOT stars travel style. Photo credit: undefined From Harper's BAZAAR If you doubted that Game of Thrones actress Sophie Turner and DNCE frontman (and Jonas brother) Joe Jonas were an item, here's more proof. Turner took to Instagram recently to share a photo of her new beau for the first time. "Miami Daze," she captioned the shot of Jonas from the back of a boat, smoking a cigar. Turns out, the new couple took a trip to Miami together to ring in the new year. They were seen out on a stroll in the city on December 30 with Nick Jonas, and the actress supported Joe during DNCE's New Year's Eve concert. Photo credit: undefined Rumors that the two were dating began when Turner, 20, and Jonas, 27, were spotted kissing and getting cozy at a Kings of Leon concert in Rotterdam, Netherlands back in November. A few weeks later, Nick hinted that his brother and Sophie attended a wedding together when he posted some telling photos on Instagram. Later on, Turner and Jonas were spotted on several outings, from LA dinner dates to joint trips to the recording studio in Beverly Hills. "They're dating exclusively. He was playing the field, but he really likes her and is willing to settle down for her," a source told People in December. This is one couple we're ready to see more of this year. You Might Also Like CLEVELAND (AP) -- Southwest Airlines will add flights at an airport in northeast Ohio while ending service at another airport in that section of the state. The Dallas-based carrier said Thursday that it will begin twice-daily service between Cleveland and Atlanta and a second daily flight between Cleveland and St. Louis out of Cleveland Hopkins International Airport on June 4. But Southwest also says it's pulling out of Akron-Canton Airport in June. The carrier announced Wednesday that it also plans to pull out of Dayton International Airport in June. Southwest will begin daily service June 4 to Baltimore-Washington and Chicago Midway out of the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in Hebron, Kentucky. Southwest said in a statement that leaving cities isn't an easy decision but the carrier needed to go where it's needed most. Per media reports, Southwest Airlines Co. LUV will soon launch nonstop flights operating daily between the Tampa International Airport (TIA) and LaGuardia Airport. The company intends to provide additional choices for passengers travelling to New York with this move. The service is likely to commence from Jun 5, 2017. The sale of tickets is expected to begin on Jan 5, for passengers to plan their summer holidays. The initial fare is projected to be around $89 for one way and around $178 for a round trip, subject to change. The company estimates to target the large volume of passengers traveling from Tampa to New York, annually. Southwest will operate 737s between the two cities, with a seating capacity of 143 passengers. The first flight will be scheduled at 5.40 a.m., while the second one will leave Tampas airport daily at 2.35 p.m. The company has also introduced flights between TIA and Havana, Cuba in Dec 2016. Several other airlines have also commenced flights from American cities to Cuba, including American Airlines Group Inc. AAL. The Tampa airport, at present, is seeing a $1-billion expansion, which is significantly expected to boost capacity and traffic at the airport. This expansion also includes 65 new concessions, which will improve customers dining and shopping experience. Other airlines offering nonstop flights from TIA to LaGuardia include Delta Air Lines Inc. DAL and Spirit Airlines SAVE. Zacks Rank Southwest carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). 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Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report SOUTHWEST AIR (LUV): Free Stock Analysis Report DELTA AIR LINES (DAL): Free Stock Analysis Report SPIRIT AIRLINES (SAVE): Free Stock Analysis Report AMER AIRLINES (AAL): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Gibraltar (AFP) - Spanish and Gibraltarian police on Thursday recovered hashish worth nearly five million dollars that was thrown into the Bay of Gibraltar by drug traffickers to escape a high-speed chase. Acting on a tipoff, Royal Gibraltar Police located five inflatable boats loaded with hashish resin in the contested waters around Gibraltar, a tiny British territory on Spain's southern tip. When police neared one of the boats, its occupants started to throw their cargo overboard in an attempt to lighten their load and pick up speed, Royal Gibraltar Police said in a statement. The boat left Gibraltar's territorial waters and the chase was then taken up by Spain's Guardia Civil police force but the traffickers managed to escape, it added. Authorities retraced the route of the chase and picked up 34 bales of hashish resin -- Gibraltar police and customs recovered 27 bales and the Guardia Civil another seven. The drugs weighed around 800 kilos (1,800 pounds) and are estimated to have a street value of A4,050,000 ($4,968,000/4,762,000 euros). "This highlights the close cooperation that exists not just among local law enforcement agencies, but also with the Guardia Civil in combating crime, particularly drug trafficking, across the Straits of Gibraltar," the statement said. Madrid ceded Gibraltar in 1713 under the Treaty of Utrecht. The territory remains a source of British-Spanish tensions, with Madrid long claiming it should be returned to Spanish sovereignty. While Spanish and Gibraltar police cooperate regularly at the grass roots level, there are often flare-ups between the two sides over jurisdiction and sovereignty. Gibraltar says Spanish vessels regularly stray deep into its territorial waters and Britain's Foreign Office has attacked such incidents as provocative. In the most serious recent incident, a British navy patrol boat fired flares to warn off a survey ship operated by Spain's Oceanographic Institute which had entered disputed waters. Madrid (AFP) - Voodoo rituals, near-drowning in the Mediterranean, abortions: Spanish police recounted Wednesday the harrowing experiences of young Nigerian migrant girls forced into prostitution in places like Benidorm and eventually rescued. Authorities detained nine members of a trafficking group that used illegal migration routes to bring them from their home country to Spain. It was headed by three women of Nigerian origin, police said in a statement. The victims, all poor, were approached "very young" with promises of a good job in Europe, although police did not specify their ages. They were then submitted to voodoo rituals threatening terrible consequences to them and their families if they disobeyed the organisation, police said, before undertaking a gruelling trip to Europe via Niger and Libya. Smugglers paid by the group then took them across the Mediterranean to Italy in rickety boats along with scores of other migrants. "Two of the victims of this organisation had to be rescued by a rescue boat after the boat in which they were travelling sank in the Mediterranean, with various (other) immigrants drowning," police said. Once in Italy, members of the organisation took them out of migrant detention centres where they had been housed and they travelled to Spain by plane, using ID belonging to other women of Nigerian origin living legally in the country. Once in Spain, they were instructed to ask for asylum so as to avoid potential deportation. They were told they owed the organisation between 40,000 and 45,000 euros ($42,000 and $47,000), police said, and forced into prostitution in the northern town of Bilbao and the holiday resort of Benidorm in the east. "They had to go and prostitute themselves every day and couldn't come back until the early hours of the morning, after more than 14 hours... regardless of the inclement weather or their own health," they added. Such was the fear of their bosses that one of the victims who fell pregnant aborted straight away and continued to prostitute herself so that they would never know. Story continues Police said the organisation had now been dismantled, and seven victims were rescued. It was unclear whether there were other girls involved with the organisation. The rescued girls are not alone, with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimating that of the thousands of Nigerian women arriving on Italian coasts, 80 percent are victims of trafficking. HAMBANTOTA, Sri Lanka (AP) Hundreds of opposition supporters and farmers on Thursday protested the Sri Lankan government's plan to lease a southern seaport to a Chinese-controlled joint venture in exchange for the heavy loans to build the port. The protesters led by Marxist party People's Liberation Front said the proposed partnership is akin to a sellout of the country. The government wants to lease the loss-making port to a joint venture company in which China will have 80 percent ownership. The lease period will be 99 years. The government also proposes to lease 15,000 acres (6,070 hectares) in Hambantota district and adjoining Moneragala district for an industrial zone. Protesters carried placards that read "hands off our lands" or "Stop selling Hambantota port." D.K Sumathipala said farmlands are at risk of being taken over for the industrial zone and he was determined to fight. "We are farmers; we can't move out of our lands," he said. "I was born here, we have nowhere to go," said Premawathie Samarasekara, also a farmer. "We will not give away our lands to the Chinese," she said. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told a gathering Thursday that private lands will not be taken over for the industrial zone. He said the partnership was the only way to free the country from the debt burden. China invested over $1.2 billion in the Hambantota port in what some analysts call its "string of pearls" strategy in countries surrounding India. Sri Lanka's government criticized the project before being elected in 2015 but later approached China seeking help to make it viable. President-elect Donald Trump has been using scare quotes on Twitter lately, and Stephen Colbert used some sarcastic quotes of his own in response on the Late Show on Wednesday night. Trump has disputed American intelligence findings regarding Russias interference in the presidential election, and on Wednesday he noted on Twitter that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta.' One little shadow hanging over the inauguration is the whole Russia chose our President thing, Colbert began Wednesday night. Trump also tweeted that an intelligence briefing had been delayed, but Colbert noted reports that it had always been scheduled for Friday. The "Intelligence" briefing on so-called "Russian hacking" was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2017 Yes, I agreevery strange for the future commander-in-chief to use sarcastic quotations about the intelligence agencies he will soon rely on, Colbert said. Mr. Trump, you know youre not an outsider anymore shooting spitballs from the sidelines, right? In two weeks youll be president of the United States, he continued, supplying his own air quotes with his fingers. Watch the full clip above. stephen colbert donald trump russia hacking late show cbs Stephen Colbert thinks it's disturbing that President-elect Donald Trump is still contradicting US intelligence findings that Russia was behind the hacks on the Democratic Party during the presidential campaign. "One little shadow hanging over the inauguration is the whole 'Russia chose our president' thing," Colbert said during his opening monologue on Wednesday's episode of "The Late Show." "Our entire intelligence community says that Russia hacked Clinton's campaign, but Trump doesn't buy it." In fact, Trump has publicly supported the opinion of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. In a tweet on Wednesday, Trump repeated Assange's statement that "a 14 year old could have hacked" the Clinton campaign. Julian Assange said "a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta" - why was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2017 But Colbert primarily took offense at another tweet by Trump in which he clearly showed his mistrust of the US intelligence agencies' findings on the Russian hacking. Trump tweeted, "The 'Intelligence' briefing on so-called 'Russian hacking' was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange!" The "Intelligence" briefing on so-called "Russian hacking" was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2017 "Yes, I agree, very strange for the future commander-in-chief to use sarcastic quotations about the intelligence agencies he will soon rely on," Colbert said, using air quotes to illustrate his point. "Mr. Trump, you know youre not an outsider anymore shooting spitballs from the sidelines, right? In two weeks youll be 'president' of the 'United States.'" Story continues Watch the video below: NOW WATCH: Putin will not retaliate over US sanctions after his foreign minister recommended ejecting 35 US diplomats More From Business Insider North Korean officials recently announced that the country was on the verge of testing a nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, that could reach the United States. President-elect Donald Trump drew a line in the sand. Wont happen, he said on Twitter. If North Korea attempts to test an ICBM, the United States has a number of options to stop it. All carry risks. More From Our Partners Defense One Trumps red line mirrored past statements from policymakers. Ten years ago, future Defense Secretary Ash Carter and former Defense Secretary William Perry wrote, Should the United States allow a country [North Korea] openly hostile to it and armed with nuclear weapons to perfect an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of delivering nuclear weapons to U.S. soil? We believe not. How close is North Korea to an actual nuclear ballistic missile and what are the presidents military and policy options? Lets take a look. Recommended: A Short History of the Tomboy North Korea is researching a variety of missiles that with research and development could be converted into ICBMs. In February, North Korea launched a satellite into orbit aboard its 28-meter, three-stage Unha rocket. Several U.S. four-star commanders have said North Korea has, or we must assume they have, the ability to reach the continental U.S. with a nuclear warhead with the Taepo Dong (Unha) missile, said Bruce Klinger, an analyst with the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank. The Unha has a range of 10,000 kilometers, sufficient to hit the United States. Klinger argues that the range might be closer to 13,000 kilometers, enough to reach the East Coast. But shooting a satellite into space is a different feat of physics than demonstrating an ICBM, which must re-enter the earths atmosphere along a controlled and precise trajectory to its target. Story continues The Unha-2 or -3 could serve as a springboard for the development of an ICBM, but the history of long-range missile development by other countries, including the Soviet Union, the United States, China, and France, indicates that satellite launch activities have limited impact on missile programs. No country has converted a satellite launch rocket into a long-range ballistic missile, according to Michael Elleman and Emily Werk of the Arms Control Association. A more likely candidate for a near-term ICBM test is the 16-meter-long KN-08 ballistic missile. It can be launched via a truck platform, making it harder to hit with a pre-emptive strike. It currently has a documented range of about 6,700 kilometers, due to fuel limitations. In April 2016, North Korea unveiled photos of an engine test that purported to show a new rocket engine capable, potentially, of sending a nuclear warhead to the United States. Recommended: Why the Technology in 'Rogue One' Is So Old-Fashioned Using this technology, North Koreas road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the KN-08 or the KN-14 modification, could deliver a nuclear warhead to targets at a distance of 10,000 to 13,000 kilometers. That range, greater than had previously been expected, could allow Pyongyang to reach targets on the U.S. east coast, including New York or Washington, John Schelling wrote in April on the blog of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. If the current ground test program continues and is successful, flight tests of a North Korean ICBM could begin in as little as a year. Moreover, Pyongyang may be able to deploy this delivery system in a limited operational capability by 2020. The second component needed for a nuclear missile is a miniaturized warhead. On Tuesday, State Department spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. does not believe that North Korea has a weapon small enough to fit atop ICBM. But that may be little more than a temporary state of affairs. At a Defense One event in November, Adm. Harry Harris, commander of U.S. Pacific Command, said, I have to assume that they have it I believe it when Kim Jong Un expresses his intent. * * * So how do you make sure the test wont happen? On the one hand, you could launch a coordinated airstrike, sending jets or bombers over North Korea to destroy the missile on the launch pad as it is about to take off. But that carries risks of triggering a rocket retaliation against South Korea, risking massive casualties. Recommended: The Blood Harvest The reason why the U.S. didnt do what Carter and Perry had suggested [in 2006] of course, was we were concerned that if we did that, North Korea would probably shell Seoul with artillery. That was an unacceptable escalation, said RAND Corporations Bruce Bennett. Once an ICBM is launched, here are the options to stop it. To protect the continental U.S., the United States has 30 ground-based interceptor missiles in Fort Greely, Alaska, and Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The United States is working to deploy other anti-missile systems, such as the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD system, but those are designed to intercept shorter-ranged missiles. The THAAD battery is designed to intercept their medium-range missiles like the No-dong missile and the Musudan missile, if fired at South Korea. The THAAD missiles have a range of only 200 kilometers, and that battery would be put close to Busan, so they cant even really cover Seoul with that battery, let alone something flying out over the Pacific, said Bennett. South Korea long has expressed interest in an anti-rocket defense system similar to Israels Iron Dome, but has not bought that system or fielded such protection. The United States also has Aegis BMD-equipped ships in the Pacific armed with Standard missiles capable of intercepting medium-range ballistic missiles. But these arent designed for intercontinental-range missiles, said one Defense Department official. The Aegis system is designed primarily to protect ships, not shoot down ICBMs. Some of these ships are based in Europe as part of a NATO missile defense system. Some of them are based in the Pacific as part of a defense system for our allies. Theres also a terminal defense system in Guam thats designed to defend Guam. These things exist; there are capabilities. But for an ICBM, obviously the major concern of an ICBM is defending against a sufficiently long-range threat, which would be the homeland, right? You wouldnt use an ICBM if you were North Korea trying to attack Japan, its too close, doesnt make any sense, said the official. It may make sense from a resource perspective, but does show Trumps red line to be difficult to enforce. * * * The military has shown that it can take down ballistic missiles with laser-armed planes, going back to 1983. Today, the Missile Defense Agency is researching new methods for stopping an ICBM before it hits the air. Lasers are still the most attractive option. One of the options available to us that we are going to start testing here in the next couple years is a laser aboard a unmanned vehicle, [or drone] something that has some level of persistence that can be in the area and could engage when the missile is at its most easily targetable, but thats some ways off, said the official, referring to the low-power-laser demonstrator program. The program follows the airborne-laser program, or ABL. We have proven that capability, so now the idea is if we can make it small enough and powerful enough and have a UAV with sufficient dwell capability, we would be able to keep them in some numbers over an area, said the official. Unlike ABL, the low-power demonstrator would use a safer, more energy-saving solid state laser rather than a chemical laser. A laser-armed drone flying over North Korea could easier to deploy than an airstrike, and damage could be limited to the missile itself. And it still risks North Korean retaliation against U.S. allies in the region. Until then, the United States has a number of non-violent policy responses. There is still much that can be done against North Korea and, through third-party sanctions, foreign entities that facilitate North Koreas prohibited programs, said Klinger. Rather than initiating an attack on North Korea for crossing yet another technological threshold, it would be more prudent to reserve a preemptive attack for when the Intelligence Community has strong evidence of imminent strategic nuclear attack on the U.S. or its allies. Similarly, a lone North Korean missile on a test flight aimed only at open water does not pose an imminent or existential threat to the United States. Intercepting such a flight, as some have advocated, would redirect international focus and anger away from another North Korean violation of UN resolutions and instead to the U.S. military action. This article appears courtesy of DefenseOne. Read more from The Atlantic: This article was originally published on The Atlantic. This study wants you to hang out with your mom more so shell live longer This is probably something moms have been telling their kids forever, but its finally been proven to be true. A new study found that hanging out with your mom will help her live longer. And now moms all over the world are cheering with delight, probably. But do you blame them? Their kids are pretty great (thats us, you guys!). Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco found that loneliness can play a huge part in the decline associated with old age. The study followed 1,604 adults in the United States, with an average age of 71. Every two years from 2002-2008, the subjects were asked if they felt left out, isolated, or lacked companionship. The results found that people who were lonely showed higher mortality rates. Almost 23% of participants who considered themselves to be lonely died within six years of the study, as opposed to only 14% of those that felt they had companionship. People who were lonely also showed functional decline on their daily living activities, an increased number of upper extremity tasks, decline in mobility, and increased difficulty in stair climbing. Thats likely because if theyre alone, they dont have any reason to move around. In older people, health decline isnt just influenced by normal biomedical factors, but also by psychosocial distress AKA loneliness. The need weve had our entire lives people who know us, value us, who bring us joy that never goes away, Barbara Moscowitz, senior geriatric social worker at Massachusetts General Hospital, told The New York Times. You may notice that your parents or grandparents might overlook a lot of their family and friends imperfections at least more than you might be able or willing to do. And thats because theyve had plenty of time to realize the importance of those relationships. Theyre pretty tolerant of friends imperfections and idiosyncrasies, more than young adults, Rosemary Blieszner, a professor of human development at Virginia Tech, told The New York Times. You bring a lot more experience to your friendships when youre older. You know whats worth fighting about and not worth fighting about. The truth is, spending time with your mom, dad, grandma, or grandpa isnt just good for them, its good for you, too. We dont need to tell you that they wont be around forever you know how time works. Making the most out of your time together is beneficial for their longterm health, as well as your relationship altogether. So go call your mom already! Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f337244%2fd7331c16-231d-41ac-b147-c594126e4b79 Google CEO Sundar Pichai blushed as he recollected his campus romance from two decades ago. Pichai, currently touring India, was speaking to more than 3,500 students at his Alma Mater, IIT-Kharagpur. SEE ALSO: CEO Sundar Pichai recalls Google job interview, 'I thought Gmail was a joke' He remembered the days when he had to walk across to Sarojini Naidu Hall, the only girls hostel in the campus then, to meet his future wife Anjali, who was a classmate. "It wasn't always easy," revealed Pichai. "If you had to get someone at the girls hostel, you had to walk in the front and request somebody. Then they would go in and loudly say, Anjali, Sundar is here for you." Thunderous applause and laughter greeted Pichai's anecdote. "It wasn't exactly a pleasant experience," he added smilingly. Those were the pre-internet days. "I guess it's moved on by now," said the 44-year-old, who graduated from the institute in 1993. Before joining students for a live conversation, Pichai spent some time in his Nehru Hall dorm, which he felt was "exactly the same after all these years". He also regaled students with stories of bunking early morning classes. "It's a rite of passage when you go through college," he said. Pichai ended his session by obliging for a selfie with the crowd. Image: YOUTUBE SCREENGRAB His full conversation can be viewed here. By Nichola Groom Jan 5 (Reuters) - A plan by rooftop solar company Sungevity Inc to tap the public markets withered as investors fretted about the dismal performance of solar stocks and an incoming U.S. president who has expressed skepticism about renewable energy, according to executives at Sungevity and its would-be buyer. The Oakland, California-based company in June agreed to be bought by a shell company called Easterly Acquisition Corp for about $357 million. But Easterly, set up as an acquisition vehicle by private equity firm Easterly Capital, disclosed in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Tuesday that it terminated the merger agreement on Dec. 31. The deal would have allowed Sungevity to grow more quickly, executives said in June. The company's market share has hovered between 1 and 3 percent for a few years, according to GTM Research, far behind rivals including Tesla Motors Inc's SolarCity and Vivint Solar Inc. But solar proved to be a tough sell to investors last year. The MAC Global Solar index slid 45 percent in 2016, as the industry experienced slowing growth in top rooftop markets like California. In addition, state policies are becoming less generous for rooftop solar customers. "We concluded it was not the right time to pursue a merger with Sungevity for a host of reasons, including changes in the marketplace regarding the valuations of renewable energy companies," Easterly Chairman Darrell Crate said in an emailed statement on Wednesday. Sungevity Chief Executive Andrew Birch said the company's simple business model of linking homeowners with installers and financing through an online platform had received support from the investment community. The approach differs from SolarCity, for instance, in that Sungevity does not have large numbers of sales and installation employees on its payroll, a model Birch likened to the ride sharing service Uber. The election of Donald Trump, however, added a level of uncertainty that investors could not stomach, Birch said. Trump is a climate change skeptic who has expressed doubts about the role of solar and wind in the U.S. energy landscape, calling both "so expensive." Story continues "We lost the attention of investors," Birch said. "There is a good amount of uncertainty until Trump gets into office and his team starts describing what their policy plans are." The deal's failure was not related to Sungevity's financial performance, Birch said, adding that the company was "very close" to being profitable. (Reporting by Nichola Groom in Los Angeles; Editing by Matthew Lewis) tareck el aissimi Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, the successor to the late socialist President Hugo Chavez, announced on Wednesday that former minister Tareck El Aissami would become vice president of the country. That means that, in a country of complete and utter chaos where people are starving, healthcare is nonexistent, electricity is scarce, and vigilante justice is becoming a norm a suspected terrorist is one heartbeat away from the highest office in the land. El Aissami is a known entity in the world of US intelligence. He is allegedly a part of Venezuela's state drug-trafficking network and has ties to Iran, Syria, and Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah. And if Maduro is ousted, as his opposition is calling for, El Aissami will become the president of a failed state in America's backyard. Ever heard of Aeroterror? A little-discussed feature, at least here in the US, of Chavez's socialist regime was its ties to hardline Islamists. For example, from 2007 to at least 2010, there was a flight from Caracas, Venezuela, to Tehran, Iran, that made a stop in Damascus, Syria. Chavez and former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reportedly called it "Aeroterror." Only government officials with a special clearance were permitted to fly on it, and there were often very few passengers. The flights mostly carried drugs, weapons, cash and terrorists, according to US government testimony and a report by Brazilian paper Veja. ahmadinejad chavez This is where El Aissami comes in. Veja reported that when he was interior minister under Chavez, El Aissami participated in a clandestine program to provide Venezuelan passports to terrorists in Damascus, according to former Chavez loyalists. A former governor of Venezuela's Aragua state, the Wall Street Journal once said of El Aissami: "One part master of Middle-Eastern networking, one part honorary Cuban revolutionary, and one part highly ambitious chavista, Mr. El Aissami is a dream come true for Tehran and Havana. That makes him a powerful man in Venezuela." Story continues Joseph Humire, coauthor of "Iran's Strategic Penetration in Latin America" and founder of the Center for a Secure Free Society (SFS) think tank, testified to the same effect before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs last year. From his testimony: "Over the years, El Aissami developed a sophisticated, multi-layered financial network that functions as a criminal-terrorist pipeline bringing militant Islamists into Venezuela and surrounding countries, and sending illicit funds and drugs from Latin America to the Middle East. "His financial network consists of close to 40 front companies that own over 20 properties with cash, vehicles, real estate and other assets sitting in 36 bank accounts spread throughout Venezuela, Panama, Curacao, St. Lucia, Southern Florida and Lebanon. This network became integrated with the larger Ayman Joumaa moneylaundering network that used the Lebanese Canadian Bank to launder hundreds of million of dollars and move multi-ton shipments of cocaine on behalf of Colombian and Mexican drug cartels as well as Hezbollah. "This immigration scheme is suspected to also be in place in Ecuador, Nicaragua and Bolivia, as well as some Caribbean countries." Venezuelan defectors to the US accuse El Aissami of accepting payment from drug kingpins trying to smuggle cocaine through country while he was interior minister. "Venezuela's future is uncertain, but what is certain is that Islamic extremism has officially taken greater executive control of a national government in Latin America," Humire wrote in an e-mail to Business Insider. "A goal it has had for decades." NOW WATCH: The US Navy is catapulting trucks off aircraft carriers More From Business Insider STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Sweden will not decide for several weeks whether to drop or proceed with an investigation into allegations of rape against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, its Prosecution Authority said on Thursday. Prosecutors said they have now received a transcript of an interview conducted with Assange, 45, in November at Ecuador's embassy in London. He has been holed up there since 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden over allegations, which he denies, that he committed rape in 2010. "The documentation is in Spanish and consists of several hundred pages, which now will be translated," the Prosecution Authority said in a statement. "The translation is estimated to take at least several weeks. Thereafter, the prosecutors will take a view on the continuation of the investigation." (Reporting by Simon Johnson; editing by Mark Heinrich) By Tom Perry DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syria is prepared for "open battle" against insurgents in the province where Damascus has been allowing them to gather under ceasefire deals, said the government official in charge of negotiations that have seen rebels yield swathes of territory. The past year has seen President Bashar al-Assad's government recapture many key areas from rebels, including suburbs of the capital in what Damascus calls "reconciliation" deals. Insurgents agree to give up territory in return for safe passage out. Fighters have been given safe passage to Idlib Province, the biggest remaining rebel stronghold, which is in the northwest of the country. The government has sent buses to take them with their families. Idlib was also the destination for many of the 35,000 rebel fighters and civilians evacuated from eastern Aleppo last month in a deal brokered by Turkey and Russia, Assad's most powerful ally, after insurgent groups were routed in the city. Ali Haidar, who as national reconciliation minister has been responsible for negotiating local deals, said he expected more accords in coming months to send thousands of fighters to Idlib from areas near Damascus and south of it, as the army advances. But in an interview in Damascus, he said the state could not allow Idlib to remain in insurgent hands indefinitely. Unless there was an international deal that addressed the situation, "then the other option is to go to an open battle with them", he said. "The Syrian state is clear in its policy when it said it will not forego any patch of Syria, and I think Idlib is one of the coming hot areas," Haidar told Reuters. He said foreign fighters must leave and rebel supply lines via Turkey be cut off. HORIZON CLOSING Allowing fighters who surrender elsewhere to escape to Idlib has emerged as the basic offer on the table wherever government forces have rebel-held areas under siege. Damascus says its deals permit Syrians to stay as life returns to normal after a ceasefire. The opposition says the deals amount to forced demographic change to drive out Assad's opponents, an aim which the government denies. Idlib province at the border with Turkey is almost entirely controlled by rebel groups fighting to topple Assad, including powerful Islamist factions such as Ahrar al-Sham and Fateh al-Sham, formally known as the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front. Around Damascus, the pace of local deals has picked up in recent months, notably since rebels agreed to leave Daraya southwest of the capital in August for Idlib some 300 km (200 miles) away. Rebels now face the firepower of an army backed by Russian air support and ground troops from Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah movement. Haidar said more local deals were being concluded as armed groups found the "horizon" closing in on them. "The experience of Daraya accelerated the final conviction on the part of the militants that the state cannot be confronted forever," he said. Haidar said some 10,000 fighters had been given safe passage to Idlib so far from areas other than Aleppo, and he expected about as many more in the next six months "if we complete the reconciliations in the rural Damascus areas, Deraa and Quneitra". NO DEAL YET FOR DOUMA Rebels still hold territory in those areas and near Damascus, including Douma in the Eastern Ghouta area. Haidar said efforts to conclude a reconciliation deal there had yet to yield a result, blaming Saudi Arabia which wields influence over the main rebel group there, Jaish al-Islam. Saudi Arabia has been one of the main backers of the insurgency against Assad, along with Qatar, Turkey and the United States. In the Damascus area "the problem remains specifically Douma, because everyone knows that there is an armed group in Douma linked with Saudi Arabia", Haidar said. He also indicated a local deal could be reached soon in the Wadi Barada valley near Damascus, where government forces and their allies are currently battling rebels. A deal could be completed "in a very short period, not months", he said. Rebel groups have cited the assault on Wadi Barada as proof that the government is not committed to a new ceasefire brokered by Turkey and Russia. The United Nations says it has received reports that the latest fighting has displaced at least 7,000 people from the area where an estimated 45,000 people live. Syrian rebel groups said on Monday they had decided to freeze any talks about their possible participation in proposed peace talks unless the government and its Iran-backed allies end what the rebels say are truce violations. Haidar accused Saudi Arabia and Qatar of trying to obstruct the meeting in Kazakhstan's capital Astana. Turkey, on the other hand, was "searching for an exit far removed from its previous Saudi and Qatari allies," he said. "So far Astana is an expression of positive intentions, and these intentions have not been translated into real actions," he said, though it was possible that a first meeting could still be held there at the end of the month. (Additional reporting by Tom Miles in Geneva; writing by Tom Perry; editing by Peter Graff) By Jim Finkle and J.R. Wu BOSTON/TAIPEI (Reuters) - The group that orchestrated the theft of over $2 million from cash machines at Taiwan's First Commercial Bank in July was also behind an ATM hacking spree in more than a dozen European nations last year, according to cyber security firm Group-IB. The methods that the so-called Cobalt group used in Europe matched those used in Taiwan, Group-IB said in its latest client report. Three Eastern European men were arrested in Taiwan in July on suspicion of collecting cash stolen from ATMs owned by First Commercial Bank, a unit of First Financial Holding Co Ltd (2892.TW). Attorneys for the three defendants in an ongoing trial in Taipei told Reuters their clients were not familiar with Cobalt. The men - identified in court documents as Peregudovs Andrejs of Latvia, Colibaba Mihail of Romania and Pencov Nicolae of Moldova - were among a total of 22 individuals, all foreign nationals, that Taiwanese authorities suspect of taking part in the theft, where most of the money was subsequently recovered. The suspects used malware dubbed "ATM spitter" in the First Commercial Bank attacks, as well as similar hacks in countries including Armenia, Belarus, Britain, Bulgaria, Estonia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia and Spain, Group-IB said in a report to its customers that Reuters reviewed on Thursday. Group-IB first detailed the European spree in a report published in November, identifying the hackers as the Cobalt group. The firm linked Cobalt to the Taiwan heist in its report last week. Investigators in Taiwan told Reuters they were not aware of any links between Cobalt and the hackers behind the First Commercial Bank heist. "What we can say is the people behind this hacking were very good," a Taiwanese investigator familiar with the case told Reuters, on condition of anonymity because the investigator was not authorised to speak with media. The defendants, who maintain their innocence, said in a court hearing on Wednesday that they were not members of any international crime organization. Taipei prosecutors have said they suspect First Commercial Bank's network was breached at a London branch office. (Reporting by Jim Finkle in BOSTON and J.R. Wu in TAIPEI; Editing by Christopher Cushing) Despite striking out on a bevy of A-list performers, President-elect Donald Trump has reportedly landed the Talladega College marching band for his inauguration on Jan. 20. While that solidifies a win for Trump's administration, many Talladega alumni and Twitter users are expressing their anger online. According to CBS News, Alabama's oldest private Historically Black College has agreed to participate and march, despite Trump's controversial statements about the black community during the presidential campaign. Several alumni of Talladega College weren't thrilled with the idea of their school being the only HBCU to attend Trump's inauguration. "I don't want my alma mater to give the appearance of supporting him," Shirley Ferrill, class of 1974, told CBS News in regards to Trump. "Ignore, decline or whatever, but please don't send our band out in our name to do that." The marching band's decision to perform set Talladega College's social media ablaze. "No respect for a college seeking to play for a man that disrespected others 4 political gain. Shame on Talladega College," said one Twitter user. "Really, Talladega College? Not a good look at all. Shameful," said another. No respect for a college seeking to play for a man that disrespected others 4 political gain. Shame on Talladega College. #talladegacollege - W.Gabriel Selassie I (@drwgsi) January 2, 2017 Really, Talladega College? Not a good look at all. Shameful. https://t.co/SgcKqRnYEF - Random Brown Girl (@moonr0cks) January 2, 2017 New York's Marist College was also invited to participate, but several students have already voiced their displeasure with the school's decision to march for Trump. School spokesman Greg Cannon chimed in on the matter and said "more than 100" students refuse to perform Jan. 20. "They don't want to have anything to do with the inauguration or President Trump and we respect that, and that's their right," Cannon said. Students that elect not to perform will not be reprimanded for their decision. Check out a video of Talladega College's marching band below: Authorities allege a Texas man murdered his ex-wife who had once filed a protective order expressing fear he would kill her, PEOPLE confirms. Shaun Hardy was arrested on Dec. 30 after police executed a search warrant at his home and garage, where they allegedly found the body of Anne Christine Johnson wrapped in plastic and duct tape with scented candles nearby, according to court documents obtained by PEOPLE. Johnson, 30, was reported missing by her family on Dec. 12, four days after she went to visit Hardy at his League City home. Johnson failed to show up to work and was never heard from again, KHOU reports. According to the court documents, Hardy allegedly has a history of abusing his ex-wife. In 2015, one year after their divorce, Johnson and Hardy filed separate protective orders against each other following an allegedly violent argument, Hardys order of protection against Johnson states. I am afraid that without this protective order, Shaun Philip Hardy will continue to hurt me or even kill me in the future, Johnson told authorities at the time, Galveston County court officials tell PEOPLE. Johnson went to the emergency room for her injuries and charges were never filed, ABC13 reports. The orders were subsequently dismissed, a Galveston County court official tells PEOPLE. Despite the alleged abuse, Johnson got back together with her ex for the sake of their young son, who has special needs, according to ABC13. She didnt go back to Shaun, Janell Bogard told ABC13. She went back to protect her child. 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. When he saw police approach his home on Sunday, Hardy allegedly began sobbing, according to the court documents. Soon after, Johnsons body was found in the homes garage. During questioning, Hardy waived his right to a lawyer and allegedly admitted to killing Johnson, telling detectives that he threw her to the groundas hard as I could, the documents state. Story continues Hardy then allegedly said he put a plastic bag over Johnsons head to put her out of her misery, the documents state. According to the documents, Hardy stated that he just wanted to see Anne die. 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 what police believe was an attempt to cover up the killing, Hardy allegedly cleaned the area using a mop and ammonia before lighting scented candles near her remains. In a series of Facebook posts over the last few days, Johnsons mother, Stephanie Lieber Johnson, thanked the public for their support and prayers. I cant even begin to describe to you what this feels like, she writes. I am only beginning to naturally use the past tense when describing the child who was my moon, sun, stars and witty adversary! Police continue to investigate the murder while Hardy remains in the Galveston County Jail on a one million dollar bond, jail records show. It was not immediately clear whether he has entered a plea. PATTAYA, Thailand (Reuters) - A baby elephant took a tentative dip in a swimming pool in Thailand on Thursday as part of a lengthy rehabilitation process to heal her injured foot. Baby Fah Jam was three months old when her front left leg was caught in a trap set by villagers in Chanthaburi province, 250 km (155 miles) southeast of the capital, Bangkok. Veterinarian Padet Siridumrong said Fah Jam, who is now five months old, was showing signs of improvement following initial water-based exercises known as hydrotherapy. "By her fourth or fifth sessions she will enjoy swimming more. She's just a baby, that's why she's a bit scared at first but, by nature, elephants love the water," Padet said. The treatment could take up to two months, he said. The elephant is a symbol of Thailand and in ancient times they were used to carry soldiers into battle. They were also used in the logging industry. But logging has been banned and many domesticated elephants have ended up on the tourist trail, giving rides and putting on displays in shows. Animal rights groups have criticized the use of elephants in the tourism industry, arguing that the animals are often mistreated. There are about 3,700 elephants left in the wild in Thailand and up to 4,000 domesticated ones, according to EleAid, a British organization working for the conservation of the Asian elephant. Deforestation, rapid urbanization and poaching of elephants for their ivory have all contributed to a dramatic decline in the wild elephant population. (Reporting by Juarawee Kittisilpa; Writing by Amy Sawitta Lefevre; Editing by Darren Schuettler) Nearly 480 people died on Thailand's roads over the New Year holiday, official figures showed Thursday, a 25 percent rise over the so-called "seven dangerous days" despite the junta's tough talk on drink driving. The kingdom has some of the world's most lethal roads, with the carnage spiking over the New Year as millions of city workers return to their country homes. Thailand's junta government has launched repeated crackdowns on drink driving since its 2014 power grab, including approving harsher penalties for offenders and forcing drivers to visit mortuaries holding the bodies of accident victims. But the toll over the last week still soared to 478 -- up from the 380 recorded during the same period in 2016, according to the Interior Ministry's disaster prevention department. "The main reason... was drunk driving and speeding," said deputy Interior Minister Suthee Markboon, adding that a majority of the 3,919 crashes involved motorcyclists. The army said officials arrested nearly 67,000 people for drink driving and seized more than 4,000 cars between December 29 and January 4. The deadliest accident saw 25 people killed on Monday when a packed minivan and pickup truck collided in eastern Chonburi province. Experts say a lack of helmet-wearing among motorcyclists is a major factor for the high death rate. The kingdom's traffic cops are also notorious for bribe-taking and letting wealthy, well-connected drivers off the hook for offences. Speaking to reporters at the end of the seven days, junta chief Prayut Chan-O-Cha conceded his government had lost this year's battle. "We did the best we could, we had more checkpoints, more authorities, we seized tens of thousands of vehicles, but still we had more casualties," he said. Nevertheless he vowed to double-down on safety checks before Songkran, Thailand's traditional New Year holiday in April -- the other week the Thai press tags as the "seven dangerous days". Amir Arison as Aram Mojtabai, Mozhan Marno as Samar Navabi. (Photo: Virginia Sherwood/NBC) Warning: This interview for the Lipets Seafood Company episode of The Blacklist contains spoilers. The Blacklist returned Thursday night, and while there was no further movement on the Liz/Red front Liz, seriously, whos your daddy? it was a big episode for Samar, professionally and personally and the space where those two meet. After Aram was cleared of any wrongdoing in the case of his spy girlfriend, Elise, he and Samar made plans to celebrate with a dinner she labeled a date. But not so fast, Samararam shippers. Later in the episode, Samars colleagues learned she had been deeply involved in a covert operation with her old Mossad pals, without letting anyone on the task force know about it. Cooper questioned her loyalty to her job, but for Aram, who, again, is coming off his own drama with his employers questioning his commitment to the FBI, Samars Mossad op felt like both a professional and personal betrayal. He doesnt even know that shes admitted to former love Levi that shes now in love with Aram, but Aram told her he cant be with someone he loves someone he once considered a person he could marry and have a family with if he cant trust her. Crushing? Yes. But Samar portrayer Mozhan Marno talked to Yahoo TV about these new developments, and, bottom line: She tells us Samararam fans have every reason to hang in there. Related: Mozhan Marno Talks Everyones Favorite Would-Be Couple This is a big, emotional episode for Samar. What is she feeling at the end of all of this? Mozhan Marno: Yeah, its pretty massive, because things seem to conclude definitively with Levi [Oded Fehr], and they appear to, in a way, with Aram. I think at the end of the episode, shes disappointed, but I also think Samars the sort of person who truly understands consequence. Shes always talking about, Liz needs to accept the consequences for what shes done, and she always seems to be harder on people, but I think really its just that shes not judging. Shes like, That person did this thing, and now they have to accept responsibility for it, period. I think for her, its that she knows that shes participated in this covert operation and lied to her colleagues, and she cant argue with Aram. Story continues Samar is never harder on anyone else than she is on herself, so she does appear to be willing to accept whatever happens. Yes. Thats exactly right, which is why I think even though shes disappointed, she understands. She made her bed and now she will lie in it. Its a deal breaker for Aram, and maybe she didnt know that at the time, but maybe she should have. Which do you think is more upsetting to her, that Aram now questions her loyalties, or that her boss, Cooper, does? I think thats a great question. I guess the personal [Aram]. I think its unusual for her to care about somebody deeply, and I think that, yeah, that vulnerability is not something she exhibits or cares to experience all that often. When she puts herself in a position like that, I think she feels that more deeply, her personal connection. (Photo: Virginia Sherwood/NBC) She seems to have accepted that she and Aram may not have a chance to be together after her collaboration with her Mossad friends. But she had been waiting for Levi for so long, and now that hes free to be with her, she tells him shes in love with someone else, who we know is Aram. Do you think that means shes leaving the door open a bit to the possibility that she and Aram can get close again and get past this? Yes. I think shes hopeful, but it doesnt look good [right now]. Samar and Aram also seem to be victims of a lot of really bad timing, which is common, especially when friends are contemplating turning a relationship into something romantic. Is that overall a theme for them, that they just keep hitting these bad timing walls? I think its timing, but I also think that its because its, by nature, so delicate. Theres so much to lose, and on top of that, they work together, and I think nobody really makes big, bold moves all that often. I think you inch towards each other, and then you inch away, and something happens and theres the wrong look or the wrong moment, and then it takes another month before you take another inch towards somebody again. I think that its about the delicate nature of it, of precisely what you said about being friends and navigating through that territory. And then, of course, this particular relationship exists in the context of a criminal underworld. Theres always some plot or some criminal or some sting op that we are involved in, and that will invariably affect or throw a wrench into the romantic story. Samar lost her whole family, in very painful, heartbreaking ways. Does that lead her to think of her colleagues as a surrogate family, making all of these situations even more difficult for her? I think probably shes careful about that. Shes more careful than to just blindly depend on other people. I dont think thats something that comes very easily to her. I think that she has grown fond of and attached to certain people in the task force. I dont know that she would easily call them a surrogate family. I just dont think she allows herself to get that close to people. How do you think shes evolved since we first met her in Season 2? I think shes become a little softer. I think, as you said, shes had an extremely traumatic life that has resulted in her being this impenetrable persona. I think she has just seemed extremely strong and smart and worldly and impenetrable. Nothing fazes her. Now, I think weve just seen that a lot fazes her. You see the cracks in the facade, I think, is how shes evolved, and I think thats more interesting. Megan Boone as Elizabeth Keen, Diego Klattenhoff as Donald Ressler, Marno, Harry Lennix as Harold Cooper. (Photo: Virginia Sherwood/NBC) What are your favorite moments to play with Samar? Do you like the more physical stories, the more personal relationships? I think its always very fun for us to have opportunities to explore our interpersonal dynamics. I think that the show is a thriller, and its a connection show with a personal storyline, but that is mainly surrounding Red and Liz. So I think its fun for us to be able to have either very strong points of view about something or arguments or even Ive got a thing coming up in another episode where Samar just sees something that really moves her, and she talks about it. Its really very, very simple and very beautiful. I think thats always pretty fun [to play]. We dont get to see Samars reaction to the news that Liz is being reinstated as an agent on the task force. Will she be happy that Liz is an agent again? I think that Samars perspective on that is just going to be her own. What I mean by that is, Cooper or the FBI or whoever can do whatever they want, and Samar is still going to think shes not trustworthy. Ill work with her, thats fine. When I say not trustworthy, I just mean Samar let her guard down, she was close to Liz, she loves and cares about her, and Liz did this thing that was so manipulative, that truly manipulated all of our emotions. Really, I think, made fools of us. I think Samar, for some reason more than everyone else, feels that way, probably because its harder for her to care about people. So when she does, its more costly when they seemingly betray her. What can you tease about the second half of this season? What will we see for Samar? I dont think I can say a whole lot Thats not the end of Aram and Samar. Theres more. I dont know exactly that they come together, but theres more development. The Blacklist airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. on NBC. President Obama at a news conference in the Briefing Room of the White House, Dec. 16. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) I love a good real estate analogy, so naturally I had to admire the way Erick Erickson, the conservative blogger, recently described the last-minute flurry of actions emanating from the Obama White House. Obama and John Kerry, Erickson tweeted, are like tenants who trash a place as they are being evicted. Except, in this case, the analogy is a few degrees off. The president isnt really trashing anything. Its more like hes hurriedly adding the bold, modernist touches his landlord always resisted repainting walls, recessing lights, tearing up carpets and restaining floors in hopes that the guy whos moving in next wont have the time or tenacity required to undo them. Does Obama have the right in these waning days to govern like theres no tomorrow (because, of course, there isnt)? Does he retain the authority to rebuke Israel and smack the Russians, to protect vast expanses of public land while filling out scores of vacant seats on government commissions? Of course he does. Hes still the president, after all. Should he really be doing all these things on his way out the door? That seems to me a more complicated question. I understand why a lot of people want the answer to be yes. While I dont always agree with Obama or his party, I happen to think hes right about the seriousness of Russian hacking and the cost of Israeli intransigence in the Middle East. These are issues climate change is another where Donald Trump would be well served to listen to his predecessor before firing off tweets as if he were riffing on The Apprentice. I understand, too, that Obama actually boasts higher approval ratings than the incoming president (who, just by the way, kneels before any kind of approval rating, whether from Nielsen or Gallup, as if he were an Aztec and it were the sun). This is highly unusual during transitions, when the public generally embraces the new and unknown over the old and tattered, and I guess it could lend some legitimacy to Obamas last-minute actions. Story continues And, as my friend Michael Shear pointed out in his deft New York Times piece on the subject last weekend, theres plenty of modern precedent for outgoing administrations establishing new policy or settling old debts. Bill Clinton pardoned everyone but the Manson gang; George W. Bush negotiated multiyear troop withdrawals. Obama is hardly the first president to feel liberated by obsolescence. But the breadth of Obamas farewell agenda goes beyond that of his predecessors, and in any event, he has never seemed to be a president guided by history as much as by his own sense of principle. In this case, some of those principles seem hard to reconcile. Consider that Obama spent much of this past year insisting that his final Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, deserved a vote in the Senate something Senate Republicans refused to give him, because they were determined to let Obamas successor fill the vacancy instead. Obama argued, essentially, that even if the Senate technically had the right to deny his nominee a fair hearing, it had a larger duty to respect the constitutional process. The people had chosen him to lead the executive branch, and Congress had an obligation to honor that choice right up until the moment the electorate made some other decision. You know what? He was right. But the same principle applies now. Sure, Obama has the authority, technically speaking, to govern as he sees fit right up until the day the moving vans pull away. But the people have spoken, and theyve chosen, as the HR people say, to go in a different direction. I get how appalling that is to the White House, but Obama ought to respect it nonetheless. (And before you start with me about the sanctity of the popular vote, yes, I know, the entirety of New York and California voted for the other candidate, but Trump swept the vast majority of the countrys land mass and the bulk of its most populous states, so if it were me, Id save that particular argument for another election.) We dont have these transition periods because we want the outgoing president to set all kinds of new policy in the time he has left, with no accountability to voters. We have extended transitions so that someone can remain at the helm while the new administration gets up to speed on policy and scours the ranks of Goldman Sachs for more high-level hires. Obama is a pretty deep thinker about the structures of government, so surely he knows that. My guess, judging from the conversations Ive had with him over the years, is that he has to be a little conflicted about this last, desperate spate of policymaking. Im guessing hed rather not do it this way, but he feels some moral imperative to protect his legacy and, yes, the country from the worst of what Trump might do in his rush to reverse everything that came before. But as Obama himself might put it, were he merely a spectator watching this unfold, the underlying structures of the republic are easy to safeguard when theres no tangible cost. Its much harder to respect the will of the voters when the human consequences seem, at least to you, potentially calamitous. Thats precisely when you have to do it. Thats when it matters most. Kerry should not have given his speech denouncing Israel. Obama should not be filling jobs at the last hour. Its tempting to exploit the time you have left for maximum impact, but its also self-serving, and its bound to be fleeting. Because if theres one thing Obama should have learned from his futile strategy of governing by phone and pen if theres one thing that should be clear as Republicans prepare to obliterate much of his second term in a matter of hours its that you cant build anything lasting by executive fiat. Sooner or later, whatever you achieve with the flourish of a single pen is erased with about the same casual effort. What history will most remember, unfortunately, is that you refused to stand down when the verdict was in. Thats no way for an otherwise graceful president to go out. (YOLA, Nigeria) Self-defense fighters Wednesday killed three girl suicide bombers targeting a bustling market in northeastern Nigeria, civilian and military officials said. They blamed the Boko Haram Islamic extremist group for the attempted bombing. The civilian fighters who work alongside the army challenged the girls as they approached a village near Madagali town, local council chairman Yusuf Muhammad Gulak told The Associated Press. The girls began running at the checkpoint and the fighters shot the girl in the lead, activating her explosives and killing her and a companion, he said. The third girl tried to flee and was gunned down, Gulak said. Army spokesman Maj. Badare Akintoye confirmed the shootings, adding: Our soldiers are on alert and commercial activities are going on at the targeted market. Soldiers and civilian fighters have stopped many suicide bombers before they can reach heavily populated targets in recent months. But two women suicide bombers killed 57 people and wounded 177, including 120 children, last month at Madagali market, 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the scene of Wednesdays shootings. Boko Haram has used scores of women and girls as young as 7 in suicide bombings that have killed hundreds this year. Some of the bombers are suspected to have been previously kidnapped. A multinational force of troops from Nigeria and its neighbors has driven the Islamic extremists from most of the towns and villages where they had declared a caliphate to help create an Islamic state in Nigeria, a country of 170 million people divided almost equally between Muslims and Christians. Nigerias president declared that Boko Haram had been crushed last month, but theres unlikely to be a swift end to the suicide bombings and attacks on remote villages and army outposts. Boko Harams 7-year-old Islamic uprising has killed more than 20,000 people, driven 2.6 million from their homes and created a massive humanitarian crisis that the U.N. says has 5.1 million people facing starvation. MADRID (Reuters) - The three biblical wise men paraded through Madrid's streets amid tight security on Thursday, the eve of Epiphany, which celebrates the day they are said to have visited the infant Christ with gold, frankincense and myrrh. Melchior, Caspar and Balthazar, accompanied by hundreds of eclectic floats, handed out sweets to the thousands of children lining the Spanish capital's main boulevard. Madrid's authorities deployed 800 police officers, some heavily armed, erected concrete barriers to block access to streets and curbed the movement of trucks after the December attack in Berlin on a Christmas market. A Tunisian man killed 12 people in the Dec. 19 attack when he plowed a truck into a row of market stalls, leading other European capitals to ramp up security. The Day of the Kings on Jan. 6 is a bigger day than Christmas for many in Spain. Children often wait until then to open their presents said to have been brought by the wise men and not Santa Claus, the traditional gift-giver elsewhere. Every Spanish city and most towns hold parades featuring the kings, wearing robes, crowns and billowing beards, and Madrid's is one of the largest. In Catalonia controversy has been focused on the attempt by pro-independence organizations to politicize the parade in Vic, a town around 70 kilometers north of Barcelona, with the distribution of lanterns bearing the "estelada" flag, usually used by Catalan separatists. (Reporting By Jesus Aguado; Editing by Angus Berwick and Richard Lough) United States President-elect Donald Trumps cabinet pick for the position of secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, is set to receive more than $180 million as he severs his ties with his former companyExxonMobil. If Tillerson, the former chairman and CEO of ExxonMobil, is confirmed to the post through upcoming hearings before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee that start from Jan. 11, he will be paid in cash for his previously set retirement package that was pegged at the value of two million unvested shares over the next ten years and the money will be transferred to an independently managed trust, according to a regulatory filing on Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Upon confirmation, Tillerson would be committed to selling his more than 600,000 vested Exxon shares worth about $54 million. However, had Tillerson retired with the company in March as planned, rather than stepping down as Exxon CEO on Jan. 1 after his nomination to the post of secretary of state was announced, he would not have lost $7 million from the retirement deal. The deal, designed to comply with federal ethics rules and to avoid any situation of potential conflict of interest or office for profit also stipulates some checks and balances. Tillerson has been prohibited from working in the oil and gas industry for a period of ten years. If Tillerson violates the terms of the deal, he would have to forfeit his payout secured in the trust and it would be donated to charities involved in fighting poverty or disease in the developing world, according to Exxon. However, some such as Charles Elson, a professor of governance at the University of Delaware, believe that by allowing Tillerson to fully divest from Exxon, one can make the case that the company is granting millions of dollars to Tillerson, just as he is on the cusp of taking a position that can affect the companys business results. Exxon is trying to make the best of a tough situationIt would be unfair to take it all away, but vesting his shares would create a lot of problems. Theyre trying to give him value for what he accomplished and also protect the company. Theres no easy solution to this, Elson was quoted saying to Wall Street Journal. Related Articles Nobel laureates and other top scientists are imploring Donald Trump to keep the Iran nuclear deal intact when he becomes president. In an open letter, 36 scientists including one who helped design the first hydrogen bomb asked the president-elect to preserve the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). "The JCPOA does not take any options off the table for you or any future president," the scientists wrote. "Indeed it makes it much easier for you to know if and when Iran heads for a bomb. It provides both time and legitimacy for an effective response." [The 10 Greatest Explosions Ever] The Iran deal The nuclear deal was announced in 2015. According to the deal, the United States and five other major nations would lift some sanctions against Iran if the country began dismantling its nuclear-weapons program. According to the White House, by Jan. 16, 2016, Iran had shipped 25,000 pounds of enriched uranium out of the country, dismantled two-thirds of the centrifuges used to enrich uranium, disabled its heavy water reactor and allowed unprecedented international monitoring. The goal was to increase the time it would take Iran to make a nuclear bomb from a few months to at least a year. In their open letter, the scientists touted the agreement as a success. "The JCPOA has dramatically reduced the risk that Iran could suddenly produce significant quantities of nuclear-weapon materials," they wrote. Critics of the Iran deal argue that it would at best delay Iran, not prevent it from acquiring nuclear capabilities. Trump's campaign rhetoric was even more pointed. In September 2016, for example, he said at a town hall in Virginia Beach that the deal was "the highest level of incompetence." Scientist signatories The organizer and first signatory on the letter is Richard Garwin, a physicist who designed the first hydrogen bomb built in 1952. Garwin is now an IBM Fellow Emeritus. The letter was also signed by physicist Robert Goldston of Princeton University, who has worked on a process to verify nuclear disarmament without requiring knowledge of classified information. Another signatory, nuclear scientist Siegfried Hecker of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, once directed the weapons lab at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and has devoted his research to nuclear security. Story continues The signers include Nobel laureates, winners of the most prestigious prize in the sciences. Signer Philip W. Anderson won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1977 for his work on "the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems." Other signers: Leon Cooper won the physics prize in 1972 for developing a theory of superconductivity; Jerome Friedman, a particle physicist, won the prize in 1990 for work that informed the quark model of particle physics; and Sheldon Lee Glashow was a 1979 winner for work on the interactions between elementary particles. Other Nobel laureates on the signatory list were David Gross, who was awarded the physics prize in 2004, and Burton Richter, who won in 1976. Other notable names on the signatory list include Freeman Dyson, a physicist famous for the concept of the "Dyson sphere," or an artificial biosphere around a star built by intelligent extraterrestrials; Philip Coyle, the former associate director for National Security and International Affairs in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; and Allison Macfarlane, a former commissioner of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Original article on Live Science. Editor's Recommendations james clapper fbi cia senate hearing Top US intelligence officials said in a joint statement Thursday that Russia's senior-most officials were involved in hacking Democratic Party organizations in the months leading up to the presidential election. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Marcel Lettre, and National Security Agency Director Adm. Michael Rogers released the statement at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on foreign cyberthreats. US intelligence officials have blamed Russia for hacking the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, John Podesta, before the election. "We assess that only Russia's senior-most officials could have authorized the recent election-focused data thefts and disclosures, based on the scope and sensitivity of the targets," the statement said. The statement said Russia "poses a major threat" to the US because of its "aggressive" and "advanced" cyber program. "Looking forward, Russian cyber operations will likely target the United States to gather intelligence, support Russians decision-making, conduct influence operations to support Russian military and political objectives, and prepare the cyber environment for future contingencies," the statement said. Clapper said a final report on Russian interference in the US election would be released early next week. President-elect Donald Trump has challenged the US intelligence community's assessment of Russian involvement in election-related hacking. NOW WATCH: 'They haven't played by the rules': Trump accuses China of 'massive theft of intellectual property' and unfairly taxing US companies More From Business Insider E! Last time on Total Divas: Rusev and Lana did a Nashville photo shoot for their wedding invitations, because they are gods most perfect creations. Also, everyone in the world is filming The Marine 5: Marine Layer, and Nikki Bella shocked the world by having a higher IQ than Brie. You can find our recap of the season six premiere right here if you need to get caught up, and you can find ourTotal Bellas recaps over here. On with the show! Backstage, the various ladies are freaking out because theyre hearing rumors about the impending brand split and theyre not sure what it means for all of them after the draft. Nattie of all people asks John Laurinaitis if this means theyll never see their friends again. She was one of the only women who was around during the first brand extension, so uh no, Nattie. Brie and Nikki are working out together. Nicole suggests that the two of them go to Napa while John Cena is on a film set. Nikki thinks they can get a lot of work done by the pool. Brie agrees to go on one condition: Napa remains a work-free space. She says Nikki tends to stress her out and kill her fertility. Nattie makes her way into the building for a show and Mark Carrano marvels that shes the only woman who ever knows how to find the building and shes the only woman who doesnt have a riding partner. Carrano tells her to see creative. Nattie asks if shes being killed off and ICE COLD MARK CARRANO says Maybe, because hes just a shithead like that. John and Nikki go out to dinner and Cena thinks her outfit might be a little bit revealing. E! Not seeing it John, you prude. Nikki is sad John is leaving on another shoot and she wont get much time with him, but he assures her hell be home on Wednesdays. E! John Cena: genuine class (anagrams). Nattie reveals that shes been told shes getting a heel turn. Or, as she puts it, turning into a bad guy. She doesnt know how shell adapt, because shes been a good guy for so long. Uh, trust me, Nattie, I think youll be fine. She says shes been a good guy for five years. What, seriously? I guess its just hard to tell? Theres probably a joke about WWE faces somewhere in here. Nattie is upset about her heel turn, because she gets cheered while turning on Becky Lynch. Probably not Natties fault! Story continues Brie and Nicole are in Napa and Nikki has a huge revelation: why dont the Bellas have their own wine? They drink wine all the time! That probably qualifies them to have their own wine! Nikkis been talking to someone about getting them their own wine. Theres probably just someone you can call about that. Probably in the yellow pages. Brie and Nikki relax (with some wine) and Nikki talks about how she wants to retire to Napa someday. Brie says John would have to get used to a slow-paced life if that happens. Nikki says thats never going to happen until John is old, so shell have to get used to spending time alone with her vibrator. E! Nattie, meanwhile, is freaking out (weird!) about how upset people are online about her heel turn, and shes worried about losing thousands of fans and becoming destitute. Meanwhile, Paige is excited about finally getting back on television and working more. In a match on Raw, Paige takes a double suplex from Dana Brooke and Charlotte Flair and feels something pop in her shoulder. She says its the most painful experience of her life, and she thinks this would be the worst possible timing for her to get injured. In hindsight: yeah, probably. Natties heel turn continues apace, and she continues to get no reaction from her beatings-up of Becky Lynch. Shes worried whatll happen if this turn fails, because she cant go back to being a face, and shes worried shell be fired. Elsewhere, Eva Marie and Paige are spending the day together in San Antonio. Theyve made up and grown closer since all their early-seasons hatred of one another, so Eva Marie is excited to catch up and spend time. They spend the day at the snake farm, because Paige like weirding people out. Paige gets to wear a Burmese python and does her best Britney Spears impression. E! Nailed it. Nattie checks in backstage with the hair and makeup people and sees if she can go full-tilt with the heel turn by wearing a black wig. E! Oh, honey. Rusev approves, though. E! Nattie feels ugly in the wig and agrees that it looks terrible. She thinks there must be another way to make the heel turn work. Yeah, a way other than wigs. Probably. Dolph looks decent in it, though. E! more like dolph wiggler am i right Brie and Nikki are hanging out in Napa and arguing about how to spell handkerchief. Nikkis first attempt: H-A-N-K-E-R-I-E-F. Reminder: she won the IQ test competition. Over dinner, Nikki brings up that shes talking to people about a Bella brand wine. Brie rightfully points out that she doesnt know anything about wine, but Nikki doesnt think that matters. Brie wishes Nikki would just come to Napa to relax and not try to turn it into a business venture. She thinks Nikki is trying to keep up with John, and is just looking for things to fill her time while John is tied up with other things. Nikki hates that Brie is always trying to blame her aspirations on John. Eva and Paige go on a river walk and Paige is so happy about being a stepmom to Alberto Del Rios kids, and for the first time shes actually considering/looking forward to marrying someone. She also reveals that she got his name tattooed on her. E! Eva is like, haha this is weird, she barely knows this guy and Paige is like, Im really enjoying how much me and Eva are bonding. Everything is going great. Brie and Nikki go out in Napa and meet with some wine manufacturers, who show them some of their products. Brie says she wouldnt be involved in the wine business, and the wine manufacturers try to convince her its not as much work as she might think. They offer to give them the crash course in the wine business over the next few days and the Bellas agree. Eva and Paige are driving back home and Paige talks about how much her neck is bothering her, but doesnt want anyone to know. Eva promises not to tell anyone, but buys a convenience store neck brace for Paige, because shes a good friend. E! Backstage, Nattie catches up with ICE COLD MARK CARRANO and asks for permission to pitch some ideas to the powers that be. She says, I think because Ive been such a strong babyface over the past five years and Carrano just says, No, but Nattie plows through without noticing, because NATTIEEEEE. Nattie asks to be paired with Eva Marie, because she feels that would be instant heat and she would be able to mentor Eva at the same time. Carrano immediately calls her out on the fact that her idea is set up to just steal Evas heat and doesnt help Eva in any way. Nattie tries to protest, but Carrano just says, Be a star on your own without stealing from other people and walks away. ICE. COLD. MARK. CARRANO. YALL. E! Brie and Nikki go out to a vineyard with their wine manufacturer friends. They learn about vine maintenance, soil, vineyard upkeep, and everything else. Brie gives Nikki credit, because she actually gets down in the dirt and starts moving rocks and things. She also burns herself on the muffler of an ATV. It isnt ALL gravy. And on WWE television, Nattie finally gets booed for beating up Becky! Third times the charm! Nattie gives one of her If Ive learned anything from this situation spiels and I sort of just black out, because Nattie aint never gonna learn anything cmon man. Brie and Nikki lounge by the pool (with wine, of course), and Brie once again brings up the gaping void that consumes her whenever John is away from home. Im paraphrasing, but only just. Nikki leaves in a huff. There was no time, or she would have left in a minute and a huff. Brie calls Bryan to share a laugh about how Nikki thinks shes going to be more successful than John. Bryan is like Uh, thats cool that she thinks that. Stop being an asshole to your sister. He makes her go apologize, and makes sure she starts by saying I was wrong. Backstage at a new WWE event, Mark Carrano corners Paige and asks about her neck. Paige says its fine, but Carrano says he already knows its not fine. She still tries to deny it and downplay it, but Carrano says shell be out until they get this fixed. Paige is furious, especially because shes only told one person. She confronts Eva and calls her a piece of shit, and that shes always going to be the same. Nattie reveals shes the one who asked Carrano about Paiges neck, because none of the women knew it was a secret that she was hurt. Paige flips out on both of them and storms out. Eva Marie didnt say a thing, but Nattie and everyone else could tell she was hurt because she was very visibly moving hurt for the past week. Nattie astutely (twice per season!) points out that Paige shouldnt be the one whos angry, because its stupid to work hurt. Yeah! Brie goes to apologize to Nikki, who already has her defenses up. Brie finally gets a chance to apologize and tells her she admires her. Nikki accepts her apology and says shes going to eventually teach her to be an entrepreneur herself. She says theres only one more thing to do to seal the apology: rub her feet. E! Next week: Bryan gets a call from WWE, and Paige finds out her neck injury might be some serious business. toyota concept car ces At the Consumer Electronics Show on Wednesday, Toyota unveiled a concept car that keeps the driver front-and-center. Called Concept-i, the compact car features an artificial intelligence system named Yui that is meant to make driving safer while still allowing the driver to maintain full control. Yui, which Toyota says can measure human emotion, will help the driver retain focus by performing mild tasks, like turning the radio on or engaging in a conversation. The only time Yui will take control of the car is in an emergency situation like an upcoming accident. What Toyota is, essentially, describing is a Level 2 autonomous system similar to Tesla's Autopilot where the car's self-driving capabilities only kick in when needed. But it's an even more mild approach than Tesla Autopilot. Yui is only there for emergency purposes and to give the driver a pal it won't be changing lanes or merging on freeways for you. The concept car shows how Toyota's vision for self-driving car differs quite a bit from many of its competitors in the space. 'Not even close' gill pratt toyota research institute The concept car was presented by Gill Pratt, the CEO of the Toyota Research Institute, which was formed last year. Initially a six-man tech team, the TRI is now composed of 100 researchers and plans to grow even more, Pratt said at the CES event. The TRI is developing artificial intelligence with the ultimate goal of building a car incapable of causing a crash, but is also pursuing projects like robots that can assist people within the home. Pratt said the Concept-i highlights how the TRI is taking a two-pronged approach to self-driving cars: Guardian, the Yui-based approach where the car only takes over in very select cases, and Chauffeur, a fully self-driving car. Pratt said Toyota is starting with Level 2 autonomy because there is still a long road ahead before cars reach Level 5 autonomy, which is when vehicles can completely drive themselves in any situation. Story continues "I need to make it perfectly clear, [Level 5 is] a wonderful, wonderful goal. But none of us in the automobile or IT industries are close to achieving true Level 5 autonomy. We are not even close," Pratt said at CES. That's a far cry from what other automakers are saying. Google's self-driving company, Waymo, said it is still committed to a Level 5 autonomous car, though it has slightly acquiesced in its vision and decided to keep driver controls like the steering wheel in its future vehicles. (Waymo said it's only keeping the controls due to the regulatory environment.) "What you're feeling from the Waymo team is confidence that we're close to bringing this to a lot of people," CEO John Krafcik said at Waymo's press event in December. "We're getting close. We're getting ready. And we want to tell the world about it." Waymo currently has a partnership with Fiat Chrysler and will begin testing a fleet of new, self-driving Chrysler minivans on public roads this year. The Information reported that Google could use the fleet for a self-driving taxi service by the end of 2017, but Waymo has yet to confirm. Tesla is currently producing cars with new hardware that is capable of achieving full autonomy. A Tesla car will drive itself from Los Angeles to New York City by the end of 2017 to show the hardware's fully autonomous capabilities. Toyota, meanwhile, has put itself in the same camp as Volvo, which plans to continue rolling out autonomous features in its cars to make them safer and plans to be on its way to full autonomy starting in 2020. In other words, don't expect a fully self-driving Toyota car any time soon. Level 2 poses risks toyota concept car ces It's often debated whether or not it's worth taking the Toyota approach of gradually rolling out autonomous features in cars before achieving full autonomy. In November 2015, Tesla CEO Elon Musk put constraints on Autopilot after seeing people post "fairly crazy videos" of them not paying attention while the Autopilot was activated. One such video showed a man shaving while the car was driving in Autopilot. When a man died in a car crash while Tesla's Autopilot was activated the company's first known Autopilot fatality Consumer Reports called on Tesla to disable the feature. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is still investigating the accident. Pratt acknowledged concerns regarding Level 2 autonomous systems at CES. "There are some companies that have already decided the challenges may be too difficult and have decided to skip Levels 2 and 3. Were not sure," he said. Pratt added that the purpose of developing an AI system like Yui is to help ensure drivers stay vigilant at a time where autonomous tech is still in its infancy. As Pratt said, it's difficult to determine the standard of safety we consider acceptable when giving a machine control. As Musk has said during backlash against Autopilot, the system is saving more lives relative to the number of times a person is put in harm. That may seem callous when considering an individual death, but it's the kind of argument automakers are being forced to weigh in the age of autonomy. Toyota, for its part, has decided on a its approach. NOW WATCH: Toyota created a $392 baby robot to help comfort people in Japan without children More From Business Insider * Toyota, Honda await Trump policy before considering Mexico plans * Japan automakers use Mexico as production for cars sold in U.S. * Toyota building car assembly plant in Mexico (Adds Honda CEO comment, Mexico production details) TOKYO, Jan 5 (Reuters) - The presidents of Toyota Motor Corp and Honda Motor Co Ltd said they have no immediate plans to curb production in Mexico, preferring to wait until after Donald Trump's inauguration as U.S. President this month before deciding whether to make any changes. Automakers in the U.S. have been slammed by Trump for building cars in lower-cost factories south of the border, which he said costs American jobs. Pressure to curb that production intensified this week after Ford Motor Co scrapped plans to build a $1.6 billion assembly plant in Mexico after Trump harshly criticized the investment. "We will consider our option as we see what policies the incoming president adopts," Toyota President Akio Toyoda said on Thursday at an industry gathering in Tokyo, when asked whether his company was considering any changes to a production plant the automaker is building in Mexico. "We produce cars in Mexico for markets including North America and Europe and we have no immediate plan to change this," Honda's president and chief executive officer, Takahiro Hachigo, said at the event to mark the New Year. Trump has also said General Motors Co could become subject to tariffs on Mexico-made cars for the U.S. market, and that he would like to renegotiate terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement signed with Canada and Mexico. Toyota, Honda and Nissan Motor Co Ltd, Japan's top three automakers, have production facilities both in the United States and in Mexico, while Toyota and Honda also operate plants in Canada. Much of the vehicles produced in Mexico and Canada and exported to the United States - the single biggest market for Japanese automakers. Toyota produces a total of around 100,000 pick-up trucks and truck beds each year at its plant in the state of Baja California, and plans to raise output to around 160,000 units by 2018. It is also building a plant in Guanajuato city which will have an annual capacity of 200,000 when it comes online in 2019. Story continues Honda has two auto plants in Mexico, one in Celaya city and the other in Guadalajara city that together build around 260,000 cars and 100,000 motorcycles a year. In the year ended March, Nissan produced around 800,000 vehicles at its three plants in Mexico, nearly half of which were sold in the United States. (Reporting by Naomi Tajitsu; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Christopher Cushing) A transgender man is suing a Catholic hospital in New Jersey after he says it refused to allow his hysterectomy on religious grounds. Jionni Confortis doctors concluded that a hysterectomy was medically necessary for him, so he found a surgeon and scheduled the procedure at St. Josephs Regional Medical Center in Paterson in 2015. He didnt expect any problems until a hospital administrator told him they could not allow his surgery because it was a Catholic hospital, he alleges in the federal lawsuit. Being humiliated and rejected by a hospital because of who you are as a person is not okay, Conforti, 33, told TIME. St. Josephs allegedly denied Confortis surgery despite having a patients bill of rights that guarantees medical service without discrimination based on categories including gender identity or expression. The hospital did not immediately respond to a request for comment. While Conforti found another hospital to perform his hysterectomy three months later, he said he felt betrayed and became depressed after St. Josephs denied his surgery. He pointed to the high rate of suicide among transgender people, saying that an experience like his can make transitioning even harder. My goal is to make a change for the up and coming trans people so they never have to go through this, he said. Conforti, who is represented by Lambda Legal, is seeking monetary damages and to require the hospital to perform any needed medical care for transgender patients. Paris (AFP) - Family and friends have paid tribute to a daredevil 17-year-old British train-surfer who died in the Paris metro on New Year's Eve. The exact circumstances of Nye Frankie Newman's death remain unclear, but the operator of the Paris underground train service said his body was found between two carriages shortly before midnight. While friends have denied he was train-surfing at the time, a French police source told AFP he "was trying to climb on to the roof of the metro when he fell. He suffered a severe head injury." On his Facebook page, which still features some of his sometimes illegal exploits on top of trains, high-buildings or cranes, friends have left messages of condolence and praise. On a separate "Remembering Nye" tribute page, friend Petar Cule wrote that "he lived every moment fearlessly with a open mind and a big heart." Globe-trotting Newman was a member of a British group that promotes parkour, a dangerous sport also known as free-running that sees risk-takers perform acrobatics or stunts while roaming around cities. "Nye was an incredible human being who was always up for anything, he experienced things in his short life that many won't experience in their life times," said the group Brewman on its Facebook page. The Paris metro operator RATP said Newman was part of a gang who had filmed themselves riding on top of a train travelling on an open-air stretch of track that crosses the river Seine in early December. The RATP filed a complaint over the incident. The day before he died, Newman posted a picture of a friend in which both of them appear to be standing precariously on top of one of the bridges of the same line high above the river. Washington (AFP) - President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday described America's leading congressional Democrat as a "clown" who behaves like a typical politician, but he nevertheless urged him to work with Republicans. In his latest early morning tweetstorm, the incoming president attacked Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer -- whom he has previously praised -- amid a mounting row over health care reform. Republicans have vowed to press ahead with the potentially unpopular campaign promise of gutting President Barack Obama's signature legislation, the Affordable Care Act, which allowed millions of poorer Americans to get coverage but has been criticized for raising insurance premiums. Republicans -- who control both houses of Congress and will take over the White House from January 20 -- however appear uncertain about what, if anything, should replace Obamacare. With the party taking a political hit for appearing adrift in the opening days of the new Congress, Trump pinned responsibility back on Democrats. "The Democrats, lead [sic] by head clown Chuck Schumer, know how bad ObamaCare is and what a mess they are in," Trump said in a string of tweets that were at once strident and conciliatory. "Instead of working to fix it, they do the typical political thing and BLAME. The fact is ObamaCare was a lie from the beginning. 'Keep you [sic] doctor, keep your plan!' It is time for Republicans & Democrats to get together and come up with a healthcare plan that really works -- much less expensive & FAR BETTER!" Schumer, who like Trump is from New York, retorted with a warning against attempting to gut a law that has helped millions. "People's health is at stake. And people's lives are at stake," Schumer said in a statement, as he accused Republicans of having "no idea" how to replace Obamacare with something better. "Instead of calling names, the president-elect should roll up his sleeves and show us a replacement plan that will cover the 20 million Americans who gained coverage, that will cover students or post-college students, 21 to 26, who want to stay on their parents' plan, that will show how we cover people with preexisting conditions." Story continues Republicans in Congress made their first moves to repeal the law Wednesday, agreeing to begin the process of starving the system of funding. Obama has launched a parting offensive to try to save his reform, making a rare visit to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to rally Democrats for what is shaping up as the first major fight of the next administration. Democratic Senator Tim Kaine, who ran for vice president on Hillary Clinton's losing ticket last year, blasted Republicans for showing "heartlessness" about the issue. But he held the door open for cooperation, telling CNN: "We will look at any suggestion that doesn't reduce coverage or increase cost or diminish the quality of care." WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump plans to pick businessman William Hagerty as the next U.S. ambassador to Japan, an adviser to Trump's transition team told Reuters on Wednesday. Japan's Nikkei news service reported that Trump would soon announce the choice of Hagerty, the director of presidential appointments in his transition team. The adviser who spoke to Reuters confirmed the Nikkei report on condition of anonymity. Hagerty is a Tennessee native who founded a private equity firm, Hagerty Peterson. He spent several years in Japan with the Boston Consulting Group management consultancy and later served in the White House of former President George H.W. Bush. He will replace Caroline Kennedy, who has held the position since 2013. Japan's chief cabinet secretary, Yoshihide Suga, declined to comment on the report since the choice has yet to be formally announced, saying only that he hoped the new ambassador would be able to develop a friendly U.S.-Japan relationship. Others said that while the extent of Hagerty's knowledge of diplomacy and regional politics remained unknown and could be a concern, the choice suggests Trump is prioritizing economics in bilateral ties, which may relieve officials concerned by his protectionist stance on trade during the presidential campaign. Japanese companies play a key role in the U.S. economy, employing more than 800,000 American workers. They contributed $78 billion to U.S. exports in 2014, according to the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo. Koichi Hori, the chairman of consulting firm Dream Incubator Inc and a former president of Boston Consulting in Japan, who worked with Hagerty in the early 1990s, termed him a pragmatist who might not always toe Trump's conservative line on trade. "Rather than doing that, he might advise Trump that if he doesn't think of other countries more, it ultimately may not benefit the United States," Hori added. A long-time U.S. resident of Tokyo with knowledge of business and politics who knows Hagerty by reputation, but not personally, said he had a reputation as a "typical management consultant - logical, thoughtful, and has no patience for trade rhetoric." Story continues The news was likely to reassure officials at the Ministry of Economics, Trade and Industry (METI) as well as the Ministry of Finance (MOF), he added. "The boys at the U.S. Defense Department and the Defense Agency may be disappointed because of his lack of experience in the geopolitical aspects of the U.S.-Japan relationship, but METI, MOF and everyone else here in Tokyo should be breathing a sign of relief," he added. Japan's Defense Ministry was formerly called the Defense Agency. (Reporting by David Brunnstrom in WASHINGTON and Kaori Kaneko, Linda Sieg, and Nobuhiro Kubo in TOKYO, additional Writing by Elaine Lies; Editing by Alistair Bell and Clarence Fernandez) WASHINGTON (AP) President-elect Donald Trump has selected former Indiana Sen. Dan Coats to lead the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, a role that would thrust him into the center of the intelligence community that Trump has publicly challenged, a person with knowledge of the decision said Thursday. Coats served as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee before retiring from Congress last year. If confirmed by the Senate, he would oversee the umbrella office created after 9/11 to improve coordination of U.S. spy and law enforcement agencies. The person with knowledge of Trump's decision, as well as others who spoke to The Associated Press about intelligence matters involving Trump, were not authorized to discuss the matters publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. Since winning the election, Trump has repeatedly challenged intelligence officials' assessments that Russia interfered with the election on his behalf, setting up an unusually public battle with the spy agencies. On Friday, senior intelligence officials will try to justify their claims when they brief Trump on the findings of a full report into the Russian hacking of Democratic groups. The report was ordered by President Barack Obama, who was informed of the conclusions Thursday. On the eve of his briefing, Trump continued to challenge the intelligence community's assertion that Russia was behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee. He questioned how officials could be "so sure" about the hacking if they had not examined DNC servers. "What is going on?" he wrote on Twitter. A senior law enforcement official said in a statement released by the FBI that the bureau repeatedly stressed to DNC officials the importance of obtaining direct access to the servers "only to be rebuffed until well after the initial compromise had been mitigated." The official said the FBI had to rely on a "third party" for information, but did get access to the material it needed. Story continues Against that backdrop, Trump's transition team has been considering ways to restructure intelligence agencies part of an effort to streamline operations and improve efficiency, not as retribution. Transition officials have been looking at changes at both ODNI and the CIA, according to a person familiar with the discussions. The person said they reflect the views of intelligence officials who have told Trump's team that there is room for streamlining within the multi-agency intelligence community. The Wall Street Journal first reported Wednesday night that Trump was considering the changes. Trump transition spokesman Sean Spicer said the report was "100 percent false" and said transition activities were "for information-gathering purposes." The scope of the changes discussed by some in Trump's transition team was unclear. But the prospect of a sweeping overhaul still created blowback, contributing to former CIA Director James Woolsey's decision to step aside as a senior adviser to the president-elect. A person with direct knowledge of Woolsey's decision said the former CIA chief had not been significantly involved in the Trump team's discussions on intelligence matters and became uncomfortable being labeled as an adviser. In an interview on CNN, Woolsey said he did not want to "fly under false colors." In other recent television appearances, Woolsey who was CIA director under President Bill Clinton said he believed Russia was involved in the election-related hackings, though he also said others may have been as well. The CIA declined to comment on potential changes to the intelligence community. Outgoing National Intelligence Director James Clapper told a Senate panel Thursday that his office has not been engaged in such discussions with the Trump transition team. He noted that lawmakers created his office. "Congress, I think, gets a vote here," said Clapper, who was testifying on Russia's election interference. Coats' nomination is likely to soothe those who fear Trump will significantly overhaul the intelligence community. The 73-year-old is a Capitol Hill veteran who served eight years in the House before moving to the Senate in 1989 to take Dan Quayle's place when he became vice president. He stayed in the Senate until 1998, then left to become a lobbyist. After a stint as ambassador to Germany under President George W. Bush, Coats joined the high-powered Washington firm of King & Spalding. He helped lead the company's government affairs division and lobbied for pharmaceutical, defense and energy companies. Coats, who earned $600,000 in his final 13 months at King & Spalding, downplayed his lobbying work when he returned to Indiana for a successful Senate comeback bid in 2010. He served one term and did not seek re-election last year. Coats was a harsh critic of Russia and pushed the Obama administration to harshly punish Moscow for its annexation of Crimea in 2014. When the White House levied sanctions, the Kremlin responded by banning several lawmakers, including Coats, from traveling to Russia. Trump has called for improving the relationship between the U.S. and Russia, and has also spoken favorably about Russian President Vladimir Putin. His refusal thus far to accept the intelligence community's assessment that Russia was meddling in the 2016 election has sparked concern among lawmakers in both parties. Intelligence agencies have concluded that there is no question that Russia was behind hacking of political computer systems something they say could only have occurred with the approval of top Kremlin officials. That conclusion is detailed in the classified report Obama ordered up on Russia and other foreign influence in U.S. elections dating back to 2008. _ AP writers Tom Davies in Indianapolis and Eric Tucker and Josh Lederman in Washington contributed to this report. _ Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC , Deb Riechmann at http://twitter.com/debriechmann , and Jonathan Lemire at http://twitter.com/jonlemire New York (AFP) - President-elect Donald Trump gave sworn testimony Thursday in his $10 million lawsuit against celebrity chef Jose Andres for canceling a deal to open a restaurant in Trump's new Washington hotel. The deposition of Trump, who takes office on January 20, lasted just over one hour, said Alan Garten, the chief attorney for The Trump Organization, the holding company for the property tycoon's businesses. Trump sued Andres in July 2015 after the Spanish-born chef backed out of a contract to open a Spanish fine dining restaurant in Trump's new luxury hotel down the street from the White House. Andres said he pulled out over remarks by Trump, then a Republican presidential contender, criticizing Mexicans as rapists. According to Trump's lawsuit, he is seeking damages that exceed $10 million. Last month, the award-winning Andres, who owns several restaurants in the US capital and elsewhere in the country, proposed to the president-elect, via Twitter, that they settle their differences "in a friendly way" and donate the money to a charity. But Garten indicated that such a settlement was not on the horizon. "The case is fairly straightforward," Trump's lawyer said. "In short, the parties entered into a valid and enforceable lease, which the tenant clearly breached by walking out and failing to perform its obligations, thereby entitling the landlord to recover damages in the form of unpaid rent, cost of build out, lost profits and other expenses." Andres' ThinkFoodGroup declined to comment Thursday. The Trump Organization did not say where the deposition was held. According to Politico, it was videotaped at Trump's headquarters in Trump Tower in New York, where the future president is holding meetings before his inauguration. Trump filed a similar lawsuit against chef Geoffrey Zakarian, who also pulled out of a deal to open a restaurant at the Trump International Hotel in Washington. Story continues The lawsuits are among legal actions that could cloud the presidency of the businessman, who has already taken steps to end some of those entanglements. Just after his November 8 election, Trump agreed to pay $25 million to settle lawsuits over alleged fraud at Trump University. And on December 24, he announced he would dissolve his controversial philanthropic foundation, the Trump Foundation, to avoid conflicts of interest. The New York State attorney general had ordered Trump's foundation in September to stop soliciting charitable donations in the state. Military experts and U.S. officials believe President-elect Donald Trump may have drawn a so-called red line for North Korea leader and authoritarian Kim Jong Un when he responded to reports earlier this week of a possible intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) by tweeting: It wont happen! How the Trump administration intends to work with or deal with the volatile Kim remains to be seen, but one adviser for the Republicans transition team said he thought a period of serious sanctions had to be a major part of any discussion on the options available here, the unnamed official told Reuters Tuesday. Kim's announcement Sunday that his regime is close to testing its first ICBM raised serious concerns not only in the U.S. but across Asia and has put Trump's conduction of foreign policy via social media under the microscope once again. We need to take note of the fact that this is the first New Years speech where Kim Jong Un mentioned an intercontinental ballistic missile, senior research fellow at the Sejong Institute in South Korea Cheong Seong-chang told The New York Times. Its possible Trump, who ran a successful campaign based on shaking things up in Washington and with U.S. policies abroad, is once again bucking foreign policies norms without fully understanding the handful of options for dealing with Kim and his unstable government, according to experts and unnamed US officials. "This was a foolhardy tweet for Trump to send given the enormous challenges of constraining North Koreas nuclear and missile programs. I think this could be something that comes back to haunt him, co-director of the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace James Acton said. Essentially, experts say Trump has only three military options when it comes to actually preventing North Korea from testing an ICBM. Otherwise, serious diplomatic negotiations would be necessary. The unnamed expert told Reuters the U.S. military could strike before the missile is launched, intercept it during its flight or allow the launch to happen. Each is problematic with a direct strike on North Korea likely to be a massive military undertaking that would take a long time. Story continues The Obama Administration faced a similar issue when it came to Syria and its use of chemical weapons. President Barack Obama warned Syrian President Bashar Assad not to use such deadly force by drawing the red line in 2012, which was crossed anyway and the country delved deeper into its civil war. It didnt help the administrations cause that Russia was firmly and still is behind Assads regime In the same vein, with Japan and South Korea close regional allies and China already facing Trumps wrath, delivering an ultimatum to the reportedly unstable and violent Kim may not bode well for countries so close to North Korea. Instead, a combination of passive military maneuvers and negotiations may be Trumps best bet. "How to stop this is of course difficult. It's a combination of diplomacy (to get a freeze), sanctions (Chinese ones and Treasury), moving more military assets to the region for extended deterrence, strike options, and integrated missile defense. That's what would be on my menu," Victor Cha, an aide to former President George W. Bush, said. Related Articles Donald Trump President-elect Donald Trump this week filled his lone remaining top trade post with yet another China hawk much to the delight of trade reformers. Trump on Tuesday tapped Robert Lighthizer as his choice for US trade representative. Lighthizer was the deputy US trade representative under President Ronald Reagan and has been a longtime critic of Chinese trade practices. The soon-to-be chief US trade negotiator, Lighthizer worked to curb Japanese imports in the 1980s using threats of quotas and tariffs, similar to Trump's threats against American companies looking to import products from China and Mexico. Lighthizer has spent decades as a lawyer representing US steelmakers and other companies in cases that led to a significant reduction in Chinese steel imports. Lighthizer's appointment joins him with two other prominent China hawks among Trump's team of trade advisers. It signals "a return to the Reagan era of unilateral trade policy," Sharyn O'Halloran, a political economics professor at Columbia University, told Business Insider in an email. In 2010, Lighthizer wrote in testimony to Congress's US-China Economic and Security Review Commission that the trade deficit between the US and China was at the point where it was "widely recognized as a major threat to our economy." Lighthizer joins Peter Navarro, an economic adviser to Trump's campaign and a fellow outspoken China hawk. Trump tapped him to lead a newly formed White House National Trade Council. Navarro has written books such as "Death by China" and "Crouching Tiger: What China's Militarism Means for the World." He too has advocated a more aggressive stance in what he has warned is an economic war with China. In a release about Lighthizer's appointment, the Trump transition team wrote that Lighthizer, Navarro, and the nominee for commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross who went to war against Chinese steelmakers in the early 2000s but is not as hawkish as the other two will work in "close coordination" on trade policy. Story continues Of course, the get-tough-on-China message originates from the top, as Trump has accused China of "raping our country" and being at the head of the greatest "jobs theft" in history. Trade reformers praised Trump's latest move, with Michael Stumo, the CEO of the Coalition for a Prosperous America, calling Lighthizer and "excellent choice" to replace current US Trade Representative Michael Froman. The head of Trump's trade transition team, Nucor CEO Dan DiMicco, is on the board of CPA. "He understands that international trade is a strategic game of conflicting national interests and a competition for good jobs and industries," Stumo said in a statement. "America must move past the failed and simplistic Econ 101 trade policy of the past because the results have been an economic carpet bombing of the non-urban areas of the US. "We are confident that the combination of Lighthizer, Peter Navarro, and Wilbur Ross will be effective in working to balance trade, achieving net creation of good jobs, and growing a diverse manufacturing supply chains here." Lori Wallach, the director and founder of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, also praised Lighthizer's appointment. "Lighthizer is very knowledgeable about both technical trade policy and the ways of Washington, but what sets him aside among high-level Republican trade experts is that for decades his views have been shaped by the pragmatic outcomes of trade agreements and policies rather than fealty to any particular ideology or theory," she said in a statement. china xi jinping Even Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, one of the more liberal members of the legislative body and fellow trade-reform advocate, said he looked forward to hearing how Lighthizer would pull through on Trump's trade agenda. "President-elect Trump campaigned on the promise that he would rewrite US trade policy and create more manufacturing jobs," he said in a statement. "I look forward to hearing from Mr. Lighthizer how he will accomplish these goals, including withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, renegotiating NAFTA, and resetting the US-China trade relationship." The core combination of Lighthizer, Navarro, and Ross view trade as being a "zero-sum game about winners and losers," said Joshua Meltzer, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute. He said it remains to be seen how the ideology plays out in governance, but added that he expects "a fairly aggressive trade policy coming out of the Trump administration, at least in the beginning." "Until, you know, some of the economic hardships can become clearer," he said. Meltzer said views in Beijing are mixed about how Trump and his top trade team would affect relations between the two countries which, he added, is the case in many nations at the moment. "I think on the one hand there's been a view in Beijing for a while now that Trump's a businessman who does deals and that this will open up opportunities to make progress in some areas that are important to Beijing," he said. "That may not have been possible under a [Hillary] Clinton presidency. I think they see Trump as very transactional." But "at the same time now there is a growing appreciation that the Trump administration is going to present a whole range of challenges to China, from currency through to investment and market access and the like," he continued. "So I think they are trying to assess how bad this is going to get, how far he's willing to take this." And if Trump and his team were to deploy tariffs against countries like China, Meltzer said the retaliatory effect would be harmful on multiple fronts. "Not alone because of the market access for US exporters, but simply because raising prices on a whole range of imports is going to be very costly for businesses and consumers," he said. "The net effect for the US economy and global economy on that front is going to be negative." NOW WATCH: 'They haven't played by the rules': Trump accuses China of 'massive theft of intellectual property' and unfairly taxing US companies More From Business Insider President-elect Donald Trump has given his private security director, Keith Schiller, a job overseeing Oval Office operations. Schiller, a former New York police detective who has been Trumps personal bodyguard for the past 17 years, has been tapped to serve as deputy assistant to the president and his director of Oval Office operations, the Trump transition team announced in a statement Wednesday. Schiller was never far from Trumps side throughout his presidential campaign and made headlines in 2015 when he hit a protester outside Trump Tower. Schiller and four others on Trumps security team are the subjects of an ongoing lawsuit in New York state court accusing them of assaulting protesters outside Trumps office in September 2015, according to Reuters. The suit also names the Trump campaign, the Trump Organization and Trump himself as defendants. Politico reports that Schiller admitted in an affidavit that he hit one of the protesters in the head but claimed he did so because he felt the protester physically grab me from behind and also felt that persons hand on my firearm, which was strapped on the right side of my rib cage in a body holster. Based on my years of training, I instinctively reacted by turning around in one movement and striking the person with my open hand, he said. Trumps move to bring his private security director with him to the White House is largely unprecedented. The president-elect faced scrutiny when Politico reported last month that he plans to continue using his private security force, led by Schiller, after he transitions to the White House. All modern presidents and presidents-elect have relied solely on the Secret Service for personal protection, and mainly on local law enforcement for event security, Politico reported, citing presidential security experts and Secret Service sources. RELATED VIDEO: Watch: Natasha Stoynoff Breaks Silence, Accuses Donald Trump of Sexual Assault Jonathan Wackrow, a former Secret Service agent who has served on President Barack Obamas protective detail, told Politico last month that Trumps security arrangement is playing with fire. Having a private security team work events with Secret Service increases the Services liability, it creates greater confusion and it creates greater risk, Wackrow said. You never want to commingle a police function with a private security function. If you talk to the guys on the detail and the guys who are running the rallies, thats been a little bit difficult because its so abnormal. How incoming president Donald Trump will interact with the U.S. Intelligence Community is an increasingly urgent question given the threats that the nation and its interests face from terrorists and unfriendly state actors. Unfortunately, the mass of conflicting signals coming from both the president-elect and his team are only making the answer harder to discern. Late Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources close to the Trump transition team, reported that the incoming administration was expected to engineer a major shake-up of the IC infrastructure by greatly diminishing the role of the Director of National Intelligence and slimming down the Central Intelligence Agency. Related: Trump Sides with WikiLeaks Assange Against US Intel Community The story seemed to fit comfortably into the available facts about Trumps feelings toward the IC in general. Since the summer, when the various agencies got together and released a statement asserting their agreement that the Russian government was responsible for cyberattacks on the Democratic National Committee and top Democratic operatives, Trump has been dismissive and antagonistic about the nations spy agencies. He also tapped retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, a man with a notoriously difficult relationship with top intelligence officials, to be his National Security Advisor. Flynn was forced out of his job running the Defense Intelligence Agency by current DNI James Clapper, and has since become a full-throated critic of the IC as it exists today. Flynn also accepted payment for an appearance in Russia from the state propaganda network, RT, and was seated next to President Vladimir Putin at a celebratory dinner. When the IC went a step further and clarified that the agencies believe the Russian hacking was aimed at helping Trump during the election, the president-elect denied that the report was accurate, and slammed the CIA in particular for its mistaken claim in the early years of the George W. Bush administration that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. Story continues Earlier Wednesday, Trump tweeted his displeasure with the IC again, writing, The Intelligence briefing on so-called Russian hacking was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange! He went on to favorably tweet about Wikileaks founder Julian Assanges claim that the materials taken during the cyberattacks on Democrats did not come from Russia. Related: Trump Plays War Games on Twitter, and Americans Are Getting Worried Administration officials told news organizations that they were puzzled by the claim that the intelligence agencies had delayed the briefing, saying that it had always been scheduled for Friday. And intelligence officials were reported to be privately furious at the president-elects apparent decision to trust Assange over his own countrys intelligence services. But Trump was back on Twitter Thursday morning, and his tone had changed somewhat. The dishonest media likes saying that I am in Agreement with Julian Assange - wrong. I simply state what he states, it is for the people to make up their own minds as to the truth. The media lies to make it look like I am against "Intelligence" when in fact I am a big fan! A few hours later, Sean Spicer, the Republican National Committee staffer tapped to be press secretary in the Trump White House, issued a blanket denial about the Journal report. There is no truth to this idea of restructuring the intelligence community infrastructure, he told reporters. It is 100 percent false. Notwithstanding Spicers comments, ABC News reported late Thursday morning that a senior Trump transition official said the overhaul actually is still on the table. Related: Trump and the GOP Are On a Collision Course over Russian Sanctions While all this was going on, top intelligence officials Clapper, Marcel Lettre, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence, and Admiral Michael Rogers, head of the National Security Agency and United States Cyber Command, were appearing on Capitol Hill. The hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee was supposed to focus on cyberthreats in general, but much of the discussion focused on the ICs relationship with the incoming president and the allegations of Russian hacking affecting the election. The intelligence chiefs said that the IC stands behind its determination that Russia was involved in the hacks and that the operation was directed at the highest levels of the Kremlin. Clapper, who will retire in just over two weeks, suggested that Trumps attacks on the IC had gone beyond the realm of healthy skepticism into disparagement and said that he has been contacted by counterparts in other countries expressing concern about the president-elects apparent disdain for the work done by intelligence professionals. Rogers said that he was concerned about losing talented staff who may decide not to work for a Trump administration if they believe that their work is not respected and their conclusions dismissed without any consideration. Related: Trump Steps Up Effort to Discredit Sanctions Against Russia All this comes as Trump is reportedly refusing his daily intelligence briefings, meeting instead with briefers once a week or so, and has yet to name a replacement for Clapper. That job could be tough to fill. Spicers insistence that there is no shake-up of the DNI position in the works sounded definitive, but Trumps willingness to change directions at a moments notice, and the emergence of multiple power centers within the nascent administration make it difficult to know what his real plans are. On top of that uncertainty, the new DNI would be responsible for riding herd on the 16 different agencies that make up the Intelligence Community, many of which are reportedly suffering serious morale problems in the wake of the incoming presidents attacks on them. His top pick is reported to be retired Indiana Sen. Dan Coats, who until the end of the previous Congress served on the Senate Intelligence Committee, but no formal announcement has yet been made. The job may be less attractive today than it looked when Coats visited Trump Tower in Manhattan last November. Current DNI Clapper has taken to publicly mentioning how soon he will retire in his appearances before Congress and on Thursday, he didnt disappoint. Happily, I just have 15 days left, he said. Top Reads from The Fiscal Times: Washington (AFP) - Donald Trump has no plans to restructure the nation's top spy agency, his transition team said Thursday, refuting an explosive report that said the president-elect was considering paring back a bloated intelligence apparatus. Republican Trump has been highly critical of the nation's intelligence community for months, openly casting doubt on its conclusion that Russia was involved in US election-related cyber attacks. "These reports are false," said Trump spokesman Sean Spicer, the incoming White House press secretary, referring to a Wall Street Journal report late Wednesday that said Trump was aiming to scale back the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) and restructure the Central Intelligence Agency. "There is no truth to this idea of restructuring the intelligence community infrastructure. It is 100 percent false," Spicer told reporters on a conference call. Trump won a stunning upset against Democrat Hillary Clinton in the US election on November 8. US intelligence officials and the White House have said Russia was behind a series of computer attacks, including of the Democratic Party in 2016, and leaks of hacked documents, which hurt Clinton's presidential campaign. In a closely-watched Senate hearing, top intelligence officials Thursday presented a united front as they reiterated their conclusion that Moscow interfered ahead of the election. The Journal had quoted a source familiar with Trump's strategy as saying the president-elect and his advisors were working on a plan to scale back a US intelligence world which "has become completely politicized." "They all need to be slimmed down. The focus will be on restructuring the agencies and how they interact." Trump's criticism of US spy agencies and praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin has drawn stern rebukes from Democratic and Republican lawmakers alike. On Thursday, Trump insisted he supports the US intelligence agencies. Story continues "The media lies to make it look like I am against 'Intelligence' when in fact I am a big fan!" the president-elect tweeted. But Congressman Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said the willingness of Trump and his backers to disregard the determinations of the US intelligence community had reached "embarrassing" levels. "This is not healthy skepticism as they would like to portray it," Schiff told CNN on Thursday. "This is very unhealthy, essentially avoidance of the facts." * Democrats want House ethics office to investigate Price * Criticism of Price comes as Republicans target Obamacare * Trump spokesman accuses Democrats of hypocrisy (Adds Representative Collins denial of wrongdoing, other details) By Susan Cornwell and Susan Heavey WASHINGTON, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Senate Democrats on Thursday demanded an ethics probe into Tom Price, President-elect Donald Trump's pick for U.S. health secretary, following a report that the fierce Obamacare critic traded in healthcare company stocks while pushing legislation in Congress that could affect those shares. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and others made their comments as congressional Republicans moved ahead with their long-desired effort to dismantle President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act, and signaled the vehemence with which Democrats will fight to protect the 2010 law. Price is an orthopedic surgeon and a Republican congressman from Georgia who, if confirmed by the Senate as Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary, would be given the task of carrying out Trump's promise to gut the law that has enabled up to 20 million previously uninsured Americans to obtain medical coverage. The Democrats called on the independent Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), which examines misconduct allegations involving House of Representatives members, to investigate Price's stock trades. The Wall Street Journal last month reported that Price bought and sold more than $300,000 in stock in about 40 healthcare, pharmaceutical and biomedical companies over the past four years while sponsoring and advocating legislation that could influence those companies' shares. "Every American should be shocked by this," Schumer told a news conference. "We don't know if he broke the law," Schumer said of Price. "But there are certainly enough serious questions to warrant a serious investigation before any hearing is held on Congressman Price to become secretary of HHS." Story continues Democratic Senator Patty Murray said lawmakers want to know what nonpublic information Price may have had when the transactions at issue were made. Phil Blando, a Trump transition spokesman, called Schumer's demands a "stunt" to deflect attention from Obamacare's "dismal record." Price, asked by Reuters in a Capitol hallway for a reaction to Schumer's comments, replied, "We're looking forward to a positive and productive confirmation hearing." A 2012 law prohibits members and employees of Congress from using "any nonpublic information" stemming from the person's position or gained while performing their job for personal benefit. PUBLIC CITIZEN ALSO URGES PROBE The nonpartisan watchdog group Public Citizen also asked the ethics office, as well as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, to investigate Price and another Republican congressman, Chris Collins of New York, for possible violations of insider trading and conflict-of-interest laws and rules. Public Citizen said that, while serving in the House, Collins also sat on the board of directors of Australian biotech company Innate Immunotherapeutics Ltd and was its largest shareholder, with a 17 percent stake. It said Price also bought shares in the company. Collins serves as the Trump transition team's congressional liaison. Collins spokesman Michael McAdams said in a statement the congressman "has followed all ethical guidelines related to his personal finances during his time in the House and will continue to do so." House Republicans had moved on Monday to weaken the ethics office but backtracked a day later after criticism from Democrats and Trump. Trump transition spokesman Blando said the ethics questions Schumer raised about Price should be directed to three sitting Democratic senators, Delaware's Tom Carper, Virginia's Mark Warner and Rhode Island's Sheldon Whitehouse, "who own and have traded hundreds of thousands of dollars in pharmaceutical and health insurance company stocks." "Hypocrisy is apparently alive and well this morning in Washington," Blando said. A Warner spokeswoman said his investments were managed by an independent trustee. A Whitehouse spokesman said the senator does not direct his trading. A Carper spokeswoman said he has submitted thorough financial disclosures and "always complied with every requirement and regulation." Republicans will control the White House and Congress once Trump takes office on Jan. 20. In a series of Twitter posts on Thursday, Trump blasted the Democrats over Obamacare, taunting Schumer as "head clown." "It is time for Republicans & Democrats to get together and come up with a healthcare plan that really works - much less expensive & FAR BETTER!" Trump wrote. Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan said he expects the legislative work on repealing and replacing Obamacare to be completed this year. "What date all of this gets phased in on is something we do not now know," Ryan added. Ryan indicated that a Republican proposal to strip women's healthcare organization Planned Parenthood of federal funding will be included in the Obamacare repeal legislation. Planned Parenthood draws the ire of many Republicans because it provides abortions, as well as cancer screenings and other services. Republicans criticize Obamacare, one of Obama's signature accomplishments in his eight years in office, as an excessive government intrusion into the healthcare market and contend it is harming job growth by burdening businesses. Democrats said Obamacare has extended insurance to millions of Americans and curbed abuses by private insurers such as refusing to provide policies to people with pre-existing medical conditions. (Additional reporting by Richard Cowan and David Alexander; Writing by Will Dunham; Editing by Jonathan Oatis) The Trump Organization has reversed course on business plans in a handful of countries as inauguration day approaches. Donald Trump's namesake company has canceled a "memorandum of understanding" to continue discussions with local partners over possible office towers in Rio de Janeiro, Trump attorney Alan Garten told the Associated Press on Wednesday. The firm will also discontinue "exploratory" talks over projects in Pune, India, and in Buenos Aires, Argentina. At the end of 2016, the Trump Organization called off licensing deals for hotels in Brazil, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Trump has stakes in approximately 500 companies, according to his lawyers, across about 20 countries. As the AP notes, some of those appear to be set up for tax or legal reasons and do not have any underlying business operations. Possible conflicts of interests related to the Trump Organization and the president-elect's business ties have become a major point of controversy since the real estate magnate's November 8 election. Trump has insisted that his businesses are no longer important to him and that even though he could run both his firm and the country at the same time, he won't. "I don't care about my company," he told the New York Times soon after the election. In November, the Trump Organization said that it was "in the process of vetting various structures" for the transfer of its management and portfolio to the president-elect's children, but since then, few details have been provided. Trump cancelled a press conference scheduled for December 15 where he was set to discuss his businesses. He has since rescheduled the event for January 11, characterizing it as a "general news conference." He said on Twitter in December that the Trump Organization will be helmed by two of his children, Eric and Donald Jr., and other executives. (His daughter, Ivanka, and her husband, Jared Kushner, are reportedly moving to Washington, D.C.) He also said it would do "no new deals" while he is in office. Story continues Trump's somersaults, ethics experts say, are insufficient in eliminating conflicts of interest. Norm Eisen, a former Obama administration ethics adviser, has been a vocal critic of Trump's maneuvers in relation to his business activities since the election. "[Trump's actions] are not enough. They are baby steps, when what we need is a giant leap," he said in a recent interview with NPR. Experts, including Eisen, say Trump would need to completely divest all of his business holdings and place them into a blind trust to eliminate any conflicts of interest or risk of violating the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, which bars the president from taking any type of "emolument" (compensation for labor or services) from foreign governments. "For a candidate who ran on the promise of draining the swamp and cleaning up corruption in D.C., it would be a real disservice to his supporters and to America at large for him to run the most conflicted White House in the history of the nation," said Paul S. Ryan, vice president of policy and litigation at Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group Common Cause, following Trump's election last year. The Argentina project came under scrutiny last year after reports originated by local reporter Jorge Lanata that Trump tried to speed it along in a congratulatory call from President Mauricio Macri. The Argentine government denied the claims. The project, a 35-story Trump Tower on Buenos Aires' principal avenue, 9 de Julio, appeared to be advanced but has since been suspended indefinitely, local developer YY Development Group told Argentine outlet La Nacion. Juan Jose Cugliandolo, director of the firm, said the Trump family decided to deactivate all projects outside the United States that weren't already underway. "The reality is that because of the change of the political map in the United States, we are leaving up to them the steps they want to take in the future. There's nothing concrete," said Cugliandolo. YY Development Group is completing the construction of Trump Tower in Punta del Este, Uruguay, which is remains ongoing. EXCLUSIVE OFFER: See inside Jim Cramers multi-million dollar charitable trust portfolio to see the stocks he thinks could be potentially HUGE winners. Click here to see his holdings for FREE. If incoming President Donald Trump gets his way, a subcompact car is likely to cost more in a few years. Trump has now called out Toyota (TM) for plans to move production of its Corolla economy car from plants in Mississippi and Ontario, Canada to a new factory its building in Mexico. The threat, of course, came in a tweet: Toyota Motor said will build a new plant in Baja, Mexico, to build Corolla cars for U.S. NO WAY! Build plant in U.S. or pay big border tax. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2017 This comes after Trump criticized Ford (F) for a similar plan to move production of the Focus subcompact from Michigan to Mexico, and General Motors (GM) for building a tiny number of Chevy Cruze hatchbacks in Mexico. (Most Cruze models are built in Ohio.) Trump has clearly decided the auto industry is a fat target, since automakers have probably invested more in Mexico in recent years than any other type of company. But Trumps attacks threaten to upend rational production plans the automakers have spent years putting into place, while also risking unintended consequences likely to harm consumers. Higher prices for compact cars If Trump actually managed to force automakers to move production from Mexico or other low-cost countries to the United States, theres no way around the fact it would raise prices for car buyers. That, in turn, could reduce auto sales, which would reduce car-industry jobs. Or, it might give automakers even stronger incentives to replace workers with robots and other forms of technology, in order to keep a lid on prices and make sure they dont lose out to other manufacturers with cost advantages. Workers who feel harmed by the offshoring of US jobs might cheer Trumps attacks on Big Auto, but in some important ways those attacks are misdirected. Japan-based Toyota, for instance, has invested more in US production than any other foreign automaker. It claims 10 US manufacturing facilities and 136,000 American employees. The Camry sedan is one of the most American cars on US roads, with an engine and transmission made in the United States and final assembly at factories in Kentucky and Indiana. The Sienna minivan is close behind. In a statement following Trumps tweet, Toyota said its US employment will not decline when it moves Corolla production to the new factory in Guanajuato, Mexico (not in Baja, as Trump mistakenly claimed). Story continues Relentless pressure on costs has led most automakers to Mexico, where they generally build compacts and subcompacts. Mexican workers earn about one-fifth what their American counterparts earn, and most automakers cant make money on small cars made in the United States. The profit margin on small cars is often tiny and sometimes negative. Since labor is a bigger portion of costs on small, cheap cars than on larger, costlier ones, producing in Mexico lets automakers keep quality up while delivering the low prices consumers demand. Thats why most automakers are moving small-car production south of the border while refocusing US production more on expensive products with bigger product margins, as well as engineering, design and R&D. Trumps tactic of picking off one automaker at a time for criticism is bad economics. Moving production of any good from Mexico to the United States will raise its cost, and Trump is basically saying Toyota should absorb higher costs while other carmakers that still build in Mexico should enjoy a cost advantage. Ford, for instance, recently announced new investments in the United States, which Trump approved with a tweetbut it still plans to move production of the Focus to Mexico. The Focus and Corolla are direct competitors, and Trump seems to be picking the Focus as the marketplace winner by suggesting only the Corolla should be built by more expensive US labor. A more rational approach would be for Trump to adopt new policies that apply to all automakers equally, which he might eventually do. After all, hes not even president yet. Across-the-board rules would at least spread the pain more or less equally among all producers. But higher costs industrywide almost always get passed on to consumers, at least in part. This is why most economists hate tariffs and tariff-like measures: They raise costs to the end user while reducing disposable income and generally depressing the economy. If youre keeping score, Trump has now inherently blessed Fords production plans in Mexico. Hes backed off his criticism of GM for now, perhaps because he got his facts wrong on the Cruze. But there are other GM vehicles made in Mexico he could target. Since he has now gone after a foreign automaker, its reasonable to expect he will also ding Fiat Chrysler, Honda, Mazda, Nissan, and Volkswagen, which all make vehicles for sale in the United States. If all those factories end up on US soil, put aside some extra cash for your next down payment. Rick Newman is the author of four books, including Rebounders: How Winners Pivot from Setback to Success. Follow him on Twitter: @rickjnewman US President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday threatened Toyota with import taxes for building cars in Mexico, making the Japanese automaker the latest company to face the incoming Republican leader's wrath. Trump -- who takes office on January 20 -- has embraced the unorthodox tactic of using Twitter and his position as president-in-waiting to intervene personally and publicly in the affairs of major companies. The 70-year-old Republican property mogul campaigned in part on bringing manufacturing jobs back to America's heartland and allegations of unfair trade -- themes that helped convince voters to support him and not Hillary Clinton. "Toyota Motor said will build a new plant in Baja, Mexico, to build Corolla cars for U.S. NO WAY! Build plant in U.S. or pay big border tax," Trump said, his latest attack on auto manufacturers investing abroad rather than in the United States. In November, Toyota, the world's largest automaker, celebrated the groundbreaking for the $1 billion plant in Guanajuato, in central Mexico -- not, as Trump said, in Baja, which borders California. In a statement issued after Trump's tweet, the company said it looked forward to "collaborating with the Trump administration" to serve consumer and industry interests. "Production volume or employment in the US will not decrease as a result of our new plant in Guanajuato, Mexico announced in April 2015," the statement said. The company employs 136,000 Americans and maintains 10 manufacturing facilities in the United States. - Uphill battle? - Trump's efforts to stem the shrinking US share of auto manufacturing in North America may be an uphill battle. The Center for Automotive Research said in August that by 2020, Mexico should have doubled its production capacity over 2010 levels. Meanwhile, the United States was expected to drop to 58 percent of total production from 66 percent in 2015. After coming under attack by Trump, Ford this week cancelled plans for a $1.6 billion plant in Mexico. Story continues On Tuesday, he also called for retaliatory taxes to be imposed on General Motors for making some of its Chevrolet Cruze compact cars in Mexico. The company says only a small number of such cars actually sold in the US are built in Mexico. Toyota is planning to produce Corolla models starting in 2019 and employ 2,000 workers at the Guanajuato plant. In an annual report filed last year, Toyota said production of Corollas in Mexico would be shifted from Canada, not the United States, beginning in 2019. To meet rising demand, the company between 2013 and 2014 increased production at engine plants in Kentucky and Alabama, and also raised capacity at a parts facility in West Virginia, according to the report. Toyota President Akio Toyoda last week told reporters that his company and Trump were on the same page. "If you look over the long term, we are oriented in the same direction," Toyoda said at an industry gathering in Tokyo, according to The Wall Street Journal. Just before 2030 GMT in New York, the company's share price was down 0.5 percent from Wednesday's close, with much of the decline following Trump's tweet shortly after 1800 GMT. By David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump targeted Toyota Motor Corp on Thursday, threatening to impose a hefty fee on the world's largest automaker if it builds its Corolla cars for the U.S. market at a plant in Mexico. "Toyota Motor said will build a new plant in Baja, Mexico, to build Corolla cars for U.S. NO WAY! Build plant in U.S. or pay big border tax," Trump said in a post on Twitter. It was Trump's latest broadside against automakers building cars in Mexico and first against a foreign automaker. The president-elect's attacks on investments by companies in Mexico have cast a shadow over cross-border production networks central to more than $583 billion a year in trade between the two countries. The value of the Mexican peso has skidded amid fears that Trump's policies would harm Latin America's second-biggest economy -- and declined Thursday after Trump's tweet. Toyota, which announced plans to build a new Mexican facility in Guanajuato in April 2015, said it would not take away from U.S. employment. "Toyota looks forward to collaborating with the Trump administration to serve in the best interests of consumers and the automotive industry," Toyota spokesman Scott Vazin said. Trump's tweet confuses Toyota's existing Baja plant with the planned $1 billion plant in Guanajuato, where construction got under way in November. A Trump spokeswoman did not return a request seeking additional comment. Baja produces around 100,000 pickup trucks and truck beds annually. The Guanajuato plant will build Corollas and have an annual capacity of 200,000 when it comes online in 2019, shifting production of the small car from Canada. The Japanese automaker's American Depositary Receipts fell after Trump's tweet and closed down 0.6 percent at $120.44 on the New York Stock Exchange. Toyota President Akio Toyoda said in Japan on Thursday that the automaker has no immediate plans to curb production in Mexico, preferring to wait until after Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration before deciding whether to make any changes. Story continues "We will consider our option as we see what policies the incoming president adopts," Toyoda said at an industry gathering in Tokyo on Thursday before Trump's tweet, when asked whether his company was considering any changes to a production plant the automaker was building in Mexico. Automakers in the United States have been slammed by Trump for building cars in lower-cost factories south of the border, which he said costs American jobs. Pressure to curb that production intensified this week after Ford Motor Co (F.N) scrapped plans to build a $1.6 billion assembly plant in Mexico after Trump harshly criticized the investment. Ford, however, still plans to shift production of small cars to Mexico from Michigan, even as it uses $700 million from the planned Mexico investment to expand its operations in Flat Rock, Michigan, and add 700 jobs. During the campaign, Trump criticized barriers to U.S. auto exports to Japan and said the U.S. government did not do enough to open the market to more American-made vehicles. "Until you open your markets, youre not selling any more cars over here, Trump said of Japan in an August 2015 interview with the Detroit News. "Thats going to force people to build in the United States." Toyota has extensive U.S. investments, operates 10 U.S. plants in eight states and builds more than 1.3 million vehicles in the United States annually.Between 1994 and 2013, U.S. auto factory jobs dropped by a third while jobs in Mexico rose almost five-fold over the same period as lower-wage production boomed. Mexico now accounts for 20 percent of all vehicle production in North America and has attracted more than $24 billion in auto investment since 2010, according to the Ann Arbor, Michigan-based, Center for Automotive Research. Based on current investment plans, Mexico's auto production capacity will grow by another 50 percent over the next five years, according to the center, which draws funding from the auto industry. It said Toyota imported fewer vehicles from Mexico than any other major automaker building cars there last year. Detroit's Big Three automakers collectively exported more than 1.1 million vehicles to the United States from Mexico in 2016, while Toyota sent about 47,000 Mexican-made vehicles to the United States. Trump has also said General Motors Co (GM.N) could become subject to tariffs on Mexico-made cars for the U.S. market, and that he would like to renegotiate terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement signed with Canada and Mexico, or scrap it altogether. Trump criticized GM for importing Mexican-made versions of the Chevrolet Cruze, even as the automaker is laying off 1,200 workers in Ohio this month who assemble the car. (Reporting by Susan Heavey and David Shepardson; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Tom Brown) For eight years, the Obama administration has pursued a tough-minded war against al Qaeda and affiliated terrorist groups that has eliminated their leaders from Somalia to Afghanistan to Yemen. Though many critics have argued for more transparency and greater legal constraints, the policy has been anchored in what President Barack Obama considers to be a principled and pragmatic framework for regulating the use of lethal drone strikes outside hot war zones. Many observers think Donald Trump will completely abandon that framework. Perhaps hell try but that will be easier said than done. In early December, Obama delivered a speech on counterterrorism in which he discussed the principled but pragmatic policies he and his team have developed over the past eight years for some of the most contentious issues of his administration drone strikes, capture raids, interrogation, Guantanamo. The speech was accompanied by a public document that provided for the first time a comprehensive accounting of the legal and policy framework underlying Obamas approach to counterterrorism. Delivered in the twilight hours of the Obama administration and before the transfer of power to a man who has called for, among other things, targeting the civilian family members of terrorists, the speech was a forceful closing argument for Obamas approach. The president was, as always, high-minded and sought to appeal to Americans reason and morality. But among the circles of people who helped Obama develop these policies, the election of Trump and the publicly stated views of his top campaign advisors have led to a deep sense of unease, a feeling that everything we helped build over the past eight years is up for grabs. Based on my personal views developed during six years of working on our lethal strike policies at the Pentagon and White House, I wrote an article last summer calling for further reforms to U.S. policies on drone strikes outside of hot war zones (i.e., Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan) and to the seminal document the Presidential Policy Guidance (PPG) in which they are enshrined. Wise friends counseled me that the piece should be agnostic on who might win the presidency, and so I removed some of the early jabs at Trump and his more offensive campaign rhetoric. But, truthfully, I wrote assuming a Hillary Clinton presidency and that people I know and trust would take on senior positions overseeing the use of force. It was hard even to imagine how Trump would approach the PPG, because the document seems to embody so much of what Trump, his team, and his supporters have criticized specifically, the current presidents supposed attention to high-minded principles and legalistic process over effectiveness. But while the PPG certainly bears the imprint of Obamas particular views on the use of force (a thread that in many ways goes all the way back to his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech) and attention to process, it also reflects the codification of certain pragmatic considerations for the use of force factors that the Trump team will have to grapple with just as Obama did. How Trump addresses these points, outlined below, will shape the contours of his counterterrorism policies on the use of force. Civilian harm. One of the core precepts of the PPG is that lethal action can be taken only if the relevant operational commander can assess with near certainty that civilians will not be harmed in the action. This is a remarkably high standard, almost unknown in the history of warfare. The first instinct is to say that Trump will quickly scrap this standard, consistent with his campaign rhetoric and statements from incoming National Security Advisor Mike Flynn, in the name of providing more leeway to operators to pursue terrorist networks aggressively, even if their actions result in civilian casualties. But protection of civilians is deeply ingrained in our career military and intelligence professionals, who not only see it as a moral obligation but also understand its strategic benefits. Through 15 years of counterterrorism and counterinsurgency operations, they have seen firsthand how even a few civilian casualties can undermine a broader military campaign, decrease the willingness of host-nation governments to consent to future strikes, turn local populations against the United States and its partners, and serve as a recruiting cry for terrorist groups. Consider just a few of the senior officials who have prioritized the prevention of civilian casualties. Retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal (Flynns former boss) knows more about targeting terrorists than just about any officer of his generation and yet he made prevention of civilian casualties a central focus of his time in command in Afghanistan. He warned, The Taliban cannot militarily defeat us but we can defeat ourselves. Secretary of Defense nominee Gen. Jim Mattis is known for his relentless pursuit of insurgents and terrorists (How else do you get the nickname Mad Dog?), yet the counterinsurgency field manual that he co-wrote with Gen. David Petraeus places a premium on protecting civilian lives. In discussing the use of air power, the manual pointedly notes, An air strike can cause collateral damage that turns people against the host-nation (HN) government and provides insurgents with a major propaganda victory. Even when justified under the law of war, bombings that result in civilian casualties can bring media coverage that works to the insurgents benefit. And former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who served under Presidents George W. Bush and Obama and reportedly advised Trump on his secretary of state selection, wrote in his most recent memoir about efforts to reduce civilian casualties in Afghanistan: I was also concerned that we were not moving fast enough or decisively enough to deal with the problem of civilian casualties. I dont believe any military force ever worked harder to avoid innocent victims, but it seemed like every incident was a strategic defeat, and we needed to take dramatic action. Threat standard. It is also foreseeable that Trump will discard the PPGs requirement that lethal force be used only when the target poses a continuing, imminent threat to U.S. persons. Trumps campaign rhetoric, and the views of the senior leaders on his team, suggests he will seek a more aggressive approach to combating jihadi groups, which could lead to doing away with a standard that his team may perceive as excessively constraining. The Trump team will also find as Flynn and other top intelligence officials have testified that Edward Snowdens disclosures and the recent proliferation of encrypted communications technologies have made it more difficult to detect and disrupt terrorist attacks before they happen. Given this reality, the risk of waiting to take action until a threat is considered imminent may not be palatable to the next president. However, the continuing, imminent threat standard is not just about ensuring that we strike only targets that truly threaten the United States it also helps to moderate the pace of strikes. The reality is that our ability to conduct operations usually depends on host-nation consent, and few of our partners are likely to allow the United States to launch an unconstrained series of drone strikes. The Trump administration will have to develop some governing principle to ensure that the pace of strikes does not overwhelm partner-nation tolerance. It does not need to be a threat-based standard. It could instead be, for example, a decision to focus only on certain components of the enemy network or to attack perceived vulnerabilities in terrorist networks with a bounded series of targeted strikes. Regardless, there will be diplomatic constraints, and they will require a judicious and strategic use of force. Process. We might also expect the new president to cut back on the intensive interagency process articulated in the PPG. The White House-centric process feeds into congressional concerns about micromanagement of foreign policy, and it is hard to imagine Mattis and Flynn both of whom have extensive experience targeting terrorist networks but limited experience serving in the bureaucracy lobbying to keep the framework in place. However, much of the bureaucratic process set forth in the PPG is intended to ensure that the full range of foreign-policy, legal, and intelligence equities are considered before lethal action is taken. These considerations will not go away in a Trump administration. Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson is a seasoned and assertive executive who is unlikely to cede to the military the State Departments role in navigating the foreign policy and diplomatic complexities associated with the use of force. Leading intelligence officials are also likely to seek a role in validating the intelligence underpinning the use of force. So the new administration will have to build some framework for ensuring that all equities are considered before action is taken. One possible approach could be a much more senior-level strategic discussion before taking action in a particular region followed by lower-level coordination before a specific strike. Another approach would be for civilian departments and agencies to review and endorse campaign plans comprising a set of potential targets and then delegate execution to the operational entities. There are many possible permutations, of course, but there will need to be some sort of a process, and it might ultimately be closer to the existing PPG than one might expect. Capture vs. kill. Finally, there is the question of capture vs. kill and the PPGs provision that lethal force be used only when capture is assessed to be infeasible. This one is more complicated. Obama has been criticized from the center-left for allegedly failing to follow his own guidance, with venerable commentators like Steve Coll writing that the administration seems overwhelmingly inclined toward lethal action. Human rights advocacy groups have investigated cases in which capture seemed feasible but lethal action was taken anyway and have pointedly asked Obama for a more thorough explanation of what feasibility of capture truly means. The numbers the administration itself released on lethal strikes last year add fuel to these criticisms: The U.S. government acknowledged conducting 473 strikes outside areas of active hostilities from 2009-15, while it conducted only a handful of capture raids in these same regions during this period. If Trump is influenced by the operational professionals on his team, we may well see an increased desire to conduct capture missions. Our most experienced intelligence and military officials are often the most aggressive advocates of capture missions, because they can result in the detention of individuals and capture of enemy intelligence that allow for better understanding the enemy and the support of future counterterrorism efforts, including targeting. In May 2015, the U.S. military conducted a mission in Syria to capture Islamic State senior leader Abu Sayyaf. Although Sayyaf was killed during the raid, his wife was captured and debriefed and a substantial amount of media were seized during the raid. Retired Gen. John Allen, who was leading U.S. diplomatic efforts against the Islamic State at that time, highlighted the intelligence gain. In the recent raid on Abu Sayyaf, we collected substantial information on Daesh financial operations, Allen told a conference in Qatar (as reported in the New York Times) using the pejorative Arabic acronym for the Islamist group, and were gaining a much clearer understanding of Daeshs organization and business enterprise. Trump himself seems to have gotten the message, stating in his August speech on counterterrorism, Drone strikes will remain part of our strategy, but we will also seek to capture high-value targets to gain needed information to dismantle their organizations. But here, too, the Trump administration will have to proceed carefully. When considering a capture operation, relevant commanders and decision-makers pore over intelligence, operational plans, and legal analyses, but at the end of the day most of these decisions hinge on two factors the likely diplomatic or geopolitical fallout from the operation and the risks to U.S. forces in conducting it. And for all of the criticism of Obama for supposedly being too quick to use lethal force, examining the specific operations he has considered and ultimately authorized paints a different picture. Indeed, Obamas record on capture missions shows a willingness to take on substantial diplomatic risk (ordering two capture operations in Libya) and risk to U.S forces (authorizing the Abu Sayyaf capture raid deep inside Syria). Whether Trump will show the same or greater willingness to incur such risks when considering specific operational proposals remains to be seen. Transparency. Beyond the PPG itself, there is the question of transparency. How this will break is unclear, as Trump and his senior national security team have said little about how much should be disclosed regarding justification for specific strikes or the assessed results of those operations. Trump could embrace secrecy, consistent with his statements that we should not reveal our plans to our enemies, or the publicity-minded president-elect could be more transparent in an effort to broadcast our wins and discredit allegations of civilian casualties. What we do know is that the actual work of increasing transparency is a hard bureaucratic slog requiring senior officials to work through the specific factors driving classification, consider the risks to factors such as diplomatic relations and ongoing litigation, and push back on the culture of counterterrorism professionals that errs often for good reason on the side of secrecy. The transparency initiatives of the Obama administration were hard-fought and usually driven at the most senior levels of the government. If Trump and his top advisors dont similarly value transparency and the way it helps with legitimacy and accountability, it is hard to imagine the continuation of the transparency agenda. Absent any action from Trump, however, his administration will be bound by the executive order that Obama issued last year that requires, among other things, an annual accounting of the number of lethal strikes conducted outside areas of active hostilities and the assessed combatant and non-combatant casualties resulting from those actions. It is certainly within Trumps power to rescind this order, perhaps as part of a larger sweep of Obamas executive actions, but only if he is willing to ignore significant public blowback from human rights groups, journalists, and others who have praised the steady increase in transparency in Obamas second term. None of this is to say that I am not worried about Trumps lethal strike policy. I fully expect to see significant changes implemented early on. But the Trump team will find a set of constraints and considerations that they will have to wrestle with just as much as the Obama team did. Although Trump himself has chosen his senior national security leadership, those officials will inherit a cadre of career operators, intelligence officials, lawyers, and policy analysts who hold themselves to very high standards not only because Obama directed them to do so, but because they are professionals who have struggled with the ethical and strategic implications of American policies for 15 years. It will take more than an election and tough campaign talk to change all that. This article was co-published with Just Security. Photo credit: JOHN MOORE/Getty Images President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to maintain a naval fleet of 350 ships as part of an historic buildup of the U.S. military, but his ambitions come with a stiff price tag. Our Navy is the smallest it's been since World War I, he said during a campaign stop last October in the Philadelphia Navy Yard. My plan will build the 350 ship Navy we need. This will be the largest effort at rebuilding our military since Ronald Reagan, and it will require a truly national effort. Related: The Pentagon Must Now Reveal the True Cost of War to All Americans The Navy on average has spent $15.9 billion annually on ship building over the past three decades, according to a new report by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). In order to meet the Republican president-elects goal, the navy shipbuilding account would have to be boosted to $25 billion a year, 60 percent higher than the historical average. That will mean having to find a way to lift the budget cap on defense spending by about $9 billion a year. Trump is far from alone in his ambitions for expanding the U.S. fleet to counter Russia, China, Iran and other global adversaries. Last month, the Navy released a new force structure assessment a blueprint for the future -- which calls for building a fleet of 355 ships. That is in sharp contrast to a previous long-term goal of 308 ships. Related: Trump Doubles Down on the Threat of a Nuclear Arms Race As of last November, the U.S. fleet numbered 272 battle force ships, according to CBO. That included aircraft carriers, submarines, surface combatants, amphibious ships, combat logistics ships and some support ships. The proposed buildup would include an additional aircraft carrier, more large warships and more attack submarines. In outlining his views on the need for a defense buildup, Trump has stressed the economic benefits his policies will have in the private sector. I will instruct my Secretary of the Navy to study locations like Philadelphia with a long history of service to our military and proximity to vibrant private industry and find ways to involve them in this national effort, Trump declared in his campaign speech last fall. Story continues Related: Trumps Nuke Talk Could Break the Budget or Much, Much Worse As our fleet is rebuilt, we'll need to invest in recruiting the skilled American craftsmen we need, like welders and pipe fitters and so much more, he added. We will establish centers of excellence in places like Philadelphia and Portsmouth, New Hampshire and Hampton Roads in Virginia to produce the master craftsmen we need to rebuild our Fleet. Top Reads from The Fiscal Times: Ankara (AFP) - Turkey said Thursday it had the right to close a key air base used by the US-led coalition to strike jihadists in Syria, as tensions mount between NATO allies Ankara and Washington. Presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Ankara had the right to close Incirlik air base in Adana province, southern Turkey as part of its sovereign right. "We always have in our hands the right to say 'we will close it' but as I said, the conditions will be assessed," Kalin told 24 TV channel. But he added that Turkish authorities were not conducting any urgent assessments to decide whether to close the base to coalition planes. Turkey is part of the US-led coalition against the Islamic State group (IS) in Syria and lets Western war planes use Incirlik as a base for air raids. Kalin's comments came after Turkish ministers hit back at the United States over what they perceive as a lack of support for its own intervention in northern Syria and questioned Washington's presence at the base. Relations between Washington and Ankara have soured over the six-year conflict as the US sees Syrian Kurdish militias as an effective ground force against IS. Ankara views them as linked to Kurdish separatist rebels waging an insurgency in Turkey. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Wednesday that Ankara had seen no support from the US as it seeks to take the Syrian town of Al-Bab from IS in a battle that has seen fierce fighting. "Our people ask, 'why are you letting them (US-led coalition) be based at Incirlik?'" he said, quoted by NTV broadcaster. The base -- which houses dozens of American tactical nuclear weapons -- was also a key flashpoint in the July 15 failed coup and several of its former Turkish personnel have since been detained. Defence Minister Fikri Isik said Wednesday that Turkey was "questioning" the US presence at Incirlik. But Washington sought to mollify Ankara, describing the base as "invaluable" for the fight against IS. Story continues "The whole world has been made safer because of operations that have been conducted" from Incirlik, said Colonel John Dorrian, a top US military official. Just days before President Barack Obama leaves office after eight years during which relations with Turkey have become frosty, Kalin appeared to suggest President-elect Donald Trump's administration would prove better for Turkish-US relations. "I have the impression that a Trump administration will take Turkey's sensitivities on this issue (Incirlik) more into account," Kalin said. Ankara (AFP) - Turkey detained Thursday the chief legal advisor and the former chief executive of a major business conglomerate under a probe into supporters of the Muslim cleric blamed for July's failed coup, the company said. Dogan Holding chief legal advisor Erem Turgut Yucel and former chief executive Yahya Uzdiyen were detained after police raided their offices and homes, the company said in a statement to the Istanbul stock exchange. Dogan Holding is one of Turkey's biggest conglomerates with interests in retail, tourism and media including the Hurriyet daily, Dogan news agency and broadcaster CNN Turk. "They were detained as part of the investigation in which our Ankara administrative representative Barbaros Muratoglu was arrested," the company said. Muratoglu was charged last month with "aiding an armed terror group FETO" -- which refers to "Fethullah Terrorist Organisation" -- the name Turkish authorities give to the movement led by Fethullah Gulen. Dogan Holding insisted searches were made only of the aforementioned executives' personal offices after Turkish media reported the company's Istanbul offices were the subject of police raids. "Our holding and subsidiaries' activities are not affected," the company said, adding work continued as before "without interruption". Islamic preacher Gulen -- currently in self-imposed exile in the United States -- denies Turkey's accusations that he ordered the failed July 15 coup. And the movement denies it is a "terrorist organisation", saying it is a peaceful group promoting education and charity. Since July, over 41,000 people have been arrested after parliament imposed a state of emergency a few days after the attempted overthrow of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The controversial state of emergency was extended Tuesday for another three months. More than 100,000 people from the civil service, judiciary, military, media and education sector have been detained, dismissed or suspended over alleged links to the coup-plotters. Ankara has come under heavy criticism over the widescale purges but the government insists it is dealing with a real threat, saying it must remove Gulen supporters from the state. Istanbul (AFP) - A Turkish court on Thursday sentenced two army officers to life in jail over their roles in the failed July coup, the first verdicts to be handed out in the biggest legal process in the country's history. The colonel and major were deployed with the gendarmerie, which was then part of the army, in the northeastern city of Erzurum, the state-run Anadolu news agency said. They were charged with violating the constitution. After the coup, the gendarmerie was brought within the control of the interior ministry. Ankara blames the attempted putsch on the US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen and has embarked on a relentless purge to eradicate his influence from public life. Gulen denies the charges. Turkey's parliament on Tuesday approved a government-backed motion to extend by another three months the state of emergency imposed in the wake of the July 15 attempt to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The state of emergency gives the government special powers to fire state employees and close down associations, including media groups. It also extends the time that suspects can be held in jail without being charged. According to the latest figures published by Anadolu, more than 41,000 people have been arrested over suspected links to Gulen within the state of emergency. With a record number of suspects behind bars, the trials are only now getting under way and are expected to last for months. Twenty-nine Turkish police officers went on trial on December 29 in Istanbul accused of failing to defend Erdogan during the failed coup, the first such case in the city. In Ankara -- where most of the suspected ringleaders are being held -- a special courthouse is being built for when the trials there start next month. There has been growing international alarm over the extent of the crackdown amid the state of emergency imposed after the coup, with critics concerned it has been used to target Erdogan's opponents. Story continues According to the P24 independent journalism website, at least 90 journalists have been detained within the state of emergency. As part of the ongoing investigation, Turkey detained Thursday the chief legal advisor and the former chief executive of major business conglomerate Dogan Group, which also has substantial media interests. Dogan Holding chief legal advisor Erem Turgut Yucel and former chief executive Yahya Uzdiyen were detained after police raided their offices and homes, the company said in a statement to the Istanbul stock exchange. Erdogan has said there are strong public demands for retribution even extending to reimposing the death penalty. One of the main trials will begin on February 20 of 47 suspects accused of trying to assassinate Erdogan at a holiday resor ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish prosecutors issued arrest warrants for 380 businessmen accused of providing financial support to the network of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is accused of orchestrating July's failed coup, media reports said on Thursday. State-run Anadolu news agency said prosecutors had also issued demands for searches of the suspects' homes and offices. Gulen denies accusations of involvement in the attempted putsch, in which more than 240 people were killed. (Reporting by Ece Toksabay; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Nick Tattersall) ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish warplanes and artillery have struck Islamic State targets in Syria, 'neutralizing' 38 of the group's militants, Turkey's military said in a statement on Thursday. In a round-up of its military operations over the last 24 hours in support of rebels in northern Syria, the army said air strikes by Turkish fighter jets on 28 Islamic State targets destroyed shelters, command centers, weapons and vehicles. The Turkish military operation, dubbed 'Euphrates Shield', was launched more than four months ago to drive Islamic State militants away from the border region. In recent weeks, the forces have been besieging the town of al-Bab. (Reporting by Orhan Coskun; Writing by Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Clarence Fernandez) * Attack comes days after gunman killed 39 in Istanbul * PM says killed police officer prevented bigger disaster * Two suspects detained (Adds prime minister's statement, details) By Nevzat Devranoglu and Tuvan Gumrukcu ANKARA, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Suspected Kurdish militants clashed with police and detonated a car bomb in western Turkey on Thursday after their vehicle was stopped at a checkpoint, killing a police officer and a court employee, officials said. The explosion and gunfire outside the main courthouse in Izmir, Turkey's third largest city, highlighted the country's deteriorating security after a gunman killed 39 people in a New Year's Day mass shooting at an Istanbul nightclub. "Based on the preparation, the weapons, the bombs and ammunition seized, it is understood that a big atrocity was being planned," Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak told reporters. The local governor said the arms included Kalashnikov rifles, hand grenades and ammunition for rocket-propelled grenade launchers. Izmir police shot dead two of the attackers and were hunting a third, a police source and the state-run Anadolu agency said. "Our heroic police officer martyred in this attack, Fethi Sekin, prevented a much bigger disaster happening, sacrificing his own life without a thought for it," Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said in a statement, condemning the "heinous" attack. Two people, believed to have sold the vehicle used in the attack to the assailants, were subsequently detained, security sources said. CCTV footage obtained by Reuters showed a passerby fleeing as the vehicle exploded in a fire ball. Initial findings suggested that Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants were behind the attack, Izmir governor Erol Ayyildiz said. Dozens of people rushed to the scene of the blast and chanted "God damn the PKK" and other slogans against the militant group. A helicopter was seen flying overhead. Ayyildiz said a second vehicle had been detonated in a controlled explosion. Anadolu said police suspected the attackers had planned to escape in this vehicle. Story continues NATO member Turkey is part of the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State in Syria and is also battling an insurgency by the PKK in the largely Kurdish southeast. It regularly bombs PKK camps in northern Iraq and its military operations in Syria also aim to stop Kurdish militias it sees as an extension of the PKK from gaining territory there. "Turkey will be instrumental in its region. These (attacks) will never prevent us from being present in areas like Iraq and Syria, which produce terrorists like viruses," Kaynak said. INCREASINGLY DEADLY ATTACKS Ayyildiz said the clash outside Izmir's main Bayrakli courthouse erupted after police officers tried to stop a vehicle at a checkpoint and that the attackers detonated the car bomb while trying to escape. The PKK - deemed a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and European Union - and its affiliates have been carrying out increasingly deadly attacks over the past year and a half, ever further from the largely Kurdish southeast, where they have fought an insurgency for more than three decades. A PKK offshoot claimed responsibility for twin bombings that killed 44 people, most of them police officers, and wounded more than 150 outside an Istanbul soccer stadium on Dec. 10. A car bomb a week later killed 13 soldiers and wounded 56 when it tore through a bus carrying off-duty military personnel in the central city of Kayseri, in an attack President Tayyip Erdogan also blamed on Kurdish militants. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack in Izmir, a liberal coastal city which had largely escaped the violence that has plagued Istanbul and the capital Ankara in recent months. Police detained 20 suspected Islamic State militants thought to be of Central Asian and North African origin in Izmir on Wednesday, in raids Turkish media said were linked to the Istanbul nightclub attack. (Additional reporting by Ece Toksabay and Orhan Coskun in Ankara, Humeyra Pamuk, Can Sezer, Ceyda Caglayan Birsen Altayli and Daren Butler in Istanbul; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Ralph Boulton) ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish officials are questioning the presence of U.S.-led coalition forces at an air base in southern Turkey over what they see as insufficient support for Turkey's military operations against Islamic State in Syria. President Tayyip Erdogan's spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said on Thursday there was no need for a "rushed evaluation" on Incirlik, a base used by NATO allies to launch air strikes against Islamic State in neighboring Syria. But he questioned why the United States, which backs some Kurdish groups against Islamic State in northern Syria, had not lent support to NATO ally Turkey's latest push to take the Syrian town of al-Bab back from the jihadists. "In the past month-and-a-half, we have seen and understood that this support was not given at the sufficient level and effectiveness," Kalin told broadcaster Kanal 24, calling for full support and saying "excuses are not acceptable". Turkey has been angered by U.S. policy in Syria, not least by Washington's support for Kurdish militia fighters it sees as an extension of PKK militants fighting within Turkey, a group the U.S. and Ankara both classify as a terrorist organization. Kalin said he hoped the administration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who will be sworn in on Jan. 20, would be more attuned to Turkey's sensitivities. Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak said the U.S.-led coalition had only infrequently used Incirlik to join operations by the Turkish military and the Syrian rebels it backs, raising questions among the Turkish population. "Their presence (in Incirlik) is being questioned by our people and nation, and this issue is on the agenda of the government," he told broadcaster A Haber. Turkey launched an incursion into Syria in August to push Islamic State from its borders and prevent Kurdish militia fighters taking ground in their wake. A U.S. military spokesman said on Wednesday that Washington was in talks with Ankara about future support around al-Bab, the current focus of the Turkish operations. (Reporting by Tulay Karadeniz, Ece Toksabay, Orhan Coskun, Tuvan Gumrukcu; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Daren Butler and Ralph Boulton) Sears Holdings Corp. (ticker: SHLD) announced the closure of 150 stores Thursday -- 108 Kmart locations and 42 Sears stores -- but many on Twitter didn't even know Kmart was still around at all. Like others in the retail industry, the company is facing steep competition from the likes of juggernaut Amazon.com (AMZN), reports CNN Money. Additionally, Sears announced it would be selling its Craftsman brand to Stanley Black & Decker (SWK). It's unclear how many people will lose their jobs because of the closings. The company shuttered 78 stores in 2016 after closing more than 200 the year before. Kmart employees told Business Insider toward the end of 2016 the company announced it would shut down more than 30 Sears and Kmart stores "in early 2017." The pending Kmart closures in particular are something that CEO Eddie Lampert acknowledged could happen last October, saying that if unprofitable stores don't improve the company would close them. But that doesn't mean the store is going away. "I can tell you that there are no plans and there have never been any plans to close the Kmart format," Lampert wrote in a blog post at the time. "The decision to close stores is a difficult but necessary step as we take actions to strengthen the company's operations and fund its transformation," Lampert added in a statement Thursday. However, despite Lampert's statement, some were shocked to learn Kmart still existed at all. #BreakingNews: There are still (at least) 150 Sears and Kmart stores open. pic.twitter.com/VNHiPgxklH -- lake (@Nashramento) January 5, 2017 Why are #Sears and #Kmart still open at all? I expected them to not exist a long time ago. #weird -- Tim (@prjkthack) January 5, 2017 There are 6 Kmart and/or Sears locations still open in Central Ohio? https://t.co/cBmbD13vrt -- 2017 Derek (@dzack1) January 4, 2017 Kmart still exists? How? https://t.co/13qulGkGSm -- antisocialista (@antisocialista) Story continues January 5, 2017 Kmart still open? https://t.co/8r8kFmClsq -- Branden Hunter (@JustCallmeBHunt) January 5, 2017 Color me surprised. @Kmart still exists in this day and age. https://t.co/MRU7sxaBTp -- Tim Millard (@Raunchola) January 2, 2017 I think its funny how people are surprised kmart is closing... like name a time you went there and you saw more than 5 people there? pic.twitter.com/h7w4L1Eik6 -- Noah Sander (@NoahSander) January 5, 2017 7 Stocks That Will Ruin Your Portfolio 7 Turnaround Stocks and How They're Doing (CMG, TWTR, MCD) David Oliver is Associate Editor, Social Media at U.S. News & World Report. Follow him on Twitter, connect with him on LinkedIn, or send him an email at doliver@usnews.com. By Jeffrey Heller JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli police said on Thursday they arrested two people for inciting violence on social media against three military judges who convicted a soldier of manslaughter for shooting dead a wounded Palestinian attacker. The judges found Sergeant Elor Azaria, 20, guilty of the charge on Wednesday, and supporters have set up several Facebook pages urging Israel's president to pardon him. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also called for a pardon on his own Facebook page. The case has polarized Israel. A military security detail was assigned to the judges on Wednesday, when several hundred far-right supporters of Azaria clashed with police outside the Tel Aviv military base as the verdict was being read out. Attorney-General Avihai Mandelblit later ordered an investigation into incitement to violence by demonstrators who warned they would take retribution against military chief Lieutenant-General Gadi Eizenkott, who has spoken strongly against Azaria's actions. "Inciting language against judges, military officers, law enforcement officials, or any person is unacceptable," Mandelblit said in a statement. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said officers had arrested a man in Jerusalem and a woman in the southern town of Kiryat Gat whose social media comments constituted "incitement to violence" against the judges. Ten months ago, Azaria was an army medic serving in the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank when two Palestinians stabbed a fellow soldier. One of the assailants was shot dead by troops. The other, Abd Elfatah Ashareef, 21, was wounded and lay on the ground incapacitated when Azaria shot him in the head with an assault rifle more than 10 minutes after the attack. Ruling in one of the most polarising cases in Israel's history, the judges convicted Azaria of manslaughter, saying he acted out of a sense of vengeance and had said after pulling the trigger, "He deserved to die." He faces up to 20 years in prison, although legal experts expect a much lighter term. Sentencing is expected in the coming weeks. The trial has generated debate about whether the military is out of touch with a public that has shifted to the right in its attitudes toward the Palestinians. A poll published on Wednesday by Israel's Channel 2 television showed that 67 percent of respondents favor a pardon for Azaria. Many right-leaning politicians advocate the same. (Additional reporting by Ori Lewis; Editing by Tom Heneghan) (Reuters) - Two times Dakar Rally winner Nasser Al-Attiyah withdrew from the event on Thursday after damage to his stricken Toyota proved too great to fix. The 2011 and 2015 champion, and early favorite for this year's honors, ripped a wheel off the car in Wednesday's third stage in Argentina and lost more than two hours as he limped to the finish. Organizers said the 46-year-old 2012 Olympic shooting bronze medalist had not started the fourth stage from San Salvador de Jujuy to Tupiza in Bolivia. Al-Attiyah had won this year's first stage, was runner-up in the second and was poised to retake the overall lead in the third from France's nine times world rally champion Sebastien Loeb when he went off-track and crashed into a hole. He had recognized on Wednesday that his hopes of a third overall win had disappeared. "Game over. A bad day," he told the Dakar website (www.dakar.com) after ending the day 32nd overall but still hoping to continue competing. "We stopped to repair but we could not. We don't have all the parts. "It was a mistake ... it's bad luck but this is the race. This is how the Dakar is. We were doing a really good job, we were leading but there you go." The Qatari had already had a lucky escape on the opening day when his car caught fire after a leak sprayed oil on the exhaust. In other drama, it emerged on Thursday that Slovakian KTM motorcycle rider Ivan Jakes had been hit by lightning 300km from the finish on the previous day's stage. He continued riding but was taken to hospital for checks after reaching the finish. Doctors later cleared him to continue in the race. (Reporting by Alan Baldwin; Editing by Hugh Lawson) By David Alexander WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Army has taken new steps to make it easier for Sikhs, Muslims and other religious minorities to obtain approval to dress and groom themselves according to their religious customs while serving in the military, a spokesman said on Thursday. Army Secretary Eric Fanning, in a memorandum signed this week, revised the uniform policy to set appearance standards for people seeking religious accommodations to wear beards, turbans and head scarfs. The new rules also enable brigade-level commanders to approve the religious accommodations, an authority that previously rested with the Army secretary. Denial of a religious accommodation may be appealed as high as the Army secretary. An approved religious accommodation will continue throughout the soldier's career and may not be revoked or modified without approval of the Army secretary, the memo says. The accommodation will not affect job specialties or duty locations, except in a few limited cases, the memo says. "Our goal is to balance soldier readiness and safety with the accommodation of our soldiers' faith practices, and this latest directive allows us to do that," Lieutenant Colonel Randy Taylor said in a statement. The new rules were welcomed by the Sikh Coalition. "We are pleased with the progress that this new policy represents for religious tolerance and diversity," said coalition Legal Director Harsimran Kaur. Sikhs have a long tradition of military service in India and elsewhere and have served in the United States as far back as World War One. But uniform reforms after the Vietnam War made it difficult for them to serve without violating the tenets of their faith. The new rules permit religious accommodations for beards, but they may not be longer than 2 inches unless rolled or tied up. Soldiers with a religious accommodation may wear a turban or under-turban known as a patka. Soldiers with religious accommodations still must be able to wear combat helmets and other protective headgear and must modify their hairstyles to achieve a proper fit. Story continues The new rules allow head scarfs, or hijabs, for Muslim women. They must be of a similar color to the uniform and be free of designs or markings, unless they are camouflage and worn with a camouflage uniform. Hair grooming rules have been amended to allow for braids, cornrows, twists or locks, the memo said. (Reporting by David Alexander; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn) (Updates with quotes from McCain, Coons) By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Rex Tillerson, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of state, won over Republicans during meetings at the U.S. Senate on Wednesday, but Democrats want more time to consider his record, especially his ties to Russia. Senator Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, described Tillerson as "very much in the mainstream" of U.S. foreign policy thinking. Tillerson, Exxon Mobil's former chairman and chief executive, drove the company's expansion in Russia and opposed sanctions imposed over its annexation of Crimea. Many lawmakers, including Republicans, have expressed concerns about Tillerson's relationship with Moscow, given its differences with Washington not only over Ukraine but the civil war in Syria. Asked on Wednesday if he could support Tillerson, Republican Senator John McCain, a leading U.S. critic of Russia, told reporters: "Sure. There's also a realistic scenario that pigs fly," the Houston Chronicle reported. U.S. intelligence officials have concluded that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help the Republican Trump. Corker, whose committee will conduct Tillerson's confirmation hearing, which is expected to start on Jan. 11, told reporters he was comfortable Tillerson would lead a robust U.S. policy toward Russia. Senator Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the foreign relations panel, said after his meeting with Tillerson that he had not reached any conclusion on him. "We're just at the beginning of the process," Cardin told reporters after spending about an hour with the nominee. Tillerson did not speak to reporters. Russia and Tillerson's view of sanctions are expected to be a focus of Tillerson's confirmation hearing, which could last for two days next week. Democrats have called for a delay before Tillerson's hearing, given the complexity of his financial records and ties to Exxon after spending decades at the oil giant. Story continues Cardin said it was too soon to discuss Tillerson's agreement announced late on Tuesday to sever all ties to Exxon Mobil to comply with conflict-of-interest requirements. Senator Chris Coons, another Democrat on the foreign relations panel, said next week may be too soon for the hearing, given Republicans' plans to vote at the same time to repeal Democratic President Barack Obama's healthcare law. "It strikes me as trying to get too many things done at the same time," he said. Coons said he was "generally encouraged" by some of Tillerson's answers during their 1-1/2-hour meeting but had not decided whether to support his nomination. (Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Additional reporting by Susan Cornwell; Editing by Alistair Bell and Peter Cooney) Getty Image During Julian Assanges recent interview with Fox News Sean Hannity, the Wikileaks founder insisted that Russia was not the source for their daily dumpings of Democratic National Committee emails. Assange stuck to his position despite how both the CIA and FBI concluded that Russia was behind the election hacks. A new report now aims to shut down Assanges claims, as multiple U.S. officials have told Reuters that U.S. intel agencies have found conclusive evidence that Russia hacked the DNC. These officials also reveal that Russia gave the goods to Wikileaks via a third party. Further, the report backs up the timing of President Obamas reaction (after criticism that he waited too long to publicly address the matter) and his announcement of sanctions against Russia, which only occurred after U.S. intelligence officials publicly stated that Vladimir Putin was directly involved in orchestrating the attacks. From Reuters: U.S. intelligence agencies obtained what they considered to be conclusive evidence after the November election that Russia provided hacked material from the Democratic National Committee to WikiLeaks through a third party, three U.S. officials said on Wednesday. They said the post-election intelligence gave the Obama administration greater certainty about the full role of the Russian government in the hacking and leaks of documents than it had on Oct. 7, when the U.S. intelligence agencies had said they were confident Russia orchestrated the hacking. The additional intelligence also informed U.S. President Barack Obamas decision to retaliate on Dec. 29 by expelling 35 suspected Russian spies and sanctioning two Russian spy agencies, four intelligence officers and three companies, a decision that capped four months of debate at the White House about how to respond, the officials said. The officials didnt go into detail about how they discovered the third-party involvement, nor do they specify who the the party might be. The Associated Press reveals that Obama received the U.S. intel report on Russia as of Thursday morning. Donald Trump is scheduled to receive the information on Friday (although he has erroneously claimed the meeting was pushed back). Hopefully, the Trump briefing will at least happen before he retools the structure of U.S. intelligence. Meanwhile, Press Secretary Sean Spicer has continued to echo Trumps denial that Russia would hack the election. (Via Reuters) WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said Thursday it will investigate the collision of two trolleys in Philadelphia that injured 46 people and sent 25 to the hospital. NTSB said it will send a team to Philadelphia to look at collision avoidance and federal oversight issues after one trolley rear-ended another Wednesday. The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority said Wednesday that none of the injuries were life threatening. (Reporting by David Shepardson) By Brendan Pierson (Reuters) - A federal judge on Thursday blocked Sanofi SA and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc from selling their cholesterol drug Praluent, a victory for Amgen Inc, which had accused them of infringing its patents. U.S. District Judge Sue Robinson in Delaware ordered that the ban not take effect for 30 days to give Sanofi and Regeneron time to appeal. Amgen was up 4.9 percent in after-hours trading, while Sanofi's U.S. shares were down 4 percent. Regeneron was down 1.1 percent before the company requested that trading be halted. Amgen had sought the ban in an October 2014 lawsuit against Paris-based Sanofi and Tarrytown, New York-based Regeneron. It said Praluent, a drug intended to lower "bad" LDL cholesterol by blocking a protein known as PCSK9, infringed its patents related to the protein. Thousand Oaks, California-based Amgen makes a rival drug called Repatha. A jury found Amgen's patents valid in March. The defendants said after the verdict that they planned to appeal to the U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, which reviews patent disputes. The companies could still decide to reach a settlement that would give Amgen royalties on Praluent sales. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Praluent and Repatha to reduce bad cholesterol in 2015. The drugs are more costly than other cholesterol drugs, with a list price topping $14,000 annually. Sales of the expensive new drugs, seen as potential blockbusters, have been very slow to take off as health insurers and other payers have been reluctant to pay for them. Amgen reported just $40 million in Repatha sales in the third quarter. Both drugs are in the final stages of enormous trials designed to demonstrate that they can lower the risk of heart attacks and deaths, which is expected to help open the insurer purse strings if successful. So-called outcomes results for Repatha are expected this quarter. "If Praluent was gone from the market the long-term peak sales for Repatha could move from $2 billion to $3 billion to $4 billion worldwide, in theory," RBC Capital Markets analyst Michael Yee said in a research note. He added that without the outcomes results, the potential size of the market remained uncertain. (Reporting by Brendan Pierson in New York; additional reporting by Bill Berkrot in New York; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) (Adds AmEx statement, U.S. states' opposition to company's policy) By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK, Jan 5 (Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Thursday rejected the U.S. government's request that it reconsider its decision allowing American Express Co to stop merchants from encouraging customers to use rival cards that charge lower fees. Without comment, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals let stand its Sept. 26 reversal of a lower court ruling that had struck down AmEx's "anti-steering" rules. That reversal by a three-judge panel allowed New York-based AmEx to block merchants that accept its cards from steering customers to rivals Visa Inc and MasterCard Inc, even if the move saved them money. A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment. The government can still ask the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case. Seventeen U.S. states also opposed AmEx's anti-steering rules. At issue were the more than $50 billion of fees that merchants pay annually to process transactions, and which can be passed along to customers through higher prices. The Justice Department said the appeals court wrongly focused on how the company's policy affected customers and merchants, rather than merchants alone. It also said it should have been AmEx's burden to show that its policy promoted competition, not the government's burden to show otherwise. Several dozen merchants including Kroger Co, Target Corp and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc supported a rehearing by the original panel, or by all of the appeals court's active judges. Visa and MasterCard settled similar lawsuits in 2011 by agreeing to change their rules. AmEx accounted for 26.4 percent of U.S. credit and charge card purchase volume in 2013. It was able to resume enforcing its anti-steering rules after the 2nd Circuit in December 2015 lifted an injunction imposed by the lower court judge. AmEx spokesman Andrew Johnson said the government's claims still lack merit. "With today's decision, consumers can continue to choose how they pay and our card members will not be discriminated against at the point of sale," he said. The case is U.S. et al v. American Express Co et al, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 15-1672. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Additional reporting by Nate Raymond; Editing by Leslie Adler, Grant McCool and Bernard Orr) By Arshad Mohammed and Jonathan Landay WASHINGTON, Jan 4 (Reuters) - U.S. intelligence agencies obtained what they considered to be conclusive evidence after the November election that Russia provided hacked material from the Democratic National Committee to WikiLeaks through a third party, three U.S. officials said on Wednesday. U.S. officials had concluded months earlier that Russian intelligence agencies had directed the hacking, but had been less certain that they could prove Russia also had controlled the release of information damaging to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The timing of the additional intelligence is important because U.S. President Barack Obama has faced criticism from his own party over why it took his administration months to respond to the cyber attack. U.S. Senate and House leaders, including prominent Republicans, have also called for an inquiry. At the same time, President-elect Donald Trump has questioned the U.S. intelligence community's conclusion that Russia tried to help his candidacy and hurt Clinton's. Russia has denied the hacking allegations. A U.S. intelligence report on the hacking was scheduled to be presented to Obama on Thursday and to Trump on Friday, though its contents were still under discussion on Wednesday, officials said. They said the post-election intelligence gave the Obama administration greater certainty about the full role of the Russian government in the hacking and leaks of documents than it had on Oct. 7, when the U.S. intelligence agencies had said they were "confident" Russia orchestrated the hacking. The additional intelligence also informed U.S. President Barack Obama's decision to retaliate on Dec. 29 by expelling 35 suspected Russian spies and sanctioning two Russian spy agencies, four intelligence officers and three companies, a decision that capped four months of debate at the White House about how to respond, the officials said. The officials declined to describe the intelligence obtained about the involvement of a third-party in passing on leaked material to WikiLeaks, saying they did not want to reveal how the U.S. government had obtained the information. Story continues In an interview with Fox News, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said he did not receive emails stolen from the DNC and top Hillary Clinton aide John Podesta from "a state party." Assange did not rule out the possibility that he got the material from a third party. Trump on Wednesday sided with Assange and again questioned the U.S. intelligence community's conclusion that Russia tried to help his candidacy and hurt Clinton's. Concern by U.S. officials over the hacking first spiked in August, when intelligence agencies concluded that Russian intelligence, with the direction of President Vladimir Putin, had been trying to disrupt and discredit the presidential and congressional elections. Obama in August rejected recommendations from some of his advisors to disclose the Russian link and take some limited covert action as "a shot across Putin's bow to knock it off," one official with knowledge of the matter said. Instead, Obama warned Putin privately, arguing that a similar private message to Chinese President Xi Jinping had reduced Chinese hacking into U.S. agencies and companies. In October, Obama again declined to take action, arguing such a move could be seen as an effort to help Clinton and discredit Republican Trump, one that could stain a Clinton presidency, one official said. Obama took public action on the issue only after Trump was elected and began disparaging the intelligence community's reporting on the Russian hacking, another official said. (Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball, Warren Strobel and John Walcott; Editing by Kevin Krolicki and Grant McCool) Director of National Intelligence James Clapper listens to questions while testifying alongside Adm. Michael Rogers, director of the National Security Agency, right, before a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Thursday on foreign cyberthreats. (Photo: Evan Vucci/AP) The countrys top intelligence official set down a marker for President-elect Donald Trump Thursday, saying that evidence the Russian government sought to interfere in the U.S. election had only gotten stronger in recent months and included a multifaceted campaign of propaganda, disinformation and fake news in addition to the cyberattack on the Democratic National Committee. I dont think we have ever encountered a more aggressive or direct campaign to interfere in our election process than we saw in this instance, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said in a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee. Clappers strong comments would appear to signal an extraordinary confrontation Friday, when he and other top U.S. intelligence officials are due to brief Trump on their findings about the Russian effort in a classified briefing at Trump Tower. The president-elect has repeatedly questioned the intelligence linking the Russian government to the election cyberattacks, even to the point in a recent tweet of citing statements this week by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange denying that the Russian government had any involvement in providing his organization with internal emails from the DNC and Hillary Clinton campaign Chairman John Podesta. The delegation of the nations top intelligence officials, including FBI Director James Comey and CIA Director John Brennan, seems intended, at least in part, to demonstrate a united front by the intelligence community in the face of the president-elects mocking skepticism of their findings. Trump, however, appeared to back down slightly in two early morning tweets shortly before the Thursday hearing began. The dishonest media likes saying that I am in agreement with Julian Assange wrong, he wrote. I simply state what he states, it is for the people to make up their minds as to the truth. He continued: The media lies to make it look like I am against intelligence when in fact I am a big fan! Story continues The dishonest media likes saying that I am in Agreement with Julian Assange wrong. I simply state what he states, it is for the people. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2017 to make up their own minds as to the truth. The media lies to make it look like I am against Intelligence when in fact I am a big fan! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2017 If Trump reverses course and embraces the intelligence communitys conclusions about the Russian role in the election cyberattacks, it wouldnt be the first time that he has abruptly taken a different tack. But Clapper appeared to do his best to leave the president-elect little wiggle room, twice saying that the intelligence behind the communitys findings had only gotten stronger since Oct. 7, when his agency and the Department of Homeland Security issued a joint statement saying that the Russian government directed the cyberattacks on U.S. political organizations and that only Russias senior-most officials could have authorized these activities. Our assessment is even more resolute than it was on the seventh of October, Clapper said in response to questioning at the hearing. At another point, he added, If anything, what we have since learned reinforces the conclusions in the October statement. Clapper did not divulge what new intelligence he was referring to nor did he reveal more about the evidence behind the initial findings, saying to do so might jeopardize sensitive sources and methods of intelligence collection. But he said that he intends to push the envelope in terms of public disclosure next week, when the U.S. intelligence community plans to release a report on the Russian hacking after briefing members of Congress on the findings. Clapper also provided some new details about the scope of Russias activities, emphasizing it went well beyond cyberattacks. This was a multifaceted campaign, he said. The hacking was only one part of it. It also entailed classic propaganda, disinformation [and] fake news. One organ for that campaign Clapper singled out was RT, the Russian governments worldwide television network, which in December 2015 hosted retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Trumps incoming national security director, at a 10th anniversary gala in Moscow. Without mentioning Flynn, who has acknowledged he was paid for his appearance at the gala through his speakers bureau, Clapper noted that RT was very, very active in promoting a particular point of view disparaging our system, our alleged hypocrisy about human rights. Whatever fissure they could find in our tapestry, [the Russians] would exploit it, whether its RT, the use of social media they exercise all of those capabilities in addition to the hacking. The totality of all that, regardless of the impact [on the election], which we cant gauge, the totality of that, not only as director of national intelligence, but as a citizen, is of grave concern. Clappers comments were reinforced in testimony by two other Obama administration officials National Security Agency Director Adm. Mike Rogers and Undersecretary of Intelligence Marcel Lettre and for the most part went unchallenged by members of both parties. Committee Chairman Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., began the hearing by calling Russias hacking an unprecedented attack on our democracy. McCains ally, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said it calls for a response that goes beyond the measures ordered by President Obama last week, when he evicted 35 Russian diplomats and imposed sanctions on four top military intelligence officials and three contractors. I think what Obama did was throw a pebble, Graham said. Im ready to throw a rock. The only slight pushback came from Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., who noted that the Chinese government in 2014 hacked the Office of Personnel Management and stole personal information on millions of government workers with no apparent response from the Obama administration. But Clapper distinguished between that attack and what the Russians did during the election. What the Chinese did, Clapper said, was espionage. It was not an attack per se. I always say, people who live in glass houses shouldnt throw publicly too many rocks. There is a difference between an act of espionage that we conduct, and other nations do, and an attack. The hearing at times took on a partisan tone when some Democrats tried to goad Clapper into criticizing Trump. Lets talk about who benefits from a president-elect trashing the intelligence community, said Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. She cited Iran, North Korea, Russia, China and the Islamic State as the biggest benefactors. Clapper, who is due to retire when Trump takes office later this month, acknowledged that some questioning of the intelligence community was appropriate. But, he said, I think theres a difference between skepticism and disparagement. By Elias Biryabarema KAMPALA (Reuters) - A group of Ugandan lawmakers have sent a petition to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to ask for an investigation into possible atrocities by security forces when they clashed with a tribal militia late last year. According to an official toll, 62 people were killed in November when a combined force of soldiers and police officers clashed with a tribal leader's guards in the Rwenzori region near Uganda's western border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. William Nzoghu, a legislator from the area and one of six members of parliament who sent the petition, said the number of people killed exceeded 200 and that police and the army "jointly committed a genocide and crimes against humanity". "We are saying let the ICC come and investigate," he told Reuters late on Wednesday. The area, which has been beset by unrest in recent years, often votes for the opposition in general elections. Critics of the 72-year-old, long-standing president, Yoweri Museveni, accuse his government of deliberately stoking violence in the region as retribution for its residents' rejection of his ruling party candidates. In an emailed response, the ICC's Office of the Prosecutor told Reuters it had received the petition and that it would announce a decision in "due course". Rights group Amnesty International said that during the clashes several people appeared to have been "summarily shot dead and their bodies dumped". It described the killings as extrajudicial. The tribal leader, Charles Wesley Mumbere, was arrested at the time and subsequently charged with treason, murder and other crimes. Scores of his guards were also detained. At a court appearance, some of them - bearing open wounds on visible parts of their bodies - alleged torture by security forces and said they had been denied medical attention. Security officials reject claims that the Rwenzori area is being deliberately destabilized, and instead accuse Mumbere and others in the area of seeking to secede from Uganda. In the last general election in February 2015, the Rwenzori region heavily favored Kiiza Besigye, Museveni's main opponent. Electoral officials declared Museveni, in power since 1986, the winner but Besigye rejected the results and says he won. The east African country has many tribal leaders who largely hold ceremonial roles, though they also wield considerable social influence in their respective areas. (Additional reporting by Thomas Escritt in Amsterdam; Editing by Aaron Maasho and Louise Ireland) By Marc Jones LONDON (Reuters) - Moody's is likely to make key rating calls on Britain, China and South Africa among others this year as rising political risk and debt levels push the number of countries on a downgrade warning back to a record high. From Europe's Brexit strains and looming elections to the battles of China, South Africa and Brazil to re-orientate their economies, not to mention Donald Trump's first months as U.S. president, the rating agency faces a daunting list of decisions. "A quarter of the sovereigns are on a negative outlook, which is the highest proportion we've had since 2012," the peak of the euro crisis, Alastair Wilson, Moody's managing director of sovereign risk told Reuters in an interview. The immediate pressure may not be quite so "acute" but the geographic spread of the negative ratings is now much wider, he said, adding: "I think in some ways (that) is more concerning." Top names on the watch list include Britain, which Moody's still rates at triple-A and euro zone heavyweight Baa2 Italy as well as Aa3 China, Baa2 South Africa, A3 Mexico and Ba2 Brazil. Moody's is due to review the UK on June 2 and then on September 22. By then formal EU divorce proceedings should have started and Wilson said the "mood music" of the talks should be enough to decide whether to strip London of its triple-A. "Brexit is negative for the UK from a credit perspective, the question is how negative. We will only start to learn that over the next few months or year as the negotiations really pick up steam," he said. For Baa2 negative Italy, steps over the last couple of weeks to tackle its banking problems could be positive, though it may not be if more than the 20 billion euros set aside is needed. Political uncertainty in Italy, including a constitutional court decision later this month and the potential for fresh elections in which the populist Five Star party could perform well, pose the other main risk. "If we conclude that a party (that won elections) are likely to be able to articulate and achieve reforms, or at least not to reverse reforms, that will be credit positive, if not it will be negative," Wilson said. More broadly, any sign that the risk of a euro break-up is growing again would be highly damaging. French election hopeful Marine Le Pen said on Wednesday France should leave the euro, while Italy's Five Star has made similar noises, although such a possibility still appears remote. "A country leaving the euro would be profoundly negative for sovereign creditors, therefore if we saw something that said to us this risk is rising... it would be negative for the rating," said Wilson. PRESSURE ON EMERGING ECONOMIES China is another concern. It has been on a negative outlook since last March as it grapples with over-indebted state firms and over-heated big city property prices and heads towards a twice-a-decade leadership reshuffle this year. "The negative outlook is something that we will look at over the course of 2017," Wilson said. Beijing is facing a "trilemma" of wanting to sustain growth and financial and political stability, while also trying to reform a lop-sided economy, he said. "The negative outlook reflects uncertainty. It reflects the concerns that actually the outcome (of Beijing's policy actions) may be more supportive of growth and stability than reform, and that would be negative for China because it does need reform." Brazil must also push through reforms while other oil producing countries - Russia and Mexico are both on negative outlook - are still at risk despite the rebound in crude. "If oil prices go to $70 a barrel I think I would still be saying the same thing, which is that the fundamentals of the industry haven't changed," he said. South Africa is a key decision too. Moody's rates it one notch higher at Baa2 than S&P and Fitch, which have it on the last rung of 'investment grade'. "Certainly it's fair to say (political) noise has risen in recent months, but that isn't necessarily significant from a credit perspective." South Africa's institutional strength had also been bolstered by a key court throwing out a recent fraud case against the country's finance minister, Wilson added. Possibly the biggest unknown for 2017, though, and one that fits the global political risk theme, is what impact Donald Trump will have when he takes over as U.S. president this month. "We will watch and try to understand what will happen with policy. We might learn about that in the next few weeks, it might take us a few months," Wilson said. On the United States' AA+ stable rating, he added: "The institutions aren't profoundly changed and the challenges are more to do with the government's own balance sheet and what steps this administration takes to contain the growth of social security and healthcare liabilities." (Editing by Gareth Jones) (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May will meet with Donald Trump in Washington in the spring, a representative said, in the first visit with the new president by the leader of one of the United States' closest allies. In a phone call with Trump in late November, the Conservative prime minister and the Republican president-elect agreed to work on building relationships through the U.S. presidential transition and to meet at the earliest opportunity. "We are pleased to have been able to make that happen and the Prime Minister looks forward to visiting the new president in the spring," May's representative said in an emailed statement on Thursday. The statement did not provide further details on the timing of her visit to the U.S. capital. During the call, May's second such conversation with Trump since his election on Nov. 8, the prime minister "suggested it would be a good idea for key staff from both teams to meet. President-elect Trump agreed this would be useful," the statement said. Trump takes office on Jan. 20. Britain has long cherished its so-called "special relationship" with the United States as a central pillar of its foreign policy, but May has struggled to build relations with Trump's transition team. The first phone call between the two was made following Trump's election. However, he spoke to nine other world leaders before talking with May, raising eyebrows in London. Trump also caused astonishment in Britain in November when he suggested that Nigel Farage of the opposition UKIP party, a firebrand of the Brexit cause and vitriolic critic of the ruling Conservatives whom he counts as a friend and supporter, should be Britain's ambassador to Washington. London responded that there was no vacancy, but the suggestion, an unprecedented breach of diplomatic protocol, was embarrassing for the government. (Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Bengaluru; Editing by Jonathan Oatis) Photo credit: Instagramundefined From Country Living If you're a fan of HGTV's Fixer Upper it's likely that a visit to Waco, Texas is at the top of your travel bucket list this year. Between staying at the Magnolia House, playing cornhole on the big lawn at Magnolia Market at the Silos and eating cupcakes at Silos Baking Co., we're all dying to go. Thankfully, Chip and Joanna Gaines know exactly what our plans for 2017 are (Waco, or bust!). In their most recent newsletter, the HGTV stars put together a guide to their favorite places to visit in their beloved town-beyond Magnolia Market, that is. Here's the list of their top Waco picks: 1. Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum History buffs will love a visit to this museum dedicated to the Texas Rangers, the oldest state law enforcement agency in America. You'll get to see such infamous items like Bonnie and Clyde's shotguns, which were confiscated from their car after they were killed by Texas Rangers in 1934. 2. Dr. Pepper Museum Did you know that Dr. Pepper was created in 1885 in Waco? Located in the original bottling plant, this museum is full of fun Dr. Pepper memorabilia and includes an operational soda fountain. 3. Waco Hippodrome Theatre Just a few blocks away from Magnolia Market is the Waco Hippodrome, which was completely renovated in 2014, turning it into a movie theater showing first-run and classic films. There's a restaurant and bar inside too. 4. Waco Mammoth National Monument In the last part of the 20th century, the remains of over 15 mammoths were discovered in Waco. Designated a National Monument in 2015, visitors can now view the fossils from a suspended walkway over the dig site. Want more? Here's our official list of things to do, see and eat in Chip and Joanna Gaines' hometown. [contentlinks align="center" textonly="false" numbered="false" headline="Related%20Stories" customtitles="Take%20a%20Tour%20of%20Magnolia%20House%20B&B%7C19%20Things%20You%20Didn't%20Know%20About%20Chip%20and%20Joanna%20" customimages="|" content="gallery.2997|article.35677"] You Might Also Like GENEVA (AP) The U.N. envoy for Syria is welcoming preparations for a multilateral meeting led by Turkey and Russia that aims to help end Syria's civil war and could undergird new U.N.-mediated talks between the warring sides. Staffan de Mistura acknowledged violent "incidents" in Syria since the start last week of a Russia- and Turkey-mediated cease-fire but added that he believes the powers "will succeed in overcoming them." The U.N. envoy spoke to reporters in Geneva on Thursday. De Mistura hopes to convene intra-Syrian talks in Geneva next month. Meanwhile, the multilateral meeting, planned for later this month in Kazakhstan's capital, Astana, highlights how the United States has been largely sidelined from Syria peace efforts, though it's welcome to attend. Nearly a dozen Syrian rebel groups have suspended talks about the negotiations. Unidentified assailants killed two United Nations peacekeepers and injured two others in southeast Central African Republic (CAR), the U.N. mission in the nation said Wednesday. An attack on peacekeepers could constitute a war crime. No claim can justify that individuals direct their grievances against peacekeepers whose presence [here] has no other objective than to help the country to end this cycle of violence, Parfait Onanga-Anyanga, the special representative of the secretary-general in the country, said in a statement. Onanga-Anyanga, also the head of the U.N. Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in CAR, which is known by its French acronym MINUSCA, said authorities will make every effort to bring the attackers to justice. The U.N. convoy was on its way to Obo city carrying fuel from Zemio when it was attacked by unknown assailants who killed two Moroccan peacekeepers and then escaped, MINUSCA said in the statement. MINUSCAs spokesman Vladimir Monteiro added that the two injured peacekeepers were receiving treatment and one of them was severely wounded. The landlocked nation in Central Africa descended into conflict in 2013 when the primarily Muslim Seleka rebels took control of the mainly Christian country throwing then-President Francois Bozize out of office. This sparked a backlash from Christian militia. The ensuing clashes have left thousands displaced. Seleka, in 2014, relinquished power over to a transitional government following international pressure. However, despite the presence of MINUSCA, a French mission and successful elections, violence continued. France withdrew its mission in October but nearly 350 French soldiers remained to help with the U.N. mission. MINUSCA has been accused of inaction in CAR with civilians holding anti-U.N. protests. An outbreak of violence in September 2016 led to the deaths of over 75 people including civilians. The U.N. mission in the country lacks proper training and the resources it needs to adequately protect civilians, rights group Amnesty International said of the September violence. Story continues Meanwhile, local government officials have accused U.N. peacekeepers of working with armed militia. Their collusion with armed groups has gone too long, CARs Interior Minister Jean-Serge Bokassa reportedly said. A U.N. inquiry also named 41 peacekeepers allegedly involved in sexual abuse and exploitation in the nation between 2014 and 2015. The report claimed that the peacekeepers had abused women and even minors in exchange for food or clothing. The international organization has, however, taken little action against individual soldiers. Related Articles A This Is Us actor is trading in scrubs for expensive suits. Gerald McRaney, who plays Dr. Nathan Katowshy on the NBC family drama, is joining Foxs 24: Legacy as a series regular, EW has confirmed. The 24 spin-off follows Eric Carter (Corey Hawkins), an ex-Army Ranger, and outgoing Counter Terrorist Unit director Rebecca Ingram (Miranda Otto), as they team up to thwart a terrorist attack in Washington, D.C. McRaney has been cast as powerful oil man Henry Donovan, the father of Rebeccas husband, Senator John Donovan (Jimmy Smits), who is running for president when the series begins. Henry is described as a devoted father who is willing to do anything to make sure his son wins. Its likely Henry wont be too pleased when he learns Rebecca is taking a break from helping John campaign to deal with this terrorist threat. When was working her way up the CTU ladder, held back his political aspirations to support her. Now, they kind of agreed together its his turn, executive producer Manny Coto told EW when we spoke to him for our Winter TV Preview issue (on stands Friday). He has an opening to become president and hes going to take it. She was going to be at his side, but now shes getting pulled back into this and its causing a rift. EP Evan Katz also teased, We have an interesting situation for Jimmy Smits character this year, which you do not want to give away. Deadline was the first to report McRaneys casting. 24: Legacy premieres Sunday, Feb. 5 (after Super Bowl LI) before moving to Mondays at 8 p.m. on Fox. Washington (AFP) - The United States killed about 20 Al-Qaeda militants this week in air strikes in northwestern Syria, the Defense Department said Thursday. US warplanes conducted two air strikes, Sunday and Tuesday, near Sarmada in Idlib province, the Pentagon said. The attacks had been reported by local sources. According to those sources, the air strikes were aimed at Fateh al-Sham Front, a former Al-Qaeda affiliate, previously known as Al-Nusra Front, that officially severed ties with the jihadist network in July. But for the Pentagon, the US assault near the city of Sarmada was aimed squarely at the "foreign terrorist fighter network" of Al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda leaders "directed terrorist operations out of this location," Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said Thursday at a news conference. "We will continue to take action to deny any safe haven for Al-Qaeda in Syria," he said. Northwestern Idlib province is largely controlled by Fateh al-Sham and rebel groups allied with it. Fateh al-Sham is excluded from the current ceasefire in Syria between the government and rebels that was brokered last week by regime backer Russia and rebel sponsor Turkey. The tenuous ceasefire, which took effect on December 30, is part of efforts to resolve nearly six years of war in Syria, which has been ravaged by violence since an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011. According to the Pentagon, the US air strike on Sunday targeted two vehicles and killed five Al-Qaeda militants. Tuesday's strike killed more than 15 militants and destroyed six vehicles, Cook said. "We will not allow Al-Qaeda to grow its capacity to attack the United States or its allies around the world," he said. "These strikes demonstrate that commitment." The United States added Hamza bin Laden, son and would-be heir of Osama bin Laden, to its terrorist blacklist on Thursday. The younger bin Laden has become active as an Al-Qaeda propagandist since his father's death at the hands of US special forces in 2011 in Pakistan. U.S. stock index futures pointed to a lower open on Thursday amid a slew of economic data. The ADP employment report showed private employers added 153,000 jobs last month, below the expected 170,000. Initial jobless claims came in better than expected, totaling 235,000, while economists expected them to total 260,000. Markit services PMI is out at 9:45 a.m., and ISM non-manufacturing data released at 10:00 a.m. The data deluge comes a day after the Federal Reserve released the minutes from its December meeting. The minutes showed the central bank is concerned that fiscal stimulus could lead to rates rising at a faster pace. On the earnings front, Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) reported a surprise drop in sales, but raised the lower end of its fiscal 2017 earnings forecast. Helen of Troy (HELE), PriceSmart (PSMT) and Ruby Tuesday (RT) are set to come out after the bell. Also on Thursday, San Francisco Fed President John Williams is set to appear on CNBC at 1 p.m. ET. In Europe, the pan-European Stoxx-600 index (^STOXX) was little changed on Thursday morning. WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration imposed sanctions Thursday on a son of Sept. 11 mastermind Osama bin Laden, saying the younger bin Laden poses a risk to U.S. national security. The State Department said Hamza bin Laden has been added to its Specially Designated Global Terrorist list after he was "determined to have committed, or pose a serious risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security." Hamza bin Laden was officially named an al-Qaida member in 2014 by his father's successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri. The State Department says the younger Laden in a 2015 audio message called for acts of terrorism in Western capitals. In an audio message last year, he threatened revenge against the U.S. and warned Americans they would be targeted at home and abroad. Hamza bin Laden also has called for lone wolf, or solo-operative, attacks against U.S., French, and Israeli interests in Washington, Paris and Tel Aviv. "Hamza bin Laden is actively engaged in terrorism," the State Department said, adding that terrorism designations deny individuals access to the U.S. financial system and "can assist or complement the law enforcement actions of other U.S. agencies and other governments." Al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. special forces in Pakistan in 2011. The State Department also announced penalties against Ibrahim al-Banna, a senior member of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. He served as that group's security chief and provided military and security guidance to its leadership. Al-Banna wrote a 2010 article in AQAP's English-language magazine, Inspire, hailing the Sept. 11 attacks as virtuous, according to the State Department, and threatened to target Americans both domestically and abroad. James Clapper Director of National Intelligence James Clapper suggested at a congressional hearing Thursday that President-elect Donald Trump is disparaging the US intelligence community as he refuses to acknowledge Russia's role in election-related hacking. Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat from Missouri, asked Clapper during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing who benefits from Trump "trashing the intelligence community" as he expresses skepticism about intelligence assessments that show Russia was involved in hacking Democratic Party organizations in an attempt to influence the election. Clapper said he is "apolitical" and cautioned against disparaging the intelligence community. "I think there is an important distinction here between healthy skepticism, which policymakers ... should always have for intelligence, but I think there's a difference between skepticism and disparagement," Clapper said. Clapper was one of a number of top intelligence officials who testified before the Senate on Thursday and largely affirmed the intelligence community's findings on Russian election-related hacking, brushing back consistent skepticism from the president-elect. In a joint statement Thursday, the intelligence leaders said "only Russia's senior-most officials could have authorized" the hacking. McCaskill said America's adversaries would benefit from a US president doubting the country's intelligence apparatus. A report from The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday said Trump was planning to restructure the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the CIA, though Trump's team on Thursday denied those plans. "I assume that the biggest benefactors ... are in fact the actors you have named today," McCaskill said. "Iran, North Korea, China, Russia, and ISIS." Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. John McCain asked Clapper how he would describe WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, whose organization published hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, John Podesta. Assange has insisted that the hacked material did not come from Russia, a claim Trump has repeated in recent days. Story continues "Well, he's holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London because he's under indictment, I believe, by the Swedish government for a sexual crime," Clapper said. "He has in the interest of ostensibly openness and transparency ... put people at risk by his doing that. So I don't think those in the intelligence community have a whole lot of respect for him." Swedish authorities have issued a warrant for Assange's arrest in relation to a rape allegation against him, but he has not been formally indicted. NOW WATCH: Donald Trumps connection with Vince McMahon and WWE spans decades More From Business Insider Washington (AFP) - The United States carried out an air strike in Syria that reportedly killed at least 25 members of former Al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham Front including senior figures, a US military official said Wednesday. "This was a US strike," said Colonel John Dorrian, a US military spokesman in Baghdad. He gave no toll. The attack was carried out Tuesday on one of the group's most important bases in Syria, in the northwestern province of Idlib, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP. Among the dead were leading members of the group formerly known as Al-Nusra Front holding a meeting, the observatory said without identifying them. The front had accused the US-led coalition of being behind the attack and said it killed more than 20 people. Dorrian said it was carried out only by US warplanes. CENTCOM, which oversees US military operations in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia, also confirmed that US forces staged an air raid Sunday in the same region, near the city of Sarmada. It did not specify the target but the observatory said it was two cars carrying three leaders of Fateh al-Sham Front and that all three were killed. Idlib province is largely controlled by that group and others allied with it. Tuesday's air strike came four days into a ceasefire between Syria's regime and major rebel groups. The truce was brokered by Russia and Turkey. Moscow and Damascus say it does not cover Fateh al-Sham or the Islamic State group, labeled by the UN Security Council as terrorist organizations. Washington (AFP) - US spy chiefs insisted they have strong evidence that Russia mounted an unprecedented bid to disrupt the American election, standing firm in the face of Donald Trump's refusal to accept their conclusions. One day before the heads of four top intelligence bodies brief the president-elect on their assessment of Russian meddling in last year's race, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told a Senate hearing he had "very high" confidence in their findings. "The Russians have a long history of interfering in elections, theirs and other people's," he told the Armed Services Committee. "But we have never encountered such a direct campaign to interfere with the election process as we have seen in this case." "This was a multifaceted campaign. So the hacking was only one part of it, and it also entailed classical propaganda, disinformation, fake news." Clapper, National Security Agency chief Michael Rogers and Marcel Lettre, undersecretary of defense for intelligence, told the committee in a joint statement that "only Russia's senior-most officials" could have authorized the operation, in which hackers stole Democratic Party files and emails. Those files were then disseminated via WikiLeaks, embarrassing the party and harming losing candidate Hillary Clinton's White House effort. "Russia has clearly assumed an even more aggressive cyber posture by increasing cyber espionage operations, leaking data stolen from these operations and targeting critical infrastructure systems," Clapper said. - Trump's doubts - Trump, who has pledged a rapprochement with President Vladimir Putin's Russia after taking office on January 20, has repeatedly dismissed that finding. The Republican has mocked via Twitter past intelligence errors of the CIA, FBI and other agencies, challenging them to prove that the hacking and leaks could be traced up to the top of Putin's government. Story continues Late Thursday, he again asked "how and why are they so sure about hacking," claiming that the DNC prevented the FBI from accessing their servers. BuzzFeed News reported that the FBI had in fact never asked to examine them. As Trump first raised doubts early last month, President Barack Obama ordered the intelligence community to produce a comprehensive report on cyberattacks and Russian interference in the election. Obama was briefed on the report Thursday, and Clapper, Rogers, Federal Bureau of Investigation director James Comey and Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan are expected to detail it to Trump on Friday. "My hope is that when the president-elect receives his own briefings and is able to examine the intelligence, as his team is put together and they see how professional and effective these agencies are, that some of those current tensions will be reduced," Obama told Chicago's NBC affiliate on Thursday. US officials familiar with the report told CNN that the liaisons who delivered the stolen emails from Russia to WikiLeaks had been identified. And US intelligence agencies intercepted communications from senior Russian officials indicating they had celebrated Trump's victory as a win for Moscow, according to a report in The Washington Post. An unclassified version of the report presented to the president -- stripped of sensitive details -- will be released to the public early next week. "I think the public should know as much about this as possible," Clapper said. Nevertheless, Thursday's much-anticipated hearing did not offer any new evidence to back the allegations. When asked by senators to provide more proof, Clapper repeatedly said he could not do so in public, saying it risked damaging the intelligence community's sources and operations. "We have invested billions, and we have put people's lives at a risk to glean such information," he said. - Soured relations - Friday's briefing for Trump will come amid worries he has already soured relations with key parts of the all-important national security establishment. In addition to casting doubts on their conclusions over Russian interference, Trump raised more hackles on Wednesday by citing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to suggest that anyone, even a 14-year-old child, could have been behind the hacking. Under strong criticism from politicians of both parties for placing more credibility in Assange than the CIA and FBI, Trump defended himself Thursday. "The media lies to make it look like I am against 'Intelligence' when in fact I am a big fan!" Trump said on Twitter. "The dishonest media likes saying that I am in Agreement with Julian Assange - wrong. I simply state what he states, it is for the people...to make up their own minds as to the truth." Without naming Trump, Clapper said there was "a difference between healthy skepticism and disparagement" of the intelligence community. "And I've received many expressions of concern from foreign counterparts about, you know, the disparagement of the US intelligence community," he said. "Public trust and confidence in the intelligence community is crucial," he said. Asked about Assange's credibility, Clapper said his publication of leaked materials had "put people at risk." "I don't think those of us in the intelligence committee have a whole lot of respect for him," Clapper said. (Updates throughout with references to Elabe poll) By Andrew Callus PARIS, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Former prime minister Manuel Valls is favourite to represent the Socialists in the French presidential election, an opinion poll showed on Thursday, an outcome surveys show would offer the best chance of victory for the beleaguered party and its allies. Valls is seen coming top in the Jan 22 first round vote of the primaries of the French left with 43 percent, ahead of second placed Arnaud Montebourg on 25 percent, and third-placed Benoit Hamon on 22 percent, the poll by Harris Interactive for France Televisions showed. He would go on to win the official left-wing ticket by beating either of these two opponents in a run-off on Jan 29, with between 55 and 57 percent of the vote, according to the poll - a similar outcome to others conducted in December. If Valls, prime minister until a month ago, does emerge the as Socialist candidate, it will fall to him to try to rally the Left and turn the tide against what seems likely to end in a showdown between centre-right and far-right candidates. But surveys about primaries have proved deceptive in the past. Polls were predicting a completely different outcome from the actual result in the months leading up to the conservative primaries last November. They had Alain Juppe as favourite over fellow former prime minister Francois Fillon. In the space of two weeks, Fillon came from third place in the polls to emerge as favourite, and went on to win the ticket for The Republicans party by a big margin. Polls predicting the election itself consistently see a likely second round head-to-head between Fillon and National Front leader Marine Le Pen, with the 62-year-old Fillon winning by a comfortable margin. An Elabe poll for Les Echos newspaper reaffirmed that on Thursday. Regardless of which candidate they end up with, the Socialists, whose prospects of retaining the presidency have suffered from President Francois Hollande's deeply unpopular rule, were putting a brave face on their chances on Thursday. Story continues "We are the last to get organised for the presidentials. We will be the key to it," party leader Jean-Christophe Cambadelis said on Europe 1 radio. Opinion polls of voting intentions for the presidential election itself give Valls or any candidate from the ruling party very little chance of winning. Hollande's dismal record on tackling joblessness remains at the front of voters minds, and with two heavyweight rivals hemming him in on the left and the right, the race is looking like an uphill struggle for Valls or any candidate who represents the Hollande legacy. Polls have consistently put Valls in a distant fifth place and eliminated in the April 23 first round of the election. Nevertheless, they show the 54-year-old, who is from the right of his party and quit as prime minister to focus on a presidential campaign, represents the Socialists' best bet. On the campaign trail, Valls has shifted to the left in some policy areas, but still has centrist credentials. "Valls has the merit of mobilising centre-left voters, which Montebourg and Hamon can't," Claude Dargent, a researcher at Sciences Po university in Paris told Reuters. Elabe's poll confirmed Valls in fifth spot, with a vote of between 12 and 13 percent in scenarios that included him. But those scenarios that assumed ex economy minister Montebourg or former education minister Hamon in his place produced much lower votes - of between 6 and 9 percent. HEMMED IN In front of Valls in the main election polls, aside from Fillon and Le Pen, are two people who have to some degree stolen the Socialist party's clothes. One is the centrist Emmanuel Macron, an unelected 39-year-old former investment banker who quit as economy minister in November, turning his back on the governing Socialists who brought him to power to launch his own political movement called 'En Marche', which translates as 'Forward', or 'Onwards'. Elabe showed him gaining on Fillon and Le Pen compared with a month ago, even though the two remained in first and second place in most scenarios. The other is veteran leftwinger Jean-Luc Melenchon. He quit the Socialist party in 2008 to create his own Parti de Gauche (Party of the Left) and has also bypassed the official left wing primaries. Elabe put Melenchon consistently in fourth place. "In these conditions, with no plan and no electoral advantage, what is a Socialist party candidate for?" asked Melenchon in an interview with Le Monde newspaper. Thursday's Harris Interactive poll was conducted online between Jan 2 and Jan 4 among 6,245 people of voting age, of whom 478 registered voters said they would definitely vote in the primary. Elabe polled 995 people on Jan 3 and 4. (Reporting by Andrew Callus; additional reporting by Emmanuel Jarry; Editing by Michel Rose and Richard Balmforth) * Market sees intraday low of 3,094 rgt/T * Palm sees sharpest daily fall since Dec. 20 * CPO under pressure from strengthening ringgit, weaker related Chinese oils -trader (Updates latest prices, quote) By Emily Chow KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures fell for a second consecutive session on Thursday evening on the back of a stronger ringgit, and as it tracked weaker performing related oils on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange. Benchmark palm oil futures for March delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange fell 1.4 percent to 3,096 ringgit ($690) a tonne at the end of the trading day, its sharpest daily decline since Dec. 20. Traded volumes stood at 41,198 lots of 25 tonnes each on Thursday evening. "Crude palm oil is under pressure from a strengthening ringgit," a futures trader from Kuala Lumpur said, adding that a stronger Chinese yuan also puts pressure on China's commodities prices including Dalian's refined, bleached and deodorized (RBD) palm olein. Palm takes its cue from the performance of related vegetable oils, as they compete for a share in the global edible oils market. The May soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange was down 0.4 percent, while the May contract for Dalian palm olein fell 1.3 percent. A stronger ringgit, palm's currency of trade, also makes the tropical oil more expensive for foreign buyers, curbing its demand. The ringgit strengthened 0.3 percent against the dollar to reach 4.4830 in the evening. In other edible oils, the March soybean oil contract on the CBOT gained 0.1 percent. Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1035 GMT Contract Month Last Change Low High Volume MY PALM OIL JAN7 3210 -34.00 3210 3245 201 MY PALM OIL FEB7 3137 -52.00 3134 3210 2635 MY PALM OIL MAR7 3095 -45.00 3094 3164 19610 CHINA PALM OLEIN MAY7 6134 -78.00 6112 6216 605182 CHINA SOYOIL MAY7 6874 -24.00 6852 6930 393544 CBOT SOY OIL MAR7 35.23 +0.09 35.17 35.43 7932 INDIA PALM OIL JAN7 583.30 -3.50 582.30 587.5 943 Story continues INDIA SOYOIL JAN7 727 -2.90 727 731.45 9970 NYMEX CRUDE FEB7 53.25 -0.01 53.04 53.42 55085 Palm oil prices in Malaysian ringgit per tonne CBOT soy oil in U.S. cents per pound Dalian soy oil and RBD palm olein in Chinese yuan per tonne India soy oil in Indian rupee per 10 kg Crude in U.S. dollars per barrel ($1 = 4.4830 ringgit) ($1 = 67.9125 Indian rupees) ($1 = 6.8860 Chinese yuan) (Reporting by Emily Chow; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Susan Thomas) Caracas (AFP) - Venezuela's opposition said Thursday it will seek to trigger early elections by declaring President Nicolas Maduro has "abandoned his post," launching a new year of political battles in a country fighting off economic collapse. Kicking off its second year in control of the Venezuelan National Assembly, the opposition installed a new legislative speaker and announced a fresh offensive against the leftist president it has vowed to oust. "In the coming days, we will approve a declaration that Nicolas Maduro has abandoned his post," said the new speaker, 47-year-old lawyer Julio Borges. Venezuela's constitution says the National Assembly can force the president's replacement by issuing such a declaration. But Maduro has easily swatted down the opposition's maneuvers against him so far, using his grip on the courts, electoral council and military to stymie its previous strategies against him: a recall referendum, a legislative onslaught and street protests. Borges appeared to anticipate an uphill battle. "If anyone has doubts about the arguments for doing this, know that since 2013, more than 100,000 Venezuelans have been murdered. More than one million jobs were lost last year. Inflation since Maduro became president is 4,200 percent. One in 10 Venezuelans eats trash from the streets," he said. His swearing-in marks the start of the opposition's second year in control of the National Assembly, after winning legislative elections in December 2015. But Borges is likely to run into the same problems as his predecessor in the opposition's top elected office, Henry Ramos Allup. During Ramos's year in the post, the Supreme Court invalidated nearly every bill the National Assembly passed. When lawmakers tried to ignore its rulings, it declared the majority bloc in contempt of court. Electoral authorities meanwhile blocked efforts to force a referendum on removing Maduro from power. Story continues - 'Radically Chavista' VP - Maduro announced his own leadership reshuffle Wednesday, naming a new, hardline vice president and overhauling his cabinet. Tareck El Aissami, who as vice-president will take over from Maduro if the latter is removed or resigns, describes himself as "radically Chavista" -- the name of the movement founded by Hugo Chavez, Maduro's late predecessor. El Aissami, a 42-year-old of Syrian and Lebanese ancestry, is a powerful state governor and former security minister known for cracking down on drug gangs. The shake-ups on both sides set up a new year of clashes between the opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) and Maduro, who has hung onto power despite presiding over an economic crisis marked by food shortages and deadly riots. Battered by low prices for its key export, oil, Venezuela is mired in a deep recession and has the world's highest inflation rate. Maduro blames the crisis on a "capitalist conspiracy" backed by the United States. His opponents say it represents the failure of 18 years of leftist rule. Venezuelans appear fed up with both. Nearly 80 percent disapprove of Maduro's leadership, according to a recent survey by polling firm Datanalisis. Support for the MUD has meanwhile fallen to just 38 percent, according to a study by consultancy Keller and Associates. - Appeal to military - Borges appealed to Venezuela's military to turn on Maduro. "Brothers in the armed forces, Nicolas Maduro is outside the constitution, and that is unacceptable," he said, to cries of "putschist" from Maduro allies. Undeterred, Borges called for new general elections, saying: "Let the people decide." Maduro, who has proven deft at exploiting the opposition's divisions, meanwhile sought to pit Borges against his predecessor. He said they had met and that Borges had vowed to resume stalled talks with the government, which have split the MUD. "Borges gave me his word... he would take part in the dialogue. And he told me to say, 'The crazy old fart is gone, I'm going to hold talks.'" Borges denied the claim. * Judge rejects former CEO Winterkorn's bid to dismiss case * VW rejects U.S. investors' accusations (Adds reaction from VW, shares) By David Shepardson WASHINGTON, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Volkswagen AG and former Chief Executive Officer Martin Winterkorn must defend an investor lawsuit in California over the company's diesel emissions cheating scandal, a U.S. judge has ruled. The plaintiffs, mostly U.S. municipal pension funds, have accused VW of not having informed the market in a timely fashion about the issue as well as understating possible financial liabilities, according to the 41-court document seen by Reuters. The pension funds include those representing Arkansas State Highway Employees and Miami Police. The lawsuits said VW's market capitalization fell by $63 billion after the diesel cheating scandal became public in September 2015. The plaintiffs had invested in VW through American Depositary Receipts (ADR), a form of equity ownership in a non-U.S. company that represents the foreign shares of the company held on deposit by a bank in the company's home country. "Volkswagen is convinced that the accusations raised by buyers of the corporate securities (so-called American Depositary Receipts) lack any foundation," a spokesman at VW's German headquarters said by email. "It's our intention to make this clear in the further course of proceedings," he added. VW shares did not react to the latest legal developments and were trading up 0.7 percent at 139.7 euros as of 1115 GMT. SECRET SOFTWARE U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer rejected a request by VW brand chief Herbert Diess to have the proposed securities fraud lawsuits tossed out of a California court. Other defendants include VW's U.S. unit and its Audi of America unit and the former head of its U.S. unit, Michael Horn. Volkswagen argued that German courts were the proper place for investor lawsuits. Breyer said in his ruling that "because the United States has an interest in protecting domestic investors against securities fraud" the lawsuits should go forward in a U.S. court. Story continues CEO Winterkorn resigned days after the scandal became public and much of the company's management has changed since 2015. VW in September 2015 admitted using sophisticated secret software in its cars to cheat exhaust emissions tests, with 11 millions vehicles worldwide affected. The cheating allowed nearly 580,0000 VW's U.S. diesel vehicles sold since 2009 to emit up to 40 times legally allowable pollution levels. The lawsuits said VW and its executives misled the investing public "assuring them to the contrary - namely, that the diesel vehicles met all applicable emissions standards" and it "understated the liabilities that it would suffer as a result of its known emissions non-compliance." Volkswagen has agreed to spend as much as $17.5 billion in the United States to resolve claims from owners and federal and state regulators over polluting diesel vehicles. Volkswagen could still spend billions of dollars more to resolve a U.S. Department of Justice criminal investigation and federal and state environmental claims; come under oversight by a federal monitor and face other conditions. The Justice Department and VW are in settlement talks and it is possible a deal could be reached before Jan. 20, when President Barack Obama leaves office, according to sources briefed on the matter. (Reporting by David Shepardson; Additional reporting by Andreas Cremer in Berlin; Editing by Grant McCool/Keith Weir) Washington (AFP) - US Vice-President Joe Biden has a blunt suggestion for President-elect Donald Trump: It is time to "grow up." Asked about a few of Trump's controversial remarks and tweets since winning the November election, Biden had some intemperate comments of his own. "Grow up Donald, grow up, time to be an adult, you're president," he told television station PBS in an interview broadcast Thursday. "Time to do something. Show us what you have." Trump earlier on Thursday described America's leading congressional Democrat as the "head clown." Biden has indicated he will not step away from the political fray entirely when he leaves office with President Barack Obama on January 20. The vice president has already been chiming in on how Democrats should respond to their shock election defeat, suggesting a renewed focus on the working and middle class. "It's going to be much clearer what he's for and against and what we're for and against," Biden told PBS. Related: For more news videos visit Yahoo View, available now on iOS and Android. These Arizona firefighters are being hailed as saviors for a family and their dogs after a blaze ravaged their home. Read: Police Give Touching Memorial After Body Found in Pond Is ID'd as Missing 6-Year-Old Boy Members of the Phoenix and Glendale fire departments faced heavy smoke as they entered the home. The homeowners were able to make it to safety. However, their dogs were discovered unresponsive in a rear bedroom. As the crews pulled the dogs out of the home, they used a device called Fido Bags, specially designed oxygen masks that fit around the canines' faces. Regular masks, like the ones humans use, do not fit on a pets face properly. Read: 6-Year-Old Nonverbal Boy Is Best Friends with His Adopted Deaf Dog The firefighters were able to successfully resuscitate the dogs and they are currently breathing on their own. Fire officials have not yet revealed the cause of the blaze, which remains under investigation. Watch: Pitbull Puppy Found Nailed to Railroad Track Now Heals Others as Therapy Dog Related Articles: Fox News Channel has promoted its monthly specials known as Watters World into a weekly series. The show will air at 8 PM Saturdays starting this weekend. Jesse Watters will host the hourlong program that is an extension of his segments on The OReilly Factor, in which he interviews people on the street about the latest headlines. The Watters World series also will feature a rotating panel of commentators debating news of the day, as well as interviews with guests. In conjunction with his role on The OReilly Factor, Watters serves as a correspondent, producer and managing editor for Fox Nation. He joined FNC in 2002 as a production assistant and has been working with OReillys show since 2003. I am humbled that Fox News Channel has given me this opportunity, Watters said in todays announcement, made by Fox News programming EVP Suzanne Scott. I look forward to viewers entering my world more often and wouldnt be in this position if it werent for Bill [OReilly]. RelatedMegyn Kelly Eyed To Erase Billy Bush Era At NBC News Today Watters segments for OReillys show sometimes have ignited controversy. Most recently, in October, New York Citys Mayor Bill de Blasio weighed in on Watters visit to Chinatown, tweeting: The vile, racist behavior of Foxs Jesse Watters in Chinatown has no place in our city. @FoxNews keep this guy off TV. Watters, in turn, tweeted an apology of sorts: My man-on-the-street interviews are meant to be taken as tongue-in-cheek and I regret if anyone found offense. As a political humorist, the Chinatown segment was intended to be a light piece, as all Watters World segments are. In the segment, Watters asked people in the neighborhood for their thoughts on the election; if hes supposed to bow when he addresses them; if the watches theyre selling are hot; if, in China, they call Chinese food just food; etc. He also confused his Chinese stereotypes with his Japanese stereotypes and explained that he was foisting himself on Chinatown because Donald Trump has made attacking China a centerpiece of his campaign. Story continues New Yorks Sen. Daniel Squadron also responded to that segment, saying: Under the guise of asking residents of Manhattans Chinatown their thoughts on Donald Trump, OReilly Factor correspondent Jesse Watters brought the kind of disrespect to my constituents that has been all too common this election cycle: stereotyping, mockery and a thinly veiled disdain for immigrants. Unfortunately, one of the real costs of Trumps divisiveness is the climate of racism and disrespect its made commonplace in our national discourse. Thats unacceptable in Chinatown, unacceptable in New York, and must be unacceptable on Fox News. RelatedFox News Channel Crowned 2016s Most Watched Basic Cable Network Related stories Tucker Carlson Gets Megyn Kelly's Fox News Channel 9 PM Timeslot Megyn Kelly Is Headed To NBC News - Now What? Fox News Channel Takes Total Viewer Win On New Year's Eve; CNN Dominates In News Demo Tatler has revealed their poshest baby names list [Photo: Getty] Choosing a baby name is one heck of a minefield. Do you play it safe and go for something popular so what if there are six little Lilys on the nursery register? Or do you go down the celebrity route and pick something a little off the wall were looking at you Gwynnie, Kim K et al? But maybe you want to give your sproglet an upmarket name that will see them blend seamlessly into high society in later life. And now you can thanks to Tatler. The society bible has released a list of the poshest baby names, which they believe should be made popular again. The list of 26 boys and 26 girls names includes upmarket gems such as Innsbruck, Euripides, Ormerod, Wigbert or Npeter (with a silent N). For the female of the species they suggest Gethsemane, Vervain, Queenie and Debonaire. Before you think the features desk have been having a laugh dreaming up some of the most out-there names they can think of, the high-end magazine has confirmed that each and every name on the list is real. Yep, theres a baby Figgy running around out there somewhere. Weve picked out some of the poshest names known to man, the accompanying article on the Tatler website reveals. These are the real deal. Some are even centuries old. Lets make them popular again! But if youre not so keen for your little one to stand out from the baby-name crowd, there are some titles on the list that are a little more ordinary sounding. David, John and Kenneth all make the posh list for boys whereas Nancy, Una and Wendy are all considered upper class names for girls. So if youre currently looking for namespo for your newborn maybe you might consider the monikers Monaveen or Zenia for a girl or Uxorious, Stourton for a boy? Not only will they be able to hob knob with societys finest, but therell unlikely be six of them on the nursery register! See the full list below. Baby Wigbert is looking forward to the high life [Photo: Getty] Poshest names for girls Alfreda Blanche Czar-Czar Debonaire Estonia Figgy Gethsemane Hum Idabelle Jori Koala Lark Monaveen Nancy Opal Power Queenie Rara Scar Tansy Una Vervain Wendy Xanthe Yellow Zenia Story continues The poshest names for boys Aubyn Barclay Cassar David Euripides Fenston Gustav Hickman Innsbruck John Kenneth Ludlow Mao Npeter (the N is silent) Ormerod Prince Quail Ra Stourton Titus Uxorious Victory Wigbert Xman Yak Zebedee What do you think of the list? Let us know @YahooStyleUK In praise of the mumcation These are the most popular Christmas baby names 2016 The good life just keeps getting better for Sophia, Sistine, and Scarlet Stallone. The gorgeous daughters of Sylvester Stallone will make award-show history this weekend as Miss Golden Globes. Its the first time ever that three sisters have been picked. (There was a lot of screaming in the house when the genetically blessed siblings got the news, dad told reporters). Dad Sly, 70, is a mega movie star (of course you know that!). Mom, Jennifer Flavin, 48, is a former model. Sly and Jen are one of Hollywoods rare longtime couples, and are celebrating their 20th anniversary this year. Their eldest daughter, Sophia Rose, 20, is a communications major at the University of Southern California. Sistine Rose, 18, is following in moms footsteps. Shes modeled for Teen Vogue, Harpers Bazaar Kazakhstan, and Express. At 14, Scarlet Rose will be the youngest Miss Golden Globe ever. Shes an athlete, we know from Dad, whos posted about her running races, calling her The FLASH. The girls have grown up in the spotlight, and their papas always been proud. But hes also protective, famously once saying: I wish my daughters would box. Im so worried about the guys coming up to them. I would love them to be able to smack a guy right off a bar stool. Good luck out there, girls! More Kardashian-Jenner drama, per usual: Twenty-four brave souls rang in the New Year by jumping into a seven-foot deep hole in Castle Rock Lake in New Lisbon for the Purple Plunge to raise money for the Juneau County Relay for Life Sunday afternoon. The event was hosted at the Dirty Turtle. Angela Locken, daughter of Turtle owners Jim and Shelia Marx, said the tradition originally known as the Turtle Dunk, started out 21 years ago as a dare. Four of us jumped the first year, and then the second year we decided we should make it a tradition and give it a purpose, Locken said. The tradition continued for 19 years, but two years ago Locken said they ran into some obstacles with insurance and couldnt continue with the event. Locken then suggested Juneau County Relay for Life, which raises money for the American Cancer Society, take over the event. Because of the transition, the event was held in March last year. But as 2017 approached, Locken wanted to keep with tradition having the event on New Years Day. This is when everyone knew it was, Locken said. People are out and about and this is a nice long weekend for people out of town. To keep with the New Years tradition, the event is held regardless of weather, but at 32 degrees Fahrenheit, Locken said it was a beautiful day to take the plunge. Weve had years its sleeting and we had one year where the ice wasnt frozen so we ran in, Locken said. Kevin Klinker of Mauston said there have been years when its below 0 and the ice sticks to your feet. But regardless, Klinker and his daughter Kayla do the event together every year as a part of their own father-daughter tradition to beat a disease that affects so many people. Everybody knows someone who has been affected by cancer, Klinker said who took the plunge for his brother Tim and wifes uncle Jimmy. I think its a great community event and its fun. Laura Braman and Lee Bushen of Tomah heard about the Purple Plunge on New Years Eve when they were at The Dirty Turtle and decided to participate. In their first time ever taking the plunge, Bushen said he was jumping for his grandmother and Braman said she was jumping for her mother, both who have passed away from cancer. The (American) Cancer Society is a great organization that helps people and families when their loved ones are going through cancer and treatments; (they) are a lot of support, Braman said. Those who didnt take the plunge could still participate by playing bingo, purchasing shirts and other merchandise, participating in the raffle, silent auction and chili cook off. As of Monday evening, the Purple Plunge raised $5,284, with First Weber Group Realtors matching the first $3,500 to equal a total of $8,784 to go towards the Juneau County Relay for Life. Wendy Staven, Community Manager for Juneau County Relay for Life, said the goal for 2017 is to raise $76,000 for the American Cancer Society. This gives us a nice foundation to start with, Staven said. According to the American Cancer Societys website, an estimated 1.6 million people were diagnosed with cancer in 2016. Almost 33,000 of those cases are represented in the state of Wisconsin. With so many people affected every year, Locken said the Purple Plunge brings together everyone in the area, from local businesses to community members, to create a sense of community to fight for a cure. Every single person is affected by cancer whether they have it their family their friend, Locken said. We just want to find a cure, thats all we want. Macy's, Obamacare and Apple, here's what's on Our Radar today: Macys (NYSE:M) announced it was laying off more than 10,000 employees and closing 63 stores. Due to lackluster holiday sales and a what the company says is changes in the local retail shopping landscape, the struggling retail giant looks to streamline its operations and focus on digital. This comes as Kohls (NYSE:KSS) also announced a holiday slump, down 2.1%. Both stocks took a hit. If brick and mortars are on their death bed, then why are companies like Nike (NYSE:NKE) and Under Armour (NYSE:UA) expanding? Check this out. Also, the jobs report is out tomorrow! Tune in to Mornings with Maria at 8:30 am ET for the full breakdown. On the chopping block! The U.S. Senate "agreed to the motion to proceed" to reform Obamacare. President Obama and Democrats vow a fight. Meanwhile, VP-elect Mike Pence said that for the 20 million Americans already covered, he promises an alternative that will be on President Trumps desk by February 20. Stay tuned to Cavuto Coast to Coast at 12p ET for the latest developments. Apple announced that it was yanking the New York Times app in China after authorities claimed the app was a violation of local laws -- though no specific law was mentioned, the Times reports. Chinas government has been blocking the Times website since 2012. Once again, Apples ethics and business practices are in the spotlight. In 2016, Apple was criticized for refusing to break into the San Bernardino shooters iPhone. CES, the yearly Consumer Electronics Show that showcases the coolest gadgets and tech innovations, kicks off today in Las Vegas. Fox Business anchor Liz Claman is live all day and getting insight from the biggest names in business. Today at 3pm ET on Countdown to the Closing Bell, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong talks digital innovation and how to compete in the cut-throat tech industry. Related Articles IFC Portlandia (IFC, 10:00 p.m.) Season seven kicks off with Fred and Carrie taking on the mens rights movement (and consulting with a storytelling expert). Enjoy as they seek safe spaces on the internet Reddit doesnt count whine about the all-female Ghostbusters and try to jump start a mens minority movement. Nashville (CMT, 9:00 p.m.) Nashville finds its new home on CMT after being canceled by ABC last year. The shows fifth season picks up right where thing left off. It looks like Juliette survives that pesky plane crash but she doesnt come out unscathed and the brush with death may just be enough to push her towards God (or at least gospel music). Meanwhile, Rayna has a new proposal for Deacon. One Day at a Time (Netflix) Netflix is bringing back the sitcom with its One Day at a Time revival, which drops at midnight tonight. The premise is the same as the original: a recently separated working mom just trying to take care of her two kids. This time though the leading lady 38-year-old Cuban American nurse and Afghanistan war vet named Penelope Alvarez (Justina Machado). Hells Kitchen (Fox, 8:00 p.m.) The first half of this combined episode has the chefs pairing up for a taste challenge and preparing a unique dinner for a charity event. Later, chef Roy Yamaguchi judges dishes that combine international cuisines. Inside the Actors Studio (Bravo, 8:00 p.m.) Tonight, Viola Davis talks with James Lipton about acting, recalling her early performances and achievements and reflecting on her career challenges. Superstore (NBC, 8:00 p.m.) Superstore is back and the gang is celebrating the new year by holding a lost-and-found bin cleanout. Amy scores big when she unwittingly walks away with a wad of cash and Cheyenne proves she sucks at keeping a secret. The Big Bang Theory (CBS, 8:00 p.m.) Sheldons mom is back and Better Things Pamela Adlon guest stars in tonights winter premiere. Sheldon and Amy reminisce about their terrible trip to Texas and coming clean to Sheldons mother about their current living situation. Story continues The Great American Baking Show (ABC, 8:00 p.m.) The bakers have made it to the semi-finals where they must create 24 petit four glace mini cakes, French crullers and the mille-feuille. The Good Place (NBC, 8:30 p.m.) Michael recruits Chidi to help him make an important decision while Elanor discovers some surprising information about her own past. The Great Indoors (CBS, 8:30 p.m.) Jack takes the millennials camping and leaves them stranded in the woods in order to test their survival skills. Chicago Med (NBC, 9:00 p.m.) Dr. Stohl returns from his sabbatical leave; April faces a setback; and the hospital staff treat two MMA fighters who arrive to the E.R. in pretty bad shape. Mom (CBS, 9:00 p.m.) Bradley Whitford and Nicole Sullivan guest star as a couple of Adams old partying pals who decide to pay him a visit. Life in Pieces (CBS, 9:30 p.m.) Tonights flashback episode gives us a glimpse of John and Joans Y2K party; Heather and Tims pre-Sophia parenting styles; Jen and Gregs honeymoon; and Greg and Colleens first meeting. Pure Genius (CBS, 10:00 p.m.) James idol turns out to be a tech guru whose micro chip factory is responsible for a cluster of respiratory cases caused by environmental contamination. Elsewhere, Zoe battles her jealousy over James and Ninas relationship and Walter and Taliakha try to help a perfectly healthy man whos lost the ability to walk. The Blacklist (NBC, 10:00 p.m.) The Blacklist returns with an international terrorist investigation that may have ties at home. Meanwhile, Red chases in on a favor and Aram deals with the consequences of his girlfriend hacking into the FBI. LATE NIGHT GUESTS Jimmy Kimmel Live!: Mel Gibson, Fantastic Negrito The Late Show With Stephen Colbert: Adam Driver, Alexa Davalos, Whitney The Late Late Show With James Corden: Jamie Foxx, Kirsten Dunst, Zoe Saldana A car bomb exploded on January 5 near an ad hoc refugee camp established on the western outskirts of Azaz, located approximately 6 miles from the Turkish border. White Helmet rescue volunteer Samir Ahmed, who can be seen in a firefighters uniform in a video posted by Baladi News, said that three civilians, including one woman, were wounded in the car bombing. He said that the area has no military installations of any kind and was formerly an industrial site that was converted into a space for internally displaced Syrians. While no group has yet to formally claim responsibility, Kurdish media reports claim the attack was carried out by the Islamic State in an attempt to target a local office of the Syrian National Coalition. Storyful could not independently verify who carried out the attack. This video shows White Helmets arriving to the scene of the explosion and fighting the fire caused by the bomb. Credit: YouTube/Syrian Civil Defense in Aleppo via Storyful Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has probably seen his last debt limit fight as the man in charge of meeting the countrys financial obligations, but on his way out the door, he is calling on Congress to do away with the statutory ceiling on borrowing that has brought the US to the brink of default several times over the past few decades. In a new article to be published in the Harvard Journal on Legislation, Lew argues that the system originally set up to facilitate the Treasurys borrowing has transformed into a broken, outdated system that no longer meets our countrys needs. Related: As the Debt Hits $20 Trillion, Has the US Reached a Tipping Point? Citing the multiple times since the 1990s when members of Congress have threatened actual default on the Treasurys financial obligations -- moves that have led to increased borrowing costs, financial instability, and at one point a downgrade of the Treasurys credit rating, he argues, We must change course. If this were an external threat to our national security, we would bolster our national defense. If this were a foreseeable natural disaster, we would harden our infrastructure to mitigate that risk. As evidence, he cites the Government Accountability Office, which found that the debt limit fight in 2011 resulted in Treasurys borrowing costs increasing by between $1 billion and $1.7 billion. Those costs, he noted, are ultimately borne by the taxpayer because Treasury will be making higher interest payments, which ultimately must be funded through higher taxes. The repeated threats of default on the debt, he said, are also a clear risk that could result in an unacceptable threat to the health of our financial system. Countless investors around the world rely on US Treasury securities as an effectively risk-free asset. Treasury holdings undergird mutual funds, retirement plans, and the holdings of banks and insurance firms. Certainty about their safety and value not only keeps borrowing costs low but provides assurance about the safety and soundness of the financial system as a whole. Story continues In Congress, battles over the debt limit are frequently cast as a fight against government spending. But, as Lew points out when the time comes to borrow money to pay federal obligations, the question of how much money the government is going to spend has already been settled, by Congress itself. Related: Trump Picks a Leading Deficit Hawk to Run the White House Budget Office [W]hen the bills for expenditures already authorized by Congress come due, they must be paid, and these bills are not an abstraction; they are the salaries of our troops, benefits for our veterans and retirees, and payments to hospitals for providing care, not to mention turning on the lights for the federal government, Lew writes. He adds, Raising the debt limit does not authorize any federal spending; it simply allows the government to pay bills already incurred. Bottom line, Lew argues, the utter politicization of the debt limit is a threat to the safety of the United States: What once was a deadline that drove debates on the budget has transformed into a nihilistic platform for some in Congress to promote the very real risk of a default to advance narrow partisan agendas. Related: Experts Warn of a Coming Fiscal Crisis as Trump Prepares to Take Charge Even using all of the methods at its disposal, he said, constant fights about the debt limit expose the system to needless risks that Treasury cannot meaningfully mitigate. While it remains unlikely that members of Congress can be persuaded to put down what has become an extremely powerful weapon in policy battles, Lew at least offers his successors at Treasury a coherent argument that, for the good of the country, they should. Top Reads from The Fiscal Times: The Nerdvana Annihilation When Leonard and the guys buy a time machine prop from the classic 1960 movie of the same name, its arrival inadvertently creates problems for Penny and she tells the boys that their obsession with comics and toys is pathetic, on THE BIG BANG THEORY, Monday, April 28 (8:00-8:30 ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. (pictured standing left to right; Kunal Nayyar as Raj Koothrappali; Jim Parsons as Sheldon; Simon Helberg as Howard Wolowitz and sitting Johnny Galecki as Leonard) Photo: Greg Gayne/CBS 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. Flash t-shirt courtesy DC Comics Donald Trump could have picked a better car to bash. The incoming president lashed General Motors (GM) on Twitter recently for making its Chevrolet Cruze subcompact in Mexico. Whoops. The Cruze sedanwhich accounts for 97.6% of all US Cruze salesis actually built in Lordstown, Ohio. The slow-selling Cruze hatchback is built in Mexico, but annual sales of just 4,400 units are virtually negligible. Trump went after GM just as cross-town rival Ford announced it was canceling plans to build a $1.6 billion factory in Mexico, as Trump has been urging the company to do since campaigning last year. Ford will still move production of its Focus subcompact from Michigan to Mexico, by ramping up production at another plant instead of building a new one. But it will also invest a fresh $700 million in Michigan, helping create 700 new jobs. Trump tweeted his approval. The Ford news overshadowed Trumps blunder regarding the Chevy Cruze, but Trumps confusion on that is understandable. Automobiles are complex products that typically include components from all over the world. And most automakers sell their cars in dozens of countries, which means they have to base production decisions on a multitude of factors including consumer tastes, labor and material costs, exchange rates, transportation efficiency and where a given model is likely to sell the most. Hatchbacks arent popular in the United States, for example, but European drivers love them, which is part of the reason GM builds the Cruze hatch in Mexicoit can export from there to Europe with no tariffs, while the same car shipped from the United States would face a 10% levy. Trumps crusade to protect American manufacturing jobs has nonetheless put GM and Ford (F) in the crosshairs, and other automakers might be next. Trump targeted Ford during last years campaign because of news the company was opening a new factory in Mexico, to build the Focus subcompact. On another matter, Trump took credit for persuading Fords Lincoln division to keep producing its MKC crossover at a plant in Kentucky instead of moving it to Mexico, although Ford had merely been planning to adjust production, not move work permanently out of the country. Story continues The most American cars Trump has now extended his campaign against the automakers to GM, though he could just as easily have targeted Fiat Chrysler, Honda, Toyota or Volkswagen. Virtually every global automaker assembles cars in Mexico, as this map from the Center for Automotive Research shows: While GM has three factories in Mexico, Trump may not be aware that it also builds some of the most American cars on US roads. In an annual made in America indexcalculated by American Universitys Kogod School of Business, 9 of the 10 vehicles with the most American content are GM models, including the Buick Enclave, Chevy Corvette and Chevy Equinox. The Ford F-150 pickup is the only non-GM vehicle in the top 10. The Kogod rankings are meant to capture the value that accrues to the US economy from all aspects of automotive production, including not just manufacturing but also things like research and development and where the automakers profits are likely to be spent. A few other American models would have been better targets for Trump than the Cruze, which is tied for 24th place in the Kogod rankings. The Ford Fusion ranks 39th on the Kogod scale; the Dodge Journey 43rd, the Jeep Renegade 49th, the Cadillac SRX is 53rd, and the Chevy Trax 59th. Its tricky, though. The Fusion, for instance, is assembled in Mexico with a transmission built in the United States. The Journey is also assembled in Mexico, with major components from America, Mexico and Italy, depending on which variant you get. MrTopStep Group https://mrtopstep.com Questions: info@mrtopstep.com Follow Us On Facebook and Twitter For More Intra-Day Market Updates! https://www.facebook.com/mrtopstep https://twitter.com/MrTopStep (@MrTopStep) Dont Forget To Subscribe To Our YouTube Channel! Sign Up Here: http://www.youtube.com/mrtopstepgroup In negotiating, is a more precise opening offer always better? It might be but it depends on the experience level of the person with whom you're negotiating, a recent study from Germany found. In the study, researchers showed that increasing the precision of an opening offer improved a person's negotiations with amateurs, but could actually backfire on negotiations with experts. In most situations, precision can influence social perceptions during a negotiation, suggesting more confidence and competence, the researchers wrote in their study, which was published in October in the journal Psychological Science. People tend to assume that those they're communicating with provide exactly the right amount of information needed not any more, and not any less, the researchers said. Thus, people may intuitively feel that a more precise offer reflects more knowledge about the value of what is being bought or sold, the investigators said. [7 Ways to Reduce Job Stress] However, too much precision can hurt with experts, because they may assume that the overly precise number reflects a lack of competence, the study found. To explore the effects of precision on negotiating, the researchers conducted five experiments that included 1,320 experts and amateurs in real estate, jewelry, car and human-resources negotiations. For example, in one of the experiments, the researchers provided 230 amateurs and 223 real estate agents (the experts) in Germany with a detailed real-estate listing that included pictures, floor plans and other relevant information. The study participants were then given an opening offer with varying degrees of precision, ranging from 979,000 euros or 981,000 euros in the least-precise condition up to 978,781.63 euros or 981,218.37 euros in the most-precise condition. When asked to make a counteroffer and state the highest price they were willing to pay for the house, amateurs were almost always willing to pay more when the offer was more precise. In other words, they made higher counteroffers and were willing to pay more for the house as precision increased. Story continues Experts, however, reacted differently. While increased precision in an offer helped in negotiations up to a point, researchers saw a "U shape" in experts' willingness to pay and in the amount of their counteroffers. If the offer became tooprecise, then this precision turned into a disadvantage, lowering the experts' view of the value of the home and the competence of the person with whom they were negotiating. Real-world implications The findings suggest that negotiators analyze their counterpart's expertise before making a precise offer, said lead-study author David Loschelder, an assistant professor of economic psychology at Leuphana University Luneburg in Germany. "Moderate precision is always safe and very likely effective," Loschelder told Live Science. The study did have limitations, however. For example, the transactions in the study were not real; rather, they were conducted in a laboratory setting, Loschelder noted. People might have said they were willing to pay X amount, but in reality, the number might be different, he said. Despite such limitations, Michael Wheeler, a professor of management practice at Harvard Business School, who was not involved in the study, said that he was "pretty well-persuaded that if the authors can get these effects here, they are applicable to the real world." The power of the study comes from its very different findings for the effects of precision on experts versus on amateurs, said Wheeler, who is also involved with Harvard Business School's online learning initiative, HBX. "That may be very subversive in terms of negotiation research," Wheeler told Live Science, noting that most research on negotiation is performed in labs using amateurs, or participants with little negotiation experience. The recent study could raise a "yellow caution flag" when examining other research done with subjects who were entirely inexperienced negotiators, he added. The study has practical, real-world implications as well. "One takeaway is avoid being too clever by half," Wheeler said. "If you think a precise number is going to be valuable, don't overdo it, particularly if you're dealing with somebody who is experienced in that particular industry or realm." Originally published on Live Science. Editor's Recommendations ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The wife of an American author who disappeared on a research trip in Afghanistan more than two years ago appealed for his freedom on Thursday in a Pakistani newspaper. Paul Overby, 74, went missing in Afghanistan's eastern Khost province shortly after May 17, 2014, the last contact he had with his family. He was hoping to interview Sirajuddin Haqqani, head of the Taliban-allied Haqqani militant network, and was trying to cross from Afghanistan into Pakistan's volatile North Waziristan region, according to the Pakistani daily the News. His wife, Jane Larson, told the newspaper she believed her husband was kidnapped and she appealed to his captors "to return him as soon as possible and show the mercy of Allah to unite an aging couple who have been apart too long". Sources in the Taliban and the Haqqani network, however, told the News they were not holding Overby and it was unclear what happened to him. Overby is the author of 1993's "Holy Blood: An Inside View of the Afghan War", based on his research and travels in Afghanistan during a U.S.-sponsored "mujahadeen" insurgency against a Soviet-backed government. Last month, the Taliban released a Haqqani network video of American Caitlan Coleman and her Canadian husband, Joshua Boyle, who were abducted in 2012 while on a backpacking trip. The video also showed two sons born to the couple while in captivity. (Writing by Kay Johnson; Editing by Robert Birsel) WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (R) speaks as Ecuador's Foreign Affairs Minister Ricardo Patino listens, during a news conference at the Ecuadorian embassy in central London August 18, 2014. REUTERS/John Stillwell/pool WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange slammed the mainstream media in an interview with Fox News this week. He denied that he was intentionally trying to influence the presidential election by leaking emails from Democratic officials, saying he was merely publishing what was true and allowing the American people to decide whether it would influence their voting. Assange also implied that the US media is censoring its own coverage, saying that "under the Obama administration, Deep Throat, Woodward and Bernstein would have been prosecuted." He was referring to the Watergate scandal that brought down President Richard Nixon and the reporters, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who used an anonymous source to help uncover the scandal. While Assange stopped short of calling himself a journalist, Assange said the information published on WikiLeaks is "better presented" than it is in news outlets like The New York Times. Fox News host Sean Hannity asked if there's any difference between the Times reporting on President-elect Donald Trump's taxes and WikiLeaks posting secret documents online. "There is a difference, which is our material is better presented, less intermediation," Assange said. "The public responded to it more than The New York Times." In the months leading up to the election, WikiLeaks published hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. US intelligence agencies have determined that Russia was involved in the hacking with the aim of swaying the election in Trump's favor. Assange has insisted the material did not come from Russia. But his reliability is questionable former UN ambassador John Bolton, for instance, told Fox News on Tuesday that he wouldn't trust Assange. And Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said Wednesday that Assange is "no friend of America and no friend of Democracy." Story continues Some prominent conservatives were also very critical of Assange when WikiLeaks published thousands of diplomatic cables, some of which were published in The New York Times. Hannity himself noted during his interview with Assange that in 2010, he said he was concerned Assange was "waging war against the US." But Assange markets himself as a truth-teller who's not afraid to report what is "censored" by the media. "The editor of The New York Times, he has come out and said that he would do the same thing as WikiLeaks," Assange said. "If they had obtained the information, they would publish it." He continued: "Now, unfortunately, I don't believe that is true. I believe they would selectively maybe publish just a bit here and a bit there. They would not have done what we did, which is present the American public everything that we knew." NOW WATCH: Airplane designers have a brilliant idea for the middle seat More From Business Insider Photo credit: undefined From Esquire Han Solo's first stand-alone outing will land in 2018, fleshing out the backstory of everybody's favorite scruffy-looking nerf herder as Rogue One did for the rebels who stole the Death Star plans. Disney and Lucasfilm are seeking a big name to play an early mentor to the young Han, and per The Hollywood Reporter, Woody Harrelson is in talks for the role. Alden Ehrenreich is playing Han, alongside Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian and Emilia Clarke as an unnamed female lead. Disney's plan is to alternate new installments in the Force Awakens timeline (Episode VII, IX, and so on) with standalone movies on a yearly basis, so that you'll never have to go more than 365 days without a Force fix. And Harrelson could be the ideal person for the part. Consider his past roles: Post-zombie apocalypse mentor in Zombieland, dystopian battle to the death mentor in Hunger Games, bartender/mentor to a bunch of lovable drunks in Cheers. The as-yet-untitled Han Solo film will hit theaters on May 25, 2018. You Might Also Like Photo credit: Bill Clarkundefined From Esquire David Dayen, now of The Intercept, is the go-to authority on all things foreclosure-related, foreclosures being the longest lasting ripple of the splash made when the wizards of the financial services industry sank most of the world economy. The foreclosure process was reckless, ruthless and, in many cases, outright criminal. It was jackals coming after what was left on the bones. And it's still going on. Fortunately for the nation, as Dayen pointed out on Wednesday, the incoming administration has a certain expertise in this area. Via The Intercept: The memo obtained by The Intercept alleges that OneWest rushed delinquent homeowners out of their homes by violating notice and waiting period statutes, illegally backdated key documents, and effectively gamed foreclosure auctions. In the memo, the leaders of the state attorney general's Consumer Law Section said they had "uncovered evidence suggestive of widespread misconduct" in a yearlong investigation. In a detailed 22-page request, they identified over a thousand legal violations in the small subsection of OneWest loans they were able to examine, and they recommended that Attorney General Kamala Harris file a civil enforcement action against the Pasadena-based bank. They even wrote up a sample legal complaint, seeking injunctive relief and millions of dollars in penalties. OneWest is the bank that was run by Stephen Mnuchin, the new administration's nominee to be Secretary of the Treasury, and its track record in this regard reads like something out of an 18th century potboiler. All it lacks is someone tied to a railroad track. Mnuchin, the former CEO of OneWest, was already facing challenges in his upcoming Senate confirmation hearings on account of his bank's ruthless foreclosure practices, ranging from locking out one homeowner during a Minneapolis blizzard to foreclosing on another over a 27-cent payment shortfall. "After years peddling the kind of dangerous mortgage-backed securities that eventually blew up the economy, Mnuchin swooped in after the crash to take a second bite out of families by aggressively - and sometimes illegally - foreclosing on their homes," Sen. Elizabeth Warren said in a statement last month. Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, warned: "Given Mr. Mnuchin's history of profiting off the victims of predatory lending, I look forward to asking him how his Treasury Department would work for Americans who are still waiting for the economic recovery to show up in their communities." Story continues Meanwhile, the folks at Camp Runamuck on Wednesday announced their choice for commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission. He's a Wall Street lawyer who also has a certain level of expertise regarding how we all almost came to ruin thanks to the masters of the universe. Per CNN: His law firm bio also notes that Clayton helped secure toxic mortgage settlements on behalf of large financial institutions with the government. It's not clear which specific banks Clayton represented on these settlements. Since the crisis, big banks including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank (DB) have agreed to pay a total of nearly $60 billion to the U.S. Department of Justice for creating and selling toxic mortgage deals that helped fuel the crisis. Clayton also has ties to Bear Stearns, which collapsed during the financial crisis as its toxic loan portfolio spiraled out of control. He represented Bear in its fire sale to JPMorgan. As important as the fight over the Affordable Care Act is, the one advantage that defenders of that law have there is that the opposition seems at the moment to be completely bumfuzzled as to what it really wants to do, and how to arrange the blame when it does nothing for a few years. Repeal-and-replace is at best a phantom conjured up out of talking points and, at worst, an ambulatory mass of pure political cowardice. Senator Charles Schumer of New York is right to keep hammering the point home that you can't have the really good and really popular stuff without the mechanisms that have been so effectively demonized that people actively voted against their own healthcare, most notably in Kentucky, but generally enough to help elect a president who still seems unclear about what he wants to do. Photo credit: Eduardo Munoz Alvarezundefined But the people trying to prevent the evisceration of the laws and regulations put in place in the wake of the 2008 financial collapse are not that lucky. From the president-elect on down through these Cabinet nominations and into the congressional majorities, there is none of that kind of confusion. The effort to destroy the Dodd-Frank reforms, and their ancillary regulations, is a strong and unified one. The preservation and strengthening of the money power in and out of government is the overriding unifying theme of the new government. Demolishing even the most fragile barriers thrown up against the money power in the wake of its having decimated lives and personal economies is job one for everyone involved in the transition. It's the one thing they agree on, and they are staffing the government accordingly. It's not that we learned nothing from what happened eight years ago. It's that the wrong people learned all too much, and they learned it all too well. Respond to this post on the Esquire Politics Facebook page. You Might Also Like - French sailor Armel Le Cleac'h has extended his lead on Welsh rival Alex Thomson in the Vendee Globe non-stop, solo race around the world. As the competitors approach the Equator and the northern hemisphere where the race could be thrown open Le Cleac'h (Banque Populaire VIII) was sailing over 300 nautical miles ahead of his Hugo Boss rival. Thomson also pulled further ahead on pursuing Frenchman Jeremie Beyou (Maitre Coq) in third place sailing towards the North Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Brazil. The racers set off from western France on November 6, with the winner expected back on France's Atlantic coast by January 20. AFP DailyFX.com - Talking Points: The Japanese Yen was unimpressed as Composite and Service PMIs crossed the wires The data showed Japans service sector expanding at fastest pace in about 1 year The anti-risk Yen was inversely following Nikkei 225 futures as they fell on Tokyo open Would you like to know more about trading currencies or commodities? Check out our DailyFX webinars. The Japanese Yen showed a tepid reaction against its major counterparts after a set of composite and service-sector PMI figurescrossed the wires. Keep in mind that a reading above 50 indicates expansion while a reading below 50 points to contraction. In December, Japans service PMI clocked in at 52.3 versus 51.8 in November. This marks the fastest pace of growth since January 2016. Meanwhile, the composite reading came in at 52.8 from 52.0 prior. This is the quickest pace of overall expansion since August 2015. Seeing that the Bank of Japan left its monetary policy stance unchanged in December can help unravel why the Yen was uninspired by todays PMI readings. The central bank noted that its main aim at the momentis to implement yield curve control and to keep 10 year government bond yields at 0. Upbeat news may have have passed largely unnoticed given this dovish posture. Looking at the 5-minute chart below of USD/JPY, it can be seen that the pair was following Nikkei 225 futures lower as the Tokyo stock exchanged opened. When the data crossed the wires, the pair briefly halted its decline before following the index further downward. Yen Unimpressed as Service and Composite PMIs Climb to Highs Chart compiled in TradingView original source DailyFX provides forex news and technical analysis on the trends that influence the global currency markets. Learn forex trading with a free practice account and trading charts from IG. By Hilary Russ NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey agreed to a $32 billion, 10-year capital plan on Thursday, including funding proposals for a new Hudson River train tunnel and a new Manhattan bus terminal. The authority, which oversees many of the biggest transportation infrastructure projects in the region, faces a roughly $20 billion funding gap between what it wants to build and what it can afford to build. The Port Authority operates airports, bridges and tunnels in the bi-state area, which produces at least 10 percent of the nation's economic output, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The draft plan is expected to be published on the authority's website in coming days. Public meetings will be held on Jan. 31 and Feb. 7 before the comment period closes on Feb. 15. The plan is "fair to New Yorkers and will allow the Empire State to move forward on one of the most ambitious infrastructure plans in the nation," New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a statement. The Port Authority is jointly overseen by the governors of New York and New Jersey. The draft calls for $2.7 billion to help pay for the new rail tunnel, which is part of Amtrak's Gateway Program for its Northeast Corridor. That promise is "far and away the largest single commitment of financing to the Gateway tunnel," Port Authority Executive Director Pat Foye said. "It is a huge step forward." The capital plan also lays out $3.5 billion for a bus terminal to replace the outdated, 66-year-old terminal on Manhattan's West side. Of that amount, $500 million would come from federal grants. Officials have split on where a new facility would be located and how to pay for it. Port Authority Chairman John Degnan acknowledged that $3.5 billion would not be enough to complete the project but said he expected officials to find additional funding later. New Jersey lawmakers have fumed at what they say is political interference in the plan and have scheduled a legislative hearing for Jan. 17. Story continues Separately on Thursday, the authority's board approved a 33-year lease with Delta Air Lines Inc. for the design, construction and financing of a new 37-gate terminal at LaGuardia Airport. Delta and West Street Infrastructure Partners III, a fund managed by Goldman, Sachs & Co , will contribute $300 million in equity investments and $3.6 billion in debt financing. The Port Authority previously approved $600 million of its money for the project. That project is on top of a $4 billion public-private partnership, currently underway, to rebuild the airport's central terminal. (Reporting by Hilary Russ; Editing by Daniel Bases and Leslie Adler) By Jonathan Oatis NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York City train derailed at a downtown Brooklyn terminal during Wednesday's morning rush hour, injuring more than 100 commuters in the metropolitan area's second major rail accident since late September. Emergency crews swarmed Atlantic Terminal after the Long Island Rail Road train went off the tracks inside the busy transportation hub at 8:20 a.m. local time (1320 GMT), the New York City Fire Department said. While none of the injuries were life-threatening, at least 11 people were sent to the hospital, Deputy Assistant Chief Dan Donoghue said at a briefing at the crash site. The train, arriving from the Queens neighborhood of Far Rockaway, failed to stop on time. Traveling at a fairly slow speed, it derailed after striking a bumping block, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said at the briefing. A National Transportation Safety Board investigator told reporters that about 430 passengers and three crew members were on board the train at the time of the collision and that 104 people were injured. The front two cars of the six-carriage train were severely damaged. The station's partitions and bumping block, which prevents railway vehicles from going past the end of a section of track, were also damaged. Passengers said the blood and chaos following the derailment were frightening. "There were people crying," said Aaron Neufeld, a 26-year-old paralegal who commutes on the rail line daily. "I saw some bloody faces." Neufeld, who was riding in the second car, said the train appeared to be approaching normally until it crashed, knocking passengers on top of one another and shattering glass windows. "Bags went flying," he said. "People were thrown to the ground. The engineer was probably responsible for failing to stop the train before it hit the bumper, said Tom Prendergast, chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the agency that runs the railroad. The train was traveling between 10 and 15 miles per hour (16 to 24 km per hour) as it approached the bumper, he said, which is standard. "At that speed, it's pretty much the locomotive engineer's responsibility to stop the train," Prendergast said as he stood beside Cuomo at the briefing. Investigators will interview the engineer, the conductor and brakeman to determine the cause of the accident, he said. There were no major service disruptions for other Long Island Rail Road lines at the terminal, an MTA official said. In late September, a New Jersey Transit train crashed into a terminal in Hoboken, New Jersey, killing one woman and injuring 114 people, including the engineer. Cuomo, who has made infrastructure improvements a centerpiece of his agenda, said Wednesday's incident was minor in comparison. The most serious injury in the crash was a broken leg, he said. "There was extensive damage in Hoboken," Cuomo said. "That train was coming in much faster, did much more damage." The U.S. Federal Railroad Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board said they were sending investigators to the scene. The Long Island Rail Road is the United State's largest commuter rail system, serving more than 330,000 passengers a day, according to the American Public Transportation Association. Atlantic Terminal, which also connects commuters to nine city subway lines, is one of the busiest New York stations. (Additional reporting by Gina Cherelus, David Shepardson, David Ingram in New York and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Writing by Laila Kearney; Editing by Frank McGurty, Lisa Von Ahn and Lisa Shumaker) For Immediate Release Chicago, IL January 05, 2017 - Stocks in this weeks article includeMorgan Stanley (NYSE: MS- Free Report ), Pennymac Mortgage (NYSE: PMT- Free Report ), Cambrex Corp. (NYSE: CBM- Free Report ), DTE Energy (NYSE: DTE- Free Report ) and Choice Hotels (NYSE: CHH- Free Report ). Kevin Matras shows why stocks with new analyst coverage are stocks you want to have. Screen of the Week written by Kevin Matras of Zacks Investment Research: Get Ready to Be Surprised This Earnings Season With earnings season officially set to begin next week (Monday, 1/9/17 with Alcoa reporting earnings), this is a good screen to use both before and after a company reports. Like any earnings season, we're going to see both positive surprises and negative surprises. This screen however focuses on more than just earnings surprises, but instead goes over the importance of both earnings surprises and sales surprises, and why as an investor you should care so much about them. As you know, if a company reports earnings above expectations, that's a positive surprise, and the price in general should go up. If the company reports earnings below expectations, that's a negative surprise, and the price in general should go down. But a surprise is more than just a snapshot of an extra few dollars and cents a company made or lost in that one period. Instead, it's a glimpse into what a company's earnings could be, or should be, in the future. And when these surprises occur, the market tries to quickly re-price that stock to reflect these changes. Not All Surprises Are Created Equal Some earnings surprises are due to revenue increases, and other earnings surprises are due to cost cutting measures. Top line growth (or sales growth) usually produces the biggest price reaction over cost-cutting, because an increase in sales is generally thought of as more sustainable. Once you've cut costs, wheres the future growth going to come from? You can only cut costs so much. You need sales to drive long term growth. Story continues There's also guidance. What the company sees down the road is important. If you've got a positive surprise on one hand, but then downward guidance on the other, that'll usually produce a negative reaction. Why? Because they've taken away the hope generated from the surprise by saying the future outlook will likely be weaker than expected. There's also the idea that some surprises aren't really surprises -- either because a company has a history of continuously beating their estimates or the stock has already priced in a 'surprise' by running up or going down prior to the announcement; therefore, the 'surprise' in that direction really wasn't a surprise at all. That's where you'll sometimes see an opposite reaction to an earnings surprise - a "buy the rumor sell the fact" type event. But while predicting which companies will surprise or not can be difficult, the benefit of an earnings surprise will typically last for one to three months after a surprise is reported. So you can get in after a company reports a surprise, or you can try and find companies that are more likely to report a surprise, and get in ahead of time. Screening Parameters The screen I'm running today starts off with: Last EPS Surprise greater than or equal to 5% (Stocks posting positive surprises have a tendency of surprising again.) Last Sales Surprise greater than or equal to 5% (A positive sales surprise shows top line strength. And once again, a company that has surprised in the past is more likely to surprise again in the future.) Zacks Rank less than or equal to 2 (Only Zacks Rank 1 and 2 Strong Buys and Buys can get thru.) Price greater than or equal to $5 and Average 20-day Volume greater than or equal to 100,000 Just these few criteria narrows down the universe from over 8,800 stocks to just over 20. Here are 5 stocks that meet this criteria: (NYSE: MS- Free Report ) Morgan Stanley (reports on 1/17) (NYSE: PMT- Free Report ) Pennymac Mortgage (reports on 2/1) (NYSE: CBM- Free Report ) Cambrex Corp. (reports on 2/7) (NYSE: DTE- Free Report ) DTE Energy (reports on 2/8) (NYSE: CHH- Free Report ) Choice Hotels (reports on 2/16) All of these companies reported both earnings surprises and sales surprises their last time out. A great combination. And I expect more of the same this time around as well. Sign up now for your 2 week free trial to the Research Wizard and get the rest of the stocks on this list. Click here for your 2 week free trial to the Research Wizard. 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 Sign up now for your free trial today and start picking better stocks immediately. And with the backtesting feature, you can test your ideas to see how you can improve your trading in both up markets and down markets. Dont wait for the market to get better before you decide to do better. Start learning how to be a better trader today: https://at.zacks.com/?id=111 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. About Screen of the Week Zacks.com created the first and best screening system on the web earning the distinction as the "#1 site for screening stocks" by Money Magazine. But powerful screening tools is just the start. That is why Zacks created the Screen of the Week to highlight profitable stock picking strategies that investors can actively use. Each week, Zacks Profit from the Pros free email newsletter shares a new screening strategy. Learn more about it here https://at.zacks.com/?id=112 About Zacks Zacks.com is a property of Zacks Investment Research, Inc., which was formed in 1978. The later formation of the Zacks Rank, a proprietary stock picking system; continues to outperform the market by nearly a 3 to 1 margin. The best way to unlock the profitable stock recommendations and market insights of Zacks Investment Research is through our free daily email newsletter; Profit from the Pros. In short, it's your steady flow of Profitable ideas GUARANTEED to be worth your time! Click here for your free subscription to Profit from the Pros . Get the full Report on MS - FREE Get the full Report on PMT - FREE Get the full Report on CBM - FREE Get the full Report on DTE - FREE Get the full Report on CHH - FREE Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/zacksresearch Join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ZacksInvestmentResearch Zacks Investment Research is under common control with affiliated entities (including a broker-dealer and an investment adviser), which may engage in transactions involving the foregoing securities for the clients of such affiliates. Contact: Jim Giaquinto Company: Zacks.com Phone: 312-265-9268 Email: pr@zacks.com Visit: https://www.zacks.com/performance Zacks.com provides investment resources and informs you of these resources, which you may choose to use in making your own investment decisions. Zacks is providing information on this resource to you subject to the Zacks "Terms and Conditions of Service" disclaimer. www.zacks.com/disclaimer . Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release. 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 Morgan Stanley (MS): Free Stock Analysis Report PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust (PMT): Free Stock Analysis Report Cambrex Corporation (CBM): Free Stock Analysis Report DTE Energy Company (DTE): Free Stock Analysis Report Choice Hotels International, Inc. (CHH): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. For Immediate Release Chicago, IL January 5, 2017 Zacks Market Edge is a podcast hosted weekly by Zacks Stock Strategist Tracey Ryniec. Every week, Tracey will be joined by guests to discuss the hottest investing topics in stocks, bonds and ETFs and how it impacts your life. Click here: https://www.zacks.com/stock/news/244265/how-to-pick-stocks . How to Pick Stocks Welcome to Episode #64 of the Zacks Market Edge Podcast. Every week, host and Zacks stock strategist, Tracey Ryniec, will be joined by guests to discuss the hottest investing topics in stocks, bonds and ETFs and how it impacts your life. In this episode, Tracey is joined by Zacks Director of Research, Sheraz Mian. He is also the mastermind behind Zacks Top 10 Stocks to Buy in 2017. This is a buy and hold portfolio of 10 stocks that are purchased in the first week of the new year and held until the end of the year. Sheraz has picked this portfolio for several years so every December he has to narrow down the Zacks universe of covered stocks, which is about 4400 different stocks, into the 10 he feels will perform the best in the following year. Its not easy. How Sheraz Picks Stocks for the Portfolio He starts with developing his macro view of the economy and what he thinks might happen in the United States and the global economy in a host of areas including with the Federal Reserve, with healthcare policy, with possible trade disputes under the Trump Administration, as well as with the French and German elections still to come later in the year. Once you have developed your strategy for the year, then, he says, the stock picks become clearer. Sheraz picks from Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), #2 (Buy) and #3 (Hold) stocks. He also uses the Zacks Industry and Sector ranks to narrow things further. Zacks.com has a bunch of information you can use to find good quality names, including the analyst estimate data. The portfolio for 2017 just launched this week. You can see the top 10 stocks for only $1 if you click here . Story continues They wouldnt say what is in this years portfolio, but Tracey and Sheraz were able to analyze what went right and what went wrong in the 2016 portfolio. Sheraz discusses how he picked last years portfolio and which of the stocks he still likes in 2017. The Good and Bad of 2016 Sheraz took a risk on energy but it paid off big as Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE: PXD Free Report ) was his biggest winner last year with a 45.8% gain. He didnt shy away from the banks in 2016. First Republic (NYSE: FRC Free Report ) which specializes in high net worth individuals in San Francisco rose 44%. Dave & Busters (Nasdaq: PLAY Free Report ) was the smallest company in last years portfolio with a $1.7 billion market cap. Listen to the podcast to find out why he picked it last year and what he thinks going forward. EPAM Systems (NYSE: EPAM Free Report ) never got momentum. This global IT company fell 13.8%. Manhattan Associates (Nasdaq: MANH Free Report ) was the worst performer in 2016, losing 17.6%. They make software that helps online retailers and sellers. Does Sheraz still like them for 2017? Some of the trends of 2016 will continue into 2017. Which ones? What does Sheraz think of the banking stocks in 2017 after the big run in 2016? Yes, there is a bank in the 2017 portfolio. Also, hes a former oil analyst, so hes not hiding from the energy stocks in 2017. But you might be surprised at his pick this year. What other tips does Sheraz have about how to pick stocks? Tune into this weeks podcast to find out. Get the Top 10 Stocks of 2017 The new portfolio just launched this week. You can see the top 10 stocks, and the report with Sherazs analysis of each company, for just $1. Start the New Year off with these buy-and-hold stock ideas. Click here >> About Zacks Zacks.com is a property of Zacks Investment Research, Inc., which was formed in 1978. The later formation of the Zacks Rank, a proprietary stock picking system; continues to outperform the market by nearly a 3 to 1 margin. The best way to unlock the profitable stock recommendations and market insights of Zacks Investment Research is through our free daily email newsletter; Profit from the Pros. In short, it's your steady flow of Profitable ideas GUARANTEED to be worth your time! Click here for your free subscription to Profit from the Pros . Get the full Report on PXD - FREE Get the full Report on FRC - FREE Get the full Report on PLAY - FREE Get the full Report on EPAM - FREE Get the full Report on MANH - FREE Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/zacksresearch Join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Zacks-Investment-Research/57553657748?ref=ts Zacks Investment Research is under common control with affiliated entities (including a broker-dealer and an investment adviser), which may engage in transactions involving the foregoing securities for the clients of such affiliates. Media Contact Zacks Investment Research 800-767-3771 ext. 9339 support@zacks.com https://www.zacks.com/performance Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release. 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 Pioneer Natural Resources Company (PXD): Free Stock Analysis Report FIRST REPUBLIC BANK (FRC): Free Stock Analysis Report Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc. (PLAY): Free Stock Analysis Report EPAM Systems, Inc. (EPAM): Free Stock Analysis Report Manhattan Associates, Inc. (MANH): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research For Immediate Release Chicago, IL January 5, 2017 Zacks Value Investor is a podcast hosted weekly by Zacks Stock Strategist Tracey Ryniec. Every week, Tracey will be joined by guests to discuss the hottest investing topics in stocks, bonds and ETFs and how it impacts your life. To listen to the podcast, click here: ( https://www.zacks.com/stock/news/244423/3-value-stocks-with-magic-peg-ratios ) 3 Value Stocks with Magic PEG Ratios Welcome to Episode #24 of the Value Investor Podcast Every week, Zacks value stock strategist and the Editor of Zacks Value Investor portfolio service, Tracey Ryniec, talks about all things happening in the value stock universe, including her top stock picks. Its a new year and with that brings new investing opportunities. If youre not investing, now is the time. Start small and build your portfolio from there. Tracey took a look at one of her favorite value screening criteria, the PEG ratio, to see just how much value is still in this market, which is trading near all-time highs. She looked for the magic PEG ratio, which is a PEG under 1.0. That usually indicates a company is undervalued. That gave her too many stocks so she added a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy) or #2 (Buy) to narrow it down. The Zacks Rank should also provide companies with rising earnings estimates. To her surprise, there were 47 companies that passed the screen. Theres more value and growth combinations than you might think on the stock market right now. Here are her 3 favorites. 3 Value Stocks with Magic PEG Ratios 1. The Chemours Company (NYSE: CC Free Report ), a specialty chemical company that was spun off from DuPont. It has a PEG of just 0.68 and is expected to grow earnings by 66% in 2017. 2. Freeport McMoran (NYSE: FCX Free Report ) is a copper mining giant which also has a large oil and gas business. The energy and mining companies havent shown up in Traceys value screens in a while. Even though shares soared 94% in 2016, its still cheap with a PEG ratio of just 0.36. It also has soaring earnings estimates for 2017. Story continues 3. Whirlpool (NYSE: WHR Free Report ), the global appliance maker, has been outperforming in the North American market but has struggled in its number 2 market of Brazil. Still, the shares are cheap with a PEG of just 0.7. Earnings are expected to grow 12.7% in 2017. Tracey believes this could be the year of the value stock. Are you game? Find out more about what Tracey thinks about the PEG ratio in this weeks podcast. Want more insights from Tracey? Check out her weekly Value Investor service to receive more in-depth analysis on value companies and see which stocks she thinks are the best bargains now. Click here to learn more>> Tracey Ryniec is the Value Stock Strategist for Zacks.com. She is also the Editor of the Insider Trader and Value Investor services. You can follow her on twitter at @TraceyRyniec and she also hosts the Zacks Market Edge Podcast on iTunes. About Zacks Zacks.com is a property of Zacks Investment Research, Inc., which was formed in 1978. The later formation of the Zacks Rank, a proprietary stock picking system; continues to outperform the market by nearly a 3 to 1 margin. The best way to unlock the profitable stock recommendations and market insights of Zacks Investment Research is through our free daily email newsletter; Profit from the Pros. In short, it's your steady flow of Profitable ideas GUARANTEED to be worth your time! Click here for your free subscription to Profit from the Pros . Get the full Report on CC - FREE Get the full Report on FCX - FREE Get the full Report on WHR - FREE Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/zacksresearch Join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Zacks-Investment-Research/57553657748?ref=ts Zacks Investment Research is under common control with affiliated entities (including a broker-dealer and an investment adviser), which may engage in transactions involving the foregoing securities for the clients of such affiliates. Media Contact Zacks Investment Research 800-767-3771 ext. 9339 support@zacks.com https://www.zacks.com/performance Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release. 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 Chemours Company (The) (CC): Free Stock Analysis Report Freeport-McMoran, Inc. (FCX): Free Stock Analysis Report Whirlpool Corporation (WHR): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zumiez Inc. ZUMZ seems to have entered a favorable space with return to its trend of posting positive comparable sales (comps) and sales. Zumiez reported a 3.4% increase in comps for the five week period ended Dec 31, 2016 compared with an 8.9% decline witnessed in the five-weeks ended Jan 2, 2016. This marks the companys fourth straight month of positive comps growth. Further, net sales for the Christmas holiday month (Dec 2016) increased 6.8% to $143.6 million from $134.5 million in the year-ago period. While the shares of Zumiez havent responded much to the positive December comps, it has shown tremendous growth in the past year. The stock has surged 50.1% in 2016, significantly outperforming the Zacks categorized Retail Apparel/Shoe industrys decline of 12.2% in the same period. Moreover, the shares have returned about 56.5% in the last six months compared with the broader industrys growth of 4.9%. We attribute this growth, particularly in the last six months, to the renewed comps trend since Sep 2016. The turnaround came after the companys 17-month long trend of posting negative comps and dismal sales results. Backed by this revival, the companys comps jumped 4% in third-quarter fiscal 2016. Management stated that Zumiezs quarterly comps benefited from a robust back-to-school selling season, which improved results in September. Solid performance of the mens, accessories and juniors categories also contributed to comps growth. While the enhanced top-line reflects the companys brand strength and gives positive signals, the overall retail environment remains troubled owing to sluggish mall traffic, volatile consumer spending and macroeconomic volatility. This persuaded management to issue a conservative outlook for fourth-quarter fiscal 2016. The company anticipates net sales for the quarter in the range of $258$263 million, while comps growth is expected in a range of 35%, over the same period. Further, the company expects earnings in a band of 6066 cents per share. Despite these headwinds, we believe Zumiez remains on track with its expense control and expansion strategies, which are aimed at placing it on growth curve and generating profit in the near term. Further, its strategic initiatives, focus on omni-channel growth, authentic lifestyle positioning and commitment to customer service position it to gain market share in the long term. Zacks Rank Zumiez currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Investors can count on better-ranked stocks in the same industry like The Childrens Place Inc. PLCE, Christopher & Banks Corporation CBK and Tilly's, Inc. TLYS. All three sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Childrens Place, with a long-term earnings growth rate of 10.3%, has surged a whopping 75.7% year over year. Christopher & Banks has gained 45.2% in the last one year. Moreover, it has a long-term earnings growth rate of 15%. Tilly's has jumped a whopping 110.8% in the past one year. The stock has a long-term earnings growth rate of 13%. Zacks Best Private Investment Ideas In addition to the recommendations that are available to the public on our website, how would you like to follow all Zacks' private buys and sells in real time? Our experts cover all kinds of trades from value to momentum . . . from stocks under $10 to ETF and option moves . . . from stocks that corporate insiders are buying up to companies that are about to report positive earnings surprises. You can even look inside exclusive portfolios that are normally closed to new investors. Starting today, for the next month, you can have unrestricted access. Click here for Zacks' private trades >> 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 ZUMIEZ INC (ZUMZ): Free Stock Analysis Report CHILDRENS PLACE (PLCE): Free Stock Analysis Report TILLYS INC (TLYS): Free Stock Analysis Report CHRISTOPHER&BNK (CBK): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Newlyweds Tracey Walker and Ellie Frances. (Photo: Courtesy of Tim Motley) Fearful of what a Trump administration might do to marriage equality, many LGBT couples opted to tie the knot just as 2016 came to a close and President Obama was still in the White House, according to a slew of posts on the Facebook group Pantsuit Nation. Last week I married the love of my life, Halle Doenitz posted on Jan. 1, along with a photo of herself and Jackie Berg outside of New Yorks City Hall. (Doenitz and all others named in this article gave permission to Yahoo Style to use their photos and stories.) Our wedding was planned for May 2017, but after the results of the election we decided we wanted to make it legal under our current forward-thinking administration (and it looks like we werent the only ones in this group with that idea). The wedding festivities in May will go on, but not before making this statement of love before President Obama leaves office. Newlyweds Halle Doenitz and Jackie Berg. (Photo: Courtesy of Halle Doenitz) Also making sure their nuptials happened before President-elect Donald Trump takes over were couples in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and New York (where a pre-Trump group wedding is planned for Jan. 19), including a pair of women who posted a pic of themselves in matching pantsuits. My long time beautiful love, partner and now wife decided to marry in December of 2016 under the leadership of the president we love, Barack Obama, they wrote. Unfortunately because we chose to say I do on something of a short timeframe (we fully expected HRC to be our next president) we did not have all of the family and friends we would have wanted to share our amazing day, but we fully expect to celebrate in the near future with them. Thank you Pantsuit Nation for all of the people that have been allowed to share their unique stories and keeping the hopes and dreams alive of an America that is always stronger together. The post received thousands of happy reactions and a flood of congratulatory wishes. Stephen Mitchell and Greg Kirby of Georgia tied the knot on Dec. 27, with Mitchell posting a photo of themselves and noting, We are convinced that more love will, in fact, make the world a better place. Story continues Stephen Mitchell and Greg Kirby. (Photo: Courtesy of Stephen Mitchell) Tracey Walker and Ellie Frances of Michigan posted a photo of themselves in white wedding gowns with a handwritten sign in the background bearing Lin-Manuel Mirandas famous Tony Awards quote: And love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love, cannot be killed or swept aside. Tracey Walker and Ellie Frances of Michigan. (Photo: Courtesy of Tim Motley) In the New Years Eve post, which has more than 18,000 reactions, Walker explained, We used these words of inspiration as the centerpiece of the ceremony, and Im choosing to believe them. Its hard sometimes to remember we cant be swept aside, but please carry that with you into the new year: Were stronger together, and will not be swept aside. Love will win. It wont be easy, its been damn heartbreaking at times, but we will not be defeated. Lift each other up, and we will fill the world with music, love and pride. Walker told Yahoo Style that she and Frances were happy to be identified in this story. Having a voice, and using it, is now more important than ever, she said. So just what could happen to marriage equality under Trumps administration? First of all, its important to note that although the president-elect said on 60 Minutes after the election that he was fine with gay marriage, he has publicly opposed it since 2000. Trump also told Fox News in 2015 that he would strongly consider appointing justices who would overturn the decision to legalize same-sex marriage, and he chose anti-gay-marriage legislator Mike Pence as his running mate. As far as SCOTUS overturning the 2015 ruling that made same-sex marriage the law of the land, it would be a long and difficult process that could come about in one of two ways: States themselves can amend the Constitution, requiring approval by three-fourths of all state legislators (how Prohibition was repealed in 1933), or the Supreme Court can overturn the original ruling if it ever finds itself revisiting the issue through a new case. Not taking any chances, Amber Ybarra of Milwaukee posted several images of herself and her new wife, both wrapped in a celebratory rainbow sash, on Jan. 2. Amber Ybarra, right, and her new wife. (Photo: Courtesy of Amber Ybarra) A little over 8 weeks ago, my world was turned upside-down, she wrote, regarding the election of Trump and her discovery that her own mom had voted for him. I didnt need her to explain why she voted for him because nothing she could say would help me to understand or accept her reason, Ybarra went on. But what I did know is that her casted vote was a clear indication that she did not support me. Still, Ybarra added, I have so many people in my life that love me and support me and take me as I am. They fill my heart with hope and I am grateful everyday that I have them in my life. But most of all, I am thankful everyday that I have my wife. Yes, she is now my wife and I am happy to report that we tied the knot today As much as we wanted everyone there with us today, we knew we couldnt risk waiting until October when we intended to get married. We plan to have a formal ceremony in the fall that will allow many more of our closest friends and family to attend and re-celebrate with us. But for now, we are continuing our adventure together and we take comfort in knowing that we are in this together and are doing our part to make this world a little bit brighter than it was the day before. Photo: Courtesy of Amber Ybarra Finally, there was Sean Winterhalter of Pennsylvania, who posted about his marriage to Lee Winterhalter. Sean Winterhalter and Lee Winterhalter. (Photo: Courtesy of Sean Winterhalter) After 11 years of being together we tied the knot in a private ceremony, just the two of us, in our home on Christmas Eve. Our wedding was planned for Jan 14th 2017, but could not risk being married so close to a Trump America, he wrote. We have had an amazing outpouring of love and support from our friends and family and we will continue to stand up for love. Love is love, love will win, love trumps hate. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. Apple had decided to remove the New York Times app from its App Store in China, apparently in an effort to comply with a request from Chinese authorities. Here's a story you won't find the the Chinese edition of the New York Times: Apple has removed the New York Times news app from its App Store in China in response to a request from Chinese authorities, according to a report from the news organization in question. The English-language and Chinese-language versions of the Times app disappeared from Apple's App Store in China Dec. 23, despite other publications with international presence like the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal remaining available. We have been informed that the app is in violation of local regulations, Fred Sainz, an Apple spokesman, told the New York Times. As a result, the app must be taken down off the China App Store. When this situation changes, the App Store will once again offer the New York Times app for download in China. Apple's spokesperson declined to provide further information on what local regulations the apps had violated. The spokesperson also did not provide any information as to who exactly contacted Apple about the apps and didn't disclose if a court order or other legal document was presented regarding the apps. The Cyberspace Administration of China, the country's primary internet regulator, also provided the Times with no additional information about the removal. The organization's bureau in Beijing was not contacted by the Chinese government prior to the removal of the apps. Eileen Murphy, a New York Times spokeswoman, said the company has asked Apple to reconsider its decision. The Times theorized the removal request was made under a set of regulations imposed by China in June of last year. The rules, titled the Provisions on the Administration of Mobile Internet Application Information Services, say apps cannot engage in activities prohibited by laws and regulations such as endangering national security, disrupting social order and violating the legitimate rights and interests of others. Apps also aren't allow to publish prohibited information, according to the cyberspace administration. Story continues The removal of the New York Times apps from the App Store is the highest profile instance of Apple's acquiescence to China's efforts to censor certain content. The company even blocked access to its own News app in an effort to meet the requirements of the Chinese government. China previously censored the New York Times website in 2012 following a series of articles on profiteering by the family of then-Prime Minister Wen Jiabao. Readers in China can still access information from the New York TImes and other censored publications using virtual private networks (VPNs) that spoof their location to a region that is not restricted, though China has repeatedly cracked down on the use of the software that allows such a workaround. Related Articles Director of National Intelligence James Clapper (L) and National Security Agency Director Adm. Michael Rogers testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on January 5, 2017 (AFP Photo/JIM WATSON) (AFP) The Chinese government continues to run cyber-spying operations against the United States and American companies and organizations, despite Chinese President Xi Jinping's 2015 agreement to halt those efforts, US spy chiefs said Thursday. "Beijing continues to conduct cyber espionage against the US government, our allies and US companies," three US intelligence chiefs told a Senate hearing in a joint statement. Trends come and go every year at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. One year its tablets, the next year its wearables, then its the internet of things, drones and smart homes. Some of the trends we see develop at CES go on to shape the future of consumer tech. Others come and go with precious little fanfare. But one thing is true each and every year at the show, and CES 2017 is no different: There are always incredible new TVs on display that make us drool uncontrollably. This year weve seen some particularly drool-worthy televisions shown off on the show floor at CES, and in this post well cover the best of the best. Don't Miss: Faradays FF 91 feels like the future LG Signature OLED TV W lg-signature-oled-tv-w_13-1024x631 There is no question and we mean none whatsoever that LGs new line of Signature OLED TVs stole the show at CES 2017. These TVs are ridiculous. They should not exist. Science shouldnt allow it. LGs new OLED TV W7 is 2.57 mm thick. Well pause for a moment to let that sink in. Lets put that in perspective, shall we? Apples iPhone 7 is 7.1 mm thick. The average number 2 pencil is between 6 mm and 7 mm thick. This thinnest flagship smartphone on the planet, Lenovos Moto Z, is 5.2 mm thick. This gigantic OLED television is 2.57 mm thick. Crazy. lg-signature-oled-tv-w_4-1024x768 LGs incredibly thin design allows the W7 to be mounted flush against the wall in such a way that it almost looks like part of the wall. Theres even a special magnetic mounting system that ensures a flush installation. But this TV is about much more than just the razor-thin design. The 4K HDR picture quality on the W7s panel is just as impressive as LGs earlier OLED TVs anyone who has seen last years LG OLED B6 will know that LGs TVs are easily on par with the best in the business. WebOS powers the OLED W7, and for our money its still the only smart TV platform worth paying any attention to other than the Roku software that powers TVs from a few different mid- and bottom-tier brands. Also of note, theres obviously no room for speakers in there, so a separate sound bar handles that. Story continues Pricing hasnt yet been announced, but you can expect all LG Signature OLED TV W models to be quite expensive. The 65-inch OLED TV W7 will start shipping in March, and a 77-inch model will launch sometime after that. Sony Bravia A1E OLED TV sony-bravia-a1e-oled-tv Coming in a very close second to LGs new paper-thin OLED TV is the Bravia A1E OLED TV that Sony unveiled on Wednesday night. This thing is stunning. The A1E is practically as thin as LGs W7, but its not designed to be mounted on a wall like LGs TV. Instead, it uses a stand design that offloads most of the TVs guts to the stand. Apart from the thinness, 4K resolution and the stunning HDR picture quality, the coolest thing about this new Sony set has to be the fact that the display itself is also the speaker. Huh? Two actuators positioned on the back of the panel actually vibrate the TV so that it produces sound, just like any other speaker. Dont worry though, because the vibrations are imperceptible to the human eye and wont impact the viewing experience. Sony hasnt announced pricing or even a release timeframe at this point, but expect the 55-inch Bravia A1E OLED TV to be priced in line with other premium Sony flagships at launch. Were likely talking over $6,000 here, and thats even before we get to the 65-inch and 75-inch models. Samsung QLED TV samsung-qled-tv While LG and Sony focus on OLED panels in their premium TVs, Samsung the undisputed king of smartphone OLED screens is debuting what it calls the QLED TV. From the companys press release: Samsung QLED TV takes Quantum dot technology to new heights with advanced light efficiency and stability, as well as a wider color spectrum than ever before. The new QLED TV also features truly deep black levels, perfect 100% color volume when measured with DCI perfect match, and HDR optimal brightness of 1,500 2,000 nits. Samsung QLED TVs new panel design also reduces reflection so consumers can see every bold detail with unbelievable levels of contrast. Finally, QLED delivers this level of performance regardless of where one is sitting, with consistent color and picture quality from any viewing angle. Samsung didnt say when its new QLED TVs will launch or how much theyll cost, but you can expect an entry-level price thats well below the OLED TVs were covered from LG and Sony. Samsungs current flagship KS9800 4K SUHD TV launched at $4,500 and can now be had for about $3,600. Samsung Lifestyle TV samsung Last but not least is a crazy new concept TV from Samsung called the Lifestyle TV. In a nutshell, it never shuts off. Instead, it displays your movies and shows like any other TV while youre watching it, and it becomes a big piece of art or a digital picture frame when youre not. Find out more in our coverage from Wednesday night. Trending right now: See the original version of this article on BGR.com Even more signs now point to the likelihood that Samsung will indeed keep its April release date for its next flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S8. Over the last few days, Samsung has spoken with suppliers about production plans for the Galaxy S8, according to a report from China-based ET News. The report claims Samsung will get components to manufacturers within the next month and wants to have full production in place by March. According to the report, which was earlier discovered by Phone Arena, Samsung expects to have 5 million units manufactured in March and another 5 million in April. Samsung's Galaxy S8 has been the subject of countless rumors over the last several months. The smartphone will be the first big release after the company's ill-fated Galaxy Note 7 was discontinued last year. MORE: Samsung Galaxy S8 Rumors: What Features to Expect While Samsung has remained tight-lipped on its plans, several rumors say that the next-generation device could come with more powerful components, long battery life, an improved design, and more. There's also talk of the possibility of the Galaxy S8 taking a page out of the Galaxy Note 7's book by supporting the Samsung S Pen stylus. There is quite a bit riding on the Galaxy S8. Samsung, after all, was the subject of one of the biggest embarrassments of 2016 after the company's Galaxy Note 7, which had been designed to compete with the iPhone 7 and initially got rave reviews, was discontinued after a series of explosions and fires. Now speculation is running rampant over how much of an impact that might have had on Samsung's bottom line. The Galaxy S8 will be the first opportunity for Samsung -- and the broader market -- to find out. The fact that Samsung has reportedly ordered 10 million Galaxy S8 units, however, suggests the company is bullish on its smartphone's future. That's the same number of units Samsung sold in the first month the Galaxy S7 was available last year. And that device was released months before the Galaxy Note 7 kerfuffle. According to several reports, Samsung will announce the Galaxy S8 in April. In previous years, the company has largely announced its new devices during or around Mobile World Congress, which is earlier in the year. We received different updates on the next-gen 5G launch and its trials, throughout 2016. This year too calls for 5G trials and related specifications without much ado. To this end, according to a recent LightReading report, AT&T Inc. T, Ericsson ERIC and Qualcomm Inc. QCOM announced plans to test the initial 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) 5G New Radio (NR) specification in the second half of 2017. The trio is planning to test high-band frequencies for the next-generation 5G technology, which should deliver "multi-gigabit Internet service" over the air. Such technical specifications will allow the downloading of a HD (high definition) film wirelessly to phone. The trial will see AT&T using 28GHz and 39GHz spectrum bands, Qualcomm providing prototype devices and Ericsson providing base station solutions. Notably, the two spectrum bands to be commercially deployed here 28GHz and 39GHz have been assigned by the U.S. telecom regulator, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for the said purpose. In early Dec 2016, Telecom behemoth AT&T already initiated 5G technology trials in partnership with Ericsson using the millimeter wavelength technology. The trial was carried out in Intel Corp.s INTC Austin office. AT&T has collaborated with Ericsson to conduct its first-ever 5G public demo. The test also featured online video streaming at 4K resolution and real time camera feeds. Going forward, AT&T and Ericsson will test 5G Voice over Inter Protocol (VoIP) services using 15 Giga-Hertz (GHz) and 28GHz spectrum bands. Benefits of 5G The next-gen 5G network will provide 50 times the throughput of the currently available standard 4G LTE network. Further, 5G technology is designed to be more power efficient than any other standard wireless networks available now available. Therefore, 5G-enabled mobile devices are likely to last longer than their 3G or 4G counterparts. Moreover, superfast 5G mobile networks will be of utmost importance for the management of the exponential growth in Internet-connected devices, popularly known as Internet of Things (IoT). Story continues It is expected that 5G mobile handsets will be available in the market by 2020, following a broader rollout of the technology. The commercial 5G handsets will be first made available in South Korea and Japan and are likely to be very expensive. Bottom Line 5G marks a revolution in the field of communications and technology. It is the next major phase of mobile telecommunications standards after the 4G/IMT standards. 5G NR is a specification being put together by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). The initial specification, due later in 2017, is NSA-NR (Non-Standalone-New Radio), which uses LTE for the call and session set-up. This marks an important move by AT&T as it is already working on deploying 5G at the earliest. In Jul 2016, Verizon Communications Inc. VZ became the first company in the world to issue an initial radio specification for the upcoming 5G wireless network. Verizon seems far ahead in its plans to deploy the 5G wireless network. Price Performance Shares of AT&T have underperformed the Zacks categorized Wireless National industrys performance in the past one year. The stock gained 23.65% while the industrys growth is higher at 25.41%. AT&T is gradually diversifying its business model into Internet TV, the digital mobile platform and the highly lucrative mobile advertising segments. Although the telco has forayed into the OTT space through its DirecTV Now, it faces troubles such as a saturated wireless market, spectrum crunch, loss in access lines and union disagreements. Hence, the company currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Zacks Best Private Investment Ideas In addition to the recommendations that are available to the public on our website, how would you like to follow all Zacks' private buys and sells in real time? Our experts cover all kinds of trades from value to momentum . . . from stocks under $10 to ETF and option moves . . . from stocks that corporate insiders are buying up to companies that are about to report positive earnings surprises. You can even look inside exclusive portfolios that are normally closed to new investors. Starting today, for the next month, you can have unrestricted access. Click here for Zacks' private trades >> 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 ERICSSON LM ADR (ERIC): Free Stock Analysis Report QUALCOMM INC (QCOM): Free Stock Analysis Report AT&T INC (T): Free Stock Analysis Report VERIZON COMM (VZ): Free Stock Analysis Report INTEL CORP (INTC): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research By Diane Bartz and Jim Finkle WASHINGTON/BOSTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against D-Link Corp <2332.TW> on Thursday, accusing the Taiwan-based manufacturer of failing to take reasonable steps to protect its routers and internet-linked security cameras from hackers. The FTC brought the charges as part of a broader effort to improve security of internet-connected devices, including routers, webcams, digital video recorders and other widely used consumer electronics devices. The company said the claim is without merit. "D-Link denies the allegations outlined in the complaint and is taking steps to defend the action," it said in a statement. "The security of our products and protection of our customers private data is always our top priority." Concerns about security of internet-connected devices, which are sometimes referred to collectively as the internet of things, or IoT, have surged since last year when hackers used armies of compromised routers, webcams and other electronic devices to launch a series of increasingly powerful attacks that severed access to some of the world's biggest websites. Security experts blamed those attacks on lax security in large numbers of IoT devices from dozens of manufacturers. They have called on the industry to better secure their equipment, removing easy-to-exploit vulnerabilities such as the use of default passwords that give hackers the keys to remotely access machines over the web. Allison Nixon, director of security research with cyber intelligence firm Flashpoint, said the FTC's action could encourage IoT manufacturers to beef up security. "I think vendors are going to take it seriously," she said. "The IoT world needs to shape up quickly because this is a big problem." The FTC's complaint alleged that D-Link neglected to protect the devices from "widely known and reasonably foreseeable risks of unauthorized access," even as it highlighted security features in communications with consumers. The FTC asked the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to order D-Link to improve its security practices and to pay the agency's legal costs. The agency filed the case after issuing guidelines on securing IoT devices in 2015. FTC commissioners voted 2-1 to approve the filing of the lawsuit. The Democratic chairwoman Edith Ramirez and commissioner Terrell McSweeny voted yes, but the lone Republican commissioner, Maureen Ohlhausen, opposed the filing of the lawsuit. (Reporting by Diane Bartz, editing by G Crosse and Bernard Orr) ZURICH (Reuters) - An Uber driver is an employee for whom the company must pay social security contributions, a Swiss insurance agency has ruled, dealing a blow to the U.S. ride-hailing platform that says drivers are independent contractors. The California-based startup whose cab service has expanded worldwide vowed to challenge the ruling, the latest clash with regulators that have accused it of bypassing national labour protection standards and shunning collective negotiation with drivers who work on freelance terms. In October, a British tribunal ruled Uber should treat its drivers as workers and pay them the minimum wage and holiday pay. Suva - which as a provider of obligatory on-the-job accident insurance in Switzerland helps decide which workers are freelance - found an Uber Technology [UBER.UL] driver was staff because he faced consequences if he broke Uber rules and could not set prices and payment terms independently, broadcaster SRF reported. A Suva spokesman confirmed the report but said it concerned a particular driver who had sought to clarify his status, not a general ruling on Uber's business model. "For us it is not about the company but about the person involved," he said. Nevertheless Rasoul Jalali, general manager at Uber, took issue with Suva, which he said had classified independent drivers as employees in other cases before Uber arrived in Switzerland, triggering other challenges. "Taxi dispatchers have had exactly this issue for years and yet today there is not one driver employed by a big dispatcher in cities such as Zurich or Geneva. So this is nothing new in Switzerland and we will challenge it, just as others have," he said in a statement. "Drivers using the Uber app are independent contractors who enjoy all the flexibility and freedom that come with being self-employed." Founded in 2009, Uber has taken the world by storm but come up against opposition too. Various services it has proposed have been banned in some countries and it faces numerous battles in U.S. courts over labour standards, safety rules and pricing policies that trigger fare surges at peak times. Story clarifies third paragraph on British ruling) (Reporting by Michael Shields; Editing by Nick Macfie, Alexandra Hudson and Keith Weir) TORONTO (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Visa Inc reached an agreement to continue offering Visa as a payment option for customers in Canada, the two companies said on Thursday. Last summer, Walmart Canada said it would stop accepting Visa cards after a public dispute with the credit card provider over what the retail giant called "unacceptably high" merchant fees. Three stores in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and 16 stores in the province of Manitoba were impacted by the initial roll-out of the decision last year. These stores will resume accepting Visa on Friday. A Walmart Canada spokesman said details of the agreement were confidential. The original decision would have eventually impacted more than 370 outlets across Canada. No U.S. locations were affected. Retailers have long complained about merchant fees charged by credit card companies. But Walmart and Visa's negotiations were unusually public, with Visa taking up ads in Canadian newspapers, saying Walmart was using its customers as pawns in its bid to get lower fees. (Reporting by Solarina Ho; Editing by Sandra Maler) Asus has officially unveiled the Asus Zenfone AR at CES 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The new Android smartphone is the second Tango-enabled phone that will be available commercially. The Asus Zenfone AR comes with flagship features like its 5.7-inch 1440p Super AMOLED display and being powered by Qualcomms Snapdragon 821 processor. The device also comes with 6GB/8GB of RAM with storage options ranging from 32GB up to 256GB. It also has a microSD card slot for expandable storage. Asus Zenfone AR Photo: Asus Its guts might seem excessive to some, but comparing it to the the first ever Tango phone, the Lenovo Phab 2 Pro, it seems like those specs are reasonable. Just as a refresher, the Phab 2 Pro came with 4GB of RAM, but it was simply not enough to handle some of the Tangos demanding features. Speaking of Google Tango, the Zenfone AR comes with a 23MP camera on the back capable of 4K video recording, according to GSM Arena. Unlike most smartphones, the Zenfone AR comes with extra sensors for the motion tracking camera as well as a third depth sensing camera. These will be responsible for delivering all those nifty Tango augmented reality features like mapping environments. If thats not impressive enough, the Asus Zenfone AR is also the first smartphone to feature both Google Tango and Googles Daydream VR. Users will be able to put the smartphone in the Google Daydream View VR headset to experience virtual reality content. Zenfone AR Photo: Asus For those thinking that theyll be able to use the Tango AR and Daydream VR at the same time, thats simply impossible at the moment. The Daydream View headset will cover up the Zenfone ARs cameras and sensors, as pointed out by ArsTechnica. The Asus Zenfone AR is also packing a generous 3,300 mAh battery, an 8MP front-facing camera, quick charge support, NFC and of course Android 7.0 Nougat. For those wondering, the handset still comes with a 3.5mm headphone jack. Story continues Asus says that the Zenfone AR will be available some time during the second quarter of 2017. Unfortunately, the company didnt provide pricing for the handset just yet. However, Asus CEO Jerry Chen previously stated that they would sell the Zenfone AR "at a competitive price," according to Digital Trends. Asus Zenfone AR Photo: Asus Related Articles Dear reader, we're asking for your help to keep local reporting available for all today during our fall fundraiser. Your financial support keeps stories like this one free to read, instead of hidden behind paywalls. We believe when reliable local reporting is widely available, the entire community benefits. Thank you for investing in your neighborhood. Start your day with LAist Sign up for How To LA, delivered weekday mornings. Subscribe The University of California announced on Wednesday plans to raise tuition by nearly 3% for the next school year, reports the L.A. Times. The proposal will be presented to the UC governing board at the end of January. If enacted, the proposals will bump tuition to $11,502 for the 2017-2018 school year an increase of $282, or 2.5%. A student services fee will also face a hike of $54, bringing the total to $1,128. And out-of-state undergraduates will be paying a $28,014 supplemental tuition$1,332 more than the current amount. UC spokeswoman Dianne Klein told the Times that, in total, the increase would bring in $88 million. UC President Janet Napolitano, speaking with the Sacramento Bee, said the hikes would help pay for additional faculty, classes, and financial aid. Theres only so many years you can go without a rate increase or a small tuition increase that doesnt sacrifice a lot by way of quality. As much Id like to say we can sustain this forever, we cannot, said Napolitano, referring to a six-year tuition freeze that has kept the rate flat since 2011. Klein added that the money will also go towards paying for more tenure-track professors, with a goal of adding 40 such faculty to UC Irvine, and 27 to UC San Diego. A booming enrollment rate has been cited as one of the reasons for the proposed hikes. There are about 30,000 more undergraduates in the UC system now than there was back in 2010. In 2015, UC announced that it plannedon adding 10,000 new spots for California residents over the course of the next three years. And, as noted by the Times, the student-faculty ratio has ballooned on some campusesat UC San Diego, the ratio has jumped to 27-1 over the last eight years, a stark difference from the historical ratio of 18-1. If a 2014 proposal to raise tuition is any indicator (students walked out of classes in protest at multiple UC campuses), the latest proposal may be met with some blowback. Ralph Washington Jr., president of the UC Student Association, says that UC officials may be recommending the hikes based on reasons that arent fully appreciated. He says that, for example, the faculty-to-student ratio is a metric that gets mentioned in discussion a lot, but it doesnt paint a full picture of what students need, such as a more diverse faculty. If youre evaluating things based on only those metrics, youre missing out on the quality of the experience for students, Washington Jr. told LAist. Theres a lot of discussion about the quality of the education, but this is more than just about getting a training certificate. Its about the students experience. He added, Obviously, whats important is how tuition dollars will be spent. Earlier this year, researchers and media outlets shed light on the growing problem of homelessness and lack of nutrition among the student populace. A study initiated by California State University said that around 8 to 12% of its 460,000 students were homeless. The Times also published a revealing video interview with Louis Tse, a doctoral candidate at UCLA who was living out of his car. And this is all without mentioning that many of the campusesincluding UCLA and UC Berkeleyare located in areas where rising rents have made everythingfrom food to shelterprohibitively expensive for students. UC officials say, however, that the tuition hikes shouldnt be an added burden for students who are in need. In fact, the extra money would mean more financial aid, as one-third of the money would go towards student assistance. More than half of California undergraduates have all of their tuition and fees completely covered by financial aid, Klein said in a statement. That will continue to be the case. Mr Isaac Osei, a former chief executive officer (CEO) of the Ghana Cocoa Board and one time Ghanas high commissioner to the United Kingdom, has been appointed by President-elect Nana Akufo-Addo as the managing director of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), it has been reported. Get the latest political news here. Isaac Osei appointed TOR MD READ ALSO: Ministers shed tears as Mahama holds last cabinet meeting Osei will begin work on Monday, January 9, according to a report by graphic.com.gh. The 65-year-old former Member of Parliament for Subin Constituency has been holding transition talks with current TOR MD, Kwame Awuah Darko, the report said. Osei previously worked on a number of projects for the World Bank, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the UK Department for International Development (DFID). Earlier today, Akufo-Addo Nana appointed Frema Opare as chief of staff to the president; Nana Bediako as executive secretary to the president; Laud Commey as head of operations at the Flagstaff House; and Abu Jinapor as the deputy chief of staff. The flurry of appointments come as Akufo-Addo is set to take office on January 7. READ ALSO: Ghanaians cannot just stop laughing at this latest Amissah-Arthur photo What do you make of Isaac Osei's appointment? Share your views with us in the comments section. Source: YEN.com.gh We all love entertainment, but when it comes to a cost, many people tend to retreat and find alternative things to do. We have all had our mood spoiled by finding our favorite series on a site only to realize we cannot watch it until we pay. And then there is the problem of spending and finding that your connection is not good enough to download or even stream. Why let such challenges ruin your day? We've decided to help you sort this problem by providing a list of 20 of the best sites where to download series for free. Image: powerakademy.com Source: UGC What could be more irritating than opening your browser and attempt to download a series from many download sites but fail? It's a simple task, but only if you know the right locations to download free movies. Unfortunately, there is a sea of series download sites, many of which are illegal. Sometimes you might be successful to download the series, but you will be subjecting your device and yourself to a lot of risks. These unlawful sites are usually a gateway to a tone of malware, so be warned. Sometimes you might think you have eliminated such a problem by using free online torrent sites. 20 best sites where to download series for free There can be no worse way of jumping from the frying pan into the fire. Torrent sites are good, but they will most likely get you in legal trouble. Furthermore, you might use a torrent site today, and the next minute you can't find it because Google has deleted it. The only solution is identifying the many legitimate sites that provide a free series download. Here are 20 best websites that might help you download your favorite series: 1. YouTube Image: instagram.com, @youtube Source: Facebook YouTube is one of the best sources through which people can search for and enjoy any kind of videos. The advantage of YouTube is that it is accessible from anywhere in the world. The only thing you require is an internet connection, and you are good to go. Here are thousands of free movies and series. You can always find software for downloading series from YouTube.com. You have to look for a software that doesn't require you to add an extension or install other third-party packages. After this, you will visit YouTube and search for popular channels that may contain the series you are looking for. READ ALSO: The Richest Actor in Ghana 2017 2. Retrovision Image: retrovision.tv Source: UGC A visit to this site opens up a world of many classics and TV shows. The variety of content on this site is very diverse. What's more, this source for series has an android app that goes by the name Classic UHF. This app can be used to grab and watch content on the go. It is a growing trend where many sites are creating free movie apps to help people access tailored content quickly. Retrovision TV is genre-specific which makes it very user-friendly when searching for series. 3. The Roku Channel Image: elroku.com Source: Depositphotos This popular site comes with free streaming channel websites for downloading movies. Many people believe that Roku can only be accessed if you have Roku hardware, but this is not the case. You can easily access the channel from any device. This movie site boasts of hosting many popular films and series. To make it easier for people visiting the site, Roku.com has arranged its content in various categories based on genre. The content is updated regularly, and all you have to do is sign up and enjoy the free collection. Because this site was initially made for users in the US, those from other countries can access the site by a VPN. READ ALSO: Ghana versus Nigeria: Most handsome actors 4. Crackle Image: facebook.com, @CrackleTV Source: Facebook Crackle is a free series downloading site owned by Sony. Sony produces its movies and series so naturally, you access lots of series and entertainment here to watch. All that is demanded from you is simple signup and creation of a watchlist of your favorite series. The site has an exciting feature that recommends content for you based on your priorities and preferences. This site offers more content for free as opposed to many websites. However, to pay for these free services, users have to be tolerant of ads and commercials. 5. Open Culture Image: facebook.com, @openculture Source: Facebook As the name may suggest, openculture.com is open to a variety of content ranging from free series, movies, online courses, and free language lessons. Open Culture has been around since 2006 and has its content differentiated by six significant sections. These sections are Movies, Online courses, Language Lessons, e-Books, Textbooks, Audiobooks. As you can see, this is a great site to visit as it entertains and educates you. If you are only interested in the movies and series section, you can access more than 1,150 movies. 6. MoviesFoundOnline Image: monctonlife.com Source: UGC Moviesfoundonline.com is a great place to find free movies and other videos online. To make your search easier, it filters content to display the most viewed videos and recent uploads to the site. MoviesFoundOnline is a host for thousands of free movies such as cult classics, documentaries, and comedy. It is where you can find public domain movies and has the strict observance of copyrights. 7. PopcornFlix Image: facebook.com, @Popcornflix Source: Facebook Popcornflix.com is a free movie streaming website. The site is a product of Screen Media Ventures. Here you can access lots of public domain movie content and other original productions. Content on the site can easily be accessed from any device without the need to spend money. Series found on the site fall into different categories such as drama, comedy, action, documentary, and horror, among others. It is popular for TV shows and a full National Geographic series catalog. 8. Classic Cinema Online Image: classiccinemaonline.com Source: UGC Classiccinemaonline is dedicated to fans of classic cinema. If you are one of them, you wouldn't know what you have been missing until you visit the site. Classic Cinema Online allows you to download the content and helps you use the sorting feature available. The site is elementary and straightforward to use. 9. Kanopy Image: kanopy.com Source: UGC Kanopy.com is yet another free movie download site. To access the collection of movies and series on this site, one is required to have a library card. These cards are issued by various campuses and public libraries all over the world. Each library gives access to different content. READ ALSO: Ghana versus Nigeria: Most handsome actors 10. Vimeo Image: facebook.com, @Vimeo Source: Facebook Vimeo.com is very similar to YouTube. It has a vast collection of free movies and series to offer. Vimeo also allows you to host, share, and view videos. The site is highly recommended due to its clean layout making it safe for those downloading content. Here you get access to many free independent movies, series, and documentaries. The site also has a special section where visitors can pay for on-demand content. 11. Yahoo View Image: yahoo.com Source: UGC Yahooview.com makes it to the list of credible sites where one can access free series to download. Yahoo's movie section can be accessed outside the United States using a VPN. Its online movie content is sorted in a clean interface, thus making it easy for viewers to interact with it. It's upon the individual to select a genre from the variety provided. Here you can find great series, movies, and documentaries. If you see a free film or series here, get your hands to it quickly because they are often placed on the site for a limited duration before their time lapses. 12. Hulu Image: hulu.com Source: UGC Hulu.com is another excellent site to download movies with unrivaled services. There is a free account, but it only gives you access to restricted content. Subscribers get to enjoy free series movies, TV episodes, and documentaries. Android Apps and iOS also support the site. 13. GrabTheBeast GrabTheBeast is a famous TV website that lets its users download episodes, series, and shows for free. It has numerous English television shows and web series that one can download even without registration. It is effortless to download an episode from this site. All one has to do is to look for the show they want by its name, then pick the episode they want, and then click on the download link. GrabTheBeast offers its users several video quality options. It means that one can choose to download their show in HD 720p, SD 480p, or Full HD 1080p. GrabTheBeast also grants its users subtitles for each episode in case they have difficulties hearing. This service is also free and does not require any registration. 14. Adder Adder is one of the best sites to download your favorite movies. It is straightforward to navigate, granting its users smooth searches and their favorite television series, by just a few clicks. A user can choose to download their movies and television shows in Full HD, SD, or in H video quality format. The exciting thing about it is the fact that it gives its users direct download links for every episode. Therefore, if you prefer direct download links, then adder is the place to be. 15. Yify TV Image:yifymovies.tv Source: UGC Yify TV is a popular site due to its contents. It offers its users downloads of various television shows, televisions series, and even games. Yify TV recently launched a section that has television series and shows. The section has so many latest episodes of the various series and shows and is assuring users they can get every episode they want. The site has a very appealing user interface, which has made it very easy for users to access the uploaded contents. The contents are updated regularly, assuring its users of fresh and latest episodes. 16. 01Torrent 01Torrent is one of the best free download sites because it contains the latest television shows, series, games, and movies. It has one of the most massive user bases, which has made 01Torrent maintain a reliable 24/7 customer support team. Its interface is user-friendly, and its contents are well-arranged into segments. These segments are classified into those of movies, television shows, and games. It goes to mean that you can get anything in this download platform. It could be NASCAR races, the latest episode, a trending movie, or even the trending reality television show. If you are searching for a download site that grants its users quality videos, then 01Torrent is the site for you. It even supports speed downloads of up to 2.0MB/s. 17. Today TV Series Image: todaytvseries2.com Source: UGC Today TV Series allows its users to download television shows, games, software, and movies. It has over 3.5M verified torrents. It goes to mean that you get a software, the latest reality episodes, trending movies, or a late-night shows in Today TV Series. Al these contents have been arranged systematically in sections, making it very easy for the user to access them. The content is updated frequently, assuring its users of fresh and trending content. 18. Torrentz2 Although Torrentz2 may not be so popular, it, however, has one of the best collections of television shows, games, and movies. Its user interface is amicable and intuitive, making it the preferred download site of most people. The user can enjoy download speeds as high as 2.0 MB/s. 19. o2TVSeries Image: o2tvseries.com Source: UGC o2TVSeries is a popular free download site for series. It is an old site, making it have one of the largest collections of television series compared to other free downloading sites. Although the site has a more old-school appeal, it is, however, straightforward to navigate through. If you are looking for a soap opera to download, search for it by its name. You can also choose to browse through the various categories in the site. You can download a favorite television show in SD, HD, or Full HD. 20. The Internet Archive Image: facebook.com, @internetnetarchive Source: Facebook The Internet Archive allows its users to download free television series, music, books, and movies. You can acquire hot pieces of stuff from this site such as the original Jungle Book, Iron Mask, Night of the Living Dead, and many more. The site continues to grow every day and frequently adds content. These are just a few of the best websites where to download series in 2019. There are probably thousands of other great sites you can visit for the same purpose. Use any of the above to enjoy your favorite series collection. READ ALSO: Real ages of Yaw Dabo, Don Little, other popular Ghanaian diminutive actors Source: YEN.com.gh The balance of power in Ghana has shifted since the results of the December election was released. Get the latest political news here. President John Mahama's defeat in the election means he has lost his place as the most powerful man in Ghana. That slot has now been filled by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. Here are the nine most powerful men in the country today. READ ALSO: I've done my best - Mahama says as he bows out 1. Nana Akufo-Addo The constitution gives the president massive powers to appoint ministers, directors of state companies, judges. He also presides over the government's budget and can award contracts worth billions. Akufo-Addo's victory in the December 7 presidential election makes him the most powerful man in Ghana today. 2. Otumfuo Osei Tutu II The Ashanti king has always been one of the most powerful and influential personalities in Ghana. He commands nationwide, bi-partisan respect, and has the ears of the president at all times. His opinions carry a lot of weight. 3. John Agyekum Kufuor The former president's influence has shot up since his party won the 2016 election. He is widely respected nationally, commands massive influence within the NPP and has the ear of the president at all times. PAY ATTENTION: Get all the latest news updates on the go with the YEN.com.gh app right here 4. Mahamudu Bawumia Akufo-Addo sees Bawumia as not just a running-mate, but a true partner in the development of Ghana. As such, Bawumia will head the government's economic team and will likely be one of the most powerful vice-presidents in Ghana's history. 5. Ken Ofori Atta Ken Ofori Atta was instrumental in Akufo-Addo's victory. He was in charge of helping raise money for the crucial campaign. He has Akufo-Addo's deep trust, and is set to be rewarded with a top government post, possibly finance minister. Ofori Atta will be one of the most influential figures in Akufo-Addo's government. 6. Jerry Rawlings The former president remains very powerful and influential. Although his party lost the election, he retains moral authority among supporters of the party. He also commands bi-partisan respect. 7. John Mahama READ ALSO: Rawlings brutally snubs Okoe Vanderpuye at SONA (video) The result of the 2016 election represented a stunning repudiation of Mahama's four-year presidency. However, as former president he will retain considerable power and influence in the country. He, especially, has the financial resources to mount a comeback in 2020. What do you make of this? Share your views with us in the comments section. Click here for a list of the 6 most powerful women in Ghana today. Source: YEN.com.gh For the 7th time, Ghana will be swearing in a new president who for the next 4 years, will run the affairs of the country, hopefully to a better destination until the next leader takes the mantle. One aspect of the inaugural ceremony that is of interest to many is usually the outfit the president-elect wears on the day; it has to be simple yet carry an air of sophistication, traditional and representative of the origin of the fellow. Get the latest political news from Ghana here READ ALSO: The Black Star square looks as clean as ever in new photos While the country and the rest of the world eagerly await the swearing in of the president-elect of Ghana, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo Addo on Saturday, here is a look at what previous presidents of Ghana wore to their inaugurations. In 1993, Ft. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings who was Ghana's maiden constitutionally elected president of Ghana, wore a green satin shirt and a colourful kente cloth to match. This look identified with the people from the Volta Region the most. READ ALSO: 4 nice things Mahama said about Nana Addo since NDC lost In 1997, former president Rawlings won a second term as president and this time, wore a white shirt with a colourful kente cloth. When former president Kufuor won the 2000 general election, the outfit he wore for his January 7, 2001 inauguration was much expected. He was dressed in a colourful kente cloth, just like the Ashanti he is. For his second inauguration, he again wore a kente cloth only a different colour this time. Just like his predecessor and boss, former president Evans Atta Mills wore a white shirt and a beautiful kente cloth over it to match for his 2009 January 7 swearing in. READ ALSO: Nana Addo will deal with any minister who underperforms President Mahama was the only president who attended his inauguration in a an all white three piece traditional outfit that depicted his Northern origin. He was sworn in on the 7th of January 2012. What do you think president-elect Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo will wear to his inauguration on the 7th of January, 2017? Source: YEN.com.gh News Story not available This story has been published on: 2022-11-04. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. This story is no longer available on our site. United States intelligence leaders say they believe high-level Russian officials were directly responsible for attacking American computers during the 2016 election campaign. The intelligence leaders met with a U.S. Senate Committee in Washington Thursday. They said that Russia hacked the computers and released documents from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in an effort to interfere in the presidential election. Only Russia's senior-most officials could have authorized the recent election-focused data thefts and disclosures, they said in a prepared statement. The U.S. leaders are Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, National Security Agency chief Michael Rogers and Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Marcel Lettre. They called Russian cyber-attacks a "major threat" to national interests. WATCH: Clapper on Russia hacking Clapper said there is no evidence that Russia actually changed any vote counts. He said the intelligence agencies are unable to say how the information might have changed any American minds or votes. Arizonas John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told the hearing that every American should be alarmed by Russias actions. He added that Congress must set partisanship aside in investigating and preventing cyber-attacks on America. On Wednesday, McCain called the Russian interference an act of war. WATCH: McCain on Russia hacking Im not saying its an atomic attack, he said. Im just saying that when you attack a nations fundamental structure, which they are doing, then its an act of war. Evidence of Russian hacking U.S. intelligence agencies have said they have evidence that Russia hacked the emails of Democratic Party officials. Critics say the hacking was meant to help Donald Trump, the candidate of the Republican Party, win the presidential election. But President-elect Donald Trump has questioned those claims. On Thursday, President Barack Obama received a report on the investigation he ordered into the possible foreign interference in the election. Trump is expected to receive the same information in a briefing in New York City on Friday. The president-elect has questioned reports that Russia interfered in the vote. He took to Twitter late Tuesday, taking aim at the intelligence agencies. Trump suggested they still do not have proof that Russia broke into the DNCs computers and gave the documents to the WikiLeaks website. Can Julian Assange Be Trusted? WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has denied that the Russian government gave his group stolen documents. He appeared on Fox News television earlier this week. On Wednesday, Trump tweeted this message: Julian Assange said a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta - why was DNC so careless? Trump was talking about thousands of emails and documents that hackers took from the DNCs computers and from John Podesta, the chief of Hillary Clintons election campaign. On Thursday, Trump fired back at critics on Twitter: The dishonest media likes saying that I am in Agreement with Julian Assange - wrong. I simply state what he states, it is for the people to make up their own minds as to the truth. The media lies to make it look like I am against Intelligence when in fact I am a big fan! Clapper and other intelligence officials told the Senate committee Thursday that they put no credibility into what Assange says. US-Russia relationship Ukrainian political scientist Lilia Shevtsova is an expert on Russian government. She told VOA that some foreign policy experts in Russia are calling for increased communication between it and the United States. She said Obama moved toward such a policy in 2008 when Dmitry Medvedev was Russias president. But she said the effort failed. Shevtsova said Russian experts continue to call for increased communication. Valery Garbuzov is the director of the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute for U.S. and Canadian Studies. He told VOA that many Russians are hopeful that Trumps presidency will lead to improved relations between the two countries. Garbuzov said he is not sure Trump will be able to quickly improve U.S. relations with Russia. Im Anne Ball. And Im Dan Friedell. Anne Ball wrote this story for VOANews.com. Her story was based on reports from VOANews.com, the Associated Press and Reuters. George Grow was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section and visit us on our Facebook page. ______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story hacked v. use of a computer to break into data in a system disclosure n. the act of making something known partisanship n. a person who strongly supports a particular leader, political party or cause reliance n. the state of needing someone or something for help, support, etc. credibility - n. the quality of being believed or accepted as true, real, or honest How many times did you search for terms on the Internet last year? Googles search engine performed 1.2 trillion searches in 2016. Google Trends, part of the American company, kept records of the most popular search terms. From the Summer Olympic Games to terrorist attacks to the presidential election in the United States, 2016 was filled with news. Many of us turned to search engines for more information about the news or about fun subjects, such as ice cream, popular culture and television programs. But have you ever wondered what everyone else was searching for online? Google Trends has developed a list of Breakout Trends. It shows the most popular online searches. You can see which terms people searched for most on Google by month, Overall Most Popular, and by area. Click on a listed search term to learn more about the term, such as trending over time, interest by city or state, and related subjects or queries. You can compare one search term to another to see the number of hits for both terms. You can also add a third search term for comparison. Google Trends offers charts, maps and other images so you can compare the search results for each term. In addition, you can see the results for 2016 or change the dates to study trends over time. Overall Most Popular Search Terms on Google in 2016 On Google, the most popular search terms worldwide were: Donald Trump Powerball Prince David Bowie Pokemon Hillary Clinton France Ramadan Orlando Academy Awards Chicago Cubs You can amend the results by People, Places, Things and Ideas to see the most popular term for each grouping. By Region According to Google Trends, these are the most searched terms on Google by region in 2016: Click the picture of a globe in Google Trends to see a world map of regions represented by gray bars. Click on a bar to see the most searched term for that country in 2016. You can also find top 2016 searches for each country on Google Trends or see a list of most popular searches worldwide. Google Trends also shows the most popular searches by subject, including: Global news People Consumer Tech Global Sporting Events Losses Movies Musicians TV Shows This video from Google has images of many news events from 2016. US Google Searches You also might wonder about the popularity of search terms in different American states. The website has a map with state-by-state comparisons. Im Dorothy Gundy. Carolyn Nicander Mohr wrote this report for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor. Were you surprised by the terms that were searched most often on Google? Did you check your region to see which terms were most searched? Were there any terms you thought would be on the list but were not? Share your thoughts in the Comments Section below or on our Facebook page. _______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story trend - n. a general direction of change : a way of behaving, proceeding, etc., that is developing and becoming more common click - v. to press a button on a mouse or some other device in order to make something happen on a computer query - n. a question or a request for information about something according to - prep. as stated, reported, or recorded by (someone or something) * State Map of Googled Terms courtesy of Estately Blog. Used with permission. Two weeks before Donald Trump becomes president of the United States, the U.S. Senate is already considering his nominees for top government positions. The 115th Senate took office on Tuesday. One of its first actions will be to confirm or deny Trumps nominations. The president-elect is hopeful about the people he has chosen to lead his administration. "I think it's going to be one of the great[est] cabinets ever, ever, ever When choosing his top aides, Trump looked at large businesses, the military, and also conservative, pro-business public servants. No nominee has received more attention than Rex Tillerson, the chief executive officer of energy company ExxonMobil. Trump chose him to serve as his secretary of state. The president-elect has described Tillerson as a fierce supporter of America's interests around the world. The Exxon-Mobil chief says he has a long relationship with the Russian leader. "My relationship with Vladimir Putin, which dates back almost 15 years now he understands that I'm a businessman. And I've invested a lot of money, our company has invested a lot of money in Russia." Yet there are politicians who are concerned about the nomination, according to Delaware Senator Chris Coons. He is a member of the Democratic Party and serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "There are both Republicans and Democrats asking questions about Mr. Tillerson's potential conflicts of interest, about his long and close relationship with Vladimir Putin and Russia, and about his ability to balance the demands of being a diplomat and fighting for America's interests with his long experience leading an oil and gas companyWe're going to ask a lot of questions, and we'll see what sorts of answers Mr. Tillerson has." Tillerson and ExxonMobil have agreed to a retirement deal valued at $180 million. The agreement came about as a way for him to follow conflict of interest requirements set by federal ethics officials. As part of the deal, Tillerson will have to sell more than 600,000 shares he currently owns in ExxonMobil stock. He will also be banned from working in the oil and gas industry for the next 10 years. Most Senate Republicans are supporting Trump's cabinet nominees. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says that he is impressed with the nominations so far, and he feels hopeful they will be confirmed. The Republican Party controls 52 seats in the Senate. The Democrats control 46 seats, with independents holding two other seats. If Senate Republicans are organized, they can be sure that Trump's cabinet appointments will be confirmed. John Hudak is the deputy director for the Center for Effective Public Management at the Brookings Institution. He told the VOA that the congressional hearings will be Trumps first test of congressional relations. "These senators realize they are going to have to work with this president over the coming years. And one of the easiest ways to sully the relationship between you and the president of your party is to really run his nominees through the ringer. Democrats plan to use the confirmation hearings to raise questions about the nominees, hoping to influence public opinion and a few Republicans. The U.S. Constitution says that senators need to provide information and approval of nominees. This is a duty Senate Democrats say they take seriously. While the Democrats are unsure about some of Trumps nominees, they will be unable to block their confirmation without having at least two or three Republicans join their side. Im Phil Dierking. This story first appeared on VOAnews.com. Phil Dierking 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 on our Facebook page. _______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story ethics n. rules of behavior based on ideas about what is morally good and bad. hearing n. a meeting or session at which evidence and arguments about a crime, complaint, etc., are presented to a person or group who will have to decide on what action should be taken. impress v. to cause someone to feel admiration or interest. run through the ringer v. To subject to a severe trial or ordeal sully v. to damage or ruin the good quality of something. The government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has often had a difficult relationship with the Internet. The government has repeatedly attempted to restrict news and social media websites during times of political unrest. The restrictions do not generally last very long or appear effective. Many Internet users in Turkey have turned to tools such as VPNs or Tor to avoid the measures. However, the Erdogan governments thinking about the Internet may be hardening after recent events. They include the recent attack on an Istanbul nightclub, the killing of Russias ambassador and the government overthrow attempt by a military group. Politics and Social Media Observers and civil society groups say the Erdogan administration has been moving to restrict Internet and mobile phone access to the rest of the World Wide Web. They add that, for the first time, the administration is showing no signs of backing off any time soon. The Turkish leader has made clear that he does not like social media. Erdogan has criticized Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. "To me, social media is the worst menace to society," he said at a 2013 event. Zeynep Tufekci is an expert on technology and society at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She says Erdogan wants to show that social media hurts families and society. The reason for his statements and periodic blocking of social media sites, she says, is to try to keep the public's attention away from critical or embarrassing stories online. "Erdogan likely still has enough supporters to win elections, but to continue to win, he needs to keep them off social media, Tufekci told VOA. His game is to scare them about all that comes from social media. Some researchers fear that the Erdogan government's recent suppression of free expression is a sign of things to come. "When there's an attack -- say an explosion -- nationwide restrictions are often imposed" said Alp Toker, a researcher and spokesperson with the organization Turkey Blocks. What is new and more troubling says Toker, is that these restrictions come with efforts to block links to TOR or VPN providers. These tools are popular for going around online censorship. Such services were restricted last month after the murder of the Russian ambassador to Turkey. In recent months, many media workers have also been imprisoned. These developments have many worried about what people can say. "People are afraid of speaking up, especially online," Toker said. Is there hope for Internet freedom? Free speech activists say that there may still be hope. Toker says Turkey can still win back its Internet freedom, but only if lawmakers and technology companies around the world start to notice what is happening. He added that "the rest of the world, particularly the U.S. and Europe, would be well advised to take a look at the situation in countries like Turkey and step up the effort to defend their own digital liberties." Im Jonathan Evans. Doug Bernard wrote this story for VOA News. John Russell adapted it for Learning English. George Grow was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section. _____________________________________________________________ Words in This Story menace n. a threatening or dangerous person or thing. censorship n. the system or practice of censoring books, movies, letters, etc. embarrassing adj. made to look foolish in public access n. a way of getting near, at, or to something or someone Have writer's block? Hopefully this resource will help librarians identify publishing and presentation opportunities in library & information science, as well as other related fields. I will include calls for papers, presentations, participation, reviewers, and other relevant notices that I find on the web. If you find anything to be posted, please drop me a note. thanks -- Corey Seeman, University of Michigan(cseeman@umich.edu) Amazon Prime members in Tampa and Orlando can now voice-order their next meal through Amazon Restaurants on their Alexa-enabled devices, including the Amazon Echo and Echo Dot. Amazon Restaurants launches in Tampa, Orlando and Miami Allows Alexa, Prime users to have food delivered free of service charge The new Alexa skill allows customers to reorder from any restaurant available on the service in more than 20 cities by saying, Alexa, order from Amazon Restaurants." Customers now have a hands-free, hassle-free way to reorder any meal from Amazon Restaurants using their voice to get dinner on the table, said Gus Lopez, general manager of Amazon Restaurants at Amazon. We are excited to leverage the innovative Alexa technology and give Prime members another easy way for Amazon Restaurants to take care of dinnertime with no menu markups and free delivery in one hour or less. Prime members can ask Alexa to reorder from Amazon Restaurants by saying a restaurant name or cuisine type, for example, Alexa, order sushi from Amazon Restaurants. The service pulls a customers order history from a specified restaurant or cuisine type and lists meal options available for reorder. The selected meal is then sent for delivery to a customers default address. Once an order is placed, Amazon delivery partners deliver the food in one hour or less. Amazon Restaurants offers customers transparent pricing there are no menu markups or hidden service fees and delivery on all orders is free for Prime members. If a customer finds a restaurant item on Amazon Restaurants that is priced higher than the regularly priced item on the restaurants current online menu within 24 hours of placing the order, Amazon will refund that customer the price of the item. Customers can also place orders using the Amazon and Prime Now mobile apps or by visiting www.amazon.com/restaurants. Prime members can download the Amazon or Prime Now mobile apps, or visit the Prime Now website to enter their ZIP code and see if the service is available in their area. In ZIP codes where restaurant delivery is available, customers will see 'Restaurants' on the home page. The service is available in Tampa, Orlando and Miami, as well as Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Brooklyn, Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Portland, Manhattan, Minneapolis, Northern Virginia, San Diego, San Francisco Bay area and Seattle. To learn more about how to reorder from Amazon Restaurants through Alexa, please visit www.amazon.com/restaurants-alexa. For restaurants interested in working with Amazon Restaurants, please visit amazon.com/restaurants-merchants. Rameswaram: Ten Tamil Nadu fishermen have been arrested and their two boats impounded by Sri Lankan Navy for allegedly fishing in the island nation waters, officials said. The fishermen from Jegathapattinam in Pudukottai district were fishing in Neduntheevu last night when the Lankan Navy arrested them and took to Kankesanthurai in northern Sri Lanka, Pudukottai Assistant Director of Fisheries Sekar said. The arrest comes three days after Sri Lanka agreed to set free 51 Indian fishermen already in its custody. In another incident, more than 3,500 fishermen, who had put out to sea from here in 584 boats on Wednesday, returned to the shores without catch last night after the Lankan Naval personnel allegedly snapped the fishing nets of about 30 vessels and drove them away while they were fishing near Katchatheevu, Rameswaram Fishermen association leader S Emerit said. With the latest arrest, the number of Tamil Nadu fishermen in Sri Lankan custody has risen to 61. Only on January two, Sri Lanka agreed to release 51 fishermen in its custody and consider returning a large number of fishing boats in its custody. This was decided during a high-level ministerial level meeting of Sri Lanka and India held in Colombo on the vexed issue of fishermen. Indian and Lanka Coast Guard had yesterday discussed various measures for the release and repatriation of arrested fishermen among other areas of cooperation in the maritime security scenario. A three-member delegation led by Director General Sri Lanka Coast Guard (SLCG) Rear Admiral Samantha Wimalathunge, is on a three-day visit to India from January three for talks with the Indian Coast Guard. The Indian delegation was led by coast Guard chief Rajendra Singh. Beijing: India has "broken" UN limits on nuclear arms and long-range missiles and Pakistan should also be accorded the same "privilege", state-run Chinese media said on Thursday as it criticised New Delhi for carrying out Agni-IV and V missile tests whose range covers the Chinese mainland. "India has broken the UN's limits on its development of nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missile," the ruling Communist Party-run tabloid Global Times said in its editorial. "The US and some Western countries have also bent the rules on its nuclear plans. New Delhi is no longer satisfied with its nuclear capability and is seeking intercontinental ballistic missiles that can target anywhere in the world and then it can land on an equal footing with the UN Security Council's five permanent members," it said. "India is 'promising' in vying for permanent membership on the UN Security Council as it is the sole candidate who has both nuclear capability and economic potential," it said. "China should realise that Beijing wouldn't hold back India's development of long-range ballistic missiles," it said apparently highlighting China's limitations in restricting India developing a nuclear and missile deterrence against Chinese military power. Agni-V, a 5,000-km range intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), is widely regarded as a strategic missile targeted at China as it can reach almost all parts of the Chinese mainland. The editorial said that "Chinese don't feel India's development has posed any big threat to it". The daily known for its sabre-rattling rhetoric said "India wouldn't be considered as China's main rival in the long run" due to vast disparity of in power between the two countries. But at the same time it suggested that the "best choice for Beijing and New Delhi is to build rapport". However, while accusing India of violating limits imposed by UN on nuclear and long range missile development, "if the Western countries accept India as a nuclear country and are indifferent to the nuclear race between India and Pakistan, China will not stand out and stick rigidly to those nuclear rules as necessary", it said. "At this time, Pakistan should have those privileges in nuclear development that India has," it said, indicating that China which shared an all-weather ties with Islamabad will back it if it develops long-range missiles. "In general, it is not difficult for India to produce intercontinental ballistic missiles which can cover the whole world. If the UN Security Council has no objection over this, let it be. The range of Pakistan's nuclear missiles will also see an increase. If the world can adapt to these, China should too," it said. The references to violation of UN rules by the daily were significant as the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying while reacting to India's Agni-5 missile test said on December 27 that "on whether India can develop this ballistic missile that can carry nuclear weapons, I think relevant resolutions of the UNSC have clear rules". Hua, however, did not elaborate. The editorial in Global Times also did not elaborate or point out details of the UN violations allegedly made by India. "We have always believed that safeguarding strategic balance and stability in South Asia is conducive for the peace and prosperity of countries in the region," she said and took exception that the Agni-V which has a range of 5000 was meant to target China. However, Hua appreciated Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Vikas Swarup's statement on December 28 stating that "India's strategic capabilities are not targeted against any particular country. India abides by all the applicable international obligations and hopes that all other do the same". "We have taken note of and express appreciation for the statement made by Indian Foreign Ministry's spokesperson that India's strategic capabilities are not targeted against any particular country," she said. "China believes that preserving the strategic balance and stability in South Asia is beneficial to peace and prosperity of countries within the region. We hope to work alongside regional countries including India, to take concrete actions for enduring peace, prosperity and stability of the region," she said. Asked for his reaction to Agni-V test, Hu Shisheng, Director of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations told PTI that the test is part of the progress of India's military modernisation. "Being a major power, this is the necessary (for India). However, there is no need to each time while testing this kind of non-conventional weapons to mention whether it has the capacity to hit China or not," he said. "That really makes the news release very negative," he said as it made it appear that India's military modernisation is for targeting China. "Any country has its own logic to develop advanced weapons, but better not mentions any other country (by name)," he said. In its editorial, the Global Times said "China's strategic nuclear missiles have long ago realised global coverage, and China's overall military industrial capacity is much better than that of India". "For India, China is something to inspire ambition and invoke patriotism. However, India should realise that owning several missiles does not mean it is a nuclear power. Even though India does become a nuclear power, it will be a long time before it can show off its strength to the world," it said. Hyderabad: A top Indian Army official said the discourse in Jammu and Kashmir is shifting to "primacy of Islam" over azaadi, adding to complexities in dealing with sectarian faultlines in the border state. "Jammu and Kashmir continues to be a challenge and it's being dealt with; it's getting a little more complex as slowly the discourse, as indeed the entire thrust, is taking a shift towards a primacy of Islam over azaadi. So that clearly adds a fairly complex dynamic to stabilising the nation as it were," deputy chief of army staff (planning & systems), Lieutenant General Subrata Saha, said. He has also served as general officer commanding 15 Corps, Srinagar. He was speaking at a seminar on 'leveraging defence expenditure as a tool for nation building', organised by the college of defence management here. Giving a case study on Jammu and Kashmir vis-a-vis the annual defence expenditure in border areas, Saha said about Rs 7,516 crore are being spent every year on border roads, infrastructure and other operational works in the state. Noting that the annual budget of Jammu and Kashmir is Rs 64,669 crore, he said, "Approximately 12 percent (Rs 7,516 crore, which is more than double the most revenue-generating power development department in the state at Rs 3,674 crore), in addition to the state budget, happens because of the armed forces." Jammu and Kashmir has a population of 1.42 crore. About 2.6 lakh armed forces personnel deployed in the state contribute 12 percent of state budget. "So, that's the kind of financial contribution of the armed forces into a border state, as it were," Saha added. Islamabad: Needling India, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Thursday again praised Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani calling him a "vibrant and charismatic leader". Sharif, while addressing an International Parliamentary Seminar on Kashmir in Islamabad, called for an end to the "continued suffering" of generations in Kashmir. The world needs to tell India that "enough is enough" with regard to its policy towards Kashmir, Dawn newspaper quoted Sharif as saying. Referring to Burhan Wani as a "vibrant and charismatic leader", he said that his "martyrdom has become a rallying point for the freedom loving people". He claimed that "a promise was made to Kashmir 70 years ago, not only by Pakistan and the United Nations, but also by India to recognise the people's right to self-determination". He also spoke about the efforts made to highlight the plight of the Kashmiri people at international fora and told the conference that Pakistan would continue to support the struggle of the people in the region. Sharif while addressing a joint session of Parliament in October last year had praised Wani, drawing a strong reaction from India which said this shows Pakistan's attachment to terrorism. He had also praised the militant during his address to the UN General Assembly on September 21, describing him as a "young leader". India had strongly criticised Sharif's speech at the UN, describing it as an act of "self-incrimination" by Pakistan. In an escalation of tense ties with the Congress government in Puducherry, lieutenant governor Kiran Bedi cancelled chief minister V Narayanasamy's order banning the use of social media for official communication. Bedi, who was in Delhi for the past few days, posted a copy of her order on her personal Twitter handle declaring the government circular "null and void" with immediate effect on the ground that it was issued "in contravention of guidelines, rules and policies of the government". "If Puducherry has to be a progressive Union Territory, it cannot be retrograde in communications. Hence @CM_Puducherry's order stands cancelled: @PMOIndia (sic)," she tweeted. If Puducherry has to be a progressive UT it cannot be retrograde in communications. Hence @CM_Puducherry's order stands cancelled:@PMOIndia pic.twitter.com/26RzCcuJIM Kiran Bedi (@thekiranbedi) January 5, 2017 Narayanasamy had issued the circular even as Bedi was pushing with her plan to promote WhatsApp communication by officials. The government circular dated 2 January had said the chief minister had directed all officers, heads of departments and employees of government-owned undertakings to immediately desist from using social media such as Twitter, WhatsApp and Facebook. It had added that the servers of these multi-national companies were based outside the country. "Any foreign country can get access to these official communications and documents uploaded which is a violation of the Official Secrets Act and also against the guidelines issued by Union Information Technology Ministry," it had said. However, describing the order as retrogade, Bedi said it is against the clear-cut policy of the central government. "How can the chief minister take away the power of communication? That is why I have declared it null and void. I have met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singhji, IT and communication minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and minister of state in the PMO, Jitendra Singh, and apprised them about the issue," Bedi told PTI. Bedi added that Prasad also thinks it is a retrograde measure by the chief minister. "It is now up to the Centre to respond. I have left it to them. It is a major issue. How can a chief minister issue gag orders in times of open communication and free flow of ideas? Government of India's entire grievance redressal mechanism is based on open communication. So many ministries, including the External Affairs Ministry, is using social media so effectively," she said. She had recently created a WhatsApp group for exchange of information and details of implementation of various government schemes. An Officer on Special Duty at Raj Nivas is the administrator of the group. The government's circular was seen as a counter to Bedi suspending a Puducherry Civil Service officer for posting an "obscene" video clip on the WhatsApp group. Meanwhile, the Election Commission has stayed Bedi's 30 December order suspending the Registrar of Cooperative Societies, AS Sivakumar, an official told PTI. Sivakumar was appointed by the EC as Electoral Registration Officer for three Assembly seats in Puducherry. In another round of tweets, Bedi defended her order. "Why I cancelled CM Puducherry's gag order. It takes us back to non technology days, not good for #properouspudducherry:" Washington: Al-Qaeda leader Hamza bin Laden, the son of the terror group's slain leader Osama bin Laden, was designated as a "global terrorist" by the United States. The US move comes nearly a year-and-a-half after Hamza was officially announced by al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri as an official member of the group. Hamza, who is in his mid-twenties, has become active as an al-Qaeda propagandist since his father's death in 2011. The designation by the State Department imposes sanctions on foreign persons determined to have committed, or pose a serious risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of US nationals or the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States. As a result of this designation, all property subject to US jurisdiction in which Hamza has any interest is blocked and US persons are generally prohibited from engaging in any transactions with him. The State Department said on 9 July, 2016 that al-Qaeda issued another audio message from Hamza bin Laden threatening revenge against the US and warned Americans they would be targeted at home and abroad. "In 2015, (Hamza) bin Laden called for lone offender attacks against US, French and Israeli interests in Washington DC, Paris and Tel Aviv in Israel," it said. "Additionally, in 2016, (Hamza) bin Laden called on Saudi Arabian-based tribes to unite with al-Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen to wage war against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," the State Department said. Simultaneously, the State Department also designated Ibrahim al-Banna, a senior member of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, as a specially designated global terrorist. Al-Banna has served as AQAP security chief and provided military and security guidance to AQAP leadership. A 2010 edition of AQAPs English language online magazine Inspire contained an article by al-Banna describing the 9/11 attack as virtuous and threatened to target Americans both domestically and elsewhere, in response to US actions overseas, the State Department said. Before joining AQAP, al-Banna was a leader of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad in Yemen from 1996 to 1998 and subsequently was in-charge of the training and intelligence sectors for the group. "Al-Banna is also subject to a US government reward of up to $5 million," the State Department said. By Steve Holland | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday picked former U.S. Senator Dan Coats as his director of national intelligence, two senior transition officials said, as he puts his own stamp on a U.S. intelligence community that he frequently criticizes.The official announcement was expected this week as Trump makes decisions on some of the remaining major positions he must fill as he prepares to take over the White House on Jan. 20.Coats, 73, is a traditional conservative from Indiana who just finished a six-year term in the U.S. Senate. He was also a U.S. ambassador to Germany for Republican President George W. Bush.Two senior transition officials said Trump had chosen Coats. Separately, a source close to the transition said Trump had also considered New Jersey Governor Chris Christie for the job but that Christie had chosen not to take it.Trump was also nearing decisions on two other Cabinet positions, agriculture secretary and secretary of veterans affairs, with announcements expected soon, the source close to the transition said. The leading candidate to lead the U.S. Department of Agriculture was former Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue, although one source said Idaho Governor Butch Otter was also in the mix.As for the veterans position, Trump on Tuesday met with Leo Mackay Jr., a former deputy secretary for veterans affairs and a senior vice president of Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N), about the Cabinet post. Toby Cosgrove, chief executive officer of the Cleveland Clinic, had been considered for the veterans job but withdrew from consideration.Trump has repeatedly expressed doubts about the U.S. intelligence community's assessment that Russia had a hand in hacking during the presidential campaign.He was to get a briefing about the intelligence community's findings on the topic from senior U.S. officials on Friday at Trump Tower in New York. Some U.S. Intelligence officials on Thursday welcomed Coats' selection, saying they hope his appointment was a sign that Trump was seeking to mend fences with the intelligence community after months of enmity over its assessment that Russia tried to influence the 2016 election through hacking.One official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a domestic political issue, said he also hoped that if he is confirmed, Coats can negotiate what he called "a truce" between the intelligence community and Trump's choice for national security adviser, the former Defense Intelligence Agency director, retired Army Lieutenant General Mike Flynn, who was fired by the current director of national intelligence, James Clapper. (Additional reporting by John Walcott; Editing by Peter Cooney and Jonathan Oatis) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. By Matt Spetalnick and Idrees Ali | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The United States will transfer four detainees to Saudi Arabia from the Guantanamo Bay military prison in the next 24 hours, U.S. officials said on Wednesday, in President Barack Obama's final push to shrink the inmate population there despite pressure from the president-elect to halt such releases.It will be the first in Obama's final flurry of transfers aimed at sending as many as 19 prisoners to at least four countries, including Italy, Oman and the United Arab Emirates, before Donald Trump is sworn in on Jan. 20.If the final transfers go according to plan, only about 40 prisoners will remain at Guantanamo, despite Obama's pledge to close the controversial facility at the U.S. naval base in Cuba.Trump, however, has vowed to keep the Guantanamo military prison open and "load it up with some bad dudes."The Obama administration last month notified Congress of its intention to make the additional transfers, Reuters has reported. Those being transferred make up the bulk of the 23 prisoners declared in parole-style hearings to be safe for repatriation or resettlement in other countries. Trump on Tuesday signalled his view that all of those held at Guantanamo should remain, despite lengthy inter-agency reviews that deemed many of them eligible to leave. "There should be no further releases from Gitmo," he tweeted. "These are extremely dangerous people and should not be allowed back onto the battlefield."The White House dismissed Trump's objections and said transfers from Guantanamo, opened by former President George W. Bush to hold terrorism suspects rounded up overseas following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, would continue until Trump takes office. The two U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, were unable to provide the nationalities of the prisoners who were headed to Saudi Arabia. Last April, the desert kingdom - one of the top U.S. allies in the region - accepted nine Yemenis under a long-negotiated deal between Washington and Riyadh.Of the 59 prisoners remaining at Guantanamo before the latest transfer, 10 face charges in military commissions, including alleged plotters of the Sept. 11 attacks, while about two dozen have not been charged but have been deemed too dangerous to release.Obama, who inherited 242 detainees at Guantanamo Bay when he took office in 2009 and has called it a "recruiting tool" for terrorists, has slowly whittled the number downward. Under Bush, the prison came to symbolize aggressive detention practices that opened the United States to accusations of torture.Obama's efforts to close the prison have been blocked by mostly Republican opposition in Congress, which has barred him from moving any prisoners to the U.S. mainland. Foot-dragging by Pentagon officials has also been blamed for slowing transfers.Administration officials have also made clear that Obama has no intention of resorting to the legally risky option of using executive action to close the prison before leaving office. (Reporting by Matt Spetalnick and Idrees Ali; editing by Tom Brown, G Crosse) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. GET OUR APP Our Spectrum News app is the most convenient way to get the stories that matter to you. Download it here. The Legislative Assembly (AL) passed an amendment regarding the regions laws relating to sexual harassment and sexual activities with minors. The amendment, presented by the Secretary for Administration and Justice Sonia Chan, was met with unanimous support from lawmakers. The amendment introduced three articles which will rule three types of activities as a crime. The new amendment proposes a definition of sexual harassment that considers physical contact as a crime, further suggesting incarceration for a maximum period of one year. The law states that engaging in sexual activities with minors will lead to a prison sentence of a maximum of three years, and that the punishment will be extended up to four years if said activity had consisted of sexual intercourse involving sexual organs. The third amendment introduces the criminalization of activities involving seduction and coercing individuals under 18 years of age to participate in pornographic performances. Exhibition, production, and importing and exporting of pornographic products related to minors will also be punished. Forcing others to perform oral sex is now also considered rape. Both males and females are now equally treated as perpetuators. The amendment suggests that sexual activities involving penetration by force of the victims anal or sexual organs with a part of the body or any object will be sentenced to three to 12 years in prison. Another notable amendment rules that crimes will be considered aggravated if all the above mentioned situations are related to minors aged under 16-years-old, instead of 14 years-old as was the case under the previous law. Gabriel Tong pointed out that under certain conditions, people might have a close relationship with someone which abruptly turns out to be a source of unhappiness between the couple. He then questioned whether physical contact in that instance should be considered sexual harassment. Lawmaker Mak Soi Kun questioned the definitions of cases involving minors. Mak noted that in some cases, students, while playing their phones, could see windows popping up containing pornographic content. In this situation, it was queried how the authority would make a distinction between what is crime and what is not. Mak also wanted to know how the authority judges who is a minor and who is not. Sonia Chan responded that if the situation is not consensual, then it will be considered sexual harassment. Additional questions raised by Mak relate to what kind of sexual activities will be considered as important, since this word had been raised before to address a specific category of sexual activities. Melinda Chan also voiced her strong concern about the protection of minors. Wong Kit Cheng expected to know what kind of help victims of verbal or other non- physical sexual harassment could seek. Chan also explained concerns regarding the citys Prosecution Office (MP) conducting prosecution procedures when it deems semi-public crimes neeed to be prosecuted as public crimes. This is especially present in situations when the MP considers that it can protect the victims. Sonia Chan, in her answer to Maks question regarding the definition of important sexual activities, said that touching sexual organs will be regarded as such. Chan also reminded that verbal sexual harassment is already defined in the citys laws as an insult. After the secretarys answer, Melinda Chan voiced her strong support for the amendments in general. However, she noted that she hopes all the mentioned crimes will become listed as public crimes instead of semi-public crimes. On the lawmakers agenda LABOR RIGHTS Tsui Wai Kwan said that local labor associations are really overbearing by organizing demonstrations which intend to put pressure on the government regarding its proposal to research driver employment regulations within the region. Tsui noted that the implementation of the governments plans are decided very carefully only after public hearings are held to determine the publics expectations and needs. The lawmaker considers it odd that certain groups appear to have forgotten this approach when their own interests are at stake. Tsui believes that the associations should protect the rights of laborers, especially the associations which love the country and love Macau. RECLAIMED LAND Ng Kuok Cheong urged the government to regulate property purchasing requirements with relation to property projects located in the citys reclaimed lands. Ng suggested the government to rule that any future residence projects on these lands should only be allowed to be purchased by permanent residents of Macau who own only one residence. He voiced the expectation that the government constructs affordable public houses and apartments for civil servants. He expressed the hope that the government can use such lands to improve local peoples living environment. ILLEGAL PARKING penalties Melinda Chan questioned the government on its plans to handle illegally parked vehicles. She further questioned whether the government will have enough space to store vehicles impounded from the streets. Chan expressed the belief that there is no obvious relationship between increasing penalties and a control on the number of vehicles. She voiced her belief that charging heavier penalties only affects small to medium enterprises and residents who need to move their possessions. The lawmaker clarified that she does not agree with illegal parking but asked whether the government believed in increasing the number of parking spaces. Chan said that it is worthwhile to consider what the government could do to make the public accept new vehicle control actions. A significant number of migrant workers face difficulties living in the region due to the sudden surge in housing expenses. While many migrant workers live in normal situations where a maximum of four people live in a two-bedroom apartment, some squeeze themselves in flats that house up to 18 fellow countrymen. These individuals blame the minimum requirement of MOP500 for housing allowances that their employers give them in addition to the cost of living that mean they simply cannot afford to rent more spacious domains. Thus, they are forced to live in rooms that have two or three bunk beds. With cramped spaces and nearly intolerable living conditions, these workers crowd themselves into apartments where rental costs fall within the minimum monthly housing allowance. Evelita Justo, a Filipino migrant who has been working in Macau for 27 years as a domestic helper shared with the Times the struggles domestic employees face concerning living conditions and privacy. Justo, who has been working for the same employer since she arrived in Macau in 1991, lamented that the increase of living costs in the city do not match with the basic salary and housing allowance employers provide. Living with eight fellow migrant workers in an apartment that costs MOP7,000 per month, Justo shared that she only used to live with two fellow compatriots back in the 1990s and early 2000s when each room only cost MOP500. I can really say that all prices in Macau have tripled. What you can buy in markets for MOP2 back in the days, now costs more than MOP10, she noted. So in terms of house rents, if you will not live with several people to share bills with, you cant find a place that would fit MOP500, she added. The Times interviewees noted that a minimum bed space would cost up to MOP800; while some set up beds in the living room to further reduce the amount per person for a months rent. Even though you try to be thrifty and only spend on important things, the minimum salaries of domestic helpers are not really enough. According to Justo, there are still cases where employers do not provide a house allowance, despite it being stated on their contract. Echoing those sentiments, a domestic employee who asked not to be identified, told the Times that she used to give back MOP500 to her boss after having MOP3,000 deposited into her account. MOP3,000 is the salary that is written on the contract but my boss only gives me MOP2,500, because I have to return the remaining to her, she said. After working for her employer for three years, she said that she now receives the full amount deposited to her account, however this figure does not include housing allowance. Its really tough to live with a lot of people, the unnamed worker stressed. But what can we do. If wed move flats, it would be the same; and chances are, we would pay more, she added. Maerell Wadason, another housekeeper, also shared that she does not receive any housing allowance as she was asked by her employer to reside in their apartment. However, she refused to, because she has a family residing in the region, resulting in zero housing allowance granted to her. She now lives in an apartment with nine migrant workers. It doesnt matter anymore whether you feel convenient living with many people or not but what matters is being able to save some money, she commented. You really have to go to an apartment where you can still save some money for yourself or else your salary would only go to house expenses, she added. Similarly to Justo, she noted that it is significantly better to live under good conditions with privacy as was the case in the past, yet due to excessive price of house rents, she has resorted to living with several flatmates. These migrant workers face difficulties when handling the different outlooks and characteristics of the people they live with. Since most of the migrant workers do not have relatives in the region, they are forced to live with fellow nationals but these people are still strangers. Yet, their problems do not end there. Some migrant workers act as a landlord where they rent an apartment, pay a three-month fee for deposit and agency fee. Similar to Justo who acts as a landlady to her eight housemates, she stressed to the Times that it is problematic to communicate with real estate agencies. Based on my experience, some agencies really rush us to leave the apartment without even one-months notice. They think that we have that much money to pay another three-month rental fee, she complained. According to the Times sources, some real estate agencies rush these tenants to move out citing reasons such as the property being sold. Justo noted that most agencies go so far as to offer an unrealistic price for a tiny flat, threatening the workers to take it or leave it. Meanwhile, another migrant worker, Starina Lelis, expressed her hope that the MSAR would help by increasing the minimum monthly living grant so as to prevent them from living with numerous others. Lelis lives with 18 people in a five-room apartment that costs MOP8,000 per month. According to her, she sleeps in a room with two bunk beds, along with three other roommates. Its a pity for my fellow compatriots who earn less than MOP3,500 because this salary is impossible especially if you are not a stay in employee, she said. Meanwhile, a Filipino Facebook group Bahay Kubo sa Macau, which translates to Nipa Hut in Macau, contains dozens of rooms that are up for rental purposes. Some posts contain images of an extension room,- a room that has been illegally transformed from a living room to a bedroom, for rental purposes. The group serves as a platform for the community to share information and sell items online. These dozens of room for rent posts show that not only do domestic helpers experience the strains of coping with the regions living standards but also of making less than Macaus average earnings. No contact with proprietors increases risk of high rents The Times is aware of situations where real-estate agencies prohibit tenants to be in contact with homeowners. This could imply that these tenants may be in danger of being ripped off, or vulnerable to an unnecessary increase in house rental rates. While some tenants have direct deals with proprietors that require no agency fees, some simply transfer rent payments to banks which are claimed to be proprietors accounts. Justo, a tenant who doubts whether she pays monthly rents directly to the homeowner or an agency, hinted that she has no option but to pay to the instructed bank account number. I dont think the signee in the contract and the bank account that we deposit money into every month is the same, she said. Although contracts may be written in English, some individuals only provide contracts written in Chinese characters. Meanwhile, there are tenants who pay house rents along with electricity and water bills to the agency without the agents proof of utility consumption receipts. Some lodgers are also required to repaint the property and repair deteriorated domestic utilities without the owner reimbursing the cost. Some of the 36 individuals and organizations who will be decorated by the government this week met with journalists yesterday to share their feelings on the recognition they are about to receive. The decorations, medals and certificates of merit awarded for 2016 by the government are granted according to the recommendations from the Committee of Nomination of Medals and Honorary Titles that will be delivered by the Chief Executive (CE) in a ceremony to be held tomorrow at the Cultural Center. On the section dedicated to the ones receiving the Medal for Distinguished Service Medal for Dedication we find three exemplary officials: Maria do Ceu Dourado Amorim da Silva Hung, Vicente Joao Monteiro and Porfirio Zeferino de Souza. Vicente Joao Monteiro is a former registrar of the Land Registry Office and copywriter of many of the Registry and Notary Codes in Macau. With a long career in the Civic Services both in the region and in Portugal, Monteiro acknowledges that the receipt of such an award means the recognition of work that he has been developing for a long time. Having all but reached the top of his field in Macau during his initial tenure between January 1994 and August 2000, Monteiro returned to the region in 2011 by invitation of the MSAR government to continue his work in the registry and notary fields. The author of several legal works, Monteiro sees the opportunity to continue to publish works in this area as one of his main incentives to continue to work and live in the region. One of the incentives that makes me stay in Macau is exactly the opportunity that has been given to me of leaving some legacy in the registry and notary fields, he said. Remarking on his working field, Monteiro believes that the region will face a big challenge that relates to the rapid shifting from Portuguese to Chinese dominance on matters that require a notary due to the rise on the number of lawyers from a Chinese-speaking background who want to follow career as private notaries too. According to him, this situation will involve a bigger effort from the Legal Affairs Bureau (DSAJ) for the profession of the Private Notary activities, adding obviously this involves the recruitment of bilingual professionals and this is really the big challenge arising at this moment. Another of the challenges he pointed to is the electronization of the procedures and services [from DSAJ] and especially in what concerns interdepartmental communication from the services to the users. This is a topic in which he thinks Portugal can serve as a good example for the MSAR government to follow. At 65-years-old, Monteiro says, Time will be the reason for my return [to Portugal]. I have no projects at this level [for the time being]. I will stay until it is necessary and as long as I consider my work useful to Macau. Feeling a great pride and an honor for the award he received was Porfirio Zeferino de Souza, the Judiciary Police (PJ) Inspector and Chief on the Department of Crimes Against People. He said: The award is a recognition of my work in this force; work Ill continue to develop in the same way in order to serve the PJ and the population. Having worked within the police force for 33 years, the inspector highlighted the differences between the old and the current days, saying I remember that when I entered the force we had only eight officers [within his department] divided in two teams of four. Now I have a total of 28 inspectors in three permanent teams of at least eight people. Another of the differences between the old and current days is that crimes now are more complex and the criminals smarter demanding more from the inspectors and the force. As the most touching moment of his career so far, de Souza highlighted a case from approximately two years ago when his team managed to rescue two underage people. He also recalled a case when the whole team had to work for 15 days in a row in order to solve a homicide. Leading the department that also deals with the cases of domestic violence, de Souza says that the most common cases that the department deals with are related to simple offenses and threats. Regarding domestic violence cases, he said: In many cases, and after investigation, we conclude that in fact they arent crimes [of this kind]. Maybe the population is still not aware of what is included under the crimes of domestic violence. Working in the civic services since 1987, always in interpretation and translation, is Maria da Silva Hung, one of the most trusted translators and interpreters from the CE. She was very happy to have been chosen for this award. Once or twice I thought when would be my turn, or maybe this will never happen. This year it was finally my turn and Im very happy about it, she said, adding that she receives this award at a personal level but also in the name of all translators and interpreters. I receive the accolade in the name of all translators and interpreters. Our roles are becoming more visible and important in Macau, Hung said. When questioned by the Times on the most difficult moment that she experienced in the performance of her duties, she recalled a job done on a boat when she felt very uncomfortable. Humorously Hung said rather than what usually happens, tomorrow she will not be the master of ceremonies (MC) of the event but instead, one of the honoured guests. The music publisher EMI has ended its contract with the Sex Pistols punk rock group because of their notorious behavior in public. In a statement, the company said: EMI feels it is unable to promote this groups records in view of the adverse publicity generated over the past two months. The move follows the groups appearance on ITVs Today program six weeks ago in which they used strong language. Reports that they had sworn at Heathrow Airport staff and spat at each other while waiting to board a plane for the Netherlands yesterday proved to be the final straw. EMI broke the news to Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren by telephone this morning. But he denied the contract had been ended by mutual agreement. In Amsterdam preparing for a series of concerts and recordings, he told the BBC: Thats rubbish. I havent signed a single paper as far as Im concerned, were still on EMI. The four-man band Johnny Rotten, Steve Jones, Paul Cook and Sid Vicious had only served three months of the two-year contract, worth 40,000, and release one single Anarchy in the UK. EMI has also come under pressure to drop the group from the Conservative MP for Christchurch and Lymington, Robert Adley. Last night, he wrote to the managing director, Sir John Read, saying: Surely a group of your size and reputation could forgo the doubtful privilege of sponsoring trash like the Sex Pistols. Asked whether he would sign up another punk rock group, Sir John told the BBC: Certainly. I am told there is a demand for this style of music and provided we can have groups that dont attract the adverse publicity this group has had, well certainly want to be in it. Courtesy BBC News In context In March 1977 the Sex Pistols signed up with A&M Records but were sacked soon afterwards. By June they had joined Virgin and sold 150,000 copies of God Save the Queen in just one day. The single officially reached number two despite a BBC Radio One ban and several high street chains refusing to stock it. It caused a national outrage in the year of the Queens Jubilee. On 12 October 1978 Sid Vicious was charged with murdering his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen. That same year the group disbanded. Sid Vicious died of a drug overdose on 2 February 1979 while out on bail. Virgin Records continued to release Sex Pistols music, including one compilation appropriately called Flogging a Dead Horse. Then in 1986 former Sex Pistols won substantial damages against their ex-manager Malcolm McLaren. Ten years later in 1996, the band reformed for their final worldwide tour and live album Filthy Lucre that lasted six months. The band reformed again in 2002 and re-released God Save the Queen in response to the Queens Golden Jubilee celebrations. They came together again in August 2003 for a short USA tour. Professor Li Defeng, director of the University of Macaus (UM) Centre for Studies of Translation, Interpreting and Cognition, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, has been elected president of the World Interpreter and Translator Training Association (WITTA). The election was made during the organizations First Congress and Inaugural General Assembly held in Guangzhou. The newly founded WITTA is an international non-governmental and non-profit organization dedicated to bringing together industrial and academic institutes to promote the training of interpreters and translators worldwide. The association has 40 founding institutions from across the world, including University College London, University of Westminster, the City University of Hong Kong and the Beijing Language and Culture University. Speaking at the congress, Li commented that since the beginning of the 21st century, the field of education for translation and interpreting has been developing rapidly and has achieved remarkable progress in the face of various challenges, such as the significant gap between demand and supply in the translation industry. WITTA was set up to address these challenges by promoting international exchange, interdisciplinary collaboration and the commercialization of research results. As leaders and active researchers in our institutions and our field of research, we came to Guangzhou to build and strengthen ties and partnerships, share experiences, and assess pertinent interpreter and translator training developments that have occurred in these years, said Li. Over 100 experts and scholars of translation education from the United States, the United Kingdom (UK), Canada, Australia, Russia, Singapore, Switzerland, Germany, Japan, South Korea, mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan attended the congress and assembly. Topics discussed during the congress included the current trends in translator training and the development and assessment of translation competence. The next WITTA Congress will be held at the University of Westminster, (UK) in 2018. China initiated a rail-freight service to Britain as part of President Xi Jinpings efforts to strengthen trade ties with Europe. The first train departed Yiwu in eastern Zhejiang province on Jan. 1 and will cover more than 12,000 kilometers in about 18 days before reaching London, China Railway Corp. said in a statement Monday. The service, carrying garments, bags and suitcases among other items, will pass through Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Germany, Belgium and France. London becomes the 15th European city with direct trains from China following the unveiling of Xis so-called Belt-and- Road initiative in 2013. The plan put transport links at the center of efforts to create a modern Silk Road and boost commercial ties to markets across Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe. While the train can carry about 200 containers, versus 20,000 on a large cargo vessel, the trip takes about half as long as a 30-day sailing between East Asia and northern Europe. That will make rail a competitive option when maritime shipments are held up or miss the booked departure, especially compared with airfreight, which costs twice as much, according to Michael White, operations director at Brunel Shipping, the U.K. booking agent for the service. Brunel is also involved in the operation of a China- Madrid freight train thats run for more than a year and ranks as the worlds longest rail service, ahead even of the Moscow-Vladivostok trans-Siberian passenger route. The Spanish train carries olive oil back to China, and White said in an interview that the U.K. operation, which will unload in Barking, east London, needs to tap a similar export flow, possibly of British designer goods. China has initially set aside about USD40 billion in a fund to finance roads and railways abroad under President Xis strategy, while trade with countries along the corridor could reach $2.5 trillion in about a decade, Yao Gang, the then vice chairman of China Securities Regulatory Commission, said in 2015. Railways are one of the top priorities of Xi and only last month, the country announced that it plans to spend 3.5 trillion yuan ($503 billion) to expand the national system by 2020. A high-speed rail network will span more than 30,000 kilometers under the plan, according to a State Council Information Office briefing in Beijing last week. The distance, about 6.5 times the length of a road trip between New York and Los Angeles, will cover 80 percent of major cities in China. China has also used railways as a diplomatic tool overseas. Chinese domestic train manufacturers have targeted emerging markets in Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia for rail-related orders while also bidding for high-profile contracts in the developed world. Chinas economy is on pace to meet the official growth target, posting 6.7 percent expansions in the first three quarters of 2016. The Xinhua state news service reported the departure of the first China-London train earlier. Bloomberg French far right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen is cheering Ford Motor Co.s decision to shift investment from Mexico to the U.S., calling it a victory for the protectionist policies she champions. In a New Years address to journalists yesterday, Le Pen said its proof that protectionism works, when it is led by determination, and when a country can exercise its economic independence. It is good for re- industrialization and good for jobs. Le Pen, campaigning against immigration and the European Union, called Fords move an example of what Donald Trump obtained, apparently referring to his threats of tariffs on U.S. cars made in Mexico. Ford is canceling plans to build a new USD1.6 billion factory in Mexico and will instead invest some of that money in a U.S. factory. AP The trial of the territorys former top prosecutor, Ho Chio Meng, resumed yesterday after a two-week recess period, with the presiding judge refusing another request from Hos defense and signaling that he intends to expedite the case. Presiding judge Sam Hou Fai ruled that it was unnecessary for the prosecution to read out the more than 1,500 counts of crime that Ho is accused of committing. Ho had previously argued that it was difficult for his defense to respond to the allegations without dealing with them on a one-by-one basis. However, Sam made it clear yesterday that this will not be necessary, adding that there will be opportunities for Sam to speak in the future, according to public broadcaster TDM. Also according to the broadcaster, Sams decision will now accelerate the case as it deprives Hos defense from forcing a lengthy reading of the charges by the prosecutor. During yesterdays session, Ho repeated his argument that he was not involved in awarding government contracts to shell companies that he either owned or in which he controlled a stake. He said that it was his legal duty to approve some of the contracts, but he had had no influence over the tendering process. Sam and Ho have come to disagreements on legal proceedings at least once before. In early December, the opening session of the trial was postponed after Hos defense requested that the same judge be excused from the process. The request was made on the basis of Sam having been involved in the case during the enquiry phase and in the audience of the habeas corpus request that was shortly thereafter denied. DB Chinas third-biggest search engine expects to hold a U.S. initial public offering at a valuation of as much as USD5 billion as it raises cash to close the gap with leader Baidu Inc. in the mobile market. Sogou, whose name means search dog, plans to sell about 10 percent of its shares in an IPO that will probably be held this year, Chief Executive Officer Wang Xiaochuan said in an interview. The company, which is backed by social media giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Sohu.com Inc., hasnt formally hired banks to run the listing. Sohu shares rose the most in 10 months. While Baidu remains the biggest provider across all platforms in China, its under siege after a scandal over medical advertising as smaller rivals including Sogou and Qihoo 360 Technology Co. win mobile users. Wang plans to use part of the IPO proceeds to improve search results by backing companies developing artificial intelligence and machine-learning technologies. Over the past year, weve seen a trend where people are finding themselves not trusting Baidu as much and some are even seeking a replacement, he said at the companys Beijing headquarters. So over the next year or two, as more people feel more comfortable with Sogou theyll realize it is able to replace Baidu. Sohu said a Sogou IPO isnt on the agenda right now. Shares of Sohu rose 4.9 percent to $35.54 in New York, the biggest gain since March 4. The stock has declined 34 percent in the past year. Tencents shares rose about 0.4 percent as of 9:36 a.m. in Hong Kong. Baidu accounted for 44.5 percent of mobile search queries in the third quarter, while Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.-backed Shenma had 20.8 percent and Sogou was third with 16.2 percent, according to research from iiMedia. Other independent researchers including Analysys International reported that Sogou was Chinas second- largest provider to the countrys mobile users while some surveys have the company as the nations second-largest overall. Wang said Sogou can match Baidu in mobile search within three years. Baidu declined to comment. Marie Sun, an analyst at Morningstar Investment Service, said Wangs emphasis on artificial intelligence was the correct strategy as search engines around the world adopt the technology to improve results. Still, Baidu has a massive advantage in machine-learning given its history of dominance and access to data. The problem is I dont think they have that much data Baidu has a lot more data, said Sun. If you dont have the data, then you cant expect your machine to learn as fast. Sogou, which merged with Tencents Soso search business in 2013, is counting on partnerships with investors and smartphone makers to win market share. Sogou is the only search engine formally allowed to trawl through public messages on Tencents WeChat platform, which has more than 800 million users. Its also signing deals with device makers to ensure more smartphones are shipped with its software already installed, adopting a successful strategy used by microblog Weibo. While Tencent owns a substantial stake in Sogou, the search company is run as a subsidiary of Sohu.com thanks to a dual-class share structure. Wang said the relationship between its main backers is strong but both sides were still discussing how the ownership structure would change once Sogou is listed. Bloomberg With somewhere around 4,000 artists and staff, the Mansudae Art Studio, a huge complex of nondescript concrete buildings on a sprawling, walled-off campus with armed guards in the heart of Pyongyang, churns out everything from watercolor tigers to mosaics so large they seem to depict a race from another, taller planet. But its statues the really big, bronze, monumental ones on foreign shores are what appear to have caught the attention of the U.N. Security Council. In one of the odder items on the list of things North Korea cant export under United Nations sanctions, statues were explicitly listed for the first time last month when the Security Council approved a raft of punishments in response to Pyongyangs latest nuclear test, which it conducted in September. To those familiar with the Norths exports, the move to ban statue sales wasnt entirely a surprise. Its one of the few things other than coal and natural resources, exports of which were also heavily restricted under the new sanctions, that North Korea can still find a market for abroad. Moreover, sanctions advocates and proponents of isolating Pyongyang for its nuclear program believe Mansudae, and particularly its export arm, Mansudae Overseas Projects, is being used to quietly maintain, expand or obfuscate the nature of its relations with other countries. Africa has traditionally been Mansudaes prime export market its sold to 17 African countries, ranging from Angola to Zimbabwe. Pyongyang began exporting statues to Africa in the late 1960s, when a wave of independence movements created a new market of ideologically friendly leaders in search of grand symbols to bolster national identity and claims of political legitimacy. North Korea, looking to expand its diplomatic ties vis a vis rival Seoul, initially provided the works for free. It only started selling them from about 2000. Business hasnt exactly been booming. In July, Namibia terminated the services of Mansudae Overseas Projects after U.N. monitors claimed it was involved in several military construction projects. Namibia had been a regular Mansudae customer, including the project to build its State House, which was completed in 2008. But, on the bright side for Pyongyang, last December a USD24 million museum with a huge indoor historical panorama built, designed and largely funded by Mansudae was opened near Cambodias ancient Angkor Wat temple complex. Unlike other projects by Mansudae abroad, it will collect proceeds from entry fees for the museums first 10 years of operations, or until it has recouped its investment. The museum hasnt drawn many tourists. The U.N. statue sanctions wont likely hurt North Koreas coffers much. The Norths total income from selling statues abroad has been estimated at about $160 million, or only about $10 million a year. Thats compared with the estimated impact of the new restrictions on coal exports, which the U.S. has said could cost Pyongyang as much as $700 million. Even so, its a slap at one of North Koreas most venerable cultural institutions. Mansudae was created in 1959 by Kim Il Sung himself. It has generated an estimated 38,000 statues and 170,000 other monuments for domestic use and, according to the website of its overseas representative office, it is divided in 13 creative groups, seven manufacturing plants and has more than 50 supply departments. The vast majority of the major art works of the country have been realized by Mansudae Art Studio artists, the website says. Their ages go from mid 20s to mid-60s and almost all are graduates of the very demanding Pyongyang University. Over half of the Merit Artists and of the Peoples Artists, the two highest awards an artist can receive in DPRK, are or have been associated with the Mansudae Art Studio. And, sanctions notwithstanding, they appear to be as busy as ever. Statues, mosaics or paintings of eternal president Kim Il Sung and his son, dear leader Kim Jong Il, grace virtually every large plaza, village center, significant factory and meaningful nook or cranny in the country. At the order of North Koreas third leader in the Kim dynasty, Kim Jong Un, the studio rushed this year to make sure every province had a Kim Jong Il statue to stand beside his father. Kim Jong Un is not yet the object of similar immortalizations or of the pins that all adult North Koreans wear over their hearts. Mansudae officials say the young Kim is much too humble of personality for that. Eric Talmadge, AP Other investors are wary of Brazil, but when Duke Energy wanted to sell 10 hydroelectric dams there, a Chinese utility shrugged off the countrys economic turmoil and paid USD1.2 billion to add them to an energy empire that stretches from Malaysia to Germany to the Amazon. State-owned China Three Gorges Group is spending heavily to buy or build hydro, wind and solar projects at a time when Western utility investors are pulling back and President-elect Donald Trumps pledge to revive coal use has raised doubt about U.S. support for renewables. Theyre happy to invest wherever they see value or they can gain a foothold, said Andrew Shepherd, who follows the global utility industry for BMI Research. Flush with cash and willing to tolerate risks that put off older rivals, CTG and other state-owned utilities including State Grid Corp., the worlds biggest power supplier, are expanding abroad in search of new revenue sources as economic growth and electricity demand at home cool. A decade ago, they built dams and power plants in Asia and Africa. Now, they also are taking on a longer-term role as operators of power companies in Europe and Australia and are looking at the U.S. market. They are providing welcome investment in troubled markets such as Brazil and southern Europe. Set up in 1993 to run the vast Three Gorges Dam in central China, CTG is unusual in its status as a national-level Chinese power company with global ambitions but a reliance on non-fossil-fuels sources. The company still gets most of its 60 gigawatts of generating capacity from dams. Its namesake 46-gigawatt facility on the Yangtze River competes with Brazils Itaipu Dam for the title of worlds biggest hydropower facility. Such projects face a backlash over environmental damage and forced relocation of local communities. In August, Brazils environmental agency rejected a proposal by CTG and Portugals national power company, Energias de Portugal, to build the 8-gigawatt Sao Luis do Tapajos Dam on the Amazon. The dam would have flooded land belonging to Munduruku Indians. CTG, which says it is active in 40 countries, starting investing in wind power in 2007 and solar in 2011 projects that are easier and more politically attractive. In June, it bought a wind farm in Germany from Blackstone Energy Partners. A CTG-built dam in Malaysia started commercial generation in May. CTG has a joint venture with Australian startup RayGen Resources to set up solar projects in China. In the past five years, CTG has spent more than USD10 billion on hydro and wind assets in Brazil, Germany, Italy, Poland and Portugal, according to Dealogic, a financial data provider. It also has built a dam in neighboring Laos and a wind farm in Pakistan. Three Gorges Group takes building an international first-rate clean energy group as a strategic goal, the company said in a written response to questions. It said its European presence is a development platform for North America. The ruling Communist Party is spending heavily on renewable energy to curb reliance on imported oil and gas and on coal, reduce eye-searing smog and create profitable technologies. Not including large-scale hydroelectric dams, China invested $103 billion last year in wind, solar and other renewable sources, according to the U.N. Environment Program. The U.S. spent $44 billion. Beijings spending is nurturing Chinese export industries. The countrys solar panel makers are global industry leaders and its wind turbine manufacturers are stepping up exports. In the United States, CTG and other Chinese investors may face tougher scrutiny under Trump, who castigated Beijing during his campaign and has appointed advisers favoring a more antagonistic stance on trade. And when it comes to acquiring U.S. assets, that market is crowded with experienced, deep-pocketed potential rivals such as Duke, Southern Company and Dominion Resources. Chinese power companies may be interested to look at opportunities in North America. However, so far there have been few, said Daniel Qiu, a managing director in Credit Suisses Asia Pacific investment banking group. As a springboard to new markets, CTG paid $3.5 billion in 2011 for 21 percent of Energias de Portugal, one of the biggest global investors in wind energy. Their tie-up might help ease CTGs entry into the United States since EdPs Houston-based U.S. arm owns wind farms in New York, Iowa, Texas and other states. This is an interesting way for Three Gorges to essentially get access to U.S. renewable projects through the back door, said Shepherd. The two companies are building two hydropower projects in Brazil in addition to the dams CTG is buying from Duke Energy. CTG has ample resources, with 563.7 billion yuan ($82.8 billion) in assets including 18.7 billion yuan ($2.7 billion) in cash more than double the price of Duke Energys Brazilian dams. The company earned 28.8 billion yuan ($4.2 billion) in profit in 2015 on revenue of 63.5 billion yuan ($9.3 billion). Industrywide, Chinas state- owned utilities have spent more than $30 billion to buy all or parts of power suppliers in Brazil, Germany, New Zealand and other countries over the past five years, according to Dealogic. The bulk of that came from State Grid, which has spent $22 billion in Brazil, Australia, Italy, Greece and Portugal. In 2013, it made Chinas biggest utility acquisition in a developed country, paying $6.7 billion for 60 percent of Australias SGSP (Australia) Assets Pty. Ltd., an operator of gas and electric distribution networks. They are much more aggressive and are more willing to take on risk, said Shepherd. Joe McDonald, Beijing, AP More than 100 suspected Muslim rebels stormed a jail in the southern Philippines before dawn yesterday, allowing 158 inmates to escape in what officials said was the biggest jailbreak in the country. Six of the inmates were killed in firefights with pursuing police and army troops, while eight others have been caught and were being returned to the facility, said Senior Inspector Xavier Solda, spokesman for the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology. Solda said the heavily armed gunmen emerged from a forest and attacked the North Cotabato District Jail in Kidapawan under the cover of darkness. Kidapawan city in Cotabato Province is about 930 kilometers southeast of the capital Manila. To my knowledge, this is the biggest jailbreak in the history of the bureau, Solda said in a telephone interview. Acting Provincial Jail Warden Supt. Peter John Bongngat Jr. said one of the about 20 prison guards on duty was killed and an inmate was wounded in an initial gunbattle. Bongngat and Kidapawan police chief Supt. Leo Ajero said gunfire continued for hours after the attack as army troops and police, some in armored tanks, hunted through the surrounding forests for the escaped inmates and the gunmen who freed them. Bongngat said the attackers were suspected to include members of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters and guerrillas who broke away from the main Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which has signed a peace deal with the government. The jail held 1,511 inmates, including Bangsamoro members facing murder charges for a series of bombings in the province, officials said. It was the third attack on the provincial jail facility since 2007. Local village leader Alexander Austria told The Associated Press by telephone that he and his men captured one escaped man. He said the gunfire woke his village, which was several kilometers from the prison, and he immediately posted guards because of worries the attackers and escaped inmates could enter the village. We heard the gunfire and we sprang into action to guard our village, Austria said. We were afraid the escapees could try to enter our village to hide or take hostages. AP Thailands prime minister vowed yesterday to crack down on the countrys private van transportation industry after a fiery crash that killed 25 people. Thailand has one of the highest traffic fatality rates in the world, and vans especially used for commuting, but also for inter-provincial travel have been involved in a number of accidents involving multiple deaths. Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said he will tighten regulations on van transport in response to revelations that the 64-year- old driver responsible for the crash may have skirted regulations and not gotten enough sleep, causing him to doze off while driving. Experts say private van drivers push themselves to the limit, often driving overtime and going over the speed limit in order to earn as much money as possible. Why have past governments allowed illegal vans to operate? Nobodys been following regulations from the start, Prayuth said at a news conference, addressing the general problem. From now on, I will be strict. If anyone cannot drive, then dont drive. He also said he will set up more checkpoints to enforce the law. As head of a military government, he can shortcut normal legal and legislative requirements. The van with 15 people had been on its way to Bangkok from eastern Thailand on Monday when it swerved over the median into oncoming traffic and collided head-on with a pickup truck carrying 12 people, causing both vehicles to catch fire. One person from each vehicle survived. Officials said the crash occurred during the fifth time in 31 hours that the van driver was making the five- hour, 250-kilometer journey, suggesting exhaustion was a key factor in the crash, along with the vehicles high speed. The accident happened on a straight road and the van crossed the median without stopping or slowing down, said Wittaya Prayongpan, assistant national police chief. Its clear the van was the reckless offender. Jittichai Rudjanakanoknad, a professor of transportation studies at Chukalongkorn University, said private van operators are not controlled well by the government. They try to speed as much as they can so that they can return and pick up more passengers their working hours arent controlled, theres a lack of sleep among drivers, and the vehicles are not inspected well by the government because theyre registered as private vehicles, he said. Driving passengers in vans between provinces for profit was illegal ten years ago, but public pressure mounted on the government to legalize the vans again. The vans are more popular than buses because theyre significantly faster, pick up passengers at more convenient stops, and are just as cheap. The Transport Ministry says it is discussing measures to improve traffic safety, including vehicle GPS tracking systems, tighter driving regulations and a shift from vans to buses for long-distance trips by 2019. There will be stricter speed limits, said Somsak Hommaung, the ministrys deputy permanent secretary, in a phone interview. There should also be measures to deal with medians that are too narrow. Drivers physical conditions will be looked at. Thailand has one of the highest vehicle fatality rates in the world at 36.2 deaths per 100,000 people, according to a 2015 World Health Organization report. Dake Kang, Kaweewit Kaewjinda, AP Donald Trump says he is confident North Korea wont develop a nuclear-tipped missile that could strike the United States. But his options for stopping the reclusive communist country are slim: diplomacy that would reward Pyongyang, sanctions which havent worked, and military action that no one wants. For more than two decades, Republican and Democratic administrations have tried carrots and sticks to steer North Korea away from nuclear weapons. Each has failed. And as Trump prepares to take office Jan. 20, the stakes are rising. Pyongyang may already be able to arm short-range and mid-range missiles with atomic warheads, threatening U.S. allies South Korea and Japan, and American forces in each country. On Sunday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said preparations for launching an intercontinental ballistic missile reached the final stage. Trump tweeted the following day: It wont happen! Some experts believe the North is likely to have the capability to strike the U.S. mainland before Trumps four-year term is up. The president-elect has given conflicting signals about what he plans to do, while stressing that China, North Koreas traditional ally, must exert greater pressure on its unpredictable neighbor. Some of his options: DIPLOMACY In June, Trump called for dialogue with North Korea and suggested a talk with Kim over a hamburger. If only talking with the secretive, hereditary rulers in Pyongyang were so simple. No sitting U.S. president has ever done so. Diplomacy with the North is a delicate dance and agreements have proved temporary. Three U.S. administrations, going back to President Bill Clinton, have persuaded the North to disarm in exchange for aid. Each effort eventually failed, and there is deep skepticism in Congress about trying again. A 1994 deal would have given North Korea nuclear power reactors and normalized ties with Washington. North Koreas plutonium production paused for several years. But after it emerged the North also was seeking to use uranium for weapons, the arrangement collapsed. Six-nation nuclear negotiations hosted by China have been on ice since North Korea withdrew in 2009. The Obama administration attempted to restart them in 2012, early in Kims rule, by offering food aid for a nuclear and missile freeze. Within weeks, the North tried to launch a long-range rocket. The effort was abandoned. Since then, the U.S. has resorted to strategic patience demanding North Korea recommit to denuclearization before holding talks. Pyongyang has refused, demanding the U.S. end military exercises with South Korea and negotiate a peace treaty to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War. American officials fear the North only would want talks to ease its isolation, and not to resolve the nuclear question. SANCTIONS International sanctions have tightened since North Korea conducted its first of five nuclear tests in 2006. But the country has adeptly circumvented restrictions on sensitive technology and money flows, and used its own capabilities to develop weapons. Additional U.S. sanctions, beefed up last year, punish foreign companies and banks dealing with North Korea. They, too, havent been effective because the Norths international isolation makes it less susceptible to such pressure than a major economy like Iran, which curbed its nuclear program in 2015 after being battered by oil, trade and financial sanctions. Chinas role is critical. It dominates trade with the North and has resisted sanctions that could destabilize Pyongyang, fearing the possibility of a U.S.-allied, unified Korea emerging. When the U.N. Security Council punished Pyongyang for another nuclear test in September, the primary goal was closing a loophole that enabled China to import North Korean coal at record levels. The last several U.S. administrations entered office determined to break Beijings partnership with Pyongyang. None succeeded. MILITARY Using military force against North Korea is extremely risky. Even before it developed nuclear weapons, the North maintained the ability to strike Seoul, South Koreas capital, with a potentially devastating artillery barrage. Although doing so would invite a blistering U.S. response, its hardly a scenario any American commander-in-chief wants to contemplate. The military option has been considered before. Clinton considered a strike on the Norths nuclear facilities after it announced it would reprocess fuel from a nuclear reactor, providing it plutonium for bombs. Diplomacy appeared to win out that time with the 1994 agreement. A military strike would be harder to pull off now. North Korea has expanded its nuclear and missile programs significantly, meaning more targets would have to be hit. And regional support would be questionable. In a recent paper, former U.S. negotiator Joel Wit said the escalation risk meant neither South Korea nor Japan would likely support a military strike. It could also draw into the conflict China, which fought on North Koreas side against U.S.-led forces six decades ago. Matthew Pennington, Washington, AP Drivers The Twin Falls Senior Center needs drivers to deliver meals to homebound seniors in Twin Falls Monday through Friday, and the routes take an hour or less to complete. Commitment is based on your availability. Volunteers must be 18 years of age with their own car, and have proof of liability insurance and a background check. Drivers receive 54 cents a mile fuel reimbursement. Information: 208-734-5084. Volunteers Horizon Home Health and Hospice is looking for volunteers to join their team to provide quality compassionate care to patients through the following activities: companionship, socialization, respite, and support for patients and families and much more. Information: Cynthia Nixon, 208-800-8085 or cnixon@horizonhh.com. Volunteers The Senior Companion Program at the CSI Office on Aging needs volunteers, age 55 and older, to assist homebound seniors by providing friendly visits, transportation or other assistance as needed. Senior Companions make positive impacts by helping to improve the mental and emotional status of their clients. Senior Companions receive a stipend per hour of service (to income eligible seniors) and can work between 15 to 40 hours a week. They receive reimbursement for mileage, and training on age-related problems. Information: Dandre, 208-736-2122, or toll free, 800-574-8656. Volunteers Auburn Crest Hospice is in search of volunteers in Twin Falls, Jerome, Minidoka and Gooding counties. Auburn Crest, a hospice agency in Twin Falls, works with patients and families to create meaningful end-of-life experiences. Hospice volunteers play a vital role in the lives of those with life-threatening illnesses and their caregivers, families, and friends. Volunteer tasks may include: support for patients (visiting, reading, taking walks, writing letters, playing music, massage therapy or beautician services for volunteers with the necessary skills, and also pet therapy); respite and support for family members (assist with shopping or household maintenance, or allow family caregivers the opportunity to take care of necessary errands); bereavement support programs; and administrative work in the office. Volunteers are required to submit to a background check (at no personal cost). Information: Sheri at 208-735-7450, 208-404-4561, Sheri.Bernt@auburncrest.com or visit 397 Blue Lakes Blvd. N., Twin Falls. Volunteers St. Lukes Home Health and Hospice is looking for new volunteers to join its team to share compassion and care and increase the quality of life for patients and their families. The program is designed to offer companionship and socialization to patients as well as respite and support for the caregivers. Information: Marie Sharp, 208-814-7603 or sharpm@slhs.org. Volunteers St. Lukes Magic Valley Medical Center is in need of volunteers for a variety of positions from shuttle drivers to care volunteers to gift shop volunteers and more. The medical center is looking for pleasant, and friendly individuals with a sincere interest in voluntary services offered to patients, visitors, employees and guests. Meet new people and learn new experiences and challenges. Information: Kim Patterson at 814-0861 or kimpa@slhs.org, or visit the Volunteer Services Office, lower level at St. Lukes Magic Valley Medical Center; 801 Pole Line Road W., Twin Falls. Applications are available at the Front Information Desk. Volunteers The Fifth Judicial District CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) Program is seeking community volunteers to become advocates for abused children. Advocates receive training and support to investigate, report, monitor and advocate for children involved in the child protection system. Advocates are needed in all eight counties of the district, and the program needs volunteers in the Mini Cassia area. Information: Tahna, 208-735-1177. Drivers The American Cancer Society is looking for volunteer drivers for its Road to Recovery program in Twin Falls. Volunteers will drive patients to and from medical treatments. Commitment is flexible. Information: 1-800-227-2345. Volunteers The Twin Falls Senior Center has a ladies group (The Crazy Quilters), who are looking for individuals to put finishing touches on quilts as a group while socializing. The group meets from 9 a.m. to noon every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. All quilt project proceeds are given to the Twin Falls Senior Center. Information: 208-734-5084. TWIN FALLS An inmate charged with breaking out of his cell and holding another inmate hostage last month now faces 16 felony charges in connection to that incident and several others inside the Twin Falls County Jail, while prosecutors have revealed the hostage was originally an accomplice in the escape plot until he felt threatened. Cody William James Meade, 26, was originally arrested in May and charged with robbing an Oasis Stop N Go at gunpoint May 26. Since his arrest, hes racked up a slew of other felony charges allegedly committed in the jail. On Tuesday, prosecutors consolidated most of the new felonies into one case with 16 felony charges. Meade is now charged with six counts of injury to jail, four counts of spitting on detention deputies, two counts of assault on correctional officers and one count each of first-degree kidnapping, aggravated battery, rioting and escape by an inmate charged with a felony. The charges stem from incidents that occurred Nov. 16, Nov. 18, Nov. 22. Nov. 25, Dec. 5, Dec. 14, Dec. 18 and Dec. 20. The worst of the alleged incidents happened Dec. 5 when Meade broke out the window of his cell, climbed through it and used a broken mirror frame to take inmate Zane Murri hostage. Deputies were able to step in and rescue Murri when Meade tried to adjust the frame. In new court documents filed Tuesday, a sheriffs investigator revealed Murri was helping Meade before he broke out of his cell by distracting deputies and supplying Meade with items he needed to destroy his cell, like ripped portions of a bed sheet. Before breaking out of his cell, Meade allegedly broke a table and mirror that were both affixed to the wall and a speaker box that he later used to smash out his window and make his temporary escape, court documents said. Meade then used the jagged mirror frame to take Murri hostage. Murri at first appeared to find this event funny and (was) even smiling, Sgt. Kenneth Mencl wrote. But when Meade began threatening to cut Murri and the deputies, Murri looked scared and appeared to not want to be part of what was going on. An arraignment for Meade in December turned chaotic when he spit on deputies trying to restrain him and complained he couldnt breathe, and a prosecutor called him a hazard to everyone around him, including inmates incarcerated with him. Meade is set for trial in his original robbery case in February. Hes slated for a preliminary hearing Jan. 13 for the felonies hes accumulated in jail. TWIN FALLS The College of Southern Idaho is playing a key role in helping eastern Idaho residents further their education. At the request of state officials, the college has offered general education classes in subjects such as English in math in Idaho Falls since 2013. Now, CSI is helping in an advisory role for an initiative to transform Eastern Idaho Technical College in Idaho Falls into a community college. Its the last major population center in the Gem State without that offering. I believe in the value of higher education, CSI President Jeff Fox said Wednesday. I think eastern Idaho would benefit incredibly from a presence up there. The Bonneville County Elections Office last week certified 2,852 signatures for a petition proposing that Eastern Idaho Technical College be turned into a community college. Now, the State Board of Education will review the proposal and determine whether Eastern Idaho needs a community college. If approved, the initiative will proceed to the Bonneville County Commission, which will decide whether to place it on the ballot. The Idaho Falls Post Register reports Citizens for Affordable Higher Education, the group backing the effort, expects the measure to reach the May ballot. The groups spokesman says the College of Eastern Idaho would cost the average Bonneville County homeowner $13.37 per year. Bonneville residents would have access to cheaper tuition than non-residents. CSI executive vice president Todd Schwarz said he and other CSI officials have gotten questions about why theyre helping in eastern Idaho. Helping out is the right thing to do, he said. I very much believe in the community college function and mission, he said. Its a just a shame (eastern Idaho doesnt) have that over there. We want to help them build that. If a community college becomes a reality in eastern Idaho, CSI would consider what to do about its outreach center in Idaho Falls. We intend to stay there as long as we have students showing up who need these services, Schwarz said. But Fox said if a community college is launched in eastern Idaho, were no longer needed. Josh Sakelaris, director of CSIs Idaho Falls center, wasnt available to comment Wednesday because of a snow day campus closure. CSI leaders have met with business, government and education officials in Idaho Falls and surrounding communities several times to provide guidance on a model for a community college and how the process works. As a result, I think they gained some confidence and an idea that I think we can do this, Fox said. In a statement to the Times-News, Idaho Falls Mayor Rebecca Casper wrote a community college would help meet the needs of existing and future employers by providing highly trained, educated workers. If created, I fully expect a community college to have a meaningful and positive impact on the regions job market, she wrote. Casper wrote shes pleased about the quality of research and work done by a citizen study committee about whether a community college would be a good fit for eastern Idaho. Eastern Idaho Technical Colleges campus has the capacity to support many more students, she added, and can serve them affordably both in terms of tuition costs and property tax levy. Currently, the school only offers technical degrees. They have a few general education transfer classes, but theyre part of requirements for technical degrees such as welding. Its not the first time CSI has helped launch a community college. In 2008, CSI was the accreditation sponsor to help Idahos newest community college, College of Western Idaho in the Treasure Valley, get up and running. For more than three years, CSI employees ran business operations for CWI. That included awarding student financial aid, managing registrations and running the colleges bookstore. But its a completely different scenario for Eastern Idaho Technical College, Fox said. The school wont need an accreditation sponsor. Thats because it already has accreditation as a two-year technical school. Theres a significant advantage in eastern Idaho because it wouldnt be creating a college from scratch, Schwarz said. In order to become a community college and offer transfer courses, Fox said, a process to modify the eastern Idaho schools accreditation could take as little as six months. CSIs history in eastern Idaho When Jerry Beck was CSI president, the college had a legislative budget request for a couple of years to start an Idaho Falls center. But it wasnt approved by legislators. Fox became president in 2013 and sat down with state officials to say he wouldnt continue making the request if it wouldnt be funded. I was told not to take it off, he said. Legislators approved funding for an Idaho Falls center, including an administrator and office worker, during the 2013 legislative session. CSI began offering classes the following fall. Growing demand Enrollment in CSIs Idaho Falls classes is growing. Were just busy, Fox said. There were 229 enrollments during the 2015-16 school year. Thats the number of class enrollments, though not the total number of students. CSI is asking for funding this legislative session for two full-time faculty members in eastern Idaho. Currently, it relies solely on adjunct instructors. The region is home to Idaho State University in Pocatello, but CSI offers general education classes like English 101 at about half the price, Fox said. Thats what community colleges do: deliver lower-division transfer classes at an affordable price. CSI students pay $130 per credit. For students outside the colleges taxing district of Twin Falls and Jerome counties, their home county also chips in $50 per credit up to 10 credits or $500 per semester. I think theres a huge cost benefit to there being a community college (in Idaho Falls), Schwarz said. In her statement, Casper wrote Bonneville County residents will have a vigorous discussion about the benefits and costs of turning Eastern Idaho Technical College into a community college. I certainly believe there are substantial benefits, she wrote. But everyone who votes is going to have to determine whether or not these benefits justify the costs. GOODING A story in Sundays paper about the Idaho State Police and Jerome Rotary Club rallying to provide a special Christmas for a Gooding family after a fatal crash failed to include information about donations for the family. A fund has been established for Shauna Edwards and her children at Wells Fargo Bank. Those wishing to donate can do so at any Wells Fargo branch to account 7290573448 in the name of Shauna Edwards. The 33-year-old Gooding woman is in critical condition following a Dec. 19 crash on Interstate 84 that killed her husband, Joseph Edwards, 33, of Gooding. Joseph left behind three children, including two daughters he shared with Shauna and a son from another relationship. In the days before Christmas, ISP Sgt. Julie Donahue and Jerome Rotary Club president-elect Mike Pohanka helped deliver presents, gift cards and food to the children and the extended family members caring for them. James Lynn Black December 9, 1954 - December 31, 2016 JACKPOT, Nev. - James (Jim) Lynn Black, 62, was born December 9, 1954, to Harold and Betty Black in Milford, Utah. James and his family moved to Carlin, Nevada, when he was 11 years old where he attended school. After school, he worked for Carlin Gold and Freeport Gold, as an equipment operator. In 1974, Jim met his wife, Phyllis in Elko, Nevada, and they married a year later. He became an instant father to three young children. They lived in Elko until their move to Osino a few years later. Jim started his career in law enforcement in the Elko County Jail and transferred as a patrol deputy in Jackpot, Nevada. After 25 years, Jim retired from Elko County Sheriff Department and then went to work as a brand inspector for Elko County. Jim resided in Jackpot until his death.On New Year's Eve, at home with his wife by his side, Jim lost his fight with cancer. He is survived by his wife, Phyllis; his sons Marcus (Kelli) Mendive, Elko NV, Shannon (Amanda) Mendive, New Plymouth, ID; his sister, Audry Black-Smith, Reno, NV; his brother, Garyl Black, Springfield, Missouri; 8 grandchildren and 9 great-grandchildren.He was preceded in death by his parents, Betty and Harold Black; brother, Robert; and his beloved daughter, Shawna. There will be a Celebration of Life, January 14th at 2:00 pm at the Red Lion in Twin Falls, Idaho. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the American Caner Association in Jim Black's name. James Russell Nelson October 2, 1929 - December 26, 2016 Long time Magic Valley resident, James Russell Nelson, passed away early December 26th in his sleep. His daughters will miss him. Russell was born October 2, 1929 during the early morning hours in the home of an Oakley, Idaho midwife. He wasn't expected to live as he was born 2 months early and weighed only 2.5 pounds but 'every time I turned blue they used an oxygen welding tank and shot oxygen into my face until I turned pink, and I just kept living! The story is told that he fit nicely in a men's size 10-shoe box. He was the first-born child to Roscoe Newey and Alva Lind Nelson. Both the Linds and the Nelsons were LDS pioneering families, Russell was very proud to be of pioneer stock. By November 1939 Russell's 3 siblings Noel, Denise and Milo had joined the family. The young family lived in Junction Valley, Lynn Utah or on their grandfather's, James Horace Nelson, Jr, farm in Taylor, Utah. The Nelson family purchased the Bridge Ranch in 1941 and moved to the ranch near Jackpot, Nevada. The stories of growing up in Northern Nevada in the 1940's were like old west thrillers! Russell resided on the ranch until he left in 1950 to serve his country during the Korean Conflict in the Navy. Russell was trained as an airplane mechanic and assigned to the USS Antietam CV-36 for one tour of Korea. Following his Korean tour he was assigned as plane captain on the PBY Catalina and on a T 6 until he was Honorably Discharged in 1954 reaching the rank of 3rd Class Petty Officer. It was during this time that Russell developed his lifelong love of airplanes. He married his high school sweetheart Loyeda Fern Nelson (nee Marler) on May 27, 1951 in Yuma AZ. They were later sealed in the LDS Temple in Mesa AZ on May 14, 1955. After Russell's honorable discharge he and Loyeda moved to Jerome, Idaho and started dairy farming, moving on to Hunt, Idaho in 1965, where they farmed for 35 years. Russell loved dairy farming. He was fascinated by gravity flow irrigation and really never got used to the sound of pivots and sprinkler systems. Over the years Russell and Loyeda Nelson were joined by four daughters: Debra Ann (Joe) Sipiora of Casa Grande Arizona, Janice Fern (Mike) Shaw of Tomball, Texas, Mona Lynn Allen of Richland, Washington and Rusti Nelson of Seattle, Washington. Russell loved Loyeda, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, his family, Holstein cows, World War II history, and airplanes. Russell and Loyeda were parted only briefly by Loyeda's death on November 6, 2016. Other than military deployments, they were apart only 50 days during their 65 years of marriage. Now they are joined together in heaven. Russell is survived by his brother Noel (Virginia) Nelson of Mesa AZ and sister Denise McDonald of Escondido CA, with his brother Milo Lind Nelson passing in 2006, his four daughters, 13 grandchildren; 17 great-grandchildren and numerous nieces and nephews whom he loved dearly. A joint memorial service to celebrate Russell and Loyeda Nelson's lives will be held in April 2017 with internment at Sunset Memorial Park, Twin Falls Idaho. We will be posting notices of the memorial in the Spring for all of the family and friends in the Twin Falls Area. We will invite all to share stories of their remarkable life. TWIN FALLS A winter storm with white-out conditions settled over the Magic Valley on Wednesday, bringing crashes, widespread closures across the area and warnings from police to avoid traveling. Drifting snow left many roads impassable. Law enforcement and search-and-rescue crews planned to work through the night to help stranded drivers but asked that residents stay off the roads unless absolutely imperative. More than a foot of snow fell in the mountains and up to 10 inches covered valley cities by evening. Snow was expected to fall through Thursday morning, and as it moved out of the area, a system of brittle cold temperatures was expected to follow, said Wasyl Hewko from the National Weather Service in Boise. The high is expected to top out at 11 degrees, dropping to -9 degrees overnight. Windchills could be as low as 16 below zero. Temperatures are expected to rise slightly beginning Saturday morning when the next snowstorm moves through the area and then rise dramatically after that storm passes through and warm air fills in from the southwest. On Wednesday, schools and government buildings across the Magic Valley closed early or never opened at all while law enforcement answered a constant stream of calls for help from drivers stranded in snow drifts. Police scanner traffic indicated about 5 p.m. that 30 to 40 cars were stuck in snow drifts on Idaho 50 alone. While many schools announced closures on Thursday, most city and county offices planned to reopen at 8 a.m. if weather permitted. Meanwhile, trained water department crews assisted street crews in the city of Twin Falls as they worked around the clock to clear the roadways. We have all eight (snow plows) out running on 15-hour shifts with a two-hour break, city spokesman Joshua Palmer said. The break time was used to repair the plows, and the city was rotating staff on shifts. The city was also using small plows and tractors to clear drifts and emergency entryways. Theyll continue running all eight plows throughout the night, Palmer said. The Idaho Transportation Department was also using every available resource Wednesday with 65 snow plows clearing state roads from the Nevada border to the Stanley Basin and Glenns Ferry to Mini-Cassia. This is a different type of storm, ITD spokesman Nathan Jerke said, adding that it was pushing our reserves more so than weve seen in several years. The storm had dropped about 4 inches of snow by 3 p.m., Hewko said. It was expected to drop another one to two inches Wednesday evening. NWS employees in Boise were monitoring a possible record-breaking snow accumulation on the ground the record was 13 inches, but Hewko said they expected 13 or 14 inches of accumulated snow by the time the storm passed. Avoid broken pipes Prolonged cold weather increases the risk for damage to water lines and meters. The city provided these tips to avoid broken waterlines. Leave a small trickle of water running from a faucet to prevent frozen meters. The most common cause of blocked or broken waterlines in the city of Twin Falls during winter months is a frozen water meter, a city statement said. This is often the result of a home being vacant, or when the residents leave the home for several days. Residents should also ensure that lids to water meters are closed and exterior access to crawl spaces are covered. Aside from frozen water meters, the second largest cause of blocked or broken waterlines in homes is in crawl spaces where cold air can pass through. Insulate and cover any exposed or exterior pipes and faucets. Pipes and faucets on the outside of homes are especially vulnerable to freezing. Exterior pipes and faucets can be easily insulated with heat tape and faucet covers that are available at most hardware stores. Call Twin Falls Utility Services at 208-735-7249 or 208-735-7249 if you have issues with water delivery. After normal business hours or on weekends, call 208-735-4357. ? - , . , ? Some foreign observers are alarmed the Philippines is being locked in the embrace of the Russian bear and the Chinese dragon. This was after the recent ports of call by Russian vessels at the South Harbor and President Rodrigo Dutertes plan to hold military exercises between Filipino and Russian troops even as he threatened to scrap the same war games between the Philippines and the United States. The US-PHL Balikatan war exercises are held annually under the Mutual Defense treaty, Visiting Forces Agreement and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement between the two countries. The three defense agreements are sanctioned and signed by officials of both governments. Is the planned Philippine-Russian war exercises covered by such official agreements? There are now concerns President Duterte has delivered the country into the hands of the Russian bear and the fire-breathing Chinese dragon. In the light of Chinese encroachment and military buildup in the South China Sea, the Philippines has become even more vulnerable without the US defense umbrella. US State Department spokesman John Kirby, however, downplayed news of the Moscow-Manila defense cooperation, saying the US bilateral relations with the Philippines remain strong. Along with the recent development, the US announced the deployment of patrol boats in the South China Sea. The US boats will sail in international waters but close to the artificial islands the Chinese built to install naval stations including an airstrip. The US deployment is meant to keep free vital international shipping lanes in the South China Sea. The SCS is a flashpoint in the region owing to the simmering territorial dispute among China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Taiwan. With the Russkies coming in, the South China Sea is going to be more crowded. A volatile situation arising from a miscalculation and a collision of ships of the three military powers cannot be ruled out. ADVERTISEMENT So what happens to the US pivot to Asia and its rebalancing of forces to remain a Pacific power? The Philippine president, as seen by international observers, might have just thrown a monkey wrench to Americas grandiose Pacific plan. Against this looming perfect storm in the South China, we have to hear from Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. The formulation of foreign policy more or less emanates from the executive. But it is expected that our foreign secretary at least has a hand in its conceptualization and formulation of foreign policy that redounds to the benefit of the country instead of delivering us to the barbarians at the gates. Money problems As if it were not enough that the country has to deal with external and internal threats, the government also has to cope with expenditures. President Dutertes plan to raise the salary of soldiers and policemen, along with the monthly pension of retirees, has come into money problems. Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno tried to defend the President saying Mr. Duterte cannot be held down to his promise during the election campaign. The realities, Diokno, said is that there are not enough funds and to raise the pension would bankrupt the Social Security System in the long run. Why didnt the Presidents financial advisers factor in the cost and contribution of workers into SSS coffers? In the insurance business, this is done by experts called actuaries. They project the life span of beneficiaries vis-a-vis the monthly premium paid by the insured. That is the problem with recycled Cabinet members like Diokno who served as budget secretary in the administration of former President Joseph Estrada. Instead of thinking out of the box, they are straitjacketed by old-school practice. Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. Tunisian security authorities have stepped up investigations and arrests as authorities face returns of jihadists who fought abroad in the ranks of terrorist groups including al Qaeda and the Islamic State group (IS). Seven terror cells have been dismantled so far this week, the interior ministry announced Wednesday in a statement. The latest cell dismantled operated near Sousse, a town situated in the East of the country. The 13-member cell used to hold secret meetings in a mosque. The members, aged between 22 and 42, also indulged in the recruitment of young Tunisians for the benefit of terrorist groups abroad, in conflict zones, the ministry said. The cell busted at Hergla, North of Sousse also admitted it was in contact with leader of a terror group known as Okba Ibn Nafaa, active in the countrys western mountains and linked to al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Seventy people have been arrested since December 25 for terrorism related acts, the ministry further indicated. Tunisia is gearing up to face the return of countrys citizens who are fighting abroad. It has been reported that round 5,000 Tunisians have left the country to join terrorist groups in hotbed conflict zone, such as Libya, Syria and Iraq. The government has charted out a plan of action to tackle the issue. Interior Minister last month during a hearing in parliament indicated that 800 Tunisian jihadists have made their way back home. He said his ministry is prepared to handle the would-be returnees. Seventeen Algerian nationals are branded as high value targets in a confidential document of French Directorate of Military Intelligence published lately by le Monde Daily. The list of seventeen Algerians most wanted by the French security services includes Mokhtar Belmokhtar, leaders of of Al Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQMI), the extremist group Ansar Eddine, and the Movement for Unity and Jihad in Africa West (Mujao). The list also includes the names of some terrorists who were reportedly killed such as Abdelwahab Al-Harrachi, Omar Ould Hamaha (Mokhtar Belmokhtars father-in-law), the Emir of Al-Mourabitoune, Abu Bakr Al-Nasr, Ahmed Al-Tilemsi, Abdelkrim Al-Twargui. According to Algerian authorities, nearly 55,000 people have been accused of committing terrorist offenses since the countrys bloody civil war of the 1990s which claimed 200,000 lives. The brutal conflict broke out between armed Islamist groups and security forces after the army canceled a 1992 election that Islamist politicians were poised to win. It ended when Algerians voted in a referendum in September 2005 to approve a reconciliation deal that led to 15,000 Islamists being pardoned in exchange for surrendering. Algeria has sentenced hundreds of people to death. Groups affiliated to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) remain active in the northeast where they carry out regular attacks on the security forces. Authorities have also reported attacks by the Jund al-Khilafa extremist movement which is linked to the ISIS. Chicken will be the best-positioned protein due to its low price position in times of pressure on consumer spending power but rises in production costs and the long-term impact of COVID-19 threaten to disrupt the sector, according to Rabobank. The head of Gambias main election watchdog has fled the country due to threats he received after declaring the results of the recent presidential election in the West African nation. Alieu Momar Njai, Chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) had earlier vowed to defend the validity of the results he declared on December 2 last year. He was forced out of his office by security officials on December 13. The premises were however vacated by the security recently with the government ordering employees of the IEC to go back to work. They cited an imminent plot to burn down the building as reason for the occupation. Family members and local media said on Tuesday that Alieu Momar Njai, had left the country for an unidentified place. The escape comes a little over two weeks before the Gambia is to inaugurate President-elect Adama Barrow. Adama Barrow, a former real estate agent, defeated Jammeh by a marginal difference in the December 1, 2016 election. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) warned that they could use military power to push Jammeh out of office. Jammeh called that decision a declaration of war and accused the African leaders of trying to undermine the sovereignty of the Gambia. A radio station deemed to be critical of the Jammeh administration has also been shut down by the Gambian National Intelligence Agency (NIA) last Sunday. Nigerian state run National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has awarded its 2017 crude oil term contracts to 39 companies on Tuesday. NNPC said in a statement that 18 Nigerian owned companies, 11 international trading houses, 5 foreign refineries; three foreign state-owned companies and two trading arms of the NNPC Group were selected after a transparent bid. A total 224 firms submitted bids for the contract to purchase and lift Nigerian crude oil grades for the 2016/2017 season, the corporation General Manager, Maikanti Baru said. He said the decision to announce the winners reflected NNPCs commitment to transparency. Well ensure transparency and fairness in the process, Baru said in a statement. It said the contracts, worth a total of more than $72 million per day at Tuesdays crude prices of around $55.60 per barrel, were each for 32,000 barrels per day (bpd), apart from Duke Oil Ltd, an NNPC Group subsidiary, which was for 90,000 bpd. Chinas Sinopec and Indias Indian Oil Corp were among the winners, as were international firms including the trading arms of BP and Total and trading houses Litasco and Glencore. However, some notable companies which featured in the contracts for 2016 and 2015 like Shell, Eni, ExxonMobil, Taleveras, Aiteo, Mercuria and Refiner Saras were not selected. Zambia mine workers at the Indian mining giant Vedanta Resources have started indefinite strike over the pace of wage talks, a union official said on Wednesday. The day shift workers have not entered the plant, they are protesting the slow pace of salary negotiations, National Union of Mine and Allied Workers (NUMAW) trustee Jonathan Musukwa told Reuters. Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) is one of Zambias largest copper producers and one of the largest private sector employers in the country, with operations in four locations, namely Chingola, Chililabombwe, Kitwe and Nampundwe. The strike of the workers comes barely a week after the mining giant has been directed by London High Court to pay $100 million to a state-owned Zambian investment company related to a 2013 copper price agreement. Vedantas Konkola Copper Mines said the issue was related to the copper price participation deal with Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines Investments Holdings (ZCCM-IH) and the court decision is a request for it to resolve the matter within 28 days. If and to the extent it is determined that such payments were made, ZCCM-IH will be entitled to recover additional sums from KCM, the court said. A clinician/scientist, who studies ways to make cord-blood transplants for leukemia and lymphoma patients safer and more effective, recently reported a new finding in the journal Blood. An accompanying editorial called the research "a breath of fresh air" for overcoming barriers to make this a viable option for many patients. Omar Aljitawi, M.D., associate professor of Hematology/Oncology at UR Medicine's Wilmot Cancer Institute, conducted a small clinical trialthe first human trial of its kindand discovered the importance of a hormone called erythropoietin (EPO), for effective umbilical cord blood transplants. Lowering EPO levels in people aids in a process known as homing, where newly transplanted blood stem cells migrate properly to the bone marrow of the patient and begin to restore the body's ability to make healthy blood and immune cells. Umbilical cord blood is a rich source of stem cells for transplantation for patients lacking a matched donor and accordingly, these results are particularly important for underrepresented minorities, Aljitawi said. But the challenge is: Cord blood takes longer to home to the bone marrow, and fewer cells reach their target. Researchers have been investigating strategies to correct these limits. Aljitawi's goal was to understand the cellular signals that regulate blood cell homing to improve cord-blood engraftment, which led him to blocking the EPO-EPO receptor signaling to improve the transplant process. In the clinical trial involving 15 patients researchers blocked EPO signaling by delivering hyperbaric oxygen therapy first to cancer patients before the cord-blood transplant. The oxygen therapy involves a patient entering a specialized chamber and breathing 100 percent oxygen. The study found this method was safe and well-tolerated by patients, and that it lowered EPO levels. Compared to other patients who had not received oxygen therapy, the clinical trial volunteers also recovered their blood counts earlier and became independent from blood transfusions earlier in their course of recovery. Aljitawi recently joined the Wilmot faculty, although he led the cord-blood research at his prior laboratory at the University of Kansas, including preclinical studies in mice. He's developing a phase II study in Rochester to further explore the use of hyperbaric oxygen in umbilical cord blood transplantation. More information: O. S. Aljitawi et al. Erythropoietin modulation is associated with improved homing and engraftment after umbilical cord blood transplantation, Blood (2016). Journal information: Blood O. S. Aljitawi et al. Erythropoietin modulation is associated with improved homing and engraftment after umbilical cord blood transplantation,(2016). DOI: 10.1182/blood-2016-05-715292 The microphotograph shows numerous immune suppressive cells in green and yellow, infiltrating the tumor mass (tumor cells in white). By depleting these immune suppressive cells, immunotherapy becomes much more effective. Credit: University of Michigan "Devastating" and "dismal." That's how leading researchers describe the present outlook for malignant brain tumors. The median survival rate for patients with glioblastoma multiforme, or GBM, is a mere 14.2 months. New research out of the University of Michigan supports combining two approaches to fight back against gliomas: attacking the tumor with gene therapy while enhancing the immune system's ability to fight it, too. The paper was recently published in Molecular Therapy, the official journal of the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy. "We hope the implementation of our gene therapy strategy for gliomas, used in combination with immune checkpoint blockade, will eventually provide successful treatment for patients with this devastating brain cancer," says Maria Castro, Ph.D., co-senior author and U-M professor of neurosurgery and cell and developmental biology. Interrupting the cancer cells' plan Tumors escape from the fighter T-cells that would otherwise attack them, by tricking the immune system and making an environment ripe for tumor growth. The goal of cancer immunotherapy, with several treatment options now approved by the FDA, is to spark the immune system back into action. Once the immune cells recognize the cancer cells, they're empowered to attack and kill them. "Immune checkpoint inhibitors amplify T-cell responses and are currently being tested in the clinic to increase T-cell-mediated tumor killing," says Pedro Lowenstein, M.D., Ph.D., co-senior author. The U-M team used immune checkpoint blockade combined with gene therapy to block the cancer cells from hijacking the host immune system. Researchers report the accumulation of immunosuppressive cells, MDSCs, within the glioma environment is one of the ways glioblastomas block the immune system. The team also set out to deplete the large supply of MDSCs, and to explore whether that would allow immune-mediated gene therapy to eradicate glioblastoma in mouse models. "For the first time, we proved that a type of immunosuppressive cells within the tumor environment play a major role in determining the impact of immunotherapies," Castro says. Addition of gene therapy Castro and Lowenstein's team combined the immune checkpoint blockade approach with gene therapy. This entailed injecting adenovirus vectors carrying herpes simplex 1 thymidine kinase into the tumor, followed by an antiviral, to elicit tumor cell death. This was used in combination with another adenovirus vector carrying an immune stimulatory protein, cytokine, to recruit immune cells into the tumor. Researchers found the gene therapy approach had stronger results when used in combination with either depletion of immunosuppressive cells from the tumor mass or with immune checkpoint blockade. A formidable pair Castro and Lowenstein's team used what's called the "Sleeping Beauty" technique to insert mutated genes known to be involved in cancer into stem cells in the brains of newborn mice. These cancer stem cells were used to create preclinical models relevant to human glioblastoma. "We report much higher therapeutic efficacy in preclinical brain tumor models using the combination of both therapies, leading to an increase in median survival," Lowenstein says. "This effect is not seen with either approach on its own." Testing the approach "Our work has shown that overcoming brain tumor-induced immune suppression is critical for enhancing efficacy of anti-tumor immunotherapies," says first author Neha Kamran, Ph.D., a U-M neurosurgery research fellow in the Castro/Lowenstein Lab. "This knowledge will help us in guiding the development of immunotherapies for patients with this dismal disease." Implementation is straightforward, the authors say. It would involve gene therapy delivered at the time of surgery and systemic delivery of the immune checkpoint inhibitors, such as through IV injection. A clinical trial is active at U-M in adults with glioblastoma, testing a combination approach with a different form of immunosuppressive treatment. And immune checkpoint inhibitors have FDA approval and continue to rise in popularity, although they are cost-prohibitive for many patients who are not part of a trial that provides the medication. Patients also have to deal with side effects of a very active immune system such as rashes and diarrhea. Castro hopes these recent advances will mean a quick progression toward submission for FDA approval of her team's novel combination approach. More information: "Immunosuppressive Myeloid Cells' Blockade in the Glioma Microenvironment Enhances the Efficacy of Immune-Stimulatory Gene Therapy," Molecular Therapy. DOI: 10.1016/j.ymthe.2016.10.003 Journal information: Molecular Therapy "Immunosuppressive Myeloid Cells' Blockade in the Glioma Microenvironment Enhances the Efficacy of Immune-Stimulatory Gene Therapy," Mario Otto, MD, PhD, (right) leads research on processes used in immunotherapy in his lab. Credit: University of Wisconsin-Madison Four decades ago, researchers at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health had the right ideato pursue a theory that they could harness patients' own immune systems to fight and defeat cancer. Their perseverance and hard work are paying off, as they've recently made great strides in cellular immunotherapy, along with colleagues in myriad medical fields. "It's an exciting time for our teamand especially for Dr. Paul Sondel and me because we've been working on this for a long time," reflects Ken DeSantes, MD, professor, School of Medicine and Public Health Department of Pediatrics, and director, Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplant Program, American Family Children's Hospital. "Forty years ago, we didn't understand enough about how the immune system works, nor about how cancer cells can thwart the immune system, for us to make immunotherapy work. We felt vindicated when we were able to mastermind how to get the immune system to attack cancer." A dedicated army of UW-Madison researchers is perfecting the use of immunotherapy. Ken DeSantes, MD; Paul Sondel, MD, PhD '75 (PG '80); Peiman Hematti, MD; Christian Capitini, MD; Mario Otto, MD, PhD; Douglas McNeel, MD, PhD; Jacques Galipeau, MD; and many others synergistically have combined forces around the newest frontier in the war on cancer and other diseases. "This field is changing so fast that it's hard to keep up. A lot of it sounds like science fiction, but this is very real," notes Capitini, assistant professor, Department of Pediatrics, who is investigating novel therapies, particularly chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy for refractory acute lymphocytic leukemia. CAR-T cell therapy uses a patient's T cells that researchers have reprogrammed to express the chimeric antigen receptor, whichto treat leukemiahunts down and destroys cells that express a CD19 antigen. The therapy is offered at just a handful of academic research centers. "CAR-T cell therapy will be evaluated in 2017 by the Food and Drug Administration. Approval would be an important advance in immunotherapy for patients with relapsed leukemia because they have no good options. Many people, particularly under-represented minorities, don't have donor matches for bone marrow transplants," explains Capitini. Hematti adds, "In my opinion, CAR-T cell therapy is one of the most exciting developments in cancer treatment and potentially a game-changer for the field of cellular immunotherapy." The medical director of the University Hospital Clinical Hematopoietic Cell Processing Laboratory and a professor in the School of Medicine and Public Health Department of Medicine, Hematti calls the method "cellular immunotherapy 2.0" because it's a huge improvement over standard bone marrow transplants with a matched donor. Instead, these advances allow experts to collect a patient's immune cells and re-engineer them before infusing them back into the patienteliminating the risk of some side effects, such as graft versus host disease (GVHD). Aiming to outsmart potentially lifethreatening side effects of CAR-T cell therapy, such as cytokine release syndrome, UW-Madison researchers are tackling this next challenge, too. Through a National Science Foundation grant, Capitini and co-principal investigators Kris Saha, PhD, and David Beebe, PhD '94, are exploring ways to improve the manufacturing of CAR-T cells to make them safer and more effective. Saha is an assistant professor of biomedical engineering, and Beebe is a professor of biomedical engineering in the UW-Madison College of Engineering. Similarly, Hematti recently received an award from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation's Accelerator Program to extend a line of research that could further optimize CAR-T cell therapies. This workconducted by Debra Bloom, PhD, in Hematti's labwas originally supported by the Crystal Carney Fund in Leukemia Research and the Don Anderson GVHD Fund. Additionally, cancer immunotherapy and GVHD-countering innovations have been discovered, in part, in Otto's lab. An assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Otto and collaborators created a technology that selectively removes GVHD-causing alpha beta T cells from blood-derived stem cell grafts, but retains important immune cells along with stem cells. This allows just the carefully selected cells to be infused back into the patient. Otto is leading a related Phase 1 clinical trial that involves a haploidentical stem cell transplant for pediatric patients who have relapsed solid tumors or leukemia. In this trial, the patient's immune system is destroyed with high-dose chemotherapy; stem cells and immune cells (the graft) are obtained from a half-matched donor (usually a parent or adult sibling, eliminating the need to search for an unrelated donor); and the alpha beta T cells are removed from the graft using the technology co-developed by Otto. This process calls upon magnetic beads that attach to a protein so a magnet can remove the tagged cells. When the immune cell graft is infused into the patient, the cells can immediately attack cancer and decrease the risk of life-threatening infectionsa critical factor for these highly immunocompromised patients. About 10 to 14 days after receiving the graft, the new stem cells begin making blood and immune cells that destroy cancer. "Seven months after treatment, the first patient in the trial shows no signs of cancer. This patient had neuroblastoma, a deadly childhood cancer," says Otto. "We consider him disease-free, but it is still too early to say this treatment is curative. Nevertheless, we are very encouraged by patients' quick recovery in the trial so far." DeSantes, the patient's oncologist, recalls, "Ten years ago, we had no meaningful treatments to offer. These children would have needed hospice care." Hematti points to a similar clinical trial being conducted by Vaishalee P. Kenkre, MD, assistant professor, Department of Medicine. "My trial uses alpha beta T cell and CD19 B cell depletion with haploidentical donors. The trial is open to adults with relapsed/ refractory lymphoma," explains Kenkre. "There is virtually no data on this cellprocessing mechanism in adult lymphoma patients, and we're not aware of this type of study happening anywhere else. We are excited about having this option for patients who otherwise do not have viable options." UW Carbone Cancer Center's pediatric immunotherapy efforts have resulted in the development of several investigator-initiated trials, offering therapies available only at American Family Children's Hospital and UW Health, as well as participation in multicenter "Pediatric Oncology Dream Team" studies. That alliance represents unique collaborations across multiple disciplines at eight U.S. and Canadian academic medical centers. It was created in 2013 when Stand Up to Cancer, the American Association for Cancer Research and St. Baldrick's Foundation established a four-year grant. Another novel clinical trial will begin in early 2017 at all eight Dream Team sites. DeSantes will lead the trial at all sites, investigating the role of an antibody targeting the B7-H3 "checkpoint" molecule, which is expressed on the surface of many pediatric cancers. This genetically engineered antibody, MGA-271, activates tumordestroying Natural Killer (NK) cells that are programmed to eradicate cancer cells and prevents B7-H3 from dampening the immune response to cancer cells. "Our bodies contain immune cells that kill bacteria and viruses, but if the immune system is active all the time, it can get out of control and attack healthy cells," says DeSantes. "It's sometimes necessary to dampen down the immune response, so a number of checks and balances are built into the system." Yet, some cancer cells can co-opt that system by over-expressing checkpoint molecules and telling the immune system to stop its attack. MGA-271 binds and blocks the checkpoint molecules and allows the immune system to recognize that the signal has been activated, in turn letting the immune system destroy the cancer. This type of checkpoint blockade figures into two other potential clinical trials that cause great excitement for Sondel, the Reed and Carolee Walker Professor in Pediatric Oncology. One of the trials, which could open for melanoma patients in spring 2017 with leadership from Mark Albertini, MD (PG '87, '91), professor, Department of Medicine, and Zach Morris, MD, PhD (PG '12), assistant professor, Department of Human Oncology, will combine a dose of radiationtoo small to shrink a tumor but large enough to stimulate immune cells with a separate antibody that recognizes cancer cells and serves as a checkpoint blockade. The combination has cured mice with large tumors. A similar trial, also to start in spring 2017 for children with high-risk neuroblastoma, will be led by Sondel and DeSantes; it includes a collaboration with hospitals in London; Southampton, United Kingdom; and Greifswald, Germany. In separate work that lays the foundation for simpler, more cost-effective immunotherapy, Douglas McNeel, MD, PhD, professor, Department of Medicine, and director, Solid Tumor Immunology, UW Carbone Cancer Center, has been investigating T cell-activating therapies, or vaccines, as treatments for prostate cancer. The concept with this approach is generating tumor-fighting immune cells directly, without having to prepare them in the laboratory and infuse them back into patients. Over the past 15 years, McNeel and his team have conducted several clinical trials with two vaccines that are currently in testing at the Carbone Cancer Center and elsewhere in the United States. Cellular immunotherapy has been remarkable for cancer treatment, and School of Medicine and Public Health experts are taking it far beyond cancer. For instance, Hematti is working with Dixon Kaufman, MD, PhD, the Ray D. Owen Professor and chief, Division of Transplantation, Department of Surgery, on a novel cellular immunotherapy using donor stem cells. "We take stem cells from a kidney donor and do a stem cell transplant after the kidney transplant," says Hematti, adding that findings could lead toward eliminating the patients' need for immunosuppression drugs after solid organ transplantation. The research is rapidly moving from animal models toward human clinical trials, both supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health. Hematti and Kaufman are collaborating with scientists at Stanford University to make this treatment a reality for patients at UW Health. Through the UW-Madison Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center, Hematti also has worked for more than a decade with Amish Raval, MD, associate professor, Department of Medicine, on cardioimmunotherapy. Recently, the duo has focused on using immune cells, specifically macrophages, to repair cardiac damage in animal models, and they hope to move their research into human clinical trials soon. Whether it's for cancer treatment, organ transplants or cardiac tissue repair, cellular immunotherapy is exploding. "Today, immunotherapy is approved as a first-line treatment for adult patients with widespread melanoma, lung cancer and several other forms of high-risk cancers in adults and children," says Sondel. He predicts that within the next 10 years, treatment of nearly all cancers that are not being cured by surgery alone will integrate immunotherapy. Sondel knows that concept will take intense teamwork over time but states that the School of Medicine and Public Health and UW Carbone Cancer Center have world-class reputations for research being done by outstanding faculty who collaborate internally and throughout the nationand they are making great strides in the fight against deadly diseases. Just two months ago, Marcus was drinking up to seven bottles of wine a night and regularly blacking out, sometimes finding himself in police custody. Now he is taking part in a cutting-edge Ketamine for reduction of Alcoholic Relapse (KARE) trial at the University of Exeter which is currently recruiting people to be involved. Funded by the Medical Research Council, the trial is examining whether a low dose of the drug ketamine in combination with therapy and regular monitoring of participants' alcohol levels via an ankle device, can help reduce high levels of relapse to alcholism. The trial follows preliminary evidence that the approach can halve the numbers of alcoholics who relapse. Marcus has stayed sober over the difficult Christmas and New Year period, and he is optimistic that he will beat the habit for good. After starting the trial at the beginning of December, Marcus, 47 and from Exmouth in Devon, has stayed voluntarily clean for the first time in 30 years. He said: "I've taken part in therapy so many times before, and I've always relapsed. It's never felt like it would stick. This time, there seems to be something about the combination of factors that is really helping. "Often it starts with just one or two drinks when I'm feeling low, and then I feel guilty so I drink more, and before you know it, it's a full binge. I know it's early days but this feels different. I'm confident I'm going to remain sober for the rest of my life." Participants in the trial receive a low-dose of ketamine by injection once a week for three weeks in conjunction with seven 90 minute sessions of psychological therapy. A control group will receive the same amount of therapy but be given an injection of saline solution instead of ketamine so that the researchers can compare the results. The trial is still in its early stages and results cannot be determined until all participants have taken part and follow-up has taken place, but for Marcus it is the start of a transformation from the depths of alcoholism over the last three decades. Starting as a social drinker, Marcus and friends began boozing at home in his mid 20s, when they could not afford to go to the pub, and the levels of intake began to rise. Before long, his drinking had broken his marriage and was disrupting his employment. He got casual work in security, but lost jobs when he went binging on payday. He ended up homeless, sleeping on the streets. "I've sold possessions to buy alcohol I've cashed in TVs so I can get drunk, and I've been in prison three times for drink driving. I'm not proud of it," he said. In one recent episode, Marcus bought a car and drove to Wales to visit his mother's grave all while so inebriated that he had no memory of any of it. "I came to in custody the police could have told me I'd stolen a Jumbo jet and I've had had to accept it." he said. "I have no recollection whatsoever." Marcus is relived that nobody has ever been physically hurt during his binges, and he is now working to turn his life around. Now, he has a home after owners of a bed and breakfast he was placed in by social services befriended him and sought him out when their lodging became free. He has a year-old relationship, and accompanies his girlfriend Sharon on missions to feed the homeless in Exeter. Sharon said: "He's such a lovely guy with a huge heart. On one trip, a young homeless woman was asking for a hoody, but we didn't have one in our bag. Marcus took his off and gave it to her. I could really see the potential in him." The study aims to recruit 96 recently abstinent volunteers with severe alcohol use disorder, a condition which affects nearly four million people in the UK, often with devastating consequences. Volunteers must not be users of illegal drugs. Celia Morgan, Professor of Psychopharmacology at the University of Exeter, is working with University College London and Imperial College London on the KARE trial, which is currently recruiting in South West England and London. She said: "Marcus's story shows how social drinking can escalate to an addiction that can ruin lives. As many people give up alcohol for January, it is an ideal time to raise awareness of these issues. We hope this trial will allow us to examine whether ketamine, combined with therapy, can indeed help people stay abstinent from alcohol". Previous studies in mice suggest ketamine could produce changes in our brains that make it easier to make new connections and learn new things in the short-term. The team hope this could make the sessions of psychological therapy more effective. All participants are asked to wear a device on their ankle that will monitor their alcohol intake over the following six months by measuring their sweat levels. A pilot study found that three doses of ketamine in conjunction with psychological therapy reduced average 12 month relapse rates from 76 per cent to 34 per cent. It is thought that ketamine's antidepressant properties could contribute towards this reduction. When used in a controlled environment, ketamine is a safe drug and it is not addictive. It is commonly used as an anaesthetic in medicine but when used as an anaesthetic, the dose - which is often given several times over a much shorter period - is much higher than will be used in this particular study. Participants may experience some effects such as changes in their vision and hearing during the infusion of ketamine, but any changes should be mild and people in other studies given similar doses have not found them to be unpleasant. To find out more about the trial, including information on getting involved, visit the website. Follow Professor Celia Morgan's seven top tips for a successful dry January: Take it one day at a time Try and think of other activities you like doing that don't involve drinking, e.g. exercising, doing something creative, socialising somewhere that doesn't serve alcohol Identify times when it will be particularly difficult for you to avoid alcohol, such as dinner parties or after work. Plan in advance how you are going to handle these situations/ What you will do instead of drinking alcohol? Plan little rewards for yourself along the way when you pass certain milestones - one day, one week - like cooking a nice dinner or having a relaxing bath If you think you use alcohol to relax, try other methods of relaxation like self-hypnosis or meditation Get support sign up to Alcohol Concern's Dry January page If you are really struggling with your drinking, and think it is out of control and having a very negative effect on your life, contact your local alcohol services. (HealthDay)Physician participation in meaningful use is associated with improvement in colorectal cancer screening, but is not associated with improvement in other quality measures, according to a study published online Dec. 23 in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. Hye-Young Jung, Ph.D., from the Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, and colleagues conducted a retrospective cohort study involving 303,110 Medicare fee-for-service enrollees from New York State. The authors examined the impact of outpatient physicians' participation in meaningful use on the quality of care. The researchers observed no correlation between physician participation in the meaningful use initiative and decreases in ambulatory care sensitive condition-related hospitalizations or emergency department visits (both 0.0 percentage points), relative to the comparison group. Participation in meaningful use correlated with increased odds of colorectal cancer screening (odds ratio, 1.2; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.1 to 1.4), but not with diabetic retinopathy screening (odds ratio, 1.1; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.0 to 1.2), diabetic nephropathy screening (odds ratio, 1.0; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.8 to 1.2), or influenza vaccinations (odds ratio, 1.1; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.0 to 1.2), relative to the comparison group. In secondary analyses of dually-eligible beneficiaries participating in both Medicare and Medicaid the results were similar. "Physician participation in meaningful use was not associated with substantial improvements on six quality measures," the authors write. One author disclosed financial ties to NaviHealth. Copyright 2016 HealthDay. All rights reserved. US President Barack Obama called on congressional Democrats Wednesday to "fight" to preserve his signature health care reform, with its future in doubt as Donald Trump's incoming administration vowed a swift repeal of the controversial law. Obamacare, the fruit of an eight-year drive to extend medical coverage to tens of millions of Americans, will come under sustained assault when Trump takes office on January 20 with Republican majorities in both chambers of Congress. But the debate over US health care began in earnest Wednesday at the highest levels, with Obama and Vice President-elect Mike Pence making duelling visits to Capitol Hill to urge their legislative foot soldiers to gird for battle. "I envy you for the opportunity you are going to have to engage in this fight to protect health care for the American people," the outgoing president told Senate and House Democrats, according to Senator Ed Markey, who attended the 100-minute meeting. After a crushing election loss, Democrats may have limited options for stalling a repeal of Obamacare without significant Republican defections. They also face criticism that Obama's reforms have led to rising insurance premiums and a string of technical problems. But certain elements of Obamacare remain popular, notably the provisions barring companies from refusing coverage due to pre-existing conditions and allowing children to retain coverage on family plans through age 26. Repeal and then what? Republican opposition in general to Obamacare is clear"They broke the health care system," House Speaker Paul Ryan said of Obama's administrationbut his party's prescription to fix it is not. Ryan has proposed a tax credit system as a possible replacement, but the costs to government and individuals remain vague. The White House is betting that American voters will revolt if Trump moves to strip millions of their coverage with no viable alternativeforcing the incoming president to confront the most radical reformers within his own party. While Pence addressed the issue gingerly in Congress, he stressed that Trump would make the process of repealing the Affordable Care Act one of the administration's top priorities. "The first order of business is to repeal and replace Obamacare," Pence told reporters in the US Capitol shortly after meeting with House Republicans. But Trump himself cautioned against over-hasty action. "Republicans must be careful in that the Dems own the failed ObamaCare disaster," the president-elect said on Twitter, warning Republicans to allow it to "fall of its own weight." While urging a full repeal of the law, Ryan also said Republicans should avoid putting millions of families in further financial jeopardy by gutting Obamacare without a viable alternative in place. "We've got to fix this by replacing it with something better. In that transition, we want to make sure we don't pull the rug out from anybody," he said. One Republican lawmaker, Chris Collins, said the party was looking at a six-month timeline for crafting an Obamacare alternative. Other Republicans said that was far too ambitious. Senator John McCain expressed confidence that fellow Republicans would be able to forge a replacement plan to go along with legislative repeal action. "We'll be doing both," McCain said. "We'll know what the replacement is." Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has already launched the legislative process for repeal, welcomed Pence to lunch with all Senate Republicans after his House huddle. Pence, addressing reporters afterward, provided no details on the replacement plan being crafted by his party. But "the architecture of the replacement of Obamacare will come together, as it should, through the legislative process in the weeks and months ahead," he said. 'A little queasy' Republican legislators are eager to take charge after eight years spent fighting against Obama's policies. But some are wary that white working-class Americans, who helped send them to office, may bear the brunt of any reforms. Dismantling Obamacare could also have knock-on effects for funding health care for retirees, a group essential to the Republican Party's survival. In these two issues, Democrats see pressure points they hope to exploit in defense of Obama's plan. "It's not surprising to me that there are some Republicans who are now a little queasy about the prospect of the impact that repealing Obamacare would have on their own supporters," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest. "We know there are people all across the country who benefit from this law, who are protected by this law, whose lives have been saved by this law." Democratic leaders voiced support for a stiff defense of the Affordable Care Act in the face of Republican attacks. "Instead of working to further ensure affordable care for all Americans, they seek to rip health care away from millions of Americans, creating chaos in our entire economy," charged Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer. 2017 AFP The News in Brief Georgian opposition party plants marijuana on New Years Eve TBILISI, DFWatchThe leader of an opposition party Georgia made a small marijuana plantation inside the party office on New Years Eve as part of a campaign to decriminalize soft drugs. Zurab Japaridze, the leader of a newly formed party called Girchi, made true on a pledge a month and a half ago to plant cannabis and risk criminal charges if the government did not change its harsh drug policy by the end of the year. Parliament already discussed the proposal but rejected it at the first hearing in March. I dont know the consequences, Japaridze said at an improvised press conference standing next to his fellow party members in Girchis office. No amendments to the law have been passed and as we know [the authorities] dont plan to make any serious changes [in the law], thus now well fulfill our pledge and along with party members and dozens of other people who have gathered in the office [we] will publicly violate clause 265 of the Criminal Code, which implies up to 12 years of incarceration and will start cultivation of marijuana in our office right now. We are not fighting for marijuana use, we are fighting for basic freedoms, Japaridze added. He proceeded to pick up a cardboard cup filled with soil and planted a cannabis seed in it, then poured water over, saying that hed just violated the law and was waiting for the response from law enforcers. Then he wrote his name on the cup and invited others to write their names on some of the other marijuana cups as well. There are over fifty cups with marijuana seeds and soil in the party office. Several Girchi members participated in the weed planting event. Last week, Georgias Constitutional Court struck down a law which sent many young people to prison for using marijuana. The ruling decided that it those parts of the law are unconstitutional which refer to the use of a small amount of marijuana, as well as its purchase, storage and production. Under the Criminal Code of Georgia, it is illegal to purchase or keep a small amount of marijuana or its analogy or precursor for personal use or use without a doctors prescription. Violating the ban is punishable by a fine, or 120 to 180 hours of community labor, or imprisonment for one year. Last year, the Constitutional Court struck down a law that imposed up to 12 year prison sentences for persons caught with small amounts of marijuana. However, the consumption of marijuana, which grows in the wild many places in Georgia, was not considered a criminal offense until 2006, when former President Mikheil Saakashvili launched an anti-drug campaign. Between 2008 and 2013, thousands of Georgians were detained and forced to undergo drug tests. A study carried out by Alternative Georgia, a drugs treatment center, in cooperation with the National Center for Disease Control and Public Health (NCDC) revealed that about 70 percent of Georgians are in favour of decriminalizing the personal use of marijuana, while 54.5 percent of interviewees believe people shouldnt be arrested for using drugs. But despite efforts by campaigners, police are still stopping especially young people in the street asking them to take a drug test. Suspicious individuals are detained and taken to a testing facility. If the test is positive for marijuana, the person has to pay a fine the size of which starts at 500 laris (USD 183). If they test positive for harder drugs, they may be imprisoned. Police did not show up for Girchis public weed planting on December 31, but the next day it announced that a criminal inquiry was underway. Girchi is a libertarian party which split from the United National Movement soon after it suffered a resounding defeat in the 2012 election. UNM members have accused Girchi of being sponsored by billionaire and former Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili. (dfwatch.net) South Ossetia Mulls Referendum on Renaming the Breakaway Region South Ossetian Leader Leonid Tibilov announced at his December 29 press conference that the referendum on renaming breakaway South Ossetia to South Ossetia Alania will coincide with the breakaway regions presidential elections in April, 2017. In my view, we need to rename our state into South Ossetia Alania, just like it is [in the case of] North Ossetia Alania [referring to North Ossetia, one of Russias republics in North Caucasus], and after that, unite with North Ossetia within the Russian Federation as the state of Alania. But there are different opinions on the issue of renaming our republic, and we will take them into account, Tibilov explained. Tibilov first proposed to rename the region in December, 2015. The breakaway republics leader was also planning to conduct the referendum on joining the Russian Federation in July 2016. Tibilov announced on May 26 that Tskhinvali would postpone the referendum until after presidential elections. (civil.ge) @PatriciaMazzei Miami Republican Rep. Carlos Curbelo, who won reelection to one of the most competitive seats in Congress, was rewarded Wednesday with an appointment to the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, which writes tax law. "This new position will allow me to advocate for many issues of importance to my constituents and our South Florida community, such as strengthening Social Security and Medicare by reducing fraud and making these programs sustainable for all generations of Americans and also the promotion of free and fair trade -- a major economic driver in our community," Curbelo said in a statement. "The Committee will also debate and advance solutions to bring our nation's tax code into the 21st century and address flaws in our healthcare system in an effort to build a healthy economy that benefits every American family and ensures that the most vulnerable citizens can find their path to success." Curbelo, a sophomore in Congress, specifically thanked House Speaker Paul Ryan -- who campaigned for Curbelo in his Westchester-to-Key West district -- and Committee Chairman Kevin Brady of Texas "for their trust and confidence." "I look forward to working with my Republican and Democratic colleagues on the Committee to advance bipartisan solutions that will better the lives of those in my district and across the country." In a statement released by Curbelo's office, Ryan noted Ways and Means' "broad jurisdiction over many issues Carlos has made a priority in Congress, including tax policy, free and fair trade, healthcare, and entitlement reform." "Carlos' appointment makes him the only South Florida Republican on the Committee," Ryan added, praising Curbelo's "proven work ethic and diligence in finding common sense solutions to some of the most serious issues facing our country." Two other House members -- Reps. David Schweikert of Arizona and Jackie Walorski of Indiana -- also won committee seats. Curbelo isn't the only Miami Republican moving up in the committee ranks after winning contested reelection races. Sen. Marco Rubio will now sit on the Senate Appropriations Committee. Photo credit: David Santiago, el Nuevo Herald @PatriciaMazzei Florida Gov. Rick Scott and his wife, Ann, will host an inaugural ball to be held in Washington D.C. two days before Donald Trump is sworn in as president. Save-the-date invitations to the gala went out over the past few days. Though state political parties often organize inaugural balls, this one is being put together by Scott's political committee, Let's Get to Work. The ball will take place at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 18, at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium. Some Republicans who plan to attend the Friday inauguration have already booked flights for Thursday, which means they might miss the Wednesday night party. @ByKristenMClark Two Orlando lawmakers want Florida to ban assault-style weapons in the wake of the shooting massacre at Pulse nightclub seven months ago, but in a conservative-leaning Legislature, their idea is unlikely to get any traction. State Sen. Linda Stewart and state Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, both Democrats, introduced legislation Thursday for lawmakers to consider in the upcoming 2017 session; the bills (SB 254 / HB 167) both include a detailed list of specific guns and "parts that convert a firearm into an assault weapon"-- such as large-capacity magazines -- which would be prohibited under their proposed law. The plan would make it a third-degree felony, with some exceptions, to sell or possess an assault weapon or large-capacity magazine, among other restrictions imposed. Smith and Stewart announced the legislation at a press conference in Orlando. "Assault weapons are the gold standard for mass murder. They are weapons of war, designed for war and have no place on our streets or in civilian hands," Smith said in a statement provided by the Florida Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence. "We all have the right to defend ourselves and our families with a firearm, but nobody needs military-style assault weapons to do it." The coalition, started by the League of Women Voters of Florida, formed after the Pulse shooting and its members include groups like Equality Florida, the Hispanic Federation, Interfaith Council of Central Florida, Campaign to Keep Guns Off Campus, Florida PTA and Doctors for America. Coalition to End Gun Violence announcing push to ban assault weapons pic.twitter.com/45iDWpW5RE Christopher Heath (@CHeathWFTV) January 5, 2017 We have a responsibility to act. If not now when? Stewart said in a statement from her legislative office. There is no legitimate reason whatsoever to own these types of weapons; were not taking anybodys guns away and were not infringing on anybodys right to hunt or protect themselves in their home. We need to start getting control of the things we can, and do common-sense things to prevent what happened at Pulse from ever being repeated. Forty-nine people were gunned down at the nightclub on June 12 after gunman Omar Mateen opened fire. It is the deadliest mass shooting in American history. A handful of gun-related measures have been proposed for the 2017 legislative session, which begins in March. In contrast to Smith's and Stewart's proposals, though, most of the bills would significantly expand gun owners' rights by opening up how and where handguns could be carried. Many of the Republican-led Legislature's most influential leaders support gun rights. Photo credit: John Raoux / AP @JeremySWallace Floridas Republican Party leader says if he is re-elected next week, he will put a full court press on increasing the GOP voter registration numbers with hopes of officially giving Florida more registered Republicans than Democrats for the first time in history. Chairman Blaise Ingoglia said it likely cannot be done in two years, but by the next presidential election, he said Florida could finally be majority Republican. Today, I would like to formally announce Project Majority Red - our next big aspirational goal, Ingoglia said in an email blast to Republican activists this morning. It will have one singular purpose, as we continue to win elections up and down the ballot, to make Florida a majority red state by not only overtaking the Democrats in voter registrations, but keeping it that way for future elections. Ingoglia said he already has a promise from recently re-elected U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and other donors to help fund the aggressive voter registration push over the next two years. Currently, Democrats have 4.9 million voters, Republicans have 4.6 million. Another 3.5 million voters are registered with neither political party. Hes not the first RPOF chairman to have visions of overtaking Democrats in voter registrations. From 2000 to 2006, the Democrats historic advantage over Republicans dropped from 379,000 to just 276,000. But then Democrats surged as President Barack Obama sought his first term. In November 2008, Democrats re-established a 694,000 voter registration advantage. That has decreased since, however. In 2014, the Democratic advantage dropped to 434,000 according to the Florida Division of Elections. Now it is down to 337,000. Ingoglias pledge to take a more aggressive voter registration push comes just over a week before he stands before the Republican Party of Floridas activist base seeking a second term as the party leader. Ingoglia is being challenged by Sarasota Republican Christian Ziegler and Lafayette County Republican Alan Levy at the Jan. 14 election in Orlando. Democratic Party Voter Registration Advantage Over Republicans Since 2006 2006 - +276,000 2007 - +312,000 2008 - +694,000 2009 - +670,000 2010 - +569,000 2011 - +491,000 2012 - +558,000 2013 - +488,000 2014 - +434,000 2015 - +355,000 2016 - +337,000 (SOURCE: FLORIDA DIVISION OF ELECTIONS) @PatriciaMazzei U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen intends to be the emissary between President-elect Donald Trump and a group of former U.S. diplomats who want the incoming White House to reverse President Barack Obama's Cuba policy. Ros-Lehtinen told the Miami Herald on Thursday that she forwarded to Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence a letter from the Center for a Free Cuba. The letter, reported by the Herald on Wednesday, urges Trump to review all of Obama's Cuba actions, and undo some of them immediately. "In the last year, you have mentioned that your administration would reverse some of the damage inflicted by the current misguided Cuba policy and these outstanding American diplomats can assist to hep achieve a better deal for our own national security interests and to help the people of Cuba achieve freedom, justice, and democracy," Ros-Lehtinen wrote in a cover letter to Trump. In a statement to the Herald, Ros-Lehtinen praised the letter for laying out "some concrete actions that can be done int he first 100 days of the incoming administration." Read Ros-Lehtinen's letter to Trump. Happy New Year and welcome to Siberia, Montana! We might be a little ways geographically from Siberia but with the so-called Siberian Express bringing bone-chilling weather to much of Montana this week, it sure seems like we are next-door neighbors. The cold weather might be putting a chill on some outdoor activity, but once it warms to a normal Montana winter temperature, there will be plenty of snow and ice around for outdoors play. After a slow start because of a lack of snow in early December, ski hills in Montana were able to offer up great snow conditions to skiers over the holidays. All the lakes in Montana have good ice for ice anglers, with the exception of Fort Peck Reservoir. The bays at Fort Peck have good ice, but the main lake still has iffy ice conditions primarily because of the high winds that keep blowing and breaking up ice that has already formed. The northern pike fishing has picked up on Noxon Rapids Reservoir, according to reports from John Harris from Lakeside Resort in Trout Creek. We had a monster of a pike brought in the store last week that weighed 28 pounds that was caught through the ice, he said. I have had mixed reports from Georgetown Lake. Scott Arnold fished Georgetown last week and he and a buddy didnt do very well on either the trout or the salmon: We fished all day Thursday and most of Friday. The fishing was slow for us as we only caught a handful of trout and salmon." Arnold went on to say that seemed to be the case for most of the fisherman he spoke with on the lake. However Tracy Powers and Brandt Hamernick from Missoula sent me a great video of Hamernick catching and releasing a giant trout in their ice shack through the ice on Georgetown last Saturday. You can view the video on montanaoutdoor.com. I also spoke with Ed McClean from Missoula who has a cabin on Georgetown and he said Saturday that the fish were smarter than he was that morning. Dick Zimmer gave me this report from Lake Mary Ronan: Fishing at Lake Mary Ronan at 43 feet of water lots of kokanee salmon. Fishermen wouldnt give us exact numbers. 3 inches of slush under the snow. Ice is good but dont take an ATV out there yet. At 37 feet fishermen caught 15 salmon." Jens Gran from Polson said he had some good luck fishing Lake Mary Ronan. Gran also said after the cold snap, there probably wouldnt be any slush on the lake. There are plenty of ice fishing tournaments this month. Some of the top ones include a $10,000 cash prize for winning the North American Ice Fishing Circuit National Qualifying Tournament Jan. 13-15 on Hebgen Lake by West Yellowstone. The actual tournament is Sunday, Jan. 15, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. To enter, call Kathy Roberts at 320-252-0428 or 406-646-7200. The Valier Lake Frances Ice Fishing Derby is coming up on Saturday, Jan. 14. The derby is a month earlier than in recent years in an attempt to get better ice. The volunteer firefighters ran out of energy for this after many years, so the Valier Area Development Corp. has taken it on for this year. It has 100 percent payout on the prizes for perch and pike, and will have a fundraising raffle with some wonderful prizes including a very nice Vexilar Fish Finder, ice houses, ice auger and much more. For more information, call 406-279-3561, or 788-6613. Temperatures of -9 degrees that froze cooling equipment are thought to be the cause of a Thursday morning fire at the Roseburg Forest Products plant on Raser Drive. Firefighters were dispatched to the mill in northwest Missoula at 9:35 a.m. and launched an aggressive response that included two ladder trucks to attack the flames with steady streams of water from above. Roseburg continued operations throughout the morning. The fire was quelled and firefighters released at 12:10 p.m. The fire ignited in wood shavings used in the manufacture of particle board and extended into the walls of the pre-dry building, according to Missoula Rural Fire chief Bill Colwell. There is cooling equipment in the pre-dry area that is supplied with water. The water supply line froze due to the cold outside and the cooling system failed, Colwell said. A press release from assistant chief Brent Christopherson said smoke and flames were visible from outside the building. One of the employees at the plant called the Missoula 911 Center to report the fire. Upon arrival crews went to work right away trying to reach the source of the fire with an aggressive firefighting attack and a good water supply, the release said. Missoula Rural was assisted by the Missoula Fire Department, Frenchtown Fire District and Missoula Emergency Services Inc. Christopherson said the two ladder trucks were complemented by three Type 1 engines, a water tender and a command vehicle, along with 17 people. With an eye toward rejuvenating and rebuilding the fairgrounds, the Missoula County Commissioners interviewed candidates for the new position of fair development director Wednesday afternoon. Commissioners Cola Rowley, Jean Curtiss and Dave Strohmaier talked with Emily Bentley, Patty Kent and Bill Ogg about their strengths, weaknesses and qualifications for the position, which will focus on implementing the countys recently adopted fairgrounds master plan. Each candidate was asked the same nine questions, with the commissioners jumping in at the end with anything additional they wanted to know. The diverse set of candidates one career-long fair director and two with more public sector fundraising and community relations experience than fair management found little consensus in their answers, though a few common themes appeared from all three. Bentley, Kent and Ogg all emphasized community and citizen importance to the success of the fair and implementing the fair plan. The biggest partner is community, Kent said. You have to have folks understand what youre doing and believe in what youre doing. Ogg said he talked with people at Southgate Mall and downtown about the fair and found there was support, but it had sunk under the weight of declining attendance and a lack of enthusiasm. He was genuinely excited to revitalize the yearly event and bring interest back to the Western Montana Fair. The community has some concerns, he said. You can get them back. You can invite them back. Bentley referenced her work on the Missoula Mercantile development, where she learned not to follow public process, but to lead it. You can guide it and shape it and set the tone, she said, comparing it to the fairgrounds, where there are a huge variety of stakeholders who all feel at various levels they arent being listened to. Listening is her primary role as a city council representative, Bentley said, as well as coming up with solutions, even if theyre unpopular. I seek compromise and when its time to make a decision, I lead, she said. At the beginning of her interview, Kent told the commissioners they were hiring with too vague a job description and too little done on the plan expected to be implemented. What I see here is you have a master plan, but you dont have a strategic plan, she said. It needs to be refined to have a clear, honest mission. Its up to the commissioners, Kent said, to refocus the plan and find the important goals that have to be met. If given a more specific goal, shes the one who can bring it to fruition, Kent said. Bentley also remarked on her own ability to deliver. Later, Kent again pressed the commissioners for a more refined approach. A broad job description with little sense of feasibility will make it tough for the new hire, she said. You want to set this person up for success, Kent said. And right now you have some steps to take. Kent and Ogg agreed that saving what historical buildings they could was important, but said it was a matter of balancing cost with nostalgia or preservation. Sometimes, both said, it may be important enough to save a building that its worth spending some extra money, while sometimes the cost would be too high to justify it. Bentley suggested implementing a design standard for new buildings, to keep the look of the historic buildings. Kent thought theres more than just physical history to the fair; also the nostalgic sights, sounds, smells, food and actual land that will remain the same, even if buildings have to be updated. Ogg thought renovating or rebuilding the grounds would offer healthy opportunities to work around the construction, sparking ideas for moving events around. The creativity and energy that comes from doing those things is well worth it, he said. If people walk into the arts building, for example, and always see the same exhibits in the same place, they wont necessarily care to look, even though theres new art every year. You try to get it done between fairs, but if you dont, they go somewhere else for a year, he said, before adding, tongue-in-cheek, Lets put our swine in the fine arts building and put arts in the pig barn. The challenge is convincing them what an opportunity this is, rather than a hardship. The candidates varied widely in answering what their first step would be if they were hired. Bentley said shed work on the intangibles, building a comfortable work environment and relationships with her staff, as well as starting a phasing plan. Ogg said the physical plant was the number one thing that would need to be updated, in any way possible, immediately. Kent wanted an environmental study, citing the old buildings, years of projects and troubles shed experienced helping renovate Fort Missoula. You couldnt scrape things and start painting, she said. No way. The county advertised the salary as paying $62,400 per year and every candidate told the commissioners that would not be enough. Kent estimated a fair range of $85,000-95,000, citing the wide range of required experience and cost of living, while Bentley asked for at least the mid-$70,000 range, comparable to her current salary. Ogg would only say the $62,400 was too low, but he hadnt come with a number in mind. He added that he felt the fair director and event manager, which the county is looking to split into separate positions, are inseparably related, and if he only worked on the former piece, would feel like nothing but a traveling salesman. For Bill Ogg, this position has to be intimately managed with the events on the ground. Bentley said she would keep her spot on city council, after Strohmaier asked her about dealing with conflicts of interest. On issues specific to her work as the fair director, she would abstain from voting, Bentley said. Commissioner Cola Rowley said the board members will meet Thursday afternoon to discuss the candidates and hope to make a decision by the end of their meeting. Dan Gallagher liked things a certain way, even requiring the hearse to take the scenic route on its way to his funeral. Because of that specified route, he was late as he often was even to his own funeral, according to his daughter Erin Gallagher. Wednesday night, almost 150 people sat, stood, laughed and cried in memory of Dan Gallagher, a Missoula veteran, teacher, lawyer, radio personality, advocate, award-winner, film star and amateur author who died Dec. 26 from heart failure. He was 69. Erin said that to her, Gallagher was just Dad, all of his various roles condensed into the guy who raised her. Since his death, she had been focused on all the things her dad hadnt been able to do, but the huge outpouring of support, well-wishes, prayers, flowers and food have made her see his influence and how full his life was. This week has really opened my eyes, she said. I realized all the things he did get to do. Erin was the last of four speakers who stood in front of the crowded Loyola Sacred Heart High School auditorium to share their memories of Gallagher. Betsy Mulligan-Dague, the director of the Jeannette Rankin Peace Center, had become close friends with Gallagher after she tried reaching out to veterans' groups with no luck. He was the only responder, she said and his ability to listen and consider her viewpoint, even though he didnt think he agreed with it, was a hallmark of his character. In the end, what divided us was only a spark that brought us together, she said. That led to Mulligan-Dague being invited to speak at the annual Veterans Day ceremony in front of the courthouse, what she called an historic event, and Gallagher earning the peace centers Peacemaker of the Year award in 2012. Gallagher would have never wanted to be called a hero, Mulligan-Dague said, but thats what he was. Mayor John Engen said the first time he became aware of Dan Gallagher was through Montana Public Radio, when he heard a quiet, calm voice talking about veterans' issues and their struggles after deployment. He could have been bitter or angry, Engen said, but instead it was a voice of compassion, reason. And it happened time and time again. A regular speaker at Gallaghers Veterans Day ceremonies on the courthouse lawn, Engen said the first invitation came in a voicemail, left at about 10:30 the night before. Engen said he showed up and spoke, but asked Gallagher for a little more notice next time. So every year, the day after the ceremony, Gallagher called the mayors office to make a reservation for the next years Veterans Day speech. Dan taught me ... the debt we collectively owed to those men and women who served our country, Engen said. If there were more people like Dan Gallagher in the world, maybe there would be fewer wars. Mike Halligan, a Vietnam veteran and director of government and corporate relations for the Washington Corp., emceed the memorial, opening with a quote he thought Gallagher would appreciate. If you want to feel rich, count up all the things you have that money cant buy, Halligan said. I dont think Dan knew he died a millionaire. Montanans dont have to imagine a world without environmental regulations protecting the quality of their air, water and soil. From the asbestos cleanup that continues in Libby to the recent massive die-off of snow geese that landed in the toxic Berkeley Pit near Butte, our state is littered with reminders of what happens when polluting industries are left to police themselves. These grim reminders should be in the front of our minds as the federal agency responsible for managing and cleaning up these public health disasters faces an existential threat to its existence in the form of Scott Pruitt. President-elect Donald Trumps nomination of Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency would be a step backwards for the air and water quality protections that have made Montana a cleaner, healthier place for children and families. Many of us have been around long enough to remember what Montana was like before the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, enforced by the EPA, began protecting citizens from the effects of mercury, ozone and other pollutants. Billings, which for decades lived with dangerous rates of sulfur dioxide, now enjoys healthy air because of EPA protections. The coal ash ponds near Colstrip, which have leaked contaminated water into local aquifers for decades, will soon be cleaned up. Ongoing work to clean up the pollution from copper mining near Butte is putting the area on a path towards cleaner water. The EPA played a key role in all of these issues and continues to invest in projects that leave our state cleaner for the next generation, while providing local cleanup and restoration jobs. In fiscal year 2016, the EPA awarded $35.8 million in federal grants to improve water systems, implement pollution controls, and clean up environmental damage in Montana. In fact, the majority of EPAs budget goes to states to improve public health and environmental quality, also creating jobs in the process. If the EPAs safeguards get gutted and its budget gets slashed, Montana, home to 17 remaining Superfund sites, will suffer. These restoration and pollution control projects have real, tangible impacts on public health. Nationwide, the Clean Air Act avoids more than 160,000 premature deaths a year, reducing airborne particulate matter and ground-level ozone pollution in our communities. The benefits are economic as well as social - fewer hospital visits and lost days at work due to bronchitis, asthma and other cardiovascular diseases will translate to more than $2 trillion in economic benefits by 2020. With his talk of putting America first, youd think that maintaining these public health victories and searching for additional ways to lengthen American lives would be one of President-elect Trumps primary goals. But Trumps pick of Pruitt to head the EPA shows that public health isnt a priority. As attorney general of Oklahoma, Pruitt has consistently concerned himself more with the fossil fuel industrys profit margins than health outcomes. He sued the EPA to halt mercury pollution from coal plants like Colstrip. He sued to stop limits on power plant emissions of smog pollution containing nitrogen oxides, which cause lung infections and lead to asthma attacks. He has also questioned the scientific consensus on climate change and sued to stop the EPAs regulations limiting methane emissions, one of the most potent forms of climate pollution. Its hard to envision an EPA administrator less concerned with public health or the environment than Scott Pruitt. With its long history of having to clean up environmental messes, Montana knows all too well what happens when the fossil fuel and mining industries are allowed to cut corners. Thats not the Montana, or nation, we want to leave to our children. Money is short this year. Many agencies are stressed and revenues are down. Please, legislators, dont take it out on the parks. We have 55 great state parks. Many are real gems, such as Lewis and Clark Caverns an underground wonderland; Bannack the best ghost town in America; Makoshika one of the 10 most under-rated parks in America; and Rosebud Battlefield the largest commitment of American troops to an Indian battle. If you havent been to First Peoples Buffalo Jump or Medicine Rocks you should go; you are in for a real treat. Our park system has nine national heritage landmarks and 10 sites on the National Register of Historic Places plus 16 more sites that are eligible. That is more than any state but California. Montanans must and should look on our state parks with pride. They are real jewels. Outdoor recreation is on the increase. We will close 2016 with over 2.65 million visitors to our state parks. That is up 42 percent since 2011. Yet our available funding does not reflect that kind of an increase. Our annual operating budget is slightly over $10 million. It is the smallest budget of any state in the Pacific Northwest, except North Dakota and they only have 13 state parks to our 55. Staffing is at 68 percent of peer states. Montana parks receive no general fund monies and no hunting or fishing license fee monies. Thus, the Parks Division was not asked to cut their budget this year. But funding is simply insufficient. Our largest source of funding ($3.8 million) is from a $6 fee people pay at the same time they register their car in exchange for free visitation to all 55 Montana State Parks, provided they do not opt out. We also receive a little money from a small coal tax trust fund ($730,000), some help from the bed tax ($1.8 million), motorboat fuel tax ($1.3 million), and some revenue from camping fees and other earned revenue ($2.3 million). We have increased the camping and other fees but earned revenue covers less than 20 percent of our budget. People expect parks that are clean, well kept, well maintained and informative. A recent facility condition inventory found that we have a huge backlog of maintenance and infrastructure needs. Great West Engineering concluded we will need $22.5 million in the next 10 years just to continue providing the present level of service. We have a good reputation to uphold. But if visitation increases by 42 percent in the next six years, we simply will not be able to accommodate everyone. Something has to give. We are going to ask the legislature to increase our annual visitation fee paid by the car registration fee from $6 to $8. Eight dollars for an annual free pass to 55 state parks does not seem unreasonable. Everyone is given the option to opt out and not pay the fee if they wish. The people of Montana do love their parks; 77 percent of the people do not opt out. In addition, we are going to propose a local option. Counties who want more money for parks in their county can put an additional $2 increase in the car registration fee on the ballot in their county. If approved by the voters, 3/4 of the additional revenue collected in that county would stay in that county to help develop and pay for county and city parks. Finally, Gov. Steve Bullocks infrastructure bill will authorize badly needed fire protection in Bannack, a new lighting system for Lewis and Clark Caverns, and improvements at Makoshika. We hope to add some more of the backlog infrastructure projects to that list, all out of our own ending fund balance. We hope enough people who appreciate the value of our parks in Montana will support this modest request. It will go a long way to meeting the demands of 2.65 million visitors each year. We have some of the greatest state parks in the country; now we need to maintain them so visitors can appreciate them. Once we get this funding stabilized, we then can work on developing our parks so they are even more accessible, attractive and informative for all Montanans to enjoy. Beware; the embodiment of doublespeak has arrived in Helena. Elsie Arntzen hadnt even moved into the office of the superintendent of public instruction before launching her first doublespeak missile. She was elected to lead the most bipartisan of Montanas agencies, dedicated to public education for all Montanas students. But her first act was to bring a pack of Republican operatives into her executive management with the misleading declaration that she would depoliticize the office. The statement, which I fear we will hear again and again, is deliberately designed to hide the truth that she intends to inject partisan politics into education debates. The Missoulians Dec. 24 front-page story on oil transported by rail highlights a significant risk to Montana. The derailment of a Union Pacific oil train in the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon last June resulted in a spill, fire and evacuations. The news story reports that the federal government recently cited and fined Union Pacific for a variety of safety violations and other infractions, partly in response to the Oregon derailment. Millions of gallons of crude oil are carried by Burlington Northern Santa Fe across Montana and along the Middle Fork of the Flathead River. The news story notes that BNSF racked up the most penalties in 2016 of any railroad even more than Union Pacific. A recent risk assessment report from the Montana Public Service Commission ranked Flathead County as having the highest overall risk level both on the North Line (Middle Fork) and among all counties with rail lines. The Flathead Lakers are concerned about the threat of a derailment and spill in the narrow, steep and winding Middle Fork canyon. A derailment could be disastrous for our connected water system all the way to Flathead Lake, for our economy, and for our iconic fish and wildlife and their habitat in this Wild and Scenic River corridor bordering Glacier National Park. We know more can be done to protect our Flathead communities, economy, clean water, habitat and recreation opportunities. One identified need is for additional snow sheds to protect against an avalanche-caused derailment, which has happened with freight trains in this corridor several times in the past. Railroad regulation is primarily a federal responsibility, so our congressional delegation has an important role in ensuring appropriate action to protect our waters. Protecting Flathead waters from this threat is one of the Flathead Lakers top priorities. Steve Rosso, president, Flathead Lakers, Lakeside The idea that the U.S. government can vet every Muslim refugee brought to the United States is flawed because there is no way the U.S. government can stop the radicalization of Muslim refugees once they enter the United States or are born here. Our intelligence community, security specialists and law enforcement officers already know there is no way to stop friends, family, local mosques and internet public forums from radicalizing Muslims now or in the future. In CNN's Peter Bergen's book, "United States of Jihad," he describes how Americans are not only radicalized on the internet, the newly radicalized jihadists use the same tools to draw in others. This theme of radicalization is nothing new and is common public knowledge to those concerned about the continuing murder and maiming of innocent Americans in their own country. There can be no question these murders and maiming are done in the name of Islam when the jihadists announce this fact on social networks before and after committing these crimes against innocent Americans. "Allah Akbar" or "God is greatest" was part of the statement used by the Fort Hood jihadist before pulling the trigger and killing 13 Americans and wounding 30 more. Why would the governor, the mayor of Missoula, the City Council and the Missoula County commissioners continue to ignore the facts that vetting refugees does not stop the radicalization of Muslims in the United States who continue to kill American citizens? In the end nobody wins except the radicalized jihadists and those Americans in the business of being paid to bring Muslim refugees to Montana. Rick Ferguson, Condon HELENA Russell Foster, a Glasgow man who was convicted in 1996 of sexual intercourse without consent for having sex with the woman who is now his wife when they were both teenagers, told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday he supported a bill that would lessen the punishment for people in so-called "Romeo and Juliet relationships." I fell in love with my beautiful wife ... at the age of 19; she was 15, Foster said. Being convicted of the crime and going through required sex offender treatment made life really, really tough and difficult. Foster, 41, and several others spoke in favor of Senate Bill 26, carried by Sen. Sue Malek, D-Missoula, at the request of the Interim Law and Justice Committee. The bill would amend sexual assault laws so that teens 18 and younger who are convicted of a nonviolent first offense of having consensual sex with teens 14 and older could serve up to five years in prison and be subject to a $10,000 fine. They would not be required to register as a sexual offender on a state registry if an expert testifies they are not likely to re-offend. The bill does not remove criminal punishment. It also does not change state law saying those who are under the age of 16 are unable to consent to sexual relationships. Current state law mandates from four years to life in prison, a fine of up to $50,000 and mandatory registration on the Sexual and Violent Offender Registry. SB26 is one of several bills brought by the Law and Justice Interim Committee looking at revising and modernizing Montana's rape laws. The Senate Judiciary Committee heard two bills Thursday and will hear two more Friday. The committee took no action Thursday and is not expected to Friday. Foster, who has applied for clemency from Gov. Steve Bullock, was one of half a dozen who testified in favor of the change. No one spoke in opposition, though committee members prodded Malek on clarifying language in the bill as well as the maturity level of teens and their ability to consent to sex. Most who testified asked the committee to expand the age range a year at either end. Amber Foster said teens can be impulsive and do stupid things. They are still kids at school, they meet at school, they hook up at school, they get to know each other, she said. Foster told the committee her husband struggled to find work and they had a difficult time getting a place to live. "It's not what you would want for your family." Malek said teens who are sent to prison could come out in worse condition than when they went in. Teens sometimes fall in love and their relationship deepens and sexual relations result, she said. We are not exonerating 18-year-olds of their responsibility to recognize the vulnerability of a 14-year-old who by Montana law are still children. They would still have a conviction on record. Mark Murphy, who represents the Montana County Attorneys Association, said the change would affect about six cases around the state annually. Senate Bill 17, carried by Sen. Nels Swandal, R-Wilsall, was also heard Thursday. It would allow for teens convicted of sexual offenses who have been been released from incarceration, gone through treatment and been evaluated as unlikely to re-offend to not have to be registered on the states Sexual or Violent Offender Registry. Swandal said it would let the state focus its resources on tracking those who are likely to re-offend and should be closely monitored, and not make it harder to get a job or find a place to live for people who are not likely to committee another offense. On Friday, the committee will hear Senate Bill 29, carried by Sen. Diane Sands, D-Missoula, which would change the definition of lack of consent in Montana to remove a requirement of force. It will also hear Senate Bill 22, carried by Malek, which would allow for a district court to terminate the parental rights of a person who fathers a child by rape if a fact-finding hearing shows there is clear and convincing evidence that a rape was committed. BOZEMAN A Belgrade woman has been sentenced to prison for stealing mail and assaulting a Montana Highway Patrol trooper. The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports (http://bit.ly/2ieYxUv ) that 36-year-old Katlyn Dedycker on Wednesday was sentenced to four years in prison followed by 10 years of probation for assault on a peace officer, theft and issuing bad checks. She was also ordered to pay more than $12,300 in restitution. Surveillance video showed Dedycker and her husband redeeming three stolen $100 gift cards at Target on Dec. 23. Prosecutors allege Dedycker took a package with a tracking device from a mailbox on Feb. 1. She was arrested soon after. Some of the stolen items were recovered from the Dedycker residence. When the theft case was pending, Dedycker was arrested for scratching a trooper after she was found intoxicated. ___ Information from: Bozeman Daily Chronicle, http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com China announced on Friday that it was banning all commerce in ivory by the end of 2017, a move that would shut down the worlds largest ivory market and could deal a critical blow to the practice of elephant poaching in Africa. The decision by China follows years of growing international and domestic pressure and gives wildlife protection advocates hope that the threatened extinction of certain elephant populations in Africa can be averted. Chinas announcement is a game changer for elephant conservation, Carter Roberts, the president and chief executive of the World Wildlife Fund, said in a written statement. With the United States also ending its domestic ivory trade earlier this year, two of the largest ivory markets have taken action that will reverberate around the world. According to some estimates, more than 100,000 elephants have been wiped out in Africa over the past 10 years in a ruthless scramble for ivory driven by Chinese demand. Some Chinese investors call ivory white gold, while carvers and collectors call it the organic gemstone. When the United Nations top anti-torture official tried to inspect an infamous prison in Gambia two years ago, officials there denied him access. So he protested all the way up the countrys chain of command. In a tense meeting with members of the cabinet of the countrys autocratic ruler, the United Nations official, Juan E. Mendez, was again denied, this time with a jeering dismissal. They said, Why dont you go to Guantanamo instead, recalled Mr. Mendez, a former United Nations special rapporteur on torture. In Bahrain, officials were a little more subtle, but the message was the same, as they twice canceled prison inspection visits. They said we face the same threats to national security as other countries face, Mr. Mendez said. It was clear they were referring to the United States, and they didnt feel that they needed to give me access. Now, after President-elect Donald J. Trumps campaign vows to reinstate the sort of torture used in the Bush-era war on terrorism and to fill the Guantanamo Bay prison with some bad dudes human rights experts fear that authoritarian regimes around the world will see it as another green light to carry out their own abuses. The spirit of bipartisanship both Democrats and Republicans touted on the opening day of the Legislature Monday began to dim Wednesday as party members clashed during a meeting to determine the rules the House operates under. Near the end of the meeting of the House Rules Committee, Chairman Rep. Jeff Essmann, R-Billings, admonished Rep. Bryce Bennett, D-Missoula, over an amendment to the rules that called out a specific member of the House, Rep. Rob Cook, R-Conrad. Bennetts amendment, which identified Cook by his House District, said the moderate Republican could choose up to six bills that were held up in committees and move them to the House floor for consideration with support from a simple majority. Letting bills linger in committee is a way to kill legislation. Bennetts amendment was an effort to shine a light on an informal agreement by Republicans before the session to let the more moderate members of their party blast bills forward using so-called silver bullets, which let committees move bills forward with only a simple majority vote. Republicans said the agreement shows their party is less divided than it has been in past sessions between its more moderate and conservative factions. Essmann killed the amendment before it could be voted on, saying that since it called out a single legislator, it violated the decorum of the House and was out of order. I am very disappointed that political frustration on the part of the minority has led to a stunt that was targeted at one member of this body, he said. In terms of setting the tone for this session I hope that does not continue because it is inappropriate. Republicans, who hold a 59-41 majority in the House, clashed with Democrats on the Rules Committee on several other proposed changes to House Resolution 1, which set the rules. The committee approved HR 1 on a 10-7 vote along party lines Wednesday. Essmann introduced some changes that removed references to state law in the rules that govern how the House operates. He argued that was necessary to not have a Legislature be bound by laws created by past Legislatures and to preserve the power of the body as an independent branch of government. The Senate Rules Committee is considering similar action. This Legislature can no more tell the Supreme Court how it can set its rules and we can no more tell the executive branch how to set up its rules and they cannot set up ours. Thats what separate but equal branches of government are about. Rep. Jenny Eck, D-Helena and the House minority leader, said she felt the move robbed the Legislative process of transparency. Bennett said the vote was the wrong way to start off the Legislature. I feel like we did have a great opportunity to create rules to ensure all voices were heard, especially the public, he said. I think we have decided we are above the law in a lot of situations. The resolution now moves to the House floor for consideration. The House is currently operating under temporary rules. In a move commissioners characterize as cutting the countys losses, Butte-Silver Bow has dropped efforts to recoup $283,000 in demolition and cleanup costs from Neil Joe Lynch because of his Uptown warehouse that collapsed in June 2014. In exchange for Butte-Silver Bow getting two lots where the four-story building once stood at 750 S. Wyoming St., the county and Lynch agreed to drop legal claims for who was at fault for the collapse and who is liable for abatement costs. The county isnt sure how much the land could fetch commissioners cited guesses ranging from $25,000 to $50,000 but the settlement struck after a closed-door discussion in late December still means taxpayers wont get most of their money back. Commissioners voted unanimously and they say begrudgingly to accept an attorneys advice to take the settlement because chances of ever collecting money from Lynch were slim to none. During their Dec. 21 council meeting, commissioners agreed to a request by then-Chief Executive Matt Vincent to discuss the proposed settlement in private. They then reconvened and voted on the matter in public as required by law. A phone message was left on Lynchs voice mail seeking comment Wednesday. Butte attorney Kevin Vainio, who had represented Lynch through a long and contentious battle with the county over the building, was no longer his lawyer and wasnt at the time of the settlement, his office said. Lynch has owned several other properties in Butte, but some back taxes are still owed on many of parcels listed under his company, Lifetime Enterprises LLC. The state also had liens preventing him from selling any of them until he paid more than $22,000 in back taxes owed to Montana. It was not immediately clear if those liens were still in place, but three commissioners contacted Wednesday said the county was in a no-win position of throwing good money after bad. It only made sense, they said, to quit the legal battle and at least get two lots it could sell or develop later. We might as well cut our losses, said Commissioner Brendan McDonough, whose district includes the lots. But he and other commissioners said it was a shame the county through its taxpayers would foot most of the bill. At the end of the day, I dont think we were well-served by Mr. Lynch and its unfortunate it had to go this far, McDonough said. On a personal level, Im never satisfied when Butte-Silver Bow taxpayers have to take a hit. The south side of the long-vacant building collapsed on its own on June 28, 2014, spilling thousands of bricks into the street and sparking a contentious feud between county officials and Lynch about what to do. Nobody was injured. The county ultimately got permission from a state district judge to demolish the rest of the building, but only after its rubble caught fire in late March 2015, sending flames hundreds of feet into the air. It continued to burn and smolder for days. Lynch claimed the building collapsed because of damage from a water main that broke when the adjacent Whalen Tire building caught fire in 2009. He claimed in lawsuits that he tried to get an insurance settlement for that and said the county was partially at fault for the damage and ultimate collapse because firefighters and others did not help remediate the water damage. The county said the building caved in because Lynch failed to maintain it. Officials and commissioners wanted Lynch to reimburse the county for $283,000 in equipment, material and labor costs for demolishing the building and hauling away its rubble. That tab did not include more than $168,000 in fees county officials say they could have charged someone else for dumping asbestos-contaminated rubble from the building into special cells at the landfill. County officials note that Lynch often owed back taxes on his properties but would make good on one or two delinquent years to keep the county from seizing them. He also has transferred some properties to others, they say. Its a huge shell game, McDonough said. Commissioners said they were told by an attorney who represented the county through the Montana Municipal Interlocal Authority that costs to continue the legal battle would be significant. The MMIA would not cover those costs if the county lost, they said, and winning wouldnt change the bottom line either. Even if we won, we were never going to get any money out of him, said Commissioner Jim Fisher. He said he reluctantly voted for the settlement but doubted the county would fetch significant money for the lots. Commissioner Cindi Shaw said the council was forced to choose the lesser of two evils. It was a shame the county was put in that spot, she said, But at least we can take the land and maybe sell it to an adjacent owner and it has some development potential. Montana has one attorney for every 274 residents, but only one Montana Legal Services Association lawyer for every 12,133 low-income residents. That disparity shows the service gap that affects low-income Montanans. The Montana Supreme Court Access to Justice Commission also found that: Every year, half of low-income Montanans have a need for civil legal assistance that goes unmet, including family law matters, landlord-tenant disputes, issues for veterans, minors, seniors and people with disabilities. In 2014, the Montana Legal Services Association reported 7,000 qualified low-income Montanans sought services, but the association could only meet the needs of one-third. The states six Self Help Law Centers have helped thousands of Montanans get the legal forms they need for court filings, but they have very limited staffing and no attorneys, so they cannot provide legal advice. That lack of service affects not only poor Montanans, but everyone who needs to use our state court system. The 18-member commission concluded that access to legal services, such as mediation, would help more people resolve their legal issues without going to courts that are already overloaded. For those who do go to court, legal assistance would help them be better prepared to present their cases, resulting in more effective use of the courts time and the best opportunity for a just resolution. BIPARTISAN HB46 The commissions recommendation to bolster civil legal services will be presented to the 2017 Legislature as House Bill 46, sponsored by commission members Rep. Kim Dudik, D-Missoula, and Sen. Nels Swandal, R-Wilsall, a former district judge. The bill proposes to increase certain District Court filing fees. The additional revenue would be used to fund civil legal services for Montanans whose income is less than 125 percent of poverty level. The Department of Revenue estimates the legislation would raise about $900,000 annually. The commission voted to endorse HB46 and summarized its reasoning: Some of the court filing fees HB46 would change havent been updated in more than 20 years. During that time, the number of low-income Montanans forced to represent themselves in court without the help of an attorney has increased dramatically. More unrepresented litigants have led to longer delays, overburdened courts, and inefficiencies that affect everyone who relies on our court system. By increasing some filing fees, we can provide a better court system for every court user. For example, HB46 proposes to increase fees for filing a civil district court case to $170 from $90, a fee last raised in 1999. It would raise the fee for a marriage license to $60 from $53, which was the fee set in 2005. Fees for divorce filings already are $170 after being raised more recently to help support legal services for victims of domestic violence. HB46 would direct the Office of Supreme Court Administrator to administer grants for civil legal services, to document how the money is spent and to report back to the Legislatures Law and Justice Interim Committee. The bill would sunset this program in 2023, so the Legislature would have to decide whether to renew it. WYOMING'S FEE PLAN Wyoming added an indigent legal services fee to many of its court filings in 2011. In 2016, Wyoming awarded $900,000 in grants and 3,453 people received assistance through revenue generated by those fees. Montana, with its larger low-income population has greater needs than Wyoming. In recent years, the state of Montana has contributed about $140,000 a year to civil legal services. Montana Supreme Court Justice Beth Baker chaired the access commission. She sees the civil legal services program as one way to make more effective use of overstretched judges. A recent independent study of Montana District Courts showed that the state needs about 20 more judges to handle the workload that existed in 2015. Nobody expects that 20 judges will be funded by the 2017 Legislature, but legislation has been proposed for several new judges. The Access to Justice Commission makes a strong case for civil legal services. HB46 has bipartisan, bicameral sponsorship. We call on our lawmakers to support this well researched remedy for the sake of justice in Montana. The Billings Gazette There still may be some hope for the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management with a complete change in the administration in Washington, D.C. John Mundinger, Helena, touched on the problem in the Standard 12-25-2016 with the article about the USFS today: The crisis condition on national forests. Instead of advocating scientific management, foresters like Bosworth and Blackwell used NEPA and NFMA (National Forest Management Act) to perpetuate single use management and fire suppression. Yes, I know John Mundinger as a FWP biologist when he was working for Montana F&G in research on waterfowl in Malta. Many may not be aware that Aldo Leopold, considered the father of game management 1933, was a forester who advocated forest management unheard of today. The principles of forest management hold true today if applied scientifically. Our national forests remain in miserable condition due to lack of forest management with dead forests and dead material on the ground 6 inches deep that nothing will grow under and, yes, this means selective cutting applying the recommendations from the 15-year Montana Cooperative Research Project Elk and Logging Research and other appropriate research for example that should have been done 25 years ago. Agencies with no backbone caved into the radical environmentalists especially in Southwest Montana. The USFS and Bureau of Land Management are public land management agencies both under national public land laws for multiple-use land management not single use. These are the laws the agencies must operate under but havent. Over the last 25 years environmental organizations have diluted responsible agencies from carrying out the public land laws. The agencies themselves have hired individuals not qualified with an environmental do-nothing thought process rather than professionals in the fields of forestry, range management and wildlife management. Leadership has gone the same way and policies do not reflect the intent of the legal mandate to manage these lands for multiple-use. In my view this is whats needed in the BLM and must be done for any results: Replacement of all top level administrators in D.C. in BLM and replacement of every state director is necessary. Personnel with professional backgrounds who understand the mission and laws must occupy those offices and positions. Perhaps attrition is also an option. Less people with backbone that are professionals in the fields who understand the resources can always do a better job. Environmental organizations have prevented our forests from being properly managed and file nonsense litigation using the ESA and attorneys get rich believing the fact-less environmentalists. Facts are a managed forest with minimal new road development only needed to harvest the timber and reclaimed can improve wildlife habitat and minimize any impacts. I am confident Rep. Ryan Zinke as the new Secretary of the Interior will straighten out the BLM; the Secretary of Agriculture for the USFS is yet to be announced. HELENA Amid statewide spending cuts, legislators agreed Thursday to modestly trim their own funding bill. With declined revenues from agriculture and natural resources, the governor has proposed 5-percent budget cuts for the two-year budget. Republican legislators say those should go deeper rather than raise taxes. So, Rep. Nancy Ballance, R-Hamilton, said it seemed natural to look for extra cash in the first measure passed each session. House Bill 1, known as feed bill, approves spending for the current legislative session and costs to set up the next one. The original version of the bill introduced Wednesday put the total tally at about $11 million divided between the House, Senate, and Legislative Services Division, a 16-percent increase from the 2015-16 budget period. On Thursday, the House Appropriations Committee met again to cut almost $180,000 from the bill, which reduces that session-to-session comparison to a 14-percent increase. I thought it was important to have this discussion because this session, as you know, is going to be one well continually talk about reductions and money were trying to find, Ballance said Wednesday. Some Republicans said the cuts made Thursday do not go far enough, suggesting legislators hourly pay and a new stipend approved last session also could be reduced. Because those amounts are written into state law, they cannot be changed with HB 1 and would require a separate measure. Rep. Tom Burnett, R-Bozeman, was the sole vote against the feed bill on Thursday. He said in a GOP caucus before the meeting that it was a vote in protest of legislative pay and stipends he described as out of line with the compensation of working Montanans. After consulting with other Republicans, he said he might propose a bill to reduce those benefits codified in state law. The feed bill approves spending for legislator and staff salaries, travel reimbursements, technology such as laptops, and health insurance for those who elect to accept it, among other expenses. The cuts approved Thursday reduced spending on mileage reimbursements, a secondary stipend amount available to legislators in large districts designed to offset travel and eliminated one of two pre-session trainings for legislators. Another amendment pushed back the timeline for when legislators in the 2019 session would receive their first check; rather than those costs being covered by this bill, legislators would have to include them in the next sessions feed bill. During the last six sessions, legislators have left an average of $400,000 unspent. Committee members hope that the cuts approved Thursday will cut that ending balance in half going forward. If we continue to have these large ending-fund balances, why would we not cut that out of the budget to begin with? Ballance said. The Speaker of the House and the Senate President have authority to decide whether to redirect some or all of that money into the legislative IT fund or to put it back into the general fund. This years leaders will decide what to do with about $500,000. One amendment passed Thursday suggested that up to $93,000 be made available to new legislators for laptops and other technology reimbursements because they do not receive their stipend until July. The committee hoped the rest will revert to the general fund to be spent on other state programs. Based on a formula set in state law, legislators are paid about $90 a day during the 90-day session, and the top leader in each chamber is paid an extra $5 a day. Legislators can choose to decline their salary. Legislators who live more than 50 miles from the Capitol also receive about $100 per day to cover meals, lodging, and other expenses during the session. Legislative Services Director Susan Fox said the double-digit increase from the previous two-year budget was caused by a number of factors: rising insurance costs, offering insurance to more members as required by federal law, and increasing pay for legislators and some staff by up to $1 per hour. The last Legislature also created a new constituent services reimbursement fund to pay for members to travel their district for events and meetings. Each of the 150 legislators receive a $3,000 stipend they can spend on technology, travel, or any other costs. They also can receive up to $4,000 more depending on the size of their district but on a reimbursement basis. The bill now moves to the House chamber for a vote. MISSOULA A "James Earl Ray" march on Martin Luther King Jr. Day by skinheads and white supremacists in Whitefish isn't likely to take place despite claims on an Ohio-based website, Whitefish Police Chief Bill Dial said Thursday. "From what we're gleaning from the intelligence network we're not saying for sure but there's a pretty good chance it's just rhetoric," Dial said of the permit application for the march posted on The Daily Stormer, a white supremacist site. If a march does take place, Dial said community members should go about their day and pay no mind to the demonstration. "Ignore them and carry on with your lives, and don't be afraid," Dial said. Last month, The Daily Stormer website posted a call to "TAKE ACTION" against Jewish people in Whitefish, and it urged a "troll storm" against them. Based in Ohio, the site claimed the "vicious, evil race" had harmed the business owned by the mother of Richard Spencer, a white nationalist leader based partly in Whitefish. Andrew Anglin runs the site, and he later said he was planning for an armed protest in Whitefish. Montana has extremely liberal open carry laws, so my lawyer is telling me we can easily march through the center of the town carrying high-powered rifles, said one post. In fact, the police chief said the city can place a condition that no loaded weapons be part of the event. Thursday, The Daily Stormer posted a copy on its website of an "application for special event" permit signed and dated Jan. 2, 2017. The event was proposed for Jan. 16, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and titled with the name of King's assassin, the "James Earl Ray Day Extravaganza. "You gotta give the guy credit for having a little bit of creativity, as vile as it might be," Chief Dial said. But Dial and city manager Chuck Stearns both said the city of Whitefish had not received an application from The Daily Stormer as of Thursday afternoon. Dial also said the FBI, Homeland Security, and other intelligence agencies do not believe the event is legitimate. "They're like domestic terrorists. They just want to stir the pot and make people afraid," Dial said. At the same time, he and Stearns said the city of Whitefish is planning as if the event will take place. Another event, called "Love Not Hate," is planned in Whitefish on Jan. 7 to counter white supremacist views. If The Daily Stormer files a permit application, the city may place conditions on approval, Dial said. He said convicted felons cannot possess firearms, so Whitefish would vet participants carrying firearms; the city also could set a requirement that no loaded weapons be part of the march. People have a right to demonstrate, and they have protection under the First Amendment. "We'll protect that right," Dial said. "But if it becomes socially disturbing or if it becomes a danger to the community, then we're going to intervene." On the post with the special event application, Anglin claims he has representatives from the United Kingdom, Sweden, and France heading to the march, and that a person from the Palestinian militant group Hamas "will give a speech about the international threat of the Jews." Anglin had said he would call off the march if the people he alleged were harassing Richard Spencer's mother would apologize, but instead, they raised copyright claims of photographs he'd used. "And they will rue the day, as they see two hundred skinhead Alt-Right Nazis marching with a guy from Hamas carrying machine guns through the center of their town!" he wrote. Anglin did not return an email request for comment Thursday. Spencer has said he does not want a march to take place in Whitefish, but he also said he has no control over Anglin. The Montana Human Rights Network has a plan if the march goes through, and theyre calling it Project Lemonade (as in, if life gives you lemons, make lemonade). The project was detailed in a Jan. 2 press release from the Justin & Karin Rosenberg Foundations director Kenneth Stern, who encouraged people to donate money tied to how many minutes the protesters march. If the white supremacists march, theyll be raising money for things they detest, he wrote. Our hope is that no money will have to be collected; that the announcement of the pledges and the realization that if the white supremacists march theyll be raising funds for purposes they abhor will be enough to stop them. The donated money would go to a Human Rights Network-managed fund, who would distribute it to Jewish institutions, security for threatened locals, educational events on the danger of white supremacy and community training on how to handle hate incidents. The foundation promised to donate $10 for every minute the white supremacists march, up to $2,500 total. Anti-Semitic bullies can be stopped, but it is up to us all to stop them, Stern wrote. Whitefish can approve a permit in as little as a day, and it can also set restrictions, such as a requirement the group has insurance and abides by certain rules, the police chief said. "If they do show up, be assured that we at the Whitefish Police Department and all of our state, federal, and local and county partners have a very aggressive plan," Dial said. As for community members, he urged no counter protests. "Don't show up. Don't demonstrate. Ignore them. That's the best thing that we could do as a community," Dial said. HELENA Russell Foster, a Glasgow man who was convicted in 1996 of sexual intercourse without consent for having sex with the woman who is now his wife when they were both teenagers, told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday he supported a bill that would lessen the punishment for people in so-called "Romeo and Juliet relationships." I fell in love with my beautiful wife ... at the age of 19; she was 15, Foster said. Being convicted of the crime and going through required sex offender treatment made life really, really tough and difficult. Foster, 41, and several others spoke in favor of Senate Bill 26, carried by Sen. Sue Malek, D-Missoula, at the request of the Interim Law and Justice Committee. The bill would amend sexual assault laws so that teens 18 and younger who are convicted of a non-violent first offense of having consensual sex with teens 14 and older could serve up to five years in prison and be subject to a $10,000. They would not be required to register as a sexual offender on a state registry if an expert testifies they are not likely to re-offend. The bill does not remove criminal punishment. It also does not change state law saying those who are under the age of 16 are unable to consent to sexual relationships. Current state law calls for from four years to life in prison, a fine of up to $50,000, and mandatory registration on the Sexual and Violent Offender Registry. SB26 is one of several bills brought by the Law and Justice Interim Committee looking at revising and modernizing Montana's rape laws. The Senate Judiciary Committee heard two bills Thursday and will hear two more Friday. The committee took no action Thursday and is not expected to Friday. Foster, who has applied for clemency from Gov. Steve Bullock, was one of half a dozen who testified in favor of the change. No one spoke in opposition, though committee members prodded Malek on clarifying language in the bill as well as the maturity level of teens and their ability to consent to sex. Most who testified asked the committee to expand the age range a year at either end. Amber Foster said teens can be impulsive and do stupid things. They are still kids at school, they meet at school, they hook up at school, they get to know each other, she said. Foster told the committee her husband struggled to find work and they had a difficult time getting a place to live. "It's not what you would want for your family." Malek said teens who are sent to prison could come out in worse condition than when they went in. Teens sometimes fall in love and their relationship deepens and sexual relations result, she said. We are not exonerating 18-year-olds of their responsibility to recognize the vulnerability of a 14-year-old who by Montana law are still children. They would still have a conviction on record. Mark Murphy, who represents the Montana County Attorneys Association, said the change would affect about six cases around the state annually. Senate Bill 17, carried by Sen. Nels Swandal, R-Wilsall, was also heard Thursday. It would allow for teens convicted of sexual offenses who have been been released from incarceration, gone through treatment, and been evaluated as unlikely to re-offend to not have to be registered on the states Sexual or Violent Offender Registry. Swandal said it would let the state focus its resources on tracking those who are likely to re-offend and should be closely monitored and not make it harder to get a job or find a place to live for people who are not likely to committee another offense. On Friday, the committee will hear Senate Bill 29, carried by Sen. Diane Sands, D-Missoula, which would change the definition of lack of consent in Montana to remove a requirement of force. It will also hear Senate Bill 22, carried by Malek, which would allow for a district court to terminate the parental rights of a person who fathers a child by rape if a fact-finding hearing shows there is clear and convincing evidence that a rape was committed. WAPELLO, Iowa - Two members of the Louisa County Board of Health (BOH) will apparently not face any removal action by the Louisa County Board of Supervisors,following a special meeting the supervisors held Wednesday with Louisa County Attorney Adam Parsons, BOH Chair Craig Helmick, and two staff members of the Louisa County Public Health Service (LCPHS). Although an agenda identified the purpose of the meeting as a discussion and possible action regarding Board of Health appointments, it actually centered on pay raises given by the BOH in June to six of the nine LCPHS staff. At Wednesdays meeting, supervisor Randy Griffin said the unwillingness of BOH members last summer to discuss the raises had led to the possible removal action against Helmick and BOH member Rita Adam. He said the supervisors requested a meeting with the BOH shortly after the raises were given, but were told the meeting was unnecessary. We were told you were an empowered board, he said, referring to comments made by former BOH chair Jeri Bailey, who together with BOH Medical Director Dr. Thomas Boyd announced last month they would not be seeking re-appointment when their terms expired at the end of the year. New supervisor Brad Quigley agreed the BOHs decision not to meet with the board was a mistake. I felt it sounded like the board of health was unwilling to work with and failed to meet on a couple of occasions with the board of supervisors, he said. You have to work with the board of supervisors. Its right in the guidelines of the board of health, Quigley continued. Parsons agreed any action the supervisors could take would be based on the BOHs failure to meet with the supervisors rather than the pay raise issue itself. The issue that was brought to me was an issue of the board of supervisors requesting the board of health to come to their meeting and discuss an issue, he said. Because of the BOHs failure to honor that request, Parsons suggested the BOH members could be removed under an Iowa Code reference describing how the supervisors could fill a vacancy that could exist because of illness, death or other cause. Parsons said the other cause reference could give the supervisors an opening to remove BOH members over failing to meet with the supervisors. Thats the only reference in there, he said. Helmick did not dispute the BOH had not immediately met with the supervisors, but said it had eventually met and also had altered the pay raises in an effort to compromise over the increases. The supervisors however said more needed to be done. I think we need to hit the reset button, Griffin said, explaining that would mean returning LCPHS workers to what their pay levels would have been on July 1 without the larger boosts. Interim LCPHS Administrator Roxanne Smith recalled the initial reaction against the larger raises had centered on former administrator Patti Sallees increase and another given to assistant administrator Heidi Pallister. Smith said Pallister, who attended Wednesdays meeting, had offered to reduce her hourly increase by $1, while Sallees increase was no longer involved because she had resigned and accepted a new position in Henry County. It was finally agreed the BOH staff would compile job descriptions to identify current duties and hold a workshop with the supervisors to find a middle ground. I think we are moving forward instead of butting heads, supervisor chair Chris Ball said. CEDAR RAPIDS Sen. Rob Hogg hopes 2017 is the Year of Water in the Iowa Legislature. House Agriculture Committee Chairman Lee Hein, R-Monticello, urges him to think in term of Years of Water. Water quality problems didnt happen overnight and we probably wont have the magic bullet this session or maybe not next session, the Jones County farmer said. While there is general agreement among lawmakers and policy groups on the need for water quality improvements, interest groups pushing for action are concerned that lower revenue estimates and the impact of low agricultural commodity prices will limit the Legislatures ability to fund water quality efforts, according to Kirk Leeds, CEO of the Iowa Soybean Association. Its one of several groups backing a sales tax increase that would channel three-eighths cents of every new penny of revenue into the voter-approved Iowa Water and Land Legacy. GOP Gov. Terry Branstad and Republicans have all but ruled nixed that approach despite the fact they have to cut spending by $100 million during the last six months of the current budget year. The Revenue Estimating Conference also projected lawmakers will have $51 million less to work with in the fiscal year beginning July 1. I dont think there is an interest in raising the sales tax, Branstad said at a Statehouse news conference Wednesday. Even when Democrats controlled the Senate they never passed it. I certainly dont expect the Republicans to do it. Although some Republicans suggest a sale tax increase could be part of a broad tax reform effort that would include income tax and property tax relief, Branstad doesnt. I dont see the interest in raising the sales tax, he repeated. However, legislative leaders say there will be a water quality discussion and indicate the Iowa Water Quality Improvement Plan that 65 House Democrats and Republicans approved in 2016 is a good starting point for the discussion when the Legislature convenes Jan. 9 in Des Moines. That plan, Branstad said, would provide a growing, reliable source of water quality funding. Senate Minority Leader Rob Hogg, D-Cedar Rapids, doubts lawmakers can find the resources in the current budget to fund water quality and other priorities. Like Democrats, in general, Hogg sides with groups representing farm, water, environmental, recreational and natural resources interests in support a sales tax increase. The sales tax, Leeds said, would provide water quality with the same sustainable funding source the state made to transportation with the constitutionally protected Road Use Tax Fund. Weve got to have a long-term commitment, Leeds said. He also suggests lawmakers might not want to dismiss Branstads proposal to use revenue from the school infrastructure sales tax for water quality improvements. Branstad projected schools still would be getting $20.7 billion for infrastructure otherwise funded by property taxes, while $4.7 billion would be channeled to improving Iowa waterways. Although it is opposed by school boards, administrators and teachers, Leeds said that as a school board president he knows school districts especially in districts where enrollment and the property tax base are not growing needs the infrastructure tax extension. Pairing it with another Iowa priority water quality may provide the political compromise needed, he said. Debating funding schemes might be getting the cart before the horse, according to Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Dan Zumbach, R-Ryan. He believes the biggest issue facing lawmakers this year are identifying and defining the problem, and reaching consensus on the degree of water quality Iowans want to achieve. We have a lot of different interpretations of poor water quality, the Delaware County farmer said. Iowans, lawmakers included, need to go through an education process to understand water quality issues. Im not comfortable spending money throwing a solution after something thats not necessarily a problem, Zumbach said. Hogg, an attorney who has authored a book on climate change and its environmental impacts, acknowledges that some legislators remain skeptical about water quality problems. There are people who just want to pretend its not our problems and they think if you make the Clean Water Act go away the problem goes away and thats just wrong, he said. MUSCATINE, Iowa Grandview Avenue will be greener, more pedestrian-friendly, and may include some roundabouts, officials said on Wednesday night. City and Environmental Protection Agency officials, along with design firm Stockwell Engineers presented these and other options for the 2.2- mile stretch of Grandview Avenue from Pearl Street to Highway 61. The design, they said, is not final and they wanted input from citizens and other stakeholders. Muscatine city engineer Jim Edgmond said the new designs will reasonably and possibly entice or beckon, dare I say, seduce them [motorists] to come into town. David Locke of Stockwell Engineers, the company the EPA hired for creating the design, presented the design option for five areas along Grandview Avenue, emphasizing parks, pedestrian zones and safer ways to direct traffic. He offered two design options for each of the five areas along the corridors, some of which included roundabouts. Locke said the firm will incorporate comments and submit revised design options by next February. The designs will be finalized next July, with construction set to begin in 2019. Edgmond said the EPA funded the design process, and that the city will fund the construction cost in part through Federal and state money. The city, he said, does not have an exact estimate for the cost of the project. He anticipates the city will have an estimate in 5-6 months, once the designs are finalized. WAPELLO, Iowa - The face-off between the Louisa County Board of Supervisors and the Louisa County Board of Health (BOH) over salary raises approved by the BOH in June continued Wednesday morning during what essentially turned into an informal joint meeting of the two boards. The BOH approved its proposed Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 budget that included the June increases, which amounted to five to 29 percent increase for six of the nine employees of the Louisa County Public Health Service (LCPHS), but not a 2.5 percent boost the supervisors have been targeting for most other county employees next year. Supervisor Chris Ball, who serves as the supervisors representative on the BOH, opposed the decision while BOH members Craig Helmick, Rita Adam and Whitney Howell, who is still waiting for formal supervisor approval to the BOH, voted in favor. Even with the increases, FY 18 spending by the BOH would still drop nearly $30,000 from its re-estimated FY17 spending of $717,378, BOH officials pointed out. However, it was the June increases that continued to upset the supervisors, who during earlier discussions have said the BOH-approved raises exceeded what had been offered to other county staff. Supervisors Randy Griffin and Brad Quigley joined Ball at the Wednesday meeting, although Griffin was the only one who made a statement for the supervisors. We have a meeting today with the county attorney to consider our options. Something is going to happen and we are telling you that we dont accept that decision, he said. Adam asked Griffin to more fully explain what problems the salary increases, which are being funded through grants, have caused. Public health has never gone over budget as I recall, she said, adding former LCPHS Administrator Patti Sallee had worked hard to obtain grants that had provided additional services in the county. Griffin did not directly respond, but said the issue needed to be resolved soon or services could be impacted. Something has to be done shortly because this could easily begin to affect your services and hurt the people you are serving. We dont want that to happen, he said. Griffin and Quigley left shortly after Griffin made his comments, but the BOH addressed the salary issue again later in the meeting, when it agreed to accept a compromise suggested by Interim LCPHS Administrator Roxanne Smith and Assistant Administrator Heidi Pallister. Smith said Pallister had offered to reduce her increase by $1 per hour, provided the BOH raised nurse Robin Grimms salary by $1 per hour, explaining they had felt Grimm had been shorted on her increase compared to the rest of the staff. In other action, the BOH received its monthly environmental health update from sanitarian Greg Lemke. It showed one septic system pre-inspection had been completed in December and a permit issued. There had also been four final inspections, two complaints investigated and two time of transfer reviews completed. There was no work related to well permits or water testing, Lemke reported. The BOH also approved a memorandum of understanding on an office space rental agreement with Lutheran Services of Iowa to operate a child abuse program. MUSCATINE, Iowa - The Muscatine County Parkinsons Support Group will meet at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 12, at the Muscatine County Extension Office, 1814 Isett Avenue, Muscatine. Social time will be from 3:30-4:00 p.m. with the program to follow. Deb and Ralph Daniello will recount Ralph's involvement in "Honor Flight", a program to honor those who served in the military in WWII (now including those who were involved in Vietnam and Korea) by sponsoring their trip to Washington, D.C.. to tour their war memorials. Anyone whose life is affected by Parkinsons is welcome to come and join us. MUSCATINE, Iowa Franklin Elementary teacher Sarah Meyers and Ss. Mary and Mathias teacher Alexandra Henke received the 2017 Stanley Foundations Catherine Miller Explorer Award on Wednesday. The award, now in its 11th year, will fund a summer trip to a country of their choice. Meyers, who teaches English at Franklin and McKinley Elementary, received her award at an impromptu student assembly in the Franklin Elementary gym. She applied last November and had no idea she was called to the gym to receive the award. Ive always had this urge to travel, [I] just havent had the opportunity to do so and I thought this was a good chance for me to at least try, and I was happy to get it, Meyers said. In the application process, Meyers wrote an essay about a country she would like to visit she chose Thailand, though the destination of her upcoming trip is not yet final. Whatever country she chooses, she said, will help her bring new experiences to her students. A lot of the EL [English Learner] students, they like learning about other places because they have done traveling to get here, she said, adding that other students enjoy learning about animals in other parts of the world and her travels will help her bring this knowledge to the classroom. Henke, who teaches fifth and sixth grade social studies and religion, was lured to a conference room under the guise of a meeting she was surprised to learn she received the Explorer Award. Im just really excited to share this with my students and with my school, and as a social studies teacher, I think it will be great to inspire my students to keep exploring and keep learning and know that theres a lot of opportunities out there, she said. Henke wrote her essay about India, but she hopes to get her students involved in helping her decide on the destination for her summer trip. Jill Goldsberry, program officer at the foundation, presented the award to Meyers and Henke, calling it one of the best parts of her job. She said the trips help teachers develop themselves. We think that professional development for teachers is important and there are all sorts of ways to do that, but certainly one way is to give them a global experience because when teachers come back from these trips they have a different perspective to share with their colleagues and with their students, she said. And the goal of the trip goes beyond developing a specific lesson plan. More than developing specific lesson plans it really has to do with widening a persons perspective so they think about bringing in current event, they think about bringing in how people live in another country, she said. Students, she said, benefit from classroom exposure to other cultures in the classroom, especially because they may choose to move away when they grow up. Most of them [students] probably wont end up living here, she said. If you look at how our job force and our work force is going, people move all over the place. The award is named in honor the late Catherine Miller, an activist and longtime Muscatine teacher who died in 2008. WEST LIBERTY, Iowa The new year is bringing changes to West Liberty's economic development group. Lee Geertz, the outgoing president of WeLead West Liberty, reported to the City Council Tuesday night the resignation of Shannon McNaul as the group's director has been accepted. And Sandee Buysse-Baker, the incoming president, reported Iowa State University Extension is discontinuing its partnerships with similar groups all over Iowa, including WeLead West Liberty. But she added ISU will continue working with the West Liberty group because of it has been a success. "We haven't finished negotiations of what that will look like," Buysse-Baker told the council. "The director will no longer be an employee of ISU." WeLead was organized in 2007 in partnership with the city, the county, and ISU Extension. Geertz said the four core goals set forth in 2009 have been met leadership development, developing work skills and job creation, conducting a housing survey and visioning, and teaming with Muscatine Community College to establish a regional learning center. Buysse-Baker said continued partnership with the city and county will be essential as WeLead moves forward. "I appreciate the fiscal support we have received from the city," she said. "As soon as we have a director hired, we will move forward into strategic planning." In other business: The council approved payment of claims totaling $265,227. The council set a budget work session for 5:30 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 17. The council went into closed session to discuss potential litigation strategy. 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 [] Monied businessman Chris Obure has been arrested days after he was accused of using his firearm to threaten revelers outside B Club in Nairobi. The incident outside the popular club was Obures fifth reported altercation involving misuse of a firearm. According to a report made at Kilimani Police station, Mr Obure had double parked his Range Rover at the premises blocking other revelers. When he was asked to move his car, Mr Obure got infuriated, drew his pistol and threatened to shoot the two customers. He then reportedly smashed a drivers windscreen of a Volkswagen Passat. On November last year, Mr Obure was involved in another altercation at Klub House in Parklands. He had then threatened to shoot Mr Alex Lwin but no action was taken. Police have urged members of the public who may have been threatened by Mr Obure to record statements. Residents of Sagalla in Voi, Taita Taveta County, are fearing for their lives after more than 200 elephants invaded their farms. A middle aged woman on Monday died of shock at Mghange village after she saw a herd of elephants outside her house. According to her relatives, Ms Florence Wangai died on the spot after seeing the elephants destroy her chicken house. Farmers in the area have accused the Kenya Wildlife Service of failing to control the animals. The marauding elephants destroy farm structures, water pipes, crops, anything they come across. We fear that the animals might get more destructive and kill people, said Mr Cromwel Mwachai, a resident. KWS has been saying they will drive the animals away as soon as possible but since last month they are doing little, he said. KWS assistant director in charge of Tsavo Conservation Area, Julius Cheptei, blamed the increased cases of human-wildlife conflict on the lack of an electric fence between Tsavo West and Sagalla area. In the last two weeks we drove out over 250 elephants but since it is a migration season we are unable to control them, he said. Mr Cheptei said the area is a migration corridor for elephants crossing from Mkomanzi Park in Tanzania to Tsavo National Park in Kenya. He said the agency seeking a lasting solution and is planning to put up an electric fence. Earlier this week, Washington-area news media reported that Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, daughter and son-in-law of the president-elect, would be moving into a six-bedroom, six-and-a-half-bathroom house in the District of Columbia. The house, which sold on December 22 for $5.5 million , $400,000 under the listing price, is less than two blocks from where President and Mrs. Obama will live after they leave the White House. (It isnt clear whether the Trump-Kushners had bought it or will be renting from the buyer). Kalorama may sound like a 1950s invention: a competitor, perhaps, to Cinerama. But it turns out this name dates back to 1807, when it was bestowed on a single house in the neighborhood by its owner, the poet Joel Barlow. (Barlow was also an ardent supporter of the American Revolution, a friend of Thomas Paine, and a proponent of the French Revolution who eventually accepted French citizenship. His DC house was demolished in 1887 to make room for a street extension.) Barlow coined Kalorama from Greek roots meaning beautiful and wide view. The surrounding area remained rural until the late 19th century, when it was subdivided for development. When, in 1893, Congress ordered the original Pierre Charles LEnfant city plan extended to include the entire District, existing developments were exempted. And so Kalorama, along with a very few other neighborhoods, does not conform to D.C.s elegant grid system. There was a minor craze for -orama coinages in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, when Greek words caught English speakers fancy just as Greek building styles captured English and American architects. Panorama, which originally meant a painting on a revolving surface, was coined around 1789 by the Irish artist and inventor Robert Barker. Diorama, which was adopted into English from French in 1823, originally referred to a type of picture-viewing device; its current meaning of a small-scale replica of a scene is from 1902. -orama, -arama, and -rama are popular commercial suffixes as well. A sampling, culled at random: FUN-O-RAMA and TEACH-O-RAMA are trademarks registered to the Arthur Murray company for dance instruction and competitions; SWAP-O-RAMA is a company specializing in flea market services; PANT-O-RAMA is a brand of shapewear; and SALMON A RAMA (sic) is a trademark registered to Salmon Fishing of Wisconsin for organizing and promoting fishing contests. When selecting wines for entertaining, many people play it safe, reaching out for the popular tried and true brands. Then there are the adventurous types, wine lovers seeking artisanal, underground wines, crafted in garages or backyards. Such oenophiles were out in strong numbers at the sixth annual Garagiste Festival in San Luis Obispo County this fall. The term garagiste originated in Bordeaux, France, in the mid-1990s, coined to denigrate renegade small-lot vignerons who, in reaction to opulent Bordeaux chateaux, often made wines in their garages. Some winemakers, however, embraced the term, which traveled across the Atlantic and took root in Paso Robles with the inaugural Garagiste Festival in 2011. We literally started in a garage, said Doug Minnick, who co-founded the California Garagiste movement with Australian actor-turned-winemaker Stewart McLennan. Minnicks Hoi Poloi label started with a mere 250-case annual production that has increased to 850 cases with the 2016 vintage. Based in Studio City, Minnicks wines are produced in Valencia with fruit sourced from Sonoma, Santa Barbara County and Paso Robles. The tasting room is scheduled for a December opening in Old Town, Newhall, California. This is what defines Californias Garagiste winemakers: they could be based in one city, produce wine in another and source fruit from all over the state, blending varieties from different appellations and sometimes mixing multiple vintages to produce non-vintage wines. We are free to do what we want, Minnick said. Take West of Temperance. Marin County-based winemakers John King and Brian Ojalvo produce their wines in Napa and source grapes from all over California. We get fruit from off-the-beaten track vineyards, said King. The aglianico and teroldego come from Yolo County, but pinot noir is sourced from the Santa Rita Hills appellation and sangiovese and zinfandel from Hopland. Only a maverick team like King and Ojalvo will produce a non-vintage wine like Colorfield, a blend of eight varieties from five counties mixed with three vintages. Its a niche that never existed before, said McLennan whose annual production of Golden Triangle cabernet sauvignon and syrah wine amounts to 200 cases produced in Paso Robles. At Garagiste festivals, its the owner and winemakers pouring the wines; there are no sales representatives behind the tasting tables. This is not a drunk fest, said McLennan. Sure festival-goers may get a buzz, he mused, but they want to be educated and interact with the winemaker. For a wine aficionado, what turns you on is the ability to meet the winemaker. The Garagiste movement has gathered momentum over its six-year history and now stages three annual festivals in Solvang, Paso Robles and Los Angeles. Funds raised at these events benefit the wine and viticulture program at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. At our first event we had 30-40 wine producers, said McLennan at the Friday Night Heaven kick-off tasting at the Carlton Hotel in Atascadero. Now we have a data base of 400. The list of these winemakers can be found on www.californiagaragistes.com. The group (with no membership fee) draws winemakers from all over the state, although the majority of them come from Central Coast with a couple of dozen wineries from Northern California. The only restriction is that the winerys annual production is less than 1,500 cases. Most of the 60-plus winemakers at the Saturday grand tasting held at the Paso Robles Fairgrounds have outgrown garages and many use custom crush facilities. But there remains a handful of true garagistes. Patrick Lynch, a firefighter by day, converted his three-car garage into a production facility and a temperature- controlled barrel room. Under the Lynch wines label, he produces 200 cases annually in the Sierra Foothills Placer County. Lynch attended a Garagiste festival a few years ago and was so impressed he thought, We can actually do this. With wife Chelsea, he launched the Lynch Wines label, sourcing fruit from local vineyards. Their first vintage of 2012 syrah garnered high points from wine critics. We network with each other and its easy to find fruit, said Lynch, who noted Placer County is now home to some 20 wineries. Lynch poured an earthy and spicy 2014 Lucky Cash Rhone blend and a lush 2013 Strummer syrah. Based in Healdsburg, veteran winemaker Katie Nowell-Smiths wines are truly artisanal, from label design to vinification. She tends her two-acre vineyard in the Russian River Valley, selling the syrah and mourvedre fruit and keeping the grenache for her own bottling. Using one-ton bins and a basket press in her garage she notes her wines are very handmade. Nowell-Smith worked at Stuhlmuller Vineyards and Porter Creek, transitioning from a 25,000 annual case production to a minuscule 150 cases per year of her own label. Her goal is to reach 500 cases. The festival also allows an opportunity to taste wines from little-known regions. Winegrower Steve Aldens vineyards are perched atop Mendocino Ridge at 1800 feet elevation. Above the fog, said Alden. This is the only noncontiguous appellation in the U.S. and one that he helped establish in 1996. On his 2,000-acre ranch, he has planted 300 acres of pinot noir and zinfandel, producing 230 cases per year and selling the balance of his fruit to wineries such as Ed Meades and Arista. Stewart Johnson of Kendric Vineyard makes a substantial production of 1,200 cases of Marin pinot noir in San Franciscos Treasure Island. His vineyards are in Marin County, a region one doesnt associate with wine making. However, Kendric pinot noirs proved to be savory and earthy in the Oregon style. Long Beach-based Contractor Greg Martin and his school teacher wife Pamela launched their Seven Angel Cellars in 2009 in Templeton, with a production of 70 cases now grown to 1,500-case annual production. Wine is an incredible art form, said Martin, who specializes in marbling finishes. Theres an infinite possibility of blending new wine profiles. Seven Angels bottles several well-balanced blends, among them, the 2013 Confession, a complex blend of cabernet sauvignon, syrah, sangiovese and merlot. There were some exciting Central Coast white wines at the festival, an albarino from Diabo Paso; Alexandrine, a Rhone blend from Dubost Ranch; and grenache blanc from Kaleidos. But red wines ruled, primarily Bordeaux and Rhone varietals with some Italian and Spanish. Some brilliant Rhone blends came from wineries such as Alta Colina, Brian Benson Cellars, Caliza, Nicora, Paix Sur Terre, and an elegant 2014 mourvedre crafted by Bastien Leduc of Seven Oxen Vineyard in Paso Robles. The Saturday grand tasting was preceded by two seminars. At the Peek Behind the Curtain, veteran winemaker Adam Lazarre, who straddles the world of large- and small-scale winemaking, shared the ups and downs of both sides. Lazarre has served as director of winemaking for several large companies, among them Costco and Whole Foods brands. He also makes a small production of Lazarre wines in Paso Robles. In large-scale production, you lose control and are at the mercy of the cellar crew, Lazarre commented. And I have a CFO and controller looking over my shoulder. At the garagiste level though, you make the wine you like and connect with the consumers. Paso Robles esoteric blends were featured at the second seminar on Illegal Blends illegal because you couldnt do these in France with a white blend from Ascencion Cellars, a tannat and petite sirah blend from Pulchella, and Mad Crush from ONX, an over-the-top concoction of grenache, tempranillo, malbec, mourvedre and zinfandel. Such an audacious blend can only come from outlaw there are no rules garagistes. Napa County is exploring the idea but so far only tentativelyof establishing an online animal abuse registry to help keep pets safe from people who could harm them. Such a registry would list people who have been convicted of animal abuse. It would be similar to registries such as Californias Megans Law website that shows the names and addresses of registered sex offenders. You just have to put on big boots and take that big step, local resident Kim Richard urged the Board of Supervisors in December. Lead the way. I have faith in each and every one of you. Richard has four dogs and four cats, all rescued animals. The animal abuse registry is absolutely necessary, Richard told supervisors. I would not want to live next door to an animal abuser, any more than I would want to live next door to a violent offender. At this point, the county will settle for lobbying California legislators to establish a state-wide animal abuse registry. This is the kind of thing that works better and is more effective when it is done at the state level, Supervisor Diane Dillon said. Richard said a county or city starting an animal abuse registry can spur a state to follow suit. She predicted if the proposal for a county animal abuse registry appeared on the ballot, it would easily pass. Her next step will be to circulate a petition supporting the creation of a county animal abuse registry. This might give supervisors the push they need to move ahead with one, Richard said Wednesday. The fight is just beginning, Richard said. The Board of Supervisors had the chance and still has the chance to step up and do the right thing. Various counties in other states have animal abuse registries. For example, the Albany County, New York registry displays the names, photographs and addresses of four people convicted of animal abuse. It is illegal to sell or adopt an animal to these people. Tennessee has a statewide animal abuse registry listing four people convicted of aggravated cruelty to animals. Hillsborough County, Florida, has a registry listing one person convicted of owning animal fighting equipment. After talking with Richard, Supervisor Mark Luce brought the topic to the Board of Supervisors. Its about setting a tone that we expect people to respect their animals and treat them properly, Luce said. Napa County had a high-profile animal abuse case this past year. Santa Clara firefighter Nicholas Luiz pleaded no contest to two charges of animal cruelty after killing his 6-month-old German Shepherd puppy Woody at his former Napa home and was sentenced to 210 days in jail. The county has had five animal cruelty convictions over the past two years, a county report said. But a county-specific registry would be limited to Napa County convictions only. That means the Napa County Animal Shelter and Adoption Center using a countyonly registry wouldnt know if an adopting party has animal cruelty arrests or convictions in another county or state, the report said. In Hillsborough County, Florida, potential adopters must sign an affidavit under penalty of perjury stating they have never been convicted of animal cruelty. Retailers are then required to verify this information and notify animal control to seize a pet adopted to someone convicted of animal cruelty. Taking this approach would cost the Napa County Animal Shelter significant staff time and resources, given the annual average of 1,000 adoptions, the county report said. The report didnt mention a dollar amount, but said increased costs would have to be discussed with cities that help pay for the shelter. In addition, such a law passed by the county Board of Supervisors wouldnt affect most pet stores, given they are in cities governed by city councils. It would affect stores only in the unincorporated county. County staff recommended trying instead to convince the state to create a statewide animal abuse registry. Supervisors agreed, though they left open the possibility that this is only a first step. Eight ducks and one goose were found dead draped over a wooden fence at Newell Open Space Preserve in American Canyon on Sunday afternoon, according to American Canyon Police. Chief Tracey Stuart said that she had no idea who had shot the waterfowl or why they would leave them behind. It is illegal to hunt waterfowl at the preserve, she said. A 25-year-old Woodland man was arrested on suspicion of vandalism after allegedly causing more than $1,000 in damage at the Taco Bell at South Napa Marketplace, according to Napa Police. Taco Bell employees told police that the man had vandalized and destroyed a paper dispenser and the top of a toilet in mens restroom at about 6:20 p.m. Monday. Employees described the suspect to police since he had already fled the scene, police said. The following day, the restaurants manager saw the suspect, who was later identified as Richard Daniel Madderra, in the area. Madderra was arrested at the Chevron station next door to Taco Bell. Madderra was booked at the Napa County jail on suspicion of vandalism. Portuguese wine production dates to ancient civilization but it is a rather unfamiliar region for wine drinkers in the United States. You may know of Port or Madeira or even Vinho Verde. But have you heard of Alentejo, Dao or Tejo? Meet Ayesha Trump (no relation) of Douro Vino Selections who is on a mission to bring artisanal wines from across Portugal to the United States. Ayesha never thought she would be taking people on a journey into Portugals geography, cuisine and history through its wines. Born in Mexico, she was working as an oil consultant and traveling for work. While in Spain for work, she decided to take a vacation weekend to Portugal. On a warm summer night, she found a tiny restaurant in Lisbon where the owner gave her a mini-master class on the wines of Portugal. This amazing experience embodied Portugal and Ayesha fell in love. As she explained, I fell in love with the entire package, the food, the wines, the culture. She emptied personal contents from her suitcase to fit a few bottles of wine in to bring home. Back in the United States, Ayesha noted that there were not a lot of Portuguese wines to be found in the market. So, she decided to start her own import business, despite having with no experience in the wine industry. With no knowledge about importing wine, Ayesha spent the next six months researching her idea. She visited wine retailers to find out why Portuguese wines were not readily available. She got her importer and distribution licenses, as well as an online retail license. She asked hundreds of questions to retailers, sommeliers and the state Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC). And then she booked a flight to Portugal, rented a car and started driving around, meeting with producers. Ayesha studied, asked questions and learned through experiences. She trained her brain to understand wine. She traveled back to Portugal with Roy Hersh, a great resource on Portuguese wine and the founder of For The Love Of Port. And in 2015, she launched DOuro Vino Selections, an importer of boutique and organic Portuguese wines, and began, for the time being, selling wine in Southern California. DOuro Vino Selections is dedicated to representing a unique portfolio of boutique Portuguese winemakers who offer impeccable quality, character and value. They are masters in the craft of winemaking and strive for excellence and uniqueness. The wines will take you on a voyage of authentic taste and exceptional discovery. Herdade de Mouchao Located in Alentejo, where 80 percent of the worlds cork comes from, this stunning winery has vineyards dating to 1901. Herdade do Mouchao believes in the true craft of winemaking. From traditional foot treading at harvest time to hand presses as old as the winery, Mouchao remains a traditional, family-run winery focused on producing award-winning wines. Quinta Da Lapa This estate in the Tejo region has existed for more than 300 years. It is a winery in which its history can be felt in a glass of the wine. Casal da Coelheira Located in the Tagus River wine region, Casal da Coelheira, which means house of rabbits, is a traditional Portuguese winery that features timeless architecture on the outside and state-of-art winemaking technology and processes on the inside. Jose Maria da Fonseca Founded in 1834, Jose Maria da Fonseca is in Setubal, a region famous for moscatel. Jose Maria da Fonseca is the oldest producer of table wine and Setubal Moscatel in Portugal. Quinta do MouraoQuinta do Mourao, located in the Douro, is a producer of extraordinary Tawny Ports and DOC wines. The winery has been owned by the Braga family since it was purchased by Mario Braga in 1972 and today his son Miguel Braga is the owner and winemaker. Quinta de LinharesLocated in the Vinho Verde region, the largest and among the most fertile growing regions of Portugal, Quinta De Linhares produces a range of Vinhos Verdes with the grape varieties Loureiro, Avesso, Azal and Arinto from their 21-hectare vineyard. Ayesha knew that when she started DOuro Vino Selections that her lack of knowledge about wine could be held against her, but she has taken a fresh approach, using her inexperience to work in her favor and focusing on learning what the customer wants. I know my limitations but it does not stop me. I am persistent. I do not take no for an answer. To me it is not work, it is fun. She has been quickly growing DOuro Vino Selections, making placements in many prestigious accounts across Los Angeles. In 2017, the portfolio of Portuguese producers will also include Luis Pato from the Bairrada Region, Vertice from the Douro Valley and Julia Kemper from the Dao Region. In addition, DOuro Vino Selections will be expanding throughout California, and beyond. Perhaps this will be the year that we all develop a passion for Portuguese wines. Welcome to Navigating the Storm Navigating the Storm is dedicated to providing a revolutionary analysis on the current crisis of the capitalist world-system and to facilitating ongoing strategic discussion between revolutionary anti-imperialists forces (i.e. revolutionary nationalists, communists, anarchists, etc.) towards the building of a collective orientation and program to guide our action over the course of the next four years and beyond. This blog is facilitated by Kali Akuno and will be updated regularly with new installments of the Navigating the Storm series, articles and information on the development and resolution of the current crisis, and commentary and analysis by various organizations, individuals, and subscribers to the blog. UNITY and STRUGGLE 23:14 Questioning the role a society that churns out men like them, Anushka in an emotional Twitter post wrote, "Women get molested in a crowd. Bystanders watch, no one steps to help. Senseless people comment on women's clothes and say the cause is late nights (sic)." The actress said these senseless comments get relevance because such people hold positions of power in the society. "In all this I wonder - why did bystanders do nothing? Whoever stood and watched, is as much at fault as perpetrators. Because the collective conscience of the people could have stopped this from happening. "So it is not just those men but also us, as a society, that failed on that night," she said. The actress ended her post by saying that people should teach their children to respect women instead of making their sons feel more entitled and important. "Teach your kids to respect women instead of making sons feel more entitled and important. The world will make them feel that anyway. So save your sons from turning into such beasts. And spare us the grief," she wrote. Actress Anushka Sharma has condemned the Bengaluru molestation, saying not just those men but everyone who saw it and did nothing was to be blamed. Sharif was addressing an International Parliamentary Seminar on Kashmir here. "Seventy years of brutal repression and Kashmiri struggle in the face of that oppression have shown cries of freedom cannot be stifled by sounds of bullets," he said. He called for an end to the "continued suffering" in Kashmir, where a separatist campaign which New Delhi says is armed and financed by Islamabad has left thousands dead. Sharif called militant Burhan Wani, whose killing in July last year triggered widespread unrest in the Kashmir Valley, as a "vibrant and charismatic leader" who "has become a rallying point" for Kashmiris. He said India and Pakistan had promised to recognise the Kashmiri people's right to self-determination. Sharif said Pakistan would continue to support the separatist struggle in Jammu and Kashmir. --IANS ahm/mr ( 164 Words) 2017-01-05-15:32:07 (IANS) According to a statement, the operations began on Wednesday in 18 of 34 Afghan provinces. "In one operation, the Afghan air force struck the enemies' positions, killing five Taliban militants and destroyed two vehicles in Maruf district, southern Kandahar province," Xinhua news agency said, quoting the ministry statement. Ten insurgents, including two foreigners, were killed and nine wounded during a cleanup operation along a highway connecting southern Helmand province with the neighbouring western Nimroz province, the statement said. It said the security forces also found and defused 20 landmines and Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) there. The Afghan army commandos destroyed a militants' bunker and seized arms and ammunition in Maywand district of Kandahar, the statement said. The remaining casualties occurred in separate provinces. The statement did not disclose if security forces suffered any casualties. Also, a security guard was killed and a passerby injured in an IED explosion in Jalalabad. --IANS sakshi/sar/bg ( 184 Words) 2017-01-05-18:20:12 (IANS) "Allegation that China adopts double standards on the UN Security Council 1267 committee listing matter does not stand. China takes action based on solid evidence that is the one standard we use," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said here. Geng was responding to remarks by Indian Minister of State for External Affairs M.J. Akbar on Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Azhar, accused of masterminding the 2016 Pathankot terror attack on an Indian air base. Geng said: "We have taken a responsible and constructive part in relevant discussion in a professional and objective way. "Relevant members differed on this issue. The purpose of China to put forward technical hold on that issue is to create enough time for the committee and relevant parties to consult with each other on the relevant issue." China was the only country among the 15-member Counter-Terrorism Committee of the UN Security Council that objected to India's application to list Azhar as a global terrorist. "China takes a very objective and just and professional attitude... Up to now the Committee is yet to come to an agreement on this issue and we would like stay in communication and coordination with all relevant parties including India," Geng added. --IANS ahm/mr ( 246 Words) 2017-01-05-19:38:07 (IANS) English said on Thursday that his first overseas trip as the country's Prime Minister would take him to Brussels, London and Berlin from January 9 to 18, Xinhua news agency reported. "This is an opportunity to exchange views on a range of issues facing Europe and the world, and to reaffirm that New Zealand remains a committed friend and partner," English said in the statement. "The focus of my trip will be to advance New Zealand's business and trade opportunities in the region, including starting the negotiations on an FTA (free trade agreement) with the European Union in 2017." In Brussels, English would meet with the three presidents of the EU -- European Council President Donald Tusk, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and European Parliament President Martin Schulz -- as well as Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel. In London, English would meet with British Prime Minister Theresa May. "I will be interested to hear Prime Minister May's views on Brexit and will take the opportunity to reaffirm New Zealand's commitment to working towards a high quality trade deal when Britain is in a position to negotiate," English said. In Berlin, he would meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble. He would be accompanied by Trade Minister Todd McClay in Brussels and Foreign Minister Murray McCully in London and Berlin. New Zealand's ruling centre-right National Party selected English as its leader in December 2016, after the shock resignation of John Key, who had served eight years as the Prime Minister. --IANS in/ ( 291 Words) 2017-01-05-10:48:12 (IANS) Some stations will have exclusive ticket counters while the tickets can be purchased from customer care centres in the remaining ones. The cost of the ticket is Rs 30 for an adult and Rs 20 for children. --IANS vn/sm/mr ( 77 Words) 2017-01-05-15:06:10 (IANS) Reacting to media reports about the quantum of demonetised currency that has been returned to the banks by the December 30 deadline, the Reserve Bank of India on Thursday said such estimates may not be correct. The RBI said the aggregating of accounting entries made at the various currency chests still requires to be reconciled with the actual cash balances in order to eliminate accounting errors and double counting. "The periodical SBN (specified bank notes) figures released by us were based on aggregation of accounting entries done at the large number of currency chests all over the country," an RBI said in a statement here. "Now that the scheme has come to an end on December 30, 2016, these figures would need to be reconciled with the physical cash balances to eliminate accounting errors/possible double counts etc. Till this is completed, any estimate may not indicate the actual numbers of the SBNs that have been returned," it said. The RBI is taking all steps to complete the process expeditiously so as to release firm figures of SBNs received at an early date. On November 8, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 currency notes were no longer a legal tender, saying the move was aimed at eliminating black money, counterfeit currency and terror financing. Citizens were given up to Decmber 30 to deposit the old currency in banks. Media reports on Wednesday, citing sources, said that about 97 percent of the demonetised currency notes worth Rs 14.97 lakh crore have been deposited back as on December 30. The government had earlier estimated that about Rs 15.4 lakh crore was to be taken out of the system by way of demonetisation. Under fire for the slow pace of re-monetisation and the on-going cash crunch, the government has announced various concessions to promote digital transactions and has been urging the public to move towards an economy that transacts less in cash. --IANS bc/vt ( 340 Words) 2017-01-05-15:08:07 (IANS) New Delhi [India], Jan 5 (ANI-BusinessWireIndia): Kqpoker.com an online poker gaming site for Indian poker players is proud to announce a mega event to celebrate our 1st anniversary and welcome the New Year. Noting the requests made by our esteemed members to throw in something special to revel in our anniversary we have decided to hold this Rs. 12 Lacs GTD Live Mega Event. Welcome to the exhilarating world of online poker India at Kqpoker.com! Yes, you read it right! It is an unbelievable opportunity for you to earn 12 Lacs by spending only a nominal amount of Rs. 12. This is a live event which will be held at our premises, Kings and Queens Poker Club, Bangalore on February 5, 2017 at 2:00 p.m. sharp. However, we are glad to share with you that you can generate this amount by just playing the Daily Step-Satellites with only Rs. 12. For the entire month of January there will be six satellites that will be running at 1:00 pm, 3:00 pm, 5:00 pm, 7:00 pm, 9:00 pm, and at 10:00 pm on a daily basis. Out of these six satellites, the first five are step-satellites. So when you crack any of these step-satellites you will get a ticket to the main event satellite at 10:00 p.m. everyday which is worth Rs. 280. And the best part is that the main event satellites guarantee two tickets to the 12 Lacs GTD Mega Live Event! To get more information on the Daily Satellites or their schedules please click on the promotions tab on Kqpoker.com home page which has been updated and running in Kqpoker.com's Tournament Lobby. Terms and Conditions: Multiple TKT won by the same player to the Main Event can be used by the particular player only for Re-entries to the tournament. Main Event Satellite tickets cannot be reimbursed for cash at any point in time nor transferred to a different player. Players outside Bangalore will get their travel expenses (only flight/train/bus fare) reimbursed on Kqpoker.com as RCB if they qualify through the sattys. All winnings of the main event will be credited to your Kqpoker account which can be withdrawn at any time. TDS will be applicable to all withdrawals above Rs 9,999. Players will be subject to TDS deduction of 30 percent if winnings are withdrawn at the club. (ANI-BusinessWireIndia) Out shopping with some money he managed to withdraw from his bank in this Madhya Pradesh district, a farmer was shocked when shopkeepers returned the Rs 2,000 note saying it was a fake since it had no picture of Mahatma Gandhi on it. However, the State Bank of India branch, from where Lakshman Meena had withdrawn the money, on Thursday said they had changed the notes and attributed the faulty notes to a "printing mistake". Meena and some other farmers from Bicchugavandi village had withdrawn money from a State Bank of India branch in Baroda town on Tuesday. He had chosen to take out Rs 6,000 and received three notes of Rs 2,000 each. On Wednesday, when Meena went out to buy groceries, he was told that the notes do not have the picture of Gandhi and can be fake. A worried Meena went back to the bank with all haste. "The notes with missing Gandhi were taken back and exchanged for new ones. They were not fake but printing mistake," SBI bank official Aakash Srivastav told IANS on Thursday. According to sources, the amount was received from SBI's Sheopur branch chest in bundles of Rs 2,000 in which there were other notes as well with printing issues, because of which the bundle is being sent back to the branch. It is not yet known how many others have received such notes. Since the demonetisation in November 8 last year, many such cases involving Rs 2,000 notes have come forward, such as notes with two pictures of Gandhi or having no water mark. But this was the first case where the Mahatma was entirely absent. --IANS hindi-sm/vd ( 292 Words) 2017-01-05-17:52:07 (IANS) In a video shared on Twitter, the 'Rustom' of Bollywood states it's not about how a woman dresses, rather it's about how small a person's mentality can be. In the clip, the 49-year-old said, "As a father of a daughter, I would say, that a society which can't give women the respect that they deserve doesn't deserve to be called a civilized society." Akshay even gave a befitting reply to those who said the incident is being taken over context. He said it's shameful that there are some people who dare to justify a woman's harassment. Khiladi Kumar feels, "We r evolving backwards, from humans to animals, rather beasts coz even animals are better!" The 'Airlift' star is the latest B-town celebrity to crtiticize the incident as earlier Aamir Khan, Farhan Akhtar and others have also condemned the episode. (ANI) Gandhi said that Sri Guru Gobind Singh ji was not only creator of the gracious "Khalsa," but was also a renowned spiritual master, warrior, poet and philosopher. He sacrificed his entire life at the altar of safeguarding the rights of underprivileged and fought against injustice, tyranny and social differences. "It is a day to rededicate ourselves to the ideals of equality, brotherhood and compassion as epitomised by Guru Gobind Singhji, she said. His profound message of leading an honest, truthful and virtuous life continues to guide and inspire entire humanity", she said.(ANI) President Pranab Mukherjee will send a New Year message to the Governors and Lieutenant Governors of states and Union Territories through video conferencing from Rashtrapati Bhavan today. The message will be delivered through the National Knowledge Network (NKN) platform. The NKN project is aimed at establishing a strong and robust Indian network, capable of providing secure and reliable connectivity. (ANI) The Admiral was accompanied by Reena Lanba, President Navy Wives Welfare Association. On arrival, Admiral Lanba was briefed on the activities of the Command and later held discussions with Vice Admiral HCS Bisht, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief and other Flag Officers. Thereafter, the Admiral visited major establishments of the Command and addressed Commanding Officers, specialist officers, Master Chief Regulators and Defence Civilians in separate meetings. Reena Lanba, President, Navy Wives Welfare Association (NWWA) interacted with the Executive Committee and ladies of the Organisation, and visited NWWA facilities. (ANI) The trouble torn state of Manipur is all set to go for polls in two phases in March 4 and 8 battling a month long economic blockade by Naga groups. The state of Manipur, which is currently governed by Congress under Mr Okram Ibobi Singh, has been grappling with a law and order situation. The blockade had started as a response to the Congress government to create seven new districts in Manipur, a decision opposed by the United Naga Council, which led the blockade. Manipur has a total of 60 seats and is considered a powerful centre for Congress. However, the Bharatiya Janata Party is making all efforts to make its presence felt in the upcoming assembly. Bigwigs of the saffron party, including party president Amit Shah, has already addressed rallies in the state prior to the announcement of the polling dates. Political analysts said that the issue of territorial integration has once again occupied the centre stage and the Congress government has been successful in recreating a 2012-like situation when it romped back to power on the same issue. The Centre has heavily criticised the Ibobi government for letting the situation get out of control which arose out of economic blockade and subsequent violence in the state over the land dispute issue between Naga's and Meiti tribes. The Election Commission (EC), which has been maintaining a close eye on the law and order situation in Manipur, had earlier raised concern over the situation and sought a report from the Union Home ministry on the same. The law and order situation, deployment of polling personnel, safety and electronic voting machines and strict implementation of the Model Code of Conduct were some of the main concerns of the EC. The EC had also said that it will make an independent assessment of the situation before announcing whether or not the state will go for a poll. The fact that it has announced the date, it means Manipur is all set to get the ball rolling. The date for election changes a lot of things as the Congress has been looking for an election date before March and the BJP which had been pushing for an election date only after the blockade comes to an end. The current term of the government is ending on March 18. The commission has taken several new initiatives for the upcoming assembly election, including colourful voter guide along with electoral slip with information on poll booth, dos and don'ts for voters and parties.UNI ABI A -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0108-1094803.Xml The University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce's index rose to 73.7 last month from 72.3 in November. The first rise in three months "is due to the government's year-end stimulus measures, an improvement in exports and better commodity prices, including rubber, as well as year-endspending," the university said. The military government last month allowed Thais a tax deduction of up to 15,000 baht ($420) on goods bought between Dec. 14-31 to spur spending. It also approved an additional tax break to lift tourism. The junta has introduced stimulus measures in a bid to revive Southeast Asia's second-largest economy, which has struggled to regain traction since the military took power in a bloodless May 2014 coup. Exports, a key growth driver, have been weak due to tepid global demand while high Thai household debt levels have crimped consumption. Domestic activity has also slowed due to cutbacks in personal spending following the death of King Bhumibol Adulyadej on Oct. 13. The government declared a year of official mourning but has stressed that business should carry on as normal. The central bank has forecast economic growth of 3.2 percent in 2016 and this year. KEY DATA Overall Consumer Confidence Index, which reflects views on the economy, job opportunities and future income. The survey is usually done in the last week of the month. Dec Nov Oct Sept Aug July June May Apr 73.7 72.3 73.1 74.2 73.2 72.5 71.6 72.6 72.7REUTERS CJ PR0933 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0400-1094710.Xml The Court, however observed, that it has no objection if the lands were acquired as per the Land Acquisition Act 2013. The Telangana government had issued GO 123 in July, 2015 for land acquisition through direct purchase from owners for public purpose including various projects. The Land Acquisition Act was enacted by the then UPA government in 2013.UNI SMS CS 1200 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0275-1094839.Xml The Gorkhaland Territorial Administration had challenged the petition in the apex court regarding the state government's order in which it had not given the power for discharging its administrative charges. A bench of the Apex Court headed by Chief Justice of India Jagdish Singh Khehar issued notice to the West Bengal government and sought a reply from it. The Supreme Court in September had taken up the petition filed by Gorkhaland Territorial Administration. The petition filed by GTA member Binay Tamang claimed that the state government's decision was "impinging upon the fundamental rights of the Gorkha people living in the hill areas of the district of Darjeeling". The bench headed by the then Chief Justice T. S. Thakur asked the 2011 notification issued by the West Bengal government promising transfer of power in terms of a memorandum of agreement (MoU) to be presented before the court. However, the officials then had said that the petition alleging state government's refusal to transfer administrative power is misleading. "We are progressing with the matter as in a timely fashion. Of the 59 subjects, 55 have been handed over to GTA," said a senior home official. (ANI) The New Year saw the Supreme Court of India passing a judgment that has genuine implications on the business of politics. A thorough reading of the judgments given by the 7 judges reveals some very interesting points of discussion. Two questions plagued the Justices: firstly, what method of legal interpretation should decide the scope and meaning of Section 123(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 ('the Act'); a literal or a purposive contextual interpretation. Secondly, what is the Constitutional position on the balancing of diverse interests with the secular nature of our polity? Justice Madan B. Lokur (and Justice Rao and Justice Thakur), who represented the majority opinion, answered these questions after beautifully tracing the legislative history of the Act and the precedents under the same. The majority opined that a purposive interpretation was necessary keeping in mind "the social context of Section 123(3) and today's social and technological context" (Paragraph 46 of his judgment). He also stated that since S.123(3) was introduced as an amendment to the Act around the time that Section 153A of the Indian Penal Code was introduced (prohibition on promoting enmity between groups on various grounds), in Parliament all those years ago, they must be read together. It was the legislative intent to prevent "fissiparous, communal and separatist tendencies". (Para 28). There was no fundamental right to be elected, and therefore Article 19's protection in the Constitution, had no bearing on a candidate. Candidacy was a special right that came with conditions of conduct. Justice S. A. Bobde, added on to this stating that Section 123(3) protected the entire transaction; the voter's right to vote and the candidate's pitch. (para 2 of his judgment). Any appeal made to an elector by a candidate/his agent on the ground of religion, race, caste, community, or language of either the candidate, his agent or the elector, amounts to a corrupt practice, was laid down. Honourable Justices Goel, Lalit and Chandrachud, who dissented, brought out how secular discourse and politics did not automatically neglect the guarding of special interests based on the grounds listed above. The Constitution enshrined several protections to ameliorate people disadvantaged based on these grounds. Based on this, the dissenting judges believed that there was merit in continuing the judicial position that the law only prohibited a candidate from seeking votes based on his religion etc. One issue with the judgment is the practical implications off "any appeal". When candidates make pitches to the people, the language and mediums they use will come under scrutiny so that it does not fall foul of this judgment. The Court remained silent on providing guidelines on how to determine this, stating that "it is a matter of evidence". Not providing some guiding principles or tests for determining whether language used will constitute an appeal on non-secular or divisive grounds, has left the matter not fully resolved, and open to re-litigation. The line between mere discussion and any appeal must be drawn. There is truth the legal reasoning of all seven judges. Given how Indian politics has largely been a power protecting exercise, the question we must answer impartially is, have diverse interests been protected? Indian politics exemplifies what the Greek playwright Aristophanes wrote in the play "Knights", "to win the people, always cook them some savoury that pleases them." No political party anywhere in India can claim that they are free from accusations of pandering to a stratum of voters. The two major ruling parties, BJP and the Congress, at various points in history, have had allegations of being pro - Hindutva or pro - Muslim levied against them. In 2014, India recorded its highest voter turnout of 66.4%. One of the reasons for this was a desperate need in radical change in policy. This judgment is a big boost to the modern Indian voter, as well as a reminder that Indians irrespective of their background, have a lot of common interests in need of protecting: better infrastructure, a fairer tax regime, access to education, job opportunities, proper wages and working conditions, and accountability of the Government to name a few. MPs and MLAs should not be asked what they are being done for a given section, but what they are doing for Indians entirely. This judgment views the election process in entirety, and scrutinises the position of the voter. If we are truly to be a secular nation, our leaders must be elected through a secular mechanism. Gaining votes based on parameters such as religion, deviates attention on more essential questions of common development. The multi-party system was adopted to represent the myriad interests in India. There are sections of society who have been denied basic human rights and their needs merit genuine representation and discussion. The judgment will have a positive implication on this if it is applied in good faith and in true sense of its wordings. It will motivate parties to speak policy to the people's who's interests it seeks to represent. It will dissuade parties from asking people for votes based on fear of being marginalised. The judgment could change the political dialogue of the country. Religion and language should be deeply personal and should not determine how people interact with one another. The concept of caste and community discrimination should hold no value in social interaction. An election is not about the candidate alone. It is about the vision the candidate has for his given constituency and the needs of the voters (who are of different backgrounds) in that constituency. Without a judicial push backed by legislative intent of this kind, politics will never reform itself. This is not an idealistic fancy or wish. This is a legitimate issue that plagues our Governance structures today. To have free and fair elections, parties cannot be allowed to divide the electorate. (ANI) According to sources, Mishra and Punjabi were standing on a roadside and talking on Wednesday night when at least four men on motorcycles fired shots at them. They were seriously injured and taken to a private hospital where they were declared dead. Talking to IANS, Police Superintendent Hari Om Sharma said that the police suspect the assailants were targeting Punjabi but Mishra was killed in the process. Punjabi was from a criminal background and had many cases registered against him. He added that the attackers will be identified soon as investigations are on. The motive behind the killing, however, remains unclear. --IANS hindi-vgu/vt ( 142 Words) 2017-01-05-14:16:08 (IANS) Maoist guerrillas killed two men they had abductded overnight in Jharkhand, police said on Thursday. Sanjay Singh and Vijay Singh were kidnapped from Patehl village, around 160 km from here, on Wednesday night. Their bullet-ridden bodies were recovered on Thursday morning. --IANS ns/ksk/sar/mr ( 51 Words) 2017-01-05-14:28:06 (IANS) There was complete chaos and clashes in the state as people fought for a spot in queue for petrol and essential supplies. For the last two months, most of the oil depots remained closed and people were compelled to import petrol from neighbouring Myanmar. As the news spread that some trucks escorted by security left Jiribam yesterday, people started lining up in front of petrol pumps since last night. After the government announced today that the vehicles having coupons issued by the government will be given petrol, a tense situation arose in the state. However, only the government vehicles were given few liters of petrol. People have been spending nights in front of the oil depots to get petrol, which is now sold in black market at exorbitant prices. Most families even do not have LPG cylinders which forced them to eat at restaurants and prepare food using electrical gadgets. Most hospitals do not have adequate supply of oxygen and life saving drugs. More UNI NS RN AD -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0108-1095021.Xml The agreement will cover over 50 markets, including SAARC and ASEAN region, Middle East, Africa, Russia and Latin America. As Tata Motors expand their international footprint, Castrol with its established presence in these markets, will support Tata Motors' channel partners with high quality products and services to enhance their market share and profitability, the Tata Motor sources here said. Tata Motors is a key strategic global account for Castrol and this new agreement is a step forward in the partnership which goes back three decades, starting in India where Tata Motors is the largest commercial vehicle manufacturer. As a preferred partner of Tata Motors, Castrol will work closely with the Tata team to co-engineer products suited to meet specific requirements of new engine technology and environment regulations. Commenting on the agreement, CEO and Managing Director of Tata Motors Limited, Guenter Butschek said, "Tata Motors has had a long and enduring partnership with Castrol in India, delivering exceptional products and outstanding service for our customers. We are delighted to extend this partnership to a global level and look forward to leveraging our complementary strengths to offer our channel partners high quality support." CEO of BP Lubricants Mandhir Singh said: "Tata Motors is a valued key global strategic account for Castrol and we are excited about extending our relationship to global markets." "As Tata Motors explores new markets, we are committed to supporting them with our pioneering technology products, superior service offers and expertise in retail marketing and promotion, to add value to this partnership," he said.UNI BM AD1442 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0108-1095073.Xml Teleportation of living beings will remain in science fiction, though it is possible to teleport objects, Nobel Laureate Serge Haroche said today. Giving a lecture at the 104th Indian Science Congress here, he explained to a questioner that teleportation is like obtaining a copy from the xerox machine. ''You need to have an empty shell of the teleporting point at the other point, but in the case of a original copy that remains after being copied, the teleported object would not remain," he said. This is highly impossible in teleporting a cat or a human being, he said, adding that living organs could not be teleported and the concept shall continue to remain only as science fiction. Prof Haroche who at length explained about the developments in Quantum physics said that the cubits developed could be as small as an atom and it is difficult to further reduce their size. He said quantum computers though can become a reality are still a distant dream. He could not visualise when it could be achieved. However, he said exciting days are ahead in the field. A 2012 joint winner of Nobel Physics prize along with David Wineland for his work in advancing ability to control and observe individual quantum systems. He said, "when it comes to the smallest components of our universe, our usual understanding of how the world works ceases to apply. We have entered the realm of quantum physics. For a long time, many quantum phenomena could only be examined theoretically." Starting in the 1980s, Prof Haroche had designed ingenious experiments to study quantum phenomena when matter and light interact. He has been able to capture photons using another kind of trap two mirrors which they can bounce between. This device allowed Prof Haroche to study the photons by passing atoms through the trap.UNI CNR SHS ADG 1501 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0329-1094923.Xml Samsung Electronics Co Ltd has set an initial production target of 10 million Galaxy S8 smartphones, South Korea's Electronic Times reported on Thursday, citing unnamed sources.Samsung is counting on the S8 to rejuvenate sales after it scrapped the Galaxy Note 7 smartphones last year in one of the biggest product safety failures in tech history.The firm has yet to disclose what caused some Note 7 phones to catch fire on their own.The newspaper said the world's top smartphone maker would start production in March and planned to start selling them in April. Galaxy S7 phones went on sale in March last year.A Samsung spokesman said the company did not comment on speculation. REUTERS CJ PR1319 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0400-1094939.Xml The culprits responsible for the incident ofmolestation of a young woman past midnight on December 31 in thecity, that shook the entire country, had been identified and strictaction will be taken against them, Karnataka Home Minister GParameshwara today said. Police sources said four youth who were responsible for theincident had been arrested. They were among 12 youth who had beendetained by the police for questioning yesterday. Police Commissioner Praveen Sood would brief the media aboutlatest position on police investigation later in the day. The CCTV footage, recorded in a nearby residence in Kammanahalliarea where the molestation case was reported showed that the womanalighting from an autorickshaw at 2.40 AM on December 31 and walkingto her PG accommodation when two scooter borne youth stopped near her and molested her. When she raised alarm she was pushed to the ground hard and the two accused fled. The incident had shook the city and led to severe condemnation byNational Women's Commission and general public on police failure tosafeguard women in the city. Dr Parameshwara confirmed that the government had received noticefrom NCW while Governor Vajubhai Vala had also sought a report onthe incident. ''The government will soon reply to the notice and also send areport to the Governor,'' he said. When asked whether Governor had asked report on the particularincident or on general law and order situation in the state,particularly in the city, the Minister said he had not read theletter sent by the Governor but was 'informed' about it by hisPrincipal Secretary. The Minister alleged that his interview to a private TV channelon the eve of the new year had been 'twisted' and taken out ofcontest. He had never said that Western culture and dress embracedby young women had led to such incidents. ''Though I spoke about Western Culture and dress being practicedby young women I never said that this had led to the incidentssexual attacks on women,'' he claimed. Dr Parameshwara charged that other incidents on the eve of thenew year when thousands gathered in downtown M G Road and BrigadeRoad and some girls were allegedly molested, had been projected in a'wrong' way by the TV and Print media. ''Bengaluru was seen in a badlight due to such projection. Ours is a peaceful city and safe forchildren, women an elderly persons. Kannada speaking persons weredecent people and such incidents should not change the face of thecity,'' he said. He alleged that negative projection of the so called incidentsall began on January 2 and he wondered whether it was a conspiracyand there was an 'hidden agenda' behind such a (media) campaign. When asked on the statement made by the legal advisor to thegovernment, Brijesh Kalappa, who had alleged that BJP was behindsuch incidents to defame the government, Dr Parameshwara said he didnot know in what context he had made the statement. ''According tohim it could be true,'' he said. He however hinted that there was a political conspiracy and hewould come out with the facts in two days. Saying that the government was committed to safeguard women'sinterests, he said the government would be increasing the womenamong the police force from the current five per cent to 20 per centin a phased manner and install 5000 CCTV more cameras in the city.Out of this 550 would be installed within two months.UNI RS MSP RSS1400 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0287-1094986.Xml Members of Mandya Raitha HitharakshnaSamithi and Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha have urged the stategovernment to defy the Supreme Court order to release 2000 cusecs ofwater to Tamil Nadu from River Cauvery until February 7, as therewas no storage in the Reservoirs and already facing severe drinkingwater crisis in this region. In a statement here, G. Made Gowda, President, Mandya Zilla RaithaHithrakshana Samiti and former MP, expressed his displeasure overthe direction and urged the State government to "defy the apex courtorder". He said that due to loss of crops due to failure of monsoon rainand unable to pay the loans, many farmers have committed suicide. Inthis situation the State government should defy the orders andprotect the interests of the State farmers and ensure drinking waterduring summer. "If the State government releases water, the Samithi has noalternative but to launch agitation," he warned. Meanwhile the farmers started their agitation in the district byresorting to Road block on Bengaluru-Mysuru State Highway for few hours. Cauvery Niravari Nigam Ltd., sources said that the live storage(usable water) in the KRS stood at just 2.162 tmcft as against itsmaximum capacity of 49.45 tmcft. The live storage on thecorresponding day last year was 19.319 tmcft. The water level in theKRS was 79.44 ft. last evening as against 105.79 ft. on thecorresponding day last year. The inflow into the KRS was at the rate of 269 cusecs today. UNI BSP MSP CS 1511 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0287-1095110.Xml "Trinamool MPs detained by Delhi police outside PMO," the Trinamool party said in a tweet. According to sources, 32 MPs of Trinamool were detained while they were protesting at South Block outside the Prime Minister's Office. They were later brought to Mandir Marg police station. They said the agitating MPs were shouting slogans against Mr Modi, expressing their disappointment over arrest of party MPs in chit fund scams. Yesterday also when the Trinamool parliamentarians marched towards the Prime Minister's residence, they were taken to the Tughlaq Road police station and briefly detained there. Their leaders, including Lok Sabha MP Saugata Roy, sat on a dharna at the police station. Talking to reporters, Mr Roy alleged that some of the leaders were also manhandled by the police.UNI DS SW ADG 1530 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0177-1095118.Xml Google CEO Pichai Sundararajan today became a big nostalgic for sometime while recalling his experiences at IIT-Kharagpur during study and announced the DigitalUnlocked programme to help small and medium enterprises in India go online. Forty-five-year-old chief executive officer of Google Inc Pichai Sundararajan, also known as Sundar Pichai told the present students that he first saw computers at this institute. While interacting with the students, Pichai answered questions at an open-air theatre in the campus at the event titled 'A journey back to the past to inspire the future', which was attended by over 3,500 students. " It was an amazing four years for me here (IIT-Kharagpur). It been phenomenal to come back," Pichai, who met Anjali at the IIT campus and married later, said. He also recalled how difficult it was then to call some one when there were no smartphones. He said, it was great to be back and meet his old teachers and new students. Recalling how they bunked classes and also how hard to the study during exams, saying it was not easy thing to get admission here. He also narrated how was mess food as "one of the favourite questions on mess food, people would ask us to guess whether it was sambhar or dal." The CEO also shared his thoughts how he faced new friends when he hardly know Hindi after coming from Chennai. " I thought abbey saale" was a way to call out to people, though I learnt a bit Hindi in college. I met my wife here. It was not an easy task to walk and meet then," he said about Anjali. " Some things don't change, but overall there has been a lot of change I see here on campus. I'm sure my share of experiences weren't too different from what you have here even today. I have had lots of good memories. You make friends for a lifetime," he said. The Google Inc CEO said among the new initiatives, including a training programme called Digital Unlocked, aimed towards small and medium businesses in India. "Google is working on products for the country that can be expanded globally." India has huge potential as digital market in the country was growing tremendously. " Indian companies now need to set their sights on bigger things. I am confident you will soon see big global innovations coming from India very soon." he said. Pichai also adored Infosys founder Narayana Murthy as his ideal during his college days. "I admire people like that who put India on the map," he said. He added that he loved watching Tendulkar play. Pichai was also asked about his favourite actress, to which he replied it would be Deepika Padukone. A student asked Pichai what she'd have to do to replace him. "I'd tell her Be careful what you wish for, but happy to discuss over a cup of chaai," he said. The function ended with a selfie with everyone. UNI XC-PC AKM 1642 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0213-1095302.Xml The Puducherry unit of the Youth Congress today resorted to a novel agitation to protest against the demonetisation of higher value currencies of Rs.1000 and Rs 500 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the cash crunch in the Union Territory. Alleging that the demonetisation has caused unbearable hardships to the common people, the youth Congress volunteers laid wreaths to the ATM centers here and shouted slogans against the BJP government at the centre. Youth Congress All India Secretary Jebin Netha who took part in the agitation said Mr Modi had assured that the problems arising out of demonetisation would be resolved by December 31. However, nothing was materialised and still people are waiting for hours at ATM centers to withdraw their cash.UNI XC CS 1618 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0275-1095208.Xml Mr Shah along with other party leaders paid obeisance at the Gurdwara and also participated in the 'Langar Sewa'. The BJP president took to the micro blogging site Twitter and posted pictures of his visit to the Gurdwara. The birth anniversary of the 10th Sikh Guru is being celebrated across the country with religious fervour and gaiety. The main function to mark the occasion was held in Gandhi Maidan in Patna and was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.UNI RBE-NY SW ADG 1627 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0427-1095169.Xml On the occasion of inaugural function of four-day mega event 'Advantage Maharashtra Expo -2017' here at Kalagram, jointly organised by the Marathwada Association of Small Scale Industries and Agriculture and Maharashtra State Tourism Department, the Chief Minister said, ''in the last six months, Rs 68,000 crore investment has come in our state, proving that our state is coming on top due to the state government's dynamic decisions and good governance in past two years.'' Mr Fadanvis added that, upcoming DMIC project at Shendra MIDC near here has more potential for industrial sector, including small and big. He made it clear that industrialists should start their industry within stipulated time, once they allot lands in industrial area. If they fail to start industry then the government will take back the land, he said.More UNI VKB NV AE ADG 1626 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0169-1095160.Xml Rare migratory birds are being spotted in and near Sultanpur National Park here, including the white-tailed eagle and yellow-legged button quall in neighbouring Bhindawas Bird Sanctuary, for the first time in 90 years, wildlife officials said on Thursday. According to officials, about 35,000 birds have been spotted in Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary till now as compared to over 25,000 birds last year. Besides Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary, rare birds have been spotted near Mangar in Faridabad and Aravalli forest area. "White-tailed eagle, yellow-legged button quall and lesser white-fronted goose have been in neighbouring Bhindawas Bird Sanctuary in Jhajjar district of Haryana, for the first time in 90 years," District Forest Officer (wildlife) Shyam Sunder Kaushik told IANS. "It's a great thing and we have decided to celebrate World Wetland Day on February 2 in Bhindawas. This day marks the date of the adoption of the Convention on Wetlands," Kaushik said. He said that Sultanpur park has recorded first sightings of Brown-breasted flycatcher, Scaly thrush, Asian brown flycatcher, Besra and Large-tailed nightjar in Mangar. Birdwatchers said that many birds have been spotted for the first time in over 50 years. Birdwatcher Suresh Kumar said that White-capped redstart in Haryana's Sonipat, Grey- headed lapwing, Montague's harrier, Singing bush lark and Tickell's leaf warbler were spotted at Sultanpur park. Kumar said that the rare bird Black-naped tit, which was recorded as first sight, was spotted in Rewari. "These birds are not common in the region and have been spotted first time this year. The pattern of migratory birds has changed due to urbanisation at a global level," he added. Other spotted rare birds include Chestnut-tailed starling, Blue-capped rock thrush, Common grasshopper warbler, Whimbrel, Hume's lark, Northern lapwing, Demoiselle crane, Spotted crane and Great bittern. "Birds are very sensitive and migrate according to safety and food and water availability," said an expert. Migratory birds start coming in from different parts of the world beginning October and return to their respective homelands in March, which is also their breeding season. (Pradeep Singh can be contacted at pradeepsinghrao@gmail.com) --IANS pradeep/vgu/bg ( 354 Words) 2017-01-05-18:22:06 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vashundhra Raje Scindia wished Mr Singh on telephone for his healthy and long life. Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik and other senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders also visited at Mr Singh's residence to wish him well. Several Union Ministers also wished the Rajasthan Governor on telephone. Celebrating the occasion in a simple way, the former UP CM attended a hawan by the Gayatri Pariwar at his residence in the morning and then in the afternoon cut a cake in presence of the family members, including his son Rajveer Singh, who is BJP MP from Etah. Some followers and supporters of Mr Singh distributed sweets and fruits after the celebrations while some of them performed 'Hawan' and offered prayers for his long life. Several BJP leaders, including those who will be trying their luck in Assembly polls, also visited the residence of Mr Singh to wish him.UNI MB AE ADG 1849 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0196-1095368.Xml Police have arrested four persons in a molestation case against a lone woman who was walking to her room on December 31 night and the incident had attracted widespread criticism. Police Commissioner Praveen Sood confirmed the arrest of the four persons in their early twenties. They have been identified as Iyappa, Leno alias Lenin, Soma Sekhara alias Chinnu and Sudesh. They all belonged to Kammanahalli area where the ugly incident took place, when the young woman, who had come to stay in the area just a week ago, was targetted when she alighted from an autorickshaw past midnight on the new year eve. Earlier police had detained 12 suspects and four among them were arrested today, Mr Sood said. They have been slapped with serious charges of sexual harassment and others under IPC section 341, 341A, 354B, 354D and 34 of the IPC, wrongful restraint, sexual harassment, forcing a woman to disrobe and other charges. But activists demanded that it was a police failure to safeguard the woman and demanded a case under mass molestation be filed and IPC sections under non-bailable clauses be slapped. Mr Sood, answering a barrage of questions said the woman had alighted from a autorickshaw past midnight and the stalkers in two-wheelers were on the prowl. While the first duo followed her, as seen in a CCTV footage given by a near resident in the teeming locality, two persons followed her while the other two in another two-wheeler were seen waiting in the narrow road. When one of the two two-wheeler riders accosted and groped her, she shouted for help but no one came to rescue, this was evident from the CCTV footage. When she raised the voice, the duo pushed her violently to the road and fled. Mr Sood said two more accused riding on a scooter were identified but absconding. He said they were all youth employed as delivery boys or helpers in private firms. The Commissioner said the arrested had confessed to their crimes and have been produced in a court today. He however said there could be a conspiracy into the incident as the area where the young woman resided in single accommodation was not a secluded area. Earlier in the day Karnataka Home Minister doubted a conspiracy to defame the State government. Dr Parameshwara confirmed that the government had received notice from NCW while Governor Vajubhai Vala had also sought a report on the incident. ''The government will soon reply to the notice and also send a report to the Governor,'' he said. The Minister alleged that his interview to a private TV channel on the eve of the new year had been 'twisted' and taken out of contest. He had never said that Western culture and dress embraced by young women had led to such incidents. Legal Advisor to the government, Brijesh Kalappa, who had alleged that BJP was behind such incidents to defame the government, Dr Parameshwara said he did not know in what context he had made the statement. ''According to him it could be true,'' he said. The incident is turning to be more political with the government expressing reservation over media reports. Dr Parameshwara even said their could be a political conspiracy and he would come out with the facts in the next few days. (Eds: Pick up suitably from earlier series).UNI RS MSP CS 1849 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0287-1095643.Xml After getting overwhelming response to the silent march at different places across the state, the Maratha community has now decided to take out the 'morcha' on January 31 in Mumbai to press for their demands. Addressing the media person here, the organizers of the morcha said the first 'Maratha Kranti Muk Morcha' was taken out in this city on August 7 last year, after the disgusting incident of gangrape and brutal murder of a teenage girl belonging to the community at Kopardi village in Karjat taluka of Ahmednagar district on July 13. After that a series of similar morchas were taken out by the Marathas across the state, including in Nagpur during the winter session of the state assembly and handed over a memorandum of their demands to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and all the concerned government officials. ''Now we have decided to carry out another similar 'Muk Morcha' in Mumbai in which the members of the community are likely to participate from across the state and we will submit a memorandum of our demands to state Governor C Vidhyasagar Rao,'' they said and added that if the state government failed to fulfil their demands, then they would teach a lesson to the rulers in coming election. The main demands of the Marathas are the death penalty to rapists as early as possible, changes in Atrocity Act and reservation in education as well as government services for the members of the community. UNI VKB SS PY ADG 1947 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0169-1095753.Xml Police said, on a tip off, they raided a place in the city andarrested the trio, including a women. They were identified as MsShobha the 'manager' of the spa, Assistant manager Shehavaj andhousekeeper Sharif Sab. Two other accused, who wereidentified as Amit and Sudir Kumar, escaped from the scene. A CCB statement said the three women-- all foreign nationals twofrom Thailand and one from Ukarine were rescued. During the raid, a cash of Rs 50,890, six mobile phones and One DVRwere seized.UNI MSP RS CS 1942 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0287-1095779.Xml Members of the Sikh community, including women and children, in colourful dresses visited Gurdwaras across the district and offered prayers. Devotees paid obeisance at the Gurudwaras and participated in the 'kirtans' recited by the 'ragis'. However, the main congregation was held at Gurdwara Guru Nanak Dev. The management of the Gurdwara had made all arrangements, including langar, for the devotees. Congregations were also held in Gurdwaras at Nanak Nagar, Talab Tillo, Bhour Camp, Simbal Camp, RS Pura and other parts of the region. Jammu and Kashmir Governor NN Vohra and Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and leaders of other political parties have greeted people on the occasion. Tight security arrangements were also made around the Gurudwaras to avoid any untoward like incident.UNI VBH SDR SNU 2021 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0431-1095886.Xml Six Fishermen, who were missing since November 27, 2016 from Andaman and Nicobar Islands, have been reportedly rescued from Sri Lanka. All fishermen from Manarghat and Wright Myo areas of South Andaman namely Mohd. Nazir, Usman Ali, Krishna Nag, Ravi Ram, Balram, Anand, have now been reported safe. "One of the fishermen, Mr Nizam contacted his family members and as soon as we got the news from our end we have intimated the matter to Sri Lankan Embassy in India and Indian Embassy in Sri Lanka. All fishermen are at a Port at Sri Lanka and are in their own boat," said the Deputy Commissioner of South Andaman area Udit Prakash Rai. The Deputy Commissioner said all efforts are being made to bring all fishermen back to Port Blair safely. "We have contacted Sri Lankan Navy also and told them that the fishermen reached Sri Lanka by accident. Today their medical examination has been done. We had a detailed chat with the fishermen this morning, who told us that they drifted far away from Andaman after their medium size boat developed some technical snag. However using sail they reached Sri Lanka somehow," he said. Cyclone Vardah had hit Andaman in the second week of December and it was feared that the fishermen had fallen victim of Vardah. Meanwhile, it is learnt that the fishermen have asked their family members to ask the support of the Andaman Administration for bringing them back to Port Blair through Union Government. Talking to UNI, the Pradhan of Mannarghat Panchayat, O Bashir, said that fishermen contacted their family members over phone yesterday and he has already brought the matter to the notice of District Commissioner of South Andaman and the Director of Fisheries.UNI SKR SDR SNU 2053 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0214-1095855.Xml The City Police today arrested Mallakanti Malyadri, proprietor of MM Constructions and his wife Suhasini for cheating banks to the tune of Rs 21.75-crore with fake documents.Addressing a media conference here, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Naveen Gulati said the accused were involved in the real estate business. They first took a loan of Rs 83.75-lakh from Bank of India, Suryabagh branch, in 2013 on a 606 sq yards of land in Madhurawada. They repaid Rs 20-lakh but evaded further payment.When the bank officials examined the documents, they were found to be fake. On their complaint, police investigated and found that on the same documents, Malyadri took loans of Rs 7-crore from Punjab National Bank, MVP Colony, Rs 3-crore from SBH Seethampeta branch, Rs 5-crore from Central Bank of India, Port Stadium branch, Rs 5-crore from Lakshmi Vilas Bank of Dwarakanagar, Rs 80-lakh from Canara Bank, Seethammapeta branch, and Rs 28-lakh from Andhra Bank, Bheemunipatnam, and failed to repay.There were also several land grabbing and cheating cases against Malyadri in the past and six cases were pending in the PM Palem Police Station. A rowdy sheet was also opened against him, he revealed.UNI BSR SDR SNU 2200 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0431-1095934.Xml Speaking to UNI, AAP Goa Spokesman Rupesh Shinkre said, ''Mr Kejriwal will be addressing public meetings at Vasco and Benaulim on January seven and at Sankhalim and Mapusa on January eight.'' This would be second visit of Mr Kejriwal in the poll-bound state in past one month. His last visit was on December 19, when he addressed a public rally at Cuncolim in South Goa wherein he had announced the candidature of former bureaucrat Elvis Gomes for the Chief Minister's post in the run-up to Assembly elections. The party has announced to contest all the 40 constituencies and has so far announced 36 candidates. The Assembly elections in Goa are due on February four.UNI AKM SS SM SDR SNU 2158 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0169-1095923.Xml Noting that India's relationship with the Gulf has been on a "remarkable positive track", Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs M.J. Akbar on Thursday said the traditional buyer-seller relationship in oil between New Delhi and the oil producing countries is changing. Speaking at the inauguration of GOPIO Global convention in Bengaluru, Akbar said that the Gulf countries are investing in India's strategic petroleum reserves. Akbar said India's security relationship with the Gulf countries forms a critical part of its commitment to peace and elimination of terrorism. "A security relationship of such dimensions can only happen when there is enormous trust and unflinching resolve," he added. Akbar's statements assume significance as India will have its first Strategic Dialogue with UAE in Delhi on January 20. And New Delhi will be a host to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Bin Sultan Al-Nahyan on Republic day. India has signed a framework agreement with Saudi Arabia for an investment of 1 trillion dollars in infrastructure development over the next five years. "A security relationship of such dimensions can only happen when there is enormous trust and unflinching resolve," he said. "But few things illustrate the success of our engagement with the world more than the dramatic escalation in ties with UAE, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, forged under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Sceptics were startled when the King Salman bin Abdulaziz, Custodian of the Two Holy mosques, presented the "Sash of King Abdulaziz", Saudi Arabia's highest civilian honour, to our Prime Minister," he added. Akbar later shifted his focus to its long-time ally Russia who listed its achievement in forging strong cooperation in the fields of defence, energy, information technology, trade and investment. "The first-ever project in the defence sector under PM's flagship "Make in India" program is with Russia. Units I and II of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) have been already dedicated to the nation and work on Units III and IV began in October 2016," he added. Akbar said India's relationship with America is based on shared values and popular impetus which has acquired unprecedented momentum. "India has become a Major Defence Partner of America. FDI investments from the US have risen from less than a billion dollars in 2014 to USD 4.5 billion this year. A contract is being negotiated with Westinghouse for a 6600 MW nuclear plant," he said. "We are collaborating with the US across a wide range - from counter-terrorism to building smart cities to clean energy technologies," he added. (ANI) For most Indians, tsunami became a household word after the 2004 disaster that pounded the country's eastern coast and killed several thousands. But researchers at the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) in Goa have found that ancient Indians of the Harappan settlement (some 5,000 years ago) were aware of tsunamis and had taken measures to protect themselves. Reporting this in the "Current Science" journal, they say this conclusion is based on their new interpretation of the extraordinarily massive walls -- of thickness up to 18 metres -- found at Dholavira, a Harappan city in Gujarat. Dholavira is the second-largest Harappan settlement known in India and, perhaps, the best-planned Harappan city with several divisions and many new features hitherto unknown, they say. According to their report, the architectural framework of Dholavira comprises a castle, a middle town and a lower town confined within massive walls, "making it a unique fortified settlement". The presence of extremely thick protective walls implies that the Dholavirans were probably aware of the magnitude of destruction caused by tsunami waves, says the report. According to the NIO team, the ancient Indians would not have built these huge walls for protection against floods or military invasion by enemies since these threats did not exist then. Dholavira is located on the banks of small water channels -- Mansar in the north and Manhar in the south -- the researchers say. "Therefore, it is highly unlikely that these channels posed any flood-related risk to the people since the elevation of Dholavira settlement is sufficiently high". The possibility that these walls were built for defensive purpose was also ruled out since the only weapons available during the Harappan days were "sling shots and bows and arrows". Even the Great Wall of China is only about nine metres thick at the base and tapers to 3.7 metres at the top. On the other hand, being close to the sea, Dholavira could have been vulnerable to oceanic calamities. The sea-level changes are well-documented for the western coast of India and, 4,000 years ago, the sea level was higher than at present. "Being on the Makran coast, the area is prone to tsunami-like events," the researchers say and point out that simulation studies have concluded that tsunami wave height along the Gujarat coast ranges from 2 to 10 metres. "There is a traditional history of tsunami waves and strong storms hitting the Gujarat coast," says the report. "A 3.5 metre high tsunami wave reportedly hit the Gujarat coast about 2,000 years ago." The Harappan Indians were apparently aware of this threat and "therefore we hypothesise that the massive walls of the Dholavira might have been a protective measure against possible tsunamis," the researchers say. (K.S. Jayaraman can be contacted at kilugudi@hotmail.com ) --IANS ksj/vm/sac ( 468 Words) 2017-01-05-12:58:07 (IANS) The New York native spent seven years as a CIA technical intelligence officer before being selected as a member of the 2009 astronaut class, the US space agency said in a statement on Wednesday. Her training included scientific and technical briefings, intensive instruction in International Space Station systems and spacewalk training. NASA has also assigned veteran astronaut Andrew Feustel to missions aboard the International Space Station in 2018. Feustel will launch in March 2018 for his first long-duration mission, serving as a flight engineer on Expedition 55, and later as commander of Expedition 56. Epps will join Feustel as a flight engineer on Expedition 56, and remain on board for Expedition 57. "Each space station crew brings something different to the table, and Drew and Jeanette both have a lot to offer," said Chris Cassidy, chief of the Astronaut Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. Epps holds a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from the University of Maryland. "The space station will benefit from having them on board," Cassidy said. A native of Lake Orion, Michigan, Feustel was selected as part of the 2000 astronaut class and, in 2009, flew on the space shuttle Atlantis for the final servicing mission of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. He made his first trip to the space station in 2011 as a member of the STS-134 crew on space shuttle Endeavour's final mission. In 1995, he completed his doctorate in geological sciences, with a specialisation in seismology, from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. More than 200 astronauts have visited the space station so far. --IANS gb/vt ( 300 Words) 2017-01-05-15:52:08 (IANS) "Julian Assange said 'a 14 year old could have hacked (John) Podesta' - why was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info!" Trump said on Twitter on Wednesday, referring to the Democratic National Committee (DNC), Xinhua news agency reported. Emails of Podesta, the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign manager, were released by WikiLeaks during the campaign. US intelligence had concluded that the hack and release of the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton staff emails was ordered by the Kremlin and was designed to put the Republican real estate mogul in the Oval Office. Trump has repeatedly refused to accept the conclusions. Moscow also denied the accusations. On Tuesday, Trump also suggested that a briefing he was scheduled to receive on the hacking issue was delayed to give intelligence officials more time to build their case. "The 'Intelligence' briefing on so-called 'Russian hacking' was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange!" he tweeted. However, US intelligence officials said there had been no delay in the briefing schedule, according to US media reports. --IANS pgh/ ( 226 Words) 2017-01-05-04:18:06 (IANS) Taseer, who had angered religious zealots with his statements against the country's controversial blasphemy laws, was killed in 2011 by one of his guards for supporting Asia Bibi, a Christian woman charged with blasphemy. The clerics had gathered to hold a rally on Main Boulevard in Gulberg area of the city, reports the Express Tribune. Meanwhile, Tehreek Labbaik Ya Rasoolallah has organised two separate rallies, one on Mall Road and the other in Gulberg led by Dr Ashraf Asif Jalali and Hafiz Khadim Hussain Rizvi respectively. The clerics were given a go-ahead to hold a rally on Mall Road but not in Gulberg. Blasphemy is a sensitive issue in Pakistan, with allegations often prompting mob violence. (ANI) Arrests have also been made on information provided by the Pakistani officials investigating the matter, reports the Dawn. Earlier, the Gujranwala police had also claimed it had arrested suspects thought to be involved in the abduction. The spokesperson said officials stationed at the Pakistani embassy in Turkey will confirm the identities of the abductees after visiting the police station. According to media reports, the victims, hailing from Gujranwala and Wazirabad, were travelling to Europe, when they were intercepted and abducted by suspected Kurd miscreants. The armed kidnappers reportedly subjected the captives to inhuman torture and sent the footage of torture to the relatives of the victims and demanded a sum of Rs. two million each. Following the recovery of the abductees, Turkish police confirmed their retrieval to the Consulate General of Pakistan. Six Pakistanis - Fazal Amin, Adil Ahmad, Muhammad Zeeshan, Abid, Usman ali and Ashbar Ahmad - have been recovered, according to a statement issued by Pakistan's Foreign Office. "Pakistani officials are in contact with the Turkish authorities and have sought access to the rescued citizens," the statement added. (ANI) Haq said "this was an introductory phone call during which they had a very positive discussion on US-UN relations." "The Secretary-General said that he looked forward to engaging with the president after his inauguration," Haq told reporters on Wednesday, Xinhua news agency reported. Guterres, former Prime Minister of Portugal, took reins of the UN on January 1, 2017. On his first day of work, Guterres said though there is skepticism about what role the UN can play, many people have suffered much less because of the organisation. Trump's inauguration is scheduled on January 20, 2017. His recent comments on the Paris climate deal as well as on the question of Israel and Palestine have raised concerns over the US-UN relationship in the coming years. --IANS pgh/ ( 154 Words) 2017-01-05-07:10:06 (IANS) Cult leader and convicted mass murderer Charles Manson, reportedly taken from a California prison where he is serving a life sentence to a hospital for an undisclosed medical issue, "is alive right now," a state prison official said.Celebrity gossip website TMZ reported yesterday that Manson was transported to a hospital in Bakersfield, California, about an hour from California State Prison in Corcoran, where he was being held. Manson, 82, was seriously ill, a source told the Los Angeles Times but could not provide further information.A spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Krissi Khokhobashvili, declined to confirm the media reports or provide details on Manson's location or specifics on his medical condition."Charles Manson is alive right now," Khokhobashvili said by telephone today, adding that Manson was still "assigned" to the prison in Corcoran. She declined to comment further.In the 1960s, Manson, a charismatic ex-convict, assembled a group of runaways and outcasts known as the "Manson Family." In the summer of 1969, he directed his mostly young, female followers to murder seven people in what prosecutors said was part of a plan to incite a race war.Members of the cult stabbed heavily pregnant Hollywood actress Sharon Tate 16 times in the early-morning hours of Aug. 9, 1969. Manson's followers stabbed or shot to death four other people at Tate's home.The following night, Manson's group entered the nearby home of grocery store chain owner Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, stabbed the couple to death and used their blood to write "Rise," "Death to Pigs," and "Healter Skelter," a misplaced reference to the Beatles song "Helter Skelter," on the walls and refrigerator door.Manson was originally sentenced to death but was spared execution and his sentence converted to life in prison after the California Supreme Court declared the death penalty unconstitutional in the state.REUTERS VS 0613 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0440-1094629.Xml Israeli police said today they arrested two people for inciting violence on social media against three military judges who convicted a soldier of manslaughter over his fatal shooting of a wounded Palestinian attacker.The judges found Sergeant Elor Azaria, 20, guilty of the charge on Wednesday, and supporters have set up several Facebook pages urging Israel's president to pardon him. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also called for a pardon on his own Facebook page.The case has polarised Israel. A military security detail was assigned to the judges on Wednesday, when several hundred far-right supporters of Azaria clashed with police outside the Tel Aviv military base as the verdict was being read out.Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said officers had arrested a man in Jerusalem and a woman in the southern town of Kiryat Gat whose social media comments constituted "incitement to violence" against the judges.Ten months ago, Azaria was an army medic serving in the city of Hebron, in the occupied West Bank, when two Palestinians stabbed a fellow soldier.One of the assailants was shot dead by troops. The other, Abd Elfatah Ashareef, 21, was wounded and lay on the ground incapacitated when more than 10 minutes after the attack Azaria shot him in the head with an assault rifle.Ruling in one of the most polarising cases in Israel's history, the judges convicted Azaria of manslaughter, saying he acted out of a sense of vengeance and had said after pulling the trigger, "He deserved to die."He faces up to 20 years in prison, although legal experts expect a much lighter term. Sentencing is expected in the coming weeks.The trial has generated debate about whether the military is was out of touch with a public that has shifted to the right in its attitudes towards the Palestinians.A poll published yesterday by Israel's Channel 2 television showed that 67 per cent of respondents favour a pardon for Azaria. Many right-leaning politicians advocate the same.REUTERS PY BL1535 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0298-1095159.Xml Two senior Turkish military officers were jailed for life today for involvement in July's failed coup attempt that killed almost 250 people, marking the first conviction related to the putsch, news agencies said.The court found that a colonel and a major had been assigned duties as provincial commanders after the intended overthrow of President Tayyip Erdogan. It described them as members of a network headed by US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, accused of orchestrating the failed coup, media reports said.The court in eastern city of Erzurum could not be immediately reached for comment.The trial marked the first time a court had passed sentence over the operation launched in the evening of July 15 and crushed by the morning. Parliament was bombed and armed clashes resulted in the deaths of civilians and soldiers in one of the most traumatic incidents of modern Turkish history.Erdogan has declared a state of emergency and launched a crackdown, dismissing or suspending some 120,000 people including soldiers, police, teachers and judges. Several thousand have been restored to their posts but arrests continue with reports today of warrants issued for 380 businessmen.Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999, has denied the charge and condemned the coup.Ankara has repeatedly called on Washington to hand Gulen over. The United States has said that extraditions are subject to the judicial process and therefore must meet with its standards of evidence.REUTERS SDR AN1938 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0431-1095794.Xml Izmir Governor Erol Ayyildiz told the state-run Anadolu Agency that a court employee, a female usher, lost her life as well in the bombing attack. He put the number of the wounded at seven, three police officers plus four civilians. The attack occurred near a police checkpoint at the courthouse, and an exchange of fire erupted between three militants and the police, with two militants killed later and the other on the run. The governor said that two Kalashnikovs, eight handmade bombs and eight rocket launchers were seized from the terrorists. Preliminary reports indicate the Kurdistan Workers' Party outlawed by Ankara is behind the attack, said the governor. The bombing came in the wake of a shooting attack early Sunday on an Istanbul nightclub that left 39 dead, 25 of them foreigners. The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the nightclub carnage, but the gunman remains at large. --IANS ahm/bg ( 188 Words) 2017-01-05-21:16:07 (IANS) At least ten people were killed in a car blast today in the Syrian coastal Mediterranean province of Latakia where two Russian bases are located, state television said.State media said scores of cars were on fire and shops were also damaged by the blast in a bustling commercial district of the town of Jableh that lies in the heartland of President Bashar al Assad's minority Alawite sect.Senior medical officer Ghassan Findi told state television the death toll was expected to rise with rescue operations still continuing and scores of injured still being rushed to nearby hospitals.Jableh's hospital director said many among around thirty people injured were in critical condition."It was a strong explosion, from the nature of the wounds we received," Qusai al Khalil told state owned Ikhbariyah.State television showed footage of mangled cars and shutters of shops damaged and blown apart as rescue workers cleared the debris amid a heavy security presence in the bustling commercial area near a popular vegetable market and a garage depot.The head of the local police force told state media initial investigations suggested a car parked in the area that was remotely detonated may have been responsible for the blast.At least 150 people were killed and 200 wounded in May when bombs hit the town and the port city of Tartous on the Mediterranean coast where Russian military bases are located.Latakia province hosts Moscow's naval base in Tartous port while Hmeymim air base is Russia's main launching ground for an intensive bombing campaign against rebel-held territory.Islamic State claimed the May attacks in a statement posted online saying its fighters had targeted "gatherings of Alawites" deploying suicide bombers to inflict the heaviest losses. Hardline Sunni militants consider Alawites heretics.Latakia city, which is north of Jableh and capital of the province, has been targeted on a number of occasions by bombings and insurgent rocket attacks.But these government-held coastal cities have been largely spared the widescale violence seen elsewhere in the war-torn country.REUTERS SDR NS2114 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0431-1095930.Xml Military spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor said in a series of tweet: ""#COAS Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa rejects self defeating claims by Indian COAS about 'so called surg strikes' and its possible recurrence." "Pakistan Armed Forces are fully geared to respond to any aggression by India" COAS. " Addressing a ceremony at the Khuzdar University, the Army Chief also expressed confidence that the current security challenges and external efforts to derail Balochistan's peace will end with the growing realisation of assured geo-economic advantages of a fully developed China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), reports the News International. India in September last year, said it conducted surgical strikes on terrorist launch pads in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir along the Line of Control, a claim Pakistan rejected. The surgical strikes took place eleven days after a pre-dawn attack by militants on an Indian army brigade headquarters in Uri in Kashmir on September 18. The attack left 18 soldiers dead. (ANI) BUCHAREST, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- Moldovan President Igor Dodon on Tuesday revoked the Moldovan citizenship of former Romanian president Traian Basescu. Dodon made the decision in accordance with the 88th article of the Moldovan Constitution, which stipulates Moldovan President has the power to decide "issues of citizenship", according to media reports. Earlier, Dodon had repeatedly said in public the procedure for granting citizenship to Traian Basescu was violated, "this will be the main reason for the citizenship's cancellation." Basescu became a citizen of Moldova after taking an oath at Moldova's Embassy in Bucharest on Nov. 3, 2016, just in time for him to vote in the presidential runoff in Moldova, in which he openly supported Dodon's opponent. Dodon was against, from the very beginning, granting Moldovan citizenship to Basescu, whose unionist views are seen by Dodon as "attempts of destroying Moldovan statehood." The then Socialist leader had even challenged the decision to grant Moldovan citizenship to Basescu at the Constitutional Court, soon after Nicolae Timofti, Moldova's President at that time, signed a decree in June. Dodon was quoted as saying by local media that Basescu would be a citizen of Moldova for a very short period of time, as the related decree would be canceled after he becomes Moldova's head of state. Referring to Dodon's position, Basescu said in November last year that he would sue the Moldovan President if the latter withdrew his Moldovan citizenship. Basescu was Romania's president between 2004 and 2014. In Moldova, which was part of Romania from 1918 to 1940, he is known for facilitating the procedure for Moldovans of getting back Romanian citizenship. According to Basescu, some 500,000 Moldovans obtained Romanian citizenship, during Basescu's terms as president. President Igor Dodon took office on Dec. 23, 2016. Running on the Party of Socialists ticket, Dodon won the presidential runoff on Nov.13 by winning 52.18 percent of the vote. Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen (R) shakes hands with Zhang Li, chairman of Guangzhou R&F Properties, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Jan. 4, 2017. Chinese real estate developer Guangzhou R&F Properties planned to invest 3 billion U.S. dollars within five years to build six-star hotels in Phnom Penh and coastal Preah Sihanouk province, a senior Cambodian official said Wednesday. (Xinhua/Sovannara) PHNOM PENH, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- Chinese real estate developer Guangzhou R&F Properties planned to invest 3 billion U.S. dollars within five years to build six-star hotels in Phnom Penh and coastal Preah Sihanouk province, a senior Cambodian official said Wednesday. Zhang Li, chairman of Guangzhou R&F Properties, unveiled the plan during a meeting with Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen, an assistant to the prime minister told reporters after the meeting. Zhang said his firm has partnered with Cambodia's Royal Group, run by powerful tycoon Kith Meng, for the mega projects. Hun Sen welcomed the investment plan, saying that the Chinese developer had made the right decision to go into a joint venture with Kith Meng because the firm had capital and Kith Meng had land. "The prime minister said that it is the right choice to invest in Cambodia because the country has political stability, good infrastructure, and sound economic growth," the assistant said. The investment would also contribute to the China-proposed "Belt and Road" initiative, Hun Sen added. A police officer stands guard outside the platform where a train derailed at the Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn, New York, the United States, Jan. 4, 2017. ALong IslandRailroad (LIRR) train derailed during the morning rush hour on Wednesday in the Brooklyn Borough of New York City, injuring 103 people, according to local authorities. (Xinhua/Li Changxiang) NEW YORK, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- A Long Island Railroad (LIRR) train derailed during the morning rush hour on Wednesday in the Brooklyn Borough of New York City, injuring 103 people, according to local authorities. The incident happened around 8:30 a.m. (1330 GMT) at the Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn, where a LIRR train from Far Rockaway, Queens failed to come to a stop, slammed into the bumper block and its first couple of cars derailed. One hundred and three people suffered non life-threatening injuries, according to the New York City Fire Department. Photos posted by passengers on social media showed the first cars of the train slightly leaning out from the tracks, with damaged doors and broken glass. About 600 passengers were on board the train when the accident happened, according to local media. New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo said on the scene that the incident was "minor" comparing to the Hoboken train crash in September 2016, when a New Jersey transit train crashed into the Hoboken Terminal and caused one fatality and massive damage to the terminal structure. Investigations were underway, Cuomo said. No Chinese nationals were known to be injured in the accident, according to China's Consulate General in New York. MOSUL, Iraq, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi security forces on Wednesday advanced further to the city center of Mosul after they retook control of a new neighborhood from the Islamic State (IS) militants, as part of the troops push into the eastern part of the city, the Iraqi military said. In southeastern part of the city, the federal police and soldiers of the 9th Armored Division fought fierce clashes with IS militants and recaptured Wahda neighborhood, bringing the troops closer to the center of the eastern side of Mosul, a statement by the Iraqi Joint Operations Command said. The troops continued their slow progress in the nearby neighborhoods of al-Salam, Palestine, al-Shaimaa, Domiez and Sumer amid heavy clashes with the extremist militants after they completely recaptured the neighborhood of al-Mithaq on Tuesday. During the day, IS militants carried out counter-attacks against the troops in southeastern Mosul, but the troops repelled their attacks, leaving some 40 militants killed and destroying seven booby-trapped vehicles, according to the statement. In northern front, the soldiers of the army's 16th Division, backed by Iraqi and international aircraft, clashed with the extremist militants, leaving 10 militants killed and destroying two car bombs, the statement said. In the eastern front, the commandos of the Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) cleared the earlier recaptured areas in Mosul and fought sporadic clashes, which resulted in the killing of four militants, the statement added. On Tuesday, the elite CTS forces recaptured the vast industrial area and raised the Iraqi flag on its buildings as well as the buildings of the nearby flourmill, silo and commercial complex after fierce clashes with IS militants. The battles in Mosul came as the elite CTS forces, army troops and federal police launched on Dec. 29 the second phase of a major offensive to free Mosul. The troops made their new push into several neighborhoods in the eastern side of Mosul, locally known as the left bank of the Tigris which bisects the city. For the seventh day of a new push to free the remaining neighborhoods of the eastern bank of the city, the troops are facing stiff resistance by the extremist militants. In the past few weeks, the battles in Mosul were slowed amid grueling fighting inside Mosul with extremist militants, who used the city's civilians as human shields, carried out brutal counter attacks in small groups moving quickly throughout the districts, and resorted to suicide car bombs, in addition to mortar and sniper attacks. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a recent report that the military operations in Mosul have pushed some 125,568 civilians to flee their homes in the city and its adjacent districts since the beginning of military offensive in October to reclaim the IS largest stronghold in Iraq. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Oct. 17 announced a major offensive to retake Mosul, the country's second largest city. Since then, Iraqi security forces, backed by international coalition forces, have inched to the eastern fringes of Mosul and made progress on other routes around the city. 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. LONDON, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- Former British ambassador to Russia, Sir Tim Barrow, was confirmed on Wednesday night as Britain's new envoy to the European Union (EU). He succeeds Sir Ivan Rogers who resigned 24 hours earlier from the key role in Brussels. Downing Street moved swiftly to find a successor to Rogers who announced on Tuesday his decision to leave his job as Britain's top man in Brussels. Barrow's appointment was announced by Downing Street where a spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May described him as a seasoned and tough negotiator. Barrow will now play a key role in the Britain's Brexit negotiations with officials in Brussels. The Guardian newspaper in London said Wednesday night the decision to hand the job to Barrow showed May had ignored calls from within her own Conservative party to appoint a wholehearted Brexiter, even possibly somebody from outside of the civil service to the job in Brussels. In a brief statement from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in London, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson welcomed the appointment of Barrow as Britain's Permanent Representative to the European Union. The FCO said Rogers had taken the decision to quit now to enable a successor to be appointed before the Britain invokes Article 50 by the end of March to start the process of Britain leaving the EU. Barrow was only appointed last year to the key job of Political Director at the FCO, where he has worked since joining the diplomatic service in 1986. "He will bring his trademark energy and creativity to this job -- working alongside other senior officials and Ministers to make a success of Brexit," said a Downing Street spokesperson. Barrow spent several years in Moscow after being appointed as British ambassador to Russia in 2011, having previously served in a number of capacities in Moscow. He has also worked in a number of jobs in Brussels during his time as a diplomat. UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Wednesday spoke by phone with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters here. Haq said "this was an introductory phone call during which they had a very positive discussion on U.S.-UN relations." "The Secretary-General said that he looked forward to engaging with the president after his inauguration," said Haq. Guterres, former prime minister of Portugal, took reins of the UN on Jan. 1, 2017. On his first day of work, Guterres said though there is skepticism about what role the UN can play, many people have suffered much less because of the organization. Trump's inauguration is scheduled on Jan. 20, 2017. His recent comments on the Paris climate deal as well as on the question of Israel and Palestine have raised concerns over the U.S.-UN relationship in the coming years. DAMASCUS, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- The recapture of Syria's northern city of Aleppo will be conducive in restoring peace to all of Syria, a visiting Iranian official said Wednesday. The Syrian army's victory in Aleppo is a big step toward restoring security and stability to all of Syria, said Alaeddin Boroujerdi, chairman of the Iranian parliament's national security commission. Broujerdi said his visit to Syria was to congratulate the Syrian administration of President Bashar al-Assad on the victory in Aleppo, where the Syrian army backed by Shiite fighters succeed to take over the city last month. During his meeting with Assad, the Iranian official stressed that his country will continue to support the Syrian government in the war on terror. For his part, Assad pointed out that Iran is a partner in the military achievements on ground through the political and economic support the Islamic republic renders for the Syrian government. Following the meeting, Broujerdi told reporters that his country supports the inter-Syrian talks to reach a political solution to the country's nearly six-year-old conflict. "The destiny of Syria should be identified by the Syrian people, and every decision taken outside the Syrian borders without the consent of the Syrian people will not be successful," he said. Broujerdi also pointed out to the presence of Iranian advisers in Syria, as well as the Lebanese Hezbollah group, saying the presence of the advisers and Hezbollah in Syria came after coordination with the Syrian government, stressing that the parties that have entered Syria without the consent of the Syrian government must leave. The visit comes as a Turkish-Russian sponsored ceasefire went into effect at midnight Friday, and continued throughout the week with breaches reported in several areas, mainly in the Wadi Barada town northwest of the capital Damascus. The rebels accused the government forces of breaching the truce in Wadi Barada, while the Syrian army made it clear that it was fighting the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front in the town, as the Nusra was excluded from the deal due to being designated as a terrorist group by the UN. The Nusra fighters in Wadi Barada have cut off the drinking water from the capital Damascus since Dec. 22, prompting the army to mount a major offensive in that area to recapture it and return the water pumping into the capital after all deals for evacuating the rebels from that area peacefully had failed. The tension in Wadi Barada has recently pushed several rebel groups to announce freezing talks on planned peace negotiations that are planned to take place in Astana, Kazakhstan, as part of the Turkish-Russian deal. Local analysts have played down the rebel statement, saying that decision is not theirs entirely, as the last say will be for Turkey, which is negotiating on their behalf. Long Island Railroad workers talk outside the platform where a train derailed at the Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn, New York, the United States, Jan. 4, 2017. A Long Island Railroad (LIRR) train derailed during the morning rush hour on Wednesday in the Brooklyn Borough of New York City, injuring 103 people, according to local authorities.(Xinhua/Li Changxiang) NEW YORK, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- A Long Island Railroad (LIRR) train derailed during the morning rush hour on Wednesday in the Brooklyn Borough of New York City, injuring 103 people, according to local authorities. The incident happened around 8:30 a.m. (1330 GMT) at the Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn, where a LIRR train from Far Rockaway, Queens failed to come to a stop, slammed into the bumper block and its first couple of cars derailed. One hundred and three people suffered non life-threatening injuries, according to the New York City Fire Department. Photos posted by passengers on social media showed the first cars of the train slightly leaning out from the tracks, with damaged doors and broken glass. A police officer stands guard outside the platform where a train derailed at the Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn, New York, the United States, Jan. 4, 2017. A Long Island Railroad (LIRR) train derailed during the morning rush hour on Wednesday in the Brooklyn Borough of New York City, injuring 103 people, according to local authorities. (Xinhua/Li Changxiang) About 600 passengers were on board the train when the accident happened, according to local media. New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo said on the scene that the incident was "minor" comparing to the Hoboken train crash in September 2016, when a New Jersey transit train crashed into the Hoboken Terminal and caused one fatality and massive damage to the terminal structure. Investigations were underway, Cuomo said. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres leaves after laying a wreath to honor UN staff members fallen in the line of duty, at the UN headquarters in New York, Jan. 3, 2017. (Xinhua/Li Muzi) UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Wednesday spoke by phone with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters here. Haq said "this was an introductory phone call during which they had a very positive discussion on U.S.-UN relations." "The Secretary-General said that he looked forward to engaging with the president after his inauguration," said Haq. Guterres, former prime minister of Portugal, took reins of the UN on Jan. 1, 2017. On his first day of work, Guterres said though there is skepticism about what role the UN can play, many people have suffered much less because of the organization. Trump's inauguration is scheduled on Jan. 20, 2017. His recent comments on the Paris climate deal as well as on the question of Israel and Palestine have raised concerns over the U.S.-UN relationship in the coming years. U.S. President Barack Obama attends an Armed Forces Full Honor Farewell Ceremony for the president at Joint Base Myer-Henderson in Washington D.C., the United States on Jan. 4, 2017. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu) WASHINGTON, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- Outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama and incoming Vice President Mike Pence visited Capitol Hill on the same morning for a direct opposite goal. Obama rallied Congress Democrats on Wednesday to chart out a plan to save at least parts of the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare and seen as his biggest domestic legacy, while Pence promised that repealing the law is "the first order of business" of the Donald Trump administration. In a rare meeting with Democratic lawmakers, Obama called for a fight against any Republican effort to repeal the law. The Democrats announced they would refuse to work with Republicans if the latter insist in forging ahead the repeal with no replacement plan. "We are telling Republicans if you are repealing, show us what you'll replace it with first and then we'll look at what you have and see what we can do," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. "We're united in our opposition to these Republican attempts to make America sick again," Schumer told reporters, co-opting Trump's well-known campaign slogan "Make America Great Again." In a separate session, Pence asked House Republicans to get the repeal bill ready by Feb. 20, one month after Trump's inauguration. "The president-elect and I, working with the leaders of the House and Senate, are determined to keep our promise to the American people and that all begins with repealing and replacing the failed policy of Obamacare, " Pence said in the House of Representatives. "It needs to be done," said Pence. Republicans have a 52-48 advantage in the Senate and a hefty 241-194 majority in the House. Once Trump takes oath on Jan. 20, Republicans will hold the White House and both chambers of Congress for the first time since early 2007. However, since most legislation needs 60 votes in the Senate, Republicans have to garner bipartisan support to fulfil their major policy tasks including repealing and replacing the whole package of Obamacare. In a bid to overcome the Democratic filibuster, Republican senators have been planning to unlock a fast-track budget process, known as "reconciliation", as the first step to dismantle the law, according to local media reports. Under the rules of "reconciliation", there is no limit on repealing the items in the law that have a direct impact on the federal budget. Therefore, Republicans are expected to use the procedure to pass the repeal in the Senate with a simple majority, leaving Democratic senators few legislative options at their disposal. However, this is technically not an official repeal and so far it is unclear how many items of Obamacare will be swiped away, when it would take effect and what the Republican plan for replacement is. Likely targets include the law's tax penalties for people who don't obtain insurance, its requirement that many companies cover workers and tax increases on higher-earning individuals and many health care firms, said a Fox News report, noting that Republicans have little chance of quickly agreeing on replacement legislation. A range of 18 months to three years, if not longer, has been under discussion, said the report. Earlier on Wednesday, Trump, who vowed to repeal the law during his campaign, warned Republican lawmakers not to let Democrats off the hook for a program he called a "disaster." "Republicans must be careful in that the Dems own the failed ObamaCare disaster, with its poor coverage and massive premium increases......" he tweeted as the new 115th Congress entered its second day. "Massive increases of ObamaCare will take place this year and Dems are to blame for the mess. It will fall of its own weight - be careful!" he said on Twitter. Against Trump's "disaster" vision, Democrats have prepared an aggressive public relations campaign to highlight how Obamacare has helped the 20 million Americans now covered because of the law, and the other benefits that they believe have occurred, such as better preventive care, according to local media reports. Federal data show that since the general elections, enrolment in ObamaCare has risen, with 8.8 million Americans signing up so far for 2017, compared to 8.6 million at this point last year. On Tuesday, Schumer, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders announced that Jan. 15 is a national "Our First Stand: Save Health Care" day of action for advocacy groups and Democrats to criticize Republicans for working to target the health care law. "The more the people understand what's included in the Affordable Care Act and how they benefit from it, the more popular the program is, and the harder it is for Republicans to have political support for tearing it down," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters Tuesday. The war over Obamacare repeal is likely to consume the two mainstream U.S. parties for much of Trump's first year in the White House, analysts say. Related: Trump urges Obama to halt prisoner transfers from Guantanamo WASHINGTON, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday urged the Obama administration to halt prisoner transfers from the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba, calling the detainees "extremely dangerous people." "There should be no further releases from Gitmo. These are extremely dangerous people and should not be allowed back onto the battlefield," Trump said on Twitter. Full story Trump, Obama reconcile over phone after tension over Israel, transition WASHINGTON, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama called his successor Donald Trump Wednesday in what was described as a positive conversation, as tension over Israel and transition started to build. UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council on Wednesday strongly condemned a deadly attack against a UN peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic (CAR). The incident occurred about 60 km west of the town of Obo on Tuesday when the UN peacekeepers were escorting a convoy of trucks transporting fuel from Zemio to Obo. Two Moroccan peacekeepers were killed in the attack and two others were wounded, said the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) in a press statement. The perpetrators fled into the bush, according to MINUSCA. The UNSC "condemned in the strongest terms" the attack. "Attacks targeting peacekeepers may constitute a war crime," the UNSC warned in a statement. The 15-member UN body called on the CAR government to swiftly probe this attack and bring the perpetrators to justice. Despite significant progress and successful elections, CAR has remained in the grip of instability and sporadic unrest. Clashes between the mainly Muslim Seleka rebel coalition and anti-Balaka militia, mostly Christian, plunged the country of 4.5 million people into civil conflict in 2013. JAKARTA, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- Australia has expressed regret for humiliating Indonesia's national principle of Pancasila and promised a thorough investigation of the incident which led to Indonesia halting military cooperation between the two nations, Indonesian defense minister said here on Thursday. Indonesian Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu said that his Australian counterpart Marise Payne had begged apology to Indonesia over the humiliation involving a personnel of Australian Defense Force (ADF) at the military base in West Australia. Pancasila is the official philosophical foundation of the Indonesian state, with "panca" meaning five and "sila" meaning principles. Minister Ryamzard said that Minister Payne sent him a letter and called him on Thursday morning, begging for apology over the incident. "Australian defense minister sent me a letter this (Thursday) morning, begging apology over the incident," Ryamizard said at Indonesian defense ministry. "Australian defense minister also promised to probe and follow up this case," he added. Separately, Indonesian Military Commander General Gatot Nurmantyo said that Australian military had also sent him a letter, begging for apology over the incident. The humiliation of Indonesia's national principle of Pancasila occurred during a joint exercise between Indonesian special unit force (Kopassus) and Australia's Special Air Service in Western Perth, according to Maj. General Wuryanto, Indonesian military spokesman. Indonesia last suspended military cooperation with Australia in 2014 following the revelation of Australia's spying on communication of Indonesia's former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Photo taken on Jan. 3, 2017 shows the trial site in Seoul, South Korea. The first trial on a parliamentary motion to impeach South Korean President Park Geun-hye ended just in nine minutes on Tuesday with Park, the principal of the trial, not in attendance. (Xinhua/Newsis) SEOUL, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- South Korean constitutional court will uphold a motion to impeach President Park Geun-hye before mid-March, considering the retirement of two of the court's nine judges, public call for fast ruling and rapid investigation by the independent counsel, a law expert said on Thursday. The impeachment bill was passed in the parliament by an overwhelming majority on Dec. 9. To permanently boot Park out, the bill must be upheld by the constitutional court, of which deliberation can last up to 180 days. "It will be desirable (for the court) to rule (on the impeachment motion) by the end of this month, but the court will come to a conclusion before the middle of March," Lim Jibong, professor at law school of Sogang University who specializes in constitutional law, said in an interview with Xinhua. The court's chief justice is scheduled to end his tenure on Jan. 31, with another judge set to retire on March 13. Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn temporarily assumes presidential power, but the caretaker president is not allowed to appoint new justices of the court, the unique right given to a president. After mid-March, the professor said, six of the remaining seven judges must rule in favor of the impeachment bill to permanently remove Park from office. It will weaken the persuasiveness of the final ruling and enhance the risk of being rejected. All the judges appear to be well aware of that and are speeding up legal proceedings. Pleading sessions are set to be held twice a week, indicating the constitutional court focusing solely on this case while laying others aside. The first session was held on Tuesday. The independent counsel team is gaining speed in its investigation into the presidential scandal as public calls are strong for an immediate resignation of President Park as proven in the past 10 Saturday demonstrations. According to opinion surveys conducted by local media outlets for the new year, 70 to 80 percent of respondents favored the presidential impeachment. "If the independent counsel team proves criminal acts, the court will base the proofs on its rapid deliberation. As public opinion on impeachment is clear and consistent, the court will uphold the impeachment motion," said Lim. Lim said the possibility for the impeachment bill to be rejected is zero as the rejection may lead the constitutional court to be put in danger of being broken up by the general public. He expected the motion to be unanimously upheld by the court as President Park's violations of five constitution clauses and eight law clauses were already proven in many respects through prosecutors' probes and local media reports. "It's a matter of time to uphold the impeachment motion" as the constitutional ruling is different from a criminal trial that requires all charges to be proven in detail, the professor said. If one of the 13 violations is proven, Park will be dismissed on disciplinary grounds. President Park and her legal team have refuted all charges against her, but it will not delay the court's ruling, Lim noted. The suspended president held the New Year press conference with local journalists on Sunday, actively denying all allegations on her involvement in the scandal. Lim said the rare press conference just added one more violation of the constitution, which prevents a suspended president from performing any duty, including the press conference as chief executive. BEIJING, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- The People's Daily, the flagship newspaper of the Communist Party of China (CPC), will run a commentary Friday warning against fraud during the ongoing election of delegates to the Party's 19th National Congress. Party cadres should learn lessons from the election fraud cases in Liaoning Province, Hengyang in Hunan Province, and Nanchong in Sichuan Province, according to the commentary seen by Xinhua Thursday. The election should feature a strong emphasis on discipline and rules, with a zero-tolerance attitude adopted against any breaches, and increased penalties for each violation, it said. Leading officials should be held responsible for bad electoral ethics, ineffective investigation into violations, and cases having a disastrous impact, the commentary said. The CPC has lowered the quota of delegates taken from leading CPC officials. As a result an increasing number of officials will not get the chance to be nominated, while some will be nominated but fail the election, it said. Intensified ideological and political work should be carried out to educate and guide officials to respect the election results, prioritize the Party and the people's interests, and encourage them to work well, the commentary said. Election procedures and standards should be strictly observed to ensure excellent, politically sound Party members are elected, it said. The 19th CPC National Congress, a major event in the political life of the Party and the state, will be held in Beijing in the second half of 2017. A total of 2,300 delegates will be elected by 40 electoral units across the country. SEOUL, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- South Korea on Thursday re-affirmed its position to deploy a U.S. missile defense system in its soil as planned despite strong opposition from neighboring countries. Seoul's foreign ministry spokesman Cho June-hyuck told a press briefing that Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) deployment in South Korea is a sovereign, self-defensive act to protect people's safety and the country's security from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s nuclear and missile threats. His comments came a day after seven lawmakers of the biggest opposition Minjoo Party arrived in Beijing to talk with senior Chinese officials about the THAAD installation. The main opposition party has opposed the U.S. anti-missile system's deployment. Major presidential contenders of the party pledged to review the THAAD deployment decision, calling for the current government to stop all of the deployment process to leave it to next government. As President Park Geun-hye was impeached on Dec. 9, an early presidential election is widely expected to be held as early as April. If the constitutional court upholds the impeachment motion, an election must be held within 60 days. Woo Sang-ho, floor leader of the Minjoo Party, said that diplomacy by lawmakers would be good under current situations that government officials fail to contact Chinese officials to resolve the THAAD issue. The party's floor spokesman told a press briefing that Minjoo Party lawmakers are making diplomatic efforts that the government and the ruling Saenuri Party had failed to do. The Saenuri Party and the new conservative party, composed of defectors from the ruling party, denounced visits by Minjoo Party lawmakers to China, describing it as disgraceful and humiliating. Related: S.Korean presidential hopeful raises doubt about THAAD capability, aim behind deployment SEOUL, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- A rising South Korean presidential hopeful in the opposition bloc raised doubts about the capability of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) and the possibly hidden aim behind the agreed-upon deployment of the U.S. missile defense system in South Korean soil. Xinhua writer Zhu Junqing BEIJING, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- As Obama's chief science adviser is preparing a study that could lead to restrictions on Chinese investment in the U.S. semiconductor sector, the world's largest economy has again turned to protectionism against China. The report, due to be published before U.S. President Barack Obama leaves office this month, recommends bolstering protection of industries critical to national security, which will give an excuse for the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to poise a tougher stance towards Chinese investment. While such a move would undermine not only China-U.S. cooperation, but also the U.S. domestic industries and its relationship with China as a whole, open and cooperative mindset in the United States will help overcome differences and benefit both sides. First of all, business acquisitions are common commercial practices, and have nothing to do with national security, an excuse hyped by political speculators. Taking semiconductor acquisitions as an example, such deals did not involve ultra-sensitive national security agency equipment but rather mass-produced, commoditized technology. As China's economy and capital reserves have grown, it is natural to have an appetite for investing abroad. In addition, going abroad is a way for Chinese enterprises to gain international competitiveness. For the United States, Chinese investment would not only help create jobs and invigorate domestic industries, but also, as Zachary Karabell, head of global strategy at Envestnet, said, "provide a path to greater security." "The more money Chinese companies pour into the United States, the more motivation China has to maintain good relations and the more it has to lose if relations turn sour," noted the chief of the financial services firm. Secondly, protectionism goes against the general trend of globalization, which has brought great benefit to most countries, and the advanced ones in particular. Thanks to globalization and free trade, American consumers have gained from a wider choice of products with lower prices, while American companies have sold their products all over the world. Though as one of the biggest beneficiaries, the U.S. administration has been obviously used to blaming China for its own economic ills and always kept suspicious of China's motives. Rhodium Group, a New York consulting firm, said in a report released last month that "while the economic fundamentals and deal pipeline suggest that 2017 will be another boom year for Chinese investment in the U.S., the political realities on both sides pose a major downside risk to both pending transactions and new deal flow in coming months." But the fact is that a trade war with China could do more harm for the U.S. economy than good. As Aimen Mir, Treasury's deputy assistant secretary for investment security, said, it is in the U.S. national interest to maintain an open investment policy. "If instead we let our fears lead us to greater isolationism, we will surely lose," Karabell said. Related: China says U.S. blacklisting irresponsible, not objective BEIJING, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- The United States is irresponsible in putting Chinese companies on a list of "notorious marketplaces," the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Thursday. JAKARTA, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia expected to further boost its cooperation with Japan on several megaprojects during the upcoming visit of Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Indonesia scheduled on Jan. 15. Indonesia's Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Binsar Panjaitan said that PM Abe would be received by President Widodo in Bogor presidential palace, where bilateral talks between the two leaders was scheduled to be held. The senior minister said that among the agendas to be discussed during the high-profile talks of the two leaders were cooperation between Indonesia and Japan in the development of Masela gas block, Jakarta-Surabaya high speed train transport project and Patimban seaport in West Java province. Luhut expected that signing on joint study cooperation document on Jakarta-Surabaya high speed train project was highly expected to take place in the meeting of the two leaders. He said that the government is now in finalization phase of financing mechanism on the project. by Robert Manyara NAKURU, Kenya, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- Since the 1970s, poaching has been a major threat to the survival of elephants in Kenya with some critics in recent years blaming the Chinese market for fueling the demand. Now, a new era has begun as the Chinese government announced on Dec. 30 plans of proscribing processing and sale of ivory by the end of 2017. Jabes Okumu, a wildlife expert with the East African Wild Life Society, in an interview with Xinhua hailed it as a strong move towards protection of elephants. Okumu said the decision to shut down China's domestic market will to a greater extent reduce pressure on the wildlife resources not only in Kenya but also in East Africa. The wildlife expert said the ban will lead to crippling prices as a result of limited buyers of raw ivory as well as a decline in supply resulting from a lower number of distributors. "This move is likely to attract support from other ivory consuming countries and this will help build synergies towards pushing for full protection of elephants as indicated in schedule II to I of the CITES," he said. CITES, or Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, is an international agreement between governments aiming to ensure that global trade in specimens of wild animals and plants do not threaten their survival. IMPROVING SIGNS Conservationists have identified a number of threats to African elephants, including poaching and habit losses due to climate change, drought and human encroachment. Africa's overall elephant population has seen the worst declines in 25 years, mainly due to poaching over the past 10 years, according to a report released in September. "African elephant populations have suffered drastic decline in Kenya due to poaching for ivory. Even though habitat loss and fragmentation have also been contributing factors, poaching remains the major cause," Okumu said. The African Elephant Status Report noted that Eastern Africa, the region most affected by poaching, has experienced an almost 50-percent elephant population reduction, though in countries like Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda, elephant numbers have been stable or even increasing since 2006. The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) in a statement last year indicated an increase in elephant numbers in the recent times thanks to various conservation efforts including partnerships to protect the wildlife and creating awareness on poaching. By 2015, the elephant population in Kenya stood at 35,149, representing a 2.29-percent annual increase since 1989, according to the statement. Okumu said China's ban inevitably called for a backup of other conservation efforts to ensure wildlife populations become increasingly viable and stable. Kenya and China are in a partnership of protecting the Kenyan wildlife. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, during his visit to Kenya in 2014, announced financial and technical assistance to enhance protection of iconic wildlife species. BEIJING, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- China on Thursday urged communication with the Republic of Korea (ROK) to find a proper solution to the ROK's deployment of an advanced U.S. missile defense system, the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD). China hopes the solution can accommodate the concerns of both sides, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang at a routine press briefing. "We urge parties concerned to stop THAAD deployment, and refrain from going too far on the wrong track," Geng said. China has repeatedly voiced its opposition to THAAD deployment. "THAAD deployment by the United States in the ROK would gravely undermine regional strategic balance and the strategic security interests of countries in the region, including China, and also harm the peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula," Geng said. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with a delegation of the ROK's largest opposition Minjoo Party in Beijing on Wednesday, calling for both sides to find an appropriate solution through communication in order not to harm exchanges and cooperation between the two countries. However, on Thursday, the ROK's Foreign Ministry reaffirmed its position to deploy THAAD as planned. BEIJING, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- "China actively advanced strict governance of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and resolutely cracked down on high-ranking and low-level corruption," President Xi Jinping said in his New Year greetings, setting the tone for perfecting CPC governance in the new era. Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, strict discipline and regulation has been a characteristic of Party management. The Chinese central leadership's frugality campaign, which features the "eight-point rules," has effectively curbed extravagance and improved officials' work style. Four years on the campaign shows no signs of fading, instead it has gained crushing momentum as the central authorities strive to maintain close ties with the people and eliminate both "tigers" (corrupt senior officials) and "flies" (corrupt lower-level officials). As Xi once said: "All people are equal before the law and regulations, and enforcement of such rules allows no privilege or exception." Nearly 200,000 Party and government staff have been punished for violating the rules in the past four years, including more than 200 officials holding senior positions. Following the eight-point rules, the CPC central authorities issued more than a dozen regulations or rules aiming to standardize CPC members' behavior and reduce corruption. For example, on Nov. 2, 2016, the CPC introduced its "upgraded norms of political life within the Party under the current conditions," and a regulation on intra-Party supervision, both aiming to perfect strict governance of the Party. The latest rules released Nov. 30 on officials' benefits, stipulate that Party and state leaders should vacate their offices in a timely manner upon retiring. The new rules, regarded as "an expansion and upgrade" to the Party's eight-point guidelines, state that officials should "travel without pomp," minimize their impact on public life and not have vehicles exceeding the set standards. These documents altogether urge CPC members to further consolidate their communist faith, adhere to the basic Party line, and make solid efforts to win public trust. In fact, strict CPC governance has been winning hearts across the country. The people are excited by a common cause, rolling up their sleeves to work harder and succeed in the Long March of our generation. Meanwhile, the anti-corruption drive should maintain high pressure. More sophisticated discipline inspection measures should be used to fight new types of deep-rooted corruption. All CPC officials should earnestly study the essence of the sixth plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee and stay highly consistent in their thoughts, politics and actions, with the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core. The 19th CPC National Congress will convene in the second half of this year and elect a new Central Committee. It is expected the CPC will by then gather more cohesive power, make further improvement on how to govern itself, deepen key reforms and bring prosperity to the vast majority of the Chinese people. Related: President Xi extends good wishes in New Year speech BEIJING, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday extended New Year greetings to all Chinese compatriots and people around the world, saying hard work and joint efforts in 2017 will make China and the world better. TOKYO, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- Japan's Defense Ministry announced Thursday that the U.S. military will resume from Friday aerial refueling training for the contentious Osprey aircraft in Japan's Okinawa Prefecture. The announcement came less than a month after one of the MV-22 Osprey aircraft deployed at the U.S. Futenma base in the city of Ginowan made a water crash-landing off Okinawa on Dec. 13, 2016, injuring two of the five crew members aboard. The incident, according to the U.S. military, was caused by a damage to the aircraft's propeller in the process of aerial refueling training by a refueling plane. Following the accident, Japan had asked the U.S. military to suspend its Osprey flights in Okinawa until the cause of the accident is known and safety is ensured. The U.S. Military, however, resumed Osprey flights in Okinawa less than a week later, saying the accident was not caused by any problem with the aircraft itself, despite safety concerns and protests of the local people. Okinawa Governor Takeshi Onaga had called the Japanese government's approval of the flight resumption "outrageous," and called for a removal of all the contentious tilt-rotor aircraft from the island prefecture. The U.S. military has deployed dozens of Osprey aircraft in its Futenma base in Okinawa, which has caused serious concerns from local people for a long time due to the aircraft's record of fatal accidents and their tremendous noise. 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. The people of Okinawa, however, have been demanding the Futenma base to be relocated outside the prefecture, due to crimes involving the U.S. base personnel as well as noise and safety problems. KATHMANDU, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- Nepalese southern city of Siddharthanagar and Chinese city Baoji have formally entered into the bond of sister cities, officials said here on Thursday. Nepal's Siddharthanagar and Baoji city of northwest Shaanxi Province of China signed a sister city agreement in Bhairahawa city on Wednesday, some 280 kilometers south-west of Capital City Kathmandu. "The sister city relationship is expected to strengthen mutual cooperation between the people of two countries and to consolidate friendly ties between the two cities," Chief Executive Officer of Siddharthanagar Municipality, Gopal Regmi, told Xinhua. On the occasion, officials from Chinese city Baoji expressed confidence that the sister city relations will help further enhance industrial, social and cultural ties between the two countries. The Chinese authorities expressed hope that the new bonding would pave the way for economic cooperation and development projects. These two cities have agreed to make concerted efforts on the basis of equality and mutual benefit, with special focus in the areas of trade, culture, tourism among others. Siddharthanagar is a historical city of Nepal, which comes from the Lord Gautam Buddha's given name "Siddhartha." Buddha was born near this ancient city. These two cities established sister city relationship nearly two weeks after Nepali capital city Kathmandu and Chinese city Chengdu formally entered into the bond of sister cities on Dec. 23. PARIS, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- At a defense council meeting held here on Thursday, French President Francois Hollande met the country's army chiefs and ministers to discuss terrorism menaces and military missions in Syria and Iraq to eradicate Islamic State (IS) fighters. In a statement released by his office, Hollande called for "the utmost vigilance" as the terrorist threat at home and neighbouring European countries "remains at a high level." As to the situation in Syria, the president stressed that "everything" must be done to make Syrian rival camps join the same table of negotiation soon to hammer out a political alternative for lasting peace in the country. Hollande also held talks over French military mission in Iraq, where French forces are making advance with the help of local troops. ISTANBUL, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- An explosion in Turkey's western city of Izmir wounded at least three people on Thursday, local media reported. CNNTurk reported that two "terrorists" have been killed by security forces after the blast, believed to be caused by a car bomb, outside a courthouse. Police are now after a third attacker, CNNTurk said. The explosion in Izmir Thursday followed an attack early Sunday on an Istanbul nightclub that left at least 39 dead. The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the nightclub carnage. The gunman remains at large. A banner is seen on a pump machine at a gas station protesting against gasoline price hike, in Mexico City, capital of Mexico, on Jan. 1, 2017. (Xinhua/Str) MEXICO CITY, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto was on the defensive on Wednesday morning as he had to explain the recent hike of gasoline prices, which has caused an uproar across the country. Since Jan. 1, gas prices around the country have gone up 14.2-20.1 percent. This led to furious protests across this country, with protests this week blocking highways in many major areas, including Chihuahua, Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, Puebla, Queretaro, Mexico City, Hidalgo, Guerrero and Veracruz. Isolated acts of violence have continued throughout the week but Pena Nieto said that "this was not an easy decision to take. However, if we had not done so, the cost would be far worse." "I call on society to listen to the reasons behind this decision," he added during a televised address. The Ministry of Economy has said that the new gasoline prices were due to three factors: the international references prices for fuel, the costs of transportation, storage and distribution faced by Pemex, and other areas such as taxes and the commercial margins for petrol stations. Until Feb. 3, the price of Magna gasoline will be of 15.99 pesos (0.77 U.S. dollars) per liter, which represents a 14.2 percent rise, while Premium gasoline rose 20.1 percent to reach 17.79 pesos (0.86 U.S. dollars) per liter. Diesel rose by 16.5 percent to 17.05 pesos (0.82 U.S. dollars) per liter. Pena Nieto added that his government would not allow any abuses of the new policy. "There is no greater cost for a society than to not be responsible in looking after the stability of our economy. This is why we must all assume the cost of this rise going forward," he said. Residents take part in a protest against the gasoline price hike in Mexico City, capital of Mexico, on Jan. 1, 2017. (Xinhua/Francisco Canedo) On Tuesday evening, Pemex said that blockades at certain petrol stations were threatening the availability of gasoline in the states of Chihuahua, Morelos, Durango and Baja California. However, on Wednesday, roadblocks were reported in ten states, including the major Mexico City-Puebla highway. At the same public address, Pena Nieto said that he was changing the Minister of Foreign Affairs, removing Claudia Ruiz Massieu from the role and giving it to former Economy Minister, Luis Videgaray. Videgaray resigned from that position in September after taking the blame for organizing a visit by president-elect Donald Trump to Mexico, which was roundly criticized across the political spectrum. "Before the change in U.S: government on Jan. 20, the instructions for Videgaray are to accelerate dialogue and contacts," said the president. Equally, the new minister will "promote the interests of Mexico and the dignity of Mexicans. He will have to ensure the attention and protection to which Mexicans living abroad have a right, including many in the U.S." iStock/Thinkstock(CHICAGO) Four people were arrested in Chicago on Wednesday in connection with a "sickening" video posted to social media that allegedly shows the individuals committing a "brutal act" toward a man with "mental health challenges," Chicago Police Department Superintendent Eddie Johnson said at a press conference following the arrests. While on patrol Tuesday on Chicago's West Side, police officers encountered the victim, who "didn't seem right" and was in "in distress," Chicago Police Department Capt. Steven Sesso said at the press conference. The victim was then transported to a nearby hospital for treatment. Around the same time, the suspects were taken into custody for another incident near the address where the victim was found, police said. A Chicago Police press release explained that the officers "responded to a battery at a residence ... where they discovered signs of a struggle and damage to the property and were able to link this evidence to the disoriented male." Police determined that the individuals arrested were responsible for the "injury and maltreatment" of the victim, Sesso said. Officials later became aware of a social media video depicting a battery of an adult male which is believed to be the same individual, police said. Video of the alleged incident was initially posted on Facebook, but was later removed from the social media site. A Facebook spokesman said in a statement that it removed the video because it does "not allow people to celebrate or glorify crimes on Facebook." CPD press conference regarding disturbing live social media video depicting a battery ; victim was tied up https://t.co/jDrjfz4sJV Chicago Police (@Chicago_Police) January 5, 2017 The suspects -- two men and two women -- allegedly assaulted the victim and then broadcast it "for the entire world to see," said Johnson. Video of the violent assault shows a white man with his mouth taped shut as his captors repeatedly torture him. Someone is heard yelling, "F---- white people." At one point, the victim was threatened with a knife and told to curse President-elect Donald Trump. "Say f--- Donald Trump," someone is heard saying. "F--- Donald Trump," the victim says. Detectives later determined that the victim had been listed as missing or endangered from a nearby suburb, said Chicago Police Department Cmdr. Kevin Duffin. According to a press release issued by the Streamwood Police Department, the victim's parents reported his disappearance late Monday night, telling police they had not heard from their son since Saturday when they dropped him off at a McDonald's restaurant. As officers were investigating, the victim's parents began receiving text messages from persons claiming to be holding him captive, the Streamwood Police Department stated in the press release. Soon after, Streamwood police discovered the video on Facebook and they were informed by the Chicago Police Department that the victim had been located. Police believe the victim is an acquaintance of one of the suspects. According to Duffin, the suspects stole a van from the suburbs and drove to Chicago. The victim voluntarily went with them, Duffin said, and he may have been held captive for 24 to 48 hours. Police believe the suspects eventually unbound the victim and let him go. He was later released from the hospital but has been "traumatized" by the incident, Cmdr. Duffin said. "Its sickening," Supt. Johnson said of the video. "It makes you wonder what would make individuals treat someone like that." The suspects, three of whom are Chicago residents, are expected to be charged in the next 24 hours, Cmdr. Duffin said. Police will determine whether kidnapping or hate crime charges will be given to the suspects, who he described as "young adults." They have all given video statements. Police do not believe any additional suspects were involved in the incident. The investigation is ongoing. Copyright 2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Image provided by A Critica journal on Jan. 2, 2017 shows smoke rising from the Anisio Jobim Prison Complex during a riot, in Manaus, northern Brazil. (Xinhua/A CRITICA) BRASILIA, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- The secretariat of public security of the Brazilian state of Amazonas knew about a planned mass breakout from prisons between Christmas and New Year's Day, but did not inform the federal government, Brazilian justice minister told reporters on Wednesday. Alexandre de Moraes was speaking about the riot at the state's Anisio Jobim penitentiary complex which killed 56 prisoners on Jan. 1, making it the second deadliest prison riot in Brazilian history since the Carandiru massacre in 1992 killed 111 people. "The information was received through intelligence reports. It is not mandatory to pass an intelligence report on to the federal government. The state government (of Amazonas) said it took all measures to prevent the breakout," the minister said. The minister confirmed that the federal government had no prior knowledge about the riot, which lasted around 17 hours. In the riot, 184 inmates also escaped on Sunday, although 56 had been recaptured by Tuesday night. Image provided by A Critica journal on Jan. 2, 2017 shows family members of prisoners standing outside the Anisio Jobim Prison Complex, in Manaus, northern Brazil. (Xinhua/A CRITICA) Many of those killed belonged to the Primer Comando de la Capital (First Command of the Capital), which is the largest Brazilian criminal organization according to a 2012 Brazilian government report. Their killers belonged to rival Familia del Norte gang. "The reasons (for the riot) are being investigated by police. We can say a number of errors took place. If not, what happened would never have happened," said de Moraes. He also said high-caliber weapons, machetes and mobile phones were found within the prison complex, due to faults committed by the company responsible for controlling access to the prison. The Justice Minister said investigators would seek to discover if the riot and killings were ordered in order to allow the heads of criminal gangs to escape. Antoun al-Tawil tries a lute, known in Arabic as Oud, he made at his shop in the old city of the Syrian capital Damascus on January 4, 2017.(AFP PHOTO) DAMASCUS, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- The second stage of a recent Turkish-Russian understanding about imminent Syrian peace talks in Astana is obscure, as the first step of a cease-fire has been disturbed by military gears and mutual distrust, analysts say. When the recent cease-fire was agreed upon by Turkey and Russia last week, it presented a glimpse of hope to this war-ravaged country that another attempt following several previous cease-fires and talks meant renewed hope with respect to reaching a solution to the close to six-year-old crisis in Syria. Ever since the cease-fire went into effect last Friday, the violence rate dropped significantly across the country, baring areas controlled by the Islamic State (IS) group and the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front. Noteworthy, the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front changed its name to the Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, or the Front for Conquering the Levant, in a desperate bid to divert attention away from its ties to the global terrorist network, which it claimed it had severed its ties with. The Nusra name change attempt didn't absolve it from the "terrorist organization" label, and it remains a significant terrorist group which was excluded, along with the other ultra-radical IS, from the cease-fire. The cease-fire is considered a first step in the Russian-Turkish deal, with planned peace talks expected in Astana, Kazakhstan, later this month. Analysts in Syria expressed conflicting opinions regarding the prospects of the cease-fire deal, some admiring the upcoming Astana meeting, while others maintained their skepticism and are merely observing the shaky first step, whose collapse means no second option. Both optimists and skeptics have their reasons and they are equally logical. REASONS WHY ASTANA COULD WORK OUT Ala'a Arafat, a member from the Change and Liberation Front opposition party, expected commitment from the parties involved in the current cease-fire, despite breaches each side accuses the other for. He pointed out that the recent deal was concluded between Russia and Turkey only, excluding the U.S. and other regional players, such as Gulf States, at least for now, which means two of the most influential powers from each party of the conflict are directly involved. It's also worth noting that Russia and Turkey named themselves as "guarantors" of the cease-fire, and stated that the next step will be holding talks in Astana. Both pledged to monitor the deal and prevent any potential breach, which translated into a strong guarantee for both the government and the opposition forces. Syria's Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said last week that the cease-fire is a potential starting point for a political process, speaking highly of the chances of success, due to what he called the "strong guarantees" from Moscow. The opposition rebels hold the same view, as they have unwavering trust in Ankara due to Turkey's support of the rebels in Syria which was crucial for their survival when facing the Russian-backed administration of President Bashar al-Assad. "The absence of the U.S. involvement in the deal will have a positive impact because Americans and Europeans were behind the failure of previous deals, either directly or indirectly. I am optimistic that the absence of the U.S. will increase chances of success to the cease-fire and the following talks," Arafat said. The current Turkish-Russian agreement seems better than the one struck between Russia and the United States late last year, Arafat said, noting that the U.S.-Russian deal was criticized by the U.S.-led strike on Syria's army posts in Deir al-Zour last September, killing over 90 Syrian soldiers, enabling IS to benefit from the Syrian army's losses. "Back then Washington smothered the agreement before it saw the light of day, and you can be sure of that when you hear the recent remarks by U.S. officials stating that the reason behind the failure of the Russian-U.S. agreement is the divided U.S. administration itself," Arafat said. "The Astana talks will be a historic chance to end the crisis and should succeed" he said, noting that during previous talks in Geneva, the main obstacle was the representation of the opposition groups, particularly the Saudi-backed Higher Negotiations Committee, which played an "obstructionist role," seen by many as an adamant stance, demanding the departure of Assad as a prerequisite to any negotiations, which of course was the stance of the supporters. "Such a role should be overcome now, and if the same group wants to ardently stick to its previous stance, I say they shouldn't attend, but if they will, I say they should not obstruct the talks," he said. Arafat also pointed out another reason why the recent talks could be different, mainly the new precedent of having the armed rebels represented in the talks. "In the new talks, armed factions are going to be present and they agree on the political negotiations. Astana will be different, as the UN is also not supervising the talks, which means that the real players on the ground are the ones negotiating. In this phase of the crisis, Americans are being bypassed," he said. REASONS WHY ASTANA COULD BE ANOTHER FAILURE Some of the previously-mentioned reasons for the success of the talks are a double-edged sword, with the rebels being represented in the talks, in addition to their participation in the cease-fire. When the current cease-fire started a week ago, the situation was calm, a good sign for the upcoming talks, except an escalation occurred in the last few days. Government forces escalated an attack against the rebel-held Wadi Barada, or Barada Valley, northwest of Damascus, citing that the rebels severed the drinking water source from the capital, as Wadi Barada contains the main spring providing Damascus's over five million inhabitants with water. The government considers the attack legitimate, stating that the rebels in Wadi Barada are actually the Nusra Front, already excluded from the deal. However, the rebels cited the attack as a pretext to announcing freezing of the talks and planned negotiations in Astana, further worrying the government of parties on the ground and regionally who do not consider Nusra as a terrorist group, another barrier toward reaching an understanding. Turkey also criticized the government forces' offensive against Wadi Barada, further cracking the recent deal. The current situation means that Turkey and the rebels it supports are in a position where they can call off the entire deal with Moscow, analysts said. Ankara spewed a barrage of criticism against the Shiite Hezbollah group, supported by Iran, believed to be a third party in the Turkish-Russian deal. Turkey accused Hezbollah of jeopardizing the cease-fire, as the later is also fighting alongside the Syrian army for Wadi Barada. A day earlier, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Iran must pressure allied Shiite militias to respect the truce. "When we look at who commits these violations, it is Hezbollah, in particular Shiite groups and the regime," Cavusoglu said. The remarks irked Tehran, whose officials considered Turkey's allegations that its allies on the ground were threatening the cease-fire as "unconstructive." Iran additionally accused Ankara and its subordinates on the ground. "The current cease-fire in Syria has been repeatedly violated by anti-government armed opposition groups," Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said on Wednesday. The tit-for-tat accusations didn't stop there. An unnamed security official connected to the joint operation room of Syria's allies was quoted by local media on Thursday as "revealing what's going on behind the curtains." The source said the Nusra Front is preparing to carry out several attacks in Syria so as to undermine the cease-fire, "amid information that a similar threat would be carried out upon orders from Turkey." The source added that "Turkey ordered the rebels to carry out various attacks in different areas to pressure Russia in order to gain concessions from Russia during the Astana talks." He added that Turkey wants to pressure Russia to include Nusra in the deal, adding that Syria is committed to the cease-fire, despite the worrisome security developments behind the scenes. Maher Ihsan, a Syrian journalist and political analyst, said the climate for the Jan. 23 Astana talks are not yet ripe enough. "Despite the fact that the Astana meeting sounds more serious than its predecessors, I think both the political and field atmospheres are not yet ripe enough. I think that the talks in Astana will only be a step before another final step which may take place next year," he said. He added that so far, "there is no single country that can control all of its armed factions, and the fact that the Turks are negotiating on behalf of the opposition and the Russians are negotiating on behalf of the government is a sign that the deal or the situation is not ripe enough to hammer out a solution in the Astana meeting," referring to the fact that other countries still have vested interests in Syria, such as the United States and Gulf States. As for Anas Joudeh, head of the Nation Building Movement opposition group, he told Xinhua that the concept of the Astana meeting is still "vague," pointing to what he called the problem of the rebel representation and participation in the talks. "The first problem is that the meeting will be held between the government and the rebels, thus we cannot see any serious political track," he said, noting that such a meeting could establish a more comprehensive cease-fire, but not a political solution. Joudeh also believes that Ankara and Moscow are not on the same page, noting that "the Turkish side could be stalling untill the new U.S. administration comes into power." The opposition figure also said that the absence of the UN from the meeting means it will not be a long-lasting one, adding that it may be a preparatory meeting for another round of Geneva talks, where previous rounds ended with abject failure. Another reason why the talks could reach an impasse is the presidency of Bashar al-Assad, whose removal was a main demand from the opposition and their supporters during previous talks, a point that remains a redline by the government. Al-Moallem, the foreign minster of Syria, said last Thursday that Assad's presidency is non-negotiable. Palestinian fishermen ride their boats as they go fishing at the seaport of Gaza City on Oct. 10, 2016. (Xinhua Photo) by Osama Radi and Emad Drimly RAMALLAH, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian observers say Israel's objection to an international peace conference, expected in Paris later this month, poses a real threat to make the event a failure but could not undermine its political significance to the Palestinians. They believe that the conference will open the door for wider recognition of the Palestinian state based on the two-state solution. The peace conference is expected to be held in Paris on Jan. 15, attended by 70 foreign ministers and UN organizations, though no representatives of Palestinians or Israelis would be present. Paris last hosted an international ministerial meeting on June 3, attended by the foreign ministers of 25 countries, including four Arab countries, who debated the revival of the stalled peace process between Israel and Palestine. That meeting was held based on an initiative launched by France, a few months before, to hold an international conference to look into an international mechanism to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict based on the two-state solution. On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Binjamin Netanyahu said the "Paris conference is aimless." In response, Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Saeb Erekat said Wednesday that the party opposing the holding of the Paris international peace conference is the one that is considering "aimlessness, violence and bloodshed." CRUCIAL TIMING Political analyst Hani Al-Masri said the scheduled peace conference in Paris "comes at a crucial time in light of Israel's unprecedented escalation in settlement construction, land grab and Judaization of Palestinian lands." Al-Masri pointed out that the Paris conference comes after the U.S. election but before President Barak Obama hands over to President-elect Donald Trump, who is believed to support Israel's settlement policy and once said would move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Al-Masri warned that "large settlement blocs would serve to annex land in the West Bank." On Dec. 23, the UN Security Council voted in favor of a resolution that condemns Israeli settlement construction and calls on Israel to halt its settlement activity in the Palestinian territories. Palestinians considered the resolution a historic victory that could represent an international reference for the Paris conference, enhancing the international community's position toward the two-state solution. ISRAELI THREATS George Giacaman, director of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Institute for the Study of Democracy, considered Israel's opposition to the Paris peace conference as a predetermined threat to prevent the conference from succeeding and to limit the realization of Palestinian goals on the ground. Giacaman said the French initiative to hold an international peace conference is mainly focused on filling the current political void, and that Israel's rejection weakens the chances of reaching a settlement for the conflict within a limited timeframe. Giacaman warned that if the Paris conference fails, there could be more flagrant conflicts in the region. The Paris conference comes against the backdrop of an ongoing wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence that has killed over 340 Palestinians, one Jordanian and over 40 Israelis since October 2015, according to Palestinian official data. Peace talks between Israel and Palestinians have been stalled since April 2014, when U.S-sponsored negotiations collapsed after nine months of futile efforts. POLITICAL MOMENTUM Political analyst Mohammad Daraghmeh said the Paris conference is politically important for the Palestinians to once again promote their cause on the international arena. The conference will pave the way for more countries to recognize the Palestinian state, Daraghmeh said. "What matters... in Paris is the position of the Europeans and other international groups, which would assemble political capital for Palestinians for the coming phases," said Daraghmeh. He said that the conference would at least result in an international demand for Israel to return to the negotiation table on the basis of the two-state solution. The Paris conference "is not expected at all to bring an immediate solution to the Palestinian question, but would be a push for Palestinian political efforts, aiming to seek an international reference for the peace resolution," Daraghmeh said. This file frame grab photo taken on Nov. 7, 2001 shows Hamza, who appears to be the youngest son of Saudi born Osamabin Laden, as he recites a poem, in this frame grab taken from the Qatar based al-Jazeera satellite news channel. (Xinhua/ AFP PHOTO ) WASHINGTON, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- The United States on Thursday designated Hamza bin Laden, son of late al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, as terrorist, the State Department said in a statement. As a result of the designation, all property subject to U.S. jurisdiction in which Hamza bin Laden has any interest is blocked and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in any transactions with him. On August 14, 2015, Hamza bin Laden was officially announced by al-Qaeda senior leader Ayman al-Zawahiri as an official member of the group. Hamza bin Laden has called for acts of terrorism in Western capitals and threatened revenge against the United States, said the State Department, adding that in 2016, he also called on Saudi Arabian-based tribes to unite with al-Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen to wage war against Saudi Arabia. Hamza bin Laden was born in 1989 in Saudi Arabia. His father Osama bin Laden, founder and former leader of al-Qaeda, was shot and killed on May 2, 2011 in Pakistan during a covert operation conducted by the United States. A Zimbabwean national parks and wildlife authorities worker checks the ivory stockpile in Harare, Zimbabwe, June 2, 2016. (Xinhua) PARIS, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- France welcomed China's decision to ban the ivory trade and processing by the end of 2017, the country's foreign ministry said on Thursday. In a statement issued by the Quai d'Orsay, Paris reiterated its "commitment to combating poaching and illegal trade of wild species, and mainly in the fight against the elephant ivory trade." France also called on state parties of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) to prohibit any ivory trading. CITES, which took effect in 1975, banned the ivory trade in 1989. Last week, China announced a phased schedule to stop part of ivory processing and sales by March 31, 2017, and to eventually stop all ivory processing and sales by the end of 2017. The plan also encourages shifting ivory carvers to other materials and preserving ivory carvings for their non-commercial cultural value. JERUSALEM, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- Israeli police said they interrogated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday night for suspicion of receiving "benefits," amidst a string of criminal investigations of corruption affairs. The five-hour questioning took place at the prime minister's official residence in Jerusalem, where Netanyahu was questioned about two graft affairs on Monday. The recent questioning was focused on a previously undisclosed case. "Today's interrogation also dealt with an additional affair," police spokeswoman, Luba Samri, said in a statement released after the questioning. She declined to disclose any details on the case, citing fear of obstruction of investigation, but said that another person was interrogated for the same affair two days ago. Samri said Netanyahu was interrogated under caution, meaning he was interviewed as a suspect. Earlier on Thursday, Channel 2 TV news reported that officials involved in the investigation said that Arnon Milchan, a Hollywood producer and an ex-Israeli businessman, was involved in one of the cases. According to the officials, Milchan spent "hundreds of thousands of shekels" to buy Netanyahu Cuban cigars. He also supplied "pink champagne" to Netanyahu's wife, Sara, Channel 2 said. The goods were sent to the Netanyahu as gifts over a period of at least seven years, the report said. On Monday, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit officially confirmed for the first time that Netanyahu was under criminal investigations. The statement followed months of unconfirmed reports in local media over the alleged prime minister's involvement in a series of corruption affairs. Netanyahu dismissed the allegations as "baseless" and hinted it was part of a political prosecution aimed to remove him from the office. "There won't be anything because there isn't anything," he said earlier this week. Ahn Jong-beom, former senior presidential secretary on policy coordination, arrives for questioning at the office of the independent counsel in Seoul, South Korea, Jan. 4, 2017. (Xinhua/Lee Sang-ho) Schneider Electric: Investing in the region Schneider Electric SE is a French multinational corporation that specialises in electricity distribution, automation management and produces installation components for energy management. The company describes itself as the global specialist in energy management and automation, claiming revenues of 27 billion in its 2015 financial year, it has more than 160,000 employees at work serving customers in more than 100 countries, helping them to manage their energy and process in ways that are safe, reliable, efficient and sustainable. From the simplest of switches to complex operational systems, our technology, software and services improve the way our customers manage and automate their operations, the company said in a statement. Rodrigues said that Schneider Electric was making significant investments in the region and while he declined to release specific figures, he said the company will continue to do so. He said the company is continuing to improve its service infrastructure capabilities as well as Schneider Electric resources in Trinidad and Tobago and is showing its commitment to this country and the region by recently appointing Sharlene Mangalie as its new Enterprise Territory Manager for Trinidad and Tobago and the English-speaking Caribbean. He said Mangalie would be based in Trinidad and her appointment would allow the company to provide an additional level of support. He said the company had also invested in a Rapid Deployment Centre, which is wholly owned and controlled by Schneider Electric, where it will store critical spare parts that will allow the company to respond more quickly to repair breakdowns on contracted units in the region. Schneider Electric is a manufacturer of products focused on energy management. So our solutions focus on the management of energy all the way from the generation point to the end point and everything in between. So we dont produce energy but we do manage that energy in the most efficient way and really as consultants in this energy management space is looking at the life cycle of energy management for corporations and businesses alike and showing them that we can provide the best case scenario on how to improve their energy efficiency while maintaining the integrity of their infrastructure and installations as well. He said the company already has many clients in this country to whom it provides its services through its partner networks already in place in the region, and hiring Mangalie will assist in supporting its partners from a consultative standpoint. We really like to take a look from ground zero ground zero as far as what a companys infrastructure looks like today, assess that infrastructure and then start working together with them on any improvements. He said the company also seeks greenfield opportunities, in which it consults with a client seeking to design and install a new infrastructure or installation from scratch and work out with them what would be the best approach to do it. He said that in these cases the company approaches such a conversation from a modular perspective which is not only the modularity of what Schneider Electrics technology and solutions could provide, but also modularity from a budgetary standpoint taking a look at how we can grow together, where you do not need to spend up front all that money to install all that infrastructure supporting your thinking. We may be able to approach it from a global view to divide it over the course of a three year plan as far as growing together, saving you on the capital expenditure spend on year one and also on the operational expenditure year over year and so on. He said when the company talks about energy efficiency a lot of times people look at what their power consumption might be from a power perspective but Schneider Electric takes a look at the entire picture, both from a power and a cooling infrastructure perspective, looking at the electrical and the mechanical infrastructure, understanding the inner workings of it and improving the efficiency on both. A lot of times people seem to leave cooling out of the equation when in reality cooling solutions can represent upwards of sixty percent of the total power consumption happening within their infrastructure. He said that in addition, part of the companys assessment in looking at the environment is to understand what the clients load is as far as energy consumption and then making sure that the client is designing specifically for that load and preparing for what the future load may hold. What we find in various environments across the Caribbean and in other parts of the world is that a lot of times people oversize their solutions based on what they expect to need versus what they need. And that oversizing of the solution is also inefficient and not only from a budgetary standpoint but also, more importantly, from an energy consumption standpoint you are probably consuming more than what you should and thats really where we come in to make sure we take a look at all of that and improve that efficiency as much as possible. Early last year, Schneider Electric hosted a Data Centre Initiative Experience Efficiency Event in Trinidad for the first time. The event focused on data centres and created a dialogue about energy consumption, management and efficiency. It dealt with the demand drivers that are forcing change: economic and government rebalancing, urbanisation, digitisation and sustainable resources. By looking at the latest integrated energy trends and sustainability solutions that will transform how we work, learn and play, Schneider Electrics event created the ideal platform to discuss and demonstrate efficient energy opportunities. The company said, the world today is data driven; one in which three billion Facebook videos are viewed daily and 300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every hour. Behind all of this data are Colocation Data Centres: vast banks of servers that process everything from online videos to financial assets and it takes a lot of energy to process that amount of information. In fact, data centres contribute to two percent of global CO2 emissions. Our objective was to share information on trends, tools, services and solutions available to customers, that make it easier for them to operate in todays environment. Rodrigues said the experience efficiency event was an opportunity for the company to meet with the top decision makers across the island and this part of the Caribbean and provide them with an inside look at what the company does on a day-to-day consultative standpoint and what it can do to provide its solutions to each of their businesses to really improve that efficiency long term and to reinforce the infrastructure they need to support their business. He said the event focused more on case studies rather than talking about the companys products themselves so it looked at real life scenarios throughout the Caribbean region that the company had been working on and showing the top decision makers at the conference exactly how Schneider Electric could support them under similar circumstances, taking a look from the assessment standpoint understanding what their current infrastructure looks like, how the company supported the client with multiple options and suggestions in modularity from a budget standpoint as well as design and how it was able to support them from an executive standpoint as well. Regarding the difficult economic times facing Trinidad and Tobago and the region, Rodrigues said that a company can never walk into a situation only in the good times and expect to truly understand what it was working with and how to improve on it. He said it was important for the company to maintain its presence and show all of the islands throughout the Caribbean zone that it was here to stay through the good times and the bad times and we will support you exactly the same way no matter what the current economic winds are turning. He said the company has made the decision to continue in the region and has hired local resources and is putting in additional infrastructure so that its customers will see that wholesale support has been preserved and the same goes for the companys consultative services, adding that by continuing this conversation Schneider Electric believes that it will maintain the confidence of its customers during the downturn and during the upturn as well. The Schneider Electric team: From left, Manuel Gonzalez, Sharlene Mangalie, Manuel Rodrigues, Hector Martinez. Flight plan Because of the commonplace nature of air travel, the etiquette expected for such travel is often taken for granted, causing undue discomfort for other passengers in each travel class. One of the simple rules of travel, in similar vein to the rule of life, is to treat others with respect, and do onto others as you would have them do onto you. With these guides in mind, here are a few tips I have pulled together to support your air travel etiquette; Be mindful of the space allocation. We have all experienced the over stuffing of the suitcase, with that passenger who comes aboard with the carry-on, and a number of other overstuffed bags and packages, taking up much more space than that assigned. While it is appreciated that shopping is a very important part of the travel experience, remember space is assigned to each passenger, and it would help to be mindful of others. You are afforded space in the overhead locker as well as at your feet. Be thoughtful when packing your bags with this allocation in mind. Comfort should be coupled with Care. Recently, one airline introduced a dress code for their business and first class customers, particularly for the airport lounge. Though this introduction was met with resistance, the airline remained steadfast in ensuring the standards they required for the dress codes. It is understandable that travel for leisure means exactly that, and for many, donning very casual and comfortable attire is perfectly acceptable however, there are those who do push the boundaries of acceptable. Even though many airlines do not have stated policies on passenger dress codes, some do act based on if they believe the passengers dress may be offensive to the other guests. Simply put, be mindful of your choices. This includes the exhibiting of your undressed feet. Removing your shoes for a long flight is understandable. However, be mindful that other passengers may not be interested in viewing your undressed toes, and perhaps using a travel sock is an option Monitor your volumes, and alcohol intake. I recall on a late flight to New York some time ago, after the meal service, the lights were dimmed as is customary to allow passengers the opportunity to nap. Two passengers took that opportunity to engage in loud discussion, laughter, and the more alcohol they requested and consumed, the louder they became, causing all the other passengers in the cabin to protest. While it is your right to enjoy your flight as best as you could, it is respectful to recognise certain basic principles of decency and respect for and of others as well. Do not over do. Respect your flight staff. The flight staff is there to ensure both your comfort and safety while on board. They are not there to be used as your personal wait staff. I have seen some passengers verbally abuse flight staff which is completely unacceptable. Remember respect is earned, not worn. Deplaning, it is not a race. How many times have you arrived at the runway awaiting to deplane, and everyone in front of you and behind you are all standing, grabbing their luggage from the overhead lockers, and almost tripping over you to get out? I have never quite understood the logic of attempting to trip over each other to deplane. There are rows, and if we allow each row to deplane I am certain we would all exit in quick order. Enjoy your flight OWTU ready to rumble However, addressing workers shortly after serving strike notice on Petrotrin president Fitzroy Harewood at the companys Pointe-a-Pierre administrative offices, Roget said the union had not ruled out last minute negotiations to avert strike action. The collective agreement provides for the company to have a minimum of 96 hours (to avert the strike on being served the notice). He said that the 96 hour grace period, from the time of the notice being served, would end at 10 am on Sunday, but, we have given them an extra 24 hours so that will be on Monday morning and we said to the president of the company, while serving him, that despite the fact that we have served strike notice, we are still open to discussions between now and Monday morning, Roget said. He said the 96 hour window also gives the government enough time to open discussions with the union regarding a settlement of the 2014- 2017 bargaining period. Unless the government, who claims to have the authority and who said Petrotrin does not have the authority to negotiate, unless they begin to talk with us the strike will go on, he warned. So the ball is in the court of the government, in the court of the Finance Minister who in fact attacked the OWTU with those zeroes (in the offer to the OWTU). And all members of the public who talking now (against the union), when government send up the price of gas and when they begin to bring hardship through austerity measures on everybody, then they will begin to understand the struggle we were putting in place this morning to prevent austerity measures against the people, Roget said. Meanwhile, the union together with Petrotrin executives are scheduled to meet with Labour Minister Jennifer Baptiste-Primus at the Ministrys head office in Port-of-Spain at 1.30 pm today. Roget advised union members against listening to criticisms from the various business and energy chambers as well as those bleeding hearts in society. I want to advise comrades not to listen to those critics, not to listen to those bleeding hearts in the media, not to listen to the business community, the Energy Chambers and the ECA...all they want is foreign exchange! Roget also poured scorn on Petrotrins contingency measures saying neither the Army nor Police are trained to work in the high-risk energy industry. They have absolutely no contingency measures, Roget said adding, I dont know anywhere in the training for police and for soldiers, they know how to start up and to run a cat cracker which is a very volatile piece of equipment. The soldiers and police cannot do the job for which they are paid to do right now so I dont know how they can do the job of oil workers. That has to be some kind of magic (if soldiers and police do the oil workers job). Pannists want Panorama pay Leading the protest, ace pannist Dane Gulston lamented the relatively modest turnout of protestors but was undeterred in his demands for action. Initially an irate Gulston told reporters he had met hostility when he had entered the building to try to present a letter signed by him calling for Diaz and his executive to resign. He alleged past disrespect shown by the Diaz administration to the calls of pannists, and call for a new interim executive made up of regional heads. Gulston read aloud his letter, hitting the executive for claiming a $1.6 million loss from Panorama 2016, and for rendering Pan Trinbago as a sinking ship. However about an hour later, he said two of his fellow protestors - Pan Trinbago Eastern Regional head, Gerard Mendez, and Northern Regional head, Carlon Yearwood, were engaged in talks with Diaz inside. Concerns arose that pannists had not been paid, against a backdrop of Culture Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly saying the allocation had been sent to Pan Trinbago, against claims that Pan Trinbago is $30 million in debt and concerns about Pan Trinbagos spending on luxury vehicles. Among the protestors were Desperados former captain, Martin Cain; Power Stars representative, Lyndsay Tom; Roger Thomas of Moods Steel Orchestra; and a member of the Codrington Pan Family. Cain was confident the turnout was sufficient to send a message to the executive, and once 60 percent of members sign a letter to call for the resignation, the executive would have to go. He hoped Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley could step in to resolve the impasse. Nearby, watching the protest was former vice president, Byron Serrette, who said he had come to observe, even as he disclosed his own concerns about the Pan Trinbago administration that had led him to voluntarily resign in protest. He alleged that the administration was inept and had been unwilling to take advice that he had proffered to try to put Pan Trinbago on a more professional footing. Serrette alluded to having been met with hostility by the executive. Asked if hed support any call for Pan Trinbagos governance and financial affairs to be scrutinised by the likes of the Auditor General, Integrity Commission and Parliaments committees such as the Public Accounts Committee, Serrette said a hearty yes. While he supported pannists raising their voices for their just due, he said that it is now time for the involvement of these type of higher-level watchdog bodies. Denying that he wants to become Pan Trinbago chairman, Serrette said only a madman would want to lead an organisation that is $30 million in the red. Dennis Singh of Edinburgh 500 Steel Ensemble vowed to boycott Panorama 2017. Mervyn Boots Britto said yesteryears panmen would not have engaged in dialogue but have got physical over their disgruntlement. What is Govt doing? Yesterday, president general of the Oilfields Workers Trade Union Ancel Roget served a strike notice to Petrotrin president Fitzroy Harewood announcing the disgruntled workers intention to begin the strike come next Monday __ the start of the new school term. At a press conference at the Office of the Opposition Leader in Portof- Spain, Persad-Bissessar had a burning question for the government to answer. Why was there no meeting of the Government and the workers? Why did not the Government intervene prior to discussions with the workers involved? Why has Petrotrin reached where it has reached. I would not want to intervene in the Petrotrin issue. We have seen a breakdown in the collective bargaining process when Government gave a unilateral decision as to what should be the wage increase with not just Petrotrin but for the entire public sector, and Finance Minister (Colm Imbert) mentioned 0-0-0. She said if the Government had continued its action against former executive chairman Malcolm Jones perhaps $2 million would have been recovered. Petrotrin had sued Jones for US$109 for the World Gas-to-Liquids (GTL) project. However, the lawsuit was discontinued. She said Petrotrin today has monies owing that would come into effect for about $14 billion. Persad-Bissessar, however, still holds out hope that Government and the workers could come to some agreement before the latter take drastic action and cripple the company by way of a protracted strike. I think the crisis could have been averted but there is still time to avert the crisis, and lets hope good sense prevails on both sides. Government has scheduled a meeting with the Labour Minister within this four-day window that they have been given, and we will see where those discussions go, but is not today that this issue arose. Before we even reached here steps could have been taken. She then hit the governments handling of the countrys affairs since assuming office in September 2015. We have to ask whether Government could have taken money squandered elsewhere and been able to pay the workers, not just at Petrotrin, but elsewhere. The economy is no longer at a standstill, it is plunging down the cliff and going down, down, down. No plan, programme or project has been announced to deal with recession in Trinidad and Tobago, to deal with the uplifting of the economy, to deal with the creation of jobs. The devaluation of the TT$ is staring us straight in the eye. The value of TT$ to the US$ on the black market was $13 and the Government is not addressing this situation. Calls for cooperation on FATCA She wrote a letter to Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley the Opposition was willing to work together for the passage of the legislation before any deadline whether the same as February 28, 2017 or otherwise. Persad-Bissessar said such an agreement would ensure that we as a country met the stated deadline and the fears and anxiety of citizens would be assuaged. The Bill required a special majority for passage, and Government as presently constituted could not pass the legislation with the support of the Opposition. The Bill sought to validate the exchange of information between Trinidad and Tobago and the United States made under the 1989 Tax Information Agreement which was in breach of the rights of citizens whose information was exchanged. Also, it enacted into TTs domestic law the terms of the intergovernmental agreement (IGA) signed between TT and the US for the purpose of effecting a reporting regime for financial institutions to comply with the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). Speaking during a news conference yesterday at the Office of the Opposition, Persad-Bissessar also asked Government to consider removing those clauses in the Bill which violated our constitutional guarantees (by looking to the statutes of other Caricom countries which gave effect to their IGAs). She said if this was done it would remove the necessity for a special minority, in which case, the legislation could be passed by a simple minority. Persad-Bissessar said the Opposition would not support the wholesale surrender of the sovereignty of this country because of the expected consequences that may transpire from the non-passage of this legislation. She noted that the passage of this legislation and its implementation may also affect the supply, demand and availability of foreign exchange in TTs financial institutions. Already our country is facing serious FOREX challenges. The Government has not provided the information necessary to resolve the many issues arising, and it is upon the Government that the duty falls to do so, she said. Persad-Bissessar said the unfortunate and unsatisfactory state that Government and TT found themselves not only justified this legislation being the subject of a JSC, but mandated it. Deosaran heads police audit One of the major failings of the country is the inability of the Police Service to keep pace and get on top of the criminal conduct in TT as reflected by the relatively unsatisfactory level of detection and crime suppression which we are experiencing, the Prime Minister said. Declaring these are facts which we cant run away from, Rowley indicated the best response to deal with criminal elements in TT which seem to be getting more and more brazen, is a well organised and well managed Police Service. He hinted there were other responses that have to be made but did not explain what those responses were. The Prime Minister was confident that the data generated by Deosarans committee, which includes Deputy Police Commissioner Harold Phillip who acted last year as Police Commissioner while Stephen Williams was on leave, will allow us to respond to the need to support, prune or trim or to relocate as the case might be. Indicating the committee will be serviced by the National Security Ministry and the entire exercise is drive by the National Security Council (NSC) which he chairs, Rowley said $21 billion has been spent on policing over the last decade and the Police Service currently has 6,000 officers on its payroll. The Prime Minister said while the original intention was for the audit to be done largely with assistance from the British, that support is still forthcoming but we decided to start from the local end. Opposition meets EC against budget before polls Delhi,National,Politics, Thu, 05 Jan 2017 IANS New Delhi, Jan 5 (IANS) Six opposition parties on Thursday urged the Election Commission to demand that the union budget must be deferred till assembly elections get over in five states. "We told them that allowing the budget ahead of the polls gives an unfair advantage to the government and how the exercise can be used to influence the voters," Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad told the media. "Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi and his deputies heard us patiently," he added. The 11-member delegation included representatives from the Congress, Trinamool Congress, Janata Dal-United, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal. The budget is scheduled to be presented on February 1, days before staggered assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur begin. Trinamool Lok Sabha member Derek O'Brien hoped that the Election Commission will address their issues. "There is enough time to present the budget after March 8. That is the fair way to do it. Not only the EC has to be fair but it has to be seen to be fair. We are optimistic," said O'Brien. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) slammed the opposition. "The budget is a constitutional duty and not related to any one state. The presentation of the budget is not a sudden decision," said union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi "The opposition parties have gone bankrupt on issues. That is why they are trying to create an issue of a non-issue. The government has decided February 1 for budget presentation and irrespective of what the opposition says it will be presented," added Naqvi. BJP national secretary Siddharth Nath Singh said the opposition to the budget reflected the nervousness of the Congress and the Samajwadi Party. "The budget is a constitutional mandate and has no bearing with elections. Every now and then we have elections... You don't postpone a budget for that," Singh added. --IANS and/ksk/mr New book on Mughal Emperor Akbar launched in the Capital Delhi,National,Art/Culture/Books, Thu, 05 Jan 2017 IANS New Delhi, Jan 5 (IANS) Emperor Akbar is among the most fascinating of the Mughal rulers and the latest addition to the scholarly offerings on him throws more light on his decisions as well as the frame of mind in which he made them. Written by Shazi Zaman and published by Rajkamal Prakashan in Hindi, "Akbar" (pp342/Rs 350) is a close examination into possibly every material available on the celebrated emperor till date. Renowned historian Mukul Kesavan was in conversation with the author at the launch of the book on Wednesday evening. Pieces the sory together, the author said that he travelled extensively -- right from the Indian Museum in Kolkata to London's Victoria & Albert and scrutinised most of the available paintings as well as the Mughal architecture of the emperor and studied the Mughal architecture at the time of Akbar and his contemporaries. The book is a result of two decades of "unparalleled research" by Zaman on the life of the emperor. Speaking on the occasion, he said, "I am overwhelmed by the response 'Akbar' has evoked. Obviously it is testimony to the fact that the emperor is very much alive in the collective memory of the people of Hindustan. The tale of Akbar's inner and outer battles has never lost relevance." The book also draws from some of the exemplary work on Akbar such as Akbarnama Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh, Baburnama, Humanyunnama and Tazkirat-ul-waqiat. "We did a lot of meetings in the past 6 months and discussed every doubt in length to make sure no point was left untouched. We moved forward only when both of us agreed on all points. I must say I am extremely moved by the effort Shazi Zaman has put in for Akbar. As far as I remember the only such well researched novel in Hindi till date is by Rahul Sankrityayan. After a long time Hindi literature is going to have something of this sort", said Satyanand Nirupam, Editorial Director of Rajkamal Prakashan. The evening also witnessed Maand singing by Abid Ali Khan. He sang 'jalla', a composition sung in Rajasthani weddings. The song also finds a relevant mention in the book. It is generally seen that a book is translated into other languages after gaining popularity but the English rights of the book have already been taken by Speaking Tiger from Rajkamal Prakashan, it was revealed. --IANS ss/vm World must pressure India on Kashmr: Sharif Pakistan,Indo-Pak/Pakistan,Politics,Terrorism,Diplomacy, Thu, 05 Jan 2017 IANS Islamabad, Jan 5 (IANS) Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Thursday said the world needs to tell India "enough is enough" vis-a-vis its policy towards Jammu and Kashmir. Sharif was addressing an International Parliamentary Seminar on Kashmir here. "Seventy years of brutal repression and Kashmiri struggle in the face of that oppression have shown cries of freedom cannot be stifled by sounds of bullets," he said. He called for an end to the "continued suffering" in Kashmir, where a separatist campaign which New Delhi says is armed and financed by Islamabad has left thousands dead. Sharif called militant Burhan Wani, whose killing in July last year triggered widespread unrest in the Kashmir Valley, as a "vibrant and charismatic leader" who "has become a rallying point" for Kashmiris. He said India and Pakistan had promised to recognise the Kashmiri people's right to self-determination. Sharif said Pakistan would continue to support the separatist struggle in Jammu and Kashmir. --IANS ahm/mr Pre-poll clashes erupt in parts of Manipur Manipur,National,Politics, Thu, 05 Jan 2017 IANS Imphal, Jan 5 (IANS) Pre-poll clashes have been reported from some parts in Manipur following the announcement of the state assembly elections, officials said on Thursday. In Heirok, Thoubal district, the police resorted to firing tear-gas shells to disperse an unruly mob. "Some cars and jeeps had been overturned and pushed into ditches," officials said. N. Sovakiran, President of the the Manipur People's Party, was arrested for inciting violence in Heirok, damaging vehicles and also for beating up Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers who were holding a meeting on Wednesday afternoon. The villagers of Heirok later held a meeting and resolved that Sovakiran will be boycotted in the constituency. They also demanded that he pay for the damaged vehicles. Meanwhile, over 12 persons were injured in clashes in the Keirao constituency on Wednesday night. The injured persons accused supporters of the BJP's Keirao unit leader M.I. Khan of attacking them. The elections to the Manipur assembly will be held between February 4 to March 8. The results will be out on March 11. --IANS il/ksk/vt Sri Lanka arrests 10 Indian fishermen Sri Lanka,Indo-Pak/Pakistan,Diplomacy,Business/Economy, Thu, 05 Jan 2017 IANS Colombo, Jan 5 (IANS) Sri Lanka on Thursday arrested 10 Indian fishermen for poaching in its waters. The arrested fishermen and their trawlers were taken to a naval base where they were handed over to local authorities in Jaffna town, Xinhua news agency reported. Earlier this week, Sri Lanka urged India to end bottom trawling in order to resolve a long standing fishing dispute. India and Sri Lanka are divided by a narrow strip of sea. Sri Lanka routinely arrests Indian fishermen who fish in its waters. --IANS ksk/mr Modi praises Nitish Kumar over mega 'Prakash Utsav', liquor ban Bihar,National,Politics,Religion,Human Interest/Society, Thu, 05 Jan 2017 IANS Patna, Jan 5 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday praised Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for organising a mega "Prakash Utsav" here, marking the 350th birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh. He also hailed Nitish Kumar's decision of imposing prohibition in the state and urged all political parties and people to back his move. "Nitish Kumar, his government and the people of Bihar deserve credit for making arrangement on such a large scale for holding the Prakash Utsav," Modi said while addressing the main function in the Darbar Hall of a makeshift gurdwara in a "tent city", set up in historical Gandhi Maidan, in the heart of Patna. Modi mentioned Nitish Kumar not less than a dozen times during his address to praise him for holding the Prakash Utsav and his decision of total prohibition. "Nitish Kumar has worked hard, day and night monitoring and personally inspecting preparations for the Prakash Utsav for months. He deserves credit for this mega event," the Prime Minister said. Modi said such mega Prakash Utsav in Patna will inspire all across the country. He has termed Nitish Kumar's decision of prohibition a "brave step" for social change. "Taking an initiative for social change is very difficult, but Nitish Kumar has initiated it by enforcing prohibition. All people including political parties should back him for it." Modi shared stage with Nitish Kumar and was seen talking with him. Modi also released special commemorative stamps on Prakash Utsav. Earlier in the day, the Prime Minister arrived here in an Indian Air Force aircraft to attend Prakash Utsav, said Senior Superintendent of Police Manu Maharaj. He was received by Governor Ramnath Kovind and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Modi offered prayers and also served during the "langar". Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, union ministers Ram Vilas Paswan and Ravi Shankar Prasad and a large number of Sikhs from India and abroad will take part in the event. --IANS ik/nir/vm Army chief on maiden visit to J&K Jammu And Kashmir,National,Defence/Security, Thu, 05 Jan 2017 IANS Jammu, Jan 5 (IANS) Newly appointed Indian Army Chief General Bipin Rawat paid his maiden visit to Jammu and Kashmir, arriving here in the state's winter capital on Thursday. General Rawat was briefed about the security situation on the borders of the state by Northern Command chief Lt. Gen. Devraj Anbu at Udhampur headquarters, a defence spokesperson said. Gen. Rawat was also scheduled to visit some forward positions on the Line of Control, which divides the state into two parts, where he will interact with the field commanders and deployed troops. --IANS ahm/vt 'Allied': Classy yet not a classic (IANS Review, Rating: ***) Delhi,Cinema/Showbiz,Hollywood, Thu, 05 Jan 2017 IANS Film: "Allied"; Director: Robert Zemeckis; Cast: Brad Pitt, Marion Cotillard, Jared Harris, Simon McBurney, Lizzy Caplan, Daniel Betts, Matthew Goode, Camille Cottin, August Diehl and Thierry Fremont; Rating: *** Have you ever read an interesting novel with some pages or chapters missing or torn away? How does it feel? Especially, with abruptly edited scenes and a strange slackness to the cuts? That is exactly what you experience while watching "Allied". Not sure if it is the making of the Indian Central Board of Film Certification or the makers -- the result is obviously a killjoy. Nevertheless, "Allied" is a curiously entertaining, old fashioned, romantic thriller in the backdrop of World War II. Max Vatan is a Canadian airman working for British intelligence who is parachuted into Morocco in 1942. Marianne Beausejour is a French resistance fighter. Posing as a faux husband and wife they meet in Casablanca to form a formidable assassination team. Along the way, the imitation of love leads to love itself and binds them. They then share an idyllic domestic life in an air-blitz London, until questions arise concerning Marianne's true identity and allegiance, which leads to Max engaging in some incredible, cross channel flights to prove his wife's innocence. The plot moves at a rapid pace in a one dimensional path that discourages any reflection. It builds on the romance in their relationship but does not offer anything exceptional, as most of the romantic scenes consist of cold routine, spy talk which only show how little emotion they can reveal. Also, given their dynamics, it is the absurd aspect of the characterisation, that takes away the credibility of the resolution. Brad Pitt as Max and Marion Cotillard as Marianne, make a stylish, gallant and passionate couple. Together, they make an ideal pair whether they are confined in a nouveau desert eroticism, by being cocooned together in a vintage car enveloped in a sandstorm, or in marital bliss in London. Pitt is debonair in the early scenes and is convincingly anguished later, when tormented by the idea of betrayal. Similarly, Marian Cotillard is marvellous. She is convincing, as she keeps "her emotions right". She brings depth to her characterisation that we become as enraptured with her as Max is, even though we are just as confused as he is, in regard to her character and intentions. On the production front, production designer Gary Freeman along with costume designer Joanna Johnston, replicate the era to perfection and this is precisely captured by cinematographer Don Burgess's lens. The live action shots seamlessly mesh with the computer generated images. Prominent among such visuals, in the third act when a Nazi plane which is shot mid-air and seen through the window crashes in the back yard, creates a jaw-dropping suspense. This experience is elevated by composer Alan Silvestri's meaningful scores. Overall, "Allied" is a well made, jazzed up film that won't be remembered as a classic. --IANS troy/rb/bg CPI-M politburo meeting begins Kerala,National,Politics, Thu, 05 Jan 2017 IANS Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 5 (IANS) A Communist Party of India-Marxist politburo meeting began on Thursday in the state capital to discuss various issues, including demonetisation. The top brass of the CPI-M is attending the meeting, which will also finalise a strategy for the coming assembly polls in five states to be held from February 4 to March 8. It is for the first time that the CPI-M politburo and Central Committee are holding meetings in the Kerala capital. In the past, the event has been held as part of the Party Congress. The second session of the politburo meeting was scheduled later in the day. On the agenda is a report on alleged indiscipline by party veteran and former Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan who stormed out of a CPI-M conference in 2015. Despite pleas by the present General Secretary Sitaram Yechury and others, he did not return for the meeting in Alappuzha. Informed sources said the CPI-M, in power in Kerala as part of the Left Democratic Front, will take no step to ruffle the feathers of the veteran communist leader who is lying low. Achuthanandan on Thursday handed over a letter to the politburo, before it met, demanding the CPI-M launch a nationwide protest against the November 8 demonetisation. --IANS sg/tsb/bg Singareni aims to achieve 900 lakh tonnes coal production by 2020-21 Andhra Pradesh,National,Politics,Business/Economy, Thu, 05 Jan 2017 IANS Hyderabad, Jan 5 (IANS) Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) will develop 20 opencast and 11 underground mines to reach the production target of about 900 lakh tonnes per year by 2020-21. Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao told the state assembly on Thursday that this expansion would ensure coal supply to all thermal power stations in the state, as well as several industries. About 11,000 more jobs would also be created, he said. In his statement he also told the assembly about the steps being taken for strengthening and expanding the company and the welfare of its employees. Terming the 125-year-old Singareni the pride of Telangana, the Chief Minister said it was now expanding its operations to other states. SCCL started operations in the block allocated by the Centre at Naini Mines in Odisha. Singareni, in which the Telangana government holds a 51 per cent stake while the remaining is held by the Centre, was also making efforts for overseas acquisitions. Rao said Singareni officials visited Australia, South Africa, Indonesia, China, Germany, France, Britain and Canada to explore possibilities. "About 13 companies all over the world have expressed interest to work with Singareni. However, due to fall in the prices of coal internationally, the matter is kept pending for the time being," he said. Foraying into power production, Singareni has set up a 1,200 MW plant which was dedicated to the nation in August 2016. Efforts were on to establish another 800 MW plant by Singareni shortly. Being the only power producing company in South India it was helping thermal power plants in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. About 600 lakh tonnes of coal is produced by Singareni every year. Of this, 78.71 per cent is used for the generation of thermal power. SCCL currently has 46 mines, of which, 30 were underground and 16 were opencast mines. It has 56,866 employees. Though the underground mining was causing losses, the state government has continued with it as 61 per cent of the workforce was employed there. KCR, as Rao is popularly known, said Singareni registered a 15 per cent growth in 2015-16, surpassing Coal India and other public sector undertakings. It earned a Rs 1,066 crore profit in 2015-16. He said the government rewarded the workers for their hard work by paying them 23 per cent profit (Rs 245 crore), the highest in the company's history. He said each worker was paid Rs one to Rs 1.25 lakh as Deepavali and Dussehra bonus. KCR said they were excavating the 'Black Gold' to create prosperity for realising the dream of 'Bangaru (Golden) Telangana.' --IANS ms/in/bg Will take legal action against Trinamool MPs: Babul Supriyo West Bengal,National,Politics,Crime/Disaster/Accident, Thu, 05 Jan 2017 IANS Kolkata, Jan 5 (IANS) Union minister Babul Supriyo on Thursday reiterated that he will initiate legal action against two Trinamool Congress MPs and the wife of one of them for allegedly dragging his name in the Rose Valley chit fund scam. "I will file both criminal and civil defamation cases against Sougata Roy, Tapas Paul and his wife for trying to malign me. I have received video footage of their statements," he said after meeting Home Minister Rajnath Singh in Delhi. "I will meet my lawyers on the matter later today (Thursday)," he said. Trinamool MP Tapas Paul -- arrested on December 30 by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the chit fund scam -- alleged Supriyo's direct involvement in the ponzi scheme and called him a "close aide" of Rose Valley owner Gautam Kindu. Paul's wife Nandini Paul allegedly echoed her husband's statements later. Trinamool MP Sougato Roy on Wednesday accused the BJP leader of being on the payroll of Rose Valley. Responding to the Trinamool leader's comments, Supriyo said there will be "consequences" if Roy fails to prove his statements. "He accused me of being on the payroll of Rose Valley. He will face consequences if he fails to provide evidence to support his statements. I will see this matter till the end," Supriyo said. on January 3, Trinamool Congress' Lok Sabha member and former Union minister Sudip Bandyopadhyay was also arrested in the case. --IANS mgr/ssp/tsb/bg Sudip's arrest political vendetta, says wife Orissa,National,Politics, Thu, 05 Jan 2017 IANS Bhubaneswar, Jan 5 (IANS) Nayna Bandyopadhyay, wife of arrested Trinamool Congress MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay, on Thursday said political vendetta is the reason for the arrest of her husband. "It is very much clear that the CBI is being used by the BJP. From back-to-back arrest of two Trinamool leaders, it is evident that political vendetta is the reason behind Sudip's arrest," Nayna told media persons here. Nayna, a Trinamool MLA, spent about one hour at the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) office here. She came to meet Sudip, who has been arrested for his alleged links with the Rose Valley group chit fund scam, said sources. The Trinamool MP is currently under a six-day CBI remand for further interrogation over his alleged complicity in the scam. A special court here on Wednesday rejected the bail plea of Bandyopadhyay and remanded him to six-day CBI custody. A four-time Lok Sabha member and a minister of state in the Manmohan Singh government, Sudip was brought here on Tuesday night after his arrest by the CBI at Kolkata. Protesting against the arrest of Sudip, Nayna had said in Kolkata on Wednesday that the CBI has turned into the central government's "caged parrot". "The CBI has become a caged parrot of the central government. How can they arrest an MP and a senior politician like Sudip Bandyopadhyay on fake charges when he was summoned for interrogation in the case?" she said. Sudip's arrest came days after the arrest of another party MP Tapas Pal in the Rose Valley chit fund case. Both MPs are in CBI custody in Bhubaneswar. The investigating agency has taken Pal on three-day remand for further interrogation. --IANS cd/nir/bg Phone-smuggling Arab Israeli legislator to be charged Israel,Politics,Defence/Security,Crime/Disaster/Accident, Thu, 05 Jan 2017 IANS Jerusalem, Jan 5 (IANS) Israel's attorney general on Thursday approved the indictment of Arab-Israeli legislator Basel Ghattas for allegedly smuggling mobile phones into a Palestinian security prison. A statement released on behalf of Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit said that an indictment will be submitted in the coming days, Xinhua news agency reported. The statement said that Ghattas, on December 18, arrived at southern Israel's Ktzi'ot prison, carrying 12 cellphones and 16 SIM cards hidden underneath his clothes. Inside the prison, he allegedly delivered the equipment to Walid Daka, who is serving a life sentence for murdering an Israeli soldier in 1984 and belongs to the Palestinian Popular Front, said the report. Ghattas was questioned by the police about two weeks ago and arrested last week after his parliamentary immunity was lifted. He is under house arrest while the police investigates the suspicions against him. Attorney Namir Adalbi, representing Ghattas, said the quick indictment verdict, even before it was served, was "an attempt to pressure the court... to extend Ghattas's house arrest." "We agreed to the removal of immunity solely for investigative purposes, but that doesn't rule out the option that we'll claim immunity over the indictment," Adalbi said. Ghattas is a legislator with Balad, an Arab nationalist party that frequently challenges the Israeli establishment over Palestinian issues. --IANS soni/vt Army chief makes maiden visit to J&K, to visit Siachen Jammu And Kashmir,National,Kashmir,Defence/Security, Thu, 05 Jan 2017 IANS Jammu, Jan 5 (IANS) Indian army chief, Gen. Bipin Rawat who arrived here on Thursday on his maiden visit after taking over the post, will also visit the Siachen Glacier and other forward areas, a defence statement said. "Army chief, Gen Bipin Rawat is visiting Jammu and Kashmir on a three day tour from January 5 to 7. He will be visiting Udhampur, Srinagar, Nagrota and Siachen during his tour. "He will also be visiting formations at Kupwara, Anantnag, Akhnoor and Rajouri where he will be briefed upon the prevailing security situation and will interact with officers and men," the statement said. It said that the army chief lauded the role of Northern Command in restoring peace and normalcy during the recent unrest, and also commended the soldiers for strongly reciprocating to the unprovoked ceasefire violations by Pakistan. "Every soldier of our Army plays an important role towards security of the nation because it is the contribution of every soldier that makes the Army efficient and strong," the statement quoted Rawat as saying. The army chief also emphasised that they need to evolve "a dynamic strategy to handle the proxy war and defeat enemy's nefarious designs", it added. --IANS sq/vd World Book Fair to have only one distributor from Pakistan Delhi,National,Art/Culture/Books, Thu, 05 Jan 2017 IANS New Delhi, Jan 5 (IANS) Book lovers who are looking forward to meeting authors from Pakistan or reading books written by them might be a little disappointed, as this time only one distributor from across the border will be attending the 44th edition of the World Book Fair. "We didn't get any application from Pakistani authors or publishers and we don't invite any specific author or publisher unless it is the Guest of Honour country. We give platform only to those who apply," Rita Chowdhary, Director of World Book Fair told IANS. This year, about 20 countries along with their delegates will be participating in the fortnight-long World Book Fair, which begins on January 7. Held at Pragati Maidan, the book fair, which is one of the largest among Afro-Asian countries, is set to host more than 2,500 stalls. The organisers mentioned that the special emphasis has been put on European countries like France and Germany this year, who will talk about markets, trends and collaborations in a session and will showcase their book market scenario at the event. "We are highlighting the Indian diaspora in the European countries as well as focusing on making the translated works of these nations available in the book fair," Baldeo Bhai Sharma, Director of National Book Trust (NBT) told IANS at the event. A special photography exhibition has also been organised by the Cultural Department of China and documentary films will be screened to commemorate the 400th death anniversary of Shakespeare. Keeping in mind the issue of demonetisation, the organisers mentioned that almost all the stalls have installed card swiping machines. About six ATM machines and one mobile ATM van have also been stationed at the venue. FAQs: Venue: Pragati Maidan. Tickets: Adults - Rs 30, children below 12 years - Rs 20. Entry free for school children. Ticket availability: Apart from venue, the book fair tickets will be available at 50 Metro stations. Timings: 11 a.m. - 8 p.m. --IANS som/vgu/vm New UN chief speaks to Trump United States,Politics,Diplomacy, Thu, 05 Jan 2017 IANS United Nations, Jan 5 (IANS) UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke on phone with US President-elect Donald Trump, UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq said. Haq said "this was an introductory phone call during which they had a very positive discussion on US-UN relations." "The Secretary-General said that he looked forward to engaging with the president after his inauguration," Haq told reporters on Wednesday, Xinhua news agency reported. Guterres, former Prime Minister of Portugal, took reins of the UN on January 1, 2017. On his first day of work, Guterres said though there is skepticism about what role the UN can play, many people have suffered much less because of the organisation. Trump's inauguration is scheduled on January 20, 2017. His recent comments on the Paris climate deal as well as on the question of Israel and Palestine have raised concerns over the US-UN relationship in the coming years. --IANS pgh/ Britain appoints new EU ambassador United Kingdom,Politics, Thu, 05 Jan 2017 IANS London, Jan 5 (IANS) The British government will appoint senior diplomat Tim Barrow as its new ambassador to the European Union (EU), the media reported. The decision to name a new ambassador to the EU has come one day after his predecessor decided to step down in a surprising manner, Xinhua news agency reported citing the British media on Wednesday. Barrow, Britain's former ambassador to Moscow, is expected to play a key role in Britain's Brexit negotiations, replacing the outgoing EU Ambassador Ivan Rogers. The British government on Tuesday confirmed Rogers had quit his job but gave no reasons for the move. The sudden resignation came just weeks after Rogers was accused of damaging the Britain's Brexit negotiations. Rogers had warned that it would take a decade to forge a new trade deal with Europe, saying that was the view of the other 27 member states with the bloc. Political commentators said the relationship between Rogers and the government had become strained over the grim warning of a prolonged Brexit. --IANS pgh/ Harbin ice festival kicks off in China China,Human Interest/Society, Thu, 05 Jan 2017 IANS Beijing, Jan 5 (IANS) The Harbin Ice and Snow Festival, one of the largest in the world, kicked off its 33rd edition on Thursday with hundreds of sculptures, installations and leisure activities and a swimming contest in north-eastern China. The ice sculptures, with colourful lights, attract millions of visitors to the former Russian colony in Heilongjiang province. Harbin's temperatures can fall to minus 25 degrees Celsius, Efe news reported. The event, which has become among the major winter attractions of the country, is mainly based in the Zhaolin Park, located along the banks of the Songhua river that crosses the city. It will also display ice sculptures in 21 squares, 32 streets and 56 other points of interest in Harbin. Around 180,000 cubic metres of ice and 150,000 of snow was used for the structures. The swimming contest was held in the chilly waters of the Songhua, in which some 400 people took part. In this edition of the festival, tourists will be able to enjoy giant installations of temples, pagodas, palaces and buddha idols made from ice and snow and light and sound shows on European heritage-themed building installations. This year the festival, which lasts until the spring heat melts the snow and ice, has also organised a competition in building ice sculptures for international university students. --IANS soni/vt Mulayam returns to Lucknow after meeting his lawyers, party colleagues Delhi,National,Politics, Thu, 05 Jan 2017 IANS New Delhi, Jan 5 (IANS) Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav on Thursday returned to Lucknow after meeting his lawyers, who are understood to have met Election Commission of India officials over the party's symbol issue. According to party sources, Mulayam Singh, who was accompanied by his younger brother and loyalist Shivpal Singh Yadav, held a meeting with his two lawyers, who on his instructions went to the EC to claim that he was still the chief of the party and the election symbol 'cycle' belonged to him. However, the lawyers didn't interact with the media persons here. Mulayam Singh also held a meeting with senior party leaders Amar Singh and Jaya Prada here for over two hours. Shivpal Yadav was also present. This is Mulayam Singh's second visit to the city within four days after he was "ousted" as National President of the party by his son and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav in an emergency national convention of the party in Lucknow on Sunday. The Akhilesh Yadav-led faction also removed Shivpal Yadav as the state president of the party. On Monday, Mulayam Singh had met the Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi to stake his claim over the party's symbol 'cycle'. However on Tuesday, Ram Gopal Yadav, close confidante of Akhilesh Yadav, also met the CEC over the party's symbol. --IANS aks-am/vd/bg 9 killed as car bomb rocks Syria Syrian Arab Republic,Politics,Defence/Security,Terrorism, Thu, 05 Jan 2017 IANS Damascus, Jan 5 (IANS) At least nine people were killed and 25 injured on Thursday when a car bomb detonated in Syria's northwestern coastal city of Latakia. The bomb exploded near the municipal stadium on Syria's northwest coast, a region that has remained under government control, Efe news reported. A city healthcare spokesman said nine bodies and 25 injured people had arrived at the Jabuleh city hospital. The bombing came amid a ceasefire brokered by Turkey and Russia that took effect last week. Since the onset of the Syrian civil war in 2011, Latakia has largely avoided the large-scale destruction experienced by other cities such as Aleppo which is located inland to the east. Its relative stability led it to become a strategic military and naval headquarters for President Bashar Al-Assad's government forces and their Russian allies. --IANS soni/mr Vistara expands services to Amritsar, Leh, suspends Varanasi operations Delhi,National,Business/Economy, Thu, 05 Jan 2017 IANS New Delhi, Jan 5 (IANS) Full service passenger carrier Vistara on Thursday said it will commence direct flights to Amritsar and Leh, starting March 1 and March 25 respectively, as part of expanding its network. According to the airline, it will fly direct flights from Delhi to Amritsar from March 1, and from Mumbai from March 8. In addition, it will operate direct flights between Delhi and Leh on weekends from March 25 and thereafter, increase the frequency to daily flights starting May 10. The airline however said it will suspend its daily service between Delhi and Varanasi with effect from March 1. "As part of continual network optimisation and due to the planned runway maintenance of the Varanasi Airport in the summer which impacts the times at which Vistara operates, the airline will suspend its daily service between Delhi and Varanasi effective March 1, 2017," the airline said in a statement. "Flights to Amritsar will initially operate 6 days a week from both Delhi and Mumbai (daily except Mondays), and will increase to daily flights in the summer. Leh flights will also increase from weekends only to daily flights in the summer," the statement added. With the addition of Amritsar and Leh and suspension of Varanasi, the airline will serve 19 destinations across the country, further connecting with multiple international destinations via its growing number of interline partners. --IANS ppg/vd Delhi Police register case for assault on cops after molestation Delhi,National,Crime/Disaster/Accident, Thu, 05 Jan 2017 IANS New Delhi, Jan 5 (IANS) An FIR has been registered against unidentified persons who assaulted and injured four women constables and other policemen after a young woman was molested by a drunk mob on New Year's Eve here, Delhi Police said on Thursday. No arrest has been made so far. Police said the crime occurred late December 31 night when a huge mob comprising mainly students molested the woman while celebrating New Year at Batra Cinema in Mukherjee Nagar. "The inebriated revellers molested the young woman riding pillion on a bike with two men. The miscreants tried to grab the victim near a market. When four policemen deployed at a roadblock saw them molesting the victim, they caught one youth. Later, some of his accomplices manhandled the policemen," Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Vijayanta Arya told IANS. The mob freed the youth from police custody and vandalised a police vehicle parked there as well as a police post where some women police personnel took shelter. Four women constables were injured, Arya said. "It took police one hour to bring the situation under control. A majority of the drunk mob included students residing in the Mukherjee Nagar locality. We have registered an FIR and are examining closed-circuit television footage to identify the accused," Arya added. Those in the 200-strong mob melted away when additional police rushed to the spot, police said. Mukherjee Nagar area is very near to Delhi University's north campus. Mainly DU students and civil service aspirants reside in the area. --IANS sp/tsb/bg Law and order should be maintained irrespective of politics: Bengal Governor West Bengal,National,Politics, Thu, 05 Jan 2017 IANS Kolkata, Jan 5 (IANS) West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi on Thursday advised the Trinamool Congress government to maintain the law and order in the state irrespective of their political attachment. "Every state, irrespective of political attachment, should try to ensure peace in the state and maintain law and order," Tripathi said in reference to the eruption of violence in West Bengal in the last few days. Responding to his statement, Trinamool Congress accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of influencing the Governor and claimed political statements from a Governor does not go well with tdemocracy. "It is evident that the BJP is influencing his (Governor's) chair. I submitted a written protest to him asking how a BJP leader was allowed to interfere in the state's administrative matters and who permitted the CRPF deployment in the city," Trinamool leader Partha Chatterjee said. "If a Governor makes political statements, it is not good for democracy. We will not allow this," he added. Following party MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay's arrest by the Central Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday, angry Trinamool Congress activists attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party headquarters in the city. Some cars parked in the alley leading to the office were vandalised and stones were pelted at the building that injured 12 BJP workers present in the office. Central Reserve Police Force personnel were posted in large numbers in front of the party office as the agitation turned violent. BJP National Secretary Rahul Sinha, who gets three CRPF personnel for his security, requested to bolster the number of troopers as they felt the state police was inert against the agitators. On Wednesday, Trinammol activists held demobstratond across Bengal as the blocking roads and railway tracks, and agitated at various blocks of districts. --IANS mgr/ssp/vd BJP National Executive meet in Delhi from Friday Delhi,National,Politics,Business/Economy, Thu, 05 Jan 2017 IANS New Delhi, Jan 5 (IANS) A two-day meeting of the BJP National Executive will begin here on Friday, nearly a month ahead of the start of assembly elections in five states. The meet will begin at around 10 a.m. at the NDMC Convention Centre here, in which office-bearers and state unit presidents of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will discuss the assembly elections. Party sources said the Uttar Pradesh elections are likely to take centrestage at the meeting, apart from demonetisation and surgical strikes on terror launchpads across the Line of Control in September 2016. The meeting -- which will see the participation of former BJP Presidents, party Chief Ministers and around 350 party members -- will adopt economic and political resolutions. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to address party leaders around 4 p.m. on Friday. Both resolutions will be adopted before Modi's speech. Modi, along with BJP President Amit Shah, will then officially inaugurate the meet. Shah is likely to address the meeting after 5 p.m., the sources said. They said the economic resolution is likely to focus on demonetisation and black money and condemn the role of opposition parties, especially the Congress, the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Trinamool Congress in opposing the November 8 demonetisation. It is also likely to endorse the Modi government's endeavours for the betterment of farmers and agriculture. The political resolution is expected to focus on surgical strikes in the aftermath of the Uri terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir. The cross-border operation will be hailed as a big achievement of the government, being dubbed one of the historical events in Independent India. The strikes will be projected as an instrument through which the world started viewing the country differently. On the second day, the meeting will begin at 9 a.m. Modi will deliver his concluding speech at around 4 p.m. on Saturday. --IANS spk-ao/tsb/bg JNU students' meet with VC fails to resolve issues Delhi,National,Education,Human Interest/Society, Thu, 05 Jan 2017 IANS New Delhi, Jan 5 (IANS) The meeting with JNU Vice Chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar on Wednesday, held after a long time, has failed to resolve the issues between the authorities and the students community, JNU Students Union (JNUSU) President Mohit Pandey said here. "The VC (M. Jagadesh Kumar) didn't give us any assurance. He just heard what we said. We met him to show that JNU students do not believe only in protests, which is a measure of last resort," he told IANS on Thursday. "We asked him to revoke the suspensions of the 12 students and to roll back the increase of weightage to viva, which unduly gives the university a chance to exercise prejudices," Pandey said. During the meeting the students also asked the Vice Chancellor to stop using "threats" against students and to engage more in dialogue with them. "We asked the VC to do away with his threatening tactics already. We believe in talks, but the other party is not willing. There have been many vice chancellors before him but none as supercilious as him," Pandey said. According to him, the JNUSU raised the matter of post-graduate student Najeeb Ahmed's disappearance since October 14 night as well, and conveyed to the VC its unhappiness at Najeeb's alleged attackers being allowed to get away almost unpunished. The meeting came after months of protests over a host of issues -- including Najeeb's disappearance -- the latest of which was the suspension of 12 students last month. They were mostly from student parties championing minority rights. The students were suspended for protesting at the session of the university's Academic Council at the campus. The council decided to increase the weightage of interview in the entrance test for admission to M.Phil. and Ph.D programmes. Many teachers, who were members of the Council, also disapproved the move. --IANS vn/vgu/vt Naveen to meet President over lunch Orissa,National,Politics, Thu, 05 Jan 2017 IANS Bhubaneswar, Jan 5 (IANS) Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday said his Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has not taken any stand on the ensuing presidential election even though he has been invited to Rashtrapati Bhavan for a lunch on Friday. "I have been invited for lunch by the President tomorrow. No purpose is indicated in the invitation," Patnaik told media persons before leaving for New Delhi. He said BJD has not taken any stand on the ensuing presidential election. The Chief Minister will also attend a programme of the Non-Resident Odia forum in New Delhi, where the President will also be present. The election for the next President is due in July this year, and BJD's support will be crucial. The regional party has 28 MPs (20 in Lok Sabha and 8 in Rajya Sabha) in the Parliament besides enjoying support of another Independent Rajya Sabha MP. Patnaik's party has 117 MLAs in the 147-member state assembly. It also enjoys the support of two other Independent members in the Assembly. However, Patnaik had opposed the candidature of Mukherjee in 2012 elections and supported P.A. Sangma. --IANS vd NHRC notice to Tamil Nadu over deaths of farmers Delhi,National,Immigration/Law/Rights,Business/Economy, Thu, 05 Jan 2017 IANS New Delhi, Jan 5 (IANS) The National Human Rights Commission has issued notice to the Tamil Nadu government following the reported death of 106 farmers during last one month due to the failure of crops. The apex human right panel observed that the farmers are required to be brought out of the agrarian crisis, which have been adversely affecting them since long. "Failure of a crop not only affects the farmers, financially but also puts them under tremendous stress and mental agony. The entire family collapses when a farmer dies or commits suicide," it said in a statement on Thursday. The NHRC said that despite being the most crucial and significant section of the society, the farmers are feeling neglected by the policy makers. "The issue is not only relating to their right to life and dignity of the victims but also indicative of failure and inaction by the State agencies. There is a need for sincere implementation of the laws and policies made for the farming sector especially, the small farmers," it said. Following the lack of care by the state agencies towards farmers, the commission issued a notice to the Tamil Nadu government and asked its Chief Secretary to give a detailed report in the matter within six weeks. It has also asked to inform about the steps taken or proposed to be taken by the state government. --IANS rup/vd Lt. General Sarath Chand set to be next Vice Chief of Army Delhi,National,Defence/Security, Thu, 05 Jan 2017 IANS New Delhi, Jan 5 (IANS) Lt. General Sarath Chand is set to be the next Vice Chief of Army and likely to assume office later this month, sources said. An official announcement on the decision is yet to be made. Lt. General Chand is the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Jaipur-based South Western Command. He will be replacing General Bipin Rawat, who took over as the Army Chief. Lt. Gen Sarath Chand was commissioned into the Garhwal Rifles in June 1979. In a military career spanning almost 37 years, he has participated in many active combat leadership roles at every stage of command in the Army. --IANS ao/nir/bg More security steps for women's safety in Bengaluru Karnataka,National,Politics,Defence/Security, Thu, 05 Jan 2017 IANS Bengaluru, Jan 5 (IANS) Rattled by the outrage over the molestation of a woman on the New Year's Day, the Karnataka government was taking more security measures for the safety of women, children and senior citizens, said Home Minister G. Parameshwara on Thursday. "About 550 additional closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras will be installed across the city at a cost of Rs 39 crore over the next two months for crime detection," Parameshwara told reporters here. The city has about 800 CCTV cameras at all sensitive locations and important junctions. "We plan to have about 5,000 CCTV cameras across the city over time for the safety and security of all citizens, especially women and children," said the minister. The state government has also decided to expand the dial 100 number capacity by adding 85 lines to the 15 lines currently for receiving more calls at a time to register complaints and alerts from any citizen across the state. "We have also decided to have increase the quota of police women to 20 per cent from 5 per cent presently for the protection of women across the state and redress their grievances," said Parameshwara. Condemning the alleged molestation of a young woman, the Home Minister said such incidents should not happen. "I want to make clear that Bengaluru is a safe and peaceful city as our people our very hospitable and friendly. The alleged molestation is unfortunate. We will do our best to ensure protection to all citizens, especially women, children and elderly as it is our duty and responsibility," said Parameshwara. Accusing the opposition parties for politicising such incidents, he said there was an attempt to defame the city by twisting his remarks on the New Year's Day celebration. "I did not refer to the alleged molestation of girls and young women when I said hundreds of people gather at M.G. Road and Brigade Road in the city centre on occasions like the New Year's day, Christmas, Dasara and Diwali to celebrate the festive events," he added. --IANS fb/vd UP Congress sends names for all 403 assembly seats Uttar Pradesh,National,Politics, Thu, 05 Jan 2017 IANS Lucknow, Jan 5 (IANS) The Uttar Pradesh State Election Committee on Thursday sent its recommendations for the 403 state assembly seats to the party high command. At a meeting chaired by state unit president Raj Babbar and attended by its Chief Ministerial candidate Sheila Dikshit, and top leaders like Nirmal Khatri, Rajya Sabha members Pramod Tiwari, P.L. Punia, Sanjay Singh, former union ministers Pradeep Jain Aditya and Jitin Prasad, every seat was discussed and a proposal sent to the high command. Chairman of the Coordinate Committee of the UP Congress, Tiwari said that for every seat there were 8-10 applicants, mostly youngsters and women. "We have cleared the names which were considered winnable candidates and the finally decision now will be taken by the central leadership," he added. Loyalty and winnability were two factors which were considered, he said, noting that there was a good response among the interested candidates after Vice President Rahul Gandhi interacted with them. The fact that the party has zeroed in on candidates for all the 403 seats also s1uggests that the party has put behind the discussions for a possible alliance with the ruling Samajwadi Party. The Congress leaders, insiders say, were unhappy with the feud in the SP and were playing a safe bet for now in chalking out a lone journey for themselves. With dates of the UP polls announced already, the party is now looking forward for the central election committee to clear these names within the next few days to give it a head start in the crucial polls. Congress has been relegated to the fourth spot in the state it once ruled for many decades. It has 28 MLAs in the outgoing assembly. --IANS md/vd Cambodia's postal service to launch e-commerce Cambodia,Business/Economy, Thu, 05 Jan 2017 IANS Phnom Penh, Jan 5 (IANS) The state-owned Cambodia Post will launch an online shopping platform in March in a move to tap the current rise in e-commerce activity, a media report said on Thursday. Ork Bora, director-general of the Cambodia Post, said that after a year of studying e-commerce, the enterprise decided to launch the platform to allow all business owners to sell their products with the postal service. Bora said that the enterprise had already served as an agent for China's biggest online shopping company Alibaba and has delivered their products to customers in Cambodia for four months, Xinhua news agency reported. "We plan to launch in the first quarter of the year, maybe in March. I have been conducting a study and working on online shopping for about a year, so now we decided to launch an online shopping platform," Bora was quoted as saying. "You see that online shopping is getting popular among our people now. If you look at the number of internet users with the Telecom Regulator of Cambodia, there were some seven million," he said. He said that currently the Cambodia Post has a nationwide delivery and transport service, so an online shopping platform would be convenient for both sellers and customers. --IANS in/vm Trump team denies alleged reforms of intelligence agencies United States,Politics, Fri, 06 Jan 2017 IANS New York, Jan 6 (IANS) The presidential transition team on emphatically denied that US President-elect Donald Trump intends to restructure the country's intelligence services, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. In his daily telephonic contact with reporters, presidential transition team spokesman Sean Spicer called that report "100 perc ent false," adding - in unusually emphatic terms for such a telephone briefing with reporters - that "There is no truth to this idea of restructuring the intelligence community infrastructure", Efe news reported on Thursday. The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, according to officials familiar with those supposed plans, Trump wants to restructure the CIA and reduce the number of people working at the central headquarters and, at the same time, strengthen the number of agents on the ground around the world. Besides, the daily also reported that Trump thinks the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), which coordinates and supervises actions throughout the military and civilian intelligence and espionage services, has more resources than necessary and is also politicized. "All transition activities are for information-gathering purposes and all discussions are tentative. The president-elect's top priority is to ensure the safety of the American people and the security of the nation and he is committed to finding the best and most effective ways to do it," said Spicer, who will become White House press secretary when Trump takes office on January 20. In assorted Twitter posts, Trump has expressed skepticism about the work of the US intelligence services who came to the conclusion that Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, are behind cyberespionage activities that unfolded during the US presidential election campaign. Trump is slated to receive an intelligence briefing on the issue on Friday in New York at a meeting to be attended by the heads of the CIA, the FBI and the ODNI. The president-elect has designated Mike Pompeo to be the future CIA director, but he has not announced who he will nominate to head the OCDI. EFE --IANS pgh/ On the heels of the City Planning Commission voting to certify the proposed rezoning of Midtown East, kicking off the public review process, the Commissions chairman, Carl Weisbrod, announced he will be stepping down from his position by the end of the month. Weisbrod will also retire from his position as director of the New York Citys Department of City Planning, the New York Times reported. Weisbrod, appointed by Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2014, has served a key role in implementing the current administrations zoning policies, with a career in government and civic life spanning decades. City officials say Weisbrod will become the new chairman of the Trusts for Governors Island, a nonprofit organization tasked with leading development projects and overlooking daily operations on the island. Mariso Lago, former Empire State Development Corporation President, will succeed Weisbrod. Carlo A. Scissura, New York Building Congress President and Chief Executive Officer, made the following statement: Marisa Lago is the perfect choice to succeed a legend such as Carl Weisbrod as Director of the Department of City Planning and Chair of the City Planning Commission. The New York Building Congress looks forward to working with Marisa and the de Blasio administration to strengthen our communities throughout the five boroughs, create more affordable housing, support key industries and prepare for future economic growth through such vital initiatives as the Midtown East rezoning. We also are excited to work with Carl in shaping a bold vision for Governors Island. Subscribe to YIMBYs daily e-mail Follow YIMBYgram for real-time photo updates Like YIMBY on Facebook Follow YIMBYs Twitter for the latest in YIMBYnews A decade ago, the New York City Housing Authority emptied out 22 decaying tenement buildings on the south side of 114th Street in central Harlem, sending residents to public housing elsewhere in the city. Those long-vacant buildings, part of Randolph Houses, have now been renovated and filled with residents, and workers have begun revamping 14 brownstones on the north side of the block. Boston-based developer Trinity Financial and local non-profit West Harlem Group Assistance manage the 19th century buildings, which have been dramatically transformed over the last two years. But they almost became another symbol of NYCHAs poor planning and multi-billion-dollar budget hole. Residents lived with vermin, flooding, and crumbling walls for decades, until the housing authority decided to redevelop Randolph Houses in the mid-2000s. They waited another ten years before the first phase of construction finished. There were rats coming into peoples apartments, said 72-year-old Robertus Coleman, who has lived in Randolph Houses for 40 years and heads its tenant association. A lot of the ceilings were leaking. Some had holes that were patched and never repaired. So it wasnt a very healthy or happy place to live at the time. But we had a place to live, we werent homeless, so we made the best of a bad situation. Kenya Smith, the construction manager who oversaw the overhaul of Randolph Houses, explained that the buildings on the south side of the block were in rough shape after sitting empty for more than a decade. The roof wasnt holding water anymore, he said. A lot of the buildings had had fires in the past, so a lot of the floors were falling. We basically gutted out the building to the party walls and put new joists in the floors. With the help of $95 million in public financing, Trinity renovated what had been 307 units on the south side of the block into 168 new apartments. The development team cut down the number of apartments so they could create larger units that met modern building codes and included more closet space, according to Thomas Brown, a senior development manager at Trinity. Workers demolished dividing walls to combine 22 walk-ups into two buildings, with 147 public housing units and 21 affordable units rented through the housing lottery. When Trinity completes the second phase of renovations in 2018, Randolph Houses 452 tiny apartments will have been reconfigured into 283 modern units. On the south side, the developer installed elevators, new appliances, and a state-of-the-art HVAC system. The buildings are heated and cooled by an energy efficient variable refrigerant flow (VRF) system, which means no more busted boilers or wasteful window air conditioners. Tenants are thrilled with the apartments, most of which remain public housing. So many of the residents passed away before the completion, so Im overjoyed and very grateful, Coleman explained. Its simply beautiful. She and her four grandchildren live in a four-bedroom apartment so large, she says, it feels like two apartments. The rehabilitation added 3,000 square feet of amenities, including a library, computer rooms, community spaces, laundry rooms, and a landscaped inner courtyard. Coleman has been working with a new program director to figure out what kinds of classes the residents would like to see in the basement community rooms. Right now the development offers yoga classes, but Coleman envisions activities for seniors, like bingo and trips to nearby shopping centers, and job training, cooking, and parenting classes for younger residents. The construction team also painstakingly restored the ornate facades of the 120-year-old buildings, which are on the National Register of Historic Places. Some of the details were actually sculpted in place by professional sculptors, said Smith. We actually came and looked at what was left, made a whole new drawing, and then they used artificial stone and carved the elements back into the facade. But the sparkling new details belie the projects long and unusual history, which started out as a three-year renovation and morphed into a 12-year-long debacle. The five-story Old Law tenement buildings were constructed in the 1890s between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and Frederick Douglass Boulevards to accommodate European immigrants, who commuted to factories on the West Side using the new elevated trains. By the 1970s, the Renaissance Revival tenements on West 114th Street were abandoned. The city purchased the 36 buildings on either side of the block and converted them to public housing. By 2000, NYCHA realized Randolph Houses had decayed so dramatically that only 109 of its 452 units were occupied. The city spent six years relocating 159 families from the south side of the block to apartments on the north side or to other public housing developments. Meanwhile, 130 households remained in the brownstones on the north side, waiting for the housing agency to repair their decrepit apartments. Initially, NYCHA thought that revamping the moldy tenements would cost too much. By 2007, it had decided to demolish all 36 buildings and develop new housing. Later that year, the New York State Historic Preservation Office declared that the city couldnt tear down the historic walk-ups. NYCHA spent three years negotiating with the state about how to redevelop the site without destroying its 19th century details. In 2010, officials tapped a team of architects and preservation experts to draw up a plan for renovating the properties and restoring the historic elements. Two years later, the city awarded Trinity Financial a contract to redevelop Randolph Houses. The firm broke ground in 2014 and opened the first phase of the project last year. Residents, most of them former Randolph Houses tenants, started moving in during the first few months of 2016. Apartments range from studios to four-bedrooms. In November, workers began demolishing the interiors of the 14 brownstones on the north side of the block. Their 145 apartments will be rehabbed into 115 below-market units, ranging once again from studios to four-bedrooms. They will rent to tenants who make no more than 60 percent of the Area Median Income, or $54,360 for a family of four. The redevelopment of Randolph Houses is expected to cost a total $198.5 million. Using money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, NYCHA funded $41.5 million of Phase 1, which cost $95.5 million. The second phase will be financed by a mix of public and private sources, including tax credits for low income housing and historic restoration, for a projected $64 million. Overall, NYCHA and affordable housing advocates tout Randolph Houses as a success. The new apartments and amenities are attractive, and most of the tenants who were relocated decided to move back last year. The cost of revamping the development will end up being rather high, at roughly $750,000 per apartment. Its worth considering how much cheaper construction would have been if the city had kept up the buildings, or moved forward with renovating them when it began relocating tenants all those years ago. Subscribe to YIMBYs daily e-mail Follow YIMBYgram for real-time photo updates Like YIMBY on Facebook Follow YIMBYs Twitter for the latest in YIMBYnews Hunter Hayes stopped by ABC'son Thursday 5th January 2017 to debut "All For You," a new song from the soundtrack of Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies forthcoming theatrical film, set to be released theaters and Real D 3D across the USA on Friday 13th January 2017!: "All For You" is a pop and rock-influenced love song with a big, sing-along chorus, drawing to a finish with a short, lightning-fast guitar solo from Hayes. It's the first song Hayes has shared since September of last year, when he released his current single "Yesterday's Song" and two others "Amen" and "Young Blood" via Twitter on his birthday. Hayes also played "Yesterday's Song" for the GMA audience.According to Hayes's official website , he'll perform more new material from an as-yet-unannounced forthcoming LP, which would follow 2015's, live on Billboard's Facebook page at 4:30 p.m. ET/PT today.Hayes is currently touring, with a handful of dates on the books for 2017. Next up, he'll play Sacramento, California on January 26th and head to Europe for shows in the Netherlands, England, Scotland and Ireland in March.follows the adventures of Tripp (Lucas Till) and Kreach, a truck that's different from the rest. Looking for any way to get away from the life and town he was born into, Tripp (Lucas Till), a high school senior, builds a Monster Truck from bits and pieces of scrapped cars. After an accident at a nearby oil-drilling site displaces a strange and subterranean creature with a taste and a talent for speed, Tripp may have just found the key to getting out of town and a most unlikely friend!Melding cutting edge visual effects and state-of-the-art CGI,is an action filled adventure for the whole family that will keep you on the edge of your seat and ultimately touch your heart.stars Lucas Till as Tripp, Jane Levy as Meredith, Barry Pepper as Sheriff Rick, Amy Ryan as Cindy, Rob Lowe () as Reece Tenneson, Danny Glover as Mr. Weathers, Thomas Lennon as Jim Dowd, and Holt McCallany as Burke. The movie is directed by Chris Wedge.is available to watch in Digital 3D and 2D cinemas across the UK now.Connect withonline: Website We have used your information to see if you have a subscription with us, but did not find one. Please use the button below to verify an existing account or to purchase a new subscription. Two soldiers of the Moroccan Royal Army operating under the banner of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) were gunned down Tuesday by armed men while escorting a convoy of trucks transporting fuel from Zemio to Obo, the UN mission said in a statement on Wednesday. The two Moroccans were shot at around 60 km west of Obo, a town located in the South-East of the country. The attackers were able to flee, the mission said. The MINUSCA condemned the attack and vowed to track the perpetrators and bring them to book. Nothing can justify that individuals direct their grievances against peacekeepers whose presence in the CAR has no other objective than to help the country break free from cycles of violence, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of MINUSCA Parfait Onanga-Anyanga said. Two other peace keepers were injured in the attack, the MINUSCA added without further details. The UN Mission said it would not tolerate any attempt to harm its forces and likened attacks against blue helmets to war crimes punishable by the law. The Central African Republic descended in civil war in 2013 opposing Muslim and Christian militias. 12,500 soldiers have been deployed since 2014 in the country to maintain peace. In April another Moroccan soldier was killed in bout between a contingent of the Royal Army and armed populations at Rafai, South of the country. Rome is fast-tracking plans and procedures to send migrants back to Africa after violent riots broke out between migrants sheltered at a migrant center and law enforcement officers following the death of one migrant woman. The woman from Cote dIvoire, aged 25, died last week in the migrant center in Cona near Venice. Other migrants in the center protested against Italian authorities slow reaction over their situation. They accused authorities of negligence. The migrant woman died because she was sick, reports say. The migrants also protested against poor health conditions in the center where 1,500 migrants have been regrouped. Wednesday, Italian foreign minister speaking to local media La Stampa slammed the protest which he deemed unacceptable. We are acting rigorously and with respect for human rights: we saved lives but we cannot afford to accept any person who breaks the rules, Angelino Alfano told the media. That is why we must accelerate expulsions and deportation. I am working to broker deals that reduce arrivals and curb departures, he added. The Italian top diplomat also announced Italy is discussing such deals with Tunisia, Libya and Niger. Italian Interior Minister, Marco Minniti was in Tunisia this week to renew bilateral cooperation with the North African country on deportation in exchange for assistance. Around 242,179 migrants and refugees entered Europe by sea in 2016 through 20 July, arriving mostly in Italy and Greece, a report account of the International Migration Organization notes. Some 2,977 people died trying the perilous crossing. The video, posted on Facebook Live, is blurry, but in it a man huddles in the corner of a room. Two people enter the frame, severing the victims sleeve with a knife. That victim, who is bound and gagged, is the focus of the video as his attackers move in and out of the frame. They punch him and shout slurs Fuck Donald Trump! Fuck white people! as a woman comments, sometimes laughs, outside of view. At one point, someone takes the knife again and slices the victims scalp. (Warning: The video is very graphic.) The victim is an 18-year-old mentally disabled man from Crystal Lake, Illinois. Four people, two men and two women, have been arrested and charged in connection to his apparent torture, which Chicago Police superintendent Eddie Johnson called sickening. It makes you wonder what would make individuals treat somebody like that, he said at a press conference about the incident. Ive been a cop for 28 years and Ive seen things that you shouldnt see. It still amazes me how you still see things that you just shouldnt. Authorities announced Thursday that all four of the alleged attackers will be charged with hate crimes, along with aggravated kidnapping, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, and aggravated unlawful restraint, and residential burglary, reports the Chicago Tribune. Cops identified the accused as three 18-year-olds Jordan Hill, Tesfaye Cooper, Brittany Covington; and one 24-year-old, Tanishia Covington. All were from the city of Chicago, except Hill, who was a classmate of the victim. (Hill was also charged with robbery and possession of a stolen vehicle.) Before formal charges were filed, authorities had publicly mulled hate-crime charges because the attackers, who appear to be black, shout racially charged invectives at their victim, who is white. Chicago Police commander Kevin Duffin said investigators were trying to determine how sincere the attackers were in their taunts, and were also considering the fact that the man may have been targeted because of his disability. Police discovered the video after spotting the victim, who has not been named, wandering around Tuesday the West Side of Chicago in shorts. His parents reported him missing Monday, after he disappeared after they dropped him off at McDonalds. The victim did know Hill from school; its not clear, exactly, how he connected with the group of four people. At some point Hill allegedly robbed a van in a Chicago suburb, before he and the victim ended up at a home on the West Side of Chicago, where the group tormented him and filmed the video. One of the alleged kidnappers texted the victims parents, saying that he was being held captive, according to the Chicago Tribune. Police, who are also considering kidnapping charges against the four, described the victim as traumatized. This post has been updated throughout. Photo: Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images Chinese state media issued a warning to Donald Trump on Thursday in response to his choice of fierce China critic Robert Lighthizer to serve as chief trade negotiator. There are flowers around the gate of Chinas Ministry of Commerce, but there are also big sticks hidden inside the door they both await Americans, an editorial in the state-run Global Times said, according to Bloomberg. The editorial goes on to accuse Trump of building an iron curtain of protectionism with a trade team led by vocal China critics. Along with Lighthizer, Trump has tapped Peter Navarro to lead the newly created White House National Trade Council and Wilbur Ross to serve as Commerce Secretary. Both have taken hard line against Chinas questionable trade practices, as they wrote in a double-bylined column last July. Lighthizer falls right in line with Navarro and Ross. A veteran of the Reagan administration, Lighthizer won praise from Trump for fighting Japanese imports in the 80s. Since then, hes turned his attention to China. In 2010 congressional testimony, Lighthizer argued that the U.S. trade deficit with China is a major threat to our economy and lawmakers should take a much more aggressive approach in dealing with China. Looks like hes about to get his wish. Virginia congressman H. Morgan Griffith. Photo: Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call,Inc. This week, congressional Republicans gave themselves the power to slash the annual salary of any individual federal worker to as low as $1 and the budget of any individual federal program right down to zero. They executed this attack on the independence of the civil service by reviving an obscure provision enacted by Congress in 1876: The Holman Rule, named after the Indiana congressman who devised it, empowers any member of Congress to submit an amendment to an appropriations bill that targets the funding of a specific government program or employee. The rule was devised before the advent of a nonpolitical, career civil service and was rarely invoked in the modern era. In 1983, Democratic speaker Tip ONeill laid it to rest. For the past three decades, Congress has had the power to slash any agencys overall budget, but not to target specific projects or civil servants for funding cuts or downsizing. Until now. This is a big rule change inside there that allows people to get at places they hadnt before, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy told reporters this week. All agencies should be held accountable and tested in a manner and this is an avenue to allow them to do it. This big change flew under the radar when it was enacted Tuesday, as congressional Republicans (quickly forfeited) attempt to gut the House ethics office sucked up all available media attention. But the Holman Rule could prove more consequential, particularly if the GOP proves eager to deploy its new weapon. Virginia congressman H. Morgan Griffith led the charge for reviving the Holman Rule, after learning about how much the federal government spends on the upkeep of wild horses ($80 million, apparently). When the Washington Post asked Griffith if the new rule would be used to cut huge swaths of the federal workforce, he replied, I cant tell you it wont happen The power is there. But isnt that appropriate? Who runs this country, the people of the United States or the people on the peoples payroll? Here, Griffith elides the fact that those on the peoples payroll do not pursue programs born of their own individual whims, but rather, work to execute and enforce laws passed by the peoples duly elected representatives. (The House GOP may not approve of the Clean Air Act, but the Environmental Protection Agency does not undermine democracy when it works to enforce existing law.) The rule appears most disconcerting when viewed in the context of the incoming administrations apparent hostility toward the independence of the civil service. Last month, Trumps transition team sent the Department of Energy a questionnaire, which asked agency officials to list the names of employees and contractors who had attended any United Nations climate conferences in the last five years, worked on domestic efforts to limit carbon emissions, or attended any Interagency Working Group meetings to design the measurement known as the social cost of carbon, a metric often used by the Obama White House to justify its regulations of carbon output. The team also requested a list of which programs within DOE are essential to meeting the goals of President Obamas Climate Action Plan. Trump eventually disavowed that questionnaire. But he has also named a series of cabinet nominees who are staunchly opposed to the missions of the departments theyre supposed to lead: The president-elects Labor Secretarydesignate is a fast-food executive whose restaurants are serial violators of labor law; his EPA head is an ally of the oil industry who loves to sue the EPA; his head of Housing and Urban Development has called the Fair Housing Act communist. If confirmed, these selections are bound to create tensions between the agency leadership and the career civil servants whove been tasked with executing laws that Republicans disapprove of, but which they lack the time, political will, and/or Senate votes to repeal. But now, any civil servant whose climate research doesnt produce the findings Scott Pruitt wants to see will, ostensibly, be at risk of having his or her job eliminated. For the next year, passing an amendment slashing an individual workers salary or position will require a simple majority in both houses of Congress. (In deference to intra-party opponents of the rule, Republicans have given it a 12-month expiration date.) While present reporting suggests that House Republicans revived the Holman Rule on their own initiative, the move is of a piece with advice that Chris Christie provided to Donald Trump last summer. In a recording obtained by Reuters, New Jerseys giant reservoir of schadenfreude told a group of Republican donors that he had instructed Trump to immediately ask the Republican Congress to change the civil service laws. Because if they do, it will make it a lot easier to fire Obama appointees. It remains unclear how aggressively Republicans will use the Holman Rule, which inspired some opposition within their own ranks. But the mere existence of the provision may be enough to advance its animating goal: The combination of the Holman Rule, hostile agency heads, rhetorical intimidation from the president-elect, and the Trump administrations reported proposals for reforming the civil service among them, an end to automatic raises and cuts to pension benefits could very well inspire many conscientious, left-leaning bureaucrats to self-deport from the public sector. Watching the watchers. Photo: Albin Lohr-Jones/Bloomberg via Getty Images Donald Trump has spent much of the past month assailing Americas intelligence agencies on Twitter. But now, hes plotting to hit them where it hurts right in their budgets. The Wall Street Journal reports that the president-elect is working with his top advisers on a plan to restructure and pare back the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which they believe has become bloated and politicized. Trumps team is also, reportedly, drafting a similar plan for the CIA one that would cut staffing at the agencys Virginia headquarters and send more agents out into the field. The view from the Trump team is the intelligence world [is] becoming completely politicized, an individual close to Trumps transition operation told the Journal. They all need to be slimmed down. The focus will be on restructuring the agencies and how they interact. Ever since the CIA leaked its assessment that Russia intervened in Americas election in the hopes of aiding Trumps candidacy, the president-elect has taken to publicly denigrating U.S. intelligence agencies on a regular basis. The "Intelligence" briefing on so-called "Russian hacking" was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2017 Trumps national security adviser Michael Flynn served as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency until he was pushed out by James Clapper the director of the intelligence agency that he and Trump are now planning to pare back. But, surely, it is the intelligence agencies and only the intelligence agencies who are politicizing national-security decisions. The hour of truth draws near. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images Most weeks, New York Magazine writer-at-large Frank Rich speaks with contributor Alex Carp about the biggest stories in politics and culture. Today: Trumps media dodging, the fight over Obamacare, and Megyn Kellys move from Fox News to NBC. Last weekend, despite the U.S. intelligence community having already weighed in on Russian election interference, Donald Trump promised that he would reveal things that other people dont know by Tuesday or Wednesday. After tweeting some support for Julian Assange, it now looks like just as with earlier promises to address his business conflicts and clarify Melanias immigration status Trump will be delaying again. How much longer will he be able to outrun these questions? Id say about three more weeks. Of course hell always be able to outrun some questions. We are never going to see Trumps tax returns. We are never going to know the new First Ladys immigration history. (Or we wont unless and until someone in the federal bureaucracy is sufficiently provoked to leak.) But once hes in the White House, he will no longer be able to punt by making the empty promise that Ill get back to you by Tuesday on his plans to, say, address the next Hurricane Katrina or government shutdown or economic cataclysm or foreign threat. He actually will be held accountable by voters, including maybe even the minority of Americans who voted for him on Election Day. Bluffing wont do in a crisis, tweets wont do only action will do. And it seems that he has no idea that producing concrete action in Washington is not as simple as picking up the phone and browbeating a frightened corporate wuss at Carrier, Boeing, or Ford to save a pittance of American jobs. But lets not forget the other issue here: Of all Trumps idle promises thus far, surely the most bizarre and potentially dangerous is his claim that he will reveal things that other people dont know about the hacking of the Democratic National Committee. Who told him these things? His national-security adviser, the world-class conspiracy-monger Mike Flynn? Rudy Giuliani? Steve Bannon? His marvelous personal physician? Most likely, Julian Assange and/or Vladimir Putin, both of whom Trump trusts more than Americas intelligence agencies. Its no secret that Americas intelligence agencies are quite fallible in part thanks to a fiasco Trump cites, their imaginary sightings of WMDs in Saddam Husseins Iraq. But for their current findings to be dismissed so cavalierly and publicly breaks new ground for a president-elect. Trump essentially dismisses the intelligence services as incompetent liars even accusing them of malevolently delaying a briefing this week, which they deny and for which he offers no proof. When George W. Bush disregarded an intel report in August 2001, that Al Qaeda planned an imminent attack on America, at least he listened to it before he rejected it, resumed his idyll on his Texas ranch, and let 9/11 unfold unimpeded. Trump is topping the disastrous Bush example by blowing off his own governments intelligence findings sight unseen in favor of those unidentified other sources telling him things. According to The Wall Street Journal, he will soon be manipulating the intel Establishment to conform with his own theories, just as Dick Cheney did. As was the case last time, this isnt going to end well for the country. It will be fascinating to see if John McCain, who always talks a good game of battling Trumps outrages only to wimp out when it counts most, really steps up to pursue the TrumpPutin axis as he has promised to do in the hearings that began today. House Republicans opened the new term on Capitol Hill with a secret vote to kill the Office of Congressional Ethics, only to walk it back the next day after thousands of phone calls from outraged constituents. What lessons can both sides take from this debacle as the fight over Obamacare heats up? The key element in this story is that it wasnt necessarily just outraged constituents who forced House Republicans to retreat. Trump as well may deserve modest credit for his condemnation of the GOP vote to castrate the ethics office. Trump could not care less about ethics enforcement, but even he recognized what a public-relations fiasco it was for a new Congress to make as its first priority the enhancement of its ability to sexually harass pages and gobble up pay-for-play special-interest money. The lessons of this opening-day debacle are several. First, its clear that Paul Ryan and his deputy, Kevin McCarthy, have scant control over their own caucus: Despite the fact that both leaders argued against the harebrained scheme to gut the ethics office in the dead of night, the vote among GOP House members was 119 to 74 to do so. Second, its clear that Trump and Trumps voters have more power than either the Republican Congress or its leadership: Hardly had the president-elect sounded off in a couple of bursts of 140 characters, then his partys caucus reversed itself completely, scrapping the scheme it had endorsed by a large majority only hours earlier. Third, this farce is potentially good news for Democrats. From all accounts, its clear that the Republican Congress is going to carry through on its plan to repeal Obamacare without having devised the essential legislative endgame, a replacement health-care plan through which, as Trump promised on 60 Minutes last year, everybodys going to be taken care of much better than theyre taken care of now. As Ive said before, lets see what happens when Obamacare unravels for some 22 million clients, many of them Trump voters in red states, and the GOP has to plead for patience while Congress tries (and likely fails) to get its act together. As we saw this week, the ensuing chaos may resemble the Marx Brothers Duck Soup, but with more tears than laughter. Megyn Kelly announced a move from Fox News to NBC, raising questions about the direction of Fox News and Kellys ability to connect with a broader audience. Will NBC also have to change for her to succeed there? Fox News, now fully behind Trump, will not miss Megyn Kelly. Foxs real fears in terms of losing audience should be directed at competitors from its right, including the expanding alt-right media universe of Breitbart. Even by cable-news standards, Foxs audience is exceptionally elderly, and ripe for a challenge from an angry new generation of media-savvy conservative bomb-throwers. What Kelly adds to NBC, meanwhile, is unclear. She is a celebrity, and the author of a best-selling book celebrating her celebrityhood. But if anyone can cite a news story shes broken or an interview that was a must-see, please raise your hand. She is mainly famous for taking on powerful Republican men: Karl Rove (whom she humiliated on camera for his fantasy sightings of a Romney victory on Election Night 2012); the alleged sexual predator Roger Ailes (whose fate was sealed when she added her voice to the chorus of complaints from the female work force at Fox News); fellow Fox star Bill OReilly, whose rating supremacy she threatened; and, needless to say, Trump. How she can stretch this admirable niche into what NBC has promised her, a daily daytime show and a new prime-time program to compete with 60 Minutes on Sunday night, is a mystery. Her one attempt to show a wider, broadcast-network range a Fox prime-time special where she interviewed a Barbara Waltersesque smorgasbord of Trump, Robert Shapiro, and Laverne Cox was an awkward bore that drew so-what reviews and a small audience despite the come-on of another round with her No. 1 nemesis. Nor does NBC need her to woo the right. Matt Lauer did a good job of that during the campaign. The Morning Joe hosts are now so associated with carrying water for Trump that Joe Scarborough was moved to write an angry column this week defending his appearance at Trumps New Years Eve bash at Mar-a-Lago, where prominent revelers included the Gambino familylinked mobster (and convicted felon) Joseph Cinque. (The Washington Post media critic Margaret Sullivans takedown of Scarborough on this matter makes for hilarious reading.) For those who care about network news antics, the Kelly move does at least add a new sideshow to follow: the fate of Greta Van Susteren, the former Fox News anchor who is repeatedly rumored to be on a path to land at MSNBC. Van Susteren was conspicuous in defending Roger Ailes right until she left Fox; she disparaged the most prominent anti-Ailes whistleblower, Gretchen Carlson, as a disgruntled former employee. Hard to picture Kelly cheerleading for Van Susteren to now join her as a colleague at NBC News though an on-camera reunion for the two of them might make for more entertaining television than Kelly doing sloppy-seconds interviews with various Kardashians and the replacement cast of Hamilton. Ready to MAGA. Photo: Drew Angerer-Pool/Getty Images Rupert Murdoch moved swiftly and unexpectedly to fill the void opened up by Megyn Kellys departure for NBC. Thursday morning, Fox News announced Tucker Carlson is taking over Kellys 9 p.m. slot. Carlsons ascension to prime time is significant in several ways, the most crucial being this: Its another sign that Murdoch is pushing Fox News in a more pro-Trump direction. Carlsons promotion stunned many inside Fox, according to sources. In the hours after Kelly announced Tuesday morning that she was leaving for NBC, senior Fox executives were led to believe the network would take time to fill her slot. There will be a lot of experimenting, one insider told me yesterday. The leading internal candidates were thought to be women. Since Foxs launch, in 1996, a female anchor has held a prime-time position. This morning, Fox co-president Bill Shine called Carlson to give him the news, a source said. Murdoch had personally made the decision to promote Carlson, two senior Fox staffers said. Murdoch is a big Carlson fan, according to sources. This fall, he invited Carlson to lunch at his Madison Square Park penthouse and personally offered him the 7 p.m. show when Greta Van Susteren left the network. Since then, Carlsons show has been a ratings success, posting double-digit gains (in recent weeks Carlsons 7 p.m. show beat Megyn Kellys at 9). Perhaps as important, Carlson has a good relationship with Trump, and his show has been broadly in line with the Trumpian wing of the GOP. Whereas Kelly was all but blacklisted by Trump, Carlson scored more than a dozen interviews with Trump during the campaign. In recent weeks, his show has been sympathetic to Trumps skepticism about the intelligence communitys claims that Russia hacked the DNC and intentionally meddled in the election. Getting 9 p.m. right is crucial for Fox. According to one network insider, Kellys show generated more advertising revenue than Bill OReilly or Sean Hannity. (Veteran Fox anchor Martha MacCallum is taking over at 7 p.m.) Carlsons promotion is one sign of just how much Murdoch wants to appease Trump, Fox insiders say. Murdoch has been intent on forging a tight relationship with Trump since his victory, sources close to both men tell me. One longtime Murdoch confidante told me the two speak by phone at least three times per week. As I reported Tuesday, at Mar-a-Lago over the holidays Trump criticized Roger Ailes and lavished praise on Murdoch. And Murdoch has told Fox executives that Trump asked him to submit names for FCC commissioner. (A Trump spokesperson denied that.) Murdoch has allowed Sean Hannity to turn his 10 p.m. show into de facto infomercials for Trump. People close to Murdoch are surprised by how fast Fox has fallen into line with the Trump administration. This morning, Bill Kristol, a longtime Fox contributor, criticized Hannitys fawning interview with Julian Assange. Im old enough to remember when Fox News was pro-American soldier not pro-anti-American leaker, Kristol tweeted. During the GOP primary, Murdoch veered from neutral to openly hostile to Trumps candidacy. One Murdoch associate told me that over the years Murdoch spoke of Trump as a buffoon. Murdoch was also turned off by Trumps anti-immigration rhetoric. But in the general election, Murdoch came around to backing Trump (after a detente brokered by Trumps son-in-law, Jared Kushner). Now he seems intent on turning up Foxs support to a new level. Murdochs reversal, the associate said, can partly be explained by Murdochs longtime desire to have a relationship with an American president. Murdoch has met every occupant of the Oval Office since Nixon, but has never had a personal connection with one. The 85-year-old Murdoch may see Trump as his last chance. Photo: DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images Last weekend, Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief Gerard Baker sparked a good-sized media uproar with some remarks he made on Meet the Press. Discussing Donald Trumps propensity to say things that arent true, he told Chuck Todd, Id be careful about using the word lie. Lie implies much more than just saying something thats false. It implies a deliberate intent to mislead. He explained that he viewed the best strategy as to present the facts in a straightforward manner so readers could say, as he put it, This is what Donald Trump says. This is what a reliable, trustworthy news organization reports. Many liberal commentators and readers interpreted Bakers response as a call for he-said-she-said journalism, such as a ThinkProgress take which argued that Editor of nations second-biggest newspaper says he will not report Trump lies, even if he lies. Naturally, the outrage spilled onto Twitter and Facebook as well, with many pundits and journalists most notably Dan Rather accusing Baker of telegraphing plans for the nations largest paper to enable Trumpian deception for the next four years. That isnt what Baker is arguing for, though. In fact, hes right journalists shouldnt reach too quickly for the L-word to describe Trumps endless false statements. More broadly, the argument over whether they should is a giant red herring that has nothing to do with the grave responsibility borne by the media during the Trump era. Yesterday, Baker laid out his argument a bit more fully in a column in his paper. He pointed out that Mr. Trump has a record of saying things that are, as far as the available evidence tells us, untruthful: thousands of Muslims celebrating 9/11 on the rooftops of New Jersey, millions of votes cast illegally in the presidential election, President Obamas supposed foreign birth. We can also point out that the circumstances are such that its reasonable to infer that Mr. Trump should know that these statements are untrue. But theres a difference between doing so, he argues, and calling these statements lies: I believe the right approach is to present our readers with the facts. This does not mean presenting a false equivalence between one persons inaccurate statement and the observable truth, as though they were of equal epistemic value, but a weighing of a claim against the known facts. When Mr. Trump claimed that millions of votes were cast illegally, we noted, high up in our report, that there was no evidence for such a claim. No fair-minded or intelligent reader was left in any doubt whether this was a truthful statement. But Im not sure the story would have been improved by our telling the reader in categorical terms that Mr. Trump had told a lie. In fact Im confident that the storyand our reputation for trustworthy and factual news reportingwould have been damaged. The word lie conveys a moral as well as factual judgment. To accuse someone of lying is to impute a willful, deliberate attempt to deceive. It says he knowingly used a misrepresentation of the facts to mislead for his own purposes. This is correct, and its correctness stems from the simple point that evaluating a statements truth value is different from, and simpler than, evaluating whether the speaker knowingly lied. If I come up to you and tell you Countless Muslims are streaming across the Mexican border as part of a giant terrorist plot, it wont be hard for you to determine, upon fair review of the evidence, that this is a crazy, crazy belief that no one who calls himself a journalist should spread (let alone someone in a position of real power). But am I lying about it? Thats a lot more complicated. Even if you can point me to evidence debunking the claim and I discount that evidence, well, a lot of people arent particularly good at evaluating evidence. We live in a country where staggering numbers of people believe evolution and climate change are hoaxes, and, yes, that almost-exPresident Barack Obama wasnt born in the U.S. This isnt to let actual liars off the hook, but simply to point out that many people genuinely believe false things. Trump is a particularly complicated case for journalists because of the sheer, unbelievable volume of false things that come out of his mouth, and because he has enthusiastically peddled some of those falsehoods, including the Obama birther allegations, for years and years. I myself have written about his propensity for lying. But that was a judgment call; I was happy to make it but would be very leery about leveling judgment against journalists who interpreted things differently as long as they werent hesitant to assertively point out that false statements made by Trump were false. In other words, aggressive fact-checking can exist regardless of whether or not the fact-checker chooses to then ascribe intent to the utterer of false claims. The Chuck Todd question that sparked Bakers controversial statements conflated the two issues: [P]eople always say, Youve got to fact-check, youve got to fact-check, he said to Baker. There isnt an agreement on what the facts are. And this is yet another challenge for you and everybody here. Do you feel comfortable saying so-and-so lied? You know, if somebody says just an outright falsehood, do you say the word, lie? Is that important to start putting in reporting, or not? In the first half of the quote, Todd is talking about fact-checking; in the second half, hes talking about ascribing intent. Those are two different things. In his column, Baker defended himself in part by pointing to The Wall Street Journals coverage of Trumps false claim that millions of illegal voters juiced Clintons victory in California. The subhed of that piece reads President-elect offers no evidence of claim that he otherwise would have won the popular vote, and the third graf reads Voting is restricted to U.S. citizens, and no evidence has emerged so far of widespread voting by illegal immigrants. In other words, the Journal more or less did what it should: It called out a false statement from Trump. And this seems well in line with Bakers much-ridiculed argument for presenting readers with This is what Donald Trump says. This is what a reliable, trustworthy news organization reports. Was Trump lying when he said that millions of voters voted illegally? Who knows? Such rumors had been percolating through the gonzo fake-news networks where we know he gets a terrifying amount of his information. Maybe he believes them, maybe he doesnt. We can argue all day about what is going on in the extremely unusual and conspiratorial brain of Donald Trump at the precise moment he says something that is false. It just feels like to do so is to miss the point reasonable people can differ on unanswerable questions about epistemology and psychology. As long as journalists plainly state that false claims he makes are false, we are doing our jobs. Ingram Publishing/Thinkstock(CHICAGO) -- Criminal charges were filed Thursday against the four Illinois residents who are accused of torturing a mentally challenged man in Chicago earlier this week. The suspects initially posted a video on Facebook that allegedly shows them assaulting the man. The video was later removed by the social media company. The Cook County State's Attorney's Office in Illinois identified the four suspects as Jordan Hill of Carpentersville, Tesfaye Cooper of Chicago, Brittany Covington of Chicago and Tanishia Covington of Chicago. All four suspects were charged with aggravated kidnapping, hate crime, aggravated unlawful restraint and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. Hill, Cooper and Covington were also charged with residential burglary. Hill was additionally charged with possession of a stolen motor vehicle, according to the attorney's office. The four suspects are scheduled to appear in Central Bond Court on Friday afternoon. Speaking with ABC station WLS-TV in Chicago, President Obama called the incident "terrible." "Part of what technology allows us to see now is the terrible toll that racism and discrimination and hate takes on families and communities. But that's part of how we learn and how we get better," Obama said. Still, he called the ongoing gun violence in the city of Chicago, "heartbreaking." "I haven't just waited until I get back to Chicago," the president said. "I've assigned my Justice Department to work with the mayor's office and the police department." Copyright 2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Donald Trump: I didnt just shoot a guy on Fifth Avenue. Photo: DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images The cruelest, most condescending, and also devastatingly correct indictment of Donald Trumps supporters was uttered not by a member of the liberal media but by Donald Trump himself, when he mentioned that he could shoot somebody on Fifth Avenue and not lose support. Trumps insinuation that his fans will ignore any evidence of his guilt, however plain, has been vindicated. Perhaps no episode has demonstrated the Fifth Avenue Principle more dramatically than the case of the Russian email hack. The very firm conclusion by 19 U.S. intelligence agencies that it was Russia that carried out the email hacks of Democratic emails, as well as the conclusion by both the CIA and the FBI that it did so in order to benefit Trump (a candidate it had openly touted for months) is inconvenient for Trump. We dont and cant know whether Russian hacking tipped the balance of the election, but its possible to believe it did; the election was extremely close, and the emails, while substantively minor, fed into the narratives of embittered Bernie Sanders supporters and generated more news stories with Clinton and emails in their headlines. Trump has thus set out to convince his supporters that Russia did not conduct the hacks. To this end, Trump has employed many of the same techniques he used to attract attention to the cause of disputing President Obamas citizenship. He has exploited popular distrust of institutions, portraying their documentation and conclusions to be suspicious, and promised that he alone either has obtained the real facts, or will soon get to the bottom of them. He has supplied his fans with plausible-sounding alternative suspects the Chinese, a morbidly obese man, teenage boys or attributed the issue to the general complications entailed by computers. On December 31, he declared, I also know things that other people dont know, and so they cannot be sure of the situation, and pledged to reveal his secret information on Tuesday or Wednesday. Wednesday came and went without the promised reveal. Trump meanwhile insisted, The Intelligence briefing on so-called Russian hacking was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange! Intelligence agencies deny that they ever delayed a briefing. But whats remarkable about this is not that Trump misstated the facts, but that he presented an alleged delay in the intelligence briefing as evidence that intelligence cant be trusted at the very same time Trump himself had failed to present the briefing he promised the public. The preposterousness of his reasoning is what made it such a perfect example of the Fifth Avenue Principle. Trump wasnt nitpicking some technical aspect of the intelligence case against Russia; he was dismissing the intelligence by falsely claiming its supporters were doing the very thing Trump was in fact doing before our eyes. Trump cited the authority of Julian Assange, who declared that the hacking might have been undertaken by a 14-year-old. For an ordinary politician, this case might have been slightly awkward, since Trump had previously called WikiLeaks disgraceful and called for the organization to receive the death penalty. The simple about-face produced no embarrassment among his supporters. Here are Sean Hannity, Sarah Palin, and Ann Coulter in 2010 lacerating Assange as a virtual terrorist, and mocking the Obama administrations pathetic weakness in failing to bring these enemies to justice: Now Palin is apologizing for ever having doubted Assange. Coulter is citing Assange as a trustworthy source, and calling for him not to be jailed but honored: Assange: It wasn't the Russians or Putin! You know the Dem party has hit rock bottom when the KGB is telling the truth & the DNC is lying. Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) January 4, 2017 Just for exposing the media, Assange deserves a pardon and a presidential medal of freedom. https://t.co/nGJNh9KIbP Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) November 11, 2016 On and on have conservatives followed in line. Newt Gingrich, who once called Assange an enemy combatant, now praises him as a down to Earth, straight forward interviewee. Right, Assange is just a regular, down-to-earth guy-next-door type, if you happen to live next to the Ecuadorian embassy, and your neighbor is a fugitive hacktivist libertarian with a history of rape allegations and a strange fondness for Vladimir Putin. He probably drives a pickup truck and enjoys NASCAR. Assange turns out to be interchangeably useful in conservative discourse as either an enemy whose continued survival proves Obamas weakness or as a trusted source whose testimony proves Obamas dishonesty. Hannitys logic is straightforward: Assange is taking a position opposite Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, and is therefore to be trusted: Question of the Day: Who do you believe? Julian Assange or President Obama and Hillary Clinton #Hannity Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) January 4, 2017 Trump made his comment about shooting somebody on Fifth Avenue during the primary, a time when he faced fierce opposition from within his party. Since then, the incentives for conservatives to oppose him have weakened, and the incentives to support his ravings, or to redirect any dissent against his liberal opponents, have grown enormously. Trumps bizarre lies about Russia and Assange are designed not only to defend the legitimacy of his election but also to prove, once again, that his control over the supple minds of the conservative base is total. Photo: Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images A week and a half after tweeting that the United Nations has such great potential but right now it is just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time. So sad! President-elect Donald Trump managed to get on a phone call with new Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday. U.N. spokesperson Farhan Haq described the conversation in appropriately diplomatic terms: This was an introductory phone call during which they had a very positive discussion on U.S./U.N. relations, he said. The secretary-general said that he looked forward to engaging with the president after his inauguration. Meanwhile, Trump spokesperson Sean Spicer said only that his boss (and his foreign-policy-experience-free U.N. ambassador pick, Nikki Haley) would demand some reform and change from the organization. The chat followed days of Trump criticizing the U.N. over its December 23 resolution declaring Israels West Bank settlements illegal. As to the U.N., things will be different after Jan. 20th, he tweeted when the United States declined to veto the resolution. A day later, it was, The big loss yesterday for Israel in the United Nations will make it much harder to negotiate peace. Too bad, but we will get it done anyway! He then told reporters, When do you see the United Nations solving problems? They dont. They cause problems. So, if it lives up to the potential, its a great thing. And if it doesnt, its a waste of time and money. Trumps recent comments about the U.N. were in line with his campaign statements, which included threats to pull the United States out of last years Paris Agreement, which is aimed at combating climate change (he has called climate change a lie invented by China). But, when asked earlier this week if he was worried about Trump, Guterres replied, No. Im concerned with all the terrible problems we face in the world. On that, he and Trump can agree: Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images Donald Trump warned Toyota in a tweet Thursday that if it builds a new plant in Mexico it will face a big border tax. Toyota Motor said will build a new plant in Baja, Mexico, to build Corolla cars for U.S. NO WAY! Build plant in U.S. or pay big border tax. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2017 As is his nature, Trump got a few things wrong in the tweet. First of all, the plant is in Apaseo el Grande, not Baja California, which is more than 1,000 miles away. Toyota does have a plant in Baja, but its been there for years and it makes the Tacoma truck. As for the Corolla plant, Toyota hasnt just said it will build it. The plants already under construction. The Japanese company broke ground on the $1 billion facility in November. Right after Trumps tweet, the value of the Mexican peso dropped and Toyotas stock fell off a cliff. Dip for @Toyota stock price after @realDonaldTrump tweet temporarily shaved ~$1.3 billion off its value. pic.twitter.com/0LbM8SgUPD Steve Herman (@W7VOA) January 5, 2017 Trumps threat to Toyota comes on the same day that Stanley Black & Decker announced plans to build a new plant in the U.S. After acquiring the Craftsman brand from Sears, the company had committed to a $35 million plant on American soil because of pervasive uncertainty about global trade, CEO James Loree told investors on a conference call. Photo: Amanda Edwards/Getty Images Shiva Ayyadurai, the man who claims to have invented email and who sued now-defunct gossip blog Gawker for saying he didnt announced this morning that hes filed a new lawsuit yesterday against the website Techdirt. Ayyadurai is seeking $15 million in damages and is represented by Charles Harder, the lawyer who represented him and Hulk Hogan in their suits against Gawker. Ayyadurais beef with Techdirt concerns their publication of what he describes as fake news and 14 defamatory articles. Posts on the site include crystal-clear headlines such as Guy Who Didnt Invent Email Sues Gawker For Pointing Out He Didnt Invent Email and Actual Creators Of Email Not At All Happy The Fake Creator Of Email Got Paid For His Bogus Claim, and Heres The Truth: Shiva Ayyadurai Didnt Invent Email. As noted, hes seeking $15 million in damages. Techdirt would seem to have a pretty good case here. By and large, the only person who really believes that Ayyadurai invented email is Ayyadurai himself a belief that Ayyadurai (who was once married to Nanny star Fran Drescher) has not been shy about sharing with the world. Technology historians near-unanimously credit Ray Tomlinson with developing the innovation while working for defense contractor Raytheon; when the Washington Post wrote in a headline that Ayyadurai had invented email, its ombudsman apologized and said he should not have been described as such. (Ayyadurai does appear to have invented an electronic-mesaging system that he named EMAIL, but that code was copyrighted in 1982, more than a decade after the first email was sent over the internet precursor ARPANET.) Nonetheless, Ayyadurai sued Gawker Media and reporter Sam Biddle in 2016 (while the company was embroiled in a lawsuit involving a post about a Hulk Hogan sex tape) over a 2012 Gizmodo story written by Biddle and headlined Corruption, Lies, and Death Threats: The Crazy Story of the Man Who Pretended to Invent Email which laid out the timeline for the invention of electronic mail. When Gawker declared bankruptcy after losing the lawsuit against Hogan, the company agreed to settle for $750,000 with Ayyadurai, who was represented by Hogans lawyer, Charles Harder. The story was then removed from Gizmodos site. Harders work on Hogans case was revealed to have been paid for by Facebook investor and Trump adviser Peter Thiel, but Ayyadurai has denied being funded by Thiel, despite speculation to the contrary. (Harder also sent an email to New York Magazine on behalf of disgraced Fox News chief Roger Ailes.) Its unclear whether or not Thiel is involved in the suit against Techdirt, which has been fiercely critical of the billionaires quest to destroy Gawker. As of press time, Techdirt had not responded to a request for comment. Judge Tim Parker of Arkansas stepped down before the investigation was complete. Photo: Tetra Images/Getty Images/Tetra images RF Judge Tim Parker of Carroll County, Arkansas, resigned in a formal letter to the Arkansas governor after being accused of sexual misconduct by the state Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission. According to the commission, beginning in 2013 Parker engaged in a pattern of personal relationships with many female litigants that included trading sexual favors for setting favorable bond conditions or releasing the women from jail without bail, the New York Times reports. The commission reportedly recorded video statements from more than a dozen women and obtained texts between Parker and the women that support their claims. But Parker resigned before the investigation could be completed as part of a deal to avoid being formally charged with conduct violations. His resignation means hes ineligible to serve as a judge in Arkansas in any capacity. The JDDCs letter also claims Parker maintained contact with the women even after theyd been released. Allegations also exist about trading cash or prescription pills for sexual favors or money with many of the same women, as well as other women in the community, it read. David Sachar, the executive director of the JDDC, told the Times that when the organization began its investigation into Parker it received a tremendous amount of information in a short period of time from law enforcement officials and other sources. These kind of cases make you proud that youre able to get rid of the person and also send the message that these kind of people dont need to be in the judiciary, he said. George and Amal Clooney. Photo: Todd Williamson/Getty Images for MPTF Here is the first wild celebrity rumor of the year that could turn out to be true: Lebanons Daily Star reports that George and Amal Clooney are expecting twins. Before today, I had never heard of Lebanons Daily Star, but our most trusted gossip decoder Lainey Lui thinks the source could be trustworthy on this particular issue. The story might be worth considering and not dismissing immediately, she wrote this morning. Were not hearing about it from the Daily Mail, or a British paper. Its not coming from the Enquirer or Star Magazine. These are, supposedly, family sources talking to a Lebanese publication. The Daily Star cites a family friend who claims Amal is pregnant. Of course, pregnancy rumors have followed George and Amal since they got married two years ago in Venice, but this time this time! they might stick. Lui notes that the couple has not been spotted by the paparazzi in recent months: Didnt see them on holiday with Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber. No sightings in Cabo. No dinners in Malibu. So they could be nesting privately in the U.K. The only thing left to wonder about is what the Clooneys might name the babies. Georges friend Julia Roberts already took Phinnaeus and Hazel for her twins back in 2004. Sandra Smith, Shannon Bream, and Trish Regan are three of the five women in talks for Kellys slot at Fox. Photo: Getty Images. Update [1/5/17, 3 p.m.]: On Thursday, Fox News announced that Tucker Carlson would take Megyn Kellys 9 p.m. prime-time slot; Martha MacCallum will anchor a 7 p.m. show called The First 100 Days. On Tuesday, news broke that Megyn Kelly Fox News star Trump-sparring anchor will leave the network when her contract ends to fill a broad new role at NBC. That role will reportedly include hosting her own daytime Oprah-style show, launching a Sunday-night news magazine, and contributing to the networks political coverage. But her absence leaves a prime-time slot open at Fox, and speculation abounds as to who will take Kellys place. According to New Yorks Gabriel Sherman, its almost certain the Murdochs will replace Kellys 9 p.m. time slot with a woman, lest they risk a prime-time schedule without a single female host. And that woman will almost certainly be a pro-Trump conservative, signaling Foxs desire to align itself with the new administration. Fox insiders reported that at least five women are under consideration to fill the slot: Trish Regan, Shannon Bream, Sandra Smith, Martha MacCallum, and Kimberly Guilfoyle. All five are current Fox anchors, but for those of us who arent dedicated viewers, heres where each stands on the issues. Trish Regan Politics: Regan, who hosted shows on CNBC and Bloomberg before she became a Fox host, told the Hill in November, that she grew up in New Hampshire, a state thats live free or die, and I believe in limited government. But she scolded a Fox guest on air for calling her a Republican, countering that shes an independent and she see[s] both sides, unlike many members of the media these days. Shes no fan of Hillary Clinton, and judging by her commentary on North Carolinas bathroom law, shes pretty conservative when it comes to social issues, too. Best known for: Hosting The Intelligence Report With Trish Regan on the Fox Business Network. Throughout her career shes focused primarily on finance and business reporting, and she was half of the first all-female duo to moderate a presidential debate. Why shed make a good replacement: Regan has regularly filled in for Kelly on The Kelly File, so the woman knows what shes doing. And according to Business Insider, she was personally groomed by Roger Ailes to act as Kellys replacement. Shannon Bream Politics: Bream hasnt spoken openly about her political views, but they seem to be in line with those of most Fox anchors: Shes critical of Hillary Clinton, and her priorities are similar to those of the president-elect. Best known for: Serving as Fox News Supreme Court correspondent. Shes also given multiple interviews about getting a late start in the broadcast field and even getting fired early on. Why shed make a good replacement: Bream has also filled in for Kelly on The Kelly File, and she occasionally serves as a substitute anchor on Special Report With Bret Baier and Fox News Sunday. Sandra Smith Politics: Smith, who co-hosts Foxs Outnumbered and who appears on Hannity every Wednesday, initially specialized in business (she got her start reporting equities and derivatives markets for Bloomberg), which means she doesnt do much by way of political commentary. But on an episode of Outnumbered that aired in August, Smith wondered out loud whether liberals were shuttering free speech. Is there just no open discourse? she said. Can you just not have a conversation on a college campus anymore without someone being offended or having to delete a Facebook post where someone shares their opinion? Best known for: Co-hosting Outnumbered, in which four female panelists sit down with a rotating male guest. She was the second half of the first all-female duo to moderate a presidential debate. And she vocally defended former Fox News chairman Roger Ailes against allegations of sexual harassment, saying, If I ever felt like I was working in a hostile environment, I wouldnt be here. Why shed make a good replacement: Smith filled in for Kelly on The Kelly File last week, and Foxs ratings were still through the roof; it seems likely she could pull off a smooth transition. Martha MacCallum Politics: MacCallum looks at the Trump administration with a relatively critical eye, but she isnt a fan of the Obama administration either, as indicated by her recent tweets. What's up at the White House? Has the noble peaceful transition push been scrapped? Martha MacCallum (@marthamaccallum) December 16, 2016 Get ready for more US companies to proactively abandon plans to move jobs to Mexico..stay tuned for more of this. Martha MacCallum (@marthamaccallum) December 19, 2016 She also calls Bernie Sanders supporters the safe-space kids, so theres that. Best known for: MacCallum has been around the block as far as broadcast is concerned; shes worked various jobs at NBC, has anchored shows on CNBC, and contributes to MSNBCs The News With Brian Williams. She currently co-anchors Americas Newsroom and co-moderated two presidential debates this election cycle. She was also one of the Fox anchors who defended Ailes, saying, I have had a great personal and professional relationship with Roger. Hes always been very open. Weve had a lot of great one-on-one conversations. Why shed make a good replacement: She has years of experience, and a huge and devoted following; shes also filled in for Kelly in the past. Kimberly Guilfoyle Politics: Guilfoyles political stance is pretty self-evident, considering she was a contender for the position of press secretary in Trumps White House. She said shes known Ivanka and Melania Trump for ten years and has a friendly relationship with Steve Bannon, Trumps pick for chief strategist. Best known for: Hosting The Five, an hour-long talk show that airs every day at 5 p.m. She also serves as a legal analyst for Fox and appears on a number of its programs in that capacity. Oh, and she covered the Time Square ball drop for Fox this year, so her face might look familiar. She was yet another female anchor who stood up for Ailes, giving Breitbart an exclusive interview about how Ailes is a champion of women. Why shed make a good replacement: Greta Van Susteren personally recommended Guilfoyle to replace Kelly because viewers and colleagues love her, which is pretty high praise. Photo: WaPoExpress/Twitter On January 21, hundreds of thousands of people are expected to turn up for the Womens March on Washington to protest Donald Trumps inauguration. The Washington Posts Express its free daily edition ran a cover story on the march, but unfortunately made one glaring and obvious design error: Its graphic depicting various people gathering in protest formed the traditional male symbol, rather than the female one. Todaya cover: The Womens March on Washington started on Facebook. Now its expected to be the largest rally linked to the inauguration. pic.twitter.com/wfw3Qd3S6a Express (@WaPoExpress) January 5, 2017 So close. And yet, so far. Update (10:50 a.m.): Express acknowledged the error shortly after its original tweet went up. Sarah Jessica Parker and Chris Noth in Sex and the City. Photo: New Line Cinema/courtesy Everett Collection The first apartment I ever fell in love with belonged to a Brazilian playboy who worked in the art world. His one-bedroom in Chelsea had north-facing windows; the lights of the Empire State Building glittered in view. On his walls hung perfectly symmetrical black-and-white photographs of breasts, a painting by the famous Italian artist he assisted, and some recently purchased pieces from Alex Katz (a personal friend of his). In his living room, art-deco lamps and an expensive beige couch were arranged on a faded Indian carpet. Like his apartment, he did everything for display. Eventually, I grew bored and loathed him. In my experience, a single straight man in possession of good home decor must be in want of a woman to bring home and screw. I dont mind. Its vis-a-vis men with well-tended apartments that I leave feeling cared for if not necessarily cared about. Let me explain. Unlike some women, my libido spikes (or stagnates) based on aesthetic cues. Specifically, in relation to a mans apartment. I discovered this while drinking a Campari soda at said Brazilians, sitting on his couch as he gently pulled my hair. Though he resembled a cherub and was a shameless philanderer, There is no object of desire quite like a house, as Meghan Daum once wrote, few things in this world are capable of eliciting such urgent, even painful, yearning. So urgent, even painful, is my yearning, that I sometimes linger in unsuitable, untenable relationships simply for the respite their homes provide. Like a hotel without a necessary reservation, its an easy way to escape my life. My own apartment is a poorly insulated three-bedroom on a crowded avenue in Brooklyn. I live with two girlfriends one my best friend from Hawaii; the other her roommate from college whom I love fiercely. We often sit together and lament (about jobs, dating, winter) on our ecru tufted couch, mysteriously stained with ink and large enough for a Saint Bernard to sleep on. (A doggie daybed, if we had one, really.) Theres also the gray upholstered chair where I read or eat dinner alone most evenings. My current living situation only glancingly reflects my tastes and therefore my true self. Absent is the ABC Carpet & Home couch I want to acquire, the custom bookshelf I would like to build, the sleek full-length mirror I should purchase and hang. But since I know our lease is temporary, I dont bother to invest in somewhere so evidently impermanent. Instead, I resort to temporarily living vicariously through men financially settled enough in their careers and selves and lives to inhabit their spaces fully. After the Brazilian came the handsome creative director who wore Acne and Stan Smiths. His building was disgusting, but his space was an oasis of pale-pink velvet curtains, George Nelson benchcumconsole table, and sleek Organic Modernism chairs that made it possible to overlook our lack of mutual interests, his incessant smoking, and his lack of intellectual curiosity. In the end he wanted to date other people. Not I. To this day, I mourn those pink velvet curtains. More recently I was seeing a man who lived on the Upper West Side. His home was perfectly optimized: two closets, one dresser, a modest bathroom replete with regularly used toiletries. Everything in his home was so meticulously edited he could have been the male Marie Kondo. I imagined he pressed each object he owned to his chest and proclaimed: Yes, this brings me joy. He succeeded as an adult where I failed. His apartment was perfect; ergo we should have been perfect. Save the insurmountable issue that he was 15 years older than me and wanted a serious relationship I could never sustain. We parted amicably. I liked these apartments for the same reason I like literature: I enjoy the intimate trespassing in another persons consciousness. And like literature, my scrutiny is one-sided. The men did not receive the same invitation to assess my insufficiencies of spatial organization. I prefer this scenario because within their spaces, our roles are well defined. I come over, they offer me a drink Campari soda, red wine, a Negroni, water they play music, we converse, we have sex, we sleep. I return home alone. The tacit agreement is we, as an entity, dont truly exist outside of his four walls. This generally works until one of us yearns to break free and establish a relationship in the larger world. Thats why I meandered with the Brazilian for two years, on and off. He understood the rules; he probably invented them. Thats why I left the creative director after two months. I wanted more and knew I would hate him (and myself) should he date others concurrently. The man on the Upper West Side actually cared for me. He bought me a toothbrush, an extra contact-lens case. He would text saying he genuinely missed me. Yet outside of his apartment, I realized, my desire evaporated. I was not always like this. I played house once. Not in the adolescent imaginative sense, but literally. When I was 19, my boyfriend (then 21) wanted to live together. I acquiesced, knowing there was an exit plan in place: He would graduate from NYU (where he had transferred for me), return home to Hawaii (where we had met in high school), and then apply for medical school that upcoming summer. Our apartment on Avenue A was a small studio with slanted floors that overlooked an empty courtyard. I knew we were doomed the moment he hung a Rastafarian Bob Marley sarong above our decorative fireplace. Originally, I had plans for this space. Near the windows, there would be a high coffee table, covered with a white linen tablecloth, complete with sleek stools. A light, blush-colored carpet would cover our slanted wood floors. Instead we wound up with a clunky black kitchen table from Ikea and surrounded them with rolling office chairs. On the floor was a horrible beige carpet with brown borders. Two months after we hauled his items to the post office and he moved home, I called him and confessed what I hadnt over the years I wanted to be alone. Through dating, I entered other worlds, other ideas of how to live. With the Brazilian, I gained admission (if peripherally) to the glamorous, exclusive industry he orbited. With the creative director, I witnessed beauty created in undesirable circumstances. With the male Marie Kondo, I saw the benefits of rigid organization in ones life. From my ex, I realized building a life together is messy. And breaking apart subtracting our belongings and extracting our identities from one another is worse. These impediments only intensify when youre both struggling students or striving young professionals, living on meager means. So I pursue men who are successful and, without coincidence, often older and wealthier. Allowing me to elide the time, effort, and resources necessary to fashion the life I envision for myself. Like Lily Bart, the impoverished House of Mirth heroine, I have somehow several times been in love with fortunes or careers, but only once with a man. After all its suitors of a higher tax bracket that easily assuage my class anxieties, however morally compromising that may be. I know, deep down, these men are unsuitable. Instead of plumbing our incompatibility, I linger on the surface, on the superficial, where its safe, impeccable, intriguing. Where its distant from the boredom, mundanity, restlessness, resentment, vulnerability, hurt, heartache (but also love, support, care, comfort) that resides below. As a result, my flawed logic persists: Perhaps if our aesthetics align, heartbreak wont ensue. It hasnt worked out yet. So I pursue men whose apartments are spotless. Men whose homes I can wander into and out of, without trace. That way, when things inevitably end, its like I was never really there. But will he show any good acting Reply Thread Link Ooh, burn! I thought Adam was brilliant in TFA - he gave the most layered and emotional performance of all the actors. Reply Parent Thread Link idk he just came across like an emo teenager but maybe that's what the director wanted? Reply Parent Thread Expand Link His acting is fine, lol Reply Parent Thread Link Lol stop. He was by far the best actor in that mediocre movie Reply Parent Thread Expand Link He gave the best performance in TFA tho???? Star Wars is pretty lucky to have an actor like him imo... in his last 2 films he has given powerhouse performances in 2 drastically different ways, he's like stupidly talented Reply Parent Thread Expand Link lol wow you woke the beasts Reply Parent Thread Expand Link i can't believe all the people in this thread who thought his whiny man-baby performance in this film was anything less than hilariously mediocre. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link You bringing out all these non ironic Kylo Ren stans. Kudos! ONTD truly goes to bat for beige mediocrity don't they? Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Sometimes i find him kinda cute, and other times (this pics) he looks like a stone head from an eastern island Reply Thread Link I think he looks much better in motion than photos. Reply Parent Thread Link Nope, these actually have chins: Reply Parent Thread Link mother and son reunion PLEASE Reply Thread Link Only if she's kicking his ass Reply Parent Thread Link I seriously need a Leia/Kylo reunion or interaction or anything. Although I wonder if things will have to be changed due to Carrie. :( Reply Parent Thread Link Ugh me too Reply Parent Thread Link Nope. They will just reduce her role in 9 and use cgi. Reply Parent Thread Link She finished filming for VIII, but I'm wondering what they'll do about IX, because Carrie was supposed to be in that quite a bit. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Kyle Ron can CHOKE Reply Thread Link with or without carrie I think kylo would be redeemed. they did it with vader, it's just whether or not he'll survive til the end of the trilogy tbh Reply Thread Link I kind of hope he turns before the third movie, tho. Like Snoke just goes too far and he turns.he'll probably die in the end still. Reply Parent Thread Link Human failure? Okay good. Reply Thread Link No thank you. Reply Thread Link well fangirls have already got his humanity covered so I do not look forward to dealing with them in twelve months' time Reply Thread Link kylo is no prince zuko bye Reply Thread Link Kylo wishes he was as iconic as Zuko. Reply Parent Thread Link ICONIC Reply Parent Thread Link trueeeeeeeeeee Reply Parent Thread Link That's probably where they're going with this tbh Reply Parent Thread Expand Link This Reply Parent Thread Link ITA Reply Parent Thread Link if it can make leia's life less shitty then i'm all for it Reply Thread Link In the Silence trailer, he's even thinner and his features esp the ears are more prominent and I really don't understand how some ppl are attracted to him. Reply Thread Link He's not supposed to be attractive in Silence. I loved him so much in Paterson- I really think he's better in motion Reply Parent Thread Link His face is wonky for sure, but his body is A++ (super tall, not overly built, HUGE HANDS) and he seems genuinely sweet and endearing and he's stupidly talented *shrug* his TED talk made me love him tbh Reply Parent Thread Link He's an actor playing a role. He's ugly af but I'd rather he do his job well more than anything. Reply Parent Thread Link Whiteness is blinding. Reply Parent Thread Link as long as he doesn't take off the mask? Reply Thread Link I understand how he grows longer hair for his ears but it always makes his forehead look like it owns a cape. Reply Thread Link Wasn't he the one who said he didn't want kids? Or was it Leo? Either way, congrats to him and Amal. Reply Thread Link I think his pig was all the responsibility he needed? But he changed his mind on marriage as well so.. Reply Parent Thread Link I read "I think this pig" and I was all :o :o :o Reply Parent Thread Link Leo recently said he didn't want kids cause the world was too fucked up. I don't remember Clooney saying he told his dad his movies were his kids and his dad was like "That's not the same thing at all." LOL Reply Parent Thread Expand Link George said that he didn't ever want kids, over and over and over again in interviews, for years. He even bet a number of actresses (including Julia Roberts, I believe) a significant amount of money that he would never have kids because they kept insisting he would change his mind one day. I wonder if they'll collect (if this turns out to be true). Reply Parent Thread Expand Link i think leo is noncommitaal on this. he has gone back and forth but during the oscar campaigning , to remain 'relatable' he said something like ~never say never etc. I think he will go the same way as Clooney. Claim he doesnt want any of it, then find himself lonely in superficial Hollywood at age 50, marry young and have kids. Fucking men... Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Aww congrats! Reply Thread Link I wonder if she had IVF. Not trying to body shame, but she's so thin I figured she might have trouble getting pregnant. Reply Thread Link The fact that it's twins makes me think IVF. I mean I know twins occur naturally but the reason so many celebs have them is cause of IVF and implanting multiple embryos. Reply Parent Thread Link Or possibly a surrogate. I mean, they didn't say she was the one carrying them. I haven't seen any pics of her recently, but you do the first ultrasound typically 6-8 weeks, so as small as she is, she'd probably be showing if it's twins. Reply Parent Thread Link That's how my BFF ended up with fraternal twins Reply Parent Thread Link Older mothers are more likely to have twins, more eggs drop. Edited at 2017-01-05 07:01 pm (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Link maybe if twins run in her family, isn't she more likely to have a pair? or is that an old wives tale? Reply Parent Thread Expand Link i think i read somewhere that the older you get, you have a higher chance of having twins, too. Reply Parent Thread Link Idk I don't think ivf but introductory fertility meds like clomid can and do result in fraternal twins Reply Parent Thread Link victoria beckham has had 4 kids and many supermodels have had successful pregnancies (presumably without ivf). also, amal is not as thin as giuliana rancic, who iirc, refused her dr's suggestion to gain weight when she was trying to get pregnant. Reply Parent Thread Link She's also 38. Chance of releasing more than one egg per cycle increases with age. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Clooney is prepping for George 2020 Reply Thread Link still better than trump. Reply Parent Thread Link There's a lot "better than rump"s I can come up with. Reply Parent Thread Link mte he's obviously heading for politics. Reply Parent Thread Link more like daddy af 2020 Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I'll take it. I'm desperate. Reply Parent Thread Link Though tbh, I wouldn't vote for him. No way will he push through proposals like single payer healthcare, etc. Give me decrepit Bernie or Warren. Reply Parent Thread Link He's clearly as out of touch as any politician, so he'd fit right in. Reply Parent Thread Link man those are going to be smart, talented, and beautiful children. Reply Thread Link now he can retire from acting to daddy run for office Reply Thread Link My first though. Also, congratulations to them. Reply Parent Thread Link In California? When is Feinstein gonna retire? I could totally see a celeb running for her Senate seat. Reply Parent Thread Link no, for president. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link You know i just realized that i thought of George Clooney as someone completely sexless. my first thought when i read this headline was 'he' still having sex?' Reply Thread Link GIRL ME TOO. I have no idea why, but I was legit shocked. Reply Parent Thread Link Fuck me too! Even when I used to think he was hot I couldn't picture him in a sexual way or imagine him having sex! He really is sexless Reply Parent Thread Link I'll believe it when I see it, tbh. Reply Thread Link Is the Daily Star reliable, or is this just one of those "TWINS!" headlines that the tabloids publish about every famous woman/couple every other week that never actually turns out to be true? Reply Thread Link Call me when People reports it. Call me when People reports it. Reply Thread Link This gif is cracking me up. Reply Parent Thread Link same Reply Parent Thread Link AWW bb Dan! Reply Parent Thread Link best gif ever tbh Reply Parent Thread Link best harry gif Reply Parent Thread Link glad he listened 2 his biological clock Reply Thread Link LMAO Reply Parent Thread Link The Daily Star is never wrong, lol. Reply Thread Link I thought he'd never have kids. For some reason I can't imagine him as a dad at all. Reply Thread Link The story might be worth considering and not dismissing immediately. Were not hearing about it from the Daily Mail, or a British paper. Its not coming from the Enquirer or Star Magazine. These are, supposedly, family sources talking to a Lebanese publication. Also, the Clooneys have been undercover for a couple of months now. Like, really, really quiet. Didnt see them on holiday with Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber. No sightings in Cabo. No dinners in Malibu. Because hes busy in post for his new film Suburbicon? Or because theyre keeping it low during her first trimester? The twins thing would be in line with all those rumours that shes been seen at fertility clinics. Reply Thread Link It has become painfully obvious that the much-hyped OPEC agreement to reduce global oil production by close to 2 million bpd wont have the effect that its initiators had hoped for. True, crude has jumped above US$50 but failed to pass the US$55 barrier and move closer to US$60, which would have solved a lot of problems for some of the worlds biggest producers. This price increase, however, has spurred optimism among some producers and motivated them to plan output ramp-ups, which will in turn dampen the upward potential of crude more effectively than growing doubts about top producers willingness to stick to their commitments under the historical agreement. Lets look at shale boomers, for instance: according to Tom Kloza, the global chief of energy analysis at the Oil Price Information Service, shale producers can add as much as half a million bpd to their output this year. They dont even have to want to add so much they may well have to, prompted by their lenders. Then there is that doubt that the parties to the production cut agreement will be tempted to cheat and wont be able or willing to resist the temptation. The three most likely cheaters seem to be Iraq, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. Iraq, because it is still locked in its fight with the Islamic State and needs all the petrodollars it can get its hands on. Iran, because it is in a rush to revive its energy industry and has made it clear repeatedly it has no intention to dance to any tune that Saudi Arabia plays. Related: 2017 A Quiet Year For Oil? Then there is Saudi Arabia itself, which spearheaded the latest attempt by OPEC to give prices a big push upwards. Saudi Arabia and Iran are regional archrivals. Now, with most sanctions lifted, Iran is eager to re-enter global oil markets, targeting some of Saudi Arabias biggest clients, such as China and India. Its hard to believe, as Osama Rizvi noted in an article for Oilprice, that Riyadh will sit idly by, watching Tehran take a bite out of its market share. Of course, markets also have to contend with the two exempted OPEC members, which are both doing their best to increase their output. Libya says its close to reaching a milestone of 900,000 bpd, on track to restore its production to pre-war levels. By the end of 2017, Libya plans to pump 1.1 million bpd. Nigeria is also slowly but surely raising production even though it is still fighting with militants in the Niger Delta and the Boko Haram terrorist group. The country, however, has managed to raise its output to 1.6 million bpd and, according to President Buhari, should further improve it to 2.2 million bpd. To further complicate matters, there is the duration of the cut agreement. As Tom Kloza notes in an interview for CNBC, it might well be over in six months, which is the term that the parties agreed. If someone cheats and/or if prices fail to reach the levels that most participants in the agreement are happy with, chances are that the cut wont be prolonged into the second half of the year. All of this means that supply is going to exceed demand for yet another year--the fourth in a row, in fact, as 2013 was the last year when demand was higher than supply. And this does not bode well for price trends over the next 12 months. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Readers From: A fire on an oil production platform offshore Louisiana broke out early on Thursday and four people were evacuated from the platform, the U.S. Coast Guard said, adding there were no injuries reported. At around 2:30am watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector New Orleans were notified that an oil production platform caught fire approximately 80 miles south of Grand Isle. Four people were aboard on the platform and evacuated into the water and were recovered by an offshore supply vessel, the Coast Guard said. It was not immediately clear how big the fire was or which oil company owns or uses the platform. At the time, the Coast Guard issued the statement, it said that four offshore supply vessels were fighting the fire. There are no current reports of any pollution at the moment, Coast Guard Petty Officer Third Class Travis Magee said to The Associated Press by phone from New Orleans. The fire was suppressed but not extinguished, the official added. The Coast Guard said that the cause of the fire was under investigation. A non-profit oil spill response organization, Clean Gulf, is traveling to the site of the incident, the Guard said. The Gulf of Mexico was the site of the worst maritime disaster in oil history, when the Deepwater Horizon oil rig at a BP exploration well exploded in April in 2010, killing 11 people and leaking 4 million barrels of oil into the Gulf. More recently, the Gulf has had to cope with the elements rather than incidents. Gulf Coast refineries in the U.S. Southeast had braced for the passing of Hurricane Matthew in October last year, with industry representatives saying that very limited damage was done and refineries escaped pretty easily. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: With Asian LNG spot prices almost doubling in three months, a total of nine U.S. LNG cargoes are traveling to northeast Asia, the worlds top LNG demand destination, as the price surge is making U.S. shipment via the Panama Canal more profitable. According to Platts and its trade flow software, Asian spot prices were $9.75/MMBtu on Tuesday, compared to $4/MMBtu in April 2016, and with around $5.50/MMBtu in the middle of September last year. Prices have surged since September, due to issues and outages at liquefaction plants, including Gorgon in Australia. The LNG spot price increase has now made the journey from Sabine Pass in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico to northeast Asia more attractive, after prices had been too low in the first half of 2016. Even after the extended Panama Canal started making the journey shorter, the U.S. LNG cargoes were not rushing to head to northeast Asia in July, August and September. But in the past couple of months, Asian spot prices jumped considerably, by 27 percent since mid-November, to $9.20/MMBtu in mid-December. This was the largest monthly rise for Asian LNG since February of 2013. Platts data showed that before December 2016, just one U.S. LNG ship out of 33 cargoes from Sabine Pass had set out for northeast Asia. But now, the surge in Asian spot prices have led to nine cargoes traveling from the U.S. en route to the worlds biggest LNG buyers: Japan, South Korea, China and Taiwan. Related: Shrinking Contango Points To OPEC Deal Success China received its second U.S. LNG shipping last month, and data by Platts cFlow software shows that the country would welcome a number of the vessels currently headed to the region. Japan, which has not received U.S. shipment yet, is expected to get at least one of the vessels currently traveling to the region, according to Platts. Since the U.S. started exporting LNG in February last year, cargoes out of Sabine Pass had been mostly heading to South America, the Middle East and South Asia, with South America being the top destination. The U.S. became a net exporter of natural gas in mid-November 2016. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The opinions expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the opinions of OnMilwaukee.com, its advertisers or editorial staff. Everybodys attention this week has been focused on the return of Congress, with Republicans firmly in control and Janesvilles Paul Ryan elected to his first full term as Speaker of the House. We also have been paying attention to the continuing adventures of Donald Trump and his strange gang of supporters/nominations/friends/advisors and performers at his inauguration. But a much more important gathering was held in Madison, where the Republicans in the Senate and Assembly celebrated their increased stranglehold on Wisconsin politics by smiling with glee over the prospect of being able to do just about anything they want. I could make a pretty good case that, while national elections are sexy, its the state elections that have the most impact on our lives. Reince Priebus, the brilliant strategist who ran the Republican National Committee, realized that getting Republicans into office on the state level would be a perquisite to the national elections. How right he was. So, with the tightly buttoned Republican legislature ready to work hand-in-hand with Governor Scott Walker (who is not going to be president by the way), what can we expect to head our way? Its not all bad even though most of it is. Dem roads, dem roads, dem damn roads The fund to pay for road construction all over Wisconsin is short about $1 billion. This is not a good thing for the roads themselves or for the people who build the roads, among the most powerful and influential lobbyists in the halls of the Capitol. There are really only two ways to solve this problem: postpone some road building or raise money to pay for the roads. The Department of Transportation has proposed halting or postponing work on some projects in order to eliminate the shortfall. A number of key lawmakers have also suggested increases in licensing fees and/or vehicle taxes in order to raise the money. Walker has said he will veto any such increases unless there is a corresponding tax decrease somewhere else. My prediction is that we are going to get a license fee increase, and the legislature will provide some tax breaks mainly to wealthy people and corporations to offset the number of dollars raised by the increased fees. Our schools: Money, vouchers and guns The formula by which the state shares revenue with local school districts is an ancient formula only slightly less complex than the computer systems needed to send the space shuttle hurling into the skies. Nobody knows everything thats in the formula, and for decades, there have been some suggestions to come up with some kind of formula that takes into account the relative poverty of some districts. There is some talk about developing a new formula, but while the will may be there, the way to do it is full of so many different opinions that its doubtful that anything meaningful will result. This should be all talk, no action. There will be action, however, in the increase in funding to expand Wisconsins voucher program, whereby public dollars flow to private schools. Its an experiment that has no record of meeting its original goals, but people from Donald Trump to your local nun all think its a great thing. More and more money will flow away from financially-strapped public school districts in order to give these private schools the ability to enroll more students. Finally, and in critical educational news, a state representative from Kewaskum named Jesse Kremer is going to push his bill to allow people who have concealed carry permits to concealed carry on college campuses as well as high schools and elementary schools in the state. The great outdoors For over a century, the Department of Natural Resources has protected the natural environment and managed recreational opportunities in our lands. Back in 2010 when Walker became governor, he said he wanted a new DNR chief who had a "chamber of commerce mentality." He got it with Cathy Stepp, who used to manage a McDonalds in Racine. Now he wants to split the entire department up into two departments. One would deal with all those pesky environmental regulations that are designed to keep businesses from killing all the land in the state. The other one would manage hunting, fishing and some other recreational activities which, by the way, are also in line for fee increases. These are not, of course, the only crazy ideas that are going to get shoved down the throat of unsuspecting Wisconsin citizens. The pitiful Democrats in both houses may try to raise voices in opposition, but it will be like spitting on Supermans cape. Nothing they say will matter. The opinions expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the opinions of OnMilwaukee.com, its advertisers or editorial staff. The 115th Congress promptly convened on Tuesday morning with news of a vote to significantly curtail the power of The Congressional Ethics Office. Some may recall that the office was originally set up in 2008, in the aftermath of corruption scandals that sent three members of Congress to jail. Predictably, social media reacted with outrage, and the vote was scrapped later in the morning. Despite walking back the plan, Congress was squarely blamed for its actions. I am here to convince you that the fault for this action is entirely misplaced. Congress isnt to blame; we are. Public Policy Polling released a national poll last month identifying Congress as having a 10% approval rate among 1,224 polled registered voters. Yet this past November, 97% of House incumbents were re-elected in districts all across America. Clearly, we have a dichotomy of behavior present in our electorate. Is Congress to blame for the hatred they receive? I maintain the answer is no. In my opinion, the American voter is to blame for just about everything that is wrong with Congress. Identity politics has created a toxic environment that suppresses compromise and rewards polarizing policies. The half of American voters that even bothered to vote have essentially put in place a divided system that could be mistaken for a Hatfield and McCoys feud taking place on Congressional floors. Congress is simply a mirror image of who we are as voters. The system weve enacted encourages spite, revenge, a blame mentality and a complete lack of cooperation. As a friend recently told me, "Its not the people I vote for causing all of the problems. Its who the rest vote for that is the problem." The Occams razor explanation to this problem is that the American voter is largely stupid. Consider that they re-elect people they profess to hate and then go on social media to express outrage when these same elected representatives fail. Finally, when confronted with evidence highlighting their conflicting behavior, the solution is to blame everyone else but themselves. How convenient. Ironically, it is often these same people that request their government to step in and make laws protecting themselves from their own foolishness. Concepts such as term limits do just that and allow voters a bailout should they not have the political will to end a representatives career by themselves. I view term limits as a government encroachment on the free will of the people. We already have term limits in Congress every two or six years. They are called elections. Ultimately, the fault lies in voters that are hopelessly committed to one of two teams and possesses a "not my guy" arrogance. These voters see their team as the knights in shining armor and the other team as the source of all that is evil in the Republic. This all or nothing partisan posturing produces some interesting poll results. This failed mentality might explain why we now have a country where 52% of Democrats believe that Russia tampered with vote tallies to get Trump elected (but oddly not the popular vote that Hillary won). It also yielded a poll before the election that nearly half of Trump supporters considered Russia an ally or friend. Let this sink in: Only half of Americans voted, and roughly half of that group, regardless of party affiliation, are functioning idiots. Term limits to protect the voter? A better solution would be to restrict who can vote, but of course, no one wants that. As a result, were stuck with a large portion of the electorate having the average IQ equal to that of a potted plant. Ask yourself what would have happened if Americans elected 435 new House members and 34 new Senators in November. What would our country look like today? If your first response is to consider how this change would affect your partisan team, then you are part of the illness afflicting the average American voter. At a minimum, such a system would destroy the entrenched way of life in Washington D.C. The absolute worst that could happen is that we would have a largely ineffective and highly unpopular ruling body mired in cyclical stalemates just like today. Actions would be based on revenge, and legalities would be largely symbolic just like today. Indeed the system could be broken without any hint of bipartisan lawmaking on the horizon just like today. The state of our Congressional representative is an indictment of our voting culture. Only half participate, and many of those that do believe everyone else is the problem. While Americans will continue to have a very low opinion of Congress, most will fail to understand that we have a voter problem, as opposed to a Congressional problem. Until this mentality is changed, the people will continue to work for the government and not the other way around. Duluth, Minnesota (OpEdNews) January 4, 2017: My favorite scholar is the American Jesuit polymath Walter J. Ong (1912-2003; Ph.D. in English, Harvard University, 1955) of Saint Louis University (SLU), the Jesuit university in St. Louis, Missouri. Over the years, I took five courses from Fr. Ong at SLU, starting in the fall semester of 1964 when I was twenty years old. I have published a book-length study of Ong's life and work (2000; rev. ed., 2015), and I have co-edited five volumes of his essays (1992a, 1992b, 1995, 1999, and 2002) and contributed introductory essays to four of those five volumes (1992a, 1995, 1999, and 2002). In addition, I have co-edited anthologies of essays by diverse hands about Ong's thought (1991 and 2012), and I have contributed essays to anthologies of essays by diverse hands about his thought (1987, 1991, 1999, and 2012). I regard Ong's body of work as a goldmine worthy of studying carefully -- and a very great blessing for understanding our Western and American cultural history. For bibliographic information about Ong's publications, including information about reprinted items, see Thomas M. Walsh's "Walter J. Ong, S.J.: A Bibliography 1929-2006" in the book Language, Culture, and Identity: The Legacy of Walter J. Ong, S.J., edited by Sara van den Berg and Walsh (Hampton Press, 2011, pages 185-245). Ong's most original and creative contribution to our understanding of Western and American culture is his massively researched book Ramus, Method, and the Decay of Dialogue: From the Art of Discourse to the Art of Reason (Harvard University Press, 1958). Briefly, Peter Ramus (1515-1572) was a French logician and educational reformer and Protestant martyr. When Harvard College was founded in 1636, Ramus' work in logic (also known as dialectic) dominated the curriculum. In addition, Ramus' logic dominated the curriculum at Cambridge University in England, where almost all college-educated men in New England had studied it. Years earlier, Ong had first learned about the influence of Ramus' dialectic from Perry Miller's book The New England Mind: The Seventeenth Century (Harvard University Press, 1939). When Ong later proceeded to undertake doctoral studies at Harvard University, Miller served as the director of his doctoral dissertation about Ramus. Fr. Ong died more than a decade before the brash developer Donald J. Trump of New York ran for president of the United States in 2016. Nevertheless, hints in Ong's publications and certain related publications can help us establish a conceptual framework for understanding President-elect Trump's appeal to the Trump voters in the thirty states who gave him a decisive electoral victory over the Democratic Party's candidate, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. In Ong's first book, Frontiers in American Catholicism: Essays on Ideology and Culture (Macmillan, 1957), he discusses the threefold schema of character typology that the American Jewish sociologist David Riesman (1909-2002) of Harvard University works with in his widely known book The Lonely Crowd: A Study of the Changing American Character (Yale University Press, 1950): outer-directed (also known as tradition-directed), inner-directed, and other-directed. Even though Riesman acknowledges that outer-directed people have always been present in American culture, he sees inner-directed people as the classic kind of American people. Riesman's way of characterizing inner-directed people is consistent with and compatible with Ong's way of describing people (more often than not males) educated in formal logic in Western and American cultural history. But with the memory of the Holocaust under Adolf Hitler and the Nazis in Germany fresh in his mind, Riesman was understandably worried about the then-emerging other-directed character type in American mass culture -- which Ong eventually came to refer to as secondary oral culture, the cultural constellation under the influence of the various communications media that accentuate sound. However, Ong in his 1957 book was not as worried as Riesman in his 1950 book was about the possible negative implications of the then-emerging other-directed character type in postwar American mass culture. In connection with Riesman's threefold character typology, I should mention that the Swiss psychiatrist and psychological theorist C. G. Jung, M.D. (1875-1961), at an earlier time became known in the prestige culture in American culture for the far more detailed personality typology he worked out in the book Psychological Types, translated by H. G. Baynes (London, 1923; New York, 1926; orig. German ed., 1921; later, R. F. C. Hull revised Baynes' translation for the edition of the book published by Princeton University Press in 1971). On the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the founding of Harvard College in 1636, Harvard University conferred an honorary doctorate on Jung in 1936. In 1937, Jung delivered the prestigious Terry Lectures at Yale University -- published as the book Psychology and Religion (Yale University Press, 1938). Ong delivered the Terry Lectures at Yale in 1964, the expanded version of which was published as the book The Presence of the Word: Some Prolegomena for Cultural and Religious History (Yale University Press, 1967). In 2009, Norton published an over-sized art-book edition of Jung's The Red Book: Liber Novus, edited by Sonu Shamdasani and translated by Mark Kyburz, John Peck, and Shamdasani. That elegant edition has spurred a renewal of interest in Jung's work and related work. I will say more about Jung's thought momentarily. At a later time, Ong published three important books with Cornell University Press (1971, 1977, and 1981). In two of those books, Rhetoric, Romance, and Technology: Studies in the Interaction of Expression and Culture (1971) and Fighting for Life: Contest, Sexuality, and Consciousness (1981), the published version of Ong's 1979 Messenger Lectures at Cornell University, Ong discusses the masterwork of the German-born-and-educated Jewish Jungian analyst and theorist Erich Neumann (1905-1960) -- the book The Origins and History of Consciousness, translated by R. F. C. Hull (Pantheon Books, 1954; orig. German ed., 1949). In certain earlier publications, Ong also refers to Jungian thought. See, for example, Ong's article "St. Ignatius' Prison-Cage and the Existentialist Situation in the Jesuit-sponsored journal Theological Studies, volume 15, number 1 (March 1954): pages 34-51, which Ong includes in his book The Barbarian Within: And Other Fugitive Essays and Studies (Macmillan, 1962, pages 242-259). (St. Ignatius Loyola was the founder of the Jesuit order.) Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). Articles Listed By Date List By Popularity Search Title Date Between Any 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 Any 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 and Any 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 Any 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 Page 1 of 2 First Last Back Next 2 View All (3 comments) SHARE Trump's First Big Test: a Crisis for All of Us President Trump has displayed that he has virtually no capability to assess his adversaries at home or abroad. His grandiosity and his indifference to the concerns of others are obstacles to effective decision making. The Syrian crisis is already testing the mettle of his entire national security team. There is genuine reason for concern. Saturday, April 14, 2018President Trump has displayed that he has virtually no capability to assess his adversaries at home or abroad. His grandiosity and his indifference to the concerns of others are obstacles to effective decision making. The Syrian crisis is already testing the mettle of his entire national security team. There is genuine reason for concern. (1 comments) SHARE The Mad Man Theory: Nixon, Trump and Bolton Over the past year, there has been accumulating evidence that Donald Trump is unfit to serve as the commander in chief. He is an extreme and unbridled hedonist who has no interest in the consequences of his actions. His personal life style, his personnel policies, his Twitter rants, and his political actions point to self-absorption that overrides any such concerns. Tuesday, March 27, 2018Over the past year, there has been accumulating evidence that Donald Trump is unfit to serve as the commander in chief. He is an extreme and unbridled hedonist who has no interest in the consequences of his actions. His personal life style, his personnel policies, his Twitter rants, and his political actions point to self-absorption that overrides any such concerns. (1 comments) SHARE The Washington Post's Renewed Attack on Whistlblowers The Washington Post's schizoid approach toward whistleblowers continues unabated. On the one hand, its news staff has effectively used authoritative leaks to expose the bizarre and possibly illegal contacts between senior members of the Trump administration and high-level Russian officials. On the other hand, its editorial writers maintain an ugly campaign against U.S. officials who have kept the Post and the NYTimes Tuesday, May 30, 2017The Washington Post's schizoid approach toward whistleblowers continues unabated. On the one hand, its news staff has effectively used authoritative leaks to expose the bizarre and possibly illegal contacts between senior members of the Trump administration and high-level Russian officials. On the other hand, its editorial writers maintain an ugly campaign against U.S. officials who have kept the Post and the NYTimes SHARE Return of the Torturers: Back to the Crime Scenes of the Past The Trump administration has signaled that it is willing to return to the heinous crimes of the past two decades, including torture and abuse, secret prisons, and extraordinary renditions. The appointment of Gina Haspel as the deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency clearly indicates that the use of torture, including the use of waterboarding, which has been endorsed by the President. Saturday, February 4, 2017The Trump administration has signaled that it is willing to return to the heinous crimes of the past two decades, including torture and abuse, secret prisons, and extraordinary renditions. The appointment of Gina Haspel as the deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency clearly indicates that the use of torture, including the use of waterboarding, which has been endorsed by the President. (2 comments) SHARE The Dark Side of Obama's Legacy President Obama campaigned on the basis of transparency and openness, but ignored accountability for the CIA's transgressions and fundamentally weakened the role of oversight throughout the national security community. The fact that Trump remains hostile to intelligence briefings creates a horrifying scenario for furthering the dark side of the Obama legacy. Thursday, January 5, 2017President Obama campaigned on the basis of transparency and openness, but ignored accountability for the CIA's transgressions and fundamentally weakened the role of oversight throughout the national security community. The fact that Trump remains hostile to intelligence briefings creates a horrifying scenario for furthering the dark side of the Obama legacy. (2 comments) SHARE Time for CIA's Brennan to Go More than five years into his presidency, Barack Obama has yet to undertake a major reform of U.S. intelligence, even letting CIA Director John Brennan, who was implicated in Bush-Cheney abuses, block reports on those offenses. That must change, says ex-CIA analyst Melvin A. Goodman. Friday, March 14, 2014More than five years into his presidency, Barack Obama has yet to undertake a major reform of U.S. intelligence, even letting CIA Director John Brennan, who was implicated in Bush-Cheney abuses, block reports on those offenses. That must change, says ex-CIA analyst Melvin A. Goodman. (1 comments) SHARE Bob Gates's Mean, Misguided Memoir Like many Washington memoirs, former Defense Secretary Robert Gatess Duty seeks to settle scores and spin a legacy. But Gates also penned a book filled with contradictions and showing little regard for the U.S. principle of civilian control over the military, says ex-CIA analyst Melvin A. Goodman. Wednesday, January 22, 2014Like many Washington memoirs, former Defense Secretary Robert Gatess Duty seeks to settle scores and spin a legacy. But Gates also penned a book filled with contradictions and showing little regard for the U.S. principle of civilian control over the military, says ex-CIA analyst Melvin A. Goodman. SHARE Robert Gates's Narcissistic "Duty" The Inside-the-Beltway acclaim bestowed on Robert Gates is perhaps the clearest evidence of the failure of Washingtons media/political elite to recognize reality and impose accountability on incompetent or corrupt government officials, a point addressed by ex-CIA analyst Melvin A. Goodman. Thursday, January 9, 2014The Inside-the-Beltway acclaim bestowed on Robert Gates is perhaps the clearest evidence of the failure of Washingtons media/political elite to recognize reality and impose accountability on incompetent or corrupt government officials, a point addressed by ex-CIA analyst Melvin A. Goodman. (3 comments) SHARE A Cold War Bias Toward Russia The most significant damage to the Russian-American relationship occurred during the administration of George W. Bush, whose international policies created the worst of all strategic worlds. In December 2001, President Bush announced U.S. withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which had been the cornerstone of strategic deterrence and the arms control regime for 30 years. Saturday, August 10, 2013The most significant damage to the Russian-American relationship occurred during the administration of George W. Bush, whose international policies created the worst of all strategic worlds. In December 2001, President Bush announced U.S. withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which had been the cornerstone of strategic deterrence and the arms control regime for 30 years. SHARE US Finds Influence Hard to Buy For decades the U.S. government has ladled billions upon billions in military assistance to countries that either don't need it or use it to suppress popular uprisings. But all that money has bought very little in terms of genuine influence with the recipients. Wednesday, July 10, 2013For decades the U.S. government has ladled billions upon billions in military assistance to countries that either don't need it or use it to suppress popular uprisings. But all that money has bought very little in terms of genuine influence with the recipients. (1 comments) SHARE The Need for National Security Leaks The attack line against whistleblowers Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden -- that they should have gone through "proper channels" -- ignores that those oversight channels have been badly corrupted over the past several decades. That has left Americans dependent on out-of-channel leaks. Wednesday, June 19, 2013The attack line against whistleblowers Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden -- that they should have gone through "proper channels" -- ignores that those oversight channels have been badly corrupted over the past several decades. That has left Americans dependent on out-of-channel leaks. (1 comments) SHARE The National Security State and the Whistleblower The problem that faces the US in this second term of the Obama presidency is not too many whistleblowers, but rather too few. Wednesday, June 19, 2013The problem that faces the US in this second term of the Obama presidency is not too many whistleblowers, but rather too few. SHARE The Real Benghazi Scandal The Republican fixation on Benghazi "talking points" has obscured the bigger scandal of last September's fatal attacks, the CIA's use of the consulate as an operational base without sufficient insufficient security. That failure underscores a series of other unexamined intelligence failures. Wednesday, May 15, 2013The Republican fixation on Benghazi "talking points" has obscured the bigger scandal of last September's fatal attacks, the CIA's use of the consulate as an operational base without sufficient insufficient security. That failure underscores a series of other unexamined intelligence failures. SHARE Brennan's Bumbling Case for Terror War There was nothing in Thursday's hearings that suggested the Senate Intelligence Committee is devoted to genuine oversight or that Brennan has a genuine understanding of checks and balances. In fact, in one of the most disturbing remarks of the day, Brennan closed out the session by actually asking the committee to be an "advocate" for the CIA. Saturday, February 9, 2013There was nothing in Thursday's hearings that suggested the Senate Intelligence Committee is devoted to genuine oversight or that Brennan has a genuine understanding of checks and balances. In fact, in one of the most disturbing remarks of the day, Brennan closed out the session by actually asking the committee to be an "advocate" for the CIA. (10 comments) SHARE The Bush/Obama War Against Truth The harsh treatment of alleged leaker Bradley Manning is part of a broader campaign to silence government whistleblowers, a pattern that began with Vice President Dick Cheney's outing of CIA officer Valerie Plame but has expanded under President Obama. Wednesday, December 21, 2011The harsh treatment of alleged leaker Bradley Manning is part of a broader campaign to silence government whistleblowers, a pattern that began with Vice President Dick Cheney's outing of CIA officer Valerie Plame but has expanded under President Obama. (6 comments) SHARE The Self-Inflicted Wounds of 9/11 Although al-Qaeda is no longer a sophisticated terrorist organization capable of launching large-scale operations and is merely one of many jihadist groups based in Pakistan, the United States has thrown itself into the briar patch called Afghanistan. Saturday, September 11, 2010Although al-Qaeda is no longer a sophisticated terrorist organization capable of launching large-scale operations and is merely one of many jihadist groups based in Pakistan, the United States has thrown itself into the briar patch called Afghanistan. (2 comments) SHARE What Eisenhower Could Teach Obama Fifty years ago, Eisenhower told senior advisers,,"God help this country when someone sits in this chair who doesn't know the military as well as I do." Several months later, he issued his famous warning about the military-industrial complex. Now the U.S. finds itself in a cul-de-sac, with no way out of increased military deployments and expenditures, and no evidence that Obama has a firm hand on the national security tiller. Wednesday, July 7, 2010Fifty years ago, Eisenhower told senior advisers,,"God help this country when someone sits in this chair who doesn't know the military as well as I do." Several months later, he issued his famous warning about the military-industrial complex. Now the U.S. finds itself in a cul-de-sac, with no way out of increased military deployments and expenditures, and no evidence that Obama has a firm hand on the national security tiller. SHARE The Military-Industrial Complex's Win Over the past three decades, despite the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and the end of the Cold War, U.S. presidents have done next to nothing to challenge or limit the national security complex, which continues to drain the federal treasury and block any potential political threat to the military-industrial status quo. Tuesday, July 6, 2010Over the past three decades, despite the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and the end of the Cold War, U.S. presidents have done next to nothing to challenge or limit the national security complex, which continues to drain the federal treasury and block any potential political threat to the military-industrial status quo. (1 comments) SHARE What Eisenhower Could Teach Obama Fifty years ago, President Dwight D. Eisenhower told his senior advisers in the Oval Office of the White House, "God help this country when someone sits in this chair who doesn't know the military as well as I do." Several months later, he issued his famous warning about the military-industrial complex. Monday, July 5, 2010Fifty years ago, President Dwight D. Eisenhower told his senior advisers in the Oval Office of the White House, "God help this country when someone sits in this chair who doesn't know the military as well as I do." Several months later, he issued his famous warning about the military-industrial complex. SHARE The Pentagon's Threat to the Republic Unfortunately, our most recent presidents in the wake of the end of the Cold War have not been willing to limit the influence of the military and have placed too much power in the hands of the Pentagon. President Obama must take note. Monday, June 28, 2010Unfortunately, our most recent presidents in the wake of the end of the Cold War have not been willing to limit the influence of the military and have placed too much power in the hands of the Pentagon. President Obama must take note. Page 1 of 2 First Last Back Next 2 View All Chinese smartphone vendors last year captured about 40 per cent share in India, the second largest smartphone market in the world, the official media in Beijing reported. Among all, Lenovo saw its shipment volume rise to the second only after Samsung in the third quarter last year, state-run China Daily quoted global research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) survey as saying. Xiaomi took the third spot with a market share of 10.7 per cent, whereas Chinese vendors collectively took up 40 per cent, according to the survey conducted across 30 major Indian cities. The forays by Chinese phone makers comes as India's domestic brands saw decline in market share. Micromax reported a 16.7 per cent month-over-month sales drop in October, the survey said. Analysts noted that as smartphone giants look at India which has a population of 1.34 billion, to be the "new China" and the competition will be intense, the report said. ALSO READ: Budget 2017 may spring sweet surprises for startups Despite growth, price war remains fierce in what is becoming the world's second-largest smartphone market where the price of a mobile averages only USD 100, the survey said. "Lenovo has retained its duo-brand strategy in India," Rahul Agarwal, the company's managing director, told state-run Beijing News, adding that Motorola is focused on high-end market, taking up a third of its sales, whereas Lenovo phones targeting lower end account for two thirds. Indian customers are even more price sensitive than Chinese users, Ni Fei, co-founder and CEO of Nubia Technology, said. Besides price war, patent rights and tariff could also hinder further growth in India, analysts said, citing patent disputes faced by Chinese smartphone makers OPPO, VIVO and Xiaomi in recent years. ALSO READ: Six things taxpayers expect from Budget 2017 OPPO is planning to invest 1.5 billion yuan (USD 215 million) to build an industrial park in India to bring down manufacturing cost, according to media reports earlier last month. The company already has a factory in Greater Noida. The mathematical (and other) thoughts of a (now retired) math teacher, The President-elect, Nana Akufo-Addo has today named his incoming Chief of Staff as well as two other deputies. Ahead of his official inauguration as President on Saturday, January 7, 2017, at the Independence Square, Nana Addo named former Ayawaso West Wuogon constituency Member of Parliament Frema Osei-Opare, as his Chief of Staff. Francis Asenso-Boakye was named the first deputy Chief of Staff and will be assisted by Mr. Abu Jinapor as second deputy. Below is a detailed profile of the First Deputy Chief of Staff under incoming President Nana Addos led administration. Francis Asenso-Boakye has been Political Assistant to the NPP presidential candidate (now President-elect) Nana Akufo-Addo since 2008. A development planning, project management, and policy specialist, Asenso-Boakye has over 15 years of wide-ranging professional experience in his field. Prior to joining the staff and campaign of Nana Akufo-Addo, he held positions at the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare (MESW), Global Media Alliance (GMA), Delta Acquisitions and Development, Delaware, USA, Michigan House of Representatives, Michigan, USA, Ghana Free Zones Board (GFZB), and Ghana Investment Promotion Center (GIPC). At MESW, he was a development communication specialist for a program to eliminate child labour in cocoa growing communities in Ghana. In that capacity, he served as secretary to the Technical Working (TWG) on child labour in the cocoa sector and the Joint Working Group (JWG) of Ghana and Cote dIvoire on child labour in the cocoa sector; led Ghanas engagement with the United States Government and the chocolate industry on efforts to eliminate the practice; and coordinated the development of a Facilitators Manual on best practices that has become a blueprint for efforts to eliminate child labour on cocoa farms. At GMA, where he was Project Manager, Asenso-Boakye managed several of the company's flagship assignments and projects, including [email protected] fireworks display at the Independence Square, the Opening & Closing Ceremonies of the 2008 African Cup of Nations, CNN Africa Journalist of the Year Awards, and Africa Union Summit Media Center. He also served as lead consultant for GMA's event consulting work for the Government of Guinea for the [email protected] celebrations. As a Project Analyst at Delta Acquisitions and Development, LLC, Delaware, USA, Asenso-Boakye was responsible for monitoring and evaluating the companys real estate acquisitions and development and oversaw the construction of 50 homes/duplexes in Dover, Delaware. Asenso-Boakye also served as a policy and research associate in the Office of State Representative Michael C. Murphy and to the Michigan Legislative Black Caucus (MLBC) - Michigan House of Representatives, USA, where his work focused on policy and legislative issues affecting the interests of African American and minority communities. He drafted an Issues Book to serve as policy guidance for the Michigan Legislative Black Caucus. In 2005, he received a special Tribute from the Michigan House of Representatives in recognition of his exemplary service as a legislative staffer. Asenso-Boakye also previously worked as a planning officer at GFZB, where, as project manager for the Tema Export Processing Zone (TEPZ), he managed a $50m World Bank financed-project for the provision of off-site infrastructure at the TPEZ, including a road network, water storage, drainage and sewerage system. For his National Service, Asenso-Boakye was a Research Analyst at GIPC, where he prepared product profiles for potential investors and also served as GIPCs focal person for an Investment Survey on Ghana conducted by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank. Francis Asenso-Boakye is a graduate of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, with a B.Sc. degree in Development Planning. He obtained his Master of Public Policy and Administration degree from Michigan State University, Michigan, USA, as a Rotary Scholar, and also holds a Certificate in Public Sector Management from Tulane University, Louisiana, USA. He is a former student activist and the founding president of the tertiary students confederacy of the NPP (TESCON) Francis Asenso-Boakye is married with three kids. Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/ Twitter: @Washman5/ Instagram: Washman007 Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Credit: Keith Negley A better cure for cancer and other illnesses could already be in existence, hidden right under our noses. The problem is that possible new lifesaving drugs are created much faster than scientists can study them. Millions of untested compounds wait, jumbled together in no particular order in vast repositories called compound libraries. "These libraries are basically like black boxes right now," says Steven Altschuler, PhD, a professor of pharmaceutical chemistry at UC San Francisco's School of Pharmacy. "You imagine that somewhere in there is some chemical that might be the key to unlocking any question that you have but how are you going to find it?" A new search method that blends cellular biology and computational analytics may be the answer. A husband-and-wife research team at UCSF Altschuler and his longtime spouse and collaborator, Lani Wu, PhD, also a professor of pharmaceutical chemistry have developed a way to do the job much faster and at a fraction of the cost of the traditional method. The work involved designing a new kind of cell, writing some new software, and then parsing the resulting landslide of data. "We were very lucky to be there at the right time and see the connections," says Altschuler. "Going in, we didn't even realize that there was a need for this." The couple was uniquely poised to develop this method, as their work is informed not only by their current collaboration but also by their earlier shared careers in other fields. They have worked together since they met as students almost 30 years ago. "We met in the mailroom," Altschuler says. "It was the first day of grad school for her; I was a second-year." The pair started out their parallel careers in mathematics and went on to work for Microsoft, then for a biotech firm, before moving into academia. "Most of us wouldn't even think of an analogy between drug discovery and what they were working on at Microsoft with image recognition and things like that," says Matthew Jacobson, PhD, chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, who recruited Altschuler and Wu to UCSF. "To me, this just shows the power of bringing people with different types of backgrounds into biology and drug discovery." Too Much of A Good Thing Screening compounds for potential medical uses has to date been both time-consuming and expensive. For example, a lab looking to develop better chemotherapeutic agents would likely be interested in DNA-damaging drugs that have yet to be tested. Usually, researchers are looking for drugs that affect the chain of cellular events by which a given disease advances or can be treated a biochemical process known as a pathway. An unknown number of such compounds are likely available in libraries housed at universities and pharmaceutical companies around the country. But how to find them? "Over the last few decades, drug discovery has tended to be fairly pragmatic," says Jacobson. "We tend to make various simplifying assumptions about how things work inside cells." Often, scientists search for new drugs using carefully engineered "reporter cells" to screen for sought-after compounds. These cells are designed in a lab to change in a unique way when a compound achieves a desired effect, indicating to researchers that they have a match. However, this method tests for just one purpose at a time and it costs hundreds of dollars to test each "mystery" compound. This means researchers generally can afford to screen only a small, random subset of the available compounds. Envision a compound library as a massive box containing thousands of unorganized, unlabeled photographs. The current method is akin to each researcher pulling out a handful of photos and looking through each handful to find pictures of one particular person. They may be able to identify a few, but every future project has to start from scratch. "Whenever anyone goes in there with a specific question, they might find 12 chemicals that are interesting to them, and the rest just go right back into the bin," Altschuler says. A New Way Forward By contrast, imagine a method that digitizes the photos and then screens them with a program akin to facial recognition software. This is the first step in Altschuler and Wu's new method, which categorizes reporter cells in much the same way that Facebook tags photos of your friends: by digitally identifying their features. Now, when a compound library with unknown properties is screened with reporter cells, the software can identify which of those compounds is generating a desired response. The cost for each test drops from hundreds of dollars to a dollar or less, Altschuler says. That was phase one of the work. More recently, the couple has found a way to test drugs for multiple purposes at a time using this same principle. An experiment that their team described in Nature Biotechnology this past January used only one type of reporter cell to screen nearly 11,000 drugs from multiple compound libraries for six disease pathways. That's like using facial recognition software to digitally sort through hundreds of thousands of photos think of multiple boxes stored in Grandma's attic and tag photos of six different people at once. Up until now, researchers would have had to do one experiment just to find photos of Steve, a separate one to find photos of Lani, and so on. "The ability to do very sophisticated mathematical analyses basically allows them to identify the effects of drugs much more sensitively than other approaches have been able to do," Jacobson says. Husband-and-wife research team Steven Altschuler and Lani Wu started out their careers in mathematics. Credit: Steve Babuljak This may sound straightforward enough, but consider the fact that researchers had previously found it difficult to coax a single reporter cell into partitioning multiple unidentified drugs into categories of usefulness. Yet Altschuler and Wu not only did that but also yielded results that can be processed digitally making it clear that this is a quiet but revolutionary breakthrough. "The grand challenge here is really trying to understand how administering a drug to a cell affects not just one individual protein but the entire network of proteins and, ultimately, the cell's behavior," Jacobson says. Seeking an ORACL Standard reporter cells essentially work like matching cards in the children's game known as Memory: when a new compound generates a response that resembles that of a known drug, it tells researchers that the two operate on a similar pathway and are likely to affect the target disease in a similar way. Over the last decade, such genetically encoded reporter cells have become increasingly popular in biotech research. But Altschuler and Wu wanted to design a single, versatile type of engineered cell that would report when a compound matched multiple different pathways something that had never been done before. Instead of trying to reason their way to a solution, the team decided to seek a boost from chance: Using the fluorescent tags that are used to build reporter cells, they put roughly 600 cells through the DNA tagging process but did not attempt to control where the tags landed. They hit the jackpot. In their initial pool of potential reporter cells, they found one that was 94-percent accurate in discriminating among six diverse cancer-relevant drug classes. They named it ORACL, which stands for Optimal Reporter cell lines for Annotating Compound Libraries. "They just randomly tried stuff and found that there is a tremendous amount of information in a very small number of proteins you don't even have to really think too hard about what they are," Jacobson says. The challenge with such a versatile reporter is to know what it's saying. The human eye can distinguish only some of a reporter cell's responses for example, the way DNA-damaging drugs make the reporter swell up or the way certain cellular inhibitors make it grow long, spiky arms. But other changes can be identified only by computer which is also the only way to parse the sheer volume of data. This is a trend that has been on the rise throughout the field. "Data science is a big part of biology right now," Wu says. "No human being could look at this," Altschuler says. "The changes are too subtle, the numbers of conditions are too large, for any human to assess. This really required innovations in identifying cells, extracting properties of the cells, and comparing how the cells had changed in different conditions." A senior researcher in the lab tested the process before the machines took over. Jungseog Kang, PhD, dripped nearly 11,000 compounds and 38 reference drugs into the waiting mouths of tiny wells full of ORACL cells. Once the cells had reacted to the compounds, they were photographed through a microscope. Then, photos were analyzed by software developed by a graduate student, Charles Hsu, producing digital profiles that were matched to those of reference drugs. The results were cross-checked by a literature review and experimentation. In the end, the method proved 94 percent accurate. "A lot of the magic is in the software, [in] being able to extract maximal information out of a minimal number of experiments," Jacobson says. "Basically, they are asking, 'Might it do something interesting and useful? And if so, does is it look like anything we've seen before? Or is it something totally new?' And both categories are interesting." The ORACL found 100 new compounds that fit one of six drug classes. And it had still more to reveal. To the team's surprise, additional clusters of potentially useful compounds were identified, despite not being in the experiment design including glucocorticoids and ATPase inhibitors, which can treat autoimmune conditions and cancer, respectively. "That was really cool," Altschuler says. "That means it's a way to go fishing even beyond what we thought we were going to catch." Tip of the Iceberg Seated at a sterile stainless steel hood, postdoctoral scholar Louise Evans, PhD, has taken over from Kang. Sliding a bristling phalanx of nearly 100 pipettes back and forth on a mechanical arm, she is helping move the ORACL on to its next step. Compared to the number of compounds that remain uncategorized, this experiment's 10,000-compound sample is the tip of the iceberg. "Once you get into the hundred-thousand- to a million-compound range, that would be considered pretty interesting for a phenotypic screen in academics," Altschuler says. "But I'm not sure that the size of the library you screen is the most important thing." The vision is that in the future, the ORACL method will lead to compound libraries that are indexed and searchable according to each compound's effect instead of being the black boxes that they are today. "In principle, we hope a researcher can come to us with a type of compound they are interested in, and we can go into our database and say, 'We're going to recommend a few different ones that are just like it for you,'" Altschuler says. "It's actually not that different from maybe a music recommender. Music gets classified, and you say what genre you like, and it tries to bring back some more like that." The next step is likely a partnership with the private sector, where there are the resources to test the method on a larger scale. "There is a hunger in the pharma companies for new approaches, a willingness to try things," says Jacobson. "Drug discovery is a long and exceedingly painful process. In the short run, the impacts will come through just scaling up this new approach. I think in the next few years, it will come clear whether this is going to be widely adopted or not." More information: Jungseog Kang et al. Improving drug discovery with high-content phenotypic screens by systematic selection of reporter cell lines, Nature Biotechnology (2015). DOI: 10.1038/nbt.3419 Journal information: Nature Biotechnology Bigger isn't always better at least not in the bird kingdom, with new Deakin University research finding that the larger a bird's bill the longer they spend trying to snuggle it in against the cold. Ecologist Matthew Symonds, Deputy Director at the Centre for Integrative Ecology in Deakin's School of Life and Environmental Sciences, and team leader on the research, said the study examined the "backrest" behaviour of birds where they turn their heads to the back and tuck their beaks underneath their feathers when they are resting. "While people have long assumed that birds exhibited this behaviour to protect themselves against the cold, no one had actually rigorously studied it. We found that they were indeed using backrest to try to keep warm, because they do it more when it gets colder," Dr Symonds said. "But the surprising thing we discovered was that the birds with bigger bills used this behaviour more, and over noticeably longer periods. In fact, they continued to use the behaviour more even as the weather warmed." The study looked at nine species of shorebirds ranging from the largest comparative beak size, 9.2cm, found on the red-necked avocet, to the smallest, 3.4cm, found on the masked lapwing. The field research was carried out by a Deakin honours student, Julia Ryeland, who observed the birds roosting over a six month period along the coastal flats around Port Phillip and Westernport Bays near Melbourne in southern Victoria. Ms Ryeland said hundreds of hours of footage of shorebirds was collected under temperatures from around 10 to more than 40 degrees. "When we looked at the footage, we found the red-necked avocet, which has the longest relative bill length, had the highest use of the backrest posture, while the masked lapwing, with the smallest relative bill length, used it the least," she said. Dr Symonds said the findings had a significant implication for how bigger-billed birds spent their time. "This means that while these birds have developed larger beaks to help them forage for food, it actually has a negative side effect in that they need to spend more time keeping this equipment protected from the cold," he said. "This then lessens their time available for things like food gathering and keeping an eye out for predators. It's an unexpected cost of having a larger bill." Dr Symonds said bills were a significant area of heat loss for birds and his previous research had shown that birds in colder climates had evolved to have smaller beaks to mitigate this effect. "For a really large bird like the toucan the bill accounts for about 40 percent of body surface area and 60 percent of the heat loss at rest," he said. "So this likely explains why birds are so keen to keep their bills tucked in." The paper by the Deakin University team, "Bill size mediates behavioural thermoregulation in birds", was published in the journal Functional Ecology today. More information: Julia Ryeland et al. Bill size mediates behavioural thermoregulation in birds, Functional Ecology (2016). DOI: 10.1111/1365-2435.12814 Journal information: Functional Ecology Iceberg in the southeastern Weddell Sea region. Credit: Dr. Michael Weber About 15,000 years ago, the ocean around Antarctica has seen an abrupt sea level rise of several meters. It could happen again. An international team of scientists with the participation of the University of Bonn is now reporting its findings in the magazine Scientific Reports. University of Bonn's climate researcher Michael E. Weber is a member of the study group. He says, "The changes that are currently taking place in a disturbing manner resemble those 14,700 years ago." At that time, changes in atmospheric-oceanic circulation led to a stratification in the ocean with a cold layer at the surface and a warm layer below. Under such conditions, ice sheets melt more strongly than when the surrounding ocean is thoroughly mixed. This is exactly what is presently happening around the Antarctic. The main author of the study, the Australian climate researcher Chris Fogwill from the Climate Change Research Center in Sydney, explains the process as follows: "The reason for the layering is that global warming in parts of Antarctica is causing land based ice to melt, adding massive amounts of freshwater to the ocean surface. At the same time as the surface is cooling, the deeper ocean is warming, which has already accelerated the decline of glaciers in the Amundsen Sea Embayment." It appears global warming is replicating conditions that, in the past, triggered significant shifts in the stability of the Antarctic ice sheet. To investigate the climate changes of the past, the scientists are studying drill cores from the eternal ice. Layer by layer, this frozen "climate archive" reveals its secrets to the experts. In previous studies, the scientists had found evidence of eight massive melting events in deep sea sediments around the Antarctic, which occurred at the transition from the last ice age to the present warm period. Co-author Dr. Weber from the Steinmann Institute of the University of Bonn says: "The largest melt occurred 14,700 years ago. During this time the Antarctic contributed to a sea level rise of at least three meters within a few centuries." The present discovery is the first direct evidence from the Antarctic continent which confirms the assumed models. The research team used isotopic analyzes of ice cores from the Weddell Sea region, which now flows into the ocean about a quarter of the Antarctic melt. Through a combination with ice sheet and climate modeling, the isotopic data show that the waters around the Antarctic were heavily layered at the time of the melting events, so that the ice sheets melted at a faster rate. "The big question is whether the ice sheet will react to these changing ocean conditions as rapidly as it did 14,700 years ago," says co-author Nick Golledge from the Antarctic Research Center in Wellington, New Zealand. More information: C. J. Fogwill et al, Antarctic ice sheet discharge driven by atmosphere-ocean feedbacks at the Last Glacial Termination, Scientific Reports (2017). DOI: 10.1038/srep39979 Journal information: Scientific Reports Reactivated fracture zones ruptured during Wharton Basin earthquakes in 2012. Credit: Yanfang Qin, Satish C. Singh (Phys.org)A team of researchers with members from several institutions in Singapore, France and Indonesia has found evidence of a possible new plate boundary forming on the floor of the Indian Ocean in the Wharton Basin. In their paper published in the journal Science Advances, the team reports that they studied seismic and ocean floor topology to learn more about tectonic plate deformations in the region and what they found by doing so. Most people are aware of earthquakes that occur when tectonic plates push against one another, but there is another kind called a slip-strike quake. It occurs when two plates slide horizontally against one another. Such quakes can be caused by deformations that occur in plates distant from fault lines as pressure builds up across a plate. In some cases, such deformations can cause what are known as interplate earthquakes, and they can also sometimes cause a plate to break, resulting in a new plate boundary, which in turn can lead to even more quakes. It is this scenario that the researchers believe happened in 2012 when two earthquakes struck the Andaman-Sumatran region (northwest part) of the Indian Oceanthe largest interplate earthquakes ever recorded. To better understand what occurred during the 2012 quakes, the researchers studied seismic data that was recorded before, during and after the quakes and also conducted sea floor depth analysis by venturing into the ocean aboard the research vessel Falkorthat allowed them to create high-resolution imagery of the sea floor, which in turn allowed them to note the deformations that had occurred. Their analysis revealed a new fault system had developed in the area off the coast of Sumatra that was involved in the 2012 quakes. They noted the system was oriented in a way that set it off against those that were around ita clear indication of deformation. The data also showed that strike-slips in the same area (and distant from known plate boundaries) suggested that the plate had broken along a 1,000k fracture zone, resulting in a new plate boundaryone that is likely to be the site of future fault-slip quakes. Past fault models (a) and Sing and colleagues new results (b). Credit:Yanfang Qin, Satish C. Singh More information: Satish C. Singh et al. The discovery of a conjugate system of faults in the Wharton Basin intraplate deformation zone, Science Advances (2017). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1601689 Abstract The deformation at well-defined, narrow plate boundaries depends on the relative plate motion, but how the deformation takes place within a distributed plate boundary zone remains a conundrum. This was confirmed by the seismological analyses of the 2012 great Wharton Basin earthquakes [moment magnitude (Mw) 8.6], which suggested the rupture of several faults at high angles to one another. Using high-resolution bathymetry and seismic reflection data, we report the discovery of new N294E-striking shear zones, oblique to the plate fabric. These shear zones are expressed by sets of normal faults striking at N335E, defining the direction of the principal compressional stress in the region. Also, we have imaged left-lateral strike-slip faults along reactivated N7E-oriented oceanic fracture zones. The shear zones and the reactivated fracture zones form a conjugate system of faults, which accommodate present-day intraplate deformation in the Wharton Basin. Journal information: Science Advances 2017 Phys.org Hong Kong hosts more than of all marine species recorded in China -- Polychaetes, fish, cephalopods and amphipods found in Hong Kong. Credit: Dr. Qiu Jianwen, Dr. Stella Wong and Mr. Gomen See Hong Kong is best known as a bustling harbour, a financial centre and a shoppers' paradise, with a dense burgeoning population of seven million impacting its natural environment. Yet, away from the skyscrapers and the pressures of anthropogenic influence, Hong Kong has a record of 5,943 marine species according to a recent review by a research group led by Professor Gray A. Williams of The Swire Institute of Marine Science (SWIMS) and School of Biological Sciences, the University of Hong Kong (HKU). This 1.5-year study funded by the Environment and Conservation Fund (ECF) was published in Biodiversity and Conservation recently. This first comprehensive review of local marine biodiversity since the beginning of the history of marine science in Hong Kong in 1940s shows that with only about 1,651 km2 marine area (~0.03% of China's total), Hong Kong already accounts for ~26% of the total marine species recorded in China. Hong Kong's marine biodiversity is comparable to many other regions even though its marine area is hundreds to thousands of times smaller than those regions. "We knew Hong Kong was incredibly rich in its marine species but were still very impressed when we figured out the numbers from the study," said project manager Dr Terence Ng Pun-tung from HKU SWIMS. The abundance of the territory's marine biodiversity can be illustrated by simple comparisons ? Hong Kong has more hard corals than the entire Caribbean Sea and it also hosts more mangrove tree species than the whole of East Africa. Hong Kong also contributes to a considerable amount (>30%) of the species records for several groups of organisms such as polychaetes, fish, cephalopods and amphipods in the South China Sea. These findings reaffirm Hong Kong's location within the fringes of the world's marine biodiversity hotspot (i.e. the Western Indo-Pacific region). Hong Kong lies in a transitional geographic position between the temperate and tropical regions, and the mixing of the three ocean currents (Kuroshio, Taiwan and Hainan currents) and suitable climates ('temperate-like' winter and 'tropical-like' summer), bring together both tropical and temperate species to live in Hong Kong. Apart from that, the influence of complex geology, proximity to the Pearl River (creating an estuarine environment in western waters), a relatively long coastline (1,189 km) and diverse marine ecological habitats suitable for different species to live and interact all contributed to mould the highly diverse marine life in Hong Kong. The research team also expected highly diverse marine species in regions near Hong Kong, such as the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand, but biodiversity information in these regions are largely limited. Given the paucity of knowledge on the marine biodiversity in the Southeast Asia, this study contributes to this knowledge gap and marks a milestone for both Hong Kong and the South China Sea. Credit: The University of Hong Kong "Understanding the number of species we have in our marine environment is a basic need if we are to protect and conserve our biodiversity. This is vital in today's rapidly changing world, not just here in Hong Kong, but especially in Southeast Asia which holds the world's most diverse marine habitats. SWIMS is playing a major role in trying to measure and conserve these important resources, both within Hong Kong but also, together with its regional collaborators, in Southeast Asia." said Professor Gray A. Williams, the leader of this study and the Director of HKU SWIMS. The enormous array of marine life in Hong Kong, however, has yet to receive its desirable level of conservation as currently only less than 2% of Hong Kong's marine area is protected as marine parks or reserve as compared with approximately 40 % of our terrestrial area. The Government has committed to designate more new marine parks in the coming years. The Brothers Marine Park in the northern Lantau waters will be soon launched soon, which will bring Hong Kong's total protected marine area to more than 2%. The research team welcomed the initiative of the new marine park while also urging the Hong Kong government to move towards the global target of at least 10% marine protected area by the year 2020 under United Nation's Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) as China is one of the 196 signatories of the Convention and the Convention was extended to Hong Kong in 2011. Hong Kong launched Asia's first Register of Marine Species To establish a platform for the international scientific community to access the marine species in Hong Kong for conservation, research and education purposes, the research team, in collaboration with international experts, has also launched the Hong Kong Register of Marine Species (HKRMS) (see http://www.marinespecies.org/hkrms/) under the umbrella of the largest global marine biodiversity database, the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS). Hong Kong is one of only ten regions in the world that has such a regional species database, and was the first in Asia. An editorial team consisting of local experts on different taxonomic groups led by Dr Terence Ng has been established to curate and keep the database up-to-date. The HKRMS, therefore, serves as a knowledge exchange platform to showcase the enormous marine biodiversity in Hong Kong. What's next? Credit: The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong classes itself as a world city but unlike Singapore and many western countries, it lacks a central repository for its catalogue of marine species, such as a natural history museum or biodiversity centre that collates, manages and analyses and disseminates data of local species. It is, therefore, difficult to confirm the validity of past records and keep track of the status (i.e. changes in species number and distribution under different anthropogenic impacts such as coastal development, pollution, climate change etc.) of our marine resources. The recent launch of Hong Kong's first Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (BSAP) under the CBD, however, provides a unique opportunity for Hong Kong to 'keep up the pace'. In light of the BSAP and the future development of SWIMS, the current marine species database will be further developed into an information system to facilitate the sharing of information on marine biodiversity to a wider range of stakeholders, for education, research and conservation purposes. A spokesman for the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) welcomed this initiative: "Under the recently launched BSAP, AFCD will explore opportunities to collaborate with local institutions to establish biodiversity centres to disseminate scientific information for the wider community. The Government will work together with external experts to improve sharing of knowledge of biodiversity". The SWIMS research team hopes that this initiative will help conserve the incredibly rich, but largely unrecognized, marine diversity of Hong Kong. It also translates into a better protection of our heritage as Hong Kong originated as a fishing village, and we heavily rely on our marine species and habitats for many economic, recreational and aesthetic benefits. More information: Terence P. T. Ng et al. Hong Kong's rich marine biodiversity: the unseen wealth of South China's megalopolis, Biodiversity and Conservation (2016). DOI: 10.1007/s10531-016-1224-5 Credit: University of Adelaide New research conducted by the University of Adelaide shows there is no greater risk of salmonella contamination in the production of free range eggs due to hot summer weather, compared with other seasons. Despite a higher number of cases of salmonella poisoning from eggs and egg products during the hot summer months, researchers at the University's School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences say the egg production process itself is not to blame for the increase in cases. The findings are further evidence that the hygiene around egg handling in the supply chain and in household and restaurant kitchens is critical to reducing food poisoning from eggs. Researchers conducted a study of four Australian commercial free range egg farms, with the results now published online ahead of print in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology. "Eggs and egg products have been associated with an increased risk of salmonella contamination. Because the use of free range eggs by consumers is on the rise, we felt it was important to better understand the risk factors at the production stage," says lead author Associate Professor Kapil Chousalkar, from the School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences at the University's Roseworthy campus. "Birds raised in the free range production system could potentially be exposed to weather extremes, and the free range environment is not as easily controlled as in cage egg production. Therefore, it has been assumed that hot weather has a role to play in the potential contamination of eggs at the site of free range egg production. "Our results show that the types and levels of salmonella found in and around free range egg farms, and on the eggs themselves, is highly variable, often dependant on the specific husbandry and management practices employed by each farm. "However, we found that there was no direct association between hot weather and increased prevalence of salmonella at the production stage, even when data was collected in the hottest month of February," Associate Professor Chousalkar says. "This helps to reinforce a simple health safety message: that it's important for people to wash their hands before and after handling eggs, whether at home, in a restaurant, or while working in the supply chain." The bacteria salmonella Typhimurium the most common cause of salmonella poisoning from eggs and egg products in Australia was the second highest type of salmonella found at free range egg production farms. The most prevalent, salmonella Mbandaka, is generally not associated with egg or egg product-related food poisoning cases in Australia. As well as renewing calls for people to practice good hand hygiene when using eggs, Associate Professor Chousalkar says there is a need for nationwide standards and uniform practices on the surveillance of egg contamination and safety. "Currently, each of the states has their own food safety and surveillance programs. Because of its implications for public health, we believe the incidence of salmonella contamination needs to be monitored in a standard way across all farms," he says. More information: V. C. Gole et al. Dynamics ofshedding and welfare of hens in free range egg production systems, Applied and Environmental Microbiology (2016). DOI: 10.1128/AEM.03313-16 Journal information: Applied and Environmental Microbiology 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. Questioning the accuracy of rival news organizations is not a new phenomena, as is illustrated by the following Oct. 28, 1916 report in the Oswego Palladium. According to the Oswego Times, published on the day of the last visit of Charles Evans Hughes to this city, there were 1,500 Republican enthusiasts at the station to greet him. Today, a well known resident of the Third Ward who made two counts of the crowd present said the best he could do was 105. The first count yielded 102. The Global Issues, Local Solutions lecture series sponsored by SUNY Adirondack, Agricultural Stewardship Association and Cornell University Cooperative Extension of Washington County continues with a program examining how climate change is affecting agriculture. Michael Hoffman, a Cornell University entomologist, will present No Longer Business as Usual on Jan. 26 at the SUNY Adirondack Queensbury campus. The lecture will present research on the increasingly erratic climate and how this affects local, national and worldwide agriculture. Hoffman, the executive director of the Cornell Institute on Climate Change and Agriculture, will discuss ways that farmers and food consumers can take advantage of changes while also decreasing their contribution to negative consequences. The final lecture in the series, The Renaissance of Hops and Farmstead Brewing, is planned for March 14 at Browns Brewing Company in Hoosick Falls. Laura Ten Eyck, co-author of The Hop Growers Handbook, will discuss the craft beer markets convergence with the local food movement. All lectures start at 7 p.m., with a 6:30 p.m. check-in. To register for either program, go to www.sunyacc.edu/continuinged or call 518.743.2238. Doug Gruse is Director of Marketing and Communications at SUNY Adirondack. Email him at grused@sunyacc.edu. For more information on the college, go to www.sunyacc.edu. THURMAN The Town Boards annual organizational meeting on Tuesday erupted into chaos after the new majority voted down a routine resolution, two board members abruptly left, pushing allegations were made and the police responded. Councilman Michael Eddy and newcomers Cynthia Hyde and Kathy Templeton voted down a routine resolution that sets the petty cash limits and mileage reimbursement rates, designates an official newspaper and establishes a meeting schedule, along with other business at the start of the new year. Supervisor Evelyn Wood said Wednesday she believes the three board members want to curtail her powers. As I understand it, they no longer want the supervisor to oversee the day-to-day operations of the town, Wood said. They dislike me. They want me gone and theyll cripple this town to make it happen, she said. Wood is calling a special meeting for Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. The second Tuesday of the month is Thurmans normal meeting day, but since the town voted down the schedule, a special meeting is needed. Its a little chaotic, Wood said. The power has shifted on the five-member board. Templeton and Hyde won seats in November by ousting incumbents Gail Seaman and Susan Shepler. That gave allies to Eddy, who has battled with Wood over various issues including the white space internet project and remediation of water supply contamination caused by the town salt shed. At the meeting, which was videotaped, Hyde wanted to take out language regarding the supervisor having authority over the day-to-day operations of the town and deal with that section in a special resolution. I think its necessary that the Town Board understand what documents the supervisor is going to be signing, she said. Wood said the board needs to delegate authority to her or she would need to consult with the board on every decision. Either the entire board lives in this building, or you authorize me to operate day to day, she said. Eddy also expressed concern about the board being able to review the contracts. I dont like leaving you as the only signer of these contracts, he said. Eddy wanted the salary for the confidential secretary, which was going to be $16.67, adjusted back down to its previous level of $12.50 Wood called the question and it was defeated. Deputy Supervisor John Jey Youngblood voted with Wood in favor. So, essentially, we will not be paying any of those people, Wood said. The board moved on to approve other routine resolutions to designate a polling place, adopt an investment policy and establish bonds for town employees. Then, Hyde wanted to circle back to the first resolution. Wood asked for an adjournment of the meeting, which was defeated by a vote of 2 to 3. Wood attempted to conclude the meeting. Theres nothing else on the agenda for tonight, she said. Thats too bad. The meeting is still going on, Hyde responded. Hyde said again she wanted to take out and conduct day to day operations of the town and deal with that in a separate resolution. I believe that it would be very smart to actually write out what those basic statutory responsibilities are, so everybody is very clear about what you can and cant do, she said. You do not make my statutorial responsibilities. The state of New York does not you, not Mike, not Kathy, not Jey, nobody, Wood snapped back. Hyde sought to move the resolution. By Jesus, Wood exclaimed. Neither one of you run this board meeting! Cynthia Hyde! That is enough! she shouted. Evelyn, Im not trying to give you a hard time, Hyde said. The entire room knows youre giving me a hard time on purpose, Wood said. She accused the board of being openly hostile and the new majority of planning some surprise resolutions, including changes to the food pantry staff. Wood particularly expressed frustration with any delay in getting people affected by water contamination clean water. They can do any dang thing they want but Im telling you right now Im calling this meeting adjourned and Im going home. I hope you all have a lovely evening, she said. She proceeded to leave the meeting, then Youngblood followed. The meeting continued for another 20 minutes or so amidst confusion with whether the three remaining board members were allowed to continue. Hyde pointed out that a majority of the board was present for a quorum. She attempted to introduce a resolution to rescind the boards August vote to eliminate its Board of Assessment Review and switch to a sole appointed assessor. But former board member Seaman questioned whether Hyde had the authority to chair the meeting in the absence of the supervisor and deputy supervisor. Hyde maintained that Youngbloods appointment as deputy was only good for 2016. A deputy supervisor is not needed, she said. An audience member complained about the sudden changes. You dont take an oath in the afternoon and totally dismantle the board in the evening. The board then realized that the town clerk had left the room. Hyde tried to get her to come back, but she was not feeling well. The State Police responded to calm people down. Hyde said she was being blocked from getting to the office by other members of the public. Eddy on Wednesday denied that the new majority wants to control the supervisor. He said he and the two new board members had questions about the wording of some of the contracts. Hyde said Wednesday the board is not trying to limit Wood. We just want to make sure we clarify the duties and abide by the statutory duties, she said. Hyde said it is a shame that the meeting was conducted the way it was. Id like to see things a little calmer, she said. Templeton said Wednesday that she and the other two board members wanted to break down the resolution, which had about 10 different subjects, so they can get a better understanding of what each resolution entailed. Youngblood did not return a message seeking comment. WILTON Queensbury resident Lisa Sellick said she was shocked to read a Post-Star article last week about the state plow truck driver who had been involved a few days earlier in a fatal collision on the Northway. Eight days before that deadly collision, Sellicks car was totaled in an eerily similar crash on the same stretch of highway and involving the same plow truck driver. I couldnt believe it, she said. Sellick escaped injury, but her Toyota sedan was destroyed. She said the state Department of Transportation plow truck driver, Mark E. Johnson, changed lanes into the path of her car as she drove south to work on the morning of Dec. 14. I tried to avoid it but I couldnt, Sellick said. I was lucky. My heart goes out to the family of the guy who died. That could have been me. Johnson, 56, of Moreau, was also at the wheel of a Transportation Department plow truck the snowy morning of Dec. 22, when he entered the southbound lanes of the highway from the U-turn just north of Exit 15, resulting in a collision with a southbound vehicle that claimed the life of its driver, Roger Sulem, 38, of Sloansville, police said. State Police have said the fatal crash remained under investigation as a computerized reconstruction was being done, and no blame or fault had been assessed. Sellick said the roads were dry and clear as she drove to work on Dec. 14, and that the investigating trooper told her at the scene that the truck driver admitted he was at fault for changing lanes into the path of her car. State Trooper Mark Cepiel, an agency spokesman, said the police accident report does not indicate which driver was at fault. He said the crash with Sellicks vehicle happened a quarter-mile south of the Route 50 overpass, and the State Police report indicates that the plow truck changed lanes and the front end of the car and fender of the truck were heavily damaged. There was no definitive conclusion on blame, Cepiel said. Johnson has not been to work since a Post-Star article Dec. 28 that recounted questions Sulems family has about circumstances of the collision that killed him. Those questions include why Johnson was allowed to drive a plow truck after he was arrested for aggravated driving while intoxicated the morning of Dec. 5 while driving a personal vehicle and off duty. His blood alcohol content was 0.30 at the time of the arrest, nearly four times the threshold for intoxication, court records show. A breath test at the fatal crash scene found no indication Johnson was drinking before that accident, authorities said. His drivers license has not been suspended pending court action, and he has pleaded not guilty. Transportation Department spokesman Bryan Viggiani said Wednesday that the agency had no comment on Johnsons status with the department or on the prior crash because it was a personnel matter. ALBANY New York state lawmakers began their work for 2017 Wednesday with a vote to prohibit the use of cellphones as recording devices in the Senate chambers. The ban is intended to protect the chamber's decorum, according to lawmakers who included it in the Senate's internal rules. Democrats, however, called it an infringement of free speech that could make it harder for journalists and the public to share information about state government. "It's an insult to New Yorkers," said Sen. Brad Hoylman, D-Manhattan. "We are curtailing an opportunity to bring transparency to this chamber." Photojournalists have long had permission to take pictures from the Senate gallery, a practice that Deputy Majority Leader John DeFrancisco said would continue. He dismissed concerns over the ban, noting that live Senate proceedings are already broadcast on the Senate's website and that traditional photojournalists will still be allowed to shoot photos from the public gallery. "It's pretty logical," he said of the rule change, which passed on a voice vote. "We are as transparent as (we) could possibly be." Highlights of the six-month session will likely include state voting laws, Uber's proposal to expand upstate and a proposal from Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo to make state university tuition free for middle-class residents. Other proposals expected to draw debate this year include bills to end the practice of prosecuting and imprisoning 16- and 17-year-old offenders as adults and to authorize people with terminal illnesses to request life-ending drugs from a physician. Speaker Carl Heastie, a Bronx Democrat, said lawmakers will also work to resist President-elect Donald Trump if he and congressional Republicans move to rein in abortion rights, immigration, health care benefits or efforts to fight climate change. "There is little doubt that the change in our federal government will create serious challenges for us in New York," he told the Assembly. "... We will continue to stand guard for all of the constitutionally protected freedoms and inclusive public policies that we have always championed." Republicans, however, said lawmakers must devote the year to improving the state's business climate. "We're going to stay very, very, very focused on job creation," said Senate Leader John Flanagan, R-Long Island. Sen. Betty Little said, "I was pleased to cast my vote for Sen. John Flanagan. John has been a friend for many years. His straightforward, professional approach to governing has earned him the respect of all his Senate colleagues. Im sure he will continue to do a great job advocating for our interests in negotiations with the Assembly and governor." Cuomo skipped the Legislature's first day. He has had frosty relations with lawmakers in recent months and chose to hold an event in New York City at the exact hour the Legislature was set to convene. Cuomo is also choosing to forego the traditional state of the state address to lawmakers this year, instead planning a series of six regional addresses delivered next week at locations around the state. Many lawmakers blamed Cuomo late last year when talks about a legislative pay increase the first in 18 years fell apart. MOREAU Town residents will be getting their tax refund after all. Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner, D-Round Lake, interceded on the towns behalf. Both former Supervisor Preston Jenkins and Supervisor Gardner Congdon asked her for help, she said. The state initially didnt send out town tax refunds, because Jenkins didnt file the correct documents. He first filed them electronically without signing them. Then he faxed over the signed documents, but didnt submit them electronically, which the state required. When Congdon learned of the problem, just before Christmas, his secretary spent hours communicating with state officials so that she could send the documents in electronically. It took all day. But that wasnt enough. The state had already begun issuing checks to Moreau residents for school and county taxes, skipping the town tax. Now the state will issue new checks for the town tax amount. I spoke to the director of the budget last night, Woerner said Wednesday. They said weve looked at it and we will correct this problem for the people. State officials agreed that the town had simply made a filing error, and were satisfied since the documents were eventually sent in, albeit late. This was an administrative problem. They looked at it and said it makes sense, and the documents are in now, Woerner said. The state will send a list of refund amounts, address by address, to Congdon so that he can disseminate it to the public. That list wont be ready for some time, though. The check will be 1.01 percent of the property owners 2015 town tax bill. That could work out to an amount of less than $2, at which point the state will roll the amount over to the 2017 checks. 2016 was the last year of the property tax freeze credit, in which residents were reimbursed for their increase in town taxes or for a percentage of their taxes if the tax bill did not go up. To get the credit for the residents, municipalities had to comply with the property tax cap and submit an acceptable efficiency plan. The property tax relief credit, for school taxes, will continue through 2019. That will be a flat amount of $185 each year. For 2016, the county, town and school checks were combined together into one check that was generally sent out in November or December. GLENS FALLS Northeastern Fine Jewelry, a regional family-owned chain, has announced it will open a new store downtown in the storefront where Scoville Jewelers is closing. The new store will allow us to bring the highest quality of jewelry and our outstanding service to the southern Adirondacks, said Ray Bleser, owner of Northeastern Fine Jewelry. We look forward to joining the Glens Falls community. A grand opening is expected in February, according to a press release issued Thursday. Hopefully before Valentines Day, said Gregg Kelly, the companys vice president. Kelly said Glens Falls is experiencing economic growth. Its a place thats thriving. We have heard some people up there have said said nothing but great things, he said. Northeastern Fine Jewelry will have five employees at the local shop. One current Scoville Jewelers employee has been hired, and the management is in talks with two others, as well, Kelly said. The store will have a variety of jewelry lines, including Hearts on Fire, Forevermark, Charles Krypell, Tacori, Simon G. Michele and Phillips House. Northeastern Fine Jewelry will be exclusive retailer of CS Designs, a line of original jewelry designed by Chris Scoville, co-owner with his wife of Scoville Jewelers. Northeastern Fine Jewelry has signed a five-year lease, said Scoville, who owns the building at the corner of Glen and Ridge streets where the new store will open. We are thrilled that they will provide our customers with the highest quality items and services, while continuing the tradition of a family-owned jeweler at our former location, he said. A full renovation of the space is planned, with work beginning Saturday evening, shortly after Scoville Jewelers permanently closes, he said. Chris Scoville and wife Debra Vales are retiring, after operating the business for about four decades. Scovilles parents established the business in 1952. Bleser founded Northeastern Fine Jewelry in 1980 in Schenectady. The company has stores on Western Avenue in Albany, Union Street in Schenectady and in New York City. Glens Falls will be a good addition to their operation, said Edward Bartholomew, president of EDC Warren County. We welcome owner Ray Bleser to the Glens Falls region, he said. ARLINGTON, Vermont -- Police are investigating the death of an 81-year-old woman in her home as a suspected homicide and are seeking the public's help in generating leads. Helen Jones was found dead in her Buck Hill Road home late Wednesday, after a friend checked on her when family hadn't heard from her in a period of time. Police did not say how Jones was believed to have died and said an autopsy was pending. Buck Hill Road is just off Route 313, which runs east-west to and from Washington County. Jones' home is about 6 miles east of the New York state line. Anyone with information about suspicious activity around Buck Hill Road over the past week was asked to call Vermont State Police at 802-442-5421. Welcome Guest! You Are Here: Welcome Guest! You Are Here: Home Regional News East Your digital subscription includes access to all content on our agricultural websites across the nation. Access unlimited content and the digital versions of our print editions - This Week's Paper. He replaces Ishmael Yamson, who resigns after 12 years as non-executive chairman of the Unilever Ghana Board. Yamson earlier served as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman for 18 years. Effahs appointment took effect on November 1, 2016. Edward Effah, who is currently Group CEO and Chairman of the Fidelity Group, comes to the job with over 15 years of experience in senior executive positions in finance and treasury management. He is a Chartered Accountant by profession and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. He is also a member of the Institute of Directors (UK). Yaw Nsarkoh, was appointed as Unilever Nigerias Managing Director effective January 1, 2014. Until his appointment as the EVP Ghana and Nigeria, he served as the Managing Director, of Unilever Nigeria. READ ALSO: Investors shun Treasury bills as rates decline Mrs. Adesola Sotande-Peters, is a Finance Executive (FCCA) with a strong Business Finance leaning and with over 22 years varied professional experience (spanning various organizations such as British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) UK, Informa Group UK, Openwave Telecoms UK, Diageo Plc (Guinness Nigeria Plc, East African Breweries Limited (Kenya), and Guinness Cameroon SA) where she has held various senior finance roles in commercial/strategic finance, financial management consultancy/analysis, with a strong focus on people development/mentoring. Yeo Ziobeieton, has 14 years experience with Unilever Cote Diviore, Dakar, Durban, Kenya and South Africa. He has held a number of general management and marketing positions at the company most recently as the managing Director of the 16 countries of Unilever in Francophone West Africa. READ ALSO: New head office for Free Zones Board Luc-Olivier Marquet, Vice President of Unilever West Africa, also moves into a new role as Executive Vice President of Unilevers South Africa business, effective January 1, 2017, while Miguel Marquez, Finance Director of Unilever Ghana moves into another role within the Unilever finance chain. According to him, the development is a sign that educational standards are improving, urging the public not to be misled by claims that standards are falling. In his last State of the Nation Address in Parliament in accordance with Article 67 of the 1992 Constitution, he said "Teacher absenteeism has gone down from 27% to below 9%." He said "Our vision under my administration was to improve access to education and quality of education... Lack of access to education meant that many children were being left behind. "We are seeing improved performances in the WASSCE by public schools across the country... At tertiary level the construction of additional universities has improved access to that level of education," he added. She also described the president as an accomplished man, her role model and hero, adding that she yearns for his presidency again. Read the full letter below. "JDM - A CANDLE IN THE WIND It seems to me, you lived your life like a candle in the wind never knowing who to cling to when the rain set in. You had the grace to hold yourself in these painful moments whilst most grassroots, and those around you throughout the country crawled. Moments I can't ever forget in my entire life. You changed the pace and image of NDC politicking, your demeanor, language, humour. You're are my model You're my hero From Bole, you rose as teacher, Assembly man, MP, Deputy Minister, a Minister, Vice President and a President An accomplished man on our land. In our contemporary politics, nobody had chocked that feet. To me there exist a certain STAR on your birth. I yearn for your Presidency again According to Walter Masuku, He had waited two days for the owner of the phone to claim it before he finally decided to insert the sim and make use of it. The 37-year-old man who hails from Winterveld, Tshwane, South Africa, revealed that he had played the good Samaritan and returned the phone after the owner called and asked for it. ALSO READ: Man beaten to pulp for buying rice with fake money What he had not expected was to be beaten to a pulp for 30 minutes by the owner of the phone who accused him of stealing it. Narrating his ordeal to Daily Sun SA, Masuku said one of his friends burrowed the phone. He said, "My friend used the phone and gave it back to me. I left it in my room and went for the car wash to wash my car." Masuku said a man approached him at the car wash and demanded that he return the phone because it belonged to him. "I told him it was at my house and as soon as I finished washing my car, I would go and get it for him." When Masuku returned to retrieve the phone, the man demanded his sim card, which he had misplaced. "He started swearing at me, calling me names and when I tried to tell him I could buy him a new sim card to replace the one I had lost, he started beating me with fists and klaps and kicked me all over my body." Walter told the publication that his friend had sold him out, adding that he was even more upset because the police had been uncooperative when he had opened a case. He lamented that justice was not being served. ALSO READ: Woman burns step-sister with hot iron in Lagos When Daily Sun SA contacted Loate police spokesman, Captain Samuel Sebola, he confirmed that a case of assault had been opened. They would laugh, cook, watch movies et al with excitement and even without the realization that time is flying away. Technology is good, and with its frequent use in the 21st century, there is no doubt that it has come to stay. A national survey reported teenagers spend, on average, 8.08 hours a day using various forms of media, not including time spent doing school work or talking or texting on a cell phone. This includes television, commercial or self-recorded video, movies, video games, print, radio, recorded music, computers, cell phones, and the Internet. According to National Coalition to prevent Child sexual abuse, 77% of all 8-18-year-olds have their own cell phone, up from 44% in 2004. Cell phone ownership has increased with age, as 87% of teenagers 14-17- years-old now own a cell phone, and 31% of these older teens have smartphones.With smartphones come the use of social media. Young girls and boys, mothers and fathers, employers and employees, husbands and wives all succumb to this phenomenon, which is so popular and influential that it has become a source of addiction for many. With smartphones come the use of social media. Young girls and boys, mothers and fathers, employers and employees, husbands and wives all succumb to this phenomenon, which is so popular and influential that it has become a source of addiction for many. Has social media become so powerful that it has begun to negatively affect the social lives of people? Has its effect been ironical? That is, has social media actually made people unsocial? Pulse Ghana decided to interview a few people to get some insight as to the degree to which this 21st-century culture is affecting lifestyle. Mr. Kweku Sakyi, a social media officer who works with a digital firm in Accra says it has improved his summary skills. He also said he has made friends and has been always kept updated. This could be attributed to the fact that social media has affected his life positively notwithstanding. Mrs. Ama Sam, a journalist in Accra noted: It has helped me make new friends, introduced me to more people and I often release stress on these platforms. It can be deduced from this fact that she spends quite a lot of time on social media than with perhaps family and friends.Mrs. Adelaide Osei, a banker, told pulse.com.gh: Sometimes it keeps me detached from what is happening in the real world. Mrs. Adelaide Osei, a banker, told pulse.com.gh: Sometimes it keeps me detached from what is happening in the real world. This is a clear indication that Mrs. Osei is disconnected from reality, obviously making her unsociable, out of touch with family and friends. Mr. Amoah also, also a social media officer with a digital firm, reveals social media has actually given him regular updates on the activities family and friends living outside Ghana.For him, social media has affected his life positively. For him, social media has affected his life positively. Finally, Miss Adepa, a journalist in Accra told pulse.com.gh that she periodically uses social media as a place to release boredom and also make communication easier with her family. She admits that in so doing, she has been significantly distracted from real life. It is clear that social medias pros cannot be entirely extricated from its cons. Its good and bad sides form an alliance that is needed for our development. The phenomenon has indeed drawn people away from an awareness of what is happening in their real surroundings, but ironically, it has also made people aware of things happening around the world. He said his appointment is a move in the right direction. Read more: Mahama takes Nana Addo on a tour of Flagstaff House In an interview with Accra-based Accra FM, he said, "This is a move in the right direction in the sense that when you look at the constitution, it is only a minister who can go to ask for money for security operations; the security coordinator hasnt got the ministerial status to be asking for money for their activities, and that brings about confusion in the security system in Ghana. Now that we have got a minister, that problem can be addressed. It is a very shrewd move and I appreciate that. Read more: Nana Addo names security capos "When we talk about security, it is big sector with so many organisations under it. You talk about a security coordinator who coordinates a number of agencies within the security outfit... The BNI, and so many others and so if you do not have somebody with a status of a cabinet member, the reporting line will be problematic. Nana Akufo-Addo named Albert Kan Dapaah as the Minister-designate for National Security. Nana Akufo-Addo addressed a press conference from his Nima residence to name his administrative staff and other appointments that will take effect from January 7, 2017. Brigadier Gen. Emmanuel Okyere has been named as the National Security advisor. Joshua Kyeremeh former head of the Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) has also be named as the National Security Coordinator. Boakye Gyan speaking on the appointment said, "The security advisor, technically, works with the president and so he doesnt have the cabinet status and so he needs to go through some people to get his budget. But when you have a minister at the top who will manage all problems relating to security before it gets to the president, it will ensure a smooth security system. Read more: Isaac Osei to be named TOR boss 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! "Indeed, at the rate at which at which this category of the personnel are being produced, Ghana may need to sign agreements with less endowed countries to officially deploy some of our health professionals to assist improve their health systems, the president said. Attafuah was the CEO of NPA from 2005 to April 2009. On April 17, 2009, the then president Professor Mills asked Attafuah to proceed on his accumulated leave. His position was taken by Alex Mould who previously worked with the Standard Chartered Bank as Executive Director to take the position. In recent times, he has been vocal on issues that affect the petroleum industry. READ ALSO: ACEP kicks against relocation of GNPC to Western Region Attafuah was one person who warned the NPA to check the petroleum product pricing regime to avert the rise of a cartel since it will be detrimental to the industry. In January 2015, Mr Attafuah described as unjustifiable, the NPAs decision to maintain fuel prices in its price review. He beat Member of Parliament for Ketu North and Chairman of the Finance Committee of Parliament, James Avedzi to the post. He was proposed by General Secretary of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia. The next parliament will be constituted on January 6, 2017. Before his nomination, a former Majority leader in parliament Cletus Avoka said Haruna Iddrisu is the best candidate for the minority leader position in parliament. Klutse Avedzi is the Deputy Minority Leader. Avoka said he believes Haruna Iddrisu is more resourceful for the job than any other contender. "I think Haruna Iddrisu is very resourceful and if he can combine that with having a listening ear, being tolerant with the bench behind him, he will be a very good leader," he said. Haruna Iddrisu was the National Youth Organiser for the National Democratic Congress since 2002. He stood for parliament in the 2004 parliamentary election in the Tamale South constituency and won after beating a former Northern Regional Minister Alhaji Mustpaha Ali Idris who was the incumbent at the time. He retained the seat in 2008 when the NDC won the presidential and majority of seats in Ghanas parliament. Read also:Nana Addo names security capos He served in various portfolios in government, including Minister for Communications under the Mills and Mahama governments as well as Minister for Trade between 2013 and 2014. In the video, a very stern-faced Rawlings is seen taking a swipe at the mayor as the latter tries to spark a conversation with him as they climb the stairs of parliament. Mr. Rawlings stops and gestures him to move aside whiles he continues to parliament house. Mr. Vanderpuije then moves back and greets some colleagues. READ ALSO: NDC resolves not to respond to Rawlings Former president Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings, a founding father of the NDC at the 35th anniversary of 31st December Revolution blasted the top hierarchy in the National Democratic Congress for its abysmal performance in the 2016 election. He accused the party of corruption at its top rank and arrogance amongst appointees. The incident reportedly happened on Wednesday, January 4, 2017, at the Administrative Reception of the Presidential Villa, Abuja. ALSO READ: Police officers kill student while chasing Yahoo Boy The discharge left one of the female workers badly injured and bleeding profusely. The Nation reports that the victim was injured on her thigh and back, and was rushed to the State House Medical Centre in Asokoro after initial treatment at the medical centre within the Presidential Villa. The lady whose identity has been withheld, is still on admission at the health facility. ALSO READ: Police allegedly shoots blogger to death for smoking in PH He tweeted his frustration and posted a video of passengers complaining to a top staff of Arik Air. The argument escalated into a brawl between a passenger and the Arik Air staff. According to his tweets, other passengers also tried to assault the Arik Air staff. Another Twitter user @Brendalishus tweeted about the situation. Apparently, the enraged passengers held the staff of Arik Air hostage. She posted several clips of the passengers confronting the staff of the notoriously late airline. The flight initially scheduled for 2 pm finally flew at 3 a.m in the morning. Why is Arik Air still allowed to operate when it's customer service and poor punctuality record is very poor. Where is the NCAA in all of this? Yes, in December 2016, the NCAA issued a N6m fine to Arik Air Limited for contravening the provisions of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations (Nig.CARs). The NCAA also ordered the airline to pay its passengers, whose baggage were delayed on the London to Lagos route between Dec. 2 and Dec. 4 , $150 each as compensation. This fine hasn't done anything to improve Arik Air's services. It gets worse daily. It has gotten to the point where Nigerians have to get physical before they can board a flight. The whole set-up of Arik Air is poor. The staff recently protested because they haven't been paid for 7 months. This country is really amazing. What is the Nigerian Labour Congress doing about this? Tribune Newspaper reports that the suspect who was identified as Alkali, allegedly fled the terrorists stronghold in the Sambisa Forest in Borno State following their dislodgement by Nigerian soldiers and was captured in Ibadan. The terrorist was reportedly arrested on Sunday, January 1, 2017, in the Alalubosa GRA of the metropolis following a tip-off from residents. A police source who spoke to Tribune, said the suspect who is currently in detention at the state CID, has confessed to being a key member of the sect, adding that he was in charge of the dangerous weapons at the disposal of the group, including grenades and dynamites. The man was arrested on Sunday night by security agents from the Iyaganku Division of the Oyo State Police Command. This followed a tip-off by the people of the Alalubosa GRA who were curious about his sudden appearance in the neighbourhood. The man, who said his name is Alkali, claimed that he ran from Sambisa Forest after the place was captured by the military. He was found roaming about in the Alalubosa GRA by the people who lodged a report with the law enforcement agency. During investigations at the Iyaganku Division, he confessed that he fled from Sambisa Forest in Borno State and got to Mobil, Ring Road, Ibadan on foot. He was immediately accosted by some Hausa people who are plying their trade there. They immediately called the attention of their leader who subjected him to a round of interrogation. He, however, fled from them under questioning, only to be seen at the Alalubosa GRA area by some residents who were curious about his appearance and way of dressing. The residents of Alalubosa GRA immediately notified the Iyaganku Division of the state police command who sent a team of security personnel to effect his arrest and he was eventually taken to the police station. Under interrogation at the police station, he made some confessional statement, claiming that he is a Boko Haram member from Borno State and that he fled from the Sambisa Forest, following the invasion and capture of the place by the Nigerian Army. He is presently held in the inner custody of the cell at the state CID as he said he was not the only person that escaped from Sambisa Forest. The suspect said he came to Ibadan with some other members of the Boko Haram sect, adding that some are already in Lagos, the police source said. The suspect is allegedly involved in stealing motorcycles, popularly known as okada, across Nigeria, Premium Times reports. The suspect, Benjamin Okon, was arrested on Sunday, January 1 2016 following a tip-off from members of the public. ALSO READ:Fake soldier apprehended for duping man A statement issued by the police on Wednesday, January 4, 2017, read: The suspect was fond of intimidating members of the public under the pretence that he is a military personnel, the statement quoted a source as saying. His hostile attitude made people not to associate with him. However, when we suspected his moves, we summoned the courage to report to the police. Premium Times reports that the suspect made a confessional statement during the investigation at the Police Command, stating that he had an accomplice (names withheld) who received the stolen items from him and disposed of them. The police disclosed that Mr Okon often travelled to neighbouring states to snatch motorcycles, while his accomplice helped him to sell them off to prospective buyers. He was quoted, saying, I am an expert at snatching motorcycles from unsuspecting members of the public. I had stolen countless of Okada, which my accomplice had helped me to sell. I do travel far and wide across the country to perpetrate this crime. I robbed and sold looted items to him, and he subsequently sells (sic) them to some other persons. Once I bring the bikes to him, he will pay me off and I will move on to steal another one. ALSO READ: Fake soldier who extort money from road users arrested in Kaduna Confirming the arrest, the Lagos state Police Public Relations Officer, Dolapo Badmus, said the suspect would be charged to the court upon the completion of the ongoing investigations. Now, free weed will be available at the inauguration of Donald Trump on January 20, 2017. According to the Associated Press (AP), advocates for the legalisation of marijuana in DC will give out 4,200 joints to people who will march in protest to the National Mall during Trump's inauguration. DCMJ founder Adam Eidinger said participants will smoke when Trump is in four minutes and twenty seconds into his speech. In December 2016, Mexico's Senate voted overwhelmingly in favor of legalising medical marijuana after a national debate on narcotics policy in a country mired in brutal drug violence. In a major policy shift, President Enrique Pena Nieto proposed legalising medical marijuana in April after his government organised forums to discuss changes to the laws. Senators voted 98-7 for the legislation, moving Mexico closer to joining several US states and other nations in Latin America in allowing cannabis for medical uses. The bill -- which now moves to the lower chamber of deputies -- falls short of demands among some lawmakers and civil groups who argue that a wider legalization of marijuana use can help the country reduce drug-related violence. But proponents said it is a major step that will address Mexicans' need of an alternative medical treatment. The area judge, Mr Ibrahim Shekarau, ordered that the duo should be remanded in Keffi prison after the accused persons denied the allegation leveled against them. Shekarau adjourned the case till Jan. 26 for hearing. The prosecutor, Cpl. Heman Donald, told the court that Abubakar Mohammed of Kerimo, FCT, Abuja, reported the matter at the A Division Police Station, Mararaba, Nasarawa state. Donald said that while the complainant was at Mararaba junction, the two accused came to where he was standing and removed his phone valued at N45,000 out of his pocket. He explained that after that act, they both absconded to unknown destination, before they were traced and arrested. The accused persons are facing two count charge of criminal conspiracy and theft. The police prosecutor in the case, Inspector Shuaibu Musa had earlier told the court presided by Chief magistrate Maryam Sabo, Musa of Panshekera Quarters in the municipality, committed the offense on December 29, 2016, knowing fully well that he was living with the virus. Inspector Musa said the case was reported to the Panshekera Police Division by one Rabiu Usman of the same address as the accused. "It was reported at the Panshekera Police Station that Tukur lured the complainant's 13-year-old daughter into his room at the Panshekara Quarters in Kano and had unlawful carnal knowledge of her. The victim was rushed to the Murtala Mohammad Specialist Hospital, Kano, for examination and was found to have been infected with HIV," Inspector Usman said. First ATL trap princes Quavo, Offset and Takeoff known as Migos shot their latest video 'Call Casting' in Lagos and that was after the clip of their performance of the Billboard hit single 'Bad & Bougee' went viral. Now, a Bloomberg columnist Tyler Cowen has written a good article about the city of Lagos. Cowen who recently visited Lagos wrote that contrary to popular belief overseas, Lagos is a safe city. "I found Lagos to be much safer than advertised. It is frequently described as one of the most dangerous cities on earth. Many people told me I was crazy to go there, and some Nigerian expats warned me I might not get out of the airport alive" wrote Cowen who spent six days in Lagos. In his column, he wrote that Lagos is safer than popular cities such as Rio De Janeiro where he was attacked. Tyler Cowen also observed during his trip to Lagos that the city is religiously tolerant. "For all the negative publicity, many parts of Nigeria, especially Lagos, could and should serve as exemplars for religious tolerance," he wrote. The suspect, Teacher Senior, of Area 11, Garki, was remanded in jail after he reportedly admitted to the sickening act, Premium times reports. ALSO READ:Man who raped minor nabbed in Kaduna Citing relevant sections of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015, the trial judge, Umar Kagarko, said that rape was a capital offence which attracted a minimum of 25 years in prison. Premium times reports that, Kagarko rejected the defendants plea of guilt, ordering him remanded in prison till March 1, for the commencement of the trial. The court heard that one Hauwa Hamin of Kubwa Phase IV, reported the matter at Garki police station on January 1, 2017. The prosecutor, Joshua Ayanna, said that on the day in question, the complainant and her five-year-old daughter visited her sister at Area 11, Garki. Ayanna said that when they were about to leave, the young child went outside and that was when the defendant lured her and took her inside his room, where he forcefully had carnal knowledge of her. Despite the fact that Nigeria was at the forefront of fighting for the liberation of South Africa from its apartheid masters, the citizens think that Nigerians should be sent packing because they are criminals, drug barons, armed robbers and kidnappers. Taking to the social media after the murder of Victor Tochukwu Nnadi by the SA police, some South Africans believe Nigerians are not wanted in their country. One Lucki Lucky wrote this: What was he doing in SA? Nigerians must get out of South Africa. These criminals are hated and unwanted here and that will NEVER change. Nigerians are the seed of Satan. There is not going to be any kind of friendship between Nigerians and South Africans. Will Nigerians ever put it in the tiny skulls that South Africans hate them? Anyway, which nation in the world like Nigerians? Nigerians are hated all over the world. In China, they slit their throats and in Brazil, they cut their stomachs open and leave them for dead. We don't need Africans, Middle Easterns and Asians in the country. Dube Mtulenga wrote: Why cant Nigerians stay back in their country? I wonder what they want in South Africa. Many of them come into our country illegally and are often the perpetrators of crimes like robbery, rape, gang fighting, drug trafficking, among others in our communities. If it takes killing them all one after the other, so be it. We dont want them polluting our land. They should go back to their stupid country. Karen Rethabile also wrote: "In my own opinion, very few South Africans love Nigerians and they know this very well. They come into our country, steal our money, sell drugs to our people, corrupt our young men and treat our women as prostitutes. We dont want them and they should go back to their corruption-infested country. Sibuso Kunene wrote: Nigerians are thieving, conniving bastards and should not even be allowed to enter South Africa. All they know is sell drugs, rape, kidnap and rob us while our policemen are not helping matters at all. More of the idiots should be killed to send a message to them that they are not welcome here. The Sharjah Police, in a statement, said that the 19 Nigerian targeted ATM vehicles and at the time they were arrested, they had stolen Dh1.8 million, (about N 154 million). The statement added that the suspects were arrested from several apartments occupied by 30 to 40 Nigerians. According to Khaleej Times, the Nigerian robbers had come to the country on visit visas specifically to commit the robberies and in the process of their crime spree, they assaulted security guards accompanying the vehicles to carry out the robberies. Addressing a press conference, the Director of Police Operations Department, Colonel Rashid bin Bayat, said the Nigerian criminals had committed four daring and violent robberies targeting money transportation vehicles that were delivering cash to ATMs. At the conference, Col. Bayat said: The first robbery was committed at the ATM of the Dubai Commercial Bank on King Abdul Aziz Road, where the robbers assaulted security guards and fled with Dh340,000. After two days, the gang struck again at an ATM near Saferr Mall in Al Nahda area, where they fled with Dh700,000. They also attacked a cash transportation vehicle in Al Muweilah area, making off with Dh710,000. The fourth attack at an ATM on Shaikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road was foiled by the police. According to the police, the suspects had transferred a part of the robbed money to Nigeria while efforts are being made to recover the rest of the loot and return them to their owners. The doctors were paid September to December salary in full and arrears from February to April, 2016. A correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) who visited the hospital reports that doctors are seen attending to patients. The association had on Nov. 15, 2016, under its former President, Dr Chukwunonso Okoye, embarked on indefinite strike action to protest against the irregularities in the payment of their salaries. The Chief Medical Director, Dr Dennis Alagoa, lauded the government for paying workers salaries up to date. He appealed to the Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN), Nigeria Union of Allied Health Professionals (NUAHP) and the Dental Technicians (DT) to also resume work, assuring that government will pay their outstanding salaries within the month. The management has been begging the unions to resume work but they refused, saying they want their pay in full before they will resume. Union leaders are misleading the members not to report for duty that they have pledged to safe lives in discharging their duty. So starting from this January no- work, no- pay rule has taken effect, as any day they didnt turn up their money is deducted, he warned. The President of (NARD), Dr Onini Ebimobowei, confirmed that the Federal Government has paid the salaries from September to December in full and their shortfall of 52 per cent from February to April, remaining only May 2016. He lauded the present administration for making it possible for them to resume work as they have promised to pay the outstanding one month. The agencys Coordinator, Mr Suleiman Muyideen, made the appeal in a statement on Wednesday in Jalingo. The statement expressed concerns over the alarming rate of substance abuse and general non-compliance with the agencys enabling laws. We took four consecutive days to hold series of meetings with all the stakeholders, where we solicited their support in ensuring that only genuine, effective and safe regulated products are manufactured in the state. We deliberated on several issues, especially the alarming rate of substance abuse as it relates to cough syrup with codeine, tramadol as well as mobile authentication of anti-malaria drugs and antibiotics. There was also discussions on banned drugs such as Nimesulide, Analgin (Dipyron), Gentamycin 280mg and Phenylpopanolamine among others with a view to stopping the abuse, it said. The statement noted that in the four days, the agency also met with relevant stakeholders, including the National Association of Patent and Proprietary of Medicine Dealers (NAPPMED) and National Association of Nigeria Traditional Medicine Practitioners (NANTMP). Others are Herbal and Islamic Medicine practitioners, Non-Pharmacists operators of Pharmacies and Veterinary Drug Dealers. The doctors said they were protesting over the no-work-no-pay policy of the Federal Government and asked for the payment of their September and October 2016 salaries. Dr Ige Alexander, the President of the association, told newsmen that they have been short changed as some of their members were yet to receive salaries for the past six months. They say we love strike all the time but this is not the case and we are here to tell the masses and the government that our emoluments are being ignored. The Federal Government directive of no-work-no-pay policy is unfair as there are periods we worked and the government refused to pay, he said. Alexander also stated that there are frequent disparities in payment of members salaries, adding that resident doctors in Owerri and other places are having similar issues. What NARD is saying is that we are not strike mongers and the government needed to address issues bordering on salaries, non-funding of the resident training programmes as well as non-implementation of National Health Act to access quality healthcare by Nigerians, he said. The NARD president also debunked claims from the university management that their actions were borne from youthful exuberance. The lowest age in this association are practitioners in their 30s; we are senior staff, so the allegation is uncalled for, he said. He appealed to the Federal Government to re-think its policies on the no-work-no-pay, saying it is selective. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that members of the association protested around the UITH vicinity and carried placards. According to a report by SaharaReporters, the Nigerian High Commission spends a minimum of 7,000 for hospitality on each of the first ladys trips to the United Kingdom. The report further revealed that the wife of the president Mrs Buhari visited the UK at least seven times in 2016. It was also reported that the fund spent on Aisha Buhari and her entourage was backed with a document dated July 28, 2016, and signed by Minister Counselor/Head of Chancery, Ibrahim Sule. According to SaharaReporters, the letter reads: The Mission was also informed that Her Excellency and members of her entourage would be staying at the vacant house/official residence of High Commissioner. In this regard, given the above scenario, there is the need for the Mission to provide hospitality to the First Lady and members of her entourage. "To this end, I wish to kindly recommend to His Excellency to consider and approve the sum of 7,000 to carry out the hospitality expenditure for the wife of the President, members of her family and entourage, the letter reportedly stated. ALSO READ: First Lady decries extortion of money from rural women It was also reported that the request was approved the same day. The suspect has been identified as Alhaji Shettima Lawan, chairman of the Mafa Local Government Area of the state. The announcement was made on Thursday, January 5, by the Theatre Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole, Maj. Gen. Lucky Irabor during a news conference in Maiduguri, the state capital. All I can say is that the Chairman is a big supporter of Boko Haram, Irabor said. We heard that he harboured Boko Haram members along with his father. That he kept the Boko Haram members because the father begged him to do so. The Chairman was in the habit of accommodating people that had fled from the bush. At some point he was valuable to us being with the Civilian JTF to fight Boko Haram. But that does not mean we cannot investigate him for a crime especially one like this," he added. ALSO READ: Troops kill 15 He stated this at a press conference in Maiduguri, Borno state, on Wednesday January 4, in response to a question on the sect leader's whereabouts. "If I know where Shekau is now, I will grab his balls," he said. Irabor had in September 2016 said the military had killed the real Shekau, alongside his impostors. He had said: "I can confirm to you that the original Shekau was killed, the second Shekau was killed, and the man presenting himself as Shekau, I can also confirm to you that few days ago, he was wounded. We are yet to confirm whether he is dead or not. "They released videos to prove that they are still active, but thats just a facade." ALSO READ: This is where Boko Haram leader is hiding "About 50 Boko Haram fighters have now given themselves up" since December 27, Niger's interior minister, Bazoum Mohamed, said in an interview broadcast late Wednesday on the state TV channel Tele Sahel. The combatants surrendered at Diffa, in southeastern Niger, a Boko Haram stronghold close to the border with Nigeria, where 31 fighters turned themselves in at the end of last month. Mohamed attributed the success to a military squeeze on the group, launched in July, coordinated with security forces in Nigeria and Chad, where the group also operates. But he warned that "organised Boko Haram elements are training" in the marshes of Lake Chad, a zone that straddles the three countries. Three Niger soldiers were killed and seven wounded on the night of New Year's Eve when Boko Haram fighters attacked their position at Baroua, in the Diffa region, the military say. Fifteen assailants were killed and another one was captured, they say. Boko Haram is waging a seven-year-old uprising against the Nigerian state that has claimed more than 20,000 lives, with the insurgency spilling over the West African nation's borders into neighbouring states. The violence has left around 2.6 million people homeless, sparking a dire humanitarian crisis, with the United Nations warning the affected region faces the "largest crisis in Africa". The Chairman of the Motor Dealers Association in the state, Alhaji Muntari Mafia, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday, February 5. Mafia said with the government's efforts to get the economy out of recession, reversing the ban will complement the hard work. He said: "This is to boost the economic growth of the country, curb poverty and reduce unemployment-induced crimes. "Even though the Federal Government has its wisdom for implementing the policy, it is ill-timed,considering the economic recession, high foreign exchange rate and increasing unemployment." He further said the prevailing economic situation in the country has reduced the ability of Nigerians to purchase vehicles. He lamented that the low value of the naira, coupled with the high exchange rate has "conspired" to kill the automobile business in parts of the nation. ALSO READ: Car Import Ban - 5 Things to know about new FG policy Mafia added that the high prices of automobiles has gone beyond the reach of the average Nigerian, saying "that is why our business premises have been deserted." "We are humbly and passionately appealing to the Federal Government to reverse the ban. "This is because auto dealers have only been struggling to survive the harsh economic situation. "The downward review of duties on imported automobiles would also boost socio-economic activities and bolster revenue generation for the Federal Government." He said the current price of a vehicle could purchase three vehicles hitherto, due to the fluctuating foreign exchange rate. Laolu Akande, the spokesman to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has on Monday, January 2, announced the commencement of the payment, stating that vulnerable citizens in Borno, Kwara and Bauchi States have started receiving the money. Akande listed other states in the first batch of beneficiaries as Cross Rivers, Niger, Kogi, Oyo, Ogun and Ekiti states. But Fayose, on Tuesday, discredited the payment, noting that there was no evidence of it in his state. "A blind man will say it is when it gets into my mouth that I will say you are feeding me, not promises. Apparently the states they claimed have started receiving payments are APC-controlled states knowing fully that the governors cannot come out to disprove the payments," Fayose had said through a statement by his media aide, Idowu Adelusi. Adesina, however, reiterated that the Federal Government has indeed commenced payment of the stipend, noting that the Buhari administration is built on "integrity and accountability" and "does not lie to Nigerians." He said: "On N5,000 stipend, it was announced specifically from the office of the vice president that the scheme has started in nine states. "Then a certain governor came and said it is not true. It is just a matter of who do you believe? This is a government that is built on integrity and accountability. This government will not lie to Nigerians, does not lie to Nigerians. In fact, anything you hear from this government you can take it to the bank, believe it. "So, if anybody comes and say it is politics and that it is not true, choose who to believe. I can tell you that you should believe this government because this government will not lie to you." The Programme is a part of the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) of the present government's Social Investment Programmes (SIP), for which N500 billion was appropriated in the 2016 national budget. This is contained in a statement issued in Abuja on Thursday by the Presidents Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu. In addition to the conventional policemen deployed in the area, a squadron of mobile policemen has now been stationed there. According to the statement, the Nigerian army is also in the process of setting up two battalions in Southern Kaduna while the military continues to carry out air surveillance across flash points of the area. President Buhari has equally directed the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to carry out a joint assessment of the situation with the sister agency in Kaduna, SEMA, to determine the level of response required for urgent aid to the victims of the violence. Shehu said, These measures should soon ensure the return of normalcy to the region, while the Kaduna State government continues its peace building efforts. The President commended efforts of the State government and the security agencies in the steps taken so far to curtail the violence. This was contained in a statement signed by President Buhari's special adviser on media and publicity, Femi Adesina on Thursday, January 5, 2017. Rakiya, one of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls was rescued with her baby today by troops of the at the Alargano forest in Damboa Local Government Area Borno State. President Buhari noted that the recovery raises renewed hope that the other captured girls will one day be reunited with their families, friends and community. The President also commended the military for the diligent investigation which led to the recovery of Rakiya and urged them to continue in the spirit with which they cleared the Sambisa forest of terrorists. President Buhari assured Nigerians that his government will continue to do all within its powers to assist the military in locating the rest of the girls and eradicating the menace of terrorism in Nigeria. The disclosure was made by Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika, on Wednesday, January 4, in Abuja. We are very serious about aviation security, just last week the President approved that aviation security should bear arms, so we are trying to make them take the form and shape, Sirika said according to The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN). The Minister of Interior is helping us in that regard from the directive of Mr President, to partner with them and other stakeholders to ensure we keep our airports secure. ALSO READ: Buhari shows how sectional he is So, very soon you will them with uniform, doing different functions and securing our airports, he added. At about 12 noon on Wednesday, January 4, 2017, Igbeti Rock street in upscale Maitama District of Abuja, played host to three Hilux vans. The vans were loaded with gun wielding security operatives who alighted briskly before storming a property belonging to former Nigeria First Lady, Patience Jonathan. Mrs. Jonathan is wife of Goodluck Jonathan who lost his 2015 re-election bid to current Nigeria leader, Muhammadu Buhari. The security operatives were later identified as police officers. They offered no explanations to no one as they made for the gates and then the doors to the property. "They said they were looking for one I said I don't know any Justice Ahmed...that this place is not owned by any Justice. They said they want to know the person that owned this place. I told them that I was just transferred to this place on the 20th of December", said Beshel Jeremiah, the security officer watching over the property, in comments made available by Africa Independent Television (AIT). "They broke the gate. They came in with a lot of weapons. They came in with hammer, they came in with Chisel...they came here with sticks. They were also armed with guns. They were 20 of them. They were very many. They overpowered me. There was nothing else I could do save to allow them in. "This is where they hit me with their gun", Jeremiah said, pointing toward his right wrist. The entire apartment had been ransacked moments later. Wardrobes were destroyed, dressing tables were upturned, locks were broken and ceilings were shattered. The operatives reportedly left the apartment with only an envelope whose contents no one knows at the time of writing this story. Mrs. Jonathan's brother who now owns the property, Afeminaso Nyingieresaka, told AIT that he's being persecuted because of his blood ties to a powerful Sister. "It was just this afternoon when my security called me that some Police people came and said that they want to search the place. They are persecuting me because my Sister was the former First Lady", said Nyingieresaka. Ogboli Charles who is Patience Jonathan's lawyer described the day's event as "unfortunate". "You can see that they forced themselves into the apartment. You can see the door. They took whichever items they wanted. They know best. It is unfortunate that this is happening in this area. This is not the first time. "One of Mrs. Jonathan's younger brothers called me and told me that this is not the first time. The other day, came here. The other day it was This is the 3rd or 4th time and they've found nothing incriminating. "If in the actual sense, they really want to fight corruption or do something reasonable, this is not the way. This harassment is getting too much". Mrs. Jonathan is being prosecuted by the EFCC over ownership of a certain $15M. The anti-graft agency has said in court statements that the former First Lady deposited the sum in different bank accounts using front companies and individuals. It is unclear if Wednesday's raid had anything to do with ongoing EFCC prosecution of Mrs. Jonathan. ALSO READ: EFCC Spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, was unreachable on his cellphone at the time of filing this story. The Commissioner for Health, Dr Inyang Asibong, who inaugurated the board, said that the state Governor, Mr Ben Ayade, attached so much priority to the health sector. Asibong said the boards major objective was to steer the affairs of the school so as to move it forward. She added that the state had six schools of nursing and midwifery that were shut before the coming of Ayades administration. She explained that Ayades government revitalised three of the schools which were now functional and accredited by relevant bodies. The board will now help to ensure that the three remaining schools are back onstream so that we can accommodate more nursing students. The board is made up of technocrats who know what they are doing. Some of them are doctorate degree holders, while others are lecturers in nursing departments in various universities. With people of this capacity, we know that we are going to achieve our aim. Responding after the inauguration, the Chairman, Dr Anthony Awukam, said that the board would ensure that the six schools of nursing and midwifery in the state were fully equipped and running at optimal standard. According to him, World Health Organisation standard stipulates one nurse to six people in population, hence the need to train nurses because they are the engine room of the health sector. If you really want to get your health institution right; the first thing is to train the nurse because they are the engine room of the health industry. We intend to make all our six schools of nursing and midwifery functional. Admission into the school will start in September this year; we may not be able to put all the schools together by then, but we will stagger because we will have a working timetable for that. But within the next three years, we hope to see that all our schools of nursing and midwifery are standard and functional. He pledged to work with other members of the board to ensure smooth running of the schools. Speaking on the Imo Broadcasting Corporation (IBC) in Owerri, the state Commissioner for Information, Tourism and Public Utilities, Obinna Nshirim said he discovered this during the Yuletide. According to him, while going around the town during the festive season to get feedback from the people, he found that "70 percent of Igbos do not listen to news, they do not read newspapers." ALSO READ: Okorocha gives rice, N407m to APC members in Imo He said: "While others were enjoying their Christmas, I was moving around because it is my duty as information commissioner to know how far I have informed the people as well as to get feedback from them. "In what could be described as a shocking experience while going around, I discovered to my horror that our people are not informed. 70 percent of Ndigbo do not listen to news, they do not read newspaper. While others were enjoying their Christmas, I was moving all over the places because it is my duty as information commissioner to know how far I have informed the people, he added. While going round I discovered to my horror, few things, that our people are not informed. 70 percent of Igbo do not listen to news, they do not read newspaper. I keep telling you, we say we are intelligent, we say we are informed but that Hausa boy that cleans your shoe has a radio in his pocket, he added. ALSO READ: Governor Okorocha wants all Imo adults to pay N3000 tax for development Malam Mohammed Aliyu, the State Director of NOA, gave the advice on Thursday in Kano based on intelligence security reports available to the agency. Aliyu said security consciousness among citizens, especially with the dislodgment of Boko Haram insurgents from Sambisa Forest and the dispersal of those that were not killed or wounded during the operation, was imperative. He also advised Nigerians to be vigilant and take precautionary measures in public places like worship centres which usually attract large gatherings of persons to detect and promptly report any suspicious persons or objects within their communities. Aliyu said the safety and security of the community is a collective responsibility of all citizens, noting that adequate security and surveillance should be evolved by respective communities in the country to forestall any unwholesome act by unscrupulous elements to wreak havoc and unleash terror in the society. He also said all NOA Local Government Officers had been directed to use all available platforms and channels to sensitise the general public on the need for greater security alertness during this period and beyond. Eyewitnesses told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that five traders in the market collapsed and were rushed to hospitals due to shock of losing their valuables in the inferno. Chief Chukwunonso Nnetu, Chairman of the Nnewi Timber Dealers Association, said that a security guard in the market alerted him around some minutes past midnight about the inferno. Nnetu explained that fire fighters in Awka, Nnewi and Onitsha fire service stations were immediately contacted to fight the fire. The Nnewi Fire Service men later arrived though the fire had reached an advanced stage. We lost about 155 shops, 555 sawing and curving machines valued at N2 million each were destroyed; different categories and quantities of woods and planks, were also destroyed. We dont know the exact cause of the fire, but we have lost well over N3 billion to the inferno, he said. According to him, most of the traders have lost their only means of survival unless government intervenes. Mr Jude Ugwu, the Secretary to the market association, who noted that the fire affected most processing machines, wondered how the traders would overcome the loss in this time of recession. Ugwu, who recalled that a similar fire incident occurred in 2002, appealed to the state and federal governments to assist the traders recover from the loss. Mr Chukwudi Onyejekwe, a Director in the state Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), described the incident as a painful and a bizarre situation, considering the quantity of goods destroyed. As you can see, the fire fighters are still battling with the fire since 1 a.m. The agency will later ascertain the remote cause of the fire. We will assist the traders by pleading with the state and federal governments to come to their rescue through the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA). We anticipated this and had been moving round the markets sensitizing the traders on how to fight such fires, Onyejekwe said. The state Deputy Commissioner of Police in-charge of Operations, Mr Johnson Kokuko, said no life was lost, no casualty and no one was arrested during the disaster. Kokumo said, Immediately we got the information, we cordoned the area to ensure that hoodlums did not take advantage of the situation. A victim of the fire, Mr Anthony Ezenwa, who disclosed that he had been in the market for more than 15 years, said he lost more than N2 million worth of goods. Ezenwa appealed to Gov. Willie Obiano and other public spirited individuals and organisations for assistance as their sources of livelihood had been consumed in the disaster. Pulse movies has put together five movies that would take every movie lover back to their addiction days. Here we go; 1. "Blood Money" Do you remember one of those classic Nollywood occult movies "Blood Money?" A 1997 movie, the classic movie stars Zack Orji, Kanayo Kanayo, Sam Dede and Francis Duru. Directed and written by Chico Ejiro, the movie revolved around a man who lost his bank job, and was drawn into the world of rituals. ALSO READ: undefined 2. "Oleku" In 1997, a timeless love classic produced by Tunde Kelani, "Oleku," was released. The movie sparked a fashion revolution in Nigeria with the short aso oke Iro and Buba called Oleku. An adaptation of Prof. Akinwunmi Isholas novel of same name, "Oleku" was released by Mainframe Film and Television Productions in 1997. The movie tells the story of Ajani, a final year student of the University of Ibadan in search of a life partner due to pressures from his mother. He finds himself in a love quadrangle as he becomes involved with three beautiful women- Asake, his old time girl friend; Lola, a first year student he just met; and Sade, a childhood acquaintance who gradually becomes the centre stage of the love drama. 3. "Rituals" Directed by Andy Amaechi, the classic 'horror' movie was written by Kenneth Nnebue. It featured veterans including Paul Adams, Ejike Asiegbu, Pete Edochie, Obot Etuk, Sola Fosudo, Kanayo O Kanayo among others. ALSO READ: undefined 4. "Out of Bounds" Who remembers watching Richard Mofe Damijo, Bimbo Akintola, Rachael Oniga, Steve Rhodes among others in the 1997 classic? Written and produced by RMD, the movie was directed by ALSO READ: undefined 5. "Sango" "Sango: The Legendary African King " was written by Wale Ogunyemi, produced and directed by Obafemi Lasode. The film depicts the life and reign of the legendary fifteenth century African king Sango, who ruled as the Alaafin of Oyo and became an important deity of the Yoruba people. The movie earned the talented Wale Adebayo the moniker Sango. Oyeniran, who is the Pastor in charge of Ambassador of Christ Teaching and Evangelical Ministry, stated this in Osogbo while addressing news men. He said that the inability of the Buhari-led Federal Government to win the war against corruption might affect the progress of the country. The cleric stated that Nigeria is in crises today, because of the failure of its pro-independence leaders to prepare well before clamouring for independence. He said: We do not have what is required to stand as a nation. Any country willing to be independent must have fear of God, which is the most important thing. With what God has revealed to me, those that God blessed with the power of prayer should begin fasting and praying for this country. The anger of God will be upon this country if they allow the President to get frustrated or tired of fighting the war against corruption. I am directed by God to tell all former leaders and the National Assembly to have fear of God and to join the President in waging the war against corruption and social vices. Daily Post reports that the proprietors of the institution met in Osogbo, Osun state on Wednesday, January 4, 2017, in a bid to come to an agreement which would resolve the perennial crisis which has been rocking the institution which is jointly owned by both states. ALSO READ: LAUTECH students are the grass caught between irresponsible elephants Attending the meeting were the Oyo State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Professor Adeniyi Olowofela and Special Adviser on Education to Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo state, Dr Bisi Akin-Alabi who led Oyo state delegation. Daily Post reports that the meeting was also attended by the Deputy Governor of Osun state, Mrs. Grace Titi Laoye-Tomori who doubles as the acting Commissioner for Education. A source close to the delegates who attended the meeting, reportedly informed journalists in Ibadan, Oyo state that on Thursday, January 5, 2017, that some issues bothering on the crises rocking the institutions were discussed as well. The source who pleaded anonymity, stated that the emergency meeting may be connected with a planned protests by a group of students who have vowed to hold both states to ransom, adding that this propelled the two states to call a meeting to avert the rally. With category 16 capable devices expected to launch in the early part of 2017, the 4.5G solution enables a faster network for carriers. Known LTE speeds so far have only topped out at 400Mbps. Various reports from the US suggest that the availability of Category 16 devices will make it possible to achieve 1GBps speeds when combining all salient technologies, something the joint demonstration of Nokia's 4G Pro technology proves. Nokia launched its 4.5G Pro and 4.9G technologies in September 2016, highlighting the Finnish company's innovations in achieving ultra-high speeds and setting up the path to 5G. The event will hold on January 27, 2017 in Abuja and six startups will be pitching to investors, according to a post on the Ventures Platform website. The Demo Day is a culmination of the end of the Platform's 16-week hybrid incubation program focused on mentoring and training startups to scale their businesses. The acceleration cycle ends on January 27, 2017, and that's when the startups will get to pitch their businesses to local and international investors as well as select members of the public that will attend the Ventures Platform Demo Day. The startups pitching are WeSabi, Lizzie's Creations, Jalo, PayConnect, MobileForms and ProTeach. The public prosecutor's office said it was still awaiting information from the South Korean authorities about the offence of which 20-year-old Chung Yoo-Ra is accused, and the possible sentence she faces. "How long it takes us to reach a decision in the extradition case is partly dependent on when we receive the necessary documents from South Korea," Deputy Director Mohammad Ahsan said in a statement. Once the documents are received, Ahsan said, prosecutors would make a decision about Chung's extradition "within a few weeks." The local district court on Monday ruled that Chung, who denies any wrongdoing, would be detained for four weeks pending the decision on her extradition. Chung, who has a 19-month-old boy, later appealed to a local high court but the decision to remand her was upheld. She has the right to appeal against an extradition ruling, and this could prolong the legal process. Her mother Choi has been dubbed South Korea's "Rasputin." She is a key figure in an influence-peddling scandal that sparked street protests demanding the removal of President Park Geun-Hye. Choi, a confidante of Park, is accused of using her influence to secure her daughter's admission to an elite Seoul university, with a state probe revealing the school had admitted Chung at the expense of other candidates with better qualifications. The revelation touched a raw nerve in education-obsessed South Korea. For nearly two weeks, the Syrian capital and its vicinity have been afflicted by a water crisis that has left taps dry, caused long lines at wells and forced people to stretch whatever thin resources they can find. When the world gets hard for us, we work something out, said a woman in a video posted on Facebook showing how she used a jury-rigged cola bottle to wash teacups. Like most of Syrias problems, the Damascus water crisis is a symptom of the war, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people, displaced about half the countrys prewar population of 22 million and left its territory divided into zones controlled by the government, armed rebels and jihadi groups. While a cease-fire brokered by Russia and Turkey and announced last week has reduced overall violence across the country, it has not stopped the fighting everywhere, nor has it resolved what happens when resources needed by one side are controlled by its enemies, as appears to be the case with Damascus water. Historically, most of the water for the capital, which is controlled by the government of President Bashar Assad, has come from the Barada Valley north of the city, which is controlled by rebels who want to oust Assad. The crisis began on Dec. 22, when the water stopped flowing. Each side has accused the other of damaging infrastructure near the spring, halting the flow. Anti-government activists have posted photos online, purporting to show structures around the spring that they say were damaged by exploding barrels dropped from government helicopters. The government first accused the rebels of polluting the water, then of damaging the infrastructure. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said regime troops backed by fighters from Lebanon's Hezbollah movement were battling to recapture parts of the Wadi Barada region from rebels. The area north of Damascus is the main source of water to the capital. The Observatory, a Britain-based monitor of Syria's conflict, said regime forces had late on Wednesday launched "dozens of air strikes on parts of Wadi Barada along with artillery and rocket fire, killing a firefighter." Fighting has continued in the area despite a nationwide ceasefire brokered by regime backer Russia and rebel sponsor Turkey, which has brought quiet to large parts of Syria. The regime says forces in Wadi Barada include former Al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham Front, previously known as Al-Nusra Front, which Moscow and Damascus say is excluded from the ceasefire. Rebels deny the group is in the area. Regime forces late Wednesday also bombed several parts of rebel-held Eastern Ghouta near Damascus, while regime and loyalist forces battled Islamist militants there, the Observatory said. The opposition-controlled Rashidin district on the western outskirts of Aleppo was also bombed, it said, killing a rebel fighter and wounding eight others. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Iran, the main backer of Assad along with Russia, must put pressure on allied Shiite militias to abide by the truce that is to form the basis for a ceasefire. If the truce is properly observed, he said the peace talks would start on January 23 in Kazakhstan's capital Astana under the auspices of Turkey and Russia. "If we do not stop the increasing violations, the Astana process could fail. After the ceasefire, we see violations," Cavusoglu told the state-run Anadolu news agency in an interview. "When we look at who commits these violations, it is Hezbollah, in particular Shiite groups and the regime," he added, referring to the powerful Lebanese Shiite movement supporting Damascus. Last month, a process sponsored by regime ally Russia and rebel backer Turkey saw the start of a truce which is meant to lead to negotiations in Astana this month. But earlier this week, the process was already under threat after a dozen Syrian rebel factions suspended talks on negotiations accusing Assad of violating the four-day-old ceasefire. The deal, brokered by Turkey and Russia, saw a ceasefire begin late December and the "main forces of the armed opposition" sign a document expressing a readiness to start peace talks. While Moscow is Assad's most powerful ally, Turkey has repeatedly called for Assad to go. But as the countries continue their warming relationship, they have been working together closely on Syria. Moscow and Ankara are guarantors of the talks and the ceasefire but Tehran, conspicuously, is not. Cavusoglu also said Russian officials would be coming to Turkey on January 9 and 10 to discuss the Astana process. Maduro told a televised cabinet meeting that he had named Tareck El Aissami, 42, a powerful state governor, to the post. El Assaimi is governor of the violent northern state of Aragua and served as interior and justice minister under Maduro's late predecessor Hugo Chavez. "I have appointed Tareck El Aissami executive vice-president of the republic so that he can take up the role from 2017 to 2018 with his youth, experience, commitment and courage," Maduro said. Food crisis The center-right opposition has been demanding a popular vote on removing Maduro from office. It blames him for an economic crisis that has prompted shortages of food and medicine and deadly riots. The opposition has missed the deadline for sparking fresh elections by a referendum before Maduro's term ends in 2019, however. Under constitutional rules, if Maduro lost a referendum held after January 10 this year, he could pass power to his handpicked vice-president. El Assaimi replaces Aristobulo Isturiz, 70, who has been Maduro's vice-president since January 2016. Opposition maneuvers The MUD opposition coalition is scheduled to announce its latest plans when its lawmakers gather in the legislature on Thursday. It has not said whether it will resume its drive for a referendum against Maduro. Courts and electoral authorities in October blocked the opposition's bid to hold a recall referendum. The MUD alleges that Maduro controls the Supreme Court and electoral board through his allies. Maduro also has the public backing of the military high command. Maduro vows 'recovery' Falling world prices for Venezuela's crucial oil revenues have aggravated its economic chaos since 2014. Maduro says the crisis is the result of a US-backed capitalist conspiracy. Some opposition leaders sat down in late 2016 to talks with Maduro's government. Others branded the dialogue a ploy to defuse protests against the government and its "Bolivarian revolution" launched by Chavez. The opposition walked out of the talks last month, accusing the government of breaking its promises. The MUD insists that Venezuelans be allowed to vote on whether Maduro should stay in power. He has refused to allow any such vote and stuck to his defiant line on Wednesday. He said "2017 will be the first year of the recovery and the expansion of the Bolivarian revolution on all fronts." Security El Assaimi, of Syrian and Lebanese ancestry, is a senior member of Maduro's United Venezuelan Socialist Party. He was a junior security minister before holding the interior and justice post for four years. He then became governor of Aragua, considered the most dangerous state in a South American country plagued by violence. "I told him, Tareck, get to work day and night working for the security of the people," Maduro said on Wednesday. Mahama told parliament in the capital, Accra, that he was happy to step down and let his long-time rival take the helm of one of Africa's most stable democracies. Akufo-Addo will be inaugurated as president on Saturday. "I stand here today, Mr Speaker, holding the baton of leadership prepared to pass it on with pride, goodwill and determination to Nana Akufo-Addo and to ask all Ghanaians to cheer him on as he runs his portion of this important relay for Ghana," said Mahama. Opposition leader Akufo-Addo defeated Mahama in the hotly contested December 7 elections on a platform promising to rejuvenate the economy and stamp out government corruption. Gambian President Yahya Jammeh has refused to acknowledge his defeat in a December 1 election he lost to Adama Barrow, challenging the result at the Supreme Court. In Democratic Republic of Congo, where President Joseph Kabila is constitutionally barred from seeking a third term of office, new elections have been delayed by a year. In 2015, Mahama was forced to go to the International Monetary Fund for a $918-million (873 million euros) bailout to try to turn around an economic slump caused in part by ballooning government debt and a crippling power shortage. But in his speech, 58-year-old Mahama defended his time in office, saying that despite "sailing against strong headwinds", he was able to deliver many infrastructure projects as well as healthcare and water services to millions of people. "Ghana is entering into an era of power sufficiency," he said. "I took responsibility." Akufo-Addo, an erudite 72-year-old human rights lawyer, has pledged to put Ghana "back on the path of progress and prosperity". Still fuming after the nuclear agreement was brokered over their objections, Saudi Arabia and its fellow Sunni Arab states in the Gulf hope Trump will rebalance ties at the expense of their regional rival Tehran. Washington's traditional allies in the Middle East are concerned, however, over the potential uncertainty of a radical move to go back on the deal with Iran. "Eight years of (President Barack) Obama's administration destroyed the balance of power in the region completely," says Mustafa Alani, a senior adviser to the Gulf Research Centre. Gulf states "hope now that under Trump the regional balance of power is going to be restored" after Obama "just ignored Iran's expansionist policy" in the Middle East, Alani says. The oil-rich Gulf states have been highly critical of the nuclear deal, fearing it would lead to more regional "interference" by Tehran. The Sunni Gulf monarchies oppose predominantly Shiite Iran in a range of conflict-ridden countries across the Middle East, from Syria and Iraq to Yemen and Lebanon. He called it the "worst deal ever negotiated". 'Huge new uncertainty' The deal is a centrepiece of President Hassan Rouhani's expected re-election bid in May, and experts say Tehran is unlikely to be willing to make any concessions to Trump. "If the Trump administration takes a strong stand and the Iranians refuse, the agreement collapses and there is no replacement," Alani says. Given the potential for uncertainty, many experts expect the deal to survive, despite Trump's rhetoric. "I believe all the Gulf states will counsel Trump to maintain the agreement rather than introduce a huge new uncertainty into the region," says Richard LeBaron, an analyst associated with the Atlantic Council in Washington. Trump may "choose to live with" the Iran accord and focus "on other aspects of the Iranian threat like its missile build-up", says Anthony Cordesman, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. Analysts say Trump is likely to rebalance relations in other ways, however. Cordesman noted that three figures known for their distrust of Tehran figure prominently in Trump's team. They are retired lieutenant general Michael Flynn, national security adviser; retired Marine general James Mattis, nominated as defence secretary; and former ExxonMobil chief executive Rex Tillerson, Trump's choice for secretary of state. "All three see Iran as a serious potential threat, recognise the strategic importance of Iraq, and the role Arab states play in deterring Iran," Cordesman says. Strained Obama ties Ties with Obama became especially strained when he suggested in a magazine interview last year that the Saudis needed to "share" the Middle East with Iran. His criticism of the kingdom for exporting its fundamentalist "Wahhabist" version of Islam also struck at the heart of the ruling family's legitimacy. Saudi Arabia is regularly accused in the West of financing radical mosques and of fuelling extremism, even though the kingdom is part of a US-led coalition against the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq. Such concerns could impede Gulf ties with the new administration, which has faced accusations of Islamophobia over comments made by incoming officials including Trump. During the campaign he proposed a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States. "There is a lack of understanding" in the Trump team "of the Gulf's effort" against radical Islam, Alani says, noting that Gulf states have themselves suffered attacks. For LeBaron, "the targeting of Muslims as the source of the security problem will inevitably darken Saudi-American relations". Another stumbling block may come in the form of energy policy, a crucial question for the Gulf and Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter. RBU hosts get together of senior citizens Educational institutions of the SGPC are leading in every field: Sukhminder Singh sponsored by Confused about health insurance? Wellmark has you covered every step of the way. Find out how I can help find you find confidence in your coverage and a plan that works for you. Call me today. An Authorized Independent Agent for John N. Beckey CLU, ChFC, CASL Chartered Financial Consultant Chartered Advisor for Senior Living 102 West 2nd Street, Suite 4 (563) 263-9700 Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa is an Independent Licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. 2015 Wellmark, Inc. W-5018020 08/15 If you have any information about this photo, please contact Jenn Haney by Wednesday @ 5pm 563-262-0550 or Jennifer.Haney@muscatinejournal.com Ray, Virginia, & Scott Jennings (The Muscatine Journal apologizes for any misspellings of names & identities) ? When a pair of adult eagles first were spotted nesting on then-Alcoa Davenport Works' property in 2010, the plant's maintenance workers seriously questioned the company's idea to install a web camera over the nest. ''They thought I was crazy," recalled John Riches, spokesman for the now Arconic Davenport Works. "After the first season, they came back and apologized." Now seven seasons later, there is no question about the popularity of the nest's occupants eagles Liberty and Justice. The pair and their eaglets have attracted nearly 35 million web visits from around the world to the Arconic Eaglecam since its inception in 2011. An accompanying Eaglecam blog, authored by Riches, has drawn nearly 100,000 comments from fans. The majestic birds' daily routines, the laying and hatching of their eggs, and the eaglets they have fledged have been of interest to fans near and far, including a number of classrooms and other organizations. Of the 14 eaglets fledged by the pair, 12 have been named by Eaglecam fans, Riches said. First installed in the fall of 2010, the webcam was rolled out to the public with a live feed on Eaglecam's website in early 2011 during the annual Bald Eagle Days event. Over the years, Eaglecam has hit several milestones from the number of website visitors to the growing interest each spring when the eggs hatch as well as widespread interest among school classes and other organizations. In fact, a group of Midwest scientists entered a second year in 2017 of studying the Arconic eaglets. Eagle migration study Riches said as part of a telemetry study by West Virginia University and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, scientists arrived on site last summer to band the three new eaglets. In all, the researchers have banded five eaglets at the Riverdale plant with special GPS transmitters. Known as the Midwest Bald Eagle Project, the project has banded dozens of eagles across the Midwest to track and capture data about their flight patterns. At Arconic, wildlife experts and plant personnel brought the three eaglets that fledged last spring -- Apollo, Gemini and Mercury -- out of their nest to equip them with transmitters that enable the scientists to collect data about their whereabouts. The study will determine their migration patterns to provide data that can help direct where manmade structures such as wind turbines and towers should and should not be located. Through Eaglecam's blog, Riches updates viewers about their whereabouts. He hopes eventually that viewers will have access to a map function so they can check on the birds' locations for themselves. As of late December, Riches said the five eagles were scattered across the Midwest: Star and Sky, who hatched in 2016, were in southwest Wisconsin and Burlington, Iowa, respectively. While Mercury was down south and east of St. Louis; Gemini was south and west of Peoria; and Apollo was north of Springfield, Missouri. Eagle return Riches said 2017 marked a turning point when Liberty and Justice returned to a new nest they built at Arconic the year before. About Memorial Day 2016, their original nest collapsed. While the pair built a new nest that year in the same tree, he said, "this year (2017) was the first year they used that new nest." "Until they actually used it to raise a hatch, you couldn't be certain that it was what was going to happen," Riches said. But recent activity in the nest by Liberty and Justice, shows they are back for the 2018 season (their eighth season) on the riverfront property. "It's clear from the work they've been doing, they intend to use it again this year," he said. Traditionally, the pair's eggs are laid in early to mid-February and hatch about 35 days later. Once the eggs are laid, there is more activity for Eaglecam fans to watch "as somebody will be on the nest 24/7," he said of the eagle parents. To view Eaglecam, visit arconic.com/eaglecam or see the webcam on the Quad-City Times website at qctimes.com. Q. There was a plane crash in the early 1960s in the area around Green Acres community center in Davenport. I have been told it occurred on a foggy day. Would you have any information on the crash? Mark, Davenport A. There was a plane on Wednesday, Feb. 22, 1961, which seems to match the incident you describe, according to an article published in The Daily Times on Thursday, Feb. 23, 1961. Two men from Wisconsin died in the crash, and 20 to 30 Green Acres teenagers who been attending a dance at the public hall escaped injury by a matter of minutes, the article said. Foul weather was cited as the main reason for the crash of the private twin-engine Piper Apache into the old Green Acres fire station, which had been converted into a public hall. Mechanical failure also may have been a contributing factor, the article said. "Al Hildebrant said he had chaperoned a teenage dance there until less than a half hour before the aircraft hit and exploded," the article said. "He said he sent between 20 and 30 youngsters home at 9 p.m. because of the bad weather. Usually they remain at the old station to 10 o'clock. The plane crashed at 9:25 p.m.," the article said. "The adverse weather was also responsible for the presence here of two Federal Aviation Agency inspectors, Harold Hartley, supervising inspector, and his assistant, Gerald Abler," the article said. Hartley and Abler were trying to get to their home office in Cedar Rapids but had to land Wednesday (Feb. 22, 1961) at Quad-City Airport and go to a Davenport hotel. "Hartley said results of his preliminary investigation at the scene, preceding the Civil Aeronautics Board study today (Thursday, Feb. 23, 1961) indicated the plane had clipped a tree and utility wires just east of Pine Street (Highway 150) at West Forty-ninth Street, gouged a lawn in front of a home there, then slammed across the road into the front of the fire station," according to the article. Small parts of the plane were found in the front yard of the Iver Iversen home, where the plane dug up the lawn. "We were just plain scared when we heard the explosion and saw the flames," Mrs. Iversen told The Times. "The plane just missed hitting our house." To view original coverage of the plane crash in The Daily Times, visit qctimes.com/askthetimes. Q. Who owns the property at 45 McClellan Boulevard, Davenport? Davenport reader A. According to information on the Scott County Assessor's website, the deed holders are listed as Vickie Anne Palmer Pruter and Donald E. Pruter. The property, also known as Oak Knoll, was built by lumber baron, John J. Reimers and has an interesting history. Scenes from "An American Love," starring Brooke Shields were filmed there in 1991. The former owner, Toofe Rizk, Davenport, was reluctant at first to allow filming on the property. After then-Davenport Mayor Thom Hart approached him about the use of the location, he granted permission, Rizk said. Rizk sold the property in 2003. For more on Brooke Shields in "An American Love," visit qctimes.com/askthetimes. Dedicated birders and outdoor enthusiasts in the Quad-Cities already may know about the eagle nest north of Eriksen Chevrolet in Milan. Check in with them first, and they will take you right to it, said Kathy Wine, executive director of River Action. Unless youve visited the little-known destination recently, however, you likely are unaware of a renovated trail that offers a front-row view of bald eagles along the Rock River. Interested? Park at the trail head next to Subway and hike east along the paved Rock River Trail atop Milans levee toward the primitive path that starts by Mill Creek. The 1.6-mile loop runs between the Hennepin Canal and the Rock River and winds west toward, below and around the U.S. 67 bridge. Quad-City volunteers, led by Dean Bareback Mathias, began clearing brush with a handsaw about two years ago in hopes of reopening the overgrown stretch of land between the two bodies of water. The impetus for me was to get the Rock River Trail open for people to use it and appreciate it, said Mathias, who is notorious for cruising around town on his seat-less bicycle. People dont realize theyve got these loops out their backdoor. Milan resident Jeff Conroy noticed the path last winter and now regularly walks the loop, located about a mile west of the Steel Dam (Lock 30) with his dog, Cinnamon. Just a few days before Christmas last year, when he ran into Mathias on the trail, Conroy said he spotted as many as 15 eagles along the route. I dont like disturbing them, but its not bitterly cold, so I figure Im not bugging them too much, he said. Curt Kemmerer, a Maquoketa-based wildlife biologist for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, stressed that observers should give the predators space. Usually food is fairly abundant here, but theyre trying to conserve their energy in the winter time, he said. If you have binoculars, you can get a pretty amazing view from a distance. Last fall, a crew from Milans public works department stepped in with heavy machinery to finish the job Mathias and others started. Dave Pannell, director of the villages public works department for the past 34 years, said the strip of land hadnt been touched in almost three decades. In the late 1980s, Pannell recalled, Rock Island County Jail sent a group of prisoners in orange jumpsuits there to rehab the trail with chainsaws and hatchets. I took them a case of pop every day, Pannell said. That was their payment. Although the Illinois DNR owns the property, Pannell predicts Milan will continue maintaining the land, which has become a hotbed for hikers, dog walkers and fat-tire bikers. "I'm amazed how much it's used," he said, praising the volunteers for their work to reestablish the recreational amenity. He's also surprised by the scores of eagles that return year after year to Milan in search of open, warmer water and fish, their primary food source. During a jaunt last year, Mathias spotted numerous bald and golden eagles in the trees that divide the Rock River and the Hennepin Canal. "It's cool to be surrounded by water," he said, walking his bicycle along the isthmus. "You meet a lot of like-minded people on the trail." An Indianola, Iowa, woman was sentenced Thursday to up to 25 years in prison for sexually abusing two girls in Davenport. April Mae Lincoln, 29, must serve 70 percent or 17.5 years of the sentence before she is eligible for parole. She pleaded guilty in September in Scott County District Court to two counts of second-degree sexual abuse, a Class B felony punishable by up to 25 years in prison. On March 17, the Indianola Police Department received a complaint claiming sexual abuse, according to arrest affidavits filed by the Davenport Police Department. Lincoln and co-defendant Christopher James Myers, 31, repeatedly sexually abused the girls, ages 6 and 7, while they were staying in the 100 block of South Howell Street in Davenport, according to the arrest affidavits. The couple then told the girls not to tell anyone about what was happening, according to the arrest affidavits. According to Scott County District Court electronic records, the abuse began taking place in 2013. Lincoln's attorney, public defender Derek Jones, urged District Court Judge Joel Barrows to accept the plea agreement, which called for the sentences to run at the same time, and noted that Lincoln herself had been abused in the past. I think what were seeing here is a tragic example of the cycle of abuse, he said. He argued that Lincoln owned up to what she had done when speaking to investigators and agreed to cooperate against Myers, who has a change-of-plea hearing scheduled for Jan. 13. Jones also said Lincoln will seek sex offender treatment in prison. She declined to make a statement at sentencing. Barrows said that given the fact that there were multiple victims and the horrific nature of the offense, he would have considered running the sentences back-to-back. However, he noted that Lincoln took immediate responsibility and cooperated in the investigation. Barrows also accepted a recommendation from Assistant Scott County Attorney Blake Norman to enter a five-year no contact order for both victims. Per Lincolns plea agreement, Norman dismissed to additional counts of second-degree sexual abuse. ALEDO, Ill. A former Mercer County man on conditional release from Illinois Sexually Violent Persons Commitment Act has been arrested in central Illinois. According to a filing in Mercer County Circuit Court, Darin Brock, 46, was taken into custody Wednesday in Bloomington and charged with battery and disorderly conduct. The Illinois Attorney Generals Office has filed a petition to revoke Brocks conditional release and place him in the states Treatment Detention Facility in Rushville. The former Keithsburg man was granted conditional release in 2008 and had been residing in Bloomington. Brock was declared sexually violent during a bench trial in May 1999. He had been in state custody since 1990 when he was convicted of sexually assaulting a 65-year-old Joy woman. Brock was denied in his attempt for a full discharge in June 2016. -- J.C. Taylor As Sterilite Corp. representative Peter Stone approached the microphone, members of the Davenport City Council cracked smiles and leaned forward in their chairs with excitement. Alderman Jason Gordon, at large, channeled the Mr. McGuire character in the film "The Graduate" and said "Plastics, that's where it's at." One day prior to its committee-of-the-whole meeting, Davenport officials announced the consideration of an economic development agreement between the city and Sterilite, a storage container manufacturer, that would bring a $73 million, 2.5 million square foot facility to Davenport's Eastern Iowa Industrial Center. The proposed project could become the seventh manufacturing plant for North America's leader in plastic goods, but also would create 500 jobs in the area, with 100 of those job paying at least $18.75 per hour. As Stone, the great-grandson of one of Sterilite's founders, explained, the project and location meshed. "Our search looked at a number of states, many, many different sites within those states and when my grandfather and I were here in July, we were particularly excited about the geographic location," Stone said. The site, which was certified as "development-ready" by the state in 2015, was particularly attractive for Sterilite and an investment by the city that could be validated by the news of more development. "It was definitely helpful because time is of the essence," Stone said. "Having a shovel-ready site that was all setup and ready to hit the ground running should it be right fit was very helpful and not something we saw in every state." Stone said keeping the process moving was now the most important step as the company's most recent plants in South Carolina and Texas were able to get shovels in the ground within nine months. Sterilite will meet with state officials later this month to discuss the project. With the generation of up to 500 new jobs within five years of operation, Aldermen Mike Matson, 7th Ward, and Maria Dickmann, 2nd Ward, played up the quality of Davenport's workforce. Stone said the company saw the same attributes and was impressed with the community college network and the potential workforce it could one day hire. Both Stone and Mayor Frank Klipsch commended the development partners in the State of Iowa, Eastern Iowa Community College, Greater Davenport Redevelopment Group, Quad Cities First, Scott County, MidAmerican Energy and Iowa American Water for their support in making the project possible. "It really is a great example for our community to see all of the entities coming together," Klipsch said. "We're excited to have you here as part of that team and collaboration that will make this a great project." The City of Davenport's support for the project also was cited as one the keys to helping it come to fruition. As part of the economic incentive package, Sterilite can receive a $3 million forgivable loan following occupancy of the facility, infrastructure estimated at $1.2 million and rail spurs on the site valued at $1.8 million. Other incentives include $3.3 million in road and intersection improvements, partial rebate of property taxes for a 15-year period and reimbursement of property taxes paid for the assessed value portion greater than $64 million. The council voted to put the item on its consent agenda for an upcoming meeting. "I'm very pleased with the City of Davenport in helping support our search and working with the state to hopefully get this project approved," Stone said. Chris Prather has had it. For more than a month, Prather, of 6914 Nottingham Lane, Bettendorf, has complained about school bus safety in his neighborhood just off Forest Grove Road. He said he and his wife, Jenny, contacted the school bus company, the Pleasant Valley Community School District and Bettendorf police. Representatives of each group have responded at various times since Nov. 30. Prather's son, Travis, attends Hopewell Elementary School. The couple is fed up with the motorists who race by the school bus before students get on or off at the Forest Grove Road stop. They've taken down license plates of cars, called police and complained to Durham School Services, the contracted bus company for Pleasant Valley. The response from Durham was delayed, according to company representative Molly Hart, because of a death in one manager's family, a one-week absence by a second manager and when the company was closed for the holidays. "I'm not sure what else to do right now," Prather said last week. "We can't let this go for over a month." Jim Spelhaug, Pleasant Valley superintendent, did not learn of Prather's issues until this week. After it came to his attention, Spelhaug said the large, 84-passenger buses are not allowed to turn around in cul-de-sacs, such as on Nottingham Lane and in similar neighborhoods scattered around the district. When bus drivers stop on a road such as Forest Grove, the lights go on and the red stop signs are activated. The driver won't open the door until traffic is stopped, Spelhaug said. When students disembark, they wait for the driver to give a thumbs-up signal before they cross the road. Hart, at Durham School Services, said bus drivers call the dispatch center when they see a driver violate the stop-arm law. They get a license plate number, and a report is made to police. The only places in the district where students are not allowed to cross a road off a bus are along U.S. 67 and on Devils Glen Road, Spelhaug said. The situation along Forest Grove also exists along Wells Ferry and Territorial roads. Pleasant Valley district officials advocated for the city of Bettendorf to lower the speed limit on Forest Grove Road, and it recently was reduced to 40 mph in that area. "We'd prefer they take that down further," Spelhaug said, to 35 mph. The city also erected a traffic signal at Forest Grove and Middle roads, and the superintendent said that helps the situation. In addition, Spelhaug said students, including Travis Prather, could stay on the bus for a little while longer until it turns around on the route and be dropped off on the side of the street nearest to his home. He estimated that would require an additional 20 minutes on the bus. Other students spend that much time on a regular route, he said. Finally, Spelhaug said the school bus could safely turn around at the new Forest Grove Park, near Nottingham Lane. The neighborhood could build a path to the park, and the students could get on and off the bus there, the superintendent said. Prather would prefer the bus could pull off the road, but he acknowledges the speed issue on Forest Grove. "I'd also love it if people would slow down," he said. In the meantime, neighborhood parents have gotten the driver to stop the school bus in the middle of Forest Grove, so at least the cars will stop behind it. "That does seem to help," Prather said. The traffic is "unbelievable" on Forest Grove Road, Prather said. The two-lane road is crowned at the top and slippery when icy or wet. Yet, he said, traffic flies by, at something he estimates at 60 mph. Bettendorf police who reviewed the situation in December did not find speeders. Capt. Keith Kimball, of Bettendorf's patrol division, said that after the complaint was received, officers spent about seven days monitoring Forest Grove near Nottingham Lane. A veteran officer pointed out the roadway is a chip-and-seal surface, which makes a louder-than-usual sound when traffic passes on it, and it's easy to think cars are going faster than they actually are, Kimball said. "There are no violations, at this time, from that area," Kimball said. The Prather family moved to Nottingham Lane in July. "My neighbors have said this problem has been going on for a while," Prather said. "I'm just not prepared to let it go." A man who describes himself as an environmentalist, a woman who drives a Toyota Prius, and a teen who is concerned about energy sustainability were among the dozens who attended a public forum on a proposed solar project in Davenport. The Davenport Community School District hosted the forum Wednesday at the Achievement Service Center. Officials are considering a solar energy project that would put arrays at about 30 buildings, and save the district an estimated $250,000 per year for 20 years. Questions from residents continued for nearly one hour and ranged from being general to technical in nature. Bob Quast, Blue Grass, owns a solar system for his home, and is retired from MidAmerican Energy Co. He provided perspective, and some of the most technical questions of the evening. Quast's home system is 1/1000th the size of what is proposed in Davenport, so he asked about insurance coverage and noted proposed state tariffs could be critically important to the Davenport project's finances. The insurance is the responsibility of the developers, said Mike Maloney, operations director for the district, who conducted the public session. The project's developers are EPo Energy of Columbus Junction, Iowa, and Northwest Mechanical, of Davenport. Representatives of these companies, as well as from MidAmerican Energy, were present during the session. Mark Fenner, Davenport, a conservationist, asked about the life span of the solar panels to be used. This also is the responsibility of the developers, Maloney said, but the panels have 25-year guarantees. Asking Davenport students about what they thought about solar energy was on the mind of a Toyota Prius owner, Bailey Kakert, Davenport. Bailey attended the forum with her brother, Brady. For his part, Brady Kakert, 16, said the topic of solar energy is more important to younger generations, who easily see the advantages of energy sustainability. Allison Cox, Davenport, wondered if Davenport's project was unusual, or if others were looking at similar plans. Maloney listed an existing system at Waco schools in Wayland, Iowa, and said he is getting calls from larger school districts on the proposal. "Go for it!" Cox said. Two prime considerations, Maloney said, center on risk, and if the proposal makes good economic sense to the Davenport district. A second public session is tonight. Bird watcher Joe Taylor, also the president of the Quad-Cities Convention & Visitors Bureau, loves to see the thousands of visitors who flood the area every year in honor of the majestic American bald eagle. This trek is centralized locally with the Quad-City Bald Eagle Days, which Taylor calls "the grand-daddy" of all events like this. The nation's symbol is a magnet to many, and the interest level never seems to wane in the Quad-Cities. "I'm always amazed that this continues; it seems it hasn't peaked yet," Taylor said. Tour groups come in, some every other year. Many visitors are from elsewhere in Iowa, such as Cedar Rapids, or from the Chicagoland. Dick Sayles, president of the Quad-City Audubon Society, volunteers at Bald Eagle Days and has for years. Sayles is the fellow on the local tour bus who has a birding scope. The tours run five times a day. The bus stops at MidAmerican Energy Co., Sayles said, where they can generally see the peregrine falcon nest at the top of the structure. Then, they will travel to key spots along the Mississippi River, and Sayles loves to see the enthusiasm the tourists show. "These are like 60-year-olds, and they are on the bus, jumping up and down like grade-school kids when they spot the eagles," he said. Bald Eagle Days is in its 30th year, but local eagle-watching efforts track back 50 years to January 1967, Taylor said. At that time there was the Tri-City Bird Club, who's members tried to rally public support for the bald eagles. They would sponsor tours to go out and find the big birds, "but they were very hard to spot back then," Taylor said. Eventually, efforts to save the birds worked. This included the work of Elton Fawks, a local researcher who showed the public the eagles were in danger in the 1960s. And, author Rachel Carson produced "Silent Spring," a 1962 bestseller on the deleterious effect of the chemical DDT on bird eggs, including eagle eggs. The DDT was banned from public use in 1972. The first multiple-day bald eagle event was at the Milan Community Center, Taylor said, and then moved to the Modern Woodmen headquarters for a few years, before it landed at the current location: The QCCA Expo Center in Rock Island. Bald eagles in a tree make anyone an expert birder, Taylor said. The birds are large: Females weigh 10-14 pounds and have a wingspan of up to 8 feet; the males are smaller, 8-9 pounds, and a wingspan of 6-7 feet. Their lifespan is 20-30 years in the wild, about 50 years in captivity. The birds' eyesight is legendary: They could read a newspaper at 100 yards away, and see the newspaper from 3 miles away. The Bald Eagles Days event is affordable, family-friendly and fun, Taylor said. The tourist executive said there is a local cottage industry around the bald eagles; but events are also held in communities up and down the Mississippi River, from Dubuque to Quincy. "These are fantastic birds," he said. Elton Fawks is an example of an ordinary citizen who made an extraordinary difference. A long-time resident of East Moline, Fawks (1908-1989) developed a love of birds and bird-watching as a teenager, particularly bald eagles. With no specific training, he began to notice and document a decline of young bald eagles along the Mississippi River. Between 1957 and 1966, he organized groups to study eagles, including a nine-state initiative that eventually was taken over by the national Audubon Society, according to Quad-City Times archives. It was the society's landmark effort, incorporating data from Fawks and others, that concluded the bald eagle population was in danger because the pesticide DDT had weakened the species' shells, and the young weren't hatching. The DDT found its way from farm fields into rivers, where it was ingested by fish that were consumed by eagles. In time, this food-chain connection led to a ban on DDT. In 1980, Fawks donated his 30 years' of eagle research to Western Illinois University-Macomb. Fawks didn't have a degree in conservation; he learned and earned respect by hard work in the field. While he spent 40 years as a body shop supplies dealer, he also championed wildlife and conservation, studying eagles and working with organizations such as the Audubon Society, Izaak Walton League and National Wildlife Federation. In later years, Fawks led opposition to the development of a wooded bluff area near Illiniwek Forest Preserve, Hampton, Illinois, that was an important bald eagle roost. The area was spared, and in 1989, it was named the Elton E. Fawks Bald Eagle Refuge. The 173-acre site owned by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources continues as an important nesting site today. The area's steep canyons offer protection when winter temperatures plummet. The City of Davenport is hungry for food trucks. After implementing a successful six-week pilot program, the city has crafted an ordinance that will permit mobile food vendors in designated city right of ways and zones in the near future. The Davenport City Council has moved the first consideration of the ordinance to the consent agenda of its next council meeting after discussing the topic at the Wednesday committee-of-the-whole meeting. The three zones created are the riverfront, Bechtel Park and city parks. An annual license fee of $55 applies in addition to the $550 mobile vendor permit, which allows operation in right of ways. Licenses are granted upon proof of $1 million liability insurance, a valid health permit issued by Scott County and inspection by the city's fire department. Assistant to the city administrator Mallory Merritt said the permit fee was determined by calculating the value of using the right of way. Operation of food trucks on private property remains free of charge, but vendors must register the location with the city. Chad Cushman, who operates The Crepe Guy, and Downtown Davenport Partnership Executive Director Kyle Carter worked with the city on the ordinance and spoke in support of pushing it forward. Carter called the ordinance fair as it balanced both the interests of brick and mortar restaurants while aiding in promoting food truck business. "This is an excellent blueprint that we can certainly work from especially if it does need editing down the road," Carter said. Alderman Kyle Gripp, at large, thanked Cushman and Carter for their involvement in the process and said the ordinance was another example of the city trying to become more progressive. "We talk about trying to make Davenport a cool place that young people want to live," Gripp said. "Chickens was one thing I heard on the campaign trail, but food trucks show you've got a young population that our downtown speaks to." Incoming Senate Democratic Leader Rob Hogg said Thursday that he is personally dedicated to fixing the part of the school funding formula that doesnt allow the Davenport school district to spend as much per pupil as other districts in the state. Hogg, D-Cedar Rapids, was in Davenport to urge Iowans to stand up to the Republicans legislative agenda. Starting Monday, Republicans will control both houses of the Legislature, and Democratic leaders have been fanning out across the state to raise support for what they concede will be a defensive posture this session. Hogg, along with Rep. Phyllis Thede, D-Bettendorf, and Sen. Rita Hart, D-Wheatland, told reporters at a news conference at Scott County Democratic headquarters they are worried about the potential for curtailing collective bargaining rights for public employees, imposition of identification requirements to vote, the prospects for an increase in the minimum wage and K-12 education funding. Republicans and Democrats have argued about how much to spend on K-12 schools for years, and Hogg said he is very concerned there wont be enough money this session. At the same time, he said that even though he could not guarantee complete unanimity in his caucus, there is a sense the equity issue needs resolving. Its a problem, but Im telling you as a leader of the Senate Democratic caucus, for me, we need to address that issue, he said. I think its actually unconscionable that the superintendent would stand up and say hes going to do the right thing and hes criticized for violating the law. We need to address that issue period, he added. Davenport school officials have been trying for years to get lawmakers to change the formula, which allows some districts to spend up to $175 more per pupil than others. Currently, Davenport can spend $6,591 per pupil. Others can go as high as $6,766 per pupil. The average statewide is $6,622, according to state data. Davenport Superintendent Art Tate has objected to the inequity and has broken state law by using district reserves to make up the difference. As a result, he faces an ethics complaint that was filed by the state education department. The complaint is pending. Resolving the issue is a political challenge in the Legislature, where the per pupil disparity is just one of a number of inequities in the school funding formula. In addition, revenue estimates this year are limiting the amount of new money to spend. Some Quad-City lawmakers have proposed allowing districts to dip into unspent reserves to make up the disparity, at least until a longer-term fix is instituted. But that has raised concerns that it could lead to increases in property taxes. DES MOINES The process by which Iowas state troopers, correctional facility staff and teachers among others negotiate their wages and benefits with the state appears destined for changes in 2017. One of the options being discussed in the Iowa Capitol which is now under complete Republican control that would have a significant impact would be to require unions and other organizations that represent public employees to hold annual certification votes among its members. A similar measure was included in the package of collective bargaining laws passed in Wisconsin in 2011. Since passage of that law, there are 132,000 fewer union members in Wisconsin, and the share of union members as a share of the workforce has fallen by almost half, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. What youve got now is you have unions that got certified in the 1970s and its never been looked at since. So I think what Wisconsin said is, wait a minute, lets let the employees make that decision every couple of years. I think thats something the (Iowa) Legislature is seriously looking at, yeah, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad said Thursday in an interview with the Des Moines Bureau. Tammy Wawro, president of the Iowa State Education Association, which represents more than 34,000 Iowa teachers, said such a law would not have a dramatic impact on the organization because its members enroll each year. But that doesnt mean Wawro is supportive of such a law, and she said she suspects it could be an act of political retribution against an organization that for the past six years has pressed Republican state legislators to provide more state funding to public K-through-12 schools. Im curious as to how many constituents of the governor have asked him, when they door-knocked (during the campaign) or talked to people in Main Street, that having unions recertify every year is something that the public wants, Wawro said. I think we have fought hard for public school funding and maybe thats coming back as a backlash. But if we cant be the voice for our public schools, there isnt another voice. In the past, any such legislation would have been stopped by Democrats in control of the Iowa Senate. But as a result of the Nov. 8 election, Republicans have complete lawmaking control at the Iowa Capitol for the first time in 20 years, and they plan to use that newfound authority to make changes to the states collective bargaining laws during the upcoming legislative session. Any debate over collective bargaining issues is likely to create some legislative fireworks. Democrats, now in the minority in both the Iowa House and Senate and thus incapable of stopping the GOPs agenda, have pledged to be vocal opponents of any proposed changes to collective bargaining. They have in the past. In 2015, when majority Republicans in the Iowa House pursued a bill that would have tweaked one portion of the states collective bargaining laws, minority Democrats used legislative maneuvers some of them rarely invoked to drag out the debate over nine hours and two calendar days. Were preparing for an all-out fight to ensure that Iowas workers are at the table and have a voice in the decision-making here in the state of Iowa, said Mark Smith, leader of the minority House Democrats. We believe that there are important issues that affect the well-being of workers and that theirs are voices that need to be heard as well. Republican leaders say collective bargaining changes are needed to protect Iowa taxpayers. The goal here is to make sure we have the taxpayer at the table and people are mindful that resources do come from somewhere and those folks have a voice in this as well, said Iowa House Speaker Linda Upmeyer, R-Clear Lake. And then I think just trying to find some common-sense approaches that make sense to people would be a good start. The state already has delivered a clear signal of at least one planned change to collective bargaining laws. When making initial contract proposals to the various unions that represent the states employees, the state did not offer specifics on health insurance because of expected changes to the law that may come during the legislative session. Branstad has said since the election results swept Republicans into power that he would like to explore a master contract for all state employees health insurance. Were looking at, is there a better, more efficient way that we can deliver health care, Branstad said. We want to make sure that we provide quality health care for all our employees. But right now, its being done on a very ad hoc basis, not just the state but also school districts, counties, cities. Id like us to look at, could it be much more efficient if we had one master contract as opposed to all of these individual ones? The bill that sparked Democrats outrage in 2015 would have altered the way collective bargaining disputes are mediated. When the state and a public employee union cannot agree to contract terms, an arbitrator picks one sides final offer. The 2015 bill approved by House Republicans would have given arbitrators flexibility to pick a midpoint between the offers. That proposal could resurface this year. Upmeyer said Republicans may again consider that proposal, Branstads master contract for health insurance and possibly others. Were certainly hopeful that we can have good conversations and work hard to allay what I think is sort of unnecessary fear (over potential changes), Upmeyer said. We appreciate what (public employees) do, so our goal is to create sustainable kinds of environments where we dont find ourselves in a position to not be able to continue to do health care or salaries because we just dont have the resources. Dan Homan, president of the states largest public employee union, said he is disappointed by the states initial contract offers and thinks attempts to change collective bargaining laws are simply an attempt to make wages and benefits cheaper for the state at the expense of its employees. Its clear to me that this governor has a different vision than what I believe everyday Iowans have for the hard-working state employees that provide needed services to them, Homan said. I guess time will tell on just exactly how bad a particular (political) party wants to wreck the Iowa that most Iowans love. (Rod Boshart of The Gazette in Cedar Rapids contributed.) The City of Davenport is the latest of the Quad-Cities ready to embrace urban chickens. While the push to allow urban chickens is not new, the City Council heard the first consideration of an ordinance that will permit up to six backyard chickens in residential-zoned areas of Davenport. East Moline, Moline and most recently Rock Island have passed ordinances permitting homeowners to have chickens in some capacity. After conferring with other cities in both Iowa and Illinois, Community Planning and Economic Development Director Bruce Berger said Davenport's proposed ordinance best resembles those found in Cedar Rapids and Rock Island. Planner Matt Flynn said the city's proposed ordinance sat squarely in the middle between being restrictive and leniant. Flynn cited Dubuque as an example of having fewer restrictions and being more reliant on the city being able to do code enforcement. "If you look at a bell curve, there are a lot of ordinances similar to the one we have presented," Flynn said. As part of the restrictions, coops must be a minimum of 25 feet from the principal structure and 10 feet from property lines. Besides a $25 permit, a training course for handling chickens is required to be completed. Should there be a complaint, Berger said an administrative law judge is available to hear complaints. As one of the main groups behind pushing forward an ordinance, several members of Backyard Chickens Scott County spoke on behalf of supporting the ordinance. One of the group's organizers, Mike Angelos, presented the Council with petitions signed by 833 people in favor of urban chickens. Aside from promoting healthier living and sustainability, several members also spoke to the lesser known benefits of raising chickens. Davenport resident Bob Stone spoke to his experience as a social worker in Illinois and the backyard chicken projects that foster parents can do for training credit. "Children in foster care have been traumatized because they have been separated from their families," Stone said. "This is a great opportunity for them to nurture and to be nurtured." While many of the aldermen spoke in favor of the ordinance, Alderman Ray Ambrose asked for greater restrictions, including requiring an acre of property to have chickens. "There are people that are concerned that when their neighbor brings in a chicken coop that it's going to have a negative impact on their property values," Ambrose said. Aldermen Kyle Gripp, at large, and Rita Rawson, 5th Ward, disagreed, with Gripp stating that cities with ordinances have had few enforcement problems or complaints. "I think Davenport is ready for urban chickens," Gripp said. SAL Family and Community Services (SALFCS), 1221 N. Myrtle St. Davenport, located inside the Friendly House, now offers a Davenport-based Open Door crisis assistance program office. Open Door serves as a "one-stop" resource to alleviate individuals needing to visit multiple offices for multiple needs. The office focuses on providing emergency assistance and resources specifically to individuals and families experiencing crises who have been victims or witnesses of crime. Open Door offices also are located in Rock Island and Peoria and each holds an on-site food pantry, computers to assist in job searches, and coordinators who can work with individuals to submit applications for housing, food assistance, employment and medical benefits. SALFCS was awarded funding through a grant with the Iowa States Attorney office for the Victims of Crime Act to expand the Open Door program to Scott County. Here's the afternoon forecast from the National Weather Service. Scattered flurries are possible after noon. Otherwise skies will be mostly cloudy with a temperature falling to around 9 degrees by 5 p.m. Wind-chill values will be as low as -5 degrees. The chance of precipitation is 20 percent. Friday will be sunny with a high near 12 degrees and a low around 5 degrees. Wind chill values as low as -15 degrees during the day and -5 degrees overnight. SouthPark Dillard's converting to clearance center The Dillard's department store at Moline's SouthPark Mall will be converted into one of the company's clearance centers, a Dillard's spokeswoman said today. The store's 70 employees will be offered jobs at the new center or at the NorthPark department store, Julie Johnson Bull said. They were notified of the change Tuesday. Read more. Woman gives birth during auto shop oil change Some auto shops offer 10-minute oil change service. That still would have been about seven minutes too long for a Pennsylvania woman who gave birth while the oil in her husband's pickup was being changed at an auto dealership. Amanda Sherman, 24, gave birth when she went to the restroom Monday at #1 Cochran Nissan of South Hills in suburban Pittsburgh. "I went to pee and then, I don't know, I was all of the sudden holding her," Sherman said of 7-pound, 12-ounce Heather Lynn Sherman. She added she felt little pain or contractions. "I hollered for help and some woman who happened to be a registered nurse came through the door." The nurse was another customer. Husband, Adam, meanwhile, was on the phone with a 911 dispatcher who talked him through the process of tying off the baby's umbilical cord with his bootlace before an ambulance took his wife and daughter to the hospital. Brett Lewis, the dealer's general sales manager, said he didn't believe an employee who told him about the birth until the ambulance arrived. "Everyone here really took care of them and we still managed to sell a few cars that day," Lewis said. Frustrated lottery scratch-off loser keeps cops busy A woman who repeatedly aired her frustration at failing to win a jackpot by making obscene and violent threats against Pennsylvania Lottery headquarters faces 53 charges, police said Wednesday. Towanda Shields, 47, made dozens of calls over the past eight months to the agency's offices outside Harrisburg, police said. "From the calls and stuff I've listened to, she's basically completely obsessed with the lottery and the fact that she doesn't win upsets her very much," Detective Robert Appleby said. "She would get really sexually explicit with her insults." Appleby said that in late October, Shields said someone would die at the retail store where she buys tickets. He said she has also told lottery employees she had searched for them online, knew where they lived and had hired someone to hurt their family members. Shields, of Philadelphia, has defended her right to make the calls on free-speech grounds, Appleby said. Although Shields has used anonymous burner phones, authorities were able to determine her identity. Police on Tuesday filed 25 counts each of harassment and stalking, as well as three counts of making terroristic threats. She left 21 voicemails at lottery headquarters and reached people eight to 12 times, Appleby said. "Fifty-three counts is a lot of counts, but I can assure you she's earned them," he said. The detective said Shields' main interest is in scratch-off tickets. Its hard for Dr. Majdi Omar of Bettendorf to get away. Every time I get ready to leave town, it goes crazy, Omar said Tuesday night when he arrived home from work still wearing his stethoscope two hours later than expected. You work to the last moment. On Wednesday, the pediatrician and his son, Waleed, escaped the daily grind in the Quad-Cities for a different type of vacation. They flew from Chicago to Amman, Jordan, the country Omar calls home, for a weeklong medical mission trip. This marks Omars sixth volunteer journey to the countrys refugee camps since the civil war broke out in nearby Syria in 2011. That same year, the Muslim father of three opened his private practice in Davenport. Last January, Omar's 19-year-old son accompanied him overseas, as well. There was no guarantee I was going to come back this year, but to see how desperate people were at the time, it definitely motivated me to go back, said Waleed, a pre-med student at Loyola University in Chicago. You dont look at them as patients; you look at them as your brothers and sisters. Organized by the Syrian-American Medical Society, or SAMS, the fluent Arabic speakers spent a majority of their time last year at the United Nations-run Zaatari refugee camp in northern Jordan, the countrys most-populated camp. This month, around 100 volunteers associated with the organization are scheduled to visit refugee settlements in Jordan. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, or UNHCR, more than 4.8 million displaced Syrians had registered with the agency as of Jan. 4. That number includes more than 655,000 Syrians who have fled to Jordan. Omar, who has treated hundreds of Syrian children at refugee camps in his native country, said he doesn't expect to see any more influxes of refugees there. However, he noted the need for quality health care still exists, maybe now more than ever. "Every time I go there, I see a little more organization, but I cant claim that anyone is able to serve these people the way they need, said Omar, who added theres a strong demand for mental health care at these camps. Its always the last thing on the list, even here in the United States. According to the Migration Policy Institute, 79 percent of Syrian refugee children have experienced a death in the family; 60 percent have seen someone get kicked, shot at or physically hurt; and 30 percent have been kicked, shot at or physically hurt. Additionally, almost half displayed symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder about 10 times the prevalence among children around the world, according to the report. The father-son duo will visit with family before beginning their mission work Saturday, which will continue through Jan. 13. While his father diagnoses patients at camps and clinics, Waleed will translate and take notes for non-Arab physicians. The Pleasant Valley High School grad said he gained a new perspective from what he witnessed during his previous trip to Jordan that changed his life forever. This time around, Waleed has mixed emotions. Im excited, but these types of trips really make you feel bad about who you are, he said. It makes you question, Are you really using your resources and taking advantage of them, or are you just sitting there being lazy and taking everything for granted? My observations and sightings in nature. South Dakotas Highway Patrol plans to ring in the first month of 2017 with another group of sobriety checkpoints, including in Butte County. According to a release, the patrol will hold 17 checkpoints in 16 different counties during January. The checkpoints are done each month as a way to discourage people from drinking and then driving. January checkpoints are planned for the following counties: Butte, Charles Mix, Codington, Custer, Davison, Day, Hughes, Kingsbury, Lincoln, Minnehaha, Roberts Sanborn, Tripp, Union, Walworth and Yankton. The Highway Patrol is part of the South Dakota Department of Public Safety. An Eagle Butte man and his daughter have been charged by a federal grand jury with incest after authorities said they engaged in consensual sex in November. Daniel Mexican, 43, and Santana Mexican, 25, have both pleaded not guilty to the offense in U.S. District Court in Pierre. The alleged act occurred Nov. 20 on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation. The defendants have been released on bond while awaiting trial set for Feb. 21. If convicted of incest, each faces up to five years in prison and three years of supervised release. SPEARFISH | The South Dakota Department of Game, Fish & Parks announced Wednesday that Montana-based Peaks to Plains Design will be the consultant on a master plan for the proposed Spearfish Canyon state park, and the department also announced a schedule of public-input sessions. We are excited to partner with Peaks to Plains for this project, Katie Ceroll, director for the GF&P Division of Parks and Recreation, said in a release. They have the proven experience to lead the public input process that will lead us into the next phase of this project for the state of South Dakota." The state's contract with the company is for about $200,000 initially, said a representative of Gov. Dennis Daugaard who visited Rapid City on Wednesday. The state's release said a series of presentations has been conducted to city councils, county commissions and other organizations in the Black Hills. In addition, GF&P will accept applications from local residents and organizational representatives interested in serving on a volunteer advisory committee to work alongside the consultant and GF&P staff. Focus group meetings will also be held. The first public input session will be at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 26, at the Spearfish Park Pavilion, 115 S. Canyon St. in Spearfish. Those who cannot attend may view meeting information online at the newly launched spearfishcanyon.sd.gov and offer input through the online comment form. Times and dates for additional public input sessions are to be determined. Daugaard first proposed the idea to create a state park in Spearfish Canyon in January 2016. The state already owns some canyon land and is trying to add more by seeking congressional approval of a land swap. The swap would transfer some Black Hills National Forest land in the canyon to the state in exchange for state land east of the Black Hills, which would become part of two national grasslands. The plan also includes transferring Bismarck Lake, which is adjacent to Custer State Park, from federal ownership to state ownership. State Grid Corp of China has asked the Brazilian government and regulators to speed up environmental licensing of a planned power line connecting to the Belo Monte dam in the Amazon forest, according to official documents and a source with direct knowledge of the matter. State Grid, the world's biggest utility, fears it could have to delay construction of the line, possibly forcing the third-largest hydroelectric power dam to begin operating in 2019 below full capacity. Belo Monte, a dam built on the Xingu River in the Amazon forest, will have a total installed capacity of 11,233 megawatts, exceeded only by China's Three Gorges and Brazil's Itaipu dams. The Chinese firm, together with two units of the Centrais Eletricas do Brasil SA state-controlled utility, has begun work in the first of two transmission lines linking Belo Monte to cities throughout Brazil. The source said State Grid had expected to receive a preliminary license from Brazil's Ibama environmental agency for a second 2,500 kilometers-long transmission line by October 2016 and authorization to begin construction by February 2017. Ibama has not issued either of the licenses for the second transmission line, which will carry power to the southeast, Brazil's biggest energy consumer, and other states. The source said that while the delay did not affect the construction schedule, the preliminary authorization needs to be issued in January, followed by the building authorization in March. Ibama said its analysis was still underway and it had no estimate of when it would be completed. Last week, Brazil's power regulator Aneel contacted the Energy and Mining Ministry to ask for support in speeding up the licensing process, an Aneel document seen by Reuters showed. Construction of the power line, which State Grid estimates will cost 7 billion reais ($2.15 billion), needs to be completed by December 2019 if Belo Monte is to operate in full capacity. A State Grid document seen by Reuters said that delays in the licensing process would also force it to disburse additional money as it could miss deadlines for receiving funds from state development bank BNDES. Reuters Arriving with a winter cold snap, the first baby of the New Year in the Bitterroot Valley was delivered at Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital on Tuesday, Jan. 3. Presley Hart Wilkins arrived at 7:47 a.m. at six pounds, nine ounces, and 21 inches in length. Her parents, Cindy and Andrew, and oldest sister attended her birth. Presley is Andrews first child and Cindys third daughter. Cindy said Presley came on her own terms after 21 hours of labor. Stubborn like her dad and late like her mom, Andrew said. I wouldnt know if she wasnt cute but I know for dang sure that she is. Andrew said the experience of becoming a father was amazing. I just feel like the luckiest guy in the world, he said. Presleys big sister even painted my nails for the occasion. She wanted me to be bright and fabulous. Cindy said Presley arrived after two miscarriages and the doubts that they would have a child together as a couple. It was a surprise that we got pregnant and everything went really great, Cindy said. She is a blessing that we thought maybe wasnt in the cards for us. The girls that we have are blessings in themselves, are amazing and will be great big sisters. Presley just completed our family and we are really thankful for her. Dr. James Zubernis was the attending physician. It was an honor to me to be able to deliver the first baby in the Bitterroot for 2017, he said. Zubernis said he has lost count of the number of babies he has delivered. Its got to be in excess of 6,000 or 7,000 I would think, he said. This was not my first New Years baby; they do come every now and again. It is always a fun thing to do and a great way to usher in the New Year. Dr. Z is one cool guy and Im glad we got him, Andrew said. He cares about our family and is very personable. He would fit in at one of our barbeques and hes invited to every single one. He cared and he listened, Cindy said. I just felt completely safe with Dr. Z; he listened, didnt judge and cared. It has been a really good process. Cindy said that with Presley arriving as the first baby everything is lining up. The hospital staff donated a zoo box to Presley of stuffed animals, storybooks, a handmade giraffe quilt and 10,000 wipes. Cindy was born in Hawaii. Andrew Walker Wilkins was born in MDMH, delivered by Dr. Walker Ashcraft, as were Cindys older daughters. Her sisters were beginning of summer babies and she is a winter baby, Cindy said. We dont enjoy the winter but this was the best winter ever. She is our reason to be excited this winter. Cindy said that life at home will feel complete. HELENA House Republicans are expected to trim their feed bill, which pays for the operations of the 65th Legislature, at a meeting Wednesday afternoon in Helena. House Bill 1 provides money for the Legislature, which convened Monday, to operation. It includes legislators pay. The bill calls for $11,108,864 to pay for this Legislative session. It also includes $662,988 to help set up for the 2019 session. Appropriations Chair Nancy Ballance, R-Hamilton, told the House Appropriations committee at the start of the meeting that the bill was 16.2 percent more than last session and 49 percent growth over the 2007 session. She said over the past six Legislative sessions, the bill has left an ending-fund balance of about $400,000. Ballance said the committee wont take action on the bill Wednesday because of amendments that will be proposed, but it could take action Thursday. Susan Fox, director of legislative services, said some of the increase is due to a $1 an hour pay increase for state employees passed by the last Legislature. That accounts for $776,000 of the increase, she said, including benefits, per diem and mileage. Other increases come from a bump in salaries for House and Senate staff and stipends to pay for constituent services. Fox said the increases since 2007 are caused in part by the creation of the legislator technology allowance and adding money to pay for the following session to get set up, as well as additional legislator training and orientation. Ballance also said that about $400,000 has been left at the end of the last few sessions. This money can, at the discretion of the the speaker of the House and Senate president, either goes back to the general fund or a technology reserve fund. Before the committee meeting, Ballance sent out a release saying: The Republican majority made the promise to the people of Montana that we would make the tough decisions on state spending and ensure that we pass a fiscally sound budget, and were starting by taking a hard look at our own budget. By taking a microscope and a scalpel to HB1 we made it clear that were committed to responsible budgeting. HELENA - A bill that would allow people to take disagreements over water permit decisions made by the Department of Natural Resources to the states Water Court instead of district courts was the subject of robust debate during its first hearing at the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. Sen. Chas Vincent, R-Libby, who is carrying Senate Bill 28 at the request of the Water Policy Interim Committee, said the bill will put four to five cases a year in front of the Water Court, which he says has a better understanding of water issues than most district court judges. DNRC issues new water rights permits and changes to exist permits. The Water Court was created in 1979 to adjudicate 219,000 water rights claims made prior to 1973 and is expected to finish that work sometime around 2028. After adjudication is complete, the court is expected to have little left to do. However, a report prepared by the Legislative Environmental Policy Office in 2015 for the interim committee said the court could play a role with the DNRC and district courts adjudicating disputes over issuing new water rights permits or changing existing ones. Vincent said a survey of district court judges done by the state Supreme Courts administrative arm shows many judges dont have experience in water law and dont want to retain control over water rights disputes. Seven people spoke in favor of the bill. Abigail St. Lawrence, an attorney at Bloomquist Law Firm in Helena and a representative of the Montana Association of Realtors who has worked with water rights cases for more than a decade, said the bill would let people have their disputes heard by experts. The Water Court has a particular expertise that oftentimes district courts do not have, she said. Chelcie Cargill, director of state affairs for the Montana Farm Bureau Federation, said some district court judges have large workloads that leave farmers and ranchers waiting for their claims to be sorted out. A few spoke in opposition to the bill, including the director of the DNRC, who raised concerns that it extends the life of the Water Court without taking time to study what the role of the court should be. Krista Lee Evans, with the Association of Gallatin Agricultural Irrigators, said she was concerned that Water Court judges are not elected. The chief justice of the state Supreme Court appoints a chief water judge and associate water judge. Thats a significant amount of power to have in an entity the water users do not have a vote for, she said. She also raised concerns with how the bill was written. She said the language could allow for people who disagree with a permit issued by DNRC to pick the court where the dispute would be heard, creating several cases in different courts. She also asked how the additional caseload for the Water Court would be paid for. Evans said many people who dont like the bill might be afraid to testify because they are nervous about where their disputes might be heard in the future. John Tubbs, director of the DNRC, said disputes over permits arent water issues, but procedural issues. Courts are tasked with determining if DNRC acted property in issuing or denying a permit application or change, not with water rights laws. Tubbs said the Water Court needs to focus on finishing its adjudication work and then state government can discuss the future of the court. This bill, he said, would make the Water Court permanent without consideration to what its future should be. Maybe that is a permanent water court, maybe its an additional district court, he said. These are big issues. It is time for this body, the executive and the judicial (branches) to give serious consideration to what a post-decree water rights world looks like. Vincent said the push to bring the bill now would help retain the expertise already gathered in the Water Court. If we want to retain that experience on the Water Court we have to give them a reason to stick around, he said. The committee took no action on the bill Wednesday, but said it would look at the concerns that were raised. The committee meets daily at 9 a.m. A Christmas Story House Holton-Wise Holton-Wise Property Group of Parma posted a link to this online flyer on Facebook on Christmas, indicating that the Christmas Story House in Tremont was for sale. That couldn't be further from the truth, the attraction's chief executive officer said. (Website screenshot) CLEVELAND, Ohio - If you're still fine-tuning your New Year's resolutions, here's one to consider: Don't believe everything you read on the Internet. A Cleveland cultural landmark ended up at the center of a web of misinformation last month, courtesy of erroneous online real estate data. Facebook posts by local real estate firms claimed that the Christmas Story House in the city's Tremont neighborhood was for sale, with an asking price of $5 million. That couldn't be further from the truth, said Angela Dickerson, who oversees the restored house and museum where "A Christmas Story" enthusiasts can relive parts of the 1983 film. "That's not even a discussion that anybody has ever had," Dickerson, chief executive officer of a Christmas Story House, Inc., said during a Wednesday phone conversation. "We're definitely, 100 percent not for sale." It's not completely clear how this holiday snarl got started. A Facebook screenshot shows a Dec. 25 post about the Christmas Story House by Holton-Wise Property Group. The company deleted the post Wednesday. On Dec. 25, Holton-Wise Property Group of Parma published a Facebook post titled "You can own the iconic 'A Christmas Story House.'" That post led to an online flyer of sorts, detailing the property's significance, its recent history and its supposed availability. Holton-Wise deleted the Facebook post Wednesday afternoon, after receiving calls from The Plain Dealer and Dickerson. "That's kind of a miscommunication, that one," James Wise, an owner and co-founder of the brokerage, said during a subsequent phone interview. Wise blamed Zillow, the real estate website that draws on a database of more than 110 million U.S. homes, some for sale, some for rent, some off the market. Zillow, in turn, said there was nothing wrong with its data. Here's what happened. In December, Holton-Wise and at least one other local real estate company noticed that the Zillow page for the Christmas Story House had changed. It no longer said that the house, at 3159 West 11th St., was "off market." Instead, the page said "make me move" and listed the $5 million figure as an opening discussion point. In mid-November, a "make me move" enticement appeared on the Zillow page for the Christmas Story House. That status disappeared Wednesday, after local real estate firms misinterpreted it as a sale listing and shared it on Facebook. But the Zillow page never actually said that the house was for sale. A "make me move" enticement is not a formal listing. Zillow describes the feature as a way to tell potential buyers that you might be open to selling - at the right, often aspirational price. A few Facebook users simply shared a link to the Zillow page. Holton-Wise, on the other hand, produced its own write-up, directing inquiries to a company email address and playing up the company's familiarity with the house and the neighborhood. Co-founder John Holton once worked in construction and lists the 2006 restoration of the Christmas Story House among the projects where he lent a hand. Wise acknowledged that Holton-Wise didn't fact-check its claim that the house was for sale. "Going forward with this miscommunication, absolutely, we should probably do a little bit more due diligence before we post something on Facebook," he said. Adding another layer to the confusion, a Zillow spokeswoman said that the owner of the house posted the "make me move" status on Nov. 17 and removed it Wednesday. "There's no indication that there was any fraudulent activity on the listing," the spokeswoman said. Zillow would not identify the owner listed in the company's records. The website allows owners to claim their houses online and uses a verification process that involves emails and tax records. The company insists that it's very difficult - though not impossible - to claim a house that isn't yours. Brian Jones, an ardent fan of "A Christmas Story," bought the house for $150,000 in 2005 after seeing a listing on eBay. The renovated property opened for tours the following year. A few years later, Jones moved his affiliated Internet retail business from California, where he lives, to a warehouse in North Olmsted. The operation fulfills orders for for leg lamps and other movie-inspired memorabilia. In emails, Dickerson reiterated that Jones has no plans to divest. "Ralphie's house," she wrote, "is here to stay!!" Its more like survival, Mr. Rico said. I thought it would make my life better, that this agreement would create opportunities for everyone. Maybe it has, he added, nodding toward the Whirlpool logo on the entrance to the complex. Just not for us. His argument has driven the narrative that where the American worker lost, the Mexican economy gained. But here in Mexico, there is an increasing belief that Nafta, despite drawing an enormous amount of investment to the country, has been a big disappointment. At the end of the day, as a development strategy, it should have led to higher sustained growth, generated well-paid salaries and reduced the gap between Mexico and the United States, said Gerardo Esquivel, an economist at the Colegio de Mexico. It has remained well below what was hoped for. Mexicos economy has grown an average of just 2.5 percent a year under Nafta, a fraction of what was needed to provide the jobs and prosperity its supporters promised. More than half of Mexicans still live below the poverty line, a proportion that remains unchanged from 1993, before the deal went into effect. Wages in Mexico have stagnated for more than a decade, and the stubborn gap between the nations rich and poor persists. A majority of workers in Mexico toil in the obscurity of under-the-table jobs at workshops, markets and farms for their survival. New technologies, meanwhile, have cut many jobs while increasing productivity, which is good news for businesses but a blow to the work force. Mexico is seeing exactly the same phenomenon as in the United States, said Timothy A. Wise, a research fellow at Tufts University. Workers have declining bargaining power on both sides of the border. In part, Naftas failure to achieve its potential falls on the Mexican governments shoulders, experts say. Rather than use the agreement as a launching point to grow and invest in many sectors of the Mexican economy, successive governments viewed the trade deal as a silver bullet for the countrys economic woes. All of this is not lost on Mexicans, despite their governments defense of Nafta. A recent poll by Parametria, a respected Mexican pollster, found that more than two-thirds of respondents believed that Nafta had benefited American consumers and businesses, while just 20 percent believed it had been good for them. The poll, consisting of 800 interviews in peoples homes, had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. There is a grand narrative in the United States that Mexico was the great winner of Nafta, said Fernando Turner Davila, the secretary of the economy and labor in the industrial state of Nuevo Leon. Meanwhile, here in Mexico, they only see the benefits, which are glorified. They never see the downsides, much less talk about them. Mr. Turner cited the loss of nearly two million jobs in the agricultural industry because of the treaty, which benefited highly subsidized industries in the United States like corn to the detriment of Mexican farmers. And while the federal government lauds the increase in manufacturing exports, Mexico still relies on a tremendous number of imports from the United States. The Mexican government has not established policies to protect Mexican businesses, said Mr. Turner, himself a businessman, with factories in a half-dozen countries. That said, even critics like Mr. Turner do not want to see Nafta gutted. It is an imperfect deal, one that has failed to deliver on its promise, he said. But to terminate the treaty would be a disaster, he said, hurting both Mexico and the United States and creating even more job losses. It would also not happen easily, critics contend. After two decades, the two economies are tightly braided together. Goods manufactured by companies operating in both countries whether speakers, cars or airplanes cross the border multiple times during production, a shared manufacturing process that, if destroyed, would mean shared job losses. A lot of people are taking solace in the reality that its very difficult for the U.S. to impose tariffs on Mexico without damaging the U.S. economy as well, said Christopher Wilson, a scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Institute. You need something to replace Nafta. Otherwise youre going to leave a lot of American workers out in the cold. The agreement has certainly brought positive changes to Mexico, economists note. Since it went into effect at the beginning of 1994, billions of dollars in investment has been pouring into Mexico every year. Sleepy provincial towns have become manufacturing hubs. Workers assemble Ford Fusion Hybrid cars in the city of Hermosillo and Whirlpool refrigerators outside Monterrey. Tijuana sends flat-screen televisions across the border and the state of Queretaro hammers out parts for helicopters and corporate jets. For two decades, those exports have been the main driver of growth in Mexico, which is why Mexicos government is so eager to defend the countrys trade relationship with the United States. Without the agreement, the foreign investment that creates new jobs will slow, or even vanish, some fear. Mexicans got a forewarning of the possible effect this week. After poor sales and criticism from Mr. Trump, Ford announced that it would cancel a planned car plant in San Luis Potosi, a state that Nafta has transformed into a hub for auto manufacturing. Mexico has done a lot right, said Gordon H. Hanson, a trade expert at the University of California, San Diego. It has a lot to be proud of. It has developed a middle class that lives in cities, that educates their children. Its not the Mexico of 1993. The image of these bustling factories feeds the idea that Mexico is responsible for the hollowing out of Americas industrial heartland. But the reality has turned out to be much more complicated. While American companies moved jobs to lower-wage Mexico to remain competitive, some new jobs emerged in the United States, in design or engineering, or in plants to make parts for the Mexican factories. In the end, Nafta did not cause the huge job losses feared by the critics or the large economic gains predicted by supporters, the Congressional Research Service concluded in 2015. In Mexico, the hope was to mimic the success of East Asias so-called tigers, using free trade as the catalyst to modernize and overhaul the economy through exports. Instead, Mexico produced the exports, but not the growth. It even fell behind most other countries in Latin America during the 2000s. But Nafta was not necessarily the problem. Much of the misstep, experts say, was the Mexican governments belief that the agreement would be enough to transform the economy all by itself. Thinking of the trade deal as a panacea, the government failed to come up with a broader policy or make the investments needed to use the trade agreement as a lever to transform the whole economy. Investments in research and development, for instance, have failed to materialize in both the public and private sectors. Government spending on infrastructure has dropped to its lowest level in seven decades, experts say, leaving an unreliable network of ports, highways and even internet connections across the country. Burdensome regulation and corruption stifled investment, while the nations banks lent far less than their Latin American peers, leaving small companies to scramble for credit. Even where Nafta is succeeding, it is not pushing wages up, or creating enough needed jobs. Rodolfo de la Torre, an economist with the Espinosa Yglesias Center for Studies in Mexico City, said officials initially hoped Nafta would bring jobs to the mass of poorly educated workers in Mexico. But by the early 2000s, much of that low-skilled work had left for China, where labor was cheaper. Jobs for better-educated workers in Mexico remained, in part because of the technological advances in the industrial plants. Wages initially rose for those workers, but soon the supply outstripped demand, as young Mexicans stayed in school longer. There was more competition in the labor market, Mr. de la Torre said. Now, in many of the manufacturing hubs of Mexico, wages, and hopes, have been frozen. For 10 years, Jorge Augustin Martinez has driven a forklift for Prolec, a joint venture with General Electrics that makes transformers. A father of two, he earns about $100 for a six-day workweek. Though he has received modest cost-of-living increases, his last raise was five years ago, when gas, food and household items were far cheaper, he said. It was also before his second son was born. Between housing, insurance, savings and other requisites, he is left with about $40 a week to buy food and other necessities for his family, he said. Some of the engineers in the plant make more, he said, but no one is thriving. Were all the same, fighting to make ends meet, he said. I dont know anyone who is very comfortable. Guwahati, January 5 : Assam Police and Intelligence agencies worried after former NDFB leader IK Songbijit raised his strength in Karbi Anglong district and some parts of northern Assam after forming a new outfit group People's Democratic Council of Karbi Longri(PDCK) last year in Myanmar. A top official of Assam Police said that, several cadres of NDFB had joined the new outfit group. "Initially Songbijit Ingti Kathar, the detaching leader of NDFB, formed the PDCK looking eyes on Karbi Hills with his 60 fellows. But the new outfit group strength gradually grown up following few NDFB cadres joined it," the top police official said. "Following the intelligence inputs, we have alerted the concerned district police to launch massive operation against the Songbijit led militant group," the police official said. The PDCK is also a associate member of the United Liberation Front of Western South East Asia comprising NSCN (K), Ulfa (I), Kamatapur Liberation Organization (KLO), NLFT, KCP. Recently, the PDCK, NLFT and KLO warned the hindi speaking people and bengali people to quit Kamatapur, Karbi Longri and Tripura before March 31. In a joint statement, the outfit groups said that, if else they will face a dangerous situation. Following the three militant groups threatened, Assam police has raised the security cover in such areas to prevent any untoward situation. (Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath) BAGHDAD, Jan 5: Iraqi officials say a car bombing in a mostly Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad has killed at least eight people. A police officer said Thursday the explosives-laden car was parked near an outdoor fruit and vegetable market. He said six civilians and two policemen were killed, while at least 15 other people were wounded. A medical official confirmed the casualty figures. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release information. No one immediately claimed the attack, but it bore the hallmarks of the Islamic State group, which has carried out a string of bombings in the Iraqi capital over the past week, killing nearly 100 people. Guwahati: Shankardev Shishu Vidya Niketan School at Dadara near Hajo is ready to get another facelift with the financial support from Guwahati Round Table 235, the Guwahati chapter of Round Table India. The completed phase two section, comprising three classrooms, verandah & staircases with a total area of 2,750 square feet, will be inaugurated on 8 January next. Kamrup (rural) district magistrate Vinod Seshan has consented to inaugurate phase two part on Sunday in presence of district police chief PS Mahanta. 'The foundation stone for development was laid on the 7 February 2016, where the project was planned to be completed in a phased manner with the first phase has already been completed. It was inaugurated by Assam education minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma,'A informed Parveen Goyal, chief of Guwahati Round Table 235. Addressing the media persons on Wednesday, Goyal also added that they would soon start the construction of phase three and expected to get it completed by the end of 2017. He described his mother organization as a non-religious and non-political entity. The Round Table India has over 4,500 chapters across the country comprising young businessmen, entrepreneurs, technocrats and other professionals. Mukesh Chokhani, secretary to the Guwahati chapter of Round Table India disclosed that they adopted the Dadara Shishu Niketan school under its flagship freedom through education project. He also added that they planned to develop around 10,500 sqft in the school premises with a total outlay of rupees 80 Lakhs. Project conveners Avishek Kejriwal, Shwet Agarwal, Rahul Sethi with few others were also present on the occasion. Soon after the press meet the Guwahati Round Table 235 office bearers donated two galvanized steel chairs for Guwahati Press Club, which were accepted by the GPC secretary Nava Thakuria in presence of other member-journalists. Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal in a meeting with the leaders of the United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF) at his residence in Baluwatar, on Thursday, January 5, 2017. Photo Courtesy: PMas Secretariat Kathmandu, Nepal: The Nepali Congress (NC), CPN Maoist Center and United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF) have agreed to table the constitution amendment bill at the parliament meeting scheduled for Sunday. A tripartite meeting between the top leaders of the three major parties held at the Prime Ministers residence in Baluwatar on Thursday decided to table the bill. The government allies- Nepali Congress and the CPN Maoist Center and he agitating UDMF made the decision to table the bill in the parliament concluding that the Supreme Courts verdict has cleared path to take the bill forward into the House. It is said that the UDMF is going to file a separate amendment proposal on the constitution amendment bill. Kathmandu, Nepal: The government has dismissed National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sushil Gyewali on Thursday. Gyewali, who was appointed by the erstwhile KP Sharma Oli-led government in December 2015 for the period of five years, has been dismissed by a cabinet decision citing the reason that the clarification submitted by him was not satisfactory. The government on December 29 had sought an explanation from Gyewali expressing dissatisfaction with the snail-paced work of the NRA. Responding to the clarification sought from the government, Gyenwali had wrote a letter to the office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers on Wednesday stating that his role as the CEO of the NRA could not be labeled below satisfactory on any ground, reason and condition. However, he had mentioned in his clarification letter that reconstruction works were being delayed primarily due to lack of cooperation from bureaucrats. The government had raised questions over the performance of CEO Gyenwali particularly about the sluggish distribution of the first installment of housing grant to quake victims. Likewise, the Cabinet meeting has also decided to give the martyrdom status to forest ranger Ganesh Bahadur Shahi and give Rs 1 million to his family. Forest ranger Shahi of Jajarkot district was found murdered at a forest of Khokling of Taplejung district. President Bidya Devi Bhandari Kathmandu, Nepal: President Bidya Devi Bhandari has summoned the top leaders of the major five political parties- Nepali Congress (NC), CPN-UML, CPN (Maoist Center), Rastriya Prajatantra Party and Madhesi Peoples Rights Forum (Democratic) for discussions. President Bhandari summoned the top leaders of the major parties at time when the political parties have been differing on many contentious issues of the constitution including the issue of amendment of the constitution. sacw.net - 5 January 2017 At this time there is a genuine fear that the lack of leadership in J & K has created an abyss that has caused an unredeemable political bankruptcy in the State, and regional aspirations continue to be asphyxiated by the politics of the Indian and Pakistani nation-states. I am distressingly aware of the atrocities inevitably inflicted on idealism, particularly by nation-states that, by their nature, do not brook opposition. Structures of governance might change, legal discourse might change but it is armed might that bestows authority on nation-states, giving them the legitimacy to wage wars and to annihilate peoples in the wake of those wars. In the guileful and wily world of subcontinental politics, Tariq Abdullah became just another pawn who was chosen to accompany the Pakistani delegation to the United Nations General Assembly in 1965, which was supposedly committed to pleading the Kashmir cause. After much probing and digging, I found the text of Prime Minister Bhuttoas speech that had led the Government of India to label Tariq Abdullah as persona non grata: aThe representative of India has referred to a so-called acknowledged leader of Kashmir and a co-worker of Sheikh Abdullah, who took the floor a few days ago from this rostrumaa man called Mir Qasim. He has been described as a co-worker of Sheikh Abdullah. But who is Sheikh Abdullah? Sheikh Abdullah is the Lion of Kashmir; the man who has waged a heroic struggle for the people of Jammu and Kashmir from 1931 onwards; the man who has been prepared to make any sacrifice for a righteous cause; the man who was regarded by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru as the champion of the people of Kashmir, as a legend whose fame and glory knew no dimensions of territory, as a person who was a hero and a symbol of his people, as a person who symbolized freedom and the struggle for emancipation. These are not my words. These are the words of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, paraphrased by me which are in the records of the United Nations. Yet that great hero, who symbolized freedom, is today in an Indian gaol [sic]. By proxy we are told what Sheikh Abdullah said, what Sheikh Abdullah meant; and the Indian representative has the audacity to quote a man who, in the eighteen years of our independence, has been incarcerated for eleven years or more by India. After the independence of India, this great comrade of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, this great symbol of the freedom movement, has been rotting in Indian gaols [sic] for more than a decade. When his son, the young Tariq Abdullah, who is a chip of the old block and a valiant fighter who has inherited the great tradition of his father and his people, takes this rostrum, he is ridiculed. In ridiculing Tariq Abdullah, the Indian representative is actually ridiculing Sheikh Abdullah. They have cause for ridiculing him, because it is that same Sheikh Abdullah who now languishes and rots in Indian gaols [sic]. We say: Release Sheikh Abdullah, the acknowledged leader of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, and let the world hear what he has to say about the future of the State of Jammu and Kashmir.a aYesterday, when Tariq Abdullah took the floor, he did say that, originally, Sheikh Abdullah, who had been given solemn pledges and assurances by the Government of India and by the Prime Minister of India that a plebiscite would be held in the State of Jammu and Kashmir, took those assurances at their face value. He believed them because they came from a Prime Minister of the largest democracy in the worldafrom Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. In view of those solemn and categorical assurances, he did cooperate with the Indian Government, but on condition that a plebiscite would be held in the State of Jammu and Kashmir to determine the future of the people of that state. However, when time and experience showed that all the Indian Government meant was to perpetrate a fraud on the people of Jammu and Kashmir, he was disillusioned. This was not the first time in history that leaders of a people have been ensnared, entrapped and deluded. Thus, when Tariq Abdullah took the floor, he said: aThis will give the Assembly some idea of the causes of my fatheras disillusionment with India. For a man who had been a staunch nationalist all his life, a personal friend of Pandit Nehru, who condemned bigotry and fanaticism, and under whose leadership Kashmir remained untainted with any religious strife, it could not be but a wrench and a deep crisis to raise the banner of revolt against Indian occupation of Kashmir. Much though he loved the principles of secularism, he could not tolerate that, under their cloak, India should throttle the aspirations of the people of Kashmir, separate them from their brethren in Pakistan and hold them in bondage. He warned Mr. Nehru from 1952 onwards that India was following a disastrous policy in Kashmir, and that, if she reneged on the promise of a fair and impartial plebiscite, she would forfeit all claims to the respect and sympathy of the people of Kashmir as well as the people of the world. When in 1953 he publicly stated his view that the future of India, Pakistan and Kashmir could not be secure without an honorable settlement of the Kashmir dispute, he was deposed and put in gaol [sic]. For a long time no legal proceedings were brought against him. When a case was filed, it dragged on for several years. Finally, Sheikh Abdullah was acquitted in 1964, but his freedom was short-lived. Since early this year he has been kept in detention without trial.a So this is the truth about Sheikh Abdullah who now languishes in an Indian gaol, and who is being authoritatively quoted as representing the Kashmir position in so far as India is concerned. Yet when the authentic voice of the people of Kashmir, represented by Tariq Abdullah, takes this rostrum we are told by the Indian representative that what he utters is not true.a (Zulfikar Ali Bhuttoas Speech, United Nations General Assembly, October 15, 1965) The Polisario leader, Brahim Ghali, who is reportedly critically ill, was flown to Spain and admitted to a specialized hospital in Madrid, according to corroborative sources. Ghali must undergo surgery for a cancerous tumor in the stomach, according to medical sources in Madrid. Before Brahim Ghali was flown to Spain, where he is summoned to appear before the National Audience for torture, forced disappearances, illegal detention, rape and sexual abuse, and serious human rights violations, the Algerian government had to ask Spanish authorities to suspend the arrest warrant issued against him because of his serious health condition. Since 2008, the torturer of the Tindouf camps has been summoned to appear before the National Audience, the highest Spanish criminal court, to answer for the crimes he committed as a senior executive of the Polisario in the Tindouf camps and also against some thirty fishermen from the Canary Islands. The fishermen were killed at his orders, while he was leading an armed militia operating off the Western Sahara between 1976 and 1989. But Brahim Ghali never appeared before Spanish judge Pablo Ruz who summoned him after he heard the testimonies of several of his victims. The arrival of the torturer of Tindouf in Madrid did not go unnoticed. Several Spanish and Sahrawi associations have demanded that he be arrested after his recovery so that he answers for the crimes he is being charged with. Another Spanish Judge, Jose de la Mata, decided last summer to reopen the case of crimes committed in Tindouf between 1974 and 1988, following two complaints. One of the complaints was filed by the Sahrawi Association for the Defense of Human Rights (ASADEH) against Brahim Ghali and 28 other individuals, including Polisario members and senior officers of the Algerian army. At their hearing before the National Audience, the victims of these torturers gave heartbreaking testimonies about the tortures and the inhuman treatments that they had undergone in the Polisario jails. These survivors also unveiled before the Court the names of the Sahrawi detainees who died under torture as well as the names of the authors of these crimes. Now that the main defendant is on Spanish soil, his fate depends on the ability of the justice to convince the Spanish executive to arrest him when he leaves the hospital. Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. 2017 has barely kicked off and already action fans are being assured 2018 wont pull any punches. Or at least, thats what were hoping to get once Black Water is released: a high-octane, kick-ass thriller centered around the latest on screen pairing of Dolph Lundgren and the Muscles from Brussels. Last seen together in The Expendables 2 and the rather stylishly choreographed Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning (both in 2012), the newest collaboration between Lundgren and Van Damme, scripted by Chad Law, starts shooting later this month. In Black Water: A CIA operative (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is imprisoned in a secret black site on board a nuclear submarine. With the help of a new ally (Lundgren) he must make his escape and clear his name before he disappears forever. You read that right. Black Water will mark the first time both action stars land punches for the same team. Narratively, the synopsis suggests pretty standard action fare, but you gotta love that tagline some secrets never surface which hits the sweet spot in terms of quotable b movie cheese. Fans of JCVDs lighter side also have the satirical Jean-Claude Van Johnson to look forward to, which was picked up for a full season by Amazon, following a well-liked, tongue-in-cheek pilot. After years of having it on my watchlist, I caught up with Senegalese director Ousmane Sembene's Moolaade last year and enjoyed it a great deal, leaving me hungry for more. The Criterion Collection has conveniently sailed in to quench the thirst, with its January 24 release of Sembene's first feature film, Black Girl, which joins the collection at spine #852. Black Girl saw its 50th anniversary last year and was restored by the World Cinema project in 4K resolution, the transfer that has been used for the disc here. The results are, predictably, terrific: aside from a handful of shots which still retain some visible spots in places, the digital print is crackling sharp, keeping its beautiful grain alive while betraying none of the gorgeous contrast of Sembene's black and white photography. The film concerns the eponymous young woman, Diouana, who is hired by a bourgeois French couple to become their personal servant on the Riviera. (Notably, the film's title notwithstanding, Diouana is given a name, while the pair of white people are never known as anything other than Mr. and Mrs.) Not realizing that her commitment to them will turn her into little more than an indentured servant, and even a racist curiousity to her employers' guests, Diouana feels increasingly imprisoned in the four-room house, while she muses on events in Dakar that brought her to this place. It's a beautifully lensed movie, strictly neorealist in presentation except for a handful of shocking, POV-ish close-ups, as the French wife becomes increasingly irate at what she sees as a heartily disobedient maid. Sembene employs striking contrast throughout to negotiate the spaces where Diouana feels more or less empowered. In Senegal, she is brightly lit against soft, grayscale backdrops, whereas in France, overexposed white backgrounds make her deep brown skin seem all the more starkly isolated and alone. (As a treat for fans: one sequence, when Diouana first arrives on the Riviera, was filmed in colour - like Dorothy arriving in Oz - before ultimately being converted to black and white for the final film. The original colour version of the sequence is restored as a bonus feature on the disc, and it's splendid... though one can see why it also didn't work in the context of the movie as a whole.) Black Girl builds to a deeply troubling ending as the pressures upon Diouana continue to mount. She is a unique and memorable character, one upon whom all around her are placing a series of rules and expectations which simply do not jibe with what she, herself, wants or expects. One flashback sequence sees her mounting a war memorial wall, capering along it with arms outstretched while her boyfriend shouts at her from below to get down. As with most of the proscriptions offered by others in Black Girl, Diouana doesn't give a fuck. The film is harshly critical of the entire notion of post-colonialism, and was made in a decade in which Senegal was only beginning to emerge from direct French control. This control may be gone, but a white colonial mindset continues to maneuver all of Black Girl's characters, some so overtly that they might well be speaking from a plantation in the American south, a couple of decades before the Civil War. It's a sharp, clever critique from one of Africa's founding filmmakers, and its final moments are haunting, staying with the viewer long after the credits roll. Black Girl was Sembene's first feature film, but the Criterion disc nicely includes his first short film as well, a 20-minute drama called Borom Sarret ("The Wagoner"), which recalls Bicycle Thieves in its intimate portrait of a down-on-his-luck cart driver in Dakar, musing upon his worries. Other features on the disc place the filmmaker in the context of his career as a whole (a 20-minute interview with scholar Samba Gadjigo) and within Black Girl itself (conversations with filmmaker Manthia Diawara and actress M'Bissine Therese Diop, who played Diouana). There is also an hour-long documentary from 1994, Sembene: The Making of African Cinema, which is a great deal of fun, and goes through Sembene's influence on filmmakers in Africa and beyond in detail. Those of you looking to get your post apocalyptic fix this Winter need only look for Chris con Hoffmann's debut feature film Drifter at the end of February. XLrator Media has picked up the North American rights for the flick and will release it in select cinemas on the 24th and on VOD and iTunes on the 28th. XLrator Media has acquired North American distribution rights to the post-apocalyptic horror-thriller DRIFTER and will release the film in theaters on February 24 and on VOD and iTunes February 28. DRIFTER was directed and produced by Chris von Hoffmann in his feature film debut and co-written by von Hoffmann (based on his story) and Aria Emory. The film stars Drew Harwood, Aria Emory, James McCabe, Monique Rosario, Rebecca Fraiser and Anthony Ficco. Chris von Hoffmann previously directed several short films, including Fuel Junkie, White Trash and Vodka 7, which have won awards at various film festivals. The film follows a pair of outlaw brothers (Drew Harwood and Aria Emory) who seek temporary refuge in a desolate town inhabited by a family of psychotic cannibalistic lunatics. DRIFTER is a stylish and wicked thriller infusing bloodthirsty cannibals with a Mad Max aesthetic that heralds Chris von Hoffmann as a young director to watch. Were excited to bring genre fans his feature film debut and see what he does next, said XLrator Media CEO Barry Gordon. You can watch the trailer for Drifter below. It looks interesting enough. Jackie Chan last found success in Hollywood by mentoring young Jaden Smith in a remake of the surprisingly decent The Karate Kid. That was more than six years ago. Since then, Chan has rarely been seen in North American theaters. Most recently, historical action epic Dragon Blade and buddy comedy Skiptrace both received token releases here; each has its own problems and neither represents Chan at his finest. Railroad Tigers sees Chan reuniting with director Ding Sheng for an action picture that really moves. That's a weak but true statement; for a late-period Chan movie, Railroad Tigers features a series of action sequences that sometimes defy the laws of physics but are mostly fun to watch unfold. Chan and Sheng began their collaboration with Little Big Soldier, which featured a solid performance from Chan, followed by Police Story: Lockdown, which our own James Marsh described as a letdown in which "most of the time, Chan just looks like a sad puppy." Set in 1941 (per the press notes), during the time when the Japanese and Chinese armies were at war, Railroad Tigers revolves around Chan as Ma Yuan, a factory worker who has also formed a small team to steal valuable things from the trains that run through a small town in China. The town is occupied by the Japanese military police, overseen locally by Yamaguchi (Hiroyuki Ikeuchi from Ip Man). One day a wounded Chinese soldier named Daguo (Darren Wang) stumbles into town. He is the only survivor of a mission to blow up a bridge that is key to the war effort in the area. He asks Ma Yuan to deliver a message to the army, letting them know that the mission was a failure and that the bridge still needs to be blown up in the next two days. But before he can explain how to contact the army, he's killed. Like almost everyone else in town, Ma Yuan has lost a family member to the war. So he decides to carry out the soldier's dangerous mission, and his team members quickly join him, along with an independent thief, a blacksmith, and Fan Chuan (Wang Kai), a noodle shop owner who was formerly a sharpshooter with the Chinese army. The balance of the film is spent on the mission. First, though, they'll need explosives... Laid out in a simple and direct manner, Railroad Tigers initially features the expected broad humor to liven up the introduction, which takes an extended period of time to establish the reluctant yet patriotic amateur warriors. They are set against Japanese characters as caricatures of evil, first the nasty Yamaguchi, Captain of the local Japanese Military Police, and then Inspector Yuko (Zhang Lanxin), his superior, who easily tops him in brutish behavior. They are more than balanced, though, by Ma Yuan and his relentlessly likable team. It's easy to root for them because all are modest in their personalities and forthright in their loyalty. Ma Yuan even has an age-appropriate love interest in the widowed Auntie Qin (Fan Xu), a pancake seller, and they each have children who are about the same age. Her son Dahai (played by Chan's son Jaycee Chan) and his daughter Xing'er both end up on the mission, giving Chan the actor an opportunity to display his parenting skills. Sheng co-wrote the script and also served as film editor. As a director, he wisely favors sweeping tracking shots and knows well how to showcase the action provided by the Jackie Chan Stunt Team. As things progress and visual effects force their way into more complex sequences involving the principal train, it's difficult to disguise those effects, but by that point it's a bit too late to start nit-picking. While Railroad Tigers falls quite a bit short of Chan's masterpieces of the 1980s and early 1990s, it's a more than respectable action movie that provides a refreshing change of pace and serves as a good throwback to World War II-era military train pictures. The film opens in select theaters in the U.S. via Well Go USA on Friday, January 6. As 2017 begins the first important film festival for emerging filmmakers kicks off in Park City, Utah, at the end of the month. Running counter to the bigger named festival, Slamdance`s mandate has always been to support up and coming and independent filmmakers. We at ScreenAnarchy are pleased to introduce a filmmaker to you that will likely turned some heads at the festival and in the years to come. Brian Harrison will debut his short film Hell Follows at Slamdance in their aptly named Anarchy program. Betrayed by his clan and murdered for his past evil deeds, a sadistic killer's soul possesses his identical twin's body and sets out onto the road of vengeance for one final crusade of extermination. Everywhere he goes ... HELL FOLLOWS. After watching Hell Follows the first thing I said to myself is that Harrison is the demon spawn of Miike and Tsukamoto if the surrogate mother dropped hits of acid while the baby came to term. And that is a compliment! I had yet to see anyone outside of Japan capture the possessed spirit and demonic essence of the early works of those directors, and others, in such a short running time. Their influences scream at you from the top of their lungs through the ravaged throat of Hell Follows`central character. ScreenAnarchy will be pleased to share the trailer for Hell Follows with the community as the festival approaches. For now we have a gallery as well as a motion poster and two Stereoscopic clips to share with you. We also shot some questions over to Harrison so you too can discover how a kid from blue collar America falls in love with Japan`s VCinema and maverick `sinema` filmmakers. Harrison`s knowledge of Japanese cinema exceeds encyclopedic; it transcends into a full blown passion for that era of filmmaking. ScreenAnarchy - Can we start off with you introducing yourself to the ScreenAnarchy family? Tell us a little bit about yourself, please. Brian Harrison - Well. How does someone talk about themselves? This is something I have always found somewhat difficult to fully integrate into my consciousness. How do we pick what we say and we leave out. I believe most of us paint the best picture of ourselves, not only to others, but when we look in the mirror as well. We hoist up our better qualities and diminish our faults. It's a natural thing. But, it goes deeper than self-absorption or the want and need to be judged as a good or bad if thats your fancy... it also touches on the human sense of what reality is and what it may not be. We include ourselves in this analysis on a second by second basis. Who we are, what we feel, how we feel about others, the world, and everyone's place in it. I suppose what I am trying to convey here is that I am like any other person striving to maintain their reality and the self. A difficult task. If you want to know where I come from and who I am today, well, that answer is extremely complicated (especially the who I am today). But, some basics about me: I come from a blue-collar family. Florida kid. NYC young adult. Los Angeles man. Immigrants on both sides. Some from recent times, some from more than a hundred years ago. Hard working folk that have sacrificed everything for a better life for their family. In a sense, true American alchemy. It's funny to say that, considering where we may be headed as a society, but it's true. I'm tough sometimes, too tough often. That's getting better with age. I hurt most days, with brighter days ahead - always. I struggle with faults, sometimes for too long. I love. I accept love. I have done selfless things for many people in my life. I have also hurt many people in my life, selfishly. I see the good in people, but recognize the bad. I strive to think of life as art itself. Everything you see. Everything you do. With a purpose. A way. I am obsessed with cinema, the truest form of art in my mind because it combines all the rest. All of these things make me who I am and are what you should know about me. I use all these things in my work and in my life. I am like you, and you like me. A human being. SA - The short bio I was sent as an introduction to you states right off the hop, Since the early age of 6 Brian Harrison was first introduced and inducted into the world of Asian cinema. Reading that, having watched Hell Follows and noting Japans maverick directors that have influenced your short film, one can only be concerned that you were weaned on these characters and not something a little softer like Ghibli. I can only ask, Who was responsible for this? How did all begin? BH - It is true that there are a number of maverick Japanese writers, directors, cinematographers and art directors that have influenced this short film and me in general. Some of directors you have named below. There are others. Many. It is also true that I was not weaned on softer faire. I was thrown into the fire at age 6 so to speak (I guess somewhat inappropriately) and have never looked back. The answer to who is responsible is pretty simple. My father. He was a huge fan of Asian cinema and so I became one. He loved these films, so I loved these films. It is what I first knew as movies (at this early age) with a few key American pictures like Apocalypse Now, which I also saw at 6 or 7. The first film though, was Shogun Assassin (the American/British re-cut version of the first 2 films in the Lone Wolf and Cub series [Sword of Vengeance + Baby Cart at the River Styx]). Heads flying. Blood gushing, spraying. Samurai. Ninja. Ladies in waiting. Vengeance. Redemption. Nudity. Tradition. Custom. Honor. All out awesomeness. It all escalated from there. Into a myriad of films, even into some of the more risque ones in the pinky cinema vaults. I could name hundreds that started this journey and continue it today. Most of these pictures, from the late 1950s-the 70s. Ill put it to you this way, I own more than 40 of Fukusaku-sans films. Thats just one guy. SA - The list of Japanese directors that have influenced Hell Follows are Suzuki Seijun (Branded to Kill and Tokyo Drifter), Oshima Nagisa (Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence), Fukusaku Kinji (Battle Royale and Battles Without Honor and Humanity), Miike Takashi (Ichi the Killer and Audition) and Tsukamoto Shinya (Tetsuo the Iron Man and A Snake of June). What is it about their work, apart from the obvious visual cues, that drew you in? BH - Let me correct this just a bit. These are SOME of the directors that have influenced this picture. The list, all in all, is probably more like 20+ (that you can see [well at least I can] direct influences. From all over the globe, from all different decades and generations. I guess, when you look at it like that, what it really is, is just an adoption of everything I love from all the films and directors I love then pushing it in and out of my oddly wired brain, covering it in experiences and creating my own specific style, vibe and sonic palate. Strangely enough though, my two biggest influences are not even filmmakers in the traditional sense. One was a painter, artist, scientist, socialite, weirdo, intellectual and well I guess he was a filmmaker too, of sorts. And the second a writer, comedian, and all around badass. But, Ill leave that for another discussion. As far as the directors above, each has their own specific nuances that I am attracted to. Little things. Sometimes obvious things. Sometimes just a feeling. All masters at the craft. Suzuki-san = Theatre + Art. Oshima-san = Emotion + Rebellion. Fukusaku-san = Violence + Character. Miike-san = Surrealism + Madness. Tsukamoto-san = Loneliness + Nightmares. SA - Hell Follows will not end at just the short film. Please share with our readers what your ambitions and goals are for this project. BH - To know where this idea is headed, I suppose we have to begin at where it began. The whole idea for this film started with a novella I wrote about 2 years ago, entitled BLACK AS HELL DARK AS NIGHT. The book contains parts of this story and 2 other stories, all of them related/intertwined through familial relationships. Some of it takes place in Japan, some in the US. All of it hyper-violent and hyper-real. The novella itself has never been published, but I may do so after the feature if things work the way I intend. After writing the novella, I started in on the feature screenplay. When the first draft was completed, I took a step back and realized something that I may have done here, which was that I may have created my own manga world. Or in other words, created a manga comic, sans the actual comic books. Holy buckets of water Batman. The world, the feeling, the characters all seemed to have that flavor to them, although the feature film is set a vastly non-manga city a hyper-realistic ghetto in Osaka called Airin-chiku. Once I realized that, I immediately started in with my concept artist, Jack Gregory, and we began the process of creating the manga. So thats where we are now. We have the short film which is taken from the feature, a kind of nightmare sequence the feature screenplay, the novella, and now the manga in production. The intention is release these in a sort of Suicide Club (Sono - 2001) manner. The feature, the novella and then the manga. With room for additional stories within these stories all in the same manner. A huge lofty goal for sure, but a plan nonetheless. I would love to get into more detail about the status of the feature, and I will come back to you as soon as I can on that just know that the process is moving rapidly. I fully intend to be in Osaka in Fall 2017 shooting this and will probably actually move there first in May or June. Lets see where the road takes us. I can promise this though, the film will be made and it will be the best fucking film I can make. I have been preparing my whole life for it. ***Editor`s Note - The feature film Harrision has planned will go by the same name at the novella Black As Hell Dark As Night. SA - You shot Hell Follows on 16mm, Super 8 and in 4K. Why did you choose to shoot in these polar opposite formats? BH - Let me say first, that I am the type that loves shooting on film and wants to continue using that format as much as humanly possible. I dont scoff at digital, of course not, it is where we are in cinema, but there is just something about film we all kind of know that. A feeling. A look. A richness. A history. A sense of cinema. So, when Alex Bergman (my creative other half and cinematographer) and I began discussing how we would shoot this, we decided right away on using B&W Kodak Tri-X Reversal film all to be shot on a Canon Scoopic. Why? Well, Tsukamoto shot all of Tetsuo on one, so that was an obvious choice for both of us. Thats why you get the feeling from the film. I believe. Alex had already shot some stuff in Africa on one, so, he was familiar... and off we went. To be honest, Alex Bergman has a grasp over the film format like I never encountered in a young cinematographer. He can do amazing things with it. On a complete other level. So, we shot some of it with the Scoopic, developed it, saw what we had and decided to shoot more. Next we went digital, but stayed true to ourselves and used some incredible 1950s and 1960s glass. It was the intention from the beginning to have this film feel like it was partly shot in another time, years ago but with no real exact sense of when. Using the vintage lenses helped with that, along with the costuming, art direction and practical FX we did (including the snow which is not digital). Lastly, one of my close friends and creative partners, editor Dave Kebo, who also has a story by credit on the feature (FYI he is the nephew of Toshiro Mifune believe it or not) had his grandfathers old 8MM camera lying around. I was over the house one day and asked if I could borrow it to shoot for the film. The 8mm kind of happened by chance, not plan. So, I brought it to set and shot some specific cut-ins with it, and then used it to shoot some B-roll of Kaizo to have some things to play with in the edit for the drug sequence. So, I guess you could say that choosing to use all 3 of these formats seemed appropriate because they kind of represent my personality/who I am. Someone who is completed enthralled to be in 2017, but who also loves the feeling analog formats bring to the table. A young man of sorts, with an old soul. If that makes sense. SA - Hell Follows will debut at Slamdance. For our readers who cannot be at the festival and be the first to see it is its Festival Dance Card starting to fill up? Is it booked at other film festivals? BH - I can tell you that I am ecstatic to be premiering this picture at Slamdance, in the Anarchy section which seems quite appropriate I suppose. The Slamdance family is filled with some amazing people with incredible talent and dedication to cinema Rebels With A Cause oh you see what I did there? It is a great honor and I could not be happier about it. We have a ton of people coming out for it, which will make it even more special. I think we may end up 15 deep in Park City this year. I do hope that whoever can make it out to Park City does and sees not only this picture but the numerous other wonderful, mind bending, rebel cinema they have programmed. I personally cant wait! As far as the other festivals, yes there are a myriad of them, but none that I can announce until after Slamdance. I guess check back on Facebook or Instagram for those. But, in all, yes this will be shown all throughout the US and abroad in the coming year. After that, the short may go into the vaults and never come out again. If you are currently a print subscriber but don't have an online account, select this option. You will need to use your 7 digit subscriber account number (with leading zeros) and your last name (in UPPERCASE). "Why Dylann Roof Has a Right to the Death Penalty" ... OR "Why Dylann Roof Representing Himself Is A Constitutional Tragedy" | Main | Louisiana public defenders lacking resources needed to adequately prepare for Miller resentencings in old juve LWOP cases January 4, 2017 Florida Supreme Court adds to the mess that is the current Florida death penalty limbo These three headlines spotlight the remarkable (and still unclear) story surrounding an important death penalty ruling by the Florida Supreme Court which was released and then withdrawn today: "Typo upends Florida Supreme Courts death penalty ruling" "Florida's High Court Takes Puzzling Turn on Death Penalty" "Florida Supreme Court: Prosecutors can't seek death penalty - or can they?" Here are the basics from the first of these linked reports: Just hours after declaring prosecutors could not seek death sentences under existing state law, the Florida Supreme Court on Wednesday rescinded the order, an uncommon move that casts fresh uncertainty on the states death penalty. The reason: A typo. In a 5-2 ruling Wednesday morning, the court rejected Attorney General Pam Bondis request to let prosecutors seek the death penalty as long as juries voted unanimously. The court threw out the states revamped death sentencing law in October because it required only a 10-2 super majority of the jury to put someone to death. Then at 1 p.m., the Supreme Court rescinded the order, saying it was prematurely issued, and deleted it from the courts website. The Wednesday morning ruling was vacated because of a clerical error, said Craig Waters, a spokesman for the court. Makes me think of the famous words of one of my favorite philosophers. January 4, 2017 at 06:25 PM | Permalink Comments Post a comment Prez Obama produces lengthy Harvard Law Review article titled "The Presidents Role in Advancing Criminal Justice Reform" | Main | Marijuana reform and clemency conversations at the state and federal level January 5, 2017 Lamenting big criminal justice problems in the little state of Delaware This new local commentary from Delaware authored by Jack Guerin, headlined "A perfect storm of failure in criminal justice," tell a pretty disconcerting story about the First State. Here is how the commentary gets started: By every conceivable measure, Delawares criminal justice system is a failure. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Delaware has one of the highest violent crime rates in the country. The article found that our state ranked third highest among all states in robberies, and that the rate of crime in Wilmington is one of the highest of any large city in the country. In November, the Delaware Criminal Justice Council issued its annual report on recidivism in Delaware, finding that by the end of three years, about 76 percent of offenders in each cohort had been rearrested for a serious offense. Most recidivism events occurred in the first two years after release. In December, the Bureau of Justice Statistics issued a report ranking Delawares prison system fifth highest among states in overcrowding at 154.7 percent of design capacity. A recent report by the Liman Program at the Yale Law School ranked Delaware (tied with Tennessee) as having the third highest percentage of prisoners in solitary confinement in the nation. With high rates of crime, incarceration, recidivism, overcrowding and solitary confinement, Delaware represents the perfect storm of failure for the tough on crime policies initiated more than 40 years ago. Our enormous investment in punitive incarceration is not making us safer. January 5, 2017 at 10:34 AM | Permalink Comments It's worth keeping in mind Delaware has no local jails. Everyone with a misdemeanor or felony, whether charged or convicted, is in the prison system (those who haven't been convicted are supposed to be segregated from those convicted, though) and, yes, it's terribly overcrowded. That being said, I wonder what the crime rates would be if you ignored Wilmington. Posted by: Erik M | Jan 5, 2017 11:18:39 AM One should also point out that Wilmington is in close proximity to Philadelphia and gets a lot of overflow problems from that city. In other words, DE and Wilmington in particular is in a rather peculiar position and I don't see it as an example of anything. Posted by: Daniel | Jan 5, 2017 12:07:12 PM Great comments that provide a great reminder that all sentencing and crime and punishment stories are fundamentally local stories in many important ways. Posted by: Doug B | Jan 5, 2017 12:46:45 PM If Philadelphia has spillover effects to another state, the "local" effect here has a bit of nuance. Posted by: Joe | Jan 5, 2017 12:55:15 PM I would also say that being well over design capacity doesn't say anything about whether policies are tough or not. (I would actually say the re-arrest rates point in the opposite direction, both in that folks are being released who evidently should not be and those that are released are not given enough incentive to avoid returning). Posted by: Soronel Haetir | Jan 5, 2017 1:42:41 PM I am offended by the racist code phrase, "crime rate." Posted by: David Behar | Jan 5, 2017 9:23:49 PM Joe. Your "Philadelphia" is a racist code word. Everyone understands what you mean. Posted by: David Behar | Jan 5, 2017 9:25:37 PM Soronel Haetir, Truth in Sentencing laws actually can have a problem of some people being released too early (in addition to people being released too late). Discretionary Parole allowed for an individualized determination based on how you've been since being arrested. Regarding overcrowding and recidivism rates, I think the argument is that significant punishments aren't a deterrent (this is actually supported by the evidence quite commonly - the threat of punishment is much bigger than the amount of punishment and the number of years we give often do little to change the equation to add greater deterrence). I do want to go back to the no local jail thing. One big problem is institutionalizing people - turning one time criminals into career criminals. Keeping everyone together - whether it's a long-term sentence or a short-term one causes adverse consequences. Likewise, limiting opportunities for rehabilitation programs and programs involving techniques to adapt to society upon release is counterproductive in preventing recidivism. Posted by: Erik M | Jan 6, 2017 2:40:11 PM I am not especially interested in deterrence, I believe incapacitation is the more worthy goal of the legal system. And that is a major part of why I believe execution should be the default outcome for such a wide range of offenses, if you execute the perpetrator of a $200 theft they are simply not going to repeat the act later. Posted by: Soronel Haetir | Jan 6, 2017 3:49:59 PM SH. All criminals are generalists and not specialists. All drug dealers will violently defend territory. All non-violent criminals have low morals and half have antisocial personality disorder. That disorder makes them devoid of fear, of empathy, and of considering the future. Criminals each commit hundreds of crimes a year, at a massive direct cost to victims and to tax payers, and likely bigger indirect costs to the value of real estate within blocks of each crime. We are not estimating the value destroyed by the criminal, of living in fear for the general public. Only 1 in 10 serious crimes is ever prosecuted. That fraction could be 1 in a 1000 if one counts modern crimes of hacking and identity theft. Kill a criminal at the youngest age possible, and you have made up to $100 million, each. That money will be going to victims, taxpayers, and property owners. Save, protect, privilege, empower and encourage the criminal, and that money is going to the government and to the lawyer profession. I have to commend you as a rare reader of this blog who is an average, ordinary person, a potential beneficiary of the eradication of criminals. Almost all other readers here are on the side of rent seeking and big government. Your thinking is that of the 80%. Theirs is of the 20% of tax sucking, government dependent parasites. You will have to go through them to get to the criminals they are protecting. I would have no hesitation doing so, once the 80% decide to fight back. I can draft the constitutional amendments needed to stop them. I can draft the statutes criminalizing rent seeking, with its own immediate death penalty, as a mandatory sentencing guideline. Posted by: David Behar | Jan 6, 2017 7:27:20 PM Post a comment Florida Supreme Court adds to the mess that is the current Florida death penalty limbo | Main | Prez Obama produces lengthy Harvard Law Review article titled "The Presidents Role in Advancing Criminal Justice Reform" This interesting local article highlights the economic challenges posed for some local courts and lawyers when now having to implement retroactively the Supreme Court's Miller ruling precluding mandatory LWOP sentences for juvenile murderers. The article is headlined "'Unfunded mandate' of individualized sentencing hearings for some juveniles causing headaches for public defenders," and here are excerpts: A 2012 U.S. Supreme Court decision ruled out laws mandating life without parole for juveniles as unconstitutional, and a subsequent decision last year made that ruling retroactive. Now, those juveniles are required to get whats called individualized sentencing hearings before such a harsh sentence can be handed down, said Carol Kolinchak, a compliance officer for the Louisiana Public Defender Board. And those hearings take resources. You have to investigate and develop evidence (about) the youth and the circumstances surrounding the crime, Kolinchak told [Judge Arthur] Hunter, adding that it is the defenses ethical obligation to make sure each juvenile offender gets a proper investigation into their backgrounds prior to their hearing. But, she added, the mandate isnt cheap, and its also unfunded. At a cost of $60,000 to $75,000 a client, both [Orleans Parish Chief Public Defender Derwyn] Bunton and State Public Defender Jay Dixon said they were at a loss for how to properly prepare for each clients sentencing hearing. According to Kolinchak, there are nearly 300 juveniles eligible for such individualized hearings throughout the state. The question in Louisiana is the same as it is nationally, which is that it has really been an unfunded mandate, she said. It places burdens on defense counsel with no discussion of funding. The issue came up in Hunters courtroom Tuesday in the case of Joseph Morgan, a defendant convicted in 2015 of second-degree murder in the death of Gervais "Gee" Nicholas, a teenager gunned down in 2008 outside the Chat Club at Tulane Avenue and South Lopez Street. Morgan was 16 at the time of the shooting, but prosecutors are nevertheless seeking life without parole. Defense attorney Tom Shlosman, who is representing Morgan pro bono, told the judge he doesn't have the resources for the elaborate proceedings now required in Morgan's case. The other officials who testified before Hunter were brought in to help bolster the broader case that more money needs to be set aside statewide to handle these types of defendants.... In New Orleans, the question is how to proceed with about 72 cases that now qualify for a so-called Miller hearing, Kolinchak said. On Tuesday, both Bunton and Dixon said they didnt anticipate being able to pay for those hearings, at least for indigent clients, anytime soon, because theres no money available to properly investigate possible mitigating circumstances for those clients. Dixon said the state public defenders budget has been stagnant at about $33 million for the past several years. Moreover, he said, the threat of a 5 percent cut to his budget looms ahead, a move he said would be devastating for both death penalty cases and juvenile cases like Morgans. Thats because Dixon's office is required to distribute about 65 percent of its budget to district defenders' offices throughout the parishes, and so the cuts would have to come from the more complex pool of cases that his office contracts out to other law firms. Bunton said he has to stretch an $8 million budget to cover nearly 22,000 cases a year a situation that he said leaves him no room for taking on new work like individualized sentencing hearings for indigent juveniles.... We dont have an answer. This is the kind of thing that funding or lack of funding creates, Dixon said. Youre talking about basically a juggling act with a lack of funds. And were both in that trick box. We do not have an answer for that. Chef Roy Choi does not clap back. Of course the team behind the ambitious, healthy-but-still-cheap-and-supposedly-tasty fast-food venture Locol was going to respond when New York Times food critic Pete Wells panned not just their food but their very concept in a withering review of Locol's Oakland location. I mean, how could they not? The question, instead, was how they would choose to do so. Now we have our answer. Rather than impugn the critic, whose previous takedowns of established fine dining restaurants like New York's Per Se have delighted the public and been wake-up calls to chefs, LA's Roy Choi, who founded Locol with the Bay Area's Daniel Patterson, responded with humility and grace to what could be seen as humiliation. It's a clever move that aligns the business and chefs with the people and places Wells is in a position to needlessly punch down. In a response written to Instagram, Choi, who is usually known for his hotheaded social media presence, writes that "I know many of you want me to respond or snap back at him but the situation to me is much more than that. I welcome Pete's review." Patterson reposted Choi's statement, allowing it to speak for them both. Also note that Choi, as have many others, interprets the review as being "zero stars," which would be in line with its assessment and tone, but that's not correct . Correction: No, it is correct. Zero stars. Although Wells hasn't always given stars for national reviews, he does now. San Franciscans who haven't made the trip to Locol in Oakland will get their chance to judge the food for themselves soon. Locol's next location, in the Tenderloin, is on the way. Previously: New York Times Critic Pete Wells Savages Locol In Oakland Smartphones are seemingly a vital part of everyday life in tech-friendly San Francisco, and yet when it comes down to it the city's cell service coverage leaves something to be desired. So reports CBS 5, which picked up a report from network performance measurement company RootMetrics showing San Francisco ranks 58th among US cities for cellphone coverage. Interestingly, San Francisco isn't alone when it comes to major metropolitan areas dropping the coverage ball. "In a mobile-dependent society, it might be an assumption or even an expectation that the biggest cities also feature the best mobile performance," the company explains. "Our testing has consistently shown this isnt always the case. For instance, our previous report from the second half of 2015 revealed that only three of the ten most-populated US metro areas (Atlanta, Chicago, and Dallas) finished in the top ten in overall network performance." The company based its results on a test of six categories: "Overall Performance, Network Reliability, Network Speed, Data Performance, Call Performance, and Text Performance." Coming in first on the list is Lansing, Michigan, followed by Indianapolis. SF has good company halfway down the rankings, however, with New York City and the Tri-State Area coming in at 59th. Los Angeles is ranked 99th. Part of the problem in the Bay Area might be chalked up to people opposing the construction of cell towers, and sure enough CBS 5 spoke with a man working to do just that in Palo Alto. Its never really been proven safe, Peter Sullivan, whose group Clear Light Ventures battled the city over cell-tower placement, told the channel. Next to a library and a Little League field, if youre trying to do harm that would be a great place to put it right? So theyre unintentionally putting it in these locations. Meanwhile, people around the city keep staring at their phones waiting for that cute dog video to finally upload to Instagram. Related: Underground Muni Riders To Finally Be Blessed With Cell Phone Service Witness tells me man hit by @SFBART appeared to be intoxicated & slipped btwn train & platform. #ABC7now 24th & Miss pic.twitter.com/Olf4SlOQEE Katie Utehs (@KatieUtehs) January 5, 2017 A man who investigators say fell between two BART trains at a San Francisco station Wednesday was pulled alive from the tracks following an unusual rescue effort by firefighters. BART spokesperson Jim Allison tells SFist that at 6:15 p.m. Wednesday, the 28-year-old male victim fell in between two cars of a Richmond-bound train as it entered the 24th Street/Mission Station. ABC 7 reports that the man "appeared to be intoxicated" before "stumbling in front of the car." The victim ended up "pinched at the waist between the second BART car and the train platform," ABC 7 reports (a scene that likely has viewers of Homicide: Life On The Streets recalling its "Subway" episode). The victim "was very fortunate," San Francisco Fire Battalion Chief Charles Crane told ABC 7, in "how he maintained half his body above the area of the car, otherwise he would have been under it and obviously would have not survived." Rescuers pushed the train over with inflatable airbags to rescue the man, who Allison says was pulled free by around 6:45. "It comes out as flat as a pillow. It's very large," Crane says of the device used in the rescue. "They're called airbags, but they're very large, about 16 inches and they can move 20,000 pounds." "They did an incredible job and it was a very unusual circumstance...We've never had that before," Crane says, explaining that this was the first time SFFD had used the equipment for this type of rescue. The victim was semi-conscious during the rescue, CBS 5 reports. Crane says special care was taken to avoid injuring the man further during the extraction, including giving him medication to avoid "crush syndrome," in which a body will go into shock and renal failure following an injury like the one experienced by the victim. He was then transported to San Francisco General Hospital in serious condition, according to the SFFD. BART resumed service after 90 minutes, Allison says, as following the rescue effort, work had to be done to ensure the tracks were still ready for use. As of Thursday morning, Allison did not have an update on the victim's condition. Some rabid Bay Area dog owners are blowing the whistle in an attempt to demonstrate that the National Park Service's process for creating some highly controversial new rules for dogs in coastal park areas was unfairly conducted, a last-ditch attempt to keep those now-finalized rules from taking effect. Several dozen documents that purport to show officials sought to destroy emails, failed to save administrative records, and "collaborated" with outside groups to promote their biased, "anti-dog" agenda have been posted online in a data dump called "WoofieLeaks" grandly stylized after Wikileaks. New rules first proposed last February are now set to substantially reduce the number of off-leash dog sites and even on-leash zones in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area 80,000 acres of coastal parkland that encompasses Fort Funston, Crissy Field, and other popular dog-walking destinations in San Francisco and Marin counties. The specter of these changes has deeply riled the Bay Area's powerful canine-loving constituency, and in April, the umbrella group Save Our Recreation went so far as to bring a lawsuit seeking data from the National Park Service on the impact of dogs on the area, because they hadn't heard a response from a Freedom of Information Act request. The final rules for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area were released in December, to be implemented at some point later this year after they're entered in the Federal Register. That's where WoofieLeaks comes in. "Weve found documents that show that their process was really not fair, they were really biased against people who supported dog walking, Andrea Buffa, a member of Save our Recreation tells Bay City news. The documents were obtained legally via the lawsuit, which was filed by the law firm Morrison & Foerster against the National Park Service on behalf of the aggrieved dog owner advocacy groups: Save Our Recreation, SFDOG, Marin County DOG, and Coastside DOG of San Mateo County. The trove of WoofieLeaks emails from Golden Gate National Recreation Area officials include, for example, calls to conduct business via phone and, at one point, to delete emails. But perhaps less damning is an entire section devoted to perceived "anti-dog" bias from National Park Service staffers. Is dog guardian the accepted term, or is it something specific to the dog-centric, dog-obsessed Bay Area?" one staffer wrote in what the WoofieLeakers consider an instance of unfair, mocking treatment. Another instance: A GGNRA official "derided" then-Supervisor Scott Wiener's critical position on the dog plan. Howard Levitt wrote to Shirwin Smith and GGNRA Superintendent Frank Dean, regarding Supervisor Scott Wiener attending the Million Dog March, I guess we can assume he owns a Wiener dog. Monstrous. We always suspected the whole process from the beginning to the end was rigged," as Buffa put it to the Marin Independent Journal, sounding a bit like a dog with a bone, "and now we have the proof." Update: The GGNRA has issued a statement on the matter, and it sounds like the idea is to just bury "WoofieLeaks" under a pile of disclosure. "The Golden Gate National Recreation Area has released more than 260,000 pages of records, and is continuing to process additional records, related to the development of a dog management plan for the park in response to a Freedom of Information Act request and subsequent lawsuit seeking documents dating back to 1999." If you have some free time and literally nothing else to fill it with, consider visiting the GGNRA's online FOIA reading room. Previously: Dog Owners Get Serious, File Lawsuit Against National Park Service Over New Restrictions China's banking regulator will encourage the launching of more consumer finance companies while helping them improve comprehensive risk management. For example, with registered capital of 300 million yuan ($43 million), Baotou Baoyin Consumer Finance Co Ltd opened for business on Dec 29 in Baotou, the Inner Mongolia autonomous region. Baoshang Bank Co Ltd, a Baotou-based mid-sized commercial lender, was among the company's three founders, holding 73.6 percent of the stake. Liu Xin, chairman of the company, said it aims to become an online consumer financial services provider for the younger generation, offering products for various scenarios. Also, Bank of Shanghai Co Ltd received in November regulatory approval to set up a consumer finance company of which it will hold 38 percent. Beijing-headquartered Huaxia Bank Co Ltd also announced that its board of directors approved establishing a consumer finance company, as did Bank of Jiangsu Co Ltd. Since the State Council agreed to launch a trial program on consumer finance companies in four cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, in 2009, the China Banking Regulatory Commission has approved the establishment of 17 consumer finance companies. As of the end of September, total assets of consumer finance companies reached 107.72 billion yuan in China. Their total loan balance was 97.03 billion yuan and the average nonperforming loan ratio was 4.11 percent. These companies lent an accumulated amount of 208.44 billion yuan to 24.14 million clients, according to the CBRC. During the first three quarters of 2016, loans below 5,000 yuan without pledges or guarantees accounted for 60 percent of the total provided by consumer finance companies. Mao Wanyuan, director of the CBRC's Non-bank Financial Institutions Supervision Department, said at a news conference in mid-December that consumer finance companies effectively improve the consumption power of middle and low income groups by offering small loans at a low threshold. "Currently, consumer finance companies are developing steadily in general but they still lack experience handling risks. Our main goal at present is to lead these companies to improve their comprehensive risk management capability, to build risk awareness and a sense of prudential development, and to explore diverse market opportunities," she said. In addition, consumer finance companies are facing intensified competition from a growing number of market participants, such as peer-to-peer lending platforms and e-commerce companies. During the last few years, consumer finance companies have expanded services to third-and fourth-tier cities. In the mean time, they stepped up the exploration of internet technologies to better serve consumer finance, building a network of offline branches supplemented by online channels, Mao said. DAKOTA CITY | Residents of Dakota City will see a double-digit increase in water and sewer rates in 2017 to help pay for the city's new wastewater treatment facility soon to be under construction. City administrator Alyssa Silhacek said the base rate for residential sewer service is increasing from $30 to $40 per month, or about 33 percent. The usage rate, based on customer's flow, will grow from $3.75 to $4 per 1,000 gallons. Water rates will rise from $3.00 to $3.25, or about 8 percent, for residential customers who use up to 41,000 gallons and from $2.75 to $3.00 for usage that exceeds 41,000 gallons. Commercial customers will see a usage increase from $2.50 to $2.75 per 1,000 gallons. The city has been incrementally increasing rates to help fund the new wastewater treatment plant, which is replacing the 40-year-old facility that city officials say is far overdue for an upgrade. The city plans to build a new plant a mile south of town, then tear down the current plant. The City Council last week approved two contracts for construction of the new $5.3 million plant, which is slated to be operational in spring 2018. The council awarded a nearly $5 million contract to Rutjens Construction of Tilden, Nebraska, for construction of the wastewater plant, improvements to lift stations and demolition of the existing plant. The council approved a separate $365,000 contract to Penro Construction of Pender, Nebraska, to extend water and sewer lines to the new plant site. The bids came in nearly $400,000 under the engineer's original estimate, so Silhacek said the city plans to conduct a rate study to see if any future water and sewer rate increases are merited to cover project costs. Silhacek said construction of the new plant will begin in the spring, with the city eyeing for it to be operational in April 2018. DAKOTA CITY | No matter what sentence he gave Christopher Cox, Judge Kurt Rager said, it would not take away the pain felt by the relatives of three people killed in a June car crash. "It's very difficult in these types of cases because the court's goal is to promote respect for the law and protect the rights of the innocent, and I can only think of the people who aren't here today because of this incident," Rager said Wednesday morning in Dakota County Court. "Whatever I do pales in comparison to the pain that these families are suffering." After pausing to consider his options, Rager sentenced Cox to a total of 975 days in jail -- 325 days for each count of vehicular homicide to which Cox had pleaded no contest -- a sentence of more than two and one-half years in custody. Cox will be credited for the 209 days he's spent in jail since his arrest. "I'm sorry for what happened. It wasn't intentional, it was an accident," Cox said before he was sentenced. Cox, 45, of Council Bluffs, Iowa, had faced a maximum of one year in jail for each of the three counts of vehicular homicide, all Class I misdemeanors. Cox was driving a car that ran off the road at about 3:40 a.m. June 9 on U.S. Highway 20 west of Jackson, Nebraska. The car crossed the center line, went airborne into the north ditch and struck a concrete creek barrier. Passengers Connie Fauzae, 57, and Espinoza Lara, 9, both of Council Bluffs, died at the scene. A third passenger, Jose Lara, 10, also of Council Bluffs, died at a Sioux City hospital. Cox had minor injuries. Cox told authorities he had swerved to miss a deer. According to Nebraska's vehicular homicide statute, Cox unintentionally caused the death of another person while he was driving in violation of a state law. According to court documents, Cox did not have a valid operator's license at the time of the crash, and a review found that his driver's license issued in New Mexico had been suspended. STORM LAKE, Iowa | Police say a Storm Lake man sexually assaulted a woman and then fled the residence Wednesday evening. Jose Rodriguez, 27, was said to have entered the home of a woman in the 1100 block of East Third Street without her permission before 6:20 p.m., according to a press release issued by the Storm Lake Police Department. The woman asked Rodriguez to leave and he refused. The release said he then sexually assaulted her before fleeing from the residence in a red vehicle. Police eventually found Rodriguez at 712 Cayuga St. and took him into custody. He was charged with first-degree burglary and third-degree sexual assault, both felonies. The woman was treated at Buena Vista Regional Medical Center. STORM LAKE, Iowa | The city of Storm Lake is looking for a new management firm for a major tourist attraction. On Tuesday night, the city council voted unanimously to terminate its contract with Kinseth Hospitality Companies to manage the city-owned King's Pointe Waterpark Resort. City manager James Patrick declined Wednesday to elaborate on the decision beyond saying the council just wanted to go a different direction. He added the council is interested in two prospective firms that could take over the resort operations. He declined to name the firms, but said city officials have a goal of having a replacement hired by the end of this month. Kinseth, based in North Liberty, Iowa, has managed the resort for nine years. Patrick said the city will honor the remainder of the company's contract, which expires on June 30. Patrick said hes been pleased with King's Pointe's recent results. "Weve had some good attendances lately, he said. Kinseth has done a good job raising revenue and taking care of the hotel. A Journal call to Kinseth's offices was not immediately returned Wednesday. Patrick said the city will vet new management firms and determine the goals the city would like to see for the resort. The council as a whole has ideas what they would like to see," he said. King's Pointe was the signature element of the $40 million Project Awaysis, which opened on Storm Lake's northeast shore in 2007. The resort features a 100-room hotel, many with lake views, a restaurant, meeting rooms and indoor and outdoor waterparks. In 2009, the city severed its relationship with the original operator and hired Kinseth, which currently operates 65 hotels and six restaurants in 13 states. Todays top picks from our online calendar. Find more events at siouxcityjournal.com/calendar. Owls of Iowa Join the Loess Hills Audubon Society for their monthly meeting at 7:30 p.m. today at the Dorothy Pecaut Nature Center, 4500 Sioux River Road. The program, entitled "Owls of Iowa," will feature three live owls and will allow visitors to see them up close. Call 712-258-0838 for additional information. Short Film Festival Every first Thursday of each month, a film will be screened at Pearson Lakes Art Center, 2201 Highway 71, as part of their ongoing film series. Join today at 6:30 p.m. for a screening of Manhattan Short Film Festival Finalists Volume One. Contact 712-332-7013 to purchase tickets and for additional information. History of Brewing in Sioux City Exhibit details early breweries such as Rudolph Seltzer's Pioneer Brewery, which opened in 1860 as the city's first major brewery, and concludes with Jackson Street Brewery, a taproom owned by brewer Dave Winslow that operates across the street from the museum. 10 a.m. at the Sioux City Public Museum. DAKOTA CITY | One of two men charged with killing and dismembering an Emerson, Nebraska, man has pleaded not guilty to murder and other charges. Andres Surber, 25, of Wakefield, Nebraska, last week waived his right to appear in person for his arraignment and entered a written plea in Dakota County District Court to charges of first-degree murder, use of a firearm to commit a felony and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person. District Judge Paul Vaughan accepted the plea Tuesday and set a pretrial conference for Feb. 21. Vaughan also granted Surber's motion for his attorney, Todd Lancaster, to begin taking depositions of witnesses. Surber and Brayan Galvan-Hernandez, 18, also of Wakefield, both are charged with the Nov. 1 shooting death of Kraig D. Kubik, 41, of Emerson. Both men had been scheduled to appear in court for arraignment on Jan. 10. Vaughan on Tuesday continued Galvan-Hernandez' arraignment to Jan. 24 at the request of his attorney, Stuart Mills. Galvan-Hernandez is charged with first-degree murder and use of a felony to commit a firearm. He and Surber both are being held in custody on $5 million bonds. Surber and Galvan-Hernandez are accused of killing Kubik with a 9 mm firearm. Authorities stopped at Kubik's home at 2605 Highway 35 near Emerson the morning of Nov. 2 after his young son made statements at school that his father had been killed or harmed, court documents said. Evidence eventually led authorities to a severed arm and leg in the trunk of a Chevrolet Impala located at 86975 579th Ave. in rural Dixon County. The rest of Kubik's remains were found four days later in a creek about four miles away. Using a national database, authorities matched the fingerprints to those belonging to Kubik. Autopsy results showed a gunshot wound to Kubik's head. SIOUX CITY | A union representing Woodbury County workers has asked for a five-year contract that would give 3 percent pay raises each year. The workers, represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 61, Local 212, made initial bargaining proposals Wednesday at the county courthouse. County officials heard the opening request, then minutes later responded with a proposal of 2 percent raises per year through June 30, 2022. Wages are the only pieces of the union contract being bargained. The gap between the two percentages sought and offered for wages is smaller than many of the typical opening proposals for union groups that bargain with Woodbury County officials. After sharing the initial proposals in a public meeting, the two sides will now bargain in closed sessions toward the goal of reaching an accord. The AFSCME group includes four employees who work for the Sioux City Assessor's Office. The existing contract runs through June 30, 2017. Attorneys Anthony Lamb and Doug Phillips represented the county. AFSCME staff member Preston DeBoer explained the proposal on behalf of county union members, and two employees observed the talks. Several employee union groups in varying Woodbury County departments have contracts governing wages and benefits. During the beginning talks Tuesday by the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors toward setting the fiscal year 2017-18 budget, county Finance Director Dennis Butler said there are several multi-year contracts that give annual raises to unionized county employees. In his recent speech excoriating Israel for refusing to commit suicide by allowing a sworn enemy to have a state adjoining the Jewish state, Secretary of State John Kerry claimed the U.S. government "did not draft or originate" the UN resolution critical of Israeli "settlements." Kerry said there were no American fingerprints on the resolution and that it was totally the idea of the Egyptians and Palestinians. Except that it wasn't, if one can believe Egyptian intelligence. The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) reports on a story published in an Egyptian newspaper with close ties to Egyptian Intelligence. According to the report, a secret meeting took place in Washington in mid-December attended by John Kerry, National Security Adviser Susan Rice and a rather large Palestinian delegation that included PLO Executive Committee secretary and negotiating team leader Saeb Erekat. If the report is true, the Palestinian delegation also supposedly met with representatives of Homeland Security and the CIA. Political discussions were also said to be part of the agenda. According to the transcribed minutes obtained by the Egyptian daily, Al-Youm Al-Sabi, the secret gathering "reveals U.S. coordination leading up to the UN Security Council vote on Resolution 2334 regarding Israel's settlements. ... It states that the sides 'agreed to cooperate in drafting a resolution on the settlements' and that the U.S. representative in the Security Council was 'empowered' to coordinate with the Palestinian UN representative on the resolution." The Egyptian newspaper further reported that the secret meeting in Washington "was aimed at coordinating Kerry's attendance at the upcoming international Paris Conference set for Jan. 15, 2017, in order to propose his ideas for a permanent arrangement 'provided they are supported by the Palestinian side.'" Susan Rice is said to have warned the Palestinians about the "danger" of the incoming Trump administration's policies, adding that both she and Kerry had advised Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas not to make any preliminary moves that might "provoke the new administration." The report also said Kerry and Rice had "fulsomely praised Abbas' policies and how he handled matters, and harshly criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying that he 'aims to destroy the two-state solution.'" This is remarkably cynical even in our cynical age. If the Egyptian newspaper report is true -- and the Obama administration has so far not denied it -- the administration is guilty of a two-faced solution to the conflict, which is no solution at all from the standpoint of Israel and the Jewish people who have been the targets of unprovoked attacks and wars since Israel's rebirth in 1948. Not only has Abbas said he would expel all Jews from a Palestinian State, but neither he, nor any other regional player technically still at war with Israel has said they will ever recognize a Jewish state in their midst. Furthermore, since the Palestinian side now includes Hamas and Fatah in a unity coalition -- two entities that have vowed not only to never make peace with Israel, but to seek its destruction and the expulsion of all Jews from the land -- only a fool would believe that peace is possible under such circumstances. Peace, like success, is a byproduct, not a goal that can be reached without certain precursors. Success is achieved by hard work, a good education and right relationships. Peace is achieved when one side is victorious or two sides decide they don't want to fight anymore. Jordan and Egypt gave up on war, leading to peace with Israel. The Palestinian side fights on. They have an ally in the Obama administration, but only for a few more days. President-elect Trump has promised things will be different when it comes to U.S. policy toward Israel starting Jan. 20. One can only hope. I continue to believe that a two-state solution is the best way to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. However, the U.S. refusal to veto United Nations Resolution 2334 and Secretary John Kerrys speech damages chances for that result rather than advancing it. Israel has repeatedly demonstrated her willingness to give up tangible property, including settlements, for real peace. She gave the Sinai to Egypt for peace, withdrew from Gaza and removed settlers and settlements in hopes of peace (which failed to materialize when Hamas took over), and withdrew from southern Lebanon only to be met with rocket fire from Hezbollah. Settlements in the West Bank would certainly be on the negotiating table. All that is needed is a partner with whom to negotiate. Abbas and the Palestinian Authority has been unwilling to come to the table, presumably in hopes of international pressure for pre-established terms against Israel. With their perceived victory at the U.N. why would the P.A. agree to enter negotiations if they believe they can squeeze Israel into smaller areas, or even eliminate Israel completely, wiping out what they call The Catastrophe," the creation of Israel in the first place? The obstacle to peace negotiations is not settlements, it is the failure of the P.A. to negotiate. Until the P.A. agrees to fair negotiations and is able to assure implementation of any agreement over the disputed territories, no progress is going to occur. I dont think Israel will ever give up Jerusalem, but direct negotiation is the route to a resolution to the plight of the people on both sides in this conflict. The U.N. resolution seriously damages those prospects and Im very disappointed in our administrations poor judgment in this decision. - Michael Potash, Sioux City CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa | Sen. Rob Hogg hopes 2017 is the Year of Water in the Iowa Legislature. House Agriculture Committee Chairman Lee Hein, R-Monticello, urges him to think in term of Years of Water. Water quality problems didnt happen overnight and we probably wont have the magic bullet this session or maybe not next session, the Jones County farmer said. While there is general agreement among lawmakers and policy groups on the need for water quality improvements, interest groups pushing for action are concerned that lower revenue estimates and the impact of low agricultural commodity prices will limit the Legislatures ability to fund water quality efforts, according to Kirk Leeds, CEO of the Iowa Soybean Association. Its one of several groups backing a sales tax increase that would channel three-eighths cents of every new penny of revenue into the voter-approved Iowa Water and Land Legacy. GOP Gov. Terry Branstad and Republicans have all but ruled nixed that approach despite the fact they have to cut spending by $100 million during the last six months of the current budget year. The Revenue Estimating Conference also projected lawmakers will have $51 million less to work with in the fiscal year beginning July 1. I dont think there is an interest in raising the sales tax, Branstad said at a Statehouse news conference Wednesday. Even when Democrats controlled the Senate they never passed it. I certainly dont expect the Republicans to do it. Although some Republicans suggest a sale tax increase could be part of a broad tax reform effort that would include income tax and property tax relief, Branstad doesnt. I dont see the interest in raising the sales tax, he repeated. However, legislative leaders say there will be a water quality discussion and indicate the Iowa Water Quality Improvement Plan that 65 House Democrats and Republicans approved in 2016 is a good starting point for the discussion when the Legislature convenes Jan. 9 in Des Moines. That plan, Branstad said, would provide a growing, reliable source of water quality funding. Senate Minority Leader Rob Hogg, D-Cedar Rapids, doubts lawmakers can find the resources in the current budget to fund water quality and other priorities. Like Democrats, in general, Hogg sides with groups representing farm, water, environmental, recreational and natural resources interests in support a sales tax increase. The sales tax, Leeds said, would provide water quality with the same sustainable funding source the state made to transportation with the constitutionally protected Road Use Tax Fund. Weve got to have a long-term commitment, Leeds said. He also suggests lawmakers might not want to dismiss Branstads proposal to use revenue from the school infrastructure sales tax for water quality improvements. Branstad projected schools still would be getting $20.7 billion for infrastructure otherwise funded by property taxes, while $4.7 billion would be channeled to improving Iowa waterways. Although it is opposed by school boards, administrators and teachers, Leeds said that as a school board president he knows school districts especially in districts where enrollment and the property tax base are not growing needs the infrastructure tax extension. Pairing it with another Iowa priority water quality may provide the political compromise needed, he said. Debating funding schemes might be getting the cart before the horse, according to Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Dan Zumbach, R-Ryan. He believes the biggest issue facing lawmakers this year are identifying and defining the problem, and reaching consensus on the degree of water quality Iowans want to achieve. We have a lot of different interpretations of poor water quality, the Delaware County farmer said. Iowans, lawmakers included, need to go through an education process to understand water quality issues. Im not comfortable spending money throwing a solution after something thats not necessarily a problem, Zumbach said. Hogg, an attorney who has authored a book on climate change and its environmental impacts, acknowledges that some legislators remain skeptical about water quality problems. There are people who just want to pretend its not our problems and they think if you make the Clean Water Act go away the problem goes away and thats just wrong, he said. DES MOINES | Rich Leopold, a former director of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for governor on Wednesday, choosing a seven-minute Facebook live address to launch his bid. Leopold, who directed the department under ex-Gov. Chet Culver, cast himself as an outsider and scientist who doesn't traffic in the typical political soundbites but instead takes an inclusive, systematic approach to policy. "Im literally an outsider, he said in an address from Huxley. Im a conservationist, a scientist. Leopold currently lives in Des Moines, where he is director of the Polk County Conservation Department. Leopold, who is 52, is the first to dive into what will likely be a crowded pool of candidates seeking to run for governor next year. In an interview, Leopold said that he would be embarking on a tour of 30-some smaller Iowa communities, including around the Quad-Cities. He, like many who have analyzed the 2016 election results, say there needs to be more attention paid to rural Iowa. In his Facebook address, he noted that Iowa's smaller communities are losing people who have to leave to find jobs elsewhere. And he praised the wind industry, which he said he worked to help support. Leopold also said there needs to be a "large, dependable funding mechanism" to deal with water quality issues. But he added that there also are concerns, such as in the agriculture community, that need to be taken into account. State lawmakers have been debating how to fund improved water quality, including the idea of a 3/8ths of a cent increase in the sales tax. In his Facebook address, he called Iowa's water "some of the filthiest" in the country. Iowa Democrats are licking their wounds after a disastrous 2016 election cycle. Next week, the state legislature will gavel into session with Republicans in control of both the House and Senate. However, with Gov. Terry Branstad expected to be the new ambassador to China, the party also sees an opportunity in 2018. In addition to Leopold, there are a number of current and former legislators who have been mentioned as candidates. They include Senate Democratic Leader Rob Hogg, D-Cedar Rapids, Sens. Liz Mathis, D-Robins and Jeff Danielson, D-Waterloo, and former Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal. Outgoing state Democratic Party Chairwoman Andy McGuire also has been mentioned. S&P 500 3,719.89 DOW 32,001.25 QQQ 260.49 Harnessing Neuroplasticity Allows You to Actually Change the Way You Think. Here's How. The Safest Option in Trades! (Ad) eBay or Etsy: Which Is The Better Buy? Paypal Shows Promise With Strong Buy Rating Under $5 a Share (Ad) Energy Transfer Raises Guidance, But Stock Lower On Revenue Miss Papa Johns Falls Flat On Earnings, Shares Set To Rise The Safest Option in Trades! (Ad) Bank of England makes biggest interest rate hike in 30 years Mid-Caps CommScope, Dycom Outperform Broader Telecom Industry S&P 500 3,719.89 DOW 32,001.25 QQQ 260.49 Harnessing Neuroplasticity Allows You to Actually Change the Way You Think. Here's How. The Safest Option in Trades! (Ad) eBay or Etsy: Which Is The Better Buy? Paypal Shows Promise With Strong Buy Rating Under $5 a Share (Ad) Energy Transfer Raises Guidance, But Stock Lower On Revenue Miss Papa Johns Falls Flat On Earnings, Shares Set To Rise The Safest Option in Trades! (Ad) Bank of England makes biggest interest rate hike in 30 years Mid-Caps CommScope, Dycom Outperform Broader Telecom Industry S&P 500 3,719.89 DOW 32,001.25 QQQ 260.49 Harnessing Neuroplasticity Allows You to Actually Change the Way You Think. Here's How. The Safest Option in Trades! (Ad) eBay or Etsy: Which Is The Better Buy? Paypal Shows Promise With Strong Buy Rating Under $5 a Share (Ad) Energy Transfer Raises Guidance, But Stock Lower On Revenue Miss Papa Johns Falls Flat On Earnings, Shares Set To Rise The Safest Option in Trades! (Ad) Bank of England makes biggest interest rate hike in 30 years Mid-Caps CommScope, Dycom Outperform Broader Telecom Industry Morgan Stanley is the 6th largest financial institution in the US. The company is ranked 61st on the Forbes Fortune 500 list and is the 39th largest bank in the world. A financial holding company, Morgan Stanley provides a full range of financial services to clients around the world. Morgan Stanley was formed in 1935 as a result of the Glass-Steagall Act. Glass-Steagall separated commercial and investment banking in a way that forced the then-largest bank J.P. Morgan & Co to split into two groups. J.P. Morgan & Co. chose to retain the commercial side of the business while partners Henry S. Morga, grandson of J.P., and Harold Stanley took the investment end. In its first year, Morgan Stanley did 24% of the IPO business and maintains a lions share of the market to this day. The original company existed and grew through acquisitions until 1987 when it merged with Dean Witter Discover & Co. The new Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Discover & Co existed for 14 years until 2001 when the name was shortened back to Morgan Stanley. The bank is credited in part with both beginning and ending the financial crisis of 2007/2008. The Process Driven Trading unit lost $300 million in one day due to a short-squeeze that popped the bubble in the housing market. After teetering on the brink of failure Morgan Stanley agreed to become a bank holding company regulated by the Federal Reserve, a key factor in the original decision to split from parent J.P. Morgan & Co. Ironically when given the chance, present-day J.P. Morgan refused to buy Morgan Stanley but that was for the better. Today, Morgan Stanley operates through three segments via offices in 41 countries and employs more than 75,000 people. Revenue in 2021 topped $49 billion and total assets topped $1.15 trillion. The operating segments are Institutional Securities, Wealth Management, and Investment Management segments. The Institutional Securities segment is by far the largest and most profitable. It offers a range of services and products for businesses, institutions, and entities that include capital raising, strategic advisory, underwriting, advice on M&A, restructuring, and real estate. The Wealth Management segment provides brokerage and investment advisory services for individuals and employers. The services include brokerage, financial planning, company stock-plan administration, insurance, mortgage loans, lines of credit, and retirement planning. The Investment Management segment provides investment products to a range of institutions, organizations, corporations, and governments. S&P 500 3,719.89 DOW 32,001.25 QQQ 260.49 Harnessing Neuroplasticity Allows You to Actually Change the Way You Think. Here's How. 5 Diamonds in the Rough (Ad) eBay or Etsy: Which Is The Better Buy? Paypal Shows Promise With Strong Buy Rating The Safest Option in Trades! (Ad) Energy Transfer Raises Guidance, But Stock Lower On Revenue Miss Papa Johns Falls Flat On Earnings, Shares Set To Rise The Safest Option in Trades! (Ad) Bank of England makes biggest interest rate hike in 30 years Mid-Caps CommScope, Dycom Outperform Broader Telecom Industry S&P 500 3,719.89 DOW 32,001.25 QQQ 260.49 Harnessing Neuroplasticity Allows You to Actually Change the Way You Think. Here's How. 5 Diamonds in the Rough (Ad) eBay or Etsy: Which Is The Better Buy? Paypal Shows Promise With Strong Buy Rating The Safest Option in Trades! (Ad) Energy Transfer Raises Guidance, But Stock Lower On Revenue Miss Papa Johns Falls Flat On Earnings, Shares Set To Rise The Safest Option in Trades! (Ad) Bank of England makes biggest interest rate hike in 30 years Mid-Caps CommScope, Dycom Outperform Broader Telecom Industry S&P 500 3,719.89 DOW 32,001.25 QQQ 260.49 Harnessing Neuroplasticity Allows You to Actually Change the Way You Think. Here's How. 5 Diamonds in the Rough (Ad) eBay or Etsy: Which Is The Better Buy? Paypal Shows Promise With Strong Buy Rating The Safest Option in Trades! (Ad) Energy Transfer Raises Guidance, But Stock Lower On Revenue Miss Papa Johns Falls Flat On Earnings, Shares Set To Rise The Safest Option in Trades! (Ad) Bank of England makes biggest interest rate hike in 30 years Mid-Caps CommScope, Dycom Outperform Broader Telecom Industry The gravity of the existential threat we face from Islamic Jihad is truly of epic proportions. It is essentially a battle pitting free-civilized man against a totalitarian barbarian. What is at stake is the struggle for our very soul - namely who we are and what we represent. The lives that were sacrificed for individual rights and freedoms that we've come to cherish are being chiseled away from right under our noses by the stealth jihadists. And many of us are in denial and totally clueless. The left's appeasement and pandering to evil is nothing new. What makes their utopian delusions so infuriating and unpardonable is that it is not only they who will have to pay the consequences, and deservedly, so, they are thwarting and undermining our best efforts at resistance and are thus dragging us down in the process as well. By Peter Lancz,, the head of the Raoul Wallenberg World Campaign Against Racism. Schools with a higher percentage of less experienced teachers have poorer retention rates, according to Richard Ingersoll, professor of education and sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. These five jurisdictions have the highest percentage of inexperienced teachers in the state. Source: Maryland State Department of Education ANNAPOLIS (Jan. 4, 2017)In nine years of teaching elementary school, Robin Beers has always felt the profession never came easy.Beers did not decide she wanted to teach until after undergrad when she received her master's degree in special education. Ever since entering teaching, she said she has felt as if she has not had enough time or support to consistently succeed.Now that she is settled at an Anne Arundel elementary school teaching third grade, Beers has overcome many of the struggles young teachers face when first entering the profession."It's overwhelming," Beers said. "I often struggle to keep things in perspective. I sometimes have to tell myself, 'You're not running the Pentagon; it's going to be okay.'"Maryland schools are often touted as some of the best in the country, but beneath the surface, it is becoming increasingly difficult to retain experienced teachers during the first few years into the profession despite receiving relatively high pay among teachers nationwide.The 2016 edition of Education Week's "Quality Counts" report gave Maryland schools an overall B rating, which ranks the state among the top five in the country. Additionally, Maryland's eligible schools received the highest percentage of gold and silver awards from a 2016 U.S. News report. Gold and silver awards reflect which schools best prepare students for college and achieve passing scores on Advanced Placement tests.Despite this, Maryland, like much of the country, struggles to curb teacher turnover, especially in the most disadvantaged areas."It is a widespread issue," said Richard Ingersoll, professor of education and sociology in the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education. "Teaching is a high turnover occupation."Nearly half of new teachers who have completed between one to two years of teaching will have left the field by the beginning of the third full year, according to data from the Maryland State Department of Education's 2014-2015 teacher and principal effectiveness ratings.In the 2015-2016 school year, Maryland lost 4,536 of its approximate 60,000 teachers, a 7 percent attrition rate, according to state department of education. Forty percent, or 1,815, of those lost teachers had five or fewer years of experience.Moreover, 29.7 percent of teachers in the state have fewer than five years of experience, whereas teachers with more than 20 years of experience account for about 16 percent."There is research that shows there is a link between teacher experience and the quality of teaching that goes on in the classroom," said Adam Mendelson, spokesman for the Maryland State Education Association, the state's largest teacher union. "When there is a lot of turnover, it's harder to establish relationships between teachers and students."While Ingersoll says teacher retention rates are low across the country, a September report from the Learning Policy Institute gave Maryland a teacher attractiveness rating of 2.1 on a 5-point average quintile scale, which is tied for 46th in the country along with Mississippi and New Mexico.For comparison, the highest rated state in terms of attracting educators, Oregon, received a rating of 4.09. The Learning Policy Institute created this scale by drawing data from National Center for Education Statistics, said Desiree Carver Thomas, research and policy associate with the institute. As part of a state teacher mentoring program, Oregon was able to retain 90 percent of teachers during the 2013-2014 school year.Maryland teachers, however, are better compensated compared to the rest of the country with an average starting salary of $43,235, which ranks fifth in the country, and an average overall salary of $66,482, which ranks seventh, according to National Education Association.But Mendelson and Carver-Thomas said simply compensating teachers with higher salaries isn't enough to keep retention rates afloat."We found that salary compensation corresponds with recruiting a teacher, but it does not correlate with retention," Carver-Thomas told the University of Maryland's Capital News Service. "It's really important that compensation comes hand-in-hand with great working conditions."Seven of the state's 24 jurisdictions have higher than the state average of 29.7 percent of teachers with five or fewer years of experience. Dorchester and Prince George's counties lead the way with 42.2 percent and 40.6 percent, respectively.Although Ingersoll says low teacher retention most commonly affects lower income areas, Theresa Dudley Mitchell, president of the Prince George's County Educators Association, said she is hesitant to label income as the sole condition for poor retention."The reality is that there are some kids that are going to get it because of you and some are going to get it in spite of you," Dudley Mitchell said. "Prince George's County is not alone. The concept of teacher retention is something we really have to get a hold on, as to why people who want to come into the profession ultimately end up leaving."Dudley Mitchell said teaching today is more demanding with higher stakes in testing and increased workloads for teachers. She said a healthy balance of veteran and new teachers creates an environment conducive for teachers and their students to succeed.For Kyle De Jan, teaching at Frederick Douglass High School in Prince George's County has been a bittersweet opportunity since he is the final step in his students' public education experience."As a new teacher, you're really afraid of your learning curve, just like any other job," said De Jan, a second-year teacher. "You feel really anxious because your learning curve means they're going to miss out on things. That feels like you're damaging their post-secondary success."Beers said teaching is a significant time commitment with increasing responsibilities and expectations mounting every day. She added that these are amplified when administrators micromanage and attempt to control how teachers operate their classroom."I'm best when I close my door and trust what I'm doing," Beers said. "I know the thing I've needed the most is more time to hone my craft."State Sen. Paul Pinsky, D-Prince George's, sponsored legislation that went into effect in July that creates a pilot program intended to give first-year teachers more time with mentoring, peer observation and assistance with planning.The Teacher Induction, Retention and Advancement Act of 2016 will be piloted in Anne Arundel County and permanently increase the state-matching stipend for teachers who hold a National Board Certification from $2,000 to $4,000."Teachers get overwhelmed," Pinsky said. "We want to have a plan of having more time and support in the first year to increase the retention rate."A TELL Maryland survey administered to teachers last year found that while three-fourths of new teachers said they officially received a mentor, only half said they had time to meet with their mentor and only 14 percent said they received a reduced workload to do so.Carver-Thomas said lack of administrative support is one of the primary causes of high turnover and discourages teachers from continuing on in the profession.Henoch Hailu, who teaches special education at White Oak Middle School in Montgomery County, said he was also very frustrated in his first year of teaching and nearly quit the profession entirely."You would have never been able to tell that because I walked around with a smile, and I'm a goofy person," the now fifth-year teacher said. "The people that were put into place to support me didn't visit me on a regular basis."The Learning Policy Institute report found that 41 percent of Maryland educators said they have received administrative support whereas the national average is 48 percent. Carver-Thomas said lack of administrative support leads to poor classroom autonomy, which "leaves very little room to infuse their own expertise into how they approach teaching certain content."Lynn Kepp, vice president of strategic partnerships with the New Teacher Center, a national nonprofit that helps guide new teachers, believes providing high qualify, in-classroom support for new teachers will not only curb turnover rates but also boost student achievement.Kepp and Ingersoll mentioned that turnover has a large monetary cost on schools and counties constantly having to invest in human resources, replacement training and professional development."Some districts here have 900 new teachers a year," Kepp said. "The kids who need the highest quality teachers the most are experiencing the greatest amount of turnover." WASHINGTON (Jan. 4, 2017)The U.S. Department of Defense recently announced the following contract awards that pertain to local Navy activities., is being awarded afirm-fixed-price modification to the previously awarded low-rate initial production Lot 10 F-35 Lightning II advance acquisition contract (N00019-15-C-0003). This modification provides for the procurement of 249 Generation 3, Lightweight Helmet Mounted Display systems, oxygen masks, and initial spares for the Air Force (110), Navy (30), Marine Corps (35), international partners (49), and foreign military sales (FMS) customers (25). Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas, and is expected to be completed in November 2018. Fiscal 2015 and 2016 aircraft procurement and sustainment (Navy/Marine Corps and Air Force); international partner; and FMS funding in the amount of $28,293,024 are being obligated at time of award, $1,375,140 of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract combines purchases for the Air Force ($40,197,392; 45 percent); Navy/Marine Corps ($22,998,307; 25 percent); non-DoD participants ($17,851,113; 20 percent); and FMS customers ($9,272,171; 10 percent). The, is the contracting activity., is being awardedmodification P00595 to a previously awarded cost-plus-incentive-fee contract (N00019-02-C-3002) for the critical safety items program plan in support of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas, and is expected to be completed in December 2017. No funding will be obligated at time of award. The, is the contracting activity., is being awarded amodification to a previously awarded fixed-price-incentive-firm target advance acquisition contract (N00019-17-C-0020) for long lead components, parts and materials associated with 10 F135-PW-100 propulsion systems for international partners and foreign military sales (FMS) customers. Work will be performed in East Hartford, Connecticut (67 percent); Indianapolis, Indiana (26.5 percent); and Bristol, United Kingdom (6.5 percent), and is expected to be completed by May 2019. International partner and FMS funding in the amount of $13,393,812 are being obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The, is the contracting activity., is being awarded anmodification to a previously awarded firm-fixed price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract (N00174-13-D-0005) to increase the quantities for the procurement of MK 18 family of systemsunmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) systems. Work will be performed in Pocasset, Massachusetts, and is expected to be completed by September 2018. No funds are being obligated at time of award. The, is the contracting activity., is being awarded anfirm-fixed-price delivery order (1000) against a previously issued basic ordering agreement (N00019-15-G-0003) for the procurement of 33 Smart Multi-Function Color Display B-kits in support of the CH-53K. Work will be performed in Indianapolis, Indiana, and is expected to be completed in November 2018. Fiscal 2016 and 2017 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $8,563,698 will be obligated on this award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The, is the contracting activity., is being awarded afirm-fixed-price modification to the previously awarded low-rate initial production Lot 10 F-35 Lightning II advance acquisition contract (N00019-15-C-0003). This modification continues the integration work to implement the development and delivery of the F-35A Air System to the Republic of Korea under the Foreign Military Sales program. This effort will also provide for non-recurring engineering work. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas, and is expected to be completed in August 2019. Foreign military sales funding in the amount of $450,042,458 are being obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The, is the contracting activity., is being awarded, 387 for modification P00004 to a previously awarded cost reimbursement contract (N00019-16-C-0032) to provide for the engineering change proposal (ECP) 6472 integration of Next Generation Jammer (NGJ) Pod onto the EA-18G aircraft. This effort is in support of the engineering and manufacturing development phase of the NGJ program and will include the design and manufacturing of 12 ECP 6472 A kits, and the integration, demonstration, and test of NGJ pods on the EA-18G Aircraft and equipment needed for System Integration Laboratories. Work will be performed in St. Louis, Missouri (89.43 percent); Bethpage, New York (8.47 percent); Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (1.16 percent); El Segundo, California (0.54 percent); Mesa, Arizona (0.20 percent); Fort Walton Beach, Florida (0.10 percent); and Annapolis-Junction, Maryland (0.10 percent), and is expected to be completed in December 2021. Fiscal 2017 research, development, testing and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $11,000,000 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The, is the contracting activity., is being awarded afirm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to provide organizational level maintenance and logistic support on all aircraft and support equipment for which the Naval Test Wing Atlantic has maintenance responsibility. This maintenance responsibility includes all rotary, fixed, lighter-than-air, and unmanned aircraft on-site for project testing, transient aircraft, loaner aircraft, leased aircraft, and tested civilian aircraft assigned to the. In addition, labor and services will be provided to perform supportability/safety studies, off-site aircraft safety/spill containment patrols and aircraft recovery services. Work will be performed in Patuxent River, Maryland, and is expected to be completed in March 2018. Fiscal 2017 working capital fund (Navy) funds in the amount of $5,000 are being obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The contract was competitively procured via an electronic request for proposal; two offers were received. Theis the contracting activity (N00421-17-C-0033)., is being awardedfor modification P00010 to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract (N00019-15-D-5501) for the procurement of additional AN/ARC-210 radios and ancillary equipment for various domestic and foreign military sales aircrafts. Work will be performed in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and is expected to be completed in September 2018. Contract funds will not be obligated at the time of award. Funds will be obligated on individual orders as they are issued. The, is the contracting activity., is being awardedfor modification P00010 to a previously awarded fixed-price-incentive-firm contract (N00019-16-C-0004) to procure, deliver, and install a deployable mission rehearsal trainer in support of F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter aircraft. Work will be performed in Orlando, Florida (92 percent); Owego, New York (7 percent); and Fort Worth, Texas (1 percent), and is expected to be completed April 2019. Non-Department of Defense funding in the amount of $3,000,000 is being obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The, is the contracting activity.UPDATE: Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) was unable to award the Gen 3 Lightweight Helmet Mounted Display System modification to Lockheed Martin as announced on Dec. 22, 2016, because the action is dependent on the announcement of a foreign military sales (FMS) modification. The FMS modification adds funds to the same Lockheed Martin contract; the section A and section G amounts in our modification are based on the new contract values added by the FMS modification. The FMS effort was supposed to be announced December 22, however, it has been submitted for announcement on December 29. NAVAIR will award this action immediately after the FMS modification is executed. Debi Shanks, physical fitness coordinator, has been invited to participate for a second year at the 2017 NBC4 Health and Fitness Expo. The annual expo will be held on Saturday, Jan. 7 and Sunday, Jan. 8 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center (801 Mount Vernon Place Northwest, Washington, DC, 20001), beginning at 9 a.m. Shanks will lead the older adult fitness demo on Sunday, Jan. 8 at 2:30 p.m. on the main stage. The demo will feature seated and standing exercises with several local seniors supporting Shanks."Meet me on the main stage as I highlight senior fitness. I am so excited to be welcomed back again this year and I encourage everyone to join in on the fun" Shanks said.All ages are encouraged to attend. During this free event, participants can enjoy fitness classes, health screenings, and numerous vendors. Release your inner ninja with the American Ninja Warrior Zone and meet favorite authors at the Healthy Book Festival.Transportation for Sunday, Jan. 8 is available for seniors age 60 or older. The bus will leave the Richard Clark Center (1210 Charles St, La Plata) at 10:30 a.m. and leave the Walter E. Washington Convention Center at 3:30 p.m. The cost is $10.For more information on the NBC4 Health and Fitness Expo, visit www.networkevents.tv , or call Debi Shanks at 301-609-5711.The Charles County Board of Appeals meeting originally scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 10 is canceled.Board of Appeals meetings are generally held on the second and fourth Tuesdays of every month, unless otherwise noted, in the Commissioners' meeting room at the Charles County Government Building (200 Baltimore St., La Plata). The next regular meeting of the Board of Appeals is scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 24 at 7 p.m.For more information, contact Ms. Carrol Everett, Clerk to the Board of Appeals, at 301-645-0540 or EverettC@CharlesCountyMD.gov. Citizens with special needs may contact the Maryland Relay Service at 711, or Relay Service TDD: 866-269-9006.The Maryland Transit Administration invites interested persons to attend an online public meeting on Monday, Jan. 9 concerning the Southern Maryland Rapid Transit (SMRT) Study. The interactive meeting allows the public to participate by logging on to their computers to view a live presentation and submit questions and comments in real time. Materials for the meeting and instructions for joining the webinar are available on the SMRT project website: mta.maryland.gov/smrt A viewing of the public meeting will be available for citizens without online access at the Waldorf West Library, (10405 O'Donnell Place, Waldorf) starting at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 9.For more information, contact Jason Groth at 301-396-5814 or GrothJ@charlescountymd.gov. Citizens with special needs may contact the Maryland Relay Service at 711, or Relay Service TDD: 866-269-9006.The Tri-County Animal Shelter is pleased to announce the following January monthly promotions and reminders:FREE FELINE FRIDAYS: Looking for a feline friend for your family? Adoption fees will be waived on Fridays during the month of January for adult cats who are 1 years old and older. Stop by and find the perfect feline friend for your family!KEEP PETS SAFE DURING WINTER: Remember your outdoor furry friends this winter by being mindful of the temperature. Even with a fur coat, pets should be kept inside during extreme temperatures. Always check your car hood. Because cats like the warmth of a car engine, bang on the hood or honk the horn before starting your car. Also, remember to wipe off your cat or dog's paws. Their paws can pick up toxic chemicals from outside and need to be checked for cracked or bleeding paws. For more pet safety tips, visit www.Ready.gov FREE SPAY/NEUTER CLINICS FOR THE INCOME DISADVANTAGED: Low-income residents who reside in specific places in the county may qualify for free altering of their pets. Call the Paw Prints Animal Hospital at 301-885-0263, or the Humane Society of Charles County at 301-645-8181 for qualifications and additional information.The Tri-County Animal Shelter is located at 6707 Animal Shelter Road in Hughesville. Shelter staff can be reached at 301-932-1713 or 800-903-1992. Adoption hours are Monday-Friday, noon to 5 p.m. and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. To view animals available for adoption, visit www.CharlesCountyMD.gov/es/animalshelter/tri-county-animal-shelter or www.petfinder.com/shelters/MD112.html to find your "purrfect" pet. Citizens with special needs may contact the Maryland Relay Service at 711, or Relay Service TDD: 800-735-2258. Left to right: Nathan Orlando Jones; Andrew Phillip Nelson; Charles Ronald Patton; and Queen Ella Champion. LEONARDTOWN, Md. Disclaimer: In the U.S.A., all persons accused of a crime by the State are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. See: so.md/presumed-innocence. Additionally, all of the information provided above is solely from the perspective of the respective law enforcement agency and does not provide any direct input from the accused or persons otherwise mentioned. You can find additional information about the case by searching the Maryland Judiciary Case Search Database using the accused's name and date of birth. The database is online at so.md/mdcasesearch . Persons named who have been found innocent or not guilty of all charges in the respective case, and/or have had the case ordered expunged by the court can have their name, age, and city redacted by following the process defined at so.md/expungeme. Left to right: Jason Michael Reintzell; Kyle William Sullivan; and Brittany Ann Vega. (Jan. 5, 2017)The St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office today released the following incident and arrest reports.12-19-2016 ASSAULT: Deputy First Class Steinbach responded to the Millison Plaza Shopping Center in Lexington Park for a reported disturbance between a male and female. A witness alleged observing the suspect,, strike the victim before throwing the victim's cell phone across the parking lot causing extensive damage. The victim displayed visible injuries consistent with the allegations. An incident search of Harrod revealed two baggies of suspected cocaine. Harrod was arrested and transported to the St. Mary's County Detention Center where he was charged with Second Degree Assault, Malicious Destruction of Property, and CDS PossessionNot Marijuana. CASE# 064679-1612-20-2016 POSSESSION: While responding to the report of a suspicious person in the Hunting Quarters subdivision, Corporal E. O'Connor observed a passenger vehicle leaving the neighborhood that failed to come to a complete to stop at the intersection of Hunting Quarters Drive and Route 5. It was also noted the registration stickers were not properly placed on the vehicle. A stop was initiated which revealed the operator,, did not have a valid driver's license. A search of the motor vehicle revealed several dollars in cash, a digital scale, and several baggies containing suspected Oxycodone concealed under the seat. During the stop, the investigation also revealed, the passenger of the vehicle,, had an active arrest warrant. An incident search of Patton revealed suspected Xanax in his front pocket. Hones and Patton were arrested and transported to the St. Mary's County Detention Center. Hones was charged with CDS Possession: Paraphernalia and CDS PossessionNot Marijuana and Patton was served his warrant and charged with CDS PossessionNot Marijuana. CASE# 64819-1612-26-2016 THEFT: Corporal J. Kirkner observed a male subject, later identified as, attempting to access the battery compartment of a piece of construction equipment at a construction site next to the 30000 block of Three Notch Road in Charlotte Hall. Corporal Kirkner recovered four batteries from various pieces of equipment at the construction site. Garrow was arrested and transported to the St. Mary's County Detention Center where he was charged with Theft Under $1000 and Rogue and Vagabond. CASE# 065787-1612-24-2016 THEFT: Corporal D. Corcoran responded to the 46000 block of Lexington Village Way (Kohl's Department Store) in Lexington Park, for a reported shoplifter in custody. A witness observed the suspect,, remove a video game system from the shelf. Sullivan then attempted to conceal the merchandise under his shirt and exit the store without paying for the items. An incident search of Sullivan revealed additional concealed merchandise. He was arrested and charged with Theft Under $1000.00. CASE# 65604-1612-24-2016 PROPERTY DESTRUCTION: The St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office received several phone calls from witnesses describing an older model Tahoe driving erratically in the area of Merchants Lane in Leonardtown. The callers stated the vehicle had struck curbs and was weaving in and out of lanes. First Class Deputy R. Steinbach observed the vehicle traveling South on Route 5 making several illegal traffic maneuvers. A traffic stop was initiated on the vehicle, which revealed the driver identified as, appeared to be under the influence. Evans refused a standardized field sobriety test and was placed under arrest. An incident search of the vehicle revealed liquor bottles and suspected Alprazolam. In addition, his license to drive in the state of Maryland was both suspended and revoked. It was discovered later that before Evans was stopped, he drove the motor vehicle through a victim's field causing extensive damage. Evans was charged with Malicious Destruction of Property and issued multiple traffic citations including Driving While Impaired. CASE# 065595-1612-28-2016 BURGLARY: Deputy T. Seyfried responded to the 19000 block of Three Notch Road in Lexington Park for a reported burglary. The victim alleged unknown suspects entered the victim's residence and stole several items. The investigation revealed the suspect,, attempted to sell the victim's property to a subject who recorded the conversation. Based on prior information, a search and seizure warrant was executed at Jameson's residence in Lexington Park. She was found to be in possession of the victim's property totaling several thousand dollars. She was transported to the St. Mary's County Detention Center and charged with BurglaryFirst Degree and Theft: $1000 to under $10,000. CASE#66181-1612-29-2019 POSSESSION: Units from the St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office and the Maryland State Police Barrack "T" responded to a residence on Three Notch Road in Ridge for a reported disturbance, possibly involving a firearm. While attempting to make contact with several witnesses, a related witness,, began to act disorderly and kept interfering with officers attempting to assess the scene. Vega was asked to refrain from yelling profanities because she was hindering the investigation. Due to her disruptive behavior, she was placed under arrest. Before being transported to the St. Mary's County Detention Center she was taken to MedStar St. Mary's Hospital for the treatment of a medical emergency. In her possession, deputies located suspected Lyrica. Vega was charged with Obstructing and Hindering, Failure to Obey Lawful Order, and CDS PossessionNot Marijuana. CASE# 66295-1612-17-2016 ASSAULT: Deputy B. Foor responded to the 20000 block of Treetop Road in Lexington Park for the report of an assault involving a knife. The victim alleged the suspect,, held a knife to the victim's throat while making threatening statements. Renitzell then fled the scene and was located a short time later by deputies. He was arrested and transported to the St. Mary's County Detention Center where he was charged with First Degree Assault. CASE# 064423-1612-01-2016 ESCAPE: The suspect,, was ordered by the District Court Judge to return to the St. Mary's County Detention Center every weekend until his sentence was served and was under legal commitment. Nelson failed to report to the Detention Center and was located at his residence in Hollywood. He was placed under arrest and transported to the St. Mary's County Detention Center by Deputy G. Muschette and charged with EscapeSecond Degree. CASE# 779-1701-01-2017 BURGLARY: Deputy M. Beyer responded to the 21000 block of Liberty Street in Lexington Park for a reported disturbance call. The victim alleged the suspect,, broke into the victim's residence by kicking the door causing damage. After forced entry, Champion began assaulting the victim prior to fleeing the scene. A short time later she was located in the area and placed under arrest. She was transported to the St. Mary's County Detention Center where she was charged with First Degree Burglary, Second Degree Assault, and Malicious Destruction of Property. CASE# 77-17For the current list of crime solvers cases in southern Maryland, see so.md/mostwanted The Peebles department store in St. Marys Square Shopping Center. (Photo: Guy Leonard, County Times) HOLLYWOOD, Md. (Jan. 5, 2017)The Peebles department store, which has stood as an anchor business in St. Mary's Square Shopping Center for about 40 years is set to close its doors this month."Our tentative closing date is Jan. 14," a manager at the store said in a telephone interview, Wednesday.For years the Peebles had served as a department store and one of the few places to shop for clothing and other domestic goods in the Lexington Park area after it opened, but in recent years it had been changed to a clearance store.Bria Worthington Lundy, spokesperson for the chain store's operation, based in Houston, Texas, said that the store first opened in 1973 and was only changed into a clearance outlet in December of 2014.She said that the store simply had not maintained its ability to bring in sales dollars as it had in the past."It was a difficult decision after being in the community for so long," Lundy told The County Times. "But with our looking to strengthen our brand by looking to put our dollars into our more profitable stores, this location just was not as profitable as we need them to be."Worthington said that economic changes in the Lexington Park area as well as stiff competition from newer retail stores in the county like Target and Kohl's played a part in the closing of the aging store.But overall, she said, the Southern Maryland market for the Peebles brand was a strong one as the store in Prince Frederick in neighboring Calvert County continued to be a strong sales performer.Lundy said that there are about 12 sales associates working at the store and they may find placement at the Prince Frederick store or could find assistance from the company in finding other employment.Chris Kaselemis, director of the county's Department of Economic Development, said the store's closing could be a chance to get another needed business at the St. Mary's Square Shopping Center."Anytime you have a vacancy it's a challenge," Kaselemis said. "And Lexington Park that's a little bit of a challenge, but I think it's also an opportunity." Carlos Guillermo Smith is wasting no time wielding his new power. Smith, the first openly LGBT Latino elected to the Florida House of Representatives, announced on Thursday his intention to file a gun control bill when lawmakers return to Tallahassee in March. Assault weapons are the gold standard for mass murder, said Smith at a news conference on the steps of the Orange County Courthouse. They are weapons of war, designed for war and have no place on our streets or in civilian hands. We all have a constitutional right to defend ourselves and our families with a firearm, but nobody needs military-style assault weapons to do it. At Thursdays news conference, Smith was joined by Florida Senator Linda Stewart (D-Orlando), survivors of the Pulse Nightclub massacre and various gun control groups. The proposed legislation (HB 167, SB 254) restricts the sale and transfer of assault weapons and large capacity magazines in Florida. Meanwhile, not all who identify as LGBT are supportive of Smiths bill. Scott Herman, a Democratic precinct committeeman from Broward County, called the proposal overreaching. I see it as an invasion of privacy with a ridiculous definition of large capacity even for a handgun, said Herman, a disabled combat veteran. HB167 defines large capacity magazines as any ammunition feeding device with the capacity to accept more than seven rounds. The bill specifically targets the Sig Sauer MCX rifle used at the Pulse massacre and Bushmaster XM15-E2S used at Sandy Hook. Years after purchasing the former Kmart site and multiple rejections by the city commission, Oakland Park has approved Wal-Marts plan to build a 121,345 square foot store. The city commission and Wal-Mart executives finally resolved their last dispute over the undergrounding of powerlines along the east and west portions of the property, located at Oakland Park Boulevard and Northeast 6 Avenue. The citys code requires powerlines be undergrounded but, according to city staff, no business has ever requested a waiver. I think thats important to recognize, said Mayor John Adornato. The mayor, Commissioner Matthew Sparks, and Commissioner Michael Carn voted in favor of allowing Wal-Mart to build its new store without burying the power lines. Vice Mayor Tim Lonergan abstained, citing a conflict of interest. Commissioner Sara Guevrekian, who has opposed the project from the beginning, voted no and said the city shouldnt be ignoring its own rules. Wal-Mart made a business decision to purchase the property without approvals. Didnt like the way it came out and now are choosing to fight with us tooth and nail, she said. In a previous interview, Steven Wherry, the attorney representing Wal-Mart, said the retailer would most likely sue the city if commissioners didnt approve the project. City Attorney D.J. Doody said the city would have a tough time winning if Wal-Mart had sued. The property is already zoned for Wal-Marts use and the proposed building is only 4,000 square feet bigger than the former Kmart building. Wal-Mart also could have moved into the current building without approval from the city. As part of the plat approval process, Wal-Mart has offered to limit truck delivery times, prevent its trucks from using Northeast 6 Avenue, install solar panels on its building, provide Oakland Park with a $100,000 letter of credit for landscaping and $300,000 for the citys tree fund. It also agreed to provide a greeter and hire BSO officers to work private details if incidents of crime increase. Wal-Mart truly wants to be part of this community, Wherry said. Is this good for the city or bad for the city? Ive heard people say both, Adornato said. As for the possible impact on local businesses, Linda Damiani, owner of The Bedpost Furniture and Home Decor, located across the street from the old Kmart, said she hopes Wal-Mart brings people back to Northeast 6 Avenue. The streets been dead [since Kmart closed]. Its been almost the worst year Ive had. When Kmart was there, people would come out of Kmart and see my store. For me, personally, Im tired of looking at a dead building. I want some kind of business there. If Wilton Manors wants to significantly improve its economic situation, its needs to make four things happen: get a Tri-Rail station, reduce lanes on Wilton Drive, get a boutique hotel, and identify itself more. Those were the major points of the citys 2016-2021 Economic Development Strategic Plan, developed by Strategic Planning Group. Youre a very good community today. But this would move you to the next level, said Bob Gray, president of Strategic Planning Group. In the report, Gray and his team stated that the city being awarded one of the planned Tri-Rail stations would have a huge difference in terms of a multiplier effect. The hope is that with more visitors going through the city, local businesses would see an increase in customers. If built, a station would most likely be located south of Northeast 26 Street and east of Dixie Highway. The boutique hotel would also supposedly give a boost to tourism and local businesses. In the past, city officials have tried unsuccessfully to form a public/private partnership to develop a hotel and parking garage on the Hagen Park parking lot. The estimated number of rooms for a boutique hotel is between 80 and 150. Theyre not very big by nature, Gray said. In the plan, the Hagen Park parking lot and the Shoppes of Wilton Manors were identified as two possible locations for a hotel. Linking the hotel and Tri-Rail station together is Wilton Drive. In addition to stating that the road was too wide, something the Florida Department of Transportation plans to change by reducing the street from four lanes to two, the road was criticized as uninviting, lacking a sense of place, not pedestrian friendly, and not being a major destination. We need to move forward. It really does change the economic character of Wilton Drive, Gray said. That sense of place, added Gray, could be improved if Wilton Manors did a better job of branding and setting itself apart from Fort Lauderdale. We just dont see the branding and the signage that says hey, youre here in Wilton Manors. You are a community and that needs to be visualized, Gray said. Also laid out in the report was the need for parking solutions along Wilton Drive, the viability of all the citys corridors, becoming an LGBT vacation destination, keeping residential home prices stable and affordable, more Class A office space, and more encouragement of business investment. Motor vehicle and dealer/parts, general merchandise and building materials were the largest business opportunities identified, but the city doesnt have enough vacant land to accommodate them. But, Gray said, the report can be adapted and tweaked as needed. This is not done in stone. This is fluid. You almost have to look at everything every year. Vice Mayor Justin Flippen said the city needs to demonstrate our commitment to the plan. But that doesnt mean the commission will take up every suggestion. Not everything will be implemented. We will do what we want to, said Commissioner Tom Green. While Mayor Gary Resnick added It is a start. We needed to get started somewhere. The commission will discuss the plan again at a future commission meeting. A copy of the plan can be downloaded on the citys website and is located in the commission agenda for Dec. 13. Over the holiday season I had the opportunity to speak with many people about the state of the real estate market here in South Florida, and also about the state of our nation and the world. On reflection I have decided to devote all my columns in the coming year to the theme of community. This is a perfect topic regardless of ones political persuasion. For example, if you happen to have been pleased with the election results, you are probably interested in seeing the Federal government do (relatively) less and seeing state and local governments do (relatively) more. Contrariwise, if you have, well, concerns about the imminent changes, then building strong communities and taking action at the local level can be an effective antidote. Of course, this also extends into considerations of real estate, investment decisions, buy versus rent calculations, picking a location in which to live, and even thinking about the appropriate role (if any) for the real estate professional of today, and the hypothetical real estate professional of the future. There is an awful lot of pessimism and fear out there. But as I said in a recent column, I am actually very optimistic, certainly in the longer run. And one of the reasons for that is because of the sense of community that always forms, in some way, and sees us through. The first sentence of the preamble of the National Association of Realtors Code of Ethics is, Under all is the land. In non-virtual communities anyway, that is definitely the case. Without the land, you have nothing. It is what we do with that land that makes all the difference. Now, what has been done on the land in many places here in South Florida and elsewhere, is that single family homes have been built. Traditionally, these homes have been considered investments in addition to places to live. But this conventional wisdom has come into some question. The self-help writer and blogger Grant Cardone (who has more Twitter followers than I do), is well on his way to becoming the bete noire of NAR and every Realtor in America, saying several times a week what a bad idea it is to buy a home. Moreover, I recently read a book by a retired bank CEO (rumored to have been on the short list for Treasury Secretary) where he argued that a single family home was not only not an investment, but was a consumption item! Well, I have never been a bank CEO (yet) nor have I (yet) been considered for Sec Treas. But I do know that as long as the land and community are there, a single family home will not be a consumption item. And I have a lot of statistics to share on that in the next couple columns. But it is time for some straight (or if you prefer, gaily forward) talk about how good an investment a single family home can be. For the fact is, I believe it is possible to do a disservice to make unsupported claims about the future based on the past, especially if you assume that certain government policies will always continue. The role of the real estate professional is going to change. The good news is, it is going to change, ultimately, in ways that will build community and enhance the professionalism and reputation of the industry. The bad news is, there is going to be a shakeout and considerable denial, in part around the issue of home as investment. I will explore this in more depth in my next column. James Oaksun, Broward's Real Estate Geek(SM), is Broker-Owner of New Realty Concepts in Oakland Park. In addition to having degrees from Dartmouth and Cornell, he is a Graduate of the Realtor Institute (GRI). Occupied El Aaiun, January 04, 2017 (SPS) - the Local Coordination of Unemployed Saharawi cadres in the occupied El Aaiun city of Western Sahara Wednesday has organized sit-in protesting the ongoing Moroccan occupation authorities looting of natural resources of Saharawi people. The protesters condemned the Moroccan legal exploitation of the Saharawi peoples wealth in flagrant violation of the international law and conventions that prohibit the exploitation of the wealth of the non-self-governing territories. It is worth mentioning here that Moroccan occupation forces dispersed and threatened the demonstrators participating in the said peaceful sit-in.SPS 125/090/TRA The Ontario Standardbred Adoption Society, in partnership with Tara Hills Stud, has added a new, colourful ambassador to its lineup. Hiltons Hot Stuff, a very unusually marked Standardbred, was unsuccessful as a racehorse, but should do well in her new roles. As an OSAS ambassador, Paris, as shes known around the barn, will take part in the Drive With Us program at WEG, which offers fans a chance to ride around the racetrack behind a Standardbred, in addition to being one of the horses used in the very popular HOPE program, which is staged at the farm of OSAS administrator Joanne Colville. Paris will also serve as an ambassador for the Standardbred sport at a number of shows and competitions. The seven-year-old mare, who is registered as a bay, was bred in England and exported to Canada in 2014. Her sire is Out Of Nowhere, whose father is the Falcon Seelster horse Million To One, who was campaigned on the WEG circuit by Joe Hudon and Harry Poulton. Hiltons Hot Stuff then spent some time with Karin and Blair Burgess. She is one of the kindest Standardbreds we ever had, said Karin. She was never in a bad mood or did anything wrong. However, Paris wasnt going to be a world beater on the racetrack, so the couple found her a home with OSAS and Tara Hills. In addition to her responsibilities at OSAS, Hiltons Hot Stuff will be living up to her name at Tara Hills Stud, serving as a teaser for their stallions this upcoming breeding season. Shes quickly become a farm favourite around here, shes a sweetheart and is so dam pretty, said Tara Hills owner, David Heffering. Shes in the front paddock and really stands out against the snow. People driving by actually stop to look at her. Shes already attracted the attention of Royalty For Life, who is three paddocks away. Hes out there trying to talk to her. Weve used paint mares from other breeds as teasers before and thats always a good collection day. For some reason the stallions respond well to a mare like that, or a grey. Shell have a good life here, and will be very popular. Paris wont just be popular amongst the Tara Hill studs, which in addition to Royalty For Life include newcomers Crazed and Control The Moment, along with Hes Watching and Ontario leaders Mach Three, Kadabra, Sportswriter and Muscle Mass. Shell be on display at events throughout the province in her OSAS role where she is sure to attract many more fans. (OSAS) Yonkers Raceway wrapped up its 2016 season with nearly $20 million (U.S.) wagered from European sources throughout the French PMU network. Just under 18 million Euros were wagered on 32 race cards from Yonkers. Those programs were 20 Tuesday afternoons, 11 Sunday afternoons and one Saturday featuring the $1 million Yonkers International Trot. Each simulcast is a partial card of five to seven races, just trotters. Wagering on pacing races is not allowed in France. An exciting addition in 2016 was the first commingled pools on a regular basis between Yonkers and the PMU. Win and show wagers began to be commingled on May 24. In total, 12 Tuesdays, six Sundays and the Saturday card were commingled, resulting in 3.6 million Euros, or about $4 million, being added to the Yonkers North American win and show pools. The exchange rate fluctuates daily and in 2016 went from a high of $1.15 U.S. per Euro to a low of $1.03 with an average of $1.10. Just two years ago that same exchange rate was approximately $1.36 U.S. for each Euro. Were very pleased with how the relationship between Yonkers and the PMU and Le Trot has grown, said Bob Galterio, the vice president and general manager of Yonkers Raceway. We were thrilled to quickly begin commingling some pools in 2016 and look forward to more cooperation and collaboration in 2017." There were larger field sizes and all different classes of races simulcast to France, but the biggest factor in the wagering figures was the day of the week and the time of day the races were simulcast. With Paris normally six hours ahead of New York, the Sunday cards which started around 11:30 a.m. in New York arrived in Paris at 5:30 p.m. The Tuesday French races were normally at 3 p.m. at Yonkers which is 9 p.m. in France. Just like here in the U.S., Sundays are very strong racing days in France and Tuesdays arent as busy, explained SOA of NY Executive Director Alex Dadoyan. Also, at least half of the betting locations do not stay open at night, so the Sundays were much stronger as expected. Nine of the 11 Sunday Yonkers cards handled more than $1 million throughout the PMU Network. For 2017, all of the regular simulcasts originating from Yonkers to France will be on Sundays. There will be 24 Sundays and one Saturday again for the $1 million Yonkers International Trot October 14. Yonkers returns to racing Tuesdays at night. The additional money generated by the European wagering is in addition to the daily handle figures normally reported and theyve been very encouraging, said Joe Faraldo, SOA of NY President. Yonkers Raceway and the SOA of NY continue to work very cooperatively to expand the wagering base and add to our win and show pools for the benefit of our bettors. The 2017 season at Yonkers Raceway will begin Sunday January 8 with an 11:30 a.m. first post. The card features seven trotting races at a mile and a quarter distance being simulcast to France as well as purse levels boosted well above their normal levels to welcome everyone back for the New Year. (SOANY) Buffalo Raceway will begin its 75th anniversary harness racing season on Wednesday, January 11 and will celebrate in various ways throughout the 90-day meet until closing day on Sunday, July 23. The new season will bring some changes both on and off the track at the Hamburg half-mile oval, which is located on the Erie County Fairgrounds. "We are looking forward to the upcoming season and creating more winners," Buffalo Raceway Director of Operations Jon Cramer said as the track preps for the 75th season. Buffalo Raceway will have a post of 5 p.m. on Wednesday and Friday evenings, while Saturday's program will get underway at 6 p.m. Matinee racing will begin June 18 with a 12:30 p.m. start. There's a special 7 p.m. post when Thoroughbred Triple Crown races are contested. Racing fans can expect four new barns to make their debut this season, with George Anthrop, Kim Asher, Joe Skowyra and Bo Sowers all coming in during the campaign. They can expect to tussle with JD Perrin who remains at the top of the list for local conditioners. He posted his third consecutive training title at Buffalo Raceway last season, rolling up 106 victories. Perrin has won six straight crowns on the western New York circuit between the Buffalo Raceway and Batavia Downs. There is one new driver confirmed for 2017 and that is Larry Stalbaum who joined the western New York driving colony at Batavia Downs mid-season. Stalbaum finished with 32 victories in 175 starts at Batavia Downs, but will have to deal with the likes of defending Buffalo Raceway champion Jim Morrill Jr., reigning Batavia Downs leader Drew Monti and the always dangerous Kevin Cummings. Monti has been competing at the Meadowlands during the hiatus in western New York and is looking forward to the upcoming campaign. "It's been unbelievable racing at the Meadowlands," a confident Monti said. "I'm looking for another good year in 2017 and hopefully the momentum I had at Batavia and the Meadowlands will carry over to Buffalo Raceway. I started slow last season at Buffalo so hopefully I will get off to a better start." Off the track, Buffalo Raceway patrons will notice an updated look in the clubhouse with new table and chairs, the addition of several 50-inch televisions and other cosmetic changes. Cramer said, "I think patrons will enjoy the updated clubhouse and it will make their evening pleasant." Wayne Teaven will be handling the race calling duties full-time for the 2017 season after announcing part of 2016. "This is definitely a dream of mine," Teaven said about getting the full-time position. "Buffalo Raceway has a lot of rich history and I am glad to be a part of the 75th anniversary season. I am definitely looking forward to it." The wagering menu has some slight modifications this season as Buffalo Raceway will offer a Pick-5, Pick-4, a pair of Pick-3s, three daily doubles along with the standard win, place, show, exacta, trifecta and superfecta bets. Opening week will be busy with a free magnetic schedule giveaway on Wednesday night, the 2016 awards presentation along with the always popular fish fry dinner on Friday while Saturday evening, a commemorative 75th Anniversary Lucky Exacta Coin will be handed out. On the back of the coin will be two numbers representing an exacta for Races 2 through 10. If your coin has the winning exacta number, you'll spin the Wheel of Cash to determine how much in free wagers you will be given to bet on in the 12th race, the 75th Anniversary Year Pace. If the 7-5 exacta comes in on any race, the lucky holders will spin the wheel for double the amount. You can win on multiple races plus all fans receive $10 in free play at Hamburg Gaming. Starting on Saturday, January 21 and continuing every Saturday throughout the meet is the Winter Winner's Circle Contest. Fill out an entry and drop it into the box of the horse you think will win the ninth race. A slip will be drawn from the winning horse's entry box with $50 in Buffalo Raceway wagers going to the lucky fan. They'll also be eligible for the March 25 final with a chance to collect $250 in wagers. All entrants will also receive $5 in free play at Hamburg Gaming. (Buffalo Raceway) An $8,757 Pick 5 carryover and a $4,580 carryover in the Pick 6 will be featured on Friday nights program at Cal Expo. Cal Expo racing has now returned to the regular Friday and Saturday night schedule, with first post at 5:55 p.m. on Fridays and 6:10 on Saturdays. The Pick 5 is a 50-cent wager that covers the first five contests on the evening and it comes with a reduced 16 per cent takeout rate and a $30,000 guaranteed pool. The 20-cent Pick 4 also features that lower 16 per cent rate and is decided on the penultimate four races on the program. To give you some idea how much value is offered with the lower takeout rate, last Sunday nights payoff in the Pick 4 was $3,828 for each winning 20-cent ticket. With regular takeout, the return would have been 3,481, a difference of $410 on each winning ducket. The carryovers in the Pick 5 and Pick 6 are due in large part to the upset by Mattador D in last Sunday nights fourth race for Sal and Georgette Wenceslao and pilot William Hernancez. Mattador D was able to sit a cozy trip for Hernandez and waltzed home by two and a quarter lengths while returning a whopping $166 to his backers. It was quite a night for the Wenceslao/Hernandez combination, as they also posed for pictures in the evenings third race with Laissezmoipicoler and then pulled off a $66 surprise with KG Cody in the 10th race on the card. Laissez Moi Passer Heads Shelly Goudreau Final Laissez Moi Passer, who has posed for pictures following two of his last five starts, gets the top billing in Friday nights Shelly Goudreau final. First post is 5:55 p.m. for the Watch and Wager LLC program. Laissez Moi Passer is a six-year-old homebred son of Disco Devil out of the Nirvana mare My Passing Fancy who races for Sal and Georgette Wenceslao, takes his lessons from Sal and will once again have William Hernandez in the sulky. He picked up his first win of the meet and the year when he did the track-and-attack to perfection with Hernandez over a sloppy track on November 26. After settling for minor awards in his next three outings, the Wenceslao colourbearer returned to the winners circle after last weeks Goudreau Prep. Sent off at 6-1 in that affair, Laissez Moi Passer was reserved early, rallied off cover to the stretch and ignited when it counted to be up by a neck over Outlawsecretweapon in a 1:54 4/5 mile. Completing the field are Total Classic, Red Star Tiger, Cowboy Mathis, Mighty Fine Hi Ho, Moonshinemonkeys, CR Artistic and Wineonefordoug. Saturdays feature honours the memory of Shelly Goudreau, one of the most talented drivers to ever ply the trade. He passed away in a racing accident at Hollywood Park in 1982. The young Goudreau got his driving license in 1966 at age 18 and soon led all drivers at Windsor Raceway for two consecutive years. It wasnt long before he ventured to the U.S. to compete at several Michigan tracks. In 1977, Goudreau made the trek to California and immediately went to the top of the driving colony there. While competing at Hollywood Park and Los Alamitos, he won the most races and earned the most purse monies on that circuit for two consecutive years. He came back east to compete at Roosevelt and Yonkers and won many major stakes in New York, including the $200,000 George Morton Levy Pace in 1979 in track-record time at Roosevelt. He drove at the Meadowlands and was once again successful. He competed there against another up-and-coming driver named John Campbell as well as a familiar face from home in Ray Remmen. It was 1981 that proved Goudreaus best season. He competed in both the Hambletonian (with Santa Ana) and the Little Brown Jug (with Freedom Fella). He won 170 races and earned $2.3 million in purses that year. These were gaudy numbers for the then 33-year-old. During his career he was responsible for the success of such horses as Genghis Khan p,1:51.4 ($983,467), Try Scotch p,1:54.3 ($956,770), Tijuana Taxi p,1:54.3 ($784,306), Apollos Way p,1:56 ($502,536), Freedom Fella p,1:54.4 ($491,790), Tender Loving Care p,1:52.4 ($327,822) and Superman 1:58.1 ($140,794). In his short career he amassed 2,291 wins and $12,942,265 in purse money. At the time of his death he was eighth in the North American driver standings. He was inducted in the Canadian Harness Racing Hall of Fame in 1983. (Cal Expo) Contact: Tony Scott, 818-925-5503LOS ANGELES, Jan. 5, 2017 / Standard Newswire / -- The 2016 election shined a glaring light on a divided America. According to a November 21, 2016 Gallup poll, a record-high 77% of Americans believe the country is split over important values, while 21% see America as united. Americans are also split on whether President-elect Donald Trump can unite the country with 45% stating they believe he will and 49% believing he will further divide it.A significant consideration for the faith community is whether these divisions will impact the church. Evangelicals stand at a defining moment in American history to be a voice of healing and unity to a nation wounded by an extremely divisive election. What is the role of the church in these divisive times and can the church facilitate reconciliation? It was Martin Luther King, Jr. who once said, "At 11:00 on Sunday morning when we stand and sing, and Christ has no east or west, we stand at the most segregated hour in this nation. This is tragic."Two Christian men recently embarked on a unique social experiment to explore their differences. Tony Scott, 49, an African-American entrepreneur in Los Angeles and Aron Railey, 24, a Caucasian millennial from Greenville, SC, met in a popular Christian group on Facebook. Railey traveled to Los Angeles and over the course of 40 days, the two engaged in compelling conversations about politics, church, race, generations and culture. They wrote about the experience in a newly released book titled "The Bridge: A Cross-Generational Conversation on Church, Race and Culture."In this conversational style book, Scott and Railey share how to build bridges towards unity, based on their individual experiences and perspectives. They discuss perceived divisions in the church and a growing divide between generations. When asked why they wrote the book, Scott commented, "This election season brought up many ugly and divisive issues, but in these divided times, people will ultimately look to the church as the catalyst for change." Railey added, "People shouldn't be afraid to connect with someone different from them. The bridges built through this experiment prove cultures and generations can unite. We're all in this life together.""The Bridge" is published by nGAGE People via CreateSpace Independent Platform and is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and online wherever books are sold. Visit www.readthebridge.com for more information or to schedule interviews. It's Election season and our editor's mailbox is overflowing. Who do your neighbors support? Read about it here. More than 150 people packed the Cowlitz PUD auditorium Wednesday to voice opinions on a draft air emissions permit for the proposed Kalama methanol project. The evening event stretched on for more than four hours, starting with an open house and question and answer session and a testimony period that lasted past 8 p.m. There werent enough seats for the audience, and many people stood in the back or sat on the floor, prompting one opponent to accuse the regulators of bias. The crowd was dominated by opponents with many sporting red to show their allegiances. Only a few people donned green shirts to in support for the project, but several other supporters also showed up to voice their opinion. In a draft air permit issued by the Southwest Clean Air Agency in November, the agency said that the proposed methanol plant at the Port of Kalama would not be a major source of air pollution. Many opponents took issue with this determination, pointing to the plants greenhouse gas emissions, use of fossil fuels and particulate emissions as issues of concern. The undeniable reality of global climate change is impacting us every day. Approval of this mega polluting refinery would be a fiasco, Linda Horst of Kelso told regulators. We are depending on you to honor your agencys mission statement to preserve and enhance air quality in SW Washington. Supporters of the project highlighted the boost to the local economy and encouraged people to focus on the facts. The facts demonstrate that Northwest has gone above and beyond what is required to safely build and operate this plant. I would encourage all those in this room to look past mischaracterizations and assertions of facts that are not actually present in the permitting process fears about acid rains and toxic emissions, said Diana Winther of Portland. Instead I hope the focus will be on facts regarding family wage jobs this plant will provide, a needed economic boost to the community and transition from fossil fuels operating here in America where there are higher environmental standards rather than elsewhere. Under the permit, the plant would be allowed to emit up to 53 tons per a year of toxic and hazardous pollutants. Ammonia (35 tons) and methanol itself (seven tons) would account for the biggest share of the methanol plants toxic releases. It also could emit up to 75 tons per a year of nitrogen oxide and 17.5 tons of sulfur dioxide. But in many cases, its projected emissions are far too small to trigger additional analyses on health and airshed quality, according to the SWCAA. The agency does not expect the plant to be a source of smog or visible air pollution. And allowable emissions of toxic chemicals would be only one-tenth as much as those emitted by the pulp and paper mills in Longview, according the permit. Although the Southwest Clean Air Agency wouldnt regulate greenhouse gas emissions, Northwest Innovation Works request voluntarily for the agency to add limitations on greenhouse gas emissions to it air permit, said Wes Safford, air quality engineer for SWCAA. Still many commentators focused on how greenhouse gas emissions would contribute to climate change. The plants allowable emissions of carbon dioxide the chief gas linked to climate change would be equivalent to adding about 227,287 cars to the roadways You know that fossil fuels are not clean energy. Everyone in my second grade class knows, so why dont you? asked eight-year-old Dyan Haviv of Kalama. Others questioned whether the 62 tons of very fine particulate matter dust and soot particles that the plant could emit annually would be safe. I take issue with your determination of these standards as being health-based, said Regna Meritt of Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility. The World Health Organization has found that there are no safe levels of small particulate matter emissions. But supporters highlighted the agencys determination that the plant would be only a small emitter, and reiterated the need for family wage jobs in the county. Mike Bridges, president of Kelso-Longview Building Trades Council, said Northwest would create local opportunities for construction workers commuting outside the county for work. According to the company and the port of Kalama, the plant would employ 1,000 construction workers and 200 full-time managers and workers at full operation. The two-month comment period on the draft permit has been extended to Feb. 6. The permit is one of several the methanol plant will need before it breaks ground on the project. The scents of refried beans and shredded beef waft from the kitchen at Muchas Gracias in Longview as staff hustle to fill a stream of lunchtime orders for tacos, burritos and enchiladas. Just two of Muchas Gracias 10 employees saw their raises jump from $9.47 an hour to $11 an hour on Sunday, thanks to a new, voter-approved minimum wage that went into effect Jan. 1. But within three years, nearly all of the restaurants employees will get raises mandated by Initiative 1433, which gradually raises the minimum wage in Washington to $13.50. Next year employers across the state also will be required to provide 1 hour of paid sick leave for every 40 hours worked. Manager Alfredo Moreno said hes waiting to see how the new minimum wage law will hit his business, but he doesnt sound hopeful. For me and all the businesses in Longview, the costs are going to go up, and unfortunately I cant just raise prices like that, he said, waving his hand up. Everyone is going to be affected. Moreno is like many managers, owners and employees who are worried about the new law. But many employees and labor advocates are looking forward to the wage increase, arguing that it will put more money into the pockets of low-wage workers to spend in the local economy. Many people earning minimum wage are adults supporting families. Those families will spend their extra dollars in the community, which will strengthen the local economy and create greater prosperity for Southwest Washington as a whole, said Mike Bridges, president of the Kelso-Longview Building Trades Council. The measure passed with 57 percent of the statewide vote in the November election. In Cowlitz County, voters were almost evenly split: 49.18 percent approved of the initiative; 50.82 percent rejected it. Washington already had one of the nations highest minimum wages $9.47. And the new hike means it will be 80 percent higher than the federal minimum wage, $7.25 an hour. Local business owners have mixed reactions to the measure. Some say they will cut back workers hours or hire fewer people. Others said they may eventually raise prices to make up for the higher labor costs. Im still contemplating what to do or whether to raise prices. If we do, it wont be across the board, said Beau Little, co-owner at Triangle Bowl in Longview. About half of his 23 employees will be affected by the wage hike, he said. Whatever happens, he hopes Triangle Bowl remains one of the cheapest alleys in the Interstate 5 corridor, he said. Even before the law took effect, Jimmy Johns General Manager Jennifer Herrman told employees to prepare for a cut in hours and encouraged them to seek second jobs. Were going to do the best we can to make sure we dont have to let anyone go, Herrman said. She worried the initiative will drive up costs for people on fixed incomes, who may not be able to work more to compensate. Herrman said she would have favored a more regionalized approach to raising the wage that sets different rates for workers in urban areas. Many people pointed to a law that was passed in Oregon last year that sets three different wage tiers according to county size. Shawn Nyman, organizer with SEIU Local 925 and president of Cowlitz-Wahkiakum Central Labor Council, was a fan of the regional approach. But she said I-1433 is a good starting point to boosting wages for all workers. The majority of union members see it as a good thing. It helps them in bargaining to look at increasing their own wages, too. I think in general it puts more money in peoples pockets to spend in the community, even though its just a little bit, Nyman said. I understand where the businesses are coming from but when I looked elsewhere where the minimum wage has increased, most of what people feared didnt pan out, she added. In Seattle, researchers from the University of Washington found that the citys new minimum wage law boosted earning for low-income workers since taking effect in April 2015. However, it was challenging to isolate the effects of the wage hike from the citys economic boom, researchers said. So far they found that under the new law, the benefits of the increase may have been partly offset by fewer hours worked per person and slightly less overall employment, according to a UW press release. Our report indicates that Seattles track record after increasing the minimum wage is neither as negative as some had feared nor as positive as some had hoped, UW professor Jacob Vigdor said in a press release. While the vibrant local economy is boosting employment and incomes up and down the economic ladder, the positive effects of a higher minimum wage are being at least partly offset by cutbacks in hours. Other research of wage increases nationally has found that lower-income earners spend their income more immediately, more completely, and more locally, than do higher income earners, and therefore generate more economic activity, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Dana Kellogg, an employee of Vaccums and More in Longview, said while she was sensitive to the business owners concerns, she was optimistic about the effects I-1433. Kellogg makes minimum wage plus commission selling vacuum cleaners. Although she isnt her familys main breadwinner (her husband works at KapStone Paper and Packaging Corp.), her wages are necessary for her household budget, she said. So the added income is welcomed. But the measure will be particularly helpful for her three adult children who work minimum-wage jobs. I hope that for those people counting on minimum wage to support their household, that it makes a significant difference, Kellogg added. Kelso police Tuesday afternoon arrested a man who allegedly punched a Macys employee in the store at Three Rivers Mall. Victor James Hobbs, 27, of Vader was detained as the suspect of fourth-degree assault. At about 1 p.m., a mall employee called 911. Police were dispatched to Macys for a disorderly subject who was being held down on the ground by a store employee, Joseph Kingsley, according to dispatch and police reports. Kingsley and his coworker both said Hobbs had walked up to Kingsley and punched him in the face unprovoked, according to the police report. The suspect then fled the store, and officers discovered a man who fit the description walking down Grade Street near Ash Street. Underneath the Allen Street Bridge, a group of tents covered in blue and gray tarps cluster along the railroad tracks near the back of Kelso City Hall. Water jugs and cardboard boxes filled with food and other items sit outside the tents. Three or four empty camp chairs are arranged around a small fire pit, and the charred logs still gave off curls of smoke Wednesday afternoon. This is one of the largest homeless camps in the county. Usually around eight to 10 people stay the night. Its unclear how long the camp has been there but some of the members have been there for months. Its been a bone-chilling experience much of the last month and especially this week, with overnight temperatures dipping into the mid to low teens. Many other area homeless people are using emergency cold weather shelters to keep warm at night. But those at the camp under the bridge and others along the Cowlitz River plan to endure. Mary Hernandez, 47, has been living in one of the tents for two months. Shes new to homelessness and shes never weathered a winter outdoors before. Hernandez, who came to the area from Oregon after fleeing domestic violence, said Wednesday she isnt concerned about the plunging temperatures. We just have to do it anyway. The shelters they dont let people in. ...They dont have blankets, they dont have towels to take showers with, they dont have anything there that we dont have here. Its like not even worth going there, Hernandez said. Its very easy to live in the cold if you just stay under your blanket. Hernandez said camp members have been fortunate in the area, as the police have let them stay. She said they try to be respectful and not cause trouble. Steve A., who declined to give his last name, was visiting the camp Wednesday afternoon. Hes staying at another camp farther up the Cowlitz River. As he sat in one of the chairs, Steve, 46, rolled a cigarette full of loose leaf tobacco with his hands, the black dirt from living on the streets is caked into the creases of his palms and under his fingernails. He was bundled in multiple sweatshirts and jackets and had a rope around his neck with a padlock hanging at the end. He said its important to have common sense when it comes to sleeping outdoors. It kind of comes natural. Its just common sense. Layer this portion or layer that portion, and waterproof is everything, Steve said. Its the same out here all year round whether its winter or summer. Each day you clean up your area, straighten up, tidy up your area. You take notes in your head What do I need? Whats the weather going to be like? Whats the situation going to be like? Where am I going to be tonight? All that stuff kind of dictates what youre going to need to live through a couple more nights sleep. And thats day in and day out every single day here. Steve, who said his homelessness comes in waves, has been living in a tent by the river for a few months. He goes through temp agencies in town to find work and usually has a house, but as the jobs dry up in the wintertime, hes forced to take to the streets, he said. Steve said hes planning to move into a house with some friends in the next month. In the meantime, he said he uses his time during the day to prepare for the nights to come by gathering candles to burn in tents, more clothes and blankets to use, and food and drinks for the days ahead. He usually scouts for these items when he goes to get a hot meal for the day or while walking around, he said. Theres unlimited ways to produce heat during your sleeping hours so you just have to be open to all of them and accept what comes along that day to you. And usually I think God provides and usually I come up with everything I need for that night if Im having to make a change, Steve said. "It's a tough struggle out here." For all nights that it is 32 degrees and below, the Kelso Christian Assembly, located at 205 Fourth Ave., is open from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. The church, which can hold around 60 people, isnt open during the day because they dont have the staff or the resources, lead pastor Russ Jorgenson said. He said they try not to turn anyone away, even at capacity. The church has about 40 mattresses and provides hot cocoa and warm soup for those who stay the night. They also try to provide winter clothing, such as socks, jackets and mittens for those inside, but lately theyve been coming up short, Jorgenson said. Love Overwhelming also operates an emergency cold weather shelter during the day when the temperature is 32 degrees and below. At night, it operates its regular shelter from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. Their capacity is usually around 75 people, said Chuck Hendrickson, director of Love Overwhelming. While both shelters expect to see an increase in the number of people they help, others still choose to endure the winter outdoors. Even if it gets colder, we still have to stay out here. Do you understand this, this is rock bottom right here. It gets colder, we still have to stay here, Hernandez said. No matter what we still have no place to go so we have to deal with it. hidden Apple Inc confirmed on Wednesday its plans to invest $1 billion in a tech fund being set up by Japan's SoftBank Group Corp. SoftBank has said it is investing at least $25 billion in the fund and has been in talks with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund for an investment that could be as much as $45 billion. "We believe their new fund will speed the development of technologies which may be strategically important to Apple," company spokesman Josh Rosenstock told Reuters. SoftBank has also said that it plans to make future large-scale investments via the tech fund, rather than on its own. Reuters reported in December, citing sources familiar with the matter, that Apple had held talks with SoftBank about the investment. SoftBank confirmed that Apple invested, said Benjamin Spicehandler, an outside public relations representative for SoftBank. He added that Foxconn, Oracle founder Larry Ellison's family office and chipmaker Qualcomm also have said they intend to invest in the fund. This comes right after SoftBank Group Corp agreed to invest $1 billion in U.S. satellite venture OneWeb Ltd, marking the first tranche of a $50 billion U.S. investment the Japanese telecoms and technology companys founder Masayoshi Son pledged to President-elect Donald Trump. With inputs from Reuters tech2 News Staff Nvidia has launched a new Nvidia Shield TV at CES 2017 in Las Vegas. The company claims that new Shield TV will deliver unmatched performance in providing experiences like gaming, streaming and AI integration. The company has integrated Google Assistant for TV in addition to bringing a new design to Shield TV. Nvidia has opened Shield TV for pre-order and will start shipping to United States, Canada and selected regions in Europe later this month. The device is priced at $199.99, and it will now ship with Gaming controller and remote, and you no longer need to buy them separately. Nvidia Shield Pro will also be available later this month with the controller, remote, headphone jack and 500GB storage. One interesting thing is that the company will ship a separate version of Shield TV with custom software to China later this year. Shield adds support to 4K HDR streaming while providing three times the performance to what other media streaming devices provide in the market. It will provide support to video streaming apps from Netflix, YouTube, Google Play Movies and VUDU. YouTube TV app is set to come to the new Shield devices in coming months. Jen-Hsun Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia added, "NVIDIA's rich heritage in visual computing and deep learning has enabled us to create this revolutionary device." Shield TV is not limited to being a media streaming devices, and the company highlighted that the Shield Library of games has expanded to thousands of titles along with the ability to stream Ubisoft games like Watch Dogs 2, Assassin's Creed Syndicate, For Honor and others. New Ubisoft games will be available for Shield TV owners along with the launch of their PC releases. Highlighting the AI capabilities of the new device he further adds that "SHIELD's new AI home capability, we can control and interact with content through the magic of artificial intelligence from anywhere in the house." Shield TV will provide the first hands-free Google Assistant integration on TV and Google has optimised the experience to work on large screens. In addition to streaming, gaming and AI, Nvidia has also added the support for Shield TV users to turn the device into a smart home hub which can be used to connect to hundreds of smart connected devices at home and control them. Nvidia Spot is one interesting add-on to Shield TV as it makes the device, the backbone of the AI home with improved control throughout the house. tech2 News Staff At CES 2017 in Las Vegas, TCL offered attendees a first look at a new BlackBerry device with a physical qwerty keyboard. The device has been designed with security, productivity and reliability in mind. The device will be Android based, and TCL claims that it will be the most secure Android device on the market. BlackBerry had previously claimed that the DTEK50 was the world's most secure Android smartphone. The device will be the first BlackBerry smartphone made entirely by TCL. The previous DTEK50 was made in collaboration with BlackBerry. The device is durable, uses premium materials, and is aimed at professionals and business users. Apart from the signature BlackBerry keyboard, the smartphone will also have other familiar BlackBerry applications, including the Hub+. The physical keyboard is touch sensitive, and the glossy finish on the keys mimic the appearance of glass. Nicolas Zibell, Chief Executive Officer of TCL Communication, said "At TCL Communication, we are committed to creating the best BlackBerry products for consumers and enterprise users. Together with BlackBerrys smartphone software platform, this partnership will create the most secure Android products." https://twitter.com/SteveCistulli/status/816690336227475456 The device does not have an official name as yet. TCL says the name of the device, pricing, availability and other final details will be disclosed at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February 2017. However, leaks of the device and rumours suggest that the device is code named "Mercury." The screen is apparently a 4.5-inch display in a 3:2 ratio. The device is rumoured to have a 2GHz Qualcomm processor with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. Both the front and back cameras can capture 18MP resolution images. TCL has acquired the global rights to the BlackBerry brand and the software. It is a long-term agreement, and the Mercury device is the first device made as part of the agreement. BlackBerry had previously outsourced the manufacture of the DTEK smartphones to TCL. The DTEK smartphones are believed to be the last BlackBerry devices to be made by BlackBerry. TCL also makes phones for Alcatel. The Mercury device may not be available in India because the license agreement does not cover India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh and Indonesia, some of the biggest markets for BlackBerry devices. There are two BlackBerry devices available in the Indian market as of now. DTEK50 is available in India for Rs 21,990 and the DTEK60 is priced at Rs 46,990. hidden Chinese smartphone vendors last year captured about 40 percent share in India, the second largest smartphone market in the world, the official media here reported. Among all, Lenovo saw its shipment volume rise to the second only after Samsung in the third quarter last year, state-run China Daily quoted global research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) survey as saying. Xiaomi took the third spot with a market share of 10.7 per cent, whereas Chinese vendors collectively took up 40 percent, according to the survey conducted across 30 major Indian cities. The forays by Chinese phone makers comes as Indias domestic brands saw a decline in market share. Micromax reported a 16.7 percent month-over-month sales drop in October, the survey said. Analysts noted that as smartphone giants look at India which has a population of 1.34 billion, to be the "new China" and the competition will be intense, the report said. Despite the growth, price war remains fierce in what is becoming the world's second-largest smartphone market where the price of mobile averages only USD 100, the survey said. "Lenovo has retained its duo-brand strategy in India," Rahul Agarwal, the company's managing director, told state-run Beijing News, adding that Motorola is focused on the high-end market, taking up a third of its sales, whereas Lenovo phones targeting lower end account for two-thirds. Indian customers are even more price sensitive than Chinese users, Ni Fei, co-founder and CEO of Nubia Technology, said. Besides price war, patent rights and tariff could also hinder further growth in India, analysts said, citing patent disputes faced by Chinese smartphone makers OPPO, VIVO and Xiaomi in recent years. OPPO is planning to invest 1.5 billion yuan (USD 215 million) to build an industrial park in India to bring down manufacturing cost, according to media reports earlier last month. The company already has a factory in Greater Noida. PTI 13:02 (IST) In his free time Pichai likes to watch cricket and keep in touch with family and friends. Pichai is too embarassed to admit his GPA in the first year, but good enough in the following three years. Idol during BTech days? I admired people from all walks of life. This week I met Narayana Murthy. I love cricket and watching Sachin Tendulkar play. Favourite Bollywood actress: Deepika Padukone, I had interviewed her and Shah Rukh Khan at Google. I used to enjoy watching Prakash Padukone play badminton. tech2 News Staff 2017 is going to be a very important year for Samsung Mobile. Since the failure of the Galaxy Note 7, we all have been waiting for a confirmed piece of news describing what Samsung would create as a fitting comeback to what was a missed opportunity with the Galaxy Note 7. Well, today is that day, as the first leaked photograph has surfaced online that shows the front face of the what is said to be the Galaxy S8. The image comes from /Leaks, and shows a smartphone in a chromed gold finish that looks very similar to the existing Galaxy S7 edge at first glance. The image has been sourced from a Weibo account indicating that smartphone may be undergoing testing in China. Upon looking closer, one can notice how much bigger the display has grown and spread out over the front face of the device. While the dual edge curves looks no different from the existing S7 edge, the top and bottom bezels have shrunk by a huge margin, so much so, that there's no place for the usual home button at the bottom. However, there is another detail missing and this would be the navigation keys. While the set up at the top end looks identical to the S7 edge, the bottom end simply shows the Samsung logo. If this leaked image does turn out to be a genuine and not some good photoshop, Samsung could have placed an ultrasonic fingerprint reader below the logo in the chin. The navigation keys could be hidden at a software level either in Samsung's Grace UX or may simply be hidden on either side of the Samsung logo as capacitive keys that light up on touch. One things for sure, the fingerprint reader in not visible in plain sight. But coming from Samsung, this does not look like much. It appears to be more of an upgrade, than a redesign we all were expecting. There could be a dual camera hidden on the back, but at this point even that seems uninteresting. Hopefully, this turns out to be a fake image, or the standard version of the S8 with a more radical folding version of the device that has yet to be leaked out online. Let's just hope that there is something better as Apple is busy preparing its 10th anniversary iPhone 8 Plus with some exotic technology. However, all is not lost as Apple too is not expected to overboard with a wrap-around display this year. So Samsung and Apple may indeed be looking a more subtle upgrades to make way for something bigger in the 2018. hidden In a first-of-its-kind exercise, regulator Trai is scheduled to meet CEOs of all telecom companies, including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance Jio, on Friday to discuss and identify important issues that need to taken up during the year. A similar meeting is slated with top executives of cable and broadcasting companies, multiple-system operators (MSO) and DTH operators on January 10, Trai sources said. This is the first-of-its-kind exercise by Trai as part of efforts to improve "regulatory predictability" in the sector, and is in tune with the best practices followed by regulators across the world, including the US, Canada, and parts of Europe. "We have invited the CEOs of all telecom companies including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular, Reliance Jio and others for a discussion on January 6. Similarly, we have invited top executives of broadcasting companies, MSOs, and DTH companies on January 10," sources said. Trai Chairman R S Sharma had earlier told PTI that move to draw up and publish an 'agenda' of important issues in advance would improve the "regulatory predictability" in the sector. The "agenda" is expected to include fresh issues to be taken up by the regulator, as Trai expects most of the current issues to get disposed of by March 31, 2017. The issues taken up by Trai during 2016 included free data, net neutrality, improvement of service quality norms for mobile services, internet telephony, proliferation of broadband through public wi-fi networks, machine-to-machine communications, issues related to closure of access services, Captive VSAT CUG policy issues, and review of the regulatory framework for interconnection, among others. While Trai's "agenda" for the year would be a broad proactive list, urgent issues would be taken up as and when they come up, though they may not be included in the list itself. "Many regulators around the world do this...This is one of the practices which regulators follow in various sectors like telecom...Canada does that, US FCC (Federal Communications Commission) does that, some European regulators also do it. So, we are trying to get those best practices here also," Sharma had said about the proposed yearly agenda. PTI tech2 News Staff Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi has crossed the $1bn revenue mark in India in 2016, which translates to around Rs 7,000 cr. Xiaomi entered the Indian market in June 2014 and within two years has managed to cross the $1bn mark, which is good news for the company which is facing challenges in other markets. Xiaomi is ranked at no 4 in India with a 7.4 percent market share for Q3 2016, according to an IDC report. Just 0.1 percent behind no 3 Micromax. A major credit for this ranking should undoubtedly go to the success of the Redmi Note 3, which sold a record 2.3mn handsets in India. It also crossed 2 mn smartphone sales within a single quarter (Q3 2016), thereby achieving a year on year growth of around 150 percent. According to Xiaomi India head Manu Jain, the sales of Xiaomi smartphones doubled after it started selling phones offline. To keep the momentum going, Jain said that Xiaomi would be scaling up its investments in India to expand manufacturing operations. It will also be expanding its product portfolio this year. Alongside, Jain also plans to direct some of the investments towards startups as well, he mentioned in a report in The Economic Times. We are truly excited to announce that Xiaomi has achieved this historic feat of recording over US$1 billion in revenue achieved within two years of us launching our operation in India. It speaks volumes about the love and trust Mi fans have for Xiaomi, and we are extremely thankful to everyone who were a part of our journey. We look forward to an even better 2017, said Jain. Jain acknowledged that demonetisation post 8 November 2016 did lead to a slump, but things have picked up since as 90 percent of the sales took online in December. Xiaomi India plans to take its offline presence up to 30 percent share of sales, up from just 10 percent now. "Single brand retail licence will help us open Mi Home, our brand stores in India, and do more stuff directly than what we do now," said Jain as the company waits for the approval of its single brand retail licence. Xiaomi India also has plans to expand its monthly smartphone making capacity in its Foxconn unit in India every quarter. Jain said that the company makes around 75 percent of the phones its sells locally, in India. All models, except the high end Xiaomi Mi 5 are made in India. Xiaomi also plans to invest in more hardware and software companies in India such as its investment in Hungama in 2016. Xiaomi India will also expand its data centre count to 500 in 2017 and add more staff at its Indore and Bengaluru call centres said Jain. 2016 hadn't been the greatest of years for Xiaomi in its home country though. Its Chinese ranking fell to fourth position and there was an overall slump in the China smartphone market as well. Rivals such as Oppo and Vivo raced ahead of Xioami in China in 2016. Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen (R) meets with Zhang Li, chairman of Guangzhou R&F Properties, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Jan 4, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua] PHNOM PENH - Chinese real estate developer Guangzhou R&F Properties planned to invest $3 billion within five years to build six-star hotels in Phnom Penh and coastal Preah Sihanouk province, a senior Cambodian official said Wednesday. Zhang Li, chairman of Guangzhou R&F Properties, unveiled the plan during a meeting with Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen, an assistant to the prime minister told reporters after the meeting. Zhang said his firm has partnered with Cambodia's Royal Group, run by powerful tycoon Kith Meng, for the mega projects. Hun Sen welcomed the investment plan, saying that the Chinese developer had made the right decision to go into a joint venture with Kith Meng because the firm had capital and Kith Meng had land. "The prime minister said that it is the right choice to invest in Cambodia because the country has political stability, good infrastructure, and sound economic growth," the assistant said. The investment would also contribute to the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, Hun Sen added. Buchanan Criticizes White House's Abstaining of U.N. Vote on Israel WASHINGTON U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Longboat Key) said on Wednesday that a United Nations resolution that calls for Israel to stop building settlements must be scorned by Congress, calling the approved resolution an action that "will only embolden enemies of the Jewish state." The Congressman also criticized the Obama administration's implicit decision to abstain from voting on the resolution. The U.N. Security Council's states that the Israeli settlements are an obstacle to peace. Breaking with long-standing tradition of defending Israel from such hostile action at the U.N., the U.S. refused to block the Dec. 23 vote. The House is expected to vote Thursday on a resolution co-sponsored by Buchanan opposing the U.N.s anti-Israel action. Secretary of State John Kerry defended the administrations action, saying Israel can either be Jewish or democratic, it cannot be both and it won't ever live in peace. Buchanan called Kerrys comments offensive and said he should apologize. This is not how you treat your strongest ally in the Middle East, a democracy surrounded by hostile nations who have openly called for its destruction, Buchanan said. The U.N.s recent action will only embolden enemies of the Jewish state. Had the United States chosen to veto this resolution, the vote would have automatically failed. This marked the first time the United States did not use its power to defend Israeli settlements at the U.N. Security Council in over three decades. Immediately following the vote, both Democrats and Republicans rebuked the Obama administration for choosing to not intervene and kill the vote. U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, said it is extremely frustrating, disappointing and confounding that the administration has failed to veto this resolution. Buchanan also pointed to a pattern of attempts made by the United Nations to undermine Israel during 2016. In October 2016 the U.N.s cultural agency, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization passed a resolution criticizing Israel as an occupying power in Jerusalem. It also denied the Jewish peoples deep connection to several of their holiest sites in Jerusalem. In May 2016, the U.N.s World Health Organization called for an investigation into alleged mental, physical and environmental health abuses made by Israel, the only country singled out. In March 2016 the U.N.s Commission on the Status of Women designated Israel as the worlds sole violator of womens rights, disregarding counties such as Iran and Saudi Arabia. Hamas, which is considered a terrorist group by the United States, released a statement praising the countries that voted in support for the Dec. 23 resolution. We emphasize the need to turn such a resolution into action, not only to halt settlements but to eradicate Israels occupation in all its forms, said a Hamas spokesman. China, US should maintain proper direction of relations U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and China\'s Foreign Minister Wang Yi talk at the 5th East Asia Summmit at the 48th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Reuters, Beijing : China's foreign minister, Wang Yi, told U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday that the two countries should develop ties in the proper direction, amid unease in Beijing over U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's comments on Taiwan and trade. Trump, due to take office on Jan. 20, has angered China by speaking by telephone to Taiwan's president, Tsai Ing-wen, casting doubt on the incoming administration's commitment to only recognising the Beijing government, and not Taiwan, under a "one China" policy. Trump has left open the possibility of meeting Tsai if she visits the United States after he is sworn in. He also has rattled Beijing by appointing people in his administration who are critical of China's trade practices. Wang told Kerry ties were at an "important stage" and that cooperative achievements were "not easy to come by". "Both sides should take great care to jointly safeguard and ensure the proper direction of development in bilateral relations," Wang said in a telephone call with Kerry, according to a statement on his ministry's website. The ministry cited Kerry as saying maintaining the "one China" policy was the position of both of the main U.S. parties, the Democrats and Trump's Republicans. China is deeply suspicious of Tsai, and thinks she wants to push for the formal independence of Taiwan, a self-governing island that Beijing regards as a renegade province ineligible for state-to-state relations. The United States, which switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 1979, has acknowledged the Chinese position that there is only "one China" and that Taiwan is part of it. China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since 1949, when Mao Zedong's Communist forces won the Chinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists fled to the island. Tsai will transit through Houston and San Francisco during a visit this month to allies in Latin America, a stopover China has called on the United States to block. Chinese policymakers are also wary of Trump's protectionist stance on trade, and he has promised a hard line on China, threatening to raise tariffs on its exports to the United States. The Xinhua state news agency, which usually reflects government thinking, this week chided Trump for his proclivity for criticising China on Twitter, saying the social media platform "should not become a foreign policy tool". On Thursday, the Global Times, an influential state-run tabloid, said Trump's angry tweets over trade had given Chinese officials plenty of time to prepare. "There will be fresh flowers outside the door to China's Commerce Ministry, but a big stick hidden behind it," the paper said. RANGPUR: Rangpur Unit of Bangladesh Chhatra League brought out a rally marking its 69th founding anniversary on Wednesday. Medical colleges producing substandard physicians AN alarming situation is obtaining in the country's medical education where lack of adequate number of teachers, class rooms and other infrastructures is adding to the worsening standard of education. A report in a national daily on Thursday pointed out at how the mushrooming of medical colleges took place in the country over the past few years while most of them are producing substandard physicians. There is no denying of the fact that such physicians are regularly endangering the lives of patients in hospitals or outdoor treatments. Media reports galore about wrong treatment and patients' death in hospitals and clinics. The situation is only deteriorating when most such doctors are using hospitals and clinics to capitalize patients' miseries for making illegal fortune. It appears that the proliferation of medical colleges in private sector started in the hands of wealthy people having political backing from past two decades. We have a total of 105 medical colleges now that include 36 government-run colleges and 69 in the private sector. What is most striking is that these colleges need at least 25,000 teachers but they have only 9,403 to suggest enough classrooms teaching is not taking place in those colleges to produce good doctors. It looks quite surprising 47 medical colleges were set-up in the country alone from 2009 to 2016 while 49 were established from 1992 to 2008. They are mostly products of political lobbying and most of these medical colleges have no back up support from attached medical hospitals to practically train the students. The country had originally 9 medical colleges until 1991 but since then professional doctors and wealthy people came forward to set-up medical colleges to slowly turn them as commercial establishments. But study reports said most of them have not suitable libraries, anatomy rooms and such other teaching arrangements. Only few medical colleges such as Dhaka, Rajshahi, Chittagong and at some other places have enough facilities to produce good doctors. As it appears private medical colleges realize exorbitant tuition fees and other contributions, which at times run from ten to fifty lakh taka per students. Wealthy families think educating children in medicine is not only lucrative it also adds to family status. But physical engineering is different subjects and poor students and ill-equipped colleges are only destroying the standard medical education. What is most striking is that the government is easily giving approval to new medical colleges even breaking the new policy that should not have been otherwise done. Medical Colleges have to fulfil certain conditions to qualify for approval but many are running in hired houses with few facilities ignoring such conditions. The Health Minister's claim that the government is interested to expand medical education in the country is a good policy but we wonder why the Health Ministry is not strictly enforcing the minimum standard on medical colleges. The danger is that more people are falling victims in the hands of poorly educated doctors that must stop. Myanmar spl representative due on Jan 11 A special representative of Myanmar government is likely to arrive in Dhaka on January 11 to discuss the burning issue of Rohingya Muslims. The Myanmar representative will meet the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali and other officials concerned during his visit, the Foreign Ministry officials said. When contacted, Foreign Secretary Md. Shahidul Haque told The New Nation on Thursday night: "The special representative of Myanmar is scheduled to arrive in Dhaka on January 11. We'll elaborate the envoy's programme very shortly." Sources close to the Foreign Office said that Naypyidaw earlier wanted to send its representative to Dhaka on January 12. But the schedule was changed due to unavailability of the PM's schedule. Dhaka, however, expressed its firm determination to find out an acceptable solution over Rohingya crisis during upcoming meeting with the Myanmar envoy. This is the first time Naypyidaw has expressed its interest to discuss Rohingya issue with Dhaka since violent clash broke out in its bordering Muslim dominated state Rakhine in October last forcing over 50, 000 people to take shelter in Cox's Bazar. Alleged attacks on party`s processions countrywide Staff Reporter : The BNP on Thursday accused the government of inciting violence by attacking the party's processions countrywide marking the 'democracy killing day'. "The ruling party men attacked our leaders and activists in different districts when they brought out processions marking the democracy killing day," said Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir while addressing a briefing after a joint meeting at the party's Naya Paltan office. The party has been observing January 5 as the democracy killing day after the one sided national polls in 2014. As part of the programme, BNP organised countrywide processions with black flags and wearing black badges yesterday. To observe the black day, the Dhaka City unit of BNP will organise a rally on January 7 (Saturday) at the Suhrawardy Udyan. Party Chairperson Khaleda Zia will attend the Saturday's rally as the chief guest, Mirza Fakhrul said. The joint meeting was a part of the preparation of the rally. Senior leaders of the party were participated in the meeting. Mirza Fakhrul alleged that the ruling Awami League men attacked the BNP's peaceful processions in Noakhali, Barisal, Tangail, Mymensingh, Naogaon, Natore, Narayanganj and Jaypurhat. He also said that some activists from a pro-government organisation -- Awami Projonmo League -- burned a banner of BNP in front of the party's Naya Paltan office. "The miscreants from the ruling party burned our banner in front of the police. It is a clear provocation. The government wants to bring the BNP in the field of violation. But our party and party men are always peaceful. We condemn the government's such actions," the BNP secretary general said. He said that the government is putting off our democratic programme by using RAB and police. The BNP leader said only a neutral election is the way to solve the political crisis. He also criticised the Prime Minister's speech in which the PM alleged that the BNP men may involve in the killing of MP Manjurul Islam Litan. Besides, Khaleda Zia on a twitter message asked people to take steps to reinstall democracy in the country. In Barisal, the BNP alleged that the AL men attacked on their supporters while preparing for a procession. But the AL denied the allegation saying the clash was staged by the BNP. Police said the clash erupted around 11:30am at the city's Sadar Road, Deputy Police Commissioner Golam Rouf said that BNP activists gathered in front of its party office in an attempt to take out a procession. Around the same time, activists the AL's student and youth affiliates gathered nearby, he said. "The clash erupted when a bottle was thrown at the Awami League supporters from the BNP gathering," he said Witnesses said, Awami League activists were spotted with sticks during the clash. After a while the police intervened and dispersed the trouble makers. BNP's Barisal South unit General Secretary Abul Kalam Shahin said, "Awami League activists attacked us while we were getting ready for a peaceful procession." He claimed that around 50 of their supporters have been injured. "It's all staged by the BNP to make things murky. They started the clash and blamed it on us," said Abdur Razzak, general secretary of Barisal unit of the AL student front. Horrors off camera? HRW terms Myanmar Commission report methodologically flawed: UN team to visit Rohingya camps Different rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, have sharply criticized Myanmar government after its foreign ministry refuted the allegations of torture and repression on Rohingyas in the Muslim dominated Rakhine state. "Yet when it comes to allegations of other serious abuses, the government [of Myanmar] remains curiously intransigent. The claim by the Myanmar foreign ministry, which is headed by Aung San Suu Kyi, that this was an isolated case rings hollow," Deputy Director of HRW [Asia Division] Phil Robertson said. "The leaked video, filmed by a police officer, has prompted the government to admit that in this case police officers had abused villagers during 'clearance operationsBut the video begs the question: if police officers unashamedly film themselves savagely beating Rohingya villagers, what horrors are taking place off camera?" Phil Robertson also said posing a question. Recently a video went viral on social media showed Myanmar police officers brutally kicking and beating ethnic Rohingya villagers, including some who appeared to be children, ignited widespread criticism in the international arena. Against this backdrop, the Myanmar government had said "legal action to be taken" against six officers whom were involved, and at the same time appointed a commission to investigate the violence that occurred in October last year. But strangely the commission, revealed its report on Tuesday, has found no cases of genocide or religious persecution of Rohingya Muslims. Echoing the same, the spokesman of Myanmar's foreign ministry also claimed it "an isolated case." According to information available, the 13-member commission was constituted by presidential order on December 1 to probe the October 9 border guard attacks in Maungdaw and Rathedaung townships as well as subsequent violence in Muslim villages in Maungdaw on November 12 and 13. The commission released its report on Tuesday. Condemning the Myanmar Commission's report, Phil Robertson further said: "Two separate government investigations have either dismissed the allegations against the military entirely or failed to address them, claiming there is insufficient evidence. Instead, the government claims without evidence that the Rohingya militants were responsible for the widespread burnings." "Since the violence erupted, the government has prevented both humanitarian groups from providing much-needed assistance, and human rights researchers and journalists from independently conducting on-the-ground investigations," he said. It is learnt that, the HRW has used satellite imagery to identify at least 1,500 buildings that were destroyed in Maungdaw Township between October and November last year. The pattern of destruction strongly suggests that the buildings were destroyed in arson attacks that were part of a military operation. Witnesses to the destruction also say the military was responsible. The commission report said: "The Bengali population residing in Maungdaw region, the increasing population of Mawlawi [Muslim religious scholars], mosques, and religious edifices are proof that there were no cases of genocide and religious persecution in the region." The report used a derogatory name for the stateless Rohingya also blaming that they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh in Buddhist-majority Myanmar. It conducted investigations of allegations of rape, torture, arson and illegal arrests in Rohingya villages interviewing local villagers and women, but found insufficient evidence to take legal action. The Myanmar commission report also said the armed attacks were carried out by members of the Islamic terrorist organization Aqa Mul Mujahidin that operated in Maungdaw region in conjunction with the local extremist group Rohingya Solidarity Organization [RSO]. Interestingly, in its conclusion to the report, the commission said: "The commission is carrying out its duties, being ever mindful that, as per the nature of these conflicts, illegal activities and fabricated rumors and news can appear occasionally." Meanwhile, the foreign Ministry officials said the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights is likely to send a team to Bangladesh this month to see the Rohingyas' condition who have entered southeastern district of Cox's Bazar being driven away by Myanmar army. The team will prepare an evaluation report on the migrant situation. On the other hand, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation [OIC] is scheduled to hold an emergency meeting with foreign ministers over Rohingya issue on January 19. The 57-member body, since its birth, will sit in a meeting for the first time over the Rohingya Muslims issue. "The OIC will hold an emergency meeting at the level of foreign ministers on January 19 in Malaysia to discuss the dangerous violations committed against the Rohingya Muslims and to make a decision to bring an end to this humanitarian crisis," Maha Akeel, spokeswoman for the OIC, told Arab News recently. In the meantime, Myanmar rights activists reacted to a written appeal by a group of 23 Nobel Laureates politicians and global leaders to the United Nations Security Council on December 28 to end "ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity" in Rakhine state, according to the media reports. Member of the 88 Generation Peace and Open Society Group Mie Mie has suggested that outside forces should not press Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's de facto leader and herself a Nobel laureate, to resolve the issue. "Because Aung San Suu Kyi is also a Nobel laureate, she doesn't need to be pressured to stop human rights violations or to be sent an open letter. This country's problems are those of the citizens and the government. We will work together to resolve them," she told RFA's Myanmar Service. She also pointed to the efforts of Aung San Suu Kyi's special Rakhine Advisory Commission, headed by former U.N. chief Kofi Annan, to help resolve the religious and ethnic divisions in Rakhine state, according to media. Mastermind Akhi nabbed in city Staff Reporter : Dewan Atikur Rahman Akhi, the mastermind behind the Nasirnagar mayhem of Brahmanbaria district, was nabbed from the city's Bhatara area on Thursday, police said. Akhi, an incumbent Chairman of Haripur Union Parishad, is also an Awami League (AL) leader. After the mayhem he (Akhi) went into hiding. He was the main accused in a case filed over the attack on some houses belonged to the Hindus. Earlier on October 30, a gang of miscreants vandalized around 100 homes and five temples and looted valuables in Nasirnagar upazila of Brahmanbaria district over a Facebook post "hurting the Muslims' religious sentiment. Later, two cases were filed against 2,400 unidentified people in this connection. When contacted, Iqbal Hossain, Additional Superintendent of Brahmanbaria Police, said on Thursday a special squad of Detective Branch (DB) of police raided capital Dhaka's Bhatara and arrested him around 3 pm with the help of local police. "Our Detective Branch of police in association with the local police arrested Akhi from Bhatara area at about 3pm. Police are taking him to Brahmanbaria," he added. Atikur Rahman Akhi is a former district committee member of the Juba League, an associate body of ruling Awami League. The Hindu households were attacked by all those men, who were brought in from Haripur in 14 to 15 trucks. Akhi was said to have arranged and paid fare of trucks, which carried the men to the villages. Local political leaders said supporters of lawmaker RAM Obaidul Muktadir Chowdhury planned the attacks on the Hindu community to create problems for their rivals. Police were looking for Akhi who went into hiding. His arrest follows the capture of two of his associates on Sunday. Earlier AL suspended three local unit leaders for their alleged involvement in mayhem. They are Nasirnagar Union Parishad Chairman Abul Hashem, also Assistant Secretary of the party's upazila unit, Faruk Mia, President of Haripur Union, and Haji Suruj, Chief of Chapartola union unit. Meanwhile, two investigation reports, prepared by Police Bureau of Investigation [PBI] over mayhem, have found out that the "distorted photo" of Kaaba Sharif was stored and edited in the cellular phone of Zahangir Alam. Zahangir Alam, 30, owner of Al-Amin cyber-cafe, arrested on November 28, is now in the jail. The picture was deleted after sometime. The two inquiry reports also said. Earlier on Monday the Detective Branch of Brahmanbaria district submitted the investigation reports to the District and Session Judge Court. Earlier, the PBI sent the investigation reports to Detective Branch of Brahmanbaria District asking to take necessary action. During the mayhem, the attackers also beat up over 100 people of the minority community, living in eight Hindu localities, including Kashipara, Daspara, Ghoshpara, Duttapara and Nomoshudropara, said Abdul Quader, Officer-in-Charge of Nasirnagar Police Station. The Undead Archives I have finally salvaged my pre-Blogger TDR archives and added them into Blogger. They are almost totally in the form of one giant post for each month. And the formatting strayed from the originals. Sorry. But historians everywhere can rejoice that this treasure trove of my thoughts is restored to the world. Thursday, January 5, 2017 at 1:45PM by John Guerin I could not have predicted that in a movie starring Laura Dern, Kristen Stewart, and Michelle Williams, a performance by relative newcomer Lily Gladstone would leave me the most affected. The best short film of 2016 is the third act of Kelly Reichardts Certain Women, in which Jamie (Gladstone), a solitary Montana rancher, falls for Beth, an out-of-town lawyer (Stewart), who is stuck teaching an educational law night class four-hours away from her home in Livingston. Stewart, unsurprisingly, adds another formidable performance to her collection of direct yet remote modern women, but the revelation here is Gladstone, who contributes a sensational breakthrough performance that deserves The Academys attention... One frosty night, after all her horses have been tended to, Jamie, by some combination of loneliness and weeknight boredom, drives into town and casually finds herself sitting at the back of Beths dreary classroom. Something about Beth her cryptic attitude, evident disarray, or jumbled expression activates Jamies desire and sparks a compulsive fervor. Gladstones face practically glows while watching Beth lecture about teachers insurance, and when Beth agrees to join her at a diner after class, Gladstone watches her eat with the intensity of me watching Nicole Kidmans Birth close-up. Gladstone is constantly, quietly strategizing, measuring how much excitement to effuse or decoding signals in Stewarts preoccupied exchanges. After one evening class, Jamie brings a horse to pick up Beth, like a knight rescuing her princess. The look on Gladstones face is so euphoric that it enables us to infer the newness of feeling this moment has spurred. In this scene and in so many others, Reichardts brilliant direction confuses the straightforward motives of both characters, but such uncertainty is also the result of Gladstones expert emotional modulation, confounding ideas about queer desire and evading the very validity of such claims. Does Jamie want Beth in a traditional sense, or might she want to be her? Does she even know what she wants? Is this love or a welcome reprieve from the mundanity of ranching? Would this high-strung lawyer give her any attention under different circumstances? When Beth suddenly quits the class, Jamie makes the long drive to Beths town that same night and searches for her until finally catching her arriving to work the next morning. In a devastating scene, Jamie realizes her investment in Beth is almost completely one-sided. As Beth, previously distracted by work stress, begins to process this near-strangers spirited attraction, Jamie swims to the edge of her own desires and is forced to confront a much different outcome than she had imagined. I mention Kidman in Birth because here Gladstone, in a softer register, creates her own radiant portrait of a woman lying to herself, not from the result of some supernatural delusion, but from assuming that attention is attraction. Watching her experience such a blow reminds us of her luminous repression in earlier scenes, but the luminosity has been shattered and the repression only deepened upon Stewarts clear and unequivocal rejection. Jamie may recuperate from this missed connection, but I myself can think of few characters from 2016 that occupy my thoughts more than this lonely, pining, and finally lovelorn rancher. In an almost silent performance, Gladstone conveys a level of muted intensity wholly comparable to Liv Ullmann or early Hollywood icon Janet Gaynor. Her knack for carefully expressing a host of emotions through tiny details played across the face would make Julianne Moore proud. Gladstone possesses a strange majesty and remains in complete control of Jamies unruly feelings. Her eyes alight like magnetic fields as her voice slips with veiled excitement, signaling immense heartache through careful calibration. Her performance requires us to pay a great deal of attention to the detail and implication laid out across her expressive face, but the final result is a nothing less than a vigorously full-bodied creation. more on Certain Women | more from John Guerin | Supporting Actress Oscar Race After a year of fighting the former wildlife and fisheries secretary on a number of fronts, recreational interests are hopeful for 2017 as state Rep. Jack Montoucet of Crowley takes over the top hunting and fishing regulatory job in Louisiana. State Rep. Jack Montoucet Montoucet, an alligator farmer by trade and a former fire chief, replaces Charlie Melancon, who was forced out of the secretary position after getting crossways on red snapper management issues with the Edwards Administration, Congressman Garret Graves, the Louisiana chapter of the Coastal Conservation Association and others. Melancon had also made a big issue out of past fiscal management practices at the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, which is something Montoucet has said he will zero in on. I understand the seriousness of the issues raised by a recent audit, and the governor and I are committed to making the necessary reforms to this agency, Montoucet says. Gov. John Bel Edwards has the authority to appoint the secretary, and he served in the House of Representatives alongside Montoucet. For recreational interests, who complained that Melancon was taking the side of commercial fishermen on matters like red snapper management, theres a growing optimism about a more even-handed political approach from Montoucet a commercial harvester of alligators. Right now Patrick Banks, assistant secretary of the Office of Fisheries, is serving as the interim-secretary. Montoucet will officially take over on Jan. 16, and his seat in House District 42 will become vacant, requiring a special election. Jay Suire In that House race, Jay Suire, a Republican attorney with the Glenn Armentor Law Corporation, has announced he will be running. The Acadiana House seat, held during the last three terms by Montoucet, a Democrat, has long been targeted by the Louisiana Republican Party. Clint Odom is the legislative director for Democratic U.S. Senator Kamala Harris, the first black woman California has sent to the Senate and the first Indian-American to ever serve in the body. Clint Odom Lafayette native Clint Odom is the highest ranking African-American staff member in the U.S. Senate, but hes serving a newly elected senator from another state. As of this week, Odom becomes legislative director for U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-California, who was elected in November to succeed Barbara Boxer. Odom, who most recently was Democratic general counsel for the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, is the only black legislative director in the Senate. Im thrilled that Clint has decided to join our team, and I look forward to our work together, Harris, who this week became the first black woman California has sent to the Senate and the first Indian American to ever serve in the body, said when announcing the appointment. He will be an invaluable asset to me and the people of California as we fight for the ideals of this nation. Odom tells The IND his Lafayette roots helped him succeed in Washington. Growing up in Lafayette, you learn how to get along in order to get things done, says Odom, who spent much of his early life in the McComb-Veazey neighborhood. I am grateful for what I learned in Lafayette, but there are things I wanted to do that I could not do there. I grew up three blocks from Kenneth Boudreaux, Odom says, having started his education at Alice Boucher Elementary before his parents moved him to Cathedral Carmel. He graduated from St. Thomas More. Odom graduated from LSU in 1989 with a political science degree, then earned his juris doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1993. He clerked for a year for U.S. District Court Judge Henry Wingate in the Southern District of Mississippi before moving to private practice for two years. I wanted to do something that didnt exist at the time. I wanted to be a space lawyer to put together the deals and the contracts with NASA that would enable companies to literally do business in space, he recalls. But, growing up in Lafayette gave me the skills to navigate that process, Odom says. Im convinced that you could put a kid from Lafayette in the middle of the desert and come back later to find him kicked back having a beer with money in his pocket. Odom has navigated Washington with aplomb since arriving in 1994 at an entry-level position with a D.C. law firm. Within two years, he had begun the first of two stints at the Federal Communications Commission, having initially worked as a staff attorney before becoming legal adviser to then-FCC Chairman William Kennard. From the FCC, Odom went to work for Verizon, serving as a vice president for the telecommunications companys New Jersey operations. He was there for seven years. Kamala Harris Odom did private consulting work for a year before taking the first of several jobs with U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida in 2009. He worked as legislative counsel until 2012 when he was promoted to deputy legislative director. A year later, Odom returned to the FCC to serve as policy director for Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. He stayed there for just over a year before returning to the Senate, where Nelson recruited him to serve as minority counsel on the Commerce Committee. Odom was the 2016 recipient of the Extraordinary Service Award given by the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council earlier this year. He currently serves as a member of the LSU National Diversity Advisory Board, and is a former member of the LSU University College Advisory Board. Odom now lives in Virginia. He began his new job Jan. 3, when Harris who most recently was Californias attorney general officially became a member of the 115th Congress. Odoms appointment has implications beyond a local success story, according to his friend and former congressional staff peer Donald Cravins Jr., senior vice president for policy for the National Urban League. Clints appointment is a big deal, Cravins says. Few Americans have an opportunity to serve at that level of government. So for him to reach that level, its a major accomplishment for him and the people of Acadiana. His appointment is also significant because it makes Clint the highest ranking African-American staffer working for a Democratic U.S. senator, Cravins continues, noting the need for more diversity on legislative staff appointments. Clints appointment is a step in the right direction. Cravins says his parents and Odoms parents have long been friends but that the families really got to know each other when Cravins joined Sen. Mary Landrieus Washington staff in 2009. But if he prevails before the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal over his November 2014 firing by the Lafayette Parish School Board, the former superintendent could also be in line for a handsome payday. Photo by Robin May Pat Cooper, the former Lafayette schools superintendent, could become a precedent-setting case for school board reform in Louisiana. If he prevails in a rehearing before the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal over his November 2014 firing by the Lafayette Parish School Board, he could also be in line for a handsome payday. The former superintendent, who was hired in December of 2011 and still had a little more than a year on his $190,000-per-year contract when he was canned in 2014, declined comment over the appellate courts surprising decision released last week (Dec. 29) to rehear his appeal, other than to say, I put this in Gods hands a long time ago. Coopers attorney, Lane Roy of Lafayette, hasnt returned a call seeking comment, but he told The Advertiser the appeal is a major case for Pat Cooper, but its even bigger for the education law in Louisiana. Roy is referring to Act I, the education reform package passed by the Legislature in 2012 that among other things gave greater power and discretion to superintendents in hiring, firing and personnel decision-making. Cooper embraced Act I right out of the gate, hiring without board approval in early 2012 Thad Welch to serve as district maintenance supervisor. The board voted in the spring of that year to de-fund Welchs position, setting off a series of skirmishes with the school board that culminated in Coopers ouster two years later. Ultimately, following a lengthy investigation by a board-hired attorney, Cooper was fired based on 15 violations of board policy. He filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the board soon after his firing, and in 2015 District Judge Patrick Michot sided with the board on only one of the charges that Coopers decision to pay principals at low-performing schools more than their peers impacted a school system budget under the discretion of the school board. Cooper appealed Michots ruling, but in late November the 3rd Circuit upheld it. But as attorney Roy notes in The Advertiser article, a strong dissent by Judge John Connery, who opined that Coopers termination by the board was based more on politics and less on law gave Roy hope that asking for a rehearing might be granted. On Dec. 29 it was. If Cooper prevails at the 3rd Circuit the LPSB could certainly and probably would appeal to the state Supreme Court, but in the interim it would be a victory for Coopers interpretation of Act I, and it could serve as a precedent to embolden other superintendents in Louisiana to make decisions historically left to school boards. It could also mean a more than $200,000 pay day for Cooper, who is seeking payment through the term of his contract. The rehearing is scheduled tentatively for Jan. 25. That three-judge appellate panel will include Connery and, worth noting, will not include Judge Jimmy Genovese, one of two judges to vote against Cooper in the opinion released in late November. (Genovese was sworn in as a state Supreme Court justice this week.) However, the other judge who sided with the lower court and against Cooper in November, Jimmie Peters, will be on the rehearing panel. IND L!VE offers highlights of the many live music events taking place around Acadiana this weekend. HILL COUNTRY HOUNDS Thursday, Jan. 5 Artmosphere Bistro Doors: 9 p.m. Admission: $5 The Hounds are spreading their wings to Lafayette, so come on out and get your howl on. KEVIN NAQUIN & THE OSSUN PLAYBOYS Thursday, Jan. 5 The Grouse Room Doors: 8 p.m. Kevin Naquin & the Ossun Playboys have arrived! This time, the swamps of Southwest Louisiana have given birth to a young, Cajun band that's definitely the "Real Deal". These guys play Cajun music the way it's supposed to be played, keeping true to their traditional heritage, yet pushing the limits of groove with a mature experimentation that's guaranteed to keep you dancing. LAST HONKYTONK MUSIC SERIES: ZACHARY THOMAS DIEDRICH Thursday, Jan. 5 The Grouse Room Doors: 8 p.m. The Last Honky Tonk Music Series is a historic Roots Music Series featuring National Artists performing in Official Venues on a weekly, monthly or seasonal basis, depending on the venue. TEACHER APPRECIATION NIGHT Thursday, Jan. 5 Blue Moon Saloon Doors: 9 p.m. Come out and enjoy some original folk/rock/reggae music from the Michel Joseph Band on this special Teacher Appreciation Night live at the Blue Moon Saloon. BRASS MIMOSA AND LEVEE DAZE Friday, Jan. 6 Artmosphere Bistro Doors: 9 p.m. Brass Mimosa will be coming to Artmosphere January 6th to stir up some sweet, sweaty groove roux with their friends Levee Daze from Baton Rouge. HARD WINTER WITH KLINIK AND EIXIE Friday, Jan. 6 Feed & Seed Doors: 9 p.m. At HARD WINTER, you can expect a little bit of everything, including ORIGINAL music, your favorite jams, and you're soon to be new favorite jams. LANE MACK + MOTEL RADIO Friday, Jan. 6 Blue Moon Saloon Doors: 9 p.m. The Blue Moon Saloon welcomes Motel Radio and Lane Mack to its stage this Friday night. WAR RIG, LEVELER, THE YELLOW TRIANGLE, COSMIC LATTE Friday, Jan. 6 The District Doors: 8 p.m. Admission: $7 The District welcomes Cosmic Latte, The Yellow Triangle, Leveler and War Pig to its stage this Friday. BOOM BOOM BURLESQUE AND THE MARVELOUS MISFITS Saturday, Jan. 7 Feed & Seed Doors: 10 p.m. Arty Dodger, the Southern Gentleman Juggler and Paul Prater, Mentalist extraordinaire join us at Feed N Seed where we will recreate the excitement of a three-ring circus. FOREST HUVAL Saturday, Jan. 7 Artmosphere Bistro Doors: 9 p.m. Admission: $10 Forest Huval is an intrepid upcoming musician with a voyagers soul. A native of Cecilia, Louisiana, his soulful vocals along with his effortless accordion and intense fiddle playing can get anyone up and dancing. GREY STREET BAND Saturday, Jan. 7 The Grouse Room Doors: 9:30 p.m. Launched in Feb 2001, the Grey Street Band is a tribute band to the Dave Matthews Band. The Grey Street Band spins authentic covers of the most popular Dave Matthews songs and sells out venues from Florida to Louisiana. This five piece group has more than 15 years of professional playing as a group. THE GUMBO SHOW: LA RECOLTE CAJUN BAND & OEUVAL & QUATRE COIN Saturday, Jan. 7 Blue Moon Saloon Doors: 8 p.m. Join La Recolte, UVAL, and Quatre Coin at the Blue Moon Saloon for an evening of old time Cajun fun. THE RAKERS + CODY BOUILLION + MAGIC CRAWFISH Saturday, Jan. 7 POETS Doors: 8 p.m. Admission: $8 The Rakers play POET's this Saturday in support of their new album "Regina." Joining the Rakers are Cody Bouillon and Magic Crawfish. Paris, TX (75460) Today Variable clouds and becoming windy with strong thunderstorms. Damaging winds, large hail and possibly a tornado with some storms. High 74F. Winds SSE at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall may reach one inch.. Tonight Scattered thunderstorms, some strong, early, becoming clear after midnight. Damaging winds, large hail and possibly a tornado with some storms. Low 43F. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 80%. The sextoy market is growing quite rapidly in India right now. Although it is not a big trend, it is a hot topic on the internet as it is secretly expanding its market. In this article, we will focus on sextoy and introduce recommended sextoy for Indian beginners of sextoy by gender. India, the birthplace of the Kama Sutra, is very strict about sex. Also, premarital sex is basically not allowed. Therefore, there are many people who are sexually restricted. But what happens when you continue to be sexually restricted? Frustration may build up and you may end up taking your sexual stress out on your partner. If you are able to adopt sextoy in a timely manner, you can get rid of those problems. I want to have more exciting sex than Im having now. I want more variation in masturbation I want to get even stronger pleasure than I do on my own. If you have any of these problems, please stay with me until the end. What is sex toys for Indian? Sextoy, as the name implies, is a toy used during sex and masturbation. It is a generic term for vibrators, Egg-vibrators, Electric massagers, dildo, handcuffs and condoms. They are used to make regular sex more exciting or to make masturbation more pleasurable. Because sextoy is very stimulating, it can help you to get rid of the problems and frustrations of being in a rut of sex with your partner for a long time, or if you are unhappy with the lack of pleasure in sex with your partner. The ability to satisfy your desires with movement, texture, and size, which cannot be done by a normal human being, can help you to be satisfied with sex and, as a result, improve your relationship with your partner. It is also said to help improve sexual dysfunction (inability to get an erection or ejaculate) and difficulty in feeling during sex (insensitivity), which is attracting more attention than in the past. In recent years, the demand for sextoy has increased due to the spread of smartphones and the Internet and the increasing number of people using online shopping. Even those who are concerned about the appearance of sextoy (and find it difficult to purchase) can now easily obtain it by using mail order. In the case of online shopping, most of the stores have taken steps to ensure that the contents of the products delivered to you are not revealed, so you can purchase them without your family members knowing. Until a while ago, you had to go to the store where the adult goods were sold to buy them, so it was quite a hurdle to overcome. Also, many people may have an image that sextoy is somehow embarrassing to own. But nowadays, some of them are so stylish and cute that you cant believe they are sextoy at a glance. More and more people are using them for travel and outdoor use because they are not too bulky and are suitable for carrying around. Sextoy situation in India Before introducing the recommended sextoy for Indians, lets talk about one of the sextoy situations in India in recent years. In India, due to the high concentration of population, the following six cities have particularly high sales of sextoy in India. Mumbai Kolkata Bangalore Delhi Chennai Hyderabad These cities account for roughly 70 percent of sextoy sales in India. In the future, the percentage of sextoy use will gradually increase in other cities in India as well. If you never talk about sextoy publicly, that girl in your neighborhood might be a sextoy user too. If you are interested in sextoy, you dont have to suppress your desire for it. What are Sextoys for beginner? Among all sextoys, sextoy for beginners are vibrators, dildo, masturbators, Sex Lubricants, and condoms. Sex Lubricants and condoms, which are familiar to people who have had sex, are also a great beginners sextoy. I will explain the details of each toy later, but there are many sextoy products that are painful to use and can only be used after some anal expansion. I assume that the Indian readers of this article are people who have not had much experience with sextoy. If such people use professional sextoy suddenly, they are at risk of injury or trauma. Therefore, to introduce sextoy, you need to start with a beginners version and gradually become familiar with it. Advantages of using sextoy for Indians There are three advantages of using sextoy for Indians You can masturbate in a wide variety of ways. Can have stimulating sex Can develop new sexual zones If you try to masturbate with your own fingers or hands, it tends to be a pattern. However, with sextoy, you can easily masturbate in a variety of ways. You will definitely be fascinated by the attraction of new stimulation. Also, your daily sex life will be more exciting than ever. There are many things in sextoy that are visually stimulating and give you a strong and intense feeling of pleasure. This allows you to see your partners promiscuity in a way that you wouldnt normally see it. When you are in a relationship, sex with your partner may become a pattern, but it can also eliminate these problems. It can also lead to the development of new sexual zones (which is the training of sexual stimulation to allow you to feel orgasms). For more information on the development of new sexual zones, see the following articles [Women's Erogenous Zone]How to find and develop, 7 hidden sexual zones !![In India] In this issue, we will dissect the female erogenous zone! ..." Many of you may be like that. Men, in particular, shou... Thus, the use of sextoy can only be a good thing for the men and women of India. Sextoy for beginner men in India So, lets continue with the recommended goods for Indian sextoy beginners. For ease of understanding, we will introduce them by gender. Lets start with the men! The following five goods are recommended for novice Indian sextoy men Masturbator Cock rings Love Doll Sex Lubricants Toys for the prostate Lets check each one in detail. Masturbator The masturbator is a sextoy for men that elaborately reproduces a womans vagina, mouth, and anus, and is one of the most popular sextoy products. It is used by men to masturbate, and it is popular because it provides stronger stimulation and pleasure more easily than using hands. Most are made of good quality silicone, and their softness is something that cannot be achieved with ones own hands. They can provide stronger pleasure than a real womans vagina, so be careful not to overuse them. (You wont be able to have an orgasm in a womans vagina anymore.) Again Male masturbators are a wonderful toy. I do not need any favourite timing, bothersome bargaining. You do not have to worry too much. Revolutionize your masturbation time! ! ! Made in Japan is a wonderful kinky toy.#sextoysindia #SexToyIndia #Japanhttps://t.co/4k70QGzoTP pic.twitter.com/tRVdxTKPpa SEXToys India PR (@SextoysIndia) November 12, 2018 Some of them are disposable, while others can be washed and used over and over again, so its fun to buy a few to use depending on your mood. If you want to know more about masturbator, please click here Really pleasant male masturbation and how to do it Are you in a rut with your daily masturbation routine? I'm going to show you five ways men masturbate that you might ... [For Beginners] How to choose and use a male masturbator without fail Gentlemen.Have you ever used a masturbator? The person who sees this article is probably the one who has not experien... Cock Ring A cock ring is literally a ring-shaped sextoy that is worn on a mans penis. It maintains an erection by binding the penis with a ring of rubber and blocking blood flow. It is sometimes used as an accessory to be worn on the penis, and may be made of metal or plastic as well as rubber. In some cases, cock rings have parts or vibrators attached to them that stimulate the vagina, so they kill two birds with one stone, giving a woman pleasure while maintaining an erection. Cock rings are also sometimes used to treat erectile dysfunction. It can help with erectile dysfunction, where the penis doesnt get hard when you get an erection or doesnt last long when you try to insert it. Men who are prone to breakage or who are unsure of the hardness and size of their erections can use a cock ring to increase the size of their penis and maintain an erection for a longer period of time. Cock rings vary in price from around RS700 to over RS2000 with a vibrator function. Some of them do not fit your penis, so you should check the size of the cock ring before you buy. You should know the size of your partners or your own penis when it is erect. [Penis enlargement] What is a cock ring? Types and usage Cock rings can make your penis bigger and harder. It also makes sex with women more fulfilling and increases your sat... Love Doll Love dolls, also known as Dutchwives, are dolls with the appearance of a woman who can experience simulated sex. There are dolls that look like a woman, but they have no face and only have their breasts and lower torso cut off, and some dolls are so realistic that they can actually be mistaken for real women. Some expensive dolls can cost more than 1 million yen, and the quality of the doll is easily influenced by the price. The higher the price, the higher the quality of the doll will be, the closer it will be to the real woman, and the cheaper the doll will be, the less elaborate it will be, making it look like a real doll! Something is wrong! That is also true. You cant go wrong if you choose a balance between price and taste. There are stores that allow you to make custom-made love dolls, so you can create a girl of your choice. You can make a girl of your choice. You can start with inexpensive love dolls at first, and once you get used to it, you can try custom-made love dolls. If you want to know more about Love doll, please click here Thorough explanation of the charm of sex dolls! Have you ever heard of sex dolls that are used primarily for pseudo-sex purposes? It is a doll that is quite close to... Sex lubricants Sex lubricants are used as a substitute for lubricating fluid during sex or as a lubricant for men to use masturbator rules. It is not uncommon for women to have difficulty getting wet, depending on their physical condition, or to have difficulty getting wet due to their constitution. Forcing the penis into the vagina at such times can cause painful intercourse. There are various types of Sex Lubricants, some with a warming effect, some with a cooling effect, and some with a scent. Changing the Sex Lubricant used during play is recommended as a good sex accent. If you want to learn more about Sex Lubricants, click here. What is sex lubricant?Explain the difference and usage of each ingredient The word "sex toy" may seem like a hurdle to overcome, but lotion is actually one of the most familiar sex toys. Many... Toys for the Prostate Another sextoy for men is prostate toys. The most famous prostate toys include Enemagra, which was originally a prostate massager developed by an American urologist to treat an enlarged prostate line. Modern prostate toys are imitations of Enemagra that have spread as sextoy for men. Many people think of prostate toys as being used by gay men, but in fact they are often used by straight men. What is the prostate? The prostate is an organ found only in men. It is a walnut-sized organ located deep in the pelvis, just below the bladder, and its primary role is to protect and nourish sperm. You cannot touch the prostate gland from outside the body, but you can touch it by inserting a finger or sextoy through the anus. By inserting a finger or sextoy through the anus and touching the prostate and developing it, you can feel intense orgasms. Orgasms felt in the prostate are mainly dry orgasms, which are orgasms that do not involve ejaculation. (You can also feel orgasms with ejaculation through prostate stimulation.) The prostate is called the male G-spot, and dry orgasms can be much more intense than ejaculation. Therefore, men who are able to develop a prostate can become addicted to the pleasure. sextoy for beinner women in India The following are the recommended goods for Indian women who are new to sextoy. The following three are recommended for use by women who are new to sextoy. Vibrator. Dildo Electric Masserger Lets check out what each one is in detail. If you want to check out womens toys, click here. [BEST25]Sex Toys for Women in IndiaThat Can Help You Have an Orgasm There are many women who pretend to feel orgasm during sex. But don't worry, you don't have to pretend to feel orgasm... Vibrators A vibrator is a sextoy that vibrates with an Egg-Vibrator to provide stimulation and is often referred to simply as a vibrator. Some vibrate as well as rotate, and there are many variations of sextoy. It is quite a popular sextoy, and is well recognized by people who do not know much about sextoy. Its usage is similar to that of a massager, but it is more compact and easier to carry than a massager, and many of them look as cute as a lipstick or a macaroon, so they are popular among women. For a while, a famous influencer on twitter said, This is good! You may have heard of the topic of this article by introducing the recommended vibrators. Vibrators are great for women to use on their own, but they are also recommended for men who have difficulty satisfying women with sex. Since it is powered by electricity, it is far less tiring than moving your hands by yourself. This makes it easier to satisfy a woman with sex because you can caress her for longer than usual. Vibrators are mainly used on the female side, but they can also be used on men. When used on men, they are used to attack the nipples and glans, and in both cases it is recommended to wear a condom for hygiene reasons. Introducing how to use the vibrator, its purpose, and how to choose it! Vibrator uses the vibrations caused by the rotation of the motor to provide stimulation. It is one or two of the most... Dildo A dildo is a model sextoy made to mimic a male penis. It can be made of silicone, elastomer (think of it as a material similar to PVC), metal or glass. A dildo can be used by a man for his female partner during sex, or by a woman for masturbation to get pleasure from it. They are mainly inserted into women, but some can be used in the male anus as well. It is sometimes used synonymously with vibrators, but the vibrator is not the same thing as a vibrating device. A model of a penis that does not vibrate is a dildo. Some of them have suction cups that can be attached to the floor or wall so that you can enjoy realistic masturbation without using your hands. For fun, there is a dildo made in the shape of your partners penis. This one is also popular as a gift, and if youve been together for a long time and are having trouble finding a gift for your partner, you might want to pick one. To learn more about dildo, please click here. What is Dildo: Orgasms with Dildos for Men and Women A dildo is a model of a male organ that is used by women for masturbation and by men to stimulate the prostate gland. Th... Electric Masserger A Electric Masserger is a hand-held electric massager, also known as a handheld massager, and can usually be purchased at electronics stores. It was originally designed to relieve stiff shoulders and back pain, so the hurdle of buying one in a physical store is quite low. Many people may have seen or used it in some form or another, as it is often installed in leisure hotels. Such a massager is highly recommended for beginners because it is easy for women to get pleasure from it when they use it during masturbation. It is larger than Egg-Vibrator and vibrations are stronger than those of Egg-Vibrators and vibrators, so even just hitting the clitoris can give you a great deal of pleasure. For those women who have never had an orgasm during sex with their man, the massager may be a good way to get a feel for what it feels like to have an orgasm. It looks and feels like an electric massager, so you wont have to feel awkward if your roommate finds out. If you are in a rut of having sex with your partner, if you want to feel an orgasm through masturbation, or if you are thinking of using a sextoy, why dont you try it from a simple massager? To learn more about Electric Masserger, click here. What is a massager? Introducing types, selection methods, and usage Originally, the Magic-wand vibrator and the massage machine were sold as a home massage machine used for the back and th... How to choose a sextoy for Indian Now that weve covered the different types of sextoy, heres how to choose one. Especially if you are trying sextoy for the first time, pay attention to the following three points: Does the size fit you (the partner)? Does the size fit you (your partner)? Is the environment able to produce sound without problems? Price range First of all, the choice of size is quite important. Most sextoy are used against or inserted into the genitals, but the genitals are very delicate organs for both men and women. For this reason, using an inappropriate size may cause damage. Secondly, the environment should be able to produce sound without problems. Some sextoys not only wear, but also rotate and vibrate. Its easier to get pleasure from something that moves than something that doesnt, but the fact that it moves means that the internal rotors make some noise. If you live in a house with thin walls or if you have roommates, you may not be able to concentrate because of the noise, so it is best to choose one that is silent or has a low noise level. Especially in India, where many people live with their families, it is very important that you dont have to worry about sound when you use it. Finally, there is the price range. The price range of sextoy ranges widely, from around RS500 at the cheapest to RS10,000 or more at the highest. Its good to consider how much money you can afford and how much you want to buy. Do you want your family to not find out about sextoy? I live with my family and want to use sextoy without them finding out! If you are a man, you should buy a camouflage sextoy that does not look like a sextoy at first glance. For men, there are many masturbators that do not look like a sextoy, and for women, there are vibrators that only look like cosmetics. If you choose such a type, youll be safe in case your family members find out. How to buy sextoys in India The best way to purchase sextoy is through online shopping. For more information on how to purchase sextoy, please see the article below. Sextoy is one of them. Therefore, you can easily get sextoy in India by using online shopping. SexToysINDIA is a long established and stable sextoy store and you can have sextoy delivered to any place in India. They also offer cash on delivery, so those who are worried about shopping with a credit card do not have to worry. Of course, the latest security is in place, so your information will not be taken out when you use your credit card. To begin with, many people may be concerned about whether they are legally allowed to purchase sextoy. ikmAs it turns out, its not illegal. Right now, it is not open to the public because the Indian adult market is still in the development stage, but it will gradually spread from now on. Take advantage of sextoy and open the door to new pleasures and culture. Cautions for Indians using sextoy When using sextoy, keep the following three things in mind Keep sex toys clean Watch out for electrical leakage Beware of the heat generated by the body while using a sex toy As I mentioned earlier, many sextoy products are used for the delicate zone. Therefore, it is most important to keep the sextoy itself clean. It is very important to keep the sextoy itself clean, because if a slight scratch is created by friction, bacteria can enter and breed there. It is safe to wear a condom when using the masturbator, just in case. In addition, many sextoy devices are powered by a power source, so if they are not waterproof, there is a possibility of electric shock or malfunction due to wetness. Some may even develop heat during continuous use. If the fever becomes too much, you may get burned, so be careful. If you get a fever during use, stop driving the sextoy immediately and refrain from using it. You will enjoy sex more if you keep it safe and use it correctly. Summary What did you think? In this article, we have introduced the recommended sextoy for the beginners of sextoy in India. The sextoy market is growing rapidly in India and it will continue to grow steadily in the future. As India is a rather closed-minded country, it can be difficult to be open about ones sexual habits and values. However, being faithful to ones desires by properly dissolving ones sexual desire is very effective for ones physical and mental health. If this is your first time to learn about sextoy, or if you are interested in using sextoy, why not give it a try? Indian Sextoys for ur best! will introduce you to sextoy and other trivia about sextoy, sexuality, and sexuality for men and women. I want to read more! If you think its a great idea, please bookmark it. MARION Students from Marion Junior High School will travel to the nation's capital later this month to witness a historic event and perform in a widely acclaimed music festival. From Jan. 19 to Jan. 23, students from the Marion Junior High School concert choir will participate in the 2017 Presidential Inauguration Heritage Festival. For Elizabeth Shore, the instructor of the junior high school choir, this will be one of two festivals that she has spearheaded. "This is a festival through a well-known music festival company that we've done festivals with before," she said. As part of the Heritage Festival, 40 students along with 14 parents from the junior high school choir will travel to the District of Columbia to join thousands on the National Mall for the presidential inauguration ceremony and then perform before a panel of judges. "This is something that they do every four years which is really exciting because you get to go to Washington, D.C., and witness the inauguration and see the nation's capital," Shore said. Shore said the trip not only broadens students' experiences, but pushes them to be more open to opportunities. "I feel like part of my job as a music educator is not just to teach music but to give students, especially in Southern Illinois who oftentimes are not well traveled, the opportunity to see the world and see that there are more things out there than just what we have to offer locally," she said. With more than $9,000 raised for the trip, and more practices underway for students to learn their specific parts, Shore said she is excited for the opportunity of a lifetime. "The competition now is about three weeks away and we started practicing after school with just those students (from her three classes who can attend) so we actually are having students relearn a new part so we can do our best in competition," she said. "The inauguration itself will be overwhelming in the amount of people and all the excitement, but truthfully the scariest part of the trip is navigating all of the students back to the bus. This time we have yellow beanies so we can see their heads and hopefully (gather) them." A Murphysboro woman was arrested Thursday fleeing an attempted traffic stop and leading police on a chase through Jackson and Williamson counties; her passenger was also arrested. According to a news release from the Energy Police Department, Energy Police Drug Interdiction Unit attempted to stop a suspect vehicle at about 12:32 a.m. Thursday near the intersection of Illinois 13 and Briggs Road. The driver fled from police, leading officers on a pursuit through rural Williamson and Jackson counties. The vehicle was disabled using stop sticks near the intersection of Giant City and No Name roads, but continued to flee despite losing both front tires. Officers used a pursuit immobilization technique to eventually stop the vehicle at the intersection of South County Line Road and Court Road in rural Jackson County, the release said. Officers arrested the driver of the vehicle, Genie M. Marion, 36, of Murphysboro. She was booked into Williamson County Jail on a variety of charges, including aggravated fleeing and eluding police, excessive speeding (111 mph in a 55 mph zone) and driving while license is suspended. She also had an active arrest warrant in Jackson County for driving on a suspended drivers license. Officers also arrested a passenger in the car who police said was wanted, armed and dangerous, 31-year-old Michael L. Chappell of Murphysboro, on an active warrant in Franklin County for unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon. He also had several other warrants that were out of geographical limitations, the release said. Charges are pending related to a variety of drugs and drug paraphernalia found in the vehicle. Energy Police were assisted by Williamson and Jackson County Sheriffs offices and the Carbondale Police Department. CHESTER London Williams appeared in Judge Gene Gross Randolph County courtroom Thursday for a pretrial motion hearing. Williams is charged with first-degree murder in the June killing of Timothy Michael. Williams, 26, of Chester, was arrested in June and charged with first-degree murder. According to charging documents, Williams allegedly stabbed Michael, 26, outside of Bernaseks, a bar and grill in Chester, causing his death. Williams' jury trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 23. Gross on Thursday heard three motions, the first of which sought to bar evidence of the victims alleged violent and aggressive nature. Randolph County States Attorney Jeremy Walker argued that the prior, non-convicted incidents of violence were too old to be counted as evidence. Walker said he would also need, at the very least, a date range that these events took place, which Williams defense attorney, Justin Keuhn, said he would try to provide. After lengthy discussion, Keuhn agreed not to mention Michael's prior behavior in his opening statement and would refrain from mentioning it until he heard from Gross that it was appropriate to do so. The legal teams also discussed a motion made by Keuhn to bar Williams previous history as an amateur mixed martial arts fighter from evidence or being discussed in cross-examination. Walker contested that it should be fair game if Williams take the stand, as it would go toward his ability to assess the situation and provide context to his subconscious belief he was acting in self-defense. He said he would not be comfortable making a blanket statement that he will not bring up the subject in cross, as it may be relevant at that moment in the trial. However, Keuhn said hearing that Williams was involved in MMA six years prior may prejudice the jury, forcing them to make assumptions about his abilities to be frightened by the victim, and ultimately force them into a premature conclusion that he did not act in self-defense. Ultimately Gross said he was not ready to rule on the matter, that it would have to be decided during trial, but did bar Walker from using slang, such as cage fighting, in place of MMA. Walker agreed. Gross also ruled that preemptive jury instructions should be given about guidelines in determining if self-defense was warranted before any testimony be given in answering whether witnesses believe Williams actions were justified. Rauner says he's "focused on Illinois" and is trying "to minimize the distractions" and his time out of state. Rauner is amid a state budget impasse with Democratic lawmakers. Trump is to take the oath of office Jan. 20, just five days before Rauner is scheduled to give the State of the State speech in Springfield. Illinois State Police responded to two traffic crashes that happened within a couple minutes Thursday morning in the northbound lanes of Interstate 57 in Williamson County, according to a news release from Illinois State Police. A 2011 Ford Ranger driven by Shane G. Halvorsen, 39, of Grand Chain, was northbound on I-57 in Williamson County at 6:10 a.m. Thursday, when Robert M. Davis, 25, of Creal Springs, was following and attempted to pass near Mile Post 49. Davis then lost control of his truck on snow-covered roadways, and the Ford F-250 slid into the right rear corner of the Ranger, and both vehicles slid off the roadway. The Ranger struck a tree off the right shoulder, and the F-250 came to rest in the median. A 2008 Ford van and a 2012 Chevrolet van, both Federal Bureau of Prisons United States Penitentiary vehicles, also were traveling in the northbound lanes with 20 employees on their way to a training exercise. Both vehicles stopped to render aid to occupants of the F-250 and Ranger involved in the crash. Mitchell Ussery, 24, of Faulkner, Arkansas, was driving a Ford F-150 and came upon the accident at about 6:11 a.m. and lost control of his vehicle and slid into the back van. It continued on, striking the front van and pushing it into prison employees standing on the right side of the vans. Both vans had hazard lights flashing. Four Federal Bureau of Prisons employees were struck by the vans and had to be transported to a local hospital by ambulance with non-life-threatening injuries. All lanes remained open throughout the investigation and cleanup. Troopers and other first responders were on scene for approximately two hours. Davis, driver of the F-250 in the initial crash, was cited for driving too fast for conditions. Ussery, driver of the F-150, was cited for driving too fast for conditions and the new Scotts Law for Motorists. Scotts Law requires drivers to slow down or change lanes when driving by a stopped emergency vehicles and, as of Jan. 1, any vehicle on the side of the road with hazard lights flashing. Setting public policy for Illinois should not be a zero-sum game where one side wins everything and the other gets nothing. That approach is destined for failure, and, clearly, it is failing the people and employers of Illinois today. As Illinois lawmakers return to the Capitol to address the states crumbling fiscal house, Illinois has an opportunity to rebalance that equation. It is important that both parties work together on a path to progress. In 2017, state lawmakers should take the opportunity to get Illinois going again and get Illinois growing again. Our citizens and employers have not been helped by the states tired tax and spend policies. Illinois lost more citizens than any other state in 2016 and lost more than 67,000 citizens over the last three years. Its population has fallen to the lowest level in a decade, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The states policies are not working. The people and employers in Illinois want change. Now. That is why 2017 brings opportunity for a fresh start to reinvigorate the Illinois economy. Employers throughout the state desperately need state lawmakers to enact policies that promote more growth and investment in Illinois to create more jobs and spark more innovation and investment. If lawmakers take meaningful state policy steps to strengthen the states economy, employers could again view Illinois as a more attractive state for jobs and investment. This, in turn, can generate more tax revenue for Illinois state government to help address its seemingly unending financial crises. In 2017, the Illinois Chamber of Commerce is calling on state lawmakers to address five key state policy areas that can help accelerate the Illinois economy. 1. Enacting pro-growth economic reforms: Illinois tax policy cannot be developed without regard to its effect on Illinois businesses, workers and our economy. Instead, any revenue discussions must be balanced by including corresponding pro-economic growth reforms to help employers and workers. For example, the state could establish tax credits to help small businesses shoulder the cost of bringing on new employees. In addition, the state must immediately restore the Illinois Economic Development for a Growing Economy Tax Credit Program (the EDGE tax credit) that helps attract investment and job creation and retention in the state. 2. Reforming Illinois unfair workers compensation system: The current workers compensation system in Illinois is tilted far out of balance. Employers throughout the state continue to call for reform of the system because it hurts the ability of Illinois employers to create and even maintain jobs here. Reforming the system can restore balance, reduce employers costs for insurance, and no longer allow workers compensation costs to be an obstacle to growing a business in Illinois. 3. Rejecting anti-competitive proposals: Lawmakers should do no further harm to our states jobs climate. Proposals that pile more requirements on employers in our state adversely affect Illinois businesses and make our state less competitive with others. These shortsighted proposals would only move Illinois in the wrong direction and lawmakers must reject them. 4. Working together on common sense regulatory issues: When state Democrats and Republicans have worked together, they enacted important regulatory reforms for the state. In fact, the Illinois Chamber has led initiatives that reduce costs and make government more responsive. In 2017, legislators can finally modernize the states outdated telecommunications law to drive more investment in modern technologies and networks to benefit those who rely on them: Illinois businesses, consumers and public safety officials. 5. Focusing on education outcomes and workforce preparation: While K-12 education funding gets most of the headlines out of Springfield, Illinois must avoid being dragged into an education debate that strictly focuses on who pays more, who pays less, whose communities receive more and whose receive less. Illinois must ask tougher questions if we are to improve our economy, respect taxpayers and live up to our obligations to the next generation. State policymakers must be focused on improving educational outcomes and supporting students interested in careers that do not require a four-year college degree. Those goals must be in sight before we begin a new discussion about education funding, not the other way around. These reforms re-establish balance and help Illinois become more competitive. They are not owned by a political party. Rather, they are supported by many members of both parties who are advocates for a stronger economy to help attract investment, jobs and revenue to help the state pay for the services it provides its citizens. The Illinois Chamber believes in the greatness of our state. By enacting these policies in 2017, we believe Illinois can begin living up to its full economic potential. Its time to get the job done. Editor's note -- Delores Cruse Kemp of Charleston was led to Voorhees College in her search for genealogical information about hers and her late husband's family several years ago. She recounts what she learned in the following story. After moving to Charleston a few years ago, I purchased a map of South Carolina to locate Edgefield, S.C. and to get an overall view of the upstate. I was curious about how close the town was to my home. Finding out that this was the birthplace of my deceased husband, I thought about driving there in the future. While looking at the map, I noticed the town of Denmark and Voorhees College. My stepdad told us many years ago that his mother had attended that school as a young woman. It was there that she took a sewing course. He showed us a close-up photo of her taken on the campus standing in front of a brick building. My siblings and I made copies of that photo to hang in our homes. I was always interested in family history and thought of pursuing this story when I retired. I knew I had to go to Edgefield, but Voorhees College was going to be first on the trail. I wanted to find my grandmothers school records. We had heard that someone in the family had her diploma. These thoughts kept recurring in my mind so I decided to contact the school in hopes that there was someone who could help me with my project. When I called Voorhees, a member of the staff directed me to Mr. Richard Reid (of Orangeburg), the schools historian. I emailed him, and he responded quickly. After our talk, I wasnt very hopeful that there were records from the early 1900s at Voorhees. He asked if I could send him the picture and other pertinent information, saying he would conduct a preliminary search. I didnt think anything would come of it. During that time, Mr. Reid would email me with more questions. It was then that I told him that I would drive to Denmark. I wanted to meet and thank him for his efforts and to step on the ground that my grandmother had walked those many years ago. A few months passed, and Mr. Reid called to ask when I would be coming to the campus. He said he had something that I might want to see. I became excited, and we set the date. On June 7, 2016, I anxiously made the trip to Denmark and Voorhees College. After arriving, I was greeted by Mrs. Gwendolyn Timms and Mr. Daniel Peeler, who directed me to Mr. Reids office. We finally met after about two years of intermittent communication. We then walked upstairs to the huge space on the second floor. He disappeared into a room and returned with cardboard boxes and a huge old ledger. He chatted, but I was so focused on the items that I really wasnt paying attention. Then, he took the lid off one of the boxes and told me to look through the files. I began to eagerly read old programs and other papers. I saw a photograph of a woman posed in a studio setting that was adhered to cardboard. Mr. Reid had been watching me and suggested that I turn this one over and look at the back. There was my grandmothers name (Beatrice Reynolds Seeley) and her nickname (Beadie), written by someone who called her my friend. I didnt recognize this young lady. I was so surprised! The professional photographer who took the picture was Van Orsdell of Orangeburg. I then began turning pages in the ledger and came across my grandmother's name. The book listed her classmates, program of study, grades and other details for March 1911. As I continued to view that information, another surprise popped up when I saw the name of her brother listed. What a thrill all of this was! I am forever indebted to Mr. Richard Reid for this major find that connected my family from the past. Some Four Holes community residents are opposing plans to place an alcohol and drug rehabilitation center in their neighborhood. My family has been living in that area for over 200 years, Willie Ulmer said Tuesday. Now, without any knowledge or permission, we find out. We just heard about it. Ulmer and other residents appeared before Orangeburg County Council on Tuesday to voice their concerns with the new establishment. Orangeburg County Planning Director Richard Hall said the center is planned for a 58-acre parcel with four or five buildings. It has been known as Sportsmans Retreat. Summit BHC Cameron is the LLC that was established for this, Hall said. The company is owned by Summit Behavioral Health and will operate under the name Waypoint Recovery Center. Summit BHC has other treatment locations in California, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Pennsylvania and Missouri. The company has already submitted plans for about $2 million in renovations on the buildings which are already on the property, Hall said. At this time, they dont intend on adding any buildings. Theyre renovating the existing buildings, he said. The same piece of land was at the center of federal indictments against former South Carolina State University Board Chairman Jonathan Pinson and others. He was accused of participating in a scheme to influence S.C. State officials to purchase the property. Pinson was sentenced in May 2015 to serve five years in prison and five years of supervised release in the scheme and others. He was also sentenced to pay restitution in the amount of $337,843. Summit BHC Cameron purchased the land in January 2016. The community only recently learned that a rehabilitation center would be placed on the land. County Councilman Harry Wimberly said council was just learning of the new center as well. This all came to council within the last day or two, actually today before it really made an impact on us, Wimberly said. I think somebody needs to explain to these folks how it got where it got to this point. James Ulmer believes the propertys current zoning should prevent it from being used for a rehabilitation center. This land was zoned agriculture. I dont believe this rehab center is agriculture, Ulmer said. Councilman Willie B. Owens, who represents the area, said, When I heard of it, I checked the zoning ordinance and I was told it was appropriate with the zoning ordinance. Owens said he also visited the area and spoke with the Ulmer family. Members told him that they did not want the center. I didnt think it would be harmful to the community, Owens said. He added that because of the outcry by the members of the community, he would listen to their requests. Hall said the Forest and Agriculture zoning designation tends to confuse people. It doesnt mean its just forest and agriculture. It takes on a wide array of uses, Hall said. There are probably two or three hundred permitted uses in forest and agriculture. This just happens to be one of them. Hall said a substance abuse facility falls under the tier of social assistance, which is a permitted in the district. When that is the case, you dont have to have a zoning meeting, you dont have to have a public hearing, County Administrator Harold Young said. You basically go to the next step and the next step is pull your building permits, your plans, submit those drawings to make sure they meet code and those things were in compliance. Hall added that the owner was also not required to seek permission from the planning commission or Orangeburg County Council. The owner is a private entity, Hall said. The only state influence on this is the licensing. The company has to be permitted by the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control. Young said, What Im going to suggest to council is that we write a letter to this group and say, Look, theres a lot of mass confusion out there, would you be willing to come to a meeting to inform the citizens of what the plans are? Hall said Waypoint CEO Shari Baker indicated she would be willing to come. She knows theres a lot of public outcry about it, he said. In their defense, everybody has rights, Young added. He said the company has already put $1.6 million into the property and plans to spend another $1.9 million on top of that. These people that are trying to come in here, theyre not from Orangeburg, they dont care about Orangeburg, they havent ever paid a dime of taxes in Orangeburg up until now, Stephen Braxton said. Weve been the ones thats been here paying the taxes and working and investing our lives into this community. He added, I dont believe that somebody should just be able to walk in from anywhere and bring something like this right into our backyard without us being able to have a say-so. Neighborhood resident Albert McClellan said he is familiar with substance abusers and previously worked as a narcotics officer. Twelve years I put these people away. I dont want them in my neighborhood, he said. I know what theyre capable of doing. McClellan added, Theyre going to wind up in my yard (and) Im going to kill them, plain and simple. Farmer Tommy Bozard said, Ive lived out there my whole life and up until a few years ago, we didnt even lock our doors. I sure dont want to have to be worrying about at night somebody coming up in the night or somebody messing around, he said. Its just not what we need. Councilwoman Janie Cooper-Smith said she applauds the community for coming forward with their concerns but it may not be as they assume. A treatment center is not what I have heard you describe it as, Cooper-Smith said. Its like a hospital, you go in for treatment, you receive the treatment and after you receive the treatment, you go back into the world. Young also believes that the users of this center will be more aware of their actions. With this facility, youre going to have to tell a judge, Im willing to commit myself in here, he said. Hall said the county has not been told when the operators want to open the center. Construction has started. We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking Accept, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. Whenever I thought of a submarine, I always pictured naval warfare, torpedoes firing at each other underwater and the world above water through a periscope. While I have always known of tourist submarines in popular beach destinations, somehow, I could never recall those when I thought of submarines. However, my recent exploration of the underwater world in a submarine in Mauritius has changed this perspective completely. It is quite an experience to be able to witness the depths and the mysteries of the ocean while sitting comfortably in an AC chamber and not getting wet! To know what I mean, lets go a virtual tour of my journey in a submarine in Mauritius. Blue Safari Submarine Ride in Mauritius Source: Blue Safari Arrival and Briefing Le Betty des Mascareignes -where our Submarine in Mauritius was anchored. We were scheduled for this ride on a Submarine in Mauritius on the day we arrived. However, the Sea Gods were playing a match and with the turbulence that they caused, the ride was postponed to the next morning. After checking into the Blue Safari Submarine center, we received our briefing which essentially was to put our fears, if any at ease. The lady at the center explained the following The ride was completely safe for all ages from 3 years to 80+ years Our submarine was anchored a little away from the shore and we would be taken on a speed boat to board the same The maximum depth that we would be exposed to would be 35m The entire tour from the briefing to submarine ride to getting back would be for 2 hours. The submarine ride itself would be for around 45 mins. After we return, we would be treated to soft drinks aboard the ship. Sub Scooter at Blue Safari Source: Blue Safari While I was waiting in the reception, I also, noted a Sub-scooter a submarine ride for two. Greedy me! Wanted to try that one out. However, while the thrill of it lies in driving it yourself, you can only do 3m under water. That deterred me for that I felt could be managed with some snorkeling. First glimpse of the submarine in Mauritius Our submarine in Mauritius We climbed aboard Le Betty des Mascareignes the base where our submarine was anchored. It looked like a small little raft with some railings on the top. Quite small and compact. If you did not know that it was an underwater vessel, you would have easily passed it off as a paddle boat. Here we were introduced to Jonathan our charismatic Submarine pilot, who demonstrated to us on how to jump into a submarine. Stepping into a submarine in Mauritius Entering our Submarine in Mauritius There is a thrill the first time you lower yourself down that manhole into the comfortable and compact interiors of a submarine. It is not just me who felt that. Obviously, the Blue Safari staff too feels it for this is a major photo-op point for them. I just wish I had a navy cap to complete the feeling. The blue world of our Submarine in Mauritius Once I was in, I felt that I had entered a blue world. It was eerie and yet exciting. The submarine was a 10-seater where each person had a small window to themselves. The clarity of the view was quite nice though most of the things seem to appear a little more magnified than what it was. Imagine how our friendly window-cleaner appeared to us. Hello to our Magnified Window Cleaner Jonathan stepped in at last and checked with us on how many of us were doing this for the first time. With all our hands raised, he smiled and said his first time too! (with us) And with that joke, he slowly lowered the submarine into the mysterious depths of the Indian Ocean. Jonathan, our Submarine pilot Hello underwater world Hello Butterfly fish Curious fish stopped by at our windows to say Hello, while we glided over the coral reefs. The submarine in Mauritius has small plaques installed near the seats that depict all the different fish that you can expect to see in these reefs. This was quite useful as I still have trouble identifying the specific species of fish. I spotted plenty of butterfly fish, clown fish and some schools of snappers. They say that if you are really lucky, you even get to see turtles. View of the Coral reefs in Mauritius While the corals were quite beautiful, I was not as impressed. Possibly I had seen far more colorful ones in Indonesia and Andamans. Take a look at this small video of our view through this submarine in Mauritius. [kad_youtube url=https://youtu.be/yF1b2H9PIPA width=800 ] Discovering Shipwrecks Star Hope Ship Wreck in Mauritius As I mentioned, while the corals did not particularly excite me, what did pique my interest was the shipwreck that we encountered. This was my first personal experience with one and it was amazing catching it live as against watching it on TV. Jonathan explained to us that this was a ship that sunk in 1988. The ship was called Star Hope and it was caught in a storm that resulted in its current state. Star Hope Ship wreck seen during a submarine ride in Mauritius I know all of you are thinking of Titanic and I am sure that the Titanic wreck would be a lot larger and exotic than this one. Star Hope was fascinating precisely because of this imagination. It is also, amazing to discover how it becomes a part of the sea bed and sea life. You can observe how seaweeds and corals grow out of it and how the fish have made it its home. An 18th-century anchor found in Mauritius Besides Star Hope, we also, saw an 18th-century anchor that was swept by the storm and has been lying here for years together. Bidding Adieu to the Submarine My Diving Certificate With our 40 mins up, we headed back to Le Betty des Mascareignes for a quick drink and refreshment. While we waited there, we were shown our pictures that the Blue Submarine guys had captured on our entry into the Submarine. We also, go our submarine certificates a small rejoice for doing something unusual. With all these, we sped back to the shore and bid Adieu to our submarine in Mauritius. Overall Experience of a submarine in Mauritius Submarine diving down into the water. The Submarine experience is great for a lot of reasons You can experience depths that otherwise need you to have high PADI certifications It is comfortable and dry The cabins though small, are quite roomy. However, if you are prone to claustrophobia, you might just find it a bit of a problem. The ride is quite smooth and chances of seasickness are low. You are able to identify what you see immediately However, having experienced Scuba diving, I missed getting up, close and personal with the world down there. The ship-wreck part definitely has my resolve to dive stronger for I would have loved to be right there, touching it all. I guess, a submarine ride is good when it comes to depth and for people who have the fear of swimming or diving. I think I would resort to it only in case of the former that is the dive being too difficult or deep for me to access. What about you? Are you game for one such experience? Getting here: The Submarine ride is available in the North of Mauritius on the Trou aux Biches beach. You can get here with the help of a cab from any part of Mauritius. There are a few local buses that get you to this part of the country. You need to head to Mon Choisy beach or Grand Baie Junction for the same. Here is a useful site that can help you find a bus. Travel Tips: Click here for the official website of Blue Safari Submarine in Mauritius. You can use the above website for all information on timings, bookings and prices. A submarine ride for one adult will cost you 4700 Mauritian Rupees. (Approx. 8800 INR). Prior booking is recommended. Also, please ensure you confirm the same before going more from a perspective of the weather holding up for your ride. Blue Safari also, organizes lunch in a submarine or a wedding too. So, if you wish to exchange your vows underwater, this is a perfect solution. Opt for pictures through your cellphone as the submarine glass tends to capture reflection on your pictures. P.S: I was a part of the media trip organized by Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority. Popularly referred to as a Restless Ball of Energy. My Mom refuses to entertain my complaints about my equally restless daughter & assures my husband that I was born with a travel bug. I am a Post-Graduate in Marketing by qualification and a travel blogger by passion. Besides travel, I enjoy photography and if you dont find me at my desk, I would be out playing badminton or swimming or just running. I believe in planning for every long weekend through the year. And when I cannot travel physically, I travel virtually through this travel blog. My travel stories have also, got published on various websites and magazines including BBC Travel, Lonely Planet India and Jetwings. I have recently published my first book When Places Come Alive a collection of stories that are based on legends, landscapes, art and culture of a place which is available in both ebook and paperback format. By Azernews By Nigar Abbasova The future holds more and more goods to be transported, and upgrading its logistics and transport infrastructure Azerbaijan seeks to take advantage of this. The expansion of regional transport routes also increases the country's attractiveness for investors in terms of ease of delivery processes. 2016 became a successful year for the transportation sector regardless global economic slowdown, negative external factors, as well as a sharp reduction in the volume of world freight traffic. Azerbaijan succeeded in the implementation of large-scale projects on the creation of international corridors and modernization of relevant infrastructure within the country, as well as the development of public transport. East-West transport Corridor Early 2016 marked the first weighty step in the realization of the East-West transport Corridor, as Ukraine launched the first test container train, moving along the route from Ukraine to China. Simultaneously, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Ukraine signed a protocol on reduced fare for freight transportation via the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR). TITR, is a multimodal corridor using railway, maritime and roadways for transporting goods, runs through China, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and then to Europe via Turkey and Ukraine. Nearly 300,000-400,000 containers are expected to be transported via the route by 2020, bringing huge financial profits to Azerbaijan. A single competitive rate was introduced in the framework of the route starting from June 1, 2016 with the view to reduce the costs of international cargo transportation. Further, railway agencies of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Kazakhstan agreed to create the International Trans-Caspian Transport Consortium, while Azerbaijani companies ADY Express and ACSC Logistics, Kazakh KTZ Express JSC and Georgian Trans Caucasus Terminals LLC became the members of the syndicate. Later on, Ukrainian Railways (Ukrzaliznytsia), Ukrferry, Moldovan Translogistic, Polish PKP LHS, as well as Hungarian Rail Cargo Hungaria Zrt joined the Coordination Committee. The year-end also became efficient for the project as heads of railway authorities of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkey and Georgia signed a MoU on prospects of TITR development. North-South The last year also gave a strong push for the implementation of the highly-ambitious North-South project. The main trigger came following the February visit of President Ilham Aliyev to the Islamic Republic of Iran. In August, Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia signed a joint declaration to affirm their intent to develop deep and comprehensive cooperation in various areas, including the implementation of the North-South project, launching a new trilateral format of cooperation. An 8.5-kilometer long section from Astara (Azerbaijan) till the border with Iran, as well as a railroad bridge over the Astarachay River were practically constructed within a year. In February, the Islamic Republic launched construction of Qazvin-Rasht and Astara (Iran) and Astara (Azerbaijan) sections, while railway authorities of Azerbaijan and Russia agreed on the settlement of competitive tariffs on cargo transportation along the route. As for the Rasht-Astara section of the corridor, Azerbaijan agreed to issue a credit worth $500 million to implement the project. Besides, Russia may also render its financial assistance to Iran in the financing of the project. Once the railway is completed, it will play a key role in developing the International NorthSouth Transport Corridor. Rasht-Astara (Iran) section will be built with the participation of Russia and Iran, while the Astara (Iran)-Astara (Azerbaijan) line is expected to be built with the participation of Russia, Iran and Azerbaijan. The route, part of which will pass along the western coast of the Caspian Sea, from Russia to Iran through Azerbaijan enjoys several advantages compared to other transport such as Suez Canal-the Mediterranean Sea-Northern Europe and the Turkmenistan-Kazakhstan-Russia-Northern Europe routes. Baku International Sea trade port and Free Trade Zone The establishment of the Free Trade Zone at the territory of Baku International Sea trade port came in the spotlight following the presidential decree dated March 17, 2016 on the measures to create a special economic area of a free trade zone type in the Alat settlement of Baku's Garadagh district. Just a few months later, DP World one of the world's largest port operators agreed to provide consulting services for the establishment of FTZ in Alat. Creating a free trade zone is considered to be a milestone of Azerbaijan's policy to strengthen the country's position as a regional logistics and transportation hub. The free trade zone is expected to bring up to $1 billion just in the first few years. Special tax and customs policy, which will be pursued in the territory of the FTZ, will also stipulate further development and simplification of a number of procedures. The FTZ is expected to become operational in the first half of 2017. Besides, the construction of the Port is currently underway in accordance with the schedule, while all operations within the first stage are expected to be completed by late 2017. Moreover, the Port signed different memos with Bulgarian Ports Infrastructure Company, Antwerp, Panama, Aktau and Poti ports, Djibouti Ports & Free Zones Authority. Also, the Port maintains close cooperation with Qatar and Singapore ports. Road Map The Strategic Road Map for the development of logistics and trade in Azerbaijan is expected to ensure a GDP growth by roughly 605 million manats ($ 342.5 million). Nearly 18,900 new working places will be created in the country till 2020. The document defined three strategic objectives to be reached in the sphere of logistics and trade. The objectives include the creation of a favorable environment for the increase of trade turnover, getting of higher value added from transit operations, as well as the introduction of a mechanism for the implementation of measures in the sphere. Under the Road Map, successful implementation of the measures envisaged in the document will up the share of Azerbaijan in marine cargo transshipments en route Central Asia the Black Sea by some 40 percent. An increase of 25 percent is expected en route Central Asia Europe, up to 3 percent on China-Europe, 40 percent on Russia Iran and some 25 percent on Iran the Black Sea route. Besides, revenues from air operations will increase by 5 percent till 2020. Nearly 5 logistics and trade centers will be constructed in the country by that period Also, the government intends to increase the share of the private sector in the sphere of logistics in 2017-2020. Relevant structures will prepare short-term and long-term plans on the modernization of international and domestic airports infrastructure, as well as will develop plans on expanding infrastructure opportunities of the Heydar Aliyev International Airport. As for the railway transportation, relevant measures will be taken to attract foreign investments or create joint enterprises in those spheres, where there is a great demand for investments. Moreover, relevant steps will be taken in the sphere of maritime traffic to ensure the participation of private maritime operators, which will allow effectively transporting transit cargoes through the Caspian Sea. By Azernews By Rashid Shirinov An MVC-62 detonating fuse of ??-62 anti-tank mine was found in the village of Boyuk Bahmanli in Azerbaijan's Fizuli region, Azerbaijans National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA) told Trend on January 4. The fuse was discovered in the pasture near water canal. ANAMA informed that the fuse was removed from the territory. Overall, the agency checked an area of 1,100 square meters. Mobile groups of ANAMA continue their operations on the contact line of Azerbaijani and Armenian troops and in frontline regions. In general, ANAMA cleared more than 389,603,952 square meters of Azerbaijans territory, discovered and defused over 752,702 pieces of unexploded ordnance during 10 years of its activity. 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. By Trend Excise rates on alcoholic beverages, alcohol and beer produced in Uzbekistan have increased since January 1, 2017. New excise rates were approved by the Uzbek presidents decree on "Forecast of the main macroeconomic indices and parameters of the state budget of Uzbekistan for 2017". The excise rates on ethyl alcohol increased by 25 percent from 5,020 sums up to 6,275 sums, cognac - by 27 percent up to 58,265 sums, vodka and other alcoholic beverages - by 25 percent up to 54,057 sums in 2017 compared to 2016. The excise rates on cigarettes with filter, without filter and cigars, produced in Uzbekistan have been set in the amount of 37,432 sums per 1,000 cigarettes in 2017 compared to 28,794 sums (30 percent growth) in 2016. Excise rates on imported alcoholic beverages, except beer, and tobacco will remain unchanged in 2017. Excise rates on imported wine will reach $6, vodka - $7, cognac - $14.5 and tobacco - $18.2 per 1,000 cigarettes. Excise rates on imported beer will reach $3 in 2017 compared to $1.43 in 2016. The official exchange rate on January 4 is 3239.62 UZS/USD. By Azernews By Laman Ismayilova Gazelles are thin, graceful antelopes that live in Africa and Asia. They resemble deer and are in the same family as goats, cattle and sheep. Gazelles can be identified by their curved, ringed horns, tan or reddish-brown coats and white rumps. Since ancient times, they have occupied a unique place in the literature, folklore and art of the Azerbaijani people. For centuries all poets from the great romantic and epic poet Nizami Ganjavi to Samad Vurgun praised the beauty of these animals. So it is not surprising that appreciated for its grace, gazelle is a symbol most commonly associated in Azerbaijan with female beauty. In the early 20th century, gazelles grazed the Mil-Karabakh, Mugan and Shirvan plains of Azerbaijan. The names of some places also carry the memory of past inhabitants - Jeyranchel, Jeyranbatan, Jeyrankechmez. Now Azerbaijans Shirvan National Park is home to at least 6,000 gazelles and an ambitious programme is under way to reintroduce the gazelle to its historic habitat in other parts of the country and the Caucasus. The Ecology and Natural Resources Ministry of Azerbaijan in collaboration with the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, IDEA, and WWF initiated a project to re-introduce the gazelle to its historical range. Currently, areas suitable for the re-introduction of the gazelle include five nature reserves (40,000h), three national parks (73,000h), and four sanctuaries (51,000h). Aconex, a provider of global platform connecting teams on construction and engineering projects, said its key solutions have been deployed for a major causeway project in Kuwait. Korea's Hyundai Engineering & Construction Company and Kuwait-based Combined Group Contracting Company are designing and building the $2.6-billion Sheikh Jaber Al Ahmad Al-Sabah Causeway using Aconex solutions. Aconex was proposed by the two contractors and approved by the project owner, the Kuwait Ministry of Public Works, said the company in a statement. One of the largest and most prestigious transportation infrastructure projects in the Gulf region, the causeway will connect Kuwait City with an area across Kuwait Bay known as the Subiya New Town or the City of Silk. The new settlement, which is expected to be completed in 2035, is planned as a major stop on China's proposed "One Belt One Road" initiative, which is intended to revive the ancient Silk Road trade route. By shortening the distance between Kuwait City and Subiya from 104 km to just 36 km, the new throughway will trim travel times from 90 minutes to less than 30 minutes. In November 2012, the Kuwait Ministry of Public Works signed a contract with a consortium of Hyundai and CGC to design and build the causeway. A combination of low-level bridges and embankments, the project also includes 26 separate buildings and two artificial islands of 30 hectares each designed to enhance the scenic value of the drive. Other members of the consortium include French group Systra; Aecom in Hong Kong; Dar Al Handasah (Shair and Partners), headquartered in Beirut, Lebanon; TYLN International; and SSH International. Work began in November 2013. As the project team ramped up, members in Kuwait, France, Egypt, Lebanon, and San Francisco (US) all required immediate access to project information, said the company in a statement. According to Mai Al Messad, the project engineer, the number of daily transmittals of inspection requests, checklists, approvals, and progress reports had already risen into the hundreds. "We needed to manage the transmittals and to securely share documents with different organisations across multiple geographies," remarked Al Messad. "It was critical for us to locate and retrieve project information quickly, and we needed to improve project control by automating manual processes," she added. Al Messad said that the team settled on Aconex because the collaboration platform is project-wide, neutral and easy to use. "With Aconex, no single organisation owns the project information. Instead, each organisation retains control and ownership of its proprietary data, and determines which documents and communications are shared with other members of the team," she added. On its successful deployment, Henry Jones, senior vice-president for Europe, Middle East and Africa and global accounts at Aconex, said: "The Sheikh Jaber causeway is one of the world's longest and most complex bridge projects. We are pleased with the opportunity to support the development through all phases of its lifecycle." "The causeway is one of many examples of how Aconex is contributing to the successful delivery of transportation infrastructure projects throughout the Middle East," he added.-TradeArabia News Service Japan's Inpex is holding negotiations with National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) to develop Azadegan oilfield in southwestern Iran, a report said. Inpex signed an agreement on the project last June and a final proposal is expected soon, managing director of Iran's Petroleum Engineering and Development Company Noureddin Shahnazizadeh was quoted as saying in the Iran Daily report, which cited Kyodo News. Inpex which previously held a 75-percent stake in the project but pulled out in 2010 amid US sanctions on Iran was the first foreign company to sign a memorandum last year on the oilfield which is one of the largest in the world. Other companies which started proposals for the project include Total SA, Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) and China National Petroleum Corp. "Inpex is one of the good names in the oil industry and as it has experience and data regarding Azadegan, it is one step ahead of its rivals and has a chance to win the Azadegan tender," Shahnazizadeh said. Members of the media use the Oculus Rift VR headset to experience 3D virtual reality during the Intel press conference at the 2017 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA on January 4. The annual CES, which takes place from January 5 to 8, is a gathering where industry manufacturers, advertisers and tech-minded consumers converge to experience new gadgets and innovations that will be released on the market each year. EPA/Mike Nelson Arab Center for Engineering Studies (ACES) said it has been awarded a major geotechnical investigation contract for the Al Maktoum International Airport in Dubai, UAE. ACES is key provider of specialised engineering services in geotechnical engineering, material testing, environmental engineering, and land and marine surveying. Package Six for Al Maktoum International Airport was awarded by the project consultant Dar Al Handasah, said a statement from the company. The work is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2017. An additional terminal building will be constructed besides concourses and runways, and other ancillary structures. The soil investigation works are being carried out for the expansion of the existing airport facilities in view of the forthcoming World Expo 2020 in Dubai, said the Jordan-based company. Established in capital Amman in 1983, ACES today boasts a network of 17 offices operating across the Middle East and Africa, with more than 2,000 employees. The scope of work includes drilling of 600 boreholes to depths ranging from 15 to 50 m, involving a total of more than 12,000 linear m besides excavation of 28 trial pits. As per the contract, ACES will also perform field work such as falling head permeability, packer permeability tests and installation of piezometers. The company started field works in December last year utilising more than 10 of its rotary drilling rigs.-TradeArabia News Service Welcome to Transfigurations! This blog is intended to serve the orthodox Anglican community and the wider Christian community. We pray that all that is posted here will be faithful to the Scriptures as the inspired word of God, speak the truth in love, edify, bless and transform this local body of Christ, and be an impetus for revival, repentance, prayer and intercession! The TransGriot is available for speaking engagements, college lectures, panel discussions, media interviews, conferences or Trans 101 education efforts for your school, business or professional organizations. For local Houston area, Texas or national events, you can e-mail me at transgriot@yahoo.com For events outside the Houston metro area, I ask that my travel and lodging expenses be covered. This is separate from my speaking fee. If you are interested in having me appear as a speaker or panelist, you can e-mail me with the date and details of your proposed event. Please book as early as possible because my speaking and event calendar slots during the year rapidly fill up. Child passenger safety training in Casper A Child Passenger Safety Technician Training is being held Jan. 10 to 13, 2017, at the Casper City Center Building/Room A and B, 100 West B Street. The training, which is standardized by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, was developed because of the increasingly complex issues involved in child passenger safety and because unintentional injuries, including motor vehicle crashes, continue to be a leading cause of death and injury to children. The newly certified technicians, under the supervision of Child Passenger Safety Technician instructors will perform free child safety seat checks for families on Friday, Jan. 13, from noon to 3 p.m., at at Fire Station #1 located at 200 W. 1st St. in Casper. Topics covered during the four-day course include: basics of injury prevention, crash dynamics, vehicle occupant protection systems, selection of child passenger restraints, correct installation of child safety seats, misuse and compatibility issues, safety in other vehicles, and setting up a child safety seat check-up event. Agencies supporting the training include the WYDOT Office of Highway Safety and Safe Kids Wyoming. CLIMB for office careers CLIMB Wyoming will host an information meeting about free training for office careers at 5:30 p.m., on Wednesday, Jan. 11, at the Casper office, 632 S. David St. Space is limited, no children please. Launch a professional office career with starting wages from $11 to $13 an hour in fields like receptionist, assistant, file clerk and more. CLIMB Wyoming is dedicated to improving the earning potential of single mothers through job training and placement assistance. For information, visit climbready.org or call 237-2855. Caregivers support group Are you caring for a loved one with a debilitating condition? Confusing and conflicting feelings are likely to come up: anger,sadness, hopelessness, resentment and guilt for having those feelings. Please join us on the second Thursday of each month to talk about your feelings and learn effective ways to release difficult emotions by joining a support group. Our next meeting will be Thursday, January 12, 2017 at 5:30 p.m. Meetings will be held at Rocky Mountain Therapy, 2546 East 2nd Street, Building # 500 at 5:30 p.m. To RSVP please call 577-5204 and ask for Jerri or Shannon. The Wyoming Division of State Parks, Historic Sites and Trails will partner with the National Park Service to participate in Every Kid in a Park, initiative for the second year in the row. The initiative is to provide every fourth grader access to a pass that permits the child and their family access to free admission to all national parks, forests, monuments, wildlife refuges and more. Wyoming State Parks will honor Every Kid in a Park passes through August 31, which are good for free entrance at any state historic sites, parks, or recreation areas. Find a pass at www.everykidinapark.gov. For more information, call WyoParks at 307-777-6323 or visit wyoparks.state.wy.us. As the annual consumer electronics feast draws near, new products in smartphone sector, virtual or augmented reality, driverless cars, internet of things and robotics are expected to make headlines in the forthcoming days. Starting this Thursday in Las Vegas, this year's International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) marks the 50-year anniversary of the event. During the event, China-based companies, from conglomerate to startups, have all set up booths to demonstrate their latest achievements. Some of the products have already debuted before the show while some are still under wraps. Here we showcase products that are being hotly discussed online, in no particular order. 1. Lenovo Group Ltd, the world's largest PC maker, will launch an Amazon Alexa-like voice control assistant. The company will also unveil its first-ever VR head-mounted display based on Windows system. JAM Culinary Concepts is adding Creole cuisine to its expanding world view. On Jan. 16, the family-owned restaurant company whose stable includes a pair of Vero Amore pizzerias and Oro Valleys gastropub-inspired Noble Hops Craft Beer + Fine Fare will open Sazerac Creole Kitchen & Cocktails in St. Philips Plaza, 4280 N. Campbell Ave. We wanted to do a New Orleans restaurant and this looks like New Orleans, owner Suzanne Kaiser said last week, looking around the 2,700-square-foot restaurant that was most recently home to Amalour Revival Lounge. Sazerac is one of two restaurants Kaisers JAM Culinary Concepts which she owns and runs with sons Aric and Joshua Mussman will open in the coming months. They also have teamed up with Roop Singh to open Twisted Tandoor in the former Relish Kitchen & Wine Bar at 4660 E. Camp Lowell Drive. That restaurant, born out of Singhs and her late husband Mukhis popular food truck of the same name, is expected to open in March, Josh Mussman said. Sazerac started as an idea from Mussmans wife, Tiffany Eldredge, a classically trained mixologist who runs the 2-year-old modern-day speakeasy, The Still, tucked inside Vero Amore, 2920 N. Swan Road. We wanted to do a cocktail bar, but we also know that food is our passion, said Eldredge. Sazerac is named after the classic New Orleans cognac and absinthe drink largely believed to be the countrys first real cocktail. It dates back to the mid-19th century, but lost favor early in the 20th century after absinthe was banned in the U.S. in 1912. Eldredge said her Sazerac menu will include several variations on the drink, drawing back to its origins and including Sazeracs made with rye and Scotch. All of the drinks on the menu will adhere to Eldredges old-school philosophy: Keep it simple. We bartend under the principle that less is more, she said, adding that drinks will be made from three to five ingredients. Syrups will be made in-house with real fruits, vegetables and sugars; no pouring pre-made mixes out of a bottle. I want people to come in not knowing what a Sazerac is and leave as an aficionado, said Eldredge, who trained under her sister Amy, who trained under the late Sasha Petraske, founder of the seminal New York City cocktail bar Milk & Honey. Amy and her husband have a bar in Salt Lake City and help run the Mussmans Salt Lake venture Tinwell bar. The primary goal of JAM is authenticity going back to the start of Vero Amore in 2006, said Kaiser, who joined her sons to form JAM Culinary Concepts a couple years after they started. The brothers, both in their early 20s, were certified in Naples, Italy, in the Neopolitan style of pizza-making. They imported their ovens from Italy and prepare pizza in accordance with the Neopolitan standards. If were going to do something, its going to be authentic, Kaiser said, then introduced Sazeracs New Orleans-born-and-trained executive chef Robert Iaccarino, who trained under Paul Prudhomme at the legendary NOLA chefs K-Pauls Louisiana Kitchen. Iaccarino, who also worked for years in Italy and in restaurants along the U.S. East Coast, said his goal goes much further than creating handcrafted Creole specialties, including several variations of gumbo. I dont just want to bring the Creole dishes here. I want to bring the culture with it, he said. One of those cultural touches will be special-occasion reveillon dinners, lavish feasts of at least 12 courses from soups to meats and fowl entrees, vegetables, sweets and aromatic coffees, to crafted cocktails. The menu also will include the classic and much-loved beignets. Gumbos will go from the classic Lenten sausage gumbo to vegan gumbo, smoked duck and oyster gumbo, and shrimp and oyster gumbo. There are people still crying in New Orleans because my gumbo is not there, joked Iaccarino, who relocated to Tucson six months ago. The levels of flavors and the diversity of that one dish is going to be an eye-opener for Tucson. A woman who stole a Maricopa County sheriff's vehicle and led law enforcement agents on a high-speed chase on eastbound I-10 has been taken into custody near Tucson, authorities said. Mark Casey with the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office told the Associated Press that the pursuit began Thursday morning, after a woman overpowered a deputy and stole his truck at a gas station in Gila Bend, along I-8. The chase ended on I-10 near Eloy, after the woman crashed the car. She was injured, but not seriously, Casey said. Eastbound lanes of the freeway were closed for about an hour Thursday morning near the location where the pursuit ended, according to tweets by the Arizona Department of Transportation. News video showed the median crowded with law enforcement vehicles, and the woman being put onto a gurney, according to the Associated Press. State troopers with the Arizona Department of Public Safety assisted in the pursuit, said spokesman Quentin Mehr. Pueblo Magnet High School was vandalized Tuesday night and the school is working to clean up the damaged rooms before school starts next Monday. Paint and chemicals were thrown around in the school's science labs, said Stefanie Boe, a Tucson Unified School District spokeswoman. There was also trash thrown all over the rooms, and windows and blinds were broken. An environmental clean up team was on campus Wednesday to clean up any chemicals that might be hazardous, she said. "It shouldn't have any impact on kids," she said. Items of "historical value" to the school were also stolen from the school. Boe did not specify what they were, saying school safety department has asked that they remain unknown while it investigates. "We just really hope that the items that were stolen get recovered," she said. The district and Tucson Police Department asked the public with any information to call the school safety department at 520-584-7676 or 88-CRIME. Six Tucson Unified schools will lose their magnet status next school year, putting about $3 million in desegregation funding in jeopardy. The magnet label extends schools enrollment boundaries beyond their neighborhoods and guarantees desegregation funding to help achieve racial integration. The funding enables specialty programs, such as communications and fine arts. The schools losing their status are: Ochoa Elementary, Robison Elementary, Safford K-6, Utterback 6-7, and Cholla and Pueblo high schools. The judge in the decades-old desegregation case against TUSD has issued an order siding with the special master, who recommended in November that they lose their status because they did not meet diversity goals prescribed by the court in January 2015. The goal was for each school not to have more than 70 percent of its entry grade for example, kindergarten for elementary schools and ninth grade for high schools be of one ethnicity. The withdrawal of magnet status from these six schools cannot surprise any party or the community, U.S. District Judge David Bury wrote in his order. It is undisputed that they continue to not meet integration goals, despite having been given an additional year. The district must now submit a post-magnet transition plan for each of the six schools to the court for review in about two weeks. TUSD and the Latino plaintiffs in the desegregation court case both asked for more time for those schools to achieve their goals, but Bury wrote theres no proof that more time would lead to improvement. Even though we got close at some of the schools, we did anticipate that the judge would rule in that direction, said H.T. Sanchez, TUSD superintendent. For instance, Ochoa Elementary was just three students from meeting its diversity goal. One of the biggest changes will be that the magnet schools, which could recruit from anywhere in the TUSD boundary, would transition into neighborhood schools, he said. There will still be open enrollment. In terms of desegregation funding, Sanchez said the magnet label ensured the six schools got the desegregation funding necessary for their specialty programming. Now the schools have to tie what they are requesting to the unitary status plan with specific goals and costs, and seek court approval. The schools arent closing, he said. People arent being laid off. Kids can still go there. Sylvia Campoy, a representative of the Latino plaintiffs in the desegregation lawsuit, said the plaintiffs are extremely disappointed the six schools would be losing their magnet status. Its just disheartening that the district did not do what was ordered by the court in order to maintain the magnet status for all of the magnet schools. Campoy called the magnet withdrawals a black eye for the district, saying the district knew what had to be done to maintain the labels but failed to do so. Desegregation funding may not take an immediate hit, but should the district not be able to come up with a sustainable transition plan, it can be affected further down the road, she said. It will be important to see what the district proposes for each of the schools which have lost their magnet status through their submittal of transition plans. PHOENIX A state lawmaker wants to expand laws that allow enhanced penalties for those who attack someone based on things like race and religion to also include political beliefs. Sen. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, said he got the idea while watching a video on TV of these two guys beating the crap out of some Trump supporter. I dont know the background, Kavanagh acknowledged, with the video from some other state. But he said it was clear the reason for the attack was the victim was supporting Trump. Thats worse than beating somebody up for some other reason, he said. And we should send a message to judges that we think this should be punished more seriously. The idea drew derision from Dan Pochoda, attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona. He said its one thing to imposed an enhanced penalty on those who attack someone because of something that is immutable to them, like their race, gender or sexual orientation. But Pochoda called it very dangerous to expand that to transient issues like who someone is supporting for public office. Unlike some states, Arizona does not have specific laws that create a special category of hate crimes. What it does have, though, is language in statutes that requires judges, when deciding the appropriate sentence for any offense, to consider both mitigating and aggravating factors. A mitigating factor that might suggest a lenient sentence could be the persons youth or even their intoxication. Aggravating factors weighing in favor of more time behind bars include things like the use of a gun. And the law also says judges may consider whether the crime was based on race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation or disability. To that list, SB 1022 proposes to add political affiliation, beliefs or opinions. I believe in the just desserts school of sentencing, said Kavanagh. Punishment is deserved for the harm thats done, he explained. But punishment must be proportional to the badness of the act. He called SB 1022 a message from the Legislature to give the judges some legislative basis, if they choose to, to stick with the existing sentencing structure but go to the harsher end. For example, someone who causes serious physical injury to another is guilty of the crime of aggravated assault. In general, that is classified as a Class 3 felony. Under Arizona law, the presumptive prison term is 3.5 years. But with mitigating factors it can be as little as 2 years; a sentencing with aggravating factors can be as much as 8.75 years. Pochoda said what Kavanagh wants runs contrary to the reasoning behind hate crimes sentencing laws. Thats because people are members of identifiable groups, he said. Pochoda said while some are impossible to change, like race or gender, that also rightly includes religion. People dont change religions that quickly certainly not as quickly as changing your opinion or even party affiliation, he said. More to the point, Pochoda said such offenses are often not aimed strictly at the person being assaulted. The concept is that a crime against one person because of that persons race will put fear, understandably, into all members of that race, he said. It really does require something much more than the transitory nature of supporting one candidate in a particular presidential race, Pochoda said, saying there really is an identifiable group that transcends any one four-year election cycle. Help India! New Delhi : Congress leader Naveen Jindal has asked the Election Commission to investigate poll code of conduct violation by the BJPs Kurukshetra candidate and act against Zee Media management for airing paid news. Jindal, incumbent member of parliament and the Congress candidate from Kurukshetra constituency in Haryana, met Chief Election Commissioner V.S. Sampath Tuesday. Support TwoCircles The Congress candidate requested Sampath that an early inquiry be initiated against Zee Media and its management as well as Rajkumar Saini,whom the BJP has fielded from Kurukshetra, for violating the Model Code of Conduct, a release from his office said Wednesday. Jindal alleged the Zee Media management had issued a press release appealing to voters to exercise their vote in favour of the BJP. The collusion and conspiracy between Zee Media and the BJP candidate is more apparent from the fact that even after conclusion of the campaigning period April 8, Zee Media continued to air programmes against Jindal, the release said. In view of the above, it is apparent that airing of the said campaign, being a paid campaign or paid news, deserves to be investigated by the commission, it said. The MP demanded the commission recommend cancelling of Zee Medias licences to the ministry of information and broadcasting as well as Sainis candidature. UC Giant GCI Acquires Freedom Communications Share Tweet By Alicia Young Web Editor By Alicia YoungWeb Editor General Communication Inc. (GCI (News - Alert)) has been on a bit of a roll lately. The unified communications (UC) company, located in Alaska, has worked for more than 35 years to deliver communication and technology services to some of the most remote communities in North America. It provides basic services such as cable television, Internet access and Wireline and cellular telephone service, along with more advanced options like telemedicine and education capabilities. Aside from its many offerings, the UC company also has a knack for making strategic business moves. For example, GCI has an innovative partnership with Apple (News - Alert) that has helped it transform communication capabilities in Alaska and other locations. Most recently, however, GCI has acquired Freedom Communications, a cloud and data network specialist. Although the deal went through for an undisclosed sum, the end number is huge; this latest acquisition has boosted the UC giants annual revenues to 75 million, which is approximately $92 million. The deal was announced today, Jan. 4, and marks GCIs fifth acquisition in a year. Back in June the company also acquired IT provider Outsourcery, which was a notable purchase. Other companies that have been acquired over the past year include Vodafone (News - Alert) and CommsXchange. GCI CEO Adrian Thirkill explained why the company chose to acquire Freedom by saying, Freedoms heritage and skills as a Unified Communications Systems (News - Alert) Integrator, and its focus on transitioning customers from old world to new, is perfectly aligned with our own growth strategy and is a great fit for us. Not only does this recent move increase GCIs annual revenues, but its customer base as well. The number will be increased by 800 to 3,500, with Ealing Council, London University, Argos and Habitat parent Home Retail Group being added to the group. GCIs total staff number also increased by 100 thanks to this acquisition, now totaling 300 overall. Additionally, more than 40,000 Skype (News - Alert) for Business account will be added, taking GCIs total number to over 180,000. It appears to be a numbers game with GCI, and the company is winning. According to Thirkill, 2016 was a great year for GCI: 2016 was a busy and productive year at GCI. Our acquisition of Freedom is another steady step in our journey to deliver progressive and cost efficient managed services to all our customers. With any luck, 2017 will be even better for the UC giant. Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. Article comments powered by Disqus Article comments powered by Edited by Maurice Nagle A convicted sex offender who used his ATM debit card while holding up a San Diego bank will be spending the next few years in prison after being convicted of bank robbery. Federal prosecutors say as part of a plea agreement, 56-year-old Alvin Lee Neal was sentenced to three years and ten months in prison on Tuesday after admitting to robbing a Wells Fargo Bank branch in downtown San Diego last May. After the heist investigators had little trouble tracking Neal down because he had swiped his Wells Fargo debit card at the customer card reader located at the counter before demanding money from the teller. Even though his bank profile appeared on the tellers computer screen, prosecutors say when the teller offered assistance, Neal responded by saying Youre being robbed. Dont make a mistake. He also handed a note to the teller that read Youre being robbed no mistake [sic]. Neal then fled the bank with $565. FBI, police had little trouble finding Neal With his personal information available to investigators, The Los Angeles Times reports that San Diego police and FBI agents had little trouble tracking Neal to a nearby hostel he was staying at, also in downtown San Diego. And, since Neal is a registered sex offender, investigators also had his photo. According to California Megans Law website Neal had served time in prison for attempted rape and sexual battery. No additional information is posted on the site about his previous conviction, though Neal was considered to be low to moderate risk. When investigators searched the room at the hostel where Neal was staying they found a checkered, double-breasted jacket that appeared to match one the robber had worn. And, they also found the debit card he had swiped before holding up the bank. Neal could have received 20 years in prison With the prison sentence of less than four years, Neal avoided what could have been a maximum sentence of 20 years behind bars. Though he was ordered to pay back to Wells Fargo the $565 he made off with during the heist. At a press conference on January 3rd, Aurora Police confirmed that a childs body was found in an icy pond at Olympic Park approximately 0.2 miles from the home of child David Puckett, reported missing on New Year's Day. A special dog led police to the pond where they found the body underneath the ice. "I have the very unfortunate news of letting you know that in a pond just behind me, just about two or three hundred yards away, that we found the body of what appears to be a child inside the pond underneath the ice," said Chief of Police Nick Metz, Aurora Police Department. He stated that although the pond had been searched before, there were "no indications of broken ice" at the time. Body suspected to be missing child The identity of the body has not yet been confirmed but due to the location and other relevant factors, authorities strongly believe that the body belongs to the missing child. Police have contacted the Puckett family and notified them of their findings. The family have requested that the media and the public respect their privacy as they try to cope with the news. On Saturday, December 31st, at around 5:30 pm, six-year-old david puckett went missing from his home in Aurora, Colorado. Authorities issued an amber alert on Monday after not being able to find the boy, amid concerns that so much time had passed and he was not dressed for the cold weather. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the FBI, and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, along with over a hundred volunteers canvassed the neighborhoods and searched extensively for the missing boy, but had no leads. Reward offered The police described the child as "at risk" because of a learning disability, and for having wandered away from school property in the past. A $10,000 reward had been offered for any information on the missing boy. Although foul play had not been suspected, the police are treating the area where the body was found as a crime scene and the investigation is still ongoing. Even before Donald Trump won the election, questions were raised over what his relationship was with Russia and President Vladimir Putin. In the weeks since the election, Trump has dismissed reports that have linked Russia to the hacking of the presidential election, which hasn't gone over well with some veterans journalists, including Dan Rather. Rather on Trump It didn't take long before Russia was tied to the hacking of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Despite Russia denying any wrongdoing, the CIA revealed the results of their secret investigation last month, and concluded that the Kremlin was not only behind the hack, but that their sole purpose was to help Donald Trump defeat Hillary Clinton. Since then, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security have doubled down on the CIA's findings, as has the White House. Even with the evidence presented, Trump refuses to accept that the election was impacted. The DNC emails were first released by Wikileaks, and founder Julian Assange is standing his ground that the Russians weren't the ones who were behind the hack. As seen on his offical Facebook page on January 4, former CBS News anchor Dan Rather is speaking out. In regards to Donald Trump ignoring the evidence behind the Russian hacking, and his praising of Wikileaks in the process, Dan Rather is in complete shock. "Stunned disbelief. Anxiety. A mounting sense of betrayal," Rather wrote on his Facebook, while adding, "These are the smoke signals rising from those in and around the United States intelligence community over President-elect Donald Trump's dismissal of the evidence of Russian hacking in the presidential election." Trump suggested, with no evidence, that officials delayed a briefing on Russian hacking to build their case https://t.co/twbg6Euizl The New York Times (@nytimes) January 4, 2017 Dan Rather continued, ripping Donald Trump for taking the side of Wikileaks and Julian Assange "over the collective conclusion of those tasked with our national security." Not stopping there, Rather accused Assange of being a "full-fledged propagandist." Continuing, Rather called for a "a robust intelligence force," which he believes is needed now more than ever, while labeling Trump's denial as "a matter of national security." Rather conclusion "Heaven forbid we suffer another horrible attack. Heaven forbid our intelligence community was hollowed out, wasn't listened to or respected," the veteran journalist stated, concluding, "These are the stakes." Dan Rather's comments are similar to what many are echoing as there are less than three weeks left until the former host of "The Apprentice" makes his way into the White House. Despite Trump's recent comments, not all Republicans are on his side. In Congress, a bipartisan effort is growing to further investigate the reported Russian hacking, which includes top Republicans in the Senate, including Sen. John McCain and Sen. Lindsey Graham. In the middle of the presidential transition period journalists are caught in a bind - what is known that can be accurately reported? The presidential campaign that ended on November 8th with Donald Trumps victory only gave vague clues to his ultimate behaviour and the victorious tactic of using slogans, some planned and some off the cuff to attract voters, leaves us nothing on which we can understand what will happen. The next step The only date set in concrete is January 20th which will see Donald Trump inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States. We have seen the preparations for the event hindered by the refusal of many artists to participate. In addition, we have seen the names emerge of the Secretaries to be nominated for the Cabinet and the top advisers who will be regular visitors to the Oval Office. As we approach the day there is still much hidden in the political fog of war. The only thing we can say for sure is that one aspect of the campaign season has remained unchanged, or rather has become an ever more persistent presence in American political life. The daily storm of tweets on any and every subject that touches upon the President-elect and only confuses the issues even more. The spelling errors and phrasing often mean that they were spur of the moment decisions and confirm the impression of a man who reacts too quickly to any challenge to his image. Trump rhetoric or true plans? Yet the tweets are not the true measure by which we will be able to judge the next four years. Unlike his opponent Hillary Clinton, the incoming President had not given any real details on what he intends doing from the Oval Office once he is ensconced formally. This does not allow the bureaucracy, the politicians of the two Houses or the public to imagine the reality of President Donald Trump. Some of the slogans have already been discarded. For example, we will not see an investigation and trial of the former Secretary of State, much to the disappointment of some of his electors. The constant changes in his language and intentions over the last few weeks has only meant that the country and the world can only speculate and second guess what the next developments will be. In addition, his habit of crediting his personal intervention on decisions by third parties such as Carrier and Ford do not allow us to understand what role he is already playing in running the country. Whether or not the lack of a true political agenda will be an asset or a hindrance will be tested in the Senate and Congress as the incoming President will be forced to understand that political decisions are not unilateral and that there is a formal process to be undertaken, the first of which is to ensure that any decision has the proper fiscal coverage required by law. There is no fall back on this and it will be up to both Houses, particularly the majority Republicans, to handle these requirements as they did with Barak Obama in the eight years of his presidency. Foreign challenges In addition, foreign governments may well use Trumps inauguration to put his mettle to the test. North Korea and China, without forgetting Putins Russia, see the United States as their adversary and will not hesitate to try and embarrass him at the first opportunity. In one sense this has already begun with the allegations of Russian interference in the election and will undoubtedly be one of the first challenges President Trump will face. They say a week is a long time in politics, therefore the next four years will seem an eternity for politicians and the public as they wait to see how much of Trumps campaign rhetoric were indications of his true intentions in power and how many slogans were simply campaign tactics to win an election almost nobody predicted before November 8th. There will surely be interesting times ahead for all, let us hope that it will not be in the Chinese sense of the expression. Amid many terrorist attacks throughout Europe, some say terrorism is becoming the norm. However, the people have yet another worry. Reports from the Daily Mail show evidence that the general has infiltrated Europe. Not only him but also with 400 ISIS soldiers. Disguised as refugees, they slipped in undetected, reports say. Kosovan Lavdrim Muhaxheri, an ex-NATO soldier, left NATO forces to join the terror group. He left for Syria in 2012 and has been in many ISIS videos. One such video, he shot a man with a rocket. In others, he has beheading men. Tonight, Europe gets reports to keep their eyes peeled for any suspicious activity. Fears of ISIS slipping through as refugees Kosovar ISIS general back in Europe with an ARMY of 400 devout Muslims. https://t.co/Nwgnz0Nmpm pic.twitter.com/8suxUx6uyg Voice of Europe (@V_of_Europe) December 29, 2016 In many reports since 2011, ISIS has made the threat to infiltrate disguised as the refugees. The Refugee safety seekers that are running from them. They made this threat in 2015, according to a report by Express Daily News. The threat was to send thousands of Jihadis to Europe with the refugees. So this should not come as a shock, considering the refugees are not getting vetted properly. The infestation, the report says, is due to the US coalition strikes in Syria. Though the US and allied forces have been steady bombing the middle eastern country, Europe is a big part of the operation. Refugees in America: should you worry? BREAKING: Italy Follows In Trumps Footsteps, Plans MASS Deportations Of Refugees https://t.co/tzWjorvl7j CORY (@Cory_1077) January 3, 2017 According to the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), 10,000 Refugees are in the US now. Obama shows no sign of slowing either. According to CIS, the target for 2017 is 100,000 refugees by the end of the year. That is also assuming the president-elect does not stop the surge. President-elect Trump has told Americans that he plans on stopping immigration into the US. That means he claims to stop the influx of immigrants from everywhere, including Syria. During his campaign, Trump made statements to halt the operation until they could get properly vetted. As it stands now, there is no way to screen the refugees the right way. It is common for the refugees to come without documentation. And with Syria, so war tore, there is no way to background check them either. Syria does not have an up-to-date database, experts claim. China says it plans to shut down its ivory trade by the end of 2017 to curb the mass slaughter of African elephants. The Chinese government will end the processing and selling of ivory and ivory products by the end of March as it phases out the legal trade, according to the statement released on Dec 30. China had previously announced it planned to shut down the commercial trade, which conservationists described as significant because China's vast, increasingly affluent consumer market drives much of the elephant-poaching across Africa. "This is a game-changer for Africa's elephants," said Aili Kang, the Asia director for the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society. Africa's elephants, maybe. But news out of Borneo shows just how low poachers will go when it comes to feeding the insidious appetite for white gold. On New Year's Eve, wildlife officials in Sabah - one of the two East Malaysian states on Borneo - found the butchered remains of a beloved male pygmy elephant. He had been nicknamed Saber, because his tusks curved downward, a look reminiscent of the oversized canines of the extinct saber-toothed tiger, the Guardian reports. From the looks of the remains, officials estimate Saber had been slaughtered as long ago as November. And the discovery was made just days after wildlife officials had found the butchered remains of another male elephant within a mile of Saber's carcass. Elephant poaching had never been considered an issue on the island - only male Bornean pygmy elephants have tusks, and the ivory is considered brittle - but things may be changing. Danau Girang Field Centre Director Benoit Goossens told News Asia that from the looks of both sites, a cottage industry was sprouting up in the area. "We are ready to provide all necessary information to the investigators and to the police. I believe that this is the work of a professional hunter and trader," Goossens said. "On the day China banned ivory trade, we get two of our precious elephants murdered for their ivory. Our elephants are already threatened by habitat loss," he said. "If we add poaching for ivory, I don't give many years for the species to become extinct." Dr Pakeeyaraj Nagalingam, a vet with the wildlife department who had taken part in rescuing Saber from the palm oil plantation where he had been discovered and relocating him to the safe haven of a preserve, said, "There are no words to express our sadness." He told reporters that there seemed to be no safe place for elephants in Sabah anymore. Saber had also been fitted with a radio collar, which was found with his remains. The pygmy elephants of Borneo are about one-fifth the size of their mighty African cousins, and genetic analysis suggests they have been evolving separately for 300,000 years. They are also severely endangered with an estimated fewer than 2,000 living in the habitat being aggressively encroached upon by industrial-scale palm oil plantations, which view the diminutive pachyderms as pests. Borneo has already lost its rhino, Goossens said. "The elephant will be next. Those crimes should not go unpunished. Let's not lose our jewels, the next generation will not forgive us." As time is running out for all elephants, it remains to be seen what kind of positive effect China's announcement will have in the year ahead. China, which has supported an ivory-carving industry as part of its cultural heritage, said carvers will be encouraged to change their activities and work, for example, in the restoration of artifacts for museums. More efforts will be made to stop the illegal trade, the statement said. Iris Ho, program manager for wildlife at Humane Society International, said, "China's groundbreaking announcement illustrates that political will, backed by concrete policy prescriptions, is the single best solution to save elephants. China's bold action contrasts sharply with the inaction of other global significant ivory markets, such as Japan or the Europe Union. "China's new policy, hopefully, is the beginning of the end of the ivory trade and a wake-up call to those refusing to shut down the ivory trade in their jurisdictions," Ho added. The number of Africa's savannah elephants dropped by about 30 percent from 2007 to 2014, to 352,000, because of poaching, according to a study published this year. Forest elephants, which are more difficult to count, are also under severe threat. Contact the writer at chrisdavis@chinadailyusa.com. He Jiang, who was the first person from China to deliver a Harvard University commencement address, has made the 2017 Forbes 30 Under 30 List. "I received this message (about the list) this morning. I'm a little surprised but very happy about that," He told China Daily on Tuesday. Forbes' 30 Under 30 is a set of lists issued annually by Forbes magazine. On Tuesday, the magazine released the sixth annual 30 Under 30, featuring 600 young innovators, entrepreneurs and leaders who challenge conventional wisdom and rewrite the rules for the next generation. The list recognizes 30 game-changers in each of 20 industries. All under 30 years old, the honorees were vetted by a panel of judges in their respective fields. Previous winners include Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Snapchat's Evan Spiegel, Saturday Night Live's Kate McKinnon, Chance the Rapper and YouTube phenom Michelle Phan. "These are the people that will run every field for the next 50 years," said Randall Lane, editor of Forbes. He, a 29-year-old postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was chosen for the healthcare category. He was nominated by his professors at Harvard. "I didn't know I was nominated until December," said He. At Harvard, He used a new technology called single-virus tracking super-resolution imaging (STORM) to understand more about how influenza infects cells, and discovered human genes with strong anti-viral effects. He is now applying the same techniques to neurons and white blood cells. He hopes the lab research he did could be put to practical use in healthcare. He grew up in a small village with limited educational opportunities. By studying hard, He graduated from the University of Science and Technology of China - one of China's top universities - with a bachelor's degree in 2009, and was accepted into Harvard's PhD program on a full scholarship the same year. In May, the biochemistry PhD delivered a speech representing the university's 13 graduate and professional schools at the commencement. In the speech, He talked about the uneven distribution of science and technology in the world and expressed his passion to get science and medicine into places they aren't reaching, like his own village, where his mother once treated his spider bite with fire. Seventeen of the 600 winners in 2017 are from China. One in six on the list are immigrants from 44 countries. xiaohong@chinadailyusa.com President-elect Donald Trump's nomination on Tuesday of Robert Lighthizer to head the US Trade Representative office, coupled with his previous selection of Peter Navarro to run a newly formed White House trade council, could indicate a more adversarial trade policy toward China, analysts said. Lighthizer, 69, who was deputy trade representative during the Ronald Reagan administration and now is a Washington attorney, and Navarro, will be part of a team whose task may include challenging trade deals China and Mexico, which Trump has said have taken advantage of the US under current trade pacts. "(The) appointments of Peter Navarro and Robert Lighthizer clearly indicate that philosophically and rhetorically the Trump administration has tilted towards a more hard-line stance on Chinese trade and NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) and away from the traditional Republican adage of free, unfettered trade. It's unclear though where the power lies among these proposed appointees, which office does and implements what, and how these two officials will work with Wilbur Ross (incoming US commerce secretary)," wrote Usha Haley, a professor at West Virginia University who has researched Chinese trade, in an email. Gary Hufbauer of the Washington-based Peterson Institute for International Economics said the selection of Navarro and Lighthizer "doesn't presage a trade war but almost certainly means trade friction" between China and the US. "The US will ask China and Mexico to open their markets to US products and services," Hufbauer said in an interview. He added that the US request "will be accompanied by a threat of closing (at least part of) the US market to China and Mexico." However, Wayne Morrison, a specialist in Asian trade and finance at the Congressional Research Service, said he believes it's too early to tell what the Trump administration's policy on Chinese trade issues will be. "It's true that the rhetoric on trade, including US-China trade, was particularly harsh during the presidential campaign, but now the incoming administration will need to govern and that usually requires a more pragmatic approach. No doubt the incoming administration will be assessing US trade policies towards China, especially regarding to ongoing trade disputes, to determine if new approaches or policies are warranted. This all will take time," Morrison said in an email. Baizhu Chen, a professor at the University of Southern California, believes that Lighthizer's appointment, could keep the World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement body busy. paulwelitzkin@chionadailyusa.com Emergency responders work near a train that sits derailed near the community of New Hyde Park on Long Island in New York, US, October 9, 2016. [Photo/Agencies] NEW YORK - A New York City train derailed after ramming into a bumper at a downtown Brooklyn terminal during Wednesday's morning rush hour, injuring more than 100 commuters in the metropolitan area's second major rail accident since late September. Emergency crews swarmed Atlantic Terminal after the Long Island Railroad train went off the tracks inside the busy transportation hub at about 8:30 a.m. local time, the New York City Fire Department said. While none of the injuries were life-threatening, at least 11 people were sent to the hospital, Deputy Assistant Chief Dan Donoghue said at a briefing at the crash site. The train, arriving from the Queens neighborhood of Far Rockaway, failed to stop on time and struck a bumping block at a fairly low rate of speed, which caused it to derail, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said at the briefing. About 103 people were injured in the accident, the fire department said in a Twitter message. The front two cars of the six-carriage train were severely damaged. The engineer was probably responsible for failing to stop the train before it hit the bumper, said Tom Prendergast, chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the agency that runs the LIRR. "At that speed, it's pretty much the locomotive engineer's responsibility to stop the train," Prendergast said as he stood beside Cuomo at the briefing. File photo shows Venezuela's (then) Interior and Justice Minister, Tareck El Aissami talking to the press in Caracas on November 10, 2011.[Photo/VCG] CARACAS - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro appointed a new vice president on Wednesday as part of a larger cabinet reshuffle. Tareck El Aissami, 43, was named to replace Aristobulo Isturiz, who became minister for communes and social movements. Maduro said this switch was made to combine "experience, commitment, cohesion in a new phase for the government." El Aissami has served as interior minister and governor of the state of Aragua. The position of the vice president is particularly intriguing this year as Maduro is facing a recall referendum. Venezuela's conservative opposition forces have been aggressively pursuing a presidential recall referendum to oust Maduro, or to have presidential elections moved up. Should he be ousted, El Aissami would serve as interim president until elections in 2019. Please turn JavaScript on and reload the page. Loading... Checking your browser before accessing the website. This process is automatic. Your browser will redirect to your requested content shortly. Please wait a few seconds. Tan ong Tien Company in southern Long An Province. Farmers and businesses must join hands to create large-scale rice fields, apply modern farming techniques and mechanise production to improve the competitiveness of Vietnamese rice. VNA/VNS Photo Truong Giang Xuan Huong HCM CITY An Giang Import Export Company (Angimex), one of the large rice export companies in Viet Nam, plans to focus on improving its rice quality and better controlling plant-protection residues to promote rice exports, especially to the US and EU markets. Vo Truong Giang, director of Angimexs raw material development centre, said that Angimex exported about 120,000 tonnes of rice last year to many markets, including Asia, Australia, Japan and the US. Exports fell by 20 per cent over 2015 due to drastic competition with Thai rice and an increase in rice production in Viet Nams traditional rice-importing countries, he said. It will be hard to compete with Thailand in exporting white rice. Therefore, our orientation for this year is to focus on controlling residues and expand production of specialty fragrant rice to boost export to the US and EU. The US has a huge demand for fragrant rice. But to export to the market, our rice must meet hygiene and food safety standards. The company has decided to rent 100ha of land to cultivate rice for export to the US, he said. Giang said the company has more than 3,000ha of rice material zones in which it has developed close linkages with farmers and co-operatives in An Giang, Kien Giang and ong Thap to grow Japonica (a Japanese rice variety) and Jasmine fragrant rice, he said. Asian countries, especially China, have high demand for Japonica rice, he said. With a forecast that rice export would continue to face difficulties this year, not only Angimex but also other rice exporters and producers have mapped out measures to boost consumption of their products this year. Duong Van Hung, director of Tan Cuong Agricultural Services Co-operative in ong Thap Province, which has more than 1,200ha under rice cultivation, mainly fragrant rice, said the co-operative would focus on improving quality to ensure that its rice meets hygiene and food safety standards set by importing countries. Currently, we have 200ha for growing organic rice and 100ha for safe rice, he said. We collaborated with a rice export company to market our organic rice in the US market and to be accepted by the market. Rice productivity following organic cultivation is in general 20-30 per cent lower than traditionally planted rice, but selling prices are 30-40 per cent higher than traditionally planted rice, he said. We will expand the area to cultivate safe rice in the coming time. I think if our products meet hygiene and food safety standards, there will be nothing to worry about in terms of consumption, he said. According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Viet Nam exported an estimated 4.88 million tonnes of rice last year, earning US$2.2 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 25.8 per cent in volume and 21.2 per cent in value. Developing steady material zones Deputy Minister Tran Thanh Nam said free trade agreements would open opportunities for Viet Nam to enter markets like the US, the EU and Japan, but it would bring challenges due to lack of competitiveness, especially in terms of quality and branding positioning, compared to competitors. Nam said that rice exports last year did not meet expectations, especially because of market difficulties. But I think it was a lesson for enterprises. Previously, we mainly focused on quantity. This should be changed now. Enterprises must establish their own material zones and focus on improving quality of their rice to international standards, he said. Pham Thai Binh, director of Can Tho-based Trung An Hi-Tech Farming JSC, a large rice exporter, said consumers both at home and abroad were becoming more and more aware of what they eat and were willing to pay more for safe products. To improve the competitiveness of Vietnamese rice, farmers and businesses must join hands to create large-scale rice fields, apply modern farming techniques and mechanise production, he said. Businesses must play a main role in the connection chain, providing farmers with input materials and strictly supervise the production process of farmers as well as ensure outlets for their products, he said. The company has established a close link with farmers to grow fragrant Jasmine rice, Japonica and other rice following GlobalGap and organic standards, he said. Its rice products are available in many countries, including the US, the EU and Southeast Asia, with exports accounting for 65 per cent of its total production output, he said. According to experts, the variety of rice is an important factor to improve rice quality. Huynh The Nang, chairman of the Viet Nam Food Association, said there are hundreds of rice varieties but many have similar quality. Researches to create new high-quality rice varieties that are fragrant, soft and different from other varieties should be encouraged, he said, adding that this would improve Viet Nams rice quality and competitiveness. Le Van Banh, head of the ministrys Department of Processing and Trade for Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Products and Salt Production, said that developing brands for rice products was important to help raise the competitiveness of Vietnamese rice at home and abroad. VNS HA NOI The agriculture sector, especially hi-tech agriculture, has caught the attention of domestic giant firms, such as Vingroup, Hoa Phat and Hoang Anh Gia Lai, creating a new wave of investment. The presence of Tran Ba Duong, CEO of Truong Hai Auto, at an agricultural conference where he shared his plan to invest in the agriculture sector, surprised many. The automobile industry tycoon said Vietnamese agriculture has little scope for development without industry, asserting that industrial firms with strong capital should join the sector to create standardised models in agricultural production. Duong reckoned that post-harvest transportation and preservation are the weaknesses of agriculture. However, the mechanisation of agriculture must suit the situation on the ground in Viet Nam. He revealed that his firm is working with the An Giang-based Loc Troi Group to build a post-harvest industrial complex for rice in the northern region, which will provide transportation, harvest and processing at reasonable costs. Earlier, VinGroup invested over VN2 trillion (US$88 million) in VinEco to grow safe fruits and vegetables. Steelmaker Hoa Phat Group also announced plans to invest in the area of feed and livestock. However, Vu Van Tien, CEO of Geleximco Group, said the number of businesses engaging in agriculture sector remains few. To succeed in agriculture, businesses need sufficient production land and capital, he said, calling for support policies for the field. According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, some 4,000 enterprises out of a total of 600,000 Vietnamese firms are investing in agriculture. The interest of large investors in agriculture is hoped to open up a new chapter for the sectors development, but land and capital are still major obstacles. At a recent conference on building an agricultural industry, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc asked ministries and sectors to submit solutions for the problems facing agriculture to the government and authorised agencies. The PM revealed that the government is considering piloting a land bank and land use market, together with setting up some insurance funds for agriculture to support farmers. The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has devised a credit package worth VN50 trillion for high-tech and clean agriculture production, which has been assigned to the Bank for Agriculture. The PM requested the SBV to create a favourable lending mechanism and allow more commercial banks to disburse the package. VNS A year after the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) was established, creating a huge market of over 622 million people with a market value of more than US$2.6 trillion, two experts give Viet Nam News a mixed review. Nguyen Thi Thu Trang Nguyen Thi Thu Trang, Director, Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industrys World Trade Centre Can you give us your assessment of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), a year after its establishment? Its time for ASEAN members to prove their determination in meeting the targets of forming a single market and a common production hub, promoting people-centered development towards increasing prosperity, competitiveness and sustainability. The establishment of AEC is a major milestone in regional economic integration. It will boost implementation of the ASEANs targets, but it is neither the first nor the final step of the integration process. ASEAN was founded in 1992 with a series of legal commitments and agreements as well as co-operation declarations. So we have been implementing those commitments and agreements for many years. One year after the ten ASEAN members formed the AEC, although we have made efforts to help enterprises know and understand it, the results are not as good as expected. In the past year, the import and export values between Viet Nam and ASEAN seemed to go down. The rate of goods exported to ASEAN reduced compared with 2015, the year AEC was established. In the past year, leaders of ASEAN countries continued to meet and make additional announcements and commitments of co-operation, but from a legal angle, there was no new document enforcing these. AEC has opened opportunities for enterprises to develop their business, so how did this reduction in export happen? Its difficult to pinpoint a concrete reason for the reduction in exports. It could have been market demand or other economic factors that affected our exports in general and between Viet Nam and ASEAN in particular. However, I want to emphasise the fact that the volume of trade between ASEAN members has been big, with tariff removals on since 2010. From 2015 to 2016, there was not much added benefit to be gained via tariff removals because this had been done already for a group of nations. Viet Nam was still implementing tariff reductions following AEC commitments during this time. Other ASEAN countries could have used this opportunity to increase their exports to Viet Nam. Information is seen as a very important part of enterprises developing their business. How can they be helped in this regard? In the age of information, we dont lack information. The issue is that our businesses need concrete information that meets their demand and directly impacts their business operations. At present, our information is somewhat unconnected and vague. So the information has not been customised for enterprises or selected to help them access it in the fastest, most effective way. For example, if an enterprise going to export a product to an ASEAN country wants to have information about tariffs levied on that product and preferences for its trade within the bloc, it will have find the information from different sources. If we have an official, selective information hub, it will help enterprises save time. However, updating information is not enough, the most important thing is how to take use of such information to improve their competitiveness and develop the business successfully. For example, within ASEAN, its said that the ten member economies have many similar characteristics so that they will compete with each other and collective benefits will not be much. However, the modern economic situation is different it is directed toward consumers it may be the same kind of product, but the customers will have different needs. The important thing is whether businesses can create different options for customers. If they can do this, they can succeed in the ASEAN market, which has a high consumption volume and increasing income. Nguyen Thi Huong Lien Deputy Director of cosmetics maker JSC SUN STAR, Nguyen Thi Huong Lien What are the pros and cons your company has experienced since the AEC came into being? AEC has opened up a wider market for Vietnamese enterprises to trade goods, with the removal of several tariff barriers. My company can enjoy tariff cuts on goods imported from ASEAN countries it is a factor helping our company reduce costs. However, we are facing a lot of difficulties. The first one is the pressure of competition in the Vietnamese market. Goods imported from ASEAN have attacked the Vietnamese market and hurt the domestic businesses interests. For example, after Big C, one of the countrys biggest supermarket chains, was acquired by a Thai billionaire, Thai food products can end up dominating the shelves. Its currently difficult for Vietnamese businesses to send its goods to this chain. Secondly, when joining in the AEC, the Vietnamese businesses will be bound by ASEAN regulations, but we did not have the opportunity to take part in building or revising such regulations before they were put into force. Thirdly, its not easy for businesses to get access updated information. The number of documents is many, making it difficult for business to study them. So we highly appreciate the opening of AEC Portal www.aecvcci.vn, which can create favourable conditions for us to quickly access updated information that will directly impact our products. We enterprises will have to take initiative in accessing information. We will have to have a workforce to update information. We expect relevant agencies and sectors will spend some time to gather ideas from businesses before taking decisions or participating in drafting regulations. What did you learn from the information situation? Our absence from the meetings that took decisions directly impacting our business has hurt us. For example, the meetings of the ASEAN Cosmetic Committee and ASEAN Cosmetic Scientific Body are organized in various member countries every six months. During such meetings, they take decisions on a new set of standards or revise existing regulations. Viet Nam has to follow what it has committed to at these meetings. My company does not have qualified staff to take part in all meetings. In addition we enterprises are observers at the meetings, we dont have right to give ideas or raise the hand to vote. Therefore, at first, I was not a regular participant in these until one day I realized that Id missed some that directly impacted on my company. I did not know how to solve the problems that arose when the regulations became operational. If such decisions relate to businesses key products, they can certainly weak the businesses very quickly. VNS by Nguyen Khanh Chi Stories about unsavoury incidents at schools have been doing the rounds a lot these days. However, most of them have involved some kind of misbehaviour by students, followed sometimes by improper responses from teachers or school administrations. The latest one was a bit different. A grade two student at the Nam Trung Yen Primary School in Ha Nois Cau Giay District was rushed to hospital after an unexpected accident during recess. Unfortunate, but the incident would have not have blown out of proportion if it had been dealt with in a straightforward way by the school management. In this case, the principal should have accepted responsibility, apologized, and helped the student. Unfortunately, this did not happen. In an urgent petition sent to relevant authorities and media, the childs father, Tran Chi Dung said he had been informed by the school that his son stumbled and fell when playing on the school playground. The child had told the parents that he had been hit by a blue car as he and his classmates rushed to the class after the break He said he saw the schools principal and another teacher inside the car. Doctors from Viet Nam National Hospital of Pediatrics (where the child was first transported to) and the Viet-uc Hospital said he must have suffered a hard hit from outside, resulting in a broken thigh bone. He also suffered a long wound that needed to be sewn up, as shown in photos sent to local media. The case is under police investigation. The school has since sent inconsistent, unpersuasive reports to the districts education department and media, leading to public discontent. The school asserted that the school principal was not in the car, and that cars are never allowed to run on its premises. Then, with the discontent still simmering, the principal asked all the school teachers, administrative staff and students to fill in a survey. A 100 per cent of the responses said they saw no car run in or out of the school that time. Even those who might werent at the scene vouched for the absence of a car. So, the students were made to lie, not tell a white lie. During a working session between the school and the districts education department this week, the principal conceded she did allow a taxi to go through the schools back gate when she used it to go for a medical check-up. The principal has failed her peers, her students and their parents. As the leader of a school, she should have set an example for everyone. More than others, she should have known that her actions can have a lasting psychological impact on the lives of the children in her school, and beyond. If the schools management board those who sail the education boat are competent and dedicated, and set good examples, they will create a strong contingent of school teachers that are whole-heartedly devoted to the welfare of students, said Hoang Thai Hung, a teacher at Thanh Nhan School, HCM City. Educating the youth is not purely theory. It should go along with practical actions that give students the confidence to repose their entire trust in the teachers and in the school. As a mother of two, I am not happy to hear such stories. One that shocked me recently was an incident at a primary school in Ha Nois Thuong Tin District. A teacher asked all the other 43 students to slap a classmates face as punishment for quarrelling with another classmate. Although the teacher, with 21 years of experience, has apologised to the student and has been asked to stop work, the impacts of her action on all students who were directly involved or learnt about it will not be good. The late Prime Minister Pham Van ong once said: Teaching is the noblest of noble professions and the teacher gives the student not only knowledge but the know-how to become a good citizen. The cases mentioned above can be seen as flies in the ointment. There are good stories aplenty. Images of teachers in flood-hit central regions drying textbooks and cleaning up school facilities so that students can return as soon as possible warmed the hearts of people all over the country. An award-winning architect and lecturer of the National University of Civil Engineering spent almost ten years building a dreamlike school for children in the mountainous, underprivileged Lung Luong Commune in Thai Nguyen District. A teacher in Nghe An Province saves part of his modest wages every month to pay tuition fees for a local student. In the case of the boy hit by the car, the father said all the family wanted to do was make clear the cause of the accident and avoid similar mishaps from happening to others. They would have not created a furore if the school leadership had acted responsibly and accepted responsibility right at the beginning. Such events are likely to provoke calls for a Code of Ethics for teachers, for relevant moral lessons to be included in textbooks and so on, but the real lesson that they teach us, particularly adults, parents and teachers (in fact, we are all teachers), is this: What the teacher is, is more important than what she/he teaches. Surely enough, the student learns not only the knowledge, but the behaviour and dignity of the teacher. Thus, education will reach its good end if the teacher knows how to use virtues to disseminate virtues. Aristotle said "educating the mind without the heart is no education at all. We should take this to heart. VNS HA NOI Applying advanced technologies would be a breakthrough-solution for successful restructuring of agricultural production, Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Nguyen Xuan Cuong said on Tuesday. High-tech applications will not just facilitate sustainable development of agricultural production, it will also help the sector adapt to climate change and increase its competitiveness during a time of international integration, the minister told the review conference that also collected opinions on the restructuring process. Over the last three years of agricultural restructuring, the sector has achieved a high growth rate of 2.83 per cent and an export turnover of US$120.7 billion, with last year alone accounting for about $32.1 billion. Cuong said the scientific community had contributed to this process. In the last three years, scientists created 149 new animal breeds and plant varieties and introduced 65 hi-tech production models as well as many other technological solutions helping renovate the production process, he said. This year, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) will focus on developing three key product segments: national-brand products with export turnover of US$1 billion each, provincial-level key products, and special products from specific regions. To realize this plan, specific production regions should be formed with active participation of businesses with the financial capacity to apply hi-tech solutions, the minister said. Scientists attending the conference stressed the importance of improving the quality of animal breeds and plant varieties to achieve sustainable agriculture production, add value to products and increase local competitiveness. Prof. Tran inh Long, Chairman of the Vietnam Plant Varieties Association, said: We are proud of having 12 export items that rank first and second in the world. But their (relative) economic value is still low. Hence Viet Nams agriculture was just known as hired agriculture, Long said. The country has hundreds of rice varieties, but there is no national-brand variety so far, he said. Long said scientific studies in agricultural production were still dependent on the State Budget, so the ministry should try to take full advantage of the private sector to develop technological application. Agreeing with Long, Prof. Tran Duy Quy said, the ministry should ask scientists to create high-yield and quality rice varieties so as to ensure food security and meet export demand. Other participants suggested that the ministry reviews the current situation of hi-tech application, compared to other countries in the region and the world and draws up suitable roadmaps for specific products. Prof. Vu Trong Hong of the Viet Nams Irrigation Association said that for successfully restructuring the sector, the ministry should give priority to areas less affected by natural calamities for developing hi-tech agricultural production. Since agricultural production cannot happen without irrigation, each agriculture project should include irrigation plans so as to achieve the highest possible economic values, Hong said. Participants agreed that detailed policies and projects were needed to reorganise more than 13 million farming households to shift towards hi-tech production of agricultural commodities.--VNS HCM CITY A barrel exploded in HCM City on Wednesday while two men were trying to cut it, killing one and leaving the other injured. The explosion took place around 7.30am in a house on Nguyen Xien Road. The deceased has been identified as Nguyen Van Trieu, 70; the identity of the injured man is not known. While Trieu was killed on the spot, the other victim was taken to hospital and treated for light injuries. The police in Long Binh Ward have cordoned off the house for investigation. Initial results showed that the barrel contained no substance. The explosion was likely to be caused by air compressor. VNS The Ha Noi Traffic Police have yet to impose any fines despite many road users having been recorded driving in the lanes reserved for the bus rapid transit (BRT) system over their first few days of operation. Photo bizlive.vn HA NOI The Ha Noi Traffic Police have yet to impose any fines despite many road users having been recorded driving in the lanes reserved for the bus rapid transit (BRT) system over their first few days of operation. Nguyen Hoang Hai, director of Ha Noi Public Transport Management and Operation Centre, said during the first stage of the BRTs operation, traffic police were only issuing warnings to road users, asking them to stay in their lanes and not encroach on the lane designed for the BRT. Because it will take time for road users to change their driving habits, he said. If traffic jams and encroachment of the BRT lane still occur over the coming days, the centre would assign more traffic police to prevent violations as well as ensure traffic runs smoothly, he added. The centre was now handing over traffic cameras to traffic police officers before they imposed administrative fines for violators, he said. Yesterday, a pane of glass on the right side of a BRT bus was reportedly broken after being hit by a four-seater car. The incident occurred when the bus was at the Giang Vo Lang Ha Intersection and the car encroached on the BRT lane. The cars mirror hit the bus right side and caused the damage. The car driver, with registration plate 30S-8868, escaped after the crash. The bus driver carried passengers to the last stop and took the bus for repairs. Transerco replaced the bus on the route while the damaged vehicle was repaired. Tran ang Hai, deputy chief inspector of the Ha Noi Transport Department spoke to the Lao ong (Labour) newspaper, saying that because no fines were being imposed during the first days operating the BRT, traffic inspection teams were working hard to separate lanes and make traffic run smoothly. The first BRT was officially put into operation on January 1st, with the 14-km route stretching along the streets of Ba La, Quang Trung, Le Trong Tan, To Huu, Le Van Luong, Lang Ha, Giang Vo, Giang Van Minh and Cat Linh. It is designed to complete the route within 30-45 minutes. Under the Governments decree No 46/N-CP, issued last year, a motorbike driver will receive a fine of VN300,000-400,000 (US$13-17) if intentionally driving in the BRT lane. The fine is set at VN800,000-1.2 million ($35-52) for a car driver making the same violation. Passengers on the rise Data from the Ha Noi Transport Services Corporation (Transerco) showed that the number of passengers choosing to travel by BRT is on the increase. There were 10,400 passengers travelling by BRT on January 2, about 2,100 passengers higher than on the first day of operation. The number of BRT passengers on January3 was estimated to be higher, although official data is yet to be revealed, a representative of the corporation said. Le My Hoa, of Thai Ha Street, said she used the BRT to go to her office and thought it was more convenient than driving a motorbike. Nguyen Tuyen Hoa, of Nguyen Thi inh Street, said travelling by BRT was both convenient and clean. VNS HA NOI The Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information has decided to fine three online newspapers for publishing improper and propaganda information related to a scandal involving Hong Quang Minh or Minh Beo, a comedian. According to the decision signed by Nguyen Thanh Lam, director of the authority, kenh14.vn and soha.vn were fined VN30 million (US$1,320) each for violations related to online press operations and providing information inconsistent with Viet Nams habits and customs. The two online newspapers are owned by VCCorp JSC. The authority also fined baomoi.com, an online news aggregator, VN20 million ($880) for providing information inconsistent with Viet Nams habits and customs. The website belongs to EPI Technology JSC. Minh Beo pleaded guilty in the United Sates to one felony count of sexual assault and an additional count of attempting to commit a lewd act on a child under the age of 14. The comedian had travelled from Viet Nam to the USs Orange Country for holding auditions. He was sentenced to 18 months in state prison and required to register as a lifetime sex offender. VNS HA NOI The Ministry of Health will conduct a complete inspection of two major fish sauce manufacturers, Masan Food and Khai Hoan JSC, soon after the Lunar New Year Festival. Deputy chief inspector Nguyen Van Nhien said the inspection would likely take place as scheduled between January 28 and February 4. The move followed consumers complaints over the quality of fish sauces sold at local markets, including unclear product names which fail to distinguish between fish sauce and other dipping sauces, quality of additives and materials. Masan Food and Khai Hoan JSC are among the largest fish sauce manufacturers in Viet Nam. Masan Food is a popular trademark with its Chinsu and Nam Ngu brands, accounting for nearly 70 per cent of the market share. Khai Hoan JSC is well-known for products made from traditional methods, such as the Ong Ky and Khai Hoan brands. Last October, Vietnam Standards and Consumers Association (Vinastas) announced its test results on fish sauce samples from 88 local businesses, which discovered nearly 85 per cent of the samples has total arsenic content above the permissible national limit. The results were, however, misleading as arsenic in fish sauce is organic, present naturally in traditional fish sauce and causes no harm to humans. Only inorganic arsenic has a harmful effect if it is consumed by humans. A Vinastas representative later issued an official statement, apologising to consumers, fish sauce producers, distributors and management agencies over its now-discredited and misleading reports on the toxicity in fish sauce. As many as 50 media outlets were fined between VN10 million (US$446) and VN200 million ($8,929) for providing false information. According to data from the General Statistics Office, Viet Nam consumes some 200 million litres of fish sauce every year. Annual sales of fish sauce in the country are some VN7.2-7.5 trillion ($320-333 million). VNS HA NOI A series of more than 40 blood donation festivals, called "Ngay Chu Nhat o (Red Sunday), will take place in 25 provinces and cities nationwide this Sunday. Launched by the Tien Phong (Vanguard) newspaper in 2009, the festival aims to ease the serious blood shortage in hospitals resulting from the increase in traffic accidents and the declining number of blood donors ahead of Tet. Tien Phong newspaper editor-in-chief Le Xuan Son said the event has set a target to collect at least 25,000 units of blood, an increase of 2,500 units compared with last years event, in an effort to meet the increasing demand for blood for emergency aid and treatment in hospitals during the upcoming Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday. The Red Sunday festival has received huge support from the youth, students and many levels of society over the past years. Blood collection from Red Sunday festivals had increased to 22,500 units last year, compared with 1,000 units in 2009, Son said. National Institute of Haematology and Blood Transfusions (NIHBT) director Nguyen Anh Tri said the country is facing a severe blood shortage due to a decline in the number of donors. In addition, fewer blood donation drives are conducted during Tet. The health sector needs some 125,000 blood units for emergency and treatment demand during the Tet period. Red Sunday is an important blood donation event, providing a precious gift to patients during the Tet festival, Tri said. According to the Ministry of Healths statistics, the country received more than 1.4 million blood units in 2016, equivalent to 1.5 per cent of the countrys population that donates blood. The collected blood has met more than 60 per cent of the countrys emergency, treatment and preventive demands. The health sector has set a goal to collect at least 1.7 million blood units in 2017. VNS HA NOI Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has asked the Ministry of Health to inspect the implementation of regulations in antibiotic prescription and use in medical facilities. The PM assigned the ministry to seek measures to effectively monitor the performance of the regulations and strictly handle violations. He also requested the ministries of agriculture and rural development, industry and trade, and natural resources and environment to assess the effectiveness of the national action plan on preventing antibiotic resistance for the 2013-2020 period and apply measures to enhance its efficacy. The Ministry of Health has been tasked with inspecting pharmacies observation of regulations on selling prescription medicines and taking measures to manage the enforcement of the rules, particularly focusing on antibiotics. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has been requested to strengthen the management of the production, import, trading and use of antibiotic in animal husbandry and aquaculture, while designing guidance on the use of animal feed containing antibiotic. The PM asked the two ministries to co-ordinate in managing the import of antibiotic materials used in the production and use of veterinary medicine. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) or drug resistance is a risk to Viet Nams people and economy following the increase in antibiotic use and lax management of antibiotic use in healthcare and animal husbandry. The cost of healthcare for patients with resistant infections is higher than care for patients with non-resistant infections due to the longer duration of illness, additional tests and use of more expensive drugs, according to medical experts. According to WHO, AMR results in some 700,000 global deaths per year. By 2050, the number of deaths attributed to AMR is estimated to be 10 million per year, more than the estimate for cancer and 10 times more than the estimate for diabetes. VNS Forbes has included northern Viet Nam in a list of 21 low-cost travel destinations for 2017. "Viet Nam is known as a budget destination, but the region north of Ha Noi along the Chinese border often gets overlooked by travellers," the magazine said in a recent report. Bordering Laos and China, the mountains of northern Viet Nam are well-known for their sensational sceneries and culture. Travellers often return home with amazing shots of rice terraces, towering mountains, twisting roads and ethnic minority peoples, the magazine noted. Travellers can find private accommodation for US$10-15 a night while dorm beds cost $5 on average. Meals cost $0.50-2 and transportation between towns runs to just a few dollars. In July, for a third year in a row, the 2016 TripIndex report by TripAdvisor named Ha Noi as the least expensive of 20 popular tourist cities surveyed. Forbes also recommended Palawan in the Philippines (8th) and Luang Prabang in Laos (13th). VNS PARIS A former prime minister of Kosovo, Ramush Haradinaj, was arrested in France on Wednesday in response to an international arrest warrant for war crimes filed by Serbia. Haradinaj - who has been twice tried and acquitted - is a former leader of paramilitaries who fought for Kosovo, a predominantly ethnic Albanian province of Serbia, to gain independence. He was arrested on his arrival from the Kosovo capital Pristina at Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg airport, located near the Swiss and German borders, sources close to the French investigation said. The French judicial authorities will now examine the Serbian request, they said. In Pristina, Kosovos justice minister Dhurata Hoxha, confirmed Haradinaj, 48, had been detained. "We will take every step to ensure that Haradinaj is released as soon as possible," Hoxha said. The 1998-99 Kosovo conflict was the last war of the breakup of the former Yugoslavia. It culminated in a NATO bombing campaign against Serbia and, in 2008, in Kosovos independence, which is still not recognised by Belgrade. Haradinaj, a commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) during the war, became prime minister in 2004 but stepped down after just over three months to face 37 charges of war crimes at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). He was acquitted in 2008, and again in a partial retrial in 2012. But Serbia has maintained pressure for a new trial, and issued an international arrest warrant, which led to his brief detention while transiting Slovenia in June 2015. Serbia says his unit, the so-called Black Eagles, tortured and killed dozens of Serbian civilians, whose bodies were found near Radonjic lake in the Decani region. Haradinaj was a former comrade-in-arms of Kosovos current president, Hashim Thaci, but is now a political adversary, notable for opposing any attempt to normalise relations between Pristina and Belgrade. AFP MEXICO CITY Looting has broken out at several stores in Mexico on the sidelines of protests against a gasoline price increase as authorities detained dozens of people. Mexicans have blocked service stations, disrupted highway traffic and held protests since the government increased fuel prices by 20.1 per cent on January 1. But acts of vandalism and looting erupted on Wednesday, prompting Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong to instruct the National Security Commission to support local authorities. The government of the State of Mexico, which surrounds the capital, said in a statement that 161 people were detained for "various acts of vandalism and thefts at shops" in six municipalities. The statement said "some groups of people have seized on the situation to commit thefts and acts of vandalism under the pretext of protesting the liberalisation of the price of gasoline." In Mexico City, around 20 people were detained after some shops were looted, the local governments secretary general, Patricia Mercado, told Radio Formula. Some shops closed in the afternoon, though Mercado said "theres no need for that" as she vowed to police would prevent further vandalism. Federal police reported around 20 new protests and roadblocks in various parts of the country on Wednesday. President Enrique Pena Nieto defended the price increase, saying it was necessary due to a rise in global oil prices. "I understand the irritation and anger among the population in general," he said, arguing that not increasing the prices would have been more painful for the economy. The government says the increase is a necessary first step before prices go down when it lets the market dictate how much drivers will pay in March as part of a sweeping energy reform. AFP CEDAR RAPIDS Judge Linda Reade didnt hide her feelings Wednesday when she faced the man she sentenced to life in prison some 2 1/2 years earlier. In 2014, Reade concluded Randy Lee Patrie killed retired grocer Carl Ken Gallmeyer, 70, with a .410-bore sawed-off shotgun in 2012 while breaking into his rural Nashua home while searching for a safe. Patrie wasnt charged in Gallmeyers death, but he pleaded guilty to possession of a sawed-off shotgun and felon in possession of a firearm, and Reade was able to use enhancements under federal Armed Career Criminal statutes to hand down a life sentence. Patrie won an appeal following a U.S. Supreme Court decision that sent his case back to U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids with a 10-year cap on each charge. On Wednesday, Reade imposed the maximum two 10-year sentences to be served consecutively for a total of 20 years. Its no secret that if I could impose a sentence beyond 240 months, I would do so, Reade told Patrie. She noted the high courts decision didnt overturn her conclusions that Patrie was behind Gallmeyers murder. Under the new sentence, Patrie will have to serve three years of supervised release following his prison time, and he was ordered to pay $200 in special assessments. The assessments were imposed during his original sentence, and he has so far paid $25, according to court records. Patrie declined to address the court Wednesday. I dont have nothing to say, he said. Defense attorney Stephen Swift argued for a sentence at the low range of the federal sentencing guidelines calculation which was only five months less than the 20-year maximum. About half a dozen of Gallmeyers relatives were present for the hearing and declined to comment afterward. Gallmeyer was found dead in his home in October 2012, and the case remained unsolved until 2013 when authorities found Gallmeyers stolen firearms and tools while investigating Patrie in an unrelated break-in in Charles City. Gallmeyers stolen TV was found in Patries bedroom, according to investigators. Patrie was indicted on firearms charges, and federal prosecutors used Patries prior burglary convictions to push for sentencing enhancements under Armed Career Criminal provisions. After he was sentenced to life in prison, Patrie won an appeal this summer when the U.S. Supreme Court, in another case, ruled Iowas burglary laws are too vague to meet the definition of violent crimes under the Armed Career Criminal statutes. IOWA CITY (AP) A sheriff says the death of an inmate from Iowa in a Wisconsin prison cell appears to have been self-inflicted. Dodge County Sheriff Dale Schmidt said Thursday his office is investigating the death of 26-year-old Justin Kestner at the Dodge Correctional Institution in Waupun, Wisconsin. But he says "there's no foul play involved" by any other inmates and the death "seems that it was self-inflicted." Authorities announced last week that Kestner was found unresponsive in his cell on Dec. 21, and was soon pronounced dead. His family said in an obituary that the northwest Iowa native died "unexpectedly." Kestner had been transferred to Wisconsin in November after causing major problems for Iowa prison officials, including a July 2015 escape from the maximum-security prison in Fort Madison. EARLIER STORY Iowa inmate found dead in Wisconsin prison IOWA CITY (AP) An inmate from Iowa with a history of violence toward guards and one notorious escape has died in a Wisconsin prison one month after he was transferred there, authorities said Thursday. Justin Kestner, 26, was found unresponsive Dec. 21 in his assigned cell at the Dodge Correctional Institution in Waupun, Wis., the Iowa Department of Corrections said in a statement. Prison staff responded and initiated lifesaving measures that were unsuccessful. Prison officials and the Dodge County sheriff said Thursday that they are investigating the death, and that no additional information on the suspected cause or manner was available. A medical examiner said autopsy results haven't been completed. Kestner made headlines on July 4, 2015, when he became the first inmate in a decade to escape from Iowa's historic maximum-security prison in Fort Madison. An investigation found that he removed screws from the shower to gain access to a narrow pipe chase an enclosed space that houses the prison's pipes. He was able to climb up until he reached the attic, then crawled through a vent to reach the roof. He descended by climbing down the building's downspout and landing outside a prison fence. He timed his escape to coincide with holiday fireworks in the hopes that guards would be distracted, and left in his bed a dummy made up of milk cartons and insulation to try to fool them into thinking he was sleeping. Kestner stole a car after his escape but was captured within hours near Geneseo, Ill. Kestner was serving time for robbing gas stations in Sioux City in 2009. A judge in February extended his original 20-year sentence by 15 years after Kestner pleaded guilty to the escape and vehicle theft. Sometime after the escape, Kestner was transferred to the penitentiary in Anamosa. In October, authorities said that Kestner managed to get out of a health services room before he assaulted a correctional officer with a crude piece of metal. The officer suffered multiple contusions to the face that required medical treatment. Kestner, who had previously attacked guards in Fort Madison, was placed in segregation after that incident. On Nov. 21, he was transferred to Wisconsin through the Interstate Commission for Adult Offender Supervision, which governs the movement of offenders from state to state. Dodge Correctional is Wisconsin's intake facility for all new inmates, who are later assigned to specific prisons. Wisconsin Department of Corrections spokesman Tristan Cook said the agency is conducting an internal investigation into the death. Iowa prisons spokesman Fred Scaletta said it took several days to announce the death because authorities in Iowa and Wisconsin needed to work together to notify Kestner's family and victims. Funeral services were held Tuesday for Kestner in his hometown of Rembrandt, Iowa, a small town near Sioux City. Kestner, who graduated from Midland Park High School in 2007, was "a very passionate young man and his special interests include his love for others, drawing, being outdoors and animals," according to an obituary published in the Storm Lake Times newspaper. The obituary said he died unexpectedly and will be buried at a later date. CEDAR FALLS A survey seeking feedback on three finalists to be the University of Northern Iowas next president found widespread support for Interim President Jim Wohlpart especially among administrators, staff, students and the broader community. Faculty was the only campus group that didnt collectively rate Wohlpart the highest on a majority of the 12 questions posed by a search firm. Montana State University-Billings Chancellor Mark Nook, who ultimately got the job, earned higher marks from the faculty in every category than Wohlpart or the other finalist, former Temple University President Neil Theobald. Nook is set to start Feb. 1 as UNIs 11th president. Wohlpart was promoted from provost to interim president when former UNI President Bill Ruud announced last summer he was leaving to become president of the private Marietta College in Ohio. Wohlpart said Tuesday he plans to continue as UNI provost. I look forward to reconnecting to academic affairs and continuing the good work that we have going on in that division, he said in an email. Wohlpart said he was excited about the wealth of experience Nook brings to campus and believes hell move UNI forward in implementing its mission. We have already met and have begun to establish a great working relationship, which will only grow in time, Wohlpart wrote. That the board chose Nook illustrates how the UNI hiring differed from the 2015 selection of Bruce Harreld as president at the University of Iowa. The Board of Regents drew sharp criticism from the UI campus for choosing a business executive despite broad criticism especially among faculty. The UI Faculty Senate cast a vote of no confidence in the board for its selection of Harreld, and the American Association of University Professors last summer sanctioned the UI for the boards disregard of faculty opinion and shared governance values. At the outset of the UNI search, critics of the UI search said they would be watching the process closely. UI and UNI faculty members met with AAUP senior program officer Hans-Joerg Tiede in September to discuss the rebuke and under what circumstances it might be lifted. Tiede said at the time its removal would primarily involve a change in policy. It should somehow be a policy change that recognizes what the role of the faculty in a presidential search should be and that somehow would be consistent with the AAUPs principles, Tiede said. Although AAUP sanctions dont come with financial penalties, they notify the associations nearly 50,000 members unsatisfactory conditions of academic government exist at the institution in question, AAUP documents show. The UNI search also differed from the UIs in that the search committee wasnt disbanded after identifying finalists. Rather, it was asked to make a final report to the regents after the finalists spoke on the UNI campus in public forums. AGB Search, hired to facilitate the UNI presidential hunt, collected feedback following those town halls. The survey asked respondents to rank candidates from one (for strongly disagree) to five (for strongly agree) on a list of 12 desired qualifications. More than 830 people ranked the candidates. DALLAS Texas authorities continue to investigate a New Years morning crash that claimed the life of a former Waterloo man. Robert Nathan Junior Speller, 23, who moved to Dallas six months ago to live near family, was heading home when the accident happened, according to his brother, Mechicca Wright. He was maybe five minutes from home, Wright said Thursday. Deputies with the Dallas County Sheriffs Offices Vehicle Crimes Unit are investigating the crash and declined to comment. The collision happened about 5:48 a.m. Sunday in the westbound lanes of Interstate 30 near Ferguson Road, according the accident report. According to Wright, there was fog in the area, and Speller had just entered the interstate when his car was struck by another vehicle. The impact caused considerable damage to Spellers vehicle, but the other vehicle continued on without stopping. Speller, apparently disoriented by the collision, stepped out of his vehicle and was hit by a third vehicle, Wright said. That car, a Pontiac G6 driven by 28-year-old Sharonda Jackson of Fort Worth, had slowed down because of the first crash and swerved in an attempt to avoid Speller but struck him and then crashed into a Hyundai Elantra driven by a Mesquite resident, the accident report states. Paramedics took Speller to Baylor University Medical Center, where he died of blunt force injuries, according to the Dallas County Coroners Office. Jackson also was taken to Baylor for possible injuries, and the Elantra driver wasnt injured. Wright said the other driver from the initial crash hasnt been located. They kept going. They never stopped. And that highway is so busy; it could have been a car that was coming through from another state. There were no cameras, nothing, Wright said. Born in Waterloo, Speller was an East High School graduate. He was a really good person. He was the perfect son. He always did the right thing, very responsible, thats why its so hard, Wright said. After high school, Speller attended the University of Northern Iowa on an academic scholarship before moving to the Dallas area. He had worked at an Amazon.com warehouse. Services will be in Iowa and are pending with Sanders Funeral Service in Waterloo. Experts predict that this will be the year the nation gains greater influence in world affairs. An Baijie reports. Sweet potato is not only President Xi Jinping's favorite food, but he also sees it as a symbol of China's determination to make a contribution to global economic growth. "The vines of the sweet potato may stretch in all directions, but they all grow out of its roots. Similarly, no matter what level of development it may reach, China, with its roots in the Asia-Pacific, will continue to contribute to the region's development and prosperity," Xi said in a speech in Lima, the capital of Peru, in November. The president's remarks came as the global economy continued to struggle as a result of sluggish growth and as many Western countries embraced protectionist economic policies. Making China's mark in global economic governance and shouldering greater responsibility were the defining characteristics of Chinese diplomacy under Xi last year, according to observers. The experts noted that contributing to world economic growth and offering solutions for global governance will be the guiding principles behind Chinese diplomacy this year. That will be especially true in May, when the country will host a grand summit to boost interconnectivity between potential partners in the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, known collectively as the Belt and Road Initiative. In December, the Financial Times highlighted China's role in global governance, saying: "President-elect Donald Trump wants the US to shrug off its global responsibilities. China may grab the opening to move centre stage." The article also pointed out that Xi has championed the Paris Agreement on climate change, defended the international community's nuclear deal with Iran and expanded trade liberalization within Asia. International influence Su Ge, president of the China Institute of International Studies, said the world economy is recovering slowly and with great difficulty, so better global governance is required. "The deficit of global governance is growing. Western countries' abilities in terms of innovation and the provision of public services have been undermined," he said, adding that China's international influence became more pronounced last year. Noting that China will hold two diplomatic events this year - the first International Cooperation Summit Forum on the Belt and Road Initiative and the ninth BRICS summit - Su said the country will remain a positive force in the maintenance of world peace, stability and development. China's continuing efforts to press for sustainable growth and to improve global governance won the support of world leaders when they met for the G20 Summit in the lakeside city of Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province, in September. At the summit, Ban Kimoon, then-UN secretary-general, praised the efforts of China and the United States in the ratification of the landmark Paris Agreement. The progress that had been made was a major success, according to Ban who praised the "outstanding leadership" demonstrated by Xi and US President Barack Obama, who handed over legal documents to him on Sept 3 as an indication of their resolve to jointly tackle the global challenge. "In the past, it was often said that China was a major economic power, but unable to play a global leadership role commensurate with its new status," Paolo Garonna, professor of political economy at the LUISS University in Rome, told Xinhua News Agency during the summit. "Well, all of us in Hangzhou have seen the Chinese leadership in action, in terms of strength and quality, and its ability to deliver results." Economic hitchhiking During his five trips overseas last year, Xi made efforts to elaborate on China's views about global governance, and he invited other countries to "hitchhike on China's economic development". For example, while visiting Serbia in June, Xi said China wants to share its advanced technologies and management experience with the central European country to create job opportunities and improve people's living standards. During the trip, the Serbian Prime Minister, Aleksandar Vucic, accompanied Xi on a visit to the small town of Smederevo, whose century-old steel mill went bankrupt in 2003. The mill was purchased by China's Hebei Iron and Steel Group for 46 million euros ($52 million) in April. "Thanks to President Xi and the Chinese company for bringing new hope to the 5,000 workers," Vucic said. In October, during Xi's first state visit to Cambodia, the two countries signed 31 cooperative documents to boost cooperation in areas such as loans, trade deals and the construction of power plants. In addition, China also agreed to import 200,000 metric tons of Cambodian rice. In early December, in a congratulatory letter to an international symposium in Beijing, Xi said China has actively participated in global governance and promoted inclusive development, creating opportunities for all countries, especially developing economies, to share the fruits of development. In the coming five years, China's combined import and export volume will reach $8 trillion, while overseas investments will reach $750 billion and the number of outbound tourists will reach 700 million, Xi said, during a trip to South America in November. Jia Xiudong, a researcher at the China Institute of International Studies, said Beijing has provided both capital and projects for countries that want to use China's development to help their own economies. For example, at the UN Sustainable Development Summit in September, Xi said China would establish an assistance fund for South-South cooperation, with an initial pledge of $2 billion to support developing countries. Contact the writer at anbaijie@chinadaily.com.cn (China Daily 01/05/2017 page6) WATERLOO The director of an Iowa horse racing group was in Waterloo on Thursday to urge action from the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission against unlicensed online horse wagering. Jon Moss, executive director of the Iowa Horsemens Benevolent and Protective Association, spoke during public comments of the IRGC board of directors meeting Thursday morning at the Isle Casino and Hotel in Waterloo. Moss said out-of-state advanced deposit wagering operators that run online horse wagering are in violation of a state law enacted in 2011 that regulates and taxes online wagering on horse racing. It was our understanding at that point in time that illegal operators would come into compliance, Moss said to the commission. Advance-deposit wagering allows people to bet on race outcomes remotely. Bettors must fund their accounts before being allowed to place bets. Most advance-deposit wagering is done online. After five years and an amendment clarifying the law two years ago, groups continue to operate and take wagers in Iowa, Moss said. He expressed frustration that neither the commission nor the Iowa Attorney Generals office have acted in the matter. Moss said the law not only requires organizations taking wagers in Iowa to be licensed but also taxes advanced-wager activity. Moss said sidestepping that requirement was more or less tax evasion. Jeff Lamberti, chairman of the IRGC board of directors, said the commission and its counsel were aware of the situation. He said little else about the issue except adding the legislation is complex. Moss noted other lawmakers have similar concerns including Sen. Jeff Danielson, D-Waterloo, who sent a letter to the Iowa Attorney General Tom Millers office in November. In the letter to Miller, Danielson acknowledges an internal investigation is currently underway by the Consumer Protection Division of Millers office but asks whether a criminal inquiry is underway. Danielson inquired why legal action up to felony charges has not been initiated. Danielson said by email Wednesday he has not received a response from Millers office aside from acknowledgment the office received his letter. No declining KENNETH FRIEND CEDAR FALLS Can or should a Rockette be allowed to decline to dance at a Trump inauguration? One Rockette wanted out. This is not a current issue as more Rockettes requested to participate than slots available. Can or should a Muslim-owned catering business be allowed to decline to serve ham sandwiches at a wedding? Can or should a Christian-owned bakery be allowed to decline to bake a cake for a gay wedding? As a reminder to readers, the Sweet Cakes by Melissa bakery in Portland, Ore., had to go out of business and pay $135,000 for emotional suffering because the owners refused to bake a cake for a lesbian wedding in 2013. Sadly, to those with deeply held beliefs, suck it up, bake the cake, serve the ham or dance. Obamacare ERIC GIDDENS CEDAR FALLS Your Dec. 29 coverage of Rep. Rod Blums meeting with physicians from Cedar Valley Medical Associates might give readers the false impression that physicians in general are united in support of repealing the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). It is unfortunate that Blum did not include other physicians in his meeting and you did not interview other physicians for your article. Physicians I have spoken to believe the ACA has done much to benefit health care in Iowa, and this view is borne out by statistics. I encourage readers to visit www.hhs.gov/healthcare/facts-and-features/state-by-state/how-aca-is-working-for-iowa/index.html for a list of the many ways health care has improved in Iowa as a result of the ACA. Many physicians and other experts agree more can be done to further improve our health care system, but the politically charged repeal and replace rhetoric supported by one group of practitioners in your article will not get us to where we need to be. I encourage Blum to listen to a broader range of experts and for you to balance your coverage of issues like this when our elected officials fail to do so on their own. The golden rule STEVE WIKERT CEDAR FALLS The political climate will change in Iowa and our nation from the November 2016 election. The rise of the Republican Party, led by Donald Trump, will overwhelmingly dictate the future for all Americans. Dictate, akin to dictator, is the key word here when describing him. Never in my lifetime has our nation elected such a corrupt narcissist for the leader of the free world. Many Americans are terrified with the prospect of a leader who openly lies, demonstrates bigotry, disregards foreign treasonous acts and has serious business conflicts of interest. Trump supporters need to assess their own values. Everyone living in America needs to find their way back to that simple old-fashioned golden rule once taught in every school, church or home. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. That could manifest itself in embracing other races and fellow immigrants in our nation of immigrants, helping those less fortunate, allowing choices over our own bodies, making it safe for all citizens with reasonable gun control or protecting our Earth for all who will follow. Selfish partisan politics shouldnt overrule logical decency. 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CO, January 05, 2017 /24-7PressRelease/ -- ADAPT, the Alliance for the Development of Additive Processing Technologies, a research consortium focused on developing technologies to accelerate the certification and qualification of 3D printed metal parts, has helped member company Reaction Systems win a two-year, $750K SBIR contract extension. "This early success shows the value of collaboration between ADAPT members," said ADAPT Technical Director Aaron Stebner. With a Phase II SBIR project with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) to develop a hypersonic jet engine part and a need for specialized additive manufacturing expertise, Reaction Systems turned to founding member company Faustson and ADAPT to create a prototype and keep moving the project forward. David Wickham, Reaction Systems' president and senior project manager, said, "The part has an intricate interior channel that can only be made this way. As it moves forward, our production volume will grow, and we'll need ADAPT's expertise to show the part can withstand rigorous conditions. They've already demonstrated they can provide useful data to help us do that, and membership helps us expand our capabilities and expertise in using catalysts on complex surfaces." Small manufacturers can't justify the expense required to adopt emerging additive metal technology without a resource like ADAPT. Real-time monitoring costs hundreds of thousands of dollars they simply don't have. ADAPT membership and access to shared resources, world-class expertise and peer organizations with complementary needs and services make it affordable for Faustson, Reaction Systems, and other small manufacturers to successfully invest in this emerging technology. "We had no experience with additive manufacturing, and started looking around to find the expertise and resources we needed," noted Reaction Systems COO Jeffrey Engel. "A contact at Mines connected us with founding member Faustson and ADAPT. That enabled us to quickly manufacture the part with the internal geometry it requires, something we could not have done with traditional machining techniques." Heidi Hostetter, ADAPT Industry Board Chair and VP of Faustson, said, "AFRL was right when they asked it to be made additively. A complex part, accelerated schedule, and low volume was tailor-made for 3D metal printing." Faustson worked with Reaction Systems to make the part in a few days on its Concept Laser machine. The R&D team at Mines then used the ADAPT lab equipment to characterize the part to show it met design specifications. The result was a two-year extension of the Reaction Systems contract, worth $750,000, to continue work on the part. About ADAPT The Alliance for the Development of Additive Processing Technologies (ADAPT) is a research and development organization dedicated to the creation of next-generation data informatics and advanced characterization technologies for additive manufacturing technologies. ADAPT uses these tools to help industry and government qualify, standardize, assess, and optimize advanced manufacturing processes and parts. Several levels of membership to the ADAPT consortium are available. Founding industry members include Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Faustson Tool, Lockheed Martin, Citrine Informatics. Grant funding from the Colorado Office of Economic Development & International Trade (OEDIT) was provided to Manufacturer's Edge and The National Institute of Standards and Technology's Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership. For more information, find ADAPT on the web, LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter. About Reaction Systems Reaction Systems, located in Golden, Colorado, develops leading-edge technologies, creating new products and processes and turning them into real commercial products. Much of this work is done through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program and carried out by conducting research, securing patents, and cultivating commercialization partners. The company has developed a way to improve scramjet engine ignition; created a membrane that separates carbon dioxide from a spacesuit environment to enable longer space walks; and invented a way to map and remove coke deposits to improve rocket engine performance. For more information, visit http://www.rxnsys.com. # # # COLUMBUS, OH, January 05, 2017 /24-7PressRelease/ -- GradLeaders, the market leader in student recruitment and career services technology has announced a new partnership with The Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges (OFIC), a non-profit organization representing independent higher education to corporate Ohio. This collaboration will further assist 93,000 college students from the 34 OFIC member schools in Ohio to find their dream job by connecting them with more opportunities from a larger network of employers. "We're excited to be working with OFIC to provide a mutually beneficial relationship for companies and students seeking careers in Ohio," said Jack Gainer, CEO of GradLeaders. "Not only are we matching students to full-time and internship opportunities that align with their interests, but we're also delivering a pool of right-fit candidates to our ever-growing network of companies seeking students. It's a win-win for job-seekers and employers in the state of Ohio." As part of this new partnership, GradLeaders will provide a new OFIC-branded job board, enabling companies to post jobs directly to students from their member schools. GradLeaders will also provide OFIC member institutions access to a tool to collect career-outcomes data on their graduating students. This simple data collection and reporting tool will provide these schools with standardized, real-time data on their students' careers. "Working with GradLeaders will ultimately enhance the independent higher education experience for students at our member schools and provide our universities with the insights necessary to develop their students' skillsets for successful entry into the workforce," said OFIC President, Bill Spiker. OFIC and GradLeaders have similar goals and missions, to help students advance their career by providing the technology, expertise and resources to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to enter the national and international workforce. "Our goal at GradLeaders is to provide easy-to-use technology that empowers users to make data-driven decisions," said Gainer. "We have been doing this for decades at a national level but this groundbreaking new partnership with OFIC should pave the way for a more focused and targeted regional approach that we can soon duplicate throughout the country and internationally." To kick off this new partnership, representatives from GradLeaders will be in attendance at OFIC's CareerFest on February 3, 2017 at the Ohio Expo Center. CareerFest is one of Ohio's largest career fairs, and is open to students of all majors attending any of OFIC's 34 member colleges and universities. For more information, please visit http://www.ofic.org/careerfest. About GradLeaders GradLeaders is the industry leader in student recruitment and career services technology, connecting leading employers year-round with students and alumni from top-ranked schools around the world. GradLeaders' exclusive partnerships, extensive student database, and industry-leading software solutions, make it the #1 choice of companies seeking high-quality, best-fit, and diverse students to join their team. To learn more, visit http://www.gradleaders.com. About OFIC OFIC solicits corporate and foundation support for 34 independent Ohio colleges and universities and operates one of the largest, most comprehensive and diverse scholarship programs in the state. OFIC member colleges collectively enroll 93,000 students and award one-third of all bachelor's degrees in the state. For over 65 years OFIC has worked to highlight the leadership, value and excellence of independent higher education and has provided unrestricted operating funds and scholarship commitments through funds raised in annual solicitations of businesses and foundations, thereby assuring continuation of excellence in private higher education. OFIC is governed by a Board of Trustees comprised of Ohio's corporate leaders, as well as presidents of the 34 member colleges. To learn more, visit http://www.ofic.org # # # Ann Gray Consulting LLC: How This Faith-Based Consulting Firm Is Revolutionizing the Marketing Industry 2022-11-03 | Ann Gray and her dedicated team at Ann Gray Consulting LLC are here to guide you through the process of elevating your social media presence. They are a faith-based organization with deeply held beliefs of integrity, honesty and ethics. Jan 4, 2017 | By Anja Police in New South Wales (NSW), Australia are cracking down on 3D printed guns like never before. Hot on the heels of local raid in which police stumbled upon an underground lab 3D printing submachine guns, NSW Police Chief Wayne Hoffman has announced a new focus on 3D printed guns as part of his teams ongoing ballistics research. "A lot of people call this an emerging trend, and we have to go with that 3D printers are a very important bit of technology, so we want to keep on top of it," Chief Hoffman told ABC. As part of their ongoing investigation, NSW police used a 3D printer to manufacture a plastic revolver capable of discharging small arms ammo. "The tests that we have done show that it can discharge a bullet, which will enter a human body at a depth of 14 centimetres, which could inflict a lethal wound upon a human being," Chief Hoffman said. 3D printed weapons used in NSW Police research Despite Australias strict gun laws, reports show that criminals are becoming increasingly sophisticated in obtaining, creating, and distributing weapons. And according to the NSW Police, 3D printing technology may be at the forefront of these dangerous new developments. While organizations like the Australian Medical Association have responded by lobbying for a national gun registry, 3D printed weapons present a unique challenge for lawmakers. The illegal assembly of 3D printed gun components, for instance, would not be prevented by a gun registry. Indeed, the danger of self-printing and assembling handguns goes beyond sheer numbers. NSW Police have noted that a lack of professional firearm regulations means criminals are endangering themselves too. "People making homemade firearms, putting together parts and using printers are putting themselves in danger there is no inspection, no quality or testing," said Chief Hoffman. "Its not easy or by any means at the standard of a professional firearm manufacturer." NSW Chief Inspector Hoffman with 3D printed guns According to the NSW Police, 3D printing isnt the only method of manufacturing weapons yourself. "At this current moment, more of the threat is the homemade firearms that is replica pistols that have been made to fire modified and other items which are assembled in the form of a gun to discharge a bullet," Chief Hoffman said. "We're getting more of that into the laboratory at the moment and not 3D printed firearms or parts. Still, the NSW Police vows to stay on top of this emerging trend. As of now, no 3D printed handguns have been discovered in the NSW area, but several were seized recently in Queensland. Posted in 3D Printing Application Maybe you also like: Dogbreath wrote at 1/9/2018 7:37:53 PM:These are 3D watermelon seed guns ! First you have to buy a watermelon to get the superior coefficient ballistic watermelon seed rounds to fire from the plastic !!!Eric wrote at 1/28/2017 7:47:07 PM:Agreed.Richard wrote at 1/4/2017 11:44:08 PM:You need to contact the Australian news companies and say that you wont accept any more of these bogus news stories. The revolver pictured here is clearly a non-functioning, non-firing prop. The other one I cant see well enough to tell what it is. They shoot plastic bullets what sort of stupidity is this? The real problem is the smuggling of real metal guns and ammo. In other words, its not a 3D printing article at all. Bogus articles like this are making Australians look stupid. Jan 5, 2017 | By Benedict Samuel Sia, a professor of biomedical engineering at New York Citys Columbia University, has developed a 3D printed biobot that can be implanted in the body to release controlled doses of drugs. The amazing device can be controlled from outside the body using only magnets. For patients who have been diagnosed with cancer, treatment options are often few and far between, and in many serious cases, starting an intense course of chemotherapy becomes a necessity rather than a choice. But despite being a powerful weapon against cancer, chemotherapy takes its toll on the body in a number of ways: chronic pain, nausea, fatigue, hair loss, and the chance of infertility are just some of the adverse effects that chemotherapy can present. Fortunately, scientists are working hard to develop more effective ways of delivering chemotherapy drugs, including a new 3D printing method that involves fabricating squishy, clockwork micromachines that deliver precise drug doses from within the body. These exciting new micromachines, or biobots, have been developed at the laboratory of Samuel Sia, a professor of biomedical engineering at New York Citys Columbia University. Sia and his research team recently published their findings in Science Robotics, where they explain how they have developed a fast manufacturing method that can produce features in biocompatible materials down to tens of micrometers in scale, with intricate and composite patterns in each layer. With this manufacturing method, the scientists have been able to create tiny devices that can release drugs into the body via magnetic signals. Going into the laboratory with the goal of creating these drug-dispensing micromachines, the Columbia biomedical engineers first needed to develop a special way of creating that machine. For this, they turned to 3D printing, developing a one-off machine that can deposit layers of hydrogel to form solid, rubbery shapes. Next came the challenge of creating the tiny devices themselves. For this part, the researchers could use a tried and tested mechanism to operate their biobots: clockwork. Amazingly, the hydrogel-based micromachines really do function like a timepieceeach squishy device is a kind of Geneva drive, a gear mechanism capable of regular rotation, and clicks forward when an external magnet is directed at it. The gear of the device is just a squishy component containing iron nanoparticles, and each click causes one of six chambers to line up with a hole and dispense medicine through it. Creating these 3D printed biobots was a challenge for Sias team for several reasons. For starters, the tiny devices needed to be soft and flexible enough to be compatible with the human body. But they also needed to be robust enough to withstand the rough and tumble of the bodys insides: If your material is collapsing like jello, its hard to make robots out of it, Sia told IEEE Spectrum. It has to be stiff enough to work like a tiny implantable machine. With tiny devices like these, doctors could someday deliver drugs such as chemotherapy treatments with a much higher level of precisionpotentially reducing some of the adverse effects of the powerful drugs. They could also be used to regulate hormones or perform other important tasks from within the body. Importantly, Sia and his team have already tested out the 3D printed robotic devices on mice, and with great success. (A device implanted in a mouse can be seen in the image below.) The researchers implanted the biobots into a number of mice with bone cancer, releasing controlled doses of a chemotherapy drug through the 3D printed devices. Simultaneously, other mice suffering from bone cancer were given the same drug through conventional methods. According to the researchers, tumors grew slower, more tumor cells died off, and fewer healthy cells were damaged in the mice fitted with the 3D printed biobots. The squishy 3D printed devices therefore represent a massive opportunity for medical professionals, potentially serving as a new way to deliver critical treatments to the body. First, however, Sias team (or another group of researchers) might need to find a more precise way to control the device. Although the magnetic system currently in place works a charm in the laboratory, it remains possible that a powerful magnet from another source might accidentally trigger the devices within the body, releasing drugs at the wrong time and in the wrong dosage. For now, Sia will continue to look for other ways in which the 3D printed micromachines can be used to benefit patients. Im confident that well find something useful, he said. Posted in 3D Printing Application Maybe you also like: Generous helpings of eggs Benedict and fluffy French toast always call for a fruity libation to wash it all down. Grab a group of friends and head to one of these spots serving bottomless mimosas of all call colors and flavors to keep the good times pouring at brunch. 620 Jones Princess Poppy is the star of the show at drag brunch on Sundays, but everyone's favorite midday meal is also served on Saturdays at 620 Jones' excellent patio. The brunch mecca serves up $20 mimosa pitchers as well as breakfast martinis. bloodies, and frose. Don't forget to eat plenty: Chef Erik Hopfinger has you covered with huevos rancheros and fried chicken and waffles. // 620 Jones St. (TenderNob), 620-jones.com. Chubby Noodle Chubby Noodle's "bottomless" dim sum brunch is the ultimate hangover cure. Head to the North Beach outpost on Saturdays and Sundays when 90-minute reservations bring seven brunch items to your tablethink salt and pepper shrimp and fried riceplus three drinks; in addition to mimosas, sake shooters and pineapple sangria are on offer. Throw it all down for just $49. // 570 Green St. (North Beach), chubbynoodle.com Home Plate Longtime Marina favorite Home Plate keeps the mimosas flowingfor 75 minutes that is ($22 per person). Bloody Marias, spicy margaritas, and peach bellinis are options a la carte. The eating is also hearty here with plenty of carb-filled breakfast dishesthink buttery Benedicts, steak and eggs, and several flavors of pancakes. // 2150 Lombard St. (Marina), homeplate-sf.com Dolores Park Cafe If you're in the mood for a casual, hassle-free mimosa experience, Dolores Park Cafe keeps them flowing in its sunny space for $25 every day of the week. Pair your drinks with French toast or a chorizo breakfast burritoor if you're feeling healthy-ish, down a glass of organic, fresh squeezed veggie juice too. Then, head to Dolores Park for a post-brunch coma. // 501 Dolores St. (Mission), doloresparkcafe.com. Sweet Maple The toughest part about brunch at Sweet Maple is getting everyone at your table to decide which flavor of mimosa to ordervarieties include raspberry, strawberry, grapefruit, blue curacao, mango-tagin and, of course, the OG. You'll get one hour to drink as many as you can manage for $23 a person. Order the Millionaire's bacon, morning pizzas, and eggs Benedict to go with. // 2101 Sutter St. (Pacific Heights), sweetmaplesf.com The Sycamore Just steps from the Mission's Clarion Alley, The Sycamore might win brunch just for its extended time windowhere's you'll get a full two hours to drown yourself in mimosas ($25 per person) while most places have a limit of 60 to 90 minutes. Or, get a "monster-mosa," a 60-ounce pitcher, for $34. Two seatings are offered at 10:30am and 1pm Saturday and Sunday; order at the counter and then make a beeline to the spacious back patio. Soak up the bubbly with chicken and waffles or scrambles. // 2140 Mission St. (Mission), thesycamoresf.com Kitchen Story Millionaire's bacon flights plus bottomless mimosas? Don't mind if we do! Endless drinks here come at $23 per person with a one-hour time limit. Drink fast, then order ricotta hotcakes, morning melts, and omelettes. // 3499 16th St. (Castro), kitchenstorysf.com. The Pink Elephant This Financial District gastropub stands so hard behind its bottomless mimosas, you can even drink them on weekdays ($40/person Wednesday through Friday); on Friday nights, bottomless mimosa happy hour is served for just $30 per person from 2pm to 7pm. Don't worry, they do brunch too but at a premium: When you come on Saturday or Sunday, expect to fork over $49 for all you can drink. You'll have 90 minutes to taste your way through dozen or so flavor options including peach, cran-pomegranate, and guava. We believe in you. Not into juice? Go for the bottomless prosecco instead. Brunch food is served all day. // 142 Minna St. (FiDi), pinkelephantusa.com Don Pistos Ordering an entree is required to partake of bottomless mimosas, coronas, and sangria ($30/person, 90 minute limit) on Saturdays and Sundays at this happening North Beach spot. But you shouldn't have any problem diving into heaping plates of Mexican brunch fare. Go for the chorizo and baked eggs, breakfast burrito, or huevos rancherosplus snacks and oysters. // 510 Union St. (North Beach), donpistos.com. Hard Knox Cafe Hard Knox Cafe's Inner Richmond location serves up delicious Southern-style brunch till 3pm every day of the week. But wait, there's a twist: Bottomless mimosas ($29 per person) are only served on weekdays. Prepare to carbo loadthe menu here is gluten-heavy with plates of biscuits, beignets, French toast, and sandwiches plus all the fried Southern things. // 2448 Clement St. (Inner Richmond), hardknoxcafe.com. Blackwood After knocking back a couple mimosas at Blackwood during the 60 minute time limit, you'll be all set for a Saturday of Marina barhopping. While the $24 bottomless mimosas, served alongside Thai and American dishesincluding Thai shakshuka, Dungeness crab omelettes, and deep fried French toastare well worth the guaranteed weekend wait, stop by on weekdays until 3pm to enjoy endless pours minus the crowds. // 2150 Chestnut St. (Marina), blackwoodsf.com. Mission Rock Resort OK, technically this brunch hot spot does not serve bottomless mimosas, but we still love it for the build-your-own offering that comes with your choice of prosecco or Napa brut by the bottle and a selection of juices (cranberry, pineapple, grapefruit, and so on). We also love it for the oyster selection and waterfront views. // 817 Terry A Francois Blvd. (Dogpatch), missionrockresort.com Central, Herreid-Selby, Warner just 1 win away from state title games Aberdeen Central, Warner, Herreid-Selby and Hitchcock-Tulare are all just one win away from high school football championship games. Project-Wide Collaboration Ensures Efficient Transition from Construction to Operation KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait, January 5, 2017 Aconex Ltd ( ASX:ACX ), provider of the #1 global platform connecting teams on construction and engineering projects, has announced that Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co. Ltd. of South Korea and Combined Group Contracting Co. (CGC) of Kuwait are designing and building the US$2.6-billion Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah Causeway using Aconex solutions. Aconex was proposed by the two contractors and approved by the project owner, the Kuwait Ministry of Public Works. One of the largest and most prestigious transportation infrastructure projects in the Gulf region, the causeway will connect Kuwait City with an area across Kuwait Bay known as the Subiyah New Town or the City of Silk. The new settlement, which is expected to be completed in 2035, is planned as a major stop on Chinas proposed One Belt One Road initiative, which is intended to revive the ancient Silk Road trade route. By shortening the distance between Kuwait City and Subiyah from 104 kilometers (65 miles) to just 36 kilometers (22 miles), the new throughway will trim travel times from 90 minutes to less than 30 minutes. Controlling Project Information across Geographies In November 2012, the Kuwait Ministry of Public Works signed a contract with a consortium of Hyundai and CGC to design and build the causeway. A combination of low-level bridges and embankments, the project also includes 26 separate buildings and two artificial islands of 30 hectares each designed to enhance the scenic value of the drive. Other members of the project team include Systra, based in France; AECOM in Hong Kong; Dar Al-Handasah (Shair and Partners), headquartered in Beirut, Lebanon; TYLN International; and SSH International. Work began in November 2013. As the project team ramped up, members in Kuwait, France, Egypt, Lebanon, and San Francisco all required immediate access to project information. According to Eng. Mai Al Messad, the project engineer, the number of daily transmittals of inspection requests, checklists, approvals, and progress reports had already risen into the hundreds. We needed to manage the transmittals and to securely share documents with different organizations across multiple geographies, Eng. Al Messad said. It was critical for us to locate and retrieve project information quickly, and we needed to improve project control by automating manual processes. Eng. Al Messad said that the team settled on Aconex because the collaboration platform is project-wide, neutral and easy to use. With Aconex, no single organization owns the project information. Instead, each organization retains control and ownership of its proprietary data, and determines which documents and communications are shared with other members of the team. Replacing Manual Processes with Automated Workflows Aconex also enables the project team to leverage workflow automation and create standard processes for everything from project communications to handover. This has provided the team with greater visibility and control. For example, instead of sending requests over commercial email programs, participants manage correspondence as part of standard workflows on the Aconex platform. Rather than create, upload and register Requests for Inspection (RFIs) in one location and then download, edit, upload, supersede, and transmit them back again in another, the project team manages RFIs using workflows. This not only reduces the amount of record-keeping associated with RFIs, but also provides full visibility and control of all RFI reviews and approvals. In this way, Aconex makes it easy to track which RFIs are unanswered or overdue and which have been transmitted and received responses. Streamlining Handover The use of Aconex Smart Manuals frees the team from labor-intensive tasks related to gathering handover materials. These materials play a critical role in efficient operation and maintenance (O&M), and incomplete or inaccurate documentation can delay commissioning and significantly increase the assets lifetime cost. With Aconex Smart Manuals, the team can assemble all of the projects drawings, blueprints, photos, change orders, reports, manuals, warranties, permit approvals, and operating procedures during design and construction, automating what had been an inefficient, last-minute process. The ability to generate digital O&M manuals was one of the reasons we selected Aconex, Eng. Al Messad said. Complete, up-to-date manuals will ensure the efficient transition from construction to operation and maintenance of the causeway. The Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah Causeway is one of the worlds longest and most complex bridge projects, said Henry Jones, senior vice president of Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and global accounts at Aconex. We are pleased with the opportunity to support the development through all phases of its lifecycle. The causeway is one of many examples of how Aconex is contributing to the successful delivery of transportation infrastructure projects throughout the Middle East. About Aconex Ltd Aconex Limited (ASX:ACX) project collaboration solution digitally connects owners, builders and other teams, providing complete visibility and management of data, documents and costs across all stages of a construction project lifecycle. The Aconex cloud-based solution has been used to manage over $1 trillion in projects across 70,000 user organisations in over 70 countries. The companys ordinary shares are traded on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) under the ticker code ACX and are included in the S&P/ASX 200 Index. Supporting Resources For more information on Aconex, please visit: Dentsu Impact, the full-service creative agency from Dentsu Aegis Network that was in news recently for launching two new divisions of Digital and CRM under the strategic leadership of Kartikeya Srivastava has strengthened its team by roping in Swati Ratnakar to lead content & strategy on its digital mandate for Maruti Suzuki. She joins as VP Planning on the account and will be reporting directly to Kartikeya Srivastava. Swati began her career working as a journalist with India Today Group. Looking for a more strategic role and long-term approach to brand building, she then moved to main stream advertising as a planner and later moved into digital space as a content strategist. With a total of 12 years of experience she has worked in India, Singapore and Paris on brands like VW, Spotify, Samsung, Airtel, Maruti Suzuki, LOreal, Bacardi, PepsiCo and others. Some of the organizations she has worked with are DDB, Weber Shandwick and contract. On her appointment Kartikeya Srivastava, Senior VP & Head Strategy, Digital and CRM commented, Holding both India and an international experience I believe Swati can add tremendous value to the approach we are wanting to take on digital as an agency. At dentsu impact we are looking at this medium not so much as technology or process led, but rather as brand and experience led. We want to focus strongly on creating connected brand experiences. In Swati we have found somebody who can join the dots seamlessly between offline and online, creative and content, design and experience Echoing a similar sentiment Amit Wadhwa, President, Dentsu Impact said, We at Dentsu Impact are looking towards seamless digital integration in creativity and hence are looking to invest in talent that will help us do that. Swati does that beautifully for us. On her appointment, Swati commented, My current role at Dentsu involves understanding the commercial and brand challenges of clients businesses, and ensuring that creative solutions support their business objectives. I am excited about the role as its a challenging and dynamic role. Having a 360 experience in online and offline will allow me to see brands from multiple lens and add value. The American multinational mobile brand, iPhone is ranked as Indias Most Reputed Mobile Phone brand in a study by BlueBytes in association with TRA Research (both part of the Comniscient Group). In terms of sheer volume, Apple iPhone had the highest positive media appearances. The second most Reputed brand in the list, despite the controversies surrounding the exploding Note 7, is South Korea's Samsung Mobiles, which had a Brand Rep Score 67% lower than the iPhone. The first Indian consumer electronics company to feature in the list and 3rd in All-India featured Micromax with a Brand Rep Score 94% lower than Samsung. The fourth and fifth position is secured by China's Xiaomi and Finland's Nokia, which recently promised a comeback in India with two Android phones. 72 mobile phone brands were listed from 12 different countries featured in the Indias Most Reputed Mobile Phone Brands 2017 Report. Of these, Indian origin phones held the maximum positions 29 brands. 15 are from China and 8 from USA. BlueBytes is set to launch a Report each month that covers different Sectors. The study evaluates Brand Reputation by analyzing media perceptions and consumer perceptions. Reputation can be seen as a currency that the brand can earn through positive action, communication, or sometimes erode due to lack of the same. Reputation has to be consistently maintained, monitored, and enhanced. In a cluttered space like the mobile phone industry, with diverse brands attempting to capture consumer attention, customers buy and recommend on the basis of reputation, making it the most important influencer of buying decisions, said Pooja Kaura, Chief Spokesperson for Indias Most Reputed Brands. Among the top ten, Chinese multinationals Lenovo, Huawei, and Motorola (now owned by Lenovo) rank sixth, seventh, and eighth respectively. LG (South Korea) and Intex (India) complete the top 10 in this exclusive list. Indias Most Reputed Mobile Phone Brands 2017 (ISBN: 978-81-932924-5-7), was a study conducted within the Mobile Phone Industry with BlueBytes analyzing news of 72 mobile phone brands in all the major English and Hindi print media (newspapers and magazines) across 9 cities as a representative of the news across all media. A total of more than 60,000 articles related to different Mobile Phone brands were captured in the period between November 1, 2015, and October 31, 2016. In addition to news analysis, the consumers perception was also studied and this part of the analysis was contributed by TRA Research, which interviewed 2,500 consumer-influencers on the aspect of Respect. The 56-page, report is available for Rs. 999/-. India s Most Reputed Brands Indias Most Reputed Brands is a product of BlueBytes in association with TRA Research, both nested under the Comniscient Group. The companies bring together a unique synergy in the business of Reputation measurement. The Report leverages their unique specialties BlueBytes, which is focused on measuring transmission of respect as perceived via the Print Media, and TRA, which specializes in measuring consumer perception. BlueBytes tracks all the brands news in all the major English and Hindi print media (newspapers and magazines) across 9 cities as a representative of the news across all publications. While TRA Research contributes with interviews on 2,500 consumer-influencers on the aspect of Commanding Respect. Indias Most Reputed Brands is a one-of-a-kind study. BlueBytes and TRA Research are geared towards mapping the Reputation topography of different Sectors. There are four reports covering different sectors in the Reputed series - India's Most Reputed Aviation Brands 2016, India's Most Reputed Pharmaceutical Brands 2016, India's Most Reputed Real Estate Brands 2016 and India's Most Reputed Mobile Phones Brands 2017. Samsung India has launched a nationwide television and digital campaign showcasing its initiative to take customer service to the doorsteps of consumers in the hinterlands. The campaign film #SamsungCares has gone viral in the first four days of its launch and has already been viewed around 13 million times on YouTube. In October 2016, Samsung launched 535 service vans, to ensure timely service to customers in the remotest corners of India. With the new addition, the Samsung service network is now over 3,000 strong from around 2,000 service points earlier. With this, Samsungs reach will extend to customers in over 6,000 talukas across 29 states and 7 union territories, making Samsungs service network the largest in this industry in India. The new campaign showcases the journey of a young Samsung engineer, who is on his way to provide the services in a remote village in India. The commercial underlines Samsungs vision of creating long lasting relationship with its consumers through timely service. In the last 21 years in India, Samsung has grown to become the largest consumer electronics and mobile phones brand in India. With a wide portfolio of products that are sold across India through more than 150,000 retail outlets, Samsung also has a strong pan India service network. Our new initiative of expanding to rural India, right upto the taluka level, helps us in taking care of our valued customers, wherever they are. The new campaign video gives a glimpse of yet another initiative towards our Make for India commitment. We are very happy to receive an overwhelming response from consumers across India, who have given a big thumbs up to the campaign with around 13 million views on YouTube in just 96 hours, said Ranjivjit Singh, Chief Marketing Officer, Samsung India. The new campaign film is conceptualized by Cheil India and was unveiled across 50 television channels supported by print, across cities and digital. Sagar Mahabaleshwarkar, Chief Creative Officer, Cheil India, said, Samsung is without doubt at the cutting edge of technology. But even the most advanced products need some TLC once in a while. While others might expect you to visit their service centres, Samsung visits you instead. Thats the measure of Samsungs emotional investment in its customers. I am glad that the film adequately captures this warmth and commitment while balancing the rational demands of the brief. Samsung India Customer Service Initiative In addition to introducing 535 service vans, which are equipped with multi-skilled engineers, key components, DG sets and key jigs/fixtures for providing quick response and on-spot resolution, Samsung has also added over 250 service points and over 250 resident engineers, ramping up its service network. Samsung plans to add more service vans, open new service centres, appoint brand engineers and further strengthen its service network. The vans aim to provide speedy service with reduction in turn-around-time along with assured quality to each Samsung customer in every corner of India. Samsung continuously strives towards setting new customer service standards and enhancing its customer service network with new initiatives and programmes, focusing on overall customer delight, infrastructure enhancement and premium service delivery. Link to the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=779KwjAYTeQ DALLAS, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Oregon Tax Court found two banks in the Capital One financial group had economic nexus with Oregon. The court concluded that their Oregon-based receipts should have been included in the numerator of the unitary group's sales factor.1 This decision comes just one month after the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that an out-of-state online retailer had nexus for purposes of Ohio's commercial activity tax, based upon its economic presence in the state.2 In both cases, the courts found that the economic activity of the taxpayers, in and of itself, met the substantial nexus requirement found in Complete Auto.3 The Capital One case principally focuses on whether the physical presence requirement under the Commerce Clause in Quill4 applies to excise or income taxes. The Tax Court found that imposing the Oregon tax does not impose an undue burden on interstate commerce, in that income taxes create a less onerous burden than the imposition of a sales tax. Secondly, that there are no settled expectations regarding physical presence with respect to an income tax, unlike the expectations in Quill, provided by Bellas Hess.5 The Court concluded that the activities of the banks consisting of extending credit, loaning money, pursuing collection, and earning revenue in Oregon created substantial nexus under Complete Auto. Although not mentioned in Capital One, this case closely resembles two other state court decisions on the topic, Tax Commissioner v. MBNA America Bank, N.A.6 and J.C. Penney National Bank v. Commissioner of Revenue, State of Tennessee.7 Both cases considered whether an income tax may be imposed against a bank that has no physical presence in the state. In MBNA, the court concluded that economic presence through the solicitation and providing of credit cards to West Virginia residents met the substantial nexus requirement of Complete Auto. In addition, the West Virginia court concluded that the physical presence requirement in Quill, only applied to sales and use taxes, not income taxes. However, in J.C. Penney, the court found that although the bank undertook the same activities as in MBNA, physical presence was required to satisfy the Commerce Clause requirement of substantial nexus. The court found that merely soliciting in Tennessee did not rise to the level of substantial nexus. Because the credit facility and the activities associated with granting, collecting, and administering the credit were out of state, Tennessee could not assess an income tax against the revenue generated by the bank. While the trend seems to be to ignore the physical presence requirement of Quill, at least as it related to income taxes, several commentators, including the court in Capital One, ask for a review of Quill and Bellas Hess by the U.S. Supreme Court. Many note Justice Kennedy's concurrence in the recent case of Direct Marketing Ass'n v. Brohl.8 However, it should be noted that each time Justice Kennedy has considered limitations on nexus in Quill and Wrigley, 9 his concurrence and dissent appear to call for greater protections from a state asserting nexus. In fact, in his concurrence in Quill, he specifically agrees with the physical presence requirement under stare decisis based on National Bellas Hess. It will be interesting to see if the U.S. Supreme Court takes on this issue or whether it continues to expect the U.S. Congress to take up the issue. 1 Capital One Auto Fin. Inc., v. Dep't of Revenue, Or. T.C., No. TC 5197, December 23, 2016. 2 Newegg, Inc. v. Testa, Ohio, Slip Opinion No. 2016-Ohio-7762, November 17, 2016. 3 Complete Auto Transit, Inc., v. Brady, 430 US 274 (1977). 4 Quill Corporation v. North Dakota, 504 US 298 (1992). 5 National Bellas Hess, Inc., v. Department of Revenue of Illinois, 386 US 753 (1967). 6 220 W VA 163 (2005). 7 19 S. W. 3d 831, Tennessee Court of Appeals (1999). 8 135 S. Ct. 1124 (2015). 9 Wisconsin Department of Revenue v. William Wrigley, Jr., Co., 506 US 214 (1992). 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. TECHNICAL INFORMATION CONTACTS: Mark Nachbar Principal Ryan 630.515.0477 mark.nachbar@ryan.com Mary Bernard Director Ryan 401.272.3363 mary.bernard@ryan.com To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/oregon-wins-income-tax-case-utilizing-economic-nexus-theory-300386406.html SOURCE Ryan WEST HARTFORD, Conn., Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- In the face of many uncertainties being generated by a volatile global political climate, SCIO Health Analytics took a bold step today in releasing its predictions regarding key healthcare trends the company believes will most affect payers, providers, life sciences organizations and consumers in 2017. Behavioral Analytics Topping the list is a movement away from traditional analytics that are focused solely on claims, clinical or financial data to a more 360-degree view of the patient enabled through behavioral analytics. To achieve this view, healthcare providers and payers will actively seek out new forms of data, such as geographic, income levels, socioeconomic data and other demographic information. They will also rely on population-based data about the effectiveness of different care plans and incentives. All of this data will be combined to deliver a more complete picture of who the patients are and the traits others like them share. Greater emphasis will also need to be placed on attitudinal information gathered from non-traditional sources. "Recent events such as the Brexit vote in the U.K. and the Presidential election in the U.S., demonstrate that the use of big data in predictive analytics still has some maturing to do," said Lalithya Yerramilli, vice president of analytics at SCIO. "In both cases those performing the analysis had big data at their disposal yet they still got the outcomes wrong because they weren't able to take attitudes and the things people weren't saying into account. When it comes to getting into the psyche of individuals or populations to understand what concerns and motivates them, you need to be able to read between the lines as well as reading what's in front of you." A clear example comes from the recent U.S. election. There was talk prior to the election about Donald Trump's "hidden voters" those who would not admit publicly to supporting the candidate for a variety of reasons but planned to vote for him. It turned out the talk, which was based on information gathered through social media, personal conversations and other non-measurable means, was more accurate in forecasting the outcome than the formal big data. "It shows the impact attitudes can have on actions," Yerramilli said. "You won't find data on attitudes in the electronic health records (EHR), or procedure codes, or claims data, or even socioeconomic data on its own. But events such as these clearly demonstrate the need we in healthcare have to begin capturing those non-traditional data points more effectively so we can understand our audiences better, which will help us learn how to drive them toward the desired outcomes." This broader and deeper view will enable providers and payers to recommend care and develop programs that have a higher likelihood of having a positive impact. SCIO views this greater understanding of patient needs and motivations as being the key to succeeding in a value-based healthcare environment. Insights as a Service As behavioral, predictive, prescriptive and other types of advanced analytics demonstrate their ability to improve outcomes significantly, healthcare organizations will find it increasingly difficult to keep up with the demand using internal resources. Additionally, two-thirds of information workers overall in the U.S. are not convinced they are using current dashboards effectively according to Forrester. This need for more and better use of analytics, especially among healthcare organizations taking on additional risk, will accelerate the growth of insights-as-a-service, i.e., working with an outside business partner to transform data into actionable insights that result in measurable outcome improvements. Because of the complex nature of healthcare data, healthcare organizations will seek to form long-term partnerships that enable understanding to improve over time rather than one-off requests for analytics. Healthcare organizations will be able to co-source or completely outsource insights-as-a service according to their business requirements, while "as-a-service" flexibility allows them to ramp up or scale down quickly as-needed. Fraud, Waste & Abuse of Opioids Stopping fraud, waste, and abuse (FWA) of opioids and other prescription medications will grow even more important for providers, payers and life sciences companies in 2017, SCIO predicts. Opioid abuse in America has reached epidemic proportions according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Drug overdoses led to more than 47,000 deaths in 2014, the latest year for which data is available, placing it well ahead of cars and guns. Greater national media coverage will be a driver of the increased interest, along with the need to reduce the skyrocketing cost of prescription medications. Here again analytics will play a key role, replacing manual inspection of spreadsheets and other reports as an important tool in stemming the proliferation of FWA perpetrated by consumers, providers and pharmacies. The ability of analytics to prioritize the most significant cases with the highest likelihood of FWA while eliminating false positives will help the healthcare industry, various watchdog groups and law enforcement crack down on abuses of the system as never before. Capturing attitudinal data at the macro level will help spot developing patterns and trends in opioid abuse as well as providing insights into education and treatment programs that will be more effective at reversing the growth. Big Data & Patient Personas Another trend SCIO expects to take hold in 2017 is the use of big data analytics for the development of patient personas and other tools that will help target care more precisely. The use of personas representative models of a segment of a population have become popular in other industries. For example, consumer packaged goods companies use them to determine their retail display mixes based on geography, demographic, socioeconomic and other data. The gathering of population health management data by healthcare organizations over the last few years has now reached a point where there is sufficient data to begin developing reliable personas for most of the population. This information will not only be valuable to providers as they consider treatment, but also to payers as they determine how best to communicate with members and encourage healthier lifestyles. In addition, life sciences organizations will be able to use these personas to demonstrate why providers should prescribe specific medications or medical devices based on the makeup of their patient panels and the proven efficacy of the products within those personas. By overlaying macro social trends on top of the personas, healthcare and life sciences organizations can develop an even more precise picture of who these populations are and what motivates them. Payer & Provider Collaboration One final macro trend SCIO is predicting for 2017 is a significant increase in collaboration between payers and providers. Although the overall future direction of healthcare is uncertain, the concepts of value-based care and shared risk/accountability have proven popular on both sides of the political aisle. As a result, there is a high likelihood that U.S. healthcare will continue down this path over the next few years, tying payers and providers to each other's success. Sharing data and analytics capabilities will help both sides become smarter while reducing the individual cost either must bear. Life sciences organizations may also look to increase collaboration with payers and providers, creating a powerful triumvirate that enables better decision-making as well as better care that leads to a healthier America. "Even in ordinary times there is some risk in making predictions," said Rose Higgins, president, North America of SCIO. "This year, with all the unknowns and mixed signals, it really becomes anyone's guess as to what will happen. Still, there are certain fundamentals that must takes place if we are to move ahead and continue to lead the world in the quality of care while bringing the cost of care under control. The capabilities and the desire already exist. It's now a matter of seeing the urgency and understanding the ways behavioral analytics and these other technologies can contribute to achieving industry as well as individual organizational goals." Tweet This: .@SCIOanalytics releases #healthcare industry #2017predictions http://bit.ly/2hg9bxI | #HealthcareAnalytics About SCIO Health Analytics Based in West Hartford, Connecticut, SCIO Health Analytics is a leading health analytics solution and services company. It serves healthcare organizations across the continuum including over 20 provider groups and 30 health plans representing more than 90 million members, four of the top six PBMs, and clients in 30 countries for 8 of the top 15 global pharmaceutical companies. SCIO provides predictive analytic solutions and services that transform data into actionable insights, helping healthcare organizations create the understanding that drives change through care, network and reimbursement optimization as well as commercial effectiveness. SCIO's insights as a service approach supports the shift to value-based care, solving healthcare problems simply and efficiently. Visit SCIO's new website for up to date information on their product and solution offerings: www.sciohealthanalytics.com Media Contact: SCIO Contact: Tim Boivin Michele Norton, M.S., R.N. Amendola Communications Senior Vice President Marketing (224) 209-6495 (727) 815-7710 tboivin@acmarketingpr.com mnorton@sciohealthanalytics.com To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/scio-health-analytics-releases-predictions-on-2017-healthcare-market-trends-300386116.html SOURCE SCIO Health Analytics US-led coalition airstrikes eliminate key ISIL leaders in Syria, Iraq U.S.-led coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria targeting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant have recently killed several prominent leaders of that organization, Air Force Col. John Dorrian, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve spokesman, said during a news briefing Jan. 4, 2017. Speaking to Pentagon reporters via teleconference from Baghdad, Dorrian said precision coalition airstrikes in Mosul and other areas around Iraq have continued attacking ISIL leaders who facilitate and command and control the terrorist network. Killing leaders degrades ISIL The latest examples are three ISIL facilitators and terrorist leaders from occupied cities, he said, confirming the deaths of Ahmad Abdullah Hamad al-Mahalawi, Abu Turq, and Falah al-Rashidi. Al-Rishidi, struck on Dec. 4, (2016) in Mosul, (Iraq), was an ISIL leader who was involved in ISIL's use of (vehicle bombs) in Mosul, Dorrian said. His removal further degrades ISIL's (vehicle bomb) threat, which has been the enemy's weapon of choice for attacking Iraqi security forces and civilians. Al-Mahalawi, Dorrian said, was struck Dec. 21, 2016, in Qaim, Iraq, and was a legacy al-Qaida in Iraq member serving as an ISIL leader in Qaim. His removal will disrupt ISIL's ability to conduct operations along the Euphrates River Valley, the colonel said. This is significant because as ISIL continues to lose population centers, they want to transition toward spoiler attacks in the outlying areas of Iraq and Syria. The loss of Mahalawi degrades ISIL's ability to make that transition. Abu Turq was killed Dec. 4, 2016, in Sharqat, Iraq. Dorrian described him as an ISIL financial facilitator in Qanfusah, Iraq -- about 50 miles southwest of Irbil -- who had connections to ISIL leaders and ensured money reached the terrorist group. He was killed by an airstrike while fighting from a rooftop position in Sharqat, where he and several other fighters were moving a heavy weapon to fire upon partner forces. His removal increases pressure on the ISIL financial network, which is already severely disrupted by several hundred strikes on oil infrastructure and bulk cache sites, he said. In Syria, more than 100 airstrikes have occurred in the Tabqa Dam area, about 25 miles west of Raqqa, killing many ISIL fighters, including Abu Jandal al-Kuwaiti, Dorrian said. He added, Kuwaiti, a prominent foreign fighter and leader, had been sent to improve ISIL's control in the region in the face of (the Syrian Democratic Forces) advance. ISIL unable to replace fighters, supplies Overall, Dorrian said, the coalition-backed battles to regain Raqqa, Syria and Mosul, Iraq from ISIL control have weakened the enemys ability to bring in replacement fighters and supplies. In Syria, (the SDF), led by their Syrian Arab Coalition, are continuing their advance to isolate Raqqa along two axes, supported by coalition forces, providing advice and assistance, and coalition air power delivering counter-ISIL strikes to Raqqa's north and west, the colonel said. Since this phase began Dec. 9, 2016, the SDF have liberated more than 500 square miles of Syrian land, home to tens of thousands of people who have been brutalized by ISIL's rule, Dorrian said. Coalition airstrikes removed a significant number of ISIL fighters, more than 70 vehicles, and 200 fortifications from the battlefield. This degrades ISIL's ability to maneuver and defend the occupied cities, he added. Dorrian noted, recovering the Tabqa Dam from ISIL will return Syria's largest dam to its people, helping them reclaim their homes and liberty. We're working with our SDF partners to ensure the dam is effectively and safely recovered, he said. ISIL has used the dam as a headquarters, a prison for high-profile hostages, and a training and indoctrination area for leaders since they seized control of it in 2013. Loss of this key terrain will damage the enemy's prospects and legitimacy as they continue to lose territory. Fight in Mosul stepped up Iraqi forces have made significant progress since beginning phase two of their operation to liberate Mosul on Dec. 29, 2016, Dorrian noted. In this phase, Iraqi forces synchronize simultaneous attacks from three axes into the city, with elements of the Iraqi Counterterrorism Service, the Iraqi Army and the Iraqi Federal Police conducting the operation, he explained. What we're finding is that the synchronized attacks present the enemy with more problems than they can solve, and the Iraqi security forces are making progress with the continued benefit of coalition strikes and advisers, Dorrian said. The axes are beginning to converge as the Iraqis make progress toward the Tigris (River). Representative Image Although the Railway Minister has announced that the country's first bullet train will run in 2026, but the National High Speed Railway Corporation Limited has informed RTI activist Anil Galgali that the timeline... [dropcap]A[/dropcap]ctually, I never watch TV reality shows like Bigg Boss much, because I get suffocated in wasting my time on such shows. This time, I was furious to know that saffron clad called Swami Omji Maharaj too is participating in the reality show. Previously, he was known for appearing in TV debates and in one of the news channel he lost his temper and hit Deepa Sharma, an astrologer on live show. The discussion was on Radhe Maa, and it got heated up and Om Ji lost his cool and attacked Sharma. He is being one of the most controversial contestants in Bigg Boss season 10, till date. A number of cases have been registered in various places against him, including some non-bailable offences. A few weeks ago, Swami made an emergency exit as he was summoned by the court. He was back on the show, since his contribution is par excellence towards the show to increase TRP. He had contested Delhi Assembly elections on Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha ticket but lost it to AAP candidate. Omji has been a part of Hindu Mahasabha and calls BJP his own party. The video features his interview showing Swamiji boasting of his political duties and opportunities. And he says that he is there to remove Congress and AAP from the scenario. Om Ji targets Kejriwal and alleges him to be a national traitor. He announces, with date, that he entered Kejriwals home and thrashed him. The man did not even spare the Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi and said that Nathuram Godse, who assassinated Gandhiji, was from his Hindu Mahasabha and they did it on purpose. The Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha was formed to protect the rights of the Hindu community in British India, after the formation of the All India Muslim League in 1906 and the British India governments creation of separate Muslim electorate under the Morley-Minto reforms of 1909. Although, it is an old Hindu nationalist political party, the Hindu Mahasabha has remained marginal in its influence on Indian politics, both pre and post independence. In the 1940s, the Muslim League stepped up its demand for a separate Muslim state called as Pakistan. Although, the Congress strongly opposed religious separatism, the Leagues great popularity amongst Muslims forced the Congress leaders to hold talks with the League president, Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Even though, Savarkar agreed with Jinnah and recognised Hindus and Muslims to be separate nations, he condemned the secular Gandhis overtures to hold talks with Jinnah and regain Muslim support for the Congress as appeasement. After communal violence claimed the lives of thousands in 1946, Savarkar claimed that Gandhis adherence to non-violence had left Hindus vulnerable to armed attacks by militant Muslims. When the partition of India was agreed upon in June 1947 after months of failed efforts at power-sharing between the Congress and the League, the Mahasabha condemned the Congress and Gandhi for agreeing to the partition plan. On January 30, 1948 Nathuram Godse shot Mahatma Gandhi three times and killed him in Delhi. Godse and his fellow conspirators Digambar Badge, Gopal Godse, Narayan Apte, Vishnu Karkare and Madanlal Pahwa were identified as prominent members of the Hindu Mahasabha. Along with them, police arrested Savarkar, who was suspected of being the mastermind behind the plot. While the trial resulted in convictions and judgements against the others, Savarkar was released on a technicality, even though there was evidence that the plotters met Savarkar only days before carrying out the murder and had received his blessings. Hindu Mahasabha members are worshipping Godses bust. They are fanatics. Earlier, they claimed to be with BJP but now they are randomly attacking Modi. There are many senseless, violent members like Om Ji in Hindu Mahasabha, who are spread across in different professions and most of them are claiming to be spiritual leaders. Unreasonable, crazy and fanatic saffron man Omji was on Bigg Boss in the race of gaining TRP but that did not happen. No right winger ever liked the idea of him being in reality show. Swami Omji is also popular by the name of S Sadachari Saibaba Omji. He is the alleged bicycle thief and could soon land up in jail for not appearing in the court. Away, from his spiritual avatar, this baba is also alleged an arms hoarder who has been slapped with charges under the Arms act, TADA and other laws. While he is doing his bit to create an impression on the reality show, Omji is now facing non- bailable warrants as he did not appear before a Delhi court in a theft case. The warrants were issued two days before the premiere of Bigg Boss 10 where commoners and celebrities are contesting. The court had fixed October 14 for hearing the arguments on the charge. The case dates back to November 2008. Pramodh Jha, the younger brother of Omji Maharaj, had accused him of breaking the lock of his bicycle shop in Lodhi Colony along with three men before stealing 11 bicycles, expensive spare parts, sale deed of the house and important documents. He has six brothers and four sisters. When he was in Bigg Boss house, Swami asked the team to bring him some flower garlands as he wanted to do a pooja in the house. The team agreed to his demands and arranged the garlands for him. And just before entering the house, he put the garlands on. He told the contestants that his fans gathered at the airport and welcomed him with flowers and garlands. Swami Omji is a fake baba and will go a long way in curing the people of the blind faith they put in such Dhongi. Interestingly, Swami Omji has warned Bigg Boss team that he should only be declared as the winner of the show or else his followers wont spare them, claims report in leading daily portal Business of Cinema. He didnt stop here. The troublemaker contestant has also said that he will bring his union on the grand finale to take strict action against them if they do not follow him. This was the second time Swami had left the house because of his theft case. The court, however, cancelled the non-bailable warrant against him, asking him to pay Rs. 30,000 for not complying with its order. The court has fixed February 4 as next date of hearing. This self-declared Swamiji says that he wants to devote his life to serving others both spiritually and politically. He has a PhD in astrology. He also claims of devoting his life to serving the country and its people. Whatever he is but he is a disgusting character. Colors and Big Boss should have some moral responsibilities and ethics inviting such people on show. (Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@afternoonvoice.com) Observing that when two adults consciously enter into a physical relationship they are fully aware of the consequences, the Bombay High Court has discharged a man accused of rape by his former partner after he refused to marry her. Justice Mridula Bhatkar while clearing the accused Kunal Mandaliya of the charge said he and the woman had been in a consensual relationship since 2010. Mandaliya had sought discharge on the ground that the sexual relation between him and the woman, a professor at a local college, was with mutual agreement. However, Justice Bhatkar didnt discharge Mandaliya from the charges of cheating, criminal intimidation and assault, for which he would have to stand trial. The woman had accused him of assaulting her on several occasions and taking away her money when they were in relationship. The duo had met in 2010 and started a relationship. In her complaint with police, the woman claimed Mandaliya proposed marriage in 2011 and thereafter forced her to have sexual relations with him a number of times. She lodged the complaint with police in 2011 accusing Mandaliya of rape and cheating after the latter refused to marry her. After perusing the case details, the HC observed that the woman, at the time of filing complaint, was 30-year-old and was around 26 when the first incident of sexual intercourse had taken place. Thus, she was aware of the consequences of keeping sexual relations with a man and she was also aware that there may be differences between two persons and they may not find each other compatible, the HC stated. The judge said, The woman is highly educated and therefore consent for physical relations cannot be said to have been obtained by fraud. It was a conscious decision to keep sexual relations with a man. Having such a relationship is a matter of choice of both the adult persons. Fifty pole dancers clad in black bikinis gave one Taiwan politician a raucous final send-off in an eyebrow-raising funeral parade that jammed traffic and drew crowds of onlookers. It was not a quiet, dignified exit for local councillor Tung Hsiang, whose funeral cortege saw the women dancing and singing on top of multi-coloured jeeps as a band played and performers dressed as deities joined in. Footage of the funeral in the southern Taiwanese city of Chiayi on Tuesday showed the vibrant procession of 200 vehicles stretching for several kilometres. Onlookers snapped photos and some motorcyclists even chased after the cortege to watch the pole dancers, said local CTS news channel. Tung, who died of an illness in December at 76 years old, was a well-known figure in Chiayi where he was active in the local political scene for decades in various posts. Tungs family said he liked fun and socialising so they wanted to see him off in a flamboyant, memorable way. He told us he wanted this through a dream two days before the funeral, his brother Tung Mao-hsiung told CTS. While it may contrast with some traditional notions of funeral etiquette, it is not uncommon for Taiwanese send-offs to be risque affairs. Showgirls are not only hired to perform pole dancing but even go as far as striptease at religious festivals and funerals on the island, where folk religion is a unique mixture of the spiritual and the earthly. The Bombay High Court asked the Maharashtra government to explain why was it prohibiting the villagers living near the hill stations of Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani from running bed & breakfast (B&B) units. A division bench of Justices NH Patil and MS Karnik posed the question to the government on a writ petition filed by more than 150 villagers. The petition claimed that with a recent amendment in the development plan, those living in Gaothan areas (outside the municipal limits of the two hill towns) can no longer participate in the B&B scheme approved by the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC). Also, those living within the city limits could now offer a maximum of two rooms in their houses or bungalows on rent, it said, adding that earlier, a house owner could offer as many as five rooms to the tourists. The petitioners said they have been running MTDC-approved B&B units for 16 years. Why is the state depriving the poor of their source of livelihood? Are only the rich supposed to open and enjoy hotels?, the judges asked while seeking an affidavit from the state justifying the new rules and posted the matter on February 7 for the next hearing. Ben Swann: After all, if government agencies put out information to the public for the sake of altering a point of view , isnt that the very definition of propaganda? In fact that definition is this: information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, a group, a movement, an institution, nation etc. It was, but not anymore. It was illegal for over sixty years for our government to propagandize the public, to protect the public from our own government. Right now, two out of every three Americans, in the latest polls, say they have little to no trust in mainstream American media. Because two-thirds of Americans already believe that they are not getting the truth, that number will likely only get worse with the legalized American government propaganda. So what is the solution here? How about media just tells the truth? Just reports facts? Does not act as an arm for political parties or for government institutions. If we want to combat propaganda, both foreign and domestic, then shouldnt we just inform the public? Rather than trying to control their views? As expected, Ben Swann again informs us about government malfeasance at the highest levels. As far as most of us in the autism community are concerned, it's a well-known fact: The government and health care officials, along with their faithful minions in the media, have been covering up the truth about vaccine side effects and autism for years. "How about the media just tells the truth?" I can't actually imagine that happening. After decades of refusing to investigate the vaccine controversy openly and honestly from both sides, it's way too late for news outlets to suddenly ethically cover this. They've said "studies show no link" for too many years to now report on the bias and conflicts involved in that research It may have been illegal, but since endless pharmaceutical commercials pay for the news we see, it's always been done at the behest of the folks funding the coverage. Can anyone imagine NBC, CNN or anyone else covering the corruption at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention? What intrigues me about all this is the use of the term "propaganda" or as I like to call what the media gives us, SPIN, which Webster's Dictionary defines as "a special point of view, emphasis, or interpretation presented for the purpose of influencing opinion." So my suggestion is: STOP CALLING IT "NEWS." News sounds like honest, legitimate, unbiased reporting. Since most of the American people (two-thirds as reported by CBS 46) don't believe what the networks report, let's just admit it's all carefully controlled disinformation. My suggestions--LET'S REMOVE THE WORD "NEWS." Fox Spin NBC Nightly Propaganda BBC Disinformation CBS Hogwash CNN Indoctrination ABC Hype This is really what the public is getting from these sources, and they know it all too well. Let's be honest and call it what it is! Ben Swann has been featured on Age of Autism. See: Nov 2, 2015, Reality Check CDC Scientist Admits Data of Vaccines and Autism Was Trashed Nov 30 2015, Ben Swann on Vaccine Safety and the Release of the #CDCwhistleblower Documents Jan 20, 2016, Ben Swann To Air CDC Vaccine Whistleblower Documents on 1/26 Jan 26, 2016, Truth in Media: CDC, Vaccines and Autism WASHINGTON, Jan. 4, 2017 American Petroleum Institute CEO Jack Gerard sees 2017 as a big moment in the life of the energy industry, and he hopes he has allies in the incoming administration. Speaking at APIs annual state of American energy event in Washington, Gerard said the industry is poised to have a banner 2017, but only if Congress and the administration permit it. For the first time in our lifetime, we can now say that North America has the potential to become a net energy exporter, Gerard said in his speech. Thats a revolutionary change, a significant shift from where we were just a few short years ago. Gerard said for that to happen, the energy industry oil and gas production in particular will need help in the form of regulatory relief. He said there have been 145 regulations and other executive actions the industry has been subjected to in the last few years, but the new year and a new Congress provide an opportunity to change the national conversation. We need to look at the regulatory regimes be it the Endangered Species Act or (the National Environmental Policy Act), whatever it might be to determine what needs to be done to regulate smartly and with common sense, but yet achieve our potential as a world energy superpower, Gerard told reporters after his speech. One thing API will continue to fight into the future is the Renewable Fuel Standard, a policy requiring the increased use of ethanol and other renewable fuels in the American fuel supply. API and other oil and gas groups have been opposed to increases in RFS requirements, proposing instead to cap renewable fuel blending requirements at 9.7 percent of gasoline demand. At some point, its got to be changed, Gerard said of the RFS. API has long supported repeal or significant reform of the program, and Gerard said those efforts will not wane in 2017 and beyond. Specifically, Gerard said he expected to see a bill similar to the Food and Fuel Consumer Protection Act of 2016 (H.R. 5180) reintroduced in the new Congress. The bill which would have capped blending levels at 9.7 percent of gasoline demand was introduced in May of last year, but never saw any action after it faced stiff opposition from biofuels groups. Growth Energy co-chair Tom Buis called it incredibly flawed and the Renewable Fuels Association called the 9.7 percent cap a rather odd and precise number without any logic, other than its the percentage the oil companies want. If API and other RFS adversaries hope to see programmatic changes, they could face opposition in the Trump administration. President-elect Donald Trump was supportive of the RFS on the campaign trail, and he has told supporters that his EPA pick Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt will follow suit. Pruitt has been a vocal critic of the RFS and other EPA efforts. Like what you see here? Agri-Pulse subscribers get our Daily Harvest email and Daybreak audio Monday through Friday mornings, a 16-page newsletter on Wednesdays, and access to premium content on our ag and rural policy website. Sign up for your four-week free trial Agri-Pulse subscription. Senate Agriculture Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, and a group of GOP senators representing biofuel-producing states will meet with Pruitt on Thursday to among other things press him on RFS issues. The other senators include Iowas Joni Ernst and Charles Grassley, who will host the meeting in his office; Mike Rounds and John Thune of South Dakota; Deb Fischer of Nebraska; and Roy Blunt of Missouri. We have assurances from the administration that theyre committed to the RFS, Thune told reporters on Wednesday. Im pretty confident that were OK there, but its something well be following. Pruitt also picked up a vote of confidence from the American Farm Bureau Federation, who offered him their endorsement in a letter to Capitol Hill officials on Wednesday. (Philip Brasher contributed to this story) #30 WASHINGTON, Jan. 5, 2017 - The Comprehensive Plan Update to guide some $3 billion in investments to improve the resources and economies of the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill was recently finalized. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, in his role as chair of the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council, released the updated plan in late December. It has been unanimously adopted by the five Gulf States (Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas), the Departments of Agriculture, Army, Commerce and Interior, as well as the Coast Guard and the EPA. The Deepwater Horizon spill is considered the largest marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry. Following the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig on April 20, 2010, a sea-floor oil gusher flowed for 87 days, until it was finally capped on July 15, 2010. The revised plan commits to working with the public to devote so-called RESTORE funds to large-scale ecosystem restoration and establishes a 10-year funding strategy. Enacted in 2012, the Resources and Ecosystems Sustainability, Tourist Opportunities and Revived Economies of the Gulf Coast States Act (RESTORE Act) dedicates 80 percent of all administrative and civil penalties related to the spill to a Gulf Coast Restoration Trust Fund. It also outlines how the funds can be used to restore and protect the natural resources, ecosystems, fisheries, marine and wildlife habitats, beaches, coastal wetlands and economy of the Gulf Coast region. The Comprehensive Plan Update builds on progress the Restoration Council has made since its establishment, including prioritizing over $183 million in restoration investments announced in December 2015. With resolution of the civil claims from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the council says it was able to revise its Initial Comprehensive Plan to reflect lessons learned and the timing and amount of restoration funding. The council incorporated modifications to the update based on public input and says the updated plan refines the process for making decisions based on public engagement and the best available science. Going forward, the council plans to focus on collaboration among its members and with other partners to fully leverage available funds and further advance comprehensive Gulf restoration. In addition, the council says it will support ecosystem restoration that builds local workforce capacity. The updated plan builds the foundation for state and federal partners to fulfill their commitments to the 22 million Americans who live in Gulf coastal counties and parishes to revitalize their economies and the Gulf ecosystem they depend upon, Vilsack says. The Comprehensive Plan Update reflects unprecedented collaboration between federal, state, tribal and local partners and creates the framework for ongoing coordination, engagement and transparency as we continue to invest in strategies to restore this vital region. #30 This North Augusta acreage, near I-20 Exit 5 and across from SRP Federal Credit Unions administrative campus, has been identified as the home of Scuttles Island water park, whose future rests in doubt as investors face an involuntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy claim. There were no winners last week with the arrest of South Carolina Rep. Chris Corley on felon Assyrian Mother and Son Recount Horror of Life Under ISIS A Christian mother and son in Iraq have told their story of survival after two years of terror living under Daesh (ISIS). In an interview with Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, widow Jandark Behnam Mansour Nassi, 55, and her son, 16-year-old Ismail, describe their experiences at the hands of Daesh extremists. Ismail, who the militants jailed, recounts seeing gun-wielding Jihadi children kill orange-clad Daesh prisoners and how he witnessed a woman bound hand and foot being stoned to death. The teenager goes on to describe how Daesh threatened to kill him if he refused to convert to Islam. He recalls the pain of later converting to Islam against his will and how he went to a Daesh "correctional camp" where the Jihadi militants tried to force him to marry in spite of him being only 15 at the time. When Daesh found the cross he was wearing round his neck, they beat him and he was hit again when he was unable to answer questions while being forced to study the Qur'an. Ismail's mother was "stung with long needles" for her failure to study the Islamic sacred text. The climax of their account comes after the two were abandoned by Daesh forces. They tried to get away but were caught again. When they made a second bid for freedom, they came under Daesh sniper fire. They took cover in a house and when they appeared waving a white flag they were rescued by forces fighting Daesh. Two months later, mother and son are in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdish Autonomous Region, in northern Iraq, where Aid to the Church in Need is providing pastoral and emergency aid. It is in Erbil that this ACN interview took place. The account begins with the Daesh invasion of their home village of Bartella, in the Nineveh Plains in August 2014: "My mother and I were at home in Bartella, one of the Christian villages in the Nineveh Plains," says Ismail. "When we woke up one August morning, the city had been taken by Daesh (ISIS). We tried to get away, but we were robbed by the Jihadists, captured and taken to Mosul." "I was very afraid," says his mother, Jandark, a widow. "Our names were written down, and we had no idea where we were and what would happen to us. We were completely shut off from the outside world. Shortly after, we received permission to return to Bartella, but at a check point we had to convert to Islam and when we refused, they hit us. My son was put in prison. He was only 14 years old." "I was put in the prison of Bartella," confirms Ismail. "One day a Shi'a [Muslim] was shot right in front of me. The terrorists told me: 'If you do not convert to Islam, we will shoot you as well'. That is when I converted to Islam. From that time on, we concealed that we were Christians." Ismail was released and, with his mother, dragged from pillar to post: from Bartella, to many neighbourhoods in Mosul, and to the small village Bazwaya, very close to Mosul. "We received a paper from Daesh stating that we were Muslims," continues Ismail. "That way, I could go on the street in Mosul, but on the streets, you could not be sure of your life. Once, I was beaten up because my trousers were too long. Once, when I was going to the mosque with the Jihadists early in the morning, our path was blocked. Suddenly we were passed by men in orange suits, held at gunpoint by a group of Daesh children. The children executed them with pleasure. "Another time I ran into a big crowd on the street. There was a woman; her hands and feet were tied. The Daesh terrorists drew a circle around her. If she got out of the circle, she would live, but that was impossible because she was tied. While her relatives were crying and begging for a pardon, the Jihadists threw stones at her until she died. "Daesh made me go to a correctional camp. I had to grow out my hair and grow my beard. My mother got a black, concealing robe, but was not allowed to go on the streets. Daesh warriors wanted me to marry, so I would be one of them. I objected, stating that I was too young: 15 years. They were not impressed, because even boys of thirteen were married. The terrorists wanted me to join them. They were convinced: 'Our state will survive everything.'" "My son was forced by Daesh to practise Islam and I was tortured for not knowing anything about Islam and the Qur'an," says his mother, Jandark. "Yes, I am embarrassed for having had to profess Islam," affirms Ismail. "Daesh warriors made me pray," says Ismail. "I received a prayer rug on which I could call upon Allah. Men were obligated to pray in the mosque on Friday. Anyone who would walk on the streets during the Friday prayer would be beaten. In the mosque, we were told that Assyrians were evil and that Christians did not believe in the right way. My mother should have to pray at home but she did not pray to Allah. "Then the Daesh warriors found my necklace with a cross, a sign that I am a Christian. The Jihadists beat me and I had to study the Qur'an for a month. I was hit whenever I could not answer their questions the way they wanted me to, and my mother was stung with long needles because she had not studied anything from the Qur'an. "One day we heard that Qaraqosh -- another Christian village in the Nineveh plain occupied by Daesh -- had been freed, and that the liberation troops had chased the Jihadists out of Bartella. Soon after that, the air attacks on Mosul started, and many people fled. Daesh also fled and, in the hurry, even left some weapons. However, they did take people with them on their way through Mosul, including my mother and me. For three days, we were under the control of a Jihadist. "When the terrorists grew too busy with the battle, they abandoned us. Again, we heard about the advancing army. We took a taxi to the front, heading towards our freedom, but Jihadists blocked us. Later, we tried to escape again. On our way, we ended up at the front: Daesh snipers tried to shoot us. We ran for cover into a house. After hours of fighting, my mother and I were able to leave the house, waving a white flag. Soldiers of the Iraqi liberation army welcomed us. We were free." Aid to the Church in Need has supported the Christian refugees in Erbil and Baghdad with more than January 4, 2017 BAGHDAD On Dec. 20, security authorities in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, started removing concrete barriers and checkpoints that have been deployed across main and secondary streets since the launch of the law enforcement plan in 2006. This step seemed like a new security plan and it raised several questions and concerns, especially since it coincided with the recent explosions that hit various Baghdad neighborhoods and the Jan. 2 suicide attack in Sadr City in east Baghdad, which killed and wounded dozens of people. According to a statement by Maj. Gen. Jalil al-Rubaie, the commander of Baghdad Operations, there is an integrated plan to lift all checkpoints in the capital, and the first stage was implemented Dec. 20 in Rusafa. Rubaie said, More than 25 checkpoints and 85 surveillance posts were removed from Rusafa in Baghdad, which will significantly ease traffic jams and prevent bottlenecks, provided that the relevant stages are implemented respectively. But the most prominent concerns remain the timing of this step, its relation to previous security plans, such as Saqr Baghdad and Baghdad Wall, and the negative impact of these measures on security in the capitals neighborhoods. Saad al-Matlabi, a member of the security committee in the Baghdad Provincial Council, told Al-Monitor, We know nothing about Saqr Baghdad; it seems it was a ruse or a trick to steal people's money. Today there is no such thing as Saqr Baghdad. Saqr Baghdad is a plan where the Baghdad operations command would require citizens to buy stickers and affix them to their vehicles windshields to facilitate surveillance and control; the project is not yet completed. Matlabi added, Work is underway to implement the Baghdad Wall plan, but things are moving slowly. This project aims to establish an electronic surveillance wall [around the capital] and set some concrete barriers in rugged areas. Matlabi further noted, The major achievements by the intelligence services prompted the authorities to lift checkpoints that became useless and caused traffic jams, not to mention the barriers that divided neighborhoods on a sectarian basis. He pointed out that the new plan aims to lift all concrete barriers and checkpoints within weeks. Matlabi believes the explosions are not linked to the removal of checkpoints, which failed to prevent car bombs in recent years. Yet intelligence information allowed us to identify nests of terrorist gangs, he said. According to Matlabi, the Baghdad Operations Room did not know about the surveillance system that Baghdad Gov. Ali al-Tamimi inaugurated. Matlabi added that it is the governors own activity that no one learned about, and it has nothing to do with the other security projects in place. Tamimi, who may be dismissed by the Baghdad Provincial Council, inaugurated Dec. 17 what he described as the biggest modern security surveillance camera project in the capital. Tamimi said in a statement, The high-end modern security surveillance camera system is the largest security surveillance project in the province of Baghdad. It will help provide security services with important and accurate information in order for them to perform their duty in the face of terrorist groups and criminal gangs that are committing kidnappings, murders, thefts and robberies. Tamimi will be questioned about this project in addition to his previous project, Baghdad Falcon. This reflects the large amount of security decisions and lack of coordination between security and administrative authorities in the absence of security ministers. The interior minister resigned in July and the defense minister was dismissed in August. Despite the new security measures, explosions resumed in early December in different neighborhoods of the capital. On Dec. 20, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi warned that there is information that the Karrada district will be targeted again. He said in a press conference, We warn the enemy against trying to carry out bombings similar to those targeting Karrada district after the liberation of Fallujah. He called for vigilance and caution and stressed the need for a collective solidarity in the face of any security breach, and for not portraying it as a general collapse. Fears of removing checkpoints and barriers were coupled with calls for maintaining surveillance checkpoints (security checkpoints that do not search vehicles, but monitor them only), according to Majed al-Gharawi, a member of the parliamentary Defense and Security Committee. Gharawi told Al-Monitor, Removing checkpoints and cement barriers and opening the streets is an essential public demand. But we call for maintaining the surveillance checkpoints to help the intelligence efforts. He added, The checkpoints are burdening citizens and do not offer real benefits. They only cause traffic and create complaints and anger among citizens. Security control in Baghdad is almost impossible amid the current political conflict, the multiple security institutions that lack necessary equipment, the availability of weapons to all citizens and their use in tribal and political conflicts, not to mention the easy targeting of innocent people. Baghdad and some nearby provinces will likely see repeated explosions in the coming stage in response to the losses that the Islamic State (IS) is bearing in the ongoing battle to recapture Mosul. Security expert Hashem al-Hashimi told Al-Monitor, IS hotbeds in Baghdad and south Iraq will carry out dirty operations that will shake up society to retaliate for their big losses in Mosul. Finally, IS sleeper cells in Baghdad will remain a serious threat to the capital's security. As they are well-prepared and well-organized, confronting them is a tough task for the security forces in charge of protecting the city. January 4, 2017 Speculation over whether incumbent Hassan Rouhani will be barred from running for a second term in May is rising as Iran's upcoming presidential election edge closer. On Jan. 4, Abbas-Ali Kadokhodai, the spokesperson for the conservative-dominated Guardian Council that is tasked with vetting candidates, told the hard-line Jam news site, "There is no guarantee that a president will be approved [by the Guardian Council to run] for a second term." He added, "Legally, the Guardian Council has studied the qualifications of all incumbent presidents in all periods accurately. Now, in the past few terms, the outcome [of studying the qualification of incumbent presidents] has been positive. This has been the legal and usual procedure of the Guardian Council and will always be carried out." Of note, a sitting president wishing to pursue a bid for re-election has so far not been disqualified, though former Presidents Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami were disqualified by the Guardian Council from running respectively in the 2013 and 2001 presidential elections. However, Khatami who was first elected in 1997 was later cleared to run following Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameneis order for the Guardian Council's decision to be overruled. On Jan. 3, in response to a question about the possible disqualification of Rouhani in the upcoming presidential election, government spokesperson Mohammad-Bagher Nobakht emphatically denied such rumors. "The disqualification [of Rouhani by the Guardian Council] is void and wish-wash talk, and it is not necessary to occupy people's minds [by raising this rumor]," Nobakht said. Sadegh Zibakalam, an outspoken professor at the University of Tehran, told Aftab newspaper Jan. 4, "It is natural for the Principlists to harbor the desire to [see] Hassan Rouhani disqualified, just like Mr. Hashemi [Rafsanjani]." He said, "When Hashemi was disqualified in 2013, they [the Guardian Council] stated that 'some considerations' and 'some discretions' were the reason for his disqualification. They can also use [the same pretexts] about Rouhani." Zibakalam continued, "Considering the disqualification of Rouhani as normal and accepting it is not the right approach, and we shouldnt discuss an alternative to Rouhani due to the prediction and the possibility of [the issue of his disqualification], because this would mean giving complete authority and legitimacy to the wishes of some Principlists." Moreover, Abdollah Ramezanzadeh, who was government spokesman when the Reformist Khatami was president, wrote in Aftab daily Jan. 4, "Talk of the issue of disqualifying Mr. Rouhani indicates that in this political current [the Principlist camp], no figure has been found for [successfully] competing with Mr. Rouhani. Since there is no competitor, they have resorted to such low-level rumors. Is it possible to disqualify the legal president of a country, while during the qualification process the person is still the head of the executive body of the country?" Meanwhile, on Jan. 3, Mohammad-Reza Bahonar, a leading conservative figure who is rumored to be a presidential candidate, said, "During the past few months, there have been remarks about the disqualification of the president, but this is just for showing that the 11th [incumbent] government is victimized." Furthermore, on Aug. 31, Gholam-Reza Mesbahi Moghaddam, the spokesman for the conservative Combatant Clergy Society, rejected the possibility of the barring of Rouhani's bid for re-election, saying, "There is no serious sign of the disqualification of Rouhani in the 2017 presidential elections." However, Ali Shakouri Raad, the secretary of the Reformist Union of Islamic Iran People Party, has argued that the disqualification of Rouhani by the Guardian Council is possible, but that the supreme leader will not allow such a move to go through. Raad said, "Those who braced themselves [for the consequences of the 2013 disqualifications of the election bids] of Mr. Hashemi [Rafsanjani] and Hassan Khomeini arent afraid [to disqualify Rouhani too]. But I think under such circumstances, the [supreme] leader will definitely intervene in favor of the president [Rouhani]." Of note, against all predictions and expectations, Seyyed Hassan Khomeini, the grandson of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, was disqualified from running in the February 2016 elections for the Assembly of Experts. January 5, 2017 TEHRAN, Iran US President-elect Donald Trumps foreign policy approach remains a big question mark. With his nomination of a secretary of state, many were hoping that wild speculation would subside, but it is still difficult to form a clear picture of what US diplomacy will look like in the Trump era. Many in the Middle East are especially curious about what lies ahead. Rex Tillerson, the CEO of ExxonMobil and Trumps nominee for secretary of state, has been described in the US media as a friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Tillerson was also the longtime director of a US-Russian oil firm based in the Bahamas, prompting speculation that his appointment will be of benefit to Moscow. Some have even gone so far as to speculate that his presence at the State Department will mean a stronger Putin. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has called the relationship between Tillerson and Putin a matter of concern. Even if Tillerson and Putin do enjoy close ties, however, their relationship alone will not resolve the strategic differences between Washington and Moscow. Tillersons nomination could be good news for Iran. This especially rings true when one considers the other mulled, but rejected, secretary of state nominees: former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who lobbied to remove the Mujahadeen-e Khalq from the US terror list and accepted money from the group, and former US ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, who in a March 2015 New York Times op-ed called for bombing Iran as the best way to stop its nuclear program. Tillerson has said fairly little about Iran. In a March interview with CNBC, he cautiously pointed out that the United States' European competitors were profiting from Irans abundant natural resources while US firms were barred from doing so due to sanctions. Of course, he also pointed to the potential challenges and difficulties of an American presence in the Iranian energy sector. Yet Tillerson cannot be written off as simply bad for Iran given Tehrans close ties with Moscow and Tillerson's to Putin. At the same time, it would be foolish to consider the potential absence of a negative as necessarily constituting a positive when it comes to Tillerson's approach to Iran. Despite increasing Russian-Iranian collaboration in the region, Iranians do not have a very positive image of Russia. As Ali Bigdeli, a political science professor in Tehran, told Entekhab on Dec. 17, The Russians have always shown that they are not to be trusted too much, and they are willing to sacrifice those close to them in order to achieve their goals. This is a long-standing perception among Irans political elite that can perhaps be traced as far back as the Russo-Persian wars under the Qajar Dynasty (1785-1925), which saw Iran ceding a significant amount of territory under forced peace treaties. An Iranian official who worked at Irans United Nations mission in New York in 2006, when the Security Council adopted Resolution 1696 its first nuclear-related resolution against Iran told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, At that time, Russia had promised the Iranian government that it would veto any sanctions resolution against Iran at the UN, even though we in New York had warned Tehran that Moscow would not do this. But [President] Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was counting on Russias promise. Russia's long-stalled delivery of an S-300 air defense system to Iran, which Moscow committed to delivering in an $800 million deal in 2007, is another example of this dynamic. The system was finally delivered in April 2016, after a nine-year delay and after Iran filed a complaint against Russia with the International Court of Arbitration. The construction of the Bushehr nuclear power plant, which Russia agreed to build in the early 1990s but dragged out for almost two decades, is another instance that fueled pessimism about Moscow in Iran. The crisis in Syria, however, has brought the two nations closer. Putins visit to Tehran on Dec. 23, 2015, and his meeting with Irans supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, are viewed as a watershed in the bilateral relationship. It should further be noted that Russo-Iranian cooperation reached a climax during the war in Syria, with Iran allowing Russia the use of one of its air bases in August, a move that sparked much criticism in Tehran. Meanwhile, Russia hopes to play a prominent role in Irans economy following the implementation on Jan. 16, 2016, of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). In fact, in November, Levan Jagarian, Russias ambassador to Tehran, complained about Iran pursuing aircraft deals with Airbus and Boeing instead of approaching Russian companies. Should Iran be concerned about Russias seemingly deceptive policies if Tillerson is confirmed? Should Tehran worry about being dismissed by Moscow if that is the cost Russia is willing to pay to gain more leverage in Eastern Europe courtesy of Washington? Prominent Iranian economist and political analyst Saeed Laylaz, referring to Russian double-dealing, told Al-Monitor, It is natural for the Russians to do this, and we should not expect otherwise. But the other issue, which in my view is important, is the declining strategic value of the Middle East for the United States and the world. Oil is no longer a strategic commodity, and Trumps approach, although unpredictable, has shown that the economy is a priority for him, and until today he has made the least remarks about Iran or the JCPOA." He continued, "Therefore, I think all these factors together will cause regional players to come together. For me, the [Nov. 30 output ceiling] agreement in OPEC and the agreement over [evacuating eastern] Aleppo are two key indicators of this. Regional players will realize that they need not look outside [the region] for their security and that they can achieve regional balance through cooperation. Does Iran have a solution for Russia's potentially dumping it? A senior Iranian diplomat told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, This discussion is wrong from the outset, because we are an independent player, and after the Syria crisis began, it was the Russians who pursued us and not the other way around. When the Arab Spring started, Russia believed that the future of Syria would be like Egypt's and Libya's, while we believed that the protests in Syria had an external source, and because of this, we helped [Syrian President] Bashar al-Assad. Ultimately, Russia realized that it should have a more serious presence in this conflict. The diplomat added, We have so far not had a strategic alliance with Russia and therefore no reason to be concerned about Moscows future actions or its possible collusion with the United States. Iran and Russia have many common interests with regard to Syria and nothing else should be thought of these relations. This is not to mention that international relations are defined by pursuit of national interests and not sportsmanship, camaraderie and wisdom. January 4, 2017 The funeral of Lian Zaher Nasser was held in the Arab-Israeli town of Tira on Jan. 3. Nasser, 19, was killed in Istanbuls Reina nightclub when a gunman opened fire on New Years Eve revelers, killing 39 and wounding dozens of others. Thousands attended the funeral, among them hundreds of young Arab-Israeli women who came to pay their last respects to Nasser but also in defiance of those who cast aspersions on Nassers moral character, claiming her death was divine retribution for celebrating a Christian holiday in mixed company with men at an amoral alcohol-soaked affair. Such claims were first expressed in mosques and then erupted onto social media sites, where stormy arguments developed. Moderate posters wondered what a group of Muslim girls was doing in an Istanbul nightclub, and some went so far as to compare the club to a brothel. Her relatives said Nasser was murdered twice: once by an Islamic State (IS) terrorist and a second time by sympathizers of the movement within the Arab-Israeli community. At the end of the funeral procession, her father, Zaher Nasser, reacted to those seeking to sully his daughters name. My daughter was murdered through no fault of her own. All she wanted was to enjoy herself, and thats not forbidden. The fact that shes a Muslim does not prevent her from having a good time, and Islam does not call for murder and such violence, he said. During the funeral procession, Arab Knesset member Ahmad Tibi said angrily, We are sad and pained but also angered by the crimes. People who cannot find a kind word should just keep silent and be ashamed of themselves. The chairman of the Joint List, Knesset member Ayman Odeh, wrote on Facebook that he was deeply shocked that instead of mourning the murder of a young woman in a terror attack carried out by Muslim fanatics, Arab society was concerning itself with the lifestyle of young women unwilling to accept the religious Muslim way of life preached by IS. Im surprised to see reactions that are light years away from the spirit of our people, reactions of primitive derision and hatred fostered by the murderous ideology of the Islamic State, he wrote. Odehs fellow Knesset members called for the eradication of extremist Islamist elements that have infiltrated Arab society. The debate generated by Nassers choice to spend New Years Eve partying at an Istanbul club falls on a fault line within Arab society in Israel a struggle between religious Muslims and Muslims who do not adhere to a religious way of life. (They tend not to use the term secular.) This is largely an intergenerational clash between parents and grandparents and young Arabs born into a traditional, religious and conservative society but heavily influenced by secular Israeli environment. And so, these tensions and confrontations do not just pit religious and nonreligious Muslims against each other, but also the older generation against the younger. These young people are defining a new, unique identity: a minority group intent on throwing off the shackles and isolationism of their society and leading an independent lifestyle. The strict Muslim rules of conduct and morality contrast starkly with those of the pluralistic and individualistic Israeli society in which they live, leading them to see their extended families, the atmosphere in their village or neighborhood and Arab society in general as oppressive. One of the manifestations of this mindset is a strong desire to attend university, which they view as the door to their integration into Israeli society and out of the so-called Arab ghettos. For most, getting a higher education and acquiring a profession is an opportunity to extricate themselves from the stifling embrace of their traditional society and to achieve a modern, independent way of life. Anan Mansour, a 23-year-old from the Arab village of Taibe, told Al-Monitor that he and his friends were not surprised by the disturbing and outrageous comments after Nassers murder. They are used to criticism over their lifestyle, which is different from that of other Arab-Israelis, he said. I know this from home already, and Im a man. Im not a woman whose parents guard her and seek a match for her wedding. Lian was a dental assistant who went out to party with her friends, one of them a dentist herself. All of them are young, educated Arab women who have been exposed to Israeli society. We live in an open society with aspirations and desires that are very different from the desires and dreams of our fathers and grandfathers. This manifests itself in a contemporary worldview but mainly in concern over the shape of our future. Should we, too, sit home and cry over our fate? Mansour added that he has seen and heard the incitement against Nasser, not just from older people but also from young Arab-Israelis who do not lead a religious or conservative way of life and yet cannot accept young Arab women who refuse to behave according to the moral code instilled in them at home. The new film by Arab director Maysaloun Hamoud, a resident of the mixed Jewish-Arab city of Tel Aviv-Jaffa, offers a fascinating glimpse of the currents shaking up Arab society. Not Here, Not There, which hit Israeli movie screens Dec. 30, revolves around three young Arab women who rent an apartment in the center of Tel Aviv, but are forced to conceal their liberal lifestyle from their families. This feature film's characters are fictional, but the plot is based on the real lives of Arab-Israelis. For most Israeli viewers, it will be their first glimpse of the lives led by young Muslim men and women seeking a free, independent way of life, one in which the Israeli-Palestinian conflict does not take center stage. January 3, 2017 DIYARBAKIR, Turkey The Yazidi refugees who fled massacres at the hands of the Islamic State in Iraq are now being forced to vacate their camp in Turkey in the dead of winter, on short notice. There was a lot of activity Dec. 30 at the entrance of the Fidanlik refugee camp on the Diyarbakir-Mardin highway. A group of journalists wanted to visit the camp that houses Yazidis, but guards at the gate said visits were prohibited without permission from the governor. Instead of the usual Diyarbakir municipality staff guarding the gate, Al-Monitor saw three uniformed officials of the Disaster and Emergency Affairs Department (AFAD). Al-Monitor encountered at the entrance a Yazidi man, who said, We are told to evacuate the camp, before being dragged back into the camp by officials. The camp, which had been managed by the Yenisehir municipality of Diyarbakir, has fallen victim to political maneuvering because its just-replaced mayor was from the Kurdish Democratic Regions Party (DBP). The government has been removing elected DBP mayors and replacing them with government-assigned trustees. In Yenisehir, the local district governor was also appointed as the trustee mayor. That move changed the fate of Yazidis in the Fidanlik camp. The new city administration decided to transfer the Yazidis to other camps run by AFAD. Since then, conditions have worsened in Fidanlik camp. When camp residents were informed of the decision in early December, they sent representatives to check out other camps. Even though conditions at those locations are better than the Yazidis' current, deteriorating conditions, many residents do not want to leave the place they have called home for more than two years. Although journalists were not allowed in the camp, Al-Monitor was able to talk with Yazidis who were going out to shop. Halef Smoki, who has lived in the Diyarbakir camp for more than two years with his five-member family, told Al-Monitor the situation there has become miserable since the evacuation order was given. They were giving us food and looked after us. Now we are told to leave. They tell us, 'No more meals or water, and soon we will cut your electricity.' Where are we supposed to go with children in the middle of winter? We no longer have a doctor because they took him away. We are left with nothing. We are under government order. We will do what they say. If we can stay, we will." Kasim Ismail, who was with Smoki waiting for transport to the city, was also upset. He told Al-Monitor, We are told to evacuate the camp. We dont know what to do. Where are we supposed to go? We want to stay here. We cant go back to our homes in Shengal [Sinjar, Iraq] that now lie in rubble. They have to do something for us. Either send us to another country or do something for us here. Nobody is doing anything for us. I dont know about other camps, but we are used to life here. I walked around the perimeter of the camp, which is encircled by barbed wire, and called out to two men inside. Ilyas Ismail Serkani spoke from behind the wire about his unhappy situation, saying, They told us they are going to cut off our bread, water and electricity. They tell us to get out of here and go to Midyat or Sanliurfa. We want to stay here and they wont let us. Yazidi parliamentarian Feleknas Uca of the pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) raised the issue in parliament in late December and presented questions for the prime minister to answer later. Some of her questions included: Why is the camp, which houses 1,029 Yazidis, being closed? Where will they go? Will new camps be built for Yazidis, or will they be sharing camps with Syrian refugees? What is the legal justification for this decision? She also bluntly asked, "What is the purpose of the Yazidis who have survived for the past 2 years with the help of the Yenisehir municipality, the people of Diyarbakir and the international civil society after escaping from [IS] genocide now to be severed from these sources of support and be subjected to prison-like conditions? The AFAD officials who have taken over the camp refused to speak to Al-Monitor. Some of those officials who did not allow reporters to enter the camp said they would not force anyone to evacuate the camp. But nobody explained how Yazidis deprived of their basic needs such as food, water and electricity will survive if they stay. Obviously, the Yazidi refugees will have no choice but to move to other camps. In mid-December, the refugees were told they would have to leave by the beginning of January. On Jan. 1, news came that the evacuation was indeed underway. One camp resident told Al-Monitor by phone that people were packing their belongings. He said on condition of anonymity, We dont want to go, but we have no choice. We didnt leave our land [in Iraq] voluntarily. Now we have to leave this place. [There is] nothing else we can do. Yazidis who have left the Fidanlik camp have been relocated to the AFAD-run camp in the town of Midyat in Mardin province. The Yazidis also fear relocation because of security concerns. They are inaccurately portrayed by some Muslims as pagans who worship the devil. That belief is responsible for the Yazidis being subjected to persecution throughout their history. IS has massacred thousands of Yazidis. The camp residents were already barely surviving with diminishing assistance from volunteers and municipalities that have their own financial problems. Many sick people couldnt find medicine. The camp, which once had more than 5,000 residents, was down to 1,250 people in December after some went to Europe and others returned to Iraq. Although those who remained wanted to stay, they seem to have no choice but to move on in search of a new life. January 5, 2017 Turkey continues to be the target of terrorist violence. Today its third-largest city, Izmir, was rocked by the crackle of gunfire and explosions in the late afternoon. Early reports suggest that the blast was caused by a car bomb that was detonated outside a courthouse in the port citys Bayrakli area. Two alleged assailants were killed in the ensuing gun battle with police. Another was said to have fled the scene. One policeman and a court employee were reported to have been killed and at least 10 others wounded in the attack. The identities of the assailants remained undisclosed as of the time of writing. Footage of their bloodied corpses was circulated on social media. Possible suspects include a left-wing terror faction called the Peoples Liberation Party-Front, which frequently targets the police. The incident also bears the hallmarks of the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), the urban terror wing of the Kurdistan Workers Party, which has carried out a string of car bomb attacks in Ankara and Istanbul. Izmir Governor Errol Ayyildiz has reportedly identified the latter as the prime suspects. At least 400 people have died in the past year in separate attacks carried out across Turkey, mainly by TAK and the Islamic State. Meanwhile, the manhunt for the perpetrator of the New Years Eve massacre at the Reina nightclub in Istanbul is ongoing, with police now saying the shooter who killed 39 revelers may be an ethnic Uighur from China. Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak described the man as a specially trained member of a terror cell who carried out the attack alone. Kaynak acknowledged that he may have slipped out of the country. The authorities have yet to identify the suspect by name. IS has claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was in retaliation for Turkeys ongoing military campaign to oust the group from its strongholds in northern Syria. Turkey has cleared its borders of IS and captured the Syrian towns of Jarablus, al-Rai and Dabiq further south. Turkish forces and their Syrian rebel proxies are currently focusing on the town of al-Bab, where the jihadis are putting up fierce resistance. But in recent days, senior IS commanders have reportedly been leaving the town and redeploying to Raqqa. Turkish fighter jets continue to pummel IS targets near al-Bab, killing scores of militants since the nightclub attack. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said al-Babs fall is imminent. Not that the US-led coalition has been of any help, Turkish officials complain. Ankara charges the US-led coalition has spurned Ankaras repeated demands for air support in the al-Bab operation. Presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin told pro-government broadcaster Kanal 24 today, In the past month and a half, we have observed and understood that this [coalition] support was not given at the sufficient level and effectiveness. Coalition officials retort that Turkey embarked on its operation unilaterally, without gathering proper intelligence and that it is paying the price of its totally reckless gambit, as one coalition official put it in comments to Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. Kalin said the United States' excuses are unacceptable, but added that there is no need for a rushed evaluation on the Incirlik Air Base. Turkish Defense Minister Fikri Isik hinted earlier that Turkey might rescind US access to the base, which is critical to the coalition's air campaign against the jihadis. January 3, 2017 Tensions between Houthi rebels and their ally, former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, have escalated since their formation of a self-proclaimed joint government Nov. 28. The process wasn't easy to begin with, and challenges continue to threaten the tenuous arrangement. The biggest problem facing the newly formed, large government is its lack of legitimacy because no country has recognized it. Saleh was ousted in November 2011 during the Arab Spring, and Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, his vice president, took over. However, Hadi was forced to resign in January 2015, and Houthi forces loyal to Saleh declared control the following month. Hadi, backed by Saudi Arabia, soon renounced his resignation and became head of the internationally recognized government, as fighting continued. Now, under on-again, off-again negotiations through the United Nations, it is hoped Hadi eventually will transfer his power to a new government. But UN-sponsored negotiations in Kuwait failed in April, and the formation of a joint political council Aug. 6 was followed by nearly four months of faltering talks. The Middle East Eye cited "informed sources" as saying one agreement Hadi rejected in October called for him to transfer his power to a newly named vice president after the Houthis leave Sanaa and surrender their large weapons to a third party. The vice president would then appoint a prime minister to form a government designed to represent all Yemenis. But, despite heavy international pressure for both sides to resolve their differences, the Houthis and Saleh have declared their National Salvation Government, with a parliament known as the Supreme Political Council. Disputes were expected, due to the nature of the parties' alliance: united by war and divided over politics. They are not natural allies; the Houthis fought numerous civil wars against Saleh when he was in power. Now, the Houthi-Saleh alliance has appointed Abdul Aziz bin Habtoor prime minister of their government, which comprises 42 ministries. The large number of ministries can be explained by each party's desire to satisfy the biggest number of supporters. In Yemen, as in many countries, state positions are an important means of buying loyalty. The distribution of ministries between Saleh's party and the Houthi party was significant, as it reflected each partys priorities. Houthis wanted the ministries related to education, while the General Peoples Congress (GPC, chaired by Saleh) sought the more profitable ministries such as telecommunications, oil and other technical ministries. Houthis also took the Interior Ministry, while the GPC took the Foreign Ministry and Defense Ministry. Internally, the new governments formation is considered a late attempt to legitimize the alliance between Houthis and Saleh in the areas under their control, as Yemenis had gotten used to calling these two parties the "de facto authority. Efforts toward legitimacy will face obstacles such as the collapsing economic situation, an empty bank treasury and a lack of resources such as oil exports. Other factors will not help either, such as the formation of groups that exploited the war, governmental institutions inability to collect money from people and the presence of corrupt figures within the popular committees Houthis formed after subduing the capital, Sanaa, in September 2014, under the rationale of overseeing the corrupt state institutions. These committees soon turned into Houthi tools to extort citizens and impose royalties and taxes on businessmen. Also, the committees became a means to steal public money. With time, it became harder to disband the committees and the network of beneficiaries, for fear that would lead to a clash between the Houthis and Saleh's GPC. Therefore, the National Salvation Government was formed for the purpose of distributing the spoils of war between the two parties, amid heated competition over the states positions and funds. The National Salvation Government formation is a milestone in relations between Saleh and the Houthis, which started as merely a common goal and enemy. Their goal was to undermine the transitional political process Hadi had begun in 2012, but each had a different reason: Houthis could use the power of arms to get more from politics and elections, which would normally only give them a few seats in parliament, while Saleh sought to assert that the 2011 revolution against him failed. Saleh emphasized this point when faced with the news that his plan to nominate his son Ahmad in presidential elections was foiled. In 2014, an agreement reached by the UN and the Gulf Cooperation Council regarding the Yemeni crisis said no soldier is allowed to run for president until he has been out of the military for 10 years. Saleh's son had joined the military in 2001 and served until Hadi dismissed him in 2012, and then became Yemen's ambassador to the United Arab Emirates from 2013 to 2015. Saleh and the Houthis also have a common partisan nature. They hail from the same region, predominated by Zaydis, who have monopolized Yemen rule for hundreds of years. Saleh represents the tribal side of the Zaydi areas in Yemen, and Houthis reflect the religious aspect of the same region. Consequently, they developed common enemies. Also, Hadi constitutes a threat for both of them because he reflects the political rise of different Yemeni regions like the south, thus breaking the Zaydis monopolization of the rule. Tensions between Saleh and the Houthis broke out when the latter attempted to expand their influence into Salehs regions through tribes supporting him or through army camps. The disputes were mainly lightly armed skirmishes due to their conflict over Sabaha Camp in south Sanaa in February 2015. The conflict escalated when Houthis single-handedly announced a constitutional declaration during the same month, without consulting their only ally. The declaration consisted of disbanding the parliament, which is mostly controlled by the pro-Saleh GPC, and set forth a two-year transitional period. This situation crushed Salehs hopes of early parliamentary elections. Saleh had been on top of the election game from 1987 until 2012 and controlled the Supreme Commission for Elections and Referendum, as well as the local councils that have a decisive say in the elections. The councils favor Saleh and are feared by Houthis. Tensions persisted between the Houthis and Saleh until Operation Decisive Storm began in March 2015. It was then that a second alliance phase began, and it was governed by necessity and common feelings of danger. The two parties appeared united. But it was not long before tensions resurfaced when Houthis began negotiating with Saudi Arabia and ignored Saleh. He thus called on his supporters to amass on the first anniversary of Saudi Arabia's strikes. The Houthis were furious because this move exposed Salehs public strength, which they do not have. However, tensions were restricted to the media and only became clearer and worse during the Kuwait negotiations. The delegation representing both parties in the negotiations split into two separate groups due to the Houthis' domination of the negotiations. Notably, the international community takes Houthis more seriously than Saleh because they are a rising military power, they represent Iran in the regional context of the Saudi-Iranian conflict and they control the border with Saudi Arabia. After the failure of the Kuwait negotiations, the two parties formed a political council in August. As per this council, Houthis gave up the constitutional declaration, which was the point of dispute with the GPC, and brought back the parliament. Then, Habtoor was chosen as prime minister in October and the National Salvation Government was formed at the end of November. So far, these steps aim to reassure the supporters at home and herald a long foreign confrontation ahead. But the government formation cannot last long due to its missing international legitimacy and lack of economic resources. Besides, there are new challenges to this alliance and its persistence, amid heated competition over positions, money and the mobilization of supporters within the same region, which all parties want to monopolize. Alexander Shunnarah is following his billboards into a new market. Two new Alexander & Associates LLP, extensions of Alexander Shunnarah Personal Injury Attorneys, P.C., opened brick and mortar locations on Monday, one in downtown Nashville and one in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. "I've never left Birmingham and I never will, but in this type of business, I can't tell you how many clients I represent who live in one city, but when they're traveling might get in an accident," Shunnarah said. "With this expansion, the law firm is really turning into a Southeast regional personal injury law firm." In Miami, Shunnarah is doing something a little different - no billboards, at least not yet. The city is a much more diverse community than his other markets, which complicates the visual medium - instead, the firm will invest more heavily in digital advertising. "Miami is a very heavily populated Hispanic city, and we've made a lot of strategic alliances in that community in Atlanta, and we felt that if we could go to Miami and represent the Hispanic community - but all of Miami, it's a metro area of 5 to 6 million people - we want to take our legal services down there," Shunnarah said. "We feel very, very confident about the Miami area." Shunnarah called the Nashville expansion a natural expansion. He said he already has a strong presence in the Huntsville area, and he would frequently serve clients in southern Tennessee. The expansion makes a triangle with three major markets: Birmingham, Atlanta and Nashville. Shunnarah hopes that triangle will catch business as people travel between the three. The firm already had a presence throughout Alabama, Florida (primarily in the Panhandle, but going as far south as Gainesville), Georgia, Mississippi, primarily serving personal injury, auto accidents and wrongful death needs, among others. The Birmingham native is best known for his billboards which started popping up around town in 2009, now totaling more than 2,000 throughout the southeast. What do you recall about field trips you took as a child? I'll admit, most of mine no longer stand out in my memory. Sure, it's easy to recall how much fun we had in Disney World, but more educational trips fade away. The memories that stick with me aren't what I learned, but rather how it felt to imagine myself within history. Ali Callahan could say the same of her first trip to Horse Pens 40. Ali, a homeschooled fourth grader, is studying Alabama history by visiting sites where it occurred. Many of these places include museums or other instructional information. Horse Pens 40, however, leaves the history to a brief handout and instead invites visitors to experience the property. The privately owned park has had people living on its land for more than 15,000 years, that handout says. "The Creek and Cherokee tribes use the rock formations as a natural fortress and refuge, and even today they still hold ceremonial gatherings here," the paper continues. "It is located directly on the ancient border of between the Creek and Cherokee lands, and the only peace treaty ever made between the Creek and Cherokee was signed here at Horse Pens 40." Its rock formations continued to attract people as Alabama became a state. During the Civil War, the state's residents hid valuables within them. Once the Confederates discovered the property, they stored supplies here. Outlaws and moonshiners are also said to have spent time among these rocks. Today, though, Horse Pens 40 may be better known by rock climbers and music fans. The property is home to a number of festivals, and it's renowned for bouldering. Ali, her younger brother Noah, mom Rachel and I read over this history. Upon arrival, we quickly made our way to rock formations--and found that they stretched on, and on, and on. "Can you imagine wars being fought here, Ali" Rachel asked. "No." "Like when we play laser guns at home and you hide," Rachel said, before turning to me. "We should've brought our laser guns." Instead, we scampered over rocks and through crevices. The kids were entranced; Rachel and I pulled out our devices to take photos, but they had little patience for technological distraction. When I paused to take photos of him, Noah turned around and yelled, "Carla Jean! COME ON!" The park drew them in, but Rachel still worked lessons into the adventure. Ali is also studying botany this year, and at her mom's prompting, she shared observations. "Ever heard of geotropism?" Ali asked. (I hadn't.) She pointed at a nearby tree and explained the effect of gravity on the growth of roots. After she explained phototropism (a plant growing toward light), we came upon a tree that grew up and over a rock. "It's like the tree decided to grow straight up, no matter what was in its way," Ali said. Rachel recounted the experience on her blog, Grasping for Objectivity. "I can't say that we learned much about Alabama History on this trip, but we experienced where history happened and oh-my-goodness did the kids LOVE it. They both declared it their favorite field trip yet, and we could have stayed for hours longer had our stomachs not all started growling (the weakest link in our field trip game is that I don't believe in packed lunches.) The infinite fun to be had on the rocks, the countless caves to explore and paths to walk - it really was just spectacular." IF YOU GO Horse Pens 40 3525 County Road 42, Steele, AL 35987 256-538-7439 hp40.com Hours: Daily, 8 a.m.-sunset; closed Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Christmas Eve Admission: $8 day use; $15 camping per person, sunup to sundown; RV hookups $20; rustic cabins $60 per night for two people; children 10 and younger always free RECOMMENDED READING "Alabama" by Barbara A Somervill introduces young readers to the state's history, geography, notable people and more. "One Day in Alabama: The Civil War Years" by Clarke Stallworth is the final installment in the late Birmingham News journalist's stories about Alabama history. "100 Things You Need to Know About Alabama" by Horace Randall Williams introduces a number of topics Ali is learning during her year of Alabama history. The new book reaches from prehistoric times to modern days in anticipation of the state's bicentennial in 2019. Trump meets with Ohio State victims Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt arrives at Trump Tower in New York, Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2016. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) ( ) Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange and 23 other attorneys general today urged senators to confirm President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to lead the Environmental Protection Agency. Trump nominated Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, a climate change skeptic and opponent of Obama's environmental initiatives, for EPA administrator. Some environmental advocates have denounced the choice, saying Pruitt is too close to the fossil fuel industry and would roll back important safeguards. Pruitt, like Strange and a number of other state AGs, has opposed new EPA regulations to reduce carbon emissions from power plants, a key part of Obama's plan to address climate change. The opponents of Obama's Clean Power Plan say it will close coal-fired power plants, eliminate jobs and raise electricity rates. They say the plan exceeds EPA's authority and are challenging it in federal court. In today's letter to key senators, the attorneys general say Pruitt will take a different approach. "When our nation is confronted with issues affecting the environment that are not covered by a particular statute, Scott will come to Congress for a solution, rather than inventing power for his agency," they say in the letter. It is addressed to Sens. John Barrasso, R-Wyoming, and Tom Carper, D-Delaware. Barrasso is chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, while Carper is the ranking Democratic member. "Attorney General Pruitt is a personal friend and I have been proud to join him in pursuing responsible measures to protect our environment that are harmonious with individual rights and the rule of law," Strange said in a press release. Trump's selection of Pruitt has led to some accusations that Pruitt will put the wishes of the energy industry ahead of environmental concerns. "Scott Pruitt running the EPA is like the fox guarding the hen house," League of Conservation Voters' president Gene Karpinski said in a statement posted in an article by the Sierra Club. The New York Times reported that Pruitt's office sent letters on his state office stationary to federal regulators that were ghost written by energy industry lobbyists. Read the AGs letter to the senators in support of Pruitt. A Huntsville man was sentenced Thursday to three years in federal prison and was ordered to forfeit $79,619 for a scheme to steal and counterfeit business checks in 2014, federal authorities announced. Bernard Eugene McKinney, 29, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn for his conviction in August on five bank fraud and two aggravated identity theft charges, according to a statement from U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance and U.S. Postal Inspector Frank Dyer. McKinney must report to prison Feb. 6. Evidence at his trial showed that McKinney's scheme involved recruiting various friends and acquaintances to cash fraudulent checks around the Huntsville area, according to the statement. The scheme defrauded BBVA Compass Bank of $79,619 in a series of transactions over several days, according to the statement. "The actions of the Defendant were not a 'one-time' mistake, but a well-developed plan and scheme in which the Defendant had to make a conscience decision to act each time a fraudulent check was cashed. He involved five other people in the scheme," the government's sentencing memorandum stated. Trial evidence also showed that McKinney, with the help of his recruits, counterfeited legitimate business checks that had been stolen from the U.S. mail, changed the payee names to himself or others, and then cashed the checks at Compass Bank branches in north Alabama, according to the statement. McKinney also forged the signature of the person who signed the original checks, which he used to manufacture the counterfeits, according to the statement. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigated the case and Assistant U.S. Attorney David H. Estes prosecuted the case. montgomery boe january 5 second photo.jpg Montgomery County Board of Education members receive an overview of the state intervention process from their attorney, Vernetta Perkins, right. (Mike Cason/mcason@al.com) Some Montgomery County Board of Education members said today they are hopeful that a possible intervention by the state Department of Education could benefit students. The board met today in anticipation of a meeting on Monday with state Superintendent Michael Sentance about a possible takeover by the state because of poor academics in many Montgomery schools. Board Chairman Robert Porterfield said the board needed to understand how an intervention would work and to coordinate what questions it would ask during Monday's meeting with Sentance. "These are new waters we are venturing into," Porterfield said. Porterfield said it's a concern that many schools in the Montgomery system are not performing well and said the board is anxious to hear how the state might help. "That is something that we are looking forward to hearing about and hopefully we will get that information on Monday," Porterfield said. Porterfield said he does not think the ACT Aspire test, which is used to gauge the academic progression of students in Alabama schools, was an accurate assessment for systems with a large number of low-income students, such as the Montgomery system. Porterfield said he planned to ask Sentance about that on Monday. Mary Briers, a member of the board for 12 years, said she had talked to Sentance and liked something he told her. "We need to build our programs around the needs of the students and not the adults. And I totally agree with him on that statement," Briers said. Briers said the single biggest need is to reduce class sizes. "I welcome anything that's going to help our students," Briers said. "They can reduce the teacher-pupil ratio. Put the same teacher ratio in the traditional schools that they have in the magnet schools." The student-teacher ratio is 18-to-1 in Montgomery Public Schools in grades K-3, 26-to-1 in grades 4-6, and 29-to-1 in grades 7-12, according to the MPS website. The Legislature passed a law in 2013 authorizing state intervention into local systems because of poor academic performance. MPS attorney Vernetta Perkins gave the board an overview of the law at today's work session. Perkins said if the state does intervene, it would assume all the authority over the local system, essentially standing in place of the local board and local superintendent. Intervention would require approval of a resolution by the state Board of Education, which meets on Jan. 12. Perkins said the Montgomery County board would have a chance to formally respond to a state intervention resolution and to propose a plan to address deficiencies. Michael Sibley, director of communications for the state Department of Education, said he expects discussion of the intervention resolution at next week's state BOE meeting, although the agenda is not yet prepared. The presiding judge of Montgomery's municipal court on Thursday was suspended without pay for 11 months after agreeing that he had violated canons of judicial ethics regarding the jailing of poor people who couldn't pay fines. Judge Armstead Lester Hayes III was suspended under an agreement he reached with the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission (JIC). He will get credit for the amount of time he has already served under suspension since the original charges were brought in November. His suspension ends Oct. 1. The agreement was approved by the Alabama Court of the Judiciary on Thursday. Under the agreement Hayes is adjudicated guilty of seven charges of violating the Canons of Judicial Ethics as alleged in the JIC complaint. Hayes also will have to pay the $4,312 cost of the proceeding, including the amount incurred by the JIC, according to the agreement. While the Montgomery city court made changes in 2014 to prevent poor people from being jailed without proper procedures and efforts to make sure other alternatives are considered, the Court of the Judiciary expressed concerns in its order on Thursday. "In considering the complaint filed in this matter, this court finds the allegations deeply troubling," the Court of the Judiciary stated. "In adopting the parties' proposed resolution, this court notes Judge Hayes's acceptance of responsibility in this matter; his apparent efforts, beginning in 2014, to remedy the problems that eventually gave rise to this proceeding; and his cooperation with the Commission (JIC) in attempting to resolve this matter." "This court also notes that Judge Hayes's current term as Presiding Municipal Judge is set to expire in January 2018, roughly four months after he completes his suspension in this matter," the court stated. Hayes' attorney responded Thursday with a statement regarding the suspension. "Judge Hayes is a good man. He was a good judge and he will be in the future," according to a statement released by Hayes' attorney Joe Espy. "He has been the driving force behind judicial reform in Montgomery and Alabama." "Judge Hayes has enormous respect for the Court and the process," Espy stated. "The problems that led us to today primarily deal with the administration and operation of the Municipal Court and the application of certain legal principles in that Court, most of which were addressed and resolved by Judge Hayes and the Court staff over two years ago." "He accepts full responsibility as you would expect of a man of his character," Espy stated. Judge Hayes has received overwhelming support from the community and he sincerely appreciates the prayers an support of so many people." In the agreement Hayes denies certain allegations in the JIC complaint, but agreed that others had occurred, among them the following: - On many occasions prior to 2014, Hayes incarcerated traffic offenders for failure to pay fines and costs without first, in compliance rules to make a making sufficient inquiry into the offenders' financial, employment, and family standing to determine if the offenders had the ability to pay court-ordered financial assessments; determining reasons for offenders' inability to pay or failure to pay; and/or considering alternatives to incarceration other than initially providing additional time to pay, resulting in the incarceration of indigent defendants, in some cases for several months. - On numerous occasions Hayes failed to permit a traffic offender to fully explain the reason for either the offender 's failure or inability to pay court-ordered financial assessments. - Judge Hayes ordered some defendants to a private entity called Judicial Correction Services, an entity which was commonly referred to as a private-probation company. Hayes delegated to JCS the judicial functions of ordering monitored defendants to appear in court to show cause why they should not be removed from Judicial Correction Services's oversight and/or issuing a summons to a 'probation revocation' hearing. In connection with his use of Judicial Correction Services, Judge Hayes placed some municipal court defendants who appeared before him on what was nominally referred to in the court's order as 'probation' even though they had not received a suspended sentence or any jail time, but had been given only fines and court costs. JCS at one time had contracts with more than 100 cities across Alabama. The company was subject to a number of state and federal lawsuits that claimed it was responsible for continually adding on fees of indigent defendants and threatening jail if the fines and fees were not paid. The company late last year announced it was leaving Alabama amid the claims of abusive and unconstitutional practices. The JIC, however, stated that JCS was responsible for only collecting less than a quarter of the Montgomery court's collections. JCS was allowed to charge defendants a $10 start-up fee followed by a $40 per month "supervisory fee, according to the JIC charge. In 2010, for example, JCS remitted to the city $2.4 million and retained $1.15 million for itself. Collection tactics by the court had helped Montgomery's municipal court system collect millions of dollars in fees and fines that are three or more times the amounts collected in Birmingham and other large Alabama cities, according to the charges, according to the JIC's original complaint. Hayes' and the court system made changes in the wake of three federal court lawsuits against Montgomery regarding the tactics of the court and jailing of poor defendants for inability to pay. The lawsuits have been settled. Sam Brooke, deputy legal director at the Southern Poverty Law Center, said the suspension should serve as a warning. "Nobody, not even a judge, is above the law. Today's sanctions against Judge Hayes are a reminder that it is absolutely illegal to jail someone simply because they are poor. The good news is, we believe the Montgomery court has changed its practices," said Brooke. "The bad news is, for far too long, jailing those who could not pay was standard practice." "Any other judge who is still doing this should be on notice their practices won't be tolerated." Hayes COJ Agreement by KentFaulk on Scribd capital on november 28 2016.jpg (Mike Cason/mcason@al.com) State Auditor Jim Zeigler is asking the House Judiciary Committee to restart an impeachment probe of Gov. Robert Bentley. Zeigler said he sent a Jan. 1 letter to House Judiciary Chairman Mike Jones asking the committee to resume the investigation. The committee announced Nov. 3 that it was suspending proceedings at the request of Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange. Strange asked for the suspension while his office was pursuing "related work." Zeigler questioned the need for a delay. He cited what he called a discrepancy of the committee's November press statement that Strange was conducting an "investigation of the governor." Two weeks ago, Strange said the committee's press statement was wrong because he said he had never said his office was investigating Bentley. "It is clear that there was either a serious misunderstanding between the Attorney General and this committee, or else an obstruction of the legislative impeachment process by Attorney General Luther Strange," Zeigler wrote in the letter he released to the media. Strange's office declined to comment on the letter. Zeigler is a frequent critic of the governor and has filed several unsuccessful lawsuits against the administration over contracts. Strange was one of 20 people interviewed by Bentley as a potential replacement for Sen. Jeff Sessions. Sessions has been nominated to be the nation's next attorney general. Bentley will make an interim appointment to the Senate when Sessions steps down. Twenty-three House members signed impeachment articles after Bentley's fired law enforcement secretary accused the governor in March of having an affair with his then-political adviser, Rebekah Caldwell Mason, and of interfering in law enforcement business. Bentley, who is now divorced, admitted to inappropriate behavior and apologized to his family. But the governor denied a sexual affair and the other allegations. The House Judiciary Committee, under a process adopted by House members, was tasked with investigating if Bentley committed any impeachable offenses and making a recommendation to the full House. The committee's attorney subpoenaed documents from Bentley and others as part of the probe. NASA Discovery missions (Left) An artist's conception of the Lucy spacecraft flying by the Trojan Eurybates - one of the six diverse and scientifically important Trojans to be studied. Trojans are fossils of planet formation and so will supply important clues to the earliest history of the solar system. (Right) Psyche, the first mission to the metal world 16 Psyche will map features, structure, composition, and magnetic field, and examine a landscape unlike anything explored before. Psyche will teach us about the hidden cores of the Earth, Mars, Mercury and Venus. (NASA caption and images) Asteroids are the stuff of science fiction and futurists' dreams because of their potential riches to be mined. They're also the bedrock of history because some are older than much of the solar system itself. NASA said this week it will send new robotic probes seeking answers from two such asteroid fields deep in the solar system. The two missions - Lucy and Psyche - got the green light from NASA's Discovery Program, which funds space probes costing up to about $450 million. Earlier Discovery missions include the MESSENGER probe to Mercury and the Dawn mission to the asteroids Vesta and Ceres. The program is managed by the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville. Lucy, a robotic spacecraft, will launch in 2021 toward a 2025 arrival at an asteroid belt near Jupiter. There, it will explore six so-called "Jupiter Trojan asteroids" trapped by the giant planet's gravity in two clusters. Scientists believe the Trojans predate the outer planets themselves and may have formed in space far beyond Jupiter. "This is a unique opportunity," said principal mission scientist Harold Levison of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Col. "Because the Trojans are remnants of the primordial material that formed the outer planets, they hold vital clues to deciphering the history of the solar system. Lucy, like the human fossil for which it is named, will revolutionize the understanding of our origins." The Psyche mission will explore a giant metal asteroid called 16 Psyche about three times farther from the sun than the Earth. The asteroid is about 130 miles in diameter and thought to be mostly metallic iron and nickel. That's similar to the core of the Earth itself. "This is an opportunity to explore a new type of world - not one of rock or ice, but of metal," said Psyche principal scientist Lindy Elkins-Tanton of Arizona State University in Tempe. "16 Psyche is the only known object of its kind in the solar system, and this is the only way humans will ever visit a core. We learn about inner space by visiting outer space." Also a robotic probe, Psyche will launch in 2023 and arrive at the asteroid in 2030. China said it hopes the Syrian government and opposition factions "will cherish the hard-earned" UN resolution and resume peace talks as soon as possible, after opponents announced suspension of such talks. In Beijing on Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang urged Damascus and oppositional forces to follow Resolution 2336, which the UN Security Council adopted on Dec 31, supporting efforts by Russia and Turkey to end Syria's civil war that has lasted for nearly six years. Russia and Turkey also brokered a ceasefire deal in Syria starting on Dec 30. Peace negotiations are planned to be held in Astana, capital of Kazakhstan. However, about 10 Syrian opposition factions announced Monday they were suspending talks about the negotiations due to truce "violations" by Damascus, Agence France-Presse reported. Geng said the Syrian government and the opposing leaders should work together to implement the ceasefire deal, practice more self restraint and reduce mutual accusation. "We hope both sides in Syria will, according to the UN Security Council resolution, effectively implement their duties, and resume peace talks and restart the political process at the earliest date possible," he said, adding that China will continue to play a constructive role in this regard. Xie Xiaoyan, China's special envoy on the Syrian issue will visit Geneva, the European Union, Turkey and Russia in an attempt to help resume the political solution process in Syria. They stole our forests and our water. We took our medicine from the forest. Now, they put police and dogs at our door. Espirito Santo, Brazil In Sape do Norte, in the far north of Espirito Santo, Brazil, 32 communities refer to the 111,000 hectares of land as the green desert. Quilombolas, members of these communities, are the descendants of slaves who created settlements called quilombos. The green desert refers to the eucalyptus plantation which has gradually spread over land that they claim is rightfully theirs. The eucalyptus monoculture arrived in the region during the 1960s under Brazils military dictatorship. The lands were not clearly divided or marked by fences, community leader Domingo Firmiano dos Santos said. The absence of land titles facilitated illegal occupation. Anyone who didnt sell their piece of land at a bargain price was pressured, threatened, and forced to leave. Fibria Celulose, the global leader in bleached eucalyptus pulp and a paper company which exports to more than 40 countries, now owns and manages these eucalyptus plantations. The company said in a statement response for this article that it also owns all the disputed lands in question. The monoculture quickly spread to all the communities, leaving the people isolated in the middle of this green desert, said 72-year-old Renan Oliveira, a resident of the community. Fibria has been resorting to legal action against quilombo communities claiming ownership of the land. In its statement, the company says it has been successful in some of these cases. Today, only three communities in the region have their land officially recognised by the Brazilian state as designated quilombo territory. Though after lengthy court cases to gain this recognition, none hold documents proving their right to the lands, further complicating the claims of injustice carried against them by the authorities and the company. Of the 12,000 families who lived in the region during the 1960s, only 1,200 remain, according to the Sape do Norte Quilombola Commission. Another factor affecting the community is the consequent water shortage from eucalyptus cultivation. Since the eucalyptus was introduced, more than 130 streams have dried up in the north of Espirito Santo, according to the environmental NGO Federation of Social and Educational Assistance. The plant naturally absorbs the surrounding water in the area, while the company further aggravates the issue by using trucks to pump water from nearby streams to irrigate the plantation, leaving the local population unable to grow their own crops for sustenance and limiting their access to drinking water. The community is left with few options for survival, they say. Some have turned to cutting down the eucalyptus plants they say encroach upon their land to produce charcoal to replace lost income from crops they would otherwise be growing. But when they resort to cutting down the plants, Fibria accuses them of theft and, aided by local authorities, violators are punished with jail time and hefty fines. For half of the 150 families living in Sao Domingos, at least one family member has been arrested and charged with wood theft crimes, according to residents and official records of arrests. READ MORE: Brazils Fundao dam collapse The silence after the mud Stealing eucalyptus Community leader Altiane Blandino, known as Pipi, spent 21 days in a remand prison in Viana last year. I was described as a dangerous criminal and gang leader, he said. Here in Sape, there is no other way: we either cut down the eucalyptus, or they plant it right inside our houses. He was arrested on timber theft and conspiracy charges on August 14, 2015, and placed in a six-person cell with 30 other prisoners. I felt like a thug, a non-being. We slept on the hard ground for 21 days, and used the same sink to [defecate], drink and bathe. I encountered hell there, Blandino said. After 10 days, he thought he would never be released. However, a number of protests were organised by the Sao Domingos, Linharinho, and Angelim communities, including one which shut down the major BR 101 highway. Some demonstrations drew more than 500 people. As a result, along with family members who were also arrested, Blandino was finally released. Similarly, Ledriando Manoel Maria and his son have been on weekend house arrest for nearly two years for stealing eucalyptus. They can go to work during the week, but during weekends they are only allowed out of the house with a Bible under their arms. Maria claimed he took nothing more than a few tips of branches to use in the oven for cooking. I never stole anything from anyone, he said. We are farmers, not thieves. After the firm arrived, we now have to settle for leftovers: leftover wood, leftover water, leftover land, Manoel Maria said. And they still imprison us for trying to survive. Marias wife, Eni, said they are being criminalised. Every so often, a court official turns up at our homes with a subpoena, and the charge is often that we are forming a criminal gang, she says. The Espirito Santo court refused to comment to Al Jazeera on this matter. READ MORE: Killings of land rights activists tripled in 2016 Justice? Justice is slow for those affected by these policies. Marias alleged theft took place in 2005, but the courts did not rule on the case until 2014. In addition to the house arrest, he has an outstanding fine of 800 Brazilian reals, or about $244, that he still owes. Maria says he was at his farm harnessing his donkey, early in the morning, when the police arrived to arrest him, just after a Fibria security guard warned him they would. In the past year alone, the Sao Domingos community in Sape do Norte has counted 10 arrests and a further 12 residents who are being sued. They claim community leaders are targeted the most by police. A large police operation in 2009 which resulted in the arrests of 39 people in the Sao Domingos community for charges of theft and conspiracy is the subject of a pending legal case. Women and elderly people, including a blind man, were handcuffed during the operation and led away by armed police with sniffer dogs. In 2013, the Federal Public Ministry deemed the police operation illegal and condemned Fibria to pay around $31,000 to the Sao Domingos community, with $3,100 in damages for each resident arrested. However, the case stalled when it underwent an appeal and is currently awaiting the next judgment from the Regional Federal Court. In bringing the case to court in 2013, the Federal Public Ministry said that violence caused by unreasonable police action brings community members to a situation of fear, which brings back memories of bad events of the past when, deprived of legitimate rights on the occupied land, they lived persecuted, humiliated and with a constant feeling of helplessness. Judge Nivaldo Luiz Dias, who presided over the case, later criticised the operation for not providing food to the arrested community members, who were also dropped off 30km away from their homes once freed. This violates human dignity, he wrote in his legal statement. Federal Public Ministry prosecutor Guilherme Garcia Virgilio added: [The quilombolas] are cornered. They have gotten organised and managed to fight for their rights, but they live in terror. The military police of Espirito Santos declined to respond to repeated email requests for comment for this article about the actions taken against residents. Fibria continues to expand its farmland, and as eucalyptus planting has increased, so have the efforts of the community to cut it down. As a result, tensions continue to grow. Over the past five years, more than 300 people were indicted in the region for timber theft, according to Espirito Santos State Secretariat of Public Security, with police raids on communities accused of theft frequently including sniffer dogs, helicopters and armed cops operations described as war by locals. The states human rights secretary, Julio Pompeu, claimed there was no coordinated action between police and Fibria, stressing that residents who felt threatened could make anonymous complaints to a dedicated hotline. However, some quilombolas say the persecution intensified after they started to make legal claims for their land as far back as eight or nine years ago, through formal complaints made to The National Institute for Colonisation and Agrarian Reform, a federal agency that oversees land reforms. New initiatives According to the Fibria statement provided for this article, currently 375 families in Sape do Norte communities take part in the Territorial Rural Development Programme, a Fibria initiative that includes the assignment of areas for different crops (corn, annatto, cassava, pumpkin, watermelon, and beans, among others). The programme also teaches community members technical and marketing skills. Fibria also set up a cooperative in May 2014, in which members of the community can work directly for the company. In the translated statement, Fibria says: The partnership has been yielding good results: It improves the quality of life of the families involved. The activities are carried out in accordance with the health and safety standards of work demanded by Fibria, adding that the cooperative members have access to programmes to foster development and income generation. But these efforts from Fibria have done little to placate the anger of some quilombolas. Community leader Elda Maria dos Santos, 56, said the company has stolen their land and resources. They stole our forests and our water. We took our medicine from the forest. Now, the state puts police and dogs at our door [and files] legal cases with nothing behind them, she said. What we want is our Mother Earth. It is not to buy or to sell. It is to pass from generation to generation, to leave to our children, dos Santos said. Fibria has announced a net revenue of 10.1bn reals ($3.1bn) in 2015, but claims losses of about 20m reals ($6.1m) a year from wood theft in the north of Espirito Santo. Chopping down wood remains the main form of resistance by the quilombo communities. Groups of people from the community continue to cut down the eucalyptus and sell it, afterwards planting food crops and declaring the land retaken. There are no services here. No one has any form of income. The only way is to pool resources and cut down the wood to survive. But this is not stealing, said Creusa Mota, 61, another community leader in the Roda dAgua quilombo. We dont feel like thieves. Only by remaining in place and resisting can we claim what is ours, added Santos. Another version of this story first appeared in Portuguese on apublica.org . This version was translated and edited by Beth McLoughlin. Israeli soldier convicted of killing wounded Palestinian is expected to receive a lenient sentence later this month. Nazareth It was the trial almost no one in Israel wanted. Last March, army medic Elor Azaria was filmed firing a bullet into the head of Abed al-Fattah al-Sharif, a 21-year-old Palestinian, as he lay wounded on the ground in the city of Hebron. After Azarias arrest, there was an outpouring of sympathy for the soldier from the Israeli public, politicians and fellow soldiers. Ordinary Israelis saw him as a victim of bad luck. He was on trial only because his actions had been filmed. Many Israelis felt it could be their own son in the courtroom. The army command feared the trial risked airing the militarys dirty secrets before the watching world. Some even worried the case might lead to a mutiny among the lower ranks, who identified with Azaria. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus government, meanwhile, worried that the proceedings would force it into an uncomfortable choice between upholding the rule of law and championing the soldier. READ MORE: Report slams Israels military law enforcement system Nonetheless, military prosecutors had little choice but to indict Azaria after the video footage went viral. Aida Touma-Suleiman, a Palestinian member of the Israeli parliament, told Al Jazeera that the context for the trial was the growing fear in Israel that its soldiers would, one day, face scrutiny from bodies like the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague. In a clear-cut case like this, it is important for Israel to look as though it is taking war crimes seriously, otherwise the ICC might itself decide to investigate, she said. But the case has caused problems because it has upset right-wing politicians and much of the Israeli public, who expect absolute impunity for soldiers. Given that mood, the army quickly dropped an initial charge of murder against Azaria. Instead, prosecutors settled for a manslaughter indictment, a decision Sharifs family denounced this week as a perversion of justice. On Wednesday, Azaria was found guilty of the reduced charge by a military tribunal. The three military judges ruled: He opened fire in violation of orders. The terrorist [Sharif] did not pose any threat. Azarias lawyers announced they would appeal. Although the court is empowered to jail Azaria for up to 20 years, it is certain to find grounds later this month for awarding a lenient sentence. The riots outside the court that greeted Azarias conviction, and the subsequent decision to issue the judges and prosecutor with bodyguards, will contribute to the pressure on them. Even before the sentencing, politicians, including Netanyahu, launched a campaign to pressure President Reuven Rivlin to pardon the soldier. Touma-Suleiman said that historical precedents, such as the amnesties given to security officials involved in the Kfar Qassem massacre and the Bus 300 affair, suggested that the campaign stood a good chance of success. There has been a reign of terror designed to silence anyone who has tried to stand up for human rights and the rule of law in this case, she said. If the aim of the trial was to demonstrate to the world that Israel holds its soldiers properly to account when they commit crimes, it has probably failed. BTselem, an Israeli human rights group that first publicised the video of the Hebron shooting, said in a statement to Al Jazeera that Azarias conviction was exceptional. In most cases where soldiers were suspected of executing Palestinians, the group said, there was routine whitewashing by the army. Azaria is, in fact, the first Israeli soldier to be charged with manslaughter since 2004, when a Bedouin sniper was convicted of killing Tom Hurndall, a British activist in Gaza. Azaria's actions didn't take place in a vacuum. Senior politicians and security officials effectively egged him on. by Sari Bashi, HRW's advocacy director in Israel and Palestine Yesh Din, another Israeli human rights group, issued a report this week noting that no investigations were conducted into the killing by Israeli soldiers of 76 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank last year. The data, it said, showed an inability and unwillingness to address unlawful conduct by soldiers. Adalah, a legal centre for Israels Palestinian minority, noted that there had been zero indictments in a range of attacks it had identified by Israel that killed Palestinians during Israels 2014 assault on Gaza. Paradoxically, the lesson the army may have learned from Azarias trial is the need for even greater secrecy. Last April, weeks after the Hebron shooting, Israeli security guards shot dead a Palestinian brother and sister at the Qalandiya checkpoint, near Jerusalem. Israeli authorities have repeatedly refused to release footage from the checkpoints security cameras. The Haaretz newspaper described the decision in October to drop the investigation, despite clear evidence that Maram and Taha Abu Ismail posed no threat when they were shot, as an official licence to kill. Amid the unconvincing defences offered by Azarias legal team, one argument hit home: that many cases similar to Azarias had been closed, including an investigation into an army colonel, Yisrael Shomer, who was filmed shooting dead a fleeing Palestinian teenager in 2015. Azaria, said his defence team, was being singled out. Azarias conviction is also likely to prove ineffective at underscoring to Israeli soldiers the need to abide by Israels rules of engagement. A poll by the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) in September found that 65 percent of Israeli Jews backed Azarias execution of Sharif. Among Israelis aged 18 to 24, when many Israelis are serving as conscripts, support for his actions rocketed to 84 percent. The Israeli media has largely sided with Azaria, presenting him as the child of us all. Two Israeli publications even selected him as their man of the year. The attitude of the Israeli public was clear, Yedidia Stern, a researcher at the IDI, told Al Jazeera. They thought, We put him in a uniform, we gave him a gun and we placed him in harms way in the occupied territories. He may not be a hero, but he is not a criminal either. He is our boy. FORUM: How can Palestinians legally fight occupation? The popular image of a callow teenager who momentarily lost his bearings in the confusion of Hebron is hard to sustain in the face of his known views. His social media posts reveal a youth who vented ugly, rabidly anti-Arab views even before he joined the army. During the 2014 Gaza war, Azaria called for every Palestinian in Gaza to be massacred. He also declared his support for the late Meir Kahane, a rabbi whose anti-Arab Kach party was outlawed in 1994 after a follower, Baruch Goldstein, shot 29 Palestinians in Hebrons Ibrahimi mosque. During the trial, it emerged that Azaria, like many of the soldiers serving with him, had befriended former Kach leaders among the settlers in Hebron. Every Sabbath, he and other soldiers, including senior commanders, would visit the home of Baruch Marzel, a former disciple of Kahane, for lunch. A video shows Azaria, after shooting Sharif, walking over to smile with Marzel and shake hands. Other footage shows another settler, ambulance driver Ofer Ohana, goading the soldiers to execute Sharif when the Palestinian showed signs of life, after earlier being critically wounded during a knife attack on a checkpoint. Ohana can be seen kicking a knife closer to Sharif after his execution by Azaria, presumably to help create a justification for the killing. A report published this month by military prosecutors found that it was routine for soldiers and settlers to tamper with evidence at sites where Palestinians had been shot. Efforts to investigate were often rendered futile as a result. Human Rights Watch has noted that, in the months before the Hebron shooting, senior government ministers and security officials had repeatedly called for a shoot-to-kill policy against Palestinian attackers, even when they posed no threat. Separately, both the Sephardic chief rabbi, Yitzhak Yosef, and the armys chief rabbi, Eyal Karim, have called for the execution of Palestinians suspected of attacks. But more significantly, senior military figures broke ranks during the trial to voice support for extrajudicial executions, indicating that officers in the field may be regularly turning a blind eye to crimes like Azarias. OPINION: How impunity defines Israel and victimises Palestinians Uzi Dayan, a former deputy chief of staff, testified in Azarias defence. He declared that he had personally covered up for his own soldiers when they killed Palestinians without justification. In one case he cited, his troops had shot dead five Palestinians returning home from work. He had blocked an investigation. Such matters should not be aired in public, he added. Speaking more generally about extrajudicial executions, he said: Ive ordered to kill terrorists just because theyre terrorists, regardless of their condition, whether they are dangerous or not. Another general, Shmuel Zakai, who commanded Israeli forces in Gaza, told the court he found Azarias behaviour reasonable. He said: I did not see anything unusual in this conduct. Sari Bashi, HRWs advocacy director in Israel and Palestine, told Al Jazeera: Azarias actions didnt take place in a vacuum. Senior politicians and security officials effectively egged him on. Touma-Suleiman pointed to the stark contrast between Azarias trial and that of Ahmed Manasra, a 13-year-old Palestinian who was jailed for 12 years in an adult prison in November. An Israeli military court found the child guilty of attempted murder, even though the judge accepted Manasra had stabbed no one in an attack in Jerusalem in 2015. His older cousin, who was shot dead at the scene, had been responsible for stabbing two Israelis. Manasra is a child, but the military court system dealt with him far more harshly than it has a soldier like Azaria, she said. When the occupier is judge and jury, there is no hope of equality before the law or of justice. It is no coincidence that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who was then followed by a slew of ministers and Knesset members has called for a presidential pardon for Israeli soldier Elor Azaria. Azaria was found guilty of manslaughter after he shot and killed Yusri al-Sharif as he lay wounded on the ground. This striking mobilisation to exonerate Azaria, which cuts across party lines and includes MKs from Labor, should actually come as no surprise, since the desired pardon is not really about absolving one lone murderer, but rather an effort to vindicate Israels 50-year occupation. Consciously or unconsciously, each and every government official calling for such absolution understands that Azaria is in no way an aberration of Israels colonial project, but rather a clear symptom of its very structure. The bystanders are living proof The bystanders are testimony to the structures effect. The video released by the Israeli human rights organisation BTselem first depicts al-Sharif lying on the ground, wounded, as scores of soldiers and settlers stand near his body chatting, talking on the phone and taking pictures. Several medics are at the scene, but they, too, are oblivious to the injured Palestinian. Indeed, one of these medics is the killer. Following the execution, not one of the bystanders appears surprised; no one grabs Azaria and pushes him away from the scene, no one runs to al-Sharif to see if he can be resuscitated; rather, the bystanders simply continue to chat. The laid-back everydayness of those standing just metres away from an execution can certainly be understood as a manifestation of what Hannah Arendt has called the banality of evil. Yet, it also profoundly captures something crucial about the structure of Israels colonial project. Kfir Brigade Azaria is a soldier in the Kfir Brigade. This brigade, as John Brown recently exposed, has been responsible for killing many Palestinians, among them Mustafa Tamimi who was shot in the head with a long-range tear gas canister during a weekly demonstration in his village, Nabi Saleh. The soldier who killed Tamimi in 2011 was sitting in a military jeep five metres from Tamimi when he aimed and fired his gun. Two months ago, four other soldiers from the same brigade were indicted for electrocuting a Palestinian; evidence emerged that they had taken pictures of him as he begged for his life. Two other soldiers were charged with beating Palestinian children, sticking an electric heat blower in the face of one of them. John Brown cites yet another confession made by a soldier from the same brigade: We would go on a patrol, and if we even saw a child looking at us in a not nice way he would receive a slap on the spot. On one of these patrols, some threw stones at us. We caught one of the children who we knew saw the stone-thrower. We beat him so bad until he was willing to identify the thrower. We then took [the 14-year-old stone thrower] from his bed outside. We pointed to some holes in the ground while we stuck the barrels of our rifles in his mouth and said to him: Do you want to die here? Just choose a place where you want to be buried.' Not a rotten apple Azaria, in other words, is not a rotten apple. Rather, his actions must be understood as part and parcel of the larger structure that constitutes and shapes Israels colonial project. Azaria was merely unlucky because he was caught executing a Palestinian on video. Indeed, large parts of the Israeli public realise this and therefore do not perceive Azaria as an outlier, which helps explain the widespread support he has garnered. Thus, it would be a grave mistake to conclude, as the Israeli press has done, that the politicians are simply pandering to the mob. Netanyahu recognises that Azaria is a peg in the machine, as does Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman, and it is for this reason that they are calling upon the president to pardon him. They also know that if Azaria is handed down a 20-year sentence, the structure that produces the likes of Azaria and the everyday taken-for-granted violence needed to sustain Israels colonial endeavour could well be challenged from within. However, it is also crucial not to lose sight of what they are consciously supporting. For Azaria and those who were standing by him on the Hebron streets, as well as for all of his fans citizens and politicians alike Palestinians like Yusri al-Sharif are never victims or fully human beings; they are prey. Thus, they can not only be legitimately hunted, but killing them is never a crime, and more often than not, it is not even considered a misdemeanour. Neve Gordon is a Leverhulme visiting fellow at SOAS, University of London. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy. In mid-December the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), a campaigning organisation in Britain supporting Palestinian issues, filed a claim in Englands High Court challenging regulations issued by the British government prohibiting local government pension schemes from pursuing boycotts, divestment or sanctions (BDS) against foreign nations as part of their investment policies. It is clear to most observers that these regulations are intended to prevent boycotts of Israel, although they do not state this explicitly. PSC has argued that the regulations prohibit freedom of expression, are so unclear as to be unlawful, are contrary to European Union law governing pensions, and that central government has abused its powers to regulate pensions to achieve other, unrelated objectives. The government must formally respond to PSCs claims and then the court will decide whether to grant permission for a hearing of the case. The campaign against BDS In fact, the pensions regulations are the latest in a series of measures taken by governments in Europe and North America to counter BDS, after Israel created a special task force with a budget of around $25.5m in June 2015, to fight the movement worldwide. In February 2016, the British government issued guidance prohibiting pro-BDS policies in public procurement, reportedly after lobbying by the Israeli embassy in London. Meanwhile, the United States has issued a plethora of anti-BDS laws prohibiting state investment in entities that boycott Israel. France has also used existing hate speech laws to prosecute activists encouraging BDS, and Canada, which signed a memorandum of understanding with Israel in 2015 to combat BDS, has threatened to use hate speech laws against activists. Pro-Israeli NGOs in the United Kingdom and the US have promoted legal cases against organisations supporting boycotts of Israel, often claiming that BDS constitutes a form of anti-Jewish discrimination. The right to freedom of expression There is clearly a concerted, official pro-Israeli campaign to crush BDS. In response, the movement and its supporters have emphasised that BDS advocacy is protected by the right to freedom of expression, just as the campaign against apartheid South Africa was, and a letter signed by some 200 legal experts on December 9, 2016 has affirmed this principle. Indeed, the right to free speech is an important legal foundation for the movement, which protects advocacy in support of its aims and the rights of persons to engage in boycotts of Israel. Thus, court cases against BDS have been successfully defended by asserting the right to freedom of expression. In Scotland in 2010, for example, a protest which disrupted a recital of the Jerusalem String Quartet was held to constitute a legitimate exercise in freedom of expression. Irrespective of how the movement chooses to fight the campaign against it, the fact remains that BDS has the moral high ground: its goals are rooted in international law and the achievement of human rights by peaceful means, whereas the campaign against it is fighting to eradicate a non-violent movement with humanitarian aims. by In England in 2013 the University and College Union successfully countered a Jewish members claim of racial harassment when a debate for an academic boycott was held to be part of the right to free speech (PDF). In 2016, a pro-Israel NGOs case against three pro-BDS city councils in Britain was also dismissed on similar grounds. This is not a complete answer to the threats facing the BDS movement, however, since, firstly, governments determined to pursue a political agenda to stop its activities may simply violate the right to freedom of expression. An example was the use of the criminal law in France to prosecute 12 activists for calling for a boycott of Israeli goods when such activism should have been protected by the right to free speech. OPINION: BDS is a war Israel cant win Laws by state legislatures in the US to divest state funds from entities that support BDS effectively thereby imposing a penalty for the wrong political opinion may also violate constitutional rights to freedom of expression. Secondly, even when anti-BDS measures that violate free speech can be overturned by courts, they often still have a chilling effect on BDS advocacy, for fighting them embroils campaigners in lengthy litigation which drains their emotional and financial resources. Indeed, the mere threat of legal action can prevent organisations supporting BDS. For instance, in 2015 the board of the GreenStar Natural Foods Market cooperative in the US reportedly refused to allow its members to vote on boycotting Israeli goods since it feared that approving the boycott could lead to litigation. Finally, the right to freedom of expression does not give BDS comprehensive protection. For example, if public bodies in Britain were to implement a blanket boycott of Israeli suppliers in public procurement, they might be considered to be in breach of free trade rules prohibiting discrimination on grounds of nationality, and would not be able to invoke a right to free speech to defend their actions. The need for a legal strategy Although BDS advocacy is solidly based on the right to freedom of expression, which should continue to be asserted, it is not sufficient on its own to defend the movement. A broader legal strategy is needed here, which should include the following measures. Firstly, significant resources need to be allocated to provide legal assistance to campaigners and organisations subject to anti-BDS legislation or legal action by pro-Israel groups to help them to defend themselves. Secondly, initiatives are needed to design and implement BDS policies in ways that do not violate existing laws particularly where blanket boycotts could breach regulations prohibiting discrimination on the basis of nationality. And thirdly, the law should be used to make the case proactively for BDS, rather than simply defend it from attack. For example, one of the goals of BDS is to persuade governments to ban trade with Israeli settlements, since all states, except Israel, consider settlements illegal. There are good legal arguments that trading with settlements is, in itself, illegal and should therefore be prohibited. Although the BDS movement has put forward some good arguments in this respect, these could be developed further and promoted more actively. OPINION: On its 11th birthday, BDS leads nonviolent resistance But in the end, and irrespective of how the movement chooses to fight the campaign against it, the fact remains that BDS has the moral high ground: Its goals are rooted in international law and the achievement of human rights by peaceful means, whereas the campaign against it is fighting to eradicate a non-violent movement with humanitarian aims. BDS activists should take courage from this fact and use all legal means to assert their right to engage in BDS advocacy and resist the measures trying to suppress them. Salma Karmi-Ayyoub is a barrister and legal consultant for the Palestinian human rights organisation Al Haq. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy. The United States has added the son of the late al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to the US counterterrorism blacklist, in a move that would keep him from accessing the US financial system. The State and Treasury departments said on Thursday that they had designated Hamza bin Laden a global terrorist who they said had called for acts of terrorism in Western capitals. Hamza, who is in his mid-20s, has become active as a member of al-Qaeda since his fathers death at the hands of US special forces on May 2, 2011. Egyptian deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri has since taken up the reins of the organisation, but Hamza has also issued audio messages to supporters. He was officially named an al-Qaeda member in 2015, the US state department said. In August 2015, al-Qaeda released an audio message that it claimed had come from Hamza, in which he urged attacks on the US and its allies. Osama bin Laden, who founded al-Qaeda and was the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the US, was killed by American special forces who raided his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. READ MORE: Al-Zawahiri named new al-Qaeda chief Hamza was thought to be under house arrest in Iran at the time, and documents recovered from the compound indicated that aides had been trying to reunite him with his father. According to letters found in the US raid on Osamas hideout in Pakistan, Hamza wrote to his Saudi-born father asking to be trained to follow him. Bruce Riedel, an analyst with the Brookings Institution think-tank in Washington, has called Hamza the new face for al-Qaeda and an articulate and dangerous enemy, Reuters news agency said. The US also added Ibrahim al-Banna, a senior member of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) to the counterterrorism blacklist on Thursday. Al-Banna, who was born in Egypt, has described al-Qaedas 2001 attacks on New York and Washington as virtuous, and threatened to target Americans in the United States and abroad, the state department said. Before joining AQAP, he was a leader of Egyptian Islamic Jihad in Yemen, it said, adding that al-Banna threatened to target Americans abroad and urged Saudi tribes to unite with AQAP in Yemen to fight against Saudi Arabia. Any property owned by the two men and subject to US jurisdiction may be frozen, and US citizens are prohibited from engaging in any transactions with them, the state department said. At least 17 people killed and 15 others wounded in two separate car bomb blasts in the Iraqi capital. At least 17 people have been killed and 15 others wounded in two separate car bomb attacks in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, police and medics have said. The first blast on Thursday went off in the citys eastern al-Obeidi area during the morning rush at a food market, killing seven civilians and two policemen, and wounding 15. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) armed group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Just hours later, a second explosion hit the central Baghdad district of Bab al-Moadham near a security checkpoint, killing eight. There has been no claim of responsibility for the second attack. Both bombs had been left in parked vehicles. Elsewhere, four attacks in and around Baghdad killed at least seven people, bringing Thursdays overall death toll to at least 21. Those attacks, mostly by bombs that went off in commercial areas or targeted security forces, wounded at least 20 people. The blasts bore the hallmark of ISIL (also known as ISIS), which has carried out a string of bombings in Baghdad over the past week, killing nearly 100 people. On Tuesday, ISIL claimed a suicide car bombing at a busy market in the Sadr City district, killing at least 39 Iraqis. At least 28 people were killed and 54 others wounded in a double bombing in the centre of the city on Saturday, carried out by ISIL. Baghdad has been on high alert since October 17, the start of Iraqs largest military operation since the 2003 US invasion to retake the northern city of Mosul, which was captured by ISIL in 2014. Outgoing US president urges Democrats to protect his signature health insurance law at Capitol Hill. President Barack Obama has urged fellow Democrats to preserve his legacy-defining healthcare law, popularly known as Obamacare, as Republicans move ahead with their long-sought bid to repeal it. Vice President-elect Mike Pence has called the move the first order of business of Donald Trumps administration. The Democrats message is that Republicans risk throwing the entire US healthcare system into chaos by moving to dismantle the 2010 Affordable Care Act, without a plan to replace it. Republicans argue the system is already broken and that they will help more people to gain coverage by repealing the law while working to minimise disruptions to those who depend on it. Both Obama and Pence visited Capitol Hill for closed-door discussions on Obamacare on Wednesday. The American people have sent new leadership here because Obamacare has failed and has been rejected by the American people, Pence told a news conference. Obama, who hands over the presidency to Trump on January 20, urged Democratic politicians to protect his signature domestic policy measure. He told reporters his message was to look out for the American people. READ MORE: Americans dream of Canada after Trump Democrats acknowledge they lack the votes needed to stop repeal legislation being pushed by Republicans, who will control the White House and both chambers of Congress when Trump takes office. However, they argue that with no replacement plan in place by the Republicans, the roughly 20 million people who gained insurance under the law could see their coverage in jeopardy. The Republican plan to cut the healthcare law wouldnt make America great again, it would make America sick again and lead to chaos in the healthcare system, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer told reporters. The 2010 law was passed by Democrats and has been challenged twice by Republicans at the Supreme Court. Republicans say it helped low-income Americans, but hurt the middle class who saw health insurance premiums soar. Al Jazeeras Kimberly Halkett, reporting from Washington DC, said: One aspect of Obamacare most Americans do like is the protection it offers. Those with pre-existing conditions like asthma or a prior serious illness can no longer be denied coverage, she said. Top Republicans are promising that will not change under any new legislation. We dont want to pull the rug out from under people while were replacing this law, said House Speaker Paul Ryan. Sketch portraying British female members of the group in Syria criticised as tasteless by some but welcomed by others. A BBC sketch satirising British women who have left to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group has attracted controversy and praise alike online. The two-minute-long skit titled The Real Housewives of ISIS features four British Muslim women who have left their homes in the UK to join the armed group in Syria. First published online on Tuesday, the sketch has picked up millions of views on Facebook and has been shared widely on other social media platforms. One scene portrays a woman undecided about what to wear to a beheading, and another shows two of the women angry at each other for wearing the same suicide vest. The segment is part of a comedy show called Revolting, which directs its humour at lampooning current affairs issues. READ MORE: ISIL ramps up fight with weaponised drones Muslim sketch creator Faraz Ali described the BBC skit as poor taste. For the few documented events where young girls, often under 18, have left the UK, there is no doubt this has been a result of dangerous grooming and misguidance, he said. Making light of this situation feels inherently wrong, almost capitalising on the suffering of these young girls who acted without proper insight, he added. Ali said that while there was merit in mocking ISIL, doing so runs the risk of making light of the very real and significant problems ISIL leaves in its wake. Constructing an image of Muslim women as oppressed and fond of terrorism at a time of widespread gendered Islamophobia is deeply sinister. Harry (@HarryShotton) January 4, 2017 British Muslim comedian Ali Shahalom was one of the many who welcomed the segment, describing it as very funny in a Facebook post, adding he was not offended by the material. The sketch ridicules online grooming and draws attention to an important topic, he said. From what Ive seen, it doesnt offend religion. Satire like this highlights the absurdity of those that recruit and get recruited for ISIS, he added. Shahalom acknowledged the sensitivities of covering the topic but said it was one writers should not be afraid to approach. The real housewives of Isis "comedy" that the BBC is going to air just isn't right. You can't make a joke out of it Cause it's not funny Kayleigh (@KayAndrews94) January 4, 2017 @BBC2 'The Real Housewives of Isis': Very funny! thank you for finding humour in such dark times and for being daring.U need to push limits agatdeblues #FBPE (@agathejagiella) January 4, 2017 Debate played out in the comment section underneath the video on Facebook, with many not as impressed with the skit as Shahalom. Bad taste, not funny at all, said commenter Anna Butcher. Im sure those who have been effected by ISIS, or [have] been victims of them, or the relatives of those killed in terrorists attacks, wont be laughing? she added, using an alternate acronym for ISIL. https://twitter.com/UncleMeraj/status/816672501833101312 Warwick University academic Sara Salem said that while such comedy set out to show how ridiculous Islamophobic ideas were, it ended up reinforcing such stereotypes instead. The trouble with this type of humour is that it ignores the broader context in which it will be revived, namely British society, Salem said. While it may challenge some peoples conceptions of Muslim women by making light of tropes we hear of constantly, for many others it wont serve as anything more than comedy based on things they already believe in and will continue believing in. Not only is it not a challenge to these stereotypes, it is using them to make light of what is ultimately not a very funny situation. Previous pranks The creators of Revolting, Heydon Prowse and Jolyon Rubinstein, have previously drawn controversy for their satire and daring political pranks. Pro-Israel groups reacted angrily when the pair pretended to be building contractors and visited shops in London to tell them their businesses would be confiscated to expand the nearby Israeli embassy. The pair also put up posters at the International Criminal Court demanding the arrest of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and in another stunt tried to present a plaque to Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson for his purported talent for lying. At least two killed in blast near a court, while police have killed two attackers in coastal city, governor says. An explosion outside a court in the Turkish Aegean city of Izmir has killed at least two people, including a police officer, and wounded several others, according to a statement by the governor of the city. Two attackers were killed in a gunfight with the security forces following the blast caused by a car bomb, the state-run Anadolu news agency said on Thursday, adding that police were searching for the third attacker. The governor of Izmir, Erol Ayyldz, told reporters that a police officer and a court employee were killed in the incident. At least six wounded people were taken to hospital in the city located on the countrys western coast, he said. The assailants carried out the attack after they were stopped at a checkpoint outside the court, the governor added. Burning vehicles Vehicles were burning and ambulances were rushed to the blast site, according to the photographs shown on national television networks. Damage was reported around the area close to one of the gates of the court, where the blast happened, Turkish media said. Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak said a much larger attack was apparently being planned, based on the weapons found at the scene of the bombing. Based on the preparation, the weapons, bombs and ammunition seized, it is understood that a big atrocity was being planned, Kaynak told reporters. Al Jazeeras Mohammed Jamjoom, reporting from Istanbul, said the latest attack shows how volatile the security situation in Turkey is. It is interesting that this happened today because just yesterday there was news from officials that at least 20 people were detained in relation to the attack on the Reina nightclub on the New Years Eve, he said. There is a massive manhunt going on over the incident. A gunman stormed the Istanbul nightclub killing 39 people during New Year celebrations on Sunday. Ahmed Maher released after three years in prison for attending protest in defiance of law banning public gatherings. A prominent activist in the 2011 Egyptian uprising has been released from prison after serving a three-year sentence, his lawyer said. Ahmed Maher, a symbol of the revolution that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak, was released on Thursday. His wife, Reham Ibrahim, welcomed his release in a Facebook post, saying: We will make up for what we missed, expressing disbelief over her husbands return home. Maher was charged in 2013 for attending a protest in defiance of a law banning public gatherings not pre-authorised by the Interior Ministry. He will continue the remainder of his sentence, which is expected to last for another three years, under surveillance in his Cairo home. One of Mahers lawyers, Mohamed Gaheen, said: The purpose of the probation period is to watch criminals after they finish their prison terms, but it has never been used before against political prisoners. READ MORE: Egypt issues arrest order for two activists Maher, 36, used his activism via social media as a cofounder of the April 6 youth movement to rally Egyptian youth in the demonstrations that resulted in Mubarak stepping down in February 2011. With the military takeover that followed two and half years later, which overthrew the elected Islamist president, the new government issued a ban on all unauthorised demonstrations. The law on protests says the Interior Ministry must be notified of any public gathering of more than 10 people at least three days in advance. The law allowed security forces to step up force and to issue verbal warnings to protesters, use water cannon or tear gas and birdshot against demonstrators. The current government under President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has waged a large-scale crackdown on opposition over the past few years, including Islamist supporters of former President Mohamed Morsi, and other secular activists. It is uncertain whether Maher will be able to return to activism given the current political climate. READ MORE: Egypt outlaws anti-Mubarak April 6 movement Maher was convicted along with prominent activists and cofounders of the movement Mohammed Adel and Ahmed Douma. Each was fined and sentenced to three years in prison. While Adel will end his sentence in one month, Douma is serving a life sentence in another case and is awaiting an appeal in April. Founded in 2008 with calls for democratic change and social justice through methods including civil disobedience, the April 6 movement later became one of the influential groups in the uprising that overthrew former President Morsi. Tarek al-Awadi, a lawyer also serving in Mahers case, said that local police assigned with monitoring him, would have wide discretion over his treatment. If they decide to put a lot of pressure on him, humiliate him and treat him like they treat thieves and drug dealers, they could order him to spend each night of the coming three years at the police station, al-Awadi said. Officials in southern French town twice sent officers to primary school that offered pupils optional Arabic lessons. A French council sent police officers to a primary school to protest about its decision to offer optional Arabic language classes to pupils. Local news outlet La Chaine Info (LCI) said the deputy mayor of Six-Four-Les-Plages had confirmed that officers were sent to the Reynier primary school twice in November to inform school officials of the mayors opposition to the lessons. Jean-Sebastien Vialatte told LCI that officials were concerned that the class, which was being held outside school hours, was not agreed to by the local council in the Var district of southern France. Vialatte also told the outlet that officials had reservations about the teacher, who was not a state employee. Information about the incidents came to light on Wednesday after a French lawyer shared court documents exposing a failed legal suit by the council to halt the classes . In September, an image shared on social media by a parent of one of the children at the school falsely claimed the classes were mandatory, prompting outrage in France, amplified by populist parties. Sharing the inaccurate claim on his Facebook page, Frederic Boccaletti, a local politician and member of the far-right National Front (FN), blamed friends of the Moroccan-born Minister of Education Najat Vallaud-Belkace, for forcing the lessons on French children. He went on to accuse Vialatte of being complicit in allowing the classes to proceed. Anti-Muslim measures The incidents come amid a climate of tension in France over its Muslim minority, composed mainly of immigrants from North Africa and their descendants. France has banned the wearing of headscarves by Muslim children in schools and the wearing of full face veils in public. Some schools have also removed options for pork-free school dinners that Muslim pupils usually opt for. A campaign of bomb, gun, and knife attacks, by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group has also helped harden French public opinion on Muslims. The French government says that it is acting to preserve the secular character of the country. Hollande: France has a problem with Islam French Muslim activist Yasser Louati said the incident in Six-Four-Les-Plages reflected a normalisation of state sponsored racism. Sending the police to make sure an Arabic class isnt held shows how much hate government institutions can express for Arabs, Louati said. In 2015 we had cases of primary school children being humiliated, assaulted, and even taken to the police by their teachers . Then we had schoolgirls being barred from school for wearing a long skirt or the prohibition of substitute meals for Muslims and Jews. Louati said senior officials had done little to address the problem and had often acted to encourage such views, referring to government minister Laurence Rossignols comments last year, where she compared Muslim women who wore the hijab to American negroes who supported slavery. The only solution for French Muslims and any citizen who loves justice and equality is to band together and engage in a power struggle with decision-makers, he added. The upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections are an opportunity nobody benefits from a society built on hate. Ousman Badjie says forces will be loyal to the defeated president despite earlier backing election winner Adama Barrow. The Gambias army chief has reaffirmed his loyalty to President Yahya Jammeh, who has spent more than two decades in power and refuses to step down. Jammeh lost a December 1 election to Adama Barrow, a former estate agent. Lieutenant-General Ousman Badjie used a new year message published in the pro-government Daily Observer newspaper on Wednesday to renew to Your Excellency [Jammeh] the assurance of the unflinching loyalty and support of The Gambia Armed Forces. But Jeffrey Smith, the executive director of Vanguard Africa, a campaign group advising pro-reform African leaders, told Al Jazeera that Badjies declaration should be taken with a pinch of salt. First of all, the only outlet really reporting this right now has been the state-run Observer newspaper which is essentially a propaganda mouthpiece for the Jammeh regime, Smith said. Secondly, I was talking to a former Gambian minister earlier today and he told me that the letter that was published in the Gambian newspaper is actually a recycled letter. In fact, it is an annual letter that is sent to the president from the army, so in that sense it is not really entirely unique news. REPORTERS NOTEBOOK: Being a journalist in Gambia Smith added that by declaring his support for Jammeh, the army chief may simply be trying to save his life. The two most dangerous professions in The Gambia are being a journalist and being in the army, given the widespread disappearances, killings and torture that has occurred for members in both sectors, he said. Jammeh, who has been in power for 22 years, stunned observers by initially accepting his defeat, but then made a U-turn a week later, rejecting the results and then filing a court challenge against the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC). READ MORE: Amnesty accuses Gambia government of brutal repression Diplomats in the region have voiced private concern that Barrows safety is not being guaranteed by the state, as he relies on unarmed volunteers to act as bodyguards. Barrow initially claimed the army chief had personally assured him of his support, but Badjie subsequently appeared at high-level mediation talks in Banjul in mid-December saying the incumbent was still his boss. A crackdown in recent days by security agents has also shut two radio stations, while a group of traders selling T-shirts featuring Barrows image were briefly detained. On Tuesday evening Jammeh and his party filed two more legal complaints with the Supreme Court, claiming two IEC officials had meddled in the voting process, affecting at least 25,000 votes, and alleging that Jammeh was denied a well-earned victory. If the result was properly collated, the outcome would have shown that the petitioner [Jammeh] won the election, said a court filing lodged by Jammeh himself. Electoral commission chief flees The head of The Gambias electoral commission has fled to neighbouring Senegal fearing for his safety, meaning he is unlikely to appear in any of the three court cases now lodged against him. Alieu Momar Njie suspected a plot against him after his commissions headquarters were locked by the security forces for several days while Jammeh challenged the election result in the Supreme Court. The election was hailed internationally as free and fair, but Jammeh has cited a recount issued in the days after the election as evidence of manipulation by the IEC. Security forces say inmates on the run in remote farmlands after jailbreak blamed on Muslim rebels. Security forces in the Philippines have captured 40 of the 158 inmates who escaped from a prison in the countrys south, in a brazen jailbreak blamed on Muslim rebels. Prison authorities said on Thursday that 111 inmates remained on the run in remote farmlands and isolated villages, while seven others had been killed in the manhunt. This is a very wide area. Aside from sugar, rubber and coconut plantations, there are areas and camps held by rebels that we cannot easily enter, prison warden Peter Bongngat told the AFP news agency. On Wednesday, more than 100 gunmen facilitated what officials say was the biggest jailbreak in the countrys history. The attack on the North Cotabato District Jail in Kidapawan, some 930km southeast of the capital, Manila, took place in a region where Muslim rebels have been active for generations. Al Jazeeras Jamela Alindogan, reporting from Kidapawan, said it was still unclear who orchestrated the jailbreak. Officials suspect the commander of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a group that is undertaking peace negotiations with the Philippine government, or another rebel group, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF). The two groups, however, have denied any involvement. The BIFF is a small group fighting for an independent Muslim state in southern Philippines. It has carried out several attacks in recent years in an effort to derail the peace process. MILF spokesman Von al-Haq insisted on Thursday that none of its members was involved in the raid, adding that the group was willing to coordinate with the government to allow searches in its communities. Kidapawan city is one of the most progressive cities in Mindanao province but it has long been caught up in the violence that has scaled back this region for decades, our correspondent said. Separatist violence has raged since the 1970s in Mindanao, the main southern Philippine island. It is home to most of the countrys five million Muslims, but Christians remain the overall majority. Park is accused of colluding with a friend to pressure businesses to make contributions to her policy initiatives. AL JAZEERAS HARRY FAWCETT, REPORTING FROM SEOUL: Nearly a month after the national assembly voted to impeach President Park, the constitutional court is at last hearing the arguments on both sides. Lawyers for the national assembly are essentially rethreading the language of the impeachment motion saying that the president is not deserving of her office, that she gravely broke the constitution by allowing a long-time friend to intervene in the running of state affairs among other things. We are also now finally hearing a detailed defence from Parks legal team, going point by point through the various allegations against her. For example she wasnt aware that her friend Choo Soon-sil was involved in cultural and sporting foundations to which she was encouraging large corporate giants to donate millions of dollars. They are admitting one mistake, saying that she did allow Choo Soon-sil access to presidential speeches but that her influence was tiny and was not systemic. They are saying it was a small mistake that was not grave enough to lose Park her office. South Koreas Constitutional Court has begun to hear oral arguments in the impeachment trial of President Park Geun-hye, who politicians voted to remove over a corruption scandal that saw millions of people protest over the past several months. Parks lawyers and lawmakers, who serve as prosecutors in the trial, traded pointed arguments on Thursday on the validity of accusations that she colluded with a confidante to extort money and favours from companies and allowed the friend to unlawfully interfere with government affairs. READ MORE: Park Geun-hye says she has never conspired with anyone Lawmaker Kweon Seong Dong, the chief prosecutor in the trial, said Park betrayed the trust people put in her by broadly and gravely violating the constitution and criminal laws. Parks lawyer, Lee Joong-hwan, said the accusations stated in the impeachment bill lack evidence and fail to make legal sense because they were based on allegations and media reports, not criminal convictions. The hearing proceeded without Park, who refused to testify for the second time following her no-show on Tuesday. The nine-justice court cannot force Park to appear. Parks lawyers may prefer her not to testify because their chief argument is that the accusations against Park have not been fully proven, Han Sang-hee, a law professor at Seouls Konkuk University, told the AP news agency. Park rejected requests by state prosecutors to question her and has yet to be questioned by the special prosecution team that has taken over the inquiry. The court, which will hear witnesses later on Thursday, has six months to decide if Park should permanently step down or should be reinstated. Top intelligence officials accuse Moscow of interfering in US elections, a day before spy agencies brief Donald Trump. US spy chiefs insisted they have strong evidence that Russia mounted an unprecedented bid to disrupt the American election, standing firm in the face of President-elect Donald Trumps refusal to accept their conclusions. One day before the heads of four top intelligence bodies brief the president-elect on their assessment of Russian meddling in last years vote, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told a Senate hearing on Thursday that he had very high confidence in their findings. The Russians have a long history of interfering in elections, theirs and other peoples, he told the Armed Services Committee. But we have never encountered such a direct campaign to interfere with the election process as we have seen in this case. This was a multifaceted campaign. So the hacking was only one part of it, and it also entailed classical propaganda, disinformation, fake news, said Clapper. Russia has clearly assumed an even more aggressive cyber-posture by increasing cyber-espionage operations... by James Clapper, National Intelligence chief Clapper, National Security Agency chief Michael Rogers, and Marcel Lettre, undersecretary of defence for intelligence, told the committee in a joint statement that only Russias senior-most officials could have authorised the operation, in which hackers stole Democratic Party files and emails. The information was then disseminated via WikiLeaks, embarrassing the Democratic Party and potentially harming losing candidate Hillary Clintons White House effort. Russia has clearly assumed an even more aggressive cyber-posture by increasing cyber-espionage operations, Clapper said. Julian Assange said "a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta" why was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2017 The Senate Committee hearing comes a week after President Barack Obama expelled 35 Russian diplomats over the alleged hacking. John McCain, the Republican chairman of the committee, said every American should be alarmed by Russias meddling in the 2016 presidential election. There is no escaping the fact that this committee meets today for the first time in this new Congress in the aftermath of an unprecedented attack on our democracy, McCain said. Pressed by McCain, former presidential candidate and organiser of the hearing, on whether the actions constituted an act of war, Clapper said that was a very heavy policy call more appropriate for other entities in the government to decide. READ MORE: US expels Russian diplomats over cyber attacks Obama struck back at Moscow in late December with sanctions aimed at Russias leading spy agencies, the GRU, Russias military intelligence agency, and the FSB, the successor to the Soviet-eras main security agency, the KGB, that the US said were involved. Moscow has denied the hacking allegations and dismissed Obamas sanctions as an attempt to harm Russian-American ties. The committees session is the first in a series aimed at investigating purported Russian cyber-attacks against US interests and developing defences sturdy enough to blunt future intrusions. Trump, who has pledged to bring about a rapprochement with President Vladimir Putins Russia after taking office on January 20, has repeatedly dismissed such findings. He even seemed to have backed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assanges contention that Russia did not provide him with hacked Democratic Party emails. Trump, due to be briefed on the findings by the intelligence committee on Friday, claims to have information on the hacking that he will soon make public. Clapper said politicians will be briefed on the Russian hacking report next week and an unclassified version is tentatively scheduled to be released shortly after that. He said, however, Russias hacking did not change any vote tallies. At least 11 killed and 35 others wounded in government-controlled town in Latakia province, state news agency reports. At least 11 people have been killed and 35 wounded in a car bomb attack on the Syrian government-held coastal town of Jableh, state media reported. Thursdays attack in Latakia province is the first such explosion since a new ceasefire, brokered by Russia and Turkey, took effect last week. A terrorist car bomb attack took place near the Municipal Stadium in Jableh, state news agency SANA said. Jableh is close to a Russian airbase and lies in the heartland of Syrias Alawites, a Shia offshoot to which President Bashar al-Assads family belongs. Latakia province police chief Yasser al-Shariti told state TV that the explosion hit during rush hour in one of the citys main streets. State TV showed footage of mangled cars and the shutters of shops damaged and blown apart as rescue workers cleared the debris amid a heavy security presence in the bustling commercial area near a popular vegetable market and a garage depot. As most of Syrias government-held coastal cities and towns, Jableh has enjoyed relative stability during the almost six-year conflict. In May, however, a string of blasts hit first a crowded bus station in the city, then outside a hospital that was receiving the wounded. About 120 people died in that attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group. No group immediately claimed responsibility for Thursdays bombing. ISIL and several other groups are not part of the broad truce that the government and the opposition agreed on recently. The unexpected resignation of Ivan Rogers came just weeks before the Brexit negotiations were to start. British Prime Minister Theresa May has appointed a senior career diplomat as envoy to the European Union to replace an ambassador whose unexpected resignation rocked Brexit plans just before negotiations are due to start. Downing Street announced on Wednesday that Tim Barrow, a former ambassador to Moscow who has previously served in Brussels, would take over from Ivan Rogers as Britain heads into the talks on Brexit. Rogers, who resigned on Tuesday, sent an email to staff condemning ill-founded arguments and muddled thinking over Brexit and made it clear he was still in the dark over Mays objectives. READ MORE: Brexit tensions play out on steps of UK Supreme Court Barrow is not known to have taken a strong public position on Brexit. In a statement released by Mays office, he said he looked forward to joining the new government department tasked with overseeing the exit from the EU, to ensure we get the right outcome for the United Kingdom as we leave the EU. A Downing Street spokesperson described Barrow as a seasoned and tough negotiator, with extensive experience of securing UK objectives in Brussels. He will bring his trademark energy and creativity to this job working alongside other senior officials and ministers to make a success of Brexit, the statement added. May intends to launch the two-year process of negotiating to leave the bloc by the end of March, beginning what is expected to be some of the most complicated international talks Britain has engaged in since World War II. The capitals main orphanage may have to close owing to lack of funding, forcing hundreds of children on to the streets. Hundreds of Yemeni orphans may be forced on to the streets owing to a lack of government funding, the head of the countrys largest orphanage has said. The Dar Riayat al-Aytam orphanage in Sanaa has been struggling with a lack of funds since Houthi rebels captured the capital in autumn 2014, and the situation has worsened in recent months. Abdullah al-Hindi, the head of the orphanage, said that almost two years of war had decimated the economy, and there have been severe cuts to public spending. The orphanage is at threat of closure and the children could face loss and displacement unless there are immediate solutions from National Salvation Government and well-wishers, he told the Reuters news agency. The National Salvation Government was formed by the Houthis and elements loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh in early October to assert control over large swaths of territory they control. If more money isnt made available soon the orphanage will close and some of Yemens most vulnerable children will be homeless, al-Hindi added. READ MORE: My children are starving to death Fadel al-Qahtani, a child living at the orphanage, spoke of dire conditions, adding that on most nights the 800-plus children housed there would go hungry. We used to have complete meals, including stew, fruit and meat there were even extras to go around. But now, we dont get anything other than rice, he said. According to figures released last month by UNICEF, on average one child dies every 10 minutes owing to preventable diseases such as malnutrition, diarrhoea and respiratory infections. More than 2.2 million children are in need of urgent care, and at least 462,000 suffer from severe acute malnutrition a drastic increase of about 200 percent since before the war. An Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia launched a military campaign to drive back the Houthis in March 2015. Since then, more than 10,000 Yemenis have been killed and more than three million displaced, the UN says. The coalition has been blamed for several attacks on medical centres, including some run by international aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF), schools, factories and homes in the past 22 months, which have killed scores of civilians. The Houthis have besieged Yemens second largest city, Taiz, for 22 months, and have been blamed for shortages of food, water and medicines. They have also been accused of recruiting hundreds of child soldiers. The situation gets worse every day, Rajeh al-Aqabi, a teacher at the orphanage, said. If nothing is done to help we will have a catastrophe on our hands for us, for others, for the whole country. Release of four detainees comes despite President-elect Donald Trumps demand for a freeze on transfers. Four Yemenis who were held by the United States at its Guantanamo Bay military prison have landed in Saudi Arabia. The release of the four on Thursday came after the White House rejected President-elect Donald Trumps demand for a freeze on transfers. Family members met the detainees in tearful reunions at the royal airport in the Saudi capital Riyadh. The transfers are part of a final push by President Barack Obama to shrink the inmate population there before leaving office on January 20. A spokesman in the Saudi Interior Ministry confirmed to the families that the ministry will facilitate their visitations while they are being rehabilitated in the Mohammed bin Nayef Centre for Counselling and Care, located outside of Riyadh. Saudi state media released the names of the four Yemenis as Mohammed Rajab Sadiq Abu Ghanim, Salim Ahmad Hadi, Abdullah Yahia Yousf al-Shabli and Mohammed Ali Abdullah Bwazir. Saudi Arabia received the four prisoners for resettlement after a request by the Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to do so. There are 59 detainees remaining at the controversial detention centre, out of the 240 when Obama took office in 2009. Only a handful, including the alleged plotters of the September 11, 2001 attacks, have started moving through the military tribunals,. Many of the others are in legal limbo: not charged but deemed too dangerous to release. READ MORE: White House expects more Guantanamo transfers Roughly 20 are expected to be transferred before Trump is sworn in later this month. Saudi Arabia received detainees most recently in April, when the Obama administration transferred nine to the country, including an alleged bodyguard of Osama Bin Laden. All nine detainees were linked to al-Qaeda. None of the nine men had been charged and all but one had been cleared for release from the US base in Cuba since at least 2010. On Tuesday, Trump said on Twitter There should be no further releases from Gitmo. These are extremely dangerous people and should not be allowed back onto the battlefield. He also vowed to load [Guantanamo] up with some bad dudes once he is in the White House. Trumps declaration is the latest in a series of public disputes between Obama and the outspoken Republican president-elect, who has jettisoned the notion that there is one president at a time. Obama came to office vowing to shutter the facility, saying detention without trial did not reflect American values. But he has run up against political and legal hurdles, Pentagon foot-dragging and stubborn Republican opposition in Congress. Far-right politicians have come out to support an Israeli soldier found guilty of killing a wounded Palestinian. It has been a closely watched trial with an unusual verdict. Unlike in previous cases in which soldiers were acquitted, an Israeli army sergeant has been convicted of the manslaughter of a Palestinian man. Elor Azaria fatally shot Abed al-Fattah al-Sharif in the head in Hebron as he lay on the ground wounded. A second Palestinian was also shot and killed. Police say al-Sharif stabbed an Israeli guard at a checkpoint. The court case highlights deep divisions among Israelis. Army generals said the 19-year-old army sergeant who opened fire broke the code of war. Far-right politicians said video of the shooting made him a scapegoat. What does the guilty verdict say about Israeli society and its relationship to Palestinians? Presenter: Jane Dutton Guests: Issa Amro Palestinian human rights activist and founder of the Camera Project. Akiva Eldar Senior Columnist, Al-Monitor. Robbie Sabel Professor, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Noah Cellura wants eight UF freshmen to spend their summer in a Brazilian slum. Cellura, a UF business administration sophomore, hopes to recruit students to teach English to impoverished children in Rio de Janeiro through Project Youth Empowering Education Together, which he founded to fight education inequality. Project YEET, which he founded last year, will offer internships in Summer for students to teach English to local kids in Rocinha, the largest favela, or slum, in Rio de Janeiro. Cellura, 20, said he is making the internship available only to UF freshmen to give younger students opportunities usually saved for older students. Plus, he said, they have the same English-speaking skills as upperclassmen. I feel like UF freshmen oftentimes get overlooked for a lot of internships, he said. So I think a lot of freshmen end up feeling like they wasted their freshmen summer. Students have until Jan. 18 to apply online on the organizations webpage. Before the trip, the interns will participate in safety training and learn basic Portuguese, Cellura said. Project YEET will invite four interns during Summer A and four during Summer B. Students will pay $4,380 for each session or $5,430 if they want to stay for Summer C. Cellura, who attended high school in Brazil, Panama and the United Arab Emirates, said he has grown up helping people in need. After starting Project YEET, he led a group of his friends last summer to raise money to build a bridge in Panama so children could get to school during the rainy season. This year, instead of raising money, Cellura wants to teach English. Hes now working with friends in Rio de Janeiro to set up the program and host the interns. I was thinking of what are skills that UF students have that people in those other places need, and I think the number one skill we can offer is English, Cellura said. He said he understands students may be concerned for their safety in the favela, but they will be taught how to avoid being a target of criminals. Enjoy what you're reading? Get content from The Alligator delivered to your inbox Subscribe Now Liam Guerin, a UF exploratory freshman, said hes planning to apply to the internship because he believes people can achieve higher levels of equality through education. Although the 19-year-old has not yet chosen a major, he said the internship will teach him skills that will help him throughout college. What were going to be doing will hone in skills that will help me with whatever I end up doing, he said. Being organized, public speaking and just being able to see a completely different lifestyle will be a great perspective-builder, which is also good to have. jtavel@alligator.org @taveljimena After threatening an attack, a Santa Fe High School student was arrested Tuesday with three knives and a set of brass knuckles concealed in his backpack, Alachua Police said. Austin Ray Rouse Cormican, 18, made threats to harm himself and others at the 16213 U.S. 441 school, and posted pictures of himself with several weapons to social media, according to a police report. He was arrested at the school at about 9:06 a.m. Cormican faces a 10-day suspension and an automatic recommendation for expulsion, said Jackie Johnson, the Alachua County Public Schools public information officer. Of the three knives he possessed, two were foldable pocket knives and the other had a 3.5-inch blade, according to the report. He posted on social media that he intended to use the weapons at school, according to the report. Aware of his posts, concerned parents and students reported Cormican to school staff, according to the report. When he arrived at school Tuesday, he was confronted by school officials. He told school staff about the weapons in his backpack and was arrested on a charge of having a concealed weapon at school. Authorities took him to the Alachua County Jail where he was released Wednesday afternoon on his own recognizance. Cormican could not be reached for comment. @merylkornfield mkornfield@alligator.org Austin Ray Rouse Cormican Enjoy what you're reading? Get content from The Alligator delivered to your inbox Subscribe Now Swedish-American pianist Roberta Swedien is bringing the music of the Nobel Prize Awards to Gainesville. Roberta Swedien On Friday, the Gainesville resident and music teacher will per- form The Nobel Concert at 7:30 p.m. at the Historic Thomas Center, located at 302 NE Sixth Ave., for the first time in Gainesville. Through music and narration, Swedien will describe the events and festivities of the Nobel ceremonies, where six individuals are recognized for their academic work. Swedien, 64, created the con- cert after the Embassy of Sweden in New Delhi, India, asked her to create a program in 2001 for the ceremonys 100th anniversary, she said. She has been performing the concert around the U.S. ever since. I think it benefits UF and the whole community because most of us dont get to go to the Nobel Awards, Swedien said. Tickets for the concert are $15 for adults and $10 for children. Russell Etling, the cultural affairs manager for Gainesvilles Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Department, said the show is part of the citys cultural co-sponsorship program. He said the program lets culutral organizations use the Thomas Center at a reduced price to host events for the community. Its a wonderful opportunity to see the extraordinary talent that this community has, he said. @Mary_Lou_W mwatkinson@alligator.org Enjoy what you're reading? Get content from The Alligator delivered to your inbox Subscribe Now Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Mr. Senzeni Zokwana, invites you to a media briefing where Minister will be briefing the media on the Cape Town High court verdict to grant Viking Fishings urgent interdict on the Fishing Rights Allocation Process of 2016. Details of the media briefing are as follows: Date: Friday, 06 January []http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Appa-sourceTheAfric... The members of the Security Council condemned in the strongest terms the attack against a convoy of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) on 4 January 2017 around the town of Obo, in which two Moroccan peacekeepers were killed and two others were wounded. The members of the []http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Appa-sourceTheAfric... Asked if a computer will ever be able to give better investment advice than a human, Oliver Bussmann does not hesitate. "I believe it's possible," said Bussmann, who until March was the chief information officer of UBS. Banks' wealth management departments and other investment firms are starting to adopt artificial intelligence. This is different from the robo-advisers you've probably heard about. Those have simplistic, rules-based models you give them your age, risk tolerance, goals, and so on and they select a basket of exchange-traded funds for you. The next generation of AI in wealth management uses rules or models crafted by data scientists with Ph.D.s and master's degrees. "They can come up with very sophisticated investing models, leveraging artificial intelligence technology, and potentially can outperform the traditional players," said Bussmann, who now has an eponymous advisory firm and is also a mentor at Level39, a fintech accelerator based in London. "With AI you can scan the available market data and understand events and triggers that change the market situation and potential performance of certain sectors, certain stocks. It's all about the ability to process a huge amount of data, define the rules and drive the right rules." To be sure, overreliance on computer models has gotten the investing world in trouble in the past. High-frequency traders have at times caused volatility and flash crashes through their use of algorithmic trading. The quants (or quantitative analysts) who poured into Wall Street in the early 2000s were heralded for their risk and pricing models, which enabled firms to sell complex collateralized debt obligations to unsuspecting investors that turned out to be based on subprime mortgages. Computer models by themselves can only do so much. For this reason, Bussmann says, it will always be important to keep humans in the equation. "You have always two extremes," he said. "One is, you rely 100% on the models; the other is, you rely just on the human. I think it's necessary to find a balance." The fully staffed bank chief investment officer department which analyzes market sectors, makes portfolio allocations and picks stocks may migrate to an environment where there are people modeling data and people validating the models and their results. Financial advisers' jobs will change as well. Over time, they will create investment strategies that are used to build the models. Then the advisers will communicate the advice the models generate. Machines will take care of the execution and maintenance of the strategies. "The industry is already racing to maximize productivity," Bussmann said. "How many assets under management can you manage as a financial adviser? Even in the high-net-worth environment, you have to think about how much can you automate and drive efficiency while not losing that personal touch." Competition will come down to "how good is your combination of engineers, scientists and market people to define and improve those models," Bussmann said. Early Adopters ANZ, in Melbourne, Australia, was among the first banks to explore the possibilities it began using IBM's Watson to help its financial advisers understand their clients in 2013. The hedge fund Bridgewater Associates hired the former chief engineer behind IBM's Watson supercomputer in 2013 to create a unit that would use AI to predict market trends. BlackRock built its own artificial intelligence engine to assist its investment managers and clients. Goldman Sachs uses the AI-based financial research platform Kensho. UBS, Deutsche Bank and others are using an AI engine called Sqreem. BlackRock's AI engine, called Aladdin, is used internally to help inform investment decisions; it's also offered to customers. Nearly 30,000 people use the system. "There's information out there that is highly correlated to stock return, bond return and market return," said Jody Kochansky, head of the Aladdin product group at BlackRock. "We believe that the firms that can get organized around their data, understand and are able to research what all those data are telling them and predicting can ultimately invest in a way to create better returns for clients." Aladdin, which is based on open source technology and Hadoop, uses natural-language processing to read thousands of documents, including news stories and broker reports, and comes up with a sentiment score on the entities or companies the articles mention. Social media feeds give Aladdin insight into news events. If people tweet photos of a fire that broke out near a gas pipeline, that could cause a scare 45 minutes later in the energy market, for instance. "That ultimately helps the human make an investment decision," Kochansky said. The software can gather satellite images, for instance, to see how full a retailer's parking lot is. That's likely to correlate to the company's revenue, which should correlate with the stock price. BlackRock thinks in terms of machine learning informing human investment decisions, not yet in terms of machines making decisions on their own. "As a fiduciary, you have to always understand why you are making a particular investment decision," Kochansky said. "We have to be careful about letting loose artificial intelligence." One time, BlackRock's operations team wondered about a set of trades that had failed. Using Aladdin, they quickly discovered that a counterparty in Brazil was truncating prices to four decimals when the market standard was six decimals. A phone call was made to the counterparty, who addressed the matter. The fail rate for those trades dropped to almost zero. Artificial intelligence "is allowing us to see the forest for the trees, to see better the patterns," Kochansky said. "It's allowing all of us to know where to focus the human creative element. You're able to test more hypotheses more quickly and then home in on the ones that are going to help." Reading the News and Clients' Minds? Goldman Sachs invests in and uses Kensho, which applies machine learning to huge datasets of news and stock movements to answer questions such as, "How do defense stocks react to terrorism incidents in Europe?" Sqreem (an acronym for Sequential Quantum Reduction and Extraction Model) analyzes people's digital footprints and behavior to predict which products and services they're most likely to want. Wells Fargo, BlackRock, UBS and Deutsche Bank are users. The model's deep learning algorithm, which has been under development for nine years, doesn't have to be programmed, according to Ian Chapman-Banks, CEO of Sqreem Technologies. It finds patterns on its own. The software has behaviorally mapped 300 million people in the U.S. as well as the populations of 40 countries. In each country it deploys hundreds of thousands of web crawlers that read every news article and analyze searches done in that country. (Google makes anonymized search information publicly available so advertisers can know which keywords they want to buy.) "Search is pure intent: 'I'm looking for an ETF,' 'How is my ETF doing?' 'I'm looking for a fund,' 'I need a credit card,' 'How do I get a loan?' " Chapman-Banks said. In wealth management, Sqreem has mapped the likes, interests, life stage and activities of high-net-worth individuals, including which banks they use. It finds patterns: for example, people who bank with UBS in Singapore have a high affinity for ETFs. "We can enable any bank in the wealth sector to understand what their customers want to buy, then we can help them sell and cross-sell," Chapman-Banks said. "If you're a client adviser and you've got 40 clients, you're managing $5 million to $10 million and they've got $2 million to $6 million at other banks, it's difficult for you to understand the total picture of that client," Chapman-Banks said. "We're able to build a rich profile of a person so we can understand what their affinities are, sell them products they really want." Advisers get weekly tips about topics and products to talk to clients about, by iPad or mail; next year a chatbot will be offered directly for clients and advisers. Bussmann estimates it will be another three to five years before artificial intelligence makes a big impact on the financial advice industry. "From my perspective, we're at the beginning," he said. "My observation is there's a good chance those models will drive better performance." Editor at Large Penny Crosman welcomes feedback at penny.crosman@sourcemedia.com. Washington Federal Chairman and Chief Executive Roy M. Whitehead will hand off his CEO duties to Brent Beardall this spring. Beardall, 45, joined the $15 billion-asset company in 2001 and was named chief financial officer two years later. He seemed to be a likely candidate to succeed Whitehead after he was named chief banking officer in 2014 and then president last July. "Washington Federal is very fortunate to have an executive with the talent, intellect, energy and authentically warm personality that [Beardall] brings to work every day," Whitehead said in a news release Wednesday. "He is the right person for the job, and the business will undoubtedly continue to thrive under his leadership." Beardall will also join the Seattle company's board of directors. Whitehead, 64, who has served as CEO since October 2000, isn't leaving management. He'll serve as executive chairman. The transition is scheduled to take effect April 1. According to a proxy released Dec. 9, Whitehead's compensation totaled $3.25 million in 2016. Beardall earned $1.27 million. Last month Washington Federal appointed Robert D. Peters, a longtime Bank of America executive, to serve as executive vice president and commercial banking group manager. The chief operating officer of Valley National Bancorp in Wayne, N.J., will step down next month. Peter Crocitto, 58, is scheduled to retire on Feb. 28, the $22 billion-asset company said in a press release Wednesday. He plans to provide Valley with consulting services after he steps down. He joined the company in 1996. Valley National has no plans to fill the position at this time, a company spokesman said. Crocitto's "steady hand through a number of business cycles and his commitment to a strong systems and control culture has helped deliver sustainable shareholder value," Gerald Lipkin, Valley's chairman and CEO, said in the release. Valley has 209 branches in New Jersey, New York and Florida. Valley National Bancorp in Wayne, N.J., has a new president. The $22 billion-asset company said in a press release Thursday that Rudy Schupp had also become chief banking officer at its bank. Schupp had been president of Valley's Florida division since it bought 1st United Bancorp in Boca Raton, where he had been CEO. Valley also named Ira Robbins as its bank president. Robbins previously served as the company's treasurer. Gerald Lipkin, who had been president of the company and the bank, will remain chairman and CEO. The promotions emphasize "our commitment to Valley's efficiency and growth initiatives," Lipkin said in the release. "I am confident that with their strong banking experience and leadership capabilities they will continue Valley's long history of successful results." Valley announced on Wednesday that Peter Crocitto, its chief operating officer, will retire in February. In the last gasps of their spurned administration, Barack Obama and John Kerry have been frantically plotting to damage the Jewish people. Their lashing out is like the writhing of an animal after it has been killed. Obama's scheming to have the U.N. declare the Jews interlopers at the holiest sites in their own land approaches psychotic levels of anti-Judaism. Kerry's statement that Israel cannot be Jewish and also a democracy is unbalanced raving, in view of the fact that Israel has been a Jewish state and an exemplary democracy for almost 70 years. For decades, the proclamations of the trans-national left have echoed with the ancient theme of Jew-hating. Obama and Kerry are not Nazis. But their words and deeds have a familiar odor: that the real threat to the world is still those Jews. Their attack on Jews is not genocidal racism arising from authoritarian national fascism. The bigotry of Obama and Kerry arises in an era characterized not by national fascism, but by post-national narcissism. Their statements are designed to distract from the fact that their administration has accommodated terrorism, genocide, war, and persecution in places as far flung as Syria and Illinois. Projective psychopathology is eternal; political opportunism is ever-changing. This psychoanalysis updates the understanding of postmodern Jew-hating and why Obama and Kerry exemplify the malady. It explains why Jews still serve as scapegoats in the narcissistic age as they did in the authoritarian one, answering not "why?," but "why again?" After World War II, a generation of shocked and reeling intellectuals devoted themselves to understanding fascism, Nazism, and the Holocaust. Psychologists wanted to understand how, with so little resistance, one crazed man was able to incite the German people into unspeakable crimes against a non-aggressive, law-abiding minority. Most of the psychoanalysts had a special need to understand because they were Jews themselves, many of whom had suffered horribly at the hands of the Nazis. They concluded that mass, rationalized hatred arises to fend off unconscious shame, which threatens the ego, and is projected against a safe, non-threatening displacement object in this case, the Jew. The individual psychodynamics of projecting shame accumulate into collective bigotry and persecution against a blamed minority. Anti-Semitism of the Reich was the projective recourse for the wounded national ego of the German people after the First World War. This same projective psychopathology can be seen in Obama and Kerry, although the content of what they cannot face in themselves is very different. They cannot face their hypocrisy, faithlessness, and cowardice in their leadership of the United States. They will not recognize the real dangers facing the nation they claim to serve. They displace their failures against those least likely to send a terrorist into an American club, a plane into an American building, or a bomb into an American street namely, the Jews. The German commanders didn't intentionally lose World War I. Barack Obama campaigned to be the most powerful military commander on Earth, yet he is intentionally losing the war on terrorism. He has torn America's borders to shreds and stealthily imported thousands of aliens who have no wish to assimilate into a free society, many of whom have a criminal mindset. He has given aid to America's enemies and hosted terrorists at the White House. His favorite military family is that of a deserter. What better strategy for the Neville Chamberlain of Islamic terrorism than to blame the Jews? John Kerry enlisted for military service in a time of war with a plan to get in and out and nominate himself for unearned medals. His service is one of legendary disloyalty. His betrayal of fellow servicemen was so memorable that it cost him the presidency and provided the gerund "Swift-boating." Although appointed to serve only one nation and sworn to defend only one Constitution, he intoned: "We are living in a borderless world." Here's Kerry's attitude towards risking one's life to serve one's nation: "[I]f you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq." Obama and Kerry cannot face the narcissistic injury of their disloyalty and shirking. Though of different generations in blaming America first Obama's anti-Americanism is more racially oriented and Kerry's more elitist disdain they pulled together in undermining their nation and projecting their failures, not against America's enemies, but against the Jews. In the mid-twentieth century, psychologists also theorized a personality type the authoritarian personality to explain fascism and the Holocaust. The authoritarian personality is prone to obedience and submission when told by an authority figure to harm a fellow human. From the 1940s, this personality was ascribed to individuals and groups complicit in racist or anti-Semitic violence. However, the concept is obsolete and an impediment to understanding contemporary left-wing Jew-hating. American society is not authoritarian; it is narcissistic. The narcissists' foremost need is to feel good about themselves, not to serve a national purpose. Obama, Kerry, and fellow Democrats need to feel like high-toned peacemakers while accommodating terrorism, mass murder, and genocide, such as against the Middle Eastern Christians communities. And they do feel very good about themselves. In neutering the U.S. military and focusing attention on Israel and the Jews, they feel great about themselves. Nazism arose in what is called the modern era. In that era, understood to have ended in the mid-twentieth century, the power and importance of the nation-state reached its apex. That context of over-heated nationalism scapegoated Jews and others to energize German military conquest. The modern era is over. (So far, it's been baby and bathwater, because wealthy nation-states seem to be decomposing into lawless territories under the pressure of mass immigration.) In the postmodern era, Western democratic nationalism is in rapid decline, being replaced here by the anti-American narcissistic personality. Just as the authoritarians of the Reich imagined they could exterminate the Jews and conquer the world, and everything would work out just fine, today's narcissistic left, who feel so good about not being racist, insist that mass immigration, preferably of non-Christians, can continue to overrun their nation and everything is going to be fine. Focusing on the Jewish problem works to stabilize this insanity once again. But this time, Jew-hating is not psychologically tasked with ridding the unconscious mind of nationalist weakness; it is to rid the mind of guilt over failure to protect one's nation. Jew-hating serves a narcissistic purpose of unearned moral superiority. When I am brave enough to blame the Jews, I feel good about myself. Academic and cultural elites find it convenient to focus on the past bigotries of the mythic authoritarian, hoping to spot a white hood somewhere. So much pleasanter than facing reality. Incidentally, theories of social conformity and authoritarianism have been so influential that they established in the even minimally educated mind an equivalency between patriotism and fascism. If you love America, you must be a fascist. A stadium of people chanting USA! USA! are not patriots; they are Nazis. The lingering effects of an obsolete theory is why shallow-thinking, emotionally overwrought people like certain Rockettes, Mormon sopranos, and Glenn Beck succumb to calling Donald Trump a Nazi. Hannah Arendt wrote of the resentment that fueled the Holocaust: "The social resentment of the lower middle classes against the Jews turned into a highly explosive political element[.]" Today, the social class structure of Jew-hating has reversed. In postmodern society, it is not the lower middle classes who resent the Jews; it is the elites. The lower classes are not seeking a fuhrer; they are not authoritarian, nor do they have unconscious shame about shirking and disloyalty. On the contrary, the lower middle and working classes tend to love America and are bearing the burden of defending her. They have no need of a scapegoat. It is the upper classes, including much of a complicit American Jewry, who have a need to defend against narcissistic injury and to blame the Jews. Obama is proud of himself. He and his devoted followers believe he has left America in better shape than when he found it. Wrong. To avoid the accusation of bias and (fake) "fake news," let's use the mainstream news media and government websites, in almost every case, to prove that Obama and his core followers are misjudging their own country and the world. Foreign Affairs 1. His Benghazi policy was deadly for four Americans. These deaths happened in September 2012, before his re-election, so the DNC had to adopt a false narrative about a video because terrorist groups were supposedly in retreat. Politico: Final Benghazi report details administration failures 2. Obama withdrew the troops from Iraq prematurely. We should have kept a military base there for as long as we have in Germany, Japan, and Korea. But Obama believes the standard leftist lie that America around the globe causes problems, not solves them. CBS News: Leon Panetta Criticizes Obama for Iraq Withdrawal 3. The rise of ISIS "took me by surprise." It did not surprise all of U.S. intelligence. The generals told him trouble was brewing. CNN: ISIS rise surprised Obama, US intelligence 4. Syria and northern Iraq are disaster zones. Refugees are streaming out of the area. NPR: As East Aleppo Falls, Accounts Of Carnage Then A Cease-Fire 5. ISIS has gone global. CNN: ISIS goes global: 143 attacks in 29 countries have killed 2043 6. U.S.-Israel relations has deteriorated under Obama. L.A. Times: Obama's tense relationship with Netanyahu colors Obama's legacy on Israel His recent refusal to vote against the U.N. resolution that restricted Israel's right to build where it thinks best in Jerusalem indicates the deterioration. WaPo: U.S. declines to veto U.N. Security Council resolution for Israel to stop Jewish settlement activity 7. Russia did provocative flybys near our ships. The Hill: Russia rattles nerves by buzzing US ship 8. Obama said on a live mic to Medvedev that he'd be more "flexible" after the 2012 election. N.Y. Times: Microphone catches a candid Obama 9. The Iran deal is a betrayal without getting anything in return except promises. We will one day wake up to hear the news that Iran can weaponize nuclear power. N.Y. Times: Iran tests long-range missile, possibly violating nuclear accord 10. About 400 million dollars for hostage payment. We should have gotten the hostages out from the very beginning without begging or paying. CNN: US sent plane with $400 million in cash to Iran 11. American ships captured by Iran showed weakness to a second-rate terrorist nation. CNN: Navy report: Failure at every level for US ships captured by Iran 12. The Cuba deal got nothing in return. Dissidents are still in prison; the economy shows no sign that it will come out from under communist oppression. PBS: What does the U.S. get out of the Cuba deal? 13. China's expansion in South Pacific will cause conflict. Like Russia, China took the measure of the leftist president and concluded he is weak. ABC (Australia): China extends its influence in the South Pacific 14. He shows no caution in his immigration philosophy both from south of the border and from Syrian war zones. CNN: Deadlocked Supreme Court deals big blow to Obama immigration plan The Hill: Obama vows to 'speed up' efforts to admit Syrian refugees These suffering humans need safe zones closer to home. 15. He is all in for climate change. One question: Did the climate change before humans got here? Of course. So there are many factors to its changes beyond a prosperous economy that the left wants to put in shackles. White House: FACT SHEET: Obama Administration Highlights Opportunities for Building Community Climate Resilience across the Nation 16. Gitmo prisoners have been released and gone back to fight for terrorist groups. WaPo: Obama administration approves its largest single release of Guantanamo detainees ever National Economy 17. The corporate tax rate is higher than it is in other industrialized nations and third highest in the world. "The United States has the third highest general top marginal corporate income tax rate in the world, at 38.92 percent." Tax Foundation: Corporate Income Tax Rates around the World, 2016 18. Median household incomes have dropped over the past seven years. It has dropped from about 57K (2007-2008) to about 52K (2014). Thankfully, however, the incomes have recently risen, but rising from the basement is a small step. Real Clear Markets: The Obvious for the Decline in Median Income (The obvious is that people are working fewer hours.) 19. Obamacare is still a disaster. In 2016, the overall premium increase across the fifty states is 25%. In many states, the rise is much higher. It means that businesses won't hire full time, and they reduce the number of hours their current employees can work. Fiscal Times: Here's How Much Obamacare Premiums Are Rising in All Fifty States 20. We're broke: The national operating debt has reached gargantuan proportions. The debt is almost $20 trillion, about $3-4 trillion over the yearly GDP. Federal Debt Clock 21. The stimulus didn't stimulate, but put us deeper in debt. Investor Politics: 7 Ugly Truths about Obama's $787B Stimulus 22. As of November 2016, the U-6 unemployment number is 9.3%. This measurement, not the U-3 line, reveals the true unemployment number. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Economic News Release 23. Economic growth is slow. It hasn't broken through 3% a historic record. "On Friday, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported that 2015 U.S. real GDP (RGDP) growth was 2.38%. No matter what revisions are subsequently made, 2015 will have been the tenth year in a row that RGDP growth came in at under 3.0%. The longest previous such run in U.S. economic history was only four years, and the last time that this happened was during the Great Depression (1930 - 1933)." Real Clear Markets: Obama's Sad Record on Economic Growth 24. The federal government has grown more than it did under Bush and Clinton. CNNMoney: Did Obama really make government bigger? The article's answer: "By many measures, the federal government has indeed grown during Obama's tenure." The bigger the public sector, the smaller and slower the private sector. Domestic and Social Issues 25. The IRS harassed conservative groups. "The IRS admitted that it targeted nonprofit political advocacy groups with the terms 'tea party' or 'patriot' in their names." WaPo: Everything you need to know about the IRS scandal in one FAQ 26. As of December 2016, there have been five terror attacks on U.S. soil since Obama took office. That number doesn't count the ones that have failed. Free Beacon: There Have Been Six Successful Acts of Islamic Terrorism on American Soil Since 9/11: Five happened after 2008 For another report in September 2016, see the New Observer Online: ISIS Terror Attacks Sweep US. 27. Racial division is worse. N.Y. Times: Race Relations Are at Lowest Point in Obama Presidency, Poll Finds 28. Black people are doing worse economically. Atlantic: How Barack Obama Failed Black Americans 29. The murder rate has gone up. Chicago leads the way with a 41.8% increase over last year, but there 14 other troubled cities. N.Y. Times: A Handful of Cities Are Driving 2016's Rise in Murders USA Today: Chicago hits grim milestone of 700 murders for 2016 and the year's not over 30. Heroin smuggling into the U.S. from Mexico has increased. USA Today: Why heroin is Mexican drugcartels' new product of choice Open borders based on a refusal to tighten them up allows for the surge. 31. P.C. culture has become more intense. WaPo: Liberal intolerance is on the rise on America's college campuses Obama never said "Merry Christmas" on White House greeting cards. Trump says he intends to change that P.C. policy. Atlantic: Merry Christmas vs. Happy Holidays, Round 2,016: The perennial debate gets a new coat of cheer from Donald Trump. 32. The rise of the radical left has led to less religious freedom. Bakers and florists have lost their businesses because they refused to share in a same-sex commitment ceremony. PBS Newshour: Why some wedding businesses say 'I don't' to gay couples 33. His SCOTUS appointments have not respected the Constitution. The left loves it because they need to lead stupid sheep, also known as the Average Common Sense American, toward their enlightenment. But Article Three is slapping around Article One. It's rule by judges, a kritocracy. 34. He spent $85 million for vacation expenses over eight years, paid by our taxes. The Blaze: Here's how much the Obama family has spent on vacations over the last eight years 35. Executive orders were abused. They were a reaction to GOP congressional victories in 2010 and 2014. It's not so much the sheer number of orders (though that's bad enough), but the scope of them. Federal Register: 2016 Barack Obama Executive Orders USA Today: Obama's executive orders you never hear about 36. The only good news: The Democrat Party has been decimated. "His legacy regrettably includes the more than 1,000 Democrats who lost their elections during his two terms. Republicans now have total control in half of America's states." N.Y. Times: Was Barack Obama Bad For Democrats? Obama has been an eight-year mistake for this wonderful country. It's soon to be a happy day when he is gone. James Arlandson's website is Live as Free People, where he has posted The GOP is on a national losing streak and How the left misreads world affairs. It would be much too unkind to say President Barack Obama is a self-made man who worships his creator. Yet it is true that he seems always to back into the limelight, a feat not likely to diminish. After leaving the office of the presidency, Obama has promised to remain busy involved in "the amazing stuff that we've been doing all these years before." Understandably, Obama is concerned about his legacy. The calculus and equation in Obama's legacy certainly includes "amazing stuff": the faulty nuclear deal with Iran, the nonexistent red line concerning the use of chemical weapons by Syria's President Assad in 2013 and Obama's policy toward the Syrian war and the horrors of Aleppo, and Obama's refusal to admit the responsibility of Islamists for international terrorism. Moreover, that legacy will not be enhanced by Obama's recent actions. The legacy will have to explain, if not to defend, the surprising moves by Obama in one week in December 2016 in two fields: attitude to Russia and policy toward Israel when he allowed a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlement construction to pass by not vetoing it. It is unfortunately true that Obama leaves office at a time of the most tense relationship with Russia since the end of the Cold War. On December 29, 2016, Obama expressed the view that Russian security agencies infiltrated email servers of the Democratic National Committee and private accounts including that of John Podesta. Yet so far, even accepting that intrusion by cyberspace could have been directed only by the highest levels of a foreign government, hard evidence is still not available that the Russian government is the culprit. Nor can it be asserted that the outcome of the U.S. presidential election was decided by hacking, nor that the popular vote was tampered with in favor of Donald Trump. An independent, non-partisan commission to investigate hacking in regard to the election is to be set up. President-Elect Trump has been skeptical of the attribution of blame to Russia. But before certainty on the issue has been obtained, Obama imposed sanctions on two Russian intelligence agencies, GRU, Russia's main intelligence directorate, and the FSB, or the Federal Security Service, the new form of the KGB. Obama has also sanctioned companies said to support GRU cyber-operations, expelled 35 officials suspected of being intelligence operatives from the US, and closed two recreational compounds. U.S. sanctions on Russia remain. Essentially, they blocked Russian access to international credit, prevented cooperation on oil field technology, and ended arms deals. However, many of the restrictions on Russia were imposed by executive order and therefore can be reversed by President Trump. It was not clear if the principle of reciprocity would apply. Vladimir Putin refused to retaliate, though Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov suggested that 31 U.S. diplomats be expelled from Moscow and four from St. Petersburg. Instead, Putin invited children of U.S. diplomats to enjoy New Year's and Russian Orthodox Christmas at the Kremlin. Putin, if not exactly Santa Claus, announced he would not expel U.S. diplomats, but would rebuild ties with the U.S. Trump's comment was that this was a great move by Putin, whom he regards as very smart. The crucial fact is that Obama, whatever his motives, has left Trump the problem of ameliorating arrangements, the need to work out a compromise between the two countries, and the limiting of sanctions. Trump's task will take into account not only Democrats, but also the different views and the tension between Republicans such as John Mccain, who calls Putin a thug and a murderer, and the incoming secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, who may be an Eagle Scout but has had multiple business dealings with Putin. Did Obama deliberately, for political or psychological reasons, limit the options for Trump? In any case, the vital need is for cooperation in fighting international terrorism in general and ISIS in particular. Obama's ostracizing of GRU and the FSB will limit that cooperation between the two countries. This is the moment for accurate analysis and assessment of Russia and of the policies and motivation of Putin. The fall of the totalitarian Soviet Union in 1991 did not usher in a democratic political system or open society or free market. Today, Russia is more pragmatic than ideological. Private ownership created businesses, and a substantial middle class emerged. Foreign travel became more available. There was some limited free press, while the internet was available. Young women on Nevsky Prospect in St. Petersburg dress as attractively, if not as expensively, as their counterparts on Madison Avenue in New York. But democracy was limited, and political parties reflected the Kremlin's point of view. In the economic field, oligarchs have been prominent entrepreneurs who accumulated capital and were friendly to and have access and links to political power and leaders. That new elite dominates the market, but the regime is ruthless, as was shown with the arrest of Mikhael Khodorkovsky and the taking over of his company, Yukos, whose assets were seized by Rosneft, the state oil company. Changes in Russia are relevant for U.S. policy. The population, aging and decreasing, is now 144 million. Between 2005 and 2015 there has been a large increase in government. The share of GDP from public spending and state-controlled firms rose from 35 to 70%. Yet the economy is diminishing due to sanctions, corruption, and above all the drop in the price of oil, since Russia is dependent on raw materials. More than two thirds of Russian exports come from energy, and the Russian budget presumes oil at $96. But Russia also has the world's largest inventory of nuclear weapons. It is one of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council. Symbolically, Putin, as an expert at judo, is adept at keeping foes off balance. Russia is engaged in aggression against Ukraine and Georgia, espionage, influence in the war in Syria, subversion by supporting anti-establishment parties in Europe, propaganda, and cyber-attacks. The country is sixth in global spending on defense. Annually, it spends $48.4 billion, less than one tenth of the U.S.'s $622 billion. There is no question of Putin's desire to maintain and exercise power. Trump admires him. Putin is powerful, if not as powerful as Vladimir the Great, the tenth-century Slavic prince who was based in Kiev, whose statue is near the Kremlin and whose nationalistic legacy was relied on to justify the annexation of Crimea in 2014. Putin stopped direct regional elections, appointed his own representatives to the regions, and destroyed the principle of federalism as he concentrated power. Yet Putin is not a tyrant, though he has engaged in selective violence, murder, and rigged elections. It appears that Putin is not taking Obama seriously and is waiting to build ties with Trump in a framework of bilateral cooperation and collaboration. Both countries naturally have their different versions of national interest, and difficult problems and misunderstandings will remain. But what is overwhelmingly important is that both Putin and Trump have similar interests in maintaining peace and international stability and ending the menace of Islamic terrorism. Already American and Russian corporations are interrelated: ExxonMobil oil and gas are in the Russian Arctic, and there are joint projects such as Sakhalin 1. The case for rapprochement between the two countries is formidable. A California-based NGO and the Center for Science in the Public Interest are suing beverage giant Coca-Cola and the American Beverage Association for "deceptive advertising" of their sugary soft drinks. The suit alleges that Coke and the ABA have been deliberately downplaying the effects of their products on the public health, claiming that the rise in obesity and diabetes can be linked to sugary soft drinks. Bloomberg: Praxis, a California nongovernmental organization, is being represented by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, another nonprofit with a long history of litigation targeting the food and beverage industries. From the 1950s until the late 1990s, the tobacco industry engaged in an elaborate campaign of disinformation to cast doubt on the science connecting cigarettes to lung cancer and other diseases, Maia Kats, litigation director for the center, said in a statement. Like the tobacco industry, Coca-Cola needs to replenish the ranks of its customers, and it tries to recruit them young, Praxis said in its complaint, filed Wednesday in federal court in Oakland, California. Coca-Cola products have labels providing calorie information, spokesman Kent Landers said in an e-mail, dismissing the lawsuit as meritless. We take our consumers and their health very seriously, he said. We will continue to listen and learn from the public health community and remain committed to playing a meaningful role in the fight against obesity. The American Beverage Association hasnt received the complaint, said William Dermody, spokesman for the group. We cant comment on something we havent received yet. For soda giants, the need to be healthier is not new. Per capita soda consumption in the U.S. fell to a three-decade low in 2015, according to Beverage-Digest, a trade publication. Atlanta-based Coca-Cola and its biggest competitors, PepsiCo Inc. and Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc., have pledged to decrease calories in their beverages and increase healthier options. The companies are responding to both new regulations and consumer demands as drinkers in the U.S. and other developed markets have turned away from sugar and artificial ingredients. Coca-Cola has promoted smaller package sizes and non-cola drinks. It is relying less on soda, pushing into segments such as ready-to-drink coffee, plant-based protein drinks, cold-press juices and dairy. Coke has 200 reformulations in the works to cut back on sugar, including new versions of Fanta and Sprite already on shelves in the U.K. Lawsuits and government regulation are superfluous. The market is already having its way with soft drink makers who are responding to consumer demand by reducing sweeteners in their drinks (high-fructose corn syrup, not sugar) and reducing portions. But comparing sugary drinks with tobacco is absurd. There is zero evidence that drinking soda in moderate amounts causes any health problems whatsoever, while tobacco even one or two cigarettes a day can eventually be deadly. The key, as with most things in life, is moderation. Too much salt is bad for you. Too many carbs of the wrong kind are bad for you. Too much red meat is bad for you. Too many salty snacks are bad for you. Those who overindulge pay the consequences. Perhaps a better job could be done by the companies in consumer education, but reformulating their products is an excellent start in meeting the needs of their customers to eat and drink healthier. Another sickening story out of blood-soaked Chicago. From Fox 32 Chicago : Chicago investigators are questioning four African-Americans after a Facebook Live video shows a group of people torturing a white mentally disabled man while someone yelled F*** Trump! and F*** white people!. Chicago police were made aware of the video Tuesday afternoon. A young African American woman streamed the video live on Facebook showing at least four people holding the young white man hostage. Throughout the video, the victim is repeatedly kicked and hit, his scalp is cut, all while he is tied up with his mouth taped shut. At one point, the victim is held at knife point and told to curse President-elect Donald Trump. The group also forces the victim to drink water from a toilet. What continues to irk me is that a prominent (liberal) member of the Catholic clergy, Father Michael Pfleger, who seems to get nearly equal air time from the Chicago media as Godfather Rahm Emanuel does, takes to Facebook to blast the police and President-Elect Trump and the Archdiocese of Chicago lets him get away with it. In a Jan. 3 post, Pfleger wrote: There is no question that Chicago is in a crisis ... but when Donald Trump offers to fix it ... it frightens me[.] Perhaps Mr. Trump could begin by coming and asking people in Chicago. And last month, Pfleger wrote: The City of Chicago may have taken down the TRUMP street sign, but the mean spiritness [sic], people bashing, military sounding, hate bating [sic] arrogance loosened by him during the election is alive and well in Chicago and America...its like when the confederate flag was removed...the principles it stood for are still flying......that's our real task.....not just to remove a sign or a flag...but remove the spirit they represent. Pflegers rhetoric pours gasoline on the fire, yet the archdiocese will likely do nothing to discipline him. Now, if he were to publicly criticize Pope Francis for, say, being too liberal in certain respects (which he wont, of course), hed be sent packing. As of the time this blog entry was submitted, theres no mention of the torture incident on Pflegers Facebook page, which has over 108,000 likes. Nor is there any mention of the incident on the archdioceses Facebook page, which has fewer than 6,000 likes. (However, there is a post about the 11th Annual Posada Seeking Immigration Reform. Go figure.) In yet another sign that the Russia hacked the election narrative is phony, Buzzfeed is reporting that the FBI never even bothered to ask for the DNC server for forensic analysis. Ali Watkins reports: The FBI did not examine the servers of the Democratic National Committee before issuing a report attributing the sweeping cyberintrusion to Russia-backed hackers, BuzzFeed News has learned. Six months after the FBI first said it was investigating the hack of the Democratic National Committees computer network, the bureau has still not requested access to the hacked servers, a DNC spokesman said. No US government entity has run an independent forensic analysis on the system, one US intelligence official told BuzzFeed News. The DNC had several meetings with representatives of the FBIs Cyber Division and its Washington (DC) Field Office, the Department of Justices National Security Division, and U.S. Attorneys Offices, and it responded to a variety of requests for cooperation, but the FBI never requested access to the DNCs computer servers, Eric Walker, the DNCs deputy communications director, told BuzzFeed News in an email. This strongly suggests that the conclusion that Russia hacked (the correct term would be phished) the server preceded the examination of evidence, since the evidence still has not yet been fully examined. The rejoinder via an anonymous source is awfully weak: The FBI has instead relied on computer forensics from a third-party tech security company, CrowdStrike, which first determined in May of last year that the DNCs servers had been infiltrated by Russia-linked hackers, the U.S. intelligence official told BuzzFeed News. CrowdStrike is pretty good. Theres no reason to believe that anything that they have concluded is not accurate, the intelligence official said, adding they were confident Russia was behind the widespread hacks. The FBI declined to comment. The FBI has a huge budget and touts itself as the premier investigative agency in the world. Its crime labs and forensic computer capabilities are supposed to be the best in the world. In a matter of national security and political significance, outsourcing to a private firm in reaching investigative conclusions is simply too weird to be believed. It might be one thing to bring in outside specialized laboratory resources to produce data. But outsourcing investigative conclusions is ridiculous. That is the job of law enforcement. This politically convenient narrative is falling apart. Buzzfeed is no conservative site. I take this report as a sign that smart lefties are getting on the side of skepticism. I hope President-Elect Trump pushes FBI director James Comey to explain why his agency never bothered with the fundamentals of evidence examination before reaching conclusions. I had never heard of Horseman Capital Management, Ltd. until this morning. But I wonder if they have Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman as one of their principal advisers. The sage of Princeton and the New York Times was utterly certain that markets would tank in the wake of Trumps election: It really does now look like President Donald J. Trump, and markets are plunging. When might we expect them to recover? Frankly, I find it hard to care much, even though this is my specialty. The disaster for America and the world has so many aspects that the economic ramifications are way down my list of things to fear. Still, I guess people want an answer: If the question is when markets will recover, a first-pass answer is never. When a Nobel Prize-winner opines on his specialty, ordinarily it ought to pay to heed the advice, youd think. Add to that the endorsement of Princeton and the New York Times, and you have everything an elite person is trained to respect. Unless it comes from Paul Krugman. Laurence Fletcher of the Wall Street Journal reports: The flagship hedge fund at Horseman Capital Management Ltd. was one of the worlds worst-performing hedge funds last year, posting a big loss in the wake of Donald Trumps U.S. election victory. London-based Horseman runs about $2 billion in assets. Its main $1.7 billion Global strategy fund lost 24% through Dec. 28, according to numbers sent to investors in an email and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The bulk of the funds losses last year came in the final two monthsa 12.8% loss in November and a further 7.8% in December. Those equate to losses of around $330 million or more, according to calculations by the Journal. As Horseman informs its investors of their losses, presumably it will minimize the damage by pointing out how bad it could have been: WikiLeaks released all the DNC, Hillary Clinton and John Podesta emails that were in play during the 2016 presidential election. Julian Assange claims he did not receive any of these emails from Russia, Russia-related individuals, or Russian agents. He received them all from a "private, non-state party." Assange was not provided any similar data regarding Trump and the RNC, so he had none to release. In the last election cycle, let's not forget, he released Sarah Palin's emails, which backs up his claim that he is non-partisan in his promulgation of political leaks. Whether you view Assange as heroic or treacherous, the veracity of his releases is not contested. Therefore, if these revelations did impact the election results, it is the deplorable actions of Hillary Clinton and DNC that show who is responsible the message, if you will, not the messenger we ought to blame. This does not advance the narrative of the left, however, who must find a more palatable explanation for the Clinton loss. Hence the Russians. Whatever the Russians may or may not have hacked and we attempt to breach each other's security daily it was certainly not the Clinton and DNC emails. Even if they did, they never released them. Therefore, the entire argument that the Russians ostensibly "rigged the election" by releasing private stolen emails to favor a Trump win is utterly false. Obviously, we all want to protect American public and private entities from hacking, but what does that have to do with the price of salt? Nothing. This false narrative is ridiculous on two counts. First, the Russians do not want Trump. Trump is a wild card. He is pro-military and is not a guy who likes sand kicked in his face. President Obama has utterly failed to contain Russia they have taken Crimea and injected themselves into the Middle East after being shut out by previous U.S. presidents for 40 years. Consider Syria, the shameful Iran deal, and the fact that Egypt is again buying Russian weapons after Obama shunned President El-Sisi. Russia is also not so surreptitiously trying to take Ukraine by force. Obama has done nothing to stop any of this. Trump is a tough guy, and it is hard to imagine the Russians believing they will do better with him in the White House. The second reason is that there is a much better explanation for the liberal's false narrative. The left must explain how Hillary lost in a way that does not add insult to injury. Blaming her embarrassing loss on voter fraud failed when Trump was awarded even more votes in the Wisconsin recount. The "angry white men argument" failed. Blaming FBI director James B. Comey for his efforts to vet all of the Clinton emails also failed to bear fruit. The Democratic Party simply cannot accept that many of the so-called blue states (Mich., Ohio, Penn., Wis.) are again in play in future elections. The corollary of this is simple: their votes must now be earned by Democrats, not just automatically awarded to them. This is precisely why the press, the left, and the Dems are promoting an obviously false storyline. This corruption perfectly exemplifies why they lost so many governorships, so many congressional seats (both state and federal), and the White House. Iran, and the entire world, for that matter, was shocked and appalled over images of homeless Iranians resorting to sleeping and even living in pre-dug graves to escape freezing winter cold conditions. As mainstream media correctly covered this previously unknown aspect of life in Iran that the ruling mullahs desperately attempt to cloak, further news continues to trouble readers across the spectrum while shedding light on a broader dilemma diseasing the regime. It is quite terrible for people to be homeless and even sleep in graves, and for 7,500 grave sleepers to be rounded up in a single day, said Iranian deputy health minister Mohammad Hadi Ayazi. We cannot deny the fact that this is a senior Iranian official, first of all, confirming the horrific scope of this devastating phenomenon, and how Iranian authorities, obviously humiliated and furious over the media coverage, have resorted to such drastic roundup measures. ... 1.35 million drug addicts across the country and one in every four marriages ending in divorce, he added. Of course, it is also worth noting that considering the Iranian regimes nature, senior officials always downgrade the exact numbers in such statistics, especially regarding the controversial issue of drug addicts. From a broader perspective, these social crises provide an insightful view into the truth of the status quo in Iran. This country is ruled by a regime desperately managing an economic crisis while systematic corruption and grant practices run rampant. Senior Iranian officials are known to plunder peoples wealth, parallel to wasting billions from oil and gas revenues to fuel wars in Syria in supporting the Bashar Assad regime, and financially supporting Shiite proxies in Iraq, the Houthis in Yemen, and the Lebanese Hezballah. More billions are poured into the regimes nuclear ambitions and the program to master and obtain ballistic missiles. Reports from inside Iran indicate a mounting economic crisis, despite a windfall of billions pouring into Iran following the nuclear deal sealed with the P5+1 following negotiations in which the international community bent over backward in the mullahs favor, wrote Iranian rights advocate Amir Basiri in American Thinker. Rampant grants and systematic corruption are plaguing the Iranian financial system, as Vice President Eshaq Jahangir indicated: systematic corruption had infiltrated all layers of the economy. The majority of Iranians are living under the poverty line, resulting from senior regime officials plundering national wealth in mind-boggling figures. Tehrans prosecutor also revealed financial corruption of the regime officials plundering 80 trillion rials ($24.8 billion dollars) of the Teachers and Educators Reserve Fund, as reported by the Iranian opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran, an umbrella group of numerous organization, including the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). Tehran has also deprived the Iranian people of further billions of dollars, wasting this much needed budget in wars across the Middle East, most specifically Syria. Iran is shoring up the Syrian regime from a secret HQ in Damascus nicknamed the Glasshouse and commanding a huge covert army in support of Assad, the Algemeiner wrote, adding that Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has spent billions in hardware for its ally Bashar al-Assad in the last five years[.] To add insult to injury, Iran has continued nuclear and ballistic missile developments, all in defiance of various agreements sealed with the international community. These notorious measures by Tehran show for what purpose the countrys money is actually spent, further plunging the population into poverty and further social dilemmas. The budget allocation for the Revolutionary Guard was $3.3 billion in 2013, increased to $6 billion in 2015, declined to $4.5 billion in 2016 but increased by 53 percent to $6.9 billion for 2017, wnd.com reported. The above mentioned figures prove the fact that the money released by sanctions relief and heading to Iran is spent on anything but the Iranian peoples interests. Secondly, as the grave sleepers phenomenon signals escalating poverty, the Iranian people have never benefited from the boasted nuclear deal, acting as the main platform to release Irans frozen assets. Finally, the regime in Tehran is completely unstable, and any entity evaluating the possibility of investing in Iran is highly advised to take a step back and think twice. Shahriar Kia is a political analyst and member of Iranian opposition (PMOI/MEK). He graduated from North Texas University. @shahriarkia Donald Trump will take the oath of office on January 20, thus becoming the 45th president of the United States. It's too late for anyone to do anything about that, right? I mean, Trump won the Electoral College, Congress will certifiy those results on Friday, and even many anti-Trump activists have accepted the fact that there's no way to stop the inauguration going forward. But delusions die hard. Some hysterical anti-Trump leftists have latched on to the notion that several dozen of Trump's electors were "illegitimately" seated, thus negating the Electoral College vote. Alternet: More than 50 Electoral College members who voted for Donald Trump were ineligible to serve as presidential electors because they did not live in the congressional districts they represented or held elective office in states legally barring dual officeholders. That stunning finding is among the conclusions of an extensive 1,000-plus page legal briefing prepared by a bipartisan nationwide legal team for members of Congress who are being urged to object to certifying the 2016 Electoral College results on Friday. Trumps ascension to the presidency is completely illegitimate, said Ryan Clayton of Americans Take Action, who is promoting the effort. Its not just Russians hacking our democracy. Its not just voter suppression at unprecedented levels. It is also [that] there are Republicans illegally casting ballots in the Electoral College, and in a sufficient number that the results of the Electoral College proceedings are illegitimate as well. Republicans like to talk all the time about people voting illegally, Clayton continued. We have a list of a bunch of Republicans that allegedly voted illegally in the Electoral College. Pam Bondi is the attorney general of the state of Florida and the Florida Constitution says that you cannot hold two offices. And she holds the office of Attorney General and she holds the office of federal elector in the Electoral College. That is a violation of the law. That is a violation of the Constitution. And the vote that she cast in this election is illegal. A joint congressional session is scheduled to ratify the 2016 Electoral College vote this Friday. While there have been calls to challenge that certificationincluding one women-led effort saying Trump's victory is due to voter suppression targeting people of colorthe analysis that scores of Trump electors were illegally seated, and the additional finding that most states won by Trump improperly filed their Electoral College "Certificates of Vote" with Congress, is unprecedented. Their research and report grew out of the legal activities surrounding the December 19 Electoral College meeting, where Clayton and others urged Republican electors to reject Trump saying they had a constitutional responsibility to pick a more qualified president. There are no constitutional qualifications to serve as an elector. The Founders left that for states to determine. Is it possible that all "is" weren't dotted and "ts" crossed in states filing election results? It's possible, but again, there is no federal standard for those reports to challenge. Rather, the delusional lefties want to get Congress itself to declare the Electoral College vote invalid. If Congress were to examine the Trump electors with a magnifiying glass, the same treatment should be given Hillary Clinton electors. Does the left really want to know how many "ineligible" Clinton electors there are? The fact is, the leftists are digging through a manure pile looking for the pony they are absolutely convinced is buried in it. No one not even Democrats wants to open that can of worms and get into the arcane, obscure rules governing electors. That's because at bottom, being chosen as an elector is a political plum, and both parties don't want to muck around in the legal weeds trying to decertify an election. If they weren't such a pain in the arse, I'd feel sorry for these reality-deniers. They represent a stream of thought on the left that believes in unicorns, Santa Claus, and the Easter Bunny or whatever their political equivalent would be. Trump's victory has made them even more unbalanced, and this effort to decertify the Electoral College results will only feed the frenzy of their hate toward Trump and their arrogant dismissiveness of ordinary voters. When Mr. Trump cuts taxes and rolls back the regulation bureaucracy, Americans will prosper. When they prosper, they travel. Turkey is home to many sites that the New Testament names: Ephesus, Colossae, Lystra, Sardis, Miletos, Pergamum, and so on. The problem is, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been turning into a tyrant. Here is a small list of his abuses. 1. He has recently taken control of churches of all denominations. Here's the headline from one source: Islamist Turkey seizes ALL Christian churches in city and declares them 'state property'. 2. They have arrested various pastors for the false charge of "terrorism." Here is only one sample: Pastor from Black Mountain jailed in Turkey on terrorism charges. Here is an article from the Association of Protestant Churches, which lists a disturbing number of abuses and persecution: 2015 Human Rights Violations Report. 3. President Erdogan may have staged a false coup just so he can arrest his political opponents. This is how many people Turkey has arrested since the failed coup (the answer is 35,022). But even if the coup was real, he is now using special powers of arrest to protect his power and eliminate his opponents. 4. He is using the coup, fake or real, to impose "Islamization," a code word for sharia. President Erdogan could be using the coup against him to turn Turkey towards full-scale Islamisation By definition, the growth of sharia entails Christians (and Jews) suffering persecution. 5. He hates the heroic Kurds more than ISIS. Erdogan concerned more about Kurds than Islamic State 6. He does not support Israel. This point has been known for a long time. Erdogan urges Muslims to protect Jerusalem, support Palestinians We can draw these conclusions from Turkey's path toward radicalization. If Trump forms an alliance with Turkey, he needs to be careful that he is not putting his hand down a snake hole. As time rolls on, it looks as though he is in danger of doing just that. Trump needs to support the Kurds over Turkey. He needs to be careful about forming a three-nation alliance with the U.S., Turkey, and Russia. If he proceeds cautiously, then this might work. But they may clandestinely fight the U.S.'s and our true allies' interests. When Christian tourists visit the historic sites in Turkey, they help bankroll the regime. Therefore, Christians now need to boycott Turkey and instead spend their tourist dollars in Israel. James Arlandson's website is Live as Free People, where he has posted a fifteen-part series on the historical reliability of the four Gospels. AT&T and the American Center for Mobility are entering a new self-driving vehicles partnership, the two companies announced yesterday at CES. Their collaboration will primarily be focused on pushing further advancements in the field. AT&T agreed to serve as an exclusive wireless service provider of the Center for the next three years. In addition to testing its own experimental technologies in the Center, the second largest wireless carrier in the United States is also hoping to use this partnership to position itself as one of the key players in this emerging industry. Chris Penrose, President of Internet of Things Solutions at AT&T, said that the two parties are hoping to help create a driverless future thats both scalable and effective, as well as safe. The American Center for Mobility located in Ypsilanti, Michigan is one of the largest facilities for testing autonomous vehicles in the world thats experimenting with all kinds of self-driving and connected vehicles. This partnership will see the Center benefit from using AT&Ts services and technologies in exchange for providing the Dallas-based wireless carrier with an environment for testing its own IoT and related solutions. Additionally, the two parties will collaborate on several joint projects aimed at advancing the self-driving automotive industry. AT&T and the American Center for Mobility are hoping to develop new network security products and solutions for connecting public roads and making them more suitable for self-driving vehicles to operate on. Other technologies that this partnership is planning to develop include driving assistance systems, automatic braking solutions, and smart windshield wipers. Finally, AT&T is also hoping to use the Centers facilities to test new LTE and other network technologies within all kinds of connected and automated vehicles that the Center is currently developing. Ultimately, AT&T and the Center are hoping to create a universal framework that would allow communications between all types of automated vehicles, regardless of their brand, location, and cellular provider. Theyre planning to achieve all of those goals by 2020, just in time to integrate their technologies into the first generation of commercial self-driving vehicles. More information on this endeavor is expected to follow soon. At the Consumer Electronics Show, Las Vegas, BlackBerry QNX has today revealed details of its new 64-bit, high performance, secure operating system, QNX 7.0. QNX 7.0 has been designed with the auto industry in mind and builds upon the considerable experience BlackBerry QNX has using the platform for a number of safety critical industries, most notably the medical devices and healthcare sector, as well as forming the foundation for BlackBerry 10, BlackBerrys new generation operating system. BlackBerry QNX is demonstrating a number of QNX 7.0 features using two vehicles at its stand a 2016 Jaguar XJ and a 2017 Lincoln MKZ concept car. When discussing the new operating system, John Wall, BlackBerry QNXs senior vice president, explained that the company realized how the automobile electronic architecture has evolved away from interconnecting a number of less powerful, dedicated control chips assigned to a particular function, towards the car consisting of a network with a smaller number of powerful and flexible System-on-Chips running a single operating system platform. QNX 7.0 has been designed to be that platform and is only available in a 64-bit version, compatible with either ARM v8 or Intel x86-64 chips. This covers most modern mobile chipsets from the last two years and the software is directly supported by a number of industry chip designers including NXP, NVIDIA and Qualcomm. In particular, Qualcomm have a dedicated auto industry booth at this years CES and are keen to highlight how the new QNX 7.0 software works well with their automobile-focused Qualcomm Snapdragon 820A chipset as it enables automakers to realize this next-generation digital cockpit experience. BlackBerry QNX 7.0 includes a number of important subsystems and features designed with safety critical use in mind. These include the integrated QNX Momentics Tool Suite, an advanced security suite designed to protect the operating system from malware and other cyber threats. Another reason why the platform is favored for critical safety systems is that the operating system includes built-in virtualization software called BlackBerry QNX hypervisor. This means that multiple instances of the operating system can be run on the same hardware. The Jaguar XJ demonstration vehicle shows off how one System-on-Chip can run two instances of QNX 7.0. One controls the digital cockpit instrumentation and the other controls the infotainment system. Each operating system can be independently rebooted or shut down with no impact on the other. This means that the infotainment system can be restarted with no interruption in the vehicles instruments. The same Jaguar XJ also includes the BlackBerrys QNX Acoustics Management Platform, or AMP, which is being billed as being able to provide high quality in-car communication, actively suppressed road and wind noise together with engine sound enhancement to help customers better enjoy their premium luxury car. Advertisement BlackBerry QNX is also demonstrating the autonomous Lincoln MKZ concept car, again based around QNX 7.0. The Lincoln MKZ includes LiDAR, radar, cameras, GPS and IMU (inertial measurement units) sensors so as to detect obstacles or dangerous driving situations and is able to warn the driver. As a result, the Lincoln MKZ has been given the Level 4 autonomous driving certification from the Society of Automotive Engineers. The BlackBerry QNX SDP 7.0 beta software is already available for evaluation and product development and the company explain that a general release expected during the first quarter 2017. QNX 7.0 has already been given a number of prestigious safety certifications, including ISO 26262 ASIL D, the highest safety award possible for a vehicle. Given the platforms pedigree and support for a large number of chipsets, it is likely that QNX 7.0 will attract a lot of interest. Chinese robotics company Ewaybot unveiled Moro, a highly advanced robot butler. The reveal happened at CES on Thursday, with Ewaybots representatives pointing out that Moro can do much more than help with tasks around the house. The robot was designed as a universal assistant for all kinds of scenarios, ranging from business operations and academic research to home assistance and education. The Chinese company came to Las Vegas to showcase Moro and seek potential investors, as well as future customers. Moro still doesnt have a release date, but its creators confirmed that the current version of the robot will cost $30,000 and should be made available to laboratories and other interested organizations shortly. Finally, a significantly cheaper, commercial variant of this autonomous helper is also in the works and is slated to be released in some unspecified future. Moro is almost four feet tall and weighs just over 77 pounds, which is why Ewaybot equipped it with powerful servo motors to allow the robot to move on its own. It boasts two arms capable of grabbing objects and performing simple operations like escorting a person by hand or passing ingredients to a cook. Ewaybot says that Moro is the first robot that simultaneously utilizes infrared and ultrasound technologies which allow it to move around outdoors as well as indoors, unlike traditional automatic helpers which are only able to do the latter. In addition to those sensors, the robot is also equipped with an Intel-made RealSense camera. Apart from voice commands, Moro can also be controlled via a dedicated Android app that communicates with it over a Wi-Fi connection. The robot is running Ubuntu and EyewayOS, as well as a broad range of Eyeways in-house logic algorithms. The Beijing-based firm revealed that its planning to take Moro on a US university tour once CES wraps up, after which the company will resume development of a commercial variant of this humanoid helper. While Eyeway isnt expecting that Moro will become a massive hit overnight, it believes the product has a lot of potential once robotic butlers like Moro become more mainstream, which it believes will happen by 2020. New Galaxy S8 images have just surfaced, and this time around were looking at real life images of Samsungs upcoming flagship, well, alleged Galaxy S8 images. If you take a look at the gallery down below, youll get to see a smartphone whose bezels are really thin, and truth be told, this is the least unreal leak of the device weve seen thus far, next to renders which surfaced yesterday. The device shown off today is actually a bit different than the one that surfaced yesterday, the frame of this phone is a bit more curved, but the two designs are quite similar actually. The first thing youll notice here is that the physical home button is missing, well, theres no home button below the display at all, and interestingly enough, on-screen buttons are not present here either, at least we cannot see them on the leaked images despite the fact the display is on, it is possible theyre hidden. Samsungs branding is placed below the display, and this seems to be the gold-colored variant of the device that leaked today. The physical power / lock key is visible on the right-hand side of this smartphone, and the same can be said for the volume rocker keys which are placed on the left. The UI of this smartphone seems to be in Chinese, and a recent rumor said that the company is already testing the device in China, so this could be the model that is being tested in Asia at the moment. Now, if rumors are accurate, Samsung is actually planning to release the Galaxy S8 in April, and theyre allegedly planning to release two Galaxy S8 handsets, the regular Galaxy S8 model, and the Galaxy S8 Plus. Some rumors have suggested that the flat screen Galaxy S8 will not be available this year, though it remains to be seen if that is true. The companys S Pen stylus which usually ships with the Galaxy Note series smartphones could be available for the Galaxy S8 Plus, if rumors are accurate, and the Galaxy S8 smartphones will probably ship with the Bixby AI assistant. In any case, both the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus are expected to launch in April, though it is possible Samsung might introduce them sooner, in February or March, but well see, stay tuned. Serge Lachapelle, the Director of Product Management at Google Cloud, has announced that Google have acquired Limes Audio, a specialist Swedish audio company that have been around for ten years. Limes Audio design specialize in audio technology that is designed to simply make voice communication systems sound better. As such, Limes Audio aim to solve the issue of poor sound quality experienced during video or audio conference calls, marring the experience. Googles acquisition of Limes Audio is because it is finding more and more businesses are using their video conferencing systems, these typically being Chromebox for Meetings and Google Hangouts, and Google wish to provide the best audio quality possible. Lachapelle explains that one of the challenges facing system designers of videoconferencing technology is that there is no such thing as a typical conference room, as they come in different shapes, sizes and arrangements. Many have what Google suggest are challenging acoustics, because conference rooms are often not designed for video or audio conferences. Limes Audios stated objective is to work towards all voice conversations sounding equally loud and clear, regardless of the distance or environment, and their proprietary audio technologies aim to stop background noise, distortion and echoes during a video or audio conference call regardless of the environment and connection quality. Google, and Limes Audio, understand that the better the audio quality, the more efficient, productive and efficient the meeting. Google admits that more G Suite customers are using the video conferencing technologies on a daily basis and because of this, the company consider it to be more important than ever to ensure low-cost, high-quality audio. At this juncture, Google have not clarified how the Limes Audio business will be run going forwards but it appears that the technology is being sent to Mountain View, California. Limes Audios founders have highlighted that the team could continue working with the community in the future because working together towards a better audio experience for everyone. The Limes Audio team are also excited for new Google product launches in the future: Lachapelles blog makes no mention of Googles consumer friendly videocalling app, Google Duo, presumably because Duo is a one-on-one video calling application rather than a conference calling or application biased towards business use. However, it seems likely that Google may well roll out Limes Audio technology to all of its video calling systems at some point in the future. The Galaxy S8 is one of the most anticipated smartphones of this year, and according to the latest report, this phone will launch on April 18th. Weve seen a ton of rumors thus far suggesting that the device will launch in February, March or April, so its not exactly a surprise were still unsure when is Samsung planning to unveil their new flagship. Well, this new report suggests that the company had already decided when will they drop the Galaxy S8, and April 18th seems to be the date, as Samsung is allegedly planning to host a separate event. The Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge handsets were introduced during the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona last year, and it seems like Samsung plans to organize a separate event this time around, either because they dont want other products to distract possible customers, or because they want to make sure that the Galaxy Note 7-like fiasco doesnt occur yet again. Now, this new report actually goes hand-in-hand with a recent rumor which surfaced, that rumor suggested that the company plans to start mass producing the Galaxy S8 in March, so it seems like April could be an ideal time for Samsung to unveil the Galaxy S8, especially if they plan to start selling the device right away. Speaking of which, the company is allegedly preparing to manufacture 10 million Galaxy S8 units for April, which could also suggest that April is the chosen month by Samsung. The Samsung Galaxy S8 will, allegedly, come in two variants, Samsung will reportedly release the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus handsets. The Galaxy S8 will sport a curved display, and the Galaxy S8 Plus as well, probably, and it might even ship with the S Pen stylus if rumors are to be believed. Samsung is reportedly planning to use two SoCs in their Galaxy S8 devices, in some regions the Galaxy S8 will ship with the Snapdragon 835, while in other Samsung plans to utilize their very own Exynos 8895 SoC. The phone will, allegedly, ship without a home button, and the device actually leaked quite recently, both in renders and real life images. Every techie loves getting a major update one that jumps from Android 6.0 Marshmallow to Android 7.0 Nougat and it looks like the Motorola Moto Z in Europe is getting theirs right now. The Moto Z in India received their update at the end of 2016, so this is a nice way for European countries to celebrate the New Year. The download is approximately 1.5GB and takes several minutes to download and upgrade. You might want to be hooked into WiFi for a faster download and to save your data usage. The Android 7.0 Nougat update continues Googles trend towards more optimizations to the OS, but it also packs many new features that users will appreciate. One of the best features is Doze that works behind the scenes to save battery life. The improved Doze feature allows your smartphone to go into its Doze state almost as soon as you turn off your display. This almost instant-on Doze puts your device in a state to start saving battery life almost immediately. Your device will return to its normal state as soon as you turn on the display. The Notification area was also given a once over, and you can now access your emails through the notification shade. Quick Reply is another function built into Nougat you can quickly respond to messages you receive and then go back to what you were doing before the message arrived. Multi-Window multitasking is also built into Nougat, and you can now easily work on two things at once watch a video while you are texting or emailing. Even little improvements just make working on your device easier. When you hit the recent key, you will be presented with full-size cards for each opened app. This makes it easier to read and locate the app you would like to switch to and work with. The Moto Z series is one of Motorola/Lenovos most popular line-ups to date. Three available models will satisfy most users needs and pocketbook. These high-quality and well-built smartphones have really good cameras, performance, and features depending on which model you purchase. The Moto Z line also has access to a line of Moto Mods that will add more functionality to your device or even custom back panels to change its look. Amazons voice-based personal digital assistant, Alexa, has just added yet another skill to its growing repertoire. According to an announcement earlier today by the Seattle, Washington-based online retail giant, Prime members will now be able to order meals from Amazon Restaurants on their Alexa-enabled devices. The service will be available in more than 20 cities around the U.S. and users will have to activate the feature by saying Alexa, order from Amazon Restaurants. Once an order is placed, the delivery will reach the destination within an hour or less all free of charge, of course. Prime members can enter their ZIP codes in the Amazon or Prime Now mobile apps or visit the Prime Now website to see if the service is available in their location. While all this sounds pretty interesting, it is important to note that there is a little catch to the whole deal. According to Amazon, Alexa will only be able to order dishes that have already been ordered before. So unless youre looking to reorder something that youve already had previously, this feature isnt going to be of much use to you. However, in case youre looking to stick to a tried-and-tested dish, just mentioning the cuisine type will present you with a number of options that are available for reorder. Just selecting any one of the options will then get it delivered to the default address within the stipulated time-frame. While Alexa made its debut with the Amazon Echo back in 2014, the software is no longer limited to Amazon hardware. The increasingly-popular voice-activated personal digital assistant is now available on a number of third-party gadgets, including the likes of Martian mVoice smartwatch, C by GE smart LED lights, the Neato Botvac Connected vacuum cleaner, the Lenovo Smart Assistant wireless speaker and the Lynx dancing robot. In fact, LG even showcased an Alexa-powered refrigerator at its CES press event yesterday. These devices, of course, are just some of the instances where third-party hardware has expanded the scope of Alexa beyond what Amazon had been offering with its Echo lineup. With new production-ready AI-powered devices such as the Emotech Olly expected to launch later this year, it will be interesting to see how much pressure these new entrants can put on incumbents like, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Microsoft Cortana. The Polaroid Pop is Polaroids all new camera which prints photos on the spot. Polaroid, like many other companies out there, has decided to release a new product at this years Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, and the Polaroid Pop sure is an interesting product. This is a blend between old and new cameras, in a way, as this is a digital camera which can print 3-inch by 4-inch photos as soon as you take them, and is using inkless Zink photo paper in order to do so. Now, the Polaroid Pop might not look like a premium camera, but its specs might surprise you. This camera comes with a 20-megapixel CMOS sensor which is capable of recording fullHD (1920 x 1080) video, and next to it, you also get a dual-LED flash. The Polaroid Pop features a 3.97-inch LCD display on the front, and the device stores all the images and video you take on a microSD card (up to 128GB). You can connect Polaroid Pop to your smartphone using Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, so you can basically use this device as your portable printer as well and print images from your smartphone, if thats what you want. You can use the Polaroid Print app to edit your photos by adding filters, effects, stickers, etc. This application is completely free for both Android and iOS, in case you were wondering. The Polaroid Pop camera has three color modes, black and white, color and sepia, which will give you some flexibility when shooting photos. Some of you might wonder whats the inkless ZINK paper and printing, well, this is a printing technology developed by ZINK, and it basically allows the ZINK-enabled printer to use heat in order to activate and colorize cyan, yellow and magenta dye crystals embedded in the paper. This actually results in really crisp images which are smudge-proof, as the printing process does not include cartridges, ribbons or toner. The ZINK Paper is adhesive-backed, and you can even put it on your wall if you want, as it sticks quite easily. This camera will be available in a number of color variants, as you can see in the gallery down below, and the camera on this device protrudes on the back a bit. The Polaroid Pop might not be the thinnest or the prettiest camera around, but its definitely one of the most versatile ones. At CES 2017, LG confirmed that they do have a new smartphone on the way and it will be the G6. Furthermore, LG has also confirmed that the LG G6 will not be a smartphone that adopts a modular design or approach. Which is in stark contrast to last years LG G offering, the LG G5 and marks the companys departure away from modular smartphones after only one attempt. At least when it comes to their leading flagship line of smartphones, the LG G series. The new information comes courtesy of a report from the Wall Street Journal which credits comments made by LGs Chief Technologist, Skott Ahn, during an interview. While another unnamed LG spokesperson was credited with explaining that the LG G6 and its lack of modular direction is a direct response to the feedback received by consumers. Suggesting that LG consumers in particular were just not interested in modular smartphones and certainly, not in the way that LG approached modular design. However, and according to Ahn, LG is completely behind LGs smartphone ambitions and in spite of its recently unimpressive sales. With Ahn reportedly stating that spinning off the smartphone division is not something we would consider. Unfortunately, the comments made by the LG representatives did not provide any detailed information on when the LG G6 will be announced. Although Ahn was quoted saying that it will arrive in the very near future. At present, recent reports have suggested that the LG G6 is likely to debut next month and as part of an approach in which LG hopes will see the G6 gain better market traction than the G5 did. It is likely that Mobile World Congress (MWC) will be the time when the LG G6 is announced, although the unnamed spokesperson was noted explaining that they are still considering different launch dates. The same spokesperson commented that the G6 will initially become available in Europe, North America and South Korea and interestingly, it would seem that the G6 will only be available in China via online sales. On a final note, the same report credits the spokesperson with confirming the price of the 6G will be in line with the G5 launch price, between $500 and $600. Samsung has decided to cap the Galaxy Note 7s battery in South Korea it seems. According to a new report which surfaced in Korea, Samsung will cap the Galaxy Note 7s battery, which is something they were planning to do a long time ago, but did not, mainly because the return percentage in Korea had been really low compared to some other markets. Well, now the return rate has crossed 94%, and the company has decided to go ahead and push the update to consumers, as the Galaxy Note 7 units are not safe to use and the company had stopped selling them, as you probably already know. The company will release this update in Korea next week, and its basically the same update Samsung has been pushing in other markets. Now, the company is hoping that this will force the remaining Galaxy Note 7 users to return their devices, as the update basically makes the phone unusable, at least not in normal terms, what can you do with 15% of battery? Well, not much. This report follows some very interesting news, weve heard recently that Samsung plans to share results of their investigation, in other words, the company will finally let us know what happened to the Galaxy Note 7 units, and if Samsung SDIs batteries are to blame or not. The company will share the results by the end of this month, so stay tuned for that. It seems like Samsung plans to use Samsung SDIs batteries in the upcoming Galaxy S8 units as well, which suggests that batteries are not to blame for the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco, though we cannot know for sure. Pretty much everyone thought that batteries are to blame, but it is possible Samsung made a rookie mistake and did not leave enough room inside of the device for heat dissipation, which is something that was suggested a while back in a report. Were only guessing at this point, of course, and will have to wait for Samsung to tell us what happened, and were sure that many of you are quite interested to hear all about it. Well, well let you know as soon as Samsung releases some official info. Samsung is always looking for the next big thing anywhere they can find it. Samsung realizes that some of the best ideas come from the minds of young entrepreneurs, so they started the Samsung Global Innovation Center renamed to Samsung NEXT. The institution provides funding, office space, equipment, and materials these Early Stage Startups or tech entrepreneurs need to transform their idea into reality. David Eun, President and Founder of Samsung NEXT, said that Samsung continues to embrace entrepreneurship at all levels and this Fund shows our unwavering commitment to support great startups worldwide. According to Brendon Kim, VP and Managing Director of Samsung NEXT Ventures, by investing in these startups it helps accelerate their growth and development, ultimately ensuring their success. This also increases Samsungs access to the many new ideas developed by these techies after all, this is a cooperative effort. This is also a global effort with offices already in Mountain View, New York, San Francisco, and Korea, and Samsung is opening up their newest office in Tel Aviv. Samsung promises to open more locations in 2017. Emily Becher, Managing Director of Samsung NEXT Start and head of Samsung NEXTs international expansion says they are very passionate about their commitment to developing business relationships with startup companies. She says it helps fuel the local experts and with Samsungs help they can develop programs or devices that we might otherwise never hear about or see. Samsungs idea to create an environment to foster innovative software and services started in 2013. They provide not only funding but also the expertise to help the young startup companies often only consisting of two or three people turn their ideas into a reality. From the early stages of development, Samsung funds the project so the company can grow and prosper. With Samsungs size, they are often able to help leverage the maturing businesses and getting them to be a part of the Samsung ecosystem. Samsung has always been on the leading edge of innovation and spent nearly $14 billion in 2015 on Research and Development they even have a program for employees with that next great idea. The world of electronics moves at the speed of light and Samsung wants to make sure that they are moving just as fast. The Vice President and General Manager of Services and New Business at Samsung Electronics America, Nana Murugesan, today announced that use of Samsung Pay has almost doubled following the introduction of Samsung Rewards. Samsung Pay is the South Korean conglomerates mobile payment system, which has been available on high-end Samsung devices for some time now, but for 2017 will be available on all, or nearly all, Samsung smartphones. Samsung Pay has the advantage that it is compatible with the majority of existing till systems and does not require new, NFC-enabled equipment to be installed by the retailer as the payment technology can use the magnetic strip card reader. Samsung Rewards is the points-based incentive system implemented for Samsung Pay customers, which rewards customers with points per transaction, which may be redeemed for discounts on Samsung products. Samsung is keen to remind customers that they receive Samsung Rewards points in addition to any similar scheme in place by the underlying bank or credit card connected to Samsung Pay. Murugesan has been speaking today on a panel at the Consumer Electronics Show, or CES, hosted in Las Vegas. He explained: Innovations like Samsung Rewards are giving consumers a real incentive to embrace Samsung Pay. We are seeing that people are more likely than ever before to try mobile payments with the number of daily users doubling every week since the launch of Samsung Rewards thanks to the tangible benefits they experience. In total, the number of transactions has nearly doubled and December 2016 saw a new record, no doubt fuelled by shoppers using their Samsung smartphone to quickly and conveniently pay for holiday gifts. In addition to the number of transactions being put through Samsung Pay, the company has also seen an increase in the number of what it is calling power users, that is, those customers making frequent (almost once every day) payments using the technology. Here the number of regular customers has been doubling every week since the introduction of Samsung Rewards, and this is particularly good news as it appears to show how once customers start using Samsung Pay, they continue to do so. Ultimately, regular users of Samsung Pay will be loyal to the technology and as such, Samsung hopes the brand. Furthermore, the more transactions, the greater the revenue that Samsung will generate from this side of its business. Samsung also discussed what customers are using their Samsung Rewards points to buy, and the most popular items include the Samsung Gear Fit2, Fast Charge Battery Pack, Gear VR headset, plus prepay Samsung Rewards Visa Prepaid Cards. Customers have also been redeeming their Samsung Rewards points for entries into Samsungs Instant Win prizes, which includes trips to Aspen or Las Vegas. Sleepace, a China-based company, has just introduced a new product at CES 2017 called the Nox Music. For those of you who dont know, Sleepace is actually a company which specializes in manufacturing medical-grade sleep solution for your home. The company is currently selling a lineup of Smart Sleep Lights, and theyve just added a new product to their portfolio. The Nox Music is a multi-functional device as its a smart alarm, a Bluetooth speaker, and a wake-up light. The Nox Music resembles the Google Home speaker, theres no doubt about that, though mainly because of the colors used here, the gray + white combination is definitely comparable to Google Home. In any case, the Nox Music has a far different purpose than the Google Home, while Googles offering is trying to be your virtual assistant throughout the day, and help you get things done, the Nox Music has a few specific functions. The Nox Music will help you fall asleep by using its light and sound programs, and the smart alarm feature will help you wake up naturally. Sleepace says you should feel more rested throughout the day thanks to Nox Musics smart alarm feature. The device supports gestures as well and you can control various functions of this device by using hand gestures. If you wave your hand, the LED light color will change, or you can use hand gestures to skip songs on your playlist. If you press and hold the right or the left side of the speaker for 2 seconds, you can dim the light or make it brighter. If you tap the speaker on the right side, you can increase the volume, while tapping it on the left will lower the volume. The Nox Music speaker also acts as a sleep tracker, which is necessary in order for the device to wake you up naturally, as it will monitor your sleep and wake you up while you are in light sleep, not deep sleep. Due to its design, this speaker fits in more or less every bedroom, and its light has 16 million colors, while the battery is certified for more than 25,000 hours of service, so you should be able to use this speaker for quite some time before the battery dies on you. You can even use this speaker to charge your phone or tablet, as it comes with a USB port. The Nox Music is already available for purchase, and you can get it from the companys official website for $149.99. During Sonys CES 2017 event today, Sony announced a number of new additions to its EXTRA BASS line of audio solutions. In total, Sony announced the arrival of six new products. Four of which are new Bluetooth speakers and the other two are new Bluetooth headphones. While these are different products lines, they are extensions of the same overall EXTRA BASS range and as such, the differences between the different speakers are minimal. As are the differences between the two new headphones. In terms of the new EXTRA Bass speakers, these are listed as the Sony SRS-XB10, SRS-XB20, SRS-XB30 and the SRS-XB40. Generally speaking, the four speakers make use of a similar design language, although they do differ somewhat in terms of speaker size and battery life. For example, the smallest (SRS-XB20) comes with 42 mm speakers and offers a 12-hour battery life, while the biggest (SRS-XB40) comes loaded with 61 mm speakers and offers a 24-hour battery. It is worth noting here that the SRS-XB10 is a mono 46 mm speaker, which offers a 16-hour battery and marks the biggest design change, compared to the rest of the speakers. While the SRS-XB20 through to the SRS-XB40 all come with varying lighting effects for added value. In terms of price, only the UK and European pricing has been detailed so far, with no information provided on additional regions, including the US. As for the UK and Europe, the SRS-XB10 will be available in May in blue, black, red, green, white and yellow for 60/70. The SRS-XB20 becomes available in April in blue, black, red, green and white for 100/120. The SRS-XB30 comes to market in April in blue, black, red, green and white for 150/180, while the SRS-XB40 will also become available in April, in blue, black and red for 200/240. As for the new EXTRA BASS headsets, the two on offer are the MDR-XB950N1 and the MDR-XB950B1 and the most obvious difference between them, is that the N1 model comes equipped with noise cancellation functionality. Other than that, the N1s come with a 22-hour battery life, while the B1s come with an 18-hour battery life. Both sets come equipped with 40 mm dome drivers. The MDR-XB950N1 will be available in either black or green and will cost 230/280, while the more affordable MDR-XB950B1 will cost 180/220. Both sets of headphones are due to become available in the UK and Europe in April. Advertisement Sony SRS-XB10 Bluetooth Speaker Sony SRS-XB20 Bluetooth Speaker Sony SRS-XB30 Bluetooth Speaker Advertisement Sony SRS-XB40 Bluetooth Speaker Sony MDR-XB950N1 Bluetooth Headphones Sony MDR-XB950B1 Bluetooth Headphones During its press conference at the CES 2017 trade show in Las Vegas, Japanese tech giant, Sony, debuted a number of wireless noise-cancelling headphones and Bluetooth speakers, but the one thing that is getting quite a bit of attention are a pair of prototype wireless earbuds along the lines of what Apple introduced with its latest range of iPhones late last year. While this is not the first time that Sony is trying its hand at the wireless earbud segment, its earlier attempt got a lukewarm response from the media and consumers alike. Called Xperia Ear, the device was showcased at the Mobile World Congress trade show last year, with the commercial launch coming later in the year. The device is priced at $199.99 a pair, and unlike Apples Airpods, comes with Sonys own personal digital assistant Agent. As for the new ones on display, they are just working prototypes, with no official word on when they might actually go into commercial production. The company, did, however, indicate that it is taking the growing trend of customization seriously, as it showed off the yet-unnamed in-ear earbuds in two different colors Black and Brown. The company also showed off a charging case for its prototype wireless earbuds, although it refused to give any indications about the price or ETA for either. It will be interesting to see how long it takes for Sony to make these devices production ready, because Samsung is also rumored to introduce its own wireless earbuds along with the Galaxy S8 in April this year. Although Apples Airpods have captured the imagination of the global media, they are definitely not the first such devices to have launched in the market. Apart from the aforementioned Xperia Ear from Sony, we have also seen tier-1 brands such as Samsung and Motorola bring their own iterations of the wireless earbuds to the market in previous years, although reaction to them have mostly been muted. That being the case, theres not a lot of competition in the segment as yet, which is why it is interesting to see that Sony is keeping up with its efforts in trying to fill a void and gain the first-mover advantage in what is still essentially a nascent, untested market, with most of the products failing to get any attention from the mainstream media until now. The fewer the nanometers (nm) a chip has, the less power it consumes, and less heat is generated, so it is no wonder that chip makers around the globe are looking for ways to decrease those pesky nm(s). Right now, the major chip manufacturers Samsung, Intel, and TSMC are producing their 10nm chips for the high-end smartphones and other mobile devices. The 10nm follows up the 14nm chip. This reduction is what allows us to have a smaller chip and more room for other niceties, such as a larger battery. It also means our smartphones will not get as warm while running powerful games and that our battery will last longer between charges. TSMC is second only to Intel in chip manufacturing and they, along with Samsung, are always at the forefront of developing better, faster, and smaller chips. They are already near the end of the design phase for 7nm chips, which should debut in early 2018. Designs may change and hold up production, but TSMC is shooting for 2018. Firms like Qualcomm, Nvidia, Xilinx, and Apple are all potential customers for the 7nm chip as they supply the processors for our smartphones. Samsung will also be in the running as the two companies battle it out for 7nm supremacy. TSMC claims to have a technological advantage over Samsung and predicts they will be the leader in 7nm chips while no one is sure if Intel wants to play anymore as they continue to lose money in the mobile market. The exciting world of technology makes us look forward to the new smartphones of 2017 and 2018. A device that was once a rather crude means of making telephone calls has turned into a mini-computer that we hold in our hand. As chips become smaller, we received more processing power, more RAM, more internal memory, lighter devices, and longer battery life. We can store a thousand contacts, thousands of songs and photos, videos, apps, and more on our devices. We do our banking, shopping, and even purchasing now with our smartphone and authorize those endeavors with the press on our fingerprint sensor. These smaller chips will continue to add more features and make our mobile devices run faster and more efficient. Chinese Internet company, Xiaomi, has announced a new superthin smart television set at CES 2017, called the Mi TV 4. By superthin, the company explains that the new television set is thinner than the Mi Mix and iPhone smartphones. Its only 4.9 mm at the thinnest point and furthermore, the set has minimal bezels around the edge, following an industry trend we have witnessed with the Xiaomi Mi Mix smartphone. The Xiaomi Mi TV 4 joins Xiaomis existing family of Mi-branded products, numbering smartphones, tablets, fitness bands, refrigerators, robotic vacuum cleaners, bikes and drones plus more. Another leaf taken from the smartphone industry is that of a modular design, which is a trait the new Mi TV 4 shares with Xiaomis other television sets. The television is essentially split into two units: the superthin panel and the internal components, which reside in a bar that sits under the screen. A single cable connects the two components. The advantage of this layout is that it is relatively easy to upgrade or repair the television set by swapping out the display unit, motherboard or sound system. The Xiaomi Mi TV 4 will ship with an optional Dolby Atmos home cinema sound system, designed to let viewers hear movies and television shows in three dimensions. This means that the sound from the television is projected around the view as it would be expected, so a car approaching from behind sounds like it is coming from behind. And finally, the television sets smart software is built upon a version of the Android operating system under Xiaomis Patch Wall user interface, which Xiaomi explain learns from the customers browser history using artificial intelligence in order to make recommendations. Hugo Barra explained that the Patch Wall system takes recommendations from a vast library of content, The television will be available in 49-inch, 55-inch and 65-inch versions later this year, with the biggest 65-inch model including Dolby Atmos will cost well under $2,000 when released. Xiaomi also explained that a model without the Dolby Atmos unit will cost under $1,500; Xiaomi did not discuss pricing of the smaller 49-inch and 55-inch sets, or the exact date when it expects the televisions to be available. Still, this is Xiaomis first press conference at CES and their new ultrathin television has certainly made an impression. Chinese tech company Xiaomi has announced that it earned revenues of $1 billion in India last year. The company entered the Indian smartphone market back in 2014, paving the way for several other Chinese vendors to make their forays into one of the fastest growing large smartphone markets in the world. According to an announcement earlier today by the head of Xiaomi India, Mr. Manu Raju, the company managed to double its sales last year, thanks partly to its expansion into the offline market. The company apparently is the fourth largest smartphone brand in the country right now, shipping as many as 2.5 million devices during the final quarter of last year, thereby registering a whopping 150% growth over the same period in 2015. Mr. Jain also gave out some further statistics about Xiaomis success story in the country. According to him, the company has managed to sell 2.3 million units of its super-popular Redmi Note 3 phablet during the second half of 2016, making it the most-shipped online-exclusive smartphone in the country. The device was earlier reported to have sold in large numbers during Amazons Great Indian Sale late last year, while Flipkarts Big Billion Day sale saw the entry-level Redmi 3S and Redmi 3S Prime do brisk business. The two devices (and their variants) are immensely popular among the countrys young smartphone users mostly because they represent great value for money with very decent hardware and build quality at very affordable price-points. The company is expected to launch the rumored Redmi Note 4X in India later this month, having been unable to launch the Redmi Note 4 because of ongoing patent-related disputes with Swedish telecom firm, Ericsson. Xiaomis success in India is in sharp contrast to the struggles Huawei has had to endure in the country over the past few years. Having clocked sales of over $2 billion in 2011, the company is believed to have sold devices worth just half as much last year, even though it managed to displace Xiaomi as the top smartphone vendor in their home country last year. Although its stellar showing in India is something that Xiaomi will be drawing comfort from, it is important to remember that the company missed its 2016 shipment target by 12%. As a result, the company has slipped down to the number four spot on the smartphone vendors list in its homeland, with OPPO and Vivo both having overtaken it over the past few months. Xiaomi will now be hoping that its next-generation devices like the upcoming Mi 6 will help it regain its former glory in the all-important Chinese market. At CES 2017 today, ZTE unveiled their latest smartphone which is en route to the US as the ZTE Blade V8 Pro. This is a smartphone which is due to become available by the end of January and will be sold as an unlocked smartphone. Best of all, this is a smartphone that is due to go on sale for only $229.98. Following the launch of the Blade V8 Pro in China and select parts of Europe, with the Blade V8 Pro now confirmed as coming to the US, this marks the first debut from ZTEs popular Blade series of smartphones to become available to consumers in the US. One of the big selling points with the Blade V8 Pro and certainly at this price point, is that it does come equipped with a dual rear camera setup, which consists of two 13-megapixel rear cameras. Accompanying the dual rear camera setup is an 8-megapixel front-facing camera. As such, for a device that is priced at just under $230, this is going to be a smartphone that appeals to those looking for an inexpensive, but camera-capable, smartphone and especially for those who are looking for an unlocked device. In terms of the rest of the specs, the ZTE Blade V8 Pro comes equipped with a 5.5-inch display and makes use of a Full HD resolution. Inside, the Blade V8 Pro comes loaded with 3GB RAM, 32GB internal storage and is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor. This is also a smartphone that comes packing a fingerprint sensor, dual SIM support and support for expandable storage via microSD (up to 128GB). The Blade V8 Pro is powered by a 3,140 mAh battery and comes running on Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) out of the box. As mentioned, this is a smartphone that is due to become available this month and for those looking to place an order early, ZTE has confirmed that pre-orders for the ZTE Blade V8 Pro actually go live today. Therefore, by the end of the day, the option to preorder the ZTE Blade V8 Pro for $229.98 should be available through ZTEs official website, as well as other online retailers, including Amazon, B&H, and Newegg. Social impact bonds an option to address Africas most pressing challenges David Geral and Kim Goss, of Bowmans South Africa, and Aunnie Patton Power, the innovative finance lead at Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Cape Towns Graduate School of Business. The number of foreign direct investments (FDI) projects into Africa increased by 6% in 2015, according to the FDI report 2016. Africa also recorded 156 more FDI projects than the Middle East in 2015, a figure that has widened by 98% compared with 2014. These foreign investors, foundations and trust managers are through their investment addressing significant challenges that Africa faces in respect of poverty, infrastructure development, healthcare, education and transport by supporting companies dealing with these issues on the continent. Initiatives in these sectors are considered to be viable impact investment opportunities, and investors are seeking them out. Impact investments are those investments that provide a measurable social or environmental impact, as well as a financial return. Much of the work in impact investing markets is starting to look at how money invested in social and environmental good could be allocated in a way that uses data to determine the effectiveness of programmes and institutions. One of the innovative financing mechanisms to emerge from this process is the Social Impact Bond. A Social Impact Bond (SIB) is a financing contract designed to drive commercially sustainable social outcomes. The bonds work by attracting socially motivated investors to fund social services up front. Repayments to investors are then made by government and/or private funders if pre-agreed outcome targets are achieved. SIBs enable governments and donors to allocate resources more effectively to address societal challenges particularly in the face of fiscal austerity, by way of public-private collaboration. The use of SIBs stands poised for considerable growth in Africa. The magnitude and speed of this growth depends on the extent to which African governments create an enabling environment through policy. In this regard, South Africa has a relatively established social investment market, albeit small by international standards, facilitated to some extent by Regulation 28 of the Pension Funds Act, an example of how policy can be used to leverage institutional investment towards social outcomes. Regulation 28 is the prudential investment regulation that governs how and where South African pension funds can invest, and it obliges pension fund trustees to consider environmental, social and governance factors in pursuit of a sustainable returns policy. It expressly incentivises institutional investment into the rest of Africa. Similarly, there are regulations in several African jurisdictions that allow, even compel, domestic pension funds to invest in other African countries. Larger African institutional investors are quite familiar with other initiatives to strengthen awareness and implementation around ESG and responsible investing, for example, the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI), the closely aligned Code for Responsible Investment in South Africa (CRISA) the Responsible Investment Ownership Guide for Pension Funds in Southern Africa published by the Sustainable Returns for Pensions and Society initiative in 2013. Zimbabwe also introduced responsible investment codes recently and Kenya implemented its stewardship codes last year. The King Code IV has also placed emphasis on corporate social responsibility and has referred to CRISA. The regulatory environment in South Africa has arguably led to the increased interest from foreign foundations, looking to invest or create investment opportunities in projects in South Africa and to expand them into Africa. These projects involve many industries, (although we have seen particular enthusiasm in the healthcare and agriculture sectors), with the need for legal advice on all levels. Exchange control rules often have to be adhered to, when the funding initially enters South Africa, and for any subsequent investment abroad. These constraints dictate the structure of the deal and the flow of funds and make legislative advice a pre-requisite. Foreign investors also frequently look for partnerships with local companies that have the expertise, the location and the know-how to address socioeconomic issues. In South Africa, the obstacles faced by load shedding as a result of energy capacity issues, for example, have given rise to many businesses offering renewable energy and solar energy solutions which in turn offers more ESG friendly investment opportunities for local institutional investors . In the alternative energy market, measuring the return on investment is becoming relatively straightforward. However, it is less easy to put a price on investing in human dignity or cognitive development in children, for example. One of the sticking points in the impact investing movement has been how to gauge if funds invested in social good are having any measurable impact. Earlier this year the Western Cape Departments of Health and Social Development in South Africa allocated up to R 24 million to trial three Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) aimed at improving the health, nutrition and developmental status of pregnant women and children, up to five years who live in low income communities. Two corporate donors have committed another R 24 million rand to bring the total amount of the bonds to R48 million. The Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Cape Towns (UCT) Graduate School of Business, facilitated their development and Bowmans advised on the legal and tax structuring of these SIBSs. These SIBs are the first to be initiated in an emerging market, and they will provide useful guidance and lessons on how these bonds can be implemented in other countries in Africa going forward. This innovative financing mechanism could be a powerful tool providing a practical and workable solution for Africas most pressing challenges, while at the same time offering worthwhile returns for socially motivated investors. www.bowmanslaw.com (ANSA) - Rome, January 5 - There is less Islamist radicalisation in Italy than other countries, Premier Paolo Gentiloni said after meeting Italy's commission on radicalisation Thursday. "But the fact that we have a lower number of radicalised persons or foreign fighters must not lead us to underestimate the phenomenon or the need to understand it," he said. The commission on Islamist radicalisation has found that "radicalisation paths develop above all in certain places, in jail and on the Web, more than in other places that we may have followed a lot in the last years or decades". He said "we must work on jails and on the Web, for prevention". We must say no to those who equate immigration with terrorism, Gentiloni said. He said the government's aim was to combine reception policies with "rigour" in repatriations. Lorenzo Vidoni, chair of the commission on radicalisation, said that in Italy "there are a growing number of women and minors being radicalised". (ANSA) - Vatican City, January 5 - Pope Francis told survivors of the central Italian earthquakes in the Vatican Thursday that they must have "the courage to dream" in rebuilding their devastated communities. "Rebuild, restart, start over, but also restart without losing the capacity to dream, to dream, to have the courage to dream once more," he told thousands in the Paul VI Hall. The quake-hit came from the dioceses of Rieti, Spoleto-Norcia and Ascoli Piceno, accompanied by their bishops. Francis told them to rebuild "not only homes, but also hearts", using hands that pulled survivors from the rubble and helped by the hand of God. Francis also said that he was proud of the parish priests who had helped them. "I'm proud of my priests who did not leave their communities, it's good to have pastors who don't run away when they see the wolf". Recalling he had already thanked authorities and fire services, the pope said "I also want to thank all those who involved themselves in this pain of yours because when you make a list you always see who didn't say no". EU repatriates only 43% of migrants without asylum - Frontex Director Leggeri praises Turkey, criticises Greece (ANSAmed) - BERLIN, JANUARY 5 - European member states expel from their countries only 43% of migrants whose asylum requests aren't approved, said Frontex border agency director Fabrice Leggeri on Thursday. Leggeri spoke at the annual closed-door retreat of the Christian Social Union (CSU) party, the Bavarian sister party to Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), held in Seeon. Leggeri's comments were reported by retreat attendees who spoke to German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). They said Leggeri "criticised Greece in particular" for its "slowness in bureaucratic procedures" while he expressed "praise for Turkey". The EU-Turkey migrant accord stipulated the return of 500 migrants per day from the Greek islands to Turkey, but "in reality up to now only 1,000 have been brought back in all" Leggeri said, according to FAZ.(ANSAmed). Libya 'prepared to talk to all sides', Tobruk speaker says 'In Tunis to ask for support', Saleh adds (ANSAmed) - TUNIS, JANUARY 5 - Libya is "prepared to negotiate with all sides on condition that its dignity and territorial integrity are preserved", speaker of the Tobruk parliament Aqila Saleh said following a meeting with his Tunisian counterpart Mohamed Ennaceur on Wednesday. "We have come to ask for support for the legitimate power in Libya and for the path of dialogue and consensus to be pursued," Saleh continued. The proposal by Tunisia and Algeria for a summit of foreign ministers of neighbouring countries to be held in Libya is a positive first step, he added. (ANSAmed). Turkey in new fight 'for independence', Erdogan says 'If we win we will meet targets for 2023', president adds (ANSAmed) - ROME, JANUARY 5 - Turkey is in the midst of a new fight "for independence", state news agency Anadolu quoted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as saying on Wednesday. "If we win this fight we will meet our targets for 2023 (the centenary of the Turkish republic)," Erdogan added. (ANSAmed). ROME - The victim toll of the terrorist attack Thursday at the courthouse in Izmir, on the Aegean coast of Turkey, stands at two killed and at least 11 wounded. The two victims were a police officer and a courthouse employee, and there were also police officers among the wounded, according to Dogan News Agency. It said the attack was a car bomb followed by an armed assault on the building by at least three terrorists, two of whom were killed by police. A third escaped and is on the run. On Wednesday the investigation into the New Year's attack on the Reina nightclub in Istanbul focused on Izmir, with a series of arrests. Police found three families there who were neighbours of the killer in Konya, in central Anatolia, with their children as well. They had already left in the days leading up to the attack. Migrant arrivals in Italy reached record levels in 2016 Arrivals up 18%, 176,554 hosted, spike in unaccompanied minors (ANSAmed) - ROME, JANUARY 5 - Migrant arrivals and hosting in Italy reached record levels in 2016, with unaccompanied minors especially numerous. Migrant arrivals in 2016 were 18% higher than in 2015, with a total of 181,436 arrivals compared to 153,842 the year before. Arrivals in 2016 were 6% higher than in 2014 when the total was 170,100. Contrary to previous years, 2016 arrivals peaked in October, with 27,384 arrivals, a number three times higher than in October 2015, when 8,915 arrivals were registered. Arrivals doubled for unaccompanied children and adolescents in 2016, jumping to 25,772 arrivals compared to 12,360 in 2015. The majority of migrants arrived at a Sicilian port, with the record going to the port of Augusta where 25,624 migrants set foot on Italian soil in 2016. It was followed by the ports of Pozzallo (18,970), Catania (17,989), Messina (15,188) and Palermo (15,083). The majority of migrants came from Nigeria, at 37,551 arrivals, followed by Eritrea at 20,718, Guinea at 13,342, Ivory Coast at 12,396, and Gambia at 11,929. The increase in migrants hosted in Italy was even sharper, jumping to 176,554 migrants in the system in 2016 compared to 103,792 in 2015 and 22,118 in 2013. The majority of migrants hosted in Italy in 2016 were residing in temporary structures: 22,822 in SPRAR (System for Protection for Asylum Seekers and Refugees) centres, 14,694 in initial reception centres, and 820 in hotspots. The region that hosted the most migrants in 2016 was Lombardy, with 23,046 migrants, equivalent to 13% overall, followed by Lazio (14,886), Piedmont (14,347), Veneto (14,224), Campania (14,312) and Sicily (14,076), all at 8%. Tuscany (12.456), Emilia Romagna (12.259) and Puglia (12.136) were at 7%. The region that hosted the fewest migrants was the Aosta Valley at just 288, or 0.2%. Meanwhile, relocations as part of the Juncker plan were at a standstill: only 2,654 refugees were transferred from Italy to other European countries in over a year, compared to the 40,000 transfers planned to span two years. Italy is awaiting a decision by individual member states on 1,394 other requests, while an additional 1,122 applicants have already been approved and are awaiting transfer.(ANSAmed). Syrian state TV says 9 dead in car bomb in Latakia province In Jableh, Assad stronghold, in first attack since ceasefire (ANSAmed) - BEIRUT, JANUARY 5 - At least nine people were killed and 13 wounded in a car bombing on Thursday in the Syrian city of Jableh, in the coastal province of Latakia, a stronghold of Syrian President Bashar al Assad, according to Damascus state television. Jableh has been hit by similar attacks in the past, but this is the first attack since the ceasefire agreement sponsored by Russia and Turkey went into effect on December 30. On May 23 of last year, 120 people were killed in a series of attacks in Jableh and nearby Tartus, for which ISIS claimed responsibility. The province of Latakia hosts a Russian military air base, while Tartus houses a Russian naval base. ISIS and members of Fatah al-Sham Front (formerly Al-Nusra Front) are excluded from the ceasefire because they are recognised as terrorist organisations by the United Nations.(ANSAmed). ROME - Turkish anti-terrorism police detained several people on Thursday on suspicion of links to the man who allegedly carried out the attack on an Istanbul nightclub on New Year's Eve, killing 39. The police operation took place on a social housing estate in the Silivri neighbourhood on the outskirts of Istanbul, state news agency Anadolu reported citing investigative sources. It was unclear exactly how many people were detained. Meanwhile, the same sources said charges of complicity with the terror suspect have been formally brought against some of the Uighur, an ethnic Muslim minority originating from China's Xinjiang region, detained in the wake of the attack. Two arrested for threatening Israeli military court judge Case of soldier convicted of manslaughter has divided country (ANSAmed) - TEL AVIV, JANUARY 5 - Two Israeli bloggers have been arrested in Jerusalem and Kiryat Gat (Neghev) for posting threats on Facebook against a military court judge who convicted a soldier of manslaughter on Wednesday. A police spokesman said there is no intention of limiting freedom of expression on the internet. However, the posts in question contained explicit threats, leading to fears for the safety of the person they were directed at, the spokesman added. On Wednesday a military tribunal in Tel Aviv found Israeli soldier Elor Azaria, 20, guilty of shooting dead a Palestinian assailant, Abdel Fatah Sharif, after he had already been badly injured by other soldiers. The court rejected Azaria's defence, according to which the soldier opened fire in fear Sharif was hiding an explosive device. "The shooting was unjustified," Judge Colonel Maya Heller said of the incident in the West Bank town of Hebron on March 24, 2016. The sentence will be handed down in a month's time. The case has divided public opinion in Israel and on Wednesday far-right demonstrators clashed with police near the defense ministry in Tel Aviv as they called for Azaria's unconditional release. (ANSAmed). ROME - A car bombing that killed 2 and wounded 11 and a subsequent shooting at a courthouse in Izmir, Turkey, were acts of terrorism, said CNN Turk on Thursday. It said there were three attackers, two of whom were killed in a shootout with police and a third who escaped and is still on the run. A car exploded near a police kiosk in front of the entrance to the city courthouse in the Bayrakli district of Izmir, on Turkey's Aegean coast. Shortly after the explosion, shots were heard coming from inside the courthouse. Turkish telecommunications authorities have placed a temporary media ban on coverage of the attack. CIEs must be small, different from the past, Minniti says Transparent governance, external controls (ANSAmed) - ROME, JANUARY 5 - New centres for migrant identification and expulsion, which the government is planning to open in every Italian region, must be smaller and different than the past, Interior Minister Marco Minniti said Thursday. The new CIEs, he said, will "have nothing to do" with the sprawling and barely controllable centres of the past and will exclusively contain "those who must be expelled". He said he would propose to the State-Regions council on January 19 "small structures, with transparent governance and external power over the living conditions". Minniti said he would present an "organic" migrant plan to parliament. Stressing it was a mistake to equate migration with terrorism, he said the plan would be "serenely" examined by parliament in order to send the "right message" to the Italian people. There is "malware of terror" on the Web against which a battle is needed "which cannot be confined to a single country," Minniti said. In order to stem Web-based Islamist propaganda, he said, there must be "international cooperation between governments and major providers". (ANSAmed). Life sentences given in first two Turkey coup convictions Arrest warrants for 380 businessmen, including media execs (ANSAmed) - ROME, JANUARY 5 - A court in Erzurum in eastern Turkey on Thursday issued the first convictions in the country's July 15 coup attempt, handing down life sentences to two former members of the military, according to state news agency Anadolu. Col. Murat Kocak and Maj. Murat Yilmaz, both of whom declared their innocence, were found guilty of attempting to overthrow the constitutional order. Meanwhile on Thursday, 380 arrest warrants were issued for businessmen acccused of having ties to alleged coup leader Fethullah Gulen. Two of the warrants are for executives at Dogan Holding, which controls Turkish daily Hurriyet and TV network CNN Turk. (ANSAmed). PARIS - The city of Paris held tributes on Thursday to the victims of the January 2015 attacks at the offices of Charlie Hebdo newspaper and at the HyperCacher supermarket in Porte de Vincennes, honoring those killed in the attacks with flower wreaths, a minute of silence, and meetings with the families of the victims. Among those who participated in the ceremonies were Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, Interior Minister Bruno Le Roux, and Secretary of State for Victims' Aid Juliette Meadel. The first tribute was on rue Nicolas Appert in the 11th district where on January 7, 2015 eleven members of the Charlie Hebdo staff were killed by the Kouachi brothers. Among those killed were well-known satirists Cabu, Wolinski, and Bernard Maris. Following that tribute a second ceremony was scheduled on nearby Boulevard Richard-Lenoir where the brothers killed Ahmed Merabet, a police officer on bicycle. Another ceremony was scheduled at the HyperCacher, the Jewish supermarket of Porte de Vincennes where on January 9, 2015, terrorist Amedy Coulibaly killed five people. The day before, Coulibaly killed young police officer Clarissa Jean-Philippe in Montrouge. On January 9, the Representative Council of Jews in France (CRIF) has organised another tribute in front of the HyperCacher, which is reserved for the hostages and the families of the victims. 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. 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 Financiers of various types are active in the aircraft finance market, from commercial banks and operating lessors through to private equity firms, all of whom are looking to invest in the sector. The last 18 months alone has seen GECAS $1.775 billion acquisition of Milestone Aviation Group, private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rices $500 million investment in CHC, and multi-million dollar revolving credit facilities made available to LCI and Waypoint. There are, therefore, many options available to lessors and operators alike offered by financiers in the conventional finance space. While Sharia-compliant, Islamic financing of aircraft is not a new phenomenon, Islamic banks and financiers, like many of their conventional counterparts, are now increasingly looking at the aviation sector with a great deal of interest and optimism. Islamic finance need not be, and is not, confined to Muslim countries or to Muslim customers; rather it is a global phenomenon that, while being prevalent in the Middle East and other predominantly Muslim countries, including, for example, Malaysia, is also used extensively in the Far East, Europe and the USA. It may be used by Islamic financiers to assist customers who have no particular need or desire to avail themselves of an Islamic finance product at all. Equally, non-Islamic financing institutions may find that their customers demand the availability of Islamic finance. In the aviation market, potential expansion into Iran following the lifting of sanctions will see the need for Islamic finance techniques to be used to back growth still further. Islamic finance should be considered as an alternative source of funds for aircraft lessors and customers/operators alike. The principles of Islamic finance are not, in fact, at all unfamiliar. They are similar to many conventional banking techniques in particular, asset and project finance. Islamic finance involves the application of the Sharia (Islamic) law the law revealed in the Quran, the central religious text of Islam, through Hadiths, a collection of reports of the sayings and actions of the Prophet Muhammad, and through the Sunnah, a traditional portion of Islamic law, based on the words and acts of the Prophet Muhammad, and preserved in the traditional literature to the finance sector. Financing structures and techniques that conform to, and comply with, Sharia principles and which are legal, valid and binding under conventional laws, and which are enforceable in the secular courts or through arbitration, are central to the concept. There is, of course, nothing particularly new about Islamic finance as a concept and it has been a source of finance for many products and in many sectors for a significant period of time. However, it is fair to say that, in the aircraft finance sector, at least, it is not as prevalent as financing using conventional techniques. In summary, an Islamic finance transaction must be free from unjust enrichment, form an integral part of a trade or economic activity (for example, sale, lease, manufacturing, partnership) and comply with certain restrictions relating to the payment and receipt of interest (riba), uncertainty of contractual terms (gharar) and gambling/speculation (maysir). In addition, it must not be used to promote businesses that are viewed by the Sharia as inherently harmful for human health or spirit, or the social fabric (such as alcohol and gambling). Islamic finance may be used where both customer and bank have a requirement or wish for transactions to be documented and conducted in a Sharia-compliant manner. It may also be used in circumstances where an Islamic finance institution is providing finance to a customer who, while having no particular need to raise money in a Sharia-compliant manner, is offered the best deal as to pricing and terms from an Islamic financing institution. Equally, it may be used where an Islamic financing institution offers an alternative source of funds in circumstances where, for example, the customer may have already exhausted available conventional credit lines. Islamic finance products are offered by a range of Sharia-compliant banks and financial institutions. They may also be provided by financiers who are, for the most part, non-Islamic finance providers, through Islamic windows Islamic departments within conventional banks. However, there is some debate as to whether this constitutes Islamic finance and there is a clear divergence of opinion on this in academic circles. It should be noted that it is also possible to harness both Islamic structures and structured finance products within the envelope of a specific transaction. On this basis, it is possible, for example, to have both Sharia-compliant and conventional tranches within the same financing facility. There are a number of Islamic financing techniques that can be used to finance aircraft. Those most pertinent to and commonly used in aircraft finance are: Tawarruq/Reverse Murabaha; Ijara; and Sukuk. Tawarruq/reverse murabaha Murabaha is, perhaps, the simplest Islamic finance technique used and originates from trade finance. The technique, in its basic form, involves a contract for the purchase and resale of a physical asset. The bank purchases the asset that its customer has identified and sells it to the customer at an agreed profit on deferred payment terms (instead of charging interest). The murabaha concept has been adapted using a series of back-to-back commodity trade transactions, to form a structure (known as tawarruq or reverse murabaha) that can best be described as a means by which financial institutions can fund transactions in a manner that is Sharia-compliant, rather than using conventional loans from the interbank markets. Under a reverse murabaha, a series of transactions takes place by reference to the buying and selling of a commodity, the net effect of which is that the customer is obliged to pay a sum of money to the bank at a future date and that sum represents the banks outlay, plus a profit element. On the settlement date, the customer can either pay the full amount outstanding to the bank or pay a portion of the outstanding amount and enter into a new transaction with the bank but for the (lesser) outstanding amount, thus amortising the debt over time. The net effect of all of these arrangements is akin to a fully drawn amortising revolving credit facility. This technique can, for example, be utilised to provide pre-delivery (PDP) financing for aircraft under construction. The customer uses the funds from the commodity trade to pay the PDP instalments owed to the manufacturer and the bank takes security over the underlying manufacturer purchase contract (istisnaa) and, if applicable, any related bonds or guarantees. A recent example of a transaction using this sort of structure is the Bank of London and the Middle East (BLME) and Lloyds facility for LCI to be used to finance PDP payments for a number of Airbus H175 and H225 helicopters. That facility was structured so as to include both a master murabaha facility from BLME and a conventional facility from Lloyds, with Lloyds acting as mandated lead arranger under both facilities. Ijara An ijara is a lease. Different types of leases (operating leases, finance leases), as well as a form of hire purchase (ijara wa iktina), are possible in Islamic finance. Sale and leaseback is also possible, although, certainly for the acquisition of new aircraft, there is a preference for title to pass directly to the bank, as owner, from the manufacturer. Ijara can also be linked with other Islamic finance techniques so as to enable PDP financing by linking the ijara to the istisnaa contract, with the lease being a forward lease or agreement to lease and the customer being appointed as the owners agent to supervise the pre-delivery and completion stages in the usual manner. Some of the common features of an ijara financing include the following: Floating rate rent and other obligations: The methodology for the calculation of rent must be determined at the time of contract for the whole period of lease, but the rents themselves including a profit element (or return) for the owner and other amounts payable may be calculated by reference to a conventional benchmark rate (for example, LIBOR). Liquidated damages/late payment charges: The lessee would be expected to pay liquidated damages or late payment charges if it defaults or is late in performing its obligations under the ijara. However, as the owner is not permitted to retain more than the loss suffered, or costs actually incurred by it as a result of the lessees default, any excess is required to be paid to charity. Insurance and maintenance: Contrary to the position in a conventional lease financing, in an ijara financing, the owner is required to assume responsibility for certain insurable risks and to perform or contract heavy maintenance the major checks an aircraft has to pass periodically. This is in contrast to the position for light maintenance, which falls on the lessee. Given the above, it is customary for the owners liabilities and obligations arising from ownership to be assumed by the lessee as the owners agent through a separate service agency agreement. Sale and purchase undertakings: a typical ijara financing would also include separate undertakings by the owner to sell, and by the lessee to purchase, the aircraft should the financing unwind for any reason, giving the owner comfort that the lessee would purchase the aircraft in such circumstances and, therefore, avoiding the issues delays in repayment, costs, practicalities, lack of expertise/market knowledge etc that the owner may face in having to remarket the aircraft itself following a default by the lessee. Sukuk A sukuk is, in effect, an Islamic bond, although it has a number of differentiating and defining characteristics. It can be used in conjunction with other Islamic structures such as ijara. The underlying asset can be any halal asset an asset permitted or considered legitimate by the Sharia and, while the majority of sukuk have tended to be real estate-backed, this type of financing is being increasingly explored in the aircraft finance sector as well. At its simplest, a Sukuk involves the amount subscribed by investors being used to purchase an asset (such as an aircraft) using a single purpose company, for the purpose of leasing out the asset and charging rental. The rental stream, which is the only income of the single purpose company, is distributed to the subscribers according to their interests. The subscribers hold certificates (sakk certificates) of proportionate entitlement that represent the pro rata ownership interests of the subscribers in the underlying assets. The Emirates $913 million UK Export Finance-backed sukuk earlier this year (the first time that a sukuk has been used to pre-fund the acquisition of aircraft and the first ever sukuk financing for A380 aircraft), is a prime example of the use of sukuk in the aircraft finance sector. This involved the issuance of certain certificates (due 2025) by Khadrawy Limited, guaranteed by the export credits guarantee department of UK Export Finance. The proceeds from the issuance of the certificates were to be used to fund the acquisition of four Airbus A380-800 aircraft for operation by Emirates. For corporates looking to the public debt markets, using a sukuk potentially taps a wider market than a conventional bond, as the differences between a conventional bond and a sukuk are minimal. A downside is that some conventional investors may be put off by the references to Sharia compliance in certain markets. Sukuk is also often used as a means to sell down bilateral transactions, either on an individual basis or on the basis of a series of bilateral transactions packaged as a sukuk. This often looks more like a private placement. Other structures It is worth noting that other Islamic finance structures, such as musharaka (akin to a partnership or equity financing) and modaraba (akin to a funded participation arrangement), are not particularly prevalent in the context of aircraft finance transactions. In part, this may be due to the perceived relative complexity of such structures as well as, in the context of musharaka at least, the fact that the requirement for a partnership arrangement may be off-putting for some financiers. Islamic finance is a part of the global financial services industry that is continuing to expand, both geographically and in terms of the industries and sectors that it services. Further expansion is anticipated, particularly in the aviation sector, as a result of, among other things, the potential for growth of the aviation market in Iran. From a legal and commercial perspective, Islamic finance structures (including those noted in this article) are now robust and tried and tested. For both reasons, Islamic finance should be considered as an alternative source of funds for aircraft lessors and customers/operators alike. Our cover feature takes us inside a well-appointed Roman villa in Dorset. There we find many of the sumptuous, if occasionally garish, decorative touches favoured by the elites in Roman Britain. Alongside the mosaics, painted wall plaster, and showy roofing are more intimate details. One mosaic had to be patched after it was worn down, perhaps by the feet of a couch, while possible fireplaces suggest humble measures to take the edge off chilly weather. Seeing beyond the luxury is also important to understanding country houses from more recent centuries. Although the no-frills approach to servants quarters can leave them looking like much of a muchness, the enthusiasm with which newly developed mod cons were employed to assist their chores varied considerably. We examine the collision between technology and tradition. At Aldeburgh, in East Anglia, it is the collision between pagan and Christian traditions that has been under the microscope. The region is renowned for clinging to the old gods, and excavation of an Anglo-Saxon cemetery has revealed that Christian graves may lie beside an earlier burial conducted according to traditional rites. Trying to determine when, where, and how one prehistoric language evolved into another is also fiddly, as there are by definition no written clues to guide the way. Attempts to reconstruct the emergence of the Celtic family of languages, though, could revolutionise our view of prehistoric Europe by pointing to the existence of a remarkable Bronze Age lingua franca. Finally, we travel to Halton, where two burials have been discovered in the castle bailey. Why might people have been laid to rest there? Matt Symonds IN THIS ISSUE: FEATURES UPSTAIRS, DOWNSTAIRS INNOVATIONS Exploring the use of technology in Britains country houses How did the owners of country houses respond to technological change? Recent surveys show a variety of approaches, from embracing gas, electricity, running water, and central heating at an early stage to outright rejection of dastardly innovation. Luxury living in Roman Dorset The discovery and excavation of a villa with well-preserved mosaics in Dorset presents an opportunity to reconstruct the rise and fall of one of Roman Britains high-status dwellings. OPENING EDWINAS BOX Investigating an unusual Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Barbers Point What may be one of the earliest Christian Anglo-Saxon cemeteries in East Anglia has been revealed beside the River Alde. We explore what these graves can tell us about the transition from pagan to Christian. CELTIC FROM THE WEST In search of the archaeology of a language We look at how a cutting-edge collaboration between linguists, archaeologists, and geneticists is transforming our knowledge of Bronze Age Europe in its investigation of the possible cradle of the Celtic family of languages. THE BODIES IN THE BAILEY Uncovering enigmatic graves at Halton Castle Two graves were recently discovered at Halton Castle, much to the excavators surprise. How much can we say about who these individuals were? NEWS Royal Rendlesham revealed?; Fountains Abbey graves discovered; Civil War hoard found in Lincolnshire; Limited utopia in Manea; A fish tale from Iron Age Orkney; Neolithic life at Llanfaethlu; New clue from Sutton Hoo; Finds tray REGULARS Comment Joe Flatman excavates the CA archive Context Discovering wartime Wales from the sky Reviews Care in the Past; Art in England; The Oxford Handbook of Roman Britain; Hunters, Fishers, and Foragers in Wales; Tiny Churches; Prehistory without Borders Exhibition Warrior Treasures: Saxon Gold from the Staffordshire Hoard at Bristol Museum & Art Gallery Preview Andrew Selkirk on Jorvik Viking Centres reopening Conference The latest details about Current Archaeology Live! 2017, including a reminder of how to vote and who has been nominated for this years CA awards Sherds Chris Catlings irreverent take on heritage issues Odd Socs The Norfolk Historic Buildings Group di Stefano Pezzola La Costituzione ha in se quanto necessario per assicurare la centralita del Parlamento e la garanzia delle liberta fondamentali e inviolabili. Sembra, pero,... Sierra Leone invests $11 million in upgrading electricity network Sierra Leone is on course for an upgraded electricity network thanks to an $11 million project which concentrated on transmission, distribution and generation. According to STEG International Services, a Tunisian based company, which was contracted to do the procurement, installation and commissioning of the reinforcement and extension of the medium and low voltage network and the supply of prepaid meters and vending stations in the Western Area, has completed the project within the stipulated time. At the presentation of the remaining materials of the project to the Electricity Distribution and Supply Authority (EDSA), through the Ministry of Energy at the STEG warehouse, Goderich, Acting Project Manager, Aymen Louhaichi, said his company operates in more than 20 countries in Africa and the Middle East. He added that they have projects ongoing in Tanzania, Rwanda, Congo, Cameroon, among others. Most of our works are related to electricity transmission, distribution and generation. We do installation and rehabilitation of electricity networks. We also do design services, feasibility studies, supervision of the work, among others, he said. He said all the remaining materials were given to EDSA free of charge because the project includes the supply of equipment and that the remaining ones under the project must be given to the Ministry of Energy. Recalling STEG challenges during the work, Aymen Louhaichi said the streets in Freetown were not so wide to always dig and install poles and transformers and construct substations. We were also facing challenges of doing the underground work. We had to get the required authorisation from utility service providers before we dig holes to do our work. We found solutions to some of our challenges with proper coordination with the Ministry of Energy and EDSA, he said. He said the project was supposed to have been completed within 18 months but noted that there was a little delay in the beginning as a result of the Ebola outbreak. We started the implementation in October, 2015 and completed in October, 2016. We have an addendum to the project which is to transfer the service drops to the newly installed poles and transformers. At the end of the day, the improvement will be seen by the customers, he said. He noted that the newly rehabilitated network would last for over 20 years. The Director of Energy in the Ministry of Energy, Engineer Benjamin Kamara, said the project was conceived by his Ministry in order to stabilise the electricity network. He added that the issue of low and medium voltage supply of electricity would be addressed once the addendum to the existing network was done. He said the project served areas in both Western Urban and the Western Area Rural District, noting that once funds were available, the Ministry would do more. Acting Director General of EDSA, Engineer Alhaji Timbo, described STEG as a very good company, adding that the company has utility workers, who helped to address the low and medium voltage of power supply through the networks. He said they have experts hence completed the project within the stipulated time, adding that once EDSA would be in Sierra Leone, STEG would always be its strong partner. To work in Sierra Leone is a challenge because we have tight roads. Wherever you want to install poles and transformers or even construct substations, the location might be a private land and confrontation would always ensue. But we were able to address the challenges because we were having a company with the right technical ability, he said. The Country Representative of STEG, Mohamed Alhaji Tarawally, said they have successfully done the installation of 88 new distribution substations, which include 23 package substations, 25 ground mounted transformers and 39 pole mounted distribution transformers. He added that they rehabilitated 30 existing distribution substations which include the upgrading of seven ground mounted distribution transformers, installation of 30 new 11KVA oil ring main units and the installation of 29 new LV distribution panels. We also did the installation of 15km of 11 KV underground cables. We installed 64km of 11KV overhead lines. We did the installation of 115km of LV overhead lines and we did a supply of 10,200 split prepaid meters circuit breakers and boxes which include 10,000 single phase and 200 three phases. We also did a supply of four vending stations with dongles, he disclosed, adding that they supplied two Hilux pick-ups equipped with ladders and tool boxes. STEG International Services, which was established in 2006 to transfer knowledge in engineering, is a subsidiary to STEG in Tunisia. 70% of the staff employed to implement this project are Sierra Leoneans as we sought to promote the Local Content Policy of Dr. Ernest Koroma, he said. He thanked the Ministry of Energy and EDSA for their tremendous support during the project implementation and that they were looking forward to a better coordination in future. Engineer Francis Nyama of EDSA said the network was not a new line construction, but rather it was the rehabilitation of the existing networks in order to address the low voltage and wastage of electricity from the transmission and distribution point to customers. www.steg-is.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sendero Midstream Partners, LP, has announced it has secured long-term producer commitments and sufficient funding from Energy Capital Partners for the construction of a natural gas gathering and processing system located near Carlsbad. Senderos facilities will consist of both low- and high-pressure gas gathering pipelines, a highly-efficient 130 MMcf/day cryogenic processing plant, and a natural gas liquids takeaway pipeline. Senderos newly constructed midstream assets are expected to begin operations in the third quarter of 2017 and will be located in an area of New Mexico that is currently facing a shortage of midstream infrastructure. The northern Delaware Basin is one of the most prolific and active drilling areas in North America, and we are excited to begin construction of this system. We look forward to establishing our presence in the Basin and providing superior service to our customers, said Clay Bretches, president and CEO of Sendero. Sendero is a privately held company owned by Energy Capital Partners. For more information, visit www.senderomidstream.com. Energy Capital Partners is a private equity firm with more than $13 billion in capital commitments. The firm focuses on investing in the traditional and renewable power generation, midstream oil and gas, electric transmission, environmental infrastructure and energy services sectors of North Americas energy infrastructure. ECP has offices in Houston, Texas, San Diego, Calif., and Short Hills, N.J. For more information, visit www.ecpartners.com. Bank to pay 95 million after being accused of evading tens of millions of dollars in federal taxes. The agreement to settle a 2014 lawsuit brought by the US government was approved yesterday by a Manhattan federal court judge. New York: Deutsche Bank will pay USD 95 million to resolve a New York civil lawsuit accusing it of evading tens of millions of dollars in federal taxes through shifty financial moves. The agreement to settle a 2014 lawsuit brought by the US government was approved yesterday by a Manhattan federal court judge. US Attorney Preet Bharara says his office revealed how the bank used a web of shell companies to dodge taxes. Deutsche Bank AG is based in Frankfurt, Germany. It says it's "pleased to resolve" the claim and put the "events from more than 16 years ago" behind it. Prosecutors say the bank as part of its settlement agreement admitted it set up the plan to avoid taxes through a 2000 financial transaction. Bank officials assured the farmers who went to the branch that it could be a printing error and that the notes were genuine. Sheopur (Madhya Pradesh): Farmers from Madhya Pradesh were in for a shock when they received new notes of Rs 2000 without Mahatma Gandhis image on it. According to a report in Hindustan Times, farmers from Sheopur district in MP withdrew money from the local State Bank of India branch only to discover that some Rs 2000 bank notes did not have Mahatma Gandhis image. Bank officials assured the farmers who went to the branch that it could be a printing error and that the notes were genuine. It is not fake currency, it is a misprint. It has been sent for probe, SBI officer SK Jain said to ANI. However, Laxman Meena, one of the farmers who received the defective Rs 2000 notes, was quoted as saying that the bank took the notes back but did not issue fresh currency. The Opposition claims that advancement of the budget session could help the government influence voters through sops. Leaders of the opposition parties have approached the Election Commission to protest against the timing of Assembly elections and Union Budget session. (Photo: PTI) New Delhi: Opposition leaders from the Congress, Trinamool Congress (TMC), DMK, Janata Dal (United) and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) visited the Election Commission Thursday to protest why the Union Budget was being announced before the Assembly elections in five states. Opposition parties have asked the EC to ensure that Budget is presented after Assembly polls are conducted in five states. They told the EC that the BJP can use Budget to influence voters in poll-bound states. Populist measures could be taken in the Budget, so a just and fair election cannot be held, Congress leader in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said to ANI after meeting EC officials. We demand that the Budget be presented after March 8, which is when polling for elections will be over, he added. "Trinamool Congress, Congress, SP, BSP, JD(U), and some other Opposition parties to meet Election Commission at 11 am. Subject: budget date too close to polls," TMC MP Derek O'Brien had tweeted earlier. "Three from Trinamool to be part of Opposition party delegation to meet Election Commissioner in Delhi: Derek O'Brien, Dinesh Trivedi, Saugato Roy," he added. The Budget session of the Parliament will begin from February 1. The session is being advanced as the government wants early allocation of funds for various schemes-- from April 1, the beginning of the financial year. The Election Commission on Wednesday announced seven-phase polling for 403 assembly constituencies in the politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, two-phase polling in Manipur and one-phase polling each in the states of Punjab, Uttarakhand and Goa respectively. Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi said that the counting of votes in all the five states will take place on March 11. But the ruling NDA seemed to be in no mood to defer it even after the Election Commission (EC) announced the poll schedule on Wednesday. Moving away from the tradition of presenting the Budget on February 28, the Centre had on Tuesday officially advanced the day to February 1. While there were apprehensions that the Budget could influence voters if presented before the conclusion of the elections in March, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley claimed on Wednesday evening that there is no requirement for a delay. Bracing for a showdown with the Centre on the issue, the Opposition parties on Wednesday asked the EC to prevent the government from presenting the Budget before the conclusion of the elections. Claiming that the Budget could influence voters, BSP chief Mayawati requested the EC to instruct the Centre to present the Budget only after completion of polling in all the five states in March. The EC should instruct the central government not to present the Budget on February 1, and just as 2012, it be presented only after the completion of polling on March 8, she said. In 2012, the UPA government had deferred the Union Budget to March 16 when the same five states Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur went to polls. Chief election commissioner (CEC) Naseem Zaidi said that the EC would examine the representations made by the political parties. That the government is not willing to budge became somewhat evident as Mr Jaitley pointed out that even in 2014 the Budget was presented before the polls. Reacting to the Opposition charges, Mr Jaitley said that these are the same parties which say there has been no positive effect of demonetisation so why are they worried about date of the Budget. Former Chief Election Commissioner T.S. Krishnamurthy and N. Goapalswamy told the media that the Union budget would have to be cut to a vote-on-account only if this was a Lok Sabha election. T.S. Krishnamurthy pointed out that any sops announced for the country without being specific to the poll-bound states will not violate the model code of conduct code which came into effect on Wednesday. Opposing the Centres move to present the Budget on February 1, the Congress maintained that since Independence, the Budget was traditionally presented on February 28. Fearing defeat and leaving aside the good traditions of Parliament, Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to present the Budget before the elections, Congress spokesman Ajoy Kumar said. He pointed out that in 2012, the BJP had raised objections on the same grounds, and the then UPA government had only presented a vote-on-account. Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad also wrote a letter to the CEC in which he said, It is a collective and serious concern of the Opposition parties that advancing the presentation of the Budget will provide an opportunity to the government to make populist announcements to influence voters. Dawood Ibrahim, 59, is believed to be hiding in Pakistan's Karachi and has been tracked by India for over two decades. New Delhi: Citing a media report, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday claimed that properties worth Rs 15000 crore owned by Dawood Ibrahim, one of India's most wanted criminals, have been seized in the UAE on the basis of a dossier provided by the Indian government. "Major diplomatic success of PM Modi: One of India's most wanted criminals, Dawood Ibrahim's properties worth Rs. 15,000 crore seized in UAE," the official Twitter account of the party claimed. "Master stroke diplomacy by PM Narendra Modi hits at the right place. Prime Minister had handed handed over the list of his (Dawood's) assets to the UAE government during his 2015 visit and demanded action," a graphic put out by it said. The saffron party quoted a media report to make the claim. Efforts are on to bring Dawood to face law in India, it added. Dawood Ibrahim, 59, is believed to be hiding in Pakistan's Karachi and has been tracked by India for over two decades. The UN-designated terrorist is accused of plotting the 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai in which 257 people were killed. He is also accused of masterminding other terror attacks and faces multiple charges of money laundering and extortion. The mafia don is also accused by India and the US of financing terror groups including al Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). The accused said that they have circulated fake Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 notes having face value Rs 80 lakh in Kanpur and its surrounding areas. After a tip-off, the police raided the house of Samrendra Sachan and seized fake notes in huge numbers along with a high quality printer and a scanner. (Photo: Representational Image/PTI) Kanpur: Three persons were on Wednesday arrested with counterfeit Rs 2,000 notes having a face value of Rs 7.64 lakh from Pukharian area in Kanpur Dehat district, police said. After a tip-off, the police raided the house of Samrendra Sachan and seized fake notes in huge numbers along with a high quality printer and a scanner. Paswan was arrested on the spot, SP Prabhakar Chowdhary said. The remaining two accused, Prasoon Sachan and Ashish Gupta, were arrested after Samrendra gave their location during an interrogation, he said, adding fake notes with face-value Rs 7.64 was recovered from them. "The accused said that they have circulated fake Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 notes having face value Rs 80 lakh in Kanpur and its surrounding areas. They used to exchange people's demonetized notes with fake ones," the SP claimed. Even though the seized notes look similar to the real ones, the paper is thinner and the RBI mark is missing on the notes, he said. The accused were all graduates and one of them was a MSc in Computer studies, Chowdhary said, adding the police has lodged a manhunt to nab other members of the gang. A case has been lodged under relevant sections of the IPC and the matter is being probed, the SP said. Intelligence agencies suspect that more than 20 young men are being trained by ISIS at its Nangarhar camp in Afghanistan. The report further reveals that apart from India, ISIS is also believed to be training some youth from Bangladesh and the Maldives at the same camp. (Photo: AP/File) New Delhi: With the specific purpose of targeting and making inroads into India and Bangladesh, intelligence agencies say that the Islamic State (ISIS) has launched a special operation to train cadres from these countries at its Nangarhar camp in Afghanistan. Countrys external intelligence agency Research & Analysis Wing has, in a recent classified report submitted to the Centre, said that ISIS, which has been trying desperately to establish its presence in India, may well have managed to lure some of the youth who recently fled from states like Kerala to the Nangarhar training camp. It is suspected that more than 20 young men from India, mostly from southern states like Kerala, are being trained by ISIS at the Nangarhar camp which is close to Jalalabad. It is suspected that these youth may have managed to enter Afghanistan by first going to some Gulf country and subsequently managed to reach the Nangarhar camp. ISIS will try and send these men back into India to launch some terror operations, the report states, details of which have been accessed by this newspaper. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had recently launched a massive operation in southern India and had arrested more than a dozen men who had links with ISIS and were planning to carry out subversive activities in the region. Top government sources said the information forwarded by RAW has also been shared with other security and intelligence agencies, including NIA, for necessary follow-up action. The report further reveals that apart from India, ISIS is also believed to be training some youth from Bangladesh and the Maldives at the same camp. Over the last few years ISIS has been aggressively campaigning on the social media to attract and radicalise youth from India and Bangladesh in an attempt to gain a foothold in the two countries. It is suspected that terrorists involved in the attack at a high-profile cafe in Dhaka in July last year were radicalised by ISIS. Sources said the Centre has taken a serious note of the inputs and asked NIA and the Intelligence Bureau to closely track all activities of ISIS in the country and adjoining region. Both NIA and IB have a special cell that monitors ISIS operations. ISIS training cadres in Afghanistan is serious as this could impact the security situation not just in India but the entire region. If the terror outfit succeeds in making inroads in Bangladesh and the Maldives, it is dangerous for Indias internal security. We are closely monitoring the situation, a senior intelligence official said. Given the increased security co-operation between India and Afghanistan, efforts are being made by Indian security agencies to neutralise the Nangarhar camp. Sources said that intelligence agencies have also shared this information with US security agencies which have a sizeable presence in Afghanistan. Indian security forces have already been deployed in Afghanistan to provide cover to its assets, including consulates and various development projects. As far as Afghanistan is concerned, theres a great deal of co-operation between India, US and Afghanistan on various security related issues. We are working together to counter the increasing influence of ISIS in the region as it will impact all stakeholders, the official added. The Opposition has hit out at the government for politicising the Budget by advancing it to February 1 from the usual date of Feb 28. New Delhi: A delegation of Opposition parties comprising Congress, JD(U), BSP, SP, DMK and RJD met chief election commissioner (CEC) Nasim Zaidi on Thursday with their demand that the Centre be asked to defer the Budget presentation till at least March 8. The Opposition has hit out at the government for politicising the Budget by advancing it to February 1 from the usual date of February 28. Parties have said that the government will come out with sops in the Budget to lure voters as Assembly elections will be held in five states during February-March. Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad had written to the chief election commissioner (CEC) on behalf of Opposition parties on Wednesday. Mr Azad said, When the Opposition had objected in 2012 during the Assembly polls to these five states, Congress had accepted their stand. We want that there should be no presentation of the Budget till the elections are over. The Election Commission has said it will examine a representation made by parties opposing the February 1 Budget plan. Union finance minister Arun Jaitley has defended the government move. Shift likely in anti-militancy plan, says Army Chief Srinagar: Army Chief Bipin Rawat has said he is concerned at the rising number of Kashmiri youth joining militancy, adding that a shift in the counterinsurgency strategy is being planned to target false propaganda rather than individuals alone. Gen. Rawat began on Thursday a 3-day visit of Jammu and Kashmir, his first outside New Delhi after he took charge as Army Chief earlier this month. False propaganda and developments in the Middle East have affected some of the local youth, and that is why one finds more and more educated youth getting driven towards militancy, he told PTI. When the local youthpick up the gun, it is a matter of concern because our own countrymen getting involved in insurgency is not a happy situation, Gen. Rawat told the news agency. The Army Chief, who has served in J&K, is scheduled to visit all the three regions of the border state, the Valley, Jammu and Ladakh, besides the Line of Control (LoC) and Siachen glacier. He is also likely to hold one-on-one meetings with governor N.N. Vohra and chief minister Mehbooba Mufti during his visit. Defence spokesperson Colonel N.N. Joshi said that the Army Chief would hold security review meetings with senior local commanders. He will also visit Army formations in Kupwara, Anantnag, Akhnoor and Rajouri where he will be briefed about the prevailing security situations in these areas. At the LoC, he is scheduled to interact with officers and jawans, and obtain facts of operational preparedness along the de facto border that has recently seen rising skirmishes between facing troops and infiltration bids by militants. The Army carried out in September last year surgical strikes across the LoC, and Gen. Rawat said soon after taking over as the Army Chief on January 1 that it would not hesitate in doing it again to wipe out anti-India terror infrastructure across the border. He, however, said that any such action would be of a different manner and different style, and that We will surprise the enemy. The Army under him in all probability will also act harder against militants in the hinterland, and while doing so, try to benefit from the experiences Gen. Rawat has gained over the years in counterinsurgency campaigns in the Valley, sources said. Gen. Rawat lauded the Armys role towards restoring peace and normalcy in the Valley, which witnessed its worst civil unrest in many years in the aftermath of the killing of militant commander Burhan Wani, Col. Joshi said. He also commended the soldiers for strongly responding to the unprovoked ceasefire violations by Pakistan, he said. He (Gen. Rawat) emphasised that we need to evolve a dynamic strategy to handle the proxy war and defeat the enemys nefarious designs, he said. Ms Mufti told the Assembly in Jammu earlier this week that since the killing of Wani on July 8 last year, as many as 59 local youth have joined militant groups. Gen. Rawat questioned if the local youth in Kashmir were getting into insurgency because of feeling of deprivation, which he said was happening in other areas. Is it similar to what is happening with naxalism? It is not. It has something to do with the false propaganda that is being propagated. I think we need to reach out to people. Rather than seeing them as targets, we need to sympathise with them and undo the kind of false propaganda that is being spread among the youth, he said. He also said that it was important to understand as to why local militancy was gaining ground. A lot of propaganda has been generated by some of the unwarranted Islamic organisations who are trying to interpret Islam in a very incorrect manner with inaccuracies, he said. In Goa, the AAP has named former inspector general of prisons, Elvis Gomes, as the partys CM candidate. New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party supremo and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal said on Wednesday that his party has no objection to Punjab and Goa going to the Assembly elections on the same day, February 4. AAP, which is also contesting Assembly polls in Gujarat, is trying to shed the regional party tag and emerge as an alternative to both the Congress and BJP. Mr Kejriwal said the people were waiting for the announcement of the polling schedule for a long time to bring AAP to power in these two states. Talking to the media in Chandigarh, he said: Now people will openly support and work for the AAP in Punjab and Goa. We dont mind even if elections are held tomorrow. Mr Kejriwal, who is campaigning extensively in Punjab, said the people of the state are getting impatient to root out the Akali-BJP coalition and want to bring in an honest AAP to power and rid the parties associated with drug menace and corruption. Mr Kejriwal, however, made it clear that his party wont name any chief ministerial candidate in Punjab, which along with Goa, would vote on February 4. He said a new CM would be elected by legislators after the polls. In Goa, the AAP has named former inspector general of prisons, Elvis Gomes, as the partys CM candidate. The AAP leader also claimed his party was poised to win more than 100 of the 117 seats in Punjab. The countdown has started for the ruling parties in Punjab and Goa. Rubbishing reports that AAP had issues with the EC announcing polls on the same day in the two states, AAP national spokesperson Ashutosh said his party is fully prepared to take on its rivals. Ever since the AAP won the Delhi Assembly elections, Mr Kejriwal has raised serious objections over the functioning of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He has time and again raised questions against Mr Modis academic qualification, levelled serious corruption charges against him and mounted a spirited attack at his government over the demonetisation. The SP, which has biggest stakes in these elections, is in a state of complete disarray. The Samajwadi Party party symbol and the name are now the main issue before both the factions since the time to reach out to voters with a new name and symbol is grossly insufficient. Lucknow: With 12 days left for the election process to begin in Uttar Pradesh, the major political parties are still not fully prepared for the polls. The BJP and the Congress are yet to draw up their final list of candidates, the BSP is experimenting with a new social engineering formula while the ruling Samajwadi Party is grappling with two factions, two leaders, and two lists of candidates. The SP, which has biggest stakes in these elections, is in a state of complete disarray. The notification for 73 Assembly seats in western UP will be issued on January 17, kicking off the poll process but the fight over the party name and symbol between the Mulayam and Akhilesh faction remains unresolved. The biggest issue before both factions) now is the possibility of a split in its Muslim support base since a divided party may lose out on the Muslim votes, which could shift to the BSP to defeat the BJP. Since the maximum Muslim-populated constituencies are going to polls in the first phase, the Samajwadi factional war could cost the SP dear. The loss of Musl-im votes even if it is a small percentage will upset the apple cart of the Samajwadis. Besides, all issues of development and governance of the Akhilesh government have been pushed to the periphery and the talks of split have taken the centre stage as both factions have gone to the EC, staking claim over the party name and symbol. The party symbol and the name are now the main issue before both the factions since the time to reach out to voters with a new name and symbol is grossly insufficient. The worst hit in this scenario are the candidates, including sitting legislators, whose fate also remains in dark along with that of their respective leaders. We do not know whether we will get to contest on the cycle (party symbol) and the Samajwadi Party name or not. The CM has told us to go ahead and publicise his name but the symbol is more important because that is what will be seen on the EVMs. Moreover, posters and banners will have minimum presence in the campaign and this will make it almost impossible to contest the polls with a new name or symbol, said a party MLA. SP legislators are apprehensive that the Election Commission may take a few more days to announce its decision on the dispute and this could adversely impact their campaign. Besides the issue of party name and symbol, it is the vertical division in the party structure that is causing irreparable damage to the party. The split in the organisation has percolated down to the village level and the organisational strength of the party for both factions has almost halved. A former minister and SP MLA, who is in the Mulayam camp, admitted that around 40 per cent of his party supporters, mostly the youth, have gone towards the Akhilesh faction. This will undoubtedly cast a shadow on the campaign, though we will work doubly hard now, he said. Bandopadhyay, TMCs leader in the Lok Sabha, was arrested by the CBI in connection with the Rose Valley chit fund scam. New Delhi: Deploring the arrest of a Trinamul Congress parliamentarian by the CBI as vendetta politics, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday. Mr Kejriwal, a bitter critic of Mr Modi, alleged that the arrest of Sudip Bandopadhyay had its roots in TMCs opposition to the invalidation of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes. The Aam Aadmi Party led by Mr Kejriwal and Mamata Banerjee-headed TMC have been quite vocal against the November 8 move and the two leaders had also staged joint protests on the issue. This is vendetta politics of Modi ji. His msg is - Agar kisi ne notbandi ke khilaaf bola to chhodenge nahi. Really deplorable, the AAP leader tweeted. Mr Bandopadhyay, TMCs leader in the Lok Sabha, was arrested by the CBI in connection with the Rose Valley chit fund scam on Tuesday. Sources said the CBI on Wednesday night grilled Mr Bandyopadhyay and Mr Paul together. Bhubaneswar: The arrest of two top Trinamul Congress MPs Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Tapas Paul by the CBI in connection with the Rose Valley Group chit fund scam has sent shivers down the spine of many leaders of the ruling BJD in Odisha. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had previously arrested three top BJD leaders Mayurbhanj Lok Sabha member Ramchandra Hansda, Banki MLA Pravat Tripathy and former MLA Subarna Naik for their alleged links with a firm, AT Group, and a few other ponzi firms that allegedly looted nearly Rs 1,000 crore from people. Sources said the CBI on Wednesday night grilled Mr Bandyopadhyay and Mr Paul together. During the questioning, the agency also tried to dig out the connections of the BJD leaders with the Rose Valley Group. Besides, it also strove to know where the money collected from depositors was invested. Rose Valley Group has allegedly swindled Rs 450 crore from Odisha investors. Sources said a few ministers of Odisha and some MLAs are under the CBI scanner and they would be summoned for questioning soon. The CBI had earlier served notice to Odisha food supplies and consumer welfare minister Sanjay Kumar Das Burma to explain his alleged links with the AT Group headed by Pradip Sethy. Mr Burma, instead of his personal appearance, furnished his replies to the agency through one of his relatives. Meanwhile, giving in a new twist to the case, senior Congress leader Mohammed Moqim on Thursday alleged that Debasis Samantaray, the BJD MLA from Barabati, was actively working for Rose Valley Group in Odisha. Debasis Samantaray introduced Rose Valley Group chairman Goutam Kundu to Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik. His role in the Odisha episode of Rose Valley Group should be probed by the CBI, Mr Moqim said. Reacting to the development, Mr Samantaray said Mr Moqims allegation is politically biased and hence it carried no substance. Mohammed Moqim is a person with criminal antecedent. His remark is politically biased. If the Congress has got any evidences against me, let it present before the CBI, he said. The national executive could also see attacks on the party offices in TMC-ruled West Bengal being taken up. New Delhi: Upbeat over the response Prime Minister Narendra Modis rallies and Parivartan Yatras received in the poll-bound states, including Uttar Pradesh, and the positive public response for the governments demonetisation decision, the BJPs two-day long national executive, beginning from Friday, is likely to be dominated by election issues and measures initiated by the government to curb black money and corruption. The national executive could also see attacks on the party offices in TMC-ruled West Bengal being taken up. Some of the BJP offices in the TMC-ruled state were attacked after senior TMC leaders were arrested in a chit fund scam. A BJP delegation met Union home minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday demanding that the Centres review the situation in the state. The BJP leaders, who also submitted a memorandum, alleged that the political violence in West Bengal has blessings of chief minister Mamata Banerjee and that the state police is acting like a mute spectator. Meanwhile, TMC MPs, held a protest march towards the Prime Ministers Office (PMO), in the high security zone, against vindictive politics of the Modi government in the wake of arrest of their fellow party lawmaker, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, by the CBI in the chit fund scam. Some of them were detained and later released. The TMC also announced a three-day protest programme from January 9 while asserting that it will continue to raise voice against the Central government. TMC MPs were also detained on Wednesday when they tried to protest outside the PMs official residence at 7, Lok Kalyan Marg. During the national executive, the top BJP brass is expected to target the Opposition over its attack on the Centre for advancing the Budget session and may project it as yet another attempt by the Congress and the other rival parties to derail Modis pro-poor agenda. The meet is likely to pass two resolutions, one political and the other economic, which would hail the demonetisation decision. BJP president Amit Shah will deliver the inaugural address while Mr Modi is set to give the valedictory speech. The surgical strikes conducted by the Army may also find a mention. With the Election Commission announcing the polling schedule, the BJPs central election committee is likely to announce the names of party candidates after the auspicious Makar Sankranti on January 14. A Congress leader said that the party and its candidates are facing cash crunch, which is adversely impacting the campaign. Lucknow: Elections in Uttar Pradesh are all set to be a colourless and dreary affair, mainly due to demonetisation and despair in all major political parties for various reasons. Demonetisation is going to hit us hard. We do not have enough cash in hand for the campaign and the Election Commission guidelines to make payments above Rs 20,000 through cheque will make it difficult for us to pay for our workers needs, as we usually give them cash and they eat wherever convenient, said a BSP candidate from Kanpur. A Congress leader said that the party and its candidates are facing cash crunch, which is adversely impacting the campaign. Apart from the demonetisation factor, there is despair in almost all parties, though for different reasons. The Samajwadi factions that are battling for supremacy are now in a fix over the party symbol. Chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, who convened a meeting of his legislators and candidates on Thursday morning, made it clear that there was no room left for any reconciliation and they would have to go it alone. He said that his faction was confident of getting the cycle symbol and the odds were in their favour. The mood of SP MLAs after the meeting, however, was somber. Unless the symbol issue is addressed, there is no point in starting the campaign. What do we tell the voters? I feel we have made a mistake in splitting on the eve of the elections we should have taken this step earlier so that the symbol issue could have been solved earlier. We have frittered away our advantages, said an SP MLA from Ambedkar Nagar. The mood in the BJP is also not as upbeat as expected. Party MLAs feel the BJP high command is being kept in the dark and the demonetisation impact is greater at the ground. The traders, middle classes and women, which has been our traditional voter base, are the worst affected. Communal polarisation in western UP has also been diluted to a great extent. Besides, the absence of a chief ministerial candidate is emerging as a disadvantage because all other parties are banking on the personality cult, said a BJP MLA from eastern UP. The BSP is confident of getting Muslim support, but its candidates are not enthused. Muslim support is still undecided but we have lost out on upper caste votes to a sizeable extent after the Daya Shankar episode, in which our party leaders target the female members of the family. It will be difficult for us to get our own communities to vote for us, said a Thakur BSP candidate. The Congress, which had made a fantastic start in August with a series of road shows and yatras, has slowed down its campaign. Party leaders and workers are confused about alliance talks, and statements issued by its leaders from time to time are only compounding the confusion. The party will need Herculean efforts to turn the election into a four-cornered contest and position itself as a secular alternative. The Congress has been on the offensive taking on the Prime Minister. New Delhi: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi once again hit out at the Prime Minister over the Sahara and the Birla diaries, where the name of the prime Minister allegedly has figured. Mr Rahul Gandhi tweeted, Immunity for Sahara or immunity for Modiji? If your conscience is clear Modiji why fear investigation? Rahul has been on an offensive demanding inquiry into the diaries of Sahara and Birla group of companies which were seized during an Income-Tax search. Rahul Gandhis attack comes after the Income Tax Settlement Commission order came to light in which the ITSC has held that the submission given by Sahara is correct. The ITSC has granted Sahara immunity from prosecution and penalty following raids conducted on November 2014, during which the purported diaries listing alleged pay-offs to politicians were recovered. Significantly, the ITSC has concurred with Saharas claim that the evidentiary value of the loose sheets recovered during the raids could not be proved by the Income Tax Department. Mr Rahul Gandhi had alleged a fortnight back that Mr Modi as Gujarat chief minister had taken money from Sahara and Birla groups and had demanded an independent inquiry into it, a charge BJP rejected as an attempt to divert attention from AgustaWestland probe in which the names of Congress leaders and the family were coming up. The Congress has been on the offensive taking on the Prime Minister. They have started a month long agitation across the country. In the agitation, there will be two important issues; name of the Prime Minister figuring in the diaries and the issue of demonetisation. Even as the nation is shocked by the horrifying incident in Bengaluru, victim blaming has followed. The mass molestation in Bengaluru on New Years Eve shocked the nation and came out across as a failure of the system to protect women, but what followed was a round of victim blaming and foot in mouth misogyny which reminded us of the deep rooted sexism in our society. As the nation was left stumped by the comments of Abu Azmi suggesting that women are responsible for the incidents, #NotAllMen started trending on the social media even when the need was to show empathy for women who were victims of sexual harassment in the country. The trend was slammed by social media users and the anger against such blatant victim blaming has been seen across social media, and one user summed has a fitting response. In a video the woman recites the poem, "I am not your sugar. I am not your petrol. I am a human being. With fire in my soul." The video sheds light on the sorry state of affairs where womens safety in India is in tatters and they are being advised to restrict their movements instead of asking the state to act against offenders. Referring to TB medicine manufactured only in US. The hospital, in its defence, said that it was following the protocols put in place for administering the drug and same cannot be flouted by it. New Delhi: To make a new TB medicine available for a drug resistant patient, the Delhi high court has asked the Centre and a city-based TB hospital to respond on the details whether it can make available such a drug to the patient. The new medicine is not available in the market and is only supplied by the manufacturer. Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva asked the Lal Ram Swarup TB Hospital to file an affidavit stating whether the 18-year-old female patient meets the requirements under the WHO guidelines and Revised National TB Control programme for being treated by Bedaquiline, made by US drug company Johnson and Johnson. The court asked the hospital to also respond to the contention, by an expert in the field of TB treatment, that it was not following the guidelines by calling for further drug sensitivity tests before administering the drug, which according to the patients father is the last option for her. The father, Kaushal Tripathi, has sought that if the hospital was not willing to take the risk of administering the drug without further tests then he be provided the medicine and he will get it administered by some other hospital or doctor. The hospital, in its defence, said that it was following the protocols put in place for administering the drug and same cannot be flouted by it. The court, however, said that sometimes in the medical profession judgement calls are made after informing the patient about the risk and same can be done in the instant case. It said that in the case the patient was willing to take the risk. It also said that either the drug would cure her or will speed up the end-result of the illness. The court asked the Central government and the hospital to file their affidavits within three days and listed the matter for hearing on January 9. Mr Tripathi in his plea has also sought easier access to the medicine as it is available only at six TB centres in India. According to the petitioner, there is a second drug Delamanid by Japanese drugmaker Otsuka Pharma, but it is not available in India and would need to be imported. The police is yet to ascertained the motive behind the extreme step taken by the sub-inspector. New Delhi: Panic prevailed at the Kalkaji Metro Station on Thursday evening after a 28-year-old sub-inspector, attached to the CISF, allegedly committed suicide by shooting himself in the head with his service pistol inside the Kalkaji Metro station surveillance room. The police is yet to ascertained the motive behind the extreme step taken by the sub-inspector. Soon, the police was informed who cordoned off the area and conducted a probe into the same. According to preliminary reports, no suicide note was found at the crime scene. According to the police, the deceased has been identified as Bhagat Singh. He is survived by wife and two children. He hailed from Agra in UP and was a 2012 batch pass out. The probe has revealed that SI Bhagat Singh reported for the duty as usual and showed no signs of depression. Around 4. 30 pm while the Metro Station was abuzz with activities, SI Bhagat allegedly locked himself inside the CCTV room at the Metro station and took out his serviced weapon. The incident came to light when a few staff members at the Kalkaji Metro station saw Singh pointing his serviced pistol on his head urged him to put it down. A senior police officer, who is a part of the probe, said that when Singh saw people coming for his rescue he began shouting from inside the room that he would kill himself if anyone tried to save him or open the door. Soon, the news spread and additional team from the CISF was called. The team was about to break-open the door when he shot himself in the head, added the officer. Meanwhile, hearing the gunshot, panic prevailed at the Kalkaji Metro station after scores of passengers gathered at the spot. When CISF personnel broke into the room they found Singh lying on the floor bleeding profusely from the head, said the police official. Immediately, the police was informed who rushed to the spot and shifted Singh to a nearby hospital where doctors declared him dead on arrival. Later, his body was shifted to AIIMS for a post-mortem. The family of the deceased cop has been informed and they are expected to reach city sometime late Thursday night. The police has initiated proceedings under Section 174 of the CrPC and are trying to ascertain the reason behind the extreme step. The BMC has issued notices to 234 government offices and corporates for not renewing their lease agreements. There has also been a proposal to levy a fine on leased properties, which are having illegal constructions on them. Mumbai: In what can be called as a jolt for BJP, its ally Shiv Sena has stonewalled the policy for renewal of lease for properties that have been given on lease by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). It means that the lease renewal of major properties like Mahalaxmi Racecourse will be delayed further. According to the civic data, there are 4,179 plots that have been leased to various lessees in the city. The BMC has issued notices to 234 government offices and corporates for not renewing their lease agreements. The civic body has prepared a new policy, under which the plots that were earlier leased at nominal rates will now be given at current ready reckoner rates in the city. There has also been a proposal to levy a fine on leased properties, which are having illegal constructions on them. However, Shiv Sena recorded (turned down) both the proposals in the civic general body meeting on Wednesday. The civic body will now have to bring fresh proposals after three months for the renewal of leased properties as well as leaving fine for illegal constructions. Incidentally, the Sena had supported the lease renewal policy in the improvements committee earlier. Defending the move to record the proposal, senior Shiv Sena corporator Raju Parulekar said, Out of 4,177 leased plots, 1,247 have been given permanently while 2,148 have been given for 999 years. We feel that remaining plots should remain with the BMC. If lease is renewed for all plots, the civic body will not be left with any land for its development works. Thackeray also reiterated his stand on demonetisation and slammed the Centre for its shoddy implementation. Mumbai: Objecting to presentation of Union budget in February, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ally and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday appealed to President Pranab Mukherjee not to allow presentation of the Budget before the scheduled elections in five states, saying the Centre (BJP-government) might use it to lure voters. He warned the government not start wrong precedence. Mr Thackeray also reiterated his stand on demonetisation and slammed the Centre for its shoddy implementation. Why do they want to present the budget in February when it is presented in March? Will it not violate the election code of conduct in five states? We request the President to intervene the matter. This is unprecedented. Is it to lure the voters? Mr Thackeray asked. He was referring to the elections announced in Uttar Pradesh, Manipur, Goa, Uttarakhand and Punjab that begin from February 4, while the budget will be presented on February 1. The Sena chief asked his MPs to meet the President on the issue while addressing the party meeting at Rangsharda auditorium, Bandra on Wednesday. He even alleged that the people of the country have lost independence and the promised Achhe din never came. The moment has come to review the situation. People have lost faith in Achhe din. It was an election jumla, Mr Thackeray said. Lashing out at the BJP-led government for restricting district banks from financial transactions post demonetisation, Mr Thackeray said the government is playing with their lives. We are with you in fight against black money and corruption. But the district banks are part of rural economy. Our farmers depend on the district banks. You forced them to open Jan Dhan accounts, he said. A visibly irate Mr Thackeray criticised the governments stand to monitor money saved by women, particularly housewives. Answers Africa is one of a kind platform created for Africans both locally and in the diaspora and those seeking for more in-depth information about Africa. We have always focused on creating the highest quality informational contents right from the beginning. We share the most relevant information on the latest and trending news, events, people, and places in Africa. We produce contents across various categories including Politics, People, Love and Romance, Nature, Entertainment, Technology and pretty much everything else that Africans may find relevant. We aim to answer the most relevant questions about Africa in areas of entertainment, famous people, emerging technologies while we also engage with various distribution capabilities to connect with Africans in need of information who rely on our website to keep in touch with the world that is changing so fast. 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The Progression of Howard Sterns Career As A Media Personality And Why He Divorced His First Wife Howard Stern is a legendary American radio host, who has also done some notable work as an actor, producer, author, as well as photographer. The radio personality achieved worldwide fame as a result of his self-titled radio program, The Howard Stern Show. As a professional radio personality, he has worked in different radio stations. Since 2006, ... 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! 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Mumbai: The Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of Mumbai airport intercepted one Rabeekhan Abdulah who was flying to Kuala Lumpur by flight MH 0187 only to recover from him 2680 grams of methamphetamine and 2073 grams of ephedrine (a total 4.753 kg of narcotics). The drugs were seized under provisions of the NDPS Act, 1985. The passenger has been arrested and will be produced before the competent court however sources revealed that Abdulah had agreed to make two trips to Kuala Lumpur for the same purpose. The drugs were cleverly concealed in plastic pockets underneath the aluminium foil of the false cavities of 15 roti makers. Deputy commissioner, AIU, termed it a rare modus operandi to smuggle drugs. Abdullah is a native of Chennai and has had his primary education there. Meanwhile, director of revenue intelligence (DRI), Mumbai, caught a Bangalore resident at CSIA airport for smuggling gold bars worth Rs 1.3crore. The 26-year-old accused, Kabadsha Mohammad Fawaz, was to hand over the gold bars to a Mumbai-based person inside the airport. The incident occurred on December 4 when Mr Fawaz flew into Mumbai by Jet Airways flight number 9W 537 which made a landing around 11.15pm Wednesday. The gold bars weighed 4.9 kilogram. Sources said that Mr Fawaz who landed from Dubai was being interrogated. They revealed that the passenger was a frequent visitor to India, having flown to Delhi and Bangalore only last month. Airport sources said that Mr Fawaz always travelled from Dubai to places like Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai, which he had never heard of. The detained passenger hails from Karnataka. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is providing this funding for groundbreaking new technology which could revolutionise HIV prevention. Houston: Microsoft founder Bill Gates charity foundation has invested $140 million in the development of HIV-preventing drug implants that could revolutionise the treatment of the life-threatening infection. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is providing this funding for the groundbreaking new technology which could revolutionise HIV prevention. Currently, prevention drugs are available in the form of a pill that, if taken daily, can reduce a persons chances of being infected with HIV. The drugs are recommended by the World Health Organisation for use by at-risk groups including men who have sex with men - but are only effective if the pills are taken consistently. There are hopes that implant technology, similar to systems available for birth control, could be used to deliver a consistent supply of drugs, aiding people vulnerable to HIV. According to The Wall Street Journal, their latest investment has placed their backing firmly behind a biopharmaceutical company located in Boston. They believe that this company could yield one of the largest revelations in HIV treatment yet. Washington: NASA is sending an African-American astronaut to the International Space Station for the first time. The traveler is Jeanette Epps, a physics and science whiz who used to work for the CIA as a technical intelligence officer. Epps will head to the ISS as a flight engineer in 2018. Her commander will be Andrew Feustel, a veteran astronaut. "Each space station crew brings something different to the table, and Drew and Jeanette both have a lot to offer," said Chris Cassidy, chief of the Astronaut Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "The space station will benefit from having them on board," said Cassidy. A dozen or so African-American astronauts have travelled on US space shuttle missions but Epps will be the first African American on the space station. She was selected in July 2009 as one of 14 members of the 20th NASA astronaut class. Her training included Russian language, so as to be able to talk to cosmonauts on the ISS. Epps holds a PhD in aerospace engineering from the University of Maryland. Syrias largest city was recently wrested from rebel control by forces allied to the govt of Bashar al-Assad. Ambulances are seen near the scene of the attack in Istanbul, on New Year's Day. (Photo: AP) The heinous Saturday night bloodbath at a swanky nightclub on the banks of the Bosphorus in Istanbul brought what had already been a terrible year for Turkey to an exceptionally brutal conclusion. It was a year peppered with terrorist attacks, but its centrepiece was arguably a coup attempt in July that apparently came close to succeeding, followed by a sweeping wave of state repression that has deepened fractures in Turkish society amid shifting allegiances on the Syrian front that have resulted in a Nato stalwart effectively allying itself with Russia. If the idea behind the assassination a fortnight ago of the Russian ambassador to Turkey was to precipitate a stand-off between Moscow and Ankara, it has predictably failed. The assassin, an off-duty policeman, was killed immediately afterwards, so his precise motivations may never be known, but his Remember Aleppo! slogan while performing his dastardly act offers obvious pointers. Syrias largest city was recently wrested from rebel control by forces allied to the government of Bashar al-Assad, with the Russians and Iranians instrumental in producing this result. It has been claimed that Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan helped out by persuading his Islamist allies among the Syrian rebels to facilitate the evacuation of eastern Aleppo. The Erdogan government was involved in the Syrian conflict long before its troops directly stepped in, and its assistance to Islamist factions included turning a blind eye to international recruits many of them attracted by the militant Islamic State group entering the war-torn country through the Turkish border. ISIS turned against Turkey once this route became a lot more restricted, and after Ankara had second thoughts about its initial refusal to permit American and other Nato forces to use Turkish bases as a launching pad for airstrikes against ISIS on Syrian territory. Turkeys relations with the US have frayed markedly since the abortive coup in July, partly over Washingtons refusal to extradite Fethullah Gulen, who is accused of having masterminded the attempt to overthrow his former ally Erdogan. Whether the advent of the Trump administration will improve relations remains to be seen. Meanwhile, Turkey had visibly bristled at Russias intervention in Syria on behalf of Assad, and things came to a head after its forces shot down a Russian warplane that had allegedly strayed into Turkish airspace. Vladimir Putin resisted any temptation he may have had to ramp up the confrontation, instead using the incident as a lever to forge an unlikely informal alliance that had the twin advantage of facilitating his aims in Syria while driving a wedge between leading Nato members. It was thus Russia and Turkey, alongside Iran, that jointly announced a truce in Syria shortly before the Istanbul atrocity, and successfully sought the imprimatur of the UN. The cessation of hostilities does not include ISIS, and is anyhow not expected to last very long, but it apparently does cover Al Nusra, an organisation once formally allied with Al Qaeda that has played a key role in the rebellion against Assad and enjoyed Turkish favours in the bargain, but is also likely to have borne the brunt of Russian bombing campaigns. By some accounts, the primary purpose of Erdogans Syrian adventure has always been to forestall the likelihood of a de facto Kurdish state on Turkeys border, and he strove hard to prevent Turkish Kurds from aiding their Syrian comrades. A ceasefire between the Turkish state and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) broke down in 2015, and the latter claimed responsibility for some of last years terrorist attacks, directed chiefly against security forces the PKK claims not to target civilians and roundly condemned the Reina nightclub massacre. The Americans have heeded some of Erdogans concerns while broadly backing the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) in their fight against ISIS (and potentially Assad). But then the US strategy in Syria has anyhow been all over the place, and last months truce announcement conspicuously excluded Washington, demonstrating the extent to which it has been sidelined. Turkey under Erdogan, meanwhile, finds itself besieged on three fronts by the Gulenists, Kurds and ISIS, which belatedly claimed responsibility for the 39 deaths and dozens of injuries at the Reina nightclub. The Presidents reaction to Turkeys multiple woes has largely revolved around clamping down on all dissent and extending the breadth and depth of his autocracy, blaming everyone but his own often contradictory policies for all that is going horribly wrong in a nation that not long ago seriously aspired to become a fully fledged European state but has lately been sucked right back into the Middle Eastern cauldron, with its present blighted and its future increasingly uncertain. By arrangement with Dawn The BJP wants to win UP to flex its muscle at the national level. There is the general myth that Uttar Pradesh is the cockpit of Indian politics, and whoever wins the state will rule India. Through the 1990s and until the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, it did not matter who won or lost the elections in UP. The state ceased to be the big player it fancied itself to be. Even when Atal Behari Vajpayee won from Lucknow and led a BJP-NDA government at the Centre, UP remained one of the many players in the power game, and it was not a key one. It was only when the BJP won 73 of 80 Lok Sabha seats, when two outsiders, BJP president Amit Shah and prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, wrought a miracle of sorts and made a clean sweep of the states largest Lok Sabha contingent, that the old adage of the winner in UP ruling India revived, though not fully. The BJP hopes to ride on the crest of its 2014 Lok Sabha victory to win the coming seven-phase Assembly election, from February 11 to March 8. The Opposition seems to be in a disarray. The ruling Samajwadi Party is in a disintegrative mode. The other major local party, the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party, is hoping to seize the reins of power as it had done in 2007. The 2007 and 2012 Assembly elections showed that the people of the state voted decisively for one or other of two major local players. The ostensible national parties, BJP and Congress, have been relegated to the margins. The Congress was last in power in the 1980s. The BJPs tenure in power has been patchy through the 1990s, except in 1991 when the Babri Masjid was demolished and the Kalyan Singh government resigned and was subsequently dismissed. The BJP lost the election that followed. UP then lost its political sheen because no one party seemed to represent the state in the state and at the Centre. The decline of the state in national politics was complete. What is left of the big stakes in state politics is who would win in the Assembly elections. It is as good or as interesting as to who would win the Assembly elections in West Bengal, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu or Rajasthan. The unending baroque family drama of the Mulayam Singh Yadav clan in the SP signifies the roil and turmoil that marks the politics of the most populous state in the country. The battle between Mulayam Singh Yadav, the SPs progenitor, and his chosen successor and incumbent chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, has undertones and overtones that mark the intrigues of any Asian family. The rivalries, factions, clashes are much too intertwined for anyone to unravel them and make sense of them. Mulayam Singh Yadav chose his son Akhilesh as chief minister much against opposition from party elders, including his brother Shivpal Yadav, and even party veteran Azam Khan. For five years, Akhilesh was hemmed in on all sides from functioning properly as chief minister. There have been times when Mulayam Singh would chide his CM son. It would have been an interesting political satire but for the fact that it is for real. Akhilesh wants to fend off not just his uncle, Shivpal, his fathers confidant Amar Singh, but also his step-sister-in-law Aparna Yadav. It cannot get more complicated. In the last few months, the internal feuding has intensified with Akhilesh removing Shivpal from the Cabinet and then reinstalling him, Mulayam Singh throwing out Akhileshs men from the party and then relenting, Mulayam Singh appointing Shivpal as party in-charge in the state, Akhilesh holding his own party conference and declaring himself the president of the party in the state, and then going back to the father to negotiate a settlement. To call this a political soap-opera would be unjust because the fight is for real, and each one of them is fighting a life-and-death political battle. However riveting the palace intrigues of the SP, the silent march of the BSP, and the vainglorious attempts by the BJP to ride to power in Lucknow and the pathetic bid by the Congress to retain its toehold in the state, there is not much doubt that UP is still far from retaining its prominence in national politics. If the BJP wins, and it has to do so convincingly and with substantial numbers as it did in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the political fortunes of who reigns supreme in Lucknow would remain a matter of provincial importance. It will indeed be different if the BJP wins because it could then tilt the balance in favour of its own presidential nominee; the presidential election is due in July. But if no single party gets an overwhelming majority, then UP legislators vote the electoral college which chooses the President comprises the legislators from all states and members of the two Houses of Parliament will be as crucial as that of any other state. The BJP wants to win UP to flex its muscle at the national level. The SP and BSP would be fighting for their survival on home turf. They have no national ambition. Thus, the two regional parties have an advantage over the BJP. People voting in an Assembly election are focused on the local agenda. The UP voter is only too aware that he/she needs a government that works well for him or her, and he or she is not deluded by national glory as such. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who represents Varanasi, might be an adopted UP-ite but it may not work any wonders for the BJP in the Assembly poll. UP has no option but to look after its own interests. That will be the deciding factor, and not the performance of the BJPs government at the Centre. It is a provincial election, pure and simple. It is not a referendum on the Modi government or on demonetisation. Not surprisingly, the US was not invited to the Moscow initiated process. Karachi: The gathering in Moscow last week the third in the series of consultations between Russia, China and Pakistan underlines growing concern about the spillover effect of the Afghan crisis in the region. An underlying cause of anxiety is the growing threat of the militant Islamic State group spreading its tentacles in the war-torn country. But it is still unclear whether the new alliance will be able to help reach a negotiated political solution to the Afghan conflict. Although the Kabul government has now been invited for the next round of talks, its exclusion from the earlier meetings cast a shadow over the process. Not surprisingly, the US was not invited to the Moscow initiated process. It is, however, premature to assume that the new nexus could replace the quadrilateral forum that included the US along with Pakistan, China and Afghanistan. The quadrilateral talks have been suspended for almost one year after the collapse of efforts to bring the Afghan Taliban insurgents to the negotiating table. The killing of Mullah Akhtar Mansour, the Taliban chief, in a CIA drone strike last May has further diminished hopes for the talks to resume. It is quite apparent that no peace effort could succeed without the tacit support, if not active participation, of the US, which still has about 10,000 troops involved in counter-insurgency operations in Afghanistan. Things have become more complicated with the political transition in Washington. That has perhaps compelled the three countries to find a regional solution to the Afghan crisis that directly affects their own security. It remains to be seen whether the Kabul government accepts the invitation to join the forum and whether it is willing to show some flexibility in its approach on the peace talks. The Moscow trilateral meeting has called for lifting of the travel ban on the insurgent leaders, one of the major demands that the Taliban had presented as a precondition for talks with the Kabul government. China has for some time now been actively involved in the Afghan peace efforts, being a major investor in mining and infrastructure development projects in that country. Its good relations with both the Kabul government and the Taliban have helped Beijing facilitate a few rounds of informal talks between the two warring sides. Beijing has also been gravely concerned about the increasing instability in Afghanistan and recent reports of growing IS activity in the country. Although Russia may not be a fresh entrant on the Afghan scene, its initiative to build a regional alliance to counter the IS threat points to a new alignment of forces in a changing geo-political landscape. Interestingly, the meeting on Afghanistan followed another set of trilateral talks in Moscow that included Turkey and Iran on the settlement of Syrian crisis. The US was excluded from that meeting too, indicating that Moscow is taking a lead in settling the Syrian and Afghan crises, thereby considerably altering the balance of power in the international arena. Indeed there is also serious concern among the three countries over the deteriorating situation in the proximity of their borders. Last year was the bloodiest in Afghanistan with the Taliban intensifying their attacks considerably. Moreover, the increasing activities of the group in northern Afghanistan, close to the borders of the Central Asian countries, are particularly alarming for Russia. There is also growing fear in Moscow of IS making inroads in the Muslim population, specially as the Chechens form one of the largest foreign contingents in the IS war in Iraq and Syria. That has also been a reason for Russia to establish contacts with the Afghan Taliban who have been fighting IS. Both China and Pakistan share Moscows concerns and hence have decided to join the new regional alignment. Islamabad particularly sees some hope of the new regional format being in a better position to persuade the Afghan Taliban to come to the negotiating table. However, it will certainly not be easy to make a breakthrough given the complexities involving the problem. Moreover, there is no unanimity within the fractious Afghan administration, even on the issue of negotiations with the Taliban. There is also a question mark over the Taliban agreeing to formally sit across the table with the Kabul government without any preconditions, particularly at a time when they have achieved significant success in the battlefield. To bring the Afghan peace process out of the deep freeze, it is most important to end the frosty relations between Islamabad and Kabul. There has been some breaking of the ice with the recent telephonic contact between Afghan leaders and Pakistans new Army Chief. But is this enough to clear the huge wall of distrust between the two countries? By arrangement with Dawn The Bible narrates that when King Herod heard this he was disturbed. The Bible further states that after the visit of the three wise kings, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. The Armenian Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas today on January 6 while the rest of the Christian world celebrates the arrival of three wise Kings at the stable to pay their homage to Child Jesus. The Bible tells us, After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him. While that explains the reason for Star gaining such prominent place at Christmas, there is another horrible, if rather tragic incident, related to their coming to worship Jesus. Not knowing where exactly King of the Jews was born, and being of royal origin themselves, they approached King Herod to enquire about the birth of a new King. The Bible narrates that when King Herod heard this he was disturbed. A natural insecurity at the news of another king suddenly gripped him making him contemplate on ways to get rid of the newborn king. The Bible further states that after the visit of the three wise kings, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. Get up, take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him. But, When Herod realised that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Lest the world forget, the Church therefore observes in its Liturgy December 28 each year as a day to commemorate those innocent childrens death, reminding the world that insecurities of the powerful can cause huge damage to humanity, particularly the innocent. Though Herod is one infamous name who ordered mass killings, there are many individuals, who rather than dealing with their own insecurities and perceiving Gods purpose in creating us, commit terrible crimes. People commit crime our of sheer insecurity. We often hear news of crime being committed due to property disputes, revenge, failure in love affair and various other insecurities. As we step into the New Year, would it not be just wonderful for us to examine ourselves as to which insecurities, if any, control our life and how indeed through prayer and deepening of our faith in the Divine and by loving those in need, we could overcome them? Father Dominic Emmanuel, a founder-member of Parliament of Religion, can be contacted at frdominic@gmail.com PM Modi spent considerable time and effort making his number with President Obama. We have been so preoccupied with domestic events capped by the demonetisation surprise in 2016 that we have not stopped to ponder over the tempests in the Western world. These events will have a major bearing on Indias progress and ranking in the world. First there was Brexit, Britains decision to leave the European Union in a referendum, a club it had tried to enter, despite initial rejection. Then the biggest surprise of all: Donald Trumps victory in the US presidential election. This came against the backdrop of a populist wave that brought support to far-right parties in Europe. Globalisation became a dirty word and the new vogue was nationalism, often with a racist tinge. Brexit, which led to Prime Minister David Camerons resignation and the rise of Theresa May, boosted Eurosceptics on the continent. One of the greatest achievements of the post-World War II world, the EU, is being badgered by the far-right Frances Marine Le Pen of the National Front, the Alternative for Germany Party and the growing popularity of the Italian populist Five Star. The concept of a new Europe putting two world wars behind it is now being defined in the colours of narrow nationalism. What is worse, the democratic underpinning of the EU is being blatantly questioned by at least two of its members, Hungary and Poland. The formers leader Viktor Orban has publicly favoured illiberal democracy and has an enthusiastic pupil in the latters Law and Justice Party. These grave transgressions have provoked mild rebuke from Brussels because the EU does not have the will to call them fully to account. The biggest impact on the world will be of Mr Trumps victory, which promises to unhinge established American policies although the President-elect has chosen to define them in the most vague terms. His America First slogan with a strong accent on keeping and creating US jobs has led to an atmosphere exploited by jingoists and racists in a country built on immigration. The problem for India and much of the world is that in view of Americas sole superpower status, with China breathing down its neck, Washingtons actions do matter. Prime Minister Narendra Modi spent considerable time and effort making his number with President Barack Obama. Now he has to start the process with a new President all over again. A breezy conversation Pakistans Nawaz Sharif had with the President-elect needlessly caused palpitations in India. Mr Modi should also keep Indias relations with Moscow in good repair. There are, of course, valid causes for Western nations deep dissatisfaction with the ruling elites. At the basic level, poor peoples income has dipped, salaries of the middle class have stagnated and the rich have become vastly richer. Europe has largely been in recession after the boom years. Masses of refugees from West Asia and other wars flooding their countries have accentuated a feeling of helplessness. The unpalatable truth is that globalisation is here to stay and Mr Trumps refrain is unsustainable because even if American industry stays at home, it would employ robots, rather than human beings, to cut costs. Besides, the production chain of modern manufacturing stretches around the world: an Apple mobile telephones provenance, for instance, is shared by several countries. On the other hand, narrow nationalism offers solace to Europeans, with far-right parties gathering more votes in regional elections. Marine Le Pen is confident of going into the second round in the presidential election later this year. Germanys Alternative for Germany party has done remarkably well in regional elections. And Italys Five Star movement has improved its vote share. The changing Europe can perhaps be best captured in German Chancellor Angela Merkels changing fortunes. She is seeking a fourth term and is facing new opposition in an election earlier viewed as a sure shot. She is identified with the open door policy on refugees Germany took in nearly a million last year and there has been a backlash, exacerbated by incidents of terrorism, most recently by a Tunisian asylum seeker rejected by the authorities driving a truck through a Christmas crowd in a Berlin market, killing 12. India must find its bearing to negotiate in an evolving world. It has to rely to a greater extent on bilateral trade deals. But there are hurdles along the way. As British Prime Minister Theresa Mays India visit revealed, the desire for greater trade comes up against the United Kingdoms aversion to having more Indians, with tightening visa restrictions on professionals and even student visas. For obtaining a visit visa for ordinary Indian passport holders in Delhi, it is purgatory and the vast sums demanded for long-term visas favour the rich. Immigration was a major issue that swung the referendum vote against the EU and Ms May is sensitive to it although Britons main grouse is the number of poorer Europeans making their home in the UK. Somewhat like the old migrant communities from Britains former empire, the continentals have formed their own enclaves complete with home food establishments conducting business largely in native tongues. As India and the world enter 2017, the need of the hour is an in-camera brainstorming session of the countrys experts in and out of office. Thus far Mr Modi has attempted to cultivate close relations with US President Barack Obama even while trying to pierce the diplomatic armour of two hostile neighbours. India-Pakistan relations are still hostage to the tangled history of Partition and the 1971 Bangladesh War while China is happy living with an unsettled border because it believes its bargaining position will improve with growing military strength. In a sense, Mr Modi is a loner in taking major decisions like his imaginative sudden trip to Mr Sharifs home in Lahore on his birthday a year ago, despite its failure to yield lasting results. But a changing world has become more complex and the limited pool of foreign service advisers need all the talent the country can provide. It is time to act. The battle over Obamacare will help to determine who will prevail in the 2018 midterms, and in the next presidential election. Washington: The messaging battle is over on repealing and replacing President Barack Obama's health care law, and the balance of power in Washington may be at stake. Democrats believe they already lost the public opinion fight over the law once, when they pushed through the Affordable Care Act in the first place, and Republicans grabbed hold of the issue to drive Democrats into the minority. Democrats are determined that this time, they'll come out on top. For their part, Republicans are painfully aware that they're embarking upon the task of repealing and replacing the complex law at their peril. If Democrats get their way, the GOP will own every problem and complication that results from the re-work, and there are certain to be many. For both sides, the repeal-and-replace fight represents a risky and unexpected do-over nearly seven years after Democratic majorities in the House and Senate passed the law on a party-line vote. A voter backlash helped send Democrats into the minority in the House in the 2010 midterms, and Republicans have been using the issue to political benefit ever since. In November's elections, Donald Trump and GOP House and Senate candidates ran on promises to repeal the law and replace it with something better. Now, Democrats have a chance to fight the messaging war anew, even as they continue to champion the health care law as good policy that's helped the country. And Republicans, who've had political success attacking the law without offering a unified solution of their own, have a chance to present their ideas and make policy, but risk giving away their political advantage if they become the ones voters blame for problems in the health system. Which side meets the challenge most effectively will help determine who prevails in the 2018 midterms, and in the next presidential election four years from now. On Wednesday, as he unveiled Democrats' new attack line against the GOP - "Make America Sick Again" - Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said that after the health law passed, voters blamed it for every problem related to health care, "and our Republicans colleagues and their message machine did it." "Now, they're going to own it," Schumer said of the GOP. "And all the problems in the health care system, and there have been many throughout the years, no one has solved all of them, are going to be on their back." Schumer made his comments after Democratic lawmakers met with Obama to discuss combating GOP efforts to undo the law, a new legislative initiative which got under way Wednesday with a procedural vote in the Senate. Obama's message was to not cooperate with GOP replacement plans that don't offer a good solution for the 20 million Americans who gained health coverage under the law. He advised keeping the focus on those who benefited from the Affordable Care Act, such as people with pre-existing conditions who got coverage, and who might be hurt if their coverage were taken away. And, he took on blame for Democrats' failure to sell the public on a law that by some measures has achieved its goals. "I will take the responsibility for not having fully communicated with the American people for why this is an extraordinary victory for them," Obama said. Even as Obama huddled with Democrats, Vice President-elect Mike Pence was meeting with Republicans across the Capitol, emerging to offer assurances that Republicans would make good on their repeated promises to repeal the law. "The American people know who owns Obamacare. It's the first half of the title. It is Obama and the party of Obama," Pence insisted. "What President-elect Trump and I and the leaders in the Congress are determined to do is to keep faith with the American people." Inside the meeting with House Republicans, Pence offered a more urgent message, advising Republicans to "go back to districts and lay the predicate that the Democrats own this thing," said GOP Rep. Dave Brat of Virginia. Trump himself offered a similar cautionary note over Twitter Wednesday, writing, "Don't let the Schumer clowns out of this web... Dems are to blame for the mess. It will fall of its own weight - be careful!" Some Republicans are painfully aware that their own political fortunes could be at risk if they fumble the issue. "I'm here because of Obamacare," said GOP Rep. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, crediting the issue for his victory in 2012. And now, Cramer says, he risks losing his seat over Obamacare, "if we let our voters down in places like North Dakota by not acting decisively and swiftly." Yet for now, even as they move toward repealing the law as early as next month, Republicans don't have a replacement plan, or even a timeline for offering one. There's likely to be a years-long transition period between the repeal and the replacement, but many House Republicans, who stand for re-election every two years, believe it's urgent to get the replacement done before the 2018 midterms, or risk voter wrath. "If it hasn't been done by the 2018s, it's like, 'What are you doing?'" said GOP Rep. Mark Amodei of Nevada. "If after five years of Republicans saying it sucks, we don't do a good job of transitioning and replacing, then Katie bar the door." Supreme Court asked the defence lawyer to tell the exact date of Nawaz Sharifs appointment as the minister of finance in Punjab. Islamabad: Pakistans Supreme Court on Wednesday asked key questions from Prime Minister Nawaz Sharifs lawyer regarding his political career. Conducting a fresh hearing in the Panama Papers case, a five-member larger bench of the Supreme Court asked the defence lawyer to tell the exact date of Nawaz Sharifs appointment as the minister of finance in Punjab, the Punjab chief minister, elevation as the Prime Minister and date of his forced exile during Pervez Musharrafs military rule. The bench hinted at tracing any misuse of public office by Nawaz Sharif. Justice Asif Saeed Khosa said the Prime Minister had claimed that in 1972 the then government had nationalised the Ittefaq Foundry without his family receiving a single penny, questioning from where Mr Sharif got money to invest in a Dubai steel mill. PTIs lawyer Naeem Bokhari said Mr Sharif had misguided legislators through his speech in the National Assembly. Earlier, Justice Khosa decided to conduct hearings on a daily basis. Under Israeli law, the country's largely ceremonial president has the authority to issue a pardon. Tel Aviv: An Israeli soldier, Elor Azaria, was on Wednesday convicted of manslaughter in the deadly shooting of a wounded Palestinian attacker, capping a nine-month saga that has deeply divided the country. The verdict, which marks a rare case of an Israeli military court convicting a soldier for lethal action taken on field, threatened to deepen the rift.Military commanders have condemned the soldier's conduct, while much of the public and leading members of the nationalist ruling coalition have rallied behind him. Under Israeli law, the country's largely ceremonial president has the authority to issue a pardon. Hours after the verdict, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for Mr Azaria to be pardoned, plunging into the raging political debate that has divided the country and putting himself at odds with the military. On his Facebook page, Netanyahu wrote: I support granting Elor Azaria a pardon. He also urged the public to support the Army and its commanders. Mr Azaria, an Army medic, was caught on video in March fatally shooting the wounded Palestinian, who had stabbed a soldier in the West Bank city of Hebron. The Kerala missionary was drugged and abused in June 2015. Christian leaders have denounced from the beginning the serious shortcomings in the conduct of investigations. The trial may have been compromised by the negligence of the investigators. Raipur (AsiaNews) - A court in Chhattisgarh has acquitted two young men accused of the rape of a Catholic nun for "lack of evidence". The religious sister was drugged and abused during the night between 19 and 20 June 2015 at Christ Sahaya Kendra (Christ Support Centre ) of Raipur. The 19 year old and 25 year old Dinesh Dhurv Jitendra Pathak were released by the court because Judge Nidhi Sharma said not enough evidence was collected against them. In all likelihood the investigations were compromised beyond repair by police, who after the discovery of the nun did not close off the crime area and did not carry out a proper forensic investigation, such as lifting evidence of the attackers from the victim's body. The terrible religious, now 48, who belongs to the Salesian Missionaries of Mary Immaculate (SMMI), courageously told her terrible story. Two masked men broke into her room at the medical center at around 1: 30 am. When she asked them if they wanted money, they replied: "We want something more." At that point one of them blocked her, while the other forced her to ingest the drugs and gagged her with a rag. Then the attackers tied her to the bed with her sari and used a scarf to tie her hands, before taking turns to rape her. The nun, originally from Kerala, was alone at the time of the attack. She was found the next day in an unconscious state by her superior, worried about not having received any reply to her calls. The state representatives of Congress and the Chhattisgarh Christian Forum have called the incident a "systematic attack against minorities in the State". For its part, the Indian Bishops' Conference (CBCI) has reported that such incidents raise serious questions about the safety and protection of minorities in India. Since the beginning, the Christian leaders have complained about serious shortcomings in the conduct of investigations by the investigators, who had not collected blood, urine and other fluid samples to determine the hallucinogenic substance used to dope the missionary. Following the indignation of the entire Catholic community and the protests of the opposition parties, police questioned more than 200 people, to narrow the field to two accused, who are now once again free and at large. Mothers appeal moves online communities. His sister also questioned by authorities. The head of the World Christian Solidarity Mervyn Thomas expresses concern about the health of imprisoned lawyers and Christian leaders. Beijing (AsiaNews) - Chinese authorities have released the Christian human rights lawyer Zhang Kai after the appeal launched on the net by his mother to shed light on his case. Zhang disappeared for two days after he was summoned to the Chinese police station on December 27, 2016. His sister Zhang Yan, said the lawyer Kai was summoned because he had already been detained for defending the churches by the government-backed crackdown . When his mother broke the story of the disappearance, the virtual community spread his story and some put forward the possibility that the lawyer could be blamed for crimes he never committed. Zhang Yan also revealed that some municipal officials from the Beijing Public Security went to visit her at her workplace, asking to speak to her. "The officials - said Yan - asked the head of my work unit to be able to talk to me. But I refused and for sure I would not cooperate with them while they were filming me. I told him that I would not have said a word in front of the camera, and they put it away ". The head of the World Christian Solidarity Mervyn Thomas expressed concern about the health of imprisoned lawyers and Christian leaders. He also urged the government to ensure that they are well and that their rights are also respected in detention. by Elizabeth Li According to an obituary of the Council of Chinese bishops, the bishop was Rector of the National Seminary in Beijing between 1983 and 1992, as well as a leader of the Patriotic Association and the Council of Chinese Bishops. Beijing (AsiaNews) - Bishop Anthony Tu Shihua, one of the eight illegitimate bishops in China, died on Jan 4 morning in Beijing at the age of 98. Media reports said he was among the illicitly ordained bishops in China whom Pope Francis may recognize. Bishop Tu, a native of Hubei province, was one of the first self-elected and self-ordained bishops in China, ordained without papal mandate on August 15, 1959 as the bishop of Hanyang (Hubei), and later as the ordinary of Puqi (Hubei) in 2001. Bishop Tu had lived in Beijing and served in the head office of Patriotic Association and bishops council" for a long time. According to an obituary of Patriotic Association and bishops council dated Jan. 4, 2017, Bishop Tu was named a leader of the Patriotic Association and Bishops Council for years, and was a former rector of the National Seminary in Beijing in 1983-1992. Born on Nov 22, 1919 in a Catholic family in Mianyang (Hubei), he studied at the Hankou seminary in 1931-1943, and further studied in Beijing. He was ordained a priest in April 1944. He had been standing committee member of patriotic association in 1962. Since Church activities revived after destructions of the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), he was vice chairman of national committee of Patriotic Association in 1980, 1986, 1992, and 1998, the obituary said. In 1986, he had been vice president of the bishops council. In 2004, he had been advisor to the Patriotic Association and bishops council, it continued. The obituary said he liked philosophy and was fluent in several languages, and had written articles and translated books. He had trained clergy to be patriotic and to love the Church. He was a frequent contributor to the Catholic Church in China an official magazine of the two government-sanctioned Church bodies. In the magazines first issue, published in 1980, Bishop Tu had an article titled Carrying Forward the Spirit of the Apostles' Traditional Spirit, and Running the Chinese Church Independently and autonomously, discussing the operations of the Catholic Church Affairs Commission, which he was due to establish. Activists and international NGOs criticise the findings of a government commission, which rejected allegations of abuse. For the latter, the presence of mosques is proof there is no persecution. Myanmars Muslim minority mourns its own Aylan. Yangon (AsiaNews/Agencies) Human rights activists and organisations have accused the Myanmar government of covering up acts of violence against the Rohingya in Rakhine State, western Myanmar. The clear and firm stance taken by humanitarian associations stands in contrast to the Myanmar government, which is hailing a commission of inquirys findings that refute allegation of genocide against the Muslim group in that state. Yesterday, the commission appointed by the government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who is also Myanmars foreign minister, rejected allegations of abuses by security forces. However, the authorities are still investigating alleged police abuses after a video emerged appearing to show officers beating and kicking Rohingya villagers. In recent months, violent clashes have increased between the Myanmar military and what they call "a militant group of Muslim Rohingya" in Rakhine State. The Rohingya are a Muslim group of just over one million people, originally from Bangladesh who live mostly in refugee camps scattered across Myanmar. The latter has refused to grant them citizenship. Since early last October, at least 90 people have been killed and about 34,000 have been displaced. Meanwhile, the military continue to go from village to village to clear the territory of rebel elements. Peace calls by Card Charles Bo, archbishop of Yangon, and other local and international figures have gone unheeded. The Rohingya have complained of summary executions, arbitrary arrests, rapes, houses torched in a what the government has called clearance operations intended to strike those who have attacked Myanmar security forces. The authorities flatly deny allegations of abuses and genocide, but they have prevented independent journalists and aid workers from accessing parts of the State. Aung San Suu Kyi, once seen as a human rights icon, has found herself at the centre of an international controversy, accused of not defending the Muslim minority, and thus tacitly endorsing the violence against the Rohingya committed by the countrys majority Buddhists and military. Under international pressure Ms Suu Kyi (and the Council of State) ordered the commission to investigate the attacks and the abuse allegations. Its report found that "The Bengali population residing in Maungtaw region, the increasing population of Mawlawi (Islamic scholars), mosques and religious edifices are proof that there were no cases of genocide and religious persecution in the region". In Myanmar, many refer to the Rohingya as "Bengalis" as they view them as foreign migrants from Bangladesh. Conversely, human rights activists and organisations persist in their charges of abuse. Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at New York-based Human Rights Watch, said the panel was "looking more and more like the Myanmar government whitewash mechanism that we feared it would be. For Matthew Smith, founder of campaign group Fortify Rights, The army has committed atrocity crimes and this commission is attempting a whitewash. Evidence for the prevailing climate of violence is available online and in the media. This now includes the picture of the lifeless body of a toddler lying in the mud, like that of Aylan Kurdi, the Kurdish boy who died off the Turkish coast trying to reach Europe with his family in September 2015. Today, the Rohingya weep for their own Aylan. His name is Shohayet Mohammed, 16 months old, who died fleeing from Rakhine State with his mother, uncle, and brother to reach Bangladesh. He apparently drowned when the boat he was in sank in the Naf River when Myanmar forces fired upon it. Just hours after the court ruling, the Israeli prime minister already speaks of pardon for Elor Sergeant Azari. He spoke of "hard and painful day" and reiterates his full support for the soldier and his family. Israeli President underscores that such an action is currently "premature." The request will be examined after judges determine sentence. Jerusalem (AsiaNews / Agencies) Just few hours after the ruling, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asked that the Israeli soldier convicted of manslaughter for killing a young unarmed and helpless Palestinian be pardoned. The trial of the 20 year-old Sergeant Elor Azaria looks set to increasingly divide the country, with far right politicians calling for the sentence to be dropped. The soldier could face up to 20 years in prison; the three judges of the military court reserved a few weeks before pronouncing the sentence of imprisonment. Handing down the ruling the president of the jury, Colonel Maya Heller, stressed that there were no apparent reasons to justify the opening of fire against the Palestinian youth. "The reason [Elor] shot - said the judge - is the fact that he thought it was right that the terrorist should die." In a post published on his Facebook page late in the afternoon yesterday, the Prime Minister spoke of "hard and painful day for all of us, but first of all for Elor and his family". "I fully support the request to grant him pardon," said Netanyahu, who declares himself close "to the relatives and to the soldiers. Among others members of the government already active in demanding a pardon is the Israeli Minister of Education, and representative of the extreme right, Naftali Bennett. All day yesterday solidarity demonstrations were held in various places throughout the country. According to one poll, 65% of Israelis (Jews) are in favor of the request of the prime minister and his government. In contrast, the center-left coalitions and former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni are battling for the autonomy of the judiciary [military] and claim that the verdict must be accepted. This is the only way, she warns, to heal the bloody wound that has opened within society. President Reuven Rivlin has also intervened recalling that any comment or action is currently "premature." The Head of State will examine any request for a pardon only once the procedure has been concluded and the length of the sentence handed down. The legal team defending the young soldier has already announced that it will appeal against the verdict. Instead the family members of Abdul Fatah al-Sharif, the 21-year old Palestinian killed by Elor, have expressed staisfaction. For the father Yusri deserves a life sentence; the uncle Fathi adds that the decision to prosecute him for manslaughter rather than premeditated murder - which provides for more severe punishment - is a "perversion of court justice. The research was conducted by the Centre for Infectious Disease Research, Seattle. A weakened form of the parasite was created and used and experimentation suggests that the method is safe and generates a good immune response. Seattle (AsiaNews / Agencies) There has been "promising" progress in the search for a vaccine against malaria carried out by the Centre for Infectious Disease Research, in Seattle, in the United States. The research, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, reports that a weakened form of the parasite was created and used and experimentation suggests that the method is safe and generates a good immune response. Malaria affects over 200 million people every year and causes 438,000 deaths per year (data 2015). It is the most important parasitic disease and the second infectious disease in the world for this morbidity and mortality in tropical and subtropical areas of Asia, Africa and America . The malaria parasite goes through several stages both within the mosquitoes and human. The system used by the research team was to remove three of the parasite genes so that it could not infect liver cells. The immune system of people infected will react well, but the parasite will not be able to complete its life cycle. Tropical disease experts have called the results obtained "promising". Ten people took part in the trial and the disease did not complete its development in any of them, nor have there been serious side effects to the treatment. Seoul (AsiaNews) - Government MPs have accused the president Park Geun-hye of violating the constitution "severely and profoundly ". The Constitutional Court has begun to hear arguments concerning the allegations of extortion and abetting. Lee Jeong-hwan, the presidents lawyer, said that the allegations "lack of evidence and have no legal effect" because based on assertions, media information and not criminal facts. Seok Seo-gu, another of Parks lawyers, said that the investigations against his client came after protests influenced and promoted by groups sympathetic to North Korea. Seo also accused of organizations that wrote about the scandal of demagoguery and he compared the injustice of the charges against Park to those leveled against Jesus Christ and Socrates. After the National Assembly on December 9 last voted for the impeachment of Park, the Constitutional Court will now have to decide within six months whether to remove her permanently or reinstate her. If the Park is formally removed from office, elections will be held within 60 days. However the president has denied all the charges against her, saying that she complied faithfully with her presidential mandate and that she received only one simple advice from Choi. Yesterday, Choi Soon-sil appeared before the Court of the Central District of the capital to defend herself against accusations of abuse of power and attempted fraud. Even former assistants of the President, An Chong-bum and Jeong Ho-seong took part in the hearing, accused of collaboration with Choi. It was her first public appearance since she was arrested last year. About 500 ex soldiers "besiege" the PLA headquarters in the capital. War veterans refuse to give up, but the government does not appear to be listening. Beijing (AsiaNews) Two months after the first public protest, hundreds of Chinese military veterans travelled to Beijing once again to demand unpaid benefits the government owes them. On December 28 2016, about 500 veterans aged 40 to 50 years besieged the headquarters of the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) in the capital. After Octobers unsuccessful protest, the veterans, some of whom fought in the war with Vietnam (1979) and during Korean conflict (1950-1953) decided to go back to the streets and make their voices heard singing army songs and waving banners. Their demands remain the same: pensions, social security, employment and other benefits promised to them when they were in the services. Two months ago, six veterans representatives met with PLA officials but the latter refused to budge. After 24 hours, officials announced that President Xi Jinping had ordered the deputy chiefs of governments or party committees in the provinces involved to come and settle your issues specifically. Soon after, the police began to disperse the protesters with promises that their grievances would be heeded. The authorities ended up removing thousands of peaceful demonstrators. Wang Guorong, a veteran from Yiyang of Hunan province who did not take part in the demonstration in October, said that a fellow townsman Teng Xingqiu, and several other veterans he knew, disappeared afterwards. A reader writes: I am an accountant in Australia. Three weeks ago, I joined a global company which has an investment arm. A few days ago, everyone else in my department got an email saying that our designation had changed to make us access persons and we had to comply with an attached personal trading policy, and would have to log into a new system and declare securities we hold by January 9. I didnt have time to read the PDF but mentioned it to my husband because, although I dont have shareholdings, he has some under my name, as well as some under his own dating back to a time when he wasnt tax-resident and I was. The last day before the Christmas break, I carefully read the info and it turns out that for my designation, I have to declare all non-ETF securities that my spouse holds as well as my own, AND that neither myself or my spouse can enter into trades without submitting them to my employer for pre-clearance. (For people who actually work in the investment arm, spouses are totally banned from any trading!) I rang my husband to let him know and his reaction was: I wont do that. I dont mind declaring but I wont ask permission. I forwarded him the PDF and he got very testy, insisting there must be a minimum amount (no) or that there was a way to request exemption for spouses (no). Eventually he recognized there wasnt and said hed need to look at it further. I was very calm after the initial surprise and phrased the situation as: Youll need to let me know very soon, because if you dont comply I will need to leave my job rather than You have to do it. He said maybe hed divest all his holdings (<100K) and put money into ETFs instead and we left it there. Partly by necessity and partly by design, I had held the latter half of the conversation in full hearing of the finance team. To maximize my transparency, I pulled my boss into a meeting room and said: You might have overheard the words have to leave my job in that phone call I just had. Dont worry, Im not leaving my job. My husbands not in finance and didnt like the trading policy and I thought best to make the consequences of non-compliance clear to him. Boss smiled awkwardly (cant blame him) and said Everything all right then? I said yes. But I dont know if it IS all right. I dont want to push my husband on this at least for a few days after Christmas, but Im concerned that rather than (a) comply like a normal person or (b) divest all his holdings as he suggested, he might (c) get rid of the stuff under my name but make it clear that what I dont know wont hurt me for the rest. I have no intention of lying to my organization, so what should I do? Australian employee protection laws are strong but even if I werent under introductory probation, refusing to comply with a company policy is surely grounds for termination anyway. Should I go to HR? Somebody in compliance? For background information and armchair psychologists: We each contribute to a joint account but do not have merged finances, we could afford for me to lose my job, and he is being treated for major depression and PTSD. His therapist identified narcissistic tendencies. Ugh. I think this ideally wouldnt be a you have to do this conversation but rather a this is what my job requires; lets talk about how to proceed conversation. I dont think hes wrong in bristling at having this sprung on him unilaterally. Naive, maybe but not wrong to be put off by it. That doesnt mean that he shouldnt ultimately comply, but it should be a conversation to work through what makes sense for the two of you as a partnership, rather than him just being told he has to do it for your job. Now, its probably likely that once you have that conversation, youll both conclude that it doesnt make sense to jeopardize your job over this but it really does need to be a discussion first, if for no other reason than out of respect for him as an independent person with free will. However, if you talk it through and you still dont see eye-to-eye, at that point Id get advice from someone with expertise on these policies about what the potential consequences are if your husband does go the what you dont know and what isnt in your name wont hurt you route, and whether it makes sense to alert your company that you worry thats a possibility (which is expertise that I dont have, unfortunately). Read an update to this letter here. Cannabis Coalition To Provide 4,200 Free Joints At Trump's Inauguration Trending News: There Will Be SO MUCH Free Weed At President Trump's Inauguration Long Story Short A group called the DC Cannabis Coalition says they plan to hand out over 4,000 free joints throughout Washington, DC on the day of Donald Trump's inauguration. The group claims it's to urge federal lawmakers to legalize marijuana. Long Story The DC Cannabis Coalition wants marijuana legalized from sea to shining sea. To make sure the message gets through to the incoming Trump administration, the group plans to light up Inauguration Day. The coalition is providing 4,200 joints, free of charge, to anyone who wants to get in on the action. Pot-packing protesters will march to the National Mall on the morning of January 20th with instructions to light up 4 minutes and 20 seconds into Donald Trumps inaugural address. (The term 420 is code for smoking cannabis, though its origins are far from certain.) With any luck, the protest will cloud Trumps judgement, although some marijuana activists have pinpointed Jeff Sessions, Trumps pick for attorney general, as the most obvious potential problem. Last month, defiant cannabis advocates smuggled marijuana into the Washington office of Jeff Sessions, rolled joints and sprinkled pot crumbs on the floor. via GIPHY Activist Adam Eidinger points out, We are looking at a guy who as recently as April said they are going to enforce federal law on marijuana all over the country. He said marijuana is dangerous. Eidinger founded a group of DC residents who fought for a voter-approved ballot initiative that legalized the recreational use of marijuana within the District of Columbia. According to Initiative 71, its legal to have 2 ounces or less of marijuana in your possession. Its also legal to grow it in DC and to give it away. Along with the District of Columbia, four states have legalized marijuana for recreational use and twenty-three states have laws accommodating medical marijuana. For Eidinger, Sessions represents an end to any progress thats been made on pot legalization, which would be a real drag. While participants in the upcoming Inauguration Day protest may earn brownie points with fellow activists, the free joints come with a catch, because protesters could get caught. Lighting up joints, spliffs, bongs, or blunts on federal property is not legal, and the DC Cannabis Coalition warns protest participants they could be arrested for smoking on the National Mall. I think its a good protest, insists Eidinger, If someone wants to do it, they are risking arrest, but its a protest and you know what, the National Mall is a place for protest. Own The Conversation Ask The Big Question Will this encourage legalization, or cause a public backlash? Drop This Fact Between 2001-2002 to 2012-2013, the percentage of Americans who reporting marijuana use in the past year more than doubled to 9.5%. King & Wood Mallesons beleaguered UK, Europe and Middle East has stayed mum on its pay freeze affecting 100 of its staff.According to multiple reports, the affected people were notified via letter on 2 January, their first day at the firm from the holiday break, of the decision.In a statement sent to UK publications Legal Week, Legal Business and The Lawyer, the firm said: We do not comment on any matter concerning our people, whether individually or collectively, in order to protect their privacy.Legal Business reports that most of the affected are in the business services division of the firm but that some fee-earners have also been notified. Those affected includes employees who are on maternity, sick and holiday leaves. KWM s EUME arm last month filed with the High Court a notice of intention to appoint an administrator, Legal Week reports, giving the firm until 9 January to appoint administrators or file another notice.The affected staff and fee earners who are still employed by the firm were selected via an informal consultation process that considered the firms future needs, says The Lawyer.The spate of partners who have left KWM EUME now totals more than 40, Legal Week notes. The latest defection is by Frankfurt corporate partner Michiel Huizinga who is said to be joining Allen & Overy in February.The pay freeze was instituted despite a previous statement from KWM EUME that wages will continue to be paid until administration. The adversary breached the truce along the line of contact between the Karabakh and Azerbaijani opposing forces around 40 times, from late Wednesday night to early Thursday morning. January 5, 2017, 09:42 Azerbaijan violated ceasefire 40 times at night STEPANAKERT, JANUARY 5, ARTSAKHPRESS: During this time the Azerbaijani armed forces fired around 500 shots toward the Armenian military positions, and with shooting weapons, informed the press service of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Defense Army. The NKR Defense Army vanguard units, however, took no actions in response. The situation is completely under the watchful control of Armenian forces. A married London lawyer has been found guilty of racially aggravated common assault and sexual assault against an Australian woman.District judge Barbara Barnes handed down the verdict against Alastair Main, a former captain of the London Rowing Club, at the Wimbledon Magistrates Court earlier this week, according too a report from The Telegraph.Main, who was once national rowing champion, admitted to pouring beer over the womans head and calling her a st. He denied, however, that he called her an Australian st, an allegation brought up in the trial. The 35-year-old also admitted to slapping the womans behind but claimed it was just a cheeky act.The lawyer said that the woman, then 27, slapped her around the face at the Christmas party. He also claimed she tried to slap him again but that he stopped her, prompting the woman to run off.Main then followed her and found her crouched down so he then poured what remained of my beer on the top of her.I did it as I did not know what else to do, I was really upset, Main, who said he was just 7/10 drunk, said.The woman then went off to the ladies toilet to sort her hair, Main claimed, after which he followed her to say sorry to her.The victim claimed in the trial that Main lifter her skirt and slapped her on the thighs and legs repeatedly in the ladies toilet. The lawyer denied the claim and said he only grabbed her by the waist to make her face him to talk.Main said the woman told her leave me alone, but he had followed her out of the club.She had not told me go away or anything as we walked down the stairs, main said. She went through the door first and I gave her a slap on he bum. It was cheeky.Judge Barnes said, however, that the Australian womans account was credible and convincing and was corroborated by other witnesses.The judge further told Main she does not find him to be a credible or convincing witness.You had drunk a lot of alcohol, you admitted you were drunk, you were angry, upset, confused and apprehensive, the judge said, adding that Main did not stop his assault in the ladies toilet when confronted by another person and only stopped following the woman down the street when he was held back.I do not find it feasible your pursuit was to sort things out. What I found was that you were pursuing her because you were angry and you were determined to control the complainants behaviour, the judge said.Main is to be sentenced on January 26. King & Wood Mallesons and Dechert have scored top lawyers from Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft in the aftermath of the US biglaws decision to exit Asia. KWM has hired former Cadwalader managing partner Rocky Lee while former Cadwalader Hong Kong capital markets partner Stephen Chan has been taken in by Dechert, a report from Legal Week notes.Lee will become KWMs head of US corporate which will see him ferrying between Beijing and Menlo Park in California, the publication says.Lee, known for linking Chinese startup with moneyed private equity investors has advised in investments in Xiaomi, Didi Chuxing and Tujia.com.Before joining Cadwalader in 2010, Lee was at DLA Piper where he headed the top firms Asia private equity practice for four years.According to Legal Week, Dechert has scored three associate along with Chan who specializes in Hong Kong Stock Exchange listings. He became a Cadwalader partner in early 2015 along with two other partners and four counsels who transferred from Latham & Watkins.The same group, the publication notes, transferred from Allen & Overy in 2009.Cadwalader, New Yorks oldest operating law firm, decided to close its offices in Beijing and Hong Kong by the end of 2016 to narrow its focus to financial institutions, large corporations and private equity, an area the firm has traditionally been strong in.Approximately 25 people including four equity partners were laid off because of the White Shoe firms move. US President-elect Donald Trump has picked Sullivan & Cromwell partner Walter Jay Clayton as his nominee to head up the US Securities and Exchange Commission.Clayton is a specialist in the areas of public and private mergers and acquisitions transactions, capital markets offerings and regulatory and enforcement proceedings, according to his firm profile.Should he become the next head of the US regulator, Clayton is seen to ease regulation and boost capital creation.His most notable works include Alibabas mammoth $25 billion initial public offering. His works also includes various other matters for big financial institutions, like the US Treasurys investment in Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers asset sale to Barclays Capital and Bear Stearns sale to JP Morgan Chase.Alibaba as well as Ally Financial, another client of Claytons, had in the past revealed they were being investigated by the SEC, a report from Reuters notes.Jay Clayton is a highly talented expert on many aspects of financial and regulatory law, and he will ensure our financial institutions can thrive and create jobs while playing by the rules at the same time, the US President-elect said in a statement.We need to undo many regulations which have stifled investment in American businesses, and restore oversight of the financial industry in a way that does not harm American workers.In a statement released via the Trump transition team, Clayton said he would work to instill confidence in investors and companies to invest in the US. Australia needs to completely rethink the way overseas worker arrivals and numbers are regulated and just cutting back is not an option, according to a new analysis report.For too long migration policy has focussed on temporary workers being recruited to fulfil specific areas where jobs shortages are perceived, says the analysis from associate law professor Joanna Howe from the University of Adelaide. She argues that permanent labour migration is preferable in terms of recognising migrants' contribution and protecting their workplace rights and the current system needs to be more transparent and efficient.'Given the importance of labour migration to Australia's economic success and social cohesion, it is vital that we get right the regulation of this complex phenomenon,' she says in the report published by the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA).Howe believes that the public need to back Government policies regarding visa regulation but currently the system is 'cloaked in secrecy, complexity and a lack of transparency and accountability'.Looking at the 457 visa, widely regarded as the mainstay of Australia's labour migration programme which allows workers to work in the country for up to four years in areas where there are skill shortages, she says the main defect is that it lets employers decide which occupations have shortages.She explained that as long as an occupation is listed on the Consolidated Sponsored Occupation List (CSOL) and a 457 visa holder is paid a higher annual wage than the minimum amount for temporary skilled migrants, an employer is able to access a 457 visa holder.She also pointed out that the CSOL is not an occupational shortage list and it actually includes over 600 occupations, many of which are not facing shortages.'Diehard defenders of the status quo will point to the introduction of employer conducted labour market testing in 2013 as evidence of a requirement that employers need to first advertise jobs locally before hiring a 457 visa holder,' the report says.'However, when one realises that a simple Facebook advertisement suffices to meet the Department of Immigration and Border Protection's (DIBP) very low evidentiary requirement, it becomes clear that employer conducted labour market testing is both weakly enforced and easily evaded,' it adds.A number of significant reviews of the 457 visa programme have called for greater limits on employer demand and Howe explains that the 'simplistic notion' that employers will only go to the trouble and expense of employing a migrant worker when they want to meet a skill shortage skims over a range of motives an employer may have for employing a migrant worker.'These could be a reluctance to invest in training for existing or prospective staff, a desire to move towards a de-unionised workforce or, for a (perhaps small) minority of employers, a belief that it is easier to avoid paying minimum wage rates and conditions for temporary migrant workers,' she writes.She suggests that the Australian Government should consider establishing a tripartite, independent commission charged with the compilation of the occupational shortage list for the 457 visa programme, which could use an evidence based approach to identify Australia's labour market needs in a timely, efficient and transparent manner. Hi My visitor visa runs out in February but I'm looking to go back to see my fiancee in March. We applied for a PMV in October but haven't heard anything yet, but are there any difficulties with renewing a visitor visa during a PMV? I'm from the UK. Thanks Mark JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. I bought my flights through flight centre. I was going to find the transaction in my bank statement and match it up with the itinerary. Maybe i can contact flight centre for a proper receipt? Also i didnt keep all the copies of parcel con notes. But i have pics with my fiance showing he received it. Whoch i would also match up with convos and bank starements. Do u think that would be ok? I have contacted the post office crossing my fingers, toes and fingers they have something they can provide that would help The 2017 Picanto gets a wider variant line-up and a turbo-petrol motor which propels the car to 100kph in 10.1sec. The Kia Picanto has been updated for the model year 2017. The carmaker has added the sporty GT-line and S trims to the hatchbacks line-up for the first time. These trims add bodykits, unique paint shades and a different steering wheel. The updated Picanto will only be sold as a five-door model now. Despite a longer wheelbase and shorter front overhang, though, the new car is no larger than its predecessor but does offer more head and legroom, as well as a larger boot inside. The Picanto comes with a three-cylinder 1.0-litre petrol with 67hp and 96.2Nm of torque and a four-cylinder 1.2-litre petrol with 84.1hp; both have been carried over to this new car, but joining the range is a new turbocharged 1.0-litre petrol. With 100.3hp, its the most powerful option in the range, and can propel the Picanto to 100kph in 10.1sec. Its likely to also be the most economical option. The default gearbox choice is a five-speed manual, but a four-speed automatic is available as an option on the 1.25-litre petrol. Kia claims to have reduced engine vibrations and noise by adding more soundproofing materials and by lowering the windscreen wipers by 6mm to eliminate wind noise at speed. Kia also says that the Picantos ride and handling have been improved through the use of modified suspension and a revised steering rack, both of which are said to give the new car agile driving dynamics. Torque vectoring by braking also features for the first time, helping to reduce understeer during hard cornering. The new Picantos cabin is dominated by a new 7.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system, which will be a standard fit for most international markets. Drivers will be able to control their smartphones using the Apple CarPlay and Android Auto services, while the options list includes a reversing camera, wireless smartphone charger and USB port. When it comes to luggage space, the Picantos boot can now carry up to 255 litres which is more than Hyundais i10 and up to 1,010 litres with the rear seats folded flat. Personalisation also plays a big part in the new Picanto. Drivers will be able to specify one of five so-called colour packs, allowing them to choose colours for the seats and stitching, as well as interior door panels. Kia says the new Picanto is the safest A-segment car it has ever made, and the new car includes a greater proportion of advanced high-strength steel compared to the outgoing model, which has also reduced its body-in-white weight by 23kg. Six airbags come as standard, while optional extras include a knee airbag and automatic emergency braking (AEB). AEB will be a crucial factor in the new Picanto achieving a maximum Euro NCAP safety score under the bodys dual ratings system and increasingly most buyers are paying attention to those safety scores. As far as pricing goes, the new Picanto will be positioned slightly above its sister car, the Hyundai i10 (Grand i10 for India), in the global markets. Closer to home, the Korean carmaker is yet to identify a location for its first factory in India, and it's only after this big hurdle is cleared that a formal announcement on its entry into India can be expected. For now, the only official statement Kia has made on its India project is, We at Kia Motors are continually evaluating potential locations for overseas manufacturing facilities, including India, to secure additional engines for future growth. However, as of now, no concrete plans have been finalised. AWD The Mazda CX-5 is a perfect personification of how automakers improved the crossover, after many trials and errors, to what can only be described as the zenith of the genre. After all, more people bought into the crossover craze than any other type of passenger vehicle currently on sale. For Mazda, the CX-5 personifies the automakers evolution from small-time company to the kind of automaker able to duke it out on equal footing with big-shot outfits.Sales are not up to par, sure, but year-over-year growth equates to a steady evolution. Bear in mind that if the CX-5 hadn't sold well, the MX-5 Miata ND wouldnt have happened. Now that the first-generation CX-5 has bitten the dust to make way for the all-new-for-2017 second generation , its imperative to say goodbye to the model that has recently left us with top honors.When the CX-5 went into production in early 2012, the compact crossover replaced two models that were rather too archaic for what the world wanted from an all-around vehicle such as a crossover: the Tribute and CX-7 . Two years after that, the CX-5 was refreshed with a mid-cycle update just in time for the 2016 model year. Continuous improvement of the species brought us the 2016.5 MY, the final iteration of the first-generation CX-5. Our test car is of the latter variety, a European-spec CX-5 with the 2.2-liter SkyActiv-D motor gifted with 150 PS (148 hp),, and a six-speed manual transmission.It also happens to be the Takumi, the fourth best out of the six trim levels available. It doesnt come with all the bang and whistles one can have in a CX-5, nor does it come with the original 19-inch wheels wrapped in 225/55 rubber. Due to the sub-zero weather of December/January, our test car was shod in 225/65 17-inch Toyo Open Country W/T winter tires . Theyre fantastic in bad weather or when the going gets off-road-ish, but on a dry strip of roadway, they worsen the ride and the tire roar is easily audible from inside.Its not the cars fault, mind you. Speaking of faults, the 2016.5 Mazda CX-5 isnt without its fair share of puzzling quirks. The top of the dashboard is visible on the inside of the windshield, a condition that makes my eyes focus on the reflection instead of driving. The fuel filler door isnt flush with the body. Some may find the clutch to be a little bit harder to push than in other cars. The plastic cladding that wraps the lowermost part of the CX-5 gets dirty the moment you leave the car wash. OCD junkies may find themselves irritated by a wire that sticks out of the back of the rearview mirror. Taller people like me could use a little more knee room when seated in the rear.These, however, are not the sort of deficiencies Id define as deal-breakers. Especially when weighed against the good points, the flaws become lost like the crackle on a radio or the lines on an old TV. The first thing that makes you go, Yes, I would like to own a CX-5, is the exterior styling. Mazdas first model to feature the Kodo - Soul of Motion design language is also the first Mazda nameplate gifted with the complete suite of SkyActiv technologies.Hows the 2.2-liter turbo diesel? you might ask. As the U.S. market waits for the second-generation CX-5 to introduce the 2.2 SkyActiv-D, I feel obliged to tell you that the diesel engine is the proverbial real cherry. The worlds lowest diesel-engine compression ratio (14.0:1), a two-stage turbocharger, multi-hole piezo injectors, variable valve lift, reciprocating parts designed with low mechanical friction in mind, and an aluminum block help the SkyActiv-Ds cause. The design is so successful, theres no need for an expensive NOx aftertreatment system. Comparable diesels such as the OM 651, Mercedes most-produced engine, needs SCR tech to comply with EU6 legislation.The moment you push the start button, its uncanny how quiet the 2.2 SkyActiv-D is, inside or outside the car, cold or warmed up. Only under heavy acceleration the oil-chugging four-cylinder mill shows its true colors. The motorway is the SkyActiv-D's favorite stomping ground, albeit the engine is good for city driving as well. Whats not so great, however, is the hamfisted i-stop function. In situations when the driver has to press/depress the clutch quickly, the start/stop system might go haywire. I admit that I cussed at the CX-5's i-stop for not doing its job properly on more than one occasion.Acceleration is a bit so-and-so off the line, as expected from an engine that produces 380 Nm (280 lb-ft) of torque between 1,800 - 2500 rpm, yet it has to propel 1,555 kilograms (3,428 pounds) worth of weight. Accelerating from 50 to 80 km/h (30-50 mph) or 80 to 130 km/h (50-80 mph) is another thing, though. As long as youre in the right rev range and you shift early, the lesser version of the 2.2 SkyActiv-D sure knows how to pull.Fuel economy is another area with hits and misses. Over 100 km/h (62 mph), the CX-5 morphs from a pipette into a binge drinker. When driven in a relaxed and unhurried manner, like I did in one instance, frugality can improve up to a ridiculous 4.2 l/100 km. Thats 67.2 UK mpg or 56 U.S. mpg, and less than all three official fuel consumption figures. It should be noted that the 4.2 l/100 km I'm talking about was achieved with cruise control, air con, and heated seats on, plus some luggage in the trunk, so it was no hypermiling drudgery.The transmission, meanwhile, is all sorts of wonderful. I like a harder clutch with an easily detectable grab point. Operating the gear lever is an even nicer experience. If I didnt know better, Id confuse it for the heavenly six-speed stick shift in the MX-5 Miata . Surprisingly enough, rowing through the gears in the CX-5 feels a little more satisfying than doing the same job in the Mazda6.Two years ago I also tested the CX-5 with the more powerful diesel mill and the SkyActiv-Drive six-speed automatic transmission. Yes, the torque converter/single clutch-based box. This combo is pretty damn good as well, but having a manual makes the CX-5 an idea more enjoyable to drive. Dont get me wrong, though: if it were my money and if I was in the market for a daily driver with good ground clearance, I would take the CX-5 only with a good old automatic. Why's that? For conveniences sake, of course.The driving experience is a mixed bag of feelings, to be honest. In a straight line, the high driving position and nicely bolstered seat might lead you to believe that yes, this is just another crossover. In the corners, however, the Mazda CX-5 feels uncannily planted for a high-riding automobile. I am fully aware its not Porsche Macan -like nice to carve corners with, but for what the CX-5 is, it wont fail to keep the most enthusiastic drivers among us duly entertained. The slightly firm setup of the suspension helps in this regard.Mazdas higher-ups always believed that driving is a feast for the senses and that cars are more than just a form of transportation. And it shows. Another thing that makes Mazda (and the CX-5) stand out from the crowd is that the body guys and the chassis guys work together to create a cohesive driving experience without compromising the ride, body roll, and so forth.Another highlight of the CX-5 is how little brake dive there is. The electric power steering isnt exactly a paradigm of feel. The turning radius is also a bit meh. To its defense, the moment you give an input to the steering wheel, the front wheels turn in the desired direction with utmost haste. No sluggishness here, Im happy to report. This eagerness is a redeeming attribute of a car most people buy as the households only means of transportation.And this gets us to life onboard. The simplicity of the layout is enhanced by the robustness of the materials used inside. No odd creaks, no annoying squeaks, buttons that feel just so, a steering wheel thats neither thick nor too thin, theres a lot to like about the CX-5. Even a mid-range Takumi model such as the tested vehicle comes with niceties that include faux carbon fiber here and there, two-zone climate control, two USB ports, keyless entry, and a rearview camera. Adaptive LED headlights , LED fog lights, 9-speaker Bose premium audio system, and 7-inch infotainment are also standard.On the safety front, the pick of the lot is the Mazda Smart City Brake Support system. Not to be confused with SBS (Smart Brake Support), which works only at high speeds, SCBS uses a laser to scan what happens in front of the car at speeds between 4 and 30 km/h. If the system detects a risk of a collision, the brakes are prepared to maximum stopping power. If the driver cant be bothered from texting while driving, then SCBS slams the brakes automatically. The aim is to avoid or reduce the severity of the crash.Compared to the range-topping Revolution Top tested in 2015, the Takumi made me understand something else about how Mazda rolls. The apparently unpretentious trim level and not exactly brawny engine convinced me, to my own surprise, that the automaker hasnt designed this car on a budget. Its a cheap car, yet it doesnt feel cheap at all. Mazda seems to have made this particular CX-5 as nice to drive and as feature-laden as possible for the money it asks for it. And that is a car that meets consumer satisfaction.In hindsight, the lower and upper echelons of Mazda know what theyre doing. Masahiro Moro, the managing executive officer of the Japanese company, once said that the bombing of Hiroshima has given the people of Hiroshima, Japan the ability to overcome challenges. Considering that Mazda is the only company to successfully put the rotary engine into mass production, his argument stands true. What's more, do remember that Mazda is the only Japanse automaker to win the grueling 24 Hours of Le Mans.The first-generation CX-5 for Mazda is more than just a compact crossover designed to appeal to as many people as possible. Its not a product stemmed from those blithering pinheads we often refer to as beancounters. It is a simple car that also happens to be very satisfying. And a satisfying ownership is arguably the best reason why its worth putting the CX-5 on your shortlist.Having said these, the first-gen CX-5 stopped production approximately four and 11 months after the first JDM-spec unit rolled off the assembly line. The all-new model may be a bit bigger, sexier, and a little more refined, but the essential bits and bobs are shared with the now-defunct first generation.Why is that? After testing the CX-5 twice, I am pretty damn sure that Mazdas recipe for the CX-5 was good from the very start. On that note, here's a good little question for you: if the recipe is still relevant compared to the modern crop of crossovers, then why would Mazda take a risk by changing it? Opened up last year in June, Treasure Coast Indian Motorcycle in Hobe Sound is hosting a community celebration to open the 2017 riding season as well as bringing the community together for some fun.Since we opened the dealership in the summer, we thought wed wait to throw our grand opening party when more of our seasonal visitors are here," said Brian Hard Drive Delaney, GM. They really appreciate being able to ride in the winter months!What does GM have to do with this story? Well, the actual Indian dealership was a former Dodge dealership which has been reconfigured in a matter of months to sell the neo-retro cruisers.The big party will feature live music and popular sounds from DJ Car Show Lew, who will also bring his own Lews Crew CarPro Auto Show. The latter is the longest running classic car show on the Treasure Coast and if you havent seen it yet, heres your chance to do so.A nearby business, the Corvette Corral of Stuart, will also showcase a range of classic Corvettes to complement the bike show exposed by Vintage Iron (a collective of vintage motorcycle owners).Feeling lucky? Vintage Iron will also sell tickets to win an original 1980 Vintage Honda Street Racer, with all the money raised going towards the Paley Foundation, a local surgeon who helps children and adults with rare orthopedic disabilities. A Bikini Bike Wash will also raise money for the same foundation.With that in mind, the dealership is inviting all riders, non-riders, friends, neighbors, motorcycle clubs and veterans to attend the celebration on January 21st between 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Attendees with active military ID will automatically get a free Indian Motorcycle T-shirt. MIRIAM ROKO IN THE OLDEN DAYS Segera Tutubes, or cannibals used to live on the Island of Tatana here in Port Moresby, the nations capital. They were violent and aggressive and had no knowledge of the difference between doing good or evil. They were warriors who would kill and eat people. Their homes were built between the Kwila trees growing on the mountain tops, hideouts that could accommodate 50 to 100 people or more. They lived on raw meat, pigs, fish, seashells, human flesh or any other meat they could lay their hands on. Sometimes they would go looking for kaukau, bananas or fruits. Children were their main target, so children were forbidden to cry. The parents would warn their little ones not to cry. They loved roaming the villages in the night. There was great fear, as these Segera Tutubes were hairy, strong, violent and aggressive. They were more like apes than humans. One night a baby was heard crying. The mother tried her best to tame him by breast feeding and the father tried his best to sing him to sleep, but without success. The sound of his crying reached the mountain top bringing the chief of the Segeras and his men into the village. The crying brought them to the home of the child and, upon the demand of the Segera Tutubes, the parents decided to give the child away and it was taken away to the mountain with great joy and laughter and the kundu drums beat while there was feasting on the baby. Children were claimed many times when the parents were not careful or when the children were heard crying. The parents could not refuse the Segera Tutubes demands because they feared being killed themselves. One day a beautiful young girl was asked by a young man in the village to marry him. Upon her parents refusal she started crying and lamenting at the top of her voice for two days. As soon as the Segera Tutubes heard the sound they came down to the village and claimed the young girl. She was her parents one and only child and, upon realising what was happening, they begged the chief to give them a few days so they could prepare to give her away in a proper manner. The parents and the village people were sad and in great sorrow. That night the village chief called an urgent meeting to make plans and decide on how they would give the girl away and how they would put an end to the Segera Tutubes demands, terrible abuse and unnecessary killings. Their plan was that the girl be dressed in her best traditional attire and her parents encouraged to be strong, as this was to be the last demand of the Segera Tutubes. The second part of the plan was for the men to go fishing. The village men were great fishermen and experienced in catching plenty of fish, because they had been giving fish and other seafood to try to tame the Segera Tutubes. The women were required to cook food in coconut cream and make sago pudding (dia or bariva). Two days later the sad day arrived for the young girl to be given away. She had her last meal with her parents and relatives and the women dressed her with tattoos, armshells, bird of paradise feathers, pigs teeth necklaces and a grass skirt. The men started beating their drums and singing and the girl was given away. That was the saddest day as the parents were in great sorrow and suffering. That night the men sailed out to catch fish. All night they caught fish while the young boys and old men did the smoking. On the second day they returned to the village, with flags raised as a sign of a good and plentiful catch. The women started cooking and making preparations. When the men arrived they fed them and continued cooking because they were going to feast with the Segera Tutubes. There were fish of every kind as well as turtles and other seafood. When the food was ready they put the pots on the big, double rigged canoes. Then the village chief and other leaders invited the chief of the Segera Tutubes to come on the canoes. When he got on, the rest of the Segera Tutubes, young and old, followed and not a single Segera Tutube was left behind. When the men started sailing out to sea, the women and the old men and the young people started singing and celebrating in the village. When they reached the deep blue ocean the men gave the Segera Tutubes chief permission to start feasting. While the Segera Tutubes were preoccupied with feasting the men started to attack them and threw all of them into the sea. Not knowing how to swim, because they were mountain folk, they all drowned and that was the end of the Segera Tutubes. When the men returned to the village they started singing: Segera, Segera Tutube Amui kau kau amai laiamu Segera, Segera Tutube Segera, Segera Tutube Amui vamu vamu amai laiamu Segera, Segera Tutube Segera, Segera Tutube we bring you your kaukau and meat Segera, Segera Tutube and that is the end Miriam Roko (50) was born in Tatana village on Tatana Island near Port Moresby. She is married with three children and one granddaughter. She worked as a clerk, at one time being the sole computer operator at Ela Motors and then going on to other companies. She also has qualifications in business studies. She is involved in church ministries and is a Youth Parent working with young people The adventure took place recently on a cold Willow Springs, with this being the first time when Ryan Tuerk put his 458-engined Toyobaru to track work.This slip angle fantasy started takin shape last year, when we were all surprised to find out Ryan had deiced to get over the 86 's underpowered issues with the help of the Maranello 4.5-liter V8.The Prancing Horse heart transplat has its limitations. For instance, the overhead cam profile of the engine means the V8 sits high in the nose of the Toyota. Then there's the naturally aspirated profile of the powerplant, which means the GT4586, as the drifter has baptized the contraption, can't go past, say, half the power certain Formula D machines deliver.Speaking of which, we'll remind you the Ferrari tuning realm is almost ready to bring us a 458 that has given up its factory engine to adopt a Prancing Horse V12. Guess one man's V8 is another man's treasure...The GT4586 got to play with Chris Forsberg's 370Z and this is a brilliant occasion to remind you that Chris is the first triple Formula Drift champion after having grabbed last year's title during the Irwindale Speedway race that took place back in October.The two drifters are close friends, so we can expect to see more stunts such as the one we have here. This year's Formula Drift season is scheduled to kick off on March 31, at Long Beach, CA, but we probably won't have to wait until Spring to receive more sideways shenanigan from these two friends. Photo of autonomous IONIQ concept courtesy of Hyundai. Hyundai has offered a glimpse into its vision of mobility, which included specific autonomous car capabilities and connected car technologies, at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Hyundai's live demonstrations of its latest autonomous IONIQ concept vehicle from Jan. 5 to 8 feature integrated LiDAR technology, a laser and radar-based detection system that allows the car to navigate stop lights and signs, road construction, and dense pedestrian traffic. Hyundai is testing the technology in urban environments to fine-tune the technologies, according to the automaker. The LiDAR technology of the autonomous IONIQ is also integrated with functions from the production model, including the smart cruise control forward-facing radar and the lane-keep-assist cameras. The system also uses a GPS antenna and high-definition mapping software that can help deliver precise accuracy for the location of the vehicle. Hyundai presented its connected car features at CES, and presented its goal to create a platform that will help enable two-way communication both internally between the cars system and externally with road infrastructure, other vehicles, and internet of Things (loT) devices. Hyundai also unveiled its smart house technology that is designed to integrate connected car technologies into living and working spaces. Our Smart House concept fully integrates the car into the home, ultimately making the users life more comfortable and convenient. By seamlessly blending features from the car with home and work environments, the user experience is uninterrupted whether socializing, working at home, or on the move, said Hak Su Ha, director of the Hyundai Design Center. Hyundai also presented its Health + Mobility Concept, which offered the automaker's vision for vehicles that connect mobility and wellness. A virtual reality room at the tradeshow demonstrated how in-car conditions can be shifted to help manage stress and other physical issues related to commuting. The technology can monitor the driver via a series of sensors throughout the cockpit. Alfa Romeo Stelvio price and its first edition range were leaked through a commercial brochure for Swiss dealers grabbed by the guys at 4c-club-schweiz Facebook page. The Alfa Romeo Stelvio First Edition will have the 2.0 liter turbocharged 280 hp engine and will sell at around $65,075. It should be remembered that Alfa Romeo hasn't revealed any details or specifications of the new Stelvio yet. The brand only officially unveiled the Quadrifoglio variant at the Los Angeles Auto Show and did not reveal other versions as well as the price. However, the leaked official brochure revealed that the Alfa Romeo Stelvio First Edition is priced at around $65,075 and comes with a 2.0 liter turbocharged 280 hp engine. The Alfa Romeo Stelvio First Edition has a very broad and attractive equipment as detailed by the brochure posted at AutoEvolution. This version will have the same mechanical and transmission specifications of the Giulia Veloce with its 8-speed automatic transmission and a Q4 all-wheel-drive, with a price that will be $8000 more expensive. The brochure also clearly showed an image of the exterior and interior appeal of the Alfa Romeo Stelvio First Edition. It will have striking inserts and elements as well as minimalist finishes. It will also have a center console with an 8.8-inch screen in addition to the TFT screen that one can see on the dashboard. In addition, drivers will see the upgraded instrument panels, pedals made of aluminum and electrically adjustable 8 seats coated in leather. It also has front and rear parking sensors and a FCW collision warning system and Lane Departure Assist. Outside, the Alfa Romeo Stelvio First Edition will have 20-inch alloy wheels, bi-xenon headlights with advanced lighting system AFS, painted red calipers, electrically folding exterior mirrors, electrochromic rearview mirror and will be finished with a keyless entry system. To note, the design of the tires will remind people of the Ferrari 599 GTO. Alfa Romeo Stelvio is the first SUV of the brand and will mark its return to the US market where it will face premium SUVs such as the BMW X3 and the Porsche Macan. It generated a lot of hype because of its stunning appearance, according to ItechPost. Watch its promotional video below. A passenger-carrying drone being tested in Israel could be on its way to becoming the first multi-use flying vehicle on the market. As reported this week by Reuters, the Israeli tech firm Urban Aeronautics completed early test flights of what the company calls an unmanned flying car, which could be in service by 2020. The Cormorant, one model in what the developers envision to be a series of vehicles called Fancraft, has internal rotors for vertical takeoff and landing. The four-wheeled Cormorant, which flies with twin ducted fans, weighs about 3307 pounds similar to GA light twin airplanes and will be able to carry about 1,000 pounds and fly at 100 knots. According to the companys website, the aircraft will use various sensors to navigate and maneuver as well as avoid terrain and obstacles for operating safely in complex urban and natural environments. With an estimated price of $14 million, though, this model isnt likely to be used in consumer markets, but for commercial, search-and-rescue or military purposes. Just imagine a dirty bomb in a city and chemical substance of something else and this vehicle can come in robotically, remotely piloted, come into a street and decontaminate an area, Urban Aeronautics founder Rafi Yoeli told Reuters. The company has indicated its engineering the drone with FAA certification standards in mind and has obtained dozens of patents for its proprietary technology, including composite construction and fly-by-wire systems. 5 January 2017 10:52 (UTC+04:00) By Rashid Shirinov An MVC-62 detonating fuse of -62 anti-tank mine was found in the village of Boyuk Bahmanli in Azerbaijan's Fizuli region, Azerbaijans National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA) told Trend on January 4. The fuse was discovered in the pasture near water canal. ANAMA informed that the fuse was removed from the territory. Overall, the agency checked an area of 1,100 square meters. Mobile groups of ANAMA continue their operations on the contact line of Azerbaijani and Armenian troops and in frontline regions. In general, ANAMA cleared more than 389,603,952 square meters of Azerbaijans territory, discovered and defused over 752,702 pieces of unexploded ordnance during 10 years of its activity. 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. --- Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 5 January 2017 12:20 (UTC+04:00) By Nigar Abbasova The future holds more and more goods to be transported, and upgrading its logistics and transport infrastructure Azerbaijan seeks to take advantage of this. The expansion of regional transport routes also increases the country's attractiveness for investors in terms of ease of delivery processes. 2016 became a successful year for the transportation sector regardless global economic slowdown, negative external factors, as well as a sharp reduction in the volume of world freight traffic. Azerbaijan succeeded in the implementation of large-scale projects on the creation of international corridors and modernization of relevant infrastructure within the country, as well as the development of public transport. East-West transport Corridor Early 2016 marked the first weighty step in the realization of the East-West transport Corridor, as Ukraine launched the first test container train, moving along the route from Ukraine to China. Simultaneously, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Ukraine signed a protocol on reduced fare for freight transportation via the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR). TITR, is a multimodal corridor using railway, maritime and roadways for transporting goods, runs through China, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and then to Europe via Turkey and Ukraine. Nearly 300,000-400,000 containers are expected to be transported via the route by 2020, bringing huge financial profits to Azerbaijan. A single competitive rate was introduced in the framework of the route starting from June 1, 2016 with the view to reduce the costs of international cargo transportation. Further, railway agencies of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Kazakhstan agreed to create the International Trans-Caspian Transport Consortium, while Azerbaijani companies ADY Express and ACSC Logistics, Kazakh KTZ Express JSC and Georgian Trans Caucasus Terminals LLC became the members of the syndicate. Later on, Ukrainian Railways (Ukrzaliznytsia), Ukrferry, Moldovan Translogistic, Polish PKP LHS, as well as Hungarian Rail Cargo Hungaria Zrt joined the Coordination Committee. The year-end also became efficient for the project as heads of railway authorities of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkey and Georgia signed a MoU on prospects of TITR development. North-South The last year also gave a strong push for the implementation of the highly-ambitious North-South project. The main trigger came following the February visit of President Ilham Aliyev to the Islamic Republic of Iran. In August, Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia signed a joint declaration to affirm their intent to develop deep and comprehensive cooperation in various areas, including the implementation of the North-South project, launching a new trilateral format of cooperation. An 8.5-kilometer long section from Astara (Azerbaijan) till the border with Iran, as well as a railroad bridge over the Astarachay River were practically constructed within a year. In February, the Islamic Republic launched construction of Qazvin-Rasht and Astara (Iran) and Astara (Azerbaijan) sections, while railway authorities of Azerbaijan and Russia agreed on the settlement of competitive tariffs on cargo transportation along the route. As for the Rasht-Astara section of the corridor, Azerbaijan agreed to issue a credit worth $500 million to implement the project. Besides, Russia may also render its financial assistance to Iran in the financing of the project. Once the railway is completed, it will play a key role in developing the International NorthSouth Transport Corridor. Rasht-Astara (Iran) section will be built with the participation of Russia and Iran, while the Astara (Iran)-Astara (Azerbaijan) line is expected to be built with the participation of Russia, Iran and Azerbaijan. The route, part of which will pass along the western coast of the Caspian Sea, from Russia to Iran through Azerbaijan enjoys several advantages compared to other transport such as Suez Canal-the Mediterranean Sea-Northern Europe and the Turkmenistan-Kazakhstan-Russia-Northern Europe routes. Baku International Sea trade port and Free Trade Zone The establishment of the Free Trade Zone at the territory of Baku International Sea trade port came in the spotlight following the presidential decree dated March 17, 2016 on the measures to create a special economic area of a free trade zone type in the Alat settlement of Baku's Garadagh district. Just a few months later, DP World one of the world's largest port operators agreed to provide consulting services for the establishment of FTZ in Alat. Creating a free trade zone is considered to be a milestone of Azerbaijan's policy to strengthen the country's position as a regional logistics and transportation hub. The free trade zone is expected to bring up to $1 billion just in the first few years. Special tax and customs policy, which will be pursued in the territory of the FTZ, will also stipulate further development and simplification of a number of procedures. The FTZ is expected to become operational in the first half of 2017. Besides, the construction of the Port is currently underway in accordance with the schedule, while all operations within the first stage are expected to be completed by late 2017. Moreover, the Port signed different memos with Bulgarian Ports Infrastructure Company, Antwerp, Panama, Aktau and Poti ports, Djibouti Ports & Free Zones Authority. Also, the Port maintains close cooperation with Qatar and Singapore ports. Road Map The Strategic Road Map for the development of logistics and trade in Azerbaijan is expected to ensure a GDP growth by roughly 605 million manats ($ 342.5 million). Nearly 18,900 new working places will be created in the country till 2020. The document defined three strategic objectives to be reached in the sphere of logistics and trade. The objectives include the creation of a favorable environment for the increase of trade turnover, getting of higher value added from transit operations, as well as the introduction of a mechanism for the implementation of measures in the sphere. Under the Road Map, successful implementation of the measures envisaged in the document will up the share of Azerbaijan in marine cargo transshipments en route Central Asia the Black Sea by some 40 percent. An increase of 25 percent is expected en route Central Asia Europe, up to 3 percent on China-Europe, 40 percent on Russia Iran and some 25 percent on Iran the Black Sea route. Besides, revenues from air operations will increase by 5 percent till 2020. Nearly 5 logistics and trade centers will be constructed in the country by that period Also, the government intends to increase the share of the private sector in the sphere of logistics in 2017-2020. Relevant structures will prepare short-term and long-term plans on the modernization of international and domestic airports infrastructure, as well as will develop plans on expanding infrastructure opportunities of the Heydar Aliyev International Airport. As for the railway transportation, relevant measures will be taken to attract foreign investments or create joint enterprises in those spheres, where there is a great demand for investments. Moreover, relevant steps will be taken in the sphere of maritime traffic to ensure the participation of private maritime operators, which will allow effectively transporting transit cargoes through the Caspian Sea. -- Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 5 January 2017 14:45 (UTC+04:00) By Nigar Abbasova The problem of non-performing loans remains among the most complicated challenges that the banking sector of Azerbaijan is facing. Regional Manager at the International Finance Corporation (IFC) Rufat Alimardanov believes that the problem may be tackled through the creation of a specialized institution on asset management. Alimardanov, talking to Trend, clarified that such institutions have a number of advantages, including the aggregation of resources and their assessment in a centralized agency, provision of conditions for the application of sequential and standard methods of asset management, as well as creation of opportunities for more ordered restructuring of different economic sectors. As for disadvantages, he mentioned that those are political pressure in case of a lack of sovereignty and proper corporate management. He noted that the institution may be endued with additional authorities allowing to accelerate return of the troubled loans. The existence of non-performing loans in the portfolio of banks is an obstacle for crediting operations. Transfer of such loans to specialized agencies may allow banks to get rid of risky assets, clean up their balance and properly implement crediting operations, he said. Commenting on other obstacles hampering crediting, he said that unpredictability of the exchange rate, which in turn results in the increased volatility, is also among the biggest challenges. This decelerates economic activity in short and even midterm perspective, influencing on trade, certain directions of imports and construction. Moreover, it delays implementation of projects in private sector, as investors prefer taking of wait-and-see approach, waiting for more stable situation and adaptation to new realia. Talking about the measures required for the stabilization of the situation, Alimardanov said that the government has already taken certain steps to improve the macroeconomic situation, stimulating business activity. The experience of Belarus showed that such measures can turn into a locomotive of the growth during a certain period. To achieve more sustainable growth, it is necessary to improve the business climate, and in some cases facilitate certain procedures. He further said that ASAN Service can be a bright and most obvious example of success. It is important to move on with the improvement of the regulatory system. There is no magic tool. A number of conditions required to make the system of crediting more effective, he added. Alimardanov mentioned that the experience of international experts in this area may also be effective for tackling the problem, noting that successful results have been achieved in the USA and Ireland. The Financial Markets Supervisory Body (FMSB) and the World Bank (WB) earlier discussed an action plan for reforms in the field of banking supervision. The sides also discussed the issue of non-performing loans and deposit insurance and outlined the challenges ahead within the framework of ensuring financial stability and the corresponding action plan covering the reforms in the spheres of supervision, regulation and law. As of late October 2016, the share of nonperforming loans in Azerbaijani banks amounted to 8.7 percent. Within a year, the volume increased by almost 5.66 percent. CBA abolished licenses of EuroBank and Azerbaijan Credit Bank in 2015. Licenses of six banks including AtraBank, Caucasus Development Bank, Bank Technique, Ganja Bank, Bank of Azerbaijan and United Credit Bank were canceled in early 2016. Later, the licenses of DekaBank, KredoBank, Parabank and Zaminbank, Atrabank, Caucasus Development bank and Standard Bank were revoked due to their failure to meet necessary requirements specified in the relevant legislation. Some 32 banks are currently operating in the country. -- Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 5 January 2017 16:25 (UTC+04:00) By Nigar Abbasova VTB Bank (Azerbaijan) and PASHA Bank, the two majors of Azerbaijans banking sector, will jointly use ATM networks. VTB Bank (Azerbaijan), a subsidiary bank of Russias VTB Bank OJSC, reported that it reached a parity agreement on the joint use of devices with Pasha Bank, expanding its network of privileged status ATMs. Under the deal, the banks will not charge a commission for withdrawal of cash from ATMs belonging to partner-banks. Holders of VTB Bank cards will be able to withdraw cash using domestic tariffs, a fee set by issuing bank for operations in the network of its terminals. The shared ATM network will provide convenience for customers, enabling them to access their funds anywhere from any ATM of participating bank. VTB Bank (Azerbaijan) network of privileged status ATMs includes ATMs belonging to VTB group banks VTB 24, VTB Georgia, VTB Ukraine, VTB Kazakhstan, VTB Belarus, VTB Bank of Moscow, as well as local Access Bank. Cooperation with Pasha Bank will allow enlarging the geography of services for customers and offering more comfort conditions. VTB Azerbaijan shareholders are Russias VTB Bank and Ata Holding. The Bank renders a wide range of internationally accepted banking services. PASHA Bank is the largest private bank in Azerbaijan by total equity, and one of the top 5 private banks by assets. Established in 2007, we offer all major financial services, including investment banking, trade financing and asset management to a range of clients, from large corporates to small and medium enterprises. As of 30 June, 2016, the Bank's assets exceeded 2 027 million manats, while its total capital amounted to 362 million manats. -- Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Iran's Supreme Leader Visits Assyrian Family ( Fars News Agency) The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution of Iran Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei paid a surprise visit to the family of Christian martyr Robert Lazar on Christmas Eve 2015. Martyr Lazar was an Iranian Assyrian fighter who fiercely defended his country during the war launched by dictator Saddam Hussein on the Islamic Republic. He was martyred in 1986. Ten years later, his honorable body was restored along with a thousand of other Iranian martyrs. Sayyed Khamenei congratulated martyr Lazar's mother on Christmas and had a piece of talk with the family members. Several Cayuga County organizations and artists have been announced as recipients of 2017 Finger Lakes Community Arts Grants. Previous recipients like the Auburn Chamber Orchestra and downtown Auburn mural project artist Jesse Kline are joined by first-time recipients the Arc of Seneca Cayuga and Perform 4 Purpose on the list. Overall, 29 organizations and artists in Yates, Cayuga, Seneca, Ontario and Wayne counties will receive a total of $89,200 for arts and cultural programs taking place in 2017. 10 Cayuga County entities among recipients of almost $90K in state arts grants Ten Cayuga County entities and 21 more from central New York collected state arts funding fr The grants, now in their fifth year, are administered through the New York State Council on the Arts' decentralization program. Finger Lakes Community Arts Grants is organized by Auburn Public Theater and coordinated by Ginny Kent, education and resource coordinator for the Cayuga County Chamber of Commerce. "This year's grants process was highly competitive, as we saw an increase of nearly a third of the previous years' number of submissions. We are grateful to NYSCA for giving APT the opportunity to fund emerging artists and arts organizations, helping to make our region all it can be!" APT Executive Director Carey Eidel said in a news release. The grants will be awarded at a luncheon Wednesday, Jan. 18, at Auburn Public Theater, where representatives of each recipient will accept their check. Here is the full list of grant winners: Arc of Seneca Cayuga Auburn Chamber Orchestra Aurora Free Library John and Nancy Bryan (Clyde-Savannah Elementary School) Canaltown Chorale Canandaigua Lake Music Festival Clyde-Savannah Public Library CNY TomatoFest's MusicFest Maria Coleman Cindy Dalton Edith B. Ford Memorial Library Finger Lakes Arts Council Finger Lakes Chamber Music Festival Finger Lakes Symphony Orchestra Geneva Concerts Geneva Light Opera Geneva Music Festival Geneva Theatre Guild Hazard Library Jesse Kline Town of Gorham (Marcus Whitman Middle School ECO program) Perform4Purpose Rochester Folk Art Guild Seneca Falls Library Sodus Bay Historical Society Wayne County Council for the Arts Wood Library For more information, visit flcag.org. 5 January 2017 17:57 (UTC+04:00) By Laman Ismayilova Legends never die, but live in hearts. Legendary composer Tofig Guliyev could hunt the hearts of millions of music lovers with his amazingly majestic melodies full of love and romance. His ability to combine notes into a beautiful piece of music is exciting music lovers around the world. Heydar Aliyev Palace will bring together all those in fall with gear maestro's music on January 31 to commemorate the outstanding Azerbaijani composer. Songs of one of Azerbaijan's most beloved composer will fill your soul and deep boundless joy. Entitled "Heart's songs", the memorable concert will sound his eternal music patterns in the performance of People's artists of Azerbaijan Yalchyn Rzazadeh, Azer Zeynalov, Samir Jafarov, Heydar Anatollu, honored artists Anar Shushali, Lala Mammadova, Abbas Bagirov, Inara Babayeva, Farid Aliyev, Almaz Orujova, and Qaya band, Trend Life reported. An absolute incredible concert promises to melt even the coldest of hearts. Hearing this songs live will be a mesmerizing experience. We can't wait to embrace it in all its glory. Tofig Guliyev was a composer with great talent, who entered the national music history as a classical composer of the twentieth century. He is one of the first composers who transferred Azerbaijani mugham, a unique musical and poetic phenomenon, into musical notes. Love can inspire us to accomplish some of the most amazing feats became the main theme in his creativity. Legendary musician considered women the most beautiful and mysterious creatures that inspired him. Azerbaijani music treasury has been greatly enriched by his wonderful music pieces. He has had invaluable contribution to Azerbaijani national culture, and from 1930 the outstanding composer began to collect, record, and publish national folklore in his music. The composer masterly synthesized national folk music with European, not losing the peculiarity of the former, creating exceptional pieces. Guliyev was the first among Azerbaijani composers to establish the first Jazz Orchestra in Baku. He went down into the history as the founder of Azerbaijani pop and jazz music. Tickets are available at l ticket offices of the city and centres of ASAN Service. Ticket price: 20-80 AZN ($11-44) For more information, please contact: (012) 441-21-31 (050) 332-36-30 --- Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 5 January 2017 15:37 (UTC+04:00) By Rashid Shirinov Armenia continues to grossly violate the requirements of international humanitarian law, particularly the Geneva Convention. Hikmat Hajiyev, spokesman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry announced about this while talking to Trend on January 5. Hajiyev said that despite the repeated calls, Armenia has not yet returned the body of Azerbaijani serviceman Chingiz Gurbanov, who was killed while preventing the Armenian provocation. A reconnaissance group of the Armenian Armed Forces tried to violate the Azerbaijan-Armenia state border on December 29 morning. The Armenian group found itself in the ambush of the Azerbaijani army while violating the borders. The enemy was forced to retreat, suffering losses, according to the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry. During the fighting, a serviceman of Azerbaijani Armed Forces Chingiz Gurbanov went missing. The spokesman further said that the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, together with other relevant structures of the country, has sent a corresponding appeal to international organizations. Armenia disregards the international organizations appeals to return the body of the Azerbaijani serviceman, and thus continues to demonstrate its inhuman nature, he added. Hajiyev is sure that the recent provocation has once again showed that the current political regime in Yerevan is a threat to security in the region. The main objective of that regime is to prevent the peaceful settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, he added. The spokesman stressed that Armenia stands behind the provocations on the Azerbaijan-Armenia border. Hajiyev added that Armenia, by trying to involve the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in the incident, is posing a serious threat to regional peace and security and is causing serious damage to the peace efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group. Despite the appeals made by a number of judicious individuals in the Armenian social, political and diaspora circles, who stand for a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the military and political leadership in Yerevan is trying by any means to slow down the negotiation process, Hajiyev added. The recent statements made by Armenian Foreign Ministry and other structures in the country testify that Armenia continues its aggressive policy in the region. The essence of this policy is to continue the aggression against Azerbaijan and preserve the status quo. Previously, the spokesperson named the latest military provocation staged by Armenia on the Azerbaijani-Armenian border as the next dangerous adventure of Yerevan. Armenia captured Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions from Azerbaijan in a war that followed the Soviet breakup in 1991. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and nearly 1 million were displaced as a result of the war. Large-scale hostilities ended with a Russia-brokered ceasefire in 1994 but Armenia continued the occupation in defiance of four UN Security Council resolutions calling for immediate and unconditional withdrawal. Peace talks mediated by Russia, France and the U.S. have produced no results so far. --- Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 5 January 2017 10:41 (UTC+04:00) By Trend The Iranian government has sent a bill to the Parliament which asks for $1.5 billion from the National Development Fund to go as low-interest facilities into business development in rural areas, particularly near borders around the country. The announcement was made by First Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri as he visited an exhibition on economic capabilities of rural areas held in the capital city of Tehran, Trend correspondent reported from the event January 4. The exhibition is organized by the rural development department of the presidential office and has brought together hundreds of groups and businesses from rural areas around Iran. It kicked off on January 4 and will end January 7. The rural and nomad representatives are showcasing a variety of features, ranging from agricultural products and handicraft to music, costume, and cuisine. Development in rural and remote areas has found new significance in Iran as some neighboring countries are witnessing a growing number of young people in economically underdeveloped areas join drug gangs and terrorist groups. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also recently ordered $500 million from the National Development Fund to go into developmental projects in the south-eastern border province of Sistan-Baluchestan. Drug bands and terrorist groups frequently venture into the Iranian territory from Pakistan which has borders with Iran alongside Sistan-Baluchestan Province. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 5 January 2017 17:37 (UTC+04:00) By Trend Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev has left on a working visit to China, the presidential press-service reported on January 5. During the visit, Atambayev plans to meet with President of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping. The heads of states will discuss topical issues of the Kyrgyz-Chinese relations, further plans to expand cooperation in a wide range of issues and exchange views on international and regional issues of mutual interest, the press-service said. China is one of the main economic partners of Kyrgyzstan. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 5 January 2017 10:35 (UTC+04:00) By Laman Ismayilova Lankaran is the land of mountains, forests, citrus fruits and tea plantations. A wonderful climate and breathtaking natural landscapes are the hallmarks of this subtropical region of Azerbaijan. The region occupies the east coast of the Caspian Sea and whole Lankaran lowlands up to Talysh Mountains. On the local shore of the Caspian Sea there are many fine sand beaches. Wet subtropical climate without harsh winters, dry and hot summer and rainy autumn underlie the richness of the local flora and fauna. Lankaran is also one of the most ancient cities of Azerbaijan. There are many historical monuments in region. Ancient tower Abirlar, the tomb of Sheikh Zahed, Kichik Qala mosque, Guldasta minaret are well-worth seeing. Here tourists are advised to visit the ancient port city which has preserved the fortress of Lankaran. The city has recently been named among top five popular CIS tourist destinations for Russian tourists, according to RoomGuru service. Fans of eco-tourism should visit the Gizilagach reserve and the nearby Sarah Peninsula, which are located right at Gizilagach Bay here. Hirkan National Park is another nature reserve placed in Lankaran. It has an enormous territory of 15,000 hectares where wild boars, jackals, Asian leopards can be met. --- Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Single subconjunctival injection of Brimapitide (XG-102), a JNK inhibitor, after ocular surgery shown to be non-inferior to dexamethasone eye drops given 4 times daily for 21 days Phase II randomized, double blind, parallel group, controlled, multi-center trial of 145 patients in six French ophthalmology centers Brimapitide (XG-102) first peptide administered subconjunctivally for treating post-surgical inflammation Geneva, Switzerland, January 05, 2017 / B3C newswire / -- Xigen, a Swiss Company developing therapeutic peptides for the treatment of inflammatory diseases announces today the online publication of successful Phase II results for its lead compound Brimapitide (XG-102) in the American Journal of Ophthalmology. Xigens innovative technology platform enables the design and synthesis of long-acting therapeutic peptides with a very high metabolic stability. The peptides, including the lead compound Brimapitide (XG-102), are designed to allow the efficient delivery of the active element to intracellular targets. In the case of Brimapitide this means the ability to selectively reach and inhibit c-Jun N-Terminal Kinase. Ophthalmology was chosen as a gateway to the treatment of more complex inflammatory diseases. The phase II study of 145 patients was designed as a controlled, multi-center, randomized, double-blind, parallel-group study to assess the efficacy and safety of a single sub-conjunctival injection of Brimapitide (XG-102) in comparison with repeated administration of dexamethasone eye drops in post-surgical intraocular inflammation. The study took place in France in six referral centers in the field of Ophthalmology in Paris, Grenoble, Dijon, Nancy, and Lyon. The overall development of Xigens lead product was carried out by Solid Drug Development SA, a specialized firm based in Geneva. Brimapitide (XG-102) is a first in class innovative and well tolerated molecule. Phase I and phase Ib clinical studies conducted in Switzerland and France included twenty-four healthy volunteers and twenty patients with post traumatic or postoperative intraocular inflammation respectively. Both clinical studies results confirmed the safety and good tolerability of the compound, which has an excellent profile when administered directly into the eye. The multi-center phase II study results show the non-inferiority of a single sub-conjunctival injection of Brimapitide (XG-102) at the end of surgery compared to dexamethasone administered 4 times a day for 21 days. Xigens chairman, Mikhail Sazonov, said, These excellent results from our multi-center Phase II trial of Brimapitide in ocular surgery, published in a leading medical journal, successfully demonstrate the power and potential of Xigens novel therapeutic peptides to efficiently deliver active elements to intracellular targets in inflammatory diseases. About Xigen Xigen, a Swiss biopharmaceutical company founded as a spin-off of the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV), specializes in the research and development of innovative therapeutic peptides with a focus on inflammatory diseases. The Companys technology has enabled the design and synthesis of cell-penetrating peptides with enhanced metabolic stability, using proprietary carrier motifs to selectively deliver them to intracellular targets in disease relevant cell types. Xigens lead compound Brimapitide (XG-102) is advancing through pre-clinical development with programs in ocular inflammation, urology, nephrology and Alzheimers disease. About Solid Drug Development Headquartered in Geneva, Solid Drug Development is a strategy and operations consultancy company specializing in the development of Pharma and Biotech products, handling all the processes that take a drug from the laboratory through to its marketing authorization. Active in most therapeutic areas including ophthalmology, immunology, endocrinology and oncology, the company has already successfully led the development of numerous pharmaceutical products including peptides, chemical entities, recombinant proteins as well as cell therapy projects. About Brimapitide (XG-102) Brimapitide (XG-102) is a highly selective, highly stable, long-acting peptide inhibitor of the enzyme JNK (c-Jun N-Terminal Kinase), which plays an essential role in the development of numerous autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Due to the configuration "D" (dextro) of its 31 amino acids, Brimapitide (XG-102) demonstrates an increased resistance to proteases, the main factors involved in peptide degradation in the body. Issued for and on behalf of Xigen by Instinctif Partners. Contacts Xigen Geraldine Dury Legal and Administrative Director +41 (0)21 312 10 80 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Instinctif Partners for English-speaking and International Press Dr Christelle Kerouedan / Daniel Gooch / Melanie Toyne-Sewell +44 (0)20 7457 2020 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Happy 2017, forex buddies! Im kicking the year off by going with the flow on EUR/NZD since Im seeing downtrend confirmation on the short-term charts. Take a look! EUR/NZD Trade Setup The pairs long-term downtrend is still very much intact as price is currently finding resistance at the top of its daily descending channel, which lines up with a major area of interest. Stochastic is heading south on this time frame, indicating that bears are taking control of price action. Zooming in to the 1-hour chart, I spotted a double top pattern, with price gearing up to break below the neckline at the 1.5000 major psychological level. This could send price down by at least 200 pips or the same height as the chart formation. Heck, if selling pressure is strong enough, EUR/NZD might make it all the way down to the long-term channel support near 1.4500! Im euro bearish mostly on account of all the uncertainties lined up in the euro zone for the next few months, particularly when it comes to the French and German elections. Brexit negotiations could also pose a risk for the bloc since kicking the U.K. out of the single market would hurt trading activity in the region. Besides, Italy aint out of the woods with its banking troubles just yet though the state agreed to bail out its largest lender, Monte dei Paschi. On the flip side, New Zealand has seen a lot of green shoots recently, printing a stronger than expected GDP reading for Q3 and likely keeping this momentum up for the last quarter of 2016. Even though the last couple of GDT auctions yielded declines in dairy prices, market participants seem hopeful that the industry can resume its rebound. Besides, stronger than expected PMI readings from China are likely to sustain demand for commodities and higher-yielding currencies. Im looking to short on a break below the 1.5000 mark with a stop past the tops at 1.5200 and a long-term target near 1.4500 for a 2.5-to-1 R:R. 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. Q4 2016 Trading Performance Review Read about my trading framework Risk Disclosure These are some of our favorite trading books, and BabyPips.com receives a small credit from any purchases through the Amazon links above to help support the free content and features of our siteenjoy! 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. Pete Buttigieg, the out and proud gay mayor of South Bend, Indiana, announced he is running for chairman of the Democratic National Committee in a video released Thursday. The Hill reports: Buttigieg, 34, was considering entering the race last month and said he received phone calls from DNC members both in his home state and nationally. The New York Times first reported the news of him entering the race. Buttigieg, who is openly gay, is a Harvard graduate and a lieutenant in the Navy Reserve. He made an unsuccessful run for Indiana state treasurer in 2010. He joins a growing field for DNC chair, which also includes South Carolina Democratic Party chairman Jaime Harrison, New Hampshire Democratic Party Raymond Buckley and Idaho Democratic Party executive director Sally Boynton Brown. Harvard University-educated, a Rhodes Scholar and a U.S. Navy Reserve officer, Buttigieg became the youngest mayor of a U.S. city with more than 100,000 residents when he took office at age 30 in 2012. Last year, he publicly announced he was gay in a newspaper op-ed following the firestorm over Indianas Religious Freedom Restoration Act and in advance of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling recognizing same-sex marriages. This was the easiest time I've ever had coming up with a column idea. But it's one of the hardest columns I've ever had to write. That's because it feels like there's no way to capture in words just what Jean Bennett has meant to all of us at this newspaper. When Jean leaves the office Friday, it will be for the last time as an employee of The Citizen as Jean has decided it's time to retire and relax. Her retirement concludes a remarkable 34-year career that has touched multiple generations of journalists who have passed through the doors at 25 Dill St. Jean started here in 1982 after answering a help-wanted ad, and as she told reporter Ellen Leahy for a feature story last year, she never left because working in a newsroom is "so interesting, and the people are, too." And Jean is most definitely a people person. Before I rattle off a list of all the hidden ways Jean has made our products shine over the past three-plus decades, I must start with her people skills. Having watched her for the past 13 years work with callers and visitors many who were upset over what was in the paper or grieving while dealing with an obituary submission I can honestly say I have never met a more level-headed and nicer person in my life. And that, above all else, has been her greatest gift to our company and ultimately, to our community: her kindness and grace. Jean is also an old-school professional in how she approaches her job. She gets her work done on time and well, and on the rare occasions when she makes a mistake, she immediately works to fix it and make sure it doesn't happen again. Unlike reporters and editors, Jean's name is not a common sight in The Citizen's pages or at auburnpub.com. But her work is everywhere. She processes announcements such as anniversaries, weddings, engagements and births. She compiles our "Look Back" feature that provides excerpts from the newspaper at various points in history. She helps proofread pages for the Lake Life and GO sections along with the weekly West Onondaga County Journal. For much of her time here, she was the primary obituary clerk, receiving submissions and preparing them for print, and she's continued doing that job on Saturdays in recent years. Jean is often the voice of the newsroom, too, as her telephone extension is the one that rings when callers push the button for the newsroom when they call our main line. On Friday, we're going to throw a little party in Jean's honor, and I expect to see a few tears but hear plenty of laughs. And that will be a fitting scene for a person who we'll miss so much but also feel so blessed to have known. Coroner's officials released the name and cause of death Friday of an 8-month-old boy who authorities said was killed by a Washington man his For residents like myself, the Finger Lakes are one of our greatest assets in the area, known for providing quality drinking water, scenic vistas and fun-filled summer days. For farmers like me, it is also one of our greatest resources, offering some of the most productive, well-drained soils around them, allowing us to grow great crops. As a farmer, the health and well-being of the lakes and the land around them are one of my greatest concerns. I have taken my concern for the environment to task and actually changed the way I farm. Working with experts from Cornell, Cayuga County, and Agricultural Consulting Services, I have incorporated new management practices and state-of-the-art equipment to better manage the manure produced by my cows and used to fertilize my crops. Some of the changes include using more cover crops in the winter to prevent erosion, adding manure storage enabling me to avoid spreading in questionable weather, and upgrading my manure application equipment so I can incorporate nutrients directly into the soil to avoid potential runoff. I have not been perfect. Regrettably, over the years I have had incidences that have negatively impacted the environment and my neighbors. I have learned from these experiences and endeavor to avoid negative impacts to the environment and community as I manage this great natural resource. No farmer wants soil or nutrients leaving our farms. Nutrient rich topsoil is our lifeblood and we want to keep all of it in the field! I am also not the exception. Most, if not all farmers in the area, share the same concern for the lake, and have also found new and better ways to farm in the watershed. My ask to the community is to seek first to understand all that is contributing to Owasco Lake. There are numerous potential contributors, yet farmers are often pitted as the culprit. I truly believe we are doing a lot to serve as a solution. So please, seek us out, request a tour of our farms and see firsthand the improvements farmers have made in order to understand the rationale behind our modern practices. While there is always more to learn and more work to be done, please know that farmers are continually and proactively seeking ways to be better stewards of the land and guardians of the watershed. Dale Mattoon Locke Mattoon is a dairy farmer who serves as chairman of the New York Animal Agriculture Coalition, which can be followed on Facebook and Twitter at @NYAnimalAg or nyanimalag.org. Maria Chagaris, 16, will accomplish a lifelong dream on Friday at Epiphany, when she will be St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral's "dove bearer." Dove bearer releases a dove into sky during Epiphany celebration Celebration expected to draw thousands to Spring Bayou Announcement made at Christmas Eve mass During the annual celebration of Jesus's baptism by John the Baptist, the dove bearer releases a dove into the sky before the boys dive into water to retrieve the wooden cross. "In the Bible reading, its in the form of the dove, and it kind of signifies that the Holy Spirit is among us and we are all protected and we have nothing to worry about, Chagaris said. Chagaris said she has wanted to be the dove bearer since she was a little girl, watching other women release the dove. "I saw her holding the dove, and she just looked so happy, and I thought this is something I want to do. I am just amazingly blessed to be able to do this, Chagaris said. The church announced Chagaris would be this years dove bearer at Christmas Eve mass last month. "[The priest] announced it, and I immediately lost all feeling, Chagaris said. I wasnt sure how to feel. I held back so many emotions. I just walked up there, and everything went by so fast." The priest also gave Chagaris a dove necklace. She said she will wear it Friday, along with the traditional gown that is passed down from one dove bearer to the next. If you're looking to meet Texas' most eligible man, you'll have to head to Capitol Hill. Town and Country Magazine has released its annual list of the top 50 bachelors in world. The only Texan to make the list is U.S. Rep. Will Hurd, R- Helotes. In September 2014, the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (OIG) published its audit of Tulare Regional Medical Center, an acute care hospital in California. In its findings, federal investigators determined the hospital did not comply with Medicare billing requirements for all 10 of the outpatient surgery claims we reviewed, resulting in an overpayment of $178,647, according to the final OIG report. As a result of the coding mistakes, the Central Valley hospital gave back the $180,000 to Medicare, public filings show, and paid an undisclosed amount to internally address the underlying revenue cycle management issues that caused the problem. And Tulares woes are hardly unique among outpatient providers. Previous OIG investigations during the past decade have uncovered widespread coding compliance issues in outpatient surgery facilities across the United States. In fact, in a 2010 OIG report focusing only on ambulatory surgery center (ASC) services for skilled nursing facility (SNF) patients, federal auditors estimated that Medicare contractors nationwide made at least $6.6 million in overpayments to ASCs for services subject to consolidated billing. ASCs were either unaware of or did not fully understand consolidated billing requirements, the OIG concluded in its report on SNFs. In some instances, ASC officials stated that they were unaware that the exclusion of certain intensive hospital outpatient procedures from consolidated billing requirementsdoes not apply if the services are performed in ASCs. With highly complex rules and requirements seemingly changing by the day, a widespread lack of awareness about coding compliance is a continual challenge for many ASCs. As referenced in the OIGs report, its often a simple lack of education; other times, its having the right systems and processes in place to ensure a center is following the rules. Regardless, the penalties can be severe: Depending on the payer, ASCs risk claims denials, audits, fines, exclusion from federal payer programs and even prison time for failing to follow compliant coding practices at their facilities. Best practices: compliant coding Trust, but verify. President Ronald Reagans famous quote is the guiding principle of compliant coding: No matter whats listed in the superbill or chargemaster, all bills should be checked against the operative note to guarantee 100 percent compliance. In the event of a payer audit, any procedure not documented in the operative notes cannot be supported or submitted for reimbursement. Unbundling, or breaking down procedure codes into individual codes, also is a red flag for payers. For example, facilities frequently overuse Modifier 59, which the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) advises should be used to identify procedures/services, other than E/M services, that are not normally reported together, but are appropriate under the circumstances. Documentation must support a different session, different procedure or surgery, different site or organ system, separate incision/excision, separate lesion, or separate injury (or area of injury in extensive injuries) not ordinarily encountered or performed on the same day by the same individual, CMS states. Upcoding, or listing procedure codes not performed or documented, also can land a provider in hot water. Just remember: If it's not documented, it's not billed. In cases where there is no specific code for a procedure, an unlisted procedure code from that body system should be reported, and the appropriate documentation should be provided. Be familiar with your payer guidelines when reporting unlisted codes and the supporting documentation they would like submitted with the claim. Increased scrutiny Both Medicare and private payers have ramped up their scrutiny of ASC-based coding in recent years. At the same time, more and more difficult procedures are being performed in an outpatient setting, which has created industry-wide inconsistencies and uncertainty. In its 2016 Work Plan, the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services OIG announced it was looking into a variety of ASC-related issues, including payment methodology, ICD-10 implementation and anesthesia service coding, specifically related to whether a physician or an advanced-practice nurse administered the anesthesia, which affects reimbursement. Cost-cutting measures also are forcing payers to look more closely at coding than perhaps they may have in the past. If issues arise, payers often deny a claim and may request an audit if they suspect widespread errors or abuse. While denials can be disruptive and hurt a facilitys cash flow, Medicares penalties are numerous and decidedly harsher than those handed down by insurance companies. OIG also conducts investigations involving organized criminal activity, including medical identity theft and fraudulent medical schemes established for the sole purpose of stealing Medicare dollars, the OIGs 2016 work plan states. Investigators are seeing an increase in individuals, including both health care providers and patients, engaging in these health care fraud schemes. Those who participate in these schemes may face heavy fines, jail time, and exclusion from participating in federal health care programs. Collaborative approach Running afoul of coding rules, however, is not a foregone conclusion. Implementing best practices and fostering a collaborative work environment can eliminate many coding compliance risks. For example, if documentation is unclear, or theres something missing in the operative report, the physician should be consulted for confirmation. At times, the physician may need to provide an addendum to the operative note before the case is coded and appropriately billed. This team-based approach also will help facilities position themselves to address coding compliance issues that inevitably will rise in the coming years. While its 2017 Work Plan was unavailable as of this publications deadline, the OIG did indicate in a mid-year update that it expects to issue guidance in the new year on one issue of particular importance to ASC billing and coding operations: ICD-10. We will review aspects of CMSs management of the implementation of the 10th version of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) codes in Medicare Parts A and B, the OIG wrote in April 2016. This may include reviewing CMS and its contractors (e.g., MACs) assistance and guidance to hospitals and physicians and assessing how the transition to ICD-10 is affecting claims processing, including claims resubmissions, appeals, and medical reviews. Although Bob Zasa, founder and managing partner of ASD Management, believes ASCs can remain independent in a world rife with healthcare consolidation, he expects a growing amount of integration in the non-acute care world. Many physicians who entered into ownership contracts with ASCs in the late 80s when the facilities finally gained eligibility for CMS reimbursement are now retiring. This workforce shift is causing more sales and consolidation of ASCs, says Mr. Zasa. At the same time, hospitals and health systems see outpatient facilities as an cost-effective setting to diversify their care offerings and improve population health management. However, many young physicians who bought ASCs want to stay independent and grow their facilities, following the footsteps of the first generation of physicians in the ASC realm. Many of these physicians resist the idea of selling their practices, but show greater willingness to affiliate with hospitals or health systems, according to Mr. Zasa. In January, Mr. Zasa will return to his alma mater, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, to attend UAB's Ambulatory Care and Non-Acute Care Summit and discuss these integration trends. The new conference, nicknamed Beyond the H, will explore all aspects of the healthcare beyond the hospital setting, including ambulatory care, physician practice management, post-acute care and long-term care. Here are six things to know about the conference. 1. U.S. News & World Report ranked UAB's graduate program of health services administration No. 2 in the country for 2016. The program contains a very diversified curriculum, offering 30 to 40 different residencies, according to Mr. Zasa. While some graduates go into hospital administration, countless others step into roles at non-acute facilities like surgery centers, dialysis centers and group practice administrations. 2. Many of these health systems, outpatient facilities and group practices are integrating, but few are effectively communicating, says Mr. Zasa. Beyond the H aims to break down this communication barrier and boost integration between different areas of healthcare. "The purpose of the conference is to gather different people in ambulatory care to talk to one another about the future of care, how health systems can stay independent or merge with a large group practice, and the best models for integration," says Mr. Zasa. 4. Speakers include Bill Prentice, JD, executive director and CEO of the Ambulatory Surgery Center Association in Washington, D.C., and Andrew Hayek, chairman and CEO of Deerfield, Ill.-based Surgical Care Affiliates. Scott Becker, CPA, JD, partner with McGuireWoods and publisher of Becker's Healthcare, will conduct a lunch keynote session. 5. Registration includes breakfast, lunch, a cocktail reception, networking opportunities and up to 8.5 approved continuing education credits from American College of Healthcare Executives and Alabama Board of Examiners for Nursing Home Administrators. 6. While this is the inaugural year for Beyond the H, Mr. Zasa expects the conference to grow in both scope and scale in the coming years. To learn more about the conference, click here. More articles: 4 tips to accelerate ASC reimbursements and maximize revenue 5 most read GI/endoscopy stories Dec. 26 to Dec. 30, 2016 5 strategies for RNs to reduce medication errors Barclays released a list of 13 Black Swan events to watch for in 2017 that would have an impact on the economy, as reported in Business Insider. 1. Additional Iranian ballistic missile testing 2. Venezuelan default on debt obligations 3. Water contamination on a large scale due to wastewater disposal 4. Chilean riots over general election that could halt production 5. Continued Russian invasion into Ukraine that would affect iron ore production 6. Major commodity-consuming nation experiences an economic downturn 7. Trade war escalations with China 8. Elon Musk's Model 3 stays on schedule or battery breakthrough 9. Expanded trade war between the U.S. and Mexico that would make natural gas exports to Mexico uneconomic 10. Incident that would turn Chinese public against nuclear power 11. North Korean tests of nuclear power 12. Chinese drilling in disputed South China Sea waters 13. Terrorism in Turkey Repealing the ACA would leave millions uninsured increasing spending on uncompensated care from $656 billion to $1.7 trillion over the next decade, adding significantly to the financial burden for healthcare providers, according to a recent analysis from the Urban Institute, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The Urban Institute estimated in December 29.8 million people would lose health insurance in 2019 if the ACA is partially repealed. Their estimate uses the budget reconciliation bill passed by Congress last January and vetoed by President Barack Obama as a model for what a potential partial repeal might look like. Because Congress appears ready to pass a similar reconciliation bill this year, the new analysis builds on the assumptions and estimates made in the December report. Here are the key takeaways from the Urban Institute's latest analysis. 1. The loss of health insurance means fewer people would use healthcare services, and spending on these services would go down. Under the reconciliation model, the Urban Institute estimates spending by payers and consumers on healthcare for the nonelderly population would decline $145.8 billion in 2019. Over the next decade, the Urban Institute estimates this spending would decline by $1.7 trillion. 2. The report notes that a drop in spending on healthcare services means revenue would fall for healthcare providers. Under this analysis, hospitals would take the biggest hit, as spending on hospital services is estimated to decline $596.4 billion between 2019 and 2028. Spending on physician services would decline $217.7 billion, spending on prescription drugs would decline $428.6 billion and spending on other services would decline $416.4 billion over the same time period, according to the report. 3. The healthcare services sought by the newly uninsured would increase uncompensated care costs. Specifically, the Urban Institute estimates uncompensated care costs would increase $88 billion in 2019 alone, and $1.1 trillion from 2019 to 2028. In that time period, $296.1 billion of uncompensated care would be attributed to hospital care, according to the report. 4. Federal funding for uncompensated care would increase slightly under an ACA repeal. Medicare Disproportionate Share Hospital payments increase as the number of uninsured Americans increases. This means if 29.8 million people lost insurance, Medicare DSH payments would automatically increase by $35 billion from 2019 to 2028, according to the report. The ACA did include provisions to cut Medicaid DSH payments, but they were never implemented, so a repeal of those pending cuts would not have an effect, according to the report. 5. The increase in Medicare DSH payments is not nearly enough to offset the increase in uncompensated care. The Urban Institute estimates the increase in Medicare DSH payments would cover less than 4 percent of the increase in uncompensated care. Currently, Congress has not indicated it would increase funding for uncompensated care, according to the report. State and local governments could help foot the bill for charity care, but they would have to allot six times as much funding to uncompensated care to cover the growth in costs entirely, according to the report. This is unlikely, so the Urban Institute predicts the financial burden of increased uncompensated care under an ACA repeal would predominantly fall on providers. "Partial ACA repeal could lead to a fourfold increase in the amount of uncompensated care providers finance themselves compared to current levels," the report reads. "As a result there would likely be a substantial increase in unmet health care need for the uninsured." Read more here. Correction: This article previously stated that the Urban Institute is part of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. This is incorrect. The institutions are indepedent from one another, and RWJF funded the analysis conducted by the Urban Institute. This article was updated Jan. 6, 2017 at 9:10 a.m. CT to reflect this change. More articles on finance: Hospital stocks climb after hints of 'smooth' ACA repeal CRFB analysis: Full ACA repeal could cost up to $350 billion Medicare bundled payments for joint replacement cut costs by 20% The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston plans to eliminate about 1,000 jobs, or 5 percent of its 20,000-person workforce, as it tries to improve its financial health. At a press conference Thursday, MD Anderson officials said between 800 and 900 workers will be laid off, and an additional 100 to 200 jobs will be cut through retirement and attrition, according to the Houston Business Journal. The job cuts will not affect any physicians. "We primarily focused on those areas where we could make staff reductions, re-engineer administrative support, and not impact quality of patient care," officials said at the press conference, according to the report. The job cuts are expected to save MD Anderson about $120 million a year. MD Anderson is scaling back its workforce after it reported a combined $102 million operating loss in September and October and a $9 million operating loss in November. At the press conference Thursday, MD Anderson CFO Dan Fontaine said the organization likely does not have a positive operating margin for December, according to the report. MD Anderson's financial troubles began in early 2016 when it rolled out a new Epic EHR system. The organization recorded a 76.9 percent drop in adjusted income for the 10 months that ended June 30, 2016, a downfall officials largely attributed to its EHR implementation project. Despite its sagging financials, MD Anderson officials said Thursday the organization's long-term financial health remains strong. "We are innovating to develop novel care delivery models, adopting enabling technologies and diversifying revenue streams," said MD Anderson in an emailed statement. "MD Anderson will be here for patients and their families today, tomorrow and long into the future." More articles on healthcare leadership and management: Broward Health board member resigns, asks Gov. Rick Scott provide help AMA to Congress: Lay out ACA replacement before repeal The Advisory Board to restructure its healthcare business: 10 things to know Bowie (Texas) Memorial Hospital, which has been closed for more than a year, is closer to reopening under a new name after the hospital's board members resigned Wednesday, according to a KFDX news report. Bowie Memorial closed in November 2015 after voters turned down a ballot measure to create a new hospital tax district. In February 2016, the hospital accepted a $1.5 million takeover bid from Faraz Hashmi, MD, and the hospital's board members signed off on the sales contract in March. Dr. Hashmi plans to reopen the hospital under a new name Central Hospital of Bowie. Before the hospital can reopen, the Bowie Hospital Authority has to be dissolved. Hospital board members moved forward with that process Wednesday when they signed a letter of resignation. With the letter signed, the Bowie city attorney will draft an ordinance to officially dissolve the hospital authority, according to the report. Although the hospital's new owner is expected to soon begin hiring staff, an official reopening date has not been set. More articles on healthcare leadership and management: Broward Health board member resigns, asks Gov. Rick Scott provide help Antelope Valley Healthcare District appoints Dr. Don Parazo board chair 6 thoughts on leadership from Dr. Michael Ugwueke, president and CEO of Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare Albany (N.Y.) Medical Center and Saratoga Hospital in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., finalized their affiliation agreement in the first week of 2017, reports Times Union. Under the affiliation agreement, each entity will retain its own governing board. Officials from Saratoga Hospital said the organization plans to work closely with Albany Medical Center's other affiliated partner, Columbia Memorial Health in Hudson, N.Y. Together, the three institutions aim to improve patient access and care coordination to area residents and possibly leverage their combined market share in negotiations with payers. Albany Medical Center is a 734-bed hospital serving as the hub for Albany Med health system. Saratoga Hospital runs a nursing home, walk-in surgery center and physicians' offices. Columbia Memorial Health includes a hospital, nursing home and 26 medical offices in Columbia and Greene counties. Washington state insurance regulators endorsed Kaiser Permanente's proposed acquisition of Seattle-based Group Health Cooperative in a hearing before Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler Jan. 4, The Seattle Times reports. The Office of the Insurance Commissioner's chief reviewer Ronald Pastuch said investigators determined the proposed deal would not hamper competition in Washington state nor negatively impact public interests. Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente disclosed its intentions to buy Group Health in December 2015. Under terms of the deal, Kaiser Permanente will pay $1.8 billion to establish a nonprofit Group Health Community Foundation and spend another $1 billion over 10 years to expand Group Health facilities, staff, technology and research. Group Health is comprised of about 600,000 members in Washington and northern Idaho, and is valued at $3.5 billion. Stakeholders expect Dr. Kreidler to make a decision by the end of the month. The California Nurses Association filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board against Alhambra (Calif.) Hospital Medical Center, claiming the hospital has infringed upon the rights of registered nurses to conduct a fair union election, according to a union announcement. The union said RNs at Alhambra Hospital are slated to vote Jan. 5 on whether to join the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United. According to CNA, nurses claim that prior to the scheduled election, hospital administrators have been "stepping up actions" against union supporters, "contributing to a pattern of actions that nurses say violate federal labor law protections." "We are deeply concerned that the Alhambra management is violating our right to a fair election and putting patients in harms way," Monica Recendez, RN, said in the union announcement. Alhambra Hospital is part of Alhambra-based AHMC Healthcare, where CNA already represents RNs at San Gabriel (Calif.) Valley Medical Center and Whittier (Calif.) Hospital Medical Center, according to the union. The union said RNs at Alhambra Hospital seek "wage parity with other AHMC hospitals, an increased voice in patient care conditions, and a contract that requires the hospital to comply with the state's mandated nurse-to-patient ratio law to protect patient safety." In response to the union's complaint, Alhambra Hospital provided the following statement: "Patient safety and quality of care are our most important priorities at Alhambra Hospital. We are committed to working together with our physicians, nurses and staff to protect patient safety and to provide high-quality, compassionate care. "We value all of our employees highly. While we prefer to work directly with them without the involvement of a third party, we recognize that it is entirely our employees' choice whether or not they want to be represented by a labor union. We believe we already have a strong culture of supporting and respecting our employees." More articles on human capital and risk: Hospitals and unions: 11 recent conflicts, agreements Union files NLRB complaint against Pomona Valley Hospital over quality concerns 6 healthcare organizations adding jobs A federal judge ruled Aetna may collect up to $41.4 million in restitution from Humble (Texas) Surgical Hospital, concluding the five-bed hospital violated federal anti-kickback laws, according to Bloomberg BNA. In an opinion issued Jan. 4, Judge Lynn Hughes of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas found HSH operated a "dishonest" billing scheme designed to "trick" the plaintiff Aetna into paying artificially inflated claims. Specifically, Mr. Hughes found HSH created a series of shell companies through which more than 100 physicians received 30 percent kickbacks for referring patients to HSH. The hospital billed patients at in-network rates and submitted inflated reimbursement requests to Aetna, Mr. Hughes said. The ruling comes seven months after HSH won $13.6 million in similar litigation against Cigna. In that suit, Cigna sued HSH over $5 million in alleged overpayments it made to the hospital for medical claims Cigna argued were "excessively large." The judge ruled against Cigna in June 2016 and ordered the insurer reimburse HSH $13.6 million in unpaid claims. Reports of smoke inside John Sealy Hospital in Galveston, Texas, prompted a hospitalwide evacuation Wednesday. Hospital officials summoned fire fighters after a fire was reported in a construction zone inside the facility. Approximately 225 employees and 100 patients were evacuated. No injuries were reported. "The location of the fire allowed the smoke to spread out in the major access areas [of the hospital] so we had to manage the movement of the patients to keep them away from the smoke," David Callender, MD, president of The University of Texas Medical Branch, said in a statement. John Sealy Hospital is part of The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. John Sealy Hospital and John Sealy Annex are closed until further notice. The state fire marshal is investigating the cause of the fire. Tom Frieden, MD, has led the CDC since being appointed to the post by President Barack Obama in 2009. On Jan. 20, when President-elect Donald Trump is sworn in, Dr. Frieden will hand in his resignation. Recently, Dr. Frieden was interviewed by Reuters. While he did not divulge what he planned to do next, he did reflect on the work he's overseen at the CDC, what the agency will face in the future and what actions he hopes the incoming administration will take to protect public health. Here are three quotes from Dr. Frieden. 1. On Zika: In the last year, federal health officials have issued 60 travel alerts, deployed more than 1,000 experts to Puerto Rico and other Zika hotspots, initiated 25 major studies and tested more than 147,000 lab specimens. According to Dr. Frieden, the work is far from finished. "We have a lot more to do to control both Zika and diseases spread by this mosquito," Dr. Frieden told Reuters. The CDC director also said researchers need to continue to study the impact of Zika on fetal health beyond microcephaly. In addition to the neurologically debilitating birth defect which is marked by an abnormally small head, the virus has been linked to vision and hearing problems, severe irritability, trouble swallowing, epilepsy and excessively stiff muscle tone in infants. "It's a startlingly complex infection," said Dr. Frieden. 2. On past, current and future infectious disease threats: "We've dealt with Ebola, H1N1 influenza, MERS, fungal meningitis. We're dealing now with influenza and drug-resistant bacteria," Dr. Frieden told Reuters. "We don't know when the next global health threat will come. We don't know where it will come from. We don't know what pathogen it will be, but we are 100 percent certain that there will be a next one." 3. What he hopes to see from Congress and the new administration: During Dr. Frieden's tenure as director, it took nine months of political back and forth for legislators to approve $1.1 billion in emergency Zika funds. Such a problem could be addressed in the future through a rapid response fund. "I really would hope that come April, if a budget is passed, it will include the Rapid Reserve Fund plan that was outlined in the House bill, which ideally would also have some spending authorities that would enable the government to act quickly in an emergency," said Dr. Frieden. More articles on infection control: Antibiotic resistance in 2016: 5 biggest developments NY state health commissioner calls for vaccine adherence amid flu prevalence King County, Wash., sees more than 100 cases of the mumps in recent outbreak The American Red Cross on Wednesday issued an emergency call for blood donations in response to a severe winter shortage. The organization, which manages about 40 percent of the nation's blood supply, said it's distributing blood donations to hospitals faster than its receiving donations. The Red Cross must collect almost 14,000 blood and platelet donations each day to meet the demand of about 2,600 hospitals and transfusion centers nationwide, according to a news release. Busy holiday schedules and severe winter weather are the main culprits for the shortage. Almost 100 blood drives were cancelled in December due to weather, causing more than 3,100 donations to go uncollected. The Red Cross said it was short about 37,000 blood donations in November and December. "Hospital patients need lifesaving blood this winter, and they're relying on the generosity of volunteer donors to provide hope in the days and weeks ahead," said Chris Hrouda, executive vice president of Red Cross Blood Services. "The Red Cross is doing everything it can to ensure blood products are available on the shelves when patients need it, but we can't do it alone. We need eligible individuals to give blood and platelets as soon as possible." More articles on supply chain: Why driverless cars could magnify the organ donor shortage Amazon's newest endeavor: A floating warehouse How 'phantom inventory' could be hurting your supply chain Here are eight key stories on minimally invasive spine surgery devices. Dr. Richard Kube reports 12-month results of SImmetry Sacroiliac Joint Fusion study Richard A. Kube, MD, of Peoria, Ill.-based Prairie Spine & Pain Institute, published a clinical study's 12-month results focused on sacroiliac joint fusion. Dr. Kube assessed long-term fusion as well as pain reduction in patients receiving Minnetonka, Minn.-based Zyga Technology's SImmetry Sacroiliac Joint Fusion. DePuy Synthes boosts spine offering with acquisition of Interventional Spine technology Raynham, Mass.-based DePuy Synthes acquired Interventional Spine's expandable cage technology. With this acquisition, DePuy Synthes strengthens its open and MIS spine solutions portfolio. DePuy Synthes is also acquiring Interventional Spine's facet screw system for open and percutaneous spine surgery. Proving robotics' clinical value The mission of Zimmer Biomet's Medtech Splashing into robotics in 2002, Montpellier, France-based Medtech now has two robotic systems available on the U.S. market. In October 2016, Warsaw, Ind.-based Zimmer Biomet acquired Medtech with a 58.77 percent stake of the company. Now under the umbrella of a major company, Medtech hopes to expand its ROSA robot customer base, but not lose its initial mission to drive surgical robots in areas of high clinical need. Minimally invasive neurosurgery devices market to grow between 2015 and 2025 The global minimally invasive neurosurgery devices market is expected to grow through 2025, according to a Future Market Insights report. Currently, North America dominates the market, because of the high neurosurgical case volume in this region. The Asia-Pacific region is anticipated to grow, due to market opportunity in India and China. The CORE Institute's Dr. Ali Araghi leads patient enrollment for Zyga Technology's study Phoenix-based The CORE Institute's Ali Araghi, DO, leads the nation in patient enrollment for Zyga Technology's EVoluSIon Study. Of the 64 patients enrolled, Dr. Araghi has enrolled 11 patients in the Phoenix area. Dr. Jeffrey Carlson performs Virginia's 1st ALIF surgery Using Synfix Evolution Device Jeffrey Carlson, MD, became the first surgeon in Virginia to perform an L5-S1 Anterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion using the Synfix Evolution ALIF System. A standalone device, the Synfix Evolution ALIF System minimizes trauma and post-surgical pain for patients. Dr. Nasser Ani uses SpineFrontier's new minimally invasive technology Nasser Ani, MD, used Malden, Mass.-based SpineFrontier's biocompatible Les Arena-C(HA) cervical cage and the two-level Les Invue Max cervical plate to perform a minimally invasive spinal fusion. NuVasive receives clearance for XLIF in Japan as Class III medical device The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare granted NuVasive approval for the instruments used in the eXtreme Lateral Interbody Fusion procedure. The company had submitted the dilator and associated components for reclassification as a Class III medical device and during that time surgeons temporarily stopped performing the XLIF procedure in Japan. Shane Nho, MD, an orthopedic surgeon at Chicago's Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush, conducted a study examining the ability of workers compensation patients to return to their jobs after hip arthroscopy. It was recently published in the Journal of Hip Preservation Surgery. Researchers examined 29 workers compensation who underwent hip arthroscopy, including age and gender matched controls, and retrospectively reviewed the cases after the patients achieved maximum medical improvement status at one year post-operatively. Demographic factors; hip outcome score activities with daily living and sports-specific subscales; and a modified Harris Hip Score were all reported. Here's what they found: 1. The majority 69 percent, or 20 patients of workers compensation patients were able to return to work without restriction. 2. Patients who failed to return to work had several factors including: Prolonged delay between the injury and the corrective procedure More concomitant orthopedic injuries A higher body mass index 3. The researchers concluded the majority of worker's compensation patients were able to return to work without restrictions. Dr. Nho says the researchers examined the return-to-work rate of workers compensation patients because of their special interest on the topic. Hip arthroscopy is a newer procedure in the workers compensation arena and this study could help patients and surgeons decide whether to operate in the future. "I think it's reassuring that most patients were able to get back to a high level of work following hip surgery for tears and impingements," Dr. Nho says. Another factor that influenced the research was the tricky nature of workers compensation cases. "The difficulty [with these cases] is that these patients will usually undergo lengthy periods of nonsurgical treatment because of the fact that they might end up seeing a different provider initially. They may go through this because their insurance may delay initially," he says. Dr. Nho hopes that physicians take away the following from the study: "Get these patients to the right provider as soon as possible so they can get diagnosed and treated as soon as we can get to them," Dr. Nho says. Sometimes multiple symptoms like back pain and hip pain delay treatment, making it "much trickier to sort out and treat effectively, to the point where they can resume the work they were doing before," he says. "Our goal is to treat these patients as effectively as possible. Sometimes there are things that are outside of our control." SATURDAY | 1.7 EASILY ESSENTIAL Theyre recyclable, if anything, and nowere not talking about the action-packed film series of the same name. The fan-favorite reggae outfit also known as The Expendables brings the best of California to the forefront through their style of music, rich in style and staying power thats been hammering hard in the way of reggae, ska, surf rock and good old-fashioned punk rock since 1997. But for Geoff Weers, Adam Patterson, Raul Bianchi and Ryan DeMars, the years progression has been natural since blasting out, first with 2001s No Time To Worry. Since, theyve clocked an impressive six studio cuts, most recently with 2015s Sand in the Sky, and all following that worry-free lifestyle they laid bare all those years ago. Theyve packed a bowl for you at the Orpheum Theater, 15 W. Aspen, with reggae funksters Hirie and Tribal Theory joining the circle, too. Doors to this all-ages show open at 7 p.m. and the music sparks at 8 p.m. Tickets are $20 in advance and $22 the day of the show. To learn more, call 556-1580 or visit www.theexpendables.net. FRISAT | 1.61.7 WHAT DREAMS MAY COME Flag has gained a reputation as a transitional sort of placeand all for very good reasons that would probably hold up under double-blind studies and mountains of research. In fact, we recently learned one study suggests Flagstaff has historically boasted more musicians per capita than any other city in America. Well get back to you with our bibliography on that, but neat, right? And one on that list of canonical Flag musicians is Corey Leal. Back in the day, he toured town as Jefferson Washington, and these days hes set up shop in California and at the front of a brand new band called Wish and the Well. Their brand new record, Darling, Darling, is hot off the press, and with two Flag shows, he and Wishs pedal steel player will tackle some new grooves charting between blues and Americana folk and old favorites, first at Hops on Birch, 22. E. Birch, Ste. 2, Friday at 9 p.m., followed by a set at Flagstaff Brewing Co., 16. E. Rte. 66, with local rocker Tim Leavy Saturday at 9 p.m. Both shows are free. www.coreyleal.com. TUESDAY | 1.10 1 MANS BAND Mike Silverman, hes just a guy. In fact, you may know him best as That 1 Guy. While one may be the loneliest number, Silverman has packed in some company over the years since forgoing his traditional double bass and accompanying outfit dedicated to funk and jazz, instead opting for a series of homemade instrumentsparticularly the Magic Pipe. The seven-foot-tall wonder lends the musician a great deal of all-original programming via its steel body and bass strings, but its not just the pipe. That 1 Guy as magic all around with the Magic Boot, the Magic Saw and the Magic Duck, though its said hes a bit of a priss on tour, and receives limited attention. These necessary pieces of equipment have pulsed across six studio cuts, into a sound entirely his own replete with beatboxed beats and off-the-wall lyrics, and all into the hearts of many the world overeven Buckethead. Sright Bucketheads apparently a big fan, and even Tom Waits. We wish we had pals like those! See the magic first-hand at the Green Room, 15 N. Agassiz. Doors open at 8 p.m. and the show gets going at 9 p.m. Tickets are $15. Ages 21 and over. 226-8669. www.that1guy.com. WEDNESDAY | 1.11 SLAM IT TO THE LEFT After a hard-fought season, the one and only Flagstaff Poetry Slam, hosted by Claire Pearson, is holding a competitionone that will decide which very deserving, very talented poet will rep Flagstaff at the 2017 Women of the World Poetry Slam. The Poetry Slam Inc. event lands in Dallas this year, from March 1518, and the event featuring female-identified and non-binary poets from across the country would be remiss without our little mountain town that is big in the way of poetic turn of phrase. Watch as this years competitorschosen based on their rankings throughout the current slam seasonvie for their spot with 4-, 3-, 2- and 1-minute pieces. And always, dear spectators, cheer on Flag poets: Kim Jarchow, Briana Hammerstrom, Lydia Gates, Gabbi Jue, Sonora Reyes, Shelley Wermuth, Rowie Shebala and Priscilla Adams. It all goes down at Firecreek Coffee Co., 22 E. Rte. 66, beginning at 8 p.m. sharp. Volunteer slots available alongside more info and poet bios through Flag Slams Facebook page. Admission is $2. www.wowps2017.com. NOT EXACTLY THE PIRATES LIFE Since 1994 the barque Europa has traveled the worlds sea, proudly boasting its towering appearance replete with 30 sails of clipper ship persuasion. A professional crew of 14 and 48 additional crewmates with experienced and light sailing knowledge between them, one passenger last year finally saw one adventurous dream to fruition. In 2015, Andrew Orr, a Flag-born original, boarded the Europa and bound across the world, sailing from Argentina to South Africa via Antarctica and onward to South Georgia Island and Tristan da Cunha in the south Atlantic. And, as a photographer, Orr was able to snag some truly A-plus shots of South American mountains, penguin escapades in Antarctica and so much more with his Nikon and Hasselblad camera bodies. Now that hes had time to ruminate, create a video (see it at vimeo.com/aorr/Antarctica), and set his affairs in order, hes back in Flag and ready to speak with you fine folks about his trip across the globe. Listen first-hand at the Joe C. Montoya Community & Senior Center, 245 N. Thorpe Road, as part of Jack Welchs Walkers Outdoor Club. The event begins at 6 p.m. For more about the photographer, visit www.aretephotograph.com. The former owners of a north Belfast home bakery have been banned from senior business roles for four years each after it collapsed, owing over 90,000 The former owners of a north Belfast home bakery have been banned from senior business roles for four years each after it collapsed, owing over 90,000. Husband and wife team Gerard (63) and Maureen Burns (62) from Seven Mile Straight in Muckamore ran the The Old Oven Door bakery on Antrim Road. The partnership running the bakery went into liquidation in 2014 and in an action brought by the Department for the Economy, the couple accepted that they had overpaid themselves over a two year period. They accepted that the overpayments resulted in losses to creditors, leading them to accept a four-year disqualification . Meanwhile, the boss of a haulage company in Newry has been disqualified as a director for five years after his firm went out of business owing 1m. Gareth Warde from Windsor Manor in Newry accepted misconduct as a boss of Trevor Warde Groupage Services. The company was based at Tandragee Road in Newry and went into liquidation owing 1.2m in May 2014 after 25 years in business. Mr Warde (33) acknowledged that he had allowed someone who had already been disqualified as a director to effectively carry out the role in the business over a four year period. That person had carried out fraudulent activities as they had accepted the role of a director without recognising the responsibilities and duties of the role. Another director of the same firm is also facing disqualification action. Meanwhile, a former company boss based in Bettystown in Co Meath was disqualified for six years over his conduct as the boss of cleaning company Direct Cleaning Services (NI) Ltd in Adelaide Street in Belfast. The company went into liquidation in June 2014 owing just over 116,000. Paul Corry (52), from Betaghstown Wood in Bettystown, was disqualified for six years as a director. He accepted misconduct including breaching his duty to the company by making transfers of over 146,000 to a connected company. The Department for the Economy said proceedings were continuing against another director of Direct Cleaning Services. DfE added that since April 2016, 35 former bosses had given disqualification undertakings, while the court had also made three orders. Directors' disqualification proceedings are brought by the department where the directors of failed companies are deemed to have abused the privileges of limited liability status. Insolvency practitioners such as administrators have a duty to notify the department of potential unfit conduct. Next said sales in the 54 days to December 24 fell 0.4%, defying hopes of a fourth quarter turnaround The boss of high street giant Next warned that Brexit uncertainty would add to an "even tougher" year ahead as the chain sounded the alarm over sales and profits after a difficult Christmas. Next shares tumbled 10% in a dismal start to the festive reporting season after it said annual profits to January 2017 were set to fall by around 3.6% and could plunge by as much as 14% in the next financial year. The group said it was facing "exceptional levels of uncertainty" amid a consumer spending squeeze, soaring costs from the weak pound and "little visibility of the approach the UK Government will be taking to Brexit". Chief executive Lord Simon Wolfson - a prominent Leave campaigner - told the Press Association that while the Government was right not to be rushed into a Brexit plan, fears over the negotiations would heap further pressure on an embattled retail sector. "It will take time for them and we have to be patient, but there will be uncertainty in the meantime," he said. Shares fell across the retail sector as Next sparked worries of a dire Christmas and 2017 for fashion firms, with Marks & Spencer down nearly 5% and Primark parent Associated British Foods 4% lower. Next - seen as a retail bellwether - reported a 0.4% fall in overall full-price sales for the 54 days to December 24, while it also posted a 7% plunge in end-of-season clearance sales. Next said it suffered a 3.5% fall in full-price sales across its high street stores in the quarter so far to Christmas Eve. It saw a better performance across its Directory catalogue arm, with sales up 5.1%, but this was not enough to offset the fall across its store estate. The group had been hoping for a fourth-quarter turnaround after a difficult 2016. But it said the end-of-year blow meant profits were expected to come in at 792 million for the 12 months to January 2017, depending on January trade, compared with previous guidance of 785 million to 825 million. Lord Wolfson said 2017 was going to be "even tougher", with the group forecasting that its next year's profits could tumble to between 680 million and 780 million. He said there was no immediate end in sight to the shift in spending away from clothing and footwear. Heavy discounting among rivals in the run-up to Christmas was also affecting its January sales trade as fewer shoppers are hitting the high street, he added. "I said 2016 would feel like we were walking up the down escalator; well, the escalator has just got faster," he said. Next repeated warnings over cost pressures from the Brexit-hit pound, which the group has already said could see it hike prices by up to 5%. This, together with a continuing downturn in spend on clothing, could see total full-price sales in the range of minus 4.5% to 1.5%, giving a central forecast of minus 1.5% for 2017/18. Shares in Next and other retailers had already fallen on Tuesday ahead of the update after poor footfall figures suggested a poor start to the January clearance sales. Richard Lim, chief executive of consultancy Retail Economics, branded the Next update "miserable". He added: "These latest figures from Next confirm that underlying conditions on the high street remain desperate for clothing and footwear retailers." Theresa May is preparing to make a major speech on Brexit later this month Theresa May has been urged by the House of Lords Speaker not to stuff the upper chamber with Tory peers or threaten it with abolition to ensure her Brexit plans get through Parliament. Lord Fowler said the Lords would not "sabotage" Brexit, although he insisted peers must keep their role in "improving" legislation from the Commons. His intervention comes as the Prime Minister awaits a Supreme Court ruling expected this month on whether she must get Parliament's approval before triggering the formal Brexit process under Article 50 of the EU treaties. If the court rules against the Government, Mrs May expects legislation to approve the triggering of Article 50 to pass through the Commons, given Labour's commitment not to block or delay Brexit. But there have been suggestions that the PM's plan to begin the process by April may be held up in the Lords, where the Tories do not have a majority, by anti-Brexit peers. Lord Fowler's insistence that peers should be able to "improve" legislation could still spark concerns that the Lords will seek to amend any Article 50 Bill and therefore potentially hold up its passage through Parliament. Writing in the Telegraph, the Lords Speaker said: "The Lords recognise the primacy of the Commons based on the fact that they are the elected chamber and we are not. "In return most MPs value the check that scrutiny by the Lords provides. We are not here to sabotage legislation - we are here to improve it." Cabinet ministers have reportedly told Mrs May to threaten to abolish the Lords if peers seek to frustrate Brexit but the Lords Speaker warned her against it. He wrote: "Some politicians seem intent on creating discord between the House of Commons and the House of Lords. "Although we do not yet know the decision of the Supreme Court on triggering Article 50, let alone the contents of the Great Repeal Bill, a number of MPs and indeed ministers have made threats aimed at the very existence of the Lords if there is any delay in the Brexit process. "One Cabinet minister has been quoted (anonymously of course) as saying that any disagreement between Lords and Commons should be followed by a one line bill called 'the abolition of the Lords'. "Another MP mused on the radio that if there was disagreement, the Prime Minister might create over 100 new Peers to ensure the Government gets its way. "It is not my role to enter into the politics of Brexit, but I do think that I am entitled to defend the House of Lords from this kind of attack." Meanwhile, 30 leading British entrepreneurs urged the PM to keep the UK in the European single market and avoid a swift reduction in immigration after Brexit. In a letter to the Financial Times, the founders of companies such as Jack Wills, eBookers, Games Workshop and Zoopla urged Mrs May to "protect the economy of the future" and keep Britain "open to trade and talent". The call, organised by Open Britain, comes as the Prime Minister prepares to set out her broad approach to leaving the European Union in a speech later this month. She has made immigration controls a top priority for Brexit negotiations, which suggests Britain will leave the single market because EU leaders insisted free movement of its citizens is a condition of membership. Elsewhere, the Department for Exiting the EU (DExEU) strongly denied reports that its permanent secretary, Olly Robbins, opposed the appointment of Sir Tim Barrow as the UK's new ambassador to the EU and sought to downgrade the role so the department could take control of negotiations in Brussels. A DExEU spokeswoman described the claims as "fundamentally untrue", adding: "Sir Tim will play a crucial role in the negotiation, guiding UKRep throughout the negotiation period and helping the UK forge a positive new relationship with the EU. "The Department for Exiting the EU is fully behind Sir Tim's appointment and we are looking forward to working with him closely." It comes after the surprise resignation of Sir Ivan Rogers as ambassador to the EU exposed concerns about the Government's state of readiness for withdrawal negotiations. Several former top Whitehall officials have warned that the Government has lost a Europe expert at a vital moment while MPs opposed to a hard Brexit said his resignation showed the Government lacks a Brexit plan. Our reporter Rachel Dean checks out all the style in Victoria Square, Belfast. Grace Greenaway (18), sales assistant, Portadown Wore what? Top, 10, H&M; coat, 60, Oh Polly; jeans, 10, DV8; boots, 13, Matalan; bag, gift. Why? I think my look is quite rocky I wear a lot of black with just a little splash of colour. Who? I follow Kylie Jenner on Instagram and I love how different her style is from everyone elses. Jena Dallas (24), classroom assistant, Coagh Wore what? Dress, 40, Topshop; coat, 30, George; boots, 25, H&M; bag, 40, River Island. Why? My style is feminine and on trend. I love patterned dresses and a lot of colour in my outfits. Who? I love Emmy Rossums style, as its so similar to mine. She wears a lot of brightly patterned dresses. Rachel McVeigh (34), nurse, Portstewart Wore what? Dress, 13, coat, 24, bag, 9, all Primark; boots, 25, New Look. Why? I would describe my style as very relaxed. I wear a lot of quirky patterns, too. Who? Kate Moss puts her own edgy twist on very modern looks, and it works. Caoimhe McBride (23), teacher, Londonderry Wore what? Dress, 40, Topshop; coat, 30, George; boots, 25, H&M; bag, 40, River Island. Why? My look is always quite smart. I like my style to be neat and proper, especially because of my job. Who? I like Emma Watsons style because shes very traditional too she always looks smart. Debbie Bell (27), nurse, Belfast Wore what? Jumper, 20, H&M; coat, 45, Sainsburys; jeans, 30, New Look; boots, 75, Topshop; bag, 320, Michael Kors. Why? My style could be described as straight off the high street. I love shopping, especially during the winter season when there are lots of warm colours and tones. Who? I love anything from Reiss. Kate Middleton seems to wear a lot of their clothes and she looks stunning. Gillian Paul (53), stay at home mum, Portstewart Wore what? Poncho, 150, Harrison; trousers, 40, Zara; boots, 100, Moda in Pelle; bag, 60, boutique in Venice. Why? I like to keep my look modern and stylish. My style has always been very feminine. Who? I love Alex Jones smart casual look it suits her role on TV. Andrea McClure (23), nurse, Armagh Wore what? Top, 15, jeans, 25, boots, 30, all New Look; blazer, 11.50, H&M; choker, 9.99, Miss Selfridge; bag, gift, Jasper Conran. Why? I would definitely describe my style as smart casual. I tend to favour khakis and more neutral tones. Who? Mollie Kings style is quite smart, but she still keeps her look modern and young. Ciara Magee (40), area support manager, Belfast Wore what? Top, 60, Ted Baker; coat, 60, Miss Selfridge; jeans, 40, Next; shoes, 25, hairband, 5, both New Look; bag, 260, Michael Kors. Why? I would say my look is very modern Im always shopping for the newest trends that suit me best. Who? Nicole Kidmans look is my favourite shes so elegant. She never goes over-the-top with her style, like a lot of other celebrities do. A man has appeared in court in Northern Ireland today accused of an attack on a memorial to the late Progressive Unionist Party leader David Ervine. Brian Paul McMullan is charged with criminal damage to a chair erected in east Belfast to pay tribute to the loyalist politician. The 25-year-old, of Madrid Street in the city, also faces counts of indecent behaviour, cultivating and possessing three cannabis plants. McMullan allegedly targeted the chair situated at Montrose Street on Remembrance Sunday last year. The memorial, which belongs to the Inner East Youth Project, was built after the PUP leader died in 2007. Mr Ervine, a former member of the Ulster Volunteer Force, launched a political career following his release from prison. He played a key role in brokering the loyalist paramilitary ceasefire in 1994. McMullan either intentionally or recklessly caused criminal damage to the monument set up in his memory during an incident on November 13, according to the charge sheet. He is further accused of indecent behaviour at Erskine Street in the city on the same date. The two alleged drugs offences were committed on November 18. The accused made no reply when the charges were put to him at Belfast Magistrates' Court. He was remanded on continuing bail to appear again next month. ends DUP MLA Jim Wells has described it as a "pity" that Titanic Belfast is only offering free tickets to the public this Sunday and not across an entire weekend "so everyone would have the chance to visit". As a thank you for support over the past year, which saw the landmark building named the world's leading tourist attraction, Titanic Belfast is offering people a chance to visit the centre for free on Sunday. While the offer generated a huge response, South Down MLA Mr Wells expressed his disappointment the free offering was only for a day. "Disappointing that the Titanic Centre's Free Entry Day is this Sunday. Surely, free entry could also have been available on Saturday?" he tweeted. Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph, he said he had been contacted by a constituent who could not take up the offer because of church commitments. Mr Wells said as a Christian and church-goer, he would not be availing of the offer either. "I don't want to have a go at Titanic," he said. "I have been many times and it is a marvellous attraction. Its visitor numbers since it opened have been staggering for Northern Ireland and everything it does just oozes class. "But I just thought it was a pity they did not make the offer across an entire weekend instead of just a Sunday. Even if it was the same number of tickets. "There are a large number of people in Northern Ireland that are Christian and like to keep Sunday as the day of worship and that can't go. But I wouldn't criticise anyone who did go on a Sunday. "I just think it would have been good that everyone could have the chance to apply for a ticket." Mr Wells added: "I know this is not the most pressing issue of the day, especially for the DUP or anyone else. I just thought this was a pity." Titanic Belfast was asked for a comment but hadn't responded last night. Free tickets for Sunday are limited and available from Titanic Belfast's website. PHOENIX State officials said federal funding has helped jump start awareness campaigns and drug monitoring efforts to combat the prescription drug epidemic in six of Arizonas 15 counties. Last year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention selected Arizona for a four-year, $3.6 million grant to combat the opioid addiction epidemic. Arizona is one of 16 states awarded the grants, and the Arizona Department of Health Services oversees the funding. In 2014, Arizona had the 15th highest drug overdose rate in the nation, according to a presentation from the health department. That year, about one person died every day from an overdose related to prescription opioid pain relievers. The health department plans to use the money to improve awareness among the public and medical communities about the dangers prescription drugs pose to adults along with children and teens who may have access to them. The department is focusing on six counties: Gila, Maricopa, Mohave, Navajo, Pima and Yavapai. State officials selected the counties based on overdose hospitalization rates and other data on prescription drug abuse, a spokesman said. Tomi St. Mars, the chief of the Office of Injury Prevention within the health department, oversees the program. She said the grant has helped fund strategies the department has wanted to implement, but could not fit into its regular budget. The funding has allowed us to contract with the county health departments to do implementation at the county level, where the good stuff happens, Mars said. The department has distributed a community action toolkit to each of the six counties. This packet includes strategies for law enforcement agencies, responsible prescribing practices, increased patient education and better substance abuse treatment. For example, the toolkit provides educational materials for parents and teens. Mars also said the department is placing special emphasis on ensuring each county registers their pharmacists and prescribers with Arizonas prescription drug monitoring program, which helps doctors keep an eye on how many prescriptions patients have. Medical professionals share the departments concern over the lack of education surrounding prescription opioids. Teresa Stickler, a registered pharmacist and owner of Melrose Pharmacy in Phoenix, said the public needs to understand that opioid addiction can happen to anyone. This isnt something thats just for those people who you think have drug addiction problems. Your neighbor on the street who looks sweet and friendly could actually have an opioid-related problem, Stickler said. You really need to be careful on how they take these medications. Though the CDC grant has allowed the health department get a better handle on the opioid epidemic in six counties, Mars said more funds are necessary to take on the issue statewide. The department plans to collect metrics on overdose incidents in the six counties to see if their strategies can improve public health. Funding from the CDC is just one way the state is combating the opioid epidemic. The state recently passed laws that attempt to prevent doctor shopping and loosen restrictions on administering the anti-overdose drug naloxone. Gov. Doug Ducey this fall launched a partnership with Walgreens to install medication disposal bins at 18 stores. And the state worked with the University of Arizona to develop free online training for doctors on how to prescribe opioids and chronic back pain. The state has set tentative goals for 2018 such as reducing hospitalizations due to prescription drugs by 10 percent and cutting misuse by youths by 28 percent. A disgraced care home worker has denied assaulting the whistleblower who told the authorities she was abusing elderly and vulnerable residents. As 41-year-old Lisa Cullen stood in the dock on Thursday at Lisburn Magistrates Court, her defence solicitor told the court she was pleading not guilty to the single charge that she common assaulted Frances Gallagher on 18 November last year. A prosecuting lawyer said the date for her contest on that charge had been set for 6 February and District Judge Rosie Watters said she would not deal with the other case where Cullen was convicted of abusing elderly residents until the assault case had been determined. Following a short trial last November Cullen, from Lagmore Dale in the Dunmurry area of west Belfast, was convicted of seven counts of ill treating a total of five residents, two men and three women, at the Kilwee Nursing home in Dunmurry, on dates between 30 November 2012 and 31 December 2013. The court heard that in a number of incidents, Cullen left a male resident with a hood over his head and wheeled another resident into an empty room and left him here despite his repeated calls for help. The Kilwee Nursing home, on Cloona Park in Dunmurry, is a purpose built nursing home which cost 3 million to build before it opened its doors in 2011 and is equipped to care for 44 elderly residents, specialising in patients suffering from dementia. Although the is no question or suggestion that Cullen is linked to any other allegations, the Conway group owned home has hit the headlines before, in August 2012 when a male resident physically assaulted a female dementia patient and two months earlier in June 2012 when the RQIA (Regional and Quality Improvement Authority) threatened it with closure over numerous and multiple breaches of management regulations. Aleksandr Laporionok with his wife Olesia and daughters Leila (back) and Nadezda The parents of a two-year-old girl from Co Fermanagh currently undergoing chemotherapy are pleading for help to get her life-saving cancer treatment in Israel. Nadezda (pronounced Nadia) Laporionok from Kesh was born with cleft palate syndrome, giving her problems with swallowing in her early life. But last year her health worsened when a tumour was discovered behind one of her eyes and she was diagnosed in November with a life-threatening soft tissue cancer, Rhabdomyosarcoma. She is currently receiving chemotherapy at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Belfast. Her father Aleksandr Laporionok, who is originally from Lithuania and a head chef at the Manor House hotel in Co Fermanagh, said he, his wife Olesia and older daughter Leila are desperate to help Nadezda. Aleksandr said the Clalit Hospital in Israel had a high success rate treating children with Nadezda's condition, but at great expense. The treatment needs to begin this summer and the family has managed to raise 10,820 so far through an online fundraising campaign. Initially the clinic predicted a cost of 50,000 but this soon doubled to an estimated 100,000. "The expense for us is unreal," said Aleksandr. "They're charging 1,800 for just one night's stay in the hospital. "I know at least we'll need 50,000 to even start the treatment." The family said they will do everything to raise the money but will look at alternative clinics in Turkey if the huge expense proves impossible. Having spent Christmas Day in hospital with her family, Nadezda is getting ready to enter her fourth round of chemotherapy. "It's tough; she was in hospital for three months with only one day home," her father said. At one point she was left in a critical condition after side effects from her medication affected her breathing. "She had to be put in an induced coma in intensive care. "The doctors told me they didn't think she would recover," said Aleksandr. "She's a strong girl, it's difficult but she doesn't give up." He added: "She loves her mum and doesn't let her go anywhere without her. "She loves playing games and animals. "We have a dog at home and she uses it like a pillow." More information on the appeal can be found by visiting www.justgiving.com and searching for Nadezda Laporionok Gerry Daly and wife Rosie sign the marriage register on December 15 The funeral of solicitor Gerry Daly takes place at St Gerard's church, Antrim Road, Belfast. ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph ) The funeral of solicitor Gerry Daly takes place at St Gerard's church, Antrim Road, Belfast. ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph ) The funeral of solicitor Gerry Daly takes place at St Gerard's church, Antrim Road, Belfast. ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph ) The funeral of solicitor Gerry Daly takes place at St Gerard's church, Antrim Road, Belfast. ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph ) The funeral of solicitor Gerry Daly takes place at St Gerard's church, Antrim Road, Belfast. Widow Rosie meets with mourners. ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph ) The funeral of solicitor Gerry Daly takes place at St Gerard's church, Antrim Road, Belfast. ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph ) The funeral of solicitor Gerry Daly takes place at St Gerard's church, Antrim Road, Belfast. ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph ) The funeral of solicitor Gerry Daly takes place at St Gerard's church, Antrim Road, Belfast. ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph ) The funeral of solicitor Gerry Daly takes place at St Gerard's church, Antrim Road, Belfast. ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph ) The funeral of solicitor Gerry Daly takes place at St Gerard's church, Antrim Road, Belfast. ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph ) The funeral of solicitor Gerry Daly takes place at St Gerard's church, Antrim Road, Belfast. ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph ) The funeral of solicitor Gerry Daly takes place at St Gerard's church, Antrim Road, Belfast. ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph ) Widow of solicitor Gerry Daly, Rosie, attends funeral at St Gerard's church, Antrim Road, Belfast. ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph ) The funeral of solicitor Gerry Daly takes place at St Gerard's church, Antrim Road, Belfast. ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph ) The funeral has been held for veteran Belfast solicitor Gerry Daly, who passed just two weeks after his wedding. Mr Daly had been part of Francis Hanna & Company since 1975, having started work at the firm as the post boy aged just 17. He rose through the ranks of the firm to become a partner in 1993. The highly regarded solicitor passed away on December 30. He had married his partner Rosie on December 15. Mourners gathered for his funeral at St Gerard's Church on the Antrim Road, ahead of burial at Roselawn Cemetery on Thursday morning. Announcing the death, Martin Hanna, a partner in the May Street Belfast firm, writing on company website described Mr Daly as an "extremely industrious solicitor" having become a partner in the practice at the earliest possible opportunity. Mr Daly's specialist areas were in the fields of employment law, regulatory work, and litigation. One of the firm's solicitors described him as "my boss, my mentor and my friend". Others at the firm described him as "a great friend and inspirational lawyer". Since 2003, Mr Daly has acted on behalf of The Law Society of Northern Ireland, for whom he undertook referrals to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. Expand Close Gerry Daly and wife Rosie sign the marriage register on December 15 / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Gerry Daly and wife Rosie sign the marriage register on December 15 In 2016, he was elected as a council member of the Belfast Chamber of Trade and Commerce. Mr Daly is survived by his wife Rosie, his children, Danielle, Tony and Dominique, and grandson, Cillian. Northern Ireland Finance Minister Mairtin O Muilleoir has dismissed a plan to deal with the renewable heating scandal as "nothing but a sticking plaster". The Sinn Fein minister rubbished claims by DUP Economy Minister Simon Hamilton that he and First Minister Arlene Foster had come up with a solution to reduce the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) Scheme overspend from approximately 490 million to "effectively zero". Mr O Muilleoir also warned that the political institutions will collapse unless the First Minister steps aside to facilitate an independent investigation into the scandal. Following a meeting with Economy Minister Simon Hamilton on Thursday, Mr O Muilleoir said he was "bitterly disappointed" by the proposal outlined to him. "I still haven't seen a plan, there is no plan. When I went to the meeting, there was no plan ready for me and, in fact, I am told that rather than a solution, we now have an interim solution, a sticking plaster. "In the strongest terms possible, I have said to the Economy Minister, 'This isn't the time for sticking plasters, the public is crying out for a solution'. Really I think they need to move to bring forward a comprehensive plan," said Mr O Muilleoir. He added: "I think it is a grave mistake to go forward with an interim solution. It is a grave mistake to apply a sticking plaster to this gaping wound. We need a comprehensive plan on how to bring the debacle to a close. "There has been no real attempt, in my view, to try and get a solution to this dreadful waste of public money until the Spotlight programme." He added that he was not confident that the overspend could be reduced to zero. "It is not a no-cost solution. There will be costs in bringing forward a monitoring of the system, there will be costs involved, at very least to the end of this year, because they are talking about the solution not coming in until the new financial year. And of course the big question is, does it blow up again? No doubt it will be challenged and hundreds of thousands of pounds spent defending it." Mr O Muilleoir insisted that the First Minister must step aside. "By refusing to step aside she has sounded the death knell for the Assembly, the Executive and the institutions. "The only key to release us is Arlene Foster. To do that she would have to do the right thing by the community and step aside. "In the history of the state there has never been as dreadful a financial disaster as this one. If she doesn't stand aside, I think there is no future for these institutions, " he said. All rival parties at Stormont have demanded Mrs Foster stand aside while her role in the affair is investigated. Mrs Foster oversaw the inception of the RHI scheme during her time as economy minister. She has steadfastly refused to step aside and has claimed some of those calling for her head are motivated by misogyny. The state-funded RHI was supposed to offer a proportion of the cost businesses had to pay to run eco-friendly boilers, but the subsidy tariffs were set too high, and without a cap, so it ended up paying out significantly more than the price of fuel. This enabled applicants to "burn to earn" - getting free heat and making a profit as they did it. Claims of widespread abuse include a farmer allegedly set to pocket around 1 million in the next two decades for heating an empty shed. Senior members of Sinn Fein have warned they will exercise their power to collapse the power-sharing Executive if Mrs Foster does not temporarily stand down to facilitate a probe. If the republican party follows through with that threat Northern Ireland will be facing a snap Assembly election, less than a year after the last one. It was originally envisaged that the Treasury would foot the bill for the RHI, but the costs spiralled well beyond London's financial commitment. The total RHI spend in Northern Ireland is estimated at 1,150 million over the next 20 years. The Treasury is set to cover 660 million of that, with Stormont landed with the remaining 490 million. A former Assembly colleague of Mrs Foster has broken ranks to heavily criticise her handling of the botched green energy scheme. Democratic Unionist David McIlveen, an ex-Assembly member, said his party leader had "seriously misjudged the public anger" over an initiative. He branded the scandal an "omnishambles" and claimed an internal storm was brewing within the ranks of the party about Mrs Foster's leadership. Mr McIlveen questioned whether Mrs Foster had become an "electoral liability" for the party and expressed doubt she would be leader in the long term. "Whilst the view in public is that 'Arlene's team' are as loyal and happy as ever, the reality in private is something very different," he said. Writing in the News Letter, he added: "Does a party obsessed with winning elections want to move forward with a leader who appears incapable of facing up to their mistakes, and attacks on a personal level their critics even if they are members of their own party? "I think the answer to that question is fairly obvious and therefore believe it is highly unlikely that 2020 Westminster elections will be fought under the existing DUP leadership." A police officer in Northern Ireland has been cautioned after improperly accessing police records. He was being investigated over an allegation of assault made against him by a member of the public and opened files relating to the case and a similar matter involving a colleague, the Police Ombudsman said. Ombudsman Dr Michael Maguire concluded that the officer had breached the Data Protection Act and submitted a file to the Public Prosecution Service (PPS). The PPS directed that the officer should be prosecuted for common assault and offences relating to data protection and computer misuse. But after consultation, the PPS offered the officer an adult caution, which he accepted. The Ombudsman subsequently submitted a misconduct file to the PSNI, recommending that the he should be disciplined for his conduct. The PSNI has since done so. A routine police audit showed the officer had accessed records from the investigation into his colleague's conduct. Ombudsman investigators then asked police to check whether the officer had also accessed records about the probe into his own conduct. Another audit showed that he had. The officer accepted that he had no lawful reason for opening any of the records. The house at Riverview Park in Ballymoney where Brian McIlhagga was murdered in January, 2015 Police have renewed their appeal for information over the brutal murder of a Ballymena man two years ago today. Brian McIlhagga, a 42-year-old father-of-five, suffered a shockingly violent death at the hands of masked men just before 10.30pm on January 5, 2015. He was dragged from a house in Riverview Park in Ballymoney by a suspected UDA gang and shot in both legs outside. A plasterer from Ballymena, Brian had been visiting a friend, 33-year-old Ashley Craig. She was also assaulted during the attack and four children under the age of 11 in the house at the time were left traumatised. Police say his attackers made off along a walkway running along Riverview Park in the direction of Ballymoney train station. Although 12 arrests have been made by detectives in Serious Crime Branch, there has never been enough evidence to bring anyone to court. Detective Chief Inspector Michael Harvey, who is leading the investigation, said: "We are in no doubt that there are a number of people in the community who know the identity of those involved in Brian's murder and I would urge them to look to their consciences. "I also ask people to take into consideration the level of violence used in Brian's murder. "The injuries sustained in that initial attack would themselves have been life-changing. "They then removed him from the house and shot him in both knees with a shotgun. "The level of violence and brutality in this attack was extremely disturbing and one would have to ask why such a level of brutality was used. "There was certainly paramilitary involvement in this attack but another line of enquiry is that there may well have been some sort of personal grudge also." DCI Harvey urged people with information who were intimidated by "the shadow of paramilitary involvement" to "put yourselves in the place of those children, Brian's friends and family and the trauma they've been through". "I want to appeal again to anyone who saw or heard anything in the area of the murder at Riverview Park and additionally in the area of Raceview Drive, Meadow View and Armour Avenue in Ballymoney between 10pm and 11pm on the night of Monday, January 5, 2015 to contact police. I want to hear from anyone who saw men or vehicles moving in and around the area," he said. "Even though it's two years on, from Brian's murder it is not too late to do the right thing." Detectives at Maydown police station can be contacted on 101 or anonymously via Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. On the first anniversary of Mr McIlhagga's death last year, Ms Craig posted on Facebook describing his death as "a nightmare and the worst night of my life". She has since suffered further personal tragedy after a serious car crash left her paralysed from the neck down on February 8 last year. Posting again on Facebook days ago, she said: "Life can change in the blink of an eye so never take even the simplest of things in life for granted." Last January, Mr McIlhagga's father Ronnie also spoke about the "evil" killing. "I was told by another source these boys (the killers) have closed ranks, there will be nothing said among them and I would say anyone who maybe would have been looking to say something is scared to say anything," he said at the time. He continued: "It has been a long year and I have had many a thought but life has to go on and you have to try and keep the head above water and do the best that you can, especially for the young ones." Ulster Unionist leader Mike Nesbitt has said the next steps needed to deal with overspend in the botched Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme are clear but that Arlene Foster must resign to restore public confidence in the institutions. Mr Nesbitt called on the First Minister to show "true, selfless leadership" and stand down saying it is a 'fresh crisis, not a fresh start". He said: "The next steps are clear. We should fix the flaw in the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme by the Assembly legislating to introduce the cost controls that should have been there in the first place, while the Executive should ask Westminster to bring in a Windfall Tax to recoup the excessive profits made to date. "In parallel, Mrs Foster should show true, selfless leadership and resign as the first step to restoring public confidence in the integrity of the institutions. "Those steps may be obvious, but it appears equally clear this evening that we are off in a quite different direction, into another cul-de-sac of petty party political point scoring, with the DUP and Sinn Fein incapable of delivering the promised Fresh Start. "This is a fresh crisis, not a fresh start, and if it leads to an Assembly Election, I hope people reflect on the last ten years of DUP / Sinn Fein rule and recognise that with the introduction of an Official Opposition at Stormont, there is for once an opportunity to vote for change." Meanwhile DUP Economy Minister Simon Hamilton and Sinn Fein Finance Minister Mairtin O'Muilleoir held talks over how to cut the projected 490m overspend. The two ministers clashed over how to deal with the continued spending on the flawed scheme which pays out 1.60 to businesses for every pound they spend on fueling biomass boilers. A DUP plan to bring emergency legislation was announced on Wednesday by the party. However, Mr O'Muilleoir said he was "bemused" to read of the plan in the media given how any proposal needs his approval. On Thursday, the Sinn Fein MLA tweeted: "Disappointed that after 7 months of asking still no plan to tackle RHI mess. 'Interim solution' sticking plaster approach wont cut it." It was originally envisaged that the Treasury would foot the bill for the RHI, but the costs spiralled well beyond London's financial commitment. The total RHI spend in Northern Ireland is estimated to be more than 1 billion over the next 20 years. The Treasury is set to cover 660 million of that, with Stormont landed with the remaining 490 million. Mairtin O Muilleoir has said the Stormont Executive will collapse unless Arlene Foster steps aside while the botched renewable heating scheme is investigated. The Northern Ireland finance minister dismissed a plan to deal with the scandal as "nothing but a sticking plaster". The Sinn Fein minister also rubbished claims by DUP Economy Minister Simon Hamilton that he and First Minister Arlene Foster had come up with a solution to reduce the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) Scheme overspend from approximately 490 million to "effectively zero". Mr O Muilleoir also warned that the political institutions will collapse unless the First Minister steps aside to facilitate an independent investigation into the scandal. Following a meeting with Economy Minister Simon Hamilton on Thursday, Mr O Muilleoir said he was "bitterly disappointed" by the proposal outlined to him. "I still haven't seen a plan, there is no plan. When I went to the meeting, there was no plan ready for me and, in fact, I am told that rather than a solution, we now have an interim solution, a sticking plaster. "In the strongest terms possible, I have said to the Economy Minister, 'This isn't the time for sticking plasters, the public is crying out for a solution'. Really I think they need to move to bring forward a comprehensive plan," said Mr O Muilleoir. He added: "I think it is a grave mistake to go forward with an interim solution. It is a grave mistake to apply a sticking plaster to this gaping wound. We need a comprehensive plan on how to bring the debacle to a close. "There has been no real attempt, in my view, to try and get a solution to this dreadful waste of public money until the Spotlight programme." He added that he was not confident that the overspend could be reduced to zero. "It is not a no-cost solution. There will be costs in bringing forward a monitoring of the system, there will be costs involved, at very least to the end of this year, because they are talking about the solution not coming in until the new financial year. And of course the big question is, does it blow up again? No doubt it will be challenged and hundreds of thousands of pounds spent defending it." Mr O Muilleoir insisted that the First Minister must step aside. "It's the greatest conflict of interest I've seen in my political life that the architect of the RHI scheme would remain in office while the investigation gets underway," he said. Expand Close First Minister Arlene Foster with Simon Hamilton Mairtin O'Muilleoir / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp First Minister Arlene Foster with Simon Hamilton Mairtin O'Muilleoir "We've served notice. The only way we can clear the impasse is for Arlene Foster to step aside. "By refusing to step aside she has sounded the death knell for the Assembly, the Executive and the institutions. "The only key to release us is Arlene Foster. To do that she would have to do the right thing by the community and step aside. Expand Close Ulster Unionist chief Mike Nesbitt raised concerns about efforts to tackle the RHI scandal / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Ulster Unionist chief Mike Nesbitt raised concerns about efforts to tackle the RHI scandal "In the history of the state there has never been as dreadful a financial disaster as this one. If she doesn't stand aside, I think there is no future for these institutions, " he said. All rival parties at Stormont have demanded Mrs Foster stand aside while her role in the affair is investigated. Mrs Foster oversaw the inception of the RHI scheme during her time as economy minister. She has steadfastly refused to step aside and has claimed some of those calling for her head are motivated by misogyny. The state-funded RHI was supposed to offer a proportion of the cost businesses had to pay to run eco-friendly boilers, but the subsidy tariffs were set too high, and without a cap, so it ended up paying out significantly more than the price of fuel. This enabled applicants to "burn to earn" - getting free heat and making a profit as they did it. Claims of widespread abuse include a farmer allegedly set to pocket around 1 million in the next two decades for heating an empty shed. Senior members of Sinn Fein have warned they will exercise their power to collapse the power-sharing Executive if Mrs Foster does not temporarily stand down to facilitate a probe. If the republican party follows through with that threat Northern Ireland will be facing a snap Assembly election, less than a year after the last one. It was originally envisaged that the Treasury would foot the bill for the RHI, but the costs spiralled well beyond London's financial commitment. The total RHI spend in Northern Ireland is estimated at 1,150 million over the next 20 years. The Treasury is set to cover 660 million of that, with Stormont landed with the remaining 490 million. A former Assembly colleague of Mrs Foster has broken ranks to heavily criticise her handling of the botched green energy scheme. Democratic Unionist David McIlveen, an ex-Assembly member, said his party leader had "seriously misjudged the public anger" over an initiative. He branded the scandal an "omnishambles" and claimed an internal storm was brewing within the ranks of the party about Mrs Foster's leadership. Mr McIlveen questioned whether Mrs Foster had become an "electoral liability" for the party and expressed doubt she would be leader in the long term. "Whilst the view in public is that 'Arlene's team' are as loyal and happy as ever, the reality in private is something very different," he said. Writing in the News Letter, he added: "Does a party obsessed with winning elections want to move forward with a leader who appears incapable of facing up to their mistakes, and attacks on a personal level their critics even if they are members of their own party? "I think the answer to that question is fairly obvious and therefore believe it is highly unlikely that 2020 Westminster elections will be fought under the existing DUP leadership." The City of Flagstaff is waiting for a signature from President Barack Obama on $102.9 million in reauthorization funds for the Rio de Flag flood control project. The U.S. Senate passed a bill in September reauthorizing the Water Development Act of 2000, which designates the Flagstaff project as eligible for the funds. If the bill is signed, the next step would be for the Army Corps of Engineers to begin releasing funds. After that, the Rio de Flag project could be completed in the next five to seven years, according to a press release. The city and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have been working on the project since 1996. The project is designed to control the run-off from a 100-year flood in the Rio de Flag basin and channel it away from the citys center. The original cost of the project was $24 million. It is now estimated to cost around $107 million. The project consists of 1.6 miles of flood control channel improvements, a 72-acre detention basin and three new bridges. The Clay Avenue basin was finished in 2009 but the earthen embankment around it was not built to specifications and it started to crack and settle. According to the city, a 100-year flood in the Rio de Flag area would inundate much of downtown Flagstaff, Southside and Northern Arizona University, causing millions of dollars in property damage. Besides reducing flood damage, the Rio de Flag project could also reduce or eliminate the need for flood insurance for many residents and businesses in the floodplain of the Rio de Flag. It would also make it easier to build in the area. The federal, state and city all have restrictions on what can be built and how a building must be constructed in a flood plain area. Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams has said the devolved institutions are at a "defining point" and urged First Minister Arlene Foster to "do the right thing" and step aside for the investigation into the Renewable Heating Incentive scheme. Writing in his weekly Andersonstown News column, the Louth TD said the current crisis circling the devolved institutions could be sorted but only without Arlene Foster in the Executive office until a preliminary report can be published. The Assembly is set to debate the matter when it reconvenes after its Christmas break with Sinn Fein tabling a motion calling for Mrs Foster to stand aside for a inquiry into the matter which could cost the Northern Ireland taxpayer over 400m. Although the DUP have vowed to cut the overspend of the scheme to zero. Gerry Adams said the behaviour of the DUP over RHI and other matters had brought the institutions to a "defining point". He wrote: "Sinn Fein has kept faith with the political institutions because we are mandated to do so. For almost 10 years Martin McGuinness and our Assembly team have navigated a way through a number of crises and scandals. "A lot of good work has been done by the Executive and the Assembly and significant progress has been made on many issues, including on cross border and all-Ireland matters. "On other issues there has been little or no progress. I'm thinking here of the long standing absence of a Bill of Rights. There has also been a shameful lack of respect accorded to the Irish language and to those citizens who wish to live their lives through Gaeilge. "The reprehensible decision on the eve of Christmas to cut funding for the Liofa programme is just one example of this." He continued: "Among other examples of DUP messing have been the decision to renege on the Programme for Government commitment on the Long Kesh site, the DUPs resistance to the legacy and truth recovery mechanisms of the Stormont House agreement and the Project Eagle debacle. "These issues, and the previous Christmas time crises, mean that even before the emergence of the RHI scandal the behaviour of the DUP had already led to a considerable lack of public confidence in the institutions. "The RHI scandal and the manner in which the DUP has handled it, has significantly deepened a crisis that already existed. "When the Assembly resumes a Sinn Fein motion on the RHI scheme will be debated. It is a common sense proposal which comprehensively addresses the many issues which have given rise to public concern. "It calls on the First Minister to stand aside in order to facilitate an independent, time-framed, robust and transparent investigation and until a preliminary report is presented. "It will also propose that this investigation would be undertaken by an independent judicial figure from outside this jurisdiction and with the power to compel witnesses and documents. "Over the Christmas break Sinn Fein took legal advice on the potential efficacy of our proposals. That advice, and we have accepted it, pointed to the need to address in clear terms the issue of compelling persons and papers in any investigation to make it effective. "But whatever the outcome of that debate the reality is that the political institutions have reached a defining point. Neither the public nor Sinn Fein can continue to countenance the manner in which the DUP conduct business within the Executive and the Assembly. "Can this be sorted out? Of course it can. That would require Arlene Foster to do what Peter Robinson did. She should step aside to facilitate an independent process which gets to the facts of the RHI scandal effectively and quickly. "This is a straight forward case. The First Minister has been in office for a relatively short time. If she wants to continue in that office she needs to do the right thing." NASUWT general secretary Chris Keates said if the next phase of strike action goes ahead "it will be the responsibility of the ministers and the employers" Members of Northern Ireland's largest teaching union are to go on strike in the west over pay. A rolling day of action is due to be held on January 31 by National Association of Schoolmasters/Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) members in schools across Londonderry and Strabane, Mid Ulster, and Fermanagh and Omagh. It follows a walk out in Belfast and Newtownabbey on November 30. Teachers have rejected an offer that would have delivered a 1% rise this year, with rates for 2015/16 remaining frozen. Education minister Peter Weir has claimed a bigger increase could only be afforded by making redundancies. NASUWT general secretary Chris Keates said: "It is with deep regret that we remain in this position, but we have been left with no choice by the blatant disregard of the minister for e ducation and the employers for the pay and conditions of service of teachers who provide such a vital public service. "We have continued to make clear to the minister that strike action can be avoided if there is an improvement on the 0% pay award for 2015/16 and a genuine commitment to meet with the NASUWT to seek to resolve our trade dispute. "If the next phase of strike action goes ahead, it will be the responsibility of the ministers and the employers." NASUWT has 12,000 members in Northern Ireland across primary and secondary schools. Mr Weir has previously stated he was prepared to discuss "realistic" pay proposals for 2017/18 onward but said there would be no more negotiations on the rejected offer. Ms Keates accused the minister of being unwilling to engage appropriately in discussions. She said the union also had deep concerns over adverse changes to pensions, working conditions and job loss. In a letter to the minister she wrote: "It is regrettable that, to date, your response to each of the issues the NASUWT has raised has been to say that these are matters for the Teachers Negotiating Committee." She added: "The current negotiating machinery is not the appropriate forum and does not have the locus to resolve the NASUWT trade dispute with you. "Such resolution can only be secured through genuine engagement by the department of education with the NASUWT directly." Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 30th November 2016 NASUWT The Teachers' Union in Northern Ireland hold a strike and meeting at the Europa Hotel in Belfast over pay increase issues. Picture by Jonathan Porter/Press Eye. Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 30th November 2016 NASUWT The Teachers' Union in Northern Ireland hold a strike and meeting at the Europa Hotel in Belfast over pay increase issues. Picture by Jonathan Porter/Press Eye. Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 30th November 2016 NASUWT The Teachers' Union in Northern Ireland hold a strike and meeting at the Europa Hotel in Belfast over pay increase issues. Picture by Jonathan Porter/Press Eye. Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 30th November 2016 NASUWT The Teachers' Union in Northern Ireland hold a strike and meeting at the Europa Hotel in Belfast over pay increase issues. Picture by Jonathan Porter/Press Eye. Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 30th November 2016 NASUWT The Teachers' Union in Northern Ireland hold a strike and meeting at the Europa Hotel in Belfast over pay increase issues. Picture by Jonathan Porter/Press Eye. Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 30th November 2016 NASUWT The Teachers' Union in Northern Ireland hold a strike and meeting at the Europa Hotel in Belfast over pay increase issues. Picture by Jonathan Porter/Press Eye. NASUWT teachers' union members members stage one-day strike. A number of those taking part in the strike gathered at the Europa Hotel in Belfast. Picture by Jonathan Porter/Press Eye. Teachers union the NASUWT has announced its next planned strike action in Northern Ireland. The walk outs are set to take place on Tuesday, January 31 at schools across the Derry City, Strabane, Mid Ulster, Fermanagh and Omagh areas. This comes after the union caused chaos on November 30 when it called its members at schools in the Belfast and Newtownabbey areas out to strike. Some 77 schools were affected by the one-day strike, with some having to close completely. The strike action was taken over pay, job security and workload. Education Minister Peter Weir criticised the strike, claiming his departments budget is under severe pressure, accusing the unions of harming the education of children. Last October the five teachers unions in Northern Ireland walked out of talks with employers over a pay offer of 0% of 2015-16 and 1% for 2016/17. Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, said: It is with deep regret that we remain in this position, but we have been left with no choice by the blatant disregard of the Minister for Education and the employers for the pay and conditions of service of teachers who provide such a vital public service. We have continued to make clear to the minister that strike action can be avoided if there is an improvement on the 0% pay award for 2015/16 and a genuine commitment to meet with the NASUWT to seek to resolve our trade dispute. If the next phase of strike action goes ahead, it will be the responsibility of the ministers and the employers. Justin McCamphill, NASUWT National Official Northern Ireland, said its members are committed and dedicated teachers who regret any disruption to pupils and parents. However, parents will also recognise that unless teachers are recognised and rewarded as highly-skilled professionals and have working conditions which free them to focus on teaching and learning, there will be a long-term detrimental impact on the quality of education provision for their children, he said. The announcement by NASUWT comes after it emerged this week that the unions are set to meet employers for preliminary talks next Thursday, January 12. A separate teachers union, INTO, is planning to stage a half day strike action on Wednesday January 18 Two other teachers unions - UTU and ATL - have voted for industrial action short of striking. David McIlveen addresses the DUP spring conference at the Killyhevlin Hotel in Enniskillen. Picture by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye Former DUP MLA David McIlveen has accused his party's leadership of not knowing the difference between humility and humiliation and of avoiding the issues he raised over the RHI scandal. He also said his criticism of Arlene Foster over the RHI scandal was nothing personal but he was "unlikely" to remain in the party. In Thursday's News Letter the ex-Assembly man broke party ranks to say that members of the party now considered Mrs Foster "deeply damaged" and an "electoral liability" in the wake of the RHI fiasco. He said to centre an election campaign around the First Minister - as the party did at the last campaign - would be impossible and she would be "unlikely" to lead the party into the next election. In response Sammy Wilson said Mr McIlveen was "sore" over his electoral downfall at the ballot box and there was no evidence of disquiet among the party ranks. Read More Mr McIlveen accused the DUP MP of not tackling the issues raised by him in the article. He told the Belfast Telegraph: "I have a lot of respect for Sammy and can assure him that none of my opinions were designed to cause any offence. "That said how he responded is unfortunately symptomatic of the very issue I was trying to raise, by attacking me personally rather than facing up to the issues of public anger that are clearly out there at present shows a detachment from reality. "Unfortunately the DUP leadership seem to be confused around the difference between humility and humiliation. "The public have no desire to see our politicians reduced to the latter, but the former would go a long way to restoring faith in the way in which our politicians are viewed." He continued: "Long before my entrance to politics I learned that the only person who suffers as a result of a grudge is the one who holds it. "Life for me outside of political life has never been better and to suggest that my motivation was driven by 'soreness' sadly displays how little the one who made the charge actually knows me. "I was asked to give an opinion and that's what I did, if some people don't like it I am fine with that, it's nothing personal." When asked about possible sanctions over the comments, Sammy Wilson said they could not be ignored by party officers. David McIlveen said it was "unlikely" he would remain in the party, when asked of his future. The DUP said: "Former MLA David McIlveen is entitled to his personal opinions however this is the first time that he has articulated any view since losing his seat. "The overwhelming support Arlene Foster has received from within the party and beyond including messages from others right across Northern Ireland has been hugely heartening." Gardai have apopealed for witnesses to the stabbing near Tallaght A teenager has been stabbed to death, gardai said. The incident happened at Kilclare Crescent in Jobstown, near Tallaght, south Dublin, at around 3pm on Thursday. The victim, described as a male youth in his teens, was taken to nearby Tallaght Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The scene of the stabbing has been sealed off for a technical examination by Garda forensic experts. A Garda spokesman said: "No arrests have been made at this time, investigations are ongoing." Gardai have appealed for witnesses. John Lahart, a TD for the area, said the stabbing was distressing and shocking for the whole community. "While the exact circumstances of this afternoon's incident are unclear, this is a deeply frightening incident to have occurred for all in the locality, in particular the parents of young teenagers," he said. "Irrespective of any details, a young boy has very tragically lost his life and a family has been left shattered." He added: "I urge anyone who has information, or who may have seen anything suspicious, to alert the gardai as soon as possible." Gardai said the victim was aged either 16 or 17 years. It is understood the stabbing took place within a house on Kilclare Crescent. Meghan Markle whose father is "pretty happy" about her relationship with Prince Harry Prince Harry has met his girlfriend Meghan Markles father, who is said to be proud of the relationship, according to reports. The actresss older brother revealed the meeting between the 32-year-old royal and Thomas Markle, a 72-year-old former lighting director, took place during one of Harrys visits to Toronto, Canada. My dad knew about (the relationship) from the start, Thomas Markle Jr told DailyMail.com. He first met Prince Harry about six months ago out in Toronto. He goes once every couple of months (Meghan and Thomas Markle Sr) are very close and they stay in close contact. Hes pretty happy about Harry and hes extremely proud of her. They have an amazing relationship, theyre very close and they always have been. However, Mr Markle said he was not sure whether Harry had met her mother yet. It is thought the Suits star stayed with Harry at his home in the grounds of Kensington Palace when she visited in November. The princes relationship with the 35-year-old, which began in the summer, was confirmed when his communications secretary, Jason Knauf, issued a strongly-worded statement attacking the media over the wave of abuse and harassment the actress had experienced. Mr Knauf revealed the depth of Harrys feelings for his girlfriend when he said the Prince was worried about Ms Markles safety and deeply disappointed that he has not been able to protect her. A friend claimed Jenny Swift had asked to be put into a women's prison An investigation has been launched after a transgender inmate was found dead in her cell at an all-male prison. Jenny Swift, a prisoner at privately run HMP Doncaster, was discovered unresponsive at 12.40am on December 30. Staff and paramedics attempted CPR but she was pronounced dead at 1.10am, the Prison Service said. Swift, 49, from Seaforth in Sefton, Merseyside, was charged with attempted murder after Eric Flanagan, 26, was found with multiple stab wounds in Balby, Doncaster, on November 15. She was remanded in custody at Doncaster Magistrates' Court two days later. Mr Flanagan died a month after the incident. An unnamed friend claimed Swift had asked to be put into a women's prison, the Sheffield Star reported. HMP Doncaster is a category B prison operated by Serco which houses a male population of up to 1,145. The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman confirmed an independent investigation has begun. A spokeswoman said: "We will be in contact with Ms Swift's family and will try to address any questions they may have. "Our independent investigation will aim to identify the full circumstances of the death and whether there were any failings in Ms Swift's care. "Where possible we will identify lessons to be learned and make recommendations to help prevent similar deaths in future. "We also share any findings with the Coroner to assist with their inquiries." The Ministry of Justice launched a review of the care of transgender prisoners after the deaths of two inmates at all-male prisons. Vicky Thompson, 21, was found dead at HMP Leeds in November 2015, and Joanne Latham died at HMP Woodhill in Milton Keynes in the same month. The review, which was published in November, revealed that one in four prisons in England and Wales holds at least one transgender inmate. Data collected in March and April showed that 33 of the 123 public and private prisons reported they had one or more transgender prisoners. There were 19 establishments with one transgender inmate, 10 with between two and four, and four holding at least five. The review said: "It is apparent that the treatment of transgender people in courts, probation and prison services has not kept pace with the development of a more general understanding of the issues surrounding gender in society." Detective Chief Inspector Vicky Short said the investigation into Mr Flanagan's death continues. She said: " On Friday 30 December, we were made aware that the person charged in this investigation had died. However, the inquiry into Mr Flanagan's death remains ongoing at this time and his family continue to be supported by officers." Eddie Johnson said the victim, who has "mental health challenges," is recovering and he called the video "sickening" (AP/Tae-Gyun Kim) Hate crime and assault charges have been filed against four people over an attack on a man with special needs which was streamed live on Facebook. Prosecutors in Cook County, Illinois, announced charges against three 18-year-olds - Jordan Hill, Brittany Covington and Tesfaye Cooper - and 24-year-old Tanishia Covington. The group have also been charged with kidnapping, aggravated unlawful restraint and assault with a deadly weapon. Three of them have additionally been accused of burglary. The charges stem from an incident which lasted 48 hours and targeted a white man police described as having "mental health challenges". All those charged are black. "He's traumatised by the incident, and it's very tough to communicate with him at this point," police commander Kevin Duffin said. Excerpts of the video show the victim with his mouth taped shut slumped in a corner. He has a wound on his head, and a red band appears to be around his hands. Police superintendent Eddie Johnson described the video as "sickening", and added: "It makes you wonder what would make individuals treat somebody like that." The investigation began on Monday after officers found a man "in distress" and "in crisis" walking on a street. The man was taken to hospital, and it was later discovered that he had been reported missing from a Chicago suburb. At about the same time, police took several people into custody at a nearby address where they found signs of a struggle and property damage. Investigators determined that the missing man had been at the same address. Fire managers plan to burn piles of forest debris on the Tusayan and Williams ranger districts of the Kaibab National Forest Thursday and Friday. Piles scattered within a 100-acre area just west of the Town of Tusayan and Grand Canyon Airport will be burned both days. Winds on Thursday are expected to push any smoke produced toward the northeast. Smoke impacts to Tusayan or the airport are expected to be very light. On Friday, winds are predicted to push any smoke southwest away from developed areas. No road or trail closures are expected. On the Williams Ranger District, piles scattered within a 52-acre area will be burned Thursday and Friday near Kunde Knoll, about 8 miles south of Williams. Smoke impacts to any developed areas or nearby communities are expected to be light. Also on Thursday and Friday, Williams fire managers plan to burn the single, large natural debris pile at Three Sisters Cinder Pit, located north of Cataract Lake about two miles northwest of Williams. Light smoke may be noticeable in the northern portions of Williams during overnight hours. No road or trail closures are expected with either pile burn on the Williams Ranger District. Zimbabwe's government has said it needs to sell wildlife to support its people Zimbabwe's wildlife agency said it has sold 35 elephants to China to ease overpopulation and raise funds for conservation, amid criticism from animal welfare activists that such sales are unethical. The once-prosperous country's economy has fallen apart and Zimbabwe's government has said it needs to sell wildlife to support its people and conservation efforts. The government has also sought to sell its ivory stockpile for millions of dollars. The Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority did not say how much China paid for the 35 elephants but said it was "turning to friendly countries to extract value out of our wildlife". This is the first time Zimbabwe has confirmed the December 23 sale since activists announced a plane was carrying the animals to China. The wildlife agency did not say whether the elephants were adults, which has been a concern for some conservation groups. "Why is it done clandestinely and then announced two weeks later? Because we know that at times, calves have been taken away from their mothers, conditions have been atrocious and the money, no-one really knows how it is used," said Johnny Rodrigues, whose Zimbabwe Conservation Taskforce has been vocal about elephant sales to China. A similar outcry followed similar sales in 2015. The statement by Zimbabwe's wildlife agency said its conservation efforts have been affected by restrictions on selling the country's ivory stockpile and on trophy hunting of certain species. In 2014, the United States banned the import of sport-hunted elephant trophies from Zimbabwe, citing a lack of transparency in the use of conservation funds generated by their export. Zimbabwe's wildlife agency has said the wildlife-rich southern African country has 36,000-plus more elephants than it can support. The 35 elephants were captured from Hwange National Park and flown to China's Shanghai Exhibition Park, Beijing Wildlife Park and Hangzhou Wildlife Park, the agency said. It said it followed international regulations in the sale, adding that it previously sold other animals to Europe and the US. AP Ramush Haradinaj, pictured in 2008, as Kosovo's former prime minister was detained by French police (AP/Visar Kryeziu) A former prime minister of Kosovo is facing possible extradition to Serbia to face war crimes charges after being arrested at a French airport. Ramush Haradinaj appeared in a court in Colmar, eastern France, that ruled he should stay in custody during extradition proceedings. Mr Haradinaj, a former guerrilla fighter in Kosovo's 1998-1999 war for independence from Serbia, was detained on Wednesday at Basel Mulhouse Freiburg airport, on the border with Switzerland and Germany, on a Serbian warrant. He was cleared of war crimes charges in two lengthy trials by a UN tribunal, but Serbia accuses him of committing war crimes including kidnappings, torture and killings against Serb civilians when he was a senior rebel commander in western Kosovo. Kosovo's government called the charges "illegal, unfair and tendentious". Kosovo president Hashim Thaci, also a former guerrilla leader and a political rival of Mr Haradinaj's who used to be his friend, called the detention "unacceptable". Mr Thaci said the accusations were "damaging peace and stability" in the Balkans and were an effort to derail Kosovo's push to join international organisations as an independent state. In Belgrade, Serbian PM Aleksandar Vucic expressed hope that France would extradite Mr Haradinaj and would not let politics override legal matters. "Our prosecutor's office has numerous pieces of evidence against Mr Haradinaj," Mr Vucic said. "He is accused of so many (crimes) that they are impossible to list." Kosovo foreign minister Enver Hoxhaj spoke by telephone with French counterpart Jean-Marc Ayrault to express his dismay at the arrest, saying "Serbia's arrest warrants are unacceptable and not valid for Kosovo citizens". Mr Hoxhaj proclaimed Mr Haradinaj's innocence and called Serbia's pursuit of him politically motivated. France and most European countries recognised Kosovo's independence after it seceded from Serbia in 2008, but Serbia has not. Mr Haradinaj was detained in Slovenia two years ago at Belgrade's request, but later released. Pristina on Thursday also denied a request from Serbian president Tomislav Nikolic to visit Kosovo. Pristina and Belgrade are holding EU-brokered talks to reconcile their differences, and the two states have agreed to give each other advance notice of planned visits by their respective government representatives. "The Kosovo government considers that Serbia's recent behaviour and continuous statements are against the spirit of inter-state collaboration," a foreign ministry statement said. AP Nine judges of the Constitutional Court sit during a hearing on whether to confirm the impeachment of President Park Geun-Hye (Jung Yeon-Je/Pool Photo via AP) South Korean president Park Geun-hye has been accused of "broadly and gravely" violating the constitution as her impeachment trial got under way. Politicians, functioning as prosecutors in the trial, argued that Ms Park should be removed from the presidency, but her lawyers said the accusations lacked evidence. The Constitutional Court has begun hearing oral arguments in the trial, in which Ms Park is accused of colluding with a long-time friend to extort money and favours from companies and allowing her friend to interfere with government affairs. As the impeachment hearing was taking place, Ms Park's friend, Choi Soon-sil, appeared in another court in Seoul where she told the judge she denies the allegations against her. Also in the courtroom were former presidential secretaries Ahn Jong-beom, who allegedly pressured companies which gave tens of millions of dollars to foundations Choi controlled, and Jung Ho-sung, charged with passing government secrets to Choi, such as information on ministerial candidates. The chief prosecutor in the impeachment trial, politician Kweon Seong Dong, said Ms Park abused her position by "broadly and gravely" violating the constitution to commit corruption and turn state affairs into a profit tool for her friend. He said Ms Park must be removed from office to repair the damage she had caused to the country's democracy. Parliament voted on December 9 to impeach Ms Park, suspending her powers and making the prime minister the government caretaker. The Constitutional Court has less than six months to decide if Ms Park should be removed or reinstated, and if it removes her, an election has to be held within 60 days. Ms Park's lawyer, Lee Joong-hwan, said the accusations stated in the impeachment bill "lack evidence and fail to make legal sense" because they were based on allegations and media reports, not criminal convictions. The hearing proceeded without Ms Park, who refused to give evidence for the second time and cannot be forced to do so. The court had planned to hear evidence from four of Ms Park's former and current aides suspected of helping Choi, but only one appeared. Besides the corruption allegations, the court will also hear accusations included in the impeachment bill that blamed Ms Park for restrictions on media reporting and for government inaction during a 2014 ferry sinking that killed more than 300 passengers. Yoon Jeon-chu, who has been Ms Park's aide since 2013, did not answer directly most of the questions asking about her interactions with Choi and what Ms Park did on the day of the ferry disaster. The court said it was not able to deliver subpoenas to former aides Ahn Bong-geun and Lee Jae-man, who both worked with Ms Park for nearly 20 years since her days as a politician, and said another current aide, Lee Yeong-seon, asked to appear later. Ms Park has publicly apologised for putting trust in Choi, but denied accusations that she colluded with her friend in criminal activities. Prosecutors also indicted Choi's niece and several former government and presidential officials who allegedly assisted Choi in manipulating state affairs and exploiting her connections with Ms Park to amass an illicit fortune. Ms Park's lawyers may prefer her not to give evidence because their chief argument is that the accusations against Ms Park have not been fully proven, said Han Sang-hie, a law professor at Seoul's Konkuk University. Ms Park rejected requests by state prosecutors to question her and has yet to be questioned by the special prosecution team that has taken over the inquiry. During Thursday's hearings, Seo Seok-gu, another Park lawyer, argued that the investigation into Ms Park was biased and suggested that the massive protests that pushed politicians to impeach her were influenced by groups sympathetic to North Korea. Seo accused news organisations that reported on the scandal of demagoguery, which he said threatens to make democracy "very dangerous", and compared Ms Park's impeachment to the "unjust" deaths of Jesus Christ and ancient Greek philosopher Socrates. AP South Korea will form a special military brigade this year tasked with removing North Korea's leadership in the event of war as Seoul looks for options to counter its rival's nuclear weapons and missiles, an official said. The brigade will aim to remove the North's wartime command and paralyse its function if war breaks out, according to an official from Seoul's defence ministry. The brigade was originally planned to be ready by 2019. The official refused to say whether the brigade will train to execute pre-emptive strikes. The plan was included in defence minister Han Min Koo's policy briefing to Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, who became government caretaker upon President Park Geun-hye's impeachment over a corruption scandal. North Korea conducted two nuclear tests and a series of rocket test firings last year in attempts to expand its nuclear weapons and missile programme. Following the North's latest nuclear test in September, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff announced plans to strengthen its ability to conduct pre-emptive strikes. It also said a "Korea massive punishment and retaliation" system would use special forces and cruise missiles now under development to destroy areas where North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and the rest of the country's decision-makers are located. AP Gerry Adams will speak in Limerick for the 60th anniversary of Sean Souths death This Sunday afternoon Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams TD will be in Limerick for a special commemoration. Sinn Fein supporters will gather in the city centre and march out to the grave of Sean South at Mount St Lawrence Cemetery, where Adams will be the main speaker. The event is to mark the 60th anniversary of the deaths of South and Fergal O'Hanlon, who were killed during a failed IRA attack on the RUC station in Brookeborough on January 1, 1957. South was from Limerick and O'Hanlon from Monaghan, and so there are two separate commemorations each year. The IRA gang was intent on blowing up the RUC station and murdering the policemen in it, but the terrorist attack went badly wrong. South and O'Hanlon were killed and some of the other IRA gunmen were injured. The two funerals were the focal points for "a week of all but national mourning", and the abortive IRA raid entered the folk memory of republicanism. Within a week of his death, the song Sean South had appeared in the Irish Catholic and soon became very popular in the repertoire of republicanism. South was more than just an IRA gunman. He was also a member of the Gaelic League and Sinn Fein, and he was a young man whose mind had been poisoned by politico-religious fanaticism. He had formed the Limerick branch of the right-wing religious organisation Maria Duce, which was notoriously anti-Protestant and anti-Semitic. South even promoted the organisation in the Gaelic League monthly newspaper Rosc. The founder of Maria Duce taught that communism was an international conspiracy organised by Jews and Freemasons, and in March 1950 the secretary of Maria Duce called for Ireland, as "a Catholic state", to "suppress non-Catholic sects as inimical to the common good". He added that "such intolerance is the privilege of truth". South's biographer Mainchin Seoighe also states that he was a member of the fascist party Ailtiri na hAiseirighe, and he was certainly a sympathiser. Last Sunday there was a northern Sinn Fein event close to where the dead bodies of South and O'Hanlon were left by their IRA comrades as they escaped across the border. There the speaker was Sinn Fein MEP Matt Carthy, who attacked the DUP and said: "The political leadership of unionism remains steeped in sectarianism and pursues a deeply reactionary political agenda. This situation is not sustainable. Republicans did not sign up for the indefinite obstruction of political progress. We did not sign up for the denial of Irish language rights." This seems to refer to the republican demand for an Irish Language Act, and that helps to explain how Sinn Fein is attempting to position itself politically at the present time. It also says something about the mindset of Sinn Fein when Carthy felt able to accuse others of "sectarianism" and "a deeply reactionary agenda" while at the same time eulogising South, who was the very epitome of sectarianism and reactionary politics. Usually the Limerick commemoration is a low-key event, and in 2015 it drew a crowd of just 250 people, with two local councillors as the speakers. However, this year, the 60th anniversary, Sinn Fein has called in its party president Gerry Adams. Something similar happened for the 50th anniversary, when the speaker was none other than Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness. All of this raises a number of questions. If a senior member of any other political party addressed a commemoration for a gunman who held such odious views as those of South, would the media not be interrogating that politician? Would they not be door-stepping him and demanding an explanation and an apology? Why, then, are they so reluctant to confront Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness? Is there to be two-tier journalism? If the BBC, as our "public service broadcaster", can send reporters off for a fortnight to South America, then surely it can send someone down to Limerick for an afternoon to ask Adams. Northern Ireland's Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme is a debacle. "Debacle" is not my word, it is the one Arlene Foster chose when making her infamous statement to the Northern Ireland Assembly before Christmas. If debacle is the right word, then it's because one definition is "a complete failure, particularly because of poor planning and organisation". It's important for a number of reasons. First, there is the additional projected cost. That could be as much as 600 million above and beyond the 660m the Treasury was happy to fund. The excess costs lie with us, as a devolved government. In other words, it comes out of the block grant, currently at a rate of 85,000 a day. How ironic, after all these years of blaming every ill on Tory austerity, that the DUP put an additional squeeze on our beleaguered finances. The second reason RHI matters is because it exposes a flaw in our governance structures at Stormont. Mrs Foster rightly told us some weeks ago that an Executive minister was charged with policy, not detail, and that she could not be across every "jot and tittle" of her department's work programme. Unfortunately, this does not defend her against this debacle, because she signed off on a series of policy decisions: to seek the devolution of renewable heat policy when it rested with the Department of Energy and Climate Change in London; the decision not to cut and paste the successful RHI scheme already operating in Great Britain; and the politically fatal decision to adopt a Northern Ireland-specific scheme that failed to build in the cost controls that applied elsewhere in the UK, such as degression, an exotic sounding term that, simply put, means if there is a pound available and one person applies, they get the pound, but if 100 apply, they get one penny each. Plus, Mrs Foster wrote to the local banks in early 2013 in terms more akin to an over-zealous financial adviser than an Executive minister, telling them they were on to a good thing if they were lending to anyone wishing to buy a renewables boiler. The assurances were staggering in their certainty, demonstrating an awareness of the "jot and tittle" of the RHI scheme. Emma Little-Pengelly MLA attempted a defence of Mrs Foster on BBC Radio Ulster yesterday, pointing out the flaws were missed by many, including officials, energy specialists, the statutory scrutiny committee and the Assembly itself. She might have added special advisers, but did not, perhaps because there is at least anecdotal evidence that places a question mark over the motivation of some. For Mrs Little Pengelly, there is an awkward distinction between Mrs Foster and the rest. It is the concept of ministerial responsibility. Mrs Foster was the minister; the minister is the department. The third reason RHI is important is because it has further undermined public confidence in the integrity of the devolved institutions. Although the DUP has a history of political scandals, I sense RHI is different because everyone instinctively understands this one, and they are angry - 'cash for ash' does not sit well with ever-lengthening NHS waiting lists, Troubles victims seeking pensions to compensate for lost life opportunities and the elderly facing the winter dilemma of "heat or eat". Of course, the DUP has accused me of simply seeking a scalp. I am not. I am focused, as all 108 of us should be, on the fact Stormont is now held in contempt by a worryingly large proportion of our population. Look at the voting patterns for Assembly elections: 70% in 1998, 64% in 2003, 63% in 2007, 56% in 2011 and 55% last year. This is about leadership. Mrs Foster leads the Executive and Assembly as First Minister. The public look to her for an example. As they reflect on the use of petitions of concern to protect Executive ministerial colleagues for due process, they question what is more important: individual careers, or the integrity of the institutions? My answer is the latter, and if Mrs Foster agrees, then the only honourable course of action is to resign. It is, as a certain generation would put it, "the done thing". Nothing should be more important than prioritising the reputation of the Assembly and its Executive arm. It is for that reason, and that only, that I feel Mrs Foster should step down. It would be a strong, selfless statement that would help transform public perception, especially if complemented by three other important actions: a judge-led, time-bound public inquiry under the 2005 Inquiries Act; the passing of Westminster legislation to introduce a windfall tax that would recover excessive profits; and the introduction of cost controls for the RHI scheme from today forward. Sadly, judging by her comments in yesterday's Belfast Telegraph, Mrs Foster is more focused on fighting to save her job. No doubt encouraged by special advisers like Timothy Johnston, she has engaged in classical political deflection. There is not a shred of evidence that she is subject to misogyny from any political opponent, but it does nudge the focus of the debate somewhere less uncomfortable for her. I accept she may be trolled on social media, we all are. It's not nice, it reflects something fundamentally unpleasant about some elements of society, but there is a simple cure if you are offended or hurt - block the trolls. Mrs Foster also had what some think was a swipe at me over mental health. I have campaigned on this issue since I was elected, partly because of the experience of trying to support my wife as she suffered through clinical depression over 20 years ago, and also because of my experience as a Commissioner for Victims and Survivors, so many of whom endure severe wellbeing issues. Of course, politicians are not immune from developing mental health issues, but that does not excuse us from the rough and tumble of public service. I do not complain when Mrs Foster calls me part of "Steptoe & Son" or throws personal insults across the floor of the Assembly. I simply repeat my call for the Executive to take big, bold steps to address the fact that Northern Ireland has one of the worst per capita rates of poor wellbeing in the world. The ultimate deflection, however, seems to be that to criticise Mrs Foster is to undermine unionism. She tells this newspaper my calls for her resignation are not playing well with unionists. I beg to differ. At the supermarket on Monday, the woman at the check-out looked at me: "I had such high hopes for Arlene," she sighed. This is not about unionism, any more than it is about mental health or misogyny. Yes, some unionists will not like one unionist leader criticising another, any more than the DUP will like two DUP ministers attacking each other on BBC NI television. But what this is about is ministerial responsibility, good governance, the integrity of the devolved institutions, the standing of Stormont in the court of public opinion and the need to properly and fearlessly examine why waste on an industrial scale was allowed to pass. To try to deflect from these real, important issues by playing the sectarian card is wrong. If there is a silver lining to this debacle, it is that it should push us closer to my aspiration of a post-sectarian society, where the political issues are headlined by the economy, the education of our children, housing, and our precious National Health Service - normal politics, where mistakes are made, and responsibility is admitted. I have little in common politically with Arlene Foster. From abortion, to marriage equality, it's hard at times to find anything we would agree on, though I met her briefly after the Assembly debate on my case in 2014, and I appreciated the kindness she showed me on that occasion. My views on the RHI debacle have been put on record. I happen not to agree with the DUP's (or Sinn Fein's) handling of this issue, and favour an inquiry to get much sought answers and accountability. Nor do I believe that she is the target of criticism from other political parties simply because of her gender. Legitimate criticism is par for the course in politics, and some of it has been warranted. However, when it comes to recent online treatment of Arlene Foster, she is perfectly correct in her assertion that some of the social media commentary has been "horrific". A five second search of Twitter brings up everything from the usual disgusting adjectives used to describe women, to a crude cartoon of her depicted in the nude with an orange sash around her neck, to a wall mural which depicted her as a green witch. Foster is not immune to having feelings and expressed those yesterday. In many ways, she can't win. When she became First Minister, she was lauded by commentators for her no-nonsense approach. That same style has drawn criticism recently, where she has been described in some quarters as "arrogant and bullish". Yesterday was one of the few occasions that she referred to the impact the last few weeks have had on her and she was slammed for it. As she stated herself, she is "not a robot, but a human being". She is entitled to those feelings. Martin McGuinness' use of the almost paternalistic term "friendly advice", while calling for her to step aside was patronising in tone. The word "hysterical", used on radio by another politician to describe her statement yesterday, is an adjective rarely applied to male politicians. A regular political commentator who shall remain nameless, save I give him any more publicity, recently made a joke on social media at her expense which referred to her as a "girl". Yet, her assertion that some of the criticism of her was misogynistic in tone, was dismissed out of hand by most, almost immediately. Comments by social media trolls about her appearance, her gender and use of words - like b*****, c*** and witch - are undoubtedly misogynistic. It was notable, but depressing, that other politicians who are normally strong when it comes to calling out sexism, turned on Arlene Foster instead. She was accused of "playing the sexism and misogyny card" by Alliance leader Naomi Long. That statement was disappointing, and isn't exactly encouraging for any other female in the public sphere to voice concerns about similar treatment in future. Green Party MLA Claire Bailey issued an entire statement, referring to "a terrible attempt to detract from her role in the RHI fiasco", and attacking Foster's record on gender equality. Not once did she challenge any of the abusive content that Foster has been subjected to. Arlene Foster is a woman. She is no less a woman for being a conservative woman, or for raising the issue. Coming from a party which doesn't have a great track record on social justice or women's rights issues, does not make her any less a victim of gutter-type social media posters, and nor does members of her own party displaying a less than exemplary track record themselves over the years towards some women, make her any less entitled to raise her own experience of the issue. She is also a politician. Like others, being one makes her a target for inhumane commentary at times. Stating that she would not want her mother or daughter affected by it does not weaken her, as some have claimed - but the response to her is a reminder that sometimes, there is selectivity, depending on who the target is. It's either sexist or it isn't. There should be no middle ground. Let's get to the bottom of the RHI fiasco, but let's also not debase ourselves by dismissing the First Minister's experience out of hand. To do so grants licence for unacceptable aspects of treatment towards her to continue. There is a shortage of priests everywhere, certainly all over Ireland. In some countries the priest is peripatetic. He moves from parish to parish, stopping for a day to consecrate enough wafers of the Eucharist bread to supply the masses for weeks ahead. He then leaves it to the lay servers or Eucharistic ministers to distribute them. The tradition of there always being a priest available to say Mass in any church has already died out. This is not like the Ireland I knew as a child where, on a Saturday morning, four priests might be hearing confessions and four rows of pews at each confession box would be filled with penitents waiting their turn. The bottom has fallen out of the market. Which would not be a problem if the staffing of the Church declined at the same rate as the demand for the sacraments, but it hasn't. It has proceeded at a faster rate. Certainly, fewer Catholics go to Mass every week than did 20 years ago. Indeed, fewer still go to confession. Almost none want to be priests, but about half of them still want to go to Mass about once a month. That means that the ratio of priests to members of a congregation has fallen. Even in a rapidly secularising Ireland there is demand for more Masses than there are priests to celebrate them. And many parishes now are run by a single, lonely priest performing all the duties attached to the job unaided. In Newry, one part of the solution is simply to drop some of the Masses from the routine. In other areas parishes co-operate to relieve the burden. Congregations are invited to cross to another parish to give their local priest a rest. So, in Strabane, for instance, the regulars at the Wednesday morning Mass go across to the Melmount Road church to give their priest, Fr Doherty a break, and on Tuesdays the Melmount Road parish priest, Fr Boland, gets a break and his congregation goes to Strabane. The Catholic Church, which once was so overstaffed in Ireland that it could export priests to the African mission fields in huge numbers, is now running low on recruits. And those priests that it can hold on to are the older ones, tired, ageing men working flat out to provide Masses and other sacraments for the dwindling faithful. This is a crisis, for those men will die out and not be replaced. The Catholic Church in Ireland, in even a decade from now, will be sparsely served. This is a country that was the most Catholic in Europe, one in which most people went to Mass every week, and many families thought they were blessed if one of the children had a vocation to the priesthood or one of the religious orders. Now look around at the big schools which were set up by the Christian brothers, the Jesuits, the Dominicans, the Order of the Cross and Passion. All of their teachers are now lay people. The familiar sight of a Sister or Brother in a habit or soutane, with rosary beads dangling from a belt and perhaps a cane in hand, patrolling the corridor and expecting reverence from hushed children, is gone. Now a child who announced that he wanted to be a priest would be discouraged. One who wanted to be a Christian Brother would be thought mad. Indeed, the Order of the Cross and Passion now refuses to accept new members unless they have been through a psychological assessment. This is not just because the desire to join an order is seen as eccentric in these times, but because it is now acknowledged that many of those who joined such orders in the past brought pain and grief to the children they abused. The Church is now caught in a paradox. The enthusiasm for religion is waning in the country, but it refuses to die out. Consequently, fewer people make big commitments. Day to day Catholicism is easier now than it was. When I was young you could not go to communion unless you had fasted for three hours, so you did not have breakfast before Mass. In my mother's youth the rule was that you fasted from the night before. The rule that you must not eat meat on a Friday is gone, and you can even go to Sunday Mass on a Saturday night, so that you can go out and enjoy yourself afterwards and don't have to face it in the morning with a hangover. Once Catholicism carried more pain and guilt with it. I recall the lenten mission when the Redemptorists would take over the church for a week and expect us to turn out for Mass every evening and hear shame inducing lectures on the horror of Hell. Now no one mentions Hell. People don't go to Mass in the huge numbers they did in the 1960s, but that was probably an aberration anyway. Compared to other Churches, the turnout among Catholics is still healthy. A lot of that may be more to do with a sense of community than of deep devotion. And that more relaxed devotion does not inspire people to sacrifice the prospects of family life to serve God and His people. The result is that the priesthood is declining faster than the congregations. And beyond those congregations are the people who hardly go to church at all and yet expect their children to marry in the church, and would be heartbroken if they didn't. And most baptised Catholics expect a Catholic funeral even if they have hardly been to a church for decades other than to see friends married or buried. That produces another pressure on the Church, its services being required by those who in the normal run of things contribute nothing to the maintenance of Church buildings or to the welfare of the clergy. This is unfair. Yet there are practical solutions available to some of these problems. Ireland has more ex-priests than priests, men who left to marry or for other reasons. Many of them are still Catholic believers. They are still considered by the Church to be empowered to perform the sacraments. Indeed, some do so in their own homes, breaking bread and providing the Eucharist for their children. If these men were retired plumbers or teachers they could be given part-time work to relieve the shortage. It doesn't work like that in the Catholic Church. The other neglected resource is women, who generally are more religious than men anyway. The Catholic Church will not consider ordaining the women who want to be priests, and could solve its staffing problems very quickly if it did. There are now more women than men studying theology in Ireland. Bound to its rigid ideas of a male celibate priesthood, the Catholic Church is choking itself to death. And the people who feel the pain of that most are the solitary priests in big parish houses all over the country, beleaguered by the needs of nominal Catholics who give them little support and wouldn't do that job themselves at any price. From Pillar to Post WHO PUTS THE MOST PRESSURE ON YOU - YOURSELF OR OTHERS? There is pressure that is imposed upon us by others. Then there i... REVIEW: The Bone Church by Victoria Dougherty SYNOPSIS In the surreal and paranoid underworld of wartime Prague, fugitive lovers Felix Andel and Magdalena Ruza make some dubious ... 25 Questions to Ask Your Grandparents If you want to start (or are in the middle of) gathering family stories and family history, it helps to talk to older relatives. In ca... My 2019 A to Z RC Sign-up The 2019 A to Z Reading Challenge is hosted by Megan at the Ginger Mom & the Kindle Quest blog. Click the Pinterest-friendly sig... Malaysias Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on Wednesday announced it had seized cash and gold worth 3 million ringgit (U.S. $667,037) from the home of a high-ranking government official and arrested him on suspicion of corruption and abuse of power. The move marks the first high-profile corruption arrest in Malaysia in 2017, after the MACC nabbed several top officials and seized tens of millions of ill-gotten ringgit in 2016. The individual was detained at his home in an affluent part of Subang Jaya, Selangor early Tuesday, according to a MACC statement. A 29-year-old man was also arrested, it said. The aforementioned MSG, aged 59, is believed to have abused his power and position to accept bribes from those who had business with him, the statement said, using an acronym for the mans rank, ministry secretary-general. The 29-year-old man is believed to have received and retained the proceeds of bribes from contractors, suppliers, and vendors who had business with the MSG, it said. The agency seized cash and gold bars worth 3 million ringgit during the arrest, the statement said. The Star newspaper, citing MACC Deputy Commissioner of Operations Azam Baki, named the suspect as Mohd Arif Ab Rahman from the Ministry of Rural and Regional Development. According to the ministrys website, he is its number four official. A life of luxury The MACC opened close to 1,000 investigations into corruption and abuse of power in 2016, according to a report Tuesday in the New Straits Times. It arrested 932 people, of whom 258 had been charged by Dec. 15, the report said. In October, MACC investigators seized 52 million ringgit (U.S. $11.6 million) in cash, as well as luxury cars, watches, handbags, and folders containing land grants from the homes of two officials in Sabah, Malaysia. Former Sabah Water Department Awang Mohd Tahir Mohd Talib, 54, his wife, Fauziah Piut, 51, and his former deputy director Lim Lam Beng, 62, were charged on multiple counts of money laundering in December. All three say they are innocent. MACC has been investigating a number of high-profile cases involving government officials in the Malaysian states of Johor, Malacca, Penang and Kelantan. We dont want public service to be marred by corruption and to see senior officials living a life of luxury beyond their income, and accumulating wealth through criminal acts of corruption, Chief Commissioner Dzulkifli Ahmad told state news agency Bernama after taking the helm of the MACC in July. On Tuesday, a Malaysian media outlet reported that a senior official of the anti-graft agency had retired two years early due to the agencys failure to prosecute a case involving state fund SRC International. A probe into the case involved allegations that 42 million ringgit of SRC funds had ended up in Prime Minister Najib Razaks personal bank accounts. But Malaysias attorney general found that the case had no merit, and it was not brought to court. Im not only disappointed, but I also felt like I had sinned against 30 million Malaysians when the SRC case could not be taken to court, the former head of MACCs Special Operations Division Bahri Mohd Zin reportedly told Free Malaysia Today, which published what it said were screen shots of the online conversation. In a statement late Tuesday, MACC denied the report. In regards to a statement published in a media portal today stating Dato Bahri chose to retire early due to disappointment that investigation into SRC International (SRC) failed to be brought to court, MACC had contacted Dato Bahri and he denied making such a statement to the portal, the statement said. Attempts by BenarNews to reach Bahri for comment were unsuccessful. 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' The prophet Amos ministered during a time of material prosperity in both the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah (sometime between 791-740 B.C.). But underneath this veneer of material prosperity was idolatry that led to empty religious ritual, mistreatment of the poor, and other forms of social injustice. God raised Amos up to pronounce judgment: on the nations (Amos 1), on Israel (Amos 3), and in visions (Amos 7). Amos pictures God as a lion circling his ultimate prey: Israel herself! Amos used repetition (for three transgressions and for four; see Amos 1:3, Amos 1:6, Amos 1:9, Amos 1:11, Amos 1:13; Amos 2:1, Amos 2:4, Amos 2:6) as well as biting irony (e.g., Amos 4:9-11) to call Israel to repentance, but they did not return to Yahweh (Amos 4:6-13). Instead, they clung to the misguided notion that the nations would be judged on the Day of the Lord but they themselves would escape unscathed (Amos 5:18-20). How can we as Gods people today benefit from Amos? What is it that God has to say to us today through this Minor Prophet? I believe the starting point is determining the theological big idea, which I would summarize as follows: When the Day of the Lord comes, God will judge the sins of His people and reconstitute His people under a Davidic king to inhabit a new creation. Of course, for us as believers our Day of the Lord has already come in the death and resurrection of Jesus. On that day when the sun went down at noon and the Passover festival was turned into mourning for an only Son (Amos 8:9-10), our sin was judged. God has raised up the fallen booth of David and called Jew and Gentile alike to himself (Amos 9:11-12). By faith in Jesus our Davidic king, we have been made part of the people of God who are new creations awaiting the consummation of the Messianic Age in a new heavens and earth, when the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it (Amos 9:14). Since 2006, Dr. Matt Harmon has served as Professor of New Testament studies at Grace College and Grace Theological Seminary in Winona Lake, Indiana. He blogs his notes, studies, and teaching materials about Biblical Theology. First up, Joe Biden is thinking about dropping tariffs against China. But theres a spy in prison this morning that helps us understand why he shouldnt. Ill explain. Your second brief, If youre looking for a good paying job, you might consider being a CEO for a health insurance company. One executive made $142M dollars last year. Let's talk about that. And as always, Im keeping an eye out for developing stories. Put this one on your radar. Mexican cartels are grooming American kids online and paying them cash to traffic illegals or run drugs across the border. Ill share details. If you enjoyed this episode of the President's Daily Brief, remember to subscribe and listen daily at podfollow.com/pdb. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices For Immediate Release, January 5, 2017 Contact: Abel Valdivia, (510) 844-7103, avaldivia@biologicaldiversity.org Federal Recovery Plan Charts Course to Save Alaska's Endangered Cook Inlet Beluga Whales OAKLAND, Calif. The National Marine Fisheries Service published a recovery plan Wednesday for the Cook Inlet beluga whale to serve as a detailed blueprint to guide efforts to recover this federally endangered species. The Cook Inlet beluga whale population has declined to only about 340 individuals. Cook Inlet belugas are endangered by habitat loss and degradation, marine noise, oil and gas development, unauthorized take, marine pollution, disease agents, and prey decline. Beluga whales are magnificent marine mammals that are suffering death by a thousand cuts in the waters of the heavily urbanized Cook Inlet in Alaska, said Abel Valdivia, a marine ecologist with the Center for Biological Diversity. The finalization of this overdue recovery plan under the Endangered Species Act provides us with a roadmap to increase the numbers of this dwindling population. Cook Inlet belugas were listed as endangered in 2008 in response to a petition by the Center. The most recent abundance survey, in 2014, estimated a population of 340 individuals in the Cook Inlet; NOAA Fisheries considers the Cook Inlet beluga whale among the eight ocean species most at risk of extinction in the near future. The new recovery plan sets a goal to more than double the population and set the belugas on a long-term course toward recovery. The plan identifies marine noise due to oil and gas exploration, coastal development, and vessel traffic as a key threat to the whales and recommends steps to assess this noise risk and reduce it. However, it fails to identify concrete actions that will curb noise disturbance. Other recommended recovery actions include reducing threats from disease, habitat loss or degradation, and unauthorized take. These threats must be drastically shrunk to improve belugas' odds of survival. It amazes me that this recovery plan took so long to be completed, especially when the data show a continued decline in the belugas' population, said Valdivia. NOAA Fisheries and its partners must address the threats to these whales and quickly implement the recommended recovery actions laid out in the plan before Cook Inlet beluga whales go extinct. For Immediate Release, January 5, 2017 Contact: Patrick Sullivan, (415) 517-9364, psullivan@biologicaldiversity.org Federal Analysis Downplays Fracking's Threats to Public Land in California Draft Proposal Seeks to Open Hundreds of Thousands of Acres of Public Land on Central Coast to Drilling, Fracking SAN JOSE, Calif. Three years after a federal judge rebuked the Bureau of Land Management for ignoring the risks of hydraulic fracturing in California, the agency today issued a revised draft environmental impact statement that still fails to carefully evaluate fracking pollution's threats to public land along the state's Central Coast. With today's draft environmental impact statement and resource-management plan, the BLM is moving toward auctioning about 400,000 acres of federal land in central California to oil companies. But the revised analysis offers little new information about the pollution from fracking and other extreme extraction techniques that would accompany such oil development in Monterey, San Benito and Fresno counties. The draft plan is open for public comment for 90 days. The decision whether to frack California's public lands will be made by the Trump administration. This threadbare analysis shows that federal officials still don't understand their duty to protect California's public lands from fracking pollution, said Kassie Siegel of the Center for Biological Diversity. It's alarming that the Trump administration will now decide whether to sacrifice some of our state's most beautiful wild places to the oil industry for drilling and fracking. It's particularly outrageous in Monterey and San Benito counties, where voters have already banned fracking. Gov. Brown must step up and protect Californians from Trump's plans to unleash a fracking frenzy on our state. A federal judge ruled in 2013 that the BLM violated the law when it issued oil leases in Monterey County without considering the environmental risks of fracking. The ruling responded to a suit brought by the Center and the Sierra Club that challenged a BLM decision to auction off about 2,500 acres of land in southern Monterey County to oil companies. The BLM has not held a single oil and gas lease sale in California since that 2013 ruling, which was the first court opinion to find a federal lease sale invalid for failing to address the dangers of fracking. The BLM has estimated that about 90 percent of wells drilled on federal lands nationwide are fracked. California's air, water and wildlife have all benefited from the three-year-old moratorium on leasing our public lands to the oil industry, Siegel said. For the sake of our environment and our climate, it's critical not to open up these areas to oil companies. We've got to leave this oil in the ground. Fracking blasts toxic chemicals mixed with water underground to crack rock formations and extract oil and gas. Both Monterey County and San Benito County voters recently passed ballot measures banning the controversial technique. A 2015 report from the California Council on Science and Technology concluded that fracking in California happens at unusually shallow depths, dangerously close to underground drinking water supplies, with unusually high chemical concentrations. That poses a serious threat to drinking water aquifers during the worst drought in California history. To preserve a livable planet, scientists say we must keep most fossil fuels in the ground. A recent analysis found that halting new federal fossil-fuel leasing on America's public lands and in our oceans could keep 450 billion tons of climate pollution in the ground. For Immediate Release, January 5, 2017 Contact: Elise Bennett, Center for Biological Diversity, (727) 755-6950, ebennett@biologicaldiversity.org Raleigh Hoke, Gulf Restoration Network, (504) 525-1528 x 204, Raleigh@healthygulf.org Louisiana Refuses to Protect Freshwater Turtles From Commercial Trapping Unlimited Harvest Threatening 20 Wild Turtle Species BATON ROUGE, La. The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries on Wednesday denied a scientific petition from the Center for Biological Diversity and Gulf Restoration Network to protect 20 turtle species from unlimited commercial trapping and sale. The petition included several studies indicating that even moderate levels of harvest can devastate turtle populations. Turtles are a precious part of Louisiana's rich wildlife heritage, so it's disappointing to see state officials turning a blind eye to this problem, said Elise Bennett, a staff attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity who is dedicated to protecting rare reptiles and amphibians. Because of turtles' unique life histories, it could be decades before populations reflect the irreversible damage caused by unrestrained harvest. At that point it could be too late. Louisiana law currently allows holders of a reptile-and-amphibian-collection license to take and sell unlimited numbers of common snapping turtles, southern painted turtles, eastern and western chicken turtles, river cooters, red-eared sliders, Mississippi mud turtles, stripe-necked musk turtles, eastern musk turtles, five types of map turtles, and five types of softshell turtles with no closed season. Licensed collectors are also permitted to take unlimited numbers of the estuarine Mississippi diamondback terrapins during an open season. Until mid-2016 Louisiana did not require commercial trappers to report information about their turtle catches, so the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries has little information on how many wild turtles are actually being removed from state waters. Louisiana's incredible diversity of turtles deserves careful protection, said Raleigh Hoke, campaign director at the Gulf Restoration Network. It is my hope that the state Department will gather more data on our turtle populations and make it publicly available to scientists and concerned citizens so we can address this threat together. As part of a campaign to protect turtles in the United States, the Center has successfully petitioned states that allow unrestricted commercial turtle collection to improve harvest regulations. In 2009 Florida responded by banning almost all commercial collection of freshwater turtles from public and private waters. In 2012 Georgia approved state rules regulating the commercial collection of turtles, and Alabama completely banned commercial collection. And in October 2016, Missouri agreed to consider a ban on unlimited commercial harvest in response to a petition submitted by the Center and Great Rivers Environmental Law Center. More than 100 scientists signed a letter in support of banning for-profit trapping in Missouri. Background Life-history characteristics such as delayed sexual maturity, dependence on high adult survival, and high natural levels of nest mortality make turtles vulnerable to rapid declines from exploitation. Scientists have repeatedly documented that freshwater turtles cannot sustain any significant level of wild collection without population declines. For Immediate Release, January 5, 2017 Contact: Kieran Suckling, (520) 275-5960 Utah Congressman Rob Bishop Wins Rubber Dodo Award Extremist Agenda to Give Away Public Lands, Kill Off Endangered Species Cited TUCSON, Ariz. The Center for Biological Diversity today gave Utah Congressman Rob Bishop its annual Rubber Dodo award. The statue is awarded each year to the person or group who has most aggressively sought to destroy America's natural heritage or drive endangered species extinct. Bishop, a Republican, is chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources. Rob Bishop has fanatically pursued an extremist agenda to give away America's public lands and kill off its endangered species, said Kieran Suckling, the Center's executive director. He is so far outside the mainstream that even Donald Trump has rebuked him for his positions. In the last few weeks alone, Bishop has called for repealing America's strongest and most successful conservation law, the Endangered Species Act, pushed through a congressional rule requiring that bills seeking to give away federal public lands be treated as revenue neutral, regardless of their costs to federal and state governments, and advocated rescinding the recently created Bears Ears National Monument. Rob Bishop must go to sleep every night dreaming of ways to steal public lands away from the American people, said Suckling. These forests, deserts, rivers and streams are home to thousands of species of wildlife and are a source of inspiration and wonder to millions. But Bishop's doing everything he can to turn them over to polluters, developers and oil companies. Bishop won the Rubber Dodo award after an online contest where tens of thousands of people were asked to choose between him and William Clay, deputy administrator of USDA's Wildlife Services; former Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn; and former Exxon CEO Lee Raymond. Previous Rubber Dodo award winners include Monsanto (2015), the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services (2014), the Koch brothers (2013), climate denier Senator James Inhofe (2012), the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (2011), former BP CEO Tony Hayward (2010), massive land speculator Michael Winer (2009), Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (2008) and Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne (2007). Background on the Dodo In 1598 Dutch sailors landing on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius discovered a flightless, 3-foot-tall, extraordinarily friendly bird. Its original scientific name was Didus ineptus. (Contemporary scientists use the less defamatory Raphus cucullatus.) To the rest of the world, it's the dodo possibly the most famous extinct species on Earth after the dinosaurs. It evolved over millions of years with no natural predators and eventually lost the ability to fly, becoming a land-based consumer of fruits, nuts and berries. Having never known predators, it showed no fear of humans or the menagerie of animals accompanying them to Mauritius. Its trusting nature led to its rapid extinction. By 1681 the dodo had vanished, hunted and outcompeted by humans, dogs, cats, rats, macaques and pigs. Humans logged its forest cover while pigs uprooted and ate much of the understory vegetation. The origin of the name dodo is unclear. It likely came from the Dutch word dodoor, meaning sluggard, the Portuguese word doudo, meaning fool or crazy, or the Dutch word dodaars meaning plump-arse (that nation's name for the little grebe). The dodo's reputation as a foolish, ungainly bird derives in part from its friendly naivete and the very plump captives that were taken on tour across Europe. The animal's reputation was cemented with the 1865 publication of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Based on skeleton reconstructions and the discovery of early drawings, scientists now believe that the dodo was a much sleeker animal than commonly portrayed. The rotund European exhibitions were likely produced by overfeeding captive birds. For Immediate Release, January 5, 2017 Contact: Sarah Uhlemann, +1-206-327-2344, suhlemann@biologicaldiversity.org Alejandro Olivera, +521-61-2104-0604, aolivera@biologicaldiversity.org (en espanol) Lawsuit Threatened Over U.S. Failure to Sanction Mexico for Illegal Totoaba Trade, Vaquita Decline Washington The U.S.-based Center for Biological Diversity formally threatened legal action today to force the United States to sanction Mexico over illegal fishing that has caused the drastic decline of vaquita, a tiny porpoise with as few as 30 individuals remaining in the wild. The lawsuit will seek a certification from the United States that Mexico's illegal totoaba fishing and trade violates and diminishes the effectiveness of a wildlife trade treaty. If Mexico is certified, the incoming Trump administration can sanction the country by prohibiting lucrative shrimp and other wildlife imports. Vaquita are dying and Mexico is standing idly by, ignoring this tragedy, said Sarah Uhlemann, international program director at the Center. The vaquita is about to vanish from the Earth, so the time for diplomacy has passed. Aggressive measures are needed to force action from Mexico. The vaquita is the world's smallest porpoise and exists only in Mexico's northern Gulf of California. Vaquita are killed by becoming entangled in fishing nets, particularly in gillnets set illegally to catch totoaba huge fish highly sought after for their swim bladders, used in China to make a soup believed to boost fertility and improve skin. Scientists announced in December that only around 30 vaquita remain and the species may be extinct in two years. Despite claims of increased enforcement, Mexico's illegal totoaba fishing has continued largely unchecked. Three vaquita were found dead in March due to entanglement, and a recent sweep revealed dozens of active totoaba nets in just one small area off the coast. Mexican authorities now plan to capture the few remaining vaquita and temporarily hold the animals until Mexico finally and effectively ends all gillnet fishing in the upper Gulf. Under an American law called the Pelly Amendment, the U.S. secretaries of the Interior and Commerce must certify any nation that diminishes the effectiveness of a wildlife treaty. Both totoaba and vaquita are protected under 1973 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), and international, commercial trade in both species is banned. In 2014 the Center filed a petition requesting that the United States certify Mexico for violating CITES for its totoaba trade, which diminishes the treaty's effectiveness in protecting both totoaba and vaquita. The United States has the legal authority and the moral duty to take aggressive action against Mexico, including instituting an economically painful shrimp embargo, said Uhlemann. The vaquita's very existence depends on immediate and dramatic action by both nations. 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 Pidy, the Belgian pastry products business, has unveiled a range of meal-sized vol-au-vents it claims are bigger and better than ever. The Pidy Quattro vol-au-vents, which come in a case of 48 pieces and retail at 13.25, are described by the firm as the ideal pastry carrier for multitudes of different fillings. The square-shaped cases can be used as an individual starter, a larger alternative to the buffet style canape or even a dessert when filled with fruit and chocolate mousse. Paul Eason, chef and business development manager at Pidy UK, said the company loves the new vol-au-vents and the unique take on the canape that they represent. They have a lovely light texture and a delicious buttery taste, while providing just the right ratio of pastry to filling. They are an incredibly diverse product and suit a variety of different ingredients and flavours, he said. Likewise, they can be adapted to suit any menu or course. The cases offer chefs the opportunity to go the extra mile and revamp the vol-au-vent to suit a more modern menu offering. They are the perfect neutral base for exceptional flavours, using the best seasonal ingredients. The charity Survival International is reporting that the OECD is going to investigate allegations that WWF has been funding human rights abuses in Cameroon. Survival submitted the complaint in February 2016, citing numerous examples of violent abuse and harassment against Baka Pygmies in Cameroon by WWF-funded anti-poaching squads. Survival also alleges that WWF failed to seek communities free, prior and informed consent for conservation projects on their ancestral land. This is the first time a non-profit organization has been scrutinized in this way. The acceptance of the complaint indicates that the OECD will hold WWF to the same human rights standards as profit-making corporations. WWF funds anti-poaching squads in Cameroon and elsewhere in the Congo Basin. Baka and other rainforest tribes have reported systematic abuse at the hands of these squads, including arrest and beatings, torture and even death, for well over 20 years. The project includes the construction of a dedicated 132kV overhead transmission line that will connect the plant to the Dutse substation. The electricity will be sold to NBET, Nigeria's bulk purchaser of electricity, under a 20-year power purchase agreement. Benefiting from excellent irradiation, the plant will help to alleviate Nigeria's significant power deficit and diversify the country's energy mix. This will improve energy security and provide more reliable electricity to businesses and households, contributing to Nigeria's sustainable economic growth and greenhouse gas emission reduction objectives. "I am pleased that, a mere five months after its first annual general meeting, Africa50 is already making its first investment," said Dr Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank (AfDB) and chairman of Africa50's board of directors. "This investment fits in squarely with one of the High 5 priorities that I laid out for the AfDB Group - to 'light up and power Africa'." Africa50 CEO, Alain Ebobisse added: "Access to reliable energy is one of the most critical needs in Africa, including in Nigeria, where it is a government priority. I look forward to deepening the relationship with the authorities of Nigeria, one of our key shareholder countries, and to supporting more projects in this and other infrastructure sectors." More than 460 domestic workers will own a portion of Durban's exclusive R3.1bn Oceans Umhlanga Development, thanks to the generosity of their wealthy employers. The "Dubai-style" mixed-use development incorporating a Radisson Blu Hotel - a 200-room, five-star hotel - and two residential towers consisting of 460 apartments, all with sea views, and a 33,000m shopping mall is the brainchild of Vivian Reddy, a socialite, businessman and founder of Edison, and Rob Alexander of Ducatus Property Group. Construction is due to start in the next few months and is hailed as one of the largest investments in KwaZulu-Natal. According to the developers, the project is set to create 15,000 direct and indirect jobs and will create 2,500 permanent jobs once it is completed. The multibillion-rand project was launched in November 2016. Shares in the development were launched at R20 each and prospective buyers were allowed to pledge to buy a minimum purchase of 50 for R1,000. During the launch Reddy and Alexander revealed that they had decided to buy their four domestic workers shares worth R10,000 each. Alexander said he had decided to use the project to empower his long-term domestic workers, who have helped look after him and his family and raised his children while he was busy building up his business empire. His sentiments were echoed by Reddy. One of Reddy's domestic workers, Nompumelelo Luthuli, said she would use the proceeds of her inherited investment to educate her children and improve her family's quality of life. The gesture from the founders seems to have caught on with other well-heeled investors. Brian Mpono, the project's group consultant, told Business Day on Tuesday, 3 January, that since the launch more than 460 other employers have decided to buy shares at the project for their domestic workers. Businessman Eddie Isaacs said he had also pledged to buy shares for his domestic worker, Irene Mhlongo. He said it seemed like the right thing to do as she had been working for his family for more than 24 years. Mhlongo said although she did not understand the concept of shares she was hopeful that the initiative would be beneficial to her. Mpono said apart from attracting interest from wealthy local and international investors, savvy young investors were also showing a strong interest. Source: Business Day An inclusive education system makes an immense contribution towards an inclusive economy to serve an inclusive society, said Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga on Wednesday, 4 January, during the 2016 NSC examination results announcement. We have for the past few years included learners with special education needs in tracking learner performance in the National Senior Certificate (NSC), she explained. Motshekga said about 1,944 learners with special needs wrote the 2016 NSC examinations, which is an increase of 15% from those who wrote in 2015. These learners, the minister said, have increased the number of Bachelor passes from 443 in 2015, to 477 in 2016. She said Diploma passes increased from 733 in 2015 to 750 in 2016. However, Higher Certificate passes decreased from 213 in 2015 to 186 in 2016. The minister said about 439 learners with special education needs, who wrote the 2016 NSC examinations, obtained distinctions in a variety of subjects. Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal contributed 366 Bachelor passes towards the total number of Bachelor passes achieved by learners with special needs nationally. This is equivalent to a 76.7% contribution towards Bachelor passes. Similarly, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal contributed 495 Diplomas towards the total Diplomas achieved by learners with special needs nationally. This is equivalent to a 66% contribution towards Diploma passes. Moremi Game Reserve covers most of the eastern side of the Okavango Delta and combines permanent water with drier areas. It was rated one of the most beautiful game reserves in Africa and is ideal for travellers looking to experience an authentic African safari experience. Game viewing is excellent year-round - expect to encounter migratory and endangered wildlife such as elephants, Red lechwe, giraffes, buffaloes, zebra as well as predators such as lions, cheetahs, and hyenas. The reserve also boasts spectacular bird watching - it is estimated to be home to close to 400 bird species. If youre planning a Moremi Game Reserve safari in Botswana, here are 10 reasons why you should visit Moremi Game Reserve: Beautiful #careforwildafrica #natwild #botswana #safari A photo posted by Mark (@mark_royc) on Dec 29, 2016 at 2:57am PST Beautiful creatures #careforwildafrica #wildlife A photo posted by Mark (@mark_royc) on Dec 28, 2016 at 10:54pm PST Dayum Africa A photo posted by Laura Van Den Honert (@lauravandenhonert) on Dec 18, 2016 at 9:47pm PST #BigFive completed! #rhinos in #okavango A photo posted by jan malte aNDResen (@janmalteandresen) on Dec 8, 2016 at 12:03pm PST Two new film releases open this week; Manchester by the Sea & Ballerina. Manchester by the Sea The potent human drama tells the story of the Chandler family, a working class family from Massachusetts. After Lees (Casey Affleck) older brother Joe (Kyle Chandler) suddenly passes away, he is made the legal guardian of his nephew (Lucas Hedges). Lee is forced to deal with a tragic past that separated him from his wife Randi (Michelle Williams) and the community where he was born and raised. Set in the North Shore of Massachusetts, the film is written and directed by Kenneth Lonergan (You Can Count On Me, Margaret), with Matt Damon as one of the producers. I was interested in someone who has endured something that was unbearable, but because of his attachments to the rest of his family, he cant simply disappear, says Lonergan. How people survive what they survive is a mystery to me. Its interesting that what causes that amount of anguish, and can help you through it, is love, and you dont feel that kind of pain unless you lose someone you love. But love is the only thing that can get you through that kind of distress. Ballerina Felicie is a young orphan from Brittany who has only one passion: dance. With her best friend Victor, who wants to become a great inventor, they come up with a madcap scheme to escape their orphanage for Paris, the City of Lights, with its Eiffel Tower still under construction! Felicie has to fight like she has never fought before. She has to outdo herself and learn from her mistakes to make her craziest dream come true: becoming a prima ballerina at the Paris Opera... This English-language French-Canadian 3D computer-animated musical fantasy adventure film was co-directed by Eric Summer and Eric Warin. Summer, Carol Noble and Laurent Zeitoun wrote the screenplay, with music by Klaus Badelt. The film features the voices of Elle Fanning, Dane DeHaan, Maddie Ziegler and Carly Rae Jepsen. Says producer Yann Zenou For us, cinema means sublimating the real world to understand it better and accept it. Along with our imaginations, animation is the ideal way to express our dreams. I think that the first film we make in our heads as children is a cartoon that bridges the real world and our imaginations. A cartoon is what links childhood and the world of adults. For more information on the latest releases, visit www.writingstudio.co.za KIA Motors have released images of the new Picanto. The new Picanto, created by KIA's design centres in Namyang, Korea, and Frankfurt, Germany, brings youthful and energetic character to the A-segment. 3rd Gen KIA Picanto - GT Line The new model revealed in KIAs sports-inspired GT-Line specification conveys a more assertive stance through bolder body lines and subtly sculpted surfaces. A 15 mm longer wheelbase (2,385 mm to 2,400 mm) also pushes the wheels further out into each corner for a more confident appearance. The Picantos colour palette is more vibrant than ever, with a choice of 11 bright paint options designed to make the car stand out. Inside, Picantos available suite of high-tech comfort, convenience and safety features is underscored by a modern and refined new cabin design. At the heart of the cabin is a new floating touchscreen infotainment system, making the latest in-car technology available to occupants. The Picanto will also offer greater potential for customer personalisation, with buyers able to choose from a range of colours for trim and upholstery where available. Buyers of the all-new Picanto will enjoy smarter packaging efficiency than ever before, with more cabin and cargo space. In spite of its extended wheelbase, the Picanto retains its characteristically compact dimensions. With a shorter front overhang and longer rear overhang, the all-new model is the same length (3,595 mm) as the car it replaces. KIA will reveal the all-new Picanto in public for the first time at the 2017 Geneva International Motor Show in March, and will go on sale at the end of the third quarter of 2017. The all-new Picanto is scheduled to arrive in South Africa before the end of 2017, although no technical or specification information is available at this time. Technology firms have warned of an increase in software security breaches, with drones and the internet of things (IoT) expected to be the main targets. The IoT refers to a network of objects or devices - "things" - that have embedded technology to enable them to interact with each other. For example, most cars are installed with tracking devices that, among other functions, monitor driving patterns. And there are home devices such as TVs and security cameras that are also connected to the internet. IoT devices attractive to criminals According to technology firm NordVPN, IoT devices will come under increased attack as they become more commonly used, because these smart devices "stick", meaning they are rarely replaced or upgraded. IoT device makers have often included only minimal features, shortening the development process and cutting costs, NordVPN said. "This is particularly dangerous for privacy, since lesser security features mean easier backdoor access. When one device is compromised, the hacker can easily overtake the whole system of interconnected devices," it said. McAfee Labs said its threat predictions for this year showed that IoT devices were attractive to cybercriminals because they were a potential source of data. "During the next two to four years, we will see more instances of IoT devices used as gateways to data and intellectual property theft, critical infrastructure disruption, and other major attacks," it said. Weak security Many new IoT devices coming to market had weak or no security, it said. IoT devices that were already in use often had similar weaknesses or known vulnerabilities that could not be patched or upgraded. Harish Chib, vice-president for Sophos in the Middle East and Africa, said users of home IoT devices might not notice that their devices had been attacked. But once attackers had come to "own" a device on a home network, they could compromise other devices, such as laptops containing important personal data. "We expect to see more of this, as well as more attacks that use cameras and microphones to spy on households. Cybercriminals always find a way to profit," he said. Drones the next target NordVPN said it expected drones to be targeted by cybercriminals as well. Drones, also referred to as unmanned aerial vehicles, are becoming increasingly popular. Uses for drones include taking pictures, making video recordings, monitoring crops and delivering packages. NordVPN said it was possible that a hacker could take control of a drone carrying a package meant for the consumer and then intercept the package. In addition, many law enforcement agencies were using drones for surveillance. Those drones might be intercepted to disarm the video and audio feeds, said NordVPN. Cynthia Stroud, founder and director of business Pretty Gorgeous Cakes, has been recognised in the 2017 New Years Honours list. Stroud was awarded an MBE her services to business and the community in Hertfordshire. She started her own business from home called Cakes by Cynthia in 2009, but changed it to Pretty Gorgeous Cakes when she moved into a high street shop in 2013. The baker has taken a number of students into her company and taught them skills needed to help create bespoke wedding and celebration cakes. Stroud told British Baker that she was not expecting to be named on the list at all. When I came home and opened the letter from the Cabinet office, I went into complete shock and I wasnt allowed to tell anyone about it until New Years Eve. The only person I told was my mum, she said. Stroud added that she has been making the official cake for the music event The Brit Awards for the past six years and is also the resident cake-maker for Queen Charlottes Ball. I heard The Brit Awards were asking suppliers to bake a cake for the after-party and I sent them my proposal. They asked if I could bring along some samples and I couldnt believe it when they chose me. They offered me a contract and the relationship has grown ever since, she said. In terms of the Queen Charlottes Ball cake, they contacted me two years ago and said they were impressed with my work. When I presented them with the cake, they asked if I could stay on. Also on the New Years Honours list was Melanie Andrews, who is the director and founder of the Scottish Baking Awards and Alison Swan Parente, founder of the School of Artisan Food charity. Andrews was rewarded with an MBE for services to baking and the community in Helensburgh, Scotland, while Parentre also gained an MBE for her dedication to services to the charity and education sectors. Andrews told British Baker she was delighted to have been on the list for 2017, while Parente said that she was pleased that the charitable work of the School of Artisan Food is being recognised. Veteran broadcaster Jeremy Mansfield has thrown himself into the hot seat, announcing his entry into politics. Image via Twitter The former 94.7 Rude Awakening breakfast show host said in an interview yesterday that he had been talking to DA leaders, including MP Ross Purdon, about joining the party as the official opposition prepares to contest the 2019 national elections. Mansfield said that after meeting DA leaders on New Year's eve he had decided to pursue a political career. He said he would meet the party's Gauteng leadership in the next few weeks to discuss what role he might play. "My role is up to the party and where it decides to put me. I am happy with wherever they decide to put me, but I know that I can assist in possibly cleaning up the problems at the SABC and broadcasting. Also, perhaps, in the portfolio of arts and culture. Another passion is animal rights so that could play a part. If the party sees fit, I would love to work on any of those portfolios in parliament," Mansfield said. DA Gauteng leader John Moodey said the party looked forward to working with Mansfield. "He has been a long-time supporter and we look forward to meeting him to discuss a role for him ahead of the 2019 national elections. He has much to bring to South Africa and the country will be better with him serving it." Mansfield announced his political ambitions on social media this week. The decision surprised many who had assumed that he might emigrate to one of the properties he owns overseas. But Mansfield said he had never intended to "flee". "I was never running. I was just p*ssed off [at the situation in the country]. I would never emigrate, I have to make a difference," Mansfield said. Hours after announcing his political ambitions, critics slammed him. "I have faced criticism and hate for many years. It does not faze me," Mansfield said. Source: The Times Southern Africa's premier awards for public relations excellence, the PRISM Awards, celebrates two decades in 2017. The call for entries has opened and this year sees a number of new categories, including more opportunities in the digital environment and students studying public relations. The deadline for entries is 27 March, with the prestigious awards ceremony scheduled for Sunday, 7 May 2017. Marking the 20th year, will be the online entry and judging process. All entries will be submitted online ensuring a far more manageable and streamlined judging process. The judging panel will comprise more than 60 judges, all professionals and leaders in their industries from around the world. A large number of entries in the past have come from the media relations and corporate relations practices and this put huge pressure on the cluster judges, explains says Bridget von Holdt, convenor of the PRISM Awards. With the new, more efficient online judging process, we expect it to lessen the load of judges. It is even more important that entries stick to the prescribed 1,300 words. Were expecting over 250 entries from different sectors and practices this year. Important dates Entrants have just over 94 days to submit their entries, advises Von Holdt. The deadline date is 26 March 2017. Other important dates are: Prepping for PRISMS Cape Town, 26 January 2017 Prepping for PRISMS - Johannesburg, 27 January 2017 The PRISM Awards are presented to public relations and communication professionals who have successfully incorporated strategy, creativity, innovation and professionalism in the public relations and communication programmes and strategies. Any public relations consultancy, business enterprise, association, private institution or government body is eligible to submit entries into the awards. Public relations consultancies may enter on behalf of clients and share the honours with them if they win an award. While the PRISM Awards are open for all to enter, the entries must be submitted with pride. The judges will be looking for entries that are exceptional and that have a real return on investment, says Von Holdt. The 34 categories in the 2017 PRISM Awards: Sectors Practices Over-Arching Awards Business-to-business Financial services Investor relations Healthcare Technology Travel & tourism Resources Environmental Public affairs Public sector Community relations NGO campaign Corporate responsibility Sponsorship PR on a shoestring Best use of social media as a support tool in a communication programme Best use of an event to build/change reputation (event management) Best use of communication in a township revitalisation or education campaign* Campaign best informed by analytics/big data Corporate communication Crisis management Internal communication Publications Media relations Social media as the primary method of communication (best use of social media to lead a programme)* Social media as the primary method of communication (best use of social media to lead a programme with no social media spend)* Social media to launch a new product* Mobile media for public relations (best use of mobile to lead a programme) Student campaign of the year Best Up-and-coming Public Relations Professional Best Public Relations Professional Lifetime Achievement Award Consultancy Awards Best Small Public Relations consultancy (fewer than 10 people) Best Mid-sized Public Relations consultancy (1039 people) Best Large Public Relations consultancy (More than 40 people) African Network of the Year Campaigns of the Year Pan African Campaign of the Year South African Campaign of the Year *New categories New categories There are now four social media categories in the 2017 line-up reflecting the explosive growth of this discipline. PRISM Awards Convenor Bridget von Holdt We have seen exponential growth in the Social Media category since it was introduced a few years ago, says Von Holdt. According to the Social Media Landscape SA - 2017 briefings hosted recently by World Wide Worx - about 14 million South Africans are now on Facebook, the countrys biggest social media platform, with 85% of them using mobile devices to engage (a big increase from 77% the year before). In the digital landscape, public relations practitioners have a far more challenging and complex role to play, continues Von Holdt. In 2016, most entries contained a social media component something almost unheard of just five years ago. Sponsors of the 2017 PRISM Awards include: AfroFlame hostessing Contempo dressing of hostesses, team, MCs and possibly judges GroundUp Media videos Integrated Marketing Solutions social media, branding and design Katlego Maboe MC Lebo Mabotjwa - MC Lounge Around decor and furniture ROI Africa media monitoring Stageline audiovisual equipment and staging Zoom Photography photos To enter or for more information visit www.prisa.co.za. South African creative strategist at Cheri Yase Kasi, Tumi Mohube received The Vuyelwa Jajula 2016 Global #FiresideChat Inspiring Entrepreneur in South Africa Award at the 2016 Global #FiresideChat Awards, hosted by international entrepreneur Alysia Silberg in December 2016. Tumi Mohube, creative strategist at Cheri Yase Kasi Silberg, who is based in New York City, hosts the global online live weekly #FiresideChats where she invites a panel of extraordinary global leading minds to selflessly share their knowledge and expertise with her growing global community of entrepreneurs, across more than 30 countries. Mohube, who has been part of the panel twice in 2016, says, Mentoring women in the media and marketing industry is one of my passions and being asked to join the panel on two occasions is an honour, because it gave me the opportunity to share my experiences with thousands of participants across the globe. Described as a super-mom by Silberg for working 18-hour days and still raising a beautiful daughter, Mohube responds that all entrepreneurs work long hours. Somehow we find the inner strength to do it; it is a long but rewarding journey. As women, we carry much guilt, because we are expected to take care for our families. It is because of my family and their support that I can do what I do and I do it for the greater good of my family. During the #FiresideChat session, Mohube describes herself as constructive, passionate and a visionary. She wants to be remembered for playing a role in empowering other women. To hear the chat, click here. NEW YORK, United States of America - The Committee to Protect Journalists has condemned the prison sentences handed down to two journalists from the Ethiopian faith-based station Radio Bilal. Image by 123RF Khalid Mohamed and Darsema Sori were yesterday sentenced to prison terms of five years and six months and four years and five months respectively, the independent news website Addis Standard reported. Mohamed, a news editor, and Sori, a senior editor at Radio Bilal, were convicted at a December 21 hearing, of inciting extremist ideology and planning to overthrow the government through their coverage of Muslim protests about government interference in religious affairs, according to reports. The two journalists, who have been in custody since their February 2015 arrest, were convicted under Ethiopia's 2009 anti-terrorism law, alongside 18 other defendants, according to news reports that cited the charge sheet. Their co-accused were also sentenced yesterday as part of the same mass trial, the Addis Standard reported. "These harsh sentences are the latest evidence of the Ethiopian government's hostility to free expression and the right of journalists to do their jobs without fear of censorship or arrest," said CPJ's Africa program coordinator, Angela Quintal. "Khalid Mohamed and Darsema Sori are journalists, not terrorists. They should be freed immediately." Separately, an Ethiopian court denied bail yesterday to Getachew Shiferaw, the editor-in-chief of online newspaper Negere Ethiopia, who has been in prison since December 2015, Ethiopian activists who are monitoring his case told CPJ. His trial has been postponed to February 14. Last month a court reduced his charge from terrorism to inciting subversion, according to local rights groups and activists. The three journalists were among 16 imprisoned in Ethiopia for their work at the time of CPJ's 2016 prison census, which found the country to be among the top five worst jailers of journalists worldwide. Cape Town, Stellenbosch Maties Gymnasium Sales and marketing consultant Ref: MG/261/0922 Reporting to the Sales and Marketing Manager, the incumbent will work... craigslist: thailand jobs, apartments, for sale, services, community, and events craigslist provides local classifieds and forums for jobs, housing, for sale, services, local community, and events http://thediplomat.com/2016/11/here-come-the-taliban-drones/ /ISIS Here Come the Taliban Drones For the first time ever, the Taliban used an off-the-shelf drone to record a suicide attack. By Austin Bodetti and Hamidullah Barakzai November 02, 2016 On October 22, Reuters reported that the Taliban had filmed a suicide attack in Helmand, Afghanistans largest province, with a small drone. An aerial video showed the insurgents deploying a car bomb against a police station in Nawa-i-Barakzayi, a district near the provincial capital. Within a few days of the Reuters article, the Taliban posted a followup statement on its Dari Telegram channel and WhatsApp chatroom, congratulating itself for the achievement of buying a remote-control vehicle and using it, even though rebels in the Middle East have been doing so for far longer. A photograph accompanying the statement showed the Phantom, an off-the-shelf drone manufactured by Chinese technology company Dajiang Innovations Science and Technology (DJI). Afghan officials have been trying to downplay what the development could mean for the countrys insurgency. The Afghan government has banned the use of drones around military bases. Though the recent video appears to be an exercise in propaganda, representing little threat to the soldiers stationed throughout Helmand and the rest of Afghanistan, the insurgents seem to have more threatening plans for their drones. A spokesperson for the Taliban claimed that they have had access to the technology for over 18 months. It is very useful in discovering the enemys most important bases, Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, told The Diplomat. The attack in Nawa was just one example. We have used it in other operations. We use this technology against the Americans and their servants in Afghanistan. In addition to propaganda, the Taliban can use the drones to coordinate fire support, deliver improvised explosive devices, and reconnoiter the battlefield. The Washington Post noted earlier this year that the Taliban have been increasing the size and strength of their bombs. Drones will expand their options for launching deadly ambushes and attacks against Afghan and Western soldiers. The Islamic State (ISIS) has employed off-the-shelf drones in Iraq and Syria, where thousands of American advisers are aiding pro-Western militias and security forces. However, American soldiers are playing a far more hands-on role in the war in Afghanistan. This August, a roadside bomb killed one U.S. soldier in Helmand. At least six other American soldiers have died in Afghanistan this year. We are aware the Taliban is using drones, said Adam Stump, a spokesperson for the U.S. Defense Department. A spokesperson for the Resolute Support Mission, the NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan, elaborated. We have seen one example of Taliban drone use, but purchasing and operating a small drone is not very difficult or complex, Brigadier General Charles Cleveland, deputy chief of staff for communication, told The Diplomat. Regarding the impact this will have, we think there will be very little impact. If there is any impact, it will be in the form of propaganda in an effort to frighten the Afghan population. We will continue to support our Afghan partners. NATOs Afghan allies have struggled to secure the countryside in the face of countrywide Taliban offensives. The insurgents have threatened to overrun Helmand and Kunduz several times this year. They have also made inroads in other provinces and pressured Afghanistans economy and infrastructure, blocking and mining already-perilous highways between provincial capitals. Already, better technology is improving the Talibans capabilities. Anecdotal evidence and rumors suggest that the Taliban has started deploying its version of special operations forces, some armed with night vision devices that the Afghan policemen and soldiers whom they are fighting lack. Now that the insurgents have adopted technology capable of aerial photography and video, their advances on the battlefield and capabilities during night combat could portend another series of embarrassing losses for the Afghan government. It should concern analysts of the war in Afghanistan that, as Cleveland observed, militants can obtain off-the-shelf drones across Asia with ease. Motherboard reported the growing popularity of drones, including DJI models, in Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, and the Philippines. In Iraq, Wired UK documented Iranian-backed militias and security forces using DJI drones during the Third Battle of Fallujah, where they guided artillery batteries and rocket launchers. The Taliban video is to my knowledge the first time the Afghan Taliban has employed this technology, Dan Gettinger, co-director of the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College, told The Diplomat. It is not, however, the first time that a terrorist or insurgent organization has used drones, nor will it be the last. [] It wouldnt surprise me if more non-state actors started using drones, if only for reconnaissance missions or for making propaganda videos. A worst-case scenario would involve the Taliban trying to copy the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the defunct Sri Lankan terrorist organization. Equipped with a clumsy but dangerous air force and navy, the Tamil Tigers masterminded a kamikaze attack that killed two in Colombo in 2009. While the Air Tigers are no more, the Taliban has the experience to repeat their legacy. Before an American invasion toppled the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in 2001, the Taliban commanded a nascent air force, intercepting seven Russian airmen in 1995. Late Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour had administered that air force as well as Afghanistans flag carrier in the 1990s. The Taliban would face obstacles in any attempt to recreate its extinct air force, among them the Afghan Armed Forces and Resolute Supports obvious air supremacy. CIA combat drones have ruled the skies of Afghanistan and Pakistan for over a decade, and nothing in the Talibans arsenal at least for now can change that reality. However, drones are no longer in the sole possession of the American-led coalition and its Afghan allies. The Taliban will likely continue to employ them. Instead of dismissing the insurgents recent video as another bizarre news article in the war in Afghanistan, Afghan and American soldiers should consider the dangerous potential of off-the-shelf drones and develop countermeasures lest the Taliban find yet another of its enemys weaknesses. Austin Bodetti is a freelance journalist focusing on conflict in the Muslim world. His writing has appeared in AskMen, The Daily Beast, The Daily Dot, Vox, and Wired UK. Hamidullah Barakzai is an Afghan activist, humanitarian, and writer from Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand. Why Do Judges Break The Nib After Signing A Death Sentence? Pulse oi-Syeda Farah For certain heinous crimes, a person is sentenced to death. But every time you hear about a prisoner being sentenced to death, be it in movies or real life, the first thing that strikes to our mind is about the judge breaking the nib of the pen after passing the death sentence. Also Read: Ever Wondered Why Airplanes Are White In Colour? Ever wondered why do judges break the pen nib after passing a death sentence? Is it necessary that the pen nib should be broken, or is there a reason behind breaking of the pen nib? There are many thoughts that go on in our mind and here we are to clear all of your doubts about the same and give reasons as to why the judges break the pen nibs, specifically after sentencing death to any prisoner. Find out the reasons below. It Is A Symbolic Act It is considered to be a symbolic act. It symbolises that no person should ever do this crime again and the pen with which the person is sentenced to death also should never be used for the same purpose again. The Pen Was Tainted ! The nib is broken in order to do away with the "tainted" pen, as the death sentence was announced using it. It is also a way to show that the judge distances himself from the act of the crime and accordingly has passed the judgement. Other Judges Do Not Have The Power! Once the judge breaks the nib of the pen, other judges do not have the power to review the case or the judgement after it has been signed. And the judge himself also has no rights in changing his decision. Also Read: The Bermuda Triangle Mystery Is Finally Solved! To Ensure That Nobody Repeats Such A Crime This is also done to ensure that the crime is not repeated again by any other person or the punishment would be this severe! Or As The Old Saying Goes... A court that puts a man to death once in seventy years is soaked in blood. The death sentence is a sad, but sometimes necessary thing, and breaking the pen used to carry it out expresses that sorrow.' If you have such interesting questions, then do leave your comments below and we shall find the answers for them! GET THE BEST BOLDSKY STORIES! Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, January 5, 2017, 15:25 [IST] PR Newswire HERZOGENAURACH, Germany, Jan. 5, 2017 HERZOGENAURACH, Germany, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Schaeffler, a global automotive and industrial supplier, will demonstrate its Mobility for Tomorrow vision specific to the North American automotive industry during its press conference and at its technology exhibits at the 2017 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) next week. As an event sponsor for the 11th year, Schaeffler will use NAIAS as a platform to announce its market-specific plans and products, as well as showcase two of its vehicle concepts. At the press event on Monday, Jan. 9 at 7:05 a.m., Schaeffler will discuss the company's In the Region, For the Region motto that has fostered technologies targeted specifically to the North American auto market, including its: To demonstrate its Mobility for Tomorrow products and concepts, Schaeffler will host two NAIAS exhibits for media and invited guests: a Technology Suite in the Ambassador Ballroom (room 360 on third level) and an AutoMobili-D exhibit in the Cobo Center Atrium. At these exhibits, Schaeffler will show: As part of the AutoMobili-D exhibition, Jeff Hemphill, chief technical officer, Americas, will participate in an e-mobility panel discussion at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 11 on the Atrium Stage. As part of the discussion, Hemphill will discuss Schaeffler's vision for E-mobility transformation, including its BioHybrid and other concepts and technologies. NAIAS one of the world's premier automotive exhibitions opens to the media and industry officials on Monday, Jan. 9. It will open to the public from Saturday, Jan. 14 through Sunday, Jan. 22. For more information, please visit: www.naias.com. About SchaefflerThe Schaeffler Group is one of the world's leading integrated automotive and industrial suppliers. The company stands for the highest quality, outstanding technology, and strong innovative ability. The Schaeffler Group makes a decisive contribution to "Mobility for tomorrow" with high-precision components and systems in engine, transmission, and chassis applications as well as rolling and plain bearing solutions for a large number of industrial applications. The technology company generated sales of approximately 13.2 billion euros in 2015. With around 85,000 employees, Schaeffler is one of the world's largest companies in family ownership. It has a worldwide network of manufacturing locations, research and development facilities, and sales companies at approximately 170 locations in over 50 countries. Schaeffler is a recognized development partner for global automakers and suppliers. To serve the North American automotive market, Schaeffler operates development centers in: Troy, Mich.; Fort Mill, S.C.; Wooster, Ohio; and Puebla, Mexico. The company's 600 North American engineers and technicians, who are supported by a team of more than 6,700 global R&D engineers, drive development in the region by utilizing state-of-the-art test and measurement equipment, computational tools and CAD systems. Schaeffler Automotive has headquarters in Fort Mill and manufacturing facilities in: South Carolina; Missouri; Ohio; Ontario, Canada; Puebla and Irapuato, Mexico. For more information, please visit www.schaeffler.us. Follow us on Twitter @schaefflergroup to get all of our latest press releases and news. To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/schaeffler-demonstrates-mobility-for-tomorrow-at-2017-north-american-international-auto-show-press-conference-and-automobili-d-exhibit-300386647.html SOURCE Schaeffler Beatrice will be dark as night for a short period of the early afternoon of August 21. The total solar eclipse is a once-in-a-lifetime event that will draw countless visitors to the prime viewing belt, which includes Beatrice. The Edgerton Exlorit Center "mad scientist educator" Dan Glomski shared with Beatrice Public Schools staff members on Tuesday information about the solar event, including what to expect and how to safely view it. "A total solar eclipse is the only time it's completely safe to look directly at the sun," Glomski said. "Whatever you do, don't hide your kids from it. They will regret it for the rest of their lives, and so will you, probably." Glomski is referring to the total solar eclipse, which is expected to last about a minute and a half, between 1:02 and 1:04 p.m. It will be necessary to wear solar viewing glasses before and after that short period, during the partial solar eclipse that is expected to start at 11:37 a.m. and end at about 2:30 p.m. Each BPS student and staff member will be given a pair of solar viewing glasses, as supplied by the Beatrice Area Chamber of Commerce. "It's a shame school districts are not cancelling school" in order for students to witness the history, Glomski said. The last total solar eclipse seen from where Beatrice sits today was in year 1194. The next will be August 21 of this year, and after that, year 2681, according to NASA. The last total eclipse happened in March of 2016 and was seen from Indonesia. "People chase these all over the world," Glomski said. "Thousands of people will be here (in Beatrice) to view it." Partial eclipses are common, while annular eclipses are rare and total eclipses are very rare, Glomski explained. A total solar eclipse is when the moon passes between Earth and the sun, causing a narrow track of darkness across Earth. The Homestead National Monument of America will be a major hot spot for visitors viewing the eclipse. The Gage County fairgrounds will be available to campers. All Beatrice hotels are booked that on the nights of August 20 and 21. "Want to make a few dollars? Put up a room in your house on Airbnb," Glomski told his audience. If August 21 in Beatrice is cloudy, the eclipse won't be visible, or at least not in its full glory. "If it's cloudy, we're in big trouble," Glomski said. "Being mobile is the only way to escape the clouds." Folks can drive somewhere else that is not cloudy and is in the path of the total eclipse. That path can be found online on several websites, including through the website of Xavier Jubier, the inventor of the solar and lunar eclipse Google Maps and Google Earth files. "Being close is not close enough," Glomski said. "If you're not in the direct path, it's just another partial eclipse." For example, folks in Lincoln will not witness the full glory of the event. Some of Glomski's viewing tips include: Get in the path. Get there early. Watch the weather. Be mobile. Use the bathroom and eat food before. Don't bother with photography. Plenty of professionals will document the event well. Instead, Glomski said, set your smart phone somewhere five minutes before and start recording video. "You'll catch the crowd reactions and the moon's shadow," he said. Glomski also shared with the teachers suggested activities that will help students understand the total solar eclipse. Here's what to expect, in Glomski's words: The sky will start start to dim and will turn a steel blue. The western sky will get darker, meaning the moon's shadow is approaching. Venus will be visible west of the sun. A "diamond ring" affect is the last bit of sunlight seen. This is when you can take the glasses off. Jupiter will be seen in the eastern sky. A 360 degree twilight glow will surround us. The western sky will start to get brighter. Put the glasses back on. "I've been waiting for this for 18 years," Glomski said. More information can be found at eclipse2017.org. Tom Campbell How do you feel about Roy Cooper being the Governor-Elect of North Carolina? I have optimism that Roy Cooper will enact positive change for the State, and offer quality leadership. I am unsure of how a Roy Cooper governance will impact North Carolina. I am concerned with the direction which Roy Cooper will lead our State. Who is Roy Cooper? Hillary told me to vote for Ray Cooper. 45 total vote(s) What's your Opinion? To assess Pat McCrory's four years as governor we must begin in 2012. McCrory was a popular, moderate Charlotte Mayor, leading the Queen City during a time of explosive growth. Tens of thousands of new jobs were created and infrastructure and transportation improvements were made. Property tax rates and the crime rate were lowered.Defeated by Beverly Perdue in the 2008 gubernatorial contest, McCrory geared for another run in 2012. Candidate Pat was likeable, but said our state had a broken government, broken economy and broken educational system. As an outsider, he pledged to bring a fresh perspective, restore trust in state government and promised a "Carolina Comeback."On Election Day 2012, North Carolina had the 4th highest unemployment rate in the nation and our economy was sluggish in recovery. Our state had borrowed $2.5 billion to help pay unemployment claims. Personal and corporate income tax rates were among the highest in the Southeast and fewer than 8 of 10 students who entered the ninth grade graduated.Let's examine the McCrory record, understanding that our chief executive is considered one of the weakest in the nation and requires legislative cooperation to accomplish major objectives. One of his first initiatives was "Project Phoenix," repairing and modernizing state buildings. In his first year, the most substantial tax reform in 80 years reduced both corporate and personal income taxes. The $2.5 billion debt to the federal government was rapidly repaid by cutting benefits to unemployed workers while also raising employer contributions to the system. At McCrory's recommendation, the funding formula for transportation was changed, appropriating more funds to highly traveled roads. Education budgets, cut during the Great Recession, were increased greatly in 2013 and 2015. Teacher pay was increased substantially. The state's high school graduation rate improved to 85.4 percent and public education outcomes improved. The cap on charter schools was lifted and a low-income voucher program gave parents more choices as to where their students would attend schools.McCrory eliminated large budget deficits in North Carolina's Medicaid program and proposed Medicaid reforms, involving providers, insurers and legislators in initiating a managed care system. He led the state in passing a $2 billion public infrastructure bond referendum to improve universities, community colleges, parks and local water systems; lawmakers wouldn't approve another $1 billion for he wanted for transportation.There was a "Carolina Comeback" in our economy. North Carolina's unemployment rate dropped to 5 percent, just slightly above the national average. More than 250,000 new jobs were created and the economy today is stronger and growing faster than most states in our region. The state treasury stored up almost $2 billion in reserves for emergencies. And few will deny that Pat McCrory did an exemplary job in handling the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew.McCrory should have been a shoe-in for re-election, but Pat never fully overcame his outsider status. He traveled tirelessly as cheerleader-in-chief, but after initial cooperation the legislature often ignored or was openly hostile to him. Rather than using his bully pulpit to enlist public support and call them out, he signed too many initiatives into law he should have vetoed, notably HB2. He did veto at least five bills, all overridden, though McCrory was successful in taking lawmakers to court (and winning) when they exceeded legislative authority. But just as a governor takes credit for positive accomplishments Pat got the blame for bad legislation, especially by the media and by courts that overturned many of the bills he signed into law. His 2016 re-election campaign was not well run, focusing too much on teacher pay hikes, supporting I-77 tolls and defending a highly unpopular HB2 instead of touting his positive accomplishments and asking voters to let him finish the job he had started.He will be remembered as the first governor to be defeated seeking re-election, especially in a year when Republicans dominated. Given the cards he was dealt it is unlikely any Democrat or another Republican could have been much more effective. History will say he made positive accomplishments and was a good, not great governor. Gov. Roy Cooper, flanked by Michael Regan (left) and Jim Trogdon (right) at a Wednesday press conference in the Executive Mansion. (CJ photo by Barry Smith) Gov. Roy Cooper on Tuesday announced his first two Cabinet selections.Cooper tapped Michael Regan to be his environmental quality secretary and Jim Trogdon to be his Transportation secretary.Regan founded M. Regan & Associates in September 2016. Before that, he was with the Environmental Defense Fund in Raleigh for seven years, serving as associate vice president for U.S. climate and energy and Southeast regional director, as well as national director of energy efficiency and Southeast climate and energy policy.When asked if he thought Regan's time with a group such as the Environmental Defense Fund might be an obstacle to Senate confirmation, Cooper replied,The General Assembly in one if its December 2016 special sessions passed a law invoking a constitutional provision requiring Senate consent of Cabinet heads. Portions of that law are being challenged in the courts.Trogdon is well-known at the N.C. Department of Transportation, having served in a number of positions, including its chief operating officer.Trogdon is also a major general in the North Carolina National Guard.Cooper said the two men will begin their jobs in a week.Cooper also appointed "caretaker supervisors" of various departments until the Cabinet officers take their positions. They are Britt Cobb at the Department of Administration, George Sherrill at the Department of Commerce, Bill Ross at the Department of Environmental Quality, Dempsey Benton at the Department of Health and Human Services, Kevin Cherry at the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, Linda Hayes at the Department of Public Safety, Ron Penny at the Department of Revenue, and Mike Holder at the Department of Transportation. How do you feel about Roy Cooper being the Governor-Elect of North Carolina? I have optimism that Roy Cooper will enact positive change for the State, and offer quality leadership. I am unsure of how a Roy Cooper governance will impact North Carolina. I am concerned with the direction which Roy Cooper will lead our State. Who is Roy Cooper? Hillary told me to vote for Ray Cooper. 45 total vote(s) What's your Opinion? Roy Cooper will literally take the oath of office to become North Carolina's next governor in the dark. He has scheduled his swearing-in for just after midnight on January 1, 2017, as allowed by the NC Constitution. The midnight swearing-in ceremony is not the only thing cloaked in darkness as Governor-elect Roy Cooper takes office this weekend.Cooper has yet to announce any of the cabinet or high level administrative officials needed to run a government. He has announced a handful of senior level advisors including the controversial appointment of Ken Eudy as his senior advisor . Eudy, among other outrageous positions, publicly stated he would not be honoring our service men and women.Cooper's lack of transparency as to who will be a part of his new administration is in contrast to every other transition in modern NC history, or any other state, where incoming administrations were open and eager to announce who would be working alongside the incoming governor. We can hardly view Cooper's refusal to announce appointments with surprise seeing that, as North Carolina Attorney General for 16 years, he only sent a "handful" of emails. Not much transparency here.The lack of cabinet or other appointees has not slowed Cooper from dismissing state employees. As reported by the Associated Press , letters signed by Cooper's incoming Chief of Staff Kristi Jones, were delivered this week to a number of state employees. The letter included a sentence from Jones saying "We hope you will continue to serve North Carolina in other ways." Since there have been no appointee announcements from Cooper it leaves us to wonder who the "we" would be.But even while the Cooper transition team is staying dark, the Raleigh rumor mill is going strong. So here are a couple of names that have floated to the top.For budget director Cooper is looking at Beverly Perdue alum and longtime bureaucrat Charlie Perusse. Perusse filled that position in the Perdue administration and we know how well that went, leaving the state with a $3 billion dollar budget deficit . He is currently the COO for the UNC system being hired there by liberal activist Tom Ross Perusse's last stint as the state Budget Director included not only the $3 billion dollar deficit, but the largest tax increase in state history and the start of deficit spending in the state's unemployment fund eventually running up a $2.6 billion debt to the federal government. For more spending details see a history of spending and taxes in North Carolina Perusse is not the only name mentioned. For the important position of Secretary of Transportation the name of long time democratic fundraiser and environmental activist Nina Szlosberg-Landis has been floated. She previously served three terms on the Board of Transportation as an environmental activist appointee. If this rumor turns out to be true it probably means Cooper will be rewarding his environmental supporters at the expense of improving and building roads and highways. It could also mean he will be prioritizing urban mass transit over improving roads across the state.Szlosberg-Landis has connections not only to environmental activist groups, serving on the boards of the Environmental Defense Fund and the NC League of Conversation voters but also to pro-abortion activists, serving on the board of Lillian's list here in NC.Szlosberg-Landis would be in position to reward both Cooper's environmental supporters and his supporters in the urban areas which helped him narrowly win the election.The final appointment while not a rumor - would make perfect sense. It appears Laura Leslie of WRAL-TV may be auditioning for the role of Press Secretary. This would put someone in charge of messaging for Cooper who has been hard at work since 2011 to demonize Republicans in the state.Also part of the rumor mill is that Governor-elect Cooper has acknowledged that two people, up for appointment consideration, have already been dropped from his list because they did not want to go through the new approval process. Those in the know seem to believe that there has actually been as many as a half dozen that have chosen not to be considered in light of a bill passed in the recent special legislative session that makes the governor's cabinet appointees subject to approval by the State Senate.If the people Governor-elect Cooper is considering for appointment to high office do not feel they can stand up to scrutiny, what does that say about the administration Cooper is trying to put together to run our state? Maybe, that explains why Cooper is being sworn-in to office in the dark of night.With just over 24 hours to go before the dark of night swearing in, there is still time for Cooper to name potential cabinet heads, but being New Year's weekend, not a lot of people will be paying attention. Is this a harbinger of the openness we can expect from a Cooper administration? A handful of musical instruments are so closely associated with certain artists that the instruments themselves are known by their first names. Maybe you've heard of Lucille, B.B. King's favorite guitar, or Eric Clapton's Blackie, the famous Stratocaster you see photos from the 1970s. But in the rarefied world of musical instruments known by their first names, none are quite as elite or historically significant as that beat up old warhorse Trigger. It's an acoustic guitar that's as much a part of the iconography of Willie Nelson as his braids or bandanna an instrument so cherished by its owner and considered so irreplaceable that it travels with its very own 24/7 bodyguard. A few days before Christmas, I got a call that Nelson would be spending a little time in Hawaii, a recharge of sorts before the next tour. Trigger wouldn't be traveling with him, instead he would be returning to Texas for some repair work. Would I like to come and see? Would I ever. (Texas Standard) Mark Erlewine began playing music when he was 6 years old and continues to play pedal steel guitar today. He first started working on guitars in 1969 when he apprenticed as a luthier to his cousin, Dan Erlewine, owner of a guitar shop in Ann Arbor, Michigan. After completing his apprenticeship, Mark and Dan became partners, and Mark bought the business outright in 1972 when Dan decided to take a full-time position with Herb David Guitar Studio. Dan now works at Stewart-MacDonald and is world-renowned for his many how-to books and videos on guitar repair. In early 1974, Mark got a call from his good friend and former bandmate, James Machin, urging Mark to come to Austin and check out the amazing music scene that was happening there. Mark visited and immediately knew it was the right place for him. He moved the shop in 1974 from Ann Arbor to Austin and has been an integral part of the music scene ever since. (Erlewine Guitars) If you grew up in the 1980s, chances are you instantly recognized the guitar pictured above. It is the so-ironically-small-it's-cool humbucking monster Marty McFly plugs into an enormous amp at the start of Back To The Future. (String Box Anthropology) Do not answer that question, but there is one musician that trust this man with something way more important than his wife. Meet Willie Nelson's go to man when his famous guitar needs a rework: Mark Erlewine.Mark, the luthier, is the man that Willie Nelson trust to keep his lifelong partner,in top notch condition. Willie Nelson has married four times and fathered seven children. ( Wiki ) He has been broke and the IRS took most of his prized possessions once. But through all the wives, financial troubles, and an occasional joint or two, he has kept possession of his Martin Guitar N20, which he named after Roy Rogers' horse,To paraphrase Larry the Cable guy,Here are a few quotes from various sites about Mark and his Guitar business in Austin, Texas.Here is some history about Mark from his website.For just a short instant, I thought about sending my Yamaha C40 ($140.00) guitar to Mark for refurbish. Once I ran the numbers, I realized that the cost of freight alone was more than I paid for the guitar. I am sure he could work wonders with the guitar but I think the best way to fix it is like I had to do with a couple of cars. (Take off the radiator cap and drive another car under it). I'm still buying lottery tickets so I can get that Martin D28 that I once owned and sold as result of the stress and strain of my first marriage.Here is Willie and Trigger in all their aged glory. Do you think that maybe the weed stains add a bit to the luster of Trigger?Click on the picture to see a 11 minute video of Willie talking about Trigger. Mrs. Annie Mae Jefferson Webb, age 86, a resident of Washington, NC died Tuesday January 3, 2017 at Ridgewood Nursing Center of Washington.A private memorial service will be held at a later date. The family will receive friends 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Monday January 9, 2017 in the Fellowship Hall of Beaver Dam Church of Christ.Mrs. Webb was born in Beaufort County on December 14, 1930 daughter of the late James Jefferson and the late Katie May Woolard Jefferson. She was a graduate of Washington High School. On December 16, 1953 she married Charles Leon Webb, Sr. who preceded her in death on February 11, 2004. Mrs. Webb was a simple lady who loved her family. She enjoyed interacting with the public while she worked as a cashier at Peoples Drug Store and later at Kerr Drug Store, both formerly of Washington.Surviving Mrs. Webb are two children: Ann Marie Grey and her husband Paul of Washington and Charles L. "Buddy" Webb, Jr. and his wife Kim of Washington. She was predeceased by two sons: David Alan Webb and Kenneth Howard Cherry.In lieu of flowers the family kindly asks for memorial contributions be made to the Annie Webb Memorial Fund, P.O. Box 1465, Washington, NC 27889.Online condolences may be offered to the family by visiting www.paulfuneralhome.com Paul Funeral Home & Crematory of Washington is honored to serve the Webb family. Update 4pm: Health experts have warned that the hospital overcrowding crisis will continue unless there's a massive redesign of Ireland's health system. DCU health professor Anthony Staines says the system needs to be redesigned so that hospitals are a patient's last resort: "Simon Harris has a really tough job, but my experience with the people involved is that they are all working very hard, they are all working very focused to improve things. "But they need an over all plan, somebody needs to say this is where the health service is going." Update 2pm: Health minister Simon Harris says he has begun a review of bed capacity at every hospital, in an attempt to solve the problem. But consultants and experts are warning that overcrowding will continue unless the health system is totally redesigned. Christine O'Malley is Consultant Geriatrician at Nenagh Hospital in Tipperary and a former President of the Irish Medical Organisation. She says the situation isn't surprising: If right now there was double the money in the health service the Irish health service by policy would not open beds because they don't believe hospital beds are required. So I at the moment don't think it is a money issue, I think it is a failure of analysis, failure of policy, failure of understanding. Update10.40am: The INMO has said there are 602 people waiting on trolleys in the country's hospitals this morning. This follows yesterday record figure of 612. Update 9am: The Minister for Health has said the flu vaccine may be made mandatory for health workers. Simon Harris said he was disappointed at the uptake levels in the sector, and said fewer than 20% of nurses have got the jab. The HSE has cited a surge in winter illnesses like the flu for the current surge in demand for services at the country's hospitals. "There's an onus on all of us working in the health service and going in and out of hospitals, to get it. Not only does it keep us well; it also limits the chances of us carrying it and impacting on patients," he said. "If the uptake is so low, it's something we will have to look at in the future." Health chiefs have blamed flu, winter vomiting bugs and chest infections for a new record overcrowding crisis in the country's hospitals, with the INMO saying 612 patients were waiting on trolleys in emergency units yesterday. HSE bosses disputed the nurses' head count, claiming that its records showed 487 patients waiting for a bed at 8am on Tuesday morning. The HSE said the problem is being compounded by 21 outbreaks of respiratory infections and flu this season in hospitals, nursing homes and residential centres. It also said there has been a significant increase in the number of over 75s seeking hospital care. They are twice as likely to be admitted and commonly stay twice as long. Earlier: The Health Minister Simon Harris is to meet the HSE tomorrow to discuss the new record level of people on trolleys at hospitals around the country. The daily count hit 612 yesterday. Earlier this week, the HSE warned that influenza and respiratory illness levels have doubled over the past two weeks and are likely to increase further in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, the medical director of Cork and Kerrys out-of-hours GP service, SouthDoc, Gerry Stack, said there was a 40% rise in patient contacts this Christmas compared to last and a 53% rise comparing this new year period and last. Meanwhile, nationally, the INMO said there has been a significant deterioration in emergency department overcrowding in November and December. In total, there was a record 93,621 admitted patients on trolleys last year, said INMO secretary general Liam Doran. The INMO says overcrowded emergency departments mean conditions are "chaotic, cruel and extremely difficult" for nurses and patients. Officials are expecting the numbers of people on trolleys to be the same, if not worse, today after yesterday's record high of 612. Extended service hours and giving GPs direct access to consultants are among the options being available in a bid to reduce the number of patients on trolleys. The Minister said the surge is a result of a highly contagious flu which has particularly targeted older people. He is encouraging anyone who has not had the flu vaccine to consider getting it straight away, regardless of their age. "It's about ensuring we minimise the spread of the flu," he said Meanwhile, the body representing nursing homes said they have a key role to play in solving the trolley crisis. Tadhg Daly from Nursing Homes Ireland is welcoming a pledge from Minister Harris to look into working with them on the issue, "We welcome the fact the Minister acknowledges, however late it is, the role of Nursing Homes Ireland and our members. "We're happy to engage with Minister Harris, his Department and the HSE to alleviate the crisis that's in our hospitals at the moment and alleviate the suffering of families and older people." Dublin Zoo is celebrating the birth of a male scimitar-horned oryx, a species classified as extinct in the wild. Born last December 8, the newest addition to the herd brings its total to four. The scimitar-horned oryx was once widespread across northern Africa but due to overhunting, habitat loss and competition with domestic livestock - there has been no definitive evidence of their presence in the wild for more than 15 years. Since 2013, Dublin Zoo has financially supported the reintroduction programme for the scimitar-horned oryx in Tunisia. Through conservation breeding programmes, zoo-bred oryx have been reintroduced into semi-wild areas in four national parks across Tunisia. Currently there are over 200 oryx in such semi-wild areas. Commenting on the birth, team leader Helen Clarke-Bennet said, We are absolutely thrilled with the new arrival and recognise the significance of this birth in the conservation of the scimitar-horned oryx. The calf has shown strong signs of settling into its new surroundings and is mixing extremely well with the rest of the herd. After a bumper year with many new arrivals, Dublin Zoo also announced its highest ever visitor numbers with 1,143,904 people passing through the gates in 2016 over 40,000 more than 2015. E-cigarettes are a cost-effective way of helping people to quit smoking, the first official analysis of its kind in Europe has found. Ireland is the only country in the EU to include e-cigarettes in a state assessment of how best to help citizens give up smoking. The Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) found that more people using e-cigarettes would lead to more people successfully kicking the habit. It also said e-cigarettes are cost-effective and could save the public purse millions every year. However, the health authority, which has yet to publish its final report after a public consultation, acknowledges long-term effects from the use of e-cigarettes have yet to be established. It also says a more effective way of getting people to quit smoking is through the combined use of the nicotine addiction medication varenicline alongside nicotine gum, patches, inhalers or sprays. But this would be more costly than the use of e-cigarettes. Dr Mairin Ryan, Hiqa's director of health technology assessment, stressed the "high level of uncertainty" that remains around both the clinical and cost-effectiveness of e-cigarettes. But she added: "Hiqa's analysis shows that increased uptake of e-cigarettes as an aid to quitting would increase the number of people who successfully quit compared with the existing situation in Ireland and would be cost-effective, provided that the currently available evidence on their effectiveness is confirmed by further studies." The 700-page report found: * Varenicline was the most effective single medication for quitting smoking - more than two and a half times as effective as no drugs; * Varenicline alongside nicotine replacement therapy was more than three and a half times as effective as no medication; * E-cigarettes were twice as effective as no therapy (but this is based on only two trials with a relatively small number of participants). Hiqa is putting its findings out for public consultation before it agrees on a final report, which will be put to Ireland's Health Minister Simon Harris. Almost a third of Irish smokers use e-cigarettes as an aid to quitting smoking. Ireland spends more than 40m every year on helping people to give up the habit. The Hiqa report says increasing the uptake of varenicline alongside nicotine replacement therapy would be "good value for money" but could add almost 8m to healthcare costs. A rise in the use of e-cigarettes would cut the bill by 2.6m every year, it found. By David Raleigh The CEO of the University of Limerick (UL) Hospital Group, Colette Cowan, has vehemently disagreed that hospital managers are to blame for the country's hospital trolley crisis. "We are not here ignoring the fact that we are busy. We are under an accountability and performance framework that was brought into the health service last January, which we signed up to, so we are accountable," she said. Colette Cowan Reacting to a media reports of a letter sent to the HSE by Minister for Health Simon Harris, who urged HSE top brass to implement policy allowing him to remove managers who were failing to resolve the crisis, Ms Cowan said she and her colleagues were already "performance managed" by the HSE and were given "targets that we have to meet". Today, UHL had 60 patients on trolleys between its ED (30) and general wards (30). "There are some targets that we haven't met in the last few days, with the numbers of patients in the ED; so my sense is that the minister is saying we are not meeting his targets and we should be accountable and he's right, and we do account," she said. However she strongly disagreed managers were to blame for the crisis: "I disagree with that, as would all my colleagues. We know how (hard) we work; we work over and above our hours to make sure patients are safe. "The key thing that matters to me is that patients are looked after, and safe, and everything else I'm happy to account for." Last Tuesday, 16 ambulances were waiting at the hospital to load patients in and out of the ED. Ms Cowan said she believed the "unprecedented" pile up occurred because of referrals by out of hours locum doctors, and GPs dealing with a wave of post Christmas patients. She said health policy needed to shift "off of hospital's who cannot turn around patients and can't lock the door" and provide more investment in primary care services. She said the hospital crisis was down to a growing, ageing population. "In 2009 we had 51,000 coming through the ED, and on our count for last year, we had 64,500, so it's growing every year." Despite record numbers of patients on trolleys at the hospital, Ms Cowan said she did not believe patients lives were at risk, however she acknowledged patients on trolleys had "no dignity" and "no privacy". She said the was a full compliment of A+E managers and consultants working at the hospital through the Christmas into the New Year. Ms Cowan expected a new A+E department, which will be, "three times the size of the current..small, cramped, and claustrophobic (ED)", would be opened by the end of May. Housing Minister Simon Coveney has said that adults should be allowed to use 123 litres of water per day free of charge before excess costs apply under a new system, writes Juno McEnroe, Political Correspondent. He said households who had still not paid old water bills should be pursued but allowed to pay outstanding debts over a long period. A special commission last month recommended most homes get water for free. Mr Coveney said parties wanted to move on and agree a plan through a new Oireachtas committee on water charges. But in an interview with the Irish Examiner he also admitted that he and the Government had not received word from Brussels as to whether the new water charges plan was acceptable. He expected the free water allowance per adult to be agreed by the Dail to be 123 litres per day. The average usage in Ireland is about 46,000 litres. To be exact it is about 123 litres per day for an average adult... We need to be at the national average and probably a little bit more than that so that people who are using water will have some flexibility around being a little bit above the average or below the average. Mr Coveney stressed that he did not want to interfere with the Oireachtas committee, which will begin its work next week. But he still believes households using excess amounts of water must pay more. If people are using more than that, why should their neighbours pay for it through general taxation? So if you have one house in the estate that is filling a swimming pool out the back, everybody else in the estate has to pay for it. That is just not fair. This story first appeared in the Read More: Irish Examiner. Several attacks in and around Baghdad have killed at least 27 people on a particularly brutal day in the Iraqi capital. A suicide bomber targeted shops and food stands near a bus station in the city's Bab al-Muadam area after nightfall on Thursday, killing 11 and leaving another 22 people injured. Earlier in the day, bombings elsewhere in and around the city killed at least 16 people and wounded dozens more. No one immediately claimed responsibility for any of the attacks but they bore the hallmarks of the Islamic State group, which has carried out a string of bombings in Baghdad over the past week, killing nearly 100 people. In one of Thursday's attacks, a car bomb tore through a market, killing nine people, while four other attacks - mostly by bombs that went off in commercial areas or targeted security forces - killed at least seven. In the market attack, the car bomb was parked near outdoor fruit and vegetable stalls in a mostly Shiite neighbourhood and two policemen were among the dead. IS has managed to carry out a series of attacks across Iraq while also putting up stiff resistance in the northern city of Mosul, where Iraqi forces have been waging a massive offensive since mid-October to retake the city. Mosul is the extremist group's last major urban bastion in the country, and Iraqi forces have retaken around a quarter of the city since the offensive began. Iraq announced a new operation on Thursday to recapture IS-held towns near the Syrian border. Maj Gen Qassim al-Mohammadi said the troops would try to dislodge IS from Rawah, Anah and Qaim, towns in the western Anbar province that fell to the extremists in the summer of 2014. Iraqi forces drove IS from the two main cities of Anbar - Ramadi and Fallujah - last year. Governor lacks key ally for proposal as critics and skeptics note that Obamacare may not be around much longer National Medicaid policy analysts and North Carolina legislative leaders believe Gov. Roy Cooper has taken an extremely unwise course to expand the state's Medicaid rolls.The governor also lacks a key ally in his efforts to add thousands of able-bodied North Carolinians to the government entitlement program: The North Carolina Hospital Association, which said it would not support the action without legislative and congressional backing, both of which seem elusive.Expanding Medicaid would require the state to provide a 5 percent funding match for the 95 percent federal share.Cooper said the state's hospitalsJulie Henry, a spokeswoman for the North Carolina Hospital Association, said the organization has not endorsed Cooper's plan, and it's too early to talk about state funding mechanisms.and have for several years to allow the state to draw down its share of federal Medicaid funds,Henry said.she said.However, she said, "It's a very uncertain time about the future of [the Affordable Care Act], and about the future of the Medicaid program," and how its funding might be affected by a Republican Congress that has made repeal of Obamacare a longstanding crusade.The hospital association's leadership and its member hospitalsHenry said.State legislative leaders, the state's congressional delegation, and Cooper all would have to agree to a plan for the hospital association to join in, she said. Until such a pact is in place, discussion of who pays the state match, which could be hundreds of millions of dollars, is premature, she said.Cooper told business leaders Wednesday at the 15th annual Economic Forecast Forum sponsored by the North Carolina Chamber and the North Carolina Bankers Association.Cooper said of his proposed unilateral request to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to add uninsured people to the state's Medicaid program for the poor, elderly, and disabled.Medicaid expansion is needed "to light a fire in our rural economy," and to keep rural hospitals "from being bulldozed," Cooper said. He estimated 20,000 to 40,000 jobs would be created, $2 billion to $4 billion in annual federal health-care investment would flood the state, individual health-care expenses and state health plan costs would drop, and taxpayer contributions would dip.Senate Democratic Leader Dan Blue said in a written statement.Senate Leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, reacted harshly in a written release.Berger said.Berger said.Berger said legislative leaders plan to ask Congress and CMS to disapprove Cooper'sHouse Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, and Majority Leader John Bell, R-Wayne, issued a statement saying Cooper "lacks the authority to implement his proposed plan, and cannot unilaterally raise taxes on the people of North Carolina." They said Republicans have built tax cuts into their budgets,said Americans for Prosperity's North Carolina State Director, Donald Bryson.Cooper acknowledged the law passed in 2013 that proscribes anyone but the General Assembly to seek Medicaid plan amendments, but brushed aside concerns over the legality of his plan.Cooper said.While Cooper claimed that North Carolina tax dollars are being used to pay for Medicaid expansion in other states, Nic Horton, a senior research fellow at the Florida-based Foundation for Government Accountability, said that isn't true. He cited a Congressional Research Service report that debunks such claims.Horton said.Horton said. Aside from the legality question, expansionHorton said.he said.Josh Archambault, a senior fellow at FGA, said he had no optimism North Carolina would achieve the promises Cooper is making and questioned the governor's timing.with steps already being taken to dismantle Obamacare, makes no sense, Archambault said.While advocates in expansion states may claim success because more people now have Medicaid cards, Archambault said more pertinent measures exist.he said.Archambault said.Under the Obamacare Medicaid expansion rules, the federal government pays states nearly twice the amount for an able-bodied adult to be added to the rolls compared to a traditional Medicaid enrollee - the disabled, elderly, and children - would receive.because the federal revenue share is lower for them, Archambault said. There are 600,000 people with maladies ranging from developmental disabilities to traumatic brain injury on waiting lists for services nationally, while able-bodied single adults gain coverage.Archambault said. And, contrary to the contention the Medicaid expansion population is uninsured,before they shift to Medicaid. Hate crime and assault charges have been filed against four people over an attack on a man with special needs which was streamed live on Facebook. Prosecutors in Cook County, Illinois, announced charges against three 18-year-olds - Jordan Hill, Brittany Covington and Tesfaye Cooper - and 24-year-old Tanishia Covington. The group have also been charged with kidnapping, aggravated unlawful restraint and assault with a deadly weapon. Three of them have additionally been accused of burglary. The charges stem from an incident which lasted 48 hours and targeted a white man police described as having "mental health challenges". All those charged are black. "He's traumatised by the incident, and it's very tough to communicate with him at this point," police commander Kevin Duffin said. Excerpts of the video show the victim with his mouth taped shut slumped in a corner. He has a wound on his head, and a red band appears to be around his hands. Police superintendent Eddie Johnson described the video as "sickening", and added: "It makes you wonder what would make individuals treat somebody like that." The investigation began on Monday after officers found a man "in distress" and "in crisis" walking on a street. The man was taken to hospital, and it was later discovered that he had been reported missing from a Chicago suburb. At about the same time, police took several people into custody at a nearby address where they found signs of a struggle and property damage. Investigators determined that the missing man had been at the same address. French police have detained Kosovo's former prime minister based on an arrest warrant issued by Serbia. Ramush Haradinaj, who is also a former guerrilla fighter, was stopped as he flew in from Kosovo's capital, Pristina, on Wednesday. Kosovo's foreign ministry said the arrest warrant issued by Serbia was "unacceptable". The government said it is trying to resolve the matter. Mr Haradinaj was cleared of war crimes charges in two lengthy trials by a UN war crimes tribunal. But Serbia accuses him of committing war crimes including kidnappings, torture and killings against Serb civilians when he was a senior rebel commander in western Kosovo during the 1998-99 war. Kosovo seceded from Serbia in 2008. Mr Haradinaj's party is now in opposition. Update 1.25pm: Turkish police are closing in on the gunman who killed 39 people at an Istanbul nightclub, a senior official said, insisting his possible whereabouts and contacts had been established. Turkish deputy prime minister Veysi Kaynak said the gunman who attacked Istanbul's upscale Reina nightclub during New Year's celebrations is most probably from China's Muslim Uighur minority and was a "specially trained member of a (terror) cell". "The security forces have determined his identity, his possible whereabouts have been determined ... His contacts have also been determined," he told the A Haber news channel in an interview. "We can say that the circle is closing in on him." Mr Kaynak said authorities believe the man, whose name has not been revealed, is still inside Turkey, although they have not completely ruled out the possibility that he may have escaped. "Because we have taken utmost measures at our airports, even though we don't rule it out completely, we believe that we will get results from operations inside Turkey," he said. Earlier: Police in Turkey have carried out more raids in their hunt for the gunman who killed 39 people at an Istanbul nightclub, detaining several people at a housing complex on the outskirts of the city, the state-run news agency reported. Anadolu Agency said gendarmerie police and special operations teams conducted raids in the Silivri district, detaining an undisclosed number of people from China's Muslim Uighur community. The report said those rounded up were suspected of "aiding and abetting" the gunman. At least 39 other people - including 11 women - are already in custody over suspected links to the attack on Istanbul's upmarket Reina nightclub during New Year celebrations. The Islamic State terror group has claimed responsibility for the massacre, saying it was in reprisal for Turkish military operations in northern Syria. Most of the victims of the attack were foreigners from the Middle East. The government said the gunman, who reportedly escaped in a taxi, has been identified but authorities have not revealed his name. Turkish media have widely published images of the suspect, including a selfie video filmed in Istanbul's Taksim Square. The Sabah newspaper, which is close to the government, said the suspect is a Kyrgyz national who was born in 1988. Security has been tightened around Istanbul and at border crossings and airports to prevent him from fleeing Turkey. Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus suggested in an interview with the Hurriyet Daily News newspaper and other sister publications that "foreign intelligence services" could be behind the attack, pointing at the "professional" manner in which it was carried out. "I am of the opinion that it's not possible for the perpetrator to have carried out such an attack without any support. It seems like a secret service thing. All these things are being assessed," Hurriyet Daily News quoted Mr Kurtulmus as saying in the interview published today. A group of about 20 suspects were detained on Wednesday in a police operation in Izmir, western Turkey. Anadolu said the suspects are from the largely Muslim Russian republic of Dagestan, as well as members of China's Muslim Uighur minority and from Syria. They are thought to have lived with the gunman in an alleged IS cell house in the central Turkish city of Konya, the agency reported. About 20 children who were with the detainees were also taken to a police station. An investigation has been launched after a transgender inmate was found dead in her cell at an all-male prison. Jenny Swift, a prisoner at privately run HMP Doncaster, was discovered unresponsive at 12.40am on December 30. Staff and paramedics attempted CPR but she was pronounced dead at 1.10am, the Prison Service said. Swift, 49, from Seaforth in Sefton, Merseyside, was charged with attempted murder after Eric Flanagan, 26, was found with multiple stab wounds in Balby, Doncaster, on November 15. She was remanded in custody at Doncaster Magistrates' Court two days later. Mr Flanagan died a month after the incident. UK News - Transgender woman found dead in cell at HMP Doncaster https://t.co/Idao1IgcvX LiveNews (@LiveUKNews) January 5, 2017 An unnamed friend claimed Swift had asked to be put into a women's prison, the Sheffield Star reported. HMP Doncaster is a category B prison operated by Serco which houses a male population of up to 1,145. The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman confirmed an independent investigation has begun. A spokeswoman said: "We will be in contact with Ms Swift's family and will try to address any questions they may have. "Our independent investigation will aim to identify the full circumstances of the death and whether there were any failings in Ms Swift's care. "Where possible we will identify lessons to be learned and make recommendations to help prevent similar deaths in future. "We also share any findings with the Coroner to assist with their inquiries." The Ministry of Justice launched a review of the care of transgender prisoners after the deaths of two inmates at all-male prisons. Vicky Thompson, 21, was found dead at HMP Leeds in November 2015, and Joanne Latham died at HMP Woodhill in Milton Keynes in the same month. The review, which was published in November, revealed that one in four prisons in England and Wales holds at least one transgender inmate. Data collected in March and April showed that 33 of the 123 public and private prisons reported they had one or more transgender prisoners. There were 19 establishments with one transgender inmate, 10 with between two and four, and four holding at least five. The review said: "It is apparent that the treatment of transgender people in courts, probation and prison services has not kept pace with the development of a more general understanding of the issues surrounding gender in society." Detective Chief Inspector Vicky Short said the investigation into Mr Flanagan's death continues. She said: "On Friday 30 December, we were made aware that the person charged in this investigation had died. However, the inquiry into Mr Flanagan's death remains ongoing at this time and his family continue to be supported by officers." BISMARCK, N.D. A federal grand jury in North Dakota is looking into a violent November clash between Dakota Access pipeline opponents and officers in which a woman was seriously injured. Steve Martinez, 42, a pipeline protester from Williston, has been ordered to testify regarding the arm injury of Sophia Wilansky, 21, of New York, according to his attorney, Ralph Hurvitz. Protesters maintain Wilansky was injured by a grenade thrown by police, while authorities say she was hurt by a small propane tank that protesters rigged to explode. Grand jury proceedings are closed to the public, but Hurvitz confirmed the nature of Martinez's subpoena and supplied a copy of a motion he filed to quash it. The document states that "the subpoena further directs him (Martinez) to bring with him information related to the injury of Sophia Wilansky on Nov. 21, 2016, including, but not limited to: photos/SD cards; written statements; any other information within possession." But Hurvitz's motion was denied Wednesday in a closed hearing. U.S. Attorney Chris Myers said he could not comment on the case because grand jury proceedings are secret. Martinez had been scheduled to testify before the grand jury later Wednesday, but Hurvitz said the matter was delayed to Feb. 1. Martinez made a statement outside the courthouse, saying he would refuse to cooperate and was prepared to go to jail if found in contempt of court. "Losing my freedom is a small price to pay for keeping my dignity and standing up for what's right," he said. He declined to say what his role was in the clash that occurred late Nov. 20 and early Nov. 21, when protesters tried to push past a long-blocked bridge on a state highway near the protesters' main encampment along the pipeline route in southern North Dakota. They were turned back by authorities using tear gas, rubber bullets and water sprays. Police said protesters were throwing objects including rocks, asphalt and water bottles at officers. One officer was hit in the head. About 40 protesters rallied outside the courthouse in support of Martinez, and court officials locked the courthouse doors. SINGAPORE: China has expanded long-term thermal coal supply contracts for 2023 to all coal mines and asked power... MOSCOW: The Kremlin said on Thursday it had not committed to staying in the Black Sea grain deal, which has freed... PARIS: People with monkeypox can spread the virus up to four days before symptoms appear, with more than half of... The nonprofit Cassies Gifts of Love invites Billings-area residents to attend its third annual Angels Ball on Saturday, Jan. 21 from 7 p.m. to midnight at The Red Lion hotel. Tickets are $25 a person. The Angels Ball benefits Montana families of children with cancer. This 21-and-over formal prom-style fundraiser features a silent auction, light snacks, cash bar and music by DJ GQ. Cassies Gifts of Love was set up to honor Casandra Lorenz of Billings. In July 2009, Casandra was diagnosed at age 14 with a stage-four rare muscle cancer. During her illness, Casandra was deeply touched by the outpouring of support by the community and often said that when she got better she would return the favor to help other children with cancer and would tell her friends and family, We the kids are the future! Casandra died March 13, 2012. To honor her wishes to help others in need, her parents started Cassies Gifts of Love. So far it has helped more than 20 families. To learn about Casandra and her family's story and how to help, go to www.cassiesgiftsoflove.com or the Facebook page Cassies Gifts of Love. Tickets may be purchased by calling Tina at 406-794-9096, Melissa at 534-1811 or at the Rio Grand Casino. She's given to so many, now it's time to help out Canberra's soup kitchen lady. Stasia Dabrowski, now 91, wrote off the soup kitchen van when it clipped a railing on Hindmarsh Drive last Tuesday. Canberra's soup kitchen lady Stasia Dabrowski on Thursday with her grandson and right-hand man Joshua Kenworthy. Credit:Megan Doherty Thankfully no one was hurt in the accident. It also failed to dent Stasia's determination to feed the poor and needy. But it left her without a proper vehicle as the van only had third party insurance. Stasia and her grandson, Joshua Kenworthy, are now using his 2001 Holden Astra to perform the work of the soup kitchen but it's barely adequate. Australia's defence co-operation with Indonesia spans some of the most controversial issues in domestic and international politics today, including the fight against terrorism, refugee and asylum seeker movements, the South China Sea and cyber security challenges. Indonesia's move to suspend all military co-operation with Australia is the latest in a series of disputes between the two neighbours and risks the careful progress talked up by the Turnbull government and President Joko Widodo's administration. What is included in Australia's formal co-operation agreements with Indonesia? The most recent 2+2 Dialogue with both countries' foreign and defence ministers in October 2016 highlighted a "comprehensive strategic partnership with the objective of ensuring economic development, prosperity, peace and security in the region." Three businesses have been completely destroyed in Brisbane's south, after a fierce blaze tore through a building in the early hours of Friday morning. Emergency services were called to the blaze at the corner of Beaudesert Road and Wall Street in Moorooka at 3.10am, and arrived to find flames coming out of the roof of the two-storey building. Eight crews fought the fire, using ladders to reach the upper storey of the block of shops. Fire crews had the blaze under control by about 4.15am, and the fire was completely out by 6.10am. Surf Life Saving Queensland wants all pool owners to undergo compulsory CPR lessons, following a spate of pool drownings over the Christmas period. There have been a number of close calls in Queensland pools this summer, with three near drownings in Cairns alone. Surf Life Saving Queensland said pool owners should take CPR lessons to help prevent drowning deaths. Credit:Peter Braig In November, two sisters aged three and four drowned in their family's backyard pool in Logan. Since Christmas Day in NSW, four children aged under five have drowned - three in pools and one in a fish pond. Samsung had a lot of new products on offer during its CES news conference. But the first item on the agenda? Eating crow. The firm opened its turn in the spotlight at the tech show by acknowledging that having to stop making one of its flagship smartphones and deal with explosive washing machines were not ideal for the firm. "This year was a challenging year for Samsung," said Tim Baxter, president of Samsung Electronics America. "We continue our intensive efforts internally and with third-party experts to understand what happened and to make sure it doesn't happen again." Baxter said the company will release information about the root cause of its exploding battery issue "very soon." A woman has gone on a racist rant against two shoppers at a Coles supermarket in Melbourne's west, threatening them with a food tin and abusing staff as they tried to defuse the aggressive situation. An account of the rant suggests the woman became aggressive when she thought two women of African appearance had pushed in front of her at the checkout at Coles in the Woodgrove Shopping Centre in Melton on Wednesday afternoon. "I was here, I was here first," the woman yells in the video. As staff attempt to take her to another register she picks up what looks like a Milo tin and threatens to throw it at one of the two women. He was living in the city when he fell in love with Yarloop. "I used to come down here every weekend, that's why I moved down here, I loved the place so much," he said. The evening Mr Brown's beloved Yarloop went up in flames, he was with his family at his home on Railway Parade. They were aware a fire was burning nearby threatening properties near Waroona, but they hadn't received any formal warning to leave the town yet. "Apart from word of mouth at the station we got no warning, it was really up to yourself to make the decision [to leave]," Mr Brown said. "I was on the roof, I was looking up that hill, and if you saw what was coming down you would've gone out as well. "A lot of people made the decision to leave but some got caught totally unaware and didn't even get the chance to leave. "Four friends of mine ended up in the carpark at the hotel sheltering between cars with flames going over their heads. "They are still traumatised." Mr Brown had been preparing for the worst, wetting down his property and his neighbours', who had already left. But then the water ran out. "When the water runs out there's not much you can do," he said. "My partner said 'come on, no point staying when there's no water, you can't fight', so we moved out. "It was just pointless really." They jumped inside the family's caravan and fled the town towards the emergency shelter in Australind. Mr Brown said he expected the worst, but through family friends he found out his house had miraculously survived the ordeal. "We may not have lost a house but we lost a community, and a lot of people we knew have moved out." He said a year later it is still devastating to walk around town and see sandpits where known buildings and homes used to stand. "I think a lot of people have got a lot to answer for" Yarloop resident Helen Alexander says it was devastating to see her daughter and granddaughter lose everything. Credit:Marta Pascual Juanola. "My daughter came around at about 1 o'clock in the morning and said 'I've been told I have to get out'," Yarloop resident Helen Alexander said. "She wasn't told by the hierarchy, it was just the neighbours knocking on the door. "Nobody else in the street was told, just her. "It must've been an omen because hers was the only house in the street that burnt down." Tracy Osborne, who is in the fire brigade was coming up the road and stopped me and said 'what are you doing?', Ms Alexander said. "I told her and she said 'I'm going to get my kids and I'm getting out of here'. "I thought well, she is in the fire brigade, she must know what the hell is going on." So Ms Alexander told her friend and rushed back home, where she gathered the few things she had packed and prepared to leave town with her family. The next morning, Ms Alexander received the news that despite losing six massive sheds, her house was still standing. Her daughter's wasn't. "She was absolutely devastated," Ms Alexander said. "She is a single mother and she and her daughter lost everything. "She does work, she does have a job, she's not on a pension or anything. "She's worked hard, very, very hard for all she's got." Ms Alexander said she was grateful they could leave the town in time, but she said she was disappointed at the way the situation was handled by the authorities. "It's just bloody ridiculous; everybody should've been evacuated by two o'clock in the afternoon," she said. "They could see it coming. "I think a lot of people have got a lot to answer for." "We never received a warning" Marion Whitecross had only been in Yarloop for two months when the blaze hit the town. Credit:Marta Pascual Juanola Marion Whitecross and her husband had only been in Yarloop for two months and were in the midst of renovating an old house on Railway Parade when the town was gutted the evening of January 7. "We kept thinking all day 'they'll put it out, they'll put it out and they'll tell us when to go," Ms Whitecross said. "But that didn't happen." About 8pm that night, Ms Whitecross thought the choppers flying overhead had put the fire out in the hills, so she and her husband went inside to have a cuppa. A few minutes later popping and banging noises alerted the couple, who rushed outside. "It was just across the road," she said. "We raced next door to tell the fella next door because we were going to help him with his horses but it was too late by then so we all had to just take off." Ms Whitecross grabbed a few clothes off the line and ushered her dogs to the car, but had to leave her two cats behind. They drove to Australind evacuation centre where they stayed for two weeks, until they were allowed back in town. "It was really unsettling, I just feel sorry for the people that lost everything," Ms Whitecross said. "Plus for ten months with the clean up we still had to drive past all the burnt down houses all the time. "It was a bit disturbing." Ms Whitecross said they never received a warning, unlike other people who got one on their phones. "They also said to us 'why didn't you have your computer going?', well there's no power so you can't have your computer without power unless you have a good battery life," she said. "And coming from Kalgoorlie we didn't have a wireless radio. "Now we've sort of set up ourselves if something happens again but unless you've been through it before, you don't know what to do." Ms Whitecross said life in Yarloop was slowly coming together, even though most of the few acquaintances she made in the two months she lived in town before the fires moved somewhere else. However, the prospect of a new bushfire stays in the back of her mind. "I think it scares all of us really," she said. "I think we need to thank Australia" Less than 24 hours before Yarloop burned to ashes, Julie-Ann McMiles hedged up her horse float and started evacuating her horses. Credit:Marta Pascual Juanola. Julie-Ann McMiles was working one of her horses when she realised something was wrong. Despite being the evening it was scorching hot and, as the wind was swirling, big burnt leaves were landing on her as she was working. In that moment she knew she had to leave Yarloop. By midnight, less than 24 hours before Yarloop burned to ashes, Ms McMiles hedged up her horse float and started evacuating the horses. Two of her children sought shelter in Harvey, and her older son and her drove down to Coolup. However, by dawn Ms McMiles, who was in charge of the Yarloop resource centre, couldn't hold back the need to drive back to Yarloop and try to help other people evacuate their homes. "I couldn't get along the highway because the smoke was so thick and there were police cars heading down the highway, there was no way we could get back that way," she said. "So my oldest son and I went back to Coolup and we stayed there thinking that the whole town had been evacuated." But shortly after, Ms McMiles learnt through a news report on TV that there were still several people stranded in town. "I assumed that everyone would have left town by that stage," she said. two days after the fires, Ms McMiles managed to sneak back into ravaged Yarloop. To her amazement, her house was standing untouched among destroyed properties. "It was amazing, we were really happy to see the house there, but then there was a bit of guilt that my house was still there," she said, moved. As soon as she was back, Ms McMiles started tirelessly trying to track everybody down and assist in all she could. A few weeks after, Ms McMiles organised a meeting with mining magnate Andrew Forrest to request assistance. Mr Forrest offered to set up a provisional caravan park to allow locals to come back to town, but following the asbestos scare the state government stepped in and opposed the project. "It was very hard," Ms McMiles said. "We thought it was the light at the end of the tunnel to get people back and the town going again but because of the asbestos scare they wouldn't let us bring people back in." However, since the town reopened Ms McMiles is excited with the prospect of Yarloop's recovery. A Billings man who was arrested after law enforcement agents closed off a block of Howard Avenue to search his home denied federal firearms charges on Thursday. Appearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Timothy Cavan, John Edward Terry, 38, pleaded not guilty to an indictment charging him with being a felon in possession of a firearm. The indictment accuses Terry of illegally having six firearms on Nov. 29 after having been convicted of a felony drug charge in Michigan in 1999. The firearms include a .223 caliber semi-automatic rifle, a 12 gauge pump-action shotgun and four 9mm semi-automatic pistols. Edwards had previously been charged by a criminal complaint shortly after being arrested on Nov. 29. Agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrested Terry after an investigation in which witnesses said he was illegally possessing guns, had participated in tactical training and shooting sessions and had espoused conspiracy theories about the government. During a search of Terrys house, agents found six firearms, three silencers and thousands of rounds of ammunition of various makes and calibers. An ATF agent arrested Terry after he left his home and walked to a nearby convenience store. The agent attempted to contact Terry when he left the store, but Terry ran and led the agent on a chase through a residential neighborhood before eventually being arrested. If convicted, Terry faces a maximum 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The case will be heard by U.S. District Judge Susan Watters. Cavan ordered Terry to remain in custody. Lahore, Pakistan: A smartphone application enabling women to report incidents of harassment to police in Pakistan's Punjab province went live this week as authorities step up efforts to promote women's safety in one of the worst provinces for crimes against them. With a click of a button, users who feel threatened can call an emergency response police team who should be able to track their location via a built-in global positioning system (GPS). "Though the app primarily covers street harassment, it also has a feature for woman who is inside the house and is suffering physical violence to call for help," said Fauzia Viqar, chair of the Punjab Commission on the Status of Women, a body promoting women's rights, which was involved in the launch of the app on Thursday. She said users can also use the app to mark unsafe locations and access a toll-free helpline which provides information on laws to protect women's rights among other services. Istanbul: The man who killed 39 people in an attack on an Istanbul nightclub on New Year's Day is probably an ethnic Uighur and Turkish security services now know where he might be hiding, Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak said on Thursday. It came as police carried out a dawn raid in a town on the edge of Istanbul on Thursday and detained suspects thought to be connected to the attack, the state-run Anadolu news agency said. Kaynak described the man as a "specially trained" member of a cell who carried out the attack alone and said that while the possibility of him fleeing abroad could not be ruled out, security operations inside Turkey were more likely to find him. "The terrorist's identity has been established by security forces and his potential whereabouts have also been determined," Kaynak said in an interview with broadcaster A Haber, noting that they had also found out who he was linked to. The University of Bristol has secured substantial funding in all three large grants recently awarded under an initiative to strengthen ties between the UK and China. The funding reflects long and well-established links by Bristol palaeobiologists and palaeoclimatologists with their Chinese counterparts in the fields of dinosaurs, origin of life, mass extinctions, and climate change. The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the UK government funding body that covers all aspects of environmental science, agreed to provide 4.5million as their contribution to a jointly funded scheme with the National Science Foundation of China (NSFC). They offered three awards, each of approximately 1.5 million, to run for up to five years, and to cover costs of young researchers, field and laboratory work in both countries. The key aim of the funding was 'to advance understanding of the evolution of the biosphere by integrating excellent palaeoscience (including palaeontology, geochemistry, geochronology and phylogenomics) and cutting edge modelling.' The three successful proposals include one led from Bristol, and two with major Bristol components. The first, led by Professor Paul Valdes of the School of Geographical Sciences, 'The evolution of vegetation and biodiversity change during the Paleogene and early Neogene', is to explore the climates and vegetation of the Earth during the past 66 million years of cooling climates. Professor Valdes said: "This is a really exciting opportunity to understand how parts of China became biodiversity hotspots in the past, and how these might change in the future. Through the use of fossils, bioclimatic indicators, and complex climate models we hope to unravel some of the underlying feedbacks and interactions between the changing ecology and climate." Stepping back in time, the second award is to explore 'Ecosystem resilience and recovery from the Permo-Triassic crisis'. This crisis was the largest ever mass extinction, which occurred 252 million years ago and experienced a loss of more than 9 percent of species on Earth. This project is led from the University of Leeds, and Bristol is the second collaborator. Professor Mike Benton of the School of Earth Sciences in Bristol, said: "We've been collaborating with Chinese colleagues to explore this event for more than twenty years and we look forward to exploring the environmental changes and consequences for life. In particular we want to know how life can recover from such devastation." The third project steps back even further in time, some 600500 million years ago, to explore 'Perturbation of the Earth System at the Proterozoic-Phanerozoic transition and the resilience of the biosphere'. The project explores a time when the Earths atmospheres and oceans were very different from today, and the crucial time when modern groups of animals first emerged. The project is led from University College London, and Bristol is again the major partner. Professor Phil Donoghue of the School of Earth Sciences in Bristol, added: "This is a fantastic opportunity to bring together Chinese and UK experts from diverse branches of science, from genetics to geochemistry, to reveal how animal life and its environment co-evolved over half a billion years ago, laying the foundations of the modern biosphere." Professor Daniela Schmidt, Director of Research for the Faculty of Science, said: "This is a great achievement for the University of Bristol. Its unusual for one university to secure the majority of funding from a specialist funding call such as this. We are delighted about these new opportunities to foster bright young researchers and to further develop our international research links with China." A Dayton man who retrieved candles containing meth from a freezer in a Billings residence admitted federal drug charges on Wednesday. Chance Billy Joe Dehart, 29, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess meth with intent to distribute during a hearing in U.S. District Court in Billings. A plea deal calls for five other counts in an indictment to be dismissed at sentencing. Assistant U.S. Attorney John Sullivan said an Eastern Montana drug task force began investigating Dehart in 2015 for meth distribution in the Billings area. Agents used a confidential informant to make four controlled meth buys from Dehart and two other buys from his associates. In June 2015, Dehart went to the Billings residence of Elmer Houston Estill Jr. and asked about a package that had been shipped to Estill. Estill directed Dehart to the freezer where the package was being stored, Sullivan said. In the package were two Mexican-style candles, which Dehart took to the garage. When he returned, Dehart had what the informant estimated to be eight ounces of meth that had been hidden in the candles, Sullivan said. Agents then got information that Dehart was expecting another delivery at Estills. The U.S. Postal Service intercepted the package, addressed to a John Hall, and a drug dog alerted to the presence of drugs, Sullivan said. After getting a search warrant for the package, agents found about 320.2 grams of meth, or about 11 ounces, that was about 98 percent pure. The same day the package was intercepted, a person identifying himself as John Hall contacted the Postal Service asking about the package, Sullivan said. The next day, Dehart went to the Billings Main Post Office and asked about the package addressed to John Hall. Dehart disputed the amount of meth in the candles, saying it was about four ounces, and he said the associates were a girlfriend and a friend. Estill, 55, who was convicted of possession with intent to distribute, was sentenced in federal court in November to time served of 366 days and to three years of supervised release. U.S. District Judge Susan Watters sentenced Estill to less than the guideline range of about three to four years, saying he had medical issues and had been punished enough. Dehart faces a minimum mandatory five years to 40 years in prison and a five million dollar fine. U.S. Magistrate Judge Timothy Cavan said he would recommend that Deharts plea be accepted by Watters, who will set a sentencing date. Latest News Expect another interest rate increase before Christmas And one more in February, says economist New way to own a slice of paradise Platform provides co-ownership model for holiday homes Over the last 12 months, satisfaction amongst mortgage holders with the major banks has dropped by 2.8 percentage points to 75.4%, according to new data from Roy Morgan Research.This was a significant drop compared to non-mortgage customers which fell by only 0.4 percentage points to 80.5% over the same time period.The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has the highest satisfaction rating amongst home loan customers with the big four banks at 78.0%. This is followed by the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (75.9%), National Australia Bank (72.9%), and Westpac (72.6%).The non-majors received much higher satisfaction levels amongst home loan customers. ING Direct led the pack with a 94.8% rating followed by Bendigo Bank with 94.5%.Despite very low loan and deposit rates that favour borrowers, overall bank customer satisfaction is currently being adversely affected by the fact that only 75.4% of the big four banks home-loan customers are satisfied, said Norman Morris, industry communications director at Roy Morgan Research.Whats more, the satisfaction gap between them and other customers (80.5%) is widening. With banks recently announcing out of cycle increases in loan rates, borrower satisfaction is expected to decline even further.Morris said that while customer satisfaction with the big four banks has plateaued over the last three years, this is now starting to show signs of decline. Counterpoint, hosted by Scott Harris, is heard every Monday night on WPKN 89.5 FM, Bridgeport, CT between 8:00 9:30 pm ET. Webstreaming and audio archive at http://wpkn.org 1) Professor Jason Stanley, Jacob Urowsky professor of philosophy at Yale University and author of How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them, talks about the Republican Party's embrace of "white replacement theory," WRTs fascist origins, why Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has become a role model for much of the GOP -- and the dangerous rise of rightwing extremist political violence in the US.2) Cody Hounanian, Executive Director of the Student Debt Crisis Center discusses his group's response to President Biden's announced plan to address student loan debt, which includes forgiving up to $20,000 for millions of borrowers and extending the payment freeze one final time until the end of the year.3) Jenna Grande, Press Secretary with Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) discuss CREW's recent article, "Big Oil Has Given $1 Million to Fuel Seditionists," and related issues of Big Oil's influence on US energy, environment and climate policy.4) Liz Dupont-Diehl, Associate Director of the Connecticut Citizen Action Group discusses her group's recent reporting on CT based health insurance companies that are requesting double-digit premium increases for individuals and small businesses, as they spend billions on stock buybacks and excessive executive salaries, and lobbying.Some segments featured on Counterpoint are edited for re-broadcast on the syndicated Between The Lines radio news magazine. Visit their web site at http://www.btlonline.org for free subscriptions to mp3 - podcast audio files, program summaries and interview transcripts. An archive of current and past Counterpoint interviews are accessible for free at our Counterpoint Radio web site: http://counterpointradio.org The full 2-hour unedited program can be accessed for a 2 week period after the show, at the WPKN Radio archives: http://archives.wpkn.org/bookmarks/search/counterpoint A former Billings woman on Wednesday admitted federal drug charges in which investigators found nearly two pounds of methamphetamine and firearms during a 2014 search of her home. Sally Jo Jackson-Salazar, 60, of Bloomfield, N.M., pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Billings to conspiracy with intent to distribute. A plea deal calls for five other counts to be dismissed at sentencing. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brendan McCarthy said an FBI task force investigation in 2013 led to information that Jackson-Salazar was involved in distributing multi-pound quantities of meth in the Billings area. During a search of a residence in August 2014, investigators found meth and firearms. The resident also admitted to getting meth from Jackson-Salazar, McCarthy said. Agents then used a confidential informant to make four controlled meth buys, totaling 49.6 grams, or 1.7 ounces, from Jackson-Salazar at her home. Law enforcement executed a search warrant at Jackson-Salazars house and recovered about 1.9 pounds of meth and three firearms. A search the same day of a storage unit believed to be used by Jackson-Salazar turned up ballistic armor and ammunition. The investigation also led to phone records that showed drug-related text messages between Jackson-Salazar and others, McCarthy said. Jackson-Salazar faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years to life in prison and up to a $10 million fine. U.S. Magistrate Judge Timothy Cavan said he will recommend Jackson-Salazars plea be accepted by U.S. District Judge Susan Watters, who will set a sentencing date. Cavan ordered Jackson-Salazar into custody pending sentencing. 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... latest news 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... In Stars timeslot premiere, The Devil You Know, the girls are torn apart when Simones parents show up and try to get her to leave Atlanta. While they work through their issues, Jahil and Carlotta fight about him managing the band, but he ignores her concerns and tries to find enough money to produce a demo. To Enter The Contest, Or Not To Enter The Contest After their gig at the party, Jahil wants Star, Alexandria and Simone to enter a radio contest to headline at a music festival. Alex and Simone have reservations about the contest. Alex is not convinced that Jahil is the right choice to be their manager and does not think he can come up with the money for the demo. Simone is worried about entering the contest because she doesnt want to be found after what happened with their stepfather. Alex goes to spend more time with Derek. The two hook up and bond over both losing parents at a young age until they are interrupted by his grandma. Meanwhile, when Carlotta finds out about the contest, she goes to Jahils house and punches him. Shes not crazy about Jahil managing the three girls because of some issue in the past. (Its somewhat vague). They both threaten each other that they will tell the girls the past things including how Jahil got Simone and Stars mother, Mary, hooked on drugs. At the hair salon, Alex has a flashback of her parents telling her to stop dancing when the song Groove Is In The Heart comes on the radio. After she has a daydream about the salon breaking out in dance (a super fun musical number, by the way) her parents walk in and blow her cover in front of Star and Simone. Star Review: A Gritty New Music Drama Empire Fans Will Love>>> Big Little Lies Star is furious when she finds out that Alex lied about being rich, her mothers death and having a dad in the music business. Her parents (played by Lenny Kravitz and Naomi Campbell . talk about a power duo) demand that Alex leave Atlanta to go back to New York with them. Derek shows up to the salon and finds out about her lies too. Within a matter of seconds, Alex is called a fake ass bitch and a liar by two different people, so its safe to say shes having a bad day and might want to catch the next flight out of Georgia. Later that day, Alexs father calls her and begs her to come home to help him take care of her drunk mother. Star overhears the conversation, and goes to Jahil because she thinks Alex will leave and start her own music career. Alexs mom also tries to convince her to leave and says she is trying to stop drinking. She explains, Atlanta is not a good look, darling. Ive seen that housewives show. Its trash. Im slightly insulted on behalf of the Atlanta Housewives, but the line was delivered perfectly. Daddy Issues Star goes to Alexs dad, music producer Roland Crane, and asks him to produce their demo. She says the two should talk somewhere more privately because he is starting to get noticed, and they go to his hotel room. Alexs mom walks into the room and finds Star in the bathtub, and is not happy, assuming that they slept together. Carlotta is still struggling with what to tell Star and the girls about her former band, but Tyrese (who is definitely more than just her pastor) encourages her to be honest about her past. After Alex finds out that Star went to her dad, she decides to leave Atlanta. Would You Watch Empire Without Lucious Lyon?>>> I Want You To Stay After a conversation with Carlotta, Alex goes to her parents and says that she is not going back with them. Derek shows up at the restaurant and asks her not to leave. Alex signs up the girls for the contest, so she and Star make up. Simone continues to have nightmares about her stepfather and takes pills (washed down by whiskey) to try and forget. While attending church with Carlotta, she passes out. Meanwhile, Jahil, still on the hunt to find enough money to produce the girls demo, goes to Maggie for a loan and a promise to complete more jobs for her. Star airs Wednesday at 9/8c on FOX. Like more news? Visit the BuddyTV Facebook page. (Image courtesy of FOX) Media Advisory: UB and partners to mark Millard Fillmores 217th birthday on Friday BUFFALO, N.Y. UB and community partners will celebrate the 217th anniversary of the birth of Millard Fillmore, UBs first chancellor and 13th president of the United States. When: The event, which is free and open to the public, begins at 10 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 6. Where: Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo. Fillmores gravesite is located in section F. Here is a link to download a map: https://www.forest-lawn.com/plan-your-visit/map. Who: The event is hosted by UB, the Forest Lawn Group and the Buffalo Club. UB President Satish K. Tripathi and representatives of organizations that Fillmore helped found will present a wreath and deliver short remarks. The organizations include the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, the Buffalo Club, Buffalo & Erie County Public Library, Buffalo General Medical Center, The Buffalo History Museum, Buffalo Public Schools, Buffalo Science Museum, Hodgson Russ LLP, SPCA serving Erie County, the Unitarian Universalist Church of Buffalo and UB. Lt. Col. Gary Charlton, operations group commander of the 107th Air Wing of the New York Air National Guard in Niagara Falls, will present a wreath on behalf of President Barack Obama. All guests are welcome to attend a program following the ceremony at the Buffalo Club, 388 Delaware Ave., Buffalo, which is celebrating the 150th anniversary of its founding. Michael T. Genco, a member and past president, will discuss the founding of the Buffalo Club Fillmore was a founding member and its first president. This years commemoration marks the 52nd consecutive year UB has organized the ceremony, a tradition dating back to 1937. From 1937-65, the anniversary ceremonies were organized by Charles Templeton, a UB alumnus who worked with the city of Buffalo and the Buffalo Board of Education to program the annual events. A German renewable energy company is developing Montana wind farms at a whirling pace. BayWa r.e. announced recently that it had bought the struggling Greycliff Wind project near Big Timber. A week earlier, another BayWa r.e.-related wind farm near Reed Point signed a contract to begin delivering electricity to NorthWestern Energy in 2018. Combined, the projects will install 41 to 50 wind turbines north of the Yellowstone River with enough power for 30,000 to 40,000 homes. The region is no stranger to wind farm proposals, but construction plans and start-up dates havent materialized before now. Its about time that a project happened. The wind is there, the power lines are there, said Ryno Stinchfield, of Greycliff Wind Prime, which sold the 25-megawatt Greycliff project to BayWa r.e. Stinchfields group spent seven years arguing over price with NorthWestern Energy, the states largest regulated utility. Those debates never produced a price Greycliff Wind Prime would accept. The project seemed all but dead last July when Montanas Public Service Commission set a compromise rate that the wind developers said was too low. The PSC set the price Greycliff could charge NorthWestern Energy at $45.49 per megawatt hour, about 16 percent lower than the price needed to make the wind farm profitable. However, BayWa r.e. appears capable of making that rate work, Stinchfield said. BayWa r.e. is a large renewable energy company capable of lowering the price it pays for wind turbines by placing large purchase orders. In the United States, BayWa r.e. is based in San Diego, but its home office is in Germany. According to the company website, it employs 900 people and had roughly $1.3 billion in revenue in 2015. The company did not return Gazette queries placed over two weeks. The second BayWa r.e.-related wind farm site is located 11 miles north of Reed Point. Dubbed the Vivaldi Springtime Wind Project the, the 25-to-35 turbine wind farm reached contract terms with NorthWestern shortly before Christmas. It should produce enough power for 19,000 to 30,000 homes, with construction completed by early next year. The ownership of the project is somewhat mysterious. Vivaldi Wind LLC was an early corporate name associated with the project. State business records show Vivaldi shared a San Diego address with BayWa r.e. However, Vivaldi withdrew its state registration in 2015 and its status as a business entity migrated to WKN Montana LLC last August. WKN is a BayWa r.e. corporate sibling. NorthWesterns contract for Vivaldi is with WKN Montana. NorthWesterns purchase price for Vivaldi power is $37.65 per megawatt hour, one of the lowest prices for wind energy in the state. In addition to the BayWa r.e.-related projects, a third wind farm, Crazy Mountain Wind, located 20 minutes east of Big Timber, locked in a power price last month to sell energy to NorthWestern. Crazy Mountain Wind would power up to 29,000 homes. Delivering better care to the frail by analyzing the risks Patient Pattern, a Buffalo-based company, allows clinicians to tap into records to determine how best to treat hospitalized elderly and post-acute care patients A 300-bed nursing home using LivePAC saw its 30-day hospital readmission rate drop from 24% to 11% in less than six months. BUFFALO, N.Y. The likelihood of an elderly patient falling in a nursing home, developing a wound or receiving inappropriate treatments are things that can be predicted, based on thousands and thousands of other cases. But how could a doctor, nurse or other clinician caring for that person access such information? A new company in the START-UP NY program, founded by an adjunct professor in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo, has a cloud-based solution. Patient Pattern uses data taken when a patient is admitted to a nursing home or a hospital and compares it with thousands of previous cases to assess that patients risks. We use a clinical business intelligence platform that uses mathematical models of vulnerability to assess patients risks for poor outcomes, said Steven Buslovich, MD, a geriatrician and founder of the company. Patient Pattern is not a tool for day-to-day care, he said, but rather a broader assessment of the risks a patient faces and how to handle them. For instance, some patients receive too much medicine or receive unnecessary tests. For a frail person, that raises risks of poor outcomes. What were identifying is not something used on a day-to-day level, Buslovich said. It supersedes that. It gives us the big picture of clinical decision making. Saving money, improving results Such decisions can have immediate effects on a health care facility. Reducing hospital readmissions and reducing the use of expensive low-yield therapies rapidly improves patient outcomes, as well as the finances and overall facility operations, he said. The company was recently recognized as a Top Innovative Startup of 2016 by the magazine PM360, a monthly aimed at marketing professionals in the pharmacology, biotech and medical device industries. The companys product, called LivePAC, calculates in real time the level of a patients frailty and informs the clinician what therapies might deliver the best outcomes. A 300-bed nursing home using LivePAC saw its 30-day hospital readmission rate drop from 24% to 11% in less than six months. We are also working with hospitals to help them handle complex patient populations, which tend to be high users of resources, Buslovich said. We are able to make dramatic savings. Pressure to improve The government is penalizing hospitals for too many readmissions, but is not providing help to resolve the problem, he said. There is no data in this market. There is no clinical intelligence in post-acute care. Right now, its all eyeball care, he said, referring to the gut-level decisions being made about care. Were working to integrate this into electronic health records, because they do not provide this level of information. Three area hospitals and multiple nursing homes are using LivePAC, Buslovich said. It is also being adopted in Canada, Great Britain and, soon, Australia. Eight life sciences companies will vie for two $50K investments at Critical Path finals Buffalo is among first U.S. cities to offer the unique entrepreneurship program, spawned by Steve Cases Rise of the Rest Tour This program is a great testament to UBs economic development outreach and support for the entrepreneurship community, and fulfilling UBs mission of deepening our impact and outreach in the region. BUFFALO, N.Y. Eight startups will compete for two $50,000 grand prizes on Jan. 12 at the conclusion of the Critical Path life sciences accelerator program. The competitive program, which is part of the VilCap Communities Accelerator Program, is presented by the University at Buffalo in collaboration with Launch NY, Invest Buffalo Niagara and the Western New York Incubator Network. Participating companies will deliver a public pitch and then peer select two winners through a process developed by Village Capital, an organization that finds, trains and invests in entrepreneurs solving real-world problems. The $50,000 investments come from the Launch NY Seed Fund. Critical Path sponsored by National Grid, Colligan Law, UB and the U.S. Small Business Administration was introduced last year as part of Buffalos selection as one of 16 communities nationwide for the VilCap program, a follow-up initiative to AOL co-founder Steve Cases Rise of the Rest tour. The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required by Jan. 9th at www.critical_path.eventbrite.com. Here are the details: When: 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan 12. An awards ceremony and reception will follow at 4 p.m. Where: UBs Clinical and Translational Research Center (CTRC), 875 Ellicott St., 5th floor, Buffalo. Companies scheduled to pitch: Abcombi Biosciences It aims to provide universally protective vaccines for complex diseases such a pneumonia and strep throat. AccuTheranostics It is developing ChemoFit TM, a specialized chemo sensitive/chemo resistance assay using a patient's own tumor cells in a laboratory to identify which drugs have the most, and the least, potential for treating patient's unique cancer. Disease Diagnostic Group It focuses on screening, tracking, and diagnosing highly-infectious diseases in the developing world through portable and reusable devices. Efferent Labs It is a medical technology company developing biosensor systems. Infonaut It is a healthcare information technology and analytics company that aims to solve the global challenge of deadly hospital infections with an IBM Watson-enabled solution. Ionica Sciences It is focused on the commercialization of an in vitro diagnostics platform for difficult to diagnose infectious disease by exploiting the sensitivity of Raman spectroscopy and the selectivity of DNA aptamers. Nidus Biosciences It is an early-stage University of Rochester biotechnology spinout formed to commercialize its patented microbubble array platform technology of arrays of nanoliter-capacity microbubble cavities for advanced methods of cell-growth and screening, particularly growth and screening of single/few cells for development and validation of new biologics. Virtual Surgery Sim (Coqui 3D) - It is building a virtual reality surgical simulator platform connected to big data. Note: Critical Path included 11 startups when announced in September. Three companies Garwood Medical Devices, Motion Intelligence and POP Biotechnologies have since left the program. Buffalo is among the first eight of 16 VilCap communities to conduct the peer selection program that awards investments based on votes of the participating startups. The VilCap communities program sponsored by Cases Rise of the Rest, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, and the Sorenson Impact Center has been branded locally with the name Critical Path to focus on supporting the regions strategic priority to grow biomedical companies. UB worked with Launch NY in facilitating the five-month program, putting the participating companies through intense mentoring sessions, one-on-one, small group interactions with equity investment experts, peer reviews, presentation practice, and mock boards. At the conclusion of the program, companies will emerge stronger and more able to secure investments to grow their businesses. With all of the hard work from UB personnel and our partners, each of the companies will leave this program with a better understanding of what investors want and are more prepared to have in-depth conversations regarding potential funding, said Martin Casstevens, director of Critical Path. This program is a great testament to UBs economic development outreach and support for the entrepreneurship community, and fulfilling UBs mission of deepening our impact and outreach in the region. Launch NY is proud to have brought our region into a national consortium that gives our innovation and entrepreneurship visibility and engagement with a broader network of resources, said Marnie LaVigne, president and CEO of Launch NY. We are excited to use the Village Capital Peer Selection Model to award two $50,000 investments from the Launch NY Seed Fund, along with our mentoring and support services. Your colleagues UB disaster researcher supporting activities of UN agencies Chris Renschler last summer at the U.N. office at the Vienna International Center in Vienna, Austria. By CHARLOTTE HSU UB geographer Chris Renschler first caught the attention of the United Nations, especially the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in 2016 while completing a Fulbright Fellowship in Vienna, Austria. An expert in natural resources management, he also had studied and responded to a variety of natural disasters. It was a unique mix of skills and specific expertise that the U.N. prized. In Vienna, through a seminar on Integrated Natural Resources and Extreme Events Management: Decision Support Tools for More Resilient Communities, the organizations Joint FAO/IAEA Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture asked if Renschler could assist countries in work on management of natural resources such as land and water and the response to extreme events, like earthquakes, hurricanes and floods. Renschlers answer was positive, leading to a fruitful partnership that continues today. In these two fields, theres a lot of useful information that isnt being shared, Renschler says. Natural resource managers have access to data that can aid in disaster response, and disasters shape the state of natural resources. Better communication and collaboration could improve disaster response and lead to more sustainable resource management policies. The joint U.N. division that tapped Renschlers expertise was established by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the U.N. (FAO) and the IAEA in 1964. While the IAEA is known for its key role in inspecting nuclear facilities worldwide to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, the agency also promotes peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology. Thats where Renschler, an associate professor of geography, comes in. At UB, he directs the Landscape-based Environmental System Analysis and Modeling lab. His team has developed a software tool that enables researchers, as well as policymakers, to model how natural disasters and other environmental changes such as clearing of land for agriculture may affect soil erosion. Nuclear research is key to understanding these issues. Water and sediments that originate in different places can carry different levels of isotopes of various elements, and these isotopes can be identified using nuclear techniques to trace the provenance of flood waters and sediments involved in erosion. So far, his partnership with the U.N. division has included presenting to experts from 13 Asian countries on natural resources and disaster management. In summer 2016, he also traveled to Morocco to examine data tied to desertification and to share his model for erosion, which is being evaluated as a potential tool for guiding decisions on land/cover use. Looking forward, Renschler has been invited to present his work and to provide guidance this coming March at a Technical Cooperation project workshop to be held at Argonne National Laboratory in the U.S., as well as another workshop this May in China. HELENA Montana government agencies volunteered Thursday to return a combined $5.5 million that had been budgeted to them this year, which is about $15 million short of what Republican legislative finance leaders had been seeking to help the state's bottom line. One after another, department heads appeared Thursday before the House Appropriations and Senate Finance and Claims committees, which had called on agencies to voluntarily relinquish what money they could spare. Most said their operations are as lean as can be, and any further cuts would be harmful to their operations and services they provide. "We don't have anything to give for 2017," said Department of Public Health and Human Services director Sheila Hogan. The call for voluntary agency cuts is the first step in what is anticipated to be intense budget negotiations. The governor's office and Republican financial legislative leaders are already in disagreement in the session's first week about how to balance the budget and build up the state's savings after revenues fell short of expectations last year. Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock's budget director, Dan Villa, said the governor's proposed budget already includes $38 million in savings for this year, and another $100 million in 2018 and 2019. The cuts that Republican legislative leaders are seeking beyond Bullock's plan simply go too deep, Villa said. "That's not only to the bone, you're losing limbs," he said. "You're going to have fewer snowplow drivers, you're going to have fewer child protective workers, you're going to have all of those things then go away, even more than they are now." House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nancy Ballance and Senate Finance and Claims Chairman Llew Jones set a goal of $20 million to be relinquished state agencies. Those agencies' budgets would be reduced by that amount, and the cash turned over would go toward the 2017 ending fund balance. Agencies that voluntarily comply would have 30 percent of that money returned in 2019, when revenues are expected to improve. Jones said giving the agencies a chance to explain and defend their budgets is a necessary exercise that will be useful as budget committees start to dig into state spending in the coming weeks. "We saw there is potential here," Jones said. "Some agencies presented reasons today, some agencies didn't present reasons today." Among those agencies that did offer to return some of this year's budget funds included the state Department of Justice, which is run by Republican Attorney General Tim Fox. The department agreed to return $1.7 million in general fund money, though Deputy Attorney General Jon Bennion said it is risky to do so because of the agency's possible litigation expenses. The state's court system, which is a separate branch of government, agreed to return $1.2 million, which is the amount that the Legislative Branch agreed to return. Six other agencies agreed to return smaller amounts of between $50,000 and $500,000. That $5.5 million total will be included in a supplemental appropriations bill, a measure for agencies to request additional money for this year because of unexpected expenses. Four agencies are seeking $22 million in that measure, which means that even with the money being voluntarily relinquished, the requests for additional funding for this year will still be $16.5 million. Later Thursday, the House Appropriations Committee voted to trim $179,861 from an $11 million bill that funds the Legislature's expenses, with Ballance saying the Republican majority wants to make clear "that we're committed to responsible budgeting." Villa noted that even with those reductions, the so-called "feed bill" still calls for a double-digit increase in funding for the Legislature compared to last session, whereas they are seeking actual spending reductions from state agencies. "We'd hope they'd realize what's good for the goose is good for the gander, but we'll wait and see," Villa said. Highbridge residents are calling for a halt to the proposed demolition of a derelict church in the town without a robust action plan for the future of the site being in place first. The former Highbridge Gospel Tabernacle building in Newtown Road is due to be pulled down after its owner submitted a Demolition Order with Sedgemoor District Council, as we first reported last November. Local resident Sarah Buchanan has written to the council with her concerns about the plans, writing: I object as once the building is demolished its just going to sit there a vacant site like the Highbridge Hotel or the old FF&F building on the corner of Market Street. Do we really want another piece of bollarded-up derelict land? This building is a part of the history of this town since the mid 1800s and should not be demolished without a robust action plan first. The council should place a preservation order on the building and force the owner to either sell it or develop it into something to suit the residential area and street scene. And Highbridge town councillor John Parkes, pictured, told Burnham-On-Sea.com this week: Theres concern that Highbridge is about to lose more of its cultural heritage its been a community facility for many years. It is very sad to see the church in its current state but wed just like to know what the future holds for the site before it is demolished. We dont want another Highbridge Hotel situation. Residents are rightly concerned about what will happen in the medium to long term there. Sedgemoor District Councils planning department are consulting on the plans until January 14th, 2017. Ten years ago, in 2007, we reported on a petition to try and seek improvements for the derelict church but no action was forthcoming despite residents concerns about the condition of the property. The story behind Highbridges former Gospel Tabernacle: Highbridge historians believe the building in Newtown Road was initially built as a Seamans Mission. It later became the Plymouth Brethren Gospel Hall but was apparently closed in the early 1950s. It later re-opened and in 1973 the South and West Evangelical Trust gave the Reverend Black the use of the building who spent several years repairing it, overseeing roof repairs and a new floor. An attempt was made to purchase land at the rear so that the church could expand and build toilets, but this was unsuccessful. Despite this, the hall was renamed the Gospel Tabernacle Evangelical Church and it became popular with meetings for children, with up to five meetings a week attracting 60-80 children. In 1991, the Reverend Black retired and moved back to the States. One of his sons, Kelton, continued his fathers work at the Gospel Tabernacle for several years however the condition of the property was poor and it was found to be impossible to improve the facilities inspite of all their efforts. During the mid-1990s the Salvation Army Citadel in the old Burnham Road came on the market and it was purchased by the South and West Evangelical Trust who then provided the opportunity for a new Gospel Tabernacle Evangelical Church to be introduced. Their first service was held on Easter Sunday, 1998, and the Newtown Road property has been disused since then. Ethiopia is focussing on tourism from India, with an aim to bag a substantial chunk of 13 million Indians travelling outside the country every year. Located in the Horn of Africa, the African nation plans to raise the pitch about 'Come, visit Ethiopia' theme to project itself among top five hot spots in the continent."India is a good source market for tourism now a days. More than 13 million people travel out of India every year. We also expect to have a good share of this market, even one or two per cent of this is significant for us," Genet Teshome, Consulate General of Ethiopia in Mumbai, told PTI here. Asked how the government plans to popularise Ethiopia as a tourist destination in India, Teshome said, "We at trying our best to advertise Ethiopian destinations in India. We participated in a number of tour and travel exhibitions. Only this year we participated in Pune." Surrounded by Eritrea in north, Djibouti and Somalia in east, Sudan and South Sudan in west, and Kenya in south, the second most populous nation in the Africa has made elaborate arrangements to attract Asian tourists, including from India."Our Federal Government is very clear in its aim that Ethiopia should be among the five top tourist destinations in Africa and India will play a very crucial role in this process," said Tourism Facilitation Senior Expert, Cultural and Tourism Ministry, Getenet Yigzaw. Having recently opened a cultural centre in its embassy in New Delhi, the country is also planning to set up tourism boards in India for tourism promotion."By next year we plan to establish our Tourism Boards in New Delhi and Mumbai. India is going to be a crucial factor in development of Ethiopia as a world-class tourism destination," Yigzaw said. Ethiopia and India are among some of the most ancientcivilisations in the world and we are ready to establish this connection again through tourism promotion, Yigzaw added. Mandated to popularise the country's tourism, the state-owned Ethiopian Airlines recently took a group of tour and travel operators from India on a week-long familiarisation tour to some of its popular destinations."We have all forms of tourism in Ethiopia, be it historical, wild life, religious and anthropological. We need to promote it as a package," said Tekeba H Sellasie, Regional Director (Indian subcontinent), Ethiopian Airlines. The airline presently operates a total of 14 passenger and nine cargo flights a week from Delhi and Mumbai. It also plans to operate from other Indian cities in coming years."We are planning to have Chennai then after a while we want to operate from Bangalore and Ahmedabad also. These will be three new destinations. Their frequency will depend on the traffic volume and the market share along with the demand. If the demand is there we can make it daily also," he said. Keeping in mind the distinct food habits of the Indian tourists, the country is paying special attention to this factor."We have a good number of Indian restaurants in Addis Ababa. This can be increased with flow of Indian tourists. Our food is very close to Indian in terms of flavour and sometimes even ingredients in some cases. For vegetarians we have a huge variety of Ethiopian fasting food," Teshome said. Ethiopia, also known as the 'Cradle of Human Kind', is widely considered the region where the human species first started to walk upright some 3.2 million years ago. "In 1974, 52 fragments of hominid were discovered in Lower Awash Valley. The study of this early hominid skeletons provided clue as to when and how the humans began to walk upright," Yigzaw said. In terms of nature, Ethiopia is the fourth largest bio-diversity zone in the world and claims to have more unique species of flora and fauna than any other African nation. It has 20 National Parks, four wildlife sanctuaries, eight wildlife reserves as well as 18 controlled hunting areas. HELENA Three months after child welfare workers received reports about methamphetamine use in a Great Falls low-income apartment, police found an infant girl dead in a freezing cold room with the window open in winter. The baby's mother had a previous conviction for possession of drug paraphernalia and her live-in boyfriend had been convicted of domestic violence. That gave the case virtually every red flag identified in a new analysis of the deaths of 14 Montana children whose plights had been reported to authorities within a year before they died. The Montana Child and Family Ombudsman's report released last week marks the first time the state has examined such deaths. But the report lacks key information that critics say shows the state needs to do more. It doesn't say, for example, how all of the children died during that 16-month stretch, in part because lawmakers two years ago decided against creating a commission to review child deaths and near-deaths attributed to abuse and neglect. Such a commission would have had access to medical and legal records that could provide that information. Responding to complaints about the division, lawmakers instead directed the child welfare agency's ombudsman to use agency records to review cases in which children died within a year of someone reporting concerns about their safety. A four-member panel convened by state prosecutors examined 14 child deaths between July 1, 2015, and Nov. 8, 2016, concluding most died of abuse or neglect. Child and Family Services officials said they do not determine the cause of death. No information about individual cases was made public in the report, but the January 2016 case in Great Falls is believed to be among them. The girl's mother has pleaded not guilty to felony criminal endangerment, Cascade County Attorney John Parker said. The review team found that 12 of the cases involved more than one indicator of abuse including prior history with the agency, drug and alcohol abuse, domestic violence and housing or other financial instability. The report recommends that within 24 hours of a child abuse report, caseworkers should check the criminal records of all adults in the house and whether previous reports exist involving the same children. When more than one red flag is raised, workers should get more help with their investigation. "We really would like to honor these children's lives by taking the information that we've learned from them and promoting a system that works better," said Dana Toole, chief of the Children's Justice Bureau, who served on the review panel. The report also recommended more cooperation between the agency and courts, law enforcement and medical personnel. "It's a multi-system failure," Toole said. "It's not just our child protection system." The findings echo those of the Commission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities, created by Congress to review and recommend strategies to prevent child abuse deaths. Federal data indicates 1,500 to 1,600 children die due to abuse or neglect each year. But the commission report says there are gaps in how the data is compiled and the true number could be as high as 3,000 annually. Montana's Child and Family Services Division has been heavily criticized in recent years over the deaths of children after workers failed to remove them from dangerous situations, allegations that other children were wrongly removed from homes and poor communication with families. "We know there is more to accomplish and we're determined to continue down the current path of comprehensive system improvement," said Jon Ebelt, spokesman for the Department of Public Health and Human Services, which includes the child welfare division. The agency has established and recently began using a critical incident review process, which analyzes deaths and near-deaths to determine the factors involved and what the division can do to improve its practices, Ebelt said. An update to its antiquated computer system is expected this fall after numerous delays. Employees are receiving increased training, he said. Maurita Johnson, who began work in November as administrator of the Child and Family Services Division, said she supports legislation calling for the creation of a child fatality review committee. April Hall of Great Falls will also support the bill, as she has for other legislation to improve the state's child protective services. Her 2-year-old granddaughter, October Perez, was killed by her mother's boyfriend in June 2011. Hall has said she made several reports to Child and Family Services about abuse including broken bones, missing teeth, missing hair and other injuries. But caseworkers left the girl in her mother's custody. "The pain that child went through that's what haunts you," she said. "And nobody would listen." Didi Chuxing, Chinas top ride-hailing app, has invested in a similar app in Brazil called 99, the Beijing-based firm said on Thursday. Formerly 99Taxis, the start-up got an undisclosed sum as part of the new partnership. Assam and northeastern telecom circles are fast emerging as the best performing circles for in India. Growth in data traffic is keeping the business of the company buoyant in both the circles. Unlock 30+ premium stories daily hand-picked by our editors, across devices on browser and app. Full access to our intuitive epaper - clip, save, share articles from any device; newspaper archives from 2006. Curated newsletters on markets, personal finance, policy & politics, start-ups, technology, and more. Pick your 5 favourite companies, get a daily email with all news updates on them. 26 years of website archives. Chinese mobile phone brands are booming in India, for the first time ever making up more than half 51 per cent of new devices in the worlds second largest smartphone market. The Union government in September approved 40% viability gap funding for the Jagdishpur-Haldia and Bokaro-Dhamra pipelines. GAIL, the countrys largest natural gas marketer and transporter, is receiving this support to push gas-based development along a corridor called Urja Ganga. In an interview with Jyoti Mukul and Shine Jacob, BC Tripathi, chairman and managing director, GAIL, says the push to gas utilisation will come if the government provides an attractive fiscal regime as it is available for renewable energy. Edited excerpts: Three months ago, became the first Indian start-up to enter Shenzhen-based hardware accelerator HAX. Today the Bangalore-based start-up announces another first: backing from one of the worlds biggest makers of baby products, Johnson & Johnson. The Rajdhani Express could find itself faced with stiff competition as has decided to launch a three-month long price war with the former. According to the Times of India, the carrier will be launching a sale offer from January 6, wherein it will offer flight tickets at the cost of a train journey on all routes on which the Rajdhani operates. The in the US held its first open house as part of its effort to address the grievances of the community on visa, passport and Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) card. The initiative was announced by the new Indian Ambassador to the US, Navtej Sarna, in his maiden address to the Indian Americans at a reception organised by the community in his honour last month. Similar open houses have been planned all other Indian Consulates in the US - New York, Atlanta, Houston, Chicago and San Francisco. The Embassy and its consulates would hold similar open houses in their premises every fortnight. In Washington, despite the short notice and bad weather conditions, several applicants turned up yesterday for the event with enthusiasm. Individual applicants' issues were personally attended to by senior officers in Consular Wing. Apart from personal grievances, various general issues and queries raised by visitors were also responded to by the Embassy officials. There was a general sense of appreciation by the visitors to the 'Open House' concept initiated by the Embassy, a media release said. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) executive, which meets for a two-day session here on Friday and Saturday, is likely to pass a resolution lauding the exemplary leadership provided by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the last few months, with particular mention to the September 29 "surgical strikes" by the Indian Army on terror camps on the Line of Control and the demonetisation decision. has issued notices to the Delhi government over the "horrific" conditions at a beggar home where the inmates, including foreigners, have alleged violation of basic human rights and racial discrimination, as it sought to know how the foreign nationals landed up there. Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chairperson Swati Maliwal along with her staff had last night conducted a surprise inspection at the beggar home in Nirmal Chhaya Complex. "The Commission is deeply perturbed at the sorry state of affairs at the Beggar Home. The Commission is of the view that the inmates who are foreign nationals have been denied their basic human rights in the Home. "It deeply pained us when they stated that they were victims of racism and were being discriminated against on account of them being African Blacks. This is a very serious issue," Maliwal said in the notice issued to the Social Welfare Department. The Secretary, Social Welfare, has been directed to file a detailed response to the Commission within 72 hours, according to a statement. The women's body has also issued a notice to the foreigner regional registration office (FRRO) seeking to know why the foreign women were housed in the 'beggar home' and sought a status report on each inmate, reasons for detention, reasons behind inmates not being provided access to embassies and legal aid, among others. The FRRO's reply has been sought within 72 hours. According to DCW, Maliwal met an Uzbek woman at the Home who alleged molestation by an FRRO officer. She received her complaint last night and has forwarded it to the FRRO and has sought action within three days. The woman, who is at the shelter since December 15 has alleged that she was "sexually assaulted" by a police officer posted in the FRRO prior to her arrival at the Home, according to another notice sent to Delhi Police commissioner Alok Kumar Verma. DCW has sought an action-taken report from the Police Commissioner in the matter within 72 hours, it said. In her notice, Maliwal said there were 15 women and two children, all of them foreign nationals, who were detained for having overstayed their visas in India for different reasons. During the inspection, the Commission observed "several gross violations" of human rights violations, it said. The women complained of not being allowed to make a single phone call to their families or embassies due to which they have not been able to contact or seek assistance from their embassies in order to get financial as well as legal help, DCW said in the notice. A woman who died Saturday night from a self-inflicted gunshot wound during a traffic stop conducted by a Columbus Police Department officer was a Belfry resident. Park County Coroner Al Jenkins on Thursday identified the woman as Jamie D. Porter, 48, of Belfry. The traffic stop occurred at about 11:30 p.m. in an alley between East First Avenue North and East Second Avenue North in Columbus, according to Stillwater County Sheriff's Office dispatch logs. The police officer, whose identity has not been released, was not injured and, under department policy, was placed on administrative leave. A Columbus officer pulled over a woman driving a 2007 Chevrolet Colorado with Yellowstone County license plates. The woman refused to exit the vehicle before shots were fired. She was reported dead on scene. Police Chief Jacob Ward said that because the woman was pulled over and not allowed to leave the scene at the time, she is considered to have been in custody. In-custody deaths require investigation by outside law enforcement agencies. The Montana Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation has been asked to investigate. Unidentified persons on Wednesday hacked account of a local journalist and sent messages to the people on her contact list asking them to deposit money through an e-wallet service, police said. The complainant got a message from one of her college friends last night asking to share a code number which she (the complainant) would receive in the form of a text message. The moment this verification code is shared, the person's account gets compromised, a police official said. The hacker then sent messages to people on the complainant's contact list, asking them to transfer money to a certain PayTM account. A few money deposits did take place, the police said, adding that after a complaint was lodged at Cyber Police Station in Bandra Kurla Complex, the journalist's account was recovered. Police had sought help from PayTM in the investigation to get information about the account in which journalist's friends deposited money, the official added. The people should not fall for this kind of fraud and never share the WhatsApp verification code, said Sachin Patil, DCP, Cyber Cell. It was homecoming for India-born Google CEO as he visited his alma mater IIT Kharagpur on Thursday. The tech giant's CEO gave a sneak peak into his college days when he met his wife Anjali and the romance blossomed. He also shared the story how he unintentionally led to shutting down of the college mess for a while as the audience burst into laughter. Baleshwar Kumar, a 35-year-old mason from Hathras in Uttar Pradesh, and most other daily wagers last week returned to Paharganjs Chuna Mandi, which serves as an assembly point for contractors, masons, building material suppliers, painters and plumbers. Kumar had to leave for his village soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on November 8 and the market collapsed in the absence of cash. President Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday issued a note of caution that the Narendra Modi government's decision could likely lead to a temporary slowdown in the economy and hurt the poor. In his first full-fledged budget in February 2015, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced the setting up of MUDRA (Micro Units Development & Refinance Agency Limited). Consequently, Prime Minister Modi announced the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY), a scheme meant to provide easy capital up to Rs 10 lakh (Rs 1 million) to small and micro enterprises. The heavily export-dependent jute mill industry in wants India to withdraw the recently imposed countervailing duty (CVD) of 12.5% on sacking bags and hessian cloth imports. Both the countrys Foreign Trade Association and Jute Mills Association (NJMA) say the duty goes against the spirit of long-standing understanding that New Delhi will treat the industry of the two countries on equal footing. Moreover, the CVD goes against the spirit of South Asian Free Trade Area agreement, they argue. Two years after it was conceptualised, has made its presence felt within the government, yet some observers feel it has not yet managed to create a niche for itself as an institution -- a thing which it needs to seriously ponder as it moves ahead. A fourth of Uttar Pradeshs (UPs) 200 million people are aged between five and 14 yearsIndias largest child populationbut the state has the fewest teachers per student, the poorest transition rate from primary to upper primary school and amongst the lowest learning outcomes in the country. As Uttar Pradesh, Indias most populated state, goes to polls, we look at the state of education, a subject that should be on top of the agenda for any party coming to power. As the first part of this series observed, literacy rates and learning outcomes are some of the lowest in the BIMARU (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh) states. By 2020, India will have the worlds largest working-age population869 millionbut an IndiaSpend analysis of these four stateswith 43.6% of Indias school-age population between the age of five and 14revealed that India is unprepared to educate and train its young population. UPs literacy rate of 69.72% is Indias eighth lowest in the country, according to Census 2011. Literacy rate rose 13.45 percentage points in UP over a decade from 2001, but there are wide regional disparities: In the north-eastern district of Shrawasti, the literacy rate is 49%, while in the best performing district, Ghaziabad (in north-western UP), it is 85%, according to this report. UP has the worst primary school pupil-teacher ratio in India Indias largest state by population has the worst pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) in India, with a teacher for every 39 students at the primary level, according to the Unified-District Information System for Education (U-DISE) Flash Statistics 2015-16. The all India average is 23:1. UP recorded an enrolment of 25.3 million primary students (including both private and government schools) in 2015-16, taught by 665,779 teachers (even including schools where primary, upper primary and secondary co-existed), according to government education data. At 30 students per teacheras prescribed by the Right to Education Act (RTE)at the primary level, the state should have 840,000 teachers but is short by 21%, or 176,000, according to our analysis. About 23% of all elementary teacher posts in government schools in Uttar Pradesh are vacant, according to an answer given in the Lok Sabha (lower house of Parliament). UP also reported the second-highest teacher absenteeism (31%) in rural public schools among 19 surveyed states in 2010, according to this 2014 study. High per student spending, but low learning outcomes, especially in government schools In 2014-15, UP spent Rs 13,102 per elementary school student, including both primary school students (grade I to V) and upper primary school students (grade VI to VIII), according to this commentary in the Economic and Political Weekly. This is higher than the all India spending of Rs 11,252 per student. Similarly, state expenditure on primary education has gone up 47% between 2011 and 2015, according to the state governments Economic Survey 2014-15, but learning levels remain among the lowest in India. Source: Economic Survey 2012-13, Economic Survey 2014-15; *Revised estimate **Budget estimate Overall, the proportion of children in standard III who can read at least a standard I text has improved from 31% in 2006 to 35% in 2014, according to data from the Annual Status of Education (ASER) Trends Over Time Report. But the increase is only in private schools, where 55% of students in grade III could read a grade I text in 2014, compared to 50% students in 2006; in government schools, the proportion reduced from 24% in 2006 to 13% in 2010. Arithmetic skill levels declined in both government and private schools, with 26% of children in grade V able to divide in 2014, down from 30% in 2007, according to ASER data. 2nd Meeting of Council of Trade Development and Promotion held in New Delhi Making States Active partners to boost Indias exports. Welcoming the Ministers from 8 States, Additional Chief Secretaries & Principal Secretaries from other States and other members of the Council from the Centre for the 2nd meeting of the Council for Trade Development and Promotion, Union Commerce & Industry Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman appreciated the active role of the States in partnering with the Centre in the continued efforts to boost Indias exports. The Commerce & Industry Minister exhorted the Members of the Council to jointly address impediments in trade and the infrastructure gaps which adversely affect Indias exports. She said that in the 1st meeting of the Council, a constructive dialogue with the State Governments and UTs took place for creating an enabling environment to boost International trade. The Centre has made efforts to resolve the issues raised by the States during the 1st meeting. To reduce the impact of global economic slowdown on Indian exports, the Commerce Minister exhorted the States to diversify Indias exports basket by enabling more sectors and breaching new markets. Nirmala Sitharaman asked the State Governments to enhance cooperation with Central agencies to create facilities for testing, certification, storage and packaging. She mentioned that as can be seen on the Indian trade portal, a 100-150 SPS notifications and a similar number of TBT notifications are being issued by WTO member countries each month. Around 50% to 60% of these measures have the potential to impact our trade. Three sector specific needs can broadly be categorised into interventions required for agri & marine products, for forest produce and for industrial products. The Minister drew the attention of the States to expedite the preparation of the export strategies in line with the Foreign Trade Policy and in the appointment of Export Commissioners for the state. She requested that the Export Commissioner be made the single window focal point for the interaction with the exporters from the State. The Minister drew the attention of States towards promoting Services Exports where we have a substantial Trade surplus. She mentioned that we need to diversify our export basket on services, beyond IT and ITeS, to encompass yoga, health services, tourism, education in other services. Sh. Chander Mohan Patowary, Minister from Assam flagged issues for improving trade from NE states. There is a need to promote higher investments in infrastructure and Trade Centres. More ICPs to international standards needed. Industrial corridor from Guwahati to Mandalay will benefit the ASEAN markets. Shri P. Narayana, Minister from Andhra Pradesh requested assistance for NABL accredited labs at Guntur, support of Central Government for setting up a logistic institute. Shri Amar Aggarwal, Minister from Chattisgarh sought measures to enhance the competitiveness of the tribal states by promoting forest produce. He thanked the Commerce Minister for resolving the issue of HMS Scrap from Raipur which was raised in the 1st Meeting. Shri Rohit Bhai Patel, Minister from Gujarat appreciated the GoIs initiative in constituting this Council to facilitate a platform to the States to articulate their views. He emphasized the need to improve quality standards in government procurement to promote a culture of quality consciousness. Shri C. P. Singh, Minister from Jharkhand stressed the need to increase export of agri products, as Jharkhand is a major producer of agri products. He informed that they have formulated an export policy recently. He said Jharkhand is proactive in taking up labour reforms. The Kerala Industry & Trade Minister, Shri A. C Moideen, sought proactive measures to curb liberal imports of agricultural products to ensure the livelihood security of domestic farmers. He said that farmers must be insulated from the crippling impact of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). He also sought restoration of the ASIDE scheme. Shri Rajendra Shukla, Minister from Madhya Pradesh sought measures to enhance the competitiveness of the land locked states by providing suitable infrastructure and transport assistance. He also requested for air cargo facility at Indore. The Industry Minister from Rajasthan, Shri Rajpal Shekawat sought assistance for land locked states. He also requested the setting up of an ICD at Bhiwadi and Sirohi for promoting exports from the industrial area and notification of a Special Notified zone at Jaipur amongst other measures for promoting Gem and Jewellery exports. Other States also gave specific suggestions on their respective areas of concern. In particular, most of the States highlighted the importance for restoring the ASIDE schemes. The Heads of the Apex trade bodies FIEO, FICCI, ASSOCHAM and CII gave their views and suggestions for improving exports amidst the challenging world economic scenario. The Billings Police Department has taken down its Help Wanted sign. With last month's hiring of six new officers, the force will, once training is complete in the spring, be fielding a full complement of 148 officers. The new hires, Chief Rich St. John said Thursday, will allow the department to double from two to four the number of officers dedicated to traffic enforcement. Theyll also make it possible for Sgt. Jason Gartner to add a new job title: special events supervisor. Gartners job change fills a slot St. John has long left open, that of a deputy chief position. St. John's preference has been to add needed patrol officers rather than an administrator. Among other currently held duties, Gartner will coordinate police coverage of special events, including parades and conventions, as well as the citys downtown resource officers and other specialized units, St. John said. Doubling traffic enforcement will augment our ability to get to problem areas with a group totally dedicated to traffic, St. John said. I get complaints from a lot of people, including city council members, and I send those officers to those spots, and they deal with that area for a week or so. It deters bad behavior, but when they leave, (traffic violations) tend to creep back up. The extra bodies will help that. Of the six officers hired most recently, three are already Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) certified, which means they wont require training at the Montana Law Enforcement Academy. The three who require academy training will join seven others currently being trained. All 10 new officers will complete their academy training in March or April, St. John said. This is the first time in two or three years that the department's been at capacity, St. John said. "It wasn't (for) long," he said, "and we have been trying to play catch-up since." Reaching the authorized capacity means we can do more proactive policing, since were not running from call to call, St. John said. It will also mean that most shifts will have 11-13 officers on at a time. Thus, each of Billings nine beats will be covered by at least one officer; busy beats, such as Beat 7, the southern portion of the citys West End, will be covered during most shifts by two officers, St. John said. We will have some rovers to cover the problem areas, he said. According to the chief, full staffing equates to less need for overtime because its easier to cover for officers who are sick or taking time off. The background investigations required of each of the new officers is extremely labor intensive, St. John said, crediting Lt. Neil Lawrence and other police investigators for knuckling down and getting it done. When the departments annual report is published in about February, itll be pretty revealing, I think, St. John said. While police answered more than 87,000 calls for service in 2015, that number will be well over 90,000 for 2016, St. John predicted. When youre running shorthanded by 10 to 12 percent in your patrol division, thats a lot of calls, he said. I never cease to be amazed that despite how busy we are, they answer the bell and they do absolute quality work. J P Nadda dedicates Dharamshala Complex" at Dr RM L Hospital to the Public With the aim of providing free residential facilities to attendants of the poor patient who do not belong to Delhi, the Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare, Shri J P Nadda inaugurated the Dharamshala complex at Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital (RML) Hospital, here today. The complex is a 35 bedded facility having single, twin and dormitory rooms with a floor reserved for women. The complex has been constructed with a total outlay of approx. ? 6.15 cr and offers free communication facilities for the attendants. Care taker, Security and Sanitation services are available round the clock. Shri Faggan Singh Kulaste, Honble MoS (Health & Family Welfare) was also present on the occasion. Speaking at the function, Shri Nadda said that this hospital attracts patients from the city and from neighboring states with unwavering belief that they will get best of services available in the country. RML has been successful in balancing the quality and quantity while delivering services to the poor people, Shri Nadda added. Laying emphasis on services to be delivered at the complex, Shri Nadda said that the services at the complex should be regularly inspected and monitored. We erect the hardware but not pay much attention to the software part. The hospital should look at ways and means of making the facilities at the complex self-sustaining, Shri Nadda said. The Health Minister further stated that the facility should ensure proper sanitation and directed the officials to personally monitor this aspect at the facility. Referring to the ICT based application Mera Aspataal (My Hospital) that captures patients feedback about their experience in the health facilities on the services that they received or sought to receive, Shri Nadda said that the Ministry is seeking the feedback of people digitally to improve the quality of services at the health centres. Patient satisfaction is the ultimate test for assessing quality of services provided by a healthcare facility and we are now making a paradigm shift by seeking their views on quality of experience in a public healthcare facility. This will help us improving the experience of people at a health facility, Shri Nadda elaborated. Earlier, Shri Nadda reviewed the preparedness of Dr RML Hospital to deal with the cases of H1N1 influenza. The Health Minister added, In winter season, the H1N1 influenza cases generally show a rise. Today visit is to review the preparation of the hospital for this. Adequate stocks of medicines, testing kits and medical equipment are in place and we are fully geared up to handle H1N1 influenza. During the visit the Health Minister expressed satisfaction over the preparation and availability of designated beds, medical equipment, medicines, testing kits, personal protective equipment and masks. Also present at the function were Dr. Jagdish Prasad, DGHS, Dr B D Athani, Special DGHS, Sanjeeva Kumar, Addl. Secy (Health), Dr R. K Vats, AS & DG (CGHS), Dr (Prof) A K Gadpayle, Additional DG and Medical Superintendent, Dr RML Hospital, Delhi and senior officers of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and faculty of Dr RML Hospital. Japan has decided to be associated with the development of Chennai, Ahmedabad and Varanasi as smart cities. This was today conveyed by Japans Ambassador to India Mr.Kenji Hiramatsu during his meeting with Minister of Urban Development Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu. Mr.Hiramatsu further said that Japan is quite interested in urban development initiatives of the Government of India and decided to be a partner. Responding to Shri Naidu observation about the need for speedy action, Japans Envoy said We would like to match the action oriented approach of the Government under Prime Minister Shri Modi. Both of them discussed growing cooperation between the two countries further to the last meeting between the Prime Ministers of the two countries. High Commissioner of United Kingdom Mr.Dominic Asquith also met Shri Venkaiah Naidu and discussed converting into action the MoU signed between the two countries during the recent visit of British Prime Minister to India Ms.Teresa May, on cooperation in urban development sector. He said institutionalizing Government to Government cooperation for smart city development has huge potential. So far, leading countries have come forward to be associated with development of 15 smart cities. These include: United States Trade Development Agency (USTDA) Visakhapatnam, Ajmer and Allahabad, UK-Pune, Amaravati(Andhra Pradesh) and Indore, France-Chandigarh, Puducherry and Nagpur and Germany Bhubaneswar, Coimbattore and Kochi. AAR/KM Shri Radha Mohan Singh inaugurates National Workshop on Skill Development in Agriculture Employment opportunities generated for the skilled youth in the fields of agri-warehousing, cold chains, supply chains, dairy, poultry, meat, fisheries, horticulture, agricultural mechanization as well as micro-irrigation: Agriculture Minister Honble Prime Minister called for farmer focused agriculture, apart from production focused agriculture: Shri Radha Mohan Singh Such a tremendous growth scenario has never been seen earlier Shri Radha Mohan Singh. Shri Radha Mohan Singh has said that due to the sophisticated development in agriculture sector, employment opportunities have been generated for the skilled youth in the fields of agri-warehousing in agriculture, cold chains, supply chains, dairy, poultry, meat, fisheries, horticulture, agricultural mechanization as well as micro-irrigation. The youth are benefitting from these opportunities. Shri Singh further said that self-employment opportunities also have been enhanced in these fields which require skilled youth. Shri Singh added that such a unique scenario has never been observed before in respect of overall development in the various fields of agriculture. Union Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Minister stated this on the occasion of National Workshop on Skill Development in Agriculture and the theme is Kausal Vikas se Krishi Vikas here today. In this workshop, the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, the representatives of agriculture science centers, ICAR, Ministry of Agriculture as well as trained youth entrepreneurs are participating. Shri Radha Mohan Singh said that Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare is working with fast pace to give reality to the motto raised by Honble Prime Minister, Sh. Narendra Modi, as Kaushal Bharat - Kushal Bharat. Agriculture Minister said that Honble Prime Minister has called for farmer focused agriculture, apart from production focused agriculture. The government realizes that the youth of the country are required to be linked with agriculture in the form of enterprise. Shri Singh further added that, in this respect operations are being conducted on four stages in Ministry of Agriculture. The Minister briefed that particular emphasis is being laid on enhancement of productivity, post harvest management, better return of farmers produce, decrease in agriculture related risks. Shri Singh further emphasized that a fourth stage is being created so as to enhance the income of the farmers through the resources like those of horticulture, livestock, fisheries, bee-keeping etc. Shri Singh briefed that the Ministry of Agriculture is opening ways while formulating well planned strategy for the development of farmers as well as youth and initiatives like Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, e-NAM, Soil Health Card, Prampragat Krishi Vikas Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana, Skill Development will prove important in this endeavour. Shri Singh said that the Ministry of Agriculture has made a budget provision of Rs.3.52 crore for the year 2016-17 for implementation of the work of skill development so that training programmes may be organized through 100 Krishi Vigyan Kendras and distinguished training institutes of the Ministry. Agriculture Minister said that various schemes have been launched to increase the income of the farmers i.e. Prampragat Krishi Vikas Yojana for bringing more area under organic farming, National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) for providing remunerative price for the farmers. The government is emphasizing on increase in milk production through White Revolution and fish production through Blue Revolution. Shri Singh said that food security is ensured through various schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana, per drop more crop for water conservation, Water Management, Water Harvesting and Micro-irrigation. Rashtriya Gokul Mission has been launched for the first time for the development and protection of bovine breeds so that bovine breed can be protected and developed. In Mera Gaon Mera Gaurav, Agriculture Specialists of Agricultural Universities and ICAR are making effective interventions towards scientific farming for villages. Agriculture Minister has said that sowing of Rabi this year is more than 6 per cent than the previous year. Under Soil Health Card a total of 2 crore 30 lakh soil samples have been collected in the country and from which 12 crore 65 lakh farmers will be issued Soil Health Cards. On this occasion, the Shri Singh has requested Sector Skill Council established at State level to cooperate with the Central Government. Speaking on the concluding session, The Minister of States for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shri Sudarshan Bhagat said that the National Workshop on skill development in Agriculture is an important and commendable effort. Shri Bhagat said that Centre is fully committed for skill development training for the youth of rural areas. The Minister of State hoped that states will extend their full support to centre in this effort. Inc said on Thursday its App Store generated $20 billion for developers in 2016, a 40 per cent increase from 2015, helped by the popularity of games such as Pokemon Go and Super Mario Run and increased revenue from subscriptions. Secretary of State says that President Barack Obama didn't backtrack on his "red line" warning about Syrian chemical weapons. But Kerry says the incorrect perception that Obama didn't enforce the red line in 2013 hurt US credibility. Kerry maintained that Obama never reversed a decision to use military force if Syria's government used chemical weapons. Kerry told reporters yesterday that Obama instead opted for a better solution: Syria giving up its declared chemical weapon stockpiles. And he said the "unfair perception" that Obama backed down on the military option caused damage. Kerry also urged President-elect Donald Trump to stay the course on several of the administration's foreign policy initiatives amid concerns he may roll back much of Obama's legacy. President-elect Donald Trump, a harsh critic of U.S. intelligence agencies, is working with top advisers on a plan that would restructure and pare back the nations top spy agency, people familiar with the planning said. Ford Motor Company's cancellation of plans to build a $1.6 billion auto manufacturing plant in San Luis Potosi has sounded alarms throughout Mexico. Even as the country is being rocked by rowdy nationwide protests against a January 1 gasoline price hike, the Ford news led the front pages of Mexico's most influential newspapers today, and they tied the development directly to President-elect . "Trump leaves Mexico without 3,600 jobs," read the headline on El Universal. "Ford's braking jolts the peso," said Reforma, referring to the Mexican currency's nearly 1 percent slump following the news. "The jobs created in Mexico have contributed to maintaining manufacturing jobs in the United States which otherwise would have disappeared in the face of Asian competition," the Mexico Economy Department said. Mexicans have been nervous about Trump's tough rhetoric toward their country, including disparaging remarks about immigrants who come to the US illegally and vows to wall off the border and renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, upsetting ties with what is by far Mexico's largest trading partner. Two weeks before inauguration, the scuttling of the planned Ford factory and Trump's pressure on General Motors should be a "much-needed wake-up call," said Mexico analyst Alejandro Hope. It shows "how much actual leverage Trump has within specific companies, which is far greater than what Mexican elites thought until recently," Hope said. "They claimed that at the end of the day economic interests would prevail over political messaging. That's clearly not the case." In an editorial, El Universal also recalled the deal Trump struck in December with Carrier to keep 800 of 1,300 jobs at an Indiana furnace factory from being sent to Mexico, in return for millions of dollars in tax incentives. It also implicitly criticised the Mexican government's response to the incoming administration. "Mexico loses thousands of jobs with no word on a clear strategy for confronting the next US government which has presented itself as protectionist and, especially, anti-Mexican," the paper wrote. "Trump will try to recover as many US that have set up in Mexico as possible. He will try to make them return at whatever cost, through threats or using public resources." "Ford's decision is indicative of what awaits the economies of both countries," the daily La Jornada said. Just a year ago, they might have seemed the oddest of couples. But now President-elect Donald J. Trump and Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, have formed a united front against the conclusion of American intelligence agencies that Russian intelligence used hacked emails to interfere in the presidential election. The Trump Organisation has cancelled "exploratory talks" over possible projects by the global firm in India, Brazil and Argentina as President-elect readies to assume office in about two weeks and questions about conflict of interest between his presidency and business continue to be raised. A report in Fox News quoted Trump lawyer Alan Garten as saying that the company would not continue "exploratory" talks over projects in Pune in India and in Buenos Aires. The company has also cancelled a "memorandum of understanding" to continue discussions with local partners over possible office towers in Rio de Janeiro. The report added that discussions over the possible project in Pune were separate from two residential towers already built there that bear the Trump name. Trump also has his name on a residential tower in Mumbai. Late last year, licensing deals for hotels in Brazil, Azerbaijan and Georgia were also cancelled as Trump had come under pressure to separate from his business before assuming office. While Trump has given no indication that he plans to sell his interest in his business, he has pledged to do "no new deals" while the president and to leave the management of his company to his two adult sons. The report added that Trump has stakes in 500 companies in about 20 countries, some of which appear to be set up for tax or legal reasons. It said the Argentina talks came under scrutiny last year after several media outlets reported that Trump tried to speed along the Buenos Aires project by mentioning it in his congratulatory call from Argentine President Mauricio Macri. The project in Brazil involves plan to build five office towers in Rio de Janeiro, but the development got tied up in a corruption investigation that was unrelated to Trump himself, the report said. A showdown is looming in Helena that pits the backers of a key economic development tool for governments, against legislators seeking school funding in a tight budget. Talk concerning tax increment financing, or TIF, makes peoples eyes glaze over, Tim Goodridge admits. "But, the problem is that people can be influenced when their eyes glaze over. Thats why Goodridge and other TIF proponents say theyre concerned about how the Montana Legislature will reform the laws governing Billings three tax increment finance districts during the current legislative session, which began Monday. The first of up to 10 TIF reform bills that have been filed, SB 34, will get a hearing Friday in the Senate Local Government Committee. Both Goodridge and a legislator seeking to reform the current system, Rep. Jeff Essmann, R-Billings, say that explaining tax increment financing in terms that people can understand is key to retaining or reforming the current system. As part of its legislative agenda, the Billings City Council is supporting the current TIF program. This is the only tool that municipalities like Billings (have) to redevelop itself, to reinvest in itself, with the current tax structure, said Greg Krueger, the development director for the Downtown Billings Alliance, which administers the downtown TIF district for the city. TIF 101 Tax increment financing is a technique that allows a local government or redevelopment authority to generate money for a group of blighted properties targeted for improvement, known as a TIF district. As improvements are made within the district, and as property values increase, the incremental increases in property tax revenue are used for more improvements within the district. TIF expenditures are subject to restrictions and must be spent within the district. The funds generated from a new TIF district can be used to finance projects such as street and parking improvements, tree planting, installation of new bike racks, trash containers and benches, and other streetscape beautification projects within the designated area. In Montana, TIF districts were authorized in 1974 and are assessed through property tax. Financing options include private activity revenue bonds, pay as you go, loans, special assessments and tax increment bonds. We are not taking money, said Goodridge, coordinator for the Billings Industrial Redevelopment District in East Billings. We are generating it through growth to regenerate our area. In areas designated as blighted and slated for renewal, the natural growth in that area wont occur as fast as it will in other areas, Goodridge said. Within the East Billings Urban Renewal District, the project that Goodridge calls our linchpin of growth is the First Interstate Bank Operations Center. It was a decrepit trailer court there with a lot of police calls, and now we have a brand new building that contributes to the (citys) tax base, he said. But Essmann, speaking as he traveled to the Capitol Monday to begin the Montana Legislatures 65th session, said the state should place a tighter rein on TIF money. In Billings, projects must be approved by appointed TIF boards, who represent property owners, and the Billings City Council. Thats the case for small projects and large. The Montana property tax system is a really complex machine. A lot of moving parts fit together and interact in ways that arent very apparent or intuitive, Essmann said. Thats why hes introduced House Bill 30, which would remove certain levies, such as school levies voted on after the adoption of tax increment financing, from the states TIF provision. Under the current system, he said, sometimes the money is not going to the purpose for which the public votes. Citing the examples of Billings $122 million school levy and the citys $20 million library, Essmann notes that the incremental value within the TIF districts did not contribute to those public improvements. In testimony before legislators, Kevin Nelson of Billings has long made that point that money provided for specific uses, such as constructing a library or providing meals to seniors in their homes "should go where voters said it should go." Essmann complimented a number of infrastructure projects water, sewer and streets completed in East Billings and on the citys South Side. Thats what urban renewal is all about, he said. I got an email saying to keep local money local, and I agree with that. But the fact is that the way levies are being assessed after the creation of the district creates higher taxes for people both inside and outside the district, and that needs to be fixed. The fix that concerns TIF advocates the most is House Bill 134, a school buildings funding bill that came out of the Education Funding Interim Commission on which Essmann served. A portion of the law would carve out a chunk of local tax increment financing and divert it to a separate, state-controlled fund for construction of school buildings and facilities. If approved as written, the bill would cut funding to the South Billings Urban Renewal District by 14 percent, potentially hampering future projects, said Steve Zeier, TIF district administrator. TIF districts across Montana would suffer, he said. What that equates to is a haircut to every TIF district, Zeier said. Original intent Essmann said one legislator involved in the TIF's formation in the 1970s told him the financing should only be used on projects that wouldnt otherwise happen. Thats always a difficult question to define would this happen anyway? Essmann said. Or would it happen only if we agree to build a parking garage downtown? Some communities have a high vetting process before TIF money is given to the developer, and some dont. Essmann said he prefers incremental change to current TIF law. Lets try greater transparency first, and if other people want to tighten it up more, they can, he said. Goodridge and the other TIF administrators also defend the transparency of their approval process. Committee, TIF board, planning and city council review gives us four levels of accountability on the local level, Goodridge said. That is serious transparency. People who want to find out where TIF expenditures went can contact the citys Finance Department, Goodridge said. During the 90-day legislative session, Goodridge will be the point lobbyist for the Billings TIF districts, and Zeier and Krueger will offer support. Nelson said he also plans to testify, but in favor of TIF reform. Too successful? As theyve chipped away at blight and prepared the way for increased private investment, TIF districts have become victims of their own success, Goodridge said. You can always cherry pick projects that are questionable, he said. Just because you disagree with the way (the money) is being spent doesnt mean its being spent in a wrong way. What Goodridge calls the real dollars under discussion what the districts can lose under the various bills arent that much, and that is discouraging, he said. In the EBURD, its about $90,000. Its death by 1,000 cuts, he said. Essmann counters that the bills came from interim sessions and enjoy bipartisan support. Rural legislators, he said, would like to divert TIF money to pay for much-needed school repairs. We are headed into a tight budget cycle, he said Monday. What I learned from (the interim education funding commission) is that we have a cultural problem in Montana. We can raise money for new buildings every once in a while, but we are unwilling or unable to raise money to take care of buildings over time We need to change the culture so we have good planning for taking care of those assets around the state. The United States killed about 20 Al-Qaeda militants this week in air strikes in northwestern Syria, the Defense Department has said. US warplanes conducted two air strikes, Sunday and Tuesday, near Sarmada in Idlib province, the Pentagon said yesterday. The attacks had been reported by local sources. According to those sources, the air strikes were aimed at Fateh al-Sham Front, a former Al-Qaeda affiliate, previously known as Al-Nusra Front, that officially severed ties with the jihadist network in July. But for the Pentagon, the US assault near the city of Sarmada was aimed squarely at the "foreign terrorist fighter network" of Al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda leaders "directed terrorist operations out of this location," Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said yesterday at a news conference. "We will continue to take action to deny any safe haven for Al-Qaeda in Syria," he said. Northwestern Idlib province is largely controlled by Fateh al-Sham and rebel groups allied with it. Fateh al-Sham is excluded from the current ceasefire in Syria between the government and rebels that was brokered last week by regime backer Russia and rebel sponsor Turkey. The tenuous ceasefire, which took effect on December 30, is part of efforts to resolve nearly six years of war in Syria, which has been ravaged by violence since an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011. According to the Pentagon, the US air strike on Sunday targeted two vehicles and killed five Al-Qaeda militants. Tuesday's strike killed more than 15 militants and destroyed six vehicles, Cook said. "We will not allow Al-Qaeda to grow its capacity to attack the United States or its allies around the world," he said. "These strikes demonstrate that commitment." The United States added Hamza bin Laden, son and would-be heir of Osama bin Laden, to its terrorist blacklist yesterday. The younger bin Laden has become active as an Al-Qaeda propagandist since his father's death at the hands of US special forces in 2011 in Pakistan. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that outgoing US Secretary of State told him in a phone call on Thursday that America will stay committed to the one-China policy, the media reported. The call between the two powers' top diplomats came days ahead of a stopover in the US by Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, said a report in South China Morning Post. The one-China policy, which maintains that Taiwan is part of China, has been the bedrock of Sino-US relations for four decades, said the report. "The one-China policy based on the three Sino-American joint communiques remains the consensus of both (Democratic and Republican) parties," Kerry was quoted as saying. During the phone conversation with Wang, Kerry also stressed the importance of Sino-US ties. Beijing in recent weeks expressed unease over US President-elect Donald Trump's earlier statement casting doubt on the one-China policy. Beijing also expressed concerns over the incoming US President's decision to pack his administration with many vocal veteran China critics, and has sought Washington's reassurance on the Taiwan issue. Wang also urged the incoming US administration to deal carefully with bilateral ties and to heed Beijing's concerns on a host of issues concerning its national interests and sovereignty. To provide more clarity for stakeholders, today came out with a detailed guidance note for evaluation of boards of listed companies including the role of independent directors. The guidance assumes significance against the backdrop of ongoing intense boardroom battle at Tata group. However, the regulator has not mentioned about any particular instance or company. The guidance note has been prepared to "guide listed entities by elaborating various aspects of board evaluation that may help them to improve the evaluation process, derive the best possible benefit and achieve the objective of the entire process". Among others, has emphasised that the role and function of chairperson in board evaluation needs to be laid out clearly in advance in order to achieve maximum benefit of the process. Responsibilities of various persons, including independent directors, and committees for carrying out evaluation of respective boards as well as the relevant disclosure requirements under corporate governance obligations have also been touched upon in the note. Observing that the concept of board evaluation in India is at a nascent stage, said it has been brought to the notice by market participants that the number of listed entities in the country is very large, many of them may not have much clarity on the process of board evaluation and hence may need further guidance. The Companies Act, 2013 and Sebi (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015 contain broad provisions on board evaluation. The note has been prepared after studying the practices of board evaluation prevalent among listed entities in the county and taking into consideration views of industry associations, stock exchanges, market participants and international bodies. In its guidance note, Sebi said the nomination and remuneration committee will have to formulate the criteria for evaluation of performance of independent directors and the board of directors. It would carry out evaluation of every director's performance. It would determine whether to extend or continue the term of appointment of the independent director, on the basis of the report of performance evaluation of independent directors. In the meeting of independent directors of the company (without the attendance of non-independent directors and management), such directors would review the performance of non-independent directors and the board as a whole including chairperson. The performance evaluation of independent directors would be done by the entire board, excluding the director being evaluated. "A statement indicating the manner in which formal annual evaluation has been made by the board of its own performance and that of its committees and individual directors shall be included in the report by board of directors placed in the general meeting," it said. The performance evaluation criteria for independent directors would be disclosed in the section on the corporate governance of the annual report. The purpose of the guidance note is to educate the listed entities and their board of directors about various aspects involved in the board evaluation process and improve their overall performance as well as corporate governance standards to benefit all stakeholders. The independent directors of the listed entity shall hold a meeting at least once a year separately. The note covers all major aspects of board evaluation like who is to be evaluated, process of evaluation including laying down of objectives and criteria to be adopted for evaluation of different persons, feedback to the persons being evaluated and action plan based on the results. Also, the note includes disclosure to stakeholders on various aspects, frequency of such evaluation, responsibility of board evaluation and review of the entire evaluation process periodically. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said that responsibility of board evaluation lies on different persons depending on the subject of evaluation. "However, it is found that on a global basis, generally the primary role of steering the whole process of board evaluation and of ensuring its effectiveness in improving the board efficiency lies on the chairperson. "Therefore, to achieve maximum benefit of the process, the role and function of chairperson in board evaluation needs to be laid out clearly in advance," it added. was up 3% to Rs 503 on the BSE in intra-day trade after Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) reported a strong 30% jump in US sales at 12,573 units in December 2016 against 9,638 units a year earlier. The 350th birth anniversary of the 10th and last Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh is being celebrated across the country today. The main function will be held at Takht Harmandar Sahib in Patna where Prime Minister Narendra Modi will arrive to participate in the Prakash Parva. The Delhi Government offices will remain closed today on the occasion of the Guru Gobind Singh's 350th birth anniversary. Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal has approved this holiday. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Another Chinese cargo ship has reached the Gwadar port. According to port sources, the Chinese ship Hung Ching on Wednesday anchored in Gwadar Port, reports the Daily Times. The cargo ship was loaded with nearly 60 containers and around 238 different packages of free trade zone. The first trade convoy carrying goods for export through the western route of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) arrived at Gwadar Port in November last year. Through Gwadar the goods would be exported to Middle East and African countries. The CPEC corridor is about 3,000-kilometre long consisting of highways, railways and pipelines that will connect China's Xinjiang province to the rest of the through Gwadar port. Considered to be a part of China's One Belt, One Road initiative, the USD 51 billion project covers Balochistan and Sindh provinces and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). India has formally opposed the CPEC because it runs through PoK, which is a disputed territory. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bengaluru Police Commissioner Praveen Sood announced Thursday that four persons of the six involved in have been arrested. The main accused who groped the girl has been identified as Aiyappa, a delivery boy and an ITI student, the Commissioner said at a press conference. He said that after seeing the video the police registered a suo moto case even without talking to the victim. The other three arrested, who were accomplice in the crime, are Lino, a helper boy; Som Shekhar alias chinni, who is a driver and Sudesh also a delivery boy. Sood revealed that the incident was planned as the accused had been stalking the victim for the past four-five days and made their advances on the New Year Day. He said that the other accomplice will also be arrested soon. The incident was captured on a CCTV camera at a house near the site of the attack. Police took up the case on Tuesday night after the CCTV footage was provided by a resident. More arrests are likely in the case, said the police. (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.) A united opposition will visit the office of the Election Commission on Thursday to discuss about the date of the Budget Session. "Trinamool,Congress,SP,BSP,JDU,RJD & some other Oppn parties to meet Election Commission 11am. Subject : budget date too close to polls," O'Brien tweeted. "Three from Trinamool to be part of Oppn party delegation to meet Election Commissioner in Delhi: Derek O'Brien, Dinesh Trivedi, Saugato Roy," he added. The Budget Session of the Parliament will begin from February 1. The session is being advanced as the government wants early allocation of funds for various schemes-- from April 1, the beginning of the financial year. The Election Commission yesterday announced seven-phase polling for 403 assembly constituencies in the politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, two-phase polling in Manipur and one-phase polling each in the states of Punjab, Uttarakhand and Goa respectively. Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi said that the counting of votes in all the five states will take place on March 11. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India's largest selling spice brand, Everest, has set up a new manufacturing unit at Umbergaon in Gujarat. The 50-year-old company manufactures a range of 45 products, both blended and pure spices, for which it requires 60 types of raw materials from different parts of the country. To cope with the storage problem of perishable material, the company chooses Japan's Daifuku for a complete warehousing solution. Everest has plans to produce 400 tonnes of spices everyday from the new facility and requires storage of 1,200 tonnes of raw material. "This is going to be the world's biggest factory and it will produce everyday 400 tonnes of spices. The target was to store 400 tonnes of spices and a minimum stoke level of three days. How do we stoke it? And how do you retrieve it was a big challenge. And that is where the automation came into place," said Partner S. NARENDRAKUMAR & Co, Rajiv Shah. The automated storage and retrieval system has 2160 locations in six banks. Each bank can store 30 bags with a maximum weight of 800 kg apiece at each level. The bags are managed by barcodes generated electronically. The automated storage and retrieval system not only helps to keep the perishable goods stored safely, but helps timely retrieval for manufacturing operations. It has eliminated contamination risk, reduces labour costs and tracks manufacturing data. Everest, which has robust expansion plans to diversify from a spice company to a food company, is hopeful to get an advantage of warehousing automation. "There are chances of further expansion within the same area that we have just opened. So, we definitely see a chance or scope of further automation in our warehouses, in our factory. And, we see that very soon we will be sitting across with Daifuku to talk about further automation," added Shah. The finished goods are also stored in an automated warehouse. A sorting transfer vehicle takes the cartons to an automated storage and retrieval system and places it in a designated bank. The cartons of finished goods can easily be transported by retrieving from the warehouse by using a simple command. Daifuku's automated warehousing solution has made life easier and simpler for manufacturers in India. The company is providing warehousing solutions in many countries, including Malaysia. MOMA provides safe and de-mineralized drinking water from its unit in Sarawak. MOMA water is made with O3+UV sterilization and fully automated germ-free bottling which is uncontaminated by manual handling. To assist MOMA water in fulfilling its goal of creating the safest and clearest water in its state-of-the-art facilities, DAIFUKU from Japan is handling its automated storage and retrieval system. "The long-term goal of MOMA is to become an internationally recognized brand, with products available anywhere in the world. With an expanded product range for home and export markets, automation helps us to be more efficient and managing the complexity of processing, storage, and retrieval. DAIFUKU provides fast and accurate material handling and inventory management. And, the DAIFUKU solution is superior to competitive products in the industry in terms of speed, reliability, technical support, and service. Logistics are an important and significant cost in our and will play an increasingly important role in the future. Our investment in DAIFUKU's system is to future-proof our business," said Marketing Director MOMA water, Kenneth Toh Beng Chuen. Since 1937, when the company was established, DAIFUKU has focused on material handling. Now DAIFUKU is an expertise in field of automated storage and retrieval systems and meets the diverse needs in manufacturing and logistics brought on by rapid changes in society. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) If you are among the thousands of Billings residents frustrated with the lack of snow removal on city streets since mid-December, please read on for an explanation of how our city leaders chose to let you spin your wheels. It was a balmy 81 degrees the night of June 13 when five members of the City Council decided to cut residential snowplowing out of the budget. The council earlier had asked for the budget to include $425,000 that would be used to plow residential streets. But in the final budget meeting, the snow removal funding failed on a 5-5 vote. Councilmen Mike Yakawich, Larry Brewster, Chris Friedel, Dick Clark and Shaun Brown voted against plowing. Annual plowing for $9 Perhaps they couldnt envision the misery that 20 inches of snow would cause in December and January. On that early summer evening, they didnt think about how school buses would get through a big snow. On Dec. 15, 20 First Student buses carrying Billings Public School students got stuck on snow-clogged roads in just one morning. Ten buses got stuck that afternoon. Tuesday morning and afternoon, First Student ran alternate routes in several neighborhoods because subdivision streets were expected to be too hazardous for bus travel. It is unacceptable for Montana's largest city to have streets that school buses cant navigate. The city budget adopted that same night totaled $329 million. The cost of snowplowing was a tiny fraction of the budget 0.129 percent. (An earlier version of this Gazette opinion included a percentage miscalculation.) Public Works Department Director Dave Mumford calculated that it would cost $425,000 to hire private companies to plow residential streets after five storms that each dropped at least 3 inches of snow. That was estimated to cost the average homeowner an additional $8.93 per year in street maintenance district fees. We call on the council to reconsider snow plowing yet this winter if funding and private contractors are available. We call on the council to budget for residential plowing for next winter. It would only take one more pro-plow vote to pass. Mayor Tom Hanel, Councilmen Ryan Sullivan, Al Swanson, Rich McFadden and Brent Cromley voted for plowing funds. Councilwoman Angela Cimmino left the meeting before the vote. 20 school buses stuck The big snow problem has happened at least once in three of the four most recent winters. In late February 2014, Billings sent snow plows out to some wider residential streets because of accumulations and forecasts for more snow. Remember January 2015 when the city took the unusual step of plowing all 400 miles of city residential streets? Normally, city snowplow operators stick to 146 miles of arterials. Reasons cited for the residential plowing included public safety, the sheer volume of snow and concern that streets would freeze into icy ruts. All of those good reasons are obvious on Billings streets this week, and more snow is on the way. Many Billings residents would be willing to pay $9 to have their street plowed today and plowed again if we get another big snow. The cost of not plowing is significant: stranded motorists, stranded students, vehicles dented in collisions, undercarriages damaged by mounds of ice and snow on the streets. How much time has been lost waiting for tow trucks and Good Samaritans to get snowbound cars going again? Public Works Department and other city employees worked 12-hour shifts around the clock to plow arterial streets in recent weeks. Mumford presented the council with a viable plan for residential plowing. We know why residential streets arent plowed. Lets hold council members accountable on this cold winter day for their June budget votes. President Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday said the demonetization move, while immobilizing black money and fighting corruption, may lead to temporary slowdown of the economy. The President was delivering the New Year message to the Governors and Lt. Governors of states and Union Territories through video conferencing from the Rashtrapati Bhavan. President Mukherjee said that the government has to be extra careful to alleviate the suffering of the poor which might become unavoidable for the expected progress in the long term. "While I appreciate the thrust on transition from entitlement approach to an entrepreneurial one for poverty alleviation, I am not too sure that the poor can wait that long," he said. President Mukherjee said the poor needs help, so that they can also participate actively in the march towards a future devoid of hunger, unemployment and exploitation. He added that the recent package announced by the Prime Minister will also provide some relief. The president said the conduct of free and fair elections has made our democracy one of the most vibrant in the world. He said that elections reflect the attitudes, values and beliefs of people towards their political environment and they symbolize people's sovereignty and provide legitimacy to government's authority. The president told the Governors and Lt. Governors that they can play an important role in easing tensions in the society through their interaction and wise counsel. Citing a Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru quote," It is a country held together by strong but invisible threads", President Mukherjee said that India's strength lies in her diversity and the multiplicities in culture, faith and language is what makes India special. President Mukherjee told the Governors and Lt. Governors that they have a very important role to play in the improvement of higher education in their states. He told them that being chancellors and visitors to various universities, they can work with the academic leaders to effect holistic changes for quality up-gradation in the institutions of higher learning. "I express my deep appreciation to you all for coming together on this platform for our interaction," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Army Chief General Bipin Rawat on Thursday arrived in Udhampur on a three-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir starting from today. He will be visiting Udhampur, Srinagar, Nagrota and Siachen during his tour. He will also be visiting formations at Kupwara, Anantnag, Akhnoor and Rajouri where he will be briefed upon the prevailing security situation and will interact with officers and men. General Rawat lauded the role of Northern Command in restoring peace and normalcy during the recent unrest. He also commended the soldiers for strongly reciprocating to the unprovoked ceasefire violations by Pakistan. "'Every soldier of our Army plays an important role towards security of the nation because it is the contribution of every soldier that makes the Army efficient and strong," he said. The visit assumes importance as Northern Command is the first place where General Rawat is visiting after taking over as Army Chief. He emphasised that we need to evolve a dynamic strategy to handle the proxy war and defeat enemy's nefarious designs. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) After announcing the Digital Unlocked initiative for Indian small and medium businesses (SMB), Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Thursday visited his alma mater IIT-Kharagpur. Pichai, who is currently in India on a work and personal visit talked about his time at IIT-KGP and Google in addition to taking live questions. At IIT-Kharagpur, Pichai answered questions from students at an open-air theatre in the campus. The Chennai born CEO discussed his life on campus in an event titled 'A journey back to the past to inspire the future'. The event, which was attended by over 3,500 students, was streamed live by Google on YouTube. Talking about how things have changed in terms of technology, Pichai said, "The rate at which things have been progressing in India is phenomenal." "We didn't have phones back then. I remember waiting for a long time to get a rotary phone at home. Didn't have access to computers growing up. Clearly the progress has been phenomenal," added the Google CEO. "I am fully confident that India will be a global player when it comes to digital economies. We are growing well as a country and will not be behind any country, even the most advanced ones when it comes to digitisation and digital economies," he said. Recalling a funny incident back in the college days Pichai said, "I didn't know Hindi too well when I came here from Chennai. I thought "abbey saale!" was a way to call out to people. I learnt Hindi in college." On being asked about how he met his better half, Pichai said, "I met Anjali at IIT-K and she was my classmate. Just to go get someone at the girl's hostel, you had to walk in the front and request someone to call them. And they'd go in and loudly say Anjali, Sundar is here. It wasn't exactly a pleasant experience," he said. Talking about how Google is working on products for the country that can be expanded globally, he said, "We look forward to cheaper smartphones in India. In the USD 30 bracket for entry level smartphones." "We at Google want to focus on usage of Internet in rural areas in India. We are big supporters of the Digital India program. We are also working on digitizing payments," added Pichai. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Showing strong resentment against the pre-polling of the budget session, the Congress on Thursday asserted that the government would misuse the opportunity and would try to allure the voters. "This gives unfair advantage to the government. It will influence the voters. It is clear that the government will misuse the budget presentation and the President's Address to both the houses of parliament which is customary to make announcements, popular schemes, and also try to allure the voters," Congress leader Anand Sharma told ANI. Knocking the door of the Election Commission, Sharma informed that opposition parties in unison have written to President Pranab Mukherjee and the Chief Election Commissioner. "We have jointly represented to the Rashtrapati ji that pre-polling of the presentation of budget should not be allowed. Opposition parties have also written to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and communication has been sent to the representation, to the Election Commission as a whole," he said. Reiterating their demand of delaying the budget presentation, Sharma said it is important to accept this request. "It is important that the request of the opposition is accepted and the presentation of the budget is delayed until the polling in all the states is over," he added. A united opposition will visit the office of the Election Commission today to discuss about the date of the Budget Session. "Trinamool, Congress, SP, BSP, JDU, RJD & some other Oppn parties to meet Election Commission 11am. Subject : budget date too close to polls," TMC Rajya Sabha MP Derek O'Brien tweeted. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A study reveals that increasing politicians' paychecks is not likely to encourage more working-class people to run for office. The study was published online in the American Political Science Review. Reformers from Duke University often say that low legislative salaries are a big reason why wealthy or retired Americans are far more likely to hold office. However, a study found that in states offer more pay, legislatures remain dominated by white-collar professionals. "On a lot of measures, politicians who are paid more perform better," said by Nicholas Carnes. "Research shows they have greater expertise, show up for votes more often and are more productive. Reformers argue higher pay also would have the benefit of increasing economic diversity in our political institutions. Our research shows this isn't true," Carnes added. What reformers overlook is the extraordinary cost of campaigning -- in money, time and energy, Carnes said. The new study examined data on the salaries and employment backgrounds of state legislators in all 50 states. They surveyed 10,000 candidates who ran for state legislative offices that year, whether successful or not, as well as data compiled by the National Conference of State Legislatures in 1993, 1995 and 2007. Results were consistent across all the years studied, Carnes said. Legislative salaries vary widely from state to state. New Hampshire and New Mexico are on the low end, paying, respectively, $200 per two-year term and nothing but a $150 per diem while in session. On the other end of the spectrum, California, New York and Michigan pay more than $75,000 a year. The number of former blue-collar workers holding elected state offices was lowest -- about two percent on average -- in states paying the highest salaries, and highest -- about seven percent -- in states that pay the least. "Rather than making political jobs more appealing to lower-paid people, it appears higher salaries make them even more attractive to higher-paid professionals and make it even more difficult for working-class people to break into politics," Carnes said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) At least 20 idols of deities in three Hindu temples have been damaged by miscreants in Jamaibazar area in Tungipara Upazila of Gopalganj. The Police has detained two suspects and are searching for others involved after being informed by the temple priest about the incident. "The vandalism could have taken place as a consequence of a feud over setting up some shops in the area," Dhaka Tribune quoted a police official as saying. Gopalganj Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Mokhlesur Rahman Sarkar visited the spot and promised to take stern steps against the offenders. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India's first and largest venture debt firm InnoVen Capital has announced the launch of InnoVen Credit Assistance Program (InnoVenCAP) aimed at maturing startups that could use conventional debt financing to help optimize cash flow. Since September 2016, InnoVen has made available over USD 4.5 million of credit lines in aggregate to select portfolio companies from partner banks, with part of the risk being backstopped by InnoVen the primary lender to these ventures. The startups that have benefitted from this initiative so far include Chaipoint (tea-retail chain), Koye Pharmaceuticals (generic drug maker), K12 Techno Services (school management company), MoveInSync (employee transport solution) and Capillary Technologies (omni-channel retail analytics company). InnoVen has helped these companies meet their working capital or capital expenditure needs to improve cash flow efficiency for startups that may not necessarily have positive operating cash flows at this stage, making it difficult for them to access conventional methods of debt financing. InnoVen has partnered with large financial institutions such as IndusInd Bank, RBL Bank, Standard Chartered, and Tata Capital for providing working capital or other structured solutions to InnoVen's portfolio companies. The firm also collaborates with SIDBI by referring and endorsing young companies for potential financing under the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) Scheme. With InnoVenCAP, the firm has established itself as a 'Knowledge Partner' for both banks and startups where it leverages its extensive experience in the venture debt space to bridge the gap of risk perception and credit appetite of banks. It also acts as a guide for companies looking to raise conventional debt but are not fully aware of the options, sources, or existing benchmarks for the same. "What I valued was that Innoven worked proactively for a small company like ours. They literally led us towards operating lease structures that saved us lot of upfront cash," said Founder and CEO, Amuleek Singh Bijral. "Our role is to leverage off our understanding of our clients' businesses and serve them with risk capital which is appropriately structured to their stage of development. In most of the cases, and especially where the borrower is an early stage company where a different skill set is needed to underwrite the risk, InnoVen Capital might provide a venture loan directly to the client," said Group COO and CEO India, Ajay Hattangdi. InnoVenCAP is the latest addition to the host of initiatives driven by InnoVen Capital as an active player in the startup community. Last quarter, the firm organized several InnoVenConnect and InnoVenSupport events across Mumbai and Bangalore, where by leveraging their network of founder and VC relationships as well as partners such as Microsoft Accelerator, the firm continues to assist the early stage segment with information, advice and connections. Further, InnoVen partners with large corporate to identify promising companies and teams that could solve specific problem statements posed by the corporate, thereby creating opportunities for synergies and consolidation. InnoVenalso annually releases research reports on angel investment trends as well as outlook on topics ranging from and industry challenges, investor sentiment to policy and overall optimism. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Japan has decided to assist India with the development of Chennai, Ahmedabad and Varanasi as smart cities. The same was conveyed on Thursday by Japan's Ambassador to India Kenji Hiramatsu during his meeting with Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu. Hiramatsu said that Japan is quite interested in urban development initiatives of the Government of India and decided to be a partner, said a statement. Responding to Naidu's observation about the need for speedy action, Japan's Envoy said "We would like to match the action oriented approach of the Government under Prime Minister Shri Modi". High Commissioner of United Kingdom Dominic Asquith also met Naidu and discussed converting into action the MoU signed between the two countries on cooperation in urban development sector during the recent visit of British Prime Minister Theresa May to India. He said institutionalizing government to government cooperation for smart city development has huge potential. So far, leading countries have come forward to be associated with development of 15 Indian smart cities. These include United States Trade Development Agency (USTDA) for Visakhapatnam, Ajmer and Allahabad, UK for Pune, Amaravati and Indore, France for Chandigarh, Puducherry and Nagpur and Germany for Bhubaneswar, Coimbattore and Kochi. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) As many as two persons, including Congress leader Raju Mishra were shot dead by unidentified gunmen last night in Cherital area of Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur. The other victim has been identified as Kukku Sardar. It was around 10 at night when the assailants opened indiscriminate firing at the victims, completing a total of 14 rounds. It is being said the victims were standing at a food stall when the attackers started firing from behind. The police have recovered bullets and blood samples from the incident site. A forensic enquiry has also been launched into the matter. The police are trying to know the motive behind the incident. Sources said, the aggressors had come to attack Kukku, but targeted Raju as well on finding him there. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Fourteen-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal produced a rich vein of form as he brushed aside Russia's Mischa Zverev in straight sets to book his place in the quarter-finals of the men's singles event at the Brisbane International here on Thursday. The Spaniard maestro wasted no time in thwacking his Russian opponent 6-1, 6-1 in a one-sided second round contest that lasted less than an hour. With the win, Nadal has now set up a clash against Milos Raonic, who stormed into the last-eight following his 6-3, 6-2 win over Diego Schwartzman of Argentina. In the women's singles clash, world number one Angelique Kerber suffered a major blow as she crashed out of the tournament following her 4-6, 6-3, 3-6 defeat at the hands of sixth-seeded Elina Svitolina in the quarter-finals. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) GREAT FALLS, Mont. Police say an elderly woman was found dead in a home that burned in Great Falls, but investigators are not sure if she died as a result of the fire. The Great Falls Tribune reports the woman, whose name has not been released, was found Tuesday night, and her body has been sent to the state crime lab for an autopsy. Sgt. Jim Wells says the death is under investigation, but it does not appear to be suspicious. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday congratulated Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for his 'nasha-mukti abhiyan', and said it would inspire others as well. "I congratulate Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for his nasha-mukti abhiyan. It can save the coming generations and act as an inspiration to other states," Prime Minister Modi said while speaking at Patna's Gandhi Maidan on the occasion of Prakash Parv. The Prime Minister also thanked the Bihar Chief Minister for organising the special event on Guru Gobind Singh's 350th birth anniversary. Entrusting his faith on Bihar, Prime Minister Modi asserted that the state would play a major role in the development of the nation. "We remember the greats who belong to Bihar. The people from Bihar have distinguished themselves and served the nation," he added. Invoking tenth Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh, Prime Minister Modi said the ideal did not believe in any form of social discrimination and treated everyone equally. "Guru Gobind Singh ji put knowledge at the core of his teachings and inspired so many people through his thoughts and ideals," the Prime Minister said. On the same occasion, Nitish Kumar also did not miss the opportunity to applaud Prime Minister Modi for banning liquor in Gujarat during his 12-year tenure as the state's chief minister. "Our Prime Minister was the Chief Minister for 12 years and he implemented prohibition of liquor very effectively in Gujarat," said Nitish. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Portugal Prime Minister Antonio Costa will arrive on a seven-day long official visit to India on Saturday. Earlier he was scheduled to arrive on Friday. Costa will be holding official talks with President Pranab Mukherjee, Vice President Hamid Ansari Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 7 in the capital. Several MoUs are expected to be signed during the visit that would set the agenda for India-Portugal relations. Costa is likely to be accompanied by several ministers. He will attend the Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas as the chief guest in Bengaluru on January 8, and would also participate in few business events. The Portugal Prime Minister will also attend the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit on January 10 at Gandhinagar. In the last leg of his visit to India, he will be in Goa on 11-12 January. In Goa, he would be meeting the Governor and the Chief Minister. Costa who traces his roots to Goa, will also spend some time at his ancestral place. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Portugal Prime Minister Antonio Costa will be on seven-day visit official visit to India beginning tomorrow. Costa will hold official talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 7 in the capital. During his visit, he is also expected to call on President Pranab Mukherjee and Vice President Hamid Ansari. Several MoUs are expected to be signed during the visit that would set the agenda for India-Portugal relations going forward. Costa is likely to be accompanied by several ministers. He will attend the Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas as the chief guest in Bengaluru on 8-9 January, and would also participate in few business events. The Portugal Prime Minister will also attend the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit on January 10 at Gandhinagar. In the last leg of his visit to India, he will be in Goa on 11-12 January. In Goa, he would be meet the Governor and the Chief Minister. Costa who traces his roots to Goa, will also spend some time at his ancestral place. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Farmers from Sheopur district of Madhya Pradesh were taken aback on Tuesday when they received newly printed 2000 rupee notes without the image of Mahatma Gandhi. Sheopur district senior SBI bank officer, R.K. Jain told ANI that the notes were genuine and this could be a printing error. "We have talked about the issue. They were 2000 rupees notes without Mahatma Gandhi on them. It is a misprint. We will investigate. It is a printing mistake, but not a fake currency," he added. The incident came to light when some farmers in Badodha tehsil withdrew money from the local State Bank of India branch only to discover that some Rs 2000 bank notes did not have Mahatma Gandhi's image. When the farmers approached the bank officials, they were told that the notes are genuine, but however, the bank took back the notes. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Upon the invitation from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Presidents of Rawanda and Kenya will attend the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit and participate in business events. President of Rwanda Paul Kagame will be on a state visit from January 9 to 12. Kagame accompanied by business officials, will hold official talks with Prime Minister Modi on January 9 in Gandhinagar. He will attend the Summit on January 10 scheduled to be held at Gandhinagar and will be addressing a Business Seminar on Rwanda. Rwanda will also be participating in the Global Trade Show 2017. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, who will be accompanied by several of his Ministers, will pay a visit from January 10 to 12. Kenyatta will also hold hold official talks with Prime Minister Modi on January 11 in New Delhi and on next day, he is expected to attend a business forum in the capital. During the visit, President Kenyatta is also expected to call on President Pranab Mukherjee. Vice President Hamid Ansari, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Minister for Defence Manohar Parrikar are also expected to call on President Kenyatta. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a petition seeking Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the 'mysterious death' of late Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa. The petition was filed by expelled AIADMK MP Sasikala Pushpa. An apex court bench headed by Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose and also comprising Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman dismissed the petition filed by Pushpa after not finding any merit in it. The lawyer appearing for Pushpa told the division bench of the apex court that Jayalalithaa was doing fine and suddenly the news of her death was given. Earlier, a Chennai-based NGO Telugu Yuva Sakshi filed a Public interest Litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court for a CBI probe into Jayalalithaa's death and recovery of all medical documents. Jayalalithaa breathed her last at Chennai's Apollo Hospitals on December 5 last year where she was admitted on September 22 with fever and dehydration. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) As many as ten Indian fishermen were apprehended near Neduntheevu in Palk Strait along with two boats by the Sri Lankan Navy. The fishermen have been taken to Jaffna Naval camp for investigation. Immediate release of the fishermen presently in custody has been announced following the ministerial level talks between Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare of India Radha Mohan Singh and Minister for Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development of Sri Lanka Mahinda Amaraweera in Colombo. The talks were held on Monday following the first meeting of the Joint Working Group (JWG) on fisheries held in New Delhi on December 31. While the fishermen from the Southern states have been demanding release of their fellow fishermen and trawlers, their counterpart in Sri Lanka asserts that bottom trawling used by Indian fishermen has caused extensive damage to the marine eco system. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Kqpoker.com an online poker gaming site for Indian poker players is proud to announce a mega event to celebrate our 1st anniversary and welcome the New Year. Noting the requests made by our esteemed members to throw in something special to revel in our anniversary we have decided to hold this Rs. 12 Lacs GTD Live Mega Event. Welcome to the exhilarating world of online poker India at Kqpoker.com! Yes, you read it right! It is an unbelievable opportunity for you to earn 12 Lacs by spending only a nominal amount of Rs. 12. This is a live event which will be held at our premises, Kings and Queens Poker Club, Bangalore on February 5, 2017 at 2:00 p.m. sharp. However, we are glad to share with you that you can generate this amount by just playing the Daily Step-Satellites with only Rs. 12. For the entire month of January there will be six satellites that will be running at 1:00 pm, 3:00 pm, 5:00 pm, 7:00 pm, 9:00 pm, and at 10:00 pm on a daily basis. Out of these six satellites, the first five are step-satellites. So when you crack any of these step-satellites you will get a ticket to the main event satellite at 10:00 p.m. everyday which is worth Rs. 280. And the best part is that the main event satellites guarantee two tickets to the 12 Lacs GTD Mega Live Event! To get more information on the Daily Satellites or their schedules please click on the promotions tab on Kqpoker.com home page which has been updated and running in Kqpoker.com's Tournament Lobby. Terms and Conditions: Multiple TKT won by the same player to the Main Event can be used by the particular player only for Re-entries to the tournament. Main Event Satellite tickets cannot be reimbursed for cash at any point in time nor transferred to a different player. Players outside Bangalore will get their travel expenses (only flight/train/bus fare) reimbursed on Kqpoker.com as RCB if they qualify through the sattys. All winnings of the main event will be credited to your Kqpoker account which can be withdrawn at any time. TDS will be applicable to all withdrawals above Rs 9,999. Players will be subject to TDS deduction of 30 percent if winnings are withdrawn at the club. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A big reason for Deepika Padukone to take up 'xXx All excited about her Hollywood debut, which set to release this month, alongside Vin Diesel, the Birthday girl, in an interview with a leading tabloid spoke about her Hollywood journey. "I was anxious before I left to start filming. But I wanted to movie out of my comfort zone and start over," she told InStyle. Further connecting the West with the Indian cinema, Dippy said, "The content of the job was exactly the same in both countries. That says a lot about how much Indian cinema has evolved." Busy with her upcoming project 'Padmavati, under Sanjay Leela Bhansali's direction, the leggy lass turns 31 today. . (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Buying continued unabated as key benchmark indices hit fresh intraday high in mid-afternoon trade. At 14:16 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 223.52 points or 0.84% at 26,856.65. The Nifty 50 index was currently up 78.85 points or 0.96% at 8,269.35. The broad market depicted strength. Positive global stocks boosted sentiment on the domestic bourses. The Sensex hit its highest intraday level in almost two months in mid-morning trade. The Nifty hit its highest intraday level in almost one month in afternoon trade. The Sensex rose 266.75 points, or 1% at the day's high of 26,899.88 mid-afternoon trade, its highest level since 11 November 2016. The index rose 105.29 points, or 0.40% at the day's low of 26,738.42 at the onset of trading session. The Nifty rose 88.40 points, or 1.08% at the day's high of 8,278.90 in mid-afternoon trade, its highest level since 9 December 2016. The index rose 33.20 points, or 0.41% at the day's low of 8,223.70 at the onset of trading session. Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was currently up 0.98%. The BSE Small-Cap index was currently up 0.89%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex. The broad market depicted strength. There were more than two gainers for every loser on BSE. 1,913 shares rose and 792 shares fell. A total of 145 shares were unchanged. Capital goods shares were mixed. Punj Lloyd (up 3.05%), Crompton Greaves (up 1.64%), Siemens (up 1.41%), Suzlon Energy (up 1.34%), Havells India (up 1.31%), Jindal Saw (up 1.21%), BEML (up 0.72%), Thermax (up 0.62%), Bharat Heavy Electricals (up 0.55%), Bharat Electronics (up 0.55%), Reliance Defence and Engineering (up 0.36%) and GE T&D India (up 0.33%), edged higher. Lakshmi Machine Works (down 0.04%), Praj Industries (down 0.23%), AIA Engineering (down 0.4%), GE Power India (down 0.4%), SKF India (down 0.4%) and ABB India (down 0.67%), edged lower. Engineering and construction major L&T was up 1.41% at Rs 1,395.40. Most pharmaceutical shares edged higher. Aurobindo Pharma (up 2.69%), Strides Shasun (up 1.94%), Cipla (up 1.92%), Dr Reddy's Laboratories (up 1.33%), Lupin (up 1.31%), Divi's Laboratories (up 1.29%), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (up 1.25%), IPCA Laboratories (up 0.86%), Wockhardt (up 0.71%), Cadila Healthcare (up 0.19%), Glenmark Pharmaceuticals (up 0.14%) and Piramal Enterprises (up 0.13%), edged higher. Alkem Laboratories (down 0.48%) and GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals (down 0.72%), edged lower. BGR Energy Systems lost 1.12% to Rs 124, with the stock sliding on profit booking after a recent sharp rally. Shares of BGR Energy Systems rallied 16.97% in preceding seven straight trading sessions to settle at Rs 125.40 yesterday, 4 January 2017, from its close of Rs 107.20 on 26 December 2016. The stock had settled higher by surging 6.32% in a single trading session yesterday, 4 January 2017, after the company during market hours announced that it has recently won two large value contracts aggregating to Rs 650 crore for water treatment projects. The company had in November 2016 announced receiving a letter of award from Neyveli Uttar Pradesh (NUPPL) for balance of plant (BoP) contract for the 3 x 660 megawatts (MW) super critical Ghatampur thermal power project, Uttar Pradesh. The total lump sum price of this contract was Rs 2788.60 crore. BGR Energy Systems' order book now stands at Rs 10425 crore. Overseas, most shares in Europe opened lower today, 5 January 2017, after minutes from the last US Federal meeting showed willingness to increase rates at a faster pace. UK's FTSE 100 was up 0.27%. Most Asian stocks edged higher today, 5 January 2017, underpinned by a firm closing at the Wall Street. Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 0.37%. US stocks closed just shy of record levels yesterday, 4 January 2017, following the release of the Federal Reserve's policy minutes from its December meeting and a strong showing in auto sales. The Fed said interest-rate hikes may come at a faster-than-expected pace, according to minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee's 13-14 December 2016 meeting. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A federal judge in Billings has set March 27 as the new trial date for a Wyoming man accused of murdering a couple on the Crow Reservation. U.S. District Judge Susan Watters set the date on Thursday after a scheduling conference with the prosecutor, defense team and the defendant, Jesus Deniz Mendoza, 19, of Worland. Watters recently vacated a Jan. 9 trial date at the request of defense attorneys, who said their expert witnesses would not available for testimony on that date. The prosecutor had objected to further delays in the case, which has been pending for about 16 months. Mendoza has pleaded not guilty to two counts of first degree murder, attempted murder and other crimes in the July 2015 deaths of Jason and Tana Shane and wounding of their daughter. The family had stopped to help Mendoza on a road near Pryor. Key benchmark indices extended early gains and hit fresh intraday higher in morning trade. At 10:16 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 152.79 points or 0.57% at 26,785.92. The Nifty 50 index was currently up 52.20 points or 0.64% at 8,242.70. The Sensex hit its highest intraday level in almost two months. The Nifty hit its highest intraday level in almost one month. The Sensex rose 189.62 points, or 0.71% at the day's high of 26,822.75 in morning trade, its highest level since 11 November 2016. The index rose 105.29 points, or 0.40% at the day's low of 26,738.42 at the onset of trading session. The Nifty rose 61.35 points, or 0.75% at the day's high of 8,251.85 in morning trade, its highest level since 9 December 2016. The index rose 33.20 points, or 0.41% at the day's low of 8,223.70 at the onset of trading session. Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was currently up 0.73%. The BSE Small-Cap index was currently up 0.81%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex. The broad market depicted strength. There were more than three gainers against every loser on BSE. 1,628 shares rose and 454 shares fell. A total of 82 shares were unchanged. Metal shares were in demand. Hindustan Copper (up 2.98%), JSW Steel (up 2.30%), Hindustan Zinc (up 2.25%), Vedanta (up 1.84%), Steel Authority of India (up 1.78%), Tata Steel (up 1.32%), Hindalco Industries (up 1.23%), Jindal Steel & Power (up 1.12%), National Aluminium Company (up 0.91%), Bhushan Steel (up 0.60%) and NMDC (up 0.56%), edged higher. Meanwhile, copper price edged higher in the global commodities markets. High Grade Copper for March 2017 delivery was currently up 0.16% at $2.5605 per pound on the COMEX. Power generation stocks edged higher. Jaiprakash Power Ventures (up 4.28%), GMR Infrastructure (up 1.49%), JSW Energy (up 1.47%), CESC (up 1.42%), Reliance Infrastructure (up 1.39%), Reliance Power (up 1.30%), NHPC (up 0.91%), Adani Power (up 0.79%), Torrent Power (up 0.59%), Tata Power (up 0.53%) and NTPC (up 0.46%), edged higher. State-run Coal India was up 0.70%. State-run Power Grid Corporation of India was up 0.94%. Pratibha Industries rose 1.54% after the company announced that a meeting of the board of directors of the company shall be held on 7 January 2017, to consider and approve, the issue and allotment of shares on preferential basis to the lenders of the company, who have not subscribed the shares till 4 January 2017 under strategic debt restructuring (SDR) scheme. The announcement was made before market hours today, 5 January 2017. On the political front, assembly elections in UP, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur will be held between 4 February 2017 and 8 March 2017, the results of which will be announced on 11 March 2017. Overseas, most Asian stocks edged higher today, 5 January 2017, underpinned by a firm closing at the Wall Street. US stocks closed just shy of record levels yesterday, 4 January 2017, following the release of the Federal Reserve's policy minutes from its December meeting and a strong showing in auto sales. Japan's Nikkei 225 was down 0.39%. The Fed said interest-rate hikes may come at a faster-than-expected pace, according to minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee's 13-14 December 2016 meeting. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a bid to boost the venture capital ecosystem for MSMEs in the country Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has tied up with Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) for augmenting the capital support to enterprises in the country. Under Fund of Funds operations, SIDBI operates various Funds viz. India Aspiration Fund with corpus of Rs.2000 crore, ASPIRE Fund with corpus of Rs.60 crore and Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS) with corpus of Rs.10,000 crore. During April 2016, Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) and Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) had signed Memorandum of Understanding to supplement funds under India Aspiration Fund The MoU with LIC was launched in the presence of then Minister of State for Finance, Shri Jayant Sinha in Mumbai. Under the MoU, LIC has earmarked an amount of Rs.200 Crore for investment. Under the MOU, as part of first phase, LIC and SIDBI have signed Contribution Agreements on January 03, 2017 in New Delhi with 7 Venture Capital Funds (VCFs), with an aggregate commitment of Rs.99.50 Crore from LIC. This is over and above commitment of Rs.162.75 crore already given to these funds by SIDBI. In order to bring in more professional outlook, SIDBI constituted a Venture Capital Investment Committee (VCIC) comprising experts. There has been major upsurge in the activity during the current year as seen through growth in sanctions under Fund of fund operations. Commitments made by SIDBI in FY2015 and 2016 were- Rs.314.40 (11 funds) and 606.75 crores (19 funds) respectively. Compared to this, during the current year, SIDBI has so far accorded formal sanction already to 20 Alternative Investment Funds with aggregate commitments of Rs 714 crore. In addition there are further cases cleared by VCIC which are under detailed appraisal and due diligence. It may be pertinent to note that after constitution of VCIC in July 2015, out of 40 cases recommended by VCIC, 32 funds have already been given final sanction by SIDBI for an aggregate commitment of Rs. 1006.75 crores out of which 19 funds had announced first closing and have commenced investments. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) BGR Energy Systems lost 0.76% to Rs 124.45 at 13:53 IST on BSE, with the stock sliding on profit booking after a recent sharp rally. Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 225.36 points or 0.85% at 26,858.49. On the BSE, 63,000 shares were traded on the counter so far as against the average daily volumes of 43,694 shares in the past one quarter. The stock had hit a high of Rs 126.85 and a low of Rs 122.95 so far during the day. The stock had hit a 52-week high of Rs 138.80 on 6 January 2016 and a 52-week low of Rs 89.40 on 12 February 2016. It had outperformed the market over the past one month till 4 January 2017, surging 11.27% compared with the Sensex's 1.53% rise. The scrip had also outperformed the market in past one quarter, advancing 10.92% as against the Sensex's 6% fall. The small-cap company has equity capital of Rs 72.16 crore. Face value per share is Rs 10. Shares of BGR Energy Systems rallied 16.97% in preceding seven straight trading sessions to settle at Rs 125.40 yesterday, 4 January 2017, from its close of Rs 107.20 on 26 December 2016. The stock had settled higher by surging 6.32% in a single trading session yesterday, 4 January 2017, after the company during market hours announced that it has recently won two large value contracts aggregating to Rs 650 crore for water treatment projects. The company had in November 2016 announced receiving a letter of award from Neyveli Uttar Pradesh (NUPPL) for balance of plant (BoP) contract for the 3 x 660 megawatts (MW) super critical Ghatampur thermal power project, Uttar Pradesh. The total lump sum price of this contract was Rs 2788.60 crore. BGR Energy Systems' order book now stands at Rs 10425 crore. BGR Energy Systems' net profit rose 35.4% to Rs 10.70 crore on 0.4% decline in net sales to Rs 824.66 crore in Q2 September 2016 over Q2 September 2015. BGR Energy Systems is a leading engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) and balance of plant (BoP) engineering and contracting company for power projects in India. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Sun Pharmaceutical Industries announced successful phase 3 confirmatory clinical trial results for Seciera (cyclosporine A, 0.09% ophthalmic solution), for the treatment of dry eye disease. Seciera is a patented, novel, proprietary nanomicellar formulation of cyclosporine A 0.09%. It is a clear, preservative-free, aqueous solution. Seciera is being developed by Ocular Technologies, a company recently acquired by Sun Pharma. Following this acquisition, Sun Pharma owns exclusive, worldwide rights to Secier and is developing it to commercialize for global markets including US, Europe, and Japan, as well as several emerging markets. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 4 January 2017. Canara Bank announced fixation of the marginal cost of funds based lending rate for all rupee loans and credit limits renewed. The MCLR for overnight loans was fixed at 8.2%. The rate for one month was fixed at 8.25% and for three months was fixed at 8.3%. The MCLR on 6-month loans is 8.4% and for one-year loan is 8.45%, the bank said. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 4 January 2017. LT Foods said that the board of directors of the company has fixed 8 February 2017 as the record date for 10-for-1 stock split. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 4 January 2017. Petron Engineering Construction said that the company has received letter of intent from Shree Cement, for civil work of plant building and silos and miscellaneous work at their Orissa grinding project at village : Chandrabali, Orissa for contract value of Rs 33 crore (approximately). The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 4 January 2017. Pratibha Industries announced that a meeting of the board of directors of the company shall be held on 7 January 2017, to consider and approve, the issue and allotment of shares on preferential basis to the lenders of the company, who have not subscribed the shares till 4 January 2017 under strategic debt restructuring (SDR) scheme. The announcement was made before market hours today, 5 January 2017. Quick Heal Technologies announced that company has capitalized for incorporation of wholly owned subsidiary namely Seqrite Technologies DMCC, as a free zone company under the rules & regulations of DMCA. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 4 January 2017. Dena Bank announced that a meeting of the board of directors of the bank will be held on 7 January 2017 to consider capital planning for FY 2016-17 i.e. raising of capital through equities and/or bonds. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 4 January 2017. Tata Elxsi will be in focus. Irdeto, the world leader in digital platform security, announced a partnership with Tata Elxsi, a key global player in the automotive ecosystem, to provide automakers with secure in-car display systems for automobiles. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 4 January 2017. Irdeto has combined its Cloakware for automotive by Irdeto security solution with Tata Elxsi's design and engineering expertise to offer secure, best-in-class user interface solutions and connected cockpit solutions to automotive clients around the world. IP Rings announced that the board of directors at a meeting held on 4 January 2017, decided rights entitlement ratio of 4:5 and offer price of Rs 88.75 per share for the proposed rights issue. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 4 January 2017. Bartronics India announced that meeting of the board of directors of the company is scheduled to be held on 11 January 2017, to consider making investments and to transfer the financial inclusion (FI) division to a wholly owned subsidiary of the company subject to approvals of members along with any other business/matters as may be permitted by the Chairman. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 4 January 2017. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Only a miracle can prevent the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) from finishing on top in the Punjab assembly election, irrespective of how many seats it ultimately bags. But miracles do happen. For a party born only some four years ago, the AAP -- India's youngest political outfit -- now exists in every nook and corner of the largely rural state. This itself is no mean achievement. Even those not sympathetic to the AAP admit that Punjab will see a serious three-way contest for the first time -- even if Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Baldal keeps joking that AAP will get no more than 10 seats. The Punjab election is crucial for the AAP and its leader and magnet Arvind Kejriwal, the Delhi Chief Minister. A possible loss will make many say that the sweeping Delhi victory in February 2015 was a fluke and perhaps an isolated urban phenomenon. But if the AAP takes over Punjab, it will mean much more. A Punjab win will add to the AAP's stature as a growing party, one capable of expanding its wings against great odds, evident by the way it has been boxed in by the central government in Delhi. A Punjab victory would not only boost the AAP's confidence in the other states it is eyeing but also increase its stake in a larger number of Lok Sabha seats in 2019. Precisely for this reason, the Modi administration will want the AAP to lose Punjab -- and badly. A Congress win will also be problematic but will be a lesser evil in the given circumstances. Journalists from Delhi who visit Punjab are returning with more or less a unanimous view that an AAP defeat is very difficult if not impossible. But many are also coming with an ominous message delivered off the record by BJP's Punjab leaders: AAP won't be allowed to win -- at any cost. On its part, the Congress keeps parroting that an aggressively anti-Modi Kejriwal -- as AAP chief -- is no good news for Punjab. The point doesn't have too many takers, in part because of Kejriwal's personal popularity. So how can the AAP be tripped? Some signs are evident. Already Kejriwal has become a persona non grata in many television channels -- unless he can be shown in bad light. This could not have been possible without someone directing it all. When Kejriwal hurls accusations against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he gets virtually no publicity in the electronic media. But the same channels are generous if Rahul Gandhi makes the very same charges. Recent developments in Delhi leading to the abrupt resignation of Lt Governor Najeeb Jung indicate that the Modi government may be planning to arrest one or two AAP ministers. This could happen ahead of February 4 -- when Punjab votes along with Goa, the only other state where the AAP is contesting. Irrespective of what finally happens to the arrested ministers, the corruption charges will be used to undermine the AAP's appeal as an outfit different from the established parties. The argument will be: if the AAP is no different, why not try known devil Congress if the Akalis are indeed bad? By arresting AAP ministers, the Modi government will also attempt to cripple the movements outside Delhi of Kejriwal, who is a key -- although not the party's sole -- vote catcher. Can Kejriwal himself be arrested -- on some spurious charge? Some months back Sukhbir Badal said he had forwarded to the Union Home Ministry "evidence" that the AAP had links with Khalistani terrorists and that Khalistanis were backing the AAP. When I wrote in July 2015 (just five months after Kejriwal took office) that an opinion in Delhi favoured toppling the Kejriwal government, most people thought it was preposterous. But if this happens now, not many will be surprised. Keep your fingers crossed till Punjab and Goa vote. (M.R. Narayan Swamy is a senior journalist. The views expressed are personal. He can be reached on narayan.swamy@ians.in ) --IANS mr/vd/ahm/ky/sac (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Tech giant Apple on Thursday confirmed it plans to invest $1 billion in Japanese telecom giant SoftBank's massive $100 billion Vision Fund. According to a report in TechCrunch, the fund is a joint effort between SoftBank and the government of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) that reportedly seeks to invest in emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things (IoT). "Apple is planning to invest $1 billion in SoftBank's Vision Fund. We have worked closely with SoftBank for many years and we believe their new fund will speed the development of technologies which may be strategically important to Apple," the company said in a statement. SoftBank is investing $25 billion in the Vision Fund, with another $45 billion to come from Saudi Arabia. Recently, US President-elect Donald Trump claimed the credit for Vision Fund plans that pre-dated his election win. --IANS qd/na/ap (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Newly appointed Indian Army Chief General Bipin Rawat paid his maiden visit to Jammu and Kashmir, arriving here in the state's winter capital on Thursday. General Rawat was briefed about the security situation on the borders of the state by Northern Command chief Lt. Gen. Devraj Anbu at Udhampur headquarters, a defence spokesperson said. Gen. Rawat was also scheduled to visit some forward positions on the Line of Control, which divides the state into two parts, where he will interact with the field commanders and deployed troops. --IANS ahm/vt (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Director S.U. Arun Kumar is excited about his Tamil directorial "Sethupathi", starring Vijay Sethupathi and Remya Nambeesan, being remade into Telugu. But he won't be helming the remake. "It's a film very close to my heart, and I'm thrilled that it's being remade in Telugu. The team that bought the remake rights even included me in their script discussion and were happy to incorporate my suggestions," Arun Kumar told IANS. Asked if he was not interested to direct the remake, he said: "I've already begun work on my next project. I can't leave this and take up another project now. Moreover, it's an alien industry and language so I don't think I'll be comfortable." Although Arun isn't sure who will play the lead roles in the remake, industry grapevine suggests that Ganta Ravi Teja, son of popular politician Arjun Srinivasa Rao, will reprise Vijay Sethupathi's role. A story of a righteous police officer, "Sethupathi" was one of the sleeper hits of 2016. --IANS hp/nv/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The British government will appoint senior diplomat Tim Barrow as its new ambassador to the European Union (EU), the media reported. The decision to name a new ambassador to the EU has come one day after his predecessor decided to step down in a surprising manner, Xinhua news agency reported citing the British media on Wednesday. Barrow, Britain's former ambassador to Moscow, is expected to play a key role in Britain's Brexit negotiations, replacing the outgoing EU Ambassador Ivan Rogers. The British government on Tuesday confirmed Rogers had quit his job but gave no reasons for the move. The sudden resignation came just weeks after Rogers was accused of damaging the Britain's Brexit negotiations. Rogers had warned that it would take a decade to forge a new trade deal with Europe, saying that was the view of the other 27 member states with the bloc. Political commentators said the relationship between Rogers and the government had become strained over the grim warning of a prolonged Brexit. --IANS pgh/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 75-seat bus powered by biogas will soon ferry passengers in this metropolis from March 30. The operators claim it will be India's first such bus service. A nominal fare of Re 1 will be charged from each passenger. The bus -- to run on the 17.5-km Ultadanga-Garia stretch -- will be one of the fleet of 12 buses to be deployed along 12 routes across Kolkata. Each bus will cost Rs 18 lakh. The renewable fuel is generated from waste. "The bus gives a mileage of 20 km for one kg biogas that costs Rs 30," Jyoti Prakash Das, Chairman and Managing Director of Phoenix India Research and Development Group, an alternative energy company, told IANS. The initiative has been undertaken under a central subsidies plan of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. --IANS sgh/tsb/vt (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) PLEASE NOTE! Due to the March 23, 2020 NM DOH Public Health Order, These Event Listings Are Not Accurate! All non-essential businesses are closed, public gatherings are prohibited! (One day some of these events will be rescheduled or will resume, but they are not happening now!) A historical emphasis on funding schools helped propel Wyoming to seventh nationally for education quality, according to a report released Wednesday. Wyoming scored an 80.3, or a B-minus, on the annual Quality Counts evaluation, which graded states using three indices: chance for success, K-12 achievement and school finance. The national average for the report, which is conducted by Education Week, was 74.2. Last year, Wyoming ranked eighth. Wyoming also scored the best in the West; the six states that ranked higher than Wyoming are all on the East Coast. The 2017 Quality Counts report serves as a reminder that we are doing great things for kids in our state," state Superintendent Jillian Balow said in a statement Wednesday. The chance-for-success index measures the education's role in a person's life from "cradle to grave," according to Education Week. Nationally, the average score was a C on this index. Wyoming earned an 80.3, with high marks for its early foundation work. The second index, K-12 achievement, "assesses the performance of a states public schools against 18 indicators capturing current achievement levels, improvements over time, and poverty-based gaps," according to Education Week. Wyoming scored a 71.2. Though it scored a D in the status and change subcategories, Wyoming received an 89.7 in equity. Balow said she's committed to improving the overall score, which was near the national average. "While we are seeing progress on many achievement indicators, average is simply not where we need to be," she said in the statement. School finances, the third index, measures expenditure patterns and distribution. According to the report, Wyoming is first in the nation in this category, with a score of 89.5 overall and a subscore of 91.4 on spending. "As this report shows, we have educators, students, families, and communities across our state who are dedicated and willing to see all students ready for success in school and life," Balow said. Of Wyoming's neighbors, Nebraska had the highest score, a 76.0. Idaho had the fourth-lowest score of 67.6. Of the states west of Missouri, North Dakota comes the closest to Wyoming: The Roughrider State scored a 76.8. The report comes during a critical time for Wyoming public education. The two-year energy decline has taken a toll: A report released in November estimated that public education would face a $1.8 billion shortfall by the end of the 2022 fiscal year. Lawmakers have said the education funding crisis is the No. 1 priority going into the coming legislative session, which begins Tuesday. Cuts loom on the horizon. As district superintendents have before her, Balow addressed the massive elephant in the room and how tackling it may affect student success. "While Wyoming policymakers and educators rightly address our impending financial challenges, it's essential that we continue to improve student achievement," she said. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's former Principal Secretary on Thursday said he had sought voluntary retirement after alleging harassment by the CBI. Rajendra Kumar alleged that the Central Bureau of Investigation was pressurizing him to implicate the Chief Minister in the alleged wrongdoing he (Kumar) is accused of. The CBI denied the allegations as "absolutely baseless". Reacting to Kumar's statement, Aam Aadmi Party leader Kejriwal tweeted: "CBI raids my office, pressurizes officer to implicate me... Why are you so scared of us, (Prime Minister Narendra) Modiji? Chill." A sombre Kumar told reporters outside his residence: "I tender my voluntary retirement (VRS) request to the government from the services. "It was a very difficult decision and I have taken (it) with a very heavy heart... There are many other ways to work for public welfare and I will seek those." He said that despite coming from a very poor family, the government gave him an opportunity to study in a prestigious school and also let him serve in the government for 27 years. "I am obliged for that." A 1989-batch IAS officer of Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territory cadre, Kumar was accused of abusing his official position in awarding Delhi government contracts worth Rs 9.5 crore to private firms during 2007-2014 when the Congress ruled Delhi. "I will stay in the public service forever till my last breath that is my determination," Kumar said. "And no hurdle can distract me." Asked if the CBI pressurised him to name Kejriwal in the case, Kumar said: "Whatever I have said is the exact truth and I stand by it. "I have already written in my VRS the main aim of the government (whichever it may be) was to put pressure on me to incriminate certain people, including Chief Minister Kejriwal," he added. A CBI statement said: "The allegation, which incidentally has come up after filing the chargesheet, that witnesses and accused were threatened by CBI officers to implicate a political functionary is absolutely baseless and denied." The allegations against Kumar were made by a former Delhi government official, Ashish Joshi, after he fell foul of the Kejriwal government that took office in February 2015. Joshi had alleged that Kumar misused his position to award government contacts to private firms when he was with departments of education, IT and Health. Kumar was arrested on July 4, 2016. The case hit national headlines after Kejriwal alleged that the CBI raided his office in December 2015. The CBI denied intruding into Kejriwal's office and said it was looking for evidence against Kumar. After remaining in custody for 23 days, Kumar was granted bail on July 26. He has consistently denied the accusations against him. According to CBI officials, Kumar, as chairman of Delhi Transco Ltd, allegedly facilitated a contract worth Rs 40.16 lakh to Endeavour Systems to develop a comprehensive management information system in 2009 without going through any tendering process. As Secretary in the health and family welfare department of the Delhi government, Kumar also allegedly awarded a Rs 2.43 crore manpower project to Endeavour Systems in November 2010. Similar allegations were made against him in other areas as well. Kejriwal has always maintained that the CBI raid on his office was meant to target him and not Kumar. --IANS am-rak-aks/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Communist Party of India-Marxist politburo meeting began on Thursday in the state capital to discuss various issues, including demonetisation. The top brass of the CPI-M is attending the meeting, which will also finalise a strategy for the coming assembly polls in five states to be held from February 4 to March 8. It is for the first time that the CPI-M politburo and Central Committee are holding meetings in the Kerala capital. In the past, the event has been held as part of the Party Congress. The second session of the politburo meeting was scheduled later in the day. On the agenda is a report on alleged indiscipline by party veteran and former Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan who stormed out of a CPI-M conference in 2015. Despite pleas by the present General Secretary Sitaram Yechury and others, he did not return for the meeting in Alappuzha. Informed sources said the CPI-M, in power in Kerala as part of the Left Democratic Front, will take no step to ruffle the feathers of the veteran communist leader who is lying low. Achuthanandan on Thursday handed over a letter to the politburo, before it met, demanding the CPI-M launch a nationwide protest against the November 8 demonetisation. --IANS sg/tsb/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An FIR has been registered against unidentified persons who assaulted and injured four women constables and other policemen after a young woman was molested by a drunk mob on New Year's Eve here, Delhi Police said on Thursday. No arrest has been made so far. Police said the crime occurred late December 31 night when a huge mob comprising mainly students molested the woman while celebrating New Year at Batra Cinema in Mukherjee Nagar. "The inebriated revellers molested the young woman riding pillion on a bike with two men. The miscreants tried to grab the victim near a market. When four policemen deployed at a roadblock saw them molesting the victim, they caught one youth. Later, some of his accomplices manhandled the policemen," Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Vijayanta Arya told IANS. The mob freed the youth from police custody and vandalised a police vehicle parked there as well as a police post where some women police personnel took shelter. Four women constables were injured, Arya said. "It took police one hour to bring the situation under control. A majority of the drunk mob included students residing in the Mukherjee Nagar locality. We have registered an FIR and are examining closed-circuit television footage to identify the accused," Arya added. Those in the 200-strong mob melted away when additional police rushed to the spot, police said. Mukherjee Nagar area is very near to Delhi University's north campus. Mainly DU students and civil service aspirants reside in the area. --IANS sp/tsb/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Dismissing rumours that the Centre had rejected Delhi's tableau for the Republic Day parade by citing poll code violations, Delhi Culture Minister Kapil Mishra said the participation of the state government was confirmed. "Heard rumours about Delhi state tableau. Our theme is education and schooling. We have a confirmation from the central government about our participation," Mishra tweeted. He said the Ministry of Defence had clarified it was just a rumour and that Delhi's participation was confirmed. Mishra shared a copy of the list of states selected by the central government to exhibit tableaux at the parade. --IANS vv-am/tsb/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) "The Lunchbox" director Ritesh Batra says directing cinema legends Robert Redford and Jane Fonda for "Our Souls At Night" was a wonderful experience, which will stay with him forever. Batra, who garnered global acclaim with "The Lunchbox", was roped in by on-demand streaming website Netflix to direct veteran actors Redford and Fonda in "Our Souls At Night". Co-produced by Finola Dwyer, Redford and Erin Simms, "Our Souls At Night" is an adaptation of a Kent Haruf novel. Asked to describe working with Hollywood actors, Batra said words can't do justice to his experience. "It is a movie with Redford and Fonda, and Netflix is producing the movie. It was a wonderful experience working with them. They are legends and it was great shooting with them. I can't say enough how great it was," Batra told IANS over phone from Mumbai. For now, Batra -- who was lauded at several international film extravaganzas in Cannes, Zurich, London and Toronto, and earned a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) for "The Lunchbox" -- is busy with another foreign project, "The Sense of An Ending". Batra is looking forward to the release of the British film based on Julian Barnes' novel "The Sense of an Ending", featuring Oscar-winning actor Jim Broadbent. PVR Pictures will be releasing the film in India. Talking about the movie, Batra said: "I am glad that the trailer has been received well, and I am looking forward to the release of the movie. The movie is releasing in March in the US and they are also releasing the film in India at the same time." Adapted by award-winning playwright Nick Payne from Julian Barnes's Booker prize-winning novel "The Sense of an Ending", the film stars Broadbent as a recluse who is forced to face the devastating legacy of his first love and revise his understanding of his own nature. Apart from Broadbent, the film stars Michelle Dockery and Charlotte Rampling, and is co-financed by BBC Films and produced by Origin Pictures. Batra says it is important that people "back home also watch your work no matter where you do it". Is he nervous? "If I was nervous, I would never admit it," said Batra. --IANS sug/nv/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Actress Emma Stone wants to ditch her stage name for her real name - Emily Jean Stone. The "La La Land" star was told she would have to change her title when she signed up to the Screen Actors Guild, as under SAG rules no two members can have the same name and there was already an Emily Stone listed, reports femalefirst.co.uk. "Well, I was 16 when I found out at SAG I couldn't have my own name. So to ask a 16-year-old to pick a new name is really an interesting process because I was like, 'I'm going to be Riley. My name is going to be Riley Stone'," Stone told W magazine. "And so my name was Riley Stone for about six months and I did a guest spot on 'Malcolm in the Middle' and one day they were like, 'Riley, Riley,' and I had no idea who they were talking to and they were like, 'Hey, hey come on we need you on set.' And I was like, 'Oh I'm not Riley, I can't be Riley'," she added. The 28-year-old would like to go back to her own name, even though she has achieved worldwide fame as Emma Stone, but she isn't sure if it's possible. "I had the option of Emily J. Stone and it's kind of like Michael J. Fox, and I love Michael J. Fox, but I don't think I could pull off the J. So then I changed it to Emma because you know it's closer to Emily, but most people call me 'M', that know me well. I would love to get her (Emily Stone) back," Stone said. --IANS ks/nn/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) DCW chief Swati Maliwal came across gross violation of human rights during a surprise visit to a government-run 'beggar home' here and found over 15 foreign nationals, including a pregnant Nigerian woman, lodged there amid pathetic living conditions, official sources said. The DCW said it found violation of human rights of several inmates. The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief has now issued notices to the Social Welfare Department and Foreigner Regional Registration Office (FRRO) -- a government agency responsible for regulating the extended stay and movement of foreigners in India -- after she spent a night at the beggar home at Nirmal Chaya Complex in Janakpuri on Tuesday. Maliwal sought a reply from the FRRO and Social Welfare Department within 72 hours. "Fifteen women and two children - all foreign nationals -- housed in the home... The DCW Chairperson met an Uzbek national who complained of molestation by FRRO officials," a DCW statement said. The foreign nationals were detained for overstaying in India for different reasons. Women inmates, who said they were wearing the same clothes for days, complained to Maliwal that they were not allowed to make phone calls to their families or embassies due to which they have not been able to contact anyone for legal or financial assistance. The women were worried since their families had no idea where they were, the DCW said. The DCW chief found that only two of the five toilets at the beggar home were fit for use. One toilet was marked 'HIV', which no one used due to fear of contracting the disease whereas one was locked for use by staff. Maliwal has since written to the beggar home superintendent to ensure proper medical treatment for the pregnant Nigerian woman and another from Kenya. "The commission Chairperson was shocked to learn from the inmates that their private parts are physically checked by the caretaker before they are allowed entry into the home. When asked, the caretaker on duty admitted to the same in front of inmates," the DCW statement said. Maliwal found that the Nigerian woman, whose two children were also lodged along with her at the beggar home since December 26, had complained for the past 10 days to the staff that she was no longer feeling any movement in her womb but to no avail. "She alleged no action was taken to help her. She said she begged the staff to allow her to call her doctor but she was denied the same," the statement said. The Kenyan national said she was taken six times to a doctor in the complex but he did not conduct any test and her medical problem is persisting. --IANS kd-am/tsb/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Thursday expressed confidence that big global software companies will start emerging from India in the next five to 10 years. "In five- to 10-year time frame, we will see big global software companies coming out of India and we will be used to it," Pichai said interacting with students at his alma mater IIT-Kharagpur. Pichai earned his degree in Metallurgical Engineering from IIT-Kharagpur. Asked on India catching up with China on the digital front, Pichai stressed the goal should be a little different. "India will be a global player in digital economy and it will be competitive with any country in the world. There is a timing issue. We are doing well as a country. We need to stay at it. We need a few more years and we will get to it. I am absolutely confident," he said. Talking about Google's support to Digital India, Pichai hoped for cheaper smartphones. "We are focused on getting Google in as many languages as possible to ensure access to people. I would love to see cheaper smartphones, entry-level smartphones. We need to further bring prices down. Connectivity is extremely important," he said. Referring to the start-up scenario, the Google CEO said Indian companies should aim higher and compete with MNCs, as the Indian market is not large enough to invest in technology. "Part of the problem is that in India, the potential is there and market is developing. It will take a few more years for it to realise it's potential. Digital market is still developing. It's a problem we run into. It's just a moment in time," he said. "Hopefully, Indian companies are also more thoughtful so that when they produce something, they ensure that their target is areas such as Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand. Those markets are developed. They need to set their sights a bit bigger. The trend lines are strongly in favour," he added. On the next big thing at Google, Pichai said his organisation is "betting big" on advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning in the coming years. "I can't quite tell exactly what, but we are betting big on advances in AI and machine learning. Advances in machine learning will bring a difference in many fields." --IANS sgh/nir/vt (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India's Permanent Representative Syed Akbaruddin has questioned in a cryptic Tweet the fairness of the composition of a panel dominated by developed nations on sustainable development that Ban Ki-moon set up in his final moments as Secretary General. The UN announced the creation of the committee of "eminent scientists and experts to draft the Global Sustainable Development Report" on Tuesday, the third day after Ban's term had ended. It asserted that "the group is diverse, seeking to balance a wide range of relevant scientific disciplines, expertise and regional perspectives". Akbaruddin tweeted soon afterwards: "Equitable? 10 of the 15 members of @UN panel on Sustainable Development are from 35-member @OECD." The panel, whose task is mostly to review the progress of developing countries in implementing the Sustainable Development Goals set by the UN for 2030, has 10 members from the 35-nation Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD) and only five from the other 158 nations of the UN, most of which are developing countries. Asked by IANS to elaborate on the tweet, Akbaruddin declined, saying: "The Tweet is self explanatory." The Secretary-General's Deputy Spokesperson, Farhan Haq, who also had the same role under Ban, on Wednesday defended the composition of the panel .A "Regarding the specific membership, the effort was made to reach out to people across a variety of regions," he said. "I wouldn't have anything further to say about how the different members were chosen." The UN announcement said the committee members who will draft a report to be published in 2019 on the progress in attaining the Sustainable Development Goals were chosen "after an extensive consultation process with member states and relevant United Nations organizations". Diplomats from developing countries dispute this and say they were not aware of any "extensive consultation" for selectingthe panel members. "Something appears to be wrong with the process that led to such an outcome," said a diplomat. The diplomats also questioned the secrecy around the formation of the panel, which was announced only after Ban had left the UN. The committee's co-chairs are Endah Murniningtyas, a former Indonesian Deputy Environment Minister and Peter Messerli, a professor of sustainable development at Switzerland's University of Bern. (Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in) --IANS abl/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The meeting with JNU Vice Chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar on Wednesday, held after a long time, has failed to resolve the issues between the authorities and the students community, JNU Students Union (JNUSU) President Mohit Pandey said here. "The VC (M. Jagadesh Kumar) didn't give us any assurance. He just heard what we said. We met him to show that JNU students do not believe only in protests, which is a measure of last resort," he told IANS on Thursday. "We asked him to revoke the suspensions of the 12 students and to roll back the increase of weightage to viva, which unduly gives the university a chance to exercise prejudices," Pandey said. During the meeting the students also asked the Vice Chancellor to stop using "threats" against students and to engage more in dialogue with them. "We asked the VC to do away with his threatening tactics already. We believe in talks, but the other party is not willing. There have been many vice chancellors before him but none as supercilious as him," Pandey said. According to him, the JNUSU raised the matter of post-graduate student Najeeb Ahmed's disappearance since October 14 night as well, and conveyed to the VC its unhappiness at Najeeb's alleged attackers being allowed to get away almost unpunished. The meeting came after months of protests over a host of issues -- including Najeeb's disappearance -- the latest of which was the suspension of 12 students last month. They were mostly from student parties championing minority rights. The students were suspended for protesting at the session of the university's Academic Council at the campus. The council decided to increase the weightage of interview in the entrance test for admission to M.Phil. and Ph.D programmes. Many teachers, who were members of the Council, also disapproved the move. --IANS vn/vgu/vt (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 58-year-old woman is accused of abusing her elderly mother while the two resided at the Oceti Sakowin camp last fall. Kathleen Bennett, of Las Vegas, is charged in Morton County with endangering a vulnerable adult, a felony, from Oct. 1 to Dec. 17. The alleged abuse was reported to authorities on Dec. 17, when paramedics in the camp called EMS after finding the elderly woman hypothermic in a cold and cluttered teepee, according to a police affidavit filed with the complaint. She was taken to CHI St. Alexius Health hospital, and staff found numerous medical issues, including bruises. The 82-year-old woman reportedly also has dementia and is in poor health. Bill Running Fisher, owner of Montana-based Eaglechild Consulting and Enforcement Services security firm and member of the Gros Ventre Tribe, is one of the people who reported the abuse, he said by phone Thursday afternoon. He is also cited in the police affidavit. Running Fisher first came to camp as a medic with the veterans group during the first weekend of December. When a blizzard struck on Dec. 6, elderly people were evacuated to Prairie Knights Casino. As he went through tents and teepees looking for people, Running Fisher came across the elderly woman zip-tied to a chair, wearing only a heavy sweater, he said. She was not wearing a diaper and surrounded by her own urine and excrement, he said. Running Fisher said he cut her off the chair, and she was evacuated to the casino, but got lost in the shuffle before she could be taken to the hospital or authorities could respond. "It just broke my heart to see anybody tied to a chair like that," he said. Running Fisher found her again on Dec. 17, he said, this time in a sleeping bag and diaper. He made contact with the Morton County Sheriff's Department and she was taken to the hospital. "Im very grateful that Morton County stepped in and saved this lady," he said. "Put the politics aside, they did the right thing." During the investigation, witnesses also told authorities Bennett would only feed her mother when she deemed it appropriate and physically abused her. Camp medics stated they saw multiple bruises on the elderly woman, including a black eye with a cut under it, according to the affidavit. In one altercation, Bennett allegedly hit her mother with a shovel. The elderly woman "begged people not to leave her alone with Kathleen," according to the affidavit. Bennett told hospital staff she takes care of her mother and has power of attorney over her, according to the affidavit. "Who in their right mind would have her mother in those conditions in the teepee?" Running Fisher said. "She cares nothing for her mom." An arrest warrant has been issued for Bennett. The case is being handled by the Morton County Sheriff's Department and North Dakota Vulnerable Adult Protective Services. West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi on Thursday advised the Trinamool Congress government to maintain the law and order in the state irrespective of their political attachment. "Every state, irrespective of political attachment, should try to ensure peace in the state and maintain law and order," Tripathi said in reference to the eruption of violence in West Bengal in the last few days. Responding to his statement, Trinamool Congress accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of influencing the Governor and claimed political statements from a Governor does not go well with tdemocracy. "It is evident that the BJP is influencing his (Governor's) chair. I submitted a written protest to him asking how a BJP leader was allowed to interfere in the state's administrative matters and who permitted the CRPF deployment in the city," Trinamool leader Partha Chatterjee said. "If a Governor makes political statements, it is not good for democracy. We will not allow this," he added. Following party MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay's arrest by the Central Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday, angry Trinamool Congress activists attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party headquarters in the city. Some cars parked in the alley leading to the office were vandalised and stones were pelted at the building that injured 12 BJP workers present in the office. Central Reserve Police Force personnel were posted in large numbers in front of the party office as the agitation turned violent. BJP National Secretary Rahul Sinha, who gets three CRPF personnel for his security, requested to bolster the number of troopers as they felt the state police was inert against the agitators. On Wednesday, Trinammol activists held demobstratond across Bengal as the blocking roads and railway tracks, and agitated at various blocks of districts. --IANS mgr/ssp/vd (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Out shopping with some money he managed to withdraw from his bank in this Madhya Pradesh district, a farmer was shocked when shopkeepers returned the Rs 2,000 note saying it was a fake since it had no picture of Mahatma Gandhi on it. However, the State Bank of India branch, from where Lakshman Meena had withdrawn the money, on Thursday said they had changed the notes and attributed the faulty notes to a "printing mistake". Meena and some other farmers from Bicchugavandi village had withdrawn money from a State Bank of India branch in Baroda town on Tuesday. He had chosen to take out Rs 6,000 and received three notes of Rs 2,000 each. On Wednesday, when Meena went out to buy groceries, he was told that the notes do not have the picture of Gandhi and can be fake. A worried Meena went back to the bank with all haste. "The notes with missing Gandhi were taken back and exchanged for new ones. They were not fake but printing mistake," bank official Aakash Srivastav told IANS on Thursday. According to sources, the amount was received from SBI's Sheopur branch chest in bundles of Rs 2,000 in which there were other notes as well with printing issues, because of which the bundle is being sent back to the branch. It is not yet known how many others have received such notes. Since the demonetisation in November 8 last year, many such cases involving Rs 2,000 notes have come forward, such as notes with two pictures of Gandhi or having no water mark. But this was the first case where the Mahatma was entirely absent. Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived here on Thursday to attend 'Prakash Utsav', marking the 350th birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh, officials said. Modi reached Patna in an Indian Air Force aircraft, Senior Superintendent of Police Manu Maharaj said. The Prime Minister will return to Delhi later in the day. He was received by Governor Ramnath Kovind and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Modi will offer prayers and serve 'langar' also. Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and a large number of Sikhs from India and abroad will also take part in the event. He will also issue a postal stamp of Guru Gobind Singh. --IANS ik/ksk/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav on Thursday left for New Delhi to again stake his claim on the party symbol, the 'cycle'. He was accompanied by his brother Shivpal Yadav. Close aides said Mulayam Singh would give a sworn affidavit to the Election Commission buttress his claim vis-a-vis his leadership of the party. The Election Commission has served notices to both the Mulayam Singh and Akhilesh Yadav factions to provide supporting documents and evidence in their favour for claiming the party symbol. Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, who has rebelled against his father, has called a meeting of party legislators here. The poll panel has reportedly given both sides time till January 9. Uttar Pradesh will elect a new assembly between February 11 and March 8. Akhilesh Yadav late on Wednesday revoked the suspension from the party of four district chiefs suspended by Shivpal Yadav. --IANS md/in/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) President Barack Obama visited the Congress to ask Democratic legislators to remain firm against Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) health reform. As Obama was meeting with Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday, Vice President-elect Mike Pence held a meeting with Republican legislators, also at the Capitol, to make clear to them that the first act of the newly-installed Congress must be "to repeal and replace Obamacare", as the health care reform is popularly known, Efe news reported. Repealing the 2010 ACA has long been a goal of Republicans, who have passed several bills gutting the law only to see Obama veto those measures. Once a Republican is in the White House, there will be little to stop the Republican from scrapping the ACA, though Trump has said he would like to retain some features of the programme, such as the ban on health insurers' denying coverage for pre-existing conditions. Despite the insistence of reporters, Obama made no remarks upon leaving the Capitol and simply issued a curt message to Democrats to "Look out for the American people". At his daily press conference, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said that Obama spoke with lawmakers about the tangible effects that would ensue if Obamacare is dismantled, including the impact on the approximately 22 million Americans who have acquired health care coverage thanks to the law. Earnest said that repealing Obamacare will not be an "improvement," noting that Obama himself has acknowledged that the law is not perfect but he has never found any willingness among Republican lawmakers to try and correct or amend its weaker points. Obama also advised Democrats on Wednesday to refuse to "rescue" Republicans by helping them approve measures to replace Obamacare, according to information from several of those present at the closed-door meeting. After meeting with the president, top Democratic congressional leaders held a press conference to denounce the Republicans for having no concrete plan to replace Obamacare, a line taken also by the White House. Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said that the result of repealing Obamacare will be to make the country "sick" again, not make it great again, paraphrasing Trump's campaign slogan. The new Congress was inaugurated on Tuesday, with Republicans holding majorities in both chambers and launching an initiative to allow the health care law to be repealed in the Senate with just 50 votes in favour, rather than the 60 that would normally be necessary in a case like this. That initiative also instructs congressional committees to have a bill ready to repeal Obamacare before January 27. At a press conference with Pence and other Republican leaders, House Speaker Paul Ryan emphasized that, once Obamacare has been repealed, lawmakers must guarantee that there is a "stable transition" to a new health care system with more options and more freedom. Ryan said the law promulgated in 2010 - which obliges people to purchase health insurance and is considered to be Obama's greatest legislative achievement - had failed. --IANS ksk (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Contending that the presentation of the Union Budget ahead of assembly elections in five states will give an unfair advantage to the BJP and its allies, seven opposition parties on Thursday approached the Election Commission to demand the fiscal exercise be deferred till after March 8. Instead of usual February 28, the budget this year is scheduled to be presented on February 1, only days before the assembly elections go underway in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur between February 4 and March 8. A delegation comprising leaders of the Congress, Trinamool Congress, Janata Dal-United, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal and the DMK met Chief Election Commissioner Syed Nasim Ahmad Zaidi here on Thursday. While the Communist Party of India-Marxist did not joint the delegation, party General Secretary Sitaram Yechury expressed his reservation on the matter and hoped the Election Commission and the President will take note and "reverse" the decision on the budget. Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad told the media here: "We told the EC that allowing the government to present the Budget ahead of polls will give unfair advantage to the BJP and its allies and how the exercise can be used to influence voters." "The EC gave us all a patient hearing," said Azad. As for the government's unwillingness to move the budget presentation date, Azad said", "If they don't accept our demand, it means they don't want polls to be fair. Then it is not democracy. Democracy requires all parties to have a level playing field." Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha member Derek O'Brien hoped that the Election Commission will address their concerns. "There is enough time to present the Budget after March 8. That is the fair way to do it. Not only the EC has to be fair, but it has to be seen to be fair. We are optimistic," said O'Brien. Besides Azad and O'Brien, those who met Zaidi in the delegation were Ambeth Rajan from the Bahujan Samaj Party, Naresh Agarwal of the Samajwadi Party, T. Siva of the DMK and K.C. Tyagi of the Janata Dal-United. Congress leader Anand Sharma said the Budget presentation prior to the assembly polls will vitiate free and fair voting. "It is the EC mandate to ensure that no situation that may vitiate free and fair polls arises. We have already informed President Pranab Mukherjee about the issue," said Sharma. "Presenting the Union Budget just three days before the assembly polls start not only gives an unfair advantage to the government to influence the voters, but, in fact, is a violation of the Model Code of Conduct," Tyagi said. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), however, slammed the opposition. "The Budget is a constitutional duty and not related to any one state. The presentation of the Budget is not a sudden decision," said Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. "The opposition parties have gone bankrupt on issues. That is why they are trying to create an issue out of a non-issue. The government has decided on February 1 for Budget presentation and irrespective of what the opposition says, it will be presented," added Naqvi. BJP National Secretary Siddharth Nath Singh said the opposition to the Budget presentation only reflected the nervousness of the Congress and the Samajwadi Party. "The budget is a constitutional mandate and has no connection with elections. Every now and then, we have elections... you don't postpone Budget presentation for that," Singh added. The opposition parties earlier submitted a memorandum to President Pranab Mukherjee and the EC, requesting presentation of the Union Budget be deferred. Zaidi on Wednesday said the EC has received the memorandum, and added the poll panel was examining it and would "take a call on it in due course". --IANS and/tsb/vt (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) She's a former Director of the National School of Drama (NSD) and has staged a play in a circus tent to focus attention on the dying "genre". Anuradha Kapur laments that after their licenses began to be cancelled, circuses attempted to reinvent themselves but died in the process. Still, not all is lost as a circus school could help revive the genre, Kapur noted. While the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) has been cancelling its recognition to circuses for a while, it delivered a body blow on December 6, 2016, cancelling its recognition to 21 circuses for keeping animals. This implied that all circuses (except Ajanta circus, which is also under scrutiny) can no longer use wild animals. The CZA had passed these orders after official inspections in which cruelty to animals was reported. "I think it (the circus industry) had a very big jolt after animals were barred. It was then time for the circuses to reinvent themselves. That was the period when this idea thrilled many of us. After that, humans were required to do what was earlier only one half of the act," Kapur told IANS in an interview. "But in the process of reinventing itself, our circus has also died. The Indian circus could never rise up again," added Kapur, who received a Sangeet Natak Akademy award for threatre in 2004 and helmed the NSD for six years. "When they were taken away, it seemed as if everything that the circus was all about had been taken away but there has been a reinvention. This reinvention has mainly been in the performers and also in performing languages," she said. Kapur, along with actress Lillete Dubey, had curated "Talatum", a contemporary adaptation of Shakespeare's "The Tempest". Set in a circus tent, the play was performed using circus and other subaltern theatrical practices at the recently-concluded Serendipity Arts Festival in Goa. "Returning to circuses has been a nostalgic affair. It seems like I have known it, that it was a part of my childhood and I am once again a child. There is obviously some pull in the circuses that we all feel and it is not just about nostalgia but also about the future. What are we going to do to revive the circus," Kapur wondered. "We have seen the extent to which NSD has promoted theatre in the country and, in the similar manner, if there is a circus school, it will have a positive impact the current scenario. People who want to be circus artists will no longer feel that they can only learn informally from their peers and friends, but they will have institutional support. "Also once circus gets recognised as an 'art', then funding, opportunities and other windows will open instantly. What has happened to the circus is that it has (been) at the edges of high art, it is not seen as an art but something else. But it is an art form, it has mixtures which other contemporary arts do not have," Kapur contended. Kapur said she fondly cherishes memories of circuses from her childhood when it was almost customary for the Great Indian Circus and Grand Circus to perform in Delhi. "The most exciting thing about the circus is the connection and calling that the audiences establish with the performers, who are giving everything of themselves, including risking their lives in very dangerous acts. I think it is like a little life story -- the little highs and lows of life -- are all shown in a circus." Reflecting on the poor state of livelihood for most circus artistes, Kapur asked where do they book their tickets to after a circus is over? "They do not have a home, they are always on a move like nomads. For them livelihood is really dependent on short term and long term contracts. Some of them, like jugglers, will go from one city to another performing at several events but a consistent employment is what they do not have. Earlier they were booked for longer periods, many of them were also constantly employed but it is not so today," Kapur said. (Saket Suman can be contacted at saket.s@ians.in) --IANS ss/vm/sac (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Presidents of Kenya and Rwanda will visit India next week, an official statement said on Thursday. Both leaders of the East African countries will also be attending the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit scheduled to be held at Gandhinagar next week. Rwandan President Paul Kagame will be on a working visit to India from January 9-12, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday. He will hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Gandhinagar on January 9. A business delegation would accompany Kagame, who will be addressing a National Business Seminar on Rwanda. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta "will pay a state visit to India from January 10-12 on an invitation extended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi", the release said. The two leaders will hold official talks on January 11 in New Delhi. "During the visit President Kenyatta is also expected to call on the President.Indian dignitaries including the Vice President, Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Defence are also expected to call on President Kenyatta," release added. President Kenyatta is likely to be accompanied by several Ministers. He is expected to attend a business forum in Delhi on January 12. Modi paid a state visit to Kenya in July 2016, the first by an Indian Prime Minister in 35 years. The 8th edition of the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit will be held from January 10-13 in Gandhinagar, Gujrat, with the central focus of "Sustainable Economic and Social Development". --IANS rs-vd (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Rare migratory birds are being spotted in and near Sultanpur National Park here, including the white-tailed eagle and yellow-legged button quall in neighbouring Bhindawas Bird Sanctuary, for the first time in 90 years, wildlife officials said on Thursday. According to officials, about 35,000 birds have been spotted in Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary till now as compared to over 25,000 birds last year. Besides Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary, rare birds have been spotted near Mangar in Faridabad and Aravalli forest area. "White-tailed eagle, yellow-legged button quall and lesser white-fronted goose have been in neighbouring Bhindawas Bird Sanctuary in Jhajjar district of Haryana, for the first time in 90 years," District Forest Officer (wildlife) Shyam Sunder Kaushik told IANS. "It's a great thing and we have decided to celebrate World Wetland Day on February 2 in Bhindawas. This day marks the date of the adoption of the Convention on Wetlands," Kaushik said. He said that Sultanpur park has recorded first sightings of Brown-breasted flycatcher, Scaly thrush, Asian brown flycatcher, Besra and Large-tailed nightjar in Mangar. Birdwatchers said that many birds have been spotted for the first time in over 50 years. Birdwatcher Suresh Kumar said that White-capped redstart in Haryana's Sonipat, Grey- headed lapwing, Montague's harrier, Singing bush lark and Tickell's leaf warbler were spotted at Sultanpur park. Kumar said that the rare bird Black-naped tit, which was recorded as first sight, was spotted in Rewari. "These birds are not common in the region and have been spotted first time this year. The pattern of migratory birds has changed due to urbanisation at a global level," he added. Other spotted rare birds include Chestnut-tailed starling, Blue-capped rock thrush, Common grasshopper warbler, Whimbrel, Hume's lark, Northern lapwing, Demoiselle crane, Spotted crane and Great bittern. "Birds are very sensitive and migrate according to safety and food and water availability," said an expert. Migratory birds start coming in from different parts of the world beginning October and return to their respective homelands in March, which is also their breeding season. (Pradeep Singh can be contacted at pradeepsinghrao@gmail.com) --IANS pradeep/vgu/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Veteran filmmaker P. Vasu has returned to Tamil filmdom after a gap of five years with horror-comedy "Shivalinga", an eponymous remake of his own Kannada film. He says helming a remake can be very challenging. "There's a misconception that remakes are easy to make. People assume that remakes work by merely reprising the same set of scenes in a different language with different actors. But remakes can be quite challenging. Sometimes, a remake requires more effort than the original," Vasu told IANS. His "Shivalinga" stars Raghava Lawrence and Ritika Singh, and it's gearing up for January 26 release. Talking about the film, he said: "I have made enough changes in the script to suit the sensibility of Tamil audiences. Even though the core remains the same, we've made the Tamil version even more entertaining by bringing in Vadivelu." Vasu's son Sakthi has played a pivotal role in the film. Explaining the changes he made in the remake, Vasu said: "In the original, my son's role was underplayed as he shared the screen space with superstar Shivrajkumar. When Lawrence saw the film, he insisted that I extend my son's role as he felt it would work wonders in the Tamil version. He also suggested that we make the film on a grander scale," he said. The 62-year-old is all praise for his heroine Ritika Singh, who made a stunning acting debut with last year's sports-drama "Irudhi Suttru". "She is not the regular heroine. I can assure that her performance will be much talked about. Since she's a wonderful performer, I had a bigger responsibility of using her talent wisely," he added. In the film, a pigeon plays a special role. "When you watch the film, you will realise the importance of the pigeon's character. We had to obtain special permission from Animal Welfare Board to shoot scenes with the bird," Vasu said. Lawrence, for the first time in his career, will be seen as a police officer. --IANS hp/rb/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Two license plates or not two license plates? That was the question weighed Thursday by the House Transportation Committee. Committee members gave House Bill 1084 a do pass recommendation to the full House by an 8-6 vote. Opponents to single license plates included gas station and convenience store owners, who said not having a front license plate could make it more difficult to catch gas station drive-offs and other thefts. Lawmakers in support of HB1084 said one benefit of only having a rear license plate would make the process of installing plates easier. Nineteen states require one license plate, according to the most recent data from AAA. Larry Froelich, director of retail operations for Missouri Valley Petroleum, urged the committee for a do not pass recommendation. Froelich said gas stations may average one or two drive-offs per day and, while some are accidental and dealt with quickly, such incidents can lead to a significant dollar impact to businesses over time. He estimated from 70 percent to 80 percent of drive-offs are dealt with through law enforcement or a case of accidental nonpayment. While we have invested large sums of money in video surveillance equipment in an attempt to stop drive-offs, its still very difficult to help law enforcement apprehend a gas thief if there is no front license plate showing up on video surveillance, Froelich said. Prime bill sponsor Rep. Mark Owens, R-Grand Forks, said, in addition to the hassle for vehicle owners, not everyone bothers installing front plates despite the risk of getting a ticket. He added that law enforcement, in some parts of the state, are not active in enforcing the license plate law. On his drive from Grand Forks to Bismarck for the session, he said he saw nine cars without front license plates: seven were North Dakota vehicles. The law just doesnt penetrate society, Owens said. Bruce Burkett, with the North Dakota Peace Officers Association, agreed with Froelich. Burkett said a front license plate is often an officers first contact with a person as they pass a parked police vehicle or when officers arrive at a residence. Officers can more easily determine if a vehicle is one to be watching for if there are front plates, for example. It certainly makes the efficiency of the officer much better, Burkett said. Bills to go from two plates to one have been defeated in past sessions. Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) will develop 20 opencast and 11 underground mines to reach the production target of about 900 lakh tonnes per year by 2020-21. Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao told the state assembly on Thursday that this expansion would ensure coal supply to all thermal power stations in the state, as well as several industries. About 11,000 more jobs would also be created, he said. In his statement he also told the assembly about the steps being taken for strengthening and expanding the company and the welfare of its employees. Terming the 125-year-old Singareni the pride of Telangana, the Chief Minister said it was now expanding its operations to other states. SCCL started operations in the block allocated by the Centre at Naini Mines in Odisha. Singareni, in which the Telangana government holds a 51 per cent stake while the remaining is held by the Centre, was also making efforts for overseas acquisitions. Rao said Singareni officials visited Australia, South Africa, Indonesia, China, Germany, France, Britain and Canada to explore possibilities. "About 13 companies all over the world have expressed interest to work with Singareni. However, due to fall in the prices of coal internationally, the matter is kept pending for the time being," he said. Foraying into power production, Singareni has set up a 1,200 MW plant which was dedicated to the nation in August 2016. Efforts were on to establish another 800 MW plant by Singareni shortly. Being the only power producing company in South India it was helping thermal power plants in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. About 600 lakh tonnes of coal is produced by Singareni every year. Of this, 78.71 per cent is used for the generation of thermal power. SCCL currently has 46 mines, of which, 30 were underground and 16 were opencast mines. It has 56,866 employees. Though the underground mining was causing losses, the state government has continued with it as 61 per cent of the workforce was employed there. KCR, as Rao is popularly known, said Singareni registered a 15 per cent growth in 2015-16, surpassing Coal India and other public sector undertakings. It earned a Rs 1,066 crore profit in 2015-16. He said the government rewarded the workers for their hard work by paying them 23 per cent profit (Rs 245 crore), the highest in the company's history. He said each worker was paid Rs one to Rs 1.25 lakh as Deepavali and Dussehra bonus. KCR said they were excavating the 'Black Gold' to create prosperity for realising the dream of 'Bangaru (Golden) Telangana.' --IANS ms/in/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Sri Lankan authorities on Tuesday arrested 10 Indian fishermen for poaching in its territorial waters. The authorities also seized one trawler used by the fishermen in the waters south of Delft Island, Xinhua news agency reported. The arrests came a day after Sri Lankan Fisheries Minister Mahinda Amaraweera announced that authorities will continue arresting Indian fishermen if they do not stop illegal poaching. Amaraweera said the government was also looking at resolving the fishing dispute in a diplomatic manner and talks would be held next month. Fishermen in India's Tamil Nadu state had issued an ultimatum to address the dispute, failing which they said the situation may spiral out of control. The warning was issued after a Tamil Nadu fisherman was killed earlier this month by the Sri Lanka Navy. --IANS ksk/vt (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.) One of Syria's most prominent opposition factions on Thursday accused the government of using chemical weapons in an attack on rebel-held territory on the fringes of Damascus. The Free Syrian Army took to Twitter to accuse the Syrian regime, headed by President Bashar al-Assad, of using chlorine gas during an attack on rebel positions, reported Efe news. "CHLORINE GAS dropped by regime in rockets from warplanes on Basima, Wadi Barada, rural #Damascus," wrote the FSA on its Twitter page. The group later claimed to have destroyed an advancing government tank amid heavy clashes with the Syrian regime and its allies from the Lebanese Shia militia Hezbollah. Government bombardment on the Wadi Barada area, a strategic satellite region of Damascus and an important source of water, has been steady despite the nation-wide ceasefire announced on December 30, said the FSA. The FSA also threatened to withdraw its cooperation in the ceasefire talks scheduled to take place in Astana, Kazakhstan, in the coming weeks because of the alleged breach in the ceasefire agreements. --IANS soni/vt (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan on Thursday urged the world community to tell India that "enough is enough" over Kashmir and hold a promised referendum in the state. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his foreign policy chief Sartaj Aziz, addressing an International Parliamentary Seminar on Kashmir here, said Pakistan was determined to support Kashmiris despite certain foreign policy challenges. "Seventy years of brutal repression and Kashmiri struggle in the face of that oppression have shown cries of freedom cannot be stifled by sounds of bullets," Sharif said. Aziz said the government "will continue highlighting the Kashmir issue and human rights violations there". Pakistan, he said, had to prove wrong New Delhi's stance that Islamabad was fuelling trouble in Kashmir. "It is purely an indigenous movement led by Kashmiri youth and without any external support," he stressed. Admitting that there were foreign policy challenges, Aziz said it was very difficult to stand ground during testing times for protecting vital interests. Pakistan's position, he said, had strengthened the Kashmir cause and the international community was now asking India to discuss the dispute. Pakistan last year launched an extensive international outreach to mobilise support for Kashmir movement, sending 22 parliamentarians as special envoys to important international capitals amid a deadly unrest in the valley that left nearly 100 people dead after the July 8 killing of militant leader Burhan Wani. The turmoil in Kashmir, which India blamed on Pakistan, worsened the already deteriorating ties between the two countries. Aziz said it was not possible for the two neighbours to hold peace talks on unilateral conditions laid by India. "The basic problem is that Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to improve relations on his own terms. One of his basic conditions is that there should be no discussion on Kashmir," Aziz said. This was not acceptable to Pakistan, he said. --IANS ahm/sar/vt (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The presidential transition team on emphatically denied that US President-elect Donald Trump intends to restructure the country's intelligence services, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. In his daily telephonic contact with reporters, presidential transition team spokesman Sean Spicer called that report "100 perc ent false," adding - in unusually emphatic terms for such a telephone briefing with reporters - that "There is no truth to this idea of restructuring the intelligence community infrastructure", Efe news reported on Thursday. The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, according to officials familiar with those supposed plans, Trump wants to restructure the CIA and reduce the number of people working at the central headquarters and, at the same time, strengthen the number of agents on the ground around the world. Besides, the daily also reported that Trump thinks the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), which coordinates and supervises actions throughout the military and civilian intelligence and espionage services, has more resources than necessary and is also politicized. "All transition activities are for information-gathering purposes and all discussions are tentative. The president-elect's top priority is to ensure the safety of the American people and the security of the nation and he is committed to finding the best and most effective ways to do it," said Spicer, who will become White House press secretary when Trump takes office on January 20. In assorted Twitter posts, Trump has expressed skepticism about the work of the US intelligence services who came to the conclusion that Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, are behind cyberespionage activities that unfolded during the US presidential election campaign. Trump is slated to receive an intelligence briefing on the issue on Friday in New York at a meeting to be attended by the heads of the CIA, the FBI and the ODNI. The president-elect has designated Mike Pompeo to be the future CIA director, but he has not announced who he will nominate to head the OCDI. EFE --IANS pgh/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US President-elect Donald Trump will meet top US intelligence officials in New York on Friday to analyse the issue of Russian cyberattacks. Participating in the meeting, among others, will be CIA Director John Brennan, FBI Chief James Comey and National Intelligence Director James Clapper, a spokesman for Trump said on Wednesday, Efe news reported. The meeting would focus on analyzing the evidence gathered by the Barack Obama administration's intelligence team on Russian cyberattacks during the US presidential election campaign, which Trump won on November 8. A spokesman for Trump's transition team said in the daily telephonic conference with reporters that the meeting was requested last week by the transition team and was to be held once an official report had been prepared. Spokesman Sean Spicer said that the meeting was ultimately scheduled for Friday, although it is not known if Trump or the presidential transition team will make any comment about it afterwards. In a Twitter message, Trump had said that the meeting had been "delayed" until Friday and added "Perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange!" In remarks last week in Florida, Trump cast doubt on the implication that Russian authorities had ordered the hacking, adding that it was time to focus on more important matters. When Spicer was asked what Trump based his skepticism about Russian hacking on, he said on Wednesday that the president-elect wants be given all the data and the conclusions that intelligence officials have drawn from them. "I think what he wants to hear from them is, how does the raw intelligence justify the conclusion that is being presented...?" Spicer said. --IANS pgh/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former Prime Minister feared a coup by a section of his BJP that wanted to have him replaced by his deputy Lal Krishna Advani, a new biography has claimed. The "coup of sorts" was in the works a few months after Advani took over as the Deputy Prime Minister in June 2002, says the book, "The Untold Vajpayee: Politician and Paradox" (Penguin/304 pp/Rs 599), by journalist Ullekh N.P. Citing an unnamed minister whom Vajpayee summoned to his residence, the author says: "The Union minister asked Vajpayee not to worry too much about it. "The PM replied that he was merely stating that he knew of a plan to unseat him and replace him with Advani. He didn't know who was behind it, but he was convinced of the plan. He had earlier been asked by an RSS honcho to become India's President, and leave the PM's role to Advani," the book contends. The author also claims that Vajpayee offered a "compromise formula" during the 1975-77 emergency by asking activists of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) -- the RSS student wing -- to own up to destruction of public property so that the opposition could cut a deal with the government. "Vajpayee spoke about the arson and destruction of public property in many parts of the country by miscreants and told Rai (Ram Bahadur Rai, then ABVP General Secretary) that it was time for the ABVP to own up to its mistakes and tender an apology before the government could start thinking of repealing the Emergency laws," Ullekh, who is the Executive Editor of Open magazine, mentions in the book. Dubbed by Penguin as the "the biggest political biography of the year", the book takes a fresh look at the former Prime Minister and shows that he had often taken "brief excursions into the hard-line camp". The book, according to the publisher, is thoroughly researched, supported by hard facts and accompanied by inside stories and anecdotes, insightful interviews and archival photographs, and opens a window to the life and times of the poet-politician. "Vajpayee's early speeches and comments show him to be a dyed-in-the-wool Sanghi, who, over the decades, turned out to be liberal and Nehruvian in his approach and pronouncements," Ullekh, whose first book was "War Room: The People, Tactics and Technology behind Narendra Modi's 2014 Win", told IANS. "However, he made frequent excursions into the hardline camp, as evident from his provocative speeches in Assam in 1984 and to karsevaks in Ayodhya in 1992. His public persona of being a moderate was different from his deafening silence over contentious issues within the party. He could afford to do things on his own terms thanks to his unbeatable popularity," Ullekh added. The book also says that Advani, as Home Minister, tried to "use Shias of Iran to nullify the claims of Sunni Muslims in India on Babri Masjid" in a bid to make way for a Ram Temple in Ayodhya. "But Advani's plans were foiled by Vajpayee loyalists who feared that the former would take all the credit for resolving the burning issue." The book also provides some additional details on a significant moment in the party's and the nation's history -- the aftermath of the Gujarat riots of 2002. According to the book, Vajpayee, after the Godhra train burning and the riots that followed, was resolute that (then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra) "Modi has to go" but Advani said that Gujarat would descend into chaos if that happened. Referring to a conversation that took place onboard a flight in which Vajpayee, who was reading a newspaper, and some other leaders were headed to a executive meet in Goa, Ullekh writes: "Then (Arun) Shourie surprised himself. He pulled the newspaper out of Vajpayee's hands and interjected, 'Vajpayeeji, newspapers can be read later also. Why don't you tell Advaniji what you wanted to tell him?'" "Vajpayee kept the newspaper away, and muttered in his usual style about what had to be done. First, Venkaiah Naidu would replace Jana Krishnamurthi as the BJP president. Then he said, 'Modi has to go'. By the time they landed in Goa, the decision was taken: Modi would go," the book claims. The author mentions that Jaswant Singh shared another version of the episode. "He narrated that though Advani didn't protest when Vajpayee insisted that Modi had to go, the Home Minister added, 'There will be chaos in the state'," says the book. Eventually, Modi stayed on as the Gujarat Chief Minister. Vajpayee was India's 10th Prime Minister, first for 13 days in 1996 and then from 1998 to 2004. He is ailing now and resides in a heavily-guarded bungalow in Lutyens Delhi and has not been seen in public for more than a decade. While Opposition parties, economists and traders continue to point out the negative effects of demonetisation, the government at the Centre keeps denying them. On Thursday, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman raised that stance to another level. At a gathering of state government representatives in Delhi to discuss trade issues, Sitharaman was asked yet again whether her ministry had assessed the loss suffered by industry. She smiled and said, Nahi kiya [no, (we) havent] before moving on to the next question. Minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Meghwal is the minister in-charge of of public sector undertakings (PSUs). He lives at 20, Windsor Place, in New Delhi. The Narendra Modi government has listed five India Tourism Development Corporation, or ITDC, hotels for . Hotel Janpath is one of them and right opposite Meghwal's bungalow. Prime Minister on Thursday praised Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for organising a mega "Prakash Utsav" in Patna, marking the 350th birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh. He also hailed Nitish Kumar's decision of imposing prohibition in the state and urged all political parties and people to back his move. "Nitish Kumar, his government and the people of Bihar deserve credit for making arrangement on such a large scale for holding the Prakash Utsav," Modi said while addressing the main function in the Darbar Hall of a makeshift gurdwara in a "tent city", set up in historical Gandhi Maidan, in the heart of Patna. Modi mentioned Nitish Kumar not less than a dozen times during his address to praise him for holding the Prakash Utsav and his decision of total prohibition. "Nitish Kumar has worked hard, day and night monitoring and personally inspecting preparations for the Prakash Utsav for months. He deserves credit for this mega event," the prime minister said. Modi said such mega Prakash Utsav in Patna will inspire all across the country. He has termed Nitish Kumar's decision of prohibition a "brave step" for social change. "Taking an initiative for social change is very difficult, but Nitish Kumar has initiated it by enforcing prohibition. All people including political parties should back him for it," he said. Modi shared the stage with Nitish Kumar and was seen talking with him. Modi also released special commemorative stamps on Prakash Utsav. Earlier in the day, the prime minister arrived in Patna in an Indian Air Force aircraft to attend Prakash Utsav, said Senior Superintendent of Police Manu Maharaj. He was received by Governor Ramnath Kovind and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Modi offered prayers and also served during the "langar". Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, union ministers Ram Vilas Paswan and Ravi Shankar Prasad and a large number of Sikhs from India and abroad will take part in the event. A Fargo state senator will be away from the Legislature for one to two months following surgery next week for an undisclosed issue. District 41 Sen. Kyle Davison will be gone for four to eight weeks following a medical procedure scheduled to take place next week. News that hed be absent from the Legislature was provided through a release by the office of Senate Majority Leader Rich Wardner, R-Dickinson, late Wednesday afternoon. I look forward to returning as soon as possible to the Senate to represent District 41 constituents, Davison said in the release. Davison was elected to the Senate in 2014 and earned 53.6 percent of the vote. Davison serves as vice chairman of the Senate Government and Veterans Affairs Committee this session and also is a member of the Senate Education Committee. Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh on Thursday continued attempts to claim ownership of Samajwadi Party even as further efforts were being made for a rapprochement between the warring factions led by the father and the son. Akhilesh, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh who was on Sunday made 'President' of SP by his faction in place of Mulayam, appointed heads of seven more district party units, demonstrating his strengthening grip on the party. State SP president Naresh Uttam appointed district presidents in Mainpuri, Moradabad, Fatehpur, Etawah, Farukhabad, Hardoi and Firozabad "on directives of national president Akhilesh Yadav", said a press release issued by the Chief Minister's camp. The existing presidents of these district units were also sacked with immediate effect to pave the way for new faces. On Wednesday, Akhilesh had named party unit chiefs of four districts Deoria, Kushinagar, Azamgarh and Mirzapur. Presidents in all these districts were dumped by Shivpal Yadav, who is state president of another faction of SP backed by his elder brother Mulayam Singh Yadav. This came even as the rival factions raced against time to garner support of party MPs, MLAs and delegates to prove majority before the Election Commission to claim 'Samajwadi Party' name and 'Cycle' symbol. Mulayam and Shivpal rushed to the national capital this morning to furnish details of support he enjoys in the embattled party to the poll panel. But Akhilesh stayed put at his official residence in Lucknow, collecting signed affidavits to back his claim of majority support. There was a claim that he had secured signed affidavits of over 200 MLAs and MLCs. SP MP Naresh Agarwal, who is close to Akhilesh, claimed a majority of the party MLAs, MLCs and MPs were with him. He was confident that EC would allot the 'cycle' symbol to the Akhilesh camp. In Delhi, Mulayam held a meeting his close confidante Amar Singh amid a talk that they may approach the Election Commission with letters of support from over 50 per cent of the legislators and office bearers. Mulayam's close aides said he had sought time from the Commission to put forth his stand but the poll panel firmly denied that any appointment had been sought. Hours later, Mulayam returned to Lucknow along with Shivpal, without approaching the Commission. Sources in the poll watchdog said they have not received any document from the SP founder. "In fact, his side is yet to submit the letter removing Ram Gopal Yadav as National General Secretary," an official claimed. After Mulayam's return to Lucknow in the evening, SP leader Azam Khan, who has been working for a patch-up, met Akhilesh for the second time in the day. The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday asked (SP) patron Mulayam Singh Yadav and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav to respond to their petitions with regard to the party's poll symbol 'cycle' by January 9. This comes in wake of the ongoing tussle in the SP. Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi on Wednesday said any query on freezing of the SP's poll symbol 'cycle' is hypothetical, adding that the right decision would be taken at the appropriate time. "The Commission has received one representation with regard to the presentation of the budget. We are examining it and will take a call on it in due course. Taking cognisance of the symbol order and old precedents, we will examine the documents presented to us. The right decision will be taken at the right time," Zaidi told the media here. "Any query on freezing of the SP's poll symbol is hypothetical right now. Let us first examine the documents," he added. As of now, both factions have laid claim over the party's symbol 'cycle'. However, the Election Commission is yet to take a call on the same. Akhilesh's mentor and uncle Ram Gopal Yadav earlier on Tuesday staked claim to the party's symbol 'cycle' before the Election Commission while stating that 90 percent of the MLAs are backing the Uttar Pradesh chief minister. This came a day after Akhilesh's father Mulayam staked claim on the same while asserting that the SP's "election symbol is my signature". Amid a bitter family feud that has torn apart Uttar Pradesh's ruling party, Mulayam earlier on Monday claimed that the symbol - with its easy and established recall - should be considered his political property. The 77-year-old veteran visited the Election Commission's office on Monday, accompanied by his trusted advisor and younger brother Shivpal Yadav. At a party gathering on Sunday in Lucknow, Akhilesh was named the SP's president. He then pushed his father into retirement by declaring that he would now function as patron and mentor. Mulayam and his aides like Shivpal Yadav and Amar Singh have insisted his faction is the legit SP. Ten Tamil Nadu fishermen have been arrested and their two boats impounded by Sri Lankan Navy for allegedly fishing in the island nation waters, officials said today. The fishermen from Jegathapattinam in Pudukottai district were fishing in Neduntheevu last night when the Lankan Navy arrested them and took to Kankesanthurai in northern Sri Lanka, Pudukottai Assistant Director of Fisheries Sekar said. The arrest comes three days after Sri Lanka agreed to set free 51 Indian fishermen already in its custody. In another incident, more than 3,500 fishermen, who had put out to sea from here in 584 boats yesterday, returned to the shores without catch last night after the Lankan Naval personnel allegedly snapped the fishing nets of about 30 vessels and drove them away while they were fishing near Katchatheevu, Rameswaram Fishermen association leader S Emerit said. With the latest arrest, the number of Tamil Nadu fishermen in Sri Lankan custody has risen to 61. Only on January two, Sri Lanka agreed to release 51 fishermen in its custody and consider returning a large number of fishing boats in its custody. This was decided during a high-level ministerial level meeting of Sri Lanka and India held in Colombo on the vexed issue of fishermen. Indian and Lanka Coast Guard had yesterday discussed various measures for the release and repatriation of arrested fishermen among other areas of cooperation in the maritime security scenario. A three-member delegation led by Director General Sri Lanka Coast Guard (SLCG) Rear Admiral Samantha Wimalathunge, is on a three-day visit to India from January three for talks with the Indian Coast Guard. The Indian delegation was led by coast Guard chief Rajendra Singh. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bad weather and poor visibility led to the cancellation of 12 flights at the International Airport on Thursday, even as snow accumulated at the runway hit operations, officials said. Air traffic at the airport was hit as all morning flights were cancelled because of poor visibility, Director Airports Authority of India, Airport, Sharad Kumar told PTI. Kumar said six flights could not land this morning. In all, 12 flights to and from were cancelled. The operations stabilised in the afternoon, he said. Srinagar- the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir- received fresh snowfall today (January 5) even as the rest of the Valley witnessed snowfall for the third consecutive day. The Met office has forecast more snowfall or rains over the next two days and isolated rains or snowfall a day after that. Two Afghan nationals have been arrested in connection with a theft of USD 10,000 and Rs 3 lakh from a restaurant run by another Afghan in south-east Delhi's Lajpat Nagar area, police said today. Afghan national Ahmad Fawed Ahnadri, the owner of Mazaar restaurant in Lapat Nagar-II, had lodged a police complaint on December 16 accusing his two employees, Zakriya Hamraj and Shahim Halim, both Afghan nationals, of stealing USD 10,000 and Rs 3 lakh from his restaurant. The incident of theft which occurred around 4.30 pm on that day was captured by CCTV cameras installed in the shop. A case was registered at Lajpat Nagar police station and a probe launched, said DCP (south-east) Romil Baaniya. Initially, it was difficult to trace the accused as the address provided by the complainant was found to be fake and their mobile phones were switched off, police said. Police received information through sources that the accused were trying to escape to Afghanistan via Nepal as they did not have valid passports or visa. Subsequently, it was found out that Hamraj was trying to cross over to Nepal via Sonauli border at Uttar Pradesh's Maharajganj. He was nabbed by a Delhi Police team from there on December 31, said the officer. Hamraj had come to Delhi in 2015 on tourist visa and started working at Ahmad's restaurant. His brother lived in Gurgaon on a UN refugee card and worked at a restaurant there, he added. Hamraj confessed to the police that he, along with Halim, had hatched a conspiracy to steal money and other valuables from the restaurant. Halim, who was born in Baghlan in Afghanistan, had come to Delhi in April, 2015 and started working as a helper in the kitchen of Mazaar. He was arrested from Mahipalpur on Tuesday on the basis of information provided by Hamraj, the officer said. Rs 1.22 lakh in cash and a goldchain were recovered from the arrested duo, he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Two Nigerian students have been arrested for allegedly assaulting a salesman of a medical store here, police said today. "Two Nigerians have been arrested last night and today sent to jail. They had beaten a medical store salesman. They are students at a Greater Noida college," Kasna Police Station incharge Sudhir Tyagi said. The scuffle between the accused and the salesman broke out over the mode of payment for a cough syrup the accused had demanded from the salesman. The salesman had initially refused to give them the syrup without the prescription, but later he relented. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The year 2016 turned out to be one of the bloodiest years for security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's history though they managed to eliminate some top militant commanders including Hizbul Mujahideen's Burhan Wani. Wani was the poster boy of militancy in the Valley and attracted many youth to Hizbul Mujahideen and his killing was seen as a big achievement for the forces. But his killing sparked violent protests in the Valley which continued for over four months. Till December 18, 2016 was one of the bloodiest years for the security forces as they suffered more casualties than in the last eight years since 2008. In 2008, 90 security forces personnel were killed in the state and while the numbers showed a declining trend till the year 2012 when they suffered 17 fatalities, the casualties increased in 2013 to 61. In 2014, the casualties decreased to 51 which went further down the next year to 41. However, in 2016, 87 security forces personnel were killed in militancy-related incidents in the state, according to official data. A total of 165 militants were also killed in 2016, which is the highest in the last six years. In 2015, 113 militants were killed in security forces actions. The first major attack of 2016 was on February 21, when three militants stormed Entrepreneurship Development Institute (EDI) at Pampore after attacking a CRPF convoy on the Srinagar-Jammu highway, killing two CRPF men. The gunfight lasted 48 hours and security forces killed all three militants but two army captains, one para commando, two Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel and a civilian were also killed. The EDI campus was the scene of another major attack later in the year when two militants stormed it on October 10 and engaged the security forces for 56 hours before they were killed. One army jawan was injured in the gun-battle. Pampore turned into a battleground once again on June 25 when militants ambushed CRPF convoy at Frestbal area on the Highway. The militants fired indiscriminately at the CRPF bus killing eight paramilitary troopers and injuring 20 others. Two militants were also killed in the exchange of fire. June saw massive casualties inflicted both on security forces as well as militants. While 24 militants were killed that month, the highest in a single month in 2016, 15 security forces personnel also lost their lives in militant actions. The month of September, however, was the deadliest in 2016 when 24 security forces personnel were killed militancy- related incidents in the state. Twenty-two militants were also killed by the security forces. Nineteen were killed in a single attack on September 18 when a fidayeen group attacked an Army infantry battalion near Line of Control (LoC) in Uri area of north Kashmir's Baramulla District. Four militants were also killed in the encounter. Eleven days after the Uri attack, the army, for the first time, made it public that its special forces crossed the LoC into Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir and destroyed several militant camps in which over 40 ultras and their sympathisers were killed. However, two months after the surgical strikes, another fidayeen attack happened on November 29 in Jammu region when three militants stormed an Artillery Unit of the Army at Nagrota. Seven Army soldiers, including two Majors, and three militants were killed. In December, militants once again struck at Srinagar-Jammu highway when on December 17 they attacked an army convoy at a crowded place at Pampore, killing three soldiers and injuring two others. There were 104 ceasefire violations -- 92 at LoC and 12 at International Border -- in which 13 security forces were killed besides 14 civilians. Punjab police have arrested 25 people including the jail Superintendent for trespassing into Fazilka prison to allegedly meet inmate Shiv Lal Doda, considered to be close to Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal. Disclosing this here today, ADGP (elections) H S Bhawra said that on the directions of the state Election Commission, surprise raid was conducted last night at Fazilka and Amritsar jails. "During the checking police arrested 25 people," he said, adding that Fazilka jail SP Jashandeep Singh has also been suspended. The Election Commission had directed the home department to conduct a probe into the matter and submit it's report within four weeks. Bhawra said that during checking police found 24 people holding a meeting inside the visitor's meeting room of the jail with Doda, a liquor baron. Police also seized Rs 3.28 lakh, some mobile phones and impounded seven vehicles, he said. Doda and his nephew Amit are facing charges of criminal conspiracy and murder for allegedly killing a Dalit youth named Bhim Tank last year. Meanwhile, Aam Aadmi Party accused the SAD-BJP government for mounting atrocities on Dalits and shielding the culprits. State party convener Gurpreet Singh Ghuggi took serious note of the arrest and slammed the state government over it. He said that Fazilka jail incident is an eye opener of SAD patronage of culprits. Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal who was considered close to Doda had tried to protect him in the Bhim Tank murder case and a case of murder was registered only after the Dalit community protested on streets, Ghuggi said. SAD had promoted the anti-Dalit sentiment in Punjab during its ten year rule. The Dalits in Punjab lived on margin all that years even as fate of farmers is not different, he said. State Congress chief Amarinder Singh demanded immediate dismissal of the Badal government, saying it had been completely exposed in the Fazilka jail incident, where a known henchman of Home Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal was caught holding a kangaroo court on yesterday along with two dozen other Akali-linked criminals. Lashing out at the "brazen display of money and muscle power and the complete breakdown of the law and order" in the state, Amarinder demanded imposition of President's Rule to hold free and fair elections in the state. The incident has thoroughly exposed the complicity of the Badal family and their associates in the rampant crime mafia in the state, he said. "It is important to find out how all that money and weapons entered the jail premises," he asked. It could not have been done without involvement from the highest levels in the government, Amarinder alleged. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Four smugglers were today arrested with large quantity of liquor worth Rs 2 lakh in Sarnath police station area from different districts of Uttar Pradesh, police said. The Crime Branch along with the intelligence wing and the local police team seized nearly 1880 liquor bottles that were being carried in a jeep to be illegally supplied at various placesin Varanasi, said SSP Nitin Tiwari. The accused have been identified as Anil Giri, Sanjeev Kumar and Ashish Mishra all three native ofVaranasi and Pravesh Kumar Singh, hailing from Jaunpur district, he said. The liquor, packed in 40 cartons, had the label of Madhya Pradesh on it, he said, adding the Bolero jeep has also been seized and four mobiles handsets have been confiscated from them. The Crime Branch has been given a cash reward ofRs 5,000 for seizing liquor and arresting four men, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Members of the House Appropriations Committee are looking at adopting a revenue forecast that is $170 million less than what former Gov. Jack Dalrymple used before leaving office. Most of us are pretty concerned about what number Gov. Dalrymple had for the revenue forecast, said Appropriations Chairman Jeff Delzer, R-Underwood. Thursday, members of each chamber's Appropriations Committee will vote on the plan created by Republican legislative leadership. The plan adjusts projected oil prices as well as sales and income tax projections downward for the 2017-19 biennium, but keeps oil production levels flat from the last forecast. Dalrymples December executive forecast estimated about $4.81 billion in general fund revenues for the 2017-19 biennium. The plan by GOP leadership calls for a starting point of $3.68 billion in the budgeting process. Weve got a billion-dollar hole in the North Dakota economy that we really havent filled yet, said Rep. Keith Kempenich, R-Bowman. The proposed changes to the forecast include reductions in the projected collections of sales and income taxes and a proposed transfer of Bank of North Dakota profits to the general fund. Leadership projects $1.795 billion in sales tax collections for 2017-19, a reduction of more than $146 million from Dalrymples forecast. A reduction of more than $19.6 million in income tax collections, to $693 million, for 2017-19 is also outlined in the updated forecast. Leadership also slashed a significant portion from the total by eliminating a proposal by Dalrymple to increase the combined amount of oil and gas production tax and oil extraction tax from its current cap of $300 million to $1 billion. For oil and gas production in 2017-19, leadership calls for a $48 per barrel oil price for North Dakota crude, down from the $51 to $53 per barrel range used in Dalrymples proposal. If the legislative plan passes, the projection of bottoming out and holding at 900,000 barrels per day for the next two years would be maintained. The prices being used are what officials commonly refer to as North Dakota prices. Crude from the state typically sells at a discount of several dollars from the price of West Texas Intermediate, a national benchmark. This is the starting point for us for the next two years, Delzer said. Following the vote on the more conservative revenue forecast, lawmakers will update the forecast again in March. House Majority Leader Al Carlson, R-Fargo, said leadership considered Dalrymple's numbers a bit optimistic in terms of oil production, prices and sales tax revenues. Sales tax revenues have been a significant factor in the states nearly $1.4 billion revenue shortfall in 2016, as energy production has dropped and agricultural commodities have slipped. Our adjustment is to a realistic number that industry agrees with, Carlson said. An increase in oil prices, or a reduction in the price discount on North Dakota crude upon completion of the Dakota Access Pipeline, could occur in 2017-19, according to Carlson, who said its better to err on the side of caution and not have to make further cuts during the next interim. The 44th edition of the New Delhi World Book Fair that is set to begin on January 7 here, will be themed 'Manushi', focusing on "writings on and by women". The 9-day-long fair, organised by National Book Trust (NBT) in association with India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO), will aim to show and project the diversity of writings by women writers. The fair will be inaugurated by Mahendra Nath Pandey, MoS for Human Resource Development (Higher Education), on January 7 at Pragati Maidan here. Eminent Odia writer and Jnanpith awardee Pratibha Ray will be Guest of Honour and Tomasz Kozlowski, Ambassador of the Delegation of the European Union (EU) to India will be the Special Guest on the ocassion. "There has been the tradition of women writers as well as scholars since ancient times in India. Many of them have set examples of morality through their literary works and have played a vital role in promoting modern thoughts. Therefore, we wanted to provide a special space to them at the fair. "Since writings 'on women' are as much a part of this exhibition as those 'by women', hence the theme presentation does not intend to project writings 'by women' as a special genre in themselves," Baldeo Sharma, Chairman, National Book Trust(NBT) said. While books on different genres will form the main ingredients of this exhibition, posters and panels of some of the eminent representative women scholars of ancient and medieval India, and women pioneers of modern Indian literature, will be on display. The fair will also celebrate 60 years of National Book Trust (NBT) at the Special Pavillion, that will feature an exhibit titled, "This is No Looking Back!". "It will be exciting for youngsters to see the exhibit that will showcase NBT's journey of promoting the culture of reading in last six decades," Sharma said. 'Archival Photos/ Materials' will offer a glimpse of noted personalities including Presidents and Prime Ministers of India, writers, readers, publishers, and artists who have patronised NBT's mandate of creating a culture of reading. There will also be a display of NBT's bestsellers, besides an 'Illustrator's Wall' showcasing works of eminent Indian Illustrators like Mickey Patel, Pulak Biswas, Mario, Miranda, Ravi Paranjpe, Jagdish Joshi among others. Sharma also requested India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO) to make entry to book fair free of cost from next year, in order to promote and inculcate an interest for reading among visitors. "I don't think there is a lack of interest in reading but the problem lies in the system in which books are made available. "There should be availability of books at cheaper rates so that more people read books. We have also requested ITPO to make the World Book Fair ticket-free from the next year," Sharma said. The Children's Pavilion will host seminars, panel discussions, storytelling sessions, workshops on creative writing and illustrations among others. Renowned writers like Ramendra Kumar, Hemant Kumar, Azhar Hajini will also be interacting with children. Although the fair this year will not have a guest country at the Foreign Pavillion, but the international segment will see participation by over 20 countries including, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Nepal, Iran, Poland, Japan, Spain, Sri Lanka among others. While previous editions saw significant participation from Pakistan, this edition will have only one distributor from the country. Talking about the scanty participation from the neighbouring country, Sharma said, "There hasn't been any response from them to participate in the fair this time. There will be only one distributor from Pakistan." International agencies like World Health Organisation (WHO) and United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) will also participate in the fair. Events from the Foreign Pavillion will include photography exhibitions on the Indian Disapora in the EU, the Chinese New Year, and screening of films based on William Shakespeare's plays, commemorating the 400th death anniversary of the Bard. The fair will also provide a platform for B2B activities for publishers from India and abroad, and will focus on the idea and business of creating culture of reading. However, according to Sharma, the fair this year will see reduced participation by publishers, owing to unavailability of sufficient space. "Due to less availability of space provided to us by ITPO, we have not been able to include as many publishers as there were last year," he said. The fair will come to a close on January 15. Eight persons have been arrested for allegedly indulging in gambling in central Delhi's Kotwali area and Rs 1.05 lakh recovered from them, police said today. On receiving information about eight men gambling on a footpath on the Mor Sarai Road, police arrested them. The eight men have been identified as Rajeev, Prabhu Dayal, Puran, Anil Sharma, Mohan, Jai Prakash and Mahender, they added. Police also recovered Rs 1.05 lakh in new 2,000 and 500 rupee notes from them. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In the backdrop of the attack on BJP office here allegedly by people carrying TMC flags, West Bengal Governor K N Tripathi today said irrespective of political attachment a state government should ensure law and order. "Every state, irrespective of political attachment, should try to ensure peace in the state and maintain law and order," he told reporters when asked about the incident. When asked about the prevailing situation in the state, the Governor said, "No comments". Responding to the Governor's remark, TMC secretary general and state education minister Partha Chatterjee said, "He (Governor) did not mention any particular state. But if Raj Bhavan is used for political purpose, we will protest." He claimed the BJP was trying to use the office of the Governor for political purpose. He also denied the charges that TMC workers carrying party flags had attacked the BJP office in Kolkata. "Party flags can be purchased from the markets," he said, and asked how the central force (CRPF), which gives personal security to BJP leader Rahul Sinha, were sent without permission of the state government. Hitting out at the ruling party in West Bengal, BJP leader Siddharth Nath Singh said TMC should introspect about what it was doing. "They (TMC) accuse BJP of using the office of the state governor, but there is violence and breakdown of law and order in the state," he said. Several BJP workers were injured when people carrying TMC flags had attacked its state headquarters here on Tuesday after the arrest of the TMC MP Sudip Bandhopadhyay in connection with the Rose Valley ponzi scam. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court today asked CBI to complete its probe by June into allegations of "serious irregularities" in purchase or hiring of 111 aircraft for Air India that had cost around Rs 70,000 crore during the tenure of Praful Patel as the civil aviation minister in 2005-06. The apex court also asked the agency to look into the fresh allegations made by an NGO CPIL that Patel made Air India to buy biometric system for a hefty sum of Rs 1000 crore. "CBI shall take into consideration all the allegations made in the pleadings of the instant petition, and take a call thereon, based on the evidence collected. We hope and expect, that CBI will adhere to the time frame indicated to us, namely, June, 2017," a bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justices N V Ramana and D Y Chandrachud said. During the hearing, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi informed the bench that most of the allegations referred to in the petition are a result of adverse comments made by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) and the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament (PAC). "Some of the observations or remarks were made by Murli Manohar Joshi, as the Chairman of PAC, in February 2014 and a detailed response has been filed by the Ministry of Civil Aviation on January 19, 2015," he said. Rohatgi said some further queries were also made by PAC and another detailed reply was filed by the ministry on May 3, 2016 and the subsequent report was tabled in Parliament. Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the NGO, said that Canada's superior court has convicted a person for paying bribe to the then minister for the purchase of biometric system for whopping Rs 1000 crore for the airline. "CBI is already investigating the case and is likely to conclude the probe. PAC has also looked into it and report is filed in Parliament. What more do you want. We cannot hold their (CBI) arms. We must trust our agencies," the bench told to Bhushan. Rohatgi said that CBI has also been investigating the case since February 27, 2013, following the allegations and the probe is likely to be completed by June this year. The AG said that 55 witnesses have been investigated and nothing survives in the petition as all the allegations are being looked into. Advocate Prashant Bhushan urged the court to not to dispose of the petition and the matter should be listed again in June for consideration of the status of the probe. "We find no justification to retain the matter, inasmuch as retaining the matter leads to an inference, that we do not wish to project," the bench said, adding that the aggrieved parties can take recourse to the remedies available in consonance with the law and disposed of the matter. The NGO had earlier moved to the apex court against the government and Air India seeking a CBI/SIT probe into alleged irregularities, including purchase of aircraft, and giving up of profit-making routes allegedly to private airlines during the UPA dispensation. The court had in September 2012 issued notice to the government and Air India on the plea of CPIL seeking a CBI/SIT probe into the alleged irregularities. The plea had alleged that various decisions taken during the tenure of Patel were meant to benefit private airlines and had caused huge loss to Air India. The NGO had referred to several of Patel's decisions, including the "massive" purchase of 111 aircraft for national airlines costing around Rs 70,000 crore, taking a large number of planes on lease, giving up profit-making routes and timings in favour of private airlines and the merger of Air India and Indian Airlines. It approached the apex court challenging a Delhi High Court order dismissing its plea into the alleged irregularities. "A responsible committee like PAC is looking into the matter and we are not giving any direction at this stage but expect PAC to look into the matter from all angles...," the high court had said. In its petition before the apex court, the NGO had alleged that the actions and decisions of the then civil aviation minister "ruined our national carriers, cost the national exchequer tens of thousands of crores and the only beneficiary of the above decisions were foreign aircraft manufacturers, private and foreign airlines". "Thus the above actions were clearly made on extraneous considerations and resulted in pecuniary benefits to private companies, which is an offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act," it had said. CBI is examining the matter pertaining to allegedly suspicious transactions of Rs 22 crore involving non-existent entities in India and Singapore in AirAsia, an issue already being probed by the Enforcement Directorate. CBI sources said the agency is scrutinising material about the allegations and a final call to register a preliminary enquiry or an FIR will be taken once a prima facie case is made out. In 2013, Tata Sons had joined hands with Malaysian carrier and Arun Bhatia's Telestra Tradeplace to start low cost carrier India. The carrier had to wait for nine months before taking off. In September 2013, Tata Group had joined hands with Singapore Airlines to start a new full-service airline in India, 18 years after a failed attempt. Tata Sons owned 51 per cent stake in the carrier, which has been christened as Vistara, with Singapore Airlines holding the rest. In October last year, flagging "ethical concerns" in Tata Group's joint venture with AirAsia, its ex-Chairman Cyrus Mistry had claimed a forensic investigation had revealed fraudulent transactions of Rs 22 crore involving non-existent entities in India and Singapore. As a bitter war plays out between Mistry and Tata Group's interim Chairman Ratan Tata, the former had alleged that due to the latter's passion for aviation, the Tata Sons Board increased capital infusion into the aviation sector at multiple levels of the initial commitment. In a letter written to the Board members of Tata Sons a day after he was ousted on October 24, Mistry said, "Board members and trustees are also aware that in the case of AirAsia, ethical concerns have been raised with respect to certain transactions as well as overall prevailing culture within the organisation." "A recent forensic investigation revealed fraudulent transactions of Rs 22 crore involving non-existent parties in India and Singapore," it said. Bollywood star Akshay Kumar has slammed the molestation incident that took place on New Year's eve in Bangalore, calling it "truly shameful". The actor posted a video on Twitter, which he captioned as, "The Bangalore incident makes me feel we are evolving backwards, from humans to animals, rather beasts because even animals are better! Truly shameful." Akshay said he found it disgusting that some people would justify it by blaming women for their choice of clothes. "I am ashamed to be a human being today. I was returning from my New Year's vacation with my four-year-old daughter in my arms when I learnt about the molestation incident in Banglore. I don't know how did you all feel about it, but my blood started boiling. "I am a daughter's father but even if I was not one, I feel if a society cannot respect its women, it doesn't deserve to be called a humane society. What's most disgusting is that people have the guts to justify such shameful acts by criticising women for their choice of clothes," Akshay said. The actor is the latest Bollywood celebrity to express his concern over the incident, that has snowballed into a huge controversy. The star, who is the father of two children, also said, "Women should not consider themselves inferior to men... Just be fearless, be alert and learn self-defence." Several women were allegedly molested despite huge police presence at a large gathering in Bangalore during New Year's Eve revelry. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Animal rights bodies today hailed the Centre for banning import of reptile skin and hides, saying India is gradually emulating the nations across the world in adopting "cruelty free" alternatives to reduce suffering to animals. The government recently prohibited imports of skin and hides of reptiles, mink and fox. The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), in its January 3 notification, had revised the chapters dealing with the import of raw hides, skin, leather, furskins and artificial fur. "We commend the DGFT and Environment Ministry for its firm commitment in abolishing the import of exotic skins, exotic fur, skin. Leather industry slaughters, bludgeons and skins millions of animals every year in the name of frivolous fashion," said Gauri Maulelhi of Humane Society International (HSI) India's government liaison. Nations across the world are switching to cruelty-free alternatives and we are glad that India is gradually emulating similar policies to reduce and eliminate unnecessary pain and suffering to animals," she said. Earlier, imports of such items were subject to Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 and Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. "Today, with so many stylish and cruelty-free alternatives available, such as fake snake, mock croc, and faux fur, there is absolutely no need or justification for wearing animal skins or fur. Animals are not fabric and we commend the government of India for recognising that fact," said Nikunj Sharma, PETA India Government Affairs Liaison. PETA India claimed that it was the first to write to the Inspector General of Forests in the Environment Ministry in 2014 and communicated with Union Minister Maneka Gandhi about banning the import of all exotic skins and fur products. In 2015, the group met with Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, urging her to ban the import of all exotic skins and fur. In 2015, PETA India had released an expose, by its US arm, on two factory farms in Zimbabwe and one in Texas, USA, that supplied crocodile and alligator skins to Hermes-owned tanneries, to create USD 40,000-plus Birkin bags or USD 2,000 watchbands. In India, Hermes has stores in Delhi and Mumbai. In December last year, PETA India released a new PETA US video expose of crocodile farms in Vietnam -- including two farms that they said supplies skins to a tannery owned by Louis Vuitton's parent company, LVMH, which has not denied the specific allegations. Other investigations by PETA India's global affiliates have shown that snakes are commonly nailed to trees and that their bodies are cut open from one end to the other as they are skinned alive, in the belief that live flaying keeps the skins supple. Meanwhile, HSI India said the notification was issued in following exhaustive campaigning for a ban on trade of exotic skins by People For Animals, HSI-India and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and urging the government to take a clear moral stand by closing its doors to the trade. It said Union Minister Maneka Gandhi had also written a letter to Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman pressing the need to curb cruelty towards animals by prohibiting the import of exotic skins. Tens of thousands of exotic animals like crocodiles, fox, alligators, minks and others are held captive in factory farms for their fur and skin. The methods used in factory farms are remarkably poor and designed to maximises profits, always at the expense of the animals, HSI India said. It said that reptiles like crocodiles, alligators and others are crowded in barren concrete pits for months or even years before being skinned alive or slaughtered for their skins which is used for making luxury bags, belts, watchbands and others. The Asia Pacific, excluding Japan region, saw a slower pace of deal making in 2016 as compared to the previous year, but India was a bright spot with M&A activity at the highest annual total record, a report says. According to global deal tracking firm Mergermarket, the Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan) region saw M&A deals worth USD 658.8 billion, by way of 3,675 transactions, representing a 25.5 per cent decline in value terms over the previous year when 3,812 deals worth USD 883.7 billion were announced. India has been a bright spot for Asian M&A activity during 2016, with 388 deals worth USD 64.5 billion up 90.5 per cent by value compared to 2015 (421 deals, USD 33.9 billion) to reach its highest annual total on record. According to Mergermarket intelligence, the Indian chemicals industry is expected to see an increased number of deals in 2017 on the back of a relative slowdown in Chinese manufacturing sector and growing appetite of multinationals to expand their presence in the country. The main areas of interest are speciality chemicals, aroma chemicals, agro chemicals, flavour and fragrances, and niche chemicals, it added. Regarding the Asia-Pacific M&A activity, the report said that with the Chinese economy continuing to experience turmoil and Western countries undergoing transformative political change, the outlook for Asian M&A remains "uncertain." China's acquisitive streak abroad has been a headline trend during 2016, with 372 deals worth USD 206.6 billion representing the highest annual outbound deal value on record. However, in a bid to reduce capital flight, the Chinese government recently took a U-turn in financial policy, pledging to crackdown on costly outbound deals over USD 2 billion. "This move is likely to result in more modest deals in 2017, although the appetite for investment remains," the report said adding that in turn, this potential reduction of outbound activity may cause a resurgence in China's domestic M&A. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat will visit Jammu and Kashmir today in his first official trip after taking over as the country's 27th Chief of Army Staff. According to top army sources, he will be visiting the army formation in Jammu. Gen Rawat took over as chief of the 1.3 million strong Indian Army last week, succeeding Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag, who retired after 42 years of service. He superseded two seniormost Lt Generals, Praveen Bakshi and P M Hariz. Rawat was commissioned in the Fifth Battalion of the Eleven Gorkha Rifles in December 1978 from IMA, Dehradun. He was awarded the 'Sword of Honour' at the academy. Gen Rawat has vast experience in high-altitude warfare and counter-insurgency operations. He commanded an infantry battalion, along the Line of Actual Control in the Eastern Sector, a Rashtriya Rifles Sector and an Infantry Division in the Kashmir Valley, a Corps in the Eastern theatre and the Southern Command. He has also held important staff appointments at Directorate General of Military Operations and Military Secretary's Branch at Army HQ. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Israeli police arrested two people today after death threats emerged online against a judge over the manslaughter conviction of a soldier who shot dead a wounded Palestinian assailant. Israel's military has also assigned bodyguards to the three judges who found the 20-year-old French-Israeli soldier guilty yesterday, reports said. Sgt Elor Azaria was convicted after a trial in a military court that began in May and which deeply divided the country. It has led to harsh criticism of the verdict by far-right activists, while right-wing politicians -- including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu -- have called for the soldier to be pardoned. Police said they had arrested two people from Jerusalem and the city of Kiryat Gat for incitement to violence online. According to Israeli site Ynet, the posts by a 54-year-old man and 22-year-old woman included death threats against the head of the three-judge panel in the case, Colonel Maya Heller. "Police units are continuing to monitor social media and respond to threats and incitement to violence connected to the Azaria court decision," a statement said. Military and justice ministry officials declined to comment on the increased security for Heller as well as the two other judges, Colonel Carmel Wahabi and Lieutenant Colonel Yaron Sitbon. Military prosecutor Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Weissman was also reportedly given extra protection. In a sign of the tensions surrounding the case, dozens of protesters scuffled with police Wednesday as they gathered outside Israel's military headquarters in Tel Aviv, where the verdict was announced. Military chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot was reportedly targeted with threats, with some supporters of the soldier suggesting he would join Rabin -- a reference to the 1995 assassination of former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin by a Jewish extremist. The case burst into public view when a video of the March 24 shooting in Hebron in the occupied West Bank emerged and spread widely online. The video showed Abdul Fatah al-Sharif, 21, lying on the ground, shot along with another man after stabbing and moderately wounding a soldier minutes earlier, according to the army. Azaria then shoots him again in the head without any apparent provocation. Heller spent more than two and a half hours reading out the decision yesterday, sharply criticising the arguments of Azaria's lawyers. The judges ruled there was no reason for Azaria to open fire since the Palestinian was posing no threat. He faces up to 20 years in prison and will be sentenced at a later date. A poll by pro-Netanyahu newspaper Israel Hayom found that around 70 per cent of Israelis favour a pardon for Azaria. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Gov. Doug Burgum has the attention of the Legislature and public. In his State of the State speech Tuesday he repeated his call to reinvent state government. While short on details, his broad explanation of his approach to governance seems to intrigue the states residents. He promises to release his budget proposals as the legislative session gets under way. Hes made it clear he wants to reduce the cost of government down to the local level. He plans to reform property taxes with the ultimate goal of weaning state government away from property tax involvement. Legislators gave his speech a warm reception while saying they were eager to see his proposals. How well the Burgum administration works with the Legislature could be the key to the success of this session. As a new governor hell be given a little time to adjust, but not much. A lot of activity is squeezed into the 80 days or less the legislators are in session. Promising to reinvent government may sound exciting, but any proposed changes have the potential of upsetting someone. The administration will have to do a good job of selling its proposals. It will be interesting to see if Burgum and his staff can be persuasive and build support in the House and Senate. How agreeable will elected state officials be to his plans for change? Also in his Tuesday speech, the new governor acknowledged the concerns that the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe have with the Dakota Access Pipeline while saying, Those original concerns have been hijacked by those with alternative agendas. He has meetings this week with leaders of the states tribes. Its an opportunity for him and the tribes to begin finding common ground on the issues. Its clear from his speech that Burgum wants to reach a point where the protest camps will be abandoned. He indicated a willingness to help with the cleanup. The governor pointed out the area could flood in the spring, making it important that the area is vacated. If Burgum and Standing Rock Chairman Dave Archambault II can find a middle ground it will help the state and tribe improve relations. However, those with alternative agendas, as Burgum describes them, will be more difficult to appease. The governor also called for a different approach to treating drug addiction. Jail time without rehab is not a cure for addiction, he said. Overall, Burgums speech was a good start. Its clear that North Dakotans desire a different approach to governing. It doesnt mean they want to throw everyone out, but they want officials to listen and be willing to try different approaches. Burgum sat down with mayors last week to share his ideas and listen. Hes doing the same with the tribes this week. These sessions will help shape his agenda that will and should get close scrutiny by the Legislature and public. It could be the beginning of reinventing government. Arunachal Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein has placed proposals of the state government before the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to be considered and incorporated in the Union Budget 2017-18. Mein, who also holds the finance portfolio in Arunachal cabinet, yesterday attended the pre-budget meeting chaired by the Union Finance Minister in New Delhi. The meeting was also attended by Union Ministers of State for Finance Santosh Kumar Gangwar and Arjun Ram Meghwal, In the meeting, Mein placed the state govt proposal for railway connectivity along the foothills of the state to facilitate smooth movement of people and transportation of goods, an official release said here. He also placed proposal of 430 km long double lane east-west highway along the foothills at a total cost of Rs 5244 crore. The deputy chief minister informed that the proposal had already been submitted to the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways by the state government. "The strategically located border state of Arunachal Pradesh is lagging behind on the path of development and the biggest challenge before the state is to ensure robust connectivity," Mein told Jaitley, the release said. He also placed proposal for construction of a 1841 km long frontier highway which would run parallel to Trans Arunachal Highway and would ensure connectivity for the remote habitations along the China and Myanmar border. "It is equally important to connect the upper reaches of border areas as the villagers are migrating towards urban settlement, leaving the border areas vulnerable and uninhabited due to absence of good connectivity," Mein pointed out. He informed the union minister that the state government had prepared a blueprint of the proposed frontier highway and requested him to place the proposal on priority in the union budget, the release informed. At the state Finance Miisters' interaction with Jaitley, the Arunachal Deputy CM also sought financial help from the Centre for massive investment push, world class infrastructure development and global branding campaign to showcase the beauty of this part of India to rest of the world, the release said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Award winning director Ashutosh Gowariker will be delivering a lecture in the upcoming seventh edition of Yashwant International Film Festival, here. The seven-day film festival will begin from January 20 and conclude on January 26. The festival has been organised by Yashwantrao Chavan Pratishthan (YCP) in collaboration with Pune Film Foundation, University of Mumbai and supported by Government of Maharashtra. It will be held at Chavan Centre, here. The "Lagaan" helmer will deliver the "Smita Patil Memorial Lecture" on January 22. "We started Smita Patil Memorial Lecture last year where director Mahesh Bhatt delivered the lecture. This time we have invited renowned director Ashutosh Gowariker," festival director Jabbar Patel told reporters. As part of the master class, Chile music composer Jorge Arriganda will conduct special workshop on sound and music. For the opening ceremony, YCP president and MP Sharad Pawar will be present along with vice chancellor of University of Mumbai, Sanjay Deshmukh, informed YCP general secretary Sharad Kale. French film "Thank You For Bombing" by Barbara Eder will be the opening movie. During the festival, 52 world cinema, four retrospective, seven Latin America, three Hindi and Marathi films will be screened. The country focus this year is Vietnam, of which five films will be shown. Apart from this, 29 short films made by students will also be screened. Also present at the press conference today were festival chief co-ordinaries Mahendra Teredesai and desk officer Sanjay Bansode. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Fifteen people from DR Congo's Bantu community were killed today in an attack blamed on Pygmies in an area of the southeast that has seen repeated ethnic clashes, local sources said. "Clashes between Bantus and Pygmies in the village of Piana Mwanga have left 15 Bantus dead, 37 injured and 65 houses burned," Paul Kwanga, bishop of the southeastern town of Manono, told AFP. Civil society activists as well as the interior minister of Tanganyika province, where the assault took place, confirmed the attack. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Bangladeshi court today adjourned till January 12 the hearing of graft cases against former prime minister and BNP chief Khaleda Zia in which she could be jailed for life if found guilty. The former prime minister appeared before the court of Dhaka's Third Special Judge Abu Ahmad Jamadar which fixed January 12 to conclude hearing her defence statement in Zia Charitable Trust and Zia Orphanage corruption cases against her, the Daily Star reported. Previously on December 21, the special court had deferred the hearing of Zia's presentation of self defence and set the date for today. In 2008, the Anti Corruption Commission filed the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case against six including Zia and her son Tarique Rahman. It alleged that the defendants had embezzled 21 million Bangladeshi Taka from funds meant for the trust, which reportedly came from a foreign bank. In 2011, the anti-corruption watchdog sued the BNP chief and three others for embezzlement of 31.5 million Bangladeshi Taka (USD 4 lakh) of the Zia Charitable Trust. ACC Deputy Director Harunur Rashid, also an investigation officer of the case, pressed charges against the accused on January 16, 2012. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bahrain's prosecution today extended by two weeks the detention of Shiite opposition leader Nabil Rajab over spreading "false information" about the Sunni-ruled kingdom, his lawyer said. The human rights activist "was interrogated by the prosecution, who decided to extend his pre-trial detention by 15 days over the accusation of spreading rumours and false information," Mohammed al-Jishi said. This accusation is linked to television interviews given by Rajab in 2014 and 2015, the lawyer said, adding a request to free him had been rejected. On December 28, the prosecution said Rajab would remain in custody to be questioned over "spreading false about the situation in the kingdom", despite being granted bail in another case over tweets deemed hostile to Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, for which the next hearing is on January 23. In that case he is accused of "spreading false and rumours and inciting propaganda during wartime which could undermine the war operations by the Bahraini armed forces and weaken the nation". Bahrain is part of a Saudi-led coalition since March 2015 battling Shiite Huthi rebels in Yemen. Rajab, who had been pardoned for health reasons last year, was rearrested in June and is on trial on a list of charges, including insulting a state institution and Saudi Arabia in online postings. Rajab was questioned recently in custody over letters critical of the authorities that were published in September in The New York Times and in December in French daily Le Monde. Several rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have pressed Bahrain's authorities to release Rajab, a co-founder and president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights. Rajab has been repeatedly detained for organising protests and publishing tweets deemed insulting to the Gulf state's Sunni authorities. He previously served two years in jail on charges of taking part in unauthorised protests in the Shiite-majority kingdom. Home to the US Navy's Fifth Fleet, Bahrain has been rocked by unrest since security forces crushed Shiite-led protests in 2011 demanding a constitutional monarchy and an elected prime minister. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bahrain announced today that it has restored the power of its domestic spy service to make some arrests, reversing a key reform recommended in the wake of the crackdown that followed the country's 2011 Arab Spring protests. The decree affecting its National Security Agency comes as Bahrain is in the midst of a renewed clampdown on dissent. It also follows an armed assault on a prison that killed a police officer and freed 10 inmates. The decision came in decree, announced by the state-run Bahrain Agency. It described the decision as making the arrest powers "limited" to terrorism cases, though it was in fact restoring them. The royal decree was made "in view of the high risk of terror crimes, which necessitates prompt action to thwart plots, halt their impact, gather evidence and arrest the culprits," the report said. However, terrorism allegations have been levied against activists and protesters in the past. Bahrain's government did not immediately respond to questions from The Associated Press about the decision. Activists immediately warned the move would create an environment that allows security service abuses to flourish. "Today's decision makes it clear that Bahrain has turned its back unapologetically against human rights," said Husain Abdulla, the executive director of Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain. The National Security Agency was created in 2002, replacing the country's feared General Directorate for State Security. It gained arrest powers by royal decree in 2008. Limiting the agency's powers was a main recommendation made by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry, which investigated the 2011 protests and subsequent crackdown. Another royal decree after the protests stripped the agency of its arrest powers. The commission linked the agency to the systematic torture and raids conducted after the protests, which saw the island's Shiite majority and others demand more political freedom from the country's Sunni rulers. Troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates ultimately helped put down the protests. Bahrain, a small island off the Arabian Peninsula that's home to the US Navy's 5th Fleet and an under-construction British naval base, launched a wide-ranging crackdown on dissent in April. It's seen authorities imprison some prominent political figures and force others into exile. On Sunday, gunmen armed with automatic rifles and pistols stormed Bahrain's Jaw prison, killing a police officer and freeing 10 inmates convicted on terrorism charges. In the time since, police have stepped up checkpoints and patrols, but have yet to announce the recapture any of those who escaped. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Trinamool Congress MLA Nayna Bandyopadhyay today met her husband Sudip Bandyopadhyay at the CBI office here and later, alleged that the arrested TMC MP was a "victim of political vendetta". "What evidence or proof do they have against him (Sudip)? He has been a victim of political vendetta," she alleged, adding that her husband was arrested for "raising the demonetisation issue in Parliament". Alleging that the CBI did not even have the decorum to treat a mass leader, Nayna told PTI outside the CBI office, "They (CBI) called him asking him to come to their office and later, arrested him. We did not know why was he arrested. Even a local police station would not do something like this. It would at least inform the charges before making an arrest." The TMC MLA from the Chowringhee Assembly segment in Kolkata said she had gone to the CBI office to meet her husband who was "sick". "I gave him some medicines and inquired about his health. He is keeping well so far," she added. Expressing satisfaction over the support she and her husband were getting from the TMC rank and file, particularly from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Nayna said they had faith in the judiciary. "My husband will come out clean. We have faith in the judiciary," she said. Reacting to the allegation that the TMC Parliamentary Party leader in Lok Sabha had received money from chit fund company Rose Valley Group, Nayna said, "False...Totally false and baseless an allegation. Show us evidence." She came down heavily on the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's demonetisation decision. "You (Modi) are saying Bharat Mata Ki Jai...But, you cannot see how the women are suffering due to this 'note-bandi'. At least 100 people have died due to this," she alleged. In a bid to justify her allegation of "political vendetta" against the NDA government, the actress-turned-politician wondered why leaders of the BJP, CPI(M) and other political parties were not being arrested "for their association with chit fund companies". "They have only been targeting TMC leaders because of political consideration," she alleged. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Ahead of crucial upcoming Assembly polls in five states, the Supreme Court today said it would "soon constitute" a five-judge bench to decide questions like whether people facing trial in serious crime cases can be allowed to contest and at which stage of trial, a lawmaker would stand disqualified. "We must clarify this matter so that people know the law by next election," a bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar said while considering the submission that these issues needed to be decided at the earliest as many "dreaded criminals", against whom charges have been framed by courts in serious cases, are planning to contest upcoming Assembly polls. "We will soon constitute a Constitution bench to decide these issues," the bench, also comprising Justices N V Ramana and D Y Chandrachud, said. Senior advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for lawyer and Delhi BJP spokesperson Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, mentioned the PIL on the issue for urgent hearing on grounds including that many people, facing trial in serious cases, may contest and win elections and hence the legal questions needed to be settled. During the brief meintioning, the bench also said, "We cannot give an immediate answer to these questions since there is fear of lodging false cases in elections." A three-judge bench had on March 8 last year, referred various PILs including the one filed by Upadhyay to the CJI saying the questions like can a lawmaker, facing criminal trial, be disqualified at conviction stage or at the framing of charge in a case have to be decided by a larger bench. At present, a person, convicted in a serious criminal case, is barred from contesting polls and a lawmaker stands disqualified in the event of conviction. The questions, raised in the petitions, also include whether a person against whom charges are framed be permitted to contest elections. Singh told the bench that the ban on contesting polls is not sought against those who are facing charges in petty offences. Besides Upadhyay, former Chief Election Commissioner J M Lyngdoh and NGO 'Public Interest Foundation' had filed PILs raising similar issues. The pleas were referred to the larger bench which is yet to be set up. Upadhyay, in his application seeking setting up of a larger bench, said, "At present, more than 33 per cent legislators have criminal cases and Election Commission data shows that criminalisation is increasing every subsequent year. This trend is not good for a healthy democracy." "Assembly elections in five states has been declared in February 2017 and many dreaded criminals, against whom charges have been framed by the competent court in serious cases, are planning to contest the elections. If the five-judge bench is not constituted and the instant matter is not heard on priority, the nation will suffer irreparable loss and injury. Hence the matter is urgent," the plea said. Earlier, the apex court had set a deadline of one year for lower courts to complete trial in criminal cases involving sitting MPs and MLAs. It had also said that all such proceedings involving lawmakers must be conducted on a day-to-day basis. To expedite proceedings against lawmakers who continue to enjoy membership of a legislative body during the pendency of a case, the court had also said that lower courts will have to give explanation to the chief justice of the respective high court if the trial is not completed within a year. The Law Commission had recommended that such trials be concluded in one year. "We direct in cases of sitting MPs and MLAs who have been charged for offences under Sections 8(1), 8(2), 8(3) of Representation of People Act, the trial is to be conducted as expeditiously as possible but not later than one year from the date of framing of charges," it had said. The apex court had said that the period of one year can be extended by the chief justice of the high court if he is satisfied with the reason given by the trial judge for not completing the proceedings within the deadline. As the trial is kept pending for years, lawmakers continue to enjoy membership of the legislative body despite being charged in a heinous offence, the court had noted. The court had taken note of the Law Commission's report which said that a candidate should be disqualified on framing of charges in cases punishable with a jail term of five years or more as the current criteria of disqualification upon conviction is "incapable" of barring criminals from electoral politics. To ensure greater stability and accountability, Banks Board Bureau (BBB) chief Vinod Rai today suggested that managing directors of the public sector banks should be appointed for minimum 6 years. He also said that employees of the public sector banks will get higher perks from next fiscal so as to attract best talent from the market. "Also the attempt is being made with idea to enthuse accountability in the system to find executive director or whole time director or a CEO at an age where he has got a minimum of 6 years or more to go in the institution so that he can be held accountable for the decisions," Rai said. "A large number of problems have risen because the tenure of the people were very short, maybe 15 or 18 months and left behind a while trail of decisions which are being questioned now. If we provide 6 years of tenure to the professional, he will do their business with great degree of accountability that they are going to be subject to," he said. BBB was set up as an advisory body by the government last year to recommend on appointment of directors in public sector banks and advise on ways to raise funds and merger and acquisitions to the lenders among other things. At an Assocham event here, Rai said, BBB is also thinking of the fact that the compensation package across the board of public sector banks needs to be improved. "Maybe we are not able to do much with the fixed part of compensation package but variable part we are hopeful that in the next financial year we will be able to introduce a far more attractive package which do have bonuses, ESOPs and other performance linked incentives as part of the package," he said. It may be monetary or non-monetary benefits to make it more attractive for professionals to enter into public sector banking space, he said. Pointing to the P J Nayak Committee report, former CAG Rai said it had suggested that banks should be hived off into a holding company to ensure that they are free from government or political interference. "The government hives off the stakes and put it into a holding company, bank investment company or whatever name and this holding company is made to be run by professional persons who have experience of running the bank...Once these professionals are appointed, the bank is allowed to run by itself," he said. Noting that professionalism in banks has improved over a period of time, Rai said government is taking effective and healthy steps in this direction. Going forward, banks are indeed run by board which comprises of professionals in the true sense and the effort is to ensure that it is the board which run banks, he said. "At the same time people who join the board has responsibility to perform also and that responsibility is to take the risk which is called decision making. It is common knowledge that a decision of public sector bank is likely to be questioned and certain agencies are going to look into," he said. The attempt was to provide an intermediate mechanism which is called Oversight Committee to give certain amount of confidence to private and public sector banks for process of NPA resolution, he said. On the stressed assets, Rai said, banks have huge amount of bad loans and it needs to be sorted out so that they start lending and help economy to grow. "We are struggling with the fact that there are huge amount of stress in the balance sheet of the banks which needs to be sorted out... Banks must start lending. Unless they start lending, the process of regenerating the economy, reinvigorating the growth of infrastructure in the economy will not take off," he said. Rai said though the Corporate Debt Restructuring Cell was created with very noble intentions in early 2000s but later it found itself sagging with humongous amount of stressed assets, in which there was no way it could manage those resources. There have been innumerable cases where project reports were inflated, balance sheets manipulated and submitted, funds siphoned off and others, he said. While on the other hand, there are an equal number of instances where irresponsible or lazy lending took place, due diligence was given go by and where supervision was callous. "In the Banks Bureau, we are engaged in the task of trying to ensure that going forward, these things do not repeat themselves, a project report needs to be scrutinised very effectively, maybe we were lacking experience in the banks which scrutinised or appraised these project reports, these have to be done by one or may be two independent agencies not having anything in common with each other," he said. Sharing his perspective on the most recent demonetisation move of the government, he said that there is no harm in trying to cleanse the system and there are various ways to do it and demonetisation was one very effective way. "Any attempt to cleanse the economy is a very noble attempt and we should lend our energies in ensuring that process of cleansing takes place," he said. "It is far too early for us to say it is a success or not a success," he added. BBC has come under fire from viewers in the UK after airing a comedy skit titled 'Real Housewives of ISIS' that featured women in hijabs modelling suicide vests, with some accusing the broadcaster of 'trivialising' the plight of victims of the terror group. The skit, part of new BBC2 sketch show Revolting, shows four Western women, Afsana, Mel, Zaynab and Hadiya, who have travelled to Syria to join so-called Islamic State and become 'jihadi brides'. One of the characters comes in modelling a suicide vest as if it's a new outfit. In one scene, a friend says "Oh babe, you look gorgeous!" before turning to the camera and adding: "She looked massive. You're gonna need a lot of Semtex to kill that one." In another scene, a character called Afsana says "It's only three days to the beheading, and I've no idea what I'm going to wear." But the clip has received a mixed response after being posted on the BBC's Facebook page. Nabil Obineche wrote: "Girls who go to join these groups are groomed. "Tell me, there be any sketches mocking white girls that are also victims of grooming? I mean it's all humour right?" Gina Kathryn Beever added: "This isn't even Satire! Satire is much more intelligent than this. Jake Cooper chimed in: "People are entitled to make fun of and laugh at whatever they want. But I cant help but find this tasteless, ISIS is still a current threat and people die by their hands and women are treated with outright disrespect. "So to make light of it really feels like a low blow." And Jack Scotcher went on: "The broadcast trivialises the atrocities in Syria and justifies the mockery of the plight of Syrians through purported 'satire'. "It is utterly beyond the pale to broadcast something so shockingly vulgar and distasteful as this." But not everyone found the clip offensive. Irfan Mansor said: "I like it. It's making fun of isis which is a good thing. The whole point of satire is to bring people down to a level. "If you can mock something, you're not scared of it. ISIS want to be feared. Don't give them that. And yes I'm Muslim, and a leftist. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) BELFIELD - A 24-year-old South Heart worker died at a treater house fire on an oil well site in Billings County on Wednesday. Christopher James Okland was killed at a site about 11 miles north of Belfield and seven miles west of North Dakota Highway 85 at 1:45 p.m. Billings County Rural Fire Department and the Belfield Ambulance responded to a call and found a treater house engulfed in flames that was destroyed. A treater separates oil from water and natural gas after it comes out of the ground. Okland was found in the fire rubble after it was extinguished. There was an emergency call reporting an explosion, and then 15 minutes later a call was made reporting a fire. Both calls are a part of the investigation. Billings County Emergency Manager Pat Rummel said the site is owned and operated by Enduro Operating, LLC. while C and D Oilfield Services services the well. While much is unknown currently about the accident, the Okland family will be laying a family member to rest. Chris always had a smile, said his sister, Nicole Okland. He would help anyone the best he could. He was a honest, caring and a respectable young man. The fire is under investigation by the state fire marshal and Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Funeral arrangements are pending and will be handled by Ladbury Funeral Service in Dickinson. In an escalation of differences between Puducherry Lt Governor Kiran Bedi and the ruling Congress party, the former today declared as "null and void" the circularissued by Chief Minister V Narayanasamy banning the use of social media for official communication. Bedi also posted a copy of her order on her personal Twitter handle declaring the government circular null and void with immediate effect on the ground that it was issued "in contravention ofguidelines, rules and policies of the government". She tweeted, "If Puducherry has to be a progressive Union Territory it cannot be retrograde in communications. Hence @CM_Puducherry's order stands cancelled: @PMOIndia (sic)." Narayanasamy had issued the circular even as Bedi was pushing with her plan to promote WhatsApp communication by officials. The government circular dated January 2 had said the chief minister had directed all the officers, heads of departments and employees of government-owned undertakings to immediately desist from using the social media such as Twitter, WhatsApp and Facebook. It had added that the servers of these multi-national companies were based outside the country. "Any foreign country can get access to these official communications and documents uploaded which is a violation of the Official Secrets Act and also against the guidelines issued by Union Information Technology Ministry," it had said. Bedi has been camping in Delhi for the last few days during which she has met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and a few other Union ministers. She had recently created a WhatsApp group for exchange of information and details of implementation of various government schemes. An Officer on Special Duty at Raj Nivas is the administrator of the group. The government's circular was seen as a counter to Bedi suspending a Puducherry Civil Service officer for posting an "obscene" video clip on the WhatsApp group. Meanwhile, the Election Commission has stayed Bedi's December 30 order suspending the Registrar of Cooperative Societies, AS Sivakumar, an official told PTI. Sivakumar was appointed by the EC as Electoral Registration Officer for three Assembly seats in Puducherry. The official said Sivakumar resumed duty as Registrar of Cooperative Societies after his suspension order was stayed. He added that a letter issued by the EC to the Puducherry government said Sivakumar, in his capacity as Electoral Registration Officer (ERO), "is subject to control, superintendence and discipline of the ECI under section 13CC of the Representation of People Act, 1950". It also pointed out that "the Lt Governor ought to have taken the commission into confidence and consulted it before placing him under suspension". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) West Bengal is open to Canadian technology for smart and green city mission, a top state bureaucrat said here today. "We are open to international technology including Canadian, for smart and green city mission taken up by the State government," Additional Chief Secretary and WBHIDCO Chairman Debashis Sen said today while addressing an interactive session on Indo-Canada trade at Bharat Chamber of Commerce. Sen said Bengal is working towards inking a pact with the Canadian establishments and also held dialogues with Canadian High Commission in this regard. He, however, declined to divulge further details of the proposed MoU with Canadian entities. A 12-member trade delegation from Canada has arrived in the city to explore business opportunity. On the occasion, Bharat Chamber of Commerce signed an MoU with Indo-Canadian Chamber of Commerce for a preliminary exploration for areas of cooperation. Bonnie Crombie, Mayor of city of Mississauga, is also part of the delegation and sought FDI in the city highlighting benefits of investing in the young city of Canada. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A bill backing key changes in the H1-B programme that allows skilled workers from countries like India to fill high-tech jobs in the US has been reintroduced in the US Congress by two lawmakers who claim that it will help crack down on the work visa abuse. The 'Protect and Grow American Jobs Act' makes important changes to the eligibility requirements for H1-B Visa exemptions was re-introduced on Wednesday by Republican Darrell Issa and Scott Peters - both from California. The bill among other things increases the minimum salary of H-1B visa to $1,00,000 per annum and eliminate the Masters Degree exemption. The legislation, they argued, will help crack down on abuse and ensure that these jobs remain available for the best and brightest talent from around the world. The bill comes after a number of companies -- Disney, SoCal Edison and -- have come under fire for abusing the programme to replace American workers with foreign workers. "In order for America to lead again, we need to ensure we can retain the world's best and brightest talent. At the same time, we also need to make sure programs are not abused to allow companies to outsource and hire cheap foreign labour from abroad to replace American workers," Issa said. "The legislation we're introducing today does both. It will ensure that our valuable high-skilled immigration spots are used by companies when the positions cannot be filled by the existing workforce," Issa added. By raising the salary to a level more in-line with the average American salary for these positions, it would help cut down on abuse by removing the profit incentive and ensuring these positions remain available for companies who truly need them, a media release said. "Curbing abuse of the H1-B system will protect American jobs and help ensure that visas are available for innovators who need them to maintain a competitive workforce," Peters said. "This bipartisan bill makes one of the much-needed updates to our high-skilled visa system to level the playing field and help prevent companies from taking advantage of the system to offshore jobs," the Congressman said. The two lawmakers claimed that the legislation would cut down on abuse by eliminating the masters degree exemption, which has become abused as foreign workers seeking H1B Visas have increasingly sought and obtained low-quality certificates to meet the requirements for an exemption just to qualify for H1B, instead of keeping the positions open for truly high- skilled positions that companies cannot fill domestically. The bill had faced opposition last year in Congress. Reshaping immigration is a central tenet of President- elect Donald Trump's push for companies to invest and hire more in the US. Trump has listed immigration reform among five executive actions he plans to take on his first day in office. They include asking the Department of Labor to investigate "all abuses of the visa programmes that undercut the American worker. Claiming that West Bengal is facing a total law-and-order breakdown, a BJP delegation today met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and demanded that the Centre's review the situation in the state. The BJP leaders also alleged that the political violence in West Bengal has "blessings of Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee and state police was a silent spectator". "Such an unfortunate and serious situation warrants an immediate review of the law and order situation in the state and whether the state government is capable of carrying out its responsibility in accordance with the Constitution. "Therefore, we request your immediate and determined intervention in this matter," the delegation led by BJP National General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya said in a memorandum submitted to the minister. "Many of our workers were injured in the mayhem created by Trinamool Congress activists at the BJP office in Kolkata," Vijayvargiya, the party's in charge in West Bengal, said. "It is palpable that the fundamental rights of people of West Bengal have been breached with impunity, while the state administrative machinery was kept ineffective under political pressure," the memo alleged. The BJP leaders said a number of party offices in West Bengal have been ransacked and the house of Union Minister Babul Supriyo besieged by TMC workers. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In run-up to Assembly elections in Goa, the ruling BJP will be fielding a battery of high-profile leaders for campaigning and is planning to organise at least two public rallies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi by month end. "Our party president Amit Shah would be arriving in Goa on January 22-23 when we will plan two major public meetings which would be addressed by the Prime Minister," BJP MP Narendra Sawaikar told reporters today. Senior leaders including Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Venkaiah Naidu, Nitin Gadkari and Smriti Irani, besides Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, Karnataka BJP president B S Yeddyurappa would hit the hustings in coming days. Elections will be held in Goa, having 40-member House, on February 4. Sawaikar said BJP has already been in a poll mode and has mobilised voters in all constituencies. "We have also started the process to decide names of candidates. The state election committee (of BJP) will meet on January 8-9 where all reports would be prepared and sent to central election committee. Only after that there would be announcement of candidates," he said. BJP has already announced that they will field candidates on 37 seats and extend support to three others in Catholics-dominated Nuvem, Benaulim and Velim. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Ahead of the Assembly polls in five states, including in Uttar Pradesh, a two-day BJP national executive meet will begin here tomorrow where the government's demonetisation move is likely to be hailed as "an important step" in its "war against black money and corruption". The party will use the occasion to burnish its pro-poor and pro-weak credentials by citing several government schemes, including the recent sops announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The top BJP brass is also expected to target the opposition over its attack on the government for advancing the Budget Session of Parliament and may project it as yet another attempt by the Congress and the other rival parties to derail Modi's "pro-poor" agenda. With the mood in the saffron camp optimistic following the prime minister's huge rally in Lucknow recently and what it believes to be a positive public response to the currency ban, the party is expected to project the opposition's criticism of the exercise as an attempt to protect the corrupt. Two resolutions, one political and the other economic, are likely to be passed at the meet. BJP chief Amit Shah will deliver the inaugural address while Modi is set to give the valedictory speech the day after. The army's surgical strikes last year to target terror launchpads across the border could also find a mention at the meeting. The Election Commission yesterday announced the dates for Assembly polls in five states -- Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Manipur, Goa and Uttarakhand. BJP's central election committee is likely to announce the names of party candidates after the auspicious 'Makar Sankranti' which falls on January 14. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The body of a two-month-old baby boy has gone missing from a graveyard near Delhi Gate in central Delhi, police said today. The boy's parents alleged that someone has stolen the body, while the graveyard authorities claimed that a dog or some wild animals might have taken away the body. The matter is being investigated and prima facie, it looks like some animals took the body away, said a senior police officer. "The boundary wall is quite short and animals can easily climb over it. We have asked the graveyard authorities to take adequate security measures so that such incidents don't happen again," he said. The baby was born to 46-year-old Hafiz Khan and his wife Shaina Begum (40) on November 7. The baby started feeling uneasy on January 3 and was taken to a hospital where he was declared brought dead. He was laid to rest the same day and yesterday when his father went to the graveyard, he found that his son's body was missing following which he approached police. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Accepting a woman's version that she was in a confused state of mind at the time of filing a rape complaint against her boyfriend, the Bombay High Court has quashed the case. The court interviewed the complainant and the accused and came to the conclusion that the woman had complained of rape when she was in a confused state of mind. "The complainant has no objection if the complaint is quashed. We are satisfied that though the offence which was initially registered as an offence punishable under section 376 IPC (rape), it appears that the offence was registered by the police when she was in a confused state of mind," said a division bench headed by Justice V M Kanade recently. "In view of the reply filed by Respondent No 2 (victim) in this application, it is obvious that the averments made in the complaint would not constitute an offence punishable under section 376 IPC (rape)," said justices V M Kanade and Nutan Sardessai while quashing the case. The bench observed that the ratio of judgement of the apex court in the case of Narinder Singh Versus State of Punjab (2014) will squarely apply to this case. "The criminal application, therefore, is allowed in terms of prayer clause (b) (for quashing the case) and is disposed of," the judges said. According to the affidavit filed by the complainant in the high court, she was a widow and her boyfriend a widower. "The two were in a relationship. The man had promised to the complainant that he would marry her and hence she had given consent for physical relationship with him. Later, he rescinded from the promise. She then filed a police complaint alleging rape," said the affidavit. In the affidavit, she also stated that she was feeling insecure and, therefore, she was under depression. Under these circumstances, she had filed the complaint with the police. In reply, she further stated that she has no objection if the complaint is quashed. After hearing the parties and interviewing the accused as well as the complainant, the bench quashed the case saying that the complainant was in a confused state of mind when she had filed the complaint. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) British Prime Minister will visit Donald Trump this spring, following his inauguration as US president, Downing Street has announced. May's joint chiefs of staff Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill travelled to the US last month to meet Trump's team. "This was part of a process leading towards the PM's first visit with President-elect Trump," a Downing Street spokesman told AFP yesterday. "During the second phone call with President-elect Trump, the prime minister suggested it would be a good idea for key staff from both teams to meet. President-elect Trump agreed this would be useful." May had previously spoken to Trump following his election in November, during which he invited her to visit "as soon as possible". The prime minister's office said the visit was secured following her aides' meeting Trump's team. "We are pleased to have been able to make that happen and the prime minister looks forward to visiting the new president in the spring," the spokesman said. The British government would not confirm a date for the visit, which Sky News reported as scheduled for February. Trump is due to be sworn in as US president on January 20. New security reforms are to be put in place for the famous 'Changing of the Guard' ceremony at Buckingham Palace from later this month. The colourful military spectacle which attracts thousands of tourists from around the world usually took place on alternate days from August to March. It will now be scheduled for set days of Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays during this period. The timing of the event is also being brought forward by half an hour, with the palace leg of the ceremony taking place at 11 am rather than 11.30 am. A spokesperson for the UK's Royal Parks said, "From January 16, Changing of the Guard will take place on fixed days in the autumn and winter; on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays between 10.15 am and 11.45 am. "This new programme allows the public, visitors, motorists and businesses to forward plan following new road closures on guard change days which were introduced in December as part of ongoing security measures aimed at keeping the public safe," he said. Scotland Yard had announced a hike in protective security measures at the ceremony in December in the wake of the Berlin lorry attack, when a truck packed with steel ploughed into a Christmas market in the German capital, killing 12 people. For the next three months, roads around the palace will close to traffic at certain times of day when the ceremony is taking place, and additional barriers will maintain security for the guards' movements. From April to July marking Britain's summer period, Changing the Guard takes place every day of the week. The British Army said it had made "no decision" on whether to switch the daily event to set days in the summer as well. During the traditional ceremony, which is also known as Guard Mounting, the Old Guard - the soldiers currently on duty - line up in front of the Palace and are replaced by the New Guard which arrives from Wellington Barracks. The New Guard is accompanied by a Band or Corps of Drums and the ceremony represents a formal handover of responsibilities. The duty is usually carried out by one of the five Foot Guards Regiments of the Queen's Household Division. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Courts must never deny justice to anyone in "over zealousness" to dispose cases, the Delhi High Court has said while observing that "docket explosion" of matters is a problem for the judicial system to contend with. A bench of Justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Ashutosh Kumar said this while setting aside a judgement passed by a single judge who had dismissed a suit filed by a petitioner seeking permanent injunction restraining infringement of trade mark allegedly by the respondent firm. The division bench noted that the single judge, in its verdict in August last year, had dismissed the suit at the admission stage itself without issuance of summons and "this, we are afraid, is contrary to the provisions of the statute". "Before concluding, we would like to make a brief comment on the court's concern with 'docket explosion'. No doubt, it is a problem for the judicial system to contend with. But, that does not concern the individual litigant who comes to court seeking justice," the bench said. "Our endeavour must never be to deny justice to anyone in our over zealousness to dispose cases. As Benjamin Franklin said -- great haste makes great waste, courts while endeavouring to deliver speedy justice, must not hand out hasty decisions without any concern for justice," it said. The court observed that the single judge has made certain observations based on his "own research" without giving any opportunity of rebuttal to the petitioner. "For all these reasons, the impugned judgment cannot be sustained at all. The same is set aside. The suit is restored and the same shall be proceeded with by the single judge in accordance with the law," the bench said while allowing the appeal filed by the petitioner. The petitioner, engaged in hotel business, had approached the high court claiming that the respondent firm was using the trade mark 'PRIVEE' which was identical to or deceptively similar to their trademark - MBD PRIVE and PRIVE. The suit by the petitioner had come up for hearing before a single judge in July last year and the court had dismissed the plea without issuing any summons to the respondent. The single judge had observed that suits which are doomed to fail and of which there are no chances of success should be dismissed at whatever stage the court finds it to be so. The division bench, while setting aside the verdict, noted that "a court may feel that case of a plaintiff is weak but that is no ground whatsoever for throwing out the suit lock, stock and barrel without giving the plaintiff an opportunity of proving and establishing its case". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A car bomb tore through a Baghdad market today, killing at least nine people in what appeared to be the latest in a series of deadly attacks by the Islamic State group. Elsewhere, four attacks in and around Baghdad killed at least seven people, bringing the day's overall death toll to at least 16. Those attacks, mostly by bombs that went off in commercial areas or targeted security forces, also wounded at least 20 people, police and medical officials said. In the Baghdad attack, the car was parked near an outdoor fruit and vegetable market in a mostly Shiite neighborhood of the city. Seven civilians and two policemen were among fatalities, while at least 15 other people were wounded, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks but they bore the hallmarks of IS, which has carried out a string of bombings in Baghdad over the past week, killing nearly 100 people. The Sunni extremists frequently target Iraq's security forces and civilians in Shiite neighborhoods. IS has managed to carry out a series of attacks across Iraq while also putting up stiff resistance in the northern city of Mosul, where US-backed Iraqi forces have been waging a massive offensive since mid-October to retake the city, Iraq's second-largest, from the militants. Mosul, about 360 kilometers northwest of Baghdad, is the extremist group's last major urban bastion in the country. Iraqi forces have retaken around a quarter of the city since the offensive began. Iraq announced a new operation today to recapture IS-held towns near the Syrian border. Major General Qassim al-Mohammadi said the troops would try to dislodge IS from Rawah, Anah and Qaim, towns in the western Anbar province that fell to the extremists in the summer of 2014. US-backed Iraqi forces drove IS from the two main cities of Anbar, Ramadi and Fallujah, last year. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Centre has chalked out a strategy to impart farm-related knowledge and develop agri skill sets among 6.33 lakh farmers by 2022 and about Rs 3.5 crore fund has been set aside for 2016-17. Developing farmers skill sets is part of the government's national skill development policy launched in 2015. The Agriculture and Skill Development Ministries will together provide farmers skill development training from this month onwards. "Our aim is to double farmers income. To achieve this, farmers need to diversify their farm activities. We have decided to provide required skills to them to take up allied activities like fishery, beekeeping, vermi-compost and others," Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said. The Agriculture Ministry has made a budget provision of Rs 3.52 crore for the 2016-17 fiscal providing skill sets through 100 Krishi Vikas Kendras and eight training institutes, the minister said after inaugurating a national workshop in this regard here. The government has identified the skill gap in 6.33 lakh farmers and aims to train these by 2022, said a senior Ministry official. The representatives of KVKs, officials from Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) as well as trained youth entrepreneurs were present at the day-long workshop. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The editor of Charlie Hebdo believes the world has become less tolerant of the French satirical newspaper's black humour but he staunchly defends the right to offend, two years after jihadist gunmen killed many of its staff. Charlie Hebdo marked the grim anniversary in typical style with a front-cover cartoon showing a laughing man staring down the barrel of a jihadist's AK47 rifle with the caption: "2017, at last, the light at the end of the tunnel." On January 7, 2015, in an attack that tore the heart out of the paper, brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi forced their way into the low-key Paris office building where it was based and killed 11 people, including star cartoonists Cabu, Charb, Wolinski and Tignous. The slogan "Je Suis Charlie" was quickly picked up as an estimated one million people marched in a mass outpouring of solidarity in Paris, and it soon became a rallying cry for freedom of expression around the world. The newspaper had long been a target for Islamic extremists because it was one of a handful of European publications that printed cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. Riss, the man who took over from Stephane "Charb" Charbonnier as editor following the attack, now wonders how much support he would get if he repeated that controversial move now. "We get the impression that people have become even more intolerant of Charlie," he told AFP. "If we did a front cover showing a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed now, who would defend us?" Riss, whose real name is Laurent Sourisseau, said the number of threats received by the staff was increasing. "Before they told us to be careful of Islamists. Now we must look out for Islamists, Russians and Turks," he said. That was partly a reference to a protest from Russian President Vladimir Putin over a cartoon Charlie Hebdo published in December after dozens of members of a Red Army choir were killed in a plane crash. It showed a choir member in uniform singing the wailing sound "AAAAA" as the plane plunges, under the title: "The Red Army choir's repertoire is expanding." The anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo murders was marked today -- two days early -- in low-key ceremonies in Paris led by the city's mayor Anne Hidalgo. The killings continued after the attack on the offices. One of the Kouachi brothers shot dead a policeman in cold blood as the officer lay injured on the pavement. As the Kouachis went on the run, another France-based jihadist, Amedy Coulibaly, took up the baton by first killing a policewoman and then taking hostage Jewish shoppers in a kosher supermarket. He killed four men before police stormed the building and shot him dead. The Kouachi brothers, who carried out the attack in the name of Al-Qaeda's branch in Yemen, were themselves killed in a shootout with police after a siege northeast of Paris. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Chinese scientists are drawing a 1:2.5 million scale geological map of the Moon as China plans to become the first country in the world to explore dark side of the lunar surface to showcase its space prowess. Ouyang Ziyuan, first chief scientist of China's lunar exploration programme, said five universities and research institutes have set standards for digital mapping and drawing of the Moon's geological structure. A sketch version of the map, 4.36 meters by 2.2 meters, will be finished by 2018, and released by 2020. The map will provide information on geology, structure and rock types and will reflect the timeline of the Moon's evolution, state-run Xinhua agency reported. Chen Shengbo, a geologist with Jilin University in Northeast China's Jilin province, and his team are responsible for drawing the lunar structure outline, just one part of the work. He said the map would clearly show lunar geography such as geographic fractures, the size, appearance and the structure of craters. Chen said mapping depends on data and images sent by circumlunar satellites from home and abroad. Lunar map making is not like drawing a map of the Earth, where scientists can go to the scene in person if they are not sure of their information. China's satellites have captured global images of the Moon, which contribute to the precision of lunar maps. An official paper recently said China will launch a lunar probe in 2018 to achieve world's first soft landing on the farsideof the moon. China also aims to reach Mars by 2020, to catch up in the spare race with India, the US, Russia and the EU which so far have succeeded in the most difficult of all space journeys by successfully sending probes to the red planet. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) China on Thursday dismissed as "untrue" allegations of double standards by India by blocking its bid to list JeM leader as global terrorist by the UN, claiming that it had adopted a "just, objective and professional" attitude in deciding the matter. "With regard to the listing matter of the security council 1267 committee the so called double standards adopted by China on this relevant issue is not true. We take action based on solid evidence that is the standard upheld by us," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told media briefing here. Responding to remarks made by Minister of State for External Affairs M J Akbar on Azhar's issue during the press conference in New Delhi on Wednesday Geng said, "We have taken a responsible and constructive part in relevant discussion in a professional and objective way". "Relevant members differed on this issue. The purpose of China to put forward technical hold on that issue is to create enough time for the committee and relevant parties to consult with each other on the relevant issue," he said. Akbar on Thursday had said, "We really do expect China to hear the voice of the world, not just voice of India on terrorism." Referring to Pakistan's support to terror, India also hoped that as a "responsible and a mature" nation, China will understand the "double standards" and "simply self-defeating and suicidal" approach of Islamabad to terrorism. China was the only country among the 15-member 1267 counter terrorism committee of the UN Security Council which has objected to India's application to list Azhar who is accused of masterminding the Pathankot terror attack. China had put two technical holds on India's move first for six months followed by a second one for a period of three months ending Dec 31 after which India has to file a fresh application to get the Pakistan-based Azhar listed as a terrorist by the UN. When pointed out that China was the only member among the 1267 committee members to have objected, Geng said "relevant attitude and action of China comply with the resolution of the UNSC and rules ofprocedure of the committee." "China takes a very objective and just and professional attitude on that. Up to now the Committee is yet to come to an agreement on this issue and we would like stay in communication and coordination with all relevant parties including India on this," he said. The issue remained unresolved even after the two countries have held several rounds of talks on this issue. Elaborating on China's position, Geng said, "It is regrettable that an agreement is yet to be made. Relevant actions taken by China in the committee is to safeguard the authority and effectiveness of the committee". "It is out of the responsible attitude China will continue to stay in communication with all relevant parties including India in accordance with the security council resolution and rules of the procedures of the committee," Geng said. At the same time he said, "I also want to stress that both China and India are victims of terrorism. We have the same purpose and share the same goal on the issue of counter terrorism and we hope to enhance cooperation and communication with the Indian side to uphold peace and security of the region". On the comments by Minister of State for External Affairs, General (rtd) V K Singh that India's engagement with China under close developmental partnership continue to expand despite differences, Geng said Beijing too wants to develop strategic partnership of co-operation with India. "With regard to bilateral relationship with India we all know that both China and India are major developing countries and emerging markets in the world," he said. "To build more closely knit relationship for development serves the fundamental interest of the two countries and two peoples and it is also conducive to the stability of the region. We are also willing to develop strategic partnership of co-operation with India. This position remains unchanged," he said. A CISF official today allegedly committed suicide by shooting himself from his service revolver at a Delhi Metro station here. The incident was reported at around 4.30 PM from Kalkaji station when Sub-Inspector Bhagat Singh allegedly shot himself inside the CCTV control room, officials said. Senior CISF and police officers soon reached the spot and the paramilitary has ordered a Court of Inquiry into the incident, they said. Singh, who joined the force in 2012, was a married man and and hailed from Agra, the officials said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 28-year-old CISF sub-inspector allegedly committed suicide today by shooting himself with his service revolver at a Delhi Metro station here, police said. The incident was reported at around 4.30 PM from Kalkaji Metro station when Sub-Inspector Bhagat Singh locked himself inside the CCTV control room and shot himself, they said. Singh, who was the shift in-charge, was shouting from the room that he would kill himself and while the staff at the station was trying to break open the door, he shot himself, police said. No suicide note has been found till now and his family claimed that they do not know what drove him to take the extreme step, police said. Police will be scanning his call detail records and talking to his family members in detail to ascertain the reason for his alleged suicide. Senior CISF and police officers soon reached the spot and the paramilitary has ordered a Court of Inquiry into the incident, they said. Singh, a resident of Agra, had joined the force in 2012, and was married with two kids, the officials said. He was staying alone in the CISF barracks near Okhla metro station. His brother, Manwari also stays in Delhi. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Cloud computing is a critical component for ensuring success of Digital India, the flagship programme of the NDA government, and access to cloud networks is crucial and requires safe practices, experts said today. Pamela Kumar, Vice-President, Cloud Computing Innovation Council of India, Bengaluru, said the Digital India programme has several key aspects like digital lockers where individuals can store their information online. MeghRaj Cloud Computing- Government of India's initiative to harness the benefits of Cloud Computing-- is also a very crticial component of Digital India programme. Speaking at plenary session on Cloud Computing and Virtualisation at the Indian Science Congress here, Kumar also emphasised on an Indian version of cloud that suits its requirements. "We need the mangalyaan version (of data computing) and not the NASA version," she said. Cloud computing is the practice of using a network of remote servers hosted on the Internet to store, manage, and process data, rather than on a local server or a personal computer. For instance, dropbox, Google Drive, One Note are examples of cloud where data can be saved and accessed from different media like mobile phones, tablets and computers. One need not restrict himself to a desktop or a laptop under cloud computing. However, cloud computing also needs right kind of security measures. Referring to the hacking of computer of Democratic National Committee, Biswanath Mukherjee, Distinguished Professor at the Department of Computer Science of University of California, said weak passwords are a major factor contributing to such incidents and it is important to follow safe practises. In plenary session on 5G and Internet of Things (IoT), experts discussed the scope of 5G in coming years. Rishi Bhatnagar, President of Aeris Communications, said 5G was expected to come in India by 2020. Unlike 2G, 3G and 4G, 5G will leapfrog. We can expect the 5G technology to come up by in next 3 years, he said. Bhabani Sinha, professor at the Advanced Computing and Microelectronics Unit at the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, said several aspects like call drops in 4G and faster draining of battery has to be addressed before 5G arrives on the scene. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Congress workers today staged protests outside the offices of collectors across different districts headquarters in Gujarat against demonetisation. They also handed over memorandum detailing their grievances. Party members were also detained by police in different districts for demonstrations. In Ahmedabad, protesting opposition party members burnt effigy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and also allegedly vandalised hoardings when they were not allowed to meet the collector but were not detained, police said. Gujarat Congress chief Bharatsinh Solanki termed demonetisation as an "anarchist decision". "Demonetisation will cause negative impact on India's economy and GDP might fall upto 2 per cent. Job market has got impacted by this decision and more than 2 crore employees may have to lose their job," claimed Solanki. All India Congress Committee co-ordinator and Rajya Sabha MP Narendra Budania also condemned the decision to demonetise high value currency notes. "Demonstration against demonetisation will be held in each and every district of Gujarat. Gujarat Congress is giving tough fight to BJP which is commendable," he said. "Demonetisation drive is nothing but a scheme of Modi government to get convert black money into white," he alleged. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Continental Resources has agreed to pay a $7,500 fine to settle a complaint that the oil company couldnt locate underground pipelines in southwest North Dakota, one of three fines issued Wednesday by the Public Service Commission. Commissioner Brian Kalk said the fine should serve as a signal to the industry that operators need to be able to locate underground facilities or face violations of the North Dakota One-Call law. Third-party damage is the biggest reason why pipelines fail or power lines fail, Kalk said. The goal here has never been to fine people. Its to protect the facilities. Many One-Call violations result when excavators fail to follow the call-before-you-dig law and then cause damage to underground utilities. But in this case, the reverse occurred with an excavator who complained about the pipeline owner, Kalk said. Keith Ernst, president of Ernst Trenching of Fargo, complained in October 2015 that Continental Resources could not locate pipelines near Rhame in southwest North Dakotas Bowman County. They have little idea of where their lines are at and they literally just take a guess, Ernst wrote in the complaint to the commission. Ernst wrote that he was worried one of his workers would strike a pressurized air pipeline owned by Continental Resources and be seriously hurt. High-pressure air pipelines have been used for enhanced oil recovery projects in Bowman County. Staff for the Public Service Commission alleged in a complaint that Continental Resources failed to locate and mark the pipelines within 48 hours of a One-Call request, as required by North Dakota law. Continental Resources agreed to pay a $7,500 fine as part of a consent agreement in which the company neither admits nor denies the allegations. Ernsts company decided not to do the excavation due to safety concerns. In an interview Wednesday, Ernst said he was glad the matter was resolved, though he wished the resolution happened sooner. At least it will get their attention, Ernst said. I didnt want to not do anything and read about someone getting killed someday. Continental Resources declined to comment Wednesday. With the fines approved Wednesday, the Public Service Commission has now issued more than $150,000 in fines for One-Call violations since taking over enforcement of the law in 2009. The fines go into North Dakotas general fund. Also Wednesday, the PSC issued its first default order against a company that failed to respond to the agencys complaint regarding a One-Call violation. In that case, the PSC alleges that Big Horn Underground broke the law last June when it struck a natural gas pipeline in a subdivision under construction in Jamestown. The PSC ordered a $1,100 fine. If the company doesnt pay, it will be turned over to a collection agency and regulators will notify the Secretary of States Office the company should no longer be considered in good standing, Kalk said. In addition, the PSC approved a $2,000 fine in a consent agreement with Plote Construction, which struck a natural gas pipeline in Williston in 2014. The maximum fine is $25,000, which increased in 2013 from $5,000. The level of fine is determined by factors such as whether anyone was hurt, the amount of damages, if customers were affected and if its a first-time or repeat offense, Kalk said. Carlee McLeod, president of Utility Shareholders of North Dakota, said the increased fine potential and the enforcement by the PSC are improving safety. I think it is deterring people from disregarding the law, and thats really the goal, McLeod said. Also Wednesday, a bill to strengthen the states One-Call law got its first hearing in a House committee. House Bill 1026 includes language clarifications in several areas of the law with the goals of protecting underground facilities and the people who work around them, as well as protecting the environment, McLeod said. The PSC supports the bill, which had no opposition during the hearing. We want to prevent the next pipeline spill or the next community getting cut off from 911 access or the Internet, McLeod said. Terming consolidation in public sector banks a "long drawn process", Banks Board Bureau (BBB) chief Vinod Rai said it should gather momentum in 2-3 years. "Finance Minister in his Budget speech talked about consolidation of banks. Prime Minister has made references to the idea that there should be 6 or 8 large banks. The entire process is being thought of but it's not that it is going to materialise in two or three months," he said at an event here. "This is long drawn process," Rai said, adding that in the next 2-3 years, it should gather momentum. "A lot of work has to be done. Once the road map is ready it will be rolled out," he added. BBB is an advisory body set up by the government last year ahead of Budget to recommend names for appointment as directors in public sector banks and advise on ways to raise funds and mergers and acquisitions, among other areas. On the recommendation of BBB, the process of merger of five associate banks of SBI with the parent is underway. Bharatiya Mahila Bank is also being merged with SBI. The merger would make SBI a global-sized bank and make it amongst the top 50 lenders in the world, with an asset base of Rs 37 trillion or over USD 555 billion, with 22,500 branches and over 58,000 ATMs and more than 50 crore customers. SBI has three listed associate banks - State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur (SBBJ), State Bank of Mysore (SBM), State Bank of Travancore (SBT) and two unlisted associate banks - State Bank of Patiala and State Bank of Hyderabad. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A major water crisis in Syria's capital worsened as regime and rebel forces clashed near its main reservoir today despite a fragile truce that entered its seventh day. The water from rebel-held Wadi Barada, which supplies four million people in Damascus, has been cut since December 22, causing major shortages. The regime and rebels have traded accusations over responsibility. Government forces backed by Lebanon's Hezbollah group are fighting to recapture the area northwest of Damascus even as a nationwide ceasefire has brought quiet to other parts of Syria in preparation for renewed peace talks. The truce, brokered by regime backer Russia and rebel sponsor Turkey, was meant to pave the way for peace negotiations later this month in the Kazakh capital Astana. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said regime forces late yesterday launched "dozens of air strikes on parts of Wadi Barada along with artillery and rocket fire, killing a firefighter." The Observatory, a Britain-based monitor of Syria's conflict, said pro-regime forces and rebels were locked in ongoing clashes there Thursday. Retaking the area became an urgent priority for the regime as the cut caused severe water shortages in the capital. Damascus residents said they have been forced to buy bottled water at twice its normal price as their supplies have run low. "We used to complain about power cuts, but now we can see that it's nothing compared to the lack of drinkable water. Water is life," said Faiz, a 50-year-old civil servant. Riham, 49, of Mashrou Dummar district, said she has not been able to bathe or wash her clothes for a week. The water in her own tank had almost run out and she only uses it for absolute necessities. The public water authority has published daily updates on its Facebook page telling residents where and when water will be distributed. But locals said the water often fails to arrive and when it does, is undrinkable. Authorities said they closed several shops on Wednesday for selling drinking water at elevated prices. Mohannad, 53, said he buys drinking water at twice its normal price. A 10-litre bottle that sold for 500 liras ($1/95 euro cents) before the mains water was cut now sells for 1,000 liras. "It's an unexpected cost on top of that fact that living is already expensive," Mohannad said. The regime says forces in Wadi Barada include former Al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham Front, previously known as Al-Nusra Front, which Moscow and Damascus say is excluded from the ceasefire. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Defence Ministry has pushed for enhanced allocation in the upcoming budget, Minister of State for Defence, Subhash R Bhamre indicated today. "Raksha Mantri (Manohar Parrikar) is definitely eyeing for that, and he has already spoken to the people concerned", he told PTI here when asked if the Ministry is seeking enhanced allocation in the budget. Asked if infiltration into Kashmir from across the border has come down, the Minister said: "Past few days, border is quiet....Situation is much better. We are hoping to improve it day-by-day because our strategy is...We want peace at the border". As for the possibility of resumption of dialogue with Pakistan, he said: "Let's hope for the best". Earlier, he delivered his inaugural address at a seminar on "leveraging defence expenditure as a tool for nation building", organised by College of Defence Management. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The purchasing sentiment of Indians during December fell steeply by 0.42 points due to demonetisation with the Buying Propensity Index (BPI) standing at 0.26 points, a nine-month low, according to TRA Reserach. The BPI in November 2016 had stood at 0.68 points. "The country's buying sentiment was consistently recovering since July 2016, but the surprise demonetisation announcement was the biggest factor causing unnatural fluctuations in the buying sentiment as reflected by the Index," TRA Research CEO N Chandramouli said today. Noting that the buying sentiment in December has fallen precipitously to the lowest in nine months, he said the the December drop was probably when the pain of demonetisation began to be felt more severely after the first salary cycle. The Index, based on research across 3,000 consumer- influencers across the eight tier I cities, found that Delhi was most severely impacted with a month-on-month fall of 122 per cent in citizen keenness to buy, registering a negative sentiment in December at -0.14, followed by Kolkata with a BPI fall of 90 per cent. The three cities which showed a medium fall in BPI were Mumbai (58 per cent), Pune (46 per cent) and Chennai (35 per cent), while, Bengaluru and Hyderabad had a lower negative impact of the note ban with a drop of 16 per cent and 15 per cent, respectively. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Top Senate Democrats said today that the House ethics office should investigate whether stock sales by a congressman who is now one of President-elect Donald Trump's Cabinet picks broke any laws. The Democrats cited a Wall Street Journal report last month that Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., Trump's selection to head the Department of Health and Human Services, had traded over USD 300,000 worth of shares in health care companies over the past four years while pushing legislation that might affect those stocks' values. "Congressman Price had the influence and was actively involved in pushing health care policies while simultaneously making dozens of trades in companies that would be impacted by those policies," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters. Schumer, along with Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said the House's independent Office of Congressional Ethics should conduct an investigation before Senate hearings begin. "We don't know if he broke the law. But there is certainly enough serious questions to warrant a serious investigation", Schumer said. Price, who has long advocated repealing President Barack Obama's health care law and revamping Medicare, is among eight selections for Trump's administration who Democrats want to examine closely during upcoming hearings. In a written statement, Trump transition spokesman Phil Blando called the Democrats' demands a "stunt" to distract attention from the failures of Obama's law, which Trump and congressional Republicans plan to repeal this year. He said Price, a surgeon and conservative, is "uniquely qualified" to head the agency. Blando said Democratic Sens. Tom Carper of Delaware, Mark Warner of Virginia and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island have also traded valuable health-related stocks and said, "Hypocrisy is apparently alive and well this morning in Washington." Democrats spoke to reporters soon after the liberal-leaning Public Citizen sent a letter to the Office of Congressional Ethics requesting an investigation of stock trades by Price and another lawmaker, Rep. Chris Collins, R-N.Y. The letter cited possible violations of insider trading and conflict of interest laws. As the new Congress convened this week, House Republicans voted initially to gut the Ethics office. Within hours, they reversed themselves under pressure from Trump and others. The Ethics office receives charges from the public about misconduct by House members and aides. It is governed by an eight-member board whose members cannot include current members of Congress. The office can make recommendations to the House Ethics Committee, composed of House members. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Air Intelligence Unit of customs here today arrested a person who was allegedly trying to smuggle out of India narcotic drugs worth Rs five crore in the international market. Rabeekhan Abdulah was intercepted at the Mumbai international airport when he was about to fly to Kuala Lumpur. "Detailed examination resulted in recovery of 2,680 grams of methamphetamine and 2,073 grams of ephedrine," said a customs officer. The drugs were concealed in 15 roti-making pads with hidden cavities and wrapped in aluminium foils. In another case, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence intercepted 26-year-old Kabadsha Fawaz who arrived from Dubai and seized 4.9 kilograms of gold worth Rs 1.4 crore. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An advocate from Bihar, who was arrested in connection with the leakage of TS EAMCET-II medical question papers died while undergoing treatment at a state-run hospital here, Telangana Police said today. Kamlesh Kumar Singh, 55, an accused in TS EAMCET-II-2016 (Medical) entrance examination question paper leakage case was arrested December 20 last year in Bihar by Telangana CID and was brought to Hyderabad under Transit Warrant from the court, a release from DGP office said. The court remanded Singh to judicial custody and he was lodged in Chanchalguda Central Prison here. "For further investigation Kamlesh Kumar Singh was brought under police custody by CID on December 31 for questioning. On January 1, Kamlesh Kumar Singh complained of chest pain and immediately he was sent to a private hospital for treatment. The doctors, who treated him then advised to shift him to the Osmania General Hospital. Accordingly he was shifted to the Osmania General hospital and on January 3 at about 16.20 hours, the accused (Kamlesh) died while undergoing treatment at the hospital," the release said. Doctors who treated him opined that it was a case of heart failure or myocardial infarction, it said. The CID lodged a complaint at Afzalgung police in connection with the incident and a case under section 176 CrPC was registered. The Sub Divisional Executive Magistrate (RDO) conducted inquest over the body of the deceased in the presence of deceased's son-in-law and nephew who were present with him althrough. All the formalities required as per the NHRC guidelines were observed, police said. On July 25 last year, the CID registered a case in connection with the leakage of question papers and so far over 25 brokers have been arrested. The probe revealed that students appearing for TS EAMCET-II-2016 (Medical) examination from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh were taken to camps set up in at least five cities about two to three days prior to the exam and given practice with the leaked copies of two question papers consisting of 320 questions with correct answers, the CID had earlier said. At a review meeting held here on August 2, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao was informed by CID officials that Delhi turned out to be the centre for leak and there were 34 brokers, who conspired to sell the paper and as many as 200 parents were in touch with brokers to buy them. The Engineering, Agriculture and Medical Common Entrance Test (EAMCET-II) was conducted on July 9 and the results were declared on July 14. The examination was conducted by Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU), Hyderabad. According to reports, few candidates who got a rank in thousands in Andhra Pradesh EAMCET had got a rank below 500 in Telangana EAMCET-II. In the wake of question paper leakage, Telangana Government on August 2 announced the cancellation of the EAMCET-II examination and EAMCET-III examination were held in September. Retirement fund body EPFO today formally launched the Employees Enrolment Campaign, 2017, to encourage firms to enroll their employees under its schemes at nominal damages of Rupee one per annum. Under the scheme, the employee's share of contribution, if declared by the employer as not deducted, shall stand waived, the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) said in statement. According to the statement, the damages to be paid by the employer in respect of the employees for whom declaration has been made under this campaign shall be at the rate of Rupee one per annum. Besides, no administrative charges shall be collected from the employer in respect of the contribution made under the declaration. Under the scheme, a declaration can be made under the campaign for the period till March 31, 2017, for which no inquiry under section 7A has been initiated. The EPFO's apex decision making body -- the Central Board Trustees -- at its meeting held on December 19, 2016, decided to launch a special campaign from January 1, 2017 to March 31, 2017 to enroll the eligible workers who were left out, in bringing them under its social security umbrella. The campaign seeks to enroll new establishments and employees with or without past service. The Central Government has accepted the recommendation of the Board and has since notified the scheme, it said. The campaign aims to encourage employers to voluntarily come forward and declare details of all such employees who were entitled for membership between April 1, 2009 and December 31, 2016 under EPF & MP Act 1952, but could not be enrolled. The enrolment drive offers a limited time window to employers to bring all eligible workers under social security net. According to the provisions of Employees' Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952, the employer of an establishment covered under the Act is required to enroll all employees drawing basic wages of up to Rs 15,000 per month. The establishments that enroll new employees under the campaign will be eligible to draw benefits available under Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Protsahan Yojana (PMRPY) as well as Pradhan Mantri Paridhan Rojgar Protsahan Yojana (PMPRY). The government pays 8.33 per cent contribution of employers' share to the Employees' Pension Scheme (EPS) in respect of new employees having Universal Account Number. For textile (apparel) sector, the government additionally pays 3.67 per cent towards EPF contribution for new employees required to be paid by the employers. EPFO has made special arrangements for the success of the campaign and appropriate assistance will be made available to employers coming forward to extend social security coverage of their employees. EPFO said that more details of the campaign and FAQS are available at www.Epfindia.Gov.In and can be accessed at the URL http://www.Epfindia.Com/site_docs/PDFs/Circulars/Y2016-2017/Co ord_FAQ_EEC_04012017.Pdf. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Congress today got a boost with a prominent ex-servicemen organisation lending support to it for the upcoming Assembly elections, alleging that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has done "precious little" for their welfare. The Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement (IESM), which is spearheading an agitation for OROP implementation for last 571 days here, announced to support Congress in presence of PCC president Amarinder Singh and chief ministers of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand Virbhadra Singh and Harish Rawat respectively. Speaking at the AICC headquarters, IESM chairman Maj Gen Satbir Singh (retd), hit out at the Prime Minister for not fulfilling his promise of granting OROP to all soldiers and accused the government of changing the definition of OROP as spelt out by Congress-led UPA before it was voted out of power. In an apparent dig at the Prime Minister, he quoted Chanakya to say the king is not worthy of respect if a soldier has to go to him to seek something for him or his family. Insisting that IESM, which is a federation of ex-servicemen's organisations all over the country, has agreed to back Congress in the poll-going states as also elsewhere in the country as the party leadership has agreed to a charter of demands on OROP and related issues for welfare of soldiers, Satbir Singh said. "Congress has given its agreement on implementation of OROP... We fully support the Congress in all the state in these elections," he said. The League has also taken upon itself for educating people to cast vote to those who fulfill their assurances. "We will be with you if you don't break our assurances," he said. Amarinder Singh said most of the ex-service organisations throughout the country will be working together for the benefit of the Congress. He said the movement entered its 571st day of protest at Jantar Mantar, on issues which they feel as ex-servicemen are vital for welfare of servicemen, like OROP, 7th Pay Commission and most importantly the downgrading of precedence of various ranks of the Army in relation to civilian counterparts. "The last issue is the biggest thing. The 'Izzat' of a serviceman is more important than anything else. These issues are not limited just to Punjab. But, is affecting everybody," he said. Amarinder said there is great strength in servicemen. "We have all come on the same stage to work for benefit of all," he said. "We have agreed to an ESM cell at the Chief Ministers Office and we have started a new department called 'Guardians of Governance'," the PCC chief said. "This will be a paid organisation which will employ ex-servicemen down to village-level and monitor how funds are spent. We hope this will help us improve the governance of Punjab," he said. Criticising the Defence Minister for his remarks against two top Army commanders, Amarinder said, instead of focusing on important issues, the Defence Minister is criticising for the sake of criticism. "We took umbrage at the comments made by Defence Minister against the two Army commanders, both of whom are outstanding soldiers. Then he said IB looked into them. That is an insult to the Army Commanders," he said. Virbhadra Singh said Himachal Pradesh is a state with a large number of serving and retired service personnel. "We are here to give support to ex-servicemen, who are agitating for the real implementation of the promises made to them. OROP has in reality not been fulfilled and falls short of expectations. Service personnel are people of Honour. They live with Honour. The Centre should not ignore their demands," he said. "It is shameful that our soldiers have to sit-in Jantar Mantar for their demands which are just and we fully endorse them. The government is totally oblivious of their demands and are adding salt to their wounds. "It is not a question of money but a question of honour for soldiers," Virbhadra said. Rawat said the way ex-servicemen were treated by the Prime Minister is not "acceptable", even as he accused the government of not just diluting the OROP issue but also of diverting from the issue. "Their right demands and concerns are being bulldozed and we are feeling very hurt and rejected over it," he said. Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said Prime Minister Modi promised to give OROP to ex-soldiers but changed it to 'One Rank and 5 pensions' and by doing so has betrayed the ex-servicemen. "There has been proud history of Congress and soldiers and former soldiers have decided to support the Congress all over the country and expose and highlight the Modi government's betrayal," he said. Senior Congress leaders Ambika Soni, Asha Kumari and former CLP leader in Punjab Sunil Jakhar were also present. GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., says he voted for a controversial government rule change earlier this week that would have reduced the power of the Office of Congressional Ethics -- and despite a reversal on the plan, said he has no qualms about the policy himself. The vote took place in a closed-door meeting of the House Republican Conference, and would have forced changes to the way the ethics office operates if it had been approved by the full House. It has not been immediately clear after the meeting which members supported the change. That office was established in 2008 following a string of Capitol Hill corruption scandals. It has the power to take anonymous ethics complaints against House members and staff, investigate them, and -- if its six-person board agrees -- forward the matter to the House Ethics Committee for review, a move that makes such findings public. The changes would have ended anonymous complaints and allowed politicians on the House Ethics Committee to oversee the investigations, as well as bar the staff of the group from speaking to the media. The move has been widely described as a significant reduction in the offices powers and independence. Cramer said he supported the measure because of his due process concerns on behalf of those the group investigates, noting that accusations can be made anonymously and describing a sometimes significant cost of defense for those accused. I dont have any qualms about the policy in the rule that I originally supported, Cramer said Wednesday, describing the ethics offices ability to create a political witch hunt. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., is the author of the rule change. A statement posted on his website offers similar arguments, including concerns over anonymous accusations and privacy. But the rule change Goodlatte offered was met with strong opposition elsewhere. Republicans claim they want to drain the swamp, but the night before the new Congress gets sworn in, the House GOP has eliminated the only independent ethics oversight of their actions, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Monday in a statement reflective of much of the criticism levied against the move. On the heels of a public outcry as well as President-elect Donald Trumps suggestion that the plan should not be a top priority, Republicans made an about-face Tuesday. The rule change was removed from a broader package by the House Republican Conference before a larger set of rules was approved in the full House. Cramer said his vote to withdraw the proposed change was made as a matter of procedural efficiency as party leadership called for unanimous consent. He said it wasnt a response to Trump or to constituent opinions, and he said hes open to changing the office in the future through legislative action. There are better fights to fight, Cramer said of this weeks set of votes. Its just a procedural thing. A special court has dismissed anticipatory bail pleas of three men, accused of opening saving accounts in Jain Cooperative Bank Ltd here by forging signature of introducer, saying several such cases have been reported post demonetisation. "Considering totality of the circumstances coupled with the fact that many such fake bank accounts have been opened after demonetization, no ground for granting relief is made out. All three applications of captioned numbers accordingly stand dismissed," Special Judge Hemani Malhotra said. As per the FIR lodged in December 26, 2016, the three accused, Sonu, Monu and Shakeel, opened nine fake saving bank accounts in Jain Cooperative Bank Ltd's Darya Ganj Branch here by forging the signatures of Vinay Jain, who was already having an account there, as introducer. It alleged that lakhs of rupees have been deposited in them. It said that on verification none of the three accused were found residing at the addresses furnished by them with the bank. A case was registered against them for the alleged offences of cheating, forgery, using forged documents as genuine and criminal conspiracy under the IPC. The FIR was lodged on a complaint by Vinay Jain who said nine accounts were opened in the bank where he was made a witness without his knowledge. For a person to open an account, a recommendation letter is required from an existing account holder. These fake accounts were found to have been opened with a forged recommendation from an existing account holder, police said. The three men approached the court seeking anticipatory bail in the case stating that they were being harassed by the Income Tax Authority and Darya Ganj police since they opened saving account in the bank by depositing their hard earned money. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 25-year-old farmer was shot at by a group of four men when he had gone to irrigate his fields at Shakerpur village here, police said today. The victim Jodh Singh was sent to hospital where he is said to be in a serious condition after the incident yesterday, Purqazi SHO B P Yadav said. All four accused are absconding and a case has been registered against them. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps is set to become the first African-American crew member aboard the International Space Station (ISS) when she flies to the orbital post in May next year, the US space agency said today. NASA assigned veteran Andrew Feustel and Epps to missions aboard the ISS in 2018. Feustel will launch in March 2018 for his first long-duration mission, serving as a flight engineer on Expedition 55 and later as commander of Expedition 56. Epps will join Feustel as a flight engineer on Expedition 56 and remain on board for Expedition 57. "Each space station crew brings something different to the table, and Drew and Jeanette both have a lot to offer. The space station will benefit from having them on board," said Chris Cassidy, chief of the Astronaut Office at NASA's Johnson Space Centre in Houston. Epps earned a bachelor's degree in physics in 1992 at LeMoyne College in her hometown of Syracuse, New York. She went on to complete a master's of science in 1994 and a doctorate in 2000 in aerospace engineering from the University of Maryland. While earning her doctorate, Epps was a NASA Graduate Student Researchers Project fellow, authoring several journal and conference articles on her research. After completing graduate school, she went on to work in a research laboratory for more than two years, co-authoring several patents, before being recruited by the US Central Intelligence Agency. She spent seven years as a CIA technical intelligence officer before being selected as a member of the 2009 astronaut class. Feustel and Epps will join a long and distinguished line of astronauts who have crewed the International Space Station since November 2000. Feustel was selected as part of the 2000 astronaut class and, in 2009, flew on the space shuttle Atlantis for the final servicing mission of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. He made his first trip to the space station in 2011 as a member of the STS-134 crew on space shuttle Endeavour's final mission. With the help of the more than 200 astronauts who have visited, the space station enables us to demonstrate new technologies and make research breakthroughs not possible on Earth. Its convergence of science, technology and human innovation provide a springboard to NASA's next giant leap in exploration, including the Journey to Mars. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence sleuths today arrested a passenger at the International Airport here for attempting to smuggle foreign currency worth Rs 25 lakh to Dubai. Acting on a tip-off, DRI officials arrested a passenger identified as Mohammed Farooque, while he was waiting to board a flight to Dubai, after having completed all formalities, an MIA release said. The foreign currency was found concealed inside biscuit and confectionery packets in his luggage. Assorted foreign currencies comprising US dollars, British pound, euros, UAE dirhams, Saudi riyals and Qatari riyals, totalling 25,07,162 in Indian rupee value were recovered, it said. The currencies were seized under the provisions of Customs Act, 1962 read with FEMA rules and RBI guidelines issued in this regard, the release added. The DRI stated that it was hopeful of getting a breakthrough with regard to unauthorised currency dealers and hawala operators in the course of the investigation. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Four Yemenis released from the US prison at Guantanamo Bay have arrived in Saudi Arabia where they had a tearful reunion with relatives, after the White House rejected a freeze on transfers. The four were among 59 prisoners who were still being held in the detention centre in Cuba. In the Saudi capital, an AFP reporter yesterday saw the four prisoners after they landed at a terminal normally reserved for royals at the Riyadh international airport. Prisoners and family members wept as they saw each other for the first time in years. One of the released inmates, Salim Ahmed bin Kanad, told reporters he felt "born again" after seeing his relatives. Another, Mohammed Bawazir, said he hoped to move on and forget the past. "I want to give back to my family the 15 years I lost," he said. Officials identified the other former prisoners as Mohammed Rajab Abu Ghanim and Abdullah Yahya al-Shalabi. On Tuesday, US President-elect Donald Trump tweeted: "There should be no further releases from Gitmo. These are extremely dangerous people and should not be allowed back onto the battlefield." Hours later, outgoing President Barack Obama's spokesman, Josh Earnest, said he would expect "additional transfers" before Obama hands power to Trump on January 20. Saudi King Salman has said the four Yemenis who arrived ywaterday will live in the kingdom, where they will take part in a rehabilitation and de-radicalisation programme, the interior ministry said in a statement. The bearded ex-prisoners appeared healthy and were all dressed in two-piece Pakistani-style tunics. One prisoner was welcomed by 21 relatives, including children, but only a handful greeted the others. A lone woman waited for one of the inmates. Reporters were kept in the terminal and could not see what type of aircraft had transported them. Obama came to office eight years ago vowing to shutter the Guantanamo facility because, he said, detention without trial did not reflect American values. But he has run up against political and legal hurdles, Pentagon foot-dragging and stubborn Republican opposition in Congress. With Guantanamo's closure blocked, Obama's White House has focused on whittling down the number of inmates. Before yesterday's transfer, around 20 of the remaining prisoners had been cleared for removal. But finding countries to take them has often proven time-consuming. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The fourth edition of the Indian version of "Maker Faire", a fest launched in 2006 in USA showcasing community-friendly products attempting to solve problems through the use of innovations and creativity, will begin in the city tomorrow. Called 'Maker Fest' in India, the event will be held at the Ahmedabad University campus where a total 150 makers and 25 startups will display their innovations, the organisers said. "The idea to organise 'Maker Fest' is to display products of people who attempt to solve problems through innovative means. The power of the Maker movement lies in its philosophy of unconditional giving and problem solving," said US-based angel investor and entrepreneur Asha Jadeja Motwani. "Its primary aim is to spark off creativity and instil confidence in people to take risk with their ideas--risks not just in terms of money but also time and passion," she said. The event will have 45 technical and non-technical workshops and will be addressed by fifteen speakers, including Emeka Okefor of TED.Com who created Makerfaire Africa, V Sunil, the design brain behind the 'Make in India' movement, among others, she said. The event is inspired by a similar event held in the Silicon Valley in US' California called 'Makers Faire', which began in 2006 and now has chapters across USA, Europe, Japan and Africa. It was brought in India in 2013 by Motwani, an angel investor and entrepreneur herself. Some of the products that have been displayed at the event are an LPG stove that tells its users when it needs refilling, waste management solutions for landfills, among others. It will also see a display by 8-year-old child prodigy Saarang Sumesh, who has devised a "smart seat belt" that has an additional safety for the elderly and children, organisers said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A freedom fighter's statue has been defaced by unknown miscreants in Sahibabad area, leading to protests from enraged residents who blocked a nearby road. Some miscreants threw paint on the statue of Vijay Singh Pathik, which was installed by the municipal corporation and unveiled on November 6 last year, sources said. Angered by the incident, residents led by a local BJP leader blocked Loni Road near Bhopura trisection this morning, demanding the arrest of miscreants who had defaced the statue. Following the protest, Assistant Superintendent of Police Anoop Kumar reached the spot and assured the protesters of early action. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A former French jihadist responsible for indoctrinating the gunman who attacked the Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris has admitted that he is partly to blame for the violence two years ago. Farid Benyettou was the leader of a group of extremists who congregated around the Buttes Chaumont area of north-east Paris which was home to the Kouachi brothers, Cherif and Said. After being drawn into radical Islamism by Benyettou, the brothers carried out the attack on the satirical newspaper on January 7, 2015, which left 12 dead including some of the country's most famed cartoonists. But now Benyettou, 35, is working to stop young people falling prey to jihadist ideology in an effort to make amends for his role in an attack that shocked France to its core. "I share part of the responsibility, I can't deny it," he told Le Parisien newspaper in an interview published today. "I preached hate, I distilled this ideology even if it wasn't me that carried out the massacre." Cherif Kouachi was "more than a friend, my brother", Benyettou said, referring to the period of 2003-2005 when the two men from difficult family backgrounds saw each other every day at times. Benyettou spent four years in prison for recruiting jihadists to send to Iraq, and was released in 2009. His experience is recounted in a new book out in France this week, "My Jihad: the journey of a reformed character," which aims to dissuade others from taking his path to violent extremism. "The fact that I was in it, that I believed in, that I saw the (jihadist) utopia disintegrate, that can definitely be of help to others," Benyettou told AFP in an interview. The former follower of Salafism, a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam, has given a range of interviews to French media this week wearing a cap and sunglasses that partly conceal his identity. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A group of cow vigilantes on Thursday blocked the traffic at Battakh Chowk in Haryana's Jind district, alleging that the city council and local administration did not take timely action to remove the carcass of a calf that was mowed down by a vehicle. The 'gau rakshaks' said the calf was hit by an unidentified vehicle on Wednesday night after which they informed the police control room, administration and the city council. They alleged the authorities didn't turn up to remove the carcass and therefore they had to take the step in order to keep the stray dogs away. The protesters blocked the Chowk in the morning which lead to a heavy traffic jam on both sides of the road and inconvenience to commuters for over half an hour. After getting information, police officials rushed to the spot and pacified the agitators. The carcass was removed later, said police spokesperson. According to the vigilantes, if they remove such carcass from road, the police books them for cow smuggling. They said it is city council's duty to remove dead animals but there is no place in the city to bury such bodies. The government is examining extra concessions being demanded by the US-based iphone maker Apple for setting up a manufacturing unit in India. "We are discussing that ... No other mobile manufacturer have sought any extra concessions ... We have not taken any decision," Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told reporters here when asked about the government's view on the Apple issue. She added: "I am not saying that we have said yes, I am not saying that we have said no". In a communication to the government, the Cupertino-based technology major has asked for several tax and other incentives to enter India in the manufacturing sector. As many as 42 companies are making mobile phones in India, including Chinese firm Huawei and Xiaomi. A group of senior officials from ministries, including commerce and finance, would later this month deliberate on the incentives sought by Apple to set up a manufacturing unit. The government already provides benefits under the Modified Special Incentive Package Scheme (MSIPS) to boost electronic manufacturing in the country. The scheme provides financial incentives to offset disability and attract investments in the electronics hardware segment. It also gives a subsidy for investments in Special Economic Zones, among other benefits. Currently, Apples products are manufactured in six countries, including South Korea, Japan and the US. Elaborating, DIPP Secretary Ramesh Abhishek said that government keeps getting request from various companies for concessions and this is one of them. "The government examines (all the requests) with appropriate departments. All such requests are examined in consultation with concerned departments and that process is on," he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) PRINT | EMAIL | PERMALINK Feature 2017 Tarot Predictions for Albuquerque A glimpse through the mists of time January: 8 of Pentacles The beginning of the year will be devoted to work that serves the community and allows us to value the ordinary. School begins again, signaling training that brings discipline and skill. This is the beginning of a profitable undertaking. February: King of Swords (reversed) On the heels of the inauguration of the Great Cheeto will be distrust, suspicion, plotting and the potential for disruption. Even so far removed from Washington, D.C., our fair city will feel the effects of authority corrupted and strength used for its own ends of power and dominance. Coupled with the Knight of Swords (2017 as a whole), this could signal a failure to mature as a nation. March: Death (reversed) Inertia and lethargy will characterize the third month of 2017. Stuck in old habits, there will be a ego-filled battle to avoid necessary change. But keep in mind that change we must, or we will never grow. Boredom and depression may conceal fears. This all could be related to some sort of political upheaval. April: Knave of Pentacles Fortunately, it looks like the Duke City will get over its issues and fears of the previous month and allow for rebirth: new ideas, a bringer of good news, respect for learning, involvement, fascination and work will be our just rewards. May: The Devil (reversed) Albuquerque will make an attempt to break loose from some sort of trap, unhappy situation or oppression. The discontinuation of our acceptance of a bad state of affairs and a movement toward liberation are to be expected. But take heed: There is often the greatest feeling of sadness and discontent right when we become aware of the chains that bind us, but it's only when we are conscious of them that we can throw them off. June: 9 of Cups The city is in for some simple pleasures after a period of hard work. Note that there is nothing wrong with an old-fashioned good time. Clearly, summer break will be quite the rager this year! Party on Burqueyou deserve it. July: 5 of Cups Unfortunately, all good things come to an end. Loss and regret are the themes for July. We must accept responsibility for our part in whatever misfortunes occur and use consciousness and determination to move forward toward new beginnings, stability and continuity. August: 9 of Wands (reversed) A defense against obstacles and problems will fail. We must keep fighting, but look for a new approach. We will achieve eventual victory through steady force and the implementation of new strategies. September: The Lovers The people of Albuquerque will have an important choice to make, possibly between something good and respectable but maybe dull, and something very tempting but probably not right for us. We must unite reason and passion in beginning a relationship with a project or leader. See: mayoral election (obviously). October: 7 of Cups This month, our heads will be filled with castles in the clouds. Fantasies with grounding in neither action nor the wider realities of life will scatter the energies of our city and create only illusory successes. Be wary. November: 6 of Swords Burque is in for a journey through a difficult time. We will adapt to our troubles and keep functioning. If we keep calm and plod forward, there will be success after our anxieties. December: 7 of Wands But wait! After our our calm and accepting adaptation to our troubles will come an active fightand we're going to enjoy it! We'll happily commit to putting up our dukes with the expectation of winning and the desire to prevail. This will be an invigorating conflict, and we will find success against our opposition. GRAND FORKS A visit to North Dakota and UND by former Texas Gov. Rick Perry is in the works. President-elect Donald Trumps nominee for the United States energy secretary met with Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., Wednesday. Perry and Hoeven discussed North Dakotas involvement in the energy sector and the importance of reducing the regulatory burden on the nations job creators and empowering energy development, according to a news release from the senators office. Hoeven also invited Perry to North Dakota to see the states energy industry and development. That could include work being done at the University of North Dakotas Energy and Environmental Research Center, according to the release. Hoeven said the two worked together on energy issues when they were both governors. Hoeven was governor for North Dakota from 2000 to 2010 while Perry led Texas from 2000 to 2015. We have a good working relationship and believe in developing all of our nations resources, Hoeven said in a statement. Today, we have a true, all-of-the-above energy policy for our nation. Gov. Perry will be good for our nation and good for North Dakota. A date has not been set for the North Dakota visit, but staff for the two men are working on details, said Don Canton, communications director for Hoeven. Perry, who ran against Trump for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, dropped out of the race in September 2015, about 100 days after he launched his campaign. He later endorsed Trump for president, and the president-elect nominated Perry for the energy secretary job last month. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee, a board Hoeven is a member of, will consider Perrys nomination in the coming weeks before going to the Senate floor for consideration. Aditya Birla Group firm Grasim Industries, a leading producer of viscose staple fibre, has sought a "fibre neutral" policy from the government by removing 12.3 per cent excise duty levied on viscose fibre as its rival cotton industry is exempted from such levy. "We have been telling them (government) from last 5-6 years that there should be a similar kind of excise duty for all kind of fibre. We are asking them for a fibre neutral policy," Grasim CMO Rajeev Gopal told PTI. The company is sensing a good opportunity with its viscose staple fibre and garments in the global markets, where it is competing with suppliers from China, Turkey and Indonesia. "Viscose fibre would grow and we are at least looking for a double digit growth in the Indian market. Export would also grow similarly," he added. Viscose fibre-based garments are primarily purchased by developed markets such as US and Europe, while fibre mainly goes to countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia and Turkey. "Wherever there is spinning, we are exporting," he added. In 2015-16, Grasim Industries reported consolidated revenue of Rs 7,656 crore (USD 1.17 billion) from viscose staple fibre, up 15.24 per cent from Rs 6,643 crore in the previous fiscal. The company today opened its first art studio in Noida through its fashion fabric brand Liva, where it would exhibit over 1,000 fabrics of viscose from its LIVA Accredited Partner Forum (LAPF). "We would soon have a similar studio in New York, where we would showcase the work of our partners," Gopal said. Besides New York, the firm has plans to introduce art studio concepts to other textiles clusters like Jaipur and Bengaluru. "We will have many of these because the idea is to first test how it works. We are quite confident and if it turns out well, then we would have at major centers as Bengaluru, Jaipur and Tirupur in South. There are so many," he added. LAPF is the first of its kind platform in the textile fraternity that connects and builds a network of textile professionals. LAPF studio connects over 650 garment manufacturers and exporters, over 50 local and international brands, 50 international buying houses, agents and traders and 100 fashion design houses. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Following representation from animal rights groups and the Jain community, the Gujarat government has removed the project profile of 'Egg Powder Unit' from the official website of Vibrant Summit and announced that no MoU will be signed in this regard during the event. According to senior cabinet minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, government has to take into consideration the feelings of people, who were not in favour of such project. The decision has been taken after some animal right activists as well as representatives of Jain community met Chief Minister Vijay Rupani few days back to request him not to go ahead with such projects as it would hurt religious sentiments of many. "We have to respect the feelings of our citizens. After hearing their representation, we have removed that project profile from our website, which clearly means that we will not sign MoU with anyone wanting to set such egg powder unit here. Even if the investor is ready, we will not go ahead," Chudasama, the Education Minister, told PTI. 8th edition of the biennial Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit has been scheduled to be held between January 10 and 13 at Mahatma Mandir here. 'Establishment of Egg Powder Unit' was listed as one of the project profiles under the 'Agro and Food Processing' sector on the website of Summit. As per the project document uploaded for the prospective investors, Gujarat ranks 11th in the country in terms of egg production with 2.1 per cent share. The Vibrant Gujarat website had earlier sought investment in establishment of Egg Powder Unit, however it has been removed after the representation. It was also mentioned that the project can be a joint venture between the investor and state Agriculture Department and government would also give various subsidies and financial assistance to investors under their Agri Business Policy. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Opposition BJP in Uttarakhand today alleged Chief Minister Harish Rawat's daylong fast in Delhi was a ploy to divert the attention from his failure as a Union minister in preventing the UPA-II government from declaring a vast area along the Bhagirathi river as eco-sensitive zone. Rawat today sat on a fast at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi to protest the rejection of his government's masterplan on the Bhagirathi eco-sensitive zone (ESZ). The UPA II government had brought out a notification, which declared a vast area along Bhagirathi as ESZ. The masterplan seeks dilution of the notification and permission for construction of small hydel projects on the plea that the notification had brought development to a halt. Pradesh BJP spokesman Munna Singh Chauhan said Rawat was resorting to "poll gimmicks" in a bid to divert people's attention from the facts regarding the declaration of the ESZ. He claimed the huge success of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's rally in Dehradun has baffled the chief minister. "UPA-II issued the notification ignoring recommendations of then chief minister Vijay Bahuguna at a time when Harish Rawat was himself a minister in the Union government. It is hard to understand who Rawat is protesting against," Chauhan said. "If his heart bled for the people of Uttarakhand why didn't he protest against the notification then," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Letters sent by Britain's late Princess Diana -- including one in which she described a young Prince Harry as being "constantly in trouble" while at boarding school -- sold for thousands of pounds at an auction today. The six handwritten notes were sent to Cyril Dickman, a former head steward at Buckingham Palace, during the 1980s and 1990s. In one, sent five days after Harry's birth in September 1984, Diana thanked Dickman for a card he sent during what she called "this particularly happy time" and described how affectionate Prince William was toward his baby brother. "William adores his little brother and spends the entire time swamping Harry with an endless supply of hugs and kisses, hardly letting the parents near!" she wrote. Diana added that she was overwhelmed by the reaction to Harry's birth. "I can hardly breathe for the mass of flowers that are arriving here!" she said. That note, which had been expected to fetch up to 600 pounds (USD 745), sold for 3,200 pounds (USD 3,975), Cheffins auction house in Cambridge said. In another letter, written in 1992, Diana said both her sons were enjoying boarding school, "although Harry is constantly in trouble!" Diana died in a car crash in Paris in 1997. The letters were part of a collection that included about 40 royal memorabilia items. The auction house, said bidding took place online and in the saleroom, with bids from Australia, Japan and America. Other items include photos and Christmas cards from various members of Britain's royal family, and a boxed piece of cake from Queen Elizabeth II's wedding in 1947. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Health ministry will review certain provisions in the PC&PNDT Act so that criminal cases are not slapped on doctors for minor offences. Union Health Minister J P Nadda and Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi today presided over the 25th Central Supervisory Baord meeting of Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques today where discussions were held in this regard. A top Health Ministry official told PTI there were several instances where people were slapped with criminal offences for very minor things like not wearing an apron, not having a display board and other such things. "Discussions were made on a range of issues. It was decided that a review will be conducted on certain provisions so that criminal punishment is not given for such minor things," the official said. The Act was enacted to stop female foeticides and arrest declining sex ratio in India. It also bans sex determination. The official said instead of slapping criminal cases for such minor things, there could provisions of fines among other things. The official said other discussions were also made in which stress was given on thinking beyond the act itself in the context of raising awareness about it among others. Senior officials of the Health Ministry including Union Health secretary C K Mishra, Director General of Health Services Jagdish Prasad and others were present during the meeting. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Observing that when two adults "consciously" enter into a physical relationship they are fully aware of the consequences, the Bombay High Court has discharged a man accused of rape by his former partner after he refused to marry her. Justice Mridula Bhatkar while clearing the accused Kunal Mandaliya of the charge said he and the woman had been in a consensual relationship since 2010. Mandaliya had sought discharge on the ground that the sexual relation between him and the woman, a professor at a local college, was with mutual agreement. However, Justice Bhatkar didn't discharge Mandaliya from the charges of cheating, criminal intimidation and assault, for which he would have to stand trial. The woman had accused him of assaulting her on several occasions and taking away her money when they were in relationship. The duo had met in 2010 and started a relationship. In her complaint with police, the woman claimed Mandaliya proposed marriage in 2011 and thereafter forced her to have sexual relations with him a number of times. She lodged the complaint with police in 2011 accusing Mandaliya of rape and cheating after the latter refused to marry her. After perusing the case details, the HC observed that the woman, at the time of filing complaint, was 30-year-old and was around 26 when the first incident of sexual intercourse had taken place. "Thus, she was aware of the consequences of keeping sexual relations with a man and she was also aware that there may be differences between two persons and they may not find each other compatible," the HC stated. The judge said, "The woman is highly educated and therefore consent for physical relations cannot be said to have been obtained by fraud. It was a conscious decision to keep sexual relations with a man. Having such a relationship is a matter of choice of both the adult persons. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Madras High Court today directed a final year medical student, who allegedly tortured a monkey to death at Vellore, to give a representation to Dr MGR Medical University seeking permission to appear in the final year semester exams scheduled to start from February 1. Justice B Rajendran gave the direction on the petition filed by Arun Louis Sasikumar, a final year student of Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, seeking a direction to Dr MGR Medical University, Chennai, to allow him to appear in the final year examination. The judge said, "At this stage, this court directs the petitioner to give a representation immediately by tomorrow (January 6) seeking permission of the university to write the final year examinations." "On receipt of the application, the university will consider the same independently as to whether the student, who was involved in a crime at the stage of FIR, can be permitted to write the examination. "Suffice it to state that this mandamus (writ petition) is only for permission to make representation to the university and the university shall consider the same independently and dispose of the same within one week. During consideration (of the representation), the last date for payment of fees shall not be taken into consideration," the judge added and disposed of the petition. A case was registered against four students of CMC at Bagayam police station in Vellore district for the alleged offence under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 based on a complaint from a social activist. The complainant had alleged that the petitioner, along with three other students, had captured a monkey and tortured it to death. However, the petitioner had obtained anticipatory bail on December 16 last. The four students were suspended by the college for reportedly killing and burying a monkey on the campus at Bagayam in the last week of November, 2016. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A division bench of the Hyderabad High Court today gave the green signal to the Telangana government to go ahead with the recruitment of Agriculture Officers, Agriculture Extension Officers and Horticulture Officers. The Telangana government immediately after coming to power had requested Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) to go ahead with the recruitment of about 1,300 officers in the above categories. However, the contract employees who were recruited earlier in various schemes sponsored by the central government had approached the high court questioning the notifications on the ground that the Telangana government did not provide any weightage to the contract service rendered by them. Although a written test was conducted, the recruitment process could not be completed due to the intervention of the high court. The batch of writ petitions were dismissed by the Division Bench headed by Justice V Ramasubramanian and Justice G Shyam Prasad holding that the contract service need not be given any weightage as such. The bench, however, directed the government that in the event of there being a tie between contract employees and direct recruit by securing equal marks, the contract employee shall be given preference. With today's order, decks has been cleared for recruitment of 1,300-odd officers in the Agriculture and Horticulture Departments. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Actress Angelina Jolie has slammed estranged husband Brad Pitt in her new court filing, saying the actor is insistent on sealing divorce documents because he is "terrified the public will learn the truth." Pitt, 53, asked a Los Angeles Superior Court judge to seal all records relating to their six children, accusing Jolie of compromising their kids privacy by releasing details to the media through public court filings. According to the new documents, the 41-year-old actress has agreed to keep papers sealed but she strongly disputes the actor's claims that she freely publicized sensitive information, reported People magazine. "There is little doubt that (Pitt) would prefer to keep the entire case private, particularly given the detailed investigations by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Dept of Children and Family Services into allegation of abuse," the new court documents state. But a source close to the situation said that Pitt has been cleared in all investigations. "It's nice to see that she has finally come around to supporting the sealing of documents weeks after he requested this action. "Considering that both the FBI and child services thoroughly investigated this matter and cleared the father, this line of attack doesn't make much sense," a source said. Jolie was granted full custody of all their six kids on December 2. The Court documents at the time stated that Pitt would continue to have agreed-upon therapeutic visits with the children. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Renewable energy firm Hero Future Energies today announced raising USD 125 million from International Finance Corp (IFC) for expanding its clean power generation capacities. IFC is picking up equity stake in the company at an investment of USD 125 million, Chairman and Managing Director of Hero Future Energies, the renewable energy arm of Hero Group, Rahul Munjal told reporters here. However, Munjal did not disclose the quantum of minority equity stake to be given to IFC. He said the investment will help the company expand its renewable energy capacity, provide jobs and facilitate private sector development in renewable energy. IFC, together with IFC Global Infrastructure Fund, a private equity fund managed by IFC Asset Management Company, will invest USD 125 million in equity, enabling the company to set up 1 GW of greenfield solar and wind plants in the next 12 months across India. "I am happy to join hands with IFC in our endeavour to achieve new goal of 2.7 GW renewable energy capacity by 2020," said Munjal. In the backdrop of falling solar tariff due to lower cost of borrowing and cheaper equipment, he opined that the reasonable solar tariff should be in the range of Rs 4-4.3 per unit. At present, Hero Future Energies has a presence in 12 states with a capacity of over 360 MW of solar, wind, and rooftop installations. With 80 per cent of the country's energy needs still being met through thermal power, renewable energy is increasingly seen as the solution for bringing universal energy access. In 2014, the Indian government announced a plan of setting up 175 GW of solar and wind energy by 2022. IFC's India Lead, Climate Business and Infrastructure, Shalabh Tandon said this partnership will speed up transition of clean energy business to mainstream. He was of the view that through the Global Infrastructure Fund, IFC is also bringing in the support of international institutional investors. IFC is a pioneer in renewable energy in India, investing in the sector since 2009. Its portfolio companies have set up over 3 GW of different forms of renewable power projects in the country. India is IFC's top country exposure globally. IFC's committed portfolio in India is over USD 5 billion as of June 30, 2016. In 2015-16, IFC committed USD 1.1 billion in new investments in the country. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A hijab-clad woman and her family were allegedly taunted and called a "bunch of terrorists" at a busy town square near here, the latest in a series of hate incidents in which headscarf-wearing women have been targeted in the US following Donald Trump's win. 21-year-old Shifa Abuzaid and some of her younger cousins and siblings strolled through Sugar Land Town Square, Texas, when a man called them a "bunch of terrorists," she recounted in a Facebook post. The taunting episode caught the public's attention and soon her post had been shared more than 2,500 times. Abuzaid and her family members had been walking to their car after lunch when they passed the verbally abusive man and a woman, Abuzaid told Houston Chronicle about Saturday's incident. She and her cousins live on the same street near Sugar Land, southwest of Houston. Mayor Joe Zimmerman was swift to condemn the incident, saying, "prejudice of any kind is unacceptable." "We still have racism in Houston and we still have people who hate Muslims in Houston," Mustafaa Carroll, executive director for the local chapter of the Council on American- Islamic Relations, was quoted as saying. Recounting the incident, Abuzaid said she was the eldest of her family members present at the time. The youngest was 10 years old. She was in front as they walked to the car and was the only one with a hijab. When they passed the couple, she said she tried to appear friendly. But the younger kids in her family stopped in their tracks after the "terrorists" remark, she said. They told Abuzaid what they had heard the man say. She felt shocked -- then she decided to try to talk to him about it. She followed the man into a store, Abuzaid said, and asked him politely why he had called them terrorists. She found his reaction confrontational. Her sister began to cry as the man got close to her face, and when her 15-year-old brother stepped in front of her, the man pushed him, according to Abuzaid. The man then began to deny their account, Abuzaid said. A manager at the store stepped in to help. The store had called security, and the man and woman left. A police officer later told Abuzaid he could not do anything because no one was physically harmed, she said. Later, Sugar Land Police Chief Douglas Brinkley said he believed the officer was told no one had been injured but that police planned to look again at it. The incident comes amid a series of such cases of intimidation and assault that have been reported across the country against hijab-clad women following Trump's win. Last month, a Hijab-clad Muslim student was allegedly struck in the face with a glass bottle in broad daylight at the University of Washington campus in Seattle. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Hindus and Jews have gained ground in the new US Congress, even as latest research suggests that the members of the legislative body remain overwhelmingly Christians despite a significant change in the religious demographic profile of the country in less than five decades. This is for the first time in American history that the Congress has three Hindus members Tulsi Gabbard, Raja Krishnamoorthi and Ro Khanna. After Jews, who have 30 members in the new US Congress, Hindus and Buddhists, with each of the communities having three members, jointly share the third spot in terms of religious ranking of members, according to Pew Research Center analysis. Among members of the 115th Congress, 91 per cent describe themselves as Christians. This is nearly the same percentage as in the 87th Congress (1961 to 1962, the earliest years for which comparable data are available) when 95 per cent of members were Christian, the research said. Pew said that among the 293 Republicans elected to serve in the 115th Congress, all but two identify as Christians; there are two Jewish Republicans Lee Zeldin of New York and David Kustoff of Tennessee who both serve in the House. Democrats in Congress also are overwhelmingly Christian (80 per cent), but there is more religious diversity on this side of the aisle, Pew said. The 242 Democrats in Congress include 28 Jews, three Buddhists, three Hindus, two Muslims and one Unitarian Universalist as well as the only member of Congress to describe herself as religiously unaffiliated, Kyrsten Sinema from Arizona. In addition, all 10 members of Congress who have declined to state their religious affiliation are Democrats. The lawmakers who have declined to state their religious affiliations include Indian-American Pramila Jayapal, who has been elected to the House of Representatives for the first time. Her mother is a Hindu. The Washington DC-based Hindu American Foundation, however, believes that Pramila Jayapal is a Hindu. Hindus, who comprise about one per cent of the US population, now comprise 0.6 per cent of the US Congress, Pew said. There are two Muslim lawmakers in Congress. "Among non-Christian religious groups, Jews and Hindus had the biggest gains (an increase of two seats each)," Pew said comparing the religious configuration of the new Congress with the last one. "Jews, who make up two per cent of the US adult population, hold 30 seats in the new Congress (six per cent), up from 28 seats in the 114th Congress (five per cent). However, Jews occupy far fewer seats than they did in the 111th Congress (2009-10), when there were 45 Jewish members of the House and Senate," it said. Amid the national outrage over several women being molested in full public view on New Year's eve in Bengaluru, actor Hrithik Roshan has condemned the incident and feels extremely sad that it happened. The New Year revelry turned into a nightmare for several women who were allegedly molested despite huge police presence at a large gathering on December 31 at Bengaluru's downtown region, sparking widespread outrage. Hrithik said everyone in the society should take responsibility of what happened and do something about it. "It is sad. We all bear a responsibility and we all must do something about that," he told reporters here today. "I feel very strongly, as a father, as a member of the society, that if something like this is happening in an environment so close to me, then I definitely must be impacted, must be affected and I must do something about it," he said. The actor was speaking at the launch of song "Mon Amour" from his upcoming film "Kaabil". Several Bollywood actors, including Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar have also come out strongly against the Bengaluru incident and condemned it. On late December 31 night, several women were molested and groped and lewd remarks passed by miscreants on M G Road and Brigade Road in Bengaluru, despite the presence of 1,500 police personnel to control the unruly New Year revellers. The incident drew flak from many quarters even as Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara stoked a controversy by blaming the youngsters' "western ways" for the incidents. His remarks came in for flak even as theNational Commission for Women chairperson LalithaKumaramangalam flayed the minister, demanding his resignation. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Indian Air Force will hold a flying display of Sukhoi 30 and Suryakiran here on January 9 as part of Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2017, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, South West Air Command (SWAC), R K Dhir said today. A similar display will also be organised at the same venue on January 7 for public viewing, he said. The IAF, along with the Army and the Indian Navy will also showcase their wares at their respective stalls at the global trade show as part of VGGS, he told media persons. "The IAF flying display will be held at 11 am on January 9 over Swarnim Park at Sector 11 of Gandhinagar in front of the Bank of Baroda building," Air Marshal Dhir said. "With an aim to benefit maximum number of people, a full dress rehearsal of exactly the same sequence is planned on January 7 from 11-11:40 am at the same venue, which will be open for viewing by all," he said. "Then inclusion of the Indian Air Force flying display as part of the opening ceremony of 'Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit--2017' is indicative of the synergy achieved and the bonhomie that exists between the Armed Forces and the civil administration, particularly in Gujarat," he added. The show will have four displays, a defence official said. The Summit will be held from January 10-13. "While fifteen para-troopers will be dropped from Mi-17 V-5 helicopters, Chetak helicopter will spray flower petals. There will also be advanced aerobatics by Sukoi 30 fighter jets as well as Suryakiran formations," he said. Sukoi SU 30 and Hawk planes are being flown here from Jodhpur and Hyderabad respectively for the purpose, Dhir said. Interacting with reporters, Dhir said the IAF flew 610 tonnes of new currency notes till December 31, and added that the IAF has been defending the nation as well as conducting humanitarian assistance by aiding the civil administration. "Till December 31, 2016, 35 AC sorties were flown and 610 tonnes of new currency notes were airlifted," he said. He also spoke about the task of IAF in defending the nation from enemies by conducting air strikes and guarding Indian skies through radar surveillance. The IAF has also conducted humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations to help civil authorities, he said. He said the IAF participated in a civil-military joint mock drill conducted in September last year in which Bhuj earthquake was simulated. Dhir also said that IAF helped the Election Commission in moving persons on election duty to shorten timeline, and moving new currency notes to far flung areas. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Punjab Congress chief on Thursday hit out at Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar over his remarks on the selection of the Chief of Army Staff, saying the remarks were not only "uncalled for but an insult" to two top army commanders. Talking to media persons here after a group of ex-servicemen extended support to the Congress ahead of the Punjab Assembly polls, he said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Parrikar had been repeatedly "betraying" the defence forces with their apathetic attitude to the problems of the servicemen and the ex-servicemen. He said from the issue of 'one rank, one pension (OROP)' to 7th Pay Commission and downgrading of army ranks, the armed personnel and ex-servicemen had, time and again, been "humiliated" by the Defence Ministry headed by Parrikar, and the minister's comments on appointment of the Army Chief were virtually the last straw. "If Parrikar can't keep his mouth shut on such matters, it's time the PM chooses a man fit enough to look after our services, which are the last bastion of stability, secularism, and in whom the country across the board takes pride," Amarinder wrote in a Facebook post. Noting that "an ill-informed" defence minister was a "dangerous thing" to have, Amarinder said that Parrikar should be aware that the services function on the rank structure, which indicates seniority and which was customary in the services to be maintained. Referring to Parrikar's comment that intelligence inputs were also considered while taking the decision on appointment of the Army chief, the state Congress chief asked if that meant that Lt Gen Praveen Bakshi and Lt Gen P M Hariz also had some aspersions cast on them by the intelligence inputs. He said in a statement that both were outstanding army commanders and soldiers of repute, and "these foolish off-the-cuff remarks were an insult" to them. Bipin Rawat has been appointed the Chief of Army, superseding the two senior officers. Nearly $14 billion worth of defence offset obligations would be discharged in India by foreign original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) by 2028, MoS for Defence Subhash R Bhamre said on on Thursday, and indicated that the country envisages to reduce the by 50 per cent within a decade. He said the defence industry has the potential to become a huge foreign exchange earner and also lead the country to its professed goal of self-reliance. "Nearly $14 billion worth of defence offset obligations will be discharged by the foreign OEMs by 2028," he said while delivering the inaugural address at seminar - Leveraging defence expenditure as a tool for nation building - organised by College of Defence Management here. He noted that India has the 3rd largest armed forces in the world and spends approximately 40 per cent of its total on capital acquisitions, and about 60 per cent of defence requirements are met through imports. "The present government has emphasised on indigenous manufacturing to reduce the by 50 per cent within a decade," the Union minister said. "There is an urgent need for innovation in the defence manufacturing sector with increased focus on R&D and to prepare a pool of human resource expertise which will help in making equipment and technologies cheaper," he said. Thanks to the Centre's 'Make in India' campaign, the defence sector has moved from the periphery to the core of Indian manufacturing, he pointed out. "The sector not only has the potential to augment manufacturing but also add nearly one million direct and indirect jobs," Bhamre said. He also said the government is taking steps to bring in a framework that encourages collaboration between public and private sector companies for defence export based on public private partnership model. "The DPSUs (Defence Public Sector Undertakings) and private sector should also put in place a system to share the capability and capacity to support overseas sales, servicing and maintenance throughout the life of the product," he said. Pointing out that the human resource capacity in the private sector has already demonstrated its worth in fields of automobile, IT and service sectors at global platform, he said the government is trying to replicate the same model by inducing private sector and foreign OEMs to invest in defence manufacturing. India has "broken" UN limits on nuclear arms and long-range missiles and Pakistan should also be accorded the same "privilege", state-run Chinese media said today as it criticised New Delhi for carrying out Agni-4 and 5 missile tests whose range covers the Chinese mainland. "India has broken the UN's limits on its development of nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missile," the ruling Communist Party-run tabloid Global Times said in its editorial. "The US and some Western countries have also bent the rules on its nuclear plans. New Delhi is no longer satisfied with its nuclear capability and is seeking intercontinental ballistic missiles that can target anywhere in the world and then it can land on an equal footing with the UN Security Council's five permanent members," it said. "India is 'promising' in vying for permanent membership on the UN Security Council as it is the sole candidate who has both nuclear capability and economic potential," it said. "China should realise that Beijing wouldn't hold back India's development of long-range ballistic missiles," it said apparently highlighting China's limitations in restricting India developing a nuclear and missile deterrence against Chinese military power. Agni-5, a 5,000-km range intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), is widely regarded as a strategic missile targeted at China as it can reach almost all parts of the Chinese mainland. The editorial said that "Chinese don't feel India's development has posed any big threat to it". The daily known for its sabre-rattling rhetoric said "India wouldn't be considered as China's main rival in the long run" due to vast disparity of in power between the two countries. But at the same time it suggested that the "best choice for Beijing and New Delhi is to build rapport". However, while accusing India of violating limits imposed by UN on nuclear and long range missile development, "if the Western countries accept India as a nuclear country and are indifferent to the nuclear race between India and Pakistan, China will not stand out and stick rigidly to those nuclear rules as necessary", it said. "At this time, Pakistan should have those privileges in nuclear development that India has," it said, indicating that China which shared an all-weather ties with Islamabad will back it if it develops long-range missiles. "In general, it is not difficult for India to produce intercontinental ballistic missiles which can cover the whole world. If the UN Security Council has no objection over this, let it be. The range of Pakistan's nuclear missiles will also see an increase. If the world can adapt to these, China should too," it said. The references to violation of UN rules by the daily were significant as the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying while reacting to India's Agni-5 missile test said on December 27 that"on whether India can develop this ballistic missile that can carry nuclear weapons, I think relevant resolutions of the UNSC have clear rules". (REOPENS FGN009) Hua, however, did not elaborate. The editorial in Global Times also did not elaborate or point out details of the UN violations allegedly made by India. "We have always believed that safeguarding strategic balance and stability in South Asia is conducive for the peace and prosperity of countries in the region," she said and took exception that the Agni-5 which has a range of 5000 was meant to target China. However, Hua appreciated Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Vikas Swarup's statement on December 28 stating that "India's strategic capabilities are not targeted against any particular country. India abides by all the applicable international obligations and hopes that all other do the same". "We have taken note of and express appreciation for the statement made by Indian Foreign Ministry's spokesperson that India's strategic capabilities are not targeted against any particular country," she said. "China believes that preserving the strategic balance and stability in South Asia is beneficial to peace and prosperity of countries within the region. We hope to work alongside regional countries including India, to take concrete actions for enduring peace, prosperity and stability of the region," she said. With a record five Indian Americans elected to the US Congress, the minority community has now set its eyes on doubling the number of its lawmakers followed by a White House occupant. The goal, which might look difficult, was set by the three-term Indian-American Congressman Ami Bera, who is now the senior-most of the four Indian-Americans members in the US House of Representatives. "Today is a historic day," Bera, 51, told a gathering of eminent Indian-Americans gathered from across the country to celebrate the election of a record number of Indian-Americans to the US Congress. Bera, who was elected for the first time to the US House of Representatives in 2012, said he was joined by three other Indian-Americans in the House: Raja Krishnamoorthi from Illinois, Pramila Jayapal from Washington State and Ro Khanna from California. Kamala Harris was also sworn in as the first Indian- American Senator in the Congress. Four years ago, at a community reception in his honour in Washington DC, Bera had said that he wanted to have five Indian-Americans in the Congress, including a Senator. "This is now a reality," chipped in Congressman Joe Crowley, a former Co-Chair of the Congressional India Caucus, in his address to the Indiaspora gala. "What is remarkable that in one generation our community has done so much," Bera said as he introduced the newly- elected Indian-Americans in the House to the hundreds of community members. "Now we need to set a goal of having 10 Congressmen and our own Indian American president," Bera said, as his sentiment echoed in speeches throughout the night. "We have come a long way, but we have long ways to go," said Silicon Valley-based venture capitalist and philanthropist M R Rangaswami, the brain behind the gala. "I am so proud to be elected as the first Indian-American women to the US House of Representatives," said Jayapal. "What I hope and believe that I would be the first Indian American woman elected to the Congress, but would certainly not be the last one," she said, urging the younger generation members of the community to join politics. "We are going to make sure that Indian-Americans across the country see our election not only as personal victories for ourselves and our district and our country, but as opportunities and role models for others to be engaged in democracy to run for office themselves," Jayapal said. The election of five Indian-Americans to the Congress is "really a testament" of the accomplishments of the community, noted Krishnamoorthi. "For all of those in the audience tonight who are thinking about running for office, there is no better time than now. You have role models, we have play book. It's time to get started," Krishnamoorthi said. Earlier at a conference, eminent community member Neera Tanden said Indian-Americans running for Congress and winning the elections is really historic. Ashley Tellis said the best of the community is yet to come as the next generation of Indian Americans have great potential in political field. The Indian Ambassador to the US, Navtej Sarna, described the historic election of four Indian Americans in the House and one in the Senate as "mainstreaming" of the community. "It is a great achievement for the community which is only one percent of this country's population, but represents seven per cent of the doctors and 30 per cent of the startups. And now we have five people on the Hill. It is truly the mainstreaming of the Indian American community in US politics," Sarna said in his brief address. Several members of the outgoing Obama Administration were also present at the celebrations including the Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, Nisha Desai Biswal and Arun Kumar, the Assistant Secretary of Commerce & Director General of the US Commercial Service. Sri Srinivasan; Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy also attended the gala celebrations. The Indian Cultural Centre in Johannesburg plans to provide mathematics tuitions to South African learners apart from its usual assistance given in art subjects. Consul General of India K J Srinivasa gave details ofthe plan but expressed concern that despite some improvement over previous years, there was still a lot to be done for Mathematics and Science teaching. "We received approaches from both Indian expatriate and South African Indian teachers about extending the range of classes at our Cultural Centre so that they could give something back to the local community," Srinivasa told PTI. "The plan is to run classes at weekends for learners, starting in February, when they have settled into the new academic year at their schools," Srinivasa said. Until now, classes at the Cultural Centre at the Consular General of India have been held in dance, music and Hindi as a language. "We will facilitate the logistics for the addition of Mathematics to add a new dimension to the objectives of the Cultural Centre, which is designed to be used as a community benefit facility," Srinivasa said. "The teachers intend to train learners not necessarily in the curriculum they are following, but rather to use fundamental techniques and principles to allow them a better understanding of Mathematics," he said. Initially, two teachers will offer three-hour session each weekend, and this could be expanded depending on demand. The move has been welcomed by some learners who will start their final year of schooling next week. It comes as South African education authorities announced the results of the 2016 academic year. "I really struggled through Maths in Grade 11 last year, so I am looking forward to getting some extra tuition at the Consulate this year while I try to finish off well so that I can go to university next year," said Fatima Choonara, who has already negotiated plans for transport to the venue when the classes start. Aarti Singh, who will be in Grade 11 this year, said she hoped that there would be provision for her level as well at the classes. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A lot has happened since my last blog post more than seven months ago. In the fall I made several trips - in October to Wyoming for the annual meeting of ... 3 years ago Indonesia appeared to back down today from a decision to suspend all military cooperation with Australia in a row over teaching materials, with a senior minister saying only language training had been put on hold. The Indonesian military said yesterday that military cooperation with Canberra, including joint exercises and exchange programmes, had been put on ice last month after teaching materials deemed offensive to Jakarta were found at an Australian army base. The row erupted after a visiting Indonesian officer raised concerns about the materials at a language training facility in Perth. Indonesia's military chief General Gatot Nurmantyo told reporters it involved "unethical stuff" which "discredits Indonesia and its military, even the nation's ideology". He said it concerned East Timor - which seceded from Indonesia after a bloody occupation - the Papuan region's independence movement and the nation's founding philosophy "Pancasila", all deeply sensitive topics for the Indonesian military. But following the military's announcement, leaders of both Australia and Indonesia publicly insisted ties were strong before Indonesian Security Minister Wiranto announced Thursday he was giving a "clarification" after receiving information from Nurmantyo. The military "has temporarily suspended cooperation in language training," said the minister in a statement, adding it was due to "a small incident that has offended our dignity as a nation". But he said Indonesia was not "completely stopping all cooperation", contradicting the earlier military statement. Indonesian and Australian forces cooperate on a range of issues from border protection to counter-terrorism. "The suspension is temporary and will be resumed after Australia clearly takes measures to resolve the matter," he added. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation also broadcast footage today of Nurmantyo giving a lecture in November, voicing fears Canberra was trying to recruit soldiers sent to Australia for training. "Every time there is a training programme - like recently - the best five or 10 students would be sent to Australia. That happened before I was chief so I let that happen," he said in translated remarks, according to the broadcaster. "Once I became chief commander of the national forces, it (the students being sent) did not happen again. They will certainly be recruited." Australian Defence Minister Marise Payne denied Canberra had targeted Indonesian soldiers to be potential agents. She added that an investigation into the teaching materials that sparked the spat was almost complete and the government took the concerns seriously. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Iran has hit back at "unconstructive" Turkish allegations that Tehran's allies were violating a fragile ceasefire in Syria, accusing rebels of breaking the truce. "The current ceasefire in Syria has been violated repeatedly by the anti-government armed opposition groups," foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said yesterday. "(Turkey) should take necessary measures to deal with several instances of ceasefire violation by these groups and at the same time refrain from taking unreal stances and accusing other parties." He was responding to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who yesterday accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government of violating a ceasefire Ankara brokered with regime backer Moscow last week. Cavusoglu warned that the "violations" were jeopardising planned peace talks in Kazakhstan later this month. Ghasemi criticised the "unconstructive remarks" and said they could "further complicate the current situation" in Syria. Despite backing opposite sides in the conflict, Ankara and Moscow have worked closely to broker the ceasefire and plan the Astana talks, which Cavusoglu said could take place on January 23. Regime ally Iran is also involved in organising the talks, and top official Alaeddin Boroujerdi was in Damascus on Wednesday for talks with Assad. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Hook, line, and sinker! An Iraqi restaurateur, delighted by Donald Trump's promise to arm Kurdish forces in their fight against Islamic State terrorists, has named his fish restaurant after the US President-elect. Nadyar Zawiti jumped on to the Trump gravy train particularly enthusiastically, naming his restaurant as 'Trump Fish' in the northern city of Dohuk in Iraqi Kurdistan. Zawiti heard Trump say during the campaign that he was a big fan of Kurdish forces and called for the US to arm them in their fight against ISIS, CNN reported. "What I admire about Trump's personality," Zawite says, "is that he's decisive, he's tough, and hopefully with that toughness he'll finish ISIS off." The restaurant's logo features Trump's hair and eyebrows in the shape of lightning bolts. The restaurant sells "maskouf," Iraq's national dish of oily carp cooked over an open fire. Nadyar shrugs off Trump's controversial pledge to ban all Muslims from entering the US as mere campaign rhetoric. He even hopes to someday open a branch of Trump Fish near the White House -- if Trump will invite him in, that is. And he's not the only dedicated fan of the President-elect to be found in the region. Hassan Jamil, a Peshmerga fighter, even named his newborn baby as Trump Hassan Jamil, the report said. Of the unusual choice of moniker bestowed on the three-week-old, Jamil explained, "I called him Trump because he is charismatic and has clear policies and that's why he won the election". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Japan has decided to associate itself with India in developing Chennai, Ahmedabad and Varanasi as smart cities. During a meeting of Japanese Ambassador to India Kenji Hiramatsu with Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu here today, he said, Japan is "quite interested" in urban development initiatives of the government and decided to be a partner, an official release said. Responding to Naidu's observation about the need for speedy action, the Japanese envoy said "We would like to match the action oriented approach of the government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi." Meanwhile, British High Commissioner Dominic Asquith also met Naidu and discussed converting into action the MoU signed between the two countries on cooperation in urban development sector. The MoU was signed during the recent visit of British Prime Minister Theresa May to India. Asquith said institutionalising "Government to Government cooperation" for smart city development has huge potential. So far, various countries have come forward to be associated with development of 15 smart cities. These include United States Trade Development Agency (USTDA) for Visakhapatnam, Ajmer and Allahabad, UK for Pune, Amaravati and Indore, France for Chandigarh, Puducherry and Nagpur and Germany for Bhubaneswar, Coimbattore and Kochi. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Claiming that Kashmir was an "integral part" of Pakistan, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif today needled India yet again by praising slain Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani as a "vibrant and charismatic leader". Addressing the inaugural ceremony of a two-day international parliamentary seminar on Kashmir here, Sharif also praised the spirit and determination of the Kashmiri people for their struggle for the right to self-determination. "Our hearts beat and sink with our Kashmiri brethren," Radio Pakistan quoted Sharif as saying. The world needs to tell India that "enough is enough" with regard to its policy towards Kashmir, he said, while asserting that Kashmir is an "integral part" of Pakistan. He claimed the "martyrdom of vibrant and charismatic Kashmiri leader Burhan Wani has given a new turn to the Kashmiri movement". He regretted the "Indian aggression" against Kashmiri people in the wake of protests triggered by the killing of Wani by security forces on July 8. Sharif said supporting the Kashmiri struggle for their right to self-determination is faith of every Pakistani. He said Pakistan will continue to extend moral, political and diplomatic support to the Kashmiri people in their indigenous struggle and continue to shake the conscience of the international community for their rights. Sharif said Pakistan had sent special envoys to important countries to sensitise them about the situation in Kashmir. He said that he personally raised the dispute in his address to the UN General Assembly session. Referring to the four points he presented before the UN, Sharif once again urged the world community to make all out efforts for the realisation of the promise it made to the Kashmiri people seventy years ago. He said the UNSC resolutions should be implemented and the continued sufferings of Kashmiri people must come to an end now. Sharif while addressing a joint session of Parliament in October last year had praised Wani, drawing a strong reaction from India which said this shows Pakistan's attachment to terrorism. He had also praised the militant during his address to the UN General Assembly on September 21, describing him as a "young leader". India had strongly criticised Sharif's speech at the UN, describing it as an act of "self-incrimination" by Pakistan. Speaking at today's seminar, Sharif's Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said that Kashmir issue "is a stigma on the international process". He said both Kashmir and Palestine are the two longest unresolved items on the UNSC agenda. He pointed out relentless struggle is continuing despite the hardest measures adopted by India. Aziz said "the presence of a large number of Indian troops in the Valley is a clear manifestation of Indian policy to use state terrorism to suppress the just struggle of Kashmiri people". He also called upon India to desist from steps that alter the demography of Kashmir. He said Pakistan will continue to extend steadfast support to Kashmiri people in their just struggle to right to self-determination. "Solution of the problem lies only in a fair and transparent plebiscite under the auspices of the United Nations," he said. Addressing the seminar organised by National Assembly Secretariat and Young Parliamentarians Forum, Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq said the lingering Kashmir dispute must be solved at the earliest to avert further instability in the whole region. AAP national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today paid obeisance at Gurdwara Sri Fatehgarh Sahib, where he was not given 'siropa' (robe of honour) by the head priest of the shrine. However, Kejriwal was honoured by AAP workers outside Gurdwara. Kejriwal was accompanied by AAP candidate from Fatehgarh Sahib assembly segment Lakhvir Singh Rai, and Santokh Singh Salana, party's candidate from Bassi Pathana. Kejriwal said he had come to pay homage at the place where younger sahibjadas (sons) of Guru Gobind Singh were bricked alive. He is feeling peaceful after visiting the shrine. He added that AAP will soon release its election manifesto. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal will address four public meetings in poll-bound Goa this weekend. "Kejriwal will be addressing public meetings at Benaulim and Vasco on January 7 and at Mapusa and Sankhalim on January 8," AAP's Goa spokesman Rupesh Shinkre told PTI today. The Assembly elections in Goa are scheduled on February 4. This would be the second visit of the Delhi Chief Minister to the coastal state during last one month. On December 19, Kejriwal had addressed a public meeting in Cuncolim constituency, where he announced former bureaucrat Elvis Gomes as AAP's chief ministerial face. AAP has already announced 36 candidates out of total 40 constituencies. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) French police have detained Kosovo's former prime minister based on an arrest warrant issued by Serbia, the foreign ministry has said. Ramush Haradinaj, who is also a former guerrilla fighter, was stopped as he flew into France from Kosovo's capital, Pristina, Wednesday. Kosovo's government said in a statement it is trying to resolve the matter. It said it considered Serbia's charges as "illegal, unfair and tendentious." President Hashim Thaci, also a former guerrilla leader and Haradinaj's friend, described the detention as "unacceptable." "We, members of the Liberation Army, are proud to have fought against discriminating and criminal laws of Slobodan Milosevic's regime," he said on Facebook. Haradinaj was cleared of war crimes charges in two lengthy trials by a UN war crimes tribunal. But Serbia accuses him of committing war crimes including kidnappings, torture and killings against Serb civilians when he was a senior rebel commander in western Kosovo during the 1998-99 war. Kosovo seceded from Serbia in 2008, although Belgrade has not recognised that. Haradinaj's party is now in opposition. Suspended IAS officer Rajendra Kumar has sought voluntary retirement alleging that CBI officers probing a graft case against him had pressured him to implicate Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, charges rejected as "absolutely baseless" by the probe agency. The AAP Government, which has been defending Kumar who was Principal Secretary to Kejriwal, attacked the Modi government, latching on to the letter by the officer to Delhi Chief Secretary M M Kutty which has several other allegations as well including that "dozens of people" were assaulted by CBI personnel in custody. While the Chief Minister said that the officer's remarks show that the Modi Government is afraid of them, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia claimed that there was a plan by the Centre to arrest Kejriwal and him. "Both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah are hell bent on murder of democracy in the country. They let loose the CBI on their political opponents," Sisodia told reporters. Kumar was arrested in July last year in connection with alleged corruption in awarding contract to certain IT firms. He was later suspended from service and was chargesheeted in the case. The central government today maintained that it does not interfere in the functioning of the probe agency. "CBI is independent agency and the government does not interfere in its functioning," said Jitendra Singh, Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Ministry--which acts as nodal authority for the probe agency. He said the government will look into Kumar's request for voluntary retirement when it is received. The 1989 batch IAS officer, against whom CBI had last month filed a charge sheet for alleged criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery under along with eight others, alleged that the "same set of people who forced bureaucrat BK Bansal and his son to commit suicide" were involved in harassing him. "During interrogation, I was repeatedly told that I would be let free if I implicate Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. May be this was the reason for the agency to go to such extraordinary length. "Not only this the CBI, just to force people to implicate me and the Chief Minister, has beaten up dozens of people and some of them sustained permanent major injuries. These facts are very common knowledge of everybody in the government, but nobody has the courage to raise or question it," Kumar alleged in the letter. The CBI strongly refuted the allegations, calling them "absolutely baseless" and an attempt to influence the matter which is subjudice. "Central Bureau of Investigation strongly denies statement/ item published/telecast in certain sections of the media being attributed to Shri Rajender Kumar, IAS," CBI Spokesperson R K Gaur said. The agency said the accused had the opportunity to bring before the court any instance of alleged physical assault when they were produced before judge but no such allegation was made. The Delhi government, however asserted that Kumar is an "honest officer who has done no wrong". "I praised Rajendra Kumar for his courage. An honest officer, who has done nothing wrong, has such courage and he did not break down like Bansal and instead he faced atrocities. "He did not take any step which caused problems to his family," said Sisodia at a press conference. On applying for voluntary retirement, Kumar said it was a "difficult decision". Asked whether he will join politics, Kumar said he has not thought about future plans, without ruling out the possibility. In his letter, Kumar said he has never experienced the kind of such utter "disregard" for the system, process, protocol, transparency and decency." "It is the same set of people in CBI who forced Mr B K Bansal and his son to commit suicide. "As everyone knows, his wife and daughter had committed suicide earlier due to atrocities and humiliation suffered at the hand of the Anti-Corruption Bureau of CBI, which has investigated the case against me. Bansal and his family have been murdered by these people," the IAS officer alleged. Bansal, who was Director General in the Corporate Affairs ministry, and his son had committed suicide in September, months after his wife and daughter had hanged themselves inside their home, following his arrest and subsequent interrogation in a graft case. Kumar claimed his troubles started soon after he was invited by Kejriwal to work with him in December 2013. Reacting to the development, Kejriwal attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying "why the PM is so scared of us". "CBI raids my office, pressurises officer to implicate me. CBI raids Satyendar Jains office. Why are u so so scared of us Modi Ji? Chill (sic)," Kejriwal alleged in a series of tweets. Sisodia alleged that Centre has unleashed all government agencies to destroy the Aam Aadmi Party to silence Kejriwal. "They are ready to register fake cases against him and his officers and arrest them." The CBI in its the FIR said that the accused persons had entered into a criminal conspiracy and caused a loss of Rs 12 crore to the Delhi Government in award of contracts between 2007 and 2015. The FIR had also claimed that the officials had taken "undue benefit" of over Rs three crore while awarding the contract. In an escalation of tense ties with the Congress government in Puducherry, Lt Governor on Thursday cancelled the order of Chief Minister V Narayanasamy banning the use of social media for official communication. Bedi, who was in Delhi for the past few days, posted a copy of her order on her personal Twitter handle declaring the government circular "null and void" with immediate effect on the ground that it was issued "in contravention of guidelines, rules and policies of the government". "If Puducherry has to be a progressive Union Territory it cannot be retrograde in communications. Hence @CM_Puducherry's order stands cancelled: @PMOIndia (sic)," she tweeted. Narayanasamy had issued the circular even as Bedi was pushing with her plan to promote WhatsApp communication by officials. The government circular dated January 2 had said the chief minister had directed all the officers, heads of departments and employees of government-owned undertakings to immediately desist from using the social media such as Twitter, WhatsApp and Facebook. It had added that the servers of these multi-national companies were based outside the country. "Any foreign country can get access to these official communications and documents uploaded which is a violation of the Official Secrets Act and also against the guidelines issued by Union Information Technology Ministry," it had said. Describing the order as retrogade, Bedi said it is against the clear-cut policy of the Central Government. "How can the Chief Minister take away the power of communication? That is why I have declared it null and void." "I have met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singhji, IT and Communication Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Minister of State in the PMO Jitendra Singh and apprised them about the issue," Bedi told PTI. Bedi said Prasad also thinks it is a retrograde measure by the Chief Minister. "It is now up to the Centre to respond. I have left it to them. It is a major issue. How can a Chief Minister issue gag orders in times of open communication and free flow of ideas? "Government of India's entire grievance redressal mechanism is based on open communication. So many ministries including the External Affairs Ministry is using social media so effectively," she said. She had recently created a WhatsApp group for exchange of information and details of implementation of various government schemes. An Officer on Special Duty at Raj Nivas is the administrator of the group. The government's circular was seen as a counter to Bedi suspending a Puducherry Civil Service officer for posting an "obscene" video clip on the WhatsApp group. Meanwhile, the Election Commission has stayed Bedi's December 30 order suspending the Registrar of Cooperative Societies, AS Sivakumar, an official told PTI. Sivakumar was appointed by the EC as Electoral Registration Officer for three Assembly seats in Puducherry. Bedi in another round of tweets defended her order. "Why I cancelled CM Puducherry's gag order. It takes us back to non-technology days, not good for #properouspudducherry:" "With WhatsApp, I'm Trying To Ensure Common Man Gets Immediate Help". In another tweet, Bedi said, "Amazing how we choose to b retrograde. Some in a position of power instead of using their position of influence to facilitate, do so to obstruct." She said "nothing in contravention of rules could be permitted as it would otherwise be replicated anywhere." Today is the 250th anniversary of Jean-Baptiste Say, one of the most important economic thinkers of the nineteenth century. Here are five facts you should know about this French economist: 1. Says conviction that the study of economics should start not with abstract mathematical and statistical analyses but with the real experience of the human person was likely based on his own vocational experiences. He had worked at a broad range of occupations including journalist, soldier, politician, cotton manufacturer, writer, apprenticeship in a commercial office, and secretary in a life insurance company. As David M. Hart explains, The major reason for his constantly changing career were the political and economic upheavals his generation had to endure: the French Revolution, the Revolutionary Wars, the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte, economic warfare with Britain, and eventually the fall of the Empire and the Restoration of the Bourbon monarchy. Only after this quarter century of turmoil could Say take up his first position teaching political economy in Paris in 1815, an activity he was to continue until his death in 1832. 2. Say is credited with coining the term entrepreneur in his influential book, A Treatise on Political Economy, or the Production, Distribution, and Consumption of Wealth. When the book was translated into English in 1880, it included this note on the term: The term entrepreneur is difficult to render in English; the corresponding word, undertaker, being already appropriated to a limited sense. . . For want of a better word, it will be rendered into English by the term adventurer. 3. Say is also credited with what has become known as Says law, or the law of markets. The law is often (incorrectly) stated as supply creates its own demand. But as Hart says, it should be more broadly understood as the idea that producers, by nature of finding markets for and selling their own goods, generate income they can spend on other goods in the economy. And as Steven Horwitz explains, Put another way, Say was making the claim that production is the source of demand. Ones ability to demand goods and services from others derives from the income produced by ones own acts of production. Wealth is created by production not by consumption. My ability to demand food, clothing, and shelter derives from the productivity of my labor or my nonlabor assets. The higher (lower) that productivity, the higher (lower) is my power to demand. 4. Say was appointed to a government finance committee in 1799, where he encountered Napoleon Bonaparte, then the First Consul of France. During a dinner meeting, Napoleon proposed that Say publish an updated edition of his Treatise incorporating a defense of the governments profligate policies. To entice the economist, Napoleon offered him 40,000 francs to make the changes. Say refused to compromise his integrity, which cost him his job with the Tribunat. 5. While his book was being suppressed in France, Say and his Treatise came to the attention of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Madison thought it the best book ever written about economics and Jefferson attempted to entice Say to be a professor of political economy at the new University of Virginia. Instead, Say waited till Napoleon was in exile and took a job as professor in economics, first at the Athenee, then at the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers, and finally at the College de France, where he occupied Frances first chair in political economy. A nearly two-month-old male Asiatic lion cub who got separated from his family at a village in Gir Somnath district was rescued and reunited with his mother, a forest official said today. A pride of two lioness and 2-3 cubs ventured into a forest revenue area adjoining the Gir sanctuary, the only abode of these big cats. One of the male cubs got separated from the other felines and was found roaming at a field in Juna Ugla village under Una tehsil of Gir Somnath district on Monday night, Range Forest Officer J G Pandya said. "Since an abandoned cub might not survive, our team, without any delay, decided to locate his mother and visited around five nearby villages after learning about a pride of lions seen roaming in the area," he said. The worry before the forest officials was how to reunite the cub with his family. "Usually in such situations, the cub is left to die and is not accepted back by the pride. The female carnivores often kill the cubs if they come in close contact with humans," he said. Later, the forest team reached a site near Kedarnath dam close to Fadsar village and kept the cub there in an open cage, Pandya said. On Tuesday, after nearly 15 hours of efforts by the team, a lioness came near the cage, sniffed the cub and took him along while disappearing in the adjoining forest, he said. The Gir national park and wildlife sanctuary in Western Gujarat is the only habitat for Asiatic lions. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Madhya Pradesh government today said it had demanded an air cargo facility at Indore to facilitate exports from the state. "Indore is the commercial capital of the state. Today, at the meeting of Council for Trade Promotion and Development in Delhi, I urged the Centre to take up the issue of air cargo facility at Indore," state Industry Minister Rajendra Shukla told PTI. The meeting was presided over by Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman. Pharmaceutical products, auto components, chemicals and clothes are exported on a large scale from Indore region, Shukla said. "The cargo facility would further benefit the state as the business is growing....The average growth rate of the state during past two years was more than 10 per cent," he added. Shukla informed in the meeting that MP Government had also set up five inland container depots. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Maharashtra government today issued orders of transfers and promotions of IPS officers in the state. The orders were issued by the state home department, officials said. Ritesh Kumar, IGP CID Pune has been promoted as Additional Director General of Police (ADG), Wireless Department. Amitabh Gupta, who was IGP in the Legal Meteorology department, has been promoted to the ADG rank. Santosh Rastogi, Joint Commissioner of Police Nagpur city was transferred as Joint Commissioner of State Intelligence Department (SID), Mumbai. Sunil Ramanand, Joint Commissioner of Police Pune has been transferred as IGP, Crime Investigation Department (CID) and he will be replaced by Ravindra Kadam, who was IGP at Nagpur Range. Deepak Pandey, who was posted as Deputy Inspector Genral (DIG) Maharashtra State Security Corporation is promoted as IGP and will be the Managing Director at Police Housing and Welfare Corporation. DIG of State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) Vijaysingh Jadhav has been promoted as IGP (Training and Special Forces) at State Police HQ, Mumbai. Pratapsingh Patankar, Additional Commissioner of Police at Nagpur City has been promoted as IGP Nagpur Range. Sharad Shelar, Additional CP of Thane City has been also promoted as IGP, but his posting orders will be issued soon, they added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Maharashtra government has decided to set up Rs 300 crore garment park in Solapur to promote the city as a 'major garment hub'. "Maharashtra government will set up a garment park at Solapur. Nearly 27 acres of land belonging to erstwhile Narsing Girji Mill in Solapur has been identified for this purpose," state textile minister Subhash Deshmukh said after inaugurating the three-day international exhibition on uniform and textiles in Solapur today. The exhibition is being hosted by Shree Solapur Readymade Garment Manufacturing Association in co-ordination with the Maharashtra Textile Ministry and Mafatlal Fabrics. The bhoomi pujan (ground breaking ceremony) of the park which would be developed thereon would be held on January 26, Deshmukh added. The government will provide all required infrastructure to successfully complete and launch this unique Garment Park, he said. Amit Kumar Jain of Shri Solapur Readymade Kapad Utpadak Sangh said that the total cost for the garment park would be around Rs 300 crore. "The park will also generate employment potential, which will provide employment to over 60,000 bidi workers, besides other unemployed persons," Deshmukh said. The uniforms industry including school, corporate wear and government forces is worth over Rs 18,000 crore, of which nearly Rs 10,000 crore is in the organised sector. Of the rest, Solapur contributes nearly Rs 1,100 crore with uniforms churned out from around 1,000 plus manufacturing units in the city, employing over 60,000 skilled workers. Solapur is set to become a major textiles hub for providing uniforms for the armed forces and police personnel in the country, the minister said. Over 6,000 retailers are expected to visit this exhibition and 82 stalls displaying latest new designs, uniforms and other garments. "Bank of Maharashtra will sanction spot loans of up to Rs 10 million to encourage the local garments industry during the event," Bank of Maharashtra chairman and managing director Ravindra Marathe said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Mahindra Asset Management Company today launched an open ended scheme, mainly aimed at rural and semi-urban markets, as it looks to tap ample liquidity in banking system post demonetisation. The company's scheme -- Mahindra Mutual Fund Dhan Sanchay Yojna -- seeks to generate long-term returns through investment in equity and debt. The New Fund Offer would open on January 10 and close on January 24. Thereafter, the scheme will reopen for continuous sale and repurchase from February 8. "This product makes lot of sense at this point of time and because of demonetisation lot of money has come into the bank. We are eyeing to tap this opportunity and asked our MF distributors to educate people about the investment in a mutual fund product," Mahindra AMC CEO and MD Ashutosh Bishnoi told reporters here. It seeks to generate long-term returns through investment in equity and equity related instruments, arbitrage opportunities, debt and money market instruments. "We at Mahindra AMC have chosen to reach out to the underserved markets to tap into savings and investment potential beyond urban India in the semi-urban and rural markets. "Our approach is based on educating the potential customer in our priority markets and explaining the investment opportunities to them in their own language starting with product names," Bishnoi said. Mahindra AMC, wholly-owned subsidiary of Mahindra and Mahindra Financial Services, received markets regulator Sebi's approval in February last year to set up mutual fund business. Bishnoi is upbeat on the industry performance in this year while expecting investment from new investors to fuel the growth of the sector. The total AUM of all 43 active fund houses put together soared by Rs 3.52 lakh crore, or over 26 per cent, to a record Rs 16.93 lakh crore at the end of December 2016 from Rs 13.41 lakh crore in December-end 2015. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The district court here today sentenced a man to life imprisonment for killing his wife and then storing her dismembered body inside a refrigerator three years ago. District and Sessions Judge Mridula V K Bhatia awarded life sentence to Girish Pote (38) for killing his 33-year-old wife Madhuwanti Pathak, who was born and brought up in France and held a French passport. "You will remain in prison not for 14 years but till your biological end. I have not given death to you," the judge said in a packed courtroom. The judge, while convicting Pote yesterday, had observed that the prosecution had proved beyond reasonable doubt the "gruesome" murder by the accused. The accused moved an application, seeking pardon and told the court that he was remorseful and that leniency should be shown. According to additional public prosecutor (APP) Buleshwar Hinge, Madhumati and Pote got married on June 20, 2011. They have a child who is two-year-old now. Madhumati's mother, a musician, had married an Indian and in 2009 returned to France where she died. Pote worked as a sales manager in a garment's showroom but was jobless for six months before the incident took place. The couple, who lived in the flat that belonged to the victim's mother, often had quarrels on several issues. "Madhuwanti wanted to go back to France after selling the property in Mumbai. During investigation, Pote revealed that his wife disliked India and wanted to take the money and fly back to France. But he had opposed the idea, leading to frequent fights between them," the APP had said. Four days prior to the incident, the child was sent to a relative's house in Thane. On the day of the incident, Pote convinced Madhuwanti that he would allow her to go back to France. Later, he went to a mall and bought a packet of knives, Hinge said. After returning home, he killed her. However, he could not take the body out of the flat as the building had CCTV cameras installed in the lobby and the lift. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) BJP today alleged that former chief minister and Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) president Babulal Marandi was unable to "digest" the development works being done by the Raghubar Das government by a person (Das) who reached to the post from being a mazdoor. "When Marandi was CM Jharkhand, administration was derailed and the state suffered from subsequent result," BJP's state unit spokesman Praveen Prabhakar said in a press release here. Recalling the 2014 Assembly elections, Prabhakar said Marandi had lost from two seats, but still was "indulging in divisive politics". Stating that Das worked well during the last two years, Prabhakar said the CM worked in the interest of tribals and natives and brought the state back on tracks. Whatever issues had been there on the path of development were solved by the CM, Prabhakar said. He said for the first time local policy had been defined by the state government, opening doors of jobs for the youths. The simplification of Chhotanagpur Tenancy Act and Santhal Pargana Tenancy Act has given the tribals and natives self-sustenance along with maintaining the right over their land, Prabhakar said and asked Marandi as to why did he not take any step for tribals and natives when he was the CM. "He should ponder over why people rejected him from two seats," the release quoting Prabhakar, said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Anger over gasoline prices hikes fueled more protests and looting, and Mexican officials said the unrest had resulted in the death of a policeman, the ransacking of 300 stores and arrests of over 600 people. The country's business chambers said yesterday the combination of highway, port and terminal blockades and looting this week forced many stores and businesses to close and threatened supplies of basic goods and fuel. Mexicans were enraged by the 20 per cent fuel price hike announced over the weekend as part of a government deregulation of the energy sector. Protesters began blocking highways and gas stations and some people have broken into stores to carry off merchandise. Authorities said one policeman was run over and killed and another was seriously injured when they tried to stop robberies at a gas station in Mexico City. Police in the capital said they had arrested 76 people for looting about 29 stores. In neighboring Mexico State, 430 people were detained as suspected looters. Four state police officers were fired and detained after they were caught on video taking some looted items and putting them in their patrol vehicles. With blockades affecting everything from gas distribution terminals, seaports and highways to shopping centers and gas stations, the Communications and Transport Department announced it would cancel permits for any truckers who block roads. Truck and taxi drivers have been among the most affected by the fuel price increases, which took effect as the government ends regulated prices for gasoline and diesel, which it says represented subsidies that unduly benefited wealthier Mexicans. The change boosted the average price for a liter of premium gasoline to 17.79 pesos (about 90 cents). That makes 4 liters, or about a gallon, equal to nearly as much as Mexico's just raised minimum wage for a day's work - 80 pesos (about USD 4). President Enrique Pena Nieto said Wednesday that he would try to help groups hit hard by the increases. "I understand the anger and irritation felt by the general public" over the price increases, Pena Nieto said. But, he added, "If this decision had not been taken, the effects and consequences would have been far more painful." The Mexican Council of Bishops urged the government to reconsider the price increases, which it said especially hurt the poor. "One has to be sensitive to the daily needs of the people," the bishops said in a statement. "It is not right to impose laws without taking into account peoples' realities and their feelings." But the bishops also called on protesters to stop looting and "use peaceful and creative means to express their feelings. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) today withdrew its support to the BJP-led state government, after two of its ministers were sacked from the Goa cabinet recently owing to serious differences between the alliance partners. MGP President Dipak Dhavalikar, in a letter to Goa Governor Mridula Sinha, informed that all his three MLAs have withdrawn support to the Laxmikant Parsekar government. With this the number of MLAs supporting the BJP-led dispensation has come down to 23 which comprises 21 legislators from BJP and two independents. "I beg to place before you the fact that our party had signed a pre-poll alliance with BJP for Goa Assembly 2012 elections and the party accordingly had adopted a resolution to that effect," Dhavalikar said in the letter. "As per election results, the BJP-MGP government took over the charge of administration and we continued our co-operation inspite of differences on various issues, which recently led to the ouster of MGP MLAs from the cabinet," he said. Now that upon declaration of 2017 assembly elections by the Election Commission of India, the central committee of MGP--which had decided not to continue with BJP--now confirms its decision to break the alliance with BJP from immediate effect, he said. MGP leaders Dipak and Sudin Dhavalikar were sacked from the cabinet last month following their outburst against the BJP-led government in the poll-bound state. The party has now begun talks with RSS rebel leader Subhash Velingkar led Goa Suraksha Manch (GSM) for pre-poll ties for the elections scheduled on February 4. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) 'Look good, feel good' seems to be Rajasthan government's mantra as it has ordered mirrors and combs be kept at government schools to ensure students and teachers are smartly turned out. The initiative is being taken under the Shala-Darpan campaign and most of the schools have been covered under this, additional director of education department Hari Prasad said. "When there is a mirror and comb, students and teachers can arrange themselves. This will give them a good feeling and students will also feel confident," he said. Apart from this, the government has also started a 'Shala-Darpan' portal in which authentic official information and data pertaining to government schools has been made available. Principals of the schools can log in and update information on the portal. "Details about the number of schools, students, teachers, student-teacher ratio in the schools have been provided online. One can search the details schoolwise," he said. Other details which are available online are related with the name and contact numbers of the principals of the schools, number of classrooms in schools, toilets, play grounds and other facilities among others. He said black boards have also been replaced with green boards. There are 36,48,994 students enrolled in 50,993 government schools and 1,49,381 teachers in the state. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Globalization is routinely decried for its disruptive effects, particularly as it relates to local culture and community enterprises and institutions. Even as its proven to drive significant economic growth, questions remain about its steamrolling influence on the culture. Even if we grant that global competitive markets create prosperity, is it worth the fast food chains and the big box chains we see everywhere we go? asks Michael Miller in an excerpt from PovertyCure. What about a sense of vulgarity and bringing things to the lowest common denominator? And perhaps most important, does globalization destroy local culture? The threats to culture are real and pronounced. It is undeniable that globalization can and has and will diminish or destroy certain cultures, traditions, and enterprises. Yet as Miller and others remind us in, we are not powerless in our response, whether as creators or consumers. Indeed, globalization also presents a tremendous opportunity for cultural diversity. In Ireland, for example, increased participation in global trade not only boosted and diversified the Irish economy; it also allowed the Irish to spread their culture around the world, whether through beer or film or music and dance. Simultaneously, the influx of competing cultural influences has increased awareness of their cultural identity, spurring citizens to defend, preserve, and restore the cultural features they care about the most (e.g. the recent renaissance of the Irish language). As Irish economist Marc Coleman explains, even though the predominant push of globalization represents a secularized, individualized view of the world, that message is an opportunity for more traditional or family-oriented cultures to harness those same channels for their voice and cultural perspective. Instead of complaining, he says, lets actually use globalization to fight back and push our view of the world. Its a reorientation that we would all do well to heed, and it doesnt just apply to more tangible cultural artifacts. For Christians, as with any other proponent of any other belief system, the avenues for application should be obvious. Whether were trying to spread a particular message through more direct communications or cultivating culture and serving our neighbors in the day-to-day economic order, the channels are already there, and theyre only continuing to expand. Man cannot live by bread alone, concludes Coleman. Its very important that developing countries do not see the global market and the opportunities of a global market as a substitute for their native culture and values. Its extremely important to know who you are and what your culture is. Prime Minister today showered fulsome praise on Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for launching a movement against liquor and appealed to all to make prohibition a grand success, weeks after he lauded the JD(U) chief for supporting demonetisation "I greet Nitish Kumar from the core of my heart for launching a campaign against liquor," the PM said as Nitish and his ally RJD President Lalu Prasad shared the dais with him during the concluding function of 350th Prakash Parva of 10th Sikh Guru Govind Singh here. "But, this work (prohibition) would not be a grand success only by efforts of Nitish Kumar or one party. All the political parties, social organisations and citizens have to participate in it to make it a 'jan-jan ka andolan' (peoples movement)," Modi said. Bihar will become an example for the entire country through successful implementation of prohibition, the PM said. The PM's mention of prohibition came in response to the Bihar Chief Minister's request to him to spread prohibition across the country. Fulfilling its poll promise, Nitish Kumar government had imposed total prohibition in Bihar. Kumar in his address mentioned that as Chief Minister of Gujarat had successfully carried prohibition which has been in force in the western state since its inception. Though Modi and Kumar have been bitter political opponents, the Prime Minister had praised the Bihar Chief Minister recently for supporting demonetisation after the winter session of Parliament was washed out due to protests by a united opposition on note ban. The JD(U) had walked out of NDA over naming of Modi as the BJP's prime ministerial candidate in 2014. The two leaders led a shrill campaign in the 2015 Assembly elections against each other with Kumar, in alliance with RJD, handing down a humiliating defeat to BJP. However, breaking from opposition ranks, the JD(U) has supported demonetisation. Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Bihar Governor Ramnath Kovind, Union ministers Ramvilas Paswan and Ravishankar Prasad were also present on the dais at the function today. Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab Sukhbir Singh Badal, Union minister Harsimrat Kaur, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Prasad Yadav and senior BJP leader and Patna Saheb MP Shatrughan Sinha were also present. Bowing his head in reverence to the 10th Sikh Guru Govind Singh, the PM lauded his efforts for unity of the country through formation of "Panch Pyara panth". Patting Nitish Kumar for taking personal interest in making elaborate arrangements for the 350th Prakash Parva, the PM said the Centre on its part, besides helping the Bihar government in organising the event, is celebrating the historic occasion in different countries through its embassies. The central government has allocated a sum of Rs 100 crore for the celebration of 350th Prakash Parva abroad which is being done through a committee formed for the purpose, Modi said. The PM also highlighted the Centre's contribution in successful organisation of the occasion in Bihar. He said the Railway ministry as well Union Culture ministry have spent Rs 40 crore each for Prakash Parva in Bihar. The PM received "prasad" (offering) from a langar in the tent city that has been erected in Gandhi Maidan, before leaving for Patna Airport on way back to Delhi. The PM, Nitish Kumar, Union ministers Ramvilas Paswan and Ravishankar Prasad wore turban at the function. Lakhs of Sikh devotees from the country and abroad have arrived for the event. Punjab Chief Minister and Akali Dal President Prakash Singh Badal also showered praise on Nitish Kumar for elaborate arrangements for the Prakash Parva. "In 70 years of my public life, I have seen several samagams...But the way Nitish Kumar took personal interest in hosting the event is an example," Badal said. "I could not have organised the occasion in much grander way," he said. Badal also hailed the PM for his special bond with Sikhs and thanked him for his presence in all the functions organised by the community. Besides the 350th Prakash Parva, Kumar said, the state government would also host centenary celebration of Champaran Satyagraha of Mahatama Gandhi launched against British rule in 1917. While referring to prohibition, Kumar said it was a tribute to Guru Govind Singh and Mahatama Gandhi who had heralded agitation against British rule through Champaran satyagraha in East Champaran district of Bihar against forced indigo plantation enforced by Britishers. With the concluding function today, 350th Prakash Parva which began on December 25 last has come to an end. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was trying to work like Indira Gandhi and only time will tell if he succeeds, Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Tankha today said. "If our country's Prime Minister is trying to do something... It is to work like Indira Gandhi. Whether he will succeed at it will be known in time," he said while addressing students at Delhi University here. The former additional solicitor general, however, did not elaborate on "the similarities between the style of functioning of the two leaders" he was alluding to. Tankha was here to launch a book titled "Rediscovering Indira Today". The book, compiled by the Delhi unit of Rajiv Gandhi Study Circle, includes essays contributed by DU students and faculty members. The edition was launched on the birth anniversary of Savitribai Phule today. He also claimed that teachers have been reduced to "contractual labourers" contributing to degradation of the education system. "One of the major failures of all governments has been that they have failed to better the level of education to benefit the masses. Teachers are being treated as contractual labourers which is a major cause behind degradation of the system. "If India has to change the attitude toward the teaching community has to change," Tankha said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Under attack over his controversial remarks on New Year's eve molestation in Bengaluru, Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara on Thursday asserted that he was committed to the protection of women and suspected a "hidden agenda" behind highlighting the incident. Parameshwara also said he was extremely pained that his statement on the alleged molestation incident had been interpreted out of context and not taken in its entirety. "My comments had nothing to do with molestation. Nothing to do with westernised culture. The remarks referred to the incident, it was not about dress or molestation," he told reporters in Bengaluru. As horrific incidents of alleged molestation of several women on MG Road and Brigade Road during New Year revelry came to light, triggering a outrage, Parameshwara had talked about the 'Western ways' of youngsters in remarks that came under scathing attack from different quarters. Speaking to a TV news channel on the issue, Parameshwara had said, "Youngsters who are almost like westerners, they try to copy westerners not only in mindset, but even the dressing." Commission for Women Chairperson Lalitha Kumaramangalam had slammed Parameshwara's remarks, demanding that he resign. NCW, as also Karnataka State Commission for Women, had sought separate reports from the administration and police over the incidents. Parameshwara said he would reply to the NCW notice. He would also reply to a notice sent by Delhi Women's Rights Commission, but not before examining whether any state has the power to send such a notice to a minister of another state. "I never even mentioned the word molestation. I don't know how this whole thing took a different turn, which altogether gave an impression that I made a statement that molestation happens every time, which was absolutely wrong," he said. "The choice of every citizen of our country should be respected. Women have equal rights, respect and protection under the Constitution," he said. Parameshwara said he was not the one who treats women differently. "I have full respect. I have sisters, my mother, my wife, and I am not such a person to treat women in a different sense. We all respect our families, womenfolk. We come from that kind of a culture. We never see them in a different sense," the minister said. Parameshwara also said police are working round-the-clock on the footage culled from CCTV cameras. "This all started from January 2. Is there a hidden agenda? I don't know," he said without elaborating. On the Kamanahalli molestation case, he said an FIR had already been registered and police have some leads. The culprits would be brought to book and won't be spared, he said. In the Kammanahalli incident, a woman was groped and assaulted by two scooter-borne men near her home with the shocking incident caught on camera. A farmer in Madhya Pradesh's Sheopur district was shocked to receive Rs 2,000 currency notes without the image of Mahatma Gandhi from a branch of a public sector bank. Laxman Meena, a farmer from Bichchhugawadi village, received three notes of Rs 2,000 when he withdrew money from the bank's branch at Baroda town in Sheopur. "I was given three notes of Rs 2,000 on withdrawal from my account on Tuesday (December 3). I later found that there was no image of Mahatma Gandhi on those," Meena told PTI over phone today. "I was in the market when I discovered that there was no picture of Mahatma Gandhi on the notes. I then went to the bank and and showed it to the manager," he said. Meena said the branch manager told him to deposit those notes. "Initially, the manger told me that I must have examined the notes on receiving them. Later, he, however, told me to deposit the notes and get them replaced," the farmer said. The bank manager also clarified to him that the currency was genuine and there might have been a printing error. Meena said the bank replaced the notes yesterday. Meanwhile, the in-charge branch manager of the bank told PTI over phone that he has sent the information to the lead bank manager of the district. "I have nothing more to say. I have already submitted the information in this regard to the lead bank manager," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) has started a hotel management and catering institute which will provide skilled professionals for the fast-growing hospitality and tourism sector. The Maharashtra Institute of Hotel Management and Catering Technology (MIHMCT), which marks MTDC's foray into hospitality education, has been set up in collaboration with the Central and State Governments at Solapur, around 400km from here. "The hospitality and tourism industry in the State is expected to grow at a rapid pace between now and 2025. This will be a prime institute in the field of hospitality education in Solapur. "This decision to foray into hospitality education comes with the intention of bridging the demand-supply gap created within the food service sector, particularly the restaurant and fast food business outlets, which lack skilled manpower," Maharashtra Tourism Minister Jaykumar Jitendrasinh Rawal said after inaugurating the institute. MTDC intends to provide food services in clean and hygienic environments, mainly in the interiors of Maharashtra, and this institute will try to address these critical issues, by training students in necessary skills, an official release quoted him saying at the event. The Tourism Department is also working on constructing a textile museum offering a glimpse of the bygone era, he said. "We also plan to build a resort for tourists in Pandharpur (a temple town in Solapur district), which will become operational soon." MTDC will soon establish a tourist information centre in Solapur district, Western Maharashtra, the Minister added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) As the battle for control over Samajwadi Party continued, party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav today held discussions with his close confidante Amar Singh here amid talks that they may approach the Election Commission with letters of support from over 50 per cent of the legislators and office bearers. While Mulayam's close aides maintained he sought time from the Commission to put forth his stand, the poll panel firmly rejected that any appointment was sought. Then in the evening, hours after coming to Delhi, Mulayam left for Lucknow with his brother Shivpal without approaching the Commission. Sources in the poll watchdog said they have not received any document from the SP founder. "In fact, his side is yet to submit the letter removing Ram Gopal Yadav as National General Secretary," an official claimed. Seeking to retain the 'Samajwadi Party' name and its election symbol 'cycle', Mulayam and Shivpal had rushed to the national capital this morning to furnish details of support he enjoys in the embattled party to the poll panel, while his chief minister son stayed put at his official residence in Lucknow collecting signed affidavits to back his claim of majority support. Akhilesh, who has refused to back down so far despite meeting Mulayam after being urged to do so by peace brokers like minister and SP's Muslim face Azam Khan was claimed to have secured signed affidavits of over 200 MLAs and MLCs, insiders said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Terming as "most consequential" the US' ties with China, Secretary of State John Kerry today said North Korea's increasingly "destabilising and provocative" behaviour will be the most important issue for the bilateral relationship in future. In an exit-memo on accomplishments of the State Department during the Obama Administration, Kerry said a number of areas of disagreements existed between the US and China. "We have areas of vigorous disagreement, including on cybersecurity, human rights, and disputes in the East and South China Seas. In the years ahead, there is perhaps no more important issue on the US-China agenda than North Korea's increasingly destabilising and provocative behaviour," he said. "In our relationship with China, the most consequential of our bilateral relationships in the world today, we have built on the positive and productive relationship that President Barack Obama established with President Xi Jinping to expand cooperation on a range of global challenges such as clean energy and health, including paradigm-shifting cooperation in reducing the threat of climate change," he said. Kerry also said the two countries have worked together to increase stability in states like Afghanistan, confront global health epidemics and address development challenges. In a separate Defense Department's exit-memo, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said tensions in the South China Sea must be managed as must the consequences of North Korea's continued provocative actions. "At the same time, the next Administration should continue to promote high-standards trade and investment, which will deepen partnerships in the Asia-Pacific region and underscore our strategic advantage in the region," he said. Carter said the Obama Administration had regularised military-to-military contacts with China at all levels, concluding two risk reduction confidence-building measures in an effort to improve transparency and reduce the risk of unintended incidents. On the Asia Pacific region, he said the US favoured the development of an inclusive and principled security network that is open to all that seek to preserve and strengthen the rules and norms that have undergirded regional stability for the past seven decades. (Reopens FGN 22) "America is a Pacific nation, and the future of the Asia-Pacific region is closely intertwined with our own," Carter said, adding that the next Administration should continue to pursue additional force posture opportunities, forge closer partnerships with and among countries across the region, and look to protect and strengthen existing alliances and partnerships. "Our investments must continue to protect our competitive edge in the region by extending the technological military superiority the US and the world have relied upon for decades," he said. Kerry said since his first day in office, Obama has taken the fight directly to al-Qaeda and its affiliates, never hesitating to use force when necessary to protect the American people. "Obama made it a top priority from day one to go after Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice. Since 2009, we have decimated al-Qaeda core's senior leadership in Afghanistan and Pakistan, including bin Laden, and we've targeted al-Qaeda's affiliates in Yemen, Somalia, and elsewhere," he said. "We must remain vigilant against this threat, but there should be no doubt that, after eight years of relentless counterterrorism efforts, the al-Qaeda that perpetrated 9/11 is today a shadow of what it was on January 20, 2009," he asserted. Kerry said the ISIS has dramatically undermined stability not just in the Middle East but in other regions as well, and it poses a threat to international peace and security, including a direct threat to many of its key partners and homeland. "ISIL continues to commit gross, systematic abuses of human rights and violations of international law, and in my judgement, ISIL is responsible for genocide against groups in areas under its control (including Yezidis, Christians, and Shia Muslims)," Kerry said. He said the dreaded terror group was also responsible for crimes against humanity and "ethnic cleansing" directed at these same groups and in some cases against Sunni Muslims, Kurds, and other minorities. Kerry said the US was more secure, more respected, and more engaged in the world today than it was when Obama took office eight years ago. "We have brought the international community together to confront the most serious challenges we face and to seize the most significant opportunities that will shape our future," he said. Union Health Minister J P Nadda today reviewed the preparedness of RML hospital in tackling H1N1 influenza, saying adequate stocks of medicines and testing kits were in place and the facility is fully geared up to handle the disease. The Health Minister also inaugurated a 35-bedded 'Dharamshala complex' at the hospital, which aims to provide free residential facilities to attendants of the poor patients coming from outside Delhi. The complex is a 35 bedded facility having single, twin and dormitory rooms with a floor reserved for women. It is constructed with a total outlay of approx Rs 6.15 cr and offers free communication facilities for the attendants. Care taker, security and sanitation services are available round the clock. "This hospital attracts patients from the city and from neighboring states with unwavering belief that they will get best of services available in the country. RML has been successful in balancing the quality and quantity while delivering services to the poor people," Nadda said. The health minister said that services at the complex should be regularly inspected and monitored and asserted that the facility should also ensure proper sanitation while directing officials to personally monitor this aspect. "We erect the hardware but not pay much attention to the software part. The hospital should look at ways and means of making the facilities at the complex self-sustaining," Nadda said. Referring to the ICT based application 'Mera Aspataal' (My Hospital) that captures patients' feedback about their experience in the health facilities, Nadda said that the Ministry is seeking the feedback of people digitally to improve the quality of services at the health centres. "Patient satisfaction is the ultimate test for assessing quality of services provided by a healthcare facility and we are now making a paradigm shift by seeking their views on quality of experience in a public healthcare facility. This will help us improving the experience of people at a health facility," he said. While reviewing the preparedness of the Hospital to deal with the cases of H1N1 influenza, the Minister said that in winter season, the H1N1 influenza cases generally show a rise. "Today's visit is to review the preparation of the hospital for this. Adequate stocks of medicines, testing kits and medical equipment are in place and we are fully geared up to handle H1N1 influenza," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Four Nepal-based labourers were killed after debris of rocks collapsed on them during a construction work on Kashapat road in Rampur area of Shimla district, police said today. The labourers were inspecting the road last night after removing the debris when the rock suddenly caved in and all four of them were buried under it, they said. The rescue teams reached the spot but the darkness and threat of more landslides thwarted the efforts to pull them pout, Rampur DSP Som Dutt said. The rescue operations were resumed in the morning by the districtadministration with the help of the locals and the bodies were recovered. The labourers were identified as Ajay (38), Ram Bahadur (40), Lokendra (40) and Harendra (22). "We continued the rescue operations on the narrow road and also kept constant watch on the movement of rocks to avoid any major tragedy," Dutt, who supervised the rescue operations, said. The bodies were handed over to their family members after post mortem and immediate compensation of Rs 10,000 has been given to the next of kin of each victim. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Incomplete Headlines Mislead on Elor Azaria Shooting | Main January 05, 2017 Free Speech Crackdown on the Temple Mount The Palestinians are trying to change history by outlawing the term "Temple Mount." First they simply denied that there had ever been any Jewish Temples on the Temple Mount. Then they sent out media advisories to journalists telling them that the term "Temple Mount" was illegitimate. They brought resolutions to UNESCO that verbally erased the term "Temple Mount" and described it only in Muslim terms. And now they've cracked down on an archeologist who used the term during a tour he gave university students on the Temple Mount. As the Jerusalem Post reports: Jerusalem Prize winner and Temple Mount Sifting Project cofounder Dr. Gabriel Barkay said he was guiding an interfaith group of 22 undergraduates from UCLA when he was interrupted by an Arab guard for making the seemingly innocuous reference. I was lecturing about the history of the Temple Mount to the students, some of whom were Muslim and Christian, and one of the Wakf guards tried to listen to my explanations, and when he heard the words Temple Mount, he got upset, Barkay said. The guard then consulted with nearby police officers stationed on the compound, who told Barkay to cease using the term for the duration of the visit. What next? Will they burn all books that mention the Temple Mount? Destroy all historical accounts? Read more about the battle over Jerusalem and the Temple Mount here. Posted by RH at January 5, 2017 01:34 PM Guidelines for posting This is a moderated blog. We will not post comments that include racism, bigotry, threats, or factually inaccurate material. Post a comment Police questioned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today for a second time as part of a probe into whether he illegally accepted gifts from wealthy supporters, media reports said. Police and Netanyahu's office declined to comment on the reports. Various Israeli media reports said investigators arrived at Netanyahu's residence in central Jerusalem in the afternoon for a second round of questioning. Netanyahu is suspected of receiving gifts from business people, according to Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, who is overseeing the investigation. He has provided few other details. Israeli media reports say he allegedly received tens of thousands of dollars in such gifts. His first questioning on Monday lasted some three hours. The probe has shaken the country's political scene and raised questions over whether Netanyahu, 67 and in his fourth term as prime minister, would eventually be forced to resign. US billionaire and World Jewish Congress president Ronald Lauder has been among those questioned in the probe over gifts he allegedly gave Netanyahu and alleged spending on trips for him, reports have said. Lauder, whose family founded the Estee Lauder cosmetics giant, has long been seen as an ally of Netanyahu. Netanyahu has also acknowledged receiving money from French tycoon Arnaud Mimran, who was sentenced to eight years in prison in France over a scam involving the trade of carbon emissions permits and taxes on them. Netanyahu's office said he had received USD 40,000 in contributions from Mimran in 2001, when he was not in office, as part of a fund for public activities, including appearances abroad to promote Israel. Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing, saying repeatedly that "there will be nothing because there is nothing". The inquiry has led to fierce debate in Israeli politics, with Netanyahu's allies accusing opposition politicians and some in the media of unfairly pressuring the attorney general. Others have accused Mandelblit of moving too slowly in the intensely watched probe. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A car bombing blamed on Kurdish militants rocked the Turkish city of Izmir today, killing at least two people and triggering a deadly shootout, as authorities chased the fugitive killer behind the New Year attack in Istanbul. Turkey is on edge after the shooting rampage at the Reina nightclub unleashed shortly after revellers rang in 2017 which killed 39 people and was claimed by the Islamic State group. A top official said gunman may be a Turkic Uighur and several people of Uighur origin were arrested earlier today. Just four days after the nightclub carnage, a car bomb exploded outside a courthouse in the Aegean city of Izmir this afternoon, with authorities blaming the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). A policeman and a court worker, reportedly a bailiff, were killed, Deputy Prime Minister Veysel Kaynak told reporters. Police battled "terrorists" in a clash which saw two militants killed. Another escaped and is now being pursued, he added. The usually peaceful port city, Turkey's third largest metropolis, is the gateway to the plush beach resorts of the Aegean and rarely sees violence on this scale. It is west of the PKK's main theatre in the southeast of the country. Izmir governor Erol Ayyildiz said that initial evidence suggested the PKK -- which has fought a deadly insurgency for over three decades -- was behind the attack. He said the policeman tried to stop the car before it exploded and the "terrorists" then sought to escape as the explosion went off and the gunfight began. Up to seven people were wounded, he added. Ayyildiz praised the actions of policeman Fethi Sekin who carried out the control, saying "he was martyred but prevented the loss of many more lives". "Looking at the ammunition, it seems the aim was a massive massacre," said Kaynak. Reports said that two Kalashnikovs, seven rockets and eight grenades were seized. Turkish authorities meanwhile were seeking to close in on the Istanbul club attacker, who slipped into the night after spraying 120 bullets at terrified partygoers celebrating New Year. Of the 39 dead, 27 were foreigners including citizens from Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Iraq, India and Morocco. A top official said the attacker was likely a Turkic Uighur and reports have indicated the authorities are looking into the possible existence of a cell, also including other jihadists from Central Asia. IS took responsibility for the massacre in a statement on Monday, the first time it has issued a clear and undisputed claim for a major attack inside Turkey. The extremist group said it was a response to Ankara's military operation against the jihadists in northern Syria, where Turkish armed forces are supporting opposition fighters retaking territory from IS. Kaynak earlier told A Haber broadcaster that the attacker was "probably" of Uighur origin. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Nigerian army today said another Chibok schoolgirl kidnapped by Boko Haram jihadists almost three years ago had been rescued along with her six-month-old baby. Rakiya Abubakar was one of over 200 schoolgirls abducted from the northeast Nigerian town of Chibok in April 2014, army spokesman Sani Usman said in a statement. He said soldiers had "during investigation of arrested suspected Boko Haram terrorists discovered... Rakiya Abubakar, with her six-month-old baby." He said she was a senior school student at the time of her abduction but did not specify when or where she was found. Of the 276 girls initially seized, scores escaped in the hours after the kidnapping. There are currently 195 schoolgirls still missing. Abubakar is one of three other schoolgirls who have been found in the past year by Nigerian troops as they fight Boko Haram Islamists. In October, 21 Chibok girls were released by Boko Haram after negotiations with the Nigerian government brokered by the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Swiss government. The release was hailed as a breakthrough that would lead to the recovery of remaining girls in captivity. The Chibok girls drew global attention to the Boko Haram insurgency engulfing the country when US First Lady Michelle Obama joined the #BringBackOurGirls online movement. Despite winning back swathes of territory from the jihadists, President Muhammadu Buhari has faced intense criticism for failing to recover the young captives, who became the defining symbol of Boko Haram's brutal campaign to establish a fundamentalist Islamic state in the country. Boko Haram still poses a threat to the war-torn region, launching sporadic raids on remote villages in Nigeria and deadly attacks on soldiers in neighbouring Chad and Niger. Nigeria has recently trumpeted a major victory in its battle against Boko Haram, claiming in late December that its army has routed the jihadists from their Sambisa forest stronghold. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Nothing has emerged in the CBI probe so far to show any involvement of Union minister Babul Supriyo in the chit fund scam, the agency sources said today, days after arrested Trinamool Congress MP Tapas Pal alleged that the BJP leader had links with a ponzi firm. The sources said the agency has been carrying out exhaustive investigation into the scam in which lakhs of depositors were allegedly cheated by ponzi companies after promising higher rates of interest on their deposits. They said the agency has not been able to find any material linking Supriyo to the scam yet. Pal, arrested by the CBI for his alleged role in the Rose Valley chit fund scam, had alleged involvement of the Union Minister of State for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises in the scam. "I am innocent. I am in no way involved in the scam and the truth will come to the fore soon. I have taken the name of Babul Supriyo and names of some other persons (before CBI). The truth will come out," Pal told reporters while he was being taken for interrogation by CBI on a three-day remand. The Trinamool MP was arrested in Kolkata on December 30 and later taken to Bhubaneswar where a special court is hearing the Rose Valley scam case. Pal was one of the directors of the tainted chit fund group that allegedly duped investors in Odisha, West Bengal and some other states. He is also accused of promoting the company and "misleading" people to deposit money in the firm. He has also been charged with giving senior posts to his family members in the company, a senior CBI official said. In its charge sheet submitted in the court on January 7, CBI had accused the ponzi firm of duping investors of Rs 17,000 crore, of which Rs 450 crore is from Odisha alone. The company was active in Odisha and had 28 branches in the state. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Poll strategist Prashant Kishor has been roped in by the Congress for the Uttarakhand Assembly election, the third poll-bound state where he will work for the party after Uttar Pradesh and Punjab. Congress general secretary and in-charge of party affairs in Uttarakhand Ambika Soni said Kishor will help the party in the hill state where Assembly polls are slated to be held on February 15. She said since the time left for campaigning in the state was very less, Kishor will help strategise the party's campaign there and will work in coordination with the Congress leaders in Uttarakhand. Soni, who is also the campaign committee chairman of Punjab Congress, said the party workers who faced "oppression" under the Akali regime for the last 10 years should not be ignored at the time of allotting poll tickets. She said the veteran party workers had the "first right" on poll tickets over "outsiders" coming into the Congress-fold ahead of the polls. "Those Congressmen who have faced oppression under the Akali regime for the last 10 years should not be ignored. It is my personal opinion that wherever we have good candidates in Punjab, they should not be ignored for outsiders joining the party, especially those tainted," Soni said. Sources said the Congress urged Kishor to work in Uttarakhand as well where the party was tipped to face a keen tussle with the BJP. The hill state has witnessed the two parties coming to power alternately. Kishor's appointment has been made at the eleventh hour, at a time when the BJP is making the battle for the hill state a prestige issue after the Congress government in the state, led by Chief Minister Harish Rawat, was briefly dismissed last year and President's Rule imposed. Kishor was earlier the poll strategist of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the 2014 Lok Sabha election and later, of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Determined to save his legacy and signature healthcare reform law, US President Barack Obama has appealed to fellow Democrats to "look out for the American people" and not "rescue" Republicans as the incoming Trump team vowed to repeal Obamacare their top priority. With less than three weeks left to end his eight-year stint at the White House, Obama met Democratic lawmakers yesterday on Capitol Hill with a mission to save his healthcare reform law as Republicans are moving quickly to unroll the Affordable Care Act. In a two-hour session, Obama urged fellow Democrats to not "rescue" Republicans by helping them pass replacement measures, CNN quoted sources who attended the closed-door meeting as saying. He also floated this idea: Start referring to the Republican Party's new plan as "Trumpcare." As he walked by a group of reporters, Obama would only say this about the Democratic Party's message: "Look out for the American people." The healthcare law has extended health coverage to an estimated 20 million Americans. ObamaCare is a US healthcare reform law that expands and improves access to care and curbs spending through regulations and taxes. But some reports say the 2010 Affordable Care Act law has been hit by soaring premium costs and major insurers withdrawing from the scheme, leaving Americans with fewer choices for coverage. After the meeting, a White House aide said Obama used "Trumpcare" as an indication he was open to Trump taking credit for improvements. The feisty remarks from the outgoing President came as Republicans also huddled on Capitol Hill yesterday to chart their path forward repealing Obamacare. Vice President-elect Mike Pence visited with Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill in what became a morning of dueling meetings on Day Two of the new Congress. Pence told reporters following the meeting: "Make no mistake about it: We're going to keep our promise to the American people -- we're going to repeal Obamacare and replace it with solutions that lower the cost of health insurance without growing the size of government." Pence said they would bring about a "smooth transition to a market-based healthcare reform system". He said repealing and replacing Obamacare was "first order of business" for President-elect Donald Trump and Congress. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said Republicans - who have voted more than 50 times to try to repeal all or part of Obamacare - "have a plan" and "plenty of ideas." But Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer warned that scrapping the law would throw the insurance marketplace into turmoil and - in a play on Mr Trump's campaign slogan - "Make America Sick Again". (Reopens FGN18) Trump made getting rid of the law a key element of his campaign strategy. He said on Twitter on Tuesday that Obamacare provided "lousy healthcare." With Trump headed for the Oval Office on January 20, and Republicans controlling both houses of Congress, the prospects for a successful repeal now appear more realistic, CNN said. On Tuesday, Senate Republicans took their first steps toward repealing Obamacare, filing a budget resolution reversing key elements of the law. There remain divisions, however, on which precise elements of the law to scrap, and how to replace Obamacare with a law that does not strip Americans of their health insurance. Republican Senator Rand Paul from Kentucky, wrote in an op-ed on Tuesday that lawmakers should not vote on repealing Obamacare until a replacement plan was developed. "If Congress fails to vote on a replacement at the same time as repeal, the repealers risk assuming the blame for the continued unraveling of Obamacare. For mark my words, Obamacare will continue to unravel and wreak havoc for years to come," he wrote. And Trump's campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, who has been tapped to serve as his senior counselor at the White House, said on Tuesday that passing repeal and replacement measures simultaneously would be "the ideal situation." "We don't want anyone who currently has insurance to not have insurance," Conway said on MSNBC, adding there "are some pieces of merit in the current plan." The Obama administration said yesterday that 8.8 million Americans had enrolled in Obamacare for 2017, about 200,000 more than at the same time a year ago. Opposition parties today moved the Election Commission objecting to the presentation of the Union Budget on February 1 ahead of the Assembly elections in five states and demanded that the government be asked to defer the annual exercise till March 8, the last day of voting. A delegation of opposition parties comprising Congress, JD U(), BSP, SP, DMK and RJD met Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi to press that the government be asked to defer the Budget presentation till at least March 8. Punjab and Goa will go for polls on February 4 and the last phase of Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh and Manipur will be held on March 8. "When the opposition had objected in 2012 during the Assembly polls to these five states, Congress had accepted their stand and postponed presentation of the Union Budget from February 28 to March 16. We want that there should be no presentation of the Budget till the elections are over," Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha and Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad told reporters after meeting EC. Another party leader Anand Sharma said no government in the past has used the Budget to influence voters in the midst of a poll process. Azad said electoral laws make it clear that the ruling party should have no advantage during elections and both the opposition and the ruling side should be on an equal footing. He said the Budget on February 1 will tilt the balance in favour of BJP as it would use the exercise to influence voters by doling out sops. Others who met the CEC included Derek O Brien of TMC, Ambeth Rajan of BSP, Naresh Agarwal of SP (Akhilesh faction), T Siva of DMK and K C Tyagi of JD (U). Sources in the commission said a view of the government could be sought on the representation made by the opposition parties. While the commission has said it will examine a representation made by parties opposing the February 1 Budget plan, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has defended the move asking why the opposition parties are afraid of it when they have claimed that demonetisation is an unpopular decision. Sixteen parties have already written to the President and EC opposing the decision to have an early Budget session beginning January 31. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Transportation app Uber today said over 31 per cent of the rides on its platform in Delhi-NCR are shared under its 'UberPOOL' offering. Available in 5 other Indian cities, including Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai, UberPOOL accounts for over 20 per cent of the rides in these cities. "UberPOOL enables people going the same way at the same time to share their journey. The aim is to get more people in fewer cars in order to address the increasing congestion and pollution issues in India's top cities," Uber said in a statement. *** *** *** redBus launches new 'Bus Hire' feature * Online bus ticket booking platform redBus today launched a a new service 'Bus Hire' to enable customers to hire buses for corporate outings, weddings and pilgrimages. The platform will provide transparent and all-inclusive prices along with value added information such as bus photos and payment options to help customers make a choice, it said in a statement. The service is presently available in seven cities in the country in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi, and Ahmedabad. **** **** **** FreeCharge appoints Mayank Kapoor as HR head * Digital payments firm FreeCharge today said it has appointed Mayank Kapoor as its Human Resources head. Kapoor was previously leading the Learning and Development portfolio at Snapdeal. He has over 16 years of experience across sectors like hospitality, IT, telecom and e-commerce, the company said in a statement. PTI SR **** **** **** Bank Bazaar selects PeopleStrong Alt to digitise HR * Bank Bazaar has partnered with HR solutions and technology provider, PeopleStrong, to automate the entire gamut of HR processes in the company. The company which has over 1,000 employees spread across 5 locations is looking to transform the employee experience by automating its HR specifically in areas like workforce data management, leave and attendance, onboarding, exit and business related expenses. "We are pleased to partner with Bank bazaar to provide a powerful HR technology backbone, which will surely take their HR to the next level, both in terms of user experience as well as in building efficiencies," Kiran Kumar, Chief Sales Officer, PeopleStrong said. *** *** *** GE Power bags Rs 199 cr order from NTPC Alstom Power Service * GE Power India has won a contract of nearly Rs 199 crore from NTPC Alstom Power Service for a steam turbine upgrade project at NTPC's Ramagundam power plant in Telangana. The company's scope of work consists of supply of steam turbine module, it auxiliaries, turbine controller and spares including supervision of erection, commissioning and testing, the GE Power India said in a BSE filing today. **** **** **** Rel Power elevates Suresh Nagarajan as CFO * Reliance Power today said that Suresh Nagarajan has been elevated to the position of Chief Financial Officer by the Board of Directors at their meeting held today. Nagarjan was is presently holding the position of Senior Executive Vice President, the company said in a BSE filing. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan has approved Russia's request to use Gwadar port in Balochistan being developed by China under the USD 46 billion CPEC, an article in the state- run media said today, notwithstanding the denial of Russian Embassy in Islamabad. "The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), as a flagship project of the One Belt and One Road (OBOR) initiative, has drawn a great deal of investments," the article in Global Times said. "Apart from the fact that Pakistan has approved a Russian request for using the Gwadar Port, located in Balochistan Province, for its exports, media reports were swirling that Russia planned to merge the Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) with the CPEC," the article titled 'Russia can be a welcoming presence at CPEC' said. "Although the Russian embassy in Islamabad later denied the reports, concerns and speculations have been lingering among some observers," it said. "It isn't something terrible if Moscow joins the CPEC. Instead, it will be an opportunity for China, Russia and Pakistan to enhance cooperation," the article said, adding that Moscow's participation will have a positive impact on India. "India has been opposed to the CPEC due to the long-term tension between New Delhi and Islamabad, and its historical border disputes with China. Traditionally, Russia has developed a very good relationship with India, as well as China and Pakistan," the article said. Russia's presence in the CPEC would help prevent the international community, including India, from paying excessive attention to China and remove the unnecessary worries over the so-called China threat. The cooperation between BRICS countries like China, Russia and India is the key to the success of OBOR development, it said. "As was said above, Russia's participation is not a bad thing and there is no need to exaggerate neither its competition nor negativity. On the contrary, if Russia joins the project, it will be a stakeholder which shares economic risk, especially security risk, and has the same or similar goals. It's a good thing," it said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a fresh rhetoric, Pakistan Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa today said his forces are fully geared to respond to "any aggression" by India as he rejected claims that India carried out "surgical strikes" on Pakistan. "Pakistan's armed forces are fully geared to respond to any aggression by India," the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) spokesperson Major Gen Asif Ghafoor quoted Gen Bajwa as saying. Maj Gen Ghafoor tweeted that Gen Bajwa rejected the "self defeating claims" of Indian Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat about 'so called surgical strikes' and its possible recurrence. India maintains that its forces last year conducted surgical strikes in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, targetting terrorists and destroying their training camps. Gen Rawat, who took over as the 27th chief of Indian army on December 31, has said India will give a calibrated "hard" response to terror activities that will compel Pakistan to completely rethink its strategy on supporting insurgency and terrorism. "We will calibrate the response in a manner it hits them hard and compels them to think in the long run whether they need to completely rethink their strategy on supporting insurgency and terrorism in our state," said Gen Rawat, who as the Vice Chief was actively involved in the surgical strikes on terror camps across the LoC. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan's continued tolerance of terror groups like the Taliban, LeT and Haqqani network is a major impediment in US-Pakistan ties, an American expert on counter-terrorism has said. "Pakistan's policy towards terrorist groups is the major impediment towards US-Pak relationship," Stephen Tankel from the American University told a Washington audience yesterday. Since 2005, he said Pakistan has decreased its efforts against al-Qaeda and foreign fighters. "Pakistan has not only preserved Afghan Taliban and Haqqani network, but it has also continued to preserved and tolerated groups like LeT (Lashkar-e-Taiba)," Tankel said at the Woodrow Wilson Center during a panel discussion on 'The Pakistani Taliban: Down, But not out?'. Tankel said these networks have infrastructure in areas like Punjab and Sindh provinces which can be used by other terrorist groups when they are pushed out of the tribal areas. He was of the view that the counter-terrorism operation by Pakistani forces in the tribal areas might not have achieved its goal and that there is a greater chance of them coming back into action. Pakistan armed forces stationed in these areas help maintain peace in the region. Mona Kanwal Sheikh, senior researcher at Danish Institute for International Studies and author of Guardians of God -- Inside the Religious Mind of the Pakistani Taliban, said that the massive presence of the army has mobilised the militants and the local population. "It is a same situation as Indian Kashmir of a strong military presence... Army cannot solve problems alone," she said. Pakistani Army operation in the tribal areas could be an issue in the tribal areas, Sheikh said. Pakistani Taliban is helping the Afghan Taliban and at some time, they would refocus on Pakistan again. There are a lot of propaganda material, there are graffiti on the wall in support of ISIS in areas like Balochistan, Sheikh added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan today released 219 Indian fishermen who had allegedly strayed into its waters, bringing the total number of Indian fishermen freed from Pakistani jails as "goodwill gesture" in the last 10 days to 439, despite the chill in bilateral ties. The 219 fishermen were freed from Malir jail on instructions from the Interior Ministry as a goodwill gesture, jail superintendent Hasan Sehto said. This is the second batch of Indian fishermen released from Pakistan jails since relations between the two countries became tense after the terror attack on an Indian army base in Uri in September for which India has blamed Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed terror outfit. On December 25, the Pakistan government had freed 220 Indian fishermen who were in jail for more than a year as goodwill gesture after Prime Minister Narendra Modi greeted counterpart Nawaz Sharif on his birthday. Sehto said the Indian fishermen who were released today would be handed over to Indian officials at the Wagah border. He said that around 110 more Indian fishermen remain in Landhi jail in Karachi. Last March, the Pakistan government had released 87 Indian fishermen who had been languishing in jail in Karachi for the last two and half years. Pakistan and India frequently arrest each others' fishermen for violating the territorial boundary. Poor fishermen from both countries routinely find themselves arrested for illegal fishing as there is no clear demarcation of the boundaries between the two countries in the Arabian sea near Sir Creek and lack of technology has made life difficult for the fishermen of both the countries. Last Friday, Pakistan Maritime Security Agency arrested 66 Indian fishermen for illegally fishing in Pakistan's territorial waters. Fishermen from both countries end up languishing in jails for years even after serving their sentences and their only hope of getting released is when the governments decide to take goodwill steps. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) "Great British Bake Off" judges Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood reportedly could be joining forces again on the US version. Executives at US network ABC were so impressed with Mary's "Great American Baking Show" that it's likely to return, possibly with Paul in tow, and possibly at the end of this year, reported Digital Spy. "'The Great American Baking Show' did really well in the ratings and execs love the British accent. They may want to get the pair back together again for their on-screen chemistry," a source said. "There would also be a lot of interest here and a UK channel would probably show it for the first time. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Press Council of India (PCI) has sought a report from the Bihar government on the killing of Samastipur-based journalist Brijkishore Brajesh. In a statement released here, the Council said that PCI Chairman Justice (retd) Chandramauli Kumar Prasad has taken suo motu cognisance of the "gruesome murder" of the journalist by unknown assailants on January 3. "Taking suo motu cognizance of the issue, the Hon'ble Chairman ordered to immediately call a report on the facts of the case from the Chief Secretary, Secretary (Home), Government of Bihar, Director General of Police, Bihar and Superintendent of Police, Bihar," the statement said. Unidentified gunmen had on January 3 shot dead Brijkishore Brajesh, who was associated with a prominent Hindi daily, at Salkhani village in Samastipur district. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A senior leader of the ruling PDP in Jammu and Kashmir today urged the Union government to address the issues troubling the state by resuming dialogue with "all the stakeholders" including separatists, and with Pakistan. The Centre must address issues concerning the state with a sense of urgency, sincerity and seriousness by resuming talks "not only with Pakistan, but with all the stakeholders, within the state as well, including the separatists," PDP leader Peerzada Mansoor said at a party convention in south Kashmir. Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) rules Jammu and Kashmir in alliance with Bharatiya Janata Party, which forms the government at the Centre. Mansoor said besides working through political means and implementing an economic development agenda, the central government must engage with the people of the state to find a lasting solution to the issues confronting Jammu and Kashmir. Mansoor, the vice chairman of J&K Khadi and Village Industries Board, called for a political will and broader consensus to address the issues, Kashmir has suffered for too long to be turned into a "slanging match" for political gains. Instead of indulging in competitive political rhetoric, the state's political leadership should work through tangible measures towards addressing the larger challenges confronting Jammu and Kashmir, especially its youth, he said. He said opposition and separatists will have to think how to avoid further loss of lives and destruction of properties. The time has come to fully retrieve the people of the state "with honor and dignity intact", from the political uncertainties and economic deprivation plaguing them, he said. "PDP will continue its struggle for the restoration of the political and economic rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and its alliance with BJP is part of the vision of late leader Mufti Mohammad Sayeed to find a way out of the problems confronting the people," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) : India has achieved phenomenal growth in the field of special education and rehabilitation in the last two decades, a senior official of Amity Foundation and Developmental Disabilities (AFDD) said here today. This growth could be gauged from the fact in the number of recognised institutions which had swelled from just 20 in 1991 to 450 institutions in 2012, J P Singh, Chairman of AFDD, Amity University, Uttar Pradesh, said. Speaking as chief guest at a two day national summit 'Inclusion - Means or End' which began here, he said the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2016 Act was a landmark legislation offering five per cent reservation for persons with disabilities. The summit is being hosted by Avinashilingam University for Women and co-organised by University of Minnesota as part of the Obama-Singh 21st Century Knowledge Initiative Project. Dr Brian Abery, the Indo-US partner who joined the summit online, traced US perspectives of Inclusive Education, U.S. legislation and the significance of equity, which is an essential component for inclusive education, a University release said. Avanashilingam University for Women Chancellor P R Krishnakumar highlighted how Ayurveda has had an impact on the curative function of disabilities. The summit focuses on Inclusive Education, which reflects values and principles and is concerned with challenging ways in which educational systems reproduce and perpetuate social inequalities with regard to marginalised and excluded groups of students across a range of abilities, characteristics and socio economic circumstances. Hence inclusion is linked with the principles of equality and social justice in both educational and social domains, the release said. About 200 delegates, including teachers, educators, NGO professionals, school teachers,teacher trainees and pre-service teachers are attending the summit. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) As many as 34 persons including seven policemen were today injured as police used lathi-charge to disperse a protest march of farmers here. Independent MLA Bachchu Kadu had taken out the protest march to press various demands of the farmers to the divisional commissioner's office. The demands included adequate price for cotton, soybean, orange and other crops. The prices had fallen after the demonetisation, protesters said. The district administration had refused permission to the march as model code of conduct is in force for the Legislative Council election for Amravati division graduates constituency. Police stopped the march and used teargas and lathicharge as the protesters pelted stones, a police officer said. Twenty-seven protesters and seven policemen including inspector Anil Kuralkar and constables Rajendra Dalvi, Sanjay Jaisingkar, Ramesh Wankhade, Ambadas Gadling, Shiva Bhongade, and Diwakar Dongre were injured. Kadu later met the collector Kiran Gitte. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The presidents of Kenya and Rwanda will be here on bilateral visits next week during which India will look to expand ties with the two African nations. Kenya President Uhuru Kenyatta will be on a three-day visit beginning January 10 during which he will hold extensive talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi here and attend the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit at Gandhinagar. He is expected meet President Pranab Mukherjee while Vice President Hamid Ansari, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar are expected to call on Kenyatta. The Kenyan President is likely to be accompanied by several ministers, the Ministry of External Affairs said. Rwanda President Paul Kagame will visit India from January 9-12. He will also attend the Vibrant Gujarat Summit and will be addressing a business seminar on Rwanda. Kagame will hold talks with Modi in Gandhinagar on January 9. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Ruling BJD President and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Thursday said his party has not taken any stand on the ensuing presidential election even as he has been invited to Rashtrapati Bhavan for a lunch tomorrow. "I have been invited for lunch by the President tomorrow," Patnaik said before leaving for the national capital today. Asked about the purpose of the President's invitation, Patnaik said, "No purpose is indicated in the invitation. JDU has not taken any stand on the ensuing presidential election." The President will be meeting Naveen at the Rashtrapati Bhawan between 2 pm to 3 pm tomorrow. Patnaik said during his visit to Delhi, he will meet Union Power Minister this evening and attend the Non-Resident Odia Conference. "The President will be attending the conference as well," the chief minister said. The invitation to Patnaik ahead of the July 2017 presidential election is significant as he is also the President of the BJD that has 28 MPs (20 in Lok Sabha and 8 in Rajya Sabha) in the Parliament besides enjoying the support of another Independent Rajya Sabha MP. This apart, Patnaik's party has 117 MLAs in the House of 147 besides the support of two other Independent members. Therefore, the BJD could play a vital role in the ensuing presidential elections. Patnaik, who played a crucial role in the previous presidential election in 2012, was opposed to Congress-supported Pranab Mukherjee last time. The BJD supremo with the support of the then AIADMK supremo J Jayalalitha had made late P A Sangma as the candidate in the presidential elections but Sangma lost the polls. An invitation from the President sparked speculation in the political circle here as regional parties like BJD, AIADMK of Tamil Nadu and West Bengal's Trinamool Congress are likely to play a key role in the President's election. A court here has refused to quash proceedings against trustees of Rai Foundation for allegedly cheating nearly 50 students of Rs 3.22 lakh for admission in its law college which was neither affiliated to any university nor had the necessary approval of Bar Council of India. Additional Sessions Judge Raj Kumar Tripathi upheld the order of a magisterial court putting on trial and summoning as accused the trustees of the foundation - Varun Rai, Vinay Rai, Amit Rai, Suresh Sachdev and Usha Agarwala- for criminally conspiring against students and cheating them in 2002. The court said the foundation published advertisements for admission in newspapers in which it did not disclose whether its college was authorised to do so or not. "Admittedly, on the date when Rai Foundation published advertisements in newspapers for admission in law course in its College of Law and Public Policy, it was not authorised to take admissions. The college was neither affiliated to any university nor was granted approval to run the college by Bar Council of India. "Students took admission in the college on the basis of advertisement... Had they been aware about the college having no authority to take admission, they would have neither applied nor deposited the fees," it said. The court also noted that during investigation, it was found that the University Grants Commission (UGC) as well as as BCI confirmed that the college was neither affiliated to any university nor had prior approval of the apex law body. The reply by Secretary, BCI shows neither advertisement can be issued by a law college nor admission for law courses can be started before approval by BCI, it said. The contention of the accused that the money had been returned to the students, did not go well with the court, which said it was "of no consequence". "The subsequent conduct of the college in returning the fees to students is of no consequence. The offence of cheating was complete at the moment when the students, after reading the advertisement published in the newspapers, applied in the law college and deposited the fees," the court said. The counsel for the accused trustees had submitted that no misrepresentation was made by the college to the students as they were informed well in advance about the status of the affiliation with the Bar Council. He had further argued that there is no advertisement on record which shows that the college had invited registration by saying it was a recognised institution with the BCI. An FIR under sections 420 (cheating) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC was lodged against the accused in 2002 on a written complaint filed by the then Secretary of Bar Council of Delhi. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Congress will demonstrate against the Narendra Modi government's demonetisation move causing hardship to people on January 7 in all the districts of Rajasthan. Mahila Congress will also hold a demonstration on January 9 against the government. The decisions to hold protests were taken in the executive meeting of Pradesh Congress Committee here. AICC General Secretary Gurudas Kamat said the decision of demonetisation has led to the hardship for people. "Congress has always stood with the people of the country, whether the party is in power or not. The party will once again prove that we are with the public while raising voice against the anarchism prevailing in the country in the BJP rule," he said. The party will hand over representations related to the allegations against the Prime Minister in all the district headquarters of the state on January 7 while Mahila Congress will demonstrate on January 9, Kamat said. "The Prime Minister did not think about the problems which occurred after the demonetisation. He had said that the decision will curb corruption, terrorism and fake currency but nothing such happened rather the terrorists got the new notes," he said. PCC President Sachin Pilot, former chief minister Ashok Gehlot, MLAs, and others were present in the meeting. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former USAID head Rajiv J Shah is set to be named as president of the Rockefeller Foundation, one of America's largest and most influential philanthropies, becoming the youngest person and the first Indian-American to lead the group. "Thrilled & very proud to be named the next @RockefellerFdn president," Shah, 43, tweeted yesterday. A report in the New York Times said the Rockefeller Foundation will today name Shah to succeed Judith Rodin, who has been president for 12 years. The appointment will make Shah one of the "most powerful forces in charitable giving" overseeing a foundation that donates roughly USD 200 million each year, the report added. The selection will make Shah the youngest person and the first Indian-American to lead the Rockefeller Foundation, which was founded in 1913 by the oil tycoon John D Rockefeller. "I've seen what's possible when people come together," Shah said in an interview to NYT this week. "We were able to save tens of thousands, if not millions, of lives". The NYT quoted Shah as saying that he was committed to the broad themes of resilience and inclusive economies. "That core concept of resilience is extraordinarily important going forward," he said. "It gives us the opportunity to evolve into the future". Shah added that he would look for opportunities to address divisions in the American electorate in the current political scenario. "It is a different time today than it was 10 or 15 years ago. We live in a more fractured world," he said in the NYT report. (REOPENS FGN004) Richard Parsons, the chairman of the Rockefeller Foundation board, said Shah was the unanimous choice of the search committee after a competitive process that considered hundreds of candidates. "Raj is the perfect guy to come in after her," Parsons said in an interview to the NYT. "He's a performer. You put him up in front of a group and people come away impressed. Now, he's got a platform". Shah was USAID head under the Obama administration from 2009 to 2015. He had previously served as Undersecretary and Chief Scientist in the US Department of Agriculture, where he created the National Institute for Food and Agriculture. Prior to joining the Obama Administration, he spent eight years at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where he led efforts in global health, agriculture, and financial services, including the creation of the International Finance Facility for Immunisation. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan, the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, and the Wharton School of Business. Shah was awarded the Distinguished Service Award by Secretary of former State Hillary Clinton and has served as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. Rodin described Shah as a "marvel", saying "he's very strategic and very innovative. He shows an interpersonal dexterity that is well beyond his years". Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority (RAKTDA) has entered into a partnership with leisure travel firm TUI India to promote and enhance its presence in the Indian market. The agreement includes promotion of the emirate by TUI India Pvt Ltd through specially created itineraries, promotions on its consumer website and campaigns, RAKTDA said in a statement. Commenting on the development, RAKTDA CEO Haitham Mattar said: "India is one of the top source markets for us, we are aiming to enhance strategic efforts to drive awareness across India through our dynamic marketing campaigns and relationships with key partners in the public and private sectors." India is ranked as the emirate's fourth largest international source market, the statement said. "Ras Al Khaimah is quickly becoming a leading choice for Indian travellers of all ages. We will focus on creating attractive packages and aggressive promotion of the destination through right mix of media channels," TUI India Pvt Ltd CEO Vishal Sinha said. Ras Al Khaimah is one of the seven emirates that comprise the United Arab Emirates. Established in May 2011, Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority mandate is to develop the emirate's tourism infrastructure and establish Ras Al Khaimah as a leading destination for leisure and business travel. The authority has a government mandate to license, regulate and monitor the emirate's tourism and hospitality industry. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Nigerian official said today the airport in the capital city of Abuja will close for six weeks beginning in March to repair its "dilapidated" and "unsafe" runway. The closure beginning on March 8 will see flights diverted to an airport in Kaduna, a city about 180 km to the north, with additional security provided for shuttle buses travelling along a highway that has been the scene of high-profile kidnappings. "I was conscious of the sheer size of dilapidation of our critical infrastructure in our aviation industry and especially the most critical ones such as the runway at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja," junior aviation minister Hadi Sirika said as he announced the closure at a meeting. Built in 1982 with a planned 20-year life span, Sirika said the "entire structure of the runway has failed" and was "unsafe for operation." Helicopter services will also be available between Kaduna and Abuja. In 2015, a travel website rated the Nigeria's Port Harcourt International Airport the worst in the world, describing it as "the dirtiest and most corrupt airport in Africa." Nigeria's aviation sector was took a beating last year as currency controls made it difficult for airlines to obtain sufficient funds to pay suppliers, with many curtailing and some suspending operations. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Centre today approved a grant of about Rs 1,782 crore to drought-affected Karnataka and Rs 209 crore to Uttarakhand which had been hit by floods in 2013 under the Disaster Relief Fund. The decision was taken during a meeting of the High Level Committee chaired by Home Minister Rajnath Singh. The Committee examined the proposal based on the reports of the Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) which visited the states. "The HLC approved the assistance from the Disaster Relief Fund (NDRF) and Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP) in respect of Uttarakhand to the tune of Rs 208.91 crore (Rs 188.91 cr + Rs 20 cr). The HLC also approved an amount of Rs 1782.44 crore from the National Disaster Relief Fund in respect of Karnataka," a release issued by Home Ministry said. Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog, Arvind Panagariya, Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi and senior officers of the Ministries of Home Affairs, Finance and Agriculture attended the meeting. The Karnataka government had sought a central relief of Rs 4,702 crore for loss of 2016 kharif crops because of severe in the state. The state has been facing severe for the past six years. The in 2016-17 was the worst in 40 years. It has declared 139 taluks out of 176 drought-hit. An RSS-affiliated body has sought relaxation in the five per cent ceiling on appointments on compassionate grounds in the Defence Ministry. A delegation of Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh's industrial unit, Bharatiya Pratiraksha Mazdoor Sangh, made this demand during a meeting with Union minister Jitendra Singh today. The delegation members sought to draw Singh's attention to an earlier meeting with him wherein they had brought to his notice that there is 5.85 lakhs sanctioned strength of defence civilians, but the existing strength is only 3.98 lakhs as mentioned in the report of seventh central pay commission. Thus, there is a deficiency of 1.87 lakh civilian manpower and there are about 20,000 aspirants who are seeking appointment on compassionate grounds, they said. As per rules, there is a provision to give compassionate appointment to one of the dependents for the survival of the family in case an employee dies during the service period. "But the provision for such appointment is limited to 5 per cent of the vacancies, as a result of which, according to the members of delegation, a large number of wards are kept waiting for appointment on compassionate ground because of the ceiling," according to an official release. The delegation requested Singh, the Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office, to take up the issue once again with the Ministry of Defence so that their demand could be addressed. The minister assured the members of delegation that he would again seek the views of the Minister of Defence and try to work out whatever feasible in this regard. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) House Speaker Paul Ryan said today that Republicans would slash federal dollars for Planned Parenthood as part of the GOP effort to repeal the health care law. Ryan spoke a day after a special House panel issued a report criticizing the organization, which provides birth control, abortions and various women's health services, for its practices regarding providing tissue from aborted fetuses to researchers. The Wisconsin lawmaker's comments, while expected, were the first official word that repeal legislation would also renew the congressional assault on the group. "The Planned Parenthood legislation would be in our reconciliation bill," Ryan said. Last year's Obamacare repeal measure also contained the effort to defund the group, which receives government reimbursements from the Medicaid program for non-abortion health services to low-income women. It also receives reimbursements for contraception services from a different government account. The defunding measure would take away roughly USD 400 million in Medicaid money from the group in the year after enactment, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, and would result in roughly 400,000 women losing access to care. One factor is that being enrolled in Medicaid doesn't guarantee access to a doctor, so women denied Medicaid services from Planned Parenthood may not be able to find replacement care. President-elect Donald Trump sent mixed signals during the campaign about the 100-year-old organization. He said "millions of women are helped by Planned Parenthood," but he also endorsed efforts to defund the group. Trump once described himself as "very pro-choice," but now opposes abortion rights. Cutting off Planned Parenthood from taxpayer money is a long-sought dream of social conservatives, but it's a loser in the minds of some GOP strategists. Planned Parenthood is loathed by anti-abortion activists who are the backbone of the GOP coalition. Polls, however, show that the group is favorably viewed by a sizable majority of Americans -- 59 per cent in a Gallup survey last year, including more than one-third of Republicans. The defunding effort could also complicate Obamacare repeal in the Senate, where at least one GOP member -- Susan Collins of Maine -- cited the defunding language in opposing the repeal effort in late 2015. Last year's elections thinned Republican ranks in the Senate to 52, so only a handful of GOP defections are possible if the repeal measure is going to pass. Asked yesterday about party efforts to tie the effort to defund Planned Parenthood to Obamacare repeal, Collins said, "that's of concern to me as well, but I don't want to prejudge what's in the ... Bill. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Samsung India said today it has set up "smart class" in 373 Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas in different parts of the country since 2013, allowing more than two lakh students access to easy and digitally interactive learning opportunities. In this period, over 7,400 teachers have been trained on how to use interactive technology to teach, the Korean electronics major said in a statement here. The company has launched the "Samsung Smart Class" programme in collaboration with Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas, a system of alternate schools under the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development. Every such smart class is equipped with an interactive Samsung Smartboard, Samsung laptops/tablet, a printer, Wi-Fi connectivity and power backup. Samsung Smart Class supplements regular lessons in mathematics, science and social science to explain concepts in an engaging and interactive manner. Teachers are trained on using the equipment effectively to make lessons come alive, the statement said. "The introduction of Samsung Smart Class has resulted in marked improvement in academic performance of students at Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Rangareddy district. The students are able to learn better through visual learning aids at the Smart Class and are more engaged," the statement quoted D Rajeswara Rao, Principal, Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Gachibowli in adjoining Rangareddy district, as saying. "This initiative is closely tied with India's development agenda, and implemented in close partnership with government departments to ensure wider reach and impact among the less-privileged children," said Deepak Bhardwaj, Head of CSR at Samsung India. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan's Advisor on Foreign Affairs has sent a letter to new UN Secretary- General Antonio Guterres, saying it is responsibility of the UN to play its role for the "just and durable" settlement of the outstanding issue of Kashmir, Foreign Office said on Thursday. Aziz also noted in the letter that the challenges confronting the region could be best addressed through regional cooperation, conflict resolution and peaceful settlement of disputes, Foreign Office (FO) said in a statement. He underlined Pakistan's commitment to peace and stability in Afghanistan as well as its desire to settle all outstanding issues with India, including Jammu and Kashmir. "He emphasised the responsibility of the United Nations for the just and durable settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with resolutions of the Security Council," said FO. Aziz also congratulated Guterres on assumption of office of the UN Secretary-General on January 1, succeeding Ban Ki-moon. The Advisor underscored Pakistan's unwavering commitment and support to multilateralism and advancing the objectives of the United Nations in all domains including peace and security, development, climate change, humanitarian issues and human rights. He assured the Secretary-General of Pakistan's support for strengthening the United Nations in the years to come, the FO said. Zimbabwe's wildlife agency said today it has sold 35 elephants to China to ease overpopulation and raise funds for conservation, amid criticism from animal welfare activists that such sales are unethical. This once-prosperous country's economy has fallen apart, and Zimbabwe's government has said it needs to sell wildlife to support its people and conservation efforts. The government also has sought to sell its ivory stockpile for millions of dollars. The Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority did not say how much China paid for the 35 elephants but said it was "turning to friendly countries to extract value out of our wildlife." This is the first time Zimbabwe has confirmed the December 23 sale since activists announced a plane was carrying the animals to China. The wildlife agency didn't say whether the elephants were adults, which has been a concern for some conservation groups. "Why is it done clandestinely and then announced two weeks later? Because we know that at times calves have been taken away from their mothers, conditions have been atrocious and the money, no one really knows how it is used," said Johnny Rodrigues, whose Zimbabwe Conservation Taskforce has been vocal about elephant sales to China. A similar outcry followed similar sales in 2015. The statement by Zimbabwe's wildlife agency said its conservation efforts have been affected by restrictions on selling the country's ivory stockpile and on trophy hunting of certain species. In 2014, the United States banned the import of sport-hunted elephant trophies from Zimbabwe, citing a lack of transparency in the use of conservation funds generated by their export. Zimbabwe's wildlife agency has said this wildlife-rich southern African country has 36,000-plus more elephants than it can support. The 35 elephants were captured from Hwange National Park and flown to China's Shanghai Exhibition Park, Beijing Wildlife Park and Hangzhou Wildlife Park, the agency said. It said it followed international regulations in the sale, adding that it previously sold other animals to Europe and the United States. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O Panneerselvam today appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take up the issue of apprehension of the state's fishermen by Sri Lankan Navy at the "highest diplomatic level," besides ensuring their safety and security. Referring to the latest incident, where 10 fishermen from Pudukottai district were arrested by the Lankan Navy last night, Panneerselvam in his letter to Modi said, it has taken place at a time when the state's fishermen were hopeful that a "pragmatic and permanent solution" would emerge after the Ministerial meeting was held recently. "A firm, clear, unequivocal and unambiguous message should be sent out by the Government of India to Sri Lanka to ensure that these trends are reversed," he added. Tamil Nadu strongly reiterates the need to restore the traditional fishing rights of fishermen in Palk Bay by "annulling the Indo-Sri Lankan agreement of 1974" as it has been challenged in Supreme Court, he said. Pointing out that 116 boats seized by the island nation were yet to be released, the Chief Minister said, the strategy of not releasing the boats caused great frustration among the state's fishermen. Recalling the memorandum submitted by him to Modi last month seeking a financial package of Rs 1,650 crore including a recurring grant of Rs 10 crore so that the socio-economic status of fishermen in coastal districts of Palk Bay area be "improved", he said, it is requested that concerned Ministries may be directed to sanction the package at the earliest. Panneerselvam requested Modi to secure the immediate release of 61 fishermen and 116 fishing boats without any delay. Only on January two, Sri Lanka had agreed to release 51 fishermen in its custody and consider returning a large number of fishing boats in its custody. This was decided during a high-level ministerial level meeting of Sri Lanka and India held in Colombo on the vexed issue of fishermen. Indian and Lankan Coast Guard had discussed various measures for the release and repatriation of arrested fishermen among other areas of cooperation in the maritime security scenario. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Needling India, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif today again praised Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani calling him a "vibrant and charismatic leader". Sharif while addressing an International Parliamentary Seminar on Kashmir here, called for an end to the "continued suffering" of generations in Kashmir. The world needs to tell India that "enough is enough" with regard to its policy towards Kashmir, Dawn newspaper quoted Sharif as saying. Referring to Burhan Wani as a "vibrant and charismatic leader", he said that his "martyrdom has become a rallying point for the freedom loving people". He claimed that "a promise was made to Kashmir 70 years ago, not only by Pakistan and the United Nations, but also by India to recognise the people's right to self-determination". He also spoke about the efforts made to highlight the plight of the Kashmiri people at international fora and told the conference that Pakistan would continue to support the struggle of the people in the region. Sharif while addressing a joint session of Parliament in October last year had praised Wani, drawing a strong reaction from India which said this shows Pakistan's attachment to terrorism. He had also praised the militant during his address to the UN General Assembly on September 21, describing him as a "young leader". India had strongly criticised Sharif's speech at the UN, describing it as an act of "self-incrimination" by Pakistan. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) on Thursday said it has tied up with Life Corporation of India (LIC) for augmenting capital support to enterprises in the country. The idea behind tying up with the state-run behemoth is to give a boost to the venture capital ecosystem for MSMEs, it said. Under fund of funds operations, handles various schemes, namely India Aspiration Fund (corpus of Rs 2,000 crore, ASPIRE Fund (Rs 60 crore) and Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS) (Rs 10,000 crore). In April 2016, and LIC had signed a Memorandum of Understanding to supplement funds under India Aspiration Fund. Under the MoU, the major had earmarked an amount of Rs 200 crore for investment. Under the MOU, as part of first phase, LIC and signed Contribution Agreements on January 03 in New Delhi with 7 Venture Capital Funds (VCFs), with an aggregate commitment of Rs 99.50 crore from LIC. This is over and above commitment of Rs 162.75 crore already given to these funds by SIDBI. In order to bring more professional outlook, SIDBI constituted a Venture Capital Investment Committee (VCIC). The panel comprises experts such as H K Mittal (head, National Science & Tech Entrepreneurship Development Board), Kiran Karnik (former Nasscom chief), Sanjeev Bikhchandani (founder, naukri.Com), Saurabh Srivastava (co-founder Nasscom and Indian Angel Network), Prof R Vaidyanathan (from IIM, Bangalore) and T V Mohandas Pai (former CFO, Infosys). Commitments made by SIDBI in financial years 2015 and 2016 were Rs 314.40 (11 funds) and Rs 606.75 crore (19 funds), respectively. In the current fiscal, SIDBI has so far accorded formal sanction to 20 Alternative Investment Funds with aggregate commitments of Rs 714 crore. In addition, there are cases cleared by VCIC which are under detailed appraisal and due diligence, said the company, a dedicated financial agency catering to the needs of MSMEs. After constitution of VCIC in July 2015, out of 40 cases recommended by the panel, 32 funds have already been given final sanction by SIDBI for an aggregate commitment of Rs 1,006.75 crore out of which 19 funds had announced first closing and have commenced investments. Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal today said Deputy Commissioners of every districts will have to do weekly review of the update exercise of the National Register of Citizens. "Chief Minister Sonowal directed the Deputy Commissioners to take weekly review of the NRC updating work in their districts so that the process of updation can be completed within the stipulated time," an official release said. Issuing stringent direction to officials to prepare an error-free NRC, he asked for correct verification of 6.5 crore documents submitted by the people. Chairing a review meeting of the NRC update process, Sonowal asked top officials to visit the districts so that no error remained in the final print. The Chief Minister said the Centre would be requested to set up a branch office of the Register General of India in the state, where an officer of the rank of Deputy Register would be employed to expedite the whole process of NRC update. He directed the state Chief Secretary to take necessary actions in this regard. Stating that there would not be any paucity of funds in carrying out NRC update activities, Sonowal said the state government has accorded highest priority in preparing an error free NRC so that interest of the indigenous people was safeguarded. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Hundreds of opposition supporters and farmers today protested the Sri Lankan government's plan to lease a southern seaport to a Chinese-controlled joint venture in exchange for the heavy loans to build the port. The protesters led by Marxist party People's Liberation Front said the proposed partnership is akin to a sellout of the country. The government wants to lease the loss-making port to a joint venture company in which China will have 80 per cent ownership. The lease period will be 99 years. The government also proposes to lease 15,000 acres (6,070 hectares) in Hambantota district and adjoining Moneragala district for an industrial zone. Protesters carried placards that read "hands off our lands" or "Stop selling Hambantota port." D K Sumathipala said farmlands are at risk of being taken over for the industrial zone and he was determined to fight. "We are farmers; we can't move out of our lands," he said. "I was born here, we have nowhere to go," said Premawathie Samarasekara, also a farmer. "We will not give away our lands to the Chinese," she said. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told a gathering today that private lands will not be taken over for the industrial zone. He said the partnership was the only way to free the country from the debt burden. China invested over USD 1.2 billion in the Hambantota port in what some analysts call its "string of pearls" strategy in countries surrounding India. Sri Lanka's government criticised the project before being elected in 2015 but later approached China seeking help to make it viable. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The state executive meeting of Maharashtra BJP will be held in Thane on January 12. The meeting comes against the backdrop of upcoming 10 Municipal Corporation and 26 Zilla Parishad polls in the state. Maharashtra BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari said strategy for the polls where nearly 80 percent of the electorate will exercise the franchise will be deliberated and finalised in the meeting. In the three phases of Municipal Council and Nagar Panchayat polls held so far, BJP has emerged as the single largest party. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) There has been a "substantial increase" in the number of first-time voters in Punjab, which is about 1.24 per cent of the total 1.97 crore electorates in the state, a senior election commission official said today. Punjab's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Vijoy Kumar Singh said the electoral roll has 3,67,077 voters in the age group of 18-19 years. The state goes to poll on February 4. He said it was a "substantial increase" in the number of first-time voters. The number of voters in Punjab is 1,97,49,964, including 1,04,40,310 males and 93,09,274 females. There are 380 third- gender voters, he added. He said the total number of Non-Resident Indian voters are 281. He said 22,600 polling stations will be set up in Punjab for the 117 assembly constituencies. Briefing about the pre-emptive measures taken by the Punjab Police in the run up to the elections, ADGP (Elections) H S Bhawra said 1,330 FIRs were registered under the NDPS Act in the past four months. "1,565 people were arrested under the NDPS Act," he said adding that around 2,000 proclaimed offenders, including absconders, have been rounded up from across the state. A total of 13,387 non-bailable warrants were executed and 5,276 potential trouble-makers were identified out of which 3,425 were taken into preventive custody, he said. He said 22 sniffer dogs have been deployed in various districts and checking was being carried out for narcotic substance with the help of these dogs. He said that 43 officers of Narcotic Control bureau have been deputed in Punjab and strict checking is being carried out to stop inflow of drugs to Punjab. In its drive against illicit arms, 123 weapons have been seized, he said. He said there are 3,85,000 licenced arm holders in the state out of which around 92,000 weapons had been deposited. Bhawra said flag marches were today conducted in all the 22 districts of the state and 50 companies, comprising 100 personnel each, have been deployed in the state. He said that over 250 companies more have been demanded from the election commission for deployment in the state. He said that four Flying Squads and Static Surveillance teams have been deployed in the assembly constituencies. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Several attacks in and around Baghdad, including a suicide car bombing in a busy commercial area after nightfall today, killed at least 27 people in a particularly brutal day in the Iraqi capital. The suicide bomber, who targeted shops and food stands near a bus station in the city's busy Bab al-Muadam area, killed 11, a police officer said. He says the bombing also wounded at least 22 people. Earlier in the day, bombings elsewhere in and around Baghdad killed at least 16 people and wounded dozens, officials said. A medical official confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to release information. No one immediately claimed responsibility for any of the attacks but they bore the hallmarks of the Islamic State group, which has carried out a string of bombings in Baghdad over the past week, killing nearly 100 people. Earlier today, a car bomb tore through a Baghdad market, killing nine people while four other attacks mostly by bombs that went off in commercial areas or targeted security forces killed at least seven. In the Baghdad market attack, the car bomb was parked near outdoor fruit and vegetable stalls in a mostly Shiite neighborhood. The fatalities included two policemen. The Sunni extremists frequently target Iraq's security forces and civilians in Shiite neighborhoods. IS has managed to carry out a series of attacks across Iraq while also putting up stiff resistance in the northern city of Mosul, where US-backed Iraqi forces have been waging a massive offensive since mid-October to retake the city, Iraq's second-largest, from the militants. Mosul, about 360 kilometers northwest of Baghdad, is the extremist group's last major urban bastion in the country. Iraqi forces have retaken around a quarter of the city since the offensive began. Iraq announced a new operation today to recapture IS-held towns near the Syrian border. Maj Gen Qassim al-Mohammadi said the troops would try to dislodge IS from Rawah, Anah and Qaim, towns in the western Anbar province that fell to the extremists in the summer of 2014. US-backed Iraqi forces drove IS from the two main cities of Anbar, Ramadi and Fallujah, last year. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A surrendered Naxalite was allegedly killed by Maoists in Dhanora tehsil of Gadchiroli district, police said today. The victim Sukhram Lalchu Wadde (35) was a member of Naxal militia, who had surrendered before the police in July 2016, a senior police official said. The Naxals attacked Sukhram at Kehakavi village and murdered him using an axe, he said. "The Maoists were angry as Sukhram had turned himself in before the police," the official added. He said last week three villagers were killed allegedly by Naxalites in Aheri and Korchi tehsils in Gadchiroli. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Pune-headquartered Symbiosis International University (SIU) is setting up a campus in the city for which the civic body here has allotted 75 acres of land and the varsity will reserve certain number of seats for local students who will also get concession in fees. The Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has allotted 75 acres of land for the proposed campus at Wathoda which will be the second largest SIU centre, Principal Director of Symbiosis Society Vidya Yeravdekar said at a press meet here today. The society manages the SIU, which provides courses in different streams ranging from law to management. "The Nagpur campus will be the second largest campus of the Symbiosis after its Pune campus. It will be first time in the history of Symbiosis that out of the total student intake, 25 per cent seats will be reserved for Nagpur- domiciled residents along with 15 per cent concession in academic fees," she said. "Students of Nagpur do not need to go to cities like Pune or Mumbai to seek quality education," she added. The ground-breaking ceremony of the campus will be held tomorrow. Yeravdekar said "The Nagpur campus will offer courses in management (BBA-MBA), law (BA LLB and BBA LLB), design (fashion & textile), skill development in fields of health, information technology and communication." Students passing out of the varsity will provide a talent pool of professionals required for jobs in the second capital of Maharashtra. Similarly, Nagpur is an aviation hub and hence courses in aviation and airport logistics along with a top notch architecture centre will also be set up here, Yeravdekar said. "In addition, the campus will not only constitute of students across India but also from Afro-Asian countries. This will help Nagpur make a mark on the global map," she asserted. Speaking on the occasion, Municipal Commissioner of Nagpur Shravan Hardikar said, "A detailed tendering process was followed for the allotment of land, with two major conditions of 25 per cent reservation to Nagpur-domiciled students and financial concession in fees to local students. "Similarly, major emphasis was given on introducing management and skill-based courses. The land for the campus has been given on lease," added Hardikar. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) What Every C Programmer Should Know About Undefined Behavior #2/3 By Chris Lattner #optimization , #Clang 10 minute read Interacting Compiler Optimizations Lead to Surprising Results void contains_null_check(int *P) { int dead = *P; if (P == 0) return; *P = 4; } void contains_null_check_after_DCE(int *P) { //int dead = *P; // deleted by the optimizer. if (P == 0) return; *P = 4; } void contains_null_check_after_DCE_and_RNCE(int *P) { if (P == 0) // Null check not redundant, and is kept. return; *P = 4; } void contains_null_check_after_RNCE(int *P) { int dead = *P; if (false) // P was dereferenced by this point, so it can't be null return; *P = 4; } void contains_null_check_after_RNCE_and_DCE(int *P) { //int dead = *P; //if (false) // return; *P = 4; } Undefined Behavior and Security Don't Mix Well void process_something(int size) { // Catch integer overflow. if (size > size+1) abort(); ... // Error checking from this code elided. char *string = malloc(size+1); read(fd, string, size); string[size] = 0; do_something(string); free(string); } void process_something(int *data, int size) { char *string = malloc(size+1); read(fd, string, size); string[size] = 0; do_something(string); free(string); } -fwrapv Debugging Optimized Code May Not Make Any Sense static void (*FP)() = 0; static void impl() { printf("hello "); } void set() { FP = impl; } void call() { FP(); } void set() {} void call() { printf("hello "); } "Working" code that uses undefined behavior can "break" as the compiler evolves or changes There is No Reliable Way to Determine if a Large Codebase Contains Undefined Behavior -fcatch-undefined-behavior -ftrapv -fwrapv -fcatch-undefined-behavior $ cat t.c int foo(int i) { int x[2]; x[i] = 12; return x[i]; } int main() { return foo(2); } $ clang t.c $ ./a.out $ clang t.c -fcatch-undefined-behavior $ ./a.out Illegal instruction BJP Tamil Nadu unit President Tamilisai Soundarrajan today led a delegation of party functionaries to meet Chief Minister O Panneerselvam at the Secretariat and discussed whith him about the suicides of farmers in the state. She also requested him to expand the crop insurance scheme in the wake of alleged suicides by farmers in Tamil Nadu. "I met him and discussed about the suicides of farmers in Tamil Nadu. It has become a continuous episode in the state due to lack of rainfall", she told reporters after meeting the Chief Minister. During the interaction Soundarrajan said she requested Panneerselvam to take adequate measures in order to protect the livelihood of the farming community. Stating that the BJP Tamil Nadu unit would soon come out with a report on the issue regarding farmers suicide, she said that she urged Panneerselvam to expand the crop insurance scheme for the benefit of the farmers. Yesterday, DMK Working President called on Panneerselvam at the Secretariat and discussed a host of issues including farmers suicide. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Tata Steel today said it has inaugurated the second phase of CRM Bara plant at Jamshedpur. "The company has installed the upgradation of facilities in Phase II such as the reversing mill to meet the full hard cold rolled (FHCR) requirement of Tata Blue Scope Ltd at CRM, Bara, which is of 0.25 MTPA capacity," a company statement said here. "In the current ramp- up of TBSL, the unutilized capacity of the reversing mill is being used to produce hot rolled skin passed pickled and oiled (HRSPO). To meet the increased demand of HRSPO coils in automotive sector, a 0.3 MTPA hot rolled skin passing facility has also been installed," it added. After the implementation of Phase-II expansion Project, part of the pickled coils will be input to the hot skin pass mill, which is also being installed as a part of the project, said the statement. In order to cater to the input requirement of the new hot skin pass mill for hot rolled coils, the production capacity of the existing pickling line has been increased to 0.68 MTPA from the designed capacity of 0.5 MTPA. The final product from the plant after augmentation shall now be full hard cold rolled, hot rolled pickled and oiled coils and hot rolled pickled, skin passed oiled coils, it added. TV Narendran, MD, Tata Steel, India said, "During the inception of CRM BARA Phase we faced few challenges. I am very happy to see that the learnings and experience from Phase I has been implemented in Phase II". Anand Sen, President, TQM & Steel Business, Tata Steel said "We had many hurdles to overcome before the start of this project. CRM Bara is truly a customer's plant, wherein the bulk of value addition is done before the material enters the customer's premises. Packaging, handling and logistics is an area where we need to continuously focus on." The automation system at Phase II is now designed with state-of- the-art instrumentation and programmable logic controller to monitor and control the various parameters for the safe and efficient operation of HSPM & pickling line, the statement added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Hailing Vibrant Gujarat global summits as the key factor for employment generation, the Gujarat government today claimed the state ranks number one in providing employment with over 13.45 lakh persons getting jobs during the last three years. According to Gujarat Chief Secretary J N Singh, at least 3.13 lakh persons have been given jobs by various Gujarat-based companies during last three years of 2014, 2015 and 2016. "As the Vibrant Summit is approaching, many people are asking us how much employment was generated in the past. We are pleased to inform you that Gujarat tops the charts across the country in providing employment. In total, over 13.45 lakh persons were given jobs in last three years," Singh told reporters. As per the figures shared by him, Gujarat's share in the total employment generation across the country was 86 per cent in 2014, which is more than any other state. Singh also added that through 48 Employment Exchanges across the state, over 9.25 lakh youths were given jobs in last three years. "In the same period, state government recruited 1.07 lakh persons while over 3.13 lakh were given jobs by private firms. In all, over 13.45 lakhs were given employment in last three years," said Singh. The eighth edition of the biennial Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit has been scheduled to held between January 10 and 13 at Mahatma Mandir here. The announcement about this mega event's role in providing jobs came amid accusations from the Congress as well as from OBC leader Alpesh Thakor, who had on various occasions alleged that contrary to what the government is claiming, Vibrant Summits did not helped in improving unemployment scenario in the state. Singh claimed that just because of the Vibrant Summits, Gujarat is having the lowest figures of unemployment. "As per the official figures of 5th Annual Employment/Unemployment Survey by the Centre, Gujarat is having the lowest unemployment ratio per 1,000, that is 0.9 per cent. That means only 9 out of every 1,000 persons in Gujarat are unemployed," said Singh. "When the country's ratio is 5 per cent, we are just 0.0 per cent. Even USA is having 5 per cent unemployment ratio. If we put Gujarat's population at 6 crore, only 6 lakhs are unemployed. This proves that Vibrant Summit is a major factor in creating employment," the senior official added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) : With the Centre keen on implementing the ambitious Goods and Services Tax across the country, Tamil Nadu government today asked traders to register in the website created by the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN). GSTN has set up www.Gst.Gov.In and those registered traders should register themselves in the portal, an official release from State government said. A temporary registration name and password would be provided from the State government website to the traders, enabling them to register themselves in the GSTN website. Stating that the Commercial Tax department plans to conduct a special camp educating the traders, the release urged the businessmen to register in the portal, besides taking part in the camp. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Donald Trump has no plans to restructure the nation's top spy agency, his transition team said today, refuting an explosive report that said the president-elect was considering paring back a bloated intelligence apparatus. Republican Trump has been highly critical of the nation's intelligence community for months, openly casting doubt on its conclusion that Russia was involved in US election-related cyber attacks. "These reports are false," said Trump spokesman Sean Spicer, the incoming White House press secretary, referring to a Wall Street Journal report late yesterday that said Trump was aiming to scale back the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) and restructure the Central Intelligence Agency. "There is no truth to this idea of restructuring the intelligence community infrastructure. It is 100 per cent false," Spicer told reporters on a conference call. Trump won a stunning upset against Democrat Hillary Clinton in the US election on November 8. US intelligence officials and the White House have said Russia was behind a series of computer attacks, including of the Democratic Party in 2016, and leaks of hacked documents, which hurt Clinton's presidential campaign. In a closely-watched Senate hearing, top intelligence officials today presented a united front as they reiterated their conclusion that Moscow interfered ahead of the election. The Journal had quoted a source familiar with Trump's strategy as saying the president-elect and his advisors were working on a plan to scale back a US intelligence world which "has become completely politicized." "They all need to be slimmed down. The focus will be on restructuring the agencies and how they interact." Trump's criticism of US spy agencies and praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin has drawn stern rebukes from Democratic and Republican lawmakers alike. Today, Trump insisted he supports the US intelligence agencies. "The media lies to make it look like I am against 'Intelligence' when in fact I am a big fan!" the president-elect tweeted. But Congressman Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said the willingness of Trump and his backers to disregard the determinations of the US intelligence community had reached "embarrassing" levels. "This is not healthy skepticism as they would like to portray it," Schiff told CNN today. "This is very unhealthy, essentially avoidance of the facts. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Turkey said today it had the right to close a key air base used by the US-led coalition to strike jihadists in Syria, as tensions mount between NATO allies Ankara and Washington. Presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Ankara had the right to close Incirlik air base in Adana province, southern Turkey as part of its sovereign right. "We always have in our hands the right to say 'we will close it' but as I said, the conditions will be assessed," Kalin told 24 TV channel. But he added that Turkish authorities were not conducting any urgent assessments to decide whether to close the base to coalition planes. Turkey is part of the US-led coalition against the Islamic State group (IS) in Syria and lets Western war planes use Incirlik as a base for air raids. Kalin's comments came after Turkish ministers hit back at the United States over what they perceive as a lack of support for its own intervention in northern Syria and questioned Washington's presence at the base. Relations between Washington and Ankara have soured over the six-year conflict as the US sees Syrian Kurdish militias as an effective ground force against IS. Ankara views them as linked to Kurdish separatist rebels waging an insurgency in Turkey. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Wednesday that Ankara had seen no support from the US as it seeks to take the Syrian town of Al-Bab from IS in a battle that has seen fierce fighting. "Our people ask, 'why are you letting them (US-led coalition) be based at Incirlik?'" he said, quoted by NTV broadcaster. The base -- which houses dozens of American tactical nuclear weapons -- was also a key flashpoint in the July 15 failed coup and several of its former Turkish personnel have since been detained. Defence Minister Fikri Isik said Wednesday that Turkey was "questioning" the US presence at Incirlik. But Washington sought to mollify Ankara, describing the base as "invaluable" for the fight against IS. "The whole world has been made safer because of operations that have been conducted" from Incirlik, said Colonel John Dorrian, a top US military official. Just days before President Barack Obama leaves office after eight years during which relations with Turkey have become frosty, Kalin appeared to suggest President-elect Donald Trump's administration would prove better for Turkish-US relations. "I have the impression that a Trump administration will take Turkey's sensitivities on this issue (Incirlik) more into account," Kalin said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Turkish police are closing in on the gunman who killed 39 people at an Istanbul nightclub, a senior official said today, insisting his possible whereabouts and contacts had been established. Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak told A Haber channel in an interview that gunman who attacked Istanbul's upscale Reina nightclub during New Year's celebrations, is most probably from China's Muslim Uighur minority and was a "specially trained member of a (terror) cell." "The security forces have determined his identify, his possible whereabouts have been determined... His contacts have also been determined," he told A Haber. "We can say that the circle is closing in on him." Kaynak said authorities believe the man, whose name hasn't been revealed, is still inside Turkey, although they haven't completely ruled out the possibility that he may have escaped. "Because we have taken utmost measures at our airports even though we don't rule it out completely we believe that we will get results from operations inside Turkey," he said. His comments came hours after police conducted more raids in their hunt for the gunman, detaining several people at a housing complex on the city's outskirts, the state-run agency reported. Anadolu Agency said gendarmerie police and special operations teams conducted raids in the Silivri district, detaining an undisclosed number of Uighurs. The report said that those rounded up were suspected of "aiding and abetting" the gunman. At least 39 other people including 11 women are already in custody over suspected links to the attack. The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the massacre, saying it was in reprisal for Turkish military operations in northern Syria. Most of the victims of the attack were foreigners from the Middle East. The gunman reportedly escaped in a taxi after the attack. Turkish media have widely published images of the suspect, including a selfie video filmed at Istanbul's Taksim Square. Security has been tightened around Istanbul and at border crossings and airports to prevent him from fleeing Turkey. Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus suggested in an interview with the Hurriyet Daily newspaper and other sister publications that "foreign intelligence services" could be behind the attack, pointing at the "professional" manner in which it was carried out. "I am of the opinion that it's not possible for the perpetrator to have carried out such an attack without any support. It seems like a secret service thing. All these things are being assessed," Hurriyet Daily News quoted Kurtulmus as saying in the interview published today. A group of about 20 suspects were also detained on Wednesday in a police operation in Izmir, western Turkey. Anadolu said the suspects are from the largely Muslim Russian republic of Dagestan, as well as members of China's Muslim Uighur minority and from Syria. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Turkish court today sentenced two army officers to life in jail over their roles in the failed July coup, the first verdicts to be handed out in the biggest legal process in the country's history. The colonel and major were deployed with the gendarmerie, which was then part of the army, in the northeastern city of Erzurum, the state-run Anadolu agency said. They were charged with violating the constitution. After the coup, the gendarmerie was brought within the control of the interior ministry. Ankara blames the attempted putsch on the US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen and has embarked on a relentless purge to eradicate his influence from public life. Gulen denies the charges. Turkey's parliament on Tuesday approved a government-backed motion to extend by another three months the state of emergency imposed in the wake of the July 15 attempt to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The state of emergency gives the government special powers to fire state employees and close down associations, including media groups. It also extends the time that suspects can be held in jail without being charged. According to the latest figures published by Anadolu, more than 41,000 people have been arrested over suspected links to Gulen within the state of emergency. With a record number of suspects behind bars, the trials are only now getting under way and are expected to last for months. Twenty-nine Turkish police officers went on trial on December 29 in Istanbul accused of failing to defend Erdogan during the failed coup, the first such case in the city. In Ankara -- where most of the suspected ringleaders are being held -- a special courthouse is being built for when the trials there start next month. There has been growing international alarm over the extent of the crackdown amid the state of emergency imposed after the coup, with critics concerned it has been used to target Erdogan's opponents. According to the P24 independent journalism website, at least 90 journalists have been detained within the state of emergency. As part of the ongoing investigation, Turkey detained today the chief legal advisor and the former chief executive of major business conglomerate Dogan Group, which also has substantial media interests. Dogan Holding chief legal advisor Erem Turgut Yucel and former chief executive Yahya Uzdiyen were detained after police raided their offices and homes, the company said in a statement to the Istanbul stock exchange. Erdogan has said there are strong public demands for retribution even extending to reimposing the death penalty. One of the main trials will begin on February 20 of 47 suspects accused of trying to assassinate Erdogan at a holiday resort. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A car bombing rocked the Turkish city of Izmir today, killing at least two people and triggering a shootout that left two suspected militants dead, as authorities chased the fugitive killer behind the New Year attack in Istanbul. Turkey is on edge after the shooting rampage at the Reina nightclub unleashed shortly after revellers rang in 2017 which killed 39 people and was claimed by the Islamic State group. A top official said the gunman may be a Turkic Uighur and several people of Uighur origin were arrested today. Just four days after the nightclub carnage, a car bomb exploded outside a courthouse in the Aegean city of Izmir this afternoon. State-run Anadolu agency said a policeman and a court worker, reportedly a bailiff, were killed. Police battled "terrorists" in a clash which saw two militants killed while another escaped, according to Anadolu. Several ambulances rushed to the scene after the blast in the usually peaceful port city, Turkey's third largest metropolis. The mayor of the local Bayrakli municipality, Hassan Karabag, had told NTV television that at least 10 people were wounded, while the Dogan agency put the injury toll at 11. There has so far been no claim of responsibility or an indication of who may have carried out the attack, the latest bombing after a year of bloodshed in the Muslim-majority NATO member. Turkish authorities meanwhile were seeking to close in on the Istanbul club attacker, who slipped into the night after spraying 120 bullets at terrified partygoers celebrating New Year. Of the 39 dead, 27 were foreigners including citizens from India, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Iraq and Morocco. A top official said the attacker was likely a Turkic Uighur and reports have indicated the authorities are looking into the possible existence of a cell, also including other jihadists from Central Asia. IS took responsibility for the massacre in a statement on Monday, the first time it has issued a clear and undisputed claim for a major attack inside Turkey. The extremist group said it was a response to Ankara's military operation against the jihadists in northern Syria, where Turkish armed forces are supporting opposition fighters retaking territory from IS. Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak told A Haber broadcaster today that the attacker was "probably" of Uighur origin as he sought to play down fears that the gunman would escape Turkey. Most Uighurs, an eastern Turkic group, live in the Xinjiang region of China, although there are also significant populations in ex-Soviet Central Asian states. Previous reports had said the killer could be from Kyrgyzstan or Uzbekistan. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Thursday 5 Truth and Lies: The Menendez BrothersAmerican Sons, American Murderers (KOAT-7 8pm) Well, we covered the living hell out of O.J. Simpson and JonBenet Ramsey last year. Why not the Menendez brothers? Member them? Good times. Nashville (CMT 10pm) ABCs musical soap opera heads over to CMT where it probably always belonged. Ghosts in the Hood (WE 11:03pm) Ghost hunters track down supernatural entities haunting South Central Los Angeles in WEs newest docu-reality series. Given all the black people react to magic videos on the internet, Im thinking this will not go well. Friday 6 Edgar Rice Burroughs Tarzan and Jane (Netflix streaming anytime) Tarzan is now a radical modern teen (in cargo shorts) given supernatural powers courtesy of a plane crash in this less-than-faithful CGI cartoon reboot of Burroughs classic jungle hero. One Day at a Time (Netflix streaming anytime) Netflix reboots the old Bonnie Franklin/Valerie Bertinelli/Mackenzie Phillips sitcom (1975 to 1984) with Justina Machado (Six Feet Under) as a single Latina mom raising two kids. Ginormous Food (Food 6pm) Comedian Josh Denny travels America looking for oversized foodlike 14-pound bagels and 62-inch pizzas. Fat? Us? Emerald City (KOB-4 8pm) Matthew Arnold (creator of the 2013 NBC show Siberiawhich you almost certainly dont remember) is the man behind this modern, revisionist reboot of L. Frank Baums Oz books. At least hes hired visionary director Tarsem Singh (The Cell, The Fall, Immortals, Mirror Mirror) to helm the thingso it will look cool. Saturday 7 Life, Animated (A&E 6pm) This unusual, animated documentary chronicles the coming-of-age story of autistic teen Owen Suskind (son of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind) and his family, who learned to communicate with one another through the images and dialogue in Disney animated movies. Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds (HBO 6pm) The timing couldnt be better for the release of this documentary portrait of actress Carrie Fisher and her Hollywood royalty mom Debbie Reynolds. MythBusters: The Search (Science 7pm) When Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman ended their run on MythBusters, we all knew the downtime wouldnt last long. Here, Science Channel seeks out new hosts by running a reality show competition. Sunday 8 The 74th Annual Golden Globe Awards (KOB-4 6pm) Jimmy Fallon hosts. Like he does. Monday 9 Hate Thy Neighbor (Viceland 8pm) In this timely docu-series, English comedian Jamali Maddix travels the globe checking out the growing resurgence of racist beliefs. Big Fan (KOAT-7 9:01pm) Obsessive fans pit their intimate knowledge of their favorite stars against one anotherand ultimately the stars themselves. Tonights kickoff guest: Matthew McConaughey. Tuesday 10 Taboo (FX 11pm) Long believed to be dead, an adventurer (creator and star Tom Hardy, fresh off Fury Road) returns from darkest Africa to London, circa 1814, with a sack full of diamonds looking for revenge on the men who murdered his father in this 8-part mini-series. Wednesday 11 Street Science (Science 8pm) Frequent Tonight Show guest Kevin Delaney of Little Rocks Museum of Discovery hits the streets using ingenuity to show off explosive science. Tom Wolf Pa. Gov. Tom Wolf (PennLive file) (PennLive file photo) He hasn't made a formal announcement yet, but Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf is going to seek a second term in 2018. And with at least five Republicans lining up to challenge him, it also looks like Pennsylvania's incumbent chief executive is going to have a fight on his hands. Wolf's status was reinforced Thursday when Governing magazine, which covers politics from the halls of Congress to the statehouse, listed Wolf among 12 vulnerable incumbent governors (seven Republican, five Democrats) on the ballot this year and next. Governing's Louis Jacobson writes that the "gubernatorial battleground in 2018 will be especially important because it offers Democrats the biggest potential haul of governorships in advance of the once-every-decade legislative and congressional redistricting process that will begin after the 2020 Census. "In most states, governors play a role in redistricting, and with the Republicans currently controlling the majority of legislatures, the Democrats will need a seat at the table to avoid being drawn out of most of the maps," Jacobson writes. The good news for Democrats is that Republicans will have more governorships to defend (27, compared to the Dems' 10) over the next two years. Throw in the traditional voter hostility to the incumbent party in the 2018 midterms (yes, we're looking at you, Republicans) and their chances for takeovers could improve, Jacobson noted. But ... and this is the big but ... the Democrats' chances for takeover are more limited: "Of the 36 gubernatorial seats up in 2017 and 2018, 14 do not currently seem vulnerable for the incumbent party. Of those 14 relatively safe seats, 11 are held by Republicans, which takes out of contention a big chunk of the GOP-held seats being contested over the next two years," Jacobson wrote. "By contrast, only three Democratic-held governorships -- California, Hawaii and New York -- are considered equally safe for the incumbent party in 2018." By the way, the vulnerable open Republican seats are in Florida, Maine, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey and New Mexico. There's also a vulnerable GOP incumbent in Illinois. Democrats, meanwhile, have two vulnerable open seats -- Colorado and Virginia -- and, besides Wolf, must defend vulnerable incumbents in Connecticut and Rhode Island. So what about Wolf? Here's what Governing has to say: " Wolf has not formally announced his intention to run for a second term, but he has said that he plans a re-election bid. Wolf has achieved some successes, including a 4.7 percent budget increase, record spending for school districts and legislation to battle opioid abuse. But Wolf's approval ratings have been below 45 percent and the failure of Hillary Clinton to win the state in 2016 can't be an encouraging development for his party. Wolf is also not considered the most scintillating campaigner, and the prospect of trying to enact a left-of-center agenda against a solid Republican legislature could lead him to consider skipping a second term. Whatever Wolf decides, the GOP has an active field, led by state Sen. Scott Wagner, a businessman who will have a strong appeal to Trump voters. Other possibilities include Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, U.S. representatives Patrick Meehan and Mike Kelly, House Speaker Mike Turzai, former Lt. Gov Jim Cawley and Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce President Rob Wonderling. If Wolf decides not to run, potential Democratic candidates could include Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, Undersecretary of Army and former Rep. Patrick Murphy, and state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale. And if Wolf does run, he may face a primary challenge from his left by Pittsburgh-area Mayor John Fetterman." You can also throw in former state Democratic chair Jim Burn who's reportedly eyeing a bid as well. *Updated: Mayor Fetterman has tweeted his 'unqualified' support for Wolf in the wake of the Governing report: Two persons including a local Congress worker were shot dead in the city late last night. Raju Mishra (46), a Congress leader who had contested the last civic election unsuccessfully, and a history-sheeter named Ranjeet Punjabi (32) were shot when they were standing near a gymnasium late last night, said inspector Pratul Shrivastava of Kotwali police station. Both were rushed to a private hospital. While Ranjeet was declared dead on arrival, Raju died during the treatment. Ranjeet had been released from the jail recently, inspector Shrivastava said, adding that he had had a fight with gangsters Vijay and Ratan Yadav while in prison. Police have announced a reward of Rs 10,000 for information about the culprits. Some six to eight motorbike-riding persons were involved in the attack, as per the preliminary probe. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Two Moroccan peacekeepers died after gunmen attacked their convoy in the Central African Republic's remote southeast, the UN mission has said. The attack Tuesday took place about 60 kilometres from the town of Obo, as the troops were escorting a convoy of fuel trucks sent from Zemio, MINUSCA said. "Two peacekeepers died and two others were injured," it said. "The attackers fled into the bush." The United Nations Security Council yesterday condemned the attack "in the strongest possible terms." "The members of the Security Council expressed their deepest condolences and sympathy to the families of the peacekeepers killed, to the Government of Morocco and to MINUSCA and extended their sympathies to the government of the Central African Republic," the UNSC said in a statement. "Attacks targeting peacekeepers may constitute a war crime and reminded all parties of their obligations under international humanitarian law," the UNSC added urging the Bangui government "to swiftly investigate this attack and bring the perpetrators to justice." Landlocked and chronically poor, the Central African Republic is struggling to emerge from a civil war that erupted in 2013 following the overthrow of former president Francois Bozize, a Christian, by Muslim rebels from the Seleka coalition. The 12,500-strong MINUSCA peacekeeping mission was deployed in December that year under the aegis of the African Union and with the support of France, the former colonial power. Militias are still flourishing given the weakness of the state. The notorious Ugandan group, the Lord's Resistance Army, has been operating in the Obo region for several years. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Two young men were killed when a speeding tanker overturned on them while they were sitting roadside near Gokul barrage curve on the Mathura-Aligarh road here, police said today. The incident took place last night when the tanker driver overturned the vehicle on the duo after hitting a wooden booth while trying to avoid hitting a cyclist, they said. Sahezad alias Kabutar (18) and Raj Kumar (22), both residents of Aurangabad area, were killed on the spot in the accident. Angered by the mishap, local people protested and blocked the traffic on Mathura-Aligarh road for over two hours. "The road blockade was called off by the angry residents when SDM Chandani Singh and SP (city) Ashok Kumar persuaded the crowed of maximum possible compensation to next of kin of the victims," a police official said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Britain has appointed a new ambassador to the European Union to lead Brexit negotiations, days after his predecessor quit due to concerns about the government's "muddled" strategy over exiting the economic bloc. Tim Barrow, who will take charge as the UK's Permanent Representative (UKRep) to the EU next week, is a senior diplomat known as a "tough negotiator". He replaces Ivan Rogers, who resigned unexpectedly on Tuesday expressing concerns over a "muddled" Brexit strategy. "We are delighted that Tim Barrow is taking up this role. A seasoned and tough negotiator, with extensive experience of securing UK objectives in Brussels, he will bring his trademark energy and creativity to this job - working alongside other senior officials and Ministers to make a success of Brexit," a Downing Street spokesperson said. Currently the UK Foreign Office's Political Director, Barrow has had a 30-year diplomatic career. He previously served as the UK Ambassador to Moscow and before that he worked as UK Representative to the Political and Security Committee of the EU from 2008-11. His earlier EU experience includes spells as an Assistant Director in the Europe Directorate and UKRep First Secretary. "I am honoured to be appointed as the UK's Permanent Representative to the EU at this crucial time. I look forward to joining the strong leadership team at the Department for Exiting the EU and working with them and the talented staff at UKRep to ensure we get the right outcome for the United Kingdom as we leave the EU," he said. Barrow has been appointed with the approval of Prime Minister Theresa May on the advice of the Cabinet Secretary. UK foreign secretary Boris Johnson said, "Tim Barrow has been invaluable since I joined the Foreign Office in July and I want to personally thank him for his relentless energy, wise counsel and steadfast commitment". "He is just the man to get the best deal for the UK and will lead UKRep with the same skill and leadership he has shown through his career. I wish him all the best," he said. The new appointment follows Rogers' stormy exit whose resignation note to colleagues in Brussels seemed to indicate that UK ministers were not fully in control of Brexit parleys. Politicians on both sides of the EU debate were divided in their response to the resignation, with pro-EU MPs saying the loss of Rogers' experience at a crucial time was a blow to the government's negotiating strategy and anti-EU MPs playing down its importance. Opposition Labour has demanded a statement from the government when Parliament returns from its Christmas and New Year break on Monday. The prime minister is expected to spell out some of her Brexit plans by the end of this month and trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty to kick off formal negotiations for Britain's departure from the 28-nation economic bloc by March-end. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Britain has awarded a 30-million- pound contract to produce a prototype laser weapon for its armed forces so that they could provide a more effective response to emerging threats, a media report said today. The UK Ministry of Defence has officially awarded the contract to produce a prototype laser weapon, the BBC reported. The aim is to see whether "directed energy" technology could benefit the armed forces, and is to culminate in a demonstration of the system in 2019. The contract was picked up by a consortium of European defence firms. The prototype will be assessed on how it picks up and tracks targets at different distances and in varied weather conditions over land and water. Peter Cooper, from the UK's Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), said the project "draws on innovative research into high power lasers so as to understand the potential of the technology". He said that this could "provide a more effective response to the emerging threats that could be faced by UK armed forces". The MoD has been finalising the agreement with the consortium, called UK Dragonfire, for several months, but it has now formally announced them as the winning contractor. A spokesperson for the MoD said that the demonstrator was not being developed to counter any specific threat, but to assess whether such weaponry could be delivered as a capability for the armed forces. But in general, directed energy weapons could potentially be used to destroy drone aircraft, missiles, mortars, roadside bombs and a host of other threats. The US military has been experimenting with high energy lasers for decades. But, until recently, technical hurdles had prevented them from being used on the frontline. However, the US Navy fielded a laser weapon system called 'Laws' for testing on the USS Ponce during a deployment to the Arabian Gulf starting in 2014. It hit targets aboard a small boat which was directed to speed towards the navy ship and also shot a small drone out of the sky. The Minister for Defence Procurement, Harriet Baldwin, said that "truly ground-breaking projects like the Laser Directed Energy Weapon" would "keep this country ahead of the curve". If the demonstration is successful, the first laser weapons could come into service in the mid-2020s. The UK Dragonfire consortium comprises the companies MBDA, Qinetiq, Leonardo-Finmeccanica GKN, Arke, BAE Systems and Marshall ADG, the report said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Having strongly criticised the UN, US President-elect Donald Trump had a telephonic conversation with the new UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the two had "very positive" discussion on US-UN relations. "The Secretary-General said that he looks forward to engaging with the President after his inauguration," Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General Farhan Haq told reporters here at the daily press briefing yesterday. Guterres had called the President-elect and during the "introductory phone call", they had a "very positive discussion on US-UN relations", Haq said. When pressed about details of the call against the backdrop of Trump's criticism of the world body and its functioning, Haq reiterated that it was an introductory call and went quite well. "It discussed a number of avenues for participation and cooperation between the US and the UN. I wouldn't provide any more on specifics about that. I think they'll get into more specific discussions the next time they get to see each other," Haq said. Trump, who will be sworn-in as US President on January 20, has made scathing criticism against the world body calling it a "a club for people to get together". After the Obama administration allowed the Security Council last month to adopt a resolution against long-term US ally Israel, Trump made his displeasure clear, tweeting "As to the UN, things will be different after January 20," referring to the day of his swearing-in. In another tweet late last month, Trump said the UN has "such great potential but right now it is just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time. So sad!" The US is the largest provider of financial contributions to the UN, providing about 22 per cent of the core UN budget of 5.4 billion dollars and 28 per cent of the peacekeeping budget of 7.8 billion dollars. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The UN envoy for Syria is welcoming preparations for a multilateral meeting led by Turkey and Russia that aims to help end Syria's civil war and could undergird new UN-mediated talks between the warring sides. Staffan de Mistura acknowledged violent "incidents" in Syria since the start last week of a Russia- and Turkey-mediated cease-fire but added that he believes the powers "will succeed in overcoming them." The UN envoy spoke to reporters in Geneva today. De Mistura hopes to convene intra-Syrian talks in Geneva next month. Meanwhile, the multilateral meeting, planned for later this month in Kazakhstan's capital, Astana, highlights how the United States has been largely sidelined from Syria peace efforts, though it's welcome to attend. Nearly a dozen Syrian rebel groups have suspended talks about the negotiations. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A self-styled 'captain' of the outlawed United National Liberation Front (UNLF) was arrested on the eastern side of Top Khongnangkhong bridge in Manipur's Imphal district, a police statement said today. The militant, arrested on Tuesday, was identified as Mangsatabam Gojendro alias Telheiba (45) from Luwangsangbam Makha Leikai of the same district, it added. He was arrested by a joint team of Imphal East District Police Commando and 21 Para (Special Force) during checking, the statement said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The has issued a new regulation under which servicemen who wear turbans, hijabs or beards can now be enrolled in the military, making the force more inclusive of minority religions and cultures. The new set of rules, issued by Secretary of the Army Eric Fanning, allows religious accommodations to be approved at the brigade-level. Previously it was at the level of Secretary. Once that approval occurs, the change will ensure that the religious accommodation is enduring and applies to most positions within the . "This is a major progress, not just for the Sikh-American community but for our nation's military. Sikh-Americans love this country and want a fair chance to serve in our country on equal footing. Today's announcement will help do just that," Congressman Joe Crowley said welcoming the directive issued by the Secretary. "We are a stronger nation, with a stronger military because of our respect for religious and personal freedom," he said. The move has been welcomed by Sikh-Americans and US lawmakers who have been on the forefront of a national campaign in this regard for the past several years. Before the January 3 changes announced by the US Army, Sikh-Americans and had to be granted a limited accommodation or permission to serve in the army while maintaining their articles of faith. Such accommodations were neither permanent nor guaranteed and had to be renewed after virtually every assignment. Service members had also been required to remove their articles of faith while their accommodation request is pending, once again subjecting them to the difficult position of choosing between their faith and job. Sikh-American Coalition, which has been on the forefront of such a campaign, welcomed the move, but said that this is still short of what they have been asking for. "While we still seek a permanent policy change that enables all religious minorities to freely serve without exception, we are pleased with the progress that this new policy represents for religious tolerance and diversity by our nation's largest employer," said the coalition's legal director Harsimran Kaur. The new provisions updates rules governing religious liberty that significantly improve the standards for Sikhs and other religious minorities who seek to serve their country with their religious articles of faith intact, she said. Under the new policy, Brigade commanders must grant religious accommodations for unshorn beards, unshorn hair, turbans and Muslim hijabs unless the requestor's religious belief is not sincere or the army identifies a specific, concrete hazard. Last week, the New York Police Department (NYPD), in a move aimed at inclusiveness, said it will allow its Sikh officers to wear turbans and maintain beards. According to the latest regulation, accommodations must be granted across all duty positions except in certain limited circumstances. The army intends to conduct additional testing for the use of protective equipment by bearded soldiers. "The Sikh articles of faith have always been consistent with the best of American values and we are pleased that the burden no longer rests with Sikh soldiers to prove this through a lengthy administrative process," said Amandeep Sidhu, a partner at McDermott Will and Emery. In 1981, a prohibitive ban was placed on Sikh-American soldiers. Last year, four Sikh-American soldiers, including the decorated Captain Simratpal Singh, filed a lawsuit against the US Army in this regard. "My turban and beard represent my commitment to pluralism and equality. This policy change underscore's the military's commitment to these values and is a sign of meaningful progress that will ensure the strength of our democracy," said Major Kalsi, who was the first Sikh-American in more than a generation to be allowed to serve in the US military without violating his articles of faith. Screen Shot 2017-01-05 at 7.56.38 AM.png (ABC-27) Good Thursday Morning, Fellow Seekers. After signing a pledge not to take a taxpayer-funded pension, a freshman state senator from Cambria County has ... you guessed it ... signed up for a taxpayer-funded pension. Sen. Wayne Langerholc, a Republican*, who replaced long-serving Democrat John Wozniak, was the beneficiary of a $15,000 advertising campaign by the conservative Citizens Alliance of Pennsylvania during the fall campaign. It came in return for his signing off on a pledge to embrace the activist group's pro-school choice, pro-pension reform and anti-union agenda. But as our pal Dennis Owens of ABC-27 reports, Langerholc, who was sworn into office on Tuesday, turned around and signed up for a retirement plan with the State Employees Retirement System. As Owens notes, lawmakers have 30 days to decide whether to take the retirement plan. In an interview with his hometown paper that ran Wednesday, Langerholc listed fixing the state's fiscal situation as of this top priorities. "The Legislature enacted many heroin prevention and treatment bills last session, but we are far from a full and perfect solution," he told The Tribune-Democrat of Johnstown. "The state's fiscal situation also looms as an enormous challenge. If the economy fails to rebound and spending continues at current levels, we could face a $2 billion structural deficit next year. Clearly, fiscal restraint and out-of-the-box solutions are in order to save taxpayer dollars." So what gives? Langerholc told Owens that he wants all legislators and new hires to be eventually put into a 401(k)-style retirement plan common in the private sector. It's also one of the prime components of a pension reform bill that failed in the last legislative session. "That's something I'm looking at. To be able to work toward a 401(k), to be a part of that and not be a part of the state system," Langerholc said. "That's something that's sorely needed. I'm ready to lead the fight to take the existing pensions into 401(k)." As you might imagine, the folks at the Citizens Alliance feel like they're the victims of a bait-and-switch. "It's appalling, it really is," the group's executive director, Leo Knepper, told Owens. "He didn't just lie to us. He lied to his constituents ... "That's the typical politician non-answer." Knepper told Owens that Langerholc could have fought the pension reform fight without actually signing up for a retirement plan, thus honoring his pledge. The rest of the day's news starts now. Our PennLive colleague Jan Murphy profiles state Sen. Scott Wagner, R-York, 'the man unions love to hate.' As gas prices rise, Pa. motorists face the highest gas tax in the country, The Tribune-Review reports. Pennsylvania Democrats are eyeing a new endorsement process for judicial candidates, The Post-Gazette reports. With a new soda tax in force, Philadelphians are doing what they do best - complain about it (via PhillyMag). A payout to the ex-Philly Parking Authority boss Vincent Fenerty was 'excessive and inappropriate,' Auditor General Eugene DePasquale tells The Daily News. Here's your #Harrisburg Instagram of the Day: Traffic fatalities in New Jersey went up in 2016, NewsWorks/WHYY-FM reports. Pa's Congressional delegation heard from President Obama and Veep-elect Mike Pence as the Obamacare repeal fight begins on Capitol Hill, The Morning Call reports. Senate GOP bosses Joe Scarnati and Jake Corman have endorsed ChesCo's Val DiGiorgio as the next head of the state party, PoliticsPA reports. Could decent affordable housing solve a farmworker shortage? Stateline.org takes up that very question. Here's a newie: The PEOTUS will face a sworn deposition in Trump Tower. It's just the tip of an iceberg of legal headaches, Politico reports. Speaking of the PEOTUS, he's calling Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer 'head clown' in the Obamacare debate, Roll Call reports. WolfWatch. Gov. Tom Wolf heads to Altoona today, where he'll attend an 11 a.m. memorial service at the Blair County Convention Center for fallen Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Landon Weaver. You Say It's Your Birthday Dept. Best wishes go out this morning to longtime Friend O'the Blog, Kate Otter, daughter of Bucks County elections lawyer and political tchotke collector Larry Otter. Congrats and enjoy the day. Heavy Rotation. Play this one loud and dance around the office. The groove is undeniable: Thursday's Gratuitous Hockey Link. Winnipeg dispatched Florida 4-1 with a win on the road Wednesday. The Jets' Nikolaj Ehlers scored his eighth goal in eight games, though he may face some trouble over a cheap hit against a Panthers' player. Also of note, the Panthers' ageless Jaromir Jagr officially lapped Paul Coffey, moving into 5th place in the NHL's all-time assists list last night. And now you're up to date. See you all back here in a bit. Nisha Desai Biswal, one of the top ranking Indian-American officials in the outgoing Obama administration, will make her last official visit to India this week to discuss a range of bilateral and global issues, in a bid to deepen strategic Indo-US partnership. Biswal, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, will travel to New Delhi, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Mumbai from January 5-12 where she will meet with government officials and business leaders to discuss the dynamic growth in ties between the United States and India, the State Department said in a statement yesterday. "While in India, the Assistant Secretary will meet government leaders to discuss trade and business ties, as well as a range of bilateral, regional, and global issues to deepen the US-India strategic partnership," the State Department said. Biswal, among other things, will attend the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit in Ahmedabad where she will meet with government and community leaders. She will also attend the annual Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Convention in Bengaluru, which marks the contributions of the overseas Indian community to the development of India, the State Department announced. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US spy chiefs insisted today they have strong evidence that Russia mounted an unprecedented bid to disrupt the American election, standing firm in the face of Donald Trump's refusal to accept their conclusions. One day before the heads of four intelligence bodies brief the president-elect on their assessment of Russian meddling in last year's race, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told a Senate hearing he had "very high" confidence in their findings. "The Russians have a long history of interfering in elections, theirs and other people's," he told the Armed Services Committee. "But we have never encountered such a direct campaign to interfere with the election process as we have seen in this case." "This was a multifaceted campaign. So the hacking was only one part of it, and it also entailed classical propaganda, disinformation, fake news," Clapper said. Clapper, National Security Agency chief Michael Rogers and Marcel Lettre, undersecretary of defense for intelligence, told the committee in a joint statement that "only Russia's senior-most officials" could have authorised the operation, in which hackers stole Democratic Party files and emails, which were then disseminated via WikiLeaks, embarrassing the party and harming losing candidate Hillary Clinton's White House effort. "Russia has clearly assumed an even more aggressive cyber posture by increasing cyber espionage operations, leaking data stolen from these operations and targeting critical infrastructure systems," Clapper said. Trump, who has pledged to bring about a rapprochement with President Vladimir Putin's Russia after taking office on January 20, has repeatedly dismissed that finding. The Republican president-elect has mocked via Twitter past intelligence errors of the CIA, FBI and other agencies, challenging them to prove that the hacking and leaks could be traced up to the top of Putin's government. Today's much-anticipated hearing, which came ahead of the expected release early next week of a comprehensive White House report on Russian election interference, did not offer any new evidence. When asked by senators to provide more proof, Clapper repeatedly said he could not do so in public, saying it risked damaging the intelligence community's sources and operations. "We have invested billions, and we have put people's lives at a risk to glean such information," he said. Trump will be briefed tomorrow by Clapper, Rogers, Federal Bureau of Investigation director James Comey and Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan on the details of the report, amid concerns Trump has already soured relations with key parts of his national security establishment. Asked if the report will ascribe a motive to Putin for allegedly ordering the campaign, Clapper replied: "Yes, we will ascribe motivation. "Universal Soldier" stars Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren have joined forces for a new action movie "Black Water". The actors will star as on-screen allies for the first time in the upcoming film, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The film's director is yet to be announced. The script is provided by Chad Law, which centers on a deep cover operative (Van Damme) who awakens to find himself imprisoned in a CIA black site on a submarine. The movie will arrive in the US theaters sometime next year. It's produced by Richard Switzer alongside Tyler Konney. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Venezuela's opposition installed a new National Assembly president today in a bid to reinvigorate its flagging drive to force President Nicolas Maduro from power using its legislative majority. Julio Borges, a 47-year-old lawyer, took over from former speaker Henry Ramos Allup, whose year in the Democratic Unity Roundtable's top electoral post saw the fractured opposition coalition fail to loosen the socialist president's iron grip on power despite a devastating economic crisis. "Today, this Assembly opens amid the greatest difficulties," Borges said after being sworn in. "We are living in unjust and shameful times," he added, calling for "radical change." Borges, the former legislative majority leader, is a founding member of center-right party Justice First, the largest movement in the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD). The shake-up marks the start of the MUD's second year in control of the National Assembly, after winning legislative elections in December 2015. The opposition coalition has failed to deliver on its promise to oust Maduro, whose grip on the courts, electoral council and military has stymied all of the MUD's strategies against him: a recall referendum, a legislative onslaught and street protests. Facing a new year of power struggles, Maduro announced a shake-up of his own yesterday, installing a staunch loyalist, Tareck El Aissami, as vice president. El Aissami, a 42-year-old of Syrian and Lebanese ancestry, would take over if Maduro were removed from office or resigned. A powerful state governor and former security minister, El Aissami describes himself as "radically Chavista" -- the name of the leftist movement founded by Hugo Chavez, Maduro's late predecessor. Hit hard by low prices for its key export, oil, Venezuela is enduring an economic disaster that has led to food shortages and deadly riots. Maduro blames the crisis on a "capitalist conspiracy" backed by the United States. His opponents say it was caused by the failure of 18 years of leftist policies under Maduro and Chavez. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A village headman has been arrested for shooting at a Dalit man and thrashing his family for allegedly stealing a radish. The gram pradhan Anil was arrested at Hurmujpur village under Kandhla police station area in Shamli district last evening, police said today. Police have also seized a pistol which was used in the crime from the headman's possession. The headman, along with three others, including his son Nishant and nephew Sarouttem, had gone to the victim Sunil Kumar's house and started beating up his family members on November 27. They accused the family of stealing a radish from the gram pradhan's fields. When Kumar protested, the accused fired at him. The 30-year-old was taken to hospital in a serious condition. A case had been registered against all four accused under various sections of the IPC as well as the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Bombay High Court today asked the Maharashtra government to explain why was it prohibiting the villagers living near the hill stations of Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani from running bed & breakfast (B&B) units. A division bench of Justices NH Patil and MS Karnik posed the question to the government on a writ petition filed by more than 150 villagers. The petition claimed that with a recent amendment in the development plan, those living in 'Gaothan' areas (outside the municipal limits of the two hill towns) can no longer participate in the B&B scheme approved by the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC). Also, those living within the city limits could now offer a maximum of two rooms in their houses or bungalows on rent, it said, adding that earlier, a house owner could offer as many as five rooms to the tourists. The petitioners said they have been running MTDC-approved B&B units for 16 years. "Why is the state depriving the poor of their source of livelihood? Are only the rich supposed to open and enjoy hotels?", the judges asked while seeking an affidavit from the state justifying the new rules and posted the matter on February 7 for the next hearing. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A woman SP leader was found dead with her throat slit even as her family alleged that two brothers in their neighbourhood killed her over a land dispute, police said today. The daughter of Radha Devi (55), a leader of the party's women wing, found her dead last night after she returned home, Circle Officer, Babupurwa police station, Ramesh Dubey said. Devi's family in a complaint alleged that two brothers, Akhilesh and Sandeep, who live in their neighbourhood, killed her over a land dispute, he said. They also alleged that Devi had filed a police complaint in this regard but police did not take any action. The accused have been detained and are being interrogated, Dubey said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India today asked the World Bank not to rush in to broker a deal on its dispute with Pakistan over Kishenganga and Ratle project, asserting that the differences can be resolved bilaterally or through a neutral expert. India's position was conveyed during a meeting World Bank representative Ian H Solomon held with senior officials of External Affairs and Water Resources ministries. Solomon is here as part of World Bank's efforts to break the deadlock between the two neighbours on the Kishenganga and Ratle project which are coming up in Jammu and Kashmir. In the meeting, the Indian side, led by Joint Secretary in the MEA, Gopal Baglay, gave a presentation on the two projects and insisted that be a neutral expert should look into the issues as objections raised by Pakistan on technical issues, government sources said. They said India also maintained that the design of the projects do not violate the Indo-Pak Indus Water Treaty (IWT). Under the IWT, signed by India and Pakistan in 1960, the World Bank has a specific role of dispute resolution between the two countries. Soloman, on his part, tried to explore ways on how to move forward, the sources said, adding he did not raise query regarding designs of the two projects. "We made presentation. We stick to our position that there be a neutral expert to look into the issue as objections raised by Pakistan relating to the projects concerned are technical in nature. We also maintained that the project designs do not violate the IWT. Nothing was decided in the meeting," said a source. The World Bank had decided to set up a Court of Arbitration (CoA) to settle the disputes following Pakistan's demand and also agreed to appoint a neutral expert sought by India. India had reacted strongly to the decision to appoint the CoA and last month the World Bank announced it would temporarily halt the two simultaneous processes to resolve the differences. India has been maintaining that it is fully conscious of its international obligations and is ready to engage in further consultations to resolve the differences regarding the two projects. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A youth impersonating as IPS officer was held today while he was guiding policemen in regulating traffic in the route of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit here at the concluding function of 350th Prakash Parva of 10th Sikh Guru Govind Singh. Mayank Miral, a resident of Fraser road in Patna, was in civil dress and claimed himself as 2015 batch IPS officer as he guided the policemen in regulating traffic in the route of PM near Punaichak roundabout. Miral was held after he failed to show his identity card asked by the police, following which he was brought to Shastri Nagar police station. Ruling out the possibility of any sinister design, Patna SP Manu Maharaj said that the youth appeared to be mentally unsound. Patna police had made elaborate security arrangements for the Prime Minister's visit to Gandhi Maidan from Airport to attend the concluding function of 350th Prakash Parva of 10th Sikh Guru Govind Singh. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Co said on Wednesday it had booked firm orders for 80 of its 737 MAX 8 aircraft, valued at $8.8 billion at list prices, upping its 2016 tally but leaving it short of its goal. The orders mean the world's biggest plane maker clinched at least 536 net jetliner sales last year compared with its target of selling as many commercial jets as it delivers, a total it puts between 745 and 750. Through November, had delivered 681 planes. Boeing's order tally could climb again on Friday, as the company posts its final update for 2016. Investors watch orders closely as a way to gauge future production and revenue, since earns the bulk of its money when aircraft are delivered. The company has orders equivalent to about seven years of production, but the majority are single-aisle 737 planes, and sales of its more expensive widebodies like the 777 remain sluggish. Boeing Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg affirmed the company's overall order target in July. In December, he said Boeing would cut 777 output by 40 percent this year due to slow sales of widebody planes. The orders announced Wednesday include 75 Boeing 737 MAX 8s for General Electric Co Capital Aviation Services (GECAS), valued at $8.25 billion at list prices. GE supplies engines for the 737 MAX through CFM International, a joint venture with Safran SA of France. The latest sale means GECAS now has 170 Boeing 737 MAXs on order, more than any other leasing company, Boeing said. The remaining orders, valued at $550 million, came from Travel Service, the largest airline company in the Czech Republic, which operates as SmartWings, Boeing said. Through December 20, Boeing booked 470 net orders in 2016. Since then, it has announced orders for four 737-800s by Jet2.com. On Dec. 27, Delta Air Lines said it was cancelling an order for 18 Boeing 787 Dreamliners. Northwest Airlines placed the order before it merged with Delta. Tallying the changes, Boeing's book-to-bill ratio is 0.79, below the target of 1.0. A Boeing spokesman declined to comment, citing a quiet period before fourth-quarter earnings on Jan. 25. Boeing has received over 3,400 orders for the 737 MAX. The first 737 MAX is expected to be delivered in the first half of 2017. Boeing's shares were up about 1 per cent at $158.46. Up to Tuesday's close, the stock had risen 11.7 per cent in the past 12 months, compared with a 12.2 per cent rise in the S&P 500 index. Washington Former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said Wednesday that a big part of the federal role in education is protecting kids from bad things, and unfortunately we have to do a lot of that. Its no secret that bullying and harassment is up right now. [President-elect Donald] Trump has, Im not blaming him, but Trump has unleashed a lot of bad things in our schools that I dont think we can afford to turn a blind eye to, Duncan said at a forum at the Brookings Institute on the future of the federal role in K-12 education. He talked about the efforts of the office for civil rights during the Obama years to stand up for students in special education, English-language learners, students who have been victims of sexual assault, and more. Duncans comments come amid worries by some advocates that the incoming Trump administration wont be as aggressive as the Obama administration has been in standing up for students civil rights . (Duncan didnt explictly say that he shared those concerns.) Duncan, who is currently working as a managing partner at the Emerson Collective, also had some advice for his would-be successor, Betsy DeVos, a school choice advocate. She should set a goal of bringing graduation rates to 90 percent, dramatically expanding access to early-childhood education, and keeping standards high, he said. If those goals sound familiar, thats because theyre the same goals that Duncan himself championed. And he got a lot of criticism for pushing too much on states too quickly, prodding states to roll out new test-based evaluations for teachers at exactly the same time they were putting in place higher standards, new assessments, and new strategies for turning around the lowest-performing schools. Duncan said he doesnt regret that. Much of the pushback on many issues we got is that we were going too fast, he said. My critique is that all of us are going too slow. ... Those things were difficult. I dont apologize for any of them. The next administration may use federal muscle for a different purposes: a big expansion of school choice. But its not clear yet what that will look like. Lindsay Fryer, a vice president at the Penn Hill Group, a government relations organization in Washington, who served as one of the lead negotiators for Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., when Congress crafted the Every Student Succeeds Act, said on the same panel that are a lot things that the Trump administration could do to push its school choice agenda beyond the big expansion of vouchers the president-elect pitched on the campaign trail, which might be a tough sell on Capitol Hill. For instance, she said, the administration could pitch tax-credits for scholarships, hike funding for charter schools, or use existing programs, like the Education Innovation and Research program to help push school choice. (More from Andrew on that here). Whats more, there are a host of provisions in ESSA that the new administration could focus on to encourage states and districts to offer students more choice, including an option to allow kids in low-performing schools to transfer to a better public school. (More here. ) And, she said, shed caution the Trump administration against any policies that require states to embrace school choice or vouchersit should be up to local leaders to move forward, with federal encouragement. Gerard Robinson, who recently stepped down from Trumps transition team and also spoke at the event, counts himself as a fan of school choice. But he doesnt think vouchers are going to be best for everyoneand rural districts may find it especially tough to make use of them. (We wrote about this issue here .) In fact, a lot of the working class white voters who supported Trump live in choice deserts, said Robinson, who is a former Florida state chief. We have to keep that in mind. Like Fryer, he recommended the new administration think beyond vouchers in furthering its school choice agenda, to things like magnet schools. Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 . SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore prosecutors on Thursday filed 16 charges against the local branch manager of Swiss-based Falcon Private Bank AG, as part of an ongoing investigation tied to the scandal-hit Malaysian state fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB). The bank, which is also being investigated in its home country, was the second Swiss lender whose Singaporean unit was ordered to cease operations last year after BSI Bank Ltd. The investigations come as the city-state tries to rebuild its reputation as a clean financial centre after the 1MDB scandal dented its image. 1MDB was founded by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who chaired its advisory board. It is currently 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. On Thursday, Singapore prosecutors filed 10 charges of giving false information, five charges of failing to disclose suspicious information and one charge of failing to submit suspicious transactions against Jens Sturzenegger, who headed the local unit of Falcon, which is owned by Abu Dhabi's International Petroleum Investment Co PJSC. The Swiss national who was arrested in October, intends to plead guilty, his lawyer Tan Hee Joek from Tan See Swan & Co told the court. It was not immediately clear on which charges he would plead guilty. A hearing is set for Jan. 11. Singapore last year jailed three ex-BSI bankers, seized assets and sanctioned several banks in what has become its biggest crackdown on money laundering. The island-state has called the 1MDB-linked investigation the most complex, sophisticated and largest money laundering case they have handled. (Reporting by Fathin Ungku; Editing by Christopher Cushing) (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Retail brokerage Sharekhan, which was recently acquired by French bank BNP Paribas, aims to become the number two broking outfit in the country in terms of number of clients. It will also double its client base from 1.4 million now. The brokerage currently enjoys a 4.2% market share. was among the top Sensex gainers in Thursdays trade, thanks to another month of strong sales growth in the US. Global major Google, which is primarily accredited for developing the search engine and transforming mobiles into complex devices, is banking on the concept of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to drive its future growth. Already implementing complex algorithms in its search engine, the company is now integrating these concepts and coming up with solutions which can be used and implemented in daily life like Maps. Google's India-born chief on Thursday said the prices of entry-level smartphones in India need to come down further to around $30, which would be equivalent to around Rs 2,000, to improve access to the internet and digital services for people. Pichai, who was speaking at his alma mater IIT-Kharagpur, said the focus is also on areas like local language support and improving connectivity in India as the country becomes a global player in the 'digital economy'. "I would love to see cheaper smartphones, entry-level smartphones. I think to really we need to bring the prices down even more, maybe at $30 level for India for entry-level smartphones," he said addressing an audience of 3,500 students and teachers. In 2014, Google had launched its 'Android One' programme, partnering with handset makers, to launch high-quality, yet affordable Android devices for consumers in emerging markets like India. A few handsets were launched with partners like Micromax, Karbonn and Spice. The devices launched that time were priced at Rs 6,399 onwards, but since then many more affordable smartphones with better specifications have hit the market. Currently, there are smartphones available even for sub-Rs 1,000 but most of the aspirational devices are priced above Rs 3,000. Pichai said the company has also been able to roll out many programmes for Digital India through "effective public-private partnerships". He cited examples like partnership with RailTel for offering Wi-Fi services at railway stations and with NPCI for digitising payments. When asked about by when India would be able to catch up with China on the digital front, Pichai said he is confident that India will be a global player in the digital economy. "I think I am absolutely, with full certainty, convinced that India will be a global player in the digital economy and it will be competitive with any country in the world in the digital economy. We have all the foundation," he said. He added that the startups in India, that is building products for India and the world, will ensure that happens. Stating that connectivity is "extraordinarily important", Pichai said Google is also working on a number of projects like Internet Saathi to educate people on the internet, especially in rural areas, as well as to get them online. Besides, Google is also working on making its services available in as many local Indian languages as possible. "English is spoken only by a small segment of the overall population. So just getting Google to work in other languages is a big focus". "We have made progress today in Android, with search, we support many languages but we want to do all that better so that it works even in rural situations with the right dialects and so on," he said. While some states have complained of declining tax revenues due to demonetisation, the Centre is hopeful of exceeding its Budget Estimates (BE) for 2016-17 in both direct and indirect tax collections. 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 The new roster for the Senate education committee is set for the 115th Congress. There isnt a huge amount of turnover, but there are two newly elected senators who will join the committee, and a senator whos newly prominent thanks to the 2016 race. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va. Kaine, of course, was the Democratic vice presidential nominee in the most recent election. On the campaign trail, he promoted the values embodied by school desegregation and Brown v. Board of Education. His wife, Anne Holton, was previously Virginias education secretary (a different role than the job of chief state school officer), and had her own personal story regarding desegregation in education. Hes been a notable advocate for career and technical education during his time in Congress, and he was part of a successful push to include career and technical education as a core subject in the Every Student Succeeds Act. Hes also backed the teaching of safe relationships to students as a means of preventing sexual assault. Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind. Young, who previously served in the House, beat out former Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh for the open Indiana Senate seat in the November election. Like many Republicans, Young gives the federal role in education the side eye , stating on his campaign website: An unelected bureaucrat in Washington is in no way more prepared to make education decisions than local and state governments. A one-size-fitS-all approach does not set up our children for success. In the House, he introduced legislation with Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., that was designed to create more student loan options in higher education and reduce debt in higher education. Youngs also denounced Washingtons stranglehold on higher education financing. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H. The former New Hampshire governor, Hassan beat out incumbent GOP Sen. Kelly Ayotte in November. Hassan was the first governor who vetoed a bill to repeal the Common Core State Standards , which were politically controversial in the Granite State. Before ESSA became law, she was also critical of the No Child Left Behind Act and the NCLB waivers provided by President Barack Obamas administration. During Hassans tenure as governor, New Hampshire also embarked on a pilot to test performance assessments . There are now 12 Republicans and 11 Democrats on the committee. CORRECTION: Thanks to Monty Neill for pointing out that our initial list of Democrats didnt include Murray. Heres the full roster: Republicans Sen. Lamar Alexander, Tenn. Sen. Mike Enzi, Wyo. Sen. Richard Burr, N.C. Sen. Johnny Isakson, Ga. Sen. Rand Paul, Ky. Sen. Susan Collins, Maine Sen. Bill Cassidy, La. Sen. Todd Young, Ind. Sen. Orrin Hatch, Utah Sen. Pat Roberts, Kan. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Alaska Sen. Tim Scott, S.C. Democrats Sen. Patty Murray, Wash. Sen. Bernie Sanders, Vt. Sen. Bob Casey, Penn. Sen. Al Franken, Minn. Sen. Michael Bennet, Colo. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, R.I. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, Wisc. Sen. Chris Murphy, Conn. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Mass. Sen. Tim Kaine, Va. Sen. Maggie Hassan, N.H. Alexander and Murray will continue in their respective roles as committee chairman and ranking member. Alexander has expressed a desire to work on reauthorizing the Higher Education Act in the next Congress. But Alexander and other members of the education committee, which also deals with health care matters, will have their hands full devising a replacement for the Affordable Care Act. Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 . The government expects growth of around 7 per cent in the first half of the next fiscal year, two officials said, painting a rosier picture for the economy than many economists after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's shock move to abolish large banknotes. Nearly 90 per cent of transactions used to be in cash in India, which was gripped by a severe shortage of currency after Modi's November 8 decision to take Rs 500 and 1,000 notes, worth about $7.5 and $15, out of circulation overnight. Several private economists have said the move could drag down growth in the next fiscal year to 6.5 percent to 7 percent, as small businesses fired workers, consumer demand fell and farmers' winter sowing efforts were hit. Demonetization, as it is termed, has become a major election issue in states going to the polls this year, such as Uttar Pradesh, where the performance of Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party could shape his political future. The notes, accounting for 86 percent of the cash in circulation, were withdrawn in an effort to crush country's huge shadow economy, boost tax revenues and promote the use of bank accounts and digital transactions, but perceptions that the ambitious operation was botched have hurt Modi's standing. The government officials, involved in budget discussions for the 2017/18 fiscal year, acknowledged that growth in Asia's third-largest economy would still be less than the 7.75 percent initially projected for the current fiscal year. It could even fall as low as 4 percent in this year's January-March quarter, they said. The budget, expected to be presented on February 1, leaves Modi little room to hand out large, populist sops, despite demands by politicians, businessmen and other lobby groups for relief to the industry and taxpayers. "There is no scope for big-ticket spending, like debt waivers for farmers, or transferring money into poor people's accounts," said one of the officials, who requested anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media. Still, the officials said the finance ministry's internal projections leave sufficient room to allocate funds for investments and infrastructure spending, without derailing India's fiscal deficit target. The government plans to cut its fiscal deficit to 3 percent of GDP in the fiscal year to March 2018, versus this year's target of 3.5 percent. Modi can fund increases of 10 percent to 15 percent in some ministries' budgets and focus on job creation in areas such as farming, construction and small businesses, the officials said. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley could announce tax incentives for individuals and firms to boost consumer demand, amid lingering uncertainty over the implementation of a nationwide goods and services tax, said one of the officials. A senior farm ministry official said budget spending on the sector for the next fiscal year could rise to about Rs 500 billion ($7.37 billion), up 40 percent on the current year. Major subsidies, including those on food, fertilisers and petroleum products, estimated at about Rs 2.32 trillion ($34.22 billion) for this fiscal year, are expected to go up only marginally, the officials said. The officials said good monsoon rains could accelerate growth in the second half of the year. Modi is staying within budget limits so far, despite a series of incentives to poor people, farmers, women and small businesses announced on New Year's Eve. The incentives would only cost about 35 billion rupees a year, said Soumya Kanti Gosh, chief economic adviser at state-owned State Bank of India. After Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, Google CEO Sundar Pichai is on his India tour. On Day 1, Pichai addressed a media event in New Delhi and the next day he returned to his alma mater, IIT Kharagpur and had an interactive session with the students. A nostalgic Pichai told students about his own days at IIT-Kharagpur. He talked about his struggles and his favorite mess food. He also shared the story of how he met his wife at the college campus. On not knowing the Hindi language, Pichai said, "Didn't know Hindi too well when I came here from Chennai. I thought "abbey saale!" was a way to call out to people. I learnt Hindi in college". On Google's focus in the future he said they are "betting big" on advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning in the coming years. ALSO READ: Budget 2017 may spring sweet surprises for startups Pichai said, "I can't quite tell exactly but advances in AI and machine learning, we are making a big bet on that. Advances in machine learning will bring a difference in many fields." He said,"As a leader it is important to not just see your own success. But focus on the success of others. There are so many people who work so hard and try new things every day. As a leader we should guide them to succeed. Focusing on the team is one of the most important jobs for a leader." ALSO READ: Six things taxpayers expect from Budget 2017 Students also asked Pichai about making IIT Kharagpur as Google doodle. To which he said, "Even if I send an email to make IIT-Kharagpur as the doodle for the day, they won't do it. We have very strong ethics and principles of the organization that are followed and we are very particular about what all is approved as doodles." As Google is eyeing the android phone market in India, he discussed his plans and said, "We look forward to cheaper smart phones in India. In the $30 bracket for entry level smart phones." "We at Google want to focus on usage of Internet in rural areas in India. We are big supporters of the Digital India program. We are also working on digitizing payments," he further added. The Google CEO also recalled his job interview he said the panel asked him about the gmail feature, which was released on the April fool's day. "I hadn't had a chance to use it (access to Gmail was invite-only at the time), I thought it was an April fool's joke," he said. Yesterday, in Delhi, Pichai unveiled new app and training modules for small and medium businesses in India at an event in the capital. The new app Primer and training modules were launched under the Google's My Business offering, as it looks to further tap the 51-million strong small and medium businesses (SMB) market in India. In his previous visit to India in December 2015, Pichai had announced that Google would provide free WiFi in 400 railway stations in India in collaboration with Rail Tel. Currently, the facility is available in 100 stations. On Thursday, Zimbabwe's wildlife agency confirmed that it has sold 35 elephants to China to raise money for conservation. The 35 elephants were captured from Hwange National Park and flown to China's Shanghai Exhibition Park, Beijing Wildlife Park and Hangzhou Wildlife Park, the agency said. The wildlife body also said that it followed international regulations in the sale, adding that it previously sold other animals to Europe and the United States. The move was widely crtiscised by the animal welfare activists who termed this deal as an unethical one. As Zimbabwe's economy has fallen in shambles, the government has decided to sell its wildlife to support the nation. The government also has sought to sell its ivory stockpile for millions of dollars. The Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority did not say how much China paid for the 35 elephants but said it was "turning to friendly countries to extract value out of our wildlife." The sale was reportedly happened on December 23, last year. As the news of a plane carrying the animals to China went viral. However, the wildlife agency didn't comment on whether the elephants were adults which caused a concern among activists. A similar outraged happened in 2015, when the news of sale of lions broke out. The statement by Zimbabwe's wildlife agency said its conservation efforts have been affected by restrictions on selling the country's ivory stockpile and on trophy hunting of certain species. Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust (SSST) here is planning to set up a museum which will house 'wax statues' of famous saints from the country. The wax museum, to come up on the lines of similar famous museums across the globe, will have statues of some noted saints. Various literature on the saints will also be kept at the museum for the visitors, SSST chairperson Suresh Haware told reporters here on Wednesday. ALSO READ: Diamond ring worth Rs 8 lakh stolen from five-star hotel in south Delhi He, however, did not divulge any other details regarding plans to set up the museum. Haware also said that the Sansthan would set up 10 shelter places for lakhs of devotees who come on foot to the famous temple here. The devotees would be provided meals, residential facilities, water, bio-toilets and ambulances free of cost, he said. The trust also plans to set up an academy for needy and deprived students who intend to appear for the UPSC and and Maharashtra Public Service Commission exams. These projects are likely to be completed in about a year, he said. ALSO READ: Bill targeting H1B visas reintroduced in US Congress The official said the Sansthan has also launched free medical treatment facility for the needy patients at Sainath General Hospital here from this month. Haware also said that the Sansthan plans to grow saplings after 'tissue culture' of the famous Neem tree here under which Saibaba was believed to sit. The saplings would be distributed to Saibaba temples all over the country. With almost 95 per cent of the scrapped 500 and 1000 rupee notes making their way to bank accounts, the government may end gaining only around Rs 50,000 crore by way of additional surplus transfer from the Reserve Bank, which is far less than what was estimated earlier, according to a brokerage report. Bank of America-Merrill Lynch in a note on Wednesday nearly halved its estimate of RBI dividend from black cash money not returned to banks to Rs 50,000 crore from Rs 95, 000 crore earlier, as banks are re ported to have collected over Rs 14 lakh crore out of the Rs 15.44 lakh crore in demonetised notes deposits by December 19, the note states. The dividend will be possible after the recent ordinance cleared by the Cabinet that allows the RBI to cancel the liability in respect of demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes not returned to banks. The ordinance presumably paves the way for a 'special dividend' in the fiscal. The RBI's special dividend may be utilised for social sector schemes inj the forthcoming budget, it said. The government was banking on around Rs 2 to 5 lakh crore not coming back into the system as this constituted black money that would have to be destroyed. However, it appears that much of the black money has come into bank accounts through misuse of other people's accounts. Assuming Finance Minister Arun Jaitley sticks to the 3.5 per cent fiscal deficit target, he will be just about able to maintain public capex at budgeted levels after utilising the benefits of IDS for bank recapitalisation and seventh pay commission payout, the report said. The budget 2017 can raise Rs 1,50, 000 crore and it has scaled down its earlier estimate of Rs 200, 000 crore, it added. The estimate includes Rs 1 lakh crore that it expects will flow into the government's coffers through the income disclosure scheme (IDS). The Revenue Secretary has already emphasized that all the money that has come into bank accounts postdemonetisation does not constitute white money and would be looked into. A senior Income Tax official told Mail Today that banks have already provided a list of those who have deposited Rs 2 lakh or more in their accounts after the high value currency was scrapped. He said as many as 60 lakh individuals and firms have made large deposits totalling an astonishing Rs 7 lakh crore in old notes. He said although the government will not hound any genuine depositor but at the same time it will not hesitate in tracking cases of tax evasion by black money holders trying to convert illegal wealth. Ironically, some unscrupulous bankers, who helped black money hoarders to exchange scrapped notes into new currency, have emerged as the weak link in the chain. Post-monetisation, unaccounted wealth holders have an option to avail of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY) under which they can pay a 50 per cent tax to come clean. Another 25 per cent has to be put in a fixed deposit for four years. The government will use the money to fund infrastructure and social welfare schemes. It now remains to be seen how many black money hoarders go for this option. In a case which could fuel confusion among people, an SBI bank official handed over Rs 2,000 notes with Mahatma Gandhi's image missing to farmers saying they were not fake. According to reports, two farmers from Sheopur district in Madhya Pradesh were handed Rs 2,000 notes that did not have an image of Mahatma Gandhi imprinted on it. The report said that the bank officials called it a printing error. "The incident took place at Shivpuri Road branch of SBI. The notes were not counterfeit, but probably there was some printing error. They were taken back as soon as it (the error) was detected," ET quoted Sheopur district manager of SBI, Akash Shrivastav as saying. Sheopur (Madhya Pradesh): Farmer receives Rs 2000 notes from SBI Bank without Mahatma Gandhi's image pic.twitter.com/To8yiFIFxq ANI (@ANI_news) January 5, 2017 It is not fake currency, it is a misprint; sent it for probe: RK Jain, SBI officer on Rs 2000 notes without Mahatma Gandhi's image pic.twitter.com/PiXAlMI5vP ANI (@ANI_news) January 5, 2017 This was not the first case of misprinting of new currency notes. Several cases of misprinted notes of Rs 2,000 and Rs 500 notes have been reported so far. Earlier, it was reported that the guarantee declaration in Rs 500 notes was found superimposed on the security thread. The position of the Ashoka Pillar lion was also not at the right spot. Soon after the reports, the RBI said the notes were valid and could be used. The Central bank had said if people found it difficult to transact in such notes, they could exchange them. Unidentified persons on Thursday hacked WhatsApp account of a local journalist in Mumbai and sent messages to the people on her contact list asking them to deposit money through an e-wallet service, police said this evening. The complainant got a WhatsApp message from one of her college friends last night asking to share a code number which she (the complainant) would receive in the form of a text message. The moment this verification code is shared, the person's WhatsApp account gets compromised, a police official said. The hacker then sent messages to people on the complainant's contact list, asking them to transfer money to a certain PayTM account. A few money deposits did take place, the police said, adding that after a complaint was lodged at Cyber Police Station in Bandra Kurla Complex, the journalist's account was recovered. Police had sought help from PayTM in the investigation to get information about the account in which journalist's friends deposited money, the official added. The people should not fall for this kind of fraud and never share the WhatsApp verification code, said Sachin Patil, DCP, Cyber Cell. LOGAN A judge has sentenced a local restaurant owner, Arthur Romo, to one-year in jail after the 47-year-old Mendon man previously pleaded guilty to his fifth DUI. Romo appeared in 1st District Court Tuesday afternoon. He apologized and said he had no excuse for his actions. He told the court he had been using alcohol as a coping mechanism. Romos defense attorney, Richard Gale, said his clients latest arrest came while the family was dealing with a son, who was severely injured in a long-boarding accident. He was already on probation for his fourth DUI at the time. State attorney Spencer Walsh expressed concern about the defendants history with alcohol addiction. Romo told the court he was tired of being in trouble and said he is giving up drinking. Judge Kevin Allen expressed hope for Romo, but said the defendants words didnt mean much, considering it was his fifth arrest. He said, what he does going forward, will do more to restore the confidence of Romos family and the community. Judge Allen said if it wasnt for the recent Justice Reform Initiative, he would have sent Romo to prison. He granted him work release so that he could continue to operate his business, Romos Mediterranean Grill.

will@cvradio.com Article in the Detroit Free Press: Wanted: Substitute Teachers for Michigan Classrooms . The piece is accompanied by a photo of one of 40 highway billboards across the state screaming SUBSTITUTE TEACHERS NEEDED, illustrated with a dozen (diverse and photogenic, naturally) kiddos pointing fingers straight out: You. Yes, you! You could be a substitute in my classroom! Because goodness knows that school districts are desperate to fill these low-paid, low-skill, must-have positions. There arent enough actual teachers to fill real full-time jobs, and the meager, unenthusiastic substitute workforce, right now, is an early warning signal for worse things to come. There was a time when the sub pool was made up of trained and certified teachersnovices hoping to get a full-time job, retired teachers, and the occasional mom looking to return to part-time work in a classroom. Not any more. Substitute teachers are now almost exclusively hired by third-party educational service companies, which take a cut out of limited monies to rid schools of the headache of finding daily replacements, once the worst possible early-morning task of school secretaries. Substitute teaching is now low-level contract work that doesnt require a college degree or any experience in the classroom. How do I know this? I recently signed on to substitute teach in a local district and went through the enrollment and training. I can testify that the process is time-consuming, highly impersonal, really boring, has nothing to do with classroom skills or knowledge, and costs money because you have to be fingerprinted. See also: Teacher Leadership vs. Teacher Professionalism Do I want the people working in our classrooms to be law-abiding and apprised of proper procedures if theres a bodily fluid spill? Do I want students protected from predators or breach of confidential information? Yes, I do. Thats why I cheerfully sat through four excruciating videos-cum-tests that were clearly designed by a non-teacher and filled out 37 pages of forms. (Seriously.) But heres what I also want: Classrooms staffedevery dayby real teachers, folks who like children and represent role models for what it means to be an educated citizen. I want kind adults who will try to answer questions, will try to learn kids names, and will try to give them somethinga discussion, a story, a learning task or questionto take home. The fact that these people are not readily available has a lot to do with the pay structure: about $10/hour in the school where I chose to sub. But it also says something about what were looking for in our public education workforce. Were willing to hire guest teachers with some college as long as they have no criminal record. Were advertising for them on billboards, with no personal interview or expectation that they will bring pedagogical skills or knowledge, or even engage in productive relationships with students. What, precisely, is their function? We ask more of babysitters, playground monitors and burger flippers than substitute teachersmore qualifications, more on-the-job training, more care in selecting and retaining the right person for the job. If you start with the bar for admission and reward extremely low, youre making a statement about the work, as well as the people willing to do it. A few years back, I wrote a passionate blog about re-thinking the concept of substitute teaching. I thought we could better use the talents of teachers who were not yet employed or between jobs. It seemed to me that hiring a versatile pool of educators to rotate through temporary jobs in a building or district might mean that an entire school year could pass without students having a blow-off sub day. There was a lot of resistancemostly around the perceived expense, which didnt make sense to me. If you have to hire a bunch of people every day for a measly $75 per diem, wouldnt it be better to seek continuity and loyalty, by appreciating and getting to know those underpaid employees? Theres plenty of evidence that a privatized, temp-based workforce is often not cheaper and delivers inferior service and results. The shift to privatized sub-finder systems says: Teaching is something anyone can do. We dont value this work. Its another glaring symptom of the de-professionalizing of teaching. So why was I subbing, two days before the holiday break, in a middle school band classroom, with 50+ students (all holding noisemakers) in my classes? Because it was fun, mostlya chance to make music with kids and teach some basics. And because its a good, well-run public school, and its healthy to remind ourselves that most American children attend good, well-run public schools (though you wouldnt know it if you read the newspapers). I stopped by the office to turn in my guest teacher badge on the way out, and a group of teachers were hanging out--getting coffee, checking their mailboxes. One turned to me and asked how things went in Ms. Hs class today. I told her the kids were great, and it was the truth. This is a building with good leadership, she said. It makes all the difference. Sober Home Scheme Sting Leads to Multiple Arrests Despite the rigorous regulations designed to protect against fraud in the medical and drug treatment industry, greedy individuals will always find ways to perpetrate scams. In Palm Beach, Florida, operators of sober homes, also known as halfway homes, as well as drug treatment centers, have been swept up in a recent sting operation designed to target a dangerous unregulated nexus between the two types of facilities. Sober homes have operated largely unregulated in Florida, and as a result, have been ripe for criminals looking to take advantage of the system. Over ten individuals have now been arrested thus far in the Florida sting. Most of the arrests are centered around the crime of patient brokering and insurance fraud. Patient brokering involves medical facilities, like drug treatment centers, paying other facilities, such as sober homes, kickbacks, or referral fees, for sending patients with good insurance their way. Brokering Bad Apples While some people may not see a problem with paying referral fees, or providing kickbacks, it is in fact against the law (and apparently many sober home operators are completely unaware of that fact). The drug treatment centers, which illegally paid sober home operators, would also attempt to max out a patient's insurance claims by charging exorbitant amounts for routine things like drug testing. Surprisingly, after law enforcement raided one drug treatment center that was providing illegal kickbacks to sober home operators that sent it patients, multiple sober home operators were arrested. The raid was the result of a two year investigation by the FBI focused on patient brokering, insurance fraud, money laundering, and illegal kickbacks. After the initial two arrests at the Whole Life Recovery drug treatment center of the owner, James Kigar, and an operations consultant, Chistopher Hutson, it was discovered that this one treatment center had paid out numerous kickbacks to sober home operators. Additionally, Whole Life Recovery, after discovering that the kickbacks were illegal, unsuccessfully attempted to disguise the kickbacks as payment for services. As a result, numerous operators of sober homes that received the kickbacks have been arrested. Related Resources: Sherri Shepherd Serious About Not Paying Child Support The battle between former 'The View' star Sherri Shepherd and ex-husband Lamar Sally over their child Lamar Jr., has been as acrimonious as it has been public. Shepherd first tried, without success, to disavow any legal responsibility for the boy, who was born via surrogate using a donor egg and Sally's sperm. She was also unsuccessful in her attempts to skirt paying child support. Now, Shepherd is fighting tooth and nail against Sally's request for an increase in those child support payments, saying the California court in which the request for modification was filed lacks jurisdiction over the case. Childish Games First, some background information on the case. Shepherd and Sally initially attempted in vitro fertilization using the former television star's eggs, but were unsuccessful. They then paid a surrogate mother $30,000 to carry a child created using Sally's sperm and a donor egg, but both filed for divorce when the surrogate was just seven months pregnant. Shepherd tried to disavow the child and scuttle the surrogacy at that point, but a court ruled that she was legally the mother and also liable for $4,100 per month in child support payments to Sally. Shepherd, who has reportedly never seen the child since his birth, appealed the ruling but was rebuffed again, with a Pennsylvania court refusing to assert jurisdiction over the claim. Adult Responsibility Sally went back to court to request an increase in child support after Lamar Jr. was diagnosed with a hereditary disease known as G6PD, claiming red blood cell abnormality made his care more expensive. According to Radar, Shepherd slammed Sally's request, made in California courts, and argued that the court, like the previous one in Pennsylvania, lacks jurisdiction to rule in the case. While states must honor and enforce other states' child support orders, and support orders can be modified as circumstances change, whether the court will grant Sally's request remains to be seen. What is certain, however, is that this fight is showing no signs of fading. Related Resources: | BY Lynchy | The Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) has appointed J. Walter Thompson Singapore to drive recruitment, and to lead integrated marketing, communications and events to mark the Navys 50th anniversary in 2017. J. Walter Thompson will partner with AsiaPRwerkz and Mindshare on a jubilee campaign to celebrate RSN50, which includes a series of events, activations and advertising executions to celebrate the Navys achievements and pay tribute to the pioneers who have contributed to safeguarding Singapores maritime interests over the last 50 years. J. Walter Thompson will also create a recruitment campaign to excite and inspire young Singaporeans to enlist and help chart new waters for the countrys navy. Singapore Navy is one of the most prestigious and respected brands in Singapore, said Peter Womersley, CEO of J. Walter Thompson Singapore (pictured above). The commemoration of their 50th anniversary is a tremendous opportunity and we are very pleased and honored to be selected as their agency. We are committed to developing some great work on this iconic brand. | BY Lynchy | Yang Yeo has left his Executive Creative Director post at Wieden + Kennedy Shanghai and is returning to his native Singapore in two weeks time. Yeo, who joined Wieden + Kennedy Shanghai in June 2014 from J Walter Thompson where he was North Asia Executive Creative Director and China Chairman, told Campaign Brief Asia that he was going to take some time off before looking at the next opportunity. Homeopathic Teething Tablets May Cause Child Deaths; Could Lawsuits Follow? Parents with teething babies have sought a myriad of remedies to soothe their children's pain and discomfort (and their own ears as well, no doubt). One remedy which many found effective was the use of dissolving homeopathic tablets and gels that claimed to ease pain and reduce irritability associated with teething. But last fall, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned that the tablets and gels could pose a health risk to children and recommended that parents stop using them. As many as 10 deaths had been linked to homeopathic teething tablets, so could lawsuits follow? Homeopathies at Home The FDA first issued a safety alert about homeopathic teething tablets and gels back in 2010, noting they can cause seizures in infants and children. Parents were warned to be on the lookout for "difficulty breathing, lethargy, excessive sleepiness, muscle weakness, skin flushing, constipation, difficulty urinating, or agitation" in children after using the products. Hyland's, one of the major manufacturers of homeopathic teething tablets and gel, was quick to point out that, despite the FDA's investigation, there was no recall issued, and continues to maintain "[t]here is NO scientific link between homeopathically-prepared belladonna, or Hyland's Baby Teething Tablets, and seizures." Instead, the company acknowledges that "certain allergies may exist" and recommends that parents closely monitor their children when introducing new medicines. Legal Bite Teething tablet and gel manufacturers have a duty to ensure their products are safe. They therefore may be strictly liable if a child is injured or killed by their product. There are three main types of product liability claims: Defect in Design: The teething tablet's design is flawed, rendering it unreasonably dangerous to children; Defect in Manufacturing: The tablet or gel is improperly manufactured, in a way that dangerously departs from its intended design; or Defect in Warnings: The homeopathic remedy lacks adequate instructions or warnings, without which the product is not reasonably safe. Homeopathic tablets or gels might have been improperly designed, poorly manufactured, or lack proper warnings, leading teething children to have adverse or even deadly reactions. If this happened, the manufacturer might be liable for such injuries and damages. Related Resources: A Uvalde mother and doctor fight to limit gun access A mother and a doctor. Both said they weren't political and neither sought the limelight. Then Uvalde happened and changed their lives forever. Thursday, January 5, 2017 at 3:54PM By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla Samsung's had another landmark year at the International CES 2017 with stunning new QOLED and Lifestyle TVs that bring simple yet remarkable mounting solutions to make TVs less like appliances and more like fine, functional objets d'art. The company has also made some compelling washer and dryer innovations. While there were no notable mobile or Galaxy announcements (seems they are saving that for Mobile World Congress in Barcelona), the company did make some huge announcements in the PC space. Most notably, Samsung's ready to square off with Alienware, Razer, ROG and other gaming hardware manufacturers with their newly announced Odyssey gaming notebooks. Earlier experiences of poor sales in the Chromebook market might keep the premium Samsung Chromebook Pro from making it to Canada. Samsung also turned some heads with its new Chromebooks, most interesting of which were the Chromebook Pro and Chromebook Plus, which are premium metal Chromebooks offering 360' articulation to convert from tablet to notebook that even integrate the SPen for input and can even run smartphone apps in Chrome tablet mode. Unfortunately, we learned earlier today from Samsung Canada EVP Paul Brennan that Samsung isn't looking to bring these new products to Canada right away. "We do not have any definitive plans to bring the gaming PC's to Canada," Brennan said in a phone interview with Canadian Reviewer. "Samsung has had experience with the PC industry in Canada before as well as globally and it has been a tougher market for us to compete in," he added. "We want to lead with innovation," Brennan explained. "We're very aggressive in gaming monitors in the Canadian marketplace and we're exploring conversations with retailers in Canada if there's an interest to look at these gaming PCs." When asked about the new Chromebook Pro and Plus models, Brennan said," We had Chromebook in Canada before and we found that it became very much a commodity-based industry. If you build innovation into technology that's commodity-based and are challenged in a marketplace like Canada it's hard to get to that critical mass." Brennan did confirm that Samsung has been working with Google to allow various smartphone apps to work natively on the Chromebooks. "I think what we're doing with Google in allowing utilization of apps from your phone on to that Chromebook is a really interesting play. It is something else we're exploring at the same time whether we want to re-enter the Chromebook market in Canada." Samsung is looking to bring some joy to mid-range and pre-paid Canadian users this March when it launches the Galaxy A5, a mid-tier smartphone that actually carries over various high-end features from the Galaxy S and Note lines. As a fan of smaller handsets, it will be great to see this 4.7-inch device come to the Canadian market in a competitive price point. Woman Sues Search Sites to Remove Name After Revenge Porn Incident Revenge porn, or posting an ex's sexually explicit photos or videos on the internet, is a nasty and sometimes illegal business. And while state laws and courts have begun cracking down on those who post and facilitate revenge porn, protections for victims are far from perfect. Take the case of one New York woman, who, while successful at getting surreptitiously recorded sex tapes removed from porn sites, is having a harder time scrubbing her search results from Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Now she is suing the search sites in the hope that removing her name entirely will finally keep the more promiscuous search results from popping up. Hell Hath No Fury The Harlem woman, a college student, was horrified to find her ex had posted video of their sexual encounters to several porn websites along with her name. Having a unique, four-word-long West African name, this meant that the revenge porn came up every time her name was searched, to the tune of four pages worth of search results. She asked the sites to remove the content, and they complied, but that had little impact on the search engines themselves. "If you Google her name, everything is right there," Ryanne Konan, the woman's attorney, told The New York Post. "She can't even get an internship." So she and Konan sued Bing, Google, and Yahoo, seeking an injunction that would compel the companies to "remove her full name from their search engines." Recourse for Revenge Unfortunately for the victim, there is little, if any, precedent for her request. Google has made an effort to keep non-consensual nude and sexually explicit postings from its search results, and all three search companies allow victims to report non-consensual pornography and request to have it removed from search results. But removing a person's name entirely from a search engine would be a first. And while many states have criminal statutes prohibiting revenge porn, New York is sadly not among them. So even though the search engine suit may be a long shot, it could also be this victim's last resort. Related Resources: "We've been intent on preserving the experience of the show, by making sure people aren't queuing 10 deep to see an object but allowing them, despite the fact it's very busy, to have an opportunity to see every one of the things in the exhibition." But he said it was the department's view that the current arrangements were effective and "establishing a CDC would not add anything material to Australia's capacity to effectively respond to national communicable disease outbreaks". Fritjof Capra and Pier Luigi Luisi, The Systems View of Life: "The application of complex systems approaches to the origin and evolution of life is what this book is all about. It is a bit challenging in places in terms of its complexity, but the book is wonderfully expansive - everything you wanted to know about life itself but were afraid to ask." The Russian Bank Deposit Insurance Agency has demanded repayment by French National Front leader Marine Le Pen daughter of open neo-Nazi and party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen of 9m borrowed from the First Czech-Russian Bank, which is now defunct. Le Pen is a dark-horse/long-shot candidate for the French presidency, and she is part of the tribe of xenophobic/Islamophobic leaders who praise Putin and Trump and want to pull their countries out of the EU. Her ties to French neo-Nazis has made it hard for her to source working capital for the election campaign from domestic sources, but she borrowed a total of 11m from Russian banks, as well as 6m from her father, whom she publicly purged from the party and had allegedly disavowed. Le Pen is an interesting example of the strange bedfellows of the Putin/Trump age. Russia's great political bogeyman is Naziism and fascism (thanks to the incredible casualties the country took in WWII), and Russian hypernationalists routinely smear their opponents as fascists, and characterize the country's military adventurism as anti-fascist action (see, e.g. the annexation of Crimea, where there was, indeed, a small rump of fascists in the opposition). But Le Pen is one little mustache short of a swastika, and this does not disqualify her from support by these Russian elements, demonstrating that antifascism is a flexible stance that can be set aside for the sake of realpolitik for example, if it helps destabilize the EU. The Russian Bank Deposit Insurance Agency is calling in part of the loan granted by the First Czech-Russian Bank, which has since been dissolved, Le Monde reports. The National Front is operating thanks to two loans one for 9 million and one for 2 million from the bank dating from 2014. The paper said that in late December, the insurance authority told Russian news agency RNS it had started legal proceedings for reimbursement, without specifying when such moves had begun. The far-right party has been struggling to raise the 20 million it needs to fund next year's presidential and legislative election campaigns since the Russian-backed bank went under. Le Pen last month borrowed 6 million from a company owned by her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, that will be used mostly to cover the costs of the presidential campaign. Marine Le Pen asked to repay 9 million bank loan: reports [Cynthia Kroet/Politico] (via Naked Capitalism) PRINT | EMAIL | PERMALINK Newscity County Officials Vote on Prisoner Resource Center Robert Maestas Last Thursday, the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Government Commission voted in favor of the development and funding of the MDC Transition Planning and Re-entry Resource Center. Officials say the new center will help inmates re-enter society after their release from jail. If fully approved, the center will be located on the bottom floor of the Public Safety Center on Roma. Proponents of the plan point out that recidivism is a serious problem with inmates, noting that a lack of continuity in state-provided care could be a factor in their return to incarceration. Albuquerque resident Richard Diab also made a proposal to the Commission on Thursday about a program he says will help inmates find employment after their release, a hurdle that many of them have trouble getting past. He asked that the Commission hear his $250,000 proposal before voting on the resource center, but was turned down. The Commission did hear his proposal after the vote, though, and said they would consider it. The MDC center still needs to receive approval from the Bernalillo County Commission before the project can move forward. WIPP Reopening Officials with the US Department of Energy announced in December that the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad will be resuming some operations this month. The planta deep geologic repository for permanent disposal of specific nuclear waste left over from the US nuclear defense programwas shut down nearly three years ago, after a ruptured waste drum leaked radiation into the underground portions of the facility as well as escaping through an exhaust shaft and into the surrounding environment. Bringing the plant back online has been troublesome, as concerns over residual contamination and ventilation efficiency have had to be addressed. Last year, the DOE and WIPP signed settlement agreements with the N.M. Environment Department totaling $74 million to pay for dozens of violations related to the accident. Last month, state inspectors said the DOE had properly dealt with all the safety issues, and the plant could resume some functions. Here's a fascinating story about advances in forensic anthropology based around a creepy case of an archaeologist who had several open coffins full of human remains in his home. He said they were all legally taken from ancient Guatemalan sites, but new forensics methods showed that some of the bones were pretty new and of different races than the archaeologist claimed. Lindsay Trammell was given the case because archaeologist Gary Rex Walters had previously been accused of stealing bones from a historic African American cemetery. As she pieced the remains together, it was clear they were from different times and places. "Trammell sent samples to Cris Hughes of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Chelsey Juarez of North Carolina State University (NCSU), who performed genome sequencing and isotope analysis." Trammell sent small bone and teeth samples from 10 of the crania found in the archaeologist's wooden coffins. Of those, Hughes took subsamples from six and sequenced hypervariable region 1 (HVR1) of the mitochondrial DNA, which can help determine an individual's haplogroup. "To jibe with [the archaeologist's] story, I would have to see something that was a Native American haplogroup," Hughes says. Of the four samples that yielded sequenceable DNA, three did have HVR1s consistent with Native American ancestry. However, one sample's HVR1 placed the mitochondrial genome within West African haplogroups, suggesting that not all of the remains in the wooden coffins were from Guatemala after all. "Some of those materials in there were basically raising a red flag and were not consistent with his story," Hughes says. Includes a terrific infographic by Jude Buffum in a separate article explaining the analysis. Forensics 2.0 (The Scientist) The product, called SME-in-a-Box Pro, is designed to bring small and medium enterprises (SMEs) tools such as Office 365 and Exchange Online, along with broadband communications from MainOne. The SME-in-a-Box Pro is a welcome product for small businesses who require tools that enable their ability to scale up, said MainOne CEO Funke Opeke. She said that SMEs will be able to subscribe to the online products in local currency rather than US dollars, with support from MainOne staff in Nigeria. SME-in-a-Box Pro can be used with other broadband providers, MainOne said. MainOne has a terrestrial network covering key cities in Nigeria, including Abuja, Ibadan, Lagos and Port Harcourt, as well as its 7000km subsea cable connecting Nigeria, Ghana and Portugal. Microsoft Nigerias director of small and midmarket solutions, Oluwawemimo Adeniyi, said the new offering will help SMEs in terms of efficiency, cost savings and flexibility. She said: For SMEs, this means ensuring that business owners and employees have access to the technologies and solutions they didnt previously have access to, in order to enable them compete, grow and succeed. Microsoft in collaboration with MainOne wants to enable SMEs with expertise that frees them to spend their energy on their businesses instead of on technology. Four parts hemp hurd, one part lime binder, and one part water is all you need to make hempcrete, a durable building material similar to pressboard or adobe. Just fill up the form with hempcrete, tamp it down, and once it's set, you're set! Ben Christensen of Oregon Hemp Works and Joy Beckerman of Hemp Ace International explain: Get 15 great people there from you community, you empower them on how to build their own home, much like the Amish barn raising, and you get your building done in a day depending on how big it is. Mix, cast, and tamp. At the end of your hempcrete home's life, that structure's life, you can actually take the hempcrete home apart, crack that hempcrete up, and put it into your next hempcrete mix and/or you can use it as some type of a soil amendment. We're talking about reusable, recyclable, and durable. It just doesn't get any better than that. FYI, hemp hurd looks more smokeable than the crappy weed we had in middle school. How to Make a Hempcrete Wall (SmuggleVision via Core 77) 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. Revoking the earlier rule that was not in use for long, the CBSE has recently reinforced its mandatory no-objection certificate (NOC) rule for schools seeking affiliation. Henceforth, schools will have to furnish not only their state's NOC but also a certificate of recognition while submitting an affiliation application. In 2013, the NOC rule had been called off earlier after the then minister of state for human resources development Shashi Tharoor suggested it increases harassment of schools by state education officials. The purpose of NOC is that every school starts off as a state board affiliate. When their students progress to Std VIII, CBSE starts accepting affiliation requests for letting those students to attend for Std X board exams. While enrolling those students, CBSE asks for a NOC for change of board from the state education department. Taking action in the direction of Tharoor's suggestion, the CBSE amended its affiliation policy in July 2013. Tharoor, was however concerned about the complications of the older rule. Several complaints were raised from across the country that state education departments purposely delayed issuing of NOCs, thus leading to cases of bribery. A state education official, who had not seen CBSE's latest order, welcomed the move. "I will have to check in detail about what exactly it says, but on face value it seems to be a great move. It's ludicrous to assume that state officials are corrupt, hence NOC powers must be taken away. In fact, the NOC system will help CBSE because we will stop defaulter schools from shifting to their board," he said. "I was informed about an incident where state education officials asked for bribes to grant the NOC. So this system is similar to our licence raj era and needs to be done away with," Tharoor said in 2013. Some principals feel that the state education department would have protested the undermining of their officials in such a crucial decision. CBSE UGC NET Admit Cards Released: Download Now! Global natural catastrophe losses reached their highest level in four years in 2016, with a big chunk coming from North American storms and other weather events, Munich Re said in its annual assessment. The year in terms of natural catastrophe losses came down to a few sobering figures. Overall global losses reached $175 billion, more than two-thirds higher than in 2015 and almost at the $180 billion level reached in 2012. Out of that number, insured losses came in at $50 billion, with the rest encompassing uninsured losses. In North America, statisticians recorded 160 North American natural catastrophe loss events, which Munich Re said was the highest since 1980. They accounted for $55 billion in losses, or 33 percent of natural catastrophe losses globally. Munich Re said the 2016 numbers, rather than being shocking, are a return to normal. After three years of relatively low nat cat losses, the figures for 2016 are back in the mid-range, where they are expected to be, Torsten Jeworrek, a member of the Munich Re board of management, said in prepared remarks. According to Munich Re, 54 percent of the overall North America losses for the year were insured. Hurricane Matthew ended up being the most serious North America event, causing $10.2 billion in losses, over a third of which were insured. Munich Re noted that Haiti was the worst hit, where 550 people were killed and residents are still struggling to recover. The storm caused significant damage, however, on the U.S. East Coast. Not far behind were floods in Louisiana and other U.S. states after massive rain, triggering about $10 billion in losses, of which about 25 percent were insured. Canada dealt with massive wildfires in Fort McMurray and elsewhere in Alberta in May. Munich Re said that overall losses reached $4 billion, with a ratio of insured vs. uninsured losses of approximately 70 percent. Other stats from Munich Res natural catastrophe assessment: The North Atlantic hurricane season produced 15 named storms, above the long-term average since 1950. Munich Re said the trend was consistent with a La Nina cycle, which tends to contribute to hurricane formation. Globally, there were 750 relevant loss events including earthquakes, storms, floods, droughts and heatwaves, above the 10-year average of 590. About 8,700 lives were lost due to natural catastrophes, below 25,400 lives lost in 2015 and lower than the 10-year average of 60,600. Globally speaking, floods (including river flooding and flash floods) led to 34 percent of overall losses, above the 10-year average of 21 percent. Source: Munich Re Truck buyers who dig the Ram Rebel but are inclined towards a more sinister look may be enticed by this latest special edition from Auburn Hills. Making its way down Woodward, across Eight Mile, and into the city for the Detroit Auto Show this month is the new Black edition, murdering out the beefy off-road pickup with the full Darth Vader treatment. Off-roading enthusiasts will already know what sets the Rebel apart from an ordinary Ram 1500: a lifted air suspension, Bilstein shocks, skid plates, tow hooks, a bold grille, and special interior trim evocative of those giant 33-inch all-terrain tires. The Black edition can be ordered with any of the colors already offered on the Rebel, but blacks out the trim. So the wheels and brush guard are done in black as is the interior, with black anodized trim and gray-stitched black seats (or optional black leather). Pricing starts at $45,950 (plus a $1,320 destination charge) for the Black edition with a Crew Cab, 3.6-liter Pentastar V6 and four-wheel drive representing a $750 premium over a standard Ram Rebel similarly equipped. Its also available with a 5.7-liter Hemi V8 in either two- or four-wheel drive configurations. Deliveries begin in March. Photo Gallery Video Photo: Facebook Sylvain "Buck" Laroche A man wanted in Kelowna on harassment charges now faces 30 days in a Honduran jail over a separate case of defamatory and threatening comments, according to court documents obtained by Castanet. Sylvain Buck Laroche, 54, faces the punishment in connection with comments made over Facebook. He just unleashed a fury of three months of nasty emails on Facebook on me and my family, said Kelownas JC Rathwell, who recently moved to the Caribbean. It was absolutely brutal the things he posted on Facebook about me for my friends and family in Kelowna to see. Rothwell, a former Kelowna businessman and candidate for city council, told Castanet in an interview that Laroche also moved to the Caribbean from Kelowna last year and wanted to partner on a scooter business after seeing him on HGTVs Caribbean Life. He agreed, not knowing that Laroche was wanted in B.C. by CrimeStoppers on outstanding charges in Kelowna, including criminal harassment and failing to appear in court. The pair partnered. When the business began to struggle, Rathwell said he tried to walk away, but Laroche began posting threats and defamatory statements through his Facebook account. Rathwell took him to court, and in mid-December, a judge in Honduras found Laroche guilty on all charges. I was the first one to stand my ground and take him to court and look him in the eye, said Rathwell. Its a relief on my end that its finally over and that hes finally going to have some consequences. The jail sentence is expected to begin in the first few weeks of January. However, it's unclear if Laroche is even in Honduras anymore. Reached for comment by Castanet, Laroche said he was in Montreal for the holidays not in a Honduran cell. He called the allegations against him lies, then levelled threats against Castanet if a story were published about him. The RCMP has been informed. Numerous attempts to reach his lawyers have been unsuccessful. As for the charges Laroche faces in Kelowna, the federal Department of Justice wont confirm whether its seeking extradition for Laroche if he is eventually taken into custody in Honduras. As extradition requests are confidential state-to-state communications, we cannot confirm or deny the existence of any such request, said a statement emailed to Castanet. Photo: Lindsay Relvas Late last year, Castanet brought you the heart-wrenching story of a young Kelowna boy battling a childhood form of cancer. Anthony Relvas remains in Vancouver Children's Hospital after being diagnosed with Neuroblastoma. His parents, Adam and Lindsay, who also have a six-year-old, are commuting between Kelowna and Vancouver. After a successful GoFundMe campaign raised more than $28,000 for the couple, family and friends have gathered together to put on a fundraising dinner this weekend. The fundraiser will be held Sunday, 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at The XChange Tapas Bar on Dickson Avenue. Tickets are $25. All proceeds will go directly to the Relvas family to assist with the costs of traveling back and forth from Children's Hospital, and any other expenses that arise. There will also be a silent auction. Photo: Getty Images One challenge of being in government is having a core message overshadowed or buried by unintended events, sometimes of its own making. Such was the case back in November when the Liberals announced plans to speed up the end of coal power in Canada by 2030. Unfortunately for the Liberals, breaking news of the Prime Minister and his cabinets cash for access fundraising events quickly buried the coal announcement and as a result it received little public scrutiny. I believe many Canadians support the idea of reducing the use of coal power in Canada and would embrace the Liberal Government announcement to accelerate its end in Canada. As much as the government would like to be viewed as taking action against coal power, many of Canadas coal power producing provinces have already either eliminated the use of coal power, such as Ontario, or are well on the way to doing so as is the case in Alberta. Meanwhile B.C., Quebec and Manitoba do not generate any significant amounts of coal power. So what provinces are Canadas largest generators of coal power? The answer is Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia. Interestingly enough the Liberal Government has quietly made side deals with both Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia that will allow them to continue to generate and use coal power beyond the 2030 deadline. In other words, the announcement to accelerate the end of coal power by 2030 was really more for show than substance. Fortunately, both of these provinces are taking other measures that will help reduce the GHG emissions from their respective coal power sectors. Another somewhat overlooked government announcement was a new national agreement on carbon. What is interesting about this particular national agreement is that it is not truly national. Both Manitoba and Saskatchewan have refused to join this agreement and British Columbia has secured what could be interpreted as a future veto. Also of interest is the fact that the agreement is not a centralized national strategy and instead allows provinces to independently follow their own strategies. In British Columbia, a revenue neutral carbon tax is used while Ontario prefers a cap and trade system. Why is this fact of interest? In Ontario, under their Cap and Trade system already it has been quietly announced that some of Ontarios largest polluters such as steel and smelter plants are being exempted from the regulations. Likewise here in British Columbia, greenhouse growers have also been largely exempted from carbon tax while industries such as cement production also receive taxpayer provided relief to offset carbon tax expenses. Ironically, one of Saskatchewans arguments against a carbon tax is that it is pointless to tax industries only to return that same money in the form of subsidies or other relief related exemptions. The point of my report today is not to debate the merits of a carbon tax or coal power production in Canada, but to illustrate the government efforts to tackle these GHG emissions related industries may be more for appearance than substance. Considering that the United States is moving in a different direction, it will be critically important to keep a close eye on both Canada's competitiveness and the effectiveness of the Liberal Government policy. I welcome your comments, questions and concerns on this or any topic before the House of Commons and can be reached at [email protected] or toll free at 1-800-665-8711. This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet. Have you ever told an American you're Canadian, and they respond by asking if you live in an igloo? Kelownas Jarrod Thalheimer is co-producer of the comedy-documentary Being Canadian, which explores the stereotypes Canadians often face. Thalheimer met Calgary-born producer Robert Cohen, and the two connected over the fact that being Canadian is much more than just maple syrup and Mounties. Rob is brilliant, and this documentary is hilarious," said Thalheimer. "Its just such a funny, personal and perfect tribute to what being Canadian is all about, Cohen realized many of his friends in Los Angeles knew nothing about his homeland, so he embarked on a personal quest across Canada. The film boasts many big names, including: Mike Myers, Michael J. Fox, Conan OBrien, Ben Stiller, Seth Rogen, Dan Aykroyd, Rush, Rich Little, Catherine OHara, The Barenaked Ladies, Rick Mercer, William Shatner, Eugene Levy, Martin Short, Jason Priestley, Morley Safer, David Steinberg, Paul Shaffer, Russell Peters, Alanis Morissette, Malcolm Gladwell, Dave Foley, Howie Mandel and The Trailer Park Boys. Thalheimer is also the writer and producer of Kelownas Little Blue Truck Productions. Thanks to the internet, Ive had so many gigs with clients from around the world. And I get to live right here in one of the greatest cities in Canada, he said. The film industry in Kelowna is brighter than ever, thanks in large part to the efforts of the local film commission and the fact that so many talented, creative people have decided to live and work here." To find out more about the film, click here or watch it on Amazon. Photo: Contributed Birds of a feather are flocking to the Okanagan, even in the middle of winter. Peter Blokker, Christmas Bird Count co-ordinator for North Okanagan, said about 20,000 birds from 92 species were spotted on Dec. 18. Ducks were the most common bird spotted, with 3,749 mallards being documented. Some of the less-common sightings included 11 wild turkeys in the Commonage area, six golden eagles, one peregrine falcon at the Coldstream ranch, six great horned owls, one northern pygmy owl and a variety of other rare birds. On Jan. 15, bird lovers will once again be heading to the great outdoors for the annual swan and eagle count. The swan and eagle count is a citizen science program that takes place mid-January each year and monitors the current population status of these birds in southern interior British Columbia. The North Okanagan count zone covers from Sicamous to the south end of Mabel Lake via Lavington and Lumby as well as Enderby through Kingfisher and to Mabel Lake. In the Vernon area, several groups scout the north and south end of Kalamalka Lake, Vernon Arm of Okanagan Lake and the Head of the Lake area. The count numbers are compiled with others from the B.C. Interior and elsewhere and form a database used by university students and graduate ornithologists in various bird research programs. Anyone interested in taking part in the annual count can contact Aaron Deans, swan and eagle count co-ordinator by email at [email protected] or by calling 250-542-5122. Photo: jcivernon.com JCI Vernon is looking for the next Good Citizen of the year. The Good Citizen of the Year award is given to a citizen who has made a positive impact on the community through their continued community involvement, said Robbie Hoyte of JCI Vernon. Nomination letters can be emailed to [email protected], or dropped off in person at Illusions Hair & Body, 7-2601 Hwy 6. All nominations must include letters describing why the person being nominated should receive the award, their contributions to the community and the nominators contact information. Deadline for nominations is Jan. 20. Photo: Kate Bouey Camille Martens, in green scarf, surrounded by supporters. In the end, Camille Martens' Okanagan Rhythmic Gymnastics Club received full support from the North Okanagan Regional District board. The former national champion and Olympian was surrounded by about 150 supporters who watched Wednesday as electoral area directors gave first reading to a recommendation that would legalize the gym even though it sits in the Agricultural Land Reserve. Just last week, most had planned to do the opposite. Electoral area C director Mike Macnabb read from a written statement ahead of the vote stating the gym exceeded permitted home-based business use due to its size and there was concern it could erode the agricultural land base. But these are special circumstances, added Macnabb, acknowledging public support and the limited impact on the land. The club is highly successful and an outpouring of support in the form of emails and letters over the past week forced a rethink. Supporters cheered when Vernon director Brian Quiring said that building permit compliance should be taken out of the recommendation since it passed inspection when the gym opened in 2009. She's been through enough, said Quiring. From a health and safety standpoint the facility will work and it should be taken off the table. We don't need to go there. I fear this is going to cost the Martens a significant amount of money, said Vernon director Catherine Lord. However, Quiring and Lord were overruled. The B.C. building code has to be met, said David Sewell, NORD's chief admininistration officer. Following the first vote, the full board voted unanimously to support a submission to the Agriculture Land Commission asking the Martens' land be approved for non-farm use. Board chair Bob Fleming said he hoped for a fairly prompt decision from the ALC to move the matter forward. "It is extremely unlikely they will turn it down but I can't make a prediction," Fleming said. Following the meeting, Martens thanked supporters for "rising up" in a bid to keep the gym open. Photo: Google Street View A kidney patient was airlifted to Kelowna General Hospital last week but has been stuck sleeping in the hallway for five days. Shawn Ponte was airlifted from Cranbrook last week and when he arrived at the hospital he was told that there was no room for him. Ponte was given a bed but had to set it up in the hallway. If they were so full and didn't have the room to begin with, why didn't they tell the Cranbrook hospital? he said. And they could have sent me to a different hospital that could have taken care of me properly. Ponte said the sounds of beeping machines started making him go bonkers, so he took to Facebook to post a video of his frustrations. "It's probably happened to other people, they just haven't had the means to get it out there. And I finally stood up for myself and said, 'Hey, enough is enough,'" he said. Hospital administration said the circumstance was unfortunate and that they try to minimize time patients are forced to stay in the halls. It shows the increased acuity and the demand for hospital care right now," the hospital's head of medical services," Andrew Hughes, told CTV News. Hughes added that Pontes hallway stint will be the subject of review. Since the video, Ponte has been moved into a room and said he is looking forward to being able to go home after the operation. "The hospital should treat their patients better," he said. with files from CTV Vancouver Facebook Shawn Ponte Despite winning eleventh-hour support from some electoral area politicians in the Greater Vernon area, Camille Martens knows the fight to keep her gym open is not yet over. The former Olympian and national champ has run the Okanagan Rhythmic Gymnastics Club on East Vernon Road since 2009. A health and safety complaint lodged with the North Okanagan Regional District in February 2015 was the beginning of a bureaucratic battle that almost ended with the closure of the gym. However a deluge of letters, emails and a large public turnout at Wednesday's meeting of the North Okanagan Regional District board all contributed to a turnaround. Vernon and Coldstream politicians were also behind her. A positive vote at that meeting means that district staff must prepare a bylaw amendment to legalize Marten's gym while the politicians support her application to the Agricultural Land Commission for a non-farm based business. I'm glad that the voice of the people has pushed for some change and I just feel for anyone who wouldn't have this kind of support, who would go through this same kind of ordeal, said Martens. I feel grateful for the incredible support. I'm grateful for the support that we have from city council and the whole regional district board, I mean the fact that all of them would support us to do this is a wonderful thing and I'm glad that the community, rising up, was able to bring light to that. Martens said the battle to keep the popular gym running while facing health and safety inspections that found nothing wrong and then a non-compliance issue has been a two-year nightmare that has been phenomenally exhausting. The athlete also called for an investigation into the original complaint. The original complaint was launched from inside this (NORD) office from one of their employees and they never thought themselves to look into it, Martens said. The next step will be a hearing before the Agriculture Land Commission where Martens is hoping to win approval to use the land for non-farm use. The board of directors has given its full backing. Mayor Akbal Mund said all letters and emails from her supporters should also be presented to the commission. No one wants the facility to close and that was evident, said Mund. It was good we had the community out en masse to support this and I think the more letters we can get in support of rhythmic gymnastics from our community when we forward the application to the ALC the better. Photo: Facebook - Keep the Cold Off Penticton Foundation Mike Forster with Keep the Cold Off Penticton says ideas have come pouring in for initiatives to help the homeless, but one idea in particular caught his eye. Kristine Lee pitched jackets that convert into sleeping bags, made by Detroit-based non-profit The Empowerment Plan, and when Keep the Cold Off put the idea to its Facebook followers, it exploded. "So, I said let's post it on the page and get some feedback on it, which we did," Forster said. "People started donating; they thought it was a great idea." The Empowerment Plan employs formerly homeless people to make the jackets, which Forster said jives with Keep the Cold Off's own mandate. The jackets are fairly expensive, though, at about $100 USD apiece, and after shipping, he said they cost around $160-70 CAD per jacket. After posting about it on Facebook, the group garnered enough money to buy 10 jackets, which the group handed out earlier this week. That initiative is part of a new mandate the group has been adhering to in order to qualify for charitable status with the Canada Revenue Agency, which took issue with the group's lack of charitable focus last year. "They said that our direction was all over the place last year, right, we were at the shelters, we were doing this, we were doing that," he said. "We had a meeting and we pulled back from all of the housing part of it." While the group fought last year to help the homeless get more access to extreme weather shelters, among other initiatives, the group is now focusing more on helping the homeless on the street, including handing out items that the homeless need. "We're really stocked up with items to hand out," Forster said. "We hand out no less than, I'd say, 10 jackets a week, socks upon thermal socks, like crazy, I go through hot packs we can't keep enough hot packs." Those who wish to donate to the group can contact Keep the Cold Off through its Facebook page. Photo: The Canadian Press For about 20 harrowing minutes, Jennifer Pinckney huddled under a desk with her 6-year-old daughter, her hand clasped over the girl's mouth to keep her quiet as Dylann Roof opened fire. Not knowing for certain if the danger had passed, Pinckney dialed 911 and breathlessly told an operator she had heard shots inside Charleston's Emanuel AME Church. "I think there's been a shooting. I'm in the closet, under a desk," Pinckney told the operator. "Please hurry." The conversation was played in court Wednesday for jurors considering whether Roof should be sentenced to death or life in prison. Roof, who is representing himself, hasn't put up any fight for his life, saying he doesn't plan on calling witnesses, and he has not cross-examined anyone. In the tape, Pinckney is heard trying to comfort her daughter Malana, a precocious child who had been watching cartoons in her father's office as he participated in Bible study in the room next door on the night of June 17, 2015. "Daddy's dead?" Malana is heard asking her mother on the 911 call. "No, baby, no," she said. But at that moment, Pinckney said she knew her husband, church pastor Clementa Pinckney, was killed because otherwise he would have come to check on her and their daughter. Jennifer Pinckney was the first witness called by prosecutors in the sentencing phase of Roof's trial. The same jury that last month found the 22-year-old white man guilty of 33 federal charges, including hate crimes and obstruction of religion, is hearing testimony this week in his sentencing trial. Roof spoke directly to the jurors for the first time Wednesday, insisting that he is not mentally ill. In brief remarks, the soft-spoken defendant told the jury he was not trying to keep any secrets from them. He did not offer remorse or seek forgiveness or ask them to spare him from a lethal injection. "My opening statement is going to seem a little bit out of place," Roof said calmly as he stood at a podium, occasionally glancing at notes. "I am not going to lie to you. ... Other than the fact that I trust people that I shouldn't and the fact that I'm probably better at constantly embarrassing myself than anyone who's ever existed, there's nothing wrong with me psychologically." Prosecutors said Roof deserves the death penalty because he painstakingly chose to target vulnerable people at Emanuel AME Church in the June 2015 attack. He sat with church members for about 45 minutes and waited until their eyes were closed in prayer before opening fire. He told Polly Sheppard that he wanted to leave her alive to tell the world he attacked a historic black church because blacks were "raping our women and taking over the nation." Photo: The Canadian Press A Japanese sushi chain boss bid a winning 74.2 million yen ($632,000) Thursday for a 212 kilogram (466 pound) bluefin tuna at the Tsukiji market auction in Tokyo. The winning bid Thursday for the prized but imperiled species was the second highest ever after a record 155.4 million yen bid in 2013 at the annual New Year auction. This year's price was $2,981 per kilogram, compared with about $7,930 per kilogram for the 2013 record-setting auction price. Kiyomura Corp. owner Kiyoshi Kimura posed, beaming, after the predawn New Year auction with the gleaming, man-sized fish, which was caught off the coast of northern Japan's Aomori prefecture. His company, which runs the Sushi Zanmai chain, often wins the annual auction. A report by the International Scientific Committee for Tuna and Tuna-like Species in the North Pacific Ocean last year put the population of bluefin tuna at 2.6 per cent of its "unfished" size, down from an earlier assessment of 4.2 per cent. The Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission tightened international limits in 2015 as the species remained under threat, halving the catch of bluefin tuna under 30 kilograms from the average caught between 2002 and 2004. Photo: DriveBC Motorists are being warned Highway 97 between Vernon and Lake Country is treacherous. A layer of snow has created hazardous driving conditions resulting in at least two accidents. Jon Manchester described the highway as extreme black ice. A compact car is on its roof in the ditch of the southbound lane between Dump Hill and the Predator Ridge turnoff. And north of Crystal Waters Road, a two-car accident has blocked the northbound lanes. Driver are being urged to use extreme caution on the busy stretch of road. Photo: Dustin Godfrey UPDATE: 2:35 p.m. Summerland fire chief Glenn Noble said Thursday afternoon that the fire that started in a chimney turned into a structure fire. He said when crews arrived on scene about 6:27 a.m. the home's occupant indicated she could hear fire in the wall and attic area. Crews then opened up the wall and ceiling around the chimney area and were able to quickly extinguish the fire. The occupant is now receiving assistance from emergency support services. Summerland firefighters and RCMP responded to a chimney fire at a home on Giant's Head Road, Thursday morning. Cpl. Chris Richardson said there was smoke damage from the fire on the 9800 block of Giant's Head. The occupant of the home received "a bit of a scare, but is safe," he said. This fire follows on the heels of other recent chimney fires in the South Okanagan. UPDATE 10:45 a.m. It's back to business as usual at the Shell gas station on the corner or Richter Street and Harvey Avenue in Kelowna. The station was cordoned off by police for more than an hour Thursday morning after a suspicious item was discovered outside the building. Several officers and a police dog were at the scene. RCMP have determined the item is not a threat. It has been removed. ORIGINAL: 10 a.m. Police are investigating a suspicious package at a Shell Canada gas station in Kelowna. Officers arrived on scene at Harvey Avenue and Richter Street about 9 a.m. Thursday. Unconfirmed reports say it may have been a bomb threat. Investigators have requested that a police dog specifically trained in detecting explosive materials be brought in. A resident who works in the building next to the gas station said there was a suspicious package by the front door. Photo: The Canadian Press Turkish police are closing in on the gunman who killed 39 people at an Istanbul nightclub, a senior government official said Thursday, insisting the suspect's possible whereabouts and contacts have been established. Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak told A Haber news channel in an interview that the gunman who attacked Istanbul's upscale Reina nightclub was probably from China's Muslim Uighur minority and a "specially trained member of a (terror) cell." "The security forces have determined his identify, his possible whereabouts have been determined... His contacts have also been determined," Kaynak told A Haber. "We can say that the circle is closing in on him." Kaynak said authorities think the man, whose name hasn't been revealed, is still inside Turkey, although they haven't completely ruled out the possibility that he may have escaped after the New Year's attack. "Because we have taken utmost measures at our airports even though we don't rule it out completely we believe that we will get results from operations inside Turkey," he said. His comments came hours after police conducted more raids in their hunt for the gunman and detailed several people at a housing complex on Istanbul's outskirts, the state-run news agency reported. Anadolu Agency said gendarmerie police and special operations teams detained an undisclosed number of Uighurs during the raids. The Anadolu report said they were suspected of "aiding and abetting" the gunman. At least 39 other people including 11 women already were in custody over suspected links to the attack. Photo: Contributed People are being invited to get cold for a cause. The annual Coldest Night of the Year walk takes place on the evening of Saturday, Feb. 25 and will raise some cold, hard cash for the Upper Room Mission. By walking together in the chill of the night, participants will better understand the experience of being on the streets during a cold Canadian winter. Participants choose to walk either the five or 10 kilometre route, and raise funds to aid the work of the Upper Room Mission, said Lisa Anderson, mission event director. The mission will be hosting a launch party Thursday Jan. 12 from 5:30-6:30pm at the mission, 3403-27th Ave., where people can learn more about the event, how to sign up a team, check out the new routes and more. This is the Upper Room Mission's fifth year taking part in the Coldest Night of the Year, and officials are hoping to raise $50,000 for their work with the less fortunate families and individuals in Vernon. Funds raised at this event will go towards the 2017 food budget, said Anderson. In 2016, the missions Food Security Program served close to 90,000 hot meals to those in need. The missions Healthy Snack Program also falls under food security, and feeds over 250 local school aged children and youth in Vernon. Some 30 teams, including staff and friends of the URM are expected to brave the cold winter's night. Last February, the walk saw 265 participants, so new routes and a larger venue were needed for this year, said Anderson, adding the walk begins and ends at the Vernon Elks Lodge No. 45, 3103-30th St., where walkers will register, turn in the results of their fundraising efforts and return at the end of the evening for a warm celebration meal. The theme for this year is Polaroids so there will be a photo booth, as well as a contest to enter your own walk day photos for a chance to win some amazing prizes, said Anderson. More information on the walk can be found online. Photo: The Canadian Press Four black people beat and taunted a mentally disabled white man in a video broadcast live on Facebook, threatening him with a knife, cutting off his clothing and forcing him to drink from a toilet. The assault went on for up to two days, until Chicago police found the victim "in distress" walking along a street, authorities said. Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said charges were expected to be filed later Thursday against the suspects, who are in custody. They can be heard on the video using profanities against white people and President-elect Donald Trump. Authorities were reviewing whether the attack could be considered a hate crime, but initially they did not believe that the man was singled out because he was white. Guglielmi acknowledged that the suspects made "terrible racist statements" during the assault, but he said the investigation showed that the victim was targeted because he has "special needs," not because of his race. It's also possible that the suspects were trying to extort something from the victim's family, he said. The victim was a classmate of one of the attackers and initially went with that person voluntarily, police said. "He's traumatized by the incident, and it's very tough to communicate with him at this point," police Cmdr. Kevin Duffin said. Excerpts of the video posted by Chicago media outlets show the victim with his mouth taped shut slumped in a corner as at least two assailants cut off his sweatshirt and others taunt him off camera. The video shows a wound on the top of the man's head, and one person pushes the man's head with his or her foot. A red band also appears to be around the victim's hands. Off-camera, people can be heard using profanities about "white people" and Trump. At least one woman is shown in the video. During much of the video, the victim does not appear to make any attempt to defend himself or to escape his attackers. He is a suburban Chicago resident described by Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson as having "mental health challenges." Johnson described the video as "sickening." "It makes you wonder what would make individuals treat somebody like that," he said Wednesday at a news conference. Photo: The Canadian Press Easter has come early to the German North Sea island of Langeoog. A flood of plastic eggs containing tiny toys has been swept ashore after a fierce storm, to the delight of the island's youngest residents. The eggs containing instructions in the Cyrillic alphabet appear to have come from a container lost by a cargo ship en route for the German port of Bremerhaven. Public broadcaster NDR reported Thursday that island authorities have called in the "eggs-perts:" a local kindergarten will help collect the unexpected bounty before it becomes a hazard for wildlife. Photo: Contributed Summerland RCMP is continuing to investigate an incident involving a vehicle which crashed in the area, Thursday morning. Cpl. Chris Richardson, said officers responded at about 4:30 a.m. to a report of people with flashlights walking around properties on Garnet Valley Road. Once on scene, police observed a lone vehicle and attempted to pull it over, at that point it fled. Officers did not pursue, but during a search they determined the vehicle had hit a fence causing some damage. It was found to be unoccupied. Richardson said there is no indication of persons trying to enter any residences, but the incident remains under investigation. He recommended people should secure anything left outside their homes to avoid crimes of opportunity, and if they are away to have someone check on their residences. Photo: Contributed UPDATE: 2:30 p.m. Marley's owner says the dog was found Thursday afternoon by an Argo employee in the vicinity of the crash site. He said they are now on the way to the vet to have the dog looked at, but she appears to be in good shape. "I'm so happy we found her," he said. "We couldn't have done it without the help of this community." More info, plus video to come. A Coquitlam man is continuing to look for his dog, after the animal ran from the scene following a car crash on Highway 97, between Okanagan Falls and Kaleden, on Wednesday. Chad Smith said he has been looking for Marley, a one-year-old female pitbull, along with the help of people who contacted him. "My mom and girlfriend went back to the Penticton hospital this morning, and I resumed searching for her," he said. "She is a super friendly dog, and I am asking people to keep an eye out for her." Smith said he is being aided in the effort by people in the community. "A stranger contacted me and has been helping in the search today," he said. "We have been driving and looking in barns and sheds." He added the search is currently focused on the White Lake Road area. Anyone with information on the dog is asked to call the RCMP or SPCA. Photo: City of Vernon It may sound like science fiction but the dark sky movement is a campaign to reduce light pollution. However cost may prohibit such a policy for outside lighting at Vernon's proposed arena beside Kal Tire Place. It's something that people appreciate, said chair Juliette Cunningham during a meeting of the Greater Vernon Advisory Committee Thursday. It makes a huge difference. We are re-using existing lights (from the parking lot), said Doug Ross, head of recreation services for the City of Vernon. Shielding just a few would not have that great of an impact. Ross suggested the policy be incorporated for facilities being built in the future. Later, Ross said that upgrading the lights was not part of the scope of the project which has a fixed, $13 million price tag. We're trying to be as efficient as possible to save the taxpayers money. Cunningham later said there had been some complaints from Vernon residents about lighting that is too bright, including around Kal Tire Place. "If you're up in the higher elevations and looking down on it, it is an issue." She said the city and the regional district should consider a dark sky policy in urban design. The arena project is expected to go to tender Jan. 9 with a closing date of Feb. 15. Photo: RCMP RCMP in the North Okanagan are asking the public's assistance in locating an Okanagan man who is wanted on multiple warrants for offences including assault with a weapon, assault, break and enter, mischief, theft and failure to comply with a probation order. Steven Ross Sandman, 38, is described as a 6-foot-one-inch Caucasian male weighing 200 lbs, with blue eyes and brown hair. "Vernon/North Okanagan RCMP are asking anyone with information regarding the whereabouts of Steven Sandman to call their local police detachment or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477," said Const. Jocelyn Noseworthy, RCMP spokesperson. No other information was released. Photo: Getty Images A Vernon man is facing numerous charges following a pair of break and enters. William Mathieson, 37, was caught breaking into a residence in the 3400 block of 35th Ave in Vernon on Jan. 3. Mathieson is also a suspect in a break in at an Alexis Park area home where four children were sleeping at the time. Const. Jocelyn Noseworthy said at approximately 2 p.m., Jan. 3, RCMP received a call from a man who stated someone had just broken into his house. When he confronted the intruder, the man assaulted him and fled, said Noseworthy. Several neighbours witnessed the man fleeing the scene and apprehended him a few blocks away, (and held him) until police arrived and arrested him. The man whose house was broken into suffered minor injuries as a result of the assault. Noseworthy said an investigation by RCMP tied the suspect to another residential break and enter which occurred on Jan. 2, at a residence in the 4200 block of 34th St in Vernon. In that incident, a woman called police to advise that she had left her four children asleep in her residence while she dropped her spouse off at work, said Noseworthy. When she returned to her residence at approximately 9 a.m. she noticed several items, mostly electronic devices, were missing. Witnesses saw a man fleeing the residence on foot. Mathieson is facing charges of break and enter, assault and possession of break-in instruments for the incident on Jan. 3. He is also facing a charge of break and enter for the incident on Jan. 2. Furthermore, he was found to have outstanding warrants for break and enter and theft. Mathieson has been remanded in custody. His next court appearance is scheduled for Jan. 11. Photo: The Canadian Press Two Wyoming boys, a little bored over their holiday break, saddled up for a trip to McDonald's and a goat followed along: "E-I-E-I ... whoa!" The 15-year-old Joel Perez and 13-year-old Trajen Collins, rode their horses into the small city of Powell last week. They told the Powell Tribune for a story Wednesday that they didn't plan to take the goat, but apparently it was up for an adventure, too. Perez ordered some sandwiches, but nothing for the horses. They said they dismissed the idea of getting a salad for the goat. No word on whether they considered a "kid's meal." The teens stopped by other stores to get a bowl and water for the animals. Perez and Collins said they didn't get in trouble with their parents. (TNS)BACKGROUNDWith a 2011 executive order, Gov. Terry Branstad created the STEM Advisory Council, a group of about 50 educators, businesspeople and elected officials from across the state who would focus on expanding opportunities for science, technology, engineering and math education in Iowa.At its helm since then has been Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds.Under her leadership, the council has focused on expanding opportunities in science, technology, engineering and math for all students, especially those in rural areas as well as women and students of color."We recognize that there's great STEM initiatives in Iowa, but we also recognize that they're not reaching everyone," Reynolds said at a 2012 event that highlighted STEM education. She and Branstad tied the expansion of STEM to a faster economic recovery after the nation's downturn in 2007."This is where the really good jobs of the future are going to be," Branstad said at the event.WHAT'S HAPPENED SINCEPresident-elect Donald Trump's nomination of Branstad as the next U.S. ambassador to China set in motion a series of political moves that will likely, at some point in 2017, make Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds the governor of Iowa.The promotion, though, won't take her away entirely from her work promoting STEM education in the state."She's indicated she fully intends to maintain her co-chair position," said Jeff Weld, the executive director of the STEM Advisory Council. "I just suspect I'm not going to see as much of her."Weld said he thinks Reynolds' promotion will put more weight behind her push for STEM education."She is an indefatigable advocate," Weld said. "We so treasure her leadership on this thing, so moving to the post of governor Gov. Terry Branstad is a STEM advocate as well, after all it was his executive order that created this council but no question, ... I see this being elevated by her own transition."The governor's special assistant for education, Linda Fandel, said too that Reynolds' governorship could bolster the state's emphasis on STEM education."Both the governor and the lieutenant governor are still very much working as a team," Fandel said. "They're both very dedicated to making sure students have a strong STEM education."Among the council's initiatives are 18 sponsorships of school-business partnerships across the state and work to expand computer science education in Iowa, Weld said. It also has offered professional development in STEM for teachers.Many of the efforts are meant to address Iowa's "brain drain," an enduring problem of students leaving for out-of-state jobs."When the kids are connected with local employers, they are (saying) that Iowa might be a cool place to live and work," Weld said, noting that an informal survey found students in STEM programs are more likely to say they will stay in Iowa after completing their studies. 040117 MONEY OR YOUR FUTURE By Tom Kathoa As the date for the issue of the 2017 national election draws nearer, political parties and intending candidates are working around the clock to lure voters support. Political parties, both old and new with intending candidates are using this period as awareness to explain their party policies to supporters and voters alike. One elder from the Keriaka area of the West Coast of Bougainville, Mr. Peter Peka told a gathering organized by officials of the newly created SOM Party that the coming election is very important for Bougainville. The meeting was organized for the people of Hagogohe Constituency heard that it is important for people Not to vote for money, but rather to vote for their future. Another speaker told the meeting that voting for money will only make one poorer. Most speakers stressed the importance of electing candidates to the national government who can work closely with the ABG Government. At this critical period Bougainville needs leaders at all levels of governments who can work together to shoulder the referendum issue in order to arrive at an acceptable outcome. Ends Sign up for our newsletter 040117HAGO PAWA By Tom Kathoa The people of Hagogohe Constituency will soon benefit from the long awaited Electricity Project when power supply is finally connected and completed this year. Half of the constituency will have power supply connected within the next couple of weeks while the remaining population will have to wait for the erecting of power poles in their area. PNG Power employees have been working around the clock to try and connect power to as far as Poposoko Village before Christmas and New Year, but this was not possible. But, it is now evident that power to this area will be switched on in a mat ter of days. Ends Catholic Family News A Monthly Journal Preserving our Catholic Faith and Heritage Home Latest Archives Subscribe CFN Media - videos Contact Us CFN Bookstore Oltyn Library Services 2017 CFN Daily Blog Originally started as a daily Blog update of news reports on the Papal Conclave and ongoing news on Pope Francis, it is now a general Blog updated daily on traditional Catholic topics Updated Regularly Book mark this page click here Luxury hotels in the historic center for a Catholic family. Only luxury hotels can provide a paradisiacal vacation for a big Catholic family. A high-level vacation for families, children and not only. The gorgeous views, divine service, and the best location are all luxury hotels. Catholics, Orthodox, Protestants, and more. Everyone will find their place in this corner of paradise. Popular destinations Breckenridge, CO, United States In Breckenridge, Colorado, there are plenty of places to visit, whether you're a nature lover or thrill seeker. For nature lovers, the Blue River runs right through town and there are plenty of trails to explore. If you're looking for a thrill, Breckenridge is home to some of the best skiing and snowboarding in the country. There's also plenty of shopping and dining options in town, so you'll never run out of things to do. Breckenridge Luxury Hotels Savannah, GA, United States Savannah, Georgia is a beautiful city with lots of places to visit, including Forsyth Park, River Street, and the Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace. Another place to visit is the Savannah History Museum, which is jam-packed with interesting exhibits on the history of the city. Savannah Luxury Hotels Naples, FL, United States Naples is known for its stunning white sand beaches and crystal-clear waters. Its also home to a wide variety of attractions, including world-class golf courses, vibrant nightlife, and interesting cultural experiences. Here are five places to visit in Naples, Florida: Naples Pier: Stroll along the pier and enjoy panoramic views of the Gulf of Mexico. Fifth Avenue South: This popular shopping and dining district is home to eclectic boutiques, award-winning restaurants, and lively bars. The Ritz-Carlton, Naples: This luxurious resort is set on 26 acres of pristine waterfront property and offers superb amenities, including a world-class spa and championship golf course. The Naples Zoo at Caribbean Gardens: This zoological park is home to more than 700 animals representing 150 species, including flamingos, lemurs, and tigers. Tin City: This eclectic shopping and dining district is housed in a series of restored waterfront warehouses and features eclectic shops, galleries, and award-winning restaurants. Naples Luxury Hotels Naples Luxury Resorts Louisville, KY, United States Louisville is in the heart of Kentucky and is known for being the home of the Kentucky Derby. There are a lot of great places to visit in Louisville, including the Louisville Zoo, the Muhammad Ali Center, and the Frazier History Museum. There are also a lot of great restaurants and bars in Louisville, and it's a great place to visit for a weekend getaway. Louisville Luxury Hotels Galveston, TX, United States Galveston is a Texas coastal town that is rich in history and offers visitors a variety of places to visit and things to do. Some of the most popular attractions include the Moody Gardens, Schlitterbahn Waterpark, and Historic Downtown. There are also a number of museums and other historical landmarks, as well as plenty of shopping and dining options. Galveston Luxury Hotels Galveston Luxury Resorts Omaha, NE, United States The birthplace of Warren Buffett, Omaha, Nebraska, is a great place to visit. There are plenty of things to see and do in Omaha, from touring the Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium to visiting the Durham Western Heritage Museum. Other popular tourist destinations in Omaha include the Joslyn Art Museum, the Ak-Sar-Ben Aquarium, and TD Ameritrade Park. Omaha Luxury Hotels Columbus, GA, United States Columbus is a charming small town in Georgia that is worth a visit. There are several places to visit in Columbus, including the Riverwalk, the Chattahoochee River, the National Infantry Museum, and the Coca-Cola Space Science Center. The Riverwalk is a beautiful walkway along the Chattahoochee River that is perfect for a relaxing stroll or a bike ride. The Chattahoochee River is a great place to go fishing, swimming, or kayaking. The National Infantry Museum is a museum dedicated to the infantry of the United States Army. It is a must-see for history buffs. The Coca-Cola Space Science Center is a museum dedicated to space science. It is perfect for kids and adults alike. Columbus Luxury Hotels Anchorage, AK, United States Anchorage is a great place to visit if you're looking for an adrenaline rush. From skiing and snowboarding in the winter to rafting and fishing in the summer, Anchorage has something to offer everyone. In addition to its outdoor activities, Anchorage also has a variety of cultural and historical attractions, including the Anchorage Museum and the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail. Anchorage Luxury Hotels Portland, OR, United States Portland is a city that is located in the US state of Oregon and it is known for its art scene, food, and coffee. There are a lot of interesting places to visit in Portland, such as the Portland Art Museum, where you can see a variety of art from all over the world. Another place to visit is the Powell's City of Books, the largest independent bookstore in the world. If you're looking for a place to eat, Portland has no shortage of amazing restaurants, such as Pok Pok, which serves Thai cuisine, and Le Pigeon, which serves French cuisine. And, of course, no trip to Portland would be complete without trying some of the city's famous coffee, such as Stumptown Coffee Roasters. Portland Luxury Hotels Florence, Italy No trip to Italy is complete without a visit to Florence. This historic city is home to some of the country's most famous attractions, including the Duomo, Ponte Vecchio, and Michelangelo's David. There's also plenty to see and do outside of the city center, including the picturesque Tuscan countryside and the vibrant university town of Arezzo. Florence Luxury Hotels Florence Luxury Villas Asheville, NC, United States Asheville is a city in western North Carolina. It is the largest city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the county seat of Buncombe County. Asheville is home to the Biltmore Estate, the largest private home in the United States. The city of Asheville proper had a population of 84,236 in 2010. The city is known for its art deco architecture, mountain scenery and outdoor activities, and as the birthplace of American novelist Thomas Wolfe. It is also home to the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, the second largest craft brewery in the United States. Asheville Luxury Hotels Asheville Luxury Cottages Long Beach, CA, United States There's plenty to do in Long Beach, California without ever having to leave the city limits. If you're looking for a little adventure, head to the Aquarium of the Pacific for a glimpse of the ocean's creatures or take a walk on the boardwalk at Rainbow Harbor. If you're more of a history buff, the Queen Mary is a must-see. This retired ocean liner is now a hotel and museum with plenty of stories to tell. And no trip to Long Beach is complete without a visit to the iconic Vincent Thomas Bridge. Long Beach Luxury Hotels Long Beach Luxury Villas Cincinnati, OH, United States Cincinnati is a city located on the Ohio River in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Ohio. The city was founded in 1788 and named after the Society of the Cincinnati, an organization of Revolutionary War officers. Cincinnati is a major U.S. city and the metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million people. The city is well-known for its German heritage, Oktoberfest celebration, and its variety of chili dishes. Cincinnati is home to three major sports teams: the NFL's Cincinnati Bengals, MLB's Cincinnati Reds, and the NBA's Cincinnati Cavaliers. The city is also home to the University of Cincinnati and Xavier University. The city's historic neighborhoods include Over-the-Rhine, Mount Auburn, and Hyde Park. Cincinnati is a popular tourist destination and offers a variety of attractions and places to visit, including the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, the Newport Aquarium, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, and the Museum of Contemporary Art. Cincinnati Luxury Hotels Laughlin, NV, United States Laughlin, Nevada is a great place to visit if you're looking for a fun and affordable vacation. There are plenty of casinos and resorts to choose from, as well as plenty of outdoor activities and attractions. Be sure to check out the local nightlife, and don't forget to take a trip down the mighty Colorado River. Laughlin Luxury Hotels Laughlin Luxury Resorts Anaheim, CA, United States Anaheim, California is home to both Disneyland and California Adventure Park. The parks are just a short walk away from each other, and make for a great day of exploration. Anaheim is also home to the Anaheim Angels and the Anaheim Ducks, so there's always a game to catch. If you're looking for something a little more low-key, Anaheim has a great shopping district and a variety of restaurants to choose from. Anaheim Luxury Hotels Santa Cruz, CA, United States Santa Cruz is a great place to visit! There are so many places to see and things to do. Some of my favorite places to visit are the Boardwalk, the wharf, and the University of California, Santa Cruz. The Boardwalk is a great place to go for a walk, ride on the amusement park rides, and eat some of the delicious food. The wharf is a great place to go for a walk, eat some seafood, and listen to the street performers. The University of California, Santa Cruz is a great place to visit to learn about the history of the area and to see some of the beautiful architecture. I highly recommend visiting Santa Cruz if you are looking for a fun and interesting place to visit!. Santa Cruz Luxury Hotels Eugene, OR, United States Eugene, Oregon is a great city to visit with a lot of places to see and things to do. One of the most popular attractions is the University of Oregon campus, which is home to a number of museums and a large football stadium. The city also has a vibrant arts scene, with a number of theaters and art galleries. Outdoor enthusiasts will enjoy the dozens of parks and hiking trails in the area, and there are also a number of wineries and breweries in the area. Eugene Luxury Hotels Branson, MO, United States There's plenty to see and do in Branson, Missouri, from state parks and amusement parks to theaters and shopping. Here are some of the most popular places to visit: Silver Dollar City is a theme park with rides, shows, and craftsmen demonstrations. is a theme park with rides, shows, and craftsmen demonstrations. The Shepherd of the Hills Outdoor Theatre puts on a variety of shows, including "The Legend of the Shepherd of the Hills" and "The Catfish Fry." puts on a variety of shows, including "The Legend of the Shepherd of the Hills" and "The Catfish Fry." Table Rock State Park has fishing, swimming, and hiking trails, as well as a nature center. has fishing, swimming, and hiking trails, as well as a nature center. The Titanic Museum features a half-sized replica of the ship, along with exhibits about the history of the Titanic. features a half-sized replica of the ship, along with exhibits about the history of the Titanic. Branson Landing is a shopping and entertainment complex on the waterfront. There's something for everyone in Branson, Missouri come visit and see for yourself!. Branson Luxury Hotels Panama City Beach, FL, United States The white sand beaches and emerald waters of Panama City Beach, Florida, are a popular tourist destination. The city is home to numerous hotels, resorts, and restaurants, as well as amusement and water parks. Visitors can also enjoy fishing, kayaking, and surfing. Panama City Beach Luxury Hotels Panama City Beach Luxury Resorts Monterey, CA, United States Monterey is a coastal city in Monterey County, California, United States. It stands at the southern end of Monterey Bay, on the Pacific coast. The city is also the home of the Naval Postgraduate School. Monterey is the largest city in the Central Coast region of California. The main attractions in Monterey are the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Fisherman's Wharf, Cannery Row, and the downtown area. Monterey Luxury Hotels Norfolk, VA, United States Norfolk, Virginia is a great place to visit for its historical places and military bases. Some places to visit in Norfolk are the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk Botanical Garden, and the Norfolk Naval Station. Norfolk Luxury Hotels Palm Springs, CA, United States Palm Springs is a vibrant city located in the Coachella Valley and is known for its year-round sunshine, resort atmosphere and Mid-Century Modern architecture. Top places to visit include the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, Palm Springs Art Museum, Indian Canyons and Moorten Botanical Garden. For a truly unique experience, be sure to check out the Palm Springs Modernism Show & Sale the worlds largest vintage furniture and design event. Palm Springs Luxury Hotels Palm Springs Luxury Resorts Palm Springs Luxury Villas Rochester, NY, United States Rochester is a city in western New York State and is the county seat of Monroe County. Rochester is known for its annual festivals, including the Rochester International Jazz Festival, the Rochester Fringe Festival, and the Holiday Folk Fair International. Places to visit in Rochester include the George Eastman Museum, the Strong National Museum of Play, the Rochester Museum and Science Center, and the Seneca Park Zoo. Rochester Luxury Hotels Pigeon Forge, TN, United States Visit the Titanic Museum in Pigeon Forge for a unique experience. This museum is dedicated to the Titanic, one of the most infamous ships in history. Tour the ship and learn about the passengers and crew who were on board. You can even see the actual artifacts recovered from the shipwreck. If you're looking for a little more excitement, head to Dollywood. This amusement park is home to roller coasters, a water park, and plenty of other rides and attractions. Plus, the park is themed around the life and music of Dolly Parton. No trip to Pigeon Forge is complete without a visit to the Great Smoky Mountains. These mountains offer a variety of activities, including hiking, fishing, and horseback riding. Plus, the natural beauty of the area is simply breathtaking. Pigeon Forge Luxury Hotels Jacksonville, FL, United States Jacksonville is less than an hour's drive from the beaches of Amelia Island and St. Augustine, and a little more than two hours from Orlando. The city has a lot to offer visitors, including a riverwalk, museums, and a vibrant arts scene. Jacksonville is also home to the Jacksonville Jaguars NFL team. Jacksonville Luxury Hotels Minsk, Belarus Minsk, the capital of Belarus, is a city that has something for everyone. If you're looking for a little history, Minsk has plenty of it, with churches and monuments dating back to the 12th century. If you're looking for a lively nightlife, Minsk has that, too, with plenty of bars, clubs, and restaurants. And if you're looking for a little nature, Minsk has parks and gardens to enjoy. Here are just a few of the places you can visit in Minsk: The Holy Spirit Cathedral, one of the oldest churches in Minsk, is a must-visit for history buffs. The National Library of Belarus is a huge library with more than 18 million items in its collection. The Opera and Ballet Theatre is a beautiful building that hosts performances of both opera and ballet. The Victory Park is a large park with a war memorial, a children's playground, and a lake. And for a little bit of nature in the heart of the city, the Botanical Garden is a great place to relax and take a break from the hustle and bustle of Minsk. Minsk Luxury Hotels Jaipur, India Jaipur is one of the most popular tourist destinations in India. It is the capital of the state of Rajasthan and is known for its palaces, forts and temples. Some of the places to visit in Jaipur include the Amber Fort, the City Palace, the Jantar Mantar Observatory and the Hawa Mahal. Jaipur is also a great place to shop for traditional Indian handicrafts. Jaipur Luxury Hotels Chicago, IL, United States Chicago is a city full of culture and history. There are plenty of places to visit, such as the Willis Tower, Buckingham Fountain, and the Lincoln Park Zoo. Chicago is also home to many restaurants and bars, so there is something for everyone. Chicago Luxury Hotels Auckland, New Zealand Auckland is a beautiful city located on the north island of New Zealand. There are many places to visit in Auckland, including the Sky Tower, the Auckland War Memorial Museum, and the Auckland Domain. The beaches in Auckland are also worth visiting, especially Karekare and Piha. Auckland is a great place to visit, and I highly recommend it!. Auckland Luxury Hotels Auckland Luxury Villas Amsterdam, Netherlands If you're looking for a city that's got it all, Amsterdam should be your go-to destination. From the city's lively and vibrant nightlife to its charming and quiet neighborhoods, Amsterdam has something for everyone. Be sure to check out the Anne Frank Huis, the Rijksmuseum, and the Van Gogh Museum, as these are some of the most popular attractions in the city. And if you're looking for a little bit of nature, be sure to take a walk or bike ride through Amsterdam's many parks. Amsterdam Luxury Hotels Berlin, Germany There are so many great places to visit in Berlin that it can be hard to know where to start. From the iconic Brandenburg Gate to the fascinating Reichstag Building, there's something for everyone in this vibrant city. If you're looking for a bit of history, make sure to check out the Berlin Wall Memorial or the DDR Museum. And for those looking for a bit more fun, there's always the Alexanderplatz Christmas Market or the Zoologischer Garten. No matter what your interests, Berlin is a city you won't want to miss. Berlin Luxury Hotels Bangkok, Thailand Bangkok is a city of contrasts with its gleaming temples and skyscrapers, chaotic markets and tranquil canals. While it's a popular tourist destination, Bangkok is a city that can be enjoyed by visitors of all ages. Some of the top places to visit in Bangkok include the Grand Palace, Wat Arun, the floating markets and the Chatuchak Weekend Market. Bangkok Luxury Hotels Bangkok Luxury Resorts Bangkok Luxury Villas Bruges, Belgium Bruges is a city in Belgium that is worth visiting. It is full of medieval charm and there are a lot of things to see and do. Some of the places to visit include the Markt, the Belfry, and the Begijnhof. Bruges Luxury Hotels Brussels, Belgium Brussels is a city in Belgium that is best known for its chocolate, waffles, and beer. But there is much more to see and do in Brussels than just indulge in the local cuisine. There are a number of interesting historical landmarks to visit, such as the Grand Place and the Atomium, as well as a variety of parks and gardens. And, of course, Brussels is also a great city to explore on foot. Brussels Luxury Hotels Budapest, Hungary Budapest, Hungary's capital, is a city of thermal baths and medival, baroque and art nouveau architecture. Crowded with tourists, the city is bisected by the Danube River into the hilly Buda and the more developed and flat Pest. Among the main places of interest are the neo-Gothic Parliament, the Chain Bridge linking Buda and Pest, the Matthias Church and Fisherman's Bastion on the Buda bank, and the State Opera House and Heroes' Square on the Pest side. Budapest Luxury Hotels Playa del Carmen, Mexico Home to some of the best beaches in Mexico, Playa del Carmen is a favorite tourist destination for visitors from all over the world. With its lively nightlife, gorgeous coastline and ample shopping opportunities, there's something for everyone in this tropical paradise. Don't miss the opportunity to visit some of the area's most popular attractions, such as the ancient Mayan ruins of Tulum and Coba, or the eco-friendly Turtle Beach. With its friendly people, delicious food and stunning scenery, Playa del Carmen is a place you'll never want to leave. Playa del Carmen Luxury Hotels Playa del Carmen Luxury Resorts Playa del Carmen Luxury Villas Denver, CO, United States Denver is a great city for visitors. There are so many places to see and things to do. Some of the top places to visit include the 16th Street Mall, the Denver Botanic Gardens, the Denver Art Museum, and the Colorado State Capitol. There are also plenty of great restaurants and shops to explore. Denver is definitely a city worth visiting!. Denver Luxury Hotels Dublin, Ireland Dublin is a city located in Ireland. It's a city full of culture, with plenty of places to visit. Some popular tourist spots are the Guinness Storehouse, Trinity College, and the Dublin Castle. There are also plenty of pubs and restaurants to discover. Dublin Luxury Hotels Dusseldorf, Germany Dusseldorf, Germany is a city with many different places to visit. The city has a mix of old and new buildings, and a variety of activities to do. The best places to visit in Dusseldorf are the Konigsallee, the Rhine Tower, and the Oktoberfest. The Konigsallee is an open-air shopping mall that has many high-end stores. The Rhine Tower is the tallest building in the city and offers great views of Dusseldorf. The Oktoberfest is a week-long festival that celebrates German culture and food. Dusseldorf Luxury Hotels Edinburgh, United Kingdom Edinburgh, Scotland is a beautiful city to visit. The architecture is very old and unique, and there are plenty of historical places to visit, like Edinburgh Castle. There are also plenty of parks and gardens, and lots of shops and restaurants. Edinburgh Luxury Hotels Rome, Italy Rome is a city rich in history and filled with beautiful places to visit. Make sure to stop by the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, and the Pantheon. Also be sure to visit St. Peters Basilica and the Sistine Chapel while in Rome. If youre looking for a little more nature in your trip, head to the Villa Borghese gardens or the Janiculum Hill for some wonderful views of the city. And of course, no trip to Rome is complete without a gelato!. Rome Luxury Hotels Rome Luxury Villas New York, NY, United States There are many amazing places to visit in New York State. Some of my favorites are the Niagara Falls, the Adirondack Mountains, and the Finger Lakes. If you're looking for a city break, New York City is definitely worth a visit. There's endless things to see and do, from touring the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island to visiting world-famous museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History. No matter what your interests are, you'll be able to find something to enjoy in New York State. New York Luxury Hotels New York Luxury Villas London, United Kingdom London is a city rich in history and full of amazing places to visit. Some of my favorite places are Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, and the Tower of London. There is so much to see and do in London, you could spend weeks here and never run out of things to do. If you're looking for a city full of culture and history, London is the place for you. London Luxury Hotels London Luxury Cottages Madrid, Spain Madrid is one of the most beautiful and culturally rich cities in the world. From the Royal Palace to the Prado Museum, theres plenty to see and do in Madrid. If youre looking for a little bit of nature, Madrid has plenty of parks, like the Buen Retiro Park, to relax in. And dont forget to try some of the delicious tapas and wine while youre in town. Madrid Luxury Hotels Memphis, TN, United States The birthplace of rock 'n' roll, Memphis is a city rich in history and culture. From Graceland to Beale Street, there are plenty of places to visit in Memphis. Be sure to check out Sun Studio, where rock 'n' roll was born, and the National Civil Rights Museum, which tells the story of the African-American civil rights movement. Memphis is also home to some amazing food, so be sure to try some of the city's famous barbecue and soul food. Memphis Luxury Hotels Miami Beach, FL, United States There is much to explore in Miami Beach, from the famous Art Deco district to the vast beaches and crystal-clear waters. Outdoor enthusiasts will love the opportunities for fishing, kayaking, and paddleboarding, while history buffs can explore the ancient burial mounds at Miami Beach. Shoppers and foodies will find plenty to keep them busy, with vibrant neighborhoods like Lincoln Road and Ocean Drive offering unique boutiques and award-winning restaurants. And of course, no trip to Miami Beach is complete without a visit to world-famous South Beach. Miami Beach Luxury Hotels Miami Beach Luxury Resorts New Orleans, LA, United States You can't visit New Orleans without trying some of the local food. Beignets, Po' Boys, and gumbo are just a few of the must-try dishes. While you're in town, be sure to check out the French Quarter, Jackson Square, and St. Louis Cathedral. If you're looking for some nightlife, Bourbon Street is the place to be. And, of course, no trip to New Orleans is complete without a visit to Mardi Gras!. New Orleans Luxury Hotels Milan, Italy Milan is a city located in the Lombardy region of Italy. It is a popular tourist destination because of its historical and artistic heritage. Some of the places you should visit while in Milan are the Duomo, La Scala, and Castello Sforzesco. Milan Luxury Hotels Naples, Italy Naples is one of the most beautiful and historic cities in Italy. There are countless places to visit, such as the Royal Palace, the Museum of San Martino, and the Church of Gesu Nuovo. Naples is also home to excellent shopping and dining options. Be sure to enjoy a cup of coffee at one of the city's many cafes and take a stroll through the picturesque streets. Naples Luxury Hotels Paris, France Paris is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. It's home to iconic landmarks like the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre Museum, as well as a thriving nightlife and restaurant scene. If you're looking to explore all that Paris has to offer, here are some of the top places to visit: The Eiffel Tower: This iconic landmark is a must-see in Paris. Climb to the top for stunning views of the city, or take a ride on the elevator to the bottom for a closer look at the structure. The Louvre Museum: This world-famous museum is home to some of the most famous works of art in the world, including the Mona Lisa. The Notre Dame Cathedral: This beautiful cathedral is one of the most famous landmarks in Paris. Make sure to climb to the top for some amazing views of the city. The Champs-Elysees: This famous avenue is a popular destination for shopping and dining. Be sure to wander down the street and take in all the sights and sounds. The Arc de Triomphe: This towering arch is another iconic landmark in Paris. Climb to the top for some amazing views of the city. Paris Luxury Hotels Paris Luxury Villas Prague, Czech Republic Prague is a city rich in history and culture. There are plenty of places to visit, including the Prague Castle, the Charles Bridge, and the Old Town Square. There are also plenty of restaurants and bars to enjoy, and the nightlife is vibrant. Prague is a truly unique city and a must-visit for anyone traveling to the Czech Republic. Prague Luxury Hotels Punta Cana, Dominican Republic Located on the easternmost tip of the Dominican Republic, Punta Cana is known for its beautiful beaches and turquoise waters. This paradise is a favorite destination for travelers looking for a Caribbean getaway. Punta Cana is home to a wide variety of resorts and activities, from enjoying the sand and surf to golfing, spas, and shopping. Nature lovers can also explore the areas jungles, caves, and waterfalls. Punta Cana Luxury Hotels Punta Cana Luxury Resorts Punta Cana Luxury Villas Marbella, Spain If you're looking for an idyllic and luxurious Spanish escape, look no further than Marbella. Located on the country's Costa del Sol, Marbella is home to stunning beaches, top-notch resorts, world-class golfing, and much more. A visit to Marbella is the perfect way to experience all that Spain has to offer. Marbella Luxury Hotels Marbella Luxury Villas Marrakesh, Morocco Marrakesh is a city in Morocco that is full of culture and history. There are several places to visit in Marrakesh, including the Palace of the Bahia, the Ben Youssef Madrasa, and the Saadian Tombs. The souks (markets) are also a must-see, where you can find everything from souvenirs to spices to traditional clothing. Be sure to enjoy a meal in one of the many restaurants or cafes in Marrakesh; the food is delicious and the atmosphere is always lively. Marrakesh is a wonderful city to explore and definitely worth a visit!. Marrakesh Luxury Hotels San Francisco, CA, United States San Francisco is a popular tourist destination, and for good reason. There are plenty of things to see and do in this vibrant city. Here are some of the top places to visit: 1. Fisherman's Wharf: This neighborhood is home to a variety of shops and restaurants, as well as a popular pier where you can enjoy views of the bay. 2. The Golden Gate Bridge: This iconic bridge is a must-see for any visitor to San Francisco. 3. Alcatraz Island: This former federal prison is now a popular tourist attraction. It's a must-see for fans of history and crime dramas. 4. Chinatown: This colorful neighborhood is home to some of the best food in San Francisco. Be sure to check out the Dragon Gate entrance. 5. The Mission District: This trendy neighborhood is home to hip restaurants, bars, and art galleries. San Francisco Luxury Hotels Moscow, Russia Moscow, Russia is a beautiful city with plenty of places to visit. Some of the most popular tourist attractions are the Kremlin, Red Square, and Saint Basil's Cathedral. Other great places to see include the Bolshoi Theatre, Gorky Park, and the Tretyakov Gallery. There are also many churches and other historical buildings to explore. Moscow is a lively city with a lot of culture and nightlife. There is something for everyone to enjoy in Moscow. Moscow Luxury Hotels Venice, Italy Venice is one of the most beautiful places on earth. The city is built on a lagoon in northeast Italy and is known for its canals and gondolas. There are many places to visit in Venice, including the Grand Canal, St. Marks Square, and the Rialto Bridge. Venice is also home to many museums, including the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. Venice Luxury Hotels Vienna, Austria Vienna, Austria is a city with a long and rich history. There are many places to visit in Vienna, including the Hofburg Palace, the Ringstrasse, and St. Stephen's Cathedral. Vienna is also home to some of the world's best shopping, including the Karntner Strasse and the Graben. Finally, no visit to Vienna is complete without experiencing the city's world-famous nightlife. Vienna Luxury Hotels Zurich, Switzerland Zurich is a marvelous city located in the heart of Switzerland. It is a city that has something to offer for everyone. From amazing restaurants and beautiful architecture to exciting nightlife and gorgeous parks, Zurich has something for everyone. Some of the most popular places to visit in Zurich include the Bahnhofstrasse, which is the city's most famous shopping street, the Lindenhof, which is a beautiful park with amazing views of the city, and Grossmunster, which is a stunning Romanesque church. Zurich is also home to some of the best museums in the world, including the famed Museum of Art and the Swiss National Museum. With its mix of old-world charm and modern amenities, Zurich is a city that is definitely worth exploring. Zurich Luxury Hotels Acapulco, Mexico If you're looking for a Mexican vacation spot with plenty of history and culture to explore, Acapulco is a great option. From the archeological wonders of the ancient city to the stunning coastal views, there's something for everyone in Acapulco. Plus, with its temperate climate, it's a great escape from colder winter weather. Acapulco Luxury Hotels Acapulco Luxury Resorts Acapulco Luxury Villas Nashville, TN, United States One of the United States' most interesting places to visit is Nashville, Tennessee. There's plenty to see and do there, from the Grand Ole Opry to the Country Music Hall of Fame. Music is a big part of the city's history and culture, so be sure to catch a show while you're in town. Other popular attractions include the Ryman Auditorium, the Parthenon, and the Jack Daniel's Distillery. Nashville is also a great place to eat, with a wide variety of restaurants serving up everything from barbecue to Mexican food. So if you're looking for an exciting and diverse city to visit, be sure to add Nashville to your list. Nashville Luxury Hotels Nashville Luxury Villas Atlanta, GA, United States What's not to love about Atlanta? From the iconic Georgia Aquarium to the World of Coke, from the Fox Theatre to Centennial Olympic Park, Atlanta offers a wealth of destinations for tourists. Sports fans will want to check out the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium, and history buffs will enjoy the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum. Braves fans can take a tour of SunTrust Park, and shoppers will enjoy the many boutiques and malls in the city. There's also a great restaurant scene in Atlanta, and music lovers will want to check out the many venues offering live music. Whether you're looking for a fun family vacation spot or a place to explore on your own, Atlanta is a great choice!. Atlanta Luxury Hotels Miami, FL, United States The Magic City is a top tourist destination for a reasonthere are endless things to do in Miami! From exploring the trendy neighborhoods and dazzling beaches to soaking up the Latin culture and nightlife, Miami is jam-packed with amazing places to visit. Here are a few of our favorites: 1. Wynwood Walls: This outdoor art exhibit is a must-see for any art lover. The colorful murals are awe-inspiring and definitely Instagram-worthy. 2. Vizcaya Museum and Gardens: This estate is dripping with luxury and opulence, from the grandiose architecture to the expansive gardens. It's the perfect place for a day of relaxation. 3. South Beach: This world-famous beach is a must-visit for any sun-seeker. The crystal-clear water and soft sand make for the perfect day-long beach getaway. 4. Little Havana: Experience Cuban culture at its best in Little Havana. From delicious food to lively music and dance, there's something for everyone in this vibrant district. 5. Art Deco District: This district is home to Miami's most iconic architecture. Take a stroll down the charming streets and admire the colorful buildings that make Miami so unique. Miami Luxury Hotels Miami Luxury Villas Tokyo, Japan Tokyo is a must-see destination in Japan. There are endless places to explore in this city - temples, shrines, gardens, and more. The Shinjuku district is a great place to start, with its neon-lit streets and myriad shops and restaurants. For a taste of traditional Japan, visit the Sensoji Temple in Asakusa or the Imperial Palace. Nature lovers will enjoy the Hamarikyu Gardens or the Hama-rikyu Teien Garden. And for a unique experience, take a trip to Mount Fuji. Tokyo Luxury Hotels Tokyo Luxury Villas Buenos Aires, Argentina There are plenty of places to visit in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Some popular tourist destinations include the obelisk, the Casa Rosada, and the Puerto Madero district. Every barrio (neighborhood) has its own unique culture and flavor. San Telmo, La Boca, and Palermo are some of the most popular barrios. There are also many parks and plazas, such as Plaza de Mayo and Plaza de la Republica, that are worth checking out. Buenos Aires Luxury Hotels Hamburg, Germany One of the most popular tourist destinations in Germany is Hamburg. From the lively and colorful harbor district to the grandiose City Hall, there is plenty to see and do in Hamburg. Some of the other popular places to visit include the Reeperbahn district with its pubs and nightlife, the Planten un Blomen botanical gardens, and the architecturally stunning Rathausmarkt square. Hamburg Luxury Hotels Lisbon, Portugal The capital of Portugal, Lisbon is a city of fascinating contrasts. From its coastal location, visitors can enjoy stunning ocean views, while its hilly, narrow streets are home to a maze of charming traditional homes and lively nightlife. A city of 7 hills, Lisbon is a bustling metropolis with something for everyone. Here are some of the top places to visit: The Belem Tower, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is one of Lisbons most iconic landmarks. This 16th-century fortress and lighthouse is a must-see for visitors. The Alfama district, with its winding streets and tile-roofed homes, is the oldest district in Lisbon. This is the perfect place to get lost and explore the citys history. The Lisbon Zoo is a great place to enjoy a day out with the family, with over 2,000 animals from around the world. The Christ the King statue, located atop a hill in the suburb of Almada, offers impressive views of Lisbon and the river Tagus. The Lisbon Oceanarium, located in the Parque das Nacoes district, is home to more than 12,000 marine creatures and is one of the largest aquariums in Europe. Lisbon Luxury Hotels Lisbon Luxury Villas Malaga, Spain Malaga is an attractive seaside city in southern Spain with a long history. There are many places to visit in Malaga, including the Gibralfaro Castle, the Alcazaba fortress, and the Malaga Cathedral. Malaga is also home to a variety of museums, including the Picasso Museum. The city is well known for its beaches, and there are many delightful places to relax and enjoy the sun and the sea. Malaga Luxury Hotels Malaga Luxury Villas Munich, Germany When planning a vacation to Munich, Germany, be sure to include these top places to visit: The Marienplatz is a must-see square in the city center, featuring a beautiful Glockenspiel show and the Old and New Town Halls. The Englisher Garten, Europes largest city park, is a great place for a relaxing stroll or a picnic. OlympiaPark is home to the famous 1972 Olympic Stadium as well as a huge amusement park. The Frauenkirche is a stunning church in the old town with a Glockenspiel of its own. Beer lovers will want to visit the Hofbrauhaus, the worlds most famous beer hall. For a bit of history and culture, check out the LudwigMaximilians-University and the Deutsches Museum. There is so much to see and do in Munich these are just a few highlights!. Munich Luxury Hotels Granada, Spain Granada is a city in southern Spain that is known for its Moorish architecture and history. The city is home to the Alhambra, a palace and fortress that was constructed in the late 1300s. Visitors can also enjoy the citys many churches, including the Cathedral of Granada. Granada is also a convenient base for exploring the other cities and towns in Andalusia. Granada Luxury Hotels Bucharest, Romania Bucharest is a city full of history and culture. There are many places to visit, such as the Palace of Parliament, which is the world's largest civilian building. Other places to visit include the old city center, which is full of charming streets and buildings, and the Botanical Garden, which is the largest botanical garden in Romania. Bucharest Luxury Hotels Bologna, Italy Bologna, Italy is a beautiful city with plenty of places to visit. Some popular tourist destinations include the Piazza Maggiore, the Tower of Asinelli, and the Sanctuary of the Madonna di San Luca. There are also plenty of museums and churches to explore, and the city is full of charming restaurants and cafes. Bologna is an excellent destination for a vacation, and there is something for everyone to enjoy in this amazing city. Bologna Luxury Hotels Porto, Portugal Porto is a port city in Portugal that is well known for its wine. It's also a city with a long and rich history. There are many places to visit in Porto, including the old city center, the Dom Luis I Bridge, and the Clerigos Tower. Porto is also home to the famous Port wine caves, which are a must-visit for wine lovers. Porto Luxury Hotels Cologne, Germany Cologne, located on the Rhine River in western Germany, is a city well worth visiting. The city has a long and rich history, dating back to the time of the Roman Empire. Some of the city's most popular tourist attractions include the Cologne Cathedral, Hohenzollern Bridge, and the RheinEnergieStadion. Additionally, Cologne is home to a wide variety of museums, shops, and restaurants. In fact, the city has been ranked as one of the best places to live in Germany. So, if you're looking for a great European city to visit, be sure to add Cologne to your list. Cologne Luxury Hotels Istanbul, Turkey If you're looking for an exotic and affordable vacation destination, look no further than Istanbul, Turkey. Filled with historical places to visit and bargains to be found, Istanbul offers something for everyone. Be sure to visit the Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace, and the Blue Mosque while you're there. Don't forget to bargain for the best prices when shopping in the bazaars, and enjoy some delicious Turkish cuisine while you're at it. Istanbul is sure to leave you with a lasting impression. Istanbul Luxury Hotels Istanbul Luxury Villas Dubai, United Arab Emirates Dubai is a fascinating and exotic city that offers visitors a mix of traditional Middle Eastern culture and modern, cosmopolitan life. There are plenty of places to visit in Dubai, from the towering skyscrapers of Downtown Dubai to the luxury shopping malls and luxurious hotels of the Palm Jumeirah. Don't miss a chance to experience an Arabian night out on an epic dhow cruise, or take a trip out into the Arabian Desert to see the stunning sand dunes. Dubai Luxury Hotels Dubai Luxury Resorts Dubai Luxury Villas Antwerp, Belgium Antwerp is a city located in the Flemish region of Belgium. It is the capital of the province of Antwerp and has a population of over half a million people. Antwerp is a popular tourist destination due to its many historical buildings, museums, and art galleries. Some of the most popular places to visit in Antwerp are the Cathedral of Our Lady, the City Hall, the Rubenshuis, and the Antwerp Zoo. Antwerp Luxury Hotels Lyon, France Lyon is a beautiful city in the south of France that is full of culture and places to visit. Some of the most popular places to visit in Lyon are the Basilica of Notre Dame de Fourviere, the Place Bellecour, and the Vieux Lyon. The Basilica of Notre Dame de Fourviere is a beautiful cathedral that is a must-see when visiting Lyon. The Place Bellecour is a large square in the heart of Lyon that is full of restaurants and cafes. The Vieux Lyon is a district in Lyon that is full of old buildings and is a great place to wander around and take in the sights. Lyon Luxury Hotels Athens, Greece If you find yourself in Athens, there are definitely some spots you won't want to miss. The Acropolis, Parthenon, and Olympic Stadium are all essential stops, but there are plenty of others, too. If you're looking for a bit of history, the National Archaeological Museum is a must-see, while nature lovers will enjoy a visit to the botanical gardens. If you're looking to relax, take a walk along the beach in Glyfada or head to the Plaka district for a charming and picturesque setting. No matter what you're interested in, Athens has something for you. Athens Luxury Hotels Athens Luxury Villas Helsinki, Finland While in Helsinki, make sure to visit these popular tourist destinations: The Senate Square and Lutheran Cathedral The Sibelius Monument Ateneum Art Museum Market Square Helsinki Zoo. Helsinki Luxury Hotels Vilnius, Lithuania The capital of Lithuania, Vilnius, is a picturesque city with a rich history. The old town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is full of charming churches, narrow streets, and pretty squares. There are also lots of museums and other places of interest to visit, including the Hill of Crosses, Gediminas Tower, and the Presidential Palace. Vilnius is a great city to explore on foot, and there are plenty of cafes, restaurants, and bars to enjoy in the evening. Vilnius Luxury Hotels Reykjavik, Iceland A city of remote beauty, Reykjavik is teeming with interesting places to visit. One of the worlds most northern capitals, Reykjavik offers stunning landscapes and a wealth of cultural experiences. From the iconic Hallgrimskirkja church to the popular Golden Circle tour, theres plenty to see and do in Reykjavik. Be sure to check out the citys lively nightlife scene, too you wont be disappointed!. Reykjavik Luxury Hotels Glasgow, United Kingdom Some of the most popular places to visit in Glasgow include the Gallery of Modern Art, the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, the Riverside Museum, and the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre. There are also many wonderful parks and gardens to explore, including the Botanic Gardens and Glasgow Green. For those interested in history and architecture, there are many fascinating old buildings to see, such as the Glasgow Cathedral and the University of Glasgow. And for those looking for a lively nightlife, Glasgow has no shortage of pubs, clubs, and restaurants. Glasgow Luxury Hotels Los Angeles, CA, United States As the birthplace of Hollywood and home to some of the world's most recognisable landmarks, there's no shortage of places to visit in Los Angeles. Start by exploring the city's iconic neighbourhoods like Beverly Hills and Hollywood, then venture out to attractions like the Griffith Observatory, Venice Beach and Disneyland. And don't forget to savour the city's world-famous cultural scene, with its abundance of museums, theatres and restaurants. Los Angeles Luxury Hotels Los Angeles Luxury Villas San Diego, CA, United States San Diego is a city located in California and is a major tourist destination. One of the main reasons people visit the city is for its many beaches. Coronado Beach, Mission Beach, and Pacific Beach are some of the most popular and are all within close proximity to the city center. Other attractions in San Diego include the San Diego Zoo, SeaWorld San Diego, and the USS Midway Museum. Restaurants, bars, and shopping can be found throughout the city, and world-renowned museums, like the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, are also located in San Diego. San Diego Luxury Hotels San Diego Luxury Resorts San Diego Luxury Villas Washington, DC, United States Washington, D.C. is a city full of history and places to visit. Some popular places to visit are the Lincoln Memorial, the White House, and the Smithsonian. D.C. is also home to a number of monuments and memorials, like the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the Korean War Veterans Memorial. There are also a number of museums in D.C., like the American History Museum and the National Air and Space Museum. Washington Luxury Hotels Cancun, Mexico Cancun is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Mexico. Aside from its beautiful beaches, there are plenty of places to visit and things to do in Cancun. Some of the most popular attractions include the ancient ruins of Chichen Itza, the eco-park Xcaret, and the nightclubs and bars in the resort district. Cancun Luxury Hotels Cancun Luxury Resorts Cancun Luxury Villas Virginia Beach, VA, United States Virginia Beach is one of the top tourist destinations on the East Coast. From the Virginia Beach Boardwalk to the miles of sandy beaches, there's something for everyone to enjoy. There are also plenty of restaurants, shops, and other attractions to keep visitors busy. Some of the most popular places to visit in Virginia Beach include: The Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center : This aquarium is home to more than 20,000 animals, including sharks, dolphins, and rays. : This aquarium is home to more than 20,000 animals, including sharks, dolphins, and rays. The Virginia Beach Boardwalk: This 3.5-mile boardwalk is one of the most popular attractions in Virginia Beach. It features a wide variety of shops, restaurants, and amusements. This 3.5-mile boardwalk is one of the most popular attractions in Virginia Beach. It features a wide variety of shops, restaurants, and amusements. First Landing State Park: This park offers miles of hiking and biking trails, as well as a beachfront area for swimming and sunbathing. This park offers miles of hiking and biking trails, as well as a beachfront area for swimming and sunbathing. Cape Henry Lighthouse: This lighthouse is one of the oldest in the country and offers stunning views of the Chesapeake Bay. There are plenty of other things to do in Virginia Beach, including dolphin and whale watching tours, kayaking, and golfing. Whether you're looking for a fun family vacation or a romantic getaway, Virginia Beach is sure to please. Virginia Beach Luxury Hotels Virginia Beach Luxury Resorts Beijing, China If you're looking for an amazing cultural experience, be sure to add Beijing, China to your travel bucket list! With beautiful temples, charming hutongs (traditional alleyways), and a lively food scene, there's something for everyone in this bustling city. Plus, Beijing is home to some of the most iconic attractions in China, like the Great Wall of China and the Forbidden City. So if you're looking for an unforgettable East Asian adventure, be sure to add Beijing to your list!. Beijing Luxury Hotels Seoul, South Korea Seoul is a metropolitan city that is home to over 10 million people. It is a city full of culture, history, and a vibrant nightlife. There are plenty of places to visit in Seoul, including the Gyeongbokgung Palace, Changdeokgung Palace, and N Seoul Tower. The Jeongdongne district is a must-see for anyone interested in art and culture, and the Itaewon district is a great place to go for a night on the town. Seoul Luxury Hotels South Lake Tahoe, CA, United States Known for its dramatic lake and mountain scenery, South Lake Tahoe offers visitors plenty of places to visit and things to do. Some of the most popular attractions include floating down the river on a tube, hiking the trails in the summer and skiing or snowboarding the slopes in the winter. The city also has a variety of restaurants and nightlife options, as well as casinos for those looking to try their luck. South Lake Tahoe Luxury Hotels South Lake Tahoe Luxury Resorts Daytona Beach, FL, United States Daytona Beach is a city in Volusia County, Florida, United States. It is approximately 40 miles northeast of Orlando, and 85 miles southeast of Jacksonville. The city is known as "The World's Most Famous Beach." Daytona Beach is a principal city of the Fun Coast region of Florida. The Daytona Beach area is a popular tourist destination. It is well known for its beaches, sports events, and motorsports. Daytona Beach was the birthplace of NASCAR and home to its first track, Daytona International Speedway. Dayton Beach also features a large number of tourist-oriented businesses, such as motels, restaurants, and bars. Daytona Beach Luxury Hotels Rio de Janeiro, Brazil The coastline of Rio de Janeiro is breathtaking, and the views from Christ the Redeemer and Sugar Loaf Mountain are unforgettable. Rio's world-famous beaches are the perfect place to relax and enjoy the sun and the surf. The city's rich culture and history can be experienced in its many museums and in the lively nightlife. Rio is also a great place to shop for souvenirs. Rio de Janeiro Luxury Hotels Rio de Janeiro Luxury Villas Jaco, Costa Rica Jaco is a town on the Central Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. It's about an hour drive from San Jose and is a popular spot for surfers, sunbathers, and tourists. There are a number of beaches in the area, as well as restaurants, bars, and hotels. If you're looking for a place to relax and enjoy the Costa Rican sun and beaches, Jaco is a great option. Jaco Luxury Hotels Oslo, Norway Oslo, Norway is a city with plenty of places to visit. You can find the peace and tranquility of nature parks and green spaces, experience the city's vibrant nightlife, or take in the historical and cultural sights. Here are a few of the top places to visit in Oslo: The Royal Palace: Oslo's Royal Palace is the official residence of Norway's king and queen. The palace is open to the public year-round, and offers a glimpse into the lives of the royal family. Oslo's Royal Palace is the official residence of Norway's king and queen. The palace is open to the public year-round, and offers a glimpse into the lives of the royal family. Vigeland Park: Considered one of Oslo's most popular tourist destinations, Vigeland Park is home to over 200 sculptures by Gustav Vigeland. The park is a great place to spend a sunny day outdoors. Considered one of Oslo's most popular tourist destinations, Vigeland Park is home to over 200 sculptures by Gustav Vigeland. The park is a great place to spend a sunny day outdoors. The Maritime Museum: This museum is home to a variety of exhibits on Norway's maritime history. Visitors can explore everything from Viking ships to modern submarines. This museum is home to a variety of exhibits on Norway's maritime history. Visitors can explore everything from Viking ships to modern submarines. The National Gallery: The National Gallery is Norway's largest art museum, and home to a vast collection of paintings and sculptures from the country's most famous artists. The National Gallery is Norway's largest art museum, and home to a vast collection of paintings and sculptures from the country's most famous artists. Aker Brygge: Aker Brygge is a popular waterfront district in Oslo, home to a variety of bars, restaurants, and shops. The area is a great place to people watch and enjoy the view of the Oslo Fjord. Oslo Luxury Hotels Lima, Peru If you're looking for a city that's bursting with culture and flavor, Lima, Peru is the place for you! This vibrant destination is home to some of the most amazing places to visit in all of South America. From ancient ruins to lush rainforests, there's something for everyone in Lima. Here are just a few of the must-see attractions in this amazing city: The Larco Museum is one of Lima's top tourist destinations. This incredible museum is home to one of the largest collections of pre-Columbian art in the world. The Historic Center of Lima is a must-see for any history lover. This vibrant area is home to some of the oldest architecture in Lima, including the iconic San Francisco Monastery. If you're looking for a little bit of jungle in the city, head to the Parque de la Reserva. This lush park is home to beautiful gardens, a zoo, and even a butterfly farm! No trip to Lima would be complete without a visit to Machu Picchu. This ancient Inca citadel is one of the most iconic sites in all of South America. Lima Luxury Hotels Ankara, Turkey Ankara is the cultural and political center of Turkey. The city is home to many museums, including the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, and is a popular destination for tourists. The Citadel, the Ataturk Mausoleum, and the War of Independence Museum are all popular tourist destinations in Ankara. The city is also home to a vibrant nightlife and is a popular destination for students. Ankara Luxury Hotels Birmingham, United Kingdom There are plenty of great places to visit in Birmingham, United Kingdom. Some of the most popular places to go include the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, and the Black Country Living Museum. These places are all great for tourists, as they offer a variety of attractions, including beautiful gardens, interesting art, and a recreation of an old-fashioned town. Additionally, there are plenty of other great places to visit in Birmingham, such as the Jewellery Quarter and the German Christmas Market. Birmingham Luxury Hotels York, United Kingdom With a rich history that spans back over 1,000 years, York is a must-visit destination in the United Kingdom. Explore the city's medieval architecture and narrow cobblestone streets, or enjoy a leisurely walk along the River Ouse. Visitors can also enjoy a variety of cultural experiences, such as the York Minster cathedral, the Jorvik Viking Centre, and the National Railway Museum. There are also plenty of shops and restaurants to enjoy in York. York Luxury Hotels Inverness, United Kingdom Inverness, Scotland is a must-see destination on any traveler's list. Filled with rolling green hills, historical sites, and plenty of outdoor activities, there's something for everyone in this charming town. Start by exploring the city center, which is home to a variety of shops and restaurants. Make sure to check out the Inverness Castle, which offers commanding views of the area, and the Inverness Cathedral, a beautiful example of medieval architecture. Outside of the city center, there are plenty of other attractions to explore. The Loch Ness Monster is said to make its home in the loch here, and visitors can take boat tours to hunt for the mythical creature. If you're looking for a more active adventure, take a hike in the hills or go fishing on the loch. No matter what you choose to do, Inverness is a beautiful and welcoming town that is sure to charm you. Inverness Luxury Hotels Marseille, France The Vieux Port (Old Harbor) is the oldest port in France. It is a beautiful place to visit with its sailboats, restaurants, and cafes. The Notre Dame de la Garde Basilica is also worth a visit. It offers stunning views of the city. If you're looking for a more lively atmosphere, head to the La Canebiere. It's a wide avenue with plenty of shops and restaurants. Marseille Luxury Hotels Marseille Luxury Villas Honolulu, HI, United States Honolulu is a city located on the island of Oahu in Hawaii, United States. It is the most populous city in the state of Hawaii and the county seat of the City and County of Honolulu. Honolulu is the cultural, commercial, and financial center of Hawaii. Waikiki Beach is one of the most famous beaches in the world and is located in Honolulu. Other places to visit in Honolulu include Diamond Head, the USS Arizona Memorial, and Hanauma Bay. Honolulu Luxury Hotels Honolulu Luxury Resorts Honolulu Luxury Villas Bar Harbor, ME, United States Famous for lobster and stunning ocean views, Bar Harbor is a popular destination in Maine. There are plenty of things to do in the town and its surroundings, including hiking, biking, whale watching, and exploring Acadia National Park. Bar Harbor Luxury Hotels Colorado Springs, CO, United States There are many places to visit in Colorado Springs. Garden of the Gods is a popular park with beautiful rock formations. Pike's Peak is a 14,115 foot mountain that offers great views and outdoor activities. The Broadmoor is a world-renowned resort with lovely gardens and a championship golf course. Royal Gorge Bridge is the world's highest suspension bridge and a popular tourist spot. Colorado Springs Luxury Hotels Fort Myers Beach, FL, United States Just an hours drive from the Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers, Fort Myers Beach is a popular tourist spot, especially in the winter when the snowbirds migrate down. The seven-mile-long beach is known for its white sand and clear water and is a popular spot for swimming, sunbathing, fishing, and kayaking. There are also a number of restaurants and bars in the area, as well as a few stores. Fort Myers Beach Luxury Hotels Biloxi, MS, United States There are plenty of places to explore in Biloxi, Mississippi from the citys iconic Beaches to the picturesque Bay Saint Louis. Venture into the citys downtown area to check out the many shops and restaurants, or take a walk along the shoreline. No matter what you choose to do, youre sure to have a great time in Biloxi. Biloxi Luxury Hotels Palermo, Italy If you're looking for a city with a rich and diverse history, Palermo is the place for you. This coastal city in Italy is teeming with medieval architecture, churches, and cathedrals. Be sure to check out the Teatro Massimo, the largest opera house in Europe, and the Palazzo dei Normanni, the seat of the Sicilian government. Don't miss out on the city's vibrant nightlife and vast array of restaurants that serve up some of the best food in the country. Palermo Luxury Hotels Palermo Luxury Villas Manila, Philippines The capital of the Philippines, Manila is a fascinating city with a rich history and a vibrant culture. There are plenty of places to visit in Manila, including the walled city of Intramuros, the Rizal Park, and the Manila Bay. The city is also home to a large number of churches, including the Manila Cathedral and the San Agustin Church. Manila is a great city to explore on foot, and there are plenty of restaurants and shops to enjoy. Manila Luxury Hotels Zermatt, Switzerland Zermatt is an alpine village in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. It is famous for its ski resort, mountaineering and hiking trails. The views of the Matterhorn from Zermatt are iconic. The village is car-free, making it a cyclists' and pedestrians' paradise. There are many places to visit in Zermatt, including the village's beautiful churches, impressive museums, and great restaurants. Zermatt Luxury Hotels Basel, Switzerland Basel is a city located in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine. Basel has a population of about 176,000 and is the third most populous city in Switzerland. Basel has many interesting places to visit, including the Basel Munster, the Basel Rathaus (town hall), the Basel Zoo, and the Munsterhof, the old town square. Basel also has a number of art museums, including the Kunstmuseum Basel, the Fondation Beyeler, and the Schaulager. Basel is a great city to visit, and I highly recommend it!. Basel Luxury Hotels Copenhagen, Denmark There are a number of places to visit in Copenhagen, Denmark. Some of the most popular tourist destinations include Tivoli Gardens, Nyhavn, and the Rosenborg Castle Gardens. Tivoli Gardens is a beautiful amusement park that has something for everyone. It is perfect for a day of fun with family or friends. Nyhavn is a charming canal district that is popular for its brightly colored houses and lively atmosphere. Visitors can enjoy a relaxing cruise down the canal or take a seat in one of the many cafes and restaurants. The Rosenborg Castle Gardens are home to a majestic castle as well as beautifully landscaped gardens. There is plenty to see and do in Copenhagen, Denmark. Copenhagen Luxury Hotels Steamboat Springs, CO, United States Steamboat Springs is located in northwestern Colorado. The town is named for the steamboats that traveled up the Yampa River in the 1800s. Today, the town is a popular tourist destination, known for its skiing, snowboarding, hiking, and rafting. Steamboat Springs Luxury Hotels Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates Abu Dhabi is the capital of the United Arab Emirates and is home to many tourist attractions. Some popular places to visit in Abu Dhabi include the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, the Ferrari World Theme Park, and the Yas Island Waterpark. There are also a number of museums and shopping malls in Abu Dhabi, making it a great destination for those looking for a mix of culture and leisure. Abu Dhabi Luxury Hotels Abu Dhabi Luxury Resorts Abu Dhabi Luxury Villas Bogota, Colombia There's a lot to see and do in Bogota. Some of the top places to visit include the historical La Candelaria district, the cobblestone streets of Plaza de Bolivar, the Monserrate mountain, the Bogota Botanical Garden, and the Gold Museum. La Candelaria is home to many brightly-colored colonial buildings, churches, and plazas. Plaza de Bolivar is the center of Bogota and is surrounded by important landmarks like the Presidential Palace and the National Capitol. The Monserrate mountain is a popular tourist destination due to its stunning views of Bogota. The Bogota Botanical Garden is the largest in Colombia and features a wide variety of plants and trees. The Gold Museum is home to the largest collection of Pre-Columbian gold artifacts in the world. Bogota Luxury Hotels Cebu, Philippines Due to its location and its rich history, there are plenty of places to visit in Cebu. Some of the most popular tourist destinations include the Cebu Taoist Temple, the Fort San Pedro, the Yap-San Diego Ancestral House, and the Magellan's Cross. Cebu Luxury Hotels Cebu Luxury Resorts Lagos, Portugal Lagos is a small town in Portugal with a population of around 22,000. It's located in the Algarve region and is a popular tourist destination. Some of the places to visit in Lagos are the beaches, the old town, and the Marina. The beaches are beautiful and there are a lot of them to choose from. The old town is a maze of narrow streets and alleyways with lots of shops and restaurants. The Marina is a great place to walk around and watch the boats. Lagos Luxury Hotels Medellin, Colombia Some places to visit in Medellin, Colombia are: the Botanical Garden, the Ethnographic Museum, the Jardin Botanico, the Metropolitan Cathedral, the Park of Lights, and the San Pedro Claver Church. Medellin Luxury Hotels Genoa, Italy While there are many places to visit in Genoa, one of the must-sees is the city's cathedral. Dedicated to San Lorenzo, the church features an intricate Gothic facade and a Renaissance interior. If you're looking for a place to take in some stunning views, head to the Genoa Aquarium, which is located on the promenade stretching along the city's harbor. Genoa Luxury Hotels Hoi An, Vietnam Hoi An is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Vietnam. Its a bridge town thats best explored on foot. The narrow streets are a mix of Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese architecture. There are tailors, artisans, and lantern shops galore. The food is also some of the best in Vietnam. Be sure to try the local specialties, like Cao Lau and White Rose dumplings. Hoi An Luxury Hotels Hoi An Luxury Resorts Baku, Azerbaijan Baku, Azerbaijan is a city with a lot of culture and history. There are a lot of places to visit, like the Palace of the Shirvanshahs and the Maiden Tower. There are also a lot of great restaurants, like the Flame Club, which has a great atmosphere and delicious food. Baku Luxury Hotels San Luis Obispo, CA, United States San Luis Obispo is a city located in the central coast of California. It's known for its natural beauty, relaxed vibe, and abundance of things to do. Some of the top places to visit in San Luis Obispo include the Madonna Inn, Hearst Castle, and the Paso Robles wine country. The city is also home to a variety of beaches, parks, and other attractions. In addition, San Luis Obispo is a great place to live, with plenty of restaurants, shops, and other amenities. San Luis Obispo Luxury Hotels Colombo, Sri Lanka Colombo is the largest city and commercial capital of Sri Lanka. The city is located on the west coast of the island and is the administrative, commercial, and industrial center of Sri Lanka. Colombo is also the center of Buddhism in Sri Lanka, with numerous Buddhist temples. There are a number of places to visit in Colombo, including the Galle Face Green, the Dutch fort, the Pettah Bazaar, and the Sri Lankan National Museum. Colombo Luxury Hotels Yogyakarta, Indonesia The city of Yogyakarta in Indonesia is home to some of the most stunning temples and historical landmarks in the country. The city is also a great place to enjoy traditional Javanese culture and cuisine. Some of the must-see places in Yogyakarta include the Borobudur Temple, the Prambanan Temple, and the Sultan's Palace. Yogyakarta Luxury Hotels Cefalu, Italy Looking for a beautiful and historic place to visit in Italy? Look no further than Cefalu. This town is teeming with history and stunning architecture, and its location on the coast makes it the perfect place to relax and take in the stunning scenery. Don't miss the Duomo di Cefalu, a 12th century Norman church that is definitely worth a visit, or the Palazzo dei Normanni, a former royal palace. Cefalu Luxury Hotels San Jose, CA, United States San Jose, California, is home to a variety of tourist destinations. Some popular places to visit include the Winchester Mystery House, the Tech Museum of Innovation, and the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum. There are also a number of lovely parks, such as Kelley Park and Plaza de Cesar Chavez, that are well worth a visit. San Jose is also home to a number of great restaurants, so be sure to check out the local cuisine. Whatever your interests, San Jose has something to offer visitors. San Jose Luxury Hotels Hong Kong, China Hong Kong is one of the most popular destinations for tourists in China. There are many places to visit in Hong Kong, including the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort, Victoria Peak, and the Temple Street Night Market. Hong Kong is also a great place to shop, with many high-end malls and markets. Hong Kong Luxury Hotels Hong Kong Luxury Resorts Orlando, FL, United States Orlando is a city in the central region of Florida, in the United States. The city is the county seat of Orange County, and the center of the metropolitan area also known as Greater Orlando. Orlando is well known for its theme parks, including Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando Resort, and SeaWorld Orlando. Other tourist destinations in Orlando include the Holy Land Experience, the Orlando Science Center, and the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art. Orlando is also home to the University of Central Florida, one of the largest universities in the United States. Orlando Luxury Hotels Orlando Luxury Resorts Orlando Luxury Villas Philadelphia, PA, United States If youre looking for a place thats rich in history and culture, Philadelphia is the place for you. The city is home to numerous iconic landmarks, including the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. Theres also a great variety of museums and other attractions to explore, such as the Philadelphia Zoo and the Please Touch Museum. And, of course, Philly is the birthplace of Americas favorite sandwich, the cheesesteak. So why not visit Americas most historic city and see for yourself what all the fuss is about?. Philadelphia Luxury Hotels Nice, France France is known for its many beautiful places to visit, and Nice is no exception. With its stunning coastline and mild climate, Nice is a popular tourist destination. Some of the most popular places to visit in Nice include the Promenade des Anglais, the Castle Hill, and the Old Town. There is also a wide variety of shops and restaurants to enjoy in Nice. If you're looking for a beautiful and relaxing place to visit in France, Nice is definitely worth considering. Nice Luxury Hotels Nice Luxury Villas Singapore, Singapore Singapore is a popular tourist destination, brimming with cultural and natural attractions. From award-winning restaurants to serene gardens and pristine beaches, there is much to explore in this diverse city-state. Here are some of the top places to visit in Singapore: 1. Marina Bay: This iconic waterfront district is home to stunning architecture, world-class landmarks, and a vibrant nightlife. 2. Gardens by the Bay: These stunning gardens feature a mix of plants from around the world, as well as towering sculptures and a biodome. 3. Chinatown: This lively district is home to traditional Chinese shops and restaurants, as well as vibrant street markets. 4. Little India: This neighborhood is known for its vibrant culture and colorful temples. 5. Sentosa Island: This resort island is home to sandy beaches, lush rainforests, and a variety of entertainment options. Singapore Luxury Hotels Singapore Luxury Resorts Nottingham, United Kingdom Nottingham is a city in the East Midlands of England. It is one of the United Kingdom's major cities, with a population of over 321,000. The city is home to two universities, Queen's Medical Centre, and seven football grounds. Nottingham is known for its lace-making and bicycle manufacturing. The city has a rich history, dating back to the Bronze Age. There are plenty of places to visit in Nottingham, including the Nottingham Castle, the Sherwood Forest, and the National Ice Centre. The city also has a lively nightlife, with a variety of pubs and bars. Nottingham Luxury Hotels Cannes, France Cannes is a city located in the south of France. Some of the places to visit in Cannes are the Palais des Festivals et des Congres, the Boulevard de la Croisette, and Le Suquet. Cannes Luxury Hotels Cannes Luxury Villas Park City, UT, United States Park City, Utah, offers visitors a wealth of places to visit and things to do. Main Street, with its charming shops and restaurants, is a must-see. The Park City Museum tells the town's fascinating history, and the Park City Utah Temple is a beautiful sight. For outdoor enthusiasts, there's plenty of skiing and snowboarding in the winter and hiking and mountain biking in the summer. And don't forget to visit the Olympic Park, where the 2002 Winter Olympics were held. Park City Luxury Hotels Park City Luxury Resorts Port Angeles, WA, United States If you're looking for a quaint, small town to visit in the US, Port Angeles is worth a stop. Located in the state of Washington, it's right on the Pacific coast with stunning views of the Olympic Mountains. There's plenty of things to do in the area, from hiking and fishing to whale watching and enjoying the local restaurants and breweries. Port Angeles Luxury Hotels Fort Lauderdale, FL, United States If you're looking for a fun-filled Florida getaway, look no further than Fort Lauderdale! With its miles of pristine beaches, world-famous shopping and vibrant nightlife, there's something for everyone in this seaside city. Here are some of the top places to visit in Fort Lauderdale: Las Olas Boulevard: This popular shopping and dining district is home to some of Fort Lauderdale's most upscale boutiques and restaurants. The Beach: With its wide, sandy beaches and crystal-clear waters, Fort Lauderdale's beach is a major draw for visitors. The Everglades: Just a short drive from Fort Lauderdale, the Everglades are home to an abundance of wildlife, including alligators, bald eagles and manatees. The Broward Center for the Performing Arts: This world-class performing arts center is home to a variety of theater, dance and music performances. So what are you waiting for? Book your trip to Fort Lauderdale today!. Fort Lauderdale Luxury Hotels Fort Lauderdale Luxury Resorts Myrtle Beach, SC, United States Myrtle Beach, South Carolina is a popular tourist destination. There are plenty of places to visit in the area, including amusement parks, beaches, and golf courses. Myrtle Beach also has a lively nightlife, with plenty of bars and restaurants. Myrtle Beach Luxury Hotels Myrtle Beach Luxury Resorts Salzburg, Austria Salzburg is one of the most visited places in Austria. It is a city rich in history and culture. There are many places to visit, such as the Hohensalzburg Fortress, the Mirabell Palace, and the Salzburg Cathedral. There are also many hiking trails and parks to enjoy. Salzburg Luxury Hotels Pattaya, Thailand Pattaya is an amazing city with plenty of places to visit and things to do. One of the most popular tourist destinations in Thailand, Pattaya offers something for everyone. There are lovely beaches, interesting temples, great shopping, and exciting nightlife. With its moderate climate and affordable prices, it's no wonder Pattaya is a favorite destination for tourists from all over the world. Pattaya Luxury Hotels Pattaya Luxury Resorts Pattaya Luxury Villas Dallas, TX, United States Dallas is a city located in the U.S. state of Texas. It is the ninth most populous city in the United States and the third most populous city in the state of Texas. Dallas is also the main city of the fourth most populous metropolitan area in the United States. The city's prominence arose from its historical importance as a center for the oil and cotton industries, and its position as a major transportation hub for the South. Dallas is home to the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League and the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association. The city's economy is primarily based on banking, commerce, telecommunications, technology, energy, healthcare and medical research, and transportation. The city is home to the world's largest airline hub and the third largest cargo airport in the United States. Dallas Luxury Hotels Kolkata, India Kolkata, also known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. The city is located on the east bank of the Hooghly River. It is the second most populous city in India, after Mumbai, and the third most populous metropolitan area in India, after Mumbai and Delhi. The city is notable for its colonial architecture, art and culture, and for its overwhelming poverty. Kolkata is home to the Indian Museum, the Calcutta Stock Exchange, the National Library of India, and the Indian Statistical Institute. Kolkata Luxury Hotels San Antonio, TX, United States San Antonio is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Texas. There are plenty of places to visit in this city, from the well-known River Walk to the exquisite Spanish missions. If you're looking for a fun place to spend the day, you can't go wrong with San Antonio. San Antonio Luxury Hotels Seattle, WA, United States There are many wonderful places to visit in Seattle, Washington. Some of the most popular attractions include Pike Place Market, the Seattle Space Needle, and the Museum of Pop Culture. There are also many parks and gardens, such as Volunteer Park and Seattle Chinese Garden, as well as plenty of restaurants and shops. Located on the other side of the world, Western Australia is a great place to visit for those looking for something different. Some of the most popular attractions include Rottnest Island, the Margaret River region, and Monkey Mia. There are also plenty of beautiful parks and gardens, such as Kings Park and Botanic Garden, as well as restaurants and shops. Seattle Luxury Hotels Liverpool, United Kingdom Liverpool is a city located in North West England and is one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom. The city is known for its football teams Liverpool and Everton, The Beatles, and its maritime history. Liverpool is a popular tourist destination and is home to various tourist attractions including Mersey Ferry, Liverpool Cathedral, and Albert Dock. Liverpool Luxury Hotels Malmo, Sweden Malmo is Sweden's third largest city with a population of over 310,000. It is located in the province of Scania on the country's southern tip. Malmo is a vibrant city with a strong arts and cultural scene. There are plenty of places to visit in Malmo, including the Malmo Castle, the Botanical Gardens, and the Turning Torso skyscraper. Malmo is also home to a large shopping district and a lively nightlife. Malmo Luxury Hotels Gothenburg, Sweden Goteborg, Sweden's second largest city, is a major port on the country's west coast. It's a popular tourist destination, known for its lively nightlife, beautiful architecture and delicious seafood. Some of the city's highlights include the Liseberg amusement park, the Botanical Garden, and the charming old town district. Goteborg is also home to a large number of museums, including the Volvo Museum, the Maritime Museum and the Universeum science center. Gothenburg Luxury Hotels Ljubljana, Slovenia Ljubljana is the capital city of Slovenia and is a city full of culture and history. There are many places to visit in Ljubljana, such as the castle, the old town, and the cathedral. The city is also home to many museums, art galleries, and parks. Ljubljana is a great city to explore on foot, and there are many restaurants and cafes to enjoy. Ljubljana Luxury Hotels Sydney, NSW, Australia Australia is a vast country with plenty of stunning places to visit, but Sydney is undoubtedly one of the most popular tourist destinations on the continent. From the iconic Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge to the beautiful beaches and lush national parks, there's something for everyone in this lively city. There's also a thriving food and nightlife scene, so you'll never run out of things to do in Sydney. Sydney Luxury Hotels Sydney Luxury Villas Melbourne, VIC, Australia There's a lot to love about Melbourne its lively arts and culture scene, its parks and gardens, its diverse range of restaurants and cafes, and its stunning architecture. Here are some of the best places to visit in Melbourne: - Federation Square: This iconic square is a great place to people-watch and take in the city's impressive architecture. It's also home to a number of museums and galleries, including the Australian Centre for the Moving Image and the National Gallery of Victoria. - Queen Victoria Market: This vibrant market is a must-visit for foodies and shoppers alike. It's the largest open-air market in the Southern Hemisphere, and offers a vast array of fresh produce, meat, seafood, and souvenirs. - Melbourne Cricket Ground: If you're a sports fan, be sure to check out the Melbourne Cricket Ground, which is the largest cricket stadium in the world. It's also home to the Australian Football League, and has hosted a number of major sporting events, including the Commonwealth Games and the Rugby Union World Cup. - Royal Botanic Gardens: These beautiful gardens are a great place to relax and take in some of Melbourne's natural beauty. They're home to a number of different gardens, including the Australian Garden, the Sculpture Garden, and the Japanese Garden. Melbourne Luxury Hotels Melbourne Luxury Villas Vancouver, BC, Canada The top places to visit in Vancouver are Stanley Park, Granville Island, Gastown, and Chinatown. These are all must-see attractions that offer an array of activities, scenery, and history. Stanley Park is a world-famous urban park that features greenery, beaches, gardens, and a stunning view of the North Shore Mountains. Granville Island is a vibrant neighbourhood with unique shops, restaurants, and art galleries. Gastown is the city's oldest neighbourhood and is home to charming cobblestone streets and funky boutiques. Chinatown is one of the largest and most vibrant Chinatowns in North America and offers delicious food, interesting history, and vibrant culture. Vancouver Luxury Hotels Toronto, ON, Canada From the CN Tower and Hockey Hall of Fame to the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Distillery District, there are plenty of amazing places to visit in Toronto, Canada. With something for everyone, Toronto is a great city to explore. So what are you waiting for? Start planning your trip today!. Toronto Luxury Hotels Montreal, QC, Canada Montreal is a vibrant city with something for everyone. There are plenty of places to visit, including the Notre Dame Basilica, the Olympic Stadium, and Mount Royal. The city is also home to a lively arts and culture scene, with theatres, art galleries, and music venues. Montreal is a great place to visit year-round, with festivals and events happening throughout the year. Montreal Luxury Hotels Seville, Spain Seville is one of the most visited places in Spain for a plethora of reasons: its stunning architecture, tapas bars, flamenco and great weather. The Giralda Tower is a must-see when in Seville as is the Plaza de Espana. Andalusian culture is heavily present in the city and is best experienced by wandering the narrow streets and alleyways, popping into a lively tapas bar for a drink and some snacks or enjoying a flamenco show. Seville Luxury Hotels Seville Luxury Villas Ocean City, MD, United States Ocean City is a seaside resort town in Worcester County, Maryland, on the Atlantic coast. It is well known for its long promenade, its fishing, and its crab cuisine. There are plenty of places to visit in Ocean City, including the boardwalk, amusement rides, shopping, and restaurants. You can also visit the Assateague Island National Seashore, which is home to wild horses, or head to the nearby town of Berlin for more shopping and dining options. Ocean City Luxury Hotels Cambridge, MA, United States If you're looking for a quintessential New England town to visit, Cambridge, Massachusetts is the place for you. With its elaborate architecture and Colonial history, Cambridge is a lively town with plenty of things to see and do - perfect for a weekend getaway. Some of the places you won't want to miss include the Harvard University campus, the charming and lively shops and restaurants in Harvard Square, and the leafy paths of the Cambridge Common. Cambridge Luxury Hotels Laguna Beach, CA, United States Laguna Beach, California is a place known for its stunningly beautiful coastline, excellent restaurants, and art galleries. But there's more to Laguna Beach than meets the eye. Here are some of the best places to visit in Laguna Beach: Crystal Cove State Park: This state park is known for its coves, tidepools, and bluffs. It's a great place to go hiking, swimming, and snorkeling. Heisler Park: This park is a great place for a walk or a picnic. It's also home to some of the best views of the Pacific Coast. Downtown Laguna Beach: This charming downtown area is home to art galleries, boutique shops, and excellent restaurants. Aliso Beach: This beach is known for its excellent surfing and swimming conditions. It's also a great place to take a walk or enjoy a picnic. Laguna Beach Luxury Hotels Hot Springs, AR, United States In downtown Hot Springs, Arkansas, you'll find historic buildings, antique shops, and art galleries. For nature lovers, there are also plenty of places to visit, including the Garland County Arboretum, Ouachita National Forest, and Hot Springs National Park. Spa enthusiasts can enjoy a relaxing day in one of the area's hot springs. And no trip to Hot Springs is complete without a visit to the world-famous Bathhouse Row. Hot Springs Luxury Hotels Sedona, AZ, United States There are many places to visit in Sedona, Arizona. Among the most popular are the Chapel of the Holy Cross, Bell Rock, Cathedral Rock, and Boynton Canyon. The town's unique red-rock formations and ancient ruins offer plenty of photo opportunities. Visitors can also enjoy hiking, biking, and horseback riding. Sedona is a great place to relax and take in the natural beauty of the Southwest. Sedona Luxury Hotels Sedona Luxury Resorts Boulder, CO, United States Boulder, Colorado is a breathtaking city nestled in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The city is home to stunning views, ample outdoor recreation, and a lively arts scene. Outdoor enthusiasts will love exploring the city's many trails, parks, and open spaces. History buffs will enjoy checking out the city's museums and historic sites. Culture seekers will appreciate the city's many theaters, art galleries, and restaurants. No matter what your interests, you'll find something to love in Boulder. Boulder Luxury Hotels Key West, FL, United States Key West is a small island off the coast of Florida that is filled with history, charm, and fun places to visit. Its lush tropical setting and the laid-back vibe of the island make it a popular destination for those looking for a relaxing getaway. There are plenty of places to explore in Key West, from the charming historic district to the crystal-clear waters of the Florida Keys. Here are some of the top places to visit in Key West: -The Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum: This iconic museum is dedicated to the life and work of Nobel Prize-winning author Ernest Hemingway, who lived in Key West for over 20 years. -Duval Street: This lively street is the heart of Key West's nightlife and is home to many bars and restaurants. -The Southernmost Point: This landmark is located at the end of Duval Street and is the southernmost point in the continental United States. -The Key West Lighthouse: This picturesque lighthouse is a popular spot for tourists and offers stunning views of the island. -The African American Heritage House: This museum is dedicated to the history and culture of African Americans in Key West. -The Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservatory: This attraction is home to over 2,000 butterflies and a variety of other tropical plants and animals. Key West Luxury Hotels Key West Luxury Resorts Key West Luxury Cottages Key West Luxury Villas Stockholm, Sweden Stockholm, Sweden is a city with many places to visit. One place is the Vasa Museum, which is home to a ship that sunk in 1628 and was raised from the ocean floor 333 years later. The ship is preserved and on display in the museum. Another place to visit is the Royal Palace, the official residence of the Swedish monarch. The palace is open for tours, and visitors can see the royal apartments, the throne room, and the Hall of State. Stockholm Luxury Hotels Destin, FL, United States Looking for a place to visit in Florida? Look no further than Destin! This city is home to beautiful beaches, wonderful restaurants, and plenty of places to shop. No matter what you're looking for, you can find it in Destin. Be sure to check out the Destin Harbor and the fishing pier for amazing views and plenty of things to do. If you're looking for a place to relax, head to the beach and enjoy the sun and sand. There's something for everyone in Destin, so be sure to visit this amazing city!. Destin Luxury Hotels Destin Luxury Resorts Ashland, OR, United States There are many places to visit in Ashland, Oregon. Some of the most popular places are the Shakespeare Festival, Lithia Park, and Mt. Ashland. The Shakespeare Festival is a great place to see some of the best plays in the world. Lithia Park is a beautiful park with a river running through it. Mt. Ashland is a great place to go skiing in the winter. Ashland Luxury Hotels Seaside, OR, United States One of the most beautiful places on the Oregon Coast is Seaside. With its wide, sandy beach and majestic promenade, Seaside is a popular tourist destination. There are plenty of places to eat and shop, and the Seaside Aquarium is a must-see. Visitors can also enjoy fishing, whale watching, or just taking a leisurely stroll along the beach. Seaside Luxury Hotels Newport, RI, United States Newport is a picturesque town located in southern Rhode Island that is home to some of the most visited tourist destinations in the United States. The city is known for its miles of beaches and historic mansions that line the coast. Some popular places to visit in Newport include the Cliff Walk, the Breakers Mansion, the Museum of Yachting, and the International Tennis Hall of Fame. Newport Luxury Hotels Siena, Italy Siena, Italy is a popular tourist destination, thanks to its well-preserved medieval city center. The city is famous for its art, food, and wine. Siena is located in the heart of Tuscany, making it the perfect base for exploring this beautiful region of Italy. Don't miss the Duomo (cathedral), the Piazza del Campo, and the Torre del Mangia. Siena Luxury Hotels Reno, NV, United States Home to the University of Nevada, Reno and a wide variety of cultural and natural attractions, Reno is a great place to visit. Some of the top places to see in Reno include the Nevada Museum of Art, the Fleischmann Planetarium and Science Center, and the Reno Events Center. Outdoor enthusiasts will enjoy hiking and skiing at Lake Tahoe and biking and kayaking on the Truckee River. In addition, Reno is home to a diverse array of restaurants and nightlife venues. Reno Luxury Hotels Atlantic City, NJ, United States Atlantic City is a popular East Coast tourist destination, known for its boardwalks, beaches and casinos. There are plenty of places to visit in Atlantic City, from the Boardwalk Hall and the Absecon Lighthouse to the Atlantic City Aquarium and Lucy the Elephant. For a more thrilling experience, head to one of the city's casinos, where you can try your hand at blackjack, slots, roulette and more. Atlantic City also offers a wide variety of restaurants, from seafood spots to pizza places, so you're sure to find something to your taste. And if you're looking for some nightlife action, the city has you covered there too. Atlantic City is definitely a place worth visiting!. Atlantic City Luxury Hotels Atlantic City Luxury Resorts Lake George, NY, United States Looking for a place to visit in upstate New York? Look no further than the stunning Lake George. This picturesque locale is located in the heart of the Adirondacks and is known for its pristine beauty and terrific recreational opportunities. Visitors can enjoy hiking, biking, boating, fishing, and skiing, among other activities. Don't miss the chance to take in the spectacular views from the summit of Prospect Mountain or from the water's edge. Lake George Luxury Hotels Buffalo, NY, United States If you're looking for a city that has it all, Buffalo is the place to be. From its vibrant downtown district to its abundance of parks and nature preserves, there's something for everyone in Buffalo. Here are some of the top places to visit in Buffalo: 1. The Buffalo Zoo - One of the top zoos in the country, the Buffalo Zoo is a must-visit for animal lovers of all ages. 2. The Albright-Knox Art Gallery - Buffalo's answer to the Louvre, the Albright-Knox is home to some of the world's most famous paintings and sculptures. 3. The Buffalo-Niagara Heritage Village - This living history museum offers a glimpse into what life was like in Buffalo in the 1800s. 4. The Buffalo River - Take a walk or bike ride along the Buffalo River, one of the city's most picturesque areas. 5. Delaware Park - This large park is home to a variety of attractions, including a zoo, a golf course, and a nature preserve. Buffalo Luxury Hotels Rochester, MN, United States Rochester, Minnesota is a city with plenty of places to visit. There's the Mayo Clinic, the Apache Mall, and several other shopping areas, as well as a variety of restaurants. There are also a few parks and golf courses. 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Maputo is also home to the Maputo Bay, which offers beautiful beaches and great seafood. Maputo Luxury Hotels Barcelona, Spain Barcelona, located on the northeast coast of Spain, is a renowned tourist destination and one of the most popular cities in the world. There are plenty of places to visit in Barcelona, such as the Gothic Quarter, the Temple of Olympian Zeus, the Parc Guell, La Sagrada Familia, and more. The city is also home to a lively nightlife and some of the best restaurants in the country. Barcelona Luxury Hotels Barcelona Luxury Villas Split, Croatia Split is a city on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea. It is the second-largest city in Croatia and the largest city in Dalmatia. It has a population of over 200,000 inhabitants. The metropolitan area, which includes the City of Split and the surrounding towns, has a population of over 330,000. Split is a popular tourist destination and is the home of the Diocletian's Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Other popular tourist destinations include the Riva, the Peristyle, the Cathedral of Saint Domnius, and Sustipan. Split Luxury Hotels Split Luxury Villas Dubrovnik, Croatia Dubrovnik is a city on the Adriatic Sea in Croatia. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations in the Mediterranean Sea, a seaport and the administrative center of Dubrovnik-Neretva County. Dubrovnik is nicknamed "The Pearl of the Adriatic". Dubrovnik Luxury Hotels Dubrovnik Luxury Villas Byron Bay, NSW, Australia Byron Bay is a magical place. It's no wonder that it's one of the most popular destinations in Australia. The town is set in a beautiful location, surrounded by rolling green hills and the bright blue ocean. There's plenty to do in Byron Bay, whether you're looking for a relaxing beach holiday or an adventure-filled trip. Some of the top places to visit in Byron Bay include the iconic lighthouse, the stunning beaches, and the lush rainforest. There's also a great nightlife and plenty of restaurants and cafes to enjoy. If you're looking for an amazing Australian getaway, be sure to add Byron Bay to your list!. Byron Bay Luxury Hotels Wellington, New Zealand If you're looking for a little slice of heaven on earth, look no further than Wellington, New Zealand. With its gorgeous landscape and plethora of activities, there's something for everyone here. Whether you're a nature lover or a city slicker, Wellington has something special to offer. Top Wellington attractions include the Zealandia eco-sanctuary, the cable car up to the Botanic Gardens, and the sprawling Te Papa museum. For those who love getting out into the great outdoors, there are plenty of hiking and biking trails, as well as lovely seaside towns and villages to explore. And of course, no trip to Wellington would be complete without trying some of the delicious local cuisine be sure to sample a traditional Maori hangi feast! So what are you waiting for? Book your flight to Wellington today and start planning your perfect holiday!. Wellington Luxury Hotels Saint Louis, MO, United States If you're looking for a fun place to visit with a rich history and plenty of things to see and do, look no further than Saint Louis, Missouri. This vibrant city is home to a variety of interesting attractions, including the Gateway Arch, the Missouri Botanical Garden, and the Anheuser-Busch Brewery. There's also no shortage of restaurants and shopping options in Saint Louis. So, whether you're looking for a place to explore new cultures and cuisines or you're just looking for a place to have some fun, Saint Louis is a great option. Saint Louis Luxury Hotels Bloomington, IN, United States The city of Bloomington, Indiana is home to a variety of attractions and places to visit. The Indiana University campus is a popular destination, as is the city's historic downtown district. Monroe County Courthouse 040117HORIFIC SCENE By Tom Kathoa The Law enforcing authorities in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville are tight lipped about a triple murder in the Haku area towards Christmas last year. The shooting down of the Four young men was carried out in public and on the main John Teosin Highway just before Christmas. Reports say that family members and relatives of the victims were present and watched helplessly as their loved ones were mowed down by the eliminators gun. Three of the victims died on the spot while the fourth tried to escape with wounds, but was later found and chopped to death. The shooting was captured on mobile phones by those present at the scene of the killing at Eltupan Village, in the Haku area. Police have not made any comment on the matter. Ends 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. News / Africa by Staff Reporter Police in the Republic of South Africa have reportedly arrested a 25-year-old South African for allegedly holding four Zimbabwean illegal immigrants hostage at Chebeng village in the Seshego area of Polokwane City.Hawks spokesperson for Limpopo, Captain Matimba Maluleke identified the suspect who was arrested on Monday as Raymond Sithole.The police spokesperson said Sithole illegally smuggled his victims aged between 15 and 20 years into the neighbouring country after promising them good jobs.He said Sithole kept the four at his house and would force them to steal and do other jobs for no pay."The four victims were allegedly kept under lock and key after being smuggled into South Africa with false promises of good jobs and better lives here. In some cases the suspect would severely assault them if they failed to comply with his orders."The Limpopo Hawks unit got wind of the alleged exploitation and arrested the suspect," he said.Capt Maluleke said Sithole has been charged with human trafficking and corruption.He said the suspect has since appeared before the Seshego magistrate court and was remanded in custody to January 9.Hawks Limpopo's provincial head, Major General Thobeka Jozi commended her team for reacting swiftly in apprehending Sithole."We warn those engaged in human trafficking that Limpopo will not be used as a gateway to exploit the innocent and vulnerable. This operation should serve as a serious warning that we will do everything to protect victims of human trafficking and we call upon our communities to work with us and report those in inhumane activities," she said.The latest incident comes a few weeks after three Zimbabwean cross-border transporters were jailed for 632 years by a South African High Court after they were convicted on 62 charges ranging from murder, robbery, extortion, rape among other violent crimes perpetrated in that country against Zimbabweans. News / Agriculture by Staff Reporter The revival of the 57-hactare Jalukange Irrigation Scheme along Shashe River about 120km west of Beitbridge town has come as a major relief for smallholder farmers in this dry district.The district was in the grip of the worst drought in half a century with failed rain seasons, crop failures and livestock deaths.Most farming families here have endured tough conditions with little food to eat, no access to portable water, health or income generating projects to improve their livelihoods following back-to-back droughts.Many children had become severely malnourished as families could no longer feed themselves.The scale of drought emergency is enormous and without the revival of the Jalukange Irrigation Scheme the impact would unfortunately get even worse.Skeletons of livestock that have perished from the lack of rain and food can be seen along the road with vultures eating up the carcasses.Drought conditions, triggered by El Nino which ravaged much of the country also affected scores of people in Beitbridge West who are still in need of food aid.Without the revival of the irrigation scheme, farmers Jalukange had no reason to prepare of the next season. Others were selling off dying livestock to make enough money for hand-to-mouth sustenance and nothing to farm in future.For far too long, irrigation schemes in Beitbridge district seemed to have been left off the agenda. Years of neglect led to vandalism and theft of key irrigation infrastructure. People vandalised pipes and water pump engines, agricultural implements and other equipment.The Jalukange local community felt short-changed after unfulfilled promises were made by some NGOs and the government. In short, they said, there were given a raw deal, at a time when they were hardest-hit by the impact of climate change.Relief is now sweet music to the lives of farming families in Jalukange.Support from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development to rehabilitate the scheme has pumped oxygen into this irrigation project which had been in a deplorable state for years.The FAO has rehabilitated 45 ha of the Jalukange Irrigation Scheme with new canals, drilled six new boreholes and constructed six latrines."The whole idea behind this smallholder irrigation support programme is to address the food, nutrition and income security for farmers who have access to irrigation in natural region 5, where conditions are much harsher," said Museve Bwerinofa, an FAO provincial facilitator."This scheme is the source of livelihood for smallholder farmers here. The project had collapsed but its revival is bringing fresh hopes to the people."The resuscitation of the Jalukange scheme will uplift the living standards of scores of villagers in and around the area where low rainfall makes it almost impossible for subsistence farming.A total of 141 families are already benefiting from the scheme lighting up prospects of a better future.In addition, the farmers buoyed with new found confidence are already planning to put a further 80 hectares of their land for citrus which they intend to feed into a local juicing plant."I've re-joined this project after seeing progress here," said Margaret Msipa of Jalukange Ward 8, in Beitbridge West."This scheme was dead and its resuscitation has given us a lot of hope. We now have canals, water pumps, seed and tractors for tilling the land. We are very optimistic about our future now than ever before."She said, some people who had crossed Shashe and the Limpopo Rivers to work on farms inside South Africa were trickling back after getting news about the revival of the project."This scheme has given us a sense of empowerment," Msipa said."If we work hard on this piece of land, we will succeed. I'm very hopeful that it will improve our livelihoods."The hope has become infectious."I'm very happy too about the revival of this scheme," said Judith Dube, another farmer at the scheme. "I'm very confident that we will be able to grow enough food to feed our families. I'm also certain that it will also reduce migration to Botswana and South Africa where people are going in search of jobs."The Jalukange irrigation management committee has drawn up a constitution which ensure strict adherence to the rules of the programme.FAO is supporting the training of the committee in irrigation governance, financial management, transformational leadership, record keeping and agronomic practices and linking them to potential markets.Challenges still abound despite the joy that this project has brought.A barrage (a barrier that prevents crops from getting destroyed by flood water) which was destroyed by the 19992000 cyclone Eline induced floods still needs to be rehabilitated."Farmers want the barrage to be constructed as a matter of urgency," said Bezel Garedondo, an engineer in the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development."This is still a major headache for them and I hope something will be done to address this problem."Beitbridge has 17 communal irrigation schemes with a total of 521 hectares of irrigable land. Some of the irrigation schemes include River Ranch (41,5ha), Bili (21ha) and Kwalu (52). These irrigation scheme has stood the test of time.There have been there for decades and most of them face a host of challenges among them the inconsistent supply of water and poor irrigation infrastructure."Irrigation is the thing we are pinning our hopes for the revival of agricultural production in our drought prone district," said Peter Moyo, chief executive of the Beitbridge district council."We want these schemes to work so they help increase agricultural production and food security in our district."Said Dr Conrade Zawe, a director in charge of irrigation in the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development: "I'm impressed by the progress made so far in the revival of irrigation schemes in Matabeleland South, Manicaland and Masvingo provinces."These are the worst affected provinces in the country and irrigation is critical here."Most of the irrigation schemes thrived soon after independence when the Government put great emphasis on setting up irrigation schemes to boost agricultural production in view of the changing weather patterns.But decades after independence most of the once-prosperous schemes had collapsed due to various factors.Agricultural experts say smallholder irrigation can lead to availability of food at household level through increased productivity, stable production and increased incomes.They also say it can enable Zimbabwe to meet its national target to achieve food security both at national and household levels.Water pumping is one of the most basic and widespread energy needs in rural areas. International food and agricultural agencies estimate that half of the world's rural population does not have access to clean water and irrigation water supply.In the 2016 /17 agricultural season, FAO aims to support 6 000 households with subsidised stock feed and 15 000 households with subsidised small grain seed in 11 of the worst affected districts in the country.Apart from the provision of supplementary feed, FAO and its partners have also rehabilitated 27 dip tanks and rehabilitated numerous irrigation schemes to improve the country's food security situation.There is no doubt that after a period of neglect, the international community and the Government are showing renewed interest in irrigation in Zimbabwe to tackle food insecurity, poverty and climate risk.But agricultural experts still say capital investments are not enough. Many irrigation projects, they argue, miss basic, yet vital, ingredients for success. These include enough finance for routine maintenance, market access and reliable water supplies, among other factors.Smallholder farmers also fear capture of their schemes by elite interests which may deprive local communities of land and water resources, undermining their livelihoods.Despite the abundance of water that goes unharnessed, irrigation coverage in Zimbabwe and most other African countries is still low. FAO statistics show that African countries currently irrigate only 5,4 percent of their cultivated land, compared to a global average of 20 percent, and 40 percent in Asia.Climate related risk have forced most African governments to push irrigation back on the agenda.And, it is working though at a snail's pace. Eric Christian is releasing his first book on Monday. The book is Reckless Christian: We are accepted, loved, and liked by Christ. "After feeling excommunicated from my Bible College, church, and friends, I believed I would never be able to minister again," said Mr. Christian. "Nor did I believe God loved me, much less liked me. However, while finishing up at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, I made a personal decision to find out who God really was. "What I discovered took me by surprise God was not some critical, condemning deity sitting on a throne waving an angry fist in the direction of sinners rather, He was an understanding God offering His gift of love, grace, and mercy with no strings attached. "I want us to be honest and admit that we have doubts, we get discouraged, depressed, feel bad about feeling wealthy or good, yet even though we are honest, we still play games and wear masks. Yet, I want us to find comfort in is knowing that we are not just that; we are accepted, loved, and liked by Christ." Mr. Christian calls himself a "builder" because after being in the construction business for 15 years, then becoming a member of the John Maxwell Team, he gave up the construction business to pursue writing, speaking, and consulting full time. He has been on a journey building leaders with purpose. Mr. Christian is also on staff at Grace Ministries, a faith-based counseling, education, and writing center. He serves in two locations -- Homewood, Ala. and Chattanooga, serving members of the community who seek the ministries of counseling, training, worship, prayer and pastoral care. Reckless Christian will be available on amazon.com. As the Tennessee General Assembly convenes its session next week, it is widely expected to consider proposals by Governor Bill Haslam to increase transportation revenue in the state. A new survey, conducted by a center within the Social Work Office of Research & Public Service at The University of Tennessee at Knoxville (UT Knoxville), finds that Tennesseans support greater investments in biking and walking infrastructure as well as funding for multimodal transportationhighways, roads, bridges, trails, sidewalks, bike lanes and public transit. This survey shows that Tennesseans want more biking and walking opportunities in their communities, said John Paul Shaffer, board chairman of Bike Walk Tennessee. Voters believe that more sidewalks, separated bike lanes and off-street trails can make a difference in the safety and quality of transportation options for everyone in the state, regardless of whether they live in urban, suburban or rural communities. Support for biking and walking infrastructure isnt limited to large urban areas. A majority of respondents in small towns and rural non-farm areas indicated there were too few on-street bike lanes, walking and biking paths, and off-street trails in their communities. Support for spending any revenue increase on multimodal forms of transportation was highest in small cities (64.1 percent), followed by towns and large cities (58.7 percent each), rural non-farm areas (53.6 percent) and small towns (50.4 percent). Tennesseans from Memphis to my Dutch Valley farm in East Tennessees Anderson County want safer, better transportation options for themselves and their children to walk, bike and get around, said Marianne Wesley Fowler, senior strategist for policy advocacy at Rails-to-Trails Conservancy. But they also want the ability to make decisions locally about the transportation options that work best for their communities. Safety and local control were important considerations for Tennesseans. Nearly two-thirds (66.2 percent) of registered voters indicated that adding a separated bike lane would improve safety for both vehicles and bikes. Respondentsincluding Republicans and those from communities of all sizeswould also be more likely to support a gas tax increase (43 percent) if decisions about how to spend it were made at the local level. Bike Walk Tennessee and Rails-to-Trails Conservancy commissioned the Center for Applied Research and Evaluation in the Social Work Office of Research & Public Service at UT Knoxville to conduct a survey of 762 registered Tennessee voters in October 2016. Surveyscompleted using landline sampling, cell phone sampling and a web panelresulted in a margin of error +/- 3.6 percent at a 95 percent confidence level. A summary of survey findings may be viewed here. Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC), a nonprofit organization with more than 160,000 members and supporters, is the nation's largest trails organization dedicated to connecting people and communities by creating a nationwide network of public trails, many from former rail lines and connecting corridors. Founded in 1986, RTCs national office is located in Washington, D.C., with regional offices in California, Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania. For more information, visit . Not as many people are going to the movie theater in America, so studios are starting to pay more attention to their international audiences. They have even gone as far as reshooting and changing things about the plot of their movies to cater to other countries sensitivities. But even that level of caution isnt successful in every case. There have been many movies that havent made it past other countries censors. Sometimes its because of differences in religion, countries being offended by their representation in the movies, or just plain weird rules. So which American movies have offended other countries to the point of being banned? Here are 10 that were just too much for overseas audiences. 1. The Departed The movie industry usually tries to stay on Chinas good side since it has such a large audience. But this time Martin Scorsese didnt make the cut. The movie featuring a mole in the police and an undercover cop trying to find each other was banned due to one specific part of the plot. There is no chance The Departed will be shown in mainland cinemas, because [filmmakers] declined to change a plot line in describing how Beijing wanted to buy advanced military computer hardware, a source told Reuters. The regulators just cannot understand why the movie wanted to involve China. They can talk about Iran or Iraq or whatever, but theres no reason to get China in. This is referring to Frank Costellos gang meeting in a warehouse with Chinese secret agents to buy a computer chip. 2. Schindlers List Most people would agree that this Spielberg movie is one of the best of all time. It shows the real story of Oskar Schindler and how he saved the many lives of his Jewish workers in Poland during World War II. It won seven Oscars, but not everyone supported it like the academy. The movie was banned in multiple Arab and Islamic countries citing the reasons from propaganda with the purpose of asking for sympathy to nudity. The countries include Indonesia, Lebanon, Malaysia, and more. Its just disgraceful, Spielberg said, according to The New York Times. It shocks me because I thought the Islamic countries would feel this film could be an instrument of their own issues in what was happening in Bosnia. 3. The Hunger Games The franchise was a very popular one that launched Jennifer Lawrence into stardom. But the whole world wasnt a fan of her work in the movies. Vietnam banned the movie, not wanting to support something showing little kids battling it out to the death. Thailand was at first on board to show the franchise, until protesters began using the salute from the movies. According to The Antimedia, the country banned Mockingjay and Apex Cinemas said, we feel our theaters are being used for political movements. 4. Zoolander The comedy shows Ben Stiller portraying a fashion model who is brainwashed to kill the Prime Minister of Malaysia. Although the main goal of the movie was for him to stop this evil plot, Malaysia wasnt laughing or thrilled. The Malaysian Home Affairs Ministry Film Censorship Board deemed it definitely unsuitable according to The Guardian. 5. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre The horror film showing five friends being terrorized by a man and his chainsaw along with cannibals was so intense that it was banned in England. In 1975 the British Board of Film Classification found the movies ending had a level of terrorisation and abnormal psychology. In 1981 the movie was released on video there, without a BBFC certificate. Peoples sensitivity, however, changed with time. The film finally got passed in 1999 and hit British theaters uncut. 6. Back to the Future The movie shows Marty McFly going 30 years into the past to make his parents fall in love. Most people agree its a fun movie, but China banned it. Did it make fun of the country to offend it? Nope, China simply has a policy to ban TV shows and movies showing time travel! According to TIME, the government believes time travel plots distort historical events, things, and people. The producers and writers are treating the serious history in a frivolous way, which should by no means be encouraged anymore, said Chinas State Administration for Radio, Film & Television. 7. 2012 The disaster movie showed what could have happened if the Mayan calendar was correct about the end of the world. However, it got some push back overseas. North Korea kept a look out for pirated copies of the movie because it believed it will be a grave provocation against the development of the state, according to The New York Times. Anyone caught with it could be punished with five years in prison. 8. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan The comedy shows Borat (Sacha Baron Cohen) coming to America to shoot a report for a fake country. Many countries were offended by it and banned it, including Kazakhstan, because of Borat doing a spoof of their national anthem. According to Daily Mail, the country accepted the movie six years later in 2012. I salute Borat for helping attract tourists to Kazakhstan, Foreign Minister Yerzhan Kazykhanov told parliament. With the release of this film, the number of visas issued by Kazakhstan grew tenfold. 9. The Exorcist The horror film shows a young girl possessed and her mom gets help from two priests to save her. It is known as one of the greatest horror films of all time, and won two Oscars. However, Englands censorship rules had a huge restriction against the movie under the Video Recording Act 1984. This act allowed the BBFC to consider whether a video was not suitable for viewing by persons who have not attained a particular age or whether no video recording containing that work is to be supplied other than in a licensed sex shop,' according to the BBFC. Now you will be able to find the movie in most places, since the ban has since been lifted. 10. Brokeback Mountain The film shows two cowboys having a secret romantic relationship over many years. It won three Oscars, but was very controversial not only in America where cinemas in Utah refused to show the movie, but overseas as well. China banned the film due to the subject of homosexuality, according to BBC. Malaysia also banned the film claiming, We believe there is a market for Munich here, United International Pictures publicity manager told Associated Press, but Brokeback Mountain is definitely not going to make it here because its themes wouldnt be right for our local audiences. Check out Entertainment Cheat Sheet on Facebook! News / Local by Stephen Jakes A man from Bulawayo is in trouble after he broke into the Compus Plus Shop in the city.Mashonga Ardonia (33) was not asked to plead to unlawful entry when he appeared before Bulawayo magistrate Tinashe Tashaya. He was further remanded for trial.The court heard that on August 5 2016 year to 6 during the night he went to the shop in the city where he gained entry using duplicate keys of the gate before entering the building after climbing on the roof and cutting the corrugated iron roofing.The crime was discovered and a report made to the police led to his arrest. Abbott officially closed its $25 billion acquisition of medical device company St. Jude Medical on Wednesday cementing a deal that promises to make cardiovascular and chronic pain management key parts of Abbott's business. The purchase of Minnesota-based St. Jude was approved about a week ago by federal regulators. Abbott, based in north suburban Abbott Park, does not have any plans to move St. Jude's operations from Minnesota to Illinois at this time, said Abbott spokeswoman Darcy Ross. A combination of Abbott and St. Jude management will lead the business, she said. Advertisement Cardiovascular and chronic pain management will now comprise about one-third of Abbott's total business, Ross said. Before the acquisition, cardiovascular devices made up about 15 percent of Abbott's business, and Abbott didn't have a chronic pain management business. The acquisition will allow Abbott to compete in almost every area of the $30 billion cardiovascular market, Abbott said in a news release. The cardiovascular and chronic pain management businesses have about $8.7 billion in annual sales combined. Advertisement The deal also will improve Abbott's ability to compete as hospitals increasingly look to make purchases from fewer suppliers, Morningstar senior equity analyst Debbie Wang wrote in a recent report. The Federal Trade Commission gave the deal a thumbs up after Abbott agreed to divest two of its medical device businesses to settle charges that the acquisition would otherwise be anticompetitive. Abbott agreed to sell its business focused on steerable sheaths, used to guide catheters for treating heart arrhythmias, and St. Jude's vascular closure device business to Tokyo-based medical device maker Terumo Corp. Vascular closure devices are used to close holes in arteries caused by the insertion of catheters. Abbott acquired St. Jude despite controversy in recent months over some of St. Jude's heart devices. In October, St. Jude and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned the batteries in some of St. Jude's heart devices were running out much sooner than expected, creating potentially life-threatening situations for patients with the devices implanted in their chests. Also, St. Jude has been in court battling allegations by investment firm Muddy Waters Capital that its pacemakers and implantable defibrillators could be targets of cyberattacks. St. Jude's had called the allegations "false and misleading." lschencker@chicagotribune.com Twitter @lschencker Jacob Creighton, 25, of Schererville, Ind., installs ballistic shield on police cruiser at the Ford Troy Design & Manufacturing upfitting facility in Chicago on Thursday, April 23, 2015. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune) Ford's plans to roll out two hybrid police vehicles will bring new production and perhaps renovation to its venerable assembly plant on Chicago's Southeast Side. The automaker announced this week that one of two "pursuit-rated" police hybrids will be built at the Torrence Avenue plant, Ford's oldest in continuous operation. The second vehicle will be built elsewhere but will also find its way to Chicago to be "upfitted" for police duty at an adjacent facility. Advertisement The new hybrids will be in addition to the existing lines of police vehicles being produced at the plant, according to Ford spokeswoman Kelli Felker. She declined to say when the new vehicles will go into production. "These electrified versions are incremental to the very successful Ford Police Interceptor sedan and Ford Police Interceptor utility that we offer today," Felker said Thursday. "We'll have more details to share later." Advertisement Ford currently builds all of its police vehicles in Chicago. Last year, Ford sold 9,472 Police Interceptor sedans and 32,213 Police Interceptor SUVs, according to Felker. The Torrence Avenue plant, which churned out Model T's when it opened in 1924, underwent a $400 million modernization in 2004, and began producing the Taurus in 2009. Ford invested another $180 million into the plant in 2010 when production of the Explorer SUV moved to Chicago from Louisville. The plant produced about 385,000 vehicles in 2016, and employs about 4,200 workers, Felker said. In November 2015, Ford agreed to invest $900 million into the plant as part of a four-year contract settlement with the United Auto Workers. At the time, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in a news release that the investment would support production of the current lines and a "new product that will be announced at a later date," as well as add 200 jobs to the plant. Ford has not begun the new investment into the plant, according to sources. Chris Pena, president of UAW Local 551, which represents employees at the Torrence Avenue plant, did not return a request for comment Thursday. rchannick@chicagotribune.com Twitter @RobertChannick Sears announced it will sell its Craftsman brand to Stanley Black & Decker for more than $900 million. (Chris Walker / Chicago Tribune) Sears Holdings will sell its well-known Craftsman tools brand to Stanley Black & Decker, the latest in a recent flurry of moves the retailer is making to generate cash after at least five money-losing years. The agreement announced Thursday calls for Stanley to pay $525 million when the deal closes expected later this year and another $250 million after three years, the companies said. New Britain, Conn.-based Stanley will pay Sears a percentage of its new sales of Craftsman products for 15 years, and during that time, Sears will be able to continue selling Craftsman products royalty-free. Hoffman Estates-based Sears estimated the deal's value could top $1 billion. Advertisement Separately Thursday, Sears said it's trying to raise another $1 billion by selling off real estate. On Wednesday, affiliates of the hedge fund managed by Sears' chairman, CEO and biggest investor, Edward Lampert, lent Sears up to $500 million to fund operations while it negotiates those sales. Sears announced in May that it was looking for ways to wring more cash from some of its best-known brands Craftsman, Kenmore and DieHard. Advertisement Craftsman still accounted for the largest share of the hand tools and accessories market by dollar share as of September, with about 26.6 percent, and accounts for about 8.3 percent of portable power tool sales, according to Stevenson TraQline, a market research firm. But its share in both categories declined nearly 6 percent over the last four years, shrinking alongside Sears' sales. Currently, about 90 percent of Craftsman products are sold through Sears, Kmart and Sears Hometown stores, Stanley President and CEO James Loree said on a conference call Thursday. Much of the 10 percent sold outside Sears-related channels is sold through Ace Hardware stores. Craftsman's appeal might be slightly stronger with older customers who remember it from decades ago, when the Sears catalog's role was similar to that of e-commerce today, Loree said. But he estimated the brand could add about $100 million of revenue growth per year for the next 10 years, in part by making Craftsman products more widely available. "The world has changed, but Craftsman is still an incredibly strong brand," he said. Stanley is working on plans to begin expanding Craftsman's distribution but currently sells Stanley and Black & Decker brands to some of the biggest home and hardware retailers, including Home Depot , Lowe's and Amazon. The availability of Craftsman products outside of Sears could give shoppers even less reason to venture into its department stores. But those sales will generate cash for Sears, said Craig Johnson, president of consulting and research firm Customer Growth Partners. "If the concept is to monetize some of Sears' assets, it's hard to think of a better partner to make that happen than a company like (Stanley)," he said. Sears has sold off multiple assets to try to turn itself from a traditional department store chain with a big brick-and-mortar footprint to a nimbler retailer focused on membership and online sales. The company previously spun off its Sears Hometown & Outlet and Lands' End businesses. In 2015, it sold 235 stores to a real estate investment trust spinoff, Seritage Growth Properties, and raised $2.72 billion. Advertisement On Wednesday, Sears said it would close 150 unprofitable stores, including two Kmarts in Alton and Granite City. Last week, affiliates of Lampert's hedge fund, ESL Investments, also recently gave the retailer a $200 million letter of credit that could be expanded to $500 million. Lampert and his hedge fund's loans to the retailer add up to more than $1 billion since September 2014. "We are taking strong, decisive actions today to stabilize the company and improve our financial flexibility in what remains a challenging retail environment," Lampert said in a news release. "We are confident that concentrating on these key initiatives will lay the foundation for growth over the long term." Sears did not make Lampert available for an interview Sears' sales have been shrinking for years but could be facing extra pressure after a holiday season that is shaping up to be a dismal one for some traditional department stores. Advertisement During November and December, sales at Sears and Kmart stores open at least a year declined at least 12 percent from a year ago, Sears said. Macy's and Kohl's each reported Wednesday a 2.1 percent drop in sales during November and December. Macy's said it had expected stronger sales and announced plans to close 68 stores by spring. "My sense is (Sears has) been having a tough go in general for the last couple years, but this year has been particularly bad for malls and mall-based anchors," Johnson said. The deal with Stanley on top of other recent cash infusions is "like a life preserver that couldn't have come at a better time," he said. lzumbach@chicagotribune.com Twitter @laurenzumbach Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 13 (Jim Tschetter) 2667 Geneva Terrace in Chicago: $2,600,000 Nov. 9, 2016 This extra-wide, newer-construction home has an elevator, attached garage and four outdoor spaces. The large eat-in kitchen features professional appliances, an oversized island with breakfast bar and a planning desk/pantry. The family room has a coffered ceiling and fireplace. The master suite has a walk-in closet, separate dressing area, marble bath with jet tub and separate steam/rain shower. Other features include a top-floor media room with a wet bar and kitchenette, two roof decks and an additional bedroom. The lower level includes a recreation room, laundry room and storage. Agent: Michael Shenfeld of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices KoenigRubloff, 312-475-4563 News / Local by Alice Dube First Lady Grace Mugabe has shown the High Court a middle finger as she defied an order to move out from properties she seized from a Lebanese diamond dealer.Grace is embroiled in a court battle with Jamal Ahmed over a $1,3 million diamond ring deal.High Court judge Justice Clement Phiri had issued a 24 hour order on 21 December for Grace to leave the premises.He said the sheriff would be granted permission to evict the occupants if the order was ignored.According to reports, Ahmed's lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa said they had now approached the Deputy Sheriff of the High Court."We have decided to engage the sheriff to evict them because they have refused to comply with the High Court order."We are not yet sure as to when will the sheriff execute our request as was stated by the court," she is quoted as saying.Grace was taken to court by Ahmed after she took over three of his properties, demanding that he repay the $1.35m she had paid for a diamond ring that she then decided she did not want.Ahmed said Grace had made an order for the $1.35m diamond ring in Dubai.The ring was for her 20th wedding anniversary but she then refused to take delivery of the diamond and instead demanded a full refund.To avoid trouble the businessman offered to repay the money in installments and has paid back $150 000 already, he said in court documents.Grace, 51, married President Robert Mugabe in 1996. A five-bedroom mansion in Bucktown that U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez once owned sold on Dec. 23 for $1.175 million. (VHT.com) A five-bedroom mansion in Bucktown that U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez once owned sold on Dec. 23 for $1.175 million. Built in 1999, the brick mansion sits on a corner lot. Gutierrez hired homebuilder Pappageorge Haymes Partners to build the mansion and lived there until selling it in 2001 for $975,000. Advertisement The sellers from last month had bought the mansion in 2010 for $924,000, which was "at the bottom of the market," said listing agent Ivona Kutermankiewicz of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices KoenigRubloff. The mansion has 4 1/2 baths, hardwood floors, crown moldings, an attached two-car garage and a roof deck above the garage, a living room with a fireplace and built-ins, a smart home system, a chef's kitchen with 42-inch shaker cabinets and an island and stainless steel appliances, a master bath with a double vanity and a Jacuzzi, and a master bedroom with a Juliet balcony. The penthouse floor has two roof decks, large windows and treetop city views. Advertisement "It really is a great property on the corner, in a very desirable location," Kutermankiewicz told Elite Street. "It has great outdoor spaces and a very unique layout, with a bilevel layout in the living room." Public records do not yet identify the buyer, but Kutermankiewicz said the buyers are a family that lives just around the corner. The mansion first was listed for just under $1.3 million in September. It later was reduced to $1.25 million before going under contract. 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)) Jared Wentworth, the chef behind such Michelin-starred restaurants as Longman & Eagle and Dusek's, has become culinary director at Heisler Hospitality (Pub Royale, Sportsman's Club, Bad Hunter, more). First order of business: Revamp Trenchermen (2039 W. North Ave.), the Wicker Park restaurant that closed in December following the resignation of chef Patrick Sheerin for health reasons. Advertisement The restaurant, following some interior updates and a new menu by Wentworth, will open as Trench in late January or early February. "I'm adding some new touches to it," Wentworth said of Trench. "Kind of go back to the concept of being a great neighborhood restaurant. There will be a lot of stuff I opened with at Longman & Eagle not the same dishes, by any means, but in that vein, getting away from the 'gastropub' coinage and more of a contemporary American tavern. Comfort food but with technique, progressiveness and really nice ingredients." Advertisement It wouldn't be the first time that that formula has worked for Wentworth. It wouldn't even be the third time, considering his success at The Promontory, another 16" On Center spot. Wentworth's menu at Trench will be augmented by a beer and wine program by Heisler beverage manager Michael McAvena, who developed the beer and wine programs at Pub Royale and Bad Hunter. Before joining Heisler, McAvena was cicerone at The Publican when it opened. "Trench will be the first foray with (Heisler)," Wentworth said, "and certainly there will be other projects in the works." Wentworth remains a partner with the 16" On Center group (Longman & Eagle, Dusek's, The Promontory). Phil Vettel is a Tribune critic. pvettel@chicagotribune.com Twitter @philvettel A sloppy Giuseppe (the classic sloppy Joe but with Italian accents like red wine, oregano, provolone and giardiniera) goes great with red wines like a Tuscan blend, a Rhone or a Rioja. (Chicago Tribune) It may have "sloppy" in the name, but that doesn't mean you have to slum it when thinking of wine pairings. Think of this recipe as sloppy Joes with an Italian accent, an updated take that skips a packet of seasoning for fresher, bolder flavors. Lush with ripe fruit flavors and darker notes of smoke, leather and pepper, hearty Old World wines help to elevate the experience, even as you reach for more napkins. MAKE THIS Advertisement Sloppy Giuseppes Saute a finely chopped onion in 2 tablespoons olive oil until it begins to soften, about 5 minutes. Stir in 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped; cook, 1 minute. Add 1 pound ground beef, stirring it into the onions and breaking it up; cook until browned. Stir in 1/2 cup red wine, 1 can (14.5 ounces) Italian pear tomatoes, chopped, 1 tablespoon tomato paste, 1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano, 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes and salt to taste. Cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened. Serve on rolls, topped with a slice of provolone and a generous helping of giardiniera. Makes: 6 servings Advertisement Recipe by Joe Gray DRINK THIS Pairings by sommelier Rachael Lowe of Spiaggia, as told to Michael Austin: 2014 Castello Colle Massari Rigoleto Montecucco Rosso, Tuscany, Italy: This Montecucco Rosso DOC wine is composed of 70 percent sangiovese plus a mixture of montepulciano and ciliegiolo grape varieties. It was aged in both stainless steel and used oak barrels, offering aromas of red cherry, orange pith and strawberry. Acidity balances the tomatoes and cuts through the fat of the beef, which is itself complemented by a hint of smoke. 2014 Alain Graillot Crozes-Hermitage, Rhone Valley, France: Graillot is the premier Crozes-Hermitage producer in the northern Rhone Valley, making focused yet varietally correct representations of the syrah grape variety. With notes of black pepper, smoked meat, black currant and raspberry, plus dried sage and thyme, this wine will not only balance the tomato and beef, but also counter the sweetness of the onion. It nicely complements the dish's herb components. 2012 Hacienda Lopez de Haro Reserva, Rioja, Spain: This blend of tempranillo and graciano grape varieties spends 20 months in both French and American oak barrels, and then a further two years in the bottle. Its flavors of dill, vanilla, strawberry, macerated cranberries, and a hint of leather will play well with the beef and herbs. The ripe fruit flavors will also mellow the giardiniera, while the acidity will cut the provolone's richness. One of the last times actress Janina Gavankar visited Joliet was to pack up her childhood belongings in her mother's home a year ago to prepare it for sale. "It's lovely because I had a vibraphone there, so I donated that just to a (Joliet) high school and found ways to give away a lot of the belongings that I had to people who could really use them," Gavankar told the Tribune last week in a phone interview. "That's the most heartwarming thing. If I can go back to my hometown and go see a performance and catch a glimpse of my old instrument, that's the thing that pulls at the heartstrings." Advertisement Gavankar, 36, is a band-geek-turned-gamer who has been able to land roles that match her passion for fantasy and the supernatural. She's starred on HBO's vampire show "True Blood" and The CW's superhero series "Arrow." She joins Fox's supernatural drama "Sleepy Hollow" for its fourth season, set to premiere 8 p.m. Friday. The Joliet West High School grad is so devoted to alternative culture that she launched a lifestyle brand this week devoted to "geeks of all walks of life." Advertisement MOST READ ENTERTAINMENT NEWS THIS HOUR "This is not about lipstick or clothing and, like, unattainable gifts for people. This is for the grown geek," Gavankar said about altfound.com. "I grew up as a band geek and a theater geek and I ended up a tech geek and a gamer geek. The people that I have surrounded with are of that culture." After Joliet West, Gavankar went on to study theater at the University of Illinois at Chicago before moving to Los Angeles. She's already amassed more than 50 screen credits, from her role as "fine woman" in the 2002 Chicago-set movie "Barbershop" to her new "Sleepy Hollow" gig as Diana Thomas, a former Marine who works for the Department of Homeland Security while raising her daughter as a single mother. "Sleepy Hollow" is inspired by the classic tale "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," but is set in modern times. Gavankar said she was drawn to the role because her brother-in-law is a former Marine who works in counter-terrorism for the Department of Treasury. "These fantasy shows that are good are rooted in something very human. As soon as they told me these details about Diana, I knew that I could turn to (my brother-in-law) and build an entire backstory based on very real things," Gavankar said. "Having my brother-in-law be so close to this character in his own backstory grounded the whole thing and made it very close to home for me, so I immediately had a point of reference." The fourth season of "Sleepy Hollow" filmed in Atlanta and Washington, D.C, where her sister, brother-in-law and mother live. "It's like the perfect scenario to be able to hang out with your family while you work. It's so rare. It's really nice. You often get shipped off to work. When it comes to the industry, I say I live in L.A. only kind of. I have a house here, but I'm never here because I'm working elsewhere," Gavankar said. Advertisement Up next for Gavankar: A role in the upcoming Elle Fanning film "Sidney Hall." She said she's also developing a project with her writing partner from Rockford based on a story that took place in Rockford in the 1980s. "Really, my goal has never been one part. I want to be at the end of my life and look back and see a really diverse group of characters over a really long period of time. It's almost impossible to have a long career as a woman, so just that alone is a goal," Gavankar said. RELATED STORIES: Women must stand up for their place in geek world: New Voices 'Sleepy Hollow:' Can a 'Transformers' sensibility translate to TV? Janina Gavankar: 'True Blood' shifters fighting for their lives Watch the latest movie trailers. Felicity Jones as Jyn Erso and Diego Luna as Cassian Andor in the film "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story." (Lucasfilm Ltd. / TNS) When the newest "Star Wars" movie came out in movie theaters, Perla Nation insisted on waiting to see it with her father, after the holidays. He was by no means a fan of the saga, and neither was she. But the 27-year-old from San Diego had a feeling the movie would resonate with her father, a landscaper who immigrated to the United States from Guadalajara, Mexico, in the early 1980s. As they sat in the movie theater Monday, the father and daughter watched as one of the main characters, an intelligence officer with the Alliance named Captain Cassian Andor, appeared on the screen. Advertisement Nation's father, Pablo Perez, nudged her as soon as he heard the actor, Diego Luna, speak. "He has a heavy accent," Perez uttered to his daughter. Advertisement After the movie, as they walked to their car, Perez turned to his daughter and said, once more, "Did you notice that he had an accent?" "Yeah, Dad," Nation responded, "just like yours." Having watched previous interviews with Luna about his role in the movie, Nation already knew the Mexican actor would be keeping his accent in the movie, she said in an interview with The Washington Post. She thought of her father, with his Mexican accent, and what seeing Luna's performance could mean to him. It wasn't just that a Mexican was on screen, or even that an actor was speaking in a Mexican accent. It was the unexpectedness of the role. There was no particular reason Cassian was Mexican, or why he shouldn't be. He just was. MOST READ ENTERTAINMENT NEWS THIS HOUR "Anybody could be that character," Nation said. "It was just a natural part of him." And for Mexican viewers - and many Latino viewers in general - that made all the difference. During a time when Hollywood films are facing intense scrutiny for lacking diversity in leading roles, the casting of Diego Luna marked a crucial step forward. It was a rare example of a time when a Latino actor has been cast in a blockbuster film not simply as a token Latino character but as a leading role with no obvious ties to Latino culture. Advertisement A study released in February from the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism found that Latinos are among the least represented in speaking roles in film and television. Out of more than 11,000 speaking characters surveyed in film and TV, 5.8 percent were Hispanic or Latino, even though Latinos make up 17.4 percent of the U.S. population. Meanwhile, minorities - particularly Latinos - are the fastest growing movie audience and make up 44 percent of the nation's most avid theatergoers, according to the Motion Picture Association of America. Far too often, Nation said, Latinos are cast as supporting roles, villains or damsels in distress characterized as sensual or seductive. But in "Star Wars," Luna was cast as a protagonist. This made an important statement, Nation said, particularly in light of the role immigrants have played in political rhetoric recently. "Mexicans are often seen as drug dealers and rapists," Nation said. "Now, you see a Mexican hero." When she was younger, attending a predominantly white school, Nation remembered feeling frustrated with her parents for not being able to speak English as clearly as her friends' parents. As she grew older, Nation said, she began to appreciate the difficulty of learning a second language, and realized how wrong she was "for thinking that this difference was a detriment." Still, her father has always been self-conscious about his accent, and insists on speaking Spanish at home, even though he is fluent in English. As Perez watched Diego Luna unabashedly speaking in his native accent on screen, "you could just see this huge smile on his face," Nation said. Advertisement After they had left the movie, Perez asked his daughter if the film had made a lot of money and if people liked it. She told him the movie was the second highest grossing film of 2016, even though it had only been released for 18 days of the year, and that it had received great reviews. He then asked her why Diego Luna had not changed his accent. "I told him that Diego has openly talked about keeping his accent and how proud he is of it," Nation said. Her father was silent for a while, and then said, "And he was a main character." "He was," Nation responded. As they drove home, Perez spoke about other Mexican actors he thought should be featured in American movies. Moved by her father's reaction to the movie, Nation decided to write about it on her Tumblr blog. "Representation matters," she wrote at the end of her post. Her story quickly spread on social media, and the following day even Diego Luna himself tweeted about her post, saying "I got emotional reading this!" Advertisement She received an outpouring of messages from fellow Latinos telling her they now planned on taking their own parents to the film. "My mother has an accent & has been in America for 25 years," one writer posted on her blog. "Sometimes we tease her about some of the ways she pronounces things, but this made me see she's not alone & re-appreciate her beautiful accent. Our parents came here to give us a better life along with their culture & it's amazing that they're allowing it in mainstream & normalizing it bc IT IS normal." "For all of us who have an accent when speaking English, thanks and congratulations," one Twitter user wrote to Diego Luna. When Nation told her father that Diego Luna had tweeted her blog post, she recorded his reaction in a video. He said he was "extraordinarily happy." "I'm delighted that he maintained his Latino accent in the film," Perez said. "And it's apparent that he's an extraordinary artist." "It's empowering for Latinos in this moment," Nation, who is studying peace and conflict at the University of California at Berkeley, said. "When you see people like you, that could be you on screen." Advertisement She has even noticed a change in her father. The other day, Nation was surprised to hear her father choose to respond to her in English. "It's making him much more confident in the way that he speaks," she said. "I hope other people feel the same way." RELATED STORIES: Publishing industry strikes back: Star Wars books hit shelves ahead of 'Rogue One' 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story' review: Too violent for kids? Michael Phillips reveals the movie triumphs, disasters of 2016 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) One of the great action heroes and movie stars in any language, Toshiro Mifune of "Rashomon," "Seven Samurai," "Yojimbo" and so many other pictures is the subject of a Gene Siskel Film Center retrospective this month. It'll be a great way to heat up your January. Called "The Magnificent Mifune," the retrospective presents seven key films in the actor's career, along with a new documentary, "Mifune: The Last Samurai," directed and co-written by Steven Okazaki. It's a pleasing 80-minute account, generously studded with clips, featuring testimonials from his Japanese film colleagues as well as the American directors Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg. The latter used Mifune in his comedy "1941"; Mifune worked on plenty of other English-language projects, from "Grand Prix" to the TV miniseries "Shogun." He had the financial misfortune to turn down the Alec Guinness role in "Star Wars" on the advice of Mifune's American agent, proving that some agents are better than others. Advertisement MOST READ ENTERTAINMENT NEWS THIS HOUR Mifune's influence, particularly his films with Akira Kurosawa, extended around the globe. Without "Seven Samurai" and its international success, there would've been no "Magnificent Seven" remake. Without "Hidden Fortress," George Lucas would have no "Star Wars." No strong, silent hero-killer as played by Mifune, no Man With No Name, played by Clint Eastwood. Right there we have a huge distinction: Mifune's dynamic performance range was unparalleled, which no one ever said about Eastwood, and his intensity stunning when he exploded physically, in a blur of kinetic violence came through even when Mifune stood completely still on screen. Advertisement "Mifune: The Last Samurai" works as a Mifune primer, as well as a tasty introductory course in Japanese cinema. The on-camera interviewees include fight choreographer Kanzo Uni, identified as having been "killed by Mifune more than a hundred times." Uni speaks to the legacy of the chanbara film genre. (The word, we learn, comes from the sound of two swords clashing, "CHAN! BARA!") The documentary includes fascinating footage from the only surviving scene of "Chokon" (1926), in which a samurai licks the blood of his adversaries down the length of his blade for strength. You can see in this one shot where Mifune, who came to stardom a generation later, learned a thing or two. In World War II Mifune, born in China to Japanese nationals, was drafted at age 20 and trained soldiers for suicide missions. Shiro Mifune, the actor's eldest son, provides anecdotes about his father's childhood, his stoic endurance of the war, the death of his parents (circumstances unknown). Mifune returned home with 11/2 yen and one blanket provided by the defeated Imperial Army. The soon-to-be actor, who intended on becoming a camera assistant (his father worked as a portrait photographer), turned the blanket into a homemade coat and trousers. Mifune drank to dangerous excess, loved cars, lived through a highly publicized scandal involving a mistress. At his busiest, he cranked out 27 films in four years. "Sometimes in a collaboration people use each other up," Scorsese notes of Mifune's fruitful, ongoing but finite partnership with Kurosawa. But en route, if the talent is there along with the luck and the public, the results can be thrilling. Nobody in cinema can rival the unique, electric combination of scowling power and exuberant physicality of Mifune. The Gene Siskel Film Center's Mifune retrospective continues through Feb. 2. Go to www.siskelfilmcenter.org for the full lineup and more information. Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic. mjphillips@chicagotribune.com Twitter @phillipstribune "Mifune: The Last Samurai" Advertisement MPAA rating: Running time: 1:20 3 p.m. Saturday and 6 p.m. Monday at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State St., www.siskelfilmcenter.org RELATED STORIES: '20th Century Women' review: Annette Bening leads a village in raising teen son 'Silence' review: Scorsese's labor of love needs a little less Advertisement Michael Phillips reveals the movie triumphs, disasters of 2016 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) The Japanese novelist Shusaku Endo once said he considered his Catholic baptism the equivalent of receiving a "ready-made suit," infant size. Only in adulthood did he realize "it had become a part of me after all." Endo's 1966 novel "Silence," a stern, exquisite piece of historical fiction about Portuguese Jesuit priests persecuted for their beliefs in 17th century Japan, walks a thin line separating West from East, religious fervor from spiritual skepticism. It could only have come from a conflicted Christian, asking monumental questions about God's existence and humankind's suffering. Advertisement This brings us to the American director Martin Scorsese. Every single one of his movies, even the least overtly religious of them, return to the iconography and biblical longing of his ingrained, unsettled, fervent Catholicism, his attraction to the meaning and power of martyrdom. MOST READ ENTERTAINMENT NEWS THIS HOUR Advertisement Now we have Scorsese's long-gestating screen adaptation of "Silence," and it's a frustrating paradox: a carefully considered, dramatically blinkered chamber epic, written by Scorsese and his occasional collaborator, former film critic Jay Cocks. It has some remarkable images and shot sequences, and two very crafty supporting performances. The easiest thing you can say about "Silence" is that it's a labor of love, made by a valiant soldier for his chosen storytelling medium. I gave it two viewings to figure out why I don't respond more strongly to it. Is it my agnosticism? My problems with Andrew Garfield, a talented and affecting actor but also a very needy one? Maybe, and yes. And maybe it's also simply methodical and stately to a fault. "Silence" can't have been easy to adapt. On the page it's told largely by way of letters written by Father Rodrigues (Garfield in the movie), one of two Jesuit priests Adam Driver, eerily gaunt, plays the secondary character, Father Garupe who convince their superior (Ciaran Hinds) to travel to Japan on a final mission. The whereabouts of their colleague, Father Ferreira (Liam Neeson, invaluable), are unknown; his last letter, smuggled out of Japan, tells of priests and believers dying in horrifying ways at the hands of the Japanese authorities, formerly tolerant of Christianity, now determined to drum it out entirely. Is Ferreira alive? In Macao, Rodrigues and Garupe meet their broken-down guide, Kichijiro (Yosuke Kubozuka), and from there "Silence" brings the priests to Japan. They encounter a village of secretive converts, desperate to connect with the fathers, justly fearful they'll be murdered for their beliefs. Andrew Garfield stars in "Silence," a Martin Scorsese adaptation of Shusaku Endo's novel. (Paramount Pictures) The region's controlled by the Inquisitor, a smiling devil played by the splendid Issey Ogata. At one point, sitting in his chair, he hears news that displeases him, causing him to slump and then visibly (and comically) deflate before our eyes. Ogata made for a memorably eccentric Hirohito in the Alexander Sokurov film "The Sun" and if he weren't in "Silence," well, "Silence" would be even more daunting and difficult than it is. In close-up Neeson's anguish holds the screen like few other sights in modern cinema, and a comparatively late scene in "Silence" pits Neeson against Garfield in a stimulating, discreetly combative war of words, and beliefs. Too much of the film surrounding that scene struggles to find a motor. Scorsese and cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto, working with editor Thelma Schoonmaker, try a little of everything visually, and individual shots are stunning (note the way Neeson enters the frame in his first shot, at the boiling waters of Nagasaki). The editing in the expository passage featuring Garfield, Driver and Hinds keeps us off-balance and listening, and when the violence comes later, Scorsese handles it like a grown-up who does not blink yet who treats suffering and pain seriously. This is very different, say, than working like a bullying adolescent with an intent to put us through it, as Mel Gibson did in "Hacksaw Ridge." Garfield's role involves a difficult amount of murmuring prayer in voice-over. In popcorn movies (the "Spider-Man" reboot) and high-type efforts like this one, the actor is often on the verge of tears, sometimes movingly, other times in ways that seem like bids for audience sympathy. A little more less would've been wise here. The film proceeds dutifully, and I don't think Endo's novel, filmed twice before and barely 200 pages in its original form, responds well to Scorsese's more expansive tack. Endo's perspective in the novel, at once questioning and urgent, has been replaced by what I read as a less complicated martyr's travail in Scorsese's hands. Rodrigues sees himself, at weak moments, as both Jesus and Judas, enacting his own Passion Play, but by that point in "Silence" I found myself thinking back to Scorsese's "Last Temptation of Christ," a far more complex and dynamic spiritual inquiry. Abiding faith is no easy subject for the movies; too often it comes out pious and insufferable, and troubling masterworks on the order of Carl Dreyer's "The Passion of Joan of Arc" or Robert Bresson's "Diary of a Country Priest" come along once a decade if we're lucky. Scorsese has lived with his love of this material for a long time. Maybe too long. Advertisement Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic. mjphillips@chicagotribune.com Twitter @phillipstribune "Silence" 2.5 stars MPAA rating: R (for some disturbing violent content) Running time: 2:41 Advertisement Opens: Friday RELATED STORIES: 'A Monster Calls' review: Felicity Jones, Liam Neeson star in story of tree aiding child grieve loss of parent 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story' review: Too violent for kids? Michael Phillips reveals the movie triumphs, disasters of 2016 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) Joshua Henry as Aaron Burr in "Hamilton" in Chicago at the PrivateBank Theatre. (Joan Marcus photo / HANDOUT) Chicago's production of "Hamilton" is to lose one of its stars the critically acclaimed Joshua Henry, who plays the role of Aaron Burr. Henry is to star in the upcoming national touring production of the hit musical. That tour begins March 10 in San Francisco. Henry's last Chicago performance has not yet been announced. Advertisement The announcement of Henry joining the tour was made Thursday by "Hamilton" producer Jeffrey Seller. Emmy Raver-Lampman, an ensemble member and understudy, also is leaving the Chicago production. Seller did not announce Henry's replacement. However, the actor and television host Wayne Brady has been spotted downtown in recent days. Brady, the host of "Let's Make a Deal," has used material from "Hamilton" in that game show in the past. Advertisement Wayne Brady attends the BET Honoros held at the Warner Theater in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 8, 2014. (Olivier Douliery / McClatchy-Tribune) Also a regular panelist on "Whose Line Is It Anyway?," Brady has Broadway credits, beginning with an appearance as Billy Flynn in "Chicago" and, last winter, he was featured in a starring role in "Kinky Boots." His addition to the Chicago cast likely would broaden its appeal even beyond its current smash-hit status. A Broadway in Chicago spokesman would say only that replacement casting would be announced at a later date. RELATED STORIES: Chris Jones' top 10 stage performances of 2016 Review: 'Hamilton' makes the most of its Chicago shot Counting down the best of Chicago theater in 2016 'Spamilton,' the hit musical spoof of 'Hamilton,' headed to Chicago Why the NY cast of 'Hamilton' was right. And the Chicago disrupter wrong. Watch the latest movie trailers. Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 126 Woody introduces the gang to a homemade spork toy with self-esteem issues in "Toy Story 4." Read the review. (Pixar / AP) Simone Chubb went on antidepressantsafter she admitted that she regretted havingher daughter, Riley. (Steve Bagwell) Just after she got engaged, Simone Chubb, a 21-year-old from Pennsylvania, found herself in the throes of a horrendous pregnancy. She vomited at least once a day, if not multiple times, and in the midst of it, she found out she was having a girl, though she'd wanted a boy. Three months into her pregnancy, Chubb and her husband, who was in the military, moved to Kansas, away from family. Advertisement That was where she gave birth to Riley Faye, whom Chubb immediately regretted. "As soon as I had her, I realized, 'I'm miserable,'" said Chubb, now 21. "I'm sore and tired, and I have to do everything." Advertisement She, like many women who've regretted being mothers, didn't tell anyone how she felt because she was ashamed. It was another two months until Chubb whispered the words, "I regret having a baby," to her doctor, who referred her to a therapist. Chubb started taking antidepressants, which helped. Sometimes. Statistics on the number of people who truly regret having children are hard to come by, because the topic is such a taboo, said Avital Norman Nathman, author of "The Good Mother Myth." "It goes against everything our society says mothers should say or feel," Nathman said. "Society sets us up to expect one idea of perfection of motherhood it's the ideal job, it's a huge part of our identity." But the reality is nearly always different. Perhaps that's why a Facebook group created for parents who regret having children has more than 5,200 members (the Tribune tried to reach some members but was unable to get responses), and according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 3 percent of parents admit to regretting their decision to have kids. Orna Donath, a sociologist at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, studied the topic extensively and spoke with women, young and old. She found that the regrets stemmed from a variety of reasons. Some of the pregnancies were planned, and some of the women wanted to have children very badly, while others were surprised to find that they were pregnant, she said. Their regrets about motherhood had nothing to do with their children, however. Advertisement "This is also not a question of loving or hating children," Donath said. "What is at the center of the discussion is motherhood, not the children themselves." The big issue, Donath said, is that society has difficulty acknowledging that women are very different from one another, and therefore, for some, motherhood is the most wonderful thing that ever happened to them. So for them, it's a profound change, and they may believe that it must be the same for every woman. "We women have diverse dreams, fantasies, yearnings and needs," Donath said. "It is dangerous and outrageous to command us to think and to feel the same." So while the majority of the women in the study loved their children, they felt pressure from society to think motherhood was also the best thing that had ever happened to them. When they didn't feel that overwhelming joy, they regretted their children, Donath said. Accepting that motherhood is not going to be incredible for everyone might not eliminate regret, but it might ease the pressure on these moms, she said. Chubb felt a lot of pressure, along with shame that she wasn't enjoying her baby. After all, she was a stay-at-home mother, and her baby was adorable and delightful. But Chubb wasn't happy. Advertisement "There's a stigma that it's supposed to be the time of your life," Chubb said. "People want to create this facade of the perfect life and the perfect reality, but it's all just a dream." Chubb said that she's regretting becoming a mother a little less now that her baby is sleeping longer periods at night and isn't crying as much. But most of the women in Donath's study felt the regret for their entire lives. That's because, in general, people find satisfaction when they feel they've accomplished something, when they have autonomy and control, and when they feel challenged and appreciated, said Nancy Darling, professor of psychology at Oberlin College. But they may not find that when they parent. "At a day-to-day level, parenting rarely accomplishes anything: You get your kids to bed sometimes, they get dressed, they stop hitting their brother. But lots of times, that is stopping a negative or hitting minimal standards," Darling said. Advertisement Children may say they love you, but they tend not to say you're doing a good job, she said. While regretting children may be the most painful emotion that a parent has, and one that may never go away, it's possible to feel better about it and to deal with it in a way that won't affect your parenting, Nathman said. "Those feelings will come out in some way overindulgence, obedience or neglect," she said. But there are safe spaces for your feelings, such as visiting a therapist or sharing through anonymous online groups. Voicing those feelings may help you figure out ways to move on. "Regretting motherhood exists, and mothers who feel this way are not monsters," Donath said. Advertisement Danielle Braff is a freelancer. RELATED STORIES: Top parenting stories of 2016 Chicago parents face challenges, joys in raising multiracial children Brain changes during pregnancy may help mom prepare for baby Q: Your parents constantly embarrass you on social media (leaving inappropriate comments or posting embarrassing photos). How do you make them stop without hurting their feelings? I am sure you're not alone in this problem. Check with your friends to find one who is having the same difficulty. Let's say her name is Sarah. Advertisement Honestly describe Sarah's discomfort with the situation to your folks and say something like, "I would really like to help Sarah with her dilemma." Ask for your folks' advice on what your friend could say to her parents to remedy the situation. Advertisement This should work because, by linking the problem to Sarah's parents, yours will not have to feel defensive about what they've done or feel bruised by your criticism. In addition, by engaging them as problem-solvers in the matter, they will come to recognize that such comments or posts on social media can indeed be a problem something they most likely didn't realize before. As a consequence, in the future they'll be more sensitive to the potentially embarrassing nature of what they say or post about you. Robert Cialdini, behavioral scientist and author of "Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade" Take some time to explain to them that your network includes more formal contacts like co-workers, bosses or people you'd like to impress someday. For example, you could say, "Mom, when you share naked pictures of me as a baby on Facebook, people like my boss can see it, not just our relatives. I'm worried pictures like that will hurt my career. Could you just email them to me instead?" Total strangers might be able to see the comments or photos your parents post. You could explain this to them by saying, "Dad, when you make a joke and my co-worker Tom likes it, Tom's network of friends people you and I don't even know can see that joke too." Perhaps it's also time to introduce your parents to the direct messaging features in the social platforms they use and tell them, "If it's not a comment you would feel comfortable making at my workplace, share it privately instead." Jennifer Kane, marketing and communications consultant and author of "Social Media Etiquette for Business: 100 Ways to Communicate With Grace and Class" Advertisement Social Graces is a series asking two experts for advice on awkward situations. Andreea Ciulac is a freelancer. RELATED STORIES: Losing city friends in your 30s for a 'burb life I went overboard policing my kids' diets. It totally backfired. Advocates work to keep victims of domestic violence safe on social media News / Local by Staff Reporter A 60-year-old man who was caught red-handed with a married woman is struggling for his life in hospital after he was stoned and left for dead by his lover's 24-year-old husband.Qondani Moyo of Nkulumane 11 suburb pleaded not guilty to attempted murder when he appeared before Western Commonage magistrate Stephen Ndhlovu.He told the court that he could not control himself after seeing his wife in the company of her lover at around 2am a fortnight ago.He was remanded in custody to January 12.Prosecutor Brian Nkala said Moyo assaulted Shadreck Sithole of Bulawayo's Nkulumane 5 suburb when he found him with his wife at night.Nkala said Moyo's victim suffered head injuries and was recovering in hospital. Incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer, right, speaks with David Axelrod, director of the University of Chicago Institute of Politics, at the U. of C.on Jan. 4, 2017. (Nuccio DiNuzzo / Chicago Tribune) Incoming White House spokesman Sean Spicer has at least one thing in common with the American public: He said during an appearance Wednesday night at the University of Chicago he has no idea what President-elect Donald Trump is going to tweet next. "I do not" know in advance what he'll tweet, Spicer told David Axelrod at an Institute of Politics event. "He drives the train on this." Advertisement Sympathizing, Axelrod asked Spicer if he sleeps at all, or whether he wakes up in dread at what Trump has tweeted. "No," Spicer told him. "But I do look there first, because it drives the news." Advertisement Spicer's appearance also attended by former Obama administration spokesman Robert Gibbs, now with McDonald's was dominated by questions about Trump's tenuous relationship with the truth. But Spicer said Trump believes everything he says and tweets, drawing a distinction between Trump's "right to express his opinion" and journalists' duty to the truth. Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. > "It's one thing to make a statement, but if you're a journalist, your job is to get that right," he said, prompting an incredulous Axelrod to ask him, "Isn't that (also) the job of the president of the United States?" Spicer dismissed the idea that Trump "tweets randomly" when he wades into complex issues, telling the audience that Trump is a "very strategic thinker he's actually been very successful at getting what he wants using Twitter." Asked by Axelrod how Trump tweets, he scoffed "with his hands he has multiple devices." The event Wednesday was threatened with an outbreak of projectile vomiting by a student protester. But while students asked Spicer pointed questions, only one protester, who complained about Trump's "fascist" policies before he was ushered out by security, interrupted Spicer while he spoke. "I believe we're vomit-free," a relieved Spicer said, to laughter, at the end of the event. kjanssen@chicagotribune.com Advertisement Twitter @kimjnews Crews are on a 606 bridge are working to complete a light installation to illuminate the Milwaukee Avenue bridge Jan. 4, 2016. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune) (Chicago Tribune) A switch will be flipped Saturday to illuminate the Milwaukee Avenue arched bridge along The 606. The illumination of the art installation called "Turning Sky" will coincide with The 606's second annual Walk with Light event, in which residents light up the trail by walking with strings of lights, LED candles and glow sticks. The event is to kick off at 4 p.m., followed by the unveiling of the light installation. Advertisement The bridge's cable strands will be lit with lights twinkling at various speeds to reflect wind conditions and with colors that change based on temperature, according to a spokeswoman for The Trust for Public Land, project manager of The 606. "Turning Sky" by Luftwerk, a Chicago studio that illuminated the Humboldt Boulevard viaduct with shapes and colors when the 2.7-mile elevated trail opened in 2015, was included in a fundraising campaign to turn The 606 into a living work of art by raising $25,000 for arts programs including wall murals and performances. Advertisement Donations surpassed the fundraising goal, with nearly $33,000 raised in three months. The largest contribution was a $10,000 anonymous gift. The 13 donors who gave at least $1,000 will be honored on a plaque to be installed on the trail in April. The money that was raised will help chip away at the goal of raising the last $14 million of the $40 million sought in private donations. The 606, which runs through Bucktown, Wicker Park, Logan Square and Humboldt Park and connects to four parks, is a $95 million project funded by a combination of private donations and federal and local money. lvivanco@chicagotribune.com Twitter @lvivanco The YMCA of Metro Chicago has agreed to train its employees to administer the emergency medicine glucagon to diabetics who request it as part of a settlement to a discrimination complaint, the U.S. Attorney's office said on Wednesday. The two-year settlement agreement, which took effect Dec. 21, also requires the YMCA of Metro Chicago to implement a comprehensive policy on diabetes management, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's office. Advertisement In 2015, the parents of a 9-year-old girl with Type 1 diabetes requested that the YMCA train its staff to administer glucagon injections to their daughter, a member of the center's swim team, in an emergency situation. They later filed a discrimination complaint with the U.S. Attorney's Office after the center denied their request. A federal investigation concluded that the YMCA of Metro Chicago discriminated against the girl by denying her the opportunity to participate in the program on the basis of disability and by failing to make reasonable modifications in its policies to administer the medication. Advertisement The settlement agreement was voluntary, and YMCA of Metro Chicago did not admit to any violations. However, the center will establish several procedures to ensure full compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, according to the release. In a statement, the YMCA said it is pleased with settlement while acknowledging it will require an adjustment. "This expands our capacity to work with our members' medical issues, and that's why we were quick to cooperate with the Department of Justice on this matter," said Gretchen Dennis, manager of inclusion at the YMCA of Metro Chicago. "This level of medical support is new territory for the Y, and we're approaching it thoughtfully, with special attention to staff training and an understanding of current medical management techniques," Dennis said. "While this presents a learning curve for both our organization and our staff, the Y remains committed to serving members to the best of our ability." Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Fitzpatrick said they will "monitor the situation" for two years to ensure the center complies with the terms of the agreement. nmoreno@chicagotribune.com Veterinary care workers remove feces-encrusted fur from one of 37 dogs removed from a home in Glencoe on May 16, 2015. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune) A Glencoe woman who was charged with animal cruelty after officials found about three dozen filthy and sick dogs in her home was ordered in court Wednesday not to possess any more pets. Jeanne Harper was charged in May 2015 with misdemeanor cruel treatment to companion animals and failure to meet animal owner's duties after the animals were removed from her home, which has since been torn down. Advertisement On Wednesday, Harper pleaded guilty in Cook County court to a single count of violating an animal owner's duties and received one year of conditional discharge, which is similar to probation. Prosecutors said Harper failed to provide veterinary care to prevent the animals from suffering; they dropped the remaining charges as part of a plea agreement. Harper was also ordered to pay the village more than $2,800 to cover the costs of removing and finding treatment for the dogs and of euthanizing at least five animals that could not be saved, officials said. Advertisement The judge told Harper in court Wednesday that she is forbidden from getting any more pets other than one dog authorities allowed her to keep after she was charged. Authorities were called to Harper's home in 2015 for a "wellness check" and at that time found the animals living in horrid conditions, many covered in feces and with matted fur, officials said. The dogs were taken to local veterinary clinics where they were cleaned, shaved and treated, officials said. Some of the dogs were eventually put up for adoption. Shortly after Harper was charged, her attorney said she had been in the process of moving when the canines were given to her by someone who knew she had an affinity for dogs. Harper did not speak during the hearing Wednesday other than to say she agreed to the plea deal. She also declined to comment further outside court. Brian L. Cox is a freelance reporter. Erica Rangel, an organizer with Enlace Chicago, describes the platform of demonstrators who plan to rally next week in support of immigrants. (Marwa Eltagouri/Chicago Tribune) (Chicago Tribune) Community, faith and labor organizations have planned a rally Jan. 14 in support of Chicago's immigrants, Muslims and refugees, fearing that those groups will be under attack following Donald Trump's inauguration. Chicago will join other cities nationwide in rallying that day, less than a week before the Jan. 20 inauguration, as part of a national day of action, Lawrence Benito, chief executive officer of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, said at a news conference Thursday morning. Advertisement "Jan. 14 is a time to join hands with immigrant, refugee, faith and labor brothers and sisters and their allies to declare, in no uncertain terms, that we will stand in the way of criminalization, mass deportation and hatred in our communities," he said. "We are our own protectors. We will resist. We will continue to fight for dignity and respect for our communities. "And we will continue to organize, to build the power to change our failed immigration policies," Benito said. Advertisement During the rally, organizers will promote resistance policies to help communities fight anti-immigrant, xenophobic or Islamophobic attacks on the local, state and federal level. Such policies include limiting the collaboration between local law enforcement and immigration agents in order to disrupt deportations, and the continuance of President Barack Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. > "We will lay out our demands on protecting DACA and ensuring that our municipalities are focused on keeping our communities safe instead of working to deport our neighbors and rip our families apart," said Erica Rangel, an organizer with Enlace Chicago. "That all workers, including immigrants, are able to organize for good-paying, union jobs that will lift them out of poverty." Organizers will speak out against any kind of registry for immigrants from Muslim countries, and ask that "safe spaces" be made available at public institutions so that immigrants, Muslims and refugees have access to emotional support and informational resources. Tabassum Haleem, executive director of the Council of Islamic Organizations for Greater Chicago, said she was concerned about the surge in hate crimes against Muslims in the past year. She cited FBI statistics, which report that hate crimes increased by 67 percent from 2014 to 2015, and that 257 anti-Muslim incidents occurred in 2015. "This is our home. A home worth fighting for. A home that is under threat not from immigrants, not from Muslims, not from refugees, but from policies that are targeted against marginalized communities of many faiths and ethnic backgrounds," she said. The rally is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. at the Chicago Teachers Union headquarters at 1901 W. Carroll St. meltagouri@chicagotribune.com Twitter @marwaeltagouri Minutes before opening fire on a man in the Mount Greenwood neighborhood, an off-duty Chicago police officer called 911 and said a dozen people had surrounded his car and he feared the situation could escalate. "You need to send police to 111th and Troy right now before someone gets shot," the officer says in a newly released recording. "I am an off-duty police officer. I'm getting attacked by about 12 (expletive) in a car." "Do you have your weapon drawn, sir?" the dispatcher asks. The call ends. Not long afterward, police say, 25-year-old Joshua Beal was fatally shot by the officer and another off-duty cop after he grabbed a gun from a car and tried to fire at them. The shooting of Beal, who was black, led to several tense demonstrations in Mount Greenwood, which is predominantly white and home to many police officers and firefighters. The 911 call was among several recordings, videos and documents released late Wednesday by the Independent Police Review Authority, which is investigating the shooting. They include new witness descriptions of the incident and at least one new video showing Beal on the ground after he was shot. The confrontation began when members of a funeral procession got into an argument with several off-duty officers on Nov. 5. Beal and several family members were driving down 111th Street after attending a funeral for a relative who had been killed in Indianapolis. Their cars had been seen weaving in and out of traffic before stopping in a fire lane, according to police and prosecutors. An off-duty officer told the group to move their cars. The argument escalated and another off-duty officer drew his weapon and told the group to get back, according to police and prosecutors. A third off-duty officer, who had been inside a barbershop with his son, came out while a police sergeant on his way to work also stopped to intervene, police said. Beal went to a black Dodge Charger, grabbed a gun and pointed it at one of the officers, according to police. Beal pulled the trigger but the gun didn't go off, according to prosecutors. Officials said two of the off-duty officers shot Beal a total of eight times when he ignored orders to drop the weapon. The off-duty officer who made the 911 gives a slightly different version of how the fight started than what officials have said. He tells the dispatcher that the group cut him off, then one car pulled up next him while another car was behind of him. "And now they are running up on another person," he says. "I'm telling you, you better get the police here now." As the dispatcher tries to confirm his location, the officer is heard saying, "Oh, this is (expletive) ridiculous." The 911 center began getting calls from other people on the scene reporting a chaotic fight in the middle of the road, their voices becoming more alarmed as the incident escalated into a shooting. One of the first callers described a "total race fight" involving about 20 people. Another caller, a woman, was talking to the dispatcher when she realizes someone in the crowd has a gun. "He's got a gun," she says. "He has a gun!" The woman says the man with the gun was black and wearing a black shirt. Another woman calls to report that a man wearing a red T-shirt and jeans had his gun drawn apparently one of the off-duty officers. "Oh my God," the woman says. Screams can be heard in the background. The woman tells the dispatcher she heard eight to 12 gunshots. The caller says she is hiding under a table inside a restaurant where people had gathered for a baby shower. Another caller, a man, yells at the dispatcher that there is an "active shooter" and blurts out the address. He urges police to hurry. Two of Beal's relatives are among those who made 911 calls. One woman, who describes Beal as her nephew, said the family was coming back from the cemetery when they got a call about the shooting. "We are coming from a funeral and my nephew, they said, has been shot up," she said. "We need some cars right away." She stays on the phone with the dispatcher as she gets closer to the scene of the shooting. "Please hurry," she tells the dispatcher as her voice begins to shake. A woman who calls Beal her brother starts off a 911 call yelling, "They just shot my brother." She tells the dispatcher her brother was shot in the neck and isn't breathing. "Josh, Josh, Josh, Josh," the woman yells. One of the newly released documents is a police report stating that Beal suffered eight gunshot wounds: in the abdomen, right shoulder, upper right chest, right groin, back of his left thigh and the lower back, and graze wounds to the right forearm and the top of his head. Three bullets were recovered from his body. One officer fired 11 shots and the other officer fired seven, according to the documents. Among the videos released by IPRA Wednesday was one previously made public by a person who videotaped the incident. About a dozen gunshots can be heard. In another video, people are seen pointing at a man wearing a red T-shirt and jeans as a man wearing a black T-shirt and jeans repeatedly does chest compressions on Beal. The man wearing a red T-shirt appears to tuck a gun into his waistband. Another man, wearing a striped blue polo shirt and gray shorts, is seen holding a gun on his side but he does not point the weapon at anyone in the video. After the shooting, an off-duty officer began struggling with Beal's brother, Michael Beal, over a gun, according to one of the reports released Wednesday. Advertisement The officer gained control of the gun, but Michael Beal then tackled and put the officer in a choke hold, according to the report. The officer eventually maneuvered his way out of the hold. Gov. Bruce Rauner, seen here at a luncheon in Chicago on Dec. 2, 2016, will not be attending the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump. (Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune) Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner will not attend the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump in Washington, D.C. Inaugurations typically are opportunities for members of the winning party to celebrate claiming the White House while hobnobbing and raising money for campaigns. But Rauner, already in campaign mode for his 2018 re-election bid, has been consumed with a battle here at home as he tries to sway public opinion in his corner during a prolonged budget stalemate with Democrats who control the General Assembly. Advertisement In addition, Trump takes the oath Jan. 20, and Rauner has a State of the State speech scheduled in Springfield five days later. "The governor is 100 percent focused on Illinois including passing a truly balanced budget and changing our broken political system," Rauner's office said Wednesday about the decision to skip the festivities. Advertisement The governor spent much of last year declining to talk about Trump. As the GOP presidential primary season played out, Rauner pledged to support the party's nominee. Rauner also said he was "horrified" by the rhetoric of the campaign. Rauner steered clear of a Trump appearance in July in Chicago, having a news conference of his own down the street at the Thompson Center while Trump was raising money at his eponymous hotel. Rauner also skipped the Republican National Convention in Cleveland when Trump accepted the party's presidential nomination. Since the November election, Rauner has warmed a bit to the president-elect, praising Trump's choice of education secretary and predicting that he will have a "good relationship" with the new administration. Still, after the two spoke by phone in the days after the election, Rauner avoided even referring to Trump by name when he recalled that conversation to reporters. Like Trump, Rauner was a political novice when he won the governorship in 2014 after waging a campaign that drew heavily on his background as a successful businessman. But the governor has tried to avoid comparisons between himself and the president-elect. Even when relating his conversation with Trump, Rauner made a point of saying he'd "never spoken with him before," and instead emphasized that he has relationships with unnamed people within the Trump administration. "Two of his most senior folks in his administration are good personal friends of mine, and allies of mine in politics, so we're going to have a voice and a good relationship," Rauner said at the time. Ronald Gidwitz, a businessman, entrepreneur and mainstay of Republican politics, previously chaired Rauner's campaign before leading fundraising efforts in Illinois for Trump. Nick Ayers, who ran Rauner's successful bid for office, headed Vice President-elect Mike Pence's campaign. Illinois Republican legislative leaders also won't be attending the festivities in Washington, their aides told the Tribune. kgeiger@chicagotribune.com Advertisement Twitter @kimgeiger Tim Nuding, budget chief for Gov. Bruce Rauner, seen in 2015, left his post at the end of 2016. (Seth Perlman / AP) Welcome to Clout Street: Morning Spin, our weekday feature to catch you up with what's going on in government and politics from Chicago to Springfield. Topspin Gov. Bruce Rauner's former budget chief has taken a position with the Illinois Health and Hospital Association after leaving the administration at the end of the year. Advertisement Tim Nuding had served as the director of the Governor's Office of Budget and Management since Rauner took office nearly two years ago, and his departure came at the same time a temporary spending plan that kept money flowing to universities and social programs expired. Nuding will join the hospital industry group Jan. 17 as senior vice president of member relations, directing membership activities and programs as well as communications and marketing. Advertisement Rauner's office said the move complies with an executive order the governor signed after taking office that bans employees from negotiating for a job as a lobbyist while employed by the state or accepting a job as a lobbyist for one year after leaving government. "Tim complied with all applicable revolving-door requirements during his time with the state and upon departure from the state. We wish Tim the best in his new employment," Rauner spokesman Lance Trover said. (Monique Garcia) What's on tap *Mayor Rahm Emanuel will make an announcement about tourism in Chicago. *Gov. Bruce Rauner had no public events. What we're writing *Emanuel's law department is sanctioned again for withholding police shooting records. *Rauner to skip Trump inauguration. *Mayor avoids fight with McCarthy over '60 Minutes.' *Chicago police official leading reform efforts unexpectedly leaves for top cop job in Oakland, Calif. Advertisement *Chicago State University faces year-end deficit, needs to slash expenses. *President Barack Obama's Chicago speech: What we know so far about tickets. What we're reading *Leaders of Hobos gang found guilty in nine killings. *DuPage deputy involved in fatal shooting placed on leave; 911 recordings released. *What's inside a craft brewer's beer fridge? The answer might surprise you. (It is beer, though.) Follow the money Advertisement *Emanuel reported more than $176,000 in contributions Wednesday evening, including a $53,900 donation from the Illinois Pipe Trades political committee. And the Emanuel-allied The Chicago Committee reported $53,900 from a Chicago Journeyman Plumbers Local 130 political fund. *Track Illinois campaign contributions in real time here and here. Beyond Chicago *Trump secretary of state pick Tillerson and Exxon part ways; $180 million retirement package. *Top Senate Democrat warns President-elect Trump on Supreme Court pick. *Obama fights for his health law as Republicans stand firm on their vow to repeal. *Netanyahu urges pardon for convicted Israeli soldier. Ivanka Trump wants you to know she cares. She cares about the environment. She cares about children. She cares about women. Ivanka is smooth, composed and in control. Sure, Daddy might be a little rough around the edges. But how bad could Donald Trump really be if he produced such a visibly self-possessed and accomplished young woman? That seems to be the message emerging from Trump Tower as Ivanka assumes an unprecedented role in her father's administration. Within days of Trump's stunning upset election victory, there was his second (and, by most accounts, favorite) child at a meeting between him and the Japanese prime minister. Next, she was listening in on a phone call with Argentina's president. Later, it was reported that Ivanka might assume White House office space normally reserved for the first lady (the long-suffering Melania Trump having decided to spend most of her time in New York). Showing off her environmentalist bona fides, Ivanka arranged an improbable meeting between Trump and former Vice President Al Gore. Throughout the campaign, she spearheaded her father's initiatives on childcare policy and stoutly defended his record as a "great advocate for the women in the workforce." Advertisement It's easy to be seduced by Ivanka she really is smooth, not to mention beautiful but keep your guard up: This is a trap. Ivanka is nothing more than pretty window dressing to the explicitly authoritarian, racially divisive, conflict-of-interest-laden presidential campaign (soon-to-be administration) of her father. For all the talk about how she's so much classier and more dignified than Dad, the avaricious apple doesn't fall far from the Trump tree. Ivanka, too, is using the American presidency for influence peddling and buck making. Just a day after appearing with the rest of her family on "60 Minutes," Ivanka's jewelry brand sent out an email to fashion writers hawking the $10,800 gold bracelet she had worn on air. As part of a charity auction, she offered a 45-minute "coffee date" to the highest bidder. Only after critics accused the Trump camp of creating a "pay to play" conflict of interest was the item which had earned a top bid of $70,000 scrapped. If the first daughter serves a role in government while simultaneously overseeing the Trump Organization, as has been rumored, that will edge this country closer to resembling a post-Soviet, family-run kleptocracy like Azerbaijan. Advertisement Good luck challenging Ivanka about the propriety of her self-dealing, or anything else. When a reporter for Cosmopolitan, not a publication exactly known for its hard-hitting political coverage, asked if her father's family leave program would apply to same-sex couples, Ivanka suddenly transformed from Princess Grace to Cruella de Vil. "I think you have a lot of negativity in these questions," she snapped. "I don't know how useful it is to spend too much time with you on this if you're going to make a comment like that." In other words, let them eat cake. It's easy to feel sympathy for Ivanka. Try to imagine the emotional damage wrought by a father like Donald Trump, an admitted sexual predator who publicly boasted that he'd date you if you weren't his offspring, and giddily consented when a radio shock jock asked if he could call you a "piece of ass." Children, after all, cannot choose their parents. They can, however, choose whether to support their parents' irresponsible and dangerous behavior. Like a spouse who quietly condones her partner's drink-fueled binges, Ivanka is an enabler. She's actually worse than that, providing feminine cover and a bogus veil of responsibility for the most crudely misogynistic and immature man ever to occupy the Oval Office. In this sense, Ivanka resembles not so much any previous member of the first family than she does the scion of another obscenely rich, quasi-royal dynasty: Mariela Castro. Daughter of Cuban president Raul Castro and niece of the recently departed Fidel, Mariela has in recent years adopted LGBT rights as a pet cause in a country that once herded gay men into concentration camps and quarantined AIDS victims. Who could have a problem with that? But a wealthy, well-connected straight woman like Mariela can only claim the mantle of gay rights because the Cuban Communist Party muffles grass-roots LGBT activists, just as it suppresses labor unions, non-government newspapers and all forms of political activity independent of the regime. "Gay rights," such as they are, will be meaningless as long as Cuba remains a totalitarian society. Mariela's purpose is not improving the livelihood of her LGBT countrymen so much as it's fooling credulous Western progressives into thinking that Cuba is anything other than a one-party state run by a mafia clan. Mariela Castro and Ivanka Trump are what happen when privileged entitlement meets political depravity. Los Angeles Times James Kirchick's book, "The End of Europe: Dictators, Demagogues and the Coming Dark Age," is forthcoming from Yale University Press. Follow him on Twitter @jkirchick. We are not through the first week of the new Congress and already Democrats have jumped rather successfully on three issues, which just so happen to be strong ones both substantively and politically for them. First, Democrats are making hay out of Republicans' failure to take seriously their own drain-the-swamp promise. They jumped all over the plan to gut the congressional ethics office. Then on Wednesday, Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., rounded up dozens of Democrats to sponsor legislation stating that "President-elect Donald Trump should comply with the Constitution and follow the precedent established by prior presidents and convert his assets to simple, conflict-free holdings, adopt blind trusts managed by an independent trustees, or take other equivalent measures." In their news release announcing the legislation, Democrats set the basis for a constitutional standoff. "The resolutions note that in the absence of such actions by the President-elect before he assumes office or without specific authorization by Congress, Congress will regard dealings by Trump-owned companies with any entity owned by a foreign governmental actor as potential violations of the Constitution's Emoluments Clause." Cardin explained that voters "need to know that the President of the United States is making decisions based on what is in the public interest and not because it would advance the president's private interests. This resolution is intended to send a clear message to the president-elect that he must take appropriate action and avoid any potential conflict with the Constitution before he takes an oath of office to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution in two weeks." Democrats are on solid footing, according to Hart Research Associates' poll in 14 battleground states conducted for the left-leaning Center for American Progress Action Fund: "When asked to rate the importance of 13 potential priorities for the new president and Congress, voters in the Senate battleground states put an exceptionally high premium on 'cleaning up corruption and financial conflicts of interest in the government' rating it only slightly behind 'protecting Medicare for senior citizens,' the number one item. ... It is significant to note that only 34% of voters say that Donald Trump is doing enough to avoid conflicts of interests between his business holdings and his role as president, while 52% say he should be doing to more to avoid conflicts of interests. Voters may not be constitutional experts on the emoluments clause, but they believe that Donald Trump should not be allowed to receive payments from foreign governments through his business holdings while serving as president (71% agree, 18% disagree). Trump voters agree by 53% to 31%. Moreover, a 54% majority of all voters want Congress to take action to prevent Donald Trump from receiving payments from foreign governments while serving as president, while 17% say that President-elect Trump should not be allowed to accept foreign government payments, but do not think that congressional action is warranted at this time." No wonder Democrats are pushing the issue. Then there is the issue of repealing Obamacare with no replacement in sight. Republicans are already getting weak in the knees, and for good reason. The Los Angeles Times reported, "After demanding for six years that the Affordable Care Act be gutted, Republican leaders refused Wednesday to outline concrete steps to repeal and replace it, even as members of their party voiced growing reservations about rolling the law back without a viable alternative." The report continued: "The lack of detail underscored the complexities of undoing the biggest expansion of the social safety net in decades without interfering with healthcare for tens of millions of Americans. Republicans' wavering just a day after the start of a new Congress also may give opponents additional time to shore up support for preserving Obamacare in some form. "This week alone, leading physician groups, including the American Medical Assn., joined the push to slow the repeal campaign. Others urging caution include the American Diabetes Assn. and the advocacy arm of the American Cancer Society. "A growing number of Republican senators are also voicing reservations about the lack of a clear plan, jeopardizing GOP leaders' vision for swift repeal in a chamber where just three Republican defections could torpedo legislation. " 'We're not sure exactly what direction we're going to go to have a full and careful transition period,' said West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, whose state has seen a dramatic drop its uninsured rate thanks to Obamacare." Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., piped up to argue (accurately) that a full repeal would increase the debt, something he was not prepared to do. Maybe both sides are eyeing the polling. By one poll, only about 25 percent of Americans want to repeal Obamacare. Moreover, only 52 percent of Republicans (a severe drop from 69 percent last month) want it totally repealed. "More Republicans now say they want the law 'scaled back' under Trump and the Republican-controlled, with that share more than doubling from 11 percent before the Nov. 8 election to 24 percent after." The Hart poll found that by a margin of 59 percent to 32 percent, battleground voters don't want to repeal Obamacare without a replacement. Even a majority of Trump voters feel this way. Again, it is not hard to figure out why Democrats have seized on Republicans' inability to tell voters what their replacement plan is. Finally, Democrats are vociferously attacking Trump for sidling up to Russian President Vladimir Putin, denigrating (and now threatening to slash) our intelligence agencies and citing Julian Assange favorably. (Most Republicans are rejecting a pro-Putin line, but few are criticizing Trump for taking one.) A recent Wall Street Journal/NBC poll found: "Fifty-five percent of Americans say they are at least quite a bit concerned about the Russian hacks ... Broadly, at 31%, more Americans said Trump is 'too friendly' toward Russian President Vladimir Putin than the 24% who said he's 'not too friendly.' Another 44% had no opinion." Once again, Democrats (and in this case, some Republicans) are on firm ground; Trump is not. If Republicans are not sufficiently resolute in the confirmation hearings in rejecting pro-Putin nominees or nominees not prepared to deal sharply with the Russian autocrat, you can bet that Democrats will pounce. In sum, we see three key issues corruption, Obamacare and Russia all of which are important to voters and on which Trump is on shaky ground even with his own supporters. Republicans would be a whole lot safer to demand that Trump divest himself of his businesses, come up with an alternative to replace Obamacare before repealing it and denounce Trump's efforts to cozy up to Putin and disable our intelligence agencies. (It remains to be seen whether sounding anti-Putin but supporting Trump and his nominees is a workable strategy for straddlers such as Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas.) The Trumpized GOP is fumbling on these three issues, essentially disasters of their own making. Republicans could have demanded (even before the nomination) that Trump divest his business holdings. They could have been ready to go with an Obamacare plan alternative. Republicans could have rebuked Trump during the campaign for his pro-Putin rhetoric. If they now find themselves in a corner, with an untenable repeal-and-delay plan and tied at the hip to a conflict-ridden Russian sympathizer in chief, they have only themselves to blame. News / Local by Staff Reporter Two Harare men allegedly lured an 18-year-old schoolgirl into boarding the wrong commuter omnibus on her way home and took turns to rape her all night, writes Fungai Lupande.Tichaona Chiutsi (26) and Itai Chiradza (28) are now facing rape charges.They are out of custody on $100 bail each.Harare magistrate Rumbidzai Mugwagwa heard that Chiradza was in no show, resulting in her remanding Chiutsi to January 10 for trial.The complainant, who cannot be named, lives in Tynwald South in Harare.Prosecutor Audrey Chogumaira alleged that on November 28, 2016 around 5pm, the complainant was in the Harare central business district on her way from school.It was raining and Chiutsi advised the girl to board a commuter omnibus to Dzivarasekwa.It is alleged that on the way, the girl realised that the commuter omnibus was destined for Warren Park.Chiutsi disembarked in Warren Park and took the girl's satchel with him. It is alleged that she followed him and was introduced to Chiradza and another man.Chiutsi went to his house and the girl followed intending to collect her school bag and on arrival she was forced to have a drink mixed with Zed, a toxic alcoholic drinkChiutsi raped the girl while Chiradza watched, it is alleged. Chiradza also allegedly raped her afterwards.It is alleged that after the sexual assault, Chiutsi offered the girl to sleep over because it was late.The court heard that during that night, the pair took turns to sexually abuse the girl.The following day, the girl went to school from Chiutsi's house and her mother and aunt were waiting for her at school.She narrated the ordeal and they went to report the matter to the police. Regular users of the Eisenhower Expressway know how their days will begin if they wind up in Hades. Every morning in hell, a traffic report will repeat what the condemned already know: "The inbound Ike is tight from Mannheim Road to First Avenue, stalled at the Cicero Avenue curve and congested as you approach downtown. The outbound Ike also is clogged at Austin, where the expressway narrows from four lanes to three." Ah, Chicago's Eisenhower, aka Interstate 290, with its tight kinks that slow traffic and an allegedly high-speed left lane that stops dead in its tracks. At Austin Boulevard, the left lane flushes vehicles straight up an exit ramp to a stoplight, while motorists in the other three lanes plod along to the next choke point. Advertisement Keep all of that maddening dysfunction in mind as you size up the Illinois Department of Transportation's plan to add "high occupancy toll" lanes to the Eisenhower. The state would designate a lane in either direction as a "HOT" lane. The goal is to keep traffic moving in that lane at a minimum clip of 45 mph, even during rush hour. Car poolers a driver and two or more passengers could use the lane free of charge. Everyone else would have a choice: pay to use the HOT lane, or continue to use the remaining lanes for free. The HOT rate would be based on distance and the time of day; rush hour use would cost more and off-peak use less. Advertisement The price tag would be $2.7 billion, paid for with federal and state funding. Construction isn't likely to start before 2020. IDOT predicts that traffic would flow 56 percent faster in the HOT lane. Traffic in the untolled lanes would go faster too, IDOT says travel times would drop by about 25 percent. Importantly, the plan calls for adding a lane between Mannheim and Austin, a stretch that currently has three lanes each way instead of four. If IDOT's projections are on the mark, that's going to erase a lot of the grimaces that you see on the faces of Eisenhower motorists now. But it's not just about peace of mind. Congestion has a cost. Researchers at Texas A&M say U.S. motorists wasted 7 billion hours because of traffic delays in 2015 three times the hours lost in 1982. Then there's the wasted fuel that comes with idling in stalled traffic 3.1 billion gallons in 2015, compared with 500 million in 1982. High-occupancy toll lanes have been around since the mid-1990s. They're in a host of cities, including Houston, Miami, Atlanta, Seattle and Minneapolis. A few years ago, the nonpartisan General Accounting Office took a look at the effectiveness of HOT lanes and concluded that they can reduce congestion. In Seattle, the addition of HOT lanes improved overall rush hour speeds on one highway by 19 percent. We like the concept of congestion pricing. Giving car poolers a break is one way to reduce the number of cars on the expressway. Other motorists who want to avoid delays pay to use the faster lane, generating revenue to pay for transportation needs. IDOT's focus now is the Eisenhower, but we hope it will investigate whether congestion pricing can work on stretches of the Kennedy, Dan Ryan, Edens and Bishop Ford. Adding lanes endlessly isn't the solution to gridlock. We've seen before that extra capacity gets filled almost as quickly as the orange pylons are picked up. While it's not a cure-all, congestion pricing is a promising remedy to a traffic-choked highway system that has been eroding our patience for decades. Join the discussion on Twitter @Trib_Ed_Board and on Facebook. News / Local by Staff Reporter A MALAWIAN man has been fined $200 for causing the death of two minor girls after his vehicle veered off the road and overturned near Mvuma when he was on his way to attend his wife's funeral.Charles Bishop of Moses Gama Village, Mzimba District in Malawi was driving a pick-up truck on his way home from South Africa when the accident occurred on December 19, killing two passengers.He pleaded guilty to two counts of capable homicide when he appeared before Gweru Magistrate Judith Taruvinga.Bishop was fined $200 or to spend two months in jail if he defaults on the fine."I admit to the charge and the court should be lenient with me. I lost control of the vehicle and the children who died were my relatives not to mention that I was on my way to attend my wife's funeral," said Bishop.Taruvinga said the court had considered that Bishop was going to his wife's funeral and was grieving at the time of the accident."Two children died as a result of the accident. The accused person should not have been driving in the first place since he was in grief of losing his wife. Also it is a long journey from South Africa and the accused person should have rested to avoid fatigue," she said.Prosecuting, Ernest Muzembi told the court that on December 19 last year at around 3AM Bishop was driving the truck which had 15 Malawians on board from South Africa to Malawi."On approaching the 186km peg on the Harare -Masvingo road the accused failed to keep the vehicle under control resulting in the vehicle veering to the right side of the road and overturning."Eight people were injured while a two -year -old girl died on the spot and a four year- old girl who was seriously injured died upon admission to Gweru Provincial Hospital. On December 21 the two deceased children were examined and their cause of death was as a result of the injuries sustained in the accident," said Muzembi.He said the driver was negligent."He failed to stop or act reasonably when the accident seemed imminent and travelling at an excessive speed under the circumstances," said Mr Muzembi Who can resist online shopping? With one click of a button and the sharing of my credit card information, I bought holiday gifts for everyone. It was so easy and so convenient until I received an email from my credit card company, which notified me of an unusual charge on my card. Advertisement Did I purchase a $3,000 laptop computer in Kentucky? Nope. Thank goodness I received a fraud alert. My card was canceled and the charges were erased. Advertisement This story is all too common these days especially since scammers are everywhere, ready to take advantage through a credit card purchase, an unwarranted letter or telephone call. As a new tax season begins, residents should be aware of scams posing under the Internal Revenue Service. The Buffalo Grove Police Department often receives reports about telephone scams where residents receive calls from people claiming how they owe taxes to the IRS. As explained on the IRS website, the federal agency never initiates contact with taxpayers through email, text messages or social media to request personal or financial information. This includes requests for PIN numbers, passwords, credit card and other financial account information. If you receive a suspicious email from someone claiming to be from the IRS, you shouldn't reply or open any attachments and instead, forward it to phishing@irs.gov. If you receive a phone call from someone claiming to be from the IRS, you should record the person's name, badge number, call back number and caller ID. You also can call 1-800-366-4484 to determine if the caller is a real IRS employee with a legitimate need to contact you. Finally, if you receive a letter, notice or form via mail or fax that just doesn't look right, you can call 1-800-829-1040 to determine if it is real or not. When it comes to online shopping, Buffalo Grove police have advised consumers to be aware of package theft that can happen at any time in the year not only during the holiday season. Thieves have been known to follow delivery vehicles and comb residential areas during the day, when many people are at work. There are other tips available to help protect packages. When ordering online, a consumer can try to pick a specific delivery time for when someone can be home to receive the package. Packages also can be delivered to a location where someone immediately can retrieve it, such as a neighbor's house or even a place of employment. Advertisement Text message delivery alerts also can inform consumers when a package has arrived. If possible, consumers also can ask the delivery company to hold a package at its facility for in-person pickup. Buffalo Grove police also suggest how exterior security cameras on homes could deter potential robbers. If a crime does happen, cameras also can help identify people and vehicles near your home. Buffalo Grove police also urges residents to be cautious when selling or buying items on sites, such as Craigslist. If you do not know the buyer or seller personally, and you need a place to exchange merchandise safely, the police department has created an exchange zone at their station, 46 Raupp Blvd., Buffalo Grove. The "safe zone" is in the department's well-lit lobby complete with video surveillance. Another way to protect yourself from scammers is to dispose properly paperwork containing sensitive personal and financial information. If you are looking for a place to shred your papers, Paper Tiger Document Solutions in Gurnee offers certain times for drop-in shredding at its facility, 1101 N. Estes St. More information can be found at www.yourpapertiger.com or by calling (847) 599-9700. Advertisement Aileen Simons is a freelance columnist for Pioneer Press. Reach her at thewritetouch1@gmail.com. A 17-year-old was shot to death late Jan. 1, 2017, by a DuPage County sheriff's deputy after the two got into a fight when the deputy responded to a domestic call. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune) (Chicago Tribune) A DuPage County sheriff's deputy who fatally shot a 17-year-old boy while responding to a call of domestic violence Sunday near Villa Park has been placed on paid administrative leave, the sheriff's office said Wednesday. In a one-sentence statement, the sheriff's office said the move was made "per department policy." Advertisement Trevon Johnson was shot to death after he and the deputy, who was not identified, got into a fight when the deputy responded to 911 calls about 11:30 p.m. from a home near Standish Lane and Ardmore Avenue, authorities said. Johnson's family said he was unarmed and disputed allegations that he struggled with the deputy. Johnson died of multiple gunshot wounds, the DuPage County coroner's office said. The incident is being investigated by Illinois State Police. Advertisement The sheriff's office on Tuesday night released recordings of three 911 calls. In two of them, callers portray a scene at the house that is chaotic and violent. One caller says Johnson has "knives" and other weapons. "He's destroying the whole house," the caller tells a dispatcher, according to a Tribune review of the recording. "He put his hands on me. He punched me in my head several, several times. He broke the glass tabletop in the dining room. He threw the Christmas tree into the TV. He needs, it's over he needs to go to jail now." Later, the caller complains that police are taking too long to arrive. "Y'all need to come on! Where are you guys?" the caller shouts as the dispatcher tries to offer reassurance that officers are responding as quickly as possible. "Somebody could have been dead already!" Meanwhile, another person in the home, on the line with a second dispatcher, says he believes Johnson has a history of mental illness. The caller says Johnson has holed up in an upstairs bedroom after threatening people inside the home with a large knife. "He was picking up knives and glass and bottles and everything, throwing them," the second caller says, adding that Johnson is likely still armed with a knife, according to a review of the recording. Warning: The following 911 calls, made prior to the fatal shooting of Trevon Johnson by a DuPage County sheriff's deputy, contain graphic language. (Chicago Tribune) But in a third recording, another caller downplays the incident, telling a dispatcher that Johnson and another person fought, but that Johnson was holding only a butter knife. The first and second recordings capture the sound of a male voice ordering someone to drop something. About 15 seconds later, the recordings capture the sound of a half-dozen gunshots, followed by distraught screams from someone in the house. Advertisement Johnson's uncle, Alfonzo Singletary, said Wednesday that after listening to the second recording, he still wants to know how police could allege his nephew ever made contact with the deputy. "His body was upstairs he never made it downstairs to even have any contact with the officer," Singletary said. "There is no way he could have had a fight with the officer." And, he said, police did not recover a knife or other weapon from the scene. Pastor Alfonzo Singletary, second from right, enters a home along with other family members on Jan. 3, 2017, where Trevon Johnson was shot and killed by a DuPage County sheriff's deputy a day earlier. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune) "Where is the weapon? That's the million-dollar question: If he had a weapon, where is it?" The sheriff's office did not return a call Wednesday from the Tribune requesting more information. State police are investigating the shooting at the request of DuPage County officials. Advertisement Master Sgt. Matt Boerwinkle, a state police spokesman, declined Wednesday to provide details about where Johnson was in relation to the officer when the shooting occurred. He said the agency's investigation was "progressing quickly" but that it was unclear when it would be complete. Singletary said funeral services for Johnson were expected to be held Jan. 14. mwalberg@chicagotribune.com Tinley Park has held "informal" and "very preliminary" talks with the developer of a proposed apartment building aimed at settling a lawsuit filed over the project, the village's attorney said Tuesday. Addressing residents at the end of the Village Board meeting, Patrick Connelly said those discussions could result in a settlement offer being made by Buckeye Community Hope Foundation to the village for consideration by the board. Advertisement The attorney said the talks had taken place recently and he did not indicate whether a settlement offer might be coming soon, but that residents would be notified prior to the board taking a vote. Buckeye in April filed the federal lawsuit concerning The Reserve, a 47-unit apartment building that would be marketed to low-income renters. The project has been on hold for 11 months since the village's Plan Commission tabled a vote on the development amid strong opposition by residents. Advertisement In November, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a separate lawsuit against Tinley Park, alleging village officials violated federal fair housing laws by not approving the apartments. Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday > Connelly was asked by Mayor Dave Seaman to provide an update on the case, but it drew criticism from Trustee Brian Younker, who said it was "very concerning" and that such information should be confined to closed-door talks involving the board and not publicly aired. Closed-door discussions about lawsuits, whether a municipality is the plaintiff or defendant, are allowed under the state's Open Meetings Act. "What happens in closed session should stay in closed session until the courts handle it," Younker said, adding that such a public discussion of the matter "is absurd." Connelly said that, at this point, the village continues to defend itself against both lawsuits, with the Buckeye complaint currently in the discovery phase with the collection and exchange of evidence, and the village having until the end of this month to file a response to the Justice Department complaint. Buckeye's lawsuit accuses village officials of "unlawfully interfering" with the apartments, which were planned for the northeast corner of 183rd Street and Oak Park Avenue. In court filings, the Ohio-based nonprofit indicated that, in order to take advantage of tax credits being used to finance the project, it needed to have the building ready for tenants by the end of this year. In late June, the Justice Department notified the village that it was conducting an investigation into Tinley Park's handling of the apartment project, with an eye toward whether fair housing laws had been broken. The federal intervention put a halt to a separate probe of the village's review process for the apartments by the Cook County Sheriff's inspector general's office. The review by the sheriff had been initiated at the request of the village. mnolan@tribpub.com Will County's new $32 million public safety complex takes shape as the structural steel is put into place on the building at Laraway Road and Route 52 in Joliet. It will house the Will County Sheriff's Department, a new consolidated 911 dispatch center and the administrative offices of the county's 911 system. (Susan DeMar Lafferty / Daily Southtown) Construction of Will County's new public safety complex is "slightly ahead of schedule," officials said this week, as structural steel begins to define the shape of the new facility at Laraway Road and Route 52 in Joliet. It is the first of three major construction projects county officials are juggling this year. Advertisement The new $32 million complex, which will house the offices of the Will County sheriff and the Emergency Telephone System Board, and include a new consolidated 911 dispatch for 31 police and fire agencies, is expected to be substantially completed by the end of 2017. Meanwhile, the planning team will "nail down the final design" of the new courthouse by Feb. 3, said architect Jason Dwyer, of Wight and Company, at a recent meeting of the county board's capital improvements committee. Advertisement Officials will then provide cost estimates to make sure "it is a building we can afford," said David Tkac, deputy chief of staff for County Executive Larry Walsh, who is overseeing the construction projects. The county board set a price of $195 million for the new courthouse, which could go out for bid in September, with construction beginning as soon as the public safety complex is completed. Some sheriff's department employees are temporarily housed in the former First Midwest Bank building, now owned by the county. That will be torn down to create space for the new courthouse on the southwest corner of Ottawa and Jefferson in downtown Joliet. For its third project, the county is now seeking architects and engineers to design a new facility for the health department and has requested that qualifications be submitted by the end of January. Tkac said they will ask consultants to consider the current location, near Richards Street and Mills Road in Joliet, and explore other sites as well. Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday > Officials also must consider what services the health department should continue to offer. The future of the existing courthouse building was also a topic of discussion, as committee members will weigh the cost of demolition verse repurposing the 50-year-old, four-story structure. The county has been consolidating its offices, and eliminating rented spaces with a goal of creating a "urban county campus," said committee chair Ragan Freitag, R-Wilmington. Advertisement The county's administrative offices were initially housed in the courthouse, before moving to a former department store at 302 N. Chicago St. Freitag suggested that they might move back to the courthouse site. The courthouse could be used to house specialty courts, such as child advocacy, drug, and mental health cases, which are growing, said Nick Palmer, Walsh's chief of staff, adding that it could also house the offices of the public defender and probation. Wight and Company will explore future uses for the courthouse, but Dwyer noted that the building does have maintenance issues. slafferty@tribpub.com A judge Wednesday approved an order that keeps a Mokena woman known for her behavior at Will County board meetings away from the county board speaker and from attending future meetings. Will County Board Speaker Jim Moustis last month was granted an emergency stalking/no contact order after the woman allegedly punched him in the arm following a board meeting. Will County Judge Jessica Colon-Sayre Wednesday extended the order until 2019. The 79-year-old woman did not show up for the hearing. Advertisement "I bet you'll have much more peaceful meetings," Colon-Sayre said to Moustis after her ruling. "I hope so," Moustis replied. Advertisement The woman has been a regular at county board meetings in recent years. She typically would speak during the time dedicated for public comment and routinely criticized Moustis. According to the stalking/no contact order, the woman must stay 1,000 feet away from Moustis, his home, the county building at 302 N. Chicago Street and the Frankfort Township building. Moustis also serves as the Frankfort Township supervisor. In his petition filed in December, Moustis highlights various encounters with the woman, including the incident following the Dec. 15 board meeting. He noted that after the meeting, he walked out of the board room and saw the woman sitting in her walker. According to court documents, the woman called Moustis to come over to where she was sitting and said she had something for him. Moustis was standing about one foot away from her when she allegedly approached him. "She planted her feet to the ground, stood up from her seated walker and then punched me with a closed fist in the left shoulder/bicep area," Moustis wrote in his request for a stalking/no contact order. He noted the woman was allegedly aiming for his face, but he tried to step away to avoid her punch. "Then she said, 'I'll get Mr. Moustis, you torturer you,'" Moustis wrote in his petition. Advertisement Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday > At a meeting in August, the woman allegedly referred to Moustis as a "rotten satanist" and said he should be gotten "rid of." The woman was escorted out of that meeting, but in the lobby, in front of a sheriff's deputy, allegedly said "Moustis is the devil" and that she was "going to get a gun," the petition said. She then said she didn't specify what type of gun and that she could've been talking about a "squirt gun" or a "one with flowers on it," the petition said. At a November meeting of the Republican caucus just before a county board meeting, the woman allegedly gave another board member a plastic eye and asked that he give it to Moustis and tell him that she's watching him. She then walked past the committee room and yelled, "Did you get the eyeball Jim? I have my eye on you," according to Moustis' petition. "I realize she has issues, so I've always kind of ignored it," Moustis said following the hearing. "But now, I really think she could act out." The woman, who does not have a lawyer according to court records, could not be reached for comment. Court records show that through the years, the woman has been the named plaintiff or defendant in several other petitions for orders of protection. Some of them involved family members. Advertisement Alicia Fabbre is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown. I think people have become numb to gun violence in Chicago. It's hard for suburban residents to feel empathy with the victims, even when children and other innocent bystanders are caught in the crossfire. Few suburbanites were directly impacted by Chicago's 762 shooting deaths in 2016. The majority of murders involved gang members on the city's South and West sides. Few outsiders have reason to venture into Chicago's most violent neighborhoods. Media coverage of the violence, heartbreak and despair is so repetitive, it becomes numbing. Advertisement I feel bad for the more than 4,000 people shot in Chicago last year. But I didn't personally see any shootings or their aftermath. I never saw blood in the street or heard the wails of distraught loved ones. It didn't happen in my world. Not along my commute, or along the route my kids take to school. I care about the epidemic of gun violence in Chicago, but it's not like it affects me, personally. Advertisement It's not like Chicago's gun violence is going to spread to where I live in the suburbs. I don't grasp the depth of the epidemic because the crisis doesn't directly impact my life. If state or federal authorities ordered troops to patrol Chicago's most violent streets, I'd watch on TV and probably think, "That's good, but it doesn't change anything I do on a daily basis." Maybe that's the wrong way to think. I should probably be more outraged and demand officials do more to end the violence. Those responsible must be held accountable. Let's start with the police. Mayor Rahm Emanuel fired police Superintendent Garry McCarthy in December, 2015. That was a week after the release of video showing a police officer fatally shooting Laquan McDonald. The mayor said at the time that public trust in police leadership had eroded and change was needed. McCarthy is now making the media rounds, appearing on "60 Minutes" and other shows. He told radio host John Catsimatidis this week that Chicago's surge in gun violence was due to Black Lives Matter protesters creating an atmosphere of anti-police sentiment, noncompliance and lawlessness. Other heads have rolled. Prosecutor Anita Alvarez lost her bid to remain Cook County state's attorney when Kim Foxx was elected. I suppose voters could decide the extent of Emanuel's responsibility for Chicago's violence problem when his term ends in 2019. While we're pointing fingers, a University of Illinois at Chicago doctor thinks there's a correlation between the spike in violence and the state budget impasse. Here's looking at you, Gov. Bruce Rauner and House Speaker Michael Madigan. Dr. Gary Slutkin, founder and CEO of the Cure Violence group that operates Cease Fire mediation programs in communities, said he warned Rauner in March 2015 about a potential surge in violence unless $4.5 million in state funding was restored for the intervention program. Advertisement "Before the cut, CeaseFire programs were operating in 14 communities in Chicago with 71 workers and averaging 81 mediations per month. After the cut,there was only one full site and three partial sites with 10 workers," the group reported in September. Districts where programs were cut have seen the biggest increases in violence, CeaseFire reported. There's a direct correlation between state funding cuts and increased violence in Chicago, the group says. There's plenty of blame to go around. "60 Minutes" reported Chicago police are making dramatically fewer stops of suspected criminals. Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson says less aggressive policing is the result of lawsuit threats by the American Civil Liberties Union. Blame the ACLU. Blame cops. Blame criminals. Blame their parents. Blame prosecutors and judges. Blame Black Lives Matter. Blame lawmakers. Blame the governor. Blame the mayor. Blame guns. Blame the media. It's no wonder Illinois lost 37,508 people in 2016, the third straight year the state led the nation in population decline. Chicago lost 181,000 black residents between 2000 and 2010. People with the ability to leave violent surroundings do so and migrate to places where there are jobs and other opportunities. When President-elect Donald Trump tweeted Monday that the mayor should seek federal help to deal with Chicago's violence, an Emanuel spokesman issued a statement suggesting city and federal leaders should work together to address the crisis. Advertisement "We agree the federal government has a strong role to play in public safety by funding summer jobs and prevention programming for at-risk youth, by holding the criminals who break our gun laws accountable for their crimes, by passing meaningful gun laws, and by building on the partnerships our police have with federal law enforcement," the statement said. Maybe the gang members shooting each other and innocent bystanders on the South and West sides would be less prone to violence if they had reason to hope for better educational and economic opportunities. That's the message the Rev. Michael Pfleger has been preaching for years. The prominent pastor of Chicago's St. Sabina Catholic Church was featured on the "60 Minutes" report and shared the following message Tuesday on his Facebook page: "There is no question that Chicago is in a crisis, but when Donald Trump offers to fix it, it frightens me. I have long called for a state of emergency not National Guard, but national resources for schools, jobs, housing, economic development, etc. Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday > "But in the campaign all Donald talked about was stop and frisk and law and order. We don't need a suppressive military approach; we need resources to give opportunity. Perhaps Mr. Trump could begin by coming and asking people in Chicago." I cleaned up punctuation and capitalization in Pfleger's original post, but preserved the wording of his message. Advertisement Look, there's no one person, group or factor to blame for Chicago's epidemic of violence. I believe the natural tendency to assign blame is making no difference in this instance. It's going to take everyone pulling in the same direction and working together to address the crisis. If city and suburban residents want to help resolve the issue, I think phone calls to their elected officials at the local, state and federal levels could make a difference. They could tell their representatives, senators and other leaders that Chicago's violence epidemic affects all of Illinois and urge them to make addressing the issue their top priority. tslowik@tribpub.com Twitter @tedslowik News / National by Stephen Jakes A controversial Zan u PF youth member loyal to Vice President Emmersn Mnangagwa, Energy Mutodi has said the Higher and Tertiary Education Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo has proven to the whole nation that he is as confused as a bee trying to nectar from the sun after he described Mnangagwa's cup as treasonous simply because it has "I AM THE BOSS" words written on it.He said after noticing the Vice President having drinks with friends at his house on social media, Moyo, desperate to discredit Mnangagwa as heir apparent to Mugabe, took to twitter where he hauled insults at the Vice President, claiming Mnangagwa was already declaring himself president by drinking from such a cup."Zimbabweans have been left shell-shocked as the man who is trusted with higher learning has openly confused the word boss with president. What we know as Zimbabweans is that everybody is a boss in his or her own house. Every woman who is happily married calls her husband boss and it doesn't follow that by so doing, women are telling their husbands to overthrow Mugabe," Mutodi said."It is apparent that the level of confusion that Moyo has shown is typical of a desperate bootlicker who would like to impress Mugabe in whatever way so as to be allowed to continue on a looting spree at the expense of the masses. Moyo is famous for siphoning Zimdef funds and did not deny it when he was interrogated by scribes."He said Moyo instead described himself as a Robin Hood who used to steal from the rich and give the proceeds to the poor."Mugabe defended him through statements he passed before and during the December 2016 Zanu PF conference. This is despite striking evidence that was brought before the minister by the anti-corruption commission that proved that indeed the minister siphoned huge sums of money from Zimdef and even awarded himself loans without cabinet approval. The funds are meant for poor students' tertiary education and in order to cover up his loot, the treacherous and ever-scheming minister in December last year, announced a return of students grants at a time government is struggling to pay civil service salaries," Mutodi said."It is now an open secret to all Zimbabweans that the G-40 faction is composed of thieves who shower praises at Mugabe and his wife so as to get protection from arrest and prosecution for their evil deeds. This is embarrassing for the First Family because President Mugabe is the first citizen whose duty is to uphold the country's constitution at all cost. Unfortunately, G-40 kingpins are taking advantage of his old age and continue to frighten him with false power grab stories."Mutodi said however, time has come to tell the G-40 that they will not be able to dislodge Vice President Mnangagwa from his position or stand in his way as they did to former Vice President Joice Mujuru."President Mugabe has managed to stay this far in power owing to the work of Mnangagwa and the security forces and not owing to Moyo's tweets. We all know that the genuine Zanu PF cadres are the war veterans who were prepared to die to liberate Zimbabwe and not small-brained professors who see treason on tea cups," he said."Furthermore, Zanu PF members are aware that Moyo and his G-40 associates are misleading the President and continue to isolate him from his support base and if this continues, it is a sure case that Zanu PF will emerge from the 2018 elections as an opposition party. A revolutionary is known by his willingness to peacefully hand over power to another party cadre and not to continue holding on for selfish reasons until the party loses elections." Hearings take place at the Cook County building on Jan. 5, 2017, to consider objections to nominating petitions for dozens of candidates seeking election to school, park and library boards. (Ted Slowik / Daily Southtown) They gathered Thursday morning in the basement of the Cook County office building at 69 W. Washington St. in downtown Chicago. They included attorneys, hearing officers, court reporters, objectors and candidates for school, park and library boards serving communities in the south suburbs and throughout Cook County. Advertisement They were there as part of the process that determines whether candidates followed rules when representatives collected signatures from registered voters for petitions nominating them to seek public office. Hearing officers and the Cook County Officers Electoral Board will decide within the next few weeks whether the names of dozens of candidates can appear on ballots for the April 4 election. Advertisement School, park and library board trustees essentially serve as members of the legislative branch of government. They set policies and procedures and oversee administrators who function as members of the executive branch. If laws are like sausages in that it's not pretty to see either being made then Thursday's proceedings could be compared to the slaughter of cattle and hogs that provide meat for sausages. Elected officials, after all, are unfit to serve as legislative policy-makers if they can't pass muster as candidates. The alleged infractions at the root of the dozens of objections range from relatively minor technicalities to claims of egregious fraud. The claims involve candidacies for offices in numerous south suburbs, including Alsip, Blue Island, Calumet City, Country Club Hills, Crestwood, Dolton, Ford Heights, Hazel Crest, Harvey, Matteson, Oak Forest and Robbins. Most of the disputes concern parties for elementary school boards in the Southland. Other taxing bodies affected include Thornton Township High School District 205; the Dolton, Hazel Crest and Harvey park districts; and the Grande Prairie Public Library District, which serves Country Club Hills and Hazel Crest. About 15 minutes was allotted for each of Thursday's hearings. Hearing officers covered the basics by creating files with essential exhibits. Evidence includes the nominating petitions of candidates being challenged, documentation describing the objectors' complaints, and proof that parties had been properly served legal notification of the proceedings. Hearings took place simultaneously at seven tables in the basement of the county building. I circulated among tables and listened in as the process repeated itself. Hearing officers typically asked objectors for a short summary of their complaints. Advertisement At one table sat Betty Johnson, incumbent board secretary for Harvey School District 152. Objector Keith Price is challenging the validity of Johnson's 96 petition signatures. "You also have an issue with the residency of the circulator (who collected signatures) on page eight?" hearing officer Barbara Goodman asked Price. "I'm not concerned about the circulator," Price replied. "His house burned down." Both Price and Johnson represented themselves, but attorneys appeared Thursday on behalf of many candidates and objectors. Often, attorneys represented clients scheduled to appear at hearings occurring simultaneously at different tables in the basement room. At one table, attorney James Mally represented objector Latoya Trotter. She's challenging the petitions of candidate Kasira Potts, who is seeking a seat on the Hazel Crest School District 152.5 board. Attorney Max Solomon represented Potts. Solomon noted that the service documents notifying his client of the objections transposed letters in Kasira's name and incorrectly identified her as Karisa. Advertisement The hearing officer noted the mistake. The Hazel Crest school board is most hotly contested race in Cook County, with objectors challenging the petitions of eight candidates. The Harvey school board is the second most contentious contest, with seven candidates facing petition objections. Other districts with multiple objections include Blue Island-based Cook County School District 130, Markham-based Prairie Hills Elementary School District 144, Calumet City School District 155, Matteson-based Elementary School District 159 and Ford Heights School District 169. With so many hearings generating pages upon pages of exhibits, clerks scurried about the room updating files. Hearing officers for some cases were switched at the last minute so they would hear all the objections involving candidates for the same office. Attorneys like Mally represented several clients and sometimes had to be in two places at once. At one point, Mally left one table in the middle of a hearing to answer a question in a different case at another table. "He's like the prom king in here," a court reporter said, and the hearing officer chuckled. Advertisement Much of Thursday's proceedings concerned the exchange of information about rules, schedules and deadlines. In all cases, document reviews will take place. That's when authorities and experts will examine evidence to form opinions about claims of forged signatures, improperly reported residency and other issues. In some cases, parties failed to appear and hearings were continued. Typically, dates were set for the next round of hearings to consider the findings of the document review experts. At one point, a hearing officer asked Mally about scheduling a hearing for a client on Jan. 12 in the basement of the county building in Chicago. "I have to be in Steger at 11 a.m. that day for an electoral board hearing," Mally said. "Steger is almost in Kentucky." Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday > The parties agreed upon another date and time. Hearings continued throughout the day Thursday. Advertisement The Cook County Officers Electoral Board appoints hearing officers. The board, which is chaired by Cook County Clerk David Orr and includes State's Attorney Kimberly Foxx and Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown, meets at 2 p.m. Tuesday at the county building to consider some of the objections. The clock is ticking. All objections must be resolved within three weeks. Local election officials must certify ballots by Jan. 26. The early voting period for the April 4 election begins Feb. 23, according to the Illinois Board of Elections, though early voting in Cook County doesn't begin until March 20. tslowik@tribpub.com Twitter @tedslowik A 28-year-old Geneva woman, who formerly taught at Carpentersville Middle School, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to multiple charges that include allegations of sex acts with students. Lindsay P. Anderson faces a 15-count indictment accusing her of criminal sex assault, aggravated criminal sex abuse, indecent solicitation of a minor, child endangerment, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and distributing explicit material to a minor. She remains free on bond with a Feb. 8 hearing scheduled. Anderson also denied unrelated charges of filing a false police report in 2016. Advertisement Authorities began their investigation into Anderson in May 2015 after the mother of one of her former math students, a then-15-year-old boy, became concerned about their relationship, according to court records. The boy told police he and Anderson smoked marijuana and had sex in the back seat of an SUV registered to Anderson's husband, court documents state. Indictments issued in 2015 added charges alleging Anderson engaged in multiple sex acts over several months with a second teen she knew from school something police said Anderson admitted to during an interview, records show. She is also accused of sending the second boy at least one explicit photo via social media, according to court records. Anderson received court supervision in 2014 after pleading guilty to a delinquency charge in a case that involved inappropriate text messages and bringing truant students to her home, court records state. Advertisement Dan Campana is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News. Members of Elgin Watch City VFW Post 1307 recently agreed to try to sell the group's building along Weld Road and formed a committee to look for a new space. (Mike Danahey / The Courier-News) Members of Elgin's Watch City VFW Post 1307 voted Monday night to start the process for selling the group's building along Weld Road. According to Post officials, thirty people attended the members-only meeting, held on the last night of the long holiday weekend to discuss the matter. Advertisement "We have depleted any cash reserves and our monthly income has dropped to a point where it does not cover our day-to-day expenses," Commander Arthur Buckheister stated in the Post's Watch City Times newsletter for January - February 2017. "To put it simply, there are not enough people coming in to Post to pay the bills and keep the lights on." Post Quartermaster Scott Webb stated in the same newsletter that he had done everything he could to avoid the situation and that it was never his intention "to sell and move from our Post home. Unfortunately, we as a Post have found ourselves in a situation where we can no longer afford it." Advertisement Webb noted, "Selling our building and moving to another location does not mean we have failed as a VFW. It just means we recognize circumstances have changed, and we are adapting." Wednesday morning, Webb said those present Monday night agreed to five points: beginning the process for selling the building; listing the property for sale; making notifications to the national and state VFW offices about the decision; setting an initial listing price of $350,000 and minimum qualifying offer; and forming a search committee for a new location. Webb and Buckheister said everything is on the table as far as relocating, but that the Post would not be merging with another and was in no way disbanding. The Elgin Post formed in 1929. It's been in its current building since the early 1980s, Webb said. In 2011, the Post opened an additional 2,500-square-foot addition with a 200-person capacity along with a bigger bar area. The old bar in the front hall of the facility only had enough room for 13 bar stools, while the new bar in the canteen can seat 25 people and has a capacity of 72. That bar is dedicated to departed U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Bruce Riley of Elgin, who served two tours of duty in Vietnam and who died in 2003 at the age of 56. The canteen also has a pool table, jukebox, popcorn wagon, washrooms, flat-screen televisions that were donated by now-defunct VFW Post 1307 Men's Auxiliary and video gaming machines. Buckheister said several things happened since opening the addition that created a snowball effect. Among those were some key staff moving out of state, leading to closing the kitchen; a decline in interest in bingo; not being able to attract new members and an aging membership; and changes to Weld Road that make it harder to get to the building. Video gaming helped generate revenue for a bit, but, with machines all over the area and a casino in Elgin, numbers were down 50 percent in 2016 compared to 2015, Webb said. Webb also noted that in recent years, the Post has seen more competition from places offering banquet hall space to rent. Webb said the Post currently has 266 members, and it had more than 320 when he became quartermaster three years ago. Advertisement Elgin City Council member Rich Dunne is a member of the Elgin Post. Since 1992 he has held elected or appointed positions with the group, including terms as commander in 1993-94 and 1994-95. In a phone interview Tuesday, of potentially selling the building, Dunne said, "It's a sign of the changing demographics of veterans and how they might choose to spend their recreational time. There may be no need for a big hall anymore. And smaller membership numbers is not just an issue here at the Elgin Post and an issue not just for VFW Posts but for other organizations." Buckheister and Webb agreed with Dunne. "It used to be that people would get off work and maybe go to the corner tap to socialize and catch up on things. Now, people are on their (smart) phones and social media," Buckheister said. The three veterans also noted that the VFW is chartered by Congress, and to become a member of a VFW Post a person has to meet specific requirements that include serving in the military in an overseas conflict and having received a campaign medal for such service, having served 30 consecutive or 60 nonconsecutive days in Korea or having received imminent danger or hostile fire pay. While there were millions of veterans returning from World War II, Dunne said, with the changing nature of combat, recent conflicts have involved less personnel, meaning a smaller pool of veterans who are eligible to join a VFW. Buckheister noted that the VFW policy toward allowing "social members" changed in recent years, further limiting the potential membership pool. Advertisement According to Military Times, the number of members of the VFW across the nation stood at 2.5 million in 1995 and declined to 1.2 million in 2016, which was 100,000 less members than in 2015. Between July 2015 and July 2016, 70 VFW Posts closed, according to Military Times, and Posts have only been able to recruit about 150,000 veterans who served in Iraq or Afghanistan, which is roughly 6 percent of those eligible to join from those war zones. Locally, in 2013 St. Charles, VFW Post 5036 sold its building and lot not far from the Fox River along 3rd Street downtown to St. Charles for $800,000 to make way for a civic parking lot. The Post now leases space it shares along 2nd Street with other veterans groups. Dunne said it was important to remember that the primary mission of the Post and all veterans organizations is to assist veterans a mission that will continue with or without the Elgin Post having its own building. Webb and Buckheister offered examples of helping a homeless mother and veteran who had served in Afghanistan get back on her feet and helping another veteran with needed work to his home. Buckheister and Webb said, ideally, they wished the Post could afford to stay in its building. Whatever is found, the hope is other groups that have been using the building two Marine groups, a Navy club, a railroad conductors union, a coin club and a square dancing club will be able to use the found space, too, allowing the Post to continue serving veterans and the community at large. "If we can find a smaller, more manageable, more affordable building we can be a VFW, and not a banquet facility," Webb said. Advertisement "We can get out of the hall rental business," Buckheister said. With staff reports mdanahey@tribpub.com Kane County is close to finalizing an intergovernmental agreement ensuring School Resource Officers will be on campus at Kaneland Community Unit School District 302 and Central Community Unit School District No. 301 high schools for the next two years. The county board is expected to vote on the intergovernmental agreement at its Tuesday board meeting. Advertisement Kaneland Community Unit School District will discuss the agreement and decide to sign off on it at its next school board meeting, Superintendent Todd Leden said. Under the agreement, each high school within the Districts will have their own School Resource Officers through June 30, 2018. The Districts will pay the officers on an hourly basis and pay for any overtime, it states. Advertisement District officials and parents objected last summer to Sheriff Donald Kramer's decision to reassign one School Resource Officer and have both District high schools share one officer on a part-time basis due to budget and personnel issues. Kramer said the move would be for one semester. Parents said students needed to be protected and that having a School Resource Officer on campus full time was critical. Kaneland High School has 2,600 students while Central has 1,100 students, officials said. Kramer said school officials distorted facts and encouraged parents and students to take a stand based on false information. Leden said Kaneland Senior High School had a full-time School Resource Officer last semester. The situation helped the community and county officials understand the importance of having an officer in schools, he said. Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News. Evanston police charged a man for allegedly driving under the influence and possessing crack cocaine and a loaded hand gun after they found him asleep in the driver's seat of his vehicle Tuesday morning. Officers responded to a call around 6:30 a.m. of a driver asleep behind the steering wheel of a vehicle in the southbound lane of the 1800 block of Chicago Avenue, according to a police press release. Advertisement They discovered a man now identified as Marcus James, 25, of Calumet City. After waking James, an officer suspected him to be under the influence and took him into custody, police said. Advertisement In searching the vehicle officers found a clear plastic bag with eight grams of crack cocaine on the driver's side floor, according to the release. They also found a loaded Taurus .357 revolver in the trunk, police said. James was charged with misdemeanor driving under the influence of alcohol, felony possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver and felony unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, according to the release. He is currently being held in Cook County Jail with bail set at $100,000, according to information on the Cook County sheriff's website. James is scheduled to appear in court in Skokie Jan. 18. gbookwalter@chicagotribune.com Twitter @GenevieveBook A hearing began Wednesday on a defense motion to quash statements made to police by one of two defendants charged in connection with the death of a 16-year-old resident of the Allendale Association facility in Lake Villa. The motion was filed by attorney Robert Ritacca, who represents Justin Serak, 27. Serak has pleaded not guilty to charges of obstructing justice for allegedly providing false information to police in the case. Advertisement Ritacca said Serak's statements to police were given "involuntarily" under legal precedent because Serak was not informed that the resident had died, and that his interview during the overnight hours after the youth's death was part of a murder investigation. "Any time trickery is used in making a statement, those statements are always seen as involuntary," Ritacca told the court, citing previous legal rulings. Advertisement Much of Wednesday's hearing included the viewing of a video and audio recording of Serak being interviewed by members of the Lake County Major Crime Task Force, but audio distortion, acknowledged by both prosecutors and Ritacca, made it hard to make out some of what was said. Currently, no transcript of the recording has been created, officials said. The interview was conducted for several hours beginning at 2:30 a.m. on March 31 of last year, the morning after Allendale Association resident Shaquan Allen of Chicago died at the Lake Villa residential facility for troubled teens. The tape of the interview was played until 4 p.m. during the afternoon hearing, at which time Lake County Circuit Judge Daniel Shanes said the hearing would be continued in February at a date to be determined. A second defendant, James Davis, 37, of Round Lake, who authorities said put Allen in a chokehold, causing his death, has pleaded not guilty to charges of involuntary manslaughter and obstruction of justice. Davis is not a party in the motion to suppress Serak's statements. Prior to beginning the video, Assistant State's Attorney Lauren Kalcheim Rothenberg called Det. Matt Ulanowski, a member of the Major Crime Task Force, as a witness during the playing of the video. Ulanowski said he drove Serak from Allendale to the Round Lake Beach Police Department where the interview began at about 2:30 a.m., and conducted much of the interview. Serak said during the taped interview that Allen had become disruptive and that he and Davis eventually attempted to restrain him after Allen threatened violence. He said that a cup of water had spilled on the floor, and that Allen slipped and fell on the water. "It was because of the water," Serak said on the video, although he added that the goal was to get Allen to the floor and restrained. "But that wasn't the planned way." Advertisement Serak said that while both he and Davis were tangled with Allen, Allen fell forward and that he believed Allen's face had hit the floor, slapping his hand on the interview room wall to mimic the sound it made. Serak said in the interview that he noticed a "little blood" around Allen's face after he hit the floor, but that Allen continued to struggle and that he and Davis restrained him for about 10 minutes, "but it felt like forever." Allen became unresponsive, Serak said, but he also said he was still breathing and that he could feel his pulse. A nurse was called and she began CPR until paramedics arrived, Serak said in the interview. The judge halted the tape at a point in which Serak was asked to provide a written statement, and a lengthy portion of the video remains to be seen at the February hearing. Ritacca said he also planned to call Serak, Serak's mother and Ulanowski as defense witnesses. Ritacca's motion says that when he was being interviewed before he learned of Allen's death, he was "fearful" over his job at Allendale, and that Davis had said to him "Look what you made me do," after Allen stopped moving. The defense motion says that when Serak was eventually told Allen was dead, he recanted and revised his previous statements from the interview and cooperated with investigators, which Ritacca said is grounds for the charges against his client to be dropped. Advertisement Prosecutors have said that Allen was having a behavioral episode at Allendale on the evening of March 30 when Davis and Serak each took an arm and tried to escort him back to his bedroom. Allen became combative, officials said, prompting Serak to grab his legs while Davis took control of his upper body and put him in a chokehold. After Allen became unresponsive and was placed on the floor, authorities said that the two employees agreed to a story that Allen had knocked over a cup of water, slipped and fell. Serak, of Grafton, Wis., has been released from custody on bond while Davis remains in Lake County Jail with bail set at $500,000. jrnewton@tribpub.com Twitter @jimnewton5 A man wanted in the November killing of a Waukegan High School student was arrested in Tennessee this week and brought back to Lake County, where his bail was set at $3 million Thursday. Willie C. Jackson, 18, of Waukegan, had been the subject of an outstanding arrest warrant for murder in the Nov. 11 fatal shooting of Dayviontay Jackson. Advertisement Jackson is currently charged with two counts of first-degree murder and was in the custody of the Lake County Jail early Thursday. Waukegan Police Cmdr. Joe Florip confirmed Thursday that Willie Jackson, who is not related to the victim, was arrested in Tennessee and brought back to Lake County by Waukegan officers this week. Advertisement Florip said further details on the arrest would be issued at a later time. Jackson appeared in Lake County Circuit Court Thursday morning, where authorities said his bond was set at $3 million, the same amount specified in the arrest warrant. A status of attorney hearing for Jackson was scheduled for Jan. 10, according to Lake County Circuit Court Clerk records. Waukegan police announced Dec. 1 that a murder warrant had been issued for Jackson in the shooting death of Dayviontay Jackson. According to police, an argument escalated into the shooting of Dayviontay Jackson by Willie Jackson. Waukegan investigators had previously said they believed Willie Jackson had fled the greater Chicago area after the shooting. Dayviontay Jackson was a senior and former JROTC cadet at Waukegan High School, according to school spokesman Nicholas Alajakis. In a previous interview, his mother, Shukeitha, said her son had just left their house less than two hours before the shooting on the night he was killed. "He wanted to be a Navy SEAL and was going to join the Navy after school," she said. "He was a family guy, a good guy. He had a lot of friends. He was a real sweetheart." jrnewton@tribpub.com Advertisement Twitter @jimnewton5 A chimney fire in Lake Forest Wednesday night resulted in an estimated $30,000 in damage, fire officials said. At 7:18 p.m. a passerby called the fire department about a fire in the 400 block of East Illinois Road, according to a news release from the Lake Forest Fire Department. Crews arrived to find flames coming from the chimney of a house and called for additional firefighters from Highland Park, Lake Bluff, Knollwood, Lincolnshire, Libertyville, Deerfield and Wheeling. Advertisement The fire took about 30 minutes to get under control, Battalion Chief Mike Gallo said by email. A broken water pipe contributed to damage of the home, although the residents were not displaced. Lake Forest firefighters are investigating the cause of the fire, which they expect will take two weeks, Gallo said. Advertisement mlawton@pioneerlocal.com @reporterdude Carol Honigberg, from left, her granndaughter Lily Honigberg, and her son Steven Honigberg, will perform as the Honigberg Trio in Highland Park. (Honigberg Trio) Musical families populate the classical world, their talents resounding everywhere from concert halls to YouTube channels. Close to home, pianist Carol Honigberg, artistic director of the Pilgrim Chamber Players in Highland Park, and her husband Joel have their own noteworthy family son Steven, cellist with the National Symphony Orchestra, and his daughter, violinist Lily Honigberg, who announced, back when her 4th birthday was approaching, that she wanted a violin as a birthday gift. Advertisement Lily is now in her third year at the New England Conservatory in Boston, and after her grandmother attended one of her recitals there last spring, she decided the 20-year old was ready to perform during the Pilgrim Chamber Players' 20th anniversary season. The result? A concert of music by Tchaikovsky, Gliere, Shostakovich and, of course, Mozart, presented by the three-generation Honigberg Trio Carol, her son Steven and his daughter Lily on Jan. 15. Advertisement Steven Honigberg has been a guest artist on Pilgrim Chamber Player concerts, once each year for the last 18, playing sonatas, trios, string quartets and piano quintets on the programs. "The chamber music repertoire is so rich," the cellist said. "It never runs out." He should know. He is a founding member of the Potomac String Quartet and for a decade was director of the chamber music series at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. "There is also new chamber music being written all the time," Steven continued. "My mother does all the programming for Pilgrim herself and regularly presents newly written works." In fact since 1998 her ensemble had the distinction of engaging its own composer-in-residence, bassoonist Don Draganski, who only recent retired. All works in the Jan. 15 concert are by Russian composers, with the exception of Mozart's Piano Quartet in G Minor, with Rose Armbrust Griffin as guest violist. Five of Gliere's duos for violin and cello will be played by Steven and Lily, two Tchaikovsky pieces, "Nocturne" for violin and piano and "Serenade Melancolique" for cello and piano will be played. The three Honigbergs will conclude the program performing the Second Piano Trio by Shostakovich, a composer close to Steven's heart. "I've always admired Russian composers and performers," he said. "At Juilliard I was a student of the great cellist Leonard Rose. I had idolized him when I was a kid, 10, 12 years old. Classical music was being recorded in a big way at that time and I loved his sound." In 1977 another acclaimed Russian cellist, Mstislav Rostropovich, took the podium as conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. "He and Rose were friends, and in 1984 he contacted Rose and asked if he had students he could send to audition for the orchestra," Steven said. "Rose recommended me." Steven played under the baton of Rostropovich until the maestro left that post in 1994. "I was so lucky. I had 10 years with him, learning how to make music," he remembered. Advertisement During those years yet another friendship enriched Steven's musical life. Rostropovich had been friends with the late, great Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich. "So our orchestra played the Shostakovich symphonies all over the world on our tours," he said. "It is my duty now to communicate that knowledge to my daughter Lily, because she didn't know Shostakovich." Lily does, however, recount family lore which includes her father practicing the Shostakovich cello concerto while she was a baby. Her mother, Jessica Honigberg, holds a music degree from Yale University and is a founder and co-director of Aberfoyle Baroque, an organization dedicated to promoting the harpsichord through a series of house concerts in D.C. Their daughter has done her parents proud, being chosen in 2014 as a member of the National Youth Orchestra. But Lily has also burst through the boundaries of classical repertoire. For two summers she backpacked through Europe, staying with families along the way. One of her stops was in Ireland, where the father of the family was a serious Irish penny whistle player. Soon Lily was teaming up with him and other Irish musicians and quickly mastered the art of fiddling. "I also write tunes," said Lily, "and improvise with my band." Titled Night Tree, the pan-celtic ensemble includes two fiddles, a cello, saxophone, accordion and percussion. It recently won the New England Conservatory's Wild Card Honors Ensembles Award. The name of the Pilgrim Chamber Players comes from the Pilgrim Lutheran Church in Chicago, where the first concert was given two decades ago. "Julie Schmidt was the founder," Carol Honigberg explained. "She plays the oboe. I was a guest pianist with them at first, then joined the board." Advertisement When Schmidt's life became busier, she asked Carol Honigberg if she would take over the management of the fledgling group. Initially the musicians played only at the church in Chicago, but the following year they gave the concert in both Chicago and Highland Park. By the third year the concert series had taken root in Highland Park, drawing guest artists from the ranks of top Chicago-area musicians. "We don't have trouble getting guest artists," Carol said. "Musicians recommend people they know. It always seems to work out." After the January concert, the Pilgrim Chamber Players' 20th anniversary season continues with "Romantic Treasures" March 12, including music by Beethoven, Villa-Lobos and Tchaikovsky's "Souvenir de Florence" for String Sextet, with John Sharp and five cellists he will assemble for the piece. It will be followed by "Stars of Tomorrow" on April 30, a free concert by outstanding young musicians 18 years and younger. The 20th anniversary season concludes June 4 with "Spring Fever," featuring the nostalgic "Ramshackle Songs" by Chicago composer Dan Visconti, performed by the Kontras Quartet. Advertisement James Stone, president of Pilgrim Chamber Players, had these words of praise: "Very few musical organizations last for 20 years. Pilgrim Chamber Players did by cultivating a loyal audience, giving them the high level of chamber musical talent they demand and operating at a surplus every year." The Pilgrim Chamber Players What: Honigberg Trio concert When: 3 p.m. Sunday Jan. 15 Where: Highland Park Community House, 1991 Sheridan Road, Highland Park Tickets: $20, seniors $16, students $8 Advertisement Information: www.pilgrimplayers.org News / National by Stephen Jakes As the count down to Bikita West by elections continues where six candidates are contesting for the House of Assembly seat, human rights violations continue escalating in the constituency.The by -election is set for January 21.Heal Zimbabwe Trust reported that major violations observed include; threats of violence issued to voters and opposition supporters, partisan food and non-food items distribution, threats of withdrawal of food aid, forced attendance to rallies, assault, disruption of political gatherings and destruction of campaign materials."Generally the socio-political environment in Bikita West constituency was peaceful towards the Christmas holidays. However, the environment is beginning to heat up as the polling day draw closer. Notable victims of violence in the constituency are mostly perceived or known opposition party leaders and supporters belonging to Zimbabwe People First (Kudakwashe Gopo), Independent candidate (Heya Shoko) and National Constitutional Assembly (Madock Chivasa)," the trust said."On the other hand, perpetrators of the recorded violations are mostly Zanu PF supporters. Voters and opposition supporters continue to be victimised by the ruling party supporters with traditional leaders acting agents of violence and intimidation."Heal Zimbabwe said it continues to monitor the electoral environment."In Bikita west ward 32, Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa is expected in Bikita West today (4th January 2017) and he is scheduled to address a rally at Nyika Growth Point. However, in preparation of the VP's visit, on the 3rd of January Chief Marozva who is also a Zanu PF senator summoned all the village heads for a ward meeting at Makotore ward centre where he implored village heads to woe their subjects to vote for Zanu PF," said the trust."A total of 39 village heads attended the meeting and they were instructed to assist voters in the upcoming by-election to ensure a landslide victory. Chief Marozva emphasized that all village heads should also ensure that people attend a rally at Nyika growth point on the 4th of January 2017 which will be addressed by VP Mnangagwa."The trust said in Bikita West ward 9 Zanu PF Chairman Philip Dhliwayo is denying food aid to opposition party supporters."On 23 December 2016, Dhliwayo called for a food distribution at the ward centre. At the meeting, he announced that the food was meant only for Zanu PF supporters. Dhliwayo also urged people at the meeting to vote for Zanu PF candidate in the upcoming by election, Beauty Chabaya. He also announced that if Beauty Chabaya loses in the by election, Zanu PF will ensure that no food aid comes into the area ever again," said the trust."In Bikita West ward 4 on 30 December 2016, Zanu PF Bikita South legislator Jeppy Jaboon distributed fertilisers at Murwira Primary school. At the food distribution exercise, he openly told people that only Zanu PF supporters were going to receive fertilisers and highlighted that no opposition supporter was going to receive fertilisers. He also urged people to vote for Zanu PF candidate, Beauty Chabaya in the pending by-election."The trust said in Bikita West ward 5 Zanu PF candidate, Beauty Chabaya distributed maize seed at Makuvaza Primary School on 31 December 2016."At the distribution meeting, she said that only Zanu PF members were going to receive the maize seed. She promised that if people vote for her in the pending by election, she would donate more of the maize seed. In a separate incident, unidentified Zanu PF youths moved in the ward on 31 December 2016 threatening people that if they voted for any other candidate besides Beauty Chabaya, Zanu PF was going to unleash violence worse than that experienced in 2008," Heal Zimbabwe said."In Bikita West ward 9 Councillor Mukaro Jongonya and Zanu PF ward chairperson, Phillip Dhliwayo are denying food aid from Ministry of Social welfare to opposition party supporters. At a food distribution exercise at Bikita business centre on 30 December 2016, the two distributed food aid and announced that all opposition party supporters were not going to receive food aid. At the food distribution exercise, they also announced that they will ensure that Zanu PF candidate Beauty Chabaya wins the by election at all costs."The trust said in Bikita West ward 10 Zimbabwe People First (ZPF) members, Tsuru Gurwe and Struggle Nyahunda were assaulted by Zanu PF youths at Hozvi business centre on 11 December 2016."The two were assaulted for campaigning for ZPF candidate in the by election, Kudakwashe Gopo. The matter was reported at Bikita police station but no arrests have been made. In Bikita West ward 22, On 20 December 2016, Zimbabwe People First (ZPF) member, Melody Muganhiri was assaulted by Zanu PF chairlady, Mhurai Jecha during a food distribution exercise at Gangarahwe business centre. Before the assault, Jecha accused Muganhiri for mobilising people to attend a ZPF rally at Gangarahwe business centre on 18 December 2016. The case was reported at Bikita police station but no arrests have been made so far," said the trust."In Bikita West ward 22, on 29 December 2016, Zanu PF youths led by Youth chairperson, Chiedza Mushamba disrupted a Zimbabwe People First (ZPF) rally at Gangarahwe business centre. The youths arrived at the venue when ZPF candidate in the pending by election, Kudakwashe Gopo had already started to address the rally. They then started chanting slogans and harassing ZPF supporters who had gathered for the rally. The matter was reported at Bikita police station leading to the arrest of Zanu PF activists, Mhurai Jecha, Chiedza Mushamba and Simeon Ziwewe," said the trust.The trust said in Bikita West Ward 9 Dzidzai Maregere, a National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) member was denied farming inputs from the Presidential input Scheme by former Zanu PF Councillor, Peter Munhande on 31 December 2016."During the distribution exercise, Munhande pointed out that people like Maregere were not going to benefit from the Presidential input scheme because they supported opposition parties. The distribution exercise took place at Bikita business centre. The distribution exercise was also attended by Zanu PF ward chairperson Fungai Taruona and other Zanu PF members," said the trust."In Bikita West Ward 10, Bikita South MP Jeppy Jaboon and Zanu PF candidate Beauty Chabaya hijacked an input distribution meeting at Jaravaza Primary and converted it into a rally on 30 December 2016. The three took turns to urge people gathered that if they wanted to continue receiving inputs, they were supposed to vote for Chibaya. Jaboon also added that people will be thoroughly beaten if Zanu PF loses the coming by-election."Heal Zimbabwe said in Bikita ward 32, Zanu PF ward chairperson Charles Tirukai and Zanu PF women's league chairlady for ward 32 only identified as Mai Bevan intimidated people who came to receive maize seed under the Presidential input scheme on the 26th of December 2016 at Makotore ward centre."The distribution exercise was later turned into a campaign rally for Zanu PF candidate in the by election, Beauty Chabaya. Beauty Chibaya and Bikita South Legislator, Jeppy Jaboon also took turns to address the rally. In his address, Jaboon highlighted that all the people should vote for Zanu PF or they will face and experience Zanu PF "terror" should it lose. He further highlighted that all the serial numbers of people who registered to vote were compiled and submitted to him, thus he will monitor and know the people who would have voted against Zanu PF," said the trust."Beauty Chabaya highlighted the maize seed was meant for Zanu PF supporters and told opposition members that they will only receive maize seed and hand-outs if they voted for Zanu PF. More than 800 people attended the rally. Opposition members who had come for the maize seed distribution were turned away by Charles Tirukai who was calling out all names of all perceived opposition party members from a compiled list."The trust said in Bikita ward 32 Campaign material belonging to National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) candidate Madock Chivasa was defaced at Makotore Business centre by alleged Zanu PF youths on the 24th of December 2016."In Bikita ward 9, Simon Chibarwe, a supporter of Heya Shoko an Independent candidate in the pending by election was denied food aid on the 29th of December 2016 at Ngondyore primary school. Simon highlighted that Zanu PF youths shouted that he was not eligible to receive food aid from social welfare because he supported Heya Shoko who is contesting as an independent candidate for the upcoming by-election," said the trust."In Bikita ward 11, 13 and 30, Campaign material belonging to Heya Shoko who will contest in the upcoming by-election as an Independent candidate was defaced in Sosera area by Zanu PF youths. This took place on the 28th of December 2016. The material was also defaced in ward 13 and 30 by suspected Zanu PF activists."HZT also got in touch with the Zanu PF candidate, Beauty Chabaya to hear her side over the allegations labelled against her and her political party but she refuted and dismissed all allegations as false and malicious meant to tarnish Zanu PF.The organisation continues to call for peace and tolerance ahead of the 21 January 2017 by elections in Bikita West. The state budget crunch continues to affect schools' bottom line despite the promise last summer by lawmakers and the governor to fully fund K-12 education. In addition to general state aid, which schools have been receiving, districts receive four categorical payments throughout the year to cover costs that include transportation, special education and free and reduced-price lunches. Advertisement With little in the state till because the ongoing budget stalemate, the Illinois comptroller cannot pay bills on time, including providing schools with their quarterly categorical installments. It's taken the state six months for the comptroller to write Indian Prairie School District 204 a check for its final categorical payment of the 2015-16 fiscal year. Advertisement Jay Strang, chief school business official, said District 204 on Tuesday received $4.8 million, "our last categorical payment from last year." "The state is behind in paying our first categorical payment for this year. At this point of the year we should have received $6.5 million for this year," Strang said. A spokeswoman for the Comptroller's Office last week confirmed checks for the fourth categorical payment would be released to schools at the end of the year. If and when schools will receive more funding is a concern for many school officials, said Mike Chamness, director of communications for the Illinois Association of School Administrators. As the budget standoff continues, Chamness said, school administrators he's spoken to are increasingly concerned the state won't be able to fulfill general state aid payments it promised. "We have a full-year budget, so the presumption is that will carry through the school year," he said. "But the reality is if the checkbook has no funds in it, it may end up affecting public schools this spring. "We are grateful the state fully funded general state aid for the first time in several years, but they're putting money in the left pocket and taking money from the right pocket by not making categorical payments," Chamness said. Chamness said as a result of the delay some districts are in worse shape today than at this time a year ago. Advertisement Because the $4.8 million was received long after the 2015-16 fiscal year books were closed, Indian Prairie officials expect the district will be listed under review for its deficit spending when the Illinois State Board of Education releases its annual School District Financial Profile Scores report that gauges the financial health of districts. The previous year District 204 was among the 568 districts making the top category, or Financial Recognition. There are four categories of financial health. Tribune wire services contributed. subaker@tribpub.com Twitter @SBakerSun1 The Norridge School District 80 Board violated the Illinois Open Meetings Act by blocking a resident from recording a school board meeting last fall, according to a ruling from the Illinois Attorney General's Office. The ruling, issued Dec. 28, was in response to a complaint filed in October. In the complaint, Norridge resident Adam Chudzik claimed the school board prevented him from recording the open session of the Sept. 20 school board meeting under the board's "advance notice rule." Advertisement The rule called into question in Chudzik's complaint is a policy District 80's board has written into its code for board meeting procedures, which requires meeting attendees planning to record the proceedings to first get permission from the board or the superintendent. The Open Meetings Act says meetings may be recorded. Advertisement "Because the Open Meetings Act specifically provides that meetings may be recorded, any public body that prescribes a rule requiring advance notice of recording a meeting would have a steep burden to overcome in order to demonstrate that such a rule is reasonable," according to the binding opinion issued by public access counselor Sarah Pratt. Chudzik claimed in the complaint that he approached board President Srbo Radisavljevic 10 minutes before the meeting to ask whether he could record the open session portion, and was told he could not. According to the complaint, Radisavljevic told him he needed to provide the board with sufficient advance notice of his intent to make a recording. The school district will now be required, under the Attorney General's order, to review the policy in question and to begin conducting its future board meetings in compliance with the Open Meetings Act. The school board has until Feb. 1 to file a complaint for administrative review in Cook County Circuit Court. Radisavljevic said the school board hasn't reviewed the Attorney General's decision yet, but said District 80's policy was designed in line with sample policies provided by the Illinois Association of School Boards. "The board will work with the IASB to update, align and to rectify the portion of the policy which the Attorney General views as in violation of the Open Meetings Act," he said in an email. In its response to the Attorney General Office's request for a response to the allegations filed by Chudzik, the school district's legal counsel had submitted the school board's written policy for recording public meetings, which requires anyone planning to record a meeting to notify the school board in advance. The board "implements its policy by requiring 24 hours advance notice of any request to record a meeting," according to the school district's response sent to the Attorney General's Office. "It is the board's position that 24 hours advance notice of such request is a reasonable rule to govern the right to record a meeting under section 2.05 of [the Open Meetings Act]." The board further backed its claim by saying there were children at Leigh School Learning Resource Center during the time Chudzik asked to make a recording. The learning center was the location of the Sept. 20 board meeting. Because School District 80 doesn't have a public board meeting room, the meetings are typically held on alternating months in the libraries at Leigh and Giles schools. "The possibility that images of children and students present in the [learning resource center] may also have been recorded was unacceptable and an additional reason to deny the recording request without 24 hours notice," according to the board's response to the Attorney General. Advertisement The Attorney General determined that the school district's interpretation of the part of the Open Meetings Act in question violated the part of the law that says there's no provision to grant a public body the authority to prevent someone from recording an open meeting. "The board failed to demonstrate that its rule was necessary to prevent interference with the proceedings or protect the safety of those in attendance," the Attorney General's ruling said. Because modern-day recording devices are often embedded into smartphones, an advance-notice rule would be "difficult or impossible to enforce," the ruling added. Chudzik said he believes the Attorney General's ruling serves to support his belief that the board has "no real interest in engaging the public." Since a recent referendum failed, school board members have sought more public involvement for planning the next steps the district should take to address its growing deficit. "The district continues to claim they are asking the public for help, only to spend a great deal of time preventing people from any meaningful participation," Chudzik said in an email. "You can't have it both ways they're just going through the motions." Calling himself a "Norwood Park Watchdog," Chudzik posts videos he records of public meetings on his blog. Advertisement "The video recording issue shouldn't have happened," Chudzik said. "Out of courtesy, I asked if I could place my camera and tripod in a corner out of the way, to keep it out of the audience seating area, [and] in reply they threw a rule book at me." Natalie Hayes is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press. Kids can celebrate music and get their hands on instruments at Music Institute of Chicago's free Musical Petting Zoos on Jan. 8, 21 and 22. (Music Institute of Chicago) Learning to play a musical instrument enriches a child's life. You can discover which instrument your child would most like to play during the Music Institute of Chicago's free Musical Petting Zoo and Registration Days in January. At three events, kids will have the chance to try a wide range of musical instruments. They will also play music games and enjoy refreshments while you learn about the Music Institute from faculty and staff members. There will be discounts for visitors as well as door prizes. Advertisement The Musical Petting Zoos will be held at 2 p.m. Jan. 8 at the school's Evanston East Campus, 1490 Chicago Ave.; 2 p.m. Jan. 21 at Highland Park Public Library, 494 Laurel Ave.; and 2 p.m. Jan. 22 at the school's Winnetka Campus, 300 Green Bay Road. The winter session begins on Jan. 30. Advertisement The Music Institute of Chicago is one of the largest and most respected community music schools in the country. For details, call (847) 905-1500 or go to www.musicinst.org. Who's a hero? Each month, children ages 2-5, with a caregiver, will learn about Community Heroes at Northbrook Public Library, 1201 Cedar Lane. A senior care professional will be the featured hero 10:30-11:30 a.m. Jan. 13. Kids will meet the hero, hear a story and do thematic play based on the hero's job. For details, call (847) 272-6224 or go to www.northbrook.info. Puppy love Everybody's favorite brightly-colored dog is the subject of a special storytime, 11 a.m. Jan. 7 at Barnes and Noble, 1630 Sherman Ave., Evanston. Kids will hear "Clifford's Good Deeds" and "Clifford the Big Red Dog" by author Norman Bridwell. Afterwards, they will participate in related activities and color. For details, call (847) 424-0848 or go to www.barnesandnoble.com. Chill at the Glen Snowy science and Arctic art are the topics children ages 2-6 and their families will explore at the Flight-to-Fun Kids Club meeting 10:30-11:30 a.m. Jan. 7 at the Book Market at Hangar One, 2651 Navy Blvd., Glen Town Center, Glenview. The event combines art with science. Registration is required. For details, call (847) 729-7500 or go to theglentowncenter.com. Advertisement Rocky day to learn and play The whole family can explore geology at STEM Saturday: Geology Rocks! 2-3:30 p.m. Jan. 14 at Glencoe Public Library, 320 Park Ave. Families will learn about rocks and stones through self-directed activities and experiments, make a rock sculpture and decorate a pet rock to take home at this drop-in event. The father of murder victim Iyuan Yarbrought told Alante Green he'd been in his shoes after killing someone when he was in his 20s. "I did 16 1/2 years in prison," Larnell Hennington said. "I gave my life to God. I've been in the same shoes as you. You gotta change. God has given you a second chance." Advertisement Hennington, then of Hammond, was sentenced to 40 years for voluntary manslaughter in the death of Derek Hudson, 26, of Gary. Green, 24, who was sentenced to 45 years, made no apology to Yarbrought's family, but he did apologize to his own family and loved ones. "It's a loss all around the board. I'm human, I've made mistakes," he said. Advertisement Hennington said on March 31, he'd just fixed lunch for his 23-year-old son, who was anxious to get home ahead of incoming bad weather in time to pick up his mother from work. "I watched him die. I watched him take his last breath," said Hennington, who was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in a 2000 killing in Gary. Yarbrought's mother, Pamela Newson, said her son had big dreams and a big personality. Yarbrought started rapping when he was just 6 years old. "Music was just one of his gifts," she said of her son. Newson said her big, loving family has been devastated by her son's death. In court, Green admitted that his friend Robert Stone drove to East Chicago, picked up Green, and they drove to East Hammond. Green had a girlfriend he had been dating off-and-on who also had dated Yarbrought. Stone drove Green to a Drackert Street residence in Hammond, where the two men waited for Yarbrought to emerge. When Yarbrought walked outside, Green had Stone drive up to him. Green pulled out a handgun from under the seat and shot Yarbrought several times. Newson said her son was hit by eight of the nine shots Green fired. "Was it worth it? Three families are destroyed because of the choices you made," she said. Newson said she has started a support group called Healing Hearts to help families who have lost children to gun violence and also has a Facebook page. "I don't care who it is, put the gun down," she said. Advertisement Deputy prosecutor Robert Persin said under Indiana law, Green must serve more than 33 years of the 45-year sentence for murder outlined in the plea agreement. "I hope the words of Mrs. Newson and Mr. Hennington ring in his ears," Persin said. Stone, 24, of Chicago, was sentenced in December to six years for assisting a criminal. Ruth Ann Krause is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune. Hammond cousins Casio Randolph, 5, (right) and Treysen Knight, 2, (left), take a break from the day-long activities during the New Year's Eve celebration at Bellaboo's Play and Discovery Center. (Sue Ellen Ross / Post-Tribune) Hundreds of youngsters celebrated New Year's Eve at Bellaboo's Play and Discovery Center with their own rendition of a New Year's toast and fireworks display. The event, "Glitterific Gala" included a class to make a liquid concoction for a bubbly drink, a New Year's Eve parade, games, dance-along and balloon drop, all taking place in the middle of the day. Advertisement "That was so much fun, colors everywhere," said Jeremiah Johnston, 10, of Gary, as he described the balloon drop. "I didn't know anyone had so many balloons, they just came down on our heads." The annual end-of-year festivities began in 2009 at the then-new Bellaboo's facility overseen by the Lake County Parks Department. Advertisement This year's agenda spaced out the myriad activities throughout the day, giving families the opportunity to have lunch or just take a break from the crowd. The continued popularity of this unique party reflects the need for little ones to have something as special to do on this day as their parents, according to many of those in attendance. "Each year, my husband and I plan an adult party for friends on New Year's Eve and the kids always felt left out when they had to go to the babysitters," said Kendra Grainger of Highland. "We found out about this celebration three years ago and make it a point to bring them here every year. Now, they don't feel like they're missing anything, since they have their own age-appropriate celebration." Heidi Engleberg of Chesterton entertained out-of-town guests this holiday season, including grandson Benny Peterma, 8, of San Diego. "This (party) is a special time for Benny," she said, as she helped him line up to make the "bubbly, fizzy" drink for the New Year's toast. "He gets to mingle with other kids in a safe, fun place. And like many other grandparents, I enjoy watching him having so much fun." The Jamison family agreed that the event offered opportunities for not only the children, but also the parents themselves. "My children are little and can't stay up until midnight, so this is one way for us to plan quality, family time as we end the year," said Sandy Jamison of Crown Point, as she settled in a booth for lunch with husband Mike and kids, Emilia, 1, and Jude, 6. "We put this on our schedule each season it's become a family tradition." A bubble machine kept the action going all afternoon, as kids of all ages danced to upbeat music. Even some parents joined in. Advertisement "I think the reason it's so crowded here every year is because they allow the kids to be kids," said Janet Peterson of Griffith, who had her eight-year-old twin granddaughters in tow. "Where else can they act silly and stay in a good mood? These people plan this party just perfectly, giving the little ones their own space to let go." Bellaboo's Play and Discovery Center offers a creative, colorful, interactive design to allow children to do what they do best play, learning as they go. Designed for those aged nine and younger, visitors participate in activities in a variety of rooms, such as the grocery store, art studio, and reading room. For more information, call (219) 963-2070, or visit www.MyBellaboos.com. Sue Ellen Ross is a freelance writer for the Post-Tribune. Gary Cathedral of Holy Angels: 640 Tyler St. 10th Annual Tribute to Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday. The celebration of the life and legacy of Dr. King will feature a keynote address from Indiana University Northwest Chancellor William J. Lowe and music by the Wirt-Emerson Visual and Performing Arts High Ability Academy Concert Choir, under the direction of Marion Lynn Boynes. For more information, contact The Cathedral of Holy Angels at (219) 882-6079. Advertisement Marquette Park United Methodist Church: 215 N. Grand Blvd. --- Senior yoga will be at noon Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Cost is $3 Tuesday and Friday and $4 Thursday, which includes lunch. First Saturday Outreach Lunch is at noon the first Saturday of each month. Sunday School is at 9:15 a.m. and services at 10:15 a.m. Information: 219-938-4106. St. John Lutheran Church: 2235 W. 10th Ave. The Rev. Delwyn Campbell has been named pastor for St. John and strategic mission developer in the community of Gary. Campbell's installation will be at 2 p.m. Jan. 8. Campbell was born and raised in Gary and graduated from Wirt High School. He moved to California and spent time teaching, in radio, and in journalism in the Naval Reserves. He graduated from Concordia University Irvine, Christ College, with a master's degree in theology with pastoral certification and cross-cultural ministry. The establishment of Ascension Lutheran School on the campus of Our Savior Lutheran Church in Gary, based on a parochial school model for inner city schools, will be under Campbell's direction, according to Rev. Richard Boshoven, the Circuit Visitor for the Gary Lutheran churches. Advertisement Staff report Recent Purdue Northwest graduate Megan Vietor will start her new job as coordinator at Recovery Connection in Valparaiso. "Recovery Connection provides a support system for addicted persons and their families during their recovery period," Vietor said. (Photo Provided by Purdue University / Post-Tribune) Megan Vietor gave careful thought to the career that she wanted to pursue. She knew that she wanted a career that would give her an opportunity to help people who may need a hand in getting through some of life's challenges. And once she decided on the path she wanted to follow, Vietor would not let anything that in her way. North Judson resident Vietor earned her bachelor's degree in Psychology during the Purdue University Northwest commencement ceremony on Dec. 9, on the Westville Campus. Advertisement And a job that perfectly suits her career aspirations awaits. "I will be taking a position as the coordinator at Recovery Connection in Valparaiso," she explained. "Recovery Connection provides a support system for addicted persons and their families during their recovery period." Vietor, who went through recovery from a drug addiction herself, knows the importance of having a network of individuals who are willing to give their unquestioning and unwavering assistance to someone facing what can seem like insurmountable problems. Advertisement "PNW allowed me a fresh start at school, and I was determined to graduate in order to help others who struggle with substance abuse or addiction," Vietor said. It didn't take long for her to find her niche on campus. She enjoyed her classes and her grades earned her placement on the semester honors lists. "My professors at PNW have been extremely encouraging and helped me in so many ways on my path to graduation. I received incredible support," she said. Outside of class, she gained valuable career experience when she took it upon herself to help out in her community. "This past school year, I volunteered at the alternative high school, The Crossing, in Knox. I have had the privilege to work with students who have been expelled or who have dropped out of public school. At The Crossing they have a second chance at earning a diploma or GED. This was a tremendous opportunity for me," Vietor said. She also is looking forward to getting married in July of 2017, noting that, "My fiance always encouraged me and kept me going while I was pursuing my degree and he is very supportive of my career choice." Vietor enjoyed her time as a PNW student. "I would highly recommend PNW to anyone who thrives in smaller class settings," Vietor said. "My experiences in class have been highly beneficial. Because of the smaller number of students, I have many strong relationships with my classmates. I love having personal experiences with my professors and classmates, I feel I can learn better this way and come away with positive memories and encounters. I am extremely appreciative of PNW and all that it gives to its students." Advertisement Carol Connelly is the Director of Media Relations & Communications at Purdue University Northwest's North Central campus in Westville. Disciplinary charges were filed Wednesday against a Merrillville attorney who plead guilty to driving drunk in Porter County last fall. T. Edward Page, of Hobart, was arrested and charged with misdemeanors after a Porter County officer pulled him over in October and found he had a blood alcohol content more than twice the legal limit. Page ultimately entered an agreement and pleaded guilty to operating a vehicle while intoxicated in November. Advertisement On Wednesday, the Judicial Qualifications Commission, which investigates alleged ethical misconduct by judges, filed disciplinary charges, separate from the Porter County case, accusing Page of engaging in judicial misconduct, according to a release. Page, who is listed as a Lake County public defender in 2016, is a member of the Indiana State Bar Association and was a senior judge, according to the court document filed with the disciplinary charges. The commission alleges Page violated rules of the Code of Judicial Conduct, which require a judge to "respect and comply with the law" and to "act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity of the judiciary," in the drunk driving incident, the document states. Advertisement A Porter County Sheriff's Department deputy stopped Page after dispatch received 911 calls around 11 p.m. Oct. 1 about a reckless driver southbound on Indiana 149 that was veering into northbound traffic, the document states. The deputy noticed alcohol on Page's breath, and that he had slurred speech and watery eyes, the document states. Page failed at least three field sobriety tests the deputy conducted, and according to a preliminary breath test, Page had a blood alcohol content of .20 percent, more than twice the legal limit of .08 percent. Page was arrested and charged in Porter County Superior Court with misdemeanors from the incident. When the case was initially filed, Page said he was "completely ashamed" and that he was "sorry I've let everybody down and embarrassed the profession." Page struck an agreement and pleaded guilty on Nov. 15 to operating a vehicle while intoxicated, a Class C misdemeanor. Page did not receive additional jail time, but he was placed on 180 days of unsupervised probation, an "ignition interlock requirement" on his driving privileges until Dec. 7 and fines and court costs totaling $883.50. In this new disciplinary case, the Indiana Supreme Court has the "final authority to determine what, if any, judicial misconduct occurred," the release states. Potentially, the charges could be dismissed, a plea agreement could be reached, there could be a public hearing or the court could impose sanctions "ranging from a reprimand to a suspension to a permanent ban on holding judicial office in Indiana," according to the release. Page has 20 days to file an answer to the charges, the release states. rejacobs@post-trib.com Twitter @ruthyjacobs News / National by Stephen Jakes Pro-democracy activist Linda Masarira has described the banning of street vending in Harare as cruel and inhumane.The government announced that it was banning the food vending in Harare following the outbreak of typhoid."The announcement by today that the government has decided to make street vending illegal is not good news at all. I agree that prevalence of diseases is a cause for concern for all of us in Harare. Minister Parirenyatwa and his counterparts are refusing to accept the real challenges on the ground contributing to the problem at hand. But, targeting vendors in addressing the problem is not only wrong but proves to all and sundry how the state and local authority treat the impoverished majority of the residents," Masarira said."Typhoid and cholera are diseases spread by poor hygiene. It is open secrets that refuse collection and sewerage reticulation are perennial challenges dogging the Harare municipality. Sadly, these do not rank amongst their top priority list. It is a common sight in the residential areas, indeed at Mbare musika that refuse, and sewerage competes for space with the inhabitants. Minister of Local Government Saviour Kasukuwere is very much aware of this situation. Even the Mayor Manyenyeni is not alien to the sorry situation that confronts Harare residents on a daily basis. Now to react because of the outbreak and sad deaths as a result of the recent cases of typhoid in Mbare proves that they do not care about us. Where were they all along? Can they seriously believe we can buy the cameo solution they are putting on the table? "She said there are issues that are supposed to be addressed not this madness and these vendors are not on the streets by choice but because of the failed rule by the government."They are mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters who are at the mercy of insensitive government policies. I am talking of properly qualified people who cannot find employment because the government is clueless and has failed to provide the promised 2.2 million jobs. They have managed to kill all economic activities and these people have no option but work from the streets. This is not the need to get supplementary earnings but their sole source of livelihood. Families are dependent on these forced vending businesses. What Kasukuwere and Manyenyeni fail to realise is that they are condemning these people to the dustbin of poverty. They surely can't hide behind the pressure from the ministry of health. They know health is a right and not negotiable. Residents deserve quality service delivery and not for the authorities to wait for outbreaks. What kind of a leadership that is not proactive? Reactionary always!!" she said."We all know that the advent of rainy season always brings with it water borne diseases and it is the duty of government to have contingency measures in place. They should have a plan of action in place that prioritise refuse collection, provision of quality drinking water and improved sewerage reticulation system. This should be an on-going exercise rather than wait for situations as obtaining on the ground now. Instead of preoccupying himself with giving stands and firing councillors, the minister should at least take the welfare of citizens seriously. He must know that he is in office to serve us not to impoverish the populace."Masarira said decisions like these, though in some instances mean good for us residents, must not be ruthless and cruel."We as residents should be consulted, solutions proffered as a collective rather than having the chief culprits pretend to have our welfare at heart. This vending situation is not a fly by night thing. These people will surely come back and then what will happen? It will not be by choice but that's the only available honest means to earn a living. Schools are opening next week and school fees come from these activities," she said."The government should at least consider regulating open wells at households, boreholes and dubious water purifying companies. It is always inevitable that sewerage seeps into boreholes and open wells. Due to perennial water pipe bursts and sewerage leakages, chances are high that raw sewerage is deposited into the water system. These are issues they should endeavour to have corrected that targeting vendors who have no direct link to the outbreak of typhoid and cholera. Council should consider increasing access to ablution facilities in the CBD and public transport pick-up points like Mbare musika, Copacabana, market square, charge office, Machipisa and fourth street terminus."Masarira said the inter-ministerial task team shall look beyond the current problem and thrive to have a long lasting solution to these challenges."This is a good initiative but they have to consider the snowballing effect of outright banning of street vending without providing alternatives to these people. It is indeed hard to adjust to new regulations overnight. Council should take a leaf from their mushikashika challenge in effecting this new regulation. Due to desperation, all vendors will use unorthodox means to sell their wares. This will not prevent the perceived spreading of typhoid but stop them from practising the little hygiene they seem to be doing at the moment. Majority of us actually purchase veggies from them on our way home because they are affordable and accessible. There is serious need for reviewing the strategy and come up with a win-win stop gap measure. Otherwise, the affected people will be worse off and the whole meaning of an otherwise welcome measure thrown into the dustbin," she said. The Lake County Council moved forward with ordinances that strip authority over towing contracts from Sheriff John Buncich after allegations of his involvement in a kickback scheme with tow operators. Councilmen David Hamm, D-Hammond, and Jamal Washington, D-Merrillville, introduced two ordinances Thursday in a council workshop: one that would strip power from the sheriff regarding towing matters and a second that would redirect any funds collected from towing the Sheriff's Department budget to the county. Advertisement The 2017 vehicle towing ordinance would give authority to award towing contracts to the Board of Commissioners instead of the sheriff, Washington said. A second ordinance would repeal and replace the sheriff's towing fee and towing company franchise fee non-reverting fund, where moneys collected from towing companies now go, and redirect those funds to the county's general fund. Councilman Dan Dernulc, R-Highland, said the change is necessary to restore public confidence in how the county operates towing vehicles through the Sheriff's Department. Advertisement "We are trying to make sure the public, the residents have more confidence in what we are doing," Dernulc said. "The perception with the public is this is an issue. We have to get this issue resolved." The county's move to take more control over the towing contracts follows allegations of corruption federal authorities leveled against Buncich and former Chief of Police Timothy Downs for taking bribes from tow operators. Buncich, Downs and William Szarmach, of CSA Towing in Lake Station, were named in a multicount indictment alleging an illegal towing scheme in which the sheriff accepted bribes in the form of thousands of dollars in cash and donations to his campaign fund, Buncich's Boosters, according to court records. All three are facing charges of wire fraud, while Buncich and Szarmach also are charged with bribery. Downs, in December, pleaded guilty and both Buncich and Szarmach pleaded not guilty to the charges. Buncich said Thursday he had not seen the ordinance and declined to make a comment until he has had a chance to review the document. "This is the first I heard about it," Buncich said. Council attorney Ray Szarmach said the ordinances will bring the county back to the way towing was originally handled. When first approved 17 years ago, the towing ordinance gave the power to award towing contracts to the county commissioners. Over the years that changed and it was redirected to the sheriff. The council, at the request of the sheriff, created the non-reverting towing fund in 2011. Monies in that fund were used to pay for several officer positions. Officials over the past two budget seasons have worked to move those positions out of the towing fund because the fund never generated the revenues expected. There is still at least one position being paid from that fund. Advertisement Council President Ted Bilski, D-Hobart, said once the ordinances are approved, any bills being paid from the non-reverting towing fund would have to be paid from the general fund. He requested a list of those payments for Tuesday's meeting. Bilski said moving forward the best option for the county may be creating a county-run tow operation with a county-owned impound yard somewhere on the government complex in Crown Point. The operation could possibly be run through the Highway Department. Washington agreed and said officials should take steps to conduct a feasibility study on what it would take in staffing and funds for the county to do its own towing. Carrie Napoleon is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune. clyons@post-trib.com Twitter: @craigalyons Teresa Marie Chillemi, 37, of Portage, has been reported missing by her family. This mug shot photo was taken in January 2016. (Portage police / Post-Tribune) Teresa Chillemi went missing, officially, on Tuesday, according to police. But she's been missing from her mother's life for months, if not years. "She really was a beautiful woman," said Mary Black, of Wheatfield, Chillemi's mother, who first contacted me during the Christmas holidays. Advertisement That's when she heard from her ex-husband, Chillemi's father, saying their long-troubled daughter had not been heard from in three weeks. "She wouldn't have missed Christmas with her kids," said Black, who hasn't heard from her daughter since Sept. 12. Advertisement According to Portage police, Chillemi was last seen by her family Dec. 10. The mother of three does not have legal custody of her children. Chillemi's father, who lives in Illinois, has custody of Chillemi's 10-year-old son. Her two daughters, ages 7 and 16, live in Illinois with their father. Chillemi, 37, engaged in private Facebook chats with her oldest daughter in early December, police said, though Chillemi's whereabouts were not disclosed. Chillemi crossed paths with police a couple of weeks ago. On Dec. 20 she was pulled over by the Lake County Sheriff's Department for a traffic violation while driving a 1995 four-door maroon Mercury Sable. "Ms. Chillemi was traveling with one passenger, 45-year-old Eric Lamont Lewis, of Gary, who had an active warrant for his arrest (for larceny)," said Lake County Sheriff's Department police spokesman Mark Back. Lewis was arrested and booked into Lake County Jail. He was released to Porter County police the following day. "At the time of the traffic stop, our system did not indicate Ms. Chillemi was a missing person," Back said. "As a result, she was released on scene without further action. Once we learned of her missing person status, we contacted Portage police and began working with their agency the lead agency." To locate her daughter, Black has called multiple agencies, including the coroner's office, Portage police and Lake County Sheriff's Department, where Chillemi has had no previous bookings at the county jail. "Teresa would do anything to help her siblings ... She was a kind soul," her mother told me. Advertisement We often hear of people who become formally listed as "missing" yet who've been missing for years in many ways from their families or loved ones. Some family members, including me, have given up on these lost souls at one time or another. It's easier to do if the missing person is, say, a sibling or an ex-spouse or a distant cousin. It's not so easy when it's your daughter or your son, even if their life takes dangerous, self-destructive twists and turns. "I'm both scared and ... sick to think of what could be happening to her," Black said. This is a tragically familiar dilemma for parents of adult children who've burned too many bridges in life with other family members, old friends and caring co-workers. At what point do they care more about their loved one's life than the person who's missing again? What if Chillemi simply checked out of her life, yet again, for a few weeks? What if she's safe and protected somewhere? She has every right to do this, right? "I don't know what I'd do if she was found dead and I never tried to find her," Black said. "Do I offer a reward or save that money to take care of her final arrangements?" Advertisement In late January 2016, Chillemi was arrested by Portage police for driving while intoxicated and leaving the scene of a head-on crash. Chillemi told police she must have blacked out, according to the police report, which cited a toxicology screen showing the presence of cannabinoid, THC and benzodiazepine in her system. "She looks older than I do, but that's what drugs do to a body," Black said. On Dec. 30, Portage police were contacted to do a welfare check at Chillemi's last known residence, an apartment in the city. "At that time, we learned she had been evicted and had not been seen around there in approximately two weeks," Portage police Chief Troy Williams told me. Post Tribune Twice-weekly News updates from Northwest Indiana delivered every Monday and Wednesday > Earlier this week, Black filled out a formal missing person's report, prompting an investigation into her daughter's disappearance. "She worked through all of her three pregnancies, and she was able to pay for her own apartment and bills," Black said, drifting back to happier times. "She always had a job so she could buy the expensive kinds of shoes she wanted, Vans. And she always had a lot of friends since we moved from Illinois to Portage in 1994." Advertisement Other parents who've found themselves in Black's situation have recalled to me similar happier times with their wayward children. It's common for them to cling to those sweeter memories. "My heart is breaking with the waiting and not knowing. I don't see a happy ending. What a waste of a beautiful person," said Black, who will be a guest on my "Casual Fridays" radio show. Tune in Friday at noon on WLPR-FM 89.1 or call in at 219-769-9577 with any leads to Chillemi's whereabouts. Anyone with information should call Portage police Detective Janis Crafton at 219-764-5706. jdavich@post-trib.com Twitter@jdavich What's Quickly? It's where readers sound off on the issues of the day. Have a quote, question or quip? Call Quickly at 312-222-2426 or email quickly@post-trib.com. There is absolutely no oversight in any level of government. That is why the corruption continues. No politician will ever create legislation to stem corruption because it will hurt their own wallet. Advertisement I think Donald Trump will put to bed, once and for all, the notion that many people have floated for years which is that we need a businessman to run the country, and he will run the country like a business. Except the country is not a business. Businesses run to make a profit; governments have to do things to serve the public good in which there is no monetary profit. Sure, governments can and should run more efficiently. But like a business, no. And someone like Trump, who is used to snapping his fingers and getting his employees to do what he wants, will surely become frustrated when he discovers that our government does not work that way. I am so tired of the way things get done here in Lake County. Jamal Washington charged with three felonies and they get pled down to two misdemeanors. Gary Common Council gave the vice president's position to Mary Brown who declined comment on her serving on both as a council member and as an employee of the Gary Sanitary District. Others in Lake County have had to step down for the same reason. What a joke this is! Advertisement How convenient, the GOP tried to gut the Office of the Congressional Ethics. Just in time, before Trump is sworn in. I guess they want to save themselves lots of time and headaches in the near future. I'm not a Democrat, but let's give President Obama his due for saving us from economic collapse. Meanwhile, Donald Trump was filing bankruptcies, stiffing contractors, avoiding taxes and running fraudulent real estate schools. Just in case you did not know, those blue lines by the handicapped parking are not a parking space for you. They are wider so if you have a wheelchair or what ever so you can get into you valid parked car. Thank you to the person that barely left me room to get into my car, but next time I will call the police and I hope they give you a large ticket. Post Tribune Twice-weekly News updates from Northwest Indiana delivered every Monday and Wednesday > Why does anyone expect Mr. Trump to suddenly turn into an honorable man because he is our next president? He has never been that and he will never be that now. The thing that made me distance myself from Trump fans was not the fact that they voted for Trump. It was the fact that they took his candidacy to post some of the most vile, vicious and hurtful things imaginable. It showed me a side that I didn't know existed. Trump has all these good words, has a fabulous brain, and the first person he consults about anything puzzling is . . . . himself. The first time the United States experiences some crisis on his watch, do you see him rallying us with a comforting and reassuring message? Get real. This thoughtless, shallow man will tweet out some insipid message and retreat into his tower and his gold-plated bathroom. Who hosts a New Years Eve party and then charged admission? Only Donald Trump would do something so crass. Obama's first two years had a Democratic-controlled Senate and House, so stop already with the "eight years" of do-nothing Congress. Advertisement The headlines in the paper talked about one of this year's main items for our Indiana Senate and House is to add taxes for road repairs. If the state would have used 100 percent of the fuel taxes collected for the purpose of maintaining our roads, highways and bridges instead of only 1/7th of these taxes, our infrastructure would be in better shape. The section of County Line Road between 61st and the old Lincoln Highway is in terrible shape, so what did they do but post a sign warning of "Rough Road Ahead" instead of fixing it. The list goes on and on. Read more at www.post-trib.com/quickly He Jiang, the first Chinese to deliver a Harvard University commencement address, has made the 2017 Forbes "30 under 30". He Jiang, the first Chinese to deliver a Harvard University commencement address, has made the 2017 Forbes "30 under 30". "I received a message (about the list) this morning. I'm a little surprised, but very happy about it," He told China Daily on Tuesday. Forbes' 30 Under 30 is a set of lists issued annually by Forbes magazine. On Tuesday, the magazine released its sixth annual 30 Under 30, featuring 600 young innovators, entrepreneurs and leaders who challenge conventional wisdom and rewrite the rules for the next generation. The lists recognize 30 game-changers in 20 industries who are under 30 years old, with the honorees vetted by a panel of judges from their respective fields. Previous winners include Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Snapchat's Evan Spiegel, Saturday Night Live's Kate McKinnon, the rapper Chance and YouTube phenom Michelle Phan. "These are the people that will run every field for the next 50 years," said Randall Lane, editor of Forbes. He, a 29-year-old postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was chosen for the healthcare category after being nominated by his professors at Harvard. "I didn't know I was nominated until December," He said. At Harvard, He used a new technology called single-virus tracking super-resolution imaging, known as STORM, to understand more about how influenza infects cells, and discovered human genes with strong anti-viral effects. He is now applying the same techniques to neurons and white blood cells. He hopes the lab research he conducted can be put to practical use in healthcare. He grew up in a small village with limited educational opportunities. By studying hard, He graduated from the University of Science and Technology of Chinaone of China's top universitieswith a bachelor's degree in 2009, and was accepted into Harvard's PhD program on a full scholarship the same year. In May, the biochemistry doctorate delivered a speech representing the university's 13 graduate and professional schools at the commencement. In his speech, He talked about the uneven distribution of science and technology in the world and expressed his desire to get science and medicine to places they aren't reaching, such as his own village, where his mother once treated his spider bite with fire. Seventeen of the 600 winners in 2017 are from China. "One in every six of the 30 under 30 list members are immigrants, originating from 44 different countries and exemplifying the success of immigrants," the Forbes website said. More than 15,000 online submissions were received and only 600 made the cut, meaning there was a 4 percent acceptance rate, lower than Stanford (4.8 percent) or Harvard (5.2 percent) if compared with college admissions rates. Others on the list include Hope Hicks, 28, the newly appointed White House director of strategic communications; musician Gallant, 24; athlete Von Miller, 27; YouTube star Tyler Oakley, 27; and entrepreneur Noah Kraft, 29. Finished SAIC General Motors cars line up neatly at a production base in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, on June 14, 2016 (XINHUA) China-U.S. relations have encountered some turbulence due to the inappropriate words and acts of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in the days before his inauguration. After having an unprecedented phone conversation with the leader of Taiwan authorities, Trump took the opportunity of his "thank you" tour in Iowa to again play up the "imbalanced" trade situation with China. He even argued, "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." Many have worried that by aggressively touching on sensitive issues regarding China's core interest, Trump has in effect made "uncertainty" the most certain outcome of his China policy prior to taking office. Behind such uncertainty is a widespread fear of discontinuity and a lack of professionalism and predictability in U.S. foreign policy. Using Taiwan as a bargaining chip, Trump intends to demand more favorable conditions with regard to U.S. trade with China and more concessions from the Chinese side on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue. The president-elect declared he would place a high priority on pushing U.S. economic growth, repatriating manufacturing to the United States and creating more jobs. Therefore, Trump is likely to demand that China reduces exports to, and expands imports from, the United States, and opens up China's market to U.S. Internet enterprises. More and more signs are appearing that Trump, a business tycoon with no political experience, is very likely to handle China-U.S. relations in a mercantile and emotional way. Trump airs an attitude that "if you do not stretch a point in matter that I care about, I will make you pay a price in issues that you care about," treating serious international relations as trade deals. His emerging diplomatic policymaking team also causes much concern to the outside world. From National Security Advisor Michael Flynn to Secretary of Defense James Mattis, from Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and from head of the National Trade Council Peter Navarro to top White House adviser on Asia Matthew Pottinger, most of these officials are older people with backgrounds in military intelligence, business or right-wing politics. What's more, most of them lack experience in diplomacy and China-related affairs but believe in traditional geopolitics. Thus, it cannot be ruled out that these U.S. diplomatic decision makers may take a prejudiced attitude in their dealings with China. Core interests History shows that the most risky situation for China-U.S. relations is when the two nations have a showdown on issues related to their core interests. For China, issues concerning its territorial and sovereign integrity and the security of its political system are definitely core interests. For Trump, the U.S. core interests comprise continuing economic recovery to lay the foundation to "make America great again" and the United States maintaining its global, maritime military superiority and navigating in key waters such as the South China Sea. National core interests often leave little room for maneuver. Once a nation sees its core interests challenged, it will surely launch reprisals, which will make both sides pay a heavy price. On the Taiwan issue, if Trump dares to overturn the "one China policy" that previous U.S. administrations and more than 160 nations have adhered to, many Chinese scholars have suggested that Beijing should break off its official relationship with Washington. China's Foreign Ministry has already sent a clear warning: "adherence to the one China principle serves as the political foundation for the development of China-U.S. ties. If this foundation wobbles and is weakened, then there is no possibility for the two nations to grow their relations in a sound and steady way and cooperate on key areas." Brookings Institution senior fellow Richard Bush and former senior director of Asian Affairs for the U.S. National Security Council Evan Medeiros have also reminded Trump that "Taiwan is not a 'tradable good'." The Taiwan authorities, regarded as "an ally" by the Trump team, are paying the price. On December 20, 2016, African country Sao Tome and Principe announced it was severing diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Taiwan's authorities should be fully aware of the signal which shows Beijing beginning to adjust its policy toward Taiwan. Faced with the changing situation, clinging closely to the United States may be one of Taiwan's few choices, but can the Trump administration really bear the weight of Taiwan's embrace? Defensive measures In a broader context, along with the rapid growth of China's national strength, the interests of China and those of the United States are more interwoven than at any time in history, thus China's position in agenda-setting in China-U.S. relations has also grown a lot. If the Trump administration chooses to harm China's interest in a certain field, it will find that China has no need to take counter measures in other fields, as vengeance in the same field is enough to annoy the United States. In terms of trade and finance, it is to be expected that China is beginning to prepare a suite of measures to counter any U.S.-initiated provocation. Should Trump willfully impose high tariffs on Chinese products or maliciously declare China as a currency "manipulator," as he advocated during the election campaign, China will respond in kind by dumping its U.S. treasuries or increasing tariffs on U.S. products. In the worst case scenario, U.S. automakers might be charged sky high fines for price manipulation and farmers in the U.S. Mid-West could start to complain about their own government, whose irresponsible remarks and actions have caused them to lose lucrative Chinese markets. This zero-sum game scenario would undoubtedly cause China to suffer, but the United States would suffer more. Trump would soon find that his lofty goal of achieving 4 percent economic growth would vanish into thin air. The South China Sea issue has been a major arena for China-U.S. geopolitical gaming in recent years. In the last half of 2016, along with the warming of China-Philippine relations, the circumstances surrounding the South China Sea issue began to tilt in favor of China. In late December 2016, the Chinese Navy seized a U.S. Navy underwater drone in the South China Sea, but later gave it back. The event also reminds Trump and his "military" cabinet that if they want to use the South China Sea issue to test or embarrass China, they might end up finding themselves being tested and embarrassed. China has already gained certain tactical advantages in the issue with increasingly more means of counterattack. China and the United States are rivals that cannot take one another lightly. Stable development of their bilateral relations conforms to the fundamental interests of each other and is also an important precondition for world peace and prosperity. The top-level officials and working teams of the two governments should build channels for smooth communication as soon as possible to fully understand each other's appeals and concerns, charting a map at an early date for the development of bilateral relations in the upcoming four years. Just as Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed during the phone call in which he congratulated Trump on his victory in the election, cooperation is the only correct choice for China and the United States. The willingness of the Chinese side to develop a better and more mature China-U.S. relationship is sincere. China will not jump to conclusions based on the president-elect's personal vents or tweets. However, his understanding of China-U.S. relations and of the whole point of diplomacy should be enriched as soon as possible. At the present crossroads, any careless act may cause the bilateral relationship to degenerate from mutual scepticism to vicious competition and even to the brink of military conflict, thereby bringing disaster on the two nations and the world at large. Trump needs to understand clearly that the top priority for the China-U.S. relationship is setting up a new paradigm of bilateral, strategic coordination rather than seeking to cause each other trouble. The author is an op-ed contributor to Beijing Review and a researcher at the Pangoal Institution Flash Established in 2008, Airbnb created the accommodation-sharing business model that became popular across the world. [File photo] The US short-term accommodation rental company Airbnb has bumped into new problems in China as it inches its way into the gigantic market. On Dec. 29, Airbnb user Mr. Qi told Beijing Business Today, a local newspaper, that the lodgings he booked in Osaka, Japan on the platform had been cancelled by the host unilaterally just two days before his trip. With a full refund and an additional compensation of 10 percent of the room rate, Lin accepted the deal and booked another place on Airbnb only to have found out that the room was again dissatisfactory. "It promised to be equipped with heating and air-conditioning but we found out that the room was too cold to stay in," Lin recounted his unhappy experience. He hoped to cancel the booking but was declined and only got a day's refund after multiple negotiations. This comes after another unhappy encounter of an Airbnb host who complained on her twitter-like Weibo account that a college student from Shanghai had ruined her apartment after a stay, during which the student had used the property as a set to shoot videos. A series of negative news has locked the home-sharing website on a "trust crisis", which is edging itself into China's market and eyeing to get a slice of the cake amid the tourism boom accompanied by the rise of the country's middle class. According to a research report published last July by internet consultancy Sootoo, the size of the home sharing market is expected to top 30 billion yuan (US$4.3 billion) in 2016, up from 10 billion yuan in 2015. As a peer-to-peer room rental platform, it should operate based on a rule that can serve the interests of both the guests and the hosts, said Shen Zhiqiang, CEO of Mayi, a domestic room rental service. Observers say the "trust crisis" that Airbnb is locked in reflects the lack of regulation and supervision for foreign ventures in China, and they need to do more to adapt to industrial and consumption concepts of a new market. For all the problems occurring in the fledging home-sharing industry, Shen suggests a more specific credit rating system and disputes settlement mechanism for both guests and hosts. It also needs to check on its housing information to guarantee consumers' rights and restore public trust, which, in Shen's words, "may not happen in a short period of time." Established in 2008, Airbnb created the accommodation-sharing business model that became popular across the world. It launched Airbnb China last October to ride the wave of the country's booming share-economy and take on a handful of Chinese rivals in the industry. You are here: Home Flash Forty-five illegal sub-Saharan Africans were rescued and three bodies, including a child, were fished out on Wednesday after their inflatable boat capsized off the coast of the north-eastern city of Nador, local authorities said. Moroccan authorities have launched an investigation on this incident under the supervision of the public prosecutor's office. Tens of thousands of sub-Saharan African migrants living illegally in Morocco try to reach Europe every year, hoping to get a better life. Figures suggest that illegal immigrants arriving in Spain via Morocco have dropped by 90 percent since 2002. Over the past few years, Morocco has adopted a strict policy against illegal migrants to Europe, but opened a door for regularizing their status in the country. In last December, Morocco launched the second phase of the regularization of illegal immigrants in the country, after the first phase led to granting about 25,000 people legal status. News / Health by Garikai Mafirakureva MASVINGO - Of recent, there has been an upsurge in the availability of life prolonging Anti-Retroviral drugs on the black market. The drugs are acquired from hospital and private pharmacies through shoddy deals and rechanneled to the market by corrupt medical practitioners.Officials from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare have raised concern that the availability of ARVs on the streets works against people living with HIV and AIDS According to the National Aids Council (NAC) figures, there are over 600 000 people in Zimbabwe who need Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) and only less than 300 000 are on ART. In 2009 alone there were 66 000 new infections and these people need to go through all the hospital process before there are on ART.DR Tapera Sarawoye, of Silveira Mission Hospital, one of the first hospitals to roll out ARVs in Masvingo said street peddlers of ARVs had contributed to so many deaths."People thought that ARVs were a cure hence they were duped into purchasing the on the black market. What people should understand is that ARVs only suppress the viral multiplication by breaking the virus' lifecycle."I think most people go and buy them on the black market because of stigma and discrimination. People tend to shun people living with HIV because they think it is Aids. This has led to some people trying to get the drugs on the street."Some are even impatient to go through the hospital resulting in unscrupulous people taking advantage of them. There is a long process that one has to go through before they are commenced on ARVs. If someone is tested and found positive one should have CD4 count before he or she is on ARVs."In instances where the person is ill there are a lot of tests to be done for example the Full Blood count (FBC), Liver function tests like (Alt) and kidney function tests. Because of the few CD4 machines in hospitals people are kept on the waiting list for than a year before they have a chance to have the CD4 count."HIV has an impact which affects a person physically, psychological, economically, and socially so that for one to come in terms with all this a person needs to go through counseling and this can also take long leading people to try short cuts."Most pharmacies and private doctors are have made money this way. It is the nation's duty to address such behavior and come up with change strategies that would not only prolong life, but enable HIV positive people to receive the right treatment," he said.In fact he said people living with HIV should increase their participation in development and dissemination of information on Anti-Retroviral therapy regimes and side effects to combat this. This can be made possible if they form support groups in which they encourage each other to have the proper medication through the right channel. They should also increase their involvement in all campaigns and programmes to raise awareness on the need for prevention of re-infection and to mobilize the community to utilize condoms, counseling and testing services."In the early years when ARVs were available to the elite only, a majority of them still died, because they failed to realize that ARVs are not everything.He further said that someone who is HIV positive has to find treatment for some other ailments. HIV patients will not know the drug interaction with other drugs on their own. For example TB patients might have problems with Niverapine and Rifampicin if there was given in conjunction. He said patients needed qualified practitioner so that they can be given the right and full combination of drugs they were supposed to take.This also applies to those who do not know their status but still buy drugs on the street because they had unprotected sex, he said. They will be trying to prevent viral seroconversion by giving themselves post exposure prophylaxis (PEP). Viral seroconversion is when HIV enters the body and it goes through a process where it attacks CD4 cells and uses them to reproduce new HIV cells through integration and translation of viral and body enzymes. One human CD4 cell that is attacked can reproduce up to million or more new HIV cells which further attack more CD4 cells resulting in compromised immunity.They can buy Niverapine or Lopinavir/Ritonavir because they have heard they lower the viral load. All ARVs are given as combination and each drug plays a role in breaking the lifecycle of the virus at a certain stage. So if one buys only type it only works at one stage of the chain of the lifecycle of the virus so seroconversion still continues. For example first regimen has two drugs, Zidovudine and lamivudine they act on the same stage and can be administered with either Nevirapine or Efavirenz which also act on the same stage.But the risk they face is that when they are diagnosed and are put on the same drug, they become resistant since the body has been exposed to the same drug. These people create problems for themselves unknowingly because they will not know the right dosages and are not aware of the side effects," he said.Ndakaziva Gombere, who is living positively, said at one time she had meningitis but resisted the urge to buy drugs on the streets. She instead opted to seek medical attention from registered practitioner."I do not know what I could have done if I had taken to the streets, I think one has to find out their status first before trying any drug. In fact one needs qualified personnel to prescribe them the right drug. I have heard of some discordant partners who are not willing to use condoms and resort to buying drugs on the street for the other partner. This is a serious mistake because when the other partner is finally put on the drugs he or she might be resistant to the same drug," she saidThis was one discovery that was made recently that you can find couples where one is HIV positive whilst the other is negative. According to a research by the Zimbabwe Aids Prevention Programme (ZAPP) one in every seven couple is discordant.Mr Joshua Shumba said he had no option since the general hospital sometimes ran out of stock of the ARVs and people are left to find drugs on their own. Some people living positively are admitting that they know the risk of buying drugs from the street since he can end buying a certain drug which they do not have a wider knowledge of. The general hospitals sometimes go for days without drugs so people resort to the street. Sometimes they buy certain drugs which they assume work the same with what they used to have basing on the explanation they are given on the street.One of the drug peddlers Mr Dennis Chindanya who is obtaining drugs from some corrupt health personnel from the ministry of Health and Child Welfare has established an illegal mobile pharmacy. He is selling drugs to people who are on second line drugs such Kaletra, Zidovudine and Didanosine. These are the drugs that are given to people who were resistant to the first line drugs. These drugs are usually scarce at hospitals. He is selling them for between US$80 and US300 for a one month course. Those who cannot manage can only buy what they can afford.He has been taught quite a few basics about the drugs by his suppliers but has very little knowledge about their interaction making him a very dangerous person to deal with. Many business people who do not want to go through the hospital process are making short cuts through him. Flash Former British ambassador to Russia, Sir Tim Barrow, was confirmed on Wednesday night as Britain's new envoy to the European Union (EU). He succeeds Sir Ivan Rogers who resigned 24 hours earlier from the key role in Brussels. Downing Street moved swiftly to find a successor to Rogers who announced on Tuesday his decision to leave his job as Britain's top man in Brussels. Barrow's appointment was announced by Downing Street where a spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May described him as a seasoned and tough negotiator. Barrow will now play a key role in the Britain's Brexit negotiations with officials in Brussels. The Guardian newspaper in London said Wednesday night the decision to hand the job to Barrow showed May had ignored calls from within her own Conservative party to appoint a wholehearted Brexiter, even possibly somebody from outside of the civil service to the job in Brussels. In a brief statement from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in London, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson welcomed the appointment of Barrow as Britain's Permanent Representative to the European Union. The FCO said Rogers had taken the decision to quit now to enable a successor to be appointed before the Britain invokes Article 50 by the end of March to start the process of Britain leaving the EU. Barrow was only appointed last year to the key job of Political Director at the FCO, where he has worked since joining the diplomatic service in 1986. "He will bring his trademark energy and creativity to this job -- working alongside other senior officials and Ministers to make a success of Brexit," said a Downing Street spokesperson. Barrow spent several years in Moscow after being appointed as British ambassador to Russia in 2011, having previously served in a number of capacities in Moscow. He has also worked in a number of jobs in Brussels during his time as a diplomat. You are here: Home Flash Russia is ready to supply the Philippines with "sophisticated" brand-new weapons instead of used ones, Russian Ambassador to the Philippines Igor Khovaev said Wednesday. Russia is "ready to supply small arms and light weapons, some airplanes, helicopters, submarines and many other weapons," he told a news conference on board the Russian anti-submarine destroyer Admiral Tributs, which is docked in Manila for a goodwill visit from Jan. 2 to Jan. 7. "Russia has a lot to offer but everything will be done in full compliance with international law," he said. Kovhaev voiced optimism about the relationship between the Philippines and Russia, hoping that Russia and the Philippines would eventually forge a military and defense cooperation in the future. Besides the anti-submarine ship, a Russian large tanker Boris Butoma also moored to a pier in Manila. Kovhaev said Russia is looking forward to the official visit of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to Russia this spring. The specific date is still being finalized, he added. Flash File photo taken on Sept. 15, 2016 shows U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump delivers a speech during a luncheon meeting of the Economic Club of New York in New York, the United States. Republican candidate Donald Trump was projected by U.S. media early on Nov. 9, 2016 to have won the 270 electoral votes needed for presidency. [Photo/Xinhua] U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday quoted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to voice new doubt about the findings by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia has intervened in the 2016 presidential election. "Julian Assange said 'a 14 year old could have hacked (John) Podesta' - why was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info!" Trump said on Twitter, referring to the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Emails of Podesta, the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign manager, were released by WikiLeaks during the campaign. U.S. intelligence had concluded that the hack and release of the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton staff emails was ordered by the Kremlin and was designed to put the Republican real estate mogul in the Oval Office. Trump has repeatedly refused to accept the conclusions. Moscow also denied the accusations. On Tuesday, Trump also suggested that a briefing he was scheduled to receive on the hacking issue was delayed to give intelligence officials more time to build their case. "The 'Intelligence' briefing on so-called 'Russian hacking' was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange!" he tweeted. However, U.S. intelligence officials said there had been no delay in the briefing schedule, according to U.S. media reports. Flash Politicians from both the remain and leave camps in Britain's ongoing Brexit process eagerly awaited hearing on Wednesday who would win the job as the country's top diplomat in the European Union (EU). Britain's Ambassador to the EU, Sir Ivan Rogers, resigned from the job on Tuesday, just days before a critical court ruling on whether the government or parliament should be in the Brexit driving seat. Rogers's decision to leave his job early has caused dismay among some politicians, while others expressed delight following comments he made last month that a Brexit deal could take up to 10 years to conclude. In a lengthy farewell letter to his staff in Brussels, Rogers made comments which some political observers interpreted as being highly critical of the government. "Serious multilateral negotiating experience is in short supply in Whitehall, and that is not the case in the Commission or in the Council (the two main EU executive bodies in Brussels)," Rogers wrote. "The government will only achieve the best for the country if it harnesses the best experience we have and negotiates resolutely," he said. In another part of the letter, he urged his diplomatic staff in Brussels to "continue to challenge ill-founded arguments and muddled thinking and that you will never be afraid to speak the truth to those in power." "I hope that you will support each other in those difficult moments where you have to deliver messages that are disagreeable to those who need to hear them." Rogers took over the role as the British government's permanent representative in 2013 after being appointed by then-Prime Minister David Cameron. In his letter to staff, he referred to the likely timetable for the next few years and the triggering of Article 50 -- the process to start Britain's exit process from the EU -- by the end of March. "It will be best if the top team in situ at the time that Article 50 is invoked remains there till the end of the process," he said. A new team could also see through the negotiations for any new deal between Britain and the remaining 27 member countries of the EU. "We do not yet know what the government will set as negotiating objectives for the UK's relationship with the EU after exiting," he added. Rogers said the structure of Britain's negotiating team needed rapid resolution and the working methods which enabled the team in London and Brussels to function seamlessly also needed to be strengthened. "As I have argued consistently at every level since June, many opportunities for the UK in the future will derive from the mere fact of having left and being free to take a different path...but others will depend entirely on the precise shape of deals we can negotiate in the years ahead," he added. You are here: Home Flash UN Special Envoy for Sudan and South Sudan Nicholas Haysom on Wednesday reiterated the importance of achieving full peace between the two countries. Haysom made the remark following his meeting with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in Khartoum. Haysom said the international community was working to restore the ties between Khartoum and Juba and find opportunities for development and stability in South Sudan. He added that peace should be fully achieved between the two countries via completion of communication between them. His meeting with al-Bashir reviewed the situations in the two countries, said Haysom, and the role that Sudan can play in achieving peace in South Sudan as it is a main member in the Inter-Governmental Authority for Development in Africa. In September 2012, the two countries signed a cooperation agreement in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa under the patronage of the African Union. The agreement included a package of understandings relating to security, citizens' status, border and economic issues and others relating to oil and trade. However, the signed agreements did not tackle the issues of Abyei and border demarcation. The border issue is the biggest obstacle to the settlement of differences between Sudan and South Sudan. Flash A Long Island Railroad (LIRR) train derailed during the morning rush hour on Wednesday in the Brooklyn Borough of New York City, injuring 103 people, according to local authorities. Long Island Railroad workers talk outside the platform where a train derailed at the Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn, New York, the United States, Jan. 4, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua] The incident happened around 8:30 a.m. (1330 GMT) at the Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn, where a LIRR train from Far Rockaway, Queens failed to come to a stop, slammed into the bumper block and its first couple of cars derailed. One hundred and three people suffered non life-threatening injuries, according to the New York City Fire Department. Photos posted by passengers on social media showed the first cars of the train slightly leaning out from the tracks, with damaged doors and broken glass. About 600 passengers were on board the train when the accident happened, according to local media. New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo said on the scene that the incident was "minor" comparing to the Hoboken train crash in September 2016, when a New Jersey transit train crashed into the Hoboken Terminal and caused one fatality and massive damage to the terminal structure. Investigations were underway, Cuomo said. No Chinese nationals were known to be injured in the accident, according to China's Consulate General in New York. Flash South Korean constitutional court will uphold a motion to impeach President Park Geun-hye before mid-March, considering the retirement of two of the court's nine judges, public call for fast ruling and rapid investigation by the independent counsel, a law expert said on Thursday. The impeachment bill was passed in the parliament by an overwhelming majority on Dec. 9. To permanently boot Park out, the bill must be upheld by the constitutional court, of which deliberation can last up to 180 days. "It will be desirable (for the court) to rule (on the impeachment motion) by the end of this month, but the court will come to a conclusion before the middle of March," Lim Jibong, professor at law school of Sogang University who specializes in constitutional law, said in an interview with Xinhua. The court's chief justice is scheduled to end his tenure on Jan. 31, with another judge set to retire on March 13. Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn temporarily assumes presidential power, but the caretaker president is not allowed to appoint new justices of the court, the unique right given to a president. After mid-March, the professor said, six of the remaining seven judges must rule in favor of the impeachment bill to permanently remove Park from office. It will weaken the persuasiveness of the final ruling and enhance the risk of being rejected. All the judges appear to be well aware of that and are speeding up legal proceedings. Pleading sessions are set to be held twice a week, indicating the constitutional court focusing solely on this case while laying others aside. The first session was held on Tuesday. The independent counsel team is gaining speed in its investigation into the presidential scandal as public calls are strong for an immediate resignation of President Park as proven in the past 10 Saturday demonstrations. According to opinion surveys conducted by local media outlets for the new year, 70 to 80 percent of respondents favored the presidential impeachment. "If the independent counsel team proves criminal acts, the court will base the proofs on its rapid deliberation. As public opinion on impeachment is clear and consistent, the court will uphold the impeachment motion," said Lim. Lim said the possibility for the impeachment bill to be rejected is zero as the rejection may lead the constitutional court to be put in danger of being broken up by the general public. He expected the motion to be unanimously upheld by the court as President Park's violations of five constitution clauses and eight law clauses were already proven in many respects through prosecutors' probes and local media reports. "It's a matter of time to uphold the impeachment motion" as the constitutional ruling is different from a criminal trial that requires all charges to be proven in detail, the professor said. If one of the 13 violations is proven, Park will be dismissed on disciplinary grounds. President Park and her legal team have refuted all charges against her, but it will not delay the court's ruling, Lim noted. The suspended president held the New Year press conference with local journalists on Sunday, actively denying all allegations on her involvement in the scandal. Lim said the rare press conference just added one more violation of the constitution, which prevents a suspended president from performing any duty, including the press conference as chief executive. News / National by Stephen Jakes The passing on of journalist cum writer Bill Saidi in Zambia yesterday opened a can of worms in Zapu circles especially in as far as the Gukurahundi genocide of the 1980s is concerned, Zapu has said in a statement.Zapu deputy spokesperson Iphithule Maphosa said when Zapu, being a party that holds dearly to the principles of ubuntu, gave a condolence message to the Saidi family and media community, a lot of members and supporters were confused, with some displaying anger at the party for what they termed ignoring the atrocious behavior by Saidi as editor at ZimPapers."Zapu does not hold grudges and does not put blame where it is not deserved, the party members were reminded. In the same breath, Saidi's role and editorials during the notorious Gukurahundi era has to be explained and there is no better explanation except that state media in Zimbabwe is under ZANU PF capture and a man of Saidi's caliber could not do anything about it," he said."In one of Bill's stories in the 24 May 1984 edition of ZimPapers, he attributed the existence of "dissidents" to PF Zapu and went further to suggest that Dr Joshua Nkomo be retired while the entire leadership should be changed in order to eliminate the "dissidents".He said this and many other incidences in Saidi's reporting was the source of frowns shown to the party by its members and supporters soon after conveying the condolence message, justifiable and naturally expected, especially from Zapu who were at the receiving end of the genocide, losing 20 000plus supporters to the Fifth Brigade murders."Saidi, during his stint at ZimPapers never reported objectively about PF Zapu. He followed the same line as that of the perpetrators and executors of Gukurahundi," Maphosa said."After stumbling on one of Bill's articles as I opened my eyes to the world of current affairs, I developed keen interest, in retrospect, in knowing exactly what he thought about Zapu and what befell the mother party in independent Zimbabwe. I became a curious follower of his writings as a result.""As I grew, I had the rarest opportunity to interact with Bill Saidi and as all will expect, I raised the issues pertaining to PF Zapu and Gukurahundi," he added.Maphosa said he asked Saidi if what he reported about PF Zapu and Joshua Nkomo was what actually was happening."I asked him if indeed "dissidents" existed and were Nkomo and ZAPU's creation and responsibility. I asked Bill if he at all believed the news he propagated during his time as editor at the government stable. The old man should have read my mind. He should have known that I expected nothing but the truth from him and in his response he went straight to the point. He was short and unexpectedly blunt in his answer to my three questions," he said."All he said was, "boy, you are way too young to ever understand this issue. I was supposed to report the existence of the so called dissidents; I had to make sure they are attributed to PF Zapu and no, I did not believe the news as reported under my editorship". My jaw almost dropped. At the same time, I felt pity for the old man. It dawned on me that Bill was only an exceptional scribe but lacked the balls required to deal with a carnivourous regime in the mould of ZANU PF, which was on a destructive path to achieve a one party state in Zimbabwe. A good writer with missing elements of a good reporter and journalist-that is what Saidi, all of a sudden, became to me."He said he was quickly reminded of one Geoff Nyarota, who was labeled an apologist to dissidents and enemy of state."Nyarota stood for ethics and professionalism during the genocide. He took an independent stand, despite the risks involved, which later paid dividends as Geoff today stands tall among the very few ethically proven journalists in Zimbabwe. Saidi did not belong in the category of Geoff Nyarota. He is one of the many reporters and editors who were too timid to tell the truth about the period between 1982 and 1987. He falls in the category of those who, for the fear of Zanu PF and the fear of being classified either as apologists or enemies of state, chose to go with the propaganda flow and in some cases aiding the Zanu PF propaganda machine, that misled the nation and world that PF Zapu had dissidents intending to overthrow Mugabe's government. This is why I felt pity for the old man. He simply had no courage to stand up to Zanu PF," he said."I became angry but very quickly composed myself and continued with the conversation. At the end of the short interaction, I was clear about one thing, that Bill Saidi, just like many other editors after him and reporters in the public media are under Zanu PF capture. It became crystal clear to me that the editorial teams are there only to window dress the news rooms while Zanu PF ran the ZimPapers stable to churn out their propaganda.""As my conversation with Saidi revealed, there was a sad realization that the man was actually imprisoned by the editor's title at ZimPapers and took responsibility and blame as editor for Zanu PF and Mugabe's propaganda, in the process taking the fall for misleading the nation and world over the Gukurahundi genocide," he added."Mugabe and Zanu PF managed to spread and apportion blame, responsibility and culpability of Gukurahundi to as many people and sectors of the Zimbabwean society and Saidi was one of these. Today he is unpopular with the Zapu family for pronouncements he made back in the 80s, and his death yesterday became a reminder to many of the genocide the nation is yet to find closure on."He said Saidi, just like many others who have been unfortunate enough to work for the government media outlets, is a classic example of puppetry in the public media at the hands of the Zanu PF regime."Half the times, these poor souls take the fall for the regime's clandestine and destructive handling and abuse of the state media. Saidi today stands accused of culpability in Gukurahundi for merely being employed by a murderous regime of Zanu PF. The blood of 20 000 plus is counted on Saidi today for allowing himself to be a puppet of Mugabe and Zanu PF. He was not brave enough to walk away from imprisonment by ZimPapers which was under capture of Zanu PF. Neither was he bold enough to take an ethical position that is independent of interference by politicians, hence today, Saidi is as blood soaked as Mugabe and Zanu PF," he said."Bill Saidi has passed on, and with him to the grave goes sins he committed by his lack of bravery and boldness, which, in media fraternity, usually amount to lack of ethics. As apparently clear from my conversation with him, he could not stand up to Zanu PF during his stay at ZimPapers; neither could he influence a shift towards ethical and true reporting. He should have walked out.""He however stayed and continued taking instructions to peddle lies about Dr Nkomo and the mother party. He continued spreading news he did not believe himself and hence, we correctly and justifiably hold him culpable of what Gukurahundi did to Zanu and its supporters." Opinion / Columnist "The proposal of an NTA (National Transition Authority) is myopic and naive, because it assumes Mugabe can volunteer' to step down. Mugabe will only give up power by being forced to resign, dying, falling ill, through assassination or being voted out. NTA is child's play and we have no time for games, please," said Rejoice Ngwenya.Let me say from the word go that anyone, anyone at all, who assumes that Mugabe will volunteer to step down or to implement meaningful democratic reforms is indeed "myopic and naive".Rejoice tells us, he and his select team of coalition opposition parties will vote President Mugabe out of office. This beggars the question; why has the opposition not done so all these last 37 years, given he is not myopic and naive and not one to waste time on child's play?"Mugabe uses ZEC to turn a blind eye to vote buying. He uses ZBC/ZTV for propaganda, as well as The Herald, Manica Post and Chronicle. Mugabe prints as many ballot papers as he wants and deploys' them to as many polling stations as he wants," admitted Ngwenya.Top marks Rejoice, you clearly KNOW how Zanu PF has been rigging elections but you have only partially answered the question above. The follow up question, is what fool prove measures have been put into place to stop Zanu PF rigging the next elections as the regime has done so many, many times in the past?In the Bulawayo24.com article, Ngwenya went into great detail on how he would select the opposition coalition partners but was as silent as a grave on the all important point of ensuring the elections are free, fair and credible.After the rigged July 2013 elections, Morgan Tsvangirai said MDC would force the Zanu PF regime to implement the democratic reforms it is interesting to note the Rejoice, as far as I know, never dismissed this as myopic and naive and that his party would boycott all future elections until the reforms are implemented. The people of Zimbabwe are used to MDC grandstanding and posturing and this time was no different. MDC are going to contest the next elections even though not even one reform was implemented!We are caught in a catch-22 situation here; we need free and fair elections to remove Mugabe from office but as long as he is in office we will never have free and fair elections because he will never ever implement democratic reforms to stop him rigging elections.People like Rejoice Ngwenya who dismiss the NTA as rubbish do so because they have never appreciated the difficult of transiting from an autocratic dictatorship to a functional democracy. The primary function of 2008 GPA and the GNU were to implement the democratic reforms designed to dismantle the dictatorship and ensure the 2013 elections were free, fair and credible. The very fact that the July 2013 elections were rigged means the GNU was a failure.People who say Zimbabwe does not need another GNU do not understand what its primary task was and/or why it failed to deliver.If we want free, fair and credible elections then we need to implement the reforms to stop vote rigging.Yes, it would be myopic and naive to assume the Zanu PF regime will willingly step down because it is not in the DNA of a dictatorship to do so. Mugabe and Zanu PF must be pressured to accept that the present political system is politically and economically unsustainable and must be changed. Mugabe was pressured to sign the 2008 GPA; he can be pressured to do so again.We have to force the dictatorial regime to step aside to allow some other body, the GNU in 2008, the NTA or some such other body, to implement the democratic reforms because we cannot trust Zanu PF to reform itself out of power.Since the 2013 elections the Zimbabwe economy is in worse state now that then. Unemployment, for example, has soared to 90% plus; the regime has failed to get anyone to bankroll its US$ 27 billion ZimAsset economic recovery plan and so the economy has failed to create even one new job out of the 2.2 million new jobs the regime had promised.On the political front the dog-eat-dog fighting for power fuelled by the economic meltdown, the cake is shrinking whilst the appetites are soaring - in Zanu PF resulted in the party splitting down the middle in 2014 as then VP Joice Mujuru and 150 other senior party members were booted out of the party. But before the dust had settled two new factions emerged and the in-fighting has been vicious.And yet despite all the economic hardships and political turmoil the one bright star in President Mugabe's sky is his vote rigging machinery, it is solid as ever. Thanks to the chaos and confusion in the opposition camp and to the billions of dollars he is looting from Marange and Chiadzwa.Rejoice Ngwenya complained of President Mugabe buying votes, well the country's economic meltdown will work to the tyrant's advantage because whilst the electorate and his political opponents are destitute he is loaded with diamond cash!Last month, at the Zanu PF conference, President Mugabe dismissed the opposition's electoral challenge in contempt. And why not, he knows that as long as no democratic reforms are implemented, he will rig the elections!No, my brother Rejoice Ngwenya, it is you who, by contesting the elections without implementing the reforms, is being myopic and naive. What could be more naive than taking part in an election knowing the opponent will cheat and long beyond you are cheated! Where to find non-partisan ballot information Thank you for your non-biased bullet points explaining the three state ballot proposals in "A look at the three state... Kautman-Jones endorses Davis Please support Meredith Davis in her re-election to the Genesee County Board of Commissioners - 8th District. I have had... China Aid Association Zheng Enchong (SHANGHAI June 23, 2009) On June 17 Christian human rights attorney, Zheng Enchong, was interrogated and tortured for nine hours by Public Security Bureau (PSB) officers because of his work defending Chinese citizens whose land has been confiscated by the government. During his detention, he was beaten, stripped and cigarettes were held to his lips and eyelids. Zheng Enchong has filed a written protest and plans to file a complaint to the central government. According to ChinaAid sources, Zheng Enchong was summoned by four officers from Zhabei District Branch of Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau on June 17. During his detention, officers took turns slapping him five or six times in the face, and hitting him three times in the back of his head. Police also held lit cigarettes to his lips and eyelids. Later, the officers pulled him from the seat and took off all his clothing, except his underwear. Police threw his personal belongings, including: money, keys, pen, and a Bible and some cookies to the floor. Then the PSB officers proceeded to search his body. Authorities compiled a written record of the interrogation without interrogating Zheng at all, and, then, wanted him to sign it. Instead, he wrote down a statement on the record describing his violent treatment by the PSB. He denounced authorities for using the same method on him as they use on Falun Gong practitioners. Attorney Zheng has been summoned by officials nearly 20 times, and his house searched twice in the past two and a half months. In 2003, he filed a major legal case exposing how government officials conspired with Zhou Zhengyi, the richest man in Shanghai, to illegally confiscate homes for demolition. Since that time, Zheng Enchong has been continually harassed and persecuted by Chinese officials. He was sentenced to three years in prison for illegally providing secrets to overseas entities. The charge related to two faxes regarding workers protests that Zheng was accused of sending to Human Rights in China, a non-profit organization. Zheng has also been beaten by authorities four times, so badly that he now has difficulty walking. As an internationally well-known Christian human rights lawyer, Attorney Zheng has always defended the poor and vulnerable, said Bob Fu, president of ChinaAid and a friend of Mr. Zheng and his family. The repeated harassment and torture against such a conscientious rights defender demonstrates the Shanghai authorities total disregard to citizens basic human rights. We encourage the international community to continue to press the Chinese authorities to stop these hideous acts and to hold the abusers accountable. ChinaAid calls on the international community to contact the Chinese Ambassador urge that the violence against Zheng Enchong end, and that government respect and uphold human rights according to the Chinese Constitution and international agreements:Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong 3505 International Place, NW, Washington, D.C. 20008 Tel: (202) 495-2000 Fax: (202) 588-9760 China Aid Contacts Rachel Ritchie, English Media Director Cell: (432) 553-1080 | Office: 1+ (888) 889-7757 | Other: (432) 689-6985 Email: [email protected] Website: www.chinaaid.org Published 27 October 2016 | Saikrupa Chandramouli A Christian couple in Chinas northwestern region Xinjiang have been arrested by authorities for displaying a cross in their home. Also imprisoned was a woman who was visiting the couple. The couple detained were Dai, a Christian who hosts a house church from his home, and wife, Li. According to China Aid, police also raided their home and confiscated several religious items. This is the second time that the church has been raided this year. A cross on an underground Catholic church is silhouetted in Tianjin November 10, 2013. Church leaders have pledged to make the cross flourish throughout China amid a government crackdown. Reuters Dai has since been released, but Li and their guest remain imprisoned. The Chinese government has reportedly been growing increasingly hostile towards Christians. A few months back, two women had been detained by the police in the same region, accused of indoctrinating minors with religious and superstitious beliefs. The women, Zhou Yanhua and Gao Ming, were members of Yining County Church and had been arrested for 15 and 10 days respectively. Dr. David Curry, of Open Doors, previously told Christian Breaking News that many within China view Christianity and their rapid growth as a threat to national unity. ChinaAid Media Team Cell: (432) 553-1080 | Office: 1+ (888) 889-7757 | Other: (432) 689-6985 Email: [email protected] For more information, click here The Chinese Communist Party often persecutes house churches, such as this one in Guangdong province, which met outside its regular worship place because officials sealed its doors. (Photo: China Aid) China Aid Updated at 3:30 p.m. CST on Jan. 4, 2017 (Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, XinjiangJan.1, 2017) A local court in Chinas western Xinjiang sentenced a Christian woman to three years in prison on Friday for holding a Bible study. Ma Huichao, who was taken into police custody along with three other Christians when officials claimed their Bible study met without government approval, stood trial in mid-November for gathering a crowd to disturb public order. Her lawyer, Li Dunyong was disallowed to plead innocent on her behalf, and she received a three-year prison sentencewhich began todayon Dec. 30. An anonymous Christian said, It was not even a formal gathering. There were no pastors or preachers, only a few people reading the Bible at [Mas] home. In Urumqi, there are many [Christians] who gather in homes. Why is it possible that they have no problems? [The authorities] know very clearly that it is impossible to arrest everyone if they do not gather. In those private gatherings, there are no foreigners or cult activities [Editors note: The Communist Party forbids Chinese Christians to have contact with Christians from outside the country]. Their only crime is their reluctance to attend the official Three-Self Church. Theres no way to put them all in jail. Some young police officers dont know anything about religions; they simply think they can win honor for themselves by arresting the believers during gatherings. Ma does not plan to appeal. China Aid reports abuses, such as those suffered by Ma Huichao, in order to stand in solidarity with persecuted Christians and promote religious freedom. ChinaAid Media Team Cell: (432) 553-1080 | Office: 1+ (888) 889-7757 | Other: (432) 689-6985 Email: [email protected] For more information, click here Sogou, whose name means "search dog," plans to sell about 10 percent of its shares in an IPO that will probably be held this year. [Photo/VCG] The head of China's third-biggest search engine Sogou said he expects his company to launch a US initial public offering with a valuation of as much as $5 billionas it raises cash to close the gap with leader Baidu Inc in the mobile market. Sogou, whose name means "search dog," plans to sell about 10 percent of its shares in an IPO that will probably be held this year, Chief Executive Officer Wang Xiaochuan said in an interview. The company, which is backed by social media giant Tencent Holdings Ltd and Sohu.com Inc, hasn't formally hired banks to run the listing. Sohu shares rose the most in 10 months on Wednesday. While Baidu remains the biggest provider across all platforms in China, it's under siege after a scandal over medical advertising, as smaller rivals including Sogou and Qihoo 360 Technology Co win mobile users. Wang said he planned to use part of the IPO proceeds to improve search results by backing companies developing artificial intelligence and machine-learning technologies. Wang Xiaochuan, CEO of Sogou. "Over the past year, we've seen a trend where people are finding themselves not trusting Baidu as much and some are even seeking a replacement," he said at the company's Beijing headquarters. "So over the next year or two, as more people feel more comfortable with Sogou, they'll realize it is able to replace Baidu." Shares of Sohu rose 4.9 percent to $35.54 in New York, the biggest gain since March 4. The stock has declined 34 percent in the past year. Baidu accounted for 44.5 percent of mobile search queries in the third quarter, while Alibaba Group Holding Ltd-backed Shenma had 20.8 percent and Sogou was third with 16.2 percent, according to research from iiMedia. Other independent researchers, including Analysys International, reported that Sogou was China's second-largest provider to the country's mobile users while some surveys have the company as the nation's second-largest overall. Wang said Sogou could match Baidu in mobile search within three years. Baidu declined to comment. Bloomberg The growth rate of China's peer-to-peer lending transaction volume dropped by nearly half in 2016, as the industry faced reshuffling amid a slew of compliance regulations. Last year, the transaction volume of P2P lending nationwide, which involves small businesses or individuals borrowing money from online investors, exceeded 2.8 trillion yuan ($403 billion), increasing by 138 percent from a year earlier. But the growth slowed down to slightly more than half of the growth rate in 2014 and 2015, according to a report by P2P001, a Shenzhen-based financial web portal, on Monday. Industry experts said P2P lending companies have moved slowly toward enabling compliance regulations, fighting against what they see as challenges including the watchdog encouraging banks to provide custodian services for investor funds used for platform transactions. The China Banking Regulatory Commission and three other central government departments jointly issued interim measures for the administration of the business activities of P2P lenders on Aug 24 last year. According to the interim measures, P2P lending companies should select qualified banking institutions as their fund custodians. As of the end of 2016, 184 P2P lenders, or 7.98 percent of 2,307 P2P lenders that were running without severe financial problems, launched a fund custody mechanism, which they established directly with commercial banks. Another 122 such companies signed a fund custody agreement with banks but had not yet launched the mechanism, the report said. The CBRC also required P2P lending information intermediaries to be authorized to provide telecoms services, but only 424 companies held relevant certificates. Deng Jianpeng, vice-president of the Chinese Internet Financial Innovation Research Institute, said: "The current regulations increased the operating costs of P2P lending platforms. A large number of them will possibly vanish in the next two or three years. The platforms that demonstrated relatively higher compliance with standards will be on sale, and those showing low compliance will be forced to close." Wang Shi, chairman of Hepai Online, a Shenzhen-based P2P lending company, said: "The P2P lending industry is undergoing a restructuring and will see the establishment of a preliminary structure in 2017." He expected to see the withdrawal of many P2P lenders from March to June and a decrease in the monthly transaction volume after August. Yin Zhentao, secretary-general of the Research Center for Financial Law and Regulation under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said: "The continuous launching of internet financial policies will put the internet finance industry on the right track. There will be a transition to standard-compliant growth." As of the end of 2016, the total loan balance of P2P lending companies hit a record high of 1.21 trillion yuan, increasing by 115.9 percent from the end of 2015. Congressman's Son Dabs During Photo Op, Confuses Paul Ryan Trending News: 2017's First Act of Defiance? This Kid Dabbing On Paul Ryan Quick Take With a divisive new Republican president weeks away from inauguration and the Democrats vowing to stop him at every turn, it's no secret the political environment in Washington is tense. But the first act of defiance in 2017 didn't come from Bernie Sanders or another familiar voice from the left. The first truly rebellious move of the year came from a newly elected Republican congressman's son, who dabbed during his dad's swearing in ceremony. Daily Mail Republican Roger Marshall of Kansas was just elected to congress. With his party in control of the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives, the GOP appeared to be unstoppable. But that all changed when a hero stood up against overwhelming odds and delivered the first anarchist blow of 2017. The boy's name is Cal Marshall, but it might as well be Katniss Everdeen after he shot that dab through the heart of the Capitol. And just like Katniss, he will also pay a dear price for it. House Speaker Paul Ryan, not unlike how the Dark Lord Sauron moved against our beloved Frodo, attempted to stop our young hero. According to Fox News, the conversation went something like this: You all right? Ryan (Sauron) asked. You want to put your hand down? Ok, ok, Im sorry, the teen (Frodo) giggled. Were you going to sneeze, is that it? the speaker (Sauron) asked. Hes sneezing, Rep. Marshall (Saruman?) said. As Luke Skywalker gravely faced his own father and a dominant Empire, so too did young Cal. And his little act of rebellion was definitely not just a sneeze. The first shots fired of 2017 go to hero Cal Marshal. Drop This Fact Cal's act of defiance already has a mention on the dabbing wikipedia page. LONDON - China has been identified as one of the top priority post-Brexit markets for British food and drink, a government minister said on Wednesday. Andrea Leadsom, secretary of State for Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs, said that the country's food, farming and fishing industries will be having an extraordinary opportunity to "thrive". Leadsom, in a speech at a farming conference in Oxford, spoke of the big world-wide markets beyond the EU for British food and drink. "I saw this for myself in China, where there's a growing appetite for British food and drink. We now have our biggest export team based there, and the past year has seen a huge rise in British exports to China, up over 50 percent on 2015," she said. Leadsom said China was just one of the priority markets Britain has identified in its international action plan. "Food and drink is already the UK's largest manufacturing sector, adding more value to our economy than the car and aerospace industries combined," she said. Non-EU dairy exports are up 91 percent; wheat exports are up 80 percent; and, a real triumph, British lamb was voted product of the year in France last year, added the minister. Commenting on forthcoming Brexit talks, Leadsom told an audience of farmers: "Food, farming and our environment will be central to the success of our negotiations -- as well as to our future outside the EU. "For too long, a bureaucratic system, which tries to meet the needs of 28 different member states, has held farmers back. Now, we have the chance to design a domestic successor to Common Agricultural Policy that works for all of you, rather than the entire European Union," she told the farmers. Leadsom said the cutting of European red tape and Brussels bureaucracy as a potential big win for British farmers. "I am confident that leaving the EU gives us an unprecedented opportunity to design a system that's fit for the 21st century," she said. At the conference Leadsom announced extra government funding of nearly $150 million for a new wave of projects as part of the Rural Development Program. Children play shooting games at a tourism site in Huaibei, Anhui province. [Photo provided to China Daily] Recently, while on holiday in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, I was asked if I was interested in firing a Russian-made rocket-propelled grenade for $500 at a local shooting range. Even though the price for shooting an RPG was surely negotiable, my answer was a firm no. I preferred firing an AK47 with six cartridges for $120, nice and easy. Last year, I spent $320 in a shooting range in Jacksonville, Florida, where I tried five US Navy Seal guns. I was not the only Chinese tourist to have been pampered abroad. More wealthy travelers may look forward to choices including holidays at well-known vineyards, a helicopter journey to the top of a snowy mountain in New Zealand and seeking the Northern Lights in Norway. While both domestic and foreign airlines have deployed bigger aircraft for their services from China to global destinations, travel agencies from many countries including Japan and Saudi Arabia have also set up shops in Chinese cities to peddle their wares. Sadly, domestic tourism still lags in both the variety of offerings and quality of services. For example, not long ago, my friend and I were tricked by a small travel firm, probably unlicensed, in Pingyao, an ancient city in Shanxi province. During the one-day trip, our travel guide was changed twice. What they truly cared was how much we spent in each shop they took us to. What also shocked me was that they expected us to pay their lunch bills at a selected restaurant, with each guide claiming: "If I am hungry, I won't have enough strength to introduce the city history and show you around this afternoon". With both good and bad experiences, I cannot stop thinking why the holiday and leisure markets in many parts of China still haven't developed, and the gap between them and Western countries or Southeast Asia is so distinct. For instance, many giant hotels in Las Vegas have already added toothbrushes, kettles and slippers in guest rooms for Chinese tourists, as well as a butler service and Chinese-speaking instructors to teach them how to play various casino games. With a phone call from the room, a $430 Ferrari ride on a professional track outside Las Vegas can also be arranged. Action has also been taken in China, as it aims to encourage more global companies to invest in the country's service sector to assist in the development of supply-side reforms. Eager to enhance the earning ability in its vast tourist markets, China's first batch of homemade luxury cruise vessels will be built at a shipyard in Shanghai and the first is expected to set sail in 2022. Many provinces, such as Heilongjiang and Zhejiang, and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region have also started to launch campaigns to attract more domestic tourists through culture villages, and fishing and food tours. Though some of these changes are pretty impressive, I think it is critical to avoid stereotypes, because both the domestic and outbound tourist markets have become more sophisticated and segmented. China doesn't lack amazing places with gorgeous scenery or land features. It would be practical to develop special interest tourism, involving cuisines, art, healthcare, the natural environment and ecology across the country. Personally, I won't go too far. I certainly would not spend a night among sharks in an underwater structure installed in a European aquarium or hunting zebras in Africa in 2017. But taking a cruise trip from Sanya to Yongle Island, part of the Xisha Islands in Hainan province, would be nice. By Fan Feifei in Beijing and Hezi Jiang in Las Vegas | China Daily | Updated: 2017-01-05 09:18 Jia Yueting (left), founder and CEO of LeEco, shakes hands with Nick Sampson, vice-president of Faraday Future, at the launch ceremony of the FF 91, an internet-enabled electric car, in Las Vegas, on Jan 3, 2017. [Photo provided to China Daily] US-based electric car startup Faraday Future, backed by LeEco, unveiled its first production vehicle FF 91 in Las Vegas at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show, a move to drum up more investment and extricate LeEco from cash flow woes. The debut of the FF 91 is seen as the last chance for Jia Yueting, CEO and founder of LeEco, and his debt-laden company, said analysts. The FF 91 represents a bold new breed of electric mobility, which features artificial intelligence, record-breaking acceleration speeds and long-lasting battery energy. With 1,050 horsepower, the vehicle can go from zero to 96 kilometers per hour in 2.39 seconds, making it one of the fastest accelerating cars in the world, according to the company. It can go more than 700 kilometers on one charge. "No other electric vehicle can do that," said Peter Savagian, vice-president of propulsion engineering at FF. The car possesses a complex sensor system and driverless valet feature. By pressing a button on the Faraday mobile app, the car will park itself. It could also learn user's preferences over time to create a personalized experience. "Our mission is not just to build an electric vehicle, but a globally shared internet mobility ecosystem," Jia said. Jia added FF has broken the technological boundaries of internet, artificial intelligence, IT, automobile and electric systems, redefining the core value of car. The car can be ordered by paying a $5,000 deposit through Faraday's website. The first batch is scheduled to be delivered next year. Although LeEco has faced many challenges, such as supply chain management and capital issues, Jia is still pushing ahead with the electric vehicle initiative. Leshi Internet Information and Technology Corp, LeEco's listed arm, said last week LeEco will obtain more than 10 billion yuan ($1.4 billion) financing from strategic investors. "The debut of FF 91 at the CES shows Jia's determination to build an electric car and restore investor's confidence. However, the prospect of mass-production of the e-car in 2018 will remain slightly out of reach," said Shen Meng, director of Chanson & Co, a boutique investment bank in China. Shen expressed concerns that the event was merely a continuation of LeEco's flamboyant marketing methods, which will do little to save the firm from its biggest problem, its acute cash crunch, against a backdrop of sluggish global economic growth. Lu Zhenwang, CEO of the Shanghai-based Wanqing Consultancy, cast serious doubt on LeEco's ability to mass-produce the FF 91 by next year. "The launch ceremony was an attempt to gain more support from investors, but where are LeEco's detailed plans, such as the establishment of charging facilities and where it will make these cars," Lu said. Contact the writers through fanfeifei@chinadaily.com.cn Dancers perform in Shenyang, Liaoning province. More than 310,000 people took part in a national square dancing gala in May in six cities, which created a Guinness World Record. [Photo by Wang Huan/For China Daily] Middle-aged Chinese women just wanna have fun ... and dance in colorful floral-print skirts or wool-blended dresses trimmed with sequins and tassels. And e-commerce players are thrilled to bits selling all that dance gear. Women love the idea of online shopping, too. Saves time compared with visiting different stores or malls. Click/tap, buy, dance away. What fun! Meeting their demand are niche-minded sellers such as Zhen Xiaofang. In 2010, Zhen quit her job as a dance teacher at a college in Hefei, Anhui province, in 2011 and started selling dance gowns, skirts and such items on Tmall, a business-to-consumer marketplace from the Alibaba stable. Innovative styles and designs distinguish her popular products, which are made exclusively by a garments factory and sold under the brand name Fangzhiwu on the flagship online store. In 2015, Fangzhiwu, which also runs a digital store on JD, another major e-commerce platform, netted sales revenue of more than 10 million yuan ($1.44 million). "We offer more than 150 kinds of dance costumes and shoes. A set of dance costumes costs less than 100 yuan on average," said Zhen. "Actually, 80 percent of our sales come from women aged 50 and above. Compared with their younger peers, they are more energetic and have more spare time to dance." To serve as many of themas possible, Fangzhiwu expanded from online space into offline channels, developing a nationwide network of more than 200 distributors, including a large group of famous square dance teachers. Such teachers are prized by e-commerce firms. It's not difficult to understand why if you hear Wang Shaobin, 64, vice-president of a local dance association in Huanggang, Hubei province. Wang is a dance impresario whose 80-member team of dancers stage impressive shows at public squares on most evenings. "We prefer to shop online for dance clothes as stuff is priced reasonably there. For example, a suit or a costume will cost around 100 yuan. We also rent dresses or buy customized clothes for special performances." According to a report released by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and CBN Data, a commercial data provider affiliated to Alibaba, typically, a middle-aged woman dancer, endearingly called a Dancing Aunty, will spend 437 yuan annually on her square dance "gear". Not surprisingly, competition has become fierce among online players for every single yuan spent by Dancing Aunties. Fangzhiwu, which has been among the top three dance gear sellers on Alibaba's online marketplaces, is feeling the heat. "We lost some customers to other e-commerce platforms and off-line shops in 2016 due to fierce competition and saturation of the market," said Zhen. She is not the one to give up easily though. "I'm optimistic about the future. What we need to do is prepare better for the competition ahead." Toward this end, Fangzhiwu has signed agreements with public dancing video apps such as Tangdou Square Dance and 99 Square Dance. To burnish its brand, it will offer free costumes to dance teachers registered on such apps. Zhen has also increased the range of products sold on Fangzhiwu. Things like eye masks now vie with dance gear for Dancing Aunties' attention. A Chinese mobile phone user uses the taxi-hailing app Didi Chuxing on her smartphone. [Photo/Xinhua] Didi Chuxing, China's largest ride-on-demand platform, is leading a group that is investing more than $100 million in its Brazilian peer company 99, reported Reuters on Wednesday. Didi will gain the rights to nominate a member of 99's board of directors, and in return provide "strategic guidance and support", said the news agency citing terms of investments. Both sides have not disclosed the precise investment amount or the stake Didi will hold in 99. Didi claims nearly 400 million users across over 400 cities. The Chinese ride hailing and sharing giant cemented its position last summer when it struck a deal to buy Uber's operation in China in exchange for about 20 percent stake in the combined company. In November, Volkswagen Group announced it was seeking to forge joint venture deals with Didi to set up ride-hailing business. A customer views the new iPhone 7 smartphone inside an Apple Inc store in Los Angeles, California, September 16, 2016. [Photo/Agencies] US company GPNE Crop sued Apple Inc for direct infringement of claims on its patent, which was issued in China in 2001, according to a recent report by domestic business newspaper National Business Daily. The lawsuit accuses "computerized communications devices and computerized tablet devices", known as iPhone and iPad manufactured by Apple, of infringing on patents it owns, and GPNE claims indemnity of 900 million yuan (about $129 million), the highest number of this kind of compensation in the country. Huang Jingyu, or Gabriel Wong, founder and inventor of the Hawaii-based company told the newspaper that the patent relates to general packet radio service. As part of the 3G standard for GSM radio frequencies, it allows features such as multimedia messaging, push-to-talk over cellular, always-on Internet access and point-to-point networking. Huang said the patent has received patent protection rights in 14 countries, including China, USA and Japan. Before accusing Apple, the company consecutively sued Motorola, Cisco, BlackBerry, Samsung, LG, Sony Ericsson, Sharp, HTC and Huawei in regard to the so called patterns infringements. Compared to the dispute with Apple, most of the companies have either reached accommodations or signed patent permission agreements. The litigation started January 28, 2013. According to the report, during the past four years, Apple has been requested three times to the Patent Reexamination Board of State Intellectual Property Office of China to invalidate the patents that are involved in the case. In September 23, 2014, Apple litigated administrative appeal to the Beijing First Intermediate People's Court. However, the patterns are still valid as all the litigation requests from Apple have been rejected. As of the end of last November, the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court has held hearings three times regarding the case. So far, Apple has made no comment on the allegations. Around 150 million Chinese have experienced ordering food on a delivery service app, however, they might not know about the lives of the men who deliver the meal to their homes. In this story, we take a peek at the daily life of a deliveryman, which is about competition, honor and earning a livelihood. A courier delivers food on a rainy day. [Photo from the web] A booming industry Zhou Wu (not his real name) rolls up his sleeve to reveal a scar on his right arm, a reminder of an accident in which he hit the curb and was thrown off his scooter to avoid an electric tricycle coming right at him. After the accident happened, the first thing that occurred to him wasn't if he was injured, but "whether or not the food in the box spilled out." Zhou Wu has had three road accidents since 2015 when he became a food deliveryman in Beijing. He "dared not tell the company because they would not pay for the medical bill, but might even fine you." The 22-year-old from Hebei province tried different blue-collar jobs before he became a deliveryman, which is the job he's done the longest and "is most profitable". Zhou is one in the expanding force of deliverymen as the online food delivery service becomes increasingly popular in China's cities. According to a recent report, around 150 million Chinese used online catering services as of June 2016. The number rose by 32 percent in six months and keeps growing. "In the peak hour, the orders keep coming to you and you cannot refuse to deliver," said Zhou, who once delivered food to eight different places in one single hour. Skin-care products have always thrived on the cutting edge of fashion, and the biggest international names in cosmetics are celebrated in elegant ads worthy of a Paris runway. But instead of seeking the latest thing, many shoppers for beauty products in China are now looking to their cultural past for traditional Chinese medicine and its natural ability to enhance skin. Zhang Xuan has been using different cosmetic products for a long time, but nothing seemed to soothe her dry skin during winter until she switched to Herborist, a TCM-based cosmetic brand. Now, she's an enthusiastic fan. "I think it is healthier and suits my skin better," said the 20-something Shanghai teacher. "I'd like to try other TCM-inspired skin care in the future." Such products may still be a minority in retail cosmetic counters, but they have been gaining momentum in the last few years as brands and consumers alike discover their appeal and potential. Long favored by the older generation, TCM-based cosmetics are now growing popular among young people like Zhang. Yue Sai, the cosmetic brand owned by French cosmetics giant L'Oreal, has long used TCM in its products. While most of its customers are in their 30s and 40s, the brand is also attracting fans in their 20s, especially online. More than half of its customers in the online store are in their 20s, said Stephane Wilmet, Yue Sai's brand manager. The brand combines TCM ingredients like lingzhi mushroom and ginseng with modern technology to develop products tailored for Asians' delicate skin. Many TCM external remedies aim to promote blood circulation and lubricate parts of the body where applied. They can be prepared as creams, jellies, lotions and masks as well as powders. Common ingredients include aloe, almond, pearl, notoginseng, motherwort, common bletilla tuber (bai ji), dahurian angelica root (bai zhi) and ginseng. "It's not just about cultural heritage. The mild nature of the TCM ingredients also better suits Chinese skin," Wilmet said. Yue Sai is followed by more nascent brands that look to capitalize on the power of TCM. Yuan Soap, a Taiwan-based brand that uses herbs and spring water to make skin care products, has attracted a large following of people in their 20s with its organic approach. These new brands are also very good at marketing themselves in new, flexible ways, including promotions on WeChat and Taobao. Remains of black bears are seized by police after a suspect was detained for the storage and trading of wild animals in Mianyang, Sichuan province.[Liu Chenping/For China Daily] Forest police in Mianyang, Sichuan province, have seized a suspect in connection with the storage and trading of nearly two metric tons of meat from wild and endangered animals, such as black bears, pangolins and owls. The man could be jailed for more than 10 years, a police source said. Forest police in Mianyang spent more than a year finding the warehouse where the meat was stored, according to Liu Wenhao, an official with the Mianyang forest police bureau. In the summer of 2015, whistleblowers told the bureau that bear meat was being sold at a restaurant in Mianyang. After checking many restaurants that sold bear meat, police discovered their meat came from a person surnamed Liang and were able to track down the refrigerated warehouse where the meat was stored. Police claim Liang, 58, bought the meat of wild and endangered animals from different parts of the country and kept them refrigerated before selling them for a profit. Out of fear he would be caught red-handed, Liang never employed anyone, Liu said. He unloaded and delivered meat to restaurants himself. On Oct 10, Liang visited a rented apartment in the residential quarter of Southwest University of Science and Technology, police said. They followed him and found the apartment served as a warehouse for dead animals. Police said that after detaining Liang, they found nearly 2 tons of meat from dead animals such as black bears, pangolins, owls and crocodiles in both his refrigerated warehouse and rented apartment. Leaders, from left, Indonesian President Joko Widodo, French President Francois Hollande, China's President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and South African President Jacob Zuma arrive for the opening ceremony of the G20 Summit in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, in September.[Photo/Agencies] Experts predict that this will be the year the nation gains greater influence in world affairs. An Baijie reports. Sweet potato is not only President Xi Jinping's favorite food, but he also sees it as a symbol of China's determination to make a contribution to global economic growth. "The vines of the sweet potato may stretch in all directions, but they all grow out of its roots. Similarly, no matter what level of development it may reach, China, with its roots in the Asia-Pacific, will continue to contribute to the region's development and prosperity," Xi said in a speech in Lima, the capital of Peru, in November. The president's remarks came as the global economy continued to struggle as a result of sluggish growth and as many Western countries embraced protectionist economic policies. Making China's mark in global economic governance and shouldering greater responsibility were the defining characteristics of Chinese diplomacy under Xi last year, according to observers. The experts noted that contributing to world economic growth and offering solutions for global governance will be the guiding principles behind Chinese diplomacy this year. That will be especially true in May, when the country will host a grand summit to boost interconnectivity between potential partners in the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, known collectively as the Belt and Road Initiative. In December, the Financial Times highlighted China's role in global governance, saying: "President-elect Donald Trump wants the US to shrug off its global responsibilities. China may grab the opening to move centre stage." The article also pointed out that Xi has championed the Paris Agreement on climate change, defended the international community's nuclear deal with Iran and expanded trade liberalization within Asia. International influence Su Ge, president of the China Institute of International Studies, said the world economy is recovering slowly and with great difficulty, so better global governance is required. "The deficit of global governance is growing. Western countries' abilities in terms of innovation and the provision of public services have been undermined," he said, adding that China's international influence became more pronounced last year. Noting that China will hold two diplomatic events this year - the first International Cooperation Summit Forum on the Belt and Road Initiative and the ninth BRICS summit - Su said the country will remain a positive force in the maintenance of world peace, stability and development. China's continuing efforts to press for sustainable growth and to improve global governance won the support of world leaders when they met for the G20 Summit in the lakeside city of Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province, in September. At the summit, Ban Kimoon, then-UN secretary-general, praised the efforts of China and the United States in the ratification of the landmark Paris Agreement. The progress that had been made was a major success, according to Ban who praised the "outstanding leadership" demonstrated by Xi and US President Barack Obama, who handed over legal documents to him on Sept 3 as an indication of their resolve to jointly tackle the global challenge. "In the past, it was often said that China was a major economic power, but unable to play a global leadership role commensurate with its new status," Paolo Garonna, professor of political economy at the LUISS University in Rome, told Xinhua News Agency during the summit. "Well, all of us in Hangzhou have seen the Chinese leadership in action, in terms of strength and quality, and its ability to deliver results." He Jiang, the first Chinese to deliver a Harvard University commencement address, has made the 2017 Forbes "30 under 30". "I received a message (about the list) this morning. I'm a little surprised, but very happy about it," He told China Daily on Tuesday. Forbes' 30 Under 30 is a set of lists issued annually by Forbes magazine. On Tuesday, the magazine released its sixth annual 30 Under 30, featuring 600 young innovators, entrepreneurs and leaders who challenge conventional wisdom and rewrite the rules for the next generation. The lists recognize 30 game-changers in 20 industries who are under 30 years old, with the honorees vetted by a panel of judges from their respective fields. Previous winners include Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Snapchat's Evan Spiegel, Saturday Night Live's Kate McKinnon, the rapper Chance and YouTube phenom Michelle Phan. "These are the people that will run every field for the next 50 years," said Randall Lane, editor of Forbes. He, a 29-year-old postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was chosen for the healthcare category after being nominated by his professors at Harvard. "I didn't know I was nominated until December," He said. At Harvard, He used a new technology called single-virus tracking super-resolution imaging, known as STORM, to understand more about how influenza infects cells, and discovered human genes with strong anti-viral effects. He is now applying the same techniques to neurons and white blood cells. He hopes the lab research he conducted can be put to practical use in healthcare. He grew up in a small village with limited educational opportunities. By studying hard, He graduated from the University of Science and Technology of Chinaone of China's top universitieswith a bachelor's degree in 2009, and was accepted into Harvard's PhD program on a full scholarship the same year. In May, the biochemistry doctorate delivered a speech representing the university's 13 graduate and professional schools at the commencement. In his speech, He talked about the uneven distribution of science and technology in the world and expressed his desire to get science and medicine to places they aren't reaching, such as his own village, where his mother once treated his spider bite with fire. Seventeen of the 600 winners in 2017 are from China. "One in every six of the 30 under 30 list members are immigrants, originating from 44 different countries and exemplifying the success of immigrants," the Forbes website said. More than 15,000 online submissions were received and only 600 made the cut, meaning there was a 4 percent acceptance rate, lower than Stanford (4.8 percent) or Harvard (5.2 percent) if compared with college admissions rates. Others on the list include Hope Hicks, 28, the newly appointed White House director of strategic communications; musician Gallant, 24; athlete Von Miller, 27; YouTube star Tyler Oakley, 27; and entrepreneur Noah Kraft, 29. An automatic bathtub designed for people with mobility issues. Provided to CHINA DAILY China's first automatic bathtub, which is designed for people with mobility problems, has been installed in a Shanghai nursing home. The bathtub, which uses small vibrations sent through the water to wash the body, was delivered to Shanghai Xiangfu Retirement Center last week, with another 23 models to be sent to homes across the city. "We've partnered with the government so that as many rehabilitation centers as possible in China can have the product," said Zang Lina, vice-president of Care4 Health Medical Co, which developed the bathtub. She added that the bathtub is only available in China, although there has been interest from overseas. Slightly bigger than a traditional bathtub, the Care4 tub is aimed at aiding the elderly or people with mobility issues. It is accessed through a side door, and is fitted with safety rails and a mechanical seat that slides in and out of the water. To prevent a user from catching a cold, the tub also pipes in warm air while it is being filled or when the water is draining. Built-in leakage protection systems prevent the risk of an electrical accident, while hydrotherapy massage jets boost blood circulation, which can strengthen the immune system. The high-tech tub costs 50,000 yuan ($7,200), although Care4 said the price is expected to fall after further remodeling. Introducing the product in Shanghai nursing homes is part of a program by the Senior Citizens Foundation to make life more convenient for elderly residents. Official figures show more than 36 percent of the city's registered population will be age 60 or older by 2020. Nationally, this demographic is forecast to almost double from the 212 million in 2014 to about 400 million by 2050. Wei Qiqi, an executive at Shanghai Xiangfu Retirement Center, said the bathtub arrived on Dec 21. Although it has not yet been used, she said it would definitely make it easier for caregivers to bathe residents with mobility problems. Zhu Youqiong, a caregiver at Huacao Township Nursing Home in the city's Minhang district, said helping an elderly resident to shower takes about an hour, or even longer if the person cannot walk or move without assistance. "We have to first carry them from their bed, put them into a wheelchair and then into the shower," she said. "Because the floor is wet, preventing them from slipping requires a lot of physical strength." She said a product like the Care4 bathtub, which can complete a full wash in 15 minutes and can be used up to 25 times a day, would considerably lessen the workload of caregivers and better protect residents' privacy. Ma Anqi contributed to this story. Huang Xingguo, former mayor of Tianjin, has been expelled from the Communist Party of China and dismissed from public office. Huang, 62, severely violated political discipline and the code of conduct of the Party, and broke laws, according to a statement issued on Wednesday by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the country's top anti-graft authority. The statement outlined a litany of violations on Huang's part, including promoting officials counter to regulations, profiting from granting government positions, abusing power to reap large benefits and allowing his family members to use his influence for profit. Huang violated government regulations on officials' overseas visits by taking unnecessarily large numbers of people with him as an entourage during his visits to foreign counties, which is a relatively new accusation for a CCDI disciplinary statement. In September, he was placed under investigation on suspicion of violating Party discipline and laws. His case will be transferred to the judiciary, the statement said. Huang had spent most of his career in Zhejiang province, including serving as deputy governor of the province in 1998 and top official in Ningbo from the end of 1998 to November 2003. He was appointed deputy Party chief and deputy mayor of Tianjin in November 2003. Huang was promoted to mayor in January 2008 and acting Party chief of the city in December 2014. Six out of 10 people are satisfied with China's anti-graft efforts in 2016, according to a poll by the top State-run think tank. The approval level among the public of 62 percent was higher for functionaries, at 95 percent, in the poll by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The poll, based on more than 5,000 valid questionnaires, is part of the sixth annual report on the evaluation of China's anti-graft drive released by the academy on Wednesday. The past year's crackdown appears to be having the desired effect, said Jiang Laiyong, secretary-general of government integrity research center at the academy. "The number of corruption cases discovered in 2016 was significantly lower than in earlier years. Most corruption cases known to the public were investigated in previous years and are being processed by judiciary departments now," Jiang said. "According to public information, we can see that large bribes were taken mostly before 2013. Now we barely see officials who dare to take bribes or embezzle public money in large amounts." There has also been a big drop in tipoffs and complaints from the public, another indication that the campaign has been effective since it started in 2012, he added. The report says the most notable progress in 2016 was the creation of an integrity system for clean government. It notes that intra-Party supervision ordinances and guiding principles on the political life of the Party were issued in addition to accountability regulations on the work of government officials. Judicial entities, such as the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate also issued specific bylaws for dealing with corruption cases. Such practical measures significantly improved governance in 2016, the report stated. In Hebei province, disciplinary inspection procedures were greatly improved, and 220 top cadres were picked for the inspection team talent pool, according to Zhang Guolan of the province's disciplinary department. Areas they will be looking into include the land and resources and the housing and rural development departments, she said. While evidence of major corruption decreased in 2016, cases of minor violations of Party discipline rose. A total of 40,827 cases were investigated in 2016 involving violations of the eight-point austerity rules emphasized by the Party over the past four years. That represents an annual increase of nearly 11 percent, according to the anti-graft watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. In those cases, 42,466 people were disciplined, 25 percent more than in the previous year. "New problems emerged following the significant progress made in anti-graft drive," Jiang said. Local officials in some regions showed less initiative at work to avoid making mistakes, and in some cases, the public still had to offer "gift money", or small bribes, to functionaries. Jiang suggested steps to reduce the income gap that leads some low-income functionaries into temptation. Delegation, simplification among decisions made by State Council China will work harder to use simpler, more straightforward procedures and balanced market regulation to streamline government administration. A series of decisions to accomplish this goal was announced on Wednesday during the State Council's executive meeting, chaired by Premier Li Keqiang. The State Council is the highest executive agency of State power. The measures include delegating more authority to local governments and reducing central government certification and evaluation requirements. Also, the country will issue its first guideline for market supervision and regulation to make its business environment more inviting. "Our reform in streamlining administration for leaner and more effective government now steps into a crucial stage," Li said. "All departments must handle their duties, and make sure to lower institutional costs for enterprises. "The key in transforming government function is to strike a balance between the government and the market, and our goal is to effectively unleash and grow productivity potential." The power represented by 53 administrative approvals now handled by the central government will be delegated to local government, mainly covering business activities such as qualification certificates for private schools and business permits for cotton processing, providing more convenience in business registration. The delegation of 14 of the items needs to be further approved by the National People's Congress Standing Committee because amendments to the law will be required. Since 2013, 230 administrative items have been delegated to local governments. Another 20 agency evaluations and certifications will be dropped to simplify regulation in areas like railway facility construction and qualification for legal professionals. The guideline for market supervision announced during the meeting will provide for a more open, better regulated and attractive business environment, officials said. The guideline will run concurrently with China's 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20). The new guideline is geared toward easier market access, fair competition and greater consumer safety. A list of measures to be adopted includes further streamlining business registration and employing negative list-based market access with a focus on compliance oversight. Also included are a level playing field for nonlocal businesses - with fair competition and a ban on discretionary charges or sectoral subsidiaries - and an emphasis on regulation and enforcement in food and drug safety and other areas crucial to public safety and security. A negative list says which activities are prohibited, while all others are considered to be allowed. In addition, the announcement said the government needs to improve in regulatory innovation through such means as Internet Plus - the integration of the internet with traditional industries - and the use of big data. "Supervision must be carried out in a lawful and well-regulated manner, so that companies won't be subjected to extra burdens," Li said. Jia Xijin, a professor of public management at Tsinghua University, said the measures are in line with market trends and would boost market vitality with simplified processes and better public services. Jia said she was particularly impressed with measures that ease market access and strengthen supervision on products closely related to people's lives and health. However, she said it will take more time and effort to complete the challenging and complicated processes needed to stringently regulate delegated administrative powers. Police in Guangdong province confirmed on Wednesday that they have detained a woman who was captured on camera riding a motorized scooter over a child's legs. The woman, identified only as Chen, 29, was taken into custody on Tuesday and has confessed to assaulting a 6-year-old girl, according to a statement by the public security bureau in Yangjiang. A police officer said that during interviews, Chen had said she intended only to frighten the child, as she was "being naughty by laying on the ground and refusing to go home for dinner". The girl was taken to hospital where doctors found injuries to both legs, the statement said. Police launched an investigation after a video began to circulate online on Tuesday that showed a woman on a scooter riding over a girl's legs. The child was also seen being dragged along the ground by another child. The incident took place on Yangjiang's Fuyuannan Road at about 2 pm. Liang Jinhai, the city's vice-mayor and director of public security, gave the order for a task force to investigate the case, which led to Chen's detention a day later. According to the statement on Wednesday, Chen has phoned the child's father, identified as Ye, to apologize and is actively cooperating with police. Police said Chen and the injured child's 50-year-old grandfather have lived together since 2014. They have a son together, age 2. Chen also has a 6-year-old daughter from a previous relationship. The victim was placed in the couple's care in April last year when Ye moved away for work in another city. Her mother had left after divorcing her father and has since remarried. Ye has now returned home to look after his daughter, police said. Construction is dubbed highest of its kind in China Lhasa, capital of the Tibet autonomous region, is expected to have a ring road opened by June this year to improve traffic and accelerate the city's development. With a planned investment of 11.3 billion yuan ($1.62 billion), the ring road is nearly 100 kilometers long, with seven tunnels and 27 bridges, according to the city government. The road links Lhasa Gongkar Airport in the south and three highways. It also crosses over the Qinghai-Tibet Railway. After it opens, drivers will able to circle the city's downtown area in just two hours at a maximum speed of 60 km per hour. As Lhasa has an average altitude of 3,600 meters, the ring road has been dubbed "China's highest ring road". Construction started in October 2015, and the project is mostly complete. Part of the road has already opened for trial operation. Lin Sheng, vice-mayor of Lhasa, said at a meeting on Tuesday that the road is a milestone in the city's development. "By linking accesses to the city center in all directions, the ring road will greatly improve the city's traffic network and ease congestion," he said, adding that the road is expected to boost the city's development and make travel more convenient. Lodre, a villager from Lhasa's Tsalgongthang township, said he is pleased to hear the news. Living about 10 km from Lhasa makes going to the city inconvenient due to heavy traffic, he said. "I believe the new road will improve convenience and safety," Lodre said. Contact the writers at palden_nyima@chinadaily.com.cn Artist's conception of the ring road in Lhasa, Tibet autonomous region.Provided To China Daily (China Daily 01/05/2017 page4) An official in Panzhihua, Sichuan province, killed himself on Wednesday morning after shooting two of the city's top officials, local authorities said. Chen Zhongshu, the city's land and resources chief, broke into a meeting room at the local conference and exhibition center at about 10:50 am. He shot Zhang Yan, the city's Party chief, and mayor Li Jianqin as they were having a meeting. Chen escaped after the shooting and was found to have committed suicide on the second basement of the center. The duo were taken to hospital where they were found to have no life-threatening injuries, Panzhihua's publicity department said. Police are still investigating the case. China has strict gun control measures and there is no explanation of how Chen obtained the gun. Chen had worked in Panzhihua for more than 30 years after graduating from a college in his hometown of Zigong, Sichuan. He became an official in the cultural and education department of the city's Yanbian county in 1988 after working as a teacher in a middle school there for five years. He held various positions in the city, including director of city administration and director of a county-level district, before he was transferred to the land and resources department in May 2013. Zhang came to Panzhihua in 2006 as deputy Party chief and was promoted to his current post in June 2015. Li worked in the Ministry of Land and Resources for eight years before he was appointed Panzhihua's deputy Party chief in July. He has been mayor since August. (China Daily 01/05/2017 page5) By Han Junhong in Changchun and Xu Wei in Beijing | China Daily | Updated: 2017-01-05 07:43 Fire standards were overhauled following similar incident last year Seven people were killed after a fire broke out at a nursing home in Huinan county, Jilin province, early on Wednesday, local authorities said. The fire broke out at about 4:10 am at a privately-owned nursing home in Chaoyang township, with rescuers able to save 32 of the 39 senior residents, according to a statement by the Huinan news office, adding that the fire was extinguished by firefighters at about 4:30 am. A county government spokesman said local authorities are still investigating the cause of the incident. The fire followed a similar incident at a nursing home in Lushan county, Henan province, on May 25, 2015, which killed 38 people and injured six others. The nursing home was later found to have used flammable building materials, and to have taken inadequate fire prevention measures, according to the State Council Work Safety Committee. The Ministry of Public Security's fire department launched a national overhaul campaign on fire prevention standards in nursing homes after that incident. China faces grave challenges in caring for its rapidly aging population, with citizens aged 60 or above accounting for 16.1 percent of the population by the end of 2015, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. By the end of 2015, the country had about 116,000 nursing homes or facilities that offer nursing services for elderly people, up by 23.4 percent from the previous year, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs. Li Ruobing interviews Li Xiancai, a 93-year-old veteran of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1937-45), in Shanxi province, on March 1, 2015. Photos Provided To China Daily After spending every weekend for the past two years chatting with veterans of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1937-45), amateur photographer Li Ruobing had enough material to fill a book. So that's just what he did. The clerk at Yangquan city's industrial and commercial bureau in North China's Shanxi province compiled his photographs and conversations into a book that he self-published and distributed among the veterans he had spoken with. "I did this to show the veterans that they are not forgotten," he said. "I had to race against time because of their age." Veteran Guo Jingrui, who is in his 90s, cried for the first time in years after speaking with Li. "His wife said she had not seen him shed a tear in decades. She said my visit was long overdue." Another of the veterans, Wang Qi, died just one day before Li was due to meet him. He did leave behind an old photo and a brief description of his wartime experiences though, which Li included in his book. "At least 20 of the veterans I interviewed did not survive to see the book published," he said. Li's project began in the summer of 2014 when he visited Wang Xixian, a critically ill veteran who was bedbound at a welfare home. "On the windowsill was a photo of him at the height of his youth: he was handsome, energetic and proud in his soldier's uniform," he said. Li asked Wang if he would salute and pose for a photo. "His eyes sparkled at my suggestion and he asked several times if his salute was 'up to standard'." Moved by the experience, Li decided he wanted to photograph every surviving veteran in his home province of Shanxi. With the support of the local government, he located about 200 former military men and proceeded to visit each one, often chatting with them for hours. Each visit ended with a photograph. Over the past year, dozens of volunteers have joined Li on his weekly visits. During the winter and summer vacations school children also join him, hoping to hear historic tales told first hand. Li has so far revisited more than 50 of the veterans with his book. Each time he has been received with hospitality and left in tears. "Some insisted on walking me to the door, even though they walked with great difficulty. Some buttoned up my coat for me fearing I might catch a cold," he said. Even the youngest veterans are nearing 90 and many have limited mobility. All have been awarded medals, but few like to show them off. "One of them told me his medals should belong to his contemporaries who did not survive the war," Li said. "I hope my trips will go on forever. From these heroes I've learned everything about devotion, loyalty and sacrifice." Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blog spot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. . ..Commentary Magazine..04 January '17..The trial and todays conviction of Israeli soldier Elor Azaria is being celebrated by some as an example of how Israels justice system has vindicated the honor of the nation. Thats true. Sergeant Azaria was convicted of killing a terrorist who had already been captured and disabled. A video of the shooting appears to prove Azaria is guilty of manslaughter and the court rejected the attempts of his defenders to claim that his actions were appropriate or an effort to save his comrades from a danger that not longer existed.And yet it must be said that, contrary to the arguments of Israels critics, a wave of support inside Israel for the defendant among the general public and many politicians is not an indication that 50 years of occupation has destroyed the countrys moral compass. If, despite the evidence that compelled the court to convict Azaria, so many Israelis on both the right and the left view this as more than a simple case of manslaughter, it is not because they are immoral or indifferent to Arab suffering. Rather, it is because the context of this controversy is a brutal war in which Israels youth is placed in harms way by their countrys foes; not an ordinary criminal case.The context of the shooting was a brutal stabbing attack on a group of Israeli soldiers by two Palestinians. The terrorists managed to wound one Israeli. One of the assailants was shot dead during the struggle while the other was wounded. The latter, Abed al-Fatah al-Sharif, was lying on the ground seemingly incapacitated when Azaria arrived on the scene six minutes later. While he claimed afterward that he shot al-Sharif because he thought he was still a threat, his comments on the scene seemed to indicate that his motive was revenge for the stabbing of a fellow soldier rather than an effort to avert an imminent danger. General Gadi Eisenkot, the chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, was right to assert that the IDFs rules of engagement allow soldiers to defend themselves against terrorists without engaging in actions that can amount to the murder of a subdued prisoner. Hes also correct to point out that the effort to depict Azaria as everyones child, whose mistakes should therefore excused, miss the fact that the although he was a 19-year-old conscript, the sergeant was a well-trained soldier. He should have been expected to obey orders and had no right to shoot anyone except when it was necessary.Moreover, Israels pride in the purity of arms of its soldiers is not just a matter of moral preening. An army whose soldiers do not follow the rules for dealing with prisoners is one that is likely going to have all sorts of other disciplinary problems that will undermine its ability to defend the nation. Letting anyone, let alone a soldier, get away with what amounts to vigilante actions undermines the rule of law that is the foundation of any democratic society.Still, as much as the evidence made a guilty verdict inevitable, is it really so strange that, in a nation where most 18-year-olds are drafted for army service and are then placed on the front lines against terrorists, many Israelis would sympathize with Azaria? In a conflict in which Palestinian leaders and official media not only preach hate for Jews but honor those who act on their urgings as heroes, is it any surprise that most Israelis have little sympathy for those, like al-Sharif, whose only goal was to kill any Jew he met? Nor can we be shocked that parents of other young soldiers identify with the mental anguish of a teenager who has just seen one of his friends bleeding after a terrorist attack. Israel is a country where their enemies mark its entire people for murder. If some see the death of one of those foeseven if it was the result of a blatantly illegal actas less grievous than the possibility that a young man who was serving his country will have his life ruined for acting impulsively, that just shows they are human and justifiably angry about the violence that is directed at their children.Nor is this a case of the occupation chickens coming home to roost. To treat the downed terrorist, as some on the left seem willing, as if he were the moral equivalent of an African-American youth unfairly targeted for violence by the police is to misunderstand the situation. The stabbing intifada was just the latest round of terrorism that Israelis have been forced to endure that has little to do with settlements. Palestinian-Arab terror attacks on Jews rooted in anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic intolerance for the Jewish presence in the country have been going on for more than a century.While the verdict in the case was just, the high-handed condemnations of Azarias supporters by foreign critics are not. And if, despite the fact that his actions were unjustified, Azarias sentence ends up being on the light side or winds up being commuted or if he was pardoned a move Prime Minister Netanyahu has said he would support it wont be a sign that Israel has been corrupted by occupation. It would be an indication that the court and the government understands the difficult circumstances of a case that cannot be separated from the context of the ongoing war on the Jewish state. HANGZHOU - A train carrying nearly 1,900 tonnes of bottled mineral water from Tibet autonomous region has reached the eastern coastal province of Zhejiang after traveling 4,500 km over five days. The 35-carriage train, which left Lhasa, capital of Tibet, last Wednesday, arrived in Beilun Port railway station in Ningbo, Zhejiang on Monday after passing through Qinghai, Gansu, Shaanxi, Henan, and Anhui provinces. A ceremony was held on Wednesday at the station to mark the success of the first cargo train between Lhasa and Ningbo. The freight, all bottled glacier mineral water, will be distributed to places in Zhejiang and Shanghai. Tibet, often called Asia's Water Tower, is rich in water resources. It produced over 400,000 tonnes of natural drinking water in 2015, but high transportation costs made it difficult to reach other parts of China. The new trains will facilitate transportation of cargo from Tibet to cities to the east. There are plans to run cargo trains between Lhasa and other cities such as Beijing, Qingdao, Zhengzhou, Guangzhou, Chengdu and Lanzhou. CHENGDU - Two leading officials in the southwestern Chinese city of Panzhihua, Sichuan province, have undergone operations and are in stable condition after being injured in a shooting incident, local authorities said. The city's Party chief Zhang Yan and mayor Li Jianqin were shot around 10:50 am during a meeting at a local conference and exhibition center. The suspect, who was identified by the local police as the city's land and resources chief Chen Zhongshu, was found dead with the weapon in a small room on the second floor of the center at 12:33 pm. 415,000 punished for discipline violations in 2016 Xinhua | Updated: 2017-01-05 11:05 BEIJING - The Communist Party of China's (CPC) top discipline watchdog said Thursday that in 2016, 415,000 people had been disciplined for violating the Party's code of conduct and other irregularities. Officials at various levels were punished, including 76 at the provincial and ministerial levels, as well as 256,000 people from rural areas and enterprises, the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said in a statement. In late 2012, the CPC began a far-reaching campaign to address corruption, extravagance, unfavorable work styles and other discipline violations. Premier Li visits the Kuanzhai Ancient Street in Chengdu in April 2016. [Photo provided to China Daily] An unexpected visit in April by Premier Li Keqiang to Kuanzhai Ancient Street, a cultural hotspot in downtown Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, has inspired venders and private business owners to expand their vision for innovation. A book and two postcards the Premier purchased in Jianshan Bookstore on April 25 have joined the ranks of best-sellers as hundreds of copies were sold following the visit. The book, written by a local writer on cultural diversity, sold out completely several days later, said Liao Yun, founder of the bookstore. "The premier supported real-economy stores with real actions, which was very encouraging to us," she said. The premier stayed more than 10 minutes in the store and Liao was impressed with his interest in local culture and inspirational encouragement for innovative products and operations. One of the two postcards was black and white, the other color. "I remember the premier said the black and white postcard represents the past, while the color represents the future. He also gave us confidence to focus on innovation and creativity," Liao said. Hundreds of visitors have consequently swarmed into the bookstore to buy the book and postcards, Liao said. During the past eight months, Liao's bookstores, including Jianshan, have promoted a series of books about literature and arts in Chengdu, along with innovative cultural products featuring in famous local historic collections in cooperation with Chengdu Museum. The bookstore, only covering about 40 square meters, is located in one of the 45 courtyards on the street that has attracted more than 150 enterprises, including at least 30 focusing on cultural innovation. The stores in the street, which symbolizes Chengdu's vibrancy, provide more than 3,000 job opportunities each year, and more than 17 million visitors spent 300 million yuan ($43 million) last year. Other stores also enhanced their reputations after the premier's visit, including Lonely Ding's Coffee, a cafe not far from the bookstore. CHANGCHUN -- Chinese scientists are drawing a 1:2.5 million scale geological map of the Moon. Ouyang Ziyuan, first chief scientist of China's lunar exploration program, said five universities and research institutes have set standards for digital mapping and drawing of the Moon's geological structure. A sketch version of the map, 4.36 meters by 2.2 meters, will be finished by 2018, and released by 2020. The map will provide information on geology, structure and rock types and will reflect the timeline of the Moon's evolution. Chen Shengbo, a geologist with Jilin University in Northeast China's Jilin province, and his team are responsible for drawing the lunar structure outline, just one part of the work. He said the map would clearly show lunar geography such as geographic fractures and the size, appearance, and the structure of craters. Chen said mapping depends on data and images sent by circumlunar satellites from home and abroad. Lunar map making is not like drawing a map of the Earth, where scientists can go to the scene in person if they are not sure of their information. China's satellites have captured global images of the Moon, which contribute to the precision of lunar maps. Xiao He, 12, is unable to move about freely due to congenital cerebral palsy. However, he could continue pursuing his learning after six classmates volunteered to accompany him like bodyguards. At Huanghua Experimental Elementary School in Huanghua city, North China's Hebei province, Xiao He is often accompanied by Yu Deshui, Lv Kunyu, Wang Yangning, Zhang Baojun, Wang Junhao and Cao Zhihe, no matter if it's to the toilet or to the playground, Yanzhao Metropolis Daily reported on Wednesday. The six students have accompanied and helped Xiao He move about since the latter semester of Grade One, now they are in Grade Four. Xiao He contracted cerebral palsy when his brain was deprived of oxygen during birth. Due to limited body movement, Xiao He could not go out alone. After his mother Chen Yanhong sent him to school, Xiao He was used to sitting on his chair and staring blankly during each class break. However, things changed after six students came to lend helping hands to Xiao He. Instead of playing outdoors with others, the six boys chose to chat and share jokes with Xiao He. Even during PE classes, the six boys carry Xiao He around the playground so he can participate. When asked why they volunteered to help Xiao He, the six classmates said they were moved by Xiao He and his mother, who both insisted on Xiao He coming to class no matter how difficult it was. Zhang Baojun, one of the six, wrote in his notebook that helping others makes him happy and he is deeply moved by Xiao He's strong will, so he wants to help him. Another said: "Xiao He has difficulty walking, and it is very hard for his mother to carry him to and from school. However, they seldom ask for leave. We think that we ought to help him as classmates or as friends." Xiao He also has trouble holding pens, so his writing was crooked. Seeing this, his desk mate Wang Yangning held his hand to teach him how to write each stroke. One day, Xiao He's mother could not make it to school to bring the boy home, and asked his teacher for help. After learning this, the six pupils volunteered to accompany home Xiao He instead of going home right after class. Many teachers were deeply moved by this. Zheng Maoxia, who took over the class since Grade Three, said: "Because of one special student in the class, I have found more special kids." Explaining that the six students carried Xiao He home through the mud on a rainy day, Zheng said: "The six have never complained of being tired during the past three years." Just days ago, Xiao He felt sick during class, so Wang Yangning carried him to the toilet immediately. Knowing Xiao He vomited a lot, the boys and the teacher came to give Xiao He water to gargle. Knowing this, Chen Yanhong said she felt warm, and admitted that initially she didn't know whether her son could attend school. "However, my child wants to go to school. I also don't want to give up. I hope he can learn at school like other children," said Chen. Chen also said: "The help from teachers and classmates has more influence on my boy's inner heart than his daily life at school. Now he often talks with us about the things that happened at school, which he seldom did before." Zheng has the same feeling as Chen by saying: "Xiao He seldom smiled before, but nowadays he is much happier and studies harder." Xiao He said: "I am very happy to have them around me and help me." His six friends said: "We hope we can be in the same class after entering a higher school and we can keep on caring for him." BEIJING -- The People's Daily, the flagship newspaper of the Communist Party of China (CPC), will run a commentary Friday warning against fraud during the ongoing election of delegates to the Party's 19th National Congress. Party cadres should learn lessons from the election fraud cases in Liaoning province, Hengyang in Hunan province, and Nanchong in Sichuan province, according to the commentary seen by Xinhua Thursday. The election should feature a strong emphasis on discipline and rules, with a zero-tolerance attitude adopted against any breaches, and increased penalties for each violation, it said. Leading officials should be held responsible for bad electoral ethics, ineffective investigation into violations, and cases having a disastrous impact, the commentary said. The CPC has lowered the quota of delegates taken from leading CPC officials. As a result an increasing number of officials will not get the chance to be nominated, while some will be nominated but fail the election, it said. Intensified ideological and political work should be carried out to educate and guide officials to respect the election results, prioritize the Party and the people's interests, and encourage them to work well, the commentary said. Election procedures and standards should be strictly observed to ensure excellent, politically sound Party members are elected, it said. The 19th CPC National Congress, a major event in the political life of the Party and the state, will be held in Beijing in the second half of 2017. A total of 2,300 delegates will be elected by 40 electoral units across the country. China will continue to deepen pragmatic cooperation with Israel to benefit both countries and their people, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said during a daily news conference in Beijing on Thursday. China and Israel agreed on the wording of an agreement on Wednesday that will help bring about 6,000 Chinese construction workers to Israel, The Jerusalem Post reported. Bilateral cooperation continues to gain positive outcomes in trade, science and technology as well as people-to-people exchanges since the two countries initially set up diplomatic ties, Geng said without confirming the report. However, Geng said China is opposed to the construction of Jewish settlements in occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The spokesman referred to Resolution 2334 the UN Security Council adopted late December, in which the council says "the establishment by Israel of settlements in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, has no legal validity". BEIJING -- Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli on Thursday called for more efforts to reform and develop work on central and state organs. Zhang, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made the remarks while addressing a meeting honoring role models from the central and state organs for their outstanding service. Zhang lauded their contributions to ensure efficient operation of organs affiliated with the Party and the state, as well as in promoting reform, development and stability. Zhang asked authorities to learn from the spirit of the sixth plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee held in late October last year, ensuring the central and state organs are clean, pragmatic and efficient. He asked central and state organs to promote reform and innovation, strengthen scientific management, practice frugality and fight extravagance. Zhang said more efforts should be made to contribute to realizing the country's "two centenary goals" and the Chinese dream of great national renewal. The two centenary goals are completing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects by the CPC's centenary in 2021, and building a prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced and harmonious country by the centenary of the People's Republic of China in 2049. BEIJING -- State Councilor Wang Yong said Thursday China should still deepen reforms in intellectual property rights, despite the fact it has shown great improvement in the area in recent years. China should pilot comprehensive management reform, ease control on patent agencies and improve relevant public services, Wang said when inspecting the State Intellectual Property Office. The country should create a fast channel for patent applications in emerging strategic industries and foster a vast number of high-value patents, Wang said. The country had over 3.47 million patent applications in 2016, up 23.8 percent year on year, said State Intellectual Property Office head Shen Changyu at a national meeting Thursday. Among them, patent applications for inventions increased by 21.5 percent year on year to 1.34 million, Shen said. The number of Chinese international patent applications filed under the World Intellectual Property Organization's Patent Cooperation Treaty hit 40,000 last year, Shen added. The World Health Organization has warned that it expects to see more sporadic cases of human bird flu in China, and potentially abroad, and said public vigilance is needed to contain the virus. The alert comes as authorities in Zhongshan, Guangdong province, confirmed two new cases of H7N9 avian flu on Wednesday. Both patients were in critical condition after being exposed at live poultry markets. "Given the increasing number of human cases and constantly evolving nature of influenza viruses, continued vigilance and close monitoring are needed to detect infections," the WHO China Office said in a statement. Winter is the peak season in China for zoonotic flu strains that can pass from animal to human and so far several cases of H7N9 have been reported in regions including Shanghai and Fujian and Anhui provinces. Two people died in Anhui in December. Most of the recent cases involved exposure to infected live poultry or contaminated environments, such as live poultry markets, according to the WHO. "The information to date does not support sustained human-to-human transmission, although limited human-to-human transmission cannot be excluded," it said. "We expect to continue to see a number of sporadic cases." China has culled more than 170,000 chickens in four provinces since October and closed some live poultry markets, Reuters reported. H7N9 was first reported in China in spring 2013. According to WHO data, infections were detected in two travelers arriving in Canada from China in 2015 and one in Malaysia in 2014. "It's possible similar cases will be detected in other countries among travelers from affected areas, although community-level spread in other countries is unlikely," the statement said, adding that the WHO "does not advise special screening at points of entry" regarding avian flu, "nor does it currently recommend any travel or trade restrictions". He Xiong, deputy director of the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said he sees no possibility that recent cases will spark an epidemic, since there is no evidence the flu can be transmitted between humans. The WHO advised, "It's important the general public continue to take precautionary measures to reduce exposure to avian influenza viruses from infected poultry." Such measures include avoiding direct contact with live poultry and adopting good hygiene practices while handling, slaughtering and preparing poultry for consumption. Mao Qun'an, a spokesman for the National Health and Family Planning Commission, said in December that China "is well prepared to contain outbreaks". China's banking regulator will encourage the launching of more consumer finance companies while helping them improve comprehensive risk management. For example, with registered capital of 300 million yuan ($43 million), Baotou Baoyin Consumer Finance Co Ltd opened for business on Dec 29 in Baotou, the Inner Mongolia autonomous region. Baoshang Bank Co Ltd, a Baotou-based mid-sized commercial lender, was among the company's three founders, holding 73.6 percent of the stake. Liu Xin, chairman of the company, said it aims to become an online consumer financial services provider for the younger generation, offering products for various scenarios. Overhaul of city's water brings rivers back to life ( China Daily ) Updated: 2016-12-30 Migrant birds are observed in one of the wetland parks in Fuzhou. Chen Lin / For China Daily To pollute a river requires only one flush of sewage from homes or factories, but the recovery process can take dozens of years. A local resident, surnamed Chen, grew up near Donghu Lake, a drainage basin in the Changle district of Fuzhou, capital city of Fujian province. "The water in the lake was very clear with fish living in it when I was a little kid. The water could even be used for drinking," Chen said. But in the following years, the water quality gradually deteriorated because of livestock waste, village garbage and illegal discharging of sewage in the lake. The lake's once crystal-clear water turned dark and smelly. Water hyacinth on the lake once covered more than half the surface and eventually the water couldn't be used for farmland irrigation anymore. Since 2013, the local government has invested 420 million yuan ($60.6 million) to restore the lake. "We shut down 250 livestock farms surrounding the basin, laid 13.3 kilometers of sewage-collecting pipes connecting 120 factories and dredged 5.33 km of waterways," said Wang Jianbo, press spokesman at the Fuzhou environmental protection bureau. "We dredged streams and brooks to the lake, built slopes at the banks and built paved trails and greenbelts in the upper reaches of the basin," Wang said. There is also a pump station close to the lake used for pumping sewage to a nearby disposal plant. "Finally, Donghu Lake has returned to what it looked like 30 years ago," Chen said. After two years, the recovery project was completed and the water quality has improved significantly. As a result of the improvement, Donghu Lake hosted a national kayaking competition in October 2015. Various plants grow along the water's edge, including Manila grass, willow trees, Chinese banyan trees and eucalyptus. Over the next few years, the environmental protection bureau will monitor the factories and livestock farms along the lake and improve the sewage systems in neighboring areas to make sure raw sewage is dealt with properly, according to Wang. Donghu Lake's example reflects Fuzhou's efforts in recovering polluted rivers in the city. The city government recently released a comprehensive plan for managing the urban water system. It proposed that pollution control should be carried out from the four perspectives: water-logging management, pollution source control, treatment of polluted water and environmental recovery for surrounding waters. A Chinese clerk counts US dollar banknotes at a bank in Huaibei city, East China's Anhui province. [Photo/IC] Instead of currency control, China's foreign exchange regulator is closing some of the loopholes in law enforcement and responding to capital flight. The State Administration of Foreign Exchange in its notice on Sunday requires that people applying to exchange the yuan to another currency declare the intended use. The administration, against some predictions, has left the annual $50,000 quota of foreign currency that can be purchased per person unchanged. Customers must now give a written pledge that the money will not be used for overseas purchases of property, securities, life insurance or any other insurance of an investment nature. The customers must also confirm compliance with restrictions on money laundering, tax evasion and dealings with extra-legal dealers. Those wishing to convert more than the $50,000 quota will need to prove the lawful purpose of the transaction. Banks are also required to verify the identity of the individuals and flag any large-volume or suspicious transactions. Violators of the above rules, the policy states, will be added to the regulator's watch list, denied a foreign-exchange quota for three years, and possibly subjected to anti-money-laundering investigations. These are not new rules. They are simply more stringent enforcement of the existing ones. The regulator's move is a reaction to the enormous outflow of capital from the mainland in 2016, fueled by Chinese people's rising enthusiasm for shopping for overseas assets and insurance policies, and also by the downward pressure on the value of yuan against the US dollar. Goldman Sachs, the US investment bank, estimated in December that a total of $1.1 trillion in foreign currency has left China since August 2015. This being the case, precaution is needed for 2017 now that the US economy is increasingly attractive for speculative money and the yuan is still under pressure. For depreciation triggers capital flight, and capital flight puts further pressure on the yuan. The move by the forex administration cannot be called harsh, and it is far from being a currency control. Plugging the loopholes in the existing regulatory system is necessary as the nation prepares to embark on more difficult but trailblazing reform efforts. Down the road, additional protective measures may be needed to help small investors reduce their exposure to outside risks, and help the nation as a whole to avoid draining its foreign exchange reserves too quickly when facing a rise in uncertainties in the global market. Cao Dewang, chairman of Fuyao Group, speaks during a conference of the 11th China Entrepreneur Summit 2012 in Beijing, China, Dec 8 2012.[Photo/IC] A couple of weeks ago, Chinese auto-glass tycoon Cao Dewang sparked a heated discussion across China. Cao said his recent $600 million investment to establish a manufacturing branch in the United States for his company, Fuyao Glass Industry Group, was driven largely by China's high taxes, which he claimed are 35 percent higher for manufacturers in China than in the US. Has the tax burden on Chinese enterprises really reached economically lethal levels? Going strictly by the numbers, this does not seem to be the case. Measured as the ratio of the government's fiscal revenue to GDP, China's overall tax burden, according to the International Monetary Fund's Government Finance Statistics Manual, is just over 29 percent. That is 10 percent less than the global average. Another way to measure the overall tax burden is to calculate the ratio of tax revenue and social security contributions to GDP. By that measure, China's average tax burden from 2012 to 2015 was 23.4 percent, or 12 percent lower than member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. As a percentage of GDP, China's tax revenues amount to about 18 percentcompared to about 26 percent of GDP in developed countries and about 20 percent in developing countries (in 2013)and continues to decline. Yet not everyone agrees that China's tax burden is relatively low, especially at the company level. So what is the actual tax burden on Chinese enterprises? Officially, Chinese producers must pay an enterprise income tax of 25 percent. But many enterprises get tax incentives. For example, high-tech enterprises supported by the government pay an income tax of just 15 percent, while some small-scale enterprises pay 20 percent. I would therefore estimate the median rate of corporate income tax is about 20 percent. Companies must also pay value-added tax of 17 percent, though there are options for preferential rates of 13 percent, 11 percent, 6 percent, and even 3 percent. That puts China more or less in the same range as other VAT countries. To find out how these rates translate in the real world, I collected data (compiled by a Beijing news reporter) from two well-known Chinese manufacturers, Gree Electric Appliances and Canny Elevator. According to Gree's 2015 social responsibility report, it paid about 14.8 billion yuan ($2.1 billion) in taxes in 2015. Its total revenue amounted to more than 100.5 billion yuan, and its net profit was about 12.5 billion yuan. The total taxes paid accounted for 14.7 percent of Gree's total income, or 1.18 times its net profit. As for Canny Elevator, its annual report showed that it paid 336 million yuan in taxes and duties in 2015. That is about 10.27 percent of the company's revenue for the year (which totaled 3.27 billion yuan), and 68.8 percent of the year's net profit (which stood at 488 million yuan). These might be taken as evidence of a heavy burden of tax and duties. But it remains unclear if these figures are in line with what most Chinese companies pay. After all, local governments often offer tax returns, refunds and breaks, meaning that the tax burden varies greatly across enterprises, industries and regions. And that does not even account for rampant tax evasion by small companies. That said, the perceived "tax burden" in China also includes non-tax expenses, including a relatively high proportion of social insurance paid for workers, the actual cost of land, resources and financing, as well as a variety of government surcharges. And, indeed, Cao cited China's high land costs (as well as soaring labor costs) as additional factors driving his company's partial move to the US. Government surcharges alone amount to at least 13 percent of Chinese enterprises' revenues, with some 7 percent financing urban construction and maintenance, 5 percent going to education, and 1 percent earmarked for flood control. Such fees, paid to local governments, must come from profit, and cannot be passed on to consumers. This has contributed to the erosion of Chinese companies' profit margins, which, according to TCL Corp Chairman Li Dongsheng, have dropped to less than 2 percent, on average. Manufacturing surcharges therefore amount to nearly a quarter of profit, putting a further squeeze on low-profit manufacturers. While it is impossible to estimate the precise size of Chinese companies' tax burden, they feel under pressure. At a time of slowing economic growth, the last thing China needs is to drive more producers away. To prevent this, China needs to create a more straightforward and transparent tax system, with a transition to more explicit and direct taxation. Taxes, duties and fees for businesses must be lowered, as should the share of social insurance paid by companies for their employees in China. The author is a professor of Economics at and director of China Center for Economic Studies at Fudan University. Project Syndicate Taiwan's main opposition Democratic Progressive Party, DPP, Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen speaks during a press conference in Taipei, Taiwan, Wednesday, April 15, 2015. [Photo/IC] A week before Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen travels to Latin America, Zhang Zhijun, head of the mainland's Taiwan Affairs Office, said in his New Year's message that the Chinese mainland will share development opportunities with Taiwan while firmly opposing "Taiwan independence" activities. Tsai's weeklong trip to Latin America from Saturday will take her to Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador, with stopovers in Houston and San Francisco in the United States. Her visit is aimed at strengthening the island's "diplomatic ties" with 21 countries, mostly in Latin America and the Caribbean, after losing the African island nation of Sao Tome and Principe, which resumed diplomatic relations with Beijing last month. The mainland has exercised utmost restraint despite knowing the Tsai administration will ignore the 1992 Consensus while seeking to maintain relations with its "diplomatic allies". In fact, the mainland has given the island enough time to finish the "incomplete test" and put cross-Straits relations back on the right track, without wounding its "political dignity". However, judging by what she and her Democratic Progressive Party have said and done over the past seven months, Tsai has failed to see the big picture that is so clear to the mainland. On the contrary, she remains noncommittal on the one-China principle, the political bedrock of cross-Straits ties, and is poised to wade into uncharted waters. Gimmicks like calling US president-elect Donald Trump to congratulate him on his victory will not help Tsai to end the island's "diplomatic" predicament. Instead, they will add to the risk of exacerbating the already strained relationship between the mainland and Taiwan. Thanks to the arrangements based on the one-China principle and UN Resolution 2758, which recognizes the People's Republic of China as the sole representative of the country, the island can take part in international events that suit its status. Should it seek to overstep the boundaries, normal relations with the mainland would be a pie in the sky. In essence, Taiwan's "money politics" cannot last long, especially because its economy has been struggling to pick up. Urged to tighten the island's "diplomatic" budget to improve people's livelihoods, Tsai had promised to stop offering one-sided financial aid to the island's so-called overseas allies after she assumed office in May. But money matters in diplomacy. For example, Sao Tome and Principe severed its ties with the island, ostensibly because of the latter's failure to fulfill the demand for $210 million "gift money"$70 million as instant donation and $140 million as low-interest loans. The same could happen with Taiwan's remaining 21 "allies". Even when the disruptive Chen Shui-bian was the island leader between 2000 and 2008, the money-wielding trick did not stop six "allies" from breaking away from Taiwan. So, it is not impossible for the island to lose all its other "friends". Siding with the United States is equally unlikely to help the island, as Washington cannot afford to sever its diplomatic ties with Beijing. It would be political immaturity on the part of Tsai to misinterpret or underestimate the mainland's determined pursuit of peaceful reunification. The author is a professor at the Institute of Taiwan Studies, Beijing Union University. Tsai's weeklong trip to Latin America from Saturday will take her to Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador, with stopovers in Houston and San Francisco in the United States. Her visit is aimed at strengthening the island's "diplomatic ties" with 21 countries, mostly in Latin America and the Caribbean, after losing the African island nation of Sao Tome and Principe, which resumed diplomatic relations with Beijing last month. The mainland has exercised utmost restraint despite knowing the Tsai administration will ignore the 1992 Consensus while seeking to maintain relations with its "diplomatic allies". In fact, the mainland has given the island enough time to finish the "incomplete test" and put cross-Straits relations back on the right track, without wounding its "political dignity". However, judging by what she and her Democratic Progressive Party have said and done over the past seven months, Tsai has failed to see the big picture that is so clear to the mainland. On the contrary, she remains noncommittal on the one-China principle, the political bedrock of cross-Straits ties, and is poised to wade into uncharted waters. Gimmicks like calling US president-elect Donald Trump to congratulate him on his victory will not help Tsai to end the island's "diplomatic" predicament. Instead, they will add to the risk of exacerbating the already strained relationship between the mainland and Taiwan. Thanks to the arrangements based on the one-China principle and UN Resolution 2758, which recognizes the People's Republic of China as the sole representative of the country, the island can take part in international events that suit its status. Should it seek to overstep the boundaries, normal relations with the mainland would be a pie in the sky. In essence, Taiwan's "money politics" cannot last long, especially because its economy has been struggling to pick up. Urged to tighten the island's "diplomatic" budget to improve people's livelihoods, Tsai had promised to stop offering one-sided financial aid to the island's so-called overseas allies after she assumed office in May. But money matters in diplomacy. For example, Sao Tome and Principe severed its ties with the island, ostensibly because of the latter's failure to fulfill the demand for $210 million "gift money"$70 million as instant donation and $140 million as low-interest loans. The same could happen with Taiwan's remaining 21 "allies". Even when the disruptive Chen Shui-bian was the island leader between 2000 and 2008, the money-wielding trick did not stop six "allies" from breaking away from Taiwan. So, it is not impossible for the island to lose all its other "friends". Siding with the United States is equally unlikely to help the island, as Washington cannot afford to sever its diplomatic ties with Beijing. It would be political immaturity on the part of Tsai to misinterpret or underestimate the mainland's determined pursuit of peaceful reunification. The author is a professor at the Institute of Taiwan Studies, Beijing Union University. [Photo/IC] An old friend, a retiree, is so concerned about An old friend, a retiree, is so concerned about public affairs that he keeps re-transmitting stories, essays, even hearsays, on a lot of things to his WeChat contacts. What is surprising is that he had never seemed interested in many of the things in the past.that he keeps re-transmitting stories, essays, even hearsays, on a lot of things to his WeChat contacts.It is the smartphone and social media tool such as WeChat that seem to have added a lot to the meaning to his otherwise simple and monotonous home-centered life. I have no idea where he gets his stories from, perhaps from some apps which I don't know about or from some like-minded WeChat users. One of the stories he sent to his WeChat group a couple of days ago was about the atrocities committed by eight "allied" powers in Northeast China's Liaoning province "on Christmas Eve in 1898". He had got his facts wrong. It was czarist Russia alone that invaded Northeast China in 1900. For people who would have otherwise focused on family matters and ignored most of the things happening beyond their own communities, social media is a channel to look beyond their immediate circle and to get their voice heard in a much wider circle. Given my experiencethanks to the WeChat groups I share with my colleagues or old friendsthose who used to be the most silent tend to be most active in disseminating hearsays. They also tend to support people with extreme views on many issues. In contrast, those who are well educated and well read and thus should be the most vocal are usually the silent ones. That's not because they are weak but because they have chosen to be the silent minority in social media. They prefer to remain silent in the face of meaningless quarrels, which a majority of online discussions are. The more information one receives, the more informed he or she should be. This is the revolutionary change the information age should have brought about. Yet this rationale does not necessarily apply to social media. What if a person active on social media platforms gets biased or wrong information or prefers to believe in the wrong information? One of the prominent features of WeChat is that chat groups tend to attract like-minded people, who share information that cater to their liking. Usually, WeChat users are selective in deciding what they read and share; they do not care about the authenticity of the information as long as it is to their common liking and helps reinforce their biased beliefs. This is exactly the way uneducated or semi-educated people used to gossip about the happenings in their neighborhood. Today, they gossip about a much wider array of things with much more participants on a much wider platform and have a much bigger audience. The more information such people receive from social media, the more biased and more misinformed they tend to become. Instead of shedding their biases, many of them turn into bigger bigots because of the fragmented, prejudiced and sometimes totally wrong information they get, or fish for, on social media platforms. It seems mobilizing as many people as possible to participate in the political process of a country has become a new norm. But since biased and ill-informed people tend to behave like know-alls, public opinions even on such important issues as reform and social welfare keep widening. It is impossible for a Donald Trump to be elected leader in China, or for the Chinese people to vote in a Brexit-like referendum. But that doesn't mean we should ignore the ever-widening divide in public opinions on many issues. The author is a senior writer with China Daily. zhuyuan@chinadaily.com.cn A gavel in a court. [Photo/IC] Hebei District People's Court in North China's Tianjin recently found a 51-year-old woman guilty of "possessing guns" and sentenced her to three and a half years in prison, even though her "guns" are usually considered toys. Days later, a county court in Central China's Henan province was found to be publicly auctioning similar "guns" on its website. Southern Metropolis Daily comments: The Tianjin court said they handed out the sentence because the Ministry of Public Security issued a document in 2008, which defined a gun as being able to fire a projectile with a muzzle energy exceeding 1.8 joule per square centimeter. According to that standard, six of the nine toy guns collected from the woman were identified as true guns. There has been criticism of the standard, as some people claim it is too low because the gun's muzzle energy can be exceeded when someone throws a piece of chalk, for instance. However, even if we put the challenges to the standard aside, a serious problem still exists. Reports show the toy guns auctioned by the court in Henan are very possibly more powerful than the ones held by the woman, but the court insisted they were toy guns even though no one ever tested them. Isn't that a double standard? The response from the court in Henan, that they were auctioning "toy guns", shows the court staff are ignorant of the law. The law does not recognize "toy guns"; it only recognizes real guns and imitation guns according to their muzzle energy. By calling their auctioned items "toy guns", they are trying to find excuses. Further, where did the court in Henan obtain the toy guns for its auction? If it confiscated them from residents for "illegally holding them", then its public auction is illegal, because it is trying to sell things that are illegal to buy. Zhou Qiang, chief justice and president of the Supreme People's Court, said last March that a main objective of the current judicial reform is to introduce the same standards for similar cases, so as to better protect social justice. We hope that principle can be applied. File photo shows Republican presidential nominee and Omarosa Manigault (R) attend a church service, in Detroit, Michigan, US, September 3 2016.[Photo/Agencies] US president-elect Donald Trump is expected to nominate Robert Lighthizer, known for his protectionist views, to be the US trade representative. Beijing News commented on Wednesday: A longtime advocate of protectionism, Robert Lighthizer is likely to be the latest prominent hardliner to join the Trump administration, which has shown a special taste for trade hawks. During the years Lighthizer served as deputy trade representative in the administration of former US president Ronald Reagan, the US was in constant trade wars with Japan. Trump is well known for his inclination to take risks and make audacious moves, as revealed on the campaign trail. That said, his provocative and extreme arguments, online and offline, merit high vigilance at a time when he is set to appoint a trade hawk to deliver on his campaign promises to counter "unfair trading practices" by China, for example. Making China the scapegoat for the US' economic woes and pledging to keep illegal immigrants at bay worked well for Trump during the election. Trump's choice of Cabinet members is a clear signal that his administration will adopt aggressive trade policies, fueling the rising protectionist sentiment in the world's largest economy. On the judicial front, conservatism might also prevail. The US president-elect is expected to retain the right to nominate one to four new Supreme Court judges. His possible nomination could make a major difference in the top judicial body, which is led by nine justices with an average term of 25 years and has the right to strike down a law as unconstitutional. Among the five justices that are unlikely to retire shortly, three are conservative and two liberal. In other words, the pendulum is very likely to swing in the favor of the conservatives should Trump keep practicing his preference for protectionism. With the prospect of Washington beefing up its military presence in the Asia-Pacific region and pulling out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, the world faces more uncertainties. The State Council, China's Cabinet, held a specific gathering on food safety in Beijing on Tuesday. Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli, who is in charge of food safety, said at the meeting that although the authorities at various levels in food safety have strengthened their supervision last year, the situation remains severe and complicated, and deep-rooted problems have yet to be solved. Zhang vowed to continue to strengthen food safety supervision to solve "dining table" pollution. He said the relevant authorities must regard food safety as an important mission as it concerns people's well-being. According to the statement released at the end of the meeting, China will introduce some badly needed food safety standards, and integrate its standards with international ones, implement the rule of law in food safety and severely punish those who break the law. Food safety watchdogs will be held accountable for any dereliction of duty. The issue drew attention from President Xi Jinping. Xi said in his instruction to the conference: "Improving food safety concerns the health and lives of more than 1.3 billion people in China, and we can never be too strict on the issue." He urged authorities at all levels to adhere to "the strictest standards for the strictest supervision of food safety". Premier Li Keqiang also urged local governments to ensure the integrity of the food chain and the improvement of their supervision. Improving food safety should start at the source and irregularities must be severely punished, he said. Editor's note: As one of the members of Chinese pioneering expedition team Natural Image of China, Xu Yongchun went to Yunnan province for wild photography for the third time with his team members in 2016. Besides Yunnan, the team covered Inner Mongolia, Hebei province, Henan province, Shanxi province, Shannxi province, Qinghai province and northeastern China. All of his works bring a unique touch to wild life. He strives to express the beauty of Earth through his lens. From a curious monkey to a hungry squirrel, these stunning scenes represent some of the world's best nature photography. Let's take a look at his gallery. The 2017 Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival kicks off on Thursday and runs to the end of February.[Photo/Xinhua] Artists put the final touches on a dazzling display of ice sculptures in China's northern city of Harbin on Wednesday, home to one of the world's biggest ice and snow festivals. The 2017 Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival kicks off on Thursday and runs to the end of February. The event, in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang, draws visitors from all over China as well as foreign tourists to one of the country's coldest places, where winter temperatures can fall to minus 35 Celsius. Qing Wenyu, a tourist from the southern Guangxi region, was among the travellers getting a sneak peak at the sculptures mostly carved out of ice blocks cut from the frozen surface of a nearby river. "When I was in primary school, I read about how it snows in the northern part of our country in a textbook. So this has really attracted me to this place for some 10 years or so," said Qing after taking a ride down an ice slide. Nearby, artists laboured over their icy creations, some of which resembled famous historical figures and landmarks such as Italy's Leaning Tower of Pisa. Work on the ice carvings begins in mid-December, with some projects rising as high as a two- or three-storey building, the festival's official website said. In addition to the sculptures, Harbin offers visitors a slew of activities, ranging from winter swimming and ice sailing to a mass wedding ceremony on ice that attracts couples from around the globe. Zhang Yanyan, a 31-year-old tourist from southern Fujian province, said she was drawn to the colourful lights that illuminate the ice sculptures at night. "I think they're all beautiful. I really like it here," she said. File photo shows Tim Barrow, Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Russia, at the International College of Economics and Finance graduation ceremony in Moscow, Russia on September 25, 2013. [Photo/IC] LONDON - Former British ambassador to Russia, Sir Tim Barrow, was confirmed on Wednesday night as Britain's new envoy to the European Union (EU). He succeeds Sir Ivan Rogers who resigned 24 hours earlier from the key role in Brussels. Downing Street moved swiftly to find a successor to Rogers who announced on Tuesday his decision to leave his job as Britain's top man in Brussels. Barrow's appointment was announced by Downing Street where a spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May described him as a seasoned and tough negotiator. Barrow will now play a key role in the Britain's Brexit negotiations with officials in Brussels. The Guardian newspaper in London said Wednesday night the decision to hand the job to Barrow showed May had ignored calls from within her own Conservative party to appoint a wholehearted Brexiter, even possibly somebody from outside of the civil service to the job in Brussels. In a brief statement from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in London, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson welcomed the appointment of Barrow as Britain's Permanent Representative to the European Union. The FCO said Rogers had taken the decision to quit now to enable a successor to be appointed before the Britain invokes Article 50 by the end of March to start the process of Britain leaving the EU. Barrow was only appointed last year to the key job of Political Director at the FCO, where he has worked since joining the diplomatic service in 1986. "He will bring his trademark energy and creativity to this job -- working alongside other senior officials and Ministers to make a success of Brexit," said a Downing Street spokesperson. Barrow spent several years in Moscow after being appointed as British ambassador to Russia in 2011, having previously served in a number of capacities in Moscow. He has also worked in a number of jobs in Brussels during his time as a diplomat. Festival that began in 1920s as a way of poking fun at Europeans has become beloved cultural event Young participants take part in the Winneba Fancy Dress festival, known locally as Kakamotobi, on Monday in the Ghanaian coastal town of Winneba. The parade, which started in the 19th century and was influenced by British and Dutch traders, is held on Christmas until the first day of January every year and still draws hundreds of people. [RUTH McDOWALL/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE] A fancy dress New Year festival that began almost a century ago in Ghana as a searing satire of colonial life is still thriving today, with hundreds of people dressing up and donning masks. On the streets of Winneba, a fishing town a two-hour drive from the capital Accra, a four-meter tall Santa Claus waving Ghana's flag marches past a wolf shimmying to the jazzy beats played by a brass band. Children wearing matching pink and white cowboy outfits decorated in silver tinsel and Christmas ornaments dance along with their parents in the friendlybut fierceannual costume competition held just after New Year's Day. The Winneba event is a "passion festival", said organizer James Kofi Annan. "Whether you are in Winneba or elsewhere, you want to come." The Winneba Fancy Dress Festival has its roots in colonial Ghana, when Dutch and English settlers would wear masks at New Year parties. Ghanaians in Winneba began forming masquerade groups in the 1920s in part to poke fun at the life and dress of the Europeans, explained Annan. What began as a subversive depiction of colonial life transformed into a beloved cultural event. After Ghana achieved independence in 1957, President Kwame Nkrumah's administration endorsed and promoted the annual Winneba festival. This year's event saw five groups of about 100 members vying for the top trophy. The groupsthe Nobles, Egyaa, Tumus, Red Cross and Group Fivehave their own marching bands to provide the soundtrack to fast-paced, rhythmic dancing and marching formations. To perfect their moves before the big day, they practiced in secret locations around Winneba, including in the bush and abandoned buildings. Almost everything the revelers wear is custom-made for the event, from the harlequin outfits sewn in leather and velvet to the multicolored hand-stitched boots and tall crowns. The costumes are adorned with a glittering array of embroidery, tinsel and Christmas balls. The performers all wear masks, some handmade, others more generic. Santa is a favorite, and there is at least one Obama among the dancers. The groups, made up of women, men, boys and girls, work to wow the judges with three different dance routines throughout the day. Isaac Ambrado, 43, an architect and proud member of the Red Cross, has brought his 5-year-old son Gabriel to perform for the first time. The father and son are joined by Isaac's cousin, Mark Koomson, 42, and his son, Theophilus, also 5. The two young boys held hands as they marched in the procession. Dressed in pink and white, they were pint-sized reflections of their fathers. They wore pink and white masks with long noses under pink sun hats decorated with feathers and tinfoil. Both fathers want their sons to carry on the tradition of the annual festival. "I am growing older, he is supposed to come and take over from me. I have been doing it for 32 years. It is in my family," Ambrado said. Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site. License for publishing multimedia online 0108263 Registration Number: 130349 Registration Number: 130349 Ivan Rogers came under fire for saying it could take 10 years for London to conclude deal with the bloc File photo of UK's ambassador to the European Union Ivan Rogers. [Photo/China Daily] UK's ambassador to the European Union resigned on Tuesday, adding uncertainty to the Brexit process less than three months before the country is due to trigger its departure negotiations. Ivan Rogers, a highly-regarded diplomat who had been due to end his four-year stint in October, stepped down as London prepares to invoke Article 50, which starts a two-year countdown to the United Kingdom leaving the European Union. Rogers came under fire last month for saying it could take 10 years for the country to conclude a trade deal with the bloc. The government insisted, though, that he was only reporting back what was being said in European capitals. "Sir Ivan Rogers has resigned a few months early as UK permanent representative to the European Union," a government spokeswoman said. London is set to appoint a new ambassador and deputy ambassador shortly. Rogers headed UKRep, the office which represents the UK in negotiations that take place in the EU. In a resignation email to UKRep staff, he urged colleagues to provide UK ministers with their "unvarnished" understanding through Brexit negotiations"even where this is uncomfortable". He also criticized the UK government for its short supply of "serious multilateral negotiating experience" in London and said the structure of the UK's negotiating team "needs rapid resolution". In probably the most damning passage, Rogers said that senior civil servants don't know what the priorities of Theresa May's government's are in the talks, which will set the course for UK's relations with Europe once it leaves the bloc. "We do not yet know what the government will set as negotiating objectives for the UK's relationship with the EU after exit," he said. An European diplomat said Rogers'resignation is not a surprise. "He was very competent, but not convinced by the Brexit decision and the British government line, leading the UK into an area of dangerous uncertainty." In the June 2016 referendum, 52 percent voted for the UK to leave the EU. Concerns over timing Triggering Article 50 will start a two-year countdown after which London will leave all the institutions and the single market unless alternative arrangements have been agreed. Hilary Benn, who chairs Parliament's Brexit scrutiny committee, said the resignation was "not a good thing". "The hard work is going to start very soon," he said. "And having a handover in the middle of that, depending on when exactly he goes, is not ideal." Rogers had been in his post since November 2013, having previously served as prime minister David Cameron's Europe adviser since 2011. Aled Williams, the former spokesman for Britain's EU embassy, said Rogers' departure was a "big loss" to the Brexit negotiations. The mild-mannered Rogers is widely respected in Brussels where he is known as a vastly experienced operator. Critics accuse of him of being a europhile, but European diplomatic sources described him as being a realist. British diplomatic sources at the time of the leaked "10 years" comments voiced suspicions that he may have been knifed in the back by pro-Brexit forces who wanted him out. Samah, 11, and her brother, Ibrahim, transport their salvaged belongings from their damaged house in Aleppo, Syria, on Monday. [KHALIL ASHAWI/REUTERS] Syrian government forces pressed their offensive in a water-rich valley northwest of Damascus on Tuesday as 10 rebel groups announced they are suspending talks about planned peace negotiations because of what they described as government violations of a cease-fire deal. The truce, brokered by Russia and Turkey, is meant to be followed by talks later this month in the Kazakh capital of Astana between mainstream rebel factions and government representatives. The United Nations Security Council on Saturday unanimously adopted a resolution supporting efforts by Russia and Turkey, which back opposing sides in Syria's civil war, to end the nearly six-year conflict and jump-start peace negotiations. But the nationwide four-day-old cease-fire is looking increasingly shaky, with opposition factions angered in particular about the ongoing military offensive in the strategically-important Barada Valley. The government and the opposition disagree about whether the region is part of the cease-fire agreement, which excludes extremist factions such as the Islamic State group and al-Qaida's affiliate, known as the Fatah al-Sham Front. The text of the document was never released to the public. The Syrian government said the mountainous region is not part of the cease-fire because of the presence of the Fatah al-Sham Front. Local activists deny any militant presence in the area. Heavy bombardment Opposition activists, including the Barada Valley Media Center, on Tuesday reported heavy bombardment of villages there. The opposition's Civil Defense first responders reported at least nine government airstrikes since Sunday, as well as acute shortages of medical supplies. Six people have been killed and 73 have been wounded, it said. In a statement posted late on Monday, 10 rebel factions said they were "freezing all discussions regarding the Astana negotiations or any other consultations regarding the cease-fire agreement until it is fully implemented". They include the powerful Army of Islam group, which operates mainly outside the Syrian capital. It said the violations in the Barada Valley are continuing and "threaten the lives of hundreds of thousands of people". The statement also said that the opposition will consider any military changes made on the ground to be a serious violation of the cease-fire agreement "that renders it null". The Barada Valley, which is controlled by rebels and is surrounded by pro-government forces is the primary source of water for Damascus and surrounding areas. The fighting has cut off the capital's main sources of water, resulting in severe shortages since Dec 22. Images from the valley's Media Center indicate its Ain al-Fijeh spring and water processing facility have been destroyed. The government said rebels spoiled the water source with diesel fuel, forcing it to cut supplies to the capital. The cease-fire agreement, which went into effect early on Friday, is supposed to pave the way for the government and the opposition to meet for talks for the first time in nearly a year in the second half of January. Those talks will be mediated by Russia, Turkey and Iran, though Russian officials have said other key players, including the United States, are welcome to participate. YAVNE, Israel - After 15 years of development, an Israeli tech firm is optimistic it will finally get its 1,500 kg (1.5 tonne) passenger carrying drone off the ground and into the market by 2020. The Cormorant, billed as a flying car, is capable of transporting 500kg (around half a tonne) of weight and travelling at 185 km (115 miles) per hour. It completed its first automated solo flight over terrain in November. Its total price is estimated at $14 million. Developers Urban Aeronautics believe the dark green drone, which uses internal rotors rather than helicopter propellers, could evacuate people from hostile environments and/or allow military forces safe access. "Just imagine a dirty bomb in a city and chemical substance of something else and this vehicle can come in robotically, remotely piloted, come into a street and decontaminate an area," Urban Aeronautics founder and CEO Rafi Yoeli told Reuters. Yoeli set up the company, based in a large hanger in Yavne, central Israel, in 2001 to create the drone, which he says is safer than a helicopter as it can fly in between buildings and below power lines without the risk of blade strikes. There is still plenty of work required before the autonomous vehicle hits the market. The Cormorant, about the size of a family car and previously called the 'Air Mule', is yet to meet all Federal Aviation Administration standards and a test in November saw small issues with conflicting data sent by on board sensors. With 39 patents registered to create the vehicle, Yoeli has little concern about competitors usurping him. One industry experts said the technology could save lives. "It could revolutionise several aspects of warfare, including medical evacuation of soldiers on the battlefield," said Tal Inbar, head of the UAV research centre at Israel's Fisher Institute for Air and Space Strategic Studies. China and the United Kingdom successfully began a "golden era" of bilateral relations last year, despite the UK's vote to leave the European Union in June, Chinese Ambassador to the UK Liu Xiaoming said on Tuesday. Liu Xiaoming is looking forward to deepening ties with the UK. [China Daily] At a meeting with Chinese journalists at the Chinese embassy in London, Liu said the leaders of both countries have confirmed a shared willingness to create this golden era, and will continue to push forward global strategic partnership well into this century. The successful UK China Economic and Financial Dialogue, The UK-China High-Level People-to-People Dialogue and China-UK Strategic Dialogue are examples of a good start for this golden era, he said. This year marks the 45th anniversary of the establishment of ambassador-level diplomatic relations between the two countries. Liu said he was looking forward to a year of deepening the golden era of UK-China relations. He said the relationship between China and the UK is at an important point, with potential for significant developments. He said he expected the two countries to maintain cooperation in the energy, infrastructure and financial services sectors and in the creative industries. The ambassador also stated he wanted to see the two countries further develop collaboration in international affairs to resolve differences of opinions and to create and nurture a healthy relationship. Contact the writers at cecily.liu@mail.chinadailyuk.com In November, just a month after the Chinese currency, the renminbi, was added to the International Monetary Fund's special drawing rights basket, Paola Subacchi published a book explaining the ins and outs of the currency. Her specialist book may sound like an academic read, but it is not, she aimed it at a wide audience "because there is a general interest from the public to understand this issue". The People's Money: How China is Building a Global Currency, is part of a new trend of business books about China produced by the Western publishing industry. Chinese firms' rapid overseas expansion, especially in the years following the global financial crisis, started this trend as Western businessmen and economists increasingly looked toward China as an example of a new, pragmatic economic development model. Thomas Hyrkiel, publisher at John Wiley& Sons, said the new interest has grown out of an existing fascination. "Historically, there has always been curiosity about, and interest in, China. What is different now is the immediacy of global engagement. Readers understand that business and economic trends in China may well have a direct effect on their lives." Hyrkiel's views are echoed by Bridget Flannery-McCoy, an editor at Columbia University Press, who said popular themes for such books include: studies of major Chinese businesses such as Alibaba; China's future trajectory, especially in relation to the US; the environmental dimension of China's growth; trade and labor issues; and the details of what's often called the "market economy with Chinese characteristics". Although statistics about the number of such books and the volume of sales are not readily available, many now sit on the shelves of popular stores and are used by Western business schools. Examples of publications in 2016 include Arthur R Kroeber's China's Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know, which was judged by Forbes as being capable of sitting "comfortably relevant on the bookshelf for years to come", and George Yip and Bruce McKern's China's Next Strategic Advantage: From Imitation to Innovation. Readers' feedback is also positive. Bill Fischer, a professor at Swiss business school IMD who co-authored a book about white goods maker Haier, said: "It was our determination to present the Haier story in sufficient detail that others could follow their lead and do the same things." ShouYongyi, a professor at Zhejiang University who coauthored a book in English about innovative Zhejiang-based small-and medium-sized firms, said getting information was straightforward. "Many of the companies are introduced to us through friends and contacts, and because these companies are private firms, many entrepreneurs are relatively open to us, and are quite honest and frank in sharing their stories and concerns." The one-China policy is a stance upheld by both US Democrats and Republicans, US Secretary of State John Kerry told Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Thursday. The one-China policy is based on the three joint communiques between the US and China, Kerry said on the phone call to Wang. The communiques, issued in the 1970s and 1980s, laid the restoration framework for the China-US diplomatic relationship. The US-China relationship is of great importance as the two countries have cooperated in areas including global economic recovery, climate change and major international issues, he added. Mentioning that the Sino-US relationship is undergoing a transitional period, Wang said both sides need to work together to keep bilateral ties going in the right direction. The cooperative fruits between China and US are precious, Wang said, adding that both countries should cherish previous achievements. Kerry and Wang also exchanged views on global and regional issues concerning both sides. British-Chinese and East Asian actors, including Harry Potter actress Katie Leung, along with other members of the theater community, have condemned a London venue for setting a play in China with Chinese characters but an apparently all-white cast. Katie Leung plays a role in Harry Potter movies. [China Daily] The Print Room in Notting Hill is showing In the Depths of Dead Love by Howard Barker this month, a play set in ancient China that is about Chinese people and that features characters with Chinese names, such as Mrs Hu and Chin. The production does not seem to feature a single actor of Chinese or East-Asian descent. "The allusions are intended to signify 'not here, not now, not in any actual real 'where' and the production, set, costumes and dialogue follow this cue of 'no place'," the company said in a media statement. But David Tse, creative director of London-based British East Asian performance company Chinese Arts Space told China Daily: "This is a clear example of institutional racism, the Print Room probably didn't even think about casting actors of East Asian origin and it didn't occur to them how of ensive the play would be. If blackface is unacceptable then why should yellowface casting be any different?" Yellowface casting is the derogatory term used to describe Caucasian actors assuming Chinese or Asian roles. British-born Chinese actor KC Li from Manchester said opportunities for British-Chinese and East Asians are already scarce. "Yellowface and whitewashing is wrong but people tend to turn a blind eye to it," Li said. "Until someone takes a stand and fights our corner higher up in the industry, nothing is going to change," Li said. The 35-year-old male actor added: "The Print Room is in London where it is full of British East Asian performance companies, such as Chinese Arts Space and Yellow Earth, so there is no excuse to not use actors of Chinese or East Asian descent." A protest against the Print Room has been planned for Jan 19. It is being organized by director Andrew Keates, who said East-Asian performers were "woefully underrepresented in our industry", adding that the use of Caucasian actors was "unacceptable and racist". The West London theater apologized in the statement for any offence caused and claimed In the Depths of Dead Love is "a very English play". It added that the play is not a Chinese play and that the characters are not Chinese. "The production references a setting in ancient China and the characters' names are Chinese. These are literary allusions in Howard Barker's fable and never intended to be taken literally." But critics were unimpressed with the venue's explanation saying the "theatre showed that it does not comprehend what yellowface and racial erasure mean and have made no effort to show any empathy to the community they have affronted". "If the play is mythical and not real, then why not set it in a fictitious land based in England?" Tse said. "The theatre's nonsense excuse reflects very badly on the production." Osama bin Laden's son, Hamza Bin Laden, is seen in undated Al Qaida video. [Photo/IC] WASHINGTON - The United States on Thursday designated Hamza bin Laden, son of late al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, as terrorist, the State Department said in a statement. As a result of the designation, all property subject to US jurisdiction in which Hamza bin Laden has any interest is blocked and US persons are generally prohibited from engaging in any transactions with him. On August 14, 2015, Hamza bin Laden was officially announced by al-Qaeda senior leader Ayman al-Zawahiri as an official member of the group. Hamza bin Laden has called for acts of terrorism in Western capitals and threatened revenge against the United States, said the State Department, adding that in 2016, he also called on Saudi Arabian-based tribes to unite with al-Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen to wage war against Saudi Arabia. Hamza bin Laden was born in 1989 in Saudi Arabia. His father Osama bin Laden, founder and former leader of al-Qaeda, was shot and killed on May 2, 2011 in Pakistan during a covert operation conducted by the United States. LONDON - A collection of handwritten notes by the late Princess Diana, one of which reveals that her younger son Prince Harry was constantly in trouble at school, went under the hammer on Thursday, selling for well above target prices. Britain's Princess Diana holds Prince Harry during a morning picture session at Marivent Palace, where the Prince and Princess of Wales are holidaying as guests of King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia, in Mallorca, Spain August 9, 1988. [Photo/Agencies] The six notes, sold at Cheffins auction house in Cambridge, were written to Cyril Dickman who served as chief steward of Buckingham Palace for over 50 years. Diana's sons Princes William and Harry feature prominently. One message dated Sept. 20, 1984, five days after Harry's birth, reads: "William adores his little brother and spends the entire time swamping Harry with an endless supply of hugs and kisses, hardly letting the parents near!..." "The reaction to one tiny person's birth has totally overwhelmed us and I can hardly breathe for the mass of flowers that are arriving here!" That note sold for 3,200 pounds ($3,950), comfortably exceeding its estimate of 400 to 600 pounds. Another, from October 1992, says how both young princes "are well and enjoying boarding school a lot, although Harry is constantly in trouble!". It fetched 2,400 pounds, against an estimate of 600 to 900 pounds. Other items auctioned by Dickman's family included letters, cards and photographs from other members of the royal family, including Prince Charles, Princess Margaret, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip. The one-China policy, which has been challenged by US president-elect Donald Trump, is supported by the Democratic and Republican parties, US Secretary of State John Kerry assured Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Thursday. Analysts said that through the phone call, Kerry aimed to warn Trump, who will be sworn in on Jan 20, not to undermine the cornerstone of Sino-US relations as the president-elect has done in the past month from speaking with Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen on the phone to questioning the necessity of supporting the one-China policy. Support for the one-China policy is based on the three joint communiques between the United States and China, Kerry said in his call to Wang. The communiques, issued in the 1970s and 1980s, laid the foundation for the restoration of China-US diplomatic ties. Wang, noting that the Sino-US relationship is in a transition period, replied that the two sides should make joint efforts to keep bilateral ties going in the right direction. Ruan Zongze, vice-president of the China Institute of International Studies, said that as a veteran diplomat, Kerry is "quite clear about how serious the consequences would be" if the one-China policy is challenged by a US president, and that's why he made the phone call. He said the phone call also could be seen as a warning to Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen, who made a congratulatory phone call to Trump on Dec 2. The call broke four decades of Sino-US diplomatic precedent. Tsai will transfer in Houston and San Francisco on her way to and from Latin America in a trip that will begin on Saturday. It was not clear whether she planned to meet with anyone in the US. Wang Hailiang, a researcher of Taiwan studies at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said that challenging the one-China policy would not benefit the US, since China would take countermeasures to safeguard national sovereignty. "The Sino-US relationship has always experienced turbulence at US power transitional periods in past decades, but it finally goes onto the right track," he said. Lexology ran an excellent article the other day, entitled, Catching the Bad Guys: Recovery for a Defrauded Alibaba Buyer. Our international manufacturing lawyers can attest to the need for this sort of article as hardly a week goes by where we are not contacted by someone with a major China Alibaba supplier problem. Note though that these issues are certainly not confined to Alibaba. The article nicely sets out how to handle a situation where you have sent payment for an Alibaba purchase but you receive either junk or nothing and [you] can no longer reach the seller. As noted in the article, most of these fraud situations involve a Chinese seller that is a newly registered entity with little registered capital that uses a fake office address. Initiate a police report. The article notes that in a fraud case, you should report the crime to the police to try catch the fraudulent seller and to try to recoup your monetary loss. The article rightly notes the importance of going to the police quickly and ignoring various stalling tactics employed by the seller: When confronted fraudulent sellers will reflexively claim that the matter is a commercial dispute to avoid involving the criminal justice system. For this reason, in cases of clear fraud it is advisable to proceed quickly to report to police and ignore last minute entreaties by the suspect to amicably settle. These apparent attempts by the fraudulent seller to settle not only may be an insincere attempt to delay for time but are also designed to create the appearance of a commercial dispute to dissuade police from pursuing an investigation. The article notes the importance of going to the right police department (Hong Kong or Mainland) and of going to the police department with sufficient evidence to entice them to pursue an investigation. Negotiating a settlement with the suspect. The article goes on to discuss how negotiating for restitution with the seller often should be undertaken, even in conjunction with the police pursuing its investigation of the seller: Once put in detention and questioned by police, the realization of serving prison time acts as a strong impetus on the fraudulent seller to settle claims with the buyer. In exchange the buyer can agree to make best efforts to end the police investigation or ask for leniency for the fraudulent seller before the court if the case has advances to an indictment. According to Chinese law, if an accused person returns some or all of the defrauded money and obtains a written pardon from the victim, her/his criminal responsibility may be mitigated. Its on this basis that a fraudulent seller looks for a reduced sentence or release from detention by striking a deal with the buyer. The article notes that one way to be able to tell whether the fraudulent seller has exhausted its available resources is the extent that the fraudulent sellers immediate and extended family make contributions: If a family member of the fraudulent seller provides a mortgage over real property or liquidates real estate assets to pay for restitution, then its likely that the fraudulent seller has cobbled together the maximum possible restitution payment. Bottom Line: If you have been defrauded by an Alibaba seller (or any other China seller for that matter), the key is to act as quickly as you can in going to the police and in trying to negotiate repayment from the defrauding seller. The quicker you act, the more likely you are to get at least some of your money back. (Photo : Getty Images) Over 150 prisoners in the Philippines have escaped after a gun battle occurred between jail guards and rebels believed to be members of the Bangsamoro Islam group. Advertisement Over 150 inmates have escaped a Philippines prison after armed men believed to be part of an Islam separatist group launched an attack in the North Cotabato District Jail in Kidapawan City at 17:00 GMT on Wednesday. The incident saw a gun war between the members of the separatist group and the jail guards. One guard lost his life during the incident, and one inmate was left nursing serious injuries. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement The facility, which housed over 1,500 inmates, was home to the gun battle that lasted for nearly two hours. The inmates saw this period as an opportunity to escape. Aljazeera quoted prison warden Peter Bongat explaining the incident and how the prisoners had managed to flee from the facility during a radio briefing. "It was well planned, they used their bedding, piled them on top of each other to escape," Bongat said. He added that a manhunt for the escapees is currently ongoing, and so far, at least four have been caught. He also believed that the attack was aimed to free a number of imprisoned Islam rebels. "The heavily armed attackers are suspected to include members of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Fighters and guerrillas. The jail held members of Bangsamoro who were facing murder charges for previous terror attacks in the region," Bongat said. Meanwhile, BBC ranked the incident as the biggest of all three attacks to have ever taken place in the facility. In 2007, a successful attack saw 40 inmates escape after guerrillas broke into the facility to save three bombmakers. A similar incident took place four years later allowing other bombmakers to escape. Advertisement TagsPhilippines, Prison attack, Prison break, Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement (Photo : Getty Images) A Chinese documentary entitled To Forge Iron, The Metal Itself Must Be Strong exposed former government officials involved in corruption. Advertisement Amidst an ongoing crackdown on corrupt officials in China, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) has partnered with CCTV to produce a documentary series entitled "To Forge Iron, The Metal Itself Must Be Strong" with its first episode being aired on Tuesday. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement The title has been derived from a presidential speech by Xi Jinping dating back to 2012 when he had just assumed power and promised to lead in the war against graft, according to Quartz. The documentary aims to highlight corruption in the CCDI while sending a clear message to any public servant found to be engaging in anomalies that they would not be spared under Xi's war on corruption. "The TV series provides a first look at the stories of these corrupt discipline officials, including their luxurious lives lived at the public's expense and tearful expressions of regret," a statement from the CCDI read. The first episode, which was aired on Tuesday, featured Zhu Mingguo, the previous head of the CCDI in Guangdong province, being interviewed by 'the Tiger', the host of the entire documentary. "I received thousands of expensive alcohol as gifts and since the 1990s, I had been keeping money which I had received as bribes in my house," Mingguo revealed. Zhu has been issued with a suspended death sentence following the discovery and is one of the three officials to be featured in the pilot episode. Jin Daoming, the former head of the discipline watchdog in Shanxi province, and Wei Jian, the previous director of CCDI's no. 4 disciplinary inspection office, were also featured in the documentary. Notably, Wei has been occasionally saying that he deeply regreted graft practices while in power. Meanwhile, ECNS quoted Zheng Chuankai, a Beijing-based lawyer who specializes in graft, saying that the documentary serves as a warning to others. "After watching the anti-graft stories, anti-graft officers will learn lessons and regulate their behavior," Zheng said. "They will then strengthen their efforts to investigate more graft cases and work according to the new rules." Advertisement Tagschina, CCDI, Graft, Documentary (Photo : YouTube Screenshot) Acer released its all new gaming laptop called Predator 21 X at $8,999. Advertisement Acer recently unveiled a massive gaming laptop at the Consumer Electronics Show. Dubbed simply as the Predator 21 X, the massive laptop with an impressive set of specs carries a hefty price of $8,999. The Acer Predator 21 X has a 21-inch display with a curved screen, something that Acer claimed as the first in the world. The display features a 21:9 aspect ratio, 120GHz refresh rate, 2560 x 1080 resolution, and support for Nvidia's G-Sync technology. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement According to Polygon, powering the Predator 21 X is a seventh-generation Intel Core i7 7820HK processor. It has 64GB of DDR4-2400 memory and supports up to four 512GB solid state drives. Handling the graphics are two Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 GPUs in SLI configuration. With all these impressive set of hardware packed into a relatively small form factor roughly the size of two books piled together, it is no wonder why the Predator 21 X weighs 19.4 pounds. Keeping the Predator 21 X cool are five fans and nine heat pipes. Acer has installed what the company called Dust Defender in order to prevent too much dust from entering the internals of the laptop. The Predator 21 X features a full-sized customizable keyboard with Cherry MX Brown switches, programmable backlit keys, and a keypad that can be flipped over and used as a touchpad. The laptop has four speakers and two subwoofers to provide what Acer describes as "Hi-Fi quality sound." Acer is also giving buyers an option to customize the design of their Predator 21 X. Acer will also allow buyers to add their own design, flag, and even have their name laser engraved on the laptop, according to BetaNews. The Predator 21 X will hit the market in January. It is slated to be released in Africa, Europe, Middle East, and North America. Advertisement TagsAcer, Acer Predator, Acer Predator 21 X, Predator 21 X specs, Predator 21 X price, Predator 21 X release date (Photo : Getty Images) Police in China have detained a 41-year-old man after he sneaked into a kindergarten and stabbed 11 pupils. Advertisement A knife-wielding man on Wednesday sneaked into a kindergarten and stabbed 11 children with a blade in the South western city of Pingxiang, Guangxi Province. The 41-year-old suspect is said to have climbed over the wall of the school and stabbed the innocent children. All 11 victims were immediately rushed to the hospital following the incident for medical care. None of them, however, suffered from life-threatening stab wounds, according to a statement issued by the Pingxiang city government. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement Meanwhile, police authorities have arrested and detained the culprit, while investigations about the motives behind the attack continue. His identification has not been divulged. Such incidents have slowly been on the rise with young children as common targets, according to Fox News. Last February 2015, six boys and five girls were also injured after they were attacked in Southern China. In April 2010 also, a 47-year-old suspect identified as Xu Yuyuan was sentenced to death after stabbing at least 29 kindergarten pupils and three teachers in Tiaxing, according to The Independent. Advertisement Tagschina, stabbing (Photo : Getty Images) The commando brigade will target North Korea's wartime leadership. Advertisement South Korea is prioritizing a plan to form a specialist unit that will be tasked to get rid of top officials in the North Korean government in case war erupts between the two countries. The specialist commando unit will target members of North Korea's regime in a bid to disrupt the command-and-control structure of the North Korean army. It will also be assigned of paralyzing Pyongyang's weapons of mass destruction capabilities. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement The special force will also be trained to eliminate North Korean President Kim Jong-un at any of his numerous residences and compounds. North Korea's key military and political henchmen will also be targeted. The unit will also be responsible for securing sites associated with North Korea's weapons of mass production program. Such sites include the Yongbyon nuclear complex and fixed missile launch sites. Seoul will also be looking for ways to neutralize North Korea's mobile missile launch units, which are expected to pose a bigger threat. In order to make it easier for its special forces to strike command facilities and leadership targets in North Korea, South Korea has already announced that it will invest heavily in equipment for the unit. According to Jang Jun Kyu, South Korea's Army chief of staff, the military will be prepared to carry out "independent special operations against the North's provocation." "The army is seeking to have a special operations unit capable of infiltrating, completing its given mission and coming back in one piece," Jang added. The army chief of staff added that the country has also embarked on upgrading the capabilities of its current Lockheed C-30 Hercules transporters and other aircrafts. In order to carry out the additional duties, the South Korean military will obtain the most advanced version of the Boeing MH-47 Chinook helicopter as well. Seoul will also acquire next-generation small arms and the latest compact communications. It also plans to acquire the most modern satellite link equipment. South Korea decided to hasten the formation of the special unit due to rising tensions in the region, which has been fuelled by North Korea's development of nuclear weapons. The new unit will be formed before the end of this year. Advertisement TagsSouth Korea, North Korea, Kim Jong Un (Photo : US Navy) USS Gerald R. Ford. Advertisement The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78), the lead ship in a new class of carriers that will be armed with railguns and high-energy combat lasers, will be among the nine warships that will join the U.S. Navy this year. Also joining the fleet will be two submarines: the USS Washington (SSN-787), a Virginia-class submarine, and the USS Colorado (SSN-788), another Virginia-class sub. The addition of both SSNs will give the Navy 15 Virginia-class submarines, which are designed for a broad spectrum of open-ocean and littoral (shallow coastal water) missions. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement The Colorado and Washington are Block III versions that feature a revised bow with a Large Aperture Bow (LAB) sonar array. Four littoral combat ships (LCS) will join the fleet: USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS-10) an Independence-class LCS; USS Little Rock (LCS-9), a Freedom-class LCS; USS Omaha (LCS-12), another Independence-class LCS and USS Sioux City (LCS-11), a Freedom-class LCS. Two Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers will become operational: the USS John Finn (DDG-113) and the USS Rafael Peralta (DDG-115). The Gerald R. Ford-class is the future aircraft carrier replacement class for Enterprise and Nimitz-class aircraft carriers. The Gerald R. Ford will replace the inactive USS Enterprise (CVN-65), which ended her 51 years of active service in December 2012. The class will be the premier forward asset for crisis response and early decisive striking power in a major combat operation. Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carriers and Carrier Strike Groups will provide the core capabilities of forward presence, deterrence, sea control, power projection, maritime security and humanitarian assistance. The next two carriers of the Ford Class will be the USS John F. Kennedy (CVN 79) and the USS Enterprise (CVN 80). The Ford-class is designed to maximize the striking power of its carrier air wing. The ship's systems and configuration are optimized to maximize the sortie generation rate (SGR) of attached strike aircraft, resulting in a 33 percent increase in SGR over the Nimitz- class. Its configuration and electrical generating plant can accommodate new systems. These systems include directed energy weapons such as high energy lasers for shooting down missiles and aircraft, and railguns for destroying enemy surface warships as far away as 185 kilometers. The Ford-class have a hull similar to the Nimitz carriers, but introduce new technologies such as the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS); the advanced arresting gear (AAG) plus other design features that improve efficiency and cut operating costs. The USS Gerald R. Ford-class is designed to operate effectively with almost 700 fewer crew members than an Enterprise-class carrier. Improvements in the ship design will also allow the Ford's carrier's air wing to operate with fewer personnel. The USS Gerald R. Ford is the first aircraft carrier designed with all electric utilities. Steam service lines have been eliminated, reducing maintenance requirements and improving corrosion control. Advertisement TagsU.S. Navy, USS Gerald R. Ford, USS Washington, USS Colorado, high energy lasers, railguns (Photo : Facebook) China will be sending at least 6,000 construction workers to Israel to aid the country's housing crisis. Advertisement Israel and China have signed a draft deal on Wednesday to send at least 6,000 Chinese construction workers in Israel within six months to alleviate the country's housing crisis, the Jerusalem Post reported. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement According to Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, the deal, which will provide a "boost" to solve Israel's housing dilemma, was negotiated over the last 18 months and will be formally inked at the end of February in Jerusalem. Goal of the Agreement The agreement is designed to ensure supervision of the entire process - from the time the workers depart from China until they leave Israel at the end of their term. One of the main goals of the agreement is to eliminate brokerage fees and the possibility of human trafficking, the Finance Ministry noted. Last September, the cabinet approved a plan to bring in 20,000 Chinese workers. However, Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein opposed the move, raising concern that the workers might be exploited by middlemen since a formal agreement was not at hand. Thus, the recent agreement is designed to solve that problem, and both sides will prepare the ground for the immediate implementation of the deal. The Israeli delegation to China was headed by the Finance Ministry's housing chief and the Construction and Housing Ministry's director-general. They held talks with representatives of China's Ministry of Commerce. Housing Crisis in Israel Meanwhile, the high cost of living in Israel has become a major political issue since 2011, according to Jerusalem Online. Housing costs in the country have been increasing steeply since 2008, based on the data from the Bank of Israel. Over the last few years, Israel's housing market has suffered due to lack of manpower. The new deal plans to bring in new technology and skilled workforce to reduce construction time and house prices for the benefit of the public, according to Uri Ariel, Housing and Construction Minister. Advertisement TagsIsrael-China Agreement, Chinese Construction Workers, housing crisis, Israel housing crisis, China's Ministry of Commerce (Photo : Getty Images) Chinas state-owned tabloid urged India to cool its missile fever, following New Delhi's latest Agni IV missile test on New Year's eve. Advertisement China's nationalistic tabloid called on India to cool its missile fever, after New Delhi again tested fired a nuclear capable missile on Monday. The Agni IV testing on New Year's Eve comes on the back of successfully testing of Agni V, both of which can easily penetrate and hit China's interior regions. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement The Global Times openly accused India that it has broken "UN's limits on its development of nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missile," an accusation that made poignant reference to New Delhi's back-to-back missile tests in barely few weeks. The tabloid chided India's growing ambition on the nuclear front. It alleged that New Delhi's pursuit to go for intercontinental ballistic missiles clearly shows that it is not satisfied with its current nuclear capabilities. It then said that India's nuclear program is driven by its desire to gain equal footing with the United Nation's five permanent members. Talking specifically about "threat to China," the editorial claimed that New Delhi's recent missile tests hardly posses any threat to Beijing and Chinese leadership will not consider India as the main rival in the long run. "It simply believed that currently there is a vast disparity in power between the two countries.... the best choice for Beijing and New Delhi is to build a rapport," it said. The Global Times editorial also tried to put forth convincing argument for Pakistan, arguing that its close South Asian ally deserves the same nuclear status as India. It then openly warned that if the western world continues to ignore Pakistan's nuclear needs, it will certainly step up in the side of Islamabad. India Designed Agni Missiles with China in Mind Both Agni IV and Agni V could carry nuclear warheads up to 4,000 and 5,000 km, respectively, with China being clearly its primary target. India's drive to build intercontinental ballistic missiles is partly driven by its urge to counter China's missile technology. However, defense analysts claimed that China's missile technology is still far superior than the Indian missile technology. India and China entered arms race following the 1962 war. The mutual hostility and mistrust generated following the war fuelled the arms between the two Asian countries. Later, China's decision to forge close ties with Pakistan as well as the increasing geopolitical war also played a role in encouraging arms race between the two countries. Advertisement TagsIndia, Agni IV Missile India, Agni V Missile Test, India and China, India Long Range Missiles Test Muslim relatives of a young woman in eastern Uganda who put her faith in Christ at a Christmas service coerced her into taking poison at a New Years celebration, she said. Sandra Summaya, 24, of Bugayi village in Pallisa District, told Morning Star News that she converted to Christianity at a worship service on Christmas Day. I had great peace when the pastor prayed for me to take Jesus as my savior, she said. I later shared my testimony with my brother, who outrightly accused me of being an infidel and an outcast from the family and the Muslim community. I felt great pain inside me because of the insults. On Sunday (Jan. 1) Summayas immediate family and a few other relatives gathered in the predominantly Muslim village in Kamuge County to celebrate the New Year with a meal. At the high point of the gathering, Summaya said, a paternal uncle read to her a Bible verse and suggested it meant God would protect her from harm, including illness from ingesting poison. He said, Do you believe that Issa [Jesus] is able to protect your from poison as written in the Bible? and I answered Yes, she said. Immediately I was forced to take the poison to confirm my faith in the Bible, at around midnight. I could not deny the Bible, so I took the rat poison. Soon she became seriously ill. I started having severe stomach pains together with vomiting and cried for help, she said. I was taken away from the homestead to a nearby bush. I was tied with a rope to a tree and left to die. Her loud cries woke a Christian neighbor who rushed to the site. I found Summaya unconscious, and we rushed her to a Kamuge nursing home, where the doctor saved her life, said the neighbor, whose name is withheld for security reasons. Summaya remains at the hospital and her condition has stabilized, a nurse told Morning Star News. She will still be in the hospital for some few days as we monitor her situation, said the nurse, who requested anonymity. An area source requested prayer that Summaya be healed and protected, and that she not doubt Gods love and provision. The incidents are the latest in a series of anti-Christian attacks in eastern Uganda. On Christmas Day Muslims in eastern Uganda beat Christians at a worship service and wrecked the home of a single mother on Christmas Eve, sources said. On Dec. 8, relatives of a former Islamic teacher attacked his 60-year-old mother for becoming a Christian, wounding her head and breaking her hand, sources said. Aimuna Namutongi sustained a deep cut on her forehead. She and her son, 30-year-old Malik Higenyi, were trying to gather cassava at 10 a.m. on the homestead he had been forced to abandon in Bufuja village, Butaleja District, after Muslim relatives threatened to kill him if he returned. Higenyi, whom Muslim relatives had beaten unconscious on Nov. 13 after he publically confessed having embraced Christianity, managed to escape the fury of those who arrived at his farm on Dec. 8 while he and his mother were trying to harvest something to eat, he told Morning Star News. Namutongi became a Christian after visiting her ostracized, injured son on Nov. 26 and listening to his faith journey, a local source said. He has continued to receive threatening messages, he said. On Oct. 20, Muslims in Kobolwa village, Kibuku District gutted the home of a Christian family for housing two boys who had been threatened with violence for leaving Islam. Stephen Muganzi, 41, told Morning Star News that the two teenaged boys sought refuge with him on Oct. 16 after their parents earlier in the month learned of their conversion, began questioning them and threatened to kill them. The two boys, ages 16 and 17, had secretly become Christians nearly seven months before. On Sept. 18, 2016, a Muslim in Budaka District beat his wife unconscious for attending a church service, sources said. Hussein Kasolo had recently married Fatuma Baluka, 21-year-old daughter of an Islamic leader in a predominantly Muslim village, undisclosed for security reasons. On Aug. 10, a Christian woman in eastern Uganda became ill after she was poisoned, she said. Aisha Twanza, a 25-year-old convert from Islam, ingested an insecticide put into her food after family members upbraided her for becoming a Christian, she told Morning Star News. She and her husband, who live in Kakwangha village in Budaka District, put their faith in Christ in January 2016. In Busalamu village, Luuka District, eight children from four families have taken refuge with Christians after their parents beat and disowned them for leaving Islam or animism, sources said. The new-found faith of the children, ages 9 to 16, angered their parents, who beat them in an effort to deter them from sneaking to worship services, and on June 29, 2016 the young ones took refuge at the church building, area sources said. About 85 percent of the people in Uganda are Christian and 11 percent Muslim, with some eastern areas having large Muslim populations. The countrys constitution and other laws provide for religious freedom, including the right to propagate ones faith and convert from one faith to another, but Christians in eastern Uganda are suffering continual attacks by non-state figures. If you would like to help persecuted Christians, visit http://morningstarnews.org/resources/aid-agencies/ for a list of organizations that can orient you on how to get involved. If you or your organization would like to help enable Morning Star News to continue raising awareness of persecuted Christians worldwide with original-content reporting, please consider collaborating at http://morningstarnews.org/donate/? Publication date: January 5, 2017 A Christian pastor in Pakistan has been accused of disrespecting the Quran and has been taken into custody. According to ChristianToday.com, Pastor Babu Shehbaz was arrested after his name was found scribbled on the pages of a Quran which was found on a street near a Christian district in Nishtar Colony in Lahore, Pakistans capital. Shehbaz was arrested after Haji Nadeem filed a complaint against him. The accuser Nadeem did, however, admit that there were no witnesses who saw Shehbaz desecrate the Quran. It is therefore doubtful whether the pastor wrote his name in the Muslim holy book or if he was framed. Christian rights activist groups believe that Nadeem is actually behind the controversy and is attempting to frame Shehbaz. Groups like Open Doors USA point to the fact that Pakistan is one of the worst countries for Christian persecution, largely due to Islamic extremism. "Though the military announced a war against Islamic radicals, it continues a policy of distinguishing between 'good' and 'bad' jihadists," according to Open Doors. "While it fights the latter, it courts the former and uses them as a proxy to reach its goals in neighbouring countries such as Afghanistan and India." Four million Christians live in Pakistan, which has a total population of 199 million people, the majority of whom are Muslim. Publication date: January 5, 2017 President-elect Donald Trump has his own list of resolutions for 2017, with Make America Great Again right at the top. Executing these goals will largely be delegated to his Cabinet, chosen to guide the sprawling bureaucracy of the Executive Branch. Unfortunately, a perfect storm of factorsan exhausting campaign season driven by strong emotions, an unexpected result that upends presumptive choices, and a national media continuing to display blatant biasresults in less advance knowledge than usual about these important leaders. One must get past one-line partisan summaries (either "basket of deplorables" or "conservative all-stars") to truly evaluate the designated Trump Cabinet, all of whom must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. The governments various departments employ more than four million Americans, including military personnel, and have a lead role in managing the $3.8 trillion annual federal budget. Note that White House staff and advisors, overseeing day-to-day operations and technically not part of the Cabinet, are not covered in this list. As of this writing, the President-elect has not designated picks for Veterans Affairs or Agriculture. The Good: Competency Recognized Across the Aisle A few leaders announced by Trump have received scant media coverage, primarily because their leadership experience in a given area is above reproach. When President-elect Trump chose retired General James Mattis as Secretary of Defense, Sen. John McCain, foreign policy experts, and even military historian Max Boot (a fierce Trump critic) praised the pick with no reservations. Mattis is the sort of general who slept on a simple cot when serving in Iraq, even when nicer quarters were available to a commander. Head of U.S. Central Command during a tumultuous time, it was Mattis who had a role convincing President Obama to increase troops on the ground when it was strategically neededand already has moved Trump away from supporting torture as an interrogation technique. A Marine General will not hesitate to say when necessary: No, Mr. President. One could presume the same about Elaine Chao, former Secretary of Labor under George W. Bush, who has remained engaged in national economic and political issues through her work in Washington think tanks. She is expected to bring this same rigor and centrist mindset as Secretary of Transportation, which may play a significant role as Congress drafts an infrastructure bill to restore the nation's roads and bridges. (It doesnt hurt that her husband Mitch McConnell serves as Senate Majority Leader, where the bill could face hurdles.) Wilbur Ross is one used to getting over hurdles. Known as the buyout billionaire for his deals to scoop up bankrupt businesses, Ross believes government regulations and one-sided trade deals have been killing the U.S. economy. Its no surprise that Trump would select his longtime Wall Street friend Ross as Secretary of Commerce, overseeing economic and trade policy. Confirmation of Mattis, Chao, and Ross should be relatively swift; others may expect a battle. The Challenged: Defying Powerful Special Interests Four Cabinet-level picks have generated inordinate media criticism. If confirmed, they will be tasked with policy areas expanded under President Obama: justice, education, health care, and energy advancement. The hearings to confirm Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions as Attorney General, scheduled for January 10 and 11, will jumpstart the U.S. Senates role in approving Cabinet members. An early backer of the President-elect, Sessions would head up the powerful Department of Justice. Using decades-old secondhand quotes as sources, many media reports smear Sessions as somehow racist. Yet Bob Woodson of the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise (CNE) points to recent actions of the Alabama Senator. While Lowndes County has an important place in civil rights history, residents were appalled that essential infrastructurelike sewer lineswere not maintained. Sessions worked with CNE to help this central Alabama community secure the federal grant needed. Theres good reason why no less a civil rights icon than Rep. John Lewis walked side by side across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma with Senator Sessionsand that one Sessions supposedly treated unjustly has endorsed his appointment. When Betsy DeVos and her husband Dick visited a private school serving low-income families in their hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan, they didnt know it would change their lives. We met parents who were doing everything in their power to have their kids in an environment that was safe, where they were learning, and where the atmosphere was just electric with curiosity, DeVos told Philanthropy Magazine in 2013. Fast forward 28 years. The DeVos family has given tens of millions to help underprivileged children in their education journey, started a nationwide school choice effort in 2003and now Betsy DeVos has been chosen as the next Secretary of Education. Powerful teachers unions and lobbyists are sounding alarm bells about this mother of four and grandmother of five who believes charter schools and homeschooling are valid options for many families. DeVos notes her strong support for local control of school curriculum and the important role of public schools. Though fearful rhetoric may get louder, her experience speaks for itself. Even before 2010, when the Affordable Care Act was passed without a single Republican vote, Dr. Tom Price knew U.S. health care policy needed to changeand that putting the federal government at the center of it would not be a solution. Since then the Georgia Congressman has faithfully introduced his health care reform bill year after year, honing it with each version. When confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services, Dr. Price will face no small task: this department is the governments largest, twice the size of Defense in terms of budget and employing 72,000 staff. Already Price is discovering new allies, as the influential American Medical Association endorsed his appointment. Considering Rick Perry served as Governor of Texas during 14 years of massive job growthwith the energy industry a significant parthis designation as Secretary of Energy seems fitting. It also shows the President-elect is willing to appoint even strong opponents, in light of Perrys remarks about Trump on the campaign trail. While critics focus on a debate gaffe from 2011 where Perry forgot the Department of Energy in a list, a fair appraisal of his energy policies reveal a serious leader prepared to reform a complex agency. The Unknown: Many Questions to Be Raised in Senate Hearings Because the U.S. President has wide latitude on foreign policy, leaders of defense and diplomacy are of particular importance. Even among his allies on Capitol Hill, Trumps choice of Exxon-Mobil chairman Rex Tillerson for Secretary of State raises serious questions. Being a friend of Vladmir in not an attribute I am hoping for from a Secretary of State, tweeted Senator Marco Rubio, referring to Tillersons ties to the Russian President. Three other Republican SenatorsMcCain, Graham, and Lankfordissued statements casting doubt on the choice of Tillerson, who has worked 41 years solely for Exxon and represented the companys interests in Russia for decades. While well-versed in fiscal and monetary policy, Steven Mnuchin may face criticism from both sides of the aisle. As Secretary of the Treasury, he would follow other Goldman Sachs bank executives who served in this position: Robert Rubin (under President Bill Clinton) and Henry Paulson (under President George W. Bush). Naming Rep. Ryan Zinke as Secretary of the Interior follows through on a Trump policy thats unpopular among conservatives. Like Trump, Zinke believes the federal government is justified in claiming millions of acres of state lands (Zinke left his position as an RNC delegate after disagreeing with the 2016 party platform on this issue.) Following a hunting trip with Donald Trump, Jr. after the election, the Montana Congressman was announced as the pick over other contenders. For some choices, the questions have less to do with connections than personal character. No one doubts it was Andrew Puzder who led a dramatic turnaround of fast food chain Hardees/Carls Jr. Its how he did it that raises eyebrows: Puzder personally insisted on an ad campaign with buxom, barely-clad women headlined as hot and delicious to bring in new customers. Now hes been tapped to become Secretary of Labor. Some praise his labor policies; others note labor-related lawsuits against him. Such a questionable business move does not speak well of Puzders character, and serves as a reminder of the President-elects own troubling statements towards women that are far from family-friendly. As one who pioneered difficult surgery techniquesnotably, separating conjoined twinsthe distinguished medical career of Dr. Ben Carson is unmatched by few living physicians. At first glance, Americans should be grateful to have a genius and man of prayer serving within the federal government in any capacity. Yet many believe the designation of Dr. Carson as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development comes down to an unfortunate observation. Maybe because it had the word urban in it, Trump felt that he needed to have someone with some melanin in his skin, said housing advocate Jumaane Williams in an interview. Otherwise, I couldnt figure out why not something that fit the skill set that [Carson] has. Questions about qualifications could also be raised about General John Kelly, tasked with heading up the massive Department of Homeland Security. I dont think its as simple as some might think, because there is a huge difference between the military and law enforcement, stated Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin on the Washington Watch radio program. Its going to take a lot of agility, and hes going to need a deputy who is a longtime officer and understands law enforcement. But Trump designating the former head of U.S. Southern Command, in charge of the U.S./Mexico border, for this role signals the entire department may have a stronger hand in implementing immigration policies. This underlines perhaps the biggest unknown of the Trump Administration: how he will make good on his oft-repeated promise to build a wall, and enforce a stronger immigration stance while maintaining American liberty. Its a controversy to watch closely in the coming months. Josh M. Shepherd, contributor to Christian Headlines, has served on staff at The Heritage Foundation, Focus on the Family and Bound4LIFE International. He earned a degree in Business Marketing from the University of Colorado. Josh and his wife Terri live in the Washington, DC area. Follow Josh on Twitter @joshMshep. Photo courtesy: Wikipedia Publication date: January 5, 2017 Its been 12 years since the Theological Education by Extension (TEE) program has started in Korean churches and contributed to the raising up of leaders in the church. There are 2,500 churches in Korea and 300 in the U.S. that are currently using the extension program. TEE has served as an alternative option for discipleship training and theological training, and is designed in such a way to make it easy for anyone to start the program. As a result, many local churches have been actively participating in the programs. TEE was first suggested in 1960 in South America by Dr. Ralph Winter, who has had a tremendous effect in world missions today. The program also integrated ideas from Dr. Ted Ward, who brought up the idea of a fence model, and British missionary Tony Barratt. It started as a system in which people would be able to receive a theological education without a school building, without the physical presence of a professor, and without separate funding for maintenance of the school. Hence, in the perspective of the students, this program had opened a way in which they would be able to receive a theological education without having to attend a seminary in the city, and still be able to serve in their local church while also completing their studies. The Korean TEE ministry has hosted countless TEE seminars in the past, but this time around, the Korean TEE ministry wanted to create a more meaningful space, and is planning to host a conference. The conference will be taking place at Anaheim Beautiful Korean Church of the Nazarene from October 23rd to the 24th. Terrick Barratt, the president of SEAN International, which had been a contributor in writing the textbooks since the beginnings of Korean TEE ministries, has been invited to speak at the conference. This will be one of the greatest opportunities to learn about TEE, as witnesses of the TEE history will be present, said Pastor Soon-Jin Han, one of the organizers of the conference. Were especially happy because in the past, weve had seminars for Korean-speaking pastors about English ministries, but this is the first time that we will have an actual conference for all ministers and pastors who are serving in Korean and/or English ministries, he added. The TEE curriculum includes 30 different topics such as evangelizing, ministry nurturing, and other advanced curriculums. The program has expanded to 110 countries and over 80 languages, and the credit received from this curriculum is recognized by countless universities. Those who attend the conference and stay for the entire curriculum will be recognized as having completed the basic TEE leadership seminar, and will be able to apply into practice all of the topics that were covered in the conference. Those who will be speaking at the conference include Pastor Terrick Barratt, Pastor Soon-Jin Han, Pastor Il-Kyung Kim, Pastor Hong-Il Park, Pastor Yoong Choi, Pastor Bong-Ha Lee ad Pastor Hong-Il Lim, the last two of whom will be translating. The conference will start at 9:30 AM and end at 5:30 PM, and those invited include KM pastors, EM pastors, EM leaders, missionaries, those in the education department in their respective local churches, married couples, and others. The registration fee is $100, which includes the cost for lectures and food, and there is a 50% discount for one person for registered married couples. Those who have previously attended a TEE seminar are also eligible for a 50% discount in the registration fee. A persecution watchdog group released on Wednesday its annual report on the countries in which persecution against Christians is most severe. Called the Hall of Shame report, International Christian Concerns list of persecutors does not rank the countries in order of severity, like that of another persecution watchdog group called Open Doors USA. Instead, the report categorizes the countries into three groups: worst of the worst countries; core countries; and new and noteworthy. To note, the United States was included in the Hall of Shame report for the first time, listed under the new and noteworthy countries. We felt it was important this year that we highlight three countries where religious discrimination and persecution are deemed unusual but have reached a certain threshold of concern. These are Mexico, Russia, and sadly, the United States, Jeff King, president of the ICC, said in a statement. While conditions in the US are in no way comparable to other countries on the list, a certain segment of the culture and the courts seem to be intent on driving faith out of the public square, King continued. There have been too many court cases with bad decisions to miss the clear trend line. Worst of the worst countries listed in the report include North Korea, Iraq, Syria, and Nigeria. The report noted that Christians are persecuted through various means, including a class system in North Korea, the governments monitoring of its citizens, and prison and labor camps. DPRK is the worlds worst human rights violator and the most violent persecutor of Christians, the report states. Since Christianity elevates God over the State, North Korea sees Christianity as a dangerous movement that challenges their power and must be silenced. North Korea has also been frequently mentioned by other groups for its persecution against Christians. In the Open Doors USAs own list of persecutors against Christians, North Korea has consistently been listed as the top persecuting nation against Christians. For Iraq, Syria, and Nigeria, the report noted the persecution Christians face from extremist groups such as ISIS, Boko Haram, and Fulani militia. The report also listed Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, India, and China as core countries that persecute Christians. In countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan, radical Islam was cited as a source of persecution, whether engrained in the government or as practiced by the majority of citizens in the country. Similarly, radical Hindus who harass and perpetrate violence against Christians were noted as a source of persecution in India, while China was described to persecute Christians by cracking down on churches and religious minorities. Russia and Mexico were two other countries listed under new and noteworthy along with the United States. In Mexico, Protestant Christians experience violence as well as loss of land and livelihood, the report states, while in Russia, Christians face threat of being fined for speaking about their faith due to the countrys new Yarovaya laws. The persecution that Christians face in the U.S. are due to current events and shifting perceptions, the report states, which are causing conflicts between Christian beliefs and public sentiment. If you were to see the floor of my home office right now, youd learn a lot about me. I start this inventory every year after Christmas. I aim to file all loose papers, throw out expired coupons, finish and send letters that I left half-written, organize souvenirs and conference packets and travel papers that I tossed aside and forgot about. I always begin with zeal, driven by a desire to start the New Year with a clean slate. But I never finish the job. Why? The answer is discouraging. I lose my enthusiasm for the future as I stare into the disorder of the past. And the mess of my life stares back at me, saying What are you going to do about it? Things means things. Thats what my high school poetry teacher used to say as I blinked at seemingly unrelated elements of a poem. Now I know what he means. The details of our lives, however arbitrary, will talk with one another if they are set side by side. And they will reveal patterns, obsessions, fears, and priorities. Case in point: my favorite movie of 2016: Cameraperson, a documentary by Kirsten Johnson. A lot of you will probably stop reading right there: A documentary? You dont go to the movies for a report, right? You want to be caught up in a visionary work of imagination. Well, documentary isnt the best word for Cameraperson. Its more like a mystery or a puzzle. Johnson, a cinematographer who has worked on some of the most provocative documentaries of the last 25 years, has cleaned up the cutting room floor and selected excerpts for an exhibition: fragments from between the scenes that mattered, throwaway segments of interviews, and excerpts from her own home movies. She takes these deleted scenes ... 1 So much of television is really not fit for children, or Christians, or the elderly, declared Kenneth the NBC page, a character on the sitcom 30 Rock who pitched executives the idea of a black bar to block objectionable content. Kenneths suggestiona hit with the wholesome new network president in a 2011 episodeseems like an especially blunt caricature of faith-based filters compared to the real-life options available today. But one of the most prominent services, VidAngel, had to suspend its streaming offerings last month as it faces a lawsuit from Disney and three other major studios. Yesterday, an appeals court rejected its request to keep streaming cleaned-up content while the suit unfolds. VidAngel lets viewers watch however the bleep they want, with hundreds of customizable filters to skip everything from sexual gestures and fight scenes to four-letter words and lighter offenses like butt. (The censor settings arent all bosoms, ... 1 Americas got problems and needs to talk. But few Americans agree on who can best lead a conversation about the nations woes, according to a new report from Nashville-based LifeWay Research. Less than a quarter (23%) would turn to the office of the US president. About 1 in 10 would turn to the nations preachers (11%) or to college professors (10%). Almost no one would ask a musician or pro athlete, said Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research, even though they often try to start public conversations. Musicians or athletes get a great deal of attention for their public statements about the issues, he said. But few Americans seem to look to them as thought leaders. Before the recent presidential election, LifeWay Research asked a representative sample of 1,000 Americans this question: In America today, who is in the best position to generate a healthy conversation on challenges facing our society? ... 1 home Faith Chinese woman receives three-year sentence for holding Bible study A Christian woman from Xinjiang, China, was sentenced to three years in prison for holding a Bible study. Ma Huichao received the sentence on Dec. 30, and her lawyer, Li Dunyong, was not permitted to plead innocent on her behalf, according to China Aid. The woman stood trial in mid-November after being arrested, along with four other Christians, by Chinese authorities for "gathering a crowd to disturb public order." She does not plan to appeal her case. Ma's arrest is just one of the cases of Christian persecution and human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region. In October 2016, China Aid also reported that a Christian couple, Dai and his wife, Li, were detained for displaying a cross in their house in Xinjiang. Authorities also searched their home, which was being used to host a house church, and confiscated religious items. A few months earlier, two women, Zhou Yanhua and Gao Ming, who are members of Yining County Church also from the same region, were arrested for educating teenagers about religious and superstitious beliefs. Christian persecution is not limited in the Xinjiang region. In China, a communist country, authorities have been going after underground or non-state sanctioned churches and religious gatherings. The past few years saw the arrest of numerous followers and preachers of the Christian faith for "disturbing public order." The crackdown on non-government sanctioned Christian organizations was further legitimized with the implementation of the Revised Draft of Regulations on Religious Affairs starting October 2016. The regulation further mandated against "organising citizens to attend religious training, conferences and activities abroad." The acts of "preaching, organizing religious activities, and establishing religious institutions or religious sites at schools," and "providing religious services through the internet" are also not permitted, The Christian Post reports. Between October and November, several arrests have been made of people suspected of engaging in "evil cults" activities. Those arrested, however, turned out to be Christians who said they knew nothing about the accusations hurled against them. home World German police deny reports of New Year's Eve attack on Dortmund church German authorities had denied the reports which claimed that a mob of 1,000 men has launched fireworks at the police and set fire to a historic church in Dortmund on New Year's Eve. A report from Ruhr Nachrichten stated that a crowd of "at least 1,000 young men" threw fireworks into crowds of visitors that included families with children, according to Breitbart. When the officers asked them to stop, they directed the fireworks toward the police. The report also indicated that fireworks were launched toward St. Reinold's Church, setting its roof on fire. Nina Vogt, a spokeswoman for Dortmund police, acknowledged that there were officers who were injured by flying fireworks, but she said that none of them were attacked. She explained that a firework hit the netting on a scaffolding close to the church, but the fire was immediately extinguished. "There's no indication it was directed there on purpose," she told the Associated Press. She added that there had been several arrests and violent incidents, but it is not unusual for a city of almost 600,000. "New Year's Eve night really was pretty quiet," she remarked, adding that the reports to the contrary "absolutely don't correspond to reality." In Cologne, the security services came under pressure on Saturday to prevent a repeat of sexual assaults and robberies that occurred on New Year's Eve in 2015. Around 3,000 officers have been deployed around the city. The police have been criticized for the alleged racial profiling against North Africans and for referring to the men as "Nafris." According to Deutsche Welle, the police rounded up groups of men who were almost exclusively North African. Cologne police chief Jurgen Mathies defended the officers and said "it was not the appearance, but the behavior of the young men" that caused the police to act against them. Green party co-chair Simone Peter admitted that the tighter security limited the violence and attacks, but she questioned the legality of the tactics used by the police. "It raises the question of proportionality and legality when around 1,000 people were checked and partially detained, based on their appearance alone," she said. Other German politicians, however, praised the authorities and denounced Peter's criticism of the police. Christian Democratic Union General Secretary Peter Tauber said that it was hard to believe that the Greens were characterizing the preventive actions of the police as racist. "This is absurd and unmasks once more the Green multiculturalism and complete lack of reality," he said. home Faith Ken Ham calls for 'new reformation,' says many Christians have strayed away from Gospel In 1517, Protestant Reformation, in which Martin Luther nailed 95 theses or complaints about the church's doctrines that have no biblical bases to a church door in Wittenberg, Germany, took place. Today, there is again a pressing need for a new reformation, says prominent Young Earth creationist Ken Ham. In a blog post in Answers in Genesis, Ham noted that many Christians have turned to man's word as authority, instead of the God's Word, and this is seen in how many churches today have gone against the teachings of the Bible by accepting gay marriages, abortion, and premarital sex, among other acts that the Scripture deem as sinful. In a separate post back in October, Ham cited results from a September 2016 study, conducted by Ligonier Ministries and Lifeway Research on the state of U.S. churches, in stressing his point that today's generation of churches has abandoned many biblical principles. According to survey results, only 52 percent of evangelicals strongly agree that "sex outside of traditional marriage is a sin," while only 48 percent agreed that "abortion is a sin." Ham shared that his organization Answers in Genesis aims to ignite the "new reformation," and listed five ways to do this. First is to help young people develop a passion for the Bible and to "stand boldly, uncompromisingly, and unashamedly on the Word of God from the very first verse." A second way, according to Ham, is to call on Christians to "contend earnestly for the faith," citing Jude 3, by standing by the authority of God's word in slamming "false teachings of our day." Christian leaders should also teach Creationism to young people, according to Ham, and discourage belief in evolution and in the Earth being millions of years old. The fourth way, Ham penned, is to find answers to questions that led them to abandon the Gospel, stressing that in such way, they will "discover the truths of the Bible and be saved for eternity by receiving Christ as Savior." Last on Ham's list is to enlist parents in educating their children in accordance with biblical principles so that the young ones will be able to "defend the Christian faith against the secular attacks of our day." home US Mark Driscoll warns couples not to commit 'emotional adultery' Mark Driscoll, the pastor of Trinity Church in Arizona, has reminded Christian couples about the importance of friendship in marriage and warned against committing "emotional adultery." Driscoll, with his wife, Grace, wrote in a blog post that friendship is essential in a marriage and that it protects couples from committing emotional adultery. The couple described emotional adultery as "having as your close friend someone of the opposite sex who is not your spouse." They wrote that during their time together, they have seen many Christians commit emotional adultery, including pastors and their wives. The Driscolls noted that many books and sermons about marriage are focused only on Bible verses about matrimony. They advised that the Bible verses on friendship should be examined as well because it also applies to marriage. "The Bible itself weds marriage and friendship. A wife in Song of Songs says, 'This is my beloved, and this is my friend' (5:16)," the Driscolls wrote. The couple said that the word friend is now being used too loosely, including on social networking websites. They warned that it could lead to unreasonable expectations or disappointments. "So the word friend needs to be used carefully. We make a mistake when we call anyone we are friendly to a 'friend,'" they stated. They explained that marital friendship requires both the husband and wife to invest time, energy, emotions, and even money. "Those who want their spouses to be friends without seeking to be good friends in return are selfish and demanding. And those who want to be good friends but do not help their spouses reciprocate are prone to be taken advantage of, abused, neglected, and suffer from their marriages," the couple wrote. The Driscolls said that couples should keep working on their friendship, adding that marriage seems to come more easily and happily when the husband and the wife are friends with each other. Driscoll has spoken several times on the topic of marriage in the past year. In September, the pastor admitted that he made the mistake of being sexually active before he got married. In response to a question about marrying non-virgins, Driscoll said that he and his wife had to talk through some issues before they decided to get married. He said that despite his past mistakes, he had been freed from sin when he turned to Jesus. home World Police detain pastor in Lahore for allegedly desecrating Quran A pastor in Lahore, Pakistan has been arrested by the authorities after he was accused of desecrating pages of the Quran. Pastor Babu Shehbaz, who hails from Kamaha, Lahore, was booked by the police on Tuesday despite the lack of witnesses, Christians in Pakistan reported. According to an activist named Muhammad Jibran Nasir, the complainant, Haji Nadeem, came across torn pages of the Quran with the name of Pastor Shahbaz Babu written on them. Nadeem told the police that he did not witness Shehbaz desecrating the Quran and said that he was unsure if the pastor really committed the crime. He also said that there were no other eyewitnesses. "In simple terms the complainant's story is that a Christian man desecrated the Quran while hidden from everyone's eyes and then he left evidence by writing his name on the torn pages so that he could be caught later," Nasir stated, according to a separate report from Christians in Pakistan. Nadeem claimed that there might be a conspiracy plot against Shehbaz. He noted that there is a dispute between two Christian groups over the ownership of a local church. Shehbaz has been booked under Section 295-B of the Pakistan Penal Code. He could be sentenced to life imprisonment if convicted. Activists have claimed that the police arrested him out of pressure, and it was not in line with legal procedures. Over 100 people are accused of blasphemy and jailed in Pakistan each year. Many of them belong to the Christian community and other minorities. Critics have noted that the law is often invoked in personal disputes. On Wednesday, the police arrested 150 Muslim activists who participated at a rally in favor of the country's blasphemy law. Lahore Deputy Inspector General of Police Haider Ashraf said that the activists were members of Tehreek-i-Labaik Ya Rasool Allah, a coalition of Islamist groups who were planning an attack on people who are commemorating the anniversary of the assassination of Punjab Governor Salman Taseer. Taseer was shot by his own bodyguard six years ago after he came out in support of a Christian who was sentenced to death under the blasphemy law. Although no one has been executed yet, at least 65 people have been killed in connection to blasphemy cases since 1990, according to the Centre for Research and Security Studies and a Reuters tally. home US Three-parent baby treatment comes with severe health risks, according to new research Mitochondrial replacement therapy (MRT), a fertilization technique that facilitates the conception of a baby using DNA of three parents, has recently been making waves in the medical field. However, a recent study suggests that the procedure could pose severe health risks for the baby. NPR reports that according to a study published in Nature by Shoukharat Mitalipov, head of the Center for Embryonic Cell and Gene Therapy at the Oregon health and Science University in Portland, mitochondrial replacement could fail in around 15 percent of cases. This means that there's a possibility that the treatment will not be effective in preventing the child from inheriting the fetal defects. It could also increase the risk of the child being vulnerable to new diseases. Mitalipov cautioned that the procedure does not completely replace the faulty mitochondria with healthy ones. In this regard, a tiny percentage of the defective mitochondria, which comes from the mother, could linger. However, that tiny percentage can make a huge difference or even take over the whole cell. MRT is an in-vitro fertilization procedure in which a donor's egg that has healthy mitochondria hosts the nucleus extracted from an egg of a mother with defective mitochondria. The egg is then fertilized by the father's sperm. After which. the ovum is implanted and carried until the baby is due to come out. In the United Kingdom, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority legalized the procedure back in December 2016 "in certain and specific cases." In September 2016, fertility doctor John Zhang of New Hope Fertility Center in Manhattan claimed to have helped a couple conceive from DNA of three different adults, with the three-parent baby born in May. Many have called the development an important medical breakthrough, but it is not without critics. There are those who question if the treatment is ethical and safe. Bioethics and Culture Network Jennifer Lahl told The Christian Post, "You have to harm one woman in the hopes of potentially helping somebody else. That doesn't sound like ethical science to me." Arina Grossu of the Family Research Council in Washington D.C. also told the same publication that the treatment is "utterly disrespectful of human dignity on all counts." home World U.S. included in top 12 nations where Christians experience persecution The United States has been included for the first time among the top 12 nations where Christians are being persecuted for their faith. In the 2016 "Hall of Shame" report released by the persecution watchdog organization International Christian Concern (ICC), the United States was listed among the countries where persecution against Christians are increasing. The list is divided into three categories, The Christian Post reported. The countries that are deemed "worst of the worst" include Nigeria, Iraq and Syria due to the rise of Islamic extremism and terrorist attacks. North Korea is also included in the category for its ongoing crackdown against Christians. The "core" countries, where Christians are often suppressed and targeted by blasphemy laws, include India, China, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. In India, ICC has documented over 272 attacks on Christians and churches in the first nine months of 2016. Saudi Arabia takes the "lead place" in the category for its part in funding radical Islamic movements globally. The U.S., Russia and Mexico are listed as "new and noteworthy" nations where Christian persecution is on the rise. "We felt it was very important this year that we highlight three countries where religious discrimination and persecution are deemed unusual but have reached a certain threshold of concern. These are Mexico, Russia, and sadly, the United States," said ICC president Jeff King. "While conditions in the US are in no way comparable to other countries on the list, a certain segment of the culture and the courts seem to be intent on driving faith out of the public square. There have been too many court cases with bad decisions to miss the clear trend line," he added. The report noted that American Christians are constantly being portrayed as "bigoted, racist, sexist and close-minded" in the media, particularly in disputes about traditional marriage. ICC pointed out that Christians have lost in anti-discrimination cases and have been ordered to pay fines for adhering to their beliefs. Meanwhile, North Korea has remained on the top of the list for 14 straight years. ICC stated that there are around 40,000 to 70,000 Christians who are incarcerated in political prison camps. Open Doors USA, another persecution watchdog group, has also named North Korea on its World Watch List as the worst country to live in as a Christian for 14 consecutive years. home US Virginia Governor promises to veto bill that bans abortions after 20 weeks Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe has promised to veto a bill banning abortions after 20 weeks due to his concern that it will affect business in the state. The bill known as the Pain-Capable Unborn Protection Act was proposed by Republican Delegate Dave LaRock. The measure will prohibit abortions after 20 weeks, the period when unborn babies are believed to be capable of feeling pain, Life News reported. McAuliffe, a Democrat, has warned the Republican-controlled General Assembly not to "waste time" in trying to pass the bill. The governor stated that he wanted to make it clear to companies who are planning to invest in the state that the legislation will not be passed. "I can't sit back and have that sitting out the same time I am traveling the globe recruiting businesses to Virginia," McAuliffe said, according to the Associated Press. "If there's something that would be damaging toward business, and to our image around the country and the globe, I'll veto it, you bet I will," he added. The measure failed to pass the House last year, but LaRock said that there is growing public support. "It's outrageous for a person with any compassion to turn a blind eye while this torture takes place," he said. During his campaign in 2013, McAuliffe had vowed to oppose any legislation that imposes limits on abortion in the state. Last March, he vetoed a proposal to cut taxpayer funding to Planned Parenthood. Fifteen states have already passed a law banning abortions after 20-weeks. It is already in effect in 13 states, but the legislation is currently facing legal challenges in Georgia and Idaho. On Tuesday, Kentucky Republicans introduced a similar measure, along with a requirement for women to undergo ultrasounds prior to acquiring abortions. According to the Center for Disease Control, there were at least 5,770 late-term abortions that were performed at or after 21 weeks of pregnancy in the U.S. in 2013. Around 8,150 abortions were conducted between 18 and 20 weeks. Catholics Won It For Trump, Says Influential Conservative Pundit Donald Trump won the US election because of a significant swing by Catholic voters, according to an influential conservative commentator. "Well before the campaign reached its final phase, a broad coalition of Catholic lay leaders recognised that Hillary Clinton was an existential threat to religious liberty, and to traditional Catholic values and biblical teachings, such as the right to life and the definition of marriage," says Richard A Viguerie, chairman of ConservativeHQ In a new paper press released at Christian Newswire, he writes how the 11-point swing in the Catholic vote from Romney to Trump was a key influencer in the top four battleground states of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Florida. Catholicism is the second largest religious tradition in the United States at roughly 25 per cent of the country's population. "One of the untold stories of the 2016 election is how Catholic lay leaders used the new and alternative media to fly under the radar screen and, in key battleground states, swing the Catholic vote Donald Trump's way," says Viguerie. He disputes the assertion that Trump won solely on the votes of rural white people especially white evangelical Christians. Although Trump increased the evangelical Christian vote, this was mainly in states where Republicans typically win, he writes. In fact his victory was one of what he calls "increments" in key states that relied upon adding new voters disaffected traditional Democrats, African- Americans, Hispanics and especially Catholics. This meant that of the more than 120 million votes cast in the 2016 election, 107,000 votes in three states, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, effectively decided the election. This happened because the new and alternative media was able to bypass the establishment media to take her views on issues of concern to ordinary Catholics in the pew, directly to those voters. "Joseph Cella, Fr Frank Pavone of Priests for Life, Brian Burch of Catholic Vote, Marjorie Dannenfelser, Matt Schlapp and Mercedes Schlapp, Gov Sam Brownback, Ed Martin, Dr Deal Hudson, Rick Santorum and many other Catholic lay leaders offered advice and counsel and used their own channels to independently tell the story of just how damaging to religious liberty and traditional Catholic values a Hillary Clinton presidency would be," writes Viguerie, a direct marketing pioneer and author of many books including his latest, TAKEOVER, The 100-Year War for the Soul of the GOP and How Conservatives Can Finally Win It. "In a Hillary Clinton administration, God, the Bible and the First Amendment would be replaced with government-approved 'values' like diversity, political correctness, normalising homosexual marriage and dictating how, when and where Americans could openly practice their faith." He adds: "A Clinton presidency would declare war on the Christian faith and Hillary Clinton was easily the most pro- abortion candidate ever to run for president." Charity Helps Thousands Of Iraqi Christians Going Hungry, Displaced Or Bereaved Aid workers from one charity alone are feeding 3,000 Iraqi Christians every month who fled from Islamic State to Jordan from their ancient homelands. The Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East is also feeding a further 5,500 displaced Christians who are still in northern Iraq and surviving on aid, having also fled their homes. And the same charity is helping feed tens of thousands more, many of them Muslims, in refugee camps in Iraq. Yet despite the crisis, where numbers of Christians have plummeted since the Islamic State onslaught, St George's Church in Baghdad was packed over Christmas and New Year. Worshippers were able to celebrate in relative peace, according to the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East, which funds the church's health clinic and also provides food. According to the latest figures from United Nations Assistance Mission to Iraq, 386 Iraqi civilians were killed and a further 1,066 were injured in terrorism, violence and armed conflict in Iraq in December last year. The Christian heartland of Nineveh was the worst affected region, followed by Baghdad. In 2016 in total, the mission recorded a total of 19,266 civilian casualties: 6,878 killed and 12,388 wounded. Church Pastor Arrested For Nine Armed Robberies A church pastor has been arrested in connection with nine armed robberies in Charlotte, North Carolina. John Thomas Lindsey, 47, a pastor at True Love Church of Refuge, was arrested by Charlotte-Mecklenburg police on Wednesday morning, WSOC reported. He was charged with nine counts of robbery with a dangerous weapon, nine counts of conspiracy to commit robbery with a dangerous weapon, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Police say that Lindsey robbed the Family Dollar store in Northwest Charlotte and fired a shot while inside. He is also charged in connection with robberies from two 7- Eleven stores, two Sam's Mart stores, and four Circle Ks. True Love Church said on Facebook yesterday: "We, the leadership and membership of True Love Church of Refuge, are deeply saddened and disappointed that our leader and brother, John Thomas Lindsey, is facing charges associated with criminal activity. Though we denounce any involvement he may have had, we love him and will continue to pray for him. The ministry will continue to stand strong despite the latest allegations and will continue to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom." "It's something you wouldn't expect from somebody supposedly a religious person," said one local. Pastor Lindsey was caught on cam. Police say he robbed 9 stores in CLT: 4 Circle Ks, 2 Sam's Marts, 2 7-Elevens and a Family Dollar @wsoctv pic.twitter.com/F6M1MepWid Joe Bruno (@JoeBrunoWSOC9) 4 January 2017 Court records reportedly show Lindsey had previously been convicted twice for drug charges in the 1990s. Lindsey is one of two men charged in connection with the robberies. The other is Fernando Carillo-Hernandez, 24, who was also charged with three counts of robbery with a dangerous weapon and three counts of conspiracy to commit robbery with a dangerous weapon. Carillo-Hernandez does not appear to be affiliated with a church. Egyptian Christian Shopkeeper Murdered In Suspected Sectarian Attack A Christian shopkeeper has been murdered in the Egyptian city of Alexandria in a suspected sectarian killing. According to International Christian Concern (ICC), Youssef Lamei was smoking a pipe outside his shop in the popular Montazah district when the man accused of the murder, reportedly a 48-year-old hard-line Salafist, yelled "Allah Akbar" and cut Lamei's throat. Police arrested the suspect early on Wednesday morning. Lamei's brother Nasef told ICC: "The killing of my brother was planned and carried out accurately as the killer visited the shop many times before committing the crime and knew that my brother used to sit in this place." He said Lamei was known as a peaceful man who agreed to close his shop for the whole month of Ramadan so as not to offend his neighbours. He was even known to close his shop during the five daily Muslim prayers. "He would obey them to prevent any trouble from occurring," Nasef told ICC. Lamei's son was inside the shop when his father was killed. "I'm grieving for the loss of my father; he was slain in front of my sight," Tony Youssef told ICC. "I'm sad that we live in a country that doesn't have the security and safety... He was my father, friend, everything sweet in my life." The attack cames less than a month after one of the deadliest attacks against Christians in Egypt, during which 27 Christians were killed in the bombing of St Mark's Cathedral in Cairo on December 11, 2016. William Stark, ICC's regional manager, said: "We are deeply concerned and saddened by the news of Youssef Lamei's death. Sectarian crime in Egypt has spiraled out of control with continued property destruction, terrorist attacks, and now murders. Christians cannot continue to live in fear in their own countries. "ICC condemns the killing and grieves with the Lamei family. The Egyptian authorities must do more to curtail such hate crimes and ensure equal protection under the law, regardless of an individual's religious identity." Is This Popular Toy AntiSemitic? It's been one of the best-selling toys in Germany in recent years but now there's a row brewing over the small figure of Martin Luther. The figure of the famous Reformer of the Church was created in 2015 in the run up to the 500th anniversary of the Reformation which takes place this year. Now though, a public debate is taking place over whether the toy is anti-Semitic, reports RNS. The discussion comes down to the Bible which the toy Luther is holding in his hand. It says, "Books of the Old Testament. END" and "The New Testament, translated by Doctor Martin Luther." The word "END" is problematic in the eyes of some critics. One of them, Micha Brumlik wrote of the inscription, "Theologically, there can be no other reason than that the 'Old Testament' and its validity should be seen as ended and superseded". In a newspaper article he asked: "Is the Old Testament, the Scripture of the people of Israel common to Jews and Christians, outdated and overtaken, as many Nazis the so-called German Christians wanted to see it, or is it just as important as the Gospels for Christian denominations?" The criticism has been supported by some churches in Germany which have been wrestling with Luther's anti-Semitism and its impacts in the run-up to the Reformation anniversary. Now, it has been announced that the inscription will be changed so that the word "END" is removed. The new version of the toys will be available from March in time for the Reformation anniversary commemorations. Italian Priest Who Faced Backlash Over 'Muslim' Nativity Scene Backs Down The Italian priest who set up a Christmas Nativity scene with the Virgin Mary depicted in Muslim body covering has replaced it after a widespread backlash. Rev Franco Corbo, who is 76 and from the southern town of Potenza, came under heavy criticism on television and social media, with hundreds of abusive letters sent to his parish. Some claimed that Corbo had portrayed the mother of Jesus as wearing a burqa. The leader of the anti-immigrant Northern League, Matteo Salvini, called the pastor's actions "madness" in a Facebook post. He wrote: "The last thing we needed was the 'Muslim Nativity Scene' from this parish priest, for whom ISIS is substantially our fault, the Israelis are ugly and evil, and if you dislike the MADONNA IN A BURQA it is YOUR fault for being closed-minded and a fanatic." However, the priest said the Nativity scene depicted the clothing of Tunisia. The characters, including Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus, were shown in Tuareg costumes worn by tribes from the Sahara desert but have now been replaced by African figures from Senegal, the Religion News Service reported. "The holy family was wearing Arab costumes to represent cultural openness and send a message of peace to all cultures," Corbo said. He insisted that the Mary figure was not wearing a burqa. "The burqa is black and covers the whole body except for the eyes," he said. "The statue had a white shawl and a white dress and the face was visible." Corbo said that the characters were not Muslim even though they wore traditional costumes. He added that his message had been misinterpreted by the media. Above the Nativity scene, which was surrounded by walls, the priest included the message, "Let's build bridges, not walls." Corbo said that for 50 years he had used different political themes to illustrate Nativity scenes at his parish of Sts. Anne and Joachim in Potenza. In previous years he has showed figures affected by economic exploitation, earthquakes and environmental disasters. One year he used the Nativity scene to highlight the plight of the "desaparecidos" those abducted and killed during the dictatorship in Argentina in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Corbo said: "There is so much ignorance. The Nativity scene is designed to confront the problems of our time. This year we wanted to deal with the 65 walls that have been built in the world. The most scandalous is the wall built by the Israelis to block the Palestinians." He added: "Building walls is easy. Creating dialogue is a little difficult." Jill Saward: Tireless Campaigner For Victims Of Sexual Assault Has Died A woman who campaigned tirelessly for the rights of sexual assault victims after being the victim of her own brutal attack has died. Jill Saward, a committed Christian, was raped by burglers in her family home a vicarage when she was 21. After the attack in 1986, which became widely known as the Ealing Vicarage Rape, Saward became a tireless campaigner on a number of justice issues. She had become the first victim to waive her right to anonymity, meaning she became a passionate advocate of victims' rights in the media. The outstanding Jill Saward should always be remembered for her work to support victims of crime and serious sexual offences #ThankYou Robert Buckland MP (@RobertBuckland) January 5, 2017 She wrote a book about her experiences, founded a support organization and even ran for Parliament in 2008, aiming to highlight what she saw as the lack of comments by senior political figures about sexual assault. She is survived by her husband Gavin, a respected Christian journalist, and three sons. Sorrowed to hear of the death of Jill Saward (Drake), heroic and remarkable campaigner for the victims of rape: much sympathy to her family Justin Welby (@JustinWelby) January 5, 2017 The family released a statement which said: "In consultation with medical staff the family readily agreed to Jill's desire to be an organ donor." It continued: "Jill dedicated the past 30 years of her life to helping other people. It gives us great comfort to know that our wonderful wife, mother and sister was able to help other people to the very end. We would like to thank all those who contributed to her medical care in recent days."After her death was announced, tributes poured in on Twitter and via other social media outlets. More Than 2,400 Interfaith Leaders Request Meeting With Trump, Call For Truly 'Moral Agenda' A group of more than 2,400 "progressive" faith leaders have strongly criticised Donald Trump in an open letter and asked to meet the president-elect in the hope of persuading him to pursue a "moral agenda". The Christian Post (CP) reported the inter-faith letter originating from the group Repairers of the Breach which called for the meeting ahead of Trump's inauguration on January 20. "Since your election, our communities have been fractured by harassment and intimidation," the letter reads. "People of color and religious minorities are afraid. Poor working people who you appealed to in your campaign are disappointed that you have attacked their union leaders while appointing Wall Street elites who use them to your Cabinet. "And while we know no human being is perfect, we wish to speak with you about these moral issues because far too much is at stake for you to succumb to your worst demons while in public office." Backers of the letter are critical of white evangelicals who supported Trump en masse in last November's election. Repairers of the Breach President, Rev Dr William J Barber II, called the letter a response to the "the theological malpractice of the so-called white evangelicals and others who placed themselves as the moral support of Mr Trump". "We contend from the most treasured values of our faith traditions and constitutional mandates that addressing the economic liberation of all people, ensuring every child receives access to quality education, healthcare access for all, criminal justice reform, and ensuring vulnerable communities have equal protection under the law are moral issues," said Barber. Those who have signed the open letter include Rev James Forbes, president of the Healing of the Nations Ministries; Rev Traci Blackmon, acting executive minister for the United Church of Christ's Justice and Witness Ministries; Rev Katharine Henderson, president of Auburn Seminary; Imam Tahir Kukiqi of the Albanian Islamic Cultural Center of New York City; and Lisa Sharon Harper, chief church engagement officer with the progressive evangelical group Sojourners. Speaking to CP, Harper implied that Trump had appealed to racist sentiment. "Mr Trump, during his campaign, talked from the very first speech to the very last speech about people of color, immigrants, Muslims, as if they were not full human beings worthy of full dignity and protection under the law," she said. "What we are determined to do to is to lift up a faith witness that reminds the public and Mr Trump that all of us, all of us are made in the image of God and as a result worthy of full protection under the law." Must Christianity Change Or Die? Yes If That Change Is In A Conservative Direction A top academic has defended a five-year study that found conservative churches grow faster than liberal ones. The paper, published in December's Review of Religious Research, found that churches that relied on a more literal reading of the Bible and a certain belief in hell were more likely to grow than others. The researchers interviewed 2,225 churchgoers in 22 congregations in Ontario, Canada, as well as 29 clergy. They found that the churches that were growing were those that "held more firmly to the traditional beliefs of Christianity and were more diligent in things like prayer and Bible reading". Now lead researcher David Haskell, writing in the Washington Post, has issued a riposte to the countering argument used in defence of liberals that it is the strength of belief, not the specific content of faith, that causes growth. In this scenario, liberal pastors are just as likely as conservative pastors to experience church growth, provided they are firm and clear in their religious convictions. Haskell says his study shows this is not actually the case. "Different beliefs, though equally strong, produce different outcomes," he says. Haskell, professor of religion and culture at Wilfrid Laurier University, notes in his latest comment that mainline Protestant churches in the US are losing about one million members annually. "Fewer members not only means fewer souls saved, a frightening thought for some clergy members, but also less income for churches, further ensuring their decline." Episcopal bishop John Shelby Spong, author of Why Christianity Must Change or Die, was among those who argued that churches should become more liberal in order to survive. But Haskell says his research was definitive: "Conservative Protestant theology, with its more literal view of the Bible, is a significant predictor of church growth while liberal theology leads to decline." He concludes: "If it's any consolation, when it comes to growth in mainline churches, Spong and other liberals are right to claim that Christianity must change or die. They just get the direction of the change wrong." Pastor From Pakistan Arrested for Allegedly Vandalising the Quran A Christian pastor from Lahore, the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab, has been arrested by the authorities because he allegedly disrespected the Quran, the Muslim holy book, in an incident that happened recently in Nishtar Colony. The only thing tying Pastor Babu Shehbaz to the alleged crime was a scribble of his name on the pages of the Quran, which was found on a street near a Christian locality in Kamahan village, according to Pakistan Today. He was arrested after complainant Haji Nadeem got a First Information Report (FIR) registered against him. The FIR is a written document prepared by police organisations in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan after they receive information about a cognisable offence. However, Nadeem did admit that neither he nor anyone else saw Shehbaz writing his name on the pages of the Muslim holy book. He also admitted that he was not sure whether or not the pastor really did commit the crime or if he was simply framed up. Nadeem said it was possible that a local church framed up Shehbaz. He said two Christian groups are actually clashing over the ownership of the local church. He surmised that someone from the opposing side might have conspired against Shehbaz to get a better stake at the church. On the other hand, Christian rights activists are doubtful of Nadeem's statements, and are pointing at him as the person behind the whole conspiracy. Meanwhile, Open Doors USA reported that Christian persecution in Pakistan remains extreme, saying that the suffering of Christians is mainly due to Islamic extremism. "Though the military announced a war against Islamic radicals, it continues a policy of distinguishing between 'good' and 'bad' jihadists," the organisation said. "While it fights the latter, it courts the former and uses them as a proxy to reach its goals in neighbouring countries such as Afghanistan and India." Out of Pakistan's 199 million population, four million are Christians. The main religion being observed in the country run by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is Islam. Pay More For Your Daily Bread To Help Farmers, Says Archbishop Of York The Archbishop of York has called on British consumers to pay more for their food in recognition of the contribution that farmers make to national life. And he predicts a "bright future ahead" for farmers when Britain leaves the European Union. Dr John Sentamu, writing in the January edition of the British Farmer and Grower, says it is no accident that so many of Jesus' parables are set in an agricultural context. "Whether it is in sowing, growing, and reaping, or in tending, shepherding and keeping stock, the meaning and mystery of life is revealed in the sacred covenant of God and nature," he writes. Farming matters, because "The earth is the Lord's", he says, quoting Psalm 24. "I don't know what will happen to farming when we leave the EU but the skills, fortitude and resourcefulness I have seen indicates a bright future ahead," he says. Whether it's English cheese, Scotch Whisky, Welsh lamb or Northern Irish beef, people want to buy this country's top-quality produce, he adds. Sentamu, who last year undertook a six-month prayer pilgrimage through towns, villages and farms across his 2661-square-mile diocese, says he has become aware of how much farming is changing. He writes: "The situation for many livestock farmers is that they would be better off financially if they gave up producing cattle and sheep. Hill farmers continue to have a precarious existence where the pressure on prices are such that it is difficult for a decent living to be made, with dairy producers bearing the brunt of poor prices." This is why, he continues: "British consumers should pay more for the food they purchase at our supermarkets in recognition of the contribution made by farmers to national life." Sentamu takes to the road again this year as he prepares to visit all 21 deaneries in his diocese. "I hope that, as disciples of Jesus in the Diocese of York, we will invite all we meet to get to know Jesus more deeply. It's about all of us accepting Jesus' invitation to life in all its fullness, being encouraged in our journey of faith and being open to the grace of the Holy Spirit," he said. Should The Crucifixion Come With A 'Trigger Warning' For Students? The Daily Mail reports that trigger warnings will be attached to theology lectures at the University of Glasgow, in case depictions of the crucifixion are too difficult to deal with. The piece claims that, "According to university documents, a lecture on Jesus and cinema sometimes 'contains graphic scenes of the crucifixion, and this is flagged up to students beforehand.'" It goes on to suggest that this is part of a growing trend at universities which is, "creating a generation of 'snowflake' students unable to cope with the harsh realities of the world". So what's going on here and how should we respond? First it's obvious that on both sides of the Atlantic, there have been instances of university students being 'protected' in a way that sets a dangerous precedent which threatens free speech. Yet it's not automatically the case that just because a trigger warning is used it's automatically a bad thing. It's perfectly reasonable not to expect someone who has been the victim of a sexual assault to sit through a film featuring a sexual assault, for example. It's a matter of compassion for people who may struggle with things that the rest of us are able to read, view or discuss without harm. So what of the crucifixion? Should it come with a trigger warning? I suspect it probably should. Not because it's something I want to shield people from, but because it can be a gruesome thing to engage with. Mel Gibson's film The Passion Of The Christ was probably the most graphic and realistic depiction of the crucifixion ever committed to mainstream cinema. It was given a 15 rating in the UK and an R rating in the US. Clearly there was an age under which it was felt inappropriate for children to watch it. This is, of course, right and proper. In effect these ratings act as their own form of trigger warning. The rating not only bans people from under the correct age from watching the movie. They also offer a guide to adults as to whether the content of the film is something they are likely to struggle with themselves For this reason, I decided not to watch The Passion Of The Christ, even though many of my fellow Christians did watch it. I don't think my decision was 'right' and theirs 'wrong' (or even vice versa). I preferred not to watch it because of the graphic violence, but others thought differently and found it a rewarding, even an inspiring piece of art. I do find other depictions of the cross very moving. I find Salvador Dali's Christ Of St John Of The Cross incredibly powerful. Ironically it is on display in Glasgow and owned by the city's council... The cross, of course, is not supposed to be an easy or palatable thing to consider. Crucifixion was the Roman Empire's cruelest form of torture. It remains one of the most brutal and devastating forms of capital punishment ever devised. That ISIS has used crucifixion in the 21st century compounds our horror about their reign of terror. It's one thing to shoot an enemy dead, but to inflict the sheer awfulness of crucifixion upon someone is barbaric beyond belief. I find crucifixion especially brutal because I have dislocated my shoulder on a number of occasions. There is a level of pain that accompanies this, along with a high level of anxiety that goes with the feeling of something being 'wrong'. When someone is crucified, their shoulders may dislocate before they suffocate something I find incomprehensible. We will never be able to fully comprehend the sheer horror of the crucifixion. Even if we could understand the astonishing physical pain, we would never comprehend what Jesus was going through in terms of the emotional pain of being separated from His Father. Why then, as a Christian and someone who believes the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus are the central events of human history, would I be happy for a trigger warning to be applied to those studying crucifixion at university? It's simple really. It isn't the job of a secular university to preach about the cross. That's the job of the Church. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1 23-24, "We proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." In a secular university during the study of theology, I hope that students will come to realise that Jesus is worthy of more than study. I hope that their academic work will lead to worship. Yet, if someone doesn't want to engage with a certain graphic depiction of crucifixion in a lecture or film, they shouldn't be forced to endure it. They're more likely to have a negative view of Christianity if they're made to sit through something which makes them incredibly uncomfortable. Paul describes the cross as a 'stumbling block' but I don't think he's suggesting that we should make people deeply uncomfortable to persuade them of the Christian message. The idea of the stumbling block is that some Jews couldn't conceive of their messiah dying the death of a pariah. They'd expected a great military ruler. Instead the cross showed a vulnerable God, brought low, before the victorious resurrection. We, as Churches, should carry on preaching Christ and Him crucified, and do so in a way which shows how God Himself came down and endured such gratuitous pain and suffering for our sake. Weep With Mothers Who Lose Their Children, Pope Tells General Audience Pope Francis has spoken movingly about those who lose a child and the need to "share their desperation" in a general audience sermon based on the Old Testament figure of Rachel. The Pope said that while no words or gestures will ever be enough to comfort the pain experienced by those who have lost a child, God's response to tears is the promise of eternal life, the Catholic News Agency reported. Drawing on the story of Rachel weeping for her deceased children in the Book of Jeremiah, Pope Francis said: "God, with his gentleness and his love, responds to the cry of Rachel with real words" through the Prophet Jeremiah. "Cease your cries of weeping, hold back your tears! There is compensation for your labour," Jeremiah writes. "They shall return from the enemy's land. There is hope for your future...your children shall return to their own land." Rachel "embodies the pain of all mothers of all time, and the tears of every human being who cries for irreparable losses", Pope Francis said. The Pope added that Rachel's refusal to be consoled shows the "depth of her pain a pain in proportion to the love". He went on: "Every mother knows all this; and there are many, even today, mothers who weep, who are not resigned to the loss of a child, inconsolable before a death impossible to accept." Francis said that it is necessary to share in the tears of someone who has lost their child, in order to begin to console them. "To speak of hope to those who are desperate, one needs to share their desperation," he said, adding that "only in this way can our words truly be capable of giving a little bit of hope." At the end of the general audience in St. Peter's Square yesterday, Pope Francis asked those present to pray for the victims of a prison riot in Brazil on January 1 that left 56 people dead. According to the BBC, the fight erupted between two rival gangs at the overcrowded prison in Manaus and lasted for around 17 hours. "I invite you to pray for the deceased, for their families, for all inmates of that prison and for those who work there," said the Pope, who has repeatedly focused on the plight of prisoners throughout his pontificate. "I renew my appeal so that penitential institutions would be places of rehabilitation and social reintegration, and that the living conditions of the inmates are worthy of human people." In November last year, Pope Francis hosted a special audience for prisoners which came towards the end of his Jubilee Year of Mercy. The Pope closed his sermon by asking those present to pray "for these prisoners, living and dead, and also for all prisoners in the world, so that prisons can be for rehabilitation, and not overcrowded, that they are places of reintegration". Who Divided The Bible Into Chapters And Verses? Anyone who knows about Magna Carta and King John has probably heard of Stephen Langton, the Archbishop of Canterbury who brokered peace between the king and his rebellious barons and made the Great Charter possible. But Stephen Langton has a far greater claim to fame. We take advantage of his deep biblical learning every time we open our Bibles, because he was the one who came up with the chapter divisions we take for granted. Before Langton (1150-1228), several people had tried to divide the longer books of the Bible into more manageable chunks. But his version was the one that stuck and is the basis of the chapters we use today. The advantages of chapters are obvious. Apart from making it easier for students, they help us find our way through the text by identifying the different sections of a narrative and telling us where stories and themes begin and end. Not all Langton's chapter divisions work, which is why some Bibles lay out the text in a way that crosses the chapter heading. But what's surprising is that 800 years after he did his work, so many of them do. What about the verse divisions? They came a lot later. Italian Dominican scholar Santi Pagnini (14701541) divided the New Testament into verses, but they were a lot longer than the ones we have today and didn't catch on. The credit for our system today goes to a French scholar, Robert Estienne (1503-59), also known as Robertus Stephanus (Estienne or Etienne is French for Stephen). He created a verse numbering system in his 1551 Greek New Testament and in his 1553 French Bible. The numbers were printed in the margins, but in 1555 he produced a Vulgate (in Latin) which integrated them into the text. Estienne was a learned man, but his working conditions were sometimes not ideal: on one occasion he divided the New Testament into verses as he rode from Paris to Lyons to meet a printer's deadline in the rain. The first English Bible to use chapters and verses as we have them today was the Geneva Bible in 1560. Almost all Bibles use them because of their convenience (though the popular translation The Message only has chapters.). However, it's worth saying that no matter how useful they are, they can be misleading. They are human interpretations of the sacred text, and humans can get things wrong. One example is the story of Jesus meeting Nicodemus in John 3. The story actually begins in John 2:23-25, and ignoring this means we don't understand it as well as we should. Wise readers will be careful to pay attention not just to chapters and verses but what the text is actually saying. Collecting Guide: Chinese export porcelain Made in China was once the ultimate mark of sophistication for Western porcelain enthusiasts. Specialist Becky MacGuire offers advice on collecting styles that cross continents, illustrated with works offered at Christies Produced in the 18th century, Chinese export porcelain was crafted with the same technical virtuosity as Chinese Imperial porcelain but designed to Western taste. Its continued appeal is testament to the incredible interaction of Chinese artisans and Western importers who, without common language or culture and separated by vast oceans, together promoted the spread of these wares. 1 Chinese export porcelain isnt just blue and white Open a larger version of this image A large ruby and famille rose five-piece garniture, Yongzheng/Early Qianlong period, circa 1730-40. 19 in (48.2 cm) high. Offered in Chinese Export Art Featuring the Tibor Collection, Part II on 24 January 2020 at Christies in New York Bulk-ordered blue and white porcelain decorated with generic mountain landscapes comprised the overwhelming majority of China Trade cargoes. But the other 2 per cent large, colourfully enamelled wares were at the top of the market and remain so today. Made across three centuries and with decoration ranging from Chinese myths and legends to exotic botanical blooms, famille rose and famille verte enamelled porcelains appeal both to collectors and to those looking for high-quality decoration for their interiors. 2 Armorial porcelain makes collectors hearts beat faster Open a larger version of this image A pair of Dutch market semi-eggshell porcelain soup plates, Yongzheng period, circa 1734. 8 in (21.3 cm) diameter. Estimate: $8,000-12,000. Offered in Chinese Export Art Featuring the Tibor Collection, Part II on 24 January 2020 at Christies in New York Its the Chinese export private trade porcelain pieces specially commissioned by Dutch and English East India Company directors, European royals or Yankee merchants that really makes collectors hearts beat faster. At the top of the private trade list is armorial porcelain: the great dinner services, tea services and decorative pieces made to order with European coats-of-arms. These objects reflected the absolute latest in fashion, not just in their decorations but also in their forms, which evolved as trends emerged and 18th-century cuisine developed. Armorial porcelain can connect a collector directly to important personages of the day: Louis XV of France, Catherine the Great, the Princely Duke of Chandos and many, many more owned Chinese armorial services. 3 European subject porcelain reflects fascinating social history A particularly charming and even quirky Chinese export category is known as European subject. These wares were painted to order in China after popular Western paintings and prints, with scenes ranging from literary to topographical, mythological or historical. 4 Large pieces suit any eras interiors Large-scale pieces so-called country house porcelain filled the great 18th-century European houses. Timelessly elegant, the large Chinese export jardinieres or floor-standing vases, such as the famous soldier vases that stood guard in the palace of Augustus the Strong, King of Poland, were equally at home in the American ballrooms of the Gilded Age; today they would perfectly suit a modern loft. 5 Look for forms based on European silverware A further category of Chinese export wares includes those modelled after fashionable European silver forms. From soup tureens, tea services, candlesticks and candelabra to ewers and wine coolers, these pieces offer a fascinating mix of Chinese decoration and Western shape. When collecting in this category, look for quality of modelling and rarity of form, as well as attractive decoration and superior enamelling or painting. 6 Build your own porcelain menagerie Chinese potters had a long tradition of modelling lifelike ceramic figures to accompany important individuals in the afterlife, and developed a special affinity for these sculptures in porcelain. How to live with traditional works in modern spaces 7 expert tips Decorator and writer Thomas Jayne discusses American interiors, guiding principles on how to blend the ancient and the modern, and his picks from the Palmetto Hall: The Jay P. Altmayer Family Collection auction on 19 January One of the questions Ive sought to answer throughout my career is, What is American decoration?, explains Thomas Jayne, who for the past 25 years has designed rooms that reflect a strong connection to history and place. When I consider the diversity and breadth of this great country, the best and most liberating answer is, of course, that everything can be American. Open a larger version of this image Thomas Jayne. Photograph by Kerri Brewer Open a larger version of this image A Thomas Jayne interior. Photograph by Peter Estersohn Jayne doesnt pause when asked what he found so special about the interior at Palmetto Hall, the stately mid-19th-century plantation-style home in Mobile, Alabama, that was given a second life through the passion of Mr. and Mrs. Jay P. Altmayer. Its the Altmayer familys sense of place, Jayne says. Throughout their 40 years at Palmetto Hall, the Altmayers thoughtfully expanded the house and appointed it with traditional furnishings of the sort that would have graced a personal residence of Palmetto Halls stature during the 19th century. According to Jayne, the effect created was, Southern grandeur through a blend of European and American forms and traditional antiques that tell a wonderful narrative. Open a larger version of this image A Thomas Jayne interior. Photograph by Pieter Estersohn Jaynes own journey as a decorator and as a Winterthur scholar, meanwhile, has been informed by key guiding principles, which he outlines below. I hope some of them will inspire you to take a fresh look at some of these traditional works and have a go at giving them new meaning in your own spaces, he says of his selection of pieces from the auction, which takes place on 19 January as part of Americana Week in New York. 1 Create a dialogue between old and new Thomas Jayne: Antiques have novel shapes and surfaces which are unmatched by new pieces. I love the shape and form of these Italianate wall sconces. Like all neoclassical designs and those derived from the antique, they come from and are inspired by organic forms, so automatically have a softness and natural quality to them. In the interior at Palmetto Hall, they were used in a traditional context, lining a hallway, but the look could be updated by pairing them with modern or contemporary line drawings by the likes of Cy Twombly, either within a room setting or in an entry way. By contrasting them with modern or contemporary works these wall sconces can be reinvigorated and find new meaning.' 2 Re-colour the past TJ: In our bright modern world where new colours are created all the time, many of us seek refuge in cleaner spaces in neutral shades of white or natural tones. Paint is usually easily changed so it is a perfect medium to experiment with and great to offset antiques with. This chair, for example, is so sculptural in its own right that I wouldn't colour it with upholstery but stick to something traditional, such as a dark leather or a traditional horse-hair so as not to detract. It would then look magnificent, new and rich set against a teal-coloured wall. The V&A is launching a new range of paints in spring 2017 and Owens Teal inspired by the Victorian architect and designer Owen Joness designs for the museums Indian, Chinese and Japanese rooms would be a perfect shade. 3 Listen to the architecture TJ: The best architecture is always the foundation for good interior design its easier to decorate a room with good scale and details, which is why so many historic European interiors have an immediate advantage. Instead of being inhibited by it, one way to give architecture to a room without period details or historic features is through the placement and choice of furniture within the space. This handsome bookcase is one such example. You dont need an 18th-century English country house in which to place this its scale, form and materials could lend a formal grandeur to an otherwise bland architectural space, and provide that vernacular in one single statement piece. 4 Start with a focal point TJ: The best rooms are built around a focal point, and something that tells a story or a personal narrative is a great way to start. In itself, that focal point doesnt have to be expensive or especially grand, but it must carry a meaning or significance for the person who lives there. The meaning could be found in many ways the journey or thrill of acquisition, for example: finding it at auction and bidding to win the piece, a chance find in an antique fair or bazaar, or something passed down through the family. Or it could simply be something that speaks to your own sense of style or taste. The Altmayers were known to love entertaining and this stunning surtout-de-table would have doubtless been a worthy centrepiece for special occasions. It could work on a low table set with colourful objects and flowers in the daytime, or equally for formal dining, as it would originally have been intended, set with candelabra which reflect light across the table and illuminate the room. 5 Change the context of a piece TJ: In my formative years studying architecture and design, I attended the Attingham Summer School an intensive three-week programme of private visits to English country houses. It was thrilling to see the impact of aristocratic patronage, but I also knew it was something that necessarily didnt exist in America. I try, therefore, to look at traditional pieces through a modern lens when I think of contemporary American interiors. Take this serving table, for example. So few of us now have formal dining rooms on a grand scale, but the classical lines of this table and its rich dark mahogany patina would make it just as practical and attractive in a different context. It could work in a library setting dressed with folios and busts, or equally in a hallway with some stylish lighting on top of it. It's important to use classic elements, but not as a crutch, or to overuse them. Changing the context is one way of reinventing traditional forms. 6 Look for quality TJ: It is an understatement to say that quality is essential to good decoration, and finding quality very often isnt about price but about making appropriate choices. In her seminal book The Decoration of Houses, Edith Wharton writes: A classic is a classic not because it conforms to certain structural rules or fits certain definitions; it is a classic because of a certain eternal and impressive freshness. For me, these pedestals have both quality the figuring of the mahogany, the balance and proportion of the neoclassical Regency design and the freshness that Wharton references. I can imagine them paired with over-scale candelabra, or equally with figurative modern bronzes. 7 Express a sense of place and personality Hyperdynamics has announced a settlement in a 2012 lawsuit brought against the company by a group of hedge fund managers. Iroquois Master Fund, Hudson Bay Master Fund, Kingsbrook Opportunities Master Fund, Parkfield Funding, Cranshire Capital Master Fund and Freestone Advantage Partners II filed suit in 2012 alleging the Houston-based oil and gas company misled investors on its business prospects, according to reports at the time. Planned repairs at the Pasadena Refining System plant are expected to cause the facility to release about 15 tons of fine particle pollution, contamination that can settle deep into the lungs and cause serious health problems. The release was supposed to begin Wednesday and continue through Friday, according to a report submitted by the refinery to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. During that time, the facility expects to release 20,000 pounds of fine particulate matter from one of its stacks, an amount of pollution that exceeds the level the plant is permitted to release in one year. Another stack is expected to release 10,000 pounds of the pollutant over the same time period. Particulate matter is a mix of microscopic particles and liquid droplets, including acids, organic compounds, metals, soot and dust. According to federal environmental regulators, particulate matter exposure is linked to a range of serious health problems, increased emergency room and hospital visits, decreased life expectancy and aggravated asthma. "This is a major fine particulate release," said Neil Carman, clean air program director for the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club. "One could argue there's no safe level." A spokesman for the TCEQ said the amount of pollution identified in the report is an estimate, not an actual number. That won't be verified for several days, he said. Officials with Petrobras, the Brazilian oil company that owns the refinery, did not immediately return a phone call seeking more information. Last month, Environment Texas and the Sierra Club notified the plant of their intent to sue in federal court under the Clean Air Act on allegations the refinery spewed out illegal levels of particulate matter, by the hour, over the course of five years. "I am not surprised at all (by the expected release)," Carman said. "This is a very old refinery, and the owners need to spend a lot of money to upgrade it." In July, a lightning strike caused the plant to emit 21 tons of potentially dangerous pollutants into the air and a shelter-in-place order was called for the Galena Park area. In March, a fire and explosion injured one worker. In 2011, the refinery had another fire. Editor's note: The story has been modified to include a statement from the owner of Wild Bill's Cheesesteaks. A simple Yelp review has blown up into a social media debate and a witch hunt for the owner of a California cheese steak sub shop. Customer Nicole Earp wrote a one-star review of Wild Bill's Cheesesteaks over the weekend saying the customer service was bad and the owner of the restaurant messaged her asking her about her experience. TEXAS SUB: These are the best tacos in Houston, according to Yelp "I did not care for the food. However, the reason my rating will not change is because of the owner's creepy and inappropriate Yelp behavior," Earp wrote in her second review of the sub shop, "At 11:30 tonight I got a message on Yelp from him asking how my food was today. How did he know I was there? Very unnerving." Earp also reports that her friend that took her to the sub shop also got a "belligerent and rude" message from the owner. Earp went to Facebook to express her experience with the owner and Wild Bill's Cheesesteaks owner didn't stop there in commenting back to the former customer. He posted a photo of Earp and her husband kissing on their wedding day and wrote, "Here she is enjoying a cheesesteak after complaining on Yelp." His post has since been deleted. GET FIT: Houston's best gyms according to Yelp! Facebook KTXL reports that Earp feels like the owner was targeting her appearance. "I felt like he was trying to say I was fat. And that was hurtful. And it felt like a violation that he took my wedding photo," she told KTXL. STAY FANCY: Best nail salons in Houston, according to Yelp Chron.com has reached out to the owner of the sub shop. The owner told Chron.com through Facebook: "It's unreal and really really dumb. I never once made a comment about this woman's appearance, not one. Yet people have about me [sic] and have received death threats and other bad comments on social media." He continued to say he was only trying to stand up for his employees and believes that Yelp is allowing false reviews to destroy businesses. He also says he plans on pursuing legal action against Yelp for the bad review. Since the online argument has gone viral, Yelp officials have been forced to monitor Wild Bill's Cheesesteaks for fake and argumentative reviews about the restaurant. The debate has even continued to the owner's personal Facebook page with strangers targeting his character calling him a "dirtbag" and "bully." Though this California cheese steak shop isn't on the top of your bucket list, click through the gallery above to see the most reviewed sandwich shops in Houston, according to Yelp. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate A special operation in northwest Houston that transformed empty shoeboxes into gifts filled with toys, school supplies, hygiene items, notes of encouragement, and toys during the holiday season has surpassed its previous year's gift donations. The gifts were delivered around the world by the Samaritan's Purse project Operation Christmas Child, and were given to children who are living in areas affected by poverty, war, disease, or natural disaster. Through the efforts of Operation Christmas Child volunteers from Houston and surrounding cities, enough special shoeboxes were collected to reach more than 64,600 children in need. "This impact is more than just the 64,600 children. Although that is incredible, the number doesn't accurately reflect the lives impacted," said Tabitha Glass, volunteer leader from the Bammel Church of Christ. "Each single box is a blessing to the recipient, but it equally blesses the person who packed it, the volunteers associated with transporting and delivering it, the family of the recipient and surrounding community." In addition to be collected in the U.S., the shoebox gifts were collected in Australia, Finland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Japan, New Zealand, Canada, Spain and the U.K. Also, more than 500,000 volunteers worldwide, which includes 150,000 U.S. volunteers, were involved in collecting, shipping and distributing shoebox gifts. "The 64,600 shoeboxes collected in the Houston metro area will contribute to our international goal of sending more than 12 million shoeboxes to children in need this year all around the globe. For many of these children, this will be the first gift they have ever received," said Sarah Metraus, Samaritan's Purse media relations coordinator. "Houston residents participating in the project are tangibly able to provide hope and love to child on the other side of the globe." Since 1993 the Operation Christmas Child project has collected and delivered more than 135 million gift-filled shoeboxes to children in more than 150 countries and territories. Operation Christmas Child, a project of Samaritan's Purse, an international Christian relief and evangelism organization, has a mission to demonstrate God's love to children in need around the world, while partnering with local churches around the world, all while sharing the goodness of Jesus Christ. Operation Christmas Child offers a year-round opportunity to pack personalized shoeboxes online. The shoeboxes are filled with school supplies, toys, hygiene items, as well as notes of encouragement. The gifts will go to children in some of the hardest-to-reach countries around the world. Samaritan's Purse, a nondenominational evangelical Christian organization, has a mission to provide spiritual and physical aid to hurting people around the world. While helping others, members of the large international relief organization serve the church worldwide to promote the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. "Hopefully, Christ's love will shine through that single box on a multitude of lives and hearts," Glass said. Want to know more? www.samaritanspurse.org Usually when an author comes to town, you only need to walk into the bookstore and grab a seat. But this spring, you'll need to plan in advance and buy tickets to see some of the biggest names. Here's a look at who, when and where: Jan. 13: Zadie Smith, whose most recent novel is 2016's "Swing Time," will be in conversation with Houston writer (and University of Houston professor) Mat Johnson. Details: 7:30 p.m. at St. Paul's United Methodist Church, 5501 Main Tickets: $27; includes a hardback copy of "Swing Time." Available through Brazos Bookstore, 2421 Bissonnet; 713-523-0701 or brazosbookstore.com. Info: brazosbookstore.com Some interns slave away working long days for zero pay. Others earn a paycheck by traveling the world for free. Royal Caribbean UK & Ireland is currently in search of an Instagram user, aged 21 and up, who wants to embark upon the Ovation of the Seas, Anthem of the Seas, and Freedom of the Seas this summer. The lucky winner will debark at various ports in New York, the Caribbean, Asia and the Mediterranean, including Beijing, Barcelona and New York. Alexis Champagne, a sophomore at Taylor High School, has earned the Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest honor in Girl Scouting. The award recognizes girls in grades 9-12 who demonstrate leadership through sustainable and measurable community service projects that require a minimum of 80 hours to complete. Less than 5 percent of Girl Scouts earn the award. To earn the award, Champagne launched the Bob Cat Book Nook book sharing program at Garland McMeans Jr High School in Cinco Ranch. As part of the project, Champagne stocked shelves full of books that were donated during a book drive she hosted for two months. Students at McMeans can borrow the books free of charge and return them when they are done reading them or replace them with other books brought from home. "The book nook is in a primary hallway that kids walk through all day long, so kids will be free to take books any time," said Champagne. "The goal is that this will help increase reading and lead to higher test scores and maybe kids with share with each other what they are reading and have discussions about their shared books. Maybe we will see more kids reading at lunch rather than engaging with social media on their phones." Through earning the Gold Award, Champagne learned that she is able to lead a group, hold meetings with adults, engage professionally with retailers, make important decisions and use power tools. Her project impacted more than 1,000 people. "It's a major accomplishment and I really wanted to reach the highest goal possible in Girl Scouts," said Champagne. Visit www.girlscouts.org to learn more. The staycation, the child of the recession, is kaput. According to a survey by Enterprise (the parent company of Enterprise Rent-A-Car) two-thirds of Americans who plan to get away for a weekend this year plan to go at least 150 miles from home. Ray Schultz, Assistant Chief of Police at Memorial Villages Police Department has been named to succeed Chief J.D. Sanders who is retiring in March. The MVPD Board of Commissioners unanimously approved the appointment they said in a statement released Tuesday. "We are certain that Ray Schultz is prepared for these new responsibilities and is the absolute right choice to lead the MVPD into the future," said Chairman of the Board Jay F. Smyre. According to the statement, Sanders was highly involved in the discussions regarding Schultz's appointment. In January 2015, Schultz, 56, joined MVPD as Assistant Chief of Police. Once on staff, he says he was pleasantly surprised at the level of community engagement in the Memorial Villages with the police department, and their support for the officers. "I've travelled around the world and talked about law enforcement and its been a tough time for law enforcement the last few years it's of the strongest I've seen in the country," Schultz said Thursday. "People that work and live in the Villages are second to none." The 33-year police veteran speaks from experience. Before joining Memorial Villages, he spent eight years as Chief of Police with Albuquerque Police Department, with a stint in Scottsdale, AZ in between, before he decided to retire. He says the opportunity with Memorial Villages, and the fact that retirement didn't suit him quite yet, led to his decision to move to Texas with his wife Connie, and to accept the position here. Without intentions of becoming another Chief, said Schultz, the community and the willingness of the police department to embrace new technologies in law enforcement (one of passions) convinced him that maybe another leadership role was in the cards for him. "We're rated one of the safest communities in Texas, and technology is a big part of that; New bigger and better uses help to make this an even safer community," he said. Some of those bigger and better uses includes encouraging more homeowners and Homeowners' Associations to install closed circuit TV systems on their homes or locations throughout the neighborhood that would be pushed to the police station if there is a call, so that responding officers will have accurate images before they even arrive on the scene. "As we respond, we can track a vehicle live, we can be looking for the offender. It would help improve our efficiency and be safer for officers and the community," said Schultz. Other methods (some already in place, some on Schultz's agenda) are beefing up the computing power in officers' police cars so they don't have to come back to the station to access information, and using the same portable technologies at the scene of a crime with smart-phones or tablets. Schultz said with a younger workforce coming into their own within the last decade, in many different police departments including MVPD, there's an expectation that technology will be taken advantage of. And that willingness to institute new procedures is one the exciting aspects of his new role. Read about Asst. Chief Schultz: Schultz hired at MVPD Outgoing Chief Sanders was no Luddite. He oversaw the implementation of technologically updated police cars when Schultz came on board, but after 34 years of law enforcement he is retiring to Tennessee, where he is originally from. He says he would like to spend more time with his family. "It has been the most wonderful and unique privilege to serve as Chief of Police for the Memorial Village Police Department over the past three years. This transition comes at a good time for MVPD. Our goal of maintaining and enhancing the community's safe environment and leading a strong and proactive Police Department is well under way," said Sanders. During her run for the White House this year, Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta and the Democratic National Committee were subject to numerous email hacks. Many of the private emails showed up on WikiLeaks, covering topics ranging from aliens to Clinton's team poking fun at Ted Cruz being born in Canada. The hacks spurred an investigation from the FBI while Clinton's team blamed Russia. Turns out, it may have been Podesta's fault. WIKILEAKS VS. THE U.S.: Donald Trump trusts Assange more than U.S. intelligence Wikileaks founder Julian Assange told Fox News' Sean Hannity Tuesday night that Podesta used the word "password" for all of his passwords. Assange also said Podesta responded to phishing emails. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 1 of 3 Peter Macdiarmid/Staff Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Paul Sancya Show More Show Less 3 of 3 "Podesta gave out that his password was the word 'password,'" Assange said to Hannity. "His own staff said this email that you've received, this is totally legitimate. So this is something... a 14-year-old kid could have hacked Podesta that way." According to Fox News, Hannity interviewed Assange at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London. Assange has been at the embassy for the past five years, fighting an extradition to Sweden on sexual assault charges. NOT A FAN: Paul Ryan calls Assange 'a sycophant for Russia' The WikiLeaks founder also told Hannity that his source for the emails were not from the Russian government or any other government. President Barack Obama's administration has accused Russia of hacking the DNC and has imposed sanctions. Assange denied that Russia had any involvement with the hacks. Assange's interview with Hannity has brought praise from some of his biggest critics . Former vice presidential candidate and former Fox News contributor Sarah Palin praised Assange onFacebook Tuesday. Palin once called Assange a creep for publishing her emails during the 2008 presidential election. On Tuesday, Palin apologized to Assange. To Julian Assange: I apologize. Please watch Sean Hannity's interview with Julian Assange (Wikileaks). Exposing the... Posted by Sarah Palin on Tuesday, January 3, 2017 THE PERFECT WEAPON: How Russia cyber power invaded the U.S. President-elect Donald Trump acknowledged Assange's interview, tweeting on Wednesday "why was DNC so careless?" CNN pointed out that in the past, Trump has not been a fan of Assange. Trump said there should "be like death penalty or something" in a 2010 interview of Wikileaks' activity. Assange told Hannity that he would have "absolutely" released emails about Trump and his campaign had he gotten any. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate The "3 stooges" crew is accused of causing more than a half-million dollars in damages to Conroe ISD and other schools in and outside Montgomery County. A Montgomery County grand jury indicted Chad Eaton, 21, Paul Clark, 20, and Ronnie Morris, 21, all of Conroe, on first-degree felony aggregate criminal mischief charges for an alleged month-and-a-half-long spree of burglaries and acts of vandalism that stretched from Harris County up to Walker County. On multiple occasions, the "3 stooges" and "3 Stooges hits again" was spray-painted on the wall when individuals broke into schools, Conroe ISD police said in court documents. Five Conroe ISD schools were vandalized from late August to early October 2016. Six other schools outside of Conroe ISD also were targeted. Eaton, Clark and Morris were arrested Oct. 7 during a traffic stop. "We are pleased with the fine work conducted by the Conroe ISD Police Department in investigating and arresting the suspects," Conroe ISD Director of Communications Sarah Blakelock said. A first-degree felony aggregate criminal mischief charge is used when the total cost of damage exceeds $300,000, according to the Texas Penal Code, although authorities said in civil court documents that the total cost among the 11 schools could be more than $500,000. Morris and Eaton's attorneys declined to comment, and an attorney for Clark could not be reached. The Incidents Court documents show Conroe ISD's Moorhead Junior High, located in the 13400 block of FM 1485, was the first school hit around midnight Aug. 27. The three allegedly attempted to break into the school through a door near the school's bus ramp, but custodial staff members on scene scared off the individuals. Law enforcement believes the second break-in happened about an hour later at The Woodlands High School 9th Grade Campus in the 10000 block of Branch Crossing Drive. Someone pried open a door by the bus ramp. Police believe the suspects ransacked parts of the building by smashing in computer monitors with a pry bar, breaking windows and damaging a vending machine. The perpetrators also flooded part of the school by clogging a sink drain and turning on the faucet, court records show. The individuals responsible scrawled "3 stooges" on a wall in the teacher's lounge, right next to a knife that was left in the wall. School officials estimated the cost to repair the school was close to $27,000. Next hit was Coldspring-Oakhurst High School in Walker County on Sept. 4, where there was $30,000 in damage, followed by Splendora, New Waverly and New Caney high schools all in one night on Sept. 18. About a week later, the three allegedly broke into the Conroe High School 9th Grade Campus around 1 a.m., causing close to $13,000 worth of damage and stealing an undisclosed amount of money from the school's safe. A fire extinguisher also was discharged throughout the building and multiple windows and doors were broken. That same night, the three allegedly broke into Conroe High School and The Woodlands College Park High School. At College Park High School, there was a broken glass door with estimated damages at $5,400, as was as $12,000 in cash stolen from a safe, court records show. The final two reported hits caused the most damage, detectives said. Waller High School and Rosehill Christian Academy, west of Tomball, were broken into Oct. 2, allegedly causing a collective $130,000 worth of damage to both schools. It was at Waller High School where the three allegedly spray-painted "3 Stooges hits again," court records show. On all of the reported break-ins, detectives said three assailants wore dark clothes, some sort of head covering to conceal their identity and dark shoes. They all had crow bars. Arrest Using surveillance camera footage, police said they were able to capture part of Eaton's face. Eaton, a former student at Caney Creek High School, was positively identified by a principal there, court records show. From that identification, Conroe ISD detectives searched social media and found photos of Eaton, Clark and Morris together, according to an affidavit. The detectives pulled surveillance footage and credit card data from a gas station near Waller High School and found that Clark and Morris were at the gas station together around the same time of the burglaries at Waller High School and Rosehill Christian Academy, court records show. The group was arrested after a traffic stop by Conroe ISD police, court and jail records show. As a result of his arrest, Eaton had two cars seized by authorities, civil court records show. Detectives believe Eaton was driving a 2005 gold Nissan Altima during all of the break-ins, which they say could be seen on surveillance footage at the schools. Detectives believe Eaton purchased a 2007 silver Dodge Charger for about $7,500 cash with money stolen from the schools, court records show. Both cars were seized by the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office. Eaton, court records show, contested the seizures of the cars in a letter he wrote from jail. Eaton has been caught before burglarizing and vandalizing schools, court documents show. All three face up to life in prison and a possible fine up to $10,000. Morris is sitting in the Montgomery County Jail on a $25,000 bond, while Eaton and Clark are in jail on a $150,000 bond each. Eaton and Clark are due back in Judge Phil Grant's 9th state District Court Jan. 12 for a status conference. Morris will be back in Grant's court Jan. 19 for a status conference. Image Copyright, 2013, Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia (Dustin A. Cable, creator) This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Fans of BBC World Service here in Houston will find themselves excited to hear a new audio documentary on our fine city, just posted to the BBC site. The 30-minute report covers the hugeness of Houston, the complications that come with change, the sounds of the city, and the overwhelming diversity that we have here. For some people the diversity that locals grew up knowing is jarring. BUT THERE'S THIS: Houston is both one of the most diverse and most segregated US cities The growth of the city which can be painful at times isnt ignored. We wish reporter Catherine Carr hadnt used the Dallas TV theme during the mention of the 80s oil boom days, but thats a minor quibble. Surely someone wrote a catchy song about the oil boom in Houston in the 80s. If you were dazzled by Anthony Bourdains recent journey to Houston and its suburban sprawl you will love Carrs audio visit to Houston. When Carr hits Houston she asks her Uber driver to go downtown, which he laughs at. Most people, its noted, have no clue how big the city really is. Rice University professor Stephen Klineberg, a demographics expert and sociologist, is interviewed. He speaks on the shifting fortunes of Houston over the years and the epic transition that Houston is having as it shifts into an ethnically-diverse template for other cities. FINALLY AN ANSWER: Maps that help explain what matters in Houston The diversity Houstonians take for granted seems strange and threatening to older people, according to Klineberg. The reporting was done about two weeks before the last presidential election so it touches on the effect of Donald Trump on children at an HISD school who have family members that are undocumented. When Houston is explained by the experts to an outsider it sounds extremely confusing, rich, and thriving even to a person who covers culture in the city on a daily basis. Submitted photo The holidays were a little brighter for many charitable organizations in Fort Bend County thanks to a record-breaking year for the Sugar Plum Market. Presented by the Fort Bend Junior Service League (FBJSL) and Memorial Hermann, the 16th Annual Market raised $310,000. The proceeds were presented to Fort Bend County charities on Dec. 9 at a Check Presentation Party held at Memorial Hermann Sugar Land. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Johnson titlesponsor for Men Who Cook Johnson Development is the title sponsor for the Lamar Educational Awards Foundation's largest annual fundraiser, Men Who Cook 2017, set for Feb. 18 at Safari Texas Ranch. "We are so thankful to have Johnson Development as the presenting sponsor for 2017," said Chip Sutton, L.E.A.F. board president. "The district's growth and their growth will go hand-in-hand for years to come." Johnson Development has three neighborhoods in Lamar Consolidated Independent School District: Cross Creek Ranch in Fulshear, Jordan Ranch in Katy and The Veranda in Richmond. Proceeds from the evening will be used by L.E.A.F. to support ideas and classroom projects proposed by Lamar CISD teachers that would otherwise go unfunded. L.E.A.F. also offers scholarships to graduating Lamar CISD seniors and paraprofessionals working on their teaching certificates. Contact Janice Knight at www.leafgrants.org or 832-223-0334 for information. Needville ISDcanvasses votes Needville ISD trustees held a special Dec. 26 meeting to canvass votes from the Dec. 17 special election. With a vote of 394-86, the Tax Ratification Election passed with more than 82 percent of voters supporting the TRE and less than 18 percent opposing it. Superintendent Curtis Rhodes said the community's overwhelming support of the TRE reflects its continued support of the school district and its students and staff. The TRE will allow the district to move .13 cents from the Interest and Sinking portion of the property tax rate and transfer it to the Maintenance and Operations portion. The total current tax rate of $1.54 per $100 valuation will remain unchanged, but the higher the M&O rate, the more money NISD will receive from the state. In fact, said Rhodes, the TRE will result in an additional $2 million in state funding for NISD with no tax increase, and some of the funds will be used to address overcrowding at the middle and junior high schools. "We appreciate the outstanding support for the Needville ISD school and community," he said. Lucas was a lucky little guy already, but on New Year's Day he got a little luckier. His parents, Lilly Nguyen and Phil De Carlos were married on Jan. 1 at the chapel at Texas Children's Hospital, where Lucas was born on Oct. 28, weighing just 1 lb., 12 oz., according to the hospital. De Carlos proposed to Nguyen on Dec. 15 in Lucas' private room in the hospital's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit with help from the NICU nurses, De Carlos made a special little bib for Lucas and a sign reading "Will you marry my papa?" which he placed in the baby's isolette. See the couple visit their son for the first time as newlyweds Video Credit: Wally Crow/Texas Childrens Hospital They decided to marry at the hospital so that Lucas could be part of the wedding. After the ceremony, the happy couple and Nguyen's three other children visited Lucas in the NICU. Nguyen started having contractions at 22 weeks into her pregnancy and was under observation at Texas Children's Pavilion for Women. Just as she was set to be discharged, she went into labor. See the full wedding ceremony Video Credit: Wally Crow/Texas Childrens Hospital Lucas was born by emergency cesarean section. He now has a breathing tube and a feeding tube, but he is up to 4 lbs., 4 oz. "You live every day like there's no tomorrow," Nguyen said. "We want him to be part of our special day. We want Lucas to look back, and through all this pain, stress and struggle, I want him to see that there's still something good that came out of it." The next EnVision Bus Read more [...] The Generosity Trust will again award more than $100,000 in Dora Maclellan Brown Ministry Scholarships in 2017. The scholarships are named in memory of the late Mrs. Brown, daughter of the founder of Provident Life and Accident Insurance Company, who helped educate students until her death in 1974. Using her legacy, the foundation since 1972 has helped about 500 students prepare for leadership in Christian ministry. The first Dora Maclellan Brown Scholar was Dr. Timothy George, a native Chattanoogan who is the founding dean of Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham. Dora Maclellan Brown Ministry Scholarships are available to men and women from the Chattanooga area who are biblically conservative and are seeking a masters degree at a theological seminary or other graduate school approved by the foundation. Scholarships are based on merit and need for the duration of the degree program, usually two to four years. The application deadline is 5 p.m. on Feb. 16. A committee will interview finalists a few weeks later. The awards will be announced in April, and grants will begin in the summer. For more information or an application, call Henry Henegar at 423-266-5257, or download the guidelines and application at www.thegenerositytrust.org. The public is invited to attend a free lecture at Baylor School on Tuesday, Jan. 10 from 7-7:45 p.m. featuring Sarah Lewis, author of The Rise: Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery. Parents, educators, artists, business leaders, and innovators will all benefit from the insights explored by Ms. Lewis, whose research focuses on how innovation, discovery, and the creative process are all spurred on by advantages gleaned from improbable foundations. The lecture will conclude with a question and answer session and the opportunity to meet the author. Ms. Lewis is a bestselling author, curator, and an assistant professor at Harvard University and is a frequent speaker at many universities and conferences such as TEDGlobal, SXSW, PopTech, ASCD, and for a wide range of organizations from the Aspen Institute, to the Getty, to The Federal Reserve Bank. She received her bachelors degree from Harvard University, a masters in philosophy from Oxford University, and her Ph.D. from Yale University. Before joining the faculty at Harvard, she held curatorial positions at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Tate Modern, London. She also served as a critic at Yale University School of Art. She is a trustee of Creative Time, The CUNY Graduate Center, the Brearley School, and the Andy Warhol Foundation of the Visual Arts. "The Baylor Parent Alliance Speakers Series features renowned speakers and authors who present new and challenging ideas that expand our understanding of the world around us. The speakers series is always free and open to the general public," officials said. Previous speakers have included Paul Tough, author of How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character; Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods and The Nature Principle; Wendy Mogel, a clinical psychologist and author of The Blessings of a Skinned Knee and The Blessings of a B-Minus; and molecular biologist John Medina, author of Brain Rules. Back in May 2002, Stanley Coring found his wife Debra Covalt dead inside a horse barn on their Baytown property. Now, nearly 15 years and many unanswered questions later, Coring has been arrested and charged with murdering his wife of four years, according to the Harris County Sheriff's Office. The case was left unsolved until 2013, when investigators re-opened it and allegedly found incriminating information that linked Coring, 54, to the murder. The case was presented to the Harris County Grand Jury last month and the jury indicted him for the murder on Dec. 21. According to court records, on the evening of May 6, 2002 Coring allegedly found his wife dead from three gunshot wounds in the neck, stomach and chest. He originally told investigators that he and Covalt had been fighting all week because she wanted to leave him, according to court documents. They had moved to Baytown three months earlier from Gilcrest, Tx. At the time of his wife's death, a weapon was found in Coring's possession that was linked to the killing. Coring initially admitted to shooting the victim in an interview with investigators and was charged with murder in 2002, but the case was dismissed. The reason for the case dismissal was unclear. On the Saturday before Covalt died, the couple was seen arguing at a local barbecue cook-off at the Baytown Fairgrounds, according to a press release issued by the sheriff's office on Thursday. Witnesses said they saw the pair leave in Coring's truck and drive in the direction of their home at 8316 Sjolander Road in east Harris County, which was only two miles away from the cook-off. After Coring left the fairgrounds with his wife, he began telling multiple people that Covalt was missing. He left town on the next morning, a Sunday, but returned home on Monday, where he told authorities he found his wife dead around 5 p.m. Investigators from Harris County's Cold Case Unit in 2013 decided to conduct a follow-up investigation, where they interviewed old and new witnesses. Through the new investigation, incriminating information was linked to Coring's actions prior to, during and after the murder, according to the press release. Two years later, investigators traveled to Pearl, Mississippi, where Coring gave a statement which contradicted many key points he made during his original interview with police. His new statement, to authorities could not be supported by facts or evidence from witnesses or the crime scene, according to the sheriff's office statement. He was arrested in Brandon, Mississippi on Thursday morning by the Rankin County Sheriff's office, and is scheduled to be extradited back to Harris County. His bond is currently set at $50,000. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Family members of a young woman who was shot in the back during a Christmas Eve store robbery are asking for the public's help in identifying the gunmen. Paxton Webb, 23, was at work about 2 a.m. Dec. 24 at Katz Boutique, 14707 Eastex Freeway, when two armed men wearing masks came into the shop. According to Houston police, the men demanded money and property from the young woman and then went to the cash register area. Before leaving the store with a cash register and safe, they shot Webb one time in the back, police said. The injury left her paralyzed from the chest down, said her mother-in-law, Tammy Webb of New Caney. WEAPONS HEIST: Thieves allegedly swipe guns from South Houston shooting range "She is terrified," Tammy Webb said. "Not only that, the night she was shot was the same night we found out she's pregnant." Paxton's husband, Brian Webb, also 23, was discharged in June from the U.S. Marines after four years of service, and the couple has been trying for about a year to have a child, his mother said. "This just hit all at once," she said. Paxton is still recovering in an area hospital, which Tammy Webb preferred not to mention due to her daughter-in-law's fear. ANONYMOUS TIP: Call from public leads to rescue of eight starving horses The family is hopeful that she can begin "full recovery" when her lung infection clears up and the swelling goes down, Tammy Webb said. An all-day fundraiser to help the couple with medical expenses is scheduled for Jan. 21, from 7 a.m. until 2 a.m. closing, at Horseshoe Lounge, 19950 FM 1485, New Caney. Anyone with information about the robbery is asked to contact HPD's Robbery Division at 713-308-0700 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS (8477). This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Thieves got away with several pistols and rifles after a smash-and-grab robbery of a South Houston shooting range early Thursday, police said. Stolen guns can be resold quickly and often are hard to trace, according to officials with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Texas leads the nation in thefts from licensed gun dealers, and Houston has a thriving black market for stolen guns, according to federal officials. "Two young males drove a pickup truck into the side of the business, went in, and took assorted rifles and pistols at roughly 4 in the morning," said Capt. Eddie Martin with the South Houston Police Department. The burglar alarm went off at Marksman Indoor Range at 507 Nebraska St., but the alarm service did not notify police immediately. Officers arrived within seven minutes of the entry, the captain said, but the burglars were already gone. "They were in pretty quick and out pretty quick," Martin said, adding that police were processing surveillance video images but had not yet spotted a license plate. Police are not sure exactly how many or what kind of guns were stolen, but Martin said both pistols and rifles were missing. Exclusively on HoustonChronicle.com Dozens of stolen guns still on the streets two years after heist An employee at the range, which opened in 1974, said the owners would not comment beyond saying "several" weapons were taken. Stolen guns can be sold quickly and usually don't end up in the hands of law-abiding citizens, said Robert Elder, a former ATF chief in Houston who retired earlier this year. "They are usually stolen by a criminal element to go to a criminal element," Elder previously told the Chronicle. "They can move these things fast and are going to make a profit." Handguns may be easier to sell on the street than rifles, but that doesn't necessarily suggest this robbery was committed by a more sophisticated group of criminals. "They grab what they can sell on the streets and make money," special agent Nicole Strong said Thursday. "I think it's really a crime of opportunity." andrew.kragie@chron.com A delegation of 15 Citizens, four high school students, and 14 middle school students from Tono, Japan will visit the Scenic City, including Tono Deputy Mayor Masayuki Tobinai. This visit is in anticipation of Tono becoming Chattanooga's first Japanese sister city. It all started in 1990 when the high schools of Tono, Iwate, Japan and the Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences in Chattanooga were paired by School Partners Abroad to establish an exchange program. Near the end of every Japanese school year, a delegation of Tono high-school students visited Chattanooga, and reciprocally, a delegation from CSAS visited Tono every summer. The city of Tono embraced this exchange and organized a delegation of junior high school students to visit CSAS and the Chattanooga School for the Liberal Arts a few weeks before the high school students. "The idea is simple, but the stories and lives that have been positively affected by this program are profound. Now, 25 years into a vibrant and successful program, the exchange is known to those involved as an invaluable asset and experience," officials said. "However, the program has not lasted without its fair share of adversity. The Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack was one catalyst of trouble, causing students families in both cities to reconsider sending their children on an international flight during a time of uncertainty for air travel safety. Things had finally returned to normal when another disaster struck: the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami that severely affected Tono and the surrounding Tohoku region of Japan. As a result, the high school exchange program was suspended and is currently in the process of restarting. "Even through trying times, the friendship between citizens of Chattanooga and Tono has kept an important relationship going. With this background, interested parties from both cities came together to form what are now joint friendship committees: Chattanooga-Tono (based in Chattanooga) and Tono-Chattanooga (based in Tono). This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate On January 5, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and NASA Administrator James C. Fletcher held a press conference in California to announce the Space Shuttle program. In his statement on the plan, Nixon said that the shuttle would welcome in new era in the U.S. space program. At this point Apollo only had two more planned missions to the moon, set for April and December. TO THE FUTURE: Despite hurdles, space shuttle was key to a grander vision "This system will center on a space vehicle that can shuttle repeatedly from Earth to orbit and back. It will revolutionize transportation into near space, by routinizing it. It will take the astronomical costs out of astronautics," Nixon said. "In short, it will go a long way toward delivering the rich benefits of practical space utilization and the valuable spin-offs from space efforts into the daily lives of Americans and all people." Nixon was hopeful the new program would be more economical than other plans. "The new system will differ radically from all existing booster systems, in that most of this new system will be recovered and used again and again - up to 100 times. The resulting economies may bring operating costs down as low as one-tenth of those present launch vehicles," Nixon said. Fletcher's own statement echoed the hopes of Nixon and the country. He was looking for economy, too. "By the end of this decade the nation will have the means of getting men and equipment to and from space routinely, on a moment's notice if necessary, and at a small fraction of today's cost," Fletcher said. "This will be done within the framework of a useful total space program of science, exploration, and applications at approximately the present overall level of the space budget." Later that spring the call went out for contractors with the start of development set for late summer. The Apollo program ended in 1975 and attention was focused on the shuttle. Former NASA Administrator Thomas O. Paine had great ambitions following the Apollo moon landings, including a variety of space bases and a mission to Mars. Political reality then stepped in with Nixon deciding to go with what he saw as the least ambitious and expensive of his options, other than completely calling a halt to U.S. humans going to space. NASA HISTORY: Christa McAuliffe begins training for NASA's Challenger mission in 1985 The first reusable spacecraft lifted off at Florida's Kennedy Space Center in April 1981. The Space Transportation System program named the first shuttle Columbia. In its earlier days, the space shuttle delivered satellites, fixed satellites and even retrieved satellites. But at about $1.5 billion per launch, it was no surprise that satellite companies soon figured that it made more sense to launch their products on conventional rockets. Along the way the shuttle program would have many firsts. America's first female astronaut, Sally Ride, got her wings aboard the Challenger in June 1983. Later that year fighter pilot and aerospace engineer Guy Bluford became the first black American in space. In Oct. 1998 manned space flight hero John Glenn returned to space aboard the space shuttle Discovery as the oldest man to ever fly in space. Finally retired in 2011, the shuttle did much of what was asked of it while employing tens of thousands of engineers and support personnel. It lifted more than 600 astronauts and 3 million pounds of cargo into orbit. It served as a unique research lab. THE COLUMBIA TRAGEDY: Remembering space shuttle Columbia The shuttle played a critical role in building the International Space Station, traveling there 36 times. Two shuttle missions ended in tragedies that rocked the NASA family. In Jan. 1986, Space Shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after liftoff, killing all seven crew members, including the first teacher in space. NASA's self-prescribed moratorium on flight would keep the shuttle fleet grounded for nearly three years after the incident. Later in Feb. 2003, seven astronauts perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia broke up minutes before its scheduled landing in Florida, nearly 200,000 feet over Texas. Debris from the space shuttle streaked across the sky over East Texas, with much of it falling onto the state below. A Texas Boy Scout leader with an iron stomach recently devoured 23 of one of the world's hottest peppers to help raise money for his troop. The man - likely now a new fan of baby wipes - scarfed down nearly two dozen of the fearsome ghost peppers last month in a YouTube video to help a scholarship drive. HOT HOT HEAT: The truth about hot peppers Troop 137 is based in Fredericksburg and Assistant Scoutmaster Johnny Fotschky later said that he suffered from a fiery 20 hours or so afterwards. In the video he rejects a glass of milk which would have eased at least some of his pain. Anyone who has ever done something this insane knows that water just makes things worse when dealing with hot peppers. It has a way of spreading the heat and not neutralizing it. As the troop's scoutmaster, Gayne Young, explains at the beginning of the clip Fotschky was trying to help raise money for new uniforms and trips for the troop. YIKES!: Ghost-pepper burger yields 1-inch esophagus tear Cultivated in India, ghost peppers (also known as the bhut jolokia) are one of the most infamous peppers in the food family, frequently used as a challenge among chili heads, many of whom are already over the pepper. The pepper rates at 855,000 to 1,041,427 Scoville heat units, a measurement of spiciness. The hottest ghost pepper can be over 400 times hotter than your mildest jalapeno. In small doses it can be used in cooking without forcing eaters into hysterics. So you can see why Fotschky was feeling the burn for a few days or so, and even apparently saw some blood come out of him. Young later said that Fotschky ate six Klondike bars, drank a full bottle of Pepto Bismol, some Mylanta, a half gallon of milk and some ice water to quell the pain. WASHINGTON Texas U.S. Rep. Ted Poe announced Thursday that he is in remission from leukemia, though not "cancer free." The Republican lawmaker from Humble issued a statement after being sworn in for his seventh term in Congress, following a career as a prosecutor and judge in Harris County. The Nursing and Allied Health Division at Chattanooga State offers monthly information sessions for students interested in the health care professions. The sessions are held at the main campus; some sessions are required for program admittance while others are strongly encouraged. Visit the Nursing and Allied Health website at www.chattanoogastate.edu/nursing-allied-health for details about program specifics, information sessions, and admission requirements. Program directors will explain the process for applying, what to expect once admitted, discuss job opportunities, and answer questions. The following program sessions are scheduled during January and February: Jan. 10: Occupational Therapy Assistant, HSC-2088 9 a.m. Jan. 10: Registered Nursing, HSC-1087 9 a.m. Jan. 10: Health Sciences A.A.S, HSC-2088 10:30 a.m. Jan. 11: Dental Assisting, HSC 2028 8:00 a.m. Jan. 11: Respiratory Care, HSC-2117 noon Jan. 17: Health Information Management, HSC-2106 5:30 p.m. Jan. 18: Emergency Medical Services (EMT, AEMT, Paramedic), CBIH-109 10 a.m. Jan. 19: Radiologic Technology, HSC-2060 5:30 p.m. Jan. 25: Physical Therapist Assistant, HSC-2029 3 p.m. Feb. 1: Emergency Medical Services (EMT, AEMT, Paramedic), CBIH-109 10 a.m. Feb. 6: Dental Assisting, HSC-2028 8 a.m. Feb. 7: Registered Nursing, HSC-1087 offered 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Feb. 7: Occupational Therapy Assistant, HSC-2088 1 p.m. Feb. 10: Health Information Management, HSC-2106 10 a.m. Feb. 15: Emergency Medical Services (EMT, AEMT, Paramedic), CBIH-109 10 a.m. Feb. 16: Health Sciences A.A.S, HSC-2088 10 a.m. Feb. 16: Respiratory Care, HSC-2117 3 p.m. Feb. 16: Radiologic Technology, HSC-2060 5:30 p.m. Feb. 21: Health Information Management, HSC-2106 5:30 p.m. 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. We attempted to send a notification to your email address but we were unable to verify that you provided a valid email address. Please click here to update your email address if you wish to receive notifications. Otherwise, you may click here to disable notifications and hide this message. Recently, a friend of mine said to me, Im glad our paths crossed and it was for a reason. I whole-heartedly agree. Sometimes when we cross paths with others we may or may not see the reason right away or sometimes ever but we know God has a reason for the crossing. I think it is a beautiful thing, crossing paths. It means that this world isnt about us. It isnt about our agendas or our perceptions or what we think is best. Because as we cross paths with others their lives are affected as well as ours. I find this very inviting. As I get older, I am not as much of a large group person as I used to be. I like solitude and my alone time, but I still am a people-person and I love being relational. And as a writer, I also enjoy stories the stories of peoples lives. The story of what brought them to a certain place or endeavor. So when my path crosses with someone else, it is like solving a mystery to find out the purpose of the crossing. I love that! Sometimes, it takes years to actually understand, but other times God reveals to us the good in why He brought us together. Isnt it mostly coincidental? No, I dont believe that at all. I believe EVERYTHING is for a reason. Do I always have to know the reason? Nope. I trust my Father. I trust His ways. I dont have to know the answers to everything. But the mystery is fun to figure out when I am supposed to. Life isnt all about me so there are times when I am part of an equation of life in which I have no clue why. And that is okay by me. Sometimes, I think those who wish to be needed feel the crossing of paths means they are to see it to fruition when God may only have the crossing for which that person may only have a small part. And thats okay too. I consider it a joy to be a part of a crossing. Whether significant or just a blip in our lives, I feel as though I am walking my path and giving high-fiving to those I pass. Sometimes, a hug is required in the crossing and sometime even more than that. But each crossing of paths is so very important. People are important. Not one more than another, but we all have a role to play here on earth and we can be excited! We can fret and try to figure it all out and dictate how we think life should go or we can let go of such a tight grasp, and watch. I like watching God because I never know what Hell do next. Even wrecking my Jeep in Virginia some years ago, was exciting to me because even though I was bruised up and concerned of what I was going to do without a car, I KNEW at that very moment within seconds of the crash, that God was going to do something. I could almost hear Him say, Watch this as He elbowed me in my bruised ribs. And it was a major growth spurt to claim to trust Him and while the first thing I thought would be an answer to my dilemma didnt happen, that I was able to STILL trust and not fret as I waited. Waiting is very important. If we dont see answers immediately, we sometimes feel that maybe God is telling us to do something. But whenever I did that, I usually did something in my own efforts and failed or made things harder when God just wanted me to wait while HE was the one working things to the good. He gets the glory. Waiting isnt God just showing us Hes the boss there is a reason. We hear all the time in Gods timing but we need to TRUST His timing. He is busy getting things in place and it may require time to get everything in place. Not to say God couldnt do something instantaneously, but this is what the whole crossing paths thing is about. As I wait for God, I meet someone in my path who may say just the right thing I need to hear, or I may be there for them in some way. As I am waiting for answers to a problem, God may be using me in someone elses problem - yet I may not even know their circumstances. I dont have to know. Unless God shares that with me. The point is, I am there in that crossing. And it is significant. I have been a part of divine intervention several times in my life where I saw Gods hand at work and the reason was clear of why my path crossed with another. And, I have crossed paths with people in which I knew God was up to something but I didnt know what, and we were just excited to watch it unfold. While I was busy adulting in my 30s and part of my 40s, I learned the importance of waiting. Busily scurrying around and juggling the many roles in life I had taken and trying to make it all work, I missed God at work. As a Christian, I used my church words and repeated what I knew was the right thing to say, I trust God I will wait on God I dont worry these words were good intentions but something I really needed to work on. It was in my early 40s when I really began living those words. What I had made so hard was actually so simple! God tells us to come as a child now I get that! Children are simple they can teach us great perspectives when we let go of what is muddled in our hurried world and to see things simply. Something I enjoy creating with my five year old granddaughter is a segment in my publication called Dear Ellie in which she is our advice columnist. She is just learning how to read, so we make a VLOG (Video blog) of her answering readers questions. The idea is that life is pretty simple though we look for the complications. Ellie breaks down all our barriers and concerns and the advice she gives can either have truth, or simply make us laugh at ourselves. When I look back at how I used to fret over the things I thought were mountains but realized they were just molehills, I can see Gods hand in most of the problems I thought were problems that arent even an issue today. Do you know why they arent? Time passes. Feelings change. Circumstances change. Yet the Kingdom of God is near. If I am focused on the Kingdom, then the little things on earth which get people so worried and preoccupied arent as big. Am I worried about our president? No, I am focused on the King. Am I worried about my husbands job? Our finances? No, I am focused on its purpose toward the Kingdom and our role together. All things pass away, but the Kingdom of God is eternal. So, while I am just a passin through and I cross paths, I get excited to watch what God will do. Is this path crossing for me? For them? For both? Will God reveal to me? To them? To both? Is it a ten-fold blessing He wants me to share and keep the blessing ongoing to minister to others? Or is it to hold close to my heart and grow in His wisdom while watching others grow (in His time) which they may not be ready to receive if I were to share at that very moment. Each crossing is different. Life is exciting. I love watching. Please know that even though God has brought me to a place where my life may seem easy to others, that I know both sides of the coin and I shall never forget. I know struggle, I know pain, and I know loneliness. These words I share with you now are not my church words they are my experience. I have been walking with God on this journey and I have found in this last decade, that the watching and waiting is sometimes as exciting as the reveal. Even in turmoil, even in despair God is at work and that is exciting! Through tears, through sleepless nights in which I am called to pray, through circumstances good or bad; God IS at work. God is GOOD. And He keeps his promises. I dont have to have answers when crossing paths. I do not have to see them to fruition. I just need to be there with an open heart and open eyes and enjoy the crossing and in it, we experience the cross. jen@themurraymirror.com Relations between the White House press corps and the president are almost always adversarial, but in President-Elect Donald Trump, we have something new. Based on the campaign and the transition, the press is highly adversarial to Trump and he is happy to return the favor. As two former White House spokesmen for two very different presidents, we sat in the same West Wing office that is equidistant from the Oval Office and the briefing room where the White House press corps gathers daily. Our job entailed working for and representing the President, while being accountable, and even helpful, to the press. Despite the rancor that exists today between the media and Trump, we believe there are ways to make their relationship beneficial to the public they both serve. So, what to do differently? First, we recommend that President-elect Trump keep the press briefing, but no longer make it a live televised event. The briefing today has become an occasion for too much posturing on both sides of the camera. The presidents spokesman should and must be available for questioning, especially on those days when the presidents schedule does not include a public appearance. But a simple change could make a difference. If the briefing is embargoed until its conclusion, it will become just one of several raw ingredients that journalists can use to prepare their reports on the work of the president and the White House. It would instantly become a toned-down briefing, and reporters would use the information from the briefing and test it against other sources as they prepare coverage. It would not be a news event in and of itself. An exception could be made by the White House if there is a major compelling event that demands live coverage, but the emphasis of the briefing should be on gathering and delivering real content. Too much of the briefing today is a game of gotcha and what did the president do wrong? A better model would focus on facts and substance. As for the briefing room itself, its time to open it up to other reporters. While some 750 reporters are credentialed to cover the White House, there are only 49 seats in the briefing room, almost all assigned to the legacy mainstream media that dominated coverage in the 1990s. Its time to democratize the room and let others in. We think the current White House press corps has a role to play, but not an exclusive one. We recommend a revolving group of reporters be assigned to those seats. For instance, on Mondays, it could be the current White House press corps. On Tuesdays, it could be the business press, including online media. On Wednesdays, it could be foreign journalists. On Thursdays, the seats would go to liberal and conservative dot-com outlets. We like the idea of Think Progress and Breitbart sitting next to each other. On Fridays, attendees could be Washington-based reporters from newspapers and websites around the country. But a daily briefing should be a mainstay. Sign up for CJR 's daily email We also recommend against the use of anonymous background sources in the White House. Government officials often meet with the press to share valuable information, but they do so under ground rules that prevent their identification, even though everyone on the premises is in on the secret. The American people should know who is speaking for the administration and hold sources accountable for the information they share. Yes, on occasion a briefer needs some cover, especially when briefing on sensitive diplomatic conversations. But that should be the exception, not the rule. The press should stop acquiescing every time an administration official says something is on background. Last, we would encourage a more formal dialogue with the White House Correspondents Association (WHCA), which represents the collective interests of those credentialed to cover the president. The president can handle press relations however he wants, but we know its wiser to make changes by working with the correspondents association than by fiat. Four years in close quarter combat is a long time. Sometimes, rough edges on both sides can be rounded out by working together to resolve disputes. The aim should be to cultivate relationships of trust that can make this complicated arrangement work. In a new era of pre-dawn tweets by the chief executive and myriad changes in media technology, we recognize that many of the traditions of presidential communications may change. But there is something enduring about a commitment to the publics right to know and the obligation of the White House to tell. We believe both sides of this adversarial relationship can adjust, return to strategies that work, and create new methods of communication that will serve the public interest. Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today Mike McCurry and Ari Fleischer are former presidential press secretaries. McCurry served as press secretary to Bill Clinton from 1995 to 1998, and is now a Distinguished Professor of Public Theology at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC. Fleischer was press secretary for George W. Bush from 2001 to 2003. The author of Taking Heat: The President, the Press, and My Years in the White House, he now runs Fleischer Communications. A recent Texas Court of Appeals decision parsing the wording of a workers compensation policys waiver of subrogation endorsement reminds us that, like an onion, a waiver endorsement has many layers and should be peeled back fully before giving up on subrogation and/or reimbursement potential. In Insurance Co. of the State of Pennsylvania v. Exxon, No. 01-15-0453-CV (Tex. Civ. App. Houston [1st Dist.] July 14, 2016), Kevin Roberts and Arturo Munoz were injured in January 2013 while working for Savage Refinery Services at Exxon Mobils Baytown, Texas plant. A tank exploded and a discharge of hot water seriously burned both of them. Savages workers compensation carrier, Insurance Company of the State of Pennsylvania (ISCP), paid nearly $700,000 in benefits to them. Roberts and Munoz sued Exxon Mobil (Exxon) and Exxon added ISCP as a third-party defendant to allow the court to determine its subrogation rights in the face of a waiver of subrogation endorsement to the ISCP policy. Despite the waiver of subrogation endorsement, ICSP was asking the court to allow it to subrogate and seek reimbursement of the benefits it paid. After peeling back the layers of its waiver endorsement, ICSP felt that the endorsement didnt apply to their case. Some years before this incident, Exxon hired Savage Refinery Services (Savage) to perform some work at its refinery. The contract between them provided that Savage would obtain certain insurance coverages and obtain certain waivers of its insurers subrogation rights against Exxon. Specifically, paragraph 14(a) of the contract read as follows: Savage shall carry and maintain in force at least the following insurances and amounts: (1) for all its employees engaged in performing services, workers compensation and employers liability insurance or similar social insurance in accordance with applicable law which may be applicable to those employees:Savage and its insurer providing coverage in this Section shall waive all rights of subrogation and/or contribution against Exxon and its affiliates to the extent liabilities are assumed by Savage, except Savage expressly agrees not to cause itself or its insurer(s) to waive any right of subrogation and/or contribution against Exxon and its affiliates under any workers compensation and employers liability insurance, or similar social insurance in accordance with law which may be applicable to those employees of Savage, when Exxon elects to furnish or arrange same. In complying with paragraph 14(a), Savage obtained workers compensation coverage from ICSP which contained the following endorsement: TEXAS WAIVER OF OUR RIGHT TO RECOVER FROM OTHERS ENDORSEMENT WC 42 03 04 This endorsement applies only to the insurance provided by the policy because Texas is shown in Item 3.A. of the Information Page. We have the right to recover our payments from anyone liable for an injury covered by this policy. We will not enforce our right against the person or organization named in the Schedule, but this waiver applies only with respect to bodily injury arising out of the operations described in the Schedule where you are required by a written contract to obtain this waiver from us. This endorsement shall not operate directly or indirectly to benefit anyone named in the Schedule. The premium for this endorsement is shown in the Schedule. Schedule: (1) ( ) Specific Waiver Name of person or organization ( x ) Blanket Waiver Any person or organization for whom the Named Insured has agreed by written contract to furnish this waiver. (2) Operations: (3) Premium The premium charge for this endorsement shall be percent of the premium developed on payroll in connection with work performed for the above person(s) or organization(s) arising out of the operations described. (4) Advance Premium Notes: (1) Use this endorsement to effect a waiver of recovery from others in accordance with Rule II, G, of the Texas Workers Compensation Manual. (2) If blanket waiver of recovery from others is written, the following wording should be inserted following Operations in Schedule: All Texas Operations. The contract with Exxon also contained an indemnity provision whereby each promised to indemnify the other for personal injury claims brought by third parties (including each others employees), arising out of their own negligence. In other words, Savage agreed to indemnify Exxon for personal injury claims that were attributable to Savages own negligence. The Court of Appeals in Exxon tells us that the waiver of subrogation endorsement is not the only place we must look to determine if a waiver is valid. Exxon, supra. The contract with Exxon required Savage to indemnify Exxon only for Exxons own negligence. Exxon agreed that it alone was responsible for the injuries. The court, therefore, held that Savage was not required by the contract to obtain the waiver because it only applied to the extent liabilities are assumed by Savage. No liability was assumed by Savage in this case, so there was no waiver of subrogation. If we keep peeling the endorsement, we see that with every layer, a subrogated workers compensation carrier has an opportunity to avoid the harsh effects of waiver. It waives the right to recover our payments from anyone liable for an injury. However, what about reimbursement from the injured employee? In addition to a right of subrogation, most states statutes also grant the carrier a statutory right of reimbursement when the employee makes a third-party recovery. Texas does not allow reimbursement of the carrier from the employee, when a waiver of subrogation endorsement is attached to the workers compensation policy. Allen v. Texaco, Inc., 510 F.2d 977 (5th Cir. 1975) (Longshoreman Case); Hartford Acc. & Indem. Co. v. Buckland, 882 S.W.2d 440 (Tex. Civ. App. Dallas 1994, writ denied). Neither does Louisiana. Harris v. Tenneco Oil Co., 563 So.2d 317 (La. App. 1990). Wisconsin does. Fowler v. Boise Cascade Corp., 948 F.2d 49 (1st Cir. 1991). What about the right to a credit? Can the carrier maintain its right to a statutory credit notwithstanding the waiver endorsement? In California, the endorsement waives subrogation and reimbursement, but not the right to a future credit. Gonzalez v. W.C.A.B. and Consol. Fire Protection, 77 Cal. Comp. Cases 425, 2012 WL 1572131 (Ct. App., April 11, 2012), denying petition to review Gonzalez v. Consol. Fire Protection and Zurich Am. Ins., 2011 WL 7946014 (W.C.A.B., Nov. 3, 2011). In order for there to be an effective waiver of subrogation, the tortfeasor against whom recovery is sought must be named in the Schedule if a specific waiver is selected. The operations which are being performed at the time of the injury must be the operations listed in the waiver endorsement. There must be a contract which requires the waiver endorsement in the first place. And, as we have seen in the Exxon case, the contract itself may provide limitations as to when the waiver applies. The existence of a waiver of subrogation endorsement requirement in a contract isnt good, but it doesnt necessarily mean you cant subrogate or pursue reimbursement or a credit. You must look to the policy to see if there is a waiver endorsement. Even when there is a waiver endorsement in the policy, you must peel back the layers of the endorsement and compare each layer to the facts of your case in order to determine whether your subrogation file should be closed. The Texas Department of Insurances Division of Workers Compensation (DWC) re-certified 10 employers to self-insure workers compensation claims. In total, the companies employ about 15,000 people in Texas. DWC renewed: Associated Wholesale Grocers, Inc. E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company The Sherwin-Williams Company Space Exploration Technologies Corp. FedEx Freight, Inc. Guardian Industries Corp. International Paper Company James Construction Group, LLC Louisiana-Pacific Corporation The Procter & Gamble Company To be certified to self-insure, a company must meet state requirements and have a minimum workers compensation insurance unmodified manual premium of $500,000. For more information on applying to the Self-Insurance Regulation program, visit the TDI website at www.tdi.texas.gov/wc/si/index.html. Source: Texas Department of Insurance kuchta photo.jpg Macedonia Mayor Don Kuchta at a city council meeting June 11, 2015. ( John Harper, cleveland.com) CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Former Macedonia Mayor Donald Kuchta admitted he violated state ethics laws when he instructed the city to plow his driveway and collect his garbage for free -- a service reserved for senior citizens with limited incomes, an Ohio Ethics Commission settlement agreement shows. Kuchta told the city service department to include his address in a program that provided the free services to senior citizens with limited income, according to the September settlement. Kuchta said in October of 2014 that he did not ask to be in the program, but was placed on the list because of his status as the city's public safety director. Kuchta in a phone interview on Thursday said he was told by the law department that he could have his driveway plowed by the city so he could respond to emergencies in his role as safety director. He then asked to be placed in the senior citizen program, so he could know if those driveways weren't being plowed. He said he often received complaints from senior citizens because their driveways weren't being plowed, and he wanted to know about it. Kuchta said he didn't realize that he would also get free trash removal by placing his address in the senior citizen program. Kuchta received free snow removal from 2009 to 2015, according to the settlement. He received free garbage pickup from 2011 to 2014. He paid $525 to Macedonia in restitution for the garbage services. The Macedonia law director told the commission that the plowing was necessary so Kuchta could respond to emergencies as the city safety director. In 2015, mired in this controversy and others, Kuchta chose not to run for a fifth term in office. On Thursday, he tried to put the situation in the context of larger ethical violations. "You know what, that's not like me embezzling thousands of dollars, anyway. Most people say, 'you mean the city doesn't plow your driveway?'" Kuchta said. The Ohio Ethics Commission investigates violations of state ethics laws. The agency receives tips from the public and referrals from other agencies. The commission can enter into a voluntary settlement with the accused, share its findings to a local prosecutor's office or close a case if action is unwarranted. You can read the full Ohio Ethics Commission settlement with Kuchta below. Revolution Square Havana.JPG This Nov. 27, 2016 file photo shows the iconic image of Cuba's revolutionary hero Ernesto "Che" Guevara, at Revolution Square near the Ministry of Interior in Havana, Cuba. Some Americans may rush to see Cuba in 2017, worried that the Trump administration will tighten travel rules. Others may postpone plans until they see what the new administration does. (AP Photo/Desmond Boylan, File) CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Cleveland Foundation is kicking off its spring Creative Fusion program by sending two-dozen Clevelanders to Cuba on a short trip to build stronger ties before bringing Cuban artists to Cleveland for residencies in later this year. Representatives of Cleveland cultural institutions in the visual arts, architecture and dance will spend five days in Havana next week to learn from Cuban counterparts and to strengthen the upcoming cultural exchange. Then, in the spring, the foundation's Creative Fusion program will host extended visits here by seven Cubans involved in photography, architecture, dance, writing, metals and jewelry. Cleveland artists will also participate in performances, exhibitions, publications and other outcomes of the exchange. A first The Cuba visit represents a first for Creative Fusion. The foundation may not repeat such visits anywhere else soon, but it feels the chance to have a deeper engagement with Cuba is urgent and timely. "The trip [to Havana] represents really substantive two-way learning and relationship building," said Lillian Kuri, the foundation's vice president for strategic grantmaking, arts and urban design initiatives. "We are raising the bar in terms of what's happening in both countries." Ronn Richard, the president and CEO of the Cleveland Foundation, who is participating in the Cuba trip, said a cultural exchange could create advantages later on for Cleveland and Ohio companies that sell paint and agriculture products, and those involved in real estate development, construction, and banking. Opening up The Obama administration lifted some trade, travel and diplomatic restrictions in 2014, although a formal embargo still exists against the communist nation. President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to reverse the opening toward Cuba. But Richard is hopeful that openness will prevail. "I hope we're not getting in under the wire," he said. "I don't think U.S. and Ohio interests will be served by not moving ahead with a normal relationship." "If we care about democracy and civil society, my personal opinion is we would promote that more by engaging with Cuba," he said. Two-way learning During the Cuba trip, the Cleveland representatives will learn about future plans for Havana, an architecturally rich Caribbean city experiencing sudden pressure from development and tourism after decades of political isolation. The Clevelanders will also visit the Fabrica de Arte Cubano, a former factory converted into an artist studio center. They'll meet with Cuban dance companies, tour a Sephardic synagogue, interview Cuban photographers and visit the city of Matanzas, known for its rhumba and Afro-Cuban folklore. Kuri, who visited Cuba last year with a group from Kent State University, said the upcoming journey is intended to emphasize that Cleveland has as much to learn from Cuba as Cuba does from Cleveland. Innovation under scarcity Cubans have innovated under harsh economic scarcity, she said, creating examples worth emulating by Americans in the arts and urban planning. "We have all the resources in the world here, but the innovation from artists, designers and architects there, using only what they have, struck me," Kuri said, speaking of an earlier trip to the country. Cuba's isolation under the Castro regime has also meant that it avoided some of the less-than-desirable effects of modern architecture and city planning, she said. "There's no freeway cutting through" Havana, she said. "They didn't have urban renewal," she said. "There's real strength there in terms of what they're doing in Cuban neighborhoods.'' The foundation launched its Creative Fusion program in 2008 to introduce emerging artists from around the world to low-income children here, and to broadcast globally the message that Cleveland is a city of the arts. Since then, the program has brought more than 70 artists to Cleveland from around the world for twice-yearly residencies typically lasting several months. Evolving program The foundation modified the program recently to broaden its community impact in Cleveland and to involve local artists and performers more meaningfully in the exchanges. The most recent Creative Fusion cohort, for example, involved six international artists who collaborated with 10 Clevelanders to create 10 murals and an outdoor installation in Ohio City. After the Cuba program this spring, Creative Fusion will next focus on international artists who will participate in the FRONT citywide global art exhibition scheduled for the summer of 2018. Kuri said a prime motivation behind Creative Fusion is the notion that creative professionals in the arts can help address global issues including climate change and sustainability. "We don't do enough in the U.S. in terms of including creative professionals in solving some of our issues," she said. Who's going Participants in the Cuba trip include Grafton Nunes, president of the Cleveland Institute of Art; Barbara Tannenbaum, curator of photography at the Cleveland Museum of Art; Shari Wilkins, executive director of the Cleveland Print Room; Pam Young, director of DanceCleveland; Margaret Carlson, executive director of Verb Ballets; Michael Gill, executive director of CAN Journal; and Mark Mistur, dean of the Kent State University College of Architecture and Environmental Design. The Plain Dealer, at its own expense, is sending a reporter to cover the trip. In the spring, seven local arts organizations will host Cuban artists, who will participate in a variety of projects. A press release describes them as follows: - The Cleveland Institute of Art will host a Cuban jewelry and metals artist, who will be selected during the upcoming trip. The college will partner with KSU and visiting Cuban architects to turn a Glenville building into an integrated arts space. In the fall, the college's gallery will mount an exhibition of work by Cuban artists, including examples created during the residency. - The Cleveland Museum of Art and the Cleveland Print Room will host award-winning Cuban artist Sandra Ramos, who will program artwork on digital billboards throughout the city. Ramos will also visit a Cleveland school program, participate in a self-portrait workshop at the Print Room, and exhibit her work. The museum and the Print Room will also sponsor an upcoming trip to Cuba by Cleveland photographer Greg Martin, who will produce what may be the first wet plate collodion prints made in Cuba in decades. Martin will then exhibit works made in Cuba back in Cleveland, and conduct wet plate collodion photo sessions of city residents at Public Square and the West Side Market. - KSU's Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative will continue a partnership launched last year with Havana-based architects Sofia Marquez Aguiar and Ernesto Jimenez of Fabrica De Arte Cubano. The architects will work with KSU urban design and landscape graduate students on proposals for Havana's Vedado neighborhood, and in Cleveland's Glenville. - Collective Arts Network, or CAN Journal, will host writer, poet and editor of Ediciones Vigia Laura Ruiz Montes of Matanzas, Cuba, who will learn and write about the community of Latin American artists in Cleveland. - DanceCleveland will host internationally renowned Cuban modern dance troupe Malpaso in May and June. Malpaso will give two free performances June 2 and June 3 at the Ohio Theatre in Playhouse Square. The Malpaso dancers will also lead educational master classes with local dancers, teach at the Cleveland State University Dance Intensive and have studio time to rehearse and create new work. - Verb Ballets will bring ballet teacher Laura Alonso to Cleveland for a residency in February and March to train dancers, host master classes in the community and stage a select repertoire from Ballet Cuba. Alonso will collaborate with Cleveland artist Dianne McIntyre to gather stories from residents at Eliza Bryant and Eliza Jennings nursing homes and bring the residents' personal stories to life in a project tentatively titled "Dancing Memories." BEDFORD, Ohio -- A Cleveland man charged with aggravated murder in a New Year's Day shooting at a Bedford bar turned himself in, police said. John Word, 35, turned himself in about 12:30 a.m. Thursday at the Bedford Police Department, police said. His first court appearance has not been scheduled. Word is accused of shooting Trevis Stephens early Sunday at Lounge 2.28 Bar & Grille on Northfield Road. Stephens, 33, died hours later at MetroHealth, the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office said. Detectives obtained a warrant for Word's arrest Wednesday, just hours after they arrested a woman who is accused of acting as a getaway driver after the shooting. Clairese Murray, 35, of Cleveland is charged with complicity to murder in connection with the incident. She is scheduled to appear at her arraignment Thursday in Bedford Municipal Court, records show. Investigators determined that a bouncer kicked the shooter out of the bar after an altercation. They do not believe Stephens was involved in the altercation that led up to the shooting, Bedford Detective Sgt. Rick Suts said Tuesday. The shooter took a gun from his car and fired shots into the bar, police said. Word's criminal history includes previous convictions for aggravated assault, attempted felonious assault, attempted robbery and drug-related charges, according to Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court records. In 2007, Word was sentenced to nearly 12 years in federal prison after pleading guilty of being a felon in possession of a firearm, court records say. Word received the sentence under the Armed Career Criminals Act, which allows sentence enhancements for people who possess guns and have three prior convictions for certain crimes. But Word filed a motion for relief after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that a residual clause in the ACCA was unconstitutionally vague. A federal judge granted Word's motion and subsequently sentenced him to time served plus three years' probation, court records show. Word was released from prison April 8, 2016, according to Federal Bureau of Prison records. If you'd like to comment on this story, visit Thursday's crime and courts comments section. BEDFORD, Ohio -- Detectives have obtained a warrant for the arrest of a Cleveland man charged with aggravated murder in a fatal shooting at a Bedford bar. John Word, 35, is accused of shooting Trevis Stephens early New Year's Day at Lounge 2.28 Bar & Grille on Northfield Road, police said. Earlier Wednesday, detectives announced the arrest of a woman accused of acting as a getaway driver after the shooting. Clairese Murray, 35, of Cleveland is charged with complicity to murder in connection with the incident. She is scheduled to appear at her arraignment Thursday in Bedford Municipal Court, records show. Investigators determined that a bouncer kicked the shooter out of the bar after an altercation. They do not believe Stephens was involved in the altercation that led up to the shooting, Bedford Detective Sgt. Rick Suts said Tuesday. The shooter took a gun from his car and fired shots into the bar, police said. Word should be considered armed and dangerous, and anyone who sees him should call 911 immediately, police said. Word's criminal history includes previous convictions for aggravated assault, attempted felonious assault, attempted robbery and drug-related charges, according to Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court records. He is currently on probation in a federal case related to a weapons charge, Suts said Wednesday. In 2007, Word was sentenced to nearly 12 years in federal prison after pleading guilty of being a felon in possession of a firearm, court records say. Word received the sentence under the Armed Career Criminals Act, which allows sentence enhancements for people who possess guns and have three prior convictions for certain crimes. But Word filed a motion for relief after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that a residual clause in the ACCA was unconstitutionally vague. A federal judge granted Word's motion and subsequently sentenced him to time served plus three years' probation, court records show. Word was released from prison April 8, 2016, according to Federal Bureau of Prison records. Anyone with information on Word's whereabouts should call the Bedford Police Department's detective bureau at 440-232-3408. If you'd like to comment on this story, visit Wednesday's crime and courts comments section. Beachwood-Place-cropped.jpg Beachwood Place mall's code of conduct is posted at major mall entrances. Starting Friday, Jan. 6, children ages 17 and under must be accompanied by a parent or an adult chaperone after 5 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. BEACHWOOD, Ohio - Reaction has ranged from relief to ridicule since Beachwood Place mall announced children ages 17 and under must be accompanied by a parent or adult chaperone after 5 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays starting this weekend. Some people, like Greg Byrd, general manager and partner of the Asian Chao restaurant in the second-floor food court, praised the mall for addressing issues before they get out of control. "It's going to be great overall. With social media nowadays, that stuff can spread like wildfire," Byrd said, referring to reports that teens were drawn to malls nationwide the day after Christmas by alerts from their friends. Shoppers stand outside the Beachwood Place mall on Dec. 26 after officers were called to the scene for a disturbance. Police were summoned to the mall Dec. 26 after reports of a disturbance among hundreds of young people who had gathered there that night. Police dispersed the crowd, and the mall closed early that night, and reopened the next day. Byrd said that when he left his restaurant on the afternoon of Dec. 26, the mall was already too full, and that some teenagers were saying inappropriate things while waiting for their food. He said he has been hearing from diners who aren't happy about all the swearing that their children are hearing from other young people, and welcomes the prospect of more parents and more adult supervision. "I don't think there's anything wrong with extra security," he said. Neisha Vitello, senior general manager of Beachwood Place and La Place, said via email, "The PGR program at Beachwood Place is being implemented to eliminate the threat of disruptive behavior that detracts from the family-friendly shopping environment. "The initial reaction from our merchants and shoppers has been extremely positive. We worked closely with our Public Safety Team and Beachwood City officials to determine the need for this program. Beachwood Place has enjoyed and maintained a long reputation as a family-friendly environment, we feel strongly that the PGR [Parental Guidance Required] program will minimize the potential for disruptive behavior." Beachwood Mall does not expect any impact on the number of teenaged shoppers. "We fully anticipate and welcome young people to continue shopping and experiencing Beachwood Place," Vitello said. As for those who may have jobs at the mall, "Public Safety Officers will verify the employment of our underage employees." Tony Alexander, franchise owner and operator of Beachwood Mall's Chick-fil-A, said: "I can appreciate the mall taking steps to ensure the safety of our customers and employees. I support what the mall's trying to do to, to try to make things a little better for our shoppers. Time will tell if this will be a good system or not." Ivy Burge, owner of Ellie-May's Gourmet Cookies at Beachwood Place Mall, said what happened at the mall on Dec. 26 has been overblown. But Ivy Burge, owner of Ellie-May's Gourmet Cookies, said she was there that day, and thinks what happened on Dec. 26 has been overblown. "Kids are kids. It was the day after Christmas, and kids were out here spending their gift cards," she said. "This isn't going to happen again." "I just think they [mall security] weren't prepared," she said. "They didn't stop a lot of teenagers from coming in, even though it was already over-capacity." Mario Shy, the 10-year owner/operator of Cellairis cell phone accessories and repair kiosk, agreed. "At 3 or 4 o'clock, you could already tell there were just too many here. It was just a whole bunch of kids just hanging out," he said. Why not just discourage them from loitering, and send them home? he asked. "I just think it's unfortunate." Shy said it's unfair to assume that just because teenagers are unsupervised, they must be up to something. "There are some kids that are actually here shopping," he said. "Just because they're young doesn't mean they don't have money." Shoppers Karen Vitanza and Donna Vitantonio, both from Mayfield, said they were surprised Beachwood Place didn't already have rules against unsupervised teenagers. "I think they had one, but it just wasn't being enforced," Vitanza said. "A lot of people just drop their kids off for the day." They said the mall should have stepped up security earlier that day. "When you see that many kids walking in the door at the same time," that should have been a sign that something was up, Vitantonio said. But Vitanza wasn't sure how well the new policy would work in such an affluent community. "They're 16, they have cars, and they want to go shopping. They're not going with their parents," she said. Follow @janetcho ORANGE, Ohio -- Aggravated robbery (business, gun), kidnapping, attempted aggravated assault (gun); Chagrin Boulevard: Two robbers staged another holiday heist at an area Verizon Wireless store, holding at least five people at gunpoint on New Year's Eve while they took an estimated $2,253 in cash from a safe, and as much $25,000 worth of iPhones. Police were called at 5:32 p.m on a report of an armed robbery in progress, finding the employees unharmed, one of them explaining that he had been at the rear of the building watching one of his co-workers leave the rear parking lot. Then, a man in a mask jumped over the metal rail, holding a bag with what appeared to be a gun inside. He said one suspect cornered him against the building and threatened to kill him if he did not open the door. He was then instructed to call all of the employees into the back room, where they all had to lie face down on the floor as the two robbers demanded to know where the safe was adding that they would hurt anyone who tried anything. The safe was already open and they pulled the money out of various drawers, then grabbed a plastic inventory bin and filled it with iPhones. Both suspects were armed, had their faces covered with masks and hoodies and were dressed completely in black with the exception of blue/green-colored surgical gloves. They were both described as being at least 6-feet tall and possibly between the ages of 18 and 23, one of them wearing Timberland boots. Verizon planned to provide police with an inventory of missing phones, as well as store video. Police were investigating similar robberies that took place near closing time at the University Heights Verizon Wireless store on Dec. 21, and at the Highland Heights store on Nov. 25, although that was about 15 minutes after the store opened at 7 a.m. for Black Friday. In Orange on New Year's Eve, Woodmere police responded immediately to provide mutual aid and to secure the store. Fraud, identity theft; Harvard Road: A resident, 50, reported Dec. 27 that he had opened his mail to find he'd been approved for a Target credit card, while a TJ Maxx card was still in process, with three cell phone accounts each -- six phones in all with active numbers -- set up in his name through Verizon and AT&T. He had authorized none of these, along with accounts recently opened with Best Buy, Toys R Us and Kohl's, as a check of his credit report also indicated. Identity theft, West Orange Hill Circle: A resident, 64, reported Dec. 28 that he had been notified by the LifeLock that someone had attempted to open an account in his name for a Discover credit card, along with an Elan Financial account. A 90-day freeze was ordered on all his accounts after he also learned that someone had requested his credit report through Trans-Union, which he did not authorize either. Warrant served, driving on a temporary permit, no seat belt, no headlights; Orange Place: Officers turned over to Maple Heights police a Warrensville Heights woman, 22, who was pulled over late on Jan. 1 in a Ford Festiva with Missouri plates and no headlights. In addition to driving unsupervised on a learner's permit, police found the active warrant on a disorderly conduct-fighting charge. The car was eventually released to a licensed driver. Harassing communications, East Orange Hill Circle: A resident, 20, reported Dec. 31 that she has been receiving harassing cell phone and text messages from her ex-boyfriend since April.She said she had told him to stop calling and inquiring about her status, and was advised by police to get a new cell phone number and possibly a civil restraining order. Police then called the suspect, 18, of Pepper Pike, and strongly expressed her wish for him to leave her alone, with no further contact by any means. Driving under suspension, expired plates, wrongful entrustment; Orange Place: A Cleveland man, 33, was cited Dec. 28 for driving on a financial responsibility suspension in a co-worker's car whose plates expired earlier that month. Working together at a local restaurant, the Cleveland Heights woman, 23, was cited under the suspicion that she loaned him her car knowing full well that he had no driving privileges. He was also advised of some warrants against him in Mansfield. If you would like to discuss the police blotter, please visit our crime and courts comments page. Loomis asked to quit commission Police reform overseers cite his repeated absences from meetings Steve Loomis, president of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association, wrote an open letter again criticizing the city's settlement with the U.S. Justice Department. (Joshua Gunter/cleveland.com) CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The head of Cleveland's largest police union on Wednesday took another stab at trying to de-legitimize a settlement the city entered into with the U.S. Justice Department to reform its police department. Steve Loomis, the blustery president of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association, wrote in "an open letter to the community" that settlements like the one in Cleveland have forced cities with tight budgets to pay millions of dollars, even as violent crime rates go up. In the end, the settlements have "done more to damage the situation than to improve it." He wrote that the city will spend more than $14 million to the police monitor required by the settlement, known as a consent decree, even though the monitor's contract is capped at $4.95 million. In a text message, he said the number he cited is the total estimated cost the city gave the union for the contract negotiation budget. But the union president said the money spent on the monitor could be better spent hiring more police officers or buying new cruisers, "both of which we desperately need." Loomis has been a vocal critic of the city's settlement, known as a consent decree, since it was signed in May 2015. He appointed himself as the union's designee on the city's Community Police Commission, and most of the members have called for his resignation in the past few months. At the same time, he appears to have been emboldened by the election of Republican President-elect Donald Trump, who made statements on the campaign trail and through surrogates that were supportive of police. Loomis said shortly after Trump's election in November that union attorneys were looking at if there was a way to change Cleveland's consent decree. The union head has also made his support of Trump well known. He participated in a roundtable discussion with the president-elect when Trump swung through Ohio, and the union endorsed Trump. The city also opened an investigation into whether he committed misconduct when he was seen wearing his police uniform at a Trump rally in Akron. Loomis' letter says the union looks forward to working with the Trump's administration. The letter says Cleveland's consent decree and others across the country are based on political agendas, and not facts. He said the Justice Department's findings were not borne out by facts, saying there were 36,000 arrests and less than 400 uses of force in 2015, along with fewer than 300 complaints to the Police Review Board. The Justice Department's investigation into the city was completed in 2014, thus those numbers were not included in its report. "Using simple math you will find anything but a statistically significant use of excessive force was by the Cleveland Division of Police," Loomis wrote. "Nevertheless, the reputation of every single officer in the CDP has been tarnished." He wrote that "the false narrative about police in our country" is exacerbated by rising crime rates, low employment and substandard schools. He wrote that always police want to improve, but that its suggestions to the city and the Justice Department "have, remarkably, been simultaneously commended and ignored." A city spokesman, in response to Loomis' letter and whether he felt Loomis was emboldened by Trump's presidency, said "we're going to live within the confines of the consent decree as it exists." A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office declined to comment. An email sent to the police monitor was not immediately returned. If you would like to comment on this story, please visit Wednesday's crime and courts comments section. NEWTON, North Carolina -- A North Carolina man charged with raping and killing a former Lakewood resident and Magnificat High School graduate pleaded guilty Thursday and was sentenced to life in prison. A Catawba County grand jury in August 2014 indicted Sharman Howard Odom, 34, on charges of murder, sexual assault and kidnapping. Police said he strangled Maggie Daniels, 31, in her Newton apartment. A friend discovered her body June 28 after she hadn't been heard from for about a day. Daniels' brother, Chris made a statement during the plea and sentencing. "Although our family will never have peace, we are happy to have some closure and know that justice was served for Maggie," Daniels said. "No outcome can bring her back or make right what was stolen from our family. We will hold close the memories that we have and cherish them." "We wanted to thank the Newton Police Department, the SBI (North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation) and the District Attorney's office for their time and effort to see this through. We also want to thank all those that knew and loved Maggie, especially our friends and family that have stood by us and helped us through these last two and a half years." The Newton Police Department has said there were signs of struggle in her apartment. A mirror near her body was broken. Officers interviewed Odom, who lived in the same apartment complex as Daniels. An investigator noticed that part of Odom's hair was missing from his scalp during their interview, a warrant said. Odom also had pictures on his iPhone that showed several scratches on his face. He briefly addressed the court during his hearing, according to a statement released by the Catawba County District Attorney's Office. "My heart goes out to the Daniels family," Odom said. "Hopefully, this is justice today." Daniels' mother, Kathy Daniels, also spoke during the hearing. "We've not uttered your name or given you a thought since your arrest," she said. "We don't care what happens to you. This is about Maggie -- the kind, caring, beautiful person that she was and the countless lives that she touched during her short time on earth." Daniels lived in Lakewood and went to Magnificat and Notre Dame College and moved to North Carolina to teach for the Newton-Conover School District. She served as a guidance counselor for Discovery High School, a small magnet school, and in 2011 she was named the district's teacher of the year. Her family continues to reside in Lakewood. If you'd like to comment on this story, visit Thursday's crime and courts comments section CLEVELAND, Ohio - A new 34-foot mural in Case Western Reserve University's Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering celebrates women in the field. It all came together when department chair, Daniel Lacks, saw a story about Cleveland artist Rachel Latina. Lacks had already been considering a mural on the gray wall in the lobby, and saw it as a chance to highlight women in engineering. "As we all know, women have historically been underrepresented in engineering, and there have many been disparaging arguments about this," says Lacks. "In reality, women in the Case School of Engineering actually have a higher GPA average than men." After they attended Latina's "ALT POP" solo show at Waterloo Arts District gallery Article, they knew the mural would benefit from her pop art-inspired touch. The show featured Latina's acrylic paint and watercolors portraits of women that blended surreal and playful elements of nostalgia. "Her art was very lively and upbeat," says Lacks. "It was exactly what we wanted to brighten up the lobby." Together, they devised a plan for a comic-book panel layout to feature portraits of women interspersed with chemical engineering material. One woman has a hair clip in the form of the symbol for a heat exchange used in chemical process diagrams. Another wears a pendant in the form of a pump symbol. Engineers may even spot the Navier-Stokes equation, which is the focus of the Transport Phenomena course in the department. We talked to Latina for her take on creating the mural. Why is it such an important time to highlight women in science? While painting the mural, I had encountered an article suggesting that not only should the number of women majoring in science be limited but segregated because we are "too emotional" and their grades aren't up to par with their male counterparts. I sent this to Dan, and he told me that ... the females in Chemical Engineering at CWRU that have the highest GPA on average. As an artist, I feel an obligation to be a voice that speaks out against these biased point of views facing any minority, regarding sex, race, religion, etcetera. What message do you hope to send when people see the completed mural? The message that we worked together to achieve was that the everyday woman could be a chemical engineer. There is no stereotypical "look" or "type." As I continued to work on the mural, I felt it would also inspire young women who perhaps felt intimidated by the notion of the field being male-dominated. I hope it gives encouragement to all the students, both male and female. How did you develop the ideas for what you created? When Dan attended my solo show, "ALT POP," back in September he really gravitated toward my new work and it seemed to fit what he wanted for the mural. I wrestled with a few ideas but ultimately presented this comic panel layout that would not only fit what I was envisioning but also met the needs of what Dr. Lacks wanted within the mural. Not only could it display a diverse group of everyday women in a fun and relative way, but it also implies a heroic sentiment. You can look up to these symbolic women. Women's achievements you should know Women of Case Western's Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering have had a year full of milestones. We highlight four below. Department of Defense scholarship awarded to senior Lauren Anderson. The award pays for her last two years of college and provides internship and post-graduate opportunities with the Department of Defense. National Science Foundation fellowship held by recent alumna Megan Witzke. She won while an undergraduate in the department, and it now pays for her graduate studies. It was awarded based on her research on plasmas that led to three publications in leading scientific journals. Department of Energy Graduate Student Research Award awarded to doctoral student Liz Stricker. The award was given in recognition of her research elucidating the chemical reactions that occur at the surfaces of battery electrodes. The department's two newest professors are both women. Professors Julie Renner and Burcu Gurkan, who both joined the department this past summer, are world leaders in the area of novel materials for energy applications. Renner is a pioneer in a futuristic area where "designer proteins" with desired enzymatic properties are developed to replace conventional catalysts and electrodes. Gurkan is one of the world's leading experts on room temperature ionic liquids, a class of materials that will play key roles in everything from next-generation batteries to greenhouse gas reduction. SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio Impaired driving, Cedar Road: A Cleveland man, 26, was arrested around 1:30 a.m. Dec. 23 for OVI and failure to control after his vehicle hit a legally parked vehicle in the road and caused it to crash into another parked vehicle. In the process, he also struck a man who was removing a suitcase from the trunk of the car. When he asked how much he had to drink, he told officers "too much to drive." He also refused to take sobriety tests. Both men were taken to the hospital. Suspicious person, Elmwood Road: Officers located two 14-year-old Cleveland Heights boys walking in the street at 3:18 a.m. Dec. 22. They said they were coming from a party. They were taken to their homes and released to their parents. The mother of one voiced concerns over her son's behavior and asked that he be charged with curfew violation. The other will likely be charged with the same violation, along with falsification charges, as he lied about his identity. Theft, Warrensville Center Road: A Walmart employee was arrested at the store for theft Dec. 21 after admitting to taking gift cards and using them. The Cleveland woman, 40, was also suspected of returning customer items and re-ringing them at lower prices and putting the difference on gift cards for personal use. Harassing communication, South Green Road: A woman said Dec. 15 she is pregnant and the father of the child has been verbally harassing her due to the fact that she wants to keep the baby. She said the man, 22, has threatened to kill her grandparents and show up at her place of work to get her and the baby. She also said he has a video of her from when she was 16-years-old that he is threatening to post on Facebook. Officers have been unable to make contact with the man. Stolen vehicle, Bexley Boulevard: Officers located a minivan partially on a tree lawn and geared in reverse with nobody inside of it Dec. 22. They discovered the column ignition was missing and there were no keys inside of it. They determined it belonged to an area resident, who said he last saw it in his driveway. It was believed someone tried to steal it and it stalled while in reverse and would not start again, so the suspect abandoned it. Theft, Cedar Road: A Bob Evans employee reported Dec. 24 someone stole $800 cash from her purse while it was in an employee break room. The co-worker she suspected was a Cleveland man, 29, who she said had knowledge of the money being there because he went to the bank with her when she withdrew it. Surveillance video showed the suspect take something from the purse and place it into his purse. The manager said he left work early than usual that night. He has not returned to work for subsequent shifts. Violation of protection order, Bexley Boulevard: A man reported his wife, whom he has a protection order against, was inside his home when he returned to it around 1 a.m. Dec. 25. She said she needed to talk but only stayed a few minutes. Later, he reported someone was flashing their lights at him and trying to get him to pull his vehicle over while he was driving in Cleveland Heights. He then received a phone call from someone identifying himself as a Cleveland Heights police officer and asking him why he failed to pulled over. The man subsequently confirmed with Cleveland Heights police that there was no officer by the name the suspect provided him with. The incident is under investigation and a warrant has been issued for the arrest of the man's 34-year-old wife for violating the protection order. Theft, Okalona Road: At 8:30 a.m. Dec. 24, a woman said she was sitting with a friend in his vehicle in her driveway smoking a cigarette when she saw a man walk up her driveway and enter her vehicle. She said the man opened her trunk and stole several toys from it. When she went to approach him, she said he pulled out a gun and pointed it at her. He then left and was not located. The value of the toys, intended as Christmas gifts, was $90. Theft, Warrensville Center Road: A Cleveland woman, 34, was arrested for theft without consent at Walmart Dec. 22 after she was suspected of ringing up remote control cars at the self-checkout at a more favorable price. An employee said she can be seen on surveillance video scanning a separate bar code she was holding in her hand. It was for an item priced at $9.97 and the cars were priced between $30 and $60. Fraud, Liberty Road: A man reported Dec. 22 he received his credit card statement and found 15 unauthorized charges from the Apple online store and for purchases on iTunes for a total of $3,345. He suspected a former foster child of his was responsible because the girl, 17, emailed him in November and stated he may be in for a surprise when he gets his credit card bill. He said he also spoke to her and she told him some of the purchases were for four iPhones, which she bought and sold to friends. The man's bank has since removed the unauthorized charges and he decided he does not want to press charges. He believes the girl is living in Akron. Robbery, South Belvoir Boulevard: A woman, 18, reported around 7:30 p.m. Dec. 18 she was attacked by an unknown man while she was in Quarry Park North. She said she got off a bus and decided to cut through the park when the man tackled her and pulled her into the bushes. She said he wanted her book bag, but she refused to give it to him. He left with her cell phone, wallet and headphones. Officers were unable to locate the suspect. Counterfeiting, Warrensville Center Road: A man said Dec. 20 someone tried to pay him $4,200 in counterfeit $100 bills when he met with him in the Walmart parking lot to sell him a dirt bike. He said he met the suspect on Craigslist and drove over three hours from Belle Center to meet with him. He said the suspect took off running after they both went into the store to try to make change for the money, which the man suspected was not real. Officers were unable to identify the suspect. See more South Euclid news at Cleveland.com/south-euclid. CLEVELAND, Ohio - The State Highway Patrol released data Wednesday that details the number of highway deaths and drunken-driving arrests over the Christmas and New Year's holidays. Thirteen people died between Dec. 23 to Dec. 26, and two of the fatal crashes happened in Northeast Ohio, state highway patrol data shows. One crash happened in Summit County and another happened on the border between Stark and Columbiana counties. The same number of people died in Ohio highway crashes over the Christmas holiday period in 2015 and 2016, the patrol said. Over the New Year's holiday period, which begins Dec. 30 and ends Jan. 2, four people died in traffic crashes, the patrol's data shows. A Lorain County fatal crash was the only one in Northeast Ohio. The patrol also arrested 282 drunk drivers during the Christmas holiday period, a news release states. Nearly 400 drunk drivers were arrested over the New Year's holiday. To report dangerous or impaired drivers, the State Highway Patrol encourages people to call #677. If you'd like to comment on this post, please visit the cleveland.com crime and courts comments section. Fall Colors Students Baldwin Wallace University will offer a masters degree in business for non-business majors. (Nate Parsons/Baldwin Wallace Uni) BEREA, Ohio - Baldwin Wallace University will offer Ohio's first master's degree in management for non-business majors beginning this year. Graduates in a range of liberal arts disciplines, like English, biology and history, will have the opportunity to learn organizational leadership fundamentals in the one-year program. The program was approved by the Ohio Department of Higher Education. While two-year master's of business administration programs generally draw those who majored in business, fewer than 24 schools offer graduate management programs for non-business majors, BW said. "The BW MA in Management program will allow students to complete, in one year, an intensive graduate education that prepares them to be immediately effective in an entry-level management position," John Lanigan, dean of BW's school of business, said in a release. BW's program begins with a three-week "business boot camp," then introduces students to different types of organizations, from retailers and manufacturers to nonprofits. Students will explore each organization from various perspectives--through the eyes of the accountant, controller, economist, marketer, attorney, strategist, operations manager and manager. Site visits to area businesses, a mandatory internship, and ongoing career planning are included in the program. The first group of students, all BW graduates, begin the program on May 15. Students from other colleges can enroll in the future. Salvation Army kettle drives in Medina and Elyria surpassed their 2016 fund-raising goals, thanks to some generous donors, including one who left a $10,000 check and another who dropped 10 gold coins in an bucket. Elyria raised $97,800 in the days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, exceeding its annual goal of $89,000. Medina is still counting its contributions, but officials expect the total to be around $100,000. "The last three days before Christmas are always our biggest time. People get very generous," said Elyria Salvation Army Major Robert Sears. "But even considering that, we feared we would run short." Sears said the kettle drive on Dec. 22 was running about $6,500 behind where it was the previous year, so he got word out that contributions are needed. Help came in an unexpected way. That same day, someone dropped two Canadian $20 maple leaf gold coins into the kettle outside Walgreens on Cleveland Street. "The volunteer remembers seeing a person dropping something in the bucket and kind of hiding what he was dropping, but she never really saw his face," Sears said. "The buckets are locked and cannot be opened, so it was not until the next day when we were counting the coins that we saw the gold coins." The coins were taken to Vandemark Jewelers on Broad Street in Elyria that deals in gold. According to Sears, the jeweler put the coins' worth at $540 each and offered to buy them at full value. "We're glad we accepted the offer, because on Christmas Eve, someone dropped eight gold coins into the same bucket," said Sears, who added those coins were also maple leaf. "This time the volunteer, who has been doing this for more than 40 years, never saw who dropped the coins in. And because of the holiday, we didn't discover the coins until Dec. 26. You hear about these kind of things happening, but it never happened before to us." The eight coins were sold to the same jeweler. In all, the Salvation Army got $5,400 for the 10 coins, which helped the Salvation Army reach its goal. "We are so grateful to that person," Sears said. "My wife and I have been doing this since 1981 and we've never seen anything like it." Sears said the Salvation Army made about $10,000 more in donations than last year and that comes at a great time. "We have to spend $40,000 to replace three heating units for our building, so we can use the extra money," he said. In Medina, advisory board member Steve Rybka was also nervous that the year's kettle drive was falling behind. The goal was at about $80,000. Rybka said volunteers were out ringing the bells at kettle locations all over the city, but he feared there would not be enough donations. "I put out an e-mail to my friends asking them to chip in some money," he said. "I expected maybe $20 each, but was surprised when they sent me $2,000. Then on Christmas Eve I was out shopping when a friend called on my cell phone and asked me to explain what the Salvation Army does with the money." Rybka said he told the friend, who doesn't want his named revealed, that the money is used in many ways, including feeding families and caring and feeding children after school. "He (the friend) was quiet for a bit, and then he shocked me. He said he would send us a check for $10,000. It was in the mailbox on Dec. 27." But that was not the only big contributor. "Outside Buehler's on River Styx Road, a man approached our volunteer and asked about how much was in the kettle," Rybka said. "The volunteer estimated it was $500. He wrote a check for $500 to match it and dropped it in." On another day, someone else dropped a $2,000 check in the same bucket, he said. "We have really been grateful for the generosity of the people of Medina," said Rybka. COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Ohio Supreme Court on Thursday put mass murderer Anthony Sowell's death sentence on hold indefinitely while he continues to appeal his case. The court in December upheld Sowell's aggravated murder convictions and death sentence for killing 11 women and burying their bodies at his Imperial Avenue home in Cleveland. The Supreme Court's decision to grant the stay is not unusual for a death penalty case. While the court's ruling in December affirmed Sowell's conviction, his lawyers still are petitioning for sentence relief from Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. Sowell also has appeal options through the federal court system that, if successful, could overturn his conviction. Those appeals could take years to work their way through the courts. In it's ruling Dec. 8, the court ordered Sowell's execution could proceed Dec. 18, 2020. Sowell's lawyers filed their motion to stay that execution four days later. You can read that motion below. Mobile users click here. Complete index of previous coverage of the Anthony Sowell case. Follow me on Facebook. Campaign 2016 New Hampshire Kasich Ohio Gov. John Kasich will announce new details Thursday about an advanced data analytics program he is championing for state government. (Jim Cole, The Associated Press) CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Gov. John Kasich's move to push state government deep into data mining continues Thursday as administrators begin shopping for specialists. Kasich is scheduled to discuss the plan and announce the launch of a request-for-proposals process during an afternoon event here at the Cleveland Clinic Cole Eye Institute. The initiative is among the most ambitious goals the term-limited Republican has on tap for his final two years in office. Kasich believes the kind of advanced data analytics that have become common in the private sector can identify public policy problems and solutions. More than 100 state agencies collect and store information in more than 1,600 separate electronic information systems. The Kasich administration's plan calls for a simpler way to cross-analyze data among departments while also protecting confidentiality. (The Associated Press reported last month that the plan would "strip personal identifying information.") "Applied at its most advanced level, data analytics will help state leaders target fiscal and human resources more effectively, making programs more effective and more responsive to Ohioans' needs," reads a memo from Kasich's staff, which lists childhood hunger, dropout rates, infant mortality, opiate addiction and unemployment among areas that will receive a close look. Another project involves the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, which aims to use advanced analytics to determine risk scores in child welfare cases. Ideally, the new system would be able to determine whether a guardian has begun living with someone with a record of abuse. Administration officials have been formulating this big data approach for months, with the governor seeing it as one of the capstones of his second term. Weeks after dropping out of the GOP race for president last year, Kasich told reporters he had plans to "Uber-ize" state government -- an allusion to the ride-sharing company synonymous with smart technology. ohio congressional map Gov. John Kasich said Wednesday he will introduce a new process for drawing congressional district lines as part of his last state budget. (Ohio Secretary of State) COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Gov. John Kasich last year called for an end to political gerrymandering, and this year he plans to push lawmakers to change how congressional districts are drawn in Ohio by including redistricting reform in his state budget. Ohio has 16 congressional seats: 4 solidly Democratic districts and 12 Republican. "Safe districts" used to empower legislators to lead with cooler heads, Kasich said, but now they force them to "live in fear" of losing primary elections to candidates with more extreme platforms. "Why is it that things don't get done? Because everybody's locked down and there is at times a fundamental intolerance for another point of view," Kasich told reporters gathered for a bill signing ceremony. "How are you supposed to get people together?" Kasich acknowledged lawmakers will likely remove the proposal from the budget bill because it's not relevant to state appropriations. "If they want to declare it not germane, then let them do it and then answer for it," Kasich said. Kasich said the proposal would be similar to the process voters approved in 2015 for drawing Statehouse districts. Starting in 2021, Statehouse districts will be drawn by a seven-member commission composed of the governor, secretary of state, state auditor and two members from each chamber and from each of the majority and minority parties. Votes from two minority members are required to pass a map. That measure had bipartisan support in the Ohio House and Senate and passed with 71 percent of voters. But Statehouse Republicans, who control both chambers, have been reluctant to change the process for congressional districts. In 2016, every Ohio incumbent won re-election with at least 60 percent of the vote. Leaders of both chambers recently indicated they wouldn't tackle the issue anytime soon. House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger has said lawmakers should wait and see how the state redistricting process works before making similar changes to the congressional process. He told reporters last month that congressional redistricting was a valuable state check on federal power. "This is another function of our state legislature that we need to make sure we look at a way to keep within our grasp and make sure it's something that we do and think out extremely well," Rosenberger said. Senate President Larry Obhof said last month he was open to discussing redistricting but he wasn't eager to take away power from the legislature. "Any time we're talking about changing or taking away what is one of the fundamental responsibilities of the legislature, we should be pretty cognizant of that," Obhof said. Meanwhile, redistricting reform advocates with the group Fair Districts = Fair Elections are working on a ballot measure to put before voters if the legislature doesn't act this year. Pence Republicans Vice President-elect Mike Pence, flanked by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky. and Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo. walks to a podium for a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2017, following a Senate Republican Luncheon. (Cliff Owen, AP Photo) Ohio Gov. John Kasich will attend President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration. Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill are gearing up for the fight over President Barack Obama's signature law, the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. More Republicans are weighing in ahead of Friday's GOP state chairman election. And a Medina Republican becomes the leader of the state Senate. Read more in Today's Ohio Politics Roundup. Kasich to attend Trump inauguration: Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a harsh critic of President-elect Donald Trump, said Wednesday he will attend Trump's inauguration, cleveland.com's Jackie Borchardt reports. Kasich ran against Trump last year in a contentious primary race, and eventually dropped out. He did not support Trump, and declined to attend Trump's Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Kasich congratulated Trump on Twitter after his November victory. Battle over Obamacare: Vice president-elect Mike Pence on Wednesday met with Republicans and pushed GOP lawmakers to undo and replace Obamacare. At the same time, Obama met with Democrats, and "clearly wants to keep his signature healthcare law," cleveland.com reporter Stephen Koff wrote. Republicans, with majorities in both the houses of Congress, have already started laying the groundwork to repeal the law. "What will stay? What will go? Obamacare has a lot of interconnected parts, and analysts say it'll be tricky to keep some but not all. Still, Pence told reporters that there will be an 'orderly transition to something better,'" Koff wrote. Obamacare enrollment figures are up from last year in Ohio. For coverage beginning Jan. 1, 6.4 million people nationally enrolled through Healthcare.gov, up by 400,000 over this point last year. And 165,046 of them were in Ohio, compared with 144,850 a year ago. Ohio GOP vote: The state GOP central committee will vote Friday to elect a new party chair. Current chair Matt Borges, backed by Kasich, is up for re-election against challenger Jane Timken. The race between Borges and Timken is seen as a proxy battle between Kasich, who's criticized Trump, and President-elect Donald Trump, who won Ohio by 8 percentage points. Both Borges and Timken claim they have enough state central committee votes to win Friday's state GOP leadership election. In a letter to central committee members on Wednesday, about 40 county Republican chairmen across the state threw their support behind Timken. "We believe it is important that the party move forward together, united, and with an eye to the future of the party as a whole - Jane Timken is the candidate who can best achieve this unity," Stark County Republican Party Chairman Jeff Matthews wrote. "I thank you for your service to the Republican Party and for your consideration of our views." Ohio Senate swears in new president: Medina County Republican Larry Obhof became president of the Ohio Senate on Tuesday. He's the first from the county to hold the position in 150 years. "Obhof has been a member of the Senate since 2011. He has been part of the Republican leadership team since 2013 -- first as majority whip and then as president pro tempore, the chamber's No. 2 leadership post," cleveland.com reporter Robert Higgs wrote. "I am honored that my colleagues have selected me to lead the Senate during this General Assembly," Obhof said. "I look forward to building on our efforts to improve Ohio's economy and making sure our state is responsive to the needs of Ohioans." New Ohio law to protect firefighters: Kasich signed a new bill into law that "will make it easier for firefighters to get worker's compensation and pension benefits when they are diagnosed with cancer," Higgs wrote. "The 'Michael Louis Palumbo Jr. Act' creates a presumption that when a firefighter has cancer, it was caused by on-the-job activity. The law will take effect in 90 days," Higgs writes. March for women's rights: A women's rights march to be held this month in Washington, D.C., has inspired gatherings across the country, including in Ohio, Borchardt wrote. The National Women's March on Washington is set to begin on Jan. 21, a day after Trump's inauguration. A "sister march" is planned for the weekend before on Jan. 15 outside the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus. "Ohio coordinator Lindsey Shriver said more than 5,000 Ohio women and supporters plan to attend the D.C. march, but the Ohio 'sister march' offers an opportunity for others to rally without traveling too far from home," Borchardt wrote. Another march is being planned for Cincinnati on Jan. 21. ICYMI: Nostalgic for last year's presidential race already? Check out a collection of Hillary Clinton political cartoons from cleveland.com's Jeff Darcy. The latest from East Cleveland: The troubled community appointed city council members illegally, according to city Law Director Willa Hemmons. Hemmons listed her concerns about the appointments in an opinion released on Tuesday about the "Dec. 29 special meeting held to interview and appoint new council candidates," cleveland.com reporter Emily Bamforth wrote. "Devin Branch and Kelvin Earby were appointed then to serve on council, to fill vacancies left when voters last month recalled council President Thomas Wheeler and Mayor Gary Norton." Chief among Hemmons' concerns? "Hemmons said council did not have a quorum, which she defined as three members, according to the city's charter," Bamforth writes. She "also questioned the process by which the council called and conducted the meeting." John Glenn Astronomy Park Solar Plaza rendering.jpg A rendering of the new John Glenn Astronomy Park, to be built later this year in Southeast Ohio. (Courtesy m+a architects) (m+a architects) LOGAN, Ohio - The late John Glenn, astronaut and fighter pilot, made a career in the sky. Now his name will forever be linked to the sky - at the John Glenn Astronomy Park in Southeast Ohio, not far from where he grew up. Organizers hope to break ground this spring on the park, which will be part of Hocking Hills State Park near Logan. Among its components: * A 540-square-foot observatory with a retractable roof, with telescopes inside for stargazing. * An outdoor solar plaza, surrounded by a low wall that will offer framed views of the sun, highlighting its orientation at different times of the year. * Regular programming, both day and night, open to the public, along with research alliances with Ohio universities. The park is being developed by the nonprofit Friends of Hocking Hills State Park, with assistance from the Columbus Astronomical Society. The state has agreed to lease parkland to the Friends group for $1 a year, according to Julieann Burroughs, board president of the Friends of Hocking Hills State Park. Burroughs said the group has been talking about adding an astronomy park for years. Southeast Ohio, she said, is among a few areas left in the state not affected by significant light pollution. "The skies at night here are unbelievable," she said. The idea really took off in recent months, after John Glenn agreed to lend his name to the project. Glenn, who died last month at age 95, is a native of New Concord, Ohio, about an hour north of the park that will bear his name. "It's a great way to honor a great hero," said Burroughs. Burroughs said the group hopes to bid out the project next month. The park could open in late 2017, she said. Meanwhile, fundraising continues. The group has raised just over half of the project's estimated $1.6 million cost. For more information and to donate: friendsofhockinghills.org. Chicago Foundation Offers Grants To Help Women During Trump's First 100 Days By Stephen Gossett in News on Jan 4, 2017 7:49PM Photo: Tyler LaRiviere The election of Donald Trump brought forth a wave of outreach and support for a seemingly endless spectrum of rights and benefits that could find themselves under attack in the new administration. Given the lousy track record of Vice President Mike Pence in particular on reproductive justice, one of those areas of concern was womens rights. Now, with Trumps inauguration on the horizon, a local womens advocacy organization is stepping up to the challenge. The Chicago Foundation for Women on Wednesday launched The 100 Day Fund, a campaign to ignite funding during the first 100 days of the Trump administration for local groups and activities that promote gender equality. The CFW will offer grants, ranging between $500 and $2,500, through April 30 to groups that focus on issues affecting women and girls in the Chicago region. Projects and activities that support and expand the engagement and leadership of women of color are especially encouraged, according to CFW. We have seen a surge of interest in supporting local efforts to advance equity for women and girls, said K. Sujata, president and CEO of Chicago Foundation, in a press release. The 100 Day Fund provides funding for this energy and engagement to continue beyond the inauguration and Womens Marches, and continue our momentum to achieve gender equity. Applicants have until Feb. 3 to submit and can do so here. And if you're not affiliated with an organization but would still like to assist the cause, donation can be made to The 100 Day Fund here. Honey Butter Fried Chicken Joins 'Sanctuary Restaurants' Aiming To Combat Discrimination By Anthony Todd in Food on Jan 4, 2017 10:53PM via HBFC During the recent presidential election cycle, there was a lot of coverage of so-called "Sanctuary Cities." These are municipalities that don't let their police inquire about immigration status or choose to provide services to undocumented immigrants. President-Elect Trump has threatened to de-fund them. Now, a more local version of the concept has entered the restaurant world: "Sanctuary Restaurants." Two organizations, Restaurant Opportunities Centers United and Presente, have teamed up to start the brand new program. Participating restaurants agree not to allow harassment on their property "based on immigrant/refugee status, race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation" and post prominent signage labeling themselves as a sanctuary restaurant, using the slogan "A Place At the Table for Everyone" in the restaurant. In an industry that employs a significant number of individuals without documentation, immigration enforcement is a very real issue, especially as the incoming administration has threatened extensive deportations and crackdowns. "While the restaurant industry suffers from a labor shortage, anti-immigrant and sexist rhetoric is now commonplace," Restaurant Opportunities Centers United co-founder Saru Jayaraman said in a statement. "Sanctuary Restaurants seeks to create the world we want - establishments free from hate and discrimination, where everyone has a seat at the table." The list of restaurants is small so far, but includes some prominent Midwestern locations, including Chicago's own Honey Butter Fried Chicken and Zingerman's in Ann Arbor. Learn more online. On their website, they also have resources for restaurant employees, including tips for what rights they have during an immigration raid, a printable "my rights" card and a number to report incidents of discrimination. Will this make a huge difference to undocumented immigrants (especially restaurant employees) in the age of Trump? It's definitely a sign of resistance, and one that may alienate some patrons depending on the restaurant's location. But it might also provide a sense of solidarity between employees and restaurant ownership, and given the ongoing difficulties restaurants are having finding labor, this might be a real draw. We'll keep an eye on the list of restaurants that join up. Update: We reached out to Josh Kulp and Christine Cikowski, chefs at Honey Butter Fried Chicken, to learn more about their participation in the program. We are happy to be a Sanctuary Restaurant, which we believe means a discrimination free zone for everyone - that includes our staff, customers, and our community. Regardless of background, race, gender, politics - all are welcome here. Honey Butter strives to be a safe, nurturing, and non-judgmental space for our staff, customers, and our community. Wang Qishan, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, attends a meeting on anti-graft inspection in Beijing, Feb. 23, 2016. Another year, and another prime-time documentary series from the Communist Party's top anti-graft watchdog is hitting mainland TV screens this time detailing how the agency dealt with rot within its own ranks. The three-part series, aired on CCTV nightly from Tuesday, reveals how discipline officers exploited their power over other officials including those of higher rank in exchange for cash and discounts on property purchases, among other bribes. The watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, has become more powerful than ever since President Xi Jinping came to office and key ally Wang Qishan became the CCDI's head four years ago. Discipline officials were so powerful they could intimidate higher officials, the series said. Zhu Mingguo, Guangdong's former top graft buster who was given a suspended death sentence for corruption last year, said in the documentary that officials were afraid of the watchdog. "A discipline commission chief's views on an official or party member can decide his whole life," Zhu said. As the anti-graft campaign has gained pace, officials have become more fearful of taking bribes, prompting many bribers to offer favours to disciplinary officials who are considered immune from investigation to advance their causes. Deutsche Bank agreed to pay $95 million to resolve a U.S. government lawsuit accusing the German bank of tax fraud for using "insolvent" shell companies to hide significant tax liabilities from the Internal Revenue Service in 2000. Under the accord described in papers filed on Wednesday with the federal court in Manhattan, Deutsche Bank also admitted to trying to stick the shell companies with the tax bill for its then-new stake in drugmaker Bristol-Myers Squibb . The settlement resolves a lawsuit filed in December 2014 that had sought to recoup more than $190 million in taxes, penalties and interest. "The government, through this action and settlement, has made Deutsche Bank admit to its actions designed to avoid taxes," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in Manhattan said in a statement. Gov. Rauner Is Skipping Trump's Presidential Inauguration By aaroncynic in News on Jan 5, 2017 4:19PM Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner at the Illinois State Fair. Photo by Aaron Cynic. Update 1/6/17, 2:10 p.m. In perfect Trumpian form, Trump spokesman Sean Spicer responded to questions about Rauner skipping the inauguration by not answering them directly, and by assuring us that everyone who's anyone is totally going to be present for the festivities. "I think there has been an unbelievable demand for people to attend the inauguration," Spicer said, according to the Tribune. "We have had endless requests." He added that there would be "no shortage of Republicans, Independents and Democrats that will line the Mall to welcome in the next president and see real change to come to America." Gov. Bruce Rauner says he will not attend the inauguration of President elect Donald Trump in two weeks. Im focused on Illinois. I really try to minimize the distractions, Rauner told NBC5s Mary Ann Ahern. I minimize my time out of state. Much like national conventions for political parties, the inauguration is an opportunity to raise both a political profile and campaign cash. Arguably, with the recent $50 million he put in his campaign warchest, Rauner doesnt really need to raise either. He skipped out on this years RNC as well. Throughout the election, Rauner treated Trump like a reluctant Death Eater might have treated Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter, giving him wary support without specifically saying his name. Despite criticizing the mans abhorrent comments on women and the lack of a formal endorsement, during the election Rauner framed support for Trump as support for the Republican party. What we cant do is have Hillary get in the White House, Rauner said at the Illinois GOP convention in May. No way Hillarys getting in the White House. In early September, he indicated hed cast a vote for Trump with a nod to an attendee at a banquet, but when later pressed on the matter declined to comment further saying he was focused 100 percent on Illinois instead. Rauners office released a statement to the Tribune on his decision to not go to Washington on Jan. 20 that sounded very similar: The governor is 100 percent focused on Illinois including passing a truly balanced budget and changing our broken political system. Despite this perceived lack of enthusiasm for the reign of a reality television star turned politician that's galvanized fascists nationwide, Rauner said he and Trump had a "good" talk last month. "Ive had some good conversations with the new administration in Washington because I want to try to figure out if we can work together, because I want Illinois to benefit from the changes coming, he said. The "Fast Money" traders were torn over the discrepancy between consumer data and early holiday sales figures. Last week, The Conference Board said its Consumer Confidence Index hit 113.7 in December, its highest level since August 2001. Despite optimistic data, Macy's said Wednesday that its comparable-store sales declined 2.1 percent in November and December, the critical holiday months for retail. "While our sales trend is consistent with the lower end of our guidance, we had anticipated sales would be stronger. We believe that our performance during the holiday season reflects the broader challenges facing much of the retail industry," Terry Lundgren, chairman and CEO of Macy's, said in a statement. Trader Pete Najarian said that some of the pain in the retail sector is just a continuation of the online sales story where Amazon is just eating everyone else's lunch. Trader Steve Grasso said that if Amazon gets lumped in with the rest of the retail sector and sells off with it, he would be interested in getting the stock at a discount. Trader Karen Finerman said that it seems department stores are being hit the hardest. She said it's unclear how much of the downside in department stores may hit brands like Michael Kors . If investors are looking for stocks in retail, trader David Seaburg said consumers will always want to buy things at a discount. He said he'd look at stocks like TJX or Nordstrom , which has its own discount business alongside its department stores. It's that time again! Jim Cramer rang the lightning round bell, which means he gave his take on caller favorite stocks at rapid speed: Advanced Micro Devices : "I don't think anyone knows something other than the fact that the company is doing much better than people think. It does have a kind of difficult agreement that may cause some profit taking because it has to share some profit. But I will tell you that AMD is back and I think it can still go higher." Merck : "Merck I think is a hold. I believe in the work that Ken Frazier [CEO] is doing and I would not sell the stock. Don't forget it also yields 3 percent." Kimberly-Clark : "It's down because ... it is not a Trump stock. Why? Because it doesn't do better with a stronger economy. That said, I am never going to tell someone to sell the stock of Kimberly-Clark. A great American company, just a few points forward from its low, with a 3 percent yield. If anything, I say buy more." Crown Castle International : "I think that wireless towers is terrific, but I always tell people that AMT and SBAC are the better ones and I'm going to stick by that, particularly with American Tower." Costco Wholesale : "We are going to get some numbers from Costco. It's probably going to get hit. My club members say that no, I think Costco is a play on the membership card price going up. Tomorrow we might get that buying opportunity." Sonoco Products : "Stop looking, start buying! That is a company that I have liked since 1989 when my father did some work for them. It's a terrific packaging company." More than 40,000 Americans travel each year to Costa Rica to seek medical and dental treatment. These "medical tourists" have discovered that this little Central American country has high quality healthcare available at a very low cost. And expats who live in Costa Rica are able to take advantage of this benefit every day of the year, paying a fraction of what they did back home for doctor's visits, surgeries, prescriptions, and any other care they need. There are two medical systems in Costa Rica, with expats allowed to access both. First is the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social, known as Caja for short. This is universal healthcare, provided and managed by the government. It's available to citizens and legal residents, including foreigners with the pensionado visa, for example. As part of Caja, you pay a monthly fee based on the income you reported on your residence application, 6% to 12%. This covers the applicant and a dependent spouse, with the average fee running from $75 to $150 per couple. After you pay your monthly fee, all your care is covered. Doctor's visits (including specialists), diagnostic testing, prescriptions, surgerieseverything. And there are no exclusions for age or pre-existing conditions. Most expats say the Caja provides good care, although there can be issues with wait times for doctor's visits and non-emergency procedures. The system has an emphasis on preventative care. There is also an extensive private medical system in Costa Rica, with doctors, clinics, and hospitals throughout the country. You can pay cash to see private providers, but it's still cheap. A doctor's visit is $50; you'll pay $80 to $100 to see a specialist. An ultrasound will run you about $75. And even major surgeries are cheap, about half to a quarter of the cost in the U.S. You can also use insurance, either international policies or those provided by Costa Rican companies. Most private hospitals have international patient departments to help you arrange financial matters. Often expats mix and match private and public medical care. They might see a private doctor and pay cash and then have their prescription filled in the Caja pharmacy for free. Or if a procedure is taking too long to schedule at a public clinic, they might go private. Something to keep in mind: although there are well-regarded facilities throughout the country, the best hospitals and most specialists in both the public and private system are in San Jose, Costa Rica's capital. So if you have a serious medical issue, you will likely have to travel there to seek treatment. Jason Holland Verizon's proposed purchase of Yahoo , marred by news of breaches of Yahoo users' accounts, is likely to go through despite the rumored discount Verizon may receive, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong told CNBC on Thursday. "The hacking news that came out of Yahoo ... is something that Verizon and the general counsel of Verizon is dealing directly with Yahoo on," Armstrong said. "I remain hopeful the deal will close and I think we'll see what the outcomes are of the Yahoo investigations in the meantime." While he said he would not comment on any potential discounts Verizon may receive, Armstrong told "Squawk on the Street" that in the meantime, Verizon and Yahoo are working to effectively assimilate the two companies in the event that the deal is successfully completed. "I think we're in a position where our 2020 goals are really clear. We want to get to billions of consumers. Yahoo is one step in that process," he said. "Our focus area right now is making sure the culture and the teams work well together in terms of the potential integration." On Thursday, Armstrong told NBC News that Verizon plans to decide whether it will follow through with the Yahoo deal in "the first half of the year." Armstrong is no stranger to integration efforts. In June 2015, AOL became a subsidiary of Verizon after the telecom giant acquired it for $4.4 billion. Since then, others in the industry have followed in Verizon's footsteps, Armstrong said. "People have recognized that distribution and content work very well together," he said, citing the AT&T-Time Warner deal as a "prime example" of the trend. The AOL chief said that companies are focusing on gaining access to consumers through digital routes like mobile and mobile video, a shift that he said AOL and Verizon noticed and acted on more than a year ago. "[I] love what's happening in the industry because I think it's a total validation of what we did together with Verizon 18 months ago," Armstrong said. Armstrong spoke to CNBC from the sidelines of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The trade show attracts more than 3,800 companies involved in consumer technology development and innovation and more than 165,000 attendees. At the show, Verizon and AOL revealed their new "BrandBuilder suite," a program for advertisers that allows them to more transparently and securely find and convert new customers to their brands, he said. "One hundred percent of the advertising industry is now moving toward software-driven, data-targeted advertising," Armstrong said. "If you're a customer of ours and you want mobile consumers, which everybody wants, we are uniquely positioned with Verizon to bring AOL ad systems and Verizon data together to do really differentiated business in the advertising world," he said. Correction: Armstrong is "hopeful" the deal will close. The headline of an earlier version mischaracterized his thoughts on the deal. Apple reported Thursday that developers raked in $20 billion on its App Store in 2016, a 40 percent jump since 2015. That suggests Apple reaped at least $8 billion in revenue from its App Store, an analyst said. "2016 was an amazingly great year for the App Store," Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, told CNBC. "We continue to advance what is available for developers to create. And our catalog of apps grew 20 percent to 2.2 million." Schiller said the biggest drivers for the App Store included games such as "Pokemon Go," which was the most downloaded app in 2016; "Super Mario," which was the most downloaded app on Christmas and New Year's days; and subscription-based apps, such as Netflix , Hulu and Time Warner's HBO Go. The tech giant said its biggest day of sales on the App Store was on Jan. 1, 2017, when customers spent a record $240 million. The top grossing markets included the U.S, U.K., Japan and China, which saw 90 percent year-over-year growth. Investors pay close attention to the performance of the App Store, as Apple now emphasizes its role as a services company. The broad smartphone market is maturing, and the tech giant is highlighting recurring revenue streams that do not depend on new device sales. Some research suggests that the best days of growth in the apps market may have come and gone. Schiller disputed that, pointing to his store's recent performance. "I will let the success of the App Store speak for itself," he said. "The App Store is bigger than ever and growing faster than ever. There is a lot of success ahead for developers." Based on Apple's traditional cut of 30 cents for every dollar that moves through the store, the revenue generated by the app sales totaled about $8 billion to $9 billion for Apple last year, according to Jan Dawson, chief analyst at Jackdaw Research. Digital stores represent big battlegrounds between Apple and rival Google . According to App Annie, which provides market data for the app economy, Google Play's worldwide downloads were 115 percent higher than Apple's App Store downloads in the third quarter, which is the latest data available. However, Apple maintained its advantage in revenue. In the third quarter, App Store revenue was 100 percent higher than Google Play's. Disclosure: Hulu is partially owned by CNBC parent NBC Universal. To that end, he said the U.S. is doing more information sharing with foreign governments as well as with state and local law enforcement. DHS has "developed an impressive capability to track the travel of individuals who potentially pose a threat to the country and share that information with others in the U.S. government." Johnson warned that terrorists are becoming more sophisticated in their methods and that the U.S. still needed to "guard against ISIL's foreign terrorists fighters leaving the battlefield in Syria and Iraq and attempting to travel to the United States." Writing in his exit memo to President Barack Obama , the DHS secretary added, "These actors are inspired by effective terrorist use of the Internet, live among us in the homeland, and most often plan and attack alone and in secret, with little or no notice to law enforcement. ISIL has, in effect, outsourced terrorism when it comes to the U.S. homeland." At the same time, Secretary Jeh Johnson said the U.S. still has its work cut out preventing "large and small scale 'terrorist-directed' attacks originating from overseas." He also said the national security apparatus "must also detect and prevent 'terrorist-inspired' attacks from homegrown violent extremists." The Obama administration leaves having made progress abroad fighting Islamic State militants as well as al-Qaeda and other terror affiliates, according to a memo from the departing Department of Homeland Security secretary. In 2016, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency prevented 14,293 "high risk travelers" from boarding airplane flights. That compares with 2015 when the government's preclearance efforts denied boarding to more than 10,700 travelers. The official said preclearance efforts are being strengthened domestically and overseas. "We must continue on all these tracks to monitor and prevent terrorist travel," he said. Johnson also singled out the FBI and others for "doing an excellent job detecting, investigating, preventing, and prosecuting terrorist plots in the homeland." DHS, the newest and third-largest Cabinet-level department of the U.S. government, also sees public vigilance and reporting of suspicious activity as instrumental in preventing terrorism given what Johnson termed "this particular environment of homegrown violent extremism and the lone wolf actor." Meantime, Johnson's exit memo also highlighted that cyberthreats are on the rise, and the need to do more to "fix our broken immigration system." "As online threats grow, we must secure the Internet and the increasing number of Internet-connected devices and infrastructure," he said. "Cyber threats are increasing in their frequency, scale, sophistication, and severity. This affects everyone, across the country and around the globe." According to Johnson, the department's National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center the federal government's hub for cybersecurity sharing and incident response sent out more than 6,000 bulletins last year and responded onsite to 32 cybersecurity incidents. To further enhance cyber efforts, the federal government recently deployed an automated information platform to share cyberthreat knowledge with the private sector in real time. Johnson also hailed U.S. cooperation with China on cybersecurity as an achievement of the Obama administration. He said the agreement between the two nations includes a pledge to "refrain from conducting or knowingly supporting cyber-enabled theft of intellectual property, including trade secrets, with the intent of providing competitive advantages to domestic companies." Finally, the secretary said the issue of immigration remains a challenge. "Spanning the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations, our government has invested more in border security than at any point in the history of this nation," Johnson wrote. According to the DHS secretary, the Border Patrol agency "has never had a larger or more sophisticated inventory of technology and equipment to carry out its mission." For example, the Border Patrol now uses drones, thermal imaging capabilities and underground sensor technology on the U.S.-Mexico border. The agency's number of unmanned aerial systems, or drones, has more than doubled in the past 16 years while the force of agents at the southern border also has roughly doubled during this time period. "This investment has paid off," Johnson said. "Today, it is now much harder to cross our southern border without authorization and avoid detection and apprehension." Johnson also said there's been "a dramatic shift in the demographic of this illegal migration that has presented challenges to our immigration system fewer Mexicans and single adults are arriving, and more women and children, primarily from Central America, are fleeing poverty and violence and crossing our southern border." He also defended the Obama administration's efforts "to fix the immigration system, make it more fair, and make our enforcement smarter and more efficient. The next administration and the next Congress must return to the subject of comprehensive immigration reform." watch now tanked as much as 23 percent Thursday afternoon after nearing an all-time high earlier in the trading day. The world's largest cryptocurrency by market cap traded as low as $887.47, down from the day's high of $1,153.02, according to CoinDesk data. The high for the day was just shy of $1,165.89 set on November 30, 2013. The price has recovered somewhat from the day's low to about $973.89 at the time of publication. Chris Ratcliffe | Bloomberg | Getty Images However, bitcoin beat its high on some other cryptocurrency exchanges. Whereas CoinDesk's price index takes into account many different bitcoin exchanges individual exchanges, where users can trade bitcoin, noted their own highest prices were exceeded. Among these were one of China's biggest and most liquid exchanges, BTC China. Industry experts said the rapid rally in bitcoin created a little bubble which is now bursting but the long-term prospects are still positive. "Once we broke through the nominal all-time high, liquidity dried up no shorts, no sellers, which means a volatile little bubble formed quickly," Peter Smith, chief executive of bitcoin wallet Blockchain, told CNBC by email. "We are seeing the effects of that now. It's still fairly thin trading volume though. I expect the market will find a floor and stabilize somewhere in the $850 to $1,000 range, but we'll see." Wild swings in bitcoin's price are not unusual and volatility is a characteristic of the virtual currency. Yuan rise behind bitcoin fall? Shanghai's retail property market performed buoyantly in 2016 with ample supply and robust demand from both tenants and investors, Colliers International said in a report yesterday. The net absorption of retail space, a measure of change in total demand, surged to 581,000 square meters last year, more than twice the level of 2015, the report said. Shanghais retail property market was active last year, mainly boosted by increasing retail sales which grew 7.8 percent in the first 11 months, said Carlby Xie, director of research for Colliers China operation. A large stock of new supply, however, did not impact the overall vacancy rate which edged up just 0.3 percentage points from 2015 to 12.1 percent by the end of last year. Fashion, particularly casual sportswear, food and beverage, as well as retailers catering to children and their needs spurred robust demand for both new and existing properties, according to Colliers International. Landlords managed to achieve an average rental increase of 4.2 percent in 2016 from a year earlier, excluding the effect of new supply where opening rents are typically below the market average. With the new supply included, the citywides average rent fell 4 percent year on year to 37.3 yuan (US$5.34) per square meter per day. Leading Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage, who has said he wants to be a bridge between the British government and the new U.S. administration, will attend U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration later this month. Farage, who will attend the event as a guest of Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant, spoke at a Trump rally in Mississippi during the U.S. presidential campaign and was the first British politician to meet the president-elect after his victory, ahead of Prime Minister Theresa May. Farage spent decades campaigning for Britain to leave the European Union and helped to force then Prime Minister David Cameron to call the June 2016 referendum that resulted in the Brexit vote. Trump has said Farage - the former leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) - would be great as Britain's envoy to Washington, but the British government has dismissed the suggestion. [nL8N1DN19B] Asked if he would be attending Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20, Farage told Sky News: "I certainly am, I can't wait." "The governor of Mississippi has invited me and I'm there for a few days and it's going to be a great, historic event. In America they've had a political revolution and it's complete; the problem in Britain is our revolution is not complete because the same people are still in charge." Senior U.S. intelligence officials face questions at a Senate hearing today, that's expected to be dominated by the intel community's assessment that Russia meddled in the election to help Donald Trump win. (AP) Senators also get a closed door briefing today on the Russian hacking intelligence, as does President Barack Obama. Trump is expected to meet tomorrow was intel officials in New York. (ABC News) Trump, a harsh intelligence critic, is working with top advisers on a plan that would restructure and pare back the nation's top spy agency, according to the Wall Street Journal. Sean Spicer, a Republican strategist tapped to be Trump's press secretary, said the president-elect's Twitter is unscripted and all his own. But Spicer refuted the notion that Trump's tweets are random. (Chicago SunTimes) Facebook (FB) co-founder Mark Zuckerberg's 2017 personal challenge to meet people in all 50 states is raising questions about whether he's considering a role in government, which SEC documents show he could do while controlling the social network. (TechCrunch) Apple (AAPL), complying with what the tech group said was a request from Chinese authorities, removed news apps created by The New York Times from its app store in China late last month. (NY Times) Retail stocks were getting slammed, after Macy's (M) posted disappointing holiday sales and warned on full-year earnings. The retailer also released a list of closures and an estimated 10,000 workers cuts. The stock was more than 9 percent lower in premarket trading. (CNBC) Sears stock (SHLD) was also taking it on the chin by about 4 percent, after saying it plans to close 108 Kmart and 42 Sears stores over the next few months, as it looks to stem its operating losses. (CNBC) Hedge-fund manager Edward Lampert has pumped an additional $1 billion into his yearslong effort to revive Sears, but the CEO's latest financing likely is just another short-term fix for the struggling retailer. (WSJ) Shares of Kohl's (KSS) were falling a steeper 15 percent in the premarket, after the department store chain lowered its 2016 forecast, due to soft holiday sales, despite a strong Black Friday and the week before Christmas. (Reuters) After getting off to a slow start following the election, retailers overall rang up a record $91.7 billion in online sales over the holidays, an 11 percent increase on-year but barely edging out an industry forecast. (CNBC) UPS (UPS) expects holiday returns to peak today, on what it calls National Returns Day. Shoppers are projected to send back 1.3 million packages with UPS today along, and more than 5.8 million this week. (Post Gazette) Check out which companies are making headlines before the bell: Macy's The retailer's stock tumbled around 10 percent after announcing disappointing holiday sales and a plan to likely cut 10,000 workers. Macy's same-store sales dropped 2.1 percent in November and December, around the low end of its previous guidance. Kohl's Kohl's slashed its full-year earnings guidance to a range of $3.60 to $3.65 per share, sending its stock reeling 15 percent. Alexion Pharmaceuticals The drug company's shares gained more than 5 percent after Alexion reiterated its sales and earnings guidance for 2016. Alexion said it expects 2016 revenues to range between $3.05 billion and $3.1 billion and adjusted earnings per share between $4.50 and $4.65. Alphabet The Labor Department filed a lawsuit against Alphabet's Google unit seeking access to the company's compensation data and documents, specifically to its equal opportunity program. Walgreens Boots Alliance The largest drug store chain in the U.S. reported an unexpected drop in quarterly sales, but raised the lower end of its fiscal 2017 earnings range by 5 cents, to $4.90 per share. Separately, Walgreens said it working toward closing its takeover of Rite Aid "in the early part of this calendar year." Constellation Brands The maker of Corona and Modelo beers posted a 10.3 percent increase in quarterly sales, helped by strong demand for its high-end beers and the acquisition of Ballast Point, a brewing company in San Diego, California. Mylan Analysts at Citi downgraded the drugmaker's stock to "neutral" from "buy," and cut its price target to $44 from $59. Citi said it sees "limited upside" on the stock, citing "the opportunity for meaningful multiple expansion from current levels, given our stance on the generics space in general." Mastercard RBC upgraded the credit card firm's stock to "top pick" from "outperform" and hiked its price target to $130 from $115. The analysts cited a possible pickup in earnings and a re-acceleration in sales while operation expenditures slow, among others. Twilio Pacific Crest upgraded Twilio shares to "overweight" from "sector weight," citing an "underappreciated growth potential inherent in a usage-based model similar to [Amazon Web Services]." Twilio's stock rose more than 3 percent in premarket trading. Western Digital Analysts at BMO upgraded the California-based company's stock to "outperform" from "market perform," and raised its price target to $90 from $66. BMO also said it expects organic revenue growth to return in fiscal 2017. Reuters contributed to this report. Correction: This story has been updated to reflect Macy's same-store sales fell 2.1 percent in November and December. A worker shepherds finished grocery boxes ready for delivery at the new FreshDirect online grocery service warehouse in New York City. The U.S. Department of Agriculture plans to launch a two-year pilot program this summer with seven retailers to allow food stamp recipients the ability to purchase their groceries online. More than 44 million Americans participated last year in federal government's low-income food assistance program, called SNAP, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Last year, the average benefit each person received was just over $125.50 per month. "Online purchasing is a potential lifeline for SNAP participants living in urban neighborhoods and rural communities where access to healthy food choices can be limited," USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a release. "We're looking forward to being able to bring the benefits of the online market to low-income Americans participating in SNAP." The pilot program will take place in seven states, in both urban and rural areas. Online grocery still represents only a small portion of the overall at-home food category but it is growing faster due to the success of companies such as Amazon and others. Amazon will participate in the pilot in Maryland, New Jersey and New York. The six other retailers selected include: FreshDirect in New York; Safeway in Maryland, Oregon and Washington; ShopRite in Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania; as well as Hart's Local Grocers and Dash's Market in certain New York locations. "Amazon is excited to participate in the USDA SNAP online purchasing pilot," the Seattle-based ecommerce giant said in a statement. "We are committed to making food accessible through online grocery shopping, offering all customers the lowest prices possible." FreshDirect, the Northeast online food retailer, said in a statement, "With the SNAP pilot, we look forward to bringing the online purchasing option to SNAP clients and positively impacting all the communities that we serve." Brick-and-mortar chains such as Wal-Mart are aggressively expanding into the online grocery space and also offering both delivery as well as pick-up service at certain locations. Wal-Mart wasn't listed as one of the pilot participants; CNBC reached out to Wal-Mart for comment. The department said it eventually anticipates being able to add additional retailers after confirming the "system is operating as required." USDA said the retailers selected for the pilot "represent a variety of store types, including national online retailers as well as large grocery chains and smaller, regional networks to appropriately test online SNAP purchasing in different settings." Kroger wasn't immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC. Senior U.S. officials will answer questions at a Senate hearing expected to be dominated by the assessment from intelligence agencies that Russia meddled in the presidential election to help Donald Trump win. The Senate Armed Services Committee's cyberthreats hearing Thursday comes a day before the president-elect receives a briefing by the CIA and FBI directors along with the head of national intelligence on the investigation into Russia's alleged hacking efforts. Trump has criticized their findings and even seemed to back WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's contention that Russia did not provide him with hacked Democratic emails. In new tweets early Thursday, Trump backed away from his apparent embrace of Assange. Trump blamed the "dishonest media" for portraying him as agreeing with Assange, whose organization has been under criminal investigation for its role in classified information leaks. "The media lies to make it look like I am against 'Intelligence' when in fact I am a big fan!" Trump wrote. The committee's session is the first in a series aimed at investigating purported Russian cyberattacks against U.S. interests and developing defenses sturdy enough to blunt future intrusions. "We will obviously be talking about the hacking, but the main thing is the whole issue of cybersecurity," the committee chairman, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said before the hearing. "Right now we have no policy, no strategy to counter cyberattacks." Scheduled to testify were James Clapper, the national intelligence director; Marcel Lettre, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence; and Adm. Michael Rogers, National Security Agency chief and the top officer at the U.S. Cyber Command. Accusations Russia interfered in the 2016 election by hacking Democratic email accounts have roiled Washington for weeks. President Barack Obama struck back at Moscow in late December with penalties aimed at Russia's leading spy agencies, the GRU and FSB, that the U.S. said were involved. The GRU is Russia's military intelligence agency. The FSB is the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB. But Trump easily could rescind the sanctions. So far, he has publicly refused to accept the conclusion that Russia is responsible for the attacks. Trump this week escalated his criticism of U.S. intelligence professionals, such as Clapper, by tweeting, without evidence, that an upcoming briefing on the suspected Russian hacking had been delayed until Friday, and said, "perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange!" Intelligence officials said there had been no delay. Trump suggested Wednesday in a tweet that one of Russia's primary targets, the Democratic National Committee, could be to blame for being "so careless." The penalties imposed by Obama came after he pledged a "proportional" response to the hacking of the Democratic Party and presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman. Emails stolen during the campaign were released in the final weeks by WikiLeaks. CIA Director John Brennan said in a Dec. 16 message to employees that the FBI agreed with the agency's conclusion that Russia's goal was to support Trump in the election. Brennan wrote that he also had spoken with Clapper and said "there is strong consensus among us on the scope, nature, and intent of Russian interference in our presidential election." Moscow has denied the hacking allegations and dismissed Obama's sanctions as an attempt to "harm Russian-American ties." Although Russian President Vladimir Putin rebuked the Obama administration for trying to punish Russia, he said his country would not immediately retaliate and would instead wait for a new U.S. approach after Trump takes office. Trump praised Putin's move and called him "very smart." To buttress the case for sanctions imposed by Obama and to expose Russia's cybertactics, the Homeland Security Department released a report prepared with the FBI that for the first time officially tied cyberattacks into the DNC email accounts to hackers affiliated with the GRU and FSB. New Competition Series Features Host of CNBC's Hit Show "The Profit" Ten Finalists Compete for a Half-Million Dollar Contract and an Equity Stake in Lemonis's Massive Portfolio of Businesses ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J. January 26, 2017 CNBC today announced the ten finalists participating in THE PARTNER, the all-new series featuring Marcus Lemonis the renowned investor, entrepreneur, and host of CNBC's hit show "The Profit." Premiering Tuesday, March 7 at 10pm ET/PT, the five episode series follows Lemonis as he searches for the perfect partner to help him manage the fast-growing portfolio of businesses he's acquired. In the end, one candidate will receive the opportunity of a lifetime: a half-million dollar contract, an equity stake, and the chance to help Lemonis manage his empire. Watch trailer: http://bit.ly/2jjb1dx After investing nearly $50 million of his own money in companies featured on "The Profit," Lemonis is now ready to invest in "The Partner." Thousands of people hailing from all corners of the country applied for the opportunity to participate, but only ten were invited to Chicago to take part in the final interview process. They are: "It has been a privilege to work so closely with some of the most hard-working entrepreneurs in the country, all of whom have shown me the heart and desire to turn their businesses around," Lemonis said. "In this new adventure, I am looking for someone with that same drive and passion to help inspire these up and coming business leaders, sustain their growth and their enthusiasm, and ensure that the sound investments we made today, are even more sound in the decades ahead." Self-made millionaire and serial entrepreneur Marcus Lemonis is best known for lending his expertise to struggling small businesses around the country on "The Profit." As a result of successful partnerships on CNBC's original series, Lemonis has added a variety of new product lines and services to his holding company, Marcus Lemonis Enterprises LLC. When he's not busy teaching business owners his famed "Three Ps": People, Process and Product, he is focused on running two companies of his own he serves as chairman and CEO of Camping World, the nation's largest RV and outdoor retailer, and Good Sam, the world's largest RV owner's organization. "The Partner" is produced by Marcus Lemonis Productions LLC and Machete Productions with Amber Mazzola and Marcus Lemonis as executive producers. Jim Ackerman and Luke Bauer are the executive producers for CNBC. To learn more about "The Partner," visit thepartner.cnbc.com. Like us on Facebook and Instagram and follow us on Twitter. @TheProfitCNBC. #ThePartner Rep. Jeb Hensarling told CNBC on Thursday that he is against one of Donald Trump's proposed policies. When asked in an interview on CNBC's "Closing Bell" if he would support an import tariff, Hensarling said, "I do not favor a border tax, let me be clear. I do not wish to equivocate." Hensarling, R-Tex., made his comments during a discussion about Trump going after automakers who have manufacturing plants in Mexico. Earlier on Thursday, Trump rebuked Toyota Motor on Twitter after the Japanese automaker said it had no plans to curb production in Mexico. The president-elect has previously threatened General Motors with a border tax, something he argues will encourage companies to keep production in the United States, creating more jobs for Americans. But that tariff could inordinately impact retail companies as 95 percent of clothing and shoes sold in the U.S. are manufactured overseas. Opponents argue that this could lead to skyrocketing costs for the American consumer. Hensarling, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, argued the major reason jobs are moving out of the United States is because America doesn't have a competitive, simple tax code. "I prefer carrots over sticks and I prefer tax reform over taxes," he said. "What we need to do is make America the most attractive place to site a business, to grow a business, to create a business." Hensarling said, however, that he does "appreciate" a president "who is passionate about keeping jobs in America" and "actually wants to reform the tax code." CNBC's Courtney Reagan and Katie Little contributed to this report. You are here: Home A Chinese mobile phone user uses the taxi-hailing app Didi Chuxing on her smartphone. [Photo/Xinhua] Chinese mobile transportation giant Didi Chuxing partnered with Brazil's largest local shared mobility provider 99 to promote ridesharing, the company announced Thursday. Under the terms of the partnership, Didi has made a strategic investment in 99, and will assume a seat on the Brazilian firm's board of directors, according to the statement released by Didi. In addition, Didi will provide strategic guidance and support, spanning technology, product development, operations and business planning, as 99 continues its active expansion across Brazil and the broader Latin American market. The Brazil mobile transportation giant offers on-demand mobility (ODM) services across 550 cities in Brazil, the world's second fastest-growing Internet market. It has over 140,000 registered drivers and more than 10 million user downloads. The two companies will share their experiences to explore sustainable technology solutions to support smart-city initiatives, as the two nations work toward a comprehensive strategic partnership. "We welcome Didi to Latin America, whose financing, state-of-art technology and operational knowledge will play a key supporting role as 99 actively expands our network and services in Brazil and reshapes the competitive landscape in Latin America," said Peter Fernandez, 99 CEO. "China and Brazil are the world's foremost emerging markets with enormous opportunities for our ridesharing industry," said Cheng Wei, founder and CEO of Didi Chuxing, adding that Didi looked forward to working with more global partners. "I don't think that we have ever encountered a more aggressive or direct campaign to interfere in our election process," the director of national intelligence told the Senate Armed Services Committee. James Clapper made the comment while testifying about Russian hacking during the presidential campaign. The head of U.S. intelligence told a Senate committee Thursday that Russia poses "an existential threat to the United States." Defense Undersecretary for Intelligence Marcell Lettre (L), Director of National Intelligence James Clapper (C) and National Security Agency Director Adm. Michael Rogers (R) testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, January 5, 2017. But Clapper also said the Russian hacking efforts "did not change the vote tallies" in the election, which ended with Donald Trump's victory. Clapper was referring specifically to the question of whether voting machines could have been manipulated to affect the outcome. Clapper added that when it comes to the the question of whether Russian hacking affected "the choices that the electorate made ... there's no way for us to gauge that." "Russia clearly has assumed an even more aggressive cyber posture," Clapper said. He said later: "They do pose an existential threat to the United States." Clapper told the committee that a forthcoming intelligence report "will ascribe a motivation" by Russian President Vladimir Putin for the hacking. But he said he did not want to "pre-empt" the report by revealing the suspected motivation. President Barack Obama has been briefed on the report, a senior intelligence official told NBC News. Obama last week ordered a series of retaliatory steps against Russia for the hacking. During the hearing, the price of VanEck Vectors Russia, an exchange-traded fund that seeks to replicate the price of the DAXglobal Russia+ Index of larger Russian companies, fell more than 1.5 percent. The decline put the ETF on pace for its first negative day since Dec 19, when RSX lost 2.23 percent. Questions about Russian interference have swirled furiously since Trump's victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton in November. While the intelligence community believes top Russian officials were behind cyberattacks aimed at Clinton, Trump has been dismissive of those claims. Trump's backers also have seen the claims as an attack on the legitimacy of his election, but some Republicans have insisted that the matter must be thoroughly investigated. "Every American should be alarmed by Russia's attacks on our nation," committee Chairman Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said at the start of the hearing. "There is no national security interest more vital to the United States of America than the ability to hold free and fair elections without foreign interference." An Apple iPad with the Shopify app is displayed at the entrance to the company's headquarters in Toronto, Ontario. Shares of Shopify spiked more than 8 percent Thursday after a report that the e-commerce company will announce a major partnership with Amazon next week. After the market closed, Shopify formally announced in a news release that it had completed the long-awaited integration. The platform integration connects Shopify merchants to "millions of potential Amazon customers," the company said. Plans were first announced in September 2015, but it wasn't "made generally available" until December. It allows merchants to manage their product catalog for various channels including the Amazon store from Shopify. Sam Kemp, an analyst with Piper Jaffray, said the move was surprising given how long the integration process took but it was still too early to gauge its effect on the stock. Users will be able to use the Amazon channel for free, he said, so the integration of Amazon helps Shopify strengthen its product, which should help it attract new users. "This isn't a direct economic vehicle for Shopify," Kemp said. "Shopify won't make money on the extra volume from Amazon." However, it could make Shopify more competitive with other e-commerce platforms, such as Magento. Kemp said the average Shopify user does $46,000 a year in volume through the platform. Users range from hobbyists, to side-business operators and even large corporations like Tesla and Hershey's . Shopify shares fell about half a percent in extended trade Thursday. Earlier in the day, Rosenblatt analyst Kirk Adams said in a note that the completion of the sales partnership would be a big boost to the company, although there could be some risk for cannibalization. He maintains a current price target of $50 for the stock and expects overall fiscal-year revenue growth of 60 percent for the company. Adams said the "ability to integrate and partner with major players in the marketplace like Amazon and Facebook is one reason for the firm's high opinion on Shopify. The company currently powers more than 350,000 business in about 150 countries via web, mobile and/or brick-and-mortar locations, Adams wrote in the note. Amazon did not respond to CNBC's request for comment. President-elect Donald Trump has said that government regulation is a $2 trillion problem that hurts small businesses, and he claims to have a simple solution. "I will formulate a rule which says that for every one new regulation, two old regulations must be eliminated," says Trump in a November YouTube speech outlining his policy plans for his first 100 days as president. To help him achieve the goal, Trump has tapped investor activist Carl Icahn to be his unofficial czar of regulation. "It's time to break free of excessive regulation and let our entrepreneurs do what they do best: Create jobs and support communities," says Icahn, in a written statement announcing his appointment. "President-elect Trump is serious about helping American families, and regulatory reform will be a critical component of making America work again." He might find that harder to do than he expects. Here's why. Just how big is the problem? It's unclear. Even the scope of the problem is in dispute. Trump estimates $2 trillion, but that figure is controversial. It's difficult to measure the cost of regulation, says Dean Baker, economist and co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, because while a regulation may cost money to comply with, it also may result in savings. "If a regulation says I can't dump my sewage on my neighbor's lawn, then it will force me to spend money to have a sewage system. That's a cost to me, but a benefit to my neighbor," Baker tells CNBC. "The vast majority of the regulations that get cited have this character." And, while staying compliant is a pain point for many small-business owners, a surprising number are actually grateful for the legitimacy regulations give them with customers. Regulations are incredibly complicated One thing everyone agrees on, though, is that regulations are complex. That's partly because they come from so many different places and they shift frequently. "There are multiple agencies that regulate and they are not consistent," says Martin Baily, the Bernard L. Schwartz Chair in Economic Policy Development and a senior fellow in Economic Studies at Brookings. Karen Mills, a senior fellow at the Harvard Business School and at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School, focuses on small-business lending regulation. More than seven different government agencies oversee small-business lending by banks, she has found. "No one regulatory agency has full responsibility," Mills tells CNBC. From 2009 until August 2013, Mills served in President Obama's Cabinet as the administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration. At the end of 2016, Mills published a working paper about the overlapping regulatory confusion surrounding small-business lending. "Companies tell us that they can deal with regulations once they know what they need to do and they can obtain permits in good time. But when rules change over time and permits drag out projects for several years, these are tough to deal with," says Baily. Much of the conflicting tangle of red tape occurs at the state and local level, where the federal government has no say at all. Karen Mills former head of the SBA Regulations come from all levels of government Federal regulations are not the same as state, municipal, county or citywide regulations. "In general, the federal government sets regulatory floors that states are free to go above, but not below," says Baker. As a result, it's often the more local regulations that are the most painful for small-business owners. "Just saying things like for every new regulation that gets put in place, two must be eliminated, doesn't do the trick. It's more complicated than that," says Mills. "Much of the conflicting tangle of red tape occurs at the state and local level, [with] permits for example, where the federal government has no say at all." Old regulations don't get reviewed As new regulations get layered on top of each other, there is no system-wide review process, says Nicole Crain, visiting professor of policy studies and economics at Lafayette College and co-author of several studies on the cost of regulation, including one for the SBA and another for the National Association of Manufacturers. In 2011, Obama attempted to kick-start a regulatory review process by mandating that government agencies controlled by the executive branch submit periodic assessments of their outstanding regulations. But not all agencies are under the jurisdiction of the executive branch. And the law was not strictly enforced. "The degree to which these plans have been developed and implemented varies across agencies," says Crain. "In practice, few rules have been repealed using this process." So, what can Trump do to decrease regulation? The president-elect can have an impact if he's focused and strategic and willing to cooperate. "The Trump administration can do quite a lot, but this will require persistence and, for the most part, will not happen with simply the stroke of the president's pen," says Crain. First, and most meaningfully, he can cooperate with the Hill. "The fastest changes will come through collaboration with Congress by passing legislation that changes the laws that originally authorized the regulations," says Crain. His nominees can also pursue his agenda. "Trump can appoint people to EPA and other agencies that will ease up on regulation," says Baily. The presidents of Toyota Motor and Honda Motor said they have no immediate plans to curb production in Mexico, preferring to wait until after Donald Trump's inauguration as U.S. President this month before deciding whether to make any changes. Automakers in the U.S. have been slammed by Trump for building cars in lower-cost factories south of the border, which he said costs American jobs. Pressure to curb that production intensified this week after Ford Motor scrapped plans to build a $1.6 billion assembly plant in Mexico after Trump harshly criticized the investment. "We will consider our option as we see what policies the incoming president adopts," Toyota President Akio Toyoda said on Thursday at an industry gathering in Tokyo, when asked whether his company was considering any changes to a production plant the automaker is building in Mexico. "We produce cars in Mexico for markets including North America and Europe and we have no immediate plan to change this," Honda's president and chief executive officer, Takahiro Hachigo, said at the event to mark the New Year. Trump has also said General Motors could become subject to tariffs on Mexico-made cars for the U.S. market, and that he would like to renegotiate terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement signed with Canada and Mexico. Toyota, Honda and Nissan Motor , Japan's top three automakers, have production facilities both in the United States and in Mexico, while Toyota and Honda also operate plants in Canada. Much of the vehicles produced in Mexico and Canada and exported to the United States the single biggest market for Japanese automakers. Toyota produces a total of around 100,000 pick-up trucks and truck beds each year at its plant in the state of Baja California, and plans to raise output to around 160,000 units by 2018. It is also building a plant in Guanajuato city which will have an annual capacity of 200,000 when it comes online in 2019. Honda has two auto plants in Mexico, one in Celaya city and the other in Guadalajara city that together build around 260,000 cars and 100,000 motorcycles a year. In the year ended March, Nissan produced around 800,000 vehicles at its three plants in Mexico, nearly half of which were sold in the United States. Alerts for air pollution and fog in north, east and central China were renewed yesterday with heavy smog set to persist until at least this morning. Alerts for air pollution and fog in north, east and central China were renewed yesterday with heavy smog set to persist until at least this morning. The National Meteorological Center said thick fog would reduce visibility to less than 200 meters in areas that included the cities of Beijing and Tianjin, and the provinces of Hebei, Henan, Shandong, Anhui, Jiangsu and Shanxi. In extreme cases, it could fall below 50 meters. Beijing extended its orange alert for heavy air pollution, with smog expected to hang around until the weekend, environmental authorities said. The alert was due to be lifted last night, but the capital's environmental protection bureau said air in most of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region remained severely polluted. Data from Beijing's environmental monitoring center showed that the density of PM2.5, the particulate matter associated with hazardous smog, stood at 391 micrograms per cubic meter at noon. Air quality is set to improve on Sunday night with the arrival of a strong cold front, but some cities in the region may still see moderate to heavy pollution that day. From Monday to Wednesday next week, air in the region will be "good" or "slightly polluted," but it is forecast to worsen again next Thursday, except in parts of Shandong, Henan and Shanxi. Nearly 62 percent of cities monitored by the Ministry of Environmental Protection suffered from air pollution yesterday, providing fresh evidence of the environmental challenges facing the country. Of 338 cities under real-time monitoring by the ministry, 7.1 percent, including Tianjin, were hit by serious air pollution, with air quality index readings exceeding 300. Another 24.9 percent of the cities, including Beijing, saw heavily polluted air, with AQI readings between 201 and 300, the ministry said. In addition, the air in 15.1 percent of the cities, including Hangzhou in east China's Zhejiang Province, was moderately polluted, with AQI readings between 151 and 200. The data also revealed that 14.8 percent of the cities, including Changchun in the northeast's Jilin Province, had slightly polluted air, with readings between 101 and 150. The fog and smog continued to affect traffic across north and central regions yesterday, grounding flights and bringing traffic to a standstill. Several expressways in Beijing including sections linking the capital with Harbin in the northeast, Shanghai in the east, and neighboring Tianjin were closed from early morning to 3pm. Beijing Nanyuan Airport had canceled 46 flights as of 11:30am. In central China's Henan Province, low visibility led to restrictions on 12 expressways. The province also ordered kindergartens and primary schools to close. The neighboring province of Shandong upgraded its alert for heavy fog from orange to red and, as of noon, more than 155 flights from its capital of Jinan had been delayed, canceled or diverted. More than 2,000 tourists had been stranded on a cruise ship for two extra days near Tianjin, as smog prevented the ship from docking, Beijing Evening News reported. Many cities have suffered from frequent winter smog in recent years, triggering widespread public concern. China has stepped up efforts to cut outdated production and has sent inspection teams to supervise environmental measures. President-elect Donald Trump's skepticism about U.S. intelligence conclusions that Russian-led hacking was aimed at disrupting the election is misdirected, former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell told CNBC on Thursday. Mitchell, a veteran Democrat and a former diplomat, said on "Squawk Box" that Trump should err on the side of American intelligence, rather than denials from Russian President Vladimir Putin and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. A Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday about cyber-threats is expected to be dominated by the alleged role of Russia in trying to help get Trump elected. In appearing to side with Russia, Trump is in for a "rude awakening, because Vladimir Putin does not wish the United States well," Mitchell warned. "[Putin] sees the United States as the perpetrator of a great tragedy upon the Soviet Union and Russia," Mitchell said. "He has said that the greatest catastrophe in recent years was the demise of the Soviet Union." President Barack Obama is expected on Thursday to be brought up to speed on an intelligence report he requested on potential Russian cyberattacks on elections dating back to 2008. Trump is set to receive an intelligence briefing on Friday in New York. President-elect Donald Trump's team on Thursday denied reports that he plans to restructure U.S. spy agencies. The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday night that the president-elect is working with top advisers on a plan that would restructure and pare back the nation's top spy agency. The newspaper cited one of the people familiar with Trump's planning who said advisers are working on a plan to restructure the Central Intelligence Agency, cutting back staff at its Virginia headquarters and pushing more people out into field posts. Incoming White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters in a Thursday call "there is no truth to this idea of restructuring the intelligence community infrastructure." "All transition activities are for information-gathering purposes and all discussions are tentative," Spicer said. "The president-elect's top priority will be to ensure the safety of the American people and the security of the nation, and he is committed to finding the best and most effective ways to do it." National Intelligence Director James Clapper testified before a Senate committee Thursday, saying although Russian hacking did not change the actual vote tallies of the presidential election, there was no way to gauge whether voters' opinions were swayed by material leaked from those hacks. Clapper also said Russia has clearly "assumed an even more aggressive cyber posture," and there is a forthcoming intelligence report that "will ascribe a motivation" by Russian officials for those activities. Trump had previously expressed "healthy American skepticism" about U.S. intelligence conclusions, Vice President-elect Mike Pence told reporters Wednesday. Spicer elaborated on the daily transition call, saying Trump had faith in the intelligence data, but not necessarily every conclusion by intelligence officials. In a tweet Thursday, Trump said he's a "big fan" of the intelligence community. The dishonest media likes saying that I am in Agreement with Julian Assange - wrong. I simply state what he states, it is for the people.... to make up their own minds as to the truth. The media lies to make it look like I am against "Intelligence" when in fact I am a big fan! A senior intelligence official told NBC on Thursday that President Barack Obama had received the U.S. intelligence report on Russia's alleged involvement in the 2016 U.S. election and was briefed on it. CNBC's Dan Mangan contributed to this report. The U.S. needs to stop hacking not only by Russia, but also by China and others, Sen. Dan Sullivan said Thursday ahead of the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on cyberthreats. In an interview on CNBC's "Squawk Box," the Alaska Republican and former Marine questioned where the strategy is to prevent the U.S. from being a "cyber punching bag." Sullivan, a member of the committee that's chaired by Sen. John McCain, said the hearing is aimed at finding out the extent of hacking by Russia, China and other foreign actors. But the senator said he has seen no credible evidence that Russia was motivated to use cyberattacks to swing the presidential election. "From my perspective, it's clear Donald Trump [and] Mike Pence won the election fair and square," Sullivan said. "Those who are using the Russian hacking issue to somehow delegitimatize the election results ... are simply wrong and doing a disservice to Americans." President Barack Obama, who requested a report on Russian hacking, is expected on Thursday to be briefed on the findings. Trump is set to meet with U.S. intelligence officials on Friday in New York. U.S.-based employers announced they would cut 33,627 jobs in December, up 25 percent from November's yearly low, according to a monthly report released on Thursday by global outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The layoff total for December was up 42 percent from December of last year, which saw the lowest monthly total in over 15 years. Still, the report said, the total for December of 2016 was far below the annual average of 43,910 cuts. In 2016, U.S. companies announced a total of 526,915 job cuts, down 12 percent from last year's total. December's pink slips brought the 2016 total to settle just under the 2010 average, the first year of recovery after the 2008 financial crisis. "As long as unemployment stays low, employers are really being very careful about laying off people," Challenger CEO John A. Challenger told CNBC's "Squawk Box." But when the time comes to restructure, they're not shy about it, Challenger added. "If a company says, 'Our business is shifting and we need to change,' they don't wait like they used to until the recession hits," he said. The energy sector saw the highest number of layoffs in 2016, totaling 107,714 cuts over the course of the year up 14 percent from 2015. Most of the cuts occurred in the first half of the year, when the industry came under pressure from historically low oil prices. "Oil prices are back on the rise. The new administration poised to take over the White House in January could further benefit the industry by relaxing regulations and drilling restrictions," Challenger said in the report. "Oil companies may once again start to expand in 2017. Ironically, the only obstacle in their way may be a shortage of skilled workers," Challenger said in the release. The computer industry followed energy as one of the biggest 2016 job cutters, laying off 66,821 workers during the year, up over 7 percent since 2015. In the report, Challenger cited "multi-year transformations" to services from hardware at longtime hardware makers like IBM and HP as cause for the layoffs. He said that other tech giants like Microsoft, Dell, and Intel are also undergoing shifts to mobile and trying to boost productivity. "It is hard to say how the tech sector will do under the new administration. Many rely on offshoring as well as the employment of foreign talent immigrating to the U.S. Both of those business practices are likely to come under threat in the coming year," Challenger said in the report. "Only time will tell," the CEO concluded. The top 5 job-cutting sectors of 2016 energy, computer, retail, industrial goods, and financial still saw their job cut totals decrease year over year. Texas, California, Arkansas, New York, and Illinois were the hardest states hit by layoffs year to date. Also on Thursday, ADP and Moody's Analytics released its National Employment Report tracking estimates of private nonfarm payroll employment. These two reports come just one day before the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics releases its official nonfarm payroll numbers. Ever since Apple reached an all-time high valuation of $774 billion early in 2015, many technology industry experts have predicted the stock would be the first ever to reach a $1 trillion market capitalization. Ann Winblad, entrepreneur-turned-venture-capitalist with over 30 years in the tech industry, is not one of them. She told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Thursday she thinks the first $1 trillion company will be Google-parent Alphabet . "But it will be a tight race with Microsoft and Amazon ," said the co-founder of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, which opened its doors in 1989 with a mission to fund early-stage enterprise software companies. "I don't get paid for recommending stocks." In a point-by-point takedown, Winblad's overall analysis basically argues that innovation at Apple is not keeping up. "Even Microsoft is making headway with their hardware Surface against the [MacBook Pro]," she said, adding that Apple's virtual personal assistant Siri is falling behind Amazon's Alexa in the artificial intelligence space. "The 'connected everything,' look what's happening at CES, Amazon is not even there, and they're capturing all the headlines," she said. It's worth noting that Apple is not at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, either. Apple's highest market value eclipses those of Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft, according to FactSet Research. The U.K. may have decided to terminate its membership with the European Union (EU), yet that doesn't mean both sides aren't dedicated to preserving close ties when it's comes to topics like trade, the U.K.'s Finance Minister has told CNBC. "Of course the negotiations will be tough and they will be complicated," Philip Hammond, the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, told CNBC Arabia on Wednesday. "We've spent forty years integrating our economies and now we have to separate them and there are lots of complicated things that have to be unpackaged, unbundled." "And that will take time and it will take effort, but we have mutual interest in maintaining a close economic, commercial and trading relationship." Following the U.K.'s decision to leave the EU in 2016, the world has been watching closely to see what Britain will come up with, when it comes to their proposals for Brexit, however no official plan has yet come to light. As the triggering of Article 50 draws closer, several European leaders have stated that the U.K. cannot "cherry pick" the profitable parts of the political-economic bloc, while financial markets have been on edge as fears of a potential "hard Brexit" cause volatility. "Hundreds of thousands of jobs on the continent of Europe depend on exports to Britain and hundreds of thousands of jobs in Britain depend on our services being delivered into the European Union, particularly financial services from the city of London." "So as this negotiation progresses, it will be in the interests of both sides to make sure that we maintain the most open possible trading relationships between Britain and the European Union." The Langbord family petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the highest court in the United States to determine the fate of 10 1933 Saint-Gaudens $20 double eagles. The Langbord family petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the highest court in the United States to determine the fate of 10 1933 Saint-Gaudens $20 double eagles, after a rare en banc decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in favor of the government. In the Aug. 1, 2016, Court of Appeals decision, nine judges agreed that, while there were errors in 2011 at the trial level, these mistakes did not affect the outcome. Despite the Langbord familys claim that there was a window of opportunity in March 1933 when someone could have exchanged gold for coins including 1933 double eagles the August decision found that the governments experts established at the 2011 trial that no 1933 double eagles ever left the Mint through authorized channels. While most decisions at the federal Appeals level are made by three-judge panels, en banc hearings are generally for complex cases and often are utilized in cases where the courts decision would have broader consequences that would go beyond the scope of the case at hand. Connect with Coin World: Sign up for our free eNewsletter Like us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Joan Langbord has long alleged she found the coins in the back of a safe deposit box shortly after the auction of the sole 1933 double eagle that can be privately owned was sold for $7.6 million in 2002. The coins were alongside property that had belonged to her father, Philadelphia jeweler and occasional coin dealer Israel Switt. Her two sons joined her in the lawsuit. Through attorney Barry Berke the family presented the coins to the U.S. Mint for authentication. The Mint did not return the coins and has consistently contended that all 1933 Double Eagles are, and always have been, property belonging to the United States and that the Langbord family had voluntarily surrendered the coins to the Mint. Disputed for a decade The Langbord family brought suit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in December 2006, requesting that the government either initiate a forfeiture proceeding or return the coins. That District Court ruled in favor of the Langbords, finding that the Mint seized the coins unlawfully and that the familys constitutional due process rights were violated. In July 2011 a jury ruled in favor of the government and on Aug. 29, 2012, the District Court confirmed that the coins were not lawfully removed from the Mint and remained property of the government. A key question throughout has been whether the government appropriately filed its forfeiture complaint in 2009 within a 90-day statutory deadline. In April 2015, two judges in a three-judge panel within the Third Circuit Court of Appeals overturned much of the district courts previous rulings, finding that the government missed a crucial deadline under the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act. This effectively overturned the 2011 jury decision, and the court ordered that the coins be returned to the family. At oral arguments before the full Third Circuit Court of Appeals on Oct. 15, 2015, the Langbord family contended that the government filed its forfeiture action too late and the district court erred at trial with respect to evidence and its jury instructions. The government continued to stress that it did not have to initiate forfeiture proceedings against the coins because it was not obligated to repossess its own property. The Aug. 1 decision found that the government had merely repossessed its own property and asserted its ownership rights to the coins. Final resolution In its Nov. 4, 2016, petition to the United States Supreme Court, the family asked the justices to overturn the District and Appellate court decisions favoring the government. The family and its attorneys hope that the Supreme Court accepts the case, To make clear that in contested situations: (1) the government may not confiscate and retain property based on nothing more than its unilateral claim that it is the rightful owner, and (2) if it does so, it must suffer the penalty that Congress thought necessary and appropriate to deter government overreaching i.e., loss of its ability to seek forfeiture of that property. The Supreme Court receives as many as 10,000 requests to hear cases per year and only accepts 80 to 100 cases in a typical year. While the chances are small, the Langbord family is hoping that the broader implications presented will persuade the highest court to hear its case. Read all of our Coin World Top 10 of 2016 series: - U.S. Mint issues gold Centennial coins - Pogue IV auction tops $16 million - Rare English gold coin found in toy box - Boutique bullion trend catches on worldwide - Langbord 1933 double eagle case rolls on - 1974-D aluminum cent returned to U.S. Mint - Treasury announces new Federal Reserve note designs - 1964 Morgan dollar tooling uncovered - American Liberty silver medal released - U.S. Mint plans yearlong 225th anniversary party The top discipline agency of the Communist Party of China convenes its annual plenary session this week. Some observers are suggesting, as the party's anti-corruption efforts start to pay off, more attention should be paid to how to eliminate graft at grass roots level. Over the past year, the Chinese authorities have tried over 40 former officials at provincial level or above, handing out sentences to 35 of them. Meanwhile, nearly 1,000 cases of corruption or malpractice by party or government officials were exposed by the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. And just ahead of the new year, the CPC leadership vowed to continue to reduce existing corruption while containing any rise in malpractice. Xin Ming with the Party School of the CPC says, after four years of cracking down on the so called 'Tigers and Flies' - powerful leaders and lowly bureaucrats - the ruling party now faces new challenges. "This year, efforts will be made to address new trends in corruption. Measures will be taken to prevent small violations from becoming severe crimes. Generally speaking, we may not find as many corrupt tigers as we did in past years, but it doesn't mean we give less emphasis to it. It's indeed that our anti-corruption move has paid off - an outcome that everyone can see." China has been stepping up its anti-corruption efforts since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012. While cracking down on corrupt officials at both senior and grassroots levels, it sets great store by establishing stricter and complete systems to enshrine powers within a cage of regulations. Last year, more than 50 intra-party laws were either released or revised, including the 'norms of the Party political life under new circumstances', and 'a regulation on intra-Party supervision'. Xin Ming says efforts in this regard should continue to be strengthened this year. "More attention will be paid to improving intra-party laws in terms of party organization, leadership, self-construction and supervision to further tighten the net of justice. Certainly, the institutional construction must be conducted in a scientific manner to ensure different regulations can coordinate well." Meanwhile, a pilot program reforming China's supervisory system is currently underway in Beijing, Shanxi and Zhejiang, aiming to strengthen the crackdown on graft. Ren Miaoqing with the party's discipline agency says progress is in sight. "In the next step, under the guidance of the top legislature, we will complete establishing supervisory commissions at provincial, municipal and county levels in the pilot regions and integrate the anti-corruption arms of different government departments in the middle of the year. We will also join hands with the National People's Congress to establish a national law of supervision to institutionalize our reform outcomes." The Communist Party of China has been trying to build an environment where officials dare not, will not and cannot be corrupt. But many experts also suggest sound implementation of its regulations and reform outcomes should always be what the party emphasizes most. Low water on the Mississippi River has high cost A historically low Mississippi River has backed up barge traffic as demand rises. And there's no real end in sight. You are here: Home Oct. 14, 2016 President Xi Jinping said the Belt and Road Initiative provides new opportunities for win-win cooperation between China and Bangladesh in his signed article carried by a Bangladeshi newspaper. Sep. 3, 2016 President Xi Jinping said during the Business 20 (B20) summit that the Belt and Road Initiative is to share China's development opportunities with countries along the route and achieve common prosperity. Aug. 17, 2016 President Xi Jinping attended a symposium on the Belt and Road Initiative, calling for the steady advance of the initiative to benefit people along the routes. July 17, 2016 The 11th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) concluded in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Connectivity, pragmatic cooperation and "China Plan" were the highlights. June 22, 2016 President Xi Jinping delivered a speech titled "Jointly Compose a New and Splendid Chapter of the Silk Road" at the Legislative Chamber of the Supreme Assembly of Uzbekistan in Tashkent. April 18, 2016 The Belt and Road Media Cooperation Union was established in Beijing. The "Silk Road TV" cross-border broadcasting network was also launched. Nov. 17, 2015 The Belt and Road Initiative appeared for the first time in Macao SAR Chief Executive's Policy Address. Sep 11, 2015 The United Nations Maritime-Continental Silk Road Cities Alliance was established. Chinese city Quanzhou and other cities were the first batch of founding members. July 9, 2015 The 7th BRICS summit was held to promote integrated market, communication and connectivity and cultural exchanges. June 29, 2015 The signing ceremony of the Articles of Agreement of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank was held in Beijing. Representatives from 57 prospective founding members of the bank attended the ceremony. March 28, 2015 In his keynote speech at the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference, President Xi Jinping said the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative followed the principles of wide consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits. March 5, 2015 Premier Li Keqiang called for advancing the Belt and Road Initiative, and promoting the development of the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Economic Corridor and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. Feb. 1, 2015 Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli called for a solid start of the Belt and Road Initiative at a meeting in Beijing. December, 2014 The Central Economic Work Conference was held in Beijing, highlighting the implementation of three strategies, namely, the Belt and Road Initiative, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei coordinated development and the Yangtze River economic belt. Nov. 8, 2014 President Xi Jinping announced that China woul contribute US$40 billion to set up the Silk Road Fund. He proposed five suggestions on the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative. Nov. 4, 2014 President Xi Jinping stressed the need to accelerate the development of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road during the eighth meeting of the Central Leading Group on Financial and Economic Affairs. May 19, 2014 The logistics terminal jointly built by China and Kazakhstan went into operation in the port of Lianyungang in east China. It was the first tangible platform under the framework of the Silk Road Economic Belt. Feb. 6, 2014 President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin reached consensus on the construction of the Belt and Road, as well as its connection with Russia's Euro-Asia Railways. December 2013 President Xi Jinping called for strengthening infrastructure connectivity in the process of implementing the Belt and Road Initiative. Oct. 3, 2013 President Xi Jinping proposed building the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road in his speech at the Indonesian parliament. Sep. 7, 2013 President Xi Jinping proposed building the Silk Road Economic Belt in his speech delivered at Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan. It was a dramatic year in world politics. After a long period of slowly-accumulating social and economic contradictions, a new and tumultuous era has opened up, heralding a time of sudden transformations, social and cultural upheavals, and ideological flux. In June 2016, the British people voted to leave the European Union, thus reversing the trend towards globalization. Similarly, the election of Donald Trump as U.S. President signals the end of American-backed multilateralism. In consequence, the Anglo-U.S. model of Neoliberal Capitalism is dead. Such developments hide a broader and deeper malaise affecting world capitalism. In order to balance the books and restore "economic credibility" many countries adopted draconian austerity measures following the Great Recession of 2008-9. In the advanced capitalist countries of Europe and the United States, overall living standards have fallen. Many poor and middle-income countries experienced catastrophic social consequences. This is leading to a revolt at the ballot box, against what is often called "the political class" or "the establishment." It also exposes the falseness in four long-promoted "commonsense" myths: that enriching the few eventually benefits the many; that countries will increasingly integrate and collaborate; that wealthy capitalist democracies assist poor countries to develop; and that these same wealthy countries are international guarantors of peace, justice and human rights. Firstly, even in the wealthiest countries economic inequality has assumed grotesque proportions. Secondly, the BREXIT vote, the EU migration crisis, and Donald Trump's anti-migrant rhetoric all reveal that the four-decade process of global integration is ending and a process of disintegration is taking hold. The third myth is negated by the fact that global development over the last 65 years, has seen only 13 countries grew fast enough to make it into the high-income club of nations. And the fourth myth has been shattered by the wars in the Middle East and North Africa, and the growth of the surveillance state. Best-case scenarios for the world's leading economies predict sluggish growth in 2017. Therefore, the anger and discontent witnessed in 2016 will continue to exert social pressure on the existing order. In the capitalist democracies, challenges to the ruling class is opening the way for all manner of peculiar creatures to have their moment in the spotlight. For now, it is the right-wing that is on the ascendancy. With its nationalist appeal, it reawakens nostalgia for "tradition" and defending national, racial and religious identity as prevailed in the "good old days." The right-wing psychologically emboldened many of those who lost their bearings when economic prospects worsened. Middle class grievances, a feeling of being cheated by the rich and powerful, coagulates into potent ideological concoctions combining prejudice and ignorance with arrogant assertions of power. Around this core support base, a wider public is won over by conservative slogans and buzzwords. They function as if they are specifically designed to excite nationalist, xenophobic, racial, religious or sexual conflicts. One thing is certain, none of the central problems in society will be resolved by the solutions proposed by the present rulers of Europe or the U.S. And this is because of the structural foundations of the system. Politics is like a theatrical performance whose function, at root, is to help the biggest companies maximize their profits. Control over the political script and the performance on stage is normally guaranteed. Deeply entrenched economic interests dominate politics. In this system - no matter what shade of government is in power - the interests of the largest privately-owned profit-seeking companies, shape the contours of the world's economy. Private profit is the central driving force of this type of society. Indeed, despite popular perceptions, Donald Trump did not win the U.S. Presidency by means of astute buffoonery, or because of his rhetoric against migrants and the political and economic establishment. He won because billions (in dollar terms) stand behind him! Now, his chosen cabinet of billionaire courtiers suggests a period of direct capitalist control of the government. This is a dangerous game to play. It risks exposing the assiduously concealed reality of the symbiotic relationship between political power and big business. Consequently, challenges to the system as a whole are more likely. The present wave of reactionary politics, which aims to restore tradition, contain migration, revive national pride, and promote religious morality and sexual conservatism, will continue to make advances. However, the working classes are not simply passive observers. Their interests are not aligned with "traditional values" but are universal and international and comprise a real alternative to the present reactionary political tide. A hundred years after the Russian revolution established the first Marxist government in 1917, the ideas of socialism are finding a receptive audience in the U.S. This explains why Senator Bernie Sanders' socialist slogans in the U.S. presidential campaign found such an echo among the poor, the workers and the youth. The current turn to mystical and reactionary politics will fail to deliver prosperity; so more concrete visions of socialist change will emerge out of popular discontent and generate mass support for much deeper revolutionary change. Heiko Khoo is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit: http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/heikokhoo.htm Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn. Today, Common Cause announced it opposition to the nomination of Sen. Jefferson Beauregard Jeff Sessions III (R-AL) to serve as U.S. Attorney General, deeming him unfit to serve as the nations top law enforcement officer. Senator Sessions has for decades been an outspoken critic of the Voting Rights Act, one of this countrys most critical pieces of civil and voting rights legislation, which paved the way for an inclusive democracy. The Voting Rights Act is on the chopping block with the nomination of Senator Sessions and recent victories in the courts striking down laws designed to suppress minority voting would be threatened under a Sessions-led Justice Department, said Common Cause President Karen Hobert Flynn. Common Cause had opposed presidential nominees only a handful of times in our 46-year history, but Senator Sessions is a longtime critic of too many of the laws he would be charged with enforcing as Attorney General. Common Cause previously opposed the nominations of Robert Bork to the U.S. Supreme Court, John Tower as Secretary of Defense and Ed Meese as U.S. Attorney General. The nominations of Bork and Tower were rejected by the U.S. Senate. Meese was confirmed and served as Attorney General but resigned from office over his role in a defense contracting scandal. The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled hearings on the Sessions nomination that will be held on January 10 and 11, more than a week before President-elect Trump is even sworn into office. This is the same committee that has for nearly a year refused to even hold hearings on President Obamas nominee to fill a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court. The Senate Judiciary Committee has no business ramming through the nomination on an expedited schedule before President-elect Trump is even sworn into office, said Flynn. The fact that a previous Republican-controlled U.S. Senate rejected Sessions nomination for a federal judgeship because of a series of racially insensitive or racist language should give the Senate pause. It would be irresponsible of the Senate to rush to confirm a suspect nominee simply because he is a fellow member of what has been referred to as the worlds most exclusive club. Sessions questionable record should be carefully reviewed before the Senate rubber stamps the same man it found unfit to be a federal judge years ago. In 1986, Sessions nomination to U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama was rejected by a Republican-controlled U.S. Senate. After listening to extensive testimony about controversial statements made and actions taken by Sessions, the Judiciary Committee could not even muster enough votes to pass the nomination on to the full Senate without recommendation. For his recent nomination, Sen. Sessions did not even complete his questionnaire. Among other things, the Senator omitted inclusion of dozens of recent interviews, including some given to Breitbart and others as recent as October of 2016 in which he excuses president-elect Trumps statements condoning sexual assault. Content aside, such omissions amount to a process violation. In 2010, when the Senator himself reviewed submissions from a judicial nominee, he noted that the incomplete response was potentially disqualifying and a criminal offense. Sen. Sessions cannot contend for the nations chief lawyer without playing by the rules, President Hobert Flynn noted. Sen. Sessions additionally tries to create for himself a civil rights record that simply does not exist. As three former DOJ attorneys noted in a recent op-ed, Sen. Sessions completed no substantive work on at least three of the four cases he claimed, in his recent questionnaire, his most significant civil rights cases. Tellingly, Sen. Sessions failed to include these same cases in his questionnaire for his 1986 nomination to a federal judgeship. Its clear, President Hobert Flynn stated, that the Senator is trying to develop a record that doesnt exist. He did it when prosecuting three activists for voter fraud despite the dearth of evidence, and hes doing it now to try to fool his colleagues. Americas elected representatives must call it out for what it is: an unsuccessful attempt to gain an unearned office. Flash UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Wednesday spoke by phone with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters. Haq said "this was an introductory phone call during which they had a very positive discussion on U.S.-UN relations." "The Secretary-General said that he looked forward to engaging with the president after his inauguration," said Haq. Guterres, former prime minister of Portugal, took reins of the UN on Jan. 1, 2017. On his first day of work, Guterres said though there is skepticism about what role the UN can play, many people have suffered much less because of the organization. Trump's inauguration is scheduled on Jan. 20, 2017. His recent comments on the Paris climate deal as well as on the question of Israel and Palestine have raised concerns over the U.S.-UN relationship in the coming years. Ford has figured out what cars have been missing: Amazon integration. Well, not exactly Amazon. Amazon's Alexa, specifically. That is why they are bringing Amazon's personal assistant to their cars, to help drivers with a variety of things that smart assistants can help with. In IT Blogwatch, we head out on the highway. So what is going on? Alexandria Sage has the background: Ford...is expanding the use of Amazon's...Alexa personal assistant in its vehicles to allow drivers to talk to their cars -- demanding anything from a nearby cheeseburger to a weather forecast -- marking a leap by the...automaker to incorporate a technology initially targeted for home use. ... The expanding alliance between Ford and Amazon...underscores the importance to both automakers and internet commerce companies of connecting consumers on the move to a richer array of digital services. But what exactly does that mean? Tim Hardwick expands on what we know: The partnership means owners of Ford cars equipped with the Sync 3 AppLink system will be able to access Amazon's Alexa...from the driver's seat, enabling them to check the weather, add items to shopping lists, play audiobooks, and control Alexa-compatible smart home devices, like lights and thermometers. And do you need to actually have an Amazon Echo? What do you think? Miles Branman has the answer: As youve probably concluded...many of these features will require additional Alexa equipment (Echo, Echo Dot, etc), but the functionality will be built right in to Sync 3 from the factory...Alexa integration will arrive in two phases. When will all of this come to Ford's cars? Wayne Cunningham has the details: The first phase...rollout this month...will enable drivers to request information about their cars from an Alexa device in the home. The integration will work with the Ford Focus Electric, Fusion Energi and C-Max Energi. Alexa will tell owners the car's electric range, fuel level and other data. ... The next phase, in summer, will see greater integration in the car, letting drivers make...requests from Alexa, including some of the same things an Alexa device in the home can respond to. As this Alexa integration relies on Sync 3's AppLink feature...it should work in any Sync 3-equipped car. So what do people think about all this? Brant isn't sold: Ugh, but then wed have to buy a Ford. Sony showed off on Wednesday an OLED television it plans to sell later this year that features a gorgeous image and eliminates traditional speakers by vibrating the display to produce sound. The A1E series Bravia TVs represent a return to the commercial OLED TV business for Sony. OLED screens are based on a fundamentally different technology from the dominant LCD and produce light from fluorescence of an organic element. That produces deeper and richer colors than LCD and means the displays can be thinner -- both attributes of the new Bravia sets. Sony was an early leader in OLED and presented its first commercial OLED TV in Japan in 2007, but the XEL-1 was expensive, had a small screen and ultimately died a quiet death. Sony has continued to produce OLED monitors for professional users, but had stuck with LCD technology until now. Martyn Williams A Sony OLED TV on show at CES in Las Vegas on January 4, 2017. The lack of speakers not only helps the TV get a little thinner but the space around the screen is also reduced. On show at CES in Las Vegas on Wednesday, the A1E TVs were displaying stunning images and drawing praise from those seeing them. But the real test will be in the home, where lighting isn't as well controlled as at CES and the source video image is probably not as high quality. "You'll see more than you ever thought possible in a display," said Sony CEO Kaz Hirai during a news conference. The audio technology, which Sony is calling "Acoustic Surface," is intriguing but it was too noisy on the CES show floor to really evaluate the sound quality from the TVs. "This is a world's first, sound that comes directly from the screen," said Hirai. "This revolutionary acoustic surface technology actually vibrates the display to produce the awe-inspiring sound." But sound quality has been a constant complaint from consumers as TVs have gotten thinner and speakers have gotten smaller, so it presumably can't be any worse. Sony didn't provide a launch date or pricing for the TVs. The U.S. government should consider a broad range of retaliations against Russia for its attempts to interfere with November's presidential election, the outgoing director of national intelligence recommended. The default response to cyberattacks shouldn't necessarily be a cyber one, intelligence director James Clapper said Thursday. "We should consider all instruments of national power," he told a Senate committee. "We currently cannot put a lot of stock ... in cyber deterrence. Unlike nuclear weapons, cyber capabilities are difficult to see and evaluate and are ephemeral." [ For more, see Hacking the Election: Myths and Realities ] Clapper didn't lay out his suggested alternatives to cyberattacks, although some senators called for more economic sanctions. One senator asked about military options. Clapper and National Security Agency director Michael Rogers told the Senate Armed Services Committee they are more confident than ever that the Russian government directed hacks on the Democratic National Committee and Democrat Hillary Clinton's campaign leading up to the election. A public report from U.S. intelligence agencies on the election hacks is due to be released next week, Clapper told senators. President-elect Donald Trump, who defeated Clinton in the election, continues to question the conclusion of the intelligence agencies, and Russia has denied involvement. Trump on Wednesday quoted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who published DNC and Clinton campaign documents. Assange suggested a 14-year-old could have hacked Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, Trump tweeted. "Why was DNC so careless?" Trump added. " [Assange] also said Russians did not give him the info!" Trump on Thursday then denied siding with Assange. "The dishonest media likes saying that I am in Agreement with Julian Assange -- wrong," he tweeted. "I simply state what he states, it is for the people to make up their own minds as to the truth. The media lies to make it look like I am against 'Intelligence' when in fact I am a big fan!" Nevertheless, several senators, including some of Trump's fellow Republicans, said they believe the intelligence reports on Russian hacking. While the goal of the intelligence review of the election hacking isn't to question the results of Trump's election, "every American should alarmed by Russia's attacks on our nation," said Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican and committee chairman. "There is no national security interest more vital to the United States of America than the ability to hold free and fair elections without foreign interference." McCain asked if it would be an act of war if Russia had managed to change the results of the U.S. election. The Russians didn't change any vote tallies, and intelligence agencies have "no way of gauging" the impact of the Clinton leaks and an extensive fake news campaign, Clapper said. Whether an attack on the U.S. election system was an act of war is "a very heavy policy call that I don't believe the intelligence community should make," he added. McCain criticized President Barack Obama's administration for lacking a strong policy on cyberdeterrence. "It seems clear that our adversaries have reached a common conclusion that the reward for attacking America in cyberspace outweighs the risk," he said. "For years, cyberattacks on our nation have been met with indecision and inaction." While Trump has questioned how intelligence agencies can attribute the election attacks to Russia, Senator Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, said the hackers didn't make a major effort to cover their tracks. "In this case ... detection and attribution were not so difficult, the implication being that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin may have wanted us to know what he had done, seeking only a level of plausible deniability," Reed said. The adoption of smart city technology to manage traffic, water supplies, air pollution and other needs will see an upswing this year in U.S. cities, according to AT&T's smart city executive and a market research analyst. IBM and Cisco have been pitching the themes of a smarter planet and the internet of everything for more than five years. Now, city governments nationwide are pushing pilot projects of these efforts and seeking ways to raise revenues for tech deployments by issuing bonds and imposing sales taxes to pay for them. "2016 was when a lot of cities and their leadership got active around wanting to become smarter, but 2017 is the year we'll see cities move from the project phase to building out a holistic framework for smart technology," said Mike Zeto, general manager of the AT&T Smart Cities business unit, in an interview. "2016 was a test year, and 2017 really will see cities looking at ways to fund that technology, while late 2017 will be when cities make choices around implementations. Then in 2018, we'll see projects deployed. We are still at the beginning of a journey, but a lot of progress has been made," Zeto added. IDC analyst Ruthbea Clarke largely agreed. Since 2011, her team has tracked smart city projects and the technology that is sold to cities globally. "We do feel there's smart city growth, although it's never as fast as some people want it to be," Clarke said in an interview. "Cities have viciously slow procurement processes, but we do feel there was a big [upward] change late last year, and it's not just in Singapore, New York and Barcelona." The uptick in city interest and funding started in late 2016, which means there will be big announcements of pilot projects and even deployments in 2017, Clarke added. "In Chicago, there's a huge smart lighting conversion underway," she noted. In that project, 270,000 outdoor street, alley and park lights will be upgraded to more reliable LED technology. It also will include a lighting management system. AT&T on Wednesday announced it has partnerships or active smart city proof-of-concept tests in eight U.S. locations, with the newest in Portland, Oregon. The other seven are in Atlanta, Chapel Hill, N.C., Chicago, Dallas, Miami-Dade County, Montgomery County, Md., and at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Both Atlanta and Miami-Dade are testing a vehicle-to-anything (V2X) advanced communications platform that AT&T has developed with Ford and Delphi to be used with autonomous buses, taxis and cars, as they communicate with traffic signals, lane sensors and other infrastructure, Zeto said. Miami-Dade County launched a Smart Cities Operations Center to give government leaders a central hub for monitoring traffic and other conditions in the area. A similar concept is being evaluated in a number of cities globally, including Singapore. While AT&T's focus so far has been on U.S. cities, Zeto said the company soon plans to announce a smart city collaboration with a European city and has plans to work in Mexico where it is already expanding its cellular network capabilities. Zeto said many cities outside the U.S. have embraced smart technology in so-called green field locations often outside of city centers. That approach has helped some Asian and European cities get a leg up on U.S. cities, he said. "More U.S. cities by now have a designated point person for smart city technology, such as a CIO or CTO. They are helping break down the silos in city governments," Zeto added. AT&T is hopeful that an expected Trump administration effort to improve U.S. infrastructure will allow cities to take control of smart city projects, instead of having tight control at the federal level. City officials are better suited to direct and monitor smart city investment to make it more efficient, Zeto argued. "Instead of just adding concrete to install a new bridge or replace one in disrepair, it would help to monitor it remotely," Zeto said. Today, for example, sensors are used to monitor vibration on a bridge, he said, and artificial intelligence technologies are emerging that use digital images to spot minute shifts in bridge spans or to detect when a bridge has sunk slightly over time. Zeto said Atlanta has been progressive in coming up with funding for smart technology. A successful city bond referendum will raise $250 million to upgrade traffic signals with communications that are designed to decrease congestion. A sales tax increase will also be used to expand the city's mass transit system. "Atlanta has roused its community," Zeto said. "It's taken a while, but it's happening. Public-private partnerships are coming because the private shareholders realize improvements will benefit their employees." Another positive step toward smart cities technology is the adoption of open data policies in cities such as Chicago, Atlanta and Los Angeles, Zeto said. With this concept, a city can "open up" data it has on the location of various resources for public use, such as parking areas. With that data, a private software developer can build an app that drivers can use to find available parking spaces or to offer another service. One example is in Montreal, which opened up its data to a developer who built an app called Prkng that helps drivers find open parking spaces. Another app in development uses publicly available data to help parents find the least crowded emergency room among local hospitals where a sick child could be treated soonest. Zeto said AT&T has an advantage over smaller vendors in smart city projects because it has built partnerships with many cities over 60 years in providing communications infrastructure and services. "We've had quite a start in the U.S. amongst our direct competitors," he said. Clarke said prior to 2017, a lot of positive momentum around smart city tech was voiced by vendors like AT&T. Lately, cities are starting to sing the same tune. "A lot of the talk is marketing, but there's lately been a big change in spending, even if it's incremental," she said. "You see a lot more funded pilots." Many parents will teach their kids to not get attached to material objects. But Toyota says otherwise. With the reveal of its Concept-i car at CES on Jan. 4, 2017, Toyota gave a hint about the direction it wants to take when it comes to AI and autonomous driving: creating a bond between the car and its driver. At the heart of this relationship is Yui, the Concept-i's AI agent. Yui is meant to entirely encompass the driver in the car and is therefore not restricted to the dashboard. Yui can use light, sound, and even touch throughout the car's cabin to relay critical information to the driver. The AI agent can also appear on the car's doors, such as when greeting the driver, or on the rear of the vehicle to signal a turn or warn of an incoming hazard. Magdalena Petrova Floor lights on Toyota's Concept-i can be used to communicate with the driver. Yui learns over time and uses biometric systems to figure out a driver's emotions and attention. The AI agent also has the ability to carry on a conversation and play games. But why try so hard to bestow humanity upon a car? At TRI (Toyota Research Institute), we think that Yui, the concept AI agent might not only be a way to engage with human beings and create useful advice to the driver, we think it might also be a way to modulate and maintain a drivers situational awareness using mild secondary tasks to promote safety, said Gill Pratt, CEO at Toyota Research Institute. Magdalena Petrova CEO of Toyota Research Institute, Gill Pratt, speaks at the unveiling of the Concept-i at CES in Las Vegas on January 4, 2017. The company says it foresees a future where humans and cars can function as a team to make driving as safe as possible. Daniel Hannan is an MEP for South-East England, and a journalist, author and broadcaster. His most recent book is What Next: How to Get the Best from Brexit. Electoral fraud that would disgrace a banana republic, was how the presiding judge described the postal vote abuse in Birmingham in 2005. With respect, mlud, it was no such thing. I say this with some feeling, having acted as an election observer in two actual, literal banana republics Ecuador and Nicaragua. In neither country would a Birmingham-style racket have been possible, because both make voting contingent on the presentation of an identity card known as a cedula. A form of mandatory identification is normal in most of the world. The United Kingdom is an outlier. Or, rather, Great Britain is an outlier Northern Irish voters are required to present photo ID when voting and, according to the Electoral Commission, 99 per cent of them do so without the slightest inconvenience. Why not bring England, Scotland and Wales into line with other democracies? What could possibly be the objection to requiring voters to demonstrate that they really are who they say they are? Labour maintains, with a straight face, that requiring voters to produce photo ID risks denying millions of electors a vote. Apparently, people cant be trusted to produce the same kind of basic verification that they need when, say, picking up a parcel from the post office. The Government should be doing all it can to ensure a high turnout, says Cat Smith, the Shadow Minister for Electoral Engagement. Even if this were true and Id have thought the integrity of the process matters more than the numbers why assume that making it easier to vote will boost participation? The last Labour government tested that theory to destruction. As well as making postal voting easier, it experimented with telephone voting, e-voting and the placing of polling stations in shopping centres. Despite all such schemes, turnout continued to fall. Or, perhaps, because of them. It is at least arguable that these initiatives devalued the democratic process. If you have to vote in person or to offer a valid reason for a postal or proxy ballot, a certain ceremony is involved. You are made to feel that your vote is a thing of moment. But if you can fill in a ballot form while half-watching The Voice, the whole procedure is cheapened. Voting is hard to justify in coldly transactional terms: the chance that your particular ballot will make a difference is negligible. We vote, in general, because we feel we ought to. Democratic engagement is part of our civic duty, like reporting crimes or supporting charities. Dilute the sense of formality and you dilute the sense of obligation. As well as requiring photo ID, many countries mark voters thumbs with ink that lasts for 24 hours. That, too, tends to bolster a sense of civic engagement. The Nicaraguan election I monitored was the 2006 poll which saw the return of Daniel Ortega and his baleful Sandinistas. Flying back via Miami, I found myself on a plane full of grumpy expatriates who had returned home to vote for the losing conservatives. There were three young men on the flight who carried the stigma of un-inked thumbs, and who were the subject of waspish remarks all the way to Florida. Perhaps there is something to be said for a visible sign that you have done your bit. Labour cant actually believe that Britons would be deterred by a system that even the most indigent and illiterate Nicaraguans are able to navigate with ease. The truth is that that party has opposed every anti-fraud measure with the same tired arguments. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that Labour has no interest in curbing impersonation. Why not? Perhaps because almost all the cases involving organised dishonesty have been in Labour areas. The Electoral Commission lists 16 localities where fraud has been found to be widespread: Birmingham, Blackburn, Bradford, Burnley, Calderdale, Coventry, Derby, Hyndburn, Kirklees, Oldham, Pendle, Peterborough, Slough, Tower Hamlets, Walsall and Woking. Two of these areas are marginal and one (Woking) leans Tory; the other 13 including Bradford, Birmingham and Tower Hamlets, where the most egregious swindles have occurred are strongly Labour. To be clear, Im not suggesting that Labour actively encourages malpractice. Its simply that all human beings are capable of focusing on what they want to see and blocking out what they dont. Im sure Labour MPs have genuinely convinced themselves that electoral fraud is negligible, and that turnout is the more important issue. If our objective truly were to raise turnout, though, the answer would be to make elections matter more. We would devolve more power to local authorities. We would make more use of referendums, locally and nationally. We would encourage open primaries. We would strengthen Parliament vis-a-vis the executive. We would democratise our second chamber. We would make quangos accountable to MPs. All of these things can be done in parallel with measures to prevent fraud. The ballot can be made more significant and more secure at the same time. Indeed, the one depends upon the other. James Frayne is Director of communications agency Public First and author of Meet the People, a guide to moving public opinion. The focus of this column is Theresa Mays conservatism for ordinary working people. By the 2025 election at the latest, campaigning will take on a retro feel as parties sell their policies on international trade. The language of global free trade, tariffs and protection will become part of the political lexicon again. What the parties finally offer will be influenced by where the public is. So what should the parties know about public opinion as they create policy? There are three key principles affecting opinion. The first is fear and it regards our relationship with the EU. There is deep public concern that Britain should secure some sort of free trade deal with Europe. A YouGov poll in August 2016 showed that, given a range of options for Britains future relationship with the EU, the most popular option was one based primarily on free trade. Furthermore, by a massive 79 per cent to 9 per cent, people said that it was important Britain secured a free trade deal with the EU on leaving. Of course, it isnt clear what people want a deal to look like. And the fear the Remain campaign fostered about losing access wasnt enough to win the referendum. But we are where we are: the fear of losing a close trading relationship is strongly felt; it will take a significant communications effort from those that want to leave the customs union to persuade the public of the merits of it. Voting to leave was not a vote to pull up the drawbridge, regardless of what some commentators suggest. The second key principle is pragmatism. In short, the British public dont see trading relationships as being built around things like shared values or affection. In September, YouGov asked the public which countries Britain should prioritise trade deals with. Top came the US, followed by the EU, China, Australia, Canada and Japan. To underline this further, a YouGov poll in October 2015 showed that by 55 per cent to 29 per cent, people have a negative impression of China, but more people said they expected China to our most valuable trading partner in twenty years than any other country and 43 per cent of the public said they favoured closer trading ties with China than now, compared to just 8 per cent that said they favoured weaker ties. The third key principle is suspicion. Polls consistently show ambivalence if not hostility to some of the key pillars of the free market. They dont believe strongly in small government, nor in choice in public services. They usually say they believe the economy to be stacked in favour of the rich and big business. While this doesnt relate to trade per se, it is relevant because of the way those that promote free trade tend to go about it. The big question is ultimately whether this suspicion over free markets becomes a more visible feature of our political conversation as people start to consider who the removal of tariffs really benefits. This is, of course, a major part of the debate around free trade elsewhere. But the fear that British people have for a potential loss of prosperity and their current acceptance of the need to trade with whoever is richest means that politicians should currently take a pro-trade, pro-free trade position. Time will tell if this holds. The Daily Telegraph today reports that Theresa May will threaten to take Britain out of the single market unless the UK is given full control of its borders. She will do so later this month in what is described as a significant Brexit speech designed to counter claims she has no plan for leaving the EU. We shall have to wait for the full text of her speech to see how much of a plan it contains, or whether it can more accurately be described as a statement of objectives. The word vision is used, which suggests the latter. The aim seems to be to convince everyone that the British Government is serious about regaining control of immigration, and is prepared to leave the single market if this is demand is not met. Since many people in Brussels, including some British officials, seem not to have realised this is the case, that is an entirely sensible point to make, and is consistent with Mays general determination to show she will not be pushed around. She needs to indicate the destination at which she intends to arrive, or the damaging assumption will continue to circulate that she can be fobbed off with minor concessions. But although we need to know the destination, it would be foolish, at this stage, to expect full disclosure of the route by which she intends to get there. Sir Keir Starmer is quite right, on behalf of the Opposition, to demand that she explain herself. But she would be madly imprudent to yield to his entreaties. Part of not being pushed around is not yielding to Sir Keirs fashionable but misplaced belief in transparency. Since 1846, when Sir Robert Peel broke the Tory Party, and consigned it to the wilderness for a generation, by betraying his backbenchers and repealing the Corn Laws, successive leaders have known it was their duty, at all costs and at almost any sacrifice, to avoid repeating Peels action (as Robert Blake puts it in The Unknown Prime Minister, his masterly life of Bonar Law). The party has to be kept together. Otherwise it has nothing to offer the nation. This elementary point is regarded, by those who choose to regard politics as an exercise in moral idealism untainted by practical considerations, as disreputable. David Camerons great achievement was to keep the party together. He did so by subcontracting to the British people the decision on whether or not to leave the European Union. That too is regarded by purists as a disreputable manoeuvre. In strict constitutional theory, I agree with them: in a parliamentary system, such a decision ought to be taken by MPs. But as a matter of practical politics, Cameron knew that to go on trying to keep the decision inside Parliament was just not feasible. His own MPs were too divided on the issue, and he could not afford to go on losing MPs, activists and voters to UKIP. Like Harold Wilson, he admitted his weakness and decided to call a referendum. The British people proceeded, in their wisdom, to give the Tories a slim overall majority at the general election of 2015, only to reject, the following year, Camerons energetic but unpersuasive advice about how to vote in the referendum. So Cameron was out, but has left his successor in a commanding position. He killed the Lib Dems with kindness, shot UKIPs fox, and by defeating Ed Miliband, precipitated the rise of the unelectable Jeremy Corbyn. And yet May knows there are still deep divisions within the Tory Party, and indeed within her Cabinet, about what Brexit means. The last thing she wants to do, or indeed ought to do, is destroy the only party strong enough to implement Brexit, by becoming needlessly and precipitately specific about her plan for doing so. She has to preserve, for as long as possible, a degree of ambiguity, so that people can believe, or hope for, what they will. This may not be a glorious form of politics, but it is the only practical one. A route map that satisfied Dominic Grieve would not satisfy Jacob Rees-Mogg. If Corbyn commanded the loyalty of more than about ten Labour MPs, he could mock the divergences on the Tory benches. But he knows that if he tried that, he would be drowned in a great roar of laughter at his own expense. So the task of trying to understand May, and hold her to account, falls to other figures on the Left. They are, however, impeded not just by her inscrutable manner, but by their own refusal to treat Conservative politicians, and indeed conservative-minded voters, with any kind of fair-mindedness. The hatred and contempt with which the Left greeted the rise of Margaret Thatcher are today directed at her successors. Hence the tendency to underestimate the persuasiveness, with the wider public, of figures as diverse as David Cameron, Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Nigel Farage and Donald Trump. Mark Lilla, an American essayist and historian of ideas, makes this point with subtlety and lucidity in his latest book, The Shipwrecked Mind. He begins by observing that university libraries contain vast numbers of books about revolutions, and almost none about reaction: We have theories about why revolution happens, what makes it succeed, and why, eventually, it consumes its young. We have no such theories about reaction, just the self-satisfied conviction that it is rooted in ignorance and intransigence, if not darker motives. This is bewildering. The revolutionary spirit that inspired political movements across the world for two centuries may have died out, but the spirit of reaction that rose to meet it has survived and is proving just as potent a historical force, from the Middle East to Middle America. This irony should pique our curiosity. Instead it arouses a kind of smug outrage that then gives way to despair. The reactionary is the last remaining other, consigned to the margins of respectable intellectual inquiry. We do not know him. What Lilla does not say (and one does not blame him for not saying it, for his book is a delightfully slight affair of only 144 pages) is that many on the Left suppose conservative and reactionary are synonymous terms. The reactionary is homesick for a supposedly idyllic past, and yearns to return to it. The conservative knows this is not possible. A state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation, as Edmund Burke pointed out in his Reflections on the Revolution in France. A more recent writer, Michael Oakeshott, remarks in his masterpiece, Rationalism in Politics, that tradition is pre-eminently fluid, though the rationalist attributes to it the rigidity and fixity of character which in fact belongs to ideological politics. Some Conservatives make this error too: they suppose their tradition is somehow hidebound and inflexible, when actually it is far more adaptable and resourceful than socialism or communism have proved to be. Oakeshott warns against trying to simplify a tradition of political behaviour and turn it into a mere guidebook or crib, which will supposedly enable anyone, no matter how inexperienced, to acquire a political training in default of a political education. The yearning for a plan to carry out Brexit is a rationalist illusion. It rests on the assumption that politics is a static business, where everything can be worked out in advance. The better analogy is with a sea voyage, where nothing is predictable, experience is more valuable than theory, and judgment will be needed to make the winds and the waves work in ones favour, rather than drive one aground or onto the rocks. In her forthcoming speech, May will quite rightly offer a better idea of which port she intends to make for during the Brexit negotiations. If, however, she were to tell her crew exactly how she proposes to arrive there, she would not just be guilty of preposterous technocratic hubris, but would most likely provoke a mutiny. Close While coconut oil is commonly used for cooking, a study is now suggesting that it may cause artery clogging. According to the American College of Cardiology, this tropical oil can contribute to cardiovascular diseases because of its high saturated fat content. Coconut oil happens to be abundant in lauric acid, so it may also lead to higher cholesterol levels. Coconut oil has 7 percent of caprylic, 8 percent of decanoic, 48 percent of lauric acid, 16 percent of myristic, 9.5 percent of palmitic, 6.5 percent of oleic which is a monounsaturated, the 5 percent of poly-saturated fatty acids. It contains a large quantity of lauric acid which is responsible for the saturated fat that raises total blood cholesterol levels, increasing both high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. Dr. Andrew Freeman revealed that coconut oil is calorically dense, containing approximately 120 calories per tablespoon. Due to the high content of saturated fat in coconut oil, it may correspond in high caloric burden. Regular use of coconut oil in food preparation may promote weight gain and obesity. It is also confirmed that the oil is rich in polyunsaturated fats which may increase the risk of several chronic diseases such as heart illness, stroke, cancer, and obesity. Coconut oil also does not provide protein or fiber. Coconut oil is copra oil which is edible and extracted from the kernel of coconuts through dry and wet processes. The proper harvesting of coconut in order to significantly convert it to oil is done in about 2 to 20 months. It is commonly used in cooking and frying. In South Asian countries, it is used for baking goodies and pastries, popping popcorns in theaters, and other culinary uses such as making confectionery goods. It can also be used as a substitute for dairy creamers. See Now: What Republicans Don't Want You To Know About Obamacare Close A Tennessee woman battling cancer and has only a 50-percent chance of survival miraculously gave birth to quadruplets on December 30. At 30 weeks, Kayla Gaytan and her husband, Fort Campbell soldier Sgt. Charles Gaytan welcomed their quadruplets - Lillian, Victoria, Michael and Charles, two girls and two boys. The New Year has indeed brought both joy and heartache to the couple, as doctors are not sure how long their mother will have with them. Before conceiving the babies, Kayla was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma on Jan. 2016. The 29-year-old mother of two went through five months of chemotherapy and was in remission. She and her husband learned they were pregnant not long after her treatment. Kayla gave birth at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center to the quadruplets who were conceived naturally without any fertility treatment. "It was exciting. It was nerve-wracking. But to see them when they all came out and to hear them crying, that was really exciting," Kayla said as reported by WKRN-TV. Unfortunately, the babies came a month after they learned that Kayla's cancer had returned. She's scheduled to have her chemotherapy again. "You think you've beat it the first time. When it comes back, you're just wondering why to get pregnant with these four babies and then, you know, something like this happens," Kayla said. Though the doctors gave Kayla a 50-percent chance of survival over the next five years, she remains positive that she'd beat cancer the second time around. All four of her babies are expected to remain in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at the hospital for the next month and a half. What Is Hodgkin's Lymphoma? According to the American Cancer Society, Hodgkin's Lymphoma was named after Dr. Thomas Hodgkin, who first described the disease. It's a type of lymphoma, which is cancer that starts in the white blood cells called lymphocytes. Cancer begins when the cells proliferate out of control and spread. This type of cancer can start anywhere but usually begins in the lymph nodes of the upper part of the body such as the chest, neck or under the arms. About 8,500 new cases of Hodgkin's lymphoma are estimated in the United States in 2016. It's common in early adulthood, at about ages 15 to 40. See Now: What Republicans Don't Want You To Know About Obamacare Close Bill Gates, through his The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is backing up a new subdermal implant, called the Medici Drug Delivery System, which aims to prevent Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection. He invested $140 million on Intarcia Therapeutics Inc.'s project of developing the implant. People who are at a high risk of contracting Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) can significantly lower their chances of infection with a daily pill called PrEP or pre-exposure prophylaxis. However, many individuals can't stick to the regimen. Now, Boston-based scientists are developing an implant that would release a regular dose of the pill. "With Medici, and each of our new once- or twice-yearly therapies, we're aiming to solve some of the biggest unmet needs in the treatment and prevention of major chronic diseases that impact millions and millions of lives every day," Kurt Graves, Chairman, President and CEO of Intarcia Therapeutics, Inc., said in a press release. The matchstick-size pump can hold six or 12 months' supply of the medicine and is designed to deliver microdoses on a regular basis, Fox News reports. This is to ensure that the patients will stay on the treatment, compared to drinking one pill per day. The implant could show promise in the reduction of HIV infections worldwide, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, where the highest HIV and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) burden exists. "Currently there is no effective HIV vaccine and anti-retroviral drugs that protect against HIV infection are only available in the form of a daily pill," Emilio Emini, director of the Gates Foundation's HIV programs, told Huffington Post. "Intarcia's implantable Medici Drug Delivery System, which could be used to deliver long-acting anti-retroviral drugs, has the potential to solve current adherence challenges and help more people protect themselves from HIV infection," he added. People who might benefit from the long-term HIV prevention implant are those who are in a relationshop with someone infected with HIV, those who aren't in mutually monogamous relationships, people who engage in unprotected sex with partners of unknown HIV status and those who use injectable drugs. See Now: What Republicans Don't Want You To Know About Obamacare Channel programs News Channel M&A: Sirius Computer Solutions Acquires Continuum Worldwide For Security, Splunk Capabilities Joseph F. Kovar Share this Sirius Computer Solutions this week said it had acquired a fellow solution provider, Continuum Worldwide, as a way to expand its security and Splunk capabilities to meet rapidly growing demands of customers. The acquisition, coming less than a year after Sirius acquired another security-focused solution provider, Force 3, was a natural move to make given that the company had partnered several times with Continuum on security-related projects, said Joe Mertens, president and CEO of San Antonio, Texas-based Sirius. Omaha, Neb.-based Continuum was founded in 2006 after being spun out of Mutual of Omaha, the insurance giant. Continuum brings to Sirius, which was number 27 on the CRN Solution Provider 500 list, a large Midwest presence, Mertens told CRN. [Related: Sirius to Buy $260 Million Federal Network Security Powerhouse Force 3] "We have used them as a security subcontractor," he said. "Our two teams have worked together several times. But Continuum was at the point where it needed to make a decision about how to invest for the future, whether to partner or get acquired. And they decided to become part of Sirius." Continuum brings two critical capabilities and very fast-growing practices to Sirius, Mertens said. The first is security, which will help Sirius expand beyond its April, 2016 acquisition of Force 3. Force 3 brought strong security and Cisco practices to Sirius, as well as some clearances to help grow Sirius' government business Mertens said. The addition of Continuum will help expand that security business. "Continuum helps expand our resources quickly," he said. "The amount of security business we are getting is growing fast. We're seeing high demand from our clients. The second is expertise in the machine intelligence capabilities of San Francisco-based Splunk. Mertens said Continuum was a large channel partner of Splunk, and was on Splunk's national advisory board. "We also do integration of Splunk," he said. "But it's hard to find the right talent." Sirius' acquisition of Continuum closed on January 1. Mertens declined to discuss any financial information related to the acquisition, including terms of the deal and the company's revenue and headcount. However, he said, Continuum had a sizeable business that was profitable and very skilled. The three principles at Continuum have already signed on to stay with Sirius, Mertens said. Sirius will combine its Omaha, Neb. office with that of Continuum over time, he said. Privately-held Sirius Computer Solutions has about 1,900 employees and over 5,000 active clients across the United States, with gross revenues over the last 12 months of about $2 billion. Networking News CES 2017: T-Mobile Unveils IoT Pricing Plans For Consumers, Partners See Opportunity With Business Customers Gina Narcisi Share this T-Mobile took to CES 2017 to debut new pricing plans for Internet of Things devices. The new IoT Access Packs bundle wireless data with a Category 1 module, which the carrier and its partners believe could help simplify IoT adoption. The two IoT Access Packs can be used for applications and devices that require little data, such as wearables, and include the Cat1 modem. The first IoT Access Pack offers up to 5 MB of data per month for $20 per year for each device in the first year, and $6 per year, per device after the first year. The second IoT Access Pack includes unlimited data at 64 Kbps, for $25 per year, per device. For a limited time, unlimited data customers will receive $5 off the first year for each device, according to Bellevue, Wash.-based T-Mobile. While the IoT Access Packs have been specified for smart home use cases for consumers, partners believe they also would be able to leverage the IoT pricing plans for business customers down the road if the offerings are expanded. [Related: Partners: Sprint, T-Mobile Could Merge Under A Republican Administration] Rob Chamberlin, co-founder and chief revenue officer for DataXoom, a Walnut Creek, Calif.-based solution provider and T-Mobile partner that specializes in mobility services, called T-Mobile's IoT bundles an interesting approach, and one that would be welcome to its channel partner community. Chamberlin said that compared with T-Mobile's latest strategy, the carrier's competition including AT&T and Verizon are instead aligning themselves with large OEMs for wireless modules that they are using to address consumer use cases, including smart cars and smart homes. "This move by T-Mobile will be helpful to the partner channel and the small companies that it services," Chamberlin said. CRN reached out to T-Mobile regarding the IoT Access Packs and whether the pricing plans would be available to T-Mobiles channel partners but did not hear back in time for publication. During the 2017 Citi Internet, Media and Telecom conference in Las Vegas Wednesday, Braxton Carter, T-Mobile's CFO, called the new IoT Access Packs a "unique way to address the IoT market" because they give developers access to modems, as well as pre-packaged data plans. Like everything they do, the carriers overcomplicate the Internet of Things, and that leads to more hassle and cost for customers, Doug Chartier, senior vice president at T-Mobile, said in a statement. The wireless industry needs simpler options for IoT to take off." TeraNova Consulting Group, a telecom expense management provider for wireless solutions that partners with T-Mobile, is selling IoT solutions by lighting up the modules with the best carrier in its customers' coverage area. Natasha Royer Coons, managing director at San Diego-based TeraNova, called T-Mobile's new IoT Access Packs "interesting" and "much needed" in terms of IoT simplification, but the carrier would have to bulk them up with more data for solution providers to sell to businesses, she said. "Typically, our customers require anywhere from 250 megs per device per month to 5-plus gigs per month, per device," she said. "I do like the visionary approach, but I am not sure that this will lend itself to the business market and how partners will be able to sell this unless they are indirect dealers in retail stores." However, T-Mobile is right from the perspective that IoT has been very fragmented, TeraNova's Coons said, noting that T-Mobile's new pricing plans are "extremely aggressive." "The pricing is unique in providing a cost per device, per year. Typically, in the market so far, it's always been cost per month, per device for the network usage," she added. T-Mobile, the self-proclaimed "uncarrier," explained that developers currently must purchase their own wireless module and negotiate with carriers for a data plan, which are often overpriced because many IoT applications have very low internet access requirements. T-Mobile's Chartier believes that the IoT Access Packs will help remove these barriers and spur IoT development. Security News Proofpoint's Global Channel Chief Departs As The Company Consolidates Channel Leadership Sarah Kuranda Share this Proofpoint has let go of global channel chief Dee Dee Phelps Acquista, an executive credited with helping the company build out its channel strategy over the past three years, sources have told CRN. Phelps Acquista had served as vice president of worldwide channels for the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company. As of this week, she is no longer with the company, sources said. Proofpoint confirmed the departure of Phelps Acquista in an email to CRN. In a statement, Executive Vice President of Global Field Operations Tracey Newell said Proofpoint was consolidating all of the North America channel teams to report into Jon Bove, North American channels director, as well as consolidating all of channel program management under Mark Sheridan, VP of business development, channel programs and alliances. The moves will help Proofpoint "better align our teams," she said. [Related: The 25 Blockbuster IT Executive Moves Of 2016] "As we launch into 2017, scaling more aggressively through our channel partners is a key piece of our channel strategy ... During her time at Proofpoint, Dee Dee has built strong relationships for us and Im confident that Jon and Mark will continue this momentum as we remain committed to building on our strong channel progress with our strategic partners," Newall said in the statement. Phelps Acquista declined to comment when reached directly by CRN. Phelps Acquista joined Proofpoint in October 2013 as the company's first North American channel chief, charged with building out the company's channel strategy. In a recent interview with CRN, Phelps Acquista said Proofpoint is now "doing more business with the channel than we ever have" and that she was "pleased with the progress we've made with the channel overall." Phelps Acquista could not disclose exactly how much or what percentage of business now goes through the channel, saying only that Proofpoint has made "great strides" in growing its channel business and that it has expanded its worldwide channel team five times in the three years since. That expansion included the addition of former Fortinet executive Bove. Proofpoint is now looking to move into what Phelps Acquista called at the time the "next phase" of channel expansion, seeking to expand its push through regional reseller partners, to supplement the work it already does with solution providers, national security partners and multi-country systems integrators. That's a push that has been largely led by Bove, Phelps Acquista said in August. Multiple partners spoken to about Phelps Acquista's departure said they have seen their business grow recently with Proofpoint, though at least one said there has also been some "channel conflict" as the company expands. The partners worried how Phelps Acquista's departure would affect the company's push forward with the channel, especially as the company does not currently plan on hiring another worldwide channel chief. "People come and go all the time, but not having a head of channels goes against what they were going towards, which was a real and full blown channel strategy," one partner executive said. In a recent Piper Jaffray report, issued after an investor event with security consultants and resellers, the research firm said partner demand for Proofpoint was "white hot." In a separate report highlighting top stocks for 2017, Piper Jaffray said 2017 "should be another solid year for Proofpoint," with opportunities around Office 365 migrations, demand for email security and the end of life transition from McAfee MX Logic. The report said Proofpoint also has an opportunity to expand its sales internationally. In the company's third-quarter earnings call in October, CEO Gary Steele said Proofpoint was "pleased with the momentum of the channel," as it accounted for more than half of new and add-on business for the quarter. The Golden Age Following a recent trip to Jordan and Iraq, Charles Morris reports on God at work in the shadow of ISIS. The first time I saw Jesus Christ I was surprised. I was sitting on the stairs when He appeared, wearing a white robe that wasnt a robe it was light. I told my husband I saw Jesus! but he said that I was always talking about Christians and that it was probably just an illusion. But I knew it was Him. I just knew. Fatima not her real name has a testimony that is increasingly common today. Born into a Sunni family in Northern Iraq, she is one of countless Muslims whose lives were transformed following a supernatural encounter with Jesus. With a half-smile and a matter-of-fact-delivery, she explains how her first vision of Jesus was followed with a second the very next day. This time she shared it with a friend who was a Christian, who told her that it was a miracle as Jesus does not appear to just anybody. The third time I saw Him I was sick. He came and held my hand and said My daughter, do not worry. I will take care of you. I didnt know how to pray but I said I want my whole life to change. There were some struggles that I was going through in my life at the time At this, Fatimas voice chokes in her throat. The half-smile fades. Her eyes fill with tears. Mama? says her eight-year-old son, who finally puts down the phone hes been playing with ever since the interview began. He crosses the room to give her a hug. * On a recent trip to the Middle East, I met so many people like Fatima: people who had met Jesus in dreams and visions, and whose lives were in danger as a result. Their courage left me speechless. Ameena who gives her false name without batting an eyelid was born a Muslim in Baghdad. When her husband became a Christian, life became both complicated and dangerous. I told him that he should go back to believing in Mohammed but he said that I should go and talk to the Pastor at his church. I went there but couldnt find the Pastor. So I started to pray, saying God, please do something. I have to save my husband. I felt nothing. So I changed my prayer: If my husband is right, then let me know. That was when I felt it a great hand on my shoulder. I opened my eyes to see who had touched me, but nobody was there. That was the moment that I believed. It was the start of my new life. After that everything changed so quickly. I was free. There was no more fear, just peace. I saw Islam differently after this. Theres something in the Koran that forces people to act, and feeling free as a Christian was completely new. The love, the respect I had never known them when I was a Muslim. While Ameenas attempts to convert her husband back to Islam resulted in her own encounter with Jesus, her husbands best friend was a vocal supporter of ISIS. As rumours about the couples apostasy spread, the threats came in. Eventually they had to leave Iraq. In Jordan Ameena and her husband have found a community of Christians who not only support them financially, but spiritually as well. They have taught Ameena about living in community, about prayer and about forgiveness. Last month my best friend back in Iraq was attacked, raped and burned. She was a Christian. My husband had a friend who was a Christian too, and they killed him as well. They sent us a picture of his body with the words, You will be next. How do I respond? I feel angry for a couple of days, crying, not talking to anyone. Then I accept it and keep on praying. I pray to Jesus, I pray for their family, for the killer, that they might learn something about Jesus. Sometimes I pray for ISIS: Jesus, just let them know who you are. * I met Fatima and Ameena in the relative wealth of Jordan, where local Christians had helped them and so many other refugees. 500 miles north east in Northern Iraq I was reminded that God works through rich and poor alike. Though he has zero political influence or personal wealth, the man who asked me to refer to him only as Pastor S is one of the most courageous men I have ever met. He was not raised a Christian. He was born in Northern Iraq into the Yazidi culture. Before August 2014 few of us had ever heard of the Yazidis, but when ISIS unleashed its murderous intent on the population and 40,000 of them fled to Mount Sinjar, the world took notice. Before he became a Christian, Pastor S was a factory worker and faithful follower of the complicated religion that blends early Islam with Christianity and Zoroastrianism. Once Jesus appeared to him in a series of visions, he became a Believer. Almost immediately he found his life in danger. He was beaten, his car set on fire and his family threatened. He lost his job and had to move home. Yet he chose to continue risking his life for the sake of the gospel. Twenty years after becoming a Christian the danger is as real as ever. When asked how dangerous his life is, Pastor S locks his stare and says simply I move house every month. We meet in a quiet corner of a building in a quiet corner of a busy town. Pastor S sits so he can see the entrance and introduces the two young men in their twenties that have come with him. I am discipling them, he says. They are new Christians. They are each in charge of a team of ten other Christians in the refugee camp. They lead Bible studies, pray together and help other refugees when they can. They have to be careful and meet in secret, but are seeing God in action as He uses them to reach others even those whose suffering has been immense. Pastor S explains how his congregation of eighty contains eight Yazidi women and girls who had been captured by ISIS, raped and sold repeatedly as slaves. Eventually they had been smuggled out and made it to the camp. One was pregnant when she arrived, and these guys just went up and hugged her and prayed. Now they are all Christians. * According to one Middle East-born evangelist I met, Fatima, Ameena, Pastor S and his two young co-workers are not alone. With more than forty years of ministry across the region behind him, he is convinced that something truly remarkable is happening today. In the last 25 years there have been more conversions from Islam to Christianity than in the whole preceding fourteen centuries combined. This is the Golden Age of Muslims coming to Jesus Christ. Why is this happening? The Evangelist outlined three influences; prayer, the growing disillusion among Muslims with their faith, and finally, God Himself. There are times in scripture when God remembers a nation, and all of a sudden they come to Him. Did Nineveh find God through Jonahs eloquence? Did it come to faith in God through the preaching of one man? No, it was a sovereign act of God. And God is still interested in seeing whole cities, whole groups of people com to Him like never before. I believe it is His intention for all Muslims to know His love. That is why He has come to them through dreams and supernatural encounters as never before. * When she regains her composure Fatima carries on with her story. She explains how her brother in law is a member of al-Qaeda and when the family discovered that she had become a Christian her husband divorced her, the death threats followed and she went into hiding. Eventually she fell in love with a single man, who happened to be a Pastor working nearby. But when ISIS overtook the town nearby in 2015, she knew it was time to leave. Her husband was allowed to go to Sweden, a country that has tightened its rules on refugees in recent months. So far Fatimas application has been met with nothing but silence. I know that God loves me. I feel His hand in everything I do in my life. I feel its a personal relationship. I dont do anything before getting His answer. But were waiting. Everything is suspended. Charles Morris is Speaker and President of Haven Ministries, a radio ministry on more than 600 stations across North America with half a million daily listeners. He has been a broadcast news reporter, editor and bureau chief for United Press International, and press secretary for two former U.S. Senators. He and his wife Janet have co-authored numerous books including Saving a Life and Missing Jesus. They are parents to three grown children and live in California. Check out his newest book Fleeing ISIS, Finding Jesus: The Real Story of God at Work. Image courtesy: Thinkstockphotos.com Publication date: January 5, 2017 Windstar can best be defined as an upscale cruising experience, according to President John Delaney, who took over the job in July. We have different experiences we offer, Delaney told Cruise Industry News. The three wind ships are an iconic way to travel in warm-water destinations. Then there are the companys three 212-passenger yachts acquired from Seabourn. Those are all marble-bath, walk-in closet, and we did a beautiful job refitting them, said Delaney. The refurbishment program was estimated to have been in the $30 million range. Delaney said the company would make deployment changes for the 2018 season, starting with the Star Legend heading to Asia for winter 2017/2018. We had the Pride there sailing short itineraries, turning in Ho Chi Minh City, which, frankly, didnt do that well, Delaney admitted. He attributed the poor performance to short itineraries and North Americans not wanting to fly to Vietnam. That will change this time, however, as the Pride will offer 14-day cruises using major hubs like Hong Kong as turnaround ports. The ship will also move up into China and then find Japan in time for the cherry blossom season. While our one ship year-round in Tahiti does quite well, we need to look at the rest. From May to October the rest of the ships are in Europe. To me that is a little risky. There are many parts of the world we sail in that we can do good business in. With our ship sizes we can do some very differentiated, wonderful itineraries, Delaney explained. Of the fleet, the Star Legend carries an ice-class hull notification, but there are no plans to go into the expedition market. We are trying to get the ships in the right places for broader appeal, Delaney noted. Small Ship Cruising The primary item that sets Windstar apart is it is absolutely true small-ship cruising, Delaney said. And, our service is just as good as I have seen anywhere and that includes Seabourn. He said the small ships combined with a dedicated service staff leads to a strong product. There is also the companys culinary program, which is among its products backbones, led by Corporate Executive Chef Michael Sabourin. Our ships can go where others cant, and we really mean that when we say it, Delaney continued. A new reservation system will let Windstar take bookings in other currencies, and marketing initiatives are well underway in the UK and Australia. We are getting ready to expand sourcing internationally, Delaney continued. This is very important to me. He added future (capacity) growth would come from a healthier and more robust sourcing model. Products on Offer Balancing the sailing ships with the yachts, a new ad agency has been hired to help launch a new branding campaign. According to Delaney, the brand needs to do a better job of telling the stories of both ship classes, which both have the same common Windstar attributes. It will need some creativity and more work, Delaney said. That is among the biggest challenges. Folks dont know the brand or the brand story. The company has been in overdrive reaching out to travel agents with road shows, breakfast talks and more, with the national agent consortiums being a key target. Windstar has upped its amenity program, offering agents more value-added items (onboard credits) to use to encourage guests to book cruises. Will further growth come in either fleet segment in the future? We could do both, Delaney answered. Delaney said shipyards were booked for the foreseeable future. Weve been successful at buying hardware that has a useful life. There are ships out there. Excerpt from Cruise Industry News Quarterly Magazine: Winter 2016/2017 The attention to detail and establishing a core product to make sure we have an execution that is as close to perfect as possible is one of our strong points, said Jason Hale, hotel director aboard Holland America Lines Rotterdam. We dont overstretch ourselves by trying to do something that may look like a good idea but fails to be perfect. In 2016, the ship started out sourcing Dutch passengers sailing from Rotterdam, and then moved to Canada/New England and sourced mainly American guests for a brief fall foliage season. Different demand, different expectations, said Hale, who hails from Holland. Support My number one priority is guest satisfaction, being the external guests paying to be onboard and our internal guests who are our crew, staff and officers, Hale said. I try to support my staff and management team; they are the ones who make the magic happen. If I can support them with getting resources then they are better in executing their job, he continued, in an interview aboard with Cruise Industry News. And he helps the nautical side save fuel. Thats the good thing nowadays, Hale said. Its a lot more of a team effort in how we can help one another. Its an aspect of fuel savings, or even using water and switching off lights. Then we can help the workload on the engines and they can run more efficiently. Moving to Holland America Hale had a maze of a route to his current post aboard the Rotterdam. With a passion for cooking, he set out on a culinary career. You go to trade school and do your apprentice program. You become a kitchen boy at 13 working on Saturdays and Sundays and by 15 I was finished with trade school and went to work, he recalled. I worked in mom-and-pop stores, Michelin-star restaurants and everything in between. Eventually he said he had seen everything there was to see in Holland. Next thing you know youre on a cruise ship in Piraeus, Hale added. That was 1993 and with Renaissance Cruises as a second cook aboard. He moved up, making the rank of first cook and also working for Crystal. A few years later, he returned to shore with a management role at McDonalds. I got involved in management and it interested me enough to continue in it. But I was done with being stuck ashore, Hale continued. Holland America hired him, but there were no management positions open. So I said Get me back in the kitchen aboard and I will work my way up. In 1998 I was back onboard as a chef de partie and have ever since worked my way up. Hale made the grade of hotel director in 2011 in a relief role on the Zaandam, moving up from culinary operations manager. In 2016, he received his permanent assignment as a hotel director. Skills Everything is possible if you commit, Hale said. The role of hotel director has become more administrative over the years with reporting requirements and an increased regulatory environment. The amount of time you have face-to-face with the guests has become less, Hale said. There are only so many hours in the day. It used to be you didnt care how many hours you worked. These days you have to be careful because of MLC 2006; you have to work within regulations and respect rest hours. Spending time working various posts, Hale has had the opportunity to work with multiple hotel directors, all of whom he said he learned from, whether it was a positive or negative experience. You should not be afraid to let people make a mistake as long as they learn from it and adapt what theyve learned to the next situation, Hale advised, adding that common sense was a key skill. He pointed to Asian ports such as Hong Kong as some of his favorites. I also like Europe because of its old colonial-style cruising and people are lined up along the waterways waving to the ships. Working four months on and two off, Hale said the company had sent him to management training courses at Cornell University. Excerpt from Cruise Industry News Quarterly Magazine: Winter 2016/2017 The cruise business will be up to the tune of 31 percent in 2017 for Cruiseport Boston, with 151 ship calls expected and a nice uptick in homeport visits from Norwegian Cruise Line, which is building up its Boston-based Bermuda program. There are also five overnight calls, up from three in 2016. We have two markets. Bermuda is a large drive-in market and then we have sailings to Canada/New England, said Michael Vanderbeeke, deputy port director. Holland America Line is picking up their homeport activity, doing 28 turns here. The buildup in airlift has surely helped Canada/New England sailings. The additions include more long-haul flights and more low-cost domestic carrier activity. Additional airlift capacity into Boston makes it a natural homeport for that itinerary, Vanderbeeke added. The port will welcome 19 cruise lines and 36 ships in 2017, and will be near or above record-setting passenger marks. We have a total of six maiden calls, including the Mein Schiff 6. Its the first time TUI Cruises is calling in Boston. Over time, there is a lot of upside potential, he noted. For cruises heading north, Boston is an ideal homeport, according to Vanderbeeke. If you start in Boston, you can slow down a bit, and spend more time in port, he commented. Looking ahead, Vanderbeeke said the immediate opportunity to grow the business lies in the summer 2018 Canada/New England program. --- Get an in-depth, behind the scenes look at the North America cruise market and the ports that make it happen in the 2016-2017 Winter edition Cruise Industry News Quarterly Magazine. Subscribe today. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Yale New Haven and Bridgeport hospitals are among more than a dozen statewide that will lose a portion of their Medicare payments in 2017 as a penalty for having too many patients who acquired preventable infections and injuries while hospitalized. Nearly half of Connecticut hospitals 14 out of 31 will be penalized. The hospitals are among 769 nationwide that will lose 1 percent of their Medicare reimbursements this year as part of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Hospital-Acquired Condition Reduction Program. The silver lining is that slightly fewer Connecticut hospitals are being penalized this year than last year, when 18 lost a portion of their Medicare payments. The hospitals here in Connecticut are improving, said Dr. Mary Cooper, vice president and chief quality officer at the Connecticut Hospital Association. Thats the great news. Cooper said improvements are largely due to hospitals embracing high-reliability standards, which help staff and doctors better anticipate and prevent patient harm. The outcomes that we are seeing are a result of everybody paying attention and lots of knowledge being shared, she said. Hospitals big and small The program, now in its third year, penalizes the lowest-performing hospitals where a relatively high number of patients got infections from hysterectomies, colon surgeries, urinary tract catheters and central line tubes. It also takes into account patients who suffered from blood clots, bed sores or falls while hospitalized. New this year, CMS also factored in the incidents where antibiotic-resistant bacteria - namely, methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus and Clostridium difficile spread. Hospitals being penalized this year include some of the states largest, including not just Yale and Bridgeport, but also Hartford Hospital and St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford. But smaller hospitals also made the list, including Masonicare Health Center in Wallingford, Charlotte Hungerford Hospital in Torrington, and Johnson Memorial Hospital in Stafford Springs. Bridgeport and Yale were also among the seven Connecticut hospitals have been penalized in all three of the years since the program launched, according to CMS. There are nine hospitals that have never been penalized under this program, including Griffin Hospital in Derby, Milford Hospital, and St. Vincents Medical Center in Bridgeport. An official at least one of those hospitals attributed its good track record to improved safety measures. When we do have an issue, we drill it down and try to figure out what happened, and what we can do to prevent it from happening again, said Kathleen Martin, vice president of patient safety and care improvement at Griffin. Lisa Freeman, executive director of the Connecticut Center for Patient Safety, said hospitals are making strides in some areas, thanks in large part to high-reliability standards - such as double-checking dosages before administering medications, taking timeouts during surgeries to make sure procedures are being correctly, and implementing safety checklists. I commend the hospital association for putting their efforts into the high-reliability practice, Freeman said. Its one piece of the answer. More improvements needed High-reliability standards began rolling out in Connecticut in 2013, and to date, more than 50,000 health care workers statewide have received training in the program, Cooper said. The practice is spreading, and other states are looking to Connecticut as a model, she added. But a further culture shift is needed so that hospital employees value patient input and feedback, she said, and hospitals need to focus on the over-prescription of antibiotics, since a growing number of bacteria are becoming resistant to them. Hospitals also should reiterate to employees how effective simple hand washing can be in preventing the spread of bacteria and infections, Freeman said. Hospitals have taken many positive steps, she said, but its not enough yet. This story was reported under a partnership with the Connecticut Health I-Team ( www.c-hit.org ). Staff writer Amanda Cuda contributed to this report. BRIDGEPORT Each holiday season, the Connecticut Post partners with local charities to highlight the needs of our neighbors. This season, readers have been particularly generous in response to those needs. CT Post readers continue to amaze in the way that they are helping their neighbors, David Kennedy, chief operation officer of United Way of Coastal Fairfield County, said in an email. As of Tuesday, 125 readers and an employee group representing 100 people had donated $28,719, according to Kennedy. Thats an increase compared to the same time last year in the number who donated (90 readers and an employee group) and the amount ($20,466). Its not to late to participate in this community response. The final 10 profiles are listed below. With this final installment of stories and with the hoped-for kindness of readers continuing one last week, we have a chance to help every neighbor we highlighted have 100 percent of their ask met, Kennedy said. What an exceptional way to start the new year. On behalf of those (neighbors), Thank you very muchand Happy New Year to all who have donated to the Giving Fund. The people in the stories below have taken proactive steps to improve their situation by working with LifeBridge Community Services, and their stories have been complied by a caseworker. The names are changed, but the need is real. Overhead costs, including credit card fees, are covered by Hearst Connecticut Media, United Way, and LifeBridge. Print readers can use the newspaper coupon or go to http://www.ctpost.com/ givingfund and click on Donate to The Giving Fund. 160. Han works in Bridgeport and lives in Ansonia with his wife and a 1-year-old daughter. Han has a vehicle thats too unsafe to drive, and he cant afford the repairs. In the meantime, hes been using public transportation to get himself and his family around. A gift of $500 would help Han fix the car, and have a reliable way to get himself to work the familys only income and to his daughters doctors appointments. 161. Marjorie is a single mother of three children ages 9, 7 and 4. She lost her job in September and the family has been getting by on $275 a week in temporary unemployment benefits. To pay off rent owed to her landlord, she cleans the apartment complex. However, Marjorie is behind on her electric bill. All of her utilities run on electricity. A gift of $350 would pay what she owes and leave a small credit balance while she looks for work. 162. Sherry, 27, of Bridgeport, is a single mother of a 10-month-old girl. Shes had trouble finding work after being laid off last year. Thats despite being a hard worker with job and volunteer history, as well as going back to school to beef up her resume. Sherry is frugal and has stretched family support as best she can. However, a recent winter utility bill was shockingly high. A gift of $400 would help Sherry and her baby keep the utilities on. 163. Tabitha is a single mother to her 1-year-old baby girl. She was recently laid off and has yet to find a job that would suit her and her daughters child-care needs. She does not receive any other assistance besides unemployment and does not have a very substantive support system. Tabitha is actively seeking work, but making ends meet with unemployment has been very difficult. A gift of $500 would assist Tabitha in catching up on her utilities and purchasing groceries and other essential household items for her and her daughter. 164. Melrose is a single mother of five young children living in Bridgeport. She is under-employed after her job cut her hours to 15 per week. While church food banks and the LifeBridge Community Closet have supported her with some basic needs, its not enough. She has multiple disconnection notices. A gift of $500 would help Melrose and her children prevent the light and heat from going out in their house. 165. Lenny is a single father who works hard to support his household. Two tires on his car needed to be replaced, but he couldnt afford even one. So he slapped a spare tire on one side, and paid for the other one with the money for his electricity bill hoping for a miracle. Now its due. A gift of $400 would help Lenny replace the tire, pay the bill, and also buy groceries for his household. 166. Audrey, of Bridgeport, is a student the LifeBridge Youth Department. She wants to help her mother, the only breadwinner in the household with four kids, who works a part-time job and whose check is quickly swallowed up by rent, food, utilities, and car payments. A gift of $500 would help Audreys mother pay overdue utilities at home and buy groceries, as well as put Audrey at ease so she can focus on her studies. 167. Mackenzie is a single working mother of three children, living paycheck to paycheck. She does not qualify state assistance. Recent car problems caused her to fall behind on rent. A gift of $500 would start to get her back on track and start 2017 year off on the right foot. 168. RaeAnn is a single mother of three young children. Despite working more than 40 hours per week as a certified nursing assistant, her income does not support her family. Her former partner and the father of her third child used to work, but had lost jobs, failed to provide child care and struggled with substance abuse issues that ultimately led to separation. Now RaeAnn and her children are solely relying on her salary. A gift of $500 would help her provide clothing and food for the family. 169. Libby, of Bridgeport, is a single mother of an autistic 12-year-old boy. Libby has a history of being abused in a very dangerous relationship. She struggles daily to provide the life she would love for her and her son. Libby does not have citizenship and struggles to secure a steady income. She is a very humble, respectful woman and is thankful for any opportunity or blessing. A gift of $375 would help Libby provide some items for herself and her son. The state of Connecticut is floating the idea of cutting the budget for rifle salutes at military funerals and for me it comes as no surprise whatsoever. We live in a state controlled by Democrats, which typically means we are taxed on payday, taxed at the gas pump, taxed at the supermarket, taxed at the mall, taxed at restaurants and taxed when we die. And yet to no thinking persons surprise, were broke and in debt. A thinking person would conclude that the state of Connecticut has a spending problem. This is why it comes as no surprise that Democrats want to cut rifle salutes at military funerals because liberal Democrats, from Obama on down to Malloy to our Democrat representatives and senators, have an ideological allergy to things involving our military and law enforcement. Why else would Obama tell the Occupy Wall Street movement who defecate on cop cars that theyre the reason he ran for office. Why else would Obama invite Black Lives Matter who chanted What do we want? Dead cops! When do we want it? Now! to the White House if not just out of pure disdain for law enforcement? So when I read that Malloy is considering cutting rifle salutes at military funerals I thought like president like governor. At my military funeral maybe Malloy can come and play a kazoo. Kim Raseman Milford A former Woodbridge man pleaded guilty to defrauding people of money that was used to pay for a luxury Manhattan apartment, plastic surgery, fine dining, retail shopping and alcohol, federal prosecutors say. John Voloshin, 60, who also lived in New Haven, pleaded guilty Wednesday in Hartford federal court to one count of wire fraud and also admitted to violating a condition of his federal supervised release. The plea is the latest twist in Voloshins fraud cases. On May 17, 2012, U.S. District Judge Robert N. Chatigny sentenced Voloshin to 33 months in jail followed three years of supervised release for operating multiple fraud schemes that caused losses of more than $1.5 million to individuals and lenders. As part of the schemes, Voloshin, forged signatures and used fabricated bank account statements, tax returns, mortgage releases and loan applications. He was released from prison on May 16, 2014, and began serving a three-year term of supervised release. U.S. Attorney for Connecticut Deidre Daly said shortly after his release from prison, in an attempt to gain permission from the U.S. Probation Office to travel to London,Voloshin repeatedly lied to and misled his supervising probation officer by concocting a bogus job for a real estate concern in London. On Nov. 7, 2014, Chatigny sentenced Voloshin, to an additional nine months of imprisonment and 27 months of supervised release for violating the terms and conditions of his federal supervised release. He was released from prison on June 8, 2015, and began serving his 27-month term of supervised release. According to court documents and statements made in court, beginning in the fall of 2015, Voloshin engaged in another fraud scheme by soliciting money from individuals and representing that the money would be fully invested to generate very high returns. Although Voloshin did invest some of the victims money, he used substantial portions of the victims money for personal expenses, including a $20,000 payment toward a luxury apartment in Manhattan, and for plastic surgery, fine dining, retail shopping and alcohol, Daly said in a release. Voloshin has been behind bars since his arrest on last May. Voloshin pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud, which carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years and a fine of up to $250,000. He also admitted to one violation of the terms and conditions of his federal supervised release, which carries a maximum term of imprisonment of two years. He is scheduled to be sentenced on May 4. The matter is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Marc H. Silverman and David T. Huang. Sara Jo Schneider and Hickle, along with fellow Girl Scouts Jayna Kelley and Autumn Helgeson, were killed when a pickup truck crashed into them as the scouts cleaned up debris on the west side of Highway P at about 11 a.m. Nov. 3, 2018. All four were killed at the scene. A fifth girl was injured but later recovered. The girls attended Southview Elementary and Halmstad Elementary in Chippewa Falls. On Wednesday, a 20-foot-tall memorial was dedicated at the crash site, honoring the three scouts and mother killed that day. Imamoglu'na bir suikast ihbar daha: '8 kisilerdi, hepsi silahllard...' STORY LINK Eurozone Retail PMI Disappoints, EUR/USD Exchange Rate Softens Mixed Eurozone Data Leaves Euro US Dollar Exchange Rate Lower Drop in Private Sector Hiring Weighs on US Dollar EUR USD Exchange Rate Forecast: German Retail Sales Ahead Like this piece? Please share with your friends and colleagues: The Euro to US Dollar exchange rate fell from its best levels on Friday afternoon as the latest US Non-Farm Payroll results left traders optimistic about the US economy in 2017.While the job market didnt increase as much as expected in December 2016, the increase in jobs was close enough to forecasts to not be concerning and some analysts were cheered by slight improvements in wage growth.(Previously updated 05/01/2016)The EUR USD exchange rate slid from its best levels today as Markit announced the Eurozones latest Retail PMI results.The Euro US Dollar (EUR USD) exchange rate has depreciated today as growth in the Eurozone retail sector was slightly below expectations.The Eurozones retail PMI grew from 48.6 to 50.4 in December, falling slightly short of expectations that it would rise to 50.5, despite Germanys retail sector rebounding from a disappointing report in January.The disappointing result was largely attributed to another month of lacklustre sales in Italy as Europes third largest economy struggles under the continued pressure of political and economic uncertainty. As Phil Smith, economist at IHS Markit explained;Germany was the best performer on the retail front throughout 2016, and December was no exception. Frances performance over the year was mixed, but a last-minute uptick in sales contributed to ongoing job creation and a slight improvement in firms margins. Italian retailers were unable to join the party, however, seeing sales fall again in December.The report also noted that out of the big-three of the Eurozone only Germany saw sales rise on a year-on-year basis.The US Dollar was weakened this afternoon by the latest ADP Employment report as the private sector hired fewer new workers than expected at the end of 2016.Data shows that new hires dropped to 153k in December, notability short of expectations of 170k and a huge decline from 215k in November, with a lack of new hires in smaller companies being seen as a contributing factor. As Mark Zandi, Moodys Analytics' chief economist said;The gap between employment growth in the service economy and losses on the goods side persists. Smaller companies are struggling to maintain payrolls while large companies are expanding at a healthy pace.The result may also put further pressure on tomorrows non-farm payroll report which will be released with the US latest Unemployment Report which is expects to show a rise from a decade low of 4.6% to 4.7% in December.The EUR USD exchange rate may rally tomorrow following the release of the latest German Retail data, which is expected to show that sales rebounded from a dip in November, jumping from -1.0% to 1.2% in December.However the ongoing situation in Italy is predicted to have affected the over-all Eurozone Retail figures with sales forecast to have dropped from 2.4% to 1.9%, dragging on the single currency.Meanwhile the aforementioned rise in US Unemployment is likely to cause the US Dollar to dip during trading tomorrow, which could impact the Federal Reserve forecast for three rate hikes this year as growth in employment is seen as a key indicator for potential rate rises. International Money Transfer? Ask our resident FX expert a money transfer question or try John's new, free, no-obligation personal service! ,where he helps every step of the way, ensuring you get the best exchange rates on your currency requirements. TAGS: Currency Predictions Euro Forecasts County-specific poll may foretell whether Pa. is going blue or red elections Will a Divided America Led by Donald Trump Lead to a Divided Church? LOS ANGELES, Jan. 5, 2017 / A significant consideration for the faith community is whether these divisions will impact the church. Evangelicals stand at a defining moment in American history to be a voice of healing and unity to a nation wounded by an extremely divisive election. What is the role of the church in these divisive times and can the church facilitate reconciliation? It was Martin Luther King, Jr. who once said, "At 11:00 on Sunday morning when we stand and sing, and Christ has no east or west, we stand at the most segregated hour in this nation. This is tragic." Two Christian men recently embarked on a unique social experiment to explore their differences. Tony Scott, 49, an African-American entrepreneur in Los Angeles and Aron Railey, 24, a Caucasian millennial from Greenville, SC, met in a popular Christian group on Facebook. Railey traveled to Los Angeles and over the course of 40 days, the two engaged in compelling conversations about politics, church, race, generations and culture. They wrote about the experience in a newly released book titled "The Bridge: A Cross-Generational Conversation on Church, Race and Culture." In this conversational style book, Scott and Railey share how to build bridges towards unity, based on their individual experiences and perspectives. They discuss perceived divisions in the church and a growing divide between generations. When asked why they wrote the book, Scott commented, "This election season brought up many ugly and divisive issues, but in these divided times, people will ultimately look to the church as the catalyst for change." Railey added, "People shouldn't be afraid to connect with someone different from them. The bridges built through this experiment prove cultures and generations can unite. We're all in this life together." "The Bridge" is published by nGAGE People via CreateSpace Independent Platform and is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and online wherever books are sold. Visit Share Tweet Contact: Tony Scott, 818-925-5503LOS ANGELES, Jan. 5, 2017 / Christian Newswire / -- The 2016 election shined a glaring light on a divided America. According to a November 21, 2016 Gallup poll, a record-high 77% of Americans believe the country is split over important values, while 21% see America as united. Americans are also split on whether President-elect Donald Trump can unite the country with 45% stating they believe he will and 49% believing he will further divide it.A significant consideration for the faith community is whether these divisions will impact the church. Evangelicals stand at a defining moment in American history to be a voice of healing and unity to a nation wounded by an extremely divisive election. What is the role of the church in these divisive times and can the church facilitate reconciliation? It was Martin Luther King, Jr. who once said, "At 11:00 on Sunday morning when we stand and sing, and Christ has no east or west, we stand at the most segregated hour in this nation. This is tragic."Two Christian men recently embarked on a unique social experiment to explore their differences. Tony Scott, 49, an African-American entrepreneur in Los Angeles and Aron Railey, 24, a Caucasian millennial from Greenville, SC, met in a popular Christian group on Facebook. Railey traveled to Los Angeles and over the course of 40 days, the two engaged in compelling conversations about politics, church, race, generations and culture. They wrote about the experience in a newly released book titled "The Bridge: A Cross-Generational Conversation on Church, Race and Culture."In this conversational style book, Scott and Railey share how to build bridges towards unity, based on their individual experiences and perspectives. They discuss perceived divisions in the church and a growing divide between generations. When asked why they wrote the book, Scott commented, "This election season brought up many ugly and divisive issues, but in these divided times, people will ultimately look to the church as the catalyst for change." Railey added, "People shouldn't be afraid to connect with someone different from them. The bridges built through this experiment prove cultures and generations can unite. We're all in this life together.""The Bridge" is published by nGAGE People via CreateSpace Independent Platform and is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and online wherever books are sold. Visit www.readthebridge.com for more information or to schedule interviews. Net immigration set to fall by half after Brexit real wages to go up the housing crisis to ease No, not the predictions of some pro-Leave campaign group, but the verdict of a hugely authoritative assessment of post-Brexit Britain from academics at the scrupulously impartial Centre for Business Research at Cambridge University. Significantly, the researchers also condemn Whitehalls pre-referendum warnings of disaster as very flawed and very partisan, saying they failed to take into account the boost to exports from a weaker pound (and how typical that the Treasury wont even release the names of its pet economists who forecast doom). Oh, the irony of the timing. For this study comes the day after Tony Blairs former chief of staff dismissed Iain Duncan Smiths optimism over Brexit with a contemptuous laugh. Tony Blairs former chief of staff Jonathan Powell dismissed Iain Duncan Smiths optimism over Brexit Indeed, as Peter Oborne argues so powerfully on this page, nobody better epitomises whats wrong with Whitehalls liberal elite than the arrogant Jonathan Powell, the adviser who colluded with his ex-master in politicising the Civil Service. Leave aside his sheer rudeness in sneering at IDS on yesterdays Today programme, when the former Tory leader defended Theresa Mays unwillingness to show her negotiating hand. If only he had listened, instead of snorting his disdain, he would have heard Mr Duncan Smith say the public voted to break free from European law and take back control of our borders, while the nature of our trading relationship would be settled in due course. What does Mr Powell find so risible about that? And with most of our partners crying out for strong trade links post-Brexit, why does he remain so defeatist about our future outside the EU, suggesting its only in a Daily Mail world that we can get a beneficial deal? Equally partisan, meanwhile, is Britains departing ambassador to the EU, Sir Ivan Rogers, whose petulant parting attack on ministers muddled thinking over Brexit has been eagerly seized on by the Bremoaning BBC. Isnt he, like Mr Powell, a prime example of a politicised civil servant, who allowed his strong opinions to colour his supposedly impartial advice? As IDS says, its for the public and their representatives to express their wishes, and for the Civil Service to carry them out. This paper does not underestimate the obstacles ministers will encounter. But its their duty to ensure that the last laugh belongs to 17.4million voters not to Sir Ivan or Mr Powell. Make train union pay Exasperated passengers are threatening to sue the Transport Secretary and Southern Rail over rail strikes In a cynical move to drag out the rail strike and minimise its impact on members pay, train drivers union Aslef is to split its planned six-day walkout into two tranches of three days each. No wonder exasperated passengers are threatening to sue the Transport Secretary and Southern Rail. Indeed, if private citizens can ask judges to overturn the referendum result, dont persecuted commuters have a far stronger right to their day in court? The pity is that under current legislation, union wreckers are exempt from claims for compensation. But why should they be, when they paralyse essential services for blatantly political motives? The law should be changed with all speed. Re-examine NHS structure and funding Tributes came pouring in last night at the news of the tragic death of rock legend / icon / genius /has-been X. I was shocked / saddened / slightly indifferent to hear of the tragic /untimely / timely death of someone I regarded as a close friend / I met once / whose name rang a vague bell, tweeted former TV presenter /former disc jockey / former make-up artist Y. And so was I, and much more than he was, tweeted someone else almost as famous / unknown. Tributes came pouring in last night at the news of the tragic death of rock legend / icon / genius /has-been X We have lost arguably / possibly / definitely the greatest genius who ever lived, tweeted Z. I will never forget that truly brilliant song of his which went something-something-da-da-da something-something da-da. It is destined to be a song that will remain forever on the tip of all our tongues. He will live 4ever in our hearts /thoughts / pub quizzes / box of old records under the staircase, another distraught fan said on Twitter. According to the stars manager, in order to accommodate the tremendous outpouring of grief, a tribute / rehash / cash-in collection of his greatest hits will be rush-released / cobbled together within the next few days, and priced accordingly. Politicians, captains of industry and world leaders added their voices to the growing tide / outpouring / trickle of grief that has greeted news of his demise. As well as being an exceptional artist he was a fervent supporter of my personal values, and a close personal friend, tweeted Theresa May / Tim Farron / Jeremy Corbyn. He or she will remain forever in our hearts. A spokesman for Buckingham Palace said: Her Majesty was deeply saddened to hear of this weeks pop star death. X was an artist who never stopped reinventing himself. In the 1960s, he had long hair and short trousers, in the 1970s he had short hair and long trousers, in the 1980s he had no hair and in the 1990s no trousers, for which he was later arrested and charged. A spokesman for Buckingham Palace said: Her Majesty was deeply saddened to hear of this weeks pop star death' This weeks most important star ever to have lived and subsequently died came to prominence in the 1960s / 1970s / 1980s with his iconic / ironic / moronic first single, Deary Me (What Am I Gonna Do?), which went straight to number one / ten / 234 in the charts. At the time, the song was widely interpreted as a protest against the misery of war, but it is now more widely seen as a protest against his parents for making him finish his vegetables before having any pudding. As his career progressed, critics found themselves able to detect an increasing note of darkness in his lyrics, particularly in songs like Paint It Beige and Man In Light Brown. Professor Christopher Ricks argued that, far from being a song in praise of an iced comestible, his landmark track Yum Yum Yum, I Love Ice Cream was an anguished, heartfelt response to the very real problem of human existence, at one and the same time abstruse, abstract, oblong and obtuse. In a panel discussion on Newsnight, leading commentator Polly Toynbee argued of the same song that the ice cream in its title was in reality a symbol / metaphor / thingy of the urg-ent / genuine / very real need to curtail the Conservative governments vicious / heartless / deeply uncalled-for attack on ordinary human decency. Meanwhile, Diane Abbott said I agree with Jeremy before describing the song as a spirited / impassioned / historic defence of LGBT rights and the Reithian principles that underlie the National Health Service. Meanwhile, Diane Abbott said I agree with Jeremy before describing the song as a spirited / impassioned / historic defence of LGBT rights and the Reithian principles that underlie the National Health Service Leading Right-wing commentator Melanie Phillips disagreed, however. For me, that song is nothing less than a rousing / fervent / muted clarion call / trumpet blast / call-to-arms for the end of the Nanny State and a return to ordinary decent family values, she said. Since the news of his death, stories have been emerging of the stars state of mind in recent months. Im not overstating the matter when I say he went to Hull and back, said his publicist. He had a friend who lived on the outskirts. Yesterday, ITVs Good Morning Britain devoted two hours of its programme to reminiscences from people who performed in one of his videos / once passed him in the street / lived just over ten miles away from him / attended one of his concerts in the early days. They have been globetrotting for a year-and-a-half so far but when they eventually settle Scott said it will be in Southern California The couple, who rent out their home in LA and work for brands to fund their travels, have so far been to nearly 70 different countries But instead of returning to their lives in Los Angeles, Scott, a former chemical engineer, and Collette, who worked in advertising, decided to carry on traveling Scott and Collette Stohler, 33 and 30, took a 'career break' to go on a seven-month trip A couple who took a 'career break' to go traveling around the world loved it so much that they abandoned their old lives and turned their passion into a job. Scott and Collette Stohler, 33 and 30, originally left their corporate jobs in Los Angeles, sold their cars and rented out their house with the intention of going away for seven months. But a year-and-a-half on, Scott, a former chemical engineer, and Collette, who used to write and produce TV ads, are still on the move after deciding to continue their trip by starting a blog and working for brands to fund their livelihoods. Career change: Scott and Collette Stohler, 33 and 30, pictured in Tasmania, have revealed how they abandoned their lives and corporate jobs in Los Angeles to travel for a living Jet-setters: The couple, pictured in Paris, originally took a 'career break' to go on a seven-month trip traveling around the world Non-stop: But instead of returning to their former lives, Scott, a former chemical engineer, and Collette, who used to work in advertising, decided to carry on traveling So far, the couple, who are currently in Hermosa Beach, California, have visited nearly 70 countries including France, Italy, Jordan, Iceland, Japan, South Africa and New Zealand. Their favorite cities have been Istanbul, Turkey, and Amsterdam, Holland. Scott said traveling was a 'huge part' of their relationship from beginning when they were seeing each other long-distance between Chicago and LA. But with limited vacation days they could not go away for as long as they wanted. Roaming: The couple, pictured in Japan, rent out their home in LA Globetrotters: The couple, pictured in St Tropez, have so far been to nearly 70 different countries Well-traveled: The Americans, pictured in Chioggia, Italy, have been to France, Italy, Jordan, Iceland, Japan, South Africa and New Zealand He told Daily Mail Online: 'As Americans, we were only given two weeks of paid time off so we would incorporate travel every chance we could. 'One of our favorite trips was taken before we started traveling full-time. It was to South Africa to go on a safari in the Sabi Sands Reserve. To this day, that has been our favorite holiday.' They fund their travels through working for brands with sponsorship, content creation and managing social media. They also use press trips to travel for free. Scott, who married Collette three years ago, after three years in a relationship, said traveling has changed their perspectives as individuals and strengthened them as a couple. Passionate: They have been traveling for a year-and-a-half so far Base: When they eventually settle Scott said it will be in Southern California Top picks: Their favorite cities have been Istanbul, Turkey, and Amsterdam, Holland 'Traveling together has only strengthened our love for one another. It is within our own power to create the greatest love story for ourselves and we are believers that the honeymoon never has to end. 'Taking the time to dedicate to our relationship has built a deep connection, trust and friendship,' he said. Although he admitted they got some envious comments when they first started their adventure, generally Scott said their friends and family are supportive. He said: 'At first we got a few backhanded responses such as "that must be nice" but for the most part - our dear friends and family were happy for us. 'Many friends and family ask us questions all the time about our travels.' Marketing: They fund their travels through working for brands with sponsorship, content creation and managing social media Opportunistic: They also use press trips to travel for free Limited possessions: Scott said the jet-set lifestyle is not without drawbacks - claiming that living out of a suitcase can be 'tiresome' But Scott said the jet-set lifestyle is not without drawbacks - claiming that living out of a suitcase can be 'tiresome'. 'It's very tough to live out of a suitcase, almost as though youre in a constant state of limbo. 'Your mind doesnt know where it is so its difficult to feel settled in your surroundings. The benefit of living out of a suitcase is that it forces you to simplify your life,' he said. A Florida bar and restaurant has found a stealth way to offer assistance to women who need help with creepy or dangerous dates. The Iberian Rooster in St. Petersburg, Florida has a sign hanging up in the women's bathroom, advising female patrons how to seek out help on a bad date. By ordering an 'angel shot', women give the signal to bartenders to step in and call them a cab, escort them to their cars, or even call the cops. Guardians: The Iberian Rooster in St. Petersburg, Florida has this sign in the women's bathroom telling patrons to order an 'angel shot' if they're in trouble Nice: The Portuguese restaurant's owner said he wants the restaurant to be a good, safe date night spot 'Hello, are you on a date that isn't going well?' reads the top of the sign. 'Is your Tinder or Plenty of Fish date not who they said they were on their profile? Do you feel unsafe, or even just a tad bit weird?' For those who answer 'yes' in their heads, the Portuguese restaurant advises walking over to the bar and ordering an 'angel shot', which will alert the bar tender that there is a situation without the date knowing. The restaurant even offers variations of the angel shot for different results. If it is ordered 'neat', the bartender will escort the woman to her vehicle. If it is ordered on the rocks, the bartender will call an Uber or Lyft ride. And if it is ordered with lime, the bartender will call the police. Good thought: They were inspired by this sign being hung up in British bars including this one 'The goal for this place was to be a safe place where people can go on a romantic date,' owner Russell Andrade told the Tampa Bay Times. 'We don't want someone else to ruin a good a time.' The owner added that he was inspired to hang the sign after similar ones started popping up in England and went viral on Twitter. The Lincolnshire Rape Crisis support service has been distributing posters that now hang in some bathroom stalls, urging girls in troubled to 'ask for Angela' if they need help. The Brickyard in Hitchin, England has a sign of its own, without the code word. It tells women to alert staff if they are uncomfortable, and the restaurant will help. In terms of wedding trends, in recent years nuptials have become less formal and more casual, with flower headbands, flowing dresses and DIY table decorations common. Now one Australian couple has enjoyed what might be one of the most beautifully bohemian weddings ever, at Nelson's Bay in Sydney. Annie and Paul Lemaire-Brooks were married on March 16 2016, in a distinct wedding that featured a kombi van, sunflowers, and Paul Kelly lyrics. Annie and Paul Lemaire-Brooks (pictured) were married in a unique wedding in Sydney The couple had a boho beach wedding that was very casual and included posing with their drinks in photos Annie's bridesmaid Peta (far right) did all the flower arrangements for the wedding The couple, who are now 31 and 30 respectively, met 11 years go in Sheffield, Paul's hometown. It was, Annie told Daily Mai Australia, a 'Hollywood moment' that seemed almost to good to be true. 'I was only there for one night,' she explained. 'I was with my friend in town and it started snowing, and being from Bondi Beach I had never seen the snow fall from the sky.' 'So we went into the pub for a pint because I could hear them playing ACDC.' The female bartender in the pub convinced Annie and her friend to come back later, as they had a band playing. When she visited later that night, there Paul was. 'The first thing I said to him was '"Can you turn the heating on, Im freezing!"' Annie laughed. 'He said theres no heating so that he would make my Jack Daniels a double.' I sat down but then I saw him climbing over the tables to shut all the windows. This lanky punk guy with a Mohawk and paratrooper boots was climbing on the tables for me, which I thought was sweet.' Annie and Paul met 11 years ago in Paul's hometown of Sheffield, so they wanted their wedding to combine Australian and English aspects They also had special touches, like a photo of Annie's dad (right) who passed away before the wedding Annie paired her lace dress with boho touches like anklets and a yellow garter Annie was only in town for that night. But she loved the pub so much she joked she would move there. And three months later, after travelling, she did. 'I found the pub randomly one day after a shift at work,' she explained. 'I walked in and there was Paul.' 'We started dating and then we moved in together two weeks later.' The couple moved to Australia, where they spent five years living in Sydney, before relocating back to the UK and settling in London. Annie said that she and Paul were instantly drawn to one another After meeting at the pub, Annie moved to Sheffield and the pair started dating The wedding venue was at Nelson's Park in Sydney (pictured), where Annie used to swim as a child When it came to planning their wedding, the couple decided to have two ceremonies; the legal wedding in Sydney, and then a blessing in Sheffield. Annie explained that her and Paul are both very individual, and want their wedding to represent that. 'It was a total mash up, were two individual people and have two different tastes.' 'That played a huge part in the wedding styling and plays a huge part in our relationship.' The couple had their legal wedding in Sydney, and then a blessing in Sheffield some months later She said that the wedding styling was a 'mash up' of her and Paul's personalities The couple had cupcakes because Paul used to bring one home for Annie on his bike every Friday Everything from the location of the wedding, at Nelson's Park where Annie used to swim as a child, to the wedding stationary, was significant. 'We wanted a festival vibe, very bright, colourful and relaxed,' the 31-year-old explained. 'It was just a casual gathering of friends.' 'We did a little bit of DIY, and used Etsy and Pinterest for inspiration. The finer details for us is really important.' Annie said they used Pintrest and Etsy for inspiration, and DIYed a lot The flowers were bought at the markets and arranged by one of Annie's bridesmaids Peta They didn't have a bridal table, but instead put their bridesmaids on tables with their friends The flowers were a big part of the wedding, as sunflowers are both Annie and Paul's favourite flower. One of Annie's bridesmaid's, Peta, bought all the flowers from the markets and arranged them for the days leading up to the wedding, so the arrangements were done with love. The couple also gave their guests sunflower seeds as a present, with the message 'From little things big things grow' on them, a reference to the Paul Kelly song. Even the cupcakes were significant, as Paul used to work as a bike messenger when he first moved to Sydney, and would balance a cupcake on his handlebars on his ride home on Fridays to give to Annie. The couple's favourite flower is sunflowers, so it was a must that they were in the bouquets Instead of confetti, guests blew bubbles, which Annie said was her way of 'blowing love into the sky' for her Dad The couple gifted each guest sunflower seeds with the message 'From little things big things grow' Even the wedding photography represented who the couple were, with Annie and Paul forgoing traditional shots and opting for fun, casual photosby Towards the Moon. They took photos in a kombi van, on the beach, and with beer and champagne in their hands. There were also lots of photos taken with loved ones, which was bittersweat for Annie, whose father passed away shortly before the wedding day. They weren't able to use confetti in the national park, so instead guests blew bubbles over the couple when the ceremony was over. 'I lost my dad just before wedding,' Annie explained. 'The bubbles were a little way of me blowing love into the sky for my loved ones.' This year's Miss Universe Australia will represent the country in a bold national costume inspired by the Great Barrier Reef. Model Caris Tiivel revealed the outfit she will wear at the International Miss Universe competition later this month on The Today Show on Thursday morning. The 23-year-old said the outfit is an attempt to raise awareness about the issue of coral bleaching. Scroll down for video This year's Miss Universe Australia will represent the country in a bold national costume inspired by the Great Barrier Reef. It was designed by her fellow Perth native Steph Audino - who has been creating gowns for Miss Universe Australia finalists since 2013. It features an embellished pink bodice and blue pants with a flowing tulle skirt inspired by the waters of the Great Barrier Reef. The costume is complete with a multi-coloured tinsel-like headpiece and matching piece worn on the shoulder. 'It's beautiful, the colours and everything, it's just stunning,' Ms Tiivel said on the show. 'It's to raise awareness about the coral bleaching that's happening at the moment.' Colorful: The costume, designed by Steph Audino, features a tinsel-like headpiece The model added that a lot of hard work went into the making of the elaborate outfit. 'I've had a few fittings with Steph. This is her first time making a costume so she's done a really phenomenal job.' However, the hosts noted that costumes in the past - including the gown worn by last year's entrant Monika Radulovic, which was inspired by Dame Edna Everage - have stoked controversy. But despite the national costumes not always being to everyone's taste, Ms Tiivel insisted that the one she'll be wearing is 'stunning.' Bold: Ms Tiivel revealed the outfit she will wear at the International Miss Universe competition Love it or hate it: Monika Radulovic walks the runway during the preliminary round of Miss Universe 2015 at The Axis, Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino She added: 'In Australia, it's always harder. The costumes always have a mixed reaction from the public because Australia doesn't really have a traditional costume so our ones are sort of inspired by landmarks or famous people in Australia. 'I think its stunning and I think it really represents the Great Barrier Reef in Australia really well.' The International Miss Universe competition will begin in the Philippines on January 15, meaning reigning Miss Universe Pia Wurtzbach will crown her successor in her homeland. Controversial: The Miss Universe costumes have courted controversy in the past. Above, Timothy Cubbo's winning design from last year, inspired by Dame Edna Mixed opinions: Former Miss Universe Australia, Tegan Martin, poses in 2014's costume Miss Tiivel said she's excited to return to the Philippines after a recent promotional trip to the country. 'I was in Philippines recently for a promotional trip for Miss Universe so it was great to be able to see their beautiful country and the people are so lovely there. 'I met some of the other delegates as well so I'm looking forward to going back.' There's certain royals that mostly need no introduction regardless of who you're talking to - from King Charles to Prince Harry and Kate Middleton. However, other princes and princess across Europe are just as interesting, glamorous and charming as their well-known counterparts. For instance, Prince Sebastien of Luxembourg, 30, has recently been hailed as one of the most eligible people in Britain, according to Tatler. Elsewhere, another lesser-known royal who is by no means unworthy of our attention is Afonso, Prince of Beira. The 26-year-old is already hotly desired by his Portuguese fans thanks to his dashing good looks and his role as Honorary Commander in the Voluntary Fire Brigade of Lisbon. Equally sought-after by wannabe princesses is Prince Achileas-Andreas of Greece, who with his stunning good looks, appears to be the definition of a Greek God. Here, FEMAL reveals the lesser-known European princes and princess royal fans need on their radar... home Tech iPad mini 5 release date, specs rumors: Apple to launch next-gen tablet as smallest iPad Pro model? The iPad mini was deprived of its annual update last September. However, consumers shouldn't be too disappointed by the non-appearance of the iPad mini 5 as it seems that Apple has other plans for its small tablet lineup. According to reports, the fifth-generation iPad mini will arrive later this year with a new name. Unlike the iPad Air 3 that has long been rumored to have been discontinued by Apple, it has been suggested that the iPad mini 5 will still see the light of day, albeit in a slightly different form. The 7.9-inch tablet is rumored to be renamed as the iPad mini Pro and will become the smallest model in the iPad Pro lineup. This rumor is in line with a previous report from MacOtakara. The publication revealed that Apple will release three new iPad Pro tablets in the spring. The lineup would be comprised of 7.9-inch, 10.1-inch and 12.9-inch models. The 7.9-inch iPad Pro model, touted to be the successor of the iPad mini 4, would be equipped with a Smart Connector, a True Tone display, four speakers, quad microphones and a 12-megapixel rear iSight camera with True Tone flash. Aside from upgraded specs, the tablet will likely gain a thinner but more durable chassis. It is said that Apple is planning to streamline its iPad Pro lineup by offering similar specs and features across the board. Interestingly, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who is a reliable source when it comes to Apple's upcoming devices, also predicted the arrival of three iPad Pro models this year. However, he made no mention of a 7.9-inch device and instead said that the third model will be 9.7 inches in size. This could indicate that Apple might discontinue the iPad mini lineup after all. However, Apple has not commented on the rumors and speculations regarding the iPad mini 5 so the information should be taken with a grain of salt. Some were found tied up and abandoned while others had Incredible photographs have emerged of dogs before and after being rescued. Hundreds have shared the bittersweet transformations online - many of them showing the pups starving, matted and on the brink of death before being saved. One of the most shocking before pictures was shared by the Quebec Society for Protection of Animals, which showed a dog dirty and matted before his rescue. 'This poor guy was found in the streets of Montreal looking so filthy that it was hard to tell that he was actually a dog. He could barely move underneath all his matted hair,' Facebook page Respect and care for animals wrote. 'This poor guy was found in the streets of Montreal looking so filthy that it was hard to tell that he was actually a dog': This little pup was brought back to health from the brink of death Heartbreaking: Another shocking image was that of little Augustus, who was found matted and scabbed in May 2015 Happiest dog in the world: By August the collie was barely recognisable as he appeared happy and healthy as he played in a kiddie pool at his new home But afterwards, the little dog appeared all cleaned up and dressed in a scarf, ready for adoption. Another shocking image was that of little Augustus, who was found matted and scabbed in May 2015. The owner posted snaps of the pup on Imgur, where he shared photos of the dog being rubbed with coconut oil, scrubbed and cared for over a period of three months. By August the collie was barely recognisable as he appeared happy and healthy as he played in a kiddie pool at his new home. Miserable: Dempsey, a beautiful Pitbull, was found tied up and abandoned by his owner outside a pharmacy in Georgia Taken home and cared for: The poor dog was found with an eye infection and mange by Stacey Greenwald, a volunteer with Friends to the Forlorn Pitbull Rescue Glowing: Now, the gorgeous dog appears healthy Ms Greenwald describes him as 'one of the happiest, friendliest and most easygoing dogs' she's met Dempsey, a beautiful Pitbull, was found tied up and abandoned by his owner outside a pharmacy in Georgia. The poor dog was found with an eye infection and mange by Stacey Greenwald, a volunteer with Friends to the Forlorn Pitbull Rescue. Ms Greenwald told The Dodo that she took the sick dog home and gave him antibiotics and medicated baths, as well as lots of love. Now, the gorgeous dog appears healthy Ms Greenwald describes him as 'one of the happiest, friendliest and most easygoing dogs' she's met. Skeletal: One of the most shocking transformations was of Coconut, a beautiful Labrador After being rescued: Just three months later the gorgeous dog is seen laying lazily in the sun by a pool at his new home One of the most shocking transformations was of Coconut, a beautiful Labrador. A friend of the dog's rescuer posted the transformation on Imgur, where he is first pictured looking skeletal and miserable on a couch. Just three months later the gorgeous dog is seen laying lazily in the sun by a pool at his new home. 'That makes my heart soar,' a commenter wrote. Saved: Mila also warmed hearts with her transformation after she was adopted from the pound by a couple touched by her story 'She's the sweetest little girl': Within months her hair started to grow back, she was 'in full on crazy puppy mode' and by nine months she was completely healthy Mila also warmed hearts with her transformation after she was adopted from the pound by a couple touched by her story. The three-month-old pup had Demodectic Mange over her body, a terrible skin infection and pneumonia, the owner wrote on Imgur. At first Mila's infection was so bad they weren't sure she would make it through the night, but after three days of antibiotics she started to come out of her shell. Within months her hair started to grow back, she was 'in full on crazy puppy mode' and by nine months she was completely healthy. After the birth of her daughter Violet, a sleep-deprived Rachael Finch admits she lost track of time. Like every new mum, the former Miss Universe Australia found caring for a newborn was tiring, and sleepless nights came with the territory. 'Suddenly I was going from getting eight hours a night to three hours of broken sleep,' she told Pregnancy Life and Style magazine. 'I remember going to the pantry at 3am wondering if I should make breakfast or dinner.' Model Rachael Finch has spoken out about pregnancy and motherhood as she prepares to welcome her second child Rachael, who has a three-year-old daughter Violet, is due in less than eight weeks and spoke about the sleep deprivation that comes with motherhood The 28-year-old spoke to the publication after revealing in August she is pregnant with her second child. Rachael and her husband Michael Miziner, who she met on the set of Dancing With The Stars and have a three-year-old daughter Violet, are expecting their baby in less than eight weeks. And while she was the picture of pregnancy perfection in the shoot for Pregnancy Life and Style, Rachael admitted it has not all been smooth sailing the second time around. 'I remember going to the pantry at 3am wondering if I should make breakfast or dinner,' Rachael, pictured with her husband Michael Miziner and daughter Violet, said Unlike her first pregnancy, Rachael suffered from prolonged morning sickness the second time around With her second baby she had morning sickness for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy 'With Violet I was ill for about one to two weeks, and with this pregnancy I was sick for 12 weeks straight, but thankfully I'm feeling back to normal now,' she told the publication. As for food cravings, a healthy Rachael said she had been eating tomatoes 'like apples' - as opposed to the Vegemite cravings she had while pregnant with Violet. Being a mother has taught her to trust her intuition, and she said she places less pressure on herself to get things done. She has also craved tomatoes, which she said she eats like 'apples' She appeared on the cover of Pregnancy Life and Style magazine on sale now Rachael admitted she went 'overboard' counting calories and exercising when she didn't want to, but motherhood helped her take a step back. She also no longer worries if everything is not time, and will prioritise sleep over doing the dishes before bed. A health and fitness activist, Rachael and her husband Michael have worked together to release a fitness program called BOD. She told Pregnancy Life and Style the program contains dance-centered workouts and meal plans, including a plan specifically for pregnant women. The plan for pregnant women includes three dance classes a week, two dance-infused circuit classes, a stretch/meditation session and a rest day as well as specialised meal plans. New mothers are being forced out of hospital just hours after they've given birth, according to the national president of the Australian Medical Association (AMA). The move - which has been described as a 'cost-saving exercise' by Perth doctor Michael Gannon - sees vulnerable mothers be discharged before their breast milk has come in and before they've had a chance to recover from the 'ordeal of labour'. It 'has to stop', Dr Gannon told ABC. New mothers are being forced out of hospital just hours after they've given birth, according to the national president of the Australian Medical Association (stock photo) Dr Gannon said that new mothers need to be supported properly in caring for their new babies and when they are breastfeeding - in order to help to prevent things like post-natal depression. 'Not only have they had a long pregnancy and the ordeal of labour, but we are then sending them home to look after their baby,' he said. 'Surely the fourth-richest country in the world can do better than send women home four hours after their babies are born.' The 'cost-saving exercise' sees vulnerable mothers be discharged before their breast milk has come in and before they've had a chance to recover from the 'ordeal of labour' (stock photo) Dr Gannon added that he believed women would benefit from longer stays in hospital. It is generally perceived as a time when women require support. 'We need a bit more compassion and care in looking after women who have given birth to babies,' he said. However, not everyone seemed to agree with the esteemed doctor. Dr Gannon added that he believed women would benefit from longer stays in hospital (stock photo) A spokesperson for Western Australia's Health Department denied Dr Gannon's claims that the hospitals were under pressure to push new mothers out of the hospital doors as soon as possible. 'If there are clinical circumstances that mean the time frames are not appropriate, then mother and baby will remain in hospital until they are ready for discharge. 'Following discharge, women receive continued care from the Visiting Midwifery Service up to five days following birth.' Big spenders holidaying on the Gold Coast can experience the ultimate luxury shopping experience but it will cost them $1,750 before they even set foot in a store. The five-star Palazzo Versace is offering the chance to go on an extravagant adventure to the most fashionable boutiques in the city with their own stylist. The Glamour E Lusso Experience includes traveling in style in the hotels bespoke Rolls-Royce Phantom. But the lavish costs $1,750 for one guest and an extra $900 for each additional guest. Extravagant: The five-star Palazzo Versace is offering a luxury shopping experience that costs $1,750 - before you even set foot in a store. Stock photo While clients do not need to be staying at the Main Beach hotel, the retail therapy starts with a meet and greet in Le Jardin with stylist and personal Simone Bennett-Smith. After a glass of champagne on arrival and a styling assessment with Ms Bennett-Smith, the first stop is the Versace boutique in the hotel. Next, you can continue chugging champagne on a chauffeur-driven trip to the Pacific Fair shopping centre in the hotels Rolls Royce. Ms Bennett-Smith will be there to greet shoppers on arrival before a three-hour shopping tour of the centres new luxury sector, The Resort. Luxury: Guests will be offered plenty of champagne and will travel in a Rolls-Royce Phantom Destination: They'll get a three-hour tour of the Pacific Fair mall with a personal shopper A stop at the Marina Mirage shopping centre can also be requested. After shopping till youve dropped, guests will be transported back to the hotel in the Rolls Royce. There, they can unwind with a soothing spa pedicure in the hotels award-winning Aurora Spa and enjoy a Champagne High Tea. The experience has been introduced after the hotel appointed a new general manager in September. Claire Huang is hoping to attract more of the international visitors to the Gold Coast to the luxury resort. She's well-known for her penchant for the finer things in life and Princess Michael of Kent certainly appeared to be enjoying herself at a swanky eatery in London on Wednesday night. The 71-year-old - dubbed Princess Pushy for her firm demeanour - looked glamorous in a fur-trimmed coat black coat as she left Scott's restaurant in Mayfair, London, on a chilly winter evening. The youthful Princess was certainly dressed for the weather in her overcoat, which was adorned with brown fur cuffs. Princess Michael of Kent, 71, looked very glamorous in a fur-trimmed coat on a night out at swanky eatery Scott's in London on Thursday night With her hair pulled into its signature low ponytail, the royal looked chic and offset her look with her favourite pearl earrings, a graphic black clutch and cosy black gloves. Scott's is a magnet for celebrities and is a firm favourite of the Beckhams, Nigella Lawson and Princess Beatrice. The natural blonde certainly threw herself into the royal festivities over December and was seen arriving at Buckingham Palace for the Queen's annual pre-Christmas lunch. The Queen's annual pre-Christmas lunch is a royal tradition and allows her to catch up with more distant relations, who are not invited to join her at the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk on the 25th. With her hair pulled into its signature low ponytail, the royal looked chic accessorising with her favourite pearl earrings, a graphic black clutch and cosy black gloves. The timeless Princess was in high spirits and was certainly dressed for the weather in her overcoat, which was adorned with brown fur cuffs Members of the extended family in attendance included the Queen's cousin Prince Michael of Kent who arrived with his daughter Lady Gabriella Windsor and his wife Princess Michael, who looked typically glamorous in a fur trimmed coat. Princess Michael has also been working quietly on her charitable causes. Princess Michael is actively involved in around 45 different charities and organisations, including animal and wildlife trusts and health and welfare charities. A woman turned the strains of her daily commute into a million pound business after launching an innovative foldable shoe loved by the A-list. British footwear brand Cocorose London was founded in 2007 by Janan Leo, who was 26 at the time and saw a gap in the market for busy women who didn't want to compromise on style. As a young professional, Janan, 36, from London, was forever on the hunt for stylish yet comfortable footwear that she could wear during her commute and, on arriving to the office, could easily fold away and store in her handbag should she wish to change into heels. Cocorose London was founded in 2007 by Janan Leo, from London, who was 26 at the time and saw a gap in the market for busy women who didn't want to compromise on style Her shoes, which cost between 35-110, is now sold in 30 countries, worn by Dame Helen Mirren and Pippa Middleton, and she turns over 1m every year - but it wasn't all plain sailing. Speaking about her brainchild, she told FEMAIL: 'I founded the brand with the sole mission of helping to make my everyday lifestyle easier. 'I was a young professional working and living in London and the daily commute proved to be a never-ending challenge. I didn't so much mind the rush hour crush; it was more the incredibly uncomfortable and impractical commute in heels that propelled me to create a solution to solve what I was sure was a global problem for women.' Armed with a passion for fashion and a background in New Product Development from her job at Virgin Trains, she went on to create her first prototype - but it wasn't as easy as she'd hoped. She explained: 'I approached shoe factories all over the world to help me get my concept to market. As the saying goes, where there's a will, there's a way.' Finally, after receiving negative replies from over 100 factories, she received a 'yes' response. Her shoes, which cost between 35-110, is now sold in 30 countries, worn by Dame Helen Mirren and Pippa Middleton Speaking about her brainchild, she told FEMAIL: 'I founded the brand with the sole mission of helping to make my everyday lifestyle easier' As a young professional, Janan was forever on the hunt for stylish yet comfortable footwear that she could wear during her commute and, on arriving to the office, could easily fold away and store in her handbag should she wish to change into heels Armed with a passion for fashion and a background in New Product Development from her job at Virgin Trains, she went on to create her first prototype and went on to become a finalist in the Retail category for the Great British Entrepreneur Awards 2016. Pippa Middleton, right, loves the shoes Janan, who was still working in her full-time job as New Product Development Manager for Virgin Trains, continued this for the next three years to help her fully set up the business and get it off the ground. 'This was important to me, as I needed to support myself and feed Cocorose London in those early days,' she said. 'I've always had an entrepreneurial spirit, so when my idea popped, I knew straight away that this was what I wanted to create and develop as my own business. 'Thankfully, I was working for one of the most entrepreneurial companies and so when I shared my plans with my managers and higher above, it was met with fantastic support which I will forever appreciate.' It took Janan a year to set up and get the product and collection ready and she finally launched online in May 2008. At weekends, she would take a stall at Brick Lane market in East London so she could chat with potential customers and help to get the brand name out more. Janan worked in her full-time job as New Product Development Manager for Virgin Trains for three years alongside launching the business Janan has also collaborated with The Royal Ballet since 2012 and have also been an official gift partner to the British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) since 2010 Then, in 2010, she took the plunge and went full-time on the business. She said: 'My partner, Gareth Austin-Jones, was right alongside me and together, we've organically grown distribution to over 30 countries and turnover to 1 million. 'It's been a privilege to have been the creator of Foldable Shoes, a new category within the global footwear market, and to continue to pioneer the development of this range. 'For all the hassle and stress, I'm incredibly proud to have pushed conventional design boundaries and create further industry-firsts, including foldable sneakers, espadrilles, sandals and boots.' Cocorose London were awarded The Great Retail Revival and House of Frasers Overall Winner and Most Innovative Product awards and were HSBCs StartUpStars winner for Greater London. Janan has also collaborated with The Royal Ballet since 2012 and have also been an official gift partner to the British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) since 2010. She has also been invited to No.10 Downing Street to talk about her exporting success and was selected as one of four entrepreneurs to accompany former PM David Cameron on a trip to the Milan Expo, to help champion British businesses. Most recently, Janan was a finalist in the Retail category for the Great British Entrepreneur Awards 2016. Expensive dinners, yacht parties, and shopping for designer handbags are everyday occurences for 'sugar baby' Jeanemarie Almulla - who insists her lifestyle 'empowers' her. The 25-year-old from Florida enjoys an extravagant lifestyle thanks to a number of sugar daddies who take her out for dinner, whisk her away on last minute holidays, and even hand over stacks of cash. But she was once forced to wear a hijab and was not allowed to leave Abu Dhabi when she was due to marry a sheikh in an arranged marriage. She escaped back to the US and now, despite claiming that 'men are supposed to be caregivers', Jeanemarie describes herself as a feminist and champion of women's rights. Scroll down for video The 25-year-old from Florida enjoys her extravagant lifestyle thanks to a number of sugar daddies The 25-year-old has admitted: 'My friends pick me up on their jet ski and take me to their yacht parties - how could I ever work in an office after that?' At 15, Jeanemarie was crowned Miss City Beautiful Teen and Miss Avaloq Park Teen USA She insists she is simply making the most of her looks and intelligence - something she urges other women to also do. She said: 'I have no problem with working hard but I'd rather work smart. Men are supposed to be caregivers and take care of women.' The sugar baby, who speaks three languages and has a degree in International Relations, doesn't see any conflict of interests between her life as a sugar baby and her work with women. She's even written a self-help book on empowering women as well as working with Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and talking at Girl Scout meetings. Despite claiming that 'men are supposed to be caregivers', Jeanemarie describes herself as a feminist The sugar baby speaks three languages and has a degree in International Relations And Jeanemarie says she could never go back to a normal lifestyle. 'My friends pick me up on their jet ski and take me to their yacht parties - how could I ever work in an office after that?' She adds: 'Being a sugar baby is just knowing that you are valuable.' And Jeanemarie says it's not just about sex - and that many of the daddies simply want to talk. Jeanemarie said: 'These guys don't want sex; if they did, they would go to an escort or a prostitute. They want conversation, they want someone that they can go to dinner with. 'Why shouldn't they help you? A lot of people confuse it with prostitution. A prostitute is someone who shows up, does a job, takes money and leaves. A sugar baby is nothing like that, a lot of the time sex isn't involved, it's not expected. She insists: 'Being a sugar baby is just knowing that you are valuable' Jeanemarie regularly flaunts her lavish lifestyle on social media The glamorous blonde says: 'You go to nice dinners and you go on private planes... it's fun' 'You just have a friend who helps around and takes care of you. You go to nice dinners and you go on private planes and you go on yachts, you go to cool parties and you have awesome designer bags and it's fun.' She addsL 'I know what it's like to have nothing. I have lived in my car. When I first got to Miami, I came here with nothing. 'I've lived in Lebanon and got to teach Palestinian refugees English for a non-government organisation. So to now be able to sit in my Jacuzzi and look at the beautiful scenery, is like a dream come true.' Jeanemarie says her lifestyle makes the most of both her looks and her brains Jeanemarie first considered becoming a sugar baby after she split from her husband She insists that joining a sugar daddy website 'saved her life' She explained: 'When I was 15 I started competing in beauty pageants and actually won Miss City Beautiful Teen and Miss Avaloq Park Teen USA. 'They ask you to have a platform. A lot of girls chose breast cancer awareness, animal rights. I chose learning how to love yourself. 'I started this organisation called Empowering Young Girls and I write a book that I give to Girl Scouts, called Footsteps of Confidence.' Jeanemarie first considered becoming a sugar baby in 2015 after splitting with her husband. But when friends first introduced her to the lifestyle, Jeanemarie had her reservations. She explained: 'At first I was like, honestly I'm not going to do this, I don't believe in it but it honestly saved my life. It sounds stupid to people but I had nothing.' 'I'd just graduated from Florida State university and I had debt up to my eyeballs and nowhere to go.' On her first date with a sugar daddy, Jeanemarie was given $1,000 to 'start over' The 25-year-old added: 'You just have to love yourself and follow your dream' 'A friend let me stay with her couple of weeks and said you need to go on seekingarrangement.com - there's no other job that you're going to get where you can afford an apartment in Miami beach.' On her first date with a sugar daddy, Jeanemarie was given $1,000 (813) to 'start over'. She explained: 'I realised this is one guy and there are hundreds of other guys in Miami who will find me attractive, take me out to dinner and want to help me.' Jeanemarie is currently dating three sugar daddies and receives up to 100 messages per day 'I really don't care what people think,' she says of her new lifestyle 'You just have to love yourself and follow your dream. If you are sitting at that 9-5 job and you hate your life, quit it because when you do what you love, life is fun.' It's a far cry from Jeanemarie's earlier life when, aged 17, she was sent to live with her father's family in Abu Dhabi for seven months. Forced to wear a hijab and unable to leave Abu Dhabi (Jeanemarie's uncle confiscated her passport), Jeanemarie was due to marry a sheikh in an arranged marriage but managed to escape back to the US after her mother's intervention. Jeanemarie said: 'I think that really shaped who I am today. Because I was forced to cover up. It's a symbolism of my freedom to show my skin.' Now receiving between 60-100 messages a day, Jeanemarie is currently dating three sugar daddies. 'I went from being married to a guy who just used me for a green card to living on my own in a penthouse looking over the water.' And Jeanemarie has little regard for critics who might condemn her new lifestyle. Jack and Rose's smooch on the front deck of the Titanic is the best movie kiss of all-time, according to new research. The tender moment between Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio's characters takes place seconds after Rose utters the infamous line, 'I'm flying' as Rose perches with her arms outstretched on the bow of the ship as Jack holds her tight. The scene from the Oscar-winning blockbuster fought off competition from Lady and the Tramp's canine canoodle over spaghetti and the kiss between Sam and Molly in Ghost. Scroll down for video Jack and Rose's kiss on the front deck of the Titanic (above) is the best movie kiss of all-time, according to new research The multi-Oscar winner fought off competition from The Lady and the Tramp's spaghetti scene (above) Han Solo and Princess Leia's embrace in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back also featured in the top 50 greatest movie kisses. A spokesman for TLC, who conducted the research of 2,000 UK adults, said: 'Kisses are such a big part of movies so it's fascinating to see which ones have had the biggest impact. 'For many people, their first experience of a 'proper' kiss is likely to have been seeing one on screen. 'So perhaps respondents had a sense of nostalgia when it came to voting for their favourites.' Pretty Woman's fire escape kiss came fourth, followed by the snog at the end of Dirty Dancing - and Bridget and Mark's kiss in the snow in Bridget Jones's Diary. Spiderman's upside down smooch came seventh while the rain-soaked embrace between Holly Golightly and Paul Varjak in Breakfast at Tiffany's came eighth. Bella and Edward's first kiss in Twilight also appeared in the top 50, along with the 'you had me at hello' moment from Jerry Maguire and the elevator kiss in Romeo + Juliet. The scene where Ron and Hermione's finally kiss in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows featured too. While Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara's embrace in Gone with the Wind after he says the words 'you need kissing badly' came ninth. In third place came the kiss between Sam and Molly in Ghost (above) before he passes over while Han Solo and Princess Leia's embrace in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back also featured in the top 50 greatest movie kisses Pretty Woman's fire escape kiss came fourth (pictured above), followed by the snog at the end of Dirty Dancing - and Bridget and Mark's kiss in the snow in Bridget Jones's Diary Thirty per cent of Brits said romantic films are their favourite type of movie to watch on a date however over a quarter said they would feel awkward watching one on a first date. Almost half of respondents think movie kisses are realistic and three in 10 said onscreen romance has influenced how they go about their love life. A fifth of people reckon watching a film with a date which features a smooch or two, improves their chances of sharing a kiss at the end of the night. Forty six per cent of respondents think it's possible to fall in love from the first kiss, while seven in 10 think first impressions count when comes to kissing. Another kiss in the rain, this time from The Notebook, came eleventh - while the first kiss between Vada and Thomas J in My Girl also appeared in the top 50. Thirty per cent of Brits said romantic films are their favourite type of movie to watch on a date however over a quarter said they would feel awkward watching one on a first date (above: Dirty Dancing) Almost half of respondents think movie kisses are realistic and three in 10 said onscreen romance has influenced how they go about their love life (Above: Bridget Jones and Mark Darcy) Casablanca's 'Kiss me as if it were the last time' embrace, Shrek and Princess Fiona's kiss which turns her into an all-ogre - and Keira Knightley and Andrew Lincoln's snog feature too. Clare Laycock, VP, Head of TLC said: 'In Love At First Kiss, participants are invited to kiss fellow contestants without an introduction. 'If they like each other, they can then choose to go on a speed date followed by a proper date - so first impressions really count. 'The iconic kisses featured in our survey may well give romantic singletons some inspiration and encouragement. 'Many of us will experience a nerve-wracking or exciting first encounter and perhaps one that isn't quite as perfect as we see in films.' Love At First Kiss airs on Wednesdays from 11 January, 9pm on TLC. Twitter has applauded a new uncle after he arrived at the birth of his niece wearing a suit because 'first impressions count'. Grant Kessler, 18 from Pickering Ohio, wanted to look as smart as possible as he went to meet his sister Olivia Kessler's new addition. Arriving at the hospital in Columbus to meet baby Carter Grant surprised his family by wearing a two piece suit complete with a tie. Twitter has applauded new uncle Grant Kessler, after he went to visit his newborn niece Carter in hospital dressed in a suit Touched by her brother's gesture Grant's other sister Iris took a photo of him to share with her Twitter followers. Iris tweeted a photo of Grant sat in the hospital chair captioning it: 'my sister is about to have a baby and my brother showed up to the hospital in a suit because 'first impressions matter''. His sister Iris shared the photo of him on Twitter explaining that Grant had chosen to wear a suit because 'first impressions matter' Iris said that although Carter would not remember their first meeting she would grow up to learn about it The tweet quickly captured the attention of thousands of users receiving over 430,000 likes and 130,000 retweets. Impressed by Grant's choice in clothing many users left messages of support for the teen. Many users agreed that his approach to meeting his niece was the making of a good uncle. Others were impressed by his gentlemanly gesture and said more should do the same. Some Twitter users were left feeling extremely emotional by Grant's efforts towards meeting Carter. Iris told Buzzfeed that this behaviour was 'totally classic' adding 'He's always the type to show up to things dressed up, or bring a cake for no reason.' The proud sister added that although Carter won't remember Grant's efforts she will know of them as she gets older. Ivanka Trump may have returned to New York City following her tropical vacation, but the mother-of-three still has a Hawaiian state of mind. The 35-year-old was back to the grind on Thursday morning, and she was photographed stepping out of her Park Avenue apartment in an open coat, a floral dress, and bare legs despite the temperature being below freezing. Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner celebrated the holidays at the Four Seasons Resort Hualalai with their three children and his brother Joshua, and it looks like the businesswoman may not have been ready to come home. Back to the grind! Ivanka Trump returned to work on Thursday morning and was pictured leaving her Park Avenue apartment Feeling the chill? Despite the below freezing temperatures in New York City, Ivanka left her wool coat opened and donned a purple floral dress Although the temperatures were only in the upper 20s, Ivanka walked out of the gold gilded doors of her building in a tan wool coat worn over a $128 purple floral wrap dress from her eponymous collection. Ivanka's hair and coat flapped in the chilling breeze, and she paired the look with sunglasses, a blue clutch, and gray suede heels from her shoe line, as she headed to work. In just a few weeks, Ivanka will become First Daughter when her father Donald is sworn in as president. On the go: Ivanka donned sunglasses and carried a blue clutch as she walked out the door Entourage: The 35-year-old was flanked by her Secret Service detail as she left the building The lifestyle guru and her family are reportedly gearing up to move to Washington, D.C., and they may have already found a new home in the nation's capital. Ivanka and Jared have completed a deal for a beautiful home in the elite Kalorama neighborhood of the city, according to the Washingtonian. The 94-year-old recently renovated home the family is said to be moving into is just blocks away from the Obamas, who are also said to be moving into that area once they leave the White House. Not cold for long! Ivanka headed straight to the SUV that was parked outside of her building Happy family: Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner spent the holidays in Hawaii with their three children, Arabella, Joseph, and Theodore And while there are plenty of changes coming Ivanka's way, she managed to kick back and relax with her family in Hawaii. Ivanka was the only one of her for siblings who didn't attend the President-elect's New Year's Eve bash at their Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. Instead, she celebrated New Year's Eve and the last day of Hanukkah in Hawaii with husband, and their children, Arabella, five, Joseph, three, and Theodore, nine-months. Best nine: On New Year's Eve ivanka posted a collage of photos showing big moments in 2016, which she referred to as 'one of the most eventful and exciting years of my life' Relaxing: Ivanka posted a photo of herself with her two sons relaxing on vacation in Hawaii, sharing a message to other families about an 'incredible year to come' Heading to the top: Ivanka and Jared celebrated Hanukkah and New Year's Eve in Hawaii When it came to looking back on 2016, Ivanka had a lot to highlight, and she happily shared a collage of photos on Instagram that included one snapshot from the night of the election and baby photos of her youngest boy Theodore. To round up the end of what she claimed 'has been one of the most eventful and exciting years of my life', Ivanka posted a sweet image of her family all together. The photo sees her with her husband Jared and their children posing in front of a lit Menorah. 'New Year's Eve + Last Night of Chanukah,' she wrote in the caption. Meanwhile, Ivanka's siblings Donald Jr., Eric, Tiffany, and Barron joined their father at his Mar-a-Lago resort for a lavish party that cost attendees $500 to $575 per ticket. Last fall, CoverGirl made history when the brand tapped beauty vlogger James Charles as its first male spokesmodel. Now another male make-up guru is getting a major campaign, this time for Maybelline New York. Manny Gutierrez, who goes by Manny MUA on social media, has partnered with the mass-market brand with fellow influencer Shayla Mitchell on a new video promoting its just-released The Colossal Big Shot Mascara. In the video, the pair roll around on a mascara-strewn bed before applying the product to their lashes. Manny, who has over two million YouTube subscribers, said in a press release that he's thrilled that Maybelline is 'recognizing male influencer talent and is willing to shine a spotlight on it'. Scroll for video. He's definitely born with it: YouTube star Manny Gutierrez recently landed a Maybelline New York campaign for the brand's new The Colossal Big Shot Mascara More major brands are bound to follow suit, and when they do, they have plenty of talent to choose from. Below, we round up the top beauty boys on YouTube. WHO: Manny Gutierrez YOUTUBE CHANNEL: @MannyMua733 When he started his channel in 2014, Manny took his belief that 'make-up is genderless and has no rules' and ran with it. Before partnering with Maybelline, the vlogger worked on collaborations with influencer-loved brands Makeup Geek and Ofra Cosmetics. Beauty boy: Manny has racked up over two million YouTube subscribers since joining the site in 2014 WHO: Jeffree Star YOUTUBE CHANNEL: @jeffreestar A Myspace celebrity turned YouTube star, Jeffree is known for his bright pink hair, his many tattoos and his sassy beauty tutorials that have racked up well over 300 million views. Even if you've never caught one of his videos, you've probably heard of his namesake cosmetics line of quick-to-sell-out products like bold liquid lipsticks and frosty highlighters. The veteran: Before making a splash on YouTube, Jeffree Star was a Myspace celebrity WHO: James Charles Dickinson YOUTUBE CHANNEL: @jamescharles After starting his channel at the end of 2015, the 17-year-old high school student shot to Internet stardom when his yearbook photo (where he appears with impeccably highlighted cheekbones) went viral. Soon after, CoverGirl came calling. James, who recently starred in a CoverGirl commercial alongside fellow ambassador Katy Perry, prides himself on creating out-of-the-box content such as his Snapchat galaxy filter and chunky glitter tutorials. That's CoverBOY to you: James Charles became CoverGirl's first male spokesmodel in 2016, pictured here alongside fellow brand ambassador Zendaya (left) WHO: Gabriel Zamora YOUTUBE CHANNEL: @gabrielzamora Last year was a big one for Gabriel, too. He was named a stylist for Ipsy, the subscription box service and beauty community started by YouTube sensation Michelle Phan. On his channel, you'll find 'quick' and 'easy' tutorials on how to create everyday make-up looks in both English and Spanish. One to watch: Bi-lingual vlogger Gabriel Zamora is one of the subscription service Ipsy's latest 'influencers' WHO: Patrick Simondac YOUTUBE CHANNEL: @theepatrickstarrr If you're a fan of Manny, you're likely also a fan of his BFF, Patrick Starr. In addition to Manny, you'll also spot celebs like Keke Palmer in Patrick's videos. Earlier this year, the popular vlogger collaborated with Sephora on a trio of pink nail polishes, and most recently, he starred in a campaign for Anastasia Beverly Hill's forthcoming Lip Palette. Breaking boundaries: Patrick Starr's personal brand motto is, 'makeup is one size fits all' WHO: Bretman Rock YOUTUBE CHANNEL: @bretmanrock The high-schooler first garnered attention on social media after his How to Contour video blew up in 2015. Since then, fans have remained glued to his feeds (he has 1.2 million YouTube subscribers and 6.9 million Instagram followers) for tutorials that are as informative as they are hilarious. Super teen: 17-year-old Bretman Rock has a whopping 6.9 million followers on Instagram WHO: Angel Merino YOUTUBE CHANNEL: @itsmacdaddyy When he's not painting the faces of celebrities like Christina Milian and Chanel Iman or detailing bronze smoky eye looks on his Instagram and YouTube accounts, the beauty influencer is developing products for his own make-up line, Artist Couture, and for collaborations with brands like Pur Cosmetics. Sick patients will be diagnosed using an artificial intelligence smartphone app in a controversial NHS trial to take pressure off the disgraced 111 hotline. The new NHS 111 app, run by private firm Babylon, will ask users to type in their symptoms and give them advice. It will be offered to 1.2million patients in a six-month trial starting later this month, as part of a major drive to digitise the NHS. Those in the north London pilot area who call 111 will be given the option of downloading the app, which will also be advertised in GP surgeries. Officials last night insisted it would supplement, rather than replace, the 111 telephone service. But experts have raised concerns about the safety of using a computer program rather than a human being to give health advice. The countrys most senior GP yesterday warned that a seemingly minor problem could quickly escalate and that only a doctor could spot the signs. Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said: New technological initiatives dont suit all patients, and they dont always save resources, despite the initial appeal of the idea. Moving the NHS 111 service online via an app or otherwise risks alienating vulnerable patients who are perhaps elderly, or simply not tech-savvy. We question whether an app, no matter how complex, comprehensive, or intelligent the algorithm it uses, is qualified to decide how urgent a patients health complaint is, so we are pleased that this is being run as a pilot before being used more widely. The NHS has already come under fire for its 111 non-emergency telephone service. This was launched in 2010 with the aim of cutting costs and reducing pressure on busy A&E departments. There's an app for that! The initiative is developed by UK tech company Babylon But it immediately ran into problems, with overly cautious call centre staff initially sending too many people to hospital. It has also been blamed for fatalities. The Daily Mail revealed last January how 12-month-old William Mead, from Cornwall, died of sepsis after a 111 call handler failed to realise how ill he was. And an investigation revealed that in part of the South West, call handlers were sometimes relying on just one district nurse for advice, while covering a population of 2.3million. Over four years, the helpline saw a rise in demand from two million calls a year to 15million. In recent weeks it has been stretched to its limits, as cases of the norovirus winter vomiting bug have surged. But Dr Chaand Nagpaul, chairman of the British Medical Associations GP committee, said the app would not solve the core issues. He added: The basic problem with NHS 111 is how it slavishly relies on algorithms and non-clinical staff without room for clinical interpretation in certain instances. This proposal does not address this fundamental limitation and may make the situation worse. The app, called NHS 111 powered by Babylon, will be tested in five London boroughs Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey and Islington. NHS officials said the software would be able to decide in two minutes whether someones symptoms need to be seen by a GP or at a hospital, or whether a visit to a pharmacy or simply staying at home is the best option. It will also tell patients which specific service to visit, as close to their home as possible. The results of the text chat will be sent to the NHS so that any action needed, for example booking an appointment with an out-of-hours GP, can be quickly taken. It is based on the free Babylon Healthcare app, which gives quick advice using a so-called chatbot program. Patients type in their symptoms and the app responds with further questions. New venture: The NHS will trial the smartphone technology later this month to try and tackle mounting demand on services Consulting a database of symptoms and illnesses, the app uses an algorithm to judge the urgency of each situation. It makes money by offering patients a video consultation with a private GP after the text session, for between 5 and 25. The NHS app will not offer this. A previous online system the NHS Choices Symptom Checker missed one in eight emergencies, according to a Harvard Medical School study in 2015. Keith McNeil, chief clinical information officer for the NHS, admitted using an app would not be a huge leap from the current call centre service. [NHS 111] at the moment relies on an employee taking people through a pathway of questioning, he told the Financial Times. They are not clinical professionals necessarily. It was not clear last night how much Babylon is being paid. But Dr Ali Parsa, the firms boss, said the NHS would save money. A terminally ill mum from Croydon is pleading for a cancer drug to remain free on the NHS so she can live long enough to see her son start school. Bonnie Fox, 39, was diagnosed with secondary cancer in July 2015 - just four months after her child Barnaby was born. However, when the two drugs she is currently on to treat her breast, bone and liver cancer stop working, the only strong medication she would be able to use is Kadcyla - costing 90,000 per patient. Heartfelt plea: Bonnie Fox, 39, was diagnosed with secondary cancer in July 2015, just four months after her son Barnaby was born Despite this, the NHS watchdog has recommended the drug shouldn't be supplied to circa 1,200 people because 'it does not work well enough to justify its high cost'. Bonnie, who has launched a petition to keep the drug available, says she knows other mums who have had a 'relatively normal' quality of life while taking it. Her local MP for Croydon South, Chris Philp, is backing her campaign. He's also requesting a meeting with the Minister of State for Health, Philip Dunne, to discuss their concerns. 'This drug could add precious years to my life so not having the drug would add huge anxiety,' she said. 'Its already an enormously anxious situation anyway, dealing with this disease and I dont know when it is that Im going to need it but I need to know it is there for me when I do. 'I feel cheated that Ive known so many women that have done so well on this drug and Ive seen what they can do, the good quality of life they can have. Im thinking in terms of the years it could add and what I could see with Barnaby. 'Im looking ahead and Kadcyla could be that difference that lets me live long enough to see him go to school. Thats my goal and what Im aiming for.' Expensive: Kadcyla can extend the lives of women by years, but its manufacturer Roche has been criticised for the high cost of the drug, which is priced at an average of 70,800 a year Fighting: Bonnie has started a petition to keep the breast cancer drug funded on the NHS Sadly, Bonnie had very few symptoms before she was diagnosed. She had problems breastfeeding Barnaby, who is two in February, but was initially told it was blocked milk ducts. After several scans, which revealed nothing, one of her lymph nodes was seen to be swollen and when a doctor did a biopsy, they discovered she had breast cancer. I feel like Im partly to blame that I didnt find this thing that was growing in my body all that time 'It was just the most enormous shock and the last thing I ever expected,' she added. 'I thought it would just be an infection, so I didnt go with anyone and I just took Barnaby with me. 'You just got used to having a baby, it wasnt easy for us to have a baby either, so you think finally our lives are in order and everythings going really well and that happens. I run over in my head all the time, could I have found this sooner? 'I feel like Im partly to blame that I didnt find this thing that was growing in my body all that time. If I wasnt having the breastfeeding problems, it wouldnt have been found when it was.' In the 'whirlwind' weeks that followed, she then found out that her HER2-positive cancer, which cannot be surgically removed, had spread to her liver and bones. Limited time left: Bonnie's plea will surely tug on the heart-strings of fellow mothers Blame game? Campaigners say poor access to cutting-edge treatments is one of the reasons that cancer survival rates in this country continue to lag behind other rich nations She began six months of chemotherapy and was put on two drugs, which she is still prescribed, called Herceptin and Perjeta. These stabilising drugs, which can also reduce the tumours size, will eventually stop working, leaving Kadcyla as her only option. A decision will be made on whether the drug, which is funded by the Cancer Drugs Fund, can still be funded in February. I have known women to climb mountains on this drug and travel the world but, most importantly, continue with their jobs, continue playing an active role as a mother and continue contributing to society Bonnie Fox The National Institution for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), which provides national guidance to the NHS, said data showed the drug can help women live up to nine months longer. But Bonnie, who returned to work as a project manager part-time last February, says she knows women who have lived up to three years while on the drug, enjoying a good quality of life. If the drug is not recommended for continued funding, she would either have to pay for it herself, access it through clinical trials or go on harsh chemotherapy - which may not even work. She said: 'Nobody knows how you are going to react to drugs. In some ways its really hard as you would like to know how long youve got left, as you want to plan and arrange things but, at the same time, I think its probably best that you dont know. 'Kadcyla is a remarkable drug that has had incredible results and can add years of quality time. I have known women to climb mountains on this drug and travel the world but, most importantly, continue with their jobs, continue playing an active role as a mother and continue contributing to society.' Professor Carole Longson MBE, director of the Centre for Health Technology Evaluation at NICE, said: 'We know that people with cancer place great importance on drugs that can increase their life expectancy. 'For that reason we apply as much flexibility as we can when we look at new life-extending treatments. A miracle baby from Essex is celebrating turning one today today after cheating death when she was born with her bowel outside her body. Sydney Groves bowel was protruding from her stomach and had to be wrapped in Clingfilm and gradually drawn back in, before being stitched up. It was days before she could go to the toilet, and weeks before she could eat, due to her condition: gastroschisis. Celebration: Sydney Groves, from Essex, was born suffering from gastroschisis a rare defect of the abdominal wall - but is now a picture of health on her first birthday Even milk expressed by her mum, Fran Groves, now 26, had to be tube-fed into a tube via her nose into her stomach. Now, despite her shaky start in life, she is a lively and sometimes naughty one-year-old. In fact, her dramatic birth has seemingly had no ill effects, and she is perfectly healthy. Sydney was diagnosed with the ultra-rare condition at her beautician mums 12-week scan, at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, Essex. It came as a shock, as the majority of newborns intestines have moved inside their abdomen by 11 weeks gestation, after initially developing outside the umbilical cord. 'I really didnt expect it,' Fran said. 'I was with my husband Paul, now 45, and suddenly the consultant noticed something amiss.' From then on, Frans care throughout her pregnancy was transferred to The Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel miles away from their home in Harlow. Gastroschisis can lead to some newborns having their intestines or even bladder exposed. But Fran had ultrasounds every four weeks, to check Sydneys progress, and learnt at her 16-week scan, that only her babys bowels were exposed. Fragile: Sydney, pictured here just days old, was born with her bowel growing outside of her body, so it was wrapped in a silo bag to protect it Fran continued: 'It was scary to be told at my first scan that something wasnt right. It was the last thing that we expected. 'We were told our baby was just one in 3,000 babies who would be born with this condition, and we had so many concerns.' Fran and Paul, an accounts assistant and part-time mobile DJ, were told the pregnancy could not progress beyond 37 weeks, as it would not be safe for Sydney. So, in late December 2015, the expectant mum was admitted to hospital in London for labour to be induced. But it took five days for little Sydney to arrive, following an emergency caesarean. Doting parents: Fran and Paul watching over their daughter Sydney in the hospital, two days after her operation 'I was surrounded by about 20 doctors, nurses and support staff,' Fran said. 'Then, finally, Sydney was there. Doctors warned me she might not scream, but she let out a giant yell. It was the best sound.' It was scary to be told at my first scan that something wasnt right. It was the last thing that we expected. We were told our baby was just one in 3,000 babies who would be born with this condition and we had so many concerns. Fran Groves Weighing just 5lbs 8 oz, Sydney was whisked to an incubator in neonatal intensive care (NICU), before her proud mum and dad were taken to see her. 'NICU was ready for her with a team of surgeons, midwives, paediatric doctors, nurses and many other support staff, Fran explained. 'Sydney was immediately taken to the resuscitation table, where the doctors did all of their initial checks. Her bowel was wrapped tightly to her body, with what looked like a special version of Clingfilm, which would help protect it. 'She was then placed into an incubator and, before she was rushed off, we were lucky enough to be able to see her, take our first photos, and touch her. These were all things we didnt think would be possible, so we were completely and utterly overwhelmed.' Recovery: The youngster returns to The Royal London every six months, for checks, but there have been no further complications The couple stayed in The Stevenson House special family accommodation just minutes away - courtesy of The Sick Childrens Trust, enabling them to visit Sydney constantly. Over the next few days the Clingfilm actually a silo bag was reduced in size. Gravity pushed Sydneys bowel back into her body. Then, after four days with her bowel back in her body, surgeons stitched her stomach up during a two-hour operation. Staying in the London hospital for another four weeks, while she gained weight, she was then transferred weighing 7lb to the Princess Alexandra in Essex, before being allowed home on February 8, 2016. Second-hand smoke could affect a woman's baby before she has even conceived, a shocking new study reveals. Decades of evidence have shown pregnant women who smoke or inhale second-hand smoke are more likely to deliver children with brain impairment that affects learning and behavior. But new research by Duke University has shown this risk was identical in lab rats exposed to tobacco before conceiving. The startling findings are an industry first, and will likely put pressure on health officials to ramp up the already-stringent public health policies on smoking. And the researchers warn nicotine chemicals in e-cigarettes could be just as dangerous. New research by Duke University has shown women exposed to tobacco before conceiving are more likely to deliver children with brain impairment that affects learning and behavior 'Our study clearly shows there is no stage in which tobacco smoke is innocuous to the developing fetus,' Dr Theodore Slotkin said. 'We warn women about smoking during pregnancy, and most people are aware that secondhand smoke exposure is also harmful to the fetus, but our study is the first to show that exposure prior to conception is potentially damaging, as well. 'The public health implications should be obvious.' Dr Slokin and his team are now scrambling to start investigations into how the destructive chemicals linger in the female body long enough to impair a fetus. Smoke exposure during pregnancy damages regions of the fetal brain involved in learning, memory and emotional responses. These were the exact symptoms found in the babies of rats exposed to smoke before conception. To investigate, the team simulated secondhand smoke exposure by capturing and extracting the chemical compounds of tobacco smoke. This solution was administered to the rats through implanted pumps. They chose this method to eliminated the stress of breathing smoke, which in itself can potentially impact fetal brain development - a factor that made earlier studies less effective. Groups of female rats received the tobacco smoke extract during one of three periods: prior to mating, early gestation or late gestation. The researchers then studied the offspring starting in early adolescence and into adulthood, focusing on brain regions that are known to be adversely affected by nicotine and tobacco smoke. Damage was worst in rats exposed to smoke in late gestation. However, the impairments were stark in rats exposed before conception. Specifically, the researchers found babies of rats exposed before conception had impaired function of the cholinergic brain circuits that govern learning and memory. The tobacco chemicals also affected the serotonin circuits that affect mood and emotional behavior. 'This finding has important implications for public health, because it reinforces the need to avoid secondhand smoke exposure not only during pregnancy, but also in the period prior to conception, or generally for women of childbearing age,' Dr Slotkin, professor in Duke's Department Pharmacology & Cancer Biology, said. Potential causes include the lingering effects of some of the smoke components, which can remain in the body for several days after exposure. They also suggested that the chemicals might change the mother rat's metabolism or hormonal status. Alternatively, the chemicals could be causing an epigenetic alteration in the egg, which affects the activity of genes that control brain function. A prior study from the same team found a substantial portion of the tobacco smoke effect resulted from the nicotine in the smoke. All At Sea by Decca Aitkenhead (4th Estate 8.99) All At Sea by Decca Aitkenhead (4th Estate 8.99) When Decca Aitkenhead first read a report of her partner Tonys death in a newspaper, her reaction was disbelief: This is something that happens to other people. As an award-winning journalist, Decca was accustomed to reporting the experiences of people who had endured personal catastrophe, but she was afraid that her own story would be diminished by the act of writing it down. But she was even more afraid of forgetting, and so began to compose a memoir of her relationship with Tony, a charismatic former drug addict and cocaine dealer. The idea they might fall in love was preposterous. That they should have two children and live happily ever after unthinkable. Yet that is what happened, until the sunlit morning on a Jamaican beach, when Tony drowned and life changed for ever. This beautifully written memoir is unflinchingly honest about grief, and about love that lasts as long as memory itself. Lart de La Simplicite: How To Live More With Less by Dominique Loreau (Trapeze 7.99) Lart de La Simplicite: How To Live More With Less by Dominique Loreau (Trapeze 7.99) Many of us find both comfort and inspiration in possessions the ones we have and the ones we aspire to. But in her bestselling book, Dominique Loreau argues that true happiness lies in simplicity, not stuff. Loreau, a French author who has lived in Japan for many years, argues that to clear our personal lives of clutter is to open a path for exciting new possibilities: Decisions will become natural and instinctive, your dress sense will be more elegant, your home more comfortable and your diary less crowded. Her attitude to simplicity is very French far from recommending that her female readers go make-up free, she insists that a good vanity case and a top-quality foundation are essential, and she writes approvingly of the Queens formidable handbags. Enrich your body with sensations, your heart with feelings and your mind with principles, she suggests. And hang on to that vanity case. Battling The Gods: Atheism In The Ancient World by Tim Whitmarsh (Faber 9.99) Battling The Gods: Atheism In The Ancient World by Tim Whitmarsh (Faber 9.99) The only thing as strong as the human need to believe in a god (or gods) is the need not to believe in them. In our own time, such eloquent atheists as Richard Dawkins have argued fiercely against religion. But in his highly acclaimed book, Tim Whitmarsh suggests that the origins of atheism are far older than Christianity. As long ago as the fifth century BC, the philosopher Democritus argued that religion might be no more than a form of fantastical storytelling, while the Roman poet Lucretius wrote of the terrible evil that religion was able to induce a line later borrowed by the 18th-century French author Voltaire, a passionate advocate of freedom of thought and speech. Dead Ground in Between by Maureen Jennings (Titan Books 7.99) Dead Ground in Between by Maureen Jennings (Titan Books 7.99) If you think police work is hard graft, try it in wartime in mid-winter when the only car at the station has broken down and there is a murder to solve. To add to his woes, Inspector Tom Tyler is nursing a letter from his fiancee calling off their engagement. But duty beckons. The victim, an elderly farmer, has been found by two child refugees. Tyler is not short of suspects. They include an amorous Italian PoW, two poachers and the old mans extended family. But the motive remains elusive until the discovery of an antique silver coin suggests that hidden treasure might be at the root of the crime. It is with a sure touch that Maureen Jennings recreates the fears and frustrations of the home front while weaving a captivating tale that offers mystery and romance in equal measure. A few loose ends promise a follow-up. May it soon be with us. The Poisoned Chocolates Case by Anthony Berkeley (British Library 8.99) The Poisoned Chocolates Case by Anthony Berkeley (British Library 8.99) A man walks into his club to find that someone has left him a box of chocolates. Since chocolate is not to his fancy, he hands on the gift to an acquaintance who takes it home for his wife. She dies of poison injected into the chocs. An accident is ruled out, but the police are baffled by what appears to be a random murder. The challenge is taken up by a society of amateur criminologists, modelled on the famous Detective Club of golden age writers, each of whom comes up with a solution to fit the available evidence. Those not addicted to crossword puzzles may find the choice of permutations a tad wearisome. But there is an undeniable appeal in matching wits with the author, as one proof after another is shown to have a fatal flaw. The Knife Slipped by Erle Stanley Gardner (Hard Case Crime 7.99) The Knife Slipped by Erle Stanley Gardner (Hard Case Crime 7.99) Best known for inventing Perry Mason, the made-for-TV lawyer who, improbably, never lost a case, Erle Stanley Gardner had many setbacks on his rise to crime-writing stardom. One such was the rejection of The Knife Slipped, an early novel that gathered dust for 75 years and is now published for the first time. Turning on the corruption underlying American politics, the plot is secondary to the relationship between two opposites. On one side we have Bertha Cool, a heavyweight lady whose interest is in food and money, preferably lots of both. Her sidekick is the wafer-thin Donald Lamb, a smart thinker who gets landed with the hard slog while fending off seduction by a suspected murderess. The challenge for the odd couple is to crack the case before they fall to a hail of bullets. Book of the Week THE JANUARY MAN by Christopher Somerville (Doubleday 14.99) Like many people of his generation hes in his mid-60s Christopher Somerville grew up with a sense that there was something a bit odd about his father. Uncommunicative and undemonstrative, Lt-Cdr John Somerville RN (Rtd) had an upper lip that wasnt so much stiff as completely immobile. Like many people of his generation hes in his mid-60s Christopher Somerville (left) grew up with a sense that there was something a bit odd about his father (right) It was only gradually that Christopher realised his father had been so traumatised by the War that he had retreated into himself, hiding his feelings behind a firewall of stoicism. But while Christophers childhood friends at least knew what their fathers did for a living, his was as buttoned-up about his job as he was about everything else. I work in an office, he would reveal reluctantly and that would be that. After a while, fired up by the adventure stories he wolfed down as a boy, Christopher began to suspect that his father might be a spy. One of the remarkable things about this book, and there are plenty of them, is that in a way he turned out to be right. The only times when John Somerville ever lifted the shutter and opened up about himself was when he and his son went walking: Walking promoted talking, and in the end produced a kind of understanding we came to value. His father died 12 years ago, thereby signalling, you might assume, the end of their relationship. And so it might have done, if Christopher hadnt had a strange and rather wonderful idea. He decided to go on a series of walks around Britain one for each month of the year and in the process see if he could recapture his father, conjure up his spirit, and, perhaps, even get to know him better. Appropriately enough, he starts off in the far-flung and far-from-fashionable corner of Gloucestershire where he grew up his older sister is the former newsreader, Julia Somerville. To his shock, he finds that the grown-ups he knew as a child are now neatly laid out beneath moss-covered headstones in the village churchyard. It was only gradually that Christopher realised his father (pictured as a young man while walking) had been so traumatised by the War that he had retreated into himself, hiding his feelings behind a firewall of stoicism The draughty old vicarage that his parents lived in then done out in dark brown paint and wartime black-out curtains has been spruced up and is hidden behind electronic gates. But just as Christopher is wondering what on earth he is doing there, the January ghost of my father comes striding energetically along the well-worn road in a heavy blue winter coat. At first it looks as if John Somerville will be as uncommunicative in death as he was in life. Gradually, though, he opens up or rather the curtains of Christophers memory part to shed some light on who his father was and what he did. While his father may not have been a secret agent, he was certainly a spook. For years John Somerville was known simply as J. Head of the Soviet Bloc at nearby GCHQ, he was responsible for monitoring espionage operations at the height of the Cold War. Every so often he would disappear on mysterious trips overseas eventually, Christopher discovered that his father was flying out to Gibraltar to debrief Soviet defectors. While his father may not have been a secret agent, he was certainly a spook. Pictured, Christopher Somerville The writer John Hillaby, another great walker, coined the phrase Skull Cinema for that peculiar process that happens when your thoughts start spinning on a long walk. Soon, Christophers inner projector flickers into life. He comes to see how his father, again like many people of his generation, was weighed down by a sense of duty, a moral obligation to make the world as safe as possible, and how walking represented his only escape from that burden. But if Christopher walks with one eye turned inwards, the other one scarcely misses a thing. Like all the best nature writers he is the walking correspondent of The Times hes able to evoke an entire landscape with the lightest of touches. The eastern sky is lightening over the sugar-beet fields that lie a few miles inland, he writes about a walk to the north Norfolk coast and instantly the scene unfurls before you. Writing about walking on snow the zenith of solo walking Somerville describes the rhythmic creak-creak of boots on snow drawing the mind away across the black white canvas of the countryside and up through the blank white air. THE JANUARY MAN by Christopher Somerville (Doubleday 14.99) And while hes knowledgeable about wildlife, hes also in the best possible sense ignorant. Seeing a number of moles lying dead beside their holes, the black velvet bodies crisp and dried, their great white claws snapped shut in their palms, Somerville wonders what could have happened to them. For the hundredth time this year, its borne in on me how very little I know about everything I see. But slowly some of the gaps fill in. On a walk in Middleton-in-Teesdale in County Durham, Somerville recalls how he and his father had come here in 1975 and shared a comically uncomfortable bedroom in the local pub. There, for the first time, hed felt a door between them starting to open. Then, years later, came the moment when his fathers reserve finally cracked, his tongue loosened by two pints of Theakstons Old Peculier. Sitting in a pub in the Lake District, John Somerville described how he had landed in Spain as an 18-year-old midshipman in 1936 and heard the sound of gunshots as the Republicans executed their prisoners. We embarked the families and took them to Marseilles. Ill never forget the sound of those women, absolutely distraught. Of the 30 young men who had been at Dartmouth Naval College with him, a third of them died during the War. The truth is that Ive felt guilty about being one of the ones who survived, when so many of the best of us didnt. Ive felt a need to justify my life, every day since then. By the end, Christopher Somerville has completed his 12 walks around Britain, but he has also done something much more unusual. There is a real sense that he has deepened his bond with his father and come to a greater appreciation of him, looking past his layers of inhibition. Undemonstrative love is still love, Somerville realises; youve got to dig a bit deeper to find it. He has also come to see how nature offers its own consolations at times of loss. After he has buried his father, Somerville is walking out of the churchyard lost in thought when he hears a rushing sound coming from overhead. He glances up to see a crowd of starlings alighting in a tree. Writers, Lovers, Soldiers, Spies: A History of the Authors' Club of London by C.J. Schuler (Authors Club Press 19.99) Authors and clubs make strange bedfellows. Authors are such a prickly breed argumentative, chippy, anti-social why should they want to get together and chew the fat? You cant picture grand curmudgeons and individualists like Iris Murdoch, Anthony Burgess, Philip Larkin or Muriel Spark hastening to join a club. Burgess, indeed, was so tight-fisted I once saw him clutch his coat all night because he didnt want to give a tip to the cloakroom attendant, so he was unlikely to stand anyone a round of drinks and be convivial Burgess, indeed, was so tight-fisted I once saw him clutch his coat all night because he didnt want to give a tip to the cloakroom attendant, so he was unlikely to stand anyone a round of drinks and be convivial. Nevertheless, an Authors Club was founded in Whitehall Court, London, in 1891, where members could dine, smoke and play billiards. Women were not allowed. We used to have occasional bursts of shame, confessed an old member, at the thought that Jane Austen and George Eliot could not have been admitted to the company of authors, except as guests at lunch. On the other hand, look what happened to Ford Madox Ford. One of his aggrieved lovers, Violet Hunt, turned up at the club with a bundle of his clothes, demanding to know his whereabouts. Imagine if shed been able to march across the threshold. A chap does need a sanctuary. The club was the brainchild of Walter Besant, who was knighted in 1895 for his philanthropic work on behalf of free public libraries. He envisaged a writers version of the Athenaeum (for bishops), the Garrick (actors and lawyers), the Savile (journalists) or the Reform (political grandees). Though the club attracted illustrious names such as Thomas Hardy, J. M. Barrie, Arthur Conan Doyle, Henry Irving and Bram Stoker, they werent frequent attendees and, as C. J. Schuler says in his twinkling and captivating study, the bulk of the membership would always remain strangers to fame. At its peak in the Twenties, the club boasted 1,438 members. Its chief appeal was that the atmosphere and standards of the previous century were retained. The building itself was a spooky gothic structure; the interior walls were covered with stuffed sporting trophies, donated by members whod been on big-game hunts in our African and Indian empire. In truth, the club had become, after World War I, an icy sort of cave . . . a bastion of the Edwardian Establishment. Where, decades before, members had heralded experimental authors such as Emile Zola, and had supported Oscar Wilde during his trials, now the club was opposed to modern art in all its manifestations. In 1926, the clubs sole champion of the Impressionists, Wilfred Phillips, was found at a firing range with a gun wound to the head. An open verdict was recorded. Politically, the Authors Club was patriotic in a jingoistic way. Germans were barred. Conan Doyle had declared that Socialism was un-English, and members didnt support the workers side in the General Strike. Writers, Lovers, Soldiers, Spies: A History of the Authors' Club of London by C.J. Schuler (Authors Club Press 19.99) What makes queasy reading, however, is the racism. The club was in a quandary about admitting black or Asian writers even as guests. For many years, the club rules stipulated that members had to be gentlemen of pure European descent, which, on top of everything else, was an anti-Semitic slur. Gradually, therefore, the club became a fusty sanctum for the amateur of letters, the civil servant guilty of an occasional volume of criticism, the businessman who wrote novels for a recreation, and the kind of dilettante who published little sad reminiscences of the dogs they had once owned. It was thus a perfect cover for the activities of MI5 and MI6. Whitehall Court, indeed, was at the heart of Security Service operations. Charles Henry Maxwell Knight, the spymaster, having published two thrillers, Crime Cargo and Gunmans Holiday, joined the club in 1937 and would recruit agents over dinner. Among his proteges was Ian Fleming, who used Knight as the inspiration for Bonds M. The institution often nearly went bust and, on one occasion, the Receiver was called in and the club library was sold for 60. To save costs, the Authors Club merged with the Chemical Club (Thinkers and Stinkers). The good news is that the Authors Club has now been fully revived, and shares beautiful quarters with the National Liberal Club, back in Whitehall Court. The sexism and racism are well in the past, needless to say, and, as Schulers book states, this clubs history has brought home once again that each generation must make its choice between right and wrong, exclusion and inclusion. Police have been asked to probe allegations that a 10-year-old girl working as a maid in Pakistan was tortured by an influential judge and his wife who employed her. Disturbing images of the child, purporting to show her badly beaten and bruised, circulated on social media, shocking many in the country. Pakistan's Supreme Court called for an investigation into the allegations on Wednesday, police and a court official said. Thousands of children in Pakistan are used for labour, like this girl working at a kiln factory in Islamabad carrying water on her head (file pic) The uproar initially prompted the Islamabad High Court to order a probe but the case took a new turn on Tuesday, when the girl's parents allegedly announced they have 'forgiven' the judge and his wife, apparently after reaching a financial settlement with them. Human rights activist have expressed frustration over the developments, suggesting the girl's employers may have pressurised her family. In the Islamic tradition, forgiving an offender in return for financial compensation is common practice among the impoverished classes. But Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar on Wednesday ordered police to investigate all relevant details and report back. Children in Pakistan often work as servants in homes of wealthier people and in shops, and are frequently subjected to violence. Zohra Yusuf, who heads the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, has urged the judiciary to take steps to stop violence against servants and in particular, prosecute those 'involved in violating the basic rights of a child.' 'I welcome the step taken by the chief justice,' she told the Associated Press. 'I hope he will make it a test case.' Nearly 200 children - most of them under the age of 14 - have been rescued from a life of labour at a brick kiln in the southern state of Telangana. Indian police removed the children from a site in the Yadadiri district, 40 kilometres from state capital Hyderabad, on Wednesday - in what officials said was one of its biggest operations in the state. The action was part of Operation Smile, a national police campaign to tackle child labour and missing children. Nearly 200 children working in a brick kiln in the southern state of Telangana were rescued on Wednesday (photo for representation only) India's child workers: New research has claimed that slavery, including child labour, is also present in more than 90 percent of south India's spinning mills which produce yarn for large Western brands (picture for representation only) Police said the children had moved from the eastern state of Odisha and were living and working with adults presumed to be their parents in the brick kiln. 'We are not sure if the parents are genuine and there is a possibility that some of the children were trafficked,' Mahesh Bhagwat, a police commissioner, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. 'The rescue teams spotted girls as young as seven and eight carrying bricks on their head. Some of the children were as young as four.' The International Labour Organisation puts the number of child workers in India between five and 17 at 5.7 million (photo for representation only) Dashraj, a 14-year-old child labourer crying after being rescued from a hotel in 2008 In 2015, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) put the number of Indian child workers aged between five and 17 at 5.7 million, out of 168 million globally. More than half work in agriculture and over a quarter work in the manufacturing sector, the ILO said. P Achyuta Rao, member of a local state body that has the task of protecting child rights, said Telangana and neighbouring Andhra Pradesh had become hubs for child trafficking and child labour. 'Last year more than 3,000 children were rescued, many from brick kilns and others from domestic servitude. In all cases, the children were from eastern India,' said Rao of the Telangana State Commission. Many migrant children end up working alongside their parents because of a lack of schools and teachers who can provide lessons in their local language, campaigners say. Nearly 7,000 pilgrims who flocked to India from China for a rare Dalai Lama ceremony have returned home due to pressure from Beijing, it has been claimed. The pilgrims, who are mostly Tibetan, had made the journey for the Buddhist event later this month which will see the 81-year-old spiritual leader preside over the Kalachakra teachings at Bodhgaya in eastern India. The Buddha is said to have attained enlightenment there more than 2,000 years ago and tens of thousands of people from all over the world are expected to attend the event. Tibetan Spiritual Leader The Dalai Lama will preside over the Kalachakra teachings at Bodhgaya in eastern India later this month But as preparations got under way on Wednesday for the event held every few years, the chairman of the organising committee Karma Gelek Yuthok said almost 7,000 pilgrims had returned to China, citing pressure from authorities there. 'It is unfortunate, they have returned after Chinese pressure. There are nearly 7,000,' he told journalists in Bodhgaya. 'They planned to end their pilgrimage in Bodhgaya (but) just because of this they have gone back.' Tens of thousands of pilgrims from all over the world are expected to attend the Kalachakra event, which is held only once every few years Yuthok, who is a member of the Tibetan government-in-exile based in the north Indian town of Dharamsala, said some pilgrims had reported receiving threats to relatives in China if they did not return. In 2012 China detained hundreds of Tibetans after they returned from the Kalachakra in Bodhgaya. Last month Radio Free Asia reported that many Tibetan pilgrims who travelled to Dharamsala ahead of the Kalachakra had been ordered to return home before the end of the year, preventing them from heading on to Bodhgaya. Tibetan Buddhist monks wait to collect boiling milk to distribute to devotees participating in a special religious prayer attended by The Dalai Lama during the Kalachakra event on January 4 It said the Dalai Lama had held a special audience for them in Dharamsala last month. The Chinese embassy in Delhi declined to comment when contacted by AFP. The Dalai Lama fled to India after a failed uprising in 1959 but is still deeply revered by many Tibetans. Beijing says its troops 'peacefully liberated' Tibet in 1951 and accuses the Nobel Peace laureate of seeking Tibetan independence through 'spiritual terrorism'. He says he merely wants greater autonomy for his homeland, where many accuse the central government of religious repression and eroding the Tibetan culture. The Kalachakra opened in Bodhgaya on Tuesday, although the main teaching section will only begin next week. Trinamool Congress workers took to the streets on Wednesday in various parts of West Bengal to protest at the arrest of party leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay. The protesters staged a demonstration in front of union minister Babul Supriyo's house, demanding his arrest. The BJP, whose office was attacked on Tuesday by the people carrying TMC flags, meanwhile, urged governor K N Tripathi to send a report to the Centre demanding imposition of President's Rule in view of 'growing lawlessness' in the state. TMC MP Sudip Bandopadhyay arrives to appear before CBI in connection with Rose Valley chit fund scam TMC activists staged protest in front of the housing society where Supriyo's house is located, demanded his arrest and resorted to rail blockade at some places. Supriyo said the TMC activists burnt BJP flag in front of the society and questioned the role of the police. 'My parents and other residents are scared. Let Didi (Mamata Banerjee) give proof of my involvement in the Rose Valley scam, I will be arrested', he said. The anger continues: Trinamool Congress Party supporters damage BJP state party office and burn PM Modi effigy after the CBI Arrested TMC MP Sudip Banerjee TMC also took out processions at various places and organised rail blockade at Kankurgachi here and staged protest in front of the CBI office here. A TMC delegation led by party secretary general Partha Chatterjee also met the governor and complained of 'political vendetta' by the Centre against TMC which is opposing demonetisation. He also demanded that CBI arrest Supriyo in connection with Rose Valley chit fund scam. 'They (BJP) cannot stop TMC by conspiring and arresting our leaders', he said. On BJP's demand of imposition of President's Rule, he said, 'They can demand anything.' West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee addresses the media after Bandyopadhyay's arrest State BJP president Dilip Ghosh led a party delegation to Raj Bhavan and apprised the governor of the attack on their party office Tuesday by TMC men. 'It was unthinkable. We did not expect this. Our party office was attacked at different places including Hooghly and Durgapur. Babul Supriyo's house was attacked. We are concerned. It should stop', he said. The state BJP chief also accused Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of provoking her party workers to attack BJP offices and leaders. Meanwhile, TMC MPs attempted a protest march to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's residence in the national capital but were detained mid way. 'We are protesting against Bandyopadhyay's arrest, demanding Modi's resignation and inquiry into his taking money from Birla and Sahara groups. 'We are also demanding Babul Supriyo's arrest for his involvement in the Rose Valley scam case,' TMC MP Sugata Roy told reporters at Tughlak Road police station where they were under detention. 'We were marching peacefully towards the PM's residence, but the police detained us mid-way and manhandled few of our MPs,' Roy said, adding 36 TMC MPs took part in the protest march. Video of the demonstration in front of union minister Babul Supriyo's house here demanding his arrest They were let off in the evening. Bandyopadhyay, TMCs face in New Delhi, was the second party MP after actor-turned-politician Tapas Pal to be held in connection with the alleged Rs 15,000 crore chit fund scam which spanned several states including West Bengal and Odisha. Hours after alleged TMC workers vandalised the state BJP headquarters in downtown Kolkata on Tuesday evening, they attacked the house of state party general secretary Krishna Bhattacharya in Hooghly district. Madhya Pradesh has recorded 30 tiger deaths in 2016, earning the dubious distinction of becoming the state with the highest tiger mortality in the country. As per the last tiger census findings announced in January 2015, the state had 308 tigers in the wild. In other words, the state has lost almost a tenth of its recorded tiger population in the last one year. Madhya Pradesh has lost almost a tenth of its recorded tiger population in the last one year Tiger deaths in MP also account for a third of the total tiger deaths in the country in 2016 (98). From being the state with the highest number of tigers in the country till recently to this, MPs slide has been drastic. As in the rest of the country, tiger numbers have been a cause for concern in Madhya Pradesh too. However, other states, especially Karnataka and Uttarakhand, have done better in managing tigers than MP - a state that boasts of a strong and dedicated forest department. MP had once been known as the 'tiger state of the country' with 300 of the big cats recorded in the 2006 census In the 2006 census, Madhya Pradesh recorded 300 tigers and revelled in being referred to as the tiger state of the country - a tag it had assigned itself - as the state then was home to the largest tiger population in the country. In the 2010 census, the findings of which were announced in 2011, MP with a recorded population of 257 big cats slipped to number two spot in terms of tiger numbers after Karnataka ( 300 tigers). In the 2014 census, Karnataka (with 406 tigers) had taken pole position and in the 2014 census, the findings of which were announced in 2015, MP slipped to third position after Karnataka and Uttarakhand (340 tigers). But numbers have plummeted in recent years, to 257, leaving the state trailing Karnataka and Uttarakhand Here's why MP should be worried about high tiger mortality. Madhya Pradesh is home to some of the most renowned tiger reserves in the country - Kanha, Bandhavgarh, Panna and Pench - where a large number of tourists, both domestic and foreign, arrive to see the big cat. Minus the tourist arrivals from outside the state (both domestic and foreign) to the tiger reserves (and Khajuraho, which is clubbed by tourists with the Panna tiger reserve) there isnt substantial tourist footfall in MP. The tiger, in that sense, has helped build brand MP more than the tourism development corporation which was set up with that express purpose. Tigers are to Madhya Pradesh what the Taj Mahal is to UP, the beaches are to Goa, and palaces and forts are to Rajasthan; the tiger is the icon, besides of course the Khajuraho temples, that draw tourists to the state. The most recent census found 2,226 tigers in India in 2015 compared with 1,706 in 2010 - an increase of 30 per cent An economic valuation of the Kanha Tiger Reserve during a study by Professor Madhu Verma of the Indian Institute of Forest Management (IIFM), Bhopal, estimated the tangible benefits accruing from the reserve to be Rs 999.36 million while the intangible benefits were calculated at Rs 15,451.64 million. A software called InVEST was used to spatially map and value the goods and services from nature that sustain and fulfil human life and helped arrive at the figure. Every rupee spent on the park gives a return of Rs 273, as per the study. The loss of tigers points to poor or weak governance, something a state like MP that is bending backwards to get investment should be concerned about. Known causes of death of tigers range from poisoning, road and rail hits, drowning and electrocution and infighting The known causes of death of tigers range from poisoning, road and rail hits, drowning and electrocution and infighting. In many cases, the cause of death has not been specified as yet. Curiously, tiger deaths in MP are at times projected by the forest department as indicators of the success of the conservation programmes and their efficiency. Every time a tiger is killed by another in a territorial fight, the excess population spin is given to it, with excess suggesting tiger numbers having increased beyond controllable numbers. But some believe the loss of tigers in MP also 'points to poor or weak governance' There is never any word on how rampant encroachment has led to clearing of large tracts of forestland outside sanctuaries and national parks, leading to a situation in which the animals struggle for space within protected areas and kill each other in the process. Why has MP had a disproportionately high number of tiger deaths? For one, the forest department in MP has been grappling with the problem of shortage of frontline staff. Posts of rangers, deputy rangers, foresters and forest guards are vacant in all parks with one person often doubling up for others. There is a huge difference between the level of protection afforded to tigers in parks and those outside in what are called territorial forests There is also a shortage of wildlife trained officers in the IFS cadre. There is a huge difference between the level of protection afforded to tigers in parks and those outside in what are called territorial forests. The Union government has made massive cuts in budgets which is affecting protection outside and inside tiger reserves. It is also true that there has been an increase in tiger numbers inside reserves. Tigers being territorial animals often come in conflict with each other while carving out territory. This too has contributed to tiger mortality. Wildlife in general is a low priority sector for the government that has always resisted pro-wildlife measures like notification of buffer areas around tiger reserves. The state wildlife advisory board, chaired by the CM, bulldozed the proposal for the Ken Betwa river link in the face of resistance by independent members of the board. Their reservations were not even taken on record. The project is going to eat up a substantial part of the tiger habitat in the Panna tiger reserve. While the CM who has been in the saddle for 11 years knows a bulk of the IAS and IPS officers in the state cadre by name, it is only recently that he has started identifying some IFS officers by name. This in some ways reflects on the importance or rather the lack of it, he gives to their job. While posts can be filled up with recruitment, the larger issue is of ensuring viable habitats outside reserves and notifying new reserves where increasing tiger populations can spread out to. Currently, about 10,000 sq km of the 95,000 odd sq km of forestland in MP is notified as sanctuary or national park, collectively called Protected Areas under the wildlife protection act, 1972. Protected Areas have not seen any augmentation for many years and the last sanctuary to be created in MP was about 17 years ago. Political will is essential for creation of sanctuaries and national parks as the notification imposes a fair degree of restrictions on the local population. The bulk of the notifications in MP were done during the chief ministership of Arjun Singh in the early 1980s. India exhibits its military might and cultural diversity every year on Republic Day. But this year's January 26 parade will feature an additional element - a float highlighting Prime Minister Modi's biggest initiatives. The Information and Technology ministry's float participating in the upcoming pageant, sources told India Today, will illustrate the advantages of PM Narendra Modi's demonetisation measure and his pitch for digital banking. It will serve as a fitting metaphor for the prime minister's cashless-economy campaign, a top defence official said. India exhibits its military might and cultural diversity every Republic Day. But this year's January 26 parade will feature an additional element - a float highlighting demonetisation (Pictured - A float portrays culture of the northern Indian state of Rajasthan) In all, twenty-one floats from different states and ministries will participate in this year's Republic Day parade, India's 68th. After a gap of several years, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh are also sending in their tableaus this time, defence sources said. Abu Dhabi's crown prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan will be the chief guest in the parade. A float representing the Buddhist communities of the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh A contingent of the UAE army will take part in accordance with the new practice to honour the foreign dignitary. The UAE, a strategic alliance partner of Pakistan, has signed resolution with India against state support and sponsoring of terrorism against other countries. There are more than 2.6 million Indians who have been employed in various sectors in the UAE. It is estimated that the large expatriate community sends an remittance of around Rs 95,000 crore very year. A float representing the Indian state of Chhattisgarh The UAE is also India's third largest trading partner. A unit of NSG, the federal force responsible to undertake counter-terror and counter-hijack operations across the country, will also showcase its contingent for the first time in the parade. The unit will include commandos from both the army and paramilitary-based units of the force. Women wearing traditional clothes from the state of Rajasthan This year's contingent will include 60 black cat commandos drawn from its Manesar station. Thus far, NSG personnel have only been operational in sanitising the parade path and surrounding areas in view of security threat on the Republic Day. Among para-military troops, the Central Reserve Police Force's anti-riot unit and the Central Industrial Security Force columns will also participate in the parade. A float representing the Indian state of Assam There was indecision over two other para forces, namely Indo-Tibetan Border Police and Sashashtra Seema Bal. The Rajpath extravangaga for the first time comprises a unit of retired military personnel who will drive past in a float instead of marching, official sources said. Besides, T-90 tanks, supersonic BrahMos, Akash and Smerch will showcase the nation's missile power in the event. However in India the apex court recently banned a Muslim soldier from having a beard saying that wearing a beard was not The US Army has taken new steps to make it easier for Sikhs, Muslims and other religious minorities to obtain approval to dress and groom themselves according to their religious customs while serving in the military, a spokesman said on Thursday. Army Secretary Eric Fanning, in a memorandum signed this week, revised the uniform policy to set appearance standards for people seeking religious accommodations to wear beards, turbans and head scarfs. The new rules also enable brigade-level commanders to approve the religious accommodations, an authority that previously rested with the Army secretary. Denial of a religious accommodation may be appealed as high as the Army secretary. Sikhs in the US Army: Captain Kamaljeet Singh Kalsi poses in Times Square, New York An approved religious accommodation will continue throughout the soldier's career and may not be revoked or modified without approval of the Army secretary, the memo says. The accommodation will not affect job specialties or duty locations, except in a few limited cases, the memo says. 'Our goal is to balance soldier readiness and safety with the accommodation of our soldiers' faith practices, and this latest directive allows us to do that,' Lieutenant Colonel Randy Taylor said in a statement. The new rules were welcomed by the Sikh Coalition. 'We are pleased with the progress that this new policy represents for religious tolerance and diversity,' said coalition Legal Director Harsimran Kaur. Sikhs have a long tradition of military service in India and elsewhere and have served in the United States as far back as World War One. But uniform reforms after the Vietnam War made it difficult for them to serve without violating the tenets of their faith. The new rules permit religious accommodations for beards, but they may not be longer than 2 inches unless rolled or tied up. Soldiers with a religious accommodation may wear a turban or under-turban known as a patka. Army Specialist Zachari Klawonn, a Muslim soldier at Fort Hood, performs his evening prayers Soldiers with religious accommodations still must be able to wear combat helmets and other protective headgear and must modify their hairstyles to achieve a proper fit. The new rules allow head scarfs, or hijabs, for Muslim women. They must be of a similar color to the uniform and be free of designs or markings, unless they are camouflage and worn with a camouflage uniform. Hair grooming rules have been amended to allow for braids, cornrows, twists or locks, the memo said. .@USArmy Capt. Simratpal Singh wears a Bronze Star for his service -- and the turban he wears is just as important.https://t.co/xqQKhKFSqd Great Big Story (@greatbigstory) July 7, 2016 Lose that beard soldier: How India differs from the US when it comes to Muslims, Sikhs and beards By Harish V Nair and MailOnline India Despite the fine tradition of Sikh and Muslim soldiers serving the Indian army both before and after Independence, the rules for male grooming are perceived to lag behind for many serving officers from India's minority communities. In a move that suggests that it is easier for Indian-origin minority communities to practice their beliefs outside of India, last December The Supreme Court in India's capital upheld the sacking of a Muslim Air Force personnel for sporting a long beard and remarked that armed forces' regulations are meant to ensure discipline and uniformity. The Indian court ruled in favour of Sikh's over Muslim personnel arguing that unless keeping a beard was an integral part of one's religion, as it is must in the Sikh community, no one employed in the military can be allowed to grow a beard. Clause (b) of Regulation 425 stipulates that an airman will be permitted to grow hair or to retain a beard where the religion professed by him prohibits the cutting of hair or shaving of facial hair Moving the Supreme Court against an order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which upheld the Air Force's August 2005 decision to discharge him for his 'defiance of IAF rules', Airman Mohammad Zubair had asserted his right to retain a beard as a 'facet of his fundamental right to freedom of religion'. But rejecting his plea, a bench of Chief Justice T S Thakur, Justices D Y Chandrachud and L Nageswara Rao observed: 'the appellant having been enrolled as a member of the Indian Air Force was necessarily required to abide by the discipline of the Force.' 'Regulations and policies in regard to personal appearance are not intended to discriminate against religious beliefs nor do they have the effect of doing so.' 'Their object and purpose is to ensure uniformity, cohesiveness, discipline and order which are indispensable to the Air Force, as indeed to every armed force of the Union'. The apex court ruled that unless keeping a beard was an integral part of one's religion, as it is must in the Sikh community, no personnel can be allowed to grow a beard. (Picture for representation) When its view was sought, the Air Force had told the court: 'All Muslims do not carry beard. The practice of growing and keeping beard is optional and sporting a beard is not universally recognised in the religion of Islam.' 'Therefore, it cannot be said that Muslim religion prohibits the cutting of hair or shaving of the face of its member.' It all began when spotting Zubair's beard, his commanding officer issued him a show cause notice asking why he should not be discharged from service. British motorists are paying 8 more to fill up their tanks with petrol than a year ago, thanks to the rising world price of oil, a report suggested today. Car-owners filling up their tanks with diesel are forking out 10 more at the pumps than a year ago, RAC Fuel Watch data reveals. The most expensive region in the UK to buy petrol and diesel is the South East, while the cheapest is Northern Ireland - although neither of these regions suffered the biggest price rises. Rising costs: UK motorists are paying 8 more to fill up their tanks with petrol than a year ago The cost of unleaded petrol hit 117.23p a litre on December 29, while diesel hit 119.63p, up from 114.24p and 116.56p respectively at the start of the month. With petrol and diesel prices rising by around 3p a litre in December, prices at the pumps are at a six-month high. Simon Williams, of the RAC, said: 'The rising oil price is bad news for motorists a sit caused a nasty jump in pump prices in the most expensive month of the year. 'While forecourt prices rose by 3p a litre in December as the RAC predicted, they didn't rocket as others had forecast. 'The big question now is how much further are they likely to go up, particularly in the long January wait to the next payday. 'So far the price rises we've seen are purely down to the announcement at the end of November that OPEC and non-OPEC countries would be cutting oil production this month.' He added: 'We are optimistic that prices will not increase by another 3p a litre in January based on what's going on with oil and wholesale fuel now, but if in the months ahead the barrel price was to get nearer to $60 and the pound was to weaken further then that would be the worst possible combination for motorists.' Going up: Car-owners filling up their tanks with diesel are forking out 10 more at the pumps than a year ago RAC experts think petrol prices will increase to around 118p a litre over the next two weeks, while diesel prices are expected to rise to 121p a litre. For the first time in eight years last year, oil production group OPEC, which includes the likes of Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iran, Libya and Qatar, signed a deal to cut oil production. The move sent the price of the black stuff soaring above the $50 mark. The price of oil is now more than double what it was in January 2016, when a barrel of oil cost around 26, the RAC said. Predictions: RAC experts think petrol prices will increase to around 118p a litre over the next two weeks Motorists on the lookout for the cheapest petrol and diesel prices should head to Northern Ireland, where prices at the pumps are 115.58p and 117.88p a litre respectively. Wales is the second cheapest place to buy petrol this month, with prices at the pumps around 116.57p a litre. At the other end of the scale, the South East is the most expensive area to buy both petrol and diesel, with prices around 117.84p and 120.28p a litre respectively. Concerns: Next boss Simon Wolfson Simon Wolfson is the sage of British non-food shopping so when he says the future is not looking bright we have to take him seriously. That is why Next shares were flung into a 14 per cent reverse following the company's post-holiday trading statement, damaging the whole sector with M&S down 6 per cent, and Associated British Foods, owner of Primark down nearly 4 per cent. Both M&S and ABF have food operations to offset disappointment in clothing. But are things really as bad at Next as the market reaction would suggest? Wolfson always is on the cautious side and we should never be surprised if negative profit guidance of 2 per cent to 14 per cent down in the next year turns out to be in single digits. We should also be fully aware that Wolfson is not prepared to damage healthy profit margins (although there is plenty of space) and will be passing through an expected increase in import prices of 5 per cent arising from the fall in the pound. One suspects other less financially fastidious retailers will be prepared to absorb some of the damage. Among the big UK high street chains Next has done far better than most in adapting to the online world. This is not surprising given the history of the Wolfson clan and the Next catalogue. Indeed, the speed and quality of its online services means that catalogue sales were up 5.1 per cent year-on-year. The weakness in Next's armoury is that it has not fully made the adjustment from laptop to mobile and that is going to require new investment in the current year. Britain, as the old cliche goes, has always been a national of shopkeepers. But what the bricks and mortar retailers are also discovering is that the UK consumers have adapted to online shopping faster than most of its European competitors. So Zara owner Inditex with its spread of shops across Europe, where online take-up has been much slower, still receives most of its income through physical stores. In the past Wolfson has suggested that British consumers have enough clothes and things, and sustaining growth at the same pace as in the past is going to be tricky. Nevertheless, near-record unsecured borrowing of 1.9billion in November indicates Brits have not lost the spending habit. More significant, perhaps, is the way more cultish retailers, from Sweaty Betty and Reiss in fashion to Tiger and B&M in things, are challenging the existing players. Next has sought to address this by the inclusion of upmarket brand names in its catalogue. What it doesn't have is the significant international operations of Zara, Sweden's H&M and more luxury brands such as Burberry. The new chief executive of M&S Steve Rowe has decided to highlight expansion on food and to try and turnaround the UK clothing operations, which remain leaders in many categories but are haemorrhaging sales. He has kind of decided that much of what M&S does globally is too costly and is narrowing operations. That seems senseless when M&S is competing with companies with international ambition. M&S has more name recognition than most British firms overseas and that ought to be a real competitive advantage. It should be stepping up investment for the long-haul, rather than pulling back to little Britain. After all, Brexit should mean seeking more global horizons. Sand in wheels A more activist approach by the Competition & Markets Authority to overseas takeovers in Britain's much prized Fintech sector must be the right thing to do. The CMA is to probe the proposed absorption of London-based VocaLink Holdings by New York-based Mastercard for 735million. As one of a handful of technology providers behind the Link system of cash machines VocaLink is both critical to Britain's cluster of financial technology firms as well as a local rival to Mastercard. Removing it as a competitor could result in higher costs to UK high street banks and retailers offering Link services. The CMA could also add a review of Lloyds Banking Group's 1.9billion bid for the UK arm of American credit card firm MBNA to its inquiries. Lloyds has a robust credit card operation and dominant positions in mortgage, retail banking and savings. At a time when consumer borrowing is at record levels such a deal raises prudential concerns. Most importantly it knocks a competitor out of a market where consumers face brutal interest charges. Regulators should roll their sleeves up and take a close look. Golden goodbye No need to spare a dime for Rex Tillerson the ExxonMobil boss and distinguished Eagle Scout selected by Donald Trump as his Secretary of State. In a nice parting gesture the board of the oil giant has decided to buy out the 2million shares in Exxon due to Tillerson over the next decade under option arrangements. That means a cool payout of 146million to go into a blind trust. Cumulative losses at Daylesford Organic, now stand at around 50m Daylesford Organic, the glossy farm shop which is owned by JCB tycoon Lord Bamford's wife Carole, lost 2.7million last year according to the accounts which were published yesterday. Cumulative losses since the plucky ex-air stewardess, 60, launched the searingly expensive shop (a pot of honey costs 15) in 2003 now stands at around 50million. Staggering. But chicken's feed, I suppose, when you consider her cigar-chomping hubby's 3.5billion fortune. British Gas employees returned to work at its Staines offices after the Christmas break to find the heating had shut down. A company spokesman explains this somewhat ironic state of affairs was caused by an 'external power issue' rather than any problems with its gas supply. Not that staff were complaining. The building was so cold they were entitled to scuttle off home for the day. Following its recent 5.9billion fine from America's Department of Justice over mis-sold mortgages, Deutsche Bank remains under investigation by US authorities over suspected money laundering in its Moscow offices. Might President Trump be tempted to put Deutsche's Yorkshire-born boss John Cryan and his cronies on a rendition flight to Guantanamo Bay? It has recently emerged that The Donald owes the fragile bank $300million spondoolies. Businessman and aesthete Lord Browne, who hid his homosexuality from colleagues while 7.5million-a-year boss of BP, now encourages executives to come out in the workplace. He tells Management Today: 'Great leaders must be authentic themselves. Today, authentic leadership also means bringing your whole self to work.' Quite so. But after penning a book and conducting numerous lectures on this topic, has his Lordship, 68, now delighted us enough? Billionaire Kering boss Francois-Henri Pinault, owner of chi-chi fashion brands Gucci and Saint Laurent, flaunts his commitment to sustainability. He's invested in several python breeding farms, where skins are used to create Gucci handbags at 3,000 a pop. Clampdown: FxPro has shelved plans for a stock market flotation Currency trading broker FxPro has shelved plans for a stock market flotation as financial spread-betters brace for a clampdown. The group has decided to remain in private hands after the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said last month that it may impose stricter rules on firms selling 'contract for difference' (CFD) products. FxPro, which has operations in London and Cyprus, is understood to have told proposed non-executive directors that the planned initial public offering will no longer take place. Spread-betting firms have seen their share price take a hammering on the London market after the FCA said that it could tighten rules around CFD products to prevent investors racking up heavy losses. The financial watchdog also wants to prevent providers from using any form of trading or account opening bonuses or benefits to promote products. Online CFD trader Plus 500 previously warned that the new FCA rules would result in a financial hit for the company. Nursery and maternity retailer Mamas & Papas cheered a double-digit sales increase as personal shoppers helped encourage customers to spend more. The company reported an 11 per cent rise in like-for-like sales in the 13 weeks to December 25, thanks in part to a boost on Black Friday when online sales beat the previous record by 29 per cent. Mamas & Papas said personal shopping accounts for 10 per cent of UK store sales, with the average customer aided by a personal shopper spending 800 per visit. Mamas & Papas cheered a double-digit sales increase in the run-up to Christmas Mums chasing the retailers new pushchair also helped boost sales. The 679 Ocarro stroller won rave reviews for its reversible seat and huge basket. Chief executive Jonathon Fitzgerald said: These are encouraging results and show that our investment in new formats, new product launches and in digital is really paying off. In total, like-for-like store sales between April and December 25 2016 rose 10 per cent, while online trade jumped 13 per cent. Operating profits nearly quadrupled to 5.5million in the year to March 27, 2016, compared with 1.4million a year earlier. The results are good news for the retailer, which was bought by private equity firm BlueGem Capital Partners in 2014 when the company was struggling. But in November, it was reported that BlueGem was looking at selling the business in the New Year. Chinese goods are coming to London by freight train for the first time in history in a 7,400-mile journey along an ancient trading route. A diesel engine has set off from the manufacturing town of Yiwu in east China bound for Barking in London with 34 carriages and 4million of socks, clothes, bags and suitcases in tow. The trip will take it over mountain ranges, around deserts and across the vast Russian steppe. And the goods will finally arrive in Britain via the Channel Tunnel in a fortnight, after crossing seven countries. It is part of China's One Belt, One Road initiative, aimed at reviving the fortunes of the ancient Silk Road. In medieval times and even earlier, the route was used by merchants bringing their exotic wares to Europe from the Orient. The trains are operated by China's Yiwu Timex Industrial Investment, and will run once a week during a trial period. They join a twice-weekly service to Madrid in Spain via the German city of Duisburg, which was launched more than a year ago. Oscar Lin, manager of the new line's UK agent Onetwothree Logistics, said: 'This cargo train service highlights the important trade partnership between the UK and China post-Brexit.' The journey will pass through Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Germany, Belgium and France. The train will eventually arrive in Britain via the Channel Tunnel, alongside the daily Euro Tunnel services ferrying passengers ro and from France It starts with a locomotive East Wind named after a famous quote from tyrannical Chinese dictator Mao Zedong: 'The east wind will prevail over the west wind.' But the goods will have to be moved on to a selection of different carriages en route due to several changes in the gauge of the railway. The trip will be faster than a container ship and half the price of air freight, and will make London the 15th city to be directly linked to China. Girls as young as six are being forced to marry men old enough to be their grandfather and into a life of 'sexual slavery' beatings, pregnancies and death during childbirth, a charity is warning. More than 12,000 girls under 15 will become child brides every day of 2017 around the world or one every seven seconds. The disturbing figures are revealed in exhaustive research and analysis carried out by the UK-based charity Save the Children, who predict 15 million schoolgirls of 15 or younger will marry in 2017. Forced to marry: Young girls like Fifteen-year-old Aisha, pictured, are being forced to marry men old enough to be their grandfathers and into a life of 'sexual slavery' beatings, pregnancies and death during childbirth, Save the Children is warning Teen pregnancy: The charity warns that around 15 million girls like former child bride Khadra, 16, pictured holding her two month-old daughter Hodan outside her family's home in Somalia, will be forced into marriage this year War and poverty are driving what is said to be a 'significant increase' in the number of marriages with families marrying young daughters because they are unable to protect or provide for them. Other girls have been kidnapped by Islamic militias and forced to marry their abductors as happened when Boko Harem gunmen seized more than 200 schoolgirls in Chilbok, Nigeria in an attack that outraged the world. Terrorists have also killed a girl's parents and then forced her to marry one of their group, the charity says. UK aid workers highlight a shocking catalogue of cases where young married girls face domestic violence, abuse and rape. In one, a six year-old girl is reported to have been 'sold' into marriage with a man more than 40 years older in exchange for a goat in Afghanistan while Afghans are also said to use the marriage of their pre-teenage-daughters to settle disputes. An eight-year-old child bride died in Yemen of internal bleeding sustained during her wedding night after being forced to marry a man five times her age, activists have claimed. Syrian Sahar, was 13 when she married a man of 20 in Lebanon and fell pregnant with her first child the following year. 'The wedding day, I was imagining it would be a great day but it wasn't,' she told Save the Children. 'It was all misery. It was full of sadness. Many girls who get married at a young age get illnesses and suffer from bleeding. I am a child raising a child. Sahar said that she is happy with her husband, but the realities of her life and responsibilities have changed her mind about marriage. She now believes girls should wait until they are at least 20 to be married. Sahar wants to advise other young girls not to get married, including her own younger sister. She believes living out a childhood is more important. Kirsty McNeill, Save the Children's Director of Policy and Campaigns said: 'In 2017, more than 12,000 girls a day will be forced into child marriage. That's the capacity of Wembley Arena, every day, wed off before they've reached adulthood. Shocking figures: More than 12,000 girls 15 or under will become child brides every day of 2017 around the world, which is one every seven seconds. Aisha, pictured, was forced into marriage when she was just 13 years old. She escaped the abusive relationship and now lives back in the family home in Somalia, with her two year-old daughter Rayan Childhoods lost: Sahar, pictured, told MailOnline that she dreamed her wedding day when she was 13 would be great, but she said it was full of sadness and misery. She is now 14 and two months pregnant with her first child 'That's one girl getting married every seven seconds when they're still a child. By the time you've chewed a Brussel sprout, a child, just like your daughter, sister, cousin or niece, will be in wedlock. Often she'll be married against her will to a stranger that's 10 years older than her. 'Instead of playing games and learning times tables, these unlucky girls lose their childhoods, their innocence, and sometimes their lives. They are stripped of their opportunity to learn, thrive and to be healthy. This kind of discrimination against girls is not only unfair, it's deadly. They are regularly subject to violence both physical and sexual and are neglected by their families and communities.' She continued: 'A child bride means a child mother. But their bodes aren't developed enough to be ready for pregnancy. Childbirth is the second biggest cause of death for adolescent girls. Unbelievably, a girl in South Sudan is more likely to die in childbirth than to finish school. 'In rural communities, such as in Tanzania, girls are traded for cows or cash, turning young women into a commodity. 'In Northern Nigeria, girls are kidnapped from their villages and face a gruesome choice: Marry fighters in extremist armed groups, or be killed. These child brides are slaves to some of the most brutal terrorist groups in the world. They are often forced to marry the very insurgents that have killed their parents.' Save the Children ranked countries in an index according to child marriage, schooling, teen pregnancy, maternal deaths and number of female MPs. Countries at the bottom of the index include Niger, Chad, Central African Republic, Mali and Somalia. Countries at the top include Sweden, Finland, Norway, Netherlands and Belgium. The UK ranks 15th out of 144 countries. The international community has pledged to end child marriage by 2030 but if current trends continue, the total number of women married in childhood will grow from more than 700 million today to around 950 million by 2030, and to 1.2 billion by 2050. One major problem confronting the agencies, they admit, is tradition, culture and convention where for centuries young girls have been married. In Yemen, more than a quarter of all girls marry before the age of 15 and tribal custom plays a role, including the belief that a young bride can be shaped into an obedient wife, bear more children and be kept away from temptation. Yemen once set 15 as the minimum age for marriage, but parliament annulled that law in the 1990s, saying parents should decide when a daughter marries. While one girl under 15 is married every seven seconds, one girl under 18 is married every two seconds. McNeill said: 'We have to recognise that child marriage is often a deep-seated social convention and often the key to change can be religious leaders or women's groups. These cultural leaders recognize that child marriage is a threat to girls' futures and are working to challenge and change these harmful attitudes and practices. ' At Save the Children, we are building our work in this area. From Somalia, where we are working with mosques, to Bangladesh, where we are supporting girls' groups, we see the powerful impact that can be achieved for girls, when we collaborate with communities. Ruined lives and abuse: War and poverty are driving what is said to be a 'significant increase' in the number of marriages with families marrying young daughters because they are unable to protect or provide for them. Afrah, pictured, was 16 when it was decided she would be married, as her family were unable to support themselves financially. Her husband became emotionally abusive soon after the wedding, accusing her of not being a virgin. She believes he also drugged her. He suggested her parents would kill her if she disclosed the abuse Arranged marriage: Tasnim, 16, a Syrian girl from Homs who now lives in Lebanon with her husband of two months. Her marriage was arranged by her father with a Syrian man living in Lebanon. Tasnim was doing her exams when she was sent a picture of her now husband. She then travelled to Lebanon with her parents to meet him at her engagement party. They were married a month later. Her parents returned to Syria after the wedding 'As we usher in 2017 with hopeful new year's resolutions, Save the Children is pursuing the dreams of the 15 million girls who will become child brides next year. There is still a mountain to climb until we reach a world in which girls will have the same opportunities as boys. 'Twice as many girls as boys never start an education. Schools also routinely expel girls because they are married or pregnant. But we're working to ensure girls stay put in the exam halls instead of being pushed up the wedding aisle - at least until they're old enough to choose a husband. 'Often, girls are becoming brides because of family poverty and insecurity. Giving the poorest families small cash grants so that they can afford to keep their daughters in school, and delay marriage, has shown promising results in many countries. Making schools safe for girls and sensitive to their needs can often be the difference between attendance and dropping out. And ensuring that girls have the knowledge and healthcare they need to delay and plan pregnancy is crucial not only to their health, but also to their lifelong job opportunities.' Tamera, from Ethiopia, now works with Save the Children as a counsellor for young women forced into marriage. She said: 'I was given to a husband at 12. I wasn't happy to get married at that age, but my father said there was nobody to look after me since my mum wasn't around. 'I wasn't happy. I was crying. I wasn't able to get used to what marriage was. Married a stranger: Former child bride Halima, 17, pictured, was forced to wed at 15. She has now left her abusive husband and wishes she could return to school. Save the Children ranked countries in an index according to child marriage, schooling, teen pregnancy, maternal deaths and number of female MPs. The UK ranks 15 from 144 countries The family of the boy came to my house and asked if he could marry me. He was physically big. I didn't know how old he was. 'When I became pregnant my husband left me. When I had my baby I didn't go to a health centre, I gave birth at home. I went to health centre when I was pregnant, but Those freed on Thursday were four Yemenis sent to Saudi Arabia but critics say supervision is minimal and some have returned to terror DailyMail.com has learned that at least 22 of the 59 Guantanamo Bay detainees should be President Obama is planning to transfer at least 18 more Guantanamo Bay detainees within days after announcing that four prisoners are being sent to Saudi Arabia, DailyMail.com has learned. The group being released will be drawn from those held at Guantanamo - who include an accused senior al Qaeda bomb-maker, the terror group's top financial manager, and two intended 9/11 hijackers, who have all been held in the Cuba-based U.S. detention facility for more than a decade. According to a military source briefed on the process, as total of 22 detainees are being prepared for transfer out of the camp, also known as Gitmo, before January 20. On Thursday afternoon, the Pentagon announced the 'transfer' of four detainees to Saudi Arabia - Yemenis Salem Ahmed Hadi, Mohammed Ghanim, Mohammed Bawazir, and Abdullah al Shabli. A source told DailyMail.com there will be three more sets of transfers before Obama leaves office on January 20. Although the White House has not specified which inmates will be transferred next or which foreign countries have agreed to accept them it has indicated that this will be a priority for Obama in his final days in office. 'I can't speak to any individual notifications that have been made to Congress or give you a specific preview about upcoming transfers,' said White House press secretary Josh Earnest. SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO Controversial: The president - who was given a medal by Defense Secretary Ash Carter marking his years as commander in chief - is certain to be attacked by Republicans for his Guantammo move Riled: Trump wrote on Twitter that the remaining 'Gitmo' inmates 'are extremely dangerous people' - hinting at the reaction when Obama's official transfers begin Empyting: A rare picture of inside Guantanamo Bay's detention facilities, where 59 'worst of the worst' are currently held. Obama plans to transfer as many as he can before leaving office 'I think I would expect at this point additional transfers to be announced before January 20th.' Obama will likely focus on moving detainees who have been 'cleared for transfer' a group that includes the alleged head of al Qaeda's bomb-manufacturing operation in eastern Afghanistan, the head of al Qaeda's Tunisian faction in Afghanistan, and senior weapons trainers. Those held in Guantanamo in recent years have been dubbed 'the worst of the worst' by military and intelligence officials. But the move would come close to fulfilling Obama's campaign promise from nearly a decade ago to close the U.S. military detention center located at the base in Cuba. FREED DETAINEES WHO RETURNED TO TERROR A series of those already freed from the Cuban facility have gone straight back to jihad. They include: Ibrahim Sen: Held in Guantanamo Bay from February 2002 until November 8, 2003. Released to Turkey because U.S. officials reportedly could not find strong evidence tying him to al Qaeda. Has since been arrested twice in Turkey and charged with leading an al Qaeda cell. Abdullah Mahsud (above): Freed to Pakistan in March 2004. Later that year, he 'kidnapped two Chinese engineers and claimed responsibility for an Islamabad hotel bombing', according to a report by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency. Blew himself up in 2007 after being accused of orchestrating a suicide attack which killed 31. Abdallah Salih al Ajmi: Freed to Kuwait in 2005. Three years later he blew himself up in the Iraqi city of Mosul, killing seven people. Ibrahim Qosi (above): Freed in 2012 to Sudan. Two years later, became a leader in al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and has been featured in the terror group's videos. The group has a at least three other senior members who were in Guantanamo and freed. It has taken credit for a string of international terror attacks, including the Charlie Hebdo shooting in 2015 and the attempted Christmas Day 'underwear' bombing in 2009. Advertisement But it is vehemently opposed by Republicans and the incoming Trump administration. The president-elect has already warned against any transfers at all, meaning the 22 planned moves will be another source of tension in the transition. Fifty-nine enemy combatants in total still remain at Guantanamo, including terror 'mastermind' Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, two of the '20th hijackers' for the 9/11 attacks, and the strategists behind the USS Cole bombing of 2000. The group includes al Qaeda henchmen from around the world who are trained in lethal military tactics ranging from sniper assassins and rocket-propelled grenade operators, to explosives and chemical weapons experts. The Guantanamo Bay detention center has come under significant criticism due to the indefinite detention of some prisoners, many of whom are held without official charges. Obama has promised since his 2008 campaign to shut down the prison. Although US military officials have issued reports explaining the reasons for continued detentions, many of the accusations are based on claims from other captives or from intelligence that cannot be verified in court. Supporters of the prison say it is necessary to keep it open due to the national security threat posed by the detainees and the difficulty of compiling a traditional legal case against battlefield terrorists. President-elect Trump pushed back on Obama's plan to release additional detainees this week, calling it 'dangerous.' 'There should be no further releases from Gitmo,' wrote Trump on Twitter this week. 'These are extremely dangerous people and should not be allowed back onto the battlefield.' Senate Republicans have also expressed their opposition to Obama's move. Senator Tom Cotton told DailyMail.com that he will work with Trump to ensure that Guantanamo Bay remains open. 'Guantanamo is a first-rate, humane facility for the long-term detention and interrogation of hardened terrorists,' said Cotton. 'I look forward to working with President Trump to ensuring it remains filled with senior al Qaeda and ISIL [ISIS] terrorists.' The remaining 59 Guantanamo prisoners include 17 'high-value' detainees, seven of whom are currently facing military charges, according to the New York Times. Three others have already been convicted of war crimes, and an additional 26 are being detained indefinitely and are not recommended for transfer. Twenty three others have been 'recommended for transfer' to foreign countries under certain security conditions, such as the detainees attending a rehabilitation program. But the requirements are left relatively vague, and are ultimately up to the foreign government to enforce. According to the Department of Justice guidelines, inmates can only be considered for continued detention at Guantanamo Bay if they meet three criteria: their continued detention is deemed 'lawful,' they are unable to be prosecuted in a court, and they pose a security threat that 'cannot be sufficiently mitigated through feasible and appropriate security measures.' Prisoners who are not eligible for continued detention are recommended for transfer. The list of 'recommended for transfer' prisoners includes a number of top al Qaeda operatives and commanders. Digging in: 'Guantanamo is a first-rate, humane facility for the long-term detention and interrogation of hardened terrorists,' Senator Tom Cotton, a Republican, told DailyMail.com Key figure: The 59 are all linked to Osama bin Laden, the al Qaeda leader who some knew personally and swore loyalty to There since the beginning: Some of the detainees at Guantanamo arrived in 2002 and have been held throughout its time as a detention center. One of these detainees, Mohammed al Ansi, has spent 15 years in Gitmo. US military officials claim he 'received specialized close combat training for his role as a suicide operative in an aborted component of the 11 September 2001 al-Qaida attacks.' The attack, which was later cancelled by al Qaeda because of difficulties with coordinating timing, was supposed to include the hijacking of a plane in Southeast Asia with the intent of crashing it into a US military base. One of the other recommended transfers, Bostan Karim, is accused of running al Qaeda's improvised explosive devices (IED) operations in Khowst, Afghanistan, which targeted US soldiers. Some of the recommended transfers have also vowed to return to jihad if they are ever released, according to reports from US military officials. They have also threatened to assassinate the U.S. president, kill American citizens, and attack other world leaders who are allied with the West. Muieen Abdal Sattar, an accused al Qaeda member who fought in Tora Bora, has been at Guantanamo for 14 years and 11 months. While there he has 'incited mass disturbances, assaulted and threatened to kill [Gitmo] personnel and made motivational speeches to 'fight against infidels' and to kill all Americans to include men, women, children, and babies,' according to US military officials. Officials claimed he has also issued several 'fatwas' encouraging other detainees to engage in hunger strikes and suicide attempts, and once threatened to cut off a guard's head. Others have vowed to 'martyr' themselves if released, and even while in Guantanamo, according to official military reports. Accused al Qaeda member Mohammed Bawazir reportedly agreed to be 'a voluntary suicide operative' in a suicide attack inside Gitmo, planned with two other detainees. It is unclear where the detainees will be transferred. Obama has previously transferred 'recommended' Gitmo detainees to countries that agree to accept them, sending nine prisoners to Saudi Arabia last spring and another to Italy in July. Some released detainees have gone back into terrorism. Four of the senior leaders in al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) are former Guantanamo Bay detainees that were transferred to Saudi Arabia or Sudan. Over half of the currently 'recommended' detainees are from Yemen, a country where the Department of Defense has tried to avoid transferring Gitmo prisoners due to the recent resurgence in terror activity. WHO'S WHO IN GITMO - AND WHO IS CLEARED FOR RELEASE The 59 remaining Guantanamo detainees are from around the world and include men identified as hugely dangerous. Many were personal associates of Osama bin Laden and others were inspired by his message to plot their own terror atrocities. Here we detail who they are - and which ones the government believes should be transferred, a move which President Obama is planning before 20 January. In each case 'detained since' refers to when they entered Guantanamo, not when they first entered custody of the U.S. or an ally. High value inmates - including 9/11 plotters Mastermind: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed came up with the original 9/11 plot. Waleed bin Attash was behind the USS Cole bombing in Aden, Yemen, in 2000 - 17 Navy sailors were murdered Intimate involvement: Ramzi bin al Shibh was Mohamed Atta's roommate and coordinated 9/11 - after being the first '20th hijacker' but failing to get a visa. Mustafa al Hawsawi, al Qaeda's accountant, helped get the 9/11 'muscle' into the U.S. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. 52. The ultimate al Qaeda mastermind in U.S. custody, Mohammed - who was born in either Pakistan or Kuwait - led its propaganda arm at bin Laden's right hand. He presented the first version of 9/11 to bin laden and claimed to have beheaded Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal journalist. He was also implicated in failed attacks, including the shoe-bomb carried by Richard Reid onto a U.S.-bound plane, and its chemical weapons efforts. Detained in Guantanamo since 2006. Waleed bin Attash. Around 40. From a family of radicals deported em masse from Yemen to Saudi when he was a child, he is missing a leg from a 1997 Afghan battle which claimed his brother's life. Said to have co-ordinated the 1997 embassy bombings in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He masterminded the USS Cole attack in Aden, Yemen, in 2000, and was one of bin Laden's most trusted aides. Other plots he was involved in include an attack on London's Heathrow Airport which resulted in it being guarded by tanks. Detained since 2006. Ramzi bin al Shibh. 44. Once Mohamed Atta's roommate and originally supposed to be one of the 9/11 pilots, the Yemeni was turned down for a visa and instead became a coordinator - even giving Atta the date for the atrocities. He was one of the FBI's most wanted until his capture in 2002 in a gun battle in Pakistan. Trial on murder charges by military commission has still to happen, despite charges being brought in 2008. Detained since 2006. Mustafa al Hawsawi. 48. Al Qaeda's accountant, the Saudi was captured with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. He was charged in 2009 with the 2,973 murders on 9/11 because of his alleged role in helping the hijackers, including coordinating bringing the 'muscle' into the U.S. with Mohamed Atta, the ringleader. Detained in Guantanamo first in 2003, then since 2006. The fanatics who 'aided 9/11 slaughter' Atrocity: Mohammed al Qahtani was supposed to be a '20th hijacker' but was stopped at immigration. Ammar al Baluchi - who has never been publicly photographed - helped his uncle Khalid Sheikh Mohammed buy tickets and arrange accommodation for the 19 9/11 hijackers Brothers of terror: Abdul Rahim Ghulam Rabbani and Mohammed Ghulam Rabbani helped Khalid Sheikh Mohammed facilitate travel for the 9/11 hijackers. Mohammed al Qahtani. Around 38. Saudi was a '20th hijacker' - who almost got into the country. He was stopped at Orlando International when he contradicted himself to immigration screeners who thought he was trying become an illegal immigrant. Headed to Afghanistan where he was captured in the battle of Tora Bora - but claimed he was there simply because of his interest in falconry. For ten months the CIA had no idea who he had until his fingerprints were checked - and it turned out Mohamed Atta was outside waiting to pick him up. Detained since 2002. Ammar al Baluchi. 39. Kahlid Sheikh Mohammed's nephew, he helped his uncle fund and coordinate the tickets and accommodation for the 9/11 hijackers and was a courier between the mastermind and other al Qaeda bigs. Detained since 2006. Abdul Rahim Ghulam Rabbani. Around 48. Pakistani who helped Khalid Sheikh Mohammed with the logistics of getting the hijackers into the U.S. Detained since 2004. Mohammed Ghulam Rabbani. Around 47. Brother of Abdul Rahim Ghulam Rabbani, he was Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's personal driver and worked as a 'travel facilitator' for al Qaeda as well as providing 'logistical support' for bin Laden's command center in Tora Bora. Detained since 2004. The men who guarded Osama bin Laden Bin Laden's bodymen: Yemenis Mohammed al Ansi, Uthman Abdul Rahim Mohammed Uthman, Muaz al Alwai and Hassan bin Attash were all at the terror chief's side At terror chief's side: Mohammed Ghanim, Zohair al Shorabi, Sanad al Kazimi annd Muhammad Rahim al Afghani were all part of his Afghanistan entourage CLEARED TO GO: Mohammed al Ansi. About 42. A bin Laden bodyguard from Yemen who also trained to be a suicide plane attacker in south-east Asia in a plot supposed to happen on 9/11. Detained since 2002. Uthman Abdul Rahim Mohammed Uthman. About 38. Yemeni who was bodyguard for Osama bin Laden and took part in weapons training and fighting in Afghanistan, Detained at Guatanamo since 2002. Muaz al Alawi. About 40. Another Yemeni who was a frontline fighter for the Taliban having pick up an AK-47 at the age of eight, he also ran a guesthouse in Kandahar for al Qaeda fanatics. Detained since 2002. BEING SENT TO SAUDI ARABIA: Mohammed Ghanim. About 42. Veteran Yemeni extremist who had fought in Bosnia in the 1990s, been jailed in Saudi Arabia for a plot to smuggle missiles, then guarded bin Laden. He told interrogators he knew about attacks 'bigger than 9/11'. Detained since 2002. Zohair al Shorabi. 39 or 40. Another Yemeni guard to the al Qaeda mastermind who ran the Kandahar guesthouse for fanatics with al Alwai. Detained since 2002. Sanad al Kazimi. 46. One time special-forces officer in his native Yemen who was 'honored' to guard bin Laden and knew about al Qaeda's chemical and nuclear weapons research - and encouraged another detainee to become a suicide bomber when released. Detained since 2004. Hassan bin Attash. Around 32. Just 12 when he swore loyalty to terror chief, the Saudi Arabian admitted to advance knowledge of plots. His brother Waleed is also in Guantanamo. Detained since 2002. Muhammad Rahim al Afghani. Age unknown. Said to have been 'special aide' to bin Laden before 2002, he was captured in Lahore, Pakistan in 2007. He may also have been one of Taliban leader Mullah Omar's drivers. Set up a Match.com account while in Guantanamo saying he was 'detained but ready to mingle'. Detained since 2008. Al Qaeda masterminds who bin Laden trusted All cleared to go: Ridah al Yazidi, Yasin Ismail and Haji Wali Mohammed are all expected to be released to other countries in prisoner transfers before January 20 Inner circle: Haji Wali Mohammed was al Qaeda's financial manager, while Ali Hamza al Bahll wrote speeches for bin Laden and helped him follow the 9/11 attacks CLEARED TO GO: Ridah al Yazidi. 51. 'Emir' of al Qaeda's 'Tunisian faction' in Afghanistan who fought in combat and whose commitment to jihad went back to the 1990s, when he was a wanted terrorist. Detained since 2002. CLEARED TO GO: Yasin Ismail. 38. Commanded al Qaeda forces in Bagram, north of Kabul and the notorious caves of Tora Bora, where bin Laden hid in late 2001. Yemeni-born terror group member is said to have threatened and assaulted guards and was assessed as too dangerous to be freed. Detained since CLEARED TO GO: Haji Wali Mohammed. 50. Al Qaeda's 'financial manager', he was an Afghan refugee in Pakistan who became rich as a currency dealer, then turned to drug trafficking to make more cash. U.S. intelligence says he sent money to fund a string of bin Laden's plans, including attacks in 1998 on the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Detained since 2002. Ali Hamza al Bahlul. 47. Bin Laden's PR director and speechwriter who even set up a satellite receiver so the terror chief could listen to radio coverage of 9/11. One of the few convicted in Guantanamo, the Yemeni was found guilty of series of charges in 2008 by a jury of mine military officers, with one upheld on appeal - criminal conspiracy. Detained since 2002. Abdu Ali Sharqawi. 42. Part of bin Laden's inner circle, he would go to the terror chief's weekly strategy meetings and accompany him on hikes in the Afghan mountains near bin Laden's lair. The Yemeni commanded men and money for the terror chief. Detained since 2004. Men with 'American blood on their hands' Afghan veterans: Salem Ahmed Hadi was at a prison where an uprising claimed the life of CIA special operator Johnny 'Mike' Spann, the first American to die in Afghanistan in combat. Mustafa al Shamyri was accused of the USS Cole bombing but is now thought to be a foot soldier Senior members: Abd al Rahim al Nashiri and Abu Zbaydah are both believed to have been behind the USS Cole atrocity in 2000 which killed 17 Navy sailors CLEARED TO GO. Mustafa al Shamyri. 38. Initially said to be member of the Yemeni cell responsible for the USS Cole attack in 2000, which claimed 17 Navy sailors' lives. 'Detainee is a veteran jihadist who participated in hostilities in the 1994 Yemeni civil war and in the Bosnian Jihad in the mid-1990s', official documents say. But in 2015, it was concluded there was mistaken identity - and he was a much more low-level foot soldier. Detained since 2002. BEING SENT TO SAUDI: Salem Ahmed Hadi. 40. The Yemeni had been a sub-commander in bin Laden's '55th Arab Brigade', his handpicked fighting force, when he was captured in autumn 2001 as the Taliban and al Qaeda lost in Afghanistan. Held in prison in Mazar-i-Sharif he and hundreds of others took part in a rising in late November in which CIA special operative Johnny 'Mike' Spann was killed - the first American killed in combat in Afghanistan. Detained since 2002. Abd al Rahim al Nashiri. 51. Senior al Qaeda operational coordinator who worked directly under bin Laden. Linked to up to 'a dozen plots to attack US and western interests' - including the USS Cole bombing in Yemen, where he was born, although he is a Saudi citizen. Was waterboarded and is now charged with war crimes. Detained since 2006. Abu Zubaydah. 45. The Palestinian was a senior al Qaeda member involved in numerous terror plots, including the USS Cole bombing and a plan to attack US power grids. Ran a major training camp. Lost an eye while detained in CIA secret prisons. Was waterboarded. Detained since: 2006. Al Qaeda bigs who did bin Laden's bidding Long-term friends: Abdul Larif Nassir, Abdulsalam al Hela, and Haroon Gul al Afghani were key aides to bin Laden Chiefs: Abu Faraj al Libi was one of al Qaeda's earliest members and its operations chief, while Abd al Hadi al Iraqi used his expertise as an Iraqi major at Tora Bora, and Riduan Isamuddin aka Hambali wanted to be caliph of a fundamentalist south-east Asia CLEARED TO GO: Abdul Latif Nasir. 51. An associate of bin Laden since 1993, the Moroccan was his top explosives expert in Afghanistan and an instructor at al Qaeda's training camps. He commanded bin Laden's troops on the front line at Tora Bora as the mastermind of 9/11 fled on horseback to safety. Detained since 2002. Abdulsalam al Hela. 48. A Yemeni money man who moved cash and forged documents for al Qaeda, he had been involved in it for much of the 1990s. Officials believe he had prior knowledge of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the USS Cole attack in Aden in 2000 and possibly even 9/11. Detained since 2004. Haroon Gul al Afghani. 37 or 38. Al Afghani helped bin Laden flee Tora Boro in 2001 and went on to a long career causing havoc in Afghanistan. He was a courier for al Libi, helping move weapons and fighters to attack U.S. and allied forces in the country. Thought to also be a maker of the IEDs used to deadly effect against Americans in Afghanistan. Detained since 2007. Abu Faraj al Libi. 46 or 47. The 'operational chief' of al Qaeda - he had joined in 1990, making him one of its earliest members - he managed its operations after Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's capture in 2002 - particularly its attacks on U.S. forces and their allies in Iraq and Afghanistan. Communicated with others about plot after plot and was the main conduit for communications to bin Laden as the al Qaeda leader hid. Detained since 2006. Abd al Hadi al Iraqi. 56. The most senior commissioned military officer in Guantanamo, he was in Saddam Hussein's army in the Iran-Iraq war as an NCO, eventually became a major. At some point he went to Afghanistan, probably when the Soviet Union was occupying it. He stayed and became one of bin Laden's top deputies, and after the Taliban's defeat in 2001, he commanded insurgent attacks on Americans. Bin Laden put him in charge of al Qaeda activities in Iraq, making him one of the world's most wanted men. There is dispute over his real name - al Iraqi is a nomme de guerre which simply means the Iraqi. Detained since 2007. Riduan Isamuddin aka Hambali. 52. Once called the Osama bin Laden of south-east Asia, the Indonesian wanted to create a Muslim calpihate across much of it, with himself as the caliph. He oversaw the Bali nightclub bombing which killed 202 people, the worst attack of his Jemaah Islamiyah terror group. It was also behind a wave of church bombings in Indonesia in 2000, while he met two 9/11 hijackers at an al Qaeda summit in Malaysia that year. He was captured in Thailand with arms and explosives after years on the run. Detained since 2006. Prisoners who will 'kill Americans' if freed Threats: Muieen Abdal Sattar has threatened to behead a guard and told other prisoners to fight against infidels. Khalid Qasim told a guard he would 'drink his blood for lunch' if freed Cleared to go: Both Tawfiq al Bihani was an IED expert who has threatened to kill the president if released, while Jabran al Qahtani - who has never been publicly photographed - has vowed to return to killing Americans CLEARED TO GO: Muieen Abdal Sattar. 42 or 43. The Dubai-born fanatic - he is of Burmese Rohingya descent, was brought up largely in Saudia Arabia and has Pakistani citizenship - has threatened to cut off a guard's head and led a series of mass disturbances at Guantanamo. He made speeches telling prisoners to 'fight against infidels' and to kill all Americans -men, women, children, and babies. Detained since 2002. CLEARED TO GO Tawfiq al Bihani. 44. Yemeni who trained in making IEDs and in urban warfare at an al Qaeda camp was captured when he opened fire on Afghan forces at Kandahar airport. Threatened to kill the president and American citizens if he is ever released. Detained since 2003. CLEARED TO GO: Jabran al Qahtani. Around 40. The Saudi-born electrical engineer helped build IEDs to attack American forces in Afghanistan. Has vowed that he would go back to killing Americans if he is released, threatened to assassinate the Afghan president, and the Saudi King, because 'they were Americans'. Detained since 2002. Khaled Qasim. 39. Sub-commander in Tora Bora who threatened to cut off US service member's head and hands when he got out of Guantanamo, and 'informed another that if he ever saw him when he leaves Cuba he will murder him and drink his blood for lunch.' Said he would also kill American guards if he returns to his native Afghanistan. Detained since 2002. Fanatics betrayed Western lives for bin Laden Western lives: Ghassan al Sharbi - who has never been publicly photographed - had a high school and university education in the U.S.; Saifullah Paracha was a New York Institute of Technology grad; and Majid Khan worked for the government - but all turned to terror Ghassan al Sharbi. 42. The Saudi was sent to the U.S. for high school, and graduated from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, AZ, with a degree in electrical engineering. But he left the U.S. in 2000 for Afghanistan - abandoning a wife and child - and became affiliated to al Qaeda. Captured in Pakistan in 2002, he told an interrogations chief who graduated from Fordham University, New York, that it was a 'third tier school' and when he was charged with war crimes, told the military commission: 'I fought the United States... I'm proud of what I did. Detained since 2002. Saifullah Paracha. 69. The Pakistani-born businessman is a New York Institute of Technology grad. He worked as a travel agent in New York, Chicago, Washington DC, and San Francisco and made money in merchandise, real estate and media. But he was close with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed - and met bin Laden several times. He even offered to help smuggle explosives into the US and obtain chemical weapons for the terror group. Detained since 2004. Majid Khan. 36. The Pakistani citizen graduated Owings Mill High School, Cantonsville, Maryland, then went back to Pakistan to find a wife. He returned to the U.S., worked in a government office in Maryland, but was allegedly enlisted in al Qaeda by Khalid Shekih Mohammed in 2002. Mohammed allegedly encouraged him to plot terror attacks in Israel and the U.S. with targets including gas stations and reservoirs. He was captured in Karachi in 2003 along with his brother and other relatives but they were later freed. Detained since 2006. Fighters on the front lines of terrorism Cleared to go: Mihammed Bazwazir, Ravil Minganov and Abdul Zahir are all listed as ready for transfer All at Tora Bora: Mohammed Haidel, Salman Rabeii and Walid Zaid were all fighters at the mountain complex where Osama bin Laden holed up after 9/11 - and from which he escaped Fought in Afghanistan: Ghaleb al Bihani and Abdullah al Shabli were Yemenis who fought at Tora Bora BEING SENT TO SAUDI ARABIA: Mohammed Bawazir. 35 or 36. The Yemeni fought with bin Laden's Arab forces in Afghanistan as well as the Taliban itself. Refused to get on a plane early last year to be transferred to another country because he did not want to go somewhere where had no relatives. Detained since 2002. CLEARED TO GO: Ravil Mingazov. 49. Least likely of the Guantanamo detainees, he was a ballet dancer as a schoolboy in Russia and a Soviet then Russian non-commissioned officer. He left Russia in 2000, feeling persecuted because he was an ethnic Tatar, a Muslim minority. He fell out with one terror group in Uzbekistan who thought he was a KGB spy, while he thought they were not committed enough to jihad. He moved to Afghanistan, trained in poison and sniper tactics for assassinations - but fell asleep during bin Laden's lengthy speeches, as he spoke no Arabic. Captured in Faisalbad, Pakistan in 2002 at an al Qaeda safe house. Still wanted in Russia. Detained since 2002. CLEARED TO GO: Abdul Zahir. 44 or 45. Afghan who was a translator for an Arabic-speaking al Qaeda boss, he and two other men were captured in 2002 after chasing down a car with American passengers and throwing a live grenade in it. Detained since 2002. CLEARED TO GO: Mohammed Haidel. 37 or 38. Another Yemeni who had advanced weapons training before he was wounded in fighting in Tora Bora as bin Laden fled. Detained since 2002. CLEARED TO GO: Salman Rabeii. 37. Saudi fought for bin Laden's Arab forces and was captured by rival Afghans at Tora Bora as the terror chief fled. Has written letters to his family about his 'own martyrdom.' Detained since 2002. CLEARED TO GO: Walid Zaid. 38. Possible al Qaeda money courier before 9/11, he was at a training camp in Afghanistan when they happened. He was wounded at Tora Bora as he manned a fighting position. Detained since 2002. Ghaleb al Bihani. Around 37. Yemeni who fought with bin Laden's so-called 55th Arab Brigade in Afghanistan, where he had weapons training. Detained since 2002. BEING SENT TO SAUDI ARABIA: Abdullah al Shabli. 39. The former honey salesman went to Afghanistan from Yemen up to two years before 9/11 and may have received advanced training. Captured as al Qaeda forces fled Tora Bora. Detained since 2002. The terror plotters 'caught red-handed' Henchmen: Sufyian Barhoumi, 43, and Abdelrazak Ali, 46, were both found in a safe house in Pakistan with another mastermind The Karachi two: Musa'ab al Madhwani and Said Salih Said Nashir, both Yemenis, were found with incriminating plans at a Karachi safe house during a raid. International links: Malaysian Modh Farik bin Amin and his fellow countryman Mohammed bin Lep; and Somali Ghould Hassan Dourad and Kenyan Mohammed Abdul Malik, illustrate the geographical reach of the terror camp's inmates CLEARED TO GO: Sufyian Barhoumi. 43. Algerian-born Barhoumi was recruited to jihad when he lived in London in the 1990s, by Abu Qatada, a Jordanian cleric who was one of al Qaeda's most notorious preachers of hate. A senior explosives expert and trainer, he was at Abu Zabaydah's side when he was captured, at a safe house in Faisalalbad, Pakistan, where they were hatching more terror plots. Detained since 2002. Abdelrazak Ali. 46. A close associate of Abu Zabaydah, he was seized in a raid on a house in Faisalalbad in Pakistan which led to the mastermind's capture. Detained since 2002. CLEARED TO GO: Musa'ab al Madhwani. 38. The Yemeni citizen had been trained in using explosives - and when he was captured by Pakistani security forces at an al Qaeda safe house in Karachi he had a laptop with data that could be used to help hijack planes. Detained since 2002. Said Salih Said Nashir. About 43. Captured with his fellow Yemeni Madhwani in Karachi in 2002. Among the cache of documents were a martyrdom will and plans to attack hotels in the city. Detained since 2002. CLEARED TO GO: Hail Aziz Ahmed al Maythali. 39. Another Yemeni arrested in Karachi in the safe house where they were plotting terror. He may have also guarded bin Laden before 9/11. Detained since 2002. Modh Farik bin Amin. 41. Malaysian who was part of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's plot for even more hijackings on the West Coast after 9//1. He had trained in terror in Afghanistan, personally sworn allegiance to bin Laden, and cased targets in Thailand and Cambodia for targeting. Detained since 2006. Mohammed bin Lep. 40. Malaysian fanatic was an aide to another al Qaeda big - Hambali. Among other plots he was involved in was an attack on a Marriott in Jakarta which killed 12. Detained since 2006. Gouled Hassan Dourad. 42. Dourad, a Somali, was plotting to attack the U.S. base and nearby hotels and restaurants used by Westerners in Dijibouti, in the Horn of Africa, when he was caught. Detained since 2006. Mohammed Abdul Malik. 44. The Kenyan member of al Qaeda in East Africa was part of the gang behind the 2002 bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa which killed three Israeli tourists and 10 Kenyans. Almost simultaneously, two surface-to-air missiles were fired at an Israeli charter flight leaving the nearby airport but did not hit it. Detained since 2007. Weapons experts who know how to kill Bomb-makers: Bostam Karim and Omar al Rammah both know the secrets of how to produce deadly IEDs and other bombs Deadly knowledge: Ahmed Mohammed al Darbi and Ismael al Bakush both taught bin Laden's followers about deadly weapons including anti-aircraft missiles and IEDs CLEARED TO GO: Bostan Karim. 46 or 47. He was in charge of al Qaeda's IED factory in Khost, in Afghanistan, which was designed to target U.S. forces, and received orders from al Libi, bin Laden's chosen commander. Captured with a satellite phone as he tried to cross into Pakistan. Detained since 2003. Omar al Rammah. 42 or 43. The Yemeni was highly trained in explosives at al Qaeda's camp in Afghanistan before 9/11. Officials believe he was also involved in efforts to work out how to use poisons against the terror group's targets. Detained since 2003. Ahmed Mohammed al Darbi. 41. He was an instructor at the al Farouq camp, an advanced instructions center for al Qaeda in Afghanistan before 9/11. There the Saudi Arabian taught its operatives in how to use Kalashnikov rifles and anti-aircraft weapons. Detained since 2002. Joshua Perez, 28, of Orlando was charged with sexual abuse in connection with two foreign exchange students A man is charged with sexually abusing two foreign exchange students he was hosting in his home. The man, Joshua Perez, 28, of Orlando, Florida, is facing charges after being accused of forcing an exchange student to have sex with him multiple times while she was living with him. He is also accused of exposing his genitals to another foreign exchange student. Both victims were reportedly from Vietnam. It's unclear if they were staying in Perez' home at the same time. Perez faced a judge Tuesday on charges of sexual battery and exposure of sexual organs, according to WFTV-9. Investigators say the incidents happened at the Valencia Forest Apartments, where the victim lived with Perez and his girlfriend. Scroll down for video Joshua Perez, above, bailed out of jail on Tuesday night, he is charged with sexual battery and exposure of sexual organs An arrest report says Perez, who was the victim's host dad, forced one Vietnamese exchange student into sexual encounters about 13 times over the past three months. Arrest documents also show that a second exchange student living with Perez told investigators the suspect exposed himself to her as she cooked him mashed potatoes. The young woman reportedly ran out of the kitchen and into her bedroom, where she locked her door. She then called her parents and begged them to find her a new host home, according to the criminal complaint. Perez, above with his lawyer at a hearing, told his girlfriend that the sexual encounters were consensual and that exposure of genitals may have been accidental The alleged abuse took place at Valencia Forest apartments in Orlando Police said that the man's girlfriend allowed cops to listen in as she had a conversation with Perez in which he admitted to sexual encounters with one exchange student, but claimed they were consensual. He also reportedly said that he may have exposed himself, but if so, it was accidental. Based on the charges, says the outlet, both exchange students appear to be over 18. An eight-year-old girl has been killed when winds toppled a towering tree onto her Oregon home while she was sleeping as winter storms continue to move across the U.S. The child, Zaylee Schlect, was the daughter of a volunteer firefighter Ryan Schlect who was working during the storm that downed trees throughout the state of Oregon on Tuesday night. The little girl was sleeping in her bedroom when the tree came down on her home in Otis, a town near the coast, just after 11pm. Eight-year-old Zaylee Schlect was killed when strong winds caused a tree to fall on her Oregon home while she was sleeping on Tuesday night The little girl was sleeping in her bedroom when the tree came down on her home in Otis, a town near the coast, just after 11pm Zaylee was initially trapped and 18 rescue firefighters, including her father, rushed to the home to lift the tree to free her, KOIN reports. She was rushed to hospital but died from her injuries. Zaylee's mother Melissa Hoag, her two brothers and one sister were also inside the home at the time but were uninjured. The Red Cross is helping the family with housing and a Go Fund Me page has been set up in memory of Zaylee. The tragic death comes as wet winter storms pummeled much of the West with blizzard conditions closing roads and triggering a small avalanche in the Sierra Nevada. In Nevada, a storm dropped 2 feet of snow and another foot was expected in the upper elevations around Lake Tahoe. The weather closed the main highway between Reno and Lake Tahoe. Zaylee Schlect, was the daughter of a volunteer firefighter Ryan Schlect (pictured) who was working during the storm that downed trees throughout the state of Oregon on Tuesday night Zaylee was initially trapped and 18 rescue firefighters, including her father Ryan (pictured), rushed to the home to lift the tree to free her 'We are looking at near white-out conditions,' state Department of Transportation spokeswoman Meg Ragonese said. 'Crews are up there doing all they can to reopen the road but with these conditions, it is going to take a bit.' Workers planned to trigger man-made avalanches along Mount Rose Highway and plow the road again before reopening it late Wednesday or Thursday. Nevada state trooper Dan Gordon said there were no reports of major accidents. 'Just a lot of slide-offs and roadway conditions that are just horrendous - really treacherous,' he said. Even cars with chains were getting stuck and sliding off the road, he said. The storm could be a boon for drought-plagued California by boosting the snowpack that provides about a third of the state's water in normal years when it melts in warm, dry months. Flash flood watches were issued for most of the Sierra along the Nevada-California line, where the National Weather Service said the potential for another 6 to 12 inches of rain would create serious flooding concerns into the weekend. Zaylee's mother Melissa Hoag, her two brothers and one sister were also inside the home at the time the tree crashed through but were uninjured The little girl was rushed to hospital but tragically died from her injuries Some highways flooded in the San Francisco Bay Area, and mud and rockslides were reported in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The San Lorenzo River was swollen and the Big Sur River was also above flood stage. Flood warnings and watches were issued for 11 counties in the region, and forecasters said heavy rains would last through Thursday. Elsewhere, the snowiest day in nearly a century was recorded Tuesday in Medford, Oregon, where more than 8 inches fell at the airport, according to the National Weather Service. Eleven inches of snow fell on a December day in 1919. In Utah, snow that accumulated over several days caused the roof of a business to collapse in Provo. No injuries were reported. Snow was also falling in Wyoming, where a winter storm warning was posted for much of the Interstate 80 corridor, including Cheyenne. Heavy snow was also expected in Colorado. In New Mexico, forecasters said a blustery winter storm will produce significant snowfall and strong winds across much of the northern and eastern parts of the state beginning late Wednesday and peaking early Friday. The tragic death comes as wet winter storms pummeled much of the West with flash flooding in Reno, Nevada on Wednesday A Department of Public Works crew removes a fallen tree after a storm that was blocking both directions in Oakland, California Mike Johnson slides the tail of his ski bike as he descends from the top of Emigration Canyon, Utah on Wednesday as winter weather slammed much of the West A former Kosovan prime minister has been arrested over allegations of war crimes. Ramush Haradinaj, a guerrilla commander during the 1998-99 Kosovo war, was detained in France on a Serbian arrest warrant. Serbia considers Haradinaj a war criminal for his role in leading a guerrilla insurgency in its former southern province of Kosovo, which declared independence with Western backing in 2008. Haradinaj served briefly as prime minister of Kosovo in 2004 and 2005, while it was a ward of the United Nations, before being tried and acquitted twice of war crimes at a UN court in The Hague. Ramush Hardinaj (pictured in 2010) was arrested by French police on a Serbian arrest warrant 'He was stopped by French authorities based on an arrest warrant issued by Serbia in 2004 which for us is unacceptable,' Kosovo's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. It said it was doing everything possible to secure his release, which it expected to happen. French border police arrested him upon his arrival at Basel-Mulhouse airport in eastern France on a flight from Pristina, according to sources. A French judiciary source said that investigators would begin looking into whether there were reasons not to execute the extradition request - especially in the case that it had been issued for political reasons. They will also look at whether he had already been tried before the UN court on the same charges as those the arrest warrant had been issued on, the source added. Haradinaj, the leader of the opposition party Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK), was travelling on a diplomatic passport when he was stopped by French authorities. In June 2015 Haradinaj was arrested by Slovenian police but was released after two days following diplomatic pressure. It was reported in December that money was not the key issue for Kelly, and on her show last night she said the move was to spend more time with her family That means Kelly will be making less than Robin Roberts and Kelly Ripa, who make $18million and $17million a year respectively at ABC Kelly will reportedly be making 'close to her current salary' in her new role She rejected the offer to sign with NBC, where she will host two shows in addition to being part of the Advertisement Megyn Kelly was spotted grinning from ear to ear Wednesday night as she stepped out of her New York apartment - no doubt buoyed up by the knowledge that she is moving on to new horizons at NBC. The news on Tuesday that Kelly would be leaving Fox News put to bed months of speculation regarding what the star host planned to do when her contract was up with the cable news giant. Not revealed during the big announcement of Kelly's hiring, however, was how much she would be getting paid in her new role at NBC, and just how much Fox News was offering to get her to stay. It is now being reported that Kelly was looking at a four-year deal worth $100million to stay at Fox News and host The Kelly File, but instead chose to sign with NBC where she will host two shows in addition to special events and make an annual salary of $15million. That means the NBC offer that Kelly accepted will pay her the same amount she is currently getting at Fox News. Both Fox News and NBC declined to comment on contract negotiations. Scroll down for video Business as usual: Megyn Kelly presented her daily the Kelly File news segment on Fox News last night amid strong speculation she is about to leave the channel for NBC Grinning: Kelly was seen with a wide smile on her face Wednesday evening as she left her New York apartment. It had emerged earlier in the day that she turned down a $100m, four-year deal from current employers Fox News to move to NBC Happy days: NBC has agreed to match Kelly's current Fox salary of $15m a year, for which she will host two shows as well as covering special events on the channel. She turned down a $25m-a-year offer - that's a $10m per year increase - from Fox Moving on: Kelly was seen joking with doormen at her apartment as she walked to her car. It was announced on Tuesday that she was to move on from Fox, where she has worked since 2004 Heading out: Kelly seemed unbothered by the fact that she will make far less than her new NBC co-worker Matt Lauer, who now takes home $25million a year as host of Today It's about time: It was reported in December that money was not the key issue for Kelly (pictured in January last year), and on her show last night she said the move was to spend more time with her family Mediaite reports that Lachlan Murdoch, the Executive Co-Chairman of News Corp and 21st Century Fox, approved a $25million-a-year contract for Kelly in his bid to keep her on the network. That amount was much higher than the $20million that had been reported elsewhere, and all Kelly has said is that Murdoch gave her a 'generous offer.' That contract was also for four years according to a source close to Kelly, thereby totaling $100million. The Los Angeles Times meanwhile spoke to multiple people that were familiar with the negotiations between NBC and Kelly who said the network 'agreed to pay Kelly close to her current salary.' That would mean that Kelly would be accepting her new post with an annual salary of $15million, which is notably less than the annual salaries of Robin Roberts and Kelly Ripa, who make $18million and $17million respectively at ABC. Kelly will also make far less than her new co-worker Matt Lauer, who now takes home $25million a year as host of Today. It was reported last month however that money was not the key issue for Kelly, who instead was looking to have a schedule better suited to her life as a mother to three young children. The Kelly File tapes live at 9pm each night, and kicking off her last week of shows on Tuesday Kelly explained the toll that took on her relationship with her kids in explaining her reason for jumping ship. After giving thanks to the Murdochs, Fox News, and the viewers, she said that she believes people are put on this Earth in order to form 'human connections.' Family first: Kelly tapes the show at 9pm each night, which she said affected her relationships with her husband Douglas Brunt and their three children Yardley Evans, Edward Yates and Thatcher Bray (all pictured) Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com Kelly then said: 'The truth is, I need more of that in my life, in particular when it comes to my children, who are seven, five and three. 'So I'll be leaving Fox News at the weeks end, and starting a new adventure, joining the journalists at NBC News, who I deeply admire. 'I'll be anchoring a daytime show there, along with a Sunday night news magazine, and you'll see me there on the big nights too, for politics.' Kelly's last day at Fox News will be Friday, and she will make the move to NBC in July. Victim was left with chest injuries, as police hunt for the attacker The attacker set upon the victim with the Stanley knife and fire extinguisher Victim, 22, rammed off the road by man on Kings Road in a dark-coloured car in Kings Park, in Melbourne's northwest A driver has been slashed with a utility knife and sprayed with a fire extinguisher in a savage road rage attack. The 22-year-old victim was driving in Kings Park, in Melbourne's northwest, on Monday about 10.45am when his car was rammed off the road. The attacker then set upon the victim with the Stanley knife and fire extinguisher, police said. Police are hunting for a driver after a horror road rage attack in Melbourne's northwest The attacker was travelling north on Kings Road in a dark-coloured vehicle. The victim managed to escape but suffered a chest injury during the attack. The alleged offender is believed to be of Caucasian appearance with a thin build. Police are appealing for help from the public to identify the attacker. This is the shocking moment an Oklahoma police officer is almost killed when a suspect opens fire during a traffic stop - but is saved by passersby who stop to lend a hand. Officer Brian Southerland stopped a pickup on Interstate 240 near Eastern Avenue at 5:30pm Sunday, but as he approached the vehicle, the driver - identified as Cory Lee Hartsell - let loose a volley of shots. One of those hit Southerland in his femoral artery, and could have caused the officer to bleed to death if a pair of Good Samaritans hadn't stopped to find out what happened, News9 reported. Scroll down for video Shots fired: Oklahoma cop Brian Southerland (seen leaving his car left) was shot Sunday. Video shows him ducking (right) as shots are fired from the red pickup he'd stopped on the I-240 Aftermath: Southerland (left) is recovering from surgery after the bullet hit his femoral artery. Cory Lee Hartsell (right) was arrested Monday and charged with two counts The video, released by Valley Brook Police Department, shows Southerland pulling over what police say is Hartsell's truck after he spots it clipping the curb, with a tail light out. Hartsell, a gang member with a substantial criminal background, had a warrant out against him at the time of the arrest. The truck pulls over, and Southerland is almost upon the vehicle when a series of shots ring out. He ducks for cover, but isn't able to escape one of the bullets. It's not clear which one hits him, but he's left wounded and on the ground by the right-hand side of his vehicle. The video then cuts to some time later, as the car of an unidentified passerby parks in front of Southerland's vehicle. An apparently elderly man exits his car, sees Southerland's injuries and then runs back to his own vehicle. Helping hands: An elderly-looking man (left) is the first to stop and aid Southerland. He fetches a rope and hands it to another passerby (right), so they can make a tourniquet for the officer A second man arrives on the scene as the older man fetches a rope for use as a tourniquet. The older man is also seen fetching a stick - presumably to twist the rope tighter on the officer's leg. Finally, after an agonizing wait, an Oklahoma County Deputy arrives on the scene with a medical tourniquet, and is able to staunch the bleeding fully. Southerland has undergone two bouts of surgery and is now on the path to recovery, police say; a GoFundMe page has been set up to help pay for his medical care. Hartsell, meanwhile, was hunted down and arrested in another traffic stop by officers from several agencies. He had made a Facebook call to the owner of the truck he was driving, asking the man not to call the police, according to his arrest warrant. The truck owner didn't know Hartsell and hadn't given him permission to take the vehicle - they were connected through a mutual friend who helped police identify him. Hartsell was booked into Oklahoma County Jail on counts of shooting with intent to kill and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. He remains there in lieu of $500,000 bail. His felony convictions stretch back to 2008. In 2013 he was sentenced to five years in prison after being convicted of larceny, possession of meth and entering premises with intent to steal copper. He was released from jail in August. Thousands of Britons have lost their holidays following the collapse of a leading cruise operator. All Leisure Holidays, which operated cruises under the Swan Hellenic and Voyages of Discovery brands, has ceased trading. There are 400 people currently overseas with the company and, in theory, they will be allowed to complete their holidays as normal. Another 13,000 people who have booked for the coming year have lost their holidays and will have to find alternatives. It is thought most of them will get their money back under protection schemes run by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the holiday trade body ABTA. Swan Hellenic called off a cruise on the 350-passenger ship Minerva, which was due to leave Marseille on Tuesday Concerns over the future of the company emerged after it cancelled New Year cruises at short notice, citing operational reasons. Swan Hellenic and Voyages of Discovery operated cruises on two ships the Minerva and the Voyager around the Mediterranean, North Africa, Scandinavia, the Far East and the Indian Ocean. The company is thought to have been hit by a drop-off in passengers, who have been put off by fears of terrorism. It has also faced higher costs in foreign ports and destinations following the fall in the value of the pound following the Brexit vote. Voyages of Discovery cancelled a Riches of the Orient cruise aboard the Voyager to Borneo, Cambodia, Thailand and Singapore two days before the New Year. Swan Hellenic then called off a cruise on the 350-passenger ship Minerva, which was due to leave Marseille on Tuesday for a 15-day Gateway to Atlantic Islands itinerary to Tenerife. HAVE YOU LOST OUT? If you have lost your holiday as a result of the collapse All Leisure Holidays, tell your story by emailing James Dunn on james.r.dunn@mailonline.co.uk or call 0203 615 1524 Advertisement The CAA said: Approximately 400 customers are currently overseas, but the vast majority of these will be able to use the scheduled airline tickets included as part of their booking to return to the UK shortly. The CAA has made arrangements to bring the small number of remaining passengers back to the UK at no extra cost. The CAAs Air Travel Organisers Licence (ATOL) scheme steps in when holiday firms offering flights go bust. Spokesman Andy Cohen said: The ATOL scheme exists for exactly this kind of situation and we are making immediate arrangements so all ATOL-protected customers can claim full refunds as quickly as possible. The cancelled 15-day Gateway to Atlantic Islands cruise was due to end Tenerife Anyone who booked a holiday that included a flight and cruise combination will get their money back from the scheme. Others who booked a cruise departing from a UK port should also get a refund from an ABTA scheme. Passengers departing from a foreign port without an associated flight may need to try to get a refund from their credit card company. According to the most recently published figures, covering the year up to October 2015, the companys cruise division lost 146 for each passenger it carried. Last February, chairman Roger Allard warned: Trading conditions are expected to remain very challenging, especially in the light of the escalating conflict in the Middle East and recent acts of terrorism. Another member of the All Leisure Holidays Group, Page and Moy Travel Group Holidays Ltd, which trades as Just You and Travelsphere, has also ceased trading. All of its bookings have been transferred to another firm called G Adventures (UK) Ltd. America will transfer four detainees from Guantanamo Bay to Saudi Arabia within the next 24 hours, in President Obama's final push to shrink the prison's population before Donald Trump steps up. Trump demanded Wednesday that the outgoing President stop the transfer of prisoners from the base to allied countries, saying the 'extremely dangerous people ... should not be allowed back onto the battlefield'. But this is the start of a proposed flurry of transfers that will see as many as 19 prisoners being sent to at least four countries, including Italy, Oman, Saudi and the United Arab Emirates. Shipping out: Four detainees are to be moved from the Guantanamo Bay prison to an ally country within 24 hours - the start of a push to remove as many as possible before Jan 20 Ignored: Donald Trump has blasted the plans, saying he wants the prison full of 'bad dudes'. But Barack Obama, who says the prison is a 'recruiting tool' for terrorists, is pushing ahead Of the 59 prisoners remaining at Guantanamo before the latest transfer, ten face charges in military commissions, including alleged plotters of the 9/11 attacks. And about two dozen have not been charged but have been deemed too dangerous to release. Two US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, were unable to provide the nationalities of the prisoners who were headed to Saudi Arabia. The Obama administration notified Congress of its intention to make the additional transfers from the military base, located in Cuba, last month. Those transfers make up the bulk of the 23 prisoners who have been declared, in parole-style hearings, to be safe for repatriation or resettlement in other countries. If the final transfers go according to plan, about 40 prisoners will remain at Guantanamo. Obama inherited 242 detainees there when he took office in 2009. On the out: If Obama's final push is completed, there will be just 40 prisoners remaining when he leaves office in 16 days. Intelligence agencies say the captives are safe to transport That means he will have failed to deliver on his 2008 election campaign pledge to close the controversial facility, which he called a 'recruiting tool' for terrorists. His efforts have been blocked by mostly Republican opposition in Congress, which has barred him from moving any prisoners to the US mainland. Foot-dragging by Pentagon officials has also been blamed for slowing transfers. And once Trump takes over on January 20, the chances of it being closed for good drop to nil for at least the next four years. The President-elect has vowed to keep the military prison open and 'load it up with some bad dudes.' On Tuesday he tweeted: 'There should be no further releases from Gitmo. These are extremely dangerous people and should not be allowed back onto the battlefield.' That remark came despite inter-agency reviews that deemed many of the prisoners eligible to leave. The White House dismissed Trump's objections and said transfers from Guantanamo would continue until Trump takes office. 'We expect that there will be more transfers,' said White House spokeswoman Emily Horne. 'We do not comment on the progress of individual detainee transfers until they are completed.' Last April, Saudi Arabia - one of the top US allies in the region - accepted nine Yemenis under a long-negotiated deal between Washington and the country's capital of Riyadh. The prison at Guantanamo Bay was opened by President George W Bush to hold terrorism suspects rounded up overseas following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Under Bush, the prison came to symbolize aggressive detention practices that opened the United States to accusations of torture. A member of the U.S. Army Honor Guard dramatically passed out and fell to the floor in front of Barack Obama during the president's farewell speech to the armed services. The guard member was pictured lying crumpled on the floor next to the feet his fellow service members in Arlington, Virginia on Wednesday. The guard is believed to have fainted as Obama addressed the armed services at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall where he was giving his final salute before he leaves office. It is not clear what happened to the guard. A member of the U.S. Army Honor Guard dramatically passed out and fell to the floor in front of Barack Obama during the president's farewell speech to the armed services on Wednesday The guard is believed to have fainted as Obama addressed the armed services at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall. It is not clear what happened to the guard Obama had earlier thanked the military personnel for their service and sacrifice. He said there is 'no greater privilege and no greater honor' than serving as commander in chief. 'As I reflect on the challenges we have faced together and on those to come, I believe that one of the greatest tasks before our armed forces is to retain the high confidence that the American people rightly place in you,' Obama said. 'We must never hesitate to act when necessary to defend our nation, but we must also never rush into war because sending you into harm's way should be a last and not first resort.' Obama also called for a smooth handover of control of the U.S. military to incoming commander in chief Donald Trump. 'We've got to make sure that during this transition period that there is a seamless passing of the baton, that there's continuity,' the outgoing president said. Obama participated in a troop review at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in Arlington, Virginia on Wednesday where he was giving his final salute before he leaves office US President Barack Obama inspects US troops during an Armed Forces Full Honor Farewell Review at Joint Base Myer-Henderson in Arlington, Virginia The president was also honored at a farewell ceremony at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, a short drive from the White House Obama said it was critical to ensure that 'we are doing everything we can to make sure that the next president will benefit from the same kinds of outstanding advice and service that these people around the table have provided me'. He was also honored at the ceremony with the Medal of Distinguished Public Service for his eight years service as commander in chief. His comments come amid concerns in military and diplomatic circles about how Trump may handle national security challenges. Over the last few days, Trump has disputed the U.S. intelligence community's assessments about Russian hacking, insisted without explanation that North Korea won't develop a nuclear weapon that could hit the U.S. and questioned the worth of the United Nations. Obama pointed to a handful of conflicts that Trump will inherit when he takes office, including the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria and in the Iraqi city of Mosul. He also noted that the conflict in Afghanistan 'is still active.' Obama also called for a smooth handover of control of the U.S. military to incoming commander in chief Donald Trump Prior to his remarks, Defense Secretary Ash Carter presented Obama with the Medal of Distinguished Public Service as a token of appreciation for his service as commander in chief Seung-Whan Choi, 52, filed the lawsuit last Tuesday with the U.S. District Court in Chicago claiming that he was prejudiced by the political science department after he was forced to teach Korean politics by the department but had no formal education in the field An international relations professor is suing the University of Illinois at Chicago alleging that he was racially discriminated against for being Korean. Seung-Whan Choi, 52, says he is being forced to teach a Korean politics class despite having no specialist knowledge of the subject and has also had to teach statistics because 'Asians' are good at math, according to legal papers. Choi filed the lawsuit last Tuesday with the U.S. District Court in Chicago claiming that he was discriminated against by the political science department after he was forced to teach Korean politics by the department despite having no formal education in the field. He said: 'Since I was raised in Korea, the department said I should know Korean politics very well. 'We are professors, we specialize in specific things. You don't ask someone to teach American politics because they are American. So me having to teach Korean politics because I am from Korea is actually ridiculous.' The professor also says that he was forced to teach statistics while none of his colleagues were made to do so, specifically because of his race. Choi claims he was told that 'Asians, especially Koreans, are very good at mathematics and statistics', the suit asserts. The Korean-born U.S. citizen, who has taught at UIC since 2004, was fired in 2011. He was reinstated later that year after he reached a settlement guaranteeing his tenure. Choi says he had been instructed to teach Politics in Japan and Korea by the department but had no experience with either subject. He claimed that the only thing he knew about Japanese and Korean politics came from what he had read in newspapers and had to teach himself about the latter through textbooks he read on campus. He said: 'We are professors, we specialize in specific things. You don't ask someone to teach American politics because they are American. So me having to teach Korean politics because I am from Korea is actually ridiculous' He said: 'That year when we got to prepare for the course, I asked around to people who taught it and asked what would work. When the students would ask me what happened to Japanese portion I had to keep making excuses.' Choi claims he was denied pay raises comparable to 'unqualified' coworkers, promotion to full professorship and subject to constant harassment by his department heads. In the suit, the father-of-one claims that information about the university's paternity leave wasn't given to him and that his wife was rejected of being hired through the school's 'partner accommodation policy.' He claims: 'When a white woman asked for her husband, they hired him but not my wife.' In his lawsuit, Choi claims he was also denied pay raises comparable to 'unqualified' coworkers, promotion to full professorship and subject to constant harassment by department heads Choi, who received the 2012 Outstanding Reviewer Award from Political Research Quarterly, says in the case filing that he was wrongfully accused of lacking in academic contributions which had to be overturned by Chancellor Michael Amridis. In 2015, one of his superiors didn't inform Choi that he was changing a student's grade, the suit claims. When confronted about it, he allegedly said to Choi that 'as a foreigner, has to keep in mind who he is dealing with and what he is wishing for,' and that he 'knows that many Koreans are stubborn and do not understand American culture of compromise when dealing with their boss.' The professor told the Chicago Tribune: 'They don't like Korean-Americans. 'I'm supposed to be very submissive to the department head, who is white-American.' The professor told the Chicago Tribune : 'They don't like Korean-Americans. 'I'm supposed to be very submissive to the department head, who is white-American' Prior to this suit, Choi settled a case in 2011 against the university to be reinstated and receive his tenure. On three occasions, Choi was refused competitive counter-offers to outside jobs which is contrary to the college's policy. He says one of his superiors even went as far to inform the associate professor that he was not welcomed in the department and that he should leave. Choi commented that he 'absolutely' feels trapped by the university but hasn't taken any of the offers from the schools, all of which are back in Korea. 'I'm miserable and it is frustrating but what can I say up until this point because I don't get anything from the department. 'When they have special department meetings, they didn't bother to invite me. 'I am the only expert in international relations, but they don't include me in there. 'It is getting worse and worse.' Since filing the suit last Tuesday, Choi hasn't had contact with other members of the department because the semester doesn't start until Monday. The professor claims that he has suffered depression, severe anxiety, shameful embarrassment, reputation damage, and has been unable to receive proper dental treatment due to high blood pressure. He is seeking backpay, appropriate future earnings and reimbursements for income and fringe benefits with interest. He'll be teaching an international relations course and a Korean politics course. Women who try to double their chances of getting pregnant through IVF by using two embryos could actually cut their odds of having a baby by a quarter, a study has found. About half of women in Britain undergoing fertility treatment use more than one embryo, with the latest figures showing more than 26,000 did so in 2013. Many couples hope this will increase the probability of conception. But if one of these embryos is poor quality, experts have found, it can dramatically cut the odds of a woman falling pregnant. Using two embryos for IVF could cut the chance of having a baby by a quarter, researchers have found This is thought to be because the womb will focus on and reject the poor quality embryo, potentially along with any others. Transferring two embryos where one was good quality and one was poor resulted in a 27 per cent lower chance of achieving a pregnancy, a study of almost 1,500 embryos found. Dr Nick Raine-Fenning, medical director and research lead at Nurture Fertility, which conducted the research, said: The current feeling is that a good embryo will be recognised by the body and will be captured for implantation. But a poor quality embryo should be rejected by your body. What our research suggests is that if you put a poorer quality embryo back with a good one, its more likely to compromise the chance of the good one implanting. The embryo transfers studied were carried out between June 2009 and December 2013 at the Nurture Fertility clinic in Nottingham. About half of women in Britain undergoing fertility treatment use more than one embryo Transferring two embryos of good quality was also no better than one for achieving a pregnancy. Women who opt to have two embryos placed inside them following fertility treatment are more likely to have twins or other multiple births, which are more likely to be born prematurely. But clinics can recommend the procedure for women over the age of 35 or who have been previously unsuccessful in IVF cycles. It has led regulator the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority to campaign to persuade women of the benefits of having embryos transferred one at a time during IVF. Many couples hope that using multuple embryos will increase the probability of conception Dr Raine-Fenning said: Most patients understandably expect adding a second embryo will increase or even double their chances but this has never been the case. He added: This research shows the importance of quality over quantity. We hope it will help clinics further reduce the number of multiple births, while crucially keeping their success rates high. The only exception to the rule appears to be if a woman has two poorer quality embryos, where they were still found to have a higher chance of falling pregnant than if just one embryo was put back. The HFEA states that multiple births, including twins, are six times more likely to be born prematurely than single babies. Long-term health problems of prematurity include difficulty breathing, cerebral palsy and other physical and learning difficulties. Tui drowned on Maroubra beach after he was swept away by a strong current and found dead last Friday 'I never knew you could run out of tears,' she said at Rookwood Cemetery in Lidcombe, in Sydney's west Through her tears, his mother Sandra Tamano told a hundred mourners of her grief at his funeral service on Thursday after drowning at a Sydney beach on December 27 Tuipulotu 'Tui' Gallaher, 14, was laid to rest in Advertisement The mother of drowned teenage boy Tuipulotu 'Tui' Gallaher told a packed memorial service for her son she 'never knew you could run out of tears' until her 14-year-old's tragic death two days after Christmas. Dozens of relatives, school mates, friends and colleagues of Tui's parents joined more than a hundred people attending the funeral service at Rookwood Cemetery in Lidcombe, in Sydney's west. 'On behalf of my son he would have said stop crying mum, everyone's looking at you!' Sandra Tamano said - to laughter in the crowd. Scroll down for video Mourners gathered to farewell drowned teenage boy Tuipulotu 'Tui' Gallaher, 14, at Rookwood Cemetery in Lidcombe, in Sydney's west Tui drowned at Maroubra Beach on December 27, one of 18 people to drown over the Christmas period Ms Tamano wept as she told mourners: 'You never know you can run out tears until you lose your heart. 'It's such a cruel time.' She said her son did 'everything for me everything for his nanna. I'm going to be lost without him'. 'It's not goodbye. It's good night.' His mother Sandra Tamano (R) told a packed memorial service for her son she 'never knew you could run out of tears' until her son's tragic death two days after Christmas Ms Tamano (R) at the burial ceremony for her son Tui Friends and family assemble at the grave-site after Tui is laid to rest Ms Tamano is comforted by family as she stands at the grave of her son Friends and family take photos of each other standing at Tui's grave to remember him Family and friends watch as Tui's body arrives in a hearse before the funeral service begins on Thursday Tui's coffin is taken out of the hearse towards his gravesite amid pouring rain Friends wearing school uniform hold gardenias to place on Tui's grave as his coffin is brought to the gravesite After the funeral service mourners stood at the grave-site as his coffin was laid to rest His father Soane Galleher and school friends were among those to pay tribute to the boy and mourners wore black T-shirts bearing the words 'Tears for Tui' Dozens of relatives, school mates, friends and colleagues of Tui's parents joined more than a hundred people attending the funeral service A mourner holds a photo of Tui as pallbearers prepare to take the coffin from the hearse A mourner wears a black tribute T-shirt to Tui, standing by the hearse after the body was taken away Mourners make their way into a tent at the cemetery for the funeral service His father Soane Gallaher, sister, aunty and school friends were among those to pay tribute to the boy. Mr Gallaher said: 'This is not a sad story. This is the beginning of the healing. Today is a happy day. Tui is in a good place.' Tim Booker, the minister of Guildford Anglican Church where the family attends, said Tui was famous for his 'beautiful gentleness', good looks and organisational skills. Mourners carrying bunches of flowers shelter from the pouring rain The order of service for Tui was packed with tributes to the 14-year-old boy It included a computer-drawn picture of Tui surrounded by fruit and Maori symbols Mourners set up a plastic tent to hold the funeral service as rain poured outside 'He was unique among teenage boys - (he was) organised. 'That's why I was quietly impressed this morning at 8.55 when everyone was here. This is not a Tongan funeral at all! 'Tui would have been impressed.' A mourner breaks down in tears at the sight of Tui's coffin as it is taken from the hearse Mourners wearing T-shirts honouring Tui comfort each other at the cemetery Mourners take their seats for the funeral service lead by his mother, who gave a tearful speech Friends as family wearing 'tears for Tui' T-shirts stand at the back of the funeral service Mourners sung hymns and wept throughout the service. A microphone was passed around so people could share memories of the boy. Tui drowned on December 27 at Maroubra Beach. His cousin was rescued from the ocean but Tui's body was found three days later. As his coffin was carried to a waiting hearse, it poured with rain. Ms Tomano collapsed during the desperate search to find her son who vanished at a popular Sydney beach (pictured) Police found Tui's body after it washed up on the beach last Friday, days after he went missing agree to 'hidden clauses' that allow images to be sold Social media giants were yesterday accused of bamboozling children into signing away their privacy. Youngsters desperate to get online agree to hidden clauses that allow pictures they share with friends to be bought and sold, said a major report. It named Instagram the photo messaging service hugely popular with teenagers as one site which confronts new users with densely-packed terms and conditions when they sign up, running to 17 pages. A report named Instagram the photo messaging service hugely popular with teenagers as one site which confronts new users with densely-packed terms and conditions when they sign up, running to 17 pages (stock image) The report by Childrens Commissioner for England Anne Longfield said these should be rewritten to make them clearer. It also accused social media firms of doing too little to help youngsters who are bullied online report it and get abusive messages or pictures taken down. The Growing Up Digital report said the explosion in childrens social media use means typical three to four-year-olds spend eight hours, 18 minutes a week online. And 12 to 15-year-olds use the net for at least 20 hours a week. Rules buried in social media sites terms and conditions allow youngsters pictures and messages to be bought and sold by the web giants, who can target them for advertising without their knowledge. Instagrams terms and conditions say users have to be at least 13. But of a group of teenagers asked to read them, not one fully understood what they were committing themselves to. The report recommended the site warn young users: We may keep, use and share your personal information with companies connected with Instagram. This information includes your name, email address, school, where you live, pictures, phone number, your likes and dislikes, where you go, who your friends are, how often you use Instagram. It comes amid concern over childrens growing addiction to sites such as Facebook and Twitter and the lack of control they have over the photos and messages they post. The report called for sweeping regulation of social media and compulsory online education from the age of four to ensure children are not overwhelmed. Produced by a group including a libel lawyer, a BBC childrens director, charity chiefs and a London School of Economics academic, the report called for more regulation to protect youngsters privacy. Instagrams terms and conditions say users have to be at least 13. But of a group of teenagers asked to read them, not one fully understood what they were committing themselves to (stock image) It added: Although much of the behaviour children complain about online bullying, sexting, harassment is illegal, a number of studies have found that children often do not know how to report concerns and, when they do, are dissatisfied with any action taken. The report said this was particularly troubling in online bullying cases where the record of abuse is public and permanent. Six out of 10 children who are bullied receive the abuse online, the report said. But of these, only 15 per cent reported it to the relevant social media site. Not prepared for life online The report said a digital ombudsman should be set up to mediate between such sites and young people over removing content. Miss Longfield said: Children spend half their leisure time online. The internet is an incredible force for good but it is wholly irresponsible to let them roam in a world for which they are ill-prepared, which is subject to limited regulation and which is controlled by a small number of powerful organisations. Childrens charities welcomed the report. A spokesman for the NSPCC said: We have long called for greater openness by internet companies about what they are doing to keep children safe and what action is taken to remove content when concerns are raised. Barnardos chief executive Javed Khan said: This report provides further worrying evidence of how children are unprepared to deal with life online. Instagram's terms and conditions state that users must be at least 13 years old to set up an account, and accounts suspected to belong to children under that age can be reported via the app's Help Centre - where information is also provided to help parents to teach their children about online safety. Michelle Napchan, Instagram's head of policy for Europe, the Middle East and Africa said: 'Instagram began as a mobile app, so we have always prioritised giving people easy to understand, clear information about our safety and privacy policies, which can be accessed right from their phones. 'We provide multiple ways for our community to find the information and resources they need. 'We recognise in many cases, when people need help, they want it when theyre using the app. That is why we go beyond our terms and guidelines to offer in-app safety and privacy help - from reporting, to industry-leading comment tools and self-help resources. Four teens have been arrested after sickening footage of a young man allegedly being held hostage, beaten and tortured was live-streamed on Facebook. Two men and two women, believed to all be aged 18, were taken into custody by Chicago police on Wednesday after authorities were made aware of the 30-minute social media video. It is believed the victim, a young man in his teens or early 20s, went to school with one of the suspects and has special needs. The footage shows the four black people allegedly holding the white man hostage in an apartment on the 3400 block of West Lexington on Chicago's West Side on Tuesday. It was originally posted on Facebook Live by Brittany Herring but has since been deleted from her social media page. Scroll down for video Police are questioning four people after footage of a young man (pictured) allegedly being tortured in Chicago was streamed live on Facebook for 30 minutes of Tuesday Chicago police say they have identified and arrested all four people involved in the video, but their names have not been released yet. Brittany Herring (bottom left) is the person who live streamed the first video The group is believed to have held the young man hostage for one to two days, and reportedly sent text messages to the victim's parents during this time - causing them to report him missing on Monday. In the first video, the victim was seen cowering in a corner with his arms tied and mouth taped shut. He was filmed being kicked and punched before he had his hair cut until his scalp bled. The victim also had his clothes cut and had cigarette ash flicked over the wound on his head. Someone can be heard in the footage yelling 'f*** Donald Trump. F*** white people' while the two men express their hopes that the video will go viral. Two more clips of the alleged abuse surfaced overnight as well, one of which shows the group forcing the man to drink water out of a toilet. 'It's sickening,' Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson said on Wednesday night. 'It makes you wonder what would make individuals treat somebody like that. I've been a cop for 28 years, and I've seen things that you shouldn't see in a lifetime, but it still amazes me how you still see things that you just shouldn't. 'I'm not going to say it shocked me, but it was sickening.' Police said the victim was treated and released from hospital into the care of his parents, who live in the suburb of Crystal Lake. The victim was seen cowering in a corner with his arms tied and mouth taped shut. He was filmed being kicked, punched and cut on his scalp with a knife - the knife is circled In another video that surfaced Wednedsay night, the torturers force the victim to drink water from a toilet Chicago Police said they are questioning the people shown in the footage after authorities were made aware of the 30-minute social media video on Wednesday Police are investigating the incident after they were made aware of the footage showing the young man allegedly being held hostage Four teens have been arrested after sickening footage of a young man allegedly being held hostage, beaten and tortured was live-streamed on Facebook Chicago Police Cmdr. Kevin Duffin said the victim was an acquaintance of one of the offenders and they had attended school together. 'Apparently, they met out in the suburbs. These subjects then stole a van out in the suburbs and then brought him into Chicago,' he said. 'It is quite possible that it is a kidnapping. (The victim) is traumatized by the incident and it is a little tough to communicate with him.' They then held him for 24 to 48 hours, before eventually letting him walk free. The victim was found walking distressed and disoriented on a street near the apartment by police on Tuesday night around 5:30pm. Police stopped the young man, partly because he was wearing shorts in the dead of winter. The young man then led them to the scene where the attack happened, and police discovered signs of struggle and damage to the property. The footage, which was streamed live on Facebook by Brittany Herring (left), appears to show four black people allegedly holding a young white man hostage Brittany Herring filmed the ordeal on her phone and posted it to Facebook Live It was originally posted on Facebook Live by Brittany Herring (pictured) but has since been deleted from her social media page After being made aware of the Facebook live-stream, they were able to use one of the suspects' phones to track the offenders down. Police arrested all four people shown in the footage and they remain in custody. Three of them are Chicago residents while the fourth is from Carpentersville. Police said it was too soon to make a determination if the attack was racially motivated. They added that the four offenders had not said anything that led them to believe the attack was politically motivated. Senator John McCain, a leading critic of Russia, says he'll support President-elect Donald Trump's pick for secretary of state when 'pigs fly.' The Republican lawmaker's disapproval of Rex Tillerson, who once received a friendship award from Vladimir Putin, makes the former Exxon Mobil chairman's confirmation even murkier. The GOP holds 52 seats in the U.S. Senate. They need a bare majority of 51 votes to approve the Trump's appointment. Senator John McCain, a leading critic of Russia, says he'll support President-elect Donald Trump's pick for secretary of state when 'pigs fly'. Republicans disapproval of Rex Tillerson makes his confirmation murkier than it already was Tillerson won over most of the Republican caucus during meetings at the U.S. Senate on Wednesday, but Democrats want more time to consider his record, especially his ties to Russia. Senator Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, described Tillerson as 'very much in the mainstream' of U.S. foreign policy thinking. Tillerson, Exxon Mobil's former chief executive, drove the company's expansion in Russia and opposed sanctions imposed over its annexation of Crimea. Many lawmakers, including Republicans, have expressed concerns about Tillerson's relationship with Moscow, given its differences with Washington not only over Ukraine but the civil war in Syria. Marco Rubio has said he has 'serious concerns' about Tillerson. He'll cast the deciding vote on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where Republicans hold 10 seats to Democrats' 9. Republicans can only afford a single defection in the full Senate, notwithstanding some Democratic support for Tillerson, or his his nomination won't be approved. Asked on Wednesday if he could support Tillerson, McCain, a leading U.S. critic of Russia, told reporters: 'Sure. There's also a realistic scenario that pigs fly,' the Houston Chronicle reported. Democrats want more time to consider his record, especially his ties to Russia. Senator Chris Coons, right, seen with Tillerson Wednesday, said next week may be too soon for the hearing Republican Lindsey Graham has said he'll vote for Tillerson if he acknowledges that Russia interfered in the presidential election and supports sanctions against the country for its bad actions. U.S. intelligence officials have concluded that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help the Republican, Trump. Trump says the intelligence is faulty and hacks on high-profile Democrats, including Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta, could have been carried out by anyone. 'Julian Assange said "a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta" - why was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info!' Trump said this week on Twitter. The president-elect was supposed to get an intelligence briefing early this week on sanctions that were put in place by the Obama administration but it was delayed until Friday, timing Trump said was suspicious. He suggested his briefers needed 'more time' to build a case. Corker, whose committee will conduct Tillerson's confirmation hearing, which is expected to start on Jan. 11, told reporters he was comfortable Tillerson would lead a robust U.S. policy toward Russia. Senator Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the foreign relations panel, said after his meeting with Tillerson he had not reached any conclusion on him. 'We're just at the beginning of the process,' Cardin told reporters after spending about an hour with the nominee. Tillerson did not speak to reporters. Senator Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the foreign relations panel that will cast the first vote, said after his meeting with Tillerson he had not reached any conclusion on him Republicans can only afford a single defection in the full Senate, notwithstanding some Democratic support for Tillerson, or his his nomination won't be approved. Lindsey Graham, left, has also said he may not vote for the Republican Graham wants Tillerson to admit Russia carried out hacks on Democrats. Trump says the intelligence is faulty Russia and Tillerson's view of sanctions are expected to be a focus of Tillerson's confirmation hearing, which could last for two days next week. Democrats have called for a delay before Tillerson's hearing, given the complexity of his financial records and ties to Exxon after spending decades at the oil giant. Cardin said it was too soon to discuss Tillerson's agreement, announced late on Tuesday, to sever all ties to Exxon Mobil to comply with conflict-of-interest requirements. Senator Chris Coons, another Democrat on the foreign relations panel, said next week may be too soon for the hearing, given Republicans' plans to vote at the same time to repeal Democratic President Barack Obama's healthcare law. 'It strikes me as trying to get too many things done at the same time,' he said. Coons said he was 'generally encouraged' by some of Tillerson's answers during their 1-1/2-hour meeting but had not decided whether to support his nomination. The Senate Judiciary Committee has also scheduled a hearing for Jeff Sessions for attorney general next week and the Senate Intelligence Committee will hear from Trump's choice for CIA Director, Mike Pompeo. Under pressure: PinkNews CEO Ben Cohen Back in January 2014, Jonathan Heawood, a would-be Labour politician and stepson-in-law of bien pensant columnist and commentator Polly Toynbee, sat down to compose an ingratiating email. It was a message which would set in train a campaign that would end, as 2016 drew to a close, in accusations of scare tactics and a humiliating apology. 'Dear Ben,' he began. 'As you may have heard, I have recently set up The Impress Project to develop plans for a Leveson-compliant Press regulator. I have a long background in free speech . . . Perhaps we could discuss this? Very best, Jonathan.' The 'Ben' in question was Benjamin Cohen, the youthful founder and CEO of PinkNews, now the most popular gay and transgender news website in the English-speaking world, with seven million readers across the globe. There is no doubt that Mr Cohen's website presented a potential 'trophy' acquisition for Mr Heawood's putative regulator. No doubt the latter also hoped PinkNews would be only one of many publishers to submit to policing by Impress, whether by persuasion or by more forceful tactics. The latter was to backfire horribly, as we shall see. Impress was born of a controversial political compromise following the recommendations of the 2011 Leveson Inquiry into the Press. Late one night in early 2013, officers of the anti-Press pressure group Hacked Off met frontbench MPs to thrash out a new system of Press regulation. It was to be underpinned by a Royal Charter, written by politicians and rubber-stamped by the Privy Council. Motor-racing tycoon Max Mosley, pictured, has been on a mission to 'reform' the Press since the now-defunct News of the World revealed how he had organised a sadomasochistic orgy A quango called the Press Recognition Panel (PRP) was to be created to assess and approve new regulators under the scheme. Those news organisations that did not sign up to the scrutiny of a PRP-approved regulator faced a number of punitive and potentially catastrophic measures. Crucially, exemplary libel damages could be awarded against them. And under Section 40 of a new Crime and Courts Act currently under consultation a publisher that had not signed up to an official regulator would also be obliged to pay a plaintiff's legal costs in a libel action, even if that publisher won the case. The newspaper industry felt that far from protecting 'free speech', the Royal Charter arrangement would, in fact, cast the chill shadow of State interference over the Press. Publishers could be forced into bankruptcy if they did not kow-tow. The industry subsequently set up its own self-regulatory body, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), which as a point of principle refuses to sign up to the politicians' Royal Charter. Mr Heawood was unabashed and in many respects his venture appeared to have gone from strength to strength. Impress was backed by supporters of Hacked Off and many others on the Left, including Polly Toynbee, who beat the drum from the pages of the Guardian newspaper. Financial support 3.8 million came almost entirely from the motor-racing tycoon Max Mosley. The son of former fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley, he has been on a mission to 'reform' the Press since the now-defunct News of the World revealed how he had organised a sadomasochistic orgy. In October last year, the PRP announced that it would approve Impress as Britain's first State-sanctioned Press regulator. This recognition would potentially trigger the punitive measures against publishers that had not signed up to the body. Mr Cohen said the lobbying process was begun almost three years ago by Hacked Off founder and former Lib Dem MP Evan Harris, pictured However, there was one problem. Of Britain's thousands of publishers, only a handful of tiny local news websites have joined Impress. Most newspapers, including the Daily Mail, are instead members of the independent regulator IPSO, which is free of State control and funded by its members the model suggested by the Leveson Report. Indeed, a YouGov poll this week found that 49 per cent of the public agree that a Press regulator should be funded by the industry, while only 4 per cent believe it should be funded by a wealthy individual or trust, as is the case with Impress. As a result, Impress is a regulator with nothing much to regulate. This absurdity was laid bare by another email Mr Heawood sent a few weeks ago to Mr Cohen of PinkNews. After almost three years of fruitless and increasingly desperate entreaties for PinkNews to sign up to his organisation, Mr Heawood had offered Mr Cohen an apology for 'any distress' Impress had caused the publisher. He said he was 'extremely sorry'. For his part, Mr Cohen has accused Impress of using 'scare' tactics and 'scammy' cold-call techniques which were unbecoming of a State-approved Press regulator. But there is a more troubling aspect. The story behind Impress's humiliating apology to PinkNews lays bare once again how a section of the liberal Establishment has acted in concert to try to shackle or quieten the British Press, particularly the popular sector of the market. It also seems to suggest that Hacked Off, Mr Mosley's Impress and the supposedly independent PRP have acted in concert to steer small publishers into State-approved regulation. Benjamin Cohen, CEO and founder of PinkNews, with former Labour leader Ed Miliband Millions of pounds of public money have been spent on the Government's system of regulation, which has been condemned by news and free speech organisations worldwide. This investment has also created a pernicious vested interest in making Impress succeed or at least seem to do so. As mainstream publishers weren't interested in signing up to Impress, its backers increasingly focused on garnering niche organisations, among which PinkNews was a comparative giant, with considerable clout in Westminster. PinkNews had been lobbied hard to sign up with Impress by Labour MPs including a former Cabinet minister, and senior figures at Hacked Off. More disturbingly, Mr Cohen told the Mail he also felt he had been 'steered' towards considering Impress by Dr David Wolfe, head of the Press Recognition Panel the very same 'independent' quango which was to assess Impress's credentials and decide if it should be officially approved as a regulator. Dr Wolfe's PRP has a problem: 3 million of public money has been committed to it, but this year that funding runs out and its future income is supposed to come from the regulators it approves. Without Impress, there would be no regulators and no income for the PRP. Mr Cohen said the lobbying process was begun almost three years ago by Hacked Off founder and former Lib Dem MP Evan Harris, who told him he should meet Jonathan Heawood. It seemed like a scammy spam email, not one a regulator should be sending out. It was touting for business Ben Cohen Mr Cohen said that last September, Hacked Off asked PinkNews to run an article attacking the rival independent Press regulator IPSO for the way it had handled a complaint by a transgender politician. Mr Cohen believes the initiative came from Mr Harris. The article did not appear and Mr Cohen never met Mr Heawood. But others, such as the former Labour minister (whom Mr Cohen declines to name), have encouraged him to sign up to Mr Heawood's organisation. Yet there was no point in doing so if Impress did not pass muster with the Press Recognition Panel. A year ago the panel asked Mr Cohen for a meeting, which took place last January. Chairman Dr Wolfe and another panel official visited the PinkNews office. 'From memory, they asked if we were joining a regulator,' says Mr Cohen. 'Then they asked me, if Impress was recognised, would we join it?' Mr Cohen felt there was a conflict of interest. 'The Press Recognition Panel only exists if publishers join one of the regulators it has approved. At the moment there is only one such regulator and that is Impress. Some might wonder if [the PRP visit] was a pre-selling of Impress. 'I asked David Wolfe what would be the point of the PRP if he didn't approve Impress? [In the course of the meeting] he even asked me if we would be interested in starting our own regulator, which I thought odd. We barely have the resources to do the job of running the website, let alone regulating others.' The PRP has told the Mail: 'Ben Cohen asked us to explain the options for publishers and their implications, which we did, as we do for anyone who asks. We certainly did not "steer" him in any way. Signing up to a recognised Press regulator is entirely voluntary.' Mr Cohen explained why PinkNews has yet to sign up to a regulator. 'We have a lot of vexatious complaints from people who don't like our content, often because they are homophobic,' he said. 'They have an issue with the fact that gay people have a place in society and are protected by law. We are the voice of that community. 'In the case of this potential Section 40 regulation, if these people were to bring a case against us and we won, we would still have to pay their costs a ridiculous situation. 'The reason we don't want to go down the official regulation route is that it would give an avenue and encouragement for those kind of people to waste our time and money.' But Impress wouldn't leave PinkNews alone. 'Starting in September, this same person at Impress kept cold-calling our news desk, saying he needed to speak to me about how we are going to be regulated,' said Mr Cohen. 'I never phoned them back because it wasn't clear if it was genuine or some scam. I get calls like that every day from firms trying to sell me their services. It's not how I would expect to be sold something so complex and important as Press regulation. 'Then Impress found out my email address and began sending what I would describe as "scare" emails. They were trying to frighten me into signing up by citing the threat of exemplary damages and legal costs if we didn't.' The Mail has seen an email sent last autumn to Mr Cohen by Impress 'administrator' Alex Law. It read: 'Impress is the only regulator recognised by the Press Recognition Panel in the UK, meaning that we are uniquely placed to provide protection against exemplary damages awards, and also from the re-arrangement of legal cost provisions should the Government choose to commence Section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act.' 'It seemed like a scammy spam email, not one a regulator should be sending out,' Mr Cohen said. 'It was touting for business.' He added: 'I do not think publishers should be regulated by a State regulator on the basis of sales patter and threats of exemplary damages and punitive legal costs.' After Mr Cohen had tweeted his disapproval of these approaches, Mr Heawood emailed his apology. The PinkNews CEO emailed him in reply: 'I don't like the scare/sales technique. I also have my own concerns about the true independence of an organisation which has been funded directly or indirectly by someone with their own disputes against the media.' Mr Cohen told the Mail: 'I know why Impress is doing this. They need to have someone decent signed up for it. It is vital for their credibility to get a bigger name to sign up, but I'm not interested. 'We are a useful trophy to have, particularly if you were to look back over Press mistakes in the past about coverage of and attitudes towards the LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender] community. 'While it is still just regulating micro-bloggers, it makes no sense for us to join Impress. But they are clearly bloody desperate for us to do so.' The website has cross-party support and 'punches above its weight' at Westminster, he says. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was a speaker at the 2016 PinkNews awards. At the same event, former Prime Minister David Cameron was presented with 'ally of the year' for his support for same-sex marriage and 'advocating other LGBT issues'. Theresa May recorded a video message of support. Meanwhile, Impress, which despite the millions of pounds spent has not yet recorded investigating a single complaint against its motley collection of members, must content itself with regulating the likes of the North East Weekly (3,000 free copies distributed per week) and the South Molton News, which sells about 1,500 copies a month. But how many of these minnows will prosper in their brave new world of State-backed regulation? One of Impress's early adopters, the tiny Port Talbot Magnet, recently announced that it was having to close its print edition. 'The economic pressures on all businesses in Port Talbot ... have made it impossible to support our valued local news service through advertising alone,' the editor said in a statement. 'Without a hard copy newspaper, we don't see any other way of bringing in enough money to enable us to pay journalists to work on local news for our town. 'We have not actively pursued any local news stories since September, and therefore it would have been inappropriate to continue with our Impress application.' Port Talbot's loss. And a loss to local democracy, which was monitored by such outlets. Yet these struggles have long been the reality of the traditional UK news industry an industry against which Messrs Mosley, Heawood and Harris have conspired, to threaten a fast track to State-backed control or financial annihilation. Act NOW if you want to help defend the right to read a website like MailOnline Imagine someone throws a brick through your window. The case goes to court and the brick-thrower is convicted. But you are told you must pay for your window - and his brick. An unbelievable injustice? Yes - but that's just what Britain's newspapers and news websites face. 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. 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. 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. An outraged Tesco shopper demanded that people wearing pyjamas be banned from the shop after they snapped two women browsing groceries in their dressing gowns. Chris Cooke branded the shoppers 'bloody disgusting' when he posted the picture of the women swanning down an aisle in the chain's Salford store in pink nightwear and slippers on Facebook. However, others did not share Mr Cooke's feelings and shamed him for 'taking photos of strangers minding their own business'. 24 hours: A Tesco shopper was outraged when they snapped two women (pictured) in pyjamas and slippers carrying a basket through the shop at around 7pm Public outrage: Chris Cooke took to the Tesco Facebook page to say that the retail giant should bring in an official policy not to serve people who are inappropriately dressed Backlash: Many people could not see a problem and said a customer's attire was their own business. Joel Brackenbury called for Mr Cooke, who posted the image, to be banned When he posted the picture on Tesco's Facebook page he said he had seen people shopping in the Greater Manchester store in their pyjamas on a regular basis and added that the retail giant should bring in a policy not to serve people who were inappropriately dressed. Mr Cooke wrote: 'Dear Tesco, please can you put a rule in place that people like this will not be served in your stores. It's bloody disgusting. 'This was at 7pm last night at your Tesco Salford store and I have seen other people dressed similar on a regular basis. 'I mean who doesn't have the time to get changed into clothes to go shopping?' A Tesco spokeswoman quickly replied and revealed that the company had received a number of complaints about under-dressed customers making people feel 'uncomfortable'. The Tesco reply read: 'Many of our customers have told us that they feel uncomfortable when they see other shoppers wearing unsuitable clothing in our stores and we do try to find a balance that everyone is happy with. Ridicule: Various people made fun of the post, finding it hilarious that Mr Cooke was suggesting Tesco impose some kind of 'dress code' Support: A Tesco spokeswoman quickly replied and revealed that the company had received a number of complaints about under-dressed customers 'Although we don't have a formal dress code in our stores, we rely on our management team to use their discretion and common sense.' Tesco did ban pyjamas in a superstore in Cardiff in 2010 after customers complained that people shopping in nightwear made them feel uncomfortable. Signs were put up in the window headed Tesco Dress Code Police, asking customers to be appropriately dressed when visiting the store. It added: footwear must be worn at all times and no nightwear is permitted. A minority did agree with Mr Cooke and branded the women 'bone idle'. Unpopular: Most continued to mock Mr Cooke's request, with one person pointing out that banning women going to the shops in their PJs would 'not go down well round here' Judgemental: Many people could not see a problem and said a customer's attire was their own business, suggesting that a ban on pyjamas would be impossible Unworkable: One woman, who admitted she has been to Tesco in her onesie before, asked: 'How will you ban them?' 'It's clothing ain't it?: A commenter said that the women were wearing clothes and were therefore not 'lazy,' as Mr Cooke had suggested Clandestine: Another customer said that the real issue was 'snapping pictures without someone's consent'. They added: 'It's pathetic. It's like me complaining about people going out in flip flops with chipped polish on their toes SUPERSTORE BANNED PAJAMAS IN 2010 Tesco did ban pyjamas in a superstore in Cardiff in 2010 after customers complained that people shopping in nightwear made them feel uncomfortable. Signs were put up in the window of the store in St Mellons, headed Tesco Dress Code Police, asking customers to be appropriately dressed when visiting the store. It added: footwear must be worn at all times and no nightwear is permitted. The ban caused a backlash when a mother was escorted from the premises when she walked in with animal print pyjamas becoming the first victim of the ban. But the firm defended the dress code, saying: 'We're not a nightclub with a strict dress code, and jeans and trainers are of course more than welcome. We do, however, request that customers do not shop in their PJs or nightgowns. 'This is to avoid causing offence or embarrassment to others.' She added: 'This is in response to other customers. We would never dictate to people. 'But we have listened to customer feedback that it makes them uncomfortable and embarrassed.' Advertisement 'Get a grip': Yet more people lambaste Mr Cooke after the comment posted on the Tesco Facebook page gets national media coverage But, many people could not see a problem and said a customer's attire was their own business. Joel Brackenbury wrote: 'Dear Tesco, can you please put a rule in place that people like Mr Cooke will not be served in your stores. 'I for one find it uncomfortable to have to shop alongside people who spend their time taking photographs of strangers minding their own business rather than ignoring things that do not affect them in any way.' Another customer added: 'It's pathetic. It's like me complaining about people going out in flip flops with chipped polish on their toes. More than 50,000 Britons have signed a petition calling for the last surviving British member of the Dambusters to receive a knighthood. George Johnny Johnson, who took part in the daring 1943 air raid, was left off the New Years Honours list despite being nominated. Instead, political cronies, donors and Whitehall mandarins on huge pay packets were rewarded. A campaign to reward the 95-year-old RAF hero is now gathering momentum and a petition spearheaded by Carol Vordermen had last night reached 50,382. Last survivor: George 'Johnny' Johnson (pictured) was only 22 when he took part in the World War Two experimental bouncing bomb raid on German dams Colonel Richard Kemp, who commanded British forces in Afghanistan, called for a review of the honours system and said knighting the former squadron leader would act as a reminder to the RAFs sacrifice. He said: There needs to be a re-examination of the system and where priorities lie. Nicky Barr, director of the international bomber command centre in Lincolnshire, said: We have people who have contributed very little to us a nation receiving an honour but someone who put his life on the line has not been recognised. Johnny Johnson is pictured on the far left of this picture along with some of the other Dambusters. They are (left to right): Donald McClean, Dave Batson, Joe McCarthy, Bill Radcliffe and Len Eaton. He is the only survivor Tory MP Alan Mak added: As we mark the 75th anniversary of the Dams Raid next year, war heroes like Johnny Johnson should certainly be honoured and I hope the honours committee will bear in mind the tremendous service he and his comrades gave to Britain. The raid was the basis of a hit 1955 film, starring Richard Todd and Michael Redgrave There were other calls for him to be given other forms of recognition, such as an MBE. Mr Johnson, from Bristol, is the last surviving British veteran of the famous RAF 617 Squadron. He was 22 when he took part in the World War Two experimental bouncing bomb raid on German dams. Since he retired as a squadron leader, he has worked tirelessly for charities. Miss Vorderman said: I cant think of anyone who deserves a knighthood more than Johnny. A 21-year-old man has been charged after he allegedly torched a gaming room, forcing other patrons to evacuate the hotel. Blake Jones accused of setting fire at the Royal Hotel has been denied bail in the Southport Magistrates Court on Thursday. All 40 poker machines at the Beenleigh licensed premises in south-east of Queensland, were destroyed from exposure to chemicals. Police alleged the man doused the machines in petrol before he lit them on fire on Wednesday night. A young man has been charged after he allegedly torched a gaming room at the Royal Hotel The Beenleigh man allegedly left the hotel earlier in the night, before returning at about 8.40pm with petrol. Police said three machines were completely destroyed after being doused in petrol, while another 37 are unable to be repaired. Police also claimed in court on Thursday the building was likely to catch fire because of where the pokies were situated. He was denied bail after the prosecution claimed the Beenleigh man had twice made threats to harm himself and others last month. All 40 pokie machines at the Royal Hotel (pictured) in Beenleigh, south-east of Queensland, were damaged beyond repair from exposure to chemicals on Wednesday night Magistrate Gary Finger said the man should be held in custody for 'his own safety'. 'In regard to your history of threats harm yourself and your actions today, you will be remanded in custody,' Mr Finger said. Jones will reappear at Beenleigh Magistrates Court next Thursday. India yesterday boasted it is to launch a record-breaking space mission as Britain continues to pour millions of pounds of aid money into the country. The nation has also revealed ambitious plans to explore Jupiter and Venus. A rocket carrying 103 satellites will blast off next month from southern India putting the nation at the forefront of the space race. A rocket carrying 103 satellites will blast off next month from southern India putting the nation at the forefront of the space race (stock image) Many of the record-breaking number of satellites on the rocket belong to other countries and India will earn lucrative fees for putting them into orbit Many of the record-breaking number of satellites on the rocket belong to other countries and India will earn lucrative fees for putting them into orbit. However, more than 185million from Britains controversial overseas aid budget was lavished on India in 2015. And, despite a pledge to stop handing money to the worlds fastest-growing economy, some 70million from the UKs bloated foreign aid budget continued to flow to it through other channels. This includes money to pay for assisting India on how to use its own cash. The rocket will blast off from the southern spaceport of Sriharikota carrying three Indian satellites and 100 from countries including the US, France and Germany. If the launch succeeds, India will become the country to launch the most satellites in one go, leaving behind Russia, which launched 39 in June 2014. Daily Mail campaign The 70million a year that continues to be handed to India out of Britains aid budget could pay for more than 18.4million hot meals for the elderly. Meals on Wheels, at the average cost of 3.80 each, are delivered to the most vulnerable pensioners, providing a lifeline to those who are housebound. Nearly half of councils 45 per cent have cut the scheme since 2010 due to Government funding restrictions. Some 63 out of 140 local authorities that replied to a Freedom of Information request about the service said they had scrapped it. Others increased the fees by an average of 20 per cent. Just a tenth of Britains generous 12billion annual aid budget could fund 315million meals on wheels for the elderly. Advertisement Indian Space Research Organisation associate director M Nageswara Rao said yesterday: We are looking at other planets that we can explore... two of them are Jupiter and Venus. Last night Tory MP Andrew Rosindell said: If India has the money to spend on rockets then one has to question whether it is sensible for us to continue handing them money. Tory MP Peter Bone added: I dont want to see any more money given to India, given their status in the world. Last June, India successfully launched a rocket carrying 20. In May, it launched its first mini space shuttle. Four years ago then-international development minister Andrew Mitchell announced the end of the main aid programme, saying: We are walking the last mile with them, we wont be there forever. But the Department for International Development, or DfID continues to fund projects that boost Indias economy. Last year the watchdog, the Independent Commission for Aid Impact, found countries which DfID had pledged to stop giving cash to were still receiving money through other means. A total of 30million was handed to India for assistance in how to use their own money to help alleviate poverty for 2016-17. A further 40million was earmarked for development capital investments, delivered in the form of loans or equity investments to Indian firms and financial institutions. A DfID spokesman said: No UK aid money is spent on helping developing countries to put people into space. As set out four years ago, we have now ended traditional financial aid to India and moved towards a more strategic relationship which focuses on sharing skills and expertise. Britain is one of just six countries which spends 0.7 per cent of its national income on foreign aid, it was confirmed last night. Six months have passed since the Brexit vote and the pro-European camp has finally found a hero in its anti-democratic and rather sour att-empts to stymie the wishes of the British people. He comes in the unlikely shape of Sir Ivan Rogers, who has resigned as our ambassador to Brussels delivering a parting shot at Theresa Mays team for its muddled thinking. Not surprisingly, this act of naked sabotage by a supposedly neutral civil servant has been the cause of a great deal of celebration among the metropolitan chattering classes who are struggling to come to terms with last Junes vote. Sir Ivan Rogers has resigned as our ambassador to Brussels They are saluting what they claim to have been a principled act by a man of integrity. In fact, it was nothing of the sort. Sir Ivans resignation is proof that he had failed at his job. It is not the role of a civil servant, however senior or self-important, to express opinions of his or her own. By convention and years of practice, civil servants are meant to be loyal to the Crown. Their job is to advise ministers, and then to carry out their instructions. If civil servants want to sound off with opinions, they are at liberty to quit their post and run for office, taking their chances with the voters. As far as Sir Ivan was concerned, his instructions could not have been clearer. This is because they were issued by the British people during the EU referendum. Unfortunately, Sir Ivan formerly a private secretary to European Commissioner Leon Brittan and to the equally Europhile Tory heavyweight Ken Clarke did not find them to his taste. Duplicity His justification for resigning is weak. And yesterday it became weaker thanks to an act of unscrupulous duplicity by one of his most senior supporters. Jonathan Powell, chief of staff at 10 Downing Street under Tony Blair, was wheeled onto Radio 4s Today programme and used the ambassadors resignation to launch a withering attack on Mrs Mays government. He claimed that ministers had broken the rule of an independent civil service in planning Brexit. He professed outrage that the May government was returning the civil service to what he called the jobbery of the 17th and 18th century by ending a special rule designed to ensure that civil servants were politically neutral. I found my jaw dropping as Mr Powell launched into his attack. Even by the famously low standards of Westminster, his hypocrisy was breathtaking. Jonathan Powell, chief of staff at 10 Downing Street under Tony Blair, used the ambassadors resignation to launch a withering attack on Mrs Mays government I was a junior political reporter in the early years of the Blair government. I can testify that it was disgracefully responsible for systematically setting about destroying the career of any civil servant who was not prepared to be unthinkingly loyal to New Labour and then replacing those who refused with trusted Labour cronies. Within two years of taking office, New Labour had got rid of all but two of Whitehalls 17 directors of communications an unprecedented attrition rate. It marginalised and humiliated Cabinet Secretary Sir Richard (now Lord) Wilson. It put trusted apparatchiks into key jobs and repeatedly refused to listen to those who offered independent and dispassionate advice. It found ambassadorships for cronies and ex-ministers. Shamefully, the Today programme failed to mention this background to listeners that the very same Jonathan Powell had been the most senior Blairite henchman at the time of this barbarous attack on civil service integrity. Interviewer John Humphrys simply explained that Powell knew more about how the system works than any other human being. Jonathan Powell, pictured far left, entered Downing Street with Tony Blair in 1997 The truth was rather more complex. Within days of winning power in 1997, Tony Blair bullied pliant civil servants into waving through special laws which gave Powell the power to give orders to top civil servants. It is no exaggeration to say that Powells relationship to civil service integrity could be compared to that of serial killer GP Harold Shipmans to medical ethics or gangster Al Capones to law and order. Powell said the May government was returning the civil service to what he called the jobbery of the 17th and 18th century From the moment he entered Downing Street with Blair in 1997 to the moment they left together ten years later, Powell worked ceaselessly to undermine and destroy it. His reach stretched so far that he was able to get away with making Blairs notorious fabricated report on Saddam Husseins supposed weapons of mass destruction even more convincing and therefore, in turn, to convince MPs to vote for Britain to go to war. Indeed, Powell was so deeply up to his neck in the falsehoods told by Blair and George Bush in the lead-up to the Iraq war that his wife, Sarah Helm, was able to write a critical inside account about it. Lord Chilcot went to see a stage version of her book when he was compiling his report into the war, and widened his inquiry as a result. Yet here was a man who had the gall yesterday to defend the independence of the civil service and have a sneering laugh at his fellow interviewee, pro-Brexit Tory Iain Duncan Smith. It takes the breath away. Partisan The brutal truth is that during the Blair Years, Powells conduct was scurrilously partisan and he constantly flouted codes of honesty and decency. Time and time again, he was caught up in the most putrid corruption scandals. Jonathan Powell arrives at the Iraq Inquiry on January 18, 2010 Lies about the threat posed by Saddam. The stench of the Hinduja passports scandal when Labour was said to have helped two billionaire Indian brothers obtain British passports after giving 1 million to the Millennium Dome leading to Peter Mandelsons resignation. The scandal over Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestones 1 million donation to Labour. Powell was always lurking, playing a key role. If anybody brought back to British public life the corruption and jobbery of the 17th and 18th century, it was Powell and his friends Blair, Mandelson and Alastair Campbell. Indeed, an illustrated map of power in Downing Street at the height of the Blair years, showed Powell at the apex. His No. 10 empire in a clear breach of the civil service ethics which Powell told the BBC yesterday he cared so much about stretched to include power over the prime ministers private secretary. And who occupied that position when Powell held most sway at No 10? None other than a rising young civil servant called Ivan Rogers. What a small world we live in! No wonder this unfortunate soul having since been ennobled in the 2016 New Years Honours list has now failed in his duty to carry out the wishes of the Government. I am convinced that Sir Ivan has such a flawed view of decent civil service conduct because he was schooled inside the Blair government which was a byword for political mendacity. Contempt In my book, The Triumph Of The Political Class, published towards the end of the Blair era, I revealed a telling story about Powells contempt for civil service ethics. At one point, No. 10 propagandist Alastair Campbell was caught out in a political intrigue, helping a Tory MP to defect to Labour. Technically, Campbell was a civil servant and therefore Whitehall officials complained that he was in contravention of civil service rules. Powell in a clear breach of his own position leapt to his buddy Campbells defence, saying: He works for the government and it is the governments job to increase its majority in the Commons. These remarks, once again, showed how hopelessly flawed the concept of the role of a civil servant had become. Sadly, that misconception continued after Blair left office. Powell was a 'man of power' in the Blair years, alongside his friends Peter Mandelson, left, and Alastair Campbell, right For his part, out of government, Powell took a new role as senior adviser to Tony Blair Associates, the vehicle through which the former PM channelled many of his money-earning interests. Then David Cameron appointed him special envoy to Libya, now a disaster zone. The fact is that since he went to work for Blair a quarter of a century ago, Powell has played the role of broker between very rich men, the corporate elite and the political class. Its served him well. Hes made a lot of money. Tragically, there are a lot of people like him in politics men who are none too scrupulous in their constant wish to manipulate events. But, normally, they dont insult the publics intelligence by hypocritically lecturing the nation about integrity. at a Keilor East business just after 7pm on December 15 A machete-wielding thief has apologised to his victims as he tried to rob a bottle shop in Melbourne. The would-be bandit who rushed into the store in Keilor last month said: 'I'm sorry, I broke up with my girlfriend. I had a really bad day.' Police are hunting for the man, believed to be in his 20s, and released security camera footage of him running down the street as he fled the scene. Scroll down for video A machete-wielding thief has apologised to his victims as he attempted to rob a bottle shop in Melbourne The man entered the store in Keilor East just after 7pm on December 15 armed with a machete. The shop attendant, Alan, told Nine News he was able to start a conversation with the offender. 'I told him he can take whatever from the draw, as much as he wants, but since he is walking out of the store, he may be charged and go to jail,' the storekeeper said. Alan said the thief then apologised by saying: 'I'm sorry. I broke up with my girlfriend. I had a really bad day. I had to do this.' The thief was caught on CCTV shoving the machete down his pants in an alley way behind a house before throwing his balaclava into someone's front yard. He was last seen running down Wingara Road wearing dark pants, dark shoes and a fluorescent orange top. Some of the worlds most corrupt countries are paying the Government millions to train their troops at Sandhurst. A total of 74 countries including some of the worst human rights abusers have paid the military academy more than 30million since 2007. Britains finest officers even trained up Colonel Gaddafis henchmen in return for 30,000 from the Libyan dictators repressive regime in 2008 and 2009. Some of the worlds most corrupt countries pay the Government to train their troops at Sandhurst Royal Military Academy (pictured) Lib Dem leader Tim Farron said: It is deeply concerning when the countries sending the most people to Sandhurst are some of the worst human rights abusers in the world' Last night campaigners questioned if Sandhurst was churning out better-trained human rights abusers who wear military uniforms. About half of the nations who have paid 30,263,000 in tuition fees to the institution over ten years are said to have appalling human rights records. Pakistan paid the UK more than 1million over the period to train up its young recruits despite reports its military was torturing people and holding them without charge. Saudi Arabia one of the worst countries for human rights violations paid 547,000 for its cadets to be trained for war. The Nigerian government handed out 603,000, while Bahrain, a country which has been subject to severe criticism over its human rights abuses, paid 2.2million. China has paid 675,000, and Sudan paid 101,000 for its soldiers to be trained. Sudanese government troops were last year said to have killed, raped and attacked civilians, including Western aid workers. Two of the worlds most corrupt countries, Yemen and Afghanistan, have also paid for training. Fees: These corrupt countries paid large amounts to get their troops training at Sandhurst Lib Dem leader Tim Farron said: It is deeply concerning when the countries sending the most people to Sandhurst are some of the worst human rights abusers in the world. These are armies accused of suppressing political opposition, mistreatment of civilians and worse. We even took the shilling of Gaddafi to train troops to bolster his repressive regime. Our Armed Forces are world class, and that reputation must not be damaged by a desperation for revenue. Amnesty Internationals UK arms control director, Oliver Sprague, said: Sandhurst is an international brand when it comes to military training, but there are longstanding concerns that it isnt doing its due diligence when it invites overseas militaries through its doors. Does Sandhurst have any kind of system for checking whether the people its training are already responsible for shooting peaceful protesters or torturing the people it captures? But it fails to mention pensions, which provide more generous tax relief than Isas Comes as a guide was published by the T Baroness Ros Altmann, who was pensions minister between 2015 and 2016, accused the Treasury of short-sighted thinking that could destroy pensions and threaten the futures of young people A former minister has warned pensions are in mortal danger after the Government did not include them in advice on ways to save. Baroness Ros Altmann, who was pensions minister between 2015 and 2016, accused the Treasury of short-sighted thinking that could destroy pensions and threaten the futures of young people. It came after a guide to saving was published by the Treasury which highlighted ways in which families can prepare for later life. It includes tips on helping save for your childrens future, buying a house, and putting money away for old age. The guide lists premium bonds and six types of ISA including the Governments new Lifetime Isa. However it fails at any stage to mention pensions, which provide more generous tax relief than Isas and are more efficient for saving. This is despite pensions being mentioned in a similar advice sheet it published at the same time last year. Instead as options the Government steers savers towards its flagship Lifetime Isa, which it launched at the budget last year. This allows anyone under the age of 40 from April next year to receive a 25per cent Government bonus on savings of up to 4,000. But sceptics suggested the so-called Lifetime Isa was masquerading as a pension, and could confuse workers who may opt out of a better deal with a workplace pension. At present, everyone saves into a pension from untaxed income because the Government pays tax relief at the 20 per cent, 40 per cent or 45 per cent income tax rates, at a cost of some 34billion a year. Pensioners then pay income tax on withdrawals in retirement. However, under an Isa people would have to save out of taxed income, and then trust the Government not to wallop them with tax again when they reach retirement. A new Treasury guide lists premium bonds and six types of ISA including the Governments new Lifetime Isa. However it fails at any stage to mention pensions, which provide more generous tax relief than Isas and are more efficient for saving But the Government is under pressure to cut the bill for pensions and omission from the savings advice has sparked fears they have been deliberately left out because the Government is planning to water them down. Baroness Altmann said: This shows UK private pensions are in mortal danger their huge benefits seem under threat. During my time as pensions minister, there was clearly a difference of view between Treasury and DWP about private pensions. The Treasury sees them as a cost to the Exchequer, whereas the DWP sees them as a benefit for people to give them a better later life standard of living. That is how most people see them and why they are so important. Anyone who cares about pensions should be very, very worried. Short-sighted Treasury policy thinking could destroy pensions, leaving huge problems for younger people and future Governments. She said the Treasury had totally ignored the huge advantages of pensions. Short-sighted Treasury policy thinking could destroy pensions, leaving huge problems for younger people and future Governments,' Baroness Ros Altmann said (stock image) Private pensions are far better than ISAs in terms of their behavioural design, she added. Using a pension, instead of a Lifetime ISA, should ensure you have more money in later life. The pension can pass on tax-free to your loved ones, or can keep growing as you get older and provide a fund to help pay for care if you need it as you get older. Future Governments will have to deal with the consequences of more poor pensioners, and greater strains will fall again on younger generations. A HM Treasury spokesman said: We back savers at every stage of their lives and it is our job to raise awareness of the savings products the public can access in the year ahead. Britain is paying 5 million to bring superfast broadband to a tiny Caribbean island, which has a population of just 4,900 - despite the fact that more than a million UK households are lagging behind. The Department for International Development has earmarked 4.94 million for the project, which will equip every property on Montserrat with superfast internet by 2018. The government is investing in broadband on the tiny volcanic island despite the fact that 1.4 million UK homes are unable to access broadband fast enough to meet a typical household's digital needs. The number represents approximately five per cent of British homes, with households in the countryside more likely to struggle to access decent broadband speeds. Montserrat had its internet supply cut off in a devastating volcanic eruption 19 years ago The DFID-funded project will see a new submarine Fibre Optic cable laid between Montserrat, which has an area of just 39 square miles, and neighbouring islands St Kitts and Antigua, The Sun reports. The British overseas territory, nicknamed the 'Emerald Isle of the Caribbean' had its internet supply cut off in a devastating volcanic eruption 19 years ago. Private sector internet providers are paying 50,955 towards the project, while the Government of Montserrat is stumping up 150,000 from its European Development Fund grant - but half of that has already been spent on consultancy fees. As many as 1.4 million UK homes do not have access to superfast broadband, with cables installed in cities and towns ahead of rural areas The Government claims that by funding the project it will boost Montserrat's 'economic growth and international investment and will, in the longer-term, reduce reliance on UK budgetary aid.' But Conservative MP David Morris said: 'it's concerning that when so many rural areas on the British mainland can't get online properly, so much cash is going overseas for broadband.' Former DFID minister Grant Shapps also criticised the project, saying: 'It will be far easier to maintain support for overseas aid if we can get our own infrastructure needs in order. 'Super speed broadband isn't just some nice to have extra, it's vital to British success outside of the EU and we need to get every British home and business connected and world beating speeds.' A DFID spokesman said: 'Following the devastating eruption in the UK overseas territory, we've met our legal obligations to Montserrat by investing in the vital infrastructure needed for the island to stand on its own two feet again.' More than 1billion of our foreign aid budget has been given away in cash over the past five years, it has been revealed (Pictured, people queuing for cash in Peshawar) The news comes just days after it was revealed that more than 1billion of our foreign aid budget has been given away in cash over the past five years. As much as 300million is being lavished on a scheme in Pakistan that has been dogged by claims of corruption. Around 235,000 families are pocketing payments every three months to boost their incomes, funded by UK taxpayers. Travel experts analysed millions of flight prices to find when its cheapest to book - and found the best deals to Europe are one or two months in advance whereas a trip to Dubai must be booked nine months ahead. Travel search engine Kayak.co.uk released data for the ten most popular European destinations for this year, plus the top ten international destinations. Its report found savings of up to 80 per cent can be made, depending when we book our trip and the time of year we visit places on our wishlist. Air fares to Mallorca in Spain (pictured) drop 75 per cent when booked two months before Tenerife (pictured) is 66 per cent cheaper when arranged one month in advance The findings also offer detailed insight into what days we should consider travelling on, and when we can get the best deals on hotels. Those heading to Europe on mid-haul flights should know the best prices are generally found between one and two months in advance as airlines try to fill empty seats. Flights to Faro in Portugal, for instance, were 80 per cent cheaper compared to prices at the worst time to book - and the best deals can be picked up a month beforehand by travelling on Mondays or Saturdays. Air fares to Mallorca drop 75 per cent when booked two months before, while Tenerife and Rome are 66 per cent and 61 per cent cheaper respectively when arranged one month in advance. Waiting isnt always the best way in Europe - as those jetting off to Reykjavik to see Icelands renowned scenery can save 61 per cent on flights five months ahead, typically shaving 69 off the normal price. For holidaymakers wanting to go further afield, an element of forward planning is required. Those hoping to land a cheap plane fare to Dubai can save 16 per cent booking flights nine months ahead - meaning those looking for a summer break have already missed out. Savings of 58 per cent can be made seven months before travelling to Auckland in New Zealand, and 22 per cent to Cancun in Mexico when looking at fares six months in advance. Yet America is bucking the trend, as figures in the report reveal its best to wait until virtually the last minute. New York and Orlando air fares drop dramatically a month in advance - where savings of 47 per cent and 38 per cent can be made respectively. Air fares to New York (pictured) drop dramatically a month in advance of travel Similar discounts can be found with other popular American destinations - as long as you book two months before flying to San Francisco, Las Vegas or Los Angeles. In general, flying on less popular midweek days between Tuesdays and Thursday can result in preferable air fares, according to the research. For instance, fares for a week-long trip to Mallorca from Tuesday to Tuesday can be up to 75 per cent cheaper than travelling on a shorter break flying Saturday to Wednesday. Shrewd Brits can also save fortunes booking hotels at the right time. Generally, accommodation is cheaper one to two months in advance where prices can be 60 per cent less in places like Venice in Italy. Its advised to book hotels in Benidorm, Dublin and Krakow two months before leaving, and just a month early for Amsterdam, Barcelona and Paris. However, stays in the resort of Maspalomas on the island of Gran Canaria are cheapest eight months beforehand - so its not always best to hold out in Europe. Meanwhile, the best rates on three or four star hotels in destinations like Cancun or Dubai are available six and nine months early respectively. The research shows that generally, those who are happy to leave their bookings until later can secure the best deals. Suzanne Perry, travel expert at Kayak.co.uk, The cheapest average return flight this year is to Europe is to the Spanish capital of Madrid (66), while the best value long-haul is to Marrakech in Morocco (93). Suzanne Perry, travel expert at Kayak.co.uk, said: Most of us will take any help we can get when it comes to sorting through all the options out there to find the best deal. At Kayak we are obsessed with using our tech know-how to give the best advice to our users. The research shows that generally, those who are happy to leave their bookings until later can secure the best deals. Especially on long haul, most Brits tend to plan their holidays well in advance for peace of mind, so if they still have empty seats left a couple of months beforehand, airlines will often begin reducing prices to make sure they get filled. But there are also some real anomalies with some destinations. People are continuing to swim at Melbourne beaches despite warnings they are unsafe and there is a high risk of contracting gastroenteritis from fecal bacteria in the water. On Thursday morning people were spotted swimming at Mentone Beach, Frankston Beach, St Kilda and Port Melbourne. The fecal bacteria was found at the popular beaches following huge storms in the state last week. People are swimming at Melbourne beaches despite warnings they're unsafe and there is a high risk of contracting gastroenteritis from fecal bacteria in the water. Pictured is Mentone Beach on Thursday morning Fecal bacteria has been found at beaches including Frankston (left) and Mentone (right) following huge storms in the state last week The Environment Protection Authority Victoria has forecast fair water quality at a dozen suburban beaches. These include St Kilda and South Melbourne, meaning they too may be unsuitable for swimming. 'It is basically because of that stormwater pulse that came through after the massive storm last week,' said EPA's group manager of applied sciences, Anthony Boxshall. 'It's just taking a lot longer to clear through the system.' The Environment Protection Authority Victoria has also forecast fair water quality at a dozen suburban beaches including St Kilda. Pictured are people swimming at St Kilda on Wednesday evening The EPA's Anthony Boxshall, said the bacteria was from the stormwater pulse that came through after the storm, and was taking longer than usual to clear. Pictured are swimmers at Port Phillip Beach (left) and Frankston Beach (right) Heavy rainfall predicted for Thursday afternoon could further contaminate the waters at Melbourne's beaches, before Saturday's forecast top of 36C. 'Rain is not the friend of beach water quality so rain will probably continue to bring poor water quality,' Dr Boxshall said. Heavy rainfall forecast for Thursday afternoon could further contaminate the waters at Melbourne's beaches, before Saturday's forecast top of 36 Celcius. Pictured are swimmers at St Kilda Beach Port Phillip Bay users can stay updated via the twice-daily forecasts posted on the EPA's Yarra and Bay website. A free SMS notification service is also available. Regardless of the water quality rating, Dr Boxshall advises beachgoers to always avoid swimming near stormwater drains and creek outlets. MELBOURNE WATER QUALITY FORECAST - THURSDAY MORNING Poor quality: Mentone, Port Melbourne and Frankston Fair quality: Werribee South, Sandridge, South Melbourne, St Kilda, Elwood, Brighton, Sandringham, Black Rock, Beaumaris, Aspendale, Carrum, Frankston Pier Good quality: 21 other beaches Advertisement Ministers have opened the way for parents to be banned from smacking their children for the first time in Britain. New powers are to be handed to Welsh leaders to introduce a law that would strip the longstanding legal defences from parents who use corporal punishment to discipline children. The move gives the green light for a smacking ban in Wales that would also affect millions of tourists and visitors from England and the rest of the world who work and take holidays in the Principality. It could provide a testing ground for anti-smacking laws that could follow in England and Scotland. Labour First Minister Carwyn Jones indicated last summer that he intends to outlaw physical punishment, and a consultation paper is likely this summer to be followed by legislation in the autumn. A new Welsh law would dismantle the defence of reasonable chastisement which has given parents the right to smack for more than 150 years. Welsh leaders are looking to strip legal defences from parents over smacking (stock photo) However the powers of the Welsh Assembly to bring in its own smacking ban have been in doubt, and a new devolution bill going through Parliament specifically reserves to Westminster the right to make law on parenting and parental responsibilities. Ministers have responded by slipping an unannounced amendment into the Wales Bill which would give the Assembly a power to legislate on parental discipline. The move follows decades of controversy over smacking, which has been condemned by vociferous lobby groups, by UN officials, and by the Childrens Commissioners for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Governments have shied away from outlawing corporal punishment. Tony Blair, under pressure for a ban, altered the law in 2004 so that parents can be taken to court if their smacking inflicts any kind of injury, physical or mental on a child. But there have no prosecutions under the new law. Welsh Assembly childrens spokesman Carl Sergeant said last year that a new law would follow consultation with parents and stakeholders and said the new law would not criminalise parents. In practice removing the right of reasonable chastisement, first set out by the courts in 1860, a parent who smacked their child would be vulnerable to charges of common assault, an offence that can bring a six month jail sentence. Critics said yesterday that the ban would threaten parents who try to do the best for their children and pave the way for contentious, expensive and time-wasting prosecutions. Norman Wells of the Family Education Trust said: The Westminster government has been clear that it is opposed to criminalising parents who use a mild smack to discipline their children. It therefore seems anomalous for ministers to go out of their way to give the Welsh Assembly the power to do that very thing. It is parents, and not national governments, who bear the responsibility for caring for their children, nurturing them, and correcting them where necessary. Generations of parents have proved the benefit of the occasional moderate smack to correct their childrens behaviour, and research continues to show its positive effects when used in the context of a loving home where children are respected and cherished. Tony Blair altered the law in 2004 so that parents can be taken to court if their smacking inflicts any kind of injury, physical or mental on a child Jill Kirby, an author and researcher on the family who is a former head of the Centre for Policy Studies think tank, said: The politicians in Wales think they know better than parents how to exercise discipline on their children. There are situations where parents will decide it is necessary and in the interests of their children to use corporal punishment. A law against smacking conflates mild punishment with violent assault. In reality there is no connection or similarity between a smack by a loving parent and violent abuse. Whatever the politicians say a smacking ban will criminalise parents. A spokesman for the Wales Office said: 'The Wales Bill that was published last year gives the Welsh Assembly the powers to enforce its own legislation. The amendment tabled for debate next week simply clarifies the power when it comes to parental discipline. It is up to the Welsh Assembly whether it chooses to change the law.' The rule of reasonable chastisement was set down by Lord Chief Justice Cockburn in 1860 in a case in which a school principal was convicted of manslaughter for beating a boy to death. The judge said a parent may for the purpose of correcting what is evil in the child, inflict moderate and reasonable corporal punishment. The principle was made into statute in 1933 by the Children and Young Persons Act. Centrelink is referring people to Lifeline after hundreds of Australians claimed they are being hounded by debt collectors for money they do not owe. The government agency is currently under fire after sending out tens of thousands of debt recovery notices, with many of the recipients saying they have been wrongly targeted. Centrelink are now replying to social media users on Twitter by advising them to call Lifeline for people who require immediate support. Centrelink are referring people to Lifeline after hundreds of Australians claimed they are being hounded by debt collectors for money they do not owe One man who tweeted his concerns to the welfare agency said he was told he was $4000 in debt and not allowed to leave the country until it was resolved One man who tweeted his concerns to the welfare agency said he was told he was $4000 in debt, and was not allowed to leave the country until it was paid. A woman affected by the controversy revealed Centrelink was seeking to recover $700 from her. When she rang the centre to try and sort the discrepancy, it was closed. Meanwhile, welfare recipients and their allies are tweeting criticism of the system under the hashtag #notmydebt. 'What sort of government terrifies its poorest people then tells them to ring Lifeline? Centrelink debacle must stop. PM should intervene now', Greens MP Christine Milne posted to Twitter. The welfare agency has advised people who are struggling to cope with the situation contact the crisis hotline (above) Centrelink has been slammed by Greens MP Christine Milne over the 'debacle' 'Hey Centrelink. People may not actually NEED lifeline if y'all stopped harassing them for fictitious debts????! Just an idea,' another social media user suggested. The latest revelations come after Independant MP Andrew Wilkie said he had spoken to a number of welfare recipients who he believed were suicidal, after being told they owed the government huge sums of money. 'I've had four people now approach me... who I would describe as presenting as suicidal,' Mr Wilkie told reporters in Hobart. Andrew Wilkie has received more than 100 complaints to his Tasmanian electoral office from people who had received debt notices. He said four of them presented as suicidal 'This is terrifying people, and we've got a government who is saying there is no problem.' WHAT IS THE CENTRELINK CONTROVERSY? Centrelink has sent out 169,000 debt notices over the last six months using an automated system, which matches data from different agencies. Many have claimed their debts are false. The system also divides total annual incomes from a year by 26 fortnights to create an average income - even if a person was not working for the period they were on welfare. This has caused people who were not earning any income for a period to be told they owe money because they earned an average income. Others said the system thought they had been working full-time work instead of one because of slight spelling differences. Advertisement He cited the case of one woman who received a debt notice of $69,000 - more money than she has ever received from Centrelink. When she queried it she was told it was an error and she actually owed $3000, but Centrelink could not explain why, Mr Wilkie said. He asked the ombudsman to step in after receiving more than 100 complaints to his electoral office about problems with the debt recovery process. 'The government has terrified countless people, ruined the Christmases of many and even driven some people to contemplate taking their own lives,' Mr Wilkie said in a statement. The ombudsman's office told AAP it was seeking further information from Centrelink but would not comment further. Most of the issues, though not all, appear to be the result of a lack of nuance in the system by dividing total annual incomes by 26 fortnights to create an average income even if a person was not working for the period they were on welfare One such case involved 21-year-old Autistic man Jack Rogerson, who claims he has been wrongly billed $3,000 for Centrelink debts. Nicole Rogerson, the mother of a 21-year-old autistic man Jack (pictured together) who was wrongly billed for a $3,000 Centrelink debt, said the 'heartless' new system is a form of 'financial bullying' Mrs Rogerson said she had been contacted by thousands of families with similar experiences since speaking out on Twitter 'Appalling! Imagine the confusion of my Jack getting called by a debt collector on Christmas week,' Mrs Rogerson wrote on Twitter He says the government's new debt collecting system is 'heartless' and a form of 'financial bullying'. His mother, Nicole Rogerson, CEO of Autism Awareness Australia, said the government's approach under the new system is 'harming the most vulnerable'. However, Social Services Minister Christian Porter insists the system is working 'incredibly well' and the complaint rate was low - only 276 complaints out of 169,000 letters. The federal government is looking to claw back $4 billion in overpayments. Earlier it was reported that Centrelink staff would be given 'aggression training' as vulnerable Australians claim they have been hounded by debt collectors for money they don't owe. The government welfare agency has sent out 169,000 debt recovery notices over the past six months after introducing a new automated data matching system. Countless Australians have complained they have been sent the bills in error - and the Commonwealth Ombudsman has now been called in. Most of the issues, though not all, appear to be the result of a lack of nuance in the system by dividing total annual incomes by 26 fortnights to create an average income even if a person was not working for the period they were on welfare (example is pictured) Social Services Minister Christian Porter (pictured) insists the system is working 'incredibly well' and the complaint rate was low - only 276 complaints out of 169,000 letters Amidst the backlash, the Department of Human Services has been in touch with private contractors to provide staff with 'Advanced Customer Aggression Training Services', ABC reports. The Department said it was 'seeking providers suitably qualified to deliver high quality Advanced Customer Aggression Training Services to the Department's Customer Facing Staff, Team Leaders and Managers'. The training would be provided to Centrelink, Medicare and Child Support staff, according to a contract tender released in December. But the Department told ABC the concept was not new, and said training was required every four years. Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14. Guccifer, the hacker who exposed Hillary Clinton's use of private email, has downplayed the White House's claims that Russia tried to control the election using hackers, calling them 'a fake cyber war'. The hacker - real name Marcel Lazar Lehel - spoke toFox News from his jail cell in his home country of Romania, where he is serving time for illegally breaking into the email accounts of high-profile targets. 'Americans are crazy about the Russian thing and that Russians are invading the United States,' he said of the Russian hacking claims. 'It's crazy ... it's this hysteria you know?' 'Crazy': Romanian hacker Marcel Lazar Lehel, aka Guccifer (pictured being arrested in Romania in 2014) has told Fox News that claims Russia tried to influence the election are 'crazy' 'Fake': The hacker, who is in a Romanian prison, said that Obama created a 'fake cyber war'. He says Vladimir Putin didn't try to aid Donald Trump by hacking the DNC or a Clinton's aide The Obama administration has accused Russia of involvement in the hacking of email accounts belonging to the Democratic National Convention and Clinton campaign chair John Podesta. Those hacks led to the reopening of an FBI probe into Hillary Clinton's email server - something that Obama and other Democrats say was a successful attempt to hand Donald Trump the election. Trump had presented a much more Russia-friendly face during the election debates, while Clinton had mocked him for being a 'puppet' for Vladimir Putin. In phone calls from his prison cell near Arad in Romania, Lehel predicted to Fox that there would 'be probes and indictments against some Russian people'. He made that prediction three weeks ago - and two weeks before Obama expelled 35 Russian diplomats last Thursday, in retaliation for the hacks. Also today, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange told Fox News that John Podesta's email password was 'password' and that 'a 14-year-old' could have hacked in. Donald Trump seized on that claim, boasting about it on Twitter. But Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan later fired back, saying on the Hugh Hewitt radio show that Assange 'is a sycophant for Russia. He leaks, he steals data and compromises national security.' Private information: Lehel uncovered Hillary Clinton's private server in 2013, when he hacked the email of a former aide to Bill Clinton. In 2019 he is expected to begin a US prison sentence In 2013 Lehel hacked into the email account of an ex-Bill Clinton aide and revealed for the first time the existence of the @clintonemail.com private email address. He was motivated by an irritation with those in charge of both Romania and the US. Lehel was unemployed when he made the now infamous hacks, which he mostly executed with no particular knowledge, by guessing people's passwords from publicly available information about their private lives. He used a proxy server to make his computer look like it was being used in Russia - even though he did most of his work from a small Romanian village. He is currently serving a stint in Romanian prison, for hacking politicians and celebrities in his home country. Bemused passers-by stopped in their tracks when they saw a police horse looking as though he was about to get on a double-decker bus after a passenger collapsed. Cheeky Invictor was nosing around as an ambulance attended the number 43 bus in Upper Street in Islington, north London, on Tuesday. Invictor stuck his nose inside the number 43 bus after a person collapsed The Metropolitan Police said Invictor was 'showing he's a team player' The Metropolitan Police said Invictor was 'showing he's a team player' as he stood on the pavement outside Sainsbury's and peered inside the bus. He was accompanying Pc Dan Smith. A London Ambulance spokesman said: 'We were called at 11.18am to reports of an unwell person on Upper Street. The parents of a terminally ill young girl who rely on medical cannabis to stop her seizures, fear she may die after police raided the home of their supplier. Steve and Joyce Peek from the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, began using cannabis oil on their daughter Suli in 2015 in a last ditch effort to reduce the more than 100 seizures she suffered daily. But now the couple are without the oil they use four times daily, after a raid on the home of their supplier Jenny Hallam in South Australia on Wednesday. The raid left Ms Hallam's stockpiles of the medicine empty, meaning the parents are unable to prevent the eight-year-old suffering the seizures that could cost her life. Joyce (left) and Steve Peek (middle) fear their terminally ill daughter Suli (front, middle) will be left in pain after stockpiles of the cannabis oil they use to treat her rare condition were taken by police in a raid on their supplier Suli (pictured), eight, suffers from a regressive neurological disorder that caused her to have up to 100 seizures a day before her parents began using the medical cannabis oil 'With Suli, they don't know what's wrong with her - she's got a neurological disorder that has somehow caused her to have epilepsy,' Mr Peek told Daily Mail Australia. 'We started her on Jenny's cannabis oil 18 months ago and the first dose saw her seizures go from every one to two minutes, to 10 to 15 minutes, to one hour and then they just stopped. 'She had a legion on her brain and that disappeared when she started on the oil. 'But now they've taken all Jenny's supplies and that means we'll run out of oil some time next week - from there, well I don't know what we'll do.' A bubbly and happy young girl who's 'always smiling', Mr Peek has been in an endless fight to help his daughter. Having tried unsuccessfully to receive an amnesty allowing Suli to be treated with the oil in hospital, this latest news is a further setback for Mr Peek. The father-of-three said after finding out about the raid he instantly began rationing the oil, but just one missed treatment left Suli once again suffering seizures. 'We don't know what we're going to do now, because she basically doesn't have any medication left,' Mr Peek said. Suli's parents say the use of the oil led to a large legion on her brain simply disappearing 'The reality is she's slowly dying and what the cannabis oil can do is help control her seizures and give her a quality of life,' Mr Peek said 'If she goes to hospital the medication they use to stop seizures causes her to have respiratory failure and she'll have to be resuscitated. 'So we're at a real loss, particularly because the federal and state government praise themselves for being modern, but they've legalised nothing that can help Suli.' While Mr and Mrs Peek know using the medicinal cannabis isn't a long term cure, it's currently their only hope. Without it they're worried their daughter's battle, as tough as it already is, will only get worse. Medical cannabis oil like that pictured has not been legalised in Australia, despite Mr Peek's best efforts to be granted an amnesty from the Queensland state government 'We know cannabis oil is not a cure for our daughter, there is no cure,' Mr Peek said. 'But the reality is she's slowly dying and what the cannabis oil can do is help control her seizures and give her a quality of life. 'I just hope they come around or we can get some more, but I don't know if anyone will be game enough (to sell it) now.' A family have been left devastated after finding their missing puppy dumped dead on their front lawn, covered in flies, blood and puncture wounds. Jayde Buttriss had to explain to her three young daughters that their beloved 11-month-old mixed-breed dog Rambo was not coming home after being missing for two days. Rambo was stolen from his back yard in Whalan, near Penrith in Sydney's west on Tuesday. On Thursday the dog's lifeless body was left dumped on the front lawn. Rambo, pictured, was stolen from his home in Whalan near Penrith in western Sydney on Tuesday The 11-month-old puppy was found on Thursday by his owner Jayde Buttriss - who fears he was used as bait Ms Buttriss who had made an appeal on social media to have to 11-month-old puppy returned is devastated and is just glad one of her young daughters didn't find the him. 'My husband had to pick him up with a sheet,' Ms Buttriss said. Shocking photos show the dead dog lying on the grass outside the family home. His fur was matted from 'teeth marks where he bled' according to the distraught mother-of-three. The young mum believes her dog was used for bait and issued a warning on social media. 'To the scum who used my precious fur boy as bait for your sick twisted f***s you are lucky my girls didn't see him. The dog's fur was coated in dry blood, Ms Buttriss says the blood came from puncture wounds where Rambo was attacked by another dog Ms Buttriss is glad her three young children didn't find the puppy before she did 'When I find you I swear to god I will torture you so bad you wished you never took your first breath in this world,' she said. The dog was taken from the family's back yard at 11am on January 3, according to Ms Buttriss. She found his body on January 5 and died he would have been dumped on the front lawn sometime between 2.30 and 9.30 am. Advertisement Officials say human error was likely to blame for the Long Island Rail Road train crash that injured 100 people in Brooklyn but investigations will continue to find out exactly what caused it. At least 100 passengers were injured when the train derailed at Brooklyn's Atlantic Terminal on Wednesday at about 8.20am. Fire officials at the scene said metal that appeared to be from a rail pierced the bottom of the slow moving train and the wheels lifted up. They said the crash also damaged a work area beyond the tracks. Officials said hours later the crash was likely due to human error but have not yet ruled out other causes. 'There's a signal system that controls (the train) coming in at limited speeds,' Metropolitan Transportation Authority chairman Tom Prendergast said, according to the NY Daily News. 'But when you come to the end it's the locomotive engineer's responsibility. And the train's brakes have to work. All these things have to be looked at.' Scroll down for video At least 100 people were injured on Wednesday morning as a Long Island Rail Road commuter train jumped its tracks at Brooklyn's Atlantic Terminal The train crashed through its 'bumper block' on the platform, smashing the glass on its windows Several passengers were stretchered away from the scene amid rush hour chaos Some passengers remained slumped on the floor of the train as others fled Photographs showed smoke billowing from the train which plowed through a bumper on the platform, shattering a glass door. Several passengers remained slumped on the floor as they were treated by paramedics shortly before 9am. Others told how they were standing at the doors ready to disembark when the train suddenly came to a 'screeching' crash. 'The train suddenly slammed. We were standing and waiting to get off. 'One of the doors shattered and we all fell on top of each other,' one woman, who was in the front car, told The New York Post. Another, who watched the chaos unfold from across the platform, said: 'There was a screeching and the station quickly filled with dust and smoke.' The injured were stretchered away from the scene as crowds gathered on platforms. Responders were still evacuating passengers from the train 30 minutes after the crash. Governor Andrew Cuomo addressed the media at around 10am, explaining how the train pushed past the bumper where it was meant to stop. 'From the appearance of the accident, the train came in and hit the so-called bumping block and went by it for a few feet. Two passengers hold ice to their noses after being injured in the rush hour crash Several people were stretchered away from the accident but all had minor injuries 'Our first concern is the people who were on the train. There were a number of minor injuries. We believe the worst injury at this time is a broken leg. 'A broken leg is not good but we've been through situations where we've had worse,' he said. Most of those injured had been standing at the doors waiting to disembark the train when it crashed suddenly, causing them to fall. 'Basically what happened was they were standing, waiting to get off the train, the train has a sudden stop and they were not prepared for the sudden stop so they got knocked around, banged around; they hurt an arm or a leg. Long Island Rail Road gave no explanation of the accident but told passengers to expect delays One woman is believed to have suffered a broken leg, the most serious injury reported Smoke filled the platform as commuters rushed away from the wreckage just after 8.30am Crowds gathered on the platform as the train was evacuated on Wednesday morning after the crash It's not yet clear how serious the passengers' injuries are. Unharmed commuters made frantic phone calls after escaping the wreckage 'Most of the injured are people who just walked off and left the train. That's why the number (of those hurt) is hard to pin point.' Later he tweeted: ' The train was supposed to stop at a bumper and didn't, but glad to report there were no deaths; the most serious injury was a broken leg.' An investigation into why the train did not stop is underway. There was no immediate explanation from Long Island Rail Road other than its Twitter announcements that several other services had been disrupted. 'Anticipate possible delays into and out of Atlantic Terminal this morning due to an incident at the terminal.' The Fire Department of New York confirmed all of the passengers' injuries were non life threatening. '76 non life-threatening injuries reported at scene of LIRR train derailment, Atlantic Terminal Brooklyn,' it said. Many of the passengers were taken to hospital with non life-threatening injuries. Others were treated by paramedics who had set up makeshift triage centers at the scene The incident led crowds to gather on the platform as police and other first responders worked The Fire Department shared photographs of the damage as they continued to work at the scene Several roads surrounding the terminal were closed as fire trucks and ambulances flocked to help the injured. NYPD warned of delays as a result of the incident. 'Expect traffic delays in the area of the Brooklyn Atlantic Terminal due to a LIRR train derailment. 'More info to follow when available,' it said. Aerial photographs showed traffic chaos around the terminal immediately after the crash. Several fire trucks were lined up outside as crowds of emergency workers in fluorescent vests worked immediately outside. It is the second LIRR crash since October when 29 people were injured in an evening collision with a work train. Earlier in the year, a New Jersey transit commuter train plowed into Hoboken station at rush hour. A young mother was killed in the crash. Hopes nations restore co-operation after an investigation into training material Indonesia's founding ideology was allegedly referred to as 'crazy' at an Australian Special Forces base, sparking a breakdown in military relations between the two countries. An Indonesian Kopassus officer reportedly saw a laminated piece of paper that made fun of the country's founding ideology Pancasila at the SAS base at Campbell Barracks in Perth. The piece of paper read 'Panca-gila', the Guardian reported. Gila in Indonesian means crazy. Scroll down for video An Indonesian Kopassus officer reportedly saw a laminated piece of paper that made fun of the country's founding ideology Pancasila (Pancasila symbol pictured) Elite Indonesian army special forces command known Kopassus stand in formation This comes as Defence Minister Marise Payne has denied Australia recruited Indonesian military officers as spies while defending the government's handling of a military suspension between the countries. Senator Payne is hopeful Indonesia will restore military co-operation with Australia after an investigation into offensive material seen at Perth military base caused military co-operation between the two nations to be put on ice. It's believed the offensive material involved a reference to West Papua and the ridiculing of Indonesia's national ideology, Pancasila. Defence Minister Marise Payne has denied Australia recruited Indonesian military officers as spies The Indonesia's military chief General Gatot Nurmantyo has been quoted by the ABC saying he stopped sending his best soldiers for training in Australia out of fears they would be 'recruited'. Senator Payne told ABC Radio she vehemently denied the claim, voicing her confidence an inquiry would resume relations between the two nations. 'It is something we would not countenance..I would hope at the conclusion of the inquiry, when we're able to indicate to Indonesia the steps that have been taken in Australia to address any of these concerns, we'll be able to discuss resuming the relationship across the board then,' she said. 'The investigation requires an examination of materials, interviews with the Australians involved and an opportunity for the Indonesian officer to comment, these things need to done appropriately and fairly which takes time,' the minister said. She knew about the issue back in November, however only wrote to her Indonesian counterpart this week. The issue had been handled between Australia's chief of defence force and chief of army, Senator Payne said. Australian Defence Minister Marise Payne (pictured right) met her Indonesian counterpart Ryamizard Ryacudu in Jakarta last year A group of Indonesian military staff college students was due to visit Australia but that arrangement was cancelled. Senator Payne said Indonesia's participation in an upcoming muli-national naval exercise is up in the air. Indonesia's Defence Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu has said the Australian lieutenant involved in the incident had been punished, but Senator Payne refused to confirm any action. Retired Major General Jim Molan predicts the issue will blow over soon. 'We can be insensitive at the bottom level, not at the top level,' he told Sky News. 'We can be irreverent at the bottom level and the Indonesians can be overly sensitive all the way up and down their chain.' Indonesian Army's Kopassus special forces patrol outside the venues of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Indonesian Special Forces group Kopassus trains with the Special Air Service at Perth's Campbell Barracks. A Kopassus instructor was offended by material on display at the training facility, Indonesian newspaper Kompas reported. The material was insulting to the Indonesian state ideology of Pancasila, which is symbolised by a Javan hawk-eagle. The Indonesian trainer in Perth was upset this symbol had been mocked, online news website Abadikini said. An Indonesian military officer was upset his nation's Pancasila symbol of independence had been mocked. (Pictured is a Javan hawk-eagle symbol outside an official building) The Australian Defence Association said it was hypocritical for Indonesians to be offended by the ridicule of Pancasila democracy as Jakarta's Christian Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama faced blasphemy charges for insulting Islam. 'Jakarta governor's politically-motivated 'blasphemy' trial genuinely contravenes Pancasila, so odd cause cited for Australian-Indonesian military cooperation problem,' the Canberra-based think tank said. Indonesia executed Australian drug smugglers Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran in 2015 despite believing in the Pancasila principle of 'just and civilised humanity'. It's been nearly 30 years since brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez shot dead their wealthy parents in Beverly Hills, and now one of the siblings has revealed they 'almost never talked about' it because it's 'just too overwhelming.' On August 20, 1989, the two brothers shot their parents Jose and Mary 'Kitty' Menendez dead using shotguns that they had purchased just days before committing the horrific crimes. Their father, who was a highly successful Cuban-American business executive, and their mother who was a homemaker and a socialite, were both shot in the kneecap, which caused investigators to believe Lyle, aged 21 at the time and Erik then aged 18, wanted their murders to look like a mob hit. Their infamous murder trials in the 1990s was one of the most publicized due to the fact it was broadcasted live on CourtTV causing it to erupt into a massive media event and morbidly fascinated the public. The brothers were convicted in 1994 and sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole in 1996. Now, ABC has resurrected the gripping case for an upcoming two-hour documentary, Truth And Lies: The Menendez Brothers American Sons, American Murderers, that's set to air on January 5 at 9pm on the network. Scroll down for video The crime: In August 1989, 21-year-old Lyle (left) and 18-year-old Erik (right) Menendez murdered their parents Jose and Mary 'Kitty' Menendez with shotguns in their Beverly Hills mansion 'The Original Trial Of The Century': The two siblings were arrested in 1990, and their trial aired on Court TV, erupting into a massive media event and morbidly fascinating the public Back to the 1990s: ABC released the trailer for their upcoming documentary Truth And Lies: The Menendez Brothers. Lyle (right) has now revealed decades later that they 'almost never talked about' it because it's 'just too overwhelming' Speaking during a recent phone interview from Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, California, 48-year-old Lyle explained that he's 'at peace'. 'My life is a struggle [to] not to be defined by what happened,' Lyle told ABC. 'I'm at peace with my life growing up. I'm at peace with it, because I've just sort of accepted [that] it's okay not to understand. 'It's shocking to think that I could have been involved in taking anyone's life -- and my parents' life it seems unimaginable because it seems so far removed from who I am. 'But I found that my own childhood prepared me surprisingly well for the chaos of prison life.' Lyle added that 'no amount of regret' is going to change the fact about the crime. 'I am the kid that did kill his parents, and no river of tears has changed that and no amount of regret has changed it,' Lyle continued. 'I accept that. You are often defined by a few moments of your life, but that's not who you are in your life, you know. 'Your life is your totality of it You can't change it. You just, you're stuck with the decisions you made.' During their court case, prosecutors had argued that the two siblings murdered their parents in an effort to get the family fortune. However, their defense team argued that they killed the couple for enduring years-long abuse from the parents. During their trial, Erik took the stand and testified that he and his brother had lived in fear of their father, who they accused of sexually abusing them. Lyle told ABC that the alleged abuse 'bonded' the two brothers. 'It's so painful and complicated and confusing,' he said. 'We have an intimacy related to that shared experience [and] the bond become very great and intense. I'm the older brother so I find myself trying to protect Erik quite a bit through childhood, but pretty much trying to survive. 'It was pretty crushing to in the end to realize that I had not been able to protect to or save him from such horrible abuse as I thought. I thought we had sort of survived early childhood pretty well and that turned out not to be true.' The two siblings have not seen each other since they were sentenced decades ago, as they are serving time in two separate prisons. Lyle explained that his brother works with physically challenged and terminally ill inmates at the Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga, California. 'I really wondered, separated from me and so on, how would he do?' Lyle said. 'It's just amazing to me that you can come from such terrible circumstances and then be grow up to be someone who is so empathetic, so I'm very proud of him.' Since being behind bars, surprisingly both men have gotten married. Still inside: Convicted in 1994, they were sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole in 1996, as they were sent to two different prisons in California Erik married Tammi Menendez in 1999, as their relationship started from her sending him letters for years. Lyle first got married to former model Anna Erickson in 1996, but they eventually divorced. He then married Rebecca Sneed in 2003. California law prohibits conjugal visits for inmates serving out life without parole sentences so neither of the two brothers has children. 'One thing I've learned is that your physical comfort is much less important than your connection with the people around you,' Lyle told ABC News. 'I've found I can have a healthy marriage that is complicated and built around conversation and finding creative ways to communicate, sharing, without all the props that are normally there in marriage in terms of going out to dinner and having as much intimate time together and so on.' Erik did not want to be interviewed for ABC's special, but in 1996 he told Barbara Walters that he felt 'tremendous remorse' for killing his parents. 'There's not a day that goes by that I don't think about what happened and wish I could take that moment back,' he told Walters at the time. 'Secrets upon secrets': Lyle gets to speak for himself in audio interviews in which he says: 'You're almost, like, emotionally, you're a ghost, now you're living with this act that you've committed that is - just seems unimaginable to you' The trailer for the ABC special begins with a chilling snatch of video from the crime scene, before showing Erik saying in court that 'as I walked into the room I just started firing.' When asked what was in front of him, he replies softly: 'My parents.' At which point, viewers are launched into a whirlwind of news footage from the period. Then, against a rollicking soundtrack, talking heads filmed for the documentary chatter away about how 'One kid killing the parents is a bad seed. Two kids killing the parents is a bad family.' According to one of them: 'People assume that if you have money, you have no problems, and you're certainly not gonna do anything like kill your parents.' Another notes: 'If I killed my parents, I don't think I'd buy a Porsche that first week,' referring to Lyle's post-murder splurge, which also included a Rolex and a restaurant in Princeton. Audio clips in the trailer reveal Lyle fretting about his 'secrets upon secrets.' As he recalls: 'I was just trapped in the same nightmare.' In a separate audio clip, he says: 'You're almost, like, emotionally, you're a ghost, now you're living with this act that you've committed that is - just seems unimaginable to you.' Australia's biggest Islamic school will lose $19million in government funding for funnelling millions to the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils. The Administrative Appeals Tribunal on Thursday upheld the Federal Government's decision last February to strip Malek Fahd Islamic school of the money. It ruled the school at Greenacre, in southwest Sydney, was 'at minimum' run for profit and was not a fit and proper organisation. Malek Fahd Islamic school will lose $19 million in government funding for funnelling millions to the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils The tribunal found that though improvements were made to how the school was run, there was an 'ongoing burden of the uncommercial arrangements with AFIC'. Malek Fahd is 80 per cent government funded and may now be forced to close, putting hundreds of teachers and staff out of work and displacing 2,400 students. 'Malek Fahd cannot survive without public funding. We only have sufficient funds to continue to the end of the second term at the end of June,' the school told parents last year. The Administrative Appeals Tribunal on Thursday upheld the Federal Government's decision last February to strip the Sydney school of the cash Education Minister Simon Birmingham said every taxpayer dollar should be spent on education Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham welcomed the ruling, saying it ended 18 months of uncertainty. 'Australians rightly expect that every taxpayer dollar committed to school education is genuinely expended on school education,' he said. 'Our attention now turns to working with the students and their families, the teachers and the whole school community about how we best support them through this difficult time. 'While this is a difficult time, I remain committed to ensuring that all school authorities meet the requirements of the Education Act to ensure that our taxpayer dollars and any private investment by parents is being spent to benefit Australian students.' The tribunal found that though improvements were made to how the school was run, there was an 'ongoing burden of the uncommercial arrangements with AFIC' Malek Fahd is 80 per cent government funded and may now be forced to close, putting hundreds of teachers and staff out of work and displacing 2,400 students (stock picture) The funding was pulled after a review of six schools authorities affiliated with the AFIC after concerns were raised about their financial management and governance. It found Malek Fahd gave the AFIC millions of dollars in management fees and consistently failed to comply with basic financial and governance standards. The other schools audited were the Islamic College of Brisbane, the Islamic College of Melbourne, the Islamic College of South Australia, the Islamic School of Canberra and Langford Islamic College, in Western Australia. The funding was pulled after a review of six schools authorities affiliated with the AFIC after concerns were raised about their financial management and governance The Department of Education and Training said the Act requires all school authorities operating on a not-for-profit basis, to be 'fit and proper' and 'ensure that funding provided is used only for school education'. With fears the school could close before students could complete their HSC this year, teachers started planning to set up classrooms in their living rooms and garages, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. 'It gave them comfort that the doors were always going to be open for them, whether it's our school doors or garage doors or our house doors. It brought out the best in us,' the school's curriculum co-ordinator Tulin Bragg said last month. In the end, students scored of 90 or above in 18 per cent of their exams this year. A man has pulled Australia's Defence Minister aside after a press conference to question her over the plight of the homeless. Senator Marise Payne had just given an outdoor press conference in the Sydney CBD about the deteriorating relationship between the Australian and Indonesian military forces. The man listened intently then trailed after her to declare homeless people were not seeing the benefits of any government funding. A man pulls Senator Marise Payne aside after a press conference to question her over the plight of the homeless Senator Payne told him the prime minister committed millions to homelessness last year. 'Well, we can't see it,' he replied. Senator Payne thanked the man for raising the issue before shaking his hand good-naturedly. 'I hope we can have a chat some other time. Thank you very much,' he said. It comes as Senator Payne denies Australia recruited Indonesian military officers as spies while defending the government's handling of a military suspension between the countries. Senator Payne is hopeful Indonesia will restore military co-operation with Australia after an investigation into offensive material seen at a Perth military base caused military co-operation between the two nations to be put on ice. The man, not a member of the media, listened intently to the conference before questioning the Australian Minister for Defence Senator Payne thanked the man for raising the issue before shaking his hand A serial rapist may be behind a series of five alleged sexual assaults on women at Falls Festival in Tasmania over the festive season. Five women came forward after the three-day music festival that ran from December 29 to 31 to report varied sexual assaults, including one alleged rape. Police are investigating whether all five incidents at the Marion Bay camp site, including the alleged rape which is believed to have occurred between 9.30pm and 11.30pm on the first day of the festival, are linked, news.com.au reports. Scroll down for video Five women have said they were sexually assaulted at Falls Festival in Tasmania It is alleged a young girl was assaulted on Thursday night during a set from DJ Hot Dub Time Machine and another during hip-hop artist Illy's performance. A third incident in the camping grounds on Thursday night was also reported. 'Its quite clear that the general belief of a lot of young people is that being inappropriately touched by someone else is what happens in the moshpit,' Detective Inspector Steve Burk from Bellerive CIB said. 'My view is if youre not comfortable treating women like that in the middle of the mall you dont treat them like that in the middle of the moshpit either.' The alleged sexual assaults are the latest in a series of negative incidents at the annual festivals held across the country. At the Victorian leg of the festival in Lorne, more than 80 people were crushed while watching a performance under one of the event's main tents. In the aftermath of the stampede 19 people were treated in hospital, although none were seriously injured. Touching on the incident at Lorne in a post to their Facebook page, festival co producer Jessica Ducrou said organisers were 'devastated'. One of the attacks happened during Hot Dub Time Machine's set, according to police 'We care so very much about your experience at Falls, we spend countless hours planning the Falls Festival year-round, with dedicated teams specifically focused on each event site,' she said. 'Despite 24 years of successful operation of Falls Lorne, a confluence of events resulted in a serious incident that will require an investigation.' two litre cask of wine while in a police interview room A convicted killer has found himself back behind bars after he skolled an entire cask of wine while in a police waiting room - only moments after he was arrested for stealing it from a bottle shop. The man, who was on bail for unrelated charges, was arrested for stealing a two litre cask of Yalumba Chardonnay from Lilydale BWS in Melbourne on Wednesday, the Herald Sun reported. A staff member called police following the incident and the 46-year-old man was arrested soon after with a full cask of chilled wine in his backpack. A man, 46, skolled an entire two litre cask of wine while in a police interview room (stock image) He was taken to an interview room at the local police station where he asked for a cup of water. Police said when they went to get him a drink, the man skolled the entire cask of wine. He later refused to be questioned on the grounds he was too drunk. The man appeared at Ringwood Magistrates Court on Thursday. 'That's certainly no mean feat of achievement to be able to do that,' magistrate Mark Sargent said regarding the man's drinking ability. He was refused bail after police argued his prior convictions, including murder, made him a risk to the public. The man will return to court again this month. Mr Robert's rant was responding to New Zealand's censuring of Israel A One Nation senator has taken aim at New Zealand in a blistering tirade calling for an immigration crackdown and cuts to welfare payments for Kiwis living in Australia. The party's Queensland senator Malcolm Roberts issued the statement in response to New Zealand co-sponsoring a United Nations resolution censuring Israel. The former coal miner urged the government to take a stronger stance against New Zealand 'settlements' in Australia and ban immigration between the two nations. One Nation Queensland senator Malcolm Roberts has taken aim at New Zealand in a blistering tirade 'At the very least, we should look at further cutting benefits for New Zealanders living in Australia,' Mr Roberts said. The statement stands in stark contrast to One Nation's previous support for changes to make it easier for New Zealanders to apply for citizenship and social security in Australia. 'Perhaps a tougher immigration policy aimed towards New Zealand would stop Kiwis from establishing settlements in Australia.' Mr Roberts went on to accuse New Zealand of 'stabbing our ally in the front', slamming the Turnbull government for letting the country off too lightly. One Nation leader Senator Pauline Hanson and One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts during Senate Question Time One Nation's immigration policy explicitly calls on the government to make it easier for New Zealanders to gain Australian citizenship. 'We believe Australians would open their hearts to our neighbours. Therefore, we are calling on the government to change the current laws.' A man has been left with a large metal spear piercing through both sides of his face after a horrific incident while on a spearfishing trip in North America. A photo of the man sitting in hospital with the long rod poking out just near his ear has gone viral online, since being posted to social media on Wednesday. Incredibly lucky to have survived the freak incident, the man grimaces in pain as he seemingly waits to undergo surgery with blood covering his cheeks and chin. A man (pictured) has been left with a large metal spear piercing through both sides of his face after a horrific incident while on a spearfishing trip in North America Should the spear have pierced the man just millimetres higher, the wound could've easily proved fatal. Luckily it appears the man has come through surgery, with a post surgery photo shared by a friend showing him offering a smile and peace sign. The amazing photo has proved incredibly popular since being posted to social media, receiving thousands of shares and likes. Hundreds of commenters have also remarked on the image, amazed that the man survived and saying they've been put them off spearfishing for life. 'This is why I used to be so scared of spear fishing!' one woman wrote. 'Oh my goodness, that is not how you want to get both ears pierced,' another said. A post (pictured) surgery photo shared by a friend showing the injured man offering a smile and peace sign While many commenters seemingly squirmed when looking at the photo, others had a different view. 'At least he knows how a fish feels now!' one lady wrote. Emergency rescue workers in Wisconsin were stunned to find that a family of three, including an infant, were still alive inside a small plane that crashed on Wednesday. Authorities say the 41-year-old pilot, his 37-year-old wife and their six-month-old baby boy were on board the single-engine aircraft when it crashed shortly after takeoff into a vehicle parked near the runway at Capitol Airport in Pewaukee around 12:08pm. The pilot suffered the most serious injuries of the trio, as his wife was not seriously injured and the infant was reportedly fine, Capt. Phil Horter with the Brookfield Police Department said, according to ABC News. The pilot's condition and injuries are unknown at this time. Scroll down for video Authorities say a 41-year-old pilot, his 37-year-old wife and their six-month-old baby boy were on board a single-engine aircraft when it crashed shortly after takeoff at Capitol Airport in Pewaukee (scene above) The single-engine aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff into a vehicle parked near the runway at Capitol Airport around 12:08pm on Wednesday The couple was transported nearby to Froedtert Hospital in Wauwatosa, as the infant was taken to the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin to be checked out as a precaution. The family, whose identities have not been released, is originally from Virginia, but was visiting family members in Waukesha, WISN reported. The cause of the plane crash is still unknown, as the FAA and NTSB are now investigating the incident. An FAA spokesperson said that the single-engine plane lost altitude right before the crash. Luckily, no one was inside the vehicle that the plane hit, Horter said. The Capitol Airport is used daily by several dozen aircrafts that fly in and out of there, but due to the crash it will be closed for the next 24 hours. Capt. Phil Horter (above) with the Brookfield Police Department said the couple was transported nearby to Froedtert Hospital in Wauwatosa, as the infant was taken to the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin as a precaution Pilot David Mann was also flying out of Capitol Airport on Wednesday when he said there must be some 'extenuating circumstances' in regards to the crash. 'There's got to be some extenuating circumstances that would cause that problem today I would say,' Mann told WISN. 'I flew a light twin from here up to Waukesha just this afternoon, and it was quite bumpy out. 'You had to be careful, but I don't think it was too windy to fly.' A terrorist leader who 'craved ISIS recognition' has been tracked down to a beach and shot dead by Philippine security forces, it has emerged. Mohammad Jaafar Maguid, founder of Ansarul Khilafa Philippines, was killed at a holiday resort on the southern island of Mindanao shortly after midnight, while three 'cohorts' were arrested. The terror group has carried out deadly attacks on civilians to win support from ISIS fighters in Iraq and Syria, police said. It is one of several violent Islamic militant groups on Mindanao, homeland of a large Filipino Muslim minority where a decades-old separatist rebellion has claimed more than 120,000 lives. Weapons and ISIS flags recovered from members of Ansarul Khilafa in November, 2015 - the group is one of several violent Islamic militant groups in the southern Philippines 'He's wanted for bombing incidents. They use improvised explosive devices, killing people at town festivals,' Chief Superintendent Cedric Train, the regional police chief, told AFP. 'They fly the ISIS flag in their camps. They want to be recognised by the ISIS,' Train added. The military killed eight Ansarul Khilafa members in a clash in November 2015 at Maguid's Mindanao hometown of Palimbang, 600 miles south of Manila. Interior Secretary Ismael Sueno warned of potential violent repercussions from the death of Maguid, more widely known by his nickname of Commander Tokboy. 'They might retaliate so we have to double our preparations,' Sueno said, citing large Catholic religious festivals in the Philippines this month. The terror group has carried out deadly attacks on civilians to win support from ISIS fighters in Iraq and Syria, police said (file picture of security forces) Ansarul Khilafa was behind an attack that left two civilians dead on Mindanao in 2008 as well as a series of robberies and other crimes, according to Sidney Jones, director of the Indonesia-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict. Maguid was arrested in 2009 but escaped eight months later, Jones said in a research paper published in October last year. Train said the authorities had also been looking into Ansarul Khilafa's role in a bombing in Davao, Mindanao's largest city in September last year that killed 15 people and injured dozens of others. Two buses with more than 60 people aboard have collided in the Blue Mountains. The buses, with a combined 50 children and 18 adults on board collided about 4pm near Lithgow, New South Wales. Three buses were travelling together when the first slowed for an intersection and the one behind crashed into it at a 'moderate' speed, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. One of the buses was extensively damaged, with its front crumpled and its windscreen fell from the frame. Almost 70 people were aboard the two buses when they collided on Thursday afternoon near Lithgow Police said in a statement that by about 5.30pm three children and one woman had been taken to Lithgow Hospital Eleven ambulances and paramedics from as far away as Bathurst and Richmond attended the scene, according to reports. The children, aged between six and 12, and adults suffered a range of injuries including cuts to legs, shoulder injuries and head injuries, The Daily Telegraph reported. Police said in a statement that by about 5.30pm three children and one woman had been taken to Lithgow Hospital. The remaining children were being taken to the hospital to be checked as a precaution. Emergency services on the scene of the accident where there were multiple injuries The worst injuries were believed to be cuts and bruises. It's believed those involved were from a school in St Marys on a school holiday excursion. Police from the Chifley Crash Investigation Unit are en route to the scene to examine the circumstances around the collision. It's believed the driver of the second bus could face charges, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. A cabinet minister billed taxpayers the cost of an average weekly salary on the same day she flew to Queensland to buy a $795,000 investment apartment with ocean views on the Gold Coast. Federal Health Minister Sussan Ley claimed allowances for a flight, a chauffeur driver and an overnight stay on May 9, 2015 when she bought a two-bedroom apartment at Main Beach. The costs added up to $1248, which is more than an average weekly Australian salary of $1160 but the minister claimed the apartment purchase wasn't planned. Scroll down for video Health Minister Sussan Ley bought an investment unit on the Gold Coast for $795,000 in May 2015 The minister, based at Albury on the New South Wales-Victorian border, bought the unit for $795,000 and claimed an overnight stay in the same suburb as 'official business'. Ms Ley also waited 17 months to declare her Queensland investment property, which is a breach of the rules outlined for members of parliament. On May 9, 2015, she flew from Sydney to Brisbane costing taxpayers $610. The Liberal Party minister was in the Queensland capital making a $1.3 billion announcement about the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme at Wesley Hospital, her spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia. The minister then took a chauffeur-driven car from Brisbane to the Gold Coast, costing taxpayers another $268. She also claimed an overnight stay in Main Beach with her husband John for another $370, listing this travel allowance as 'official business' for a minister. Health Minister Sussan Ley bought a two-bedroom at Main Beach for $795,000 on May 9, 2015 Department of Finance records show Ms Ley billed taxpayers $1248, on May 9, 2015. However, the minister's spokeswoman said she met with portfolio stakeholders on the Gold Coast later that day. 'The property purchase was not planned nor anticipated,' she said. All smiles: Sussan Ley just happened to have ministerial engagements on the Gold Coast Property records show Health Minister Sussan Ley bought the Gold Coast investment unit on the same day she was in town for 'official business' TAXPAYER EXPENSES Sydney to Brisbane flight: $609.59 Brisbane to Gold Coast comcar: $268.30 Travel allowance at Main Beach, on the Gold Coast: $370 (including for husband John) Total: $1247.89 Source: Department of Finance records for May 9, 2015 Advertisement This was the same day she bought the beachside unit on Main Beach Parade. The minister's spokeswoman Jessica Howe said the expenses were within the rules. 'All travel undertaken was in accordance with the rules,' she said. The revelations come just two days after the Herald-Sun revealed the minister had taken a return charter flight from Canberra to the Gold Coast in March 2016, costing taxpayers $12,000, or 30 times the cost of a $400 commercial flight. Ms Ley didn't declare the unit on her pecuniary interest register until October 2016, waiting 17 months to tell the public. Members of parliament are required to make the declaration within 28 days. Health Minister Sussan Ley charged taxpayers more than $600 for a flight from Sydney to Brisbane to make a $1.3 billion Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme announcement Health Minister Sussan Ley was in Brisbane making a Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme announcement The minister was chauffeur-driven in a Holden Caprice from Brisbane to the Gold Coast, costing taxpayers $268. (Stock image of car) Taxpayers forked out $268.30 so Sussan Ley could be driven from Brisbane to the Gold Coast Donald Trump's chief spokesman said Thursday that there's 'no truth' to a news report describing a plan by the president-elect to downsize the CIA's headquarters and 'restructure' America's intelligence agencies in order to de-politicize them. The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump and his national security team were set to move more CIA agents to foreign posts along with 'streamlining' the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. But in a conference call with reporters, Trump's incoming press secretary Sean Spicer completely denied the story, which was based on anonymous sources who claimed to have inside knowledge of the transition team's intentions. 'These reports are false. All transition activities are for information gathering purposes and all discussions are tentative,' Spicer said. Donald Trump will not be cutting or restructuring the CIA or the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, his spokesman said Thursday, denying a Wall Street Journal report 'The president-elect's top priority will be to ensure the safety of the American people and the security of the nation, and he is committed to finding the best and most effective way to do it.' 'There is no truth to this idea of restructuring the intelligence community infrastructure. It is 100 per cent false,' Spicer reiterated. The Journal story followed Director of National Intelligence John Brennan's announcement that the CIA believes Russia hacked U.S.-based computer systems to help Trump win the presidency. Speaking anonymously, a Trump staffer claimed: 'The view from the Trump team is the intelligence world has become completely politicized.' 'They all need to be slimmed down. The focus will be on restructuring the agencies and how they interact.' That means more agents in field posts abroad and fewer staff at Langley, the Agency's Virginia headquarters, the source said. Trump's staff say that he has long been critical of the CIA, and that he was vocal in 2002 and 2003 about faulty intelligence on Iraq-based weapons of mass destruction which led to a U.S. invasion. Although various US intelligence bodies have expressed concerns that Russia was behind hacks on the Democratic National Committee, and on Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, the president-elect has repeatedly rejected the idea. On Wednesday, the latest swing at intelligence agencies came when he seized on Julian Assange's contention that Russia was not behind the hacking, and that Moscow did not supply WikiLeaks with thousands of hacked emails. He tweeted: 'Julian Assange said "a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta" why was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info!' His previous tweet before that suggested that intelligence agencies had failed to compile a proper case on the Russian hacks when a planned briefing was pushed back to Friday. 'The "Intelligence" briefing on so-called "Russian hacking" was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case,' he tweeted. 'Very strange!' Trump's antagonistic relationship with the CIA got worse after its director, John Brennan, said Russia tried to help him win the election Meanwhile, Trump has repeatedly talked up Russian premier Vladimir Putin. Last Friday he tweeted: 'Great move on delay (by V. Putin) - I always knew he was very smart!' Trump's apparently blithe enthusiasm for a long-held opponent to America, and his dismissal of the very agencies created to protect his position, the Government he will head and the country he will lead, has upset several people. On Wednesday Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan told radio host Hugh Hewitt that Assange 'is a sycophant for Russia. He leaks, he steals data and compromises national security.' And Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has followed suit. 'We have two choices,' he said, 'some guy living in an embassy on the run from the law who has a history of undermining American democracy and releasing classified information to put our troops at risk, or the 17 intelligence agencies sworn to defend us,' said Sen. ' 'I'm going with them.' In other areas, such as opposition to the North Korean regime, Trump is more in line with US intelligence orthodoxy. Trump also enthusiastically took Julian Assange's word that Russia didn't supply Wikileaks with DNC emails The CIA is unlikely to find much solace in Trump's new picks for the top intelligence slots. Brennan will be making way for new CIA head Representative Mike Pompeo, while Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn will be the new national security adviser. Both agree with Trump that claims that Russia tried to help him win is an attempt to undermine his victory, an insider said. Neither man commented to the Wall Street Journal. This isn't the first time that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which was created in 2004 to improve coordination between the various intelligence agencies in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, has been earmarked for possible cuts. In 2010 a White House panel, The President's Intelligence Advisory Board, recommended that it be downsized and more tightly focused, the Congressional Research Service said. That advice was not acted upon, partly because of fears that doing so might destabilize its work on counterterrorism and nuclear proliferation. A woman has allegedly attacked a shop owner with an axe after he refused to give her family a refund for a squashed loaf of bread. A man walked into Duke Street Food Mart in Hastings on New Zealand's South Island at around 5pm on Wednesday and tried to walk off with a loaf of bread without paying. The owner stepped in and kicked him out of the store, but the man's partner arrived minutes later wielding an axe. Scroll down for video A woman has allegedly attacked a shop owner with an axe after he refused to give her family a refund for a squashed loaf of bread. Pictured, an attempted robbery by the woman's husband The daughter of the shop owner told Stuff that the armed woman fled after another customer called police. A 26-year-old woman was later arrested and charged with possession of an offensive weapon and threatening behaviour. The shop owner's daughter said the man's son had earlier bought the bread, but returned shortly after with his brother and asked for a refund as it had been squashed. After they were refused a refund, the boys reportedly said they were going to get their father. In the footage, a woman can be seen forcing someone out of the convenience store A man walked into Duke Street Food Mart in Hastings on New Zealand's South Island at around 5pm on Wednesday and tried to walk off with a loaf of bread without paying 'The man came, he walked in and took a loaf of bread and tried to leave,' the shop owner's daughter said. 'My dad stopped him and he started hitting him, and shoved him out of the shop,' she said. Senator John McCain of Arizona blasted 'foreign interference' in the U.S. elections and condemned Russian 'attacks' on the nation as he went after WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in a rebuke of President-elect Donald Trump Thursday. 'Every American should be alarmed by Russia's attacks on our nation,' McCain said as he opened a Senate Armed Services hearing on cyber security, in the first post-election congressional examination of election hacking. 'There is no national security interest more vital to the United States of America than the ability to hold free and fair elections without foreign interference,' he said. Questioning Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, McCain pointedly noted that the name of Assange has 'popped up' an obvious referenced to Trump's recent tweets about Assange raising doubts about U.S. intelligence assessments that Moscow engaged in election hacking to boost Trump. 'I believe he is the one who is responsible for publishing names of individuals that work for us that put their lives in direct danger. Is that correct?' McCain asked. 'Yes he has,' Clapper responded. SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-AZ) blasted 'Russia's attacks on our nation' at a hearing Thursday with top intelligence officials McCain then asked: 'Do you think that there's any credibility that we should attach to this individual, given his record? 'Not in my view,' Clapper responded. 'I second those comments,' added Admiral Michael S. Rogers, head of U.S. cyber command. Trump has cited Assange to express doubts that Moscow was behind the hacking of Democratic Party computers and accounts that led to the release of embarrassing documents and emails via the anti-secrecy group. WikiLeaks published during the run-up to the election hacked Democratic National Committee emails and those belonging to Hillary Clinton campaign chair John Podesta. Clapper agreed when asked by Sen. John McCain whether WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is responsible for 'publishing names of individuals that work for us that put their lives in direct danger' Trump appeared to reject the intelligence agencies' conclusions in tweets Tuesday and Wednesday, parroting Assange's view. 'Julian Assange said 'a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta' why was DNC so careless?' he said. But on Thursday Trump tweeted: 'The dishonest media likes saying that I am in Agreement with Julian Assange - wrong. I simply state what he states, it is for the people... to make up their own minds as to the truth. The media lies to make it look like I am against 'Intelligence' when in fact I am a big fan!' Referencing the election hack, McCain said to Clapper: ' If they succeeded in changing the results of an election which none of us believe they were that would have to constitute an attack on the United States of America, because of the effects if they succeeded, would you agree with that?' 'They did not change any vote tallies or anything of that sort,' Clapper responded. 'The intelligence community can't gauge the impact it had on choices that the electorate made. Whether or not that constitutes an act of war I think is a very heavy policy call. It certainly in my view would carry great gravity.' Clapper called Russia an 'existential threat' to the United States. 'I don't think that we have ever encountered a more aggressive or direct campaign to interfere in our election process,' he said. The Senate Armed Services Committee's cyberthreats hearing Thursday comes a day before the president-elect receives a briefing by the CIA and FBI directors along with the head of national intelligence on the investigation into Russia's alleged hacking efforts. Trump wrote on Twitter that he merely repeated Assange's views and 'the media lies' to give the impression that the two are on the same wavelength Thursday's hearing was on foreign cyber threats, but attention focused on Russian election hacking, with an intelligence report on the topic soon to be released Trump has criticized their findings and even seemed to back WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's contention that Russia did not provide him with hacked Democratic emails. In new tweets early Thursday, Trump backed away from his apparent embrace of Assange. Trump blamed the 'dishonest media' for portraying him as agreeing with Assange, whose organization has been under criminal investigation for its role in classified information leaks. 'The media lies to make it look like I am against 'Intelligence' when in fact I am a big fan!' Trump wrote. Leading panel Democrat Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island raised the possibility that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted the world to know what he had done. 'Russia's involvement in these intrusions does not appear to be in any doubt,' Reid said. 'Russia's best cyber operators are judged to be as elusive and hard to ID as any in the world. In this case, however, detection and attribution were not so difficult. The implication being that Putin may have wanted us to know what he had done, seeking only a level of plausible deniability to support an official rejection of culpability.' Clapper wouldn't say whether he shared the view under questioning, saying he didn't want to compromise U.S. sources. In another shot at Trump, Democratic senator Claire McCaskill asked Clapper a series of questions about the heroism and patriotism of the intelligence community, then told him: 'Let's talk about who benefits from a president-elect trashing the intelligence community.' 'Who benefits from that director Clapper, the American people? Them losing confidence of the intelligence community?' she asked the former military aviator who said he had served presidents in both parties since the Kennedy administration. 'I think there is an important distinction here between healthy skepticism there's a difference between skepticism and disparagement,' Clapper replied. The committee's session is the first in a series aimed at investigating purported Russian cyberattacks against U.S. interests and developing defenses sturdy enough to blunt future intrusions. 'We will obviously be talking about the hacking, but the main thing is the whole issue of cybersecurity,' the committee chairman, McCain said before the hearing. 'Right now we have no policy, no strategy to counter cyberattacks.' Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island said Russian President Vladimir Putin 'may have wanted us to know what he had done' Testifying were Clapper, the national intelligence director; Marcel Lettre, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence; and Adm. Michael Rogers, National Security Agency chief and the top officer at the U.S. Cyber Command. Accusations Russia interfered in the 2016 election by hacking Democratic email accounts have roiled Washington for weeks. President Barack Obama struck back at Moscow in late December with penalties aimed at Russia's leading spy agencies, the GRU and FSB, that the U.S. said were involved. The GRU is Russia's military intelligence agency. The FSB is the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB. But Trump easily could rescind the sanctions. So far, he has publicly refused to accept the conclusion that Russia is responsible for the attacks. Trump this week escalated his criticism of U.S. intelligence professionals, such as Clapper, by tweeting, without evidence, that an upcoming briefing on the suspected Russian hacking had been delayed until Friday, and said, 'perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange!' Intelligence officials said there had been no delay. Trump suggested Wednesday in a tweet that one of Russia's primary targets, the Democratic National Committee, could be to blame for being 'so careless.' The penalties imposed by Obama came after he pledged a 'proportional' response to the hacking of the Democratic Party and presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman. Emails stolen during the campaign were released in the final weeks by WikiLeaks. President-elect Donald Trump speaks to reporters at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla. Trump challenges U.S. intelligence agencies to provide decisive evidence of Russian involvement in election-season hacking CIA Director John Brennan said in a Dec. 16 message to employees that the FBI agreed with the agency's conclusion that Russia's goal was to support Trump in the election. Brennan wrote that he also had spoken with Clapper and said 'there is strong consensus among us on the scope, nature, and intent of Russian interference in our presidential election.' Moscow has denied the hacking allegations and dismissed Obama's sanctions as an attempt to 'harm Russian-American ties.' Although Russian President Vladimir Putin rebuked the Obama administration for trying to punish Russia, he said his country would not immediately retaliate and would instead wait for a new U.S. approach after Trump takes office. Trump praised Putin's move and called him 'very smart.' Two prominent Turkish businessmen have been held after homes and offices were raided by police probing July's failed coup. The chief legal advisor and former chief executive of Dogan Holding were detained as the government continues its purge against opponents of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Dogan, one of Turkey's biggest conglomerates, said the arrests were part of a probe into supporters of the Muslim cleric blamed for July's failed coup. The chief legal advisor and former chief executive of Dogan Holding were detained as the government continues its purge against opponents of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan (pictured) Chief legal advisor Erem Turgut Yucel and former chief executive Yahya Uzdiyen were detained after police raided their offices and homes, the company said in a statement to the Istanbul stock exchange. Dogan Holding is one of Turkey's biggest conglomerates with interests in retail, tourism and media including the Hurriyet daily, Dogan news agency and broadcaster CNN Turk. 'They were detained as part of the investigation in which our Ankara administrative representative Barbaros Muratoglu was arrested,' the company said. Muratoglu was charged last month with 'aiding an armed terror group FETO' - which refers to 'Fethullah Terrorist Organisation' - the name Turkish authorities give to the movement led by Fethullah Gulen. Dogan Holding insisted searches were made only of the aforementioned executives' personal offices after Turkish media reported the company's Istanbul offices were the subject of police raids. 'Our holding and subsidiaries' activities are not affected,' the company said, adding work continued as before 'without interruption'. Since July, over 41,000 people have been arrested after parliament imposed a state of emergency a few days after the attempted overthrow of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Supporters of the president protest in the streets in July Islamic preacher Gulen - currently in self-imposed exile in the United States - denies Turkey's accusations that he ordered the failed July 15 coup. And the movement denies it is a 'terrorist organisation', saying it is a peaceful group promoting education and charity. Since July, over 41,000 people have been arrested after parliament imposed a state of emergency a few days after the attempted overthrow of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The controversial state of emergency was extended Tuesday for another three months. More than 100,000 people from the civil service, judiciary, military, media and education sector have been detained, dismissed or suspended over alleged links to the coup-plotters. A sickening new ISIS film has emerged showing a prisoner being drowned in a fish tank and a wheelchair-bound fanatic carrying out a suicide car bomb attack. The gruesome execution video, captured in war-torn Mosul, Iraq, shows a 'spy' dressed in an orange jumpsuit being water-boarded before having his head forced down into a tank full of water. ISIS savages then film the captive through the glass as he struggles while audio is played of his alleged spying activity. It was one of two executions in the 40-minute film, called 'The Convoy of Light', with a second prisoner brutally beheaded on a rooftop by a masked jihadist. Earlier in the film, a wheelchair-bound fanatic is interviewed before he carries out a suicide attack in Mosul. Scroll down for video A sickening new ISIS film has emerged showing a prisoner being drowned in a fish tank and a wheelchair-bound fanatic carrying out a suicide car bomb attack Earlier in the film, a wheelchair-bound fanatic is interviewed before he carries out a suicide attack in Mosul Aerial drone footage then shows a plume of smoke as the disabled fanatic blows himself up With eerie music and chanting in the background, the disabled fanatic is wheeled off to carry out his mission. Aerial drone footage then shows a plume of smoke as he blows himself up. Further footage shows smiling militants ahead of their own car bomb suicide missions - and more video of the attacks. Tens of thousands of Iraqi forces are currently involved in an offensive to retake Mosul, the main northern city which is also IS's last major stronghold in the country. ISIS has lost more than half of the territory it once controlled in Iraq and the loss of Mosul would deal a major blow to the 'caliphate' it proclaimed there in June 2014. Iraqi army and security forces are working better together in their battle against Islamic State militants and are gaining momentum in the 11-week campaign to retake Mosul, The commander of the U.S.-led coalition said this morning that Iraqi army and security forces are working better together in their battle against ISIS and are gaining momentum in the 11-week campaign to retake the city. With eerie music and chanting in the background, the disabled fanatic is wheeled off to carry out his mission A wheelchair-bound fanatic is filmed being interviewed before he carries out his suicide bomb attack in Mosul During a helicopter tour over recently recaptured areas, US Army Lieutenant-General Steve Townsend said coordination had been largely absent in the first two months of the campaign, when Iraqi forces made slow progress after breaching the city. Elite counter-terrorism troops entered Mosul from the east and seized a quarter of the city but troops on other fronts stalled, leading to a military pause last month. Since resuming the offensive last week, the counter-terrorism service, rapid response division and federal police have retaken several eastern districts - despite fierce resistance - and joined flanks in areas that had been vulnerable to attack. Townsend said Iraqi commanders, with guidance from the coalition, decided two weeks ago that the various pro-government forces would have to coordinate much more closely. 'For about two months ... what we saw is that there wasn't enough synchronisation between each of the different attacking axes and forces,' he told Reuters after visiting US troops and talking to Iraqi commanders at a coalition outpost north of Mosul. Further footage shows smiling militants ahead of their own car bomb suicide missions - and more video of the attacks 'Right before Christmas was a decision to huddle a lot more frequently, so they're doing that more.' Townsend said the top Iraqi commanders now all come together every few days - something the U.S. military does daily wherever it operates. 'Before... we were seeing progress mostly on one main axis and halting progress on the others. Now we're actually seeing forward movement on all of the axes in eastern Mosul,' he said. Townsend heads Operation Inherent Resolve, a coalition of military forces from Western and Arab countries that has been bombing Islamic State positions in Iraq and neighbouring Syria since 2014. It is now providing air support and some ground assistance to the Iraqi assault on Mosul, and has embedded officers with Iraqi commanders to help plan each step of the offensive. The Mosul assault, involving a 100,000-strong ground force of Iraqi government troops, members of the autonomous Kurdish security forces and mainly Shi'ite militiamen, is the most complex battle in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Elite counter-terrorism troops entered Mosul from the east and seized a quarter of the city but troops on other fronts stalled, leading to a military pause last month Since resuming the offensive last week, the counter-terrorism service, rapid response division and federal police have retaken several eastern districts - despite fierce resistance - and joined flanks in areas that had been vulnerable to attack An Iraqi victory in Mosul would probably spell the end for ISIS's self-styled caliphate, which leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared two-and-a-half years ago from the city's main mosque after Iraqi forces dropped their weapons and fled. But in recent days, the militants have displayed the tactics to which they are likely to resort if they lose the city, killing dozens with bombs in Baghdad and attacking security forces elsewhere. Though vastly outnumbered in Mosul, they have used the urban terrain and the cover of a civilian population to manoeuvre, launch attacks and avoid detection. Townsend said Iraqi forces were doing a better job of defending against suicide car bombs. That had helped stem casualties, which the government does not report but sources said on some days reached a few dozen. 'They (casualties) were daunting in the first few weeks here in the city back in October, early November and I was greatly concerned then. Much less concerned now. They seem to have adapted,' said Townsend. He described Islamic State as a 'resilient' enemy but said the group - which has separate cells fighting in dozens of neighbourhoods - appeared increasingly unable to coordinate across different areas it controlled inside Mosul. He said some senior Islamic State commanders are still directing the battle from inside Mosul but could not confirm whether that included Baghdadi, for whom Washington has offered a $25 million bounty. A naked man was spotted jogging down a Western Australian highway, bringing traffic to a halt as police trailed closely behind him. The dark-haired man was recorded by a passing motorist running at a steady pace down the median strip of Stirling Highway in Claremont, a western suburb of Perth, just after 12.30pm on Thursday. Traffic can be seen streaming past the man as he runs across a busy intersection and jumps over a large sign. Scroll down for video A naked man was spotted jogging down Stirling Highway in Claremont, a western suburb of Perth, just after 12.30pm on Thursday (pictured) The man brought traffic to a halt as police trailed closely behind him (pictured) 'Hes running a red! Hes jumping the Claremont sign!' the motorist yells. As man recording the video gets closer to the man, a police car is seen driving slowly alongside him. The officers then pull forward and jump out to stop the streaker. As he's being handcuffed, the naked man appears to continue to try to wriggle away from the officer's grasp. Western Australian police told Daily Mail Australia the man was arrested and taken to the hospital. The dark-haired man was recorded by a passing motorist running down the median strip at a steady pace as he crossed two busy intersections (pictured) Theresa May has quashed a civil service revolt over her Brexit strategy by appointing a senior diplomat who faced down the Russians to be the UK's new man in Brussels. Number Ten last night announced the appointment of Sir Tim Barrow after a day of ferocious recriminations over the resignation of Sir Ivan Rogers. In a concerted fightback against claims of 'muddled thinking', the Prime Minister will also make a major speech this month setting out her detailed plans for Brexit. The speech is expected to spell out how a new visa regime will regain control of the UK's borders, while providing British firms with maximum access to the EU's single market. Mrs May is expected to make clear she is prepared to leave the single market if necessary to secure tighter control over the border. Prime Minister Theresa May has crushed a revolt by Brexit dissenters with a swift appointment of Sir Tim Barrow (right) as her new EU ambassador Mrs May will also give more detail on her objectives in her first major television interview of the year on Sunday. A senior Tory told MailOnline Eurosceptics were 'comfortable the Prime Minster is going to say the right things' as she sets out more detail on Brexit. They said: 'If we are going to make our own trade deals, we can't do so inside the European Economic Area.' As Mrs May plots her strategy, government sources said Sir Tim had proved his ability to press home the plan by standing up for British businesses operating in Russia and holding 'tough conversations on Ukraine and Syria'. They also credited him with helping to defeat repeated proposals for a Euro army as the UK's representative in Brussels between 2008 and 2011. Another senior insider said: 'The contrast between Sir Tim's can-do attitude and his gloomy predecessor could hardly be greater'. Brexit Secretary David Davis said: 'His knowledge of Brussels means he will be able to hit the ground running at a vital time'. Chancellor Philip Hammond, who appointed Sir Tim as political director while he was foreign secretary, joined the praise today telling Sky News: 'He is a very experienced and seasoned diplomat, very tough, he was our ambassador in Moscow for many years. 'He's worked in the EU before so he has good knowledge of how the EU works, and he's a very tough negotiator.' The speed of the appointment barely 30 hours after Sir Ivan quit triggered speculation that Sir Tim had been lined up by No 10 and Mr Davis in advance. MPs privately questioned if Sir Ivan had found out about the plan and had flounced out in protest. Sir Tim will be in Brussels as soon as next week to get to work on securing Britain's Brexit deal. Sir Tim Barrow, pictured left with Philip Hammond at a G7 summit last year, is credited with helping block proposals for an EU Army during his last spell in Brussels Prime Minister Theresa May moved swiftly last night to quash a 'mandarin revolt' by appointing her new EU ambassador Despite the new appointment, Lord Marland, a former trade envoy under David Cameron, expressed concerns about the Government's ability to conduct tough negotiations. He said: 'My fear is that Whitehall as a whole has really not got the skill set to deliver a really hard-nosed negotiation and I think we have really got to up skill in that area to do it.' SIR TIM BARROW: A 30-YEAR VETERAN OF THE FOREIGN OFFICE Sir Tim Barrow is known as 'Deepstate' in diplomatic circles in appreciation of the depth and breadth of his knowledge Sir Tim Barrow joined the Foreign Office in 1986 and has enjoyed a fast track career. Sir Tim, who is married to Alison and has two sons and two daughters, spent four years as ambassador to Russia and another two in Kiev, representing Britain in Ukraine. Crucially to his new post, he also had a spell as First Secretary to Britain's ambassador to the EU and was an assistant director in the Foreign Office's EU division. Sir Tim's knowledge about foreign affairs is so deep he is known as 'Deepstate' in diplomatic circles and he was described by No 10 tonight as a 'seasoned and tough negotiator'. The new ambassador is said to be close to Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson. The first part of his career was spent on the front lines of the end of the Cold War. In 1988, he learned Russian, before being moved to Kieve in 1989. He worked in Moscow from 1990 to 1993 before becoming head of the Russia section in 1993. Sir Tim returned to Moscow as ambassador in 2011. Advertisement Lord Marland also insisted that while trade deals are important, they are not 'fundamental'. He added: 'If you're too hard on negotiation you don't win. Any negotiation has got to have something that's in it for both parties.' The tone of his resignation email shocked some senior Whitehall mandarins, who accused him of harming the Civil Service with what appeared to be a 'political attack'. In a bitter 1,400-word resignation letter, Sir Ivan accused Mrs May and her ministers of being 'muddled' and still not knowing what they wanted to achieve. He was backed up by a phalanx of serving and former civil servants, who took to the BBC airwaves to savage the Prime Minister and her Government. The concerted attack was branded a 'mandarin revolt' today by a senior civil servant who spoke to The Times. At 7pm last night, however, Mrs May regained the initiative by announcing his replacement would be 'Kremlinologist' Sir Tim, a career diplomat with Brussels experience who served as ambassador to Vladimir Putin's Russia for four years. The appointment was recommended by Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood - dubbed Sir Cover Up by critics - who urged Mrs May to resist demands for a prominent Brexit supporter to be appointed to the crucial post. Senior Brexiteers welcomed the appointment, praising an 'eminently qualified diplomat' and a 'professional civil servant.' On his appointment, Sir Tim said: 'I am honoured to be appointed as the UK's Permanent Representative to the EU at this crucial time.' Britain's ambassador to the EU is a crucial advisor to the Prime Minister. Sir Tim will be alongside Mrs May throughout the Brexit negotiations, attending meetings and summits to offer his counsel and advice. And he will play a crucial role in feeding back information from other European leaders to No 10 - intelligence vital to the success of Britain's Brexit negotiations. Former diplomat and European Commission official Sir Robert Cooper warned the new ambassador would be faced by a 'policy vacuum' when he arrives in Brussels next week. 'I think at the moment there is a policy vacuum,' Sir Robert told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme. 'I think at the moment probably the atmosphere is difficult because people don't know where they are going. You need to have a sense of direction.' Sir Tim , pictured left with Russian premier Dmitry Medvedev in 2011 when he was appointed to Moscow, is the new EU ambassador Mr Umunna also warned of a lack of direction, telling ITV's Good Morning Britain: 'Holding this referendum without any plan as to what you would do if we voted to leave was criminal, in my view. 'Well, I'm being rhetorical, it's clearly not illegal, but it was a silly thing to do, and now what have we got? We are flailing about, no direction, no-one knows what's happening.' Charles Crawford, Sir Tim's former boss at the Foreign Office, last night told LBC's Iain Dale the new ambassador was not a 'government patsy'. He said: ' Tim will be fearless in putting the choices to ministers. But they have to take the decisions.' 'He's someone who's very practical, who will give ministers a very blunt assessment...he won't pull his punches. 'Having someone with a diplomatic sensibility, quiet advice with how to get on with people...is a good thing really.' Mr Crawford continued: 'He's quite business-like...if you have to choose someone for this job, he is probably - given where we are - as good as it gets. 'He will get on with people because he is charming, but he's not soft. He's not someone who's going to dither.' Mr Crawford said the Foreign Office will be 'delighted' with the appointment because 'for the first time in the last however many years it is they have one of their top people back in the job'. He added: 'Tim is popular and trusted and sensible and will be good.' Sir Tony Brenton, another former ambassador to Russia, told Radio 5Live Sir Tim's time in Moscow would be crucial to his new job in Brussels. He said: 'If you need someone who's going to deal with the horrible mess that Brexit looks like it's going to be, there cannot be much better preparation than having been ambassador in Russia.' Sir Tim is said to be close to Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and is known as 'Deepstate' in diplomatic circles for the breadth of his knowledge and experience Eurosceptic Tory Michael Tomlinson told MailOnline: 'I welcome the speed of this announcement, which shows a Government and Prime Minister determined to get on with and make the best of Brexit in a calm and resolute manner. 'Sir Tim is an eminently qualified diplomat and we look forward to him starting in this role as soon as possible.' Conservative Nadine Dorries said: 'Barrow may have been a remainer, but he's such a professional civil servant, no one will ever really know. Very welcome appointment.' Steve Baker, chairman of the Tory European Research Group, said: 'Sir Tim Barrow is ideally qualified to up this crucial role for this historic purpose. 'The speed of this first-class appointment illustrates the calm, resolve and efficiency of the Prime Minister's and Government's operation.' Brexit supporter Anne-Marie Trevelyan said the new EU ambassador was 'eminently qualified with years of experience in Brussels and Russia' Leading Eurosceptic Nadine Dorries welcomed Sir Tim's appointment, tweeting that because he was a 'professional civil servant' nobody would know his own views Bob Neill - who backed Remain at the referendum - also endorsed the appointment of a 'proper professional' tonight Ex Ukip leader Nigel Farage was more sceptical at the appointment, warning Mrs May had replaced one 'knighted career diplomat' with another. He had called for a 'clear out' at the Foreign Office Ukip MP Douglas Carswell welcomed the appointment, telling MailOnline: 'I'm not going to criticise May at all - provided she triggers Article 50 by the end of March, she can appoint an Elvis impersonator as head honcho in Brussels for all I care.' Ex Ukip leader Nigel Farage - who expressed interest in taking the job himself- appeared sceptical, tweeting: 'Good to see that the government have replaced a knighted career diplomat with.... a knighted career diplomat.' A young mother has been slapped with an anti-social behaviour warning over complaints about her noisy two-year-old son. Sapphire Curzon, 24, said she has to constantly tell off her 'excitable' son, Callum, who often runs around their one-bedroom flat in Netherfield, Nottinghamshire. She has now received a warning from housing authority Gedling Homes, sent in response to complaints from neighbours about the noise. Callum Fisher, Sapphire Curzon and Kyle Fisher - who have been warned about noise coming from their flat The 24-year-old, who studied hairdressing, told the Nottingham Post: 'He's always running. We're constantly telling him off. We shouldn't tell him off because he's playing. It's just what a child does. He gets excited. 'Whatever noise my son makes, I feel like I have to tell him off straight away.' Miss Curzon suffers from depression and anxiety and said the letter had made her 'feel worse'. She believes her son is showing early signs of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The housing authority sent this letter to the family following a string of complaints Miss Curzon, who is separated from Callum's father Kyle Fisher, said she has been asking to be rehoused in a bigger property since her son was born. But she said housing chiefs told her she could not move to a two-bedroom home until Callum reached secondary school age. Mr Fisher, 21, from Bestwood, Nottingham, told the newspaper: 'It's bang out of order. He is the only noise. We got on to the council this morning and they've said there is nothing they can do. We've just got to keep him under control.' Jason Cannon, director at Gedling Homes, said: 'As with all reports of noise or anti-social behaviour, we have a duty to look into these on behalf of our tenants to help them live happily in their homes. Civilian fighters have gunned down three girl suicide bombers who targeted a busy market in north-eastern Nigeria. They blamed terrorist group Boko Haram, who want to create an Islamic state in Nigeria, for the attempted bombing. The self-defence fighters who work alongside the army challenged the girls as they approached a village near Madagali town, local council chairman Yusuf Muhammad Gulak said. The girls began running at the checkpoint and the fighters shot the girl in the lead, activating her explosives and killing her and a companion. The third girl tried to flee and was gunned down. The self-defence fighters who work alongside the army challenged the girls as they approached a village near Madagali town Boko Haram has killed 15,000 people and displaced more than 2 million during its insurgency Army spokesman Major Badare Akintoye confirmed the shootings, adding: 'Our soldiers are on alert and commercial activities are going on' at the targeted market. Soldiers and civilian fighters have prevented many suicide bombers before they can reach heavily populated targets in recent months. However, two women suicide bombers killed 57 people and wounded 177, including 120 children, at Madagali market last month, only 12 miles from the scene of Wednesday's shootings. Boko Haram has used scores of women and girls as young as seven in suicide bombings that have killed hundreds this year. Some of the bombers are suspected to have been previously kidnapped, including the Chibok schoolgirls taken in 2014 that brought worldwide notoriety. A multinational force of troops from Nigeria and its neighbours has driven the Islamic extremists from most of the towns and villages where they had declared a caliphate to help create an Islamic state in Nigeria, a country of 170 million people divided almost equally between Muslims and Christians. Nigeria's president declared Boko Haram had been crushed last month, but there is unlikely to be a swift end to the suicide bombings and attacks on remote villages and army outposts. Boko Haram's devastating seven-year-old Islamic uprising has killed more than 20,000 people, driven 2.6 million from their homes and created a massive humanitarian crisis which has left 5.1 million people facing starvation. Boko Haram fighters has used scores of women and girls as young as seven in suicide bombings that have killed hundreds this year. Some of the bombers are suspected to have been previously kidnapped, including the Chibok schoolgirls taken in 2014 (pictured) Last week it was revealed Boko Haram militants taught children as young as 13 how to rape their hostages. Adult fighters told their young recruits they would 'have fun' sexually assaulting their captives, according to a boy soldier who fled from the Nigerian jihadists. A migrant was killed after being crushed and suffocated as he tried to conceal himself beneath catalogues in the back of a lorry crossing the English Channel. The body of the Eritrean man was found in the lorry at a cafe in Ashford, Kent - despite French authorities checking the vehicle prior to its departure from a Calais port. An inquest into his death today found he died of traumatic compressive asphyxiation after a pile of magazines fell on him. Shocking: The body of the man was discovered in the back of this lorry of catalogues in a Kent layby The inquest heard authorities in Calais had removed around 10 Eritreans from the Hungarian registered lorry, after the driver heard people trying to enter the vehicle as he approached the French port. The inquest heard it was unclear whether the unidentified man had been on board at the time of the search, which involved sniffer dogs. When he arrived in the UK, and parked at the Airport Cafe in Sellindge, near Ashford in Kent, Hungarian truck driver Lorinc Gyula checked his trailer and 'saw a leg sticking out' from under a pile of Christmas catalogues. The inquest heard plastic wrap surrounding the magazines had been ripped open and the plastic ties had been removed. Mr Gyula alerted Julie Breen, manager of the cafe, who checked the trailer then called police. An inquest into the death of the man found he died of traumatic compressive asphyxiation after a pile of the magazines fell on him. Despite an investigation police have been unable to identify the victim nearly three months later, and he is known only to be an Afro Caribbean man in his late 30s. The body of the unnamed man was found in the lorry at a cafe in Ashford, Kent - despite the fact French authorities had checked the vehicle prior to its departure from a Calais port The man's body was found after the lorry driver stopped at this cafe in Kent Police believe no third parties or suspicious circumstances surround his death and the inquest was told no drugs or alcohol were found in his system. It was also revealed that the man was infected with Hepatitis B. He was described as being a thin, Afro Caribbean male in his late 30s, with short dark curly hair with grey flecks. Detective Sergeant Simon Johnson, from Folkestone CID said during an autopsy two SIM cards and 550 were found stitched into his clothing. Analysis of the SIM cards had failed to help identify the man, as they were not registered to an individual, and could not be used to trace any family. Magazines had been strewn across the back of the lorry and the inquest heard some ten other migrants had been found The unidentified man was described as being a thin, Afro Caribbean male in his late 30s The police officer said DNA and finger prints had been taken and they are requesting Interpol assist in identifying him. Mr Johnson said during his investigation he spoke to Home Office and Border Force. He said: 'It was confirmed that French authorities had stopped the vehicle and it was searched. Approximately 10 Eritreans were removed.' Assistant coroner for central and east Kent, Christopher Morris, asked the officer if it was possible to pin point when the man had entered the lorry. Mr Johnson said it would be 'entirely speculative': 'It is impossible to tell when he entered. It could have been with the other group or it could have after.' He added there was a rip in the lorry's roof and evidence that at some point large pipes also being transported in the vehicle had been used to conceal a person, as urine was found in them. Mr Morris concluded the death of the 'unfortunate gentleman' was an accident. The lorry cab: The coroner said, 'I am unable to record the name of the deceased gentleman, a poignant tragedy as he is no doubt someone's son, brother or friend' Emergency services at the scene; An inquest into the death of the man found he died of traumatic compressive asphyxiation after a pile of the magazines fell on him He said: 'This very unfortunate gentleman was found dead on October 18 2016 at the Airport Services in Sellindge in the back of a trailer. 'It appears at some earlier stage the gentleman entered the trailer either alone or with others. The trailer was full of a variety of cargo including Christmas catalogues. 'It appears the sequence of events leading to this gentleman's unfortunate tragic death is that in course of his attempts to conceal himself in the trailer a quantity of catalogues fell on him causing the traumatic compressive asphyxiation which I accept led to his death. The hijacked truck used by Christmas market killer Anis Amri may end up in a museum in Germany, it has emerged. The wreck of the lorry, which was used by the ISIS fanatic to slaughter 12 revellers and injure 48 others in Berlin, could be offered to the House of History in Bonn. Bosses at the museum insist any 'topic of social relevance... deserves to be viewed as part of our history whether we like it or not'. The hijacked truck (pictured) used by Christmas market killer Anis Amri may end up in a museum in Germany, it has emerged The museum already showcases many large objects associated with contemporary history. There is a Mercedes on show once used by postwar chancellor Konrad Adenauer, a railcar that was the property of Hitler deputy Hermann Goring and a VW mini-bus used by the peace movement in the 70's. On display too are twisted girders from the Twin Towers in New York, destroyed in the 9/11 terror attacks of 2001. Museum director Hans Walter Hutter, said it it is still 'too early to worry about the truck,' but that he would not shy away from putting it on display. The wreck of the lorry, which was used by the ISIS fanatic to slaughter 12 revellers and injure 48 others in Berlin, could be offered to the House of History in Bonn 'If a topic of social relevance, and this is indeed so, then it deserves to be viewed as part of our history whether we like it or not,' he said. He said there is 'no room for glorification' of terrorism but that the ISIS presence in Germany will have to be addressed at some point in an historical context. He acknowledged that the feelings of the victims of Amri's December 19 attack must be taken into consideration before any display could be contemplated. A family was horrified to discover its beloved family cat Harry locked inside a working washing machine after climbing inside when its owner's back was turned. Cat owner Lisa said she was walking out the door of her Brunswick home, in Melbourne's north, on Wednesday morning when she realised she had not seen the cat for some time. 'We were about to head out and we were looking for Harry and couldn't find him anywhere,' the mother-of-three told Daily Mail Australia. 'That's when I realised I didn't see him when I put the washing on.' Lisa (front left) with Harry the kitten, her three sons and a fire brigade servicewoman who answered the call for help Lisa said she immediately ran into the laundry and made the horrifying discovery. 'I could see his face peering out at me through the soapy water,' she said. Lisa said she quickly stopped the washing machine cycle, but was forced to phone emergency services to unlock the machine door. When firefighters arrived at the Brunswick home, in Melbourne's central, they used a crow bar to pry open the door and reunite the soaking wet kitten with its owner. While the kitten was distressed by the morning's events, he did not suffer life threatening injuries. He spent the night at the veterinary surgery and was put on a course of antibiotics, 'but will make a full recovery'. Fire fighters had to be called to pry open the washing machine door in order to free the kitten (stock) The distressed owners said they had now taken measures to ensure the same mistake was not repeated. 'We've since stuck animal stickers on every appliance in the house to make sure we always check Harry is safe before we use them,' Lisa said. Harry the rescue kitten had only been a member of the family since December, and had taken a liking to exploring the ins-and-outs of the home ever since. A man found under a bridge with a broken neck, back, ribs and burns to nearly half his body was attacked after rejecting the advances of a man who has a wife and children, the victim's husband has claimed. Maioha Tokotaua, 33, found his 'mangled' husband, Joth Wilson, laying unconscious under a train bridge in Gladstone, Queensland, in the early hours of New Year's Day. As well as broken bones and burns, the 25-year-old's critical injuries include a brain haemorrhage and a severed spine cord - making him unlikely to ever walk again. A distraught Mr Tokotaua told Daily Mail Australia that he believes his husband was attacked after a married man who propositioned him started to fear he may tell his family about his advances. Maioha Tokotaua (left), 33, found his 'mangled' husband, Joth Wilson (right), lying unconscious under a rail bridge in Gladstone, Queensland, in the early hours of New Year's Day As well as broken bones and burns, 25-year-old Mr Wilson's (pictured) critical injuries include a brain haemorrhage and a severed spine cord - making him unlikely to ever walk again Mr Tokotaua, who has been keeping a vigil at his husband's bedside for the last five days, said: 'There were these guys who had been harassing us for some time after one of them, who is married with children, made an advance that Joth rejected. 'There's no money involved, no drugs, no debt, there's just no motive for the attack other than they were intimidated that we might tell their families.' Mr Wilson remains on life support after Mr Tokotaua found him under the eight-metre high bridge at about 2am on New Year's Day. Mr Wilson had headed out to buy cigarettes at about 11.45pm on December 31 so the couple could have one final smoke before giving it up as a New Year's resolution. But when his husband did not make it back in time for midnight, Mr Tokotaua went out searching for him. 'I found him after two hours, on the train tracks. He looked mangled,' Mr Tokotaua told Daily Mail Australia from a hospital in Brisbane. Mr Wilson remains on life support after Mr Tokotaua found him under the eight-metre high bridge (pictured) at about 2am on New Year's Day Police believe Mr Wilson was burned by electrical wires over the bridge (pictured) in Gladstone At first he thought his husband had tried to commit suicide, but he then realised that his partner's hat and wallet were missing, suggesting he had been robbed. Police believe that Mr Wilson's burns are consistent with those from a power line above the train tracks, but Mr Tokotaua disagrees. 'His burns appear to have come from a chemical or lighter fluid that has been poured on him and set alight,' he claimed. 'He has burns to his face and body. The third degree burns are on his torso while those on his face are more superficial. 'It was a gay hate crime.' As well as the burns, he has a broken neck, several spine fractures, four broken ribs, a severed spinal cord, burns to 40 per cent of his body and a brain haemorrhage. Mr Wilson is in a critical but stable condition on life support at a hospital in Brisbane and his husband says he has been told to not expect much progress in the next two weeks. Mr Tokotaua asked Daily Mail Australia to not name the hospital Mr Wilson is being treated at for fears of reprisal attacks. Mr Wilson (pictured) had headed out to buy cigarettes at about 11.45pm on December 31 so the couple could have one final smoke before giving it up as a New Year's resolution The pair, from Taranaki on New Zealand's North Island, would have been heading home next week to be with their children if it was not for the horrific incident The couple, who had been visiting family and travelling along Australia's east coast, have been married for three years, tying the knot after gay marriage was made legal in their native New Zealand. They have three adopted children and have also helped to raise a total of 15 foster children, Mr Tokotaua said. The pair, from Taranaki on New Zealand's North Island, would have been heading home next week to be with their children if it was not for the horrific incident. Detective Senior Sergeant Chris Lindsay, from Gladstone Police's Criminal Investigations Branch, said the burns were likely to have come from contact with electrical wires above the train track. Queensland Police are yet to make any arrests and are still investigating. 'We are trying to work out the circumstances as to him being at the bottom of the bridge,' Detective Senior Sergeant Lindsay said. looking for a place to sleep, eat and charge his phone A Melbourne teen dubbed the 'Goldilocks' burglar by police said he was looking for a place to cool off after a fight with his father when he was found sleeping inside a couple's home, a court has heard. Isaac Henderson, 18, is accused of breaking into Mel and Tony Christensen's recently sold home in Donvale, east Melbourne, on December 29 before allegedly threatening the Ms Christensen with a knife after the couple woke him. He has been charged with burglary, criminal damage, assault with a weapon and making threats and appeared in the Ringwood Magistrates' Court on Thursday. The court heard Mr Henderson had a fight with his father and left the house, became lost and was looking for a place to sleep, eat and charge his phone when he was found shirtless in bed. Scroll down for video Isaac Henderson, an 18-year-old from Melbourne who has been dubbed the 'Goldilocks' burglar by police, said he had a fight with his father before he allegedly broke into a couple's home Senior Constable Brendan Keanan told the court Mr Henderson admitted to police he broke into the property, but denied using a knife. Mr Henderson also allegedly told police he threatened Mrs Christensen with a chicken skewer. Police say they were unable to find any weapons to verify either version of the incident. Magistrate Marc Sargent said he was concerned about Mr Henderson's 'preparedness to brandish a weapon when it was completely unnecessary'. He was also concerned the teen allegedly threatened officers when he was arrested and told them: 'I'll put the f*****g dog on to you.' The Christensens said they came home last Thursday at about 11am to find their bed had been dragged from the bedroom to the living room. 'He was wriggling around when he flipped up the doona wielding a large knife. He pulled it against my neck from behind and started threatening me,' Ms Christensen told Daily Mail Australia. Mr Henderson is accused of breaking into Mel and Tony Christensen's recently sold home in Donvale, east Melbourne, on December 29 He allegedly threatening the Ms Christensen with a knife after the couple woke him In footage of the incident taken by her husband on his smartphone, Ms Christensen's blood-curdling screams can be heard as he is checking for accomplices downstairs. Realising the threat of accomplices was a decoy, her quick-thinking husband raced back upstairs and then pursued Mr Henderson, who allegedly fled. 'My husband trailed him up the street, [after] he threw me away and took off barefoot,' Ms Christensen claimed. Mr Christensen told Daily Mail Australia his instincts kicked in when he whipped out his phone and began filming. He has been charged with burglary, criminal damage, assault with a weapon and making threats and appeared in the Ringwood Magistrates' Court on Thursday 'All I was thinking was what I have I got to do to help police find this person,' he said. Upon hearing her screams, Mr Christensen said he knew what he had to do. 'At that point I knew her safety was the only thing that mattered so I left the phone and chased him out,' he said. No one was physically injured and nothing was stolen. Mr Henderson also allegedly took a shower and turned on the air-conditioning. The 18-year-old was arrested on Wednesday following a police appeal. The First Family have just two weeks before President Obama steps down from office and they move out of the White House. And already moving trucks have been spotted pulling up outside the building as the Obamas prepare for life after the presidency. The president, his wife Michelle and daughters Malia and Sasha have called the White House their home for the past eight years. Moving trucks from moving company 'Moving Masters Inc' have been spotted pulling up outside the White House Earlier trucks were also spotted outside the front of the White House as the Obamas prepare to move out But after serving two terms, Obama and his family will make way for the President-elect Donald Trump on January 20, the day he is sworn in. And yesterday afternoon, preparations were already underway for the move after the truck was seen parked outside the White House on West Executive Street. The street is within the White House gates and is close to the Eisenhower Executive Office and the West Wing. The truck belonged to Maryland-based company Moving Masters Inc, who describe themselves as a 'commercial moving and storage company.' All of their vehicles are decorated with the slogan 'It's your move, call the masters.' Once Obama and his family move out of the White House, they are expected to relocate to a large property in the upmarket Kalorama neighbourhood of Washington D.C. President Obama is pictured with wife Michelle and daughters Malia and Sasha in the White House Rose Garden However, it is unclear exactly what the company were moving and where it was being taken. Once Obama and his family move out of the White House, they are expected to relocate to a large property in the upmarket Kalorama neighbourhood of Washington DC. President-elect Donald Trump will be sworn in on January 20 It is believed their new neighbours could include the new president Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner. The Obamas have made the unusual decision to stay in the capital because they do not want to interrupt their younger daughter Sashas time at high school. The 14-year-old is a student at Sidwell Friends School, where fees are $39,360 a year. Her elder sister will be in the middle of a year off when they leave the White House. She is then going to study at Harvard. Meanwhile it has emerged that White House staff will have just six hours to move out the Obamas and move in the new First Family. While president-elect Donald Trump delivers his inauguration speech, nearly 100 staffers will be frantically making the 132-room mansion ready for the Trumps. From 10.30am, staff will begin moving the Obamas' belongings into waiting trucks on the South Lawn, and moving the Trump family's items inside. 'It's more like organized chaos,' chief White House usher Stephen Rochon admitted to CNN. 'We have one truck at the South Lawn that belongs to the outgoing President and first family facing south, and the incoming truck facing north toward the White House is on the east side of the south grounds.' White House staff will have just just six hours to move out the Obamas and move in the new First Family. Pictured are moving trucks moving out George W. Bush in January 2009 While Barack Obama was being sworn in as the 44th president in 2009, moving men were hard at work During the chaotic flurry, some staffers will also be putting their finishing new touches to the dining rooms, while the kitchen staff make a snack for the First Family before the inaugural ball. Incoming presidents, and their families, are free to make any changes they like to the private floors of the White House, on the second and third floors. Some had raised concerns that Trump might try to replicate his gaudy, bombastic style - as exhibited in his many buildings including the gold-leafed, blingy Trump Tower in New York. But the president-elect has promised he has not plans to impose his opulent style on the White House. A third teen has been charged over one-punch attack that left a man fighting for his life - as their alleged victim remains in a coma. The 14, 15 and 16-year-old boys charged over the Surfers Paradise attack appeared briefly in Southport Magistrates Court on Thursday morning, but did not apply for bail. Police will allege the trio verbally abused 21-year-old Thomas Dover and a friend around 2am on Wednesday, before two of the youngsters followed and assaulted the pair. Thom Dover was the victim of a shocking one-punch attack in Surfers Paradise on Wednesday He was left lying in a pool of blood on the street after allegedly being hit from behind in a 'one punch attack' Mr Dover was allegedly struck in the back of the head, before falling and hitting his head on the pavement. He was stabilised at the scene before being rushed to Gold Coast University Hospital. On Thursday evening, he remained there in a coma with his family by his bedside, just a week after celebrating his 21st birthday, according to the Gold Coast Bulletin. His friend also suffered minor injuries following the alleged assault. Friends of Mr Dover (pictured) said the 'kind hearted' 21-year-old would never seek out a fight Police initially charged the 16-year-old boy from Churchill with grievous bodily harm, common assault and public nuisance on Wednesday, while a 14-year-old from Goodna was also charged with the latter two charges. A 15-year-old boy from Loganlea was then also charged on Thursday morning with grievous bodily harm over the attack. It is good news that what happened to him is being taken seriously in the courts, but we hope the kids involved get help too. Candice Dover, Mr Dover's sister All three will reappear at Southport Children's Court on January 25. His older sister, Candice, told the Gold Coast Bulletin Mr Dover was showing positive signs but needed more rest. 'It is good news that what happened to him is being taken seriously in the courts, but we hope the kids involved get help too. 'He's stubborn, he's been fighting the sedation and trying to wake on his own.' However, doctors said he was not yet ready to wake up and wanted to keep him in an induced coma longer. It was lucky he'd fallen on his face rather than the back of his head. More than 40 years after David Bowie first set foot in Japan - a country that would have a profound influence on him and his career - an exhibition dedicated to the star is set to open in Tokyo. The display, curated by the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London, will open on what would have been Bowie's 70th birthday on Sunday. Next Tuesday marks a year since Bowie died after a battle with liver cancer. The exhibition, named David Bowie Is, will open in Tokyo on Sunday Bowie first disembarked from a cruise liner, the Oronsay, in Japan in April 1973. A renowned Japanophile, Bowie worked with Japanese fashion designer Kansai Yamamoto to create some of his most iconic looks. He also drew influence from the Asian country in his music - playing a koto instrument on his 1977 Heroes album. The exhibition opens on Sunday, on what would have been Bowie's 70th birthday The distinctive outfit, worn on the Aladdin Sane tour, is among the exhibits on display in Tokyo The show highlights Bowies changing personas, from Ziggy Stardust to Aladdin Sane The exhibition, which first opened in London in 2013, features more than 300 items from the David Bowie Archive Famous exhibits that will be on display include the renowned Space Samurai outfit, and a kimono-inspired cape carrying Japanese characters. Co-curator Victoria Broackes said Japanese culture was fascinating to Bowie When it was announced last year that the exhibition, named David Bowie Is, would be heading to Tokyo, co-curator Victoria Broackes said: 'From an early stage and continuing throughout his career, Japan and Japanese culture were fascinating to Bowie and had a great influence on him. 'It is absolutely appropriate that Japan will be the only Asian country hosting the exhibition, a country where Bowie had great working relationships and where he performed dozens of concerts to many thousands of fans.' The display, featuring more than 300 objects from the David Bowie Archive, kicked off at the V&A museum in London in 2013. The show highlights Bowies changing personas, from Ziggy Stardust to Aladdin Sane, complete with lightning flash, to the The Thin White Duke and bequiffed, blue-eyed soul boy for his 1975 album Young Americans. It has since travelled around the world, visiting cities including Toronto, Sao Paolo, Berlin, Chicago, Paris and Melborne. In Tokyo, the exhibition will be held at Warehouse TERRADA, located in Tennoz Isle. Bowie worked with Japanese fashion designer Kansai Yamamoto to create some of his most distinctive looks The display, featuring more than 300 objects from the David Bowie Archive, kicked off at the V&A museum in London in 2013 Nigel Farage is to attend the inauguration of Donald Trump after securing an invite to the historic event. Mr Trump will take the oath of office and become President at noon on January 20 in front of an audience of thousands, including his defeated rival Hillary Clinton. Ex-Ukip leader Mr Farage has been invited to the ceremony by the governor of Mississippi after campaigning for the President-elect in the wake of Brexit victory. Mr Farage had hoped to be made the UK's ambassador to America to build on his close ties with Mr Trump's team but he was rebuffed by No 10. Instead, he announced today he was launching a nightly radio talk show on LBC. Donald Trump and Nigel Farage, pictured in the President-elect's gold elevator in November, became fast friends during the election campaign Revealing his inauguration invite, Mr Farage told Sky News: 'The governor of Mississippi has invited me and Im there for a few days and its going to be a great, historic event. 'In America theyve had a political revolution and its complete; the problem in Britain is our revolution is not complete because the same people are still in charge.' He added: 'I have spoken to most of Trumps team and I get very warm vibes about the relationship they want to have with this country and these are opportunities we have got to grab with both hands.' Mr Farage quit frontline politics after the EU referendum with a vow to 'get my life back'. The MEP, who has previously worked on LBC as a stand-in presenter, said his new show would be 'full of opinions, callers and reactions'. It is scheduled to start next week and will air from Monday to Thursday at 7pm. He will end each show with his own 'nightly final thought'. Nigel Farage, pictured on ITV this week, has secured a new job working as a nightly talk show presenter on radio station LBC Mr Farage said: 'If 2016 was exciting, then this year could be tumultuous with President Trump, Article 50, elections all over Europe and maybe a Eurozone crash. 'I can't wait to start my daily show on LBC and I invite listeners to agree with me or challenge me and together we can lead Britain's conversation.' James Rea, LBC's managing editor, said: 'With Brexit and the inauguration of President Elect Trump, Nigel Farage is the man at the centre of the two biggest stories this year. 'He is a powerful communicator and has proved himself as a natural broadcaster. With his new nightly show, we look forward to him joining the LBC team next week.' Mr Farage announced his new radio show on Twitter, inviting listeners to call in and disagree with him about the issues of the day - and promising to end on his own nightly 'final thought' He spent much of the post-referendum period in the United States as a media commentator and campaigner for Mr Trump. Mr Farage then became the first British politician to meet with the President-elect after his shock White House victory in November. He quipped he could be Mr Trump's ambassador to Europe and offered his services to Theresa May. Mr Trump even endorsed the ex-Ukip leader to be Britain's next US ambassador - despite there being no vacancy. Four bottlenose dolphins escaped from captivity in Japan today after the nets keeping them in their holding pens were slashed. But furious officials from the DolphinBase recreational facility in the town of Taiji described it as an 'egoistic and irresponsible act' which endangered the creatures' lives. Taiji, 300 miles west of Tokyo, has been at the centre of protests from international animal rights campaigners since a 2009 documentary, The Cove, highlighted the town's annual dolphin slaughter. Two of the three animals which have returned to the DolphinBase centre (pictured). A fourth, believed to be related to them, is swimming just outside the nets The BBC reported that in 2010 a Dutch group called Blackfish carried out a similar attack on the nets keeping dolphin captives. But on their blog DolphinBase officials said: 'We are enraged by this heinous act which can easily lead to the dolphins dying. 'They think that once out of their pen, dolphins will swim far away but that is not true. Dolphins will not stray far and they will not leave their group.' They said three of the dolphins had managed to swim back through the hole in the nets while the fourth was swimming in the sea nearby but was trying to figure out how to resume the rest of the pod. Every year dozens of dolphins are lured into a cove near Taiji by local fishermen (pictured). Many of them are killed but some are captured and sold to aquariums and sea life centres Maisie Williams (pictured, left) who plays Arya Stark in Game Of Thrones (right) is one of many celebrities who have spoken out against the annual dolphin slaughter A police official from the nearby city of Shingu said: 'We are investigating the case on suspicion of criminal damage.' The Cove was an Oscar-winning film which depicted an annual dolphin slaughter in the area. Hundreds of dolphins and pilot whales are herded by fishermen into a cove and most are then killed for their meat, or sold to aquariums such as DolphinBase. Environmental campaigners visit Taiji every year to protest the slaughter and the authorities have boosted security to prevent clashes between locals and activists. Japanese fishermen catch dolphins as part of an annual hunt in Taiji in 2014. Locals claim the hunt is an important ritual dating back centuries and point out dolphins are not an endangered species Among those celebrities supporting the protest are English actress Maisie Williams, who played Arya Stark in Game Of Thrones. Defenders of the hunt say it is a tradition and point out the animals are not an endangered species, a position echoed by the Japanese government. Ric O'Barry, the director of The Cove, was detained in Japan last year for nearly three weeks after being denied entry to the country, and was eventually deported. O'Barry's Dolphin Project, a dolphin protection and campaign group, criticised today's cutting of the nets. 'While we are against keeping dolphins in captivity, we do not condone illegal behaviour,' it said on its website. A passenger plane was forced to drop sharply to avoid a mid-air crash with a NATO jet, Russia has claimed. The commercial propeller aircraft was flying off Russia's east coast when it was forced into performing the emergency action, according to a security source in the country. Air traffic controllers spotted the two planes approaching one another as the Russian Aurora Airlines flight - a subsidiary of Aeroflot - was making its way from Sakhalin peninsula to the Kuril Islands, reports in Russia claim. A Russian passenger plane run by Aurora Airlines (file picture) was forced to drop sharply to avoid a mid-air crash with a NATO jet, Russia has claimed It was forced to make an emergency descent when the unknown jet entered its 'air corridor', according to the Interfax news agency. Authorities are said to have made attempts to contact the unidentified military aircraft, but did receive a response from their radio signals. But the Moscow Times reports that the jet's radar transporter was recorded and that a security source said it belonged to a NATO aircraft. The claim has not been confirmed and NATO told MailOnline today: 'There were no aircraft under NATO command in the region in question.' Aurora Airlines told RIA Novosti that the claims were 'complete nonsense' and that the incident 'never happened'. The reports surfaced at a time of heightened tensions between Russian president Vladimir Putin and the West. There have been few recent examples of NATO planes violating Russian airspace, but frequent reports have surfaced of Putin's jets being intercepted by Western jets. It comes at a time of heightened tensions between Russian president Vladimir Putin and the West In October, a pair of Russian Blackjack bombers were intercepted by fighter jets from four European countries as they flew from the direction of Norway to northern Spain and back. Britain, France, Norway and Spain all scrambled warplanes as the TU-160 planes 'skirted' the airspace of each country. The UK deployed RAF fighter jets then intercepted Russian bombers nearing UK airspace twice in four days. The Russian military aircraft flew in an 'area of interest' off the coast of Scotland in the middle of the night on October 12 and again on October 16, the MoD revealed. Model Laylah De Cruz, 31, and her mother, Dianne Moorcroft, 62, (pictured outside court today) who are accused off an 'audacious' 1.2m property fraud A 62-year-old mother from Blackpool posed as a multi-millionaire to help pull off an 'audacious' 1.2million property fraud so she could share the money with her model daughter in Dubai, a court has heard. Dianne Moorcroft, 62, changed her name by deed poll to convince estate agents and solicitors she was Margaret Gwenllian Richards, 85, the owner of a vacant 3m house in Kensington, it is claimed. Moorcroft's daughter, model Laylah De Cruz, 31, is alleged to have encouraged her mother to take part in the fraud. A British passport and Dubai resident permit in Ms Richards' name was obtained to get a tenancy for the property. They then arranged for its sale while the real owner was living in Cambridge, a court heard. The gang secured a 1.2million bridging loan against the house before a buyer was found and they immediately transferred the money to Dubai, Southwark Crown Court was told. De Cruz, who currently lives in Dubai, denies one count of conspiracy to commit fraud Teresa Hay, for the prosecution, said: 'The fraud itself was as simple as it was audacious. 'The conspirators include not just these two ladies but others who identified a vacant property likely to be of significant value because of where it was in southwest London and then obtained a tenancy for the property.' She continued: 'Moorcroft would not have become involved in this scam at all if it weren't for the involvement and encouragement of her daughter. 'The roles they played respectively in the grand scheme were relatively small but they were hugely significant in the success of the scam.' De Cruz, a model, was arrested in May 2016 after travelling to the UK from Dubai The pair deny one count of conspiracy to commit fraud between July 1 and October 31 2014, and Moorcroft denies a further charge of possession of an identity document with intent. Moorcroft met with property lawyer Tim Cope in London to arrange for the sale of the property, the court heard. Ms Hay said: 'What Mr Cope failed to notice either in advance or at that meeting is that the image on the passport didn't appear to match that on the resident's permit... and neither of those images matched those of the woman sitting in front of him at that meeting.' Moorcroft convinced Mr Cope she owned the plush property and he acted as a solicitor in the sale, jurors heard. The model, who lives in Dubai, appeared at Southwark Crown Court accused of a 1.2m fraud The fraudsters sent him an email applying for a loan against the property before a buyer could be found and he negotiated a 1.2million offer through bridging loan company Fincorp. Property Holdings Ltd provided the cash for the loan, and the money was transferred to Moorcroft's solicitors on October 21 2014. It was transferred to a bank account she had set up in Dubai on the same day. Mr Cope and Fincorp were informed that the Land Registry suspected a fraud on October 27 2014 - but efforts to retrieve the money were fruitless as it had been withdrawn in cash. Police began investigating the alleged fraud in January 2015 and discovered there were only two people in the UK named Margaret Gwenllian Richards. Moorcroft was arrested at her home in Blackpool in February 2015 and made 'no comment' in an interview. De Cruz was arrested in May 2016 after travelling to the UK from Dubai and also refused to answer questions. Dianne Moorcroft, 62, (pictured outside court today) changed her name by deed poll to convince estate agents and solicitors she was Margaret Gwenllian Richards, 85, the owner of a vacant 3m house in Kensington, it is claimed Officers are said to have discovered text messages between the pair from 13-15 July 2014. The court heard the conspiracy involved De Cruz's lover Karl Cronin and a man 'purporting to be' Mark Armstrong, who are not before the court. In one message De Cruz said: 'Karl said we are going forward 100 per cent.' Moorcroft replied: 'I don't know whether I can because of the medical situation, they're complicated to change medical records if passport in different name.' Another message from De Cruz read: 'It's 30k you fly here for two days then back. You can change back to your other name it's only your passport.' She later texted: 'It's now 100k for you.' Ms Hay said Cronin 'was communicating with both ladies', and said 'someone else must have been involved in the fraud in the UK'. She told jurors Cronin and De Cruz had visited a fertility clinic together and said their relationship 'was a loving and enduring one'. Moorcroft, from Blackpool, and De Cruz, who currently lives in Dubai, each deny one count of conspiracy to commit fraud and Moorcroft also denies a count of possession of an identity document with improper intent. Teams of glamorous young air stewardesses could be a new weapon in despot leader Kim Jong-un's arsenal - in order to get people to visit North Korea. An unusual 2017 calendar has been released by Kim's regime, featuring numerous images of young women wearing flight attendant uniforms, with short skirts. One picture shows a young female stewardess pouring a glass of the secretive country's own brand of beer, Taedonggang. October features a number of air stewardesses wearing short skirts The calendar was published by the state-run Korea Publications Export and Import Corp One picture shows a young female stewardess pouring a glass of the secretive country's own brand of beer, Taedonggang Another shows a group of six air stewardesses wheeling their luggage across the tarmac, while another shows a woman holding flowers at an airport. Previous calendars have been far more sedate, featuring scenes of North Korea's landscapes. Yonhap news agency quotes a source in North Korea stating: 'It is the first time a North Korean calendar carries photos of female flight attendants, way different from previous calendars that mostly carried bland photos of scenic views and cultural sites.' One of the images shows an air stewardess holding flowers at one of North Korea's airports Air stewardesses feature prominently in the unusual 2017 calendar Three stewardesses on the steps outside a plane are among the images that feature in the calendar Another entry shows a man and two women being served by two waitresses The calendar was published by the state-run Korea Publications Export and Import Corp. It also carries the date of important North Korean landmarks, such as the birthdays of former leaders Kim Il-sung, Kim's grandfather, and his father, Kim Jong-il. North Korea has 71 public holidays in 2017, an increase of three from the previous year, the calendar reveals. This year's calendar is a lot different from previous efforts, which have featured images of North Korea's landscapes North Koreans gathered in Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang today to hear Kim's New Year's address Chuanfang Zheng, 30, pictured, is accused of shaking her seven-month-old niece Pheobe to death because she 'wouldn't stop crying' A Chinese woman shook her seven-month-old niece to death after she 'flipped' when the baby wouldn't stop crying and refused to eat, a court has heard. Chuanfang Zheng, 30, is accused of 'losing control' just 30 minutes after looking after baby Phoebe Guo while the tot's parents worked at the family's Chinese takeaway. Phoebe Guo sustained non-accidental brain damage, also known as a 'shaken baby' injury, at Zheng's flat in Lutterworth, Leicestershire, on March 22 last year. Professionals described the baby as suffering 'severe' and 'repetitive' force with a 'rotational, acceleration-deceleration' injury. Leicester Crown Court heard the youngster never regained consciousness and died three days later on March 25. Zheng, who has three children of her own, denies manslaughter. The court heard that within half-an-hour of being left in the sole care of Zheng, the baby suffered 'a catastrophic and ultimately fatal injury with significant bleeding on the brain and behind the eyes'. The court heard that at around 7pm, Zheng ran two doors down from her flat to the family-run Chinese takeaway, the Great Wall carrying the unconscious Phoebe in her arms. Prosecutor Adrian Langdale said: 'What followed were frantic attempts to ring 999, but when language barriers prevented that, she was rushed by car to hospital and over the next few days there were extensive medical efforts to save her young life. 'It's probably unlikely it will ever be possible to establish what happened behind the closed doors of the defendant's home on the evening of March 22, 2015, when she was left alone to care for seven-month-old Phoebe and her three other very young children aged five, four and eight months, or to establish whether the defendant was deliberately abusive or whether she momentarily lost control with a crying baby and shook the child aggressively to quieten her. 'What the experts can establish is that this defendant must have caused significant and abusive head trauma to Phoebe. 'Such significant injuries as this baby sustained weren't caused by accident or natural causes. 'This was a small flat and she had the care of four very young children, who appeared to be crying and requiring attention and feeding. 'The defendant herself describes Phoebe as repeatedly crying and refusing to eat. 'What is clear from the facts, and all agree, including the defendant, is that when Phoebe was left in her care, she was well, behaving normally and exhibiting no signs of ill-health. Zheng, a mother of three, denies manslaughter and is on trial at Leicester Crown Court, pictured 'Yet whilst in the care of this defendant her young niece suffered catastrophic injuries including substantial traumatic brain injury and very extensive bleeding of the eyes described by an expert as 'very much at the severe end of the range'. Mr Langdale said Zheng, who later moved to Southwark, London, lied to cover up her actions after realising the seriousness of what she had done. Zheng told the police the baby became unwell and lost consciousness after choking on food. Mr Langdale added: 'She will seek to blame the mother's efforts at resuscitating her stricken baby for being the cause of the many serious injuries.' He alleged that the prosecution's medical evidence did not support Zheng's account of what happened. A woman died after being mistaken for a car thief and tied to a tree infested with poisonous ants. The 52-year-old was rescued alive by police but died in hospital from breathing problems caused by severe throat swelling after her windpipe was bitten by the insects. The victim had gone to help her son who had been bound to the tree by angry vigilantes who accused them of trying to steal a car in Caranavi, Bolivia, around 100 miles north east of the capital La Paz. The Bolivian woman and two of her children were tied to a tree that was infested with poisonous ants. She died in hospital after developing severe throat swelling Her daughter also received the same punishment but she and her older brother survived and are now recovering from her injuries. Local reports said the trio were also beaten and burnt using an accelerant. The shocking incident happened on New Years Eve. A local radio station published a picture of two of the three people blindfolded and bound to the tree while villagers including a woman with a child in her arms and a schoolboy kneeling on the ground looked on from a few feet away. Local authorities said preliminary investigations had showed the dead woman and her children, aged 22 and 28, had travelled to the area from La Paz to recover a debt. The tree they were tied to was a Palo Santo, a mystical tree growing on the coast of South America which is the favourite haunt of colonies of the Brazilian fire ant known for their extremely painful bites. Local police chief Gunter Agudo said: 'We managed to rescue all three people but one of them, the 52-year-old woman, was in a bad way and had to be taken to hospital. 'She died at 3.30pm on New Years Eve.' The victim had gone to help her son who had been bound to the tree by angry vigilantes who accused them of trying to steal a car in Caranavi, Bolivia, around 100 miles north east of the capital La Paz (file picture) Revealing her injured son and daughter had claimed they had travelled to Caranavi to recover a debt, he added: 'Initially the investigation was opened as a probe into an attempted car theft but now it has been changed to a murder and serious assault investigation.' Only one person has been arrested so far on suspicion of inciting locals to commit their shocking act, although the authorities have confirmed others took part. The unnamed suspect was held on January 1 and has been remanded in prison following a court appearance. Roxana Bustillos, lawyer for the family targeted by the vigilantes, said: 'It's probable that the ants bit the victim's windpipe, which caused an inflammation and meant she wasn't able to breathe.' One local described the trio, despite the authorities' insistence they suspected no wrongdoing on their part, as criminals who had gone to the area to 'make mischief' and said they had picked on poor people who had made huge sacrifices to obtain their own vehicle. But Roberhtmar Aramayo, who described himself as a nephew of the dead woman, said on the Facebook page of a local radio station: 'Damned community Indians of Caranavi. A Second World War veteran was fleeced out of 113,000 by fraudsters who swindled pensioners to support Islamic State terrorists in Syria, a court heard. Kenneth Whitaker, 93, who fought at the Battle of Arnhem in the Netherlands in 1944, said he felt dumb and stupid after he lost his life savings in the cruel scam. The gang targeted at least 18 victims from Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Bedfordshire, London and Kent, netting more than 900,000 in the Bank of Terror fraud. Behind bars: In May 2016 nine fraudsters - including former X Factor contestant Nathan Fagan-Gayle (left), and Sakaria Aden (right) - were jailed for 35 years for fraud and money laundering Claiming to be law enforcement officials, they persuaded pensioners to transfer money for safekeeping because criminals were trying to steal from their accounts. Victims were urged to ring their banks to move the money to new accounts - but when they hung up and dialled they were still connected to the fraud gang. The fraudsters urged the pensioners not to tell anyone else or it would jeopardise the police investigation. Colin Cromwell, 50, was not involved in the original fraud, but was recruited to launder 20,000 of Mr Whitakers cash through his bank account. He admitted converting criminal property between January and February 2015, but claimed he did not hand a penny back to the fraudsters. Imprisoned: Yasser Abukar (left), 24, was jailed for six years, while Makhzumi Abukar (right), 28, got seven years and four months for their involvement in the fraud operation Mark Gatley, for Cromwell, said: He had second thoughts and cancelled the card they had given him and requested a new card. When the money eventually cleared he withdrew it all and spent it. 'He spent a lot of it on drugs, but also some of it on clothes for him and his partner, and on essentials for the baby she was expecting at the time. Cromwell appeared at the Old Bailey by video link and is due back in court on February 1 to learn whether his plea will be accepted by the prosecution. Mr Whitaker said in a victim impact statement that the fraud had robbed him of his independence, stating: I never used to feel my age or how old I am, but I do now. Fraud smashed by police: Ahmed Ahmed (left), 23, was jailed for four years and two months, while Fahim Islam (right), 21, got six years and three months I dont feel as confident, but most of all I feel like such an idiot for not picking it up earlier. The worst thing is I thought I was helping. Throughout my time in the Army and business Ive tried to do the right thing, I thought I was trying to help police officers catch criminals. Throughout my time in the world I was never afraid of anything, perhaps thats what made me a target. Now I just feel dumb and stupid for having fallen for it. The fraud was smashed by officers from the Metropolitan Polices Counter Terrorism Command investigating cash being funnelled from Britain to Syria to fund ISIS. In May 2016 nine fraudsters - including former X Factor contestant Nathan Fagan-Gayle - were jailed for a total of more than 35 years for fraud and money laundering. Mugshots: Mohamed Dahir (left) got two years and nine months, while Anrul Islam (right) was jailed for 16 months. Police had been investigating cash being funnelled from Britain to Syria Fagan-Gayle was jailed for 20 months for his role in laundering the cash, although he claimed he thought the money was pre-payment for upcoming gigs in Dubai. Sakaria Aden, 22, was jailed for six years and six months, Yasser Abukar, 24, for six years, while Makhzumi Abukar, 28, got seven years and four months. Ahmed Ahmed, 23, was jailed for four years and two months, Fahim Islam, 21, for six years and three months, and Mohamed Dahir for two years and nine months. Anrul Islam, 24, was jailed for 16 months, while 30-year-old Warsame Sheik was jailed for nine months. North Korea is capable of testing an intercontinental ballistic missile this year, experts say - despite Donald Trump insisting that it 'won't happen'. Kim Jong-un claimed in his annual New Year's address that preparations for an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test launch have 'reached the final stage.' Some experts have now warned that there is 'no reason' the country could not start testing this year. Kim Jong-un claimed in his annual New Year's address that preparations for launching an intercontinental ballistic missile have 'reached the final stage' Some experts have now warned that there is 'no reason' the country could not start testing intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) this year. Pictured is a news report showing a Musudan missile launch conducted by North Korea Melissa Hanham, from the James Martin Center of Nonproliferation Studies, says that evidence suggests that North Korea 'is in the final stages of developing an ICBM', as is claimed. She told The Guardian: 'They would have to do some flight testing, but there is no reason they cant start that in 2017.' Ms Hanham said photographs show that North Korea has the 'engines, and probably the fuel and heat shield for their ICBM'. However, experts said that any test flight would likely fail. In his New Year's address, Kim Jong-un said: 'Research and development of cutting edge arms equipment is actively progressing and ICBM rocket test launch preparation is in its last stage.' The North Korean dictator did not explicitly say that a test was imminent. Following Kim Jong-un's claims about the ICBM test launch preparation being in its 'final stages', Donald Trump said 'won't happen'. It was not clear whether it was a promise to stop North Korea, or if he was just doubting North the country's nuclear capabilities Trump also complained that China was 'taking massive amounts of money' from the US without helping with the North Korean issue Trump responded by tweeting on Monday: 'North Korea just stated that it is in the final stages of developing a nuclear weapon capable of reaching parts of the US. It won't happen!' It was not clear whether Trump meant he would stop North Korea's plans or if he was simply doubting the country's capabilities. He then turned his attention on China, saying: 'China has been taking out massive amounts of money & wealth from the US in totally one-sided trade, but won't help with North Korea. Nice!' There is a general consensus that Pyongyang has made significant nuclear and missile progress under Kim Jong-un, who took over from his father in 2011. He has conducted three of the country's five total nuclear tests, including two last year. Advertisement Russian Marines shattered glass bottles with their heads and smashed burning wooden planks against each other as part of an eye-catching charm offensive in the Philippines. The camouflage-clad Marines showed off their pistol-shooting, knife-fighting and martial arts skills to the Filipino public in Manila's central park as part of a 'goodwill visit'. As bewildered passers-by watched, the Russians smashed boards with their fists, had cinder blocks crushed on their stomachs and endured beatings from flaming planks. The show culminated with them smashing glass bottles on their heads without any visible effect. Brute strength: Russian Marines smashed bricks over their comrades' stomachs as part of an eye-catching charm offensive in the Philippines Tough nut to crack: The show culminated with them smashing glass bottles on their heads without any visible effect Feeling the burn: As bewildered passers-by watched, the Russians smashed boards with their fists, had cinder blocks crushed on their stomachs and endured beatings from flaming planks After the display, eager Filipinos rushed to take 'selfies' with the beret-wearing Russians. 'The performances were great, the stunts were quite impressive,' gushed student Antonio Chua. The visit was spearheaded by two warships following Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's announced pivot away from the United States. The camouflage-clad Marines also smashed boards with their fists and feet during the display in the Philippines capital Russian marines attached to the anti-submarine ship Admiral Tributs show their skills during a demonstration at a park in Manila The visit was spearheaded by two warships following Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's announced pivot away from the United States Filipinos were also allowed to attend an open house on the submarine-hunter Admiral Tributs, one of the two ships making what was only the Russian Navy's third-ever port call in the Philippines Filipinos were also allowed to attend an open house on the submarine-hunter Admiral Tributs, one of the two ships making what was only the Russian Navy's third-ever port call in the Philippines. Duterte, who calls himself a socialist, has championed a move away from the United States and towards US rivals Russia and China following American criticism of his bloody war on crime that has claimed thousands of lives. 'America has lost,' Duterte said on a visit to China in October last year. Duterte, who calls himself a socialist, has championed a move away from the United States and towards US rivals Russia and China following American criticism of his bloody war on crime that has claimed thousands of lives The Russian Navy said earlier this week it was planning to hold war games with the Philippines, as two of its ships made a rare stop in Manila following Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte's pivot from the United States A Marine uses his fists to lash out at a glass container full of water in another show of strength during the bizarre display Russian Marines show their individual combat skills during a public capability demonstration at the Luneta National Park in Metro Manila Through the pain barrier: A Marine shows off his fighting skills as crowds watch on in a park in the Philippines today Filipino children pose for pictures with some of the Russian soldiers who took part in the display in Manila Russia's ambassador to the Philippines Igor Khovaev said Thursday he expected a planned visit by Duterte to Russia in April or May to be 'a milestone' 'I've realigned myself in your (Chinese) ideological flow and maybe I will also go to Russia to talk to (President Vladimir) Putin and tell him that there are three of us against the world: China, Philippines and Russia. It's the only way.' Russia's ambassador to the Philippines Igor Khovaev said Thursday he expected a planned visit by Duterte to Russia in April or May to be 'a milestone'. This is the first picture of a 20-year-old woman who committed suicide after neighbours beat her with a metal dog lead then poured vinegar in her wounds. Leah Ratheram was attacked at home, along with a friend who was left permanently disabled when the neighbours threw him off a balcony from three storeys up. She was found hanged in her house several months after the attack, which a judge said had 'some influence' on her decision to take her own life. This is the first picture of 20-year-old Leah Ratheram, who committed suicide after neighbours beat her with a metal dog lead then poured vinegar in her wounds Lucy Regan, who lived in the same tower block, and her boyfriend Omaij Christie, were both jailed at Birmingham Crown Court this week. Christie, 27, from Handsworth Wood, had previously admitted wounding with intent and was jailed for 11 years. Regan, 33, was sent to prison for two-and-a-half years after pleading guilty to wounding. Miss Ratheram was attacked in her flat on February 2 last year after she 'taunted' Regan from her flat in Birmingham as the attacker walked past. Regan recruited Christie and the pair 'crashed' inside when a pizza delivery driver knocked on the door. Her friend, Paul James-Lyons, fell from her third floor balcony when he was set upon by Christie with a dog lead. He suffered a fractured wrist and a severe fractured dislocation of his right hip - which the court heard were 'permanent and serious' disabilities. Thomas Cleeve, prosecuting, said Miss Ratheram was found hanged in October. The cause of the feud was not clear. Passing sentence, Judge Patrick Thomas QC told Christie: 'You set about the people in the flat with appalling consequences and with an appalling level of violence. 'Mr James-Lyons hung from the edge of the balcony and what you did then was so far over the top it causes serious concern to the court. Lucy Regan (left), who lived in the same tower block, and her boyfriend Omaij Christie (right), were both jailed at Birmingham Crown Court this week 'As he hung there, plainly in peril of his life, you attacked him and caused him to lose his grip.' Addressing Regan, he told her: 'It is perfectly obvious from Miss Ratheram's victim impact statement that the traumatic effect of what you did remained with her. 'She took her own life and what you did had some influence on that.' Henry Spooner, for Christie, said: 'This was a trivial matter which, for some extraordinary reason, spiralled out of control.' The pair were jailed for a total of more than 13 years, but many felt the sentences were too lenient. Lisa Johnson wrote on Facebook: 'Just vile, lock him up and throw away the key.' Dawn Markland said: 'Should lock them up for life and throw away the key. Cowards, poor woman.' And Yasar Hussain asked: 'Why was he not charged with attempted murder? He caused the guy to lose his grip from the third floor. Both should have got a lot longer inside.' An infant's death on Christmas Eve was ruled a homicide on Wednesday after an autopsy revealed he suffered a cracked skull. Kalobe Williams was left in the care of his aunt and uncle in Boynton Beach, Florida, when his mother Latonya Edwards went to a hair salon on December 23. The aunt said the 11-month-old was sleeping on a couch when she heard a noise and found the baby face down on the floor - but his death was later ruled a homicide. Kalobe Williams' death on Christmas Eve was ruled a homicide on Wednesday after an autopsy revealed he (pictured) suffered a cracked skull Mother Latonya Edwards left the boy at home (pictured) with his aunt and uncle. The aunt said he was sleeping on the couch when she heard a thump and found him face down on the floor An autopsy revealed baby Kalobe - who would have celebrated his first birthday on December 31 - suffered a cracked skull and a lump on his forehead. Edwards, 26, told investigators she left the boy at home with his aunt and uncle at 11pm on December 23 when she went to get her hair done. According to an incident report released Wednesday by the Department of Children and Families (DCF), the aunt went into her bedroom as Kalobe and his siblings slept on an L-shaped couch. When she heard a thump, she checked on the kids and found Kalobe face down on the floor with his feet still on the couch, according to the report cited by the Sun Sentinel. She called 911 while the boy's uncle performed CPR, and the two took him to Bethesda Hopsital, she told investigators. Kalobe was transferred to Delray Medical Center and died at 2am on December 24, as a result of blunt force trauma, according to a medical examiner. An investigation is ongoing and no one has been charged for Kalobe's death, according to the DCF incident report. Both Edwards and the boy's aunt have a history with child welfare officials, according to the DCF, but details of previous incidents were redacted. Kalobe was transferred to Delray Medical Center (pictured) and died at 2am on December 24, as a result of blunt force trauma, according to a medical examiner Secretary Mike Carroll of the DCF issued a statement that said: 'The department has opened a child death investigation. 'All of the children in the home have been relocated to a safe environment and we will work to help them begin to heal from this devastating loss. 'Based on the familys prior and ongoing involvement in the child welfare system, the department will conduct a thorough quality assurance investigation into our interactions with the family and the circumstances surrounding his tragic death. 'We will also continue to work with law enforcement to hold anyone responsible for his death accountable.' Bonar was due to get sacked by the police but submitted his Jeff Bonar didn't have his body camera turned on when he struck Marissa Morris A police officer who punched a woman in the face during an A police officer who was caught on camera brutally punching a woman in the mouth during an arrest has resigned the day he was due to get sacked. Arizona cop Jeff Bonar was seen striking Marissa Morris, 31, in November after she resisted arrest at her home. The subsequent video went viral on social media and the officer was placed on immediate paid leave. Marissa Morris gets punched in the face by police officer Jeff Bonar during her arrest She is left in agony by the punch as another policeman restrains her A disciplinary board recommended Bonar be fired from the department and he was called to Flagstaff Police Chief Kevin Treadway yesterday to receive his marching orders. However before the meeting could take place Bonar submitted his resignation. 'Bonar's conduct is not reflective of the way we police this community,' Treadway said at a press conference to announce Bonar's resignation. Treadway went onto say that the disgraced officer violated at least six Flagstaff police policies, including displaying excessive force and not having his body camera turned on, during the incident. However there are no current charges against the officer. Bonar was helping the Coconino County Sheriff's Office with an eviction when he reognized Morris from a previous meeting in October. The police officer, who had been with the force for three years, mistakenly believed she had an outstanding warrant against her and when he tried to detain her the situation became heated. Morris, 31, told reporters Thursday Bonar was aggressive, rude and disrespectful Treadway described Morris as 'uncooperative' with Bonar and said the incident could have easily been avoided. 'Miss Morris could have complied with Officer Bonar's lawful request to stop, provide her name and date of birth,' Treadway said. 'She would have been run through the computer, the warrants determined to have been cleared, and in a relatively short time period she would have been released.' The clash between Bonar and Morris was captured by Danny Paredes, the brother-in-law of Morris' boyfriend, Jimmy Sedillo, showing the cop punching the woman in the face. Flagstaff Police Chief Kevin Treadway said Bonar broke six violations of the force's code of conduct 'Hey, hey, you can't hit a girl like that,' a man is heard saying in the background. Morris was then ushered into a police car and later charged with aggravated assault of a police officer although she was later cleared of all charges. I did not kick him. I did not put my hands on him in any harmful way. I was just trying to protect myself,' she told the Ariozna Repubic. President-elect Donald Trump lashed out at congressional Democrats on Thursday including 'head clown' Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader saying they should work with Republicans to find a workable replacement for the Obamacare medical insurance overhaul plan. 'The Democrats, lead [sic] by head clown Chuck Schumer, know how bad ObamaCare is and what a mess they are in. Instead of working to fix it, they do the typical political thing and BLAME,' Trump wrote in a series of morning tweets. 'The fact is ObamaCare was a lie from the beginning."Keep you [sic] doctor, keep your plan!" It is time for Republicans & Democrats to get together and come up with a healthcare plan that really works - much less expensive & FAR BETTER!' A day earlier, the president-elect urged Republicans to blame Democrats for the 'mess' of Obamacare, while outgoing president Barack Obama counseled Democrats not to bail Republicans out by signing on to replacement efforts once the GOP goes through with its plan to repeal Obama's signature legislative proposal. Scroll down for video President-elect Donald Trump, pictured at his New Year's Eve party, said Thursday on Twitter that Democrats in Congress should work with Republicans to find a workable replacement for Obamacare President Barack Obama arrived on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to meet with members of Congress to discuss his signature healthcare law The counter-charges in the rekindled Obamacare wars came as Republicans are planning an immediate attack on the law thorough executive actions and an early legislative push. Obama went to the Capitol to meet with Congressional Democrats to plot strategy in an effort to prevent his achievement from getting dismantled a victory Democrats won only at great cost, including with the loss of their congressional majorities. The president told Democrats not to 'rescue' Republicans by joining their effort to passing replacement measures, amid GOP efforts to court some conservative Democrats. He pointed to the post-Obamacare Tea Party revolution, and even urged his party to try to brand Republican-backed changes as 'Trumpcare' as a rhetorical way to saddle the opposition party with responsibility for what ensues, CNN reported. Asked by reporters what he said on his way out of the closed door meeting, Obama said only, 'Look out for the American people.' White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Obama said he felt 'envy' for those who have the opportunity to 'keep up the fight' as he prepares to decamp the White House for a rented home in Northwest Washington. Trump unleashed a mini tweet-storm, saying Obamacare 'was a lie from the beginning' Republicans, who caucused withe Vice President-elect Mike Pence on Wednesday, are forging ahead with their plan to repeal the law with Trump planning swift executive actions on the day he takes office. Schumer warned that the GOP's new plan would lead to 'chaos' and mocked Trump's campaign slogan with a sarcastic response, saying Republicans would 'Make America Sick Again.' New York Republican Rep. Chris Collins said Thursday morning on MSNBC that there would be no chaos because Americans would not be subject to practical changes in their medical insurance situations for at least two years. 'We're not going to pull the rug out from anyone,' Collins said on 'Morning Joe.' 'There's not going to be any changes in 2017. There's not going to be changes in 2018. Those products ... have already been approved by the state insurance agencies.' 'We're talking about new plans in 2019 or later,' he said. Trump kicked off the dustup when he provided political advice to Republicans Wednesday morning on Twitter. 'Massive increases of ObamaCare will take place this year and Dems are to blame for the mess. It will fall of its own weight - be careful!' Trump warned Republicans in one of a series of Tweets Wednesday. He began his missives with an admonition that 'Republicans must be careful in that the Dems own the failed ObamaCare disaster, with its poor coverage and massive premium increases like the 116% hike in Arizona. Also, deductibles are so high that it is practically useless. Don't let the Schumer clowns out of this web.' Vice President-elect Mike Pence (L) said Trump would take executive actions on healthcare on 'Day One' Democrats warned that Republicans would 'Make America Sick Again' and dismantle Medicare and Medicaid as well as the Affordable Care Act It wasn't entirely clear if Trump was stressing that Democrats passed Obamacare without Republican support all 60 of the Senate votes during its creation came from Democrats and independents who caucus with Democrats. Pence called for an 'orderly transition' that 'doesn't work a hardship on our economy' in the repeal, but provided no details on which parts of the health law would remain in place or what alternatives Republicans would offer. He told reporters on Capitol Hill that repeal efforts would 'literally begin on day one' through executive actions. 'Before the end of the day we do anticipate that the president-elect will be in the Oval Office taking action to both repeal executive orders and also set into motion through executive action policies to implement promises that were made on the campaign trail,' he said, without going into much detail. He later added: 'We're working right now, the White House staff is, on a series of executive orders that will enable that orderly transition to take place even as the Congress appropriately debates alternatives to and replacement of Obamacare.' 'The first order of business is to repeal and replace Obamacare. And that was our message today and it'll be our message on Capitol Hill,' he added. 'Our president-elect took his place to the American people to repeal and replace Obamacare, and the American people voted decisively for a better future for health care in this country and we are determined to give them that,' Pence said. Pence at a press conference in the Capitol referenced Trump's tweets . 'You read his Tweet this morning that he has admonished the Congress to be careful. And I reiterated that before the Republican conference today. Look, we're talking about people's lives,' he said. 'The president in his first day in office is going to do some level of executive orders related to ObamaCare,' said New York Republican Rep. Chris Collins, an early Trump supporter,' The Hill reported. 'No details whatsoever.' Vice President elect Mike Pence and Speaker Paul Ryan talk about repealing Obamacare on Capital Hill Wednesday NO BOZO: Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer hit back at Trump for his shot at Democratic 'clowns,' saying Republicans 'should stop clowning around with the peoples Medicare, Medicaid and health care' LIKE OLD TIMES: Vice President-elect Mike Pence, a former House member, left, is welcomed before a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2017, by, from second from left, House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis., House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Calif., and House Majority Whip Steve Scalise of La. 'We don't' want to pull the rug out from under people while we're replacing this law,' said House Speaker Paul Ryan after the GOP meeting. Trump's shot at 'Schumer clowns' was in reference to new Demoratic Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, who in a speech Tuesday warned against a 'Twitter presidency' and tried to rally Democrats to take on Trump when they disagree with him. Schumer hit back at the tweet in his own remarks Wednesday. 'Well, I think Republicans should stop clowning around with the peoples Medicare, Medicaid and health care,' he said. Trump pledged during the presidential campaign to erase Obama's law, though he's said he wants to retain popular provisions like ensuring coverage for people with pre-existing medical problems. Obama's and Pence's strategy sessions were coming on the second day of the new, GOP-led Congress. In 16 days, Trump replaces Obama at the White House, putting the party's longtime goal of annulling much of the 2010 health care overhaul within reach. Vice President-elect Mike Pence (L), along with Donald Trump's incoming Chief of Staff Reince Priebus (R), walks to a meeting with Republican to discuss their attempts to repeal Obamacare in the Capitol 'This law has failed. Americans are struggling,' said Speaker Paul Ryan after the GOP meeting with Pence. 'We need to reverse the damage that has been done,' he said. 'Once we repeal this law,' he added, Republicans would provide a 'stable transition to a truly patient-centered system.' Schumer said Republicans don't quite know what to do now that they have gotten elected vowing to repeal Obamacare. 'Theyre like the dog who caught the bus. They can repeal, but they have nothing to put in its place, and that means so many good things go away,' he said. He accused the GOP of plotting a 'full scale assault' on the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, and Medicaid. 'The Republican plan to cut health care wouldnt make America great again, it would make America sick again and lead to chaos instead of affordable care,' he said. Plenty of questions remain, including the repeal bill's details, costs and when it would take effect. Republicans also face divisions over the next step replacement legislation that will likely take months or years to resolve. While they can hardly prevent the GOP repeal effort from proceeding, the president and House and Senate Democrats were meeting Wednesday to discuss how to best defend a law that's extended health insurance coverage to 20 million Americans and which Obama considers one of the proudest pillars of his legacy. 'The more the people understand what's included in the Affordable Care Act and how they benefit from it, the more popular the program is, and the harder it is for Republicans to have political support for tearing it down,' White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters Tuesday, using the law's formal name. Trump tweeted about Obamacare Wednesday morning as President Obama prepared to meet with congressional Democrats to salvage the plan He blasted 'Schumer clowns' and high deductibles, although one Republican alternative is to allow more plans with catastrophic coverage, which include high deductibles Trump warned that Obamacare would 'fall of its own weight,' although Vice President-elect Mike Pence said repeal plans would go forward Republicans eager to show quick action against Obama's health care law took an initial procedural step Tuesday, introducing a budget bill that would have to be considered under a parliamentary procedure that would prevent Democrats from using a Senate filibuster to protect the health care law. Republicans control the Senate by a 52-48 margin, but it takes 60 votes to end a filibuster, a procedural roadblock that can kill legislation. The Senate was expected to complete the budget by next week. House approval would follow. This is the awe-inspiring moment a pod of dolphins surprises surfers at one of Sydney's most popular beaches, Tamarama. Misti Wendtland, 35, was taking a stroll along the coastline on Thursday about 6pm when she cast her eyes over the ocean and spotted the dolphins. The US-born expat told Daily Mail Australia it caught her completely off-guard. 'Honestly I looked up and just couldn't believe what I was seeing,' Ms Wendtland said. Scroll down for video The moment was caught on film about 6pm on Thursday at popular Sydney beach, Tamarama 'I was grinning from ear-to-ear.' Ms Wendtland said the entire mood on the beach changed when the dolphins appeared. 'Everyone was just in awe taking it in,' she said. 'But it was nice because none of the surfers were trying to get too close.' Misti Wendtland (pictured) told Daily Mail Australia the sighting caught her completely off-guard The surfers stopped in their tracks on Thursday afternoon to take in the sight of the dolphins gliding past Ms Wendtland - who lives at nearby Bondi, one of Australia's most iconic coastal areas - said she couldn't believe how lucky she was to witness the pod of dolphins. In the five month period she had lived in Sydney, Ms Wendtland said she'd found her new home. 'I've absolutely fallen in love, there's such a great vibe about this city and its beaches,' she said. 'I'm loving it, loving it.' Ms Wendtland said she was glad to see no surfers tried to get too close to the dolphins Ms Wendtland was not the only person surprised by the dolphins' visit on Thursday. Since posting the video online, it was shared and liked almost two-thousand times within just a couple of hours. The video was also seen by one of the surfers in the water at the time. 'I was one of the surfer seals and they were oh so pretty,' the woman said. Others flocked to social media to thank Ms Wendtland for capturing the moment and sharing it for all to see. 'Thank you I always wanted to see a dolphin pod around here and feel like I'm half way now,' one user said. Few things shock me, as a hard-bitten journalist. But today, Im in shock. I just watched a video that didnt just sicken me, it contaminated every pore of my soul with feelings of pure, unadulterated, raw disgust and hatred. The short piece of film I endured depicts a gang of four black teenage thugs, two male, two female, abusing and torturing a poor terrified young white man with special needs. The sheer scale of their depravity appears to know no bounds. The sheer scale of their depravity of the videotaped attack of a helpess white man appears to know no bounds These smirking scumbags tie him up, gag him, kick him, punch him, scalp him by viciously slashing his hair with a knife, and flick burning cigarette ash on the head wounds they inflict in the process. They laugh, they jeer, then one of them shouts: F**k Donald Trump, n***a, f**k white people! Another urges the victim to say, I love black people. And then they force him at knifepoint to say, F**k Donald Trump. This is not a quick, spontaneous assault. The victim is believed to have been held for up to 48 hours. The live Facebook stream itself goes on for more than 30 minutes. Kiss the floor, b**ch!the attackers howl. Then they shove his face into a toilet bowl. Their goal is to utterly humiliate him, self-evidently, from their own mouths, because hes white. Four black youths - smirking scumbags all - tie him up, gag him, kick him, punch him, scalp him by viciously slashing his hair with a knife The flick burning cigarette ash on the head wounds they inflict in the process. They laugh, they jeer, then one of them shouts: F**k Donald Trump, n***a, f**k white people! This is payback, again confirmed by their own words, for Donald Trump, a man they presume to be a racist, becoming President. Yet police in Chicago, where the attack happened, are currently refusing to say if they are treating this as a racially or politically motivated hate crime. Kids make stupid mistakes, said Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson. Part of whether or we not we seek a hate crime (is to) determine whether or not this is sincere or stupid ranting and raving. I think part of it is just stupidity. At this point, we dont have anything concrete to point (toward a hate crime). Are you bloody kidding me? First, these are absolutely not kids. They are all 18 years old. Second, what they did wasnt just stupidity, it was pre-meditated torture of a horrendous nature. They dunked his head in the toilet. They scalped him - the knife is circled here Brittany Herring filmed the ordeal and streamed it on Facebook Live. She and the others are not 'kids'. They are 18 years old. What they did wasnt just stupidity, it was pre-meditated torture of a horrendous nature Third, what more did they need to do to justify this being a racially and politically motivated hate crime - tar his body with the words, white boy Trump trash? Imagine for a moment that a young black man with special needs had been kidnapped, abused and tortured by a gang of smirking white youths? Imagine watching a video of this black mans horrific ordeal streamed live on Facebook? Imagine seeing and hearing the white assailants systematically torment their black victim, physically and mentally? Imagine watching them kicking him, punching him, scalping him and flicking burning cigarette ash on the wounds they inflicted with their vicious, sustained assault? Imagine hearing one of them shouting F**k Barack Obama! F**k black people! as they did so? Then imagine the video of all this emerging and hitting TV screens and news websites across America. All hell would rightly have broken loose. There would have been instant huge protests, and probably riots. The #BlackLivesMatter group would have lit up social media demanding justice. Black celebrities, led by the likes of Beyonce and John Legend, would have made statements expressing their fury at the incident and their solidarity with the victim. Police, under the huge pressure of such concerted public outrage, would have undoubtedly confirmed this as a hate crime. Yet as I write this, I dont see any protests, riots, social media campaigns or celebrity statements. I dont even see the police having the guts to call this attack what it is. The reason is sadly all too obvious; they dont want to inflame tensions any further in a city that has become the very epicenter of violence in modern America. In 2016, Chicago - now under Obama-friend Mayor Rahm Emanuel, pictured - had 762 murders and 4,331 shooting victims. Homicides increased by 57%. What happened Tuesday is a disgrace to the city and the country In 2016, Chicago had 762 murders and 4,331 shooting victims. Homicides increased by 57% over 2015. Many parts of the city have become no-go areas as gangs patrol the streets waging a relentless turf war. Lets not hide behind any spineless politically correct rhetoric when it comes to apportioning blame: the vast majority of those doing the shooting and being shot are young black African-American men. Im not being racist when I say this, its just a simple fact. And lets be equally clear about what happened in Chicago on Tuesday: a bunch of racist, Trump-hating young black teenagers exacted an appalling hate crime on a defenseless young mentally disabled white man. They are a shameful disgrace to their families, their city and their country. Yet their behaviour is symptomatic of Chicagos malaise and descent into escalating, seemingly uncontrollable violence. The citys young black population has, for decades, suffered from poor education and chronic unemployment. This is not to excuse the violence, but it goes a long way to explaining it. With little hope of a job or escape route to any kind of safe, prosperous life, young blacks in Chicago get sucked into gangs where the only currency is drugs, crime and violence. They are lured by the false illusion of protection and status. Instead they inevitably find jail, bullets and death. Next Tuesday, President Obama will be in Chicago to deliver his farewell address to the American people - but spare me the self congratulation. He's done absolutely nothing to stem gun violence and more damningly, nothing to reduce racial divisions Next Tuesday, President Obama will deliver his farewell address to the American people. Hes chosen his hometown of Chicago as the venue for his final words. Obama says he wants to use his speech to say thank you for this amazing journey, to celebrate the ways youve changed this country for the better these eight years. Spare me the self-congratulatory claptrap, Mr President. Youve done absolutely nothing to stem Americas appalling culture of gun violence that claims 32,000 lives a year. Even more damningly, for the countrys first black president, youve done nothing to reduce racial divisions. In fact, those divisions are getting wider and worse, not better. Chicago, your hometown, is a terrible, towering monument to your twin failures with guns and race. What I witnessed today on that shocking video is what happens when a city (whose Mayor, lest we forget, is Rahm Emanuel, Obamas former White House chief of staff) loses control of a section of its community and hopeless young people in that section of the community turn depraved. It represents a hideously ugly stain on Chicago, and its most famous son, President Obama. And yes, I would say exactly the same if it were the other way round and this was a white gang whod done this to a defenseless black man in the name of white power and anger at a black president. An old cat missing for four months was reunited with her owners only a day before they were set to move 600 kilometres away. Sass went missing after she was accidentally left on the roof of their car in August last year. The Harleys spent weeks searching for the 11-year-old feline on the New South Wales South Coast, south of Sydney, to no avail. Sass is reunited with Sarah and Daniel Harley at their new home 600 kilometres away from where they lost their cat After putting missing posters up on social media and searching the neighbourhood, they thought they may be hot on Sass' trail when they received a message after Christmas. A woman found a cat missing her description at Ulladulla Public School, but she fled before they were able to collect her. On Tuesday night the family's hope was renewed when Micah Harley noticed a Facebook message about a 'very affectionate cat' with distinctive white socks. His owner Linda Harley believes Sass had been living in nearby bushland behind the primary school and surviving on discarded food. 'My theory is she was eating the food scraps, but with the kids being on holidays the scraps werent there anymore so she had to come out searching for something to eat,' she told the Illawarra Mercury. Micah Harley, who had posted a Facebook appeal to find Sass, noticed on Tuesday how someone had found a cat with white socks matching her description The Harleys were reunited with Sass the day before they were due to move to another coastal town on the NSW North Coast, 600 kilometres away. Sass now prefers to stay inside, with Mrs Harley and her daughter Sarah staying a bit longer at their old house to help their long-lost cat adjust. 'She is a little bit skittish. Sass doesnt want to go outside,' Mrs Harley said. 'She has always been an outdoors cat, but now she is very wary. A Jewish elementary school and a synagogue in Orlando, Florida have been evacuated after receiving bomb threats. The Jewish Academy elementary school in Maitland and the Chabad synagogue of South Orlando received the threats within ten minutes of each other. It is not known whether the incidents were connected, however, responding police officers did not find any explosives at either location. Authorities were forced to evacuate the Jewish Academy elementary school in Maitland, Florida was evacuated yesterday morning after someone called in a bomb threat A caller also made a threat, using a voice-altering device, at the Chabad synagogue, pictured The Orlando Sentinel reported that Orange County deputies and police officers in Maitland have been liaising to determine whether the calls, which were made on Wednesday, are linked. Chabad Rabbi Yosef Konikov says about 50 people were evacuated from the building for about an hour, until an Orange County Sheriff's K-9 unit cleared the building. Both buildings were evacuated for several hours while a complete searches were completed. Chabad Rabbi Yosef Konikov, pictured, described the threats as 'anti-Semitic intimidation' Maitland police evacuated the entire campus where the school is located for several hours. That complex includes a community center and Holocaust museum. Rabbi Konikov said the caller used some form of device to alter their voice. A teenage inmate smashed a flat-screen TV, an air-conditioning unit and turned over washing machines in a rampage at a Victoria jail on Tuesday causing thousands of dollars of damage. The teenager had an argument with a staff member around 7pm in the Grevillea unit a youth detention unit of Barwon maximum-security prison near Geelong and began throwing items in a fit of anger, according to The Herald Sun. The young man was being handed his medication by a Department of Health and Human Services staff when he is believed to have become upset and tried to run away. A teenage inmate caused thousands of dollars of damage after going on a rampage on Tuesday night in the Grevillea unit a youth detention section of Barwon maximum-security prison near Melbourne (pictured) A group of young inmates were moved to the prison last year after a riot at Parkville Youth Justice Centre in Melbourne's north (pictured) He began throwing chairs to block staff before pulling a TV from the wall of a nearby room. Staff members are said to have locked themselves in a room to avoid the teenager as he continued his rampage by smashing an air-conditioning unit, knocking over washing machines and dryers and throwing broken items, according to The Herald Sun. The teenager then tried to enter the room where staff were hiding by smashing the windows in. A DHHS spokesman told the Herald Sun no staff members were injured during the incident, which is being investigated by police. Barwon prison houses notorious criminals like Matthew Johnson (pictured) Johnson bludgeoned gangland kingpin Carl Williams to death inside the jail in 2011 A group of young inmates were moved to Barwon prison, which houses notorious criminals like Matthew Johnson, last year after a riot at Parkville Youth Justice Centre in Melbourne's north. During the November riot, juvenile inmates are said to have held a sex offender hostage after learning of his criminal past. Drivers who were given tickets for ignoring a fake traffic sign banning them from turning left will still have to pay their fines - despite authorities admitting it was not authorized to be there. Motorists in Staten Island, New York spotted the sign on the intersection of Woodrow Road and Arden Avenue in Arden Heights last year. It appeared to stop motorists from turning left on to Arden Avenue but many drivers were unaware of the phony signal, because it is was smaller than the standard signs produced by the Department of Transportation (DOT). The fake traffic sign banning drivers from turning left on the the intersection of Woodrow Road and Arden Avenue in Staten Island However, several were still given $125 tickets by police who said the drivers had ignored the signs of the road. But after the local authorities were made aware of the sign, the DOT determined it was fake and had it removed. It's unclear who put up the sign, although some suggest it may have been a contractor in charge of construction on Arden Avenue. And even though the DOT have formally confirmed it was not an authorized sign, several motorists have still be ordered to pay the fine. According to NBC4, one motorist was told he must still pay the penalty because the date of the DOT letter of December 1, did not line up with his mid-November ticket. It's unclear who put up the sign, although some suggest it may have been a contractor in charge of construction on Arden Avenue, pictured, Councilman Joe Borelli, who represents the area, told the network: 'What is incredibly inexplicable is how the judge found them guilty after they had been given a letter by the DOT.' Now the affected drivers say they will take the case further in order to get their tickets overturned. The Department of Motor Vehicles say anybody who thinks they have been improperly convicted can appeal within 30 days. A police officer has been described as 'heroic' by the Turkish prime minister after he stopped a 'big atrocity' when Kurdish terrorists tried to blow up a courthouse in Izmir with a car bomb today. Fethi Sekin refused to let the car inside the cordon outside the Justice Palace building and then chased after the terrorists when they abandoned the vehicle, which blew up seconds later. He was killed in a shootout with the terrorists. Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said: 'Our heroic police officer martyred in this attack, Fethi Sekin, prevented a much bigger disaster happening, sacrificing his own life without a thought for it.' Scroll down for video Social media in Turkey is full of praise for Fethi Sekin (pictured), the 'heroic' police officer who thwarted the terrorists' attempts to blow up a courthouse in Izmir today The provincial governor, Erol Ayyildiz, blamed the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, for the car bombing and a large crowd assembled at the scene, chanting: 'God damn the PKK'. The PKK is fighting for an independent homeland for the Kurdish people in the south east of Turkey. The dramatic moment terrorists shot at Mr Sekin, 43, and another Turkish policemen in the street was caught on video. An officer can be seen sprinting away from a row of parked cars before collapsing to the ground after been shot during a gunfight in Izmir, on Turkey's west coast. Moments later, a second officer appears to fall to the pavement nearby after being targeted by an attacker. It is not clear which one is Mr Sekin. Fethi Sekin poses proudly outside the Justice Palace in Izmir (left), which he was guarding today when he was killed. He was also a father (right) Fethi Sekin (pictured) was a popular figure and has been described as a 'hero' Two men armed with machine guns, grenades and a rocket launcher were later killed while a third is on the run after a deadly car bomb outside a courthouse. Mr Sekin and a courthouse worker died in the blast and five people were injured - some critically. But Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak said it could have been much worse: 'Based on the preparation, the weapons, the bombs and ammunition seized, it is understood that a big atrocity was being planned.' Social media in Turkey was swamped with messages about Mr Sekin. Author Elif Safak tweeted: 'Heartbreaking: terror attack in #Izmir. Police officer & father #FethiSekin prevented a massacre by sacrificing himself.' Selami Haktan tweeted: '#FethiSekin is a real hero. He stopped VBIED (Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Device) entering courthouse, chased 3 terrorists. Achieved to kill one & die a martyr in the shootout.' It comes a day after local police in the city arrested 20 ISIS suspects in the search for a gunman who went on the rampage murdering 39 revellers at an Istanbul club on New Year's Eve. Footage taken from a rooftop appears to show the attacker (left) shooting a police officer (right) during the ensuing gun battle Further footage then shows what appears to be a second officer (circled left and bottom right) being shot by an attacker (circled top right) Shocking footage shows an officer stumbling after he was shot before falling into the road A bomb blast outside a courthouse in the western Turkish city of Izmir has left at least ten people injured, it has emerged A car could be seen engulfed in flames moments after the blast, which killed a police officer and a courthouse worker CCTV captured the moment the blast rocked the city. Images posted online have also emerged showing the bodies of two men lying on the ground. Police are reportedly hunting a third suspect, described as wearing a black coat and a white beret. Authorities say suspected Kurdish militants opened fire at police who stopped them at a checkpoint in the western city of Izmir before detonating their explosives-laden vehicle. The governor, Mr Ayyildiz, said: 'A clash erupted after our police officers wanted to stop a vehicle at a police check point in front of Bayrakli courthouse. In this clash, terrorists detonated the car bomb while trying to escape.' A terrifying arsenal of weapons was found at the scene, including rocket launchers (above) Magazines were found discarded by the body of one attacker while rockets were found in a suitcase at the scene Several ambulances were rushed to the scene after the blast outside the prosecutors and judges' entrance in the usually peaceful city on the Aegean Sea Separate images have emerged showing the bodies of two men lying on the ground Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak said a much larger attack was apparently being planned, based on the weapons found at the scene of the bombing Kaynak said the attack, which the local governor said was thought to have been carried out by Kurdish militants, would not stop Turkey's military involvement in Syria and Iraq Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak said a much larger attack was apparently being planned, based on the weapons found at the scene of the bombing. 'Based on the preparation, the weapons, bombs and ammunition seized, it is understood that a big atrocity was being planned,' Kaynak told reporters in comments broadcast live. Kaynak said the attack, which the local governor said was thought to have been carried out by Kurdish militants, would not stop Turkey's military involvement in Syria and Iraq. A mobile phone, hand gun, note book and car keys were found on the ground at the scene Fire fighters were called in to tackle the blaze which claimed the lives of two people A police officer runs down the road as emergency services descend on the scene in Izmir today A shocked woman could be seen crying near the scene of the explosion in the Aegean city Police were called in to guard the scene after a dramatic shoot out took place in Izmir Security and medical staff descended on the scene. The incident followed a string of attacks, carried out by ISIS or by Kurdish militants, that have left Turkey on edge Footage captured from a rooftop shows the gunfight unfolding on the street below. At one point it scans to what appears to be the body of a police officer on the road. Separate CCTV footage shows the force of the blast. As is customary after such attacks in Turkey, the authorities slapped a broadcast ban on images from the incident, state-run Anadolu news agency reported. The incident follows a string of attacks, carried out by ISIS or by Kurdish militants, that have left Turkey on edge. However, there has so far been no claim of responsibility or an indication of who may have carried out today's attack. Aftermath: Shocked bystanders were seen in tears as they left the scene earlier today Several ambulances rushed to the scene and took five people to hospital - some with serious injuries Pictures show flames coming from near a small building as Turkish police descend on the scene Turkish police detained 20 suspected ISIS militants thought to be of Central Asian and North African origin in Izmir on Wednesday, according to a police statement. The suspects were understood to have travelled to Izmir from the central city of Konya, the statement said. Security forces are hunting an ISIS attacker who went on the rampage at the upmarket Reina nightclub in Istanbul, massacring 39 revellers and injuring dozens more. Turkish media reports have said the unnamed assailant was believed to have spent time in Konya before coming to Istanbul and carrying out the attack. CCTV captured the moment a blast rocked the city of Izmir in western Turkey today Dramatic video appears to show the gunfight in which two attackers were killed by police Eyewitnesses said the explosion appeared to come from a vehicle while pictures on social media show a cloud of smoke rising up from the street Dr Giuseppe Verri had been assigned to treat the patient in Britain An Italian plastic surgeon treating patients in the UK has been accused of 'pinching the breasts' of a woman who went to him for plastic surgery. Dr Giuseppe Verri, who lives in Rome, had been assigned to treat the patient in Britain for a breast augmentation operation but confused her by speaking in Italian then pinching one of her breasts, it was claimed. The consultant plastic surgeon, 56, faces charges of sexually motivated conduct towards the patient and charges of misconduct towards another woman. The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service heard Verri's female patient allegedly winced in pain as the doctor 'positioned her against a wall and stood so close that she felt pressure from his chest'. It was then claimed he pulled down her gown and produced a camera, demonstrating various positions he wanted her to adopt so he could take photographs. One included a stance in which she was topless with her elbows out and fists clenched, 'looking like a bodybuilder', the tribunal was told. The woman, referred to as Patient A, claimed she was so embarassed she tried to cover her breasts with her hands and attempted to hide her face with her hair. Detectives arrested the doctor over the incident and while no police action was taken against him, subsequent inquiries revealed Verri had previously been suspended over his conduct with another patient. The tribunal was told the doctor would visit the UK up to twice a month to see patients on a private basis and worked at various clinics across the North of England, predominantly the Bridgewater Hospital in Manchester. The surgeon worked at various clinics across the North of England, predominantly the Bridgewater Hospital in Manchester (pictured) Patient A underwent breast augmentation by another surgeon in 2009 but was unhappy with the procedure and was referred to Verri at a clinic in Newcastle. Miss Kathryn Johnson, counsel for the GMC, told the Manchester hearing the woman's first consultation with Verri was in 2012 when he had 'limited English'. Describing a later appointment in 2014, Miss Johnson said: 'Patient A was seen by Dr Verri prior to the operation in a side room. She was seen without a chaperone present and she removed her bra and was wearing a hospital gown. 'She was approached by Dr Verri as she was sat in a chair and he grabbed hold of her right breast over the gown and held it for a period of about three seconds. 'She described that he was pinching the whole of her breast in a hard manner, so hard that she pulled away and the pain made her eyes water. 'She exclaimed 'no' but described his response was to laugh at her.' Miss Johnson then told the panel Verri 'batted' the woman's breast before taking photographs of her 'without explanation.' She added: 'Patient A was very frightened by his actions and began to feel that his actions were of a sexual nature. 'The requests made of her were demanding. He was speaking in a loud voice to her, almost shouting at her. 'His demeanor and manner were part of what caused her to feel scared about the doctor. 'Dr Verri left quickly without saying anything to her. Patient A accepts she said nothing to the nurse that entered the room about what happened, saying she felt like a child not knowing how to react and thinking no one would believe her if she said anything.' The patient later told another doctor Verri had touched her in a manner 'she felt uncomfortable with.' The surgeon was arrested and interviewed by police and gave a prepared statement in which he denied any wrongdoing - saying his actions were 'appropriate and necessary'. He admitted photographs had been taken and produced pictures - but the woman claimed several were missing. It emerged he had been suspended from the Bridgewater hospital following an incident on June 14, 2014, in which he took another patient from the outpatient clinic directly into theatre to carry out a corrective procedure. Verri, who was not at the hearing, faces charges of sexually motivated conduct towards Patient A and charges of misconduct towards the other woman who underwent a breast augmentation procedure without relevant consent being obtained. Donald Trump's trade war with China will make Australia wealthier and boost exports, a global finance giant says. The U.S. president-elect promised during last year's election campaign to slap 45 per cent tariffs on imported Chinese goods in a bid to save American jobs. One of the world's biggest financial services firm, HSBC, says the incoming Trump Administration's trade war with Australia's biggest trading partner will in fact encourage China to buy more Australian coal and iron ore to make steel. Donald Trump's vow to 'make America great again' by reviving U.S. manufacturing is expected to help Australia HSBC's chief economist in Australia Paul Bloxham says Donald Trump's trade war with China will boost demand for Australian commodity exports 'We think the likely policy response from China would be more infrastructure spending ... which is good for Australia,' HSBCs chief economist in Australia Paul Bloxham told The Daily Telegraph. Mr Trump campaigned to revive American manufacturing and stop jobs going to Mexico and China, helping him to win the rust belt states of Michigan, Pensylvania and Wisconsin. The Republican, who takes over in two weeks, also promised to spend $1 trillion on new bridges and road upgrades during the coming decade. Stimulus spending on infrastructure in the U.S. and China will boost coal and iron, which are Australia's key commodity exports. HSBC says China will respond to Donald Trump's trade war by boosting infrastructure spending 'We think the commodity price rise is a game changer for the Australian economy,' Mr Bloxham said. 'If the Trump administration starts to lift the protectionist barriers then the likely policy response from China will be to boost its spending on infrastructure, which in turn, we think, will support demand for hard commodities, which is good for Australia.' The mother of a young black student who was bodyslammed to the ground by a cop who was double her size has pulled her daughters from school and hired a lawyer. Shocking video emerged this week showing 15-year-old Jasmine Darwin being lifted off the ground from behind by an officer and then viciously slammed to the floor at Rolesville High School in North Carolina. The incident was filmed and posted on Twitter by one of Jasmine's fellow students, Ahunna Akpuda at 7:45am on Tuesday. Scroll down for video The mother of a young student who was bodyslammed to the ground by a police officer has hired a lawyer and launched an official complaint against the cop Desiree Harrison (pictured) has pulled her daughters out of school - including Jasmine Darwin, who was seen in the video - after the shocking incident took place The family's lawyer, Fredy Rabner (pictured) said there is no justification for how Jasmine was treated in the video The cop has been identified as Officer Ruben De Los Santos by The News & Observer. Now, Jasmine's mother, Desiree Harrison, has pulled both her daughters out of the school and hired a lawyer. She has also made an official complaint against De Los Santos. Fredy Rabner, the attorney hired by the family, described the actions of the under-fire cop as excessive. 'There's no justification for treating her that way. I don't know what this officer had in his mind,' Rabner told WRAL. 'You didn't have to do that to her. You could have simply pulled her to the side and sat her down,' Harrison said of the incident. 'He shouldn't have did it to a child. That's no way to handle a child. You didn't just sit her down, move her away; you body slammed her to the ground.' Speaking for the first time since the footage emerged, Jasmine gave her side of the story about the events leading up to the shocking slam. 'You didn't have to do that to her. You could have simply pulled her to the side and sat her down,' Harrison (pictured, middle, with her two daughters) said The 15-year-old said she was trying to break up a fight between her sister and another female student, before going on to say she thinkg De Los Santos should lose his job. 'I don't think he should work there anymore with kids,' she said. 'It's not safe there at Rolesville anymore while he's working there.' Rolesville's mayor also spoke out about the issue, saying a 'complete and thorough investigation' will take place. 'We're not going to cover up anything, we're going to make sure it is all done right,' Frank Eagles told the network. 'But, you have to learn to respect people and not make a sudden judgement.' Eagles then went on to defend the cop caught on camera. Slammed: De Los Santos then throws the girl to the ground with some force. She lies prone for a moment on the floor, while students around can be heard exclaiming in surprise 'We've got people involved in the PTA and in the Boosters Club...that know (De Los Santos), how nice and respectful he is, and the kids like him,' the mayor said. The local sheriff also appeared to defend De Los Santos, saying that all officers are forced to make 'split-second decisions'. 'We don't know what precipitated him doing what he did,' Wake Sheriff Donnie Harrison said. 'I'm not saying that it is right or wrong, but when you go into a situation, that training kicks in and you do what you can to preserve and keep people from getting hurt.' The State Bureau of Investigations is also looking into the incident. The comments come after a second video emerged showing the two girls fighting, which led to the bodyslam. Groggy: She appears groggy as he hauls her up. De Los Santos (right) is now on paid leave, and the mayor and chief of police are to discuss the situation Two other girls are shown flinging each other around the floor, surrounded by a quickly widening group of watching students. An adult in a white shirt is seen struggling with the two students. In the chaos, exactly what happens is unclear, but the pink-shirted girl appears to intervene briefly before being pulled off. Jasmine's brutal drop to the floor is seen shortly afterward, from a different angle. The white-shirted adult also appears to pull one of the other two girls forward, onto her knees, although it is possible she has fallen or been shoved from behind by a third party. De Los Santos is now on paid administrative leave leave, Rolesville mayor Frank Eagles said. Pilot Miroslav Gronych (pictured in 2014), 37 was removed from his Mexico-bound Sunwing aircraft after his crew found him drunk in the cockpit, police said Photos have emerged of a pilot who authorities said was found slumped over in his cockpit with three times the legal alcohol limit in his system. Slovakian national Miroslav Gronych, 37, who is in Canada on a work visa, was due in court Thursday after being removed from his Mexico-bound Sunwing aircraft at Calgary airport. The captain had boarded with five other crew members and 99 passengers just after 7am. Gronych's bizarre behavior alarmed the gate crew, who informed the co-pilot, the Calgary Herald reported at the time. Crew members eventually found Gronych slumped over in the pilot's seat and called the police, cops said. The captain was taken to the traffic office and still displayed what authorities called an 'extreme level' of impairment about two hours later. Gronych, who resides in Saskatoon, had to surrender his passport and has been barred from flying in Canada, Global News reported. The pilot had presumably been preparing for the pre-flight when his co-pilot found him, Staff Sergeant Paul Stacey told the Calgary Herald. Officers took Gronych into custody. 'He was showing signs of impairment, enough so that the gate crew were concerned and then they found him actually slumped over in the pilot's seat,' Stacey said. Gronych (pictured left in 2014 in Kosice, Slovakia) was due in court Thursday. He was released on $1,000 bail, had to surrender his passport and has been barred from flying in Canada Gronych still appeared severely intoxicated even about two hours after being taken off the aircraft, the sergeant added. The plane departed not long after Gronych was removed with another captain, heading for Cancun. 'We are very appreciative of our crew's diligence in handling this very unfortunate matter,' Sunwing said in a statement. 'We are very apologetic for any upset that this has caused and would like to assure our customers that safety remains our utmost priority.' A spokeswoman later told Global News: 'This is the first such incident that has occurred in our 11-year history as an airline.' Gronych has been charged with having care and control of an aircraft while being impaired, and having care and control of an aircraft while over the legal blood-alcohol limit of 0.08. It is unlikely that the aircraft could have taken off with a drunk pilot, according to Stacey. 'It had all the potential for a disaster but the likelihood of a pilot on a major airline like this actually being able to take off when they're impaired like that is pretty slim because there's a lot of checks and balances,' he said. Gronych was released over the weekend on $1,000 bail. Police in Peru are hunting a man who raped and murdered an eight-year-old girl before dumping her body in a suitcase. The suitcase was discovered by children close to the National University of Central Peru, in Peru's central city of Huancayo, in the province of Junin. The girl, identified as Edith Paitan Quincho, had been walking to a school party with her mother, but her parent had turned around to pick up a book she had forgotten. Scroll down for video Police discovered Edith Paitan Quincho's body inside the suitcase. She had been raped and strangled to death Distraught family members console Edith's mother, Gudelia Quincho Police investigated the suitcase and found the body inside. She was on the way to a party at the San Francisco de Asis school. Her body was found the next day. Police said that she had been raped and strangled to death with some kind of rope. She had also received a heavy blow to the left eye. The suitcase was found abandoned in Peru's central city of Huancayo, in the province of Junin Edith's mother, Gudelia Quincho, 30, described her as a 'cheerful' girl and added: 'She danced everywhere and now I cannot say a word. I am so sad for what my daughter suffered.' The investigation is still open and Peru's Interior Ministry has offered a 20,000-PEN (4,800) reward to anyone offering information that leads to the perpetrator's arrest. Two sisters who were grieving over the imminent death of their father say that Allegiant Air kicked them off of a flight after they were deemed a security risk denying them a chance to say goodbye to their dying dad. Debbie Hartman and her sister, Trisha Baker, were on their way to North Carolina from Orlando Sanford International Airport on Monday. They were headed to Asheville to visit their ailing father, who was in hospice care, according to WKMG-TV. Shortly after the plane pulled out of the terminal in preparation for take-off, Baker, who was initially seated away from her sister, received a text message saying that their father only had hours to live. Debbie Hartman (left) and her sister, Trisha Baker (right), were on their way to North Carolina from Orlando Sanford International Airport on Monday 'I didn't know if my sister was getting the same text and (I) was I thinking I need to go back and tell her,' Baker said. She went over to sit next to Hartman to notify her of the grim news. That's when a flight attendant stepped in. 'She said "You need to sit down," and I said, "well, can I just sit here? I just want to console my sister. We just got word that my dad's dying",' Baker said. That's when Hartman began to experience a panic attack. The two sisters said that they were on their way to visit their father (above), who was in hospice care Baker then confronted the flight attendant, accusing her of being rude and insensitive. 'She said, "You're being very rude. My father is dying and I'm comforting her" and they said she needed to keep her personal problems off the plane,' Hartman said. The sisters said that moments later the flight attendant notified the captain, who turned the plane around and returned to the terminal. Security then boarded the plane and escorted the sisters off the flight. 'People were like "what's going on?"' Hartman said. Just as the flight was about to take off, Baker received a text saying that her father only had hours to live. She then decided to sit next to her sister and tell her the grim news Moments after the flight attendant told Baker that she needed to stay in her seat, Hartman began to experience a panic attack The next day, the sisters were searching for another flight to Asheville, but by then it was too late. Their father had passed away. He did not have a chance to bid farewell to his daughters. 'I would like to see them in some way be punished in a way where people understand. This is not humane. One hundred thousand percent I blame them. They were the gate between keeping me from my father to say goodbye,' Hartman said. Passengers aboard were shocked at how the two women were treated. One of them even made a YouTube video expressing her disgust. 'That was the most inhumane, deplorable thing I've ever seen any human being do,' said one woman who posted a video under the account name 'Awakened Being.' The flight attendant on the Allegiant Air flight was overheard telling the sisters to 'keep their personal problems off the flight.' An Allegiant Air plane is seen above One passenger aboard the flight posted a video to YouTube (above) criticizing the flight attendant's behavior Allegiant Air, a Las Vegas-based low cost airline, said it was conducting an investigation. 'At Allegiant, we rely on our crew members to provide and oversee a safe environment for every passenger, on every flight,' the company said. 'We expect that authority to be exercised both judiciously and consistently, with empathy and with good judgment.' Lani Szarmach had been searching for her daughters nearly all their lives, but little did she know, they had been looking for her as well. After years of searching the internet, Starla Medlock, 43, and Jeannie Toomey, 42, reunited with their long-lost mother after 40 years. The women were separated from their mother when they were babies, aged one and two, after their parents' divorce, ABC News reported. Scroll down for video Reunited and it feels good: Sisters Jeannie Toomey, 42, and Starla Medlock, 43, share an emotional embrace with their mother Lani Szarmach, after connecting with her current husband on Facebook who spotted their baby photo The daughters had been separated from their mother after their parents' divorce when the women were babies and their father won full custody of them. Pictured: the sisters and their mother Lani (second from right) Their father, John Thompson, who died six years ago, was 18 years old when he joined the Air Force and went to Vietnam. Soon after, he went to Thailand where he met Lani and the two married. As young girls, the two sisters relocated along with their family several times because of their father's job. Lani Szarmach said she had been searching for her daughters nearly all their lives and now plans to cook Thai food for them The sisters had an emotional reunion with their mother on Tuesday at Kansas City airport and greeted her with an enlarged photo of the baby picture that had brought them together After video chatting for the first time on New Year's Eve, Lani flew out to Kansas City to meet her daughters Starla was born in Columbus, Ohio and Jeannie in England, but the family later returned to the United States. The sisters separated from their mother after their father got full custody of them after the divorce. Starla told ABC News: 'We asked our dad a lot about our mom, and he never spoke ill of our mom to us. 'He just said that she couldn't speak English because she's full-blooded Thai, and he said she thought since we were American and he was in the military, he could take better care of us and provide us a better life than she could.' The two had tried countless times to research their mother on the internet, but failed because they had very little information. Lani Szarmach, pictured, had been separated from her daughters for 40 years when they were only babies But on December 30th, Starla had been in bed when she received a Facebook message from her mother's current husband. She found out her mother was living in Pueblo, Colorado. The two exchanged information to verify their identities, but it mostly took one factor that made him realize she was his wife's daughter - a baby photo they both had on each other's Facebook page. Lani's husband Mark Szarmach told the news station his wife had been desperate to find her daughters but had no idea where to search for them. Mark found Jeannie on Facebook after three hours of surfing the web and was stunned to see the familiar baby photo - the one Lani had carried in her wallet for 42 years. The women and their mother spoke to each other for the first time through video chat on New Year's Eve. And just days after their discovery, Lani and Mark flew to Kansas City on Tuesday to meet their long-lost daughters. The two women waited at Kansas City airport for their mother with heartfelt signs that read 'Hi Mom', along with the enlarged baby photo that had brought them back together. The sisters and their mother shared emotional embraces and described their reunion as a 'miracle.' Lani told ABC she had waited all her life to cook for her daughters and will go shopping for Thai food to 'make up for their meals.' Jeannie Toomay, pictured, and her sister Starla said they had searched for years for their mother but failed to find her because they had very little information Stevens, 24, and a female companion were seen driving into the woods separately at 5pm on Tuesday Police In Maryland have identified a man whose body was discovered in the forested mountains of western Maryland shortly after a female companion walked out of the woods, suffering from hypothermia. Maryland State Police named the deceased victim in a statement early Thursday as 24-year-old Alexander A. Stevens, of Frostburg. Police spokesman Greg Shipley said Stevens' body had signs of trauma, but he declined to elaborate, only saying that the homicide unit is investigating. Police in Maryland named the man who was found dead in the woods Wednesday as 24-year-old Alexander Stevens. Friends on Facebook identifed the vicitm as the man seen in this photo The body of 24-year-old Alexander Stevens was discovered in Savage River State Forest in Maryland (stock photo) where he had been reported missing An autopsy is planned for later in the day Thursday to determine Stevens' cause and manner of his death. Investigators said all possibilities are being considered and nothing has been ruled out. As news of Stevens' untimely death spread on social media on Thursday, friends took to Facebook to pay tribute to the 24-year-old man, who was remembered for his intelligence, sense of humor and musical talent. 'Alex Stevens was one of the most truly unique and individual souls I have ever met,' wrote Shea Hormuth. 'He was also so extremely intelligent. Whenever I saw him, he always had some friendly advice, a crazy conspiracy theory, or a right trivia answer to share. 'He will be missed by friends, family, and the entire Western Maryland community. May he rest in peace. Namaste Alex, my soul recognizes your soul.' Stevens, seen left and right in Facebook photos, studied materials engineering and economics at Frostburg State University and civil engineering at the United States Coast Guard Academy According to a Facebook page that was tagged in Hormuth's post, Alexander 'Alex' Stevens studied materials engineering and economics at Frostburg State University and civil engineering at the United States Coast Guard Academy. Stevens is survived by his parents and his sister, who works as a piano teacher in Baltimore. 'Alex Stevens was an unbelievable man, with a great mind and a great sense of humor, and that's not even mentioning his skill with music,' his friend Matthew Clark wrote in a post. 'The Western Maryland community will miss you dearly,' Maryland Natural Resources Police spokeswoman Candy Thomson said Stevens and his companion, who has not been named, were seen together Tuesday evening near a Savage River State Forest trailhead. A search was launched early Wednesday after the pair were reported missing. Thomson said the woman walked out of the woods about 9am Wednesday and Stevens' body was found shortly thereafter along a logging road in a rugged area. Stevens and the woman drove to Savage River State Forest in Grantsville, Maryland, separately on Tuesday night at around 5pm. They were both reported missing by the same person at 2.15am the following morning. At around 9am, the woman 'walked out' of the forest and sought help at the nearby home of a stranger. She was then taken to a hospital to be treated for hypothermia. Police spotted his body from a helicopter flying over Pine Swamp Road in Garrett County Stevens' companion walked out of the woods with hypothermia Wednesday morning Alexander Stevens' body was found after police helicopters scanned the woodland from the air. The man was discovered lying next to a swamp on private property in the 2600 block of Pine Swamp Road. Maryland Natural Resources Police, which looks after the state's forests and parks, was initially tasked with investigating it. 'Missing female located. Walked out of woods. Being treated by EMS. Search continuing by foot & helicopter for male in Savage River SF,' it said in a Twitter post at around 9am. Maryland Natural Resources Police initially looked in to the incident but turned it over to State Police after learning the man's body was discovered on private property Later, the department confirmed the man's body had been found. 'Body of male located by State Police helicopter. Officers in recovery effort now.' They removed it from private property around an hour later. The relationship between Stevens and the woman is not known at this time. A 61-year-old school teacher has been charged with child sex offences after inappropriate photos of young girls were allegedly found on his computer. The physical education teacher at Churchfields Senior High School in Perth was arrested on Thursday after police searched his computer and other electronic devices. Police trawled the devices and allege that they found explicit images of child exploitation on his computer. A 61-year-old teacher at Churchfields Senior High School (pictured) in Perth has been charged with child sex offences Some of the pictures were allegedly taken while he was working at the school. Police say the charges do not relate to children who attend or attended Churchfields Senior High School. Officers from the joint anti child exploitation team began investigating the teacher following allegations that inappropriate photographs of girls were being taken. Detectives say they will make contact with victims as they are identified. Investigations are ongoing. In a letter to parents, Neil Hunt, principal of the school, said the teacher had criminal background checks before he was hired. Giselle Hamilton, 7, was almost kidnapped by a homeless man while eating lunch with her family at KFC, police have revealed A trip to KFC turned into a nightmare when a seven-year-old girl was nearly kidnapped by a homeless man while having lunch with her family, police revealed. Lorenzo Ray Taylor, 35, has been arrested after he allegedly tried to take Giselle Hamilton away from her mother and grandmother at a Paramount, California KFC restaurant. Heather Graesch, Giselle's mother, said they were eating at the fast food chain on Tuesday when Taylor came inside and began to yell at them. 'We started to eat and all of a sudden a man just walked up to us very strange and I wasn't sure what he was going to do,' Graesch told KTLA. 'I wasn't sure if he was going to ask for money or what was going to happen, and then he grabbed our food.' The women got scared and Giselle's grandmother, Deborah Marlow, took her to the business counter while Graesch carried her three-year-old daughter. But Taylor allegedly followed the family to the counter and then grabbed Giselle by the arm, trying to pull her away. Marlow said he was staring at the child and was saying 'the girl, the girl, I'm not your enemy'. The quick-thinking grandmother immediately grabbed Giselle's other arm. 'Then Heather, with the baby in her arm, grabbed Gee Gee as well by the shoulder or arm and pulled her, and we're tugging of war,' Marlow said. Giselle was with her three-year-old sister (pictured together left) and mother Heather Graesch (right) when the man came into the restaurant and started grabbing food off their table The man, identified as Lorenzo Taylor, then grabbed Giselle as her mother and grandmother Deborah Marlow (pictured) tried to fight him off 'And he's fighting with this superpower trying to pull her away from us.' A male customer then grabbed Taylor from behind to try and pull him off while a KFC employee got between the family and Taylor. They were able to help free Giselle, and an employee helped the family escape into the back of the restaurant. It was there that they saw a woman in scrubs pulling up to the drive-through and decided their girls would be safer outside the restaurant. The women pushed Giselle and her younger sister out of the window and into the customer's arms. But the struggle with Taylor was hardly over, according to police. Two civilians were able to detain him after he continued to fight another man. But then Taylor managed to escape and attempted to flee the restaurant. The two Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies that were on the scene then caught up to him, but struggled to restrain Taylor. The bystanders then jumped back in to help before the officers used a Taser on Taylor and took him into custody. A KFC employee and customer helped them pul Giselle away. They then took her to the back of the restaurant (pictured) before pushing her through the drive-through window Taylor is currently at a nearby hospital and will be booked after he is cleared. Now the family is seeking potential legal action against KFC, claiming that the chain's employees didn't help them fast enough. They are also claiming that the first deputy who arrived on the scene didn't come inside right away, despite being able to see the struggle happening in the restaurant. The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department claims it took less than a minute for the deputy to come inside, saying she called for backup first when it appeared that two men were fighting. They said the backup arrived less than a minute later. KFC likewise issued a statement in support of its employees, saying they 'immediately called law enforcement'. 'The alleged perpetrator was restrained until he was arrested,' the statement adds. 'We are cooperating fully with local law enforcement on this investigation.' A fertility clinic used by British couples accidentally implanted two women looking to start families with each other's embryos. The State Institute for Drug Control is now investigating Czech fertility clinic Reprofit. Local media reported that the clinic put the wrong embryos into the wombs of two mothers, both of whom came from abroad. Matej Stejskal, the vice Chairman of the clinic's holding company FutureLife confirmed: 'It was a human error, not a system failure. The people who manipulated the embryos are suspended.' Czech fertility clinic Reprofit in the city of Brno where medics accidentally implanted two patients with each other's embryos According to the clinic, both couples involved in the incident come from EU countries outside the Czech Republic. Local media reported that one couple are Austrian. The clinic is regularly visited by foreign clients and co-operates with several clinics in the UK. In 2015 the Reprofit clinic had 304 clients from the UK. The clinic itself informed The State Institute for Drug Control of the error after discovering it during routine quality checks. According to Czech law, the mother of the baby is the woman who gives birth to the child. The woman is considered to be the biological and legal mother, regardless of genetic maternity. Lawyer Tomas Pelikan told Czech media that the 'human error' defence is not good enough. He said 'The system should prevent individual errors from occurring. It should be set up in such a way that such mix-ups don't happen. Families from the UK go to the Czech Republic for IVF treatment as it is usually cheaper than the UK 'They should use bar coding, colour coding and what they call witnessing, in which one embryologist checks the work of another. It's highly individual work that requires very careful concentration.' Any sanctions the clinic will face will become clear after the State Institute for Drug Control completes its investigation. A British man has died after falling off a breakwater at a Costa del Sol beach. The victim, believed to be a holidaymaker and said to be aged around 45, is thought to have lost his footing while out walking. The incident occurred around midday today at La Malagueta beach in Malaga, which takes its name from the city centre neighbourhood of the same name. A local dialled 999 after spotting what he thought was a mans body in the water. The man died today at La Malagueta beach in Malaga, where he is believed to have fallen from a breakwater Firefighters were called but could do nothing because their specialist maritime unit was disbanded years ago and they did not have the required resources or personnel. Red Cross volunteers eventually recovered the unnamed man from the water, opposite a luxury hotel which used to house Malagas law courts. He was already dead when they reached him and his body was taken to Malagas port so it could be transferred to the citys Forensic Medicine Institute for a post-mortem. The tragedy unfolded this afternoon. A local called emergency services after spotting the man's body No personal details are expected to be released until the mans next-of-kin have been informed. He is believed to have been alone when he went into the water. Police have launched a routine inquiry and will pass their findings on to a local judge, although there is nothing at this stage to suggest any foul play. The beach where the tragedy occurred is a short drive west of the spot where British holidaymaker Reece Morris, 40, from Walthamstow, north east London, died a hero last August trying to save his 10-year-old daughter when they got into difficulties. President-elect Donald Trump insisted Thursday he supports U.S. intelligence agencies, despite casting doubts just days ago on their conclusion that Russian-backed computer hackers interfered with the U.S. presidential election. 'The media lies to make it look like I am against "Intelligence" when in fact I am a big fan!' Trump said in a two-tweet statement. 'The dishonest media likes saying that I am in Agreement with Julian Assange - wrong. I simply state what he states, it is for the people to make up their own minds as to the truth.' President-elect Donald Trump insisted on Thursday that he is 'a big fan' of U.S. intelligence, and doesn't necessarily agree with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange even though he repeats the exiled whistle-blower's claims Trump wrote on Twitter that he merely repeated Assange's views and 'the media lies' to give the impression that the two are on the same wavelength Trump has cited WikiLeaks founder Assange to express doubts that Moscow was behind the hacking of Democratic Party computers and accounts that led to the release of embarrassing documents and emails via the anti-secrecy group. The White House, FBI and CIA have all said the top levels of the Russian government were behind the hacking and leaks, which hurt Trump rival Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. But Trump appeared to reject the intelligence agencies' conclusions in tweets Tuesday and Wednesday, parroting Assange's view. 'Julian Assange said "a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta' why was DNC so careless?" he said, referring to the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton campaign chief John Podesta. Leaders of both political parties blasted Trump for his comments. Assange is 'a sycophant for Russia,' said Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan on Wednesday. 'He leaks, he steals data, and compromises national security.' Trump has citedAssange to express doubts that Moscow was behind the hacking of Democratic Party computers Democratic Senator Mark Warner said Trump showed 'frankly flabbergasting' disrespect for the intelligence officials. 'I think the most important thing the intelligence community can always do is speak truth to power,' Warner told MSNBC. 'And it seems like perhaps the president-elect doesn't want to hear those truths.' Trump's backpedaling came ahead of a Senate hearing Thursday in which Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and National Security Agency director Michael Rogers testified on Russian election interference. Congressman Chris Collins says Obamacare will stay in place as is until 2019 'or later' because it's too late for changes this insurance year. 'We're not going to pull the rug out from under anyone. So there's no reason to worry the next two years,' he said Thursday morning on MSNBC. The Trump transition team member affirmed that Republicans would follow a strategy that's been nicknamed 'repeal and delay' because it keeps key components of the health law in effect until after the midterm elections in 2018. Congressman Chris Collins says Obamacare will stay in place as is until 2019 'or later' because it's too late for changes this insurance year. 'We're not going to pull the rug out from under anyone. So there's no reason to worry the next two years' Democrats are blasting the approach as 'cynical.' It allows Republicans to claim on the stump that they fulfilled their promise to get rid of Obamacare before changes their constituents might not like kick in. Senator Rand Paul has been pushing his fellow Republicans to repeal and replace the law all at once so they aren't blamed for higher premiums and other Obamacare byproduct that could give consumers grief. He opposed a resolution yesterday that Republicans are using as vehicle to strip the health law. It narrowly made it through with 51 votes. Paul said Wednesday on Morning Joe, 'We need to think through how we do this, and it's a huge mistake for Republicans if they do not vote for replacement on the same day as we vote for repeal.' He warned Tuesday, in an op-ed on the conservative website Rare, 'If Congress fails to vote on a replacement at the same time as repeal, the repealers risk assuming the blame for the continued unraveling of Obamacare. 'For mark my words, Obamacare will continue to unravel and wreak havoc for years to come.' The Republican senator also said his colleagues were wrong to keep a provision that protects consumers with pre-existing conditions and do away with the individual mandate that requires every American to have health insurance or pay a government fine. 'If you repeal this mandate, but leave in place dictates as to whom may purchase insurance, you create a business model doomed to fail,' he said. Nancy Pelosi, the top-ranking Democrat in the House, made a similar point on a conference call Monday. 'They say that they want to keep preexisting condition provision. Well, if you have that without the rest of the bill, you will have a very big, expensive policy that you probably cant afford,' she said. 'Thats why people didnt have it before because they couldnt afford it before.' Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday that the GOP's plan would lead to 'chaos.' Democrats are blasting the approach as 'cynical.' It allows Republicans to claim on the stump that they fulfilled their promise to get rid of Obamacare before changes their constituents might not like kick in The president-elect cautioned his party on Wednesday to tread carefully as they navigate their way through the legislative process to repeal and replace his predecessor's signature law He blasted 'Schumer clowns' and high deductibles, a reference to Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer Democrats trolled Trump's campaign slogan with the phrase 'Make America Sick Again' at a news conference. 'The Republican plan to cut health care wouldnt make America great again, it would make America sick again and lead to chaos instead of affordable care,' Schumer said. Patty Murray, the senior Democrat on the Senate's health committee likewise said, If Republicans think creating chaos and causing chaos in our healthcare system, heightening economic uncertainty and burdening our seniors and our families with higher healthcare costs somehow makes our country great again, stronger again, they've got another thing coming. They should step back from the brink,' she said and 'stop putting politics ahead of families' healthcare.' Schumer predicated that Republicans would start losing people on their side as they make their way through the replacement process. When they come back, I dont even knowwhether theyll be able to get enough votes in their own cause for an alternative, and I think that they're going to have a lot of trouble...they're going to have far more trouble than they ever imagined, he said. Democrats' top vote counter in the House castigated the repeal and delay strategy as 'a very cynical, political approach' on a Monday call. 'Its essentially an admission that what theyve been trying to do for the last six years would be very detrimental and would have not only an extraordinarily adverse health effect on the American people, but also a very adverse political effect when the American people see the results of the repeal,' Rep. Steny Hoyer stated. The president-elect cautioned his party on Wednesday to tread carefully as they navigate their way through the legislative process. 'Massive increases of ObamaCare will take place this year and Dems are to blame for the mess. It will fall of its own weight - be careful!' he said on Twitter. Trump said in his tweets that 'Republicans must be careful in that the Dems own the failed ObamaCare disaster, with its poor coverage and massive premium increases like the 116% hike in Arizona. Also, deductibles are so high that it is practically useless. Don't let the Schumer clowns out of this web...' This morning he hit Schumer over the head again, saying, 'The Democrats, lead by head clown Chuck Schumer, know how bad ObamaCare is and what a mess they are in. Instead of working to fix it, they do the typical political thing and BLAME. 'The fact is ObamaCare was a lie from the beginning."Keep you doctor, keep your plan!" It is time for Republicans & Democrats to get together and come up with a healthcare plan that really works - much less expensive & FAR BETTER!' Trump's No. 2, Vice President-elect Mike Pence, called for an 'orderly transition' that 'doesn't work a hardship on our economy' in the repeal in remarks Wednesday on Capitol Hill but provided no details on which parts of the health law would remain in place or what alternatives Republicans would offer. He told reporters that repeal efforts would 'literally begin on day one' through executive actions but that was all. 'The president in his first day in office is going to do some level of executive orders related to ObamaCare,' Collins told The Hill. 'No details whatsoever,' he added. House Speaker Paul Ryan said Wednesday, 'We don't' want to pull the rug out from under people while we're replacing this law.' Collins echoed the GOP leader this morning on MSNBC. 'We're not going to pull the rug out from under anyone. There's not going to be any changes in 2017, there's not going to be changes in 2018. Senator Rand Paul has been pushing his fellow Republicans pass legislation that repeals and replaces the law all at once so they aren't blamed for higher premiums and other downsides to the law that could hit consumers in the next two years He explained that 'those products are already, have already been approved by the state insurance agencies, or for the 2018 time are in negotiation right now.' 'So we're talking about news plans in 2019, or later, that will be more affordable, let patients pick their doctors, we'll have to figure out exactly how we make sure that Americans are not disadvantaged, and that's a promise we've made. Collins made similar comments in November to CNN. The Republican congressman said his party has 'replacement ideas' but they need to go over them with new administration. 'Thats going to take longer. Lets face it itll be a transition. You dont cut it off on a Tuesday and on Wednesday say heres the new plan,' he argued. 'Insurance companies have to put out their plans for 2018 in many cases by April. So we do have a timeline that we have to adhere to' 'For the year of 2017, were not going to be pulling the rug out from anyone.' Collins said the GOP would definitely get rid of a tax on medical devices, a provision requiring employers to provide health care insurance to employees who work 30 hours a week or more, a mandate that requires employers to provide coverage at all, and the individual mandate. Republicans plan to keep a provision that bars insurance companies from denying coverage to applicants with pre-existing conditions and one that allows dependents to stay on their parents' health plans until the age of 18. Trump's No. 2, Vice President-elect Mike Pence, called for an 'orderly transition' that 'doesn't work a hardship on our economy' in the repeal in remarks Wednesday on Capitol Hill but provided no details on which parts of the health law would remain in place or what alternatives Republicans would offer Collins has acknowledged then that the preexisting condition provision could pose a problem. 'We recognize weve got to deal with that,' he told CNN in November. He referenced a GOP proposal to create high-risk pools that he said would have 'some government subsidies.' The White House gave Republican senators a taste of the attacks they can expect over the next four years on Thursday after the Senate passed the budget resolution that clears the way for Republicans to toss out Obamacare. It sounds like 51 Republican senators may have cast the deciding vote to take away healthcare from 22 million Americans, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said in response. They may have cast the deciding vote to blow a hole in the deficit. They may have cast the deciding vote to shorten the lifespan of Medicare and to weaken it by a decade or more. They may have cast the deciding vote to take away protections that prevent people from being discriminated against because they have pre-existing conditions. said they heard an argument then screams of agony soon after Gina Certoma, 20, is fighting for her life after being set alight be her long-term boyfriend A woman has been left fighting for her life after her she was allegedly set alight in a brutal attack by her boyfriend. Gina Certoma is in a critical condition in hospital following the vicious assault, which is believed to have been carried out by her long-term lover Ezequiel Farina, 22. The 20-year-old Argentinian was allegedly set alight after a 'bad argument' at the couple's home in the city of Quilmes, in the eastern Argentine province of Buenos Aires. Horrified neighbours say they heard the argument and him threatening her, before the eye watering screams when she was set alight. They called the police who arrived shortly after with paramedics who rushed her to hospital and saved her life. He was arrested at the scene and the young woman remains in hospital fighting to stay alive. One neighbour, who wished to be known only as Claudio, said: 'We could hear her son shouting 'My mum, she is burning!' A social media snap of Certoma and Farina. The pair had been living together and had a son 'The police were called and the woman was taken out of the house totally burned, but she was walking on her own and conscious. 'Her boyfriend told police she had burnt herself but a neighbour spoke up and said 'shut up you son of a b*tch, I listened to how you beat her all week. You burnt her'.' The director of the hospital that is caring for Gina, Daniel Aberquero, said she had to be sedated when she arrived due to the severity of her burns. He added that the accused was also 'very shocked and angry' and had 'emotional and psychological problems' for which he had also been treated. He was also sedated. The victim poses for a selfie. Horrified neighbours say they heard the argument and him threatening her, before the eye watering screams when she was set alight. He said: 'He did not admit to the attack and according to him he threw alcohol at her and she then went to the kitchen where she went up in flames, but the story was a bit confused.' Gina suffered more than 60 percent burns across her face, hands, stomach and back with 20 percent of the burns 'very deep.' Her friend, Carmen Benitez, has since spoken out to say that Gina had confessed to her boyfriend being 'jealous'. An anorexic beauty queen who was once so unhealthy doctors told her she had a month to live has thanked TV chef Paula Deen for saving her life. Jenna Kinard, 25, was so thin at the depth of her illness she required hospital treatment. Once in recovery, she would spend sleepless nights watching Deen on The Food Network. Now 65lbs heavier and a chef herself, she has thanked the 69-year-old soul food queen for helping her overcome her eating disorder. Scroll down for video Former beauty queen Jenna Kinard (left in a picture after her recovery) has thanked TV soul food chef Paula Deen for helping her overcome the eating disorder 'I love Paula Deen. People laugh about that, but she is my everything. She truly changed my life,' Ms Kinard told DailyMail.com. The model explained how she began creating some of the Georgia-based chef's southern dishes and became hooked on them. She met her idol at a food show where she emotionally thanked her for her help. She said she has received several Christmas cards since from her idol. 'She gave me the biggest hug and told me to never stop doing what Im doing. That is still soul food for me. That still fuels me every day,' said Kinard. Kinard says her eating disorder began when she was taking part in beauty pageants as a teenager. In 2009, the then 18-year-old was crowned Miss Teen Texas World and found herself thrust into spotlight. To compete and keep up with the pressure of being constantly judged on her looks, she began limiting what she ate. Kinnard was 65lbs lighter than her current weight at her most frail. She said she fell into the eating disorder as a teenager competing in pageants in Texas. She is seen above before her recovery At 18, Kinard won Miss Teen Texas World in 2009. She is photographed above, center, when she says she was suffering from anorexia Kinard began trying out some of Deen's rich, southern recipes when she was released from hospital At her worst, doctors told her she would die within a month if she did not seek help. After spending time in a recovery facility, she took up a job as a pastry chef in a Fort Worth restaurant. She is now the executive chef at another local restaurant and manages an Instagram page where she offers help to others suffering from eating disorders. Deen was The Food Network's undisputed queen for years. She runs a chain of restaurants across Georgia with her sons which all sell her signature southern dishes. Kinard is now a chef and works in a Fort Worth restaurant. She is seen above tending to one of her creations The chef regularly shares photographs with fans documenting her career at the restaurant and also shares revealing snaps on a separate page designed to help others overcome eating disorders In 2013, the star fell into hot water after admitting to using the N-word in a racial discrimination lawsuit filed against her by a former employee. A transcript of a deposition revealed her confession to using the racial slur, with Deen telling lawyers she used it to recall 'when a black man burst into the bank that I was working at and put a gun to my head.' 'I didn't feel real favorable towards him,' she added. She later issued a grovelling apology to fans. ' Inappropriate, hurtful language is totally, totally unacceptable. I've made plenty of mistakes along the way but I beg you, my children, my team, my fans, my partners - I beg for your forgiveness. Kinard celebrates being healthy, claiming the TV food chef 'changed her life' The 69-year-old lost 35lbs herself in 2012 after being diagnosed with diabetes. She is seen above (left) before the weight loss in 2007. Kinard (right) says the pair have exchanged letters and Christmas cards 'Please forgive me for the mistakes that I've made,' she said. She was also forced to address criticism for promoting unhealthy home cooking while privately losing weight after being diagnosed with diabetes. Deen was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in 2012. The offset the illness, she threw out 'everything that was white' from her pantry and revealed a 35lb weight-loss four months later. She later told how she was trying to reintegrate seemingly unhealthy foods to the kitchen. 'The thing that Im really trying to focus on y'all is moderation, moderation, moderation. Eat a cookie, just dont eat six of them,' she told ABC at the time. Deen appeared on Dancing With The Stars last year. An investigation is underway after students returned from the winter break to find their school covered in racist graffiti. Those arriving at Memorial High School near Houston on Wednesday saw the walls littered with offensive slogans and symbols - including swastikas and the n-word. Shocked students posted pictures on social media showing the offensive graffiti. One of the photographs showed 'n***a' written across a brick wall, while another was of the words, 'white power' scribbled across multiple windows. An investigation is underway after students returned from the winter break to find their school covered in racist graffiti (pictured) Several pentagrams, and the word 'c**k', were also seen. Memorial High School has almost two-thirds white students, while just two per cent of those enrolled are black, according to Texas Education Agency data. District officials have announced an immediate investigation into the vandalism, which it called a: 'highly offensive nature of content'. 'We stand against hate in all its forms and will never tolerate behavior that makes any member of the Spring Branch ISD family feel unsafe or disrespected,' the district said in a statement, KTRK reports. Students at Memorial High School (pictured) near Houston on Wednesday saw the walls littered with offensive slogans and symbols As part of the graffiti, a number of swastikas were seen on walls and the concrete around the school The school's principal also blasted the graffiti in a letter sent to parents on Wednesday. 'At MHS, we stand against hate. We are shocked and angered that our school has been targeted, and that our students returned to a new year to find their campus defaced in such a mean-spirited way,' Lisa Weir wrote, according to the Houston Chronicle. 'I addressed students and staff on the PA system at the start of the day and shared how deeply saddened I was to find such hateful words and symbols that do not represent who we are, and who we want to be as a school, community and society. Some of the other graffiti included the word 'c**k' written on a wall (left), as well as a number of pentagrams 'White power' was written on the windows of what appeared to be the school's library (left), while another of the swastikas is seen (right) 'I shared how we find strength in and take pride in our diversity, and how important it is for us to be sensitive to each other.' 'At MHS, we stand against hate. We are shocked and angered that our school has been targeted, and that our students returned to a new year to find their campus defaced in such a mean-spirited way,' principal Lisa Weir (pictured) wrote Parents of some students spoke about how disgusted they were by the graffiti. 'It's scary and unnerving that there's someone who could do something like that in our kids' school and so close to our home,' Jane Hammond told the Chronicle. 'And for it to be right on the heels of Christmas and the holidays is just terrible.' James Wainaina, an 18-year-old black student, said he was shocked to see this sort of thing at his school. 'We all joke about some stuff with close friends, but I didn't think someone here could be so racist,' he told the newspaper. Houston's NAACP held a press conference on Wednesday to condemn the graffiti. A rape victim who was the first in the UK to waive her right to anonymity has died aged 51. Vicar's daughter Jill Saward was 21 and a virgin when she was raped by knife-wielding burglars at her vicarage home in Ealing, west London, in 1986. Her father and boyfriend, whom she was with at the time, were tied up and viciously beaten. The brutal attack, which came to be known as the Ealing Vicarage Rape, received widespread media attention. This continued at trial, during which the judge drew criticism when he said the trauma Ms Seward had suffered 'had not been so great'. Mr Justice Leonard also provoked outrage when he handed rapists Martin McCall and Christopher Byrne shorter jail terms than gang leader Robert Horscroft, who was sentenced for burglary and assault and did not take part in the rape. Ms Seward died this morning after suffering a brain haemorrhage. She is survived by Gavin Drake, her journalist husband of 23 years, and her three sons. Survivor: Jill Saward, pictured on This Morning in October last year, was the first rape victim to waive her right to anonymity after she was attacked at home in 1986. She died today aged 51 Traumatic: Her father the Rev Michael Saward, pictured with his daughter Jill, and boyfriend were tied up during the attack. Rev Saward died in January 2015 aged 82 Jailed: Martin McCall, left, and Christopher Byrne, right, pictured in police custody after the attack, received just five years and three years in jail respectively for the rape, while gang leader Robert Horscroft was jailed for 14 years for burglary Family life: Ms Saward, a mother of three, with her husband Gavin and their baby son in 1998 Tributes: Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, described Ms Saward as a 'heroic and remarkable campaigner' in a heartfelt tweet today. Another suppoerter, Julie Bindel expressed the feelings of many when she said: 'You took the shame away from women who're raped' KEY FIGURES IN THE ATTACK Father: Canon Michael Saward THE FATHER Extraordinarily, Canon Michael Saward continued living in the vicarage for 13 years after the attack. He went on to become canon treasurer of St Pauls Cathedral. The composer of more than 100 hymns, and a regular letter writer to newspapers, he died two years ago aged 82. THE RINGLEADER Robert Horscroft, 34, got by far the longest sentence, 14 years for burglary despite not being involved in the rape. His past record for burglary was considered particularly serious by the judge. Released in 1996 after ten years in prison, Horscroft met Miss Saward for two hours in 1998 and sought forgiveness. He was last known to be living in a council flat. FIRST RAPIST Martin McCall, a 22-year-old drug addict, got just five years for raping Miss Saward at knifepoint, with another five for burglary. He was released in 1993, after serving only five years and eight months inside, and worked as a security guard, including at the BBC. It emerged he had been working for the corporation days before presenter Jill Dando was murdered in 1999. Martin McCall, a 22-year-old drug addict, got just five years for raping Miss Saward at knifepoint, with another five for burglary. Pictured, McCall in police custody CRICKET BAT THUG Andrew Byrne was known to have battered Miss Sawards father and boyfriend with a cricket bat as they lay face down. But his full role in the attack alongside his brother was never fully explained as he died before standing trial. Following his arrest, he was beaten so severely by a fellow inmate at Wormwood Scrubs that he never recovered consciousness and died aged 29 in December 1990. SECOND RAPIST Christopher Byrne, 22, received five years for burglary two more than his sentence for rape. He changed his name after leaving prison and married Maria Petrou in 1993. They had a daughter, but Miss Petrou fled and subsequently killed herself after learning his identity. Byrne was last known to be living in Acton, West London. The judge: Sir John Leonard THE JUDGE Sir John Leonard is said to have regretted to the end of his life the one great blemish on his career, his comment that Jill Sawards suffering had not been so great. He said: I would be very sad to be remembered as the vicarage rape case judge. But his words and the lenient sentences he passed shadowed him to the grave. When he retired in 1993 he made a public apology to Miss Saward. He died in 2002 aged 76. THE BOYFRIEND David Kerr, 21 at the time, bravely struggled with the gang as they beat him with a cricket bat, fracturing his skull and leaving him permanently deaf in one ear. He split from Miss Saward several months later. She had talked of forgiveness and faith, while he could not believe a God would allow something so evil. He ran a business, married and had two children. In 1998, then living in Essex, he told the Daily Mail that he never shared the need to forgive those animals and would still want to kill them. Advertisement Born in Liverpool in 1965, Ms Saward once wrote she had no issues with being 'tagged' as a rape victim, adding: 'I make no complaint about this tag as it has enabled me to challenge politicians and work for change.' But in the years that followed, she made sure it was not the infamous attack that came to define her, but rather her response to it. She went on to write a book about the attack and campaign on issues including sexual violence and violence against women. The case led to changes in the treatment of victims of sexual violence. Miss Saward, who subsequently married twice and had three children, won a series of changes to the law, including a ban on accused rapists being allowed to cross-examine their victims if they represented themselves at their trial. She continued to oppose recent calls for sex attackers to remain anonymous until conviction, and wrote to the House of Lords about the issue only three months ago. In the wake of the furore over honours for celebrities and mandarins, there were questions as to why Miss Saward was never recognised for her campaigning. Living by the belief that forgiveness 'gave her the liberation and freedom to move on', Ms Saward even met Horscroft 12 years after the attack and told him he 'did not need to say sorry' for what he had done because 'he was not the one who hurt her'. Miss Saward suffered a stroke on Tuesday and died in hospital in Wolverhampton. Her husband, journalist Gavin Drake, and their three sons said she had dedicated her life to helping others and had requested her organs be donated. Today supporters, campaigners and charities came together to pay tribute to Ms Saward and her tireless work on behalf of victims. Scroll down to read more about the brutal crime that shocked the country Vicar's daughter Jill Saward was raped at St Mary's Vicarage in Ealing, pictured, in 1986 Tireless work: Ms Saward, pictured in 1990, dedicated her life to campaigning against sexual violence and violence against women 'SHE WAS COURAGEOUS': TRIBUTES TO JILL SAWARD Rape Crisis England & Wales paid tribute to Ms Saward's achievements. A spokesperson said: 'Jill Saward was a good friend and valued supporter of the Rape Crisis movement for three decades. 'Waiving her right to lifelong anonymity, she campaigned tirelessly for both legal and social justice for victims and survivors of rape and sexual violence. 'Jill was able to step outside of her own harrowing experience to highlight the needs and rights of all those impacted by sexual violence. 'Most recently, she was focusing on the need to educate jurors at rape trials through the JURIES campaign, which she co-founded. 'Jill was courageous, pioneering and an inspiration. She will be sorely missed. Our thoughts are with her family at this sad time.' Ms Saward co-founded Jurors Understanding Rape Is Essential Standard (JURIES) to campaign for mandatory briefings about myths and stereotypes about sexual violence in trials. Co-founder Alison Boydell said: 'Jill was an indefatigable advocate for victim-survivors of sexual violence and dedicated her life to campaigning and raising awareness of rape and sexual violence. 'She also championed many other campaigns and causes and supported so many through her work, kindness and compassion.' Broadcaster Nicky Campbell tweeted to say Ms Saward had been a 'hero of our times'. He said: 'I'm devastated to hear that Jill Saward has died. She was a beautiful, remarkable and inspiring human being. A courageous hero of our times.' The Rev Arun Arora, director of communications for the Church of England, added Ms Saward was a 'brave woman who campaigned tirelessly'. He said: 'Her courage, fortitude and commitment made her an outstanding campaigner as well as a loyal friend to many.' Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: Jill Saward was a courageous campaigner. Her work led to crucial changes in the law and attitudes. Attorney General Jeremy Wright said: Her tireless campaigning opened the eyes of many politicians and helped to ensure that victims are now placed at the heart of the criminal justice system. Clementine Churchills biographer Sonia Purnell tweeted: Someone who would genuinely have deserved an honour. RIP Jill. Another Twitter user, Richard Davies, wrote: What does it say about our Government when Victoria Beckham gets a NY honour and Jill Saward nothing. Advertisement In a statement on her website from her family said: 'It is with deep shock and great sadness that we must announce that Jill Saward (Jill Drake) died this morning in New Cross Hospital, Wolverhampton, following a subarachnoid haemorrhage on Tuesday. She was 51-years old. DAILY MAIL COMMENT In comments impossible to imagine today, Jill Sawards trial judge shamelessly trivialised her unspeakable trauma. From that moment and for the next 30 years, she campaigned tirelessly to ensure the courts would treat women better. Her work led to crucial changes in the law and helped place the rights of sex assault victims at the heart of the criminal justice system. So doesnt it say it all about our rotten honours system that while vapid celebrities like Victoria Beckham and self- serving mandarins like Sir Ivan Rogers and Sir Foreign Aid Mark Lowcock are showered with gongs, a woman of grit and integrity who immeasurably improved the lives of countless others got nothing? Advertisement 'In consultation with medical staff, the family readily agreed to Jill's desire to be an organ donor. Jill dedicated the past 30 years of her life to helping other people. 'It gives us great comfort to know that our wonderful wife, mother and sister was able to help other people to the very end. 'We would like to thank all those who contributed to her medical care in recent days. 'We are also so very grateful for the many expressions of prayer, love and support we have received. 'At this stage we would appreciate space and time to come to terms with what has happened.' Ms Saward co-wrote a book, Rape: My Story, and over the following years appeared on TV, radio and newspaper pages to publicise the plight of rape victims. Underlying her decision to discuss her trauma openly was a determination to help tighten rape laws and strengthen the framework of support that victims received. Forgiveness: In 1998 Ms Saward met with Horscroft and told him he 'did not need to say sorry' Ms Saward, pictured in 1990, was described as a 'wonderful wife, mother and sister' who 'helped people to the very end' HOW ANONYMITY RULES SHAPED THE COURT CASE Under anonymity rules in place at the time of her case, Ms Saward was not allowed to know the name of her rapist until the day of the court hearing. Until 1988 it was an offence to reveal the name of either a rape victim or the accused, to protect the latter from stigma should charges be dropped or they be acquitted in court. Ms Saward said that the shock of learning the name in court distracted her from concentrating on the evidence she had to give. The case was entrenched with infamy when the one man who did not rape Ms Saward received substantially longer jail sentences than the two that did. Advertisement Ms Saward previously spoke of suicidal thoughts, and planned to kill herself on three separate occasions, only to stop at the last moment. As well as setting up a help group for victim's and their families in 1994, she became a committed counsellor. Her work took an equally political hue, in part through the many battles she spearheaded to change how rape victims were treated in the courtroom. Among the causes she successfully campaigned for was the barring of alleged rapists from cross-examining victims while representing themselves in court. She worked tirelessly to hold both the Government and the legal system to account over the rights of sexual violence victims, most recently rallying against calls to allow accused perpetrators anonymity until conviction. Forgiveness was a key tenet of Ms Saward's philosophy. 'I believe forgiveness gives you freedom. Freedom to move on without being held back by the past,' she once wrote. Ms Saward, pictured in 1997, is survived by her journalist husband of 23 years Gavin Drake and her three sons Advertisement Stunning photographs show young novice monks taking a break from their studies high up in the Himalayas. The images show the boys dressed in maroon robes laughing in the classroom inside the 15th-century Thiksey monastery in Ladakh, northern India. One of the monks in training is photographed running through the monastery, while another appears to be deep in thought as he looks out onto the spectacular views. A youngster can also be seen practising his martial arts skills at the monastery, which is situated at an altitude of 11,800 feet in the Indus Valley. Buddhist monasteries in the mountain desert are a reminder of the region's ties to its eastern neighbour, Tibet. Ethnic Tibetans fled across the border after an abortive uprising against Chinese rule in 1959 and live in so-called 'Little Tibets' in India. Stunning photographs show young monks dressed in maroon robes taking a break from their studies in the Himalayas A boy is pictured laughing in the classroom inside the 15th-century Thiksey monastery in Ladakh, northern India The young monks can be seen taking time to relax in the middle of their lessons in the Indus Valley Prayer flags can be seen flying above a monastery in Ladakh. Buddhist monasteries in the mountain desert are a reminder of the region's ties to its eastern neighbour, Tibet A group of youngsters are seen standing inside the Thiksey Monastery as they take a break from their studies One of the young monks appears to be deep in thought as he sits by himself on the wall of the monastery Another of the novice monks is seen standing outside on a roof terrace of the twelve-storey monastery in Ladakh Two monks in training are pictured reading in a classroom, which has a table of auspicious symbols painted on the wall A Maitreya buddha in the Thiskey monastery in Ladakh, with offerings placed in front of the shrine A young novice monk is pictured running through the monastery in his robes during a break from his studies Buddhist monasteries in the mountain desert are a reminder of the region's ties to its eastern neighbour, Tibet An independent railways watchdog has ruled driver-only trains on Southern Rail are safe when run properly. After a probe into the union claims driver-only train are dangerous, Ian Prosser, HM Chief Inspector of Railways, said that Southern's 'method and implementation' of driver-only trains is a 'safe method of working'. The findings of the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) will come as a blow to militant trade unions plotting six days of all out strikes on the Southern network this month. Some 300,000 commuters are braced for renewed chaos on the railways as drivers prepare to walk out yet again on Tuesday. Driver-only trains on Southern routes are 'safe' when run properly, the Office for Rail and Road has said today after investigating union concerns Aslef was accused of plotting a 'cynical' campaign of industrial action yesterday when it unveiled plans to close down the railway on January 10, 11, 13, 24, 25 and 27. Mr Prosser said: 'ORR has made some recommendations for further improvements, including ensuring that CCTV image quality is consistently high. 'GTR-Southern has accepted and is in the process of implementing these recommendations. 'As the safety regulator we will continue our inspections and are also working with the industry to ensure it reviews and updates its work in adopting best practice procedures, training and equipment in relation to the safe dispatch of trains.' Southern boss Charles Horton welcomed the report and confirmed the train operator would accept all of the recommended improvements. He said: 'The ORR has confirmed that this is a safe method of operation and the unions must now acknowledge that they have no credible argument that it's an unsafe method of operation. 'Because of their unjustified and pointless industrial action, the travelling public have faced months of misery and hardship to their work and family lives for no substantive reason.' Aslef boss Mick Whelan defended the strike action, warning the ORR report revealed the need for improvements to ensure safe operation He added: 'The ball is now in the unions' court. This futile industrial action must come to an end. 'It's time for both sets of union members, to tell their RMT and ASLEF leadership in the strongest terms that it's time to call an end to all this. 'They voted for the original strike action and they have the voice to bring it to an end.' Aslef general secretary Mick Whelan said the ORR report made clear the dangers of driver-only operation and said it warned Southern had to make changes. He said: 'The company seems to expect drivers to operate trains which it knows are unsafe because it concedes the work the ORR wants done has not yet been completed which proves, yet again, that this is all about putting profit before passenger safety. 'The truth is that passengers, every time they are asked, want a second safety-critical person on their trains. On board to help the elderly, the young, and the disabled. 'The company, which doesn't seem to care what passengers to think, want to take us one step closer to losing that second role.' A transgender man sued a Roman Catholic hospital, claiming it cited religion in refusing to allow his surgeon to perform an operation critical to his sex transition. Jionni Conforti's sex and gender discrimination lawsuit comes Thursday, January 5, as new regulations hailed as groundbreaking anti-discrimination protections for transgender individuals are under legal attack from religious groups. The 33-year-old from Totowa, New Jersey originally scheduled the hysterectomy at St Joseph's Regional Medical Center in Paterson in 2015. Jionni Conforti in his home, Thursday, January 5, 2017, in Totowa, New Jersey. The transgender man has sued St Joseph's Regional Medical Center in Paterson Conforti said the hospital cited religion in refusing to allow his surgeon to perform a hysterectomy procedure he claims was medically necessary as part of his gender transition Conforti alleges in the federal lawsuit that a hospital administrator told him the procedure to remove his uterus couldn't be done because it was a 'Catholic hospital.' Conforti began his transition in 2004, and said about the situation: 'I felt completely disrespected.' 'That's not how any hospital should treat any person regardless of who they are. 'A hospital is a place where you should feel safe and taken care of. Instead, I felt like I was rejected and humiliated.' Conforti, had scheduled the surgery in 2015, but he claims in the federal lawsuit that a hospital administrator then told him the procedure to remove the uterus he was born with couldn't be done because it was a 'Catholic hospital' A spokesman for the hospital said he hadn't yet seen the lawsuit and wasn't able to comment. Conforti, who is represented by the nonprofit Lambda Legal, said a nurse in charge of surgery confirmed the procedure could be scheduled, but his doctor was told later it wouldn't be allowed because it was for gender reassignment. In an email cited in the lawsuit from the hospital's director of mission services, Father Martin Rooney, said it couldn't allow the surgery because it was a Catholic hospital. Conforti, who is seeking monetary damages and to require the hospital perform any needed medical care for transgender patients, cites the problem of suicide in the transgender community Rooney didn't immediately return a message seeking comment. The lawsuit argues that the hospital's patient bill of rights guarantees medical services without discrimination based on 'gender identity or expression'. Conforti said he felt betrayed and became depressed after the hospital's decision. Conforti, who is represented by the nonprofit Lambda Legal, said a nurse in charge of surgery confirmed the procedure could be scheduled, but his doctor was told later it wouldn't be allowed because it was for gender reassignment Although he had the procedure performed three months later at a different hospital, he said he's suing so no one else has to go through what he did. Conforti, who is seeking monetary damages and to require the hospital perform any needed medical care for transgender patients, cites the problem of suicide in the transgender community. He said: 'Anything can trigger that. Something may seem small, but to a trans person, it's not.' 'I don't want other trans people to have to go through and feel what I felt.' In an email cited in the lawsuit from the hospital's director of mission services, Father Martin Rooney, said it couldn't allow the surgery because it was a Catholic hospital (pictured) The lawsuit comes less than a week after a federal judge in Texas ordered a halt to new US Health and Human Services regulations that had been set to go into effect January 1 to bar certain forms of transgender discrimination by doctors, hospitals and insurers. Civil rights groups hailed the new health rules as groundbreaking, but five states, a Christian medical association and an Indiana-based network of religious hospitals sued. Judge Reed O'Connor ruled that religious hospitals would be forced to violate their religious beliefs or risk severe consequences if they didn't change their policies. Another legal challenge to regulations that Catholic hospitals say would force them to perform gender transitioning procedures and abortions was filed in federal court last week in North Dakota by a group of Catholic businesses and organizations, including the Catholic Benefits Association and Diocese of Fargo. Opponents say the regulation creates a moral problem for Catholic employers and religious groups. They claim Pope Francis has reiterated that Catholic teachings oppose theories that a person's sex is alterable. Two people have been arrested for making death threats against a judge and other officials after an Israeli soldier was convicted of manslaughter. Three judges who found Elor Azaria guilty have been assigned bodyguards amid tensions over the conviction. Azaria shot 21-year-old Abdul Fatah al-Sharif dead in March last year in Hebron in the occupied West Bank as he lay injured. Scroll down for video Azaria (centre), who shot dead a wounded Palestinian assailant, sits with his family as he awaits for the verdict in his case at the military court in Tel Aviv Al-Sharif had already been shot after attacking another solider, and was on the ground injured. Israeli news site Ynet reports that a 54-year-old man and a 22-year-old woman were arrested after making online threats against the head of the judging panel, Colonel Maya Heller. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is among those calling for the soldier to be pardoned. 'Police units are continuing to monitor social media and respond to threats and incitement to violence connected to the Azaria court decision,' a statement said. Abdul Fatah al-Sharif was lying injured on the ground when he was shot by the Israeli soldier Military and justice ministry officials declined to comment on the increased security for Heller as well as the two other judges, Colonel Carmel Wahabi and Lieutenant Colonel Yaron Sitbon. Military prosecutor Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Weissman has also reportedly been given extra protection. Military chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot was reportedly targeted with threats, with some supporters of the soldier suggesting he would join Rabin - a reference to the 1995 assassination of former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin by a Jewish extremist. Violence broke out outside the military court in Tel Aviv where the case is being heard There were angry scenes outside as the verdict was delivered, in a case which has opened up huge tensions in Israel Parliament speaker Yuli Edelstein said a number of officials had also been targeted online. 'The statements made yesterday against the chief of staff - the commander of the army - and the military judges should shock everyone living in Israel,' Edelstein said. 'I FEEL GOOD, IT IS FAIR': FATHER REACTS TO VERDICT The father of the Palestinian attacker shot dead by Israeli soldier Elor Azaria has welcomed the manslaughter conviction. Yousri al-Shari said: 'I feel good. It is fair. This is an achievement of the court that it condemned the soldier.' Al-Sharif gathered with his family in his home in the West Bank city of Hebron on Wednesday to watch the verdict being read live on Israeli television. He added: 'I was exhausted and tense. I smoked two packs of cigarettes while watching the verdict.' It took the judge nearly three hours to deliver the verdict. Advertisement 'I expect all of us elected officials and prominent voices to speak out unequivocally for the freedom of expression and against the freedom of incitement and contempt.' After the verdict was delivered yesterday, the Palestinian's father, Yousri al-Shari, said it was 'fair'. But the verdict at a military court in Tel Aviv was met with angry scenes, as it marked the culmination of a case which has caused huge political tensions in Israel. A family spokesman said the court had 'picked up the knife from the ground and stabbed it in the back of all the soldiers'. And Mr Netanyahu waded into the controversy, writing on his Facebook page: 'I support giving Elor Azaria a pardon.' Only Israel's president, Reuven Rivlin, has the authority to issue pardons but has said he will wait for the legal process to run its course before making a decision. Azaria, a medic, had been on trial since May, and could now face up to 20 years in prison. Right-wing politicians have called on President Rivlin to pardon the soldier, who has been dubbed 'everyone's child' by the campaign supporting him. Under Israeli law, the country's largely ceremonial president has the authority to issue a pardon. Friends and relatives of Abdul Fatah al-Sharif, who was shot dead by Azaria, mourn during his funeral in the West Bank city of Hebron The family of Abdul Fatah al-Sharif has welcomed today's verdict But military chiefs said Azaria acted in cold blood, and pointed out he had previously posted anti-Palestinian comments on social media. Hebron is an overwhelmingly Palestinian town with a small but vociferous group of Jewish settlers living in the heart of the old town. There is a large Israeli military presence to protect the settlers and over the years the town has seen some of the worst clashes since 1967, when the Israeli Army conquered and occupied the West Bank. The case has divided Israel, and violence erupted outside the military court in Tel Aviv today ahead of the verdict In 1994 Baruch Goldstein, a far-right Jewish settler, murdered 29 Palestinian worshippers at an ancient mosque in the town before he was himself killed. Violence erupted outside the court today ahead of the verdict as large groups of supporters gathered. A video of the killing showed al-Sharif on the ground after having previously been shot when Azaria shot him in the head. The Palestinian, along with another man, had stabbed and moderately wounded a soldier minutes earlier, according to the army. The court heard Azaria, who was 19 at the time, shot him again without any apparent provocation. Before the shooting, the court heard, Azaria had said to a colleague: 'How is it that my friend was stabbed and the terrorist is still alive?' Large groups of supporters had called for the soldier to be acquitted by the court A supporter of the Israeli soldier weeps after verdict was read out, convicting the soldier of manslaughter And a commander on the scene said the soldier had said after the shooting: 'The terrorist deserved to die.' 'IT WAS LIKE THE COURT STABBED ALL THE SOLDIERS IN THE BACK' A spokesman for the family of the Israeli soldier convicted of manslaughter has hit out at the verdict. Former lawmaker Sharon Gal told reporters: 'It was like the court was detached from the fact that this was the area of an attack. 'I felt that the court picked up the knife from the ground and stabbed it in the back of all the soldiers.' The soldier's defense team said it would appeal the verdict. Advertisement In delivering her verdict, the president of Jaffa Military Court, Colonel Heller systematically rejected all of Azaria's defence arguments, saying 'the fact that the man on the ground was a terrorist does not justify a disproportionate response'. She said his testimony had been 'evolving and evasive', and said she saw no reason for the soldier to open fire. She said there was no evidence to support his contradictory claims that the attacker was already dead or that he posed any threat at the time, telling him he 'couldn't have both sides of the stick'. 'We found there was no room to accept his arguments,' she said. 'His motive for shooting was that he felt the terrorist deserved to die.' A relative of the soldier was thrown out of court, while a second stormed out after the verdict. A young woman called the verdict a disgrace and screamed 'the Israeli military is over!' before she was thrown out of the courtroom. Another woman screamed 'disgusting leftists!' and stormed out. After the judges walked out, Azaria's mother, Oshra, screamed: 'You should be ashamed of yourselves.' Azaria tried to comfort her and calm her as she wailed. There were angry clashes outside the Tel Aviv courtroom at the culmination of a case which has divided Israel Large crowds blocked a busy intersection, and there were clashes with police as supporters showed their backing for Azaria Israel's defence minister, Avigdor Liberman, said he disagreed with the verdict, but called on the public to accept the court's decision. He said 'despite the difficult verdict, the defense establishment will do everything it can to assist the soldier and his family'. And he continued: 'We must keep the army outside every political argument... and keep it in the widest consensus in Israeli society.' While the verdict was being read, some demonstrators chanted a death threat against the Israeli army's chief, Lt Gadi Eizenkot, insinuating he would face the same fate as Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, assassinated 20 years ago by an ultranationalist Israeli. 'Gadi, Gadi, watch out. Rabin is looking for a friend,' the demonstrators chanted. Israeli solider Sgt. Elor Azaria waits with his parents for the verdict inside the military court Supporters outside the court had called for Azaria to be freed after he shot a wounded Palestinian attacker dead Azaria, who had been applauded as he entered, sat emotionless as the verdict was delivered. While right-wing politicians have defended Azaria, top army brass harshly condemned the killing. Hundreds of demonstrators today blocked a major Tel Aviv intersection close to the military headquarters where the trial was heard, and clashed with police. Journalists covering the demonstration say they were attacked by demonstrators. Others on the right called for him to be pardoned in an extraordinary public rift between politicians and the country's military. Miri Regev, a popular cabinet minister from Mr Netanyahu's Likud Party and a former military spokeswoman, immediately called for Azaria to be pardoned. Shelly Yacimovich, a leading opposition politician, also called for him to be released. One banner outside the trial read: 'People of Israel do not abandon a soldier in the battlefield'. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has voiced his support for the soldier Azaria's lawyers argued the soldier may have thought the Palestinian was wearing explosives, but he had reportedly already been checked for a suicide belt and no one in the video appears to be acting with caution toward him. Before he became Israeli defence minister in May, Avigdor Lieberman was among those showing strong support for Azaria, and even attended one of Azaria's military court appearances in support. He has since backed away from his earlier stance. Gilad Grossman of Yesh Din, a rights group that monitors the Israeli military justice system, said the video of Azaria shooting the Palestinian gave the military no choice but to prosecute. Military chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot has spoken out against the politicisation of the case, warning it could 'harm our institutions and our requirements of soldiers'. He said rules on when to open fire must be followed. 'An 18-year-old man who serves in the army is not our child, he is not a baby,' Eisenkot said in a speech on Tuesday, referring to a campaign by the soldier's supporters calling him the 'child' of all Israelis. Israeli soldier Elor Azaria is due to find out whether he has been found guilty of manslaughter for shooting Abdul Fatah al-Sharif Ive never been in that place. Sometimes coming from lifelong residents, that is one of the comments most frequently heard about the Butler County Historical Museum at 200 West D Street. The Butler County Historical Society hopes to change the publics relationship with the museum in a big way with upcoming improvements. By the beginning of 2018, if plans come to fruition, many more residents and visitors will have found a new gem at the museum, the former Burlington Northern Railroad Depot. They will have more opportunities to rediscover the past; from the time farmers came in droves to settle former Indian land more than 160 years ago and even far beyond that. The BCHS roots stretch back to 1967, the same year of Nebraskas statehood centennial. BCHS president Lillian Karash led the society with three other officers and a nine-member board of directors. There was momentum for a couple of decades, including the acquisition of the depot in 1971 and the David City Centennial coming in 1973. The BCHS kept it simple, using wire bound notebooks to catalogue the hundreds of donated items and names of donors. The society members pitched in to turn the depot into a museum. The charter document listed 111 members, with about 60 percent of them women. The local chapter of the Professional Business Womens Association played a major role in getting the society started. An earlier effort to start a historical society was made in the 1930s, but the group didnt survive. Its interesting to read the names of prominent county citizens of the 1960s. Many of them undoubtedly had pioneer families who settled in Butler County a century earlier and in the decades in between, said Larry Peirce, the societys president since last March. We owe a debt of gratitude to those first volunteers who recognized that the countys history must be preserved. After its strong start, the BCHS produced the 1982 Butler County History Book, compiling both community and family histories. Longtime members Opal Zeilinger, the former BCHS secretary, and the late Elsie Semrad led the book committee. These days, the history book is a rare find. Since the 1980s, the BCHS lost its momentum. Membership numbers stalled. For the past decade or so, the society had been dormant. Re-organization efforts began in 2015. Bylaws were updated and new officers were elected last March. The society was approved for non-profit status, clearing the way for donors to make tax deductible contributions. Its just a start, members acknowledge, but its a good start. It is wonderful to see that there is interest of new members and the new ideas coming forth to support BCHS now and hopefully for years to come, said Gene Supancheck, a long time BCHS member and former treasurer. BCHS members are working to make the group a true county organization, holding meetings in one of the countys villages about every other month, along with Hruska Memorial Public Library. The museum was opened on Sundays from June to November. Feedback from visitors has been positive, and some say theyll be returning with friends and family. Progress The recent re-organization began with a purposely slow approach because of the limited resources and volunteers. The 100-year-old building is sturdy but needs to be stabilized. Members had to determine what steps to take first, and how those steps would be funded. The process of making a digital catalog of the museum collection will take months, perhaps more than a year. It became apparent that without new heating and air conditioning in the museum, the process would be difficult. And there were other complications: Visitors wont come to a museum that's too hot or too cold, and the fluctuating temperatures and humidity can damage some of the more fragile items. Good news came in December, when the society was approved for $5,000 from the Butler County Tourism Fund, which is funded by the countys 4 percent lodging tax. The BCHS building committee is finalizing plans to install a furnace and air conditioning unit in the upcoming months. The society also has seen a modest increase in donations, some of them unsolicited, including $430 from the members of the former Congregational Church, which dissolved last summer. We know that a big part of our challenge will be financial support, Peirce said. We were fortunate that previous members had maintained some funds to help the society to start up again. BCHS members have discovered that the local support was there. It was just waiting below the surface. Some supporters just needed to be asked to help. Before people can get behind the societys goals, they want to see some progress, Peirce said. It will take some time, but with some dedicated volunteers, well see some change at the museum. Were just getting started. Once the buildings interior is stabilized, volunteers can turn their attention to the exhibits. The BCHS will consult with area museums to learn best practices for preparing rotating exhibits with changing themes. The depots limitations also affect whether the society can accept donations of historic items. If a larger facility was available, the BCHS would need to raise the funds necessary to expand. Counties surrounding Butler County have larger museum buildings or multiple historic structures in their possession. Theres more to the BCHS than the museum. In the past year historian Jim Reisdorff consulted with an archivist from Hallmark Cards for the companys celebration of Joyce Halls 125th birthday and Halls roots in David City and Nebraska. The BCHS event committee held its first presentation in October with Charlotte Endorf of Hadar, who revisited her work on the Orphan Trains of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. BCHS also plans to collaborate with other local groups to bring historical programs to Butler County. About the future The year 2017 is turning out to be pivotal for BCHS. Four decades ago the society could accept historical items and put them on a shelf or in a drawer. Since then, storage space is cramped. Meanwhile museums must adapt to gain the interest of todays public. With its collections out of the public eye for years, the museum has enough new items to rotate for the coming year or so. Each time you visit the museum, you see something new because there are so many items to focus on, Peirce said. The same is true for the challenges ahead of BCHS. We will not run out of things that need our attention, so the more people we can get involved, the better. The museum currently is open only by appointment. To set up a time, call Larry Peirce at 402-875-2073. Membership time will be coming up soon. Annual membership is $10. Fees help to cover the cost of maintaining the collection. For more information, email: butlerco.ne.history@gmail.com. Jim Reisdorff, historian for the Butler County Historical Society, contributed to this story. A mother dubbed 'Britain's biggest complainer' claims she gets 400 a month in free goods from companies that she moans at. Vanessa Gilby, 25, has obtained free vouchers, a free trip to Alton Towers, children's toys and hundreds of other goods by raising complaints. Her biggest wins last month were a 90 spa break, a 90 meal for two, and a family ticket to Flamingo Land theme park in North Yorkshire worth 155. Vanessa Gilby, 25, has obtained free vouchers, a free trip to Alton Towers, children's toys and hundreds of other goods by raising complaints The full-time mother of two, from Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, also received a 20 voucher for Huggies nappies, the same amount for Aptamil baby milk, 15 from M&S and 10 from Boots. She is now urging others not to be afraid to challenge companies for bad service or poor products, and they too could enjoy the same benefits. Miss Gilby told The Sun: 'I've always been the type who speaks my mind so complaining about bad service has never been a problem. 'I know some people feel awkward, but nobody should put up with something they're not happy with.' 390 OF FREEBIES 155 Flamingo Land ticket for three adults and two children 90 Luxury spa break 90 Meal for two 20 Aptamil voucher 20 Huggies voucher 15 Marks & Spencer food voucher 10 Boots voucher Advertisement She believes that challenging the manager face-to-face is the best way to get results. Miss Gilby also said that in an age of social media, where bad experiences are so easy to share, companies are terrified of damage to their reputation. She added: 'Most companies are really afraid of people bad-mouthing them on social media, so the power is really in the customer's hands.' As well as going to the manager directly, she also advised people to be assertive and confident when they complain. Other top tips include describing the worst case scenario, such as becoming severely ill from bad food or injuring yourself with substandard safety equipment. The interior designer who was behind some of the world's most luxurious tropical getaways, including a stunning Caribbean retreat for David Bowie, a holiday home for Mick Jagger, and a Bali resort for Richard Branson, has died. Linda Garland, who was nicknamed 'the bamboo crusader' for her sustainable building projects, died in Victoria, Australia on Tuesday at 70-years-of-age. She was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2010, but managed to battle her illness for several years, turning to alternative medicine for treatment. Garland was born Newry, County Down, Northern Ireland to a family of Irish gentry, and grew up on a large estate. Interior designer to the stars Linda Garland has passed away in Australia at the age of 70 She moved to London at the age of 18, during the swinging sixties, to pursue her ambition of becoming a designer. However, the course of her life changed completely when she was involved in a near-fatal car crash in Italy when she was 20-years-old. She spent months in hospital, and when she was well enough decided to travel the world collecting fabrics and artifacts. She arrived in Indonesia in the 1970s, and by 1974 had settled in Bali. She began to explore and experiment with local crafts and by the 1980s her interior design business was thriving. Her projects, including Villa Campuchan in Indonesia, pictured, were built with the environment and sustainability in mind Her Panchoran Retreat was built using both the bamboo that grows wild in the area as well as old telephone poles purchased from the local government She pioneered and promoted new treatment methods to preserve bamboo and prolong its life, and gained a growing reputation for her sustainable and ecological design projects. Her work included David Bowie's Mustique getaway, a house that unfolds in a series of Balinese temple pavilions, cleverly arranged around a two-tiered ornamental pool; and her Panchoran Retreat - the pristine getaway she designed in Bali, which is now owned by Richard Branson. Garland married Amir Rabik, which gained her Indonesian citizenship, and she became increasingly concerned by the destruction of forests in the country. She was behind David Bowie's stunning 'tranquil' Caribbean retreat on the island of Mustique Bowie's house, which he later sold to British publisher and poet Felix Dennis, unfolds in a series of Balinese temple pavilions, cleverly arranged around a two-tiered ornamental pool By the 1990s environmentalism was her main priority and she founded the Environmental Bamboo Foundation in 1993 to promote the use of bamboo and try to put a stop to the deforestation having a devastating impact on Indonesia. Paying tribute on Facebook, her friend Duncan Murray Kirk wrote: 'I feel a deep gratitude to have been a close friend and to have received the guiding light that she spread widely for the greater good of humanity and its ecology. 'Linda was armed with fabulous wit and humor and broad perspectives that touched all with a message of humility; she infused responsibility towards nature and the future well-being of our rock in space. Garland, who was nicknamed 'the bamboo crusader' for her promotion of the material She pioneered and promoted new treatment methods to preserve bamboo and prolong its life, and the material was used in her design projects 'Linda left behind a very important legacy; Single handedly she created the Borax solution for Bamboo to become usable as a sustainable building material and her Bamboo foundation lives on and is now championed by her son Arief Rabik.' Amir Sidharta also paid tribute, writing: 'RIP Linda Garland, the grand lady of bamboo! 'Thank you for supporting Bali's creative industries since the 1980s. Thank you for inspiring many craftsman in Indonesia. 'Thank you for helping make Indonesia "cool" to the world. The Trump Organization has canceled talks about possible projects in Brazil, Argentina and India as the president-elect pulls back from deal-making less than three weeks before taking office. Trump lawyer Alan Garten said on Wednesday that the company has canceled a 'memorandum of understanding' to continue discussions with local partners over possible office towers in Rio de Janeiro. The company won't continue 'exploratory' talks over projects in Pune, India, and in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Garten said the company has canceled a 'memorandum of understanding' to continue discussions with local partners over possible office towers in Rio de Janeiro Trump pictured during transition team meetings at Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach. The president-elect has been under pressure to separate from his business before assuming office The moves follow cancellations late last year of licensing deals for hotels in Brazil, Azerbaijan and the neighboring country of Georgia, as Donald Trump has come under pressure to separate from his business before assuming office. Federal ethics rules do not require presidents to sell off their business or investments, but critics argue that Trump should do so because his global holdings present unprecedented conflicts of interest. Trump has given no indication that he plans to sell his interest in his business. Instead he has pledged to do 'no new deals' while president and to leave management of his company to his two adult sons, along with executives. Critics argue that Trump should do so because his global holdings present unprecedented conflicts of interest. Trump Towers in Istanbul pictured Trump Ocean Club in Panama City: The building is not owned by Donald Trump but bears his names under a license agreement Last year, several media outlets reported that Trump tried to speed along the Buenos Aires project by mentioning it in a congratulatory call from Argentine President Mauricio Macri (pictured) which Macri denies Trump has stakes in 500 companies in about 20 countries, though some of those appear set up for tax or legal reasons and do not have any underlying business operations. Trump shut down four such 'shell' companies in Delaware last year that appeared tied to Saudi Arabia but had no operations. The Argentina talks came under scrutiny last year after several media outlets reported that Trump tried to speed along the Buenos Aires project by mentioning it in a congratulatory call from Argentine President Mauricio Macri. A spokesman for Macri denied to The Associated Press that the subject even came up in the call. Trump Towers in Istanbul overlooking Sisli District in November 2016. The president-elect has been criticized for his global business holdings after winning the election Garten said the project didn't even get past the exploratory phase and that, unlike the case in Brazil, there wasn't even a signed agreement to continue to talking about a possible deal. The project in Brazil has garnered some publicity, too. The plan was to build five office towers in Rio de Janeiro, but the development got tied up in a corruption investigation unrelated to Trump himself. Called Trump Towers Rio, it was announced in 2012, but construction of the office towers has not even begun. Trump also had a licensing deal for a hotel in Brazil, but canceled that last month. Discussions over the possible project in Pune were separate from two residential towers already built there that bear the Trump name. Trump also has his name on a residential tower in Mumbai. Donald Trump (seen above gesturing to reporters on December 28 in Palm Beach, Florida) is reportedly planning a New York-themed inaugural ball later this month You can take the billionaire out of New York, but you can't take New York out of the billionaire even if he's moving to the White House. President-elect Donald Trump is gearing up for his inaugural bash in Washington after he takes the oath of office on January 20, but the DC event won't be the only celebration. Trump is planning a lavish, New York-themed inaugural ball in addition to other celebratory galas to take place later this month, TMZ is reporting. The 45th president will stage a party to pay homage to the Big Apple, replete with cutouts of New York landmarks like the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty. 'Every cliche that is New York will be front and center,' a source told TMZ. The event will reportedly be held under the banner of Frank Sinatra's famous line from the hit song New York, New York: 'If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere.' Last week, it was reported that Trump was only planning to attend three inaugural balls - compared to the 10 events that President Barack Obama attended in 2009 - so that he could focus on 'getting to work.' After Trump takes the Oath of Office on the West Front of the US Capitol, a parade will be held in his honor. The party will pay homage to the Big Apple, replete with cutouts of New York landmarks like the Statue of Liberty (center) and the Empire State Building (right). It will be held under the banner of singer Frank Sinatra's (left) famous line: 'If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere' Trump is also reportedly planning to commute regularly back and forth from the nation's capital to his Trump Tower penthouse in Manhattan (seen above) Trump will then attend two formal balls and one for servicemen and women that he's expanding to include wounded warriors, veterans, police fireman and other public servants. Preparations for the inaugural celebrations have been overshadowed by news of A-list musical acts and other celebrities turning down invitations to perform for Trump. Earlier this week, actor and comedian George Lopez became the latest star to turn down an invitation to Trump's inauguration. Not only did he shun the President-elect, he also revealed that organizers had asked him for Erik Estrada's number. Among those to have already turned Trump down for the bash on January 20 are Elton John, Justin Timberlake, Bruno Mars and Katy Perry. The Radio City Rockettes, a New York institution, will be performing for Trump at the inauguration. James Dolan, the owner of the Rockettes, contributed money to Trump's presidential campaign, according to The Hill. In addition to reported plans for a New York-themed ball, the allure of the White House apparently isn't enough to keep Trump away from his beloved hometown. The president-elect is planning to commute regularly back and forth from the nation's capital, according to TMZ. It would be a relatively short trip for Trump, whose motorcade escort would have him back in his Manhattan penthouse within an hour. 'He can leave the Oval, drive to National [Airport], fly to LaGuardia, drive to Trump Tower and take the elevator to his penthouse in an hour.' Last week, it was reported that Trump was planning to attend three inaugural balls after he takes the oath. Workers are seen above preparing for the inauguration on Thursday After Trump takes the Oath of Office on the West Front of the US Capitol, a parade will be held in his honor. Workers are seen above on Thursday readying the stands for the inauguration Trump will then attend two formal balls and one for servicemen and women that he's expanding to include wounded warriors, veterans, police fireman and other public servants. Construction crews are seen Thursday making preparations for the inauguration Preparations for the inaugural celebrations have been overshadowed by news of A-list musical acts turning down invitations to perform for Trump. Workers are seen above Thursday at the US Capitol, where Trump will take the oath of office Shortly after Trump's election victory on November 8, it was announced that his wife, Melania Trump, would continue living in the couple's Trump Tower apartment with her son, Barron. The Trumps decided that Melania would continue to live in New York so as not to disrupt Barron's progression in school. Shortly after Trump's (right) election victory on November 8, it was announced that his wife, Melania Trump (left), would continue living in Trump Tower with her son, Barron (center) As president-elect, Donald Trump has used Trump Tower as the base from which to orchestrate his transition team's work in assembling his incoming administration. This has presented unique logistical challenges for the Secret Service and the New York Police Department, who have been tasked with providing adequate security measures for Trump Tower. Mayor Bill de Blasio sent a letter to President Barack Obama last month asking the federal government to reimburse the city for the approximately $500,000-a-day bill that it has had to foot for security provisions for the president-elect, The New York Times reported. An NYPD official blasted Congress when it said it was only willing to pay $7million, a fraction of the $35million requested by the city, The Hill reported. He would then shares these photos on a website to get more images Goodlett admitted to investigators he transported the images to a thumb drive High school principal Stephen Goodlett, 36, allegedly confiscated his students' phones so he could steal pornographic images A Kentucky high school principal has admitted to seizing his students' cell phones so that he could steal pornographic images and trade them online, investigators revealed. Stephen Kyle Goodlett, 36, faces federal charges of possessing and transporting child pornography. New court documents reveal Goodlett admitted to investigators that he was addicted to pornography and transferred nude images from his students' phones onto his personal thumb drive without their consent or knowledge. Goodlett would then share these photos on a website with 'the intent of trading for more images'. The father-of-three has already pleaded not guilty to 63 state felony porn charges in December. It was a photo from five years ago that ultimately led to Goodlett's arrest. In September a 20-year-old woman learned that naked images she had taken for her boyfriend when she was 15 had been uploaded onto a Russian pornography trading website. She went to local police in Elizabethtown, and it was discovered that the website was used to anonymously post images online. But investigators were able to determine the IP address of the device that uploaded the woman's old photos, which linked them right to an account made by Goodlett. Goodlett admitted that he transferred nude images from his La Rue County High School (pictured) students' phones onto his personal thumb drive without their consent or knowledge Kentucky State Police then executed a search warrant on Goodlett's devices, where authorities found 60 examples of child pornography, according to WDRB. Schools superintendent Sam Sanders announced his firing a few days after Goodlett was arrested at his home in October, calling it 'an unprecedented situation.' Parents and staff at the schools expressed shock, some noting that he has a wife and children. Two months after Goodlett's arrest, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children identified images of a naked girl aged 10-14 in his Dropbox account. Kentucky State Police has since asked that anyone who attended Elizabethtown High School from 2010 to 2012 or LaRue County High School from 2012 to 2016 and had their cell phones taken away by faculty members to contact police. A woman seen in a video being slammed to the ground by a police officer while her hands were cuffed behind her back is suing the cops in question. Kathi Plaskett was filmed being booked into the Crawford County Jail in southern Indiana in June last year, with four officers standing near her as she is held against the front desk. A few seconds later, security footage from inside the jail shows the officer who was walking Plaskett grab her around the neck from behind and bodyslam her to the ground face-first. Scroll down for video A woman who was seen in a video being slammed (right) to the ground by a police officer while her hands were cuffed behind her back has launched a lawsuit against the cops in question Kathi Plaskett was filmed being booked into the Crawford County Jail in southern Indiana in June last year The cop then remained on the woman's back for a few seconds, pinning her to the ground. Footage from another angle shows the slam came just seconds after Plaskett - who has admitted she was drunk at the time - spat in the officer's face. She had been arrested for criminal trespassing before being escorted to the jail. She has since been charged with battery against a public safety official for spitting at the officer. Plaskett has since claimed she was also choked by the cop, and is now permanently blind in one eye after she suffered a detached retina in the incident. Kathi Plaskett (left, in her mugshot, and right) is asking for $700,000 over the incident - she claims she has permanent blindness in one eye as a result of her injuries Plaskett's lawyer, Justin Mills (pictured), said the video is 'shocking' - despite her client being seen to spit on the deputy Court documents obtained by WDRB show the woman requested medical care in July, but Plaskett's lawyers claim it was not granted until October. As a result, she is asking for $700,000 in the case. Her lawyer, Justin Mills, said the video is 'shocking' - despite what his client did to the deputy. 'Her hands were handcuffed behind her back because she was already being booked into the jail,' Mills said. 'She was wrong. If she were sitting here, she would tell you that. 'When you see the video, you have to ask yourself is it the rule that you are allowed to knock someone to the ground, strike them in the face, take your knee and grind it into their back and grind their head into the concrete. Moments before she was tackled to the ground, Plaskett was seen (pictured) spitting on the cop The incident took place while she was being booked into Crawford County Jail (pictured) in southern Indiana in June last year 'Was she wrong? Absolutely. Was he wrong? No question about it.' Crawford County Sheriff Charles McDaniel denies allegations of any wrongdoing, and said Plaskett's mugshot proves she did not suffer any facial injuries. Animal rights activists have showed their anger over the decision to sell to China but it said they were going to zoos The cost of animals was not has collapsed and it is looking to raise capital Zimbabwe's wildlife agency said Thursday it has sold 35 elephants to China to ease overpopulation and raise funds for conservation, amid criticism from animal welfare activists that such sales are unethical. This once-prosperous country's economy has fallen apart, and Zimbabwe's government has said it needs to sell wildlife to support its people and conservation efforts. The government also has sought to sell its ivory stockpile for millions of dollars. The Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority did not say how much China paid for the 35 elephants but said it was 'turning to friendly countries to extract value out of our wildlife.' Zimbabwe's wildlife agency said Thursday it has sold 35 elephants to China This is the first time Zimbabwe has confirmed the December 23 sale since activists announced a plane was carrying the animals to China. The wildlife agency didn't say whether the elephants were adults, which has been a concern for some conservation groups. 'Why is it done clandestinely and then announced two weeks later? Because we know that at times calves have been taken away from their mothers, conditions have been atrocious and the money, no one really knows how it is used,' said Johnny Rodrigues, whose Zimbabwe Conservation Taskforce has been vocal about elephant sales to China. Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan meet an elephant in Zimbabwe in 2015 A similar outcry followed sales of other elephants in 2015. The statement by Zimbabwe's wildlife agency said its conservation efforts have been affected by restrictions on selling the country's ivory stockpile and on trophy hunting of certain species. Zimbabwe's government budgets nothing for conservation, and the wildlife agency is self-sustaining. In 2014, the United States banned the import of sport-hunted elephant trophies from Zimbabwe, citing a lack of transparency in the use of conservation funds generated by their export. Ivory carving is an ancient art in China, and the country has a stockpile of ivory purchased with CITES approval in 2008, which it releases for sale with certification Zimbabwe's wildlife agency has said this wildlife-rich southern African country has 36,000-plus more elephants than it can support. The 35 elephants were captured from Hwange National Park and flown to China's Shanghai Exhibition Park, Beijing Wildlife Park and Hangzhou Wildlife Park, the agency said. It said it followed international regulations in the sale, adding that it previously sold other animals to Europe and the United States. The news comes after China decided to ban its ivory trade thus shutting the door to the world's biggest end-market for poached ivory. Prince William praised the Chinese government for the ban, saying 'the battle can be won'. Huge amounts of drugs are being delivered by Royal Mail every day in the UK, an investigation revealed today. Postal workers around the UK were unwittingly delivering cocaine, ecstasy and cannabis bought on the dark web. Among the drugs ordered by investigators included an ecstasy pill wrapped in plastic and hidden in a bag of Haribo sweets - which cost 5 plus 3 postage. People who ordered cocaine, MDMA and cannabis online said there was 'a 99 per cent certainty' of them getting the drugs after ordering them online on the dark web. Shocking: Postal workers around the UK were unwittingly delivering cocaine, ecstasy and cannabis bought on the dark web (file picture) BBC Newsbeat found that dealers are selling drugs online and taking payment in Bitcoins. Investigators spoke to postmen and women who said they had 'definitely handled suspect packages', but said there was 'nothing they could do' - and had to deliver them as they had stamps on them. BBC investigators managed to buy MDMA, cannabis and former legal high, Spice using Bitcoins on the dark web, a collection of thousands of websites that use anonymity tools to hide their IP address - with drugs arriving around a week later. Chris Monteiro, an independent cyber-security expert, said: 'Unless there are massive raids on markets any time soon causing a loss of consumer confidence, this hidden drug market will keep growing. Labour MP Yvette Cooper, the Chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee, told the BBC that the postal service and police needed to work together more closely. 'Government and police are more interested in data breaches and weapons than drugs.' A former user, calling himself Steve, told the BBC that he had bought cannabis, cocaine, ecstasy, and psychedelic stimulants on the dark web. He said: 'We were waiting for a package, for an ounce of MDMA to be delivered. 'We see the postie drive down and we get very excited. She gives me the package, I sign for it... happy doo-dah. 'Me and my friend found it incredibly funny how she gave us the post - and had no idea. 'She handed it over and said 'thank you very much' and I said thank you very much. 'She had no idea she was a part of the drugs trade.' BBC investigators also went out on rounds with one postie in London, called Patrick, who said it was illegal for him to open parcels he suspected contained drugs. He said: 'You tell the managers and all they say is you need to deliver it.' 'If it's got a stamp on it, you post it. We don't have drug dogs to smell every parcel. We don't have the resources to X-ray every parcel. We just have to deliver it and take the risk. I've spent 14 years as a postman in uniform and I have never seen a drug dog - our job is to deliver it safely to the customer.' Another postie, who wanted to remain anonymous, said: 'You hear rattling of things like pills and assume they're legitimate, but how would we know?' Dr Adam Winstock, from Kings College, said millions of pounds of drugs are bought online every day. Labour MP Yvette Cooper, the Chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee, told the BBC that the postal service and police needed to work together more closely. She said: 'We need to know there's a proper approach to enforcement taking place 'One of the things we want to know is how the police are able to co-operate with different organisations. 'What is happening to link up the police with postal services or with customs or with other organisations? What's the government doing to lead this?' A spokesman for the Home Officer said: 'We have committed to spending 1.9bn on cyber security over the next five years, including boosting the capabilities of the National Crime Agency's National Cyber Crime Unit, increasing their ability to investigate the most serious cyber crime.' have voiced doubt over how well AI will work More than 30 jobs at Fukoku Mutual Life are set to go, to be replaced by an artificial intelligence system More than 30 Japanese workers are set to lose their jobs, to be replaced by robots. Insurance company Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance has announced the job losses, saying an artificial intelligence system will be able to do the work. The 34 employees currently work out payouts to policyholders when they make claims, but the move is set to save 1.4 million a year. They will be replaced by a system called IBM Watson Explorer, which is a search and content analysis platform - which was developed to think like a human. It analyses and interprets data, and the company said in a statement today that the software will 'classify and categorise diseases, injuries and surgical procedures'. The statement added: 'When insurance policy holders call the companys hotline to make an insurance claim, the IBM Watson supercomputer is able to analyse the customers voice and detect keywords.' It claims it will increase productivity by 30 per cent. The new software will read medical certificates and medical histories, details of surgical procedures and details which will affect payouts. The company claims the move will increase productivity by 30 per cent, and reduce costs by 1.4 million per year It will also cross reference claims with policies to find any clauses, Japanese newspaper The Mainichi reports. The new system is expected to be in place by March. But many are skeptical, The Investment Observer reports, with a team of researchers having abandoned attempts to design robots that can pass a Tokyo University entrance exam. Noriko Arai, a professor at the National Institute of Informatics, said: 'AI is not good at answering the type of questions that require an ability to grasp meanings across a broad spectrum.' Tunisian Anis Amri (pictured), suspected of carrying out the Berlin terrorist attack, served time in jail in Italy Italy is to step up its efforts to combat Islamic radicalisation in its prisons following the Berlin truck attack by a Tunisian who spent time in an Italian jail. New Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni has come under increased pressure to tackle illegal migration and radicalisation in the aftermath of December's terrorist attack. Italy's anti-terrorism chief said last week the suspect, Anis Amri, had been radicalised while in a Sicilian jail. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, which killed 12. Amri was shot dead four days later by Italian police in Milan on December 23 after fleeing Germany. During a press conference, Gentiloni said: 'Processes of radicalisation today are happening above all in certain places: in prisons and on the web. 'Working on prisons and the web is one of the principal tasks the experts are asking for in this prevention effort.' Italy's Interior Minister Marco Minniti added that he wanted a 'protective network against the malware of terror' online, but gave no details on how the government planned to address the problems in jails. The national prison workers' union said in a statement that jails had become 'a fertile ground' for jihadists to recruit weaker individuals to fight for them. It added that union members should receive foreign language lessons and courses on religious awareness to better tackle the challenge. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack (pictured), which killed 12. Amri was shot dead four days later by Italian police in Milan on December 23 after fleeing Germany 'It is not by chance that many radicalised common criminals, especially of North African origin, who showed no particular religious inclination when they entered prison, are gradually transformed into extremists under the influence of other inmates who are already radicalised,' the union statement. Italy tried to deport Amri after he served his four-year jail term, but Tunisia refused to take him back and he was released with only an order to leave the country. Italy has not suffered the type of militant attack seen in France, Belgium and Germany, but has expelled 133 suspected militants in the past two years. Of more than 27,000 expulsion orders handed out in 2015 to immigrants with no right to stay, fewer than 5,000 were carried out, according to Eurostat. New Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni (shown) has come under increased pressure to tackle illegal migration and radicalisation in the aftermath of December's terrorist attack Italy is already struggling to deal with record numbers of boat migrants arriving mostly from north Africa. 'We need more effective migration policies that combine the great humanitarian inclination to rescue and house people and rigorous and effective repatriation policies,' Gentiloni said. Commenting on plans to build more detention centres to hold people ahead of deportation, Minniti said he aimed to allocate smaller numbers of migrants to more locations, thereby reducing pressure on overcrowded sites where protests have broken out. Opposition politicians have criticised Minniti's plan to open more detention centres, a system repeatedly criticised for alleged corruption and human rights abuses. 'It would only slow down expulsions of illegal immigrants and would increase waste, illegality and mafia groups,' said the anti-system 5-Star Movement. COLUMBUS Columbus Police Capt. Todd Thalken gives most of the credit for Columbus being ranked No. 6 on the list of the Safest Cities in Nebraska for 2016 to the people who live here. We arrest the bad guys and try to change (criminals) behaviors, but its more about the people who live here, Thalken said. If something bad happens, people come running from all directions to help. Columbus was the largest of three First Class cities communities with populations from 5,000 to 100,000 residents to appear on the SafeWise report released late last month. Gering and Chadron were ranked No. 9 and No. 10, respectively. There are 30 First Class cities statewide. We usually compare ourselves to communities like Norfolk, North Platte, Beatrice, Hastings and Kearney, said Thalken, rattling off a list that also encompasses cities like Grand Island, Bellevue, La Vista, Lexington, McCook, Chadron and Scottsbluff. Columbus, not previously ranked in the annual report, had a violent crime rate (aggravated assault, murder, rape, robbery) of 0.84 per 1,000 residents. The communitys property crime rate (burglary, arson, larceny-theft and motor vehicle theft) was 17.02 per 1,000. ONeill, previously ranked second, topped the Safest Cities list. ONeills violent crime rate was 1.08 per 1,000, while its property crime rate was 3.52. Other communities making the rankings include: Aurora, second; Seward, third; Blair, fourth; Falls City, fifth; Cozad, seventh; and Wahoo, eighth. To identify the 10 safest cities in Nebraska, the report reviewed the most recent FBI Crime Report statistics from 2014, along with population data. The report eliminated all cities with fewer than 3,000 residents as well as any cities that failed to submit a complete crime report to the FBI. Thalken wasnt really surprised by Columbus spot on the Safest Cities list. Were a pretty hard-working community, he said. People go to bed at night. They dont go out and steal stuff. We always seem to compare pretty well with communities our size. The police captain couldnt point to any specific data from the 2014 statistics turned into the FBI to account for the communitys low crime rate ranking in this years report. However, circumstances in a community can cause a blip in crime figures, including events from about a decade ago that contributed to a spike in local criminal activity. During a two-year period about 10 years ago while the Archer Daniels Midland ethanol plant was undergoing a major expansion, a couple of thousand transient construction workers kept law enforcement busy. About the same time, a handful of burglars were busy breaking into businesses and homes. Our job is spotting the problem and working hard to do a better job in patrolling the streets at night, Thalken said. When we have a lead (to solving a crime), we need to know weve followed up on it. Robert Chase Graham, 52, from Las Vegas who went missing last month after allegations he stole up to 15million in client funds. He has now been arrested A prominent lawyer who went missing last month after allegations he stole up to $15million in client funds has been found an arrested. Robert Chase Graham, 52, from Las Vegas, a wills and trusts lawyer, has been charged with theft, exploitation of vulnerable people and destroying evidence after he was captured yesterday. And if convicted, he could face up to 90 years in prison. He is accused of stealing more than $2 million from several clients beginning in July 2013 and of swiping client computer files twice after abruptly closing his law office last month and disappearing. And prosecutor Jay P. Raman says investigators believe the amount lost by clients could top $15 million. Graham was booked into the Clark County jail on $5 million bail pending an initial appearance in Clark County District Court. His defense attorney, Lance Hendron, didn't immediately respond to messages seeking comment. A statement by Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said prosecutors quickly sought an indictment to ensure that evidence would be preserved. Graham, a Nevada lawyer since September 1992, was a frequent television advertiser before shutting down his Lawyers West probate services firm and laying off employees on December 2. Last month, the Nevada Supreme Court, pictured, temporarily suspended Graham's licence pending the outcome of the professional disciplinary proceedings He graduated from the Brigham Young University J. Reuben Clark School of Law, and had offices in Utah and Colorado. He also had a home in Fort Collins, Colorado. The Nevada State Bar filed a misconduct complaint against Graham on December 8, and the next day, the Nevada Supreme Court temporarily suspended his license pending the outcome of the professional disciplinary proceedings. The court said letting Graham practice law posed a 'substantial threat of serious harm to the public.' The US-led coalition is looking to recapture Mosul after two years under ISIS The Jihadists have even resorted to smuggling families out of the city for cash Reports suggest the group has been crippled by bomb attacks on its oil bases ISIS has stopped paying the salaries of its fighters in Mosul as fighting in the Iraqi city intensifies, residents say. The militants usually receive a monthly wage of about $350 but local reports suggest the militants haven't been paid for weeks as the terror group is running out of funds. The militant's financial crisis could be down to the increased number of airstrikes on its oil infrastructure which is the group's primary source of income. Scroll down for video ISIS has stopped paying the salaries of its fighters in Mosul. They earn roughly $350 per month The Jihadists have even resorted to smuggling families out of the city in return for bribes - sometimes as little as 25,000 dinars (15) just to raise capital, according to a resident who writes about life inside the city using the name Mosul Eye. The Sunni terrorists have held the city of Mosul since the summer of 2014 and have inflicted strict sharia law on its inhabitants. Iraqi rapid response forces cary their weapons during battle with Islamic State militants in the Mithaq district of eastern Mosul, Iraq, January 4, However ISIS is losing its grip on the area with Iraqi troops reclaiming the close by ancient city of Nimrud in November that the group controlled and decimated for close to two years. Meanwhile, the US-led coalition said yesterday that it has doubled to about 450 the number of military advisors assisting Iraqi troops engaged in the fight to retake Mosul from Islamic State fighters. The US had also provided training, advice and other assistance to Baghdad's forces. There are about 5,000 American military personnel in Iraq, according to the coalition, and US special forces personnel have also fought ISIS on the ground. More than 125,000 Iraqis have been displaced since the Mosul offensive began in mid-October, according to the United Nations. A thief who tried to steal an ageing Renault Clio got more than he bargained for - when the son of the victim clung onto the roof and called police during an 80mph motorway chase. Incredibly Osama Aoukili was unhurt in the drama, which happened near France's border with Switzerland on Friday. The thief was arrested as a result of Mr Aoukili's actions. The chase hero told French media his reaction was spontaneous. The chase happened through the streets of Oyonnax town, close to the Swiss border 'I told myself this was my father's car and that it meant a lot to him,' Mr Aoukili told BFM TV. And newspaper Le Progres reports that he was on top of the car while it was moving for seven minutes, during which time it travelled five kilometres. Police commander Christophe Lesznewski said the chase through Oyonnax town and then on the motorway lasted several minutes before the car, an ageing Renault Clio, left the main road and slowed down, at which point Mr Aoukili let go. Others claimed Odom would often talk about how attractive she was and that he planned to 'get with her' Witnesses say they say Odom at Daniels' apartment the day before her killing They also found selfies on his cellphone of Odom with defensive scratches Police found hairs in her apartment matched a missing chunk of hair from Odom Odom was arrested a month after Daniels was found strangled to death in her own apartment in North Carolina in June, 2014 Odom also admitted first-degree sexual assault and first- He pleaded guilty as part of a plea deal to avoid facing the death sentence A man has pleaded guilty to the 2014 rape and murder of a popular guidance counselor, to avoid the death penalty. Sharmon Odom, 36, admitted killing Margaret 'Maggie' Elizabeth Daniels, 31, as part of a plea deal when he appeared in Catawba County Court, North Carolina, on Thursday morning. Odom will spend life in prison without parole as part of the deal which spared him the death penalty. Sharmon Odom (left) admitted killing Margaret 'Maggie' Elizabeth Daniels, 31, (right) as part of a plea deal today Daniels' lifeless body was discovered on June 28, 2014, on her bedroom floor by a neighbor who went inside after finding the door to the woman's apartment open, according to WSOC. Officers say she was wearing only a pair of shorts, with a towel between her feet, and there were signs of a struggle. Semen found in the oral and rectal swabs suggested that she had been raped. 'Several items of furniture in the bedroom were damaged or askew, suggesting a struggle occurred in the bedroom,' the probable cause section of the warrant stated, according to the Charlotte Observer. Police arrested Odom, who lives in the same apartment complex as the victim, more than a month later after they linked a patch of missing hair on his head, to hair found at the scene. Grinning: Local camera crews caught Sharman Odom grinning as he was cuffed and led away after his arrest in 2014 When they obtained a search warrant, officers discovered a a cellphone with selfies of Odom with defensive wounds on his face. The suspected killer had a scratch on his nose, one below his eye plus the missing clump of hair. Police also believed Odom sexually assaulted Daniels although initial tests proved inconclusive. A witness told investigators they saw Odom walking between Daniels' apartment and the building next door. This was around noon the day before investigators found her body. The witness told investigators he thought it was odd because he'd never seen Odom there before. Odom's neighbor told investigators the suspect had mentioned Daniels numerous times in the past, describing her as very attractive and saying he wanted to 'get with' her. Daniels' (right) lifeless body was discovered on June 28, 2014, on her bedroom floor by a neighbor in June 2014 Always smiling: Neighbors say the slain woman was always happy, full of life Another witness told police Odom had once asked if Daniels 'dated black men'. When he discovered Daniels already had a boyfriend, he said 'it didn't matter.' Daniels' boyfriend was in South Carolina at the time of her death. Odom was arrested and charged with murder, sexual offense and kidnapping in Daniels' death. In court today, Daniels' mother told Odom: 'You broke our hearts.' Odom apologized in court to the family. Neighbors described Odom as 'quiet'. 'I talked to him a little bit,' Ryan Cline, whose mother lived next door to Odom, told WSOC. 'He was really quiet and observant.' Daniels was teacher of the year in 2011 in the Newton-Conover City Schools. She was hired as a high school English teacher by the school district in 2006 and became a guidance counselor last year after completing her master's degree. President-elect Donald Trump made time for one of his ongoing legal battles Thursday by giving a deposition in his lawsuit against celebrity chef Jose Andres even as he makes final preparations for his presidency. Trump's lawsuit against celebrity chef Jose Andres remains unresolved, and the two sides are reportedly far apart. Andres pulled out of his planned Spanish restaurant inside Trump's new luxury D.C. hotel in Washington shortly after the then-candidate railed against Mexican 'rapists' coming into the U.S. during his campaign announcement. Scroll down for video President-elect Donald Trump sat for a deposition Thursday in connection with his lawsuit against celebrity chef Jose Andres, a Trump organization attorney confirmed D.C. lawyer Rebecca Woods, who is representing Trump in the matter, was spotted at Trump Tower on Wednesday and Thursday, when she left wheeling a large briefcase. 'The deposition was completed earlier today and lasted just over one hour as the case is fairly straightforward,' Trump organization attorney Alan Garten said in a statement, Fox News reported. 'In short, the parties entered into a valid enforceable lease, which the tenant clearly breached by walking out and failing to perform its obligations, thereby entitling the landlord to recover damages in the form of unpaid rent, cost of buildout, lost profits and other expenses,' he added. It wasn't clear if Trump had spent additional time on a deposition on Wednesday, when Woods also was spotted at Trump Tower. Trump is also suing Food Network regular chef Geoffrey Zakarian in a separate $10 million lawsuit for pulling out of his planned restaurant at the hotel. Politico reported Thursday morning that Trump's videotaped deposition could extend to 7 hours. Trump sued celebrity chef Jose Andres for $10 million after he backed out of a plan to open a restaurant at Trump's luxury D.C. hotel A view of the Old Post Office building before its conversion into the new Trump International Hotel Washington on July 23, 2014 Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, Vincent Gray, Donald Trump, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Muriel Bowser and Norman Dong attend the Trump International Hotel Washington, D.C Groundbreaking Ceremony at Old Post Office on July 23, 2014 Trump has agreed to pay $25 million to settle a class action lawsuit from students of the defunct Trump University Trump's legal representatives had asked a judge overseeing the matter to cap his deposition to two hours, but the judge refused. Trump sued Andres for $10 million in lost revenue and damages. Efforts to settle the case have not succeeded. Late in the campaign, Andres appeared at a rally with Trump's political rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton, bashing Trump's statements about latinos and other groups. On Thursday, Andres tweeted: 'Again Mr. Peotus @realDonaldTrump if you are awake, let's resolve this in a friendly way. We donate $ to a charity ...? Is a great deal!' Trump's incoming White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, got asked Thursday morning whether the president-elect would be deposed today. 'Let me take a look at his schedule today, and I'll get back to you on that,' Spicer responded. Trump settled a separate class action lawsuit with former students of the defunct Trump University, agreeing to pay out $25 million with the check due just days before he takes the oath of office. his attendance, writing: 'Bout to fly 21 hours to DC to bid farewell to the greatest president in US history. God bless you @POTUS' President Barack Obama and the First Lady will be bidding farewell to the White House in just two weeks, and on Friday they are saying goodbye with one final party. This will not be just any party either, with the Obamas choosing to go out with a bang by inviting stars including Beyonce and Jay Z, Bruce Springsteen, Eddie Vedder, Paul McCartney, Oprah Winfrey and Usher. It will no doubt be a sad moment for both the President and his wife as well as many of the guests, who given their open contempt for Donald Trump will likely not be heading back to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for at least four years. And those hoping for a glimpse of President Obama getting down in the Oval Office are out of luck as cell phones will be strictly prohibited and checked at the door. Guest list: Bruce Springsteen will attend President Obama's final White House party (above with President Obama and the Fist Lady in December) Bosses: Eddie Vedder, Paul McCartney and Oprah Winfrey will also be in attendance (Winfrey and the First Lady above in 2009) The Washington Post reports that other guests expected on Friday include Bradley Cooper, Star Wars directors George Lucas and JJ Abrams, Samuel L. Jackson and Gayle King. Stevie Wonder will likely attend as well, while Chance the Rapper confirmed he will be in attendance Friday by tweeting on Wednesday: 'Bout to fly 21 hours to DC to bid farewell to the greatest president in US history. God bless you @POTUS.' President Obama and the First Lady have become incredibly close with the 23-year-old rapper, who hails from their hometown of Chicago. The Obamas will likely foot the bill for the party themselves, before the President prepares to head to Chicago where on Tuesday he will deliver his farewell address after two terms in office. It will not be just celebrities in attendance either, with major donors and close friends of the Obamas also on the invite list. The group will then be clearing out of DC, and no doubt staying far away when Trump is inaugurated on January 20, an event that has failed to draw any of the big names Obama did during his two ceremonies. In 2013, President Obama was sworn into office at a ceremony that featured Beyonce performing 'The Star Spangled Banner' and Kelly Clarkson singing 'My Country 'Tis of Thee.' Trump will have the incredibly talented but much lesser known teenage singer Jackie Evancho performing at his inauguration, and she is the lone name of note confirmed for the event. Fan favorite: Beyonce and Jay Z are on the list for Friday night's event (Beyonce above after performing at the 2013 inauguration) En route: Chance the Rapper confirmed his attendance, writing: 'Bout to fly 21 hours to DC to bid farewell to the greatest president in US history. God bless you @POTUS' Close friend: The Obamas have become incredibly close with Chance the Rapper (above in October) over the past year Among those expected to attend the final White House party, none has been more vocal about their disdain for Trump's policies and rhetoric than Springsteen. The New Jersey rocker appeared on an episode of WTF With Marc Maron that was released on Tuesday, and during the hour-long podcast he spoke about his fears and concerns about the future of the country during and after a Trump presidency. 'I've felt disgust before, but never the kind of fear that you feel now,' Springsteen said of Trump and the administration he has been building over the past month. 'It's as simple as the fear of, is someone simply competent enough to do this particular job? Forget about where they are ideologically. Do they simply have the pure competence to be put in the position of such responsibility?' Springsteen later said that the policies Trump has been proposing are 'lies that can't occur' and his rhetoric runs the risk of ruining the future of the country because he appeals to the 'worst aspects' of society such as 'racism, bigotry, [and] intolerance.' In October, Springsteen said Trump was 'such a flagrant, toxic narcissist that he wants to take down the entire democratic system with him if he goes' during an interview with Channel 4 News. 'The words that hes been using over the past several weeks really are an attack on the entire democratic process. I think its very dangerous.' Springsteen then predicted that Trump would lose the election but still wreak havoc, saying: 'He does have a lot of peoples ears, and I dont think hes going to go quietly, gently into the good night. 'I think hes going to make as big a mess as he can and I dont know what thats going to mean, but well find out shortly.' That same month he also labeled Trump a 'moron' who was pushing 'white nationalism' in an interview with Rolling Stone. 'The republic is under siege by a moron, basically. The whole thing is tragic,' said Springsteen. 'Without overstating it, its a tragedy for our democracy. When you start talking about elections being rigged, youre pushing people beyond democratic governance. Illustrations had been confined to paper archives but have now been First World War cartoons by one of Britain's most popular 20th century illustrators whose work inspired millions of people have been unearthed 100 years later. Joseph Morewood Staniforth produced more than 1,300 newspaper cartoons during the Great War. His most memorable illustrations included a rousing call to arms following Lord Kitchener's plea for recruits, Winston Churchill dressed as a bargeman after the failed Dardenelles campaign and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany depicted as a beggar. In another cartoon he paid homage to William Shakespeare and he even created his own Welsh war hero, Dai Pepper, who captured a German dugout wearing a coal miner's 'curling box' instead of a helmet. 'Then Farewell My Trim-Built Wherry', 21 November 1915, depicts Winston Churchill as a bargeman who has been forced to reisgn following disaster of the Dardanelles campaign The Empire's Homage', 23 April 1916, an explicit homage to playwright William Shakespeare 'The End of the journey', 18 August 1918, presents an optimistic view of the likely end of Bolshevik rule in Russia Following his death in 1921, he was described by Prime Minister Lloyd George as 'one of the most distinguished cartoonists of his generation' whose patriotic cartoons had 'rendered a great national service'. But, until now, these cartoons had languished in newspaper archives, far away from public consciousness. Cardiff University Professor Chris Williams has overseen a three-year project to digitalise Staniforth's wartime cartoons, making them available for a wider audience. He said: 'I have been interested in Staniforth's work for some time. He started out as a cartoonist in the 1880s and worked right through to his death in 1921. A Gutter Artist', 12 May 1918, Kaiser Wilhelm II as a street artist and begger (left); and shown right, 'Dai Pepper on the Somme', 1917, a fictional character created by Staniforth 'The Snake Eclipsed, 28 July 1914. Joseph Morewood Staniforth produced more than 1,300 newspaper cartoons during the Great War 'A Call To Arms', 16 August 1914, depicts the figure of Britannia calling upon the Home Nations 'He borrowed some of his ideas from popular painters and was inspired by the works of William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens. 'His cartoons were on the front page of the News of the World, which by the end of the First World War had a circulation of three million, making it by far the most popular newspaper at that time. 'And his cartoons appeared daily in the Western Mail, whose circulation of 100,000 was two thirds of that of The Times. 'Other than the occasional one which appears at auction, most newspapers from the time have disappeared, so this was the opportunity to put a lot of his work out there which had previously only been available in newspaper archives. Joseph Morewood Staniforth (right) also drew 'Right Triumphant' (left), 12 November 1918, captures what ordinary Britons thought the war had been about 'Bravo, Territorials!', 6 November 1914, depicts the first time a Territorial fought alongside the professional army detachments 'For me was one of the most popular cartoonists of the time, but his work has been underappreciated.' Staniforth was born in Gloucester in 1863. He grew up in Cardiff and joined the Western Mail as an apprentice aged 15. His talent for illustrations was quickly spotted and he became part of the editorial team. In total, Staniforth - who signed his cartoons with his initials 'J.M.S' - produced 15,000 cartoons, making him one of Britain's most prolific cartoonists. Staniforth's cartoons can be viewed at cartoonww1.org Police recovered hashish worth more than 4million that was thrown into the Bay of Gibraltar by drug traffickers after a high-speed chase. Acting on a tip-off, Royal Gibraltar Police spotted five inflatable boats loaded with hashish resin in the waters near the Rock. When police neared one of the boats, its occupants started to throw their cargo overboard in an attempt to lighten their load and sped off. Royal Gibraltar Police began the chase in their fast patrol boats (pictured) and the Guardia Civil took over when the smugglers' boat crossed into Spanish waters The boat was chased out of Gibraltar's territorial waters and although Spain's Guardia Civil took up the pursuit the traffickers got away. Gibraltar police retraced the route of the chase and picked up 27 bales of hashish resin while the Guardia Civil found another seven. The drugs weighed around 800 kilos and are estimated to have a street value of 4,050,000 (4,762,000 euros). The Royal Gibraltar Police said in a statement: 'This highlights the close cooperation that exists not just among local law enforcement agencies, but also with the Guardia Civil in combating crime, particularly drug trafficking, across the Straits of Gibraltar.' Drugs, especially hashish, are often smuggled across the Straits of Gibraltar from Morocco, although in recent years the human trafficking trade has almost eclipsed the drugs business. The Rock of Gibraltar (pictured) and the tiny colony beneath it remains in British hands despite years of Spanish demands for its return Madrid ceded Gibraltar in 1713 under the Treaty of Utrecht. The territory remains a source of Anglo-Spanish tensions, with Madrid long claiming it should be returned to Spanish sovereignty. But the majority of Gibraltarians have always said they want to remain British citizens. While Spanish and Gibraltar police cooperate regularly at the grass roots level, there are often flare-ups between the two sides over jurisdiction and sovereignty. Gibraltar says Spanish vessels regularly stray deep into its territorial waters and Britain's Foreign Office has attacked such incidents as provocative. A former Michigan teacher who admitted to having a nearly two-year-long sexual relationship with a 14-year-old student, whom at one point she unsuccessfully tried to adopt, has been sentenced to prison. An emotional Jamee Hiatt, 32, of Grass Lake, told a Jackson County Circuit Court judge on Thursday that her actions were inexcusable and she became out of control. Judge Thomas Wilson ordered Hiatt to spend 3 to 20 years behind bars, followed by a lifetime of monitoring as a sex offender. Scroll down for video Punishment: Jamee Hiatt appears for sentencing in front of Jackson County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Wilson on Thursday on a charge of criminal sexual conduct involving a student Contrite: Hiatt, 32, apologized and begged for mercy before she was sentenced to three years to 20 years in prison Hiatt in November pleaded guilty to one count each of first-degree and third-degree criminal sexual conduct, reported the Jackson Citizen Patriot. The former Leslie Middle School teacher told the court that she struck up a romance with the underage boy in 2014, when he was just 14 years old. Hiatt was arrested in January 2016 for having a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old boy Their illicit relationship, marked by countless sexual encounters, lasted from May of that year until January 22, 2016, when she was arrested based on evidence uncovered by police. Investigators said the victim was 11 years old when he and Hiatt, who was his teacher at the time, first began to spend time together outside of school. However, he had left the local school system by the time the pair began meeting for sex. The teenager told police that Hiatt had sex with him 'so many times that he couldn't begin to tell how many times that there were, including at the womans home and in a parking lot. Jackson County Assistant Prosecutor Jennifer Walker said during a court hearing last year that Hiatt offered the boy a cellphone, money and 'even went so far as filing guardianship over him' so he could live in her home. At one point, while the boy's father was in jail for violating his probation, she had power of attorney over him. Authorities also said Hiatt gave the student a gun that was believed to have been used in a Jackson shooting. The affair took place while Hiatt was a teacher at Leslie Middle School (pictured), which the boy used to attend Hiatt left the middle school in 2013 and later worked at Woodworth Elementary School, in Leslie, where she resigned a day before her arrest. When given a chance to speak at her sentencing on Thursday, Jamee Hiatt, dressed in an orange jail garb, apologized to her own family and to the court for her actions and for the choices she had made. 'I abused my power as a teacher. I started with good intentions with my mental illness I became out of control and in a dark place, she said while choking back tears. I was irresponsible and I lacked insight and judgment. This is not the person that I am that, or that I want to be. An 'elderly couple' has died after falling from a Las Vegas parking garage in an apparent 'joint suicide'. The two people were seen driving to the fifth and highest floor of the parking garage at the Silverton Casino Hotel on Wednesday night. The Clark County Coroner's office told DailyMail.com the two people were named Glen and Emi Yamasaki. Both were 63 years old. An elderly couple has died after falling from a parking garage at the Silverton Casino (pictured) in an apparent 'joint suicide' Police said the 'elderly couple' allegedly jumped after reaching the top of the garage. 'They exited their vehicle, climbed onto the wall and jumped to the ground,' Metropolitan Police Department Leiutenant C.J Jenkins told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Court records obtained by the newspaper showed the pair had a history of financial issues. The casino was forced to shut parts of the parking garage after the incident. The Silverton Hotel is about six miles south from the heart of the Las Vegas strip. For confidential support call the National Suicide Prevention Line on 1-800-273-8255 Detention Center The inmate count at the Platte County Detention Facility Wednesday was 64, with 40 from Platte County and 24 from out of county. Police Dec. 25 8:41 p.m. In the 2700 block of 48th Avenue, cargo blew off an unknown passing vehicle and struck a vehicle driven by Nathaniel Hoffman, 17, 3775 30th Ave. Dec. 28 10:43 a.m. In a parking lot at 517 E. 23rd St., traffic accident. Drivers were Marlin Frauendorfer, 80, 605 Commanche St., and Randy Matteo, 54, Norfolk. Dec. 29 3:06 p.m. In a parking lot at 3618 Howard Blvd., traffic accident. Drivers were Kimberly Webster, 42, 1756 24th Ave., and Cynthia Miller, 59, 2304 30th St. 3:16 p.m. In the 2400 block of 33rd Avenue, traffic accident. Drivers were Elvon Anderson, 76, 2859 39th Ave., and Kristina Winchester, 38, 1506 12th St., Apt. A. 3:51 p.m. At the intersection of 23rd Street and Third Avenue, traffic accident. Drivers were Gustavo Cervantes, 42, 2465 E. 41st Ave., No. 632, and Chet Lutjen, 29, 3757 37th Ave. Dec. 30 5:50 p.m. At the intersection of 23rd Street and East Third Street, traffic accident. Drivers were Caleb Blomberg, 26, 2513 33rd St., and Roscoe McClinton Jr., 50, Bakersfield, California. Dec. 31 5:54 p.m. In a parking lot at 3010 23rd St., traffic accident. Drivers were Kelly Kampschneider, 46, 3216 19th St., and Robert Shaw, 64, 2218 24th St. Jan. 3 8:43 a.m. Theft at 453 S. Third Ave., baby Jesus stolen from nativity scene. 11:26 a.m. At Nebraska Public Power District, 1414 15th St., three fire extinguishers stolen, $150 loss. 1:18 p.m. Theft at 708 Second St., vehicle broken into, no loss amount. 2:33 p.m. Theft at 653 16th Ave., BB gun stolen, $10 loss. 6:05 p.m. Criminal mischief at Corner Stop, 220 23rd St., tires slashed, $150 loss. 11:33 p.m. Theft at Jeans Adorable Adoptables, 3214 19th St., lights stolen, $25 fine. Sheriff Dec. 24 9:30 p.m. At the intersection of 130th Avenue and 370th Street, a vehicle driven by Christopher Reeder, 23, 3407 13th St., swerved to avoid a deer, lost control and went into a ditch. Dec. 25 12:33 p.m. On the Loup Canal access road, 2.5 miles northwest of Columbus, a vehicle driven by Christopher Bowen, 21, 3406 30th St., lost control and went into a ditch. Dec. 31 11:55 a.m. On 175th Avenue, two miles southeast of Creston, traffic accident. Drivers were Byron Merida, 44, Leigh, and Jack Groteluschen, 44, Creston. Jan. 1 12:57 a.m. - At the intersection of 83rd Street and 36th Avenue, a vehicle driven by Preston Hammons, 20, 1708 Minden Drive, lost control and went into a ditch. Jan. 3 2:53 a.m. Traffic violation east of Pawnee Park on U.S. Highway 81, Marcos Trujillo of Columbus jailed for speeding and no operators license. 11:53 a.m. Traffic violation on Highway 81 north of 265th Avenue, Sabrina Blaser of Columbus cited for speeding. Fire Jan. 3 8:54 a.m. In the 2200 block of 25th Street, medical. 9:47 a.m. In the 2600 block of East 40th Street, medical. 4:28 p.m. Ambulance intercept at the intersection of Highway 81 and the Platte Center Spur, medical. 6:24 p.m. In the 900 block of East 23rd Street, medical. Jan. 4 12:49 a.m. Car fire in the 2800 block of 12th Street, total loss. 2:06 a.m. In the 100 block of Center Road, medical. The FBI never asked the Democratic National Committee if it could examine a computer server that was the subject of cyber attacks last year. Instead federal law enforcement relied on data that, Crowdstrike, a private computer security company, gathered from the device. The FBI later endorsed the conclusion that Russian intelligence services were behind the hacking, and that their goal was to help Donald Trump win the November presidential election. The Federal Bureau of Investigation never asked the Democratic National Committee to see the computer server that the U.S. government now claims was hacked by Russians Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (center) blasted 'Russia's attacks on our nation' during a hearing Thursday with top intelligence officials 'The DNC had several meetings with representatives of the FBI's Cyber Division and its Washington Field Office, the Department of Justice's National Security Division, and U.S. Attorney's Offices, and it responded to a variety of requests for cooperation,' DNC deputy communications director Eric Walker told BuzzFeed, 'but the FBI never requested access to the DNC's computer servers.' Trump's incoming press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters on a Thursday morning conference call that 'the DNC is on the record saying the FBI never contacted them to validate claims by Crowdstrike, which is the third-party tech security firm, and never actually requested the hacked server.' 'You know, I would equate this to no one actually going to a crime scene to actually look at the evidence,' Spicer declared. Walker said there were no restrictions on what the FBI could request from its private security company's findings. 'Beginning at the time the intrusion was discovered by the DNC, the DNC cooperated fully with the FBI and its investigation, providing access to all of the information uncovered by CrowdStrike - without any limits,' he said. Donald Trump seemed on Wednesday to back WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's insistence that Russia was not behind election-year hacks of Democrats' computers and e mails But the FBI's decision to leave the forensic investigation in the hands of a for-profit company will shed new doubts on the Obama administration's only public conclusion so far, that hackers tied to Moscow were responsible. 'There's just no way to be sure the FBI was making decisions based on solid evidence,' a Republican Senate aide told DailyMail.com on Friday, requesting anonymity to speak freely. 'This would be like the National Weather Service predicting with 100 per cent certainty that there will be three feet of snow in New York tomorrow, based on weather radar that it doesn't control.' A report last from the FBI and Homeland Security department described how those agencies believe Russians gained control of the DNC's server An unnamed intelligence official who spoke to Buzzfeed said the FBI routinely relies on Crowdstrike and other companies like it to analyze computer hardware in order to inform its own investigators. 'Crowdstrike is pretty good. There's no reason to believe that anything that they have concluded is not accurate,' the intelligence official told BuzzFeed. But critics pointed to a similar investigation in 2014, where a 'par for the course' FBI probe included seizing a hacked computer server. When North Korean operatives hacked into Sony Corporation's computers that year, the FBI got directly involved with the data-gathering. The Senate staffer said 'my boss' believes there are 'a lot of holes in the Obama administration's theories right now.' 'The best they can say is that these DNC hacks look like things Russians have done before, but now we're learning that you can get the same tools from the Ukraine. They probably can't put anyone's actual fingerprints on any of this.' President-elect Trump is due to receive a detailed briefing about the hacking from America's top intelligence officials on Friday. Spicer, his spokesman, this week questioned the value of a technical-assistance report issued last week by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. That document laid out a case for believing the Russian government orchestrated the hacking. Barack Obama never got a fish restaurant named after him in Iraq but even before President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated, one of his biggest fans has named a diner after him in Iraqi Kurdistan. Trump Fish, in the city of Dohuk in northern Iraq, specialises in masgouf - crispy, grilled carp, which is the country's national dish. Owner Nadyar Zawiti, 31, decided to name his new eatery after Trump last year after the then Republican nominee praised the Kurdish peshmerga fighters taking on ISIS and called for the US to arm them in their struggle. Trump Fish has opened in Dohuk, northern Iraq (pictured) and the tycoon does not get a penny out of the profits. Not that there are any at the moment A man grills carp at Trump Fish in Dohuk. Nadyar Zawiti runs the business with his three brothers but it was him that came up with the name and logo Mr Zawiti told CNN: 'What I admire about Trump's personality is that he's decisive, he's tough, and hopefully with that toughness he'll finish ISIS off.' Seeing him as a man of action, Mr Zawiti has designed the restaurant's logo showing Mr Trump with a lightning bolt hairstyle. Trump Fish opened last month in Dohuk, which is only an hour's drive from Mosul, where Kurdish peshmergas and Iraqi soldiers are trying to dislodge ISIS. The restaurant's logo has the President-elect with lightning-style hair Mr Zawiti admitted he chose the name as a gimmick which he hoped would boost trade but said it came after Trump praised the peshmerga and called for them to be given US arms supplies. He said: 'I personally love Trump for this. The name Trump is beloved in Kurdistan.' But Mr Zawiti said some online critics have accused him of being an American or Israeli agent and have threatened him because of the name. Never mind the name, how's the food? People take pictures of the restaurant's main dish, masgouf. And it's good apparently The Kurds have carved out their own de facto state in northern Iraq in the wake of the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003. The peshmerga - whose name literally means 'those who face death' - have proven to be brave fighters who have helped to turn the tide against ISIS. Some customers upset with Trump's campaign pledge to impose a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States boycotted the restaurant. A waiter serves fish at a restaurant named Trump Fish. Some customers boycotted the diner in protest at the President-elect's rash promise to ban Muslims entering the US Mr Zawiti, who runs Trump Fish with his three brothers, said the business is still not making a profit but he hopes to emulate the wealth of his tycoon hero. Masgouf is a grilled fish farmed in local rivers and seasoned with olive oil, pepper, lemon and spices. One customer who enjoyed the food, if not the name, was American visitor David Hirsch, who said: 'He is an American, maybe he is not my favourite, but he is still American. So I'm happy to try a restaurant with an American name with Kurdish-Iraqi food.' You're never too old to dream about Disney World. That was the case for one adorable Italian grandmother, who burst into tears when her family bought her an all-expense paid trip to the Happiest Place on Earth. Her adorable reaction was caught on video as her granddaughter, Mella, handed her a deceptively plain white envelope. Happy birthday, she tells her nonna. Open it and read it. This adorable Italian grandmother had no idea what to expect when her granddaughter Mella gave her a card that would reveal a surprise birthday trip to Disney World The grandmother, who appears to live in Lake Worth, Florida, pulls out the purple card and begins to read out loud the message written in Italian. Happy Birthday! the card begins. We are taking you to Disney World for your surprise birthday gift! The grandmother then begins to cry just as she reaches the word 'Disney World', but continues to read. Thank you for everything you do! We love you! The card is signed Mella and Steve, her husband who also helped pay for the gift. After she finishes reading the card, the adorable grandmother puts her hands to her eyes and continues to cry. She begins to cry just as she reaches the word 'Disney World' and her granddaughter explains that the entire trip is paid for Youre going to Disney World! her granddaughter excitedly yells. Everything paid for, nonna, she continues. No! her grandmother says in shock. Yes, Mella reassures her with a laugh. Her granddaughter then explains that theyve arranged for her to use a wheelchair during the trip so that she wont have to walk. Oh my God, her grandmother says happily as she wipes away her tears. victim - who has not been identified - has been returned to his family The four black friends believed to be behind the disturbing torture of a white special needs man in a Facebook live video have been identified and charged with committing a hate crime. Jordan Hill, 18; Tesfaye Cooper, 18; and sisters Birttany, 18, and Tanisha Covington, 24, were charged Thursday morning with aggravated kidnapping, aggravated unlawful restraint, aggravated battery and a hate crime, according to the Cook County State's Attorney's Office. Hill was also charged with robbery and possession of a stolen motor vehicle. He, Cooper and Brittany Covington face additional charges of residential burglary. The four are set to face a judge for the first time Friday afternoon at 1pm Central Time for a bond hearing. Scroll down for video The four young friends suspected of torturing a special needs man in a Facebook live video have been identified and charged. Two of the suspects pictured above: Sisters Brittany Covington, 18 (left) and Tanisha Covington, 24 (right) The two men in the attack have been identified as Tesfaye Cooper, 18 (left), and Jordan Hill, 18 (right), who knew the victim The unidentified victim was found wandering the streets on Wednesday after he escaped. Above, a grab from the live stream of the torture Chicago authorities revealed more about the disturbing incident at a Thursday afternoon press conference. At the press conference, it was revealed that the unidentified victim and Hill were 'acquaintances' who had hung out a few times before. The two knew each other from attending a school together in Aurora, Illinois at one point. The victim's parents dropped him off at a McDonald's in Streamwood on Saturday so that he could spend the night with Hill. He was reported missing on Monday when they could not get into contact with their son. When Hill picked the victim up, he was driving a stolen van - something the victim apparently did not know. For the first two days, the two hung out visiting friends and the victim reportedly slept in the van at nights. Things took a turn on Tuesday, when they visited the West Chicago residence of the Covington sisters. A few hours after they arrived at the house, where Cooper was as well, Hill and the victim got into a play fight that then escalated. That's when the sisters tied him up and the group started torturing him for about six hours. Half an hour of this torture was live-streamed on Facebook, showing the group beating the young man, cutting off a piece of his scalp, forcing him to drink toilet water. At one point in the video, one of the four yells 'f*** Donald Trump. F*** white people' at the victim. Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson called the act 'reprehensible' at a Thursday press conference Police says the young man made so much noise as he was being tortured that the downstairs neighbors eventually called police to report the noise. The group became angered with the downstairs neighbors, and three of them went downstairs to kick the neighbor's door in. It was at this moment that the victim was able to make a break for it. Outside of the residence, a police officer saw the victim 'bloodied and bruised', wearing a tank top and shorts in the dead of winter, so he decided to walk up and see what was wrong. The officer was then able to ascertain that the victim was the missing man from Streamwood. Police were not able to elaborate at the Thursday press conference on previous reports that stated the group texted the victim's parents while they were holding him hostage. Also Thursday, President Obama told CBS that he had seen the video, but that the 'despicable' actions seen in the footage did not signal a worsening of US race relations. On Thursday President Obama said he believed the 'despicable' actions seen in the video were examples of long-existing hatred, and not a sign of US race relations getting worse 'I don't think it's accurate to say race relations are getting worse,' he told host Jay Levine, saying things were also difficult in Chicago in the mid-1980s, when a block of white councilmen deliberately scuppered all proposals by a black mayor. 'In part because we see visuals of racial tensions, violence and so forth because of smart phones and the Internet,' the president said. 'What we have seen as surfacing, I think, are a lot of problems that have been there a long time. 'Whether it's tensions between police and communities, whether it's hate crimes of the despicable sort that has just now recently surfaced on Facebook.' He added: 'The good news is that the next generation that's coming behind us have smarter, better, more thoughtful attitudes about race. 'I think the overall trajectory of race relations in this country is actually very positive. It doesn't mean that all racial problems have gone away. It means that we have the capacity to get better.' The victim was seen cowering in a corner with his arms tied and mouth taped shut. He was filmed being kicked, punched and cut on his scalp with a knife - the knife is circled In another video that surfaced Wednesday night, the torturers force the victim to drink water from a toilet The unidentified victim was able to make a break for it when the downstairs neighbors reported the noise to police The four friends arrested in the incident have allegedly expressed no remorse for the torture The victim, who was friends with Jordan Hill from school, has been returned to his parents At the Tuesday afternoon press conference, a police spokesman said that the four suspects copped to the torture in their police interviews and none expressed remorse. 'The actions in that video are reprehensible. That along with racism have absolutely no place in the city of Chicago or anywhere else for that matter, against anyone regardless of their race, gender, state of mental health or any other identifying factor,' Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said Thursday. The footage shows the four black people allegedly holding the white man hostage in an apartment on the 3400 block of West Lexington on Chicago's West Side on Tuesday. It was originally posted on Facebook Live by Brittany Covington (who goes by the last name Herring on Facebook) but has since been deleted from her social media page. In the first video, the victim was seen cowering in a corner with his arms tied and mouth taped shut. He was filmed being kicked and punched before he had his hair cut until his scalp bled. The victim also had his clothes cut and had cigarette ash flicked over the wound on his head. The suspects are pictured above in the live video. Clockwise from top left: Cooper, Hill, Tanisha Covington and Brittany Covington Brittany Covington, left, is seen what appears to be a blunt in grabs from the horrifying video Someone can be heard in the footage yelling 'f*** Donald Trump. F*** white people' while the two men express their hopes that the video will go viral. Two more clips of the alleged abuse surfaced overnight as well, one of which shows the group forcing the man to drink water out of a toilet. 'It's sickening,' Supt. Johnson said Wednesday night. 'It makes you wonder what would make individuals treat somebody like that. I've been a cop for 28 years, and I've seen things that you shouldn't see in a lifetime, but it still amazes me how you still see things that you just shouldn't.' On January 2, Tanisha Covington (right) posted these pictures of her partying with her little sister Brittany (left) Tanisha's son, pictured with a relative, appears to have a health issue, according to photos she has posted on Facebook He added: 'I'm not going to say it shocked me, but it was sickening.' Police said the victim was treated and released from hospital into the care of his parents, who live in the suburb of Crystal Lake. White House press secretary Josh Earnest says the beating demonstrates 'a level of depravity that is an outrage to a lot of Americans.' Gnawing squirrels have forced officials to chop down hundreds of thriving trees across a mile-long stretch of road. Some 750 towering beech trees used to flank this section of the A38, a busy road running through picturesque parts of Devon and Cornwall. But they have been reduced to barren, 4ft stumps because squirrels were chomping off branches, which then fell in front of drivers. The A38 before the coppicing started at the beginning of December, lined by beech trees The beech trees along the A38 have been coppiced after squirrels were found to be gnawing branches, causing them to fall into the busy road Officials at the nearby Baconnoc Estate, a stately home near Lostwithiel, Cornwall, say Highways England asked them to cut the trees down over safety fears. But the decision has infuriated regular users of the road, who described their actions as legalised vandalism of beautiful tree specimens. Sue Downey, 65, of Truro, Cornwall, said: As a tree lover I found it a shocking sight, mutilated beeches. I nearly crashed the car because the sight was so unbearable I had to keep looking away. I believe these trees are too mature and established to give any significant re-growth. Cornwall cant afford to lose such beautiful tree specimens - we need to bring back the beech. The mile-long stretch was coppiced from December, but the decision by Highways England has outraged people in Cornwall One woman said she had nearly crashed her car because the sight of the trees had shocked her so much Libby Pidcock, 67, of Bodmin, added: Im appalled, it looks like the trees have been vandalised, they look like jagged teeth. Barbara Atyeo, 74, from St Austell, said: This is legalised vandalism. Trees are precious and while accepting necessity for safety surely they could have been pruned more sympathetically? Locals have been assured that within two years, the line of stumped trunks will turn into a hedge. David Henzell, 54, from Penzance, described the felling as brutal but added: There will be a beautiful beech hedge there in a year or two. Annette Robinson, 55, from St Austell, came to the defence of the tree cutters. She said: We were driving along there a few weeks ago and a squirrel dropped right out of a branch and landed in the road in front of us. Funnily enough the same thing happened to my son on his driving test and caused him to brake sharply. Needless to say he failed his test. Is there an abundance of squirrels in this part of Cornwall intent on causing havoc? The squirrels were said to be gnawing the branches so much they were dropping off, which was causing a danger to motorists The decision to coppice them was made by Highways England, and the trees will now be maintained as a 'high beech hedge' Richard Morris, a Savills estate agent speaking on behalf of the Baconnoc estate, said: The overgrown beech hedging along the Glynn Valley has become dangerous as a result of squirrel damage causing trees to drop branches onto the A38. At the request of the Highways Agency we have coppiced the trees which will now be maintained as a high beech hedge in the future. The trees, between Bodmin and Dobwalls in Cornwall, were cut down at the start of December by members of the Baconnoc estate, which features a 750-year-old stately home where Charles I hid during the English Civil War. The Forestry Commission claim squirrel damage to trees in Cornwall is becoming an issue. The animals strip the bark in order to access sweet-tasting sap underneath, which can weaken the tree and case parts of it to fall off. Britains five million grey squirrels are thought to cause up to 10million worth of damage to woodlands every year. In October 2014 Prince Charles call for a cull of the invasive species, originally from North America, in a bid to try and protect the red variety. A Highways England spokesman said they did not tell the estate to fell the trees - but all third party owners along the road were advised that certain trees needed attention. He said: Because the road works we were carrying out meant overnight closures, there was an opportunity for them to do it. Delta Airlines has been sued by two former female workers who claim their older male mentor masturbated in front of them at work. Kayla Jenkins and Lauren Heffernan were hired in 2015 as cargo agents to work with the airline and contractor cargo handling firm, Alliance Ground International (AGI). They were trained by Mike Keve who had worked with Delta for 25 years and all three worked together at the company's office at New York's JFK Airport. Within a year of starting work, they both claim to have seen Keve masturbating openly at his desk. They reported his alleged misconduct but were both later fired for reasons Delta says are 'unrelated'. They are now each suing the airline for $10million. Two female former Delta employees are suing the airline amid claims their male mentor masturbated at his desk in front of them (file image above) Jenkins was only 18 when she began working for Alliance Ground International in August 2015. She and Heffernan, who was hired two months earlier, both received training from Keve when they started. On February 4, 2016, Jenkins was at her desk and Keve at his when she noticed she could no longer hear him typing. She looked into his cubicle and 'saw Keve sitting at his desk, with his penis out', the complaint reads 'Jenkins was horrified and immediately turned back to face her computer and did not move.' She immediately sent a text message to Heffernan, who was not her friend, to tell her what she had seen but was too scared to report it to her superiors. Heffernan, who is 28, replied to say she had seen him do the same thing about a month earlier. When she returned to work, Heffernan reported Jenkins' claims but was allegedly told by an assistant nothing would be done. 'The response, incredibly, was that Delta was already aware that Keve had been masturbating in the office and that it would not take any action out of concern that Keve would lose his job,' the women's lawyer Brian Heller wrote. Keve was reclined in his chair, with his penis exposed and was masturbating while staring at Heffernan Jenkins was fired on May 3, apparently without warning, for not putting in enough hours at work. Six days later, Heffernan, who still worked in the office, claimed to have seen Keve masturbating again. 'Heffernan turned to get the break room key and saw that Keve was reclined in his chair, with his penis exposed and was masturbating while staring at Heffernan.' She claims she immediately reported what she saw but was told by the same assistant firing the man would 'ruin' him. She was due to have a meeting with a human resources employee on the matter but was instead met by a man who described Keve as one of his good friends. Heffernan herself was fired for returning from lunch late on May 21. She said she was only late because her car broke down and produced a receipt for its repairs but was ignored. The three were working together at Delta's Cargo office at JFK Airport in New York (above) The women are now suing Delta for $10million each claiming the entire ordeal left them humiliated and impacted their potential future earnings. 'Plaintiffs have suffered the adverse effects of sexual harassment and retaliation, the quality of their life has been irreparably damaged and their self-esteem, self-respect and well-being has been damaged because they were subjected to the humiliating and demeaning type of conduct described herein,' the lawsuit said Delta told DailyMail.com both women had been fired for reasons unrelated to their complaints about Keve. A spokesman would not explicitly confirm that he had been fired as a result of their allegations but said two people, who were not his accusers, had lost their jobs over it. 'Our investigation into this allegation resulted in the termination of two employees. 'The complainants were legitimately terminated for reasons completely unrelated to any allegations of misconduct by others. 'Delta takes allegations of inappropriate conduct very seriously. We promptly investigate and take appropriate action when issues of this nature are brought to our attention,' a spokesman said. They would not reveal how they planned to respond to the lawsuit. Alliance Ground International did not respond to requests for comment. Keve could no be reached. Intelligence officials are briefing President Barack Obama at the White House on election hacks they say were ordered by the Kremlin. The briefing covers a report Obama requested before he leaves office on the cyber thefts that hurt Democrats before November's election and any other hacks that coincided with previous presidential elections. A public version of the report will be ready early next week, the White House said Thursday afternoon. President-elect Donald Trump will be briefed on the material tomorrow. Scroll down for video Intelligence officials are briefing President Barack Obama at the White House on hacks they say were ordered by the Kremlin. The president is seen meeting with military leaders yesterday at the White House Wikileaks founder Julian Assange says the Russian government did not give his organization more than 50,000 emails from Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman's account, despite U.S. intelligence community statements to the contrary. Trump latched onto Assange's claim this week and used it to bolster his own defense of Russia and his claims that the hacking may have come from a source other than the Kremlin. 'Julian Assange said "a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta' why was DNC so careless?' he said, referring to the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton campaign chief John Podesta. Trump insisted Thursday that he supports U.S. intelligence agencies, despite casting doubts on their conclusion that Russian-backed computer hackers interfered with the U.S. presidential election. 'The media lies to make it look like I am against "Intelligence" when in fact I am a big fan!' Trump said in a two-tweet statement. 'The dishonest media likes saying that I am in Agreement with Julian Assange - wrong. I simply state what he states, it is for the people to make up their own minds as to the truth.' The intelligence community said in an October report that it was the opinion of 17 agencies that Russia was behind hacks on Democratic Party officials and John Podesta, a former adviser to the president who was working for Hillary Clinton at the time. The CIA and FBI later said they believed the hacks were intended to help Clinton's opponent, Trump, who had by then won the presidential election. Obama requested a report on the hacking before his last day in office on Jan. 20, but slapped new sanctions on Russia last week, before it was done, based on the intelligence agencies' previous assessments. Two Russian compounds in the United States were closed, 35 Russian operators were declared 'persona non grata' and kicked out the country, members of Russian President Vladmir Putin's inner circle were separately targeted. The White House told reporters Thursday afternoon that Obama was being briefed 'by a range' of national security experts on the report. estifying before the Senate's Armed Services Committee today, Director of National Security James Clapper reiterated the intelligence community's confidence that the Kremlin was behind the cyber thefts President-elect Trump will receive a briefing on the report tomorrow, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said, and the president has asked the information be distributed to Members of Congress. Obama has further asked intelligence officials to make as much of the report public as possible, Earnest said, 'but it will be a different version' of the classified briefing the president's receiving. Testifying before the Senate's Armed Services Committee today, Director of National Security James Clapper said Assage should not be trusted. 'No, he should not,' Clapper told committee chairman John McCain. Clapper, Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Marcel Lettre and National Security Agency director of cyber command Michael Rogers reiterated in a joint statement to the committee that they have determined that the Russian government was in fact behind the hacks. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange says the Russian government did not give his organization more than 50,000 emails from Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman's account, despite U.S. intelligence community statements to the contrary 'We assess that only Russia's senior-most officials could have authorized the recent election-focused data thefts and disclosures, based on the scope and sensitivity of the targets,' they said. Obama's press secretary said Thursday that he had not seen the report and the president was being briefed as he began his daily news conference so he did not have a reaction from the president to share. Earnest said he doubted that the public version of the assessment would contain a 'smoking gun,' however, given that the intelligence community's 'sharply limited in their ability to produce a lot of information.' Does Hillary Clinton have one more political race to run? Newsmax is reporting that Democratic donors and leaders would like to see last year's Democratic presidential nominee jump in the race for New York City mayor, as incumbent Bill de Blasio is up for re-election later this year. The right-of-center website uses unnamed sources, saying 'She's talking about it,' with others noting, 'If she ran, she'd win.' Nobody from Clintonworld would go on the record with the website, or to Dailymail.com, when the question was asked. Scroll down for video Newsmax is reporting that Hillary Clinton (left) is being pressured by Democrats to take on New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (right) in this year's mayoral race While de Blasio's numbers had seen a recent uptick in the latest polling, from 35 percent in April 2016 to 40 percent in October, he would likely be vulnerable if a bigger name showed up on the ballot, with 56 percent of his constituents still unimpressed. That being said, he was an ally of Clinton's, traveling to Iowa before the caucuses to help the former secretary of state campaign. She appeared at his swearing-in ceremony. And walked alongside the mayor at New York City's gay pride. Though some in Democratic circles grumbled that his initial endorsement in the primary came too late. She's not likely to want to seek an office lower than the White House, after the nearly two-year political battle in which she vanquished primary challenger, Sen. Bernie Sanders, only to lose the election, though win the popular vote, to President-elect Donald Trump. Hillary Clinton (right) likely wouldn't make the move as she's been a political ally of the mayor's - photographed here with Bill Clinton (center right), along with Sandra Lee (left) and Andrew Cuomo (center left), attending Bill de Blasio's 2014 swearing in New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (left) also campaigned for Hillary Clinton (right) during last year's presidential bid However, There have been times when Clinton's career path has surprised those in the political world. She was expected, of course, to run for president in both 2008 and 2016. By the time she threw her hat in, via a web video, in January 2007, Clinton had been re-elected to the senate and had served eight years as first lady. In April 2015, when Clinton again released a web via announcing her intentions, she had also served one-term as President Obama's secretary of state. However, both her senate run and her choice to serve in the cabinet of a former political rival did turn heads. New York Magazine reminded readers in May 2016 that it had once called the idea of a Sen. Hillary Clinton 'ridiculous,' with one Senate staffer saying: 'Off the record? Not a chance in hell.' 'Even she couldn't pull this one off,' writer Michael Tomasky argued. 'Wouldn't want to for one thing. Run for Senate from a state she's never lived in? Only to go back ot Washington she hates Washington back to the city of Ken Starr and Trent Lott and Chris Matthews and Sally Quinn, where they see her as an intruder and debaucher of pre-Clinton era mores that were, um, unimpeachable?' Clinton insiders James Carville and George Stephanopouos thought a Senate run improbable. 'That's something that ... I don't know how much of a possibility that is,' Carville said, suggesting it was more like people playing Democratic fantasy politics than a future reality. 'It's more fun to speculate than anything else,' Carville noted. The New York Magazine feature ran in January of 1999. Thirteen months later, Clinton announced. Hillary Clinton (right) also appeared alongside Mayor Bill de Blasio (back right) at the New York City pride parade last June And while a post-White House run political career is unlikely for the first female major party nominee, her ascent to the top of the State Department was reported on in a similar way. 'Some Democrats are pushing for her to take a top cabinet post in the Obama administration,' wrote Washington Whispers columnist Paul Bedard in October 2008, two weeks before the general election where then-Sen. Barack Obama would be victorious over Republican Sen. John McCain. The Whispers column called the rumors 'no joke,' explaining that generals liked Clinton because of her actions post 9/11 and her experience as 'Bill Clinton's ambassador' would make her a good fit for state. The difference then was at least one top Clinton ally was willing to talk about the prospect on the record, unlike the radio silence that's followed the report of a future New York City mayoral bid. House Speaker Paul Ryan said Republicans are including language to defund Planned Parenthood in the same budget bill that will set up a repeal of Obamacare. Republicans are including legislation to enable the defunding in budget 'reconciliation' instructions. The legislative language would allow legislation to kill the group's funding to clear the Senate on a simple majority vote by escaping a certain filibuster. 'Planned Parenthood legislation would be in our reconciliation bill,' Ryan said in brief comments about the move Thursday. President Obama vetoed a reconciliation bill in 2015 that included language to kill Planned Parenthood funding. Speaker of the House Republican Paul Ryan told Reporters Thursday that language allowing for Planned Parenthood funding to be killed would be included in the same budget bill setting up a repeal of Obamacare Only two Republicans voted against the measure, and one of them, Mark Kirk of Illinois, was defeated. President-elect Donald Trump broke party orthodoxy during the campaign by speaking favorably about some of the 'good things' Planned Parenthood does. But he also said in a letter in a September questionnaire he would back a funding repeal. 'Yes, because as long as they do the abortion I am not for funding Planned Parenthood,' Trump responded. 'As long as theyre involved with abortion, as far as Im concerned forget it, I wouldnt fund them regardless. I would defund Planned Parenthood because of their view and the fact of their work on abortion.' Trump wrote in a letter to members of his pro-life coalition that he supported eliminating the group's funding 'as long as they continue to perform abortions.' GOP legislation setting up budget procedures could clear Congress as soon as next week President-elect Trump has said he would sign a bill that repeals Planned Parenthood funding President of Planned Parenthood Cecile Richards (C) speaks beside House Minority Leader Democrat Nancy Pelosi (L), Pro-Choice Caucus members and supporters at a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, USA, 05 January 2017 A Planned Parenthood office is seen on November 30, 2015 in New York City Planned Parenthood action fund Cecile Richards wrote after Trump's election victory: 'There are almost no words to capture the threat that this election result poses to our democracy, to our economic security, to access to reproductive health care and most especially to the safety and dignity of people of color.' The group got $553 million in government funding in 2014, about half its budget, the Washington Post reported. Federal law prohibits government funds from paying for abortions. The group also provides a variety of preventive health care and birth control measures, and most of its funds do not pay for abortion procedures. It has been a lightning rod in the GOP Congress, including after hidden camera videos showed employees discussing the use of fetal tissue. An inter-party fight over Planned Parenthood contributed to the 2013 government shutdown. A 25-year-old woman was arrested after she beat her fiance with a wooden plank after an argument broke out over the engagement ring, police said. Enrevie Hinayon Bendejo was ordered to drop the plank, which had one-inch nails embedded in it, when police arrived at a home in Fernandina Beach, Florida, according to an arrest report. Bendejo, who also bit the 26-year-old fiance in the arm and punched him in the face, is charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, according to the arrest report. Enrevie Hinayon Bendejo (pictured) was arrested after she beat her fiance with a wooden plank that had nails in it after an argument about her engagement ring Bendejo and the man had been engaged for about a week, before they started arguing on Monday about the ring he proposed with, according to the arrest report. She told him she wanted to break up, and they met up at her former home on Saint Marc Court, according to KSAT. She picked up the plank and started hitting him with it. Police arrived and ordered her to drop it, the arrest report states. She also bit him on the arm and punched him in the face, and the victim was found with red marks as well as bruises, according to the arrest report. Bendejo is being held on $5,000 bond at the Nassau County Jail. COLUMBUS Chaotic. Thats the word state Sen. Paul Schumacher used most often while outlining his expectations for the 2017 legislative session, which kicked off Wednesday at the Capitol in Lincoln. Its going to be the most chaotic session in the time that Ive been down there. And its self-inflicted misery, said Schumacher, who has represented Platte County and the rest of District 22 since 2011. This chaos will be largely created by a looming tax battle thats expected to be waged as lawmakers try to sort out a nearly $900 million projected revenue shortfall for the upcoming two-year budget. Schumacher anticipates a major clash between groups pushing for either property or income tax cuts, and Gov. Pete Ricketts is focused on making reductions in both areas while holding state spending roughly flat. The problem, as Schumacher has noted repeatedly during his time as a state lawmaker, is its difficult to cut from one piece of the tax equation without raising another. Nebraska relies on a combination of income, property and sales taxes to finance local and state government, with the largest share coming from property taxes that help support K-12 public schools, cities and counties. One proposal is to increase the state sales tax or use revenue from online sales to offset a property tax cut, but Schumacher said sales taxes often disproportionately impact lower-income families. The real issue, he said, is senators handed out millions of dollars in tax breaks and exemptions over the past decade that are now handcuffing the Legislature as it tries to create a balanced budget. This is not an economic crisis. Its not any type of natural crisis, Schumacher said, adding that previous policy decisions led to the current revenue shortfall, not slumping agricultural prices or skyrocketing unemployment rates. Theres no reason that we should be engaged in such visionless activity, he said. The challenge now is finding a way to appease Nebraska residents calling for tax relief without making major funding cuts to areas such as education, the Department of Corrections and mental health and senior services. Corrections is requesting a $15.6 million budget increase to address staffing shortages and turnover, and prison overcrowding remains an ongoing issue. All those things go on the table, said Schumacher, who believes the Legislature also must look at rolling back some of the previously approved tax programs that are slicing into the states revenue stream. The Build Nebraska Act, which diverts a quarter-percent of the states general fund sales tax revenue to roads projects, could be a target again this year. Schumacher said that program is popular in rural areas where highway construction has been at a standstill, but its also a significant chunk of money some senators have eyeballed during previous budget discussions. Revenue from the Build Nebraska Act is financing the U.S. Highway 30 expansion from Schuyler to Fremont. Schumacher plans to introduce his own set of bills aimed at boosting state revenue, including one that would create a tax on private loan interest. If we did that, how much revenue can we generate by sales-taxing the rental of money? he said. Another proposal would prevent Nebraskans from transferring their estates to heirs without reimbursing the state for long-term care costs covered by Medicaid. He also plans to introduce measures to get a handle on the prisons problems and a bill that would provide birth control to women who otherwise couldnt afford it. A similar contraception program in Colorado saved that state $10 million to $20 million annually, according to Schumacher. That becomes particularly important if the Obamacare subsidies go away, he said. Another challenge for this years Legislature is the addition of 17 first-time senators, who make up more than one-third of the 49-member Unicameral. Schumacher said hes already seeing an effort by various groups to get a tight grip on these new lawmakers and make the Legislature blindly partisan. The Legislature is comprised of 32 Republicans, 15 Democrats, one Libertarian and one registered nonpartisan. Schumacher is among the Republicans. Florentino Herrera, 48, was pulled over on New Year's Eve for drunk driving, but was later caught trying to destroy cocaine he hid under his belly A Texas man allegedly tried to destroy cocaine he had hidden under his belly fat while being taken to jail. Florentino Herrera, 48, was pulled over early morning on New Year's Eve after cops saw him run a stop sign and cross a solid white traffic line. Austin Police arrested Herrera after he failed field sobriety tests and refused to take a blood alcohol test. In an affidavit, police said the squad car's camera recorded the man trying to destroy cocaine concealed under his stomach fat. Herrera, who is 5ft 7in and 225lb, is being held in Travis County Jail in Austin on charges of evidence tampering and driving while intoxicated. This isn't the only way some criminals have tried to conceal their drugs from cops. In 2015, a Florida woman was caught stashing crack cocaine in her baby's diaper to hide it from the police, only for her bag of heroin to fall out of her bra while she was changing in jail. An Australian man was caught hiding his crystal meth stash in his daughter's iPad case in May 2016. A 70-year-old woman was arrest at JFK airport in 2016 after authorities found four pounds of cocaine she had hidden in her girdle and underwear. Theresa May will fly to the US to meet Donald Trump 'in the spring', it has emerged. The Prime Minister will make the trip to Washington to hold talks with the new president within his first few months in office, according to a source. The groundwork for the meeting was laid last month when Mrs May sent her joint chiefs of staff on a secret mission to New York and Washington. Fiona Hill and Nick Timothy are said to have met senior aides to the Republican leader during the fence-mending mission. The visit might may have proved awkward as both publicly criticised Mr Trump on Twitter before entering Number 10. Ms Hill said 'Donald Trump is a chump' while Mr Timothy said he didn't 'want any "reaching out" to Trump'. Theresa May, right, will travel to Washington for talks with Donald Trump, left, 'in the spring' Last month's mission was part of Mrs May's efforts to build a relationship with the controversial tycoon ahead of his inauguration on January 20. A source said: 'This was part of a process leading towards the PM's first visit with President-elect Trump. 'During the second phone call with president-elect Trump, the Prime Minister suggested it would be a good idea for key staff from both teams to meet. President-elect Trump agreed this would be useful. 'We are pleased to have been able to make that happen and the Prime Minister looks forward to visiting the new president in the spring.' Mrs May is keen to build relations with Mr Trump after describing his plan to ban all Muslims from entering the US as 'plain wrong' when she was Home Secretary. The relationship is also seen to be important as Mrs May tries to renegotiate Britain's place in global affairs following its exit of the European Union. Joint chiefs of staff Nick Timothy, left, and Nick Hill, right, are said to have met senior aides to the Republican leader during the fence-mending mission last month. The visit might may have proved awkward as both publicly criticised Mr Trump on Twitter before entering Number 10 In December 2015 Ms Hill tweeted a response to Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson saying 'Donald Trump is a chump' in the wake of his controversial comments about Muslims In March last year, Mr Timothy wrote: 'American politics was depressing enough before Trump took off.' In May, he added: 'Urgh... as a Tory I don't want any ''reaching out'' to Trump' However it suffered a setback in November last year after it emerged Mr Timothy and Ms Hill had criticised Mr Trump on Twitter. In December 2015, Miss Hill described Mr Trump as 'a chump' in the wake of his controversial comments about Muslims. In March last year, Mr Timothy wrote: 'American politics was depressing enough before Trump took off.' In May, he added: 'Urgh... as a Tory I don't want any ''reaching out'' to Trump.' It is typical for the prime minister to visit the new president in the months following the inauguration. President Obama hosted Gordon Brown in March 2009 - he was sworn into office in the January of that year - and George W Bush invited Tony Blair to Camp David in early February 2001. It is likely that Ivanka Trump will be appearing on an upcoming Vogue cover, possibly even the February issue which will be released next week Anna Wintour of Vogue will also be at the meeting, a month after she traveled to Trump Tower to meet with the Five of the eight stories previewed on the current issue of Vanity Fair are about the new first family, with a banner that reads 'Trumpocalypse Now' That comment came after Vanity Fair wrote a story asking if Trump Grill was America's 'worst 'Has anyone looked at the really poor numbers of @VanityFair Magazine. Way down, big trouble, dead! Graydon Carter, no talent, will be out!' wrote Trump Among those in attendance with be Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, whose Donald Trump will be heading down to One World Trade Center on Friday for a meeting with one of his biggest enemies and favorite Twitter targets. Graydon Carter, the editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair, will be among the group of top editors and digital directors at Conde Nast publications who will attend a sit down with Trump according to Politico, which confirmed the meeting with both Trump and Conde Nast sources. The get together comes three weeks after Trump trashed Vanity Fair in a series of tweets following a story that was run on their website asking if Trump Grill was the worst restaurant in America. Trump responded by writing: 'Has anyone looked at the really poor numbers of @VanityFair Magazine. Way down, big trouble, dead! Graydon Carter, no talent, will be out!' Meanwhile, of the eight stories previewed on the cover of the new issue of Vanity Fair, five are about Trump. 'Trumpocalypse Now,' reads the cover. Scroll down for video Together: Donald Trump (left) will travel to the offices of Conde Nast on Friday to meet with top editors and digital directors, including Graydon Carter (right) Trash talk: 'Has anyone looked at the really poor numbers of @VanityFair Magazine. Way down, big trouble, dead! Graydon Carter, no talent, will be out!' wrote Trump last month (above) The fact that Trump is meeting with the editors, including Anna Wintour from Vogue and Dave Remnick of the New Yorker, is somewhat of a surprise given how critical many of Conde Nast's titles have been of him both before and after the election. It is even more shocking that he has agreed to meet at their building, with Trump having taken almost every meeting since he was elected at Trump Tower. The only other time Trump has done this was with his New York Times meeting shortly after the election. The meeting on Friday will be off the record. Friday will not be the first time Trump has met with Wintour, who was one of Hillary Clinton's biggest supporters, since he won the election. She previously visited Trump Tower last month, and it seems highly likely that Ivanka Trump will be appearing on the cover of her magazine in the upcoming months. Wintour previously featured Melania Trump on the cover of Vogue in 2005 after her wedding. Trump has appeared inside and on the cover of Vanity Fair in the past, and he and wife Melania have attended the magazine's annual Oscar party on three occasions, most recently in 2011. The magazine has been a harsh critic however of Trump during the election, with Carter personally writing a searing piece on Trump in the November issue. In that piece he wrote about a number of things, including dining out with Trump. 'Dinner with Trump is generally a one-sided affair. He talks so much and with such velocity that it can make your hair flutter. Whatever wife he has at the time tends to say nothing,' wrote Carter. The magazine editor later wrote: 'He has touched - embraced - every third rail in American politics. He has offended (and I apologize if I've left some group out): African-Americans, Native Americans, Mexicans, Jews, Muslims, war heroes - war heroes! - families of war heroes, the disabled, women, and babies. Babies! Through word or action, Trump has promoted gun violence, bigotry, ignorance, intolerance, lying, and just about everything else that can be wrong with a society.' Carter is also the man who first made mention of Trump having small hands, calling him a 'short-fingered vulgarian' decades ago while writing for the magazine Spy. Five of the eight stories previewed on the current issue of Vanity Fair are about the new first family, with a banner that reads 'Trumpocalypse Now' Burn: Trump has trashed Carter and Vanity Fair many times in the past, calling his restaurant Waverly Inn the 'worst food in the city' (above) Double burn: Carter responded by printing that at the top of all the menus at Waverly Inn (above) Trump has lashed out many times in the past at Carter as well, attacking his magazine, his Vanity Fair Oscar party and his own restaurant, Waverly Inn. 'Vanity Fair circulation down 20 percent. My third rate stalker should start looking for a new job,' wrote Trump of Carter in 2012. He followed that tweet up with another dig at Carter the next day writing: 'Vanity Fair party at Tribeca Film Festival was a bust.' 'Dopey Graydon Carter, who is presiding over dying @VanityFair magazine, is also presiding over dying Waverly Innworst food in city,' wrote Trump on Twitter three years ago. A man has died as his best friend fights for his life in hospital after taking an unknown substance at a New Year's Eve 'bush doof'. Jake Monahan, 26, was one of three festival-goers who had a bad reaction to the drugs at the YewbuNYE party at Mount Lindesay, on the Queensland-NSW border. The Nimbin man from northern NSW went into cardiac arrest at the camping site on Saturday but died at the scene after he was unable to be revived. His friend Levi Wone, 25, remains in hospital for ongoing treatment after he was found in a critical condition, Gold Coast Bulletin reported. Jake Monahan, 26, (left) has died as his best friend Levi Wone, 25, fights for his life in hospital The two men were celebrating New Year's Eve at the YewbuNYE party at Mount Lindesay, on the Queensland-NSW border over the weekend The pair have been inseparable after growing up on the same street. Mr Monahan's mother Leiza has paid tribute to her son on social media as she thanked the Nimbin community for their support. 'I wanted to thank everyone for all the kind words of love and support,' she said. 'I am so grateful that I live in a community where so many people went out of their way to make things a little less painful. 'The many many people who showed their love for Jake in so many ways. I'll never be able to thank you all enough.' Levi Wone (pictured) remains in hospital after he took an unknown substance at the event The 26-year-old was one of three festival-goers who overdosed on drugs at the rave party Mr Monahan's mother Leiza has paid tribute to her son on social media as she thanked the Nimbin community for their support Meanwhile, the third person who overdosed on drugs - a 29-year-old from Clothiers Creek - has been released from the Gold Coast University Hospital on Tuesday. Toxicology testings are completed but results have not been released. Detective Chief Inspector Brendan Cullen said police have pledged to crack down on doof parties, usually held at hidden rural locations. 'These particular parties aren't about the music, they're all about getting high on illicit drugs,' he said. 'People go there to get intoxicated, some overdose and die unfortunately. 'They are not good events and we need help from the public to stop them.' The rave had been described on the event's Facebook page as a 'movement' for 'like-minded people wanting to gain knowledge and self-growth'. Emergency services were called to the scene on Sunday morning after at least five people had begun showing signs of adverse reactions and required urgent medical assistance, police said Detective Chief Inspector Brendan Cullen said police pledged to crack down on doof parties A mother has been jailed for 30 years for killing her five-year-old son in 1991. Michelle Lodzinski was found guilty of killing her son Timothy Wiltsey in May last year, 25 years after he vanished. The child's body was found eleven months after she claims he went missing from a carnival in Sayeville, New Jersey. No one ever saw the boy there and his remains were found buried with a blanket from their home 11 months later in marshland near where his mother worked. On Thursday, 49-year-old Lodzinski said nothing as she was given her sentence, maintaining still that she does not know what happened to her son. Scroll down for video Michelle Lodzinski (left) was jailed on Thursday for the 1991 killing of her five-year-old son Timothy Wiltsey Her lawyers pleaded for her not to be jailed for life, asking the judge: 'I'm sure Timothy would not want to impose a life sentence on his mother.' Timothy Lodzinski was reported missing on May 25, 1991, when he was five and his mother was just 23. Timothy's mother said he disappeared from the carnival and maintains she still does not know what happened to him She claimed to have lost him at a carnival in Sayreville, New Jersey, where they were living at the time. Lodzinski however changed her story several times in the months that followed, later claiming he had been abducted. During police interviews she said he had been taken by a group of men and women but later changed her description to say the kidnappers had a young girl with them. Police found the boy's body just under a year later in a marshy area outside a building where Lodzinski worked. They were unable to determine a cause of death because it had decomposed so badly. A blanket was found nearby alongside a pair of sneakers and balloon with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles log on the front. Despite being questioned by police, she was never arrested due to lack of evidence. Detectives reopened the case years and charged Lodzinski in 2014 after receiving an anonymous tip. The 49-year-old was jailed in 2014 after prosecutors reopened the case into his death on the advice of an anonymous tip Lodzinski said she turned her back to get a soda at the carnival in Sayeville, New Jersey, and Timothy disappeared Timothy's body was found in marshland near the fair where his mother worked 11 months later Prosecutors said the mother killed Timothy because he was a 'burden' on her Lodzinski was convicted after witnesses said the blanket Timothy was buried with (above) had come from their home They interviewed one his cousin and babysitter who said the blanket had come from the family's home. Danielle Gerding was with Lodzinski at the carnival when she said she the woman, who now has two other sons, 'calmly' said he was missing. They looked for him together in the woods but could not find him, she said. Others who knew the family remembered seeing the mother there but not Timothy. Lodzinski said nothing as she was sentenced on Thursday Prosecutors said Lodzinski only went to the fair to give herself an alibi after killing Timothy earlier in the night. 'The carnival was a cover-up. It was a way the defendant sought to escape detection. Timothy was in the ditch around the corner from where she worked, with his blanket and a balloon,' prosecutor Christie Bevacqua said. 'She was a young, struggling mother, struggling to survive and take care of her child. 'Timothy was a burden on her. He was just no longer wanted, and her solution was a life without Timothy.' Alan Rockoff, the Middlesex County prosecutor when Timothy disappeared, now retired, said prosecutors didn't have enough evidence to charge her previously. 'We didn't have sufficient evidence at the time to pull the trigger,' said Rockoff. 'There was no direct smoking gun here. ... Hopefully now, there's a possibility of closure. Justice works slowly, but works surely.' A naked woman stole an Arizona sheriffs vehicle Thursday and led officers on a 75-mile high-speed chase on two highways before she crashed and was taken into custody, officials said. The pursuit began just before 9am after the unidentified woman took off in a Maricopa County sheriffs deputy's pickup truck at a gas station in Gila Bend along Interstate 8. The chase, which at times reached speeds upward of 100mph, came to an end on Interstate 10 near Eloy, sheriffs spokesman Mark Casey said. Scroll down for video Wild chase: A high-speed 75-mile chase involving a naked woman came to an end on I-10 in Arizona A news chopper caught the moment the suspect was loaded on a stretcher into an ambulance after she crashed a deputy's vehicle Officials say the woman stole this Maricopa County Sheriff's Office pickup truck after telling the deputy she had been sexually assaulted The deputy and the woman were injured but initial reports indicated their injuries were not serious. One of the trucks tires was shredded after state troopers reportedly laid down spike strips to stop it, sending it flying into a median. News outlets, among them KPHO, reported that the woman drove the wrong way on I-8 for a time but Casey said he could not confirm that. Casey told reporters the deputy responded to the Shell gas station in response to a service call about a woman who causing a disturbance and not wearing any clothes. When the officer approached the woman, she told him she had been sexually assaulted. Officials say when the deputy went inside the gas station to find something to cover the nude woman, she jumped in his pickup truck and sped off, according to 12News. The woman led officers on a pursuit on two highways, which ended when one of the truck's tires was shredded after state troopers laid down spike strips to stop it The woman, pictured here on a gurney, was taken to a hospital with non life-threatening injuries The deputy hurled himself onto the vehicle in a bid to stop the woman but fell and suffered injuries. A Good Samaritan who was driving by the gas station at the time witnessed the incident and offered the deputy to use their vehicle to follow the stolen pickup truck, reported Fox 10 Phoenix. Meanwhile, the suspect sped east on Interstate 8 and later tried to merge onto Interstate 10, where she careened into another vehicle; the impact sent the stolen truck flying into the scrub-covered median. When the woman got out of the truck, officers deployed a non-lethal 'stun bag' to subdue her, News outlets showed the moment the suspect was loaded on a stretcher into the back of a waiting ambulance. Sheriff's officials say she could face multiple charges. Advertisement Heartwarming letters written by Princess Diana which described the tender bond between her two young sons - and the rebellious streak in an eight-year-old Prince Harry - have sold at auction. The late princess revealed intimate moments of their family life between 1984 until 1993 in handwritten notes to long-serving Buckingham Palace Steward Cyril Dickman. One letter dated September 20, 1984, reads: 'William adores his little brother and spends the entire time swamping Harry with an endless supply of hugs and kisses, hardly letting the parents near!' Another dated October 17, 1992, notes how mischievous Prince Harry was: 'The boys are well and enjoying boarding school a lot, although Harry is constantly in trouble!' She also described how she and Prince Charles reacted to Harry's birth: 'The reaction to one tiny person's birth has totally overwhelmed us and I can hardly breathe for the mass of flowers that are arriving here!' September 20, 1984: 'William adores his little brother' - Princess Diana described how Prince William showered his little brother with kisses and thanked the steward for thinking of the family 'at this particularly happy time' This letter in 1992 details how a mischievous young Prince Harry finds himself 'constantly' in trouble at school A letter from Princess Diana to Cyril Dickman dated March 20, 1985 in which she wishes him a speedy recovery from his illness First day back at school: Princess Diana pictured taking Prince William (left) and Prince Harry (right) to school for the start of a new term on April 25, 1990 The six handwritten letters sold for 15,100 at auction, exceeding the 2,300-3,600 estimate. One lot, which included the letter describing Prince William's adoration for younger brother Harry, was sold for 3,200 - around five times more than its estimate of 400-600. The lot containing the letter about Prince Harry's mischievous streak sold for 2,400, more than double the 600-900 estimate. In a letter following Prince Harry's birth, Diana wrote warmly: 'This is just to say a big thank you, Cyril, for thinking of us at this particularly happy time, with lots of love from, Diana.' The fondness the princess had for Mr Dickman - who served as a palace steward for more than 50 years - was clear when she penned him a letter following the death of her grandmother, the Baroness Fermoy, in July 1993. She wrote: 'Thank you so much for your lovely letter concerning my Grandmother. Her death came as a great shock, but it has meant an enormous amount to receive messages of support such as yours. 'I often think of you and Mrs Dickman and hope that life is treating you kindly.' In 1993, Mr Dickman was advisor to Sir Anthony Hopkins for his role as a butler in the film The Remains of the Day. Diana mentioned his star turn in one of her letters to the palace steward, saying, 'I wait with interest to see the film'. Princess Diana also wished him a speedy recovery upon hearing he was ill in 1985, writing: 'I just wanted to write a quick note to say how very sorry I am to hear you are not feeling well. We missed you yesterday at Buckingham Palace.' The letter remarking on Prince Harry's behaviour was sent when he was a pupil at private Ludgrove School in Berkshire in 1993 and shows he had a rebellious streak at a young age. July 18, 1993: The fondness the princess had for Mr Dickman - who served as a palace steward for more than 50 years - was clear when she penned him a letter following the death of her grandmother, the Baroness Fermoy, in July 1993 Diana wrote: 'Her death came as a great shock, but it has meant an enormous amount to receive messages of support such as yours' Other items in the auction include signed Christmas cards from Prince Charles, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip Heartwarming letters written by Princess Diana described the tender bond between her two young sons (pictured on a trip to Thorpe Park in April, 1993) Mr Dickman started his career at Buckingham Palace watching out for fires on the roof during the Blitz. He retired at the age of 65 and was made a Freeman of the City of London. When he fell ill towards the end of his life, Prince Charles visited him at his home. He died aged 85 in 2012 and the letters were uncovered by his grandson who put them up for auction. The six notes were part of a collection described as 'the private letters between a trusted butler and the royal family', which also included photos and Christmas cards. John Foster, of Cheffins auctioneers in Cambridge, said interest in the collection had been 'phenomenal', with inquiries coming from as far afield as Japan, Australia and Canada. He told the BBC: 'One of the nice things about this collection is that it reveals the personal side. It's not just thanking someone for an event, it's things like the handwriting and the squiggly drawings. President-elect Donald Trump again threatened to slap a 'big border tax' on a major auto company if it makes its cars in Mexico and sells them in the United States. 'Toyota Motor said will build a new plant in Baja, Mexico, to build Corolla cars for U.S. NO WAY! Build plant in U.S. or pay big border tax,' he said Thursday afternoon on Twitter. House Speaker Paul Ryan said Wednesday that Congress would not be raising taxes on companies that ship jobs over border and sell their products in the United States, however. SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO President-elect Donald Trump again threatened to slap a 'big border tax' on a major auto company if it makes its cars in Mexico and sells them in the United States Today President-elect Donald Trump targeted Toyota with a tweet suggesting there would be repercussions for the company if it went ahead and built a new plant in Mexico Ryan said congressional Republicans would not rubber stamp the president-elect's trade agenda and raise tariffs, as he's repeatedly promised. 'No, we're not going to be raising tariffs,' Ryan told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt. The GOP leader, who's clashed with Donald Trump on Russia, taxes, immigration and entitlement reform, said his caucus does not believe higher tariffs are the solution to economic disparities. 'We think tax reform is the better way of addressing imbalances, leveling the playing field without starting trade wars...without having the adverse effects that you get with protectionism or trade wars,' Ryan asserted. The newly reelected House Speaker told Hewitt, 'We think leveling the playing field on taxes, reducing the costs on American businesses by reducing regulatory costs, healthcare costs, that's the secret to making a businesses more competitive. 'Not raising prices or raising tariffs but lowering the costs and leveling the playing field,' he added. House Speaker Paul Ryan said Wednesday that Congress would not be raising taxes on companies that ship jobs over the border and sell their products in the United States Trump has been threatening 'big' border taxes on companies that defy his orders to keep jobs in the U.S. The president-elect has said on numerous occasions that companies ignoring his demands will pay a steep price - a 35 percent tariff. 'The U.S. is going to substantialy reduce taxes and regulations on businesses, but any business that leaves our country for another country, fires its employees, builds a new factory or plant in the other country, and then thinks it will sell its product back into the U.S without retribution or consequence, is WRONG! 'There will be a tax on our soon to be strong border of 35% for these companies,' Trump said in a series of Dec. 4 tweets. Trump has been threatening 'big' border taxes on companies that defy his orders to keep jobs in the U.S. The president-elect has said on numerous occasions that companies ignoring his demands will pay a steep price - a 35 percent tariff Ford has been a favorite target. Trump told Fox News in September that after he slapped the car company with a 35 percent tariff, 'you know what's gonna happen? They're never going to leave.' Today Trump made an example of Toyota, which announced plans to build a new facility in Mexico in April of 2015. 'Toyota looks forward to collaborating with the Trump administration to serve in the best interests of consumers and the automotive industry,' Toyota spokesman Scott Vazin told Reuters this afternoon. Toyota already has a plant in Baja. It's Guanajuato facility will make the Corolla, taking over production from a plant in Canada in 2019. Trump singled out General Motors on Tuesday for its over-the-border production of the Chevy Cruze it sells in foreign markets. 'General Motors is sending Mexican made model of Chevy Cruze to U.S. car dealers-tax free across border. Make in U.S.A.or pay big border tax!' he tweeted. The automotive company said in a statement it builds the sedans it sells in the United States in its Lordstown, Ohio factory. Only a 'small number' of the Chevy Cruzes that are manufactured in Ramos, Mexico make their way back to the United States, GM says. Economists say the tariffs Trump's proposing would hurt the U.S. economy. Costs would be passed down to consumers, and Americans would end up paying more for goods. Ford announced a $700 million investment in Michigan, in addition to the jobs that were referenced by Trump, on Tuesday, and the cancellation of a plant it planned to build in Mexico after Trump tweeted about tariffs again A 35 tariff on Ford would have amounted to $2.8 billion in taxes in 2016, CNN Money reported. That's more than Ford reported in income in the third quarter of last year, according to its most recent FEC filing. Ford announced a $700 million investment in Michigan and 700 new jobs on Tuesday, cancelling its plans to build a $1.6 billion plant in Mexico for production of the Ford Focus. It said it would build the next generation of the vehicle at an existing factory in the foreign country. Employees of its Flat Rock Assembly Plant in Fort Wayne, Michigan, will build an 'all-new small utility vehicle with extended battery range,' Ford said, 'as well as the fully autonomous vehicle for ride-hailing or ride-sharing,' the Mustang and the Lincoln Continental. A Wikipedia article about a controversial late Indonesian military leader is believed to have played a pivotal role in sparking a suspension in military ties with Australia. It was revealed this week the Indonesian military put defence co-operation with Australia on ice after a special forces trainer took offence to material used by an Australian student at a Perth military academy. It is understood the material concerned information taken from the online encyclopedia website Wikipedia about the late General Sarwo Edhie Wibowo, who is considered a national hero in Indonesia. A Wikipedia article about a controversial late Indonesian military leader Sarwo Edhie Wibowo is believed to have played a pivotal role in sparking a suspension in military ties with Australia General Wibow was involved in leading the purge of communists in Indonesia in 1965 a massacre which claimed over 500,000 lives. Before West Papua became Indonesian territory, Wibowo oversaw the 1969 referendum dubbed the 'An Act of Free Choice', which has since been widely condemned as a sham when only 1025 people were selected to vote. The Indonesian trainer was also offended by a poster that ridiculed Indonesia's founding ideology, Pancasila. Pancasila stipulates Indonesia's five principles of religion, civilised humanity, unity, democracy and social justice. Indonesia's security minister backpedalled on Thursday, claiming the military had not suspended all cooperation with Australia. 'Steps have been taken by the military chief to suspend a language-training programme in Australia,' chief security minister Wiranto said in a statement. An Indonesian special forces trainer was also offended by a poster that ridiculed Indonesia's founding ideology, Pancasila (pictured: the symbol) It was revealed this week the Indonesian military suspended defence co-operation with Australia last month (pictured: Indonesian Army's Kopassus special forces) Indonesia's security minister has now claimed the military had not suspended all cooperation with Australia The statement contradicts a military spokesman who said 'all forms of cooperation' had been suspended. In a statement, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said he welcomes the Indonesian President's 'desire to resolve quickly current issues impacting on elements of defence co-operation'. 'I acknowledge and value President Widodo's commitment to the strategic partnership between our two countries and value our personal friendship.' Indonesian President Joko Widodo said earlier on Thursday relations with Australia remained good despite the Indonesian military announcing a day earlier that all military co-operation had been suspended. 'I think our relations with Australia remain in a good condition. The problem has to be clarified first at the operational level so the situation will not heat up,' Widodo told reporters. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said he welcomes the Indonesian President's 'desire to resolve quickly current issues impacting on elements of defence co-operation' Indonesian President Joko Widodo said earlier on Thursday relations with Australia remained good (President Joko Widodo (R) talks with Military Chief Gatot Nurmantyo) The issue is expected to be well and truly ironed out before President Widodo's rescheduled visit to Australia in the coming months. He abruptly cancelled his trip late last year after a protest in Jakarta spiralled into violence, with up to 150,000 demonstrators demanding the jailing of the city's Christian governor for insulting Islam. Naomi Campbell (pictured) said she was attacked in Paris in 2012 and she said she 'sympathised' with Kim Kardashian Supermodel Naomi Campbell revealed today that, like Kim Kardashian, she has suffered a life-threatening attack from robbers in Paris. The 46-year-old British supermodel has revealed she underwent her own terrifying ordeal five years ago. Campbell told the Wendy Williams Show in America: 'I sympathise with her a lot because I kept mine on the down-low, but in 2012 I was attacked in Paris.' Pagesix.com reported her recounting the incident: 'They followed me from the airport. They attacked me. They opened my car door and said "Naomi Campbell, we're going to kill you".' She said: 'I went to the car and it wasnt my normal driver, and it was weird because he had the windows rolled down and the car smelled of this weird perfume. All the windows were rolled down, it was November. I was like "Wait a minute, this is weird".' Campbell has never spoken before about the incident. But she said she had just arrived to meet fashion designer, Azzedine Alaia, at his shop in Paris when the attackers swooped on her and demanded her bag. 2016 was a hell of a year for Kim Kardashian and husband Kanye West. They were robbed in October in Paris and then West was taken to hospital in November after a disturbance She said she thought: 'Am I going to let this guy take my bag with all my passports or am I going to fight for it?' and she immediately decided not to let go of her bag. Campbell said: 'Thank God it was outside Azzedine Alaias shop because thats where you get the entrance to get into the house, because they came out and saved me, basically. 'In the interim, you decide in a very split moment. I dont know if Id ever do this again in hindsight "Am I going to let this guy take my bag with all my passports or am I going to fight for it?" And my decision was "I am not letting my bag go".' In October Kardashian was robbed of 5.2million worth of jewellery by several men wearing police uniforms who forced their way into the apartment building where she was staying with husband Kanye West. The masked men put a gun to her temple and left her tied up in the bathroom of her luxury residence. Campbell claimed the gang who robbed her were probably the same as the criminals who attacked the Kardashian Wests. She said: 'I very much sympathise with her and I felt for her right away.' Economists have suffered a Michael Fish moment over the financial crisis and the impact of the Brexit vote, a top Bank of England official declared yesterday. In a frank admission, the Banks chief economist Andy Haldane said his profession was in crisis after bungling so many major calls in recent years. He admitted that despite dire warnings of recession from the Bank and the Treasury, it had been business as usual since the EU referendum, with households carrying on as if nothing had happened. Mr Haldane, 49, compared economic forecasters to weathermen in particular Mr Fish who in 1987 famously told the nation there would be no hurricane. A top Bank of England official compared economic forecasters to weathermen in particular Mr Fish who in 1987 famously told the nation there would be no hurricane (pictured) Just hours later the worst storm for 300 years battered the UK, claiming 20 lives, flattening 15 million trees and causing 1.5billion of damage. Lets go back to a different crisis, which is a crisis not in economic forecasting but in weather forecasting that resulted from the 1987 Great Storm, he said. Michael Fish getting up, saying someones just called me, hurricane coming. Theres no hurricane coming but it will be very windy in Spain. Thats very similar to the sort of reports central banks, naming no names, issued pre-crisis. There is no hurricane coming but it might be very windy in the sub-prime sector. Mr Haldanes comments came as figures showed the economy grew by more than 1 per cent in the six months after the vote to leave the EU adding to the deluge of upbeat data published since the Brexit vote. In a boost to savers and pensioners with money tied up in the stock market, shares in London also closed at a record high for a sixth day running, a feat last achieved in 1997. HOW HE CHANGED HIS TUNE Andy Haldane I would rather run the risk of taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut than taking a miniature rock hammer to tunnel my way out of prison. - July 2016, on why interest rates should be cut following Brexit. The EU referendum result has thrown up a dust cloud of economic uncertainty, making it harder for companies to plan, with potentially adverse implications for future investment and jobs. - August 2016 If you look at how the British consumer performed during the course of last year, it is almost as though the referendum had not taken place. It's pretty much business as usual. - January 5, 2017 Advertisement The FTSE 100 index edged 5.57 points higher to 7195.31 taking gains since the referendum to 13.5 per cent or 216billion. Mr Haldane, a key lieutenant of Governor Mark Carney, conceded that the Bank was too gloomy following the EU vote. Fair cop, we had foreseen a sharper slowdown in the economy than has happened, he said. If you look at how the British consumer performed during the course of last year, it is almost as though the referendum had not taken place. In terms of many of the real things like pay and jobs, its pretty much business as usual. Conceding the Bank was too gloomy about the impact of Brexit, Mr Haldane said: The profession is to some degree in crisis. He added: If an economist ever tells you they are certain about anything, that is the time to worry. Fresh figures yesterday showed the economy grew by 0.5 per cent in the final quarter of 2016, having expanded by 0.6 per cent in the previous three months. That means output is now 1.1 per cent higher than it was at the time of the EU referendum in June, according to the report by research group IHS Markit. The Treasury had warned that a punishing recession would see the economy slump by as much as 1.4 per cent in the six months after a Brexit vote. But IHS Markits index of activity where scores above 50 show growth rose to a 17-month high of 56.4 in December. Manufacturing activity reached a 30-month high while services firms enjoyed their best month since July 2015 and builders recorded their strongest performance for nine months. Separate figures yesterday showed sales of new cars hit a record high of 2.69million last year. The Bank of Englands chief economist Andy Haldane (shown right) said his profession was in crisis after bungling so many major calls in recent years. Shown left, weatherman Michael Fish The UK economy ended 2016 on a high, said Chris Williamson, chief business economist at IHS Markit. The UK economy continues to defy widely held expectations of a Brexit-driven slowdown. John Longworth, co-chairman of Leave Means Leave, said: The New Year has brought an avalanche of upbeat data which demonstrates the continuing strength of the UK economy and confounds the predictions of the referendum doom-mongers. Mr Haldane said that although the Bank was wrong about the immediate impact of the Brexit vote, he still expected the economy to slow this year. I think near-term the data has surprised to the upside greater resilience, in particular among consumers and among the housing market, than we had expected. Has that led us to change our view on the fortunes of the economy looking forward over the next several years? Not really. We are still expecting a slowing, not a huge slowing, but nonetheless a material slowing, during the course of next year as the effects of higher prices in the shops begin to chew away a little at the spending power of consumers. A woman was attacked and had her hair ripped out for talking too loudly on her phone on a bus in China. The woman was riding a bus in Xi'an, north-west China's Shaanxi province, when a male passenger and another woman punched her and pulled out her hair on January 3, reports the People's Daily Online. The woman says she was told by the two passengers that they thought she was speaking too loudly. Bus rage: The woman's hair was ripped out during the attack by a man and another woman The woman surnamed Yang told reporters: "He had two hands pulling my hair and dragged me to the ground. He even kicked and beat me and pulled my hair away.' She said that the incident occurred when she was riding the number 12 bus in the south of Xi'an at 6pm. The 55-year-old said she took a phone call when suddenly the man punched her in the neck. She said: 'I turned around and asked him why he hit me. He said I hit you because you were making a loud noise.' The bus driver surnamed Chen told reporters: 'Suddenly two passengers ran at the woman and I quickly pulled over to stop the bus and I said do not fight.' He continued: 'A woman pulled at her hair and told me not to drive. I called the police.' He then opened the door and called the police while the man and the other woman got off. Yang told reporters: 'I am innocent and I did not provoke him. I am 55 years old. Just asked me to speak quieter and I would have listened.' She has since reported the incident to police. The incident took place on January 3 on the number 12 bus in Xi'an, China CCTV footage from the incident shows a woman and a man hitting and attacking Yang. Yang says the woman also slapped her in the face. People have been commenting on the story on social media site Weibo. One user wrote: 'the man should be made bald for punishment.' While another commented: 'why couldn't this man be more tolerant.' Advertisement This could be the most dangerous daily commute in the world: a ride in a swaying iron cage suspended some 850 feet above a raging river. Welcome to Yingge village in China where the perilous ropeway is the main means of transport for more than 1,000 men, women and children to reach the outside world. The dangerous cable car, built nearly two decades ago by 10 families from isolated Yingge, zips across the 1,540-feet-wide Jinsha River and sends passengers to the Fengjiaping village on the other side. From there, villagers can continue their journey to the county town Qiaojia. That's a high-wire act! Residents of the remote Qiaojia village rely on the dangerous pulley system to cross a deep valley A new aerial video, posted by People's Daily to YouTube, show just how risky the commute journey could be. At 853 feet high, the terrifying transport, billed as the 'highest cable car system in Asia', slides over the Jinsha or 'Golden Sands' River, which is famous for its rapid flow. According to Yunnan.cn, the pulley system was built in 1999 at the cost of 65,000 yuan (7,658) by 10 families in Yingge, who wanted to make it more convenient for villagers to cross the valley. Is this the most dangerous commute? The iron cage zip across the 1,540-feet-wide Jinsha River at some 850 feet high Don't look down! The 10-minute journey sends passengers to the Fengjiaping village on the other side of the valley Suspended on two steel wires, each around two inches thick, the cage can hold up to five people at one time. A one-way ride costs five yuan (58p) and takes about 10 minutes. Apparently, many daredevil tourists have started riding Yingge cable car for an alternative travel experience. Each tourist ticket costs 10 yuan (1.2), and the driver can stop the cage halfway for visitors to take photos. A paved road was built to connect Yingge village to Qiaojia town in 2011. However, locals still prefer to use the cable car. Remote: Billed as the highest cable car in Asia, the transport system is located in Yingge village, southwest China's Yunnan Let's go to the county town! Once residents reach the other side, they will need to continue the journey by bus Villager Wu Shengchao told a reporter from Yunnan.cn in 2014 that it would cost them 90 yuan (10.5) and five and a half hours to reach Qiaojia using the motorway. In comparison, villagers would only need to pay 25 yuan (2.9) if they travel by the cable car and buses, and the journey is one and a half hours shorter. Fortunately, Qiaojia villagers won't need to endure the risky ride for long. A bridge is being constructed to connect the village to the other side of the valley. Towels are normally a key part of our hygiene routine, but according to one expert, they can do more harm than help. They can act as a filthy haven for bacteria, funghi, dead skin, fecal matter, urine, and many of the other germs lurking in your bathroom. These germs, many of which come from your toilet, then multiply among your towel's damp, warm fibres. Now, hygiene expert Professor Philip Tierno recommends we wash our towels after only three washes to avoid any infections from bathroom germs. Scroll down for video Bath towels can act as a filthy haven for bacteria, funghi, dead skin, fecal matter, urine, and many of the other germs lurking in the bathroom that have chosen a towel as their home. Now, a hygiene expert recommends we wash our towels after only three washes. (Stock image) WHY ARE TOWELS DIRTY? Towels are the perfect home for a sea of bacteria and funghi. They hold many of the key ingredients for hosting microbial life. These include water, warm temperatures, oxygen, a neutral pH, and even food in the dead skin people leave behind after a thorough dry. The human body also boasts these ideal living conditions, which is why our bodies are host to trillions of bacteria throughout our lives. As a towel is used to dry the body, microbes sitting on the surface of the skin are deposited onto its damp, warm surface. Advertisement And that's only if it dries completely between each wash, Professor Tierno, a microbiologist and pathologist at the New York University School of Medicine, told Tech Insider. 'The idea is to be prudent and to be aware,' Professor Tierno said. 'A damp towel is growing. 'If there is odour coming from the towel, wherever there is odour, there are microbes growing so it should be washed.' Professor Tierno says that it's difficult to judge whether or not the microbes growing on bathroom towels are harmful. Most household germs are not, he says. But for those who share a towel with others, the risk is far greater. This is because those who share a towel could come into contact with organisms their body is not used to dealing with. These include 'Staphylococcus aureus' bacteria, Professor Tierno said, 'which may give rise to a boil, or a pimple, or an infection.' Towels are the perfect home for a sea of bacteria and funghi. They hold many of the key ingredients for hosting microbial life. Professor Tierno says that it's difficult to judge whether or not the microbes growing on bathroom towels are harmful. However, those who share a towel with someone else could come into contact with organisms their body is not used to dealing with. (Stock image) These include water, warm temperatures, oxygen, a neutral pH, and even food in the dead skin people leave behind after a thorough dry. The human body also boasts these ideal living conditions, which is why our bodies are host to trillions of bacteria throughout our lives. As a towel is used to dry the body, microbes sitting on the surface of the skin are deposited onto its damp, warm surface. Gap will soon let customers try on clothes without setting foot in a physical store. The firm unveiled a new pilot app, called the DressingRoom, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where customers can 'try on' clothes in an augmented reality experience. Shoppers simply select a Gap style, choose their body type and a digital mannequin wearing the garment appears and you can also purchase the item from the app. Scroll down for video Gap unveiled a new pilot app called the DressingRoom, which lets customers 'try on' clothes in an augmented reality experience.Shoppers simply select a Gap style, choose their body type and digital mannequin appears wearing the garment HOW DOES IT WORK? Shoppers choose a Gap style they may want to purchase in DressingRoom by Gap. Next, they select one of five body types - extra small, small, medium, large and extra large. Users can try on the piece of clothing from anywhere on a Google Tango-enabled device. An avatar appears wearing the garment and shoppers can move it around the room to see the item from different angles. And clothing can be purchase through the app. Advertisement The DressingRoom is a collaboration with Avametric, a firm that creates 3D renders for fashion brands, and Google. 'Google was an obvious collaborator for us on this project, as a longtime innovator in the Augmented Reality and mobile visualization space,' Liz Nuna, a Gap spokesperson, said in a blog post. 'And, Avametric is an early pioneer in the Augmented Reality space.' 'The technology they've created uses avatars to help people understand how products will fit without stepping foot in a dressing room, and that's really exciting.' The clothing brand is calling their experience 'augmented reality', as it overlays virtual images, such as clothing, on top of a real-life image. And customers will have the ability to move the avatar around to see how the clothing looks from different angles. As of right now, the firm is only offering five different body types to choose from - extra small, small, medium, large and extra large. 'Technology gives customers incredible autonomy around the shopping experience and it's our responsibility to constantly explore new ways to make the shopping experience effortless and pursue solutions that will add value to the customer experience,' shares Nuna. Customers will have the ability to move the avatar around to see how the clothing looks from different angles. As of right now, the firm is only offering five different body types to choose from - extra small, small, medium, large and extra large THE END OF DRESSING ROOMS? A new high-tech 'mirror' means shoppers need no longer try clothes on - because it shows the latest garments on a digital scan of your body. The virtual wardrobe will save time by using a motion-capture camera to produce a realistic 3D image of each customer as they stand in front of the 6ft 6in screen. The computer even selects a range of clothing and accessories it believes will suit the shopper's shape and size, and presents them on the display. Shoppers can then use a simple wave of their hand to choose which ones they wish to 'try on', and instantly see what it looks like. The system - available in High Street shops this summer - is so advanced it can show how clothes hang from the shoulders and cling to the body. The device, hailed as 'every woman's dream invention', uses Microsoft's motion sensing technology, Kinect 3D. Advertisement 'The DressingRoom by Gap pilot app is just one element of our longer-term strategic plan in this space.' The app is set to be released later this month, but will work only with phones supporting Google's Tango augmented-reality technology - namely Lenovo's Phab2 Pro and Asus' just-announced ZenFone AR. The move by Gap comes as shoppers spend less on clothing and more on experiences like beauty treatments. The app is set to be released later this month, but will work only with phones sporting Google's Tango augmented-reality technology - namely Lenovo's Phab2 Pro and Asus' just-announced ZenFone AR And over the past few years, online shopping has become more popular than visiting physical locations. Besides getting people into the store, Gap has also been struggling with sales - many loyal customers have turned away due to a lack of compelling clothing to choose from. 'We know that consumer shopping behaviors continue to change at a rapid pace, while technology continues to change the way customers engage with brands, browse products and shop,' Nuna writes. Jenni Murray, the doyenne of Radio 4s Womans Hour, curses the fact that she was born at ten oclock at night. Shes convinced that being born late in the day makes her an evening-loving owl rather than an early-rising lark. Getting up at 5.30am for work is absolutely not natural to me, she said recently. Morning person?: Evidence shows being a morning or an evening person is linked to the hour of your birth Fascinatingly, she claimed that everyones body clock is set to the time we were born. Its a theory I heard years ago. I was born at 10pm and tend to be more alert late in the evening. The idea sounds like the stuff of old wives tales or woo woo astrology. But, in fact, Murrays conviction is supported by an oft-neglected area of research. Evidence shows that being a morning or an evening person does, indeed, appear linked to the hour of your birth. It may also help to determine a wide range of other crucial characteristics, such as your intelligence and risk of becoming a criminal even whether you may become depressed, have ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) or are prone to developing diabetes. The fact is that owls and larks seem to be equally divided across the population (with 15 per cent being owls and 15 per cent larks, according to sleep expert Professor Jim Horne, with the remaining 70 per cent somewhere in between). Jenni Murray, presenter of Radio 4s Womans Hour, is convinced that being born late in the day makes her an evening-loving owl rather than an early-rising lark However, the bad news for people such as Jenni Murray is that being an owl forced to keep a larks hours may be seriously bad for ones health. She might want to consider presenting an evening programme instead. Despite the fact that being an owl or a lark appears to have fundamental health consequences, remarkably few researchers have investigated the relation between peoples time of birth and their mental and physical make-up. However, in 2010, psychologists from Cleveland State University in Ohio gave large groups of students mental-performance tests in the morning and in the late afternoon. The researchers then examined the students health records to see whether they were born in the morning or later. The results matched: the students born in the morning scored better in the morning tests. Clearly, they were larks. Those born later did better in the late-afternoon exams, and thus were owls. The body clock may be set when a baby is first exposed to the light of the world Time of birth was significantly related to being a day person or a night person, the scientists reported in the Journal Of Social Psychology. The results suggest a critical period for setting the biological clock for alertness may be the moment of birth. It seems the body clock may be set when a baby is first exposed to the light of the world. The nature or quality of the light they experience appears to help set their bodys clock (the circadian rhythm) for the rest of their life. One clue to this is found among adults who were born prematurely. Studies show they are much more likely than normal to be extreme larks, waking early, raring to go. For example, a study of adults in their mid to late 20s by Dr Sonja Strang-Karlsson, a premature birth expert at Helsinki University, reports that those who were born as very low birthweight babies naturally wake up on average 40 minutes earlier than anyone else. Why are their body clocks so advanced? Light seems to play a crucial role. Twenty years ago, in neonatal intensive-care units, it was standard practice to leave bright lights on all day and night. This seems to have set the infants body clocks fast. Only in more recent years have hospitals begun to turn lights on and off in the intensive-care units, to mimic the outside worlds natural body clock-setting rhythms. Those extreme lark children should have little to complain about. As Dr Sonja Strang-Karlssons study concludes: Morningness is associated with beneficial health outcomes. Annoyingly for sleepy-eyed night owls, their jealous suspicions about larks being super-efficient goody-goodies seem to be true. Researchers who studied 700 people aged from 18 to 32 have found morning people tend to be more persistent in pursuing tasks. They are also more resistant to fatigue and frustration, says Dr Ana Adan, the Barcelona University psychologist who led the study. These characteristics make the lucky larks likely to experience high life satisfaction and low anxiety which makes them significantly less likely to get mixed up with drugs, says the 2014 report in journal Personality and Individual Differences. A similar study of more than 600 Britons, conducted seven years earlier by Surrey Universitys Sleep Research Centre, concluded that morning people are simply more conscientious. The ancient Greeks must have noticed this, too. The astrological texts they wrote 2,000 years ago say that people born under the sun (i.e. in day-time) were far better at practical and businesslike tasks. Those born under the moon (night-time) should be left to fuzzier stuff, such as looking after livestock, it added. Its not all bad news for night owls, though. Researchers who studied 700 people aged from 18 to 32 have found morning people tend to be more persistent in pursuing tasks Evidence from a number of studies shows they tend to be more intelligent, creative and novelty-seeking. For example, a survey of 420 people by Sydney University declared: Contrary to conventional folk wisdom, evening types are more likely to have higher intelligence scores. Thats where the good medical news ends for wise night owls, however. The rest of the evidence agrees that they tend to be a bunch of ailment-prone neurotics. Research has suggested that owls are prone to burnout and mood problems, and another study warns they are more likely to be aggressive and antisocial in their youth. Other psychologists have found they are more likely to suffer from depression or develop ADHD. Why is the world against them? Barcelona Universitys Dr Ana Adan says the fundamental problem may be caused by what is described as social jet-lag where ones body clock runs at a different time to the demands of society. Evening types are well-known social jet-lag sufferers, as they must adapt to the social schedule which tends to be oriented towards morningness, she explains. Chronic social jet-lag places a heavy toll on the brain, which may be why owls seem significantly more likely to go off the mental rails. Worse still may be the physical effects, particularly for people such as Jenni Murray who have jobs which mean they have to fight their owlish body clocks to get to work early each morning. A major study of more than 64,000 women reported last year that owls have a significantly raised risk of developing type 2 diabetes if they have to work shifts that start early. The increased risk may possibly be due to long-term inflammation in the body, which is a known cause of type 2 diabetes. Such a condition can result from being chronically tired. Thus it is much healthier for owls to work shift schedules that match their body clocks, says the Harvard Medical School study. All this said, there is another 21st-century factor that may change these human attributes. This is due to the way babies are born. When women are left to give birth naturally, the peak time for going into labour is about two oclock in the morning. Babies who are born in the morning are thus often the result of a short labour, while those born in the afternoon or evening undergo a long delivery. (As an owl, this confirms my suspicion that I managed to be born late and have struggled to catch up ever since.) But now, as a result of modern obstetric practices, more babies are born in daylight hours. This is a deliberate policy in view of the fact that rates of complications and deaths are far higher at night and at weekends, when there are fewer expert staff on duty. For example, a study last year in the BMJ, by Imperial College London, warned that low weekend staffing levels could be responsible for an additional 770 babies dying and 470 mothers suffering infections every year in the UK. To forestall this, hospitals now increasingly induce childbirth so it occurs when more staff are on duty and when deliveries can be done most safely. Thus, most babies in Western hospitals are now born from morning to midday. A study last year by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for example, found that births peak in the hour after 8am. Thus, the balance between morning larks and night owls is shifting in the larks favour. In the 2004 film, 'The Day After Tomorrow', ocean currents around the world stop as a result of global warming, leading to a catastrophic storm which wipes out major cities around the world. And experts believe that the terrifying plot could soon become a reality. A new study suggests that ocean circulation patterns could collapse in the near future, plunging the Northern hemisphere into an ice age. This graphic shows the Atlantic ocean circulation. In red, the relatively warm surface flow is seen, in blue the cold deep water flow. The northward surface flow and southward deep flow together make up the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) WHAT IS THE AMOC? The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is an important component of the Earths climate system. The pattern carries warm, salty water in the upper layers of the Atlantic northward, and colder fresh water in the deep Atlantic southward. This ocean circulation system transports a substantial amount of heat from the Tropics and Southern Hemisphere toward the North Atlantic, where the heat is transferred to the atmosphere. High levels in carbon dioxide would cause Arctic and Greenland ice melt, increasing the amount of freshwater run-off into the ocean. This increase in freshwater would dirupt the AMOC, which relies on a balance between fresh and salt water. Advertisement Previous studies have estimated that carbon dioxide levels will double to 700 ppm by 2100. If this is the case, ocean currents could collapse by the year 2400. Researchers from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego have shown that climate models may be drastically underestimating the possibility of ocean circulations collapsing. They found that a bias in most climate models exaggerates the stability of a pattern, called the Atlantic Meridonial Overturning Circulation (AMOC). When the researchers removed this bias, they predicted that circulation could collapse in the future, setting off large-scale cooling in the North Atlantic. The collapse would stop the AMOC, which delivers warm water towards Greenland then sinks as it cools and flows back towards the equator. In the 2004 film, 'The Day After Tomorrow', ocean currents around the world stop as a result of global warming, leading to a catastrophic storm which wipes out major cities around the world Wei Liu, who led the study, said: 'The significance of our study is to point out a systematic bias in current climate models that hinders a correct climate projection. 'A bias-corrected model puts the AMOC in a realistic stability regime and predicts a future AMOC collapse with prominent cooling over the northern North Atlantic and neighbouring areas. WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF OCEAN CURRENTS COLLAPSED? The prediction showed that the circulation collapses 300 years after the carbon dioxide concentration doubles. The high levels in carbon dioxide would cause Arctic and Greenland ice melt, increasing the amount of freshwater run-off into the ocean. This increase in freshwater would dirupt the AMOC, which relies on a balance between fresh and salt water. In 300 years, the current could stop altogether, with catastrophic consequences. The northern Atlantic Ocean would dramatically cool, spreading Arctic sea ice. North Atlantic Ocean surface temperatures would drop 2.4 C (4.3 F) and surface air temperatures over northwest Europe could drop by as much as 7 C (12.6 F). Advertisement 'Our study has enormous implications for regional and global climate change.' To make their prediction, the researchers used doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration as a simple climate change scenario, and relaxed the assumption of AMOC stability. The prediction showed that the circulation collapses 300 years after the carbon dioxide concentration doubles. The high levels in carbon dioxide would cause Arctic and Greenland ice melt, increasing the amount of freshwater run-off into the ocean. This increase in freshwater would dirupt the AMOC, which relies on a balance between fresh and salt water. And in 300 years, the current could stop altogether, with catastrophic consequences. The northern Atlantic Ocean would dramatically cool, spreading Arctic sea ice. North Atlantic Ocean surface temperatures would drop 2.4 C (4.3 F) and surface air temperatures over northwest Europe could drop by as much as 7 C (12.6 F). Zhengyu Liu, co-author of the study, said: 'It's a very provocative idea. 'For me, it's a 180-degree turn because I had been thinking like everyone else.' While we're used to seeing laser weapons in the Star Wars films, the futuristic technology could soon be a reality for the UK military. The UK Ministry of Defence has awarded a 30 million ($37 million) contract to create a laser weapon which can track targets at distances and operate in varied weather conditions. If the prototype is successful, the UK's first laser weapons could come into service by the mid-2020s. Scroll down for video In a bid to keep the military at the forefront of new technology, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has awarded a huge 30 million ($37 million) contract to create a prototype laser weapon WHAT COULD A LASER BE USED FOR? While the MoD has not specificed whether the laser could be used for any specific threats, director energy weapons could have a range of used. This includes: - Destroying threatening drones - Shooting down incoming air-to-air missiles - Hitting targets on the ground much like regular aircraft gun Advertisement The MoD has partnered with Dragonfire, a UK industrial team to create the laser weapon. The aim of the project is to test whether directed energy technology could be used by the armed forces. In 2019, a demonstration of the prototype will be unveiled on both land and maritime environments. Dave Armstrong, UK Managing Director of MBDA, which owns Dragonfire, said: 'UK Dragonfire will put the UK at the forefront of high energy laser systems, capitalising on the experience of joint MoD/Industry working in the complex weapons environment. While the MoD has not specificed whether the laser could be used for any specific threats, direct energy weapons could have a range of uses, including shooting down drones (photo illustration pictured) 'Furthermore it advances the UK towards a future product with significant export potential, as well as providing opportunities for partnerships with other nations' armed forces that have similar requirements.' While the MoD has not specificed whether the laser could be used for any specific threats, direct energy weapons could have a range of uses. This includes destroying drones, shooting down incoming air-to-air missiles, or hitting targets on the ground much like regular aircraft gun. Last year, the US army revealed that it is planning to deploy the first laser weapons in 2023. The device could resemble something from one of the Star Wars films. Pictured is a laser battle scene from the 2002 film, Star Wars Episode II Attack of the Clones Mary Miller, deputy assistant secretary of the Army for Research and Technology, told the House Armed Services Committee's Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities 'I believe we're very close,' when asked how close the Army is to developing offensive and defensive directed-energy weapons. She said the programmes would be extensively tested as the Army wants to understand the lasers' full capabilities 'before we offer it to a Soldier.' If the UK's prototype is successful in its 2019 demonstration, the MoD could have laser weapons in use around the same time as the US military. At the centre of most galaxies is a supermassive black hole, incredibly dense areas with masses that can be billions of times that of the sun. These are the glue that holds galaxies together with their intense gravity, but the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way is pulling apart stars that venture too near to it and flinging them out into space. These stars could be turned into rogue, planet-like objects - and hundreds of thousands of these could be zooming around our galaxy, according to new research. At the centre of most galaxies is a supermassive black hole, incredibly dense areas with masses that can be billions of times that of the sun. The supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way (pictured) is pulling apart stars that venture too near to it SPAGHETTIFIED STARS Roughly once every 10,000 years, the paper says, a star passes close enough to the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way to be pulled apart by the giant object's tidal forces. The star is then 'spaghettified' into a long stream of mass. Half of this mass is sucked in by the black hole's gravity, while the other half escapes. Under its own gravity, the remaining mass clumps together into rogue, planet-like objects. The objects are accelerated to extremely high speeds by the black hole. Some, around 95 per cent, are fast enough to escape. But according to the groups simulations, some of these remain in our galaxy, and could come within a few hundred parsecs, or 300 light years, of our solar system. Advertisement A group of astronomers and mathematicians at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics modelled what happens to stars that venture too close to the black hole Sagittarius A* or Sgr A*. In a meeting at the American Astronomical Society's annual meeting in Texas, undergraduate student Eden Girma presented the team's findings. Roughly once every 10,000 years, the paper says, a star passes close enough to the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way to be pulled apart by the giant object's tidal forces. The star is then 'spaghettified' into a long stream of mass. Half of this mass is sucked in by the black hole's gravity, while the other half escapes. Under its own gravity, the remaining mass clumps together into rogue, planet-like objects. 'This residual self-gravity allows for planetary-mass fragments to form along the stream that are then shot out into the galaxy at velocities determined by a spread of binding energies,' the paper says. The objects are accelerated to extremely high speeds by the black hole. Some, around 95 per cent, are fast enough to escape. But according to the groups simulations, some of these remain in our galaxy, and could come within a few hundred parsecs, or 300 light years, of our solar system. 'Our galaxy could be populated by hundreds of millions of these cold fragments that are the direct remnants of stars,' Girma said at the meeting, National Geographic reports. Roughly once every 10,000 years, a star passes close enough to the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way to be pulled apart by the giant object's tidal forces. The star is then 'spaghettified' into a long stream of mass (artist's impression pictured) In order to reach this conclusion, the scientists simulated 50 star-shredding encounters. 'We develop a Monte Carlo code in Python that models and plots the evolving position of these fragments for a variety of initial conditions that are likely realized in nature,' the authors wrote in the paper. In their simulations, 11,473 bodies grew out of the remnants - all more massive than Neptune. These gassy balls were accelerated to speeds exceeding 20 million miles an hour (32 million km/h) by the black hole. 'We find that the while the most unbound fragments seem to escape the galaxy entirely, there could potentially be fragments travelling within a few hundred parsecs of our solar system,' the authors said. To detect these objects would be difficult since, without a star to orbit, the gassy balls would become cold and impossible to see, unless using infrared. Researchers still don't know exactly why the spider builds this unique structure Video of a spider hatching from the web has been captured for the first time During an expedition to Peru, a photographer realised it was a spider's web Dubbed 'silkhenge', the picket fence structure was first discovered in 2013 Video has been captured of baby spiders emerging from mysterious 'silkhenge' structures for the first time. The strange white picket-fence structures were discovered in the Peruvian Amazon in June 2013. Their origin had remained a mystery until a photographer spotted a baby spider hatching from one of the Stoneheng-like structures almost six months later. Video has been captured of baby spiders emerging from mysterious 'silkhenge' structures (pictured) for the first time. The strange white picket-fence structures were first discovered in the Peruvian Amazon in June 2013 MYSTERY OF THE PICKET FENCE The first of the structures was spotted in June 2013, by Troy Alexander, a graduate student at Georgia Tech. H e discovered the bizarre formation on the bottom of some blue tarpaulin close to the Tambopata Research Center, in southeastern Peru. The discovery of the spider itself was made by wildlife photographer Jeff Cremer during an expedition to Peru. Mr Cremer found that the spider species makes a central tower on a tree trunk and forms a circular fence around the outside. At the base of the tower, the spider lays its eggs. Mr Cremer and his team said they only realised this when one of the spiders hatched and appeared from the bottom. Advertisement And the first video captured of this arachnid hatching may provide vital clues to the spider's species, and why it builds silkhenges. The structures consist of a fence-like circle around a central tower, which is where the baby spiders hatch from. The spiders that build these elaborate structures still remain unidentified three and a half years after they were first discovered. And no one has ever seen one of the mystery spiders build one of their web towers. 'The video gives us more puzzle pieces to overall solving this thing,' tropical biologist Phil Torres, one of the first people to observe the structures at the Tambopata Research Center in the Peruvian Amazon, told National Geographic. 'This was just such a rare glimpse at these Silkhenges.' Since silkhenges were first discovered, scientists have found the web structures in Peru, French Guiana, and Ecuador. But most have been seen near Tambopata. The white picket fence structures, left, are the work of a tiny spider, right, that builds it webs on trails lined by cecropia trees in Tambopata National Reserve in Peru Since silkhenges were first discovered, scientists have found the web structures in Peru, French Guiana, and Ecuador, but most have been seen near Tambopata in southeastern Peru, where they were first discovered in 2013 The structures' origin had remained a mystery until a photographer spotted a baby spider hatching from one almost six months later. Pictured here is a baby spider as it emerges from one of the silkhenge's central towers The first video captured of this arachnid hatching may provide vital clues to the spider's species, and why it builds the 'silkhenge' towers The structures consist of a fence-like circle around a central tower, which is where the baby spiders hatch from. The spiders that build these elaborate structures still remain unidentified three and a half years after they were first discovered Researchers had no idea what was making the unique webs until a tiny orange spider hatched from an egg next to them in late 2013. This discovery was made by wildlife photographer Jeff Cremer during an eight-day-long expedition to the reserve. At the base of the tower, the spider lays its eggs. Mr Cremer and his team said they only realised this was the case when one of the spiders hatched and appeared from the bottom. The structures themselves were first spotted in June by Troy Alexander, a graduate student at Georgia Tech. Mr Alexander discovered the bizarre formation on the bottom of some blue tarpaulin close to the Tambopata Research Center. He then found three more of the enclosures on tree trunks in the jungle, telling Wired.com that the fences measured around two centimeters across. The first of the structures was spotted in June 2013 by Troy Alexander, a graduate student at Georgia Tech. He discovered the bizarre formation on the bottom of blue tarpaulin close to the Tambopata Research Center, in southeastern Peru Since silkhenges were first discovered, scientists have found the web structures in Peru, French Guiana, and Ecuador. In this image, we see a birds-eye-view of a baby spider hatching from one of the silkhenges During a 2013 expedition to Peru, wildlife photographer Jeff Cremer discovered that the spider species, pictured, makes a central tower on a tree trunk and forms a circular fence around the outside. At the base of the tower, the spider lays its eggs To discover what the structures were, or which creature had made them, Mr Alexander posted pictures on various websites asking for any detail that could explain their origin. Mr Torres, originally from Tambopata, then attempted to help Mr Alexander by posting a link on Twitter to the pictures, equally baffled as to their origin. Mr Cremer, now 38, is from Pueblo in Colorado, but had lived in Peru for nearly eight years. He said at the time: 'We were there on a scientific expedition to find out what was making these strange web structures. 'This was the first expedition to find out what they were. 'We were able to find out what was making the web structures when some of the eggs inside the towers hatched and a tiny spider came out.' As well as trying to determine the species, researchers still hope to discover why the spiders build the structures, and what they are used for. To discover what the structures were, or which creature had made them, Mr Alexander posted photos, pictured, on various websites asking for any detail that could explain their origin. Many scientists and experts said they had no idea how the structures had been made 'We think the walls may be used to capture tiny mites that we found,' Mr Cremer said at the time. 'Either that or it may be to provide protection from ants with a barrier to keep them away from the tower structure where the eggs are kept. 'The web structure could also be used as camouflage since it resembles fungus and lichen. 'What we do know now is the base of the tower contains spider eggs. 1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war. 2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war. 3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament of the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength. 4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war. 5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites. 6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination. 7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N. 8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N. 9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress. 10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N. 11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.) 12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party. 13. Do away with all loyalty oaths. 14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office. 15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States. 16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights. 17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks. 18. Gain control of all student newspapers. 19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack. 20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions. 21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures. 22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms." 23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art." 24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press. 25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV. 26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy." 27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch." 28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state." 29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis. 30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man." 31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over. 32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc. 33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus. 34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities. 35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI. 36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions. 37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business. 38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand. 39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals. 40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce. 41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents. 42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems. 43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government. 44. Internationalize the Panama Canal. 45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike. Razer announced that it will be releasing a three-screen laptop optimized for immersive gaming. The laptop's three 17-inch screens slide out from the side of the laptop and can be locked into place to give a 180-degree field of view. The new laptop was announced today at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas where other ground-breaking devices have been showcased such as levitating speakers, credit-card sized portable chargers and even a 'wallpaper' thin TV screen. Scroll down for video The laptop's three 17-inch screens slide out from the side and can be locked into place to place to give a 180-degree field of view THE VALERIE THREE-SCREEN LAPTOP: SPECS Three 17-inch screens that slide out from the side of the laptop. Immersive gaming with a 180-degree field of view. 11520x2160 total resolution. 4K IGZO display which consumes less power. Nvidia's G-Sync monitor technology so images move smoothly. Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card with 8GB of video RAM and 32GB of system RAM. VR-ready and exceeds the specs required for both the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive. Cooling vapor-chamber. 10-12 lbs and 1.5 inches thick. Advertisement The Valerie laptop weighs between 10 and 12 pounds and is 1.5 inches thick, with each of the screens measuring 17.3 inches with 4K resolution making for a 12K total of viewing space (11520x2160 resolution). It uses Razer's short-throw keyboard which requires little effort to type and means the keyboard experiences less wear and tear. It's VR-ready and exceeds the specs required for both Oculus Rift or HTC Vive, making the laptop a dream for VR gamers. It has an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card with 8GB of video RAM and 32GB of system RAM. It also uses an IGZO display which consumes less power and has Nvidia G-Sync monitor technology so images move smoothly. The laptop is kept cool with a cooling vapor-chamber that was designed for Razer's Blade Pro laptop. The laptop is kept cool with a cooling vapor-chamber that was designed for Razer's Blade Pro laptop The chamber contains coolant fluid which reaches a boiling point and then vaporises. The vaporisation carries the heat away from the laptop and is helped by internal fans that take the hot air away from the laptop. The laptop hasn't been priced as yet, but Razer's Blade Pro laptop which has similar specs is priced at $3,699, so tech specialists have estimated that it will retail at around $6,000. The Valerie laptop weighs between 10 and 12 pounds and is 1.5 inches thick, with each of the screens measuring 17.3 inches with 4K resolution making for a 12K total of viewing space (11520x2160 resolution) The Valerie isn't the only mind blowing laptop that's been announced by CES. Yesterday, Acer's $9000 Predator 21 X was announced at the Las Vegas show. It's the first ever laptop with a curved screen and it includes some impressive specs such as a touchpad that can be flipped over for a numeric keyboard, four speakers and two subwoofers, and space for up to five storage drives at a time. The laptop has rough black edges with silver accents and has a large 21-inch display. While the Predator 21 X may be attractive to gamers, prospective buyers will have to carry around 19.4 pounds around with them if they want to transport it. Advertisement A stunning series of maps reveal how America and Europe look just before sunset. Created by Robbie Bishop-Taylor, a PhD student in geospacial science in Australia, the Shadow Lands project depicts famous hills and mountain ranges shrouded in shadows on a summer solstice. Bishop used simulated sunlight to model shadows for each point on the map and gathered elevation data from NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, which contains data on the height of every 30x30m piece of land across the entire planet. Scroll down for video A stunning series of maps illustrate how America (pictured) and Europe look just before sunset. Created by Robbie Bishop-Taylor, a PhD student in geospacial science in Australia, this Shadow Lands project depicts famous hills and mountain ranges shrouded in shadows on a summer solstice MAKING THE MAPS Shadow Lands was created using a hill shading algorithm in a Geographic Information System software called ArcGIS. This program is specifically designed to manipulate and map out incredibly large geographic datasets. Robbie Bishop-Taylor used simulated sunlight to model shadows for each point on the map. He also gathered elevation data from NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, which contains data on the height of every 30x30m piece of land across the entire planet. Finally, Bishop added simulated sunlight, using a sun angle just 1.5 degrees above the horizon to cast long shadows. Advertisement The detailed maps were created using a hill shading algorithm in a Geographic Information System software called ArcGIS. This program is specifically designed to manipulate and map out incredibly large geographic datasets. The total size of the elevation datasets I used to model the shadows (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) is over 12.3 terabytes, Bishop, who attends the University of New South Wales, Australia, told DailyMail.com in an email. Essentially, the idea for the maps came out of a desire to showcase the structure and shape of the earth's natural landscapes in a beautiful, minimalist way. The maps use simulated sunlight to model shadows for each point on the map, using a very low sun altitude (1.5 degrees above the horizon) to make even the smallest topographic features (i.e. hills, river channels) cast dark shadows. The data gathered from NASA to create 'Shadow Lands' is generally used by experts to construct elevation maps or calculate related datasets like slope, aspect and flow accumulation. The idea of mapping the landscape using only sunset shadows came to me as a way to focus purely on the natural shape, structure and texture of the landscape, and make an incredibly minimalist map without any additional distractions, Bishop explains. My hope is by showing the familiar features of the planet - hills, mountains, rivers - from a new, more unfamiliar perspective, my maps can help introduce others to the incredibly beauty of geography that might otherwise go unseen. In the map of the US, Bishop shares an up-close look at some familiar landscapes but in a way that has not ever been seen before my most people. The detailed maps were created using a hill shading algorithm in a Geographic Information System software called ArcGIS. A map shows the intricate workings of the Great Basin (pictured), the largest area of contiguous endorheic watershed in all of North America it is about 209,162 square miles in area The data gathered from NASA to create 'Shadow Lands' is generally used by experts to construct elevation maps or calculate related datasets like slope, aspect and flow accumulation. Another map depicts the Southern Appalachian Mountains (pictured) that stretch more than 1,500 miles miles from Canada to central Alabama A map shows the intricate workings of the Great Basin, the largest area of contiguous endorheic watershed in all of North America it is about 209,162 square miles in area. The Great Basin overlaps four deserts areas of the Mojave and Colorado Deserts to the south and the cold Great Basin and Oregon High deserts to the north. And this area confined by the Wasatch Mountains to the east, the Sierra Nevada to the west and the Snake River Plain to the north. Another map of the majestic US depicts the Southern Appalachian Mountains, which blankets the western third of North Carolina, part of a chain of ancient peaks and valleys stretching more than 1,500 miles from Canada to central Alabama. And dark shadows can be seen coating the peaks of Cascade Range and the Rocky Mountains. Dark shadows can be seen coating the peaks of Cascade Range and the Rocky Mountains (pictured). The Cascade Range travels northward extending more than 700 miles. And the Rocky Mountain Range, known as the cordilleran backbone of the great upland system that dominates the western North American continent Some of the shadows over the US arent as dark as others, which is because some areas arent as elevated like the Great Plains (pictured). This area of the map, all though lighter, shows great detail of the famous Missouri River and its veins piercing through the plains The Cascade Range travels northward extending more than 700 miles from northern California up into Oregon, Washington and the southern area of British Columbia, Canada. And the Rocky Mountain Range, known as the cordilleran backbone of the great upland system that dominates the western North American continent, according to Britannica. This mountain range extends some 3,000 miles and in some places is more than 300 miles wide. It stretches from northern Alberta and British Columbia southward to New Mexico. Some of the shadows over the US arent as dark as others, which is because some areas arent as elevated like the Great Plains. This area of the map, all though lighter, shows great detail of the famous Missouri River and its veins piercing through the plains. Deep in the southwest region of the US lies the Edwards Plateau (pictured), which is an elevated region that was formed 100 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period. The western area of this landmark is a flat, elevated in the west and deeply erode in the east, which is known as the Hill Country The Great Plains is more than 3,000 miles long and in some parts, is about 700 miles wide. It sits between the Rio Grande in the south, the delta of the Mackenzie River at the Arctic Ocean in the north and between the Interior Lowland and the Canadian Shield on the east and the Rocky Mountains on the west, explains Britannica. Deep in the southwest region of the US lies the Edwards Plateau, which is an elevated region that was formed 100 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period. The western area of this landmark is a flat, elevated in the west and deeply erode in the east, which is known as the Hill Country. And finally in the maps for the US is Alaskas Brooks Range. Bishop was able to capture the shadows of the cascading mountains that stretch some 700 miles across northern Alaska into Canadas Yukon Territory. In the Europe collection, there are maps showing a range of landmarks from the Alps to Mount Etna in Sicily to the Carpathian Mountains and Great Hungarian Plain. And finally in the maps for the US is Alaskas Brooks Range (pictured). Bishop was able to capture the shadows of the cascading mountains that stretch some 700 miles across northern Alaska into Canadas Yukon Territory One of the maps highlights every mountain range in Iceland, which is filled with a range of rock sculptures and lava formations cascading across the land. The highest mountain in Iceland is Hvannadalshnjukur on top of Vatnajokull glacier - it sits in the southeast corner of the country. And in the south, lies the most internationally famous mountain range in the country the Eyjafjallajokull. Situated between Spain and France is a dark strip where the Pyrenees, creating natural border between the two countries. In the Europe collection (pictured), there are maps showing a range of landmarks from the Alps to Mount Etna in Sicily to the Carpathian Mountains and Great Hungarian Plain One of the maps highlights every mountain range in Iceland (pictured), which is filled with a range of rock sculptures, lava formations and mountains cascading across the green land. The highest mountain in Iceland is Hvannadalshnjukur on top of Vatnajokull glacier - it sits in the southeast corner of the country This mountain range extends some 270 miles from the Bay of Biscay to the Mediterranean Sea and the Pico de Aneto mountain is deemed the highest point at 11,168 ft. The map of Europe shows the great detail of the rigid Scandinavia Mountains that stretch between Norway and Sweden. Although the mountains are not very high, they are very steep in some places. Galdhpiggen in southern Norway is the highest peak at 8,100 feet, Kebnekaise has the highest peak on the Swedish side, 6,903 feet, and Halti is the in Finland 4,344 feet. Situated between Spain and France is a dark strip where the Pyrenees sit (left). Similar to the Great Plains in the US, the Greek Islands (right) have some dark and some light shadows. This chain of islands consists of Mykonos, Santorini, Crete, Skiathos, Rhodes, Kefalonia, Zakynthos The map of Europe shows the great detail of the rigid Scandinavia Mountains (left) that stretch between Norway and Sweden. Although the mountains are not very high, they are very steep in some places. Travel just just a litte west of Greece and you will reach Mount Etna (right) in Sicily Similar to the Great Plains in the US, the Greek Islands have some dark and some light shadows. This chain of islands consists of Mykonos, Santorini, Crete, Skiathos, Rhodes, Kefalonia, Zakynthos. On Rhodes the Attavyros Mountains stand 3,990 feet high. Travel just a little to the west in the map and you will reach Mount Etna in Sicily. The Carpathian Mountains and Great Hungarian Plain (pictured) on the map can also be made out very clearly. Dark shadows of the Carpathian Mountains form an arc around the lighter Great Hungarian Plain, showing off its depth and detail The shadows are so defined that it is possible to see the peaks of this mountain range and the shadows stretching out on the flatter areas surround the natural structure. This area is also a 10,922 feet tall volcano that erupted in May, filling the area with lava bombs and giant ash clouds. The Carpathian Mountains and Great Hungarian Plain on the map can also be made out very clearly. Dark shadows of the Carpathian Mountains form an arc around the lighter Great Hungarian Plain, showing off its depth and detail. Back in the northern area of the map lies the Scottish Highlands (pictured), which is covered in various mountain ranges include the highest mountain in the British Isles, Ben Nevis The Alps and Po Valley (pictured) area shows off its flat surfaces on one side and its ridged mountains curving around on the other - both stretch across Italy Back in the northern area of the map lies the Scottish Highlands, which is covered in various mountain ranges include the highest mountain in the British Isles, Ben Nevis. The Alps and Po Valley area reveals its flat surfaces on one side and its ridged mountains curving around on the other - both stretch across Italy. And the last section of the map bishop highlights is the Transylvanian Alps, Romanian Plain and Balkan Mountains The average elevation in the Transylvanian Alps is 4,9205,740 feet and the Balkan Mountains are 7,795 feet at its peak - both ranges arc along the Romanian Plains. Bishop is selling prints of the series in his Etsy store. Advertisement Amazing new pictures show the world's ultimate loo with a view, a precarious privy perched on a Russian cliff edge. At an altitude of 8,530 feet in the Altai Mountains, this commode in the cold is the only toilet for Siberia's highest - and bleakest - weather station. For the four meteorologists who staff this lonely outpost, getting caught short in the night can mean a walk in temperatures minus 50C to relieve themselves. At an altitude of 8,530 feet in the Altai Mountains, this commode in the cold is the only toilet for Siberia's highest - and bleakest - weather station Previously voted the most extreme loo in the world, photographer Natalia Nesterenko, who recently visited the Kara-Tyurek meteorological station, said: 'The toilet is outdoors and when you enter it, you lose your breath because it is set on the edge of the cliff.' 'It takes years for users to sit comfortably on this perilous potty,' reported The Siberian Times. Yet the mountaintop weather station - originally set up by Stalin in 1939 - performs vital functions in reporting on meteorological conditions used to assist pilots flying across the Siberian land mass between Europe and the Far East. The location is so remote and inaccessible that the only way of delivering supplies is by helicopter. The freezing location is so remote and inaccessible that the only way of delivering supplies is by helicopter, pictured Photographer Natalia Nesterenko, who recently visited the Kara-Tyurek meteorological station, said: 'The toilet is outdoors and when you enter it, you lose your breath because it is set on the edge of the cliff' For the four meteorologists who staff this lonely outpost, getting caught short in the night can mean a walk in temperatures of minus 50C to relieve themselves Ten flights are made each autumn to replenish food and other essentials, and even firewood has to be flown in to this barren spot. 'The station is elevated, there is a steep cliff on one side of the station, and a precipitous descent on the other,' said Natalia. 'Life at the station is nearly totally isolated from people.' To get water to drink and wash with, the scientists in winter collect snow in barrels and take it indoors to melt. In summer, they collect rainwater that pours off the station's roof. In summer, an occasional intrepid hiker will visit, but the nearest village of any size is 60 miles away, and the regional capital Gorno-Altaisk is some 500 miles distant. Moscow lies 2,039 miles to the west. One reporter has remarked of the loo, which has been voted the world's most extreme: 'It takes years for users to sit comfortably on this perilous potty' The mountaintop weather station, pictured - originally set up by Stalin in 1939 - performs vital functions in reporting on meteorological conditions used to assist pilots Ten flights are made each autumn to replenish food and other essentials, and even firewood has to be flown in to this barren spot Advertisement One of Australia's most iconic movie homes will be saved from being bulldozed. The Kerrigan home, for the classic 1997 Australian film The Castle starring Michael Caton, will be shipped off to in the country town of Corowa on the boarder of New South Wales and Victoria, where it will become a tourist attraction. The current owner of the Dragonet Street property in Strathmore, Victoria, Vicki Cosentino originally planned to have the home torn down so she could build two townhouses right beside the Essendon Aiport, SMH reported. Scroll down for video The home from the 1997 Australian film, 'The Castle' will be transported from its current location beside Essendon Airport in Strathmore Airport to Corowa, a country town on the boarder of New South Wales and Victoria The Strathmore home will be transported to a Whisky and Chocolate factory in Corowa where it will become a tourist attraction But after making a deal with Corowa's Federation Council the home will be shipped off to the Whisky and Chocolate factory where it could become a museum, comedy club, or a bed and breakfast. Michael Eden, the administrator of the council said the move, which could cost up to $20,000, would not happen for a few months until the current tenants move out. 'Anyone who wants a wedding or to spend their first night in house, well, they'll have to wait to spring,' Mr Eden said. 'It's going to bring money back into the community,' he added. The film told the story of Aussie battler Darryl Kerrigan and his fight against the government and the airport authorities from acquiring his modest home 'This is going straight to the pool room!' The home's sun room played the part of Darryl's pool room Film buffs first had the opportunity to live part of the Keerigan dream when Ms Cosentino rented out the home for the first time in June 2016 for $380 a week. After the tenants illegally trashed the property in the same year, causing $14,000 worth of damages, she then planned to have the property bulldozed so she could build two townhouses. 'I paid $94,000 for that house 23 years ago, but this house has cost me over $100,000 to fix so far, and instead of making money, I'm going downhill,' she told Domain.com.au. At the end of 2016, the current homeowner Ms Cosentino planned to have the property bulldozed so she could build two townhouses After making a deal with Corowa's Federation Council, Ms Cosentino agreed to have the home removed from her land and transported to the country town Michael Eden, the administrator of the council said the move would cost about $20,000 and would bring back money into the country town The cult classic tells the story of Aussie battler Darryl Kerrigan, played by Michael Caton, and his family's fight to keep their home from being acquired by the Government and next door airport. She's the newly single Bachelor star, presumably having parted ways with long-term boyfriend, television personality and blogger Tyson Mayr. But Tyson appears to be the furthest from Lisa Hyde's mind, having recently partied with ladies man Scott Eastwood, on board a Sydney yacht last Friday. Following her day out with the Hollywood hunk, the slender brunette took to Instagram to share a series of images, flaunting her taut torso and trim pins in a skimpy black bikini. Scroll down for video Showing Scott what he's missing? Newly single Bachelor star Lisa Hyde (R), took to Instagram on Wednesday, sharing a series of bikini-clad snaps with fellow reality star Lisa Clark (L), after having partied with ladies' man Eastwood, 30, on board a Sydney yacht last Friday 'When the sun comes out we bake,' Lisa captioned one image, that saw her sporting a skimpy black bikini at hotspot Bondi Icebergs, with fellow socialite Lisa Clark. The image shared with the personality's 141,000 Instagram followers saw Lisa highlighting her lithe arms, trim torso, and lean legs in the beach attire. Her long dark locks were swept predominately over one shoulder, while a pair of dark sunglasses concealed her face. Fellow reality star Lisa Clark also sported a black bikini, that flashed a glimpse of cleavage and showed off her trim tummy. Bikini babes: Both Lisa's were seen working on their tans at hotspot Bondi Icebergs, while presenting their best angles for the camera Other clips shared to the star's Instagram story saw the pair working on their tans, while being sure to present their best angles for the camera. Another moment captured to the social media site, saw both Lisa's sitting down on a platform overlooking the ocean, while clutching a beverage. Lisa Hyde gazed off into the distance, offering the camera a good look at her side profile. While another clip captioned 'chillin like a villain' saw the beauty looking carefree and relaxed. Beach life: Lisa shared a clip to her Instagram story that saw her looking carefree and relaxed The posts come just days after Lisa took a cruise on the Sydney harbour, with buff star Scott Eastwood. The son of Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood and the reality TV star enjoyed a friendly conversation aboard the expensive yacht. Scott appeared to hang off her every word as he looked at the newly single beauty intently. Hollywood encounter: The posts come just days after Lisa took a cruise on the Sydney harbour, with buff star Scott Eastwood Party vibes: The former reality star was also joined by several other guests Yacht life: Lisa was spotted laughing while drinking from what appeared to be a glass of champagne Lisa, who was dressed in a flowing white shirt worn over a crop top and shorts, was also joined by several other female guests. She was spotted laughing while drinking from what appeared to be a glass of champagne. Lisa is understood to have recently split from her long-term boyfriend, TV personality and travel blogger, Tyson Mayr. While the pair are yet to officially speak about the split, it's understood it was Tyson who ended things with Lisa, following their trip to Italy in September. Scott travelled Down Under to film scenes for Pacific Rim: Maelstrom. He returned to Sydney after spending Christmas in Los Angeles. Excitable TV presenter Claudia Winkleman has discovered that when it comes to her hair, it really is a case of if it aint broke, dont fix it. The 44-year-old Strictly Come Dancing co-host, who is as famed for her fringe as her panda-eye make-up, shared this old photo of herself on social media, in which she models the very same hairstyle she still has today. The young schoolgirl is holding a copy of the now-defunct Whizzer And Chips comic. Ive always loved my fringe, she tells me. Its something I hide behind, it protects me from the world. TV presenter Claudia Winkleman has discovered that when it comes to her hair, it really is a case of if it aint broke, dont fix it She posted this photograph of her as a child on social media, which shows she has the same haircut A car owned by the late Sunday Times restaurant critic A. A. Gill is being sold for 12,995. Low mileage, service history, famous owner, reads the Derby Car Centre blurb. As befits a man of such fastidious taste, the 1996 Bentley Turbo R comes with all the trimmings. These include dark blue Wilton carpets bound in magnolia hide covered in lambswool rugs. Remember me, Harry? Chelsy's new glam look Chelsy Davy is now a jewellery designer after ditching her career as a City lawyer As Prince Harrys relationship with U.S. actress Meghan Markle goes from strength to strength, his ex Chelsy Davy clearly does not want to be forgotten. The 31-year-old Zimbabwean, whose on-off five-year romance with Harry ended in 2009, has posted this glamorous photo of herself on social media. Flashing a wide smile and showing off her blonde bob, Chelsy, who is a jewellery designer after ditching her career as a City lawyer, was inundated with compliments from pals. They included another former flame, Baroness Jowells son Matthew Mills, who is now the husband of health food blogger Ella Woodward. Surely with a smile like that, it wont be long before she finds a keeper. Benedict Cumberbatch curiously likes to imagine his female fans fantasising about him eating topless. The Sherlock heart-throb says: I dont look in the mirror and go; Yeah, I see what they [the fans] are saying! I see all my faults. But Im glad Im bringing a ray of sunshine to an otherwise dull day, being imagined eating fritters, shirtless. Mine is a weird face a cross between an otter and something people find vaguely attractive. Actor Benedict Cumberbatch said he has a 'weird face. A cross between an otter and something people find vaguely attractive' Disgraced Duke's wife lashes out In less than three weeks time, Alex Montagu, 13th Duke of Manchester currently sporting an ankle bracelet as a condition of house arrest in his adopted city of Las Vegas will be sentenced for attempted burglary. So it might be presumed that his wife would welcome their impending divorce, which the 54-year-old Duke fashionably announced via Facebook. On the contrary, however, the Duchess an American known as Laura Smith until becoming the Dukes third wife in 2007 appears to be struggling to come to terms with her imminent diminished status. She has also taken to Facebook to use its messaging service to attack not the Duke but 17-year-old Lady Ashley Montagu, the Dukes daughter by his second wife, Wendy. You look just like your mother a dark ugly girl, says Laura, before making a libellous and entirely false accusation against Wendy: Your mother is under investigation for hireing [sic] someone to kill your father you can verify this with the LV [Las Vegas] police. Very sensibly, Lady Ashley, aware that her mother is not under investigation anywhere in the U.S. or any other country, has replied: Youre so childish. Goodbye. Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards showed an unusually caring side when playing the trigger-happy father of Johnny Depps Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates Of The Caribbean 3, recalls his co-star, comedian Omid Djalili. He (Keith) shoots and kills my character for no reason, says Djalili. This seemed to bother him. In fact, he shot me about 14 times and after every take, hed come up to me and say: Listen, you do know I dont mean this? After every take. Rod's ex Rachel shares her doggy do Rachel Hunter has similar hair to her friend's Retrodoodle dog - a cross between a Golden Retriever and a miniature poodle Who would have thought that Sir Rod Stewarts glamorous ex-wife Rachel Hunter would have a doggy double? The Kiwi model and television presenter was so excited to discover her physical similarity to her friends Retrodoodle dog a cross between a Golden Retriever and a miniature poodle that she posted this picture online. The 47-year-old, who was married to Sir Rod for 16 years until 2006, and with whom she has two children, Renee and Liam, looked smitten as she posed with Buddy, whose unruly blonde fur matched Rachels own unbrushed mane. Found My Doppelganger Buddy, she captioned it, adding the hashtag hairgoals. Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards showed an unusually caring side when playing the trigger-happy father of Johnny Depps Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates Of The Caribbean 3, recalls his co-star, comedian Omid Djalili. He (Keith) shoots and kills my character for no reason, says Djalili. This seemed to bother him. In fact, he shot me about 14 times and after every take, hed come up to me and say: Listen, you do know I dont mean this? After every take. Dame Judi Dench turned 82 last month, but refuses to slow down. The Oscar-winner is said to have told pals how tiring it was reprising her role as Queen Victoria in the film Victoria And Abdul. Next week, she starts her new film and friends worry about the toll her schedule is taking on the star, who is struggling with failing eyesight. Dame Judi has had to give up driving and lives alone since her daughter, Finty, moved out. A pal says: Like the Queen, Judi will never retire. At 85, Born Free film star and wildlife campaigner Virginia McKenna is lion-heartedly fighting another cause celebre. She was out shopping in the middle of the day. But Irina Shayk, 30, looked like she was ready to slip under the covers as she stepped out in Beverly Hills on Wednesday with a friend. The supermodel, who is rumored to be pregnant with boyfriend Bradley Cooper's child, looked casual in a maroon silk pajama top paired with black and orange striped jogging pants. Bedroom chic? Irina Shayk, 30, looked like she was ready to slip under the covers as she stepped out in a silk pajama shirt in Beverly Hills on Wednesday The gorgeous brunette appeared to show a hint of a tummy under her top, but kept any clear signs of a bump hidden under the loose-fitting clothing. She used the gloomy Los Angeles day for a bit of retail therapy at Barney's New York and was seen carrying a bag out of the store. The Victoria Secret model paired the outfit with black clunky boots and wore large dark sunglasses for the trip. Keeping with her laid back style, she also had her brown hair straight and parted in the middle. Is she pregnant? The gorgeous brunette appeared to show a hint of a bump under her top, but kept any clear signs hidden under the loose fitting clothing Irina and actor Bradley started dating in 2015 following the Hollywood star's breakup from British model Suki Waterhouse. The pregnancy rumors began swirling in December after Irina walked in the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in Paris with an outfit that covered her stomach. She has also been flashing an 'engagement-style' ring on the fourth finger of her left hand, which wasn't visible Wednesday as she kept her ring finger in the pocket of her pants. Keeping it casual: The Victoria Secret model wore large dark sunglasses for the trip and had her brown hair straight and parted down the middle. Bethenny Frankel is suing the attorneys who once represented her and ex-husband Jason Hoppy for at least $2 million,TMZ reports. The 46-year-old reality star, according to the outlet, said that her former legal team significantly botched a property-related agreement over a Manhattan-area condo she plunked down $5 million for back in 2011. Scroll down for video The next step: Bethenny Frankel is suing lawyers who she claims botched a trust she set up with now-ex-husband Jason Hoppy during their marriage; here, the exquisite entrepreneur was seen on a stroll through Manhattan last month Calm before the storm: Bethenny and Hoppy already seemed to be drifting apart in this 2011 shot as they strolled through New York City with daughter Bryn Frankel said she wanted to place to be put in her name only, but Hoppy convinced her to place it in a trust. The major mistake the lawyers made, Frankel said in legal docs, was granting Hoppy half-interest in the property and legal rights to reside there without paying, unbeknownst to her, as she only learned of the ironclad arrangement after the pair had filed for divorce. The mistake led to significantly more resources, in both time and money, devoted to hashing out the issue when the couple's divorce was in the legal system, she said. The two were together from 2010 until separating in 2012, with their divorce being finalized last year. Hoppy lived in the property for years while Frankel footed the bill during their drawn-out divorce. In step: Since Hoppy, Frankel has been linked to a number of high-end suitors, most prominently banking mogul Dennis Shields Moving forward: While Frankel is undoubtedly thrilled to be done with her divorce, her legal battles linked to the messy split persevere on In November, Frankel filed the suit against one-time lawyer Jamie Andrew Schreck, who she said demonstrated malpractice, fraud, notary misconduct and breach of fiduciary duties in overseeing a trust that was notarized by Hoppy's mother Carol, who was ineligible to work as a notary in the state of New York at the time. She has now filed a formal complaint on the summons. The Skinnygirl stunner, who's currently linked to New York banking tycoon Dennis Shields, has a six-year-old daughter with Hoppy named Bryn. She and the businessman recently rang in 2017 with a lush Mexican vacation. Shields himself is in the legal process of getting divorced from estranged wife Jill Schwartzberg, who he wed in 1990. Schwartzberg and Frankel have longtime ties as friends going back to their time as high school classmates. Along with her business empire, she also recently launched B Strong, a crisis initiative program dedicated to helping women get the financial, legal, or mental help they need to be independent and lead successful lives. The program fits under the umbrella of Dress For Success, a charity organization that provides a network of support, professional attire, and the developmental tools to help women thrive in work and in life. Their romance ended on a dramatic episode of Married at First Sight which saw Craig Roach, 41, pack his bags and flee while his new hubby Andy John, 41, was in the shower. But now it appears the fiery couple have mended fences after attending a ritzy party on Sydney Harbour together. In an Instagram snap posted to Andy's account, the marketing manager poses with his arm around a smiling Craig. Scroll down for video Back together again? In an Instagram snap posted to Andy John's account, the marketing manager poses with his arm around a smiling Craig Roach 'The 'husband' bought new hair!' he captioned the image, joking about the hairdresser's suddenly thicker mane. But the quip and friendly photos have lead to speculation that the pair healed their rift. 'OMG are you two are back together??? That's one of the best things I've seen all night!!!' commented one Instagram fan, while another simply asked, 'Back together!?' A second picture, in which Craig posed with Andy and a brunette female friend, is captioned, 'Wife meets husband!' The photos were taken a the luxurious Diner En Blanc party at Cockatoo Island several weeks ago. Friendly: A second picture, in which Craig posed with Andy and a brunette female friend, is captioned, 'Wife meets husband!' It's unclear if the pair have reignited their romance or simply buried old resentments after their disastrous stint on the show. Andy recently posted an picture aboard a plane on en route to a tropical holiday captioned 'seats up front' hinting a mystery person may be travelling with him. However a few weeks prior to meeting up with his 'ex', Andy had dinner with a mystery male igniting speculation from his Instagram followers that the gent could be a new flame. 'Dinner with the boy & his parents... The parents are camera shy!' the marketing director captioned the image, leaving one of his fans to ask, 'New man??' Riding solo? Andy recently posted an picture aboard a plane on en route to a tropical holiday captioned 'seats up front' hinting a mystery person may be travelling with him Who's that boy? A few weeks prior to meeting up with his 'ex', Andy had dinner with a mystery male igniting speculation from his Instagram followers that the gent could be a new flame The show's only same-sex couple's romance burned to the ground just days after they tied the knot in New Zealand for the Nine reality series. Craig, complained that his new husband wasn't interested in him. 'We're on top of the mountain living the dream and he doesn't even want to touch me. He doesn't even want to kiss me,' Craig declared on the show. 'Punished': Amber Heard has accused her ex Johnny Depp of deliberately dragging out their divorce Amber Heard has accused 'mean-spirited' Johnny Depp of punishing her by deliberately delaying their divorce proceedings. The actress claimed in court documents that the Pirates of the Caribbean star is dragging out their court case to get back at her. The 30-year-old Rum Diaries star, who previously accused her much older husband of domestic violence, also begged for a speedy resolution to the matter so she move on. In court documents filed by her attorney Pierce O'Donnell she said: 'Johnny seems to wish to prolong this proceeding as a means of punishing me. 'I want my life back. I want to be divorced from Johnny now.' Her lawyer called for 'the prompt dissolution of marriage' whilst alleging 53-year-old Johnny 'frustrated the final settlement of this matter at every turn through his relentless, mean-spirited campaign against Heard.' Mr O'Donnell added: 'Indeed, if (Depp) were truly interested in settlement (rather than in perpetuating his feud with (Heard) and forcing her to pay attorneys' fees), he would have devoted his efforts to completing the required two forms of settlement, which still lack complete signatures from his attorneys, and would have cooperated in other actions required by the DPM (Deal Point Memorandum), rather than wasting the resources of the Court with this bad faith request.' However it flies in the face of the Edward Scissorhand's own claims that his bisexual wife is seeking more money in their settlement in order to 'extend her fifteen minutes of fame.' Happier times: The couple attending a movie premiere back in 2014 In his own legal documents he said: 'Amber is now courting renewed media attention with this unnecessary Request for Order. 'Her application is not only a blatant attempt to extend her fifteen minutes of fame but also a waste of the Court's limited time and resources and an embarrassing grab for addition and unwarranted attorney's fees.' However his ex said: 'I have been committed to a quick resolution of this matter so that I can be divorced from (Depp).' The divorce had been settled in August, when Johnny agreed to a $7 million settlement, which Amber requested be donated to the American Civil Liberties Union and Children's Hospital Of Los Angeles. 'Mean-spirited': However Johnny has claimed she is 'courting renewed media attention' But last week Amber's legal team filed a Request For Order with the Los Angeles Superior Court in hopes of imposing the settlement and expediting Johnny's payment. They claimed that Johnny had not complied with the court-allocated timeline of various mandates, including the division of personal property, shipping her belongings from his private island in the Bahamas, transferring a Range Rover into Amber's name and more. The couple, who met on the set of movie The Rum Diary in 2011, married on February 2015. She filed for divorce 15 months later, on May 23, amid claims that the Hollywood star had physically abused her. It was also reported Johnny had been jealous and believed his much younger wife had been having affairs behind his back with both men and women. They are expecting a new baby girl by the end of the month. And on Wednesday, Teen Mom 2's Jenelle Evans and boyfriend David Eason were spotted heading to court for a custody hearing with Jenelle's ex boyfriend, Nathan Griffith. The 25-year-old reality star seemed to be in high spirits as she made her way to the North Carolina courthouse to fight for her two-year-old son Kaiser. Scroll down for video Looking confident: Jenelle Evans, 25, seemed confident as she strolled alongside beau David Eason, 28, and made their way to the courthouse on Wednesday Jenelle, who is expecting her third child but first with beau David, looked relaxed as she walked with a light-haired woman who may be the new baby's grandmother. The brunette flaunted her impressive baby bump in a dark gray t-shirt and covered up from the Wilmington chill in a black leather jacket. She happily held onto her ice coffee as her third baby daddy led her through the street. Baby daddy's mama? Jenelle looked relaxed as she walked with a light-haired woman who may be the new baby's grandmother Easy going: She happily held onto her ice coffee as her third baby daddy led her through the street On Monday's premiere of the seventh season of Teen Mom 2, Jenelle was ruled not guilty in her assault case in which charges were pressed by her ex boyfriend Nathan and his then-girlfriend Jessica Henry. It was Jessica's testimony that cleared Evans from any wrongdoing, as the former girlfriend of Evans' child's father alleged that the charges pressed against Evans would assist Nathan in his custody case. Other than two-year-old Kaiser, Jenelle has a seven-year-old son, Jace, with ex Andrew Lewis, whom her mother Barbara holds custody. She celebrated her Sesion Christmas party with husband Jake Wall and friends over the holiday break. And Jennifer Hawkins revealed her flawless frame in a vibrant swimsuit and pair of Daisy Dukes while on board a Sydney yacht in late December. The 33-year-old model and entrepreneur however suffered an unfortunate wardrobe malfunction, as she was seen tugging down on her bikini top. Malfunction: Jennifer Hawkins, 33, revealed her taut torso and trim pins on board a Sydney yacht in late December, but suffered an unfortunate wardrobe malfunction as she tugged down on her bikini top Jennifer revealed her sensational bikini body in the two-piece ensemble, presumably from her own range, Cozi. A neon yellow triangle top was teamed with leopard print briefs and a pair of distressed denim shorts that showed off her enviably lean legs. The former Miss Universe Australia accessorised with a wide-brimmed straw hat, a statement watch, a delicate necklace and bracelet, as well as her sparkling wedding rings from husband Jake Wall, 33. Svelte: Jennifer revealed her flawless frame in a neon swimsuit and pair of distressed Daisy Dukes Stylish: The beauty entrepreneur swept her blonde locks underneath a straw wide-brimmed hat and accessorised with her sparkling wedding bling and delicate jewellery Company: Jennifer was accompanied by a group of friends for the outing, one of which she was seen engaging in friendly conversation with, on the far end of the yacht Sweeping her signature blonde locks underneath the stylish hat, Jennifer appeared to enhance her striking facial features with a flawless complexion, defined brows and lashings of mascara. Jennifer was accompanied by a group of friends for the outing, one of which she was seen engaging in friendly conversation with on the far end of the yacht. Jennifer was celebrating the Sesion Christmas party, a tequila brand she jointly operates with husband Jake. Casual: Jennifer was seen sitting on the yacht's diving board with a group of female and male friends Making a splash: Jennifer enjoyed a dip in the water with two female friends Earlier on the day, the blonde beauty was seen putting on an affectionate display with her husband of three years. She sported a flowing black maxi-dress and accessorised with the same straw wide-brimmed hat. Jake, meanwhile, donned a white button-up shirt, beige shorts and a black cap, accessorised further with a pair of dark sunglasses. Her main man: Earlier on the day, the blonde beauty was seen putting on an affectionate display with her husband of three years, Jake Wall, 33 Cooling down: Jake, who works as a builder, later stripped down to just a pair of black shorts, revealing his muscular upper frame The look of love: Jennifer and Jake were seen gazing at one another in a rather precious moment Bringing in the goods: Jake was seen carrying the couple's own tequila brand on board the luxury yacht This is not the first time Jennifer has suffered an unfortunate wardrobe malfunction. Back in 2004, the star's derriere was unexpectedly exposed during a catwalk show - making headlines across Australia. And while more than a decade on Jennifer Hawkins' life has changed beyond all recognition, the in demand personality opened up about the aftermath of the incident to Elle Australia in September, last year. Exposed: Back in 2004, the star's derriere was unexpectedly exposed during a catwalk show - making headlines across Australia 'That was really emotional,' she revealed to the publication, speaking of the skirt slip that took place while she was walking for Westfield Miranda. The blonde star was modelling a gold embellished top and a blue skirt when she accidentally trod on her dress, ripping the fabric away to reveal her bare bottom in a red G-string. Scurrying from the stage in panic, the Myer ambassador says afterwards she sought comfort from her parents, who helped her 'put things into perspective.' Moments before: The blonde star was modelling a gold embellished top and a blue skirt when she accidentally trod on her dress, ripping the fabric away to reveal her bare bottom in a red G-string 'They showed me that I had these incredible opportunities that I could make the most of and that's when I started to enjoy myself.' Since her humble beginnings, Jennifer has gone on to build an impressive portfolio of businesses including a swimwear line, a tanning range, as well as a property portfolio, plus her ambassador gigs and hosting duties on Australia's Next Top Model. She's been named Best Actress by the National Board Of Review for her role in Arrival. And Amy Adams arrived for the organization's annual Gala on Wednesday in New York City dressed in a black lacy dress by Marchesa. The 42-year-old, who showed off her svelte frame in the fitted frock, posed on the carpet with her husband Darren Le Gallo, 42. Scroll down for video Star power: Amy Adams arrived for the National Board Of Review's Annual Gala on Wednesday in New York City dressed in a black lacy dress by Marchesa The actress' dress featured a lacy top half with a bow on the neckline. The dark hued number had an ankle-length skirt as well as flared sleeves. The Enchanted star complemented the ensemble with black heels and diamond earrings and rings. She chose to style her red tresses with curls and a deep side part, adding glossy red lips and shimmery eye makeup. The 42-year-old, who was named as the Best Actress by the organization for her role in the film Arrival, wowed in the dark hued ensemble Sharing a moment: The actress, who showed off her svelte frame in the fitted frock, posed on the carpet with her husband Darren Le Gallo Now let me kiss you! The actress promptly planted a smooch on her handsome man Darren looked dapper in his dark hued suit, opting to sport a heavy beard. The lovebirds, who have been in a relationship for almost 16 years, shared a sweet moment on the carpet. They started dating in 2001 and finally tied the knot in May 2015; they have a six-year-old daughter named Aviana Olea Le Gallo. Amy stars as a linguist named Louise Banks in Arrival, a science fiction film. Lovely: The dark hued number also had an ankle-length skirt as well as flared sleeves Strike a pose: Darren looked dapper in his dark hued suit, opting to sport a heavy beard Riley Keough arrived for the Gala in a a black and maroon corset-style dress, complete with bow detailing and sheer paneling. The 27-year-old actress, who is the granddaughter of Elvis Presley, sported fringed locks and dark red hued lipstick. Fellow actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, 39, stepped out for the Gala in a pink, green and black patterned look; she added bold crimson lipstick. Casey Affleck sported a heavy beard with a suit and tie for evening event, which was held at Cipriani 42nd Street. The 41-year-old was named Best Actor for his role in Manchester By The Sea; the movie was also announced as the National Board Of Review's 2016 Best Film Of The Year. With an edge: Riley Keough arrived for the Gala in a a black and maroon corset-style dress, complete with bow detailing and sheer paneling Fancy: Fellow actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, 39, stepped out for the Gala in a pink, green and black patterned look; she added bold crimson lipstick Looking good: Casey Affleck sported a heavy beard with a suit and tie for evening event Mark Wahlberg and Peter Berg were honored with the Spotlight Award for their Creative Collaboration. They have worked together on Patriots Day, Lone Survivor and also Deepwater Horizon. Naomie Harris looked incredible in a silver hued halter top tucked into cream trousers. The British-born actress, 40, was named by the organization as Best Supporting Actress for her role in Moonlight. Hidden Figures co-stars Octavia Spencer and Aldis Hodge posed on the carpet together before heading inside. Smiling ear to ear: Mark Wahlberg and Peter Berg were honored with the Spotlight Award for their Creative Collaboration Shimmering in neutrals: Naomie Harris looked incredible in a silver hued halter top tucked into cream trousers Beaming: The 40-year-old was named by the organization as Best Supporting Actress for her role in Moonlight; pictured with the film's screenwriter and director Barry Jenkins Elegant: Hidden Figures co-stars Octavia Spencer and Aldis Hodge posed on the carpet together before heading inside Edie Falco kept it simple in black trousers with a matching blazers and a ruffled pink blouse. Adam Driver, who was on hand to present an award, looked handsome in a tie, blazer and trousers. Matthew Broderick had the same idea when he arrived for the evening gala. Greta Gerwig chose a deep brown hued dress while Quvenzhane Wallis kept it classic in a black frock. Chic outing: Edie Falco kept it simple in black trousers with a matching blazers and a ruffled pink blouse Genetically blessed: Adam Driver, who was on hand to present an award, looked handsome in a tie, blazer and trousers Suit and tie: Matthew Broderick had the same idea when he arrived for the evening gala Stars all around: Greta Gerwig chose a deep brown hued dress while Quvenzhane Wallis kept it classic in a black frock Smiles all around: Amy showed off her award following the Gala Having a blast: The star posed with fellow actor and awardee Casey Affleck Focused: Liam Neeson hit the stage with Adam Driver to present an award In the moment: Martin Scorsese took the mic during the event Glowing: Riley looked chic in her two-tone frock for the annual gala Having a laugh: Kevin Bacon and Mark Wahlberg beamed while on stage Sharp: Jeff Bridges was snapped as he enjoyed a spirited moment on the mic Can't stop smiling! Maggie broke out into a big grin while on stage with Jeff Taking the stage: Quvenzhane Wallis and Greta Gerwig looked lovely as they presented Having a quick chat: Greta was warmly greeted by Lucas Hedges Earlier in the day, Amy stepped out for a luncheon to celebrate National Board Of Review Award winners. For the daytime event, the pretty starlet donned a jewel-toned Antonio Berardi dress that clung to her svelte frame. She posed with director and producer Martin Scorsese and also actress Celia Weston. Beautiful in blue: Earlier in the day, Amy stepped out for a luncheon to celebrate National Board Of Review Award winners Staying close: For the daytime event, the pretty starlet donned a jewel-toned Antonio Berardi dress that clung to her svelte frame; pictured with Martin Scorsese Good times: The red-haired actress also posed for a snap with fellow screen star Celia Weston Martin was on hand to celebrate after his screenplay with Jay Cocks for Silence was honored Three months after declaring she'd never forgive Felicity 'Flick' Egginton for voting her off Survivor, Brooke Jowett appears to have mended fences with her old BFF. The women were close on the island before a feud erupted and an 'awkward' meet up after filming ended didn't go so well at first. 'I think my trust issues have gone through the roof. I would not have been able to do that to her in that kind of brutal way,' Brooke told OK! Magazine in October. Scroll down for video Back on: Three months after declaring she'd never forgive Felicity 'Flick' Egginton for voting her off Survivor, Brooke Jowett appears to have mended fences with her old BFF 'She's really apologetic, but she made the decision and I guess you have to deal with the consequences,' the 23-year-old added. But in recent weeks she's since changed her tune and is now making strides towards rebuilding their relationship. 'We're trying' Flick told OK! magazine this week, adding, 'I truly do love her as a person'. Being stranded in the Samoan wilderness cause tensions between several members of the 2016 cast but since being back on home turf many of those rifts have healed. All aboard: Flick has plans to launch a children's charity with her former cast mates El Rowland and Phoebe Timmins Chilling: Felicity told OK! magazine 'It's all good now' of her strained relationships with her fellow castaways Felicity told the magazine 'It's all good now' of her strained relationships with her fellow castaways. The bartender added, 'I've had a lot of people apologise. (We) don't hold any ill feelings'. Several of the marooned crew have gotten together for social events since filming ended. Hanging out: In November, Nick Iadanza, Sue Clarke, Brooke Jowett, and Jenna-Louise Salkeld reunited in Adelaide to attend co-star Matt Tarrant's engagement party Pals: Several of the marooned crew have gotten together for social events since filming ended In November, Nick Iadanza, Sue Clarke, Brooke Jowett, and Jenna-Louise Salkeld reunited in Adelaide to attend co-star Matt Tarrant's engagement party. Flick, 23, tells OK! that after such an intense experience some of the cast have come to regard one another as family. She has plans to launch a children's charity with her former cast mates El Rowland and Phoebe Timmins. The blonde concluded, 'We're all our own little family and support one another'. Sorted it out: Flick and Brooke were close on the island before a feud erupted NO OFFENCE Rating: ITALY'S INVISIBLE CITIES Rating: There was a time, not so long ago, when a lot of British TV drama was all but unwatchable, buried in a welter of arty concepts and cartoonish characters. The new wave of intelligent, big-budget shows from the States put paid to that. Now series such as Paul Abbotts drug-addled family soap Shameless, which ran from 2004 to 2013, look horribly dated. Shameless celebrated decay and educational failure in Benefits Britain, and it did it with overblown dialogue, with actors spouting second-rate poetry instead of conversation. It was contrived and artificial, apparently designed to mock us rather than entertain. Joanna Scanlan is Inspector Viv Deering for Channel 4's No Offence Abbotts latest show, No Offence (C4), harks back to that style, and consequently feels at least a decade out of date. Its a police serial, but none of the detectives is remotely like any real copper: this bunch of melodramatic show-offs and luvvies could never be mistaken for anyone but actors. Joanna Scanlan is Inspector Viv Deering, a sort of female Ricky Gervais loud, round and desperate to be loved. Instead of treating her like the embarrassment she is, her squad adores her. Even the criminals think shes a saint amid the underworld, the love child of Reggie Kray and Mother Teresa. When the bosses of two Manchester drug gangs, the Nigerians and the Irish, stage a pow-wow to end a feud and carve up the citys most lucrative territories, Viv is there to see fair play and ensure that neither side gains an unfair advantage. In Paul Abbotts twisted imagination, then, its up to the police to decide who sells pills on the corner of Coronation Street. Instead of getting put away for 20 years, as she would be in real life, Viv earns an award from the chief constable. She turns up at the ceremony wearing a red dress and fluffy boots, having changed in the taxi, and makes an impromptu entrance from the back of the room under a handy spotlight, high-fiving and fist-bumping her way past cheering colleagues all the way to the stage. Its a police serial, but none of the detectives is remotely like any real copper, says Christopher Meanwhile, in the interview room, the elderly female owner of the local crematorium has punched her grown-up son to the carpet and is kicking him in the stomach. Shes peeved because he has gambled away the money she gave him to pay the crems gas bill. With the gas cut off, hes been unable to incinerate the bodies and has dumped them in shallow graves instead. But one contained a bomb, which exploded and revealed the makeshift cemetery. Alexander Armstrong is so achingly middle-class, says Christopher When the hyperactive forensics expert (Paul Ritter) arrives, he describes it as a Hieronymus botch job. That pun is too self-conscious even for Sherlock it belongs in a cryptic crossword, not a crime drama. The best that can be said for No Offence is that theres nothing else like it. GIZMO OF THE NIGHT Superspy Ian Fleming popped up on Timeless (C4) in 1944 to help our heroes thwart Hitlers plans for an atomic bomb. This was years before Fleming invented 007 . . . but he had a spring-loaded pistol hidden up his sleeve. So perhaps Q and his gadgets came first. Advertisement That isnt a compliment, more of a fervent prayer of thanks. The world of Alexander Armstrong could not be further removed. Hes so achingly middle-class, the result of generations of breeding solely between Waitrose customers. He was eager to tell us at the outset of Italys Invisible Cities (BBC1) that he honeymooned on the Amalfi Coast. Well, Xander, we didnt think you had a fortnight all-inclusive at a Bulgarian hotel resort. He was exploring the mines and catacombs below Naples with historian Dr Michael Scott, who described their first descent, into a disused quarry, as an amuse-bouche, if you like for their main course of Neapolitan delights. Xander gets claustrophobic and heights make him queasy, so he might seem an odd candidate for potholing in Roman sewers. He stars in the new BBC show Italys Invisible Cities, where he was exploring Naples with Dr Michael Scott But it became clear why he had signed up when he and Dr Michael tucked into a pizza at a street cafe under Vesuvius. They went into ecstasies over the tomato base, from fruit grown on the lava-rich soil on the side of the volcano. Then they sipped the wine and Xander was almost weeping for joy as he described the flavours. They're one of Australia's hottest couples. And Jennifer Hawkins and Jake Wall certainly set temperatures rising as they indulged in a public display of affection on a private yacht in Sydney, last month. The former Miss Universe and her husband of three years could hardly keep their hands off one another during the outing on board the luxury vessel. Scroll down for video Intimate: Model Jennifer Hawkins and husband Jake Wall put on a public display of affection whilst on board a private yacht in Sydney last month The couple, who have been together for over a decade, were celebrating the first anniversary of their tequila brand, Sesion. Boarding the boat, Jen wore a black tank top, that was tied up to revealed her toned tummy. She also wore a long black skirt, with a thigh high split that showed off her long legs. The blond beauty covered up in a straw hat and shielded her eyes with a pair of stylish, circular sunglasses. Caress: Jake couldn't keep his hands off his gorgeous wife as they canoodled on board the luxury vessel Meanwhile, her handsome husband kept things simple in a white linen button-up and light grey shorts. During the outing he was seen sporting a navy cap, emblazoned with the Sesion brand name. Wearing a smile on her face, Jen strolled the docks as her husband carried a box of the brand's tequila, clearly prepared to celebrate what has been a big year for the liquor label. Legs for days: Jen wore a long black skirt with a thigh-high split that showed off her trim pins As they took to the seas, Jen and Jake packed on the PDA in the summer sunshine. At one point, Jake was seen canoodling with his wife, placing a caressing hand on her torso as he leaned in from behind. Clearly enjoying the intimate moment, the model looked into her husband's eyes with an affectionate smile. All aboard the love boat: Jake looked set to party as he carried a box of Sesion tequila, while Jen beamed as she made their way onto the yacht Affectionate: Jen planted herself in her husband's lap as the pair sat back on the deck with friends As the pair celebrated with friends on the deck of the yacht, Jen couldn't keep the smile off her face. At one point the Myer ambassador planted herself on her husband's lap before, before she leaned over the side of the yacht in a pose that highlighted her pert posterior. Clearly admiring the view, Jake looked on at his wife with a large grin. Admiring the view: Jake grinned as his wife leaned over the side of the boat, in a pose that highlighted her pert posterior Lean in: Jen passed Jake a drink as he reclined on a pontoon after a dip in ocean It wasn't long before the pair stripped down to their swimwear for a dip in the sea, both flaunting their fit physiques. Jake wore a pair of black boardshorts, going shirtless and showing off his bulging biceps. As he sat back on a pontoon with pals, Jen leaned down from the boat to pass him a drink. Celebratory drinks: Jake showed off his buff body as the couple celebrated the first anniversary of their tequila company, Sesion Sensational: The former Miss Universe showed off her fit physique in a neon yellow bikini top and Daisy Dukes The blonde beauty soon changed into a neon yellow bikini top and Daisy Dukes, looking sensational before her swim. The entrepreneurial couple are blessed with brains in addition to beauty. The budding tequila tycoons received a prestigious gold medal at the San Francisco World Spirits competition this year. Sun's out, guns out: Jake's muscular frame was also on display as he stripped down for a dip In addition, the pair are developing an impressive property portfolio. Last year, Jen and Jake sold their North Curl Curl property for a reported $5 million. The couple renovated the residence, which helped net them a healthy profit, after they purchased the property for $1.66 million in 2013. Jen and Jake are set to move in a monolithic mansion in Sydney's Northern Beaches later this year. The estimated $6 million property is currently under construction. She's the popular actress who split from her longtime partner James Stewart in 2015. And Jessica Marais recently laughed off news of a budding romance with her former NIDA classmate, Shannon Dooley, as they frolicked on Bondi Beach last month. The South African-born stunner showed off her bikini body on Clovelly Beach, where she was this time accompanied by her daughter Scout. Scroll down for video Twinkle toes: Jessica Marais showed off her bikini body once again on Clovelly Beach, where she was this time accompanied by her daughter Scout The 31-year-old flaunted her enviable curves as she pranced happily on the glistening sand to the amusement of her adorable four-year-old. Wearing a multi-coloured two-piece with her blonde locks pulled back in a loose top knot, the TV star looked relaxed as she enjoyed the summer weather. She chose to shade her eyes with black sunglasses that matched the black nail varnish on her hands and feet. Work it: The 31-year-old flaunted her enviable curves as she pranced happily on the glistening sand to the amusement of her adorable four-year-old Fun in the sun: Wearing a multi-coloured two-piece with her blonde locks pulled back in a loose top knot, the TV star looked relaxed as she enjoyed the summer weather She broke out the moves to the delight of her little one, who was covered from the sun in an all-pink outfit and watched as her mum twirled around joyously. The natural beauty kicked her heels in the air, flung her arms around and flipped around in high spirits. The Logie winner proudly displayed her pert backside and toned build as she spent the day getting tanned in the sun and enjoying the ocean. Cheeky: The Logie winner proudly displayed her pert backside and toned build as she spent the day getting tanned in the sun and enjoying the ocean Vampy: She chose to shade her eyes with black sunglasses that matched the black nail varnish on her hands and feet The carefree mother was recently seen on Bondi Beach with her fellow drama school graduate Shannon, sparking whispers of newfound love between them. A source close to the pair reportedly told The Daily Telegraph the two were strictly friends. 'They were just being silly, having fun at the beach, that is what friends do. They are 100 per cent not dating,' they said. Still single: She recently laughed off news of a budding romance with her former NIDA classmate, Shannon Dooley, as they frolicked on Bondi Beach last month Standing tall: The Perth-raised actress separated from James after a five-year engagement, during which time they welcomed their only child together, Scout The Perth-raised actress separated from James after a five-year engagement, during which time they welcomed their only child together, Scout. She opened up to Women's Health late last year about embarking on a 'mantox' to spend some time alone. 'There have been times in my life when I've felt the need to work on my own personal growth without depending on affirmation from a man or from an external source, where you say, "You know, I need to sort myself out on my own,"' she said. Serenity: The NIDA graduate showed off her bikini body as she frolicked in the waves with her five-year-old daughter Scout. They were recently the subject of relationship rumours after they were pictured frolicking on the beach together in Sydney. And now, new pictures of actress Jessica Marais and her friend Shannon Dooley show the pair taking to the water on another seaside outing. Shannon suffers from autoimmune disease, Alopecia, and removed her blonde wig as she went in for a dip. Scroll down for video Fun in the sun: Australian actress Jessica Marais was seen enjoying a day out with friend Shannon Dooley and daughter Scout at Sydney's Clovelly Beach last month, before a source told The Daily Telegraph the pair were not an item Alopecia is a disease in which hair is lost from some or all parts of the body due to the body's inability to recognise its own cells, affects 1 in 1000 Australians at any given time. The pictures come after a source close to the pair told The Daily Telegraph 'they are 100 per cent not dating.' The pair were joined by Jessica's daughter Scout for the beach outing at Sydney's Clovelly last month. Taking a dip: The duo showcased their sensational physiques as the walked out of the water after their dip WHAT IS ALOPECIA? Alopecia is a hair-loss disease that affects, men, women and children. The onset is often sudden, random and frequently recurrent. Although the disease does not damage a person's physical health, it can have severe effects on quality of life and emotional health through its impact on confidence and self-esteem. Alopecia affects around 1.7 per cent of the population, with men and women equally affected. About 25 per cent of people affected have a family history of the condition. The exact cause of alopecia is not known, although experts generally agree it is a disease of the immune system. In alopecia, the immune system attacks the affected hair follicles by mistake. That halts hair growth and causes hairs to abruptly shed. Find out more about the condition here. Advertisement Jessica, who stars on hit TV series The Wrong Girl, looked sensational as she stripped down to a bikini to hit the water. The blonde beauty wore a cross-over triangle bikini top with matching bottoms that featured cut-out side straps. The multi-coloured swim-set highlighted the actresses flawless physique. Meanwhile, Shannon also looked incredible as she stepped into the shallow water. Seen in an animated conversation, Jessica's close friend wore a bright patterned top, with mismatching high-cut black and pink bottoms. Shannon has previously spoken about having Apolecia on the Triple j radio program, Hack. Shannon has Alopecia Areata Universalis, a form of Alpoecia which kills all body hair. At the age of 17, Shannon lost all her hair over a 10 day period. Shannon told Hack, 'Its devastating for women. Your hair is your femininity and part of your sexuality.' The performer, who runs the 1980's inspired workout school Retrosweat in Sydney, says she has embraced her condition and owns many wigs. Close: Shannon (L) and Jessica (R) engaged in a conversation at the edge of the water 'Youre not hiding, your hairs your crown and glory,' Shannon said. 'Women have the absolute right, and so do men to do whatever they need to do to feel confident and as fabulous as they can.' After the dip the pair was seen dancing with joy as they entertained four-year-old Scout. Woman's Day recently claimed Jessica and Shannon were in a relationship. What's that? Shannon pointed to something in the distance as she and Jessica looked out to sea A friend of the pair is quoted as telling the publication, 'Jess and Shannon have been mates for years and have been a great support to one another. They've both been having a tough time of late and it's nice they can lean on each other.' Jessica split from fiance, Scout's father, James Stewart after a five-year engagement in 2015. Rumours have been flying that the star was finally ready to date again with Shannon, who she attended the prestigious Australian drama school NIDA with. Stunning: Jessica and Shannon looked sensational in their swimwear However, another source told The Daily Telegraph the two were just friends. The source is quoted as saying, 'They were just being silly, having fun at the beach, that is what friends do. They are 100 per cent not dating.' Beach day: Shannon (L), who has Alopecia, removed her blonde wig for the dip Stunning Shannon, who regularly performs on Channel 7's The Morning Show, frequently takes to Instagram wearing a variety of wigs. In her interview with Hack, she stated, 'I know a wig has made me be able to hold my head up high and not hide so I say get out the hairspray and make it big and bold and own it'. Summing up, Shannon said, 'We all want to stand out sometimes, but really at the end of the day, we all want to fit in'. She's the blonde bombshell who was rumoured to have had a brief relationship with Justin Bieber. And model Sahara Ray is still very much enjoying the limelight, gifting her legion of fans with regular social media updates of her glamourous life. The 23-year-old posted a series of videos for her million-plus followers from her Bali holiday to Instagram on Wednesday. Scroll down for video Island getaway: Sahara Ray posted a series of videos for her million-plus followers from her Bali holiday to her Instagram account on Wednesday The striking model started the live feed with black and white footage of her relaxing in a T-shirt, featuring American punk rock band Black Flag. Her long locks were in two pigtails and her eyes looked directly into the lens as vintage white shades rested on her nose. A glimpse of the tattoo sleeve on her upper left arm could also be seen. Rebel: The striking model started the live feed with black and white footage of her relaxing in a T-shirt, featuring American punk rock band Black Flag In the second video she wore the same shirt and hairstyle, but this time it was a widescreen shot of her pert behind in skimpy black bottoms. She stood in front of a gorgeous pool setting with a lush green background and struck a sultry pose for the camera. The swimsuit designer then posted a multi-coloured graphic of a selfie with her tongue out, before moving on to another video by the pool. Rainbow: The swimsuit designer posted a multi-coloured graphic of a selfie with her tongue out, before moving on to another video by the pool Wordsmith: Keeping the fiery theme going, her next post was a quote dubbed Fireworks from best-selling author Michael Faudet By this time it was dark outside and she lit up a cigarette, as she posed in white crochet shorts and a light denim jacket. Her next post was a quote dubbed Fireworks from best-selling author Michael Faudet. 'She had a mind like a box of fireworks and hands that played recklessly with matches,' it read. Light it up: By this time it was dark outside and she lit up a cigarette, as she posed in white crochet shorts and a light denim jacket The daughter of Australian surfing legend Tony Ray decided to get in the water next, posing in a white bikini and tagging her own line, Sahara Ray Swim. She then took snaps of the beautiful resort landscape, including flowers in bloom. The Los Angeles-raised social media enthusiast shot to fame last year during a brief relationship with Justin and was previously linked with fellow pop star Cody Simpson. Cooling down: The daughter of Australian surfing legend Tony Ray decided to get in the water next, posing in a white bikini and tagging her own line, Sahara Ray Swim Paradise: She took snaps of the beautiful resort landscape, including flowers in bloom His hard-partying lifestyle has raised more than a few eyebrows over the past year. From skinny dipping in the ocean to going on a rumoured 'three day bender' over the festive season - it seems that Jordan Barrett wont be slowing down any time soon. Now, with an insider claiming that Jordan's lifestyle may be detracting from his career, we take a look inside the wild lifestyle of the world's hottest 'it boy.' Scroll down for video Living in the fast lane: From skinny dipping in the ocean to going on a rumoured 'three day bender' over the festive season- it seems that Jordan Barrett wont be slowing down any time soon In December last year, concerns were reportedly raised after Jordan was rumoured to have partied for three days straight. Indeed, images shared to Jordan's Instagram account documenting his rambunctious New Year's Eve celebrations in Sydney. Heralding 2017 alongside fashion industry pals Bambi Northwood-Blyth and Dan Single, Jordan shared a blurry photo of himself laughing with elation while watching the Sydney Harbour Bridge fireworks display. Party time! Indeed, images shared to Jordan's Instagram account documenting his rambunctious New Year's Eve celebrations in Sydney Hazy: Heralding 2017 alongside fashion industry pals Bambi Northwood-Blyth and Dan Single, Jordan shared a blurry photo of himself laughing with elation while watching the Sydney Harbour Bridge fireworks display 'HEY SISTA , REALLY REALLY NICE TO MEET YA @bambilegit AKA 2017 INCOMING' he wrote in the caption. The Byron Bay-born blonde also sent tongues wagging in December when he shared a photo of himself skinny dipping in the ocean with a group of male pals. In September, Jordan was up to his old tricks when he shared a spontaneous kiss with Justin Bieber's former flame Barbara Palvin. Daring to bare! The Byron Bay-born blond also sent tongues wagging in December when he shared a photo of himself skinny dipping in the ocean with a group of male pals Pucker up! In September, Jordan was up to his old tricks when he shared a spontaneous kiss with Justin Bieber's former flame Barbara Palvin Everything OK, Jordan? In September, Jordan was pictured slumped against a wall looking worse for wear during a wild night out in Croatia A picture shared to Jordan's Instagram page depicted him leaning up to kiss the 22-year-old brunette at the Frame Denim dinner in New York. September was a big month for the sun-kissed stunner, who spends most of his time jetting across the globe to attend photo shoots in exotic locations. In a photo shared to his Instagram page, Jordan was pictured slumped against a wall looking worse for wear during a wild night out in Croatia. His pal Jesse Somera was seen crouching next to him with a concerned expression on his face. Jordan deleted the snap not long after posting it. However, he and Jesse did make sure to document the highlights of their messy night in a video posted to Jordan's Instagram, captioned 'two musketeers Tk Europe'. Ahoy! The clip started before night has fallen with them messing around on a yacht in Dubrovnik's picturesque historic port Partying into the night: Later on, Jesse is seen lying on the cobblestones of a square in the city, before getting to his feet and staggering around The clip started before night has fallen with them messing around on a yacht in Dubrovnik's picturesque historic port. Jordan, smoking a cigarette and wearing a sailor's hat, tiptoeed up the bow of the vessel and pointed out towards to sea. Later on, Jesse is seen lying on the cobblestones of a square in the city, before getting to his feet and staggering around. Suave: Jordan is often hailed for his symmetrical features and toned physique Success: He has walked for the likes of high-end designers, including Jeremy Scott. Here, he is pictured walking in Scott's Sept. 2016 show He soon broke into a psychedelic dance, jerking side to side as he approached Jordan. Earlier this week, a fashion industry insider told The Daily Telegraph that Jordan's career could be short lived if he doesn't start to slow down. The source claimed that multiple people within the cut-throat industry have become more than aware of his heavy partying and there are not many who would be happy to accommodate it. Famous friends: In addition to being linked to Paris Hilton, Jordan has been connected to various socialites like Hailey Baldwin (pictured) 'This type of behaviour may have been cool back in the day, but now no one puts up with it,' the source explained. 'Clients don't like to see the models they are using out partying all the time.' Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Jordan's management for comment. Sobha Hartland, the resort-style luxury housing project of Sobha Group, Dubai encompassing 8 million square feet of freehold community land, has now announced the launch of their direct operations with the opening of three sales offices here in India. Sobha Hartland Dubai is a $4 bn project is a mixed use development project on the iconic Dubai Water Canal and boasts of a limited collection of ultra-contemporary villas, townhouses, modern mid & high-rise apartments. This range of luxury products caters to both individuals and families alike looking for their ideal homes in Dubai. Indian investors and residents seeking to invest in these new ventures will now be able to contact Sobha Hartland easily and in their very own city. These offices set up in Mumbai, New Delhi and Bengaluru, mark the next stage in development and growth at an even faster rate from the new base. With the recent surge in Indian investments in Dubai property post the Govt of Indias circular on demonetization, Indian investors are looking at various new avenues to recover some of their losses and R.O.I that is tax free. In that regard Dubai is considered a very sought out destination to invest in tax-free property with solid returns for investors and also for end-users who are looking at investing in a second home. Under RBIs Liberated Remittance Scheme, a couple can transfer 3.4 crores legally per year which can buy them a 2-bedroom apartment in Sobha Hartland Dubai. By investing more than 1 million AED in a property in Dubai, one also gets the eligibility acquire a UAE residence visa. Several payment plans also available when opting for bigger apartments and villas. The Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) came into effect on 1st of June, 2000, replacing the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA). The intentions of the FEMA are to revise and unite laws that relate to transactions of foreign exchange and encourage an orderly maintenance and development, of the foreign exchange markets in India. Indian investors will benefit from Dubai being considered the most sustainable city in the region and a safe haven in terms of real estate investments. With prime properties developed in Dubai by Sobha, it has earned recognition for great quality as the number one brand in India (source: Track2Realty Brand X Report 2015-2016) and one of the top real estate companies in the Arab world (source: Forbes Middle East). Thats because Sobha Group is the only backward integrated company in the world everything from start to finish is done in-house. Sobha Hartland was launched in 2014. It comprises of Hartland Greens, Hartland Estates and Hartland Townhouses which will be launching shortly. Apartments at Hartland Greens comprise of eight floors with options of studios, duplexes to one, two and three bedrooms along with a choice of either park, pool or boulevard views. Completion date of phase 1 is expected by December 2017. Hartland Estates is an exquisite freehold community with a range of ultra-contemporary villas. The L-shaped Sobha Hartland villas offer unmatched privacy and comes with four, five and six bedrooms with ample amount of space. With the addition of a courtyard, backyard and designated swimming pool, residents will have ample space to un-wind in their own home. Completion date of phase 1 is expected by December 2018. Hartland Townhouses will be spread across three floors with focus on lavish space and privacy and each unit will be of 3,300 square feet. Investors will have an option of either choosing the surrounding greenery of a corner unit or the intimacy of a middle unit. Sobha Hartland also offers a flexible payment plan for investors and end-users. The new payment plan for apartments and villas will give the following benefits: 50% during construction 10% on completion 40% over 2 years post-handover Additionally, Sobha Hartland project offers world-class facilities within the community and residents will have access to Hartland International School which is already operational and follows an UK curriculum, Hartland Square A world class shopping hub, Hartland Boulevard A fashion avenue with all the leading fashion brands present in one destination, The Walk Restaurants and cafes serving on the waterfront. The projects location within Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum City and 3 kilometer proximity to Dubais hottest attractions makes it one of the most-sought property investments in Dubai. Sobha Hartland has also recently unveiled its new premium land plots for building G + 12 apartment buildings and waterfront villas for investors and end users within the project. Nearly 155,000 square feet is available to build 12 floor apartment buildings which consist of approximately 200 -250 units and 14,000 square feet of premium land is available for constructing waterfront villas. Developers will get the chance to build their own brand of residences within the iconic Sobha Hartland community and have the option of a prime and profitable investment opportunity to maximize their profits by owning a cluster of 13 plots to build and sell villas. For hoteliers and hotel apartment operators a single plot of 86,755 square feet area is available to build a hotel or hotel apartments under their brand. These plots are surrounded by 2.4 million square feet of greenery, world-class amenities and Dubais hottest attractions. This is ideal for building ones dream property in the most fabulous and prime locations in Dubai. Mr. PNC Menon, Founder and Chairman, Sobha Group, said We are happy to launch our direct operations strategy for Sobha Hartland Dubai in India. With our presence in these three key metro cities in India, we look forward to addressing a significant amount of enquires which will only add to the existing queries we garner in Dubai. These individual offices will certainly help with on-ground execution and better streamlining of our offerings. Sobha as a brand is synonymous to quality and we are considered to be one of the leading premium real estate developers in the Middle East and India. Recent reports show Indians to be the prime foreign investors in the real estate sector in Dubai, which makes the launch of new offices in India a sensible decision. The new offices aim to meet the interest generated from clients in India by reducing the gap in communication and execution. With a legacy and track record of over 40 years, Sobha Groups vision is to be the most trusted and respected real estate organization. Sobha Hartlands exclusive offices in Mumbai, New Delhi and Bengaluru are specifically and solely designed to cater to the sales, project management and support needs of the Indian clients. About Sobha Group Sobha Group is a multinational, multiproduct group with developments and investments in U.A.E., Sultanate of Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Brunei and India. Established in 1976 by a first generation entrepreneur, PNC Menon as an interior decoration firm under the name of Services and Trade Company in Muscat, Oman, the group has grown into one of the most respected names in all the countries in which it has established businesses. The organization is one of the fastest growing and foremost backward integrated real estate organizations in the region. Sobha is primarily focused on residential and contractual projects. The company is currently developing Sobha Hartland, a mixed-used development in the centre of Dubai. For further information on Sobha Group, please visit www.sobha.com She's the former Bachelor star who's become known for flaunting her figure in scantily-clad snaps on Instagram. And Kirralee 'Kiki' Morris didn't let her fans down on Thursday when she flaunted her enviable figure in a black teddy lingerie ensemble. The 28-year-old shared the raunchy image to Instagram, posing seductively by draping a sheer lace robe off her arms. Scroll down for video Racy in lace! Bachelor's Kirralee 'Kiki' Morris poses seductively in skimpy teddy lingerie as she flaunts pert derriere and killer curves from her Sydney bedroom on Thursday The former glamour model labelled her skimpy lingerie as 'pjs' and insisted she wore them all morning on the drizzly Sydney day. Posing with her legs slightly bent and her back arched, Kiki accentuated her pert derriere in the cheeky bedside shot. She cropped her face out of the image to maintain the focal attention on her ample assets and shapely gym-honed figure. 'Can't wait to bring in the new year': The reality star lay on a bed in skimpy lingerie as she gushed over the 'amazing' people set to attend her New Year's Eve celebrations 'Last few days of holidays, actually can't wait to get back to work! Who's with Me?' she captioned her post. Only days earlier she was pictured on a bed in skimpy lingerie flaunting her pert posterior in revealing black underwear. Smiling off camera the beauty appeared relaxed as she lazed on the bed with her honeycomb tresses off her face into a messy bun. 'Booty game is strong': Three days prior to the snap, Kiki posted a picture of herself in the same lingerie in celebration of her 'booty game' Three days prior to the snap, Kiki posted a picture of herself in the same lingerie in celebration of her 'booty game'. Standing with her back to the camera in front of a huge window, Kiki captioned the image: 'Never get sick of the view, booty game strong over Christmas. 'Keeping me on the level, tight tight!,' she added. Happy holidays: Kiki spent Christmas with her boyfriend Jeremy at his family's farm recently Meanwhile, The Bachelor star has been spotted spending the festive season with her new boyfriend Jeremy Banks after returning from a recent trip to Bali with him. Although Kiki didn't find love with Richie Strahan on The Bachelor, she seems to have fallen head-over-heels for Jeremy, who she confirmed she was seeing on Halloween. The reality star recently spent spent the festive season with Jeremy at his family's farm. Confirmed: Although Kiki didn't find love with Richie Strahan on the Bachelor she seems to have fallen head-over-heels for Jeremy, who she confirmed she was seeing on Halloween The reality star has since moved in with Bachelor bestie Noni Janur and is often seen with her at events and on Instagram. And since moving in together, the TV stars seem to have taken their friendship to the next level. The pair awkwardly wore the SAME sequin play suit to celebrate New Year's Eve, both flaunting their ample assets in the plunging outfits. That's awkward! The Bachelor BFFs Noni and Kiki wore the SAME sequin playsuit as they celebrated New Year's Eve on Saturday Kyle Sandilands' girlfriend called for a 'social media revolution' in an expletive-ridden tirade on Wednesday. And for Imogen Anthony, it appears the revolution begins with a pure white wig. The budding fashion designer debuted a brand new, all-white hairstyle on Instagram Thursday, captioning the post with the entire lyrics to Lana Del Ray's 'Ride.' Scroll Down For Video New look! Imogen Anthony debuted a brand new, all-white hairstyle on Instagram Thursday, captioning the post with the entire lyrics to Lana Del Ray's 'Ride.' In one image, the 25-year-old wore a see-through leopard-print dress as her eyes pierced the camera lens with a seductive glare. She completed her revealing outfit with a thick metal necklace. 'Been tryin' hard not to get into trouble, But I, I've got a war in my mind,' read part of the lyrical caption. Topless! In one image the long white locks fell onto her backside, as her bright-pink underwear was visible through translucent fabric Slow-mo! In a slow-mo video, Imogen tossed her new 'do' from side-to-side before spinning her head to give fans a good look at the radical hairstyle Later, the beauty posed topless, the dress she was wearing before pulled down around her slender waist. The long white locks fell onto her backside, as her bright-pink underwear was visible through translucent fabric. In a slow-mo video, Imogen tossed her new 'do' from side-to-side before spinning her head to give fans a good look at the radical hairstyle. 'Testing out some new looks for an upcoming secret project.' She wrote in the caption, hinting at something new on the horizon. The more upbeat posts come after the socialite launched a massive tirade in response to a writer who put her on a worst-dressed list. In the first clip from a series she titled 'Losing Faith in new age humanity' Imogen lambasted those who 'attack people for no reason'. Hitting back: This comes after the 25-year-old has claimed there is 'no such thing as freedom of speech anymore' in an Instagram tirade on Wednesday She claimed the videos were just a 'call-out to the f****tards on social media who don't know how to handle themselves.' The glamour model claimed she was a 'fan of the worst dressed list' but will not condone a 'biased' reporter who continues to attack her. Persistent: The videos mark her latest response to a journalist who put her on the 'The Ugly List' for her unique outfit at last year's ARIA awards. Pictured: Imogen and Kyle Sandilands The start of the trouble: Earlier this week, Imogen shared a photo of the article which criticised her ARIAs outfit as well as her choice in partner Imogen also addressed criticisms that she 'chose' to be famous and should therefore learn to deal with the limelight. 'Get f*****d, he found me!' she replied, implying that she did not pursue fame through her relationship with Kyle. She also wrote in the video's caption: 'There is no such thing as freedom of speech anymore, especially on social media, if it is harmful or detrimental to another person.' 'Get f*****, he found me!' Imogen also addressed criticisms that she 'chose' to be famous and should therefore learn to deal with the limelight Take that! The tirade comes after Imogen treated her fans to a naked photo, adding the caption 'Give ya something to talk about' The post comes after the socialite treated her fans to a naked snap of herself taking a shower, writing in the caption: 'Give ya something to talk about.' Hours after her Wednesday rant, Imogen also posted a cryptic image that showed a pair of red knickers stabbed into a wall with a knife. She captioned the image 'I was here.' You could say Gina Rodriguez looks amazing for 2017, or 2017 looks amazing for Gina Rodriguez; either way, you'd be correct. The breakout actress, 32, stunned attending the 2nd Annual Moet Moment Film Festival at West Hollywood, California's Doheny Room Wednesday, as film awards season continues to build momentum with the turn of the calendar. The Deepwater Horizon diva wore a black skirt with a patterned top with ruffles along the upper elbow area, and a bottom with large buttons holding things together. The charming beauty, who wore her shimmering brown locks down for the formal occasion, took to the red carpet in a pair of black heels. Scroll below for video Picture perfect: Gina Rodriguez, 32, looked every bit the star as she stepped out on the red carpet for the 2nd Annual Moet Moment Film Festival in West Hollywood Wednesday Always in style: The TV star blew her fans a kiss as she posed at the event, which is a part of film award season in Hollywood Third time's a charm? The actress is nominated for a Golden Globe for the third year in a row, capturing the honors with her first nomination in 2015 The Jane the Virgin star is on the brink of a busy award season as she hopes to add another Golden Globe to her mantelpiece, as she's nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Comedy or Musical for the third consecutive year for her efforts as Jane Villanueva on The CW hit series. Rodriguez thanked the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the non-profit behind the Golden Globes, in a December 12 statement upon learning that she'd accomplished the lofty TV hat trick. The actress hailed the organization 'for always recognizing new and unbelievable talent regardless of color or culture,' noting how her life was changed three years ago with her win in the category. Props: Gina, after she was nominated, praised officials with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for their ongoing commitment to diversity Outspoken: In addition to her well-chronicled plaudits in front of the camera, Rodriguez uses her celebrity to act as an outspoken advocate for causes she holds dear 'How wonderful it is to see an awards show so full of diversity, and not just for diversity sake, but because of the phenomenal performances,' she said, adding that she felt 'beyond blessed and humbled to have been one of their discoveries.' The Filly Brown star has seemingly been blessed in her personal life as well, as she's spent the past few months getting close with boyfriend Joe LoCicero, a male model who's worked for lines such as Abercrombie & Fitch and Tommy Hilfiger. Gina first crossed paths with LoCicero, a 30-year-old native of Long Island, New York, when he made a guest appearance on Jane The Virgin as a stripper. Happy group: The Chicago native (left) posed with the HFPA Elisabeth Sereda, actress Bryce Dallas Howard and HFPA president Lorenzo Soria at the event All she wanted for Christmas: The beauty took to Instagram to commemorate a happy holiday season with her boyfriend, Joe LoCicero The actress spent some time with her beau over the holidays in Thailand, sharing a shore-side shot of herself and LoCicero to commemorate their first happy holiday season as a couple. 'Our first Christmas together and your love has been the greatest gift,' she wrote to the model on her Instagram account, which boasts 1.4 million followers. Apart from her efforts on the small screen, Rodriguez has a pair of films slated to be released in the forthcoming year: the sci-fi thriller Annihilation, which also features Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Tessa Thompson; and Sharon 1.2.3., a comedy which co-stars Nadine Velazquez and Erinn Hayes. Rodriguez can be seen in Jane The Virgin on Mondays at 9/8c on The CW. Peace out: Sky's the limit for Gina in her career, on the verge of what could be a second Golden Globe win in three years They rang in the new year with a tropical getaway. And on Tuesday Patrick Schwarzenegger looked to in full vacation mode as he went for a paddle in Los Cabos, Mexico with his girlfriend Abby Champion. The duo were joined by the model's family, including his youthful mother Maria Shriver, 61, who wore a tight black strapless swimsuit. Living la vida loca: Patrick Schwarzenegger looked to in full vacation mode as he went for a paddle in Los Cabos, Mexico with his girlfriend Abby Champion on Tuesday Abby, who turns 20 in February, displayed her svelte figure in a striped swimsuit as she prepared for some fun in the water. While her famous beau Patrick, 23, showed off his chiseled torso in swimtrunks as he rented a kayak for the day. His hair was tied into braids, which he had memorialized the day before on Instagram. Looking good! The duo were joined by the model's family, including his youthful mother Maria Shriver, 61, who wore a tight black strapless swimsuit Fun in the sun: The former first lady of California got in some rays Paddle on! Patrick and Abby got in some kayaking Good form: Patrick and his buddy showed good form in a kayak Striped suit: Abby donned a pink and white striped bathing suit The son of Terminator star Arnold wore a gormless look on his face as his professional clotheshorse girlfriend Abby guffawed in the background. The self-styled actor and model did not even caption the image when he posted it on his Twitter page, simply adding a blushing emoji instead. However he looked rather more disgruntled in a followup shot which showed his hair poofed up, which he captioned: 'When you take your braids out...' Surf's up! The aspiring actor hung out with a pal while heading down for a dip Ripped: The young man showed off his impressive muscles while getting in some paddle work Cornrows are a traditional way of styling hair in many different parts of the world. There have been depictions of women wearing the style in Stone Age paintings found in the Tassili Plateau of the Sahara that date back as far back as 3000 B.C. In addition Native American paintings that are around 1,000 years old also show the hairstyle. Chilling out: Christopher Schwarzenegger relaxed with his family in Los Cabos His mother Maria has been married to 69-year-old Arnold since 1986 but announced their separation in May 2011, after it emeged he had fathered a child with the family maid. Patrick has been dating Abby since early 2016, and they were spotted together during her birthday in late February. She hails from Birmingham, Alabama and and has a contract with Next Model Management. Striking poses: Patrick looked like his dad striking poses on the beach A corny look: Patrick showed off his cornrow as his amused girlfriend Abby cackled in the background on Tuesday She's the cancer warrior who bravely shared her journey to recovery with the nation. And now Tessa James, 25, is enjoying the summer weather and her good health. On Wednesday, the former Home and Away star shared a photo of her sunning by a pool topless, making the most of the warm weather. Scroll down for video Catching some rays! Actress and cancer survivor Tessa James goes topless as she suns herself poolside In the summer holiday snap, the soap actress lies on a patterned towel by the edge of a pool, surrounded by lush shrubs and trees. Tessa is evidently trying to catch some rays, lounging topless with just a pair of purple bikini bottoms. The actress wears a fashionable pair of sunglasses, cupping her cheek with one tanned limb as she poses for the camera. Soap star: The striking blonde had made her mark playing Nicole Franklin on Home and Away from 2008 to 2011, leaving the show to pursue an acting career overseas Tessa's happy holiday snap comes as she celebrates being cancer free for a year and a half. The striking blonde had made her mark playing Nicole Franklin on Home and Away from 2008 to 2011, leaving the show to pursue an acting career overseas. But in September 2014, Tessa discovered she had Hodgkin's lymphoma, and returned to Australia for treatment. Shock diagnosis: In September 2014 Tessa discovered she had Hodgkin's lymphoma, and returned to Australia for treatment With the support of her husband, NRL player Nate Myles, she finished chemotherapy in mid-2015, sharing her courageous journey with Channel Seven's Sunday Night. 'You'd see actresses and they seemed to always go through hardships,' a tearful Tessa told the current affairs program. 'I always thought, 'Well I don't have a story. My life is great'. Yeah, I have a story now.' Staying strong: Tessa married NRL star Nate Myles in 2011, who remained supportive throughout her batter with cancer As she continues cancer-free 18 months later, Tessa admits her battle with the deadly disease has changed her perspective on life. While once she was set on a star-studded Hollywood career, the petite beauty is now content with the simpler things in life. Speaking to The Daily Telegraph in July 2016, Tessa said she felt frustrated that she wasn't having much success in Hollywood prior to falling ill with cancer. Changed woman: While once she was set on a star-studded Hollywood career, the petite beauty is now content with the simpler things in life 'I'm not in such a rush anymore. I was really jaded and really kind of, 'well I've been doing it for x amount of years, why hasn't this happened, why hasn't that happened',' she said. 'I was just in such a panic and I think by getting sick I'm just so much more content, more patient, and more aware of the world in general. My main goal now is to be happy. 'I can still work hard and achieve things but I don't need to be stressed out about it and in a rush. I believe being consistently stressed creates bad health and I don't need to put that on myself.' Since her recovery, the former soap star has had roles on Love Child and 2016 movie Spin Out. He's set to get caught up in a dramatic drug scandal on the cobbles. And now, Coronation Street's Adam Barlow (played by Sam Robertson) appears to have gone one step further as he searches for Rosie (Helen Flanagan) and Sophie Webster's (Brooke Vincent) drug package in the allotments. The Corrie bad boy has come to the aid of the Webster sisters after their attempt to conceal their stash of cocaine among the plots failed and agrees to sell their cache. Scroll down for video On the hunt: Coronation Street's Adam Barlow (played by Sam Robertson) appears to have gone one step further as he searches for the Webster sisters drug package in the allotments Clad in inconspicuous black, the grandson of Ken Barlow looks to have broken into the plots with a spade in tow, searching for the sisters illegal goods, wrapped up in his warmth inducing peacoat. Peering through rows of peas and root veg, Adam searched the fields for the package - which he will attempt to sell for the sisters, according to The Sun. Filming scenes for the upcoming storyline, the soap character will get wrapped up in the Webster Sisters' drug scandal after Rosie returns from the US with a stash of cocaine. Rosie will have her home searched thoroughly by police after smuggling back cocaine from America. Stash and spade: The Corrie bad boy has come to the aid of the Webster sisters after their attempt to conceal their stash of cocaine among the plots failed Illegal activity: Clad in inconspicuous black, the grandson of Ken Barlow broke into the plots with a spade in tow, searching for the sisters illegal goods, wrapped up in his warmth inducing peacoat Returning with her sister Sophie, who left the cobbles to visit wild child Rosie in the autumn, the sisters will face quite the scare after police search their premises - but to no avail. However, when asked by her sister to open a bag full of sweets, Rosie unveils a stash full of cocaine. After attempts to bury the drugs fail, Ken Barlows grandson Adam finds out and attempts to sell it for the frightened sisters. However, the plan doesn't come without a hiccup as the girls' dad Kevin finds out and all hell breaks loose. She's back: Helen Flanagan is back filming for Corrie after a four year hiatus Speaking of Rosie's shocking return, a source told the publication: 'Rosie tells Sophie someone planted the drugs on her, and is as shocked as her sister when she sees the white powder. 'The girls panic and decide to bury the drugs but Adam Barlow finds out what they have done and offers to sell the drugs for a fee. Back to it! The 26-year-old looked as though she was throwing herself into work this week as she was spotted for the first time on the Coronation Street set in four years on Thursday 'But, Kevins business is struggling following an arson attack and he needs money. So he takes matters into his own hands.' Back filming scenes, Helen Flanagan, 26, looked as though she was throwing herself into work this week as she was spotted for the first time on the Coronation Street set in four years on Thursday. She added an extra cosy coat over her costume in between takes, as she caught up with pal Brooke, who is also back after taking a three month break from Corrie to make her theatre debut. Animated: The girls looked delighted to be reunited, cosying up as they talked through the script with producers and chatting animatedly Get ready: Helen's anticipated return as Rosie will air next month, and the fan favourite is making her comeback with the explosive storyline Co-stars: Sair Khan and Bhavna Limbachia were also seen on set in matching red puffa jackets to keep them warm On-screen star: Sair has been taking on the role of Alya Nazir since 2014 Loving their job: The girls seemed in high spirits as they resumed soap filming duties Helen, who quit the soap in 2012 to take part in I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here, was also spied cuddling a hot water bottle in a bid to keep warm during the long day outside in the elements. The girls looked delighted to be reunited, cosying up as they talked through the script with producers and chatting animatedly. Helen's anticipated return as Rosie will air next month, and the fan favourite is making her comeback with the explosive storyline. Having a laugh: Faye Brookes was also spotted having a giggle on set She enjoyed countless family outings with Ben Affleck last year, despite announcing plans to divorce in 2015 following ten years of marriage. And Jennifer Garner still looked in good spirits despite cutting a solo figure as she headed for a coffee run in Los Angeles on Wednesday. The actress, 44, who is mother to Violet, 11, Seraphina, eight, and Samuel, four with the Batman Vs Superman star, looked chic in a turtleneck jumper for the low-key outing. Scroll down for video Casual chic: Jennifer Garner, 44, looked chic in a turtleneck jumper and matching skinny jeans as she headed for a coffee run in Los Angeles on Wednesday The chunky dark grey knit skimmed her sensational, trim figure and she teamed the look with a matching pair of skinny jeans. The Golden Globe award winning beauty draped one over-sized black handbag on her arm, as she cradled her warm beverage in her hand. Embracing her natural beauty, Jennifer opted to go make-up free and kept her long chestnut locks loose. Casually strolling along in her comfortable UGG boots, Jennifer's great mood comes after reports she enjoyed the festive season in Montana with her kids and Ben. Low-key beauty: The actress, who is mother to Violet, 11, Seraphina, eight, and Samuel, four with ex Ben Affleck, showed off her trim figure in the chunky knit The very amicable exes have been spending quality time together in a luxury ski-resort in Big Sky, according to a report from People. Also with them is Jennifer's family from West Virginia. 'They all seem to have a good time together,' a source told the site. Jennifer and Ben were also in Montana last year, staying at the private, members-only ski resort in Big Sky. 'Jen and Ben seem happy to be on vacation,' a source said last year. 'They both enjoy the privacy of Montana.' This comes after the family of five spent Thanksgiving together - causing speculation about whether the A list actors are together romantically again. Family getaway: Jennifer's great mood comes after reports she enjoyed the festive season in Montana with her kids and very amicable ex Ben, despite announcing plans to divorce in 2015 Not happening: Jennifer has insisted that they are not back on and even joked she was dating Brad Pitt after speculation arose that they were back on People alleged that they grew close after a trip to Paris last year and that caused them to call off their divorce. But Jennifer has insisted that they are not back on and even joked she was dating Brad Pitt. During Ben's interview on TimesTalks with New York Times journalist Chip McGrath, he gushed about Jennifer, calling her the 'greatest mom in the world.' The Live By Night actor said that his children were his biggest accomplishment: 'In my career or otherwise, it is the birth of my children. The entrance of my children into the world.' He continued: 'It's a joy to hang out with them, I think the meaning of life is to make good people.' Australian Victoria's Secret model Bridget Malcolm has shared more shots and a short video of what is believed to be her second wedding, to husband Nathaniel Hoho. The 25-year-old stunner took to Instagram on Thursday to share a story from their nuptials at Western Australia's Rottnest Island, before sharing a clip of family and friends dancing in a marquee. Looking ever the blushing bride, Bridget can be seen cosying up to her musician partner before they tuck into dessert together, presumably wedding cake. Scroll down for video Sweet: Australian Victoria's Secret model Bridget Malcolm has shared more shots and a short video of what is believed to be her second wedding, to husband Nathaniel Hoho One shot shared to her Instagram story sees blonde beauty Bridget smiling with her arms around her man. She wears her pink lace dress, while Nathaniel looks smart in a white shirt and black trousers. In part of the story, her friends can be seen laying down on sunbeds, which she captioned: 'Next day feels.' Their second big day: Looking ever the blushing bride, Bridget can be seen cosying up to her musician partner Downtime: In part of the story, her friends can be seen laying down on sunbeds, which she captioned: 'Next day feels' She also shared shots of her friends jumping off a pier together into the ocean and gave a call out to her model pal Shanina Shaik, who stuns on the cover of Cosmopolitan. In a video, she can be seen smiling and laughing as her family and friends dance to The Pointer Sisters' classic hit, Jump (For My Love). She captioned the video, thanking her friends and family for joining them on their special day. Proud of her friend: Bridget also gave a call out to her model pal Shanina Shaik, who stuns on the cover of Cosmopolitan 'So much love to you all for coming to celebrate with @nathanielhoho and I!,' part of the post read. Bridget's posts come after her and Nathaniel's friends shared shots of the low-key day, with some saying: 'Happy second wedding.' The model has been holidaying on Rottnest Island since Monday, documenting her stay on the idyllic location through selfies with a quokka and an Instagram video of her snorkelling. Blushing bride: Bridget's posts come after her and Nathaniel's friends shared shots of the low-key day, with some saying: 'Happy second wedding' Relaxing: The model has been holidaying on Rottnest Island since Monday Wedding bells: Bridget and Nathaniel originally tied the knot in July last year, atop a mountain in Nathaniel's native state of Pennsylvania Bridget and Nathaniel originally tied the knot in July last year, atop a mountain in Nathaniel's native state of Pennsylvania. Two months earlier in May the Victoria's Secret model told Daily Mail Australia of her wedding plans. 'We are having two weddings,' the stunning blonde said. 'Hes [fiance Nathaniel] a Pennsylvania boy so we are going to have one July 23rd next year, and one in Perth so two summer weddings.' The couple became engaged in 2015 after two years of dating. She had a triumphant 2016, modelling around the world. But Jourdan Dunn has kicked off 2017 with her number one man - her seven-year-old son Riley. The British model was spotted enjoying some quality time with her adorable boy on the beach this week, during a blissful family break in Barbados. Me and my boy: Jourdan Dunn has kicked off 2017 with her number one man - her seven-year-old son Riley, as they enjoy a Barbados beach break Jourdan, 26, showed off her model figure in a sporty white bikini, with the tiny two piece highlighting her trim frame. She accessorised with some pink headphones, which she let little Riley use as they kicked back on the sand with some tunes. Jourdan's boy was ready for a swim, dressed in red shorts for another fun day on holiday, as he laughed and joked around with his doting mum. The statuesque beauty gave birth to Riley when she was just 19, and was back on the catwalk just 10 weeks after welcoming her baby into the world. Kicking back: The British model was spotted enjoying some quality time with her adorable boy on the beach this week, while looking sensational in a white bikini Jourdan split from her former flame Jordan Cummings when Riley was just a baby, but has since gone on to become one of the world's top-earning models. She recently posted a sweet selfie on her Instagram page which read: '7 years ago today this little joy of sunshine came into my life,It's true that every good and perfect gift is from above 'You were presented to me as a beautifully packaged gift full of humor, talent, sarcasm intelligence, beauty and love. 'Happy Birthday Bubski Mummy loves you more than you could EVER imagine!' (sic) Mother-of-one: The statuesque beauty gave birth to her seven-year-old son Riley when she was just 19 She's been documenting her sun-soaked trip to Barbados on social media for fans. And Jourdan was not afraid to show off her sensational bikini body once again on Friday, as she uploaded another beach-side snap to her Instagram page. The British beauty, 26, flaunted her unbelievably long legs and enviably toned stomach in a trendy high-waisted bikini as she posed aboard a boat in the sizzling snap. Poising herself against the railings on deck, the mother-of-one showcased her impeccably toned physique for all to see in a vibrant orange two-piece. Life's a beach: Jourdan, 26, was not afraid to show off her sensational bikini body once again on Friday, as she uploaded another snap from her Barbados holiday to her Instagram The high-rise bottoms nipped in at her middle to flatter her tiny waist and clung tightly to her impressively toned and taut tum. Leaving her long tresses in loose waves and her face bare, Jourdan exuded natural and effortless beauty as she reflected on another successful year as a model. Expressing her gratitude for her fans in the caption, the brunette beauty wrote beside the shot: 'Taking it alllllll in the sun,the sea and me finally hitting 2 MILLION followers!!! Thank you guys for the love and support its truly....honestly .... appreciated' Jourdan was propelled to international fame when she was discovered by a model scout in a branch of budget high street store, Primark, in Hammersmith, west London, at the tender age of 15. She found fame as the fresh-faced blonde on Neighbours and Scrubs. But these days, Nicky Whelan has been experimenting with some edgier looks. On Thursday, the 35-year-old showed off her new cornrow-inspired hairstyle from Bulgaria, where she shot a new film last year. Corny! Nicky Whelan showed off her cornrow inspired hairdo on Thursday 'I'm NOT getting paid for this post!!!' wrote the Australian actress. 'Filming in Bulgaria last year I came across this hairspray ... ladies... it holds your hair perfectly without damaging it and feels like magic.' Nicky's cornrow hair comes not long after she sported an unflattering brunette wig on the set of the upcoming Nicholas Cage movie, Inconceivable. Wigging out! The 35-year-old recently shocked her fans by sporting a big brunette wig for her role in the upcoming Nicholas Cage thriller Inconceivable 'On set filming #inconceivable...' wrote Nicky. She added: 'In the last month I've been #blonde, #red and now #brunette ... Never a dull moment.' The chameleon-like starlet also shared another selfie in a long strawberry blonde wig. 'In the last month I've been #blonde, #red and now #brunette ... Never a dull moment!' Nicky's also gone strawberry blonde 'My character transformation has begun,' Nicky gushed at the time. 'THANKYOU to my incredible hairdresser @beausef and the awesome @thehairshopinc for my hair.' When she isn't wearing wild wigs, Nicky is known for her short blonde cut. Biddeford-Saco-OOB Courier Those who habitually put items in their recycling bins that don't belong there are the target of the ordinance amendment, not those who make an occasional, accidental mistake, said Public Works Director Jeff Demers. The model and TV presenter has enjoyed a relaxed New Year's break. And as Nikki Phillips soaks up the last of the tranquility at her holiday house in Callala Bay, she shared a happy moment with her 'babies' on Thursday. Posed in between two dogs and with a bright smile on her face, she told her Instagram followers about the happiness the pups had brought to her life. Puppy love! Television presenter Nikki Phillips shared an adorable snap from her summer vacation as she posed with her two dogs while holidaying on NSW's south coast 'These two - making life better since way back,' she wrote in the caption. The dogs, Lochie and Tygalilly, did not share their owner's beaming face, but appeared content as they perched on the sidewalk. Nikki looked rejuvenated in a daisy-print sundress, a black broad brim hat and a pair of oversized rounded glasses. Beach babe! The 33-year-old flaunted her gym-toned body in a blue bikini as she played on the beach with Lochie the dog Her shoulder length blonde locks hung naturally in messy waves, and she appeared to be makeup free. Earlier in the week, the 33-year-old was pictured on the beach with Lochie, flaunting her gym-toned body in a blue and white bikini. She has spent her holiday break with husband Dane Rumble, a musician-turned-jewellery-designer. Soaking up the sun: The model and presenter appeared to be having the time of her life as she enjoyed her quiet getaway The couple were seen posing together for a selfie, with an otherwise empty beach as their background. They looked relaxed and very happy to be in each other's company as they welcomed in the New Year. Nikki described the moment as ' the perfect way to start the first day of 2017.' Loved up: Nikki was holidaying with husband of two years, Dane Rumble They took the Moschino catwalk by storm back in September when they modelled for the brand at Milan Fashion Week. And Gigi and Bella Hadid seem to have made an impression on creative director Jeremy Scott, as they were revealed to be the front women of the fashion house's SS17 campaign on Thursday. The supermodel sisters certainly proved their model prowess as they posed fiercely in the mix of show-stopping and quirky gowns, debuted on the Milan runway. Scroll down for video Leading ladies: Gigi (above) and Bella Hadid have fronted the SS17 campaign for Moschino Chic: The supermodel sisters proved their model prowess in the stunning shots as they posed fiercely in the mix of glamorous and quirky gowns, debuted on the runway at MFW The dramatic but stunning shots document the glamorously-clad girls being photographed by endless photographers. Gigi, who is currently dating Zayn Malik, first dazzled in an aqua blue gown which hugged her enviable figure from head to toe. In the collection's quirky style however, the blue silhouette was an image emblazoned onto another dress to act as an optical illusion - only enhanced by the garment's oversized cartoon cut-out sleeve. Pretty in pink: Bella later upped the glamour by posing in her own peach version of Gigi's blue paper gown Retaining her natural sense of style however, the blonde added a set of bejeweled earrings and styled her hair into soft waves, which effortlessly blew across her face. Meanwhile Bella first showed off her svelte physique in a chic black co-ord, formed of a jumper and skirt patterned printed with a colourful design of accessories. Turning her head to the side and bashing photographers away with a sleek leather handbag, the brunette beauty showcased her chiseled cheekbones and naturally striking facial features as she posed with ease. Raunchy: Another of the Victoria's Secret model's dresses featured the image of a lingerie-clad lady on the front to give the illusion she had no clothes on While Bella later upped the glamour by posing in her own peach version of Gigi's blue paper gown, her sister set pulses racing in a much saucier and deceptive number. Clad in a mini dress to flash her famously long legs, the Victoria's Secret model's dress featured the image of a lingerie-clad lady on the front to give the illusion she had no clothes on. The shots form the campaign for Moschino's Spring /Summer 17 campaign - which the sisterly duo debuted themselves at Milan Fashion Week in September. Stealing the show: The shots form the campaign for Moschino's Spring /Summer 17 campaign - which the sisterly duo debuted themselves at Milan Fashion Week in September Known for his incredibly kooky style, Moschino creative director Jeremy Scott had first wowed crowds with the optical-illusion pieces at the show, which made the supermodels look like dolls. For her first look of the night, the blonde had sashayed down the runway in a quirky floor length gown emblazoned with the image of a lingerie clad model. Hot on her heels was her sister who initially sported a slinky black mini printed with a lifelike looking Moschino waistbelt, one of the brand's most iconic sellers, alongside images of chains and pearls. All dolled up: Known for his kooky style, Moschino creative director Jeremy Scott had first wowed crowds with the optical-illusion pieces at the show, which made the pair look like dolls Happy: In light of the campaign Bella took to Instagram to upload a stunning selfie as 2017 kicked off - after finding huge success with sister Gigi over the last year The new campaign sees the girls kick off 2017 with a high - having rocketed to the heights of supermodel stardom over the course of the last year. Both Gigi and Bella took the Paris, New York, London and Milan Fashion Weeks by storm, walking for the likes of Versace, Chanel, Balmain and Michael Kors collectively. The siblings then walked the famous annual Victoria's Secret Fashion Show side by side, before both scoring a nomination for Model of the Year - which Gigi went on to win. However despite their hectic schedules, the pair ensured they spent time with their family away from the spotlight over the festive period - jetting to Aspen, Colorado for a ski trip with their brother Anwar and mother Yolanda Foster. She always keeps her followers up-to-date with her latest fashion must-haves. And Kylie Jenner was no different as she continued to flaunt her endless racy poolside wardrobe on social media while soaking-up the sun in Punta Mita, Mexico. The 19-year-old beauty mogul flaunted her endless curves as she sizzled in a olive green scalloped edge bikini that highlighted her womanly shape on Snapchat. Scroll down for video Serene in green: Kylie Jenner has been flaunting her endless racy poolside attire on social media while she enjoys a break away to Punta Mita, Mexico Admiring the view: The teen put her posing skills to work for her social media fans The ribbed two-piece teased at her ample cleavage as it clung to her assets, while she worked an array of poses on her social media. Her choice of bikini showcased her taut stomach as she opted to wear her swimsuit bottoms in a high-thigh style that hugged her toned pins and peachy derriere. Accentuating her golden glow with the khaki two piece, Kylie opted to keep her accessories simple as she worked a number of gold bracelets around her wrist to complement her nude manicure and flawless complexion. Making sure to have some fun while on her trip, the reality star used the social media platform's infamous dog filter, which saw her pose with adorable animated dog ears and tongue. Having fun: Making sure to have some fun while on her trip, the reality star used the social media platform's infamous dog filter, which saw her pose with adorable animated dog ears and tongue Sun-soaked: The KUWTK star was sure to fans a glimpse of her toned body and preferred swimsuit from all angles as she shared of number of clips of her lounging by the resort's pool, surrounded by the luscious Mexican scenery The KUWTK star was sure to fans a glimpse of her toned body and preferred swimsuit from all angles as she shared of number of clips of her lounging by the resort's pool, surrounded by the luscious Mexican scenery. Kylie is currently enjoying a New Year's sun-soaked break with her best friend Jordyn Woods, boyfriend Tyga and his son King, four, at Casa Aramara and continues to set pulses racing with her endless bikini pics. Meanwhile, the brunette beauty will no longer be 'posting personally' on her app after an unapproved post was published detailing her sex life with her 27-year-old boyfriend. The E! star took to Twitter on Tuesday night to share the news with her followers that she would no longer be writing her own posts on thekyliejenner.com, as she strongly denied having any involvement in a 'very personal post' about her relationship with the rapper. Whoops, there it is: On Tuesday morning, the celeb shared her embarrassment on Twitter after a questionable blog post titled 'How I Spoil My Man' was posted on the star's subscription app Hello sunshine: The teen lapped up the rays... and the attention on social media She tweeted: 'Hey guys from now on I won't be posting personally on my app anymore ... a post went up today quoting something that I NEVER EVER said or saw. 'A very personal post that I would never ever approve. And it's unfair to me and you to think that those were my words. I'm sorry and I know we will figure something out so we can all be satisfied Love You (sic)' She also tweeted that her app would now be run by her 'team and friends', but later deleted it. The deleted message read: 'It will strictly be just from my team and my friends keeping you guys updated' Beach buddies: Kylie and Jordyn kept an eye on their best angles in the Tuesday snapshots Color coordinated: Kylie and best friend Jordyn showed off their stellar bodies in a series of Instagram photos Tuesday The app post in question - which told her fans to 'spice things up with lingerie, toys, and massages' - has since been deleted, and the team behind Kylie's app also took to social media to share their 'sincere' apologies for the mishap. They wrote: 'To Kylie's fans: This morning, a drafted article was inadvertently posted for a short period of time on Kylie's app. This was a draft that was not in Kylie's words, was not Kylie's idea and had not been sent to her for approval. 'We'd like to sincerely apologize to Kylie for this mistake and the fans because it was never our intention to misrepresent Kylie and Kylie's voice. 'We deeply regret that this happened and will work hard to ensure this never occurs again. (sic)' Staying hidden in the hills: The 19-year-old star posed coyly in this shadowy shot that barely reveals the celeb's face Sasha Mielczarek's father Sasha Sr did not leave the Rebels bikie gang because he feared retribution, court documents have revealed. The confession comes as the tattoo artist was able to prevent his business, Picton Tattoos, from being forcibly closed this week after his ex-wife Dawn took over its licence,The Daily Telegraph reported. The business will now stay open provided it is run by Dawn and Sasha Sr has nothing to do with its operation, a tribunal ruled on Wednesday. Terrified to leave: Sasha Mielczarek's dad Sasha Sr claims he did not quit Rebels bikie gang after former member was 'hogtied and had his nipples slit' in bashing Last year, the elder Sasha was banned from working in his tattoo parlours by police due to alleged links to Rebel bikies. The father of Bachelorette star Sasha said stories about what happened to a former chapter president who quit scared him into staying. 'He, like me, has some assets. It has been reported that after he resigned he was kidnapped, bashed unconscious, hogtied and had his nipples slit with a knife,' Sasha Sr claimed in court documents. Saying open: Picton Tattoos was prevented from being forcibly closed on Wednesday after his ex-wife Dawn took over its licence, The Daily Telegraph reported Wanted to ride: The tattoo artist said he had only joined the bikie group because he wanted to go on 'riding holidays' which never materialised The tattoo artist said he had only joined the bikie group because he wanted to go on 'riding holidays' which never materialised. 'I never involved myself in drug use or any criminal activities of any of the club members,' Sasha Snr said. In February, Sasha Snr had his tattoo licence refused due to his association with bikies, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. 'I never involved myself in drug use or any criminal activities': He strongly denied he was a part of any illegal dealings The ban, which meant he could not work in either of his parlours located in Picton and Bowral, was enforced on grounds he was not a 'fit and proper person' due to his association with bikies. The reality TV star's father argued against the ban's enforcement, saying he had banned Rebel colours in his businesses and was focused on using his work to promote charity. In November he lost his appeal on the ban, with police relying on evidence he had 'knowledge in regard to a drive-by shooting at premises next to the Picton Parlour and a murder/suicide,' News Corp reported. Sasha's love problems: Sasha Jr faces some trials of his own, revealing he had mutually split from Sam Frost in December Wednesday's ruling comes as Sasha Jr faces some trials of his own. The builder revealed he had mutually split from his girlfriend of 18 months Sam Frost in late December, telling fans he was 'absolutely heartbroken' on Instagram. The couple had fallen in love on the 2015 season of The Bachelorette. But speculation has since been rife that Sasha may have a new love interest, after he was pictured embracing longtime friend Elisa Nolan on the Gold Coast over Christmas as his family visited hers. A pal of the dark-haired beauty told Daily Mail Australia that while Sasha and Elisa were old friends, she would love to see them get together romantically in time. The Instagram star is known for her expansive wardrobe. But it appears despite her constant jet setting throughout Australia, Skye Wheatley is yet to perfect the art of comfort. She shared a picture to Instagram on Thursday showing off her 'perfect travel pants' - a pair of tight jeans. Travel pants? Skye Wheatley gushed about her tight jeans on Thursday, and declared them 'perfect travel pants' The pants, from designer store Freddy, retail for between $170 and $200 and claim to have a 'shaping effect' on the wearers bum, thighs and waist. And while the effect of the jeans was not immediately clear, Skye was as usual, able to flaunt her slim waist and gym-honed physique in the selfie. She paired the pants with what appeared to be a nude leotard featuring a plunging neckline. Skye has at least two pairs of the jeans, and shared a picture of herself wearing them in yellow last week. The pants so nice she bought them twice! The social media star also has the pants in a yellow colour and claims to 'lounge around' in them At the time she claimed she was 'lounging around' in the garment planning her New Year's celebrations. 'These pants are so comfortable babes & so flattering,' she wrote in the caption, addressing her social media following. Despite her questionable choice in travel clothing, Skye is an experienced traveller. She regularly flies between her home on the Gold Coast and Sydney in order to see celebrity plastic surgeon Dr Michael Zacharia in Double Bay. Before and after: The 22-year-old has not made her proclamation of the number one travel pants without experience - she is often jetting interstate to see Sydney-based plastic surgeon Dr Michael Zacharia New nose! Skye flew to Sydney for a nose job late last year and has only recently revealed the dramatic results The doctor performed the former Big Brother contestant's nose job, which generated a mixed response from fans who worried she had gone too far with her plastic surgeries. Skye also met him for a consultation as she endeavoured to fix the botched boob job she received in Thailand in 2015, but it is not known if she went through with the procedure. The 22-year-old has also admitted to having lip fillers in the past. She's a TV weather girl, brand ambassador, socialite, blogger, and most importantly, the reigning queen of Melbourne's WAGs. And it looks like Rebecca Judd's son Oscar Dylan also enjoys looking good, just like his glamorous mum, if a recent social media update of the pair together is anything to go by. In the short clip, Oscar looks delighted after seeing himself in a flattering makeup filter that Bec selected from Instagram. 'Do you wanna look like that forever?' Rebecca Judd put a makeup Instagram filter on son Oscar The filter appeared to give five-year-old Oscar a golden complexion, lashings of mascara, and a leafy crown. 'Do you wanna look like that forever?' asks a beaming Bec as her young son admires his own distorted image. 'Yes,' Oscar responds shyly as he rubs his cheek and smiles. 'Yeah, you like it?' giggles proud Bec before turning the camera lens back on herself. 'Yes!' Oscar, 5, admitted that he wanted to look like the filter 'forever' after being prompted by his famous mum Now it's my turn! The WAG soon turned the camera onto herself so she could admire her own beautiful image, leaving poor little Oscar out of frame The stunning WAG then proceeds to admire herself, leaving little Oscar out of frame. Bec gave birth to Oscar in 2011, followed by daughter Billie Kate's arrival in 2014. In September last year, the doting mum welcomed twin boys Tom Andrew and Darcy Hugh Judd. He's treated fans to whistle-stop treks across California, South Africa, Finland and The Netherlands over recent weeks, but Jeremy Clarkson gave them a rather different Grand Tour on Thursday morning while visiting his dentist. Taking to Instagram, the outspoken presenter, 56, documented his latest appointment with a looking selfie, taken as he prepared for root canal surgery. With his eyes shielded behind a pair of protective glasses and a single tooth isolated by blue dental plaster, Clarkson appeared to be in some discomfort while waiting for his procedure. Captioning the shot, he wrote: So. How was your morning? Scroll down for video So, how was your morning? Taking to Instagram, Jeremy Clarkson documented his latest appointment with a looking selfie, taken as he prepared for root canal surgery Amazon Prime subscribers are currently getting more bang for their buck with The Grand Tour, as episode nine has yet more explosive scenes in it. In the brand new teaser for the hit show, Jeremy and James May take their rivalry with Richard Hammond to new levels as they blow his van up with a rocket. Heading to Stuttgart, Germany, for the latest tent location, the trio look to have upped the motoring mayhem following their Namibia beach buggy special. More bang for your buck? It seems that Amazon Prime subscribers are certainly getting more bang for their buck with The Grand Tour, as episode nine has yet more explosive scenes in it In the trailer for the episode, which is titled Berks To The Future, the trio head to Germany for the prospect of no speeding tickets whilst driving super cars on the motorway. But it's not the cars stealing the spotlight in the trailer for the ninth installment of series one, as it seems Jeremy and James have turned on Richard. Heading to a 'top secret' location, Richard is seen driving around in a heavily modified van which he claims is armour plated. Bit extreme? In the brand new teaser for the hit show, Jeremy and James May take their rivalry with Richard Hammond to new levels as they blow his van up with a rocket Describing how 'safe' he feels, the shot then cuts to the van exploding as a rocket propelled grenade hits it. Stood gloating over the 'good shot' Clarkson and May look to have made it their mission to try and destroy Richard's creation in what could be the trio's most dangerous challenge yet. Another highlight from the show, which will go live on Friday at midnight, sees the former Top Gear stars driving a convoy of supercars and rapid speed around the roads of Germany. All on his own: it's not the cars stealing the spotlight in the trailer for the ninth installment of series one, as it seems Jeremy and James have turned on Richard Back on the road: Heading to Stuttgart, Germany, for the latest tent location, the trio look to have upped the motoring mayhem following their Namibia beach buggy special Speed demons? Another highlight from the show sees the former Top Gear stars driving a convoy of supercars and rapid speed around the roads of Germany The episode will also featured a new creation of Jeremy's, which appears to be a convertible MG MGB modified to be a convertible 4X4. Following in the steps of previous episodes, it seems that trio have set up camp with their new studio tent in Southern Germany, whilst their free-reign to 'out Top Gear' Top Gear seems to be working. Episode Nine of The Grand Tour will go live on the Amazon Prime streaming service in the UK at 0:00 on Friday January 6. One stars in US racial drama Loving, while another plays Spider Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However it seems Ruth Negga and Tom Holland have their outstanding acting ability in common, as they were announced as two of the nominees for the EE Rising Star Award at this year's BAFTAs on Thursday. The young actors battle against Spanish actress Laia Costa, Lucas Hedges and Anya Taylor-Joy for the coveted prize - which was been won by the likes of Tom Hardy and James McAvoy in previous years. Scroll down for video On the way up: Ruth Negga and Tom Holland were announced as two of the nominees for the EE Rising Star Award at this year's BAFTAs on Thursday Speaking at the nominations announcement held at BAFTA HQ in London, the former stage star couldn't contain his excitement at the news, gushing:'I have had the craziest year - it's been nuts. It's been so fun.' Tom, 20, scored his nomination after starring as Peter Parker/Spider Man in Captain America: Civil War and his own upcoming flick Spider-Man: Homecoming, which he stars in alongside Zendaya, Michael Keaton and Robert Downey Jr. Talking of the experience at the event, he said :'I have got to work with lots of amazing people and I got to be Spider-Man this year which is a real dream come true. Leading man: Tom, 20, scored his nomination after starring as Peter Parker/Spider Man in Captain America: Civil War and his own upcoming flick Spider-Man: Homecoming Before he added: 'What an honour it is and what a great category to be nominated in. Thank you, thank you, thank you and I guess, vote for me.' The British actor, who rose to prominence in Billy Elliot at the age of 12, joins hot actress of the moment Ruth Negga in his fight for the award. Ruth, who was unable to attend the announcement ceremony, has been acting since 2004 - but caught huge attention after her role in upcoming flick Loving. Delighted: The Billy Elliot star said of the news: 'I have got to work with lots of amazing people and I got to be Spider-Man this year which is a real dream come true' The film, set for UK release in February, follows the star as Mildred Loving and her husband Richard (Joel Edgerton) in a court battle to approve their interracial marriage in 1960s America. Receiving rave reviews, the blockbuster subsequently competed for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival - while Ruth has been put forward for a whole host of awards, including a coveted Golden Globe for Best Actress. The pair also go against 20-year old Anya Taylor-Joy, who has starred in terrifying horror films The Witch and Morgan, directed by Ridley Scott's son Luke. All that glitters: Ruth Negga was also nominated, after wowing with her role in Loving - which also landed her a Golden Globe nomination Senorita: Spanish actress Laia Costa is also up for the award for her role in Sebastian Schipper's German drama Victoria Rivals: The pair also go against 20-year old Anya Taylor-Joy, who has starred in terrifying horror films The Witch and Morgan (L) and Lucas Hedges (R) Discussing her shortlisting, Anya said: 'I have had an intense but incredible year. I have been really lucky shooting projects I love. I have shot six movies this year - including The Witch.' Filling the last two spaces are Laia Costa, for her role in Sebastian Schipper's German drama Victoria and Lucas Hedges, who stars in Manchester By The Sea. The nominees were announced by 2009 BAFTA Rising Star Award winner Noel Clarke, who has gone on to star in Doctor Who and write and direct the Kidulthood trilogy. Knows his stuff: The nominees were announced by 2009 BAFTA Rising Star Award winner Noel Clarke Life-changing: Since winning the award Noel has gone on to star in Doctor Who and the Kidulthood franchise Clarke admitted at the event the prize gave his career a huge boost and will undoubtedly do the same for this year's eventual winner. He said: 'I was lucky to win the EE Rising Star Award in 2009, which was such an amazing moment for me, as the only award voted for by the British public it's so rewarding to know that doing what you love is actually not only recognized by BAFTA in the film industry but in winning, by the film fans at home too.' The shortlist was compiled in November by a panel of experts - including actor and previous EE Rising Star winner Will Poulter, presenter Edith Bowman, film critic James King, director Susanna White and casting directors Leo Davis and Lucy Bevan. The voting is now open online and the winner will be announced at the EE British Academy Film Awards on Sunday, February 12, 2017. Making an appearance: Panelist James King (above) who helped decide the nominees also headed to the event in a smart suit jacket and casual jeans The endless parade of runways and red carpets were temporarily retired this week as Lara Stone claimed the limelight in a star-studded new cover shoot for V Magazine. The Dutch model, 33, is in typically fine form as she strikes a pose on behalf of the publications New York Diaries themed shoot, arranged to celebrate the various icons who have helped shape the citys vast cultural landscape. Sporting a vibrant floral patterned blouse and matching neckerchief, Lara exposes her cleavage while appearing to sit for a simple love heart tattoo. Scroll down for video Looking good: Lara Stone is in typically fine form as she strikes a pose on behalf of the V Magazine's New York Diaries themed shoot, arranged to celebrate the various icons who have helped shape the citys vast cultural landscape With the tattooists gloved hands visible as he holds the gun to her chest, the willowy model offers the camera a coquettish stare. Fellow IT girls Joan Smalls, Lara Stone, Carolyn Murphy, Amber Valletta, Lily Aldridge, and Ellen Rosa also earned their own covers for the V Spring 2017 preview issue, all shot by celebrated photographer Mario Testino. American model Kendall Jenner also takes part in the campaign, showing off a huge fake inking of a snake on her hip. Sssss-tunning: American model Kendall Jenner also takes part in the campaign, showing off a huge fake inking of a snake on her hip The star put her cheeky side on show in high cut underwear and and a strapless black and white top. Speaking to The Edit in December, Lara admitted that she feels comfortable posing naked - a feat she now finds surprising after believing she was 'definitely not attractive' in her youth. Talking of the numerous raunchy shoots she has embarked on in the past, including one which saw her lying topless beneath pop sensation Justin Bieber for Calvin Klein, she admitted: 'I don't mind being naked in front of people, that's fine' Opening up: Speaking to The Edit in December, Lara admitted that she feels comfortable posing naked - a feat she now finds surprising after believing she was 'definitely not attractive' in her youth 'On a shoot, no one is staring at the naked model. They're doing a job and they've seen it all 100,000 times before. No one's interested.' The blonde beauty further admits that she has never felt uneasy about her appearance in the modelling world, whether fully clothed or not. She finally made her highly-anticipated return to social media with an adorable family photo the day before. And on Wednesday Kim Kardashian took to Snapchat to post her 'first selfie' since being attacked during an armed heist in October. 'First selfie of 2017 w my mama,' the 36-year-old reality star captioned a snapshot of herself throwing up the peace sign alongside momager, Kris Jenner. The Keeping Up With the Kardashians star was still spotted showing off her new lip ring. Picture perfect: Kim Kardashian took to Snapchat on Wednesday to post her 'first selfie' with momager Kris Jenner, 61 She wore a plunging black top that flashed a hint of cleavage and matching blazer with silk lapels. Kim kept her make-up to a minimum while opting solely for a thin black eyeliner and nude glossy lip. The wife of rapper Kanye West appeared to be sitting in a car as she took the photo with mom Kris, 61, sitting alongside her. The twice-divorced mother-of-six smiled from behind her daughter, as she donned a chic white coat over a black sweater and trousers. 'Family': On Tuesday the reality star took to social media and shared a darling photo of herself with husband Kanye West, 39, and their two children - daughter North, three, and one-year-old son Saint Kris opted for a dramatic smokey eye with dark liner, rosy cheeks and a burgundy glossed lip. On Tuesday Kim took to both her Twitter and Instagram to share a darling photo of herself and her family. In the snap she is joined by her husband of two years and their children - daughter North, three, and one-year-old son Saint. The adorable snap featuring her 39-year-old rapper hubby was shared with the simple caption: 'Family.' Change of heart? The 36-year-old star temporarily changed her Twitter name to just 'Kim' before reverting it back to 'Kim Kardashian West' The foursome could be seen all wearing white as they posed together on a wooden deck. Perhaps the star was thinking of returning with a completely new social media persona as she temporarily changed her Twitter name to simply 'Kim' before reverting it back to Kim Kardashian West. Kim has not posted on Instagram since she was robbed inside her room at the No Address Hotel in Paris back in early October. She was pulled from her bed in the early hours of the morning on October 3, bound and gagged, robbed and held at gunpoint in a $11 million heist. 'Missed you guys!': She thrilled fans when she returned to social media as the new year kicked off The mother-of-two was then placed in a bathtub after reportedly begging for her life. A source said: 'It was time for Kim to get back on social media and back to work. That is a huge part of her career. She has obligations to support her family and has an entire team working for her. It was time to get back to normal. 'It's hard to put a specific price on it, but Kim lost millions and millions of dollars in work she had to pass on because of the personal events in her life this fall. It's the first time Kim has not worked since she started being a celebrity really, and Kim is a workhorse. 'She's feeling really good and strong. She had three months off and was able to spend an amazing chunk of time with her kids and Kanye, and I don't think she would trade that in for anything, but she is ready to get back into a routine and back into the swing of things. She's in a very good place and is ready to move on.' However, Kim doesn't want to talk about what happened as she is 'not ready' to relive it just yet. Before the tragedy: Kim has not posted on social media since she was robbed during an armed heist in Paris back in early October The insider added: 'She's not ready to get into the past, but she is ready to move forward. Kim knows she has to address the robbery at some point, but she's not ready to just yet. 'She's uncomfortable talking about it still. It's the scariest thing that's ever happened to her, and for her to relive that night by every detail is something she's mentally and emotionally putting off right now.' Kim has had a tragic year as the victim of the terrorizing event, husband Kanye hospitalized for a mental breakdown and she now faces speculation her marriage is on the rocks. In November, Kanye was rushed to a hospital in Los Angeles after a psychotic breakdown, thought to be brought on by exhaustion. Audio from the 911 phone call placed on the day Zsa Zsa Gabor died from a heart attack reveal that the Hollywood star was in need of CPR. TMZ has obtained audio from the phone call, which begins with Gabor's husband Frederic Prinz Von Anhalt, 73, telling the operator that his wife has 'almost no blood pressure.' According to the website, the phone call disconnected before the operator was able to give instructions on how to perform CPR on Gabor. Emergency: Audio from the 911 phone call placed on the day of Zsa Zsa Gabor's death reveal that the Hollywood star was in need of CPR (pictured with Frederic Prinz Von Anhalt in 1992) Gabor passed away at the age of 99 on December 18 from a heart attack. In the phone call, Von Anhalt briefly speaks with the operator before giving the phone to an in-house nurse. The operator then seems to place a second call to the nurse's cell phone due to a bad signal and, after reconnecting and speaking briefly with each other, she asks: 'Can you hurry up, please?' 'They're on the way, but... we need to try and start CPR on her until they get there, okay?' the operator tells the nurse. 'Are you right next to the bed now?' Instructions: In the phone call, Von Anhalt briefly speaks with the operator before giving the phone to an in-house nurse (pictured together in 1989) 'Yes,' she responds. The operator can be heard continuing to give the nurse instructions on how to position her hospital bed. 'You are not able to get her off the bed and put her on the floor?', the operator asks. 'Between the two of you, are you able to get her off the bed and put her on the floor?' Marriage: Von Anhalt married Gabor in 1986 and was her ninth husband (pictured in 1991) 'If we can do that quickly, and as soon as you have her on the floor, let me know and I will give you the instructions,' the operator says. The operator later asks: 'Have you been able to move her onto the floor?' 'Once you have her on the floor, by any chance, do you have a defibrillator available?', the operator also asks. After some more discussion, the operator asks, 'Were you able to get her onto the floor now?' No place like home: Gabor pictured relaxing by the pool of her stunning Bel-Air mansion in 1992 'Okay...next to her, okay?' the operator says, marking the end of the audio. Von Anhalt married Gabor in 1986 and was her ninth husband. Following her death, Von Anhalt took Inside Edition on a morbid tour of their lavish Bel-Air mansion, and even revealed how he gave his wife CPR in an attempt to save her, as well as what her final words were. 'I lifted her out, I put her (on the floor),' he said, according to the celebrity news outlet. Hollywood icon: Gabor was remembered for her love of glamour and red carpets (pictured in the 1950's) 'The guy was on the phone and told me what to do. I had to press on her chest by her breast because she was still breathing. She was breathing when she was on the floor.' Gabor was remembered for her love of glamour and red carpets. Von Anhalt gave a lengthy eulogy at her funeral at a Beverly Hills church on December 30, and said his life was 'empty' without her. He and a team of nurses cared for Gabor in their Bel Air home in recent years. Von Anhalt continued to throw her lavish birthday celebrations even after she could no longer attend, and reported her maladies dutifully to the media. Kate Beckinsale has been on a promotional tour in New York City this week. And she continued making the rounds for Underworld: Blood Wars by stopping by Good Morning America on Thursday. The slender 43-year-old showed off her toned frame in a black long-sleeved crop top and loose fitting silky black pants. Promotional tour: Kate Beckinsale showed off her toned frame in a black long-sleeved crop top and loose fitting silky black pants on Thursday in NYC while promoting her new film The gorgeous star added a pop of color to her feet with multi-colored striped pumps. She protected herself from the harsh New York winter with a long cream trench coat the she delicately draped over her shoulders, opting not to put her arms through. The British-born siren wore her chestnut brown hair long and wavy, sweeping it over to one shoulder for the short trip between the building and her car. Although it appeared a little dark outside, Kate opted to wear dark black sunglasses as she made her way to the morning show set. Keeping warm: The gorgeous star protected herself from the harsh New York winter with a long cream trench coat the she delicately draped over her shoulders Pop of color: British-born Kate added a pop of color to her feet with multi-colored striped pumps. Her makeup was done in a manner that highlighted her natural beauty and, despite the glasses covering her face, her flawless skin was evident with a light brushing of pink lipstick covering her lips. Kate tells GMA she is particularly proud of the film because of the message of girl power it portrays. 'It's quite good. I feel really privileged to have that,' she said about her time on the powerful franchise. Flawless: The British-born siren wore her chestnut brown hair long and wavy, sweeping it over to one shoulder She also gushed about her daughter Lily who was recently accepted in college, revealing she will be going to school in New York. The actress also revealed she doesn't have a driver's license. 'Yes, it's true and my daughter has,' she quipped. But she said she does sit in the passengers seat while her daughter is behind the wheel. Wardrobe change: She later changed into a short fur jacket and black shoes, but kept on the silky black pants to continue her fashion (and press) tour On the move: The beautiful Brit was seem stepping out of her New York City hotel and reportedly on her way out of the city Promoting her film in the big city: The Chiswick native has appeared in almost every Underworld film as a gun slinging vampire 'Death Dealer' called Selene She later changed into a short fur jacket and black shoes, but kept on the silky black pants to continue her fashion (and press) tour. The beautiful Brit was seem stepping out of her New York City hotel and reportedly on her way out of the city, making her way to JFK airport. She still had her black sunglasses, which she's been sporting all around the city as she attended various media calls. The actress was traveling light as she was only carrying a medium black handbag that matched her outfit perfectly. Jet setter: The busy brunette was later spotted arriving for a flight at JFK airport The Chiswick native has appeared in almost every Underworld film as a gun slinging vampire 'Death Dealer' called Selene. Blood Wars is the fifth installment in the franchise, and the fourth for Kate personally. From 2004 until this year, she was also married to Len Wiseman, who'd directed the first two films in the series and who's been a producer on all of them. She has just penned a book entitled Confidence: The Secret. But even Katie Piper has suffered a few self doubts over the years, admitting during an appearance on Loose Women on Thursday that she questioned her motherhood abilities after first giving birth two years ago. 'You can have this amazing confidence and people can bring you back down again,' she said. 'I remember having a baby and thinking - "this is a whole new world. I don't know if I'm really good at this".' Scroll down for video Star in stripes: Katie Piper arrived at the Loose Women studios on Thursday The star and her husband Richard James Sutton welcomed their daughter Belle two years ago. Ever the professional, Katie posed for pictures holding her new tome outside the studios before heading in for a TV chat with Loose Women Jane Moore, Katie Price, Ruth Langsford and Anne Diamond. The 33-year-old sported a striped sweater and leather mini-skirt teamed with distinctive butterfly stiletto boots by Sophie Webster, while smokey eyeshadow and pink lipstick completed the look. Heely good: Katie strutted her stuff in the Katie Webster butterfly heels Hell for leather: The activist showed off her slim legs in the short skirt with a colourful sweater Blonde on blonde: The star has become a successful author and activist The star also discussed how her husband had helped with her confidence levels following the horrific acid attack nine years ago which required her needing multiple surgeries. 'I always talk about my husband giving me confidence and it wasn't that I needed a man to feel good about myself,' she explained. 'I always see men as a luxury not a necessity. 'I was confident without him but he enhanced my life and gave me certainty and stability.' Chewing the fat: Katie went into some of her troubles over the past years during the chat What Katie did: Katie Price quizzed the star about her confidence nowadays Secrets: Katie told Anne Diamond and Ruth Langsford that confidence was in the journey not the destination Ruth also quizzed Katie about her admission that she turned to alcohol in some of her darker moments since the attack. 'I talk about all the things I did turn to,' she said. 'The tools I use, exercise, healthy eating and there were some darker things I did turn to. 'It was nipped in the bud early,' she added. I'd come so far with so much counselling it would be awful to go so far back on a slippery slope. Promotional duties: The star said her latest tome would sit in the self help category at bookstores Dark days Katie was also quizzed about her admission that she turned to alcohol in some of her darker moments since the attack Back to work! Katie captioned a humorous snap as she received a massage in her dressing room 'I think wrongly I'm packaged up as this positive, happy inspirational person and when I was writing the book, I didn't want it to be a fluffy skim-through read,' she confided. 'I wrote it with a consultant psychologist. I'm most confident at work but if I had to g o to a mother and baby group I would think 'I don't know anyone.; Katie then later swapped her ensemble for a more casual outfit, emerging from the studios sporting a pair of striped tracksuit bottoms, scoop neck top and bright blue shoulder bag. Kourtney Kardashian is a hot mama. The 37-year-old reality TV star flaunted her flawless bikini body in a series of Instagram posts chronicling her travels from the Bahamas on Thursday. The mother-of-three sported a teeny purple string suit which showcased her age-defying figure for all of her 51.2 million followers to gawk. Scroll down for video Hot mama! Kourtney Kardashian flaunted her flawless bikini body in a series of Instagram posts chronicling her travels from the Bahamas on Thursday Kourtney proudly showed off her perfectly toned and tanned body in the series captioned, 'Travel Diary: The Bahamas.' The petite brunette opted for a simple two-piece suit which put her impossibly flat abs on display. She further drew attention to her washboard tummy by adding a gold belly chain necklace to her vacation look. The mother of Mason, seven, Penelope, four, and Reign Disick, two, sat alone on a staircase and looked like she was enjoying her R&R. Toned and tanned: The 37-year-old mother-of-three sported a teeny purple string suit which showcased her age-defying figure for all of her 51.2 million followers to gawk In another shot, Kourtney lounged poolside in her pale purple suit and worked more on her tan. The practical Keeping Up With The Kardashians' star pulled her long locks back into a ponytail while she sizzled in the sun. The bathing beauty opted for no make-up and shielded herself from the sun with a pair of over-sized metal aviators. Sun bum: Kourtney proudly showed off her perfectly toned and tanned body in the series captioned, 'Travel Diary: The Bahamas' Kourtney also shared a close-up selfie showing off her cleavage and another pair of rad shades which turned the lenses red in the bright outdoors. The privileged beauty has been traveling the globe on holiday only recently returning from Aspen, Colorado with her family and on-off beau Scott Disick. Turning to another form of social media on Thursday, Kourtney let her followers in on a little more of her day in the life. Kourtney was clad in only a robe as she took to Snapchat revealing a lot of leg and 'The daily debate' of what to wear. Toward the end of her story it seems the fashionista settled on a camouflaged trench coat and ripped jeans. Routine: Turning to another form of social media on Thursday, Kourtney let her followers in on a little more of her day in the life Problems: Kourtney was clad in only a robe as she took to Snapchat revealing a lot of leg and 'The daily debate' of what to wear She recently returned to Los Angeles after spending Christmas in Australia with her girlfriend, Jessica Origliasso. But Ruby Rose was on the move again on Wednesday, spotted jetting out of LAX after returning to the city just days earlier. Unlike most commuters, The Orange Is The New Black star did not dress down for her flight, opting to highlight her signature style in a typically fashion-forward ensemble. Scroll down for video Fashion forward: Ruby Rose highlighted her signature style as she jetted out of LAX in Los Angeles on Wednesday, wearing a very busy coat that was teamed with heeled combat boots Despite the mild winter temperatures, Ruby covered up in a very fluffy black and white coat, that was of an ostrich feather style. The garment was no doubt faux, as Ruby is an animal rights activist who once posed nude on the cover of Maxim magazine as part of an anti-fur protest. Under the garb, Ruby wore an unusual top that featured a black leather collar and blue netting. Commuting in style: Ruby looked every inch the movie star as she was spotted making her way through the terminal The item was adorned with what appeared to be silver rings. On her feet, Ruby wore a pair of heeled metallic combat boots as she made her way inside the terminal. She accessorised with a black handbag that featured a silver chain, that added to her rock star look. 'Everyday is a dream': Ruby shared this snap to Instagram that was taken by her girlfiend, Jess, on the last day of her holiday in Australia Once inside Ruby, who will next be seen in the big-budget action film XXX: The Return of Xander Cage, removed her sunglasses to reveal her flawless complexion. The star's make-up was immaculately applied, with a pink lip and a touch of highlighter applied to her cheeks. Shortly after she was spotted at the airport, the 30-year-old beauty took to Instagram to reflect on her recent festive break in Australia. Love: Ruby Rose recently spent the Christmas break in Australia with Jess The star shared a photo that showed her as a silhouette against a stunning sunset backdrop. Possibly referring to her hectic schedule, Ruby put as her comment, 'Hit the ground running for 2017 but after an amazing 2016 it was summed up best in this moment on my last day in Australia after Xmas with my family'. The snap was taken by Ruby's Veronicas star girlfriend, Jess, who recently flew back to America with the star. Summing up, Ruby wrote, 'I couldn't choose a favorite time or event of '16. Truly, I just feel very blessed and humbled. Everyday is a dream.' Beauty and the Beast, staring Emma Watson, is out in cinemas in March After a year in which the cinema was unable to match politics for tales of the unexpected, 2017 should restore some balance. Its looking like a very interesting year for film. There are sci-fi, superhero and war blockbusters aplenty, including new Star Wars, Blade Runner and Planet Of The Apes films. Im particularly looking forward to Christopher Nolans Dunkirk. But there is also the promise of some juicy thrillers, stirring romances, period swooners and sharp comedies, not to mention at least one weepie, Lion, that could drive up sales of extra-ply tissues. Younger cinema-goers should be notably well-served, too. So, for 2017, here are 17 exciting films to appeal to all tastes and due to reach our screens in the next 12 months. Beauty And The Beast Following in the dainty glass slipper-steps of the delightful Cinderella, this is another Disney live-action remake of one of its own animations. Emma Watson plays one title character, Dan Stevens the other. I think you can guess which is which. As Belle, Ms Watson, by all accounts, introduced Disney to her feisty brand of feminism and declined to wear a corset under her frock. Ian McKellen, Emma Thompson and Ewan McGregor also feature. Out in March. Blade Runner 2049 French-Canadian director Denis Villeneuve whose last two films were the excellent Sicario and Arrival is the man entrusted with the Blade Runner baton, 35 years after the Ridley Scott original. Promisingly, his cinematographer is the hugely accomplished Englishman Roger Deakins, 13 times an Oscar nominee. And Harrison Ford returns, just like he did in Star Wars, although Ryan Gosling will do most of the running and jumping. Scott is also involved, as producer. Out in October. Ryan Gosling in Blade Runner 2049, directed by Denis Villeneuve 35 years after the Ridley Scott original Coco The Mexican festival Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, has inspired plenty of film-makers in recent years, not least Sam Mendes, who used it as the backdrop for a memorable pre-credits sequence in the Bond film Spectre. Now Pixar is at it, with this animation about a young Mexican boy who, during the festivities, finds himself in the realm of the departed. Pixars parent company, Disney, has been accused of cultural appropriation for trying (unsuccessfully) to trademark the phrase Dia de los Muertos. But well forgive them if this is as good as it promises to be. Out in November. Gary Oldman will become Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour Darkest Hour John Lithgow did a fine job as Churchill in the Netflix series The Crown, but he never quite looked the part. From the pictures weve seen, Gary Oldman certainly does, uncannily, in this drama set at the outset of World War II, just after Churchill becomes leader. The screenplay is by Anthony McCarten, the talented New Zealander who wrote The Theory Of Everything, and the cast includes Lily James as Winstons personal secretary, Kristin Scott Thomas as his wife, Clementine, and John Hurt as Neville Chamberlain. Joe Wright (Atonement) directs. Out in November. Dunkirk Christopher Nolans breathlessly anticipated World War II film tells the story of the extraordinary mass evacuation of Allied soldiers from the beaches of Dunkirk in 1940. It boasts a fantastic British cast, led by Tom Hardy, Mark Rylance and Kenneth Branagh. Oddly, its one of the rare Nolan films not to feature Sir Michael Caine. But, in a bid to attract a younger audience, it does mark the acting debut of a certain boy band star Harry Styles, of One Direction fame. Out in July. Guardians Of The Galaxy 2 This sequel has plenty to live up to; the original Guardians Of The Galaxy was not only a huge box-office smash in 2014, but also enormous fun. With Spider-Man and Thor films to follow, its a big year for the money-making machine known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But this should get things off to a cracking start. After the huge success of the first film, Chris Pratt returns with much of the same cast for Guardians of the Galaxy 2 The cast is much the same as last time (Chris Pratt, Bradley Cooper and Zoe Saldana), but with some intriguing additions, such as Elizabeth Debicki, the Aussie actress whose raunchy sex scenes with Tom Hiddleston in last years BBC drama The Night Manager caused such a stir. Out in April. Kong: Skull Island And here is Hiddleston, presumably with his bottom well covered, playing the leader of a team of explorers who come across cinemas hairiest icon in yet another version of the story first written in 1932 by former Daily Mail war correspondent Edgar Wallace. Tom Hiddleston with Brie Larson and John O'Reilly in Kong: Skull Island, in cinemas in March Samuel L. Jackson, John Goodman and Brie Larson also star, and the co-writer is Dan Gilroy, who wrote (and directed) the brilliant Nightcrawler. Lets hope he can breathe new life into a decidedly familiar tale. Out in March. Lion Ive already seen this, and its absolutely wonderful. Its the almost unbearably moving (true-life) tale, beautifully directed by debutant Garth Davis, of an Indian boy called Saroo, who was accidentally separated from his mother and brother at the age of five, before being adopted by an Australian couple. Nicole Kidman and Sunny Pawar in Lion, which is out in January. Brian Viner says Kidman hines in this 'unbearably moving' tale Then, as an adult, he traced and was reunited with his biological family. Im not the biggest fan of Dev Patels acting ability, but he delivers as the grown-up Saroo, while the child version, newcomer Sunny Pawar, is simply sensational. Nicole Kidman shines, too, as Saroos loving adoptive mother. Out this month. Miss Sloane Jessica Chastain is tipped as an Oscar contender for her performance as Elizabeth Sloane, a fierce Capitol Hill lobbyist who strays into the angry crossfire of gun-ownership politics. I hear its not a brilliant film but that Chastain is utterly compelling in it, which definitely makes it one to look out for: shes a wonderful actress. The British director, John Madden, made Shakespeare In Love and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Out in February. Jessica Chastain is tipped as an Oscar contender for her role as Elizabeth Sloane, above, with Mark Strong Murder on the Orient Express Sidney Lumets 1974 version of Agatha Christies famous whodunit cannot possibly be matched in terms of its illustrious cast. Ingrid Bergman (who won an Oscar), Lauren Bacall, John Gielgud, Vanessa Redgrave and Sean Connery all starred, alongside Albert Finney as Poirot. Still, Judi Dench, Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Penelope Cruz and Derek Jacobi isnt too shabby a line-up, with Kenneth Branagh (who also directs) as the moustachioed sleuth. It should be a treat. Out in November. Paddington 2 Of all this years sequels and they are depressingly numerous, stretching even to Toy Story 4 and Fast & Furious 8 this is one of the few to get excited about. The first Paddington film was a joy and this one reunites the cast and crew, with Ben Whishaw again the voice of the marmalade-loving Peruvian bear. Mind you, his return isnt welcomed by everyone. Paddington Bear film set staff acting like armed militia, say angry Little Venice residents was one local paper headline during production. Out in November. Paddington 2 is one of the few sequels of 2017 to be excited about, says Brian Viner Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men tell No Tales Johnny Depp based his performance as Captain Jack Sparrow on Keith Richards, who duly popped up in two sequels as his raddled old dad. The trouble is, judging by his occasional slurred chat-show appearances, that Depp looks like he could now play Richardss father. At any rate, he hasnt aged well, and an acrimonious marital split, complete with allegations of abuse, has further eroded some of his previously devoted fan base. So this film, the fifth in the series, will show us whether hes still got the magnetism, and the box-office appeal, of old. Out in May. Another sequel for 2017 is Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men tell no tales with villainous Captain Salazar The Snowman This is entirely unrelated to the much-loved animated version of the Raymond Briggs book, so dont take the children along. Instead, this is based on Jo Nesbos bestselling crime novel, and stars Michael Fassbender as Harry Hole, the maverick Norwegian detective on the snowy trail of a serial killer. Martin Scorsese was briefly attached as director, but in the event Tomas Alfredson, who made the 2011 film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, takes the helm. Rebecca Ferguson, whose name rather belies her Swedishness, co-stars. Out in October. Spiderman: Homecoming Another British actor plays the web-weaving Marvel superhero, following Andrew Garfields two-film stint. Now its the turn of Tom Holland, who made his spider-suit debut in Captain America: Civil War, but this time gets a whole story to himself, as Peter Parker tries to balance his high school life with the demands placed on his crime-fighting alter ego. Holland first proved his acting credentials in the West End stage version of Billy Elliot, so we know he s light on his feet. Out in July. Star Wars: Episode VIII The second in the Star Wars sequel trilogy features John Boyega, Daisy Ridley and everyone else who made 2016s Star Wars: The Force Awakens, such a monumental cinematic event. Expect to see the late Carrie Fisher, too. The story begins where the last film ended, and the writer-director is Rian Johnson, who can consider himself lucky to land such a prestigious gig. His previous movies have been well-received, but were much smaller projects. Out in December. Victoria And Abdul Judi Dench reprises her turn in the lovely 1997 film Mrs Brown, again playing Queen Victoria, in another story focusing on the Queens controversial real-life relationship with a servant. In this case its a young Indian clerk, Abdul Karim, who served Victoria devotedly during the last 15 years of her reign, while all around them snorted and sniffed their disapproval. Stephen Frears directs an all-star British cast, which includes Simon Callow, Michael Gambon and Tim Pigott-Smith, with Eddie Izzard, a little bizarrely, as the Prince of Wales. The writer is the excellent Lee Hall, whose screenplays include Billy Elliot, Pride And Prejudice and War Horse. Out in September. Wonder Woman The first three films in the grandiosely named DC Extended Universe have been disappointing, so lets hope they finally give Marvel a run for their money with this one, in which Israeli actress Gal Gadot at last gets to play the Amazonian princess as more than just an extended cameo. Gal Gadot takes on the role of Wonder Woman, endorsed by none other than Lynda Carter, who played her on TV in the 1970s Over the years it seemed that Wonder Women would never cease. Since the Nineties the part has been linked with Sandra Bullock, Angelina Jolie, Catherine Zeta Jones and even Beyonce, among numerous others. But Lynda Carter, no less, has endorsed the choice of Gadot. He sent pulses racing with a nude calendar shoot before going into the Celebrity Big Brother House. And despite requesting eye candy for his time inside the house, a source has revealed that Austin Armacost has reportedly in fact already got a boyfriend. The 28-year-old reality star is said to be smitten with NHS business architect Darren Banks. Scroll down for video New man? Austin Armacost, 28, is said to be smitten with NHS business architect Darren Banks (pictured) 'Austin and Darren have been together for a few months,' a source told The Sun. Revealing that they've reportedly been dating since last October, they added: 'It's still early days but Austin is totally smitten. According to reports they have enjoyed a number of holidays to Iceland and Hong Kong together, and another pal insisted to the paper that producers know about his romance. 'Austin hasn't kept their relationship from the producers, they are more than aware he is off the market,' they said. Pictured with ex-husband Jake Lee: The CBB star split from his husband last year Austin provided some man-candy himself, when he stripped off to proudly show off the fruits of his labour in a series of racy snapshots which show him in his complete naked glory - for his new 2017 calendar. In photographs exclusively obtained by MailOnline, the ex-boyfriend of designer Marc Jacobs is seen displaying his muscular frame in a range of skimpy ensembles ranging from a tight wet T-shirt to barely-there red swimming trunks. While his new calendar is sure to set pulses racing, Austin has revealed that he's all but lost his desire for sex since breaking up with his personal trainer husband Jake Lees in July after eight years of marriage. A right to bare Armacost: Austin has stripped off for his racy new 2017 calendar Great body of work: The raunchy images feature the American showing off his muscular frame 'I am very asexual person,' he told The Sun. 'I am probably in all honesty the least sexual people you will ever meet. As much as I love getting my kit off and showing my bum everywhere, I am like a nun in bed.' He added: 'I am not going to go out with someone and have sex with them. Even after a fourth or fifth date that's not what I want. I want a nice man! It has little to do with physicality.' Inked: The ex-boyfriend of Marc Jacobs also shows off his collection of eye-catching tattoos His revelation comes as it has been revealed that he stripped completely naked for the cameras back in 2010, when he appeared on US reality show A-List: New York. In recently resurfaced footage, Austin posed full frontal for Playgirl - only to be humiliatingly rejected by the magazine due to his purportedly minuscule manhood. Daniel Nardicio, the magazine's then editor said at the time: ' I low-balled him with a $3k offer to pose, thinking he'd never take it. He was insecure about the small size of his penis, which is why I was so complimentary. Twice as nice: The 28-year-old made a return to Celebrity Big Brother on Tuesday night Lost desire: Austin recently revealed that he's 'asexual' following the breakdown of his marriage to personal trainer husband Jake Lees in July 'I always have to stroke models' egos, but he was understandably embarrassed. Soft it's tiny It made me think of the Dolly Parton song Little Sparrow.' Austin, who finished as runner-up to James Hill in the 2015 edition of CBB, recently opened up about a traumatic sexual assault that resulted in him fearing for his life. The American star recounted his decade-long HIV scare after being date raped in a moving piece for GuysLikeU.com. Fear: He also recently opened up about fearing he'd contracted HIV following a date rape Who's the boss: Austin has been appointed as one of CBB's 'producers' - who have the ability to 'edit out' housemates that they don't deem to be particularly entertaining He confessed he was sexually assaulted in Chicago almost 10 years ago, recalling how everything became 'very blurry' during a night out with a male friend and waking up in man's flat two days later. Following a week of crippling anxiety, Austin got himself checked for HIV - but was too afraid to go back for the follow-up test, resulting in him living in fear every single day for the next nine years. He wants to hang out with you! Austin Armacost's 2017 calendar is available from www.greatcalendaroffers.com/austin Austin said: 'As a result of the unwanted assault, I was terrified of sex for years following that experience. It haunted me every day. 'It also contributed a large part to my drug and alcohol abuse in my twenties.' Describing how he felt after realising the test was negative, Austin explained: 'I had lived my life scared of a disease that has been so monumentally stigmatized for so long, yet a five minute test all those years ago could have helped me avoid the years of fear and panic I went through.' The star went on to say that he hoped to raise awareness, revealing that he believes PrEP - Pre-exposure prophylaxis, a pill to prevent those at substantial risk of contracting HIV - is a blessing and will greatly benefit the gay community. Meanwhile CBB housemate Bianca Gascoigne has reportedly also kept a secret romance under-wraps. According to The Sun, the 30-year-old model is dating cage fighter CJ Meeks. The couple went public with their romance in August, but the blonde bombshell reportedly told CBB producers that she was now single in order to guarantee her place in the house. Detroit auto show comes amid uncertain Trump future The automotive world descends on Detroit this weekend for the annual auto show, which will highlight rapidly-evolving technology, but comes amid an uncertain climate following Donald Trump's public tussles with US car makers. The 29th edition of the show, held in the American car capital, will showcase the increasingly prominent role of digital and electric advances, starting with its unofficial kickoff on Sunday, when Google will showcase a self-driving car partnership with Chrysler. While the show will be looking to the future, prior to the show's public opening on January 14 many industry insiders likely will be focused on the present, notably the increased uncertainty from an incoming Trump administration. The 29th edition of the Detroit auto show will showcase the increasingly prominent role of digital and electric advances JEWEL SAMAD (AFP/File) The president-elect has shown a willingness to apply pressure, especially via Twitter, on US manufacturers like Boeing, Carrier, Lockheed, GM and Ford to criticize corporate strategies, especially those involving investment and employment outside the United States. He has vowed to preserve American jobs or bring them back, threatened to impose tariffs on American goods made in Mexico and China, and tear up the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico. - NAFTA and the US economy - "We've never experienced anything quite like this," said Alan Deardorff, a professor at the University of Michigan who focuses on international trade policy. Trade deals take years to have an effect as economies adjust, he said, so it is unclear what would happen to the US car industry should those deals be abruptly canceled or changed. "We've never gone in this direction, not in recent history," he said. But he warned one likely outcome is an increase in the car prices, making them less competitive in a global economy. Matt DeLorenzo, who tracks the auto industry for Kelley Blue Book, said US carmakers "will have to reassess their whole Mexico strategy and NAFTA." An early sign of that reassessment came in dramatic fashion Tuesday when Ford appeared to capitulate to months of Trump's criticism by scrapping plans to build a $1.6 billion plant in Mexico. Instead it will use $700 million of those funds to expand a Michigan plant, creating 700 new jobs. "It's literally a vote of confidence around some of the pro-growth policies that (Trump) has been outlining and that's why we're making this decision to invest here in the US," Ford CEO Mark Fields said. Ford has been investing in high-tech, electric vehicle development, and beefing up higher-skilled American manufacturing can help better accomplish that goal, while its cheaper, less technology-laden car models are produced in Mexico. Trump also targeted GM in a tweet Tuesday, threatening to impose a tariff on the car giant's Mexican-made Chevrolet Cruze cars. GM responded quickly, emphasizing that the vast majority of its US-sold Cruze vehicles are made in Ohio. Despite the rhetoric, the worst fears of what a Trump administration might do in 2017 are unlikely to come to pass, said Christopher Wilson, who studies US-Mexico policy at the Wilson Center, a Washington think tank. "The incoming administration is coming to terms with the reality" of the cross-border car manufacturing process, Wilson said. He warned that there may be other efforts undertaken to address negative effects from globalization, including new tax policies and a renegotiation of NAFTA. "Anything that puts NAFTA at risk, puts the US economy at risk," he said. - Full automation? Not yet - With those high stakes in play, the auto industry will open the Detroit auto show that this year focuses on autonomous car technologies, amid the usual array of vehicle debuts and demonstrations. The bulk of the show's more than 300 exhibitors are start-ups boasting new technologies for connected and self-driving cars. Major manufacturers also are in the game. Volkswagen, seeking to turn the page from the diesel emissions scandal that led to a 7.6 percent sales tumble in 2016, plans to unveil an electric, autonomous concept car. Google's self-driving car subsidiary Waymo will showcase a Chrysler Pacifica minivan outfitted with self-driving technology. "The race has accelerated in the last 12 months between car groups, Silicon Valley giants and consumer electronics groups to be the first in market" with an autonomous car, said Karl Brauer of Kelley Blue Book. Despite that onslaught, analysts say autonomous technology is currently in the early stages, in which human intervention is still required. "Full automation is the ultimate goal, but at the moment, no company has fully autonomous vehicles in production," Jefferies & Co. tech analyst Brian Fitzgerald said. Michelle Krebs, an industry analyst with AutoTrader, said part of the challenge is overcoming hesitant consumer sentiment, which has been evolving from suspicious to cautious. "There's going to be a lot of experimentation ... in terms of how do we make autonomous available to consumers," Krebs said. An AutoTrader annual survey of consumer sentiment found shifting attitudes. After initially considering autonomous technologies too dangerous, consumers were becoming more accepting, Krebs said. "Consumers want more and more driver assist technology," she said, "and they are warming up to the idea of autonomous, fully self-driving" cars. The production of these technology-packed cars will require a highly-skilled workforce. Robert Scott of the Economic Policy Institute said that is an opportunity for American manufacturing to catch up, should policymakers in the Trump administration take steps to invest in labor force training and other services for displaced workers. "They're going to have to do more than renegotiate NAFTA," to bring manufacturing jobs back at a large scale, Scott said. While the Detroit auto show will be looking to the future, many industry insiders likely will be focused on the increased uncertainty from an incoming Trump administration BILL PUGLIANO (Getty/AFP/File) Ford's decision to cancel plans to build a new factory in Mexico was widely interpreted in Mexico as the result of Donald Trump's repeated criticism of the $1.6bn project JUSTIN SULLIVAN (Getty/AFP/File) Netanyahu urges pardon for soldier who killed Palestinian Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for a pardon for a soldier convicted of manslaughter for shooting dead a wounded Palestinian attacker as he lay on the ground. Elor Azaria, whose military trial since May has deeply divided Israel, was convicted on Wednesday, with right-wing politicians defending him despite top army brass condemning his actions. He now faces up to 20 years in prison. Israelis demonstrate outside the defence ministry in Tel Aviv in support of Israeli soldier Elor Azaria, who shot dead a wounded Palestinian assailant JACK GUEZ (AFP) Reacting to the conviction, Netanyahu called for the 20-year-old French-Israeli sergeant to be pardoned. "This has been a hard and painful day for us all -- first and foremost for Elor and his family," Netanyahu wrote on Facebook. "I support giving a pardon to Elor Azaria." Netanyahu made waves before the trial even began by calling Azaria's father to express his sympathy. President Reuven Rivlin's office had earlier said any talk of a pardon was premature and that an application could only be made after the judicial process had run its course. No date has yet been announced for sentencing, and Azaria could then appeal. Judge Colonel Maya Heller spent more than two and a half hours reading out the court decision, criticising the arguments of Azaria's lawyers. On behalf of the three-judge panel, Heller said there was no reason for Azaria to open fire since the Palestinian was posing no threat. She called his testimony "evolving and evasive". "His motive for shooting was that he felt the terrorist deserved to die," she said. Azaria had entered the courtroom smiling, applauded by family and supporters. But he looked shaken as the judge spoke, and after the verdict his mother yelled: "You should be ashamed of yourselves." - Protests and scuffles - Outside Israel's military headquarters in Tel Aviv, where the court announced the verdict, dozens of Azaria supporters scuffled with police. Shabtay Oz, a retired policeman carrying a large Israeli flag, said he never imagined himself joining a demonstration. "But when I saw a soldier in cuffs after he shot a terrorist... that was the point of no return." Right-wing leaders have called for him to be pardoned in an extraordinary public rift between politicians and the military. Before he became defence minister in May, Avigdor Lieberman was among Azaria's supporters. He has since backed away from his earlier stance, saying after the verdict that while he disagreed with the decision, it must be respected. The March 24 shooting in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron was caught on video and spread widely online. It showed Abdul Fatah al-Sharif, 21, lying on the ground, shot along with another Palestinian after stabbing and wounding a soldier, according to the army. Azaria then shoots him again in the head without any apparent provocation. His lawyers argued the soldier may have thought the Palestinian was wearing explosives, but others said he had already been checked for a suicide belt and no one in the video appears to be acting cautiously. The Palestinian's father told reporters in Hebron after the verdict that Azaria should be sentenced to life. "For me, a just verdict will be one that is similar to the verdicts our sons (in Israeli prisons) get," Yusri al-Sharif said. - Polarised public - The video was filmed by a Palestinian volunteer for Israeli rights group B'Tselem. "The fact that one soldier was convicted today does not exonerate the Israeli military law enforcement system from its routine whitewashing of cases in which security forces kill or injure Palestinians with no accountability," B'Tselem said after the verdict. The case had been portrayed by some as a test of whether Israel's military could prosecute one of its own, though many Palestinians argued Azaria was only put on trial because of the video. The military has said it began investigating before the video's release. The last time an Israeli soldier was convicted of manslaughter was in 2005, Israeli media reported. The shooting came against the backdrop of a wave of Palestinian knife, gun and car-ramming attacks that erupted in October 2015. Most of the attacks were by lone-wolf assailants, many of them young people. Israel's military has said it believes a significant number of them were essentially on suicide missions. The violence has subsided in recent months. Israeli soldier Elor Azaria (L) had been on trial in a military court since May 2016 for shooting dead a wounded Palestinian assailant Jack Guez (AFP/File) Swiss charged in Singapore over Malaysia's 1MDB saga A Swiss banker was charged in Singapore on Thursday with money laundering and other offences related to an international corruption scandal involving neighbouring Malaysia's state fund 1MDB. Allegations that huge sums were misappropriated from the Malaysian state fund triggered a scandal which has embroiled Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who has so far weathered the resulting political storm. Jens Fred Sturzenegger, 42, who headed the Singapore branch of Swiss lender Falcon Private Bank, was slapped with six charges for allegedly failing to report suspicious transactions totalling $1.7 billion in March 2013. Najib Razak has been embroiled in a corruption scandal involving the state fund 1MDB MANAN VATSYAYANA (AFP/File) One transaction alone involved $1.265 billion. Sturzenegger also faces 10 charges of giving false information to Singapore authorities in relation to their investigation into the use of the city-state's banking system as a conduit for the transfer of illicit funds involving 1MDB. His lawyer Tan Hee Joek told reporters that Sturzenegger is expected to plead guilty when he appears in court on January 11. He is currently free on bail. Three Singaporean private bankers from Swiss lender BSI have already been jailed by a Singapore court in relation to the scandal. BSI and Falcon Bank were kicked out of Singapore last year for what regulators called massive lapses in financial controls. Singapore, a regional financial hub known for its transparency and strong stance against corruption, has launched the investigation into alleged unlawful fund flows linked to 1MDB. Among the Singaporeans jailed last year was Yeo Jiawei, who was sentenced to 30 months for witness tampering and obstructing the 1MDB probe. 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. S. Korea president's lawyers say no evidence for impeachment The impeachment trial of South Korea's President Park Geun-Hye got under way Thursday, with her lawyers arguing there is no evidence to back the corruption allegations that threaten to force her from office. Parliament voted to impeach Park last month over an influence-peddling scandal that has brought hundreds of thousands of protesters onto the streets every week demanding her removal. Park is accused of colluding with a longtime friend, Choi Soon-Il, to strong-arm donations worth tens of millions of dollars from top firms which were then funnelled to dubious foundations. South Korean President Park Geun-Hye's impeachment trial gets under way, with her lawyers arguing there no evidence to back corruption allegations JUNG Yeon-Je (POOL/AFP) The president is also accused of using her influence to ensure the merger of two Samsung units in 2015 to help facilitate a father-to-son power succession of Samsung's founding family, allegedly in return for bribes given to Choi. The National Assembly, which must have its vote upheld by the Constitutional Court, accused Park of a "serious breach of the constitution" during the first full hearing in the impeachment case. "The court is requested to fire the president so that impaired constitutional order can be restored", said Kwon Seong-Dong, a lawmaker representing the parliament. "The president has betrayed the trust and mandate from the people", he added. The Constitutional Court's initial hearing on Tuesday was curtailed after Park failed to attend. It decided to proceed on Thursday regardless of whether she was present. Park's lawyers said there was no proof the president had issued any directive, oral or written, to tell her aides to ensure the National Pension Fund -- the largest shareholder of one of the two Samsung units -- voted for the merger. - 'No solid evidence' - They urged the court to overturn the impeachment vote, saying the motion had been based on "likelihood at best" and insisted she be reinstated as president immediately. "There is no solid evidence to back the impeachment", Park's lawyer Lee Jung-Hwan told the court. 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. Park also allegedly failed to carry out her official duties as the head of state during her response to the 2014 Sewol ferry disaster that claimed more than 300 lives, mostly schoolchildren. The court has asked Park's lawyers to clarify the mystery surrounding her seven-hour absence at the time of the disastrous sinking. Unconfirmed media reports have suggested a wide range of theories about Park's whereabouts, including a romantic liaison, participation in a shamanistic ritual, cosmetic surgery or a 90-minute haircut. Park has repeatedly denied the corruption allegations in sometimes tearful televised addresses, while apologising for lapses. At a separate criminal court trial Thursday, Choi also repeated her denial of all charges levelled against her. "I think I was victimised" by groundless allegations, said Choi. Her lawyers have denied allegations Choi was involved in peddling influence or extortion. In a rare meeting with journalists, the president said Sunday that she had only sought to listen through Choi to ordinary citizens' opinions on her polices and speeches. She also insisted the donations to the foundations were made voluntarily by companies to help develop the country's culture and sports. The president also argued she reacted properly at the time of the ferry tragedy, ordering all possible efforts to rescue the victims. A history of jailbreaks in the southern Philippines The escape of 158 inmates from a southern Philippine prison this week adds to a long history of jailbreaks in the troubled region, where Muslim rebels and criminal gangs hold sway. Abysmal security and corruption that allows rampant smuggling into the rundown prisons are among the explosive cocktail of factors that allow the jailbreaks to happen. Here are some of the successful jailbreaks: The provincial jail in Marawi City in the southern Philippines -- scene of a jailbreak in August, 2016 RICHELE UMEL (AFP/File) - April 10, 2004: Fifty-three inmates break out of the main jail on Basilan island, which is a stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf Islamic militant group. The Abu Sayyaf was blamed for the bombing of a ferry in Manila a few months earlier that killed 116 people. Twenty Abu Sayyaf militants were among the escapees. Police later kill nine of the fugitives, including four Abu Sayyaf members, and recapture 15 others. - February 2, 2007: The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the nation's biggest rebel group which has waged a decades-long separatist rebellion, free 49 inmates of Kidapawan jail, the same prison where this week's breakout took place. One of the escapees is Khair Mundos, a top leader of the Abu Sayyaf. After the US government places a $500,000-bounty on his head, Mundos is recaptured in 2014 in Manila. - December 13, 2009: More than 100 gunmen believed to belong to the MILF blast a wall of the Basilan provincial jail and spring 31 inmates. One prison guard and one assailant dies. Among the escapees is a man accused of taking part in the beheading of 10 marines in an MILF ambush more than two years earlier. - March 4, 2010: Mohammad Jaafar Maguid, alias Commander Tokboy, escapes from his prison cell in Alabel town, according to the government's Philippine Information Agency. Maguid later founds and leads Ansarul Khilafa, a small militant organisation that pledges allegiance to the Islamic State group (IS) and becomes one of the nation's most wanted criminals. He is killed in a police raid at a southern beach resort on Thursday. - August 27, 2016: Dozens of Islamic militants of the Maute group, another gang to pledge allegiance to IS, raids a jail in Marawi city and frees 23 inmates. Eight of the escapees are Maute members who were arrested a week earlier carrying pistols and improvised bombs at a military checkpoint. The Maute group is then blamed for a bombing a month later in southern Davao city that kills 15 people. Goerges stuns Wozniacki in latest WTA Auckland upset Unseeded German Julia Goerges burst into the WTA Auckland Classic limelight on Thursday with a dramatic come-from-behind win to oust Caroline Wozniacki in the quarter-finals. The 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 defeat of the Danish third seed and former world number one eliminated the last of the tournament drawcards, a day after the exit of the two top seeds Serena and Venus Williams. Rain disruptions early in the week meant Goerges did not take the court until Wednesday, when she had straight-sets wins over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Naomi Broady. Unseeded German Julia Goerges (pictured) burst into the WTA Auckland Classic limelight on January 5, 2016, with a dramatic win to oust Caroline Wozniacki in the quarter-finals Eduardo Munoz Alvarez (AFP/File) But the 28-year-old German appeared lost for the first 10 games of her quarter-final as Wozniacki raced through the first set and took a 3-0 lead. Then came Goerges' transformation as her first serve found its mark, as did her powerful forehand as she reeled off six straight games to level at one set all. She pulled away to 5-2 in the third set only to drop a game as she served for the match, but then made no mistake two games later. Goerges will play eighth seed Ana Konjuh in the semi-finals with Jelena Ostapenko, the seventh seed and only other seeded player to make the final four, up against Lauren Davis. Konjuh had an easy passage into the final four when Japan's Naomi Osaka pulled out of their quarter-final with a wrist injury. Osaka, who progressed to the quarter-finals without hitting a ball when Venus Williams defaulted through injury, was down 0-3 in the first set when she decided she could not play on. Latvia's Ostapenko overcame a slow start to beat American Madison Brengle 7-5, 6-3 in their quarter-final. Brengle, who pulled off the biggest win of her career when she conquered Serena Williams in the second round, quickly found her range to race to a 3-0 lead in the first set. But the 19-year-old Ostapenko, despite struggling with her first serve, proved too strong from the baseline. She won five consecutive games to take control in the first set before wrapping up the match in 88 minutes. Earlier, America's Davis knocked out fourth seed Barbora Strycova in straight sets in the first quarter-final. China's Alibaba sues vendors over selling counterfeits Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has filed a lawsuit against two vendors for allegedly selling counterfeit goods, it said, weeks after the US put its main platform on its "notorious markets" blacklist. Late last month the office of the US Trade Representative put Alibaba's massive online sales portal Taobao on its annual blacklist, saying it was not doing enough to curb sales of fake and pirated goods. Although inclusion on the blacklist carries no penalties, it dealt a blow to Alibaba's reputation after the company has struggled to improve its image and boost international sales. Alibaba and its Taobao site have long been accused of providing a platform for the sale of knockoff brand-name goods The company, which has made founder Jack Ma China's richest man, said Wednesday it had sued two Taobao venders for 1.4 million yuan ($200,000), accusing them of selling fake Swarovski watches on their portal in violation of the company's services agreement. "Selling counterfeits not only violates our service agreement, it also infringes on the intellectual property rights of the brand owner, puts inferior products in the hands of consumers and ruins the hard-earned trust and reputation Alibaba has with our customers," said Jessie Zheng, Alibaba Group's chief platform governance officer. The shopping site said this was the first time an e-commerce giant had taken a counterfeiter to court in the world's second-largest economy. Alibaba and its Taobao site have long been accused of providing a platform for the sale of knockoff brand-name goods. Items for sale included what appear to be pirated PDFs of the book "Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built", available for purchase for less than one dollar on Thursday. The e-commerce giant said the US decision was motivated by politics during an election year and said it had used data analytics and covert purchases of suspected fakes to uncover the two sellers. Alibaba provided that information to police, who in August raided a location in the southern city of Shenzhen and seized 125 fake Swarovski watches, it said. UN warns of war crime as Damascus water crisis grows The United Nations warned Thursday that sabotaging water supplies was a war crime after the main source for Syria's capital was cut, leaving more than five million people facing shortages. Water supplies from the rebel-held area of Wadi Barada near Damascus have been severed since December 22, with the regime and rebels trading blame. The head of a UN-backed humanitarian taskforce for Syria said Thursday the shutdown had already had "dramatic" consequences. Water supply in Syria's capital city of Damascus has been cut since December 22, with the regime and rebels trading accusations over responsibility Abd Doumany (AFP/File) Jan Egeland said water supplies to 5.5 million people had been hit "because of fighting, or because of sabotage or because of both". "To sabotage and deny water is of course a war crime, because it is civilians who drink it and civilians who will be affected by waterborne diseases" if supplies are not restored, he told reporters in Geneva. The shortages have sent prices for water in Damascus soaring. Residents said they have been forced to buy bottled water at twice the normal price as their supplies have run low and what little tap water is available is undrinkable. "We used to complain about power cuts, but now we can see that it's nothing compared with the lack of drinkable water. Water is life," said Faiz, a 50-year-old civil servant. The shortages have prompted a regime assault to retake Wadi Barada. Rebel fighters clashed with government forces backed by Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah there Thursday, even as a nationwide ceasefire brought quiet to other parts of Syria. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said regime forces hit the area with air strikes, mortars and artillery. Syria's main opposition coalition urged the United Nations Security Council Thursday to put an "immediate" halt to what it said were regime violations of the truce. It accused the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of "violations and war crimes" in Wadi Barada. The regime says forces in Wadi Barada include former Al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham Front, previously known as Al-Nusra Front, which Moscow and Damascus say is excluded from the ceasefire. Rebels deny the group is in the area. The relative peace was also rocked by a car bombing on Thursday in Syria's coastal city of Jableh, a regime bastion, leaving at least 15 dead, the Observatory said. Syrian state television also reported the blast near the town's municipal stadium. - 'Critical phase' - The fighting threatened a truce aimed at paving the way for peace negotiations later this month in the Kazakh capital Astana. Despite backing opposite sides in the conflict, Ankara and Moscow have worked closely to broker the ceasefire and plan the Astana talks, which Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said could take place on January 23. The ceasefire and Astana talks are the latest bid to resolve nearly six years of conflict in Syria, which has been ravaged by violence since an uprising began in March 2011. The UN Security Council has backed the process, despite the fact it offers a competing track to UN-sponsored talks set to resume in Geneva in February. "We, the UN, welcome such efforts," the UN's Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura told reporters in Geneva Thursday. He said any effort that consolidates the cessation of hostilities "is certainly welcome". Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said fighting had eased considerably since the truce came into force. "The number of casualties has fallen a lot, with only 13 dead in the areas covered by the ceasefire since the truce began. That would have been the toll of a single air strike before it came into force," he told AFP. Karim Emile Bitar, professor of international relations at Saint-Joseph University in Beirut, said Syrian ceasefires had become "merely a continuation of war by other means". "This one is already shaky but has not yet completely collapsed," he said. "Russia and the Syrian regime have an interest in temporarily prolonging the ceasefire if only to consolidate their gains and prepare for the next battles." Syrians fill plastic containers with water at a public fountain in the capital Damascus on January 3, 2017 Louai Beshara (AFP/File) The shortages have sent prices for water in Damascus soaring. Residents said they have been forced to buy bottled water at twice the normal price as their supplies have run low and what little tap water is available is undrinkable Louai Beshara (AFP/File) Russian Marines in smashing Philippine charm offensive Russian Marines shattered glass bottles with their heads and smashed burning wooden planks against each other Thursday as part of an eye-catching charm offensive in the Philippines, a traditional US ally. The camouflage-clad Marines showed off their pistol-shooting, knife-fighting and martial arts skills to the Filipino public in Manila's central park as part of a "goodwill visit" spearheaded by two warships following Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's announced pivot away from the United States. As bewildered passers-by watched, the Russians smashed boards with their fists, had cinder blocks crushed on their stomachs and endured beatings from flaming planks. Russian marines attached to the anti-submarine ship Admiral Tributs show their skills during a demonstration at a park in Manila on January 5, 2017 Ted Aljibe (AFP) The show culminated with them smashing glass bottles on their heads without any visible effect. After the display, eager Filipinos rushed to take "selfies" with the beret-wearing Russians. "The performances were great, the stunts were quite impressive," gushed student Antonio Chua. Filipinos were also allowed to attend an open house on the submarine-hunter Admiral Tributs, one of the two ships making what was only the Russian Navy's third-ever port call in the Philippines. Duterte, who calls himself a socialist, has championed a move away from the United States and towards US rivals Russia and China following American criticism of his bloody war on crime that has claimed thousands of lives. "America has lost," Duterte said on a visit to China in October last year. "I've realigned myself in your (Chinese) ideological flow and maybe I will also go to Russia to talk to (President Vladimir) Putin and tell him that there are three of us against the world: China, Philippines and Russia. It's the only way." Russia's ambassador to the Philippines Igor Khovaev said Thursday he expected a planned visit by Duterte to Russia in April or May to be "a milestone". "It will be a very successful visit that will give a powerful impetus (to our) cooperation in different fields," Khovaev told reporters at the Marines' display. Arrests after death threats over Israeli soldier's conviction Israeli police arrested two people Thursday after death threats emerged online against a judge and other officials over the manslaughter conviction of a soldier who shot dead a wounded Palestinian assailant. Israel's military has also assigned bodyguards to the three judges who found the 20-year-old French-Israeli soldier guilty on Wednesday, reports said. Sgt. Elor Azaria was convicted after a trial in a military court that began in May and which deeply divided the country. Israeli soldier Elor Azaria (C), was convicted of manslaughter after a trial in a military court which deeply divided the country Heidi Levine (POOL/AFP) It has led to harsh criticism of the verdict by far-right activists, while right-wing politicians -- including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu -- have called for the soldier to be pardoned. Police said they had arrested two people from Jerusalem and the city of Kiryat Gat for incitement to violence online. According to Israeli news site Ynet, the posts by a 54-year-old man and 22-year-old woman included death threats against the head of the three-judge panel in the case, Colonel Maya Heller. "Police units are continuing to monitor social media and respond to threats and incitement to violence connected to the Azaria court decision," a statement said. Military and justice ministry officials declined to comment on the increased security for Heller as well as the two other judges, Colonel Carmel Wahabi and Lieutenant Colonel Yaron Sitbon. Military prosecutor Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Weissman was also reportedly given extra protection. In a sign of the tensions surrounding the case, dozens of protesters scuffled with police Wednesday as they gathered outside Israel's military headquarters in Tel Aviv, where the verdict was announced. - 'Speak out against incitement' - Military chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot was reportedly targeted with threats, with some supporters of the soldier suggesting he would join Rabin -- a reference to the 1995 assassination of former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin by a Jewish extremist. Parliament speaker Yuli Edelstein said a number of officials had also been targeted online. "The statements made yesterday against the chief of staff -- the commander of the army -- and the military judges should shock everyone living in Israel," Edelstein said. "I expect all of us elected officials and prominent voices to speak out unequivocally for the freedom of expression and against the freedom of incitement and contempt." The case burst into public view when a video of the March 24 shooting in Hebron in the occupied West Bank emerged and spread widely online. The video showed Abdul Fatah al-Sharif, 21, lying on the ground, shot along with another man after stabbing and moderately wounding a soldier minutes earlier, according to the army. Azaria then shoots him again in the head without any apparent provocation. Heller spent more than two and a half hours reading out the decision on Wednesday, sharply criticising the arguments of Azaria's lawyers. The judges ruled there was no reason for Azaria to open fire since the Palestinian was posing no threat. He faces up to 20 years in prison and a sentencing hearing is set for January 15, with the sentence to be handed down later, an army spokeswoman said. A poll by pro-Netanyahu newspaper Israel Hayom found that around 70 percent of Israelis favour a pardon for Azaria. President Reuven Rivlin, whose role is mostly ceremonially, decides on whether to grant pardons. Rivlin, from Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party, has often been viewed as a voice of reason in Israeli politics since taking office as president in 2014. Indonesia to set up agency to combat fake news Indonesia is setting up an agency that will tackle fake news after a flood of untrue stories on social media, an official said Thursday, including claims China was waging biological warfare against the country using contaminated chilli seeds. The new cyber agency will also seek to protect state institutions from hackers, said presidential spokesman Johan Budi. Chief Security Minister Wiranto said that the move was necessary to combat a flood of news on social media that was "slanderous, fake, misleading and spread hate". Over 130 million out of 255 million Indonesian inhabitants are now estimated to be internet users Romeo Gacad (AFP/File) "Freedom (of speech) is a right in a democracy but there is also an obligation to obey the law," he said. Officials said among the agency's tasks would be to monitor news circulating online to check for false stories. It will be overseen by the security ministry and will work alongside other government agencies, they said, without giving further details. It came after President Joko Widodo declared his intention at a cabinet meeting in December to combat fake news in a country where people are rapidly getting online for the first time, with over 130 million out of 255 million inhabitants now estimated to be internet users. One of the most high-profile cases in recent times was a false claim circulating on social media in December that Beijing was seeking to wage biological warfare against Indonesia, after a true story that four Chinese citizens were arrested for using imported chilli seeds infected with bacteria on a farm south of Jakarta. The Chinese embassy in Jakarta was forced to issue a statement saying that the reports were "misleading and have caused great concerns". Another fake story that spread online said that millions of Chinese workers had entered Indonesia to replace local workers. It comes as anti-Chinese sentiment is running high with Jakarta's ethnic Chinese governor standing trial for alleged blasphemy. Indonesian internet expert Nukman Luthfie said he hoped the new agency would not breach people's privacy, but added it was too early to tell. "It would be really unfortunate if it was going to be used to monitor public discussions because that's people's right," he said. Obama defends legacy in letter to American people US President Barack Obama acclaimed his outgoing administration's accomplishments on Thursday in a letter to the American people defending a legacy on health care and other issues that his successor Donald Trump has vowed to dismantle. The White House released the president's letter along with reports from each of his cabinet secretaries describing the progress made since Obama took office eight years ago with the world's largest economy spiralling towards depression. "As I prepare to pass the baton and do my part as a private citizen, I'm proud to say that we have laid a new foundation for America," he said. US President Barack Obama speaks during the Armed Forces Full Honor Review Farewell Ceremony for Obama at Joint Base Myers-Henderson Hall in Arlington, Virginia, on January 4, 2017 SAUL LOEB (AFP) He cited the turn-around in the US economy, the scaled back military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, a sharply reduced dependence on foreign oil, and the Paris climate agreement as among his administration's important accomplishments. But near the top of his list was the Affordable Care Act, the signature health care reform that Democrat Obama prizes and Republican Trump has vowed to ditch. Obama has launched a parting offensive to try to save it, making a rare visit to Congress on Wednesday to rally Democrats for what is shaping up as the first major fight of the next administration. Vice President-elect Mike Pence made his own trip to Capitol Hill to strategize with Republicans, who control the House and Senate and will have the White House as well once Trump takes office on January 20. "The first order of business is to repeal and replace Obamacare," Pence told reporters in the US Capitol shortly after meeting with House Republicans. Trump himself has cautioned against over-hasty action. "Republicans must be careful in that the Dems own the failed ObamaCare disaster," the president-elect said on Twitter, warning Republicans to allow it to "fall of its own weight". In his letter, Obama argued that the United States has "begun the long task of reversing inequality". "What won't help is taking health care away from 30 million Americans, most of them white and working class; denying overtime pay to workers, most of whom have more than earned it; or privatizing Medicare and Social Security and letting Wall Street regulate itself again -- none of which middle-class Americans voted for." Obama's reforms came under fire during the US presidential campaign as insurance premiums rose and some major insurers backed out of the state markets created under the law. Obama urges more progress on criminal justice reform The United States has "much work to be done" to reform the criminal justice system and humanize the prison system, President Barack Obama said Thursday in a Harvard Law Review article. In the 56-page article, the president defends his government's actions during his eight-year term on a subject that was crucial for him before his arrival at the White House. And he also a calls on President-elect Donald Trump -- who is not mentioned in the article -- to urgently pursue further reforms. In the 56-page article, President Obama defended his government's actions on criminal justice reform during his eight-year term, a subject that was crucial for him before his arrival at the White House SAUL LOEB (AFP) "We simply cannot afford to spend $80 billion annually on incarceration, to write off the seventy million Americans... with some form of criminal record, to release 600,000 inmates each year without a better program to reintegrate them into society, or to ignore the humanity of 2.2 million men and women currently in US jails and prisons," Obama wrote. The article, titled "The President's Role in Advancing Criminal Justice Reform," comes less than three weeks before Trump's January 20 inauguration. Obama, a former constitutional law professor, earned his law degree from Harvard University. He was the first African American president of the prestigious Harvard Law Review, a student-run law journal that publishes eight regular annual issues. In the article, Obama talks about the reforms he would have liked to have been able to make more progress on, such as tightening gun control laws on individuals. "There should be no mistake that gun violence is an epidemic playing out across the country every day," he wrote. "Over the past decade alone, more than 100,000 people have been killed as a result of gun violence -- and millions more have been victims of assaults, robberies, and other crimes involving a gun." Over the same period, he said, "nearly 200,000 of our neighbors, friends, and family have committed suicide with a gun." The president also emphasized the problem of overpopulated prisons, estimated at 2.2 million people currently compared with less than half a million inmates in 1980. Obama said he favored alternative punishments for small crimes. In recent months he commuted the sentences of hundreds of prisoners, most of them in jail for drug-related offenses. Obama also called for the right to vote to be restored to criminals "who have paid their debt to society." Qatar's Nasser Al Attiyah pulls out of Dakar Rally Qatari two-time winner Nasser Al Attiyah has been forced to pull out of the Dakar Rally on Thursday, his Toyota team confirmed. The 46-year-old, the 2011 and 2015 champion, would not start Thursday's fourth stage after losing the wheel of his car during the previous day's special. Al Attiyah came to a halt for over an hour when he damaged a wheel on his vehicle. Qatari driver Nasser al-Attiyah has won the Dakar rally twice and had been among the 2017 pre-race favourites FRANCK FIFE (AFP/File) "The damage to his Toyota Hilux is too extensive to be repaired by his team," organisers added. Al Attiyah had been among the pre-race favourites and was sitting second in the overall standings ahead of Wednesday's stage. Three would-be suicide bombers killed in Nigeria Three teenage girls suspected of planning a triple suicide bomb attack in a town frequently targeted by Boko Haram have been shot dead, a local government official said on Thursday. Civilian vigilantes opened fire on the trio near the town of Madagali when they refused to stop for a security check, the town council's chairman, Yusuf Muhammad, told AFP. "Explosives strapped to two of the girls exploded from the impact of the shooting, while those on the third girl were defused by soldiers," he added. In August 2014, Madagali fell to Boko Haram jihadists but was reclaimed two months later, although attacks continue NIGERIAN ARMY PRESS SERVICE (AFP/File) Boko Haram Islamists have regularly used young women and girls as human bombs in a nearly eight-year insurgency, which has left at least 20,000 people dead and made more than 2.6 million homeless. Some of the bombers have been as young as seven and are unlikely to have been aware of their actions, said experts who track the conflict. Civilian "soft" targets such as mosques, churches, markets and bus stations have been hit repeatedly to cause mass civilian casualties. Muhammad said the girls were intercepted at Bakin Dutse village, some five kilometres (three miles) from Madagali, and were believed to be heading to the town's market. Last month, at least 45 people were killed in twin suicide attacks at Madagali's busy markets, a year after a similar strike killed 17. Madagali is in the far north of Adamawa state on the border with Borno state, which has borne the brunt of the violence since 2009. Islamic State Group affiliate Boko Haram's Sambisa Forest hideout is nearby. In August 2014, Madagali fell to the jihadists but was reclaimed two months later, although attacks continue. Nigeria's military claims to have driven Boko Haram out of Sambisa and the attacks are the last throw of the dice for the rebels. But, as the militant fighters scatter, it is thought the conflict may move elsewhere, including into the Lake Chad area that forms the border with Niger, Chad and Cameroon. Bahrain extends detention of leading activist by two weeks Bahrain's prosecution on Thursday extended by two weeks the detention of Shiite opposition leader Nabil Rajab over spreading "false information" about the Sunni-ruled kingdom, his lawyer said. The human rights activist "was interrogated by the prosecution, who decided to extend his pre-trial detention by 15 days over the accusation of spreading rumours and false information," Mohammed al-Jishi said. This accusation is linked to television interviews given by Rajab in 2014 and 2015, the lawyer said, adding a request to free him had been rejected. Nabeel Rajab (C), who had been pardoned for health reasons in 2015, was rearrested in June and is on trial on a list of charges, including insulting a state institution and Saudi Arabia Mohammed al-Shaikh (AFP/File) On December 28, the prosecution said Rajab would remain in custody to be questioned over "spreading false news about the situation in the kingdom", despite being granted bail in another case over tweets deemed hostile to Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, for which the next hearing is on January 23. In that case he is accused of "spreading false news and rumours and inciting propaganda during wartime which could undermine the war operations by the Bahraini armed forces and weaken the nation". Bahrain is part of a Saudi-led coalition since March 2015 battling Shiite Huthi rebels in Yemen. Rajab, who had been pardoned for health reasons last year, was rearrested in June and is on trial on a list of charges, including insulting a state institution and Saudi Arabia in online postings. Rajab was questioned recently in custody over letters critical of the authorities that were published in September in The New York Times and in December in French daily Le Monde. Several rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have pressed Bahrain's authorities to release Rajab, a co-founder and president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights. Rajab has been repeatedly detained for organising protests and publishing tweets deemed insulting to the Gulf state's Sunni authorities. He previously served two years in jail on charges of taking part in unauthorised protests in the Shiite-majority kingdom. No evidence of Bangalore New Year sex attacks: India police Indian police said Thursday they had not found any evidence or received any formal complaints of sexual assault at a New Year's eve celebration after media reports of "mass molestation", but had registered six separate cases based on the coverage. Police said they had gone through hours of CCTV footage from the night in Bangalore, a southern IT hub seen as relatively safe for women, and had found no evidence to back up the reports. "We started looking into the whole video footage from approximately 45-60 cameras," Praveen Sood, the police commissioner of Bangalore city, told journalists. Police said they had gone through hours of CCTV footage from New Year's Eve in Bangalore, a southern IT hub seen as relatively safe for women, and had found no evidence to back up the reports "It takes time, the whole team was looking at the camera footage and looking for molestation in the video. We could not find any sign of molestation," Sood said. Local reports featured testimony and photos of victims cowering from their attackers or fleeing for safety while video footage circulated on social media showed women screaming for help. Police have referred to the interviews and social media accounts of eyewitnesses and women who were allegedly molested to file six separate cases, Sood said. The attacks in Bangalore have drawn comparison with last year's mass sexual assaults at New Year's celebrations in the German city of Cologne, where police were also accused of losing control. The state government of Karnataka, whose largest city is Bangalore, has faced severe backlash over its handling of the incident, particularly after a local minister criticised the women for dressing "like westerners". More Boko Haram fighters surrender in Niger: government Around 20 more members of the jihadist group Boko Haram have surrendered in Niger, the government says. "About 50 Boko Haram fighters have now given themselves up" since December 27, Niger's interior minister, Bazoum Mohamed, said in an interview broadcast late Wednesday on the state TV channel Tele Sahel. The combatants surrendered at Diffa, in southeastern Niger, a Boko Haram stronghold close to the border with Nigeria, where 31 fighters turned themselves in at the end of last month. Around 20 Boko Haram combattants surrendered in Difa, a Boko Haram stronghold close to the border with Nigeria Issouf Sanogo (AFP/File) Mohamed attributed the success to a military squeeze on the group, launched in July, coordinated with security forces in Nigeria and Chad, where the group also operates. More surrenders will follow, he said, adding "in some sectors, the war (against Boko Haram) is already over." But he warned that "organised Boko Haram elements are training" in the marshes of Lake Chad, a zone that straddles the three countries. Three Niger soldiers were killed and seven wounded on the night of New Year's Eve when Boko Haram fighters attacked their position at Baroua, in the Diffa region, the military say. Fifteen assailants were killed and another one was captured, they say. Boko Haram is waging a seven-year-old uprising against the Nigerian state that has claimed more than 20,000 lives, with the insurgency spilling over the West African nation's borders into neighbouring states. The violence has left around 2.6 million people homeless, sparking a dire humanitarian crisis, with the United Nations warning the affected region faces the "largest crisis in Africa". US puts bin Laden's son on terror blacklist The United States added Hamza bin Laden, son and would-be heir of the late global jihadist leader Osama bin Laden, to its terrorist blacklist on Thursday. Hamza, who is in his mid-twenties, has become active as an Al-Qaeda propagandist since his father's death at the hands of US special forces on May 2, 2011. According to letters found in the Navy SEAL raid on Osama's hideout in Pakistan, Hamza wrote to the Saudi-born Al-Qaeda leader asking to be trained to follow him. Hamza bin Laden, the youngest son of Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden, recites a poem in this frame grab taken from the Qatar based al-Jazeera satellite news channel on November 7, 2001 A CIA analyst who examined the letters told AFP that, in July 2009, when Hamza wrote to his father's Abbottabad hideout, they had not seen each other for eight years. But the elder bin Laden was making plans to send for his son, who was at the time under house arrest in Iran, and planned to groom him to become Al-Qaeda's leader. Since bin Laden's death, his Egyptian deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri has taken up the reins of the organization, but Hamza has also issued audio messages to supporters. Last year, the fifth anniversary of the death of the man who ordered the 9/11 attacks on the United States, experts began to note the young heir's increasing prominence in the movement. The US Treasury sanctions list estimates that Hamza was born in 1989 in the Saudi city of Jeddah. His mother was Khairiah Sabar, one of bin Laden senior's three wives. The State Department order names Hamza bin Laden as a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist" and freezes any assets he may hold in areas under US jurisdiction. The department also designated Ibrahim al-Banna, whom it described as a senior leader in Al-Qaeda's Yemen-based franchise, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). - 'Forged in steel' - US citizens and companies are forbidden for conducting any business with designated terrorists, and law enforcement agencies around the world are alerted to their status. In an undated audio message released in August, Hamza bin Laden urged his Saudi supporters to rebel and overthrow the kingdom's rulers. Earlier, in a message released in May, he urged the jihadist factions fighting in Syria to unite, arguing that the "blessed Syrian revolution" would lead to "liberating Palestine." He had previously issued a call for Muslims living in the West to rise up and conduct spontaneous attacks of the kind seen recently in European cities. "In 2015, bin Laden called for lone offender attacks against US, French and Israeli interests in Washington, DC; Paris, France; and Tel Aviv, Israel," the State Department said. According to the documents seized in Abbottabad and seen by AFP, the younger Hamza boasted to his father that he was "forged in steel" and ready for "victory or martyrdom." "What truly makes me sad is the mujahidin legions have marched and I have not joined them," Hamza wrote to his father in July 2009, according to an English translation provided by the CIA. "I dread spending the rest of my young adulthood behind iron bars," he added, writing while in Iran, where some bin Laden relatives fled after the US invasion of Afghanistan. "My beloved father, I announce to you that I and everyone, God be praised, are following on the same path, the path of jihad." It was not possible to independently verify the origin of the documents or the accuracy of the CIA translation. Hamza described the "pain of separation" he felt at age 13, when Al-Qaeda's senior figures were separating for security reasons, and his hopes of a reunion. "You bid us farewell and we left, and it was as if we pulled out our livers and left them there," he wrote. - Explosives training - After Hamza's release from Iranian arrest, top Al-Qaeda lieutenant Atiyah Abd al-Rahman wrote to bin Laden on April 5, 2011, detailing possible ways to shepherd him to his father. The jihadist commander argued that the least dangerous option was sending him through Pakistan's Baluchistan province, which borders Iran, to the crowded port city of Karachi. Meanwhile, Abd al-Rahman had arranged for Hamza "to attend a course on explosives" and had promised him firearms training, adding that the young man was "very sweet and good." Opera revisits dark dynamic in 'Breaking the Waves' Lars von Trier's bleak and erotic 1996 movie "Breaking the Waves" has become a modern film classic partly because it gives viewers wide freedom to interpret the plot. Are the characters' motivations pure? Are they sinister? Does it matter? Now a new opera adaptation of the Danish director's film wrestles with the same questions, this time exploring them with music. Composer Missy Mazzoli speaks during an interview at her home studio in New York City on December 16, 2016 ANGELA WEISS (AFP/File) Composer Missy Mazzoli says she hesitated to create the work when librettist Royce Vavrek first proposed it. "I thought it's such a brilliant film, so why mess with it?" she told AFP. "But the more I thought about it, the more I could hear a musical world that added a new dimension to the emotional landscape of the film." "Breaking the Waves" premiered in September at Opera Philadelphia, where Mazzoli was composer-in-residence, and is being presented for a second time at Prototype, New York's annual festival of experimental opera that opens Thursday. Set in the Scottish Highlands, "Breaking the Waves" focuses on the psychologically troubled and sexually unfulfilled Bess, who marries Jan, a Nordic oil-rig worker. After Jan is injured and sexually incapacitated, he encourages his wife to seek other lovers, scandalizing their Christian village as Bess pursues increasingly dubious trysts. Von Trier is asking "what does it mean to be a good person when everybody in the community has different ideas of what it means to be good?" Mazzoli said. "Particularly for a woman, this is a very familiar feeling," she said. "The line of behavior to walk on is very thin." - Pure love? - In the two decades since von Trier released his "Breaking the Waves," viewers have debated Jan's intentions. Does he want the best for Bess, or is he acting out of his own pleasure -- or even a desire to hurt her? The late film critic Roger Ebert -- who ranked "Breaking the Waves" among the top 10 films of the 1990s -- concluded that Jan's reasons ultimately do not matter because Bess believes she needs to oblige his requests. Mazzoli is firmly in one camp -- she thinks Jan's love is pure. While her opera preserves the ambiguity, she says her conclusion was important for the music as she opens the work with melodic love songs between Bess, portrayed by soprano Kiera Duffy, and Jan, performed by baritone John Moore. "I tried to milk the happy moments in the opera because there are so few of them," Mazzoli said with a laugh. She and Vavrek traveled to Scotland's Isle of Skye to record accents and slang and take in the scenery -- jutting rock formations, soaring cliffs and, of course, breaking waves, close to rolling meadows with lambs. "The juxtaposition of that was striking and very inspiring," she said. "It struck me as a very loud landscape, even though it's a very quiet place." She included Scottish touches by emulating the sound of bagpipes through oboe and strings -- although there are no actual bagpipes -- and song-and-response singing characteristic of Scottish church music. - First musical interpretation - Von Trier, a leader of the Dogme 95 cinema movement that frowns on special effects, eschewed music in "Breaking the Waves" except in brief passages. "There is no underscoring telling you how to feel," Mazzoli said. "So there was this great opportunity to create a subtext through the music that illuminates the characters' psychology." Von Trier gave his blessing to the project but was not involved, giving space to Mazzoli and Vavrek. Known for his fear of flying, the film director will not see the opera in the United States, although Mazzoli said -- without revealing details -- that talks are underway for further productions worldwide. Even among the opera's creators, there were disagreements about what drives Jan, she says. "What makes the story so strong -- the ability to have many different interpretations," she said. Trump not planning intelligence agency revamp: aide Donald Trump has no plans to restructure the nation's top spy agency, his transition team said Thursday, refuting an explosive report that said the president-elect was considering paring back a bloated intelligence apparatus. Republican Trump has been highly critical of the nation's intelligence community for months, openly casting doubt on its conclusion that Russia was involved in US election-related cyber attacks. "These reports are false," said Trump spokesman Sean Spicer, the incoming White House press secretary, referring to a Wall Street Journal report late Wednesday that said Trump was aiming to scale back the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) and restructure the Central Intelligence Agency. The president-elect insisted he supports US intelligence agencies after a report that he was aiming to scale them back SAUL LOEB (AFP/File) "There is no truth to this idea of restructuring the intelligence community infrastructure. It is 100 percent false," Spicer told reporters on a conference call. Trump won a stunning upset against Democrat Hillary Clinton in the US election on November 8. US intelligence officials and the White House have said Russia was behind a series of computer attacks, including of the Democratic Party in 2016, and leaks of hacked documents, which hurt Clinton's presidential campaign. In a closely-watched Senate hearing, top intelligence officials Thursday presented a united front as they reiterated their conclusion that Moscow interfered ahead of the election. The Journal had quoted a source familiar with Trump's strategy as saying the president-elect and his advisors were working on a plan to scale back a US intelligence world which "has become completely politicized." "They all need to be slimmed down. The focus will be on restructuring the agencies and how they interact." Trump's criticism of US spy agencies and praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin has drawn stern rebukes from Democratic and Republican lawmakers alike. On Thursday, Trump insisted he supports the US intelligence agencies. "The media lies to make it look like I am against 'Intelligence' when in fact I am a big fan!" the president-elect tweeted. But Congressman Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said the willingness of Trump and his backers to disregard the determinations of the US intelligence community had reached "embarrassing" levels. Chad closes border with Libya over 'terror threat' Chad announced Thursday that it has closed its border with Libya due to the threat of a "potential terrorist infiltration" and is boosting its military presence in the region. "Faced with the perils that threaten all of the nation's territory, the government decided for one thing to close our land border with Libya, and for another to declare the regions bordering Libya military operation zones," said Prime Minister Albert Pahimi Padacket in a message broadcast on radio and television. The Tibesti desert border regions are sparsely populated but are used for dealing in contraband by those living on both sides of the border, mainly the ethnic Tubu people. Chadian president Idriss Deby Itno, seen in December 2016, is supported by France and the United States, who need the cooperation of the Chadian military in the region in its fight against jihadists in Africa ALAIN JOCARD (POOL/AFP/File) The premier explained that the measures were taken because "following their defeat, some isolated terrorist groups have gathered in the south of Libya, putting the northern frontier of our country potentially exposed to a serious threat of a terrorist infiltration." He did not however provide information on the identity of these "terrorist groups" or what "defeat" they suffered in Libya. The north African country has been mired in chaos since the 2011 downfall of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi. Chad is seen as a key ally of the West in its fight against jihadists in Africa. President Idriss Deby Itno is supported by France and the United States, who need the cooperation of the Chadian military in the region. French police search forest for body of Japanese student Police in eastern France searched a forest on Thursday for the body of a missing Japanese student as a chilling video emerged in which a man thought to be her fugitive Chilean ex-boyfriend threatens her. Narumi Kurosaki went missing in the city of Besancon, where she had been studying French, on the night of December 4. French authorities believe the 21-year-old was murdered by her ex-boyfriend, who is believed to have fled to Chile, and have issued an international warrant for his arrest. Narumi Kurosaki, 21, a Japanese student who went missing in the town of Besancon last month, pictured on November 4, 2016 - (FACEBOOK/AFP/File) Chile's justice ministry said Wednesday it was assisting the French "in the identification of certain suspects as of their latest movements", without giving further details. In a video published by French and Japanese media, the suspect, identified as Nicolas Zepeda Contreras, threatens Kurosaki with unnamed consequences if she did not fulfil unspecified conditions. Speaking in English in a video dating from September, he says he loves Kurosaki, whom he identifies by first name, but accuses her of doing "bad things". Holding up two fingers he gave her a two-week deadline until September 21 to meet his conditions, which he said applied "some for her whole stay in France and some, actually, forever." "She needs to build trust and she needs to pay a little cost of what she did and assume (sic) that she cannot go around making those kinds of mistakes with a person who loves her," he added. The case has caused shock in Japan as well as in France. Kurosaki's fellow students in Besancon described Kurosaki as a "lovely person" who was "always smiling". On Thursday, police with sniffer dogs searched a vast forest on the outskirts of Besancon for the body of the petite student. Le Parisien newspaper reported that signals from the suspect's phone had been traced to Chaux forest. The prosecutor's office and police refused to confirm the report. On Tuesday, Besancon prosecutor Edwige Roux-Morizot said the investigation had shown the student's Chilean ex "was in France, in Besancon, at the time of her disappearance". "The evidence tells us it is extremely likely that the young woman is dead," she said. The prosecutor ruled out suicide, describing Kurosaki as a "young girl full of life" who was happy in a new relationship. "There is sufficient evidence to launch a murder investigation," she said, describing the suspect as having an "intrusive, disturbing personality". - 'Horror film' - Kurosaki, who had been studying in Besancon since September, met the Chilean teaching assistant in Japan but the pair later split. Several students living on the same floor of her university residence said they heard a loud cry on the night of December 4. Anne-Laure Saillet, 20, told AFP she heard "bangs on the doors and furniture and afterwards I heard a very shrill cry, very sharp and loud. It was a woman's cry. "At first I thought it was a horror film but when it continued I became worried." Israeli Arab lawmaker to be indicted in phone smuggling case Israel's attorney general has given his approval for an indictment against an Arab Israeli lawmaker accused of smuggling mobile phones to Palestinian prisoners, the justice ministry said Thursday. Basel Ghattas of the Joint List, a coalition of Arab Israeli parties, was detained last month and has been under house arrest since December 27 until a court released him from house arrest later Thursday. He is to be charged with the use of property for terrorist purposes and breach of public trust, among other accusations, the ministry said in a statement. Arab-Israeli Knesset member Basel Ghattas arrives at the Israeli Rishon Lezion Justice court, near Tel Aviv on December 23, 2016 JACK GUEZ (AFP/File) Israeli media have reported that 12 mobile phones were found on two separate prisoners in searches after the 60-year-old parliament member visited. One of the prisoners is serving time for the kidnapping and murder of an Israeli soldier in 1984, news site Ynet reported. Ghattas is suspected of using his parliamentary immunity to avoid being searched in order to smuggle in the phones. In a recorded message to Channel 10 television, Ghattas accused the police of attempting to contaminate the legal process by leaking to the media details of the investigation. Ghattas reiterated he had not handed telephones or any other form of communication. "Everything I gave was printed material, for humanitarian reasons," he said on Thursday. Arab lawmakers from the Joint List, the third largest force in parliament with 13 seats, frequently clash with Israel's leaders. Four Yemenis freed from Guantanamo arrive in Saudi Arabia Four Yemenis released from the US prison at Guantanamo Bay arrived Thursday in Saudi Arabia to a tearful reunion with relatives, after the White House rejected Donald Trump's call for a freeze on transfers. The Pentagon confirmed the detainee transfers, and said there are now 55 inmates still being held in the military detention centre in Cuba. In the Saudi capital, an AFP reporter saw the four prisoners after they landed at a terminal normally reserved for royals at the Riyadh international airport. A former Yemeni inmate, released from the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay, is welcomed by his family upon his arrival in Riyadh on January 5, 2017 STRINGER (AFP) Prisoners and family members wept as they saw each other for the first time in years. One of the released inmates, Salim Ahmed bin Kanad, told reporters he felt "born again" after seeing his relatives. Another, Mohammed Bawazir, said he hoped to move on and forget the past. "I want to give back to my family the 15 years I lost," he said. Officials identified the other former prisoners as Mohammed Rajab Abu Ghanim and Abdullah Yahya al-Shalabi. "The United States is grateful to the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for its humanitarian gesture and willingness to support ongoing US efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility," the Pentagon said. Outgoing US President Barack Obama's pledge to close the Guantanamo Bay facility has been met with legal and political hurdles for years, and on Tuesday, his successor jumped into the fray. "There should be no further releases from Gitmo. These are extremely dangerous people and should not be allowed back onto the battlefield," Trump tweeted. Hours later, Obama's spokesman Josh Earnest said he would expect "additional transfers" before the Democrat hands power to Trump on January 20. Saudi King Salman has said the four Yemenis who arrived Thursday will live in the kingdom, where they will take part in a rehabilitation and de-radicalisation programme, the interior ministry said in a statement. The bearded ex-prisoners appeared healthy and were all dressed in two-piece Pakistani-style tunics. One prisoner was welcomed by 21 relatives, including children, but only a handful greeted the others. A lone woman waited for one of the inmates. Reporters were kept in the terminal and could not see what type of aircraft had transported them. - Whittling down numbers - Obama came to office eight years ago vowing to close the Guantanamo facility, arguing that detention without trial did not reflect American values. But he has run up against Pentagon foot-dragging and stubborn Republican opposition in Congress. With Guantanamo's closure blocked, Obama's White House has focused on whittling down the number of inmates. Before Thursday's transfer, around 20 of the remaining prisoners had been cleared for removal. But finding countries to take them has often proven time-consuming. Only a handful of those who remain have started moving through military tribunals, including the alleged plotters of the 9/11 attacks. Many of the others are in legal limbo -- not charged but deemed too dangerous to release. Fifteen of the 19 Al-Qaeda hijackers who carried out the attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001 were Saudi. But Riyadh denies any ties to the plotters who killed nearly 3,000 people. In recent months, Obama has authorised a flurry of transfers of prisoners to other countries -- prompting outrage from Republicans each time. In April, nine Yemeni inmates were transferred from Guantanamo Bay to Saudi Arabia, the first time the kingdom received any inmates from the facility. The move followed years of negotiations with the Saudi government. Yemen's civil war meant those inmates could not be sent to their home country. Obama's predecessor George W. Bush released or transferred around 500 inmates before leaving office. Obama had released or transferred more than 180. Prisoners and family members wept as they saw each other for the first time in years STRINGER (AFP) Morocco to close schools allegedly linked to Turkish preacher Morocco has ordered the closure of schools it says are linked to a US-based Islamic preacher that Turkey blames for a failed coup last year, the interior ministry said. "Investigations on the establishments of the Mohamed Al-Fatih group, linked to Turkish national Fethullah Gulen, showed they use education to spread the group's ideology and ideas contrary to the principles of the Moroccan educational and religious system," a ministry statement said. After a series of warnings from the education ministry, "it was decided all the group's educational establishments would be closed within a delay of one month", it said. Turkish cleric and opponent to the Erdogan regime Fethullah Gulen is seen in July 2016 at his residence in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania Thomas URBAIN (AFP/File) The statement did not say how many schools or pupils would be affected but said the government would strive to ensure the students continued their education in other schools. Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999, has denied any involvement in the July 15 failed coup aimed at toppling Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The preacher heads the Hizmet group which includes schools, associations and companies. Turkey, which calls it the Fethullah Terror Organisation (FETO), has embarked on a massive crackdown of the group. Since the coup, Turkey has piled pressure on the United States to extradite Gulen, a one-time Erdogan ally. In August, an official Turkish delegation visited Morocco to convince the authorities of the danger of Gulen's group. A school director from the Mohamed Al-Fatih group at the time rejected any link with Gulen for seven schools teaching 2,500 students including 2,470 Moroccans. At least 15 dead in DR Congo ethnic clashes: local sources At least 15 people from DR Congo's Bantu community were killed Thursday in an attack blamed on Pygmies in an area of the southeast that has seen repeated ethnic clashes, local sources said. "Clashes between Bantus and Pygmies in the village of Piana Mwanga have left 15 Bantus dead, 37 injured and 65 houses burned," Paul Kwanga, bishop of the southeastern town of Manono, told AFP. Kamona Lumuna, the interior minister of Tanganyika province where the assault took place, confirmed the attack but said the precise toll was not yet known. DRCongo ethnic clashes AFP (AFP) "A team will be sent from tomorrow to investigate what really happened in the village," Kamona told AFP by telephone. Local civil society leader Modeste Kubali said 17 people had been killed and 47 injured, with 65 homes torched. "The village has been emptied of its population and the injured have been abandoned to their sad fate," Kubali said. Pygmies from the ethnic Twa group have been seeking recognition of equal rights with other citizens in the vast, unstable Democratic Republic of Congo, but they regularly come into conflict with Bantus who regard them as second-class. Since December 2013, northern Katanga -- a region as large as Spain that was split into four provinces in 2015, including Tanganyika -- has been the scene of multiple deadly clashes between the Pygmies and Bantus from the ethnic Luba group. In October, 20 people were killed in three days of bloodshed over a tax paid to Bantus on harvesting caterpillars -- a staple food for Pygmies. Recent years have seen a cycle of revenge killings, looting and the burning of entire villages. More than 200 people were reported dead in violence in 2014-2015 and tens of thousands fled fighting that pitted bows and arrows against machete blades. In September, four Bantus were sentenced to 15 years in jail for crimes against humanity over the conflict. Tensions between the two peoples stretch back before DR Congo gained independence from Belgium in 1960, with the land-owning Bantus accused of exploiting the hunter-gatherers, paying them meagre wages, or paying them in alcohol and cigarettes for labouring the land. Today, the nomadic lifestyle of the hunter-gatherer Pygmies has come under threat from deforestation, mining and the expansion of Bantu farmlands. Obamas, Ivanka could soon be neighbors in DC One of the most exclusive neighborhoods in Washington was already abuzz with word that Barack and Michelle Obama will reside there when he leaves office. Now, it's reportedly making room for Ivanka Trump. The elder Trump daughter and her husband Jared Kushner -- both seemingly headed to play important roles in the administration when Donald Trump becomes president on January 20 -- have chosen a house around the corner from the Obamas in the capital's Kalorama district, US media report. Chez Trump is a white, six-bedroom, 6,870-square-foot house that sold for $5.5 million in December, according to the New York Times. It is not clear if they are renting the place or if they bought it. Ivanka Trump (R) and her husband Jared Kushner are seemingly headed to play important roles in the administration when Donald Trump becomes president on January 20 SPENCER PLATT (GETTY/AFP/File) The Times said the home was previously owned by a Latvian-born businessman with extensive investments in Russia. The neighborhood -- a quiet and leafy one less than two miles (three kilometers) from the White House -- is home to many embassies and powerful Washington families. Trump and Kushner, both 35, were very active in her father's presidential campaign and have also played roles in helping Trump make cabinet and other senior appointments. Normally, American presidents leave Washington when their terms end, but the Obamas say they want to stay until their younger daughter Sasha finishes high school in 2018. Elder daughter Malia is now taking a gap year and will attend Harvard University in the autumn. Former rebels enter key Mali city for mixed patrols with army Former Tuareg rebels on Thursday entered Gao, the main city in northern Mali, to begin joint patrols with government troops, a key part of a peace accord for the troubled region. "This is the first group of the CMA that has entered Gao to start mixed patrols," said Malick Ag Cherif, coordinator of the former rebel organisation, known as the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA). In 2015, the rebel alliance signed a peace deal with government and loyalist militias. This photo taken on February 17, 2013 shows an aerial view of Gao, northern Mali, where former Tuareg rebels entered January 5, 2017 to begin joint patrols with government troops PASCAL GUYOT (POOL/AFP/File) The hope was to bring stability to a region that was the cradle of several Tuareg uprisings and a sanctuary for Islamist fighters. Since then, rival armed groups have repeatedly violated the ceasefire, threatening attempts to give the north a measure of autonomy to prevent separatist uprisings. A key component of the deal -- joint patrols between regular troops, pro-government militia and former rebels -- remained unfulfilled until now. On December 30, the CMA complained a "group of armed men hostile to the CMA" had prevented some 200 of its men from entering government-held Gao for the patrols. Malian Colonel Rhissa Ag Sidi Mohamed said there had been a problem between CMA dissidents and pro-government groups, but insisted: "The state has taken a major step and resolved the problem." He said fighters from the other groups in the alliance were expected "to join us in the coming weeks and take part in the mixed patrols." US air strikes in Syria kill Al-Qaeda militants: Pentagon The United States killed about 20 Al-Qaeda militants this week in air strikes in northwestern Syria, the Defense Department said Thursday. US warplanes conducted two air strikes, Sunday and Tuesday, near Sarmada in Idlib province, the Pentagon said. The attacks had been reported by local sources. According to those sources, the air strikes were aimed at Fateh al-Sham Front, a former Al-Qaeda affiliate, previously known as Al-Nusra Front, that officially severed ties with the jihadist network in July. The US air strikes were aimed at Fateh al-Sham Front, a former Al-Qaeda affiliate, previously known as Al-Nusra Front, that officially severed ties with the jihadist network in July SR Airman Michael BATTLE (US AIR FORCE/AFP/File) But for the Pentagon, the US assault near the city of Sarmada was aimed squarely at the "foreign terrorist fighter network" of Al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda leaders "directed terrorist operations out of this location," Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said Thursday at a news conference. "We will continue to take action to deny any safe haven for Al-Qaeda in Syria," he said. Northwestern Idlib province is largely controlled by Fateh al-Sham and rebel groups allied with it. Fateh al-Sham is excluded from the current ceasefire in Syria between the government and rebels that was brokered last week by regime backer Russia and rebel sponsor Turkey. The tenuous ceasefire, which took effect on December 30, is part of efforts to resolve nearly six years of war in Syria, which has been ravaged by violence since an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011. According to the Pentagon, the US air strike on Sunday targeted two vehicles and killed five Al-Qaeda militants. Tuesday's strike killed more than 15 militants and destroyed six vehicles, Cook said. "We will not allow Al-Qaeda to grow its capacity to attack the United States or its allies around the world," he said. "These strikes demonstrate that commitment." The United States added Hamza bin Laden, son and would-be heir of Osama bin Laden, to its terrorist blacklist on Thursday. Trump's deportation vow spurs California farmers into action FRESNO, Calif. (AP) Days after Donald Trump won the White House vowing to deport millions of people in the country illegally and fortify the Mexican border, California farmer Kevin Herman ordered nearly $600,000 in new equipment, cutting the number of workers he'll need starting with the next harvest. Herman, who grows figs, persimmons and almonds in the nation's most productive farming state, said Trump's comments pushed him to make the purchase, larger than he would have otherwise. "No doubt about it," Herman said. "I probably wouldn't have spent as much or bought as much machinery as I did." In this Dec. 27, 2016 photo, farmer Kevin Herman stands next to an almond sweeper at his ranch near Madera, Calif. Herman says that Donald Trump's campaign vow to deport millions of immigrants who are in the country illegally pushed him into buying more equipment, cutting the number of workers he'll need during the next harvest. (AP Photo/Scott Smith) Others in California's farming industry say Trump's tough campaign talk targeting immigrants in the country illegally including a vast number of farmworkers spurred them into action, too. They're calling on congressional representatives to educate the incoming president on the workforce it takes to feed the country, and they're assuring workers they'll protect them. San Joaquin Valley farmer Joe Del Bosque recently gathered about 20 year-round employees at a Los Banos steakhouse for their annual holiday lunch. The festivities began in a serious tone. The topic of immigration took a bigger part of the conversation this year because of Trump, he said. Del Bosque told his crew he'll make sure the new administration knows their vital role in the farming industry. It's a message Del Bosque wants his managers to spread to another 300 seasonal workers needed at the harvest's peak. Leticia Alfaro, a food-safety supervisor at the farm, said in an interview that many of her friends who work in the fields don't have proper documentation like her, and they take Trump's threats seriously. "They're terrified by his comments," Alfaro, 53, said in Spanish. They fear being deported and torn from their children who were born here, she said. After Trump takes office, they wonder if it will be safe to make a simple trip to the grocery store, fearing checkpoints where they'll be pulled over and have to show their documentation. Trump's remarks were felt sharply in California, which produces nearly half the country's fruits, vegetables and nuts valued at $47 billion annually. Experts say his words resonate nationwide. Texas, Florida and Georgia are examples of states with large migrant communities dominating home construction, health care, food service industries, said David Zonderman, a labor historian at North Carolina State University. "California might be ground zero," he said of immigrant families living in the shadows. "But it's not a unique California issue." The fear stems from Trump's campaign rallies, where he received a rousing response each time he vowed to deport people who are in the country illegally up to 11 million. That position softened after Trump won the election, when he said he'd start with 3 million with criminal records. Some farmers point to Trump's postelection shift as a sign his campaign bluster won't become reality. He is, after all, a businessman like them, they say. But others believe this shift underscores the president-elect's unpredictable nature. "Our workers are scared," said Joe Garcia, a farm labor contractor who hires up to 4,000 people each year to pick grapes from Napa to Bakersfield and along the Central Coast. "If they're concerned, we're concerned." Since Election Day, Garcia's crews throughout the state have been asking what will happen to them when Trump takes office. Farmers also are calling to see if they'll need to pay more to attract people to prune the vines, he said. Garcia tells farmers not to panic. They'll learn how many return from Mexico after the holidays. "We'll plan around what we have," he tells them. "That's all we can do." Roughly 325,000 workers in California do the back-breaking jobs that farmers say nobody else will do, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Manuel Cunha Jr., president of the Nisei Farmers League farming association, estimates 85 percent of California farmworkers live in the United States illegally. Farmers for years have scrambled under a shrinking labor pool. Mexico's improving economy has slowed the flow of migrant workers. The dangerous border, controlled by drug cartels and human traffickers, keeps away others. Herman, the farmer who bought three new almond sweepers, said Trump influenced him on top of California's rising minimum wage and a new law giving farm laborers overtime rights that are equal to workers in other industries. Plus, Herman said, he's heard too many workers question whether they'll return from their holiday trips to Mexico. "It's stories like that that have motivated me to become efficient and upgrade my equipment," Herman said. Tom Nassif, a Trump adviser and president of the powerful trade association Western Growers, said farmers shouldn't fear the president-elect. Trump isn't interested in deporting their workers, he said. Nassif said he isn't privy to the details of Trump's immigration policy. He's recommended that Trump allow farmworkers to stay by putting immigrants in the country illegally who are otherwise law-abiding residents on a period of probation under conditions that they pay taxes, learn English and obey all laws. "I think he's looking at people who have committed more serious crimes and start with them first and rightly so," said Nassif, picked by Trump's campaign team to serve on an agriculture advisory committee. "I think there's less reason to worry than most people believe there is." In this Dec. 27, 2016 photo, farmer Kevin Herman stands next to an almond sweeper at his ranch near Madera, Calif. Herman says that Donald Trump's campaign vow to deport millions of immigrants who are in the country illegally pushed him into buying more equipment, cutting the number of workers he'll need during the next harvest. (AP Photo/Scott Smith) Milwaukee zoo hand raises Amur tiger cub to save its life MILWAUKEE (AP) The zookeepers at the Milwaukee County Zoo are hand-raising a lone Amur tiger cub an unusual undertaking only done in order to save the cub's life. Vets and zookeepers had to give special one-on-one care to then-10-pound cub named Kashtan after he developed an infection that killed one of his three sisters. They had considered returning him after about a week, but they didn't trust mother Amba would allow him to be removed five times a day for feedings. After he recovered about a month later, they didn't know if Amba would still recognize him or if she would protect her other cubs because he had been sick, said Katie Kuhn, area supervisor of Big Cat Country at the Milwaukee County Zoo. HOLD FOR STORY BY CARRIE ANTLFINGER - In this Dec. 12, 2016, photo, the Amur tiger cub Kashtan looks at a camera at the Milwaukee County Zoo in Milwaukee. Kashtan is being hand-raised by staff _ an unusual undertaking for a zoo. Kashtan had an infection at about a month old and had to be separated so medical staff could care for him. He was gone for about a month and zoo officials didn't know whether the mother would take him back and didn't want to risk his health or safety. (AP Photo/Carrie Antlfinger) It's not ideal but the zoo's vet, Dr. Vickie Clyde, said then-four-week old Kashtan would have died if they had not removed him. And his situation helped with early detection of the same infection in his sister Bernadette that allowed her to stay with Amba and sister Eloise. A small percentage of mothers neglect or reject cubs requiring zookeepers to step in but officials usually look for orphaned cubs at other accredited zoos so they can be raised together, said Tara Harris, the coordinator of the Tiger Species Survival Plan, which among other things matches tigers based on their genetics for breeding. She's also vice president of conservation for the Minnesota Zoo. But there were no other cubs around the same age. So it's unusual he is being raised alone, Harris said. Zookeepers are visiting him four times a day to play and hand feed him horse meatballs. They also bring his sisters for three hours a day so he doesn't forget he's a tiger. "He needs to learn when another tiger is telling him to back off," Kuhn said. Harris said little is known about cubs raised with only intermittent time with other tigers, and how that might affect a pairing with a female later. "I don't anticipate any negative effects but every tiger is different and has its own personality," Harris said. But within the next month or so, they will stop going in because he will be too big and strong for them to be safe, Kuhn said. Harris said Amur tigers are incredibly endangered so it's important to save him. "It's great the Milwaukee County Zoo is able to save this tiger and find a way to let this tiger be with his siblings and learn to be a tiger," she said. According to the World Wildlife Fund, there are nearly 3,900 wild tigers, mostly in Asia, compared with an estimated 3,200 in 2010. HOLD FOR STORY BY CARRIE ANTLFINGER - In this Dec. 12, 2016, photo, Kashtan, an Amur tiger cub, plays with a toy at the Milwaukee County Zoo in Milwaukee where he is being hand-raised away from his mother and two sisters by staff _ an unusual undertaking for a zoo. He had an infection at about a month old and had to be separated so medical staff could care for him. He was gone for about a month and zoo officials didn't know whether the mother would take him back and didn't want to risk his health or safety. (AP Photo/Carrie Antlfinger) HOLD FOR STORY BY CARRIE ANTLFINGER - This Dec. 12, 2016, photo, shows Kashtan, an Amur tiger cub, looking up at a towel at the Milwaukee County Zoo in Milwaukee where he is being hand-raised by staff _ an unusual undertaking for a zoo. Kitten had an infection at about a month old and had to be separated to be cared for. Zoo officials didn't know whether the mother would take him back and didn't want to risk his health or safety. (AP Photo/Carrie Antlfinger) HOLD FOR STORY BY CARRIE ANTLFINGER - In this Dec. 12, 2016, photo, Kashtan, an Amur tiger cub, bites a stuffed toy at the Milwaukee County Zoo in Milwaukee where he is being hand-raised away from his mother and two sisters by staff _ an unusual undertaking for a zoo. He had an infection at about a month old and had to be separated so medical staff could care for him. He was gone for about a month and zoo officials didn't know whether the mother would take him back and didn't want to risk his health or safety. (AP Photo/Carrie Antlfinger) Gas outburst in central China coal mine kills 12 BEIJING (AP) Seven miners were confirmed dead after a falling roof triggered a gas outburst in a central Chinese coal mine, bringing the death toll to 12, state media said Friday. The outburst occurred Wednesday night when 51 workers were underground at the mine in the city of Dengfeng in Henan province, state broadcaster CCTV said. Thirty-nine workers rose to safety while five others were killed and another seven had been trapped, the report said. Workers were doing maintenance work in a pump room when the roof fell, causing the outburst of gas, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. Some reports said three rescuers were among those who died, but that could not immediately be confirmed. The mine company could not be reached. A city government official declined to comment. The Latest: Lawyer says arrested designer fears for his life ISTANBUL (AP) The Latest on Istanbul nightclub attack (all times local): 3:40 p.m. The lawyer of a well-known Turkish fashion designer and critic of the ruling conservative party who was arrested after being beaten on the tarmac of Istanbul's main airport says his client fears for his life. A man adjusts a victim's photograph displayed with floral tributes and Turkish flags, outside the Reina night club following the New Year's day attack, in Istanbul, Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2017. Turkey has identified the gunman in the Istanbul nightclub massacre, the foreign minister said Wednesday as the president vowed that the country won't surrender to terrorists or become divided. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel) Barbaros Sansal has been arrested on charges of inciting hatred on social media. Lawyer Efkan Bolac said in a statement Thursday his client wanted to stay in a single-person cell because he is worried for his safety: "He thinks his life is under threat." Bolac says he is appealing the arrest. Sansal posted a video tweet on New Year's Eve criticizing celebrations "while there is so much filth, vileness and poverty in the country." Hours later, a gunman attacked revelers at an Istanbul night club, killing 39 people. The attack was unrelated to the tweet. When Sansal was expelled from Turkish-controlled Northern Cyprus on Jan. 2 where he was on holiday, he was attacked by unknown assailants as he was leaving the aircraft in Istanbul. The lawyer said Sansal sustained back injuries. After police questioning, Sansal was arrested on charges of "inciting hatred among the public." 3:05 p.m. Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak says authorities are close to catching the gunman who killed 39 people at an Istanbul nightclub. Kaynak told A Haber news channel in an interview Thursday that "the circle is closing in" on the gunman who vanished after the attack. The deputy premier said authorities believe he is still inside Turkey, although they have not completely ruled out the possibility that he may have escaped. Kaynak said the man is believed to be from China's Muslim Uighur minority. ___ 1:20 p.m. A well-known Turkish fashion designer and critic of the ruling conservative party has been arrested on charges of inciting hatred on social media. The Daily News newspaper said Thursday that Barbaros Sansal posted a video tweet on New Year's Eve criticizing celebrations "while there is so much filth, vileness and poverty in the country." Hours later, a gunman attacked revelers at an Istanbul night club, killing 39 people. The attack was claimed by the Islamic State and was unrelated to the tweet. When Sansal was expelled from Turkish-controlled Northern Cyprus on Jan. 2 where he was on holiday, he was attacked by unknown assailants and some passengers as he was leaving the aircraft at Istanbul's main airport. His lawyer said Sansal sustained back injuries. After questioning, Sansal was arrested on charges of "inciting hatred among the public." Criticism considered to be insult to the state or deemed to be terrorist propaganda is punishable under Turkish laws. ___ 10:30 a.m. Turkey's state-run news agency says police have conducted more raids in their hunt for the gunman that killed 39 people at an Istanbul nightclub, detaining several people. Anadolu Agency said Thursday that anti-terrorism teams, acting on tips, conducted raids in Istanbul's outskirts, detaining a number of people from China's Muslim Uighur community. The report didn't provide any numbers, but said they were suspected of "aiding and abetting" the gunman. At least 39 other people are already in custody over suspected links to the attack on Istanbul's upscale Reina nightclub during New Year's celebrations. The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the massacre, saying it was in reprisal for Turkish military operations in northern Syria. The government says the gunman, who reportedly escaped in a taxi, has been identified. Despite Syria truce, car bomb kills 10 in Assad stronghold BEIRUT (AP) A large explosion rocked a Syrian government-held coastal town on Thursday, killing at least 10 people and wounding dozens an attack that was a stark remainder of the prevailing insecurity in the war-torn country despite a nearly week-old cease-fire brokered by Russia and Turkey. The explosion shook a main street in Jableh, in the coastal Latakia province, a stronghold of President Bashar Assad and the heartland of Syria's Alawites, a Shiite offshoot to which Assad's family also belongs. It was the first such large-scale bombing since the cease-fire was agreed on last week, to prepare the way for peace talks between Assad's government and opposition in Kazakhstan later this month. In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian citizens gather next to damaged cars at the scene where explosion hit a commercial street, in the costal town of Jableh, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017. A large explosion hit a Syrian government-held coastal town on Thursday, killing and wounding several people, according to Syria's state TV an attack that undermined a nearly week-old and already shaky Russia- and Turkey-brokered cease-fire. (SANA via AP) Videos from the scene of the blast, which state media said was a car bomb, show extensive damage to shops lining a commercial street near the town's municipal stadium. Blood pooled on the pavement and several cars lay charred or overturned as fire fighters scrambled to put out fires. Qusay al-Khalil, the head of the local hospital, said the blast also severely wounded at least 30 people. "The explosion shook the town," he told state TV, adding that it prompted a state alert at his hospital. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the civil war, put the death toll at 15, including a son of a leading Syrian military commander. The monitoring group relies on a network of activists on the ground in Syria. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing. Although explosions are rare in government-controlled Latakia, Jableh was rocked in May last year by a string of blasts that first hit in a crowded bus station, then outside a hospital receiving the wounded, killing a total of about 120 people. Those attacks were claimed by the Islamic State group. IS and the al-Qaida-linked Fatah al-Sham Front are not part of the broad truce that the Syrian government and the opposition agreed on last week. The cease-fire, which came into effect on Dec. 30, has mostly held but not altogether halted fighting in the country. Fierce clashes continue in the Barada Valley, a major source of water for Damascus, and in other isolated regions. Both the government and the rebels have accused the other side of violating the truce. The United Nations said Thursday it has received reports that at least 7,000 people have been displaced by fighting in the Barada Valley. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said an estimated 45,000 people live in the area. Dujarric also said the U.N. has rehabilitated and equipped 120 wells in and around Damascus that cover about one-third of the city's daily water needs. Syria's al-Qaida-linked group in comments published Wednesday called the cease-fire "humiliating" and said that those who agreed to it made a "big mistake." Latakia province police chief Yasser al-Shariti told state TV the explosion hit during rush hour, when government employees and students would have been crowding one of the town's busiest streets. Others said the area was packed with shoppers, many coming from or going to a popular vegetable market nearby. Jableh is also home to thousands of internally displaced Syrians who have sought refuge in the relative calm of the government-controlled town. Under the new cease-fire, Russia and Iran are tasked with ensuring compliance by the Syrian government and its allies, while Turkey is serving as a guarantor for the rebels. On Wednesday, Turkey called on Iran to rein in the pro-government forces. Tehran countered by accusing the opposition of dozens of violations and called Turkey's comments "unconstructive." The government in Damascus says the truce does not apply in the Barada Valley because of the presence of al-Qaida-linked fighters. But activists and rebel groups have challenged the government claim, with some arguing the militants don't operate in the area. The rebels have said all areas not ruled by IS are covered under the agreement. In Geneva, the U.N. envoy for Syria said Thursday he welcomed preparations for the Russia- and Turkey-brokered peace negotiations in Astana, Kazakhstan's capital, saying the gathering could undergird new U.N.-mediated talks between the warring sides. Staffan de Mistura acknowledged violent "incidents" in Syria the truce began, but added that he believed the powers would "succeed in overcoming them." However, nearly a dozen rebel groups announced on Monday they were suspending talks about the negotiations because of cease-fire violations. A senior Iranian lawmaker Alaeddin Boroujaerdi, on a visit to Damascus, stressed on Thursday that as the al-Qaida-linked group and IS are not part of the agreement, "matters are settled with them on the battlefield." Boroujaerdi, who is in charge of foreign policy and national security portfolios in Iran's Shura Council, said that for any truce to hold, all militant groups must leave Syria. The presence of al-Qaida-linked militants, who fight alongside other rebel factions and have been credited with some of their biggest victories, has undermined past truce attempts. The Fatah al-Sham Front, formerly known as the Nusra Front, announced last year that it had severed tied with al-Qaida, but is still widely believed to be linked to the global terror network. Fatah al-Sham spokesman al-Shafei said in an interview published late Wednesday by Al-Jazeera Net that the current truce only protects Assad and allied Iranian-backed militias. "The people of (Syria) didn't offer all these sacrifices to be handed this humiliating agreement," he was quoted as saying. The Syrian rebellion "today needs someone to ... strengthen its political position by battlefield achievements," he said. The rebels demand that any future solution for Syria include Assad's exit from power. But Boroujaerdi said peace talks should not put any conditions on the Syrian leadership. He also chastised Turkey for sending troops into northern Syria as one in a series of Ankara's policy "mistakes." He added that any troops in Syria without the government's approval or permission should leave "immediately." __ Associated Press writers Sarah El Deeb in Beirut, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report. In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian citizens gather at the scene where explosion hit a commercial street, in the costal town of Jableh, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017. A large explosion hit a Syrian government-held coastal town on Thursday, killing and wounding several people, according to Syria's state TV an attack that undermined a nearly week-old and already shaky Russia- and Turkey-brokered cease-fire. (SANA via AP) Obama pens law review article on criminal justice challenges WASHINGTON (AP) President Barack Obama returned to his roots at the Harvard Law Review on Thursday, penning an article about progress his administration made in reforming the criminal justice system and the challenges that remain for the next administration. His commentary, "The President's Role in Advancing Criminal Justice Reform," addresses how presidents can exert influence over the criminal justice system, and how those who serve the president have a responsibility to translate that vision into practical results. "How we treat citizens who make mistakes (even serious mistakes), pay their debt to society, and deserve a second chance reflects who we are as a people and reveals a lot about our character and commitment to our founding principles," Obama writes. "And how we police our communities and the kinds of problems we ask our criminal justice system to solve can have a profound impact on the extent of trust in law enforcement and significant implications for public safety." President Barack Obama, right, Vice President Joe Biden, center, and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford, left, listen as Defense Secretary Ash Carter speaks during an Armed Forces Full Honor Farewell Review for the president, Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2017, at Conmy Hall, Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Va. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) In 1990, Obama was named the Harvard Law Review's first black president. The review was founded in 1887. Obama writes in the new article that the country cannot afford to spend $80 billion annually on incarceration, to "write off" the 70 million Americans with a criminal record, or to release 600,000 inmates each year without improving the programs that integrate them back into society. "In addition, we cannot deny the legacy of racism that continues to drive inequality in how the justice system is experienced by so many Americans," he writes. The outgoing president cautions that challenges toward true reform remain, including the passage of bipartisan criminal justice reform legislation, preventing guns from falling into the hands of those who pose a threat, and addressing the nation's opioid epidemic. Armed guards at Sweden's nuclear power stations next month STOCKHOLM (AP) A spokesman for one of Sweden's three nuclear power plants says they will have armed guards outside the facilities starting next month in a decision made by the country's nuclear watchdog. Anders Osterberg of the Oskarshamn power station says "the elevated level" was based on a general security assessment, not a specific threat. Osterberg said Thursday in an email to The Associated Press that the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority decided last year that guards should carry firearms as of Feb. 1. There was no immediate word from the authority. Judges decide to keep North Carolina election law blocked RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) A law North Carolina Republicans approved scaling back the new Democratic governor's control over election boards won't be enforced until his legal challenge to it is resolved, state judges decided Thursday. A panel of trial court judges is granting the request by Gov. Roy Cooper to extend a temporary 10-day block on the law, which Cooper argues is unconstitutional because it shifts appointment powers from him to legislative leaders. Cooper sued GOP legislative leaders just before his New Year's Day swearing-in, challenging a law the General Assembly approved in a surprise special session barely a week after Republican incumbent Pat McCrory conceded to Cooper in their close race. Barring any appeals, the incremental victory for Cooper keeps separate the State Board of Elections and the State Ethics Commission and halts what his allies considered an illegal power grab by Republicans. But GOP legislators said the blocked law would promote bipartisanship in carrying out elections. "We're pleased with the result," Cooper spokeswoman Noelle Talley said in an email. The governor appoints all five members of the State Board of Elections, with the members of the governor's party holding a 3-2 majority. Cooper would get to make his appointments May 1. Whoever is in charge of elections this year could set the schedule and rules for special General Assembly elections that were ordered by federal judges after they threw out nearly 30 House and Senate districts as illegal racial gerrymanders. Election board members also decide important early voting times and locations. The December law would have merged the ethics and elections boards effective Jan. 1. Moving forward, the new panel would have had eight appointments: four by the governor and two each by the House speaker and Senate leader. Although there would be an equal number of Democrats and Republicans, action couldn't occur unless any six members agreed. During more than two hours of arguments early Thursday before the three-judge panel, Cooper lawyer Jim Phillips said the six-member majority would effectively prevent the governor from fulfilling his duty to ensure election laws are faithfully executed. The challenged law also would have put the current ethics commission in charge of the merged board until the summer. The Republican law, Phillips said, would allow legislative leaders to "control the enforcement and the execution of the law" through their appointees. "They get to make law; they don't get to execute it. That is the governor's job," he said. But the legislative leaders' lawyers said the state Supreme Court has ruled it's not unlawful for legislators to make appointments to executive branch panels as long as those appointees don't have control over the panel. "The question that your honors must decide is whether in this instance, given all the facts and circumstances, whether the General Assembly went too far," said Noah Huffstetler, an attorney for Speaker Tim Moore and Senate leader Phil Berger. "And we simply submit that it did not." The elections panel is meant to be an independent body to avoid use of the agency for partisan ends, Huffstetler said. In a statement Thursday night, Berger and Moore said they believe the merged board ultimately will be upheld as constitutional and that Cooper "should explain why he opposes bipartisan oversight of elections and ethics laws." Republican lawmakers and Cooper already are butting heads elsewhere. Trump to GOP, Dems: Start writing new health care law WASHINGTON (AP) Donald Trump is urging Republicans and Democrats to "get together" to design a replacement for President Barack Obama's health care law. The president-elect says in a series of Thursday morning tweets that minority Democrats are doing "the typical political thing and (casting) BLAME." He adds: "It is time for Republicans and Democrats to get together and come up with a health care plan that really works much less expensive & FAR BETTER!" The tweets contradict Trump's advice to Republicans a day earlier, in which he wrote that "Dems are to blame for the mess" and warned the GOP to stay focused on blaming Obama's party. FILE - In this Dec. 15, 2016, file photo, President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a rally in Hershey, Pa. Trump tweeted Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2017, that the album sales of teenage classical singer Jackie Evancho have skyrocketed since he announced she would perform at his Inauguration. While some of the credit may be due to Trumps announcement, Evanchos sales could simply be a result of the holidays: She released a new album, Someday at Christmas, on Oct. 28, and she has other holiday albums in her catalog. The singers album sales could have also seen a boost thanks to her performance on Americas Got Talent: Holiday Spectacular, which aired on NBC on Dec. 19. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File) Lawsuit: Former inmate was harassed, beaten because he's gay CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) A former North Carolina inmate is suing a sheriff and his staff after saying he was brutally assaulted by another inmate because he's gay. The Charlotte Observer reports (http://bit.ly/2ie8nWy) Arthur Blake filed a complaint Tuesday against Mecklenburg County Sheriff Irwin Carmichael and his employees, saying he repeatedly warned deputies that he'd been threatened by a fellow inmate before being attacked in 2014. Blake's attorney Jack Sussman says deputies didn't take steps to protect Blake before the assault. Sussman says jailers also harassed and demeaned Blake because he's gay. The lawsuit says because Blake felt unsafe, he pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and other charges to speed up his transfer out of the jail. Carmichael's attorney, Marilyn Porter, says they dispute the charges. The complaint calls for a jury trial. ___ Uganda opposition members ask ICC to investigate killings KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) A group of opposition members in Uganda's parliament has petitioned the International Criminal Court to investigate the killing of dozens of people in clashes between a traditional king's guards and security forces in November. The petition asks the ICC to investigate President Yoweri Museveni as the leader of Uganda's armed forces, as well as officials who commanded the army and police to attack the palace of King Charles Wesley Mumbere of the Kingdom of Rwenzururu. The government says the attack came after royal guards killed 14 police officers in the mountainous district of Kasese, a stronghold of the political opposition near the border with Congo. The king has been accused of harboring rebels there. The government has said 62 were killed in the clashes, including 46 supporters of the king and 16 police officers. The actual death toll may be higher, as many clashes happened deep in the villages and may not have been reported. The king has since been arrested and faces murder charges. Winnie Kiiza, the opposition leader in Uganda's parliament who is from the area where the clashes took place, said the killing of the civilian royal guards constitutes possible war crimes. The ICC wrote to the parliament members this week acknowledging the receipt of the petition. Harry 'constantly in trouble,' Princess Diana letter says LONDON (AP) Letters sent by Britain's late Princess Diana including one in which she described a young Prince Harry as being "constantly in trouble" while at boarding school sold for thousands of pounds at an auction Thursday. The six handwritten notes were sent to Cyril Dickman, a former head steward at Buckingham Palace, during the 1980s and 1990s. In one, sent five days after Harry's birth in September 1984, Diana thanked Dickman for a card he sent during what she called "this particularly happy time" and described how affectionate Prince William was toward his baby brother. This undated photo issued on Thursday Jan. 5, 2017 by Cheffins Fine Art shows a letter written by Princess Diana from the estate of the late Cyril Dickman, former Palace Steward at Buckingham Palace, which will be auctioned at Cheffins Connoisseur's Sale on 5th January in Cambridge. Six handwritten notes sent to Cyril Dickman in the 1980s and 1990s are going on auction. (Cheffins Fine Art via AP) "William adores his little brother and spends the entire time swamping Harry with an endless supply of hugs and kisses, hardly letting the parents near!" she wrote. Diana added that she was overwhelmed by the reaction to Harry's birth. "I can hardly breathe for the mass of flowers that are arriving here!" she said. That note, which had been expected to fetch up to 600 pounds ($745), sold for 3,200 pounds ($3,975), Cheffins auction house in Cambridge said. In another letter, written in 1992, Diana said both her sons were enjoying boarding school, "although Harry is constantly in trouble!" Diana died in a car crash in Paris in 1997. The letters were part of a collection that included about 40 royal memorabilia items. The auction house, said bidding took place online and in the saleroom, with bids from Australia, Japan and America. Other items include photos and Christmas cards from various members of Britain's royal family, and a boxed piece of cake from Queen Elizabeth II's wedding in 1947. This undated photo issued on Thursday Jan. 5, 2017 by Cheffins Fine Art shows a letter written by Princess Diana from the estate of the late Cyril Dickman, former Palace Steward at Buckingham Palace, which will be auctioned at Cheffins Connoisseur's Sale on 5th January in Cambridge. Six handwritten notes sent to Cyril Dickman in the 1980s and 1990s are going on auction. (Cheffins Fine Art via AP) Indonesia says only part of Australian cooperation halted JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) An Indonesian government minister clarified Thursday that the country was suspending only part of its military cooperation with Australia, as that country promised its investigation of an alleged insult of Indonesian beliefs was nearly complete. Australian Defense Minister Marise Payne said the issue began in November, after an Indonesian military officer raised concerns about teaching materials and remarks made at an army language-training facility in western Australia. Indonesia said Wednesday that it has suspended military cooperation with Australia indefinitely, but Security Affairs Minister Wiranto clarified a day later that only the language training was suspended. "The incident in November offended our dignity as a nation," Wiranto, who uses one name, told an afternoon news conference at the state palace. "Therefore we suspend language training at the special forces instead of the defense cooperation in a whole. That is very much different." The suspension had surprised Australians. Military ties between the nations have been relatively warm in recent years, having improved since Indonesia downgraded its relations with Australia in 2013 over the alleged bugging of phones belonging to Indonesia's president. Indonesian military spokesman Maj. Gen. Wuryanto said an Indonesian instructor reportedly felt that a "laminated paper" on display at the facility was insulting. According to Indonesian media, the paper contained words that demeaned Indonesia's ideology of Pancasila a set of vague principles that mandates belief in one God and unity among the country's 250 million people. Wuryanto refused to comment later about the scale of the suspension but he pointed to comments from Indonesia's military commander posted on the army's website that were specific to the language program. Referring to the content of the laminated paper, Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo said, "It was too painful to be explained." Nurmantyo said he "decided to withdraw the instructor and stop the program" after the Indonesian instructor reported about a writing mentioning Pancasila as "Pancagila" (five crazies) along with five mock and offending principles. He did not elaborate. On Thursday, Payne was asked about reports that the material also suggested West Papua should be given independence from Indonesia, which is battling the remote region's separatist movement. "The issue of West Papua was raised by the Indonesian defense minister, yes," Payne told reporters. Payne said completion of an investigation begun in November was "imminent" and the training material in question would be replaced. "We have indicated our regret that this occurred and that offense was taken," she said. Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo told reporters in Jakarta that his country's relationship with Australia remained good. "Indonesia and Australia have agreed to respect each other, to appreciate each other and not interfere in each others' domestic affairs," Jokowi said. "We have already agreed on that and now I have ordered the minister of defense and the military chief to address the problem." The neighboring nations, though close partners on many issues including terrorism and trade, have long had a turbulent relationship. Tensions have repeatedly flared over Australia's policy of turning back boats to Indonesia that are carrying asylum seekers from other countries. Indonesia's use of the death penalty which Australia opposes has also strained ties, particularly in 2015 when Indonesia executed two Australians for drug crimes. And in 1999, the relationship suffered one of its most serious blows after Australia led a U.N. military force into the former Indonesian province of East Timor following a bloody independence ballot. ___ Sing-alongs, celebrities and more on tap for 2nd BroadwayCon NEW YORK (AP) The first-ever convention for Broadway fans was nearing the end of its first of three days in New York last January when snow began falling. It quickly became a nasty blizzard more than 26 inches hammered the city, triggering a travel ban. "It was crazy. It was the only snow we got all last year. So it was like a targeted attack by God," said Melissa Anelli, the organizer. She had earlier publicly doubted snow would cripple city airports. "I said that out loud and God must have been thinking, 'Girl, I'm going to show you.'" FILE - This Jan. 19, 2012 file photo shows a Broadway street in Times Square, in New York. BroadwayCon, a convention for Broadway fans, will be held on Jan. 2729. (AP Photo/Charles Sykes, File) A more humble BroadwayCon returns this time from Jan. 27-29 with one eye on the weather and lots of changes. For one thing, there's a much larger stage, trading last year's midtown hotel meeting spaces for a portion of the cavernous Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. The three-day BroadwayCon sort of a Comic Con for thespians will have tap dancing workshops, places for fans of Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber to meet, huge sing-alongs, exhibits, a "Family Feud"-style game show, a talent show and a cabaret. Stars planning to attend include Cynthia Nixon, Josh Groban, Chita Rivera, Joel Grey, Kelli O'Hara, Jonathan Groff, Jeremy Jordan, Michael Cerveris, Laura Osnes, and "Hamilton" alums Christopher Jackson and Okieriete Onaodowan. BroadwayCon said Thursday that a session has been added on Jan. 27 in which Tony Award-winner Julie Taymor who directed and designed costumes for "The Lion King" and Whoopi Goldberg will discuss the creation of that regal musical, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary on Broadway. The casts and creatives of shows like "Dear Evan Hansen," ''Anastasia," ''In Transit" and "Bandstand" will talk about their shows, as will the new cast of "Hamilton." There will be panel discussions like "The Future of Cabaret," ''Fight Choreography" and "Producing 101." "We are intense and nerdy about theater," said Anelli. "This is not something we hired the intense, nerdy people to do. We are the intense, nerdy people. And it's what we would want the most walking into this event." Organizers noted what was popular last year and adjusted. A 10-minute cosplay fashion show short for costume play last year has been turned into a full event and they've added new group sing-alongs, one featuring only 11 o'clock numbers and another with Act 1 finales. "Last year, we threw spaghetti at the wall at times to figure out what works," said David Alpert, artistic director of BroadwayCon's main stage programming. "It's such an exciting opportunity for fans to really embrace the fandom." At BroadwayCon, there's no charge for autographs, though fans may have to enter lotteries. Master classes in vocal technique or on things like being a stage manager are free, but require registration and fill up fast. Tickets start at $95 for a day pass and $250 for a general, all-weekend pass with full access to everything on offer. A portion of all profits go to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. As a blizzard swirled outside last year, organizers scrambled. Panelists couldn't get into the city, so new panels were born. Celebrities like Idina Menzel, Patti LuPone and Audra McDonald were trapped and so called in. Jeremy Jordan and Darren Criss both chatted via video. "If there's one community that knows the show must go on and deals with the circumstances, this is the one," said Anelli, who partnered with Playbill and co-created the event with Stephanie Dornhelm and the original "Rent" star Anthony Rapp. Some 5,000 people attended all three days last year and organizers expect more this year up to 6,000 each of the three days. This year, there will be two stages and the main one has 5,000 seats, far larger than any Broadway theater. But organizers stress that despite the celebrities and panels, the convention rises or falls on the theater fans that show up. They were delighted last year when a young woman who was cosplaying Tracy Turnblad from the musical "Hairspray" met and hugged a girl who came dressed as the character Penny from the same musical. "The con happens between them," said Alpert. "It's people together." ___ Online: http://www.broadwaycon.com ___ Israeli police question Netanyahu again over graft suspicion JERUSALEM (AP) Police questioned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday for the second time over allegations that he improperly accepted gifts from wealthy supporters, pressing ahead with a probe that has threatened to challenge his long leadership of Israel's government. Netanyahu has adamantly denied wrongdoing. Police said investigators went to Netanyahu's official residence in Jerusalem in a case that local media say arose from allegations involving high-profile figures in international business and Hollywood. Police said investigators questioned Netanyahu for five hours about suspicions that he "allegedly received benefits" as well as about another undisclosed affair. His questioning on Monday lasted more than three hours. FILE -- In this Sunday, Dec. 25, 2016 file photo, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem. On Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2017, Netanyahu called for a pardon for a soldier convicted of manslaughter in the shooting death of a badly wounded Palestinian assailant. With his comment, the prime minister has plunged into a raging political debate that has divided the country and put himself at odds with the military. Sgt. Elor Azaria was convicted on Wednesday of manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a Palestinian who lay on the ground incapacitated from shots sustained after he stabbed and wounded a soldier in the volatile West Bank city of Hebron. (Dan Balilty/Pool photo via AP, File) Few details of the allegations against Netanyahu have been officially released, with Israel's Justice Ministry revealing only that the prime minister was being questioned "on suspicion of receiving benefits from business people." But Israeli media have reported that Netanyahu accepted "favors" from businessmen in Israel and abroad, allegedly including billionaire Ronald Lauder and Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan. Israeli Channel 2 TV has said Netanyahu is the central suspect in a second investigation that also involves family members. Netanyahu has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, portraying the accusations as a witch hunt against him and his family by a hostile media opposed to his hard-line political views. He has pointed to previous suspicions raised against him, none of which resulted in any criminal proceedings, as a sign that he has done nothing wrong in this most recent allegation as well. "There won't be anything because there is nothing," Netanyahu has said frequently. Serving his third consecutive term with a stable coalition government, Netanyahu is on track to become Israel's longest-serving leader, should he complete his full term in office in 2019. He does not appear to have any serious foreseeable challenger to his rule. While the probe is still in its infancy, a mounting investigation could put pressure on Netanyahu to step down. His predecessor, Ehud Olmert, did so in 2008 just months before he was formally indicted on corruption-related charges. Olmert is now serving a prison sentence after being convicted of accepting bribes. After eight years in office, in addition to an earlier term in the 1990s, Netanyahu has garnered a reputation as a cognac-swilling, cigar-puffing socialite who is as comfortable rubbing shoulders with international celebrities as he is making deals in parliament. Armed men shoot dead Red Cross employee in northern Mali GAO, Mali (AP) Officials say a Malian employee of the International Committee of the Red Cross has been killed. Jean-Nicolas Marti, the organization's director in Mali, said Thursday that a colleague in the northern city of Gao was shot to death by armed men. Residents told The Associated Press that two armed men on motorcycles shot the aid worker while he was in front of a store and then sped off. The shooting takes place amid an increase in violence in Gao, where almost two weeks ago a French-Swiss woman was abducted. Authorities believe she is being held by jihadists, though there has been no official claim of responsibility for that attack. US imposes terrorism-related sanctions against bin Laden son WASHINGTON (AP) The Obama administration imposed sanctions Thursday on a son of Sept. 11 mastermind Osama bin Laden, saying the younger bin Laden poses a risk to U.S. national security. The State Department said Hamza bin Laden has been added to its Specially Designated Global Terrorist list after he was "determined to have committed, or pose a serious risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security." Hamza bin Laden was officially named an al-Qaida member in 2014 by his father's successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri. In this image made from video broadcast by the Qatari-based satellite television station Al-Jazeera Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2001, a young boy, left, identified as Hamza bin Laden holds what the Taliban says is a piece of U.S. helicopter wreckage in Ghazni, Afghanistan on Monday, Nov. 5, 2001. The Obama administration has announced terrorism-related sanctions against a son of Sept. 11 mastermind Osama bin Laden. The State Department says Hamza bin Laden has been determined to have committed, or pose a serious risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security. (AP Photo/Al-Jazeera via APTN) ** TV OUT ** The State Department says the younger Laden in a 2015 audio message called for acts of terrorism in Western capitals. In an audio message last year, he threatened revenge against the U.S. and warned Americans they would be targeted at home and abroad. Hamza bin Laden also has called for lone wolf, or solo-operative, attacks against U.S., French, and Israeli interests in Washington, Paris and Tel Aviv. "Hamza bin Laden is actively engaged in terrorism," the State Department said, adding that terrorism designations deny individuals access to the U.S. financial system and "can assist or complement the law enforcement actions of other U.S. agencies and other governments." Al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. special forces in Pakistan in 2011. The State Department also announced penalties against Ibrahim al-Banna, a senior member of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. He served as that group's security chief and provided military and security guidance to its leadership. Ohio becomes 1st state to ban plywood on vacant properties COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) Boarded-up property will no longer be synonymous with blight in Ohio. The state became the first in the nation this week to outlaw the use of plywood on properties certified as vacant and abandoned. The prohibition was tucked into one of 28 bills signed Wednesday by Republican Gov. John Kasich. It takes effect in 90 days. Pedestrians pass boarded up buildings in downtown Cincinnati, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017. Boarded-up property will no longer be synonymous with blight in Ohio. With the Gov. John Kasich's signature Wednesday, the state has become the first to outlaw the use of plywood on abandoned and vacant properties. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) It's a boon for a practice known as clear boarding, which has been catching on around the country. Fannie Mae, the federal government-sponsored mortgage association, has been using the clear polycarbonate windows and doors for several years and, in November, declared plywood unacceptable for securing vacant properties. A zoning committee in Chicago debated the issue this spring. Robert Klein, founder of Cleveland-based clear board maker SecureView, said the Ohio law makes a bold statement against urban decay. "This is a significant advancement for those engaged in the battle against neighborhood blight in Ohio," Klein said. "Plywood is an outdated solution to a growing modern-day problem." Plywood has been an industry standard for securing vacated housing for so many decades that the very act of doing so is called "boarding up" the property. It's widely available, easy to use and inexpensive. However, supporters of using a different material say plywood is susceptible to break-ins and vandalism, obstructs the visibility for first responders and sends a visual signal that depreciates surrounding property values. Marilyn Thompson, of APA-Engineered Wood Association, said the trade organization representing North American plywood makers views the debate as primarily aesthetic. "Plywood has very good structural properties, so we wouldn't see any significant difference in terms of security," she said. "In terms of aesthetics, if building owners want to have the option to use that, that's fine. But to ban the use of plywood and to make it mandatory to use the clear boarding really removes options for property owners and puts an additional burden on them by removing lower cost options." Thompson said a 4-by-8-foot sheet of plywood that's 15/32 inches thick costs $17 to $20, while a similar-sized sheet of clear polycarbonate costs about $115. In Ohio, the plywood ban comes close on the heels of another new law that sped up foreclosures on vacant and abandoned properties, sometimes called zombie properties because they languish like the living dead. It establishes a fast-track system trimming Ohio's foreclosure process from two years or more to as little as six months. Rep. Jonathan Dever, the bill's sponsor, said the plywood ban applies only to properties sent through that process, which should now be turned over much more quickly. The Cincinnati Republican said they represent a fraction of Ohio's total annual foreclosures. "If you drive through a neighborhood and there's boarded-up houses, what does that tell you? Nobody's there," Dever said. "The idea is, if you're going to foreclose on a house, let's not advertise that it's empty. Let's avoid break-ins and vandalism and let's get it sold as soon as possible." The bill doesn't specify any penalties for breaking the ban. Pedestrians pass boarded up buildings in downtown Cincinnati, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017. Boarded-up property will no longer be synonymous with blight in Ohio. With the Gov. John Kasich's signature Wednesday, the state has become the first to outlaw the use of plywood on abandoned and vacant properties. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) Pedestrians pass boarded up buildings in downtown Cincinnati, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017. Boarded-up property will no longer be synonymous with blight in Ohio. With the Gov. John Kasich's signature Wednesday, the state has become the first to outlaw the use of plywood on abandoned and vacant properties. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) A 10-year-old boy killed himself after his mother sent him to his room after an argument before school. Ian Sevostjanov fatally shot himself in his family's apartment in Clearwater, Florida on Thursday morning. Police said the boy's mother, Olga Grusetskaja, had sent him to his room for a 'behavioral issue' following an argument. Police are investigating after 10-year-old Ian Sevostjanov fatally shot himself in his family's apartment in Clearwater, Florida on Thursday Ian, who is in fifth grade at Belleair Elementary School, somehow managed to obtain the family's handgun. He died from a single shot. Paramedics were called shortly before 8.30am and tried to save him but he died in the family's apartment. Detectives have ruled the case a suicide. The boy's father and brother were not home at the time. Clearwater police spokesman Rob Shaw said detectives were interviewing distressed family members to find out how the firearm was stored. Ian Sevostjanov, 10, fatally shot himself in his family's apartment (pictured) in Clearwater, Florida after his mother sent him to his room after they had an argument before school Neighbors told Fox13 that Ian was a happy child who regularly playing with other kids in the neighborhood. 'He's very intelligent, smart, cordial and just a happy kid,' Lesley Sarchione said. 'He played with all the other kids. They used to play soccer right in front of my apartment every night. I can't imagine how it's going to be for the other kids when they find out.' British bookstore owner slammed for 50 pence 'browsing fee' LONDON (AP) A British bookshop owner who asks customers for a 50-pence (62-cent) browsing fee has been branded "the bookseller from hell." Steve Bloom, who runs second-hand emporium Bloomingdales in Hawes, northern England, says he makes the request to find out whether visitors are serious about buying books, but does not actually collect the money. He also apologized for using an expletive in describing a customer who ignored the fee request as a pain in the backside. John Blackie, chairman of Hawes Parish Council, said the customer complained one of more than 20 complaints the local authority has received in the past four years about Bloom's entry fee and his rudeness. Blackie said Wednesday that "bookseller from hell" Bloom was harming the reputation of Hawes, a community in the picturesque Yorkshire Dales that he called "very much a friendly town." "He seems to have a strategy unlike anybody else's," Blackie said. "He charges 50p, people object and he is very rude to them. Yet he feels that improves his business." Bloom said the council was overreacting, but acknowledged that he is "not really a people person." Victim who was attacked twice said in a letter read in court that he was willing to forgive Convery after the first assault Convery said at his sentencing he made a 'mistake' but insisted he was a good person A Pennsylvania college graduate has been sentenced to more than 13 years in prison for sexually assaulting two of his fraternity brothers in their sleep. Robert Convery Jr, 23, of Williamstown, New Jersey, was convicted last year of three counts each of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and sexual assault targeting two Albright College students, one of whom was attacked on two separate occasions. Each incident occurred at the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity house in the 1600 block of Pike Street in Reading, Pennsylvania, after the victims fell asleep following parties where alcohol was being consumed. Frat boy sentenced: Robert Convery Jr (pictured left in his mugshot), a graduate of Albright College and a member of the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity (pictured right in Barcelona), has been sentenced to more than 13 years in prison for sexually assaulting two schoolmates Convery, 23, graduated from Albright College in Pennsylvania (pictured) in May 2015, just months after prosecutors say he sexually assaulted one of his fraternity brothers in his sleep On Wednesday, Judge Paul M. Yatron sentenced Convery to 13-and-a-half to 30 years in prison, reported the Reading Eagle. As part of his punishment, Convery will also be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. When given a chance to speak at his sentencing, Convery, who graduated in May 2015 and said that he had aspired to become an attorney, tearfully admitted that he made a 'mistake.' 'I'm sorry. I'm going to take the consequences,' the defendant told the court. 'I want to have a future after this. I'm a good person, I really am.' Prosecutors said during Convery's two-day trial in June that he sexually assaulted one fellow member of the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity in December 2013 and again in November 2014. The second victim was attacked in February 2015. The man who was assaulted twice testified that he got drunk during a Christmas party in December 2013 and fell asleep on a coach at the Reading frat house. When he woke up, he found his pants down and Convery assaulting him. The other victim said from the stand that in February 2015, he was asleep in his bed after a night of drinking when he was awakened by the defendant assaulting him. On Wednesday, Judge Yatron had a prosecutor read aloud a four-page letter from the victim who was assaulted twice, in which the man, now aged 23, said that he was willing to forgive Convery after the first incident, but when he assaulted him a second time, he felt that he could not stay silent. A half-dozen supporters, including Robert Convery's mother (pictured center in family photo), took the stand to speak in the defense of the college grad (far left) The man also wrote that he does not know if he will ever be able to forgive Convery. One can only hear the words "I'm sorry" so many times before it loses its meaning, the statement read. I believe if there is even an ounce of an apology, it's only a result of being caught. A half-dozen supporters, including Robert Convery's mother, took the stand to speak in his defense, describing the college graduate as a caring and respectful young man who has had a positive influence on those around him. The judge said that while he believes that Convery has many redeeming qualities, the severity of his crimes cannot be overlooked. 'CBS This Morning' marks 5 years of 're-imagining the news' NEW YORK (AP) In 1982, CBS uprooted "Captain Kangaroo" from its weekday berth after 27 years. The beloved children's show got the heave-ho to make way for a breakfast-hour news show to go up against ABC's "Good Morning America" and NBC's "Today." For the next 30 years, that didn't go so well. One misfire after another kept CBS a ratings also-ran. It was as if kindly Captain Kangaroo was getting payback for CBS doing him wrong. Then, five years ago Monday, that quixotic quest bore fruit with the debut of "CBS This Morning." After three dismal decades, CBS had brought something fresh and useful to the morning TV realm. For that remarkable feat, it seemed the Captain decided to lift his curse. This Dec. 7, 2016 image released by CBS shows, from left, Norah O'Donnell, Charlie Rose and Gayle King on the set of "CBS This Morning," in New York. (Michele Crowe/CBS via AP) True, "CBS This Morning" (averaging 3.69 million viewers for fourth-quarter 2016) remains in third place, behind nip-and-tuck front-runners "GMA" (which averaged 4.66 million viewers for the quarter, edging out "Today" by 84,000) and "Today" (which, averaging 4.79 million viewers in December, eked out a 98,000-viewer monthly win). But CBS' audience is steadily increasing, with year-over-year growth for 50 consecutive months, while the gap erodes between "This Morning" and its rivals. Airing weekdays from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. EST, "CBS This Morning" is a relative newbie to "GMA" (which premiered in 1975) and "Today" (born in 1952). And for viewers who haven't yet gotten on board, it may most simply be described as blessed relief from those competitors. It is thoughtful and substantial. The pace is brisk, but not frenetic. The two old-timers seem in continual churn, locked in an arms race of escalating gimmickry and regularly shuffling their on-air personnel. Meanwhile, "CBS This Morning" has stuck to quietly refining the broadcast while its co-hosts (Charlie Rose, Gayle King and Norah O'Donnell) found their rhythm as a cozy team. Putting news first was the big idea for confronting daybreak's Dynamic Duo, where news often took a backseat to shiny objects and piffle. That was "news" in the morning, until "CBS This Morning." "Our mission from the beginning was to re-imagine the news," Rose says. "We realized we could do that and be intelligent and be fun," says King "and NOT go to silly school." The variety-show stylings that grip the other shows are noticeably absent at "CBS This Morning." Its loft-like Studio 57, with exposed brick and hardwood floor, is grounded by the table where the co-hosts preside and meet their guests for what is literally round-table talk, with all the co-anchors often taking part. "We bring out things in each other," says Rose, gathered with his colleagues in the studio's adjoining Green Room after a recent broadcast. "It's all a product of the spontaneity of the moment, and being comfortable with the possibilities." "We want to unleash the values of CBS News: original reporting and great storytelling," says O'Donnell. "That's what drove the show from the very beginning." A key figure in this back-to-basics strategy is executive producer Ryan Kadro. Seated on the couch in his office, with his laptop resting on the coffee table that serves as his desk, he looks relaxed despite having had to remake on the fly that morning's lineup after one of the scheduled guests got held up in traffic. Kadro was promoted to the top spot last spring, when charter EP Chris Licht took over "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert." But during 2011, Kadro (then a producer of the morning show "This Morning" would replace) and Licht (newly arrived from running MSNBC's "Morning Joe") were hashing out what the new venture would be. "At first, it's easier to figure out what you AREN'T than what you ARE," Kadro recalls. "Because when you say 'morning show,' you immediately get a vision of four anchors standing outside on a plaza with a bunch of people behind them. You think of cooking segments and fashion shows." "CBS This Morning," emphatically averting silly school, dawned on Jan. 9, 2012, with Rose, nursing a sore throat, alongside King and Erica Hill (who soon would relinquish her spot to O'Donnell). From its first 90 seconds (its globe-spanning "Eye Opener" video digest), the program made clear it was its own distinctive creature. "But it wasn't easy the first year. It takes a while for a show to find its voice," says Kadro, adding, "We were lucky." He cites CBS network boss Leslie Moonves, then-news division chairman (now "60 Minutes" EP) Jeffrey Fager and news president David Rhodes for their support: "They gave us time." Like the co-hosts, Kadro still sees "CBS This Morning" as a work-in-progress, with a rise to second place a big part of his plan. "I don't know when, but it's going to happen," Kadro declares. "I think that people who watch our show like our show, and they tell other people. That's why we're growing." Charlie Rose isn't quite so explicit when forecasting the future. But even five years ago, on opening morning, he felt pretty confident. "I am not a patron of lost causes," he explains. _____ EDITOR'S NOTE Frazier Moore is a national television columnist for The Associated Press. He can be reached at fmoore@ap.org and at http://www.twitter.com/tvfrazier. Past stories are available at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/frazier-moore _____ Online: Mom sentenced to 30 years in 5-year-old son's 1991 death NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (AP) A Florida woman convicted of killing her 5-year-old son in New Jersey in 1991 was sentenced Thursday to 30 years in prison by a judge who accused her of repeatedly lying about his disappearance. Michelle Lodzinski, who has always maintained her innocence, declined to address the court before she was sentenced in Timothy Wiltsey's death. Her attorney had sought the least time under the sentencing guidelines, which called for 30 years to life in prison. "I'm sure Timmy would not want to impose a life sentence on his mother," said Gerald Krovatin, Lodzinski's attorney. Michelle Lodzinski is escorted from the courtroom after being sentenced to 30 years for the 1991 murder of her 5 year-old son Timothy Wiltsey, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017, at Middlesex County Court in New Brunswick, N.J. (Patti Sapone/NJ Advance Media via AP, Pool) Prosecutor Christine Bevacqua objected and argued for no mercy. "A mother who kills her child should spend the rest of her life in prison," Bevacqua said. Superior Court Judge Dennis Nieves said the 49-year-old Lodzinski will be "old and gray" when she is released from prison. He told her she had lied over and over about the disappearance and death of her son. The judge gave her 884 days of credit toward her sentence. Her lawyers are expected to appeal. Lodzinski said her son disappeared from a carnival in central New Jersey, then later claimed he was abducted. Lodzinski, who had been living in Port St. Lucie, Florida, and has two other children, has been held in New Jersey since her arrest in 2014. She was charged in 2014 after witnesses identified a blanket found near the boy's body nearly a year after he disappeared. She was long a prime suspect in Timothy's death, but investigators didn't believe they had enough evidence to convict her until they reopened the case several years ago and eventually found witnesses who could identify the blanket as having come from Lodzinski's apartment. That testimony was vital to the prosecution's case because no forensic evidence tied Lodzinski or the boy to the blanket or other items found near his remains 11 months after he disappeared. A cause of death couldn't be established because the skeleton was so deteriorated. During the trial, prosecutors also focused on Lodzinski's changing stories about Timothy's disappearance, which they argued demonstrated consciousness of guilt. They painted Lodzinski as a young, single mother 23 at the time of his disappearance who struggled with jobs and relationships because of the boy and wanted to move on in life without him. They contended Lodzinski concocted a story about the boy disappearing from the carnival and told jurors no one who knew the boy saw him with her that night. Lodzinski's attorney produced witnesses who worked at the carnival who claimed they saw a boy who looked like Timothy, and he attempted to cast doubt on the reliability of the witnesses who testified about the blanket. Krovatin also put on the witness stand an ex-convict from Arizona who testified that a former associate confessed to killing a young boy under circumstances similar to Timothy's death. Michelle Lodzinski reacts as her attorney reads letters from family and friends on her behalf as she is sentenced to 30 years for the 1991 murder of her 5 year-old son Timothy Wiltsey, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017, at Middlesex County Court in New Brunswick, N.J. (Patti Sapone/NJ Advance Media via AP, Pool) Michelle Lodzinski is escorted from the courtroom after being sentenced to 30 years for the 1991 murder of her 5 year-old son Timothy Wiltsey, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017, at Middlesex County Court in New Brunswick, N.J. (Tanya Breen/The Asbury Park Press via AP, Pool) Michelle Lodzinski, sits with Chris Davitt, left, and her defense attorney Gerald Krovatin during her sentencing hearing, where she was sentenced to 30 years for the 1991 murder of her 5 year-old son Timothy Wiltsey, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017, at Middlesex County Court in New Brunswick, N.J. (Tanya Breen/The Asbury Park Press via AP, Pool) Michelle Lodzinski stands during her sentencing hearing, where she was sentenced to 30 years for the 1991 murder of her 5 year-old son Timothy Wiltsey, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017, at Middlesex County Court in New Brunswick, N.J. (Tanya Breen/The Asbury Park Press via AP, Pool) Superior Court Judge Dennis Nieves speaks as he sentences Michelle Lodzinski to 30 years for the 1991 murder of her 5 year-old son Timothy Wiltsey, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017, at Middlesex County Court in New Brunswick, N.J. (Patti Sapone/NJ Advance Media via AP, Pool) Defense attorney Gerald Krovatin, right, addresses the court as Michelle Lodzinski, center, is sentenced to 30 years for the 1991 murder of her 5 year-old son Timothy Wiltsey, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017, at Middlesex County Court in New Brunswick, N.J. (Patti Sapone/NJ Advance Media via AP, Pool) Michelle Lodzinski reacts as her attorney reads letters from family and friends on her behalf as she is sentenced to 30 years for the 1991 murder of her 5 year-old son Timothy Wiltsey, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017, at Middlesex County Court in New Brunswick, N.J. (Patti Sapone/NJ Advance Media via AP, Pool) 2 workers killed in Indianapolis restaurant were Jordanian INDIANAPOLIS (AP) Indianapolis police are searching for two men suspected of gunning down two restaurant workers during a robbery. Authorities believe the attack at the Jordan's Fish and Chicken happened late Tuesday just before the restaurant closed. A relative called police about 1 a.m. Wednesday after becoming concerned about them not returning home and finding the two slain men. Investigators released surveillance video Wednesday showing the attackers enter the east side restaurant, jump over the counter and run out a couple of minutes later. The attackers were wearing hooded sweatshirts and their faces were covered. FILE - In this Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2017, file photo, a woman leaves Jordan's Fish and Chicken following a fatal shooting in Indianapolis. Indianapolis police continue to search for gunmen who they believe killed two restaurant workers during a robbery. (Kelly Wilkinson/The Indianapolis Star via AP, File) Police Maj. Richard Riddle said Wednesday that the attackers killed the workers for no apparent reason. "These individuals were hell bent on robbery. They came in guns up, guns pointed, going directly behind the counter a takeover style robbery," he said. Investigators had made no arrests and had no suspects in the killings as of Thursday morning and were still searching for the assailants, said Sgt. Kendale Adams. He said investigators believe the only motive for the attack was robbery, and that they asked not to release information about what may have been taken from the restaurant or the slain workers. The slain workers were Jordanian nationals, Wesam Sammour, 34, and Ammar Shatnawi, 36. They died at the scene, and their causes of death haven't been determined, said Marchele Hall, officer manager for the Marion County Coroner's Office. Jordan's state-run Petra news agency quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Sabah Rafei as saying the Jordanian Embassy in Washington is working with local authorities over the slayings. "All we can do is pray for them," restaurant co-owner Ameer Saadeh told The Indianapolis Star. "That's all. God was watching what happened." Riddle asked for the public's help in identifying the attackers, saying it's urgent that they're captured quickly. A woman leaves Jordan's Fish and Chicken following a fatal early morning shooting Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2017. Indianapolis police said multiple men had been found fatally shot inside the restaurant following what a co-owner said is an apparent robbery. (Kelly Wilkinson/The Indianapolis Star via AP) Inmate Bobby Campbell Jr (pictured) was released by mistake in November 2016 after officials received a fake court order An Alabama man serving 20 years for the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl got an early release after forged court documents tricked his jailers, prison officials revealed on Thursday. Bobby Campbell Jr, 37, of Clio was transferred to the Barbour County Jail from Fountain Correctional Facility on November 17 based on a supposed court order, said prison spokesman Bob Horton. Campbell was freed the same day by jailers, as a judge seemed to mandate. Horton said the phony document was initially sent by fax to the Barbour County Sheriff's Office, which forwarded it to the prison. The document appeared to come from the court clerk's office in Barbour County. Campbell was transferred out of Fountain Correctional Facility (pictured) to a county jail and released on a phony court order The court document, which corrections officials said was a fraud, remained in the state's online court system on Thursday. Bearing what appeared to be the signature of a judge, it ordered that Campbell be transferred from prison to Barbour County and released with an electronic ankle monitor to complete his sentence. Prison officials didn't discover Campbell's release until Wednesday during a review of the inmate's file, Horton said. Campbell was sentenced to 20 years behind bars in December of 2004 after being convicted of the second-degree rape of a 13-year-old, records show. Campbell claimed the sex was consensual. The man has also faced charges including theft and possession of drug paraphernalia through the years. Campbell's whereabouts are unknown. Barbour County Chief Deputy Ricky Dollar declined comment. 'Right now we are unsure about the real source of that fax and the origin of the document,' Horton said. The Latest: 30 injured in fire at Germany asylum seeker home THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) The Latest on the flow of migrants into Europe (all times local): 9:45 p.m. Authorities in western Germany say about 30 people have been injured in a fire at housing for asylum seekers near Paderborn. Refugee Moustafa Abdulrahman, 2, from Kobani, Syria, peeks out while standing outside his family's shelter at the refugee camp of Ritsona about 86 kilometers (53 miles) north of Athens, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017. Over 62,000 refugees and migrants are stranded in Greece after a series of Balkan border closures and an European Union deal with Turkey to stop migrant flows. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen) The dpa news agency said the home to some 500 asylum seekers, a former military barracks in Hoevelhof, was gutted by the Thursday afternoon fire. Police say about two dozen asylum seekers and two firefighters were treated for smoke inhalation and other injuries at the scene. Several more seriously injured residents were taken to a local hospital. It was not immediately clear how the fire started. Forensic experts are expected to inspect the scene on Friday. ___ 8 p.m. Slovenia's government has approved tightening asylum procedures as part of efforts to avert a big influx of migrants. The government on Thursday backed amendments to the country's existing asylum laws that would allow police officers to turn away people at the border when there is a surge of asylum seekers. The practice only could be applied for a limited period and in special circumstances. The amendments still require approval from two-thirds of Parliament. Officials have described the measures as necessary, but human rights groups insist they violate international laws. Hundreds of thousands of migrants passed through Slovenia last year before countries in the Balkans closed borders. ___ 7 p.m. A British inquest has found that an unidentified migrant died while hiding in a truck crossing from France to Britain, with the coroner calling it a "poignant tragedy." The driver of the truck reported to authorities in October after he found the stowaway with his legs protruding from under a pile of Christmas catalogs. A post-mortem examination found the man, who was black and estimated to be in his 30s, died due to "traumatic compressive asphyxia". Assistant coroner Christopher Morris said Thursday he was unable to record a name for the man "a poignant tragedy given he was probably somebody's brother, son and friend." Scores of people fleeing fighting and poverty have tried to make their way to Britain many by hiding themselves in or under trucks. ___ 6:20 p.m. Greece's minister for migration says most people entering the country illegally from Turkey no longer are refugees, but economic migrants. Migration Minister Yannis Mouzalas said Thursday that the people arriving on Greek islands from are not predominantly from war-torn countries like Syria and Iraq, a shift from the mass arrivals in 2015. Mouzalas praised a 10-month-old deportation deal between the European Union and Turkey that human rights groups have criticized. He claims that 100,000 more migrants and refugees would have been stranded in Greece without the agreement. Greece has reported that about 60,000 people are stranded in the country due to border closures elsewhere in Europe last year. Most live in government-built camps or state-sponsored housing schemes. A Syrian refugee boy tries to catch the ball while he and others play soccer at the Ritsona refugee camp, about 86 kilometers (53 miles) north of Athens, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017. Over 62,000 refugees and migrants are stranded in Greece after a series of Balkan border closures and an European Union deal with Turkey to stop migrant flows. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen) Washing is hung out to dry at the Ritsona refugee camp, about 86 kilometers (53 miles) north of Athens, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017. Over 62,000 refugees and migrants are stranded in Greece after a series of Balkan border closures and an European Union deal with Turkey to stop migrant flows. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen) A Syrian refugee child plays on the ground while a boy collects cardboard boxes at the refugee camp of Ritsona about 86 kilometers (53 miles) north of Athens, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017. Over 62,000 refugees and migrants are stranded in Greece after a series of Balkan border closures and an European Union deal with Turkey to stop migrant flows. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen) Spain holds Epiphany parades amid tight security MADRID (AP) Thousands of parents and their children packed the streets of cities across Spain for Epiphany parades Thursday to celebrate the arrival of the Three Kings, with security tightened amid worries about potential terror attacks. Madrid and Barcelona banned heavy vehicles from entering the city center and police were on heightened alert to help prevent any truck attacks like those in Berlin recently and Nice last year. The Interior Ministry said 100,000 police, backed by helicopters, were being deployed across Spain for the parades. Town halls also placed bollards and large plant pots on streets to block traffic. Authorities said the measures were preventive and not due to police fears of an imminent attack. Spain has been one step below maximum national security alert since attacks in Europe and elsewhere in 2015. Police have arrested 175 suspected jihadi activists in that period. The processions, held on the eve of the Christian feast of the Epiphany, feature decorative floats and people dressed as the kings bearing gifts for the baby Jesus. The floats also feature light and music shows, clowns and jugglers. Jill Saward, campaigner against sexual violence, dies at 51 LONDON (AP) Jill Saward, a survivor of rape who became a powerful British campaigner against sexual violence, has died. She was 51. Saward's family said she died Thursday at a hospital in Wolverhampton, central England, after suffering a stroke on Tuesday. Saward, the daughter of an Anglican minister, was 21 when she was raped by men who broke into her father's London vicarage in 1986. FILE - This June 14, 1997 file photo shows Jill Saward who has died aged 51. Jill Saward, a survivor of rape who became a powerful British campaigner against sexual violence, died Thursday Jan. 5, 2017 in central England, after suffering a stroke, Saward's family said. (PA via AP, File) The rapists were convicted, but the judge said he was lenient in sentencing because Saward's trauma "had not been so great." He gave the perpetrators longer sentences for burglary than for rape, triggering strong criticism. Saward waived her legal right to anonymity and wrote a book, "Rape: My Story." She went on to make frequent media appearances and advised police and judges in dealing with sexual assault cases. She co-founded the group Jurors Understanding Rape Is Essential Standard (JURIES) to campaign for mandatory trial briefings about myths and stereotypes about sexual violence. British Attorney General Jeremy Wright said Saward's "tireless campaigning opened the eyes of many politicians." In a statement, Saward's family said she had "dedicated the past 30 years of her life to helping other people" and had continued to help by becoming an organ donor. US Postal Service to no longer offer services at Staples NEW YORK (AP) The U.S. Postal Service will no longer be offering its services at Staples stores across the country. Those services, which were handled by Staples employees, will be discontinued at about 500 of the office supply retailer's locations by the first week of March. The USPS said in a statement that in November it was ordered by a National Labor Relations Board administrative law judge to discontinue its retail relationship with Staples and that it plans to comply. Staples confirmed that its partnership with USPS would be ending, saying in a statement that its customers would still have access to shipping services through its relationship with UPS. The American Postal Workers Union said in a statement on Thursday that it is calling off its three-year campaign against the USPS and Staples partnership. The union had argued that the deal replaced union jobs with low-wage, nonunion workers. Man accused of 11th drunken driving charge had valid license APPLETON, Wis. (AP) A Wisconsin man recently charged with his 11th drunken driving offense had a valid driver's license at the time of his arrest. Steven Johnson of Fond du Lac was arrested by police on New Year's Day in Appleton. Police Sgt. David Lund said Thursday that despite 10 previous drunken-driving convictions, Johnson's license was reinstated in July. It was revoked for three years after his 10th drunken-driving conviction in mid-2006. Records show the 52-year-old's nine prior charges happened between 1990 and 1997. Authorities say Johnson's blood alcohol content was more than three times the legal limit when he was arrested Sunday night. UN panel: US school district right to pull textbook HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) A group of United Nations human rights experts is praising a Connecticut school district for pulling an "offensive" textbook from classrooms because of its assertions about slavery. The panel says school administrators elsewhere should emulate last month's decision by the Norwalk school district to pull "The Connecticut Adventure" by John Ifkovic from fourth-grade classrooms. The U.N. human rights office in Geneva said in a statement Thursday that the book paints an inaccurate picture by saying that slaves in Connecticut were often treated like family members, "taught to be Christian" and sometimes taught how to read and write. The news of her departure came minutes after Gretchen Carlson's sexual harassment suit against Roger Ailes was settled for $20million quiet Fox News last October saying the network 'has not felt like home to me for a few years' MSNBC has hired former Fox News host Greta Van Susteren MSNBC says it has hired former Fox News host Greta Van Susteren to host a daily, Washington-based news program at the dinner hour. Just like Tucker Carlson, who Fox named as Megyn Kelly's prime-time replacement on Thursday, Van Susteren completes the cable news hat trick: hosting shows on CNN, Fox News and MSNBC. Her show will be airing at 6pm, opposite Special Report with Bret Baier on Fox News, and premiere on Monday. Her new show will be called 'For The Record,' similar in name to her Fox News show, which was called 'On the Record.' MSNBC had an open time slot following the end of Mark Halperin and John Heilemann's political show. The announcement was just one of the many shakeups to happen in the cable news world on Thursday. Earlier in the day it was announced that Kelly would be replaced on Fox News by Carlson. That news came just two months after Carlson began hosting his 7pm program Tucker Carlson Tonight this past November. Carlson got that spot as a replacement host as well, taking over the time slot vacated by Greta Van Susteren when she made the decision to step down as host of her long-running program, On the Record with Greta Van Susteren He has been with Fox News for years, but prior to taking over for Van Susteren had a smaller role on the channel as one of the three hosts on the weekend edition of Fox & Friends. He started out as a contributor on the network back in 2009. Martha MacCallum will replace Carlson at 7pm with a new show, The First 100 days. That program will premiere January 16 examine Donald Trump and his administration during their first 100 days in office. MacCallum will not be hosting Americas Newsroom while appearing on her new show, with Fox News' Supreme Court reporter Shannon Bream filling in for her opposite Bill Hemmer on the show. Big names: Van Susteren has always been able to pull in Hollywood guests to the White House Correspondents' Association dinner (left with Kim Kardashian in 2010 and right with Bristol Palin in 2011) Girls night out: Van Susteren took Lindsay Lohan (above) with her to the 2012 White House Correspondents' Garden Brunch A lawyer, Van Susteren got her start in television for CNN analyzing the O.J. Simpson's trial, and that evolved into a regular role. She abruptly quit after 14 years as a primetime anchor at Fox News in November, saying that the network 'has not felt like home to me for a few years.' The news that she was departing the network came just minutes after the settlement of former Fox anchor Gretchen Carlson's harassment lawsuit against deposed Fox News chief Roger Ailes. Van Susteren had discredited Gretchen's claims against Ailes in an interview with People spoon after she filed her complaint in court. 'People come to me because I've been there so long,' said Van Susteren. 'That's why this doesn't have any ring of truth to me. I would have heard it. People don't keep things silent.' And while she does not defend Ailes in the interview, she does make it very clear that she is siding with her boss and not the alleged victim. Van Susteren also described Gretchen as 'a disgruntled employee' and said that after seeing that Gretchen's show had been cancelled she, as a lawyer, 'thought she got angry.' She then added: 'I deal with Roger Ailes often. I've often been alone with Roger Ailes in his office over the course of 15 years and I've never seen anything like what I'm reading about in the papers and the magazine.' Later in the interview Van Susteren painted Gretchen as ungrateful, saying 'most people, man or woman, would give anything to have had the air time [Carlson] had on Fox & Friends.' She then called her move from the channel's popular morning show to her own mid-afternoon program a 'huge promotion' Switch-up: Tucker Carlson (left) will host the 9pm hour on Fox News, taking over for Megyn Kelly (right) Van Susteren closed out the interview by saying: 'If Roger Ailes were how he's described, there's no way I would've stuck around. I don't feel like putting up with that stuff and I wouldn't. 'Even if he weren't doing it to me, I wouldn't want to work in that environment. I sort of feel bad for Gretchen Carlson because it's sort of a weird thing that she's done. 'What she's alleging is something that is alien to me. I've never heard it.' Van Susteren later defended her actions by saying in a statement: 'I did not defend Roger Ailes nor did I condemn him. I just stated what I knew or did not know. Period.' She also stated why she believed it was acceptable for her to discredit Gretchen's claims in an interview - she never heard about the sexual harassment allegations, she never saw it and it never happened to her. Van Susteren also said that her describing Gretchen as 'disgruntled' and 'angry' was acceptable because Gretchen had said she was 'unhappy' while talking with Van Susteren 'a few years back when we both happened to be in London covering the same story.' She also pointed out that Gretchen never once mentioned anything about sexual harassment during that talk. 'What I said above was true when I said it and it is true now,' said Van Susteren. 'In the meantime, all sorts of motives and intentions have been assigned to me.' Van Susteren closed out her statement by saying she would never have kept quiet if she knew about any sexual harassment occurring in the workplace. Evidence paints Dylann Roof as racist, drifting loner COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) Before Dylann Roof was arrested for killing nine black church members, he scribbled a note to his mother, apologizing for all the repercussions his actions would cause. Weeks later, in a jailhouse journal, he wrote that he had no regrets. The evidence, along with his manifesto, hundreds of photos and a confession to the FBI, draw a portrait of a young white man consumed by racial hatred who carefully planned the killings, picking out meek, innocent black people who likely wouldn't fight back. Jurors who convicted Roof of hate crimes and other charges will decide whether he should be executed or face life in prison. FILE - This undated photo that appeared on Lastrhodesian.com, a website investigated by the FBI in connection with Dylann Roof, shows him posing for a photo holding a Confederate flag. During Dylan Roof's sentencing for friends and family members walked up to the witness stand and testified about the nine black church members gunned down during a Bible study. The testimony came during the sentencing phase of Dylann Roof's death penalty trial. (Lastrhodesian.com via AP, File) ROOF AND RACISM Roof has pointed out that there was no dramatic confrontation that led him to begin hating blacks. Instead, when the Trayvon Martin case made the news, Roof went to Wikipedia to read about the black teenager who was shot to death in 2012 by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, who was acquitted. That led Roof to research black on white crime and to websites that offer false statistics inflating how often those crimes happen. Roof was careful in his writings to say his beliefs came just from himself, not his parents. But one of Roof's old friends suggested otherwise. "I don't think his parents liked his decisions, the choices that he made to have black friends," said Christon Scriven, who is black. Roof would go between partying with black friends and spewing racist diatribes to his white buddies, Scriven said shortly after the shootings. Roof also believed the dubious claims that blacks were better off as slaves and are inferior at their cores to whites. He compared African-Americans to dogs, saying everyone feels bad when a man beats a dog, but no one is surprised when a dog bites a man. As he sat in jail after his arrest, Roof mused about adopting a white child someday and sought to explain his thoughts on other races, according to a journal found in Roof's cell. Lauren Knapp of the Charleston County Sheriff's Office read the journal aloud in court Thursday. In it, Roof wrote that he felt he would probably eventually be pardoned if he were sentenced to life in prison and believed Adolf Hitler would eventually be canonized as a saint. ___ THE SON When authorities searched Roof's car, they found birthday cards from his mom and dad, who were divorced, and what appeared to be suicide notes to each of his parents. Roof's writings to his mom show a son worried about how she would feel. "At this moment I miss you very much," he wrote. "And as childish as it sounds, I wish I was in your arms." Roof's mom suffered a heart attack in court shortly after prosecutors called him a cold and calculated killer in their opening statement. Roof worked for his contractor father for a time. "I love you and I'm sorry," Roof wrote. "You were a good dad." In Roof's birthday card, his father promised to buy him a gun. ___ THE FRIEND Roof had a few friends he would hang out with when he got tired of his parents. One of them, Joey Meek, pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents about what he knew about Roof's plans. Meek is awaiting sentencing. His guilty plea included an offer to testify against his friend if asked, but he hasn't been called to the stand. Meek and Roof were good friends until Roof dropped out of high school. They reconnected in the months before the shooting, drinking and smoking marijuana. Scriven also would hang out with them at Meek's house. Both friends said he talked about a mass shooting. Scriven said Roof wanted to target the College of Charleston. Meek said Roof talked about killing blacks. Meek insisted to reporters he had no idea of Roof's exact plan and was stunned to see his friend in a surveillance photo on TV the morning after the shooting. "I didn't THINK it was him. I KNEW it was him," Meek said. ___ THE LONER In Roof's opening statement to jurors to start the penalty phase of his trial, he said there was nothing wrong with him psychologically except "I'm probably better at constantly embarrassing myself than anyone who's ever existed." Agents recovered hundreds of photos from Roof's cameras. Some were of him posing with the Confederate flag, others were at historic sites across South Carolina. They appeared to be taken with a tripod and a timer, and he is the only person in almost all of them. There are even a few of Roof with a cat in his bedroom. Roof told agents when he confessed he reached out to no other white supremacy groups and spoke to no one else about his plans. His journal ends with another lament: "One of my only regrets is that I was never able to fall in love." ___ Associated Press Meg Kinnard contributed to this report from Charleston. ___ Follow Jeffrey Collins on Twitter at http://twitter.com/JSCollinsAP. His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/jeffrey-collins Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP. Read more of her work at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/meg-kinnard/ The Latest: Florida officials say boy killed himself ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) The Latest on the child shooting death in Florida (all times local): 3 p.m.: Clearwater Police said a 10-year-old boy shot and killed himself after his mother "was addressing a behavioral issue" before school. Police spokesman Rob Shaw said Thursday afternoon that Ian Sevostjanov's mother sent him to his room Thursday morning. According to a news release, the boy was sent to a room in his family's apartment, where he obtained the gun. Ian, who was in fifth grade, died from a single gunshot. Officials say they are investigating how the firearm was stored. ___ 12:30 p.m: Police have released the name of the 10-year-old boy who was shot and killed in Florida. Clearwater Police said Thursday afternoon that Ian Sevostjanov, a fifth-grader at Belleair Elementary in Pinellas County, was killed. His mother, 50-year-old Olga Grusetskaja, was home at the time. The boy's brother and father were not home, officials said. Police chief Dan Slaughter said detectives are investigating whether the single shot that killed the boy was accidental, self-inflicted or criminal. ___ 11:30 a.m. Police in Florida are investigating the shooting death of a 10-year-old boy in Clearwater. During a news conference, Clearwater Police Chief Dan Slaughter said the boy was shot at an apartment complex in the city and that detectives are "looking at all potential angles: accidental, self-inflicted or criminal." Police and emergency rescuers were called to an apartment shortly before 8:30 a.m. Thursday. Slaughter said paramedics tried to save the boy's life but he was pronounced dead in the apartment. The chief said the handgun was owned by someone in the apartment. One shot was fired. Slaughter also said detectives are interviewing family members, who are in distress. The boy's name has not yet been released. A man accused of biting a flight attendant after getting drunk on a flight from American Samoa to Hawaii was spared jail and sentenced to three years of probation on Thursday. In exchange for dismissal of an assault charge, Aumoeualogo Agaaoa Togia pleaded guilty to interfering with a flight crew in September, a charge which carries a potential 20-year prison sentence. A federal judge concluded the behavior was out of character for the father-of-three. Togia, 35, drank alcohol before and during the five-hour Hawaiian Airlines flight from Pago Pago to Honolulu in July, and then became belligerent and threatened to kill flight attendants, according to his plea agreement. After Togia 'went into rages' while the plane was in the air, flight crew members had to use restraining ties on him to control the situation, court documents said. Aumoeualogo Togia got drunk and 'went into rages' on a Hawaiian Airlines flight, threatening to kill flight attendants and allegedly biting one while the plane was in mid-air (file photo) Halfway into the flight, Togia refused to take his seat when the seat belt light turned on and became verbally and physically abusive and punched the bathroom door, his plea agreement said. Assistant U.S. Attorney Margaret Nammar said Togia bit the hand of a flight attendant. After the hearing, Nammar noted that an earlier court document misidentified the flight attendant as a different type of worker. While in a holding cell at Honolulu International Airport, Togia told an FBI agent he fought back after being 'ambushed,' that he 'might have blacked out' and didn't remember what happened. Togia also conceded to investigators that he's a 'bad drunk.' FBI agents and sheriff's deputies swiftly arrested Togia when his flight landed at Honolulu International Airport. A judge sentenced him to three years probation for the incident U.S. District Judge Leslie Kobayashi pointedly told Togia that he 'certainly created terror and fear' on the flight, noting that his behavior forced the cockpit into a lockdown. 'Of course, we always have to see this in the background of September 11 and terrorism,' the judge added. Togia, an American Samoa resident, has a history of alcohol and marijuana abuse, Kobayashi said. 'I know my behavior was uncalled for,' Togia said in court. He turned around to the courtroom gallery and apologized to his mother, siblings, friends and three children watching the proceeding. Kobayashi said she concludes that his behavior wasn't typical for him. While on probation, he'll be subject to certain conditions including drug testing. The Latest: VA chief sets timeline to end vet homelessness PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) The Latest on the effort to end homelessness among veterans (all times local): 4:20 p.m. Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald says he expects homelessness among veterans to be solved "within a couple of years." In this Sunday, Dec. 11, 2016 photo U.S. Navy veteran Stephen Matthews, 55, sits for a photograph with his son Alexander, center, and daughter Victoria, right, in the bedroom of a relatives home, in Warwick, R.I. Matthews fell in his driveway in 2015, injuring his neck resulting in him getting laid off from his job. After being evicted he and his wife temporarily lived in their car while his children went to live with a relative. The relative then let Matthews and his wife come too. Matthews said he received a voucher that would pay about two-thirds of his rent, but struggled to find an apartment in Rhode Island where he could afford the balance. He got one in West Warwick, R.I. in late December 2016 after a six-month search. (AP Photo/Steven Senne) He made the comments Thursday in an interview with The Associated Press in which he called on his agency and its partners to house as many veterans as possible in 30 days. He describes President Barack Obama's pledge to end veteran homelessness as an "audacious goal" that has galvanized people. He says it hasn't been met yet because there were more homeless vets than anyone thought. McDonald says that as outreach and data collection improved, officials realized estimates of homeless veterans were low. Federal officials say veteran homelessness has been effectively ended in Virginia, Connecticut and Delaware. About two dozen nonprofits, government officials and homeless veterans in 17 states spoke with the AP about the effectiveness of the effort and challenges they faced. ___ 3:30 p.m. Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald is calling on his agency and its partners to house as many veterans as possible in 30 days. McDonald told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday that homelessness typically increases after the holidays and that winter is a tough time for the homeless. He describes President Barack Obama's pledge to end veteran homelessness as an "audacious goal" that has galvanized people. He says it hasn't been met yet because there were more homeless vets than anyone thought. McDonald says that as outreach and data collection improved, officials realized estimates of homeless veterans were low. Federal officials say veteran homelessness has been effectively ended in Virginia, Connecticut and Delaware. About two dozen nonprofits, government officials and homeless veterans in 17 states spoke with The Associated Press about the effectiveness of the effort and challenges they faced. ___ 10:30 a.m. Pledges by President Barack Obama and a national nonprofit organization to end homelessness among veterans did not meet their goal. Federal officials say homelessness among veterans has been effectively ended in Virginia and Connecticut. But many veterans still sleep on the streets elsewhere in the country. Nonprofits helping the homeless say the lack of available affordable housing is the reason why. But as Obama's term ends, advocates call the push a success because many homeless veterans did get homes, and the ambitious goal created urgency. About two dozen nonprofits, government officials and homeless veterans in 17 states spoke with The Associated Press about the effectiveness of the effort and the challenges they faced. The Latest: Man to appear in court Friday on escape charge BOSTON (AP) The Latest on the escape of an inmate from a Rhode Island detention center (all times local): 7:15 p.m. Federal officials say a man who climbed through razor wire to escape from a detention center in Rhode Island and was captured in Massachusetts will appear in federal court in Providence, Rhode Island, on Friday on an escape charge. This surveillance photo released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation shows a man who attempted to rob a Bank of America branch Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017, in Cambridge, Mass. The FBI said the suspect resembles recently escaped federal prisoner James Morales, who escaped from the Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, R.I., on Saturday, Dec. 31, 2016. (Federal Bureau of Investigation via AP) Police say James Morales was captured Thursday in Somerville, Massachusetts, by a state trooper who spotted him shortly after an attempted bank robbery there. They say the former Army reservist had escaped on New Year's Eve from a detention center where he was being held on charges he stole 16 guns from a U.S. Army Reserve Center in Worcester (WUS'-tur), Massachusetts. He's in custody and can't be reached for comment. Massachusetts Trooper Joseph Merrick says he chased Morales on foot for a quarter-mile before catching him trying to climb a fence. He says Morales was exhausted and didn't put up much of a fight. ___ 5:15 p.m. Police say a man who escaped from a Rhode Island detention center on New Year's Eve tried to rob a bank in Massachusetts right before he was captured. A Massachusetts state police spokesman says James Morales was apprehended Thursday after police received a report of an attempted robbery of a Citizens Bank in Somerville by a man who fit Morales' description. Earlier in the day, authorities said they were investigating another attempted bank robbery in Cambridge in which the would-be robber also resembled Morales. State police say a trooper who heard a bulletin about the Somerville attempted robbery spotted Morales walking. They say the trooper chased Morales on foot and grabbed him as he tried to jump over a fence. Morales is being booked at the state police barracks in Medford. He can't be reached for comment while in custody. ___ 4:30 p.m. Police say a man who escaped from a Rhode Island detention center and was captured in Massachusetts will be booked soon. Massachusetts state police say fugitive James Morales will be booked Thursday evening at the police barracks in Medford. They say Morales was captured Thursday afternoon in Somerville after being spotted by a state trooper. Morales escaped from the privately run Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, Rhode Island, on Saturday. He's being held on charges he stole 16 guns from a U.S. Army Reserve Center in Worcester (WUS'-tur), Massachusetts. He also faces child rape charges. He can't be reached for comment while in custody. Earlier Thursday, authorities said they were investigating whether Morales is the man who attempted to rob a bank in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ___ 4:10 p.m. Authorities say a man who escaped from a prison in Rhode Island on New Year's Eve has been captured in Massachusetts. Massachusetts State Police and the U.S. marshal in Rhode Island say James Morales was captured Thursday afternoon in Somerville. They did not immediately release any other details. U.S. Marshal Jamie Hainsworth said he expects a news conference to be held later Thursday in Massachusetts. Morales escaped from the privately run Wyatt Detention Facility on Saturday. He was being held on charges that he stole 16 guns from a U.S. Army Reserve Center in Worcester. He also was facing child rape charges. Earlier Thursday, authorities said they were investigating whether Morales is the same man who attempted to rob a bank in Cambridge. ___ 1:30 p.m. Massachusetts authorities are investigating whether a man who escaped from a prison in Rhode Island is the same man who attempted to rob a bank in Cambridge. James Morales escaped Saturday from the privately run Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls. Massachusetts state police spokesman David Procopio says a man police believe was Morales attempted to rob a Bank of America in Cambridge on Thursday. He says authorities haven't made a definitive identification, but the suspect resembles Morales. Procopio says the suspect passed a note to a teller demanding money, but fled without any cash. Morales is a Cambridge native and a former Army reservist. He was being held at Wyatt on charges that he stole 16 guns from a U.S. Army Reserve Center in Worcester. He also was facing child rape charges. ___ This story has been corrected to show Wyatt Detention Facility is privately run, not a federal prison. This surveillance photo released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation shows a man who attempted to rob a Bank of America branch Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017, in Cambridge, Mass. The FBI said the suspect resembles recently escaped federal prisoner James Morales, who escaped from the Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, R.I., on Saturday, Dec. 31, 2016. (Federal Bureau of Investigation via AP) This surveillance photo released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation shows a man who attempted to rob a Bank of America branch Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017, in Cambridge, Mass. The FBI said the suspect resembles recently escaped federal prisoner James Morales, who escaped from the Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, R.I., on Saturday, Dec. 31, 2016. (Federal Bureau of Investigation via AP) Free tuition Q&A: Could New York's plan spread across US? Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's proposal to make the state's public colleges free for hundreds of thousands of middle-class students is seen as one of the nation's most ambitious efforts to tackle skyrocketing higher education debt. But many questions remain about how much it will cost, how it will affect one of the country's largest public college systems and whether other states will follow suit. ___ Q: What's the plan? New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, right and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders wave at the audience as they arrive onstage at an event at LaGuardia Community College, Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2017, in New York. Gov. Cuomo announced a proposal for free tuition at state colleges to hundreds of thousands of low- and middle income residents. Under the governor's plan, which requires legislative approval, any college student accepted to a New York public university or two-year community college is eligible, provided their family earns less than $125,000. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) A: Full-time New York students whose families earn less than $125,000 a year would pay no tuition to attend two- or four-year colleges in the State University of New York or City University of New York systems. The plan, if approved by state lawmakers, would be phased in over three years, beginning this fall for residents making up to $100,000 a year. The income threshold would increase to $110,000 in 2018 and $125,000 in 2019. ___ Q: So college would be free? A: No. Students wouldn't have to pay the $6,470 yearly cost of tuition ($4,350 for two-year programs), but they'd still have to pick up the cost of room and board if they live on campus ($12,590), along with fees ($1,590) and books. They would also have to graduate on time, meaning in two years for an associate degree and four years for a bachelor's, if they want to avoid tuition bills. ___ Q: How much will this cost? A: Cuomo's office estimates the state's cost at $163 million a year once the program is fully phased in, a figure that's seen by some critics as too low. "If it costs so little, why haven't we done it before?" asked Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, a Manhattan Democrat who chairs the Higher Education Committee. More financial detail may come when the governor releases his budget proposal later this month, but his administration says the program will leverage the state's existing aid programs, particularly the Tuition Assistance Program, which provides nearly $1 billion in grants to students with taxable incomes of up to $80,000 a year. Under Cuomo's program, students would still receive TAP, along with any federal grants, and the state would pay the tuition difference. ___ Q: Won't this create a rush on SUNY/CUNY schools, possibly making it more difficult to get accepted? A: SUNY leaders say it's too soon to estimate the impact on applications and enrollment, but the Cuomo administration says it's confident the 64-campus, 440,000-student system can absorb what it projects will be a 10 percent enrollment increase. The system remains selective, though, and SUNY said its academic standards aren't expected to change. The state's 29 four-year schools received 309,408 applications for the fall of 2015 and accepted 162,673 students, according to the state. ___ Q: Will this program affect private colleges? A: Yes and no. The program doesn't cover tuition for colleges outside SUNY and CUNY. Operators of those schools, though, say leaving them out of the college affordability discussion could leave them at a disadvantage when it comes to attracting applicants in a highly competitive landscape. "There will be a real pull that SUNY and CUNY have on students that our not-for-profit privates will not always be able to match," said Mary Beth Labate, president of the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities. More than 490,000 students are enrolled in the state's more than 100 private, not-for-profit colleges. The schools provided $5.1 billion in financial aid to their students in 2014-15 and directly employ 196,300 people, Labate said. The independent colleges would rather see the state expand TAP, increasing awards or raising the income threshold, which Labate said would preserve student choice because the grant follows the student. The requirement that federal aid, as well as state aid, is factored in doesn't sit well with advocates for poor students, who say they'll be left with less to pay for transportation, food and housing. ___ Q: Will this idea spread? A: "If New York state does it this year, mark my words, state after state will follow," independent Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders said when Cuomo announced the program this week. Sanders made tuition-free public higher education a key proposal of his Democratic campaign for president, and Hillary Clinton picked up on it as the Democratic nominee, but Republican nominee Donald Trump had different ideas about how to make college affordable. Trump, who won the election, said he wants to work with Congress to make sure colleges only get access to certain federal tax breaks and other benefits if they "make good-faith efforts to reduce the cost of college and student debt." Democratic President Barack Obama proposed free community college in 2015, saying six states and communities had created programs similar to what he proposed. He said lawmakers in more than 10 other states have introduced legislation providing for free community college. Tennessee and Oregon have enacted programs to cover residents' tuition costs at community colleges, but New York's would be the first statewide plan to cover four years of tuition, Cuomo's office said. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, right, and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders appear onstage together during an event at LaGuardia Community College, Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2017, in New York. Gov. Cuomo announced a proposal for free tuition at state colleges to hundreds of thousands of low- and middle income residents. Under the governor's plan, which requires legislative approval, any college student accepted to a New York public university or two-year community college is eligible, provided their family earns less than $125,000. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, left, is joined by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, center, and Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of The City University of New York William C. Thompson, as he speaks during an event at LaGuardia Community College, Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2017, in New York. Gov. Cuomo announced a proposal for free tuition at state colleges to hundreds of thousands of low- and middle income residents. Under the governor's plan, which requires legislative approval, any college student accepted to a New York public university or two-year community college is eligible, provided their family earns less than $125,000. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, left, is joined by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, center, and Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of The City University of New York William C. Thompson, as he speaks during an event at LaGuardia Community College, Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2017, in New York. Gov. Cuomo announced a proposal for free tuition at state colleges to hundreds of thousands of low- and middle income residents. Under the governor's plan, which requires legislative approval, any college student accepted to a New York public university or two-year community college is eligible, provided their family earns less than $125,000. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, left, is joined by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, center, and Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of The City University of New York William C. Thompson, as he speaks during an event at LaGuardia Community College, Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2017, in New York. Gov. Cuomo announced a proposal for free tuition at state colleges at New York public colleges to eligible residents. Under the governor's plan, which requires legislative approval, any college student accepted to a New York public university or two-year community college is eligible, provided their family earns less than $125,000. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, left, is joined by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, center, and Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of The City University of New York William C. Thompson, as he speaks during an event at LaGuardia Community College, Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2017, in New York. Gov. Cuomo announced a proposal for free tuition at state colleges to hundreds of thousands of low- and middle income residents. Under the governor's plan, which requires legislative approval, any college student accepted to a New York public university or two-year community college is eligible, provided their family earns less than $125,000. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, left, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, center, and Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of The City University of New York William C. Thompson, pose for a photo with students at an event at LaGuardia Community College, Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2017, in New York. Gov. Cuomo announced a proposal for free tuition at state colleges to hundreds of thousands of low- and middle income residents. Under the governor's plan, which requires legislative approval, any college student accepted to a New York public university or two-year community college is eligible, provided their family earns less than $125,000. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) Immigrants should be expected to learn English before coming to Britain or be enrolled on compulsory language classes when they arrive, according to a parliamentary report. MPs and peers also called on ministers to consider a radical overhaul which could see regions handed immigration powers in place of the current one size fits all system. They are the headline proposals in a sweeping report from the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on social integration to be launched on Thursday. A primary school child at work in a classroom (Dominic Lipinski/PA) It follows a landmark review which last month warned the country is becoming more divided as it becomes more diverse. That inquiry from Dame Louise Casey called for more English classes for isolated groups and suggested ministers should consider whether immigrants intending to settle in Britain should swear an integration oath on arrival. In its report the APPG said that integration should begin upon arrival in the UK and described speaking English as the key to full participation in our society and economy and a prerequisite for meaningful engagement with most British people. The study said: The APPG believes that all immigrants should be expected to have either learned English before coming to the UK or be enrolled in compulsory Esol (English for Speakers of Other Languages) classes upon arrival. The Government was urged to reassess the current one size fits all approach to immigration policy and consider reforming the system to more actively shape immigrant settlement patterns within the UK. Through the introduction of policies aimed at directing population flows to areas of the country which require higher levels of immigration or do not currently attract a great many immigrants, policymakers might minimise strain on public services and on community relations whilst bolstering regional economies, the report said. It suggested that a devolved or regionally-led system could draw on the model used in Canada, where provincial governments can set region-specific requirements for immigrants. The paper raised the prospect of region-specific visas with quotas for their dissemination agreed by devolved administrations or city regions. As we say in the @IntegrationAPPG immigration report, integration is a two way street with a role both for newcomers AND host communities ChukaUmunna (@ChukaUmunna) January 5, 2017 Labour MP Chuka Umunna, chair of the APPG, said a meaningful integration programme was needed. He said: Its clear that immigration has impacted on different communities in different ways and the pace of change has alarmed many. The Government has a duty to address the lack of integration of immigrants if it is to address this. Failing to do so has left a vacuum for extremists and peddlers of hate to exploit. Chicago police are investigating a gang who filmed themselves torturing a man with specials needs on Facebook Live. Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said four suspects two males and two females were arrested over the sickening footage, in which the mans tormentors could be heard saying F*** Donald Trump and swearing about white people. Mr Johnson said the victim, who has mental health challenges, is recovering. Regarding the disturbing video that surfaced on social media of a battery: Incident is under investigation/suspects are being questioned pic.twitter.com/GGi3qs9rGv Chicago Police (@Chicago_Police) January 4, 2017 Police said it was too soon to know whether the attack was racially motivated. Police Commander Kevin Duffin said the suspects made stupid decisions. When asked about the language used in the recording, he said investigators would determine whether or not this is sincere or just stupid ranting and raving. The video also shows bottles of alcohol in the room during the attack. Officers were called to a residence in the citys West Side on Tuesday evening, where they found signs of a struggle and damaged property. CPD press conference regarding disturbing live social media video depicting a battery ; victim was tied up https://t.co/jDrjfz4sJV Chicago Police (@Chicago_Police) January 5, 2017 At around the same time, officers on patrol encountered the victim in a nearby street. Mr Duffin said the victim knew one of the suspects. Video of the incident was initially posted on Facebook, but was later removed from the social media site. Prince Harry was constantly in trouble while at boarding school, letters sent by Diana, Princess of Wales, to a favoured Buckingham Palace steward have revealed. The personal notes, sent to Cyril Dickman in the 1980s and 1990s, include a description of how in the days after Harry was born Prince William was inseparable from his baby brother and gave him an endless supply of hugs and kisses. As well as revealing details about the private life of the young family at Kensington Palace, the messages show how fond Diana was of Mr Dickman, who provided her with support after the death of her father in 1992. The Princess of Wales, accompanied by Prince William and Prince Harry (David Jones/PA) The six handwritten notes are part of a collection described as the private letters between a trusted butler and the royal family that is expected to sell for thousands of pounds at auction later. Diana said it was a particularly happy time in a letter sent five days after Harrys birth in September 1984. She wrote: William adores his little brother and spends the entire time swamping Harry with an endless supply of hugs and kisses, hardly letting the parents near! The reaction to one tiny persons birth has totally overwhelmed us and I can hardly breathe for the mass of flowers that are arriving here! In October 1992 she wrote to Mr Dickman ahead of a trip to Asia with the Prince of Wales. The boys are well and enjoying boarding school a lot, although Harry is constantly in trouble! she wrote, adding: We are off to Korea in November for a visit so a good place to do the Christmas shopping! John Foster, of Cheffins auctioneers in Cambridge, said interest in the collection had been phenomenal, with enquiries coming from as far afield as Japan, Australia and Canada, but he admitted how much they may sell for is anyones guess. He told the BBC: One of the nice things about this collection is that it reveals the personal side, its not just thanking someone for an event, its things like the handwriting and the squiggly drawings. Laura Muir smashed the British indoor 5,000 metres record at the Glasgow Miler Meet on Wednesday evening. The 23-year-old Scot eclipsed the previous national best set by Liz McColgan 25 years ago as she ran a time of 14 minutes 49.12 seconds. MUIR IS BACK ON THE TRACK!! Oh yeah!! 5000m British Indoor Record tonight https://t.co/voK3CNMJD1 Laura Muir (@lauramuiruns) January 4, 2017 I am delighted to get it and it is nice to know now where I am at in terms of the 5,000m, Muir, who also holds the British 1,500m record, told the BBC. Laura Muir (Mike Egerton/PA) Welsh Rugby Union boss Martyn Phillips says that Leigh Halfpenny has been made the best offer we possibly can in terms of a possible return to Wales. The 28-year-old is out of contract with French giants Toulon at the end of this season. And while the three-time European champions are understood to have lined up a bumper six-figure deal aimed at keeping him on the Cote dAzur, it is feasible that he could be back on Welsh soil next season possibly at his former team Cardiff Blues. Prolific points-scorer Halfpenny has won 66 caps and was a star performer when the British and Irish Lions claimed a 2-1 Test series victory over Australia in 2013. (David Davies/PA) If he does head to Wales, it would be on a national dual contract, 60 per cent funded by the WRU and the rest by whichever Welsh region he ends up at. Any way you want to look at it, on the pitch hes a match-winner and he is an ambassador for Welsh rugby. He is a hell of a nice guy, WRU group chief executive Phillips said, during a wide-ranging media briefing in Cardiff on Thursday. You would want him in your mix, not at a distance. He is somebody we think a lot of. We have made him the best offer we possibly can. The family of a teenage free-runner who died in an accident on the Paris Metro have paid tribute to their beloved son. Nye Frankie Newman, from Guildford, was involved in a train accident on the Metro on January 1, his parkour group said. The 17-year-old was a keen participant of the craze, which sees people climb and jump over obstacles and buildings in urban environments. Nye Frankie Newman (FCO/PA) So some of you might have heard, one of our team members Nye Newman passed away today in Paris after a train accident on... Posted by Brewman on Sunday, January 1, 2017 His family said in a statement released through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office: We are heartbroken by the loss of our beloved son, grandson, brother, cousin and nephew. Nyes was an extraordinary young life which touched so many. We have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of emotion and wonderful tributes to Nye that have been made on social media and to us as a family. Whilst understanding the interest in our sons passing, we are appealing for privacy in order to grieve the loss of our beloved Nye." Photographs on Nyes social media accounts show him leaping between buildings in Hong Kong and somersaulting on the Giants Causeway in Northern Ireland. His parkour and free-running group known as Brewman said the teenager didnt pass away due to parkour. They paid tribute to Nye as a strong parkour enthusiast who was an inspiration to the worldwide community, and said the incident didnt happen due to practising the sport. Theresa May will visit Donald Trump in spring this year following preparatory December meetings between key staff from Downing Street and the United States president-elects team, a Number 10 source said. The Prime Ministers joint chiefs of staff Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill travelled to the US last month to build links with Mr Trumps team. The mission was part of Mrs Mays efforts to build a relationship with the controversial tycoon ahead of his inauguration on January 20. The source said: This was part of a process leading towards the PMs first visit with President-elect Trump. During the second phone call with president-elect Trump, the Prime Minister suggested it would be a good idea for key staff from both teams to meet. President-elect Trump agreed this would be useful. Theresa May We are pleased to have been able to make that happen and the Prime Minister looks forward to visiting the new president in the spring. Mrs Mays relationship with the White House is seen as key as she tries to reshape the UKs role in the world while leaving the European Union. But the visit of Mr Timothy and Ms Hill may have proved awkward given their public criticism of Mr Trump on social media before entering Number 10. Ms Hill posted last December: Donald Trump is a chump, while Mr Timothy wrote in March: American politics was depressing enough before Trump took off. Efforts to build transatlantic links have come under the spotlight because of the Republican president-elects close ties to Nigel Farage and the Governments refusal to allow the former Ukip leader to act as a go-between. In November, Mr Farage embarrassed Mrs May after being pictured laughing and smiling in a gold-plated lift with Mr Trump at his New York skyscraper. It was a great honour to spend time with @realDonaldTrump. He was relaxed and full of good ideas. I'm confident he will be a good President. pic.twitter.com/kx8cGRHYPQ Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) November 12, 2016 Later, Mr Trump shocked Westminster with a late-night tweet declaring that Mr Farage would do a great job as Britains ambassador to the US and that many people wanted to see him as the UKs senior diplomat in Washington. But Downing Street at the time brushed off suggestions that Mr Farage could act as an intermediary for the UK and Mr Trump, insisting there was no vacancy. Last week, Mrs May surprised current president Barack Obamas administration by distancing herself from its stance on the Israeli government and settlement-building in occupied Palestinian territories. Trump to choose businessman Hagerty as next U.S. envoy to Japan -source WASHINGTON, Jan 5 (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump plans to pick businessman William Hagerty as the next U.S. ambassador to Japan, an adviser to Trump's transition team told Reuters on Wednesday. Japan's Nikkei news service reported that Trump would soon announce the choice of Hagerty, the director of presidential appointments in his transition team. The adviser who spoke to Reuters confirmed the Nikkei report on condition of anonymity. Hagerty is a Tennessee native who founded a private equity firm, Hagerty Peterson. He spent several years in Japan with the Boston Consulting Group management consultancy and later served in the White House of former President George H.W. Bush. He will replace Caroline Kennedy, who has held the position since 2013. Japan's chief cabinet secretary, Yoshihide Suga, declined to comment on the report since the choice has yet to be formally announced, saying only that he hoped the new ambassador would be able to develop a friendly U.S.-Japan relationship. Others said that while the extent of Hagerty's knowledge of diplomacy and regional politics remained unknown and could be a concern, the choice suggests Trump is prioritising economics in bilateral ties, which may relieve officials concerned by his protectionist stance on trade during the presidential campaign. Japanese companies play a key role in the U.S. economy, employing more than 800,000 American workers. They contributed $78 billion to U.S. exports in 2014, according to the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo. Koichi Hori, the chairman of consulting firm Dream Incubator Inc and a former president of Boston Consulting in Japan, who worked with Hagerty in the early 1990s, termed him a pragmatist who might not always toe Trump's conservative line on trade. "Rather than doing that, he might advise Trump that if he doesn't think of other countries more, it ultimately may not benefit the United States," Hori added. A long-time U.S. resident of Tokyo with knowledge of business and politics who knows Hagerty by reputation, but not personally, said he had a reputation as a "typical management consultant - logical, thoughtful, and has no patience for trade rhetoric." The news was likely to reassure officials at the Ministry of Economics, Trade and Industry (METI) as well as the Ministry of Finance (MOF), he added. "The boys at the U.S. Defense Department and the Defense Agency may be disappointed because of his lack of experience in the geopolitical aspects of the U.S.-Japan relationship, but METI, MOF and everyone else here in Tokyo should be breathing a sign of relief," he added. Apple pulls New York Times apps in China after government request By Cate Cadell and Aishwarya Venugopal BEIJING, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Apple Inc has removed the New York Times Co's English- and Chinese-language news apps from its iTunes store in China following a request from the local authorities, the companies said separately on Thursday. The apps, which the newspaper said were removed on Dec. 23, are the latest Western services to fall foul of Chinese authorities, whose other scalps include Apple's own iBooks and iTunes Movies stores which have been blocked since April. Their removal comes just over a month after the Cyberspace Administration of China called for greater media scrutiny, citing fears of social disorder, moral harm and threats to national security. The internet regulator did not respond to a faxed request for comment about the Times' apps. "The development of the internet in China must respect China's laws and regulations, in principle," foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said in response to a question about the apps. New York Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy told Reuters that the newspaper has asked Apple to reconsider. "The request by the Chinese authorities to remove our apps is part of their wider attempt to prevent readers in China from accessing independent news coverage by The New York Times of that country," Murphy said. The government has blocked the Times' websites since 2012 after a series of articles on the wealth of the family of then-Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, the New York Times reported. "We have been informed that the app is in violation of local regulations," Apple spokesman Fred Sainz in California told Reuters. An Apple spokeswoman in China declined to comment on specific reasons or which regulatory body made the request. Apple has previously removed news apps from its China app store, but none as high-profile as the New York Times. At least three other apps have been removed from the app store in recent years on the grounds of "illegal content", according to news reports and the apps' developers. Apps from other international publications whose websites are blocked, including CNN, The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times, were still available on Thursday. Chinese mainstream media has not reported the app removal but it was discussed widely on social media. "This must be coming from the request of The Wall right?" said one user on microblogging service Weibo, referring to state-backed internet censorship. "Apple has made enough money in China, it's OK for it to take the blame this time for the sake of the money." Other users said they would attempt to change their country of residence within the app store to restore access. Romania - Factors to watch on Jan. 5 Here are news stories, press reports and events to watch which may affect Romanian financial markets on Thursday. PPI Romania's National Statistics Board to release PPI data for November at 0700 GMT. DEBT TENDER Romanian debt managers tender 500 million lei worth of Feb. 2019 treasury bonds. CABINET Romania's Social Democrat-led coalition government won a vote of confidence in parliament on Wednesday, as expected, returning to power after a one-year break. Led by Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu, the new cabinet won by a vote of 295 to 133. The leftist coalition has an outright majority in the legislature. DEFICIT Romania's consolidated budget deficit will not go over the EU's 3 percent of gross domestic product ceiling under European accounting standards in the next four years, finance minister nominee Viorel Stefan said on Wednesday. CEE MARKETS Shares of oil and gas group MOL jumped 2 percent on Wednesday after a hike in the stock's target price, boosting the Budapest bourse, where a rally has continued into the new year after a stellar performance in 2016. TAIWAN ATM HEIST The group that orchestrated the theft of over $2 million from cash machines at Taiwan's First Commercial Bank in July was also behind an ATM hacking spree in more than a dozen European nations last year, according to cyber security firm Group-IB. The methods that the so-called Cobalt group used in Europe matched those used in Taiwan, Group-IB said in its latest client report. For the long-term Romanian diary, click on For emerging markets economic events, click on For an index of all diaries, click on PRESS DIGEST - Bulgaria - Jan 5 SOFIA, Jan 5 (Reuters) - These are some of the main stories in Bulgarian newspapers on Thursday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. -- School Christmas holidays will continue by Friday due to fears of a flu epidemic, the education ministry said. Schools were to reopen on Thursday (Trud, Standart, 24 Chasa, Monitor, Sega) -- Outgoing Defense Minister Nikolay Nenchev received a new summons to the Sofia Investigation Office late in December. No reason has been mentioned in the defense ministry's statement. Last year Nenchev has been handed two indictments on two separate charges (Standart, Monitor, Trud) Two Islamic State car bombs in Baghdad kill at least 14 - sources BAGHDAD, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Two car bombs in Baghdad claimed by Islamic State killed at least 14 people on Thursday, police and medics said, part of a surge in violence across the capital at a time when U.S.-backed Iraqi forces are trying to drive the militants from Mosul in the north. The first blast shook Baghdad's eastern al-Obeidi area during the morning rush, killing six and wounding 15. Islamic State said in an online statement it had targeted a gathering of Shi'ite Muslims, whom it considers apostates. The second explosion hit the central district of Bab al-Moadham near a security checkpoint, killing eight. Both bombs had been left in parked vehicles. More than 60 people have been killed in Baghdad in attacks over the past week as Islamic State intensifies its campaign of violence in the capital while a 100,000-strong alliance of Iraqi forces extends its advances against the group in Mosul. Mosul is Islamic State's last major stronghold in the country. The group has lost most of the territory it seized in northern and western Iraq in 2014, and ceding Mosul would probably spell the end of its self-styled caliphate. Iraqi general says 70 percent of east Mosul retaken from Islamic State By Stephen Kalin and Isabel Coles ERBIL, Iraq, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Iraqi forces have retaken around 70 percent of eastern Mosul from Islamic State militants and expect to reach the river bisecting the city in the coming days, Iraq's joint operations commander told Reuters. Lieutenant General Talib Shaghati, who is also head of the elite counter-terrorism service (CTS) spearheading the campaign to retake the northern city, said the cooperation of residents was helping them advance against Islamic State. In its 12th week, the offensive has gained momentum since Iraqi forces backed by a U.S.-led coalition renewed their push for the city a week ago, clearing several more eastern districts despite fierce resistance. "Roughly 65-70 percent of the eastern side has been liberated," Shaghati said in an interview late on Wednesday in the Kurdish capital of Erbil. "I think in the coming few days we will see the full liberation of the eastern side". The western half of the city remains under the full control of Islamic State, which is fighting to hold on to its largest urban stronghold with snipers and suicide car bombs numbering "in the hundreds" according to Shaghati. The Mosul assault, involving a 100,000-strong ground force of Iraqi government troops, members of the autonomous Kurdish security forces and mainly Shi'ite militiamen, is the most complex battle in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. The commander of a U.S.-led coalition backing the Iraqi offensive told Reuters on Wednesday that increased momentum was due largely to better coordination among the army and security forces. He said the Iraqis had improved their ability to defend against Islamic State car bombs. Although vastly outnumbered, the militants have used the urban terrain to their advantage, concealing car bombs in narrow alleys, posting snipers on tall buildings with civilians on lower floors and making tunnels and surface-level passageways between buildings. They have also embedded themselves among the local population. HUMAN SHIELDS The presence of large numbers of civilians on the battlefield has restricted Iraqi forces' use of artillery but the cooperation of residents has also helped them target the militants. "They give us information about the location of the terrorists, their movements and weapons that has helped us pursue them and arrest some and kill others," Shaghati said. In the run-up to the Mosul offensive, Iraqi officials expressed hope that residents would rise up against Islamic State, accelerating the group's demise in the city. But mass executions seem to have discouraged widespread resistance. An Iraqi victory in Mosul would probably spell the end for Islamic State's self-styled caliphate, which leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared 2-1/2 years ago from Mosul's main mosque after the militants overran the city. But in recent days, the militants have displayed the tactics to which they are likely to resort if they lose the city, killing dozens with bombs in Baghdad and attacking security forces elsewhere. An attack claimed by Islamic State killed six people on Thursday on the capital's eastern outskirts. CTS pushed into Mosul from the east in late October and made swift advances but regular army troops tasked with advancing from the north and south made slower progress and the operation stalled for several weeks. The roughly 10,000 members of CTS, established a decade ago with support from the U.S. forces, are considered the best-trained and equipped fighters in Iraq. Shaghati described the role of the international coalition, providing air support and advising Iraqi forces on the ground as "outstanding" and said Islamic State was crumbling under pressure. "Daesh (Islamic State) devised many plans to obstruct and block us but they failed. We were able to surpass them and these areas were liberated with high speed," Shaghati said. Executives from top Turkish conglomerate held in post-coup probe By Ceyda Caglayan ISTANBUL, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Police detained the top legal advisor and a former chief executive of Dogan Holding, one of Turkey's biggest conglomerates, on Thursday in an investigation into the network of the U.S.-based cleric blamed for a failed coup. Authorities have detained, dismissed or suspended some 120,000 people including soldiers, police officers, teachers, judges and journalists since the July coup attempt, although thousands have since been restored to their posts. Companies with ties to the Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom President Tayyip Erdogan and the government accuse of orchestrating the coup attempt, have also been targeted in the crackdown. Hundreds of companies, for the most part smaller provincial firms, have been seized. Dogan - which has interests in media, finance, energy and tourism and owns newspaper Hurriyet and broadcaster CNN Turk - said the raids were on the personal offices and homes of the two individuals and that its operations were unaffected. Last month, another Dogan Holding executive, Barbaros Muratoglu, was remanded in custody on an accusation of "aiding a terror group" as part of an investigation into Gulen. Ankara refers to the cleric's network of followers as the "Gulenist Terror Organisation". In its statement to the Istanbul stock exchange, Dogan said Thursday's detentions were part of the same investigation. "The search has been carried out solely in the personal offices of the mentioned executives and there is no situation that has an impact on the operations of our company or its subsidiaries," the statement said. TRUMP TOWERS Dogan's founder, Aydin Dogan, developed a glass commercial and residential complex called Trump Towers Istanbul which soars over a commercial district in the city. Dogan pays U.S. President-elect Donald Trump for the brand name. Turkey wants Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999, extradited and has been infuriated by what it sees as Washington's reluctance to hand him over. It is hoping that a Trump administration will be more willing to do so. U.S. officials have said the issue is a judicial matter, not a political one. Dogan shares initially fell as much as 9.9 percent after the market opened, and were down almost 5 percent by 1145 GMT in high-volume trading. Hurriyet shares fell as much as 7.6 percent. Aydin Dogan is a prominent figure in Turkey's secular establishment and has had strained ties with Erdogan and the ruling Islamist-rooted AK Party in the past. His group has faced multibillion-dollar tax fines. More than 240 people were killed in the failed coup in July and the government says the extent of the subsequent crackdown, including on business suspected of links to Gulen, is justified by the gravity of the threat to the state. More than 41,000 people have been jailed pending trial. Bank of Cyprus emergency funding repaid ATHENS, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Bank of Cyprus, which was forced to recapitalise by seizing customer savings in 2013, said on Thursday that it has fully repaid emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) to the island's central bank. The lender said it had repaid 11.4 billion euros in total. Most of it was a legacy of Laiki, a lender that was shut down during the financial crisis that gripped Cyprus in March 2013. Both banks switched to using ELA provided by the Cypriot central bank in 2012 and 2013 after being cut off from the European Central Bank's funding window. Under terms of a 10 billion euro EU/IMF bailout for Cyprus, Bank of Cyprus was forced to acquire operations of Laiki, including its ELA debt, and convert into equity a portion of deposits held by its own clients to recapitalise the lender. Bank of Cyprus has undertaken extensive deleveraging of non-core assets since 2013 and successfully raised equity in 2014 as it sought to shore up its finances. The last outstanding ELA debt was repaid on Thursday, the bank said in a statement, adding that had repaid 3.8 billion euros of ELA during 2016 and early 2017. "This should further strengthen stakeholders' confidence that the bank is becoming a stronger, safer and a more focused institution capable of delivering appropriate shareholder returns over the medium term," Bank of Cyprus Chief Executive John Patrick Hourican said in a statement. Turkey questions U.S.-led coalition presence at Incirlik air base ANKARA, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Turkish officials are questioning the presence of U.S.-led coalition forces at an air base in southern Turkey over what they see as insufficient support for Turkey's military operations against Islamic State in Syria. President Tayyip Erdogan's spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said on Thursday there was no need for a "rushed evaluation" on Incirlik, a base used by NATO allies to launch air strikes against Islamic State in neighbouring Syria. But he questioned why the United States, which backs some Kurdish groups against Islamic State in northern Syria, had not lent support to NATO ally Turkey's latest push to take the Syrian town of al-Bab back from the jihadists. "In the past month-and-a-half, we have seen and understood that this support was not given at the sufficient level and effectiveness," Kalin told broadcaster Kanal 24, calling for full support and saying "excuses are not acceptable". Turkey has been angered by U.S. policy in Syria, not least by Washington's support for Kurdish militia fighters it sees as an extension of PKK militants fighting within Turkey, a group the U.S. and Ankara both classify as a terrorist organisation. Kalin said he hoped the administration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who will be sworn in on Jan. 20, would be more attuned to Turkey's sensitivities. Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak said the U.S.-led coalition had only infrequently used Incirlik to join operations by the Turkish military and the Syrian rebels it backs, raising questions among the Turkish population. "Their presence (in Incirlik) is being questioned by our people and nation, and this issue is on the agenda of the government," he told broadcaster A Haber. Turkey launched an incursion into Syria in August to push Islamic State from its borders and prevent Kurdish militia fighters taking ground in their wake. Pakistan to release 218 Indian fishermen KARACHI, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Pakistan began releasing 218 Indian fishermen on Thursday, police said, the second such gesture in a month that could begin to ease tension between the neighbours. The men were arrested more than a year ago, accused of entering Pakistani waters in an area of the Arabian Sea where the border is disputed. India is also holding Pakistani fishermen for the same reason, and Pakistan hopes its release will be reciprocated. "They are being released by the orders of the federal government," said Ali Hassan Setho, a superintendent of police in the port city of Karachi, where the men are being held. "They will go via Lahore," he said, referring to the Pakistani city near the main border crossing into India. Relations between nuclear-armed neighbours have been more fraught than usual since a crackdown by Indian security forces on dissent in Indian-controlled Kashmir began in July. Both countries claim the Muslim-majority region in full and rule it in part. India accuses Pakistan of supporting an insurgency against Indian rule in its part of Kashmir. Pakistan denies that. In September, militants killed 18 soldiers at an Indian army base in an attack India blamed on Pakistan. Pakistan denied involvement. Intermittent talks between them on a range of issues, including their disputed maritime border, have stalled. In the past, gestures such fishermen releases have helped to improve the atmosphere for a resumption of talks. Pakistan last released a batch of Indian fishermen on Dec. 25. One of the men being released said it was good to be going home after a year. "I'm very happy that I'll be reunited with my mother, brothers, sisters and my children," the man who goes by the single name Kamlesh, from India's western state of Gujarat, told reporters. "I'm excited to think that very soon I'll reach there and see their faces." Monsanto swings to profit on higher South America demand By P.J. Huffstutter Chicago, Jan 5 (Reuters) - U.S. seeds and agrochemicals company Monsanto Co, which is in the process of being bought by Germany's Bayer AG for $66 billion, swung to a quarterly profit, helped by higher demand from South America. Sales of soybean seeds and traits jumped 37 percent as more farmers in South America sowed the company's genetically modified soybean seed Intacta RR2 Pro. But how Monsanto is navigating through a souring U.S. agricultural market has been closely watched by Bayer's investors, who have backed the German pharmaceutical conglomerate's bid to acquire the world's largest seed company. Monsanto shareholders voted in December to approve a sweetened $128-per-share offer from Bayer that, if approved by regulators, would create a company commanding more than a quarter of the world market for seeds and pesticides and be the largest-ever cash takeover of a U.S. company. Both companies have filed notice of the merger plan to U.S. antitrust officials and plan to submit similar documents to the European Union by the end of March, Chief Executive Officer Hugh Grant told analysts on a conference call on Thursday for Monsanto's first fiscal 2017 quarterly results. Bayer and Monsanto executives have repeatedly said they are confident the deal will pass regulatory muster, a necessary step in order to close the sale as expected in late 2017. Bayer has said it is committed to divest up to $1.6 billion of its portfolio to win approval. Still, some farm groups, rival seed companies and U.S. lawmakers have raised concerns about the Monsanto-Bayer deal, saying it could raise prices and reduce choices for farmers. While Grant did not discuss what business units or assets might be sold off to appease regulators, he did tell analysts on Thursday that "where overlaps do exist, Bayer anticipates and is committed to undertake a certain level of divestitures as required by regulatory agencies." Increased research and development spending by the combined companies and plans to develop a global seeds and biotechnology hub in St. Louis fuel hopes regulators will not block the deal, which was agreed in September, Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant told Reuters. Grant also told analysts that he and Chief Technology Officer Robb Fraley have been taking an active role in talking to farmers about the proposed deal, as well as talking to "key policymakers and politicians" to assuage concerns. Monsanto announced Thursday it had recently signed an agreement with Japanese trading firm Mitsui & Co. to sell its Latitude wheat and barley fungicide seed treatment business for $140 million - and expects to receive an EBIT benefit of approximately $85 million in that business segment in the second quarter. Monsanto told Reuters that the agreement is part of ongoing restructuring efforts, and not tied to the Bayer deal. Net profit attributable to Monsanto was $29 million, or 7 cents per share, in the first quarter ended Nov. 30, compared with a loss of $253 million, or 56 cents per share, a year earlier. Excluding items, the company earned 21 cents per share. Net sales rose more than 19 percent to $2.65 billion. U.S. Senate Democrats demand probe of Trump health nominee By Susan Cornwell and Susan Heavey WASHINGTON, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Senate Democrats on Thursday demanded an ethics probe into Tom Price, President-elect Donald Trump's pick for U.S. health secretary, following a report that the fierce Obamacare critic traded in healthcare company stocks while pushing legislation in Congress that could affect those shares. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and others made their comments as congressional Republicans moved ahead with their long-desired effort to dismantle President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act, and signaled the vehemence with which Democrats will fight to protect the 2010 law. Price is an orthopedic surgeon and a Republican congressman from Georgia who, if confirmed by the Senate as Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary, would be given the task of carrying out Trump's promise to gut the law that has enabled up to 20 million previously uninsured Americans to obtain medical coverage. The Democrats called on the independent Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), which examines misconduct allegations involving House of Representatives members, to investigate Price's stock trades. The Wall Street Journal last month reported that Price bought and sold more than $300,000 in stock in about 40 healthcare, pharmaceutical and biomedical companies over the past four years while sponsoring and advocating legislation that could influence those companies' shares. "Every American should be shocked by this," Schumer told a news conference. "We don't know if he broke the law," Schumer said of Price. "But there are certainly enough serious questions to warrant a serious investigation before any hearing is held on Congressman Price to become secretary of HHS." Democratic Senator Patty Murray said lawmakers want to know what nonpublic information Price may have had when the transactions at issue were made. Phil Blando, a Trump transition spokesman, called Schumer's demands a "stunt" to deflect attention from Obamacare's "dismal record." Price, asked by Reuters in a Capitol hallway for a reaction to Schumer's comments, replied, "We're looking forward to a positive and productive confirmation hearing." A 2012 law prohibits members and employees of Congress from using "any nonpublic information" stemming from the person's position or gained while performing their job for personal benefit. PUBLIC CITIZEN ALSO URGES PROBE The nonpartisan watchdog group Public Citizen also asked the ethics office, as well as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, to investigate Price and another Republican congressman, Chris Collins of New York, for possible violations of insider trading and conflict-of-interest laws and rules. Public Citizen said that, while serving in the House, Collins also sat on the board of directors of Australian biotech company Innate Immunotherapeutics Ltd and was its largest shareholder, with a 17 percent stake. It said Price also bought shares in the company. Collins serves as the Trump transition team's congressional liaison. Collins spokesman Michael McAdams said in a statement the congressman "has followed all ethical guidelines related to his personal finances during his time in the House and will continue to do so." House Republicans had moved on Monday to weaken the ethics office but backtracked a day later after criticism from Democrats and Trump. Trump transition spokesman Blando said the ethics questions Schumer raised about Price should be directed to three sitting Democratic senators, Delaware's Tom Carper, Virginia's Mark Warner and Rhode Island's Sheldon Whitehouse, "who own and have traded hundreds of thousands of dollars in pharmaceutical and health insurance company stocks." "Hypocrisy is apparently alive and well this morning in Washington," Blando said. A Warner spokeswoman said his investments were managed by an independent trustee. A Whitehouse spokesman said the senator does not direct his trading. A Carper spokeswoman said he has submitted thorough financial disclosures and "always complied with every requirement and regulation." Republicans will control the White House and Congress once Trump takes office on Jan. 20. In a series of Twitter posts on Thursday, Trump blasted the Democrats over Obamacare, taunting Schumer as "head clown." "It is time for Republicans & Democrats to get together and come up with a healthcare plan that really works - much less expensive & FAR BETTER!" Trump wrote. Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan said he expects the legislative work on repealing and replacing Obamacare to be completed this year. "What date all of this gets phased in on is something we do not now know," Ryan added. Ryan indicated that a Republican proposal to strip women's healthcare organization Planned Parenthood of federal funding will be included in the Obamacare repeal legislation. Planned Parenthood draws the ire of many Republicans because it provides abortions, as well as cancer screenings and other services. Republicans criticize Obamacare, one of Obama's signature accomplishments in his eight years in office, as an excessive government intrusion into the healthcare market and contend it is harming job growth by burdening businesses. Democrats said Obamacare has extended insurance to millions of Americans and curbed abuses by private insurers such as refusing to provide policies to people with pre-existing medical conditions. MIDEAST STOCKS-Egypt surges to record; Dubai, Qatar outperform Gulf By Celine Aswad DUBAI, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Egypt's stock market closed the week at a record high on Thursday as foreign funds continued to buy, while Gulf markets inched up on the back of firmer crude oil and global bourses. Cairo's index closed 1.7 percent higher at 12,824 points in the heaviest traded volume since mid-November. "Since the float of the currency on Nov. 3 the market has not witnessed a correction and foreign funds have been flooding the market with fresh money, helping maintain positive appetite towards equities," said Mohamed El Nabarawy, head of asset management at Cairo's HC Securities & Investment. Eighty percent of traded shares in the EGX30 index were bid up on Thursday, with Palm Hills Development jumping 5.1 percent. On Wednesday, the developer surged 8.5 percent after signing an agreement with the Ministry of Housing to buy a major plot in West Cairo for a new project near its existing developments. Egypt's net foreign reserves rose to $24.265 billion at the end of December from $23.058 billion at the end of November after the disbursement of loans from foreign donors, the central bank said on Thursday. Nabarawy said this would help boost confidence that Egypt's currency drought was starting to reverse, though over the long term, dollar inflows should come primarily from foreign direct investment, tourism and exports. "Non-loaned sources of inflows are more productive in the long term than borrowed money." GULF Positive sentiment in global stock markets spread to Gulf bourses, supporting those markets most exposed to foreign funds. Dubai's index rose 0.3 percent to 3,628 points but traded volume dropped by roughly a third from Wednesday. The index rose 2.7 percent this week, nearing technical resistance at the mid-December peak of 3,659 points. Dubai Islamic Insurance and Reinsurance jumped 14.0 percent to 1.09 dirhams on Thursday in its heaviest trade since early 2014. The stock soared its 15 percent limit on each of the previous three days, and it has doubled in price since Dec. 27. Some traders speculate there may be mergers in the insurance industry following last year's news of a big Abu Dhabi banking merger. Dubai Investments rose 3.7 percent after announcing on Wednesday the launch of a new 3 billion-dirham ($817 million) real estate project in Dubai. Doha's index, another market actively traded by foreign funds, recouped early losses to add 0.3 percent and finished the week up 2.4 percent. Telecommunications provider Ooredoo closed 0.3 percent higher at 105.30 riyals, 1.7 riyals above its intra-day low. Saudi Arabia's index closed on the day and dropped 0.2 percent in the first week of the year. The petrochemical sub-index swung 0.2 percent higher after Brent oil futures bounced 2 percent overnight and climbed back near $57.00 a barrel. Bellwether Saudi Basic Industries rose 0.5 percent. But the banking sector was weak with Riyad Bank dropping 2.2 percent after its board recommended a slightly lower cash dividend distribution for the second half of 2016 compared to the corresponding period in 2015. THURSDAY'S HIGHLIGHTS SAUDI ARABIA * The index edged up 0.01 percent to 7,199 points. DUBAI * The index rose 0.3 percent to 3,628 points. ABU DHABI * The index added 0.3 percent to 4,602 points. QATAR * The index inched up 0.3 percent to 10,717 points. EGYPT * The index gained 1.7 percent to 12,824 points. KUWAIT * The index rose 0.8 percent to 5,831 points. OMAN * The index added 0.6 percent to 5,793 points. BAHRAIN * The index lost 0.1 percent to 1,206 points. Five migrant bodies recovered from Libya's coast TRIPOLI, Jan 5 (Reuters) - The bodies of five migrants that washed up on the shores of Tripoli after their boat capsized in the Mediterranean have been removed in body bags by an aid agency. The five people were among a group of around 80 that were travelling in the boat on Wednesday when it capsized, the Libyan Red Crescent agency said. The survivors, many of whom were from Senegal and Bangladesh, were sent to shelters across the city. Last year, a record 5,000 migrants are believed to have drowned in the Mediterranean, the most dangerous border crossing on the planet for migrants, the International Organization for Migration and the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) said. Romania's parliament approves tax relief for pensioners BUCHAREST, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Romania's lower house of parliament on Thursday approved tax breaks for pensioners, making good on a government promise to loosen fiscal policy as the economy picks up pace. Under the measures that will come into force next month, state pensions below 2,000 lei ($470) a month will be free of tax and all pensions will be exempted from a 5.5 percent health care levy. Costing an estimated 1.2 billion lei this year, they are part of fiscal reforms on the programme of the Social Democrat party, which won national elections in mid-December and will govern in a powerful leftist coalition with long-time ally ALDE after winning a parliamentary vote of confidence on Wednesday. Social Democrat Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu also wants to raise the minimum state pension by 30 percent to 520 lei, hike welfare spending and scrap several other taxes. The coalition is also expected to enforce a 16 percent rise in the minimum wage to 1,450 lei a month as of Feb. 1. The International Monetary Fund expects Romania, a country of 20 million of whom about 5.3 million are pensioners, to have posted economic growth of about 5 percent last year, which would be the highest in the European Union. But some economists are concerned the fiscal measures could lead to it breaching the EU's deficit ceiling of 3 percent of GDP this year, raising the risk of sanctions from Brussels. More than 800 girls circumcised in Tanzania despite police crackdown By Kizito Makoye DAR ES SALAAM, Jan 5 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - More than 800 girls were subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM) in northern Tanzania last month, a local government official said, despite a police crackdown to stop the practice that affects millions of girls in the east African country. Twelve women suspected to have carried out the ritual, which involves the partial or total removal of the external genitalia, have been arrested as the police investigate the case, Tarime District Commissioner Glorious Luoga said. "The police operation is still going on. We will not relent until all the perpetrators have been arrested and charged," Luoga told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. FGM affects an estimated 140 million girls and women across a swathe of Africa and parts of the Middle East and Asia, and is seen as a gateway to marriage and a way of preserving purity. Up to 7.9 million girls and women in Tanzania are thought to have undergone FGM, with the illegal procedure often carried out in secret initiation, or rite of passage, ceremonies. The ancient ritual causes numerous health problems that can be fatal. In Tarime, girls are usually cut between the ages of 12 and 17 in initiation ceremonies performed by circumcisers known as ngariba, often in unhygienic conditions. On Tuesday a senior official in the Ministry of Health warned communities to stop embracing the harmful tradition. "FGM should be made history in Tanzania," the ministry's permanent secretary Sihaba Nkinga told girls who had completed an alternative rite of passage in Tarime involving reproductive health education. Two arrested in Israel for threatening judges in soldier trial-police By Jeffrey Heller JERUSALEM, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Israeli police said on Thursday they arrested two people for inciting violence on social media against three military judges who convicted a soldier of manslaughter for shooting dead a wounded Palestinian attacker. The judges found Sergeant Elor Azaria, 20, guilty of the charge on Wednesday, and supporters have set up several Facebook pages urging Israel's president to pardon him. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also called for a pardon on his own Facebook page. The case has polarised Israel. A military security detail was assigned to the judges on Wednesday, when several hundred far-right supporters of Azaria clashed with police outside the Tel Aviv military base as the verdict was being read out. Attorney-General Avihai Mandelblit later ordered an investigation into incitement to violence by demonstrators who warned they would take retribution against military chief Lieutenant-General Gadi Eizenkott, who has spoken strongly against Azaria's actions. "Inciting language against judges, military officers, law enforcement officials, or any person is unacceptable," Mandelblit said in a statement. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said officers had arrested a man in Jerusalem and a woman in the southern town of Kiryat Gat whose social media comments constituted "incitement to violence" against the judges. Ten months ago, Azaria was an army medic serving in the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank when two Palestinians stabbed a fellow soldier. One of the assailants was shot dead by troops. The other, Abd Elfatah Ashareef, 21, was wounded and lay on the ground incapacitated when Azaria shot him in the head with an assault rifle more than 10 minutes after the attack. Ruling in one of the most polarising cases in Israel's history, the judges convicted Azaria of manslaughter, saying he acted out of a sense of vengeance and had said after pulling the trigger, "He deserved to die." He faces up to 20 years in prison, although legal experts expect a much lighter term. Sentencing is expected in the coming weeks. The trial has generated debate about whether the military is out of touch with a public that has shifted to the right in its attitudes toward the Palestinians. Corzine in $5 mln settlement with US CFTC over MF Global collapse By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Jon Corzine, former New Jersey governor and Goldman Sachs co-chairman, will pay a $5 million civil fine to settle a U.S. regulator's lawsuit over the 2011 collapse of his commodity brokerage, MF Global Holdings Ltd. Thursday's accord with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission resolves the last piece of litigation against Corzine over MF Global's rapid descent into bankruptcy on Oct. 31, 2011, as an estimated $1.6 billion of customer money went missing. The agreement, which has been approved by a federal judge, bars Corzine from ever working for a futures commission merchant or registering with the CFTC. He also cannot ask insurers to cover the fine. "I am pleased to have reached this settlement," Corzine, who turned 70 on Jan. 1, said in a statement. "As the CEO of MF Global in 2011, I have accepted responsibility for its failure, and I deeply regret the impact it had on customers, employees, shareholders and others." Andrew Levander, Corzine's lawyer, noted that none of the criminal and civil probes into MF Global's demise led to charges that Corzine engaged in intentional misconduct or fraud. In a related settlement, Edith O'Brien, MF Global's former assistant treasurer, agreed to pay a $500,000 civil fine and accept an 18-month industry ban to resolve claims that she "aided and abetted" the misuse of customer funds. O'Brien's lawyer, Christopher Barber, declined to comment. The CFTC said MF Global improperly used nearly $1 billion of customer funds to shore up liquidity during the last week of October 2011, rather than keep the funds separate. This commingling occurred as margin calls, credit rating downgrades and Corzine's big wager on European sovereign debt left customers and investors increasingly worried about the New York-based company's survival. The CFTC said Corzine failed to properly supervise employees handling customer funds, while O'Brien authorized the illegal transfer of customer funds to MF Global accounts as the specter of bankruptcy loomed. Customers were fully repaid in 2014. Corzine and other former MF Global executives last year reached a $132 million settlement with a trustee liquidating the company on behalf of creditors. A year earlier, executives reached a $64.5 million settlement of separate investor litigation. Portions of the earlier payouts were covered by insurance. Corzine, a Democrat, is also a former U.S. senator, and now manages his own money. Four Yemeni detainees transferred from Guantanamo to Saudi Arabia By Katie Paul and Matt Spetalnick RIYADH/WASHINGTON, Jan 5 (Reuters) - The Pentagon sent four Yemeni detainees from the Guantanamo Bay military prison to Saudi Arabia on Thursday, launching President Barack Obama's final flurry of prisoner transfers despite Donald Trump's demand for a freeze. It was the first phase of Obama's plan to move as many as 19 prisoners to four countries - Oman, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and possibly Italy - to shrink Guantanamo's inmate population as much as possible before the Republican president-elect is sworn in on Jan. 20. There were emotional reunions with families at the royal airport in the capital Riyadh, with one man bending down to kiss his sobbing mother's feet as she cried "God is great." Fifty-five prisoners now remain at Guantanamo. About 40 will still be left by the time Obama leaves office, meaning that he will be unable to fulfill his longstanding pledge to close the controversial facility at the U.S. naval base in Cuba. Trump has vowed to keep it open and "load it up with some bad dudes." The four Yemenis, all captured as part of the Afghanistan conflict and held without trial for up to 15 years, were on a U.S. list recommended for transfer. They were sent to Saudi Arabia because the Obama administration has ruled out returning Yemenis to their homeland, which is engulfed in civil war and has an active al Qaeda branch. The men were identified as Mohammed Rajab Sadiq Abu Ghanem, Salem Ahmed Hadi bin Kanad, Abdullah Yehya Yousef al-Shibli and Mohammed Bawazir. Bawazir was among prisoners who protested with a lengthy hunger strike. He was cleared for transfer by an inter-agency review in 2010 and was about to be sent to the Balkans last January but refused because he wanted to go to a country where he had family, a U.S. official said. Ghanem and Kanad were deemed too risky to release in 2010 but their cases were re-examined and both were declared eligible for transfer last year. Shibli was approved for transfer in 2010. FINAL TRANSFERS The Obama administration notified Congress last month of its intention to make up to 19 additional transfers, Reuters has reported. Detainees transferred on Thursday or due to leave in coming days make up the bulk of 23 prisoners declared to be safe for repatriation or resettlement. Despite that, Trump said on Tuesday all of those held at Guantanamo should remain. "These are extremely dangerous people and should not be allowed back onto the battlefield," he tweeted. The White House has dismissed his objections and said transfers from Guantanamo, opened by former President George W. Bush to hold terrorism suspects rounded up overseas after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, will continue until he takes office. Of the prisoners left at Guantanamo, 10 face charges in military commissions, including alleged plotters of the Sept. 11 attacks. About two dozen have not been charged but have been deemed too dangerous to release. It was unclear whether the four detainees who arrived in Saudi Arabia would be released immediately. Last April, the Islamic kingdom - a top U.S. ally - accepted nine Yemenis and put them through a government-run rehabilitation program that seeks to reintegrate militants into society. "The United States coordinated with the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to ensure these transfers took place consistent with appropriate security and humane treatment measures," the Pentagon said in a statement. Obama, who has called Guantanamo a "recruiting tool" for terrorists, has slowly whittled the number of detainees down from 242 when he took office. Under Bush, the prison came to symbolize harsh detention practices that opened the United States to accusations of torture. Obama's efforts to close the prison have been blocked by mostly Republican opposition in Congress, which has barred him from moving any prisoners to the U.S. mainland. Afghanistan, (rt.com), 4 Jan, 2017 -Nearly 2,000 protesting Shiites have marched against Islamic State in western Afghanistan and condemned the latest string of atrocities perpetrated by the terrorist group. Protesters holding photos of Shia Muslims killed in recent IS (formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorist attacks marched to the governors office in the western city of Herat on Tuesday, according to AFP. The crowd chanted slogans such as Death to the enemies of Afghanistan! and Death to Daesh! another name of Islamic State. The rally was triggered by the increased number of attacks on local mosques and influential religious scholars. On Sunday, an Imam was killed while five others were wounded in one of such attacks. However, Islamic State have not yet claimed responsibility for the attack. This week, the Afghan government said militants were steadily moving from the eastern province of Nangarhar bordering Pakistan where they had gathered a few months ago. Seventeen foreigners were injured last evening when the bus they were travelling, veered off the road due to a brake failure at Kadadora in Pussellawa, Police said. They said four monks, four men and nine woman from Vietnam and Nepal were among the injured. They had been admitted to the Gampola Base Hospital. It was reported that the accident took place while the foreigners were returning from a pilgrimage to Mahaweli Maha Seya in Kotmale. Aminister and an MP in India have suggested that its the way women dress thats to blame for the mass sex attack in Bangalore on New Years Eve. In the city of Bangalore, the largest in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, scores of women were, according to the local media, attacked and molested by groups of men. The sexual assaults happened despite the presence of 1,500 police on the streets. The incident has spread shock throughout the country. Referring to the reports, Karnataka Home Minister, G Parameshwara criticized women for dressing like westerners. The minister was condemned for the irresponsible remark by the central governments junior home minister Kiren Rijiju, according to AFP. Parameshwara later claimed he was misquoted. Abu Azmi, president of the Samajwadi Partys Maharashtra state branch, was even more blunt in laying the blame on women. In these modern times, the more women are naked, the more fashionable, modern and educated they are considered. And this is increasing in the country. This is a blot on our culture, NDTV quoted him as saying. Azmi has been known for making similarly controversial remarks over the years. In 2014, he called for women who have sex outside marriage to face the death penalty. Sex crimes are a widespread problem in India. The National Crime Record Bureau said over 34,000 cases of rape were reported throughout 2015, or around one rape every 15 minutes. (Courtesy rt.com) Bangalore, (rt.com), 03.01.2017 - Colombo Additional Magistrate Aruni Artygalle today directed the prison authorities to submit a medical report on Duminda Silva within two weeks. He is facing charges of not having declared his assets and liabilities for three years. The suspect was brought to Court in an ambulance and but not produced before the Magistrate after his counsel told Court that his client was unable leave the ambulance because he was critically ill. After confirming that the suspect was in the Court premises, the Magistrate put off the three cases filed against him to January 26. The Bribery Commission filed three separate cases against Mr. Silva under the Assets and Liabilities Act for not having declared his assets in 2010, 2011 and 2013. The Bribery Commission named Parliament Deputy Secretary General P.M. Neil Parakrama and several others as witnesses. Senior counsel Anuja Premaratne appeared for the defence. The Colombo High Court had sentenced him to death after being convicted for the murder of Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra. (Shehan Chamika Silva) The Bank of Ceylon commenced its New Year operations with a ceremony on January 2nd, the first working day. Religious ceremonies were also carried out on this day. The ceremony took place under the patronage of the Banks chairman, Ronald C. Perera, Board of Directors and the General Manager D.M. Gunasekera. Despite the claim that the-construction-halted-and-then-resumed-Christmas tree at Galle Face Green is the worlds tallest artificial Christmas tree, the management at the Guinness World Record told the Daily Mirror that it had not yet received an application from Sri Lanka for this attempt. The UK and International Press Officer of the Guinness World Records Ltd, Amber-Georgina Gill said the Sri Lankan Christmas tree was a fantastic achievement and that they would encourage the creators to make an application. We encourage them to use our website and to upload all their evidences for Records Management team to review and ratify if successful, she said. At present, she said, the record for the largest artificial Christmas tree is held by the GZ Think Big Culture Communication Co Ltd of China for creating an artificial Christmas tree measuring up to 55 metres (180.4 feet) at Guangzhou, Guangdong in China on December 25, 2015. Meanwhile, the Ports and Shipping Ministry said it was still in the process of applying for the Worlds Tallest Artificial Christmas Tree title from the Guinness World Records. It said they were applying for the world record title through the second option which is to send evidences of the creation to the management of the Guinness management team. The first option is to invite and bring in representatives from Guinness to evaluate the creation. Evidences collected since August 16 - the day construction was begin, will be sent for evaluation. Daily reports of newspaper and video footages of the Christmas tree will be sent. We have already registered under the title Worlds Tallest Christmas Tree of the Guinness World Records, Ports and Shipping Ministers Media Secretary Thameera Manju said. (Lahiru Pothmulla) A comprehensive technical investigation is being carried out by the National Centre for Cyber Security into the hacking of the website of the Ministry of Healthcare, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine on Tuesday night. A senior official of the Sri Lanka CERT-CC (Computer Emergency Readiness Team Coordinating Centre) told Daily Mirror that they were working on the problem after receiving the initial data from the Ministry. He said there were at least four ways in which the website could have been hacked due to shortcomings in the way the website was maintained. If the operating system of the server of a website is poor or has lapses a hacker could get into the system. If there are weaknesses in the design of the website, a hacker to break into the site. Finally if there are shortcomings in the tools or software used to create the website, it could be hacked. Misplacing a password or a breach of security by a person or group updating the website could give an opportunity for someone to hack the site, he said. The specialists are investigating the manner in which the breach had been made and they may arrive at the solution today. The expert said anyone with access to the Internet within or outside the country could be the culprit. He said it could be the handiwork of a local genius or of the foreign group called the Muslim Cyber Army (MCA) which was supposed to be responsible according to the claim on the site, He said ministry officials have given orders to keep the website offline until the fault was corrected. The hackers claimed to be from the MCA, an Indonesian extremist group, on the website to which searchers were directed. They used an Arabic phrase placed below an armed jihadist style logo which gave the phrase's English translation as: Noble Life or Martyrdom. The experts have not yet discovered whether the hacking was by the MCA as claimed, or by a local who wanted to mislead the investigators. (Kurulu Koojana Kariyakarawana) The Kuliyapitiya assembly plant will assemble European brands of vehicles, Minister and UNP Deputy General Secretary Akila Viraj Kariyawasam said today. The Minister told a media briefing that the factory would have to be constructed and has to become operational within two years. If not he said the land would go back to the government. The project is to assemble European vehicles and one would able to witness the truth once the plant becomes operational, he said responding to a question raised by journalists as to whether it will actually assemble Volkswagen vehicles. He added that the project would come back to life step by step. Accordingly around 200 vehicles would be assembled initially and expanded further. Minister Kariyawasam who elaborated on the Hambantota Port issue said the private-public partnership would be the best option given the debt situation in which Sri Lanka is in at the moment, so that the people will not have to bear the burden in such a situation. More than 95 per cent of lands that would be allocated for the Hambantota industrial zone are state owned ones while there are a few that are privately owned. The Rajapaksas are worried that they would lose their stronghold if Hambantota is developed in the future and this is the reason why they are going against the setting up of the industrial zone in the area, he added. (Yohan Perera) KUALA LUMPUR AFP Jan4, 2017- Floods in two northeast Malaysian states have now forced almost 23,000 people from their homes and extra relief centres have been opened, rescue officials said Wednesday. Seasonal flooding hits Malaysias east coast states every year and regularly results in mass evacuations. The latest round has forced authorities to evacuate 10,038 residents from Kelantan and 12,910 people from neighbouring Terengganu, officials said. Heavy rain in the past five days has also caused 101 schools to be closed. Many roads are impassable and train services to some destinations in Kelantan have been suspended. But no deaths have so far been reported in the two states. REUTERS: Sri Lankas tea output edged up in November for its first monthly gain in 10 months thanks to favourable weather conditions, the state-run Sri Lanka Tea Board said yesterday. The output in November rose by 7.8 percent from a year earlier, the boards data showed, having fallen for nine consecutive months through October because of severe drought, poor application of fertilisers and a government ban on pesticides. However, production in the first 11 months of the year dropped 13.2 percent. We got some rain in November. That is the main reason for the rise in production, said Sri Lanka Tea Board Director General S.A. Siriwardena. Siriwardena has said he expects 2016 production to be between about 275 million kg and 280 million kg because of steep drops in September and October. Sri Lankas 2015 tea output fell 2.7 percent year-on-year to 329 million kg, missing forecasts for a second consecutive year because of heavy rains. Tea is Sri Lankas top agricultural export commodity and one of the main foreign currency earners for the US $ 82 billion economy. A man who has been sentenced to death for the murder of Bambalapitiya businessman Mohamed Shiyam has obtained a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree by studying while in prison, said a Welikada Prison source. This is the first time a prisoner has accomplished such a feat in the history of the prison, a Prisons Department source said. The prisoner is an ex-sub inspector of police named, B. A. Lakmini Indika Bamunusinghe, an appellant prisoner in Chapel Ward, its director Chandana Ekanayake said. He had been studding for the B.A. as an external student of Sri Jayawardenapura University at the time of his arrest. He has received special permission from the Commissioner General of Prisons to attend the convocation ceremony at the BMICH today (Jan. 5). (Jayantha Samarakoon) The Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) is still in the process of finalizing its fleet requirements to purchase new multi-role combat aircraft to replace MiG and Kfir fleet. Earlier, the government had announced that it intends to purchase eight to 12 new multi-role combat aircraft for the SLAF. President Maithripala Sirisena and the Cabinet have officially granted the Ministry of Defence permission to solicit offers from foreign aircraft manufacturers for the procurement of new aircraft and associated weapon systems on a government-to-government basis. SLAF Spokesman Group Captain Gihan Seneviratne said once the fleet requirements were finalized, they would call for bids from countries to purchase aircraft most likely within this year. Contemporary aircraft which would be suitable for the coming years would be purchased, he said. The SLAF presently has a fleet of Israeli Kfirs and Russian-made MiG-27s and India is also eager to add its own make to the arsenals. Seven Chengdu F-7 (license-built MIG-21), nine Harbin Y-12 turboprop military transport, plus one Chengdu F-7 and five Hongdu JL-8 jet trainers operates at the air force. Earlier, Cabinet Spokesman and Parliamentary Reforms and Media Minister Gayantha Karunathilaka said that only one Kfir aircraft is operational and six others cannot be used. He said SLAF have seven MiGs and eight others but none of them can be used. It was reported that SLAF is looking at JF-17 Thunder at least four million dollars per jet as a replacement for its Kfirs and MiG-27s. The SLAFs fighter fleet currently consists of one single Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) Kfir multi-role combat aircraft. While the Kfir uses the same airframe as the French-made Dassault Mirage 5, it is equipped with Israeli avionics and an Israeli-built variant of the General Electric J79 turbojet engine. From 1995 to 2005, Sri Lanka acquired a total of 16 Kfir fighter jets from Israel. At least seven aircraft were lost due to accidents or ground attacks on airbases during the Civil War. (Darshana Sanjeewa) If Central Bank Governor Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy has said the economy is clearly in the hospital today, it was in the ICU during the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government and governor Coomaraswamy was an attendant to it, Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake today said. Addressing a news conference held at the Ministry, the minister said he believed that Dr. Coomaraswamy hadnt made such a comment but said if he had done so, Dr. Coomaraswamy should understand that he had played the role of a hospital attendant when the economy was in the ICU. Im surprised that the governor has made a comment like that. Maybe the media has misinterpreted or distorted what he said. As the finance minister, its my responsibility to correct wrong reports, he said. He said the governments monetary and fiscal policies were clear and the government was making measures to salvage the economy and to bring it to the Out Patients Department (OPD) of the hospital. Delivering a speech on Monetary and Financial Sector Policies for 2017 and Beyond Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy on Tuesday has said Sri Lanka was the only country, other than Afghanistan, in the Asia-Pacific region with an IMF programme and having an IMF programme is the economic equivalent to being in hospital. We are not in the ICU but clearly in hospital. The remedial treatment is known and it is encouraging that it has commenced, he said. (Lahiru Pothmulla and Thilanka Kanakarathna) A 29-year-old Russian has drowned in the sea off the Kosgoda Beach last evening, Police said. Eyewitnesses said the man was sea-bathing with his wife when they were both swept out to mid-sea. The residents in the area had rescued them and rushed them to the Balapitiya Hospital but the man was found died on admission. Video by Anuradha Priyadarshana For the past 35 years, the fulcrum of SOS Childrens Villages work has revolved around safeguarding the rights of children in difficult circumstances. SOS Childrens Villages Sri Lanka has supported children devoid of parental care and whose families live in difficult conditions and has also tirelessly worked in the countrys sociopolitical spheres, lobbying for the rights of Sri Lankas children. SOS Childrens Villages Sri Lanka will mark its 35th anniversary with a cultural show showcasing the talents of toddlers and teens from all six SOS Childrens Villages. The cultural show will be attended by SOS Childrens Villages International International President Siddharth Kaul together with many dignitaries. Pooja Umashankar and Roshan Mahanama will grace this occasion as they play a vital role as SOS Ambassadors. Founded in 1981 in Sri Lanka, SOS Childrens Villages Sri Lanka has served more than 41,000 Sri Lankan children in six Childrens Villages and Family Strengthening Programmes. The work of SOS Childrens Villages has also been tightly intertwined with the countrys narrative. The SOS Childrens Village in Nuwara Eliya, initiated in 1984, succeeded in building a tight-knit community which transcended ethnic barriers, despite the convoluted political climate that existed in Sri Lanka during its inception. Furthermore, the organisation has also been closely involved in safeguarding the rights and well-being of the countrys children in the aftermath of exigent events such as the 2004 tsunami and the conclusion of a 30-year long war in 2009. 2016 marks a pivotal year for the organisation beyond its 35th anniversary. Since its inception, SOS Childrens Villages Sri Lanka was predominantly funded by Europe-based international donors and philanthropists. With Sri Lanka now classified as a middle-income country in Asia, the Sri Lankan arm of the international organisation is facing a subsidy reduction as donations are now being channelled to poorer countries in Asia and other continents. In light of this, SOS Childrens Villages Sri Lanka is faced with the task of bridging this financial gap through support from local well-wishers and corporates without compromising the quality of the work thus far or closing down the existing projects, which have reaped positive results. Proving quality alternative care is a great need in Sri Lanka with statistics pointing to 340,000 children without parental care currently living in Sri Lanka. It is our moral and social responsibility to ensure that the children of our country are cared for and have access to a conducive environment to thrive in. The aim of our work is to respect, promote and stand up for childrens rights. The need to raise funds and build awareness is imperative in order to keep building on SOS legacy and to make sure that vulnerable Sri Lankan children are given an equal opportunity to grow, commented SOS Childrens Villages Sri Lanka National Director Ananda Karunarathne. We invite the public to join us for our cultural show and support our endeavours to uplift Sri Lankas children. The childcare concept of SOS Childrens Villages is one that exists in 134 countries to date. SOS Childrens Villages Sri Lanka supports children who have lost their parents and who are at risk of losing the care of their biological family and works with the principle of cultivating a nurturing family environment. SOS Childrens Villages Sri Lanka helps children shape their own futures and also works with the community to strengthen communal social development. With six Childrens Villages, 12 Youth Facilities, eight Kindergartens and Vocational Training Centres around the island, SOS Childrens Villages adopts a three-pronged approach through Family-Based Care (FBC) within a conducive village environment, Family Strengthening Programmes (FSP) and facility programmes to develop life skills and build a strong support system. SOS Childrens Villages Sri Lanka warmly extends an invitation to the public to come and witness the talents of the children under SOS care and make the event a success. The cultural show will be held tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. Tickets can be purchased from the Bishops College Auditorium, tickets.lk or by contacting 0718 693208. President Maitripala Sirisena is reported to have instructed the State Ministers and the Deputy Ministers representing his Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) to stand firm against injustice by the United National Party (UNP) in running the government. The Ministers met at the residence of Fisheries Minister Mahinda Amaraweera for dinner and discussed the matters. The President also attended it for a while. It took place in the context of MP Piyankara Jayaratne resigning from his state minister's post citing inability to work with the UNP members representing his area. Minister Amaraweera told Daily Mirror the current difficulties were discussed at this meeting. We discussed about problems created by the UNP for our members. The President asked us to stand firm, he said. He said none of the ministers would resign hereafter, and the unity government would proceed.(Kelum Bandara) ANKARA AFP Jan4, 2017 - Turkey said Wednesday it had identified the gunman behind the New Years massacre on an elite Istanbul nightclub that killed 39, as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned the attack aimed to polarise Turkish society. The identity of the person responsible for the attack has been established, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said during an interview with state-run Anadolu news agency, without giving any name. The assailant stormed the glamorous Reina nightclub on the Bosphorus early on Sunday morning, spraying 120 bullets at terrified partygoers celebrating the start of 2017. Of the 39 dead, 27 were foreigners including citizens from Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Iraq, Tunisia and Morocco. At least 36 people have now been detained in the probe, but the gunman himself remains on the run after slipping into the night following the attack. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said yesterday that the Volkswagen Company had not invested in the Kuliyapitiya vehicle assembly plant. He was referring to a news item carried by a TV channel quoting the investor in Kuliyapitiya that Volkswagen had no stake in the assembly plant. "If this channel inquired from me I would have revealed the truth. One must not contaminate his or her mind just because he or she has a grudge against me," he said, speaking at the opening of Kalu Ganga Water Project in Horana last evening. He said the government had decided not to allow Volkswagen to invest in Sri Lanka as the company had an issue. However, he said Volkswagen would be one of the brands of vehicles which would be assembled at the Kuliyapitiya plant. (Yohan Perera) At a high-level meeting held in Moscow on December 27, 2016, representatives from Russia, China and Pakistan underlined the growing influence of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in Afghanistan and the deteriorating security situation in the region. According to the statement issued at the end of the meeting: "The Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China as the UN Security Council permanent members confirmed their flexible approach to delisting Afghan individuals from the UN sanctions lists as their contribution to the efforts aimed at launching peaceful dialogue between Kabul and Taliban." What has surprised everyone is the exclusion of Afghanistan from the negotiations, apparently aimed at discussing the security situation in conflict-ridden Afghanistan. This trilateral initiative stands in open contrast to the publicly-stated positions of all the countries of supporting the Afghan-owned and Afghan-led reconciliation process. Sensing the mounting Afghan opposition, the group has finally decided to include Afghanistan in the next meeting. While Iran is soon going to be part of the group, there is no proposal to involve India. Much to India's disappointment, the emerging axis between Moscow, Islamabad and Beijing seems to have put Pakistan in the driver's seat, according it greater control over the future of Afghanistan. Russia's engagement with the Taliban, its military cooperation with Pakistan and possible support for the CPEC have the potential to harm India's vital strategic interests. Photo: PTI Russia's diplomatic efforts to accommodate the Taliban as an instrument against the ISIS, in tandem with Pakistan and China, may also have unexpected ramifications for Indo-Russian ties. The Indian leadership, both publicly and behind diplomatic corridors, has been trying to convince Russia that Pakistan is the fountainhead of terrorism in the region. But India's traditional ally Russia is not convinced. Even though Russia' diplomatic engagement with the Taliban has begun to strain Moscow-Kabul ties, as well as put Russia's historic and strategic partnership with India at great risk, Moscow's engagement with the Taliban is driven by a number of counterterrorism and security reasons. Russian foreign policymakers believe that engagement with the Taliban is essential for maintaining long-term political stability in Afghanistan; Moscow can use the Taliban's opposition to Islamic State (ISIS) to further Russia's counter-terrorism objectives; and Pakistan's role is crucial in bringing peace to war-torn Afghanistan. The Russian leadership views the Taliban as a useful partner in its fight against the ISIS. Putin has long worried about jihadists from former Soviet republics joining the ISIS' fight in Syria. For this very reason, Russia sees ISIS as a particular threat in a way it doesn't see Taliban. Speaking in December 2015, President Putin's special representative to Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, candidly acknowledged that "Taliban interests objectively coincide with ours... We have communication channels with the Taliban to exchange information". In December 2016, Russia's ambassador to Afghanistan, Alexander Mantyskiy, conceded that Moscow maintained relations with the Taliban, while insisting that Russia's contacts with the Taliban were not "intensive" and aimed only at ensuring the safety of Russian citizens. The war against the ISIS has necessitated a most unlikely alliance of convenience between Russia and Taliban, and between Pakistan and Russia. Moscow's diplomatic outreach toward the Taliban has provided legitimacy to the Taliban insurgency and frustrated the efforts of the Afghan government to militarily defeat the Taliban. The Russian argument hinges on the view that ISIS is a global threat, while the Taliban is just a localised phenomenon. Even as Russia is more worried about the ISIS than about losing India's friendship, Pakistani policymakers are making all-out efforts to be seen as acting in Russian interests. Islamabad does not want to miss the historic opportunity of exploiting Russia's sense of vulnerability arising from the ISIS threat. Russia's major strategic partners in the region Iran and China have also increased their engagement with the Taliban. Strategically, these circumstances have put Pakistan in a more advantageous position than India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi categorically stated in Amritsar in early December 2016 that action should be taken not only against the forces of terrorism, "but also against those who support, sustain, train and finance them". India also continues to oppose the integration of the Taliban into the Afghan government so long as it does not renounce terrorism. At a time when New Delhi has been trying hard to isolate Islamabad for supporting terrorism in the region, Russia is moving toward greater acceptance of Pakistan, much like China has done. During the last two years, several high-ranking Pakistani officials have travelled to Moscow to boost bilateral ties, which has also resulted in the Mi-35 helicopter deal between the two countries. The growing bonhomie reflected in the first-ever Russia-Pakistan joint military exercise held in September 2016 in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, and the first-ever Russia-Pakistan consultation on regional issues in mid-December 2016 at Islamabad. Moreover, after initially denying Pakistani media reports that Russia would join the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and acquire access to the Gwadar port, Russia's ambassador to Pakistan, Alexey Y Dedov, has now clarified that Moscow and Islamabad have held discussions to merge the China-backed CPEC with Russia-backed Eurasian Economic Union. Although Russia continues to insist that its ties with Pakistan will not come at the cost of its ties with India, Moscow's tilt towards Islamabad has certainly injected growing uncertainty in the direction of the India-Russia relationship. Russia's engagement with the Taliban, its military cooperation with Pakistan and possible support for the CPEC have the potential to harm India's vital strategic interests. US President-elect Donald Trump has indicated that he wishes to curtail American military involvement worldwide. If the Trump administration continues with the previous US policy of supporting the peace process led by the Ashraf Ghani-led national unity government, it will allow India to continue with its current policy of deeper economic and strategic partnership with Afghanistan. But if Trump decides to reduce Washington's focus on Kabul, India's options would be very limited. The year 2016 will be long remembered for the decision by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to nullify Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, and replace them with newly designed, more secure Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 notes. This scheme is perhaps one of the most far-reaching policy decisions taken by any Indian government in recent times. The nation is still struggling to come to terms with it and it will have significant long-term implications for Indias economic growth trajectory. Reformer In many ways, 2016 was the year when Modi, the economic reformer, got his groove back. His government managed to pass the landmark GST Bill through Parliament. By levying one indirect tax for the whole nation, it will make India one unified common market. It is the biggest reform in Indias indirect tax structure since the economy started opening up 25 years ago and is likely to be implemented in 2017. India remained one of the few fast growing major economies in the world in 2016, thereby managing to make its presence felt on the international platform. And Modi remained one of the most dynamic leaders on the foreign policy front, putting his imprimatur on global politics. In a move of great symbolism, Modi did not attend the 17th non-alignment summit despite host Venezuelas repeated attempts to woo him. Instead, he dispatched vice-president Hamid Ansari. Following Charan Singh in 1979, Modi was the second prime minister to miss the summit since the country had co-founded the movement. Modi remained one of the most dynamic leaders on the foreign policy front, putting his imprimatur on global politics. Modi, with his centre-right political inclinations, does not share ideological attachment to Jawaharlal Nehrus ideas. He has gradually but decisively shifted Indian foreign policy in directions which few would have dared try before. While sections of the Indian intellectual establishment still retain reflexive anti-Americanism, Modi has used his decisive mandate to carve a new partnership with the United States to harness its capital and technology for his domestic development agenda. He is not ambivalent about positioning India as a challenger to Chinas growing regional might and assertiveness. With this in mind, he signed the bilateral Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement with the United States in 2016 for facilitating logistical support, supplies and services between the US and Indian militaries on a reimbursable basis and providing a framework to govern such exchanges. Modi is also busy pursuing strong partnerships with US allies in the region including Japan, Australia and Vietnam. He has taken a strong position on the South China Sea dispute in favour of states such as Vietnam and the Philippines as well as expanded the US-India bilateral naval exercises to include Japan. The PM also recognises the domestic challenges as he pivots India closer to the US. So he continues to invest in non-Western platforms such as BRICS Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Economically, the grouping is less attractive, given economic troubles in Russia, Brazil and South Africa. Still, India hosted the eighth annual BRICS summit in Goa in October with great fanfare, if only to assuage domestic critics that Delhi does not intend to put all its eggs in one US basket. Summit The other dramatic change in South Asia came when the Indian Armys special forces took out terror camps across the Line of Control in Kashmir in response to an attack on an Indian Army post in Kashmir by Pakistan-based terrorists that killed 20 soldiers on September 18. The Indian response came almost 11 days after the initial attack and reflected an attempt by the Modi government to pressurise Pakistan on multiple fronts, thereby gaining leverage over an adversary that had long used terrorism and proxies to challenge India. At the regional level, the Modi government succeeded in ensuring the postponement of the SAARC summit after several member states took Indias lead and decided to boycott the Islamabad meeting in November. This was one of the rare occasions when regional states spoke in one voice against Pakistans use of terror as an instrument of state policy. Military Even as Pakistan was reeling from these pressures, the Modi government decided to use the instrumentality of military power a tool which New Delhi had avoided for long. What was new was not that cross-border raids took place, but that India decided to publicise them to the extent it did. Equally significant was the Modi governments decision to call the worlds attention to the plight of Balochi people who have resisted the Punjabi-dominated military establishment of Pakistan. Pakistan, however, continues to be backed by China. The Sino-Pak relationship is blossoming with China poised to deploy its naval ships along with Pakistan Navy to safeguard the strategic Gwadar port and trade routes under the $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). If this move goes ahead as planned, it will be the logical culmination of a long drawn Chinese involvement in Pakistan, giving the Chinese Navy a foothold in the first overseas location the Indian Ocean and the Arabia Sea. Other equations in South Asia are also changing with the US getting more impatient with Pakistan, and Russia moving closer to Pakistan, changing its decades-old policy of being consistently pro-India. The South Asian strategic milieu is in flux and old rules no longer apply. The year 2016 has been about dramatic changes which are only likely to gain further momentum in the coming years. (Courtesy of Mail Today.) Williams-Sonoma, Inc. operates as an omni-channel specialty retailer of various products for home. It offers cooking, dining, and entertaining products, such as cookware, tools, electrics, cutlery, tabletop and bar, outdoor, furniture, and a library of cookbooks under the Williams Sonoma Home brand, as well as home furnishings and decorative accessories under the Williams Sonoma lifestyle brand; and furniture, bedding, lighting, rugs, table essentials, and decorative accessories under the Pottery Barn brand. The company also provides home decor products under the West Elm brand; kids accessories under the Pottery Barn Kids brand; and an organic bedding to multi-purpose furniture under the Pottery Barn Teen brand. In addition, it offers made-to-order lighting, hardware, furniture, and home decors inspired by history under the Rejuvenation brand; and women's and men's accessories, travel, entertaining and bar, home decor, and seasonal items under the Mark and Graham brand, as well as operates a 3-D imaging and augmented reality platform for the home furnishings and decor industry. The company markets its products through e-commerce websites, direct-mail catalogs, and retail stores. It operates 544 stores comprising 502 stores in 41states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico; 20 stores in Canada; 19 stores in Australia; 3 stores in the United Kingdom; and 139 franchised stores, as well as e-commerce websites in various countries in the Middle East, the Philippines, Mexico, South Korea, and India. Williams-Sonoma, Inc. was founded in 1956 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. The following companies are subsidiares of Caterpillar: Advanced Tri-Gen Power Systems LLC, Anchor Coupling Inc., Asia Power Systems (Tianjin) Ltd., AsiaTrak (Tianjin) Ltd., Banco Caterpillar S.A., Berg Propulsion International Pte Ltd., Bucyrus, Bucyrus Australia Surface Pty. Ltd., Bucyrus Europe Holdings Ltd., Bucyrus Europe Limited, Bucyrus International (Chile) Limitada, Bucyrus International (Peru) S.A., Bucyrus Mining Australia Pty. Ltd., Bucyrus Mining China LLC, Bucyrus UK Limited, Cat Rental Kyushu LLC, Caterpillar (Africa) (Proprietary) Limited, Caterpillar (China) Financial Leasing Co. Ltd., Caterpillar (China) Investment Co. Ltd., Caterpillar (China) Machinery Components Co. Ltd., Caterpillar (HK) Limited, Caterpillar (Huainan) Machinery Service Co. Ltd., Caterpillar (Langfang) Mining Equipment Co. Ltd., Caterpillar (Luxembourg) Investment Co. S.a r.l., Caterpillar (NI) Limited, Caterpillar (Newberry) LLC, Caterpillar (Qingzhou) Ltd., Caterpillar (Shanghai) Trading Co. Ltd., Caterpillar (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Caterpillar (Suzhou) Logistics Co. Ltd., Caterpillar (Thailand) Limited, Caterpillar (U.K.) Limited, Caterpillar (Wujiang) Ltd., Caterpillar (Xuzhou) Ltd., Caterpillar (Zhengzhou) Ltd., Caterpillar Acquisition Holding Corp., Caterpillar Americas C.V., Caterpillar Americas Co., Caterpillar Americas Funding Inc., Caterpillar Americas Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Caterpillar Asia Limited, Caterpillar Asia Pacific L.P., Caterpillar Asia Pte. Ltd., Caterpillar Asset Intelligence LLC, Caterpillar Belgium S.A., Caterpillar Brasil Comercio de Maquinas e Pecas Ltda., Caterpillar Brasil Ltda., Caterpillar Brazil LLC, Caterpillar Castings Kiel GmbH, Caterpillar Centro de Formacion S.L., Caterpillar China Limited, Caterpillar Commercial Australia Pty. Ltd., Caterpillar Commercial LLC, Caterpillar Commercial Northern Europe Limited, Caterpillar Commercial S.A., Caterpillar Commercial S.A.R.L., Caterpillar Commercial Services S.A.R.L., Caterpillar Communications LLC, Caterpillar Corporativo Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Caterpillar Cote DIvoire, Caterpillar Credito S.A. de C.V. SOFOM E.N.R., Caterpillar DC Pension Trust Limited, Caterpillar Digital Services & Solutions SARL, Caterpillar Distribution International LLC, Caterpillar Distribution Services Europe B.V.B.A., Caterpillar East Real Estate Holding Ltd., Caterpillar Emissions Solutions Inc., Caterpillar Energy Solutions Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Caterpillar Energy Solutions GmbH, Caterpillar Energy Solutions Inc., Caterpillar Energy Solutions S.A., Caterpillar Energy System Technology (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Caterpillar Engine Systems Inc., Caterpillar Equipos Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Caterpillar Eurasia LLC, Caterpillar FS (QFC) LLC, Caterpillar Finance France S.A., Caterpillar Finance Kabushiki Kaisha, Caterpillar Financial Acquisition Funding LLC, Caterpillar Financial Aftermarket Solutions Corporation, Caterpillar Financial Australia Leasing Pty Limited, Caterpillar Financial Australia Limited, Caterpillar Financial Commercial Account Corporation, Caterpillar Financial Corporacion Financiera S.A. E.F.C., Caterpillar Financial Dealer Funding LLC, Caterpillar Financial Funding Corporation, Caterpillar Financial Kazakhstan Limited Liability Partnership, Caterpillar Financial Leasing (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Caterpillar Financial New Zealand Limited, Caterpillar Financial Nordic Services AB, Caterpillar Financial Nova Scotia Corporation, Caterpillar Financial OOO, Caterpillar Financial Receivables Corporation, Caterpillar Financial Renting S.A., Caterpillar Financial SARL, Caterpillar Financial Services (Dubai) Limited, Caterpillar Financial Services (Ireland) plc, Caterpillar Financial Services (UK) Limited, Caterpillar Financial Services Argentina S.A., Caterpillar Financial Services Asia Pte. Ltd., Caterpillar Financial Services Belgium S.P.R.L., Caterpillar Financial Services CR s.r.o., Caterpillar Financial Services Corporation, Caterpillar Financial Services GmbH, Caterpillar Financial Services India Private Limited, Caterpillar Financial Services Leasing ULC, Caterpillar Financial Services Limited Les Services Financiers Caterpillar Limitee, Caterpillar Financial Services Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Caterpillar Financial Services Netherlands B.V., Caterpillar Financial Services Norway AS, Caterpillar Financial Services Philippines Inc., Caterpillar Financial Services Poland Sp. z o.o., Caterpillar Financial Services South Africa (Pty) Limited, Caterpillar Financial UK Acquisition Funding Partners, Caterpillar Financial Ukraine LLC, Caterpillar Fluid Systems S.r.l., Caterpillar Fomento Comercial Ltda., Caterpillar Forest Products Inc., Caterpillar France S.A.S., Caterpillar GB L.L.C., Caterpillar Global Investments S.a r.l., Caterpillar Global Mining America LLC, Caterpillar Global Mining Equipamentos De Mineracao do Brasil Ltda., Caterpillar Global Mining Equipment LLC, Caterpillar Global Mining Europe GmbH, Caterpillar Global Mining Expanded Products Pty Ltd, Caterpillar Global Mining Germany Holdings GmbH, Caterpillar Global Mining HMS GmbH, Caterpillar Global Mining Holdings GmbH, Caterpillar Global Mining Hong Kong AFC Manufacturing Holding Co. Limited, Caterpillar Global Mining Hong Kong Limited, Caterpillar Global Mining LLC, Caterpillar Global Mining Mexico LLC, Caterpillar Global Mining Pty. Ltd., Caterpillar Global Mining SARL, Caterpillar Global Mining U.S. Parts LLC, Caterpillar Global Services LLC, Caterpillar Group Services S.A., Caterpillar Holding (France) S.A.S., Caterpillar Holding Germany GmbH, Caterpillar Holdings Australia Pty. Ltd., Caterpillar Hungary Components Manufacturing Ltd., Caterpillar Hydraulics Italia S.r.l., Caterpillar IPX LLC, Caterpillar IRB LLC, Caterpillar Impact Products Limited, Caterpillar India Private Limited, Caterpillar Industrial Inc., Caterpillar Industrias Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Caterpillar Industries (Pty) Ltd, Caterpillar Insurance Co. Ltd., Caterpillar Insurance Company, Caterpillar Insurance Holdings Inc., Caterpillar Insurance Services Corporation, Caterpillar International Finance Designated Activity Company, Caterpillar International Finance Luxembourg Holding S. a r.l., Caterpillar International Finance Luxembourg S. a r.l., Caterpillar International Holding S. a r.l., Caterpillar International Luxembourg I S. a r.l., Caterpillar International Luxembourg II S. a r.l., Caterpillar International Product SARL, Caterpillar International Services Corporation, Caterpillar International Services del Peru S.A., Caterpillar Investment Limited, Caterpillar Investment One SARL, Caterpillar Investment Two SARL, Caterpillar Investments, Caterpillar Japan LLC, Caterpillar Latin America Services S.R.L., Caterpillar Latin America Services de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Caterpillar Latin America Services de Panama S. de R.L., Caterpillar Latin America Servicios de Chile Limitada, Caterpillar Latin America Support Services S. DE R.L., Caterpillar Leasing (Thailand) Limited, Caterpillar Leasing Chile S.A., Caterpillar Leasing GmbH (Leipzig), Caterpillar Leasing Operativo Limitada, Caterpillar Life Insurance Company, Caterpillar Logistics (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Caterpillar Logistics (UK) Limited, Caterpillar Logistics Inc., Caterpillar Logistics ML Services France S.A.S., Caterpillar Logistics Services China Limited, Caterpillar Luxembourg Group S.ar.l., Caterpillar Luxembourg LLC, Caterpillar Luxembourg S.a r.l., Caterpillar Machinery Nantong Co. Ltd., Caterpillar Marine Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Caterpillar Marine Asset Intelligence, Caterpillar Marine Power UK Limited, Caterpillar Marine Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Caterpillar Maroc SARL, Caterpillar Materiels Routiers SAS, Caterpillar Mexico LLC, Caterpillar Mexico S.A. de C.V., Caterpillar Mining Canada ULC, Caterpillar Mining Chile Servicios Limitada, Caterpillar Motoren (Guangdong) Co. Ltd., Caterpillar Motoren GmbH & Co. KG, Caterpillar Motoren Henstedt-Ulzburg GmbH, Caterpillar Motoren Rostock GmbH, Caterpillar Motoren Verwaltungs-GmbH, Caterpillar Netherlands Holding B.V., Caterpillar North America C.V., Caterpillar Operator Training Ltd., Caterpillar Overseas Credit Corporation SARL, Caterpillar Overseas Investment Holding SARL, Caterpillar Overseas Limited, Caterpillar Overseas SARL, Caterpillar Panama Services S.A., Caterpillar Paving Products Inc., Caterpillar Paving Products Xuzhou Ltd., Caterpillar Pension Trust Limited, Caterpillar Poland Sp. z o.o., Caterpillar Power Generation Systems (Bangladesh) Limited, Caterpillar Power Generation Systems L.L.C., Caterpillar Power Systems Inc., Caterpillar Power Ventures International Ltd., Caterpillar Precision Seals Korea, Caterpillar Prodotti Stradali S.r.l., Caterpillar Product Services Corporation, Caterpillar Propulsion AB, Caterpillar Propulsion International Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Caterpillar Propulsion Italy S.R.L., Caterpillar Propulsion Namibia (Proprietary) Limited, Caterpillar Propulsion Production AB, Caterpillar Propulsion Pte. Ltd., Caterpillar Propulsion Singapore Pte. Ltd., Caterpillar R&D Center (China) Co. Ltd., Caterpillar Ramos Arizpe LLC, Caterpillar Ramos Arizpe S. de R.L. de C.V., Caterpillar Ramos Arizpe Servicios S.A. de C.V., Caterpillar Reman Powertrain Indiana LLC, Caterpillar Remanufacturing Drivetrain LLC, Caterpillar Remanufacturing Services (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Caterpillar Renting France S.A.S., Caterpillar Reynosa S.A. de C.V., Caterpillar SARL, Caterpillar Services Germany GmbH, Caterpillar Servicios Limitada, Caterpillar Servicios Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Caterpillar Servizi Italia Srl, Caterpillar Shrewsbury Limited, Caterpillar Skinningrove Limited, Caterpillar Southern Africa (Pty) Ltd., Caterpillar Special Services Belgium S.P.R.L., Caterpillar Switchgear Americas LLC, Caterpillar Switchgear Holding Inc., Caterpillar Tianjin Ltd., Caterpillar Torreon S. de R.L. de C.V., Caterpillar Tosno L.L.C., Caterpillar Transmissions France S.A.R.L., Caterpillar Tunneling Canada Holdings Ltd., Caterpillar Tunnelling Canada Corporation, Caterpillar Tunnelling Europe Limited, Caterpillar UK Employee Trust Limited, Caterpillar UK Engines Company Limited, Caterpillar UK Group Limited, Caterpillar UK Holdings Limited, Caterpillar Undercarriage (Xuzhou) Co. Ltd., Caterpillar Underground Mining Pty. Ltd., Caterpillar Used Equipment Services Inc., Caterpillar Venture Capital Inc., Caterpillar Work Tools B.V., Caterpillar Work Tools Inc., Caterpillar World Trading Corporation, Caterpillar Xuzhou, Caterpillar of Australia Pty. Ltd., Caterpillar of Canada Corporation, Caterpillar of Delaware Inc., Centre de Distribution de Wallonie SPRL, CleanAir Systems, Downer Freight Rail, ECM Railway Evolution Romania s.r.l., ECM S.p.A., EDC European Excavator Design Center GmbH, EMC Holding Corp., EMD International Holdings Inc., ERA Information & Entertainment (BVI) Limited, ERA Mining Machinery Limited, Electro-Motive Diesel Limited, Electro-Motive Locomotive Technologies LLC, Electro-Motive Technical Consulting Co. (Beijing) Ltd., Energy Services International Limited, Equipos de Acuna S.A. de C.V., Eurenov S.A.S., F. G. Wilson (Proprietary) Limited, F. Perkins Limited, FG Wilson (Engineering) Limited, GB Holdco (China) Inc., GFCM Comercial Mexico S.A. de C.V. SOFOM E.N.R., GFCM Servicios S.A. de C.V., Gremada Industries - Assets, Hong Kong Siwei Holdings Limited, Inmobiliaria Conek S.A. de C.V., JCS Co., Kemper Valve & Fittings Corp., Leo Inc., Locomotive Demand Power Pty Ltd., Locomotoras Progress Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Lovat, M2M Data Corporation, MGE Equipamentos & Servicos Ferroviarios, MWM, MWM Austria GmbH, MWM Benelux B.V., MWM Energy Australia Pty Ltd, MWM France S.A.S, MWM Real Estate GmbH, MaK Americas Inc., MaK Americas Inc. (Canada), Magnum Power Products LLC, Marble, Maschinenbau Kiel GmbH, Mec-Track S.r.l., Metalmark Financial Services Limited, Motoren Steffens GmbH, Nippon Caterpillar LLC, P. T. Solar Services Indonesia, PT Caterpillar Finance Indonesia, PT. Bucyrus Indonesia, PT. Caterpillar Indonesia, PT. Caterpillar Indonesia Batam, PT. Caterpillar Remanufacturing Indonesia, Perkins Engines, Perkins Engines (Asia Pacific) Pte Ltd, Perkins Engines Group Limited, Perkins Engines Inc., Perkins Group Limited, Perkins Holdings Limited LLC, Perkins India Private Limited, Perkins International Inc., Perkins Japan LLC, Perkins Limited, Perkins Machinery (Changshu) Co. Ltd., Perkins Motores do Brasil Ltda., Perkins Power Systems Technology (Wuxi) Co. Ltd., Perkins Small Engines (Wuxi) Co. Ltd., Perkins Small Engines LLC, Perkins Small Engines Limited, Perkins Technology Inc., Progress Metal Reclamation Company, Progress Rail Arabia Limited Company, Progress Rail Australia Pty Ltd, Progress Rail Canada Corporation, Progress Rail Equipamentos e Servicos Ferroviarios do Brasil Ltda., Progress Rail Equipment Leasing Corporation, Progress Rail Holdings Inc., Progress Rail Innovations Private Limited, Progress Rail Inspection & Information Systems GmbH, Progress Rail Inspection & Information Systems S.r.l., Progress Rail International Corp., Progress Rail Leasing Canada Corporation, Progress Rail Leasing Corporation, Progress Rail Leasing de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Progress Rail Locomotivas (do Brasil) Ltda., Progress Rail Locomotive Canada Co., Progress Rail Locomotive Chile SpA, Progress Rail Locomotive Inc., Progress Rail Maintenance de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Progress Rail Manufacturing Corporation, Progress Rail Raceland Corporation, Progress Rail Rocklin Corporation, Progress Rail SA Proprietary Limited, Progress Rail Services Corporation, Progress Rail Services Holdings Corp., Progress Rail Services LLC, Progress Rail Services UK Limited, Progress Rail Switching Services LLC, Progress Rail Transcanada Corporation, Progress Rail Welding Corporation, Progress Rail Wildwood LLC, Progress Rail de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Pyroban Group, Pyroban Group, Pyrrha Investments B.V., Pyrrha Investments Limited, S&L Railroad LLC, SCM Singapore Holdings Pte. Ltd., SPL Software Alliance LLC, Sabre Engines, Servicios de Turbinas Solar S. de R.L. de C.V., Shandong SEM Machinery Co. Ltd., Solar Turbines, Solar Turbines, Solar Turbines (Beijing) Trading Services Co. Ltd., Solar Turbines (Thailand) Ltd., Solar Turbines CIS Limited Liability Company, Solar Turbines Canada Ltd./Ltee., Solar Turbines Central Asia Limited Liability Partnership, Solar Turbines EAME s.r.o., Solar Turbines Egypt Limited Liability Company, Solar Turbines Europe S.A., Solar Turbines India Private Limited, Solar Turbines International Company, Solar Turbines Italy S.R.L., Solar Turbines Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Solar Turbines Middle East Limited, Solar Turbines New Zealand Limited, Solar Turbines Saudi Arabia Limited, Solar Turbines Services Company, Solar Turbines Services Nigeria Limited, Solar Turbines Services of Argentina S.R.L., Solar Turbines Switzerland Sagl, Solar Turbines Trinidad & Tobago Limited, Solar Turbines West-Africa SARL, Tangshan DBT Machinery Co. Ltd., Tecnologia Modificada S.A. de C.V., Towmotor Corporation, Traction & Mining Motor Repairs Pty Ltd, Turbinas Solar S.A. de C.V., Turbinas Solar de Colombia S.A., Turbinas Solar de Venezuela C.A., Turbo Tecnologia de Reparaciones S.A. de C.V., Turbomach, Turbomach Endustriyel Gaz Turbinleri Sanayi Ve Ticaret Limited, Turbomach France SARL, Turbomach GmbH, Turbomach Netherlands B.V., Turbomach Pakistan (Private) Limited, Turbomach S.A. Unipersonal, Turbomach Sp. Z o.o., Turner Powertrain Systems Limited, UK Hose Assembly Limited, Underground Imaging Technologies Inc, United Industries LLC, VALA Inc., Vasky Energy Ltd., Wealdstone Engineering, Weir - Oil & Gas Division, West Virginia Auto Shredding Inc., Western Gear Machinery LLC, Wetland Sustainability Fund I LLC, Williams Technologies, Yard Club, Zhengzhou Siwei Mechanical and Electrical Equipment Sales Co. Ltd., and okyo Rental Ltd.. Read More 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.. Read More James K. Jim Winters, Jr, age 68, of Carlisle, after a long battle with Alzheimers disease passed away peacefully on Tuesday, January 3, 2017, surrounded by his loving family and friends. This disease no longer has its hold on him and he is finally free. Jim was born February 25, 1948 in Manchester, NH to the late Chief Master Sergeant James K. and Alice (Masterbone) Winters. Jim graduated in 1970 from the University of Delaware with an Army ROTC scholarship and received a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing. He then obtained his Master of Arts degree in Quantitative Theory from Central Michigan University in 1980. Jim retired from AAFES as a Senior Vice President after 35 years of dedicated service. His assignments included Andrews Air Force Base; Thule Air Base, Greenland; Cameron Station, VA; Lajes Field Air Force Base, Azores; U.S. Army War College, Carlisle, PA; Fort Monmouth, NJ; Clark Air Force Base, Philippines, and AAFES corporate headquarters in Dallas, TX. Prior to his career at AAFES, he proudly served his country in the United States Army. He was a caring husband and father to his three children. He is survived by his loving and devoted wife of 40 years, Carmen (Bologna) Winters; daughters Brigitte (and husband, Bradley) Shughart, Sheryl (and husband, Ryan) Banta; son Frank Costello; brother William (and wife, Joan) Winters, sisters Marilyn Winters and Toni Ruster; five grandchildren and numerous nieces and nephews. Memorial services will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, January 21, 2017 at St Patricks Catholic Church, 85 Marsh Drive, Carlisle, PA 17015. Burial will be at the convenience of the family. To sign the guestbook, please visit www.hoffmanfh.com Zoetis Inc. discovers, develops, manufactures, and commercializes animal health medicines, vaccines, and diagnostic products in the United States and internationally. It commercializes products primarily across species, including livestock, such as cattle, swine, poultry, fish, and sheep; and companion animals comprising dogs, cats, and horses. The company also offers vaccines, which are biological preparations to prevent diseases of the respiratory, gastrointestinal, and reproductive tracts or induce a specific immune response; anti-infectives that prevent, kill, or slow the growth of bacteria, fungi, or protozoa; and parasiticides that prevent or eliminate external and internal parasites, which include fleas, ticks, and worms. It also provides other pharmaceutical products that comprise pain and sedation, antiemetic, reproductive, and oncology products; dermatology products for itch associated with allergic conditions and atopic dermatitis; and medicated feed additives, which offer medicines to livestock. In addition, the company provides portable blood and urine analysis testing, including point-of-care diagnostic products, instruments and reagents, rapid immunoassay tests, reference laboratory kits and services, and blood glucose monitors; and other non-pharmaceutical products, including nutritionals and agribusiness services, as well as products and services in areas, such as biodevices, genetics tests, and precision animal health. It markets its products to veterinarians, livestock producers, and retail outlets, as well as third-party veterinary distributors through its sales representatives, and technical and veterinary operations specialists. The company was founded in 1952 and is headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey. Police have charged a Southampton Township man under a new law aimed at providing harsher punishments for incidents of domestic violence. Michael Anthony Woods, 25, was charged Wednesday with felony strangulation a new law that went into effect at the end of December misdemeanor simple assault and summary harassment after Pennsylvania State Police say he assaulted two women, choking one woman to the point that she passed out. Police said Woods was intoxicated when he and another person opened the rear door of a vehicle the victims were in and got in. One of the women had previously had a relationship with Woods and he began using obscenities and making sexual advances toward her, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed by Pennsylvania State Police. Woods did not get out of the vehicle when he was told to and demanded the women take him to his mothers home in Southampton Township, according to police. As the vehicle approached the development where his home was located, Woods began hitting and choking his ex-girlfriend in the back seat, police said. Woods dragged the woman out of the vehicle by her hair and hood of her coat and continued to assault her, according to the affidavit. During the assault police said Woods choked the woman until she passed out and slammed her head repeatedly into the ground. Woods continued assaulting the woman until one of the passengers pulled him off the woman, according to police. Woods is the first person in Cumberland County to be charged with a new law that makes it a felony offense to attempt to strangle a victim. He is being held in Cumberland County Prison in lieu of $9,900 bail and a preliminary hearing is scheduled for 8:45 a.m. Jan. 30 in front of Magisterial District Judge Anthony Adams. Prior to the law taking effect in December, attempted strangulations were classified as misdemeanor simple assault, which state law defines as attempting to cause or causing another person bodily injury, or felony aggravated assault, which is defined by state law as attempting to cause or causing serious bodily injury to another person. In a letter introducing the bill, Rep. Becky Corbin, R-Chester County, wrote that attempted strangulation is prevalent among intimate partner violence and can be an indicator of future homicide in domestic violence cases. However, Corbin noted that ambiguity in Pennsylvanias laws against assault have allowed some offenders to be charged with a misdemeanor, undermining the severity of the action. (B)ecause most strangulation victims do not have visible injuries, strangulation cases can be minimized or difficult to prove, Corbin wrote. Oftentimes, there is no external injury that is evident. Strangulation, therefore, does not neatly fit into existing criminal categories in Pennsylvania, she said. There are approximately 35 other states with a law specifically addressing attempted strangulation, according to Corbin. U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta (R-11) Thursday introduced the Mobilizing Against Sanctuary Cities Act, H.R. 83, which will stop all federal funds from flowing to states or localities that resist or ban enforcement of federal immigration laws, or flatly refuse to cooperate with immigration officials. The bill is the first piece of legislation introduced by Barletta in the 115th Congress and represents the third time he has introduced the measure. In 2011, the bill was the first piece of legislation he ever introduced as a member of Congress. He introduced it a second time in the 114th Congress in 2015. One of the principal duties of the government is to protect its citizens, and the idea of sanctuary cities runs completely counter to that responsibility, Barletta said. Too many mayors and local governments think that they are above federal law and place their own ideology ahead of the safety of their residents. This bill will stop that practice by saying to these sanctuary cities, If you refuse to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement, you will lose your federal funding. The 11th Congressional District includes a narrow sweep of counties from the northeast down to Cumberland County. The district includes parts of Perry County, as well as all county municipalities including and west of Middlesex Township and Monroe Township. Barletta said he introduced the bill as a freshman congressman in 2011 because of his personal experience with the danger of sanctuary cities while he was mayor of Hazleton, Pennsylvania. In 2006, a 29-year-old local father of three, Derek Kichline, was murdered by an illegal immigrant who had been released by law enforcement a number of times, including by the sanctuary city of New York. Additionally, Barletta said he was spurred to reintroduce the bill in 2015 following the San Francisco murder of 32-year-old Kate Steinle, whose accused killer was a seven-time felon who had been deported five times previously. Twice before I have introduced this bill, and twice before there was not the political will to pass it, Barletta said. With the Trump administration taking office later this month, and with enforcing immigration law becoming a priority, I am hopeful we will meet with success this time around. Its time we stopped seeing headlines about the victims of crimes committed by illegal immigrants. The Mobilizing Against Sanctuary Cities Act prohibits any federal funding for a minimum period of one year to any state or local government that has a policy or law that prevents them from assisting immigration authorities in enforcing federal immigration law. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency lists about 300 such localities in the United States. Barlettas bill directs the attorney general to compile an annual list of such cities and issue a report on any state or locality upon request from a member of Congress. A state or local government would only regain federal funding eligibility after the attorney general certifies that its laws and policies are in compliance with federal immigration statutes. ALTOONA Hundreds of people paid their respects to a 23-year-old state trooper shot and killed last week while investigating a domestic incident in rural central Pennsylvania. Visitation for Trooper Landon Weaver was held Wednesday at a convention center in Altoona. His funeral is Thursday in Altoona, followed by burial at a cemetery in Martinsburg. Police say 32-year-old Jason Robison shot and killed Weaver Friday, as the trooper was talking to him about alleged violations of a protective order. Police tracked Robison to an unoccupied mobile home nearby, and shot and killed him after they say he didn't comply with orders and made threats. Of all Barack Obamas costumes, the most ill-fitting is that of the hawk. The guise doesnt work for all sorts of ideological and historical reasons. Plus theres the fact that hes rushing to put on the outfit as hes heading out the door. The new sanctions against Russia are fine with me on the merits, even if they are remarkably tardy and being sold in no small part for domestic, political reasons. Russian President Vladimir Putin has been undermining American interests for a long time now. From the annexation of Crimea and a shadow war in Ukraine to his unabashed support for the butcher Bashar Assad in Syria, Putin has given the Obama administration every excuse to punch back. But until last week, Obamas response had been to offer various and sundry diplomatic off-ramps and a little bit of tongue-lashing. General dovishness combined with the single-minded pursuit of a deal with Iran led Obama to insist that we should avoid provoking Russia. The satirist who goes by the moniker Iowahawk cut to the chase on Twitter: Russia invades Crimea: oh well Russia shoots down airliner: mistakes happen John Podesta falls for phishing scam: RESTART THE COLD WAR Obamas volte-face should be seen in the larger context of his last-minute legacy-padding and his widely alleged desire to box in his successor. The president is preparing to spend the next few decades as a celebrity in liberal circles. Creating national monuments in Utah and Nevada, banning offshore oil drilling in the Arctic and the Northeast, deleting the database of Muslim men at the Department of Homeland Security: All of these things will earn him toasts at all the right parties. Despite a remarkable lack of evidence that the Russians hacked the election (as opposed to their more obvious complicity in the WikiLeaks shenanigans), the conviction that Hillary Clinton lost because of Putins skulduggery is rapidly gelling into liberal conventional wisdom. These sanctions give Obama yet another useful talking point in retirement. Theyre also having the desired effect on the Trump team, which for obvious reasons hates any suggestion that the Donalds election was less than legitimate. But will they actually box in a President Trump? It seems unlikely. Putin is cleverly not taking the bait, preferring to run out the clock on the Obama presidency. When Trump is sworn in three weeks from now, he will have more leverage over Putin thanks to Obamas bad-cop act. While it would be politically tricky to lift the sanctions immediately upon taking office, Trump has long vowed to improve relations with Russia. Having more bargaining chips for some grand deal whatever that might look like only improves his position. (Why he is so enamored with a U.S.-Russian romance is a deeper mystery to me.) A similar dynamic is at play with Obamas execrable maneuver at the U.N. Security Council. The decision to clear the path for a resolution holding that the Western Wall is actually a Palestinian possession is a serious blow to our ally (and our honor) and proof that Obamas rhetorical support of Israel was always more about political necessity than personal conviction. Even as the move will please some though by no means all leftists on the party circuit, it is nevertheless a political gift to the two politicians Obama (probably) detests most: Bibi Netanyahu and Donald Trump. For almost eight years, Netanyahu has argued domestically that Israels deteriorating relationship with the United States isnt his fault, but Obamas. The president just settled that argument for him. Meanwhile, the resolution helps Trump enormously. Simply by taking office while holding what once were conventionally pro-Israel positions, Trump can play the role of Israels defender, both domestically and abroad. It is lamentable that support for Israel is now a partisan issue in America, but Obama ceded the winning side of the question to his Republican successor. Much has been written about how Obama has left the Democratic Party and ideological allies in shambles by putting his perceived interests and ego ahead of everything else. As he leaves office, he has turned that domestic story into an international one too. Here we are in the first week of January. The New Year is still shiny and, well, new. If youve declared 2017 to be the year that youll become a better, smarter, healthier person and you havent yet employed the hashtag #resolutionfail, congratulations. If, on the other hand, youve embraced the increasingly popular view that resolution-making is for chumps, youre in good company. But if you have elderly parents, it doesnt matter which camp youre in theres something you need to do, and its going to require considerable resolve. Its the talk. No, not that talk. Think a generation up, not down. And savor this tidbit from the website of a law firm in London: There is nothing more awkward than talking to ones parents about sex. Except maybe talking to ones parents about their own impending death and mental decline. Which involves another sticky wicket money. Doris Gelbman is an elder law attorney who practices in Central Virginia. There are two things everybody calls about, she said. First is a will what happens to stuff after you die. The law will generally take care of that. More important is what happens to stuff while youre still alive. Planning for death documents and planning for life documents is a helpful distinction. Gelbman noted, A general durable power of attorney thats about stuff: property, money, checkbook, credit cards. It permits someone to use those things on your behalf. She emphasizes that by creating a power of attorney, you are not giving someone the power to do things on their own behalf. You can grant as much or as little power as you like in a POA. And you can always revoke it, provided you are mentally competent. The power of attorney is a legal document. In it, you name someone to be your attorney-in-fact, or agent, granting him or her the power to engage in financial transactions on your behalf. Gelbman thinks that the term power of attorney is a misnomer that can scare people away from executing this essential document it should be responsibility of attorney. You remain liable for your agents actions, though, so pick wisely. Gelbman urges people to choose an agent sooner rather than later, because it gives you the ability to suss out whether that person will do what you want. Most people resist this step because they dont want their children to have control, Gelbman said. But by trying to maintain control, theyve actually lost it. For example, if you have four kids and you know you dont want one of them handling your affairs, but you lose the capacity to make decisions and that kid petitions the court to be your guardian or conservator Remember that you can sign a POA but not give it to your designated agent until you choose to. And your agent doesnt have to be a family member; you can name a neighbor, a minister, an attorney or your financial advisor. Just make sure you trust that person wholeheartedly. Its also wise to name a substitute, in case your original choice is unable to take on the role. Everyones circumstances are different, and there are different types and uses of powers of attorney. A POA can be limited, allowing an agent to act on your behalf only for very specific tasks or during a certain time period. A POA can be non-durable, making it ineffective if you become incapacitated. It can be durable, remaining effective even if you become incapacitated. Or it can be springing, becoming effective only upon an event specified in the POA such as your doctor declaring you incapable of making decisions. A power of attorney dies with you. Laws regarding powers of attorney vary, too. While the commonwealth of Virginia does not require witnesses or notarization, some states do. And POAs created in Virginia are automatically durable unless the terms say otherwise. So back to that talk. You and your parents or you and your children need to have the power-of-attorney talk before its too late. The practical benefits of having these issues discussed openly and the paperwork in place are enormous. Wait until a crisis forces you to act, and you may end up making decisions youll regret. Form-filling takes the focus away from the human side. And going through court to appoint a guardian or conservator to make decisions could be costly and time-consuming. The reasons for avoiding this talk are many, but they often hinge on fear of giving up control and squeamishness about being reminded of our own mortality. Plus, there can be pitfalls involving emotions and siblings. Someone may end up feeling hurt or resentful. Nancy L. Anderson, a financial planner and contributor to forbes.com, discusses ways to broach the topic in one of her online articles. If you already have a plan, share it, she said. Letting family members know whom youve chosen to be your advocate leads naturally to asking about each others plans. Talking about your personal plan when both your elderly parents and your adult children are in the same room also helps set a good example for decision-making. And because some of us simply put things off or need spoon-feeding, Anderson suggests bringing copies of blank documents for your parents and each of your adult children (and their spouses) to sign. Then, all they need to do is fill out the documents and, if necessary, get them notarized or signed by a witness. New Year or not, theres no time like the present for taking action that will, in the long run, make everyone happier. Muster up your resolve and have the talk. Doris Gelbman discusses issues elder law issues from 10 to 11:30 a.m. on the third Tuesday of most months at the Senior Center. Her topic on Jan. 17 is Having The Conversation: Aging Parents and Adult Children. The presentation addresses changing roles and is helpful for both older parents and their adult children. Its free and open to the community. Virginia Peale is the marketing and communications director at The Senior Center. KCR BJP : - ; A bomb threat phoned into the office disrupted classes at Jackson-Via Elementary School on Thursday, forcing evacuation of the building as police and bomb-sniffing dogs searched the grounds. According to Charlottesville police, school employees received a call at about 1 p.m. claiming that there was an explosive device inside the building. Police and school officials removed staff and students to waiting school buses while the building and school grounds were searched for about 90 minutes. No explosive device or suspicious package was located and students were allowed to return to their classrooms, said police spokesman Lt. Steve Upman. Students were parked in school buses at the Food Lion grocery store parking lot on Fifth Street before returning to the school for parental pickup and regular bus service. Afterschool programs, including CLASS programs, were held as scheduled. Sheri Owen laughed as hundreds of soft, fuzzy teddy bears tumbled out of bags into the lobby of the Sexual Assault Resource Agency. The toys were donated Thursday by the outreach group The CHIVE Virginia after months of online fundraising. Each little bear all 360 of them will be tasked with comforting a survivor of sexual abuse, said Owen, the director of outreach at SARA. When SARA staff members are called to accompany a survivor to the hospital for a forensic examination, they carry a backpack filled with extra clothes, snacks, games and stuffed animals. They just love to hang on to a stuffed animal adults, men, women, children because its cuddly and its not a human touch, which they particularly dont want, and it has this innocence with it, said Owen. They just grasp them and grab onto them. When Robert Patrick and Matt LaClair, co-founders of The CHIVE Virginia an outreach group that helps various causes around the commonwealth heard that SARA needed a few teddy bears, they stepped up to the challenge. But rather than buy 10 or 20 teddy bears, Patrick and LaClair thought they could do better. We dont do low numbers, said Patrick. Its enough bears that, if you needed one per day for a year, youd be good. Fortunately, we hope to not have one every day of the year, Owen added. Were grant funded, and the grants are very specific about what you can purchase. The grants wont pay for the snacks and bears in our bags, so this was perfect. In the end, after six months of fundraising through a GoFundMe campaign, Patrick and LaClair bought and packaged 360 teddy bears to bring to SARA. CHIVE is all about helping the underdog, LaClair said. They really go for the people who get left behind and dont get the attention they deserve. Its all supported by people out there on the internet that go out and donate, he said. Its phenomenal. For more information about SARA or to donate, visit saracville.org. For more information about The CHIVE Virginia, go to facebook.com/TheChiveVA. Children in need are the beneficiaries of the Santa Fund, which is in its 122nd year of serving Central Virginia. Money collected by the Santa Fund is used to buy clothing, shoes, medicine and other necessary items for such children. The fund is sponsored by The Daily Progress and radio station WINA in conjunction with the United Way-Thomas Jefferson Area. Please mail all contributions to: Santa Fund, 806 E. High St., Charlottesville, VA 22902. Please do not mail to or drop off donations at any other location. Donations also may be made at thesantafund.org. Todays donations Donna Blessing, $15 Anonymous, $25 In memory of Eric Betthauser, $100 In memory of Granny Hall, $50 Mark and Colleen Zanin, $50 In memory of Col. James Chapman, $50 In loving memory of my parents, Les and Mabel Marrs, $75 In loving memory of my parents, B.B. and Giesela Haney, $100 Given by the employees of the Cavalier Diner, $350 In memory of William & Mary and Lewis & Louise, $50 In honor of my mother, $500 In honor of the active and retired members of the Virginia Education Association from Martha Wood, $35 Ellen Susi, $100 Phil and Anne Shiflett, $500 Anonymous, $500 Todays total: $2,500 Running total: $153,268.99 Goal: $150,000 Over goal: $3,268.99 After fielding a number of complaints alleging that new tax collection practices recently placed a heavy burden on some businesses and property owners, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors discussed Wednesday how it ended up in this predicament. From July 1 to Dec. 6, the county finance department has collected from taxpayers nearly $500,000 in its so-called Schedule C initiative. That number represents 4.2 percent of the total revenue the county generated from business license taxes and fees in fiscal year 2016 almost $12 million. That initiative has been criticized in recent months as a spate of landlords, freelancers and small home-based business owners who have not obtained a business license in the last six years were suddenly saddled with having to pay back taxes, fees and penalties that range from hundreds to thousands of dollars. While consistent with Virginia and county codes, more aggressive collection practices have also caused some taxpayers to question the fairness and flexibility of the countys collection polices, resulting in citizen inquires and complaints to board members, a staff report says about the matter. In a presentation to the Board of Supervisors on Wednesday, Betty Burrell, the county finance director, said the Schedule C initiative has been about assuring compliance and fairness. The initiative is named as such because the county recently contacted approximately 2,000 people who filed Schedule C business income tax forms to the IRS, telling them that the county requires all business owners, including property owners who rent homes, to acquire a business license. The county reached out to those people after completing an audit of county and state tax records to identify who may have failed to obtain a license and pay the associated fees and taxes that are assessed based on the type of business thats operated and its annual gross receipts. Basic fairness demands that businesses failing to obtain licenses should not gain a competitive advantage over those who have already filled their tax obligations, Burrell said. Neil Williamson, president of the Free Enterprise Forum, said he anticipated those kinds of complaints and argued that the Business and Professional Occupational License taxes and fees being assessed by the county are punitive and anti-business. The reality is Albemarle County has become dependent on the BPOL tax to fund their activities. This puts the supervisors in a tough space, he said. In 2013, they chose to hire auditors to review the BPOL tax. They were unaware, in my opinion, of the impacts it would have on folks renting out second homes and small businesses doing eBay transactions that were going to be caught in this net, he said. While many of those people were only required to pay a flat $50 fee for the license each year, the interest being assessed alongside the penalties has made some of those bills difficult to pay, he added. Albemarle County is looking everywhere for revenue. Thats what this is all about, he said. Supervisor Ann H. Mallek offered a mea culpa, saying that county officials should have contacted local businesses several years ago when a previous county board amended the BPOL ordinance in 2013, per changes in the state code, to include language that requires finance officials to assess those penalties when necessary. Everyone who has called me has said, I understand, but when I called 20 years ago, I was told there were no license fees and I never called back to see if it had changed, she said. We got into this mess of our own doing. Its no surprise to me that this has caused some considerable angst, she added. I think its important to clarify that whats been going on here is we havent fully collected the taxes that were always due, said County Executive Tom Foley. In 2013, there was a deficit and the board felt it was important that folks who owed taxes paid taxes. That doesnt mean that a lot of people didnt know they were supposed to have a license. Some folks didnt know, but you cant make that distinction, Foley said. When asked by Supervisor Liz Palmer whether she thinks the county should suspend the penalties, which are not required by the state, Burrell suggested they should remain. Id be afraid of not having a penalty because it lessens the ability to gain compliance. Those who would voluntarily pay would pay, and those who dont care to pay, theres no incentive for them to pay, she said. Burrell said she anticipates that noncompliance with the BPOL fees and taxes should subside this year following the massive effort to get everyone on board this year. A similar initiative should not be necessary in the future. An area man has been putting his carpentry skills to work as a tool of ministry for the people of Haiti, a country plagued by poverty and natural disaster. Ron Davis, of Patton, says he wanted to get involved with international missions and found an opportunity several years ago when some friends were planning on going to India. When Davis tried to get involved, however, it was too late to secure a visa for the trip. Another friend was also planning a trip for Haiti, a country U.S. citizens do not need a visa to enter. The first trip Davis took to Haiti was less than a year after the 2010 earthquake which devastated much of the country. Davis and others spent the trip beginning construction of an orphanage for local children. During the trip, Haiti was also holding its presidential elections. A local contact for the missionaries was concerned the results of the elections could spark violent riots and advised Davis and the others to return to the United States until after the elections were finished. Two weeks later, Davis and the others returned to Haiti and finished the orphanage theyd begun. Davis has now been to Haiti eight times for various mission trips. Once I was there, I just continued going back, Davis said. Davis said after his first trip to Haiti, he realized many Americans have never seen such total poverty as exists there. Most Haitians live on a dollar a day, Davis said. That feeds them. A dollar a day. On his trips to Haiti, Davis has done construction work, distributed food and ministered to the people of Haiti. I have gone down there just for ministry, Davis said. We did that about four years ago in the southern mountains (of Haiti). Very few ministries go up in the mountains like thatin the southern mountains. Why, I dont know. They stay mainly in Port-au-Prince. Port-au-Prince is the capital of Haiti and a city of nearly one million people. The structures in Port-au-Prince were especially vulnerable to the damaging effects of the 2010 earthquake, leaving many people living in tents and many children without their parents. Davis said there are few jobs for Haitians to pursue, and many make their living buying and selling produce in the citys markets. Davis said he and other missionaries have made efforts to provide food to those in need across Haiti. We thought about shipping (food), Davis said. But actually, we could buy it (there). Theres a Christian organization that ships stuff down there to a warehouse, and if youre a Christian organization theyll let you buy it for what it cost. Davis said he and other missionaries were able to secure large quantities of rice and beans from the organization and deliver it to Haitians in hunger. We bought a little over four tons of rice from that organization, Davis said. And we distributed it. Davis said hes worked with well-funded organizations that were able to pay his way to Haiti, but he generally pays the cost himself. Usually, if Im going Ill go to a few churches and tell them Im going and say if theyd like to donate, then thats okay, Davis said. Each church might give me $100 or $200. I tell them, Everything you give me will go straight to (those) people. I pay my own airfare. After all his trips, Davis said he also benefits in his own way from ministering to the people of Haiti. Its changed my life a lot, Davis said. And thats why I keep going. No matter what I can do, they consider it a real blessing, but I get blessed a whole lot more. Davis also works with a mission group closer to home called the Missouri Men of Action. Davis and the Missouri Men of Action recently worked to repair a local familys roof at no cost. When considering how many more trips hell be taking to Haiti, Davis said, As much as needed, I guess. RICHMOND Former Virginia Rep. Tom Perriello will seek the Democratic nomination for governor this year, a surprise development that set political circles reverberating Wednesday night at the prospect of a primary battle between Perriello and Lt. Gov. Ralph S. Northam. Perriellos plans, first reported by The New York Times, were confirmed by three Democratic sources. Perriello called Northam on Wednesday evening, around the time the news broke, to say he would announce his candidacy Thursday, according to a source with knowledge of the call. Perriello, a Yale-educated lawyer and activist who grew up in the Charlottesville area, could be an intriguing option for Virginia progressives unenthusiastic by Northams more moderate brand of Democratic politics. With Republicans facing a hotly contested primary with three or four candidates, it appeared Democrats were poised for a smoother start to 2017 with Northam, a doctor from Tidewater, as the sole gubernatorial hopeful. Larry J. Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, said that with the Democratic establishment already united behind Northam, Perriello could run an insurgent campaign, perhaps akin to Bernie Sanders. Its terrible news for Northam if it is true, said Sabato. Hell have to spend a lot of money. Itll drain his war chest and force him to focus on the primary instead of the general election. After winning the sprawling, Charlottesville-centered 5th District in 2008, Perriello was closely allied with President Barack Obama due to his unapologetic embrace of Obamas signature health care overhaul despite the dangers it posed in a Republican-leaning district. Perriello served just one term in Congress before losing the seat to Republican Robert Hurt in the tea party wave of 2010. Hurt announced his retirement last year and was succeeded by newly sworn in Rep. Tom Garrett Jr., a conservative former state senator. After Congress, Perriello worked as president of the progressive Center for American Progress Action Fund. Rumors have long swirled that he would return to electoral politics. He considered running for governor in 2013, but decided against it and has since been largely absent from the state political stage. Northam has the endorsements of top Virginia Democrats, including Gov. Terry McAuliffe and U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Timothy M. Kaine. Aides to all three said Tuesday night that they would stand firm behind Northam. The Republican gubernatorial primary is shaping up as a bruising contest between Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie, Prince William County Supervisor Corey Stewart and state Sen. Frank W. Wagner, R-Virginia Beach. Gillespie, a former lobbyist and advisor to President George W. Bush, is considered the early frontrunner for the nomination, jumping to an early lead in fundraising and endorsements. Stewart, the former chairman of President-elect Donald Trumps Virginia campaign, is running an anti-establishment campaign and has painted Gillespie as a D.C. insider who was insufficiently supportive of the Trump movement. Wagner is trying to pitch himself as an experienced hand with the most first-hand knowledge of how state government works. No longer faced with the prospect of Democrats being able to sit back and watch the GOP primary battle, Republicans seemed thrilled to hear the Perriello news. The Republican Party of Virginia expressed its glee on Twitter, posting a GIF of Jon Stewart, former host of The Daily Show, excitedly munching popcorn. RICHMOND Total firearm sales in Virginia during President Barack Obamas presidency nearly doubled over President George Bushs years in office and surpassed a record half-million transactions in 2016 alone, new state data show. Estimated firearm sales based on mandatory criminal background checks on Virginia gun buyers totaled 3,153,220 during Obamas eight years in office ending in 2016, compared with 1,712,607 transactions during the Bush years of 2001-08, according to an analysis of Virginia Firearm Transaction Center data. In what a state firearms center official described as a major milestone, the number of transactions reached 505,722 during Obamas last full year in office in 2016 a 14 percent jump over 2015 and the first time state gun sales topped a half million. To double your yearly output in 16 years is extraordinary, said Mike Matthews, senior supervisor in the Virginia Firearms Transaction Center. A total of 192,653 transactions were recorded during Bushs first year in office, and the numbers rose steadily but not dramatically during the ensuing seven years, reaching 268,136 in 2008. Thats a 39 percent increase over eight years. By comparison, Virginias gun transaction numbers broke the 300,000, 400,000 and 500,000 plateaus over Obamas eight years, jumping from 287,462 in 2009 to 505,722 last year a 76 percent increase. Many federally licensed firearms dealers in Virginia, along with some criminologists, have attributed the rise to public reaction of highly publicized mass shootings and the so-called Obama Effect, where concern for personal safety coupled with political demands for more gun control is believed to have help fuel a firearm buying frenzy. As in years past, the largest monthly spikes in Virginia gun sales in 2016 followed high profile shootings and suspected terrorist attacks in other parts of the country. Firearm transactions jumped 34 percent in June, the same month that 49 people were fatally shot and 53 others wounded in a terrorist attack inside a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. An identical rise occurred in July, when five police officers were fatally shot and nine others wounded in an ambush in downtown Dallas. Ten days later, six officers were shot, three fatally, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Theres always going to be, generally, a major spike after any of the shootings, which is something we track, as well, Matthews said. We keep a running log of each days amount of transactions so I can [review them]. And thats done for a couple of reasons: It helps with trends ... and helps me as far as staffing. But it is also something that I can look back and point a finger at and say, look, when Sandy Hook happened, for the next 12 days, gun sales went through the roof, Matthews added. Or when the San Bernardino shooting happened, for the next six days gun sales spiked, and they stayed up relatively high for the next 30 to 60 days. But in contrast to previous recent years, Matthews said there wasnt one single monthly spike in Virginia firearm sales in 2016. The entire year, everything across the board from January through November, was up constantly, Matthews said. Matthews said state firearm numbers for 2016 had risen 19 percent over the previous year by the end of November, but then suddenly dropped 15 percent in December over same month in 2015, from 70,626 transactions to 59,903. That number alone brought us down from a 19 percent increase for the year to about a 14 percent increase, Matthews said. Similar to June and July, gun sales also surged in November, to 21 percent over November 2015s figures, but the reason is less clear. On Nov. 28, a Somali refugee student at Ohio State University intentionally rammed a car into pedestrians on campus before slashing passers-by with a butcher knife, injuring 13. Matthews discounted that attack and the November presidential election as contributors to that months rise in gun sales. A more likely explanation, he noted, was the significantly large number of gun sales that occurred during the Black Friday shopping weekend. Black Friday was a huge day, he said. I think that was our third or fourth busiest day ever. We did over 5,000 transactions that Black Friday. The only other time we had broken 5,000 was the week after the Sandy Hook shooting. Exact sales of firearms in Virginia are neither reported nor recorded, but the background check records provide a rough estimate of the number of firearms sold. There is not a one-to-one correlation between background checks and the number of guns sold because some customers buy multiple firearms. Also, about 1 percent of the background checks in Virginia typically result in people being denied permission to buy a weapon. The checks also do not reflect activity between private parties, such as family members or collectors at gun shows, because federal and Virginia laws require background checks only for sales from commercial dealers with a federal firearms license. William V. Pelfrey Jr., a criminologist and assistant professor at Virginia Commonwealth Universitys L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs, said Virginias increased firearm transaction numbers can be attributed to a variety of factors. The recent rise in homicides, especially in cities like Chicago, Baltimore, Washington and St. Louis, contributes to the publics fear of crime and instant access to media which tends to focus on violent crime exacerbates this public fear, Pelfrey said. High-profile incidents like the Orlando night club shooting also can ratchet up alarm. Fear of violent crime victimization also drives gun purchases even though the odds of a specific person being victimized are very low, he said. Pelfrey said other contributing factors to the rise include an improved economy that has provided more disposable personal income for residents to purchase firearms, the growth of Virginias population over the past two decades that make higher rates of gun sales expected and increased diligence by firearm dealers in performing required state background checks. Pelfrey said the mass shootings in the U.S. and the so-called Obama effect could have an impact on Virginia gun sales, but hes reluctant to endorse them as possible explanations because they are difficult to measure. When people are concerned that their ability to purchase guns will be limited, they are likely to go get them, Pelfrey said. While Obama proposed a number of limitations to gun buying, none of them passed. That may not have mattered, however, as talk of limitations may have been sufficient to spur people into buying action. We do hear about mass shootings on a regular basis, both domestic and international, and those events are so high profile, and get so much press for an extended time, that I believe they have a long-term effect on peoples fear of violent crime victimization, he added. This is very hard to quantify, as is the Obama effect. I believe [they] make a difference, but I dont know that it does. Talk tough to your allies and ignore your enemies. That has become the foreign policy doctrine which will define our current President. President Obamas decision to abstain from voting on an anti-Israel United Nations (UN) resolution this week is a clear betrayal of our strong alliance and our enduring commitment to support Israel. The nation of Israel serves as one of our most outspoken allies to combat radical Islamic terrorism and is our strongest voice in the Middle East. Nonetheless, President Obama and Secretary Kerry not only ignored our ally in a time of need they even went one step further during a speech by Secretary Kerry in which they all but blamed Israel for the decades long conflict with Palestine. In his closing days in office, President Obama is revealing his global convictions that will come to define his presidency a belief that a weaker America, one that doesnt stand with its allies and one that doesnt follow through on lines drawn in the sand with our enemies, somehow increases the safety and security of American families. As the threat of terror grows and is carried out around the world and here in the United States, this is the exact wrong message to send. While these actions may have taken place thousands of miles away, the safety and threat of terror impacting those of us in southeast and south central Missouri, or any part of our country for that matter, is a major concern. The result of this decision for Israel could potentially be devastating, but sadly this isn't the first time President Obama has turned his back on our allies. The legacy that President Obama will leave behind is a long list of foreign policy failures that have left the world and the United States less safe than it was 8 years ago. President Obamas habit of alienating Americas allies while catering to our enemies has resulted in increased instability in the Middle East - like the genocide of over 400,000 people in Syria and a strengthening of ISIS, chaos in Libya that led to American casualties in Benghazi, and the disastrous Iran nuclear deal that has only strengthened the leading world sponsor of terrorism. Meanwhile the President seems more concerned with making excuses and sanctioning Russia for Hillary Clintons failed Presidential run than standing up to those who actually want to do physical harm to American soldiers and families. If anything, the actions of the last week have further confirmed my belief that the time has come to end the use of American taxpayer dollars to fund the ineffective and scandal plagued United Nations. America should not be governed by an outside entity like the UN that treats our freedom like property and does not have our country's best interests at heart. In fact, US taxpayers fund nearly 22 percent of the UNs annual budget while at the same time they prioritize attempts to reduce our sovereignty and security instead of promoting peace and the principles of democracy. Simply put, the United States need not participate in an organization which diminishes our countrys place and standing in the world. In response this week President-elect Trump vowed to stop allowing Israel to be treated with such total disdain and disrespect - a promising sign that we will restore our long-standing alliance with Israel. Of course, the response from the Obama Administration, was to chastise the President-elect for not abiding by protocol and to refrain from meddling in decisions until after the inauguration. That response could not have been more indicative of a tone deaf administration that not only fails to acknowledge their own mistakes, but shows a dangerous arrogance in their commitment to inflict liberal ideology that stands at odds with the American people. It also demonstrates how out-of-touch and unaware the Obama administration is for what is coming the next four years a dismantling of its disastrous policies, real change to a broken system, and draining a swamp that now extends to an international level. Rep. Dave Brat, R-Richmond, said he was glad when Republican leaders earlier this week withdrew changes to the Office of Congressional Ethics that critics said would have significantly stripped the independent entity of its oversight. A former professor of ethics, Brat nonetheless supported at least one aspect the heavily scrutinized plan proposed by fellow Virginia Rep. Bob Goodlatte that was pulled after President-elect Donald Trump posted on Twitter that congress needed to check its priorities. In an interview Tuesday on Fox News, Brat pointed to the media for the ensuing controversy. The press got out a little bit in advance and kind of made it sound like the congress and Republican caucus was moving back on ethics and I dont think thats the case, he said. Goodlatte is a very fair guy, the head of judiciary, and theres been a few cases where weve used ethics to bludgeon folks on the Democratic side or the Republican side unfairly as a political weapon. Brat said Goodlatte had proposed a few moves to straighten that up so the process is fair. If youre going to accuse someone, then you have to sign up and put your name down so theres some credibility there so there were some good moves in there, Brat said of an aspect of the proposal that would have disallowed anonymous complaints. He agreed that Congress had more important things to do, and that the messaging was off. If youre going to do it, you need to tell the American people in advance, Hey were going to make some moves on ethics, and get it right, Brat said. Leadership said were going to pull it back, Trump gave a little hint, now were moving on to nice bipartisan debate on ethics. He said ethics were very important and that he hoped the discussion would spark young people to learn about it and look up the words meaning. Webster defines ethics as the study of standards of conduct and moral judgment, something Brat said public school children are not being taught. We pulled the amendment today, were going to study it in a bipartisan fashion, work with the other partywell get it right, he said. Brat spokeswoman Barbara Boland said Thursday that the local congressman was not present at the closed door meeting Monday night where the vote regarding the ethics office was taken. She referred to a subsequent Facebook post in explaining his position. It said: Speaker Paul Ryan and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy both opposed the changes to the House Ethics Committee, and now this plan has been withdrawn. Im glad to see this, as our first priority as a new Congress should be to focus on the issues that the voters sent us here for, like Obamacare, border security and regulatory reform. Brat added, At the same time, an open and frank debate about ethics is always welcome and what people expect from us, and that is what will occur as we move forward. The Office of Congressional Ethics is an independent, non-partisan entity charged with reviewing allegations of misconduct against members, officers and staff of the U.S. House of Representatives and, when appropriate, referring matters to the House Committee on Ethics, according to the offices website. It was created in 2008 after several bribery and corruption cases in the House. Brat has repeatedly espoused that the Republican Creed, on which he twice ran, is based in the Judeo-Christian ethical tradition. He spoke about those ethics back in October in response to crude comments made in 2005 by Trump about grabbing women. Its also important that we get the ethics right. As someone who attended seminary, I have made clear throughout all of my campaigns that we live in an age of ethical breakdown and one irony of this breakdown is that it appears the Republican side is held to an ethical standard that the left and Democrat candidates never have to face. I am proud that Republicans do believe in ethics and make our positions clear at every turn, Brat said at the time. Goodlatte, of Roanoke, claimed his changes to the Office of Congressional Ethics would have strengthened the group. He said Tuesday in a statement he was disappointed it was rolled back. Gross misrepresentation by opponents of my amendment, and the media willing to go along with this agenda, resulted in a flurry of misconceptions and unfounded claims about the true purpose of this amendment, he said. The Associated Press reported that the original changes would have eviscerated the office, allowing lawmakers to investigate and rule on complaints against lawmakers. Editor's note - This is the latest installment in our ongoing series of stories looking back on the events which made the top headlines in 2016 from area cities and school districts. Today we look at the city of Farmington. January Construction to prepare the site for the Menards store in Farmington began Jan. 4. The new building was proposed to cover 207,851 square feet with a 42,352 square foot lumber warehouse. The decision was made to cease operations at the Parkland Hospital Weber Road facility effective at 7 a.m. on Jan. 19. This closure included the emergency department and the Adult Behavioral Health unit. The Missouri Department of Economic Development announced Jan. 13 that industrial plastics manufacturer PolySol was relocating its headquarters from Michigan where it was founded nearly two years ago to Farmington, where it plans to create 17 jobs and make a $150,000 capital investment in the community. February The final total for the Help the Hungry Bake Sale reached $62,000 once again surpassing the total of the previous year and showing the generosity of the community to help those in need. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., a privately held national retail chain of craft and home decor stores, was set to open a new store in Farmington. Construction was underway on this new 51,000 square-foot building located at Highway 67 and Maple Street. The Farmington Regional Chamber of Commerce marked its 75th anniversary of support to the Farmington business community, in February. Farmington is a safe place to live and do business - and the 2015 Crime Statistics report presented by Police Chief Rick Baker during the Feb. 22 Farmington City Council meeting had the numbers to prove it. The chief said a statistical snapshot of a day for the Farmington Police Department would show the department answering 43 calls, generating 10 incident reports, working two to three accidents and making an average of three arrests. March After more than a year of hard work, Farmingtons new grand piano was formally introduced to the public in a musical extravaganza at 3 p.m. on March 20 at the Centene Center. It was announced Denim & Diamonds was the theme for the 38th annual Farmington Country Days, set for June 3-5. Farmington Fire Chief Todd Mecey gave the 2015 report for the Farmington Fire Department during a Farmington City Council meeting. Mecey said the department responded to 2,216 call for service in 2015, up 209 from the previous year. The departments five year average is 2,079. Ward IV Councilman Garett Boatright said he was approached by individuals with the Farmington Pet Adoption Center about what steps were needed to further develop a dog park for the community. Chris Conway, the new Parks and Recreation director for the city, was introduced by Farmington City Administrator Greg Beavers. April The Farmington Regional Chamber of Commerce celebrated contributions of many during the "75 Years of Success" awards banquet on April 1 at the Centene Center. Among those honored was Cecil Hulsey, who was presented the Daily Journal/Farmington Press "Citizen of the Year" award. Farmington voters gave their support to two propositions on the April ballot. Proposition 1 dealing with the continuing application and collection of local sales tax on the titles of motor vehicles, trailers, boats and outboard motors purchased from a source other than a licensed Missouri dealer passed by a vote of 407 yes votes to continue the tax with 214 no votes. Proposition 2 was for an extension of the tourism tax charged on hotel rooms in the city of Farmington. It was passed by a vote of 401 "yes" to 194 "no" votes. The seat in Ward IV was the only contested race, with incumbent Mark Kellogg defeating challenger Bart Goetz by a vote of 129 to 20. Family, friends and the community members participated in the Walker Johns Childhood Cancer Foundations Run/Walk and raised more than $9,000 in April. They also started a bone marrow donor registry drive and successfully registered more than 40 potential donors. Hobby Lobby opened its doors to customers during the month of April. Work continued on the 207,851 square-foot Menards on the west side of the city. During the April 25 Farmington City Council meeting, Finance Director Michelle Daniel reported March sales tax receipt numbers were more than 10 percent over the sales tax receipts from the previous year. A beautiful spring day made the perfect backdrop for the March of Dimes "March for Babies." The walk raised more than $30,000. May Great weather and the chance to spend the day fishing brought young anglers from around the St. Francois County to Hagar Lake for the Farmington Parks and Recreation Wiggle and Giggle Fishing Derby on May 7. Officials with the city were drafting an ordinance which would allow residents to have chickens in the city limits. June Country Days kick started the month with a prayer breakfast led by the mayor. The full list of Denim & Diamonds themed events included pageantry, music, crafts, food and of course rides. Downtown area businesses opened their doors for several free childrens activities and treats, as well. Serving as Mr. and Mrs. Country Days 2016 were Larry and Carrie Joseph. Bill Henson was one of 34 winners of the 2016 Lieutenant Governors Veterans Service Award. The award recognizes Missouri veterans who provide exemplary community volunteer service, according to the announcement from Missouri Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder. The Farmington City Council approved a measure allowing residents to have chickens on their property. The approval came with a few regulations including coop placement, and a prohibition on the ownership of roosters. July On Independence Day, there were lots of families sharing their family traditions while watching fireworks at Engler Park. The United Way of St. Francois County awarded more than $180,000 in annual grant money to 27 local agencies during the month. Farmington CrossFit competitor Shannon Rohlfs qualified for the 2016 Reebok CrossFit Games in Carson, California in mid-July. The mother of three was up against 19 other international athletes in her womens division (ages 40 to 44). August The Farmington R-7 School Board and Farmington City Council approved new tax rates during their August meetings. Cozean Memorial Chapel marked its 150 anniversary of service to the community in late August. The Walk to End Alzheimers took place on Aug. 27 at Farmington Senior High School. Facebook and the Farmington Regional Chamber of Commerce hosted a Boost Your Business seminar designed to teach local small business owners how to optimize their presence and engage customers on the worlds largest social network. September The "Hot Dippity Dog" fundraiser for the Farmington Pet Adoption Center was the closing event at the Farmington Water Park in September. Parkland Balloon Festival returned for a second year, and was sponsored by the Farmington Tourism Bureau, city of Farmington and the Farmington Regional Chamber of Commerce. The Farmington City Council presented a proclamation marking Constitution Week during September. The week of Sept. 17-23 marked the 229th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution. Farmington street crews removed the last portions of the railroad track from North Street during the month of September. The new Farmington Menards Mega Store opened to the public and announced an eight-day "Grand Opening Celebration." October Farmington Regional Chamber of Commerce put together a 1940s theme for its 75th diamond anniversary gala event. The party featured period decor, a swing band, dancing, fire pit and an outdoor movie theater featuring a vintage movie. The Help the Hungry Barbecue raised more than $8,100 for two local food pantries on Oct. 7. Farmington Police officers joined other area departments in a 40-hour crisis intervention training course. The CIT course was offered to help officers differentiate between a people whose behavior is the result of criminal intent or if the behavior is the result of an underlying health issue. The Farmington City Council approved a resolution for the city to apply for a grant which would allow for improvements along Henry Street to include sidewalks and storm water infrastructure. Farmington Finance Director Michelle Daniel reported the city posted the highest ever sales tax receipt total at the end of September. According to Daniel, nearly $4.04 million in sales tax receipts were collected that month up 6.4 percent over the previous year. This marked the first time the revenue for the city would go over the $4 million mark. Farmington Mayor Mit Landrum presented his State of the City address at the monthly Farmington Regional Chamber of Commerce Business and Community luncheon. The streets of downtown Farmington were filled with superheroes, storybook characters and scary creatures on Oct. 28 during the Farmington Regional Chamber of Commerce's Harvest Night. November Farmingtons first Dog Park opened on Nov. 5 and is located between Jaycee Park and the airport on Perrine Road. Leading up to the November elections, the Board of Directors of the Farmington Regional Chamber adopted a resolution to support the proposed Missouri Constitutional Amendment 4. Board members explained a "yes" vote would amend the Missouri Constitution to prohibit a new state or local sales/use or other similar tax on any service or transaction. Signs showing the building is for sale went up on the longtime Daily Journal/Farmington Press building at 218 N. Washington St. After years of considering the idea, the decision was made recently to sell the large, under-utilized space and relocate the editorial and customer service staff to a more fitting, updated location. The 11th Annual Help the Hungry Bake Sale held at the St. Joseph Catholic School gymnasium Nov. 19 was a success once again this year - raising more than $66,000 for the Farmington Ministerial Alliance and St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantries. The Farmington City Council approved a resolution regarding the hiring of a contractor to perform shredding of the yard waste at one of the regular meetings in November due to the increase in brush following storms earlier in the year. December Krekeler Jewelers Twas the Lights Before Christmas parade was held Dec.6. Winter Wonderland at Long Memorial Hall opened immediately following the conclusion of the parade. Amber Boyd and Nick Newberry were hired as officers for the Farmington Police Department. This is the first time additional officers were added to the force in a number of years. It was announced the new offices for the Farmington Press would be at 227 E. Columbia St. in downtown Farmington. The Farmington Police Department broke a two year drought when they defeated the Farmington Fire Department in the seventh annual Battle of the Badges blood drive on Dec. 22. Christmas Day dinner tradition was slated to continue for the 16th year at Cicis Pizza. The traditional community Christmas dinner started in 2001 by restaurant owners Chip and Debbie Peterson. The Virginia Dept. of Transportation is predicting snow will arrive in the area during the evening rush hour Thursday, and is advising motorists to adjust travel to be off the roads before the weather arrives. A National Weather Service meteorologist said around 1:30 p.m. that flurries are possible this afternoon in Culpeper County but that the more steady snow would begin after 6 p.m. and continue into the late evening hours before tapering off around 3 or 4 a.m. on Friday. Less than an inch of accumulation is expected in this area, the forecast said. Light snow is predicted throughout central Virginia, with the possibility of two inches or more in the northern portion of Fauquier County. Motorists should expect slick driving conditions this afternoon and into the morning on Friday, according to a news release Thursday afternoon. Crews began pre-treating I-64, I-66 and other major primary highways yesterday and are finishing by mid-day today. Working around the clock in 12-hour shifts, VDOT plow operators and contractors will treat roads with salt and sand once precipitation begins to aid melting and improve traction. President-elect Trump stirred yet more controversy Saturday night when, as he entered his New Year's Eve party at Mar-a-Lago, he said he is not convinced the intelligence community is sure about allegations Russian hackers sought to influence the election. "I just want them to be sure, because it's a pretty serious charge," Trump told reporters, "and I want them to be sure." The next morning, Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, scoffed at Trump's statement. "This is the overwhelming judgment of the intelligence community and, frankly, all of the members of the intelligence committees in Congress, Democrats and Republicans," Schiff said on ABC Sunday. "None of us have any question about this. The only one who does apparently is Donald Trump." That is not the case. There are, in fact, members of the intelligence committees who do have questions about this. Yes, many Republicans believe Russian hackers tried to mess with the U.S. presidential campaign in some way, mostly because they believe Russian hackers are always trying to mess with U.S. systems and institutions. But when it comes to solid information on precisely what was done, and on evidence of motives, many Hill Republicans are mostly in the dark -- because the intelligence community has kept them there. Remember that before Christmas the intelligence community refused to brief the House Intelligence Committee, telling lawmakers they can wait until intel officials finish the investigation ordered by President Obama. In response, House committee chairman Rep. Devin Nunes argued that the Director of National Intelligence was "obligated to comply" with a House request, and that the committee was "deeply concerned" by the DNI's "intransigence." The intelligence community's response: Fuhgeddaboudit. So the wait to learn more goes on. Meanwhile, a number of Democrats are arguing that the evidence is so overwhelming that Congress must establish a special investigating committee, even though there will already be multiple investigations of the Russia matter in the standing committees of Congress. "Elections and the peaceful transfer of power are the foundational elements of our democracy," said Sen. Ben Cardin, ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "They have been attacked and undermined by the world's most destabilizing major power." "An attack against our election system is an attack on our very way of life and must not go unchallenged," added Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, vice-chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee. The argument is taking place in the context of deep distrust of the intelligence community among some Republicans. Some GOP lawmakers believe the IC has been -- to put it diplomatically -- less than forthcoming about Benghazi, intelligence concerning the Islamic State, and intel concerning Osama bin Laden. Already wary, they became more so when the IC refused to brief the House about the Russia affair. There's a greater context, as well. Many times during the campaign, Trump declared the Iraq War a "big, fat mistake." At Mar-a-Lago, Trump referenced the intelligence debacle that led to the war. "If you look at the weapons of mass destruction, that was a disaster, and they were wrong," Trump said. "And so I want them to be sure." Now, some of the same people who in 2002 and 2003 pushed for war based on erroneous intelligence -- Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham are two -- are pushing to take a hard line on Russia. It's no surprise that some Republicans -- lawmakers who have no illusions about Russia and its hacking in the past -- want to see more evidence before going all-in on the new allegations. At the very least, they want to know what the intelligence community knows before signing off on a special congressional investigation of the hacking. Trump is scheduled to meet with members of the Hill intelligence committees this week. "The president-elect needs to sit down with the heads of the intelligence communities ... and get a full briefing on what they knew, why they knew it, whether or not the Obama administration's response was in proportion to the actions taken," spokesman Sean Spicer said on Sunday. Meanwhile, Trump himself is signaling there's more to the story that he knows but the public doesn't. "I know a lot about hacking," he said Saturday night. "And hacking is a very hard thing to prove. So it could be somebody else. And I also know things that other people don't know, and so they cannot be sure of the situation." Byron York is chief political correspondent for The Washington Examiner. 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Ireland United States Minor Outlying Islands United States of America Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe 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. While celebrity deaths may have filled your newsfeed recently, I'd like to take a moment to remember an incredible lady from Dayton, who died just days after Christmas. On December 15, 2016, what was expected to be a simple colonoscopy, turned into a nightmare for Jim Livingston and his family. Jim was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Just 14 days later, his wife Connie passed away unexpectedly from heart complications. Rockstar in the birth world If you knew Connie Livingston, you knew she was a devoted wife and mother. She simply adored Jim and her two girls, Erin & Heather. And she loved peppermint mochas. Decaf, to be precise. But behind the Starbucks selfies (sample above with her daughters) was one very accomplished lady. Starting her career as an RN, Connie found her passion in childbirth education. She taught locally at Kettering Medical Center and the Miami Valley Hospital Berry Women's Center, as well as internationally. As the owner of Perinatal Education Associates Inc., she wrote thousands of articles on her blog, as well as publishing two books on childbirth. More recently, Connie was the president of the International Childbirth Education Association. The ICEA, earlier this week, honored her memory by renaming their scholarship program "The Connie Livingston Memorial Scholarship Program". Following the news of her passing, Connie's facebook profile immediately started to fill with messages. First of shock and disbelief, but also of touching memories and heartfelt tributes. Connie will be deeply missed by thousands. But it wasn't just her love for family, her passion for her work, or the many accomplishments that we admired about Connie. Yesterday, Jamilla Walker wrote a touching tribute which summed it up perfectly. "Connie Livingston was a leader in the birth industry as a doula, childbirth educator and administrator. Her tenacity and passion for the birth community were second to none, as were her high standards for every organization she laid hands on throughout her career. And while that is impressive, thats not what has us all walking around in a hazy cloud of grief today. It is how she interacted with all of us that has made us love her, and what is leaving a massive hole in her wake. Connie was the single most encouraging person any of us have ever met. And when I say encouraging, I dont just mean she was good at making us feel better about life I mean that she saw our best, our greatest potential and did everything she could to call it out of us." - Jamilla R. Walker RN, IBCLC Jamilla wasn't alone in her thoughts. "A role model for me and so many others," wrote Lisa Warner. Johanna Wright posted "I would not be where I am and doing what I do without her guiding influence in my life." I personally first met Connie in 2004 when she contracted with my company to rebuild her website. Connie quickly became a friend. When we met, she'd greet me with a bear hug. When our meetings were over, I always walked away with a smile. When my wife was pregnant with our first born, she made us a belly cast. When I was sick, she brought me home-made chicken noodle soup. Connie was also one of my biggest cheerleaders, never missing an opportunity to tell me what an amazing web guy she had, for which I'll forever be grateful. You were amazing too, Connie. I will miss you. Read more of Jamilla's post here: birthperspectives.com/2017/01/03/a-tribute-to-connie-livingston/ To help the Livingstone's beat cancer, visit their GoFundMe page: www.gofundme.com/JimandConnieLivingston To donate to The Connie Livingston Memorial Scholarship Program: icea.org/certification/scholarships/ Related: Memorial Day - Thoughts by James Livingston, Major (USAF Ret) This page may be updated if the event is repeated Past Event - Saturday, February 9, 2019 This page may be updated if the event is repeated Free Event The City of Daytons Human Relations Council invites you to its annual Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK) Youth World House Party! World House Summit celebrates civil rights achievements UPDATE: The MLK World House youth event, originally scheduled for Jan. 19 was rescheduled for Feb 9. Commemorating the achievements of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Dayton Human Relations Council will host the annual Youth World House Summit, an event designed to increase understanding and appreciation for the civil and human rights movement. The event will take place at Grace United Methodist Church at 1001 Harvard Blvd. on Saturday, Jan. 19, 2019 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. This year's theme: "Understanding Social Equality." Admission is free. The celebration is an opportunity to reflect on the life and legacy of Dr. King and to inspire youth to take action and create positive change in their communities. In addition to the historical relevance of the civil rights movement, presenters will explore contemporary issues regarding race, social justice, and diversity. In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "World House," the Dayton event will also celebrate the cultural diversity of the community with world music, dance, spoken word, and food. Youth will have the opportunity to help create banners to be used during Dayton's MLK March & Rally For more information, contact the Human Relations Council at 333-1403. We have inherited a big house, a great world house in which we have to live together black and white, Easterners and Westerners, Gentiles and Jews, Catholics and Protestants, Muslim and Hindu, a family unduly separated in ideas, culture, and interests who, because we can never again live without each other, must learn, somehow, in this one big world, to live with each other. Martin Luther King, Jr. Privacy Overview This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful. As part of the recall, Ducati will be replacing the side stand pivot bolt free of cost. The Ducati Scramblers manufactured from Feb 17, 2015, to November 11, 2016, have been recalled in the US for an issue in the side stand. A total of 5,502 motorcycles have been recalled. The side stand pivot nut gets detached resulting in the malfunction of stand position sensor and can stall the motorcycle while it's running. The impact of the defect can be experienced in different ways. The bike may not start with the side stand up even in neutral. Other issue that might crop up is the engine stalling due to side stand sensor switch pin getting disengaged while the bike is in motion. A safety issue that might come up is the bike running with the side stand down. As part of the recall, Ducati will be replacing the side stand pivot bolt free of cost. The recall will begin from the end of January. Now the Ducati Scrambler sold in India is highly unlikely to be affected by this recall as the Scrambler sold in US markets are imported from Italy. The bike sold here is imported from Thailand. Now the Scrambler is assembled in Thailand with the engines coming from Italy and the rest of the bike being sourced locally so the India-spec Scrambler having a defective side stand sensor is highly improbable. The India-spec Scrambler not being affected by the recall was confirmed by Ducati India. Source: BikeDekho.com Along with the Pulsar NS200 Fi and the Pulsar NS160 Bajaj Auto also showcased the new colour option for the Pulsar RS200 at dealers meet in Turkey. The new colour option for the Pulsar RS200 is a combination of Black and Grey. It features a grey exhaust casing instead of black as on the currently offered model. Currently the bike is powered with the 199.5cc single cylinder, four valve, liquid cooled, triple spark engine which makes 23.5PS at 9500 rpm and 18.3Nm of torque at 8000 rpm. What is interesting is the bike seems to share the same gray engine casing as the NS200 which was shown at the dealers meet. Both the discontinued 200NS and the current RS 200 feature a 200 cc engine with a bronze colored engine casing. So it is highly likely that the bike might be soon updated with the 2017 NS 200s 194.4cc motor which develops 24.5 PS at 9500 rpm and 18.3 Nm at 8000rpm. The new motor makes 1 PS more than the outgoing engine and will be BS-IV compliant. We expect the bike will be launched in India this year and it might see a marginal price hike. There have also been sightings of the Pulsar RS 200 in a white shade in a dealership in Maharashtra. Now this might be a one-off bike specially painted for a customer or it might be a new shade which Bajaj might introduce before the update as the engine casing colour is similar to the current bike. Source: BikeDekho.com To aid a smooth transition process, Coca-Cola and SBI will provide training to the retailers on new and evolving digital business transaction solutions. Patna: State Bank of India, Coca-Cola India and Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages have signed an agreement to enable over 2.6 million retailers and 5,000 distributors in conducting business transactions digitally. Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairman, SBI and T Krishnakumar, Chairman & CEO HCCBPL & Region Director(South Asia) signed the MoU to forge the strategic partnership. It entails initiating the digitisation process among the retailers by on-boarding them into the SBI's digital payment options such as Buddy P2P, Buddy Merchant App, SBI Pay, a statement said here. To aid a smooth transition process, Coca-Cola and SBI will provide training to the retailers on new and evolving digital business transaction solutions. Speaking at the ceremony, Arundhati Bhattacharya said, "We are happy to announce this joint endeavour by two leading organisations in response to Prime Minister's vision for a Digital India". "Our digital payment platforms such as Buddy, SBI Pay and State Bank Collect provide our customers easy-to-use and convenient modes of transactions. They also act as the tip of the spear for onboarding consumers and merchants to our larger range of financial products," she added. Krishnakumar said, "We recognize and support the government's vision of 'Digital India' centered on making the country a digitally empowered economy". "We have been forerunners in the digital solution space and while all of our payment to suppliers and more than 90 per cent of our collections from our partners are digitised, we propose to extend this facility to every retailer in the market place", he said. "Our partnership with SBI is a step forward in this direction. The digital payment solutions in business transactions will help further strengthen our retail chain ecosystem covering over 2.6 million retailers and 5,000 distributors and will substantially reduce the dependence on cash," Krishnakumar said. "As India moves towards digitization, "it is critical that the country's un-organised retail sector adopt digital payment systems which will provide them an opportunity to further grow their businesses," said Venkatesh Kini, President, Coca-Cola (India and South West Asia). HCCBPL and CCIPL will leverage "Coca-Cola University on Wheels" (CCU) under its "Parivartan" programme to train the retailers and distributors on handling digital payments. HCCBPL is the bottling arm of Coa-Cola India in the country. The training will integrate SBI's developed digital payments module into the training capsule. New Delhi: Terming consolidation in public sector banks a "long drawn process", Banks Board Bureau (BBB) chief Vinod Rai said it should gather momentum in 2-3 years. "Finance Minister in his Budget speech talked about consolidation of banks. Prime Minister has made references to the idea that there should be 6 or 8 large banks. The entire process is being thought of but it's not that it is going to materialise in two or three months," he said at an event here. "This is long drawn process," Rai said, adding that in the next 2-3 years, it should gather momentum. "A lot of work has to be done. Once the road map is ready it will be rolled out," he added. BBB is an advisory body set up by the government last year ahead of Budget to recommend names for appointment as directors in public sector banks and advise on ways to raise funds and mergers and acquisitions, among other areas. On the recommendation of BBB, the process of merger of five associate banks of SBI with the parent is underway. Bharatiya Mahila Bank is also being merged with SBI. The merger would make SBI a global-sized bank and make it amongst the top 50 lenders in the world, with an asset base of Rs 37 trillion or over USD 555 billion, with 22,500 branches and over 58,000 ATMs and more than 50 crore customers. SBI has three listed associate banks - State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur (SBBJ), State Bank of Mysore (SBM), State Bank of Travancore (SBT) and two unlisted associate banks State Bank of Patiala and State Bank of Hyderabad. New Delhi: Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today underlined the need for synergising efforts between Centre and states to boost the country's exports on sustainable basis. "Since last January, we have managed to contain our trade deficit due to controls on imports, there is an immediate need to synergize our efforts and jointly take appropriate steps to boost India's exports - which is the only sustainable way in today's international trade environment," she said. The minister was addressing the meeting of the 'Council for Trade Development and Promotion'. Its members include trade/commerce ministers of states and UTs, besides 14 secretaries of the central government and industry representatives including Federation of Indian Export Oraganisations (FIEO). Sitharaman said that the objective of this council is to develop partnerships with the states with the aim of boosting international trade. She sought suggestions to improve the export competitiveness of domestic products and "on how can we partner in the adoption of such measures to create an environment conducive for exports". Seeking support from the members, she said all should use this platform to articulate their perspective on the trade policy and work jointly to address impediments to trade and infrastructure gaps which adversely affect exports. "One such area which requires immediate intervention is that of facilities for testing, certification, trace-back, packaging and labelling," she said. The minister also requested the states to enhance their co-operation with central agencies for setting up common facilities like testing labs, training institutes as well as packaging and storage support to industry. Further, Sitharaman stated that she had asked states to consider higher allocation of resources for export infrastructure from their increased devolution of funds to which "I expected that at least the ongoing ASIDE projects would be completed by the states. I am still awaiting an affirmative action on this from the states". She said the centre is also trying to formulate a scheme which could provide financial support and supplement your efforts to create export infrastructure. "I hope, we can soon succeed in achieving a consensus for the roll out of this scheme - Trade Infrastructure for Export Scheme (TIES)," she said, adding so far only 17 states have developed their export strategy aligned with the national policy on trade. Emphasising on the need to focus on services exports, she said there is a need to diversify services exports basket by enabling more sectors and to breach more markets. "Other areas like medical tourism, nursing and healthcare, education, audio-visual media also afford an excellent potential which can be harnessed. For this, we need to develop the right competencies like language skills for the East and North East Asian markets," she added. Sitharaman urged all the states to consider organising bi-monthly meetings with the exporters to sort out infrastructure and tax related issues which would go a long way in improving our trade competitiveness. "I would like to take this opportunity to exhort the state governments to develop and pursue appropriate export strategies in line with national Foreign Trade Policy and we would be happy to associate in such efforts," she added. The minister also asked them to use the export commissioners as focal points for institutionalised interactions with the exporters from the state. Further she said a hundred to hundred and fifty SPS (sanitary and phyto-sanitary) notifications and a similar number of TBT (technical barriers to trade) notifications are being issued by WTO member countries each month. "Around 50 to 60 per cent of these measures have the potential to impact our trade. There sector specific needs can broadly be categorised into interventions required for agri and marine products, for forest produce and for industrial products," she added. Expanding for the third straight month, exports rose 2.29 per cent to USD 20 billion in November on account of healthy growth in shipments of petroleum products and engineering goods. Under the scheme, the employees share of contribution, if declared by the employer as not deducted, shall stand waived New Delhi: Retirement fund body EPFO today formally launched the Employees Enrolment Campaign, 2017, to encourage firms to enroll their employees under its schemes at nominal damages of Rupee one per annum. Under the scheme, the employees share of contribution, if declared by the employer as not deducted, shall stand waived, the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) said in statement. According to the statement, the damages to be paid by the employer in respect of the employees for whom declaration has been made under this campaign shall be at the rate of Rupee one per annum. Besides, no administrative charges shall be collected from the employer in respect of the contribution made under the declaration. Under the scheme, a declaration can be made under the campaign for the period till March 31, 2017, for which no inquiry under section 7A has been initiated. The EPFO's apex decision making body -- the Central Board Trustees -- at its meeting held on December 19, 2016, decided to launch a special campaign from January 1, 2017 to March 31, 2017 to enroll the eligible workers who were left out, in bringing them under its social security umbrella. The campaign seeks to enroll new establishments and employees with or without past service. The Central Government has accepted the recommendation of the Board and has since notified the scheme, it said. The campaign aims to encourage employers to voluntarily come forward and declare details of all such employees who were entitled for membership between April 1, 2009 and December 31, 2016 under EPF & MP Act 1952, but could not be enrolled. The enrolment drive offers a limited time window to employers to bring all eligible workers under social security net. According to the provisions of Employees Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952, the employer of an establishment covered under the Act is required to enroll all employees drawing basic wages of up to Rs 15,000 per month. The establishments that enroll new employees under the campaign will be eligible to draw benefits available under Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Protsahan Yojana (PMRPY) as well as Pradhan Mantri Paridhan Rojgar Protsahan Yojana (PMPRY). The government pays 8.33 per cent contribution of employers share to the Employees Pension Scheme (EPS) in respect of new employees having Universal Account Number. For textile (apparel) sector, the government additionally pays 3.67 per cent towards EPF contribution for new employees required to be paid by the employers. EPFO has made special arrangements for the success of the campaign and appropriate assistance will be made available to employers coming forward to extend social security coverage of their employees. EPFO said that more details of the campaign and FAQS are available at www.epfindia.gov.in New Delhi: The Department of Revenue has promised to refund tax claims of exporters within seven days under the new GST regime, thus addressing a major concern of the sector, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said today. The minister also said that exporters would get interest on the refund if it is delayed beyond two weeks. Exporters have been demanding ab-initio exemption from payment of taxes under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime arguing that delay in refunds often takes months and also results in blocking the working capital. They also stated that exports need to be encouraged in view of the global slowdown. The minister recently raised the issues of exporters in the GST Council meeting. The concern of the exporters was that the refund should not take too long, she told reporters after chairing the meeting of the Council for Trade Development and Promotion here today. In today's meeting, the exporters were assured "that on 90 per cent of the amount (of refund), within seven days, the refund will be made and if there is an undue delay, interest will be paid on the amount due," Sitharaman said. Elaborating on the issue, Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia said the Department of Commerce has been taking up this matter with the Department of Revenue (DoR). "GST clearly provides that the taxes must be paid and that the refund will be provided. So since the regime is so structured, in order to see that there is minimum pain to the exporters, what the DoR has committed that 90 per cent of the refund will be made within seven days. Delays beyond that would invite interest payment," she said. She said the remaining 10 per cent will be subject to whatever verification revenue department is required to do. "This assurance satisfies the exporters," she added. Revenue department will work on the details to ensure that exporters do not suffer because of delay in refund. Teaotia said exporters will get interest if the refund is delayed beyond two weeks. "The issue about interest payment, what that amount would be and whether it would kick in after two weeks...that detail DoR would decide," the Commerce Secretary said. Further, the secretary said that on the issues related to tax treatment of SEZs under GST, the Department of Commerce has made representations before the GST Council. "We are looking for favourable consideration of our submissions," she said. The Commerce and Industry Ministry has recently suggested to the GST Council to exempt leather and plantations sector from the GST ambit. According to police, Pancholi hit his neighbour Pratik Pasrani and reportedly fractured his nose at their residence in 2005. Mumbai: Two months after a magistrate court sentenced him to one-year imprisonment for assaulting his neighbour, Bollywood actor Aditya Pancholi has moved a sessions court appealing against his conviction. In his appeal filed by lawyer Ninad Mazumdar recently, Pancholi challenged his conviction saying it is contrary to material on record and against the principles of natural justice. "The learned magistrate failed to appreciate the embellishments in the evidence, which has come on record in the form of cross examinations," the appeal said. It also said that the magistrate, rather than appreciating the discrepancies in the right perspective and giving the benefit of the same to the accused (Pancholi), appreciated the same against the accused by himself giving explanation of any such discrepancies. "The magistrate did not appreciate the fact that there is absolutely no intention brought on record for the (actor) to assault the informant and erred in ignoring the fact that there was absolutely no reason for the actor to assault the informant," the appeal said. The actor has sought quashing of the judgement and his acquittal in the case. According to police, Pancholi hit his neighbour Pratik Pasrani and reportedly fractured his nose at their residence in 2005. Police had said that Pancholi's guest had parked his vehicle at the space earmarked for Pasrani at Magnum Opus Apartments in suburban Versova, Pasrani objected to it and asked the security staff to clear the vehicle, following which an altercation broke between the duo and the actor assaulted Pasrani. The police initially took a non-cognisable case, but the medical examination revealed that Pasrani's nose was fractured and the police registered a case of grievous hurt and criminal intimidation. Ash was last sene in Karan Johar's 'Ae Dil Hai Mushkil'. Mumbai: With the awards season having officially kickstarted, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has had her first acting acknowledgement already. The beautiful actress won the Best Actress nod at the Lions Gold Awards ceremony that had been held at a suburban auditorium on Wednesday. The function was attended by many Bollywood celebrities as well as eminent personalities of the nation. But the humble actress made sure that she greeted the guests personally as she addressed the audience. She was handed over the Best Actress Award by Mrs. Amruta Devendra Fadnavis wife of the Maharashtra chief minister. Mumbai: While everyone was bringing in the New Year cheer with late night parties and getaway holidays, the team of Omung Kumar's 'Bhoomi' was busy putting final touches to Sanjay Dutt's comeback film. And leading the team was the music composer duo of Sachin-Jigar. Tucked away in Lonalva the two were burning the midnight oil coming up with an offering of songs that will be memorable. 'It is a delight to work with Omung and Sandeep because they understand music. One needs that musical connection to compose lyrical memories, said Sachin Jigar. From a pure melody, to a love song, to a sufi number and a qawwali with even an out and out dance number, 'Bhoomi's musical offering sounds like real music to the ears. Sanjay Dutt's comeback film should have the best music possible and we thought no one better than Sachin-Jigar, adds producer Bhushan Kumar of T-Series. Directed by Omung Kumar and produced by Bhushan Kumar and Sandeep Singh, 'Bhoomi' is a revenge drama that centres around a father daughter relationship. The film will be shot entirely in Uttar Pradesh. Mumbai: The Sunil Grover starrer Coffee With D which was scheduled to be the first release of the year has been postponed. Ever since the release of its first trailer, the film has been on the underworld radar. Little did the makers know that making a film on Dawood would cost them so much. Producer Vinod Ramani, director Vishal Mishra and Sunil have been receiving anonymous calls, threatening them with dire consequences if references to underworld don Dawood Ibrahim are not removed from the film. The filmmakers have approached the Delhi Police seeking action against the callers. While these calls seem like the reason behind the delay in the release date, the director remains reticent when it comes to giving out the real cause. He said, From the time of the release of the trailer, it hasn't been quite easy. We are being hopeful and taking each day as it comes. As of now, the release has been postponed. Producer Vinod Ramani and director Vishal Mishra have filed a complaint against getting repeated threat calls from underworld gangster Chhota Shakeel's aides asking them to either delete the portions that make fun of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim in the film or not release the film at all. While the film has been passed through censor with minimal edits, we wonder if the underworld still has such a strong say in what is been shown to the masses. Mumbai: Shah Rukh Khan has an exemplary sense of humour, and theres no denying that. The actor has been promoting his highly anticipated crime saga Raees, all guns blazing, but never once does he let go of his wit and composure. Recently, when quizzed if the tattoo hes been sporting as a part of his look for Imtiaz Alis upcoming romantic drama is real, the actor hilariously quipped, saying that hes not sure of the tattoo, but he sure does have a mole on his derriere. This has left his humongous female fan-base asking for more. Incidentally, the actor had gone full monty in one of his earliest starring films, Maya Memsaab, baring his butt. It remains to be sen if the superstar would be willing to do an encore in the wake of younger actors like Ranveer Singh unabashedly appearing in the buff(Befikre) in their movies. Mumbai: Akshay Kumar, amongst the most conscientious actors in Bollywood has reacted sharply to the ghastly molestation of women in Bengaluru on New Year's eve. The actor shared a video on Twitter, a generic address to everyone in the wake of the immense umbrage after the incident got reported. "The Bangalore incident makes me feel we are evolving backwards, from humans to animals, rather beasts because even animals are better! Truly shameful," he said. Over 100 women were molested and harassed by drunken revelers in the IT capital of India, in the presence of police personnel, who were helplessly outnumbered. "I am ashamed to be a human being today. I was returning from my New Year's vacation with my four-year-old daughter in my arms when I learnt about the molestation incident in Banglore. I don't know how did you all feel about it, but my blood started boiling. "I am a daughter's father but even if I was not one, I feel if a society cannot respect its women, it doesn't deserve to be called a humane society. What's most disgusting is that people have the guts to justify such shameful acts by criticising women for their choice of clothes," an enraged Akshay blasted out. The Karnataka home minister G Parameshwara as well as Samajwadi Party leader Abu Azmi had criticised the independence of women and their being dressed in revealing attires, citing those as a trigger for rampant molestation cases across the country. He urged women to not be drubbed by such incidents and be fearless. "Women should not consider themselves inferior to men... Just be fearless, be alert and learn self-defence," he concluded. Watch the video here: Mumbai: Two lovebirds celebrating togetherness through this groovy song, Mon Amour is the next party anthem of the year. Hrithik, the flawless performer that he is, takes charge of the dance floor and dominates it till the very end. A coy Yami, on the other hand, shows signs of apprehension in the beginning but gains momentum gradually and how! The song has a Spanish touch to it and makes for a good party song. Not to forget, Hrithik and Yami as lovers are convincing and their take on dancing as amateurs looks natural. All in all, the song has come as a fresh breath of air. Watch the full song here: Mumbai: Baba Om, the notorious member of the reality show Bigg Boss season 10 has been kicked out of the house for his nasty behaviour. The man has been repeatedly warned for his unacceptable manners but this time he did something unimaginable by crossing his limit which immediately led to his termination. After failing the task in protecting his pyramid against VJ Bani, the man threw his urine on her and Rohan in anger. VJ Bani went bonkers and kicked the old man while Rohan started abusing him. Finally Bigg Boss decided to throw out the creep(ee) man and bring justice to the members. Kudos! Chennai: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday said it has arrested the brother of a Chennai-based criminal, wanted in several cases of extortion and murder, in connection with a money laundering probe against them. The agency's zonal office on Wednesday arrested D Senthil here, brother of Sridhar Dhanpal, as he is "involved in the offence of money laundering in a case related to extortion and acquiring properties with the proceeds of crime". Senthil has been sent to 15 days judicial custody by a court here. He has been lodged in the Puzhal central prison, it said. Dhanpal and his associates had as many as 26 police FIRs registered against them even as the CBI had issued an Interpol arrest warrant and it is suspected he is currently in Dubai, ED had earlier said. The agency had said it began probing Dhanpal based on the FIR of Tamil Nadu Police against him and his associates and found that the said person had "committed the offence of money laundering using the proceeds of crime and had acquired 124 immovable properties in his name and name of his wife, daughter and brother". "Senthil was examined, wherein he had inter alia stated that he had acted only on the instructions of his elder brother Dhanpal by purchasing immovable properties in his (Senthil's) name with the money given by Dhanpal and disposed off the properties as instructed by his brother and delivered the cash to the persons named by Dhanpal. "He did not reveal any information on the proceeds of the crime being the sale proceeds of various immovable properties held in his name and transacted in the process," the agency said in a statement. The ED, in September last year, had attached assets worth Rs 150 crore in this case under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). It had said Dhanpal has been evading the "judicial proceedings in India for three years and it that he flew from India in 2013 and is now in Dubai". Dhanpal also had cases of extortion, murder and attempt to murder, illegal possession of arms registered against him, the agency had said. Sources said that the two accused took the a 15-year-old girl to a plantation in their local village of Sandwa and raped her. (Representational image) Jaipur: Crossing all limits of brutality, two people raped a minor girl and tried to kill her by running her over with a motorbike. The incident took place on December 24 in Sarangsar town of Rajasthans Churu district, but came to light when the girl who is in serious condition was referred a hospital in Jaipur. Sources said that the two accused took the a 15-year-old girl to a plantation in their local village of Sandwa and raped her. When she cried out for help, the accused severely beat her up and even damaged her eyes. After carrying out the dreadful act, they even ran a bike over her in an attempt to kill her. The girl was left for dead along the road and spent the night in excruciating pain, said police. Doctors at Sawai Man Singh Hospital where the girl has been undergoing treatment said that 85% of her backbone is damaged. Her ribs along with her vocal cords have also been damaged. After the incident came to light, angry villagers protested and locked the private school where the girl is studying. One of the accused is the owner of the school while the other one is his relative. Police, on Wednesday, arrested the accused on a complaint filed by the girls father who reported the matter on Monday night. Thane: The district court here on Thursday sentenced a man to life imprisonment for killing his wife and then storing her dismembered body inside a refrigerator three years ago. District and Sessions Judge Mridula V K Bhatia awarded life sentence to Girish Pote (38) for killing his 33-year-old wife Madhuwanti Pathak, who was born and brought up in France and held a French passport. "You will remain in prison not for 14 years but till your biological end. I have not given death to you," the judge said in a packed courtroom. The judge, while convicting Pote on Wednesday, had observed that the prosecution had proved beyond reasonable doubt the "gruesome" murder by the accused. The accused moved an application, seeking pardon and told the court that he was remorseful and that leniency should be shown. According to additional public prosecutor (APP) Buleshwar Hinge, Madhumati and Pote got married on June 20, 2011. They have a child who is two-year-old now. Madhumati's mother, a musician, had married an Indian and in 2009 returned to France where she died. Pote worked as a sales manager in a garment's showroom but was jobless for six months before the incident took place. The couple, who lived in the flat that belonged to the victim's mother, often had quarrels on several issues. "Madhuwanti wanted to go back to France after selling the property in Mumbai. During investigation, Pote revealed that his wife disliked India and wanted to take the money and fly back to France. But he had opposed the idea, leading to frequent fights between them," the APP had said. Four days prior to the incident, the child was sent to a relative's house in Thane. On the day of the incident, Pote convinced Madhuwanti that he would allow her to go back to France. Later, he went to a mall and bought a packet of knives, Hinge said. After returning home, he killed her. However, he could not take the body out of the flat as the building had CCTV cameras installed in the lobby and the lift. Hyderabad: Rachakonda police here on Thursday arrested two persons for allegedly trying to abduct a 14-year-old school girl. P Ramesh, a car driver, and M Srikanth, who repairs cellphones, saw the girl when she was walking home in Gunthapally area on the city outskirts late Wednesday night. The duo, who were drunk, stopped their car after seeing her. "Ramesh got down and tried to abduct her by pushing her into the car. The victim resisted and raised alarm, and a passer-by rushed toward her," deputy commissioner of police Tafseer Iqubal said on Thursday. The duo then got into the car and fled, he added. But some locals and policemen gave them the chase and caught them at Majeedpur. They were brought to Hayathnagar police station. Both were found to be drunk. They were formally arrested on Thursday under section 354 (molestation) and 366 (abducting a woman) of IPC and also under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act as well as the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Jamaludeens 40-year-old second wife Zahida and daughter Afsaar, 20, were unhurt as they were sleeping in another room with the door shut from the inside. (Photo: Representational Image) Amethi (UP): A 50-year-old man allegedly killed 10 members of his family in Amethi of Uttar Pradesh, including 9 young girls, before hanging himself to death. According to reports, the bodies were found inside the familys home with their throats slit. Jamaludeen allegedly gave a sedative to the family after dinner on Tuesday night, calling it a medicine for good health during the winter season. After the drug took effect, Jamaludeen killed everyone sleeping in the verandah, including his daughters and nieces aged between five and 17, reports said. Jamaludeens 40-year-old second wife Zahida and daughter Afsaar, 20, were unhurt as they were sleeping in another room with the door shut from the inside. Samsudeen and Raees, the unemployed younger brothers of Jamaludeen, as well as Raees wife survived as they were not at home. Among the dead were Jamaludeens five other daughters Tabassum, Afreen, Mariam, Sania and Ujma, said reports. Samsudeens 35-year-old wife Hussaina Bano, their daughters Rubina and Tahseen, and Raeess daughters Mahek and Nijar Fatima were also killed. After killing his family members, Jamaludeen then committed suicide, alleged his second wife and daughter. But discovery of two bloodstained butchers knives has made the police suspicious. Why would Jamaludeen use two draggers if he singlehandedly killed the children and his brothers wife before committing suicide, inspector general of police A Satish Ganesh was quoted as saying. Jamaludeens autopsy report would ascertain whether he too was killed and hung from the ceiling, the police said. Police will question the two women and Jamaludeens brothers to try to reconstruct the sequence of events and uncover the motive, said reports. His brothers claim that Jamaludeen, who ran a battery and gas refilling shop at his village in the Sukul Bazaar area, was prone to strange behaviour. However, police noted that he had strained relations with his brothers. A forensic team is due to arrive in Amethi from Lucknow, and an expert will be present during the postmortem examination of the bodies on Thursday, police said. New Delhi: Amid continuing outrage over mass molestation of women by wayward revellers in Bengaluru, a video of a mob running amok and attacking policemen with stones after they prevented two men from assaulting a woman on New Year's Eve in New Delhi surfaced on Thursday. Police said almost 1,200-1,500 students have been questioned till now in connection with the incident that took place at Mukherjee Nagar in northwest Delhi on the night of December 31. Two men in yellow and blue jackets tried to pull down a woman riding pillion on a motorbike near Batra Cinemas, investigators said. Noticing the incident, police cautioned the two men, who appeared drunk, against indulging in hooliganism, the police said, adding CCTV footage shows the incident occurred between 11-11.15 pm. The two men fled after the police intervention. Police tried to explain to a few youths standing there that they should celebrate New Year but not at others peril. They should not misbehave with women who are passing through the area, said a policeman present on the spot. After the two men fled, a large group of students came and allegedly started pelting the policemen with stones, forcing them to take shelter in a police booth. Mukherjee Nagar is a hub for students who prepare for competitive examinations like UPSC, banking and others, and it is suspected the two accused and those in the mob they later brought with them were students living in the area. Puducherry: A senior bureaucrat in Puducherry has been suspended from service by Lt Governor Kiran Bedi on charges of posting obscene videos in WhatsApp group formed by Ms Bedi to interact with senior officials of the administration. A.S. Sivakumar, senior Puducherry civil service officer and registrar of cooperative society, was suspended on Friday. The administrator of the group, Officer of Special Duty (OSD) Amrita Behl, on noticing the video, reported it to Bedi, who later made an official complaint to director general of police S.K. Gautam. Ms Bedi on knowing the issue immediately issued the suspension order. Sivakumar was confined in the office of senior superintendent of law and order (SSP (L&O)) since Friday evening for inquiry and released by Saturday afternoon. At the same time the ruling party in the state is furious on the Lt Governor for taking action against the officer bypassing the government and without the knowledge of the Chief Minister. Congress MLAs led by K Lakshminarayanan gathered in front of office of SSP (L&O) seeking the explanation and release of the official. The officer mistakenly sent a link to the WhatsApp group and he immediately apologised for this, said Mr Lakshminarayanan. "The Lt Governor on knowing the issue directly called the SSP and forced him to take immediate action against the official, which cannot be justified. He was confined in police custody for the whole night," Mr Lakshminarayanan told Deccan Chronicle. "How could the governor take decision without the knowledge of the Chief Minister and without following the official procedures of issuing a suspension order to a government official," he said. The whole officialdom in the state is against the autocratic decision of the governor, said Mr Lakshminarayanan. Till December 18, 2016 was one of the bloodiest years for the security forces as they suffered more casualties than in the last eight years since 2008. (Photo: Representational Image) Srinagar: 2016 turned out to be one of the bloodiest years for security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's history though they managed to eliminate some top militant commanders including Hizbul Mujahideen's Burhan Wani. Wani was the poster boy of militancy in the Valley and attracted many youth to Hizbul Mujahideen and his killing was seen as a big achievement for the forces. But his killing sparked violent protests in the Valley which continued for over four months. Till December 18, 2016 was one of the bloodiest years for the security forces as they suffered more casualties than in the last eight years since 2008. In 2008, 90 security forces personnel were killed in the state and while the numbers showed a declining trend till the year 2012 when they suffered 17 fatalities, the casualties increased in 2013 to 61. In 2014, the casualties decreased to 51 which went further down the next year to 41. However, in 2016, 87 security forces personnel were killed in militancy-related incidents in the state, according to official data. A total of 165 militants were also killed in 2016, which is the highest in the last six years. In 2015, 113 militants were killed in security forces actions. The first major attack of 2016 was on February 21, when three militants stormed Entrepreneurship Development Institute (EDI) at Pampore after attacking a CRPF convoy on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway, killing two CRPF men. The gun-fight lasted 48 hours and security forces killed all three militants but two army captains, one para commando, two Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel and a civilian were also killed. The EDI campus was the scene of another major attack later in the year when two militants stormed it on October 10 and engaged the security forces for 56 hours before they were killed. One army jawan was injured in the gunbattle. Pampore turned into a battle-ground once again on June 25 when militants ambushed CRPF convoy at Frestbal area on the National Highway. The militants fired indiscriminately at the CRPF bus killing eight paramilitary troopers and injuring 20 others. Two militants were also killed in the exchange of fire. June saw massive casualties inflicted both on security forces as well as militants. While 24 militants were killed that month, the highest in a single month in 2016, 15 security forces personnel also lost their lives in militant actions. The month of September, however, was the deadliest in 2016 when 24 security forces personnel were killed militancy- related incidents in the state. Twenty-two militants were also killed by the security forces. Nineteen were killed in a single attack on September 18 when a fidayeen group attacked an Army infantry battalion near Line of Control (LoC) in Uri area of north Kashmir's Baramulla District. Four militants were also killed in the encounter. Eleven days after the Uri attack, the army, for the first time, made it public that its special forces crossed the LoC into Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir and destroyed several militant camps in which over 40 ultras and their sympathisers were killed. However, two months after the surgical strikes, another fidayeen attack happened on November 29 in Jammu region when three militants stormed an Artillery Unit of the Army at Nagrota. Seven Army soldiers, including two Majors, and three militants were killed. In December, militants once again struck at Srinagar-Jammu national highway when on December 17 they attacked an army convoy at a crowded place at Pampore, killing three soldiers and injuring two others. There were 104 ceasefire violations, 92 at LoC and 12 at International Border in which 13 security forces were killed besides 14 civilians. New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders of the West Bengal unit will meet Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday to lodge protest against the vandalising of its party headquarters office in the state by the Trinamool Congress (TMC) workers. BJP leaders Siddharth Nath Singh, Kailash Vijayvargiya, along with other state leaders will meet Singh at 1 pm. The TMC workers and their student wing have thrown West Bengal into turmoil as a mark of protest against the arrest of MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay in connection with the Rose Valley chit-fund scam. The National Highway 2 was blockade on Wednesday. Agitation continued in front of BJP state office in central Kolkata and processions were out on the street. The TMC has alleged that the arrest is an example of 'vendetta politics' by the Narendra Modi government at the Centre. The Central Bureau of Investigation earlier on January 3 arrested Bandyopadhyay in connection with alleged scam. Another party MP Tapas Paul was arrested by CBI last Friday in the same case. Srinagar: General Bipin Rawat on Thursday began a 3-day visit of strategically important Jammu and Kashmir, his first outside New Delhi after taking over as 27th chief of the 1.3 million strong Indian Army earlier this month. Gen Rawat who has served in J&K at the head of a brigade and a division and also commanded a counterinsurgency Rashtriya Rifles sector in the restive Valley, the experience that gave him the edge and was chosen as new Army Chief over two senior officers, is scheduled to visit all the three regions of the border state the Valley, Jammu and Ladakh- besides the Line of Control (LoC) and Siachen glacier. Defence spokesman, Colonel NN Joshi said that the Army Chief will hold security review meetings with senior local commanders at the headquarters of Northern Command in Udhampur and Srinagar-based 15 Corps also known as Chinar Corps and Nagrota (Jammu)-based 16 Corps. He will also be visiting Army formations in Kupwara, Anantnag, Akhnoor and Rajouri where he will be briefed about the prevailing security situations in the respective areas. At the LoC, he is scheduled to meet and interact with officers and jawans of the Army and obtain facts of the operational preparedness along the de facto border which has recently seen increasing incidence of skirmishes between facing troops and infiltration bids by militants. The Army had in September last year carried out surgical strikes across the LoC and Gen. Rawat soon after taking over as the new Army Chief on January 1 had said that it will not hesitate in doing it again to wipe out anti-India terror infrastructure across the border. He, however, said that any such future action will of different manner and different style and that We will surprise the enemy. The Army under him in all probability will also act harder against the militants in the hinterland and while doing so try to benefit from the experiences Gen Rawat has gained over the years after remaining actively involved in counterinsurgency campaign in the Valley, the sources in the Army said. Soon after his arrival at the Northern Command headquarters, Gen Rawat lauded the role of the command towards restoring peace and normalcy in the Valley which witnessed worst civil unrest in many years in the aftermath of the killing of militant commander Burhan Wani, Col. Joshi said. He also commended the soldiers for strongly responding to the unprovoked ceasefire violations by Pakistan, he added. Col. Joshi quoted the Army Chief as saying, Every soldier of our Army plays an important role towards security of the nation because it is the contribution of every soldier that makes the Army efficient and strong. The spokesman added, He (Gen. Rawat) emphasised that we need to evolve a dynamic strategy to handle the proxy war and defeat enemy's nefarious designs. The Army Chief is also likely to hold one-on-one meetings with Governor, N.N. Vohra, and Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti. Bengaluru: Assuring that they would show no mercy to those violating the dignity of a woman, the Bengaluru police on Thursday said that four of the six men accused of stalking and molesting a woman in Kammanahalli area on New Year have been arrested. Read: Today naked women called modern: SP leader Abu Azmi on B'luru molestation Revealing details of those arrested, Bengaluru police commissioner Praveen Sood told the media in a press conference, A group of 6 people planned the attack. The main accused Aiyappa is an ITI student and also works as a delivery boy. He did not have any connection with the victim other than that they stayed close by. Two other accomplices have also been identified, and will be arrested soon. Read: Molestation row: 'It happens,' says Ktaka HM; NCW chief demands ouster The three other men arrested include a driver, helper, a delivery boy. Read: People defended my attacker, said it happens: B'luru molestation victim The accused were stalking the victim for days, and after partying on the account of New Year, they planned to follow her and molest her, Sood said. He also warned that they would take stringent action against culprits if such a situation repeats itself. Read: Bengaluru mass molestation: 45 cams, 2 minute feed, 0 evidence Thanking a resident of the area for coming forward with video evidence regarding the case, Sood said that a suo moto case was registered on January 3, as he did not find the need to talk to the victim. Read: B'luru: Men on scooter molest woman on New Year; 4 suspects arrested What we saw in the video convinced us beyond all doubt that this was a heinous crime and we did not waste time to look for the victim or contact her. We immediately constituted a team and they were working continuously for 48 hours, he said. Read: Watch: Akshay lashes out at people blaming women for B'luru molestation Leno, the main attacker, belongs to the same locality as the woman who was assaulted. (Photo: Videograb) Bengaluru: The Bengaluru police on Thursday arrested four of the 12 persons detained a day earlier in connection with the sexual assault of a woman on New Years Day in Kammanahalli in the city. According to a report in the Indian Express, the main attacker in the case, a man named Leno, has also been arrested. #Correction #CaughtonCam: Two scooter-borne men molest a girl in Kammanahalli area in Bengaluru (Source: Unverified) pic.twitter.com/fAKPfMkoOz ANI (@ANI_news) January 4, 2017 Leno, a BCom student belongs to the same locality as the woman who was assaulted. The three others arrested in the case are Ayyappa, Raju and Chinnu. According to the police, Ayyappa had waited on a scooter while Leno molested and assaulted the girl on Sunday morning around 2:30 am. All the accused are residents of east Bengaluru and had interacted with the victim on different occasions, said the report. One of them is a courier delivery person and the other works at a hotel. The victim, a student hailing from the Northeast, has given her statement to the police, the report said. However, she is yet to lodge a complaint. The incident was captured on a CCTV camera installed by one of the residents of the locality, who informed the police. More arrests are likely in the case, said the police. New Delhi: The Modi-led government's demonetization drive may lead to temporary slowdown of the economy, warned President Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday. Demonetization, while immobilizing black money & fighting corruption, may lead to temporary slowdown of the economy, Mukherjee said. He asked the government to look into the grievances of the poor that may have arisen from the move. We all will have to be extra careful to alleviate the suffering of the poor, he said. He said that while he appreciates the thrust on transition from entitlement approach to an entrepreneurial one for poverty alleviation, he is not too sure that the "poor can wait that long". "They need to get succour here and now so that they can also participate actively in the national march toward a future devoid of hunger, unemployment and exploitation," the President said. President Mukherjee was one of the first leaders in the country to welcome the bold step taken by the government in November and had said that it would help unearth unaccounted money as well as counterfeit currency. The government on November 9 demonetised old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes worth Rs 15.44 lakh crore, 86 per cent of the total currency in circulation. The Reserve Bank is believed to have received deposits close to Rs 15 lakh crore during the 50-day demonetization exercise that ended on December 30. Hyderabad: A top Indian Army official on Thursday said the "discourse" in Jammu and Kashmir is shifting to "primacy of Islam over Azadi" adding to complexities in dealing with sectarian faultlines in the border state. "...Jammu and Kashmir indeed continues to be a challenge and it's being dealt with; it's getting a little more complex as slowly the discourse, as indeed the entire thrust, is taking a shift towards a primacy of Islam over Azadi. So, that clearly adds a fairly complex dynamic to stabilising the nation as it were," Deputy Chief of Army Staff (Planning & Systems), Lieutenant General Subrata Saha, said. He has also served as General Officer Commanding 15 Corps, Srinagar. He was speaking at a seminar on "leveraging defence expenditure as a tool for nation building", organised by the College of Defence Management here. Giving a case study on Jammu and Kashmir vis-a-vis annual defence expenditure in border areas, Lt. Gen Saha said about Rs 7,516 crore are being spent every year on border roads, infrastructure and other operational works in that State. Noting that the annual budget of Jammu and Kashmir is Rs 64,669 crore, he said "approximately 12 per cent (or Rs 7516 crore, which is more than double the most revenue-generating power development department in the State at Rs 3,674 crore) addition to the State budget happens because of Armed Forces". Jammu and Kashmir has a population of 1.42 crore. About 2.6 lakh Armed Forces personnel deployed in the state contribute 12 per cent of state budget. "So, that's the kind of financial contribution of the Armed Forces into a border State, as it were," Gen Saha added. ANANTAPUR: Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidus security personnel and Anantapur police, along with senior Telugu Desam leaders, had an embarrassing situation on Wednesday after the special party team noticed 200 gelatin sticks beneath a culvert of Kothacheruvu in between Puttaparthi and Bukkapatnam, where the Chief Minister was scheduled to travel by road to take part in Janmabhoomi programme in Anantapur district. As per schedule, the CM was to arrive Puttaparthi on special aircraft and reach Bukkapatnam mandal headquarters via Kothacheruvu, which takes about 20 minutes of travel. Just few hours before the schedule, police teams noticed a suspicious bag beneath a culvert on the outskirts of Kothacheruvu mandal headquarters and alerted the higher authorities after they found outdated gelatin sticks in the bag. The entire road was blocked and bomb squads and sniffer dog squads were pressed into service for further through inspection of entire road. After the verification, the police authorities came to a conclusion that the explosive material was procured by contractors of Handri Neeva Sujala Shravanthi Irrigation and Drinking water project. PhaseII works of the project pass through hill areas as contractors were using gelatin sticks to blast the hard stones to clear path for the canal. Soon after the completion of canal and structure works, the contractors might have thrown out the gelatin sticks those were expired, but it created havoc for entire police department, senior official told DC. In the wake of rumours of recce by Maoists, the Intelligence wing had alerted the state police over possible movements by the Maoists who were trying for retaliation after the recent big encounter in the state borders closer to Vizag rural district. Further, Anantapur was previously a stronghold for Maoist groups and Puttaparthi-Bukkapatnam area had strong base because of vast hill area. Police tightened security and did not permit even motor cycles to ply the Puttaparthi-Bukkapatnam stretch till the Chief Ministers programme ended. Naidu to lay stone for Purushottapatnam scheme Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu will lay the foundation stone for construction of Purushottapatnam lift irrigation scheme on Godavari river to pump water to meet the drinking and industrial needs of people in Visakhapatnam, at Padagaya of Pitapuram mandal in East Godavari on Thursday. Taking a cue from successful execution of Pattiseema lift irrigation scheme on Godavari river at Pattiseema village of Polavaram mandal in West Godavari to pump water to Krishna delta, the state government is taking up Purushottapatnam lift irrigation scheme at a cost of about Rs 1,600 crore to pump about nearly 3,500 cusecs of Godavari water to Visakhapatnam. The project caters to the irrigation needs of command area of Yeleru Canal and Pitapuram Branch Canal spread over in about 70,000 hectares. The CM will arrive at Ramachandrapuram at 10 am and inaugurate RDO office, RDOs camp office and Sthree Sakthi Bhavan. At about 3 pm, he will address a public meeting. New Delhi: Showing strong resentment against the pre-polling of the budget session, the Congress on Thursday asserted that the government would misuse the opportunity and would try to allure the voters. "This gives unfair advantage to the government. It will influence the voters. It is clear that the government will misuse the budget presentation and the President's Address to both the houses of parliament which is customary to make announcements, popular schemes, and also try to allure the voters," Congress leader Anand Sharma told ANI. Knocking the door of the Election Commission, Sharma informed that opposition parties in unison have written to President Pranab Mukherjee and the Chief Election Commissioner. "We have jointly represented to the Rashtrapati ji that pre-polling of the presentation of budget should not be allowed. Opposition parties have also written to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and communication has been sent to the representation, to the Election Commission as a whole," he said. Reiterating their demand of delaying the budget presentation, Sharma said it is important to accept this request. "It is important that the request of the opposition is accepted and the presentation of the budget is delayed until the polling in all the states is over," he added. A united opposition will visit the office of the Election Commission today to discuss about the date of the Budget Session. "Trinamool, Congress, SP, BSP, JDU, RJD & some other Oppn parties to meet Election Commission 11am. Subject : budget date too close to polls," TMC Rajya Sabha MP Derek O'Brien tweeted. Hyderabad: Nearly USD 14 billion worth of defence offset obligations would be discharged in India by foreign original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) by 2028, MoS for Defence Subhash R Bhamre said on Thursday, and indicated that the country envisages to reduce the defence budget by 50 per cent within a decade. He said the defence industry has the potential to become a huge foreign exchange earner and also lead the country to its professed goal of self-reliance. "Nearly USD 14 billion worth of defence offset obligations will be discharged by the foreign OEMs by 2028," he said while delivering the inaugural address at seminar Leveraging defence expenditure as a tool for nation building organised by College of Defence Management. He noted that India has the 3rd largest armed forces in the world and spends approximately 40 per cent of its total defence budget on capital acquisitions, and about 60 per cent of defence requirements are met through imports. "The present government has emphasised on indigenous manufacturing to reduce the defence budget by 50 per cent within a decade," the Union minister said. "There is an urgent need for innovation in the defence manufacturing sector with increased focus on R&D and to prepare a pool of human resource expertise which will help in making equipment and technologies cheaper," he said. Thanks to the Centre's 'Make in India' campaign, the defence sector has moved from the periphery to the core of Indian manufacturing, he pointed out. "The sector not only has the potential to augment manufacturing but also add nearly one million direct and indirect jobs," Bhamre said. He also said the government is taking steps to bring in a framework that encourages collaboration between public and private sector companies for defence export based on public private partnership model. "The DPSUs (Defence Public Sector Undertakings) and private sector should also put in place a system to share the capability and capacity to support overseas sales, servicing and maintenance throughout the life of the product," he said. Pointing out that the human resource capacity in the private sector has already demonstrated its worth in fields of automobile, IT and service sectors at global platform, he said the government is trying to replicate the same model by inducing private sector and foreign OEMs to invest in defence manufacturing. During the high level discussions, it was mutually agreed to further streamlining the procedure for release and repatriation of fishermen. (Photo: Representational Image) New Delhi: Indian and Lanka Coast Guard on Wednesday discussed various measures for the release and repatriation of arrested fishermen among other cooperation in the maritime security scenario. A three member delegation led by Director General Sri Lanka Coast Guard (SLCG) Rear Admiral Samantha Wimalathunge, is on a three day visit to India from Wednesday for talks with the Indian Coast Guard. The Indian delegation was led by coast Guard chief Rajendra Singh. The visit was in continuation of the various efforts by the two governments in furthering cooperation between the coast guards of two countries on maritime issues of mutual concerns to formulate a cooperative approach, a statement by the Indian Coast Guard said. Of late the Lankan Coast Guard has been proactive in meeting the challenges in the new global safety and security regime in this region, the statement said. The focus of the meeting was on further strengthening the operational level interaction for search and rescue, preservation & protection of marine environment, revalidating operational & communication procedures between the two coast guards. Lankan delegation also called on the Defence Secretary G Mohan Kumar and deliberated on issues of common maritime interests. During the high level discussions, it was mutually agreed to strengthen the cooperation on evolving collaborative approach, in addressing a spectrum of maritime issues concerning safety and security and further streamlining the procedure for release and repatriation of fishermen, the statement said. Bengaluru: Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara Rao on Thursday claimed that his comments on the Bengaluru mass molestation incident on New Years Eve had been taken out of context. "Bengaluru has always been peaceful for women. My quote about the New Year's eve molestation incident has been interpreted out of context. I haven't said Bengaluru incident is as expected. My reference was that these kinds of New Year celebrations go on," he said. Parameshwara said incidents like the one that took place on New Year must not bring bad name to Bengaluru. He added that the state administration had taken all precautions to ensure that no untoward incident takes place on the day. "Security was clear. Around 70 cameras were allotted there. Woman staff and senior officers were also at the spot. The DCP, Additional Commissioner, all were there," he added. Responding to the NCW's notice against him over his objectionable remark, Parameshwara said that he would reply to them and also put forth his views before the Governor, who has asked for a report. We will increase CCTV installation in the city. 5000 CCTVs will be installed. We will also increase number of Dial 100 24/7 helplines from 15 to 100, he added. On Monday, Parameshwara said, "Unfortunately, what is happening is that on days like New Year's, Brigade Road, Commercial Street, or MG road, a large number of youngsters gather. And youngsters were almost like westerners. They tried to copy the westerners, not only in their mindset but even in their dressing. So some disturbance, some girls are harassed, these kind of things do happen." NCW demanded that the Minister apologise to the women of the country for making such remarks. "Such remarks from the Home Minister are unacceptable and regrettable. I want to ask this Minister are Indian men so pathetic and weak that when they see a woman in Western clothes on a day of revelry, they get out of control?, she asked. "When will the Indian men learn to respect women? The Minister should apologise to the women of the country and resign," Kumaramangalam added. Policemen cane revellers who gathered at MG Road and Brigade Road to celebrate New Year (Photo: DC) Bengaluru: Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara Rao on Thursday claimed that his comments on the Bengaluru mass molestation incident on New Years Eve had been taken out of context. My quote about the alleged molestation incident on New Years Eve has been interpreted out of context, the minister said. NCW has summoned me. I will reply to them. I will also reply to the Governor who has asked for a report, he added. "Unfortunately, what is happening is that on days like New Year's, Brigade Road, Commercial Street, or MG road, a large number of youngsters gather. And youngsters were almost like westerners. They tried to copy the westerners, not only in their mindset but even in their dressing. So some disturbance, some girls are harassed, these kind of things do happen," Parameshwara said on Monday. NCW demanded that the Minister apologise to the women of the country for making such remarks. "Such remarks from the Home Minister are unacceptable and regrettable. I want to ask this Minister are Indian men so pathetic and weak that when they see a woman in Western clothes on a day of revelry, they get out of control?, she asked. "When will the Indian men learn to respect women? The Minister should apologise to the women of the country and resign," Kumaramangalam added. Jammu: Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat will on Thursday visit Jammu and Kashmir in his first official trip after taking over as India's 27th Chief of Army Staff. According to top army sources, he will be visiting army formation in Jammu. This will be his median tour to J&K after taking over as new army chief. Gen Rawat last week took over as the chief of the 1.3 million strong Indian Army succeeding Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag, who retired after 42 years of service. Gen Rawat superseded two senior most Lt Generals, Praveen Bakshi and P M Hariz. Rawat was commissioned in the Fifth Battalion of the Eleven Gorkha Rifles in December 1978 from IMA, Dehradun. He was awarded the 'Sword of Honour' at the academy. Gen Rawat has vast experience in high altitude warfare and counter-insurgency operations. He commanded an infantry battalion, along the Line of Actual Control in the Eastern Sector, a Rashtriya Rifles Sector and an Infantry Division in the Kashmir Valley, a Corps in the Eastern theatre and the Southern Command. Gen Rawat has held important staff appointments at Directorate General of Military Operations and Military Secretary's Branch at Army HQ. Patna: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday praised Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for his decision to ban liquor in the state. "I want to thank Nitish Kumar on one thing. I congratulate him for implementing prohibition. Social change is a very tough thing to achieve. Yet he has shown remarkable ability in implementing prohibition. I want to tell everyone in Bihar that it is not only Nitish's job but of the whole society to do so. And if Bihar is successful in this then the whole country will be inspired," the Prime Minister said at Gandhi Maidan in Patna. The PM was speaking at Prakash Parv, an event held in Patna on Thursday to mark the 350th birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh. Returning the praise, Kumar said, Our Prime Minister was Chief Minister of Gujarat for 12 years and he implemented prohibition of liquor very effectively. With his remarks, the PM seems to have returned the favour to Nitish Kumar, who broke ranks with the Opposition to praise the demonetisation programme. "In the beginning, people might face some inconvenience but taking everything into account, it would yield positive results," Kumar said in November, days after Modi had banned Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes. Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi, along with Election Commissioners Achal Kumar Jyoti and Om Prakash Rawat, announcing poll schedule for five states. (Photo: PTI) New Delhi: Opposition leaders from the Congress, Trinamool Congress (TMC), DMK, Janata Dal (United) and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) visited the Election Commission Thursday to protest why the Union Budget was being announced before the Assembly elections in five states. The Opposition requested the EC to ensure that the Budget is held after polls in five states - Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur - conclude on March 8. Populist measures could be taken in the Budget, so a just and fair election cannot be held, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad said to ANI after meeting EC officials. We demand that the Budget be presented after March 8, which is when polling for elections will be over, he added. Trinamool Congress, Congress, SP, BSP, JD(U), and some other Opposition parties to meet Election Commission at 11 am. Subject: budget date too close to polls," TMC MP Derek O'Brien tweeted earlier. "Three from Trinamool to be part of Opposition party delegation to meet Election Commissioner in Delhi: Derek O'Brien, Dinesh Trivedi, Saugato Roy," he added. The Budget session of the Parliament will begin from February 1. The session is being advanced as the government wants early allocation of funds for various schemes-- from April 1, the beginning of the financial year. The Election Commission on Wednesday announced seven-phase polling for 403 assembly constituencies in the politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, two-phase polling in Manipur and one-phase polling each in the states of Punjab, Uttarakhand and Goa respectively. Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi said that the counting of votes in all the five states will take place on March 11. But the ruling NDA seemed to be in no mood to defer it even after the Election Commission (EC) announced the poll schedule on Wednesday. Moving away from the tradition of presenting the Budget on February 28, the Centre had on Tuesday officially advanced the day to February 1. While there were apprehensions that the Budget could influence voters if presented before the conclusion of the elections in March, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley claimed on Wednesday evening that there is no requirement for a delay. Bracing for a showdown with the Centre on the issue, the Opposition parties on Wednesday asked the EC to prevent the government from presenting the Budget before the conclusion of the elections. Claiming that the Budget could influence voters, BSP chief Mayawati requested the EC to instruct the Centre to present the Budget only after completion of polling in all the five states in March. The EC should instruct the central government not to present the Budget on February 1, and just as 2012, it be presented only after the completion of polling on March 8, she said. In 2012, the UPA government had deferred the Union Budget to March 16 when the same five states Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur went to polls. Chief election commissioner (CEC) Naseem Zaidi said that the EC would examine the representations made by the political parties. That the government is not willing to budge became somewhat evident as Mr Jaitley pointed out that even in 2014 the Budget was presented before the polls. Reacting to the Opposition charges, Mr Jaitley said that these are the same parties which say there has been no positive effect of demonetisation so why are they worried about date of the Budget. Former Chief Election Commissioner T.S. Krishnamurthy and N. Goapalswamy told the media that the Union budget would have to be cut to a vote-on-account only if this was a Lok Sabha election. T.S. Krishnamurthy pointed out that any sops announced for the country without being specific to the poll-bound states will not violate the model code of conduct code which came into effect on Wednesday. Opposing the Centres move to present the Budget on February 1, the Congress maintained that since Independence, the Budget was traditionally presented on February 28. Fearing defeat and leaving aside the good traditions of Parliament, Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to present the Budget before the elections, Congress spokesman Ajoy Kumar said. He pointed out that in 2012, the BJP had raised objections on the same grounds, and the then UPA government had only presented a vote-on-account. Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad also wrote a letter to the CEC in which he said, It is a collective and serious concern of the Opposition parties that advancing the presentation of the Budget will provide an opportunity to the government to make populist announcements to influence voters. Rahul Gandhi had alleged a fortnight back that Modi as Gujarat Chief Minister had taken money from Sahara and Birla groups and had demanded an independent inquiry into it. (Photo: PTI) New Delhi: Latching on to an order from I-T settlement authority giving relief to Sahara Group, Rahul Gandhi on Thursday demanded an inquiry into Sahara diaries asking Prime Minister Narendra Modi why he fears such a probe. "Immunity for Sahara or immunity for Modiji? If your conscience is clear Modiji why fear investigation?", the Congress Vice President tweeted. Gandhi's tweet came close on the heels of a media report which said Income Tax Settlement Commission (ITSC) has granted Sahara immunity from prosecution and penalty following raids conducted on November 2014 during which the purported "diaries" listing alleged pay-offs to politicians were recovered. Significantly, the ITSC has concurred with Sahara's claim that the "evidentiary value" of the "loose sheets" recovered during the raids "could not be proved" by the Income Tax Department, according to the report. The report claimed that the order showed that the ITSC had earlier rejected the application of the company and then on September 5, 2016 re-admitted it. Gandhi had alleged a fortnight back that Modi as Gujarat Chief Minister had taken money from Sahara and Birla groups and had demanded an independent inquiry into it, a charge BJP rejected as an attempt to divert attention from AgustaWestland probe in which the names of Congress leaders and the "family" were coming up. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a petition filed by expelled AIADMK MP seeking a CBI enquiry into late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaas death. An apex court bench headed by Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose and also comprising Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman dismissed the petition filed by Pushpa after not finding any merit in it. The lawyer appearing for Pushpa told the division bench of the apex court that Jayalalithaa was doing fine and suddenly the news of her death was given. Last month, Pushpa moved the Supreme Court seeking a CBI probe or a judicial investigation by an apex court judge into the death of J Jayalalithaa. In her petition, Pushpa alleged that Jayalalithaa's death was "suspicious" as her actual medical condition was not disclosed, no one was allowed to visit her, her funeral photographs showed embalming marks and everything from her hospitalisation to her death "was kept under wraps". The Rajya Sabha MP sought directions to the Centre, the Tamil Nadu government and Apollo Hospital, where Jayalalithaa was hospitalised, to disclose details of her health report and treatment in a sealed cover to the apex court. Earlier, a Chennai-based NGO Telugu Yuva Sakshi filed a Public interest Litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court for a CBI probe into Jayalalithaa's death and recovery of all medical documents. The Madras high court on Monday rejected another suit filed by expelled AIADMK Rajya Sabha MP Sasikala Pushpa seeking to restrain the party from unlawfully and arbitrarily appointing V.K. Sasikala, a close aide of the former Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa, as general secretary of the party. Justice K.Kalyanasundaram allowed the application filed by AIADMK party presidium Chairman and former minister E.Madhusoodhanan seeking to reject the suit filed by Sasikala Pushpa to restrain the party from appointing V.K.Sasikala as General Secretary of the party. The judge struck off the plaint filed by Sasikala Pushpa and her husband Lingeswara Thilagam. State Womens Commission has recorded 935 crimes against women in 20 different categories, including sexual, mental and physical abuse in Karnataka in 2016. Could they have all been related to womens attire? The sheen is fast wearing off Bengalurus progressive IT city image and its so-called globalisation seems merely skin deep. To its shame, a large number of its women, accustomed to going to its many restaurants and clubs, were molested and groped by men as they ventured out to celebrate and usher in the New Year. The message sent is disturbing: A woman is not safe anywhere on the city's streets, whether it is on a crowded M G Road on New Years eve or on an empty street in Kammanahalli, where a woman had to suffer being roughed up and molested as if she was a plaything , not worthy of respect. Wearing the sheen off even more, Home Minister, G Parameshwar blamed it all on the womens attempts to copy western attire and culture. Samajwadi Party leader, Abu Azmi, went even further, saying crimes of a sexual nature were inevitable if women wore short dresses and thought nudity was fashion. Read | Guest column: Gang rape is heard of, but not mass molestation Sadly neither politician seems to be aware of the facts. The State Womens Commission has recorded 935 crimes against women in 20 different categories, including sexual, mental and physical abuse in Karnataka in 2016. And the year saw 276 cases of domestic violence, 52 cases of dowry harassment and 58 cases of sexual harassment at the workplace. Could they have all been related to women's attire? "It is a woman's prerogative to wear what she like, go where she wants, and drink what she likes. That has no relation to crimes of sexual nature," asserts, Ms Nagalaxmi, chairperson of the State Women's Commission. Infographics Secretary of the commission, Kavitha S, reveals that in most cases the perpetrator is not a stranger to the victim. It could be a neighbour, a relative, a lover or a colleague. Sexual harrassment at the workplace is more often than not done by a boss or a senior. They ask the women employees to sleep with them for promotions, refuse to issue a relieving letter when a woman is trying to quit her job, or not pay her salary for months on end, while touching her and passing lewd remarks," she says, adding that such cases of harassment are common to both private companies and government offices. "These incidents happen every other day, be it eve teasing or groping. It has become as regular as having breakfast," says a disgusted Bengaluru woman, Ashruti Anand. Recalling her own experience, she recounts, "I was standing on the footpath in Koramangala waiting for a friend when three men on a bike, who seemed drunk, passed by. One of them groped my butt. I would have turned around and slapped him, but I did not know which one of them had done it . How am I supposed to defend myself or complain?" It is 2017 and we still face social stigma. Women think about their familys reputation, what society will think and so on before complaining. I do not understand how clothing is relevant to this. I have friends who have been groped while wearing kurtas and dupattas in markets, ATMs and other places. It is upsetting that politicians casually dismiss such things, says another indignant city girl, Priya Jain. The helplessness of women in the face of such abuse is all the more glaring as the women, who have been asked to register complaints against their molesters on MG Road on New Years eve, can hardly be expected to pinpoint them in the chaos all around. The State Womens Commission is not giving up, however, and has instructed the police commissioner to send CCTV footage from the cameras on Brigade Road and MG Road to help it identify as many of them as possible. We will review the footage from all the cameras to see what happened to the women on the night of December 31. Once we get evidence of molestation on video, we will file a case suo moto. There are around 66 cameras that have recorded footage, explains Ms Nagalaxmi. The commission is also planning to issue circulars to all police stations asking them to handle complaints by women sensitively. No use of CCTV without a supervisor Pointing out that the policemen supposedly watching the CCTV recordings were not able to spot those responsible for molesting women in the crowd on MG Road on New Years eve and come to their rescue, womens rights activist, Donna Fernandes demands angrily, What is the use of CCTV cameras if no one is supervising them? The police have asked the women to complain, but against who is the question. If the laws fail to scare molesters or rapists, what is the use of having them? Also, the police do not register a womans complaint of sexual assault as a cognizable offence. She has to narrate her story a 100 times to the sentry, desk officer, police officer, senior inspector and so on. In her view the police fail to handle complaints of domestic abuse by women sensitively as well. They usually invite the husband to the station to talk to him forgetting that they are putting a vulnerable woman in front of her aggressor. Imagine how scary that is. At the end of it, they dont file a case, she adds , regretting that despite all the technology and hundreds of policemen it is the women who continue to feel afraid and not the criminals. But police commissioner, Praveen Sood, claims the police is on the track of the men who gave women a hard time on the streets on New Years eve. In a tweet, he said, As promised we have found credible evidence in a case of wrongful confinement, molestation and attempt to rob. An FIR has been registered and investigation is in process, though silently. Mumbai: Joining the opposition chorus, BJP's ally Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday appealed to President Pranab Mukherjee to not allow presentation of the Union Budget days ahead of elections to five states, a move that will not go down well with the Centre or Maharashtra government. The Sena president asked his party MPs to meet the President and request him to postpone the Budget beyond polls. Congress, Left, Samajwadi Party and some others have already represented to the Election Commission not to allow the Centre to present the Budget when the poll process would be on. "By making attractive announcements in the Budget, government can grab votes indirectly," Thackeray, whose party shares power with BJP both at the Centre and in Maharashtra, told a state-level gathering of Shiv Sena workers here. In remarks that would rub BJP the wrong way, Uddhav also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should not address any campaign rallies in the poll-bound states as he is the "PM of the country". "Also, the Prime Minister should not address campaign rallies (in the poll-bound states). PM is of the country and not of any party," Thackeray said. On prospects of alliance with BJP for Mumbai civic polls, he said Sena will not beg for seats. "It (alliance) will be on our terms and conditions. Shiv Sainiks' opinion will be considered while taking the decision," Uddhav said. He also slammed the NDA government over Ram temple issue and income tax raids on priests at temple town of Trimbakeshwar near Nashik. He dared the IT department to conduct raids on holy places of other religions. Though Shiv Sena is the oldest ally of BJP, their alliance hit a rocky patch when the latter walked out of it just ahead of the last Maharashtra assembly elections. Though they later came together to form the government, bitterness endures. Hyderabad: The TS government has taken over the Rs 8,923 crore debt burden of ailing discoms to improve the power situation in state. Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao told the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday that the two discoms (TSSPDCL and TSNPDCL) in the state have a total debt burden of Rs 11,897 crore. To put the discoms back on track, the state government on Wednesday signed MoU in New Delhi to join the Centres Uday scheme and took over 75 per cent of debt burden as part of this, Mr Rao said. He said that TS had 2,700 MW of deficit when the state was formed in June 2014, but within two years it could add 5,039 MW, thus making it a power cut free state within five months. TSSPDCL has debt burden of Rs 7,392 crore and TSNPDCL Rs 4,505 crore, thanks to the lopsided power policies adopted by rulers in undivided AP, Mr Rao said. The CM said that by joining in Uday scheme on Wednesday, 75 per cent of debt burden will be paid by state government. The remaining Rs 2,974 crore will be given as bonds with government guarantee by discoms. With this, the discoms will become debt-free. There will no need for them to pay Rs 890 crore interest on loans every year. They will get an opportunity to seek fresh loans. This year, the state government is giving Rs 4,584 crore subsidy to discoms. All these measures are taken in the larger interest of consumers, Mr Rao said. The CM said that as on date, TS has power generation capacity of 10,902 MW against 5,863 MW when the state was formed in June 2014. In these 10,902 MW, the power from hydel, solar and wind sources comprise 3,531 MW. But these are not much dependable. That means, the reliable power availability is only 7,371 MW. As on date, the power demand is 8,282 MW. This shows there is still a deficit of 1,000 MW. Despite this, we are able to supply quality power without any cuts across the state, he added. Mr Rao said the government was going ahead with the objective of achieving power generation of 5,880 MW through the newly-planned Bhadradri, Yadadri, Kothagudem power plants. He said that 4,000 MW NTPC plant in Kothagudem will also come up in the state as promised in AP Reorganisation Act and the PM had laid the foundation for the first phase of this 1600 MW project in August last year. Interestingly, with the state joining Uday scheme, the state government needs to revise power charges once in three months as mandated in the scheme. Kolkata: Asserting that during the Communist Party of India (Marxist) rule there was free hand to goons, Union Minister of State and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Babul Supriyo on Thursday alleged that under the regime of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), hooliganism has been taken to another level. "This is their tradition. What is most unfortunate is that a female chief minister has given a free hand to TMC hooligans and has kept them safe. During CPM rule, the condition was same but TMC has taken it to another level," Supriyo told ANI. Supriyo also accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of tampering evidence related to Saradha and Rose Valley chit-fund scam. "I have been urging Mamata Banerjee since yesterday not to act childish saying 'arrest Babul Supriyo, arrest Sujan Chakraborty.' You have been in politics since long. You never cooperated with central agencies. You got the evidence destroyed by police in the Khagragarh Blast...The SIT which Didi constituted was formed to destroyed the documents related to Saradha and Rose Valley. If Didi has evidence against us, why doesn't she produce them?" he added. In contrast to the BJP minister's claim of TMC goons attacking his home, the ruling party in Bengal termed the entire incident 'concoctive' and that the attackers belonged to the saffron party itself. TMC MLA Sovan Deb Chatterjee told ANI, "This is completely a blatant lie. There was no such attempt from the Trinamool Congress. The information which we have gathered agencies tell us that this is their concoctive story. They built up the story to come in the limelight. From the agencies (police) we have come to know that the boys who demonstrated the action were their own men." Deb asserted that if the TMC would initiate a fight, it would initiate it politically and would fight out with Prime Minister Narendra Modi instead of a 'tiny man' like Supriyo. "They appeared to be from Trinamool Congress but there was no such attempt as we don't believe in such actions...We will fight politically. We will fight Modi. He (Babul Supriyo) is a very tiny man as compared to Modi. So, we are going to fight out Modi. We are not going to fight out Babul Supriyo," he added. Supriyo on Wednesday alleged that TMC 'goons' tried to break into the apartment in Kolkata where his parents stay. He took to Twitter to vent out his ire. "TMC Goons trying 2 break into my Apartment in Kailash Bose Street where my MumDad are stayinga How shameful is this," Supriyo tweeted. New Delhi: Venting out its ire against the Centre's demonetisation move and the arrest of party MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay in the Rose Valley chit-fund scam, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Thursday took their protest to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and raised slogans of 'Modi hatao desh bachao'. The protesting TMC leaders were detained by the police. "We have gathered here to protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's demonetisation and the political vendetta against the Trinamool Congress. We are not concerned of what the BJP says. Our protest will go on," TMC leader Saugata Roy told the media here. Accusing the Centre of indulging in political vendetta, Roy earlier in the day said that his party wont be cowed down by the threats and actions of the BJP-led NDA regime and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). "Our protest is to show that we cannot be cowed down by the threats and the actions of the Central Government and the CBI. As far as West Bengal is concerned, there have been some spontaneous protests against the arrest of our Lok Sabha leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay. But our main movement is against demonetisation, which has harmed the common people and put them to terrible difficulty," he added. Meanwhile, a BJP delegation comprising of party leaders Kailash Vijaywargiya, Sidharth Nath Singh and Rahul Sinha met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to submit a memorandum against the alleged violence in West Bengal. The TMC workers yesterday blocked the National Highway-2 near Asansol in protest against the arrest of the TMC MP besides agitating in front of the BJP office in central Kolkata. The TMC has alleged that Bandyopadhyay's arrest is an example of 'vendetta politics' by the Centre. The CBI earlier on January 3 arrested Bandyopadhyay in connection with the Rose Valley chit-fund scam. This came after TMC MP and actor-politician Tapas Paul was arrested by the CBI in the same case. New Delhi: Citing a media report, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday claimed that properties worth Rs 15000 crore owned by Dawood Ibrahim, one of India's most wanted criminals, have been seized in the UAE on the basis of a dossier provided by the Indian government. "Major diplomatic success of PM Modi: One of India's most wanted criminals, Dawood Ibrahim's properties worth Rs. 15,000 crore seized in UAE," the official Twitter account of the party claimed. "Master stroke diplomacy by PM Narendra Modi hits at the right place. Prime Minister had handed handed over the list of his (Dawood's) assets to the UAE government during his 2015 visit and demanded action," a graphic put out by it said. The saffron party quoted a media report to make the claim. Efforts are on to bring Dawood to face law in India, it added. Dawood Ibrahim, 59, is believed to be hiding in Pakistan's Karachi and has been tracked by India for over two decades. The UN-designated terrorist is accused of plotting the 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai in which 257 people were killed. He is also accused of masterminding other terror attacks and faces multiple charges of money laundering and extortion. The mafia boss is also accused by India and the US of financing terror groups including al Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). Gorakhpur: Hailing the Supreme Court's ruling on no vote for religion, Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP) MP from Gorakhpur Yogi Adityanath has asserted that the provision needs more detailed explanation. "It is a welcome move and Representation of People's act ( RPA) already limits politicians from asking for votes on the basis of religion, but this provision needs to be explained," he said. Adityanath added that India's Constitution is secular and the practice of seeking vote on the basis of caste, creed, religion, community and language should be stopped. The Supreme Court, on Monday, in its verdict on 1995 Hindutva judgement said no politician can seek a vote in the name of caste, creed, or religion. The seven-judge constitution bench of the apex court further stated that election was a secular exercise and therefore, the process which follows it should also be adopted. "Election is a secular exercise and thereby its way and its process should be followed also. Function of an elected representative should be secular," it said. "Relationship between man and God is an individual choice and state is forbidden to such an activity," the apex court said further. Earlier, during the hearing by a seven judge Constitutional bench, the apex court had said that it won't reconsider 1995 judgment which defined Hindutva as "a way of life and not a religion." The observations came after an on interlocutory application filed by social activist Teesta Setalvad requested the bench to reconsider the 95 judgment. The bench, headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur, said the court will not go into the larger debate as to what is Hindutva or what its meaning is and will not reconsider the 1995 judgment. Lucknow: The Akhilesh Yadav faction of the Samajwadi Party has almost given up on the possibility of reconciliation in the party and has now started preparing to contest on its own. Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, on Thursday, met 206 legislators and got them to sign an affidavit, reposing faith in the party symbol (cycle) and his leadership. The Chief Minister, in another major development, has started preparing his manifesto, which will firmly focus on rural and urban youth. A team of leaders, led by UP minister Rajendra Chaudhary, have started preparing the manifesto of the party and the highlight of this will be free distribution of smart phones. The Akhilesh government had already asked people to register for the smartphones and sources said that over one crore registrations have been received so far. The Chief Minister has also asked his party MLAs to give feedback about local issues which could be included in the manifesto. The Chief Minister wants the manifesto to include something for every region. There could be incentives for indigenous industries like brassware in Moradabad, glassware in Ferozabad, lock units in Aligarh etc. He has asked us to provide the inputs within two days to the team that is preparing the manifesto, said a legislator. The manifesto will also highlight the welfare work done by the Akhilesh government in the past five years and important schemes that will find mention will include the distribution of laptops, Lucknow metro, Lucknow-Agra Expressway, Samajwadi pension scheme, 1090 women power line, Dial UP 100 scheme, 108 ambulance service and farmer insurance scheme. The idea is to tell the people how we have fulfilled all our promises made in the 2012 manifesto. This will give immense credibility to our new promises. We plan to put in pictures of some of the major projects in the manifesto too, said a member of the team. New posters that have come up in several constituencies clearly indicate that Akhilesh Yadav will have to go it alone in the polls. Candidates have been asked to put up posters that have the CMs photograph along with their own photograph. These posters were put up in more than 65 constituencies on Tuesday evening itself. HRD minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao and Nobel Laureate from Bangladesh Muhammad Yunus share a light moment during International Symposium on Social Business for Sustainable Development, conducted by Andhra University at VUDA Childrens Theatre on Thursday. (Photo: DECCAN CHRONICLE) Visakhapatnam: Andhra Pradesh is a pioneer in adopting the micro-credit system in the very early years and has both the best and worst stories of the micro-credit system. Some people abusing it does not mean an end to the micro-credit system in India as it holds great relevance in decreasing the poverty in the county. These were some of the observations made by Nobel laureate from Bangladesh Prof. Muhammad Yunus, who was in Visakhapatnam on Thursday to participate in the international symposium on Social Business for Sustainable Development. In an interview to Deccan Chronicle on the sidelines of the symposium, Mr Yunus said that it was time to go full blast towards a cashless economy post-demonetisation, instead of discussing its pros and cons. Actually, demonetisation is an opportunity for India to go cashless. Besides making sure of taking existing black money back, stopping the whole process of creation of new black money is another challenge to the government. But its the government responsibility to create an environment to encourage people to go cashless. By incentivising the online transactions and creating awareness among public can prevent the demonetisation drive going sour, said Mr Yunus. When asked whether they have any plans to replicate their micro-credit success story of Bangladesh and the US in India, Mr Yunus said there were no plans as India was already doing well in the micro-finance sphere. The Union government should pass a new law to create micro-finance banks for the poor as the existing process was very lengthy. I ask the government to give licences to at least a few NGOs to set up micro-finance banks. So that they can take deposits and give the poor loans instead of depending on the donations. Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka account for 50 per cent micro-finance turnover in the country, Mr Yunus added. He said they had been lending about $2 billion a year to about 9 billion borrowers. About 97 per cent borrowers of our bank are women. We suspend our operations and double up as a humanitarian institution during the times of natural calamities to extend help to the people in Bangladesh, he added. Finally, the Red Cross people arranged an ambulance for the couple to carry them along with the dead child to their village, one of the relatives of the couple said. (Representational image) Bhopal: A tribal couple in Chhattisgarhs Bastar had been forced to carry their dead child in a bag for 12 hours till an ambulance was arranged for them by the Red Cross for them to carry the body their native village. Yellam Ramesh and his wife Sashikala who delivered a stillborn baby in government hospital at Jagdalpur, district headquarters of Bastar, on Wednesday, were allegedly asked by the hospital staff to carry the dead child in a bag and dispose it of anywhere they like, kin of the couple told the reporters. Staff of the hospital discharged Sashikala immediately after she delivered the stillborn child. One of the employees even asked them to carry the dead child in a bag and dispose it of wherever they like, a relative of the couple who accompanied them to the hospital, told the media. According to them, the couple carried the dead child in a bag for 12 hours seeking the local administration help to make arrangements to take them to their native village of Ipenta in Bijapur district. Finally, the Red Cross people arranged an ambulance for the couple to carry them along with the dead child to their village, one of the relatives of the couple said. Thousands of Congress activists participate in a rally taken out from the Charminar to Gandhi Bhavan in Hyderabad on Friday protesting the Centres failure to ease sufferings of the common man post-demonetisation. (Photo: DC) Hyderabad: Senior Congress leaders on Thursday unleashed a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, holding him responsible for the sufferings of the common man on account of the ill-conceived demonetisation move. The party took out an impressive rally from Charminar to Gandhi Bhavan that was organised by former minister Danam Nagender. Addressing the rally at Charminar, former Union minister S. Jaipal Reddy described Modi as a modern day Mohammad bin Tughlaq. With such an ill-timed, ill-advised move of banning high value currency notes, Modi is even more dangerous than Tughlaq, Mr Jaipal Reddy said. TPCC chief N. Uttam Kumar Reddy alleged that the demonetisation decision has ruined the countrys economy and left every citizen facing a crisis. He also slammed Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao for supporting the note ban decision, despite it shattering the states economy. No section of the society was spared. Demonetisation has crippled everyone, Mr Uttam Kumar Reddy said. He said that the Congress was protesting the inconvenience caused to the people and the indifference of the Centre towards the sufferings of the common man. Doctors say that there need not be any specific cause for retinal migraine (Representational Image) Hyderabad: India has a large number of people suffering from severe migraine, and one in 200 of them suffer from a lesser known condition called retinal migraine. If you have a migraine that lasts for more than 48 to 72 hours, or have constant pain in the back of the head, you may experience loss of vision in one eye for 15 to 20 minutes, due to retinal migraine. In retinal migraine the blood circulation to the eye is affected. It is seen mostly in the age-group of 20 to 40 years. Vision problems that affect one eye, such as flashing lights, blind spots in the field of vision or blindness for a few minutes or up to 30 minutes, occur in ocular migraines. Dr Sudhir Kumar, senior consultant neurologist, said, retinal migraine can be a part of migraine, which has no specific cause. It can occur with other disease conditions which affect blood vessels in multiple body parts (including retina), such as systemic lupus erythematosus, vasculitis and deficiency of clotting factors (Protein C and S). Exercise, change of posture and use of oral contraceptive pills may precipitate an attack of retinal migraine. While regular migraines are also found to cause vision problems and field spots, retinal migraine is observed when the patient continues to have problems in one eye. It can be diagnosed on the basis of history of headaches and the duration from when the vision problems have been recurring in episodic attacks. Dr G.S.S. Pavan, consultant neurologist, says diagnosing the problem is missed out due to lack of awareness among general physicians. If a person has repeated attacks of vision loss affecting only one eye, which recovers in less than 60 minutes on its own, with or without headache, a diagnosis of retinal migraine can be considered. The sudden loss of vision can affect a person badly if he is driving or operating heavy machinery. In some patients, the disease is very severe and as if not detected early, can lead to complete loss of vision. Its cause is unknown What causes the blood supply to be blocked in eyes is not yet known in the case of retinal migraine. Dr Sreelakshmi Nimmagadda, cataract and lasik surgeon, says that retinal migraines require proper treatment and in most cases, vision has been restored. But there have been a few severe cases where restoration of the vision was not possible. New Delhi: In his first remarks on the scrapping of old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 banknotes, President Pranab Mukherjee warned on Thursday that the governments demonetisation drive might lead to a temporary slowdown of the economy. The President said that extra care must be taken to alleviate sufferings of the poor triggered by economic slowdown which has become unavoidable after demonetisation. Demonetisation, while immobilising black money and fighting corruption, may lead to a temporary slowdown of the economy. We all will have to be extra careful to alleviate suffering of the poor which might become unavoidable for the expected progress in the long term, said the President. He was addressing the governors and lieutenants governors through video-conferencing from Rashtrapati Bhavan. Prime Minister Narendra Modis move on November 8 to scrap 86 per cent of the cash in circulation to fight black money and fake currency immediately led to a crippling cash crunch, hitting Indias largely cash-based economy and clouding growth forecasts. Mr Mukherjee said that while he appreciated the thrust on transition from entitlement approach to an entrepreneurial one for poverty alleviation, I am not too sure that the poor can wait that long. They need to get succour here and now, so that they can also participate actively in the national march towards a future devoid of hunger, unemployment and exploitation. The recent package announced by the PM will provide some relief, he said. He asked the governors and lieutenant-governors to play an important role in easing tensions in society. Goodwill must prevail between different communities. Harmony may be put to test by vested interests, the President said. The finance ministry had said that there were lots of areas where double counting could have happened. Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India on Thursday said it will release the numbers at the earliest. Now that the demonetisation scheme has come to an end on December 30, the RBI said the figures would need to be reconciled with the physical cash balances to eliminate accounting errors/ possible double counts. The RBI has already initiated this process and till this is completed any estimate may not indicate the actual numbers of the SBNs that have been returned. RBI is taking all steps to complete the process expeditiously so as to release firm figures of SBNs received at an early date, the central bank clarified. On the last day of demonetisation, the RBI had asked all banks including cooperatives to report details of deposits of old Rs 500/ Rs 1,000 notes to it after the close of banking hours. The finance ministry had said that there were lots of areas where double counting could have happened. The government on November 8 demonetised old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes worth Rs 15.44 lakh crore, 86 per cent of the total currency in circulation. The RBI is believed to have received deposits close to `15 lakh crore during the 50-day demonetisation exercise. OU students protest against the governments failure to clear fee reimbursement arrears in front of the Arts College in Hyderabad on Friday. (Photo: DC) Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Thursday told the Legislative Assembly that the state government will clear all students fee reimbursement arrears of previous academic years (2014-15 and 2015-16) amounting to nearly Rs 1,800 crore by March 31. He reiterated that the arrears of ongoing academic year (2016-17) will be cleared in 2017-18 because the application process was still under progress. Mr Rao also promised that the government will take steps to ensure that colleges do not withhold original certificates of students citing fee arrears. The House debated the issue for the second consecutive day after Opposition MLAs lodged a protest over the Deputy Speaker adjourning the House on Wednesday without giving them an opportunity to seek clarifications on the reply given by CM. Congress, BJP, MIM, and TD MLAs demanded the government clear arrears of previous two years since TS was formed, if not arrears of 2016-17 and insisted on a specific timeframe on payment. Mumbai: Accepting a woman's version that she was in a confused state of mind at the time of filing a rape complaint against her boyfriend, the Bombay High Court has quashed the case. The court interviewed the complainant and the accused and came to the conclusion that the woman had complained of rape when she was in a confused state of mind. "The complainant has no objection if the complaint is quashed. We are satisfied that though the offence which was initially registered as an offence punishable under section 376 IPC (rape), it appears that the offence was registered by the police when she was in a confused state of mind," said a division bench headed by Justice V M Kanade recently. "In view of the reply filed by Respondent No 2 (victim) in this application, it is obvious that the averments made in the complaint would not constitute an offence punishable under section 376 IPC (rape)," said justices V M Kanade and Nutan Sardessai while quashing the case. The bench observed that the ratio of judgement of the apex court in the case of Narinder Singh Versus State of Punjab (2014) will squarely apply to this case. "The criminal application, therefore, is allowed in terms of prayer clause (b) (for quashing the case) and is disposed of," the judges said. According to the affidavit filed by the complainant in the high court, she was a widow and her boyfriend a widower. "The two were in a relationship. The man had promised to the complainant that he would marry her and hence she had given consent for physical relationship with him. Later, he rescinded from the promise. She then filed a police complaint alleging rape," said the affidavit. In the affidavit, she also stated that she was feeling insecure and, therefore, she was under depression. Under these circumstances, she had filed the complaint with the police. In reply, she further stated that she has no objection if the complaint is quashed. After hearing the parties and interviewing the accused as well as the complainant, the bench quashed the case saying that the complainant was in a confused state of mind when she had filed the complaint. The United States consulate in Hyderabad has been issuing the highest number of student visas. Hyderabad: The term US education usually conjures up images of extremely sophisticated infrastructure, quality education and a window to a world of opportunities. But the scenario at some of the educational institutions there are often hopelessly bad. In fact, its so bad that they are known as Visa Mills, education being second priority. Some of these US colleges are smaller than the usual engineering colleges in India, and lack instructional education. U. Vishnu Vardhan Reddy, CEO of Gurukul Overseas, a US-based education consultancy, has asked Indian students to first check an institutions credentials before the paperwork. In 2015, we saw how some Indians were denied entry even after they had taken admission in some of these institutions. Some US colleges dont even have proper infrastructure or faculty, Reddy added. The US Education Department has identified significant areas of concern including insufficient institutional monitoring and lax enforcement of the agencys accrediting standards. All these indicate that some of the ACICS-accredited institutions were just visa mills for foreigners. David North, from the Center for Immigration Studies described the revoking of authority of the ASICS as a Federal Agency crackdown on Crappy Colleges. Many ACICS-accredited institutions had been gobbling up federal grants to low-income students, who often received third- rate education. A smaller number of the entities played the visa mill role, read his post on www.cis.org. Serial culprits The universities and colleges which lost their accreditation include Stratford University, Silicon Valley University and North-western Polytechnic University, which were in the news in 2015 and 2016 after Indian students were deported According to Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) officials, which released the final list of 2,160 successful candidates on January 2, 40 candidates were removed after it was found that they had submitted fake documents. Bengaluru: Around 40 candidates were barred when they tried to hoodwink authorities to become assistant professors in the government first grade colleges of the state. According to Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) officials, which released the final list of 2,160 successful candidates on January 2, 40 candidates were removed after it was found that they had submitted fake documents, including PhDs. They were suspended from the appointment process. As per the appointment guidelines, a candidate must either clear NET/ SLET or hold PhD degree to apply for Assistant Professors post. According to KEA sources, these candidates had furnished information that they had pursued their Phd in the universities of neighboring states. But when KEA sent their documents for verification, it was found that they didn't follow the rules and regulations while getting their PhDs. An officer from the state higher education department told this newspaper that few years ago when state government filled assistant professors posts, it was alleged that many candidates had used fake PhDs and MPhil degrees, mostly from Tamil Nadu open universities, to get the job. To put full stop to such irregularities we sent all the documents furnished by the candidates for the verification. At this stage, we found these 40 PhDs were fake, he said. According to the officials, these 40 candidates had applied to teach Mathematics, English, Political Science and Computer Science. Majority of the candidates had applied for English teaching posts. We didn't find any irregularities in other subjects, he added. False reservation claim Eleven women candidates missed posts as KEA cancelled their reservation following the findings that they didnt mention the income of their husbands in the application. "In the income column they had mentioned their income alone to claim reservation benefit. But when we found that they are married and their husbands are also earning, we cancelled their reservation, said KEA sources. Panaji: The Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) on Thursday withdrew its support to the BJP-led state government, after two of its ministers were sacked from the Goa cabinet recently owing to serious differences between the alliance partners. MGP President Dipak Dhavalikar, in a letter to Goa Governor Mridula Sinha, informed that all his three MLAs have withdrawn support to the Laxmikant Parsekar government. With this the number of MLAs supporting the BJP-led dispensation has come down to 23 which comprises 21 legislators from BJP and two independents. "I beg to place before you the fact that our party had signed a pre-poll alliance with BJP for Goa Assembly 2012 elections and the party accordingly had adopted a resolution to that effect," Dhavalikar said in the letter. "As per election results, the BJP-MGP government took over the charge of administration and we continued our co-operation inspite of differences on various issues, which recently led to the ouster of MGP MLAs from the cabinet," he said. Now that upon declaration of 2017 assembly elections by the Election Commission of India, the central committee of MGP--which had decided not to continue with BJP--now confirms its decision to break the alliance with BJP from immediate effect, he said. MGP leaders Dipak and Sudin Dhavalikar were sacked from the cabinet last month following their outburst against the BJP-led government in the poll-bound state. The party has now begun talks with RSS rebel leader Subhash Velingkar led Goa Suraksha Manch (GSM) for pre-poll ties for the elections scheduled on February 4. Lucknow: As the battle for control over Samajwadi Party continued, party leader Azam Khan on Thursday met UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav for a second time, even as party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav returned from Delhi without any fruitful meetings with the EC. Mulayam held discussions with his close confidante Amar Singh here amid talks that they may approach the Election Commission with letters of support from over 50 per cent of the legislators and office bearers. While Mulayam's close aides maintained he sought time from the Commission to put forth his stand, the poll panel firmly rejected that any appointment was sought. Then in the evening, hours after coming to Delhi, Mulayam left for Lucknow with his brother Shivpal without approaching the Commission. Sources in the poll watchdog said they have not received any document from the SP founder. "In fact, his side is yet to submit the letter removing Ram Gopal Yadav as National General Secretary," an official claimed. Seeking to retain the 'Samajwadi Party' name and its election symbol 'cycle', Mulayam and Shivpal had rushed to the national capital this morning to furnish details of support he enjoys in the embattled party to the poll panel, while his chief minister son stayed put at his official residence in Lucknow collecting signed affidavits to back his claim of majority support. Akhilesh, who has refused to back down so far despite meeting Mulayam after being urged to do so by peace brokers like minister and SP's Muslim face Azam Khan was claimed to have secured signed affidavits of over 200 MLAs and MLCs, insiders said, pitching the battle for the contested party symbol cycle to a whole new level. Giving ample indications that he was not in a mood to climbdown, a defiant Akhilesh said earlier in the day, "We are going for polls... Will return again." Fortifying his grip over Samajwadi Party, Akhilesh also appointed party heads in seven more districts, a day after announcing new chiefs for four districts. The existing presidents of these district units were sacked with immediate effect to pave the way for new faces. Thiruvananthapuram: Former chief minister Oommen Chandy has again alleged corruption in the central governments deal with the once-blacklisted British company De La Rue for printing plastic currency of Rs 10 denomination worth Rs 100 crore. He had raised the same charge at a press conference in Kochi on Saturday, hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the nation. Mr Chandy took up the matter again as the AICC had kept silent on it amid reports that party vice-president Rahul Gandhi had suppressed it. Mr Chandy has shot off a letter to Mr Modi seeking his explanation on the British company which has failed to maintain the security features while printing Indian currency notes. Mr Chandy told reporters here on Wednesday that the same company was the platinum sponsor of the Indo-British Tech summit held in Delhi from November 7 to 9 in which the prime ministers of both the countries had attended. It was perplexing that the sponsor has since been removed from the website. It proves that there was some shady dealings. The company was blacklisted by the previous UPA government, but it started operations in India in 2016, he said. When the reporters asked Mr Chandy why he was raising the issue instead of the AICC leadership, AICC chief coordinator K. V. Thangkhabalu, who was also present, said that he is a tall leader of the party. Chandy has the sources and contacts to raise such issues, he said. Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has lauded the decision of demonetisation and called it the best move for the country. "I will ensure minorities students will be treated in par with SC/ST students. Akbaruddin Owaisi said I supported demonitisation. I stick to my decision and I hope it will do some good to the people. Akbaruddin Owaisi said I supported demonetisation. I stick to my decision and I hope it will do some good to the people," he said. Rao added that state government would continue the fee reimbursement scheme and promised to clear pending fee dues at the earliest. However, he ruled out the possibility of paying entire due amount at one go. "Fee should reach poor students like how it has been happening since congress government. I guarantee that we will have all party meeting on fee reimbursement and discuss all problems. We will close colleges run by bad managements as we want students to study in good colleges," he added. Reacting to the speeches of various party MLAs on fee reimbursement in the Assembly on Wednesday, he said the government needed 2,000-2,500 crore every year for the scheme depending on the number of eligible students. First time in the country, the state had introduced funding for the oversees education of SCs, STs, OBCs and minorities. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar during the 350th birth anniversary celebrations of Guru Gobind Singh at Gandhi Maidan in Patna on Thursday. (Photo: PTI) Patna: Amid simmering discontent among the opposition parties over Nitish Kumar supporting the demonetisation drive, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday praised him for imposing a strict Prohibition Act in Bihar. The Prime Minister, who was in Patna on Thursday to attend the concluding ceremony of the 350th birth anniversary of Guru Govind Singh, said that efforts of Nitish Kumar will become an inspiration for other states and his move to bring social change will also save the future generation. The statement which was immediately welcomed by the JD(U) may send a wrong signal to the opposition parties and the grand secular alliance in Bihar. Observers believe that the statement is an indication about growing closeness between Nitish Kumar and Narendra Modi. This was the first occasion when both the leaders had come together after Bihar Assembly elections where an alliance between Nitish Kumar, Lalu Yadav, and the Congress overpowered the BJP. The JD(U) had walked out of the NDA over naming of Narendra Modi as the BJPs prime ministerial candidate before 2014 elections. The statement has also come at a time when Bihar was planning to hold a review meeting with a few eminent economists to discuss pros and cons of demonetisation in the long run before taking decisions to support or oppose the move. Nitish was the first non-BJP Chief Minister to support demonetisation to combat black money. The move had irked several opposition leaders. His ally, RJD chief Lalu Yadav later had launched a massive protest. Snapchat filed for an IPO in November and is one step closer to the biggest US stock market debut since 2014. A former employee has dragged Snapchat to court accusing the messaging app of misleading investors and trading partners to drive up its initial public offering, the Hollywood Reporter said citing a court document. In the lawsuit filed on Wednesday in a California court by Anthony Pompliano, who earlier worked with Facebook Inc, also alleged he was fired for being a whistleblower, the magazine reported. Snap Inc, Snapchat's parent company, rejected the allegations. "We've reviewed the complaint. It has no merit. It is totally made up by a disgruntled former employee," a Snap spokeswoman told Reuters in an emailed statement. The ex-employee, who led Snapchat's growth team during his three weeks with the company, said he learned of misrepresentations and urged executives to rectify the problems. Pompliano claimed he was pressurized to breach Facebook's confidential and proprietary information, the magazine said. "Snapchat fraudulently induced Pompliano away from Facebook to run Snapchat's new user growth and engagement team by falsely representing to him, among other things, the company's growth," the Hollywood Reporter quoted his counsel as saying in the court document, a partially obscured copy of which was posted on the magazine's website. Snapchat filed for an IPO in November and is one step closer to the biggest US stock market debut since 2014. The case was filed in the Superior Court of the State of California for the County of Los Angeles. Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. The leak image was taken at a recent presentation held by Avaxx which is an authorized Nokia / Microsoft distributor in Malaysia Nokia is making a comeback with some help from HMD Global (the company purchased Nokia branding rights from Microsoft), and according to leaks, the company will be announcing up to 7 Android-powered smartphones in 2017. The leak also mentions HMD Global and that the smartphones will be low, mid and high-end Android phones. The leak image was taken at a recent presentation held by Avaxx which is an authorized Nokia / Microsoft distributor in Malaysia. Nokias mid-range smartphone will sport a full-HD (1920x1080) display, and will ship with Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box. HMD Global has already confirmed that they intend on sticking to stock Android, rather than creating their very own ecosystem on top of Android, which suggests users will get an close to stock build of Android on Nokia-branded phones, but you can expect a couple of apps to be installed by the company. In terms of release date, HMD Global is first getting ready to unveil first Nokia devices, or at least one device, at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona which will kick off at the end of February. The Nokia D1C will be announced at the tradeshow, though nothing has been confirmed just yet. Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. North America-based Panasonic Corporation announced that it has developed a companion robot with human-like movements and communication skills. The robot, developed as a proof of concept, debuts at the Panasonic booth at CES 2017 in Las Vegas. This test project builds on Panasonics innovations in robotics including battery and power solutions, vision and sensing, navigation solutions and motion control in a new appealing design. This is Panasonics latest effort in demonstrating network services in a friendly package, and we are showing this robot at CES as a way of obtaining feedback on its features and functions, said Takahiro Iijima, Director, Panasonic Design Strategy Office in North America Director. The robot is equipped with a Wi-Fi network function that accesses artificial intelligence-based natural language processing technology. This enables it to communicate in a clear, friendly way. The robot is able to access and use cloud data and communicates with those in other locations. Thanks to its embedded projector, the robot can be used for distance learning and other purposes. The robot is about the size of a standard kitchen countertop blender. The robot called Desktop Companion Robot weighs 3.7kgs and moves at a maximum speed of 3.5km/h. Powered by Lithium ion battery, the robot is runs on 1.2GHz 64/32-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 and offers Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity options. The robot has a cover that looks like an egg shell, which the robot can open to reveal a built-in projector. The robot also moves back and forward, and up and down. Its features and dexterity designed to mimic human movements inspires people to interact with it and are made possible with Panasonic-developed servo control technology. The robots child-like voice adds to the realism. Its voice and embedded projector work together to deliver natural communication that builds a sense of attachment with its human owner. Panasonic has submitted patent or design registration applications in US and other parts of the world. Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. The hacker traced the six-digit code of the victim's WhatsApp account using a malware he injected in a message. A WhatsApp user, hailing from Mumbai, is hit by a sinister new hack that duped all her friends listed on the messaging app to transfer Rs 2,500 in a PayTm account. WhatsApp account of Journalist Komal Panchamatia, 30, has been reportedly hacked, stealing all her data, including contacts, videos and pictures available on her WhatsApp. According to a report by the DNA, the malware appears to come from one of her friends wishing her a Happy New Year. In a statement to DNS, a cyber-crime officer, taking charge of the case, explained that the hacker had sent Panchamatia two messages. The first was wishing her a New Year, while in the second message the hacker requested her to copy a text message and forward it to him through WhatsApp. The cyber-police personnel said the second message Panchamatia received contained a six-digit code and a link that WhatsApp sends to a user whenever they want to activate their account on another device. According to the cyber-crime official, the hacker traced the six-digit code of Panchamatias WhatsApp account using a malware he injected in the second message, and activated her account on a different handset. "After activating Panchamati account on another device, the hacker managed to gain access to her contact, photos and videos available on her WhastApp. Later, the hacker used her WhatsApp, impersonating Panchamatia, asked her friends to deposit Rs 2,500 in a PayTm account. A friend of Panchamatia deposited the asked amount in the given PayTm account and informed her. This was when Panchamatia realised that her WhatsApp has been hacked, official said. My friend later posted on various social media platforms that my WhatsApp account had been hacked after which the culprit deactivated the number on WhatsApp, Panchamatia told DNA. The police have managed to recover Panchamatias WhatsApp account, and have started tracking the PayTm accout and the number used to hack her WhatsApp. Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. Mexico City: Mexico got a potential taste of life under Donald Trump's incoming presidency after Ford abruptly canceled plans to build a new factory in the country. The US automaker's decision was widely interpreted in Mexico as the result of Trump's repeated criticism of the $1.6 billion project in the northern state of San Luis Potosi. "Obviously it's not good news for us," Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo told local radio on Tuesday. While Ford took into account a drop in demand for small vehicles that would have been built at the plant, Guajardo said the company was also influenced "by its particular situation" with regards to Trump. The President-elect, who succeeds Barack Obama on January 20, thanked Ford for cancelling the project and creating 700 new jobs in the United States instead. "This is just the beginning - much more to follow," Trump tweeted. Trump has lambasted US companies that ship jobs to Mexico for its low wages and threatened to impose a 35% import tariff on them. The Republican billionaire has also vowed to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Mexico and Canada, or withdraw from the pact. Trump's priority is to "fulfill his election promise to not allow jobs to leave the United States," said Juan Francisco Torres Landa, corporate lawyer at international law firm Hogan Lovells. Raymundo Tenorio, director of the finance program at the Monterrey Institute of Technology, said Ford's decision could be an example of the protectionist era that Mexico faces under Trump. "The Republican government and Donald Trump are willing to negotiate any sort of (tax) incentives so that companies remain in the United States," Tenorio said. To lead bilateral talks with the new US administration, President Enrique Pena Nieto brought his former finance minister Luis Videgaray back to his government, naming him foreign minister on Wednesday. Videgaray had resigned in disgrace in September after it was revealed that he had orchestrated Trump's much-criticized pre-election meeting with Pena Nieto in Mexico City. After taking his new post, Videgaray told foreign ministry officials, without naming a country, that "the challenge is enormous, the threats are there, but the opportunities and our strengths are also enormous." Decision 'hurts' Mexico For Mexico, Ford's decision meant the loss of 2,800 direct jobs in San Luis Potosi, where the plant was supposed to begin operations in 2018. Instead, Ford, which has produced cars in Mexico since 1925, will invest $700 million over the next four years to expand its Flat Rock Assembly Plant in Michigan to build electric and self-driving vehicles. The Ford Focus that was to be produced in San Luis Potosi will be made at an existing plant in the northwestern Mexican city of Hermosillo. Ford's move also means that Mexico is losing new tax revenue while a dozen auto-part companies are losing business in San Luis Potosi, Tenorio said, adding that 75% of those firms are from Asia, Europe and the United States. "Ford's decision hurts Mexico, but also American consumers and its shareholders because the company will lose competitiveness," former president Felipe Calderon wrote on Twitter. Calderon said that Ford, General Motors and Chrysler were "almost bankrupt" during the 2009 crisis but "their investments in Mexico saved them." Before Ford made its announcement, Trump took GM tasks, threatening to impose import tariffs on the company's Mexican-made Chevy Cruze models. GM responded that the vast majority of its Cruze cars sold in the US are made in Ohio, with just a small percentage imported from a plant across the southern border. Mexico 'ready' for dialogue Guajardo downplayed concerns that other automakers may follow Ford's lead, saying the company's case was isolated. But the economy minister reiterated Mexico's willingness to sit down with the Trump administration and Canada to "modernize" NAFTA. "We are ready to begin dialogue immediately," he said. Torres Landa said he did not see "a devastating scenario" for Mexico because "the fundamental decisions of efficiency and competitiveness remain present, independently of what Mr. Trump is saying." Washington: President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday escalated his blunt public challenge to the US intelligence agencies he will soon oversee, appearing to embrace WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's contention that Russia did not provide his group with the hacked Democratic emails that roiled the 2016 election. Trump's defiance has increased the pressure on intelligence officials to provide decisive evidence of Russian election interference. A full report was ordered by President Barack Obama last month, and Obama will receive the report and be briefed on it on Thursday, according to a White House official who wasn't authorised to speak to reporters and requested anonymity. High-level intelligence officials are heading to New York Friday to brief Trump on the classified findings. The Obama administration also plans to make an unclassified version public before the president leaves office Jan. 20. Russia not only meddled in the election, but did so to help Trump win, according to the intelligence agencies' assessment. But the administration has so far released only limited information to support that conclusion. And in the absence of such public evidence, the president-elect has seized on some Americans' skepticism of U.S. intelligence in general, citing high-profile missteps that led to the Iraq war. But this Trump campaign has so far been a lonely one in Washington. His views put him at odds with Obama and leaders in his own party who see Moscow as a growing threat. And they put him in line with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Assange, whose organization has been under criminal investigation for its role in classified information leaks. Since 2012, Assange has been in the Embassy of Ecuador in London, unable to leave without being arrested for breaching his bail conditions. Taking to Twitter on Wednesday, Trump noted that Assange "said Russians did not give him the info" - referring to the trove of emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee and John Podesta, a top aide to Democrat Hillary Clinton. Vice President-elect Mike Pence commended Trump for his "very sincere and healthy American skepticism." "Given some of the intelligence failures of recent years, the president-elect's made it clear to the American people that he's skeptical of conclusions from the bureaucracy, and I think the American people hear him loud and clear," Pence said after a meeting on Capitol Hill with Republican lawmakers. Trump is to be briefed on the hacking report Friday by CIA Director John Brennan, FBI Director James Comey and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. Brennan, in an interview Tuesday with PBS NewsHour, said the report will include "what was collected, what was disclosed and what the purpose and intent of that effort was." Clapper is testifying on Capitol Hill Thursday. But he could be limited in what he can say about the report's conclusions given that Trump - and perhaps Obama - may not have been briefed by that time. Indisputable evidence of responsibility for hacking is difficult to come by and often technical. The information the administration has released so far does not lend itself to firm conclusions. The most recent information has come from a joint analysis by the Homeland Security Department and the FBI that ties Russian government activities to the hacks of the DNC and others. The analysis includes a list of internet addresses identified by the administration as potentially tied to Russian hackers. Many other addresses are untraceable. The Associated Press found at least 20 percent of the addresses had traced back to computer servers that help users browse the web anonymously, often for legitimate purposes. That web service, called Tor, was initially funded by the U.S. government and is now used prominently by activists and journalists working in hostile countries who need to keep their identities secret. Other internet addresses released by DHS trace back to servers at several American universities, as well as tech giant Yahoo Inc. The government cautioned that the addresses weren't automatically tied to Russian malicious activity, but instead were indicators that computer security experts should investigate further. Trump aides say that while he has received "raw data" on the Russian hacking, he is skeptical of the conclusions being drawn. Steven Hall, a retired chief of Russia operations at the CIA, set expectations low for the public hacking report, saying agencies typically lean toward protecting intelligence-gathering techniques. "The more information that is revealed, the more likely it is that sources and methods could be compromised, thereby limiting our ability to collect in the future," Hall said. At the White House, press secretary Josh Earnest noted that all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies had agreed on the assessment about Russia's activities and added of Trump: "Who are you going to believe?" "The decision he makes about that I think will have long-term consequences for the way he chooses to govern the country," Earnest said. Indeed, Trump's challenges to the intelligence community since winning the election have been striking. The nature of the presidency gives the commander in chief discretion to decide how to respond to intelligence assessments. But any skepticism about the agencies' conclusions usually plays out privately in the Situation Room and Oval Office, not on Twitter . Trump's posture has appeared to be driven in part by concern that evidence of Russian meddling would raise questions about the legitimacy of his election. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., one of his party's fiercest Russia critics, said the issue was not about the validity of the election, but "the fact that a foreign entity hacked into a political party." "When you compromise one political party, you compromise all political parties," Graham said. Washington: Nisha Desai Biswal, one of the top-ranking Indian-American officials in the outgoing Obama administration, will make her last official visit to India this week to discuss a range of bilateral and global issues, in a bid to deepen strategic Indo-US partnership. Biswal, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, will travel to New Delhi, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Mumbai from January 5-12 where she will meet with government officials and business leaders to discuss the dynamic growth in ties between the United States and India, the State Department said in a statement on Wednesday. "While in India, the Assistant Secretary will meet government leaders to discuss trade and business ties, as well as a range of bilateral, regional, and global issues to deepen the US-India strategic partnership," the State Department said. Biswal, among other things, will attend the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit in Ahmedabad where she will meet with government and community leaders. She will also attend the annual Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Convention in Bengaluru, which marks the contributions of the overseas Indian community to the development of India, the State Department announced. Fall River: A sheriff who runs a Massachusetts jail is offering to send inmates to the US-Mexico border to help Republican President-elect Donald Trump build a wall there. Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson on Wednesday announced an initiative called Project NICE, which stands for National Inmates' Community Endeavors. He made the comments at Bristol Community College in Fall River during an inauguration address for his fourth six-year term as sheriff. The Republican sheriff has frequently spoken out against illegal immigration. He says inmates from the Bristol County House of Correction in nearby Dartmouth could volunteer to help build the border wall or clean up disaster sites. Hodgson was sworn in at the ceremony by Republican Gov Charlie Baker, who refused to support Trump during the presidential campaign and didn't vote for him. People gather at the scene of a car bombing near an outdoor market in a mostly Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad, Iraq. (Photo: AP) Baghdad: A car bomb tore through a Baghdad market on Thursday, killing at least nine people in while elsewhere, four attacks in and around Baghdad killed at least seven people, bringing the day's overall death toll to at least 16. Those attacks, mostly by bombs that went off in commercial areas or targeted security forces, also wounded at least 20 people, police and medical officials said. In the Baghdad attack, the car was parked near an outdoor fruit and vegetable market in a mostly Shiite neighborhood of the city. Seven civilians and two policemen were among fatalities, while at least 15 other people were wounded, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to reporters. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks but they bore the hallmarks of IS, which has carried out a string of bombings in Baghdad over the past week, killing nearly 100 people. The Sunni extremists frequently target Iraq's security forces and civilians in Shiite neighborhoods. IS has managed to carry out a series of attacks across Iraq while also putting up stiff resistance in the northern city of Mosul, where US-backed Iraqi forces have been waging a massive offensive since mid-October to retake the city, Iraq's second-largest, from the militants. Mosul, about 360 kilometers northwest of Baghdad, is the extremist group's last major urban bastion in the country. Iraqi forces have retaken around a quarter of the city since the offensive began. Iraq announced a new operation on Thursday to recapture IS-held towns near the Syrian border. Major General Qassim al-Mohammadi said the troops would try to dislodge IS from Rawah, Anah and Qaim, towns in the western Anbar province that fell to the extremists in the summer of 2014. US-backed Iraqi forces drove IS from the two main cities of Anbar, Ramadi and Fallujah, last year. Britain, and other European nations, is grappling with cases of radicalisation, especially among young educated women, who fall prey to the ISIS vast online presence. (Photo: Video grab) London: Real Housewives of ISIS, a comic take on the life of western born Jihadi brides within the ISIS territory by BBC Two, has been facing considerable flak from academics and victims, for trivialising the issue. The video, a part of BBC Two show Revolting, gives a hilarious twist to the morbid atrocities that the group has made a reputation for. It's only three days to the beheading, and I've no idea what I'm going to wear," one of the characters says in the video that spans 1 minute and 40 seconds. In another scene, Zaynab, another character is seen telling in the mock-documentary, that she has been widowed five times. Six times, she corrects herself as a bomb goes off in the backdrop. But perhaps the highlight of the video is when two of the jihadi housewives squabble over their matching suicide jackets. Speaking to a local newspaper, the writers of the episode, Heydon Prowse and Jolyon Rubinstein said, Its important not to pull your punches in satire. You have to be fearless or it undermines your credibility. You cant go after David Cameron for five years like we did and not go after Islamic State." They added that their main goal was to tackle extremism through the video. But it has received mixed response in social media, with some criticising its political correctness, pulling in angles of religion, ethnicity and apathy to the victims of ISIS, while others point out that a satire is a satire. Finally people are realising religion is actually stupid enough to be worth laughing at. It's a joke, it's not real. Just like Deities! said one user in Facebook. Bad taste, not funny at all. With everything going on in the world, I'm sure those who have been affected by Isis, or been victims of them, or the relatives of those killed in terrorist attacks, won't be laughing? Sorry why laugh at the thought of woman showing off explosive jackets etc, is sick sorry. Why are we laughing about current situations going on in the world especially after the Night Club killings in Turkey, where my niece and nephew and my ex sister in law live? It's not funny, when youre worried about the safety of your own family? another user remarked. Britain, and other European nations, is grappling with cases of radicalisation, especially among young educated women, who fall prey to the ISIS vast online presence. Over 600 women from Western countries have left their homelands to join Islamic State, which has captured swathes of Syria and Iraq. Like Western men who have joined ISIS, the women felt socially and culturally isolated, believed Muslims were being persecuted and were angry that nothing was being done about it. They were also attracted by an idealistic view of religious duty, a sense of sisterhood, and the romance of the adventure. However, as pointed out in the satire, life under ISIS was far from the image they saw portrayed online. Conditions were harsh and some became widows at a young age. Coventry: A 20-year-old girl was tortured and stabbed to death by a man and his lover for alleged 'perverted pleasure', Warwick Crown Court in England was told on Wednesday. According to a Daily Mail report, police found the girl, Bethany Hill, in the bathroom of a flat on February 3, 2016. She had stab wounds on her neck, and her hands were bound with tape. Police later arrested two of her flatmates, Kayleigh Louise Woods, 23, and Jack William, 21, on charges of murder. They found Hills dead body after they responded to a 999 emergency call that Woods made saying, "My best friend's dead in my flat." The court observed that the 'sadistic' murder might have been done for 'perverted pleasure' and Woods, a transsexual, followed the suit of her lover in order to 'please him'. Woods claimed that she came back home to see that Beth had committed suicide in her absence, and that she had tried to clean off the blood before calling the police. But Woods was arrested on suspicion of murder after it was found that she had tried to dispose off Beth's and her own cell phone. It was also reported that Woods was raised as a boy, and that she had been in a relationship with William at the time of the murder. Stephen Linehan QC, prosecuting, told the court, "She (Beth) was tortured, then she was killed. Bethany Hill was bound and possibly gagged, using duct tape, as part of the attack that lead to her death. "They [Woods and Williams] did it together." "Each of them (the defendants) has spun a web of lies in order to conceal the truth," he added. Woods and Beth had a 'complicated and volatile' relationship and they had decided that Beth would bear the child to be fathered by Woods. The messages on their respective phones testified to the relationship that the victim had with the defendants. Making the emergency call, Woods told the police, that Bethany had attempted suicide. But after investigations, it was discovered that she was bound by tape and repeatedly cut on the back of her neck until her jugular was cut and she bled to death. However, both the defendants deny murder, while the trial continues. Islamabad: Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Thursday said his forces are fully geared to respond to "any aggression" by India, as he rejected claims that India carried out "surgical strikes" on Pakistan. "Pakistan's armed forces are fully geared to respond to any aggression by India," the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) spokesperson Major General Asif Ghafoor quoted General Bajwa as saying. Ghafoor had tweeted that Bajwa rejected the "self-defeating claims" of Indian Army Chief General Bipin Rawat about 'so called surgical strikes' and its possible recurrence. However, India maintains that its forces last year conducted surgical strikes in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, targeting terrorists and destroying their training camps. General Rawat, who took over as the 27th chief of Indian army on December 31, has said India will give a "hard" response to terror activities that will compel Pakistan to reconsider its strategy on aiding insurgency and terrorism. "We will calibrate the response in a manner it hits them hard and compels them to think in the long run whether they need to completely rethink their strategy on supporting insurgency and terrorism in our state," said General Rawat, who as the Vice-Chief was actively involved in the surgical strikes on terror camps across the LoC. Islamabad: Needling India, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday again praised Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani calling him a "vibrant and charismatic leader". Sharif, while addressing an International Parliamentary Seminar on Kashmir here, called for an end to the "continued suffering" of generations in Kashmir. Sharif was quoted as saying, the world needs to tell India that "enough is enough" with regard to its policy towards Kashmir. Referring to Burhan Wani as a "vibrant and charismatic leader", he said that his "martyrdom has become a rallying point for the freedom loving people". He claimed that "a promise was made to Kashmir 70 years ago, not only by Pakistan and the United Nations, but also by India to recognise the people's right to self-determination". The Prime Minister also spoke about the efforts made to highlight the plight of the Kashmiri people at the international fora and told the conference that Pakistan would continue to support the struggle of the people in the region. While addressing a joint session of Parliament in October last year, Sharif had praised Wani, drawing a strong reaction from India, which said this shows Pakistan's attachment to terrorism. He had also praised the militant during his address to the UN General Assembly on September 21, describing him as a "young leader". India had strongly criticised Sharif's speech at the UN, describing it as an act of "self-incrimination" by Pakistan. Soon after Donald Trump was elected the next American president, Indias top diplomat, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar, was on a visit to the United States. It was a visit apparently aimed at engaging with the key aides of the president-elect and to open a channel of communication with people who are likely to hold important positions in the Trump administration. There will be change in terms of US engagement with the world, Jaishankar said in a seminar at the Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis in New Delhi on his return from Washington DC. What can be safely predicted is that the Trump administration will have different priorities. Trump challenged many bipartisan consensuses on US foreign policy during his campaign. And, on November 8, when he finally won the race to the White House, the possibility of major changes in US engagements with Europe and Asia indeed seemed real. His America First foreign policy, his admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin even after European Union accused Moscow of occupation of Crimea in Ukraine and his dismissive comments about the Nato put US allies in Europe at unease. He also called into question the value of Americas alliances in Asia and suggested that if countries like Japan and South Korea could not reimburse the US for ensuring their security, they should be defending themselves, be it from a rising China, or from the rogue North Korea. Trump also vowed to withdraw the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which was signed on February 4 by 12 Pacific Rim countries, notably excluding China. India is not an ally of the US, but the bilateral strategic partnership grew steadily since the signing of the landmark nuclear agreement in 2008. And, with Narendra Modi at the helm of affairs in Delhi since 2014, India appeared to be entering into a closer embrace with the US over the past two-and-a-half years. So much so that some critics questioned if the Modi government was compromising Indias strategic autonomy to build closer security and defence ties with the US. Modi and US President Barack Obama issued an India-US Joint Strategic Vision for the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean Region from New Delhi on January 26, 2015. An India-US-Japan trilateral dialogue among senior diplomats was elevated to the level of foreign ministers. The annual India-US Malabar naval exercise was turned into a trilateral drill with Japans Maritime Self Defence Force joining it. Beijing, of course, was not amused and perceived all these as efforts to contain China. What also raised hackles in Beijing was Indias position on Chinas territorial disputes with its maritime neighbours, as it was almost akin to the stand taken by the US and Japan. The year 2016 also saw India dropping its decade-long hesitance and finally inking with the US the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement or LEMOA, which would provide the militaries of both countries access to each others facilities for supplies and repairs. The year ended with Obama signing into law a legislation designating India as a major defence partner of the US. As India moved into closer relations with the US, its ties with China soured. Beijing blocked New Delhis bids to enter the Nuclear Suppliers Group as well as to get United Nations sanctions imposed on Pakistan-based Masood Azhar. New Delhi wary of Chinas string of pearls strategic assets encircling India remained opposed to One-Belt-One-Road initiative of the communist country. India opposed the OBOR, not only because it perceived the move as an attempt to spread Chinas influence in the region, but also because the initiative included the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which is proposed to pass through areas it accuses Pakistan of illegally occupying in Kashmir. There has not been any progress in India-China negotiations to resolve the long-pending boundary dispute, too. So New Delhi, undoubtedly, has reasons to worry, as Trumps election to succeed Obama cast a shadow of uncertainty over the fate of US pivot to Asia a major foreign policy initiative of the outgoing administration in Washington DC for strategic rebalance of America's diplomatic and military resources to the continent. Underwater drone issue Trumps talks with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen over phone and his strong criticism of China after the communist country seized a US underwater drone in international waters signalled that Uncle Sams hostility with the Middle Kingdom may intensify after he succeeds Obama in the Oval Office. But will America with Trump at its helm come to the aid of its allies (and major defence partners) in Asia-Pacific, if China reacts to US hostility more aggressively and turns into a security nightmare in the region? New Delhi had some engagements with Team Trump over the past two months. The interlocutors got a rather clear signal that President Trump will seek to pursue the transactional approach that Candidate Trump advocated in managing its relations with allies and partners in Asia. So, India must be prepared to respond to what the new reality of President Trumps America would mean to Asia after January 20. It, in fact, has already started doing so. Just weeks after the US elections results were out, India launched trilateral talks with China and Russia on Asia-Pacific affairs a move apparently aimed at creating space for policy manoeuvring to respond to changes in the US approach to the region. The Asia-Pacific talks saw senior diplomats of the three countries noting that China, Russia and India had extensive common interests and close views on many regional issues. They also agreed that the trilateral consultations would continue as they would contribute to strengthening practical coordination on regional and global issues. In an evolving global order, India needs to engage with a multiplicity of actors in a multi-polar world, Jaishankar, who served as New Delhis envoy to both Beijing and Washington, said after his first visit to the US after Trumps election as the 45th president of the US. However, he was quick to acknowledge that it would be a challenge for New Delhi to position itself optimally in its engagements with US, China and Russia. Citing a media report, BJP today claimed that properties worth Rs 15000 crore owned by Dawood Ibrahim, one of India's most wanted criminals, have been seized in the UAE on the basis of a dossier provided by the Indian government. "Major diplomatic success of PM Modi: One of India's most wanted criminals, Dawood Ibrahim's properties worth Rs. 15,000 crore seized in UAE," the official Twitter account of the party claimed. "Master stroke diplomacy by PM Narendra Modi hits at the right place. Prime Minister had handed handed over the list of his (Dawood's) assets to the UAE government during his 2015 visit and demanded action," a graphic put out by it said. The saffron party quoted a media report to make the claim. Efforts are on to bring Dawood to face law in India, it added. Days after China blocked its move to ban JeM chief Masood Azhar by the UN, India today asked Beijing to hear the "voice of the world" in dealing with terror and hoped it would be able to persuade the country to understand the "depth and evil" of the menace. Referring to Pakistan's support to terror, India also hoped that as a "responsible and a mature" nation, China will understand the "double standards" and "simply self-defeating and suicidal" approach of Islamabad to terrorism. "We really do expect China to hear the voice of the world, not just voice of India on terrorism," Minister of State for External Affairs M J Akbar said at a joint press conference with his ministerial colleague Gen (retd) VK Singh, while presenting MEA's achievements in the last two-and-half years. On China's opposition to India's membership of the Nuclear Suppliers' Group, Singh said government was engaging with all concerned to make them understand its "concerns" and "credentials", hoping that Beijing will end its resistance. Referring to China once again blocking India's proposal at the UN to list Masood Azhar as a terrorist, Akbar said, "Terrorism is a snake that bites the hand that feeds it" and that Beijing needs to understand the reality. Hoping to persuade China to reverse its position on Azhar, the Minister said, "If we do not recognise the dangers of terrorism, we might hurt others a bit but we will wound ourselves far more." The press conference was addressed by Singh and Akbar as External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, who underwent a kidney transplant last month, has not fully recovered. "China has its own problem of terrorism. China recognises it. China addresses them in bilateral agreements. We hope and are sure that China can be persuaded to see the depth and evil of the menace," Akbar said, adding India will continue to point out "absurdity" of the decision of the 1267 sanctions committee of the UN of not designating Azhar a global terrorist. He said only China blocked India's move as 14 out of 15 member countries agreed on taking action against Azhar. "There was only one hold out and we hope that the hold out disappears." Referring to terror infrastructure as well as the situation in Pakistan, Akbar said there has been instability in that country, adding these are "self-inflicted wounds". "You can see the situation in our neighbouring country. It is a regrettable situation," said Akbar of Pakistan. On the overall ties with China, Singh said the engagement has expanded significantly, and that "by and large, there has been peace and tranquility on the border too. It has been maintained and it has not been allowed to flare up or go beyond the recognised parameters on both the sides." Talking about the NSG membership issue, Singh said India's bid was discussed by the grouping at its meeting in Vienna in November and that consultations were going on with various countries including China. "We are sure that with our record and credentials, we will be taken as a member as per the procedures. We are engaging everybody equally to ensure our concerns and credentials are understood by everybody," he said. Singh said the relationship should be seen as a whole and not as some parts which often "get thrown" up for various reasons. "Certainly, there are areas of divergence between the two countries and as mature partners we need to look at this from a point of view where we can reduce areas of divergence and increase the areas of convergence," Singh said. He said India's engagement with China is "purely driven by national interests and (for) ensuring that the two big countries of Asia create the Asian century that everyone is talking about." Singh noted that economic and investment ties between the two nations have grown steadily and there has been greater Chinese investment coming into India in recent months. "We continue to expand the broad range of our ties with China, particularly through people-to-people connections and the expansion of Chinese investments in India, even as we seek common ground on concerns," he said. Referring to Swaraj's address at the UN General Assembly last year, Akbar said the central point of her speech was that if we do not recognise terrorism, then it will hurt ourselves far more, adding the world, by and large, understood India's views on it. Ten Tamil Nadu fishermen have been arrested and their two boats impounded by Sri Lankan Navy for allegedly fishing in the island nation waters, officials said today. The fishermen from Jegathapattinam in Pudukottai district were fishing in Neduntheevu last night when the Lankan Navy arrested them and took to Kankesanthurai in northern Sri Lanka, Pudukottai Assistant Director of Fisheries Sekar said. The arrest comes three days after Sri Lanka agreed to set free 51 Indian fishermen already in its custody. In another incident, more than 3,500 fishermen, who had put out to sea from here in 584 boats yesterday, returned to the shores without catch last night after the Lankan Naval personnel allegedly snapped the fishing nets of about 30 vessels and drove them away while they were fishing near Katchatheevu, Rameswaram Fishermen association leader S Emerit said. With the latest arrest, the number of Tamil Nadu fishermen in Sri Lankan custody has risen to 61. Only on January two, Sri Lanka agreed to release 51 fishermen in its custody and consider returning a large number of fishing boats in its custody. This was decided during a high-level ministerial level meeting of Sri Lanka and India held in Colombo on the vexed issue of fishermen. Indian and Lanka Coast Guard had yesterday discussed various measures for the release and repatriation of arrested fishermen among other areas of cooperation in the maritime security scenario. A three-member delegation led by Director General Sri Lanka Coast Guard (SLCG) Rear Admiral Samantha Wimalathunge, is on a three-day visit to India from January three for talks with the Indian Coast Guard. The Indian delegation was led by coast Guard chief Rajendra Singh. A group of trekkers camping at a fort in Lonavala near here were allegedly roughed up, and male members humiliated by being forced to strip, by some people who claimed to be 'heritage buffs', police said. Ten people, including three women, were arrested this evening by Pune rural police for assaulting the trekkers, who were camping at Visapur fort on the New Year eve. The victims, who had came to celebrate New Year at the fort, had registered through a website for the camp at Lonavala, about 50 kms from here. According to a police complaint registered by a 36-year-old woman from Pune, 10 to 12 men and women, who claimed to be members of a 'fort lovers' group, allegedly roughed them up with sticks and belts. She also alleged that the accused humiliated the male trekkers by forcing them to strip and abused the women. "I along with my husband and other fellow couples had booked a camp, which was organised at Visapur Fort, through a website," said the complainant, a fitness trainer, who claimed she suffered a hand fracture in the incident. "We reached the spot at around 1 PM on December 31 and found that there were around 25 more couples, who too had come on New Year's eve through the same organisers," the woman said in her complaint. "At around 9.30 PM, we were sitting around a camp fire when 10 to 12 persons came and accused us of littering the place," she said. "One of the women came near me and snatched a glass of cold drink. She thrashed me with a stick and kicked me and accused us of littering the fort," she alleged. Later, the other accused forced male trekkers to strip and thrashed them with sticks and belts, and hurled abuses at the women, the victim said in her statement to police. She said the accused also roughed up the event organiser and warned all of them not to come back to the fort. "The people who had attacked us even called our families and told them that we were indulging in obscene act by consuming liquor," the woman told PTI. The complainant said with the help of some villagers, they managed to leave the place and later reported the matter to police. "We have registered a case of rioting against 10 to 12 people, including women, belonging to a 'fort lovers' group and investigation is on," Assistant Police Inspector at Lonavala Rural Police Station Sandip Yede-Patil said. Meanwhile, the Archaeological department lodged a complaint against the organiser of the camp and other group members for allegedly digging up and littering on the fort. Police said that surveyor of the Archaeological department approached the police this evening and lodged complaint under the relevant sections of Ancient Monuments Act, 1958. Confident that India will soon be a global player in the digital economy, Google CEO Sundar Pichai today said that in the next 3-4 years, big software companies will be coming out of the country. "India will be a global player in the digital economy and it will be competitive with any country in the world. There is a timing issue. We are doing well as a country. We need to stay at it. We need a few more years and we will get to it. I am absolutely confident," Pichai said at IIT Kharagpur campus. He was asked by a student to comment on whether India can take on China. He said within the next five to ten years, they will see big global software companies coming out of India. Pichai advised Indian companies to aim higher and compete with MNCs, as the local market is not large enough to invest in technology. "Part of the problem is that in India, the potential is there and market is developing. It will take a few more years for it to realise it's potential. Digital market is still developing," Pichai said, while asking Indian companies to set their sights higher as trends are in their favour. Al-Qaeda leader Hamza bin Laden, the son of the terror group's slain leader Osama bin Laden, was today designated as a "global terrorist" by the US. The US move comes nearly year and half after Hamza was officially announced by al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri as an official member of the group. Hamza, who is in his mid-twenties, has become active as an Al-Qaeda propagandist since his father's death in 2011. The designation by the State Department imposes sanctions on foreign persons determined to have committed, or pose a serious risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of US nationals or the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States. As a result of this designation, all property subject to US jurisdiction in which Hamza has any interest is blocked and US persons are generally prohibited from engaging in any transactions with him. The State Department said on July 9, 2016, al-Qaeda issued another audio message from Hamza bin Laden threatening revenge against the United States and warned Americans they would be targeted in the United States and abroad. "In 2015, (Hamza) bin Laden called for lone offender attacks against US, French and Israeli interests in Washington, D.C.; Paris, France; and Tel Aviv, Israel," it said. "Additionally, in 2016, (Hamza) bin Laden called on Saudi Arabian-based tribes to unite with al-Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen to wage war against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," the State Department said. Simultaneously, the State Department also designated Ibrahim al-Banna, a senior member of Al-Qaeda in Arabian Peninsula, as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. Al-Banna has served as AQAP security chief and provided military and security guidance to AQAP leadership. A 2010 edition of AQAPs English online magazine, Inspire, contained an article by al-Banna describing the 9/11 attack as virtuous and threatened to target Americans both domestically and elsewhere, in response to US actions overseas, the State Department said. Before joining AQAP, al-Banna was a leader of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad in Yemen from 1996 to 1998 and subsequently was in-charge of the training and intelligence sectors for the group. "Al-Banna is also subject to a US government reward of up to USD 5 million," the State Department said. Homegrown auto giant Tata Motors and engine oil major Castrol on Thursday announced the signing of a three-year strategic partnership agreement for the supply of commercial vehicle oils to Tata Motors globally. The agreement will cover over 50 markets, including in SAARC and the ASEAN region, Middle East, Africa, Russia, and Latin America. As Tata Motors expands its international footprint, Castrol, with its established presence in these markets, will support Tata Motors channel partners with high quality products and services to enhance its market share and profitability. As a preferred partner of Tata Motors, Castrol will work closely with the Tata team to co-engineer products suited to meet specific requirements of new engine technology and environment regulations. Just a year ago, they might have seemed the oddest of couples. But now American president-elect Donald Trump and Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, have formed a united front against the conclusion of US intelligence agencies that Russian intelligence used hacked emails to interfere in the presidential election. Assange, long reviled by many Republicans as an anarchist lawbreaker out to damage the United States, has won new respect from conservatives who appreciated his sites release of Democratic emails widely perceived to have hurt Hillary Clintons campaign. And Trump has been eager to undercut the conclusion of the FBI, CIA and other agencies that those emails were provided to WikiLeaks courtesy Russian government hackers. In a lengthy interview with Sean Hannity of Fox News aired on Tuesday night, Assange repeated earlier denials that WikiLeaks had received the hacked emails from Russian intelligence. Our source is not the Russian govern-ment, Assange said. And it is not a state party. Trump picked up on Assanges claim on Twitter on Wednesday morning, referring to the main targets of the hacking, the Democratic National Committee and Clintons campaign chairman, John D Podesta: Julian Assange said a 14-year-old could have hacked Podesta why was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info! But Assange has said in the past that, on principle, WikiLeaks does not try to investigate the provider of leaked documents and sometimes does not know a sources identity. In this case, it is highly unlikely that anyone approaching WikiLeaks with the emails obtained by Russian government hacking would acknowledge the source, so it appears that Assange cannot be sure of the ultimate origin of the emails. Nor did Assange mention two mysterious internet sites that, like WikiLeaks, also distributed the hacked emails. The US officials believe those sites, DCLeaks.com and a blog calling itself Guccifer 2.0, were created by Russian agents. Following up on his first Twitter post, Trump also seemed to bond with Assange over their shared disdain for the media. He noted that Assange had called American media coverage very dishonest and added, More dishonest than anyone knows. Though the celebrity businessman and the champion of leakers are both showmen sometimes derided by critics as narcissists, they might seem to have little else in common. In this instance, however, their interests may coincide. Assange would like to counter the impression that WikiLeaks made itself a passive tool for the geopolitical machinations of President Vladimir Putin of Russia. Trump would like to erase the impression that he got Russian help in defeating Clinton. But Trumps repeated public rejection of the intelligence agencies conclusion on the election-related hacking has raised the stakes for a briefing on the matter he will receive on Friday in New York from the FBI director, James B Comey, and the director of national intelligence, James R Clapper Jr. Democrats jumped at the chance to highlight the president-elects public dismissal of the intelligence agencies he will soon command. With every conspiracy theory-laden tweet and erratic off-the-cuff comment, the president-elect does damage to our national security, while raising new concerns about his capacity to grow into the job, Representative Adam B Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement. When he belittles the reputation of the brave and hardworking professionals in the intelligence community, he impairs our national security and the prospects for the success of his own administration. Vice president-elect Mike Pence, who will attend Fridays briefing, countered that in view of past intelligence failures, Trumps approach was justified. I think that the president-elect has expressed his very sincere and healthy American scepticism about intelligence conclusions, Pence said at a news conference with House Republican leaders at the Capitol. Despite Trumps and Assanges resistance, there are many reasons to accept the idea that Russian intelligence was behind the hacks and leaks that affected the election, even if the public case is not yet airtight, experts say. Sleuths across the intelligence agencies believe the GRU, Russias military intelligence agency, is behind the group blamed for the email hacking, variously known as Fancy Bear and Advanced Persistent Threat 28. Their views are presumably based not just on analysing the malware and other features of the hacks, but on spy work, including intercepted communications, human agents and software implants in Russian computer systems. Most, though not all, researchers in private industry agree with the conclusion. Espionage operation The Russian APT 28 group is blamed not just for taking emails from the DNC, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Podesta, but also making them public. It was that second step, turning a traditional espionage operation into an attempt to influence the election, that prompted President Barack Obama to expel 35 suspected Russian intelligence agents and to close Russian diplomatic facilities in New York and Maryland. Theres overwhelming evidence that the Russian government carried out these operations, said Christopher Porter, a manager of analysis at the cybersecurity firm FireEye. He said that while some individual hacks might have been carried out by any number of actors, the overall pattern of attacks attributed to APT 28 pointed directly at the Russian government. Some targets for APT 28 are a niche interest for the Russian government, he said for instance, the World Anti-Doping Agency, which has cracked down on Russian athletes, and certain institutions in Eastern Europe. When the same tools and patterns were used on the US election targets, the connection with Russia seemed indisputable, he said. Porter, a former CIA cyberspecialist, said the government had bungled the public case that Russia was behind the hacking. A report the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI put out last Thursday included a long list of malware it said was evidence of Russian hacking, when some of the malware is used by non-Russian attackers. That list included a distressingly large number of false positives, he said. The inaccuracy does nothing to undermine the agencies conclusion about the election-related hacking, but it underscores the importance for the government of making a clear, public case, he said. Jeffrey Carr of 20K League, a cybersecurity firm in Seattle, is most prominent among the small number of sceptical experts on the intelligence agencies findings. He said he believes APT 28 could be simply Russian-language hackers who dont happen to like Hillary Clinton but do not take orders from the Kremlin. Of course it could be the Russian government, Carr said. But when it comes to one nation accusing another nation, we should demand a public case thats logically consistent and excludes other actors. In this case, I dont think thats happened. First Additional District and Sessions Court Judge D Pawanesh has sentenced four people convicted of murder to life imprisonment. The four convictsTulunadanda Mahesh, Tulunadanda A Arun, Paleyanda M Mahesh and Karera U Dinesh from Kalur village in Kodagu districtwere involved in the murder of M B Bopanna on January 10, 2005. Bopanna was shot dead by accomplices of Mahesh to avenge the murder bid on him (Mahesh). Bopanna and his men had tried to eliminate Mahesh near China Gate in the district in 2000. Bopannas brother M B Mandappa had lodged a complaint against the four at Madikeri town police station, besides giving the names of Bottolanda P Muththanna, Ammachimaniyanda G Dinesh, Kocchera Harish, Thunkuttheera M Anniyane Thammaiah, Siddanda T Bopaiah and Kikkarahalli M S Ravi to the police. In addition to a fine of Rs 2,000 each, the judge has sentenced Mahesh and others to additional period of life-term for hatching a conspiracy, followed by another period of life term for Mahesh for instigating others and imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on him. Arun has been sentenced to additional imprisonment of six years for conviction under Arms Act and fine of Rs 4,000 and four years rigorous imprisonment and Rs 2,000 fine to Paleyanda M Mahesh under the same Act. All the sentences will run concurrently. Mahesh, who had handed over the gun to Ravi, was found guilty and had been arrested by the police earlier. He had served as an under trial for a period of three months and five days. The judge has directed for paying a relief of Rs 25,000 collected from the fine amount to P T Swarna wife of deceased Bopanna. The polycentric new world order, which was gradually emerging after the end of the Cold War, has begun to fray at the edges. The primary causes are the growing friction among the major powers, the triumphant rise of the ultra-right wing political parties, dilution in the forces of globalisation and free market economies, and the worlds inability to comprehensively defeat the Islamic State (IS) group. While the progress made in liberating Mosul and Aleppo has forced IS to retreat somewhat, its virulent ideology continues to flourish unabated. In fact, a cyber caliphate is emerging gradually. It is more dangerous than its geographical counterpart due to the ability to radicalise vulnerable youth using the Internet. The unstable security environment in Afghanistan and along the Af-Pak border is the greatest cause of instability in southern Asia. The strategic stalemate between the Afghan government and the remnants of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) forces on the one side and the Taliban and Pakistan-sponsored terrorist organisations like the Haqqani network on the other, is likely to endure. At the Heart of Asia conference in Amritsar in December, Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani snubbed Pakistans offer to invest $500 million for the reconstruction of his war-torn country. Indicting Pakistan in severe terms, he said the Taliban insurgency would not survive even a month if the outfit did not get sanctuary and support from Islamabad. Chinas growing nexus with Pakistan and the two countries unresolved territorial disputes with India pose a formidable national security threat to India. In 2016, the intensity of this threat did not diminish as has been the case since the Kargil conflict of 1999. Despite misgivings in both countries, the China-Pakistan economic corridor (CPEC) has begun to take shape. Passing through Gilgit-Baltistan in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), the CPEC will link Xingjian province of China with Gwadar on the Makran coast west of Karachi. Though Pakistan is raising a division of approximately 12,000 personnel to provide security for the CPEC against terrorist attacks, eventually Chinese soldiers are bound to be inducted for this purpose like in Gilgit-Baltistan. Large-scale presence of the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army in Pakistan will further vitiate the security environment. Surprisingly from Indias point of view, New Delhis long-time strategic partner Russia has expressed its support for CPEC, though denied later in a Facebook post. Russia also held a low-level military exercise with Pakistan and has offered to sell arms to the country. These developments are detrimental to Indias interests and could, to some extent, be attributed to the Obama administrations policies that has driven Russia closer to China. The nuclear deal that Iran signed with the US has held for over a year despite strong opposition from several regional neighbours like Israel and Saudi Arabia. Arguably, getting Iran to give up its ambition to acquire nuclear weapons was the most significant foreign policy achievement of the US since the Camp David accords of 1978. It is not yet clear whether the nuclear deal will survive the advent of the Trump administration. If it is abrogated by either signatory, the world is likely to soon witness the arrival of another nuclear power with attendant consequences. Irans nuclear weapons are unlikely to be acceptable to the Trump administration or Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or to the Saudis. Forgotten in the shadow of the conflict in Syria and Iraq is the civil war in Yemen. The Houthis and their allies, who seized Sanaa in September 2014, are locked in a bitter fight with a Saudi-led coalition comprising mainly Arab nations from the Gulf. It has been reported that former Pakistan army chief Gen Raheel Sharif, who retired in November, has been approached to head the Saudi-led 34-nation coalition being assembled to fight Islamist terrorist groups. Closer home, Indias red lines were repeatedly crossed by Pakistani terrorists in 2016. India conducted surgical strikes over a broad front across the Line of Control in September and also launched targeted fire assaults. India must continue to inflict punishment on the Pakistan Army for every act of terrorism planned and directed by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). India should adopt a policy of tactical assertiveness under the umbrella of strategic restraint as war with Pakistan is not in New Delhis interest. Internal instability Internal instability continues to haunt the government of Pakistan and its army. Two years and three summers after it was launched, Operation Zarb-e-Azb in Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa is yet to be concluded successfully. A low-grade insurgency in Balochistan, unrest in Sind and Gilgit-Baltistan, creeping Talibanisation, ethnic tensions and a weak economy are a potent mix that could lead to an implosion. Varying degrees of turmoil in other countries around India, including Bangladesh, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal and Sri Lanka, also contributes to regional instability. Narco-terrorism, the proliferation of small arms, the circulation of fake currency, trans-border money laundering and the availability of sanctuaries for insurgents often aided and abetted by neighbouring states enable non-state entities to challenge duly elected governments. The insurgent movements in Indias Northeastern states are an example of this phenomenon. The prevalence of volatility in the region leads to the inevitable conclusion that southern Asia will continue to remain unstable for some more time to come. The countries of the region must come together in their own interest and agree to systematically plug the loopholes that enable cross-border insurgent movements to flourish. Sadly, there is too much mistrust among the neighbours. With the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) virtually defunct, no viable umbrella is available to enable the conduct of long and hard negotiations that would be required. (The writer is a distinguished fellow, Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA), New Delhi) The India region round of China (Shenzhen) Innovation & Entrepreneurship International Competition supported by the Ministry of Science & Technology, Govt of China, opened on Thursday. The competition, organised by the city government of Shenzhen, intends to attract innovative startup ideas and business plans. Entries are open online for the three-stage competition which will be held under five categories -- the internet and mobile internet, electronic technology, biotechnology and life sciences, advanced manufacturing and electronic technology and advanced materials and energy, including energy saving and environmental protection. The last date to send in entries is February 28. Finalists will compete in regional finals on March 18 and 19 in Bengaluru. Regional rounds will also be held in Sydney, Toronto, Munich, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, London and California. For details, visit http://competition.seto.org.au/competition/ French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault will launch the Bengaluru chapter of the France Alumni Network during his visit to the city on Sunday. He will witness the signing of an MoU between Frances Studialis network of higher education and Indias iNurture to set up a campus of excellence in Bengaluru for design, arts, communications and management. He will try out the Gaming Lounge at Alliance francaise de Bangalore. The lounge is the first-of-its-kind in India and exclusively dedicated to learning French using exciting and interactive video games developed by French multinational Ubisoft. He will also take a ride in Nammo Metro, a project partially funded by the French Development Agency AFD. Ayrault will be given a guided tour of Airbus Bizlab, a global business accelerator for start-ups with innovative ideas. Adding voice to the cry against fiery remarks made by MP Nalin Kumar Kateel, senior Congress leader B Janardhana Poojary on Thursday demanded the latter to go door-to-door and tender apology by touching the feet of the people. Kateel had warned of creating arson in the district if the police failed to arrest the perpetrators behind the murder of Karthik Raj in October, last year. Poojary, who minced no words in chastising his political bete noire Kateel against whom he lost elections to Lok Sabha consecutively for two times, cited his own example when he had touched the feet of Nehru family, in full public glare upon their arrival at Mangaluru airport. Asking Kateel to shed superiority complex, Poojary said it is an appeal made by him as an advocate (Poojary was practising law before he entered politics). On the remarks made by Kateel, Poojary questioned whether the latter uttered the word in haste as indulging in such massacre attracts legal action. Is he not aware that such heinous crime attracts death penalty? On the burning issue of Yettinahole drinking water project, Poojary demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Minister for Forest, Ecology and Environment B Ramanath Rai and Minister for Water Resources M B Patil for being adamant in implementing the project, ignoring the ground reality. Comments unacceptable Poojary said the comments, made by Home Minister G Parameshwara in connection with the molestation of a young woman in Bengaluru in the wee hours of January 1, are unacceptable. He repented that he had batted for him (Parameshwara) to become chief minister. Unbecoming of CM When Poojarys attention was drawn on the arrival of the chief minister to Mangaluru in a special flight to attend the wedding ceremony of NRI businessman B R Shettys son in the evening, Poojary said, Chief minister lacks brain. Doesnt it amount to corruption if the special flight has been arranged by Shetty? San Quentin's death chamber California rejects proposed new death penalty rules Efforts to revive the death penalty in California were dealt another blow late last month when a state agency tasked with reviewing regulatory changes rejected a proposed new lethal injection protocol. Efforts to revive the death penalty in California were dealt another blow late last month when a state agency tasked with reviewing regulatory changes rejected a proposed new lethal injection protocol. The decision by the Office of Administrative Law came one day after the California Supreme Court blocked implementation of Proposition 66, an initiative passed by voters in November to expedite capital punishment, pending the outcome of a lawsuit. In a 25-page decision of disapproval released on Dec. 28, the OAL cited inconsistencies and ambiguities in the protocol, insufficient justification for some regulations and a need for further response to public comments. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has four months to resubmit its proposal. Spokeswoman Terry Thornton said the department plans to fix the issues identified by the OAL. Executions were halted in 2006 because of legal challenges alleging that Californias lethal injection method violated the constitutional prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. The corrections department began developing a new protocol last year that replaced its old three-drug cocktail with a 7.5-gram, single-drug dose of one of four barbiturates: amobarbital, pentobarbital, secobarbital or thiopental. Among the questions raised by the OAL was why inmates would be injected with 7.5 grams of a barbiturate when corrections officials acknowledged 5 grams is a sufficiently lethal dose. It also asked for additional explanations on a $50 limit for inmates last meals and why inmates would be offered the option of taking a sedative before the execution begins. The majority of the decision focused on ambiguities in the protocol that the OAL said needed to be clarified. These included the timeline for steps taken in the days and hours leading up to an execution, how to proceed if an inmate does not immediately die, what sedative options are available and who must administer them, what proposed monthly security and operational inspections of the execution chamber would entail, and under what conditions a warden should raise inquiry into an inmates sanity. | 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 Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE! Taking media reports and social media posts at their face value, police have registered cases based on first-person accounts by victims, City Police Commissioner Praveen Sood said. He said though extensive review of CCTV footage by police has yielded no evidence of any groping or molestation incidents on New Years Eve, they would send notices to media houses seeking more information or contact details of sources who shared such experiences. Sood said over 45 CCTV cameras and 1,500 police personnel were present in and around MG Road to maintain law and order. This apart, there were media personnel along with their camera crew at the very spot. No news about such incidents came to light or made it to headlines in the media on New Years Day. Even on Sunday, when I took office as commissioner, and when journalists interacted with me, there was no mention of any groping or molestation, he said. However, the following day, after a section of the media carried a report about women being molested carrying first-person accounts, everyone picked it up, he said. Despite repeated appeals, neither the victims nor the media came forward to help us probe further, for which we have decided to issue notices to media houses to help us get justice for the victims, Sood stated. Two cases have been registered at Cubbon Park police station based on first-person accounts published in an English daily and an interview given to a television channel, respectively, on the alleged mass molestation on MG Road/Brigade Road on New Years Eve. A suo motu case has been registered at Ashoknagar police station where, according to a local English daily, an event organiser and presenter had seen at least two women molested on Brigade Road. Another suo motu case has been taken up at Indiranagar police station based on a post by a woman photographer who said she was a victim of groping and molestation on New Years Eve, he said. Congress leader C M Ibrahims daughter Iffa Afza has accused her parents of pressuring her to get aborted from the day her pregnancy was confirmed, and suspected that her family was involved in the forced abortion. In a written statement to police on Thursday, she said, I do not know who gave me what, but it is obvious that I was given something by my family. Iffa told DH at Vikram Hospital on Thursday that she was left in a critical condition at the hospital and that her parents didnt even enquire about her health. This adds to my belief that they were involved in this abortion, she said. She underwent an abortion on January 2. The statement, which DH has seen, reads, The doctor told my husband something was consumed due to which pain was induced. I found it almost impossible to believe as I had not had anything that would have caused anything close to what had happened. Iffa said she was shocked when the doctor told her it was not a miscarriage but an incomplete abortion. ... it (the doctors opinion) implied that I was given something without my knowledge that has caused me to lose my almost four-month-old foetus, the statement reads. When asked whether she holds her parents responsible for the abortion, Iffa said, My father told me if I want to be accepted in his home, I need to abort this pregnancy. My heart never agreed to it. Later, my mother called me frequently to pressure me to go for abortion. It is not difficult to assume they were involved in this. The statement also says that she was pressured to take an appointment for medical termination of pregnancy at Vikram Hospital. The appointment was for December 26. But she cancelled it as her husband, Faizal, strictly told her not to indulge in such an act. When asked why her parents would force her to abort the pregnancy, she said the motive was to break her marriage. They never liked this relationship. From the beginning, they have been trying to break my marriage with Faizal, which was against their wish. Finally, they resorted to this, she alleged. Iffa also said the hospital was not handing the foetus over to her husbands family. We need to perform several rituals and bury it. But the hospital has refused to give it, saying its a medico-legal case, she said. Police said the foetus could not be handed over to the family as it was part of evidence. A complaint has been filed. We need to investigate whether the abortion involved criminality. We have sought information from the hospital, a senior police officer said. Home Minister G Parameshwara on Thursday rued Bengaluru was being portrayed in a bad light in the wake of reports of mass molestation during the new year celebrations. We cannot stop the media from showing what had happened.... But look how Bengaluru is being projected. You ... think about it. Is Bengaluru really like this? he asked mediapersons when they sought his reaction to Bengaluru getting a bad press across the world. He avoided a direct reply when asked if he had any doubts on whether molestation ever took place. Instead, he requested the media to provide photos and videos showing women being molested. Bid to tarnish Brand Bluru image, says Parameshwara Bengaluru is safe for women and children and the government is committed to providing them security, he asserted. Slammed widely for his response to the news of molestation on Brigade Road, the minister denied he had blamed Western culture for it. My statements are quoted out of context. I never blamed Western culture or clothing.... I am not such a person to treat women in a different sense, he said. Parameshwara, who is also the state Congress president, did not rule out a conspiracy by the Opposition BJP to defame the Congress government. On Congress spokesperson Brijesh Kalappas charge that the BJP was behind the molestation, he said, According to him, it could be true. I dont want to make a political statement in the presence of police officers. Kalappa is also the legal adviser to the state government. DG&IG Om Prakash, Bengaluru Police Commissioner Praveen Sood and Parameshwaras adviser Kempaiah were also present at the media conference. On the molestation of a woman in Kammanahalli, Parameshwara said it should not have happened. He said Governor Vajubhai Vala had sought a report on the incident and the government would submit it soon. Cameras across the city *The government will spend Rs 39 crore on installing 550 CCTV cameras in Bengaluru in two months. *In the long run, police will instal 5,000 such cameras, Home Minister G Parameshwara said *Phones connected to the toll-free police helpline 100, will go up from 15 to 100 at a cost of Rs 14 crore, he told reporters *He also spoke about the governments plan of increasing the number of women in the state police force from 5% to 20%. Bengaluru will witness the biggest-ever Pravasi Bharatiya Divas with the total number of registrations to the three-day event commencing from January 7 crossing 6,000. In the last 14 editions of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, the previous highest number of delegates registered was in Gandhinagar in 2015 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi took the event to his home state of Gujarat. Karnataka Industries Minister R V Deshpande said the total number of registrations this time has touched 6,346 including 1,500 non-resident Indians (NRIs) from 70 countries. He was briefing reporters after inspecting the preparations for the event with officials of various departments on Thursday. There have been registrations from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. The higher number of overseas registrations is from the US, the UK, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Malaysia, South Africa and Mauritius. The event, scheduled to be held at BIEC, will commence with Youth Pravasi Bharatiya Divas which will have a session on Problems faced by NRI students in India and Indian students abroad. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj was scheduled to deliver the inaugural address. But, she is unlikely to attend the event on the advice of her doctors as she underwent kidney transplant recently. The concluding day will witness President Pranab Mukherjee presenting Bharatiya Samman Awards to 30 NRIs in recognition of their services for the development of India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will arrive in Bengaluru on January 7 night and stay overnight at a star hotel near HAL airport. He will heli-hop directly to the venue the next day, according to official sources. Modi will deliver the key-note address at 9.35 am and also interact with the NRIs. He will leave Bengaluru on January 8. As many as nine sessions have been lined up during the three days. Helipads ready Security officials have literally left no stone unturned to ensure an incident-free Pravasi Bharatiya Divas to be held at Bengaluru International Exhibition Centre (BIEC). Every inch of the four helipads and their surroundings was scanned using ground metal detectors. At one point during the check, the metal detector beeped and the security officials asked the ground staff to dig the particular spot. However, no suspicious material was found. Customs pavilion Indian Customs pavilion at the venue will showcase to Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) the efforts and measures initiated by Indian Customs to enhance passenger facilitation at airport arrival terminals. The pavilion will highlight the recently developed multi-lingual mobile app, Indian Customs Guide to International Passengers, Customs achievements in anti-smuggling activities, prevention of narcotics and drugs trafficking, checking of illegal trade in wildlife and endangered species and other aspects. Mobile ATMs at venue The organisers do not want the visiting delegates especially those from abroad to face the after effect of demonetisation, cash crunch. As many as four mobile ATM vehicles will be parked at BIEC. Besides, two foreign exchange counters will be open on all the three days at the venue. HDFC, Axis and Canara banks have come forward to instal the ATMs, Deshpande said. Fresh efforts began on Thursday to broker a compromise within the warring Samajwadi Party. Shortly after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav told his nominees to start preparing for the elections, regardless of which camp gets the party symbol, his father Mulayam flew to the state capital in a chartered plane from Delhi, where he was camping. Akhilesh had called Mulayam earlier in the day, party sources said. SP Rajya Sabha MP Amar Singh and state party chief (Mulayam faction) Shivpal Singh Yadav also accompanied Mulayam, the sources told DH. Akhilesh camp insiders said senior party leader Azam Khan held a long discussion with the chief minister to find a solution to the crisis. The party is now split into camps led by Akhilesh and Mulayam. Sources said Mulayam had agreed to give Akhilesh the authority' to select candidates. In return, Akhilesh agreed to relinquish the post of national president of the party. The Opposition parties on Thursday stepped up their demand for deferment of the Union Budget to sometime after the Assembly elections to five states, from its scheduled date of February 1. Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad, led a delegation of the Opposition leaders to meet Chief Election Commissioner S Nasim Zaidi in a follow-up of their December 23 memorandum seeking postponement of the Budget. Ironically, it was at the instance of the then leader of the Opposition, Arun Jaitley, the present finance minister, that the then UPA government had postponed the presentation of the General Budget to March 16 in 2012. Jaitley had then argued that the government may get an unfair advantage in the elections to five states Uttarakhand, Manipur, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Goa. We demand that there should be no presentation of the Budget till the elections are over, Azad told reporters here. Azads deputy Anand Sharma, Trinamool leader Derek OBrien, Ambeth Rajan (BSP), Naresh Agarwal (SP), Tiruchi Siva (DMK) and K C Tyagi (JD-U) were part of the delegation. BJP ally Shiv Sena too supported the demand for the postponement of the Budget. The Budget should be postponed as elections are close. Allegations of appeasing the public can be levelled against the ruling party, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut told reporters in Mumbai. Jaitley had ruled out a rethink on the presentation of the Budget on February 1. On Tuesday, a day before the elections to five states were announced, the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs had recommended to President Pranab Mukherjee to convene the Budget session of Parliament from January 31 to February 9. There is no scope for a change; the Budget will be presented on February 1, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told reporters here on Thursday. The Election Commission has said it would examine the representation submitted to it by 16 political parties. In a surprise development, both father and son of the first family of Uttar Pradesh, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh, spoke to senior JD (U) leader Sharad Yadav over the phone on Thursday. Top sources claimed that it is beginning of poll negotiations between the SP and the JD (U). Both of them. Mulayam and Akhilesh made telephonic calls to Sharad Yadav and talked about current political situation in UP. The most important part of this development is Mulayam calling Sharad Yadav because the SP patriarch has been opposed to truck with any of the parties including the Congress and our party. It seems, Akhilesh has prevailed on him to begin the negotiations, a senior functionary of JD(U) told DH. The calls were made in the evening after a truce formula between warring members of ruling clan was being formalized, claimed the leader. The JD(U) has consistently been asserting that they would go for alliance only in the case that Akhilesh is in command of his party and leaders like Amar Singh have no role in alliance. The JD(U) has been insisting on a grand alliance in UP to defeat the BJP. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had even suggested coming together of the BSP and the SP. The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to set up a constitution bench to examine a plea whether people facing trial in serious offences could be barred from contesting polls. A three-judge bench presided over by Justice J S Khehar said, This is an important matter. It must be decided in one way or another so that people know the law by the next election. Senior counsel Vikas Singh mentioned a PIL filed by Delhi-based advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay for an urgent listing. Singh said that the issue is required to be decided at the earliest as many dreaded criminals, against whom charges have been framed by courts in serious cases, are planning to contest the upcoming Assembly polls. On March 8, a three-judge bench referred various petitions, including one by NGO PIL Foundation, to the Chief Justice of India. The bench felt questions like whether a lawmaker, facing criminal trial, can be disqualified at the conviction stage or when charges are framed in a case, has to be decided by a larger bench. Just hours after declaring prosecutors could not seek death sentences under existing state law, the Florida Supreme Court on Wednesday rescinded the order, an uncommon move that casts fresh uncertainty on the state's death penalty. The reason: A typo. In a 5-2 ruling Wednesday morning, the court rejected Attorney General Pam Bondi's request to let prosecutors seek the death penalty as long as juries voted unanimously. The court threw out the state's revamped death sentencing law in October because it required only a 10-2 super majority of the jury to put someone to death. Then at 1 p.m., the Supreme Court rescinded the order, saying it was "prematurely issued," and deleted it from the court's website. The Wednesday morning ruling was vacated because of a "clerical error," said Craig Waters, a spokesman for the court. Instead of writing that death penalty laws in section 921.141 of Florida Statutes were unconstitutional, the court identified section 941.141 - a statute which does not exist. "It may have simply been a scrivener's error and they wanted to rescind the order to correct the scrivener's error," said Rex Dimmig, the public defender in Polk, Highlands and Hardee counties. "It could be that simple; it could be something more complicated." Waters did not say if or when the court planned to re-issue the ruling, which provided brief clarity for a death penalty system that was in limbo. After the court ruled in October that juries had to be unanimous to sentence someone to death, Bondi and prosecutors said capital trials ought to continue but that jurors should be instructed that the rules had changed. Defense attorneys saw things differently: If the death penalty law was unconstitutional, then no one could be sentenced to death, they argued. That's what the justices decided early Wednesday, writing that the whole statute was unconstitutional and "cannot be applied to pending prosecutions." How the court will act now is uncertain, but it is likely the Legislature will rewrite the state's death penalty statutes when they come into session March 7. Next week, the House Judiciary Committee will start deliberating on the issue. Last month, the committee's chairman, Rep. Chris Sprowls, R-Palm Harbor, told the Times/Herald that rewriting death penalty laws is a priority. "We have to act," said Sprowls, a former prosecutor. "By the time we conclude our business, we have to have a death penalty statute that can be relied upon and that's legal, so that victims have access to justice." | 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 Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE! Source: miamiherald.com, January 4, 2017 The indigenous beyond-visual-range missile Astra underwent 12 tests in the last two and half years and would require at least four more trials before it is handed over to the Indian Air Force (IAF) for operational use. Scientists at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) hoped to complete the remaining four trials before the summer of 2017, so that it could be transferred to the service later this year. The missile with 75 km range was first launched in May 2014 and integrated with the Su-30MKI aircraft by the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, a year later. The live firing of the missile was demonstrated before President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the IAFs iron-fist fire power demonstration in March 2016. We have done 12 trials of Astra firing so far and need to do four more before the missile is ready for the IAF. The remaining trials may be completed by the summer of 2017, depending on the availability of Su-30 MKI aircraft, a source told DH. Astra is already over four years behind schedule. The probable date of completion was originally fixed at August 2012 and later revised to December 2016. The missiles launch in December 2016 reportedly failed, though the officials maintain silence over this. Reports from Bhubaneswar suggest that Astra lost velocity within a few seconds after the firing, slipped from the intended trajectory, dropped and then exploded on a beach along the coastline. However, neither the DRDO nor the defence ministry responded in this regard. Agni series On the 5,000-km range Agni-V missile, sources said the DRDO completed four successful trials since its maiden flight in April 2012. No more developmental trials are required as the missile is ready for the user the Strategic Forces Command they said. The 17-metre long missile, weighing around 50 tonnes, was last launched from a road mobile canister on December 26, demonstrating its all-terrain applicability and the weapons flexibility to be fired from any part of the country. The nuclear missile is capable of carrying a war-head of 1,000 kg. On January 2, the long-range surface-to-surface ballistic missile Agni-IV, with a range of 4,000 km, was successfully flight tested, showcasing the weapons efficacy and reliability. This was Agni-IVs seventh launch, which included three developmental flights and four tests to train the users. The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Centre to look into a plea for bringing the penal provision on rape, carving exception of a mans intercourse with his minor wife, in harmony with the POCSO Act. Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act had made sexual relation in a shared household with persons below 18 years of age an offence. A three-judge bench presided over by Chief Justice J S Khehar said they were not inclined to issue notice to the government, but would like to send the petition filed by NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan to the Centre. The Ministry of Women and Child Development shall examine the same and take a call within four months, the bench, also comprising Justices N V Ramana and D Y Chandrachud, said. The NGO contended that there was anomaly between the provisions of the IPC and the POCSO Act as a childs status till she attained the age of 18, otherwise guaranteed by the state, was being denied to her, once she is forcefully or otherwise wed. A federal complaint alleging distribution and possession of child pornography has been filed against Christian Clews, owner of the Clews Horse Ranch in Carmel Valley, and a long-time member of the Carmel Valley Community Planning Board. According to a complaint filed Dec. 12 in the U.S. District Court for Southern California - which was unsealed by a federal judge on Dec. 21 - a special agent with Homeland Securities Investigations was alerted in November 2014 that two images depicting suspected child pornography had been uploaded via a cellular phone which was later linked to Clews. Subsequently, on Oct. 28, following an investigation, investigators served a search warrant at Clews Horse Ranch, 11500 Clews Ranch Road in Carmel Valley. On this date, post-Miranda, Christian Clews admitted to possessing and distributing child pornography, said the complaint. On Oct. 28, said the complaint, investigators seized various electronic devices from Christian Clews and his residence. Subsequent examination and review revealed numerous child pornography image and video files on multiple electronic devices seized from Christian Clews, said the complaint. Among the material discovered by investigators, said the complaint, were more than 100 child pornography videos found on a Dell desktop computer. The complaint also states that the initial two suspected child pornography images that had been uploaded by a cellular phone were traced to a cell phone number that is also listed on the Clews Horse Ranch website as Christians cell. Federal court records indicate that Clews was arrested on Dec. 20, and was then released to house incarceration, and ordered to be monitored by GPS tracking, on Dec. 23. He was also required to put up a personal appearance bond of $150,000. Conditions of his release, pending trial, include an order not to access any social networking site including, but not limited to, MySpace, Facebook, Friendster... Instagram, Twitter, etc. He was also ordered to have no contact with children under 18 unless supervised by another adult. Clews attorney, Hamilton Arendsen of San Diego, could not be reached for comment. Officials with the San Diego Police Department and the local Homeland Security office did not respond to a reporters inquiries as of press-time. Court records show that Clews waived a preliminary hearing on the charges originally set for Jan. 3, but the documents do not indicate if a new date for the hearing has been set. Clews stepped down from the community planning board in November, giving no reason for his decision. The Clews Horse Ranch has been boarding horses since 1992, according to its website. Equestrian training and riding lessons are also offered at the ranch, which occupies 40 acres. Any member of the public who has information about potential victims in this case can contact the San Diego Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force at 858-715-7100. Out of 2,000 kids in San Diego Police Departments Student Safety Patrol, only one can be Colonel. This year that highest ranking honor went to Sage Canyon sixth grader Shelby Sparks. Shelby, 12, was named Colonel at a special ceremony on Dec. 17 after showing extraordinary traits of dedication, respect of the student body, demonstrating responsibility and reliability, being in the top third of her class academically, and being above average in citizenship. Shelby was also judged on the merits of a written essay and in a rigorous interview with a panel of two police officers and two civilians. Shelby joined Sage Canyons Safety Patrol at the end of fourth grade applicants must write an essay and are trained to begin serving as fifth graders. I really like volunteering and helping out the community and I thought it would be a good opportunity to help out with the crosswalks and to keep people safe, Shelby said. Shelby serves on the patrol one day a week and her day is Thursday. Its a commitment to get to school a half hour early to help with morning drop-off and leave class early at the end of the day to help keep pick-ups safe. She is so dedicated to her post that she even worked with two casts on her legs this year because she had promised to fill in for a fellow Safety Patrols shift. The patrol has inspection every month with Officer Brookes Rhodes from the Northwestern Division he promotes members who have earned enough merits to move up in rank and makes sure all of the patrol is in uniform and following safety procedures. Shelby said the most challenging thing about her patrol is making sure all of the parents are paying attention she said sometimes they dont want to come to a complete stop in their cars. According to Officer Rhodes, Sage Canyon is one of the more difficult patrol posts in the city due to its crossing configuration. Despite it being one of the hardest patrols, there havent been any accidents in fact, there have been no accidents at any San Diego school with a patrol this year. For the process of achieving Colonel, Shelby beat out 15 other kids who were up for the position and she didnt find out until that Dec. 17 ceremony. It was the most exciting thing ever, said mom Amy, who cheered proudly for her daughter. I was surprised, Shelby said, who sat in her seat for a moment not totally believing that shed won. When she reached the stage, San Diego Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman honored her with her eagle pin that she will wear on her Safety Patrol hat. Zimmerman said that she had done Safety Patrol in her youth, which served as an inspiration for all of the young patrol kids. I really like Safety Patrol but I wouldnt want to be a police officer because its scary and hard, Shelby said, noting that she was able to do a ride-along with Officer Rhodes where she learned about all the job entails and the sacrifices police officers make. To be Colonel involves a few extra responsibilities and Shelby is ready to get started on her last months of service this school year before starting middle school. by Tad Lindley But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman (Galatians 4:4) On my dads side I inherited a receding hairline, my last name, and my chin. On my mothers side I get my eye color, my mitochondrial DNA, and my crooked pinkies. Half of who I am comes from my mom, and the other half from my dad, that is genetics. About two thousand twenty years ago a baby was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a stone feeding trough in a cave in Bethlehem. This baby had a mother and a father also. We dont know the day the birth happened. There is even debate about what year he was born. In fact there is a 99.7% chance that it took place on some day other than December 25th, and it probably took place BC (as in before Christ). In spite of what we are not sure of, there are some very certain facts about Jesus Christ. This infant was like no other before or after. Marys later children would be conceived naturally with her husband, but Jesus was conceived supernaturally. He was born of a virgin. She became pregnant when the Holy Ghost overshadowed her. So the child that she bore is called the Son of God. On His Fathers side We also know that Jesus was not a lesser God, a junior God, nor one-third of God. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. (Colossians 2:9) II Corinthians 5:19 tells us that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. We know also from I Timothy that there is no controversy about the mystery of who Jesus was: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. (3:16) On His mothers side Jesus was the Son of Man. He possessed in his body all the human frailty that you and I do. He was born, was the eldest son to Mary and stepson to Joseph, lived as a man, and died in about 29 AD at the age of 33 years. He was fully God and fully man On his mothers side, After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. (Matthew 4:2), but on his Fathers side, he would feed 5,000 people from five loaves and two fish and there would be twelve baskets full of leftovers. (Matthew 14:13-21) On his mothers side, Jesus would weep at the death of his close friend Lazarus. (John 11:35), but on his Fathers side, Jesus would stand outside the tomb of his decomposing friend and cry with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. (John 11:43) On his mothers side, Jesus would know grief, but on his Fathers side, he would become the resurrection and the life. (John 11:25) On his mothers side, Jesus would be tempted. (Matthew 4) In fact, would be in all ways tempted, just as we are. (Hebrews 4:15), but on his Fathers side, he overcame temptation and remain sinless. On his mothers side, Jesus would be the only begotten son of the Father. (John 3:16), but on his Fathers side, he would be the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. (Revelation 13:8) On his mothers side, he would be seriously injured to the point of death on the cross., but on his Fathers side, he would heal the sick, and open deaf ears, blind eyes, and dumb tongues. On his mothers side he would give up the ghost as he hung on a wooden cross. (John 19:30), but on his Fathers side, he is the Holy Ghost. (Acts 3:20) On his mothers side he was perceived as the lowly illegitimate son of Joseph the carpenter. (John 8:41), but on his Fathers side it is written, Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:12) There has never been another like Jesus. One of the most beautiful passages of scripture describes the events surrounding the placing of almighty God in human flesh. It is found in John 1:14: And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. On his mothers side, fully man. On his Fathers side, fully God. It is the miraculous genetics of Jesus. Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel, Alaska. Share this: Tweet Email Search our site Search for: Instagram Feed Donate Classifieds Facebook Feed Ive been a resident of Alaska for 55 years and would like to express my extreme disappointment and, yes, outrage concerning the Alaska Board of Games Proposal 155 to kill wolves in District 15C north of Kachemak Bay on the Kenai Peninsula. The motive for doing this is to increase the population of moose in the area for urban hunters. The bogus concept of reallocation has raised its ugly head here (although there were only 7 fewer moose harvested this year than last in the area) and is being used to justify the proposal and possibly the extension of the concept universally throughout the State. This proposal also flies in the face of statistics presented in an op-ed in the ADN recently by biologist and former member of the Board of Game, Vic Van Ballenberghe, that clearly indicate that in spite of extreme predator control of wolves and bears in other parts of Alaska, moose populations have not risen anywhere in proportion to the number of wolves and bears killed by the State. Based on these statistics and the bogus use of the concept of reallocation, I ask the Board of Game to reconsider and reject the aggressive (and regressive) policy of intensive management that they instituted in 2002, including the idea of reallocation. This should begin with rejection of Proposal 155 to shoot and kill wolves on the Kenai Peninsula. Thank you. Frank Keim Fairbanks, Alaska Christmas Celebration Thanks On December 16, 2016, YKHC Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities Services staff celebrated Christmas together. Games, door prizes, food, and a retirement celebration of 25 years with the Crisis Respite Center for Elizabeth Albert, An Ugly Sweater Contest, and an appearance by Santa filled the room with laughter, smiles, and appreciation. This was also a way to celebrate each other and the hard work that staff put in each day for the people that we serve. Your tireless effort, drive, and dedication is very much appreciated! The Staff Christmas celebration was put together by a group of volunteers and donations from local businesses! We would like to thank YKHC BH Staff, RAVN Alaska, YKHC Coffee Shop, Connie Sankwich, and ID Variety for your donations and time to put this together. Quyana Cakneq!!! Serena Solesbee YKHC DDS Sandra Abdiu YKHC BH Berntina Sankwich YKHC BH Bethel, AK Help needed for community water sewer system I hope Representative-elect Fansler will help our community of Tununak; we showed him what we desperately need like water and sewer system, Public Health Service facility. Mr. Fansler, I showed you the 5 gallon containers fill (honeybuckets) that needed to be dumped in the ocean. Please help us get some funds to do study and provide some kind of lagoon? Please anyone in the State Legislature? James Angaiak Tununak, AK WITH THE NEW YEAR COMES NEW CHANGES Monthly Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits will see a slight increase in 2017. Some other adjustments that take effect in January of each year are based on the increase in average wages. Based on that increase, the maximum amount of earnings subject to the Social Security tax (taxable maximum) will increase to $127,200 from $118,500. Of the estimated 173 million workers who will pay Social Security taxes in 2017, about 12 million will pay more because of the increase in the taxable maximum. Thresholds for benefits will change slightly next year including the Substantial Gainful Activity (SGA), SSI Federal Payment Standard, and SSI Student Exclusion. Information about Medicare changes for 2017 are available at www.Medicare.gov. For some beneficiaries, their Social Security increase may be partially or completely offset by increases in Medicare premiums. The Social Security Act provides for how the Cost of Living Adjustment is calculated. To read more, please visit www.socialsecurity.gov/cola. Learn more about the resulting changes at our factsheet on the subject: www.socialsecurity.gov/news/press/factsheets/colafacts2017.pdf. Robin Schmidt Social Security Public Affairs Specialist for Alaska ANCSA Oddity The odd fact of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of December 18, 1971 is the U. S. Congress requiring Alaskan Natives to form corporations to hold title to assets and lands. The U. S. Congress cannot require sovereign entities to do what is not required of them as a sovereign entity also. The United States does not hold assets and lands in corporations. It is the worst form of discrimination for the U. S. Congress to act in this manner. One of the sovereign tribal members need to appeal to the United Nations or the World Court at Brussels, Belgium to rid the United States of this overhanging discrimination from the colonial days. Gilbert Keywehak Mount Pleasant MI Share this: Tweet Email Marilyn Jean Laraux truly enjoyed this time of year as we celebrate our Lord Jesus Christ our Saviors birth. Her strong faith in the Lord was reflected in her kindness, generosity, prayers and caring for others. Christmas is a time of giving and that is what Marilyn loved to do. Her giving to others and thoughtfulness was reflected her prayers, her random phone calls to check on how you were doing, to tell you about something she read or to tell you a joke. Her humor and laughter was contagious to all of those around her. The Lord was generous and gave us almost 84 years to share with Marilyn. In July of 2016 the Lord decided her time with us ended and she was received into our heavenly fathers gates. We are blessed and are left with many fond memories of her time spent with us. Marilyn was born in Escanba, Michigan, she attended St. Xavier College, Mercy School of Nursing in Chicago Illinois. After completing nursing school she arrived in Alaska in 1954 and was a nurse for the Alaska Native Services. In 1955 she married Alfred Butch Laraux and had 6 children. She was preceded in death by her parents, Kenneth and Cecelia, Sister Bernice, husband Butch, sons Robert, Arthur and Alfred, grandson Tokie and granddaughter Kathleen. She is survived by her children, Tok, Wun and Lady. She was also blessed with many grand-children, and great-grandchildren. Grams you are missed, but we know you are resting in peace in the presence of the Lord God our Heavenly Father. In memory of Marilyn, please pray for those in need, be kind, be generous, help one another, forgive one another and love one another. On behalf of the Laraux family, we would like to thank all of Marilyns friends and family for help and support you gave in our time of need. Merry Christmas. Share this: Tweet Email Board of Regents votes to locate consolidated University of Alaska College of Education at the University of Alaska Southeast. Today, the University of Alaska Board of Regents approved unanimously in an 11-0 vote to establish a single University of Alaska (UA) College of Education and to locate the administrative center for the College at the University of Alaska Southeast (UAS). The board first voted on consolidating the three education schools into one, and then voted on the location recommendation, which was amended by UA President Jim Johnsen to put forward UAS rather than the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) as the administrative home for the college. In doing so, the board directed Johnsen to take the necessary steps to establish a single College of Education for the University of Alaska, including seeking approval from the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU) and assembling a planning team. The selection of one institution is not the denigration of another, said Regent John Davies. We need strong programs at all our universities and UAS is the right choice to lead our College of Education. Johnsen said he decided to amend his recommendation after listening to the input from many individuals citing the importance of teacher education as a signature program for UAS and expressions of concern over the economic impact of a move. Johnsen also cited UAS innovation and creativity in course delivery, as well as its nimbleness. The University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) and UAF are larger institutions, Johnsen said, with much broader missions. UAS will make the College of Education its number one priority. Although UAS will serve as the lead campus, faculty and courses will still be delivered from UAF and UAA. UAS is ready, willing and able to work with UAF, UAA, and school districts to ensure that our teacher-graduates are ready to provide a 21st century education for Alaskas students, said UAS Chancellor Rick Caulfield. Regents noted the strengths of UAS education program, including the successful Preparing Indigenous Teachers for Alaska Schools (PITAAS) program focusing on Alaska Native educators, advanced e-learning programs and staff and facultys passion and commitment to teacher education and innovation. After a lot of reflection, I realized UAS is the rightful place for the location of the single college of education. They have excellent leadership and are dedicated to our goal of educating 90 percent of Alaskas teachers by 2025, said Regent Jo Heckman. Regents commended Johnsen for his leadership and willingness to revise his recommendation after listening to concerns, learning from discussions and feedback, and in recognizing the importance of the education program to UAS. After the November board meeting wherein UAF was suggested as the lead campus, more than 100 letters, emails and comments came in to the university in support of one college/one dean, but petitioning for the administrative home to be located at UAS. The support came from many Juneau residents and UAS faculty, staff and alumni. In a letter to Johnsen and regents, the City & Borough of Juneau pledged a $1 million contribution to endow the program if the College of Education was centered at UAS. The Juneau community spoke and the university was willing to listen, said Regent Dale Anderson. I thank President Johnsen for stepping up and recognizing the need to engage with the university community. Share this: Tweet Email Aniak based Alaska State Troopers were notified of a plane crash that occurred at Marvel Dome, which is approximately 4-5 miles from the Marvel Creek strip/mine on 12/16/16 at about 1325 hours. It was reported that a red and white PA 11 with two people on board departed Aniak the day before at about 1400 hours. The plane was headed to the Marvel Creek area. As the plane failed to return, family members flew out to search. They located a crash site on the southeast side of Marvel Dome at approximately the 2000 level. It was reported that the plane was destroyed and the people on board were believed to be deceased as a result of the crash. There were no signs of life. The Aniak based DPS Cessna 182 attempted to respond to the area, but returned to Aniak after experiencing deteriorating weather conditions. The NTSB was been notified. On 12/17/2016 at about 1300 hours, a chartered helicopter from Bethel with an National Transportation Safety Board investigator and an Alaska State Trooper responded to the crash site and was able to recover the bodies and conduct a scene investigation. The initial scene investigation revealed the plane impacted Marvel Dome at a high rate speed and that neither occupant survived the initial impact. The pilot was identified as 62 year old Mark Matter and passenger as 63 year old Cecilia Matter both of Aniak. The bodies were transported to the State Medical Examiners Office in Anchorage for autopsy. The next of kin was notified. Share this: Tweet Email Right, he's cackling about how much his employees make if all the payroll taxes are added; what is he collecting for a salary off his business? And if he's anything like family businesses I ever worked at, guaranteed he's got several of his useless dipshit kids working or pretending to work and collecting wages also!Simple fact of capitalism is that capitalists only get rich (like they're doing right now) when they collect surplus value from the work their employees are doing! Don't believe the horseshit that he can't keep his business running if wages go up to $15! If no other place offered sweatshop wages, he would have to find other ways to cut costs/raise prices like they do when energy prices go up. (Rolling Stone) In the late 1980s, James Hansen became the first scientist to offer unassailable evidence that burning fossil fuels is heating up the planet. In the decades since, as the world has warmed, the ice has melted and the wildfires have spread, he has published papers on everything from the risks of rapid sea-level rise to the role of soot in global temperature changes all of it highlighting, methodically and verifiably, that our fossil-fuel-powered civilization is a suicide machine. And unlike some scientists, Hansen was never content to hide in his office at NASA, where he was head of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York for nearly 35 years. He has testified before Congress, marched in rallies and participated in protests against the Keystone XL Pipeline and Big Coal (he went so far as to call coal trains death trains). When I ran into him at an anti-coal rally in Washington, D.C., in 2009, he was wearing a trench coat and a floppy boater hat. I asked him, Are you ready to get arrested? He looked a bit uneasy, but then smiled and said, If thats what it takes. The enormity of Hansens insights, and the need to take immediate action, have never been clearer. In November, temperatures in the Arctic, where ice coverage is already at historic lows, hit 36 degrees above average a spike that freaked out even the most jaded climate scientists. At the same time, alarming new evidence suggests the giant ice sheets of West Antarctica are growing increasingly unstable, elevating the risk of rapid sea-level rise that could have catastrophic consequences for cities around the world. Not to mention that in September, average measurements of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere hit a record 400 parts per million. And of course, at precisely this crucial moment a moment when the leaders of the worlds biggest economies had just signed a new treaty to cut carbon pollution in the coming decades the second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases on the planet elected a president who thinks climate change is a hoax cooked up by the Chinese. [more] Fayt said: There's a false equivalence. Asians are about 5% of the population and even less going back. They didn't go through the same discrimination and economic disadvantageous as Black people. Hundreds of years of slavery and harsh bigotry. Click to expand... Black people have gotten better in this country THANKS to government. We can continue this. Click to expand... People or in this case black people, can't create wealth by themselves without the institutions that allow them to. That being education and jobs that you agree will help. Click to expand... There are more good people in this country than bad. There are more non racist good white people that want to look out for everyone. Click to expand... What hurt our chances of getting progressive polices enacted are terrible corporate politicians that ignore the working class in general. This causes people to stay home because their not motivated to vote. This will change. Click to expand... I'm not talking about Chinese-Americans, I'm talking about the NATION of China. I mean China the actual country. I look at anti-Blackness from a global perspective. Black people, wherever they end up, are treated the same. Poor, oppressed, sick, etc. The root of that is power.How have things gotten better for Black folks when their unemployment rate, as I've mentioned, is higher than that of White folks? Our family income is the lowest in the nation, and our communities are riddled with drugs and crime. The little progress Black folks have made was fought for, it wasn't just given to them.Ok but these institutions have not been effective in educating and uplifting Black folks. Sure they exist, but the education Black children receive is completely irrelevant to their lives and experiences. The jobs they receive are not from the community, but instead, if they are hired, they are hired by corporations who commit violence against Black folks.America is a sick and corrupt society, there are very few good people here. I don't deny that there are good White people. However, I don't work based on individuals, I work based on the attitudes and actions of White folks as a political and economic bloc.Sorry if this sounds harsh because your heart is good, but I simply cannot, as a Black man, afford to wait for change while my people are being killed left and right. This isn't just some dark spot on society, and this is how White "allies" tend to look at it. I act with a sense of urgency because these things directly affect me and people that I love. SRK And Mahira Khan's New Song Zaalima Will Make You Regret The Ban On Pakistani Artists Big Time! Taylor Pokorney had hoped to bring 100 participants to her first Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund 5K, held last Nov. 12 in connection with Veterans Day 2016. Instead, she tripled the take, running out of T-shirts but bringing in more than $13,000 for the military family fund. The West Albany High School junior had been struggling last fall to raise awareness for her project. Her spring 2016 Leadership class had committed to helping her organize the run, but the class was canceled in the fall, eliminating a ready set of volunteers and resources. Taylor decided to go through with the run anyway, organizing most of the details herself, from sponsors to T-shirts. Her efforts were rewarded with 400 signups, about 300 of whom actually turned out that day to run. "There were a couple of individual groups, a group of Marine recruits in Albany came that was exciting for me," she said. Friends from West Albany and students from Oregon State University showed up to volunteer, helping sign in participants, work as road marshals and hand out medals. It rained during the event and so many people turned out that not enough T-shirts were available, but no one complained, she said. "Everyone was still happy." As of the end of 2016, Taylor estimated the 5K raised more than $13,000 for the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, an independent nonprofit organization that provides support to United States military personnel and their families. More was still coming in, she said. The fund helped Taylor and her mother, Chelle Pokorney, after Taylor's father, Marine 1st Lt. Frederick Pokorney Jr., was killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Taylor was 2 at the time. The family has been a part of the Intrepid ever since. Its logo, of a mother and child walking hand in hand through Arlington National Cemetery, is of Chelle and a toddler-sized Taylor. Taylor said she hopes to put on another fundraiser run for Veterans Day 2017. I got a lot of great feedback from everybody so I think Im going to do it next year, for sure," she said. Golan Telecom will be acquired by Electra Consumer Products in a deal that resolves the Israeli firms storied legal dispute with rival Cellcom. Following the announcement of the acquisition, Cellcom has signed a mitigation agreement to finally bring a close to all legal action that it has filed against Golan, including a court case and a threat of liquidation proceedings. Cellcoms dispute is based on unpaid roaming charges owed to it by Golan. Electra Consumer Products is controlled by conglomerate Elco Holdings. After initial indications in December 2016 that the group was considering an acquisition of Golan, it has confirmed that it will buy the operator for ILS350 million ($91m). The deal requires regulatory approval, and some of the revealed terms may raise eyebrows in this regard - in particular, a loan from Cellcom to Golan Telecom. The former, larger operator attempted an acquisition of Golan in November 2015 but its attempt was denied by the regulator. However, if the deal goes through then Cellcom and Golan are set to form a new ten year network sharing agreement for 3G and 4G networks, as well as a 2G hosting agreement. To implement this, the firms will form a new joint venture. Cellcom congratulates Electra Consumer Products for purchasing Golan Telecom and entering the communications market said Nir Sztern, Cellcom Israel CEO. The network sharing agreement facilitates Cellcoms continued investment in future technologies. Pan-African operator MTN is reportedly considering pulling out of the Nigerian market if what it deems the endless hostility of the countrys regulators continues. Nigerian news outlet Business Journal cited unnamed MTN directors as claiming that they could exit the market if their difficulties continued into 2017. Damage to the MTN brand as a result of the negative publicity the firm has received due to its troubles in Nigeria is also a concern. MTN has faced investigations into its Nigerian operations as well as a high profile fine in Nigeria for failing to comply with security regulations in 2015. The operator settled this dispute with the Nigerian government by agreeing to pay NGN330 billion ($1.04 billion) over three years but only after three revisions to the demanded penalty. Just three months after the settlement, MTN was hit with claims that it had been illegally transferring money out of Nigeria over the past ten years, with an alleged total of $13.92 billion. MTN Nigeria CEO Ferdi Moolman dismissed the allegations as completely unfounded and without any merit. An MTN exit would have a major impact on the Nigerian market, as it is the countrys largest operator with 59 million subscribers. CES is here and with it a ton of new launches from various companies, including Asus. Like last year, the company has unveiled a plethora of new and updated laptops, mini-PCs, AIOs and more at CES 2017. The focus this year seems to be gaming, with 7 new gaming mice, almost half a dozen gaming laptops, new gaming monitors, gaming motherboards and more. There are also the new Zenfones, with Googles Tango and Daydream capabilities. Zenfones: Project Tango takes centrestage Asus unveiled its version of a Google Tango enabled device earlier today at CES 2017, which packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 SoC. It is called ZenFone AR and its the first phone to feature 8GB of RAM and the three camera system required by the Google Tango application. It has a big 5.7-inch display with WQHD resolution and will run on Android 7.0 Nougat. The other phone, the company unveiled at CES was the new Zenfone 3 Zoom. It is a mainstream smartphone, featuring a 5.5-inch 1080p display, Snapdragon 625 and 4GB of RAM. However, there is a large 5000mAh battery on the phone, along with a 12MP + 12MP dual camera setup. Gaming Laptops: Powered by Intel Kaby Lake A new year, new Intel processors and new gaming laptops. Its an early Christmas. Asus announced seven new gaming laptops - GX800VH, G701, G752, GL502, GL702, GL553 and the GL753. All of these are powered by Intels 7th generation HQ or HK processors, and will be available with different speeds of DDR4 RAMs and storage configurations. On the GPU side, one can have NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050, 1050Ti, 1060, 1070 GPUs, to the very best dual GTX 1080 graphic cards in SLI. All laptops running GTX 1060 and above will be VR compatible and higher end models will also feature NVIDIA G-Sync enabled displays. The top of the line GX800VH also gets a mechanical keyboard and water cooling. Asus has also updated its entire gaming PC range with new Intel processors and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 10 series processors. Gaming hardware: New Z270 motherboards With the addition of new Intel Kaby Lake processors, Asus is also updating its motherboards as the newer chip requires a new LGA standard. Enter Z270 motherboards. Asus has announced an entire line of new motherboards - ROG Strix Z270E Gaming, ROG Strix Z270F Gaming, ROG Strix Z270H Gaming ATX motherboards, mATX ROG Strix Z270G Gaming and mini-TX ROG Strix Z270I Gaming. With these, the company is also adding Aura Sync, which it claims is the worlds first motherboard-controlled synchronised RGB lighting. Gaming peripherals: Mice, mic and routers At CES this year, Asus has announced 7 new gaming mice, some of which are wired, some wireless and some feature RGB lighting. Each mouse is made to suit different gaming styles and game genres. However, Asus now also has mice like the GX970 in its arsenal, which is modular and can be changed using detachable parts as per preference. Besides the 7 gaming mice, Asus also showcased its first mic, aimed squarely at gamers. It is called the Strix Magnus and has three studio-grade condenser capsules for better clarity. It has environmental noise-cancellation and features RGB lighting. The company now also has the first gaming oriented router, the ROG Rapture GT-AC5300 at the event. It features tri-band WiFi, has eight-port gigabit-LAN and includes two USB 3.0 ports. Out of the eight LAN ports, two are dedicated gaming ports and the router has additional gaming software. Mainstream laptops and AIOs: ZenBooks, VivoBooks, Transformer Pro and more Asus has updated its entire range of slim and portable laptops with new Intel processors and these are available with new and improved RAM and storage options. Here is a list of laptops the company updated this year - ZenBook UX330, UX410, UX310, UX510 and ZenBook Flip UX360UA, VivoBook Max X541 and X441, VivoBook Flip TP501 and Transformer Pro T304. The ZenBook UX410 is a new 14-inch slim and ultraportable machine. It will feature an ultra-slim 6mm bezel around the display, which will have a resolution of 3200 x 1800 pixels. It will be launched with Intel Core i3, i5 and i7 chips and, with RAM upto 16GB. Talking about AIOs, Asus is upgrading the Zen AiO Pro Z240IE, Zen AiO ZN241IC, the new Zen AiO ZN270IE and Vivo AiO V221IC. The new flagship Zen AiO Pro Z240IE features a brushed aluminum build and is powered by a 7th gen Intel Core i7 processor. It has a 24-inch 4K panel and to handle the graphics, an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 inside. Asus also showcased its new 14-inch business class notebook called the ASUSPRO B9440, which weighs just 1kg and has footprint equivalent to a 13-inch laptop. Asus claims, it is the lightest 14-inch business laptop. Monitors and Mini-PCs: Updated with times There are two new monitors from Asus, the 32-inch ProArt PA32U, which is a direct-lit 4K UHD HDR monitor. It has a quantum dot display and Asus claims the monitor delivers 99.5% Adobe RGB colour gamut and a peak brightness of 1,000cd/m2. It is also available in a 27-inch model with 2560 x 1440p resolution. The other is a 37.5-inch curved monitor called the Asus Designo Curve MX38VQ. It has a QHD (3840 x 1600) IPS display, with a 21:9 aspect ratio with a curvature of 2300R. At its base is a Qi wireless charging pad. Asus also showcased its new and updated mini PC range including the VivoMini UN65U, the VivoMini VC66 and the VM65 Series. All these Mini PC series now come with Intel 7th gen processors and M.2 storage support. ASUS HiveSpot & HiveDot Mesh Wi-Fi System Finally, the company showcases its new modular high speed wireless mesh networking system for homes. This system eliminates dead zones and with a single sign in, connects user to the entire network. ASUS HiveSpot uses a tri-band AC2134 Wi-Fi device and the ASUS HiveDot is using a dual-band AC1300 device for connectivity. Samsung Chromebook Plus and Chromebook Pro feature metal unibody design and the screen swivels 360-degree At CES 2017, Samsung has introduced two new Chromebooks with support for Android apps. Samsung says its Chromebook Plus and Chromebook Pro are designed for Google Play, giving access to millions of Android apps. Samsung Chromebook Plus and Chromebook Pro feature a metal unibody design and the screen swivels 360-degree thanks to the hinge. Samsung Chromebook Plus and Chromebook Pro feature a 12.3-inch Quad HD display with a resolution of 2400 x 1600 pixels. The Chromebook Plus is powered by an ARM-based hexa-core OP1 processor, while the Chromebook Pro gets an Intel Core m3 chip. Both the Chromebooks comes with 4GB RAM and 32GB internal storage. Samsung says it has collaborated with Google to develop its 2017 Chromebook lineup. "With the Chromebook Plus and Pro, were partnering with Google to pair a sleek design with supreme flexibility, encouraging users to experience more with Google Play and Android apps, while continuing to provide simplicity, top-rated security and shareability inherent in Chromebooks," said Alanna Cotton, Vice President of Product Marketing at Samsung Electronics America. The most differentiating factor about these new Chromebooks is the support for a built-in stylus. The stylus adds support for on-screen content capture and ability to take notes. The stylus natively supports apps like Google Keep and Samsung ArtCanvas. Samsung Chromebook Plus and Chromebook Pro offer two USB-C ports and a microSD card reader. On the connectivity front, there is WiFi 802.11 ac and Bluetooth 4.0. Samsung Chromebooks come with 39Wh battery which the company claims is capable of delivering 8 hours of constant use. Samsung Chromebook Plus will be available in February at a starting price of $449 (approximately Rs 30,500). Samsung Chromebook Pro will be available later this year and pricing will be revealed close to availability. Nokia D1C is rumoured to be launched in March 2020 & is expected to run on Android 7.0 OS. The Smartphone is expected to be made available only in one color i.e. default & will have a host of connectivity options in terms of 3G, 4G, GPS, Wifi Bluetooth capabilities. The phone will come with 16 GB of internal storage. As far as the specifications are concerned, the Smartphone is tipped to be powered by 1.4 GHz Octa core Qualcomm Snapdragon It started off as a joke. When Miranda Arms saw that no one was running for mayor of Waterloo, she suggested her husband Jon Arms could lead the small town. They told a few neighbors and had a laugh. And then they both wrote his name down on their November general election ballots. But Jon Arms received six write-in votes to win the election. He has accepted the position of mayor of Waterloo and will be sworn in at a Jan. 9 City Council meeting. The jokes on me now, because now I have to step up to the plate, Jon Arms said. The win came as a big surprise, he said, but hes grateful. If no one else was running, why not take a shot? he said. I think its a great opportunity, and Im excited to see where it will lead. We can do some good things in the community. His family also is excited. Children Shay Ryan, 12, Haily Arms, 8, and Gunner Arms, 5, acknowledged that theyve done a bit of bragging about their dads political victory to classmates at Hamilton Creek School. Jon Arms, 35, drives for Walsh Trucking, hauling wood chips from a local mill, and he and his family have lived in Waterloo since 2012. Its a quiet little neighborhood where were at. Its the first piece of property my wife and I bought. Its not too far off the beaten path, but just enough to give us some privacy, he said. Weve been here the shortest amount of time of everybody here, added Shay. Her mom disputed that claim, but said that it had some basis in fact. Most people have been here for 20-something years, Miranda Arms said. Last year was notable for the Arms family in other ways, as well. Miranda Arms graduated from Linn-Benton Community College in June and started working as a nurse at Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital. Well try and keep the momentum going, Miranda Arms said. A lack of candidates isnt something especially new for small towns in Linn County and elsewhere. Waterloo, with a population of 230 people, including children, had no one file for the position of mayor and three council seats in 2006, for example. City officials have said that its hard to get candidates to run for public office because the volunteer positions require plenty of work and city councilors, in general, receive plenty of criticism and little praise. The winning write-in candidates from three other small Linn County cities Idanha, Sodaville and Tangent also have agreed to fill positions where no one filed for office in the November general election. In Tangent, Chris LaBelle will join the City Council, after receiving 19 write-in votes. Hes very excited, from what I hear, said Georgia Edwards, Tangent city manager. Jeff Hensley, who garnered three write-in votes, will join the Sodaville City Council in January, said Judy Smith, city administrator. In Idanha, Zola Saner and Linda Stice each will join the City Council, which had two seats where no one filed for office. Both Saner and Stice had their names written down four times on ballots. A leaked slide from Malaysian distributor Avaxx reveals that HMD Global could introduce 6-7 Nokia-branded smartphones in 2017 Nokia is all set to announce its first Android-based smartphone made by HMD Global at MWC 2017. A recent report indicated that HMD Global is planning to launch at least five new Nokia-branded smartphones in 2017 but a new report claims that number could be anything between six and seven. A leaked slide from Malaysian distributor Avaxx reveals that HMD Global could introduce 6-7 Nokia-branded smartphones in 2017. According to Nokiapoweruser, the leaked slide also confirms these devices will cover all the major price range. HMD Global has been saying that its smartphones will be competitive in terms of price and superior in terms of quality. At Mobile World Congress in February, Nokia is expected to announce D1C - the budget smartphone in two different variants. The pricing of this device is tipped to be under Rs 10,000. Nokia is also rumoured to be working on two flagship smartphones and an entry-level device dubbed E1. HMD Global is expected to introduce the budget offerings first before introducing its flagship devices. At CES 2017, Qualcomm revealed its flagship mobile processor Snapdragon 835 is expected to be available in the first half of 2017. Nokia is rumoured to be working on a P series flagship based on this chipset. Nokia's comeback is one of the most anticipated tech events this year. In collaboration with HMD Global and FIH Mobile Limited, Nokia is expected to introduce new Android-based smartphones with Z-Launcher UI. ZTE Blade V8 Pro is available for pre-order in the US at $229.98, which is approximately Rs. 15,600 ZTE has unveiled the Blade V8 Pro at CES 2017. The new smartphone is available in the US for pre-order at $229.98, which is about Rs. 15,600. The highlight of the device is the dual-rear camera setup, which consists of two 13MP cameras. This lets the user add bokeh effects to their photographs. The phone also comes with a 5.5-inch FHD display with Gorilla Glass 3 protection, and is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 SoC with 3GB of RAM. The phone is equipped with a 3140mAh battery with Quick Charge 2.0, and offers 32GB of storage that can be expanded up to 128GB. The phone runs Android Marshmallow and comes with a USB Type-C port. The ZTE Blade V8 Pro may be the first of eight smartphones that the company plans to launch in India in the first half of the year. According to Sachin Batra, Chief Marketing Officer for ZTE, the company will start selling with its Blade lineup of phones in India with online and offline tie-ups. He added that the company will launch its Axon range of smartphones in India in the second half of the year. Google Assistant for Android TV is part of an upcoming update for Android TVs running Marshmallow or Nougat Google Assistant, the AI-based virtual assistant is coming to televisions. The Search giant has announced that Google Assistant will be arriving on supported televisions based on Android TV in the coming months. Google Assistant for Android TV is part of an upcoming update for Android TVs running Marshmallow or Nougat. Google says NVIDIA Shield will be the first TV device to support Google Assistant and the feature will be made available to other hardware products like the Sony Bravia and Xiaomi Mi-Box later. At CES 2017, Amazon's Alexa has taken over everything from smart speakers to refrigerators. Amazon is also expanding Alexa to televisions and smartphones, and Google doesn't want to stay behind. Google recently announced "Actions on Google" as a platform to develop services for Google Assistant. Today, Google is announcing a collaboration with Mercedes and Hyundai to bring thord-party services to Google Home. Google Assistant is currently available only on the Pixel range of smartphones and Google Home. By adding Google Assistant to Android TVs, Google can expand its reach to consumers already owning supported hardware. It seems rumours about Sony making an OLED TV were true. The Japanese company just announced the XBR-A1E Bravia 4K OLED TV at CES 2017. Sonys TVs have so far been using its Triluminous Display technology, which is similar to Samsungs Quantum Dots. However, theoretically, OLED panels should provide much better colours. OLED panels on paper allow nearly true blacks on a television, and infinite contrast ratio. From what weve seen on LGs OLED TVs so far, the use of this technology should give Sonys new Bravia a considerable boost in terms of picture quality. In fact, reports say that Sony isnt actually producing the OLED panels itself, and theyre most likely being sourced from LG Display. Further, Sonys television has built in support for Dolby Vision HDR through the 4K HDR Processor X1 Extreme chip, which is Sonys in-house processor for 4K HDR picture. This is the same chip that powers Sonys Z9D HDR television, and weve seen the admirable job it does on that TV. However, it is unclear whether Sonys new OLED TVs will support both Dolby Vision and HDR10 content. It should, theoretically, be possible. Weve put the question across to Sony and will update this story whenever we hear from them. Sonys move to OLED technology also brings the first real competition to LGs OLED TVs. While they should be quite expensive right now, HDR and OLED technology are truly big improvements in the TV space. This may also mean that the Triluminous tech that Sony has been known for, can now trickle to its budget offerings. The new Bravia XBR-A1E is Sonys flagship television for 2017. In the long run, this could be the trend, where OLED televisions replace Sonys flagship class, while good televisions, like the Sony W95D trickle down to more affordable levels. Advantages and Disadvantages of OLED panels As mentioned above, OLED technology allows infinite contrast ratio in theory. In traditional LCD panels, a backlight array (Edge Lit or Full-Array) is used for lighting the panel. In OLEDs, each pixel is a tiny LED in itself, which can be turned on or off. So, turning an LED off means complete darkness, or true black. This is why OLED panels are said to be capable of true blacks, and they produce better colours. Further, OLED panels are also more flexible. LGs flexible OLED display has been widely covered by the media globally earlier. In the long run, using an OLED panel may allow Sony to produce curved televisions as well. These panels can also be thinner and lighter, and given how thin Sony TVs have already become, using OLEDs may allow them to be literally paper thin. In fact, this is perhaps why the new Bravia XBR-A1E is a speakerless TV. According to Sony, sound emerges from vibrations on the screen. While we havent yet experienced this first hand, it may mean lower volume, but shouldnt be unreasonably low. On the other hand, while OLEDs are touted to be the closest to Plasma quality picture that you can get, there are trade-offs. One of these is the fact that OLEDs can be prone to burn issues over a period of time. In addition, OLED panels are also prone to water damage, and their manufacturing process costs a lot more than traditional LEDs. The cost, though, may be an issue in the short term. Sony is the second company to make use of OLED panels in its TVs. Eventually, with increasing demand, economies of scale may be possible. Oil and gas engineering services business Plexus Holdings announced on Thursday it had been awarded an order for a second well from Masirah Oil , a British Virgin Islands-based company majority owned by leading technology driven oil and gas company REX International Holdings . The AIM-traded firm firm said the new contract will see Plexus supply Masirah with its POS-GRIP Tersus Mudline equipment and 10,000psi adjustable rental exploration wellhead for the Karamah-1 exploration well offshore Oman. It said the estimated value of the contract to Plexus is $0.29m, with revenues expected to commence during January. Karamah-1 will be drilled from the Aban VII Jackup rig, Plexus board explained, and follows the successful drilling of the Manarah-1 well by Masirah last year, which was also drilled using Plexus' POS-GRIP wellhead equipment. The board added that Karamah-1 is the second of a multi-well programme which could extend to a third well, subject to the drilling results. Drilling operations are expected to take between 20 and 30 days. Masirah reportedly originally selected Plexus' equipment due to the safety and time savings of POS-GRIP compared to the traditional slip and seal systems, and also the enhanced safety advantages of Plexus' mudline systems and surface hangers with installation through the blowout preventer. This is the second order we have secured with Masirah for our cost effective and technically superior wellhead solutions, said Plexus CEO Ben Van Bilderbeek. Aside from the positive impact on our revenues, it further increases our visibility in this important oil and gas region. Van Bilderbeek explained that the Middle East is one of the few regions in the world where drilling activity has remained relatively stable during the current downturn. As a result, it is a key area of focus for us, as we look to expand the geographic footprint of our best in class equipment. The superior qualities of our wellheads in terms of performance, reliability and safety have no geographic boundaries, and as a result we are confident we can replicate, on a global basis, the historic success we have had in the North Sea where Plexus is firmly established as the dominant supplier of jack-up exploration wellheads. Dubai-based investment firm Tejoori is to sell the remaining Arjan plot of land to a veteran property trader from the United Arab Emirates, for $5.8m (21.3m dirhams). The AIM-listed company entered into a into a memorandum of understanding at the end of December 2016 with Mohammad Ali Abdulla and agreed to sell the remaining Arjan plot of land within 60 days, subject to approval from the Dubai Land Department. Tejoori said Abdulla is national of the United Arab Emirates and he has a number of years of experience of trading in properties and land in the country. The company will use the funds received, estimated to be $5.7m, as working capital and to supplement an intended return of cash to shareholders. The Arjan plot, which Tejoori bought in December 2012 along with two other plots, comprises of one plot of land in Al Barsha South Third in Arjan, a commercial and residential property development in Dubai. It had a book value of $4.14m at the end of June 2016 and had a total ground floor area of approximately 355,209 sq ft with no development on it. In May, the company sold one of the three Arjan land plots for $6.5m and sold the second in December, for $3.7m. The company said that the three plots never contributed to any revenue and it instead incurred a loss on revaluation of $2.9m and realised a $180,747 loss on sale. Shares in Tejoori were up 13.08% to 0.368p at 1035 GMT. Sir Tim Barrow has been appointed Britains new ambassador to the European Union by Prime Minister Theresa May, replacing Sir Ivan Rogers, who resigned on Tuesday. May said Sir Tim, a former Moscow envoy and current political director at the Foreign Office, is a seasoned and tough negotiator. The appointment of a career diplomat, rather than a Eurosceptic, was a move to reassure civil servants who feared that the position had become politicised. Sir Ivan resigned due to the ill-founded arguments and muddled thinking over Brexit and urged his colleagues to stress the difficulties of Brexit negotiations and deliver messages that are disagreeable to those who need to hear them. Leading Brexiteer, foreign secretary Boris Johnson, welcomed the selection, as did shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer. However, Johnson said that the appointment did not remove urgent questions about the lack of a plan for Brexit, the lack of preparedness for negotiations and a lack of accountability. Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron, said: The new ambassador can be at his most diplomatic but without a plan from this government on where its hands of the big issues, such as Britains membership of single market, then it is an impossible task. It is simply inexcusable that the hands of our diplomats are being tied by the ambiguity and meaningless platitudes spouted by ministers. It is time for Theresa May to set out her plan." Tullow Oil announced on Thursday that its chief financial officer Ian Springett was taking an extended leave of absence in order to undergo treatment for a medical condition. The FTSE 250 firm said Les Wood, vice president finance and commercial, had been appointed interim CFO. Les joined Tullow in 2014 as the group's vice president for commercial, its board confirmed in a statement. Before joining Tullow, Les worked for BP for 28 years in various positions including regional CFO roles in Canada and the Middle East. Save my User ID and Password Some subscribers prefer to save their log-in information so they do not have to enter their User ID and Password each time they visit the site. To activate this function, check the 'Save my User ID and Password' box in the log-in section. This will save the password on the computer you're using to access the site. Note: If you choose to use the log-out feature, you will lose your saved information. This means you will be required to log-in the next time you visit our site. Wednesday was a good day for mid-valley residents to stay home, thanks to a dusting of snow, blustery winds and a skim of ice that covered many local roads and a long stretch of Interstate 5. Travelers headed over the Santiam Pass found themselves waiting for a couple of hours due to the third avalanche in a less than a month at Hogg Rock, about two miles west of the Santiam Junction. Lou Torres, a spokesman for the Oregon Department of Transportation, said the avalanche occurred about 3:30 a.m. and it was cleared in about two hours. But about 7:15 a.m., a second avalanche again covered Highway 20. Traffic eventually was allowed on one lane, and at about noon, both lanes were opened. No vehicles were trapped in the snow and there were no injuries, Torres said. Hogg Rock is our usual problem area, Torres said. Torres said he was advising travelers to use alternate routes if possible. The wind has been blowing and causing drifting snow up there, Torres said. It has created significant visibility problems. Its not a good day to be traveling over the pass. The brunt of the storm in the mid-valley, according to Torres, was from south of Salem to south of Eugene. North of Salem didnt get as much snow, he said. Linn County Roadmaster Darrin Lane said his road crews have been busy sanding trouble spots and plowing roads at higher elevations. Folks just need to drive cautiously, he said. There was some snow at the higher elevations, but for the most part, its just been some fine powder here in the valley. Lane said his staff has sprayed some magnesium chloride deicer, but the material is in short supply. Theres a statewide shortage, Lane said. We usually buy our supply from the Oregon Department of Transportation, but they cut us off last year and already this year. Lane was able to purchase about 6,000 gallons of magnesium chloride from another supplier, but at a higher cost than the state contract basis. It is expected to arrive by Friday. We are also building storage tanks at our Lebanon shop, he added. We will be able to store about 14,000 gallons. We debated whether to do this, but after being cut off, decided it was the right thing to do. Most schools in Linn County remained open, although classes at Harrisburg were canceled and Santiam Canyon schools were on a two-hour delay. About 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, traffic on Interstate 5 between the Halsey exit and Albany was slowed to about 25 to 30 miles per hour. A handful of vehicles had slid off the roadway. Farther south on the interstate, motorists headed to California were stopped at Ashland for some time due to hazardous weather conditions in the Siskiyou Pass. For a short time Wednesday morning, North Albany Road was closed to all traffic due to snow between Quarry and Gibson Hill Road. The Lebanon Warming Shelter was open again Wednesday evening due to temperatures that were expected to drop into the 20-degree range. The shelter will remain open from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. until the cold weather dissipates later in the week. The shelter is at the site of the Lebanon Soup Kitchen, 170 E. Grant St. Snacks, warm beverages, mats and blankets are provided. Animals are welcome, but must be put into kennels. The shelter needs clean used or new blankets, gloves and snack-type foods. Items can be brought to the shelter during its open hours from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., or they can be dropped off at the Lebanon Police Department. Whatever accumulation was on the ground by the end of Wednesday was likely to stick around till the end of the week, according to Andy Bryant, a hydrologist with the Portland bureau of the National Weather Service. Bryant noted that Wednesday night would be quite cold, with clearing skies and low temperatures around 14 degrees, he said. Anything that melts is going to refreeze tonight. That pattern of clear skies and frosty temperatures will continue into the weekend, Bryant said, with the mercury topping out at about 30 degrees on Thursday, falling to 15 degrees Thursday night and perhaps reaching 32 degrees on Friday before dropping back to around 25 that night. While there wont be any fresh snow or sleet over those two days, theres a definite potential for freezing fog that could coat the streets with a treacherous glaze of ice, making driving conditions hazardous. By the weekend, a fresh storm system moving in off the Pacific should bring somewhat warmer temperatures, Bryant predicted, but that could bring its own challenges. Saturday has the potential to be a messy mix of freezing rain and rain, with maybe a little bit of snow, he said. The good part is it is going to warm up at some point on Saturday, with a high around 39, he added. Well get back to a more typical weather pattern for the Northwest. We should be done with frozen precipitation by Saturday night. In the meantime, Bryant said, mid-valley residents should take steps to keep their water pipes from freezing and be sure that pets and livestock are protected from the weather. That definitely counts for the next couple of nights, he said. Corvallis and Albany are near the northern edge of a winter storm system that brought heavy snowfalls to parts of the region, with accumulations ranging from 1 to 2 inches in the mid-valley to 2 inches in Eugene and several inches in lower elevations to the south and in Central Oregon. Police charge suspect who fired at police, was shot in exchange Columbus police identified the gunman wounded by police early Thursday morning as Raymond Richard Hampton, 26, of the University District. Subscriber content preview By MATTHEW BROWN Associated Press BILLINGS, Mont. Wildlife advocates plan to challenge the approval of a new Yellowstone River dam aimed at benefiting Montana and North Dakota farmers that critics say could kill off a dwindling population of a fish species dating to the time of dinosaurs. A bypass channel would be built alongside the concrete irrigation dam near the Montana-North Dakota border to let endangered pallid sturgeon reach upstream spawning grounds. . . . Maria Luisa Palumbo: I think we could start with your present research at the American Academy, can you tell me about it? Is there a connection between ruins, un-finished projects and weather? Phu Hoang, Rachely Rotem: Our work explores boundaries between architecture and weather in the public realm. The Founders Rome Prize fellowship, as well as our experience living in Rome, allows us to explore our ideas about public engagement with the environment. One aspect of our work explores the relationships of thermodynamics and social dynamics in the public realm. We are interested in how the design of thermodynamic urban spaces can activate social interaction, especially in groups. We are currently rethinking Romes piazzas (plazas) as thermodynamic public spaces. While their architectural characteristics are fixed, they are extremely varied in terms of their thermodynamic character throughout a day, during a season, and between seasons. The piazza is a site of thermodynamic exchange between thermal sources and sinks. We are interested in how this exchange can prompt new kinds of social behaviour. In the current winter season, Romes cooler weather and its low sun angle make people cluster into groups seeking solar radiation. These groups are made of strangers who do not know each other but are close enough together to be perceived as a unit: spontaneous social dynamics prompted by thermodynamics. The winner of last year's Rose of Tralee competition is encouraging potential candidates to enter when the Donegal selection takes place in the county in March. Chicago Rose Maggie McEldowney was speaking on Wednesday during a visit to the county to promote the Rose of Tralee for 2017. Maggie won the competition after taking three attempts to make it through her local selection. The Donegal selection night will take place on March 26th in the Clanree Hotel in Letterkenny. The Chicago Rose was making her first visit to Donegal on Wednesday and her guide for the day was Donegal Rose Zoe McGettigan. The two women have become very good friends since meeting during the 2016 competition. We kinda hit it off, Maggie said. We were by each other on the bus from day one and it went from there. Zoe would walk in and light the room up. She draws people to her. The Donegal Rose said she had a feeling about how the competition would go. Maggie was my winner, I knew she would win it. We have become really good friends. We are very lucky, the competitions winner said. She finds it hard to put into words how lucky she feels about winning the title. Part of it feels like a lifetime, another part of it feels like a blink of an eye. It has really been spectacular and I cant really put it into words just to say how lucky I am, how grateful I am for this opportunity. I am spoiled rotten I get to be able to go to see all my friends and see where they grew up. Maggie is back in Ireland almost every month as she juggles being the title holder with her job as director of development at Marist High School in Chicago. She was in India with the Hope Foundation in November and will be heading to Chernobyl with a group of Roses and escorts next month. For Zoe the highlight of the experience is the friendships she has made. I have made so many friends since it and we get closer every time we meet up. The friendship between the two women seems typical of the experience of competition for entrants. A Donegal man who won 250,000 in the New Years Eve lotto draw collected his prize in Dublin today and revealed he would be putting his cheque in the bank and paying off his mortgage. The winner's identity has not been revealed but he couldn't hide his delight as he claimed a cheque for a quarter of a million euro at National Lottery headquarters in Dublin today. The owner of the lucky Millionaire Raffle ticket, won the second highest prize of 250,000 in the New Years Eve draw on Saturday 31 December 2016. In total, there were 3,176 prize winners in the National Lottery Christmas Millionaire Raffle ranging from 500 to 1 million. The Christmas Millionaire top prize winning ticket of 1 million, which has yet to be claimed was ticket number 179740. The lucky ticket was purchased at the Topaz Service Station on Lower Tivoli Road in Cork on 21 December 2016. "First thing first, I will be putting the cheque into the bank and paying off my mortgage," grinned the delighted Donegal man. The winning ticket was sold on the day of the draw at the American House shop in Bundoran, just hours before the draw deadline. The shop has a great history of selling winning tickets, selling a lotto jackpot ticket for 12,155,282 in June 2014 while another shop in nearby Kinlough sold an 11,179,620 jackpot last year. The most recent winner told staff at Lottery HQ today that he was a regular Lotto and EuroMillions player but added that he hadn't intended buying a ticket for the draw. "I hadnt planned on buying a ticket for the draw. I was in the shop buying my usual bits and pieces when my attention was drawn to the raffle tickets. Its definitely one of my better impulse purchases," he laughed. The Donegal winner found out about his windfall the following morning after news of the big win reached the locality, The morning after the draw, I was on Facebook and there was a lot of news about a big lotto win in the town. I didnt take any notice of it and it was only when I heard the local radio station mention the Millionaire Raffle number that I remembered to check my ticket. As I had one of the last tickets, I knew my number was high. When I heard the number, I just knew, he said. Party planning is already underway in the Donegal household with a holiday for all of the family on the horizon, We will be taking the kids and their grandparents away on holiday so we can celebrate properly as a family. I might be the ticket holder but we all won as a family, he said. Home Four wheelers Mercedes Set To Introduce Extra Long E-Class In India; Launch Date Revealed oi-Dennis James Mercedes-Benz is readying its new E-Class for launch in India. However, it would seem that German carmaker is looking to launch the Mercedes E-Class Long Wheelbase (LWB) instead of the regular version of the luxury sedan in India. {photo-feature} Most Viewed Car Photo Gallery Via Autocar Home Four wheelers Make In US Or Pay Border Tax Donald Trump To Chevrolet oi-Rajkamal Carmakers are coming under Donald Trump's firing range for making cars outside the US. Ford recently sacked a .6 billion factory deal in Mexico after receiving huge criticism from the President Elect, and now it's Chevrolet's turn. {photo-feature} Most Viewed Car Photo Gallery With all corners of the globe set to pay tribute to the late David Bowie next week, Dundalk is gearing up to lead the commemorations. January 10 marks one year since the famed British musician departed stage left, and the leading lights of Louths music scene are keen to honour him in style. After the initial shock of Bowies death had passed I was doing my dishes and listening to Scary Monsters thinking about ways to honour my favourite artist, reflects Shane Clarke, a member of local band, Elephant. Coming from Dundalk I am lucky to be a part of an thriving music scene, a scene that can call each other friends as well peers. So I opened a group message on Facebook to ask if anyone would be interested in covering a Bowie song for a charity tribute album. The feedback was immediate. It seemed that everyone was looking for a way to honour Bowie, not just me. The finished product boasts 15 tracks in total, each interpreted by a different artist and mastered by Joseph Edwards. All the proceeds from the album and associated donations will go to the North Louth Hospice. Evil Presidentes will host the record's official launch as part 'Bowie Fundraiser Weekend', an event which kicks-off on January 13 at 8pm. The event includes a screening of Labyrinth followed by a themed fancy dress party, with Mark Corcoran also hosting a Bowie-only open mic session. Saturday the 14th will see official tribute band Rebel Rebel take over the Spirit Store, with Evil Presidentes also on hand to play all things Ziggy. Im very proud of the local music community, from players to venues, stores to designers; all coming together to create something. Loss is a powerful thing but through community and art we can heal each other. All the proceeds from the album and the weekend donations will go to the North Louth Hospice. _________________________________________________________________ ALBUM INFORMATION: The album will be for sale all weekend [January 13-15] from The Spirit Store and available thereafter from Classified Records. It can also be downloaded digitally via Bandcamp. The artists involved are: (in order of album playlist) Hunting Hall - The Future West - Third Smoke - We, the Oceanographers - Podracer Stewart Agnew - Nix Moon - Permanent Deja Vu - Accidents In The Workplace - MAK - Elephant - Somefinn - Finnian - Sonnets and Sisters - Just Mustard Studio: Jason Varley Album Artwork: Taine King Producer: Joseph Edwards Fundraising: Alan Anderson How many Dundalk houses have the address 'Terrace' on their name plates? This question was inspired by a local man who challenged me to name as many house terraces as I could in Dundalk. The answer is 'dozens of them' and that probably does not include many that have no name plates on them! There is about ten of them in the Seatown/St. Mary's Road area and maybe as many each along the Castletown Road and in the Hill Street/Dublin Street area! Most of the Dundalk terraces were built of red bricks, manufactured locally! Where are the following houses that have plates on them? Reagan's Terrace? This red brick terrace is at the top of the Long Avenue, in the middle of the two storey houses that used to be known as the 'Pork Factory Houses' because they were built to house the workers in the old Lunham Brothers' Pork Factory in about 1900. Demesne Terrace? This terrace is not in the Demesne now although it may have been built on land that was once part of the old Dundalk House Demesne. It is located off the Carrick Road, overlooking the main Dublin-Belfast railway opposite Clarke Station. These houses were built to house workers on the railway system and had an entry down to the Paint Shop. O'Connell's Terrace? This is the terrace of houses on Barrack Street, between Quay Street and the Buttercrane Lane. It was named after Henry O'Connell who owned a number of grocery and licensed trade premises in town, including one at this corner which later became King's 'Cosy Bar', now demolished. Annaville Terrace? This is the row of red brick houses on Chapel Street which have their backs to the Irish Christian Brothers' National Primary School. They were built in the middle of the nineteenth century. McCormick's Terrace? The row of small single storey houses that were built along the east side of the narrow part of St. Alphonsus Road, beside St. Joseph's Redemptorist Church. They were probably built to house workers at the Barrack Street rail terminus in the 1840s. The Irish Hospice Foundation (IHF) has welcomed the Department of Healths latest commitment to developing a much-needed hospice unit in the North East. The move comes as part of a broader 'Statement of Strategy' set to be rolled out over the the next three years. We have consistently highlighted the need for a Level III hospice unit to serve the people of Cavan, Louth, Meath and Monaghan, said Angela Edghill, Advocacy and Public Engagement Manager for the IHF. Not having a full service has meant that patients with complex palliative symptoms have had to be transferred to acute hospitals, often through a busy Emergency Department. The IHF believes that everyone is entitled to prompt access to good quality palliative and end-of-life care when they need it, regardless of where they live. People in North East counties are being denied the full range of services available in other areas. The Department of Health and the HSE are both committed to funding the running of a hospice if it is built by local community funding, affording another opportunity to support and add to existing palliative care services." The Departments strategy also commits to work with nongovernmental organisations to improve information and awareness of end of life services, particularly those which provide people with palliative care in the location they choose. More than 74% of people in Ireland say that they want to be cared for at home at end of life. Only 24% of people get to fulfil that wish. Our programmes are directed at supporting improvements which could enable more people to die well in the location of their choice, concluded Ms Edghill. NOTE: This post has been updated below. Before he left the state for a holiday vacation, Gov. Snyder signed a number of bills into law. While he was away, Lt. Gov. Brian Calley signed a bunch more into law including one that bans banning or regulating single-use grocery bags and one that makes the illegal selling of fetal tissue more illegal. However, there is still one bill passed unanimously by both chambers of the state legislature House Bill 5120 that is still sitting on Gov. Snyders desk awaiting action. This bill, which must be signed before January 10th to become law, would compel the owner or operator of a public water supply to issue a public advisory within three business days after being notified that the lead action level had been exceeded, in situations in which administrative rules require public education regarding lead. While I have to wonder why they are allowed to wait as long as three days to alert people that they are drinking water poisoned with lead, this bill should have been among the very first that Gov. Snyder signed before skipping town. Its unfathomable to me why Gov. Snyder thinks the optics and the humanity of this move are good for him and his administration. Congressman Dan Kildee released a statement saying, It is frustrating to see Governor Snyder once again have no sense of urgency when it comes to helping Flint families recover from the ongoing water crisis. Right now, a common sense bill that would help prevent another water crisis is with the Governor, awaiting his action. The Legislature passed the bill unanimously and all the Governor needs to do is sign it into law. But unfortunately this important Flint water legislation continues to sit on his desk collecting dust. The Governor should sign this bill immediately Michiganders are sick and tired of waiting for the Governor to step up to the plate and help fix this man-made crisis he created in the first place. For those of you who dont live in Michigan, itll probably come as no surprise that Gov. Snyder is term-limited and wont be running for governor again in 2018. Talk about phoning it in. Most lame duck governors wait at least until their last year before giving up. For shame, Gov. Snyder. For shame. Be sure to read Detroit Free Press columnist Rochelle Rileys latest piece featuring her interview with the bills lead sponsor, Flint Rep. Sheldon Neeley, HERE. UPDATE: On Friday, January 6th, Gov. Snyder finally got around to signing this bill into law. 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Government sources claim these problems are a result of the industry's investment in the first ever Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) projects in the country, which commenced around 2008. The decision to support the cash-strapped sector is on the recommendation of the Ministry of Textiles and the cash will be provided to18 Common Effluent Treatment Plants (CETPs) as an interest free loan, offered based on the performance of the CETPs. The move is aimed at helping the struggling CETPs and 450 dyeing units to recover from the financial crisis which has impacted on India. New research has confirmed that there was no global warming pause in the mid-2000s, validating the work of government scientists and squashing a favorite argument of climate change deniers. Ocean buoy (green) and satellite data (orange) measuring sea surface temperatures compared to updated NOAA predictions concluded in 2015 (red) after adjusting for a cold bias in buoy temperature measurements. NOAAs earlier assessment (blue) underestimated sea surface temperature changes. Zeke Hausfather/ UC Berkeley In July of 2015, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released a paper correcting some of its data on ocean temperatures and suggesting a larger range of warming since 2000. Deniers seized the opportunity to accuse the agency of altering data for political purposes, and the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, led by the famously science-averse Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), filed a subpoena for all communications on the study. https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/status/805840464066789376 However, a new analysis published yesterday in Science Advances independently confirms the cool bias in NOAAs previous data and supports the assertion that the planet is warming consistently. We pretty robustly showed that NOAA got it right, said study author Zeke Hausfather, a Ph.D. student at the University of California-Berkeley and a researcher with Berkeley Earth, a nonprofit consortium that has reanalyzed the Earths temperatures. There was no cooking of the books, theres no politically motivated twisting of the data. For a deeper dive: News: Washington Post, AP, InsideClimate News, Huffington Post, PBS, Ars Technica, The Verge, Scientific American Commentary: The Guardian, John Abraham analysis, The Atlantic, Robinson Meyer analysis, ThinkProgress, Sam Page analysis For more climate change and clean energy news, you can follow Climate Nexus on Twitter and Facebook, and sign up for daily Hot News. Construction of the worlds tallest solar tower is underway. The 820-foot tower, which stands in the middle of a 121-megawatt concentrated solar complex in Israels sun-drenched Negev desert, is slated for commercial operation by the end of 2017. The Ashalim Solar Thermal Power Station, built and operated by Megalim Solar Power Ltd, consists of more than 50,000 computer-controlled heliostats, or mirrors, that track the sun and reflect its rays onto a boiler on top of the tower. The boiler creates superheated steam that then feeds a steam turbine for power generation. Like other concentrated solar power (CSP) plants, the beauty of the Ashalim complex is that its designed to produce energy even when the sun isnt shining. Compared to solar photovoltaic (PV) applications, direct steam CSP has the advantage of being able to produce electricity for longer periods of time during the solar hours, General Electric, a Megalim shareholder, explained in a brochure. The ability to operate during peak demand times reduces the need for utilities to build power plants to operate only during peak timesthereby lowering the overall systems electricity production costs. The electricity generated at the Ashalim facility will be enough to supply 120,000 homes with clean energy and avoid 110,000 tons of CO2 emissions each year. The Ashalime solar tower in the Negev desert is surrounded by 50,000 heliostats over 1.22 square mile area. Bright Source When operational, the Ashalim Solar Thermal Power Station will help Israel achieve its goal of having 10 percent of its electricity production from renewable energy sources by 2020, the developers tout on its website. As the Associated Press reported, the solar tower is a symbol of Israels renewable energy ambitions. Renewable sources currently make up only 2.5 percent of the countrys energy mix and the Ashalim plant will help increase Israels energy security by reducing its dependence on fossil fuel imports from other countries. The Ashalim plant is made of three plots in the Negev desert. It will expand to a fourth plot by 2018. Once the four plots are online, they are set to generate about 310 megawatts of power. That amount of energy can fulfill 1.6 percent of the countrys energy needs, or about 5 percent of Israels population. Its the most significant single building block in Israels commitment to CO2 reduction and renewable energy, Megalim CEO Eran Gartner told the AP. Israels Finance Ministry told the AP that if Ashalim is successful, the government will aim to develop more of these facilities. As Leehee Goldenberg, director of the department of economy and environment at the Israel Union for Environmental Defense said, Israel has a potential to be a sunshine superpower. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WI-Wc2tOiuA A controversial, last-ditch plan to round up the last remaining vaquitasa critically endangered porpoise found only in the Sea of Cortezmay get underway this spring with the aid of U.S. Navy-trained bottlenose dolphins. The vaquitas would be placed in a protected enclosure while efforts are made to get illegal fishing in the area under control. The population of these small porpoises has reached the point where they face imminent extinction. A report by marine conservationists issued in May 2016 estimated that less than 60 vaquitas remain. Their numbers have dropped dramatically in the last 20 years. There were 567 individuals in 1997, 245 in 2008 and just under 100 in 2014. The report puts a high probability on extinction within five years. Vaquita refuge established in 2005 where gillnet fishing is prohibited. National Geographic The Mexican government has been working with local fishermen to save the species. In 2005, Mexico established a refuge off San Felipe in the Gulf of California. Gillnet fishing was banned in the refuge. The government is spending $74 million to compensate fishermen and encourage them to use safer fishing methods. For a time, it worked. Although the population continued to decline, it did so at a slower rate. Scientists hoped it would soon turn around and begin to recover. But they didnt count on China. The countrys newly-minted millionaires stimulated a demand for dried fish bladders. Called fish maw, they are alleged to possess medicinal properties including the ability to increase fertility. The source of those fish bladders: the Mexican totoaba, a critically endangered fish found in the same waters as the vaquita. Totoaba bladders are worth up to $5,000 per kilogram and can command as much as $100,000 on the black market in China, according to a 2016 report by the Environmental Investigation Agency. They can be found at retailers in major Chinese cities as well as online sites such as Alibaba. Poachers often take their boats out at night, and use gillnets under the cover of darkness to round up as many totoaba as they can. The vaquita are merely bycatch, caught up in the nets where they often drown or die from stress. Fish maw wholesaler in Shantou, China (c) EIA Environmental Investigation Agency Details of the plan to save the vaquita are still being worked out. Plans may involve using dolphins from the Navy Marine Mammal Program, which has studied, trained and deployed these highly intelligent animals since the 1950s. Dolphins would be used to help locate vaquitas. They would then be coaxed into lightweight surface gillnets. Its never been done before with vaquitas, but harbor porpoises in Greenland have been captured safely in a similar manner. However, vaquitas have never been held in captivity. They are shy creatures, and will swim away if a boat approaches. The attempt to capture them and handle them will be really challenging because they are sensitive to stress, said Dr. Frances Gulland, senior scientist at the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, California. Conservationists differ on their support for the proposal, which is known as ex situ conservation. We have no idea how vaquitas will respond, said Sarah Uhlemann, international program director for the Center for Biological Diversity, which supports the plan. But were in a very desperate situation with vaquitas. We are literally on the precipice of losing the species. Others see this as too risky. I dont like this idea at all, said Omar Vidal, director general of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in Mexico. The risk of killing a vaquita while catching them is very high. With only 50 or 60 animals left, we cant play with that. Sea Shepherd has two boats patrolling the Gulf of California and works closely with the Mexican Navy, which has the authority to arrest those found using banned nets or with contraband fish. The vaquita belongs in its natural habitat and both the species and the habitat need to be protected, Captain Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, told EcoWatch. Removal of the vaquita could stress and kill the animals captured and removal will allow the poachers to intensify their exploitation of the endangered totoaba fish. But Gulland points out that this will be a careful process. It will be a very stepwise process with external review at each point, she explained. Well catch one, and if it works, well catch two, see how they survive. During the capture and containment process, veterinarians would monitor the porpoises and release stressed individuals. Housing the animals in a protected enclosure will not be a long-term solution, and is not, as some have reported, a captive breeding program. As Uhlemann explained, Its just to protect them until Mexico can get enforcement under control in their natural habitat. Mexico has undertaken a large effort to remove derelict gillnets that have sunk into the sea. While the cleanup of the wreckage occurs, some of the animals will be protected so they can be released back into the environment once the gillnets are gone, said Gulland. Uhlemann believes that Mexico could do a better job of enforcing the ban against gillnet fishing, as well as upholding its obligation to prevent trade in endangered species. The Center for Biological Diversity has petitioned the Obama Administration twice to hold Mexico accountable and today the Center for Biological Diversity threatened to sue the U.S. government for failing to sanction Mexico over its role in the alarming decline of vaquita. The lawsuit would seek a certification from the U.S. that Mexicos illegal totoaba fishing and trade violates the 1973 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). The United States has the legal authority and the moral duty to take aggressive action against Mexico, including instituting an economically painful shrimp embargo, Uhlemann said. The vaquitas very existence depends on immediate and dramatic action by both nations. Uhlemann said they would press the incoming Trump Administration to hold Mexico accountable. Recovery of the species from such a small population wont be easy. Vaquitas reach sexual maturity between three and five years of age, and females give birth only every two years. Recovery will be many years down the line, said Gulland. The Marine Mammal Center will lend its veterinary expertise on rescue, rehabilitation and care for the vaquitas. Most agree that the solution to saving the vaquita is for Mexico to permanently ban gillnet fishing throughout the animals range and to stop the illegal trade of totoaba bladders. We believe the answer is enforcement of the laws against the poachers and a 100 percent ban on fishing activity in the Gulf of California with compensation for the fishermen to leave their boats and their nets on land, said Captain Watson. The habitat needs the vaquita and the vaquita needs its habitat. Yes, Houston, we have a problem: Our oceans are dying. As the brilliant futurist Buckminster Fuller used to point out, our Spaceship Earth is hurtling through space at a great speed. Imagine if someone told you (a passenger on that ship) that the main oxygen systems were failing because of how food was being grown. What would you do upon receiving that dire warning? Perhaps work to make a change? Lobby the ships captain? Maybe youd simply deny that there was any such connection and keep going about your busy life. But an imminent loss of oxygen just happens to be a current fact, because the oceans phytoplankton (which provides two-thirds of the planets oxygen) is rapidly dying off. Industrial agriculture not only contaminates our oceans with pesticide and nitrogen-fertilizer runoff, leading to massive dead zones; it is stripping our soils of carbon, which ends up in the oceans and creates acidification. At the current trajectory, in just a few decades there wont be much left alive in our oceans as the phytoplankton diesall because of how we grow our food. When climate change is discussed, the media, our governments and the climate movement are focused on the evil carbon in the atmosphere and the melting of the Arctic region. Theyre pleading with governments and Fortune 1000 firms to stop conducting Drill, baby, drill operations. Important stuff for sure, but lost in this debate of how much oceans will rise or how hot the planet will be in 2100 is a very sobering fact. If we dont immediately deal with the number one enviro issue of the day, ocean acidification, humanity will not be around in 2100 to observe rising temperatures or oceans lapping over Wall Street and Silicon Valley. The good news is that we can cool both the planet and the seawater, while removing excess carbon from the sea, by regenerative agriculturea solution literally under our feet! The Regenerative Agriculture Initiative at California State University, Chico, and the Carbon Underground group have created this concise definition: Regenerative Agriculture describes farming and grazing practices that, among other benefits, reverse climate change by rebuilding soil organic matter and restoring degraded soil biodiversity resulting in both carbon drawdown and improving the water cycle. The little-known facts are that (a) industrial agriculture contributes more to climate change than Chevron, Exxon and the entire transportation industry combined and (b) regenerative agriculture can reverse climate change if we shift our societys focus from degeneration to regeneration. If we can put men on the Moon, can we shift how we grow food in way that supports life on Spaceship Earth? Designer William McDonough recent article, Carbon is not the Enemy, in the journal Nature states: But carbonthe elementis not the enemy. In the right place, carbon is a resource and a tool. Don Wilkin of the Soil and Water Conservation District in McHenry-Lake County, Illinois, outlines how to transform farming in his white paper, The New CRP: Restoring the Nations Depleted Farmland through Carbon Farming. Also, worth reading is Kristen Ohlsons, This Kansas farmer fought a government program to keep his farm sustainable, to see why we must change the way we incentivize farmers. As I explained in my Nov. 18, 2015 EcoWatch article, Soils and Oceans Omitted from the Paris COP21 Agenda: In this age of fascination with high technology, we choose to ignore the earthworm (tiller of the soil) and ocean plankton (our indispensable oxygen generator) at our peril. Did you know that two out of every three breaths you take come via phytoplankton? Relying primarily on solar, wind, and hybrids as the solutions to climate change is a path toward disaster. The good news is that we can help heal our acidic oceans, moderate the planets erratic weather, and produce abundant food by refocusing on soil sequestration (which, as a bonus, improves not just soil quality but also water-holding capacity) across farmlands, rangelands and forestlands. Living in a Biological World Paying attention to the health of our soils and oceans is now a matter of life and death. That may come as shock to most Americans, as our media and educational systems teach us many thingsexcept how the Earth works. We can learn how to be a doctor (except that most physicians forget nutrition) or a carpenter (but they forget how forests grow) or a farmer (except that they forget the importance of soil health and earthworms) or an urban planner (but they forget how to conserve water). Our American hyper-specialization has yielded technocrats who dont understand the laws of nature. As Kiss the Ground cofounder Ryland Engelhart said: If we put soil health at the center of our agricultural and land management practices, we can take carbon out of the atmosphere, potentially enough to balance our climate. The food movement can become the climate change movement and we can all stand for a healthy future by investing in the soil. As for our oceans, if you dont believe that theyre in trouble, just read this 2010 piece from Germanys leading magazine Der Spiegel, Phytoplanktons Dramatic Decline: A Food Chain Crisis in the Worlds Oceans. Per the articles lead, plankton is the starting point for our oceans food chain. But stocks of phytoplankton have decreased by 40 percent since 1950. It is an astonishing collapse, say researchers, and may have dramatic consequences both for the oceans and for humans. The New York Times also warned of the dying of our oceans in its article Our Deadened, Carbon-Soaked Seas by Richard W. Spinrad, chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Ian Boyd, chief scientific adviser to the British governments Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. The article states: Ocean and coastal waters around the world are beginning to tell a disturbing story. The seas, like a sponge, are absorbing increasing amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, so much so that the chemical balance of our oceans and coastal waters is changing and posing a growing threat to marine ecosystems. Over the past 200 years, the worlds seas have absorbed more than 150 billion metric tons of carbon from human activities. Known as ocean acidification, this process makes it difficult for shellfish, corals and other marine organisms to grow and reproduce. Biodiversity for a Livable Climate held a fascinating Oceans 2016 program in October 2016 and the have the conference videos available online. Judy Schwartz, the author of Water in Plain Sight and Cows Save the Planet, cogently stated in her conference presentation, An End to Floods, Droughts and Other Aqueous Misdirections: In a healthy ecosystem, when water falls on land it stays in the neighborhood for a long time. Its performing essential tasks on behalf of living things before finally making its way to the ocean. Because of ways humans have managed land since the beginning of agriculture, especially since the industrial revolution, water now lands on packed and ruined soils, rushing to the seas, leaving floods and droughts in its wake. Ocean Farming Bren Smiths keynote talk at the October 2016 Bioneers Conference on GreenWave ocean farming highlighted a revolutionary way to grow ocean kelp and sequester five times the carbon that can be sequestered by land plants. It produces abundant, high-quality food, feed, fuel, and fertilizer. It filters and purifies water, providing habitat for local biodiversity. Last but not least, GreenWave ocean farming creates a shining opportunity for economic democracy by providing a very low-cost entry point for small producers to make a right livelihood while restoring the Earth. https://twitter.com/michaelpollan/status/803793051088916480 As seen in this excerpt, Popular Science recently featured the GreenWave work: Smiths underwater farms do the opposite. Kelp scrubs nitrogen and phosphorous from the water, helping to protect ocean ecosystems. Kelp also wards off ocean acidification, the result of carbon pollution seeping into the ocean, turning waters more acidic. Kelp soaks up carbon, keeping surrounding waters safe for shellfish and other vulnerable creatures. For this reason, Smiths farms serve as sanctuaries for crab, shrimp, and other marine species. The Bren Smith model is now being implemented on the East Coast, off Connecticut. But, sadly, the red tape of the California Coastal Commission has thus far prevented ocean farming off California. I am optimistic that 2017 will bring major progress and some win-win solutions. Californias entire coastal ecosystem is collapsing, as the once abundant giant kelp forests that extended for miles off our western coastline have been in steady decline with the past hunting of sea otter for their pelts by Russians and Spaniards and the recent deaths among the starfish population, which have contributed to a perfect storm of cascading ecosystem collapse. In the shallow waters off the unincorporated community of Elk in Mendocino County, a crew from the California Fish and Wildlife Department recently dived to survey the areas urchin and abalone populations. Instead of slipping beneath a canopy of leafy kelp such as normally darkens the ocean floor like a forest, they found a barren landscape like something out of the film The Lorax. Ocean farming holds the promise of a restoration of our oceans through working with nature. As we gain more pilot programs on the West Coast, time will tell how soon such a restoration might be achieved. But, as the following statement from the English writer and ecologist Paul Kingsnorth makes clear, we havent much time: When I look at the state of the world right now, I see an arc bending towards something that dwarfs any parochial concerns about particular presidential elections. I see a grand planetary shift that has not been seen for millions of years. I see that half the worlds wildlife has gone, and half the worlds forests, and half the worlds topsoil. I see that we have perhaps two generations of food left before we wear out the rest of that topsoil. I see coming waves of political and cultural turmoil resulting from all of this, which makes me fear for my children, and sometimes for myself. Listen Up, Breathers on Spaceship Earth If you plan to continue breathing in the coming decades, here are some important points to consider: Under current conditions, plan on having less oxygen every year going forward. We live on an ocean planet, not a land planet. Its a good idea for us to educate ourselves about our ocean ecosystems. If youre thinking of having children, please consider their oxygen needs. Theyll need more than may be available! Because of the ongoing ocean devastation and oxygen loss, your Google search engine and Instagram account may not function any more. The millennial generation will determine whether there is a livable future, so please support and empower them. While this message may cause depression or anxiety, luckily for us we have an app for thatone with more than 500 million years of R&D. Its called soil carbon sequestration. Learn more here http://www.ecowatch.com/the-solution-under-our-fee and at Kiss the Ground, Regeneration International, Carbon Underground, and Project Underground. Purchase foods from farmers who follow regenerative farming practices, using compost, cover crops, crop diversity, holistic grazing of animals, and ocean farming to produce foods and fibers. Avoid at all costs industrial (i.e., with no access to pasture) meat and dairy products. Ill close this entreaty with an evocative excerpt from a Walt Whitman poem in Leaves of Grass, Out of the Rolling Ocean, the Crowd: Return in peace to the ocean, my love; I too am part of that ocean we are not so much separated; know you, I salute the air, the ocean and the land Today the Center for Biological Diversity gave Utah Congressman Rob Bishop its annual Rubber Dodo award. The statue is awarded each year to the person or group who has most aggressively sought to destroy Americas natural heritage or drive endangered species extinct. Bishop, a Republican, is chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources. Rob Bishop has fanatically pursued an extremist agenda to give away Americas public lands and kill off its endangered species, said Kieran Suckling, the Center for Biological Diversity executive director. He is so far outside the mainstream that even Donald Trump has rebuked him for his positions. House Quietly Shifts Federal Policy Making It Easier to Sell Off Public Land https://t.co/1TxW6kk7QA @greenpeaceusa @foe_us EcoWatch (@EcoWatch) January 5, 2017 In the last few weeks alone, Bishop has called for repealing Americas strongest and most successful conservation law, the Endangered Species Act, pushed through a congressional rule requiring that bills seeking to give away federal public lands be treated as revenue neutral, regardless of their costs to federal and state governments, and advocated rescinding the recently created Bears Ears National Monument. Rob Bishop must go to sleep every night dreaming of ways to steal public lands away from the American people, said Suckling. These forests, deserts, rivers and streams are home to thousands of species of wildlife and are a source of inspiration and wonder to millions. But Bishops doing everything he can to turn them over to polluters, developers and oil companies. Bishop won the Rubber Dodo award after an online contest where tens of thousands of people were asked to choose between him and William Clay, deputy administrator of USDAs Wildlife Services; former Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn; and former Exxon CEO Lee Raymond. Previous Rubber Dodo award winners include Monsanto (2015), the U.S. Department of Agricultures Wildlife Services (2014), the Koch brothers (2013), climate denier Sen. James Inhofe (2012), the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (2011), former BP CEO Tony Hayward (2010), massive land speculator Michael Winer (2009), Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (2008) and Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne (2007). Chancellor Delivers 2017 State of University Address Engage, educate, and empower. That was the message Elizabeth City State University Chancellor Thomas Conway delivered in his 2017 State of the University address during the Jan. 4 faculty and staff conference, Strategies for Fostering Student Success. On the stage of the Floyd L. Robinson Auditorium in the Fine Arts Center, Chancellor Conway told faculty and staff that as an institution of higher learning, our mission is to engage students, educate them, and empower them to build a future for themselves, and for their communities. It is also, he said, a mission that extends beyond the campus, and out into the surrounding communities. Chancellor Conway also acknowledged that ECSU has faced issues over the past year, many of which have played out in the public sphere through media reports. The admissions and personnel audits conducted internally and by the UNC-General Administration, resulting in a warning from the accrediting agency SACS, were examples of issues that have been at the forefront of peoples minds. However, The issue is not the problem. The issue is how you fix it. We immediately went to work fixing those things. When SACS visits the campus in April, Chancellor Conway said he is, confident we will be compliant. He also pointed out that for the past four years there have been no financial audit findings. In other words, the university has been in good financial health. We are balancing the budget in a continuing shrinking economy, he said. Spreading the good news about ECSU is imperative. Chancellor Conway said there is a great deal to celebrate at the university, and communication across every channel is key to our success. Chancellor Conway presented stories about successful alumni, illustrating the strength of ECSU's legacy. Focusing on the universitys core values of accountability, diversity, excellence, and preparing students holistically, Chancellor Conway said these values express who you are. This is an amazing institution in a lot of ways, he said. He also emphasized the universitys six strategic goals: recruitment, retention, graduation; strengthening academic quality; serve the people of North Carolina, especially in our 21-county region; strengthen the universitys internal controls, operational infrastructure and accountability; maintain fiscal stability; and expand educational opportunities. One of the goals, internal controls, emphasizes a community approach, something that drew applause from the attending faculty and staff. One of my goals is to help people (faculty and staff) understand that we are not a group of loosely associated people who share a parking lot, he said. We are a university. Coming together as a university, he said, is imperative to the health of the campus community, and to the general public ECSU serves. The entire campus community, he said, should do all we can, to not only extend a helping hand to the public, but also work together to build a stronger university. And all of that, he said, culminates in one important question: What is the most important thing we do? Students, he said. And that is what people are looking at. The student experience is the thing that will make or break us. And it is up to us as a university, he said, to design curriculum and student activities for their benefit, to elevate this important work. Were turning out students who are going to do exceptional things, and we need to let people know, said Chancellor Conway. (Photo: Courtesy Gatestone Institute)Shama Bibi (left) and Shahzad Masih, a Christian couple and parents of three children, were burned to death by a Muslim lynch mob in Pakistan because of a blasphemy accusation. Pakistan's blasphemy laws can land any person accused of insulting Islam with a death sentence and the legislation has been seen as a weapon to persecute people from minority faiths, unfairly targeting them. "The majority of blasphemy cases are based on false accusations stemming from property issues or other personal or family vendettas, rather than genuine instances of blasphemy, and they inevitably lead to mob violence against the entire community," says the report. The finding is not that of Amnesty International which has produced a new report on Pakistan's blasphemy laws, but that of a Supreme Court judgment in the case of Malik Muhammad Mumtaz Qadri v the State, on Oct. 7, 2015. Amnesty in December published "As Good as Dead," a 68-page report on the impact of Pakistan's laws against blasphemy. Amnesty's says the report details how the blasphemy laws violate human rights, "both in their substance and their application", whether this is violations of human rights by the State, or abuses of the laws by non-state actors. It says "The laws do not meet human rights standards and lack essential safeguards to minimize the risk of additional violations and abuses." The report notes that is difficult to establish precisely the number of blasphemy cases as there is limited available data. However, data provided by human rights groups the National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) and the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) shows a large increase of cases since the 1980s. For example, according to NCJP, a total of 633 Muslims, 494 Ahmadis, 187 Christians and 21 Hindus have been accused under various provisions on offences related to religion since 1987. The offences relating to religion were first codified by India's British rulers in 1860, and were expanded in 1927. Pakistan inherited these laws in 1947 when it came into existence after the partition of India. Between 1980 and 1986, more clauses were added to the laws by the military government of General Zia-ul Haq. He wanted to "Islamicize" them. He also wanted to legally separate the Ahmadi community, declared non-Muslim in 1973, from the main body of Pakistan's overwhelmingly Muslim population. During the general's rule, Pakistan's Federal Shariat Court was established in 1980, to "examine and decide the question whether or not any law or provision of law is repugnant to the injunctions of Islam." Pakistan has a population of around 202 million people of who more than 96 percent are Muslims. The overwhelming majority (more than 85 percent) of Muslims are and 10-15 percent are Shias. Other religious groups such as Christians and Hindus account for about 3.6 percent of the population. The Amnestry reports says Pakistan's blasphemy laws violate the rights to life; freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief; and freedom of opinion and expression. "While they purport to protect religious sentiments - mainly those of the Muslim majority - prosecutors, defence lawyers and human rights activists interviewed for this report expressed concerns over the use of the laws by individuals apparently for other motives," says Amnesty. Motives vary, but can include professional rivalry, personal or religious disputes, hostility towards religious minorities, and seeking economic gains such as money and land. "These ulterior motives have been acknowledged by some courts in their judgments acquitting those accused of blasphemy or when quashing the charges levelled against them. "Amnesty International's investigation found that allegations arose from supposedly blasphemous verbal exchanges, text messages, content on social and mass media, distribution of religious pamphlets or books, and "desecration" of pages or books containing religious text." As state lawmakers prepare for new flexibilityand responsibilitiesunder the Every Student Succeeds Act, they face questions about whether staffing levels and other state resources are fully up to the task. Under both the No Child Left Behind Act and subsequent waivers of that laws provisions, education agencies in many states struggled in a very public way when it came to rolling out a federally prescribed accountability agenda. There were standardized-testing glitches, botched school accountability report cards, and communication failures between state officials and district superintendents. Many education leaders attribute the NCLB-era problems to the plummet in funding state agencies experienced during the Great Recession of the late 2000s and subsequent layoffs within departments. They argue that there were not enough qualified officials within state education departments to provide professional development, to monitor testing-vendor contracts, and to ensure accountability systems were sound. Under ESSA, the year-old successor to No Child Left Behind, state departments are expected to manage more duties in both crafting and executing the mandatory state accountability plans. The departments will be responsible for intervening in low-performing schools, designing and rolling out new state report cards, and prescribing teacher-evaluation systems. And state schools chiefs are well aware theyll be on the hook for any resulting political backlash. Alaska is going through a horrible fiscal crisis because of the dip in oil prices, said Michael Johnson, the new state education commissioner. Our capacity has always been down, anyway. If there was a stable part of the department, those positions are funded through federal programs. Because of staffing and funding below what officials say are necessary to meet the demands under ESSA, states as different as California, Connecticut, and South Carolina are proposing either to outsource some tasks, such as designing state report cards, or to toss out as unfeasible some proposals made during the stakeholder-engagement process they undertook to draft their plans. Precarious Time The shift in K-12 policymaking power from the federal level to the states comes at a precarious time for state agencies. Although most states have recovered from the economic downturn and dedicated more money to their education budgets, that funding doesnt necessarily make its way into the coffers of state education agenciesthe often-denigrated bureaucracies that juggle everything from federal-compliance duties and data collection to support for local districts. Even after states climbed out of the recession and began replenishing their education budgets, for example, 23 state education agencies in 2012 told the Center on Education Policy that their budgets had either remained flat or decreased. Guidance for ESSA Implementation In an open-ended survey question, Education Week asked district leaders to identify the types of guidance or support their districts need to smoothly implement ESSA-related changes. Survey respondents most commonly highlighted the need for additional help from state policymakers, including clarification of the states own implementation plan. Source: Education Week Research Center, 2017 Complicating the picture as ESSA rolls out, many states have also seen big turnover in leadership in recent years, amid political turbulence over issues such as teacher evaluation and the Common Core State Standards. According to the Council of Chief State School Officers, the average tenure of state chiefs now is just under three years. That means many chiefs are still learning the intricacies of their departments and determining whether they need to reorganize even as they prepare for ESSAs big changes. Theres been a lot of attention to building stronger accountability systems, but not as much attention to building capacity at the state level to change the outcomes for kids, said Tara Kini, a senior policy adviser for the Learning Policy Institute, a research and advocacy organization. For some chiefs, that may be a daunting task. Colorado Commissioner of Education Richard Crandall quit last May just 4 months after being hired, his tenure marked by policy disagreements with the state school board and legislators. The resignation, which Crandall attributed to the demands the job put on his out-of-state family, came in the middle of a statewide tour he was conducting to engage with teachers and parents about the states ESSA plan. But some chiefs new to the job may welcome the chance to get on board at the launch of ESSA. Johnson, for example, took over Alaskas department this past summer after state chief Mike Hanley resigned following widespread problems with the rollout of the states online standardized test. The state legislature had cut almost an entire third of the departments funding in the past year. Yes, theres a lot on the plate, but its a huge opportunity because if youre coming in in the middle of it, youre able to start from scratch, Johnson said. No Bonanza When it comes to state operations, the Every Student Succeeds Act offers no windfall in federal aid. One example: Title I money for disadvantaged students. ESSA does provide for state education departments to use as much as 7 percent of their federal Title I funding for administrative costs. But most of that repurposed money still will be geared to oversight of programs for students with special needs and poor students. And state agencies already were wrestling with new responsibilities, even before ESSA. Take data collection, for instance. As the accountability movement accelerated in recent years, the federal government, the business community, and parents bombarded state education departments with requests for information about student performance. But departments in many ways are limited in both the type of data and the amount of data they can collect. These limitations will become a challenge under ESSA, as departments are tasked with expanding their school accountability systems to measure more than just student performance on standardized tests. State officials in recent months have scrutinized their data-collecting software to make sure its reliable enough for school accountability systems that could determine whether a school is to be taken over by a state or have its staff replaced. Such data systems also must abide by a slew of privacy laws passed in recent years that limit what types of data can be collected and how that information is stored. But many data-collection systems are scattershot and outdated, and scores of data-entry technicians were laid off during the recession, according to interviews with state department officials across the country. Those officials said they have yet to fully make up for layoffs of data-entry staff in recent years. Officials at the Data Quality Campaign, a non-profit advocacy group focused on improving educators data collection, also said that because so many state chiefs are new, theyre often unaware of how much and what types of data they collect. Responding to the Challenge Education departments have responded to capacity challenges in various ways. Connecticut, for example, rejected proposals from advocates and parents to include civic engagement as an indicator of school quality after officials concluded there was no valid way to measure such a factor. The South Carolina legislature decided to spend more than $1 million to update districts data systems so that the state can measure increasingly complex questions, such as whether students are ready for college. In California, the state board of education decided that while school climate is a valid indicator of school quality, the state didnt have the capacity to collect enough reliable data to measure it. The board instead left it up to local officials to decide whether to measure that factor and hold school administrators accountable on it. The tension between ambition and capacity is likely to continue playing out as states produce final drafts of their ESSA plans for submission to the federal government in the coming months. And statehouses may prove a critical battleground: With the 2017 state legislative season about to be in full swing, such leading groups as the CCSSO and the National Association of State Boards of Education are urging governors and legislators to increase state agency budgets for professional development and oversight of state-specific initiatives. DHSC needs extra 11.1m from Treasury Health and Social Care Minister Kate Beecroft will ask for the funds at this month's sitting of Tynwald. A government department will ask for an extra 11.1m from the Treasury to cover extra costs. The Department of Health and Social Care says it needs the additional funds for excess expenditure in order to provide its services. The Department has the largest budget in the Isle of Man Government, with a gross fund of over 250 million for the current financial year. Minister Kate Beecroft will ask Tynwald to approve the additional funds at this month's sitting. Studying womens work and energy use through field studies in Khasi communities in Meghalaya and Angami communities in Nagaland, the links between energy use and womens work and leisure are explored. It is found that the choice of energy source is closely linked with womens participation in the management of energy resources, their opportunities to earn incomes, and their ability to negotiate the cultural and social norms of their communities. Energy planning cannot stop with the provision of household access to electricity or liquefied petroleum gas. A new deal for women in the energy sector is delineated, which relates to overcoming sociocultural limits and increasing the opportunity cost of womens labour and their right to assets. Something went wrong, please try again later. Invalid email Something went wrong, please try again later. Get the latest on all the biggest court and crime news in Essex direct from our expert court reporter It has been a year of shocking crimes including assaults on dogs, sex crimes against teenagers and the killings of mothers and girlfriends. Over the past 12 months, residents across Essex have been left appalled by the catalogue of criminality committed by some of its inhabitants. These are 13 that stood out in 2016. Chelmsford man Kieren Milledge was jailed for 21 weeks for a 'sustained and brutal' attack on pet dog A Chelmsford man was jailed after attacking his pet dog on a train with the injured animal dying three days later. Kieren Milledge, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to his Staffordshire Bull Terrier Ronnie, as well as possessing a knife in Chelmsford and breaching a suspended sentence at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court on November 25. Lesley Chips, prosecuting, told the court how Milledge had carried out the 'brutal' attack on his dog on a train at Braintree on October 10. "It can only be described from the CCTV that this was a continued and brutal attack towards this dog," she said. "He was seen beating the dog with his hands, knees and feet, constantly lifting the dog up on its lead throughout the 20 minutes journey, causing it to lose consciousness. "At one point he throws the dog six feet along the carriage and it could barely get up. "These actions appear to be him trying to choke the animal. He repeatedly swung the dog by its lead before smashing it into the wall of the carriage." Chelmsford murderer Craig Bird jailed for life after battering ex-girlfriend's mum to death A Chelmsford murderer who punched his ex-girlfriend's mum to death in a drunken rage was jailed for life. Craig Bird, 32, will serve a minimum of 21 and a half years before being considered for release by the parole board after admitting murdering Colleen Westlake, the mother of his former partner Jenna, and attacking Colleen's husband Victor. The vicious attack happened at the couple's one-bedroom bungalow in Pines Road, Chelsmford, in the early hours of April 17. Sentencing Bird, Judge Charles Gratwicke QC said: "Nobody who listened to the opening of this case could have felt anything other than revulsion and shock at the manner of Colleen Westlake's death. "It was brutal. You battered her to death. This was a frenzied, sickening brutal attack on a vulnerable couple." Chelmsford sex gang trial: Pizza chef convicted of sex offences but taxi drivers cleared of rape Two Iranian men sexually exploited and groomed vulnerable girls by supplying them with drugs and offering them free pizza. A young woman came forward in April 2014 and revealed how Mohammad Rostami had groomed her into believing she was his girlfriend about seven years earlier, when she was aged just 13 or 14, while he was working at a takeaway in Duke Street in Chelmsford. They started a sexual relationship before he manipulated and exploited her into having sex with much older men in return for drugs or money. The seven-and-a-half week trial concluded in mid-December. Mehdi Zare, 32, a delivery man, formerly of Chelmsford, also arranged for her to have sex with other men in exchange for drugs or money. Both Rostami and Zare had sex with the victim when she was underage. Amin Kaveh, 35, of Shoeburyness, who shared a home with Rostami, was found guilty of supplying a controlled Class B drug, but was found not guilty of one count of assault by penetration and three counts of rape against a separate victim. They are due to be sentenced later in January. Essex pensioner disowned by daughters after police uncover eel, octopus and child pornography A pensioner whose daughters have disowned him after he stashed pornographic images of children, an octopus, an eel and other animals in a folder next to family holiday pictures was spared jail. Michael Ward, 70, of Stevens Lane, Felsted, was given a suspended sentence at Chelmsford Crown Court on Tuesday November 22 for possessing 1,401 indecent images and videos. Ward, who admitted the charges, exhaled deeply and shook as he learned he would avoid jail, after the court heard he had visited a string of illegal sites. Tom Quinn, defending, claimed the most extreme images were mainly "pop-ups", which Judge Christopher Morgan did not accept as a mitigating factor. Following contact with the National Crime Agency, police seized two devices from his home on January 15, which held material involving sexual acts with children, horses, dogs, an octopus and an eel. Matthew Smith convicted of 'sickening' murder of Becky Parker Police who led the investigation into Isobel 'Becky' Parker's murder called it a 'sickening' crime after killer Matthew Smith was found guilty at Chelmsford Crown Court in March. Becky, 23, was found in the bath at her home in Burnham-on-Crouch on Friday, July 17 with cable ties around her neck having been strangled by 24-year-old Smith, her ex-partner. During a three-week trial, the court heard that Becky and factory worker Smith had been in a relationship for some years and had two children together, a three-year-old boy and an 18-month-old girl. But Becky ended the partnership in December 2014 after becoming tired of his lack of support with the children. The court heard that Smith did not want their relationship to end and felt distressed after finding out she was pregnant with her new partner, Shane. Maldon man Javid Ahmed sent to mental health hospital after stabbing mum to death in broad daylight A man who repeatedly stabbed his mother to death in broad daylight was ordered to spend time in a mental health hospital until he is fit to be freed. Javid Ahmed, 26, who killed his mother on March 24, pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility after originally pleading not guilty in July. He was sentenced at Chelmsford Crown Court by Judge Charles Gratwicke on September 19. Ahmed could in theory spend the rest of his life in a mental health hospital after being given a section 37 hospital order under the Mental Health Act, governed by a section 41 restriction order. When he is judged to be better, he must be given a judicial overview and signed off by the Secretary of State. Judge Gratwicke QC, presiding over the case, said: "She gave you life, you took hers away. She was completely innocent, she had done you no harm. She brought you into this world. "She must have been absolutely terrified. You slaughtered her. Anyone who has listened to this case could feel nothing but shock, revulsion and sickness." Essex Live reported at the time how witnesses had described hearing a bloodcurdling scream puncturing the air of the usually quiet residential cul-de-sac of Fambridge Close in Maldon. South Ockendon clubber jailed for nightclub dancefloor glassing attack Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will auto-play soon 8 Cancel Play now A City of London PA from South Ockendon who left another woman scarred after glassing her in the face at a London nightclub was jailed for 12 months. Lauren Gritz was sentenced at Inner London Crown Court to 12 months in prison on Friday November 18 after previously pleading guilty to one count of unlawful wounding at an earlier hearing. The court heard how the 24-year-old had attacked the victim, a 23 year-old woman, at Agenda Bar in Mincing Lane in the early hours of Saturday, May 7. Chelmsford CCTV catches man kicking, punching and throwing his dog at bin A man was caught on CCTV kicking, punching and picking his dog up by the neck twice to throw it at a bin. Darren Yerby, of Dockwra Lane, Danbury, was spotted in Chelmsford city centre abusing his black Staffordshire Bull Terrier Buzz just after midnight on May 27. The 36-year-old was apprehended by officers on the same night, with Buzz taken to kennels by a dog warden. A small amount of cannabis was also found on Yerby. At Chelmsford Magistrates' Court on June 15, Denise Holland, prosecuting, said: "Owning a dog is a responsibility, not a right. "The level of suffering is shown of the dog thrown against a wall, thrown against a dustbin and held by the collar for quite some substantial time. "The dog was not at all vicious or nasty to the officer when they took it and they feel it would have a good opportunity to be re-homed." Yerby, who pleaded guilty, sobbed through the CCTV evidence played to the court of him abusing Buzz, who he had owned for six years. A 24 month community order set on April 22 for domestic violence, was revoked and a new sentence was given to include the new offence. He was sentenced by magistrates to 200 hours' unpaid work, 60 rehabilitation requirement days, 170 court costs and a 100 contribution to the cost of the kennels that Buzz is currently in. Three men were stabbed in Grays in the space of just an hour Two men were stabbed on Clarence Road, before another was stabbed half a mile away on Grays High Street after an incident near South Essex College Thurrock campus . Police were called by the ambulance service shortly before 3.05pm on Wednesday November 16 with reports that two men had been stabbed on Clarence Road. An air ambulance also attended. Police were then called to another stabbing on Grays High Street at 4.10pm. An 18-year-old was taken to hospital with injuries to his back, arm and legs. A spokeswoman for South Essex College said: "An incident took place in a road close to our Thurrock Campus. Two individuals were involved, neither of them were students. "Our security team undertook first aid and contacted the emergency services. We are cooperating fully with the police investigation." A man in his 40s suffered minor injuries to his leg and torso in the first stabbing, while another in his 20s sustained a minor leg wound. Both were taken to hospital. Officers were spotted in the area carrying out enquiries. Witham Asda armed robbery: Thieves make off with more than 100,000 A supermarket was placed on police lockdown after a gang of shotgun-wielding robbers targeted a security van, making off with more than 100,000. Part of the Asda car park in Highfields Road, Witham, was cordoned off by police officers on Wednesday December 14, where a white Loomis security van was being guarded. Police confirmed two security guards were robbed at gunpoint at 8.40am. The guards were delivering cash to the store when they were approached by three men, all wearing balaclavas, who demanded they hand over money. One of the suspects is believed to have been armed with a shotgun. The guards handed over a six-figure sum of money and the suspects fled the scene in a black 4x4 vehicle, possibly a BMW X6. Theydon Bois stockbroker Darren Byrne set fire to wife before ringing 999 A former stockbroker who killed his wife then attempted to burn their house down to cover up what he had done was convicted of murder. Darren Byrne assaulted Maria Byrne during an argument on Saturday, February 13 after she discovered he had rekindled an affair with another woman. He then set fire to her by using white spirit and then turned on the gas in the kitchen of their home in Morgan Crescent, Theydon Bois. Byrne rang 999, claiming he had come home from walking their dog to find her on fire in the kitchen. When paramedics arrived, they found Maria lying on the floor with severe burns to her upper body and face. She was sadly pronounced dead at the scene. Teenager found guilty of double murder of Colchester's James Attfield and Nahid Almanea Teenage boy James Fairweather who murdered two people in random and "frenzied" attacks was jailed for a minimum of 27 years. Fairweather, 17, was just 15 when he took the lives of 33-year-old dad-of-five James Attfield and Saudi Arabian student Nahid Almanea, 31. He admitted manslaughter in January, but denied murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility, claiming he was hearing "voices" that compelled him to kill. Two men were stabbed on Clarence Road, before another was stabbed half a mile away on Grays High Street after an incident near South Essex College Thurrock campus . Police were called by the ambulance service shortly before 3.05pm on Wednesday November 16 with reports that two men had been stabbed on Clarence Road. An air ambulance also attended. Fairweather stabbed Mr Attfield 102 times as he lay in a park in Colchester in March 2014, before targeting Ms Almanea, a student at the University of Essex, as she walked along a nearby nature trail three months later. She was found a short distance from her home, having suffered multiple injuries, including stab wounds to both eyes. During the sentencing hearing, it was also revealed that the Essex Police murder investigation and reassurance operation had cost 2.6million. Speaking after the conclusion of the ten-day trial Mr Attfield's mother, Julie Finch, said: "We are grateful for the verdict and hope now justice has been served we can begin to move on." A comment on the United Nations General Assembly initiative to forbid nuclear weapons for humanitarian reasons, proffered by F. Calogero in response to a request by the London main office of the European Leadership Network (ELN). The pursuit of a nuclear-weapon-free world (NWFW) is obviously a worthwhile goal, and in the long run the eventual success of this endeavour is essential for the survival of our civilisation, indeed maybe for the survival of homo sapiens. A significant step in this directionunfortunately, with no significant follow-up, mainly for reasons having to do more with internal than with foreign policywas the speech in Prague (5 April 2009) by Barack Obama in which, as President of the United States, he stated: So today, I state clearly and with conviction Americas commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons. (Applause) Im not naive. This goal will not be reached quickly - perhaps not in my lifetime. It will take patience and persistence. But now we, too, must ignore the voices who tell us that the world cannot change. We have to insist, Yes, we can. (Applause). I am much older than Obama, yet I entertain the hope that this goalthe peace and security of a world without nuclear weaponsmight, perhaps, be achieved in my lifetime: at least, the initiation of a process aiming at a universal Convention banning nuclear weapons, analogous to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) that has essentially eliminated chemical weapons. But, perhaps, this goal will only be achieved after a catastrophic nuclear explosion has caused enormous human casualties: a nuclear explosive device manufactured by terrorists in the target city, or the accidental explosion of a nuclear weapon, or possibly the deliberate or inadvertent use of nuclear weapons in a warlike contest (maybe as a consequence of the still prevalent strategy to keep some nuclear-armed missiles on short-time alert). And after the widespread revulsion against nuclear weaponry caused in world-wide public opinions by such a major tragedy. In any case I believe that an essential precondition for the eventual transition to a NWFW is that this goal be jointly pursued by the two nuclear superpowers, the USA and Russia. Such joint action is, in my (perhaps unconventional) opinion, now in the nature of things: the ideological contrast among these two States has disappeared (both societies are now based on market-oriented capitalism and are less-than-perfect democraciesRussia of course less perfect than the USA); the common interests they share are overwhelmingly important (prevention of nuclear-weapon proliferation, prevention of catastrophic world instabilities); and now they even share a common enemy, world terrorism (which is more of a threat to Russia than to the USA). It is therefore logically inevitable that they will eventually collaborate. This process had begun with the involvement of Russia in NATO, and I expect that it will eventually resumebeing well aware that at the moment this is considered a naive wishful thinking, but being myself convinced that the contrary conventional wisdom is myopically flawed. In fact I think that the inclusion inside NATO of East European States such as Poland and all the other former Soviet-bloc States is more convenient for Russia than the alternative situation with these States left alone to take care of their security; and that a stable situation advantageous for all is a NATO gradually including Russia (and eventually also China), which thereby gradually transforms itself from a military alliance to an overall security organisation; with the military aspect remaining mainly relevant for the joint overarching goal to defeat terrorism. (As a minor example let us remember that the simultaneous presence within NATO of Greece and Turkey has been over time the main impediment to these two countries waging an open war against each other). In my personal view, these considerations provide the appropriate background to assess the recent initiative in the UN context to outlaw nuclear weapons, on which I have been asked to comment. I clearly do not believe that this initiativein spite of its support by a quite large majority of UN countrieswill be the main route to arrive at a NWFW; because to achieve this goal the involvement of the nuclear-weapon countries (and their allies) is of course essential, and at the moment all of them seem to be contrary to this particular development. But it seems to me that the main issue is whether this development is likely to damage the progress towards a NWFWby reinforcing the rift among nuclear-weapon and non-nuclear states; or whether it might be marginally useful to push towards the goal of eliminating nuclear weaponsby focusing the attention of public opinions worldwide on the humanitarian unacceptability of any use of such instruments of catastrophic destruction, and by thereby consolidating the current regime of nuclear-weapon nonproliferationbased on the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and on Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zonesthe crumbling of which is in my opinion clearly undesirable but unfortunately not altogether unlikely. I personally lean towards the second of these two alternative views. I also hope that eventually the nuclear-weapon countries and their allies will understand that it is also convenient for them to agree with the statement that any use of nuclear weapons should be considered unacceptable on humanitarian grounds hence that the ultimate goal of the elimination of these weapons via a universal verified convention analogous to the CWC is a desirable eventual outcomethough they are not prepared to dismantle immediately their nuclear arsenals (but they might at least refrainconsistently with the spirit of the NPTfrom allocating enormous sums to their modernization, with plans to do so extending over decades). A final (wishful) thought. Ronald Reagan was not, temperamentally, a peace enthusiast, yet whenas an outsider from the nuclear-weapon fraternityhe was confronted with the responsibility to decide the eventual use of nuclear weapons he realized the craziness of the nuclear-weapon theology; and perhaps the same ideological trajectory was followed by Gorbachev. This led to their joint assertion that a nuclear war cannot be won and therefore should not be fought. They were then dissuaded by the nuclear theologians advising them from making the bold, major progress towards a NWFW that they perhaps had therefore identified as desirable. Might it be that the person just voted in to serve as President of the United Stateswho is ideologically more similar to Ronald Reagan than to Barack Obamamight suffer a similar shock when presented with the responsibility to have possibly to decide within minutes the use of nuclear weaponshopefully with a detailed illustration of the consequences? Might it be than in his innocence about nuclear theology he will have the analogous reasonable reaction to recognise its crazy aspects and to therefore take bold actions towards the goal of excluding forever the use of these instruments capable to destroy our world? This article was drafted in mid-November 2016. 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. banurega said: dear sir my visa expired last august 2016 . the company didnot stamp a visa and also it is not cancelled the visa. lot of times i requested to renew or cancel they r not do any thing and salary also 5 months pending, what can i do for this situation'. now also i working in the same company my emirates id expired when visa expired any body answer me. i working in dubai Click to expand... Dear BrotherI was also in the same situation as you were. Luckily after 1 year 1 month i got my visa renewed now after paying too much towards fines etc....First of all complaining at Ministry will not help much.... ofcourse it is my personal experience as these days lots of cases are pending before ministry. I had not much option that time as i was not paid for last few months and no money in pocket and with family here and no asset in India......i was not having enough cash.... was very disappointed..... did not want to go back home......Anyways..... you have few options...... in case you are getting new job then cancel this visa..... overstay fines are 25 dhs per day for first 6 months then 50 dhs per day for next 6 months and 100 dhs per day after 1 year..... so far 5 months approx 4k to 5k....Just take that step first..... if you delay then get ready to more problems.....All the best to you. Dont Panic..... stay strong.... There isn't a "registration" for residents as such in France. If you want to get into the French secu (social security, i.e. health care system), you'll have to provide your own health insurance (usually private) for at least the first three months. You need to show 3 months' residence and health coverage in order to start the enrollment process. And it definitely helps if you apply for a carte de sejour while you're at it (because that more or less shows "residence" though you will need the usual utility bills, etc. for most situations). It might be a plan to plan on having that health coverage for the first six months to a year - the enrollment process takes a while, and if there is a back-log of applications due to Brexit looming, it could be a bunch easier to just have the extra insurance. Also gives you a chance to file French taxes for the first time, which will form the basis for how much you'll pay for your health coverage in the system. (You'll then have the "fun" of selecting a mutuelle for the top-up part of the coverage. But there's no big hurry on that.) There's no telling what they'll do on backdating the notion of "residence" but having a carte de sejour (which is actually French for "residence permit") is probably your best bet. A few prefectures may give you some push-back, but calm, polite insistence will overcome just about any overly ambitious bureaucrat. Cheers, Bev Hi everyone. Can anyone enlighten me on what the express fee(500php) and express fee certificate(I think it's called)(500php) are when paying visas? I have asked at Immigration Cebu but was met with a smile and, "I don't know, it's not my job". This service has no alternative, other than, "you don't get it"... Thank you Thursday, January 5, 2017 Lisa Anderson MBA, CSCP, president of LMA Consulting Group and program awards chair for the Manufacturers' Council of the Inland Empire (MCIE) Manufacturer's Summit E=mc Innovation Awards, a special award ceremony celebrating innovative businesses solving challenges in today's manufacturing industry, is pleased to announce a new category award of Student Award in addition to the five award categories of Innovation in Product Development, Innovation in Resource or Process Efficiency for Manufacturers, Innovation in Human Capital and Talent and Innovation in Marketing. Submissions are due by January 16, 2017 with awards made at the Manufacturing Summit, the largest event of its kind in Inland Southern California, to be held at the Ontario Convention Center on Friday, February 3, 2017. "The E=mc Innovation Awards are a great way to showcase what a company is doing to be innovative to raise the bar," shares Award Chair Lisa Anderson. "In a climate of robust global competition, talent shortages due to skills gaps, Amazon and mega distributors changing the competitive landscape and poor employee engagement, these awards can prove to Inland Empire companies and their employees, that they are innovative and have great ideas to grow their business and remain competitive. And with the addition of the student category, we now have a spotlight on hiring recent graduates who showcase their talents with their submissions." Award winners have tapped into new ideas, processes and manufacturing techniques to build and improve their businesses. Previous winners include Riverside, Calif.-based Newport Cottages, a children's furniture manufacturer and winner of the Innovations in Human Capital and Talent Award, struggled with workflow issues unable to increase sales from new orders while managing the demand from current customers. They partnered with the Riverside County Workforce Investment Board to promote and facilitate a Lean Manufacturing Transformation Rollout Program and turned their disorganization into a true company transformation. Last year's Innovation in Resource & Process Efficiency Award Winner Celestica , a design and engineering through to manufacturing and after-market services firm based in Ontario, Calif., had to overcome a dual problem of reducing costs as requested by customers while improving efficiency to handle more orders. They had to evaluate their operation, perform a Kaizen Blitz to eliminate non-value add activities and rely on employee's creativity to improve receiving and overall operations. The 2015 E=mc Innovation in Marketing Award went to the Riverside, Calif.-based Phenix Technology , a recognized manufacturer and seller of high quality professional fire helmets, for revitalizing this Made in America, 40 year old company into a global powerhouse. Angel Sanchez, Chief Operating Officer and Director of Global Operations of Phenix Technology explains, "As a small business in California, we struggle to compete with large manufacturers from all over the world. Many have what seem to be unlimited budgets for marketing along with reduced costs for doing business." But part of not just surviving, but thriving is the innovation many in the Inland Empire have. "We are committed to making our products in the Inland Empire, says Sanchez. "To ensure we can continue doing so for decades to come we focused our energy on innovation. From lean manufacturing to creative marketing, we work hard to thrive in California. It was an honor to be recognized for our efforts and hopefully our model can help other small business to succeed." The 2017 Manufacturing Summit will be held Friday, February 3, 2017 at the Ontario Convention Center. For more information, visit MCIE Website or cut and paste this link http://mfgcouncilie.com/homepage/ This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate At a tough time for Sears Holdings, the beleaguered retailer has collected some much needed cash by selling one of its most beloved brands. The company said Thursday it had sold its Craftsman line of tools to Stanley Black & Decker for at least $775 million, part of an effort to raise cash as it continues to grapple with troubles in its business. For Sears, selling one of its classic brands one it created nearly a century ago is the latest move to bolster its balance sheet during a prolonged sales slump. The companys chairman and chief executive, Edward Lampert, has struggled for years with ways to help the company, as much through esoteric financial maneuvers as through operational fixes. The company said Thursday that comparable-store sales at its Sears and Kmart units for November and December were down at least 12 percent. That kind of poor performance has battered Sears financial health. As of Oct. 29, the retailer said it had $258 million in cash and equivalents on hand, compared with $3.1 billion in long-term debt. Its market value on Thursday morning, by point of comparison, stood at $1.2 billion even after a jump in its stock price after the Craftsman news. On Thursday, Sears listed its latest group of initiatives aimed at shoring up its cash position, from closing 150 more stores to raising up to $1 billion through both a $500 million loan backed by its real estate and a previously announced loan from Lamperts hedge fund. Of the 150 stores, 108 of them Kmart locations. Texas is losing one Sears store and four Kmarts, none in the San Antonio area. We are taking strong, decisive actions today to stabilize the company and improve our financial flexibility in what remains a challenging retail environment, Lampert, who is also Sears biggest shareholder, said in a statement. We are committed to improving short-term operating performance in order to achieve our long-term transformation. For its part, Stanley Black & Decker will get the opportunity to sell Craftsman tools in even more outlets. As of now, only 10 percent of the product lineup is sold outside Sears stores, mostly in select retailers including Ace Hardware. Craftsman is a legendary American brand with tremendous consumer awareness built on a legacy of producing quality products at a great value, said James M. Loree, Stanley Black & Deckers chief executive. This agreement represents a significant opportunity to grow the market by increasing the availability of Craftsman products to consumers in previously underpenetrated channels. Voter Guide: What to know for the midterm election Your guide to the Texas and San Antonio races and candidates on the Nov. 8 ballot. Loree, nodding to the current political environment, also added that Stanley Black & Decker planned to add more U.S. manufacturing jobs. He said his company had already increased its manufacturing job count in the country by 40 percent over the last three years. Under the terms of the deal, Stanley Black & Decker will pay $525 million when the deal closes and an additional $250 million at the end of the third year after closing. Sears will also collect a percentage of new Craftsman sales for 15 years after the deal closes. All told, the value of the transaction is now valued at $900 million. Sears will continue to sell Craftsman products in its stores under a licensing agreement that is free for the first 15 years. After that, the chain will pay Stanley Black & Decker a 3 percent fee. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate President-elect Donald Trump took aim at Japanese automaker Toyota in a tweet for its plans to bring a new Corolla plant to Mexico. In the tweet Trump said, Toyota Motor said will build a new plant in Baja, Mexico, to build Corolla cars for U.S. NO WAY! Build plant in U.S. or pay big border tax. Toyota Motor Corp.s stock dropped nearly a percent to $120.36 before recovering to $120.67 in trading on the New York Stock Exchange after the tweet. Toyota responded in an email statement and said: Toyota has been part of the cultural fabric in the U.S. for nearly 60 years. Production volume or employment in the U.S. will not decrease as a result of our new plant in Guanajuato, Mexico, announced in April 2015. With more than $21.9 billion direct investment in the U.S., 10 manufacturing facilities, 1,500 dealerships and 136,000 employees, Toyota looks forward to collaborating with the Trump Administration to serve in the best interests of consumers and the automotive industry. The statement added: Our manufacturing facilities in Baja, Mexico, established in 2002, support production at our San Antonio, Texas, plant, where 3,300 team members produced over 230,000 Tundras and Tacomas in 2016. RELATED: Americans buy record number of cars in 2016 Toyota has plans to build a $1 billion facility in Guanajuato, central Mexico, to build the next-generation Corolla sedan. The company has also pledged to invest $150 million to expand production at its plant in Baja California, Mexico, that builds the popular Tacoma midsize pickup truck. Toyota also builds the Tacoma at its San Antonio plant. When asked about Trumps statements regarding imposing taxes on imported vehicles, Toyota Division General Manager Bill Fay said in a conference call Wednesday that our goal is to work with the new administration and Congress to ensure that they develop business and tax policies that are fair and equitable across all industries so we can continue to grow the economy. Voter Guide: What to know for the midterm election Your guide to the Texas and San Antonio races and candidates on the Nov. 8 ballot. rdruzin@express-news.net Twitter: @druz_journo This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate The first time that Andrew Basso got in front of an audience to re-create one of Houdinis most famous escapes, it did not go well. In the act, his feet are manacled, his wrists are handcuffed and he is submerged upside down in a sealed tank of water. Ideally, he breaks the bonds and frees himself. That isnt what happened the first time. Instead, he recalled, In 30 seconds, I ran out of oxygen. They had to pull me out; I was drowning. Basso didnt wait long before climbing back into the tank. I knew from my master, if you ever get scared, try to do (the act again) right away; otherwise, youll never do it, he said. So 15 minutes later, I did it, and I succeeded. The escape known as the Water Torture Cell has become one of his signature moves, but hes always developing new material. Hes working on something new based, he said, on a device in a horror movie. He may perform the new act as part of The Illusionists, the first Broadway in San Antonio offering of the new year at the Majestic Theatre. Im pretty positive it will be ready, he said. And if its not, (audiences) will see my most successful piece (the Water Torture Cell). Its a win/win situtation. More Information On stage What: 'The Illusionists' (Broadway in San Antonio series) When: Opens Tuesday. 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday , 8 p.m. Jan. 13, 2 and 8 p.m. Jan. 14, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Jan. 15. Where: Majestic Theatre, 224 E. Houston St. Tickets: $30-$90 box office, 210-226-3333, ticketmaster.com. Info, majesticempire.com See More Collapse Six performers are on the bill besides Basso: Jeff Hobson, who blends comedy and magic; Kevin James, an inventor known for innovative illusions; mentalist Colin Cloud; daredevil Jonathan Goodwin; An Ha Lim, who specializes in illusions involving playing cards; and Dan Sperry, who combines magic and the macabre. When the show was being put together, Sperry said, the performers met up at a hotel in Las Vegas to brainstorm. It was kind of like in Oceans 11, when they come to the first meeting at the house, and they all look around Oh youre here, and Youre here, he said. Sperry is known as The Anti-Conjuror, a nickname that, he said, doesnt mean anything. Its a name I made up 10 years ago, maybe, when I was opening for lots of DJs and bands and stuff in goth clubs and rock-music venues, he said. On that sort of alternative scene, I didnt want to say magician or illusionist as my title because then, maybe people would be too dismissive of it and go the bar or the smoking patio or the bathroom, so I wanted something interesting, that would make them say, Lets see what this is; lets get there early to see that. He got into magic after being terrified by David Copperfield. His grandparents took him to see the famous illusionist, and Sperry got spooked when it appeared that Copperfield had been been sawed in half. I thought something screwed up and went wrong and that he died and I freaked out, recalled Sperry, who was about 4 at the time. We had to go to the lobby and then we had to leave the theater because I was having a meltdown. He was given a book about magic that explained how some things worked. And he soon found himself trying the tricks himself. Basso, too, developed an interest in magic as a child, experimenting with it on his own. I got passionate about magic after I saw a magician able to make my mother smile, and my mother was usually very serious, he said. I remember that moment well, and I thought, if that makes her smile, this is what I will try to do every day. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate When recreational historian Connor Delaney traveled from Dublin to soak up the history of the Alamo and mark it off his list of famous battlefields, it was a delight that made the flight across the pond worth it. Except for one glaring omission. Were not Texas experts in Ireland, but we all knew about the famous chili, Delaney said while standing in front of the Alamo. Been here two days now. I leave tomorrow and my belly is plenty full, but theres no chili in it. Feel cheated a tad. Indeed, in the city that made chili famous more than a century ago, theres not much of it on local restaurant menus. Trendy restaurants avoid it, so now the places that do offer it mostly are a few home-cooking spots and an intrepid food truck operator. So as it turns out, Delaney came to the right place, but at the wrong time. More Information Some places to score San Antonio chili Bolo's: 9821 Colonnade Blvd., at the Omni San Antonio Hotel at the Colonnade, 210-699-5857, omnihotels.com: The Hill Country Chili, highlighting nicely braised beef and dried chiles, a topping of Texas cheddar cheese and a side of moist cornbread, is served as an appetizer. ($8.66) Bombay Bicycle Club: 3506 N. St. Mary's St., 3506 N. St Mary's St., 210-737-2411, bombaybicycleclubsa.com: Staff will warn you ahead of time that the Bombay chili is spicy, and that's more than OK - chili sweats cleanse the soul. Topped with cheddar and onion, it's a classic bowl that will stay with you all day and into the following morning. It pairs nicely with a cold draft beer. ($4.95 cup, $8.95 bowl) Chamoy City Limits: weekends 1-6 p.m. at 2809 Broadway, 210-744-0000, chamoycitylimits.com: If you go, do it for the beautiful raspas and shaved ice because there's no guarantee that hot chili will be on the menu on any given day of operation. But if it is, take comfort in the fact that you will enjoy an authentic local bowl that goes back to where it all started in the 1800s, made in its purest form with real chili peppers. (Prices vary according to chili-based offering) H-E-B Central Market: 4821 Broadway, 210-368-8600, centralmarket.com: A tasty take on the classic Texas chili, the spices embedded into the self-serve chili pot produce a deep-red hue and will clear out your nose. Just get there quickly, once a fresh batch is put on the floor, the first ones at it will hoard the meat. Also, there's no guarantee it's among the soups offered on any particular day. ($3.49 for 8 ounces, $5.49 for 16 ounces, $7.99 for 32 ounces.) Jim's Restaurants: (multiple locations), jimsrestaurants.com: The "Frontier Signature Chili" has been a staple on the menu since the dawn of the Jim's empire. It's a consistent bowl with multiple beef cuts and tame enough spice for a 7-year old tongue. There's no mistaking though that you're eating true Texas chili. ($4.99 a bowl) Luther's Cafe: 1503 N. Main Ave., 210-223-7727, lutherscafe.com: Using a thick chili grind beef with a poblano pepper base and plenty of onion, every bite is sure to fill your spoon with meaty goodness. If doing lunch, a cup will do the job. The secret to the chili is in the sweet afterkick due to a creative infusion of BBQ sauce into the mixture. A definite star of the menu. ($4.25 per cup, $7.95 per bowl) Mi Tierra Cafe y Panaderia: 218 Produce Row, 210-225-1262, mitierracafe.com: The chili is based on a chili queens recipe and more than good enough to stand on its own, but it's only available as chili gravy atop tamales and enchiladas. Chuck Blount Recipe: Chili from the Institute of Chili Recipe: Original Texas-Style Chili Recipe: Mi Tierra's Traditional Chili con Carne See More Collapse In the decades that followed the fall of the Alamo and the beginning of Texas independence, the Alamo Plaza experience was a far different one. The public plazas of San Antonio were filled with outdoor vendors offering wares that included hearty fare of enchiladas, frijoles and giant pots of chili con carne, served by the women who became famous as the chili queens, who operated open-air stands until they were regulated out of existence by the 1940s. Writer O. Henry, in his short story, The Enchanted Kiss, told of the delectable chili con carne, a dish evolved by the genius of Mexico, composed of delicate meats minced with aromatic herbs and the poignant chili colorado a compound full of singular flavour and a fiery zest. During the heyday of the outdoor chili stands, a German immigrant named William Gebhardt who lived in New Braunfels transformed his fascination with Mexican food and spices into the first commercially available line of chili powder in 1896. The innovation allowed the meal to be made anywhere at any time. The origins of chili go back to the Mesoamericans who stewed chiles with whatever proteins and vegetables they had available, while what we know as chili goes back to the hunting and cattle trails of South Texas and Northern Mexico, according to author and historian Melissa Guerra. But it was perfected in San Antonio, where the cheap and filling meal blending random cuts of beef with an array of spices and peppers that later evolved to be recognized by the Texas legislature in a 1977 act as the official state dish. Which raises the question what the heck happened to chili in the San Antonio area when an Irishman cant score a bowl of Texas history? It gets me worked up just thinking about it, said Joe Nick Patoski, author, Texas historian, music host and occasional chili cookoff judge. San Antonio has more ownership over chili than anybody. It should have persisted like the burrito or a hamburger, yet it lost its place. That isnt the case throughout Texas, although authentic chili parlors are getting harder to find. Kathleen Tolbert, daughter of the legendary Frank Tolbert, runs Tolberts Restaurant and Chili Parlor in Grapevine, between Dallas and Fort Worth. Franks 1966 book, A Bowl of Red, includes a recipe for Original Texas Chili thats one of the most duplicated in the world. Kathleen has been at the forefront of the Texas chili scene for 40 years, judging and sampling every chili variation you can imagine, and although her familys restaurant is successful, she does see the decline of the famed dish. You do see less and less (chili parlors), she said. I cant put my finger on why that is. Among San Antonio restaurants, chefs vie to create the best burgers, chicken fried steaks, enchiladas and other dishes. But none tout a classic bowl of Texas chili as the main reason to walk through the door. Entrepreneur Ana Fernandez tried to change that in 2012 when she studied the history of the chili queens and used their story as motivation to open her food truck The Institute of Chili. Thats the whole reason why I started it doing it more like an experiment to honor those women, Fernandez said. Nobody was doing chili. There was no chili scene. Fernandez dug in, studying the original recipes at the Institute of Texan Cultures and using that information as the foundation for her chili. Its not an exact replica she modernized some ingredients and added an additional flavor profile with smoked brisket but she never took shortcuts. We start with whole peppers and dried peppers and dont use powders, Fernandez said. I respect other peoples versions of chili, but I wanted to stay true to what was born here. We do have beans, and that can be looked at as a big no-no in Texas, but we serve them on the side because that was the way the chili queens would do it. The Institute of Chili was a rocking food truck, producing downtown late-night meals until 2 a.m. and working the scene with calorie bombs that mixed chili with burgers, fried eggs and everything in between. The chili gained national attention and received a lot of positive food press. Then something else happened: Fernandez discovered that the fancy snow cones that she also offered were starting to gain a cult following. The money move was to transform the business into what is now Chamoy City Limits, and the chili offerings were relegated to catering jobs and occasional guest appearances. We had 3,500 (social media) followers with the Institute, but Chamoy has 35,000, Fernandez, who regularly parks the truck at Lions Field. You have to financially decide what you are putting your time into. Another culinary roadblock is that chili now is often relegated to more of a sidekick rather than the star of a meal. Its the bedrock of Frito pies, and a scoop often is used to top plates of tamales and enchiladas to add an extra layer of flavor, but its no longer the star of the show. It fizzled into nothing more than a labor-intensive condiment, Fernandez said. Even though the classic bowl of chili isnt readily available in San Antonio, sometimes finding it just takes a bit of local know-how. Jims Restaurants regularly produces a top-selling bowl thats rooted in history. When G. Jim Hasslocher opened his first Frontier Drive-In in 1947, the original menu offered the No. 4, a burger topped with a generous layer of housemade chili that also was sold as a stand-alone if requested. Both items are still on the menu and selling well. Jims, and its affiliated Frontier Burger, sold more than 25,000 chili burgers and 17,000 bowls in 2016 alone, according to company officials. Our chili came out as a meat by-product of the trimming of our steaks, said Jeff Morrow, Jims director of operations. We like to call it Cowboy Gumbo because in every bite you can get a little bit of rib-eye or a little bit of sirloin. Its a hearty chili. The Jims recipe requires 2 hours to cook and batches are made every other day. Another nostalgic bowl option was created in 1949 at the original Luthers Cafe and remains a menu staple at the new location at 1503 N. Main Ave. Its just not advertised as the star of the show and dare it be said? serves as second fiddle to another stew. Its an old-school recipe, said Luthers kitchen manager Allan Wooten. One of the main reasons we do chili here is to use it as a base for our Irish beef stew. If we really wanted to go all out with chili, we would offer a version with beans and the works. But we would have to see proof there was a demand for it first. That could be coming. Fresh takes often using trendy labels such as craft and artisan have been slapped on things such as cocktails, beer, cupcakes, BBQ and beyond. Chili could be next. This is a part of our heritage as Texans, and its waiting to be exploited and showcased, Patoski said. Where are the smart-ass chefs that will stand up and say You know what, Im going to own chili? cblount@express-news.net Twitter: @chuck_blount The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II. By Denise Kiernan. Published by Touchstone. In the annals of World War II, stories abound of men from all walks of life coming together to serve in the U.S. armed forces to wage battle in Europe and the Pacific in what would become the largest military conflict in history, encompassing the entire world and involving more nations than any other war in recorded history. While men fought and died gallantly during the war that resulted in victories on both fronts, somewhat overlooked are the significant contributions made by American women in support of the war effort. Some of these vital contributions now come to light in an engaging and lively work titled The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II by Denise Kiernan. Kiernan, who has written other books on American history and whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Village Voice, sets her sights on highlighting the role women, in a remote secret destination originally called Site X, performed in the development of the atomic bomb as part of the Manhattan Project. As Kiernan notes, World War II was fought in an era where everyone united for the war effort, and in essence did whatever the American government asked of them. The book begins with women, now government employees, boarding a train to an unknown destination for a job they would not know they would be performing until they arrived at their clandestine location. Site X turned out to be Oak Ridge, Tenn., a surreptitious city that didn't appear on any maps. Unbeknownst to them, everyone who worked there was enriching uranium for the first atomic bomb to be used in war. Beginning in 1942, Oak Ridge was transformed from a mud-pit countryside in the southern Appalachians to a robust city of 75,000 inhabitants by 1945. Oak Ridge was so vital to the war effort that gates and security fencing encircled the town, and watchmen, armed guards and undercover informants lurked in every corner to safeguard the town's mission. Kiernan tenderly introduces us to a half-dozen young women who worked in a variety of roles at Oak Ridge. These women worked alongside other women who served as secretaries, statisticians and nurses, as well as calutron cubicle operators, chemists and the janitorial staff. For many of them, it was their first time away from home and their first taste of independence. It wasn't until the atomic bomb was detonated above Hiroshima that the women realized for the first time what their contribution to the war effort was producing. Later, they learned that their labors were part of the Manhattan Project and that the success of the most top-secret project in military history had rested on their shoulders. The Girls of Atomic City immediately seizes your attention and causes you to re-examine everything you thought you knew about the Manhattan Project, the atomic bomb and the indispensible role women played in World War II. It's a definite must-read for any military history buff and a powerful reminder that the Greatest Generation encompassed both sexes. Vincent Bosquez is a retired U.S. Marine Corps captain and coordinator of veterans affairs at Palo Alto College. Reach him at Vincent_bosquez@yahoo.com. A data hack that occurred last summer could have compromised the personal information of almost 23,000 students and staff members at Northside Independent School District, district spokesman Barry Perez said Wednesday. Officials discovered on Aug. 12 that several district employees email accounts had been hacked but it took until December to determine the extent of the security breach. It became a much more extensive investigation, Perez said. It literally was such a time-consuming process for this team to go through these hundreds of thousands of emails. In addition to its own internal investigation, the district hired a computer forensics team that found personally identifiable information for thousands of current and former students and staff in those emails information that the hacker or hackers could access including names, addresses and social security numbers. It became a chain reaction, Perez said. He said that the district and its hired investigators have no evidence that whoever hacked the accounts had actually acquired the personal information of those students and other staff members. But, as a precautionary measure, Superintendent Brian Woods sent letters about the breach to the nearly 23,000 people who might have been affected. The district is offering the identity monitoring service Kroll for free for one year for those people. Perez added that the hack was reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Perez said the district has taken the opportunity to inform the Northside ISD community about the steps they can take to safeguard their email accounts, including not opening emails from unknown addresses or with suspicious-looking attachments. Hacks into email accounts are a fairly common occurrence, according to Tom DeSot, chief information officer for Digital Defense. The San Antonio-based cybersecurity company offers digital security services to companies and organizations around the globe as well as in San Antonio including, DeSot said, local school districts. DeSot echoed Perezs words, acknowledging that email hacks often snowball, leading to much larger security breaches than just that of the original account holder, as was the case with Northside ISD. Every individual should make sure to protect his or her account by creating different passwords for different applications; using strong passwords including upper and lower case letters, numbers, and special characters; and changing passwords frequently, DeSot said. Hacks into work email accounts can be particularly serious, he said, because theres a plethora of information you can pull out that can be used to blackmail people or further your breach. Meanwhile, hacks into personal G-mail accounts, for example, can be no more serious than recipes theyre sharing with their mother. Perez believes the August incident is over. The investigation was very thorough and weve narrowed it down to the individuals who have potentially been impacted, he said. But just in case, Perez added, the forensics team is still on hand and the district is continuing to monitor the issue. sfosterfrau@express-news.net This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate AUSTIN - House Speaker Joe Straus said Wednesday the Texas program allowing certain undocumented immigrants to pay in-state college tuition is perfectly acceptable, highlighting another sharp distinction with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick as the legislative session looms. Patrick repeatedly has said he wants to eliminate the program that allows undocumented immigrants to pay tuition at the lower, in-state rate. The law was approved by Texas lawmakers in 2001 but has stirred controversy in recent years. Notably, former Gov. Rick Perry helped doom his race for the 2012 Republican nomination for president when he suggested people who oppose the idea dont have a heart, angering many GOP primary voters. Perry is now President-elect Donald Trumps nominee for Energy secretary. My personal position is that the law, as it is, is perfectly acceptable, Straus said in an interview with the San Antonio Express-News. When young people graduate from public schools, he said that the state and local districts have invested in their success. Theres no debate at all that we need more and better-skilled people in our workforce, said Straus, R-San Antonio, who also expressed support for maintaining the program early in the 2015 legislative session. I see no benefit to the state, or to the states future, by limiting the success of people whove played by the rules and have qualified for higher education and who can become successful citizens of the state of Texas and productive in our economy. Patrick reiterated his opposition to the program in a December interview on Fox News. Why do we charge an American student, maybe a Mexican-American student, maybe who lives in Oklahoma, who wants to come to a school in Texas why would we charge him three or four times as much as the illegal student who is here in Texas who wants to go to college? Patrick asked. As for Perrys past comments about the program, Patrick said the former governor is going to be a great Energy secretary. Hes a dear friend. But I disagreed with him on that We have to put America and Americans first. Under Texas law, people who are not U.S. citizens or permanent residents can qualify for in-state tuition if they meet certain requirements. Criteria include graduation from a Texas high school or receiving a diploma equivalent in the state; a residency requirement; and the students signature on an affidavit showing the intent to apply for permanent resident status as soon as possible. People who are not citizens or permanent residents, but who are classified as Texas residents for higher education purposes, represented just 1.5 percent of all students enrolled in Texas public higher-education institutions in 2015, according to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. Gov. Greg Abbott, asked about the program during a December roundtable interview with reporters, maintained his longtime view that the program is flawed and needs to be fixed. The way that its structured right now is that if you get in-state tuition, you are supposed to be demonstrating that you working toward establishing legal status in this state. And that structure doesnt exist right now, Abbott said. In-state tuition should be for those who are in the state validly, and thats what the law was intended to achieve. And if the law is not going to achieve this intended goal, then it should be repealed, he said. Among other issues, Straus and Patrick also have divided on the lieutenant governors push to restrict the restrooms that can be used by transgender people. Patrick has championed the bathroom issue as a matter of safety for women. Straus has said that the bathroom issue isnt his most pressing concern, but he would see what the House wants to do. Jim Henson, a political scientist at the University of Texas at Austin, said the in-state tuition issue is one the Senate will take the lead on and therell be a general expectation that it gets smothered in the House. Strauss stance, he said, has consistently been more reminiscent of the mid-2000 Republican mainline position in which you acknowledge the fact there was a lot of concern among the Republican Primary (voters) but the energy went into border security. The speaker has been fairly consistent when it comes to immigration issues, Henson said. Hes emphasized border security over more punitive efforts. pfikac@express-news.net drauf@express-news.net Twitter: @pfikac @davidSrauf This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate First, the bad news: A major I-35 road closure the demolition of the New Braunfels Avenue bridge shutting down all north and south freeway traffic will start Friday at 9 p.m. and last until Monday at 5:30 a.m. I would guess this might back up traffic for about a mile and a half, said Texas Department of Transportation spokesman Josh Donat said. It will be significant. And the good news? The highway will be open for traffic from 4:30 p.m. Saturday until midnight to accommodate the Spurs 7:30 p.m. game with the Charlotte Hornets. Donat said the New Braunfels Avenue bridge was hit by a truck going north on I-35 about a year ago, and while the bridge never became unsafe, the damage limited access to one lane. It is absolutely necessary that we completely destroy and remove the old bridge, Donat said. And when were done, we will have a bigger and better bridge. Usually, it would just be an overnight operation, but this is such a large, intense project that we had to take the entire weekend. We seem to get more forgiveness when we do the closure on weekends. He said another significant number of people likely to be inconvenienced would be those going to Fort Sam Houston. About 160,000 vehicles pass over the New Braunfels bridge each day, Donat said. Over the weekend, they will be diverted to the access roads, where police officers will be on site, managing traffic. Motorists who normally travel north and south across the old bridge should try to use the Walters and Pine bridges, east and west of the repair work area. We understand some businesses in the area may have a loss weekend, Donat said, but were trying to make it as painless as possible. The $5 million project is expected to be finished in mid-2018. Comments for TxDOT can be left at 210-615-6110, or through Twitter: txdotsanantonio bselcraig@express-news.net This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate For the past several weeks, Brittany Rucker and Jilly Jaworske have visited local animal shelters, seeking a dog they could give a home. Wednesday afternoon, the women stopped at the Paul Jolly Center for Pet Adoptions, now run by the Animal Defense League of Texas. They passed other visitors looking at prospective pets through windows from the outside and instead went inside to see the pooches staring back at them from behind glass enclosures. Rucker, 26, and Jaworske, 24, stopped at Kennel No. 5 and asked to see the 3-year-old male pit bull mix staying there. Kennel tech Desiree Mesch carried out Buster, wearing a black sweater with green and gray lines zig-zagging from sleeve to sleeve. He likes to be held like hes a lap dog, Mesch, 26, said as Rucker and Jaworske rubbed Busters head, his chin raised up as if he were high society. This is going to be great, Jaworske said, laughing as they walked to an outside area with the leashed dog. Were looking for a companion to hang out with us. The Animal Defense League will sponsor an open house Jan. 28 at the center to thank residents for adopting hundreds of homeless cats and dogs from the facility. The event will also have a half-off adoption special for pets four months and older. Regular adoption prices are $60 for adult dogs, $150 for puppies, $30 for cats and $75 for kittens. Located at 210 Tuleta Dr., the shelter is across from the San Antonio Zoo. It includes a cattery, inside and outside dog kennels, puppy room and a fenced-in lawn for walking the dogs. Its open 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week. The 9,320 square-foot-center can take in up to 50 dogs and up to 30 cats. The property also features the Petco Pavilion, where staff members hold educational training sessions, fund raisers and pet adoption events. Animals at the center are brought adoption-ready from the ADLs main campus at 11300 Nacogdoches Road. ADL spokesman Bradly Wright said thanks to the public the nonprofits 93rd year was great for the animals they serve. Wright said 5,149 pets found homes last year, with 629 pets leaving the two facilities in December. Thursday and Friday both campuses had a total of 116 adoptions. He said 498 people visited the Jolly center on New Years Day, some of whom took home new companions. This is exciting to us to share San Antonios mission to become a no-kill community, Wright said. ADL took over the city-owed center Nov. 1 from San Antonio Pets Alive! The City Council declined to renew SAPA!s lease in September and awarded it to the defense league. Animal Care Services director Heber Lefgren said working with ADL and its network of rescue partners has been a plus for the city. We know partnerships are key to making our community a better place for our pets, Lefgren said. We are so lucky to have so many organizations who work together to make the Alamo City pet friendly. An hour later, Rucker and Jaworske were still playing with Buster outdoors at the Jolly Center. While there seemed to be a connection between human and canine, Jaworske said they still werent sure whether the dog would be able to handle the noise of a gym, where the two weightlifters hoped to have him as a companion. Were still thinking, Jaworske said, as a friendly Buster tugged Rucker by his leash. Were just kind of taking our time with it. vtdavis@express-news.net A federal appeals court in New Orleans heard oral arguments Wednesday about whether a key portion of Texas omnibus border security bill is legal. Lawyers for the state of Texas argued that two landlords, and an immigrant services agency, who sued the state over House Bill 11 had no legal standing to do so. But the plaintiffs say they have every right to sue, and that federal law pre-empts what the state wants to do with the passage of House Bill 11. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans did not say when its three-judge panel might rule. The judges on the panel were E. Grady Jolly, Jerry E. Smith, and Edward C. Prado all Republican appointees, court records show. Under a provision of HB 11, which went into effect in September 2015, a person commits a crime if they encourage or induce a person to enter or remain in this country in violation of federal law by concealing, harboring, or shielding that person from detection. In January 2016, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund filed a lawsuit in San Antonio against Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw and the Texas Public Safety Commission, which oversees the DPS. The lawsuit alleges the state violated the U.S. Constitutions Supremacy Clause because immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of two San Antonio landlords, David Cruz and Valentin Reyes; and Jonathan Ryan, the director of the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES). The plaintiffs said that under the bills provisions, they could be accused of the crime for providing shelter space or renting homes to undocumented immigrants. In April, Senior U.S. District Judge David Alan Ezra of San Antonio said the plaintiffs would likely succeed on the Supremacy Clause claim and also ruled that state and local officials had no authority to enforce the harboring provision until a final decision on the case is made. In this case, plaintiffs risk subjection to criminal penalties under laws that might be pre-empted by federal law and the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution, Ezra wrote. Thus, the Court finds that Plaintiffs are likely to suffer irreparable harm. The state appealed, and said in a 26-page brief that HB 11 does not forbid anyone to shelter unauthorized immigrants. The brief further states that the plaintiffs shelter undocumented immigrants and do not actively conceal them from detection and are thereby not engaged in prohibited conduct. But the plaintiffs argue that Texas is treading on legal ground that has already been decided. The Texas Legislatures adoption of its immigrant harboring statute followed passage of immigrant harboring statutes in Arizona, Alabama, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina, MALDEF said in a 73-page appellate brief. All of those statutes were invalidated on pre-emption grounds by federal Courts of Appeals in 2012 and 2013. Also in 2013, this Court invalidated, on preemption grounds, an immigrant harboring ordinance adopted by the City of Farmers Branch, Texas. Despite the complete failure of other states attempts to criminalize immigrant harboring, Texas forged ahead with its own statute. I thought the argument went well today, Nina Perales, MALDEFs vice president of litigation, said by email after presenting oral argument for the landlords. She said the judges listened carefully to both sides and asked thoughtful questions. Because the statutes wording is very broad, and doesnt contain exceptions for landlords and humanitarian workers, we argued to the court that landlords and humanitarian workers can be arrested under this law, Perales said In an emailed statement, Marc Rylander, with the Texas Attorney Generals office said, We are proud to defend Texass sovereign right to protect its residents from unscrupulous people who would take advantage of them. gcontreras@express-news.net Twitter: @gmaninfedland Staff Writer Jason Buch contributed to this report. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate It might be hard to imagine, but beyond those reflexive tics of cynicism forged by an endless cycle of deadlines and disappointments, somewhere over the rainbow, we columnists have hopes and dreams, too. As someone once said, someday Ill wish upon a star and wake up where the clouds are far behind me. Where troubles melt like lemon drops, way above the chimney tops, thats where youll find me. Until then, heres a columnists wish list for 2017, still wet with pointless tears from 2016. Top of the list: I wish Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick would stop acting like a jerk. In June, for instance, the morning after a mass shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, the lieutenant governor posted to social media a Bible verse that read man reaps what he sows. A month later, after a sniper murdered five police officers at a protest in Dallas, Patrick called the demonstrators there hypocrites for seeking protection from the same police they were protesting. This is America, so Patrick has a right to voice his opinions. But these are the opinions of a jerk, and I wish Patrick would stop acting like one. He has an opportunity next week, when the 85th Legislature convenes. All he has to do is stop demanding that transgender women use mens restrooms. I can dream. I also wish that Councilman Ron Nirenberg would catch a break. I dont mean I hope the mayoral candidate wins in May, necessarily. Its going to be a long and interesting race. I just wish something would break the Nirenberg Curse. Because when the Christian Chamber of Commerce disinvites you from a speaking engagement, you might be having a bad year. That happened at the start of 2016. Abortion opponents claimed that Nirenberg was a supporter of Planned Parenthood, so the chamber scuttled plans for the councilman to speak about SA Tomorrow. As chairman of a council committee charged with overseeing the planning document, Nirenberg was qualified to do so. Seven months later, once again, that didnt matter. On the dais, Nirenberg tried to replace elements of the plan that had been removed by the San Antonio Planning Commission, such as a directive to review and update, if necessary, the citys tree preservation ordinance, but a majority of Council rejected his amendments. It was just another example of Nirenbergs colleagues ignoring his jurisdiction to side with developers. Nirenberg, naturally, was hobbled by expectations that he was planning to challenge Mayor Ivy Taylor. Now that hes actually running, he can make his own break. Wish No. 3: That Bexar County District Attorney Nico LaHood retracts his statement that vaccines can and do cause autism. Because that was just messed up. And lastly, I wish the new sheriff in town would amend the vehicle pursuit policy of former Bexar County Sheriff Susan Pamerleau. Last year, among other needless deaths, a teen driver was killed because Bexar County deputies chose to pursue him after he fled a traffic stop. They chased his pickup across the city for nearly 20 minutes before he crashed; two passengers, including a pregnant teenager, were injured. Police declined a request by deputies to assist in the pursuit. Thats because San Antonio officers are restricted from pursuing a vehicle except in connection with a violent felony or a misdemeanor involving a weapon. Newly sworn-in Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar, who was an SAPD sergeant before he defeated Pamerleau, should update his departments pursuit policy to reflect the citys safer approach. Thats my dream, at least. And someone once told me that somewhere over the rainbow, the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true. But if for some reason they dont, at least you hit your deadline. bchasnoff@express-news.net Transcription 1 MPRA Munich Personal RePEc Archive The importance of activity-based costing method (ABC) In Romania s business environment changes Capusneanu, Sorinel/I; Cokins, Gary and Barbu, Cristian Marian Artifex, University, Faculty of Finance and Accounting 15. May 2011 Online at MPRA Paper No , posted 03. September 2011 / 17:43 2 THE IMPORTANCE OF ACTIVITY-BASED COSTING METHOD (ABC) IN ROMANIA'S BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT CHANGES Sorinel Capusneanu Artifex University, Bucharest, Romania Gary Cokins SAS Institute Inc., Cary, North Carolina, USA Cristian-Marian Barbu Artifex University, Bucharest, Romania Abstract The purpose of this paper is to present the importance of Activity-Based Costing method (ABC) in Romania's business environment changes. We analyzed the possibilities to adapt to a modern management accounting method and managerial accounting organization assumptions of the ABC (Activity-Based Costing) method in Romanian enterprises. The article ends with the authors' conclusions about the changes of the ABC method in the Romanian s business environment. Key words: Activity-Based Costing, management accounting, entity, implementation, business environment. JEL Code: M41, M21. Introduction The article refers to the importance of changes brought by the ABC method in the Romanian business environment. The purpose of this article is to highlight the benefits of the ABC method. Starting from this, the authors intended to meet the information needs and analysis needs of traditional management accounting methods applied in Romania in order to achieve higher performance in enterprises. Unlike studies performed so far, the authors attempt to examine the assumptions of organizing the managerial accounting through the ABC method. The analysis is focused on a survey done in enterprises applying the ABC method in Romania and the conclusions of the USA specialists, thus demonstrating the possibility to adapt this method to the data requirements of enterprise managers and the impact they have upon the Romanian business environment. The results of future investigations will contribute to enlarging the area of analysis and research of the actual problems that the business environment in Romania faces; we are hereby only trying to pave the way for better publicity and to create a flexible framework for implementing and adapting to new requirements imposed by the international business environment. The impact of traditional management accounting methods on the business environment in Romania Permanent increase of production quality and reduction of cost/completion time of products are the two essential objectives of entities in today's business environment required to handle international and even domestic competition. Achieving these objectives requires, primarily, adjustment and improvement of production processes and using new methods of organizing production, to cover customers requirements, while avoiding the formation of stocks. 1 3 Making the first essential objective of an entity in the current business environment requires continuous reduction and strict emphasis losses due to obtaining final scrap and waste generated by reprocessing them, so that they are removed from the obtained finished product costs, the corresponding terms quality. It is also necessary emphasizing and tracking the quality of costs, respective those generated by activities aimed at ensuring growth and quality of products. For over 75 years, most entities in Romania have used and still use standard cost systems to determine their financial situations, but also for management purposes. The standard cost system has some advantages to the purposes of financial statements (e.g., simplicity and consistency). Traditional cost accounting systems focus, in particular, on issues related to determining pre-calculated or actual costs related to stages of production and delivery and do not follow strictly the total costs of products on their stage of development. In this way may be mentioned: the ordering method, phased method, the global method and other methods of cost calculation, characterized by rigid mass production and manufacturing technologies. Traditional cost system worked well until the business environment has changed. About 20 years ago, most manufacturing companies have started to adopt changes in their operations, which were not in accordance with traditional cost accounting methods. The analysis of adaptation possibilities to a modern management accounting method in Romania The cost system plays an important role in the making decision process by managers in any entity. It is therefore important to consider several factors before choosing or changing the management accounting and cost calculation method of a specific entity. It is therefore important to consider several factors before choosing or changing the method of management accounting and costing of a specific entity. Currently, globally some entities thrive by implementing strategies that create competitive advantages. The Romanian entities do not seem to keep step with the growing number of modern management accounting and cost calculation methods, appeared, presented and discussed after The necessity for exploring possibilities of adapting the Activity-Base Costing (ABC) method into the Romanian s entities is based on four main causes: failure to deepen modern cost accounting systems, deficiencies of classical or contemporary cost accounting systems, diversification of information requests for entities management and producing changes in the market strategic position of entities. The first cause is due to poor information in management accounting. The fear of trying new methods still exists in Romania, and this makes us think that we really still do not want to practice performant methods to favor entities in any sector or is just our supposition? This aspect can be resolved relatively easily by organizing and participating in the practice of information courses at institutions or economic agents by specialists in the management accounting field, through publication of specialized books, materials via internet or e-book, through conferences and scientific symposia. The second cause refers to the indirect costs that are distributed over the products through non-specific reference sizes relative to their degree of incurring. In many entities, as well as in other branches of the economy, the indirect cost allocation process is performed by using supplementation (classical form). This allocation of indirect costs does not comply with their causation principles and may lead to erroneous policy decisions, due to the use of arbitrary allocation keys. The third cause of adaptation of the ABC method, such as, diversifying demand for management information covers all value creating activities (production sectors, support activities etc.). Based on this aspect, the decisions aimed at inter alia: providing complex information regarding the costs of all calculation objects, the determination of costs for 2 4 specific orders, the determination of optimal number of product variants, and the reduction in size batches, ensuring economic efficiency control in the indirect costs sectors. The fourth cause of adaptation of the ABC method aimed at the company's strategic position. With the development of IT (information technology), the company environment has changed radically and its strategic position. After the introduction and use of CIM systems (Computer Integrated Manufacturing), important changes have occurred in all areas and sectors of an entity. Due to fierce market competition, there is a tendency of entities for reduction of costs, improvement of products quality and development of new products. All this results in further shortening the life span of products. Entities from all Romanian economic sectors and elsewhere, should try to satisfy customers requests who are growing and diversifying, because many markets have become demand and control markets, and thus will lead to a broadening exponential models and assortments of products and/or offered by both sides. The premises of organizing management accounting through (ABC Activity-Based Costing) method in the Romanian entities In order to guarantee efficient management accounting organization through the ABC method by Romanian entities it had considering the following premises: Adopting the Activity-Based Costing (ABC) method. In choosing of the ABC method were considered the organizing factors of management accounting, such as: entity s size, technology usage, number of manufactured products, the significance of indirect costs and competition. Implementation of the ABC method in an entity is done in accordance with certain requirements related to the above mentioned factors and requires: - Establishing processes, activities and operations, according to the specific transversal organization of the entity. - Establishing of cost drivers related to cost calculation objects, specific of entity to which it belongs. With ABC cost drivers (1) are units that are used to causally assign and trace indirect and shared resource expenses related to activities based on the consumption that cost objects place demands on resources. - Adoption and improvement documents system according to the specific of the ABC method. Within that will include registration documents that concern the production, costs and deviations from pre-calculated costs, analysis and monitoring and measuring performances instruments. Establishing the time period for carrying out economic and financial operations and costs determination. For not disrupting the costs during the exercise is preserved in the chosen reporting period of pre-determined or post-calculation. Thus, according to the specific entity branch, the chosen reporting period relates to the month or semester, but with some exceptions, and annually. In the case of regular reports (monthly), the management and operational services of the entity must take into consideration some aspects that concern: - Technical and personnel resources allocated to achieve these activities. If we are considering the specifics of the ABC method, this is not an impediment to the entity's functional services and human resources are clearly defined; - Determination the correctness of production and obtained costs production. The ABC method is noted in particular through this aspect of the accuracy of determining costs; - Organization of operatively and post-operatively control. The possibilities offered by the ABC method in this way come to supplement the previous mentioned issues; - Informing the various categories of users of the entity. The ABC method offers a huge amount of information necessary for all categories of users (management, operational services, other services) being used for analysis and reporting. 3 5 Choosing the responsible staff for execution of management accounting specific works. In the case of the ABC method, each functional service or department has its representative. Development works of pre-determination and post-calculation, is realizing at the functional level and thus the responsibility for establishing and assuming responsibility in this case is just for the department. All budgets are then collected by the entity's accounting department and subject to approval by management. The time planning of specific management accounting works. This aspect is closely linked to previous and the visibility how the degree of fulfillment of the undertaken tasks by departments is done using graphs or tabular statements, they may take different forms, depending on the entity s requirements. Choosing the processing way of obtained management accounting information. Because of the ABC method requires a large amount of data entry and processing, their processing is necessary with the help of powerful software that runs on platforms equipped with modern performant computers. Here comes the advantage of data processing network, intranet or internet. Activity-Based Costing (ABC) method and the changes in the Romanian business environment ABC is a cost calculation technique that allows an entity to determine actual costs associated with each product manufactured, work executed or service provided. ABC method delineates the activities of entities in: value activities (2) and non-value activities (3). ABC method helps an entity in finding opportunities to streamline or reduce or eliminate costs throughout the activity, where it is found that it provides no value. The ABC method allows managers to see if resources are used efficiently and also the activities that contribute to creating value product fabricated, work done or service rendered. One of the most important contributions of the ABC method is the fact that remedies the approaches weaknesses of traditional costs calculation production. Also, ABC method presents other advantages such as: - Obtaining more real production costs than those obtained for traditional management accounting methods; - Focuses on the real nature of the behavior of costs, thus helping to identify non-value activities; - Uses multiple cost drivers that highlight the direct cause-effect relationship between the allocated costs and allocation bases used; - Provides flexibility in allocating costs on manufactured products, work performed or services rendered on different strategic segments of customers; - The type used to aggregate support activities by the main activities; - Uses dashboards compiled on the basis of pilot indicators carefully selected, thus providing reliable long-term strategic decisions relevant on long-term; - Offers the possibility of adapting the Romanian General Accounting Plan to the specificity of the ABC method. Data from our studies reveal that Activity-Based Costing method is not indeed fully appreciated by the most companies in Romania. Despite the inherent strengths of the ABC method, very few companies have chosen to adopt it in their business operations. Our studies have found lack of knowledge of many employees from different companies questioned regarding the activity-based costing engineering (technique). We can enumerate some of the reasons for low adoption of the ABC method in Romania: the lack of basic knowledge of employees about the specifics of the ABC method, the resistance of employees, key organizational changes to implement the ABC method. 4 6 Some respondents identified as the source of the failure of the ABC method, the complexity of the steps which it involves, as the ABC method requires detailed records of costs associated with the production of goods and services compared to traditional methods. Other respondents believe that the ABC method will be adopted more than those companies in which they were covered well by their accountants. Companies from Romania, who initially adopted the ABC method and finally gave it up and those companies that refuse to adopt its techniques only see the high cost of its implementation. General or long-term success of an ABC system is not only the achievement of architectural elegance and used software, but proper implementation and maintenance of its proper operation. It is very important that the Romanian companies to review their current cost systems in use to ensure that they adequately respond to various changes in competition and technological innovations. Conclusions From the above, it follows that the emergence of new production technologies and new methods of organization and management requires constant reconsideration of existing information systems, within which managerial accounting occupies an important place. In this context, Activity-Based Costing can be a way to improve the profitability and cost management, more rigorous determination of the cost of their products in every stage of their development. In the last decade, many entities have tried to implement the ABC system, not only in Romania but also in many other countries. There is an evidence of enlargement, but many of these entities are faced with problems of implementation of the ABC method, and in extreme registers not successful with this method. Most of the entities that adopt ABC method are treating only as a technical innovation, and not as an administrative innovation. In adopting the ABC system, are very important and valuable treatment of the technical aspects of design, so as to ensure that proper cost information can be provided to support management decisions and actions of an entity. References (1) Cokins, G., Capusneanu, S. Cost drivers. Evolution and benefits, Theoretical and Applied Economics, no. 8/2010, p. 9. (2) Those tasks assumed by the entity for which customers are willing to pay for this service. (3) Those activities that create waste, resulting in delay or add costs to products for which customers are willing to pay. Bibliography 1. Briciu S., Capusneanu S., Rof L.M., Topor D. (2010), Accounting and management control. Performance assessment tools, Aeternitas Publishing House, Alba-Iulia. 2. Capusneanu S. (2009), Elements of cost management, Economic Publishing House, Bucharest. 3. Cokins G., (2001), Activity-Based Cost Management: An Executive s Guide, Wiley. 5 Let me just put it out there: I cant draw worth a lick. By the time my children were in first grade, their artwork looked better than my feeble attempts. Even those hip coloring books that are all the rage? Yeah, dont bother buying me one. But I can make a mean stick figure. And thats all the artistic talent you need to take my new years planning challenge this week. If we were ever going to head into a new year with a renewed focus, 2017 should be it. While every year that you end still breathing is a good year, there were lots of stress points in 2016, and were glad to pin up the new calendar. This weeks issue the first of the new year includes several columns and articles to inspire some introspection, thought and planning. (Scroll down for the links.) We hope that you will pause to digest all the authors insights, and, if you havent already, carve out a little time soon to consider what your own personal or work focus will be in 2017. I know, I know. Setting goals or resolutions at this time of year can be a good intention, but where are they come February? Every year, I set a goal to do a better job of consistently writing this column, but regular readers of this space know that I failed miserably in 2016. My goal was laudable, but I fell flat on the implementation. Ever happen to you? (Please say yes, so Im not alone in my failure.) So Ive decided the problem is in my process. I dug out a hand-out from a long-ago writing workshop with Chip Scanlan, an author and journalism instructor. The workshop session was called Making Things Happen: A Process Approach to Planning, and Scanlan used David Allens Natural Planning Model (explained in Allens book Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity). Allens model has five steps: 1. Defining purpose and principles; 2. outcome visioning; 3. brainstorming; 4. organizing; and 5. identifying next actions. First, grab a couple blank sheets of paper, a pencil or pen (or Crayons or colored pencils). Trust me on this, folks. We all learn differently, and this is just a different way to look at your goal process. If you dont want anyone to see you, lock the door or go sit in your truck. Just do it. Now, at the top of the first page, write I want to _____, and fill in the blank. Make it a simple and focused goal, i.e. I want to pay off my car. I want to improve my herds milk production by 5 pounds/cow. I want to start a retirement account. When thinking about a goal or a project, Allen starts with this question: Why are we doing this? Thats a really good question: Why are you doing this? Why? What problem does this solve? What will happen if you dont do this? etc. Write that question on your paper: Why am I doing this? Then answer it in the form of a drawing. (Remember, stick figures are OK.) Answering this question in a visual way spotlights the meat of the matter. Question No. 2: What would it look like if we were wildly successful? How do you envision the outcome of your goal or project? If that goal is met, how will you know? How will you feel? How does it impact others? If you complete this project, what will happen? Will your family be happy? Will you be sleeping better at night? Will you be able to pay off that loan? The outcomes could be physical, tangible or emotional, but theyre all important. For the Steven Covey fans in the room, its akin to his Habit No. 2: Begin with the end in mind. On your paper, write down that question What would it look like if we were wildly successful? and again answer it with a drawing. The next two questions will force you to identify the ways youre going to meet your goal or complete your project. Question No. 3: How will I accomplish it? What are the specific action steps you need to take? What do you need to do? Brainstorm to capture as many ideas as you can. No step is too small, no idea too vague or too specific. Write that question down How will I accomplish it? and jot down those action steps. No drawing required. The fourth step is organization: When do we do these things? Of all those action steps you identified in the third step, which needs to come first? What comes next? Then what? The more detailed the better. Grab your paper, write When do we do these things? and start your list. Again, no drawing required, but if you want to use your colored pencils to prioritize your action steps, go for it. The fifth step is one you will revisit all year, or until youve met your goal: Whats the next action? If youve worked through all the steps, this is the easiest question to answer. What do you have to do first? Answering it give you your priority and the focus to get started. You dont have to think about the whole big shebang, just the first step. Look at your paper one more time, and write: Where do I start? Answer it with that first task, i.e. call the vet, or buy new accounting software, or clean up the workbench. This step repeats itself when that first task is complete. Whats the next action, the next task toward that goal. You dont have to rethink everything, unless circumstances change, just identify the next thing you have to do. There you have it: Thats how you can take charge in 2017 in five steps. The steps are simple, but never easy. Like life. * * * Read more in our Stay Focused series: By Susan Crowell MARYSVILLE, Ohio The Best of the Buckeye Program, hosted by the Ohio Cattlemens Association in conjunction with the Ohio Beef Expo and the Ohio State Fair, is gearing up for its fifth season. The program provides Ohio seedstock breeders an additional marketing opportunity, and creates a source for moderately priced show steers and heifers. Eligibility Cattle must be registered and bred by an Ohio cattleman and born in state. ET calves and calves out of purchased bred cows are eligible if they were born in Ohio and list an Ohio cattleman as the breeder. Breeders and exhibitors must be Ohio Cattlemens Association members. Exhibitors must be Ohio residents and meet the age requirements for the Ohio Beef Expo and Ohio State Fair junior shows. To participate in Best of the Buckeye, breeders must complete a nomination form (each form can be used to nominate up to five animals from the same breeder) and sign an affidavit verifying Best of the Buckeye eligibility. Cattle that are nominated by March 1, 2017, prior to the Ohio Beef Expo, or by June 20, prior to the Ohio State Fair, will incur a $25 per head nomination fee per show. Cattle may be nominated for both shows by March 1 for $40. Exhibitors honors The Best of the Buckeye program will recognize top-placing Ohio bred, born and registered calves, along with the breeder and exhibitor, in each breed division at the two shows. Also, $30,000 will be given through premiums at each show, scholarships and awards. Details are available at www.ohiocattle.org/Youth/best-of-the-buckeye or by contacting the association office at 614-873-6736, or beef@ohiobeef.org. UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. Pennsylvania produce growers, food processors and animal-feed producers navigating the federal Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) have new educational resources to help them determine what their farms and businesses must do to comply with new regulations. Penn State Extension recently launched a new FSMA information website, extension.psu.edu/fsma, and will be organizing several FSMA educational workshops throughout the state during 2017. FSMA Over the next several years, the Food and Drug Administration will begin enforcing the mandated food-safety activities and record-keeping requirements outlined in the law, passed by Congress in 2011. FSMA establishes regulatory practices that produce farmers, food processors and feed manufacturers must adopt to prevent contamination of fresh produce, and processed and manufactured human foods and animal feeds. The act includes seven regulations, and current Penn State Extension resources focus on three that will significantly impact Pennsylvanias growers, distributors and processors: the Produce Safety Rule, the Preventive Controls for Human Food Rule and the Preventive Controls for Animal Feed Rule. Extension site Penn State Extensions food-safety educators are helping the food and feed industries interpret and implement the new FSMA regulations by offering a wide array of food-safety programs. Penn State Extensions new Food Safety Modernization Act website features educational videos designed to help growers and processors understand the FSMA law, identify which rule(s) may affect their operations and determine whether or not they might qualify for one of the rule exemptions that apply to certain smaller-sized growers or processors. Website visitors can also identify and communicate with educators and food safety experts. Online news updates and articles about FSMA will be posted to the site as well as other educational materials. Workshops The FSMA website also includes details for several upcoming workshops for 2017 that include official FSMA grower certification trainings and farm food-safety plan writing sessions. Three FSMA Produce Grower Certification trainings will be offered to Pennsylvania produce growers at a reduced rate. On Jan. 30, Penn State Extension will offer an official FSMA Produce Grower Certification Training session at the Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Convention in Hershey. FSMA certifications will also be held in Butler County Feb. 21 and in Bedford County March 24. Farm Food-Safety Plan Writing workshops for growers will be held in Lebanon County Feb. 9, in Butler County March 7, and in Bedford County March 31. Complete event details will be posted on the FSMA website as they become available. Online registration is encouraged; alternatively, call 814-445-8911 to register during normal business hours. Penn State Extension also holds Preventive Controls for Human Foods courses for food processors covered under the Preventive Controls Rule. One training, specifically for dairy food processors, is scheduled Feb. 21-23 at University Park, and another course for all types of food processing is March 21-23 in Malvern. Online registration is required for these workshops. Additional training programs and details will be announced on the website. Participants will be eligible to earn a completion certificate to satisfy related FSMA training requirements. Preregistration is required for all classes. Farmers and those linked to the countryside have been recognised in this year's New Year Honours List. A total of 1,197 people are on the list, with almost three quarters of them earning recognition for work in their local community. These include Scotland's top egg producer, John Campbell, founder and chairman of the Glenrath Farms empire. Sue-Anne Biggs, the Royal Horticultural Society director general gets a CBE He has been knighted in the New Year Honours List for his services to farming and charitable service to entrepreneurship. The Peebles based family business is now the UK's largest egg producer, and has led the industry charge away from battery production and into welfare-friendly free range and barn systems. Among others include Defra director Sarah Church, she becomes a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB). Sue-Anne Biggs, the Royal Horticultural Society director general gets a CBE for services to the environment and the ornamental horticulture industry. Horticulture was also cited in Dr Heather Barrett-Mold's OBE award, along with efforts in sustainable development and conservation. Ann Orr becomes a medallist of the British Empire for services to agriculture, industry and the rural community in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. The British Empire Medal was reintroduced in 2012 to recognise achievement or service in the community. Ronald Philip McIvor, Chairman, Farmhouse Biscuits gets an MBE for services to the Food Industry and the Economic Regeneration of East Lancashire. National Farmers Union (NFU) member David Cussons is made an MBE for services to agriculture and rural communities in North Yorkshire, particularly through the Ryedale Agricultural Show. Evelyn Findlater of the Good Food Matters Community Food Learning Centre, in Croydon, gets an MBE for services to young people. The Health and Safety Authority (HSA) of Ireland has confirmed that farming is the country's most dangerous profession. 21 people have lost their lives in farm accidents in 2016, nine of these were men over the age of 65. Most recently, an 84-year-old man died in a farming accident in Galway. This is an increase of three on the year before, when 18 people lost there lives while working in the Irish agricultural sector. 29 people were killed due to agricultural accidents in the UK during a one year period from 2015 to 2016, according to annual statistics released earlier this year by the Health and Safety Executive. The Health and Safety Executive has called on all sectors to learn lessons to ensure workers return home safe from work. Environmental activist George Monbiot and National Trust Director Dame Helen Ghost took part in a debate at the Oxford Farming Conference, explaining they would like to 'farm water' and 'beauty' if they had the chance to run their own farming business. Both panellists took part in a debate about what the UK's agricultural post-Brexit landscape looks like. An audience member asked the panel 'what and where they would farm', and 'how they would turn a profit.' Twitter Mr Monbiot explained: I would farm water and devote my efforts to receiving public money for keeping water on my land to ensure communities downstream were protected from flooding while maintain rich habitats. Mr Monbiot said he would farm water if the public goods system he proposed were in place and if it was through farming in the infertile uplands. Dame Helen followed with her answer, saying she would farm beauty and encourage tourists to visit her farm to appreciate the wildlife and environment on offer. The panel took the question under the umbrella topic 'After CAP, What? To survive and thrive what policies does GB agriculture need?' Tthe panel featured George Monbiot, Journalist and Environmental Activist, Dame Helen Ghosh, Director-General of the National Trust, Guy Poskitt, Farmer, M H Poskitt Ltd and Minette Batters, NFU Deputy. The Welsh Government has called for an 'overarching' UK framework for agricultural policy with appropriate flexibility for devolved regions. Speaking during a panel discussion at the Oxford Farming Conference, Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs Lesley Griffiths highlighted the fact that key areas of agricultural policy had been devolved to Wales since 1999, but that a UK framework which respected devolution was needed. The panel comprising Defra Minister George Eustice; SNP Environment and Rural Affairs spokesperson Calum Kerr; Welsh Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs Lesley Griffiths and Northern Irish Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs Michelle McIlveen generally agreed that the devolved regions should work together to develop some form of mechanism to prevent distortion between agricultural producers in different regions. However, Mr Roberts expressed concern that the Welsh Cabinet Secretary did not explicitly support SNP spokesman Calum Kerrs call during the debate for current agricultural and rural development spending to be at least maintained post 2020 until alternative means of sustaining farm incomes became apparent. Mr Kerr highlighted the importance of direct support and maintaining the current budget to Scotland and its farmers, and Wales is in a very similar position in terms of the reliance of our rural businesses and economy on the current allocation, said Mr Roberts. Mr Roberts said that Welsh Farm Business Survey results show every pound given in direct support for Welsh farming generates many more in terms of employment and payments to other businesses. Environment Secretary Andrea Leadsom and NFU president Meurig Raymond have both spoken out about the potential avian influenza threat to the British poultry industry posed by backyard poultry keepers failing to follow safety rules. Although a housing order has been put in place for poultry keepers across the whole of the United Kingdom, highly pathogenic H5N8 avian influenza has just been confirmed in a backyard flock of chickens and ducks in Pontyberem, Carmarthenshire. It is the same strain of the virus found on a turkey unit in Lincolnshire just before Christmas and the same one that has been circulating in continental Europe. FarmingUK raised the issue of backyard birds with the Secretary of State and with the NFU president during the Oxford Farming Conference. Andrea Leadsom said that smallholders must comply with the chief vet's instructions. Meurig Raymond called for action against those who disobeyed the rules. The Secretary of State confirmed to FarmingUK that the current housing order would be extended until the end of February. The day will consist of a series of 6 high-level conferences addressing issues relating to renewable energy and just transition. The UK pig sector should use its diversity to its advantage to gain a competitive edge in the global markets as a new post-Brexit world takes shape, according to the National Pig Association (NPA). Commenting on the Pig World website as part of its review of 2016 and analysis of 2017, NPA chief executive Zoe Davies said her biggest hope for 2017 was that UK pig producers will be profitable and will have the confidence to re-invest in their businesses. She said: Brexit has caused much uncertainty, but there will also be opportunities for people if they are willing to take them and NPA will play a key role in identifying those and helping people to take advantage where they can. There is no doubt in my mind that the pig business will get increasingly tough, consolidated and challenging, but we have the most diverse pig production systems and we should be using that to our advantage rather than just falling in and competing with the rest. 2017 looks set to be a more positive year for the pig sector, with producer margins returning to the black, according to Andersons, the farm business consultants. Antibiotic data Miss Davies also expressed a desire for all pig producers to get their antibiotic data onto the eMB-Pigs website. She said: Ive been really impressed in the main about how the whole industry has risen to the antimicrobial resistance challenge last year (2016). No-one likes change, and this has been hoisted upon us quite forcefully and quickly, but the positive attitude I have seen, the reduction programmes already put in place on farm, the focus on good biosecurity and the willingness of pig farmers to get involved has been amazing. Its one thing to tell the officials that we are making changes, but even better to show the proof which is exactly what the antibiotic sales report showed, especially for the pig sector. She also highlighted the NPAs efforts, in partnership with other industry bodies, to retain the use of Zinc Oxide, which is under threat, following a recommendation from an EU veterinary advisory body. Trump plans to nominate Robert Lighthizer to fill the shoes of Michael Froman, who has served as the lead for the U.S. on the softwood lumber dispute. Lighthizer, 69, was a deputy trade representative under the administration of former U.S. president Ronald Reagan and has been lead counsel in numerous anti-dumping and countervailing duty cases over three decades. He joins billionaire investor Wilbur Ross as commerce secretary and economist Peter Navarro at a new White House National Trade Council. Trump could also reactivate measures to protect U.S. beef farmers Whether were sideswiped or intentionally targeted I think theres going to be very tough days ahead on Canada-U.S. trade with Mr. Trump and his trade team, said Lawrence Herman, an international trade lawyer who represented Canada abroad, including at the World Trade Organization. He believes there is little desire by the new administration to reach any quick deal with Canada on softwood lumber, which has become an increasing source of tension between the two countries since October, when a one-year period to reach a new agreement on softwood lumber had expired. Theyre not going to likely interfere with the trade dispute process so were in for a number of years of litigation, Herman said. He said Trump could also reactivate measures to protect beef farmers, challenge Canadas supply management of dairy and object to provincial liquor and beer import monopolies. Carlo Dade, director of the Canada West Foundations Centre for Trade & Investment Policy, said there is a risk that Trump will eventually go after Canada on a number of trade issues but the country should be pleased not to be on Lighthizers immediate radar. This is a guy you dont want paying attention to you, he said, noting that Lighthizer has successfully litigated for the U.S. steel industry. Dade said experts have been so wrong about Trump that businesses and governments should wait until he comes out with his trade agenda and not make pre-emptive moves. In announcing his selection for the trade post, Trump touted Lighthizers experience. He has extensive experience striking agreements that protect some of the most important sectors of our economy, and has repeatedly fought in the private sector to prevent bad deals from hurting Americans, Trump said in a statement. He will do an amazing job helping turn around the failed trade policies which have robbed so many Americans of prosperity. BC Lumber Trade Council president Susan Yurkovich said she doesnt know the new U.S. trade team but hopes they will be pragmatic about the importance of Canadian lumber to U.S. home construction. I expect they wont want to do something that puts a punitive cost in place for U.S. consumers so I expect they will be practical about it, she said. Yurkovich anticipates that the U.S. International Trade Commission will determine by Monday that Canadian lumber harmed U.S. producers and proceed down the path to imposing duties. Alex Lawrence, a spokesman for federal International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland, said she looks forward to working closely with the new administration and Congress on issues including trade and investment. One area where Canada could find a receptive ear is its proposal for a North American infrastructure bank that could help fund completion of large construction projects on both sides of the border, Dade said. Source: Meatbusiness Warrenton, VA (20186) Today Cloudy skies this morning will become partly cloudy this afternoon. Expect mist and reduced visibilities at times. High 73F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 57F. Winds light and variable. Manassas, VA (20110) Today Cloudy skies early, followed by partial clearing. Expect mist and reduced visibilities at times. High 73F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Partly to mostly cloudy. Low 58F. Winds light and variable. Trump's Security: Government or Private By: David Henderson DECEMBER 20, 2016 President-elect Donald Trump is breaking with tradition yet again, this time by retaining his own private security force. In what security experts are calling an unprecedented move, Mr. Trump has continued to employ a private security and intelligence team at his post-election thank you rallies around the country and is expected to keep at least some members of the team after his inauguration, according to Politico. Hes said to be the first president or president-elect in modern history to do so, as all others have relied solely on the Secret Service for personal security and local law enforcement for event security. The decision has come under fire from some security experts who say that using private security personnel may be a risky move that could hurt both the president-elect and his team as well as protesters. Over the course of Trumps campaign, dozens of protesters have accused his private security personnel at rallies of racial profiling, undue force, or aggression, with three lawsuits currently pending against Trump, his campaign, or its security. Meanwhile, some Trump supporters have applauded the move as a sign of Trumps loyalty and commitment to shaking things up in Washington. Its playing with fire, Jonathan Wackrow, a former Secret Service agent who worked on President Obamas protective detail during his 2012 reelection campaign, told Politico. Having a private security team working events with Secret Service, he continued, increases the Services liability, it creates greater confusion and it creates greater risk. This is from Gretel Kauffman, Trump could set new precedent with private security force, Christian Science Monitor. A libertarian friend on Facebook commented as follows: Shades of imperial* Rome, and what that entailed: being surrounded by armed men who are pledged, *not* to defend the United States Constitution (and only secondarily charged with keeping the president safe), but who are pledged to and take orders from the specific person of the president, is frightening. (I am all for private security for private persons, but not for the president. It inaugurates a distinction between his interests and the Constitution and backs it with armed force.) *Not republican. Im not so sure. Im not completely tied to one side or the other, but I lean to private security. Heres how I think about it. I generally believe in private solutions to problems rather than government subsidies. The payments to the Secret Service are a huge subsidy. If Trump wants to pick up the tab for even part of this, and if that saves hiring, or replacing, even one or two Secret Service employees, good for himand good for us. Moreover, I can understand, and sympathize with, why Trump would want to do this. He wants people who are protecting him to be loyal to him, to have his well-being as their primary goal. I would bet that Secret Service employees are pretty much the sametheir main goal is to protect the Presidentbut there could be some slim margins on which the Trump people would do better. Recall the Colombian scandal. Its not clear that this threatened presidential securityit probably didntbut one could imagine plausible situations in which it would. My Facebook friend argues above that Trump would be surrounded by armed men who are pledged, *not* to defend the United States Constitution (and only secondarily charged with keeping the president safe), but who are pledged to and take orders from the specific person of the president. Thats true about the U.S. Constitution. I would bet, though, that keeping the President safe, given that hes paying them out of pocket, would be primary, not secondary. Moreover, when the Secret Service forcibly removed some protestors away from the Oregon hotel where George W. Bush was dining during the 2004 campaign, they did not have protecting the U.S. Constitution on their mind. Indeed, the U.S. Supreme Court, 10 years later, affirmed this restriction on their freedom of speech. Kauffman writes above: Over the course of Trumps campaign, dozens of protesters have accused his private security personnel at rallies of racial profiling, undue force, or aggression, with three lawsuits currently pending against Trump, his campaign, or its security. In which case are you more likely to win for a given amount of undue force: a case against a Secret Service agent or a case against a private bodyguard? I would think its the latter. So this argues for, not against, private guards hired by Trump. Where to eat and drink in the Fayetteville area this weekend Infosys Limited said its General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer David Kennedy left the company effective December 31. The company hasnt given a reason for Kennedys departure. Bangalore-based Infosys is Indias second biggest IT firm. It has nearly 200,000 employees. Revenues last year were $9.5 billion. It trades on the NYSE under the symbol INFY. Infosys said in an SEC filing Saturday it entered into a separation agreement with Kennedy on December 23 that took effect at the end of the month. The filing said Kennedy will receive aggregate severance payments of $868,250 plus reimbursements for COBRA (insurance) continuation coverage over a period of 12 months. Kennedy had been based in Palo Alto, California. Under a compensation package that Infosys restructured in November, he would have earned $557,500 in fixed pay and $472,500 in variable pay. Kennedy joined Infosys in 2014. Eight senior executives have left the company since August 2014. Former Chief Financial Officer Rajiv Bansal left in October 2015. He received a severance package worth about $2.7 million or two times his annual pay. Following allegations that Bansals severance was excessive, Infosys said two internal investigations ordered by the boards audit committee revealed no wrongdoing. The company said Bansals separation agreement provided for extended non-compete obligations. CEO Vishal Sikka joined Infosys in 2014 and had appointed Kennedy as General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer. Infosys said in its SEC filing that Deputy General Counsel Gopi Krishnan will assume Kennedys duties as acting General Counsel during a search for a new GC. The announcement didnt say who will function as Chief Compliance Officer. * * * Heres the disclosure from the Form 6-K Infosys Limited filed with the SEC on December 31, 2016: Infosys Limited (the Company) today announced that David Kennedy, its General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer, and the Company have mutually agreed that Mr. Kennedys employment with the Company will cease on December 31, 2016. The Company has entered into a separation agreement with Mr. Kennedy (Separation Agreement) on December 23, 2016. Mr. Kennedy was entitled to revoke his acceptance of the Separation Agreement within seven (7) days of his signature of the agreement. Accordingly, December 31, 2016 is the effective date of the Separation Agreement. Under his Separation Agreement, and in line with the employment agreement that it supersedes, Mr. Kennedy will receive aggregate severance payments of USD 868,250 plus reimbursements for COBRA (insurance) continuation coverage over a period of twelve months. The severance payments shall be paid, less applicable withholdings, in accordance with the Companys normal payroll practices, subject to the fulfillment of all the applicable conditions set forth in the Separation Agreement. The Companys Deputy General Counsel, Gopi Krishnan, will assume Mr. Kennedys duties as acting General Counsel as the Company conducts a search for a new General Counsel. ___ Richard L. Cassin is the publisher and editor of the FCPA Blog. Prince Harry has met girlfriend Meghan Markle's father. Prince Harry The 32-year-old royal - who has been dating the 35-year-old actress since May last year - has finally been introduced to 72-year-old Thomas Markle in Toronto, Canada, although the pair had already been introduced to one another six months ago. Speaking about Harry and Thomas' meeting, Meghan's brother Thomas Markle Junior, told the DailyMail.com: "'My dad knew about [the relationship] from the start. "He first met Prince Harry about six months ago out in Toronto. He goes once every couple of months - [Meghan and Thomas Markle Senior] are very close and they stay in close contact." And Thomas has revealed his father is "pretty happy" his daughter is dating the flame haired hunk, and is "extremely proud" of the 'Suits' actress. Thomas explained: "He's pretty happy about Harry and he's extremely proud of her. They have an amazing relationship, they're very close and they always have been." And it is believed Meghan met with Harry's relatives during a visit to London last month, although it is unknown whether Meghan's mother, Doria Ragland, has been introduced to her new beau. Although Thomas has hinted he hasn't met Harry he believes the couple are "extremely happy" in their relationship and are "so very much in love". He said: "They're extremely happy together, they look great together and she's done good. "She's very much in love and she's obviously happy because if she wasn't happy, she wouldn't be there. "I think it is wonderful. As long as he takes care of and loves Meg, he doesn't have to do anything else - although I would like to shake his hand and meet him." Copenhagen Fashion Summit, the fifth edition of the worlds leading event on sustainability in fashion, will be held on May 11, 2017 at Copenhagen concert hall. The Copenhagen Fashion Summit is under the patronage of HRH Crown Princess Mary of Denmark. It is a non-profit event organised by Danish Fashion Institute on behalf of Nordic Fashion Association.The Summit has over the years manifested itself as the leading forum for sustainability in fashion and has proven to be a safe neutral environment to launch new initiatives, where businesses, non-profit organisations, policy-makers and media can come together to join forces and make actual commitments to change. Copenhagen Fashion Summit, the fifth edition of the world's leading event on sustainability in fashion, will be held on May 11, 2017 at Copenhagen concert hall. The Copenhagen Fashion Summit is under the patronage of HRH Crown Princess Mary of Denmark. It is a non-profit event organised by Danish Fashion Institute on behalf of Nordic Fashion Association.# Since the first Copenhagen Fashion Summit was held in 2009 during COP15, it has become the most influential platform for creating awareness on the state of sustainability in fashion.This year launches the Global Fashion Agenda, a year-round agenda setting forum that aims to convene the entire fashion sector, governments, civil society, and all the great many initiatives out there around a global commitment to positive change. Anchored around the flagship event Copenhagen Fashion Summit, Global Fashion Agendas mission is to mobilise the global fashion industry.To achieve the ambitious strategy of getting the fashion industry to commit to the sustainability agenda, CEO Eva Kruse has up scaled her management team. To realise the Global Fashion Agenda, she will have the following by her side chief operating officer Caroline Chalmer, chief content officer Jonas Eder-Hansen, and chief learning officer Johan Arn-Kryger. (GK) Fibre2Fashion News Desk India Nivin Pauly is definitely going places. After having a wonderful 2016, with two big blockbusters in the form of Action Hero Biju and Jacobinte Swargarajyam, the actor is all set to impress the audiences in 2017, as well. The actor has some exciting projects lined up in Malayalam. In fact, he also has a couple of Tamil projects in his kitty. Now, there are certain rumours doing the rounds regarding one of the upcoming films of Nivin Pauly. According to the reports, a project in consideration will have Nivin Pauly and Vikram sharing the screen space. Interestingly, the project will be directed by Gautham Menon. According to a report by Behindwoods, Nivin Pauly had met Gautham Menon for a discussion in Chennai. If reports are to be believed, Chiyaan Vikram is being considered to play the antagonist in the movie. Well, if this happens it would be great to see both the actors locking horns on screen. Chiyaan Vikram and Nivin Pauly share a good rapport and they hold mutual admiration. Chiyaan Vikram had earlier revealed that he became a big fan of Nivin Pauly after watching Premam. No official confirmation has been regarding the same. We hope that the speculations turn out to be true so that we get to witness these two magnificent actors together on screen. In Yeh Hai Mohabbatein, everybody in the Bhalla house is getting ready for the New Year party. The family members also try to cheer Ruhi and make her forget the MMS incident. While Ruhi tries to be happy with everyone at home, she thinks of Sohail, who had promised her that he will arrange money to give to the blackmailer. Raman (Karan Patel) also invites Sohail to the New Year party. Ruhi is happy that her father invited Sohail to the party. She also feels that she is in love with Sohail, as he is supporting her in the bad time. Sohail According to spoiler, Sohail is Nidhi's brother and he is using Ruhi to take revenge on the Bhalla family. Apparently, he would have appointed the blackmailer and will be asking him to blackmail Ruhi with the MMS. Ruhi Sohail and Ruhi reach the place where the blackmailer had asked Ruhi to meet, to give the money. Ruhi faints as Sohail and blackmailer come face to face. Before Sohail kills the blackmailer, Ruhi faints. Sohail Kills The Blackmailer Ruhi is shocked to see the blackmailer unconscious and asks Sohail about the same. But, he doesn't reveal the truth. He takes the mobile from the blackmailer's pocket and deletes the video. Raman Ishita and Raman get a clue (tattoo) about the blackmailer and try to track him, but get trapped. When Raman and Romi reach the blackmailer's place, the blackmailer would be dead. Raman and Romi will be arrested. Sohail Kidnaps Ishita As we revealed, Ishita doubts Sohail. So, before she could reach Sohail, he will be kidnapping Ishita! No one will be aware that Sohail has kidnapped Ishita, they would doubt the blackmailer has kidnapped her. Raman Reveals Sohail's Truth To Ruhi There are also spoilers that suggest that Raman gets to know about Sohail and reveals the same to Ruhi. Apparently, Ruhi will be blackmailed by Sohail again that he would tell the police that she has killed the blackmailer. Simmi As we all know, Simmi is getting closer to Gaurav. Apparently, Gaurav proposes Simmi and the family will decide to fix their marriage. But, Param will return to Simmi's life and will be creating trouble. The Bhalla family members wish each other during the New Year party. Raman misses Ishita and is worried as she is not at home. Later, he gets a call from her and is happy to know that she is celebrating the New Year with Pihu. Apparently, Pihu would have asked her teacher to call Ishita. Pihu's teacher scares Ishita that makes her rush to the Nature's Camp. Ishita is glad to know that Pihu is safe and wanted Ishita to celebrate New Year with her. She reveals the same to Raman. Meanwhile, Shagun is guilty for betraying Mani. She tries to patch up with him, but every time she tries to get closer, Mani avoids him. But, during New Year day, she acts in front of Mani as if she is too much drunk. Shagun falls down, while Mani takes her to her room. Shagun apologises to him and tells him that how much lonely she is feeling as no one is with her. She also tells him that she loves him and can't live without him. Mani and Shagun get closer. Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - January 4, 2017) - Northern Sphere Mining Corp. (CSE: NSM) ("Northern Sphere" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the appointment of Sheldon Inwentash as Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors. The Company is also pleased to announce the appointment of Gerry Feldman to its Board of Directors. Mr. Feldman has been appointed a member and Chair of the Audit Committee and a member of the Corporate Governance Committee. Gerry Feldman, CPA, CA is the Managing Partner of DNTW Toronto LLP Chartered Professional Accountants. Mr. Feldman received his CA designation in 1985 and is a member of the Canadian Public Accountability Board and a member in good standing with the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada and Ontario. Mr. Feldman has over 30 years of experience in managing clients in specialized sectors including, securities dealers, mutual fund dealers, mutual funds, exempt market dealers, portfolio managers, investment counselors and public companies, and is an approved panel auditor for the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada. In addition, Mr. Feldman holds and has held senior officer and director positions with companies listed on various stock exchanges. About Northern Sphere Mining Corp. Northern Sphere Mining is dedicated to growth through the acquisition and development of mining assets, with an emphasis on near term production opportunities. Headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Northern Sphere Mining has a strong project pipeline of properties with a focus on gold, silver and other metal production in pro-mining jurisdictions. For further information, please contact: John Carter Chief Executive Officer Northern Sphere Mining Corp. Tel: 905-302-3843 The Canadian Securities Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. MOUNTAIN VIEW (dpa-AFX) - The U.S. Department of Labor has filed a lawsuit to require Google Inc. to provide requested compensation data and documents for the multinational company's Mountain View headquarters as part of a routine compliance evaluation. The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs asked the technology giant to submit information in September 2015 about its equal opportunity program and to provide supporting documents as part of a scheduled compliance review. As a federal contractor, Google must agree to permit the federal government to inspect and copy records and information relevant to its compliance with the equal employment laws administered by OFCCP. Filed with the department's Office of Administrative Law Judges, the lawsuit seeks to enforce Google's obligations to provide OFCCP with compensation data, documents and requested information to complete its audit. Federal contractors are scheduled for routine audits through a neutral selection process. The lawsuit seeks an order requiring Google to cooperate fully with the scheduled compliance review and to meet the requirements of all laws enforced by the agency. If the company fails to comply, the department asks the court to cancel all of Google's current government contracts and to debar the company from entering into future contracts. 'Like other federal contractors, Google has a legal obligation to provide relevant information requested in the course of a routine compliance evaluation,' said OFCCP Acting Director Thomas M. Dowd. 'Despite many opportunities to produce this information voluntarily, Google has refused to do so. We filed this lawsuit so we can obtain the information we need to complete our evaluation.' 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. CHICAGO (dpa-AFX) - Boeing (BA) and GE Capital Aviation Services, the commercial aircraft leasing and financing arm of General Electric (GE), announced an order for 75 737 MAX 8 airplanes. The order, booked in December, is valued at $8.25 billion at current list prices. The follow-on order increases the GECAS firm order book for the 737 MAX to 170 airplanes, the largest of any aircraft leasing company. To date, the 737 MAX has accumulated 3,419 orders, making it the fastest-selling airplane in Boeing history. Separately, Boeing said that the company and Travel Service, the Czech airline company that operates scheduled flights under the SmartWings brand, has finalized an order for five 737 8 MAX airplanes, valued at $550 million at current list prices. Travel Service previously placed an order for three 737 MAXs at the Paris Air Show in 2013 and currently operates a mixed fleet that includes 32 737s. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 01/05/17 -- Rockcliff Copper Corporation ("Rockcliff" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE: RCU)(FRANKFURT: RO0)(WKN: A142TR) is pleased to announce additional drill hole assay and geophysical drill hole survey results from its ongoing phase 2 exploration program on the Talbot Property. The property forms part of Rockcliff's Snow Lake Project centered on the Snow Lake Mining Camp, Manitoba. Highlights: -- Recently completed drill hole intersects high grade mineralization of the Talbot deposit main lens. Drill hole TB-012 intersects 5.3 metres grading 3.9% Copper Equivalent (Cueq) (2.0% copper, 1.94g/t gold, 0.32% zinc, 20.03g/t silver) -- Surveying of drill holes locates one of the largest undrilled conductive geophysical anomaly/plate yet discovered below the Talbot deposit north lens with dimensions of 300 metres by 600 metres. At the Talbot deposit main lens, drill hole TB-012 intersected the main lens mineralization confirming continuity of the main lens in an area void of drilling along the deposit's north boundary of the main lens. At the Talbot deposit north lens, the Company completed several drill hole geophysical surveys on historic holes and on its recently completed drill holes TB013 and TB014 which intersected 7.1 metres grading 4.1% Cueq and 2.6 metres grading 2.4% Cueq respectively (please see press release dated November 29, 2016 for additional information). The survey results identified a new drill target that represents one of the largest undrilled conductive plates yet discovered on the property below the existing Talbot deposit north lens mineralization, measuring 300 metres along strike and 600 metres of depth extent. Historic hole TLS007 appears to have intersected the very top edge of the conductive plate intersecting 4.4% Cueq across 2.1 metres. A preliminary longitudinal image of the conductive plate location relative to the Talbot deposit is shown below. Ken Lapierre, President and CEO commented, "All large mines in the Flin Flon-Snow Lake greenstone belt have extensive multiple stacked mineralized lenses that coincide with multiple stacked extensive conductive geophysical anomalies or plates. At Talbot, the fact that we have discovered the largest undrilled geophysical conductive plate immediately below the Talbot deposit is encouraging and a real testament to the significant upside potential on this property located within this prolific world class mineral belt. Our phase 2 drill program will continue immediately and will focus on the discovery of additional mineralized lenses proximal to the Talbot deposit". 3D Longitudinal Section of Talbot Deposit and Buried Untested Geophysical Plate below Deposit To view the image associated with this release, please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/1081829_image.jpg Drill hole information from hole TB-012 is tabled below. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hole # From To (m) Length Cueq Copper Gold Zinc Silver Comments (m) (m) (Copper % g/t % g/t equivalent %) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- TB-012 847.89 853.19 5.30 3.9 2.0 1.94 0.32 20.03 Talbot deposit-main lens ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- within 840.62 853.19 12.57 2.1 1.2 0.92 0.24 10.2 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (m) =metres represents down the hole thickness as true thickness is not currently known, % = percentage, g/t = grams per tonne, (i)copper equivalent value used US$2.50/pound copper, US1300/ troy ounce gold, US$1.15/pound zinc and US$20 /per ounce silver, 100% metal recoveries were applied, copper equivalent calculation is: CuEq = Cu grade + ((Zn grade%/100 x Zn price) + (Au grade gpt x Au price) + (Ag grade gpt x Ag price))/Cu price x 100. The numbers may not add up due to rounding. TB-012 was drilled at UTM NAD83 co-ordinates 458520E/5997036N, to a depth of 962 metres, along an azimuth of 285 degrees and a dip of -70 degrees. The depositional environment at the Talbot Property is similar to that of present and past producing base metal mines of bi-modal volcaniclastic rocks in the prolific Flin Flon - Snow Lake Greenstone Belt. The gold-rich Talbot copper deposit is defined as a stratabound, VMS deposit consisting of several lenses of stringer to massive sulphides of pyrite, chalcopyrite, sphalerite and pyrrhotite in a quartzofeldspathic gneiss. On February 4, 2016, Rockcliff announced on the Talbot Property an Inferred Mineral Resource as set out in the National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") technical report dated January 25, 2016 and titled "Technical Report on the Talbot Property, Manitoba, Canada" (the "Technical Report"), a copy of which is available on the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com, in respect of an initial Mineral Resource Estimate prepared by Roscoe Postle Associates Inc. ("RPA") for the Talbot Deposit located on the Talbot Property, central Manitoba. The Inferred Mineral Resource Statement prepared by RPA for the gold-rich Talbot copper deposit is detailed below. Mineral Resource Statement, Talbot Deposit, Manitoba, RPA, January 26, 2016 Grades Contained Metal -------------------------------------------------------- Tonnes Cu (%) Au Zn (%) Ag Cu Au Zn Ag Zone (kt) (g/t) (g/t) (Mlb) (koz) (Mlb) (koz) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Talbot Main 1,441.0 3.4 2.6 2.4 61.0 107.0 118.6 76.4 2,827.8 Talbot Main 443.9 2.2 2.0 2.4 55.6 22.0 28.5 23.2 793.8 FW North Lens 283.4 0.7 2.0 1.3 20.6 4.6 18.3 7.9 187.6 Total 2,168.3 2.8 2.4 2.2 54.6 133.6 165.4 107.4 3,809.3 Notes: 1. CIM definitions were followed for the estimation of Mineral Resources. Mineral resources are estimated at a cut-off grade of $140 Net Smelter 2. Return (NSR) (equivalent to a copper NSR cut-off of 2.0%) using metal prices, estimated recoveries and offsite payments. Mineral Resources are estimated using a long-term copper price of 3. US$3.50 per pound, gold price of US$1450 per ounce, zinc price of US$1.25 per pound and silver price of US$22 per ounce. 4. An US$/C$exchange rate of 1.18 was used. 5. A minimum mining width of 2 m was used. 6. The average bulk density is 3.2t per cubic meter. 7. Numbers may not add due to rounding. Given the tonnage, grade and orientation of the deposit, RPA considers 8. the Talbot Deposit to be reasonably amenable to extraction using underground mining methods. Mineral Resources are not Mineral Reserves and do not have demonstrated 9. economic viability. Samples of half core are packaged and shipped directly from Rockcliff's field office to TSL Laboratories (TSL), Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. TSL is a Canadian assay laboratory and is accredited under ISO/IEC 17025. Each bagged core sample is dried, crushed to 70% passing 10 mesh and a 250g pulp is pulverized to 95% passing 150 mesh for assaying. A 0.5g cut is taken from each pulp for base metal analysis and leached in a multi acid (total) digestion and then analyzed for copper, lead, zinc and silver by atomic absorption. Gold concentrations are determined by fire assay using a 30g charge followed by fire assay gravimetric and atomic absorption finish. Samples greater than an upper detection limit (3000 ppb) are reanalyzed using a 1 AT charge. Rockcliff inserted certified blanks and standards in the sample stream to ensure lab integrity. Rockcliff can earn a 51% interest in the Talbot Property from Hudson Bay Exploration and Development Company Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hudbay Minerals Inc. Please refer to the news release dated October 11, 2016 for specific terms of the option agreement. Please visit our website at www.rockcliffcoppercorp.com for additional information. Ken Lapierre P.Geo., President and CEO of Rockcliff, a Qualified Person in accordance with Canadian regulatory requirements as set out in NI 43-101, has read and approved the scientific and technical information that forms the basis for the disclosure contained in this press release. About Rockcliff Copper Corporation Rockcliff is a Canadian resource exploration company focused on the discovery, advancement and consolidation of the highest grade unmined metal deposits in the prolific Flin Flon - Snow Lake (FF-SL) greenstone belt specifically centered on Snow Lake, MB. The Snow Lake Project, totalling in excess of 45,000 collective hectares is located in and around the Snow Lake mining camp and hosts the highest grade unmined NI 43-101 copper deposits (the gold-rich Talbot copper deposit and the Rail copper deposit), the highest grade unmined historical zinc deposits (the Lon zinc deposit, the Bur zinc deposit and the Morgan zinc deposit), includes the highest grade former lode gold producer (Laguna) and a Net Smelter Return Royalty (NSR) on the Tower property which includes the T-1 copper deposit in the FF-SL greenstone belt. Rockcliff also owns the near surface MacBride zinc deposit located north of Snow Lake near Leaf Rapids, Manitoba. Additionally, Rockcliff owns a zinc-silver rich NI 43-101 Resource (the Shihan deposit) in Ontario and a royalty on two gold properties in Colombia, South America. Rockcliff is well funded with approximately CDN$2.5 million in its treasury and no debt. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: This news release includes forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause the actual results of the Company to be materially different from the historical results or from any future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. All statements within, other than statements of historical fact, are to be considered forward looking. Although Rockcliff believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Contacts: Rockcliff Copper Corporation Ken Lapierre, P.Geo President & CEO Cell: (647) 678-3879 klapierre@rockcliffcoppercorp.com CHF Capital Markets Cathy Hume CEO Phone: (416) 868-1079 ext.231 cathy@chfir.com SON, THE NETHERLANDS -- (Marketwired) -- 01/05/17 -- After record growth in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in 2016, Promise Technology returns to Intersec in Dubai with the company's largest and most exciting display ever. Promise will be joined at its booth by 17 ecosystem partners, showcasing countless integration possibilities and new technologies which will be highlighted in the Promise Presentation Theater. Additionally, the strong growth in the MENA region has led to the development of several new solutions on display from Promise, including the upcoming Auryn surveillance storage block, Vess A6120 1U 4-bay server appliance and the Vess A3340 NVR with dual power supply units (PSU). At Intersec 2017, Promise will introduce Vess A6120, a complete 1U 4-bay product line with a management server, analytics server and recording server. Additionally, Promise will introduce Auryn, a new high-capacity surveillance storage block designed to meet the needs of the MENA region which has some of the longest retention times in the world. Auryn is a simple way to deploy a whole storage block and is ideal for deployments requiring a large centralized storage solution which offers an open-platform, simplicity, optimization and the industry's most comprehensive partner ecosystem. Additionally, Promise will debut the Vess A3340 with duals PSUs, a key feature in applications where power supply redundancy is necessary. Promise Presentation Theater Intersec's most popular tradeshow seminar, the Promise Presentation Theater, is back with more exciting topics covered by the industry's top companies and influencers. Intersec attendees are invited to visit the Promise display to learn more about the trends shaping the industry and after every presentation Promise will be giving away a fantastic prize to one of the visitors. Partner Ecosystem 17 companies will be joining the Promise partner showcase at Intersec, including Aimetis, Allied Telesis, Axis, AxxonSoft, Bosch, C-Link, Digifort, Hanhwa Techwin, Intelligent Security Systems (ISS), Ipsotek, IronYun, Milestone, NEC, Securitas, SeeTec, Toshiba and Trassir. The top companies responsible for the most exciting innovations in the security industry in areas such as video management software (VMS), IP cameras, video analytics and hard disk drives will showcase their solutions along with Promise's servers and storage solutions in interactive demonstrations. "Intersec Dubai is a great platform for Promise to showcase why we are the preferred server and storage developer for the video surveillance industry," said John van den Elzen, general manager, Surveillance Business Unit, Promise Technology. "We are really looking forward to working together with all of our partners at Intersec as we will showcase our complete range of Vess NVRs and external storage solutions and also offer a look at some exciting new solutions that we will be launching soon." For more information, please visit Promise at booth SA-C26 at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre during Intersec from January 22 - 24, 2017. Follow Promise Technology on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter for updates throughout the show. About Promise Technology Inc. Promise Technology is a recognized global leader with 29 years of experience in the storage industry. Promise creates innovative solutions tailored to the unique needs of the IoT, Cloud, IT, Rich Media, and Surveillance markets. From personal cloud appliances, to scalable enterprise IT Infrastructure, blazingly fast post production tools, video security solutions and hyperconverged systems, Promise adapts its products to meet the real-world challenges customers face every day. Promise's highly experienced sales and engineering teams are strategically located throughout the Americas, EMEA, and JAPAC regions to provide unparalleled services and support to its customers around the globe. For more information, visit: www.promise.com. Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3095543 MEDIA CONTACTS: The Americas: Dena Jacobson dena@lages.com 949-453-8080 EMEA: Dennis Lamers dennis.lamers@eu.promise.com +31 (0) 40 235 2614 Japan: Ushio Koida ushio.koida@jp.promise.com +81 3 6801-8064 Taiwan: Ya-Ping Hsu ya-ping.hsu@tw.promise.com +886-978695780 WISeKey International Holding Ltd (WIHN.SW) ("WISeKey") today announced that it has made available its Cryptographic Root of Trust (RoT) to IoT manufacturers (OEMs) and service providers (SPs) worldwide allowing them to add the RoT at the IoT hardware level to encrypt the communication and authenticate their devices. WISeKey is already working with many IoT manufactures in China and India and has developed an IoT center of excellency in both countries. WISeKey will be cooperating with local companies participating at these IoT centers of excellence on building points of view, proof of concepts, policies, educational materials including addressing all the distributed ledger capabilities across different Blockchain schemes (public, consortium and private), with industry verticalization and domain specialization (IoT, transactions, messaging, etc.), underpinned by the best underlying technologies from startups, its key partners and from the community. WISeKey is currently offering IoT manufacturers the possibility of deploying large scale IoT ecosystems using its Cryptographic RoT and NFCTrusted technology. This trusted technology integrates wearable technology with secure authentication and identification, in both physical and virtual environments, and empowers IoT and wearable devices to become secure transactional devices. WISeKey has patented this process in the USA as it is currently used by many IoT providers, for more information, click here. The RoT serves as a common trust anchor, which is recognized by the operating system (OS) and applications, to ensure the authenticity, confidentiality and integrity of on-line transactions. With the Cryptographic RoT embedded on the device, the IoT product manufacturers can use code-signing certificates and a cloud-based signature-as-a-service to secure interactions among objects and between objects and people. At the heart of this strategy is the OISTE-WISeKey Cryptographic RoT which has been actively used since 1999 by over 2.6 billion desktop, browsers, mobile devices, SSL certificates and IoT devices. The OISTE WISeKey Cryptographic RoT is a universal technology and a pioneer in the identification of objects. The WISeID NFCTrusted can be embedded in a connected device without requiring device modification or app downloads. WISeKey's NFCTrusted technology is an evolution of the WISeAuthentic solution that WISeKey has already deployed with several leading luxury brands, including over 1 million watches digitally tagged and for which WISeKey recently obtained a US patent (http://goo.gl/ozgOQm). Addressing fast growing IoT market The ability to authenticate and remotely manage millions of networked, automated devices and equipment is becoming pervasive from factory floors, to hospital operating rooms, to residential homes including billions of objects and devices from refrigerators, watches, wearables to wine bottles everything that can connect and communicate via the Internet. The IoT security market is expected to grow from $6.89 billion in 2015 to nearly $29 billion by 2020 according to a report published by Markets and Markets, thus growing at an annual rate of 35%. These massively deployed connected objects are facing regular attacks hence generating a large need for trusted end-to-end cybersecurity solutions. This problem is affecting billions of people and IoT devices worldwide, and manufactures of these devices could be forced or incentivized to spend money to make their devices secure, as regulators might impose liabilities on them. The rapid growth of the number of connected devices is driving the shift from the current traditional mobile payment method to highly secure transactions from wearable devices using trusted communications and authentication technology. WISeKey's Cryptographic RT and NFCTrusted technology enables these wearable devices to connect safely and make secure payments and other transactions. Our computers and smartphones are as secure as they are because there are teams of specialized security experts working in companies like Google, Microsoft, Apple etc. ensuring their customers are protected. These companies spend a lot of time testing their code before it's released, and quickly patch vulnerabilities when they're discovered. Those companies can support such teams because those companies make a huge amount of money, either directly or indirectly, from their software and, in part, compete on its security. This isn't true for IoT hardware manufacturers putting unprotected IoT on the market sold at a much lower margin, and are often built by offshore third parties. The companies involved simply don't have the expertise to make them secure. "The combination of IoT Cybersecurity technologies developed by WISeKey with Artificial Intelligence solutions are a game changer in our industry. This new platform opens up many possibilities for improving the overall security functionalities and creating new business processes by taking advantage of the world of digital identification at the object level, which once combined with big-data allows us to gather and process all available information and generate actionable insights," said Carlos Moreira, Founder and CEO of WISeKey. About WISeKey WISeKey (SIX Swiss Exchange: WIHN) is a leading cybersecurity currently deploying large scale Internet of Things ("IoT") digital identity ecosystems. WISeKey's Swiss based cryptographic Root of Trust ("RoT") integrates wearable technology with secure authentication and identification, in both physical and virtual environments, and empowers IoT and wearable devices to become secure transactional devices. The RoT serves as a common trust anchor, which is recognized by the operating system and applications, to ensure the authenticity, confidentiality and integrity of on-line transactions. With the cryptographic RoT embedded on the device, the IoT product manufacturers can use code-signing certificates and a cloud-based signature as a service to secure interactions among objects and between objects and people. WISeKey has patented this process in the USA as it is currently used by many IoT providers. Interested about WISeKey's latest news subscribe to our Newsletter or visit WISeKey the Investors Corner Disclaimer: This communication expressly or implicitly contains certain forward-looking statements concerning WISeKey International Holding Ltd and its business. Such statements involve certain known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of WISeKey International Holding Ltd to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. WISeKey International Holding Ltd is providing this communication as of this date and does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities, and it does not constitute an offering prospectus within the meaning of article 652a or article 1156 of the Swiss Code of Obligations or a listing prospectus within the meaning of the listing rules of the SIX Swiss Exchange. Investors must rely on their own evaluation of WISeKey and its securities, including the merits and risks involved. Nothing contained herein is, or shall be relied on as, a promise or representation as to the future performance of WISeKey. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170104006612/en/ Contacts: WISeKey Youmna Abisaleh, +41-22-594-3000 Marketing Communications yabisaleh@wisekey.com or Carlos Moreira, Founder CEO info@wisekey.com or Investor Relations (United States) The Equity Group, Inc. Lena Cati, 212-836-9611 lcati@equityny.com DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- This year at INTERSEC Dubai, Hikvision, the world's leading supplier of innovative video surveillance products and solutions, will demonstrate their latest explorations in the development of intelligent data, including the impressive H.265+ video compression technology, unmanned aerial vehicles, facial detection abilities, thermal and 'all-in-one' PanoVu series cameras. "INTERSEC is the first international security trade show of the new year, and we are very excited to use the opportunity to showcase Hikvision's latest innovations to worldwide visitors," said Binson Xu, GM at Hikvision MENA (Middle East and North Africa), "Besides intelligent technologies and products, visitors will also gain a complete introduction of Hikvision end-to-end solutions with exceptional user experience, for example, the Smart Retail solution and Smart Traffic solution to name just a few." Hikvision H.265+ Smart codec Hikvision's self-developed H.265+ compression helps users to get the most value by significantly reducing the bit rate to allow less bandwidth usage without compromising image quality. H.265+ improves the compression ratio with the help of three core technologies, namely: Prediction Encoding, Noise Suppression and Bitrate Control. H.265+ smart codec is planned to be applied to all Hikvision products in the future, while at INTERSEC Dubai, this technology will first be available in Hikvision Easy IP series, EXIR series, and Hikvision DarkFighter series etc. Hikvision wide spectrum of solutions Illustrating that the company is not only a video surveillance manufacturer but a total 'end-to-end' system solutions provider, Hikvision will be showcasing their enhanced vertical solutions, and Pyronix home & business intruder alarms. Specifically, live view OSD (On Screen Display) for transaction integration will be demonstrated for the Hikvision Smart Retail solution. The Smart Retail solution features accurate Business Intelligence reports for SMB owners to understand their business operation status and improve management efficiency accordingly. The Hikvision Smart Traffic & Parking solution will be presented via a simulated scene of road traffic and parking lot, featuring E-police traffic monitoring and ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition). Industrial Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Hikvision continues to push the boundaries of security technology, one example is its UAV product, which will also be showcased at INTERSEC. Hikvision drone technology provides more efficient solutions for places where humans find it hard to access, such as forest fires, high voltage grids and natural disasters. Hikvision is located at booth SA-A12. The Hiring of Oliver Dunn and Jonathan Liu Brings Strategic Growth and Business Development Expertise To EveryMundo MIAMI, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --EveryMundo, a leading provider of performance marketing solutions for the global airline industry, continues its global expansion with the appointment of two business directors to lead the growth of its business development and Asia-Pacific (APAC) teams. Oliver Dunn joins EveryMundo as Director of Business Development in Miami, while Jonathan Liu is the new Managing Director for the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, based in Hong Kong. With headquarters in the US and a presence in both Latin America and Europe, Dunn and Liu join the performance marketing solutions provider as it continues to grow and offer its products and services to the global airline market. With worldwide digital travel sales expected to grow 11.5% to $629.81 Billion by the end of 2017, EveryMundo is expanding its global presence to provide more airlines with marketing solutions and services. EveryMundo's offerings helps airlines increase their marketing effectiveness and agility without putting a strain on resources and ultimately empowers them to change the ways in which they do business. Primed for Growth Dunn brings to EveryMundo more than a decade of experience in business development and revenue growth through sales management and marketing initiatives. Before joining EveryMundo, he held a Sales Leadership role at Intelligent Medical Objects (IMO), helping the medical software company grow into a $50 million-a-year business. "I am thrilled to bring my years of software experience to EveryMundo in support of digital marketing strategies and solution platforms that help airlines boost their digital power," said Dunn. Asian Market Expansion Liu's career spans search engine optimization and marketing, paid search and online advertising management for such companies as Yahoo!, Expedia, and Hotels.com's Asia brand. Earlier in his career, Liu founded and managed his own digital marketing agency, specializing in media buying and optimization, web development and social media. "With digital travel sales in the APAC region estimated to grow more than 21% within the next year, the need has never been greater for airlines to increase their digital power, drive direct-channel growth and own their customers," said Liu. "I look forward to helping airlines take back control of the online booking channel." Since its launch in 2006, EveryMundo has built and managed global campaigns for more than 20 carriers around the world through advanced digital marketing technology products and services in over 25 languages and over 60 countries. Dunn and Liu will provide the company with even deeper expertise as it deploys integrated performance marketing solutions for airlines on a global scale. For more information about EveryMundo or to interview Dunn or Liu, please contact EveryMundo directly at marketing@everymundo.com. About EveryMundo Founded in 2006, EveryMundo provides the travel industry's most advanced solutions for optimizing the direct online booking channel. The Company's flagship technology airTRFX provides airlines with the sophisticated online infrastructure needed to effectively compete with online travel agencies (OTAs): a page for every destination, route or travel product, in every language and every country, on any device. Leveraging these tools and strategies, numerous global clients speaking more than 25 different languages to customers in over 60 countries have achieved improved direct channel conversions, revenue and customer acquisition. Visit everymundo.com. Media Contact Vanessa Horwell, ThinkInk +1.305.749.5342 x 232 vhorwell@thinkinkpr.com Regulatory News: CARBIOS (Paris:ALCRB) (NYSE Alternext in Paris: ALCRB), an innovative green chemistry company specializing in enzymatic bioprocesses applied to plastic and textile polymers, reports today about the liquidity contract entrusted to the brokerage firm Gilbert Dupont. As of December 31, 2016, the following assets appeared on the liquidity account: Number of shares: 14,797 - Cash balance of the liquidity account: 40,735.94 For the record, as of the half-year report on June 30, 2016, the following assets appeared on the liquidity account: Number of shares: 11,312 - Cash balance of the liquidity account: 21,467.63 About CARBIOS: CARBIOS is a young, innovative green chemistry company, whose mission is to find biological solutions to the environmental and sustainable development issues faced by industrial businesses today. CARBIOS acquired the rights to research that was conducted over a number of years by various public and private sector laboratories. By leveraging the unique properties of biological catalysts (enzymes), it has used this research as the foundation for developing innovative industrial bioprocesses that optimize the technical, economic and environmental performance of polymers (thermoplastic materials and synthetic or food-based fibers). The company has focused its efforts on a strategic application sector: plastics. CARBIOS' growth strategy is based on a clear business model of industrial value creation that targets attractive markets, develops innovative and competitive bioprocesses and licenses them to major industrial stakeholders for commercialization. CARBIOS benefits from the financial support of the leading European venture capital firm Truffle Capital. CARBIOS was founded in 2011 and has been funded, since its inception, by funds managed by the Holding Incubatrice Chimie Verte fund. CARBIOS was granted the label "Young Innovative Company" by Bpifrance (former OSEO) and is eligible for investments by private equity mutual funds (FCPIs). For more information, please visit www.carbios.fr CARBIOS is eligible for the PEA-PME, a government program allowing French residents investing in SMEs to benefit from income tax rebates. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170104005122/en/ Contacts: CARBIOS Benjamin Audebert, +33 (0)4 73 86 51 76 Investor Relations contact@carbios.fr or ALIZE RP Caroline Carmagnol Wendy Rigal Press Relations +33 (0)1 44 54 36 66 +33 (0)6 48 82 18 94 carbios@alizerp.com STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Jan 05, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Cantargia AB's ("Cantargia") CEO, Goran Forsberg, will be giving a presentation of the company at the Biotech Showcase conference in San Francisco, USA on 9 January at 4 p.m. local time. The presentation will focus on the company's CAN04 product candidate for non-small cell lung cancer and pancreatic cancer and will also include an introduction to Cantargia's new CANxx project for autoimmune/inflammatory diseases. Biotech Showcase is an investor and partner conference which gives small and medium-sized biotech companies the opportunity to present themselves and meet investors and commercial partners within the area of biopharmaceuticals. The conference attracts investors and industry experts from across the whole world and this year the organisers expect over 3,000 visitors to the event in San Francisco, USA. Date and time: 9-11 January 2017 Place: Hilton, Union Square, San Francisco, USA Information: https://ebdgroup.knect365.com/biotech-showcase/ Video presentations and interviews available Cantargia's presentation can be followed at: https://event.webcasts.com/viewer/event.jsp?ei=1130602 All presentations that are recorded on camera or broadcasted live will be available on Cantargia's website, www.cantargia.com. Goran Forsberg presented Cantargia at the Inv$tival Showcase, which was organised by Biotech and Money in collaboration with Jefferies in London on 18 November 2016. The interview that was made at the time will be available at http://www.pharmatelevision.com/PTVGUide.aspx from 6 January 2017 and thereafter on the company's website. For further information, please contact Goran Forsberg, CEO Telephone: +46 (0)46-275 62 60 E-mail: goran.forsberg@cantargia.com Certified Adviser: Sedermera Fondkommission This constitutes information that Cantargia is required to publish under the EU's Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication through the above contact person on 5 January 2017, at 8:30 a.m. CONTACT: This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com http://news.cision.com/cantargia-ab/r/cantargia-s-research-and-development-to-be-presented-at-biotech-showcase-in-san-francisco-on-9-janua,c2160687 The following files are available for download: NEWS RELEASE 5 January 2017 FINSBURY GROWTH & INCOME TRUST PLC (the "Company") Notice of Annual General Meeting - Resolution 15 Please note that resolution 15 as set out within the Notice of the Company's Annual General Meeting dated 13 December 2016 correctly states: General Meetings 15. THAT any General Meeting of the Company (other than the Annual General Meeting of the Company) shall be called by notice of at least 14 clear days provided that the authority shall expire on the conclusion of the next Annual General Meeting of the Company, or, if earlier, on the expiry 15 months from the date of the passing of this resolution. The wording set out in the proxy form and form of direction should be disregarded with respect to this resolution. The Company's annual report was posted to shareholders on Tuesday, 20 December 2016. Members of the public may obtain copies from Frostrow Capital LLP. 25 Southampton Buildings, London WC2A 1AL or from the Company's website at: www.finsburygt.com. The Company's annual report and financial statements for the year ended 30 September 2016 has been submitted to the UK Listing Authority, and is available for inspection on the National Storage Mechanism (NSM): http://www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/NSM - end - information please contact: Victoria Hale, Frostrow Capital LLP Company Secretary Telephone 020 3 170 8732 BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - At 4:30 am ET Thursday, Markit is slated to release U.K. services PMI data. Economists forecast the index to drop to 54.7 in December from 55.2 in November. Ahead of the data, the pound slipped against its major counterparts. The pound was valued at 1.2283 against the greenback, 143.05 against the yen, 0.8558 against the euro and 1.2522 against the Swiss franc as of 4:25 am ET. 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. HKTDC Communication and Public Affairs Department Joe Kainz Tel: +852 2584 4216 Email: joe.kainz@hktdc.org HONG KONG, Jan 5, 2017 - (ACN Newswire) - Entering its 10th edition, the Asian Financial Forum (AFF), co-organised by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), will be held on 16 and 17 January at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC). Under the theme of "Asia: Driving Change, Innovation and Connectivity", the forum will be the first in a series of events marking the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the HKSAR. Some 2,800 financial and business leaders, policymakers, investors and high net-worth individuals from around the world are expected to participate.Speaking at today's press conference, Helen Wong, Chairperson of the AFF Steering Committee and Group General Manager and Chief Executive, Greater China, The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited said: "Over the last decade, Hong Kong has made remarkable progress to strengthen its leading position as an international financial centre. In a rapidly evolving economic environment, Hong Kong must stay competitive in order to achieve sustainable growth. Not only should the city remain outward looking, but it should also embrace innovation and reinforce connectivity with other regions."HKTDC Acting Executive Director Raymond Yip said: "This year's AFF will not only explore long-standing issues related to policy trends and development in the global economy, China opportunities, and ASEAN investment prospects, it will also discuss emerging industry-specific issues including payment technology and cyber security, insurance and innovation, green finance, infrastructure financing and the Belt and Road Initiative. We hope that the participants can gain insights on global economic trends as well as the latest development in various financial sectors."Mohamed A El-Erian and Raghuram Rajan to analyse the new economic landscapeKeynote luncheons featuring world-renowned speakers have always been a highlight of the AFF. This year, Dr Mohamed A El-Erian, Chief Economic Advisor at Allianz and Chair of US President Barack Obama's Global Development Council will be the keynote luncheon speaker on 16 January, where he will analyse the impact of the current political and economic situation on global markets, as well as investment risks and opportunities in the coming year. He will also take part in a separate dialogue later in the day for more in-depth exchanges with AFF participants on a variety of topical issues. The keynote luncheon speaker on 17 January will be Dr Raghuram Rajan, Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago the Booth School and previously the 23rd Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. Dr Rajan will share his insights on how central banks around the world formulate monetary policies in response to the new economic trends as well as how investors can navigate the evolving policy landscape, particularly in emerging markets.Global policymakers to discuss incentives and regulatory measuresThe challenges facing the global economy have highlighted the importance of effective and sustainable fiscal and monetary policy. The Plenary Session of AFF 2017, chaired by Prof KC Chan, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury of the HKSAR Government, and joined by Mihaly Varga, Minister for National Economy of Hungary, Simon Kirby, Economic Secretary to the Treasury (City Minister), United Kingdom, Mohammad Khazaee, Vice Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance of Iran and President of the Organization for Investment, Economic and Technical Assistance of Iran (OIETAI) and Kiatchai Sophastienphong, Vice Minister for Finance, Thailand, will explore Asia's prospects as well as the implications for sustainable global economic development.In the Policy Dialogue session, Panel Chair Ashley Ian Alder, Chief Executive Officer of Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission, along with Klaus Regling, Managing Director, European Stability Mechanism, Saeb Eigner, Chairman, Dubai Financial Services Authority, Andrea Enria, Chairperson, European Banking Authority, Mirza Adityaswara, Senior Deputy Governor, Bank Indonesia, Ksenia Yudaeva, First Deputy Governor of the Bank of Russia, and Jeong Eun-bo, Vice Chairman of Financial Services Commission, Korea, will discuss how policymakers and regulators can continue to facilitate sustainable economic growth in evolving markets while maintaining financial stability and discipline.Financial and business leaders to share market insightsPanel discussions on a number of hot-button issues for the financial and investment community, such as the global economy, prospects for ASEAN, China opportunities and payment technology and cyber security, will also be arranged. Speakers in the Panel Discussion on Global Economy include Raymond L Conner, Vice Chairman, The Boeing Company, Ding Xuedong, Chairman & CEO, China Investment Corporation, Sung-Soo Eun, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer, Korea Investment Corporation, and Christian Noyer, Honorary Governor, Banque de France. They will share their views on various global economic and investment prospects. A separate dialogue will be arranged for Norihiro Takahashi, President, Government Pension Investment Fund, Japan (GPIF), to share insights into GPIF's evolving investment strategies and its view of the Japan market and beyond.Exploring opportunities in Fintech, green finance and the Belt and RoadThe Chinese mainland continues to be one of the fastest-growing major economies, providing ample opportunity for investors from around the world. In the Panel Discussion on China Opportunities, Raymund Chao, Greater China Chairman, PwC, Lai Xiaomin, Chairman, China Huarong Asset Management Co. Ltd, Ning Gaoning, Chairman, Sinochem Group, and Wang Hongzhang, Chairman and Executive Director, China Construction Bank Corporation, will examine the outlook for the Chinese mainland economy, and identify new priority sectors with the greatest potential.ASEAN also remains a region of great interest to the global financial and business communities. Chairul Tanjung, Founder and Chairman, CT Corp and Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Ayala Corporation will join other experts to examine how this integrated regional market can navigate challenges to usher a new wave of trade and investment opportunities.Sponsored by Hong Kong Financial Services Development Council, the Breakfast Panel on 17 January will analyse Hong Kong's position in the New World Order. During the session, Prof Frederick Ma, Chairman, MTR Corporation Ltd, will discuss Hong Kong's role in the Belt and Road Initiative; Tim Freshwater, Chairman, Goldman Sachs Asia Bank Ltd, will share his views on how Hong Kong can develop into a regional hub for green finance; and Lei Zhang, Founder, Chairman & CEO of Hillhouse Capital Management Group, will explain how Hong Kong can seize opportunities related to rise of Fintech.A series of thematic workshops will also be organised to examine key topics including green finance, China-India economic partnership, private wealth management, and innovation in the insurance industry.Illustration of infrastructure financing prospects by IFFOGlobal attention is focusing on infrastructure investment and financing, with further impetus given by the Belt and Road Initiative. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority's Infrastructure Financing Facilitation Office (IFFO) will organise a workshop on Day Two morning, inviting leaders from Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, CLP Group, HSBC, Macquarie Group, etc. to discuss the opportunities and challenges and Hong Kong's roles in infrastructure financing in Asia. IFFO will organise an event for representatives of emerging economies such as Bangladesh, Hungary, Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkey to promote their investment environment and infrastructure financing opportunities.Investment and networking opportunities abound at the AFFThe Global Investment Summit will return with a keynote address by International Monetary Fund Deputy Managing Director Tao Zhang on the global investment outlook, followed by panel sessions involving representatives from Asian Development Bank, China-ASEAN Investment Cooperation Fund, investment banks and credit rating agencies to explore investment trends and opportunities in ASEAN and the Middle East. AFF participants can also explore worldwide investment opportunities and projects at the Global Investment Zone through 13 participating investment agencies from countries such as Germany, Iran, Israel, Poland, South Africa, the US and Vietnam.Meanwhile, following last year's successful arrangement of more than 570 meetings involving 290 investment projects from 25 countries and regions, the AFF Deal Flow Matchmaking Session, co-organised by the HKTDC and the Hong Kong Venture Capital and Private Equity Association, will feature pre-arranged deal sourcing and matchmaking meetings for project owners, private equity firms, investors, high net-worth individuals, intermediaries and professional services providers. Industry briefings, networking opportunities and project presentations focusing on food and agriculture, Fintech, cleantech & manufacturing technology and infrastructure investment will also be organised, while representatives from financial institutions, accounting firms, as well as legal and commercial consultants will be on hand to provide free consultation services at the Financial and Professional Advisory Services Zone.Promoting Hong Kong's financial servicesThe AFF is the flagship event of the International Financial Week, a comprehensive programme of activities designed to facilitate greater exchange of ideas and business opportunities among global finance and business professionals. Opening on 16 January, a series of events will be held to showcase Hong Kong's competitive edge in financial services, covering such topical themes as cross-border market access, private equity and alternative investment.Asian Financial Forum Website: http://www.asianfinancialforum.comInternational Financial Week Website: http://www.internationalfinancialweek.comPodcast interview with Dr Raghuram Rajan: http://www.hktdc.com/info/podcast/v/en/en/1X04CU5D*The programme is subject to change. Please visit the forum website for details.Photo download: http://bit.ly/2idA6qBMedia Registration:Media representatives wishing to cover the event may register on-site with their business cards and/or media identification.To view press releases in Chinese, please visit http://mediaroom.hktdc.com/tcAbout HKTDCEstablished in 1966, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) is a statutory body dedicated to creating opportunities for Hong Kong's businesses. With more than 40 offices globally, including 13 on the Chinese mainland, the HKTDC promotes Hong Kong as a platform for doing business with China, Asia and the world. With 50 years of experience, the HKTDC organises international exhibitions, conferences and business missions to provide companies, particularly SMEs, with business opportunities on the mainland and in international markets, while providing information via trade publications, research reports and digital channels including the media room. For more information, please visit: www.hktdc.com/aboutus. Follow us on Google+, Twitter @hktdc, LinkedIn.Google+: https://plus.google.com/+hktdcTwitter: http://www.twitter.com/hktdcLinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/hong-kong-trade-development-councilSource: HKTDCContact:Copyright 2017 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved. Struggling with an Addiction? Whether you're struggling with an addiction, becoming sober, or further along your recovery journey, learning the facts about addiction can be an valuable step in the process. Get started here. Intelsat S.A. (NYSE: I), operator of the world's first Globalized Network, powered by its leading satellite backbone, today announced the results to-date for the private offer to exchange (the "Exchange Offer") certain outstanding notes issued by Intelsat (Luxembourg) S.A. ("Intelsat Luxembourg"), as well as the anticipated early settlement date for the Exchange Offer of January 6, 2017. As detailed in an earlier press release issued by Intelsat S.A. on December 20, 2016, Intelsat Luxembourg is offering to exchange its 6.75% Senior Notes due 2018 (the "2018 Notes") held by Eligible Holders (as defined below) for newly issued 12.50% Senior Notes due 2024 of Intelsat Luxembourg (the "2024 Notes"), subject to the terms and conditions set forth in the confidential offering memorandum (the "Offering Memorandum") relating to the Exchange Offer. According to Global Bondholder Services Corporation, the exchange agent and information agent for the Exchange Offer (the "Information and Exchange Agent"), tenders from holders of approximately $403.3 million, or 80.7%, of the aggregate principal amount of outstanding 2018 Notes were validly received and not validly withdrawn in the Exchange Offer as of 11:59 p.m., New York City time, on January 4, 2017 (the "Early Delivery Time"). Intelsat Luxembourg expects that all of the 2018 Notes that were validly tendered and not validly withdrawn in the Exchange Offer prior to the Early Delivery Time will be purchased by Intelsat Luxembourg on January 6, 2017 (the "Early Settlement Date"). Intelsat Luxembourg expects that the conditions to the Exchange Offer will be satisfied or waived as of the Early Settlement Date. Pursuant to its terms, the Exchange Offer will remain open until 11:59 p.m., New York City time, on January 19, 2017, unless extended or earlier terminated by Intelsat Luxembourg (such time, the "Expiration Time"). To the extent any 2018 Notes are accepted for exchange following the Early Delivery Time, the Exchange Offer will be finally settled following the Expiration Time (the "Final Settlement Date"), which is currently expected to be January 20, 2017. The withdrawal deadline has passed, and holders of 2018 Notes may no longer withdraw 2018 Notes tendered in the Exchange Offer. For each $1,000 principal amount of 2018 Notes which were validly tendered at or before the Early Delivery Time and not validly withdrawn and which are accepted for exchange, Eligible Holders of 2018 Notes will receive $1,000 principal amount of 2024 Notes. Eligible Holders whose 2018 Notes are accepted for exchange will also receive a cash payment equal to the accrued and unpaid interest in respect of such 2018 Notes from December 1, 2016, which is the most recent payment date, to, but excluding, the Early Settlement Date. 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. The 2024 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 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 Notes under the Securities Act or the securities laws of any other jurisdiction. The 2024 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 Notes to be issued pursuant to the Exchange Offer are being offered and issued, only (a) in the United States to holders of 2018 Notes who are "qualified institutional buyers" (as defined in Rule 144A under the Securities Act), (b) in the United States to holders of 2018 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 Notes who are persons other than U.S. persons in reliance upon Regulation S under the Securities Act. The holders of 2018 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"). Questions regarding the Exchange Offer may be directed to Intelsat Luxembourg at the following email address: Attn: Investor Relations, Email: investor.relations@intelsat.com. The complete terms and conditions of the Exchange Offer, as well as the terms of the 2024 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 Notes who wish to receive a copy of the eligibility letter for the Exchange Offer may contact Global Bondholder Services Corporation 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 Notes. Eligible Holders must make their own decision as to whether or not to tender their 2018 Notes, as well as with respect to the principal amount of the 2018 Notes to tender. The Exchange Offer is not being made to any holders of 2018 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, 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 reports 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. 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/20170105005700/en/ Contacts: Intelsat Dianne VanBeber Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications +1 703-559-7406 dianne.vanbeber@intelsat.com or Michele Loguidice Director, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications +1 703-559-7372 michele.loguidice@intelsat.com OTTAWA, ON -- (Marketwired) -- 01/05/17 -- Klipfolio, a provider of cloud business dashboards, today announced that it received $12 million (Cdn) in a Series B funding. This funding round was led by OMERS Ventures and included all the investors from Klipfolio's 2015 Series A and 2014 seed rounds, bringing their total funding to date to $19.4 million. Founded in 2001 as a bootstrapped provider of desktop dashboard widgets, Klipfolio has grown dramatically since re-launching as a cloud-based dashboard provider in 2011. Since receiving its first round of funding, the company's customer base has doubled each year, now serving more than 7,000 customers globally. The company has a best-in-class net retention rate of rate of 100.3, and is delivering tens of thousands of real-time dashboards to customers. "I'm proud of Klipfolio's rapid growth, but more importantly, what that growth indicates -- that businesses are embracing real-time monitoring. Businesses who monitor their performance in real-time, are more in control than those who rely on monthly or quarterly reports," says Allan Wille, Klipfolio's President and CEO. "This new funding will allow us to further invest in the product, make it easier to build dashboards for our customers, provide new mobile experiences, and deliver hundreds of pre-built visualizations and dashboards." In the past year, Klipfolio has achieved a number of important milestones: The number of full-time Klipfolio employees has grown to 68 and the company expanded the Ottawa office footprint 1860 sf to accommodate that growth. Klipfolio dashboards collectively refresh more than 2.6 billion times per year, reflecting their use in real time business operations. Klipfolio customers access more than half a million different data sources and run more than 25 billion formula executions annually. Klipfolio's customers created more than 54,000 dashboards, with more than 36 million dashboard views in 2016. More than 276K Klips were created to help customers track their metrics. "Klipfolio serves an important role in the market, offering businesses of all sizes access to real-time data -- something that was previously readily available to just 'the big guys' with much larger resources," said Damien Steel, OMERS Ventures. "Their ability to make critical data accessible in a user-friendly, affordable platform, empowers even the smallest of businesses to make smart, data-driven decisions." In addition to OMERS Ventures, the participating investors were: BDC Capital, Mistral Venture Partners, and leading early-stage investor groups from both Canada and the United States including Fundfire (Ottawa), BOLDstart Ventures (New York), Acadia Woods (New York), and Converge Venture Partners (Boston). About OMERS Ventures OMERS Ventures (Twitter: @OMERSVentures) is the venture capital investment arm of OMERS, one of Canada's largest pension funds with over $72 billion in net assets. OMERS Ventures is a multi-stage investor in growth-oriented, disruptive technology companies across North America. We seek like-minded partners with a shared vision of building a vibrant and successful knowledge economy. www.omersventures.com About Klipfolio Klipfolio's mission is to make it fast, easy and affordable ($24/for 5 users/month) for business users to build and share real-time dashboards -- enabling them to move from quarterly reflective management to continual performance optimization. Klipfolio has more than 7000 customers including marketing agencies, financial services, healthcare, consumer goods and not-for-profits organizations. Find out more at klipfolio.com or follow us on twitter.com/klipfolio Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3095848 Media Contact: Bobbie Carlton Email Contact 781-718-7619 HOUSTON, TX -- (Marketwired) -- 01/05/17 -- Brown Technical Media Corp., a division of Panther Biotechnology (OTC PINK: PBYA), is pleased to announce today that it has executed an exclusive distribution and publishing agreement with The Training Center of Air Conditioning and Heating, (thetrainingcenterofairconditioningandheating.com). This transaction further expands Brown's strategy to utilize virtual reality in the eLearning segment of its business. Brown is disrupting the technical vocations training and certification industry by creating the first full service training and career advancement brand in the technical fields and this transaction signifies our launch to disrupt the HVAC space. Brown is replacing traditional, decades-old training methodologies by modernizing learning techniques with virtual reality technology. Brown is introducing virtual reality environment (VRE) based training into technical skill trades and we believe we may prove as big an impact in these fields that VREs now have in the Medicine, Healthcare, Science and Engineering professions. According to Goldman Sachs, the market for VRE software is estimated to be $35 billion by 2025. Currently, HVAC service technicians are educated and trained via in person instructional classrooms and work labs. Brown has invested significant resources in replicating the Chris Walters educational process for online delivery. A video production team has been working with Mr. Walters for the past four months creating a variety of HVAC eLearning products including a full HVAC technician course that includes the simulation of the hands on experience of the lab and physical school itself. In addition, our publishing team has been working to create a full handbook to accompany the online course. "Chris Walters is a world class technician with decades of field experience turned master instructor of the HVAC industry. His unique teaching style produces technicians who are sought after by employers in the Houston metro market," exclaimed Jocynda Rodriguez, Lead Editor of Brown Publications HVAC. "Our innovation could not have come at a more opportune time," stated Evan Levine, Chief Executive Officer of Panther. "Currently, one third of all nationally skilled tradesmen are over fifty-five years of age and retiring at an accelerated rate and unfortunately there are not enough skilled tradesman to replace them." "Portable, eLearning based VRE's can reach out to a larger trainee population in a cost-effective manner while providing new learning experiences that are far more price competitive to deliver," stated Noah Davis, President and Chief Operating Officer of Panther. "Students who struggle to pass their respective state level exams to become a licensed tech will find VREs as an attractive, learning assist tool given their rich, interactive environment. Brown will continue to upgrade the vocational training vertical with proven technology for their intended applications." The e-learning course will be highlighted by a 3D virtual reality section of the course that will allow students to experience the lab in their home. This course will be the first of its kind in the HVAC vocational eLearning space. Brown is also releasing its newest website dedicated to HVAC contractors and technicians. The website will have a full array of education and certification products including the release of BTP's own handbook and course. The website is hvac.browntechnical.org. About Brown Technical Media Corp. Brown Technical Media Corp. is a leading online aggregator of compliance, career advancement and training content for tradesman and technical experts in a wide variety of professions. Brown's mission is to disrupt and defragment the many disparate companies in the eLearning, standards and codes market place, which currently is collectively valued at over $100 billion globally and growing. Brown is changing the landscape for small and medium size businesses by providing consistent, high quality training materials usually only available to enterprise level companies. Brown's strategy is to both grow its current revenue base organically while concurrently acquiring synergistic companies in the multiple industries that Brown is currently servicing. About Panther Biotechnology Inc. Panther Biotechnology, Inc. has been an entity focused on the acquisition and development of enhanced therapeutics for the treatment of neoplastic, autoimmune and antiviral disorders for the last two years. Panther has recently merged with Brown Technical Media Corp. Panther will continue its regulatory effort with the goal of seeking a partner or financing for its anticipated phase 2a study of Transferrin Doxorubicin and will focus its efforts on growing its revenues in the eLearning, standards and codes industries via both organic growth and acquisitions. Investor Contact: Evan Levine Chief Executive Officer 888 Prospect Street Suite #200 La Jolla, CA 92037 858-263-2744 Business Relations Contact: Noah Davis President and Chief Operating Officer 1517 San Jacinto Street Houston, TX 77002 713-652-3937 TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 01/05/17 -- All amounts are in United States dollars, unless otherwise stated. Alamos Gold Inc. (TSX: AGI)(NYSE: AGI) ("Alamos" or the "Company") today reported it has received the Forestry Permits required for the development of its Kirazli gold project from the Forestry General Directorate in Turkey. "Kirazli will be low cost to build and operate. It is our highest return project and will be a significant source of free cash flow in the years ahead. This represents a significant breakthrough for the project," said John A. McCluskey, President and Chief Executive Officer. With the Environmental Impact Study and Forestry Permits for Kirazli approved by the federal government, the Company is pursuing the GSM (Business Opening and Operation) permit which is granted by the Canakkale Governorship. Feasibility studies to update the economics for both Kirazli and Agi Dagi, as outlined in the positive 2012 pre-feasibility study, are nearing completion. A preliminary economic assessment is also being conducted on the higher grade Camyurt project. A number of significant changes including weakness in the Turkish Lira and lower diesel prices since 2012 are expected to positively impact what were already attractive project economics. About Alamos Alamos is a Canadian-based intermediate gold producer with diversified production from three operating mines in North America. This includes the Young-Davidson mine in northern Ontario, Canada and the Mulatos and El Chanate mines in Sonora State, Mexico. Additionally, the Company has a significant portfolio of development stage projects in Mexico, Turkey, Canada and the United States. Alamos employs more than 1,300 people and is committed to the highest standards of sustainable development. The Company's shares are traded on the TSX and NYSE under the symbol "AGI". The TSX and NYSE have not reviewed and do not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Cautionary Note This News Release includes certain "forward-looking statements". All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this release, including without limitation statements regarding expectations of future permitting timelines, outcomes of economic studies, development and/or production timelines or other future plans and objectives of Alamos, are forward-looking statements that involve various risks and uncertainties and are based on forecasts of future operational or financial results, estimates of amounts not yet determinable and assumptions of management. Any statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance (often, but not always, using words or phrases such as "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", "plans", "estimates" or "intends", or stating that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events or results to differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from Alamos' expectations include, among others, ongoing permitting requirements, risks related to our Turkish projects and operations, the actual results of current exploration activities, conclusions of economic evaluations and changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined as well as future prices of gold, as well as those factors discussed in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in Alamos' Annual Information Form and other disclosures of "Rick Factors" by Alamos, available on SEDAR and EDGAR. Although Alamos has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Contacts: Alamos Gold Inc. Scott K. Parsons Vice President, Investor Relations (416) 368-9932 x 5439 www.alamosgold.com NEUHAUSEN, SWITZERLAND -- (Marketwired) -- 01/05/17 -- Tyco (www.tyco.com and www.tycoretailsolutions.com), a leading provider of retail performance and security solutions, today announced that Tyco Fire & Security GmbH (TFSG), has obtained two injunctions rendered by the Court in Dusseldorf, Germany to prevent the importation to and distribution in Germany of certain acousto-magnetic (AM) electronic article surveillance (EAS) labels from Century Retail Europe B.V. (Century Europe) and ReTec Wandlitz GmbH (ReTec) in relation to European Patent No. 0,922,274. The injunction orders against Century Europe and ReTec are both related to AM labels designed to prevent theft in retail stores by triggering an alarm when live labels pass through Tyco's Sensormatic brand AM electronic article surveillance (EAS) systems. Both defendants, Century Europe and ReTec, acknowledged the preliminary court orders as final and binding rulings having the same effect as a final judgment. The patent family of European Patent No. 0,922,274 is in force in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, United Kingdom, France, China, and Japan. In Foshan, China, Tyco has filed a lawsuit against Ningbo Signatronic Technologies for the manufacturing and sale of certain labels. This lawsuit is currently pending a decision from the Court. Additionally, Tyco has a significant patent portfolio which is enforced worldwide. Bjoern Petersen, President of Tyco Retail Solutions, further explained the company's position: "Tyco vigorously protects its intellectual property rights and its leading Sensormatic brand. Our genuine Sensormatic AM labels are an integral part of Sensormatic anti-shoplifting systems, which retailers have trusted for 50 years. Consistently high label quality is required to ensure effective theft deterrence at the storefront, to assure proper deactivation at the point of sale, and to provide a positive store experience for honest shoppers. Sensormatic AM labels were designed for optimal performance with our detection and deactivation systems. Introducing non-Sensormatic labels may compromise the performance of and associated loyalty to our Sensormatic brand." Tyco pioneered the EAS anti-shoplifting industry through its Sensormatic brand and continues to invest significant research and development resources to innovate these products. More than five billion products are effectively protected by Sensormatic AM labels each year. Tyco also provides a complete portfolio of high-technology Sensormatic security and store performance solutions that allow retailers to better manage their inventories, shopper activity, employees and facilities. Read more about Tyco and its Sensormatic EAS portfolio. About Tyco Retail Solutions Tyco Retail Solutions, part of Johnson Controls, is a leading provider of analytics-based Loss Prevention, Inventory Intelligence and Traffic Insights. Tyco's solutions provide real-time visibility and predictive analytics to help retailers maximize business outcomes and enhance the customer experience in a digitally-driven shopping world. With over 1.5 million data collection devices in the retail marketplace, Tyco captures 40+ billion shopper visits annually to empower retailers with actionable insights to drive better operational performance. Worldwide, Tyco helps protect 80% of the world's top 200 retail chains with its premier Sensormatic, ShopperTrak and TrueVUE brands, as well as a full suite of premium safety and security solutions. For more information, please visit TycoRetailSolutions.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and our YouTube channel. TYCO and SENSORMATIC are marks and/or registered marks. Unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3095736 Media Contact: Anne Lines Matter Communications +1 (978) 518 - 4512 Email Contact GREENWOOD VILLAGE, CO -- (Marketwired) -- 01/05/17 -- CannaGrow Holdings, Inc. (OTC PINK: CGRW), A Liaison and Consultant providing turnkey solutions to licensed growers announces the expansion of production capacity with the initiation of construction of three (3) additional Ranger Series 2000 Greenhouses from the International Greenhouse Company (IGC) (http://www.igcusa.com/) for Category One Botanicals, LLC, the licensed grower, at the Colorado Buffalo Ranch Facility I in Huerfano County, Colorado. Delmar Janovec, CEO, stated, "I am pleased to announce that this week our colleagues at Butte Valley Construction moved their heavy equipment onto the grounds of Colorado Buffalo Ranch Facility I to commence the grading and compacting of the foundations for three (3) new Ranger Series 2000 Greenhouses. With the completion of foundations in the coming weeks, weather permitting, we will begin work with the General Contractor, Latcon Corp., to install the steel side posts followed by the erection of the Greenhouse structures. The additional 8,640 square feet of greenhouse space will be operational ahead of the 2017 seasonal production schedule currently in progress under the leadership of the CannaGrow Staffing Program and Licensed Grower, Category One Botanicals, LLC. CannaGrow Holdings has made significant strides over the last 12 months at Colorado Buffalo Ranch Facility I with the drilling and certification of a commercial water well, the grading of barren land, and the construction of an existing 15,000-square foot Cannabis Cultivation Facility. The current facility under operational management by the Company includes a 3,300 square foot Nexus Light Deprivation Greenhouse for perpetual production and 8,640-square feet of Ranger Series 2000 Climate Controlled Greenhouses. The additional three (3) Ranger Greenhouses now under construction will provide an additional 8,640 square feet of production capacity bringing the total area of production capabilities to 20,580 sq. ft. A state-of-the-art water supply and conditioning system has been installed, supporting automated drip irrigation in all grow areas and floor heating in the Nexus Greenhouse. The 3,200-square foot Steel "Head House" Building serves as the heart of the operation, with a warehouse, drying and curing rooms, and the Mother Plant Room that supports the massive clone and seed-based propagation required to maintain the steady flow of transplants needed to fill production areas on a rotating basis. For additional information about the IGC Ranger Series 2000 Climate Controlled Greenhouses, please visit our Blog Posts at http://www.cannagrowholdings.com/cannagrow-blog/rangergreenhouses." CannaGrow Holdings, Inc., the Liaison and Representative for NuGro Industries, will continue in its capacity of providing oversight as the Facilities Manager, working with the State/County Agencies and Category One Botanicals, LLC, the Licensed Grower for the facilities. The completion of this project will now provide the company the basis to begin generating revenues from Licensed Growers subleasing the Turnkey facilities being built to the specifications of CannaGrow COO, Dr. John P. Janovec, and Consultant, Jason Wells. About CannaGrow Holdings, Inc.: CannaGrow Holdings, Inc. has entered the Medical/Recreational Cannabis Industry as a Lessor, Liaison, and Consultant to licensed Growers providing them with turnkey Growing Facilities in the State of Colorado. The Company intends to expand this business model within this industry as business opportunities evolve whereby providing for the highest return to its shareholders. CannaGrow Holdings, Inc. does not and will not, until such time as Federal law allows, grow, harvest, distribute or sell marijuana or any substance that violates the laws of the United States of America. CannaGrow Holdings, Inc. encourages the public to read the above information in conjunction with its year-end statement for December 31, 2015, and the quarterly statements filed in calendar year 2016, at: www.otcmarkets.com. The information contained in this press release may include forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements usually contain the words "may," "could," "possibly," "feel," "estimate," "anticipate," "believe," "expect," or similar expressions that involve risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties include the Company's uncertain profitability, need for significant capital, uncertainty concerning market acceptance of its services, competition, limited service facilities, dependence on technological developments and protection of its intellectual property. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those discussed herein. CONTACT: CannaGrow Holdings, Inc. Delmar Janovec Investor Relations info@cannagrowholdings.com http://cannagrowholdings.com/ VANCOUVER, BC--(Marketwired - January 05, 2017) - GoldQuest Mining Corp. (TSX VENTURE: GQC) (FRANKFURT: M1W) (BERLIN: M1W) ("GoldQuest" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that the Company has been granted a new 5-year exploration license on the 425 hectare Hoyitos ("Hoyitos") exploration concession. Hoyitos contains the Las Animas Volcanogenic Massive Sulfide ("VMS") deposit. "We are pleased to have been granted a new concession license which will add to the Company's critical mass in the country," commented Bill Fisher, GoldQuest's Executive Chairman, "The government of the Dominican Republic continues to issue exploration licenses to GoldQuest and this support is encouraging as we work with the Ministry of Mines on the Mining License Application for our flagship Romero gold/copper Project." About Las Animas (Hoyitos Conession) All modern exploration on the concession has been carried out by GoldQuest. Previous work includes surface sampling, mapping and geophysics which lead to the drilling which defined the mineral resources. GoldQuest issued the Las Animas deposit's National Instrument ("NI") 43-101 resources on 14 th August 2012 (see chart below). The VMS deposit contains resources for gold, copper, silver and zinc. There is potential to expand the mineral resources at depth and for additional zones on the property. Las Animas is located in the Maimon Formation of the central Dominican Republic, (see map http://www.goldquestcorp.com/images/DR_Country_Map_Project_Locations_January_2017.pdf) 60 km along strike from the Cerro de Maimon mine which also hosts a copper-gold VMS deposit. The Las Animas deposit was defined by 47 drill holes with results up to 142 Meters Grading 2.50 g/t Au, 36.58 g/t silver, 2.59% Cu and 1.91% Zn in hole LA-06 (see Release of 6 th June 2007) and has a small oxide resource at surface. The intersection above in LA-06 is not true width of the mineralization. True width was estimated to be up to 23 metres in the resource estimation. While the Company is examining its options to restart exploration at Las Animas, it is important to note that the Tireo Formation remains the focus of the Company. As such, the Company's priorities are to continue the Romero mining application and environmental studies and continue work on the current 40-hole drill minimum program in the Tireo Formation surrounding the Romero deposit. Assay results from the current exploration program will be released in the near future. By the end of 2016 the Company had completed 13 of the planned 40 holes. The Company is currently moving the drill to the next target area and drilling is expected to recommence next week. Mineral Resource Estimate for Las Animas Project by Micon International Limited ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Indicated Tonnes Au (g/t) Ag (g/t) Cu (%) Zn (%) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sulphide 922,000 2.64 48.16 2.66 2.86 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Oxide 89,000 4.28 61.95 0.15 0.04 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total Indicated 1,011,000 2.81 49.58 2.4 2.57 Resources ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contained Metal Au Ag Cu (lbs) Zn (lbs) (ounces) (ounces) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total 91,000 1,605,000 54,289,000 58,180,000 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Inferred Tonnes Au (g/t) Ag (g/t) Cu (%) Zn (%) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sulphide 431,000 1.66 35.99 2.6 4.76 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Oxide 8,000 2.49 80.98 0.35 0.22 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total Inferred 439,000 1.68 36.907 2.558 4.67 Resources ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contained Metal Au Ag Cu (lbs) Zn (lbs) (ounces) (ounces) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total 24,000 518,000 24,790,000 45,272,000 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- There has been insufficient exploration to define the inferred resources as an indicated or measured mineral resource. It is uncertain if further exploration will result in upgrading them to an indicated or measured mineral resource category. Effective date of the resource estimate is 31 July 2011 Qualified Person: Jeremy K. Niemi, P.Geo., VP Exploration of the Company, is the Qualified Person who approved the scientific and technical information in this news release. About GoldQuest GoldQuest is a Canadian based gold focused mining company with development and exploration projects in the Dominican Republic. GoldQuest is traded on the TSX-V under the symbol GQC and in Frankfurt/Berlin with symbol M1W. Forward-looking statements: Statements contained in this news release that are not historical facts are forward-looking information that involves known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements in this news release include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the Company's plans and exploration programs for its mineral properties, including the timing of such plans and programs, the merits of the Company's mineral properties, increase of the Company's land package through the application for additional concessions, PFS results, the discovery of new mineral resources, mineral resource estimates, and future studies. In certain cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "has proven", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "potential", "goal", "proposed", "appears", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "at least", "intends", "hope", "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", "should", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such risks and other factors include, among others, risks related to the application for additional concessions, uncertainties inherent in the preparation of the PFS and in the estimation of mineral resources; commodity prices; changes in general economic conditions; market sentiment; currency exchange rates; the Company's ability to continue as a going concern; the Company's ability to raise funds through equity financings; risks inherent in mineral exploration; risks related to operations in foreign countries; future prices of metals; failure of equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; accidents, labor disputes and other risks of the mining industry; delays in obtaining governmental approvals; government regulation of mining operations; environmental risks; title disputes or claims; limitations on insurance coverage and the timing and possible outcome of litigation. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could affect the Company and may 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 not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. 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, do not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. All statements are made as of the date of this news release and the Company is under no obligation to update or alter any forward-looking statements except as required under applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements are based on assumptions that the Company believes to be reasonable, including expectations regarding the PFS parameters and inputs, mineral exploration and development costs; expected trends in mineral prices and currency exchange rates; the accuracy of the Company's current mineral resource estimates; that the Company's activities will be in accordance with the Company's public statements and stated goals; that there will be no material adverse change affecting the Company or its properties; that all required approvals will be obtained and that there will be no significant disruptions affecting the Company or its properties. 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. GoldQuest Mining Corp. www.goldquestcorp.com Julio Espaillat President & Chief Executive Officer +1-829-919-8701 JEspaillat@GoldQuestCorp.com Bill Fisher Chairman -- Toronto +1-647-271-4505 BFisher@GoldQuestCorp.com BUCHAREST (dpa-AFX) - Romania's producer prices continued its declining trend in November, though the rate of decline was only marginal, figures from the National Institute of Statistics showed Thursday. Industrial producer prices edged down 0.2 percent year-over-year in November, following a 0.3 percent drop in October. The measure has been falling since October 2014. Domestic market prices dipped 0.8 percent annually in November, while prices in the foreign market rose by 1.0 percent. Month-on-month, producer prices remained flat in November after a 1.0 percent increase in the previous month. 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. LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM -- (Marketwired) -- 01/05/17 -- Editor's Note: There are two images associated with this news release. FinnAust Mining Plc ('FinnAust' or the 'Company') (AIM: FAM)(FRANKFURT: S5WA), the AIM:FAM and FSE:S5WA listed company with projects in Greenland & Finland is pleased to announce Greenland Government approval with respect to the acquisition of Avannaa Exploration Limited ('Avannaa' and the 'Acquisition'). Avannaa is an exploration company with advanced projects in southwest Greenland. The Company has also applied for and been granted an additional 28km2 exploration licence covering the Illukunnguaq area adjacent to the existing Avannaa licence areas. Completion of the Acquisition and grant of the additional licence significantly increases FinnAust's land position in Greenland and its long-term project pipeline. The Company already holds a majority interest in the Pituffik Titanium Project ('Pituffik'), which has demonstrated the potential to be a top percentile ilmenite project in terms of heavy mineral grade with the maiden resource expected during February. FinnAust's primary focus remains on delivering a bulk sample during 2017 and larger scale titanium production in 2018. The two newly acquired projects are: the 194sq km Disko-Nuussuaq ('Disko') Magmatic Massive Sulphide ('MMS') nickel-copper-platinum project ('Ni-Cu-PGM') and the 107sq km Kangerluarsuk Sed-Ex lead-zinc-silver project ('Kangerluarsuk'). Disko has been the subject of more than US$50 million of technical work by blue chip mining houses over multiple decades including Cominco (1980's), Falconbridge (1990's) and Vismand (2000's). The Disko project has 7 anomalies identified for drill testing, the larger of which are up to 5.9km long 1.1km wide and 600m thick. MMS occurrences have been identified in the Disko licence area with the largest being a 28t boulder that assayed 6.9% nickel ('Ni'), 3.7% copper ('Cu'), 0.6% cobalt ('Co') and 2 g/t PGM's. The presence of massive sulphide is significant as it proves sulphide segregation has taken place and provides a direct analogy with Norilsk-Talnakh ('Norilsk'), the world's largest nickel/copper sulphide mine with global resources of greater than 2Bn tonnes containing 14.5mt of nickel, 23.8mt of copper, and 8.1kt (approximately 285moz) of PGM. Kangerluarsuk was originally discovered and later drilled by Cominco with further work undertaken by RTZ. Historical results include 41% zinc, 9.3% lead and 596 g/t silver. There are currently 4 large-scale drill ready Sed-Ex targets located in favourable topography. The Company is evaluating several low cost options that may lead to testing of these targets during 2017. Further information on these projects in the RNS released by the Company on 5, September, 2016 Acquisition of Avannaa Exploration. FinnAust CEO Roderick McIllree said, "Having already proven the success of our exploration model and regional understanding of Greenland through the advancement of the Pituffik Titanium project, we are delighted to have strengthened our footprint within this extremely prospective region. Our newly acquired projects complement our stated strategy of acquiring low cost, high quality assets and we believe all three offer significant upside potential. Whilst Pituffik remains our flagship project and primary exploration/development focus, with a maiden JORC resource and bulk sampling due this year, we look forward to further proving up the resource potential of these new projects in order to build value for shareholders. Disko in particular, we believe, has the potential to become a significant nickel sulphide deposit and we look forward to furthering our understanding of this asset." Disko Massive Ni-Cu-PGM Project Highlights More than three decades of exploration have defined Disko as a potentially significant nickel sulphide deposit in one of the world's largest nickel districts, with mineralisation believed to be similar to Norilsk's deposit. Massive magmatic deposits are generally contained in continental rift systems where large magmatic events lead to significant flood basalt accumulations; these magmas interact with crustal material during emplacement becoming contaminated. Assimilation of organic and sulphur rich material can lead to sulphur saturation scavenging Ni, Cu and PGM into the melt from which ore bodies can form. Multiple geophysical methods have identified and refined 7 poly-metallic targets at Disko, three of which are shown below. These large scale targets occur over a strike length of greater than 17km, all targets identified to date are kilometres in length with the two largest being more than 5.9km long & 1.1km wide and 4.8km long & 800m wide and up to 600m thick in each case. Further Information on the Acquisition As previously announced, on 2 September 2016, FinnAust entered into an agreement to acquire the entire issued and to be issued share capital of Avannaa Exploration Limited (a company incorporated and registered in England and Wales with company number 06012477) from Capricorn Oil Limited ('Capricorn'), a subsidiary of Cairn Energy PLC for a price of GBP 500,000 (the 'Agreement'). Completion of the Acquisition was conditional upon, inter alia, the relevant change of control approvals being received from the Greenland Government. These approvals were received on 3 January 2017. Under the terms of the Agreement the acquisition consideration of GBP 500,000 ('Consideration') is to be satisfied by the issue of 7,584,238 new ordinary shares of 0.01 pence each ('Ordinary Shares') in the Company ('Consideration Shares'). The Consideration Shares have been issued at a price of 6.59262 pence per share, which is equal to the volume weighted average price of the Company's Ordinary Shares on AIM for the trading days for the period from the date of the Agreement up to and including the date on which the necessary approvals were received from the Greenland Government, less 5 per cent. Under the terms of the Agreement, the Company has provided Capricorn with a consideration guarantee in respect of the Consideration. In the event that there is a shortfall in realising the Consideration once Capricorn sells the Consideration Shares, FinnAust has undertaken to indemnify Capricorn by settling any shortfall in cash to Capricorn's account as soon as reasonably practicable following notification from Capricorn that there is a shortfall. If Cairn should decide to sell shares within nine months from the date of admission of the Consideration Shares to trading on AIM, any disposals of the Consideration Shares by Capricorn shall be made through the Company's broker, with the aim of maintaining an orderly market in the Company's shares. Issue of Equity The Consideration Shares were issued by the Company on 4 January 2017 and rank pari passu with the existing Ordinary Shares. Application has been made for the Consideration Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM ('Admission'). It is expected that Admission will become effective and dealings in the new Ordinary Shares will commence on or around 11 January 2017. Voting Rights Following the issue of the Consideration Shares described above, the issued share capital of the Company consists of 619,169,499 Ordinary Shares. No shares are held in treasury at the date of this announcement. The total current voting rights in the Company are therefore 619,169,499. The above total current voting rights number is the figure which may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculation by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in the Company. For further information please visit www.titanium.gl or follow us on Twitter @FinnaustMining. Competent Person Statement The information in this announcement that relates to historical exploration results is based on information reviewed by Roderick McIllree, who is the Chief Executive and a member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Roderick has sufficient experience, relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity, which he is undertaking, to qualify as a qualified person as defined by the AIM Rules. Roderick has reviewed the historic exploration results included in this announcement. Notes FinnAust has a number of highly prospective licences at various stages of development in Greenland and Finland. The Company is dual listed on the London AIM market (FAM) and Frankfurt Stock Exchange (S5WA). The Company is currently focussed on advancing the Pituffik titanium project in Greenland, an area that has only recently revealed its mineral potential following changes in the climate. Pituffik, which FinnAust conditionally acquired in December 2015, has demonstrated the potential to be in the top percentile of projects worldwide in terms of heavy mineral grade. Pituffik comprises three main target areas along an greater than 80km coastline historically proven to contain large and high-grade accumulations of primary ilmenite occurring as placer deposits in the following environments: -- Raised beaches; containing ilmenite accumulations over widths of more than 1km, of unknown depths, along more than 20km of coastline; -- Active beaches; which refer to the area seaward of the frontal dunes, including the beach, tidal zones and surf zone - historically samples from this area have achieved 70% ilmenite by weight; and -- Drowned beaches; refers to the areas seaward of active beaches. The Company's strategy is focused on the production of a bulk sample "proof of concept" from the Pituffik project in 2017 with the aim of ultimately generating cash flow to create a company capable of self-funding exploration on future acquisitions. FinnAust has an interest in 60% of Bluejay Mining Limited the holder of the Pituffik exploration licence and has an option to acquire the remaining 40%. Within the wider Nordic region, FinnAust also holds a 100% interest in a portfolio of copper, zinc and nickel projects in Finland. This multi-commodity portfolio remains a strategic asset of importance and has been restructured to be cost-sustainable whilst determining the best plan for future development. To view the images associated with this news release, please visit: http://www.marketwire.com/library/20170105-1081585f1.jpg http://www.marketwire.com/library/20170105-1081858f2.jpg Contacts: FinnAust Mining plc Roderick McIllree 44 (0) 20 7907 9326 Two cloud-enabled solutions built on SAP S/4HANA to support hydrocarbon supply chain and upstream production optimization Accenture (NYSE:ACN) and SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) are expanding their collaboration in the oil and gas industry to develop two innovative digital solutions with cloud capabilities. Both will be designed to improve bottom-line benefits including increased downstream operating margins with reduced risk and increased upstream production with lower costs. The Connected Hydrocarbons Logistics solution (CHL) will provide real-time total inventory of oil and gas companies' hydrocarbon supply chain. Cloud networking will connect companies with suppliers and partners, optimizing hydrocarbon supply chain movements, visibility into secondary costs, and reducing working capital. Using the latest SAP technologies such as SAP S/4HANA software and SAP HANA Cloud Platform, along with the role-based SAP Fiori user experience, CHL will complement and enhance the capabilities of SAP for Oil and Gas industry solutions and other SAP solutions with end-to-end visibility with real-time analytics and improved supply and demand planning. Accenture and SAP will also expand their Upstream Production Operations collaboration which provides solutions and services supporting the upstream operations value chain including Upstream Operations Management, SAP UOM, and Accenture's rapid deployment upstream SAP S/4HANA template, Accenture Upstream Direct. The SAP Predictive Maintenance and Service solution is also being extended to provide early identification of potential asset performance issues. This will enable upstream operators to enhance production volumes while reducing maintenance costs and planning. "The hydrocarbon value chain is at the heart of the downstream business, and today's fragmented and often outdated IT landscape prevents oil and gas companies from unlocking all of the available value," said Andrew Smart, managing director who leads Accenture's energy practice. "We look forward to working with SAP and our clients to use Connected Hydrocarbons Logistics to unlock this value by better managing changes in supply, demand and commodity prices. Similarly, the new predictive maintenance tool from SAP can help operators further enhance upstream operations, in an environment of sustained oil price volatility." "This expanded innovation program will deliver two key digital capabilities our customers are demanding; a real-time view of all their product inventories, and the ability to predict asset failures and prescribe their best sequence of repair," said Ken Evans, Global Vice President, Oil and Gas Industry, at SAP. "Our digital readiness survey confirms that while over 80% of the industry sees these capabilities as important, less than 5% have either of them today. Our collaboration with Accenture expands the portfolio of solutions delivering such digital transformations to the oil and gas industry." The new solutions built for SAP S/4HANA will be co-developed by Accenture and SAP under their SAP S/4HANA collaboration with the participation of clients from both companies to ensure that specific industry needs are met. In October, Accenture and SAP announced their collaboration to develop the next generation of predictive analytics solutions for asset management in the utilities industry to enable condition-based maintenance. 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 394,000 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. About SAP As market leader in enterprise application software, SAP (NYSE:SAP) helps companies of all sizes and industries run better. From back office to boardroom, warehouse to storefront, desktop to mobile device SAP empowers people and organizations to work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively to stay ahead of the competition. SAP applications and services enable more than 335,000 business and public sector customers to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and grow sustainably. For more information, visit www.sap.com. Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "intend," "may," "plan," "project," "predict," "should" and "will" and similar expressions as they relate to SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. The factors that could affect SAP's future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including SAP's most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates. 2016 SAP SE. All rights reserved. SAP and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE in Germany and other countries. Please see http://www.sap.com/corporate-en/legal/copyright/index.epxtrademark for additional trademark information and notices. Note to editors: To preview and download broadcast-standard stock footage and press photos digitally, please visit www.sap.com/photos. On this platform, you can find high-resolution material for your media channels. To view video stories on diverse topics, visit www.sap-tv.com. From this site, you can embed videos into your own Web pages, share video via e-mail links, and subscribe to RSS feeds from SAP TV. For customers interested in learning more about SAP products: Global Customer Center: +49 180 534-34-24 United States Only: 1 (800) 872-1SAP (1-800-872-1727) View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170105005022/en/ Contacts: Accenture Guy Cantwell, 1 281-900-9089 guy.cantwell@accenture.com Julie Bennink, 1 312-693-7301 julie.l.bennink@accenture.com or SAP Jason Loesche, 1 484-437-0015 j.loesche@sap.com WINNIPEG, MANITOBA -- (Marketwired) -- 01/05/17 -- IGM Financial Inc. (TSX: IGM) today announced that its subsidiary, Mackenzie Financial Corporation ("Mackenzie Investments"), has entered into an agreement to acquire an additional 3.9% interest in China Asset Management Co., Ltd. ("China AMC") for RMByen 936 million (CAD$179 million) following the announcement of Mackenzie Investments' acquisition of a 10% interest in China AMC on December 29, 2016. This brings IGM Financial's interest in the company to 13.9%, for a combined value of RMByen 3.34 billion (CAD$647 million). Both transactions involve separate non-strategic shareholders that are Chinese state-owned enterprises. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2017, and is subject to customary closing conditions, including Chinese regulatory approvals. Power Corporation of Canada ("Power"), the indirect parent company of IGM Financial, also announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire an additional 3.9% interest in China AMC. Mackenzie Investments' stake in China AMC leverages Power's presence and investment track record in China, which includes a 10% ownership in China AMC acquired in 2011. Combined, Mackenzie Investments and Power will hold a 27.8% interest in China AMC. IGM Financial will be hosting a live conference call and webcast to share additional information about this transaction. A live webcast of the conference call will be available at www.igmfinancial.com on January 5, 2017 at 1 p.m. (CT) / 2 p.m. (ET). If you are unable to connect to the webcast, you can dial-in by phone at 1-866-223-7781 or 416-340-2216. We ask that you call into either number 5 minutes before the scheduled start time to ensure that you are connected on time. Your call will be connected on a listen-only basis. Should you miss the conference call, a playback will be available by calling 1-800-408-3053 or 905-694-9451 from January 5, 2017 until April 4, 2017. Please use passcode 2587282. An archived version of the webcast will also be available on IGM Financial Inc.'s website. About China Asset Management Co., Ltd. Founded in 1998 as one of the first fund management companies in China, China Asset Management Co. Ltd. (China AMC) has maintained a market leading position in China's asset management industry with total AUM of approximately RMByen 1099.7 billion CAD$215.2 billion at June 30, 2016. The company currently serves over 400 institutional mandates and 40 million retail investors. China AMC boasts one of the industry's strongest investment teams with over 200 dedicated investment professionals. See Chinaamc.com for more information. About IGM Financial Inc. IGM Financial Inc. is one of Canada's premier personal financial services companies, and one of the country's largest managers and distributors of mutual funds and other managed asset products, with over CAD$140 billion in total assets under management at December 31, 2016. Its activities are carried out principally through Investors Group, Mackenzie Investments and Investment Planning Counsel. A MEMBER OF THE POWER FINANCIAL CORPORATION GROUP OF COMPANIES. About Mackenzie Investments Mackenzie Investments was founded in 1967, and is a leading investment management firm providing investment advisory and related services. With $64 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2016, Mackenzie Investments distributes its investment services through multiple distribution channels to both retail and institutional investors. Mackenzie Investments is a member of the IGM Financial Inc. (TSX: IGM) group of companies. Contacts: IGM Financial: Media Relations: Trish Tervit (416) 967-2166 trish.tervit@igmfinancial.com Investor Relations: Paul Hancock 204-956-8103 investor.relations@igmfinancial.com WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - People who live close to major roads with heavy traffic were found to have a higher incidence of dementia. Researchers led by Dr Hong Chen of Public Health Ontario investigated the association between residential proximity to major roadways and the incidence of neurological diseases in the Canadian province of Ontario. Among two million people who were observed between 2001 and 2012, 243,611 cases of dementia were diagnosed, and the risk was higher among those living closest to major roads. The results of the study was published in the Lancet. 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. INDIANAPOLIS (dpa-AFX) - Eli Lilly and Co. (LLY) announced Thursday a series of changes to its organization and leadership structure to better align them with the company's growth opportunities. The company hired Christi Shaw to lead the Bio-Medicines business beginning April 3. Shaw will succeed David Ricks, who became Lilly's president and CEO on January 1, as senior vice president and president of Lilly Bio-Medicines. Shaw started her career at Lilly in 1989. The company also said Enrique Conterno, senior vice president of Lilly and president of Lilly Diabetes, will assume additional responsibilities as president of Lilly USA. Alex Azar, president of Lilly USA, has decided to leave Lilly to pursue other career opportunities. Further, the company said that the Diabetes, Oncology and Bio-Medicines human pharmaceutical therapeutic business areas will assume commercial responsibility for their products in China beginning on February 1. This is in addition to the U.S., Japanese and Canadian markets in which they already operate. Lilly Diabetes will host the company's human pharmaceutical commercial operations in the United States, China, Japan and Canada. Lilly's current Emerging Markets business will combine with Europe to form Lilly International, which will have commercial responsibility for the company's human pharmaceutical products in these markets. Alfonso (Chito) Zulueta, who has led the Emerging Markets business for the last three years, will be senior vice president of Lilly and president of Lilly International. Sue Mahony will continue as senior vice president of Lilly and president of Lilly Oncology. Ricks said, 'Lilly begins 2017 with a clear view of its opportunities for growth in the years ahead. The adjustments we are announcing today to pharmaceutical therapeutic and geographic business areas are designed to maximize the potential of our late-stage pipeline and newly launched medicines, while improving productivity.' Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Defense leaders hailed the commitment and accomplishments of departing commander in chief President Barack Obama in a formal military ceremony as he closes out his presidency. Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Marine Corps Gen. Joe Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, hosted the armed forces full honor review farewell ceremony Wednesday at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Virginia. Vice President Joe Biden was a guest of honor. 'I can stand before you today and say that there has been no greater privilege and no greater honor, than serving as commander in chief of the greatest military in the history of the world,' Obama said. 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. PARIS, January 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- On December 2016, Viparis announced that it had awarded a new contract to Areas to redesign the food service offerings at Paris expo Porte de Versailles. This partnership perfectly reflects Viparis's "Guest Attitude" policy, which aims to offer the best service per square meter. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160411/353501LOGO ) Viparis is working tirelessly to bolster the Porte de Versailles exhibition complex's appeal and to transform it into a vibrant and living venue. As part of this, food services play a key role, and customers have high expectations. Striking a perfect balance between the best local restaurants and a portfolio of renowned international brands, Areas won the Viparis tender in 2016. Areas, the global concession catering brand of Elior Group, was awarded an exclusive 11-year contract to supply food services to Paris expo Porte de Versailles. Across 40 points of sale, Areas will provide a unique and exclusive offering in harmony with the complex's goal - to become a 'permanent universal exposition'. As a long-time partner of Viparis, Areas has a unique set of skills when it comes to exhibition complexes, providing appealing, contemporary food services that can be customized to match the nature and scope of each trade show. Areas will offer visitors a range of contemporary catering services in line with the positioning of the exhibition complex - innovative, customized, quality-focused, digital and sustainable. The opening of the Maison Pradier stand on 1 December 2016 kicked off the new Areas offer. McDonald's and Paul, both internationally-known brands, have designed site-specific outlets for Paris expo Porte de Versailles. Throughout 2017, Areas will open some thirty French and international food service brands, such as La Place, Red d'Hippo, Deli&Cia, MasQMenos, Marguerite du Pre, Super Wild Coffee, and more. In the form of stationary, temporary and ambulatory points of sale, these brands can adapt to the size of every event, and will feature a digital component for the benefit of target customers (exhibitors, organizers and visitors). More information http://www.eliorgroup.com OTTAWA (dpa-AFX) - Power Corporation of Canada (POW.TO) announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire an additional 3.9% equity interest in China Asset Management Co., Ltd. (China AMC) for C$179 million from a Chinese state-owned enterprise. Together with a 10% interest purchased in 2011, Power Corporation's ownership in China AMC will be 13.9%. Mackenzie Investments, an indirect subsidiary of Power Corporation, announced it has agreed to acquire, in two separate transactions, a 13.9% interest in China AMC. Upon completion, Power Corporation and Mackenzie Investments will hold a combined 27.8% interest in China AMC. The transaction is expected to be accretive to Power Corporation's earnings. China AMC is recognized as a leading company in the Chinese asset management sector, with C$215 billion in assets under management, serving over 40 million retail investors and 400 institutional mandates as at June 30, 2016. China AMC is an affiliate of CITIC Group Corporation Ltd., China's largest conglomerate, with which Power Corporation has had an association since 1986. 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. PPG (NYSE:PPG) today announced that it has completed its acquisition from the Emerging Europe Accession Fund (EEAF) of DEUTEK S.A., a leading Romanian paint and architectural coatings manufacturer that reported sales of 30 million euros in 2015. Financial terms were not disclosed. DEUTEK manufactures and markets a large portfolio of professional and consumer paints, including the OSKAR and Danke! brands. Its products are sold in more than 120 do-it-yourself stores and 3,500 independent retail outlets in Romania. "DEUTEK is a well-managed business with a long heritage of excellent customer service and a portfolio of well-recognized brands in Romania. The acquisition adds the fastest-growing paint brands in Romania, where PPG has only a small presence in architectural coatings," said Jean-Marie Greindl, PPG senior vice president, global architectural coatings, and president, PPG EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa). "This important acquisition in Romania extends our presence in the region and complements our positions in Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia." Deutek CEO Gabriel Enache said, "We have always focused on building a market-leading position based on trusted brands and innovative products. This vision is fully shared by PPG, which supports the management team and its development plans. We are confident that joining PPG will accelerate our innovation and thus help us to achieve performance consistent with our vision." PPG: WE PROTECT AND BEAUTIFY THE WORLD At PPG (NYSE:PPG), we work every day to develop and deliver the paints, coatings and materials that our customers have trusted for more than 130 years. Through dedication and creativity, we solve our customers' biggest challenges, collaborating closely to find the right path forward. With headquarters in Pittsburgh, we operate and innovate in more than 70 countries and reported net sales of $14.8 billion in 2015. We serve customers in construction, consumer products, industrial and transportation markets and aftermarkets. To learn more, visit www.ppg.com. Forward-Looking Statements Statements in this news release relating to matters that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 reflecting the company's current view with respect to future events or objectives and financial or operational performance or results. The forward-looking statements contained herein include statements relating to the expected benefits of the DEUTEK transaction. Actual events may differ materially from current expectations and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including the risks and uncertainties discussed in PPG's periodic reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q and its current reports on Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of their initial issuance, and PPG does not undertake any obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. We protect and beautify the world is a trademark and the PPG Logo is a registered trademark of PPG Industries Ohio, Inc. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170105005813/en/ Contacts: PPG Media Contact: Mark Silvey, +1 412-434-3046 Corporate Communications silvey@ppg.com or PPG Investor Contact: Scott Minder, +1 412-434-3466 Investor Relations sminder@ppg.com investor.ppg.com WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - U.S.-led coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria targeting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant have recently killed several prominent leaders of that organization, Air Force Col. John Dorrian, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve spokesman, said at a news briefing Wednesday. Speaking to Pentagon reporters via teleconference from Baghdad, Dorrian said precision coalition airstrikes in Mosul and other areas around Iraq have continued attacking ISIL leaders who facilitate and command and control the terrorist network. He confirmed the deaths of Ahmad Abdullah Hamad al-Mahalawi, Abu Turq, and Falah al-Rashidi. Al-Rishidi, struck on Dec. 4 in Mosul, was involved in ISIL's use of vehicle bombs. Al-Mahalawi was struck Dec. 21 in Qaim. 'His removal will disrupt ISIL's ability to conduct operations along the Euphrates River Valley,' the colonel said. Abu Turq was killed Dec. 4 in Sharqat, Iraq. Dorrian described him as an ISIL financial facilitator in Qanfusah, Iraq. In Syria, more than 100 airstrikes have occurred in the Tabqa Dam area, about 25 miles west of Raqqa, killing many ISIL fighters, including Abu Jandal al-Kuwaiti, Dorrian said, adding, 'Kuwaiti, a prominent foreign fighter and leader, had been sent to improve ISIL's control in the region in the face of [the Syrian Democratic Forces'] advance.' Overall, the coalition-backed battles to regain Raqqa, Syria and Mosul, Iraq from ISIL control have weakened the enemy's ability to bring in replacement fighters and supplies, the spokesman said. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 01/05/17 -- West Kirkland Mining Inc. (TSX VENTURE: WKM) announces that the Company has granted an aggregate of 3.9 million stock options to directors, officers, employees and consultants of the Company. Each stock option entitles the holder to purchase one common share of the Company at a price of $0.11 per common share for a period of five years from the grant date. The options are to provide long term incentive. No year end or performance cash bonus or other annual increases in compensation were paid to any officer, director or employee for 2016. These stock options are governed by the approved Stock Option Plan of the Company and are subject to TSX Venture Exchange acceptance. About West Kirkland Mining Inc. West Kirkland owns a 75% interest in the Hasbrouck Gold Project in Tonopah, Nevada. A Pre-Feasibility Study and Environmental Assessment with construction-level drawings and all federal and state permits for the phase-one Three Hills Mine provides a ready-to-construct gold project. West Kirkland has recently announced a drill program targeting resource expansion within the permitted open pit at Three Hills and exploration drilling at the recently optioned Hill of Gold area nearby. West Kirkland also holds a 60% interest in the open pit heap-leach TUG Gold Project in Utah in Joint Venture with Newmont. On behalf of West Kirkland Mining Inc. R. Michael Jones, Chief Executive Officer Disclaimer for Forward-Looking Information This press release contains forward-looking information or forward-looking statements (collectively "forward-looking information") within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking information is typically identified by words such as: "believe", "expect", "anticipate", "intend", "estimate", "postulate" and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. Forward-looking information in this news release includes, without limitation, the statements regarding the use of proceeds and the holdings of the Company's major shareholders and other statements that are not historical facts. Information concerning mineral resource/reserve estimates and the economic analysis thereof contained in the prefeasibility study are also forward-looking statements in that they reflect a prediction of the mineralization that would be encountered, and the results of mining it, if a mineral deposit were developed and mined. Although West Kirkland believes that such timing and expenses as set out in this press release are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations and estimates will prove to be correct. The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking information provided by the Company is not a guarantee of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking information as a result of various factors, including, but not limited to, the state of the financial markets for the Company's equity securities, the state of the market for gold or other minerals that may be produced generally, significant increases in any of the machinery, equipment or supplies required to develop and operate a mine, a significant change in the availability or cost of the labor force required to operate a mine, a significant increases in the cost of transportation for the Company's products, variations in the nature, quality and quantity of any mineral deposits that may be located, the Company's ability to obtain any necessary permits, consents or authorizations required for its activities, to raise the necessary capital or to be fully able to implement its business strategies and other risks associated with the exploration and development of mineral properties. The reader is referred to the Company's public filings for a more complete discussion of such risk factors and their potential effects which may be accessed through the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Contacts: Kris Begic Investor Relations (604) 685-8311 www.wkmining.com Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - January 5, 2017) - CVR Medical Corp. (TSXV: CVM) (FSE: B3BN) (OTCQB: CRRVF) ("CVR Medical") will be joining Energous Corporation at the upcoming CES, one of the premier, annual emerging technology events in North America. Energous will be demonstrating its device's applications with CVR's "Carotid Stenotic Scan (CSS)." CVR Medical Corp., in conjunction with CVR Global Inc, has patented and developed a sub-sonic sound analysis technology to detect and diagnose atherosclerosis and stenosis within the human arterial system. The first application of the technology, the CSS, is a non-invasive medical device designed to measure carotid arterial stenosis. Energous Corporation's WattUp technology is an RF-based, revolutionary wire-free charging technology. WattUp receiver technology will be integrated into CVR's Carotid Stenotic Scan's sensor array, while the cart will contain WattUp transmitter technology as part of the charging cradle. CVR Medical CEO Peter Bakema states, "As we've developed our own technology with the potential for significant impact, we've kept our eyes open for those who share our core beliefs of providing consumers with efficiency and value. Energous presents the sort of partnership opportunity that can take our device to the next level, and we look forward to exploring that at CES." For additional information on the organization, leadership, and current news please visit the newly launched company website www.CVRMed.com About CVR Medical CVR Medical is a company that is involved in an equal parts joint venture with CVR Global Inc. (the "Joint Venture"). The Joint Venture operates in the medical industry focused on the commercialization of a proprietary subsonic, infrasonic, and low frequency sound wave analysis technology and has patents to a diagnostic device designed to detect and measure carotid arterial stenosis. CVR Medical is managed by a proven technical team. CVR Medical trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol CVM. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD: (signed) "Peter Bakema" CEO, President & Director For further information contact: Brisco Capital Partners Corp. Scott Koyich, President Telephone: (403) 262-9888 This press release contains forward-looking information that involves various risks and uncertainties regarding future events related to the Joint Venture. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, performance or developments to differ materially from those contained in the statements and are not guarantees of future performance of the Company. No assurance can be given that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will occur or, if they do occur, what benefits the Company will obtain from them. These forward-looking statements reflect management's current views and are based on certain expectations, estimates and assumptions which may prove to be incorrect. A number of risks and uncertainties could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including: (1) a downturn in general economic conditions in North America and internationally, (2) the inherent uncertainties and speculative nature associated with commercialization of technology and the practice of medicine, (3) a change in health regulations, (4) any number of events or causes which may delay or cease commercialization and development of the Joint Venture, (5) the risk that the Company or the Joint Venture does not execute its business plan, (6) inability to retain key employees, (7) inability to finance operations and growth, and (8) other factors beyond the Company's control. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release and, except as required by law, the Company assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results differed from those projected in the forward-looking statements. THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE INC. HAS NEITHER APPROVED NOR DISAPPROVED THE CONTENTS OF THIS PRESS RELEASE. 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. ELKO A midnight security check at a downtown bar led to the arrest of two alleged pot smokers. According to Police Lt. Ty Trouten, officers were doing a routine security check around midnight when they were overwhelmed by the smell of marijuana at Cowboys. Police confronted the two, who were lingering near the door just after midnight while others inside complained of the smell, said Trouten. Officers arrested Marcus Conner, 24, of Carlin and Stephany Dennis, 21, of Elko for smoking marijuana in public. When asked if he knew why they were charging him Connor reportedly said, I thought it was illegal but its the New Year. Trouten advised marijuana users to learn the laws of Nevada if they wish to partake of the substance. It is not legal to smoke marijuana in public, he said. He especially wanted to remind residents that smoking marijuana in your vehicle or driving while under the influence could result in arrest and penalty. Bail for Connor and Dennis is $740 each. ------- This story has been corrected to indicate the suspects were arrested shortly after midnight. WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - First-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits fell by much more than expected in the week ended December 31st, according to a report released by the Labor Department on Thursday. The report said initial jobless claims dropped to 235,000, a decrease of 28,000 from the previous week's revised level of 263,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to edge down to 260,000 from the 265,000 originally reported for the previous week. With the bigger than expected decrease, jobless claims pulled back further off the six-month high set in the week ended December 17th. The Labor Department said the less volatile four-week moving average also slid to 256,750, a decrease of 5,750 from the previous week's revised average of 262,500. Meanwhile, the report said continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, rose by 16,000 jobs to 2.112 million in the week ended December 24th. The four-week moving average of continuing claims also climbed to 2,067,000, an increase of 26,250 from the previous week's revised average of 2,040,750. Friday morning, the Labor Department is scheduled to release its more closely matched monthly employment report. Employment is expected to increase by about 175,000 jobs in December, while the unemployment rate is expected to tick up to 4.7 percent. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Anne Kirkpatrick has been appointed the City of Oakland's new Chief of Police. Mayor Libby Schaaf and City Administrator Sabrina Landreth jointly announced the selection of Anne Kirkpatrick, who will be the first female leader of the troubled Oakland Police Department. One of the most tenured police chiefs in the country, Kirkpatrick is tasked with restoring confidence in an agency that saw three chiefs being replaced in as many weeks this summer after several officers were implicated in a sex scandal with an underage girl. The 34-year veteran law enforcement leader previously served the people of the state of Washington as Chief of Police for the cities of Spokane, Federal Way and Ellensburg. She also held the post of Chief Deputy (Undersheriff) in King County, Washington. Kirkpatrick comes to the City of Oakland from Chicago, where she led the Chicago Police Department's reform efforts. She will assume her duties as Oakland's Police Chief on February 27, the authorities said. 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. - Ken Frier and Gretchen Tai join SECOR as Partners and Co-Heads of San Francisco Bay Area office - Broadens the reach and breadth of offerings in SECOR's advisory and investment solutions businesses NEW YORK and PALO ALTO, California, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- SECOR Asset Management, LP ("SECOR"), a $41 billion global asset management firm, today announced that Kenneth Frier and Gretchen Tai have joined the firm as Partners and will serve as Co-Heads of SECOR's newly opened West Coast office in the San Francisco Bay Area, effective immediately. Mr. Frier, who was most recently Chief Investment Officer ("CIO") at Atlas Capital Advisors in San Francisco, and Ms. Tai, who was previouslyCIO for Hewlett-Packard's retirement benefit plan assets, will oversee the growth and expansion of SECOR's investment advisory and portfolio solutions businesses in the U.S. on the West Coast and in Asia. Mr. Frier and Ms. Tai will report to Tony Kao, SECOR Co-Founder and Managing Principal of the firm's investment advisory and portfolio solutions businesses. SECOR's business footprint will reach from coast to coast in the U.S. and include the firm's headquarters in New York City and office in London. SECOR's West Coast office will allow Mr. Frier and Ms. Tai to focus on expanding the firm's client base and product offerings in the region and across Asia, drawing upon their decades of experience as CIOs managing defined benefit ("DB") and defined contribution ("DC") plan assets for large corporations and foundation, endowment and family office investment portfolios. Mr. Frier and Ms. Tai also bring with them a new risk-managed, global equity strategy that they developed and managed over the past two years, which will be on available on SECOR's platform. "This is the ideal time for SECOR to broaden its business footprint and client offerings on the West Coast and in Asia, and we are excited to have Ken and Gretchen spearhead these efforts," said Tony Kao. "As leading CIOs in the institutional investment world, Ken and Gretchen have served as trusted fiduciaries for decades, overseeing more than $100 billion in total plan assets for their constituents. Their investment philosophies and approach are very aligned with our own internal views and processes, and this shared vision, coupled with their deep understanding of the institutional investment framework and ongoing challenges clients face, creates a unique and powerful offering for our clients." Kenneth Frier, CFA, was Chief Investment Officer at Atlas Capital Advisors in San Francisco before joining SECOR. Mr. Frier has over 30 years of experience as an institutional investor, previously serving as Chief Investment Officer at The Walt Disney Company, Hewlett-Packard, Stanford Management Company and the UAW Retiree Medical Benefits Trust. He has written and spoken extensively on risk management and asset allocation strategies, and originated enhancements to many risk management tools that are widely used by institutional investors today, such as liability hedging, equity downside protection and currency management. Gretchen Tai most recently served as President and Chief Investment Officer of Hewlett-Packard Inc.'s asset management subsidiary, Shoreline Investment Management Company, which oversees approximately $45 billion of various benefit plan assets for Hewlett-Packard and its affiliated companies. Ms. Tai's innovations in dynamic asset allocation and risk management led the Hewlett-Packard U.S. plan to leading performance during her tenure. She also created custom funds of funds in five asset categories that were instrumental in improving the investment performance of Hewlett-Packard's non-U.S. pension plans. About SECOR Asset Management, LP SECOR is a $41 billion global asset management firm with offices in New York,Palo Altoand London. The firm identifies and implements innovative and highly customized multi-asset and quantitative investment strategies to achieve the investment objectives of its institutional clients, with a focus on managing risk while generating desired returns. SECOR's investment team is composed of former chief investment officers and pension plan executives. The firm's integrated and cohesive approach offers clients more thoughtful investment solutions that are backed by a strong and stable, institutional platform and infrastructure. For more information, please go to www.secor-am.com. Contact For investors: Gino Reina SECOR Asset Management (212) 980-7366 gino@secor-am.com For media: Catherine Jones Polisi Jones Communications (917) 330-8934 cjones@polisijones.com WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - President-elect Donald Trump sought to downplay the possibility of a rift with the intelligence community on Thursday, blaming the media for giving the impression of a divide. 'The media lies to make it look like I am against 'Intelligence' when in fact I am a big fan!' Trump said in a post on Twitter. The latest tweet from Trump comes even though he has expressed skepticism about the intelligence community's conclusion that Russia hacked Democratic officials and political committees in an effort to influence the U.S. elections. In a previous post to Twitter, the president-elect suggested that an intelligence briefing on the alleged Russian hacking was delayed until Friday to provide more time to build a case. Trump also previously tweeted statements by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange claiming the Russians did not give him the information he released from Democratic officials. However, in his latest posts, Trump argued that the tweets should not be seen as an indication that he agrees with Assange. 'The dishonest media likes saying that I am in Agreement with Julian Assange - wrong,' Trump tweeted. 'I simply state what he states, it is for the people to make up their own minds as to the truth.' Trump has come under fire from some Republican lawmakers for seeming to agree with Assange, who has been accused of jeopardizing national security by releasing classified military documents. The latest tweets from Trump come as the Senate Armed Services Committee is holding a hearing on foreign cyber threats to the U.S. (Photo: Marc Nozell) Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Former U.K. Independence Party leader Nigel Farage revealed Thursday he will attend the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump later this month. Farage, who vigorously campaigned for Britain to leave the European Union, was a vocal Trump supporter during the presidential campaign and spoke at a rally for the billionaire-turned-politician in Mississippi. The British politician told Sky News he will attend Trump's inauguration as a guest of Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant. 'It's going to be a great, historic event,' Farage said. 'In America they've had a political revolution and it's complete; the problem in Britain is our revolution is not complete because the same people are still in charge.' Farage and Trump both frequently compared the U.S. presidential campaign to the U.K.'s so-called Brexit vote last June. While Trump has suggested Farage would make a good British envoy to the U.S., the idea has been rejected by the government of Prime Minister Theresa May. (Photo: Michael Vadon) 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. KANSAS CITY, KS--(Marketwired - January 05, 2017) - Arcademics, the online multiplayer edu-gamers, today announced its annual national multiplication competition, the Arcademics Cup, is scheduled for Feb. 2-3, 2017. Last year, over 15,000 students around the U.S. participated in the free online opportunity. When the Cup starts, students can login on their computers or devices and race for prizes. Prizes will be awarded in a number of categories such as Top Scores, Most Points, Percent Correct, Class Points, and School Points. Prizes include iPads, pizza parties, and subscriptions to Arcademics Plus. In addition to challenging students and utilizing classroom technology, the Arcademics Cup also provides teachers with critical insights into student performance. Student response data is visualized for teachers in trend reports. "Our students really enjoyed last year's Arcademics Cup, and their performance data was interesting to look through... helped me find areas for intervention," said David Woodward, Math Specialist at Boulder Valley Schools. Students in first through sixth grade are eligible for the online racing competition. Classrooms not currently utilizing Arcademics Plus can sign up for a free trial teacher account to register students, who can participate in the competition at no cost to them or the teacher. To learn more about the Arcademics Cup and sign up your students, visit www.arcademics.com/cup. About Arcademics Arcademics creates research-based and standards-aligned free educational games that engage, motivate, and teach K-6 students in practicing math and language arts. To learn more, visit www.arcademics.com, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter @Arcademics. CONTACT: Lauren Littlefield Field Public Relations lauren@fieldpublicrelations.com PLEASANTON, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 01/05/17 -- Sensiba San Filippo LLP (SSF), a leading Northern California-based accounting and business consulting firm, is pleased to announce the acquisition of Kupperberg & Associates, a San Francisco-based CPA firm. The acquisition will include the onboarding of Clifford Kupperberg, Pamela Seites, and Ken Kupperberg to SSF's San Francisco, San Mateo and Pleasanton offices. Kupperberg advises on a full range of business, financial and tax issues, and specializes in accounting and tax services and litigation support. With a strong background providing litigation support services to a wide range of clients, the acquisition helps to strengthen and expand SSF's full-service offerings. "We are thrilled to have the Kupperberg team join our firm," said John Sensiba, Managing Partner of Sensiba San Filippo. "Firm culture is a top priority for us, and Kupperberg & Associates mirrors many of the same values that we hold in high regard here at SSF. We have already experienced a tremendous amount of synergy with the Kupperberg team, and we are pleased to have them on board." "Joining Sensiba San Filippo is an exciting step for us and for our clients," said Clifford Kupperberg, Owner of Kupperberg & Associates. "This move allows us to continue our longstanding commitment to providing personalized service to our clients while being able to offer them the expanded services of a larger firm. We are very pleased to join the SSF team, and we look forward to the future ahead." About Sensiba San Filippo With 40 years of experience, Sensiba San Filippo LLP (SSF) ranks among the region's top 10 public accounting firms. Offering comprehensive assurance, tax and consulting services, the Firm has global expertise with a regional focus. As a member of Morison KSI, SSF is a part of an international association of affiliated accounting firms that supports their clients' global business needs in over 88 countries. Headquartered in Pleasanton, the Firm has offices in Oakland, San Mateo, San Jose, Morgan Hill and San Francisco. For more information, visit www.ssfllp.com. Contact: Jennifer Cantero Sensiba San Filippo LLP 925.271.8700 jcantero@ssfllp.com WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Senate Democrats are calling on the Office of Congressional Ethics to investigate President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for Health and Human Services Secretary, suggesting that Congressman Tom Price, R-Ga., may have engaged in insider trading. The Democratic lawmakers pointed to a Wall Street Journal report alleging that Price traded more than $300,000 worth of shares of healthcare companies while simultaneously pushing and advocating for legislation that could impact the companies' stock prices. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the reports about Price's health-related stock trading should 'shock and appall every American.' 'In the spirit of 'draining the swamp,' we need to ensure that our nominees for top cabinet posts prioritize the welfare of all Americans over their own financial gain,' Schumer said. Schumer was joined by Senators Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., the top Democrats on the Senate committees that will hold confirmation hearings on Price's nomination as HHS Secretary. The Senators argued that Price's nomination should not move forward until the questions about his stock trading are adequately answered. 'We don't know if he broke the law,' Schumer said. 'But there certainly are enough serious questions to warrant a serious investigation before any hearing is held on Congressman Price to become Secretary of HHS.' 'This is serious stuff. And that's why we need full investigations, with plenty of questions and full disclosure,' he added. 'We do not believe any of these hearings should be rushed through.' Schumer noted that Democrats were able to able to make the request after House Republicans reversed course on a proposal he claims would have gutted the Office of Congressional Ethics. 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. MONTREAL, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 01/05/17 -- Cogeco Inc. (TSX: CGO) and Cogeco Communications Inc. (TSX: CCA) will hold their Annual Shareholders' Meetings on Thursday, January 12, 2017 at 11:30 a.m. (EST) at the Centre Mount-Royal in Montreal (2200 Mansfield Street). During this time, both companies' financial results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2017, ended November 30, 2016, will also be disclosed. A live webcast of the Annual Shareholders' Meetings will be available on the Cogeco website at http://corpo.cogeco.com/cgo/en/investors/shareholders-meetings/. A conference call for financial analysts will be held just prior to the Annual Shareholders' Meeting on Thursday, January 12, 2017 at 9:30 a.m. (EST) to discuss the companies' financial and operating results. Media representatives may attend as listeners only. A live audio webcast of the call with financial analysts will be available on the Cogeco website at http://corpo.cogeco.com/cgo/en/investors/. Please use the following dial-in number to have access to the conference call 5 to 10 minutes before the start of the conference: Canada/USA Access Number: 1-800-347-6311 International Access Number: +1-438-968-3557 Confirmation Code: 3838378 Both Cogeco Inc.'s and Cogeco Communications Inc.'s annual reports and press releases summarizing fiscal year 2016 highlights are available on SEDAR. Contacts: Source: Patrice Ouimet Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Cogeco Inc. and Cogeco Communications Inc. 514-764-4700 Information: Rene Guimond Senior Vice President, Public Affairs and Communications Cogeco Inc. and Cogeco Communications Inc. 514-764-4700 Jan. 4 Jason E. Stout, 34, of Spring Creek was arrested at 389 Lakeport Bay for domestic battery. Bail: $3,140. _____ Wendy L. Carranza-Natividad, 23, of Elko was arrested in the Elko County Jail for battery and disturbing the peace. No bail listed. _____ Bryant W. Donahue, 30, of Spring Creek was arrested at 692 Castle Rock Drive for two counts of possession of a controlled substance and eight counts of failure to appear after bail on a misdemeanor crime. Bail: $14,085. _____ Robby D. George, 37, of Elko was arrested on East Jennings Way for driving with a suspended drivers license and following another vehicle too closely. Bail: $550. _____ Soumaly Hurtado, 26, of Fillmore, Utah, was arrested at 680 West Wendover Blvd. on a warrant for a fugitive felon from another state. No bail listed. _____ Jorge L. Samora, 31, of Wells was arrested at Sixth Street and Highway 93 for contempt of court. Bail: $500. _____ Jeraldine G. Thomas, 48, was arrested at the parole and probation office on a warrant for two counts of failure to appear after bail on a misdemeanor crime. Bail: $500. _____ Philip A. Wilson, 21, of Carlin was arrested at 278 Chestnut St. for driving with a revoked drivers license for driving under the influence. Bail: $1,255. WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Crude oil futures rose for a second day Thursday, after government data confirmed a big drop in US oil stockpiles. The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that crude stockpiles declined by 7.1 million barrels for the week ended Dec. 30. Gasoline supplies rose 8.3 million barrels. Feb. oil climbed 50 cents, or 0.9%, to settle at $53.76/bbl. Traders will be looking for clues that OPEC members are cutting production to start the new year, as agreed to back in November. Iraq is claiming its autonomous Kurdish region is breaking the deal by pumping more than their quota. In a key prelude to Friday's official jobs report, payroll company ADP reported weaker than expected private sector job growth in the month of December. A separate report from the Labor Department said first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits fell by much more than expected in the week ended December 31st. The report said initial jobless claims dropped to 235,000, a decrease of 28,000 from the previous week's revised level of 263,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to edge down to 260,000. Meanwhile, the Institute for Supply Management released a report showing that service sector activity maintained its rate of growth in December. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. SAN ANTONIO, TX -- (Marketwired) -- 01/05/17 -- Sigma Corporation of America, a leading DSLR lens, camera, flash and accessory manufacturer, will exhibit its full line of professional Global Vision and Cine lenses as well as the company's Quattro cameras and digital imaging accessories at the 2017 Imaging USA Expo, held at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas from January 8-10, 2017 on booth 225. Attendees are invited to the Sigma Studio where they can sign out and test-drive, on their own camera, a Sigma lens for up to one hour. Imaging USA attendees can also check out a Sigma lens at the end of day for an "off the convention center floor," overnight test-drive experience. Lens test-drive options encompass the entire Sigma Global Vision lens line-up at Imaging USA 2017, including the brand new Sigma Global Vision 85mm F1.4 DG HSM Art and 12-24mm F4 DG HSM Art lenses. In addition to the Sigma Studio and Sigma overnight test-drives, attendees can learn about the brand new sd Quattro H mirrorless camera and enter the daily raffle to win one of Sigma's big ticket items -- 24mm F1.4 DG HSM Art, 35mm F1.4 DG HSM Art or 50mm F1.4 DG HSM Art lenses. Perfecting the Shot - Hear About It in the Sigma Theater Sigma Pros Jen Rozenbaum, Jim Schmelzer and Judy Host will be sharing the latest tips and techniques in the Sigma Theater. Engaging presentation topics include empowering body positivity with boudoir photography, designing the perfect portrait with minimal equipment, using optics to add impact and convey emotion, and the importance of image composition. What's New on the Sigma Booth at Imaging USA 2017 New additions to this year's presence at Imaging USA include: The Ultimate Portrait Lens: Sigma 85mm F1.4 DG HSM Art Lens The high-performance optical system is purpose-built by Sigma R&D to produce the attractive bokeh effect sought after by discerning photographers. The lens' advanced architecture features two SLD (special low dispersion) glass elements and one glass element with a high rate of anomalous partial dispersion and refraction. The high-performance optical system is purpose-built by Sigma R&D to produce the attractive bokeh effect sought after by discerning photographers. The lens' advanced architecture features two SLD (special low dispersion) glass elements and one glass element with a high rate of anomalous partial dispersion and refraction. Wide-Angle Photo Perfection: Sigma 12-24mm F4 DG HSM ArtLens Encompassing the long history of Sigma's wide-angle lens development expertise, the new 12-24mm F4 Art Lens' performance highlights include constant F4 brightness and the brand new Sigma AF system with 1.3X torque boost. With a minimum focus distance of 9.4 inches from the image sensor at 24mm, photographers can compose incredible close-up shots with expansive backgrounds. Encompassing the long history of Sigma's wide-angle lens development expertise, the new 12-24mm F4 Art Lens' performance highlights include constant F4 brightness and the brand new Sigma AF system with 1.3X torque boost. With a minimum focus distance of 9.4 inches from the image sensor at 24mm, photographers can compose incredible close-up shots with expansive backgrounds. The Cine High Speed Zoom Line - 18-35mm T2 and 50-100mm T2 The high speed zoom line offers the constant aperture of T2 throughout the zoom range with superior optical performance that is capable of high-resolution 6K-8K shooting. Delivering the highest image quality in its class, the High Speed Zoom is ergonomically compact and designed for E, EF and PL camera system mounts. The high speed zoom line offers the constant aperture of T2 throughout the zoom range with superior optical performance that is capable of high-resolution 6K-8K shooting. Delivering the highest image quality in its class, the High Speed Zoom is ergonomically compact and designed for E, EF and PL camera system mounts. The Cine FF High Speed Prime Line - 20mm T1.5 FF, the 24mm T1.5 FF, 35mm T1.5 FF, the 50mm T1.5 FF and the 85mm T1.5 FF The Cine High Speed Prime lineup features lenses ranging from 20mm to 85mm, with all five touting an aperture of T1.5. Highly compact and compatible with full-frame sensors, these lenses offer superior resolution. They bring a consistent level of light to the production, offering greater consistency to any film's color, contrast and overall look before it enters post-production. The FF High Speed Prime line is designed for E, EF and PL camera system mounts. The Cine High Speed Prime lineup features lenses ranging from 20mm to 85mm, with all five touting an aperture of T1.5. Highly compact and compatible with full-frame sensors, these lenses offer superior resolution. They bring a consistent level of light to the production, offering greater consistency to any film's color, contrast and overall look before it enters post-production. The FF High Speed Prime line is designed for E, EF and PL camera system mounts. Sigma sd Quattro & sd Quattro H - Leveraging high-quality Foveon sensors, both the sd Quattro and sd Quattro H deliver superb image results. The sd Quattro H is now shipping and is the first Sigma mirrorless camera to support DNG format in addition to Sigma's original RAW format (X3F). It also offers a 51-megapixel equivalent resolution and a new DC crop mode. Sigma Lens Test-Drive and Short-Term Loan Details During show hours and in the Sigma Studio, Sigma lenses will be available for a test-drive for up to one hour on a first come, first serve basis. Sigma one hour test-drive loans are restricted to shooting professional models in the Sigma Studio. Overnight loans of Sigma lenses are also available at the end of each show day on a first come, first serve basis. Overnight loans are due back at show open the following day. No overnight loans are available the last day of the show. A credit card and driver's license, or equivalent identification, are required to borrow lenses. Must be over 18 years of age. About Sigma Corporation Craftsmanship. Precision. Dedication. Since 1961, Sigma has been devoted the pursuit of advancing photographic technology. Unique to the industry, the family-owned business produces its high-quality, award-winning camera lenses, Cinema lenses, DSLR cameras, flashes, filters and accessories from its state-of-the-art manufacturing facility located in Aizu, Japan. In 2012, the company introduced the Sigma Global Vision with three distinct lens lines: Art, Contemporary and Sport. Designed for industry camera mount systems including Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Pentax, Sony and Sigma, each lens is handcrafted and tested in Japan to ensure a high-performance, premium product that is purpose-built to last. In 2016, Sigma entered into the world of Cinematography lens production. Embodying the core optical DNA that has defined the Sigma benchmark of excellence, the Cine lenses meet needs of advanced 6k and 8k cinema production. Sigma continues its tradition of imaging excellence with the mirrorless sd Quattro, sd Quattro H and the compact dp Quattro camera line. Leveraging the ultra-high resolution Foveon sensor, the Sigma Quattro cameras are designed to produce the highest quality image with every shot. For information about Sigma, please visit www.sigmaphoto.com or follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or Blog. Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3096215 Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3096218 Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3096221 Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3096224 Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3096227 Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3096230 Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3096233 Anya Nelson Media Group for Sigma Corporation 617-817-6559 Email Contact TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 01/05/17 -- Cyrus Capital Partners, L.P. ("CCP") announces that FBC Holdings S.a r.l ("FBC"), an investment fund managed by CCP, received 3,105,137 common shares ("Common Shares") of Sphere 3D Corporation ("Sphere 3D") in lieu of an interest payment due on the the 8% senior secured convertible debenture in the principal amount $24,500,000 issued by Sphere 3D to FBC (the "Debenture"). The 3,105,137 Common Shares issued to FBC, which represent 5.65% of the 54,988,137 issued and outstanding Common Shares of Sphere 3D, were issued to satisfy an interest payment of $1,326,661.45, implying a value of $0.4272 per Common Share. Before the transaction, CCP, through the Funds and FBC had indirect control over 7,717,389 Common Shares. CCP also had indirect control over 1,300,000 Warrants held by FBC and the Debenture that is convertible into 8,166,667 Common Shares. If FBC were to have converted the Debenture and the Warrants, FBC and the Funds would have held and CCP would have indirectly controlled, on a partially diluted basis, an aggregate of 17,184,056 Common Shares, or approximately 28.01% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares. This is calculated on the basis that there would have been 61,349,667 Common Shares of Sphere 3D issued and outstanding (comprised of the then issued 51,883,000 Common Shares, plus the 8,166,667 Common Shares issuable on the conversion of the Debenture and the 1,300,000 Common Shares issuable on the conversion of the Warrants). After the transaction, CCP, through the Funds and FBC has indirect control over 10,822,526 Common Shares. CCP also has indirect control over 1,300,000 Warrants held by FBC and the Debenture that is convertible into 8,166,667 Common Shares. If FBC converts the Debenture and the Warrants, FBC and the Funds would hold and CCP would have indirect control over, on a partially diluted basis, an aggregate of 20,289,193 Common Shares, or approximately 31.48% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares. This is calculated on the basis that there would be 64,454,804 Common Shares of Sphere 3D issued and outstanding (comprised of the currently issued 51,883,000 Common Shares, plus the 8,166,667 Common Shares issuable on the conversion of the Debenture, the 1,300,000 Common Shares issuable on the conversion of the Warrants and the 3,105,137 Common Shares issued in lieu of an interest payment due on the Debenture). FBC and each of the Funds are joint actors in connection with the disclosure required by this press release. Other Information CCP acquired indirect control over, and FBC and the Funds acquired ownership of, the Common Shares that are the subject of this release for investment purposes. None of CCP, FBC or the Funds has any current plans or future intentions which relate to or would result in any of the matters enumerated in paragraphs (a) - (k) of Item 5 of the report on Form 62-103F1 being filed connection with the matters disclosed in this release. Notwithstanding the foregoing, in connection with the investment by FBC and the Funds in the Common Shares, CCP may engage in communications with members of management and the board of directors of Sphere 3D, other current or prospective shareholders, industry analysts, existing or potential strategic partners or competitors, investment and financing professionals, sources of credit and other investors with respect to Sphere 3D. CCP intends to review FBC's and the Funds' investment in Sphere 3D on a continuing basis. Depending on various factors including, without limitation, Sphere 3D's financial position, the price levels of the Common Shares, conditions in the securities markets and general economic and industry conditions, CCP's, FBC's or the Funds' business or financial condition and other factors and conditions CCP deems appropriate, FBC and/or the Funds may in the future take such actions with respect to their investment in Sphere 3D as CCP deems appropriate including, without limitation, seeking additional board representation, making proposals to Sphere 3D concerning changes to the capitalization, ownership structure or operations of Sphere 3D, acquiring additional Common Shares, and/or selling or otherwise disposing of some or all of their Common Shares. In addition, CCP may formulate other purposes, plans or proposals regarding Sphere 3D or any of its securities to the extent deemed advisable in light of general investment and trading policies, market conditions or other factors or may change its intention with respect to any and all matters referred to in Item 5 of the report on Form 62-103F1 being filed connection with the matters disclosed in this release. Except as specifically indicated in this press release, neither the issuance of this press release in connection with the matters disclosed herein nor the anticipated filing by CCP of the corresponding "early warning" report required to be filed in accordance with applicable Canadian securities laws is an admission that an entity named or otherwise referred to in this press release owns or controls any described securities or is a joint actor with another entity named or otherwise referred to in this press release. CCP's address and other contact information is set forth below. For further information, including to obtain a copy, once filed, of the "early warning" report required to be filed in accordance with applicable Canadian securities laws, contact CCP at the address specified below. CCP was formed under the laws of Delaware and is an SEC registered investment adviser. Cyrus Capital Partners, L.P. 399 Park Avenue, 39th Floor New York, NY 10022 United States of America Contacts: Thomas Stamatelos Chief Operating Officer (212) 380-5800 LAS VEGAS, NV and KIRKLAND, WA -- (Marketwired) -- 01/05/17 -- CES -- Nytec, an award winning integrated design, engineering, and manufacturing management consulting firm providing end-to-end solutions to make consumer lifestyle technology products a reality, announced today that it is the primary hardware technology partner for Carnival's Ocean Medallion guest experience transformation, which was shared with the public during today's CES keynote address by Carnival Corporation CEO, Arnold Donald. Nytec is a development partner for the design, engineering, and manufacturing management of the overall Internet of Things (IoT) hardware technology and intelligence sensor network platform created by Carnival Corporation to revolutionize the guest experiences. "This has been an incredible project. Carnival came to us with a very challenging initiative that demanded the vision, creativity, and experience our global design, engineering and manufacturing teams have. We partnered closely with Carnival's experience and innovation team from concept to creation, delivering a transformative innovation enabling the world's first interactive guest experience, that will revolutionize the vacation industry," said Vice President of Nytec Product Innovation Center, Vincent Ball. "We are honored that we were chosen to help make Carnival Corporation's connected guest experience vision a reality. This perfectly aligns with Nytec's mission, and long history of successfully delivering innovative products and services over the last 41 years," said CEO of Nytec, Rich Lerz. "Nytec was among the earliest partners engaged to help us bring to life Ocean Experiences powered by Ocean Medallions. We presented them with a complex set of design and engineering challenges necessary to transform the vacation guest experience. And their team of world-class designers, engineers, and manufacturing experts translated our complex vision into compellingly simple, elegant, and viable solutions," said Michael Jungen, senior vice president of guest experience design and technology for Carnival Corporation. "Nytec's expertise and hands-on approach supported us end-to-end in delivering a guest-centric, Internet of Things approach to an unprecedented and harmonious guest experience." Bringing Carnival's Dreams into Reality To connect physical and digital experiences onboard cruise ships, Nytec helped create a unique system of integrated intelligent sensors and readers and the Ocean Medallion, a technologically advanced IoT wearable built with a complex number of electronic components embedded inside. Ocean Medallion: The small, lightweight, waterproof Ocean Medallion is designed to have no discernible technology -- no on/off switch, no charging, no menu to navigate. Inside each quarter-sized, 1.8-ounce round Ocean Medallion are multiple communication technologies including Near Field Communication (NFC) and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). It can be worn on a wristband, as a pendant on a necklace, in a clip or simply placed in a pocket to unlock enhanced services and personalized experience without guests having to push a button or take any action. Intelligent Sensor Network: The engineering team partnered with Carnival to create an invisible network of interactive intelligent sensors and embedded devices mounted throughout the ship, homeports and destinations linking hardware and software for a unified Experience Platform. The network can be deployable on any ship regardless of its age or size. Each element of the complex shipboard platform was developed to withstand environmental challenges and reliably deliver seamless connections. Nytec's engineers also partnered with Carnival's Experience and Innovation team to test and refine approximately ~75 miles or ~120 km of wires, ~6000 sensors, and ~650 readers, plus additional software networking requirements that enable the Ocean Medallion bring the guest experience to life. Connected Guest Experience: Nytec helped create and deploy numerous innovative experience platform components including: A patent pending Intelligent Guest Door solution -- Guests easily and securely access their stateroom without the need for a room key with NFC, BLE, proximity, and capacitive sensors, along with external smart touch-display screens A Smart Display System inside every stateroom -- Guests have personalized concierge experience, easily manage their stateroom and daily itineraries, and can keep up with the latest on-cruise activities from the personalized 55" touch display. An Ocean Medallion based payment POS system with Medallion Pay -- Guests easily pay for merchandise or services through the touch of their Ocean Medallion In addition, Nytec contributed to numerous other value added innovations like food service displays, Digital Media Players, In-room smart controls, etc. Operational Efficiencies: The unique network of systems created not only serves as a foundation for the Ocean Medallion Class Guest Experience, but also allows the corporation to achieve enormous operational efficiencies like streamlining in-room cleaning, overall labor, eliminating paper, and many other benefits. Availability Princess Cruises will be the first cruise brand in the corporation's fleet to feature the enhanced personal service when Medallion Class Ocean Vacations debut on Regal Princess in late 2017. Each Ocean Medallion is engineered, manufactured with the latest technological innovations, and personalized with laser engraving for every guest. Guests receive their Ocean Medallion in advance of their trip. Editor's Note Nytec CES Booth Details Venetian, Level 4 - Zone 4609 Carnival Corporation's OCEAN Experience Center, Las Vegas Convention Center, South Hall, Booth 31500 ABOUT NYTEC, INC. Nytec is an award-winning, integrated consulting firm with over 40 years of proven success turning ideas into real, first-of-a-kind, lifestyle technology products for tier-one global and Fortune 100 companies. Nytec's world-class designers, engineers, and manufacturing experts specialize in translating complex problems, anchored around delivering the ultimate user experience into compelling, simple solutions that span hardware, software and services. With a global footprint of dedicated employees, Nytec's industry-leading Client Services Division provides customizable talent solutions to satisfy any staffing requirements, either onsite, offsite, or project based. Nytec is also able to manage highly complex projects end-to-end at their Product Innovation Center, equipped with cutting-edge design and engineering labs. Nytec's unique business model and sophisticated facilities allow clients to push beyond the boundaries of technology, and creatively solve challenges across design, firmware, electrical and mechanical initiatives to engineer complete solutions. With offices around the world, Nytec teams work seamlessly with a vast portfolio of trusted manufacturing partners, to ensure every detail is refined, from start-to-finish, creating exceptional design, execution, and quality. Nytec's integrated end-to-end management approach delivers the right product, with the right experience, at the right time. For more information, please visit http://www.Nytec.com or call +1.425.968.5715. ABOUT CARNIVAL CORPORATION & PLC Carnival Corporation & plc is the largest leisure travel company in the world, with a portfolio of 10 cruise brands in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia comprised of Carnival Cruise Line, Fathom, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, Seabourn, AIDA Cruises, Costa Cruises, Cunard, P&O Cruises Press & (Australia) and P&O Cruises (UK). Together, these brands operate 102 ships visiting over 700 ports around the world and totaling 226,000 lower berths with 17 new ships scheduled to be delivered between 2017 and 2022. Carnival Corporation & plc also operates Holland America Princess Alaska Tours, the leading tour companies in Alaska and the Canadian Yukon. Traded on both the New York and London Stock Exchanges, Carnival Corporation & plc is the only group in the world to be included in both the S&P500and the FTSE 100 indices. Additional information can be found on www.carnival.com, www.hollandamerica.com, www.seabourn.com, www.aida.de, www.costacruise.com, www.cunard.com, www.pocruises.com.au, www.pocruises.com and www.fathom.org. Embedded Video Available Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3096243 Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3096206 Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3096209 Embedded Video Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3096260 MEDIA CONTACT INFORMATION Heidi Groshelle for Nytec, Inc. Groshelle Communications 415.307.1380 press@nytec.com CALGARY, ALBERTA -- (Marketwired) -- 01/05/17 -- The Western Canada Alliance of Wall and Ceiling Contractors ("Alliance") extends its sincere gratitude to The Honourable Bill Morneau and his staff for the most helpful work that has been done regarding the imposition of anti-dumping duties on gypsum board exported from United States. "If it were not for the creative and thoughtful efforts by the Minister and his staff, we would not have had the opportunity to be heard by the Tribunal on the downstream harm caused to our industry by the imposition of the stark and harmful price increases which took effect overnight following the imposition of preliminary duties," said Neal Pollock, of TDL Drywall Inc., Calgary and a member of the Alliance who, along with other members, participated in Tribunal proceedings. "The Minister immediately recognized the need to understand the downstream impact of the duties on users including small and medium sized contractors in Western Canada. He acted quickly to set up a process before the Canadian International Trade Tribunal whereby their views could be heard. No previous Ministers of Finance have supported small and medium-sized businesses as much as the Minister has done in this case." As Mr. Pollock said yesterday, the Alliance also thanks the Tribunal for their findings and recommendations issued yesterday regarding the impact of anti-dumping duties on the construction sector across Western Canada and on the Canadian economy. " The Alliance looks forward to reviewing the Tribunal's reasons and strongly encourages the Government to immediately implement the recommendations," said Mr. Pollock. "To maintain our industry's economic viability, Western Canada's construction industry must be predictable and stable. We cannot be hit by significant overnight product cost increases that will put our livelihoods at risk," he concluded. About The Western Canada Alliance of Wall and Ceiling Contractors The Alliance membership includes 23 small and medium size businesses in Western Canada who are in the business of acquiring and installing drywall in various commercial, institutional and residential applications. Alliance members employ thousands of installers and tradespeople in the construction sector across Western Canada. Contractor Members of the Alliance include: Gypsum Drywall (Southern) Ltd, TDL Drywall Inc., AWCC Contractor Group, DVS Drywall Contractors Ltd., Alpine Drywall Ltd., Gordon "N" Gordon Interiors Ltd., Winwood Construction Ltd., Drystar Wall & Ceiling Ltd., Crystal Consulting Inc., Peninsula Wall and Ceiling Ltd., Comren, Power Drywall (2005) Ltd., Fine Drywall Ltd., City Projects Ltd., Dryco Systems Inc., Ron's Drywall Ltd., Lansons Drywall Systems Ltd., Kodiak Drywall Ltd., Littco Enterprises Ltd., United Drywall (Edmonton) Ltd., K. Sleva Contracting Ltd., WCS Construction Ltd., Excel Interior Contracting. Contacts: Colleen Finnegan Finnegan Communications 416.618.4605 colleen@finneganpr.ca Fiona Johnston Finnegan Communications 647.466.6769 fiona@finneganpr.ca LAS VEGAS, January 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Integration of real-time location data and leading user interface tools Rightware, the leading provider of user interface software for the automotive industry, and HERE, the leading global provider of location services, today announced a collaboration aimed at making it easier and faster for automotive developers to integrate real-time location data into beautifully-designed user interfaces. (Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/450675/Rightware_Logo.jpg ) In the collaboration, Rightware's Kanzi UI software and HERE's Open Location Platform are integrated to provide developers with a powerful toolset for designing seamless user interfaces that incorporate innovative location data. Rightware and HERE are demonstrating the collaboration to selected audiences at CES 2017 in Las Vegas. The integration makes it possible for automotive developers to create and design user interfaces utilizing real-time location services as an integral part of the user interface. The HERE Open Location Platform's cloud-based, API-driven architecture significantly reduces the development time of modern automotive applications and offers a rich data set where developers can choose the right data for each use case. "Integration of HERE Open Location Platform with our Kanzi UI software gives automotive developers the ability to use location data as an integral part of automotive user interfaces," said Jonas Geust, CEO at Rightware. "This opens new possibilities for car manufacturers to provide modern connected car services where location-based data can be used to dramatically improve the digital user experience in future cars." "With access to a vast array of real-time location data from the cloud, the vehicle will offer rich possibilities for new, personalized and differentiated experiences," said Nicholas Goubert, VP of Product at HERE. "With the Open Location Platform, we are striving to make it easier for innovative partners such as Rightware to access that location data and do cools things with it. Our collaboration also shows what can be created in just a short space of time." About Rightware Rightware is the market leader in advanced user interface technology, serving the automotive industry and other embedded industries with its Kanzi software product family for rapid user interface design and deployment. Featured on Deloitte's "Fast 50" list of most rapidly growing tech companies in 2016, Rightware is headquartered in Helsinki, Finland with a presence in Silicon Valley, Detroit, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai, Turin, London and Munich. About HERE HERE, the Open Location Platform company, enables people, enterprises and cities to harness the power of location. By making sense of the world through the lens of location we empower our customers to achieve better outcomes - from helping a city manage its infrastructure or an enterprise optimize its assets to guiding drivers to their destination safely. To learn more about HERE, including our new generation of cloud-based location platform services, visit http://360.here.com and http://www.here.com Contact: Ying Xiong, Marketing Manager, +358440915076, ying.xiong@rightware.com Fugue, Inc., a Frederick, Md.-based provider of a software-defined cloud orchestration and enforcement system, closed an approximately $41m Series D financing. The round, which brought total funding to more than $75m, was led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), with participation from previous investor Maryland Venture Fund and new investor Future Fund, the sovereign wealth fund of Australia. The company plans to use the funds to accelerate its go-to-market strategy and accelerate product development. Led by Co-founder and CEO Josh Stella, Fugue provides a dynamic, software-defined cloud orchestration and enforcement system that aims to enable users to manage cloud infrastructure at scale and supports them through the entire cloud journey, from migrating legacy applications from the datacenter to deploying modern workloads that leverage todays container-based and serverless services. The company is now preparing to launch new enterprise-grade cloud infrastructure automation products that provide enhanced capabilities for team collaboration, dynamic infrastructure control, and continuous enforcement of regulatory compliance. FinSMEs 05/01/2017 Namely, a NYC-based HR platform for mid-sized companies, raised $50M in Series D financing. Backers included new investors Altimeter Capital and Scale Venture Partners and previous investors Sequoia Capital, Matrix Partners, and True Ventures. The company, which has raised $157.8M in total financing, intends to use the funds to continue to expand its offerings and operations. Led by Matt Straz, Founder and CEO, Brian Crofts, VP of Product, Nick Sanchez, Chief People Officer, and Manuel Martinez-Herrera, VP of Legal & Compliance, Namely provides an HR platform for companies to handle all of their HR, payroll, and benefits in a single place as well as dedicated account support. In addition, the company is introducing time management as a core feature, which includes both software and hardware to manage hourly employees, and is announcing a new benefits offering, Namely Health Advantage, which allows mid-sized companies to offer their employees healthcare plans at preferred rates. Namelys service is now used by over 650 clients with over 120,000 employees globally and $4B in annual payroll processed. In 2016, the company hired over 100 employees, expanded its New York headquarters, moved into a new office in San Francisco, and opened an office in Austin. FinSMEs 05/01/2017 The release of Vishal Mishra's underworld comedy Coffee with D has been indefinitely postponed. While the makers remain tight-lipped about the reason, it is suspected that repeated threats by Dawood Ibrahim's associates are the cause. It was reported earlier that both Mishra and the lead actor Sunil Grover had been getting threat calls from the underworld, particularly from Chhota Shakeel who is considered the right hand of Ibrahim. They have taken offence three instances in the trailer of the film in which Ibrahim's character has been depicted in a comical light. Now, the underworld has also made threat calls to the producer Vinod Ramani who, along with Mishra, has sought help from the Delhi police. Ramani claims that Shakeel is demanding the deletion of those comical references to Ibrahim, failing which they will unleash dire consequences on the makers' families. "From the time of the release of the trailer, it hasn't been quite easy. We are being hopeful and taking each day as it comes. As of now, the release has been postponed," says Mishra. It is not the first time that a film has been made with a character based on Ibrahim. Anurag Kashyap's 2007 film Black Friday was the first one that dared to take the underworld don's name out loud. When filmmaker Sanjay Gupta tried to use Ibrahim's name in his 2013 film Shootout at Wadala, he received similar threats and was forced to change the name of Sonu Sood's character to Dilawar. Apparently, Vivek Oberoi's memorable role of Maya in the prequel Shootout at Lokhandwala was also inspired from Ibrahim. Filmmaker Ram Gopal Verma was also seemingly fascinated by Ibrahim as he made two films where the protagonist was modeled on the underworld don Ajay Devgn's 2002 film Company and Randeep Hooda's 2005 film D. Another filmmaker intrigued by the don was Milan Luthria who designed Emran Hashmi's and Akshay Kumar's characters in the Once Upon A Time In Mumbai franchise after Ibrahim. Two veteran actors also brought Ibrahim to life on celluloid when Rishi Kapoor donned the signature sunglasses in Nikhil Adwani's 2013 film D-Day and when Vinod Khanna sported the familiar gaze in Vishram Sawant's 2007 film Risk. It is possible that Coffee with D was also following suit. But making a mockery out of the infamous personality rather than glorifying him is what has probably landed the makers in a soup. Bollywood is set to witness a clash of the titans when Hrithik Roshan's Kaabil will lock horns with Shah Rukh Khan's Raees on January 25. Both films were earlier scheduled to release on Republic Day but Rakesh Roshan, in a bid to avert the clash, advanced the release of Kaabil by a day. But that did not really help matters as Raees too announced its release date as January 25 soon after. Hrithik Roshan speaks to Firstpost about the clash: Look, now that is the way it is. What can we do if the clash is happening? Maybe because they couldnt find a better date. It is not illegal. Thinking about it is a waste of time, and something that is not under my control doesnt bother me. We can do the best, I should do the best for my film, Ritesh (Sidhwani, producer, Raees) and Shah Rukh should do the best for their film. Hrithik further says that the clash is only business and theres no compromise on his friendship with Shah Rukh. We are in a business. We are also in a friendship. Both should be in their place. We should understand that business is business and friendship is friendship. Raees and Kaabil can clash but the friendship and business should not clash. Once you got that sorted out then youre at peace. Everything teaches you something and every experience is a good experience. Im looking forward to the clash because its something new for me. Its happening for the first time with my film so Im going to enjoy, says the actor. Hrithik plays a visually impaired person in Kaabil, and if one counts Rakesh Roshans Koi Mil Gaya, and Sanjay Leela Bhansalis Guzaarish, then this is the third time that the actor is playing the part of a specially-abled man. Talking about prepping up for the role, he says, I would put a blindfold on and walk around in my house from one room to another trying to figure out where were the pieces of furniture. That was the starting point. Other than that, I amassed as much information and awareness by meeting, chatting, discussing with some of my visually impaired friends. Preparation continued throughout the film and I completed shooting my part in 60 days, which has been the fastest so far. But on the 50th day of the shoot I was thinking that this film should have been spread over eight months so that in six months I would have become pro at playing blind. Hrithik says he was initially supposed to play a helpless character in the film but after meeting his blind friends, the script of the film underwent a dramatic change. Initially we thought that my character should have that helplessness to garner sympathy because then it becomes easy to get audiences on your side and that becomes an actors crutch as well. Like what we showed in Koi Mil Gaya, whatever happens around the boy creates sympathy for the character making it into an author-backed role. But when I met these visually impaired friends I realised that there were no signs of helplessness or vulnerability in them. They were seen smiling all the time and leading no lesser a life. I realised that we were not showing the reality and we changed all that. I decided to give up on the actors crutch by playing a normal, regular guy which is a bit risky but its a more fun, refreshing and honest depiction of the character. This may break the conditioned mindset about visually impaired people," he says. "After doing films like Krrish, Bang Bang and Mohenjo Daro, Kaabil is one film where you cant lie at all. You cant be a hero. You have to be real. You have to be yourself. So that was a challenge. I was doing a film like this after a very long time. Also, I was completely blown away by the visually impaired people I interacted with. There is a blind CEO of a country who is a millionaire, there is a blind photographer who is famous nationwide, there are blind body-builders, musicians, guitarists...My take away from the film is inspiration and I have evolved as an actor, he adds. While there have been strong rumours that Hrithiks next film is with Karan Johar's Dharma Productions' to be helmed by Karan Malhotra (director, Agneepath) opposite debutante Sara Ali Khan (Saif Khans daughter) and that it is set to go on floors next month, Hrithik denied the news. There is no official truth to that. It might be discussed but so far nothing has happened, he says, further adding, There is nothing after Kaabil as of now but I wish there was something. I am still searching for a good project. Krrish 4 will happen but there is still lot of time for that. Hrithik had recently expressed interest in working on a film scripted by Twinkle Khanna, who has often charmed us with her sharp wit and humorous take on things. In a candid Twitter chat, the actor had asked Twinkle to write a two-hero film for him, so that he and Akshay can share the screen space. Twinkle is a great writer and if something humourous comes up with Akshay and me then that would be great. They are also my neighbours, says Hrithik, who is most likely to appear on Karan Johar's chat show Koffee With Karan. But I cant reveal who I will be coming with, he says. Beating top Hollywood stars like Johnny Depp and Brad Pitt, Hrithik emerged as the worlds third most handsome face in an online poll by a website, Worldstopmost.com conducted recently. Reacting to it, the actor signed off saying, Well, I have nothing to do with this competition. It happened in somebody elses mind, somebody elses thought and somebody decided to print it. I have nothing to do with it. Its definitely not an achievement, it is just a compliment. New Delhi: States on Wednesday demanded fiscal stimulus from Centre to deal with shortfall in tax revenues post demonetisation as well as allowing them to borrow more funds from the market to boost spending on infrastructure. At their pre-budget meeting with Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, states demanded higher outlay for rural employment generation programmes, revival of National Rural Drinking Water Programme and launching of new schemes for urban poor. They also sought more funds for agriculture, irrigation, unorganised, MSME and service sectors, among others. "Common suggestions made during the meeting included more focus on relaxing FRBM limit in case of states for raising their borrowing capacity by raising it by 1 percent or at least by 0.5 percent, expansion of bank branches in most remote areas of the country and expressed need for giving fiscal stimulus," Finance Ministry said in a statement issued after the meeting. The meeting was also marked by West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra staging an angry walkout, saying there was "financial emergency" and "political environment of fear" in the country. This came in the backdrop of CBI arresting his party's leader in the Lok Sabha Sudip Bandyopadhyay last night for his alleged involvement in a ponzi scheme. States also demanded certainty about devolution of funds well in advance and said any changes should be made with adequate notice so that they can plan accordingly and make effective use of funds. They also wanted limit of NABARD refinancing of cooperative bank loans to farmers be raised for extending affordable credit to them, higher MSPs be declared for pulses and coarse cereals and timely release of funds for centrally sponsored schemes such as Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan and Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan, among others. Jaitley, on his part, said various steps taken by the Centre in recent past to unearth black money will help in curbing corruption and making the economy more cleaner, transparent and efficient. The world economy is passing through a difficult phase and is quite fragile, he said, adding macro and micro indicators are quite strong and India is able to emerge as one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Jaitley said multifarious reforms initiated by the Central government in recent past would be taken forward in the coming months and urged the states to work together for putting India on the path of higher growth. "It was suggested that there is need to move from fiscal federalism to resource federalism," the statement added. For full coverage of Union Budget 2017 click here. The Reserve Bank of India has clarified that it is taking all steps to expeditiously complete the computing of the deposits received after the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes from 9 November and will release the numbers at the earliest. The periodical deposit figures released earlier were based on aggregation of accounting entries done at the currency chests all over the country, the RBI said in release posted on its website. "Now that the Scheme has come to an end on December 30, 2016, these figures would need to be reconciled with the physical cash balances to eliminate accounting errors/ possible double counts etc. RBI has already initiated this process and till this is completed any estimate may not indicate the actual numbers of the SBNs that have been returned," the clarification said. The clarification comes in the wake of reports that the banks have received deposits close to Rs 15 lakh crore, of estimated Rs 15.4 lakh crore worth junked currency notes that were in circulation, from the 50-day demonetisation exercise. A PTI report citing sources said between Rs 14.5 lakh crore and Rs 15 lakh crore may have come back into the banking system and RBI is still doing reconciliation and cross-checking. When asked if about Rs 15 lakh crore has come to the system till December 30, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said, "I don't know the number." Both the government and the RBI have not come out with the official statement on how much have been deposited in various banks at the end December 30, the last date for depositing and exchange of junked Rs 500/1000 notes. The last official number on this was only till December 10 when RBI said that the old notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000, which have been returned to the central bank and the currency chest amounted to Rs 12.44 lakh crore. On the last day of demonetisation, RBI had asked all banks including cooperatives to report details of deposits of old Rs 500/1,000 notes to it after the close of banking hours. Finance Ministry had said that there were lot of areas where double counting could have happened. So the Finance Ministry had identified those areas and had requested RBI and banks to again double check. There could be slight addition in the deposit of junked notes as extended exchange facility is available to certain specified category. According to terms and conditions of RBI for availing this benefit, NRIs and Indians returning from abroad will have to physically show the junked 500 and 1,000 rupee notes to customs officials at the airport and get a declaration form stamped before they can deposit the demonetised currency in RBI during the grace period. Indians who were abroad during November 9 to December 30 have been given a three-month grace period till March 31 to deposit the junked notes, while for the NRIs, it is six months till June 30. While there is no limit on deposit of defunct notes by an Indian national who was abroad when the 50-day window was in operation, NRIs can deposit only Rs 25,000 as per FEMA law restrictions. With PTI Between Rs 14.5 lakh crore to Rs 15 lakh crore has already come back to the banking system since 8 November when the Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced demonetisation of 86.4 percent of the currency in circulation overnight, according to a Press Trust of India report (read here). If this is indeed true, nearly 97 percent of the money demonetised has returned to bank counters already. What does it mean? There are two possibilities. One, there was very little or no black money (money that isnt earned through legitimate means or money earned well but not taxed) in cash in the system and most of it is already converted into assets such as real estate, gold or overseas financial investments. The second, tax cheats have found a way to inject nearly all the black money in cash to bank accounts through several own accounts or through benami channels including those Jan Dhan accounts owned by the vulnerable low-income people. With all the money returning, even the last round of discussion on a speculated windfall for the government from the note ban is dead and gone. The government had initially estimated (going by the submission of Attorney General Mukhul Rohtagi in the Supreme Court ) that only around Rs 10-11 lakh crore of money will return. Hence, it was speculated that the remaining, ie Rs 4-5 lakh crore would be illegal money thatll get perished outside the formal system, which will then be available to the government in the form of a surplus from the RBI. But, a clarification from RBI governor Urjit Patel later, who ruled out any such plan, weakened this theory. Now the hard numbers conclusively tell us there is not even room for any such discussion. The public has validated all that was invalidated by PM Modi on the evening of 8 November. Also, the process isnt over yet. The window for majority public to deposit their old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes got over by the 30 December but those Indians who were abroad during 9 November to 30 December have been given a three-month period till 31 March to deposit the banned notes, while for non-resident Indians (NRIs), the window is actually open for the six months until 30 June. This means, there is a good possibility that even the last paise of the demonetised currency would safely return to the bank accounts and will throw a challenge to the taxman. The next task separating the bad money from the good is duly his responsibility. Assuming the public validates the entire lot of demonetised currency, whether the tax department has the infrastructure and resources to scrutinise the entire transactions and how much time will be needed for this exercise to show results are all questions that need answers. As this writer has pointed out repeatedly, the tangible gains of demonetisation will come only if the taxmen manage to lay their hands on a substantiated chunk of illegal cash in the demonetisation exercise. The other gains of note ban widening tax net, change to a cashless economy will be visible only in the long term. If this doesnt happen, the Modi government will find it hard to explain the gains seen against the losses to the economy and pain to common man. But, this is one side of the picture. The other big question is that why such lack of transparency on the part of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to update the figure of old currency deposits. The enthusiasm with which the central bank issued back to back circulars directing public on cash deposits and withdrawals is missing when it comes to being transparent on the figures pertaining to the same subject. The last time the central bank issued a public notification updating the amount of deposits that reached banks was in early December when it said Rs 12.44 lakh crore deposits in old currencies has reached banks as on 10 December. Almost a month has passed since then and there are no updates on the central banks website about the latest numbers, neither it has divulged the break up of the Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 notes issued to public in new currency denominations. Such lack of transparency is unprecedented in the operations of central bank on such a major economic exercise impacting most of the 125 crore people of the country. One of the sad outcomes of the demonetisation episode is the image-crisis the RBI is fighting for giving up its autonomy and credibility. Since beginning, the RBI appeared clueless how to take the demonetisation process ahead from the beginning and faced criticism from former central bankers including Usha Thorat and K C Chakrabarty. According to a Bloomberg report, the RBI board approved demonetisation less than three hours before Modi announced the decision in a televised address to the nation. Information on how many members favored or opposed the move isnt on record, the RBI said in response to queries from Bloomberg News under the Right to Information Act, the report said. It is not clear why the details of one of the biggest ever disruptive reform steps India has seen isnt on record. Was the RBI forced to approve the idea of demonetisation is something only time will tell. The RBI must make public the deposit figures at the earliest. (Firstpost has filed an RTI seeking the details of the deposits in invalidated currencies, the breakup of the new currencies issued and details of consultations that led to the demonetisation announcement. Well update our readers on the outcome as soon as RBI responds to the RTI). There is no reason for the central bank to act in an opaque manner in sharing the details of demonetisation process. This will only add to the confusions and strengthen the criticism that the apex bank has reduced itself to being a mere puppet of the Modi government surrendering its professional integrity and autonomy. It shouldnt happen. The RBI should once again regain its lost virtues of transparency and independence. (The RBI later clarified that it has already initiated this process and till this is completed any estimate may not indicate the actual numbers of the SBNs that have been returned. "...The periodical SBN figures released by us were based on aggregation of accounting entries done at the large no of Currency Chests all over the country. Now that the Scheme has come to an end on December 30, 2016, these figures would need to be reconciled with the physical cash balances to eliminate accounting errors/ possible double counts etc," it said in the clarification. It assured that it is taking all steps to complete the process expeditiously so as to release firm figures of SBNs received at an early date.) New Delhi: The US Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) issued a warning letter to Wockhardt for violating current good manufacturing practice norms, including its failure to ensure proper clothing for workers at its Ankleshwar plant in Gujarat. In the letter to Wockhardt chairman and group CEO Habil Khorakiwala, the US FDA said inspectors during inspection from 7 to 15 December 2015, found significant violations of current good manufacturing practice (CGMP) regulations for finished pharmaceuticals as well as for active pharmaceutical ingredients (API). US FDA has already banned import of products from the facility into the US market since 5 August 2016. Elaborating on the violations at the plant, US FDA noted that the company failed to ensure that manufacturing personnel wear clothing appropriate to protect drug product from contamination. Our investigator observed employees working in gowns that had unravelled stitching extending from hoods, zippers, and pants. Your firm approved these gowns for operations...you should have discarded these garments, it noted. The other violations include the firms failure to establish and follow appropriate written procedures designed to prevent microbiological contamination of drug products purporting to be sterile. Under dynamic conditions, air did not sufficiently sweep across and away from sterile connections, so the sterility of any product processed under these conditions could be compromised, US FDA said. Besides, the inspectors identified multiple aseptic technique breaches during aseptic connection of the equipment. Your equipment design and aseptic processing operator competencies appear to contribute to the lack of unidirectionality, the health regulator said. Also, the firm failed to ensure that laboratory records included complete data derived from all tests necessary to assure compliance with established specifications and standards, US FDA said. The firm also failed to exercise appropriate control over computer or related systems to assure that only authorised personnel institute changes in master production and control records. Commenting on the API production issues, US FDA said the company failed to record activities at the time they are performed, and destruction of original records. New Delhi: A day after his party's leader in Lok Sabha, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, was arrested by CBI, West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra staged an angry walkout from a pre-Budget meeting saying there was 'financial emergency and 'political environment of fear' in the country. Mitra, who was in full attendance at the two-day meeting of the GST Council chaired by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley that ended yesterday said, the Union Budget had become a "meaningless" exercise after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his address to the nation on new year's eve, made announcements similar to a Budget presentation. He said that before walking out, he made the Union Finance Minister, who had called the meeting, hear the expectations of States on his fourth budget to be presented on February 1 and also make him aware of the "financial emergency" imposed by demonetisation and the job losses it has led to. "I wanted the Finance Minister to hear the reality on the ground, the financial emergency in the country, the political environment of fear all around," he told reporters after emerging from the meeting. Bandyopadhyay was arrested by the CBI in Kolkata yesterday in connection with the Rose Valley chit fund scam -- a move that promoted West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to allege that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was using central agencies like the CBI, Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax department against his political rivals who were raising their voice against demonetisation. The Trinamool Congress, he said, is demonstrating against "the political emergency that seems to have happened at every nook and corner on every matter." Mitra also said currency demonetiation has led to closure of small industries and left hundreds jobless across the country, including the BJP-ruled States. While the leather industry in West Bengal has completely collapsed, closure of 12 lakh powerlooms in Maharashtra had led to workers returning to their native places in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Telangana. In case of Maharashtra, the red chilli industry has collapsed, falling by 30-40 per cent; while in Nagpur, oranges industry has collapsed, he said. "There is a financial emergency that is not being talked about. Even the data that Honorable Finance Minister gave on his receiving taxes, none of the media got the facts as he gave it from April to end of November, not after November 8," he said. Mitra said, he wanted Jaitley to hear the truth. "I would like to say to you today with a very heavy heart that I have walked out of the meeting after making my presentation...," he said on Wednesday. The Budget, he said, has "become meaningless for the first time in the history of India. Budget has already been announced by the Honourable Prime Minister. It doesn't happen anywhere else. Given this perspective, I had to protest it and I had to walk out in protest." . By Alex Lawler | LONDON LONDON OPEC's oil output in December fell from a record high ahead of a deal to cut production, a Reuters survey found on Thursday, helped by attacks on Nigeria's oil industry and top exporter Saudi Arabia trimming exports. The decline, the first since May according to Reuters surveys, occurred despite higher exports from second-largest OPEC producer Iraq and a further upward trend in Libyan output.Supply from OPEC in December fell to 34.18 million barrels per day (bpd) from a revised 34.38 million bpd in November, according to the survey based on shipping data and information from industry sources.Oil hit an 18-month high of $58.37 a barrel on Tuesday, boosted by an OPEC agreement to lower supply from Jan. 1. The supportive impact of the agreement on prices may not occur straight away, an analyst at SEB said."We are not necessarily set for an immediate price take-off. One problem is the very high OPEC production in fourth-quarter 2016," said Bjarne Schieldrop, chief commodities analyst at SEB. "The still-rising crude oil production in Libya is also creating concerns that OPEC's cuts might be less effective."Based on the December survey, OPEC is pumping 1.68 million bpd above the 32.50 million bpd production target that it agreed on Nov. 30 to adopt from Jan. 1 in its first supply cut decision in eight years. OPEC output started to climb following its decision in late 2014 to retain market share rather than cut supply to prop up prices. Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran all pumped more and production also increased due to the return of Indonesia in 2015 and Gabon in July 2016 as OPEC members.In December, the biggest reduction came from Nigeria, although not as a result of deliberate cuts to boost prices. No Forcados crude was exported following an attack on a pipeline, and shipments of the Agbami stream fell most likely due to planned maintenance work, sources in the survey said. Nigeria and Libya are both exempt from the OPEC supply cut agreement because of output losses caused by conflict. Nigerian militant group Niger Delta Avengers said in November it had attacked the Forcados pipeline.Saudi Arabia, which said it pumped a record amount in November, supplied less in December, sources in the survey estimated. Exports were lower because customers asked for less crude, not because of cutbacks implemented under the OPEC deal."Exports are down markedly from a massive November number," said one source who tracks Saudi output. "The bottom line is December is down from November with regard to supply to market." Among countries with higher output, the largest increase of 70,000 bpd was in Libya, where a two-year blockade was lifted in December on pipelines leading from two western fields. The recovery remains at risk from political conflict.Output also climbed in Iraq, the survey found, with exports from the country's south most likely exceeding November's record rate of 3.407 million bpd, according to shipping data and industry sources.Iran, which was allowed to raise output under the OPEC deal as sanctions had crimped its supply, pumped 30,000 bpd more.The Reuters survey is based on shipping data provided by external sources, Thomson Reuters flows data, and information provided by sources at oil companies, OPEC and consulting firms. (Editing by Jason Neely) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Days after the shocking Bengaluru molestation case on the New Year's Eve, another similar incident has been reported from Delhi's Mukherjee Nagar that has once again raised questions on women's safety in the national capital. The New Year Eve's revelry was disrupted when a group of drunk goons tried to molest a girl on the streets of north-west Delhi and the policemen who tried to intervene were also attacked by the gang of men. According to CNN-News 18, a girl was riding pillion on a bike when a group of drunk men celebrating at the chowk near Batra Cinemas tried to grope the girl. The TV channel also reported that four to five policemen, including women police constables were injured in the stone pelting that ensued thereafter. A policeman present at the time recounted the incident for CNN-News 18. According to him, at about 11:15 pm on 31 December, a bike with two people, including a woman, was passing through an area where a group of 200 to 250 college students were partying on the streets. A group of drunk men from the crowd tried to pull the woman from behind and grope her. When a group of cops standing at a distance noticed the incident they rushed to the spot to save the woman, who was able to flee the spot on account of the police intervention. However, the agitated group later called up more boys and turned on the cops posted in the area. The mob, reportedly pelted stones on the police gypsy, and followed them to the nearby police station. Meanwhile, public apathy towards such incidents was at display again as scores of onlookers witnessed the entire incident but nobody came forward to help the woman while the cops reached the spot. The incident is also reflective of the brazenness of the goons, who did not shy away from attacking even the cops, let alone harassing the victim. The police has registered a case against unknown persons for attacking police officers and vandalising public property. However, a molestation case has not yet been filed as the woman has not come forward to register a complaint, arguably out of fear as the goons in questions were a larger pack and reportedly are residents of the same area. The Delhi police, can however, take suo motu cognisance of the case and register a complaint of molestation. The police, so far has not been able to identify the woman or the perpetrators but it has taken the CCTV footage and is investigating the matter. Jammu: On his maiden visit to Jammu and Kashmir after taking charge, new army chief General Bipin Rawat on Thursday reviewed the security situation and favoured a dynamic strategy to handle the "proxy war". General Rawat, who visited some forwards areas in Akhnoor and Rajouri sectors and interacted with troops, commended the soldiers for "strongly reciprocating to the unprovoked ceasefire violations by Pakistan." The army chief began his three-day tour by visiting the Udhampur-based Northern Command where he was briefed by Lt Gen Devraj Anbu. "The army chief chief reviewed the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir and also operational preparedness of Northern Command at a high-level meeting," officials said. General Rawat lauded the role of the Northern Command in restoring peace and normalcy during the recent unrest, they said. "We need to evolve a dynamic strategy to handle the proxy war and defeat enemy's nefarious designs in Jammu and Kashmir," the army chief said. General Rawat flew to 16 Corps headquarters based in Nagrota and visited some forwards areas in Akhnoor and Rajouri sectors where he interacted with troops. Praising the soldiers for responding effectively to ceasefire violations, the army chief has said, "Every soldier of our army plays an important role towards security of the nation because it is the contribution of every soldier that makes the army efficient and strong." Northern command looks after the operational command of Jammu and Kashmir and Line of Control (LoC), Actual Ground Position Level (AGPL) with Pakistan and Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China in Ladakh. General Rawat will be visiting Srinagar and Siachen during his tour. He will also be visiting formations at Kupwara and Anantnag, where he will be briefed about the prevailing security situation and will interact with officers and men, the officials said. General Rawat took charge on 31 December, succeeding Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag, who retired after 42 years of service. General Rawat was commissioned in the 5th Battalion of the 11 Gorkha Rifles in December 1978 from the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun and has vast experience in high altitude warfare and counter-insurgency operations. General Rawat commanded an infantry battalion along the Line of Actual Control in the Eastern Sector, a Rashtriya Rifles Sector and an infantry division in the Kashmir Valley, a Corps in the eastern theatre and the Southern Command. General Rawat has held important staff appointments at Directorate General of Military Operations and Military Secretary's Branch at Army headquarters. Jammu: Army chief Bipin Rawat will visit Jammu and Kashmir in his first official trip after taking over as India's 27th Chief Of Army Staff. According to top army sources, he will be visiting army formation in Jammu. This will be his median tour to Jammu and Kashmir after taking over as new army chief. Rawat last week took over as the chief of the 1.3 million strong Indian Army succeeding Dalbir Singh Suhag, who retired after 42 years of service. Rawat superseded two senior most Lt Generals, Praveen Bakshi and PM Hariz. Rawat was commissioned in the Fifth Battalion of the Eleven Gorkha Rifles in December 1978 from IMA, Dehradun. He was awarded the 'Sword of Honour' at the academy. Rawat has vast experience in high altitude warfare and counter-insurgency operations. He commanded an infantry battalion, along the Line of Actual Control in the Eastern Sector, a Rashtriya Rifles Sector and an Infantry Division in the Kashmir Valley, a Corps in the Eastern theatre and the Southern Command. Rawat has held important staff appointments at Directorate General of Military Operations and Military Secretary's Branch at Army HQ. To be cattle in India has just gotten much, much better. If it wasn't enough to have laws enacted by politicians and have their statuses protected by the judiciary, cows and buffaloes will also have their own unique identity now. The move is part of the central government's plans of tagging and tracking cattle to ensure they get vaccines on time, which can improve their breeding and milk production, and double the industry's income by 2022. According to a report in The Economic Times, nearly one lakh technicians are fanning out across the country since 1 January, and will affix a tag containing a 12-digit unique identification number inside the ear of every single cow and buffalo in the country all 88 million of them. The ambitious project will be concluded by the end of this year and comes at a cost of Rs 148 crore. These 'animal Aadhaar cards' will contain the breed and age of the cattle, as also information about the owner, location and also details about its vaccination. "The Centre has also fixed targets for individual states to be completed within 2017. Uttar Pradesh has to affix tags on 14 lakh cattle every month, for instance, while Madhya Pradesh has to tag 7.5 lakh cattle a month. India has nearly 41 million buffaloes and 47 million indigenous and cross-bred cows that produce milk. UP has the highest cattle population (16 million) in the country, followed by Madhya Pradesh (9 million), Rajasthan (8.4 million), Gujarat (6.2 million) and Andhra Pradesh," the report said. This move comes about a year after Jharkhand embarked upon a similar mission, to trace and tag the 42 lakh cattle it had. According to a report in Hindustan Times, Jharkhand animal husbandry officials were asked to undergo the exercise to monitor and check the illegal trade of cattle. Govind Prasad, CEO of Jharkhand State Implement Agency for Cattle and Buffalo (JSIACB), a wing of the central government, said, "Cattle owners will have to fill out a questionnaire comprising details like addresses and phone numbers. These details will be fed on the National Dairy Development Board's database with special identification tags of the cattle, such as their photographs, age, race, complexion, body structure, etc." Once the plan is implemented, it will not only improve the fortunes of dairy farmers, it will also mean the police of the country can focus on more mundane operations, since no Azam Khan would enlist their help in tracking down his stolen buffaloes! Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, which marks the 350th birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh, said the 10th Sikh guru's bravery is etched in the heart of every Indian. "Guru Gobind Singhji was blessed with indomitable courage and tremendous knowledge. His bravery is etched in the heart and mind of every Indian," Modi said before leaving for Patna to participate in the Prakash Parv commemorating the 350th birth anniversary of the Sikh guru. The prime minister added: Delighted to be a part of #350thPrakashParv celebrations of Guru Gobind Singh ji in Patna today. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 5, 2017 Guru Gobind Singh ji was blessed with indomitable courage & tremendous knowledge. His bravery is etched in the heart & mind of every Indian. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 5, 2017 Guru Gobind Singh ji's entire life was devoted to serving people and fighting for values of truth, justice and compassion. #350thPrakashParv Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 5, 2017 On Wednesday, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar conducted an aerial survey of Patna to oversee arrangements for the ongoing Prakash Parv to celebrate the birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh, for which lakhs of devotees from across the world have arrived. PM to attend 350th birth anniversary celebrations of Sikh Guru, #GuruGobindSingh in Patna; this will mark end of #PrakashParv celebrations pic.twitter.com/ORYcbyxt7W Doordarshan News (@DDNewsLive) January 5, 2017 Kumar took an aerial view of three tent cities located at Gandhi Maidan, Bypass and Kangana ghat where Sikh devotees are staying during the 350th Prakash Parv. Meanwhile, Congress President Sonia Gandhi paid obeisance to Guru Gobind Singh, hailing him for fighting against injustice, tyranny and social differences. "Guru Gobind Singh ji was not only creator of the gracious Khalsa but was a renowned spiritual master, warrior, poet and philosopher. He sacrificed his entire life at the altar of safeguarding the rights of underprivileged," Gandhi said in a statement. "He fought against injustice, tyranny and social differences. It is a day to rededicate ourselves to the ideals of equality,..of leading an honest, truthful and virtuous life continues to guide and inspire entire humanity," she added. Delhi government offices will remain closed on Thursday as Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal approved holiday to mark the occasion. Since he took charge, it is perhaps the first proposal of the Delhi government that Anil Baijal's office has approved. Earlier this week, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had gone to Patna to pay obeisance at Takht Harmandir Sahib. Kejriwal's Patna visit during 'Prakash Parv' assumed significance as his party is eyeing to do well in Punjab Assembly election to be held on 4 February. The birth anniversary of the 10th Sikh Guru is being celebrated across the country with special festivities lined up in Patna Sahib where he was born. Many across the country paid obeisance to Guru Gobind Singh on Twitter. May the holy teachings of #GuruGobindSingh ji bring compassion,peace ,love & wisdom in everyone's lives. Wish you a very happy #GuruPurab pic.twitter.com/uJGPM6GNQU Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) January 5, 2017 Heartiest Greetings on the occasion of 350th birth anniversary of #GuruGobindSingh ji, the tenth Sikh Guru. pic.twitter.com/edWCSF5eZW Ashok Gehlot (@ashokgehlot51) January 5, 2017 Let's commemorate the most iconic Spiritual Saint & Warrior, Shri Guru Gobind Singh Ji on His 350th Birth Anniversary. #HappyPrakashParv Dr.GURMEET RAM RAHIM (@Gurmeetramrahim) January 5, 2017 On #PrakashParv, I bow to #GuruGobindSingh ji, who is remembered by generations as a symbol of courage, bravery, service & sacrifice. pic.twitter.com/M0L9msiQGJ Vijay Goel (@VijayGoelBJP) January 5, 2017 My greetings on the occasion of 350th Prakash Parv.May the holy teachings of #GuruGobindSingh bring compassion,peace & wisdom in your lives. pic.twitter.com/ABEFSjSuMM Ravi Shankar Prasad (@rsprasad) January 5, 2017 Tirupati: Top women scientists gathered to discuss the challenges faced by them in terms of career growth in the field of science and technology and rued that their representation in leadership positions is very low. Speakers at the Women Science Congress, asserted that optimal growth of science and technology would only be possible with equal participation of men and women. They also emphasised on the need for promotion, awareness and policies that can encourage women scientists. The Women Science Congress, which was inaugurated by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu here today, is being held along with the Indian Science Congress (ISC). HS Savithri, of the biochemistry department in Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, said at present, in India, 40 percent of the undergraduate students in science and engineering are women. However, their representation as faculties, as heads of laboratories, or as members of governing or advisory board is very low, Savithri said. Highlighting the issue of very few women in leadership positions in academic institutions and research labs, Professor Nupur Prakash, Vice-Chancellor of the Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women said this happens despite having the right kind of attitude and qualification. "Today, women are in the mainstream of science and many of the world's top scientists are women," said Tessy Thomas, scientist from the Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Missile Complex, a laboratory under DRDO. The face of modern science would be unrecognizable without the major contributions made by women, including more than a dozen noble laureates, Thomas said. Sudha Nair, CEO of the Chennai-based Golden Jubilee Biotech Park for Women, advised women scientists to be strong while encountering problems. "You can cry, get angry, but don't let people see that that. Have a decorum, maintain balance. That is very important," Nair said. Vandana Singh, scientist at the Department of Science and Technology under the Department of Science and Technology, said the government has come up with different schemes to promote women scientists ,including the Knowledge Involvement in Research Advancement Through Nurturing and said more than 3,700 women scientists have been supported under this scheme so far. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's dream project of Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train is as good as ready on paper, with all land acquisition processes being personally monitored by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who is also looking into a Mumbai-Nagpur bullet train. Fadnavis had promised to form an expert committee to look into environment issue. The bullet train proposal has been sent to the Cabinet subcommittee and if the subcommittee green-lights the proposal, the MoU for the train is set to be signed next week at the Vibrant Gujarat Summit. Meanwhile, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray had criticised the bullet train proposal, saying that it was only an election promise made by the BJP. A highly-placed source from the MMRDA confirmed to Firstpost that the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train will start its journey from BKC. Earlier, BKC, Dadar and Kurla were being looked at as possible options. And while the MMRDA initially opposed the site (BKC) as it wanted to use 40,000 square metres for an international business centre, it was last week that Fadnavis held a meeting with senior MMRDA officials and ordered them to finalise BKC as the first station for the bullet train. The source also confirmed that Niti Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya held a meeting to finalise the location of the station. The total cost of the bullet trains is Rs 99,000 crore and a quarter of the burden will be borne by Maharashtra and Gujarat each. The remaining 50 percent will be the Central government's responsibility. As far as the Maharashtra government is concerned, it will have to pay Rs 25,000 and the MMRDA will foot the entire bill, said the source. There are a total of 12 stations on the route four of which are in Maharashtra and eight in Gujarat. The project will be executed by a Special Purpose Vehicle and the PMO will personally monitor the progress of the project. The underground station and back area will be built on the same 40,000 square metres on which the international business centre will be built. According to a senior MMRDA official, it is not a problem to build the business centre overground and the station underground. The Vibrant Gujarat Summit will commence on 9 January. Age old patriarchal system and aspiring feminism are at loggerheads in Nagaland as major tribes boycott forthcoming municipal election protesting the state governments move to reserve 33% of the seats for women. The tussle has resulted in dismal figures in nominations filed in 11 districts of the state in the last two days. The last date of filing nominations is 7 January and the election will be held on 1 February. The diktat to boycott the election came from the civil society organizations representing various tribal groups, just a day before the election office opened up to receive nomination on 3 January. A press statement published by Ao Sengden, a body of the Ao Tribe, in the Eastern Mirror issued dictat prohibiting the people from participating in the election saying that anyone from the Ao community found violating this order would be liable to questioning and appropriate punishment. Dr. Vihusa Seleyi, President of the Angami Public Organisation which has also called for boycotting the municipal polls, told Firstpost that the organization will intensify the agitation wherever it finds opposition. It also said that the protesters are ready to face any consequence in a bid to successfully implement the order. The Article 371 (A) of the Indian Constitution empowers the Naga people to decide their own laws as per customs and traditions. We do not have any problem if women take up political leadership. But the Naga Mothers Association dragged the matter to the Supreme Court without discussion with the people. This has caused resentment, said Seleyi. Rosemary Dzuvichu, the adviser of the Naga Mothers Association had filed a case in the Supreme Court demanding 33% reservation of seats in civic polls. In an earlier interview with Firstpost, she had said that since the case was still being heard by the apex court and no stay order was issued by it, there was no legal obstacle in holding the election with 33% reservation for women. Dr. Vihusa Seleyi further said that the Naga Mothers Association also convinced the government to proceed with the election reserving 33% of seats for women, without any consultation with the Naga Society. Hokiye Sema, the President of Central Naga Tribal Council which also demands abolishing of the provision of reservation of seats for women in the civic polls told Firstpost, In Naga society a woman is not considered to be equal to men. She is not even allowed to speak in Panchayat until and unless she is summoned by it. Providing 33% reservation to women amounts to giving her the same status as men and it gives men inferiority complex. He also said that the Naga society has been following the customary laws for more than thousand years and those cannot be just wiped out. Even the Parliament has not passed the bill of 33% reservation for women. But why the Chief Minister of Nagaland is so much anxious to implement this provision? he asks. He also says that it is the governments responsibility to protect the rights of the Naga People as provided for in the Constitution of India in the Article 371(A). Maintaining that his organization has no other problem with the Municipal Act passed by the government of Nagaland except the provision of 33% reservation for women. In India men are considered to be superior than woman as per customs and that has to be taken very seriously, he added. Nagaland state Assembly does not have a single woman as its member. Chakhasang Public Organisation another tribal body that has joined hands in the agitation has different view on the issue. President K Lea told Firstpost, The Municipal Act passed recently was not deliberated properly before bringing it into force. It infringes upon the rights of the Naga people to develop their own land. After this Act is brought into force we will have to take permission from the municipality to develop our own land, whereas the Article 371(A) of the Indian Constitution provides us with the right to decide upon to what to do with our resources. The Article 371(A) in the constitution says, Notwithsatanding anything in this Constitution, (a) no Act of Parliament in respect of (1) religious or social practices of Nagas,(2) Naga customary law and procedure,(3) and administration of civil and criminal justice involving decisions according to Naga customary law,(4) ownership and transfer of land and its resources, shall apply to the state of Nagaland unless the Legislative Assembly of Nagaland by a resolution so decides. Some of the Naga leaders also contended that the new Municipality Act was brought into force only to derive more funds from the central government. Kohima, the capital of Nagaland has been selected as a city to be developed under the smart city project declared by the central government. As per guidelines a special purpose vehicle has to be formed with the elected body of the concerned municipality. But Kohima has not held the urban local body election for a decade. The Nagaland Municipal Act 2001 was amended in the year 2006 to incorporate the provision of 33% reservation for women. The government of Nagaland in a recent cabinet meeting has decided to proceed with the election despite protests and it held the view that reservation of 33% of seats will not infringe upon the rights of the Naga people, according to a press release issued by Menukhol John, Principal Secretary, Department of Municipal Affairs. Nagaland has already provided for 25% reservation in seats for woman in Village Development Boards. TI Merry an office bearer of the ruling Naga Peoples Front told Firstpost that many prospective candidates are still in consultation with the tribal organizations to convince them to suspend their agitation programme. Meanwhile, Rosemary Dzuvichu holds that the Municipal Election has nothing to do with Naga culture as per an order passed by the apex court earlier. It is to be noted that Municipal Elections in India is held as per 74th amendment of the Indian constitution and reserving 33% of the seats for women is a Constitutional mandate. By Khusboo Balani A fourth of Uttar Pradeshs (UPs) 200 million people are aged between five and 14 years Indias largest child population but the state has the fewest teachers per student, the poorest transition rate from primary to upper primary school and amongst the lowest learning outcomes in the country. As Uttar Pradesh, Indias most populated state, goes to polls, we look at the state of education, a subject that should be on top of the agenda for any party coming to power. As the first part of this series observed, literacy rates and learning outcomes are some of the lowest in the BIMARU (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh) states. By 2020, India will have the worlds largest working-age population 869 millionbut an IndiaSpend analysis of these four states with 43.6% of Indias school-age population between the age of five and 14revealed that India is unprepared to educate and train its young population. UPs literacy rate of 69.72 percent is Indias eighth lowest in the country, according to Census 2011. Literacy rate rose 13.45 percentage points in UP over a decade from 2001, but there are wide regional disparities: In the north-eastern district of Shrawasti, the literacy rate is 49%, while in the best performing district, Ghaziabad (in north-western UP), it is 85%, according to this report. UP has the worst primary school pupil-teacher ratio in India Indias largest state by population has the worst pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) in India, with a teacher for every 39 students at the primary level, according to the Unified-District Information System for Education (U-DISE) Flash Statistics 2015-16. The all India average is 23:1. UP recorded an enrolment of 25.3 million primary students (including both private and government schools) in 2015-16, taught by 665,779 teachers (even including schools where primary, upper primary and secondary co-existed), according to government education data. At 30 students per teacheras prescribed by the Right to Education Act (RTE)at the primary level, the state should have 840,000 teachers but is short by 21%, or 176,000, according to our analysis. About 23 percent of all elementary teacher posts in government schools in Uttar Pradesh are vacant, according to an answer given in the Lok Sabha (lower house of Parliament). UP also reported the second-highest teacher absenteeism (31%) in rural public schools among 19 surveyed states in 2010, according to this 2014 study. High per student spending, but low learning outcomes, especially in government schools In 2014-15, UP spent Rs 13,102 per elementary school student, including both primary school students (grade I to V) and upper primary school students (grade VI to VIII), according to this commentary in the Economic and Political Weekly. This is higher than the all India spending of Rs 11,252 per student. Similarly, state expenditure on primary education has gone up 47% between 2011 and 2015, according to the state governments Economic Survey 2014-15, but learning levels remain among the lowest in India. Source: Economic Survey 2012-13, Economic Survey 2014-15; *Revised estimate **Budget estimate Overall, the proportion of children in standard III who can read at least a standard I text has improved from 31% in 2006 to 35% in 2014, according to data from the Annual Status of Education (ASER) Trends Over Time Report. But the increase is only in private schools, where 55% of students in grade III could read a grade I text in 2014, compared to 50% students in 2006; in government schools, the proportion reduced from 24% in 2006 to 13% in 2010. Arithmetic skill levels declined in both government and private schools, with 26% of children in grade V able to divide in 2014, down from 30% in 2007, according to ASER data. <a href='#'><img alt='Learning Outcomes Decline In Uttar Pradesh ' src='https:&#47;&#47;public.tableau.com&#47;static&#47;images&#47;up&#47;up_learning_desktop&#47;Dashboard1&#47;1_rss.png' style='border: none' /></a> Source: Annual Status of EducationTrends Over Time report Low attendance, 624,000 children in the workforce In UP, few attend school regularlyon average, only 55% of children enrolled were present on the days the ASER team visited primary schools in 2014, according to ASER data. Further, many students dont make it through school. UP has the lowest transition rate from primary to upper primary level in the country, at 79.1%, according to U-DISE Flash Statistics 2015-16. More children are at work in UP than any other state, according to this calculation by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, based on Census 2011 data: 624,000 children, or 8.4% of the five-14 age group. At the tender age of 9, he cremated his fathers sheesh (head) at Anandpur. All his four sons were martyred at very young ages the eldest two became shaheeds on the battlefield and the younger ones, aged nine and seven were captured and persecuted. And yet, Guru Gobind Singh relentlessly continued his crusade for his mission and his faith in the akal purukh (timeless person) did not waver. Guru Gobind Singh was the tenth Guru of the Sikh order and before he left the mortal world, he proclaimed that the Adi Granth would be henceforth the Guru for all Sikhs Guru manayo Granth. His teachings were essentially a continuation of Guru Nanak and the other Gurus. He created the Khalsa or the pure. As per him a pure member of the Khalsa is one who keeps alight the unquenchable torch of truth and never swerves from the thought of one God; he who is full of Love for God and has confidence in him . (quoted by Khushwant Singh). His essential motto was manas ki jaat sab ek hi pahnchanbo all of humankind has one caste. The panj piyares (five beloved ones) who were initiated by Guru Gobind Singh into the Khalsa and drank amrit (nectar) from one bowl belonged to different castes one was a Brahmin, another was a Kshatriya and the other three belonged to the then so-called lower castes.This was a message of social equality - a highly symbolic ritual in which all castes became one again. The Guru born in Patna symbolises buoyant hope (carhdi kala) and an indefatigable spirit to wage a war for Dharam (righteousness). He was a spiritual leader and a prolific poet who gave a clarion call to embrace battle when the times demanded shaheedi (the word has not been used by the Guru himself). That is the timelessness of his leadership that is true prakash (light). In his own words penned with reference to his fathers execution in Bichitra Natak: Dharam het saka jin kiya, Sirr diya par sirarr na diya. Loosely paraphrased: He was martyred for upholding Truth and Righteousness. He gave his head, but not his determination. Guru Gobind Singhs contributions to the spiritual and theological lives of Sikhs in specific and Indians in general cannot be praised enough. At an intensely personal level, Guru Gobind Singhs relevance stems from his valour and from the legitimacy he vested once again to war, to bravery and to giving up ones life to uphold ones Dharma (it is important to distinguish Dharma from religion). Love for all of humankind and destruction of oppressors can co-exist and do co-exist. Pacifism is not to be confused with cowardice; militancy spurred by malice or greed is not war for Dharma and raising of arms in the battlefield for the establishment of the fundamental principles of the Divine and humankind is not militancy. In our times, like in all of times when human beings have existed, raising of arms is both real and symbolic and wars are not waged for power and territory alone they are also waged for change. India has always been a pacifist nation ready for war, we are capable of expounding the deepest of spiritual truths and also fighting the toughest of battles. That is the message which the life and teachings of Guru Gobind Singh reiterates. Garima is an independent business consultant, mentors startups and is an Indic Studies enthusiast. References: -Singh, Khushwant (2016). A History of the Sikhs Volume I. Oxford University Press. -Singh, Khazan (1914). History and Philosophy of the Sikh Religion Volume I. Naval Kishore Press. -Fenech Louis (2013). The Sikh Zafar-namah of Guru Gobind Singh: A Discursive Blade in the Heart of the Mughal Empire. Oxford University Press. Antique objects, whose names have now been all but lost, accumulate dust between blackened walls that have gone more than half a century without a paint job. The soot-filled coal yard of Luis Aguilar, a third generation coal merchant based in the southern city of Seville, has a particular charm. Luis Aguilar, with his mother, at the Parras coal merchants he owns in Seville. PACO PUENTES Today Aguilars profession is almost non-existent, but he still manages to keep his trade viable by providing a few people with fuel for the winter and for their barbecues. Normally old people from the towns and villages come here, says Aguilar, gesticulating with his blackened hands. But lately there have been some young people who are going back to the traditional way of life and to a more ecological culture, and prefer to heat their homes using a method thats almost as primitive as the discovery of fire. Climate change has affected the coal business, particularly in southern Spain In his coal yard, called Parras after the downtown street where it is located, Aguilar specializes in four products: wood for fireplaces, charcoal to cook with mainly for barbecues and two different types of coal. In the north they have built-in systems that heat peoples homes, but in Andalusia, during the colder months, this is how people keep themselves warm, he says. He points to the large, old baskets that hang from a dark wall. His grandfather used to fill the baskets with coal or wood and put them on donkeys backs in order to get the materials from the old train station on the banks of the Guadalquivir River to the familys coal yard. Today, a truck comes in from the neighboring region of Extremadura to drop off the charcoal. Manuel Torrescusa is Aguilars driver and has been bringing material to and from the coal yard since 1990. Today I hardly go anywhere; practically no one is buying the charcoal. Before I had about 30 clients but the old people are passing away and new technologies are taking off, says Torrescusa. It's a dirty job... PACO PUENTES He also thinks that climate change is partially responsible for a drop-off in business. Two days ago we were wearing t-shirts. Before, it used to get cold, really cold, he says. In the Canary Islands, the burning of coal or charcoal is limited to restaurants, grills, roasting ovens or barbecues. Before, charcoal was more common in the kitchen, but now its disappearing, explains Carmelo Jimenez, president of a coal vendors association based on the island of Gran Canaria. But here we maintain our traditions, and even today there are still people who collect wood with their donkeys and make fires using the traditional method called hoyas, in which we use almond wood and another native wood called escobon. The coal yard of Manuel Benayas is on Embajadores street, in the southern part of downtown Madrid. It opened in 1934 and specializes in charcoal for cooking, but its owner has also diversified into the world of aromatic woods. The distinct effects from different woods, like wood from barrels, from sherry barrels for example, are becoming more and more appreciated all the time, says Benayas, who teaches online courses about how to grill food. You can even make cakes on the grill: theres huge potential and its unknown in Spain, explains Benayas, who has five employees and supplies 150 restaurants. The biggest source of competition for this traditional sector comes from the large companies that sell the fuel more cheaply. Luis Aguilar's grandfather started the business. PACO PUENTES Its impossible to compete with the prices of the big warehouses, no matter how little we charge, says Jimenez, who admits that the money he makes from his coal yard supplements his other income. They are my main competition; you go there and you bring home a perfectly sealed bag, full of charcoal that comes, for the most part, from Latin America. What I sell comes from controlled logging in Extremadura, says Aguilar. He hopes to keep the business in the family, but is unsure if it will last another generation he has no children, and his nephews and nieces are still very young. He says that the only reason he can keep his shop open is because he does not have to pay rent. Otherwise it would be impossible. But I want to continue in this line of work. Im sure Id make a lot more money if I started a bar or sold the building, but for me, its more a way of life than a business, Aguilar explains. English version by Alyssa McMurtry. In an online environment where information spreads in seconds and where often the only difference between truth, falsehood and exaggeration is how assertively do you present it and whether the faction you support has a sufficient number of trolls, it has become important to separate one (news) from the other (falsehood and exaggeration). As the news spread of hooligans groping and molesting women who had gathered to celebrate the New Year's eve on 31 December in the central Bengaluru areas of MG Road, Brigade Road and Church Street, certain reports claimed that the Karnataka Home Minister G Parmeshwara blamed the incident on "Western clothes", "western mindset" and defended the molestation incident as "something happens". Needless to say, the reports generated a lot of outrage both within and outside social media as several media outlets (print, video and digital) played it over and over again, and criticising the Karnataka minister for his sexist statement. Such incidents do happen on #NewYear day and on #Christmas. We take a lot of precautions: G Parmeshwara,Karnataka Home Minister pic.twitter.com/RzHqHQLPgr ANI (@ANI_news) January 2, 2017 Despite repeated demands from both womenfolk, activists and the media for the Karantaka minister to apologise for his statement, Parmeshwara once again on Thursday said that he comment was presented out of question. So, the question here is: did Parmeshwara actually defend the molestation incident as reported and blamed it on "western clothes" of women? Here's a transcript of the video, which was referred to across media outlets: "New year events, you know, Brigade Road, Commercial Street, or MG Road, large number of youngsters gather. And youngsters were almost like Westerners. They try to copy the Western, not only in their mindset but even the dressing. You know, some disturbance, some girls are harassed. This kind of things do happen. That's why this year we had deployed more than 500 policemen and also women mainly in plain clothes so that we can regulate them. (sic)" Parmeshwara didn't justify the incident anywhere in the video. Here, you can listen to his statement yourself. #Watch Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara ridiculously justifies the Bengaluru horror #NewYearHorror pic.twitter.com/PF4ZYTtBGw TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) January 2, 2017 He was actually referring to old incidents that have happened in the past. And when he said "These kind of things do happen", he is very plausibly referring to the often occurrence of a crime (in this case molestation). Like, in his words, molestations do happen in New Year just like drunk driving, thefts etc. But accepting the occurrence of certain types of crimes is not defending it. The minister accepted the occurrence of incidents of "molestations" expressing his concern and to emphasise the security arrangements planned for New Year's Eve. And if you pay close attention to Parmeshwara's words, you will realise, nowhere in his statement did he defend the molestation incident as claimed in the news reports. Try listening to it a second time in this longer version of the statement: He, however, does talk about the western mindset and clothing of youngsters, and indirectly blames disturbances and harassment of girls that takes place in New Year on that. And that mindset is definitely not expected from a minister. Parmeshwara, however, nowhere condemns the "western clothing" or "mindset" of the youngsters. Our fact-check rating for the reports that Karnataka home minister G Parameshwara defended molestation incident is "not true", whereas if blamed "Western mindset" and "clothes" is "somewhat true". The BJP has quoted several media reports that the United Arab Emirates' government has seized wanted gangster Dawood Ibrahim's properties worth Rs 15,000 crore, according to a report in NDTV. The party praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi on its Twitter account, calling the move a 'masterstroke of diplomacy'. Major diplomatic success of PM Modi: One of India's most wanted criminals, Dawood Ibrahim's properties worth Rs. 15,000 crore seized in UAE. pic.twitter.com/MMERwLoPO1 BJP (@BJP4India) January 4, 2017 In an image, accompanying the tweet, the party said that the reported action was taken after the prime minister handed over a list of Dawood's properties during a 2015 visit to the United Arab Emirates and demanded that the authorities act against Dawood, Hindustan Times reported. The tweet, put up on the BJP Twitter account, claimed this was the biggest ever crackdown on the Mumbai serial blasts mastermind and that efforts were on to bring Dawood back to India to face justice. Dawood, who is believed to be hiding in Pakistan, has been accused of financing Al-Qaeda and the Lashkar-e-Taiba. He is also facing multiple charges of money laundering and extortion. Following the Supreme Court verdict, whereby it called the use of religion, caste, community, race and language in electoral politics as a "corrupt practice", the Election Commission (EC) now wants the apex court to tighten its grip on the role of money in elections. The EC on Wednesday sought a Supreme Court order to make it necessary for poll candidates disclose sources of income of their spouses and independent children in their affidavits along with their own sources of income, The Indian Express reported. According to the newspaper, the EC showed concerns over the growing role of money power in elections. Submitting its reply to a notice by the apex court on a public interest litigation (PIL) on Wendesday, the Commission said, "The Representation of People Act must be amended to make sure that a candidate is disqualified not only when he has an existing contract with the government but also when any member of his family has a similar financial agreement." It is worth remembering that the EC had raised concerns over the growing role of money in poll campaigns, and had even proposed to ban anonymous contributions above Rs 2,000 in order to check the flow of black money into political parties. Commission is in favour reducing limit of anonymous donations to Rs 2000 only, also mulling on whether we can switch to digital payments-ECI ANI (@ANI_news) January 4, 2017 On Wednesday, while announcing poll dates for the five states Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi had stressed that the EC will ensure a level playing field for inclusive, free and fair elections by curbing muscle power and abuse of money. It had set expenses limit for candidates at Rs 28 lakh in UP, Punjab and Uttarakhand and Rs 20 lakh in Manipur and Goa. Zaidi had also said that there will be a strict mechanism to monitor expenditure and curb black money. Chennai: A month after her aunt, former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa, passed away, Deepa Jayakumar hinted at her entry into politics on Friday, saying it cannot be stopped. "My entry into politics cannot be stopped," she told supporters who had gathered at her Thyagaraya Nagar residence and indicated she would let know of her decision soon. She refrained from elaborating on her political plans, but waved the victory sign to supporters from the balcony of her house. Supporters had thronged her residence, urging her to enter politics and carry forward the work of her late aunt Jayalalithaa. Deepa is the daughter of Jayalalithaa's only brother, Jayakumar. She caught media attention recently when she alleged that she was not allowed to meet her aunt when she was hospitalised for 75 days. Deepa had urged her supporters on 29 December to be calm until she announced her decision. Jayalalithaa passed away on 5 December last year. Patna: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday showered fulsome praise on Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for launching a movement against liquor and appealed to all to make prohibition a grand success, weeks after he lauded the JD(U) chief for supporting demonetisation. . "I greet Nitish Kumar from the core of my heart for launching a campaign against liquor," the prime minister said as Nitish Kumar shared the dais with him during the concluding function of 350th Prakash Parva of 10th Sikh Guru Govind Singh in Patna. "But, this work (prohibition) would not be a grand success only by efforts of Nitish Kumar or one party. All the political parties, social organisations and citizens have to participate in it to make it a 'jan-jan ka andolan' (peoples movement)," Modi said addressing the gathering. Bihar will become an example for the entire country through successful implementation of prohibition, the PM said. The PM's mention of prohibition came in response to the Bihar Chief Minister's request to him to spread prohibition across the country. Fulfilling its poll promise, Nitish Kumar government had imposed total prohibition in Bihar. Kumar in his address mentioned that Narendra Modi as Chief Minister of Gujarat had successfully carried prohibition which has been in force in the western state since its inception. Though Modi and Kumar have been bitter political opponents, the prime minister had praised the Bihar Chief Minister recently for supporting demonetisation after the winter session of Parliament was washed out due to protests by a united opposition on note ban. The JD(U) had walked out of NDA over naming of Modi as the BJP's prime ministerial candidate in 2014. The two leaders led a shrill campaign in the 2015 Assembly elections against each other with Kumar, in alliance with RJD, handing down a humiliating defeat to BJP. However, breaking from opposition ranks, the JD(U) has supported demonetisation. Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Bihar Governor Ramnath Kovind, Union ministers Ramvilas Paswan and Ravishankar Prasad were also present on the dais at the function on Thursday. JD(U) ally and RJD President Lalu Prasad was present in the audience along with Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab Sukhbir Singh Badal, Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Prasad Yadav and senior BJP leader and Patna Saheb MP Shatrughan Sinha. Bowing his head in reverence to the 10th Sikh Guru Govind Singh, the prime minister lauded his efforts for unity of the country through formation of "Panch Pyara panth". Patting Nitish Kumar for taking personal interest in making elaborate arrangements for the 350th Prakash Parva, the PM said the Centre on its part, besides helping the Bihar government in organising the event, is celebrating the historic occasion in different countries through its embassies. The central government has allocated a sum of Rs 100 crore for the celebration of 350th Prakash Parva abroad which is being done through a committee formed for the purpose, Modi said. Modi also highlighted the Centre's contribution in successful organisation of the occasion in Bihar. Modi said the Railway ministry as well Union Culture ministry have spent Rs 40 crore each for Prakash Parva in Bihar. The Varanasi MP received "prasad" (offering) from a langar in the tent city that has been erected in Gandhi Maidan, before leaving for Patna Airport on way back to Delhi. Modi, Nitish, Paswan and Ravishankar wore turban at the function. Lakhs of Sikh devotees from the country and abroad have arrived for the event. Badal also showered praise on Nitish Kumar for elaborate arrangements for the Prakash Parva. "In 70 years of my public life, I have seen several samagams...but the way Nitish Kumar took personal interest in hosting the event is an example," Badal said. "I could not have organised the occasion in much grander way," he said. Badal also hailed the PM for his special bond with Sikhs and thanked him for his presence in all the functions organised by the community. Besides the 350th Prakash Parva, Kumar said, the state government would also host centenary celebration of Champaran Satyagraha of Mahatama Gandhi launched against British rule in 1917. While referring to prohibition, Kumar said it was a tribute to Guru Govind Singh and Mahatama Gandhi who had heralded agitation against British rule through Champaran satyagraha in East Champaran district of Bihar against forced indigo plantation enforced by Britishers. With the concluding function today, 350th Prakash Parva which began on 25 December last has come to an end. Gandhi Maidan in Bihars capital city Patna has been subsumed by intense religiosity. The Guru Granth Sahib the holy book of the Sikhs has been reverentially placed on a podium, in the sprawling ground in Patna, which is all set to celebrate 350th birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh named Prakash Utsav or Prakash Parv. Apart from lakhs of Sikh followers who are reaching Patnas Gandhi Maidan, from all over the world, it is Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit that is highly anticipated. Modi will be visiting Patna on Thursday to participate in the celebrations. PM to attend 350th birth anniversary celebrations of Sikh Guru, #GuruGobindSingh in Patna; this will mark end of #PrakashParv celebrations pic.twitter.com/ORYcbyxt7W Doordarshan News (@DDNewsLive) January 5, 2017 Given the fact that the last time Modi visited Gandhi Maidan on 27 October, 2013, for the Lok Sabha poll campaign, a series of explosions triggered by Indian Mujahideen terrorists, rocked the surrounding areas. The bombings led to large-scale criticism of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, who was accused of failing to manage things properly. Over three years later, Modi will again visit the same ground. But as they say much water has flowed under the bridge. Times have changed. And amidst this, two things have changed significantly in the past three years. The current visit of the prime minister is more 'religious' and tinged with ceremonial responsibilities, than political. Also, this time Nitish has left no stone unturned to ensure the peaceful and smooth commencement of the programme. Tight security has been put in place which is an imperative given the fact that the visit of the prime minister comes amid a heightened threat from Khalistani terror groups. Also, this time Modi will be welcomed by religious chants and kirtans, which will be a nice change from the bombings that took place three years ago. The fact that Modi and Nitish will share the same stage is prone to ignite speculations: Of some political consensus between the two leaders. But is is, by all means, mere speculation. Modis presence at Gandhi Maidan should be seen in light of two facts: The first being that as the prime minister of the country, it was quite expected for him to attend such an important event of one of the most important religious communities of the country. Also, the upcoming Punjab Assembly election must be an important consideration. Patna's Jay Prakash Narayan International Airport witnessed rare bonhomie on Thursday morning between two erstwhile alliance partners-turned bitter political enemies-turned friends Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar. Governor Shri Ramnath Kovind, CM @NitishKumar and other dignitaries welcomed the Prime Minister to Patna. pic.twitter.com/VKdBAJkqJ8 PMO India (@PMOIndia) January 5, 2017 And although it's part of protocol that the chief minister of the state concerned receives the prime minister on an official visit to the particular state, what people including senior leaders of both the BJP and JD(U) saw was indicative of the fact that smiles and handshakes between the two leaders were not part of civility and officialise. They had the warmth of a budding friendship and the re-bonding of a possible longer term relationship. Readers may recall that back when Nitish was railway minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, he shared an excellent rapport Modi, then Gujarat chief minister. But in Patna, they were conscious not to spark off speculation that had no meaning at least for now that their personal bonhomie could have political connotations. Modi and Nitish left the airport in separate cars to meet again at the historic Gandhi Maidan where a replica of the Takht Sri Harmandir Sahibji Gurudwara was built to mark the 350th birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh. Patna, it may be recalled, was after all the birthplace of the 10th Sikh Guru. Nitish received Modi again at Gandhi Maidan and took him to the dais. The two sat next to each other in saffron turban and were all smiles, often laughing at each other's words. PM @narendramodi at the #350thPrakashParv celebrations of Guru Gobind Singh Ji in Patna. pic.twitter.com/f16ak1tcDK PIB India (@PIB_India) January 5, 2017 Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad who belongs to Patna sat next to them and on some occasion, even joined the conversation. Nitish's support to Modi's demonetisation move has changed the personal and political dynamics between the two leaders. The Bihar chief minister extended unqualified support to demonetisation, puncturing Opposition unity and took away the moral halo from Opposition protests. Modi, on his part, publicly expressed his gratitude to Nitish and Navin Patnaik. Nitish's support and Modi's public acknowledgment has since then given rise to speculation about how far their new-found or renewed friendship could go. After all, in politics there are no permanent friends and no permanent enemies. There was no trace of the bitterness that was seen between Modi and Nitish in the run up to 2014 General Election. That seems to be in the past now a chapter in history that they now wish to close for good. When Nitish rose to speak, he spoke of Modi as Chief Minister of Gujarat for multiple terms, 12 years. Although Nitish later linked his statement with prohibition, his message to those concerned was unmistakable. Modi, in turn, was full of praise for Nitish, for his personal initiative to make Prakash Parv celebrations a success, for his organisational ability and for his governance to make this mega event go on smoothly in Patna, where Sikh pilgrims from all over the country and various parts of the world had come. Their appreciation for each other was reciprocal. It didn't seem like mere courtesy. He referred to Nitish again: "Desh ko aage badhane me Bihar bahut bada kaam karega (In taking the country forward, Bihar will play a major role)." What was interesting from a political perspective was the presence of Punjab chief minister and Akali Dal chief Parkash Singh Badal at the dais with Modi and Nitish. Prakash Parv celebrations in Patna could not have been complete without the presence of the Punjab chief minister. Badal is one of the senior most leaders in Indian political spectrum and his position in NDA has always been distinct. Interestingly, the Akali Dal, JD(U) and Shiv Sena were the original allies of the BJP. PM @narendramodi at the #350thPrakashParv celebrations of Guru Gobind Singh Ji in Patna. pic.twitter.com/rvY6sXtiu5 PIB India (@PIB_India) January 5, 2017 The last time Modi and Nitish were publicly seen as friends, joining hands and laughing was at a public rally hosted by Badal in Jalandhar in 2009. A year later in June 2010 when the same picture re-appeared in Bihar dailies, Nitish became venomous against Modi who was then present in Patna with the rest of the top BJP leadership to attend a national executive meeting. That part is well known. The changed dynamic between the two was first seen in August 2016 when Nitish had gone to meet Modi in New Delhi to seek Central assistance for relief and rehabilitation of affected people in the Kosi floods. It was also an occasion for Nitish to appreciate and endorse Modi's Namani Gange program. Way back in 2010, Nitish had returned a Rs five crore cheque to Modi that he had sent as Gujarat chief minister. Will the presence of Badal be a catalyst once again for the Modi-Nitish relationship only this time, a better, longer and more fruitful association? After all, Nitish has his own share of uneasiness with his current alliance partners the RJD and Congress. When the former Delhi Lieutenant Governor, Najeeb Jung, resigned prematurely from his term, the question remained whether this will mean the end of the face-off between the National Capital's administrator and the chief minister. However, Jung's stepping down did mark an end to one of the most "bittersweet" relationship, between a governor and a state's chief minister in recent times. While on one hand, the Arvind Kejriwal dispensation, repeatedly accused Jung of "stalling" governance and acting as the "agent" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah; Jung, on the other hand, steadfastly maintained that he was merely following the constitutional provisions in "letter and spirit." While Jung asserted at one point that "in respect to the NCT (National Capital Territory) of Delhi, the government means the Lieutenant Governor of the NCT of Delhi", Kejriwal questioned if that was the case, what was the need of an elected government. As the matter remains subjudice, only the Supreme Court will tell in time as to which constitutional post wields more power in New Delhi. Meanwhile, Frontline has reported that it has data to indicate that the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) took "extraordinary interest" in the functioning of the state government shortly after Kejriwal took over as the chief minister after a shocking defeat for the BJP. Citing the Ministry of Home Affairs and PMO's response to a number of RTIs, the news journal states that the Centre was not only closely monitoring the functioning of the state "but also closely following up on matters linked to it since March 2015." The report sites an instance, where Frontline obtained an email by the Hindustan Times Executive Editor, Shishir Gupta to the PMO, which entails a series of measures taken by the Kejriwal government "to abrogate" the powers of the Central government or the Delhi administrator. One of the instances it cites is the Kejriwal government's infamous order to route all reports sent to the L-G through his office, which was later reversed by Jung. The report states that the email was drafted in such a way that it did not seek a response from the PMO, and hence never elicited a reply from the PMO, even as Gupta in his clarification told Frontline that the email was written to seek Shah and PMO's response on the issue for a news story. However, just two days after receiving Gupta's email, the PMO sought a factual report from the MHA on the email in less than five days. The Hindustan Times, according to the Frontline, published this lone story on the issue, which omitted many of the pointers elaborated in the email. The factual report or the evidence of the draft could not be traced by the magazine in its series of RTIs, however, many of the subsequent issues flagged by Jung and the MHA were the same as mentioned in Gupta's email. At the root of this issue is the Article 239 of the Constitution, which states that the head of the Delhi will be an administrator (the post of the Governor as appointed by the President of India). But on 1 February, 1992, Article 239 was amended, which granted Delhi the special status of the National Capital Territory, giving it's administrative rights to a Lieutenant-Governor. According to Article 239 AA, the elected government in Delhi is within its rights to rule on all subjects in the state except for public order, police (including railway and village police) and land, that is to say, rights in or over land, land tenures etc. The above mentioned article, although clearly defines the jurisdiction of each of the two constitutional posts, it also leaves enough ambiguity for a conflict situation to emerge. And conflicts have emerged in the past as pointed out in this article by The Indian Express. However, never before has such an ugly stand-off between the Delhi chief minister and the L-G has taken place over issues as trivial as the appointment of bureaucrats, argues Sandipan Sharma in this Firstpost article. The announcement of the seven phase poll schedule for the 2017 Assembly election in Uttar Pradesh has caught India's most populous and politically critical state amid an unprecedented political turmoil and confusion. Consider the present position of four mainstream political parties: First, the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) still does not know on which symbol it is going to contest the election. The party leaders and its cadre still don't know who is the president of the party Mulayam Singh Yadav or Akhilesh Yadav. There is also no clarity on whether the party's name Samajwadi Party would be valid in these seven-phase elections, for both Mulayam Singh Yadav faction and Akhilesh Yadav faction have petitioned Election Commission claiming that they represent the actual Samajwadi Party and another claimant (Mulayam to Akhilesh faction and Akhilesh to Mulayam faction) is imposter, without party's inner constitutional validity and support of cadre. Then there is a question mark over the cycle symbol's owner assuming a truce is not called between the father and the son till January 17, when the nomination for the first phase of election in 73 assembly constituencies will begin. This in an unheard of and unthinkable proposition for the ruling party that too in a state as big and important as Uttar Pradesh. A situation where the father and the son along with the rest of the ruling clan members are fighting a public war against each other has not been seen before in the Indian polity, and that too when the electoral process has already begun. It looks as though Samajwadi party's Yadav clan chieftains have already reconciled to the fact that results of these elections are a foregone conclusion for them and they have to settle their pari-war first and in the coming years rise to prepare for the elections in 2022. Akhilesh has age on his side and he can wait for his turn to be in contention for power after five years. The number of seats it wins and the support it gets is more of an academic interest, at least as of now. Second, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati, who should otherwise have been best prepared, is showing signs of disarray. But in the run-up to the UP Assembly Election 2017, no other party in the state has seen the kind of desertion that the BSP has witnessed in its senior ranks. The likes of Swamy Prasad Maurya, Brajesh Pathak and RK Chaudhary have left the party. And while leaving the party all of them made a venomous attack on Mayawati. They all targeted her for allegedly preferring money over everything else. There is a perception that demonetisation has hit the BSP hard. In fact the hardest. No one has any factual evidence to that effect but in politics perception about a party and a leader plays an important role. But then it is also equally true that corruption or money-making charges don't stick on leaders who essentially have a caste and community based following. So far Mayawati has not hit the streets. She did not start holding public rallies till the first phase of campaigning had gathered momentum. Last time she was ruling Uttar Pradesh, and this time she is in opposition. She has, however, found another mode to communicate with his support base without leaving the cosy palatial confines of her residence, party and foundation offices communicate via long unwinding opening statements at press conferences. She is banking heavily on the spoils of the Samajwadi Party break up and is hoping that the Muslims would desert SP and come to her fold. So, despite the Supreme Court verdict barring usage of caste, community, religion, race, language, etc, to garner support, she openly talked about Muslims and why they should not vote for the SP but only for the BSP. Party candidates were openly identified with caste and community (Muslim). This is a make or break election for Mayawati. She had scored a big zero in the 2014 parliamentary election and thus it is supremely important that she and her party wins or does well in this election. The split and continuing war in the SP is her best bet. Third, the Congress is in a unique state of preparedness. The party is fighting an existential crisis situation whether it survives as a party or slips in total oblivion. But the day election was announced, party's de-facto boss Rahul Gandhi was holidaying abroad, celebrating the onset of New Year somewhere in Europe. Soon as the Election Commission (EC) announced its poll schedule, Congress's chief ministerial candidate Sheila Dikshit came on television to declare that she would be happy to relinquish her presumptive chief ministerial contention and would happily wait for the moment when her party does some kind of tie-up with the Samajwadi Party. Many in the Congress party, including Dixit's close supporters, believe that she was made a sacrificial lamb to don the disgrace of loss, allowing a graceful exit route to Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi. Fourth, the BJP is the only party in contention in UP, which does not have a chief ministerial candidate. Though Home Minister Rajnath Singh is the one who would be its man to be at the helm if the party wins the election but there is no announcement yet, nor would it be done in course of election. The BJP is fighting these elections in name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The size and response of crowd at his rallies are encouraging signs for the BJP, provided it translates into votes. This assembly election is being held in a post-surgical strike and post-demonetisation situation. The BJP has strengthened its organisational base in the state and won 71 out of 80 seats in the parliamentary elections garnering over 40 percent of popular votes. As such the BJP goes to the polls as a favourite but the Bihar Assembly Election 2015 result proved that electoral course could change during the month-long electioneering. BJP spokesman Sambit Patra says that elections are about confusion versus clarity. The March 11 result will give a verdict on what the voters thought was confusion and what they thought was clarity. On October 3, 2015, a new civil rights code came into effect in Spains Basque Country region, allowing parents to disinherit their children without providing a specific reason. Just 24 hours later we were getting calls from people wanting to change their wills, says public notary Felix Ignacio Torres Cia from the Basque town of Vitoria. Even in the months before the law came into force, when all we had were rumors, people were calling us and looking for answers. Diego Granados, Dean of the Basque College of Notaries. Javier Hernandez Juantegui The clause in the new law that makes it feasible for parents to disinherit their children hit the headlines in Spain, causing phone systems in the Basque Countrys notary offices to be overloaded. We dont know exactly how many people have asked for information or changed their wills, says a spokesperson from the College of Public Notaries in the Basque Country. But since the law took effect, consultations have easily doubled. Residents of other regions have looked at relocating to take advantage of the Basque law Legal advice bureau Legalitas has more accurate figures. According to its own data, the number of consultations from the Basque Country rose by 25% in 2015 after the new law took effect, while there was only a 1% rise over the same period in the rest of the country. Despite the lack of statistics, informal consultations with notary offices in the Basque Country leave no doubt as to the overwhelming response to the law. People started coming to change their will as soon as they grasped the implications of the new law above all, old people, says a spokesperson from the Lorena Lamana notary office in Bilbao. Another notary in Bilbao, who prefers to remain anonymous, agrees. The first months after the new law came into force were very busy, he says. People saw the news on TV or in the papers and called us. But what does disinheriting a child imply exactly? In all of the Spanish regions where inheritance is covered by the Spanish Civil Code, offspring are legally entitled to two-thirds of the deceaseds assets. In other regions, such as Galicia, Catalonia, Aragon, the Balearics and Navarre, the proportion varies. If parents want to disinherit their offspring, there needs to be a convincing argument to justify the decision, such as abuse. However, the new Basque law brings the legal inheritance entitlement of offspring down to a third while adding a clause that allows people to leave one or more descendants (either children or grandchildren) out of their will without having to provide cause. As such, one or more children can be disinherited. Huge interest in the new law collapsed the phone systems of Basque notary offices Children who have been explicitly excluded from the will have no right to inheritance, says Diego Granados de Asensio, Dean of the College of Public Notaries in the Basque Country and Professor of Civil Law at Deusto University in San Sebastian. And the parents dont have to offer any explanation, they simply explicitly exclude them or avoid mentioning them in the will. If you dont mention them, its the equivalent to cutting them out. In addition, a child left out of a will has no right to appeal. However, there is an exception to the new law: in the case of an only child with no children, this disinheritance clause ceases to be valid. This only child is legally entitled to a third of all assets, and, should the parents wish to disinherit him or her, they would be obliged to justify their decision. Problematic relationships or no relationship at all Most of the disinheritance cases have been due to a loss of contact rather than family conflict. What we are seeing are parents who have had no relationship with their children or grandchildren for years, either because they have moved away or because theyve had a disagreement and distanced themselves, says one notary in San Sebastian. In these cases, the children become estranged and the parents dont want to leave their inheritance to strangers. During the course of his work, Diego Granados has seen other motives at play. The most common reason for explicitly excluding a child has been alcoholism, drug use, gambling or similar addictions, he says. The parents dont want to leave their children the money because they know that it will be badly spent. And thats a real shame. The new Basque law allows people to disinherit their children without having to provide a reason But the new law has also been modified in other ways that favor the heir. For example, a person cannot inherit debts beyond the value of the inheritance. By contrast, in most of Spain, heirs usually have to assume responsibility for the debts they inherit and pay them off with their own money. Changing place of residence to disinherit children Basque notaries have been inundated with calls from residents of other Spanish regions wanting to register as residents of the Basque Country and take advantage of the new law. Notaries in a number of Basque cities say they have had calls from residents of Aragon, Cantabria, La Rioja and Castile y Leon, wanting information. They have even asked how to sign on as residents here so they can benefit from the new law, says one notary in Vitoria. But lawyer Sara Garcia from Legalitas explains that while registering as a resident alone would work in theory, it is unlikely to be enough. If someone registers here but doesnt live here, its easy to prove, she says. This means they would be unable to take advantage of the law. It remains to be seen how far parents are prepared to go to leave their children with nothing. English version by Heather Galloway. Opinion polls are by definition a matter of opinion, and in the Indian context, have often been found to be widely inaccurate, their usefulness restricted to arguments on social media or within the four walls of TV studio discussions. This is not meant to be condescending towards the back-breaking work done by psephologists or to discredit their methodology, but merely to point out that the complexity of Indian electorate doesn't lend itself easily to data-based interpretations. This disclaimer should apply even more in the case of Uttar Pradesh, India's largest state, which according to the Election Commission, will witness a seven-phase Assembly election, stretching from 11 February to 8 March. In keeping with the practice, a couple of opinion polls their findings significantly at odds with each another have emerged. The one done by ABP News backs Samajwadi Party to beat anti-incumbency blues and tide over intra-family crisis to emerge as the single largest party, while a more recent one carried out by Axis My India for India Today TV sees BJP winning by a clear majority. The only point where both converge is on the fate of Congress, relegating it to an inconsequential fourth spot. Right from sample size to methodology, there could be many reasons behind such a wide difference in projected outcomes. A major factor is that UP is way too complex, with its myriad equations, and way too big to vote as a monolithic bloc. We frequently use the term "India's largest state" to describe UP, but how large is the largest? According to The Economist, if the state were to declare its independence from India right now, it would be the world's fifth most populous country. But it's a poor state in terms of per capita income, its economy only the size of tiny Qatar. What this translates to is that a very large state (403 legislators and 80 parliamentarians) is open to a thousand permutations and combinations when it comes to electoral alignments due to its income inequality, socio-economic conditions, demography, spread of religion, culture and tradition and is notoriously difficult to predict. In that light, let us take the ABP-CSDS opinion poll that predicts 141-151 seats for an "undivided" SP, with a 30 percent vote share. The survey sees little change in voter behaviour since demonetisation and keeps BJP's vote share at 27 percent, just ahead of Mayawati's estimated collection of 22 percent. At the outset, the survey's projection depends on an "undivided SP", a possibility that looks distinctly unlikely at this juncture. The Election Commission has given the two warring factions until Monday (9 January) to prove their strength, depending on which, one understands, the EC will decide whether Mulayam Singh Yadav or beta Akhilesh gets to ride the cycle. As battle lines are drawn and positions become harder, it's extremely difficult to see how SP will stave off a formal split. And in the event of a division, SP's main voter base Yadavs and Muslims may either split or resort to tactical voting. None of these scenarios benefit the party. There is also the small matter of Mayawati's rise. She is perennially underestimated in opinion polls but enough media reports indicate that when it comes to maintaining law and order and delivering "good governance", she noses ahead of the pack. There has also been a tactical change in her ticket distribution this time. The self-styled Dalit icon is determined to eat into the 17 per cent Muslim votebank, and has given more than a hundred tickets to Muslim candidates. At the other end of the spectrum, the India Today survey, released on Wednesday, finds BJP winning a clear majority on the strength of demonetisation gains. Conducted by a team of 35 surveyors between 12-24 December, it has a sample size of 8,480. It projects 206-216 seats for BJP a jump of 30 seats from a similar exercise done in October and puts the surplus down to the effects of demonetisation, which it claims, has the backing of 78 percent respondents. Despite 58 percent participants expressing inconvenience over the note ban, the survey says the political message of demonetisation would be powerful enough to tide over the disgruntlements. However, this appears to be too optimistic an assumption, given the fact that demonetisation is still an evolving exercise and we are still some way adrift of pre-8 November normalcy. With elections slated to take place over seven phases starting from 11 February, the difference in perception may still change for better or worse. Either way, the effect remains inconceivable at this moment. Since the release of the survey, BJP spokespersons have appeared smug enough to claim premature victory in TV studios but the reality might be harsher. If BJP hopes to hold on to its 2014 gains, it could be in for a rude shock for a number of reasons. The Lok Sabha elections were a mandate on Narendra Modi who engineered a stunning sweep cutting across the fault lines of caste and identity. BJP's talisman retains his personal popularity, but voters know that he can't be chief minister of Uttar Pradesh as well. As Bihar, a state where Modi had extensively campaigned before the 2015 Assembly polls, had proven, the electorate is quite discerning when it comes to choosing between Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha candidates. The India Today survey, too, indicates that Akhilesh Yadav is the top choice as CM with 33 percent support, Mayawati coming in second spot with 25 percent. BJP's best bet is Rajnath Singh with 20 percent, but the Union home minister has indicated that he isn't interested in the UP job. At least not yet. One lesson to be drawn from this, therefore, is that not having a CM candidate could be a huge handicap for BJP, which had fought and won elections in Assam last year with Sarbananda Sonowal firmly in front. Even if demonetisation turns out to be a positive force for the saffron unit, the positivity would require a credible personality to be translated into votes something the BJP truly lacks in UP. It doesn't have anyone to show, not because of a policy decision but because it has no one to project. Also, infighting among its state unit may have prevented any name from being tentatively projected to preclude sabotage fears. Party president Amit Shah has his task cut out. Also, with the polls still over a month away, the election agenda hasn't been set. On this count, the BJP appears to be a little unsure. The prime minister stressed on vikaas (development)and "fight against corruption" as talking points last week during his mega rally in Lucknow. Officially, that remains the stand, but in the badlands of UP, where communal polarisation brings electoral dividends on both sides of the divide, it remains to be seen how effective an emotive appeal development turns out to be. As of now, there can only be one certainty about UP polls: That there is no certainty. Hilly Uttarakhand does not figure large on the overall electoral map of India. But when every electoral victory or loss becomes a matter of prestige for political parties even small states assume significance. So both the Congress and the BJP, the most important parties in the state, will give it all to the electoral fight in the state with 70 seats in the assembly. The final tally in 2012 left both parties almost even in terms of vote share and seats. It was a case of so near yet so far for the BJP which won 31 seats to the Congress' 32. In 2007, the party had won 32 and the latter 30. This scenario leaves minor players such as the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and independents with a decisive role in the government formation process. As the state gets ready for another election the equations remain the largely unchanged. Chief Minister Harish Rawat was expected to ride a sympathy wave to victory in 2017 after the BJP sought to cash in on the internal bickering in the Congress to overthrow his government in the middle of 2016. It was a spectacular self-goal by the BJP. It was chastised by the Supreme Court for making a mockery of the Constitution and Rawat was finally back in the saddle after proving his majority in the House. However, by the end of the year the sympathy factor appeared to have evaporated with an opinion polls conducted by a news channel predicting a victory for the BJP if the elections were held at that point. It said the victory margin would be slender but it would be a decisive one, not requiring it to seek support of either independents or the BSP. Rawat had squandered his goodwill and people fondly recollected the leadership of BC Khanduri. Given everything else was unchanged the BJP would still be the favourite in the elections due on 15 February. But things appear much more complicated at this point. Besides taking care of the factional fight involving former chief ministers it would have to face the effects of demonetisation. Announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 8 November, the move has created some problems for people. Getting cash has been troublesome and the situation is likely to continue for a few months. While it is not clear how big has been the impact of the exercise in Uttarakhand, it is likely that it follows the pattern across the country. Thus, besides being a test of Rawat's popularity, the coming elections would be a vote on demonetisation too. The BJP would try to exploit the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but two and a half years in power has taken some sheen off his mass appeal. It will be left to the local leaders to stage a comeback for the party. The Congress, caught in factionalism as always and faced with the anti-incumbency factor, will have a tough job at hand. The election of February promises to be interesting. Let's wait and watch how it unfolds. New Delhi: Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat on Thursday hit out at the Narendra Modi government accusing it of meting out "step-motherly treatment" to the state and asked it to immediately approve the proposed zonal plan for Bhagirathi eco-sensitive zone (ESZ). "The Centre must revoke the rejection of the master zonal plan of Bhagirathi ESZ and approve it immediately for the benefit of the people living in the area," he told reporters in New Delhi after observing a one-day hunger strike. Rawat alleged that the Centre is adopting different parameters and discriminating the state on the issue which has hindered the development of the hill state. Recently, the Centre had rejected Uttarakhand's zonal plan proposal for the Bhagirathi ESZ, which starts from Gaumukh to Uttarkashi, saying the plan designed by the state government had "many shortcomings". In the plan, Uttarakhand had proposed setting up 10 small hydro-power projects in the region and carrying out infrastructure projects like building roads in the eco-sensitive area. Rawat also advocated for relaxation of environmental norms for Uttarakhand on the lines of those offered to other Himalayan states and Western Ghat Eco Sensitive Zone in Maharashtra. Like the other states, the Congress leader demanded that permission should also be granted to Uttarakhand for establishing hydro power projects up to 25 MW. Rawat also claimed that state has suffered a loss of Rs 1,000 crore due to demonetisation and said the Centre has not provided any financial assistance in this regard. Instead of taking measures to revive the sick IDP and HMT, established during the regimes of Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, Rawat said the Modi-led government has taken a decision to close them. Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress Committee President Kishore Upadhyay, state ministers Surendra Singh Negi and Mantri Prasad Naithani, among others were present on the occasion. Upadhyay demanded reservation for forest dwellers (vanwasi) in the central government jobs and compensation for "revoking of special category status" to the state. "Vanwasi should be given reservations in central government posts for uplifting their lives. The state is incurring a loss of Rs 33,000 crores per annum due to revocation of special category status. We want a compensation for it," he said. Other demands of the state include 50 percent subsidy for cooking gas cylinder and approval of green bonus for taking various measures for pollution control, he said. Upadhyay also shot off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, highlighting the state government's various demands, including handing over the control and administration of all water and electricity projects to state government and release of Rs 4,000 crore for relief and assistance to the disaster affected population. He also demanded continuance of special industrial package to the state for another 10 years besides compensation for loss suffered due to demonetisation. We seek him here We seek him there We seek him everywhere Oh where is he, that elusive Scarlet Pimpernel. Look at it this way. India can carry on happily even if Rahul Gandhi is vacationing in London. After all, a man on the go, rescuing the nation from peril day after desperate day needs a coffee break. All that dashing about is tiring. Thing is that he had practically predicted that India under Modi was about to go under and that this man-made disaster, called the BJP, would destroy the nation around the year end. So why is he not around to hold our hands (in a nice way) and lead us to safety? By that very token, with the election fever rising in key states and demonetisation crossing the 50-day mark, one would think hed be here leading the Opposition to new frontiers and invading the Modi citadel with his piercingly vivid remarks. This is not the first time he has done this. In April last year, he did a Houdini for six weeks during Parliament session. In 2013, he had been hauled over the coals for being elsewhere when the nation was dealing with the flood hit Uttarkhand tragedy. It is not so much the taking off when he should actually be here after having stirred the pot and spread the doom and gloom as it is the lack of transparency. Where does he go? No one really knows. His supporters hemmed and hawed in profound embarrassment last year and it was comical in the extreme. This year you can have your pick. He is in London. Off to Columbia. Has cut short his visit and rushed to Bengaluru to express anguish over the molestations.He is back. Coming tomorrow. next week. Like Puss in Boots, gone to meet the Queen. He is in Delhi but in seclusion as he plots his next move. Before we nail him to the wall though, it is worth considering that these vanishing acts might well be a clever ploy. Because whenever he does this his exposure doubles and he get so much more TV time newsprint space and attention. Around February-March last year, when he trotted off on his south Asian jaunt and everyone was getting into a tizzy, more was written about him and spoken through media with a 100 percent spike. Remember the fuss and bother about the Charlie Rose conference in the USA in September last year and how the BJP made so much about it because it kind of coincided with the Modi trip to the States. With all the negative stuff thrown at him these departures could well be designed to ginger up the public image and generate more truism from the adage that absence makes the heart grow fonder. Everyone gets off his back, the critics are eclipsed by the mystery and the guessing games and Rahul is back on the front page. This little trick affords him a dimension he otherwise lacks. The fact is we all do generally fall for it. The government says he is derelict in his duty. His party builds him into some grandiloquent statesman on a mission of great secrecy. The media flips flops around in turn calling him names and still waiting for him to return like Caesar into Rome. So, is he Caesar or merely a vice-president of a party with not even ten percent representation? Why this fascination with a man who merely whips up a frenzy and then lets other people clean up the mess? If truth be told, the AIDMK has more presence at the Centre! The rainman who leaves a muddy trail with media squelching after him. But the Gandhi name endures and wit every such disappearance he gets a second life, another shot at the coconut. Even the BJP is not immune to it and in the immortal words of Shobhaa De; all publicity is good publicitywhat if he is smarter than we think. By Ueslei Marcelino and Alonso Soto | MANAUS/BRASILIA MANAUS/BRASILIA Brazilian prosecutors on Thursday demanded a multi-million dollar private prison contract in Amazonas state be axed due to signs of corruption as the government blamed mismanagement for the country's bloodiest prison massacre in decades. Amazonas' accounting court prosecutor, Carlos Almeida, said he found signs of payment irregularities in a contract the state signed with the Pamas consortium to manage all its prisons, including the Anisio Jobim penitentiary where 56 inmates died in an uprising this week.The killings have raised questions about whether private companies should be running prisons in Brazil, especially in Amazonas where the inmate population has more than doubled since 2010.The Pamas consortium, made up of Umanizzare Gestao Prisional e Servicos Ltda and LFG Locacoes e Servicos Ltda, received about 400 million reais ($125 million) in 2016 to co-manage Amazonas' prisons, Almeida said. That was after Umanizzare signed a contract with Amazonas in 2015 for the consortium to run state prisons for 27 years at an estimated cost of 205 million reais a year, and received a payment of 198 million reais at the time of signing, said Almeida.The difference between the 2016 payment and the estimated cost of the contract raised prosecutors' suspicions, as did the original price tag which was well above similar agreements in other states, Almeida said."There are indications those payments could have been inflated," Almeida told Reuters, adding that he had warned state authorities about problems with the contract and recommended they not sign the deal. Umanizzare and LFG did not respond to requests for comment. Brazilian Justice Minister Alexandre Moraes said the private prison management model is not to blame for the massacre, but pointed to mistakes by the administrators of the prison, which had three times as many inmates as its capacity. Moraes said Umanizzare failed to act on intelligence reports indicating that inmates planned a prison break during the holidays and that weapons were easily smuggled into the facility during a New Year's eve party. WHO IS TO BLAME? Umanizzare said in a Wednesday statement the state was responsible for guarding the inmates, while the company was only responsible for cleaning, medical treatment and electronic surveillance. But Moraes said at a news conference on Thursday that the company was also responsible for security at the prison.The guards hired by the company were poorly trained and could be easily bribed because of their low salaries, according to a ministry report on conditions at the prison in 2016.Private management of prisons is relatively new in Brazil, with less than two dozen penitentiaries under the model. Yet it remains an attractive alternative for heavily indebted state governments as Brazil remains mired in recession. Watchdog groups say this week's massacre in Manaus shows profits and prison management cannot mix. "An inmate is not a commodity and cannot be the object of a contract," said Marcos Fuchs, vice president of the National Council of Criminal and Prison Policies. "This model is ripe for corruption... Brazil should not follow in the steps of the United States."The United States has more private prisons than any other nation, but the model has come under harsh criticism by human rights groups, who say it only gives incentive for more incarcerations to sustain profits. The United States has the world's biggest prison population.In Amazonas, the number of inmates rose to 10,333 in 2016 from 4,979 in 2010, according to prison authorities, a rise state Governor Jose Melo blamed on increased drug trafficking from neighbouring Colombia and Peru, the world's top two cocaine producers. Seven of Amazonas' 19 prisons are under private management.Melo's press office said that the hiring of the consortium by the state was done through the correct legal means of a public bidding process. (Reporting by Alonso Soto; Editing by Andrew Hay) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Washington: President-elect Donald Trump insisted that he supports the US intelligence agencies despite having cast doubts on their conclusion that Russia interfered with the US presidential election. "The media lies to make it look like I am against 'intelligence' when in fact I am a big fan!" Trump said in a two-tweet statement. "The dishonest media likes saying that I am in Agreement with Julian Assange wrong. I simply state what he states, it is for the people to make up their own minds as to the truth." The dishonest media likes saying that I am in Agreement with Julian Assange - wrong. I simply state what he states, it is for the people.... Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2017 to make up their own minds as to the truth. The media lies to make it look like I am against "Intelligence" when in fact I am a big fan! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2017 Trump has cited WikiLeaks founder Assange to express doubts that Moscow was behind the hacking of Democratic Party computers and accounts that led to the release of embarrassing documents and emails via the anti-secrecy group. The White House, FBI and CIA have all said the top levels of the Russian government were behind the hacking and leaks, which hurt Trump rival Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. But Trump appeared to reject the intelligence agencies' conclusions in these tweets, preferring Assange's view. "Julian Assange said 'a 14-year-old could have hacked Podesta' - why was DNC so careless?" he asked, referring to the Democratic National Committee and from Hillary Clinton campaign chief John Podesta. Julian Assange said "a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta" - why was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2017 Leaders of both political parties blasted Trump for his comments. Assange is "a sycophant for Russia", said Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan on Wednesday. "He leaks, he steals data, and compromises national security." Democratic Senator Mark Warner said Trump showed "frankly flabbergasting" disrespect for the intelligence officials. "I think the most important thing the intelligence community can always do is speak truth to power," he told MSNBC. "And it seems like perhaps the president-elect doesn't want to hear those truths." Trump's backpedaling came ahead of a Senate hearing on Thursday, in which Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and National Security Agency director Michael Rogers are testifying on Russian election interference. And on Friday, the chiefs of four top intelligence agencies are scheduled to brief Trump in detail on the alleged Russian hacking. Washington: Donald Trump's "first order of business" as president will be to repeal and replace "Obamacare," but Republicans must avoid hurting consumers as they do it, Vice President-elect Mike Pence said at the Capitol on Thursday. President Barack Obama visited Congress, too, 16 days before leaving the White House, championing his landmark overhaul before Democratic lawmakers and urging them to remind voters of how the statute has helped them. "Look out for the American people," Obama said as he left the meeting in response to shouted questions as to what he had told fellow Democrats. "Keep up the fight," Obama told them at a strategy meeting, according to Tim Ryan, D-Ohio. "Tell the stories about the people who have benefited from it. The more you can get that message through, the better off we're going to be." Pence spoke to reporters after an hour-long session with House Republicans. Representative Dave Brat, R-Virginia, said GOP leaders want to get legislation dismantling the health care law to Trump for his signature by 20 February. "The first order of business is to repeal and replace Obamacare," Pence said, using the overhaul's nickname. He said Americans "voted decisively for a better future for health care in this country, and we are determined to give them that." Pence said Trump's team was already working with GOP congressional leaders on plans to undo Obama's law with both legislation and executive action the president and federal agencies would be able to take. Pence did not specify what those actions would be. But House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, told reporters they would involve "transition relief." That phrase has been used to describe help for consumers and insurers while Obama's law is being phased out and replaced with a GOP alternative, a process expected to take years. Republicans are discussing delaying the timing for major provisions of the change to actually take effect, perhaps to 18 months or more. It is expected to take at least that long for GOP lawmakers to rally behind a plan. Obama's and Pence's strategy sessions came on the second day of the new, GOP-led Congress. The Senate voted 51-48 on Thursday to begin debating a budget that, once approved, will prevent Democrats from using a filibuster to block future Republican legislation to scuttle the health care law. Republicans control the Senate by 52-48, but it takes 60 votes to end a filibuster, a procedural roadblock that can kill legislation. The Senate was expected to complete the budget by next week, with House approval to follow. Minutes before Obama and Pence met with lawmakers, Trump tweeted that voters are faulting Democrats for the health care law and its rising premiums, deductibles and other problems. massive increases of ObamaCare will take place this year and Dems are to blame for the mess. It will fall of its own weight - be careful! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2017 "Massive increases of ObamaCare will take place this year and Dems are to blame for the mess. It will fall of its own weight be careful!" he wrote. By Stephen Kalin and Isabel Coles | ERBIL, Iraq ERBIL, Iraq Iraqi forces have retaken around 70 percent of eastern Mosul from Islamic State militants and expect to reach the river bisecting the city in the coming days, Iraq's joint operations commander told Reuters.Lieutenant General Talib Shaghati, who is also head of the elite counter-terrorism service (CTS) spearheading the campaign to retake the northern city, said the cooperation of residents was helping them advance against Islamic State.In its 12th week, the offensive has gained momentum since Iraqi forces backed by a U.S.-led coalition renewed their push for the city a week ago, clearing several more eastern districts despite fierce resistance."Roughly 65-70 percent of the eastern side has been liberated," Shaghati said in an interview late on Wednesday in the Kurdish capital of Erbil. "I think in the coming few days we will see the full liberation of the eastern side".The western half of the city remains under the full control of Islamic State, which is fighting to hold on to its largest urban stronghold with snipers and suicide car bombs numbering "in the hundreds" according to Shaghati.The Mosul assault, involving a 100,000-strong ground force of Iraqi government troops, members of the autonomous Kurdish security forces and mainly Shi'ite militiamen, is the most complex battle in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.The commander of a U.S.-led coalition backing the Iraqi offensive told Reuters on Wednesday that increased momentum was due largely to better coordination among the army and security forces. He said the Iraqis had improved their ability to defend against Islamic State car bombs. Although vastly outnumbered, the militants have used the urban terrain to their advantage, concealing car bombs in narrow alleys, posting snipers on tall buildings with civilians on lower floors and making tunnels and surface-level passageways between buildings. They have also embedded themselves among the local population. HUMAN SHIELDS The presence of large numbers of civilians on the battlefield has restricted Iraqi forces' use of artillery but the cooperation of residents has also helped them target the militants."They give us information about the location of the terrorists, their movements and weapons that has helped us pursue them and arrest some and kill others," Shaghati said. In the run-up to the Mosul offensive, Iraqi officials expressed hope that residents would rise up against Islamic State, accelerating the group's demise in the city. But mass executions seem to have discouraged widespread resistance.An Iraqi victory in Mosul would probably spell the end for Islamic State's self-styled caliphate, which leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared 2-1/2 years ago from Mosul's main mosque after the militants overran the city.But in recent days, the militants have displayed the tactics to which they are likely to resort if they lose the city, killing dozens with bombs in Baghdad and attacking security forces elsewhere.An attack claimed by Islamic State killed six people on Thursday on the capital's eastern outskirts. CTS pushed into Mosul from the east in late October and made swift advances but regular army troops tasked with advancing from the north and south made slower progress and the operation stalled for several weeks.The roughly 10,000 members of CTS, established a decade ago with support from the U.S. forces, are considered the best-trained and equipped fighters in Iraq.Shaghati described the role of the international coalition, providing air support and advising Iraqi forces on the ground as "outstanding" and said Islamic State was crumbling under pressure."Daesh (Islamic State) devised many plans to obstruct and block us but they failed. We were able to surpass them and these areas were liberated with high speed," Shaghati said."We have intelligence that (Islamic State) leaders and their families are fleeing outside Iraq." (Writing by Isabel Coles; Editing by Janet Lawrence) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. By Lesley Wroughton | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The United States is encouraging Syria peace talks being prepared by Russia later this month in the Kazakh capital Astana and hopes they will produce a step towards peace, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday."We're encouraging a meeting in Astana. We hope that could produce a step forward," Kerry told reporters during his final news conference at the State Department.Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Dec. 26 that Russia, Iran, Turkey and Syrian President Bashar al Assad had all agreed to hold the talks in Astana although no date has been set.Kerry said he had talked to U.N. Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and the objective remained "to get to Geneva where the real meat of the talks is going to take place." But Kerry said a Dec. 30 ceasefire brokered by Russia and Turkey had run into difficulties with numerous violations."The fighting is continuing, it's difficult and the Assad regime seems to be playing the same card that it was playing previously," he said.After several failed ceasefire attempts brokered by Kerry and Lavrov, the United States remained out of the latest Syrian talks. It is unclear whether the United States will attend the Astana talks. Russia and Iran both back Assad, but Turkey, a NATO member, has long made clear it would prefer that Assad step down. Ankara, however, has 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.With two weeks left in the Obama administration, Kerry said it was unclear what the new administration's approach to foreign policy would be under President-elect Donald Trump. "Nobody can predict what choices this administration is going to make. I don't know. I don't think you do," said Kerry, "The question a lot of people are asking is: Do they know? We're going to have to wait and see what choices they make."Trump has nominated Rex Tillerson, the former head of Exxon Mobil, as secretary of state although it is unclear when his confirmation hearing will take place.While Tillerson appeared to win over Republicans during meeting at the U.S. Senate on Wednesday, Democrats want more time to consider his record, especially his ties to Russia. (Reporting by Lesley Wroughton; Writing by Mohammad Zargham; Editing by Eric Walsh and Sandra Maler) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. By Susan Cornwell and Richard Cowan | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON President Barack Obama exhorted fellow Democrats on Wednesday to preserve his legacy-defining healthcare law as Republicans launched their long-desired bid to scrap it in what Vice President-elect Mike Pence called the "first order of business" of Donald Trump's administration.The Senate opened debate on a resolution setting in motion the Republican drive to repeal the Democratic-backed 2010 Affordable Care Act, which has helped upwards of 20 million previously uninsured Americans obtain medical insurance.Obama, who hands over the presidency to Republican Trump on Jan. 20, ventured to Capitol Hill to urge Democratic lawmakers to protect the measure, which is known as Obamacare and is considered his signature domestic policy accomplishment.Republicans, who will control both chambers of Congress and the White House when Trump takes office, stepped up their rhetorical attack on the law, which they have labelled a government overreach. Democrats in turn accused them of trying to rip apart the nation's healthcare system with no firm plan to replace it."The Republican plan to cut healthcare wouldn't 'make America great again,'" Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters, invoking Trump's campaign slogan. "It would make America sick again and lead to chaos instead of affordable care."Obama "encouraged us to fight," Democratic Representative Elijah Cummings told reporters after the Obama meeting.Pence, a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, met Republican lawmakers to plot the path forward on scuttling the law. Afterward, they stepped up their rhetorical attack on Obamacare, with House Speaker Paul Ryan saying the law ruined the American healthcare system."The first order of business is to keep our promise to repeal Obamacare and replace it with the kind of healthcare reform that will lower the cost of health insurance without growing the size of government," Pence said at a news conference.During a news conference, Pence and Ryan offered few details on what a Republican-backed replacement for Obamacare would look like but Ryan said lawmakers will take action that does not "pull the rug out from anybody." Trump wrote earlier on Twitter that Republicans "must be careful in that the Dems own the failed ObamaCare disaster, with its poor coverage and massive premium increases.""Don't let the Schumer clowns out of this web," Trump added.But Schumer said, "They want to repeal it and then try to hang it on us. Not going to happen. It's their responsibility, plain and simple."'SMOOTH TRANSITION' The Republicans risk causing chaos in the health insurance market as well as potential political backlash. Pence said repealing it must be done in a way that does not "work a hardship" on the economy or Americans who gained insurance through Obamacare.Pence said Trump will work in concert with congressional leaders for a "legislative and executive action agenda for an orderly and smooth transition to a market-based healthcare reform system."Ryan said Republicans have a plan and "plenty of ideas." House Republicans last year offered a proposal that would, among other things, provide refundable tax credits to help people afford their medical insurance premiums.White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Republicans must shoulder the blame for the healthcare vacuum that could ensue if they repeal Obamacare without a plan to replace it. "One of the most articulate Republicans on Capitol Hill is the speaker of the House," Earnest said of Ryan. "And he did a news conference today where he was unable to explain why Republicans have not put forward their replacement plan."Obamacare helped people obtain insurance by expanding eligibility to the Medicaid healthcare programme for the poor and providing government subsidies to help people obtain coverage from private insurers through government-run exchanges.Trump has vowed to protect some popular parts of Obamacare, such as barring insurance companies from denying coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions. But he wants to replace it with a system that is "much better and much less expensive," as he told Reuters on Oct. 25 after premium increases emerged in some healthcare markets.The American Medical Association doctors' group urged caution in making changes to Obamacare, which the organisation supported."In considering opportunities to make coverage more affordable and accessible to all Americans, it is essential that gains in the number of Americans with health insurance coverage be maintained," the AMA said in a letter to congressional leaders.The AMA said before any action is taken on Obamacare policymakers should lay out for the American people "in reasonable detail what will replace current policies.""Patients and other stakeholders should be able to clearly compare current policy to new proposals so they can make informed decisions about whether it represents a step forward in the ongoing process of health reform," the group said. (Additional reporting by Mike Stone; Writing by Will Dunham and Steve Holland; Editing by Leslie Adler and Bill Trott) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Spains Constitutional Court considers that the right of members of political parties to freedom of expression is limited by their voluntarily belonging to an organization, to which they therefore owe loyalty. Sources at the court say the decision upholds a Supreme Court ruling rejecting an appeal made by Susana Perez-Alonso, a member of the Socialist Party (PSOE) who was suspended for 20 months after she criticized the decision to cancel party primaries in the municipal elections in Oviedo, Asturias, in 2007. The seat of the Constitutional Court in Madrid. Claudio Alvarez Perez-Alonso had claimed her right to free speech had been breached by the suspension. However, the Supreme Court ruled that she had exceeded her right to free speech by speaking out about her partys decision to call off the selection process for candidates in the northern city. Constitutional Court rulings cannot be appealed against Following the Supreme Courts rejection of Perez-Alonsos appeal, the Constitutional Court has gone a step further. Until now, courts resolved cases of party discipline on the basis of procedure: political parties, or any other organization, have the right to sanction members if they infringe their rules, and as such, any sanction cannot be appealed against. But the Constitutional Courts ruling now states that even fundamental rights are limited by belonging to an organization and that Perez-Alonso exceeded her right to freedom of expression because, in this case, she was required to avoid public criticism of the Socialist Party. Two of the Constitutional Courts 12 members, Juan Antonio Xiol and Encarnacion Roca, who participated in the Supreme Court hearing of Perez-Alonsos appeal, abstained, while Fernando Valdes voted against the ruling, arguing that a fundamental right cannot be limited by membership of an organization. The ruling was supported by the president of the Constitutional Court, Francisco Perez de los Cobos. Constitutional Court rulings cannot be appealed against. The ruling is expected to be published in coming days, according to the Europa Press news agency. English version by Nick Lyne. Ankara: Turkey said on Thursday that it had the right to close a key air base used by the US-led coalition to strike jihadists in Syria, as tensions mount between NATO allies Ankara and Washington. Presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Ankara had the right to close Incirlik air base in Adana province, southern Turkey as part of its sovereign right. "We always have in our hands the right to say 'we will close it' but as I said, the conditions will be assessed," Kalin told 24 TV channel. But he added that Turkish authorities were not conducting any urgent assessments to decide whether to close the base to coalition planes. Turkey is part of the US-led coalition against the Islamic State group (IS) in Syria and lets Western war planes use Incirlik as a base for air raids. Kalin's comments came after Turkish ministers hit back at the United States over what they perceive as a lack of support for its own intervention in northern Syria and questioned Washington's presence at the base. Relations between Washington and Ankara have soured over the six-year conflict as the US sees Syrian Kurdish militias as an effective ground force against Islamic State. Ankara views them as linked to Kurdish separatist rebels waging an insurgency in Turkey. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Wednesday that Ankara had seen no support from the US as it seeks to take the Syrian town of Al-Bab from Islamic State in a battle that has seen fierce fighting. "Our people ask, 'why are you letting them (US-led coalition) be based at Incirlik?'" he said, quoted by NTV broadcaster. The base which houses dozens of American tactical nuclear weapons was also a key flashpoint in the 15 July failed coup and several of its former Turkish personnel have since been detained. Defence Minister Fikri Isik said Wednesday that Turkey was "questioning" the US presence at Incirlik. But Washington sought to mollify Ankara, describing the base as "invaluable" for the fight against Islamic State. "The whole world has been made safer because of operations that have been conducted" from Incirlik, said Colonel John Dorrian, a top US military official. Just days before President Barack Obama leaves office after eight years during which relations with Turkey have become frosty, Kalin appeared to suggest President-elect Donald Trump's administration would prove better for Turkish-US relations. "I have the impression that a Trump administration will take Turkey's sensitivities on this issue (Incirlik) more into account," Kalin said. By Faith Hung and Umesh Desai | TAIPEI/HONG KONG TAIPEI/HONG KONG Taiwan's military pension fund may be in default by 2020 after years of widening deficits, raising alarm about the island's defence stability when tensions are heating up with political foe China.The government says an urgent overhaul of the pension system is needed as large payouts are no longer sustainable for the export-reliant economy, with contributions crimped by slower economic growth since the 1990s and a rapidly aging population.Some 120,000 on military pension benefits and another 200,000 in the civil service are nervous about pension reform, a priority of President Tsai Ing-wen. A restructured scheme could result in having to wait longer to retire as well as smaller pension payments, among other changes."The biggest problem we are facing with the reform is fear. It is making everyone anxious and uneasy," said Hu Chu-sheng, a retired former Lieutenant General who had served in the army for 40 years."When soldiers cannot focus on their duty, it weakens the effectiveness of Taiwan's military forces," Hu said. "It would then be easy for China to take Taiwan without even getting blood on their knives."China regards Taiwan as a breakaway province that should be reunited with the mainland, by force if necessary.The unease over pension reforms cuts across other sectors. Under-funded liabilities of public and labour sector pensions were expected to hit a record T$18 trillion ($570 billion) in 2016, nine times the government's annual budget expenditure and a big jump from T$12 trillion a decade ago. "If we cannot have stability over the next 20 or 30 years, it is unavoidable that it will trigger a financial crisis for the government," said director Lu Ming-tai of the retirement and survivor relief department of the Civil Service Ministry, which manages more than T$560 billion in one of the government's public sector pensions. The surge in the under-funded liabilities since 2008 has raised the urgency of pension reform. "Taiwan and the other 'Little Dragon' economies are the fastest aging Asian economies after Japan," said S&P Global Ratings analyst Kim Eng Tan. "Taiwan's demographic profile means that contributions to the public servants' pension funds are already below benefits paid to retired members." Successfully reforming the pension system will be crucial for President Tsai, whose popularity has hit an all-time low since taking office last May. She says reforms are "urgent" given limited national and social resources and wants to see pension reform bills passed by the legislature this spring. As doubts arise over the government's ability to fund pension and health insurance, Taiwan's youth feel increasingly demoralised."If the pension system is not reformed soon, young people see no hope for their future," said Chu ying-ju, 23, a graduate student and member of an advocacy group on pension reform.Military staff draw monthly pensions of T$49,379 on average, and civil servants T$56,383 - around 75-85 percent of last-drawn salaries and about twice the starting pay of new graduates. AGING POPULATION Tsai's determination to push on with reforms, where former President Ma Ying-jeou had failed, has angered hundreds of thousands of public sector employees who demonstrated in Taipei in September, demanding the government protect their interests. "Pension reform is the toughest job on the domestic agenda," said Lin Wan-yi, deputy chief of the National Pension Reform Committee. Government debt has surged tenfold to T$5.67 trillion over the last 23 years while the working population has shrunk. And time is not on the government's side. Pensions for civil servants could default by 2030, teachers in 2031 and other workers in 2048, government data shows. "We expect the burden of an aging society to intensify over the next two years in Taiwan and Korea as their working populations shrink for the first time in modern history," said Ronald Man of Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Hong Kong.There were 13 working people per retiree in 1985, declining to six in 2015, and will be less than two by 2050. Taiwan's aging demographic and a low birth rate have resulted in higher debt for these funds - at 53 percent of GDP. That figure will likely climb as funds hunt for yield overseas because domestic rates are low."Officials could tackle this problem for pension funds and insurance companies in Taiwan by raising the overseas investment limit from 45 percent or allowing more exemptions when calculating the limit," Man said.S&P Global Rating's aging studies show most sovereign ratings will go down if governments don't enact reforms to pension and healthcare financing schemes. "In the near future, the sum of new contributions plus existing fund assets will not be able to meet benefit payments," said S&P's Tan, adding that Taiwan's National Health Insurance was potentially a bigger concern."Like pensions, its burden will grow as Taiwanese age. And it covers a much bigger part of the population, including some who live abroad." (Editing by Jacqueline Wong) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. By Dustin Volz and Patricia Zengerle | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The top U.S. intelligence official told Congress on Thursday he was "even more resolute" in his belief that Russia staged cyber attacks on Democrats in the 2016 election campaign, despite skepticism from Republican President-elect Donald Trump about findings on Moscow's role.James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, said he had a very high level of confidence that Russia hacked Democratic Party institutions and operatives, as well as disseminating propaganda and fake news aimed at the Nov. 8 election."Our assessment now is even more resolute than it was" on Oct. 7 when the government first publicly accused Russia, Clapper told a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee.Although Trump called himself a "big fan" of intelligence agencies, he is heading for a conflict over the issue because he has cast doubt on their assessments that Russia targeted the election. Many lawmakers from both parties are wary of Moscow and distrust Trump's praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin and efforts to heal the rift between the United States and Russia.Trump will be briefed by intelligence agency chiefs on Friday on hacks that targeted the Democratic Party in the run-up to the election surprisingly won by the New York businessman."I don't think we've ever encountered a more aggressive or direct campaign to interfere in our election process than we've seen in this case," said Clapper, who leaves when Trump becomes president on Jan. 20. Clapper stopped short of declaring Russia's actions "an act of war," saying that determination was beyond the scope of his office.Clapper did not say what made him confident that Russia was behind the cyber attacks, but that conclusion is shared by U.S. intelligence agencies such as the CIA and several private cyber security firms. Moscow denies the hacking allegations. President Barack Obama last week ordered the expulsion of 35 Russian suspected spies and imposed sanctions on two Russian intelligence agencies he said were involved in hacking U.S. political groups such as the Democratic National Committee (DNC).TRUMP SKEPTICAL In a tweet on Wednesday, Trump cast doubt on a Russian role in the affair, writing: "(WikiLeaks founder) Julian Assange said 'a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta' - why was DNC so careless? Also said the Russians did not give him the info!" However, on Thursday, Trump said in another post on Twitter that he was not against intelligence agencies or in agreement with Assange, whose organization leaked Democrats' emails. Documents stolen from the DNC and candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta were leaked to the media before the election, embarrassing the campaign.U.S. intelligence officials have said Russian cyber attacks were specifically aimed at helping Trump beat Clinton. Several Republicans have acknowledged the Russian hacking but have not linked it to an effort to help Trump win. Trump and top advisers believe Democrats are trying to delegitimize his election victory by accusing Russia of helping him. Clapper said there were multiple motives for the hacking but pointed out that "they did not change any vote tallies or anything of that sort." Clapper, National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers and Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Marcel Lettre all testified at Thursday's hearing about cyber threats.More than 30 nations are developing offensive cyber attack capabilities as of late 2016, Clapper said. They described Moscow as a major threat to a wide range of U.S. interests because of its "highly-advanced offensive cyber program" and sophisticated capabilities.An unclassified version of the intelligence community's review of Russian interference in the U.S. election will be made public early next week and will assign a motive for the attacks, Clapper said. The report was delivered to Obama on Thursday. (Reporting by Dustin Volz and Patricia Zengerle; Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball in Washington; writing by Alistair Bell; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Grant McCool) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. La Estrella de Panama, one of the oldest newspapers in Latin America, is preparing its own obituary, and is due to close down at midnight on January 5. Set up in 1849, the daily has been dying a slow death for the last seven months after its owner, Abdul Waked Fares, a Lebanese-born businessman with dual Colombian and Panamanian nationality, was added to the so-called Clinton List, created by the US Treasury Department to tackle money laundering and drug trafficking. The paper is forbidden from engaging in any kind of economic activity. More information El diario panameno mas antiguo prepara su propia esquela US authorities granted La Estrellas editorial group, GESE one of some 70 businesses owned by Waked a temporary operating permit that runs out on January 6 to allow it to break all ties with its owner, either through its sale or some other mechanism, but the businessman refused. An investigation in Panama into allegations that Waked was involved in money-laundering activities and drug trafficking closed in November. No charges have yet been brought against him and he remains free. The Panamanian government last month asked the United States to extend La Estrellas permit, but the paper, along with sister publication El Siglo which was founded in 1985 and is also affected remains part of Wakeds business group. Both and are thus subject to US sanctions. Other newspapers in the region have closed after the US Treasury took action against them In response, the paper has launched a campaign calling on readers to help save it. Whenever a media outlet closes, there is an attack on freedom of expression, Eduardo Quiros, the president of GESE, told EL PAIS. There is an attack on the freedom of the press and of expression, and on the right of Panamanians and foreign readers to information, he added, explaining that US companies and their affiliates or subsidiaries are forbidden by Washington from doing business with GESE as part of a series of measures that prevent the paper from making international bank transfers, buying insurance policies, selling advertising or buying airline tickets. Diario Tiempo, a newspaper from nearby Honduras, closed at the end of 2015 after its owner, the Rosenthal group, was accused by the US Treasury Department of involvement in drug trafficking and money laundering. English version by Nick Lyne. The recent spate of highly publicized murders of women in Argentina is due to the decline of matrimony, an institution that has become a provisional bond, according to the Archbishop of La Plata, Hector Aguer, one of the most conservative members of the Roman Catholic Church in the South American country. Archbishop Hector Aguer in May 2016 in La Plata, Buenos Aires. Arzobispado de La Plata This is not the first time Aguer has blamed supposed declining moral standards as the cause of Argentinas woes. In August he railed against the culture of fornication and petting and the records of young ladies who change boyfriends. In his latest outburst, given in an interview earlier this week on Argentinean station Radio Ciudad, the archbishop said that marriages do not last, and that this has led to violence [against women] that didnt exist before. The murders of 230 women were recorded during the first 10 months of 2016, according to one NGO His comments contradict the views of #NiUnaMenos, the social movement whose slogan is not one less and that has organized huge demonstrations against gender violence in Argentina and other countries in the region. The murders of 230 women were recorded during the first 10 months of 2016, according to La Casa del Encuentro, an NGO that works with women who are victims of violence. A woman is killed by a man every 31 hours in Argentina, 65% of them at the hands of their partner or ex-partner, with the remainder murdered by other family members, neighbors or acquaintances. Monsignor Aguer attributes this to the dissolution of marriage as the basis of society. Marriage dignified women, it put them in a position of equality with men. Todays laws mean that marriage has become a provisional bond. Marriage provided stability to families and supported women. There never used to be violence like we see today, I dont remember anything like this, said Aguer in an interview with Radio Ciudad. Marriage doesnt last. Today the tendency is not to get married and so it has been devalued. There is no longer husband and wife, there are simply ex-boyfriends, ex-girlfriends, ex-partners, he said. The cleric went on to blame pedophilia on the decline in marriage. The majority of sexual abuse of children takes place in the home, mainly by step-fathers, the partners of women, although sometimes it is the father himself. All this has to do with the dissolution of the family tie that was founded on an indissoluble marriage, he insisted. The majority of sexual abuse of children takes place in the home. All this has to do with the dissolution of the family Archbishop of La Plata, Hector Aguer Aguer then aired his views on homosexuality, denying that Pope Francis was gay friendly after his comments that homosexual men and women should not be marginalized by the Roman Catholic Church. Nobody is a friend or an enemy of gays. There is Church doctrine on this, which both Bergoglio [the Pope] and I both respect. And that doctrine has not changed. Homosexuals are required to be celibate and to control themselves, he said. Aguer has previously criticized same-sex marriage, describing it as fornication against nature. This prompted a rebuke from the head of Argentinas Human Rights Secretariat, Claudio Afruj, who said: His position is authoritarian, discriminatory, and deserves our total rejection. He is the antithesis of Pope Francis and his thoughts are individual and not institutional. The cleric has also been criticized by Argentinas National Institute against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism (INADI). English version by Nick Lyne. Air purifiers have fast become a fact of life for urban dwellers. Not surprisingly, companies have been quick to catch on to this and weve seen several manufacturers introduce their latest models in India. Panasonic is one such brand that introduced 7 new brands in India just a while back. The Panasonic F-VXF35MA is one such air purifier that sits towards the upper end of the segment and brings with it additional features that give it an upper hand over many competitors. Heres our review of the Panasonic F-VXF35MA Air Purifier. Panasonic F-VXF35MA Air Purifier Specifications Room Size(sq. ft.) 283 Weight (Kg) 7.8 HEPA Filter No Filter Life (Years) 3 Filter Replacement Indicator Yes Humidifying Function Yes Water Tank Capacity 2.1 Dust Sensor No Sleep Mode Yes Turbo Mode No Auto Restart No Remote Control No Child Lock Yes Fan Speed 3 Step Odour Sensor Yes Dimensions (W*D*H) 360*200*560 First things first, lets talk about the design of the Panasonic F-VXF35MA Air Purifier. For a consumer grade product that is always visible, it is expected to be aesthetically pleasing. While not as minimalistic as the Mi Air Purifier, the Panasonic F-VXF35MA isnt quite the eyesore either. The white front panel is removable and under it lies the air filter. Over on the right hand side lies the water tank with a capacity of 2.1 litres. Now you might be wondering why you need a water tank on an air purifier. Thats because the Panasonic F-VXF35MA includes a humidifier function as well. The humidifier function comes in particularly handy during winters when low humidity can cause intense dryness. The top panel of the Panasonic F-VXF35MA is rather dense on information and buttons. From the regular speed control functions to controlling the humidifier function, dedicated controls for each allow you to maintain granular control. LEDs also indicate specific air quality levels in the room and you can then adjust air flow accordingly. The F-VXF35MA is rated for a room size of 283 square feet which should be sufficient for rooms in most households. The air is pulled in from the sides of the purifier and passed through the front mounted filter. Air purification systems release negative ions which cling on to air pollutants and make them heavy. This pushes them down and makes it easier to catch them through the filter. The Panasonic F-VXF35MA integrates a proprietary Nanoe technology which essentially hydrates the air as well. As a secondary function, it also improves deodorisation abilities. While it is really hard to quantitatively judge the functionality of an air-purifier, our experience with the Panasonic F-VXF35MA was quite satisfactory. It would take under 30 minutes to clear the room of odor induced by cooking or mild incense. Post two weeks of usage, the filter had accumulated a fairly thick layer of dust which further points towards its effectiveness and well, a rather shocking reminder of the air pollution around us. That said, the F-VXF35MA lacks a HEPA filter making do with Panasonics own filters that work to remove PM 2.5 particulates. To be fair, most air purifiers feature similar functionality and the choice really comes down to personal preferences. The Panasonic F-VXF35MA punches above its weight by including a humidifier function that is not all that common and helps prevent skin dehydration. Priced at Rs. 25,995, the Panasonic air purifier is a lot more expensive than many competitors and the lack of a dedicated air quality readout or smartphone based connectivity puts it in a disadvantageous position compared to the likes of the Mi Air Purifier which offers tremendous value for money. Pros Humidifier Quick to deodorise Effective Cons NVIDIA today at the CES 2017 introduced a new SHIELD console. It is powered by NVIDIA Tegra X1 processor with 256-core Maxwell architecture GPU, 64-bit CPU, has 3GB RAM and runs on Android 7.0 (Nougat) powered by Android TV. GeForce NOW game-streaming service delivers Pascal-powered GPU performance, from the cloud, to SHIELD users. It also has 4K HDR support for Netflix, YouTube, Google Play Movies and VUDU. NVIDIA GameStream smooth, ultra-low latency streaming technology lets GeForce gamers cast their library of games to SHIELD. It now brings vibrant 4K HDR streaming at up to 60 frames per second. Its library of games has been expanded to thousands of titles, with the ability coming soon to stream Ubisofts catalog of hits, including Watch Dogs 2, Assassins Creed Syndicate, For Honor and countless others. NVIDIA also introduced SHIELD SPOT, an AI mic accessory to communicate with the SHIELD and control smart home from anywhere. You can Turn off the lights, change the temperature, set alarms and more. It plugs directly into the wall. Because the computing is done on SHIELD, you can have them installed over the house. It has far field microphones. NVIDIA SHIELD TV console specifications NVIDIA Tegra X1 processor with 256-core Maxwell GPU, 3GB RAM 4K HDR ready, Up to 4K HDR playback at 60 FPS (H.265/HEVC, VP8, VP9, H.264, MPEG1/2), Up to 1080p playback at 60 FPS (H.263, MJPEG, MPEG4, WMV9/VC1) Format/Container support: Xvid/ DivX/ASF/AVI/MKV/MOV/M2TS/MPEG-TS/MP4/WEB-M Android 7.0 (Nougat) powered by Android TV and Google Cast (Chromecast built-in) Dolby Atmos and DTS-X surround sound pass through over HDMI, High-resolution audio playback up to 24-bit/192 kHz over HDMI and USB 16GB storage / 512GB Storage (SHIELD PRO), Expandable with USB 3.0 drives WiFi 802.11ac 22 MIMO (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1/BLE, Captive Portal support, Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI 2.0b with HDCP 2.2 and CEC support, Two USB 3.0 (Type A) IR blaster for TV volume & power control SHIELD Controller The new NVIDIA SHIELD TV priced at $199.99 (Rs. 13,580 approx.), including controller and remote, is available for pre-order now and will ship in the United States, Canada and select European regions later this month. SHIELD Pro will also be available later this month with controller, remote with headset jack and 500GB of storage. The NVIDIA SPOT mic accessory for SHIELD will be available in coming months for $49.99 (Rs. 3395 approx.). WASHINGTON Forecasting the direction of food safety policy and enforcement may be difficult in the wake of any general election. The incoming administration will select its own team, and this team may bring new visions and perspectives to federal agencies and offices. Priorities may differ from those that informed the previous administrations focus and approach to regulatory affairs. This certainly may prove to be the case as the nation prepares for possibly wide departures from recent practice when Donald J. Trump is inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States on Jan. 20, 2017. As of this writing, there are things known and things unknown about the direction of food safety policy and enforcement in 2017. It is known President-elect Trump has been critical about what he asserted was federal regulatory overreach under the Obama administration, including by the Food and Drug Administration. In a speech before the Economic Club of New York in September, Mr. Trump said, The F.D.A. food police, which dictates how the federal government expects farmers to produce fruits and vegetables, even dictates the nutritional value of dog food. The rules govern the soil farmers use, farm and food production hygiene, food packaging, food temperature and even what animals can roam which fields and when. It also greatly increased inspections of food facilities and levies new taxes to pay for this inspection overkill. Also known is Mr. Trumps choice to head the Department of Health and Human Services, to which the F.D.A. reports, Representative Tom Price of Georgia. Mr. Price is an orthopedic surgeon and a critic of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. But as of this writing, Mr. Trump had yet to announce his choices to head the F.D.A. and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It was unknown how much the skeptical attitude toward regulatory overreach of the incoming administration may affect how food safety law as embodied in the F.D.A. Food Safety Modernization Act will be managed and enforced now that the F.D.A. has issued its congressionally mandated final rules and the act is in the process of being implemented. Regardless, food industry sources and analysts said it remained essential for the entire food chain to ensure their operations are in compliance with the FSMA and its implementing rules. The Grocery Manufacturers Association said, We have worked collaboratively with F.D.A. throughout the development of these final rules. We are confident that our members have made where necessary the proper adjustments in their manufacturing processes to be compliant with the new regulations. David Acheson, president and chief executive officer, The Acheson Group, said he expected the FSMA and its implementing rules to comprise the food safety regulatory framework in the many years ahead. Dr. Acheson pointed to the broad support the act had in Congress, in the food industry and among consumers. 2017 will be when we begin to see FSMA implementation bite on large businesses, Dr. Acheson said. At the same time, the Trump administration may view how the F.D.A. should enforce the act and its rules differently from how the Obama administration has or a Clinton administration might have, Dr. Acheson said. That will become clear over time. Under the Obama administration, the Department of Justice has adopted a robust approach with regard to enforcement of food recall procedure. It was uncertain to what extent this approach may be retained in the coming years. As to how the industry was adjusting to the current D.O.J. approach, Dr. Acheson said many companies to an extent still seemed to have their heads in the sand. Dr. Acheson added, Most dont understand their extreme vulnerability to D.O.J. actions and focus if their brand is linked to an outbreak and they have not followed good practices to control risk. Maybe under Mr. Trump, this will back off some. Asked what other recent trends in F.D.A.s food safety approach may be extended into 2017, Dr. Acheson said he expected the use by the F.D.A. of whole genome sequencing in investigating food safety issues will continue to accelerate. The use of whole genome sequencing by both the F.D.A. and food companies has vastly improved the detection and identification of foodborne pathogens, their origins and spread, and enabled response to related disease outbreaks to be more prompt, targeted and effective. The technology has been employed in several recent high-profile and complicated food recalls and, indeed, has resulted in a marked increase in overall recalls. The key point is, if you make ready-to-eat (food), watch out, Dr. Acheson advised. F.D.A., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and increasingly the Food Safety and Inspection Service are looking at whole genomic sequencing as a tool to shut down issues before they lead to an outbreak or even a single case of illness. A priority for the food industry in 2017 will be to secure the harmonization of compliance dates for implementing the F.D.A.s Nutrition Facts Panel updates and the U.S.D.A.s disclosure standard for bioengineered foods, the G.M.A. said. Food manufacturers, except for small businesses, must comply with the F.D.A.s mandatory revisions to the Nutrition Facts Panel by July 26, 2018. Additionally, Congress has mandated the U.S.D.A. to issue the final disclosure standard for bioengineered food by July 29, 2018. The food industry associations pointed to the time and cost that would be expended in undertaking not one but two major revisions to product labeling in a short period. Additionally, the associations asserted if there was a single compliance date for both required label changes, consumers will be introduced to a single label format instead of potentially being exposed over several years to different versions of the same label at the same time. Dr. Acheson suggested there was some doubt over the future of menu nutrition labeling under the incoming administration. Menu nutrition labeling was required under the Affordable Care Act, which President-elect Trump has vowed to repeal and replace. Menu labeling has been postponed a couple of times, and compliance now is required by May 5. Canadian auto sales hit record highs in 2016 because of consumer demand for pickups and SUVs, despite ending the year on a weaker note that could continue this year, analysts said on Wednesday, citing automakers' data. Automakers sold around 1.95 million units in Canada last year, up about 3 percent from another record year, 2015, auto analyst Dennis DesRosiers and Scotiabank Senior Economist Carlos Gomes wrote in notes to clients on Wednesday afternoon. December sales in Canada declined around 3 percent on an annual basis because of weaker demand for cars, they wrote. But after three years of increasing Canadian auto sales, Gomes does not expect another record in 2017 as manufacturers raise prices due to the comparative weakness of the Canadian dollar, which closed today at $1.3308, or 75.14 U.S. cents. "Purchases have consistently climbed to new annual records since 2013, but are likely to trend lower over the coming year, pressured by some deterioration in vehicle affordability," Gomes wrote. Ford Motor Co , the top seller in Canada, said 2016 was its best year for Canadian sales since 1989, largely because of demand for its F-Series pickups. The automaker said in a statement it sold 304,618 vehicles in Canada in 2016, up 9.4 percent in 2015. General Motors Co delivered 267,341 vehicles in 2016, up 1.5 percent from the previous year, while Fiat Chrysler Automobiles reported a 4 percent decline in sales last year from 2015. Toyota Motor Corp <7203.T> said its Canadian sales rose 4.2 percent in 2016 to 217,792 vehicles, driven by higher sales of trucks, along with luxury and hybrid cars. Analysts had said they expected auto manufacturers overall would set another Canadian market record in 2016, with sales rising to around 1.96 million vehicles from 1.90 million units in 2015. In December, Canadian auto sales declined 2.6 percent, on an annual basis, to 125,600 units, DesRosiers wrote. "December sales have been on a downward trend in recent years and it was no different in 2016," he wrote. In the United States, sales of new cars and trucks likely set new records for December and the full year, automakers said on Wednesday, and investors bid up shares in the sector as strong consumer confidence and stable fuel prices bolstered the industry's outlook. (Reporting by Allison Lampert; Editing by Tom Brown and Alan Crosby) Though perhaps best known as the bassist of the rock band KISS, Gene Simmons has long been a successful businessman as well. The Rock & Brews Restaurants co-founder talked about his latest business venture with the FOX Business Networkas Stuart Varney. Simmons first weighed in on reports Kim Kardashian made $50 million in 2016, saying, aGood for her, good for Jessica Simpson for having a billion dollar brand, good for celebrities to go out there and make sure that people understand who and what they stand for, you donat have to be talented or be able to write or sing.a According to Simmons, his Rock & Brews chain has seen rapid growth despite being a relatively new restaurant. aWeare at airports, we have two at LAX [Los Angeles Airport], already the number one restaurant there.a Now Rock & Brews is expanding outside the world of restaurants with plans to announce a casino in Braman, Oklahoma. aFirst weare opening our first Rock & Brews in St. Louis and then weare going to announce on January the 12th the very first Rock & Brews casino [and] resort which is going to change the way people experience these things.a Simmons then explained what Rock & Brews does to help Americaas heroes. aThe opening day of every Rock & Brews is dedicated to our vets, the public is not allowed in, we honor them, we give them big checks, you know, we hire them, itas really a fantastic thing.a Some of the most popular protein bars contain heavy metals, like lead, and fail to meet their label claims, according to a lab test by Labdoor, a 5-year-old San Francisco start up backed by billionaire Mark Cuban. The company tested 20 of the most popular protein bars in the U.S. for protein content, calories, fat, cholesterol, sodium, sugar, carbs, fiber and various vitamins to determine if their products met their label claims. All products were also subjected to heavy metal tests to determine whether they had dangerous levels of contaminants like lead. PowerBar 20g, Vega Sport, Simply Protein, and Pure all exceeded California Prop 65s limit of 0.5 mg of daily lead intake in one serving. Vega Sports chocolate peanut butter, which is made by Vega, a plant-based startup that in 2015 was acquired by WhiteWave (NYSE:WWAV) which is also one the worlds leading makers of plant-based foods and beveragesscored a D- and came in last place, according to Labdoors report. Vega Sport also failed three out of four screenings for heavy metals, including cadmium, lead, and mercury. The plant-based bar also scored lower than the category average for protein. The companies did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But Neil Thanedar, Labdoor Founder & CEO, said the protein bars are derived from plant and animals sources, which naturally pick up metals from the soil and environment where they grow. The worlds most innovative and influential CEOs are gathering in Las Vegas, Nevada for the Consumer Electronics Show now in its 50th year. These trend setters are among the brightest business minds on the planet and an integral component of our worlds economy. However, what remains mystifying is the blatant disregard our corporate titans continue to display toward preemptive risk mitigation of the most prolific threat they collectively face, that being cyber-crime. Without any intention or desire of throwing Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) under the bus, it is imperative that we embrace the many lessons to be learned from this colossal breech of security, potentially impacting a billion of the sites users, shareholder value and customer protection. #1 Yahoos delayed response was perhaps one of the poorest examples of damage control in the history of business. Any true crisis communications specialist, as well as investor relations professionals, would attest to the fact that customers and investors want to know bad news quickly. #2 This incident is a blatant example of several hard truths. Most corporate infrastructures are vulnerable regardless of what CEOs are told Hackers can live inside your network unbeknownst to you IT scans are ineffective in identifying breeches such as this compared to that of the anti-crime approach from cyber professionals #3 Regardless of the relentless chatter about In and Non-State Actor involvement, the fact remains that the vast majority of breeches are perpetrated from within. That said, if this isnt a wakeup call for CEOs to demand Human Resources managers replace the commodity based background check in play with a real investigation, I dont know what is. #4 Perhaps the most critical lesson for all chief executives is the magnanimous manner in which brand valuation is severely damaged after a breech. Case in point; Verizon (NYSE:VZ) is reportedly asking for a $1 billion discount off the $4.8 billion it agreed to pay for the search giant last July. In sum, note to CEOs, I beseech you, dont roll the dice on this subject. Regardless of how qualified your internal IT team is, validate the integrity of your systems properly as the alternative is clearly unacceptable to all concerned. Cheap, truly IS, Expensive. Paul is the author and lead editor for Jane's Publishing's book "Workplace Security and Contributing Editor for Jane's. He is co-author of "Silent Safety Best Practices for Protecting the Affluent. He appears regularly on the FOX Business Network as well as other national television and radio outlets. Paul holds the distinction of Honorary Assistant Attorney General for the State of Louisiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice, a Master of Public Administration, and a Ph.D. in Philosophy. Atlantic City's mayor is calling on billionaire investor Carl Icahn to sell the shuttered Trump Taj Mahal casino, saying his struggling city can't afford to let such a big piece of its Boardwalk lie vacant indefinitely. Republican Don Guardian said Wednesday that allowing the casino to stay vacant is "the worst of the worst" in terms of outcomes for the property, which Icahn closed Oct. 10 after a bruising strike by the city's main casino workers' union. Icahn replied he'd be happy to sell the casino to the mayor if he ponied up the $300 million Icahn says he has lost on it. Guardian made the comments after his unofficial State of the City speech, in which he listed the numerous challenges facing his city, including a state takeover and hundreds of millions of dollars in debt. Asked for his response to Icahn's handling of the Taj Mahal, Guardian replied, "Sell it, make a profit and move on." Icahn said the mayor is wrong in attacking someone who rescued the struggling city's Tropicana casino and tried to do the same with the Taj Mahal. "Telling us we should sell the Taj and make a profit is easier said than done," Icahn said. "We've lost almost $300 million on that investment. If he's a buyer at that price, I'd be a happy seller." He wondered where the mayor was last summer when the strike forced him to shut the casino's doors. "Some help back then would have been nice," he said. Before the strike by Local 54 of the Unite-HERE union, which began on July 1 and ended the day the casino closed in October, Icahn had promised to pump $100 million into the aging casino to reinvigorate it and help it better compete against newer, more luxurious casinos. The investment was never made. "He doesn't have any faith in the city, I get it," Guardian said. "But don't let us lose that building on the Boardwalk. We need that activity and those jobs." The strike sought the restoration of health insurance and pension benefits that were terminated in bankruptcy court. Nearly 3,000 workers lost their jobs when the Taj Mahal closed. Republican President-elect Donald Trump opened the casino in 1990 but lost control of it in a casino bankruptcy. Icahn acquired it from bankruptcy court after Trump, a New York real estate mogul, had cut most ties with Atlantic City. Guardian also said he might support a Democrat for governor this fall if his own party nominates someone who favors continuing a state takeover of Atlantic City that Republican Gov. Chris Christie's administration launched in November. Guardian also used the speech to reveal: That he rigorously inspects the cleanliness of public restrooms on the Boardwalk during his morning bicycle ride: "I can wipe my finger on a urinal and find out if it's been steam cleaned." That he and his husband, Louis, imagined jobs other than mayor that would be fun to hold, considering police officer and firefighter before settling on an alternative: "I could have been a pastor, because all I do is beg, because I don't have the money." That he looks at the massive tax refund debt the city owes to the Borgata through an unusual lens: "It's like your frat buddy lends you $20 and you don't pay it back and it gets awkward and you don't hang out with him as much. It's like that with me and (Borgata president Tom Ballance), only I owe him $150 million." ___ Follow Wayne Parry at http://twitter.com/WayneParryAC Marlboro maker Altria Group (NYSE: MO) gave investors good results in 2016, with total returns of around 20% rewarding those who stuck with the company. A host of challenges continues to face Altria, including ongoing pressure from regulators, consumer advocates, and plaintiffs' attorneys seeking to cause difficulties for the tobacco giant. Yet even though some favorable moves with its core business were noteworthy in 2016, Altria's biggest win came in avoiding an even bigger hassle from the IRS. Thanks to the way it worked with Anheuser-Busch InBev (NYSE: BUD) to structure the beer company's merger with SABMiller, Altria saved billions of dollars and will continue to benefit from beer-industry strength in the future. Image source: SABMiller. Preventing a big IRS payday The primary problem Altria faced with the SABMiller merger with A-B InBev was the prospect of huge capital gains taxes. Altria's history with SABMiller goes back to its sale of Miller Brewing to South African Breweries 15 years ago. In exchange for the beer unit, Altria received a stake in SABMiller. That was a favorable way to handle the transaction from a tax perspective, but it also meant Altria had almost no tax basis in its stake in SABMiller. Fast forward to late 2015, when Anheuser-Busch made its offer for SABMiller. A-B InBev wanted to pay the vast majority of the $107 billion it offered for the beer company in cash, avoiding any dilution for its shareholders. Yet with Altria having a 27% stake in SABMiller, the nearly $30 billion it would have received as a result of accepting a cash deal with A-B InBev would have created a huge problem. Corporations generally pay taxes on capital gains at their ordinary tax rate, which is as high as 35%. That would have meant about a $10 billion tax bill for Altria if it had structured the deal as an all-cash transaction. Understanding the importance of getting Altria's approval of the deal, Anheuser-Busch InBev made a different proposal. Instead of requiring cash, Altria was allowed to receive A-B InBev shares in exchange for the vast majority of its stake in SABMiller. The beer giant also ended up offering a similar deal to other investors, but to discourage many of them from accepting stock, the company required that the A-B InBev shares have a five-year restriction on resale before holders could exit their positions. Because the stock portion of the consideration for the deal preserved tax-deferred treatment for Altria, the IRS didn't get a big windfall in the form of capital gains taxes. The final score for Altria As it turned out, Altria got most of what it wanted. Because some other investors took advantage of the stock-based deal, Altria ended up getting slightly more cash than it had originally anticipated. Rather than $2.5 billion to $3 billion, Altria ended up with about $5.3 billion. That increase boosted the capital gains tax bill by several hundred million dollars, but it still achieved the main purpose of avoiding a potentially much larger tax bill. Moreover, Altria ended up spending some of its cash on additional Anheuser-Busch InBev shares in the open market, boosting its final position in the beer giant above the 10% mark. Many investors never realize just how much wrangling there can be in discussions of potential mergers and acquisitions, and tax issues often play a vital role. Here, a simple change in the way a deal was structured meant billions of dollars in savings for Altria, but it required both Altria and Anheuser-Busch InBev to cooperate in order to unlock the tax break and deny the IRS its due. Longer-term, pent-up capital gains could eventually require Altria to pay tax if it sells its shares of Anheuser-Busch InBev. Yet given the positive attitude Altria executives have expressed about the future of the beer industry, it's likely the tobacco giant will maintain its A-B InBev shares long after the five-year transfer restriction expires -- making it an even bigger potential win for longtime shareholders. 10 stocks we like better than Altria Group When investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.* David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy right now...and Altria Group wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys. Click here to learn about these picks! *Stock Advisor returns as of January 4, 2017. Dan Caplinger has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Anheuser-Busch InBev NV. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. When you're ready to start investing, you'll need to open a brokerage account to place your orders. Many investors now use online discount brokers for self-directed accounts to make trades quickly, conveniently, and inexpensively.Today we'll look at two of the largest brokers out there, Interactive Brokers and Charles Schwab, to see how they compare on factors that are important to investors. Trading costs and commissions The biggest advantage of any discount broker is that they are downright cheap. Both Interactive Brokers and Charles Schwab keep their clients' trading costs low, which you'll notice from the commission prices shown in the table below. Broker Stocks/Options ETFs Mutual funds Interactive Brokers Stocks: $0.005 per share ($1.00 minimum) Options: $0.25 to $0.70 per contract ($1 minimum) $0.005 per share ($1.00 minimum) $14.95 per purchase Charles Schwab $8.95 per trade + $0.75 per options contract $8.95 per trade $76.00 per purchase Source: Company websites. Importantly, the table above shows each broker's published prices, but you may pay less in commissions. Interactive Brokers offers a "tiered" pricing schedule that can result in lower prices, in addition to volume-based discounts for active traders. Charles Schwab is one of the leaders in commission-free trading options, which can significantly reduce its clients true cost per trade. Of course, you should learn more about special offers for opening a brokerage account, which frequently come in the form of commission savings and cash bonuses worth thousands of dollars. Commission-free ETFs and NTF Funds More brokers are offering commission-free ETFs and no-transaction-fee (NTF) mutual funds that their clients can buy and sell without paying a fee. Below, we've compared how these Broker Commission-free ETFs NTF Mutual funds Interactive Brokers 33 (GlobalX, Cambria, and O'Shares) 2,900+ Charles Schwab 200+ (Schwab, State Street, Guggenheim, and more) 3,900+ Source: Company websites. Depending on your needs, you can find plenty to like about commission-free options at either brokerage. Charles Schwab has a lengthier list of fee-free funds, but Interactive Brokers has lower standard commission prices, which makes it the lower-cost option for funds that aren't free of brokerage fees. Account minimums Before going too much further, it may be wise to break out account requirements, since these brokers vary pretty significantly here. Charles Schwab doesn't require a minimum account size to open an account. Interactive Brokers requires that its clients open accounts with a minimum deposit of $10,000 for taxable brokerage accounts, and $5,000 for IRAs. Investors who get an early start can open an account with just $3,000, provided they are currently age 25 or younger. Trading platform We at The Motley Fool believe in a buy-and-hold investment strategy in which we invest in stocks for years or decades, rather than days or weeks. As a result, we don't do much trading, and tend not to use complex trading platforms to their full potential. Since we tend to think trading platforms are designed for traders rather than investors, and preference for a platform is really all about personal opinion, we'll let you be the judge. Interactive Brokers and Charles Schwab offer more international investment opportunities than other brokerages. Image source: Getty Images. International stocks and ADRs Do international stocks play an important role in your portfolio? You'll be happy to find that Interactive Brokers and Charles Schwab are two of just a few discount brokers that enable investors to hunt for stocks all around the world. Investments Interactive Brokers Charles Schwab American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) Yes Yes International stock markets Yes Yes ETFs/Mutual funds of foreign stocks ETFs and mutual funds ETFs and mutual funds Source: Company websites. Schwab Global Accounts allow for electronic trading in 12 markets, while its Global Services desk can open up trading in more than 30 markets. Interactive Brokers provides access to trade electronically in more than 100 international markets around the world. Depending on your needs, either brokerage could be a good choice. Keep in mind that trading on foreign markets often comes with higher fees and commissions that vary by the market in which you wish to trade. Research quality and tools We generally believe that individual investors can benefit from access to a wide range of insights, opinions, and research tools. Interactive Brokers and Charles Schwab both offer an impressive assortment of research materials for individual investors. Schwab offers proprietary research from in-house analysts, in addition to research from third-parties that include Credit Suisse, S&P, Reuters, and more. Interactive Brokers delivers with analyst upgrades and downgrades for individual stocks, news off the wires, and an excellent assortment of screeners. Realistically, we've only scratched the surface of what both brokers have to offer, and it's likely that investors could find plenty to like about the research provided by either brokerage. Mobile app If you own a phone or tablet, you can now trade from just about anywhere through each broker's mobile trading app. Here's how each brokers' users and clients rated their iOS and Android apps (as of 12/29/2016). Broker Apple App Store Google Play Interactive Brokers 3.5 stars 4.0 stars Charles Schwab 3.0 stars 4.0 stars Source: Relevant app stores. Picking a discount broker for you: Charles Schwab or Capital One The truth is that there is a particular broker best suited for a particular type of broker. On one hand, Interactive Brokers offers cut-rate commission prices, but its minimum account requirements may not suit new investors. Charles Schwab offers a vast assortment of commission-free funds, but funds that aren't on its fee-free lists incur higher commission costs. It all depends on your portfolio, and how you invest. To be clear: The Motley Fool does not endorse any particular broker. See Fool.com's Broker Center for a comprehensive comparison of features and special offers at popular brokerage. Fool.com's IRA Center is similarly designed with the retirement investor in mind. 10 stocks we like better thanWal-MartWhen investing geniuses David and TomGardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter theyhave run for over a decade, the Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.* David and Tomjust revealed what they believe are theten best stocksfor investors to buy right now... and Wal-Mart wasn't one of them! That's right -- theythink these 10 stocks are even better buys. Click hereto learn about these picks! *StockAdvisor returns as of December 12, 2016The author(s) may have a position in any stocks mentioned. Jordan Wathen owns shares of Interactive Brokers. The Motley Fool recommends Interactive Brokers. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Cyprus' biggest bank said Thursday it has fully repaid 11.4 billion euros ($11.9 billion) of emergency cash it received from its eurozone partners to stay afloat during a 2013 banking crisis. The Bank of Cyprus hailed the development as another "significant milestone" in its return to health. It said it achieved this through several ways, including shedding unwanted assets and operations, raising the bank's cash reserves and wooing back depositors. CEO John Patrick Hourican said this signifies the normalization of the bank's funding structure. He said it also sends the message that the lender is becoming a "stronger, safer and more focused institution capable of delivering appropriate shareholder returns over the medium term." Cyprus Finance Minister Harris Georgiades said this also indicates a return of confidence to the island's banking system. Most of the emergency cash support called Emergency Liquidity Assistance, or ELA was transferred to the Bank of Cyprus under the bailout's terms from Cyprus' second-largest lender Laiki, which was shuttered. Cyprus wrapped up its three-year rescue program in March. The program included a seizure of savings over 100,000 euros in the Bank of Cyprus and Laiki. The seized deposits were used to prop up the country's wobbly banking sector. Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's proposal to make the state's public colleges free for hundreds of thousands of middle-class students is seen as one of the nation's most ambitious efforts to tackle skyrocketing higher education debt. But many questions remain about how much it will cost, how it will affect one of the country's largest public college systems and whether other states will follow suit. ___ Q: What's the plan? A: Full-time New York students whose families earn less than $125,000 a year would pay no tuition to attend two- or four-year colleges in the State University of New York or City University of New York systems. The plan, if approved by state lawmakers, would be phased in over three years, beginning this fall for residents making up to $100,000 a year. The income threshold would increase to $110,000 in 2018 and $125,000 in 2019. ___ Q: So college would be free? A: No. Students wouldn't have to pay the $6,470 yearly cost of tuition ($4,350 for two-year programs), but they'd still have to pick up the cost of room and board if they live on campus ($12,590), along with fees ($1,590) and books. They would also have to graduate on time, meaning in two years for an associate degree and four years for a bachelor's, if they want to avoid tuition bills. ___ Q: How much will this cost? A: Cuomo's office estimates the state's cost at $163 million a year once the program is fully phased in, a figure that's seen by some critics as too low. "If it costs so little, why haven't we done it before?" asked Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, a Manhattan Democrat who chairs the Higher Education Committee. More financial detail may come when the governor releases his budget proposal later this month, but his administration says the program will leverage the state's existing aid programs, particularly the Tuition Assistance Program, which provides nearly $1 billion in grants to students with taxable incomes of up to $80,000 a year. Under Cuomo's program, students would still receive TAP, along with any federal grants, and the state would pay the tuition difference. ___ Q: Won't this create a rush on SUNY/CUNY schools, possibly making it more difficult to get accepted? A: SUNY leaders say it's too soon to estimate the impact on applications and enrollment, but the Cuomo administration says it's confident the 64-campus, 440,000-student system can absorb what it projects will be a 10 percent enrollment increase. The system remains selective, though, and SUNY said its academic standards aren't expected to change. The state's 29 four-year schools received 309,408 applications for the fall of 2015 and accepted 162,673 students, according to the state. ___ Q: Will this program affect private colleges? A: Yes and no. The program doesn't cover tuition for colleges outside SUNY and CUNY. Operators of those schools, though, say leaving them out of the college affordability discussion could leave them at a disadvantage when it comes to attracting applicants in a highly competitive landscape. "There will be a real pull that SUNY and CUNY have on students that our not-for-profit privates will not always be able to match," said Mary Beth Labate, president of the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities. More than 490,000 students are enrolled in the state's more than 100 private, not-for-profit colleges. The schools provided $5.1 billion in financial aid to their students in 2014-15 and directly employ 196,300 people, Labate said. The independent colleges would rather see the state expand TAP, increasing awards or raising the income threshold, which Labate said would preserve student choice because the grant follows the student. The requirement that federal aid, as well as state aid, is factored in doesn't sit well with advocates for poor students, who say they'll be left with less to pay for transportation, food and housing. ___ Q: Will this idea spread? A: "If New York state does it this year, mark my words, state after state will follow," independent Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders said when Cuomo announced the program this week. Sanders made tuition-free public higher education a key proposal of his Democratic campaign for president, and Hillary Clinton picked up on it as the Democratic nominee, but Republican nominee Donald Trump had different ideas about how to make college affordable. Trump, who won the election, said he wants to work with Congress to make sure colleges only get access to certain federal tax breaks and other benefits if they "make good-faith efforts to reduce the cost of college and student debt." Democratic President Barack Obama proposed free community college in 2015, saying six states and communities had created programs similar to what he proposed. He said lawmakers in more than 10 other states have introduced legislation providing for free community college. Tennessee and Oregon have enacted programs to cover residents' tuition costs at community colleges, but New York's would be the first statewide plan to cover four years of tuition, Cuomo's office said. IT research company Gartner Inc. said Thursday it has agreed to acquire CEB Inc. in a cash-and-stock deal valued at about $2.6 billion. The deal has an enterprise value of about $3.3 billion, including the assumption of about $700 million of CEB debt, Gartner said in a statement. Gartner expects the deal to close in the first half and to immediately boost per-share earnings. The company is expecting double-digit gains for EPS in 2018. CEB shareholders will receive $54 in cash and 0.2284 of Gartner stock for every CEB share owned, equal to a premium of about 31% compared to the volume weighted average closing stock price of CEB over the past 30 days. Pro forma, the combined company had $3.3 billion in revenue for the 12 months to end September, $693 million in adjusted EBITDA and $463 million in free cash flow. To finance the deal, Gartner is expecting to issue 8 million shares and to raise debt financing for the cash component. CEB shares jumped 16% premarket on the news, while Gartner stock was still inactive. Copyright 2017 MarketWatch, Inc. Sometimes-violent protests and looting over gasoline price hikes in Mexico are continuing and officials say that so far they've left one policeman dead and five injured, 300 stores looted and over 600 people arrested. The country's business chambers says the combination of highway, port and terminal blockades and looting have forced many stores and businesses to close and threaten supplies of basic goods and fuel. Mexicans were enraged by the 20-percent fuel price hike announced over the weekend as part of a government deregulation effort. Since then, protesters have blockaded highways and gas stations and looting has broken out in some places. Authorities said Thursday that one policeman was run over and killed and another seriously injured when they tried to stop robberies from a gas station in Mexico City. Media company Meredith Corp (NYSE:MDO) has contacted Time Inc (NYSE:TIME) to express intent in a potential merger, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Shares of Time Inc, which has a market value of about $1.80 billion, was up 4.02 percent at $19.20, while Meredith's stock was down 1.6 percent at $58.95 in afternoon trading on Thursday. The interest could rekindle a possible tie-up between the two companies, that died in 2013. http://bloom.bg/2hVSIdL In 2013, Time Warner Inc, which then owned the Time magazine division, held talks to sell the majority of the magazine to Meredith, Reuters reported, citing a source familiar with the situation. http://reut.rs/2iN1FKP Meredith did not immediately respond to request for comment, while Time Inc declined to comment. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that Time Inc, which publishes the Time, People and Fortune magazines, had tapped Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Corp to help field takeover or partnership interest. Meredith terminated its $2.34 billion deal with Media General Inc in January last year. (Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila) The U.S. Department of Labor said on Wednesday it filed a lawsuit against Alphabet Inc's Google unit seeking access to the company's compensation data and documents as part of a routine compliance evaluation. The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) said it had sought the data about the company's equal opportunity program in September 2015. The company failed to submit despite many opportunities, the OFCCP said. As a federal contractor, Google must agree to permit the federal government to inspect and copy records and information relevant to its compliance with the equal employment laws administered by OFCCP. The company has provided hundreds of thousands of records over the last year to comply with the OFCCP's current audit, a Google spokesperson told Reuters. "However, the handful of OFCCP requests that are the subject of the complaint are overbroad in scope, or reveal confidential data, and we've made this clear to the OFCCP, to no avail," the spokesperson said. The OFCCP said it would ask the court to cancel all of Google's current government contracts and to debar the company from entering into future contracts if it failed to comply. (Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila) U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said on Thursday that Russia has a "long history" of interfering in elections, but that U.S. officials had never encountered activity like its efforts during the 2016 U.S. campaign. "The Russians have a long history of interfering in elections. Theirs and other people's... This goes back to the 60s, from the heyday of the Cold War," he testified to the Senate Armed Services Committee. However, he added, "I don't think we've ever encountered a more aggressive or direct campaign to interfere in our election process than we've seen in this case." (Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Dustin Volz; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama) Below is an earlier reported version from Reuters: Russian cyber attacks pose a "major threat" to the United States, top U.S. intelligence officials told a congressional hearing on Thursday despite skepticism from President-elect Donald Trump about findings that Moscow orchestrated hacking of the 2016 election. Although Trump called himiself a "big fan" of the intelligence community on Thursday, he is heading for a conflict over the issue with Democrats and some fellow Republicans in Congress. Many lawmakers are wary of Moscow and distrust Trump's praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin and efforts to heal the rift between the United States and Russia. Trump, who becomes the U.S. president on Jan. 20, will be briefed by intelligence agency chiefs on Friday on hacks that targeted the Democratic Party during the presidential election campaign that he won. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers and Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Marcel Lettre testified on Thursday before the Senate Armed Services Committee, which is chaired by Republican John McCain, a vocal critic of Putin. The intelligence officials described Moscow as a major threat to a wide range of U.S. interests because of its "highly-advanced offensive cyber program" and sophisticated capabilities. "Russia is a full-scope cyber actor that poses a major threat to U.S. government, military, diplomatic, commercial and critical infrastructure," they said in a joint statement. Obama last week ordered the expulsion of 35 Russian suspected spies and imposed sanctions on two Russian intelligence agencies over their alleged involvement in hacking U.S. political groups in the 2016 election. U.S. intelligence agencies say Russia was behind hacks into Democratic Party organizations and operatives before the election, a conclusion supported by several private cybersecurity firms. Moscow denies the hacking allegations. U.S. intelligence officials have said the Russian cyber attacks were aimed at helping Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton in the Nov. 8 election. Several Republicans have acknowledged the Russian hacking but have not linked it to an effort to help Trump win. STOLEN DOCUMENTS Documents stolen from the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta were leaked to the media in advance of the election, embarrassing the Clinton campaign. In a tweet on Wednesday, Trump cast doubt on a Russian role in the affair, writing: "(WikiLeaks founder) Julian Assange said 'a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta' - why was DNC so careless? Also said the Russians did not give him the info!" However, on Thursday, Trump said in another post on Twitter that he was not against intelligence agencies or in agreement with Assange, whose organization leaked Democrats' emails. "The media lies to make it look like I am against 'Intelligence' when in fact I am a big fan!" Trump wrote. Trump and top advisers believe Democrats are trying to delegitimize his election victory by accusing Russia of helping him. An unclassified version of the intelligence community's review of Russian interference in the U.S. election will be made public early next week and will assign a motive for the attacks, Clapper said. The report was delivered to President Barack Obama on Thursday, he said. In the afternoon, State Department and Department of Homeland Security officials will brief the Senate Foreign Relations Committee behind closed doors on the Obama administration's response to the hacking and harassment of U.S. diplomats. Some lawmakers, including McCain, said a firmer response was needed to check Russian aggression in cyberspace and elsewhere, and to discourage other countries from trying to influence more U.S. elections. Clapper declined to say whether cyber attacks of the nature carried out during the election consituted an act of war. That determination would be a "very heavy policy call," said Clapper, the country's top intelligence official. McCain is among a handful of Republicans to join Democrats in pushing for a special committee to investigate Russia's political hacking, although that effort faces opposition from Republican leaders in Congress. Trump has nominated people seen as friendly toward Moscow to senior administration posts, including secretary of state nominee Rex Tillerson, who was awarded Russia's "Order of Friendship" in 2013 while Tillerson was Exxon Mobil chief executive. McCain asked Clapper whether he believed WikiLeaks' Assange had put U.S. lives in direct danger. He said he agreed. Clapper also said he did not think Assange had any credibility. Clapper was also asked about some media reports that authorities are considering a reorganization of the U.S. intelligence community. He said he has not been involved in any conversations about restructuring. (By Dustin Volz and Patricia Zengerle; Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Mark Hosenball in Washington; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Alistair Bell) Ford announced this week that it will start selling a hybrid F-150 in 2020, but if you want a battery-powered pickup before that, General Motors will be happy to sell you one today. Well, maybe not you. Its Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra eAssists are only available in California, and at very low volumes, so blink and youll miss them. Chevy built just 500 in 2016 to test the market, and GMC a scant 200. GM says those numbers will be adjusted this year based on customer interest. This is actually GMs third try at selling hybrid trucks, an effort thats been going on in fits and starts since 2006. It moved just under 9,000 hybrid pickups and SUVs in 2009, when the threat of $4.00 gas was still a thing, but often sold much fewer than that. Unlike those trucks, the latest version cant drive under electric power alone. Instead, it features a small motor-generator that gives its 5.3-liter V8 gasoline engine a boost of 13 hp and 44 lb-ft of torque during acceleration, recharges its battery pack under braking, and enables stop-start functionality that helps improve city fuel economy from 16 mpg to 18 mpg on two-wheel-drive trucks. Dont knock it, thats 12.5 percent. Ford hasnt revealed detailed specifications for its hybrid plans, but says it will provide V8-like power and use one of its turbocharged EcoBoost engines -- which suggests either a four-cylinder or V6 -- and will be able to double as an on-site generator, so expect it to use more robust electric motors than the eAssist system. The eAssist option costs $500 on limited Silverado and Sierra configurations, but youll need to reach out to your local dealer to figure out whats currently available. Considering GM sells about 40,000-50,000 pickups in California annually, it could be like finding a needle in a haystack, so good luck. After President-elect Donald Trump ripped General Motors for making Chevy Cruze cars in Mexico, the automaker responded by saying only the hatchback model is imported from south of the border, and that all of the much more popular Cruze sedans sold in the U.S. are built in Ohio. A new report now challenges that assertion. Automotive website The Truth About Cars turned up two Cruze sedans on a North Carolina new car dealer's lot that had vehicle identification numbers and window stickers that clearly indicate that they were built at GMs factory in Ramos Aripe, Mexico, where the hatchbacks are also made. A survey of dealer inventory by Daily Kanban writer Ed Niedermeyer found many more cars available across the U.S. with VINs indicating Mexico as their country of origin. One of them was even located at a showroom near Lordstown, Ohio - where GM claimed all the sedans are made. Trump tweeted about the cars on Tuesday, threatening a big border tax for companies that import vehicles from Mexico, which is currently part of the NAFTA trade agreement he has denounced. On Thursday, he similarly went after Toyota for its plans to build a new factory there to manufacture the Corolla. A General Motors spokesperson confirmed to Foxnews.com that the company imported 8,400 Cruze sedans last year to supplement U.S. production during the launch of the latest model, something it announced at the time, but insisted that it hasn't brought any more in since the fall. Chevy sold about 190,000 Cruzes last year, which was down 17 percent from 2015. That number includes the imported sedans plus 4,500 Mexican-made hatchbacks. In November, GM announced that it was cutting a shift at the Lordstown plant due to low demand, and would be eliminating about 1,200 jobs there on January 23. Former "Dirty Jobs" host Mike Rowe applauded Ford Motor Company's decision to abandon plans to build a $1.6 billion auto manufacturing plant in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. "Id like to take a moment to congratulate Ford, its current employees, its future employees, the great state of Michigan, and of course, The United States of America, Rowe wrote in a Facebook post Wednesday. Rowe, a former spokesman for Ford, even appearing in several commercials for the company, said Fords decision "is a big, fat victory for anyone who wants to see America get back to the business of making things." Adamant that the change by Ford not be used as a political statement, Rowe encouraged his four million Facebook fans to "ignore" partisan people. "Do me a favor ignore these people," he wrote. "They dont know how to feel good about anything other than feeling bad. They dont understand the value of justifiable optimism or its importance." Last February, Ford announced plans to double its manufacturing capability in Mexico. The plan was resoundingly criticized by then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Rowe, an unfailing advocate for the American job market, insists Fords move not be shaded by politics. "Honestly, I dont care what your politics are, or your opinion of NAFTA, The UAW, The New F-150, rich people, poor people, The Global Economy, or The President-Elect this is good news, and sensible people should celebrate it," Rowe wrote. "The company who invented mass production is once again betting on the future of America! Whats the worst part about that?" Despite being bullied for his long locks, a 10-year-old Georgia boy was determined to grow his hair out for a friend hundreds of miles away who was suffering from a hair-loss condition. Tyler Boone, who met 12-year-old Gabby Ruiz years ago but has kept in touch, reached his final goal of 12 inches last week, Fox 61 reported. Ruiz was diagnosed with alopecia-areata and has gone through multiple unsuccessful treatments to try to help regrow her hair. Alopecia-areata is a common autoimmune skin disease that affects people of all ages and ethnicities. According to the National Alopecia-Areata Foundation, as many as 6.8 million people in the United States are diagnosed with the condition. After Ruiz began losing her hair, Boone told his mother he wanted to grow his out so his friend could be outfitted with a wig. I just want to make her happy, Boone told Fox 61. The two were reunited at a Florida JCPenny last week at a photoshoot before Boone went for his haircut. His locks were donated to Children with Hair Loss, which will make a wig for Ruiz. Gut Check looks at health claims made by studies, newsmakers, or conventional wisdom. We ask: Should you believe this? The claim: Swayed by the power of celebrity, many women needlessly rushed to get genetic testing for the cancer-causing BRCA mutations right after actress Angelina Jolie announced in May 2013 that she underwent a double mastectomy based on a positive BRCA test, concluded a study in the BMJ last month. Tell me more: Other studies, too, have reported an uptick in BRCA testing after Jolies announcement the Angelina effect but this one went further. Although insurance claims for nearly 10 million women aged 18 to 64 showed that BRCA testing rose 64 percent in the 15 days after Jolie described her BRCA result and surgery, that wasnt followed by additional mastectomies. One would expect an uptick in BRCA testing to be followed by an uptick in mastectomies, reasoned health economist Dr. Anupam Jena and graduate student Sunita Desai of Harvard Medical School: When women learn they carry a cancer-causing BRCA mutation, more undergo mastectomy than if they had remained in the dark. But the rate of mastectomy within 60 days of a BRCA test fell, they found, from 10 percent of tested women in the four months before Jolies announcement to 7 percent in the eight months after (through the end of 2013). That suggests most women who underwent BRCA testing because of Jolies announcement had a lower probability of a BRCA mutation than women tested before her announcement, the researchers concluded. BRCA testing is recommended for women with a family history of breast or ovarian cancer or other risk factors, but the authors said their finding suggests that most of the women who got tested didnt have an elevated risk of cancer and provides a cautionary tale about the unintended consequences of celebrity endorsements of medical tests and procedures. They calculated that the extra testing cost as much as $13.5 million. Read more: As revenue falls, a pioneer of cancer gene testing slams rivals with overblown claims Really? Genetic counselors, physicians, and BRCA-positive women have lit up social media attacking the study. For one thing, the conclusion that a large majority of the Angelina-effect women tested negative (and should never have undergone testing in the first place) is an inference based on the lower rates of mastectomy. The researchers do not know how many of these women tested positive for a cancer-causing mutation, Mary Freivogel, a genetic counselor in Denver and president-elect of the National Society of Genetic Counselors, told STAT. Its therefore quite a leap to infer that BRCA testing was unnecessary. Critics have also argued that 60 days is too short a period to count the number of mastectomies resulting from BRCA tests. Writer Suzanne Zuppello was found to have a cancer-causing BRCA1 mutation in March 2015; she had a double mastectomy that October. That lag isnt unusual. It takes two weeks to get test results, at least a week to see a breast surgeon and gynecologic oncologist, weeks to decide between surveillance (frequent breast imaging) and surgery (both of which are equally valid options for BRCA-positive women), weeks to schedule the required pre-mastectomy mammogram or MRI, time to think long and hard about surgery, and at least a week to get on a surgeons schedule, Zuppello wrote in Medium. All that mitigates against a quick post-BRCA mastectomy. Another odd thing about concluding that Angelina effect women werent in the high-risk group for whom BRCA testing is recommended is that its not easy to get insurers to cover the $3,000 test. They almost never do unless a woman has a strong family history of breast or ovarian cancer (as Jolie did). Since the Harvard researchers analyzed insurance claims, experts said, the test was probably covered because the women were suitable candidates for it not women who were blindly, or in a panic, emulating a celeb. We do not know how many met standard guidelines for BRCA testing, said Freivogel, but the insurance claims tell me that most of these women probably did meet criteria for testing. Moreover, many women who learn they have a BRCA mutation opt for surveillance instead of mastectomy, in part because they fear undergoing such life-changing surgery. Women tested before Jolies announcement might have differed in a key way from those tested before: They might well have met the family history or other criteria for testing, but have been afraid to have it until Jolies brave announcement. That same fear and tendency to postpone life-changing decisions could account for why 10 percent of women tested before Jolies announcement had mastectomies within 60 days of their test compared to only 7 percent of those tested after. Harvards Jena said his critics are exactly right: 60 days may very well be too short for many women. Although the drop in mastectomies within 60 days of BRCA testing was their main finding, he added, mastectomy rates within 90 and 180 days were also lower after Jolies announcement than before. Since the likelihood of mastectomy within 180 days is quite high, Jena said, the vast majority of women who underwent BRCA testing as a result of Jolies editorial did not end up receiving preventive mastectomy, most likely because the additional tests obtained were negative. The verdict: Thats a long chain of inference no mastectomy within six months of BRCA testing implies no mastectomy, period; no mastectomy implies a negative BRCA result; a negative BRCA result implies the woman shouldnt have undergone testing and it makes for a shaky conclusion. If you havent been paying attention to the reports on the alleged cyberattacks launched by Russia and other foreign nations, its time you tuned in. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman told lawmakers at a hearing on Thursday that every American should be alarmed by Russias alleged attack on our 2016 presidential election, and Im telling you that as a patient, you should be, too. Cyber warfare is real, the technology is complicated and in the case of patient care it can be deadly. One of the most important takeaways from Thursdays testimony, in my opinion, is that the U.S. is a step behind many others in this dangerous game. As a physician who is involved with administrative regulations, I know how computers and the federal mandates to move patient information and data to electronic records could prove to be a great danger to the American patient, even though technology is a useful tool in health care. Before you accuse me of using fear-mongering tactics, consider the multitude of hacking that goes on in the private sector. Simply providing your credit card information to a website, or having it stored on your mobile device leaves you vulnerable to identity theft and in danger of having your financial or personal assets stolen. If you dont understand why health care would be a targeted area for cyber warfare, consider that the industry alone accounts for 17.8 percent of our nations Gross Domestic Product (GDP). I can tell you confidently that despite its value, the industry remains one of the most vulnerable areas for an attack. Not only are our hospitals unable to identify a possible attack, but they are also extremely ill-prepared to prevent one from happening. The first, most obvious implication of this is that every patients record contains extensive detail of personal informationfrom social security numbers to financial information and even family history. You could see how a hack at just one, small hospital or medical center could potentially put thousands of Americans in danger. The second implication is a danger that was addressed on the Hill today, in which a hacker uses stolen data to create unrealistic scenarios. In the medical world, you have to consider a scenario in which the hacker penetrates medical records of patients admitted to the hospital. Having access to this populations medical records could mean that with a click of a button, vital information regarding diagnosis, medication allergies, blood pressure levels, intravenous dosage schedules and the like could be erased, or altered, without anyone even knowing what happened. If it sounds to you like this is a science fiction movie, Ive got news for you a version of it has already been made a reality. A July report found the health care industry has been hit harder by ransomware than any other industry, with approximately 88 percent of attacks targeting hospitals. That report listed twelve examples, and here are just a few: In Texas, Titus Regional Medical Center was prevented from accessing computer files. In February, hackers shut down the IT systems of Hollywood (Calif. Presbyterian Medical Center). In Kentucky, Methodist Hospital declared an internal state of emergency after a virus limited its use of electronic web-based services. There are more examples, including a heart hospital in Kansas that was forced to pay ransom in order to get their computer files unlocked, but I think Ive made my point. This is a major, identifiable headache that we need to get ahead of before our patients are put in further danger. Hospitals and medical centers must put budgetary emphasis on cybersecurity in order to maintain patient safety. If a foreign country is able to hack into our electric grid and threaten a major blackout, imagine the damage they could inflict on one of major medical centers. A newlywed couple in Georgia was thrilled to learn they were expecting their first child over the summer and later shocked to discover they would soon be welcoming a rare set of quadruplets. Julie and Justin Davidson discovered the multiple pregnancies during a trip to the emergency room for back pain, Fox 5 Atlanta reported. I was afraid I was having a miscarriage, so when I was told there were four heartbeats, I freaked out a little, Julie, who is now 28 weeks pregnant, told the news outlet. An October sonogram revealed the Davidsons are expecting four girls, who they plan to name McKenna Emory, Teagan Kate, Callie Noel and Sawyer Claire. Doctors informed the Davidsons the chances of conceiving quadruplets naturally is 1 in 700,000. The expectant parents have been documenting Julies pregnancy on a Facebook page called The Davidson Quads. We are very excited to see their sweet little faces and to watch their different personalities start to show, Julie, who conceived the quads naturally, told Fox 5 Atlanta. The familys doctors hope that she can carry the babies until at least 30 weeks before she is admitted to Northeast Georgia Medical Center. It will be a lot of diapers and formula, Julie told Fox 5 Atlanta. We appreciate all of the kindness people have shown us throughout this journey. A viral Facebook post claims a 2-year-old boy died after his mother applied Vicks VapoRub to his skin, but the manufacturer and authorities in U.S. and Mexico say they have no record of such a death. Posts shared by several websites including smag31.com and naij.com in the past two months reference a Mexican mother who applied the ointment to her sick toddler son's body, including under his nose in order to help him breathe. The post says he later was found dead due to inflammation of the respiratory tract. The story blames camphor in the ointment for the death. The story does not name the mother, the baby or the place of death. Versions of the story have been posted in previous years, with some including a reference to a woman named Elena who works in a tortilla factory. U.S. Food and Drug Administration spokeswoman Andrea Fischer said a search of a database dating back to 1968 reveals no deaths of children using VapoRub. Reporting of adverse reactions to medication by health care professionals or consumers is voluntary, she said. The office representing Mexico's health secretary also said it had no record of any death caused by VapoRub. Velvet Gogol Bennett, a spokeswoman for VapoRub-maker Procter & Gamble Co., said the Cincinnati-based company has investigated the story's claims but it has never received any notification from any local health authority, hospital, doctor or "official news organization anywhere in the world." VapoRub contains low, government-approved doses of camphor. The label advises against VapoRub's use in children younger than 2 and says the cough-suppressant shouldn't be applied near the mouth or in the nostrils. P&G also markets a Vicks BabyRub for infants 3 months and up that doesn't contain camphor. Camphor use on young children has been a subject of concern for doctors. A 2009 report in the journal Pediatrics described three New York City toddlers who suffered seizures after they had eaten camphor products, inhaled camphor or had it rubbed on them for colds. The products included folk remedies, pesticides and air fresheners. The labeling on VapoRub was supported by findings from a 2009 study by Wake Forest University researchers published in the journal Chest, although it suggested VapoRub could cause respiratory distress in infants and small children. Edith Prentiss has Type 1 diabetes and needs to take insulin several times a day. If I didnt take it, I would be dead, Prentiss told WNYWs Linda Schmidt. The price of many insulin brands has risen by as much as $200 in the last three years, leaving Prentiss concerned especially because her co-pay has also increased. My co-pay was $85 in 2015, and in 2016 it has gone up to $138, Prentiss told Schmidt. As she needs eight bottles a month, her insulin now costs $1,104. Type 1 diabetes affects as many as 1.25 million Americans, according to the JDRF. Type 2 diabetes affects about 29 million people in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). For these patients, insulin is not a luxury but a necessity to stay alive. The rising cost of insulin is a concern, Dr. Minisha Sood, director of inpatient diabetes at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, told Schmidt. I see patients stretching out their insulin supply and that concerns me a lot, Sood told Schmidt. They may not be using the full amount of insulin theyre prescribed. Sood said the issue of rising insulin prices is complicated and should be under the spotlight. A piece like youre doing will raise awareness that this is a major problem for patients and doctors, Sood said. With diabetes growing, in terms of reaching epidemic proportions, we really need to get a handle on it. Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority leader (D-NY), is a torn man. On one side, he faces a restless caucus, and a mob of manic groups funded by George Soros who want political blood, scorched earth, and demand he block eight Trump nominees. They style themselves a Resistance, presumably to the American electorate. On the other, sober voices in the Democratic caucus warn of a chill wind, suggesting Schumer tame the passions, slow the mob, and act responsibly. But what will he do? This is why all eyes are on Schumer his moment of truth. Will he lead his Democrat caucus into a media firestorm against good appointees, or work to restore order to a longstanding process, averting disaster? The Democrat paroxysm over Trumps win has reached glass-cracking pitch. Think about what the Heartland sees delayed concession speech, a recount farce, an attempt to subvert the Electoral College, and a plaintive cry Russians did it! Now, America sees Senate Democrats seven up for reelection from Trump-win States opposing presidential appointments, no pretense of regular order or apology. Major news outlets are being spoon-fed attacks on nominees by Democrat-funded groups, while Democrat Senators offer outraged sound bites. It is all so easy, scratching matches for a media firestorm. Only what will burn? The Democratic Party if Schumer does not restore respect for process. Political theater has limits. When machinations grossly depart from reality, the party responsible invites disaster. The Democratic Party, on raw numbers, is at a life-changing fork in the road. Under Obama, Democrats have shed 1,042 governing seats, in Congress, State legislatures, governors and now the presidency. If they continue this wild lurch to the Left, they may soon be gathering in someones parlor, wondering what happened. That is how the Whig Party ended in the 1850s. If Schumer succumbs to his Radical Left, egged on by a promised media circus, the Democratic Party will end up in deep mud. America knows presidents have a right to their appointees. The confirmation process is about giving guidance, not staging an inquisition or stoning. The process involves honored traditions. America knows all this. Which puts Schumer in a bind he can stop the antics or destroy the Democrat brand. Americans do not subscribe to extremism, or radical responses to electoral loss. If sore-loser-ism leads to anti-democratic behavior, respect for Democrat leadership is over. Gone will be shared values, shared respect institutional prerogatives, and any hope of restoring a centrist Democrat Party. If Schumer is not thinking hard, he should be. Radical politics and emotional volatility inside the Senate extremism in anythings name sits poorly with America. Ask Joseph McCarthy, Barry Goldwater, George McGovern, Michael Dukakis figures whose personas were inextricably linked to extremism. That was it, game over. So, Schumer should think hard about those seven Senate Democrats up for reelection in Trump States, the 27 Democrat governors and 28 legislatures, not to mention the House Democrats who voted against Pelosi. They might counsel: Choose a different path. Seasoned leadership is not about exacting vengeance or settling scores. Those paths lead into the wilderness. Leadership, especially in places like the Senate, must be about abiding history, demonstrating patience, respecting institutions, comity and high office. Senator Schumer may not have the mettle for this. Obama, Pelosi, Reid and Soros did not. But he has a chance. If he turns down the volume on this media madness, defangs his Radical Left, and restores propriety to the role of Minority Leader, all this talk of scorched earth will wane. If not, results are predictable. President Trump will likely label Schumers Senate antics off-balance, out-of-touch with America, his party hijacked. Democratic defections will mount, and the die will be cast for 2018. Attempting to delegitimize qualified appointees will be seen for what it is indefensible and extreme. The Democrat minority will accelerate to Whig status. On one hand, this would be beneficial to the Republican majorities in both congressional chambers, generating wider sympathy for the appointees. The Democrat brand would connote dysfunction, irresponsibility, venality, capture by the Radical Left. Gone would be any hope of a centrist identity. But this would not be good for the Republic. Reflexive opposition to a Presidents nominees mars the whole process, even if the result is Democrat losses in 2018 and 2020. This low road is not inevitable. Schumer might recall New Englands Robert Frost. This is the time. Frosts poem The Road Not Taken starts: Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry I could not travel both Schumer faces such a choice. The path he chooses may decide the Democratic Partys fate for years to come. Schumer should assure that this presidents appointees are swiftly confirmed, without exception. That is what a real leader would do, not bluster for an anti-democratic resistance movement. Americans are watching. They want a respectful, fair, and orderly confirmation process. Anything else smacks of extremism. Like Frost, Schumer should want to say: I shall be telling this with a sigh, somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference. A desperate President Obama went to Capitol Hill Wednesday in a last-ditch effort to try and save his disastrous health care law, but all he managed to do was get left-wing lawmakers to back the monumental failure with old, tired and divisive rhetoric. They want to scare the American people because Republicans want to repeal and replace ObamaCare. But all they can offer are lame talking points. The Republican plan to cut health care wouldn't make America great again, it would make America sick again, said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. Democrats were so proud of the clever play on Trumps campaign slogan that each one rushed to the podium to repeat it. Over and over. But while Democrats were pointing fingers and spouting canned lines, Vice President-elect Mike Pence was meeting with Republicans to formulate a real plan to repeal and replace the disastrous law. The first order of business is to repeal and replace ObamaCare, Pence reasoned. ObamaCare has failed. And the American people have sent a decisive message to Washington, D.C., that they want ObamaCare to be repealed and replaced with health care reform that will lower the cost of health insurance without growing the size of government. Republicans need to make sure they keep their promises and move quickly to repeal and replace ObamaCare. But they also need to be careful, because Democrats have already shown they are not going to blame themselves when ObamaCare finally dies and crumbles. President-elect Trump warned the GOP in a tweet that, "Republicans must be careful in that the Dems own the failed ObamaCare disaster with its poor coverage and massive premium increases, like the 116 percent hike in Arizona Also, deductibles are so high that it is practically useless. Don't let the Schumer clowns out of this web." Trump is 100 percent right. Republicans need to make President Obama and the Democrats own every lie they told, every failed promise they didn't keep. And there were a bunch of them. No matter how we reform health care, we will keep this promise to the American people. If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period, Obama said on June 15, 2009. If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan, period. Two months later, he said, If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan. Obama promised that the average family would save $2,500 per year. Well, since 2009, the average American family is paying $4,100 more for health care. We also know that millions of Americans lost their doctors and their plans or both. And that is just the start of this ObamaCare disaster. Here's what the president and Democrats own, because remember, not a single Republican voted for this law: ObamaCare premiums this year along are increasing by 25 percent on average. Premiums on average for a family of four making $60,000 a year will spike by 43.6 percent. Deductibles for the same group are exploding by 22.9 percent. The misery doesn't end there. The president promised free-market competition and choices for Americans on the exchanges, but the opposite has happened. Major insurers like Humana, Aetna, United Healthcare and Blue Cross Blue Shield are all pulling out of states because they are losing money on the exchanges. Humana alone lost over $1 billion just for participating in ObamaCare. In states like Alabama, Alaska, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wyoming, people have only one insurer to choose from now. And then there's all the taxes. The congressional Joint Committee on Taxation has previously found that the middle class will face $377 billion in tax increases, courtesy of ObamaCare. According to a recent study, the surging ObamaCare premiums will cost American taxpayers an extra $9.8 billion this year alone. The negative impact of ObamaCare is obvious, and it helped propel President-elect Trump to victory. Sure, there are certain aspects of the law that Republicans will keep, like coverage for people with pre-existing conditions and allowing children to stay on their parents plan until age 26. But ObamaCare itself is a single, fundamental, massive big government failure that needs to be completely scrapped and redone. American consumers deserve better care, free-market competition and lower costs. Adapted from Sean Hannitys monologue on Jan. 4, 2017 airing of Hannity. Dana Perino currently co-anchors FOX News Channel's (FNC) morning news program Americas Newsroom (weekdays 9-11AM/ET) and serves as co-host of The Five (weekdays 5-6PM/ET), the most watched program in cable news. She joined the network in 2009 as a contributor.Read More As the co-anchor of Americas Newsroom, Perino is joined by newsmakers and experts to discuss the latest morning headlines and stories driving the day. During The Five, Perino is part of a roundtable ensemble of FNC personalities who discuss, debate and even debunk the hot news stories, controversies and issues of the day. She previously served as anchor of The Daily Briefing with Dana Perino. In addition to her roles on Americas Newsroom and The Five, Perino has played a prominent role across FNC's top-rated election and political coverage throughout her tenure at the network, serving on various panels to breakdown the latest developments in every major political cycle and contributing to FNCs Democracy 2020 election coverage which garnered the highest ratings for election night in cable news history with 14.1 million viewers. Additionally, she provided political analysis following the presidential and vice presidential debates of the 2020 election as well as the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. Notably, Perino hosted a one-hour Sunday special interviewing former President George W. Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush from Dallas entitled, "43 Portraits: George W. Bush". The in-depth interview marked the 43rd presidents first cable news interview of his book tour for Out of Many, One: Portraits of Americas Immigrants and featured in-depth interviews with immigrants showcased in his paintings. A frequent public speaker on political trends, Perino is also the president of Dana Perino and Company and the founder of Minute Mentoring, a women's leadership program designed to foster the next generation of female leaders. She is active in global maternal health and child development through the One Campaign and Mercy Ships and helps American veterans suffering from PTSD through Companions for Heroes. Prior to joining FNC, Perino served as the White House press secretary for President George W. Bush, where she was the first female press secretary in a Republican administration. She spent over seven years in the Bush administration working at the Justice Department and the Council on Environmental Policy. She was appointed to the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors in 2010 by President Obama, where she served for three years following her confirmation by the United States Senate. Previously, she worked on Capitol Hill, in a private practice public relations firm and as a reporter in Illinois and Colorado. A graduate of Colorado State University-Pueblo with a degree in Mass Communications, Perino went on to receive a Masters in Public Affairs Reporting from the University of Illinois-Springfield. The USS Bataan, with about 1,000 Marines aboard, has sailed into the Mediterranean Sea to assist in evacuating Americans if deadly fighting in Libya worsens, U.S. military officials said Tuesday. Officials said the Navy amphibious assault ship sailed from the Arabian Sea and was already scheduled to go to the Mediterranean to participate in a multi-county military exercise in the region. However, they made clear the ship has received no formal orders to conduct new missions. Also on Tuesday, the State Department called for all U.S. citizens to immediately leave Libya, saying the security situation in the country "remains unpredictable and unstable." The fighting is taking place in the capital city of Tripoli, where renegade Libyan Gen. Khalifa Hifter is waging an offensive against Islamists. Hifter began his so-called "Dignity Operation" more than 10 days ago to crush Islamist militias and their political backers. The State Department said last week the U.S. embassy in Tripoli was open and operating under normal conditions amid the violence. Hifter has the support of politicians, diplomats, army units and tribes that want him to impose order and rein in the country's unruly militias, three years after they toppled and killed longtime dictator Muammar al-Qaddafi. However, the Al Qaeda-inspired group Ansar al-Shariah has now vowed to fight Hifter, whom it accuses of being an "American agent." Ansar al-Shariah is believed to have played a role in the deadly Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, in which U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Vice President Joe Biden is developing a partnership with the University of Delaware that will focus on economic and domestic policy, a Biden aide said Wednesday, rounding out the vice president's plans for after he leaves the White House. In addition to working with the Delaware school, Biden's alma mater, he also plans an affiliation with the University of Pennsylvania. The Ivy League school in the state of his birth will house Biden's activities on foreign policy and global engagement initiatives, said the aide, who requested anonymity because the partnership hasn't yet been publicly announced. The two partnerships shed new light on how Biden will spend his time as a private citizen after more than four decades in public office. First elected to the Senate in 1972, Biden served there until becoming the vice president in 2009. Over the years, Biden has focused intensely on foreign policy, becoming the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, and on domestic issues including violence against women and middle-class economic issues. All are expected to remain part of Biden's work after the Obama administration. He also plans to continue with his more recent "cancer moonshot" effort to accelerate developments toward a cure. The initiative was launched after his son, former Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, died from brain cancer in 2015. With backing from President Barack Obama, it has focused on trying to streamline efforts of the many cancer research institutions and increase sharing of data about specific tumors that can be used to develop targeted treatments. Biden was driven to establish a relationship with the University of Delaware because of his fondness for his alma mater and desire to stay connected to the state he represented in the Senate, the aide said. The vice president graduated in 1965 from the school, which has its main campus in Newark and campuses in other Delaware communities. He was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, a two-hour drive from Philadelphia, where the University of Pennsylvania is located. The vice president appeared to reference the project at Penn on Tuesday when he was heard on a hot mic discussing his plans while swearing in new senators at the Capitol. He's expected to release more details about the work he'll perform at both universities after his term as vice president ends on Jan. 20. Biden, who considered running for president in 2016, has said recently he could consider running again in 2020. President Barack Obama called for a smooth handover of control of the U.S. military to incoming commander in chief Donald Trump, as the outgoing president met Wednesday with military leaders for the last time. "We've got to make sure that during this transition period that there is a seamless passing of the baton, that there's continuity," Obama said. He said it was critical to ensure that "we are doing everything we can to make sure that the next president will benefit from the same kinds of outstanding advice and service that these people around the table have provided me." Obama's comments as he sat down with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the military's combatant commanders came amid concerns in military and diplomatic circles about how Trump may handle national security challenges. Over the last few days, Trump has disputed the U.S. intelligence community's assessments about Russian hacking, insisted without explanation that North Korea won't develop a nuclear weapon that could hit the U.S. and questioned the worth of the United Nations. Obama pointed to a handful of conflicts that Trump will inherit when he takes office on Jan. 20, including the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria and in the Iraqi city of Mosul, the biggest IS stronghold in Iraq and last major Iraqi city where the extremist group still has control. He also noted that the conflict in Afghanistan "is still active." In praising the military, Obama appeared to call attention to traditions that Democrats are most concerned that Trump may not uphold. Trump has nominated retired Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis for defense secretary despite the prohibition on recently departed military members running the civilian-led Pentagon, and at one point in the campaign, Trump called for reinstating waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques. Obama said he was optimistic about the country's future because the military upholds "the values of rule of law and professionalism and integrity, and recognizes our constitutional structure and maintains strict adherence and respect for civilian authority and democratic practices in determining how we use the awesome force of the American military." The president was also honored at a farewell ceremony at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, a short drive from the White House. Addressing a room of men and women from the various branches of the military, Obama praised their service and sacrifice. He said there is "no greater privilege and no greater honor" than serving as commander in chief. "As I reflect on the challenges we have faced together and on those to come, I believe that one of the greatest tasks before our armed forces is to retain the high confidence that the American people rightly place in you," Obama said. "We must never hesitate to act when necessary to defend our nation, but we must also never rush into war because sending you into harm's way should be a last and not first resort." Prior to his remarks, Defense Secretary Ash Carter presented Obama with the Medal of Distinguished Public Service as a token of appreciation for his service as commander in chief. The elections over but Hillary Clintons emails are still coming to light. And they help illustrate why the FBI declared she was extremely careless with the information flowing across her secret server. A new batch of messages released by the State Department on Tuesday shows the former secretary of state and her team routinely shared her upcoming schedules, talking points and sensitive items such as her iPad password via the homebrewed system. Other newly revealed emails, which were posted as the result of litigation, show Clintons top advisers griping about her during her time as secretary of State; an Asian ruler who later implemented Sharia law saying he considered former President Bill Clinton part of his family; and Clinton talking about Justin Cooper, one of the key figures who administered to her private server. ASSANGE: RUSSIAN GOV'T NOT SOURCE OF WIKILEAKS EMAILS Many of the 371 emails posted on the State Department website had been partially released previously, and are separate from the hacked emails of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta posted by WikiLeaks before the election. Almost all the messages were partly or heavily redacted. Among the items redacted -- yet still sent over email -- was Clinton's iPad password. In an Aug. 20, 2012 conversation, Clintons closest aide, Huma Abedin, told her boss she had the iPad password reset. The device had previously given Clinton problems, though Abedin wrote that its all good now. At the top of the message, Abedin typed out the entirety of the new password, which was redacted on the State Department release. Clinton responded later with even more information, noting that I finally realized I had to add the [redacted] to the password!!!! During the July speech in which FBI Director James Comey termed Clintons server practices extremely careless but not criminal, he also said hostile actors could have hacked her communications. In at least one instance, Clinton aide Cooper logged hacking attempts on the server. Still, Clinton and her advisers continued sending information that could be dangerous in the wrong hands, including detailed, advanced copies of her schedules and talking points for upcoming calls and meetings with foreign leaders and top U.S. officials. On Sept. 30, 2011 the day American-born terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki was killed Abedin emailed Clinton to say then-CIA Director David Petraeus wanted to talk on a secure connection. She added: Assume its about awlaki. Other emails released Tuesday shed light on Clintons relationships. In advance of a September 2012 meeting with the Sultan of Brunei who would later impose Sharia law on his country Abedin emailed Clinton that Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah hoped to have dinner with Clinton and her family. They say sultan sees wjc as part of his family and thus is treating you in this informal way, she wrote, using Bill Clintons initials. On Dec. 24, 2011, Clinton emailed Chelsea Clinton, who was using a pseudonym revealed previously by WikiLeaks, asking Who will provide tech support after Justin leaves, ostensibly citing Cooper, who originally helped set up Clintons server and was typically called for any tech issues Clinton was experiencing. Lets talk about this later hes actually supported by someone else too as a fyi, Chelsea replied cryptically. I think there are a couple options. In an email chain from April 4, 2012 that Clinton was eventually excluded from, Abedin complained about Clintons obsession with an archiving project. This records thing is the bain of my existence with her. she wrote. Philippe Reines, another top Clinton aide, responded with the frustration he experienced explaining to Clinton that she had received the incorrect copy of a document. I emailed her that. I told her in the elevator up from videos. I told her that in the pre-brief. I told her that in the elevator up to 8. I made clear it wasnt that Jake [Sullivan]s timeline was inadequate just that the wrong version made its way to her, Reines wrote. But [I] think it played into whatever anxiety she has that youre experiencing about the topic of archiving. The vicious attack on a mentally disabled Chicago man who was bound, gagged and beaten while his captors yelled racial and anti-Donald Trump slurs is just the latest example of violent attacks waged by assailants whove invoked Trumps election during the assault. While its unclear if some of the victims were Trump supporters, the common thread is the attackers hatred of Trump. Another Chicago incident captured on video began innocuously in November when two cars scraped each other. The victim told The Chicago Tribune that when he asked someone from the other car if they had insurance, a group of men began beating him. The attack was recorded by someone nearby and caught some of the attackers saying phrases such as You voted Trump? and Dont vote Trump! VIDEO SHOWS MENTALLY DISABLED MAN TIED UP, BEATEN Later that month, a 15-year-old student at a Maryland high school was beaten up by several people while wearing a Make America Great Again hat. The assault came during a student walkout to protest Trumps election. A New York City man who also was wearing a hat emblazoned with Trumps signature campaign slogan was attacked on the subway after a man asked him if he supported the president-elect. The next thing I know, I have hands around my neck and Im being choked, Corey Cataldo told ABC7. I try to fight him off, and another gentleman comes over, pretends like hes going to help me and says get off of him. He shoves me up against the wall, up against the window. During an anti-Trump protest in Los Angeles that was organized shortly after his Nov. 8 win, an activist told a CNN reporter: We cant just do rallies. We have to fight back. There will be casualties on both sides. She added: People have to die. A survey also found that at least 2,000 educators around the country said they heard racial slurs and other derogatory remarks being used against white students in the days immediately following Trumps victory, The New York Post reported. Chicago the site of both video-recorded attacks was also the location of a March primary rally Trump was forced to cancel due to security concerns after protesters and supporters clashed. But while these incidents have drawn little media attention, far more press has been given to alleged crimes committed by supposed Trump supporters. In many cases, these have later turned out to be hoaxes. Among the more notable incidents: In November, a black man in Mississippi was arrested for spray-painting his own church with a vote Trump tag and lighting the house of worship on fire. Muslim women in Louisiana and New York have lied about assaults by alleged pro-Trump aggressors. President Obama does not hate long goodbyes. The outgoing commander-in-chief is saying farewell over a series of essays, memos and addresses that started with a closing national security speech in Tampa a month ago and will continue through his official farewell address in his hometown of Chicago next Tuesday. In the interim, the president filed his latest installment Thursday, publishing a letter to the American people outlining his proudest accomplishments and biggest regrets from his eight years in office. It was accompanied by 27 individual exit memos from top Cabinet and other administration officials. Got some spare time? Read them here. To boot, the president authored a detailed, 56-page article for the Harvard Law Review the publication he once led as a law student on criminal justice reform. And on Wednesday, he said goodbye to the Armed Forces during a ceremony at nearby Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, after making what could be a parting visit to congressional Democrats on Capitol Hill. In his letter Thursday to the American people, Obama once again touted his administrations work helping the country recover from the 2008 financial crisis. Eight years later, an economy that was shrinking at more than 8 percent is now growing at more than 3 percent. Businesses that were bleeding jobs unleashed the longest streak of job creation on record, he wrote. Obama also touted gains in the number of insured Americans under the Affordable Care Act, a reduction in dependence on foreign oil, an increase in the high school graduation rate, and a decrease in the poverty rate. Meanwhile, over the past eight years, no foreign terrorist organization has successfully planned and executed an attack on our homeland. Plots have been disrupted. Terrorists like Usama bin Laden have been taken off the battlefield, he wrote, before going on to tout diplomatic milestones like the Iran nuclear deal and the thaw with Cuba. The letter glosses over the sustained Republican resistance to and concerns about the Iran deal as well as the spread of Islamic State affiliates and other terror groups that still threaten the U.S. and its allies, though Obama did acknowledge in his speech a day earlier that President-elect Donald Trump will face the challenge of quashing ISIS when he takes office. In his letter, Obama did cite a few regrets, including a failure to pass sweeping gun legislation and immigration reform. [F]or all that we've achieved, there's still so much I wish we'd been able to do, from enacting gun safety measures to protect more of our kids and our cops from mass shootings like Newtown, to passing common sense immigration reform that encourages the best and brightest from around the world to study, stay and create jobs in America, he wrote. And for all the incredible progress our economy has made in just eight years, we still have more work to do for every American still in need of a good job or a raise, paid leave or a dignified retirement. Trump tapped into such widespread economic concerns in his successful presidential campaign, during which he blamed government regulations, bad trade deals and other factors for a hollowing of the middle class and challenged administration claims that the economy has surged back from the 2008 crisis. As he did on Capitol Hill Wednesday, though, Obama used his goodbye letter to warn Republicans against rolling back his signature health care law something the incoming administration has made its first order of business. What won't help is taking health care away from 30 million Americans, most of them white and working class; denying overtime pay to workers, most of whom have more than earned it; or privatizing Medicare and Social Security and letting Wall Street regulate itself again -- none of which middle-class Americans voted for, Obama wrote. Republicans, citing rising premiums and other factors, had a different take on the health law in a press conference Wednesday. Families are hurting. [Democrats] broke the health care system, House Speaker Paul Ryan said. So we're going to make sure that we have an orderly transition to a better system so it can get back to what we all want, which is lower-cost health care, more choices so that families can actually get affordable health care at a decent price with more choices, more competition and not a costly government takeover. On Thursday, Trump tweeted that ObamaCare was a lie from the beginning, citing the faulty vow that anyone who liked their doctor could keep their doctor. Trump tweeted: time for Republicans & Democrats to get together and come up with a health care plan that really works -- much less expensive & FAR BETTER! With the exception of his time spent serving in the Army during the Vietnam War, Sandy Johnson has spent most of his 67 years running cattle in southeastern Utahs starkly beautiful San Juan County. Like many of his fellow ranchers, Johnson has leased land from the federal government for decades to graze his cattle on open range. But President Obamas recent establishment of the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah and the Gold Butte National Monument in Nevada has caused Johnson and his neighbors to worry that the land his familys cattle has grazed on for generations may soon be off limits and that the landscape he has spent his entire life working may be inexorably changed. I think this land should have stayed open to everyone and not be regulated by the federal government, Johnson told FoxNews.com. Obamas designation late last month of Bears Ears and Gold Butte as national monuments along with his recent ban on oil drilling in federal waters in the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans have earned the outgoing president the praise of both environmental groups and Native American groups as he secures his environmental legacy. Western state lawmakers, ranchers and those in the oil and gas industry, on the other hand, have widely panned Obamas monument proclamations claiming that the presidents so-called midnight monuments do not represent the interests of the people in those states and will in time do more harm than good to the environment. The midnight monument is a slap in the face to the people of Utah, attempting to silence the voices of those who will bear the heavy burden it imposes, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, said in a statement. It does not have the support of the governor, a single member of the states congressional delegation, nor any local elected officials or state legislators who represent the area. Chaffetz joined fellow Utah Rep. Rob Bishop in seeking a consensus on preservation and development between environmentalists, oil and gas companies, local officials and ranchers. The result was the Public Lands Initiative which the Obama administration helped craft but the bill failed to pass the House and was never introduced in the Senate. The failure of the PLI spurred the Obama administration to move quickly to draw up a Bears Ears National Monument designation shrinking it from its originally 1.9 million acres to 1.35 million and using the 1909 Antiquities Act to bring it to life. The move angered many Utahns still annoyed at President Bill Clintons move in 1996 to name the 1.8 million acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah. While economic growth spurred on by tourism has cooled some tempers, Clintons and now Obamas moves still dont sit well with many in the Beehive State. I would like to see it all reversed and for Congress to get rid of the Antiquities Act, Johnson said. Tourists are going to pour in and destroy the land and other people wont be able to use it. Experts on public land law, however, argue that -- at least when it comes to the Bears Ears designation -- very little will change in regards to grazing or the ranchers livelihoods. Obamas proclamation last month made clear that the Bureau of Land Management and the United States Forest Service will continue to administer grazing permits and leases to ensure ongoing consistency with the care and management of both the flora and fauna in the monument and the protection of any Native American artifacts. As for hunting and fishing -- both popular pastimes in the newly named national monument -- Utah will retain jurisdiction over its fish and wildlife management. The only change is that ATVS and other off-road vehicles will be required to stay on certain designated trails and roads. In the history of the West, ranchers have acquired a sense that they are effectively the owners of the land, Charles Wilkinson, a law professor at the University of Colorado-Boulder, told FoxNews.com. Any encroachment on the land is going to change this sense of control and there is already a longstanding, violent distaste for government intervention. This distaste was widely highlighted during the Bundy standoff of 2014, when the now-jailed, Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and an armed group faced-off against federal and state law enforcement officials over a 20-year legal dispute in which the BLM obtained court orders directing Bundy to pay more than $1 million in withheld grazing fees on lands that would soon make up the 300,000-acre Gold Butte National Monument. Bundys battle has been going on since 1993, but it wasnt until 1998 that Nevadas Clark County bought out the grazing rights to the land in Gold Butte and retired it that Bundys cattle became illegal trespassers on the land. The language of Obamas proclamation said that there will be no new grazing permits or leases on the land issued within the monument. "We, the Bundy family, would like to say to President Obama that we are saddened, but not surprised, by the decision to make our ranch and home a national monument," the Bundy family said in a statement issued last week. "The problems we have had with federal land management have never been about cows, tortoises or fees," the statement said. "It has always been about the constitutional limits on the federal government's authority." While the Bundy family put a contentious face of ranchers in their discussions over public lands, both ranchers like Johnson and experts studying the issue say that these ranchers have been far from a destructive force against the environment. Overgrazing in certain sections of the Southwest has led to damaging of western watersheds and soil erosion, but many ranchers have seen that it is in their best interest to make sure that land has time to heal. They deserve a lot of credit, Wilkinson said. Ranchers are more concerned and do more for the environment than many others. He added: They have been there forever and they want to continue to be there forever. The hope for many of these ranchers and the fear of environmental activists and Native American groups is that when Donald Trump takes office later this month with a Republican-controlled Congress, he will move to reverse Obamas decisions on the monuments. The issue is, however, that while the Antiquities Act gave a president powered to declare land that is of historic or scientific interest a national monument, it is silent on any powers to abolish them. Its really unclear what powers the president has to abolish these monuments, James Morton Turner, an associate professor of environmental studies at Wellesley College, told FoxNews.com. Trump himself has been ambiguous on his stance toward public lands favoring energy development on them while also showing reticence to hand these lands over to the states and he rarely brought up Obamas national monuments while on the campaign trail. The real power over the fate of the national monuments lays in the hands of Congress , which can create, abolish, change the size of and even hand over to individual states control of the monuments. New Yorks Father Millett Cross National Monument and Arizonas Papago Saguaro National Monument are part of the latter group. To abolish the monuments or the Antiquities Act altogether - Republicans in Congress would need to pass legislation in both houses. That would require 60 votes to overcome a Democratic filibuster and in recent years the Senate has tended to avoid any legislation until they get 60 votes. Change will not come easily, Turner said. They have to repeal it before you can find out whats in the replacement. Youve heard this all before. In their zeal to discredit percolating health care legislation in 2010, Republicans seized on a truncated variation of a line uttered by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in a speech to the National Association of Counties. We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it away from the fog of the controversy, Pelosi said. What Pelosi said is not quite what Republicans or the public heard. But this is politics. Republicans howled that no one knew what was in the bill. They argued the sheer size and scope of the legislation made it impossible for anyone to comprehend. And they dubbed the measure ObamaCare. So, obviously if you are a Republican and dont like President Obama, then. Obama made perhaps his last visit to the Capitol as President Wednesday to push congressional Democrats to resist GOP efforts to fillet his signature policy achievement. Vice President-elect Mike Pence arrived at the Capitol synchronously with the president to huddle with House Republicans about plans to dismantle ObamaCare. Both sessions doubled as pep rallies, engineered to invigorate the troops as they slipped into the latest battle between the House of Lancaster and the House of York. Though its no War of the Roses. Republicans and Democrats have only skirmished over ObamaCare since 2009. Congressional Republicans aim to deposit the repeal bill on President-elect Trumps desk by the first big congressional break in mid-February. The replacement part? We have six months to replace it, argued Rep. Chris Collins, R-N.Y., after the Pence huddle. Although, thats not settled. It could be a year. It could be a few years until Republicans require a replacement bill to come into effect even as the GOP sung the repeal and replace mantra for years. Replace, ruminated House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md. Thats sort of a magic word. Replace because the implication of replace is the Affordable Care Act didnt work. And in the interim? We do it in a transition that doesnt pull out the rug from anybody, said House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis. Hoyer wasnt buying it. Where they have been is on a rhetorical binge, demagoguing a piece of legislation they dont have an alternative for, said the Maryland Democrat. Any idea what the GOP plan might look like? They didnt give us any details, said Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., as he departed the Pence conclave. The Republican Study Committee (RSC), the largest bloc of Republicans in the House, unveiled a svelte replacement measure Wednesday. Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tenn., bragged that the RSC plan is only about 180 pages and didnt take long at all to leaf through compared to Obamacare. We have a plan, bragged Roe. Thats one. Others will come. Multiple replacement plans gurgled up over the years. But Republicans never advanced a replacement bill on the floor of either body because they couldnt coalesce around a bill which would pass. Its kind of hard to criticize an invisible plan, said Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va. Trumps campaign manager Kellyanne Conway accompanied Pence to the Capitol for the meetings Wednesday. She remained mum when reporters asked how Republicans will approve a replacement bill. However, Conway countered it was unprecedented for Democrats to pass a major entitlement program without Republican votes. And now, as Republicans go to gut ObamaCare, will there be votes from the Democratic side? So far, no Democrats side with the GOP. They are voting for repeal, said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. It is their obligation. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., called up Pence on the fly Wednesday to request a sit-down. Manchin didnt attend President Obamas session, protesting the Democrats only nature of the meeting. By the same token, Manchin said it was wrong for Pence to only talk with Republicans Wednesday. There is not one Democratic vote to repeal, said Manchin. Im not voting to repeal without a replacement. Manchin spoke of how West Virginians supported President-elect Trump, yet reaped Obamacare benefits. We had people who got subsidies and got insurance for the first time, beamed Manchin. But Manchin said Republicans were playing with fire if a replacement package strips people of health coverage. They might not know how they got it. But they will know how they lost it, predicted Manchin. Democrats bank on this. Schumer argues that if the GOP forges ahead with repeal and replace, its a huge problem for Republicans because now they own it. Democrats are not-so-secretly hoping this entire gambit melts down like a Mariah Carey performance on New Years Eve. The Republicans have bitten off a very large piece of policy that I dont know that they can chew, swallow and get a result, said Hoyer. Part of the challenge lies in the potential cost of repeal. Estimates vary wildly on how much an ObamaCare repeal would add to the deficit. It hinges on who you talk to and what metric they use. Various figures range from $350 billion to $1 trillion to $9 trillion over a longer period. But one thing is clear: Republicans already prepped a provision to ignore internal congressional budgetary rules if the repeal is successful and explodes the federal deficit. Efforts to defang the Houses quasi-official ethics watchdog office scored most of the attention early this week as the GOP advanced a rules package to govern the body during this Congress. But Republicans tucked a provision into the plan which bars the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) from counting a dramatic spike in deficit spending spurred by an ObamaCare repeal. Language in the resolution bars the CBO from tallying the cost of any ObamaCare repeal bill that bloats deficit spending by more than $5 billion over the next decade and $20 billion over the next four decades. Trump contends he wants to bring deficits under control. Republicans embark on their ObamaCare repeal and replace mission just as they face a rendezvous with the federal debt limit come mid-March. Repealing ObamaCare and tackling debt are hard to add up. But maybe Republicans can pull it off. And thats why everyone must wait until they repeal ObamaCare to find out what may be in the replacement. Capitol Attitude is a weekly column written by members of the Fox News Capitol Hill team. Their articles take you inside the halls of Congress, and cover the spectrum of policy issues being introduced, debated and voted on there. Seattle politicians have it figured out: The city is now giving taxpayers their own money back, on the condition they "donate" that cash back to political candidates. The new program, which was funded by a property tax hike and approved at the ballot box in 2015, launched this week. More than a half-million registered voters in Seattle will receive $100 worth of taxpayer-financed democracy vouchers that can be used to contribute to a political candidate of their choosing. The catch: That money has to be used in this way, or it goes back into the same government program. The city described the first-in-the-nation program as a way to encourage more Seattle residents to donate to campaigns and/or run for elected positions themselves. Each registered voter will get four $25 vouchers to distribute as they see fit. But critics say the tax base really is just being exploited to fund campaigns. The tax system is being used to force people to contribute to candidates whom they likely would never contribute to on their own. It is constitutional, but these public financing efforts are never popular, John Samples, a campaign finance expert with the Cato Institute, told FoxNews.com. The program is funded by a property tax increase worth $30 million over 10 years an estimated $11.50 per year for the average homeowner, according to the city. Wayne Barnett, executive director of the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission, says it has a budget of $3 million annually for the next 10 years. While the vouchers are being mailed out, no candidates yet have qualified to get the money. No candidates have qualified yet, but it is still early in the process, said Barnett, who is responsible for administering and auditing issuance of the democracy vouchers. City candidates are potentially eligible, but must agree to spending limits and must get 400 donations on their own of $10 each. The voucher measure originally was approved with 60 percent of the vote in 2015. But the success in Seattle could not be repeated statewide. Last November, Washington state voters rejected a similar effort -- even though, according to Ballotpedia, more than $4 million was spent in support of the initiative, far more than was spent by the opposing side. Robert Mahon, a lawyer with Perkins Coie who previously served as chairman of the Seattle Ethics Commission, said he thinks supporters' goal was to expand public financing statewide and then nationally. Personally, he thinks it's a bad idea. It is a complete waste of city resources that seems to be directed at a problem that is not there. We always have competing priorities and resources could be used for more important issues, he said. Mahon believes the supporters are well-intentioned but says the city has never faced a lack of competition for candidates and notes the high rate of turnover on the city council. In addition to getting candidates qualified to receive the vouchers, one of the hitches is that the program costs more than has been allocated. Barnett concedes that is true, but counters that no one ever envisioned full participation in the project. Barnett told FoxNews.com that Seattle expects to spend $800,000 in 2017 to pay for three administrative staff members and on the hiring of a firm to design software for the vouchers. That figure does not include the actual voucher redemption, which is estimated to be $3 million for this years elections and $4.2 million for 2019 elections, according to Mahon. He said that for every $100 in redeemed vouchers, taxpayers will be spending a total of $160 with administrative costs factored in. A Massachusetts sheriff wants to help President-elect Donald Trump build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border -- by offering up inmates to work on the project. Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson, a long-time proponent of strict immigration enforcement, presented his idea at an inauguration speech on Wednesday marking his fourth six-year term in office. On Thursday, the sheriff told Bostons Herald Radio that he has not heard from Trump himself, but his idea is being reviewed by the new administrations staff. They have it, I believe its going over to their domestic policy advisers, Hodgson said. We will have to wait to see if its something the president-elect is interested in. Advocates of more lenient immigration policies quickly denounced the sheriffs proposal, according to the Fox affiliate in Boston. The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts is threatening to go all out to block the sheriffs plans, Fox25Boston.com reports. Carol Rose, the executive director of the states ACLU chapter, said in a statement: Sheriff Hodgsons proposal to use the labor of the men and women in his custody to build the wall is perverse, inhumane and likely unconstitutional. Not only is Sheriff Hodgson willing to get involved with Trumps racially discriminatory plan to build a wall along the US-Mexico border, he is proposing to use modern-day slave labor to do it, Rose said in the statement, according to Fox25Boston.com From the outset of his campaign, Trump made immigration a focus, vowing to build a wall along the Mexican border, and to make Mexico pay for it. Mexican officials have balked at the idea of funding the wall. Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker has expressed misgivings over Hodgsons proposal, according to the Boston Herald. The Herald quoted a statement from the governors spokesman saying Baker prefers that inmates provide services closer to home. Hodgson says other sheriffs would like to send inmates to help construct a wall, the Herald reported. This is what government ought to be doing, the Herald quoted him as saying. It ought to be using whatever resources as creatively as we can to save taxpayer money and make sure our taxpayers are safe, which is another responsibility. These inmates, theyre skilled, they want to be able to do these things, he said. They get it, they dont want to be where they are, they made mistakes, but they feel good about themselves when someone does something thats challenging, that gives them more skills that sets them up to succeed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. After six long years, the Republicans finally have a chance to kick off the Trump era by abolishing ObamaCare. Even as the outgoing president huddled with Democrats on the Hill yesterday, the incoming president voiced criticism of the program and the incoming vice president said they had a mandate to junk it. But its a little more complicated than that. Donald Trump set the tone for the day, tweeting, Republicans must be careful in that the Dems own the failed ObamaCare disaster, with its poor coverage and massive premium increases like the 116% hike in Arizona. Also, deductibles are so high that it is practically useless. Don't let the Schumer clowns out of this web. At a GOP news conference, Paul Ryan and his top lieutenants attacked the program, and Mike Pence made clear that the first order of business is to repeal and replace it. We were told if you like your doctor you can keep your doctor. Not true. We were told if you like your health insurance you can keep your health insurance. Not true, Pence said. But then he got to the nub of the matter: What would happen to the millions of Americans who now get their coverage through federal and state marketplaces? The former congressman said they would begin an orderly transition to something better and would be careful that it doesnt work a hardship on American families. Pressed by reporters, Pence talked about such ideas as health savings accounts but stressed that we dont want to pull out the rug from people while were replacing this law. So heres the rub: Trump has said he wants to keep two ObamaCare elements: allowing parents to keep kids on their policies until age 26 and barring insurance companies from refusing coverage based on preexisting conditions. But the second provision is tied to ObamaCares individual mandate, which Republicans are determined to eliminate. That would allow people to wait until they get sick and then apply for insuranceand, as Rand Paul has noted, keep more healthy people out of the system. Chuck Schumer pounced on that after what he called an inspiring meeting with Barack Obama, saying the Republicans would create chaos in the health care system and accusing them of a full-scale assault on Medicare and Medicaid as well as the Obama law. Our Republican colleagues dont quite know what to do, theyre like the dog who caught the bus, the Senate minority leader said at a Democratic presser. Clearly, the Dems want to wrap Medicare into the debate, since theyve been accusing the other party of assaulting the program for decades. Whats more, Trump has said he doesnt want to touch Medicare. ObamaCare is flawed, with lots of people having been kicked out of their plans and into more costly and less sweeping insurance. But it has also extended coverage to lots of Americans. Politically, the Republicans can do whatever they want, since they have 52 senators and only need a majority vote to repeal ObamaCare through a budgetary technique called reconciliation. And the Democrats would have trouble crying foul, since Obama pushed through his health law on a party-line vote. But the GOP has to find a way to thread the needle. And the challenge for the media is to cut through the rhetoric and drill down on this high-stakes issue. President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday picked former Indiana Senator Dan Coats as director of national intelligence, two sources briefed on the decision told Fox News. The official announcement is expected later this week, according to the AP, as Trump makes final decisions on some of the major positions he needs to fill before he is sworn in on Jan. 20. TRUMPS TEAM: WHOS WHO IN PRESIDENT-ELECTS CABINET, WHITE HOUSE Coats, a Republican, served as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee before retiring from Congress last year. He also served as U.S. ambassador to Germany. As director of national intelligence, Coats would oversee an office created after 9/11 to improve coordination of U.S. spy and law enforcement agencies. Coats is very much beloved in the Senate, a source told Fox News, and is considered to be an interesting balance to some of the other personalities such as Gen. Michael Flynn and Rep. Mike Pompeo. The senator was banned from visiting Russia back in late 2014 for his participation to punish Russia because of Moscows move to annex the Crimea region of Ukraine, which he seemed to enjoy at the time. While Im disappointed that I wont be able to go on vacation with my family in Siberia this summer, I am honored to be on this list, he said after Russias announcement, according to The Indy Star. The choice comes amid Trump's questioning of the U.S. intelligence community's assessments that Russia interfered with the election on his behalf, and one day before the president-elect is briefed by senior intelligence officials on the Russian hacking allegations. Trump has been considering ways to restructure intelligence agencies to streamline operations and improve efficiency. Transition officials have been looking at changes at both ODNI and the CIA, but those plans are said not to be aimed at gutting the intelligence agencies or hampering their capabilities. Fox News' John Roberts, Mike Emanuel, and The Associated Press contributed to this report. President-elect Donald Trumps outsider candidacy defied all political convention during the 2016 campaign and with two weeks to go until hes inaugurated, the billionaire tycoon already is breaking the mold of the presidency itself. He proved this once again this week as he deployed his Twitter feed to jawbone Republican colleagues into backing off a controversial ethics rule change and to pressure automakers to keep jobs in America. The prospect of the president governing, negotiating and conducting foreign policy by tweet has riled Trump's critics. But like it or not, his social media megaphone is just one way the president-elect is changing the nature of the Oval Office, before President Obama even finishes his term. The Twitter Pulpit The American president often is referred to as having the bully pulpit the power and visibility of the office to advance an agenda. Trump will have that, plus a growing Twitter pulpit speaking directly to his roughly 19 million followers. To be sure, Obama has far more followers but he doesnt use Twitter like Trump. From the very start of the 115th Congress, Trump used social media to help get Republican colleagues to back off their ethics overhaul. House Republicans already were facing a public backlash and tough media scrutiny over plans to reduce the independence of the Office of Congressional Ethics. While Trump conceded the office was unfair, he questioned why it was so high on the House agenda. With all that Congress has to work on, do they really have to make the weakening of the Independent Ethics Watchdog, as unfair as it Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2017 ........may be, their number one act and priority. Focus on tax reform, healthcare and so many other things of far greater importance! #DTS Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2017 Hours later, the House dropped the plan. Trump also is using the platform to pressure businesses to keep jobs in the U.S. After he tweeted earlier this week that he'd seek a "border tax" for General Motors for making a model of the Chevy Cruze in Mexico, he turned his attention Thursday to Toyota. Toyota responded: "Toyota has been part of the cultural fabric in the U.S. for nearly 60 years. Production volume or employment in the U.S. will not decrease as a result of our new plant in Guanajuato, Mexico announced in April 2015. With more than $21.9 billion direct investment in the U.S., 10 manufacturing facilities, 1,500 dealerships and 136,000 employees, Toyota looks forward to collaborating with the Trump Administration to serve in the best interests of consumers and the automotive industry." Even before that, Trump was using Twitter for what some saw as diplomatic gamesmanship. He announced in December he had spoken to the president of Taiwan which provoked anger from China. And just last week, he praised Russian President Vladimir Putin for not responding in kind to President Obamas sanctions on the country calling him very smart. Asked about the presidents social media use, incoming White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer recently told David Axelrod for his podcast, Of course he's going to keep doing it. FDR pioneered the use of radio in the presidency. JFK used television to great effect. And @RealDonaldTrump has Twitter. Contract Negotiator Trump also has used Twitter as part of his muscle to blast government contracts he sees as problematic. The Art of the Deal author took the unusual step of delving into contract negotiations within weeks of winning the election by threatening to seek the cancellation of a Boeing deal for the new Air Force One. Boeing has since vowed to reduce the cost. Trump used a similar tactic against Lockheed Martin, saying its F-35 was too expensive, and has asked Boeing for an estimate on a comparable F-18 Super Hornet! The tweets have had an impact by themselves, with Lockheeds stocks tumbling in the wake of Trump's complaints. It remains to be seen how successful the tactic will be, but it could put pressure on companies to jump at White House requests quickly in order to avoid being publicly attacked on Twitter. Inauguration Slim-Down Inaugurations have become glitzy, extravagant, star-studded affairs in recent presidencies. Expect Jan. 20 to still bring the pomp but the inaugural balls themselves reportedly are being cut down. The Daily Mail reported that Trump wants to reduce the number of balls from Obamas 10 in 2009 to just three. The Mail reports he wants just two official inaugural balls with a separate ball to celebrate military members and first responders. TMZ reports that Trump also is planning on one of those balls having a New York City theme, complete with cutouts of the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty. He has repeatedly said he is not interested in so-called A list celebrities attending, saying he instead wants the people! This may be in part because many of those celebrities have been outspoken critics of Trump and overwhelmingly backed opponent Hillary Clinton during the campaign. A New York President? Where does the president of the United States live? The White House. This elementary-school civics answer could get an important caveat in the Trump administration, as he considers spending at least some time at his Trump Tower home and headquarters in downtown Manhattan. The New York Times reported in November that Trump is believed to be talking to advisers about splitting his time between the two residences. New Kind of Cabinet Obamas Cabinet was full of academics and former government officials. Trumps looks considerably different full of military brass and wealthy business tycoons like himself. On the business side, the most notable pick is Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson, whom Trump tapped for secretary of State in part based on his record doing deals in hot spots like Russia and parts of the Middle East. Trump also is nominating CKE Restaurants boss Andrew Puzder for Labor secretary, investor Wilbur Ross for Commerce secretary, and Wall Street financier Steven Mnuchin for Treasury secretary. WHO'S WHO ON TRUMP'S TEAM Some of these picks have raised concerns from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who cited Tillerson, Ross, Mnuchin and Puzder as four of the eight most troublesome of Trumps picks, and indicated Senate Democrats are likely to oppose the nominations. Trump also has tapped a number of generals for top posts. In addition to retired Gen. James Mattis for Defense secretary, Trump has tapped retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn for national security adviser, retired Gen. John Kelly for Homeland Security secretary and former Navy SEAL Ryan Zinke for Interior secretary. The picks led Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., to dub Trumps Cabinet the three 'G' Cabinet: Goldman, generals and gazillionaires. President Obama has received a much-anticipated classified report on alleged Russian and other foreign meddling in American elections, heightening interest in what evidence the file contains as Republicans spar over the cyberattack claims and wait for their chance to see the findings themselves. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and other top intelligence officials visited the White House Thursday afternoon, to brief the president on the materials. President-elect Donald Trump is to be briefed on the report on Friday. Clapper also testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee that they plan to brief Congress and release an unclassified version of the report to the public early next week. In its earlier assessment, the intelligence community said Moscow interfered in the election to help Trump win. "We stand actually more resolutely on the strength of that statement than we did on the 7th of October," Clapper said. The administrations allegations of Russia-directed hacking of Democratic organizations during the 2016 U.S. elections and punitive measures taken against Russian officials and agencies last week continue to drive fierce debate in Washington, especially among Republicans. Trump and his allies have cast doubt on the claims. The latest detail to raise questions is confirmation from the Democratic National Committee that the FBI did not examine their servers. A spokesman confirmed to Fox News that the FBI never requested access to the DNC's computer servers, though the DNC had several meetings with FBI and other officials during the investigation. BuzzFeed first reported the FBI did not inspect the servers before issuing their report. That 13-page report, issued with the Department of Homeland Security, also has faced some scrutiny for being light on hard evidence confirming Russian government involvement. The report sent to Obama and soon to be shared with Trump and others could offer more. Trump tweeted earlier this week that it was very strange his briefing on Russia hacking will not be held until Friday. He speculated, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Intelligence officials said there had been no delay. Trump also has drawn attention to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assanges recent interview on Fox News Hannity in which Assange insisted the Russians were not his source for thousands of hacked emails from Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. Some Republicans, though, have made clear they harbor few doubts about Russias cyber-meddling -- and do not see Assange as a reliable source. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., said at Thursdays hearing that he believes Assange is responsible for publishing names of individuals who work with the U.S. government and putting them at risk. Clapper said, Yes, he has, adding that he does not find Assange to be credible. McCain also said Thursday that "every American should be alarmed" by Russia's alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential election. There is "no escaping the fact that this committee meets today for the first time in this new Congress in the aftermath of an unprecedented attack on our democracy," he said. In prepared testimony Thursday, intelligence officials said Russia poses a major and growing threat to U.S. government, military, diplomatic and commercial operations -- as well as America's critical infrastructure. Russia is among at least 30 nations that are developing capabilities to launch cyberattacks, according to their statement. Clapper on Thursday stood by claims that the Russian government was involved in the 2016 hacking. In new tweets early Thursday, Trump backed away from Assange somewhat. He blamed the "dishonest media" for portraying him as agreeing with Assange. Accusations Russia interfered in the 2016 election by hacking Democratic email accounts have roiled Washington for weeks. Obama struck back at Moscow in late December with penalties aimed at Russia's leading spy agencies, the GRU and FSB, that the U.S. said were involved. The GRU is Russia's military intelligence agency. The FSB is the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB. But Trump easily could rescind the sanctions. So far, he has publicly refused to accept the conclusion that Russia is responsible for the attacks. Trump suggested Wednesday in a tweet that one of Russia's primary targets, the Democratic National Committee, could be to blame for being "so careless." CIA Director John Brennan said in a Dec. 16 message to employees that the FBI agreed with the agency's conclusion that Russia's goal was to support Trump in the election. Brennan wrote that he also had spoken with Clapper and said "there is strong consensus among us on the scope, nature, and intent of Russian interference in our presidential election." Moscow has denied the hacking allegations and dismissed Obama's sanctions as an attempt to "harm Russian-American ties." Although Russian President Vladimir Putin rebuked the Obama administration for trying to punish Russia, he said his country would not immediately retaliate and would instead wait for a new U.S. approach after Trump takes office. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange told Fox News' Sean Hannity that Democrats lost last year's presidential election because of what he called "the rigging of the primary process" to nominate Hillary Clinton. In Part II of the exclusive interview with Assange, which aired Wednesday night on "Hannity," the Australian said that the Democratic Party has a chance to "go through a reformation" after Clinton's defeat at the hands of Republican Donald Trump. During the election campaign, Wikileaks published thousands of leaked emails detailing apparent favoritism shown to Clinton by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) during her primary battle against Sen. Bernie Sanders. "It can only go through that reformation if it looks at the genuine reasons for the loss," Assange said. "The genuine reason, to my mind, for the loss, is [that] they didnt pick the strongest candidate ... That didnt happen. Why didnt it happen? Because the DNC no longer represented the genuine interests of the Democratic party. "So, my message to the U.S. Democratic Party is ... Take the information that we have published, which shows who the different players are and how they work within the DNC, learn from it and reform." Hannity interviewed Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where Assange has been holed up for five years while he battles extradition to Sweden on sexual assault charges. Assange also encouraged President-elect Donald Trump to embrace Wikileaks' philosophy of transparency, and praised Trump for communicating directly with Americans rather than using the mainstream media. "If you can get the information out as soon as possible, then you can correct as soon as possible," Assange said. "So I think that Donald Trump, early on in his administration, he needs to set a standard. He needs to go to someone in that Cabinet, OK, youre a friend, maybe even [an] ally, but you did the wrong thing here by the American people, so youre fired. And that standard needs to be set early." Youve heard of snakes on a plane, but a snake in a toilet is the real-life stuff of nightmares. On Dec. 27, after the Animal Welfare League of Arlington in Virginia got a call about a snake in a toilet in an apartment building in the county, an officer ventured out to the scene and then she returned with a juvenile yellow anaconda. The snake which has since been dubbed Sir Hiss was likely someones pet, and it either was abandoned or managed to get out of its enclosure, according to Chelsea Lindsey, communications specialist for the Animal Welfare League of Arlington. They are quite strong, Lindsey told FoxNews.com. 6-FOOT-LONG PYTHON FOUND ON OFFSHORE PLATFORM IN FLORIDA Anacondas are constrictors native to South America, and generally like the water, Lindsey said. Thats what likely drew it to the toilet, although she said its unclear whether it came through the pipes or simply made its way to the bathroom and then slithered into the toilet. If only he could talk, Lindsey added. According to Lindsey, while its not illegal for people to own constrictors like an anaconda in Arlington County, anyone considering taking on such a pet should be cautious and do research first. After all, the snakes natural place is in the wild and anacondas can grow up to 13 feet long. RABID BOBCAT ATTACKS WILDLIFE OFFICER The serpent is now in the care of a snake specialist. Lindsey said they dont know its exact length, but estimate it to be between four and five feet long the snake was scared when it came in, and they didnt want to uncoil it. Follow Rob Verger on Twitter: @robverger Historians call it Europe's last pogrom neighbors and police setting upon Jewish Holocaust survivors in the Polish town of Kielce with guns, clubs and metal bars in a murderous rampage little more than a year after the defeat of Nazi Germany. Even as officials prepared to mark its 60th anniversary Tuesday with wailing sirens and Hebrew prayers in the town's Jewish cemetery, the Kielce massacre still darkens relations between Jews and Poles. "How a normal population could indulge in such massive criminal behavior this was and is the most important question that Kielce raises," said Jan T. Gross, the author of "Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland after Auschwitz." CountryWatch: Poland On July 4, 1946, townspeople and security officers, spurred by a false rumor that Jews living at 7 Planty St., had kidnapped a Christian boy, attacked Jewish Holocaust survivors living in the building. They killed 42 people, almost all Jews, over several hours, and about 30 more were killed in a violent frenzy that spread across the area. Kielce still looms as a symbol of a double tragedy suffered by some European Jews: to survive the years of the Nazi terror in concentration camps or in hiding, only to be massacred as they tried to rebuild their lives in their prewar hometowns. An estimated 1,500 Jews were killed in such violence in Poland, and there were other such cases on a smaller scale in countries such as Hungary and Romania, according to Gross, a Princeton University professor. Gross' previous book, "Neighbors," about the collective murder of Jews in the village of Jedwabne on one day in 1941 by their Polish neighbors, forced Poles to re-examine their long-held view of themselves as solely victims and almost never perpetrators of the brutality that engulfed the nation during the war and occupation by Nazi Germany. Gross, who was born in Poland, said he hopes "Fear" which devotes two out of its six chapters to the Kielce pogrom will force more such soul-searching on the issue of Polish anti-Semitism. "The tragic death of [Poland's Jews] is something that has never been properly mourned here," Gross said during an interview in Warsaw. "And this absence of mourning is something that has to be remedied because it weighs heavily on the collective consciousness of the society." The pogrom set off a mass emigration of many of Poland's estimated 250,000 Jewish Holocaust survivors what was left of the prewar Jewish population of 3.5 million and pushed other Polish Jews to hide their identities. About 60,000 Jews fled Poland in the three months after the Kielce pogrom. "For Jews, Kielce showed them the killing hadn't stopped," said Poland's Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich. "The tragedy, the result of Kielce is that Jews felt that they were no longer safe in Poland." Poland's post-communist government apologized for the killings on the 50th anniversary of the Kielce pogrom, but many Jewish groups and other critics say Polish society at large has still largely failed to come to acknowledge the pervasiveness of anti-Semitism in Poland during the war era. It touches a sore spot for many Poles, who feel it is unfair to equate pogroms such as Kielce as the moral equivalent of the evil of the Holocaust. Schudrich, a New Yorker, also said that as horrific as Kielce was, it shouldn't be equated with the Nazi killings. "Some people want to make Kielce into the continuation of the Holocaust," Schudrich said. "It was a postwar pogrom that was horrible and unacceptable, but it wasn't the continuation of the Holocaust." The Kielce anniversary comes at a sensitive time politically for Poland two months after the governing Law and Justice formed a coalition with two small parties, including the League of Polish Families, a right-wing group rooted in a prewar anti-Semitic party. That coalition deal with the party, which also has a far-right youth movement, sparked concerns within the European Union, Israel and Poland's Jewish community that it could encourage anti-Semitism. Those concerns took on greater urgency after Schudrich was attacked, though not injured, in Warsaw in late May. President Lech Kaczynski condemned the attack and said there was no place in Poland for anti-Semitism. Police arrested the attacker last week. Schudrich is to lead Jewish prayers during the ceremonies Tuesday. Kaczynski was originally scheduled to deliver a speech, but he was sick Monday and his office said it was unlikely he would be able to join Poland's foreign and interior ministers at the ceremonies. Navy Seals from US Special Operations Forces conducted a raid in southern Somalia on Monday that killed Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, one of 4 co-conspirators wanted in the 2002 bombing of an Israel owned hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, two senior U.S. military officials told Fox News. Ten days ago President Obama signed the Execute Order for Nabhan, who since 2006 was on the FBI's list of most wanted terrorists. He was also wanted for the attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Kenya in 1998. They called it operation Celestial Balance: at least two AH-6 Little Bird helicopters deployed from one of two U.S. Navy vessels near Somalia's coast strafed a vehicle Nabhan was using to go back and forth between meetings. Intelligence operatives had been monitoring Sabhan prior to the attack. The helicopters passed once, firing on the vehicle, and then circled back around to retrieve the body so they could make a positive identification, according to an official. The attack in Mombasa took place on Nov. 28, 2002 - involving a suicide bomber that blew up the lobby of the Israeli owned Paradise hotel. On the same day the attackers unsuccessfully attempted to shoot down an Israeli owned Boeing 757 civilian jetliner run by Arkia. They fired surface to air missiles and missed. Nabhan's Somali group, Al- Shabaab, has links to Al Qaeda. Riding a bike. Taking a coffee break. Opening a tube of paint. They may sound like simple actions, but for people with disabilities, these activities can pose challenges that make it hard to live independently. Thats where TOM (Tikkun Olam Makers) comes in. TOM was set up by Israeli nonprofit Reut Group to tackle issues faced by people with disabilities (Tikkun olam is Hebrew for repair the world). Specifically, TOM aims to harness the creativity of the high-tech Maker community to develop technologies for disabled people. Millions of people live with disabilities and face neglected problems, where there is no corporate interest or government capability to solve them, Reut Group Founder and President Gidi Grinstein told FoxNews.com. This happens because these people are too poor, or their disability is rare or special. In many cases, the solution exists but the price is prohibitive and they simply cannot afford the solution to their problem. CES: HIGH-TECH DISPLAY AIMS TO MAKE DRIVING SAFER Makeathons are at the heart of Toms efforts. The 72-hour events bring two groups of people together; Need Knowers, or people with disabilities, and Makers such as coders, designers, engineers and programmers. The Need Knowers present challenges to the Makers, who then work together to create affordable open source solutions Since it launched in 2014, TOM has hosted 16 Makeathons in 14 cities around the world and plans to expand. We want to be able to impact not just one person but to impact the lives of 250 million people over the next ten years and the scalable model we built has the potential to do exactly that, Rebecca Fuhrman, Toms architect of inspiration, told FoxNews.com. IBM WORKING ON BOT TO HELP ELDERLY AGE AT HOME The next Makeathon will take place Jan. 8-10, at the Technion Institute in Haifa, Israel. Some 20 challenges are going to be tackled by 120 makers from the U.S., Canada, Australia, China, India and Israel. Projects on the agenda include creating an app to help people with disabilities find accessible transportation, a system to call a wheelchair to a persons bedside, and building a supportive, portable bathroom chair. TOM will also be hosting a Makeathon in New York City from April 21 to 23. TOM was shaped by the idea of inclusive society and embodies this ideal in multiple ways: First, it integrates people dealing with disabilities into its team, as they not only share their needs but also participate in the design of the solutions, working hand-in-hand with engineers, programmers, product designers and other professionals, said Grinstein. Second, TOM is a platform for making our entire society more inclusive, as it allows the most talented top professionals to contribute the best of their skills toward alleviating the difficulties faced by societies most challenged. APP SPOTS FAKE IDs Once complete, the designs and instructions for making them are uploaded into whats called the Open Makers Market. Its a website that anyone can access and adapt to their needs. TOMs products are open-source, which means that no one owns their intellectual property. This allows many people from around the world to participate in the development process and to benefit from the products, explained Grinstein. TOM has already enjoyed some significant successes. In June 2016 Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, hosted its first Makeathon. Makers there met 4-year-old Phuong Uyen. She cannot walk or control her head or neck. Her mother carries her daughter everywhere or has to put her on the floor. She requested a wheelchair that could expand, so that her young child wouldnt need a new one as she grows. According to Fuhrman, a wheelchair can cost about $2,000 on average and needs to be replaced approximately every two years. Uyens family earns $300 a month. Designers at the Ho Chi Minh City Makeathon, however, were able to create an $88 wheelchair that supports her body and expands as she grows. According to the World Health Organization, 70 million people worldwide are in need of wheelchairs but only 5 to 15 percent have access to them. Another success story came out of TOMs first Makeathon in 2014. A plastic grid was designed and laser cut for a child who was having trouble pressing the buttons on a communication device. The design was uploaded to the Open Makers Market and then adapted to assist a family in need of similar assistance. There are now more than fifty families worldwide that are connecting with local Makers to get a grid made for their kids too, Fuhrman told FoxNews.com. That blossoming relationship between Makers and people with disabilities is key - and we hope that this will just be a starting point for people in need to see the Maker community as a resource to develop affordable solutions for their neglected challenges. The home of the Swedish royal family is apparently spook central. But Queen Silvia says not to worry, the "small friends ghosts" that haunt the 17th-century halls of Drottningholm Palace mean no harm and don't scare her, reports the AFP. "Theyre all very friendly but you sometimes feel that you're not completely alone," the 73-year-old queen says in a new documentary by the country's public TV network SVT. Located on Lovon Island off Stockholm, Drottingholm is the principal home of Queen Silvia, Sweden's longest-serving queen, and King Carl XVI Gustaf, her husband of 40 years. Its UNESCO World Heritage listing describes it as "the finest example of an 18th-century north European royal residence inspired by the Palace of Versailles." While the queen doesn't get into specifics about individual spirits, Time cites a 2010 Swedish article that references a "gray man" and a "white lady" said to roam there. As for backup, the king's sister, Princess Christina, agrees the castle is indeed a phantom favorite. "There is much energy in this house. It would be strange if it didnt take the form of guises," she tells the filmmakers. The Local reports that those who want to seek out the paranormal interlopers can indeed do so: Only the southern wing is off-limits to the public. (This "haunted" photo went viral in April.) This article originally appeared on Newser: Queen Says 'Friendly' Ghosts Haunt This Palace A new mother says she was humiliated after security staff at London's Heathrow Airport seized five days worth of breast milk from her carry-on luggage. Katie Langan, 31, who lives in Holland with her partner-- and regularly travels to the U.K. for work-- says she was forced to give up 10 bags of breast milk she had pumped for her one-year-old daughter Layla. Langan, an H.R. manager, was returning from a five-day break with friends in London to celebrate New Year when her milk was confiscated. While away from her child, Langan pumped two to three times a day, giving her 10 bags of milk containing roughly 80ml (about 2.7 fluid ounces)-- each of which took around 20 minutes to pump. If mothers dont continue to express milk when theyre away from their babies, their supply reduces meaning that they cannot produce as much when they return. But at Heathrow's airport security, Langan says staff confiscted the milk supply and banned her from taking it onboard-- despite her pleas and offering other solutions like checking it, decanting it into containers or paying a fee extra baggage. The mother claims she was treated with contempt and a lack of respect and was left in tears at the airport. I was embarrassed and humiliated. I had to explain about my breastfeeding to a man," Langan told The Sun. I was totally heartbroken that I had to dump this breast milk that I had put love and time into pumping. It is a chore but its a labour of love. This means that the next time I go away, my baby cant have breast milk. Mother humiliated when Heathrow airport security FORCE her to dump her breast milk https://t.co/Y9h1Sq3TD1 pic.twitter.com/Hdj41VftEW Objective Press (@objectivepress) January 5, 2017 The mother says that since giving birth, she has traveled 20 times over the past year for work, through airports including Boston, Istanbul, Bristol, Amsterdam and Edinburgh. She always carries the fluid in special bags for breast milk which staff x-ray, inspect and swab, and claims she has never had any problems getting it through security. She added: I just dont want other women to experience what I experienced. I was absolutely horrified by the guys reaction. I was quite creative in thinking up solutions and thought of a few different ways that I could get around it. But he was not willing to help me. It was extremely frustrating." Langan said the Heathrow staff did not appear to be familiar with the regulations regarding breast milk. He said, It is above the limit for general liquids. I said, Breast milk is exempt, I have done this before and never had a problem. He said he couldnt understand why I was travelling with breast milk without my baby. Langan says she contacted Heathrow officials, but was less than satisfied with their response. She added: I received a response from Heathrow but it was just copy and paste bull crap from the policy. Why is Heathrow so much stricter than other airports I have travelled through in Europe and not had a problem? The U.K.'s Department for Transport regulations state that parents travelling through U.K. airports can take breast milk on a plane as long as they are travelling with a baby or infant. But some liquids, even breast milk, may be subject to additional scrutiny, according to Heathrow's website, "Essential medicines are permitted in larger quantities above the 100ml limit but will be subject to authentication. Exceptions to the 100ml rule may also be made for those carrying baby food and milk, but you may be asked to taste the liquid when you go through security." FOR THE LATEST TRAVEL FEATURES FOLLOW FOX LIFESTYLE ON FACEBOOK Heathrow Airport said that it has a legal obligation to enforce to regulations. A spokesperson told The Sun, We do appreciate that this has been a frustrating experience for Ms Langan and we always regret causing inconvenience. When travelling without your child, the restriction limits apply without exception. Passengers wishing to transport in excess of that are welcome to do so in their hold luggage. This story originally appeared on The Sun. Authorities say two Jewish centers in central Florida were evacuated following separate bomb threats, though no explosives were found at either location. The Orlando Sentinel reports that Jewish Academy elementary school in Maitland and Chabad of South Orlando were both evacuated Wednesday morning. The first call came to the school, and then the second call came to the other location 10 minutes later. Orange County deputies and Maitland police officers are trying to determine if the calls were related. Chabad Rabbi Yosef Konikov says about 50 people were evacuated from the building for about an hour, until an Orange County Sheriff's K-9 unit cleared the building. Maitland police evacuated the entire campus where the school is located for several hours. That complex includes a community center and Holocaust museum. A federal judge says a Virginia man must remain in jail until he's tried on a charge of trying to aid a terrorist group. Magistrate Judge Lawrence R. Leonard ruled Wednesday that 26-year-old Lionel Williams poses too much of a danger. Williams allegedly swore allegiance to the Islamic State group in Iraq on Facebook and gave $250 to undercover FBI agents pretending to buy weapons. Williams also allegedly owned an AK-47 assault rifle and wanted to commit a local "martyrdom operation" before his December arrest. Williams' public defenders told the judge that he could live with his uncle. Members of his mosque were also prepared to vouch for him. Federal public defender Keith Kimball argued that Williams was "entrapped" by the FBI. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has unveiled a $10 billion plan to transform New York's aging John F. Kennedy International Airport into a world-class hub with easy access. The Democrat told a gathering Wednesday of the Association for a Better New York that the biggest U.S. city lags far behind modern overseas airports. Sixty million people pass through Kennedy each year. The number is expected to shoot up to 75 million by 2030 and 100 million by 2050. Under the plan, terminals would be linked to each other and accessible by one ringed roadway. The governor said critical to the plan is the expansion of roads leading to the airport. The proposal is based on recommendations from an airport advisory panel to the governor. Notorious criminal Charles Manson -- the ringleader behind a 1969 Los Angeles killing spree -- has been cited for numerous behavioral problems during his more than four decades in prison, the Los Angeles Times reported. HATE CRIME CHARGES FILED IN CHICAGO BEATING STREAMED ON FACEBOOK LIVE State corrections officials told the newspaper that Manson has been cited for more than 100 rules violations since 1971, when he and other members of the "Manson Family" were convicted of first-degree murder for the slayings of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and six others in a gory massacre that shocked the world. The cult leader attracted disaffected young people who lived in a commune, followed his orders and were ultimately turned into killers. JUDGE BOOTED FROM BENCH AFTER ALLEGEDLY OFFERING PLEA DEALS FOR SEX During his time in prison, Manson, now 82, has been cited for assault, repeated possession of a weapon, threatening staff, and possessing a cellphone, Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, told the paper. "Suffice it to say that he cannot be described as a model prisoner," Thornton told the paper Wednesday. Manson once tried to smuggle a hacksaw blade into prison, according to the paper, and in 2009 guards found a cellphone under his prison mattress and learned he made calls and sent text messages to people in three states and British Columbia. Manson was reportedly taken from his California prison cell to a hospital on Wednesday. A prison official would only confirm that Manson was alive Wednesday and gave no other information, according to the Associated Press. Click for more from the Los Angeles Times. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Before Dylann Roof was arrested for killing nine black church members, he scribbled a note to his mother, apologizing for all the repercussions his actions would cause. Weeks later, in a jailhouse journal, he wrote that he had no regrets. The evidence, along with his manifesto, hundreds of photos and a confession to the FBI, draw a portrait of a young white man consumed by racial hatred who carefully planned the killings, picking out meek, innocent black people who likely wouldn't fight back. Jurors who convicted Roof of hate crimes and other charges will decide whether he should be executed or face life in prison. ROOF AND RACISM Roof has pointed out that there was no dramatic confrontation that led him to begin hating blacks. Instead, when the Trayvon Martin case made the news, Roof went to Wikipedia to read about the black teenager who was shot to death in 2012 by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, who was acquitted. That led Roof to research black on white crime and to websites that offer false statistics inflating how often those crimes happen. Roof was careful in his writings to say his beliefs came just from himself, not his parents. But one of Roof's old friends suggested otherwise. "I don't think his parents liked his decisions, the choices that he made to have black friends," said Christon Scriven, who is black. Shortly after the shootings, Roof would go between partying with black friends and spewing racist diatribes to his white buddies, Scriven said. Roof also believed the dubious claims that blacks were better off as slaves and are inferior at their cores to whites. He compared African-Americans to dogs, saying everyone feels bad when a man beats a dog, but no one is surprised when a dog bites a man. ___ THE SON When authorities searched Roof's car, they found birthday cards from his mom and dad, who were divorced, and what appeared to be suicide notes to each of his parents. Roof's writings to his mom show a son worried about how she would feel. "At this moment I miss you very much," he wrote. "And as childish as it sounds, I wish I was in your arms." Roof's mom suffered a heart attack in court shortly after prosecutors called him a cold and calculated killer in their opening statement. Roof worked for his contractor father for a time. "I love you and I'm sorry," Roof wrote. "You were a good dad." In Roof's birthday card, his father promised to buy him a gun. ___ THE FRIEND Roof had a few friends he would hang out with when he got tired of his parents. One of them, Joey Meek, pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents about what he knew about Roof's plans. Meek is awaiting sentencing. His guilty plea included an offer to testify against his friend if asked, but he hasn't been called to the stand. Meek and Roof were good friends until Roof dropped out of high school. They reconnected in the months before the shooting, drinking and smoking marijuana. Scriven also would hang out with them at Meek's house. Both friends said he talked about a mass shooting. Scriven said Roof wanted to target the College of Charleston. Meek said Roof talked about killing blacks. Meek insisted to reporters he had no idea of Roof's exact plan and was stunned to see his friend in a surveillance photo on TV the morning after the shooting. "I didn't THINK it was him. I KNEW it was him," Meek said. ___ THE LONER In Roof's opening statement to jurors to start the penalty phase of his trial, he said there was nothing wrong with him psychologically except "I'm probably better at constantly embarrassing myself than anyone who's ever existed." Agents recovered hundreds of photos from Roof's cameras. Some were of him posing with the Confederate flag, others were at historic sites across South Carolina. They appeared to be taken with a tripod and a timer, and he is the only person in almost all of them. There are even a few of Roof with a cat in his bedroom. Roof told agents when he confessed he reached out to no other white supremacy groups and spoke to no one else about his plans. His journal ends with another lament: "One of my only regrets is that I was never able to fall in love." ___ Associated Press Meg Kinnard contributed to this report from Charleston. ___ Follow Jeffrey Collins on Twitter at http://twitter.com/JSCollinsAP. His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/jeffrey-collins Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP. Read more of her work at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/meg-kinnard/ An Arkansas judge has been removed from his states bench for life after allegedly offering secret plea deals to women in exchange for having sex with him. Judge Tim Parker of Carroll County, Arkansas, resigned Saturday after a judicial oversight group investigation uncovered his alleged actions, which were outlined in a letter that was made public on Tuesday. SHERIFF'S OFFICER ACCUSES FEMALE SUPERIOR OF SERIAL SEXUAL HARASSMENT The investigation found that Parker conducted his business over jail phones and also swapped cash and prescription pills for sex acts, according to The Daily Beast. The judge Parker engaged in a pattern of personal relationships with many female litigants from 2013 to 2016, the Arkansas Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission (JDCC) said in the letter. Allegations also exist about trading cash or prescription pills for sexual favors or money with many of the same women, as well as other women in the community. The group said it had video statements from more than a dozen women accusing Parker of sexual abuse. The panel said Parker admitted to releasing and lowering bail for defendants who were friends or former clients and, in some cases, giving rides to defendants in his own vehicle after he released them, The Associated Press reported. FIRST BISHOP INDICTED IN US ON SEXUAL ABUSE CLAIM DIES AT 83 Under the terms of his resignation, Parker was blocked from serving as a judge in the state ever again. Our investigation is over because we only have jurisdiction over sanctions and we got the ultimate sanction, David Sachar, the JDCCs executive director, told The Daily Beast. Hes never going to be a judge again. Parker, who was appointed to the judgeship in 2013, also faces a criminal investigation over the accusations. Jason Barrett, a special prosecutor appointed to investigate the case, said Tuesday that he was reviewing JDDC's evidence to see if charges were warranted. Parker denied the sexual favor allegations when contacted by The Associated Press Tuesday. Asked why he didn't contest the allegations before the panel, he responded: "I have young children and I don't want them exposed to that kind of crap." His resignation comes just months after another former Arkansas judge was charged with giving lighter sentences to defendants in exchange for sexual favors. Former Cross County District Court Judge Joseph Boeckmann was indicted in October on several federal charges, including wire fraud and witness tampering. Boeckmann resigned in May after a JDDC investigation. The commission's investigators found thousands of photos on Boeckmann's home computers of naked and semi-naked men, many of whom were identified by the commission as former defendants whose cases had gone before Boeckmann both as a judge and as a deputy prosecutor. Former Gov. Mike Beebe appointed Parker to the part-time judgeship in 2013. Parker told a local newspaper at the time that he wanted to look into using community service for misdemeanor offenders. "I am a small man with a small ego," he told the Carroll County News. "There is no room for ego on the bench. I plan to be a humble judge that follows the law. It's justice with compassion." The Associated Press contributed to this report. Authorities say a New Orleans man waited hours before telling authorities he crashed a minivan into a lake with his landlord inside. News outlets report 25-year-old Miguel McCarty faces vehicular homicide and other charges in 52-year-old Regina Williams' death. Williams' body was found inside the van Monday. Detectives believe she died after McCarty drove her vehicle into Lake Pontchartrain early Sunday. Arrest documents say McCarty didn't disclose the crash until Williams' family questioned him about her location 15 hours after he first spoke with police. McCarty told deputies he and Williams were headed to the Bonnabel Boat Launch when he hit something, sending the van into the water. He managed to escape. Jefferson Parish Coroner Gerry Cvitanovich says Williams likely drowned. The official cause of death is pending test results. A judge has dismissed manslaughter and child abuse charges against a social worker and her boss who were accused of failing to protect a 3-year-old Detroit boy who died. Judge Kenneth King made the ruling Thursday after testimony about whether Child Protective Services worker Elaina Brown and her supervisor, Kelly Williams should face trial on the charges in Aaron Minor's death. The Wayne County prosecutor's office says it is reviewing the decision for a possible appeal. The charges against the social workers were rare, but not unprecedented. Aaron's mother, Deanna Minor, was charged with murder in August after the boy's decomposing body was found in their apartment in June while she was in a hospital psychiatric unit. A judge found her incompetent to stand trial. next Image 1 of 3 prev next Image 2 of 3 prev Image 3 of 3 A Florida woman convicted of killing her 5-year-old son in New Jersey in 1991 has been sentenced to 30 years in prison. Prosecutors had pressed for a life sentence for Michelle Lodzinski, of Port St. Lucie. In sentencing her Thursday, the judge told the 49-year-old woman she had repeatedly lied about the disappearance and death of Timothy Wiltsey. She declined to address the court. She appeared for her sentencing wearing a wrist brace after injuring it in a fall. The judge also gave her 884 days credit toward her sentence. Lodzinski first said her son disappeared from a carnival in central New Jersey then later claimed he was abducted. She was charged in 2014 after witnesses identified a blanket found near the boy's body nearly a year after he disappeared. A settlement has been reached in a federal lawsuit that accuses a Louisiana police officer of forcing two women to expose their breasts so he could photograph them during a roadside encounter. A court filing says the settlement was reached Wednesday, but attorneys for the two women and the city of Ville Platte said Thursday that the deal's terms haven't been finalized yet. The lawsuit asserts that Ville Platte police officer Larry Paul Fontenot threatened the women with arrest and with pepper spray if they didn't comply with his "deviant sexual demands." The suit also claims Fontenot showed his photographs of the women to other officers shortly after the August 2015 encounter. One of the women filed a complaint against Fontenot. He was arrested on extortion and video voyeurism charges and resigned from the police department. "He never returned to work after that incident," Ville Platte Police Chief Neal Lartigue said Thursday. Fontenot's trial on the criminal charges is set for March 6. His attorney in the criminal case didn't immediately respond to a call for comment. The police force in Ville Platte, a city in Evangeline Parish with roughly 7,000 residents, has been the focus of other civil rights complaints. A Justice Department investigation recently concluded that the Ville Platte Police Department and Evangeline Parish Sheriff's Office routinely used unconstitutional "investigative holds" to arrest and jail hundreds of people for questioning during criminal investigations. These people often were strip-searched, held in cells without beds, toilets or showers and detained for at least three days without getting a chance to talk to loved ones or contest their arrests, the Justice Department said. "We have additional concerns that these unconstitutional holds have led to coerced confessions and improper criminal convictions," the department's civil rights division said in a Dec. 19 report. In the early-morning hours of Aug. 15, 2015, two women and a man heading home from a bar encountered Officer Fontenot after they pulled over to fix a flat tire. The lawsuit says Fontenot began taking pictures of the women's backsides and making lewd comments. The women initially ignored Fontenot's commands to expose themselves but complied after he threatened to summon a State Police trooper to arrest one of the women for drunken driving, the suit says. "Officer Fontenot relentlessly pursued his deviant sexual requests to the point of following (one woman) around her vehicle and grabbing her by the arm causing significant bruising," the suit says. The suit claims it was a "frequent practice" for Fontenot to photograph women he had stopped while on duty; it asserts that the man with the women heard the officer say he would add the pictures to his "collection." One of the women filed a complaint with the sheriff's office after another officer approached her and said her photographs were being circulated and discussed within the police department, according to the suit. The city of Ville Platte, its police chief and Fontenot are named as defendants in the suit. Joy Rabalais, an attorney for the city, said the settlement must be presented to Ville Platte's city council before it can be finalized. "Just have a couple more hoops to jump through to finish it up," Rabalais said. She and plaintiffs' attorney Andre Toce declined to discuss any possible terms. "To say anything now would jeopardize my clients' rights," Toce said. Indianapolis police continue to search for two gunmen who they believe killed two restaurant workers during a robbery. Investigators released surveillance video Wednesday showing two men wearing hooded sweatshirts with handguns entering Jordan's Fish and Chicken on the city's east side, jumping over the counter and running out a couple minutes later. Police Maj. Richard Riddle said investigators believe the shootings happened Tuesday night just before the restaurant's 11 p.m. closing time. A relative called police about 1 a.m. Wednesday after becoming concerned about them not returning home and finding the two slain men. Riddle said the attackers killed the workers for no apparent reason. "These individuals were hell bent on robbery," Riddle said. "They came in guns up, guns pointed, going directly behind the counter a takeover style robbery." He said investigators were trying to determine what was stolen. The workers, ages 34 and 36, died at the scene, Riddle said. Authorities didn't immediately release their names. Jordan's Foreign Ministry said the two killed were Jordanian citizens. The state-run Petra news agency quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Sabah Rafei as saying the Jordanian Embassy in Washington was working with local authorities over the slayings. "All we can do is pray for them," restaurant co-owner Ameer Saadeh told The Indianapolis Star. "That's all. God was watching what happened." Riddle asked for the public's help in identifying the attackers, saying it's urgent that they're captured quickly. "Our fear is if we don't get these individuals into custody, that further violence may occur," he said. "They've clearly shown they aren't afraid to take the lives of two innocent people." Winter storm warnings cover parts of Georgia, Alabama and the Carolinas ahead of a storm system that threatens to bring a wintry mix of rain, sleet and snow to the South over the weekend. The storm system expected to move into the region on Friday could cause slick streets and highways from Texas all the way east to the Carolinas, forecasters said. Even parts of the deep South including Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama are bracing for sleet or snow. Light to moderate snow could extend from central Alabama to southeastern Virginia late Friday into early Saturday, the federal government's Weather Prediction Center said in an advisory Thursday. The center said parts of North Carolina could get 4 inches or more of snow. And there is "a slight risk" of 8 inches or more of snow in eastern North Carolina and southeast Virginia, it said. Snow also is possible in Atlanta, where snow and ice have jammed freeways in past storms. The FOX 5 Atlanta storm team projects the area is likely to receive 2 to 4 inches of snow, with slightly higher amounts in some suburbs. Forecasters say they don't expect the worst of the wintry weather to strike metro Atlanta until after schools dismiss Friday. Meanwhile, road crews across Georgia are gearing up to deal with snow and ice. Workers with the Georgia Department of Transportation mixed up batch after batch of brine and readied about 30 tanker trucks on Thursday, FOX 5 Atlanta reported. The staging time is the most critical, GDOT State Maintenance Engineer Dale Brantley told FOX 5. We want everything in its location when the storm starts. This is the third winter that GDOT has had the equipment to pre-treat the highways, after the state was caught by surprise in January 2014 and many drivers were stranded on icy roads by a winter storm. Even though the forecast is for snow, we always know its going to be ice and thats what we have to treat and be prepared for that ice to come, Brantley said. Based on rush hour and when the storm is expected to arrive, GDOT drivers will hit the roads sometime Friday to begin coating the pavement. Were watching the weather. Weve got to pick that window of opportunity when we can get out there between when the storms going to come in and also with traffic, Brantley said. So, were trying to find a precise window of opportunity to be out there are start our pre-treatment operations. Officials are asking drivers to give the trucks extra room to work once they begin pre-treating the interstates. Futher north in the Carolinas, the snow is expected to be heaviest during the pre-dawn hours of Saturday, then slowly tapering off through the late morning and early afternoon, FOX Carolina reported. The American Red Cross is urging safety for the region ahead of the impending winter weather. Heating equipment is one of the leading causes of home fire deaths, and the risk of home fires increases in colder weather, Louise Welch Williams, CEO for the Red Cross in South Carolina told FOX Carolina. With the onset of winter in South Carolina, its more important than ever to be vigilant when it comes to personal safety and staying warm this winter. Several airlines are also making accommodations, since the worlds most traveled airport is expected to be affected this weekend by the winter weather. Delta Air Lines has issued a travel waiver for Friday and Saturday for travelers departing or flying to Atlantas Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. The airline said they will waive fees for a one-time ticket change, according to FOX 5 Atlanta. A full list of those areas affected can be found on their website. Southwest and United airlines also have similar travel advisories on their websites. Click for more from FOX5Atlanta.com. Click for more from FOXCarolina.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report. next Image 1 of 3 prev next Image 2 of 3 prev Image 3 of 3 Al Qaeda has established a vast mountain stronghold in Mali's lawless north, launching attacks and then melting into the rugged hills, which they vow will become an Afghanistan-style quagmire for North African governments and Western militaries, according to experts. Like Tora Bora, the mountain labyrinth in Afghanistan where Al Qaeda evaded Western militaries for years under Usama bin Laden, Mali's Tigharghar Mountain chain allows terrorists to strike within the region and then vanish when pursued, according to a new report by Stratfor, a Texas-based intelligence firm. Caves, tunnels and land mines have made the jagged mountains an impenetrable safe haven for the terrorists, who authorities say were behind last month's attack on an Algerian gas plant and yesterday's car bombing that killed six in Kidal, a key city in northern Mali. The terrorist groups are believed to be behind a month-old insurgency in Mali, which the government is fending off with help from France, which seeks to protect the interests of mining and energy companies in the region. But experts believe the effort is part of a larger bid to destabilize northern Africa, where Al Qaeda is regrouping after fighting American-led Western allies for more than a decade in the Middle East. Extremists vow the mountain refuge will ultimately be worse for their enemies than the decade-long struggle in Afghanistan. They made the mountains' terrain even more impassable by using land mines and improvised explosive devices and digging tunnels," the report states. "The militants could already use the extensive network of caves in the mountains, the entrances to which are extremely difficult to spot; in fact, the only way to confirm a cave's location is to observe militants entering and exiting the cave. Al Qaeda's affiliate in Africa Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM has been a lurking presence for years in Mali, a country decimated by poverty and hunger. But political instability following a military coup last year has emboldened them to take over an enormous territory larger than France or Texas and almost exactly the size of Afghanistan. In Tuesday's attack, a bomber exploded his vehicle at a checkpoint near Kidal and killed at least six, according to the Islamic Movement of Azawad (MIA), which is fighting alongside the Malian Army and French troops against Islamic extremists fighting to overthrow the pro-Western government. France deployed 550 troops and launched airstrikes against the Islamists in northern Mali last month, easily reclaiming cities in northern Mali, but their momentum has slowed as the fighting has reached more remote terrain in the mountains, which rise from the southern Sahara. The mountain chain which covers roughly 8,500 square miles in northeastern Mali, along the Algerian border simultaneously provides protection and allows penetration into Algerias Hoggar Mountains and Nigers Air Mountains. The areas steep, craggy hills and valleys is also strewn with riverbeds that are arid most of the year, but still cut a landscape ripe for stealth movement by Al Qaeda fighters or those affiliated with the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa, the Stratfor report found. [pullquote] As part of their offensive in Mali, which faced threats of a foreign intervention long before foreign troops began arriving in January, these militants intended to use the Tigharghar Mountains as their last resort, the report reads. They made the mountains' terrain even more impassable by using land mines and improvised explosive devices and digging tunnels. The militants could already use the extensive network of caves in the mountains, the entrances to which are extremely difficult to spot; in fact, the only way to confirm a cave's location is to observe militants entering and exiting the cave. Those elaborate tunnels to transport food, fuel and ammunition some large enough for trucks to navigate are augmented by surface terrain rough enough to provide cover despite lack of vegetation, making surveillance difficult. Even drones aren't much use in the mountains. The broken terrain limits the effectiveness of unmanned aerial vehicles or other aircraft used for observation because the natural elevations create a shadow effect, the Stratfor report said. Operating such aircraft at a higher altitude can eliminate this effect but lowers resolution and increases the area observed at one time. The low-level mountain range is inhabited by several Tuareg tribes named Kal Adagh, which, according to local vernacular means those from the mountains. Roughly 60,000 people live in tiny towns and small settlements throughout the area, with the largest concentration in Kidal in northern Mali. Smugglers and criminals moved easily in the jagged hills long before the terrorist groups arrived. Drugs from South America have long passed through the Tigharghar Mountains on their way to Niger or Algeria into Libya, and militant extremists have in recent years launch other illegal activities such as kidnapping for ransom from the region. Raffaello Pantucci, a senior research fellow for Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, told FoxNews.com western military might can chase the insurgents into the hills, but the pursuit too often ends there. The French have arrived with superior firepower and theyve retreated back to the countryside and have gone to places like this," Pantucci said. "Theyve melted back into this part of the territory. In many ways, its not really that surprising. A lot of these guys are former smugglers, so theyre used to staying small and mobile. In January, Islamist militants seized a remote BP gas plant in Algeria, holding more than 800 workers for several days before Algerian special forces swooped in and killed dozens of militants. Some 39 foreign hostages were killed in the incident. The Algerian government, fearful that the insurgency in Mali could spread to the region, said the raiders had travelled 600 miles through the Sahara desert from Mali. France has also reportedly deployed special forces to Niger, on Mali's eastern border, to protect a uranium mine owned by French multinational Areva, out of fears Mali-based attacks will spread. Former United Nations diplomat Robert Fowler, a Canadian kidnapped and held for 130 days by Al Qaeda in Mali, told The Associated Press the terror group is firmly entrenched in the north. "Al Qaeda never owned Afghanistan," said Fowler, who was freed in 2009. "They do own northern Mali." FoxNews.com's Joshua Rhett Miller and The Associated Press contributed to this report. On her way back from her job as a lecturer at a university near Tripoli, Libyan poet Aicha Almagrabi was stopped by a group of bearded militiamen. They kicked her car, beat up her driver and threatened to do the same to her. Her offense: being alone in a car with men without a male relative as a guardian. "You have violated the law of God," the militiamen told her, Almagrabi said. "I said, I teach male students, so should I bring a male guardian with me to classroom?" she told The Associated Press. Not that the university is immune to increasingly bold conservatives' views on the role of women. Almagrabi said one student recently told her she shouldn't be giving lectures because a woman's voice is "awra" too intimate and shameful to be exposed in public. The incident in February, which ended with the militiamen allowing Almagrabi to drive home, underlined the bitter irony for women in post-revolution Libya. Women played a major role in the 8-month civil war against dictator Moammar Gadhafi, massing for protests against his regime, selling jewelry to fund rebels, smuggling weapons across enemy lines to rebels. But since Gadhafi's fall more than 18 months ago, women have been rewarded by seeing their rights hemmed in and restricted. Women fear worse may yet to come. The country is soon to begin work drafting a new constitution, which activists fear will enshrine the relegation of women to second-class status, given the influence of hard-line Islamists. "What we aim for right now is not to lose what we had," said Hanan al-Noussori, a lawyer in Libya's second biggest city, Benghazi. "I don't know which path we are heading in. But this is a matter of life or death for us." Women can cite any number of worrying signs. Libya's lawlessness is in part to blame. Islamist militiamen have grown more aggressive in unilaterally imposing their own rules on women. Militias, which were initially formed from rebel brigades that battled Gadhafi's troops, hold sway in many cities. They operate with impunity because, with national police and the army in a shambles, the state relies on them as parallel security forces. The state funds a security body made up of militias, trying to keep them loyal, but that has only made them larger and bolder. More generally, the deeply conservative nature of much of Libyan society is being expressed more freely, often impinging on women. Powerful clerics speak out against the mixing of the sexes and Libya's political leaders themselves have set the tone for a more conservative stance on women. Almagrabi says the opening salvo came right after Gadhafi's fall in late 2011, in one of the first addresses by then-head of state Mustafa Abdul-Jalil. He declared invalid all laws not conforming to Shariah and specifically vowed to end limits on polygamy. Islamic law allows men to take up to four wives, if they are treated equally, but under Gadhafi men had to get court permission and often permission from their first wife to do so. "I felt like we were taken like spoils of war," Almagrabi said. "This nation rose up for the sake of the supremacy of the law and now there is a plan to push women back into their homes." In February, the Supreme Constitutional Court consecrated Abdul-Jalil's announcement, formally ending any conditions on polygamy. In 2012, at a televised ceremony celebrating the transfer of power to a newly elected parliament, Abdul-Jalil ordered a young presenter, Sarah al-Massalati, to leave the hall because she was not wearing a headscarf. "We believe, respect and emphasize personal freedoms, but we are also a Muslim nation," Abdul-Jalil said at the time, to cheers from the audience. "I hope everyone understands these words." Al-Massalati broke into tears. "I felt I was slaughtered," she later told Libyan media. More recently, militiamen stormed a conference on women's rights and the constitution, held by Magdalene Ubaida and other women rights activists in Benghazi. The gunmen detained Ubaida and two of her colleagues. When they were released and heading to the airport to return to Tripoli, they were seized by more militiamen and beaten. The incident came after one of the top security officials in Benghazi, Wanis el-Sharif, accused Ubaida of "spoling women" and criticizing Libya's top Muslim official, the grand mufti. The 25-year-old Ubaida, a co-founder of a rights organization called My Right, has since fled to Britain, saying she fears for her life. The mufti, Sheik Sadeq al-Gharyani, took a hardline on women in a speech he delivered a year ago to a conference titled "the role of Muslim women in reconstruction." "The state must put an end to the mingling of the sexes in the university, to close this door, this big door for corruption," he said. He urged school and university directors to start separating men and women without waiting for the state to order it. He also cited a warning by the Prophet Muhammad that women who wear revealing clothing or don't cover their hair are "the people of hell." Al-Gharyani is considered by some a hero of the revolution, since early on in the uprising against Gadhafi he issued a fatwa or religious edict permitting war against his regime. Under Gadhafi's 42-year rule, women had a mixed bag. Gadhafi often presented himself as a defender of women rights and at times made a point of defying strict interpretations of Shariah, since Islamists were among his main enemies. Female lawyers say the country had one of the Arab world's most pro-women personal status laws, covering marriage, divorce and family law. Unlike Egypt and some other Arab nations, there is no "house of obedience" law by which courts can force women who flee their husbands to return. Women have children's custody rights after divorce. Libyan society is generally conservative and tribal, and the majority of women wear headscarves. But at the same time, women make up a significant proportion of the work force, run their own businesses and were part of the armed forces. More women are pursuing postgraduate decrees than men. But women lived under the same repressive regime as men under Gadhafi and he often implicated women in regime abuses. He created a female security force of "nuns of the revolution," members of which participated in hangings of opposition figures in public or in extractions of confessions aired on TV. Former aides have told lurid tales of Gadhafi's private life, reporting in books and interviews that he had young women brought forcibly to his Tripoli compound as sex slaves. Women were prominent in the opposition to Gadhafi. For years, the mothers, sisters and wives of some 1,200 political prisoners massacred by the regime in the Abu Salim prison in 1996 held weekly protests at the security headquarters in Benghazi. That eventually provided the spark for the revolution in February 2011. When one of the women's lawyers was arrested, they expanded their protest. When regime forces cracked down on them, the entire eastern half of Libya quickly rose up in revolt. Since Gadhafi's fall, women's rights activists have seen at least one reassuring point. In the first free parliament elections last July, a liberal-leaning coalition came out the victors. The Muslim Brotherhood finished second while a party founded by a prominent jihadi-turned-politician got no seats. Women won 33 of parliament's 200 seats. Now comes the drafting of the constitution. Rights activists worry that few if any women will be in the 60-member drafting assembly, which will be chosen either by national elections or by parliament. There is also a consensus among all political parties, liberal and Islamist that the charter will enshrine Shariah as the main source of legislation and forbid any laws contradicting it. The last constitution Libya had a 1951 charter that Gadhafi annulled made no mention of Shariah. Salwa Bugaighis, a rights lawyer, said debate over a Shariah clause is out of the question. "Shariah is a big taboo in Libya." But she places her hopes on getting other articles into the document explicitly guaranteeing women's rights. "We are fearful. We are worried and we are watching," she said. next Image 1 of 3 prev next Image 2 of 3 prev Image 3 of 3 More than 100 receipts and invoices retrieved from a building occupied by al-Qaida's North African branch in Timbuktu, Mali show an organization intent on documenting even the most minor expenses. Here are a few examples, in West African francs translated into U.S. dollars: GROCERIES A large share of the receipts enumerate day-to-day grocery expenses, as this page shows. Tomatoes and onions - 500 ($1) Tomatoes - 200 ($0.40) Lightbulb - 300 ($0.60) Tomatoes - 500 ($1) Meat - 400 ($0.80) Charcoal - 700 ($1.40) Meat - 400 ($0.80) Meat - 600 ($1.20) Meat - 900 ($1.90) Meat - 400 ($0.80) Meat - 400 ($0.80) Total : 49,810 ($99.62) HOME IMPROVEMENTS The al-Qaida fighters made frequent trips to the hardware store to buy everything from bags of cement to parts for a new shower and tubes of superglue. In the blistering heat, they also did maintenance on their air conditioners, as the receipt below shows: Repairs to Cheikh Abou Youssouf's House Cleaning equipment - 4,000 ($8) Daily labor costs for cleaning the house and paying the security guards - 7,000 ($14) Air Conditioner repairs (3) - 5,200 ($10.40) Other - 2,000 ($4) Total: 29,200 ($58.40) RUNNING A STATE The terror cell spent a good portion of its time and money trying to run its version of an Islamic state. Below is the budget for their Islamic Tribunal, which handed down sentences such as public amputations for theft. Needs of the Tribunal November 9th, 2012 The expenses of members of the tribunal, guardians, cooks - 50,000 per month. ($100) Financial aid given to each of five members of the tribunal - 10,000 ($20) per month, adding up to 50,000 per month. ($100) The secretary is paid 10,000 per month. ($20) The janitor who cleans the building and serves tea is paid 8,000 per month. ($16) The judge's costs for transport, telephone communications and financial aid for the poor come to 50,000. ($100) Total: 168,000 ($336) ADVANCES TO FIGHTERS The terror group carefully tracked advances to its fighters, noting both amounts and what they were used for. In the name of Allah, the most Clement, I gave Omar Mohamed Abou Khalid, the emir of Tashara Zarho, 460,000 fcfa ($920) for his monthly expenses from September 21, 2012 to October 21, 2012 for 34 soldiers. (Signed by the fighter) WHO IS ON AL-QAIDA'S PAYROLL? The names listed on the advances make clear that the top leaders of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb were based in Timbuktu, such as Yahya Abou el-Hammam, head of operations for al-Qaida in the Sahara Desert, who is known to be holding several European hostages. There is also Sanda Abou Mohamed, the spokesman of Ansar Dine, a Malian jihadist group, which initially refused to acknowledge ties to al-Qaida. Worker - 6,000 ($12) Worker - 8,000 ($12) .. 800 + 800 ($1.60 + $1.60) Najib - 26,000 ($52) Sanda Abou Mohamed - 162,500 ($325) Abi Harissa - 20,000 ($40) Someone who works in the tent - 20,000 ($40) Worker - 12,000 ($24) Worker - 12,000 ($24) Yahya Abou Hammam - 400,000 ($800) Sanda Abou Mohamed - 60,000 ($120) Guardian - 12,600 ($25.20) Repairs of car - 24,000 ($48) Repair of car - 1,200 ($2.40) Worker - 21,600 ($43.20) Security guard - 500 ($1) Security guard - 1,200 ($2.40) CAR TROUBLE Numerous invoices appear to be for car repairs. They include food receipts, suggesting that cars were out for long periods of time, and mechanics or sidelined fighters needed to be fed: Expenses for repairing Nafe's Car Telephone credit - 70,000 ($140) General needs - 30,000 ($60) Milk - 1 carton - 26,000 ($52) Oil (1) -- 4,000 ($8) Macaroni (1) -- 4,500 ($9) Spaghetti (1) -- 4,500 ($9) 20 cartons of tea -- 6,000 ($12) Sugar (1) -- 26,000 ($52) 2 soaps - 800 ($1.60) 2 kilograms of tomatoes -- 800 ($1.60) 4 kilograms of onions - 800 ($1.60) ... (illegible) -- 2,500 ($5) Telephone credit - 9,000 ($18) Beans - (2) Meat - 5,000 ($10) Bread Tomatoes - 1,900 ($3.80) ... (illegible) - 20,000 ($40) A military court in Rwanda has sentenced several former members of President Paul Kagame's presidential guard to prison. Among those sentenced late Friday was Joel Mutabazi, who had been seeking asylum in Uganda when he was mysteriously taken from a United Nations safe house and sent back to Rwanda. The court heard a case against Mutabazi and 15 others for plotting against the government and conspiracy to harm the president. Mutabazi was found guilty on eight charges, including terrorism, treason and conspiracy to commit murder. Another suspect was also given life in prison. Others were given sentences of between 10 and 25 years in prison. The panel of military judges said they believed the accused were involved in activities aimed at compromising the security of the country. A National Police official says former presidential minister Antonio Lacayo is missing and two Americans area dead in a helicopter crash in southern Nicaragua. Police subdirector Francisco Diaz says the remains of two Americans were found after Tuesday's crash, as well as the body of pilot Francisco Lemus. One victim was identified as James S. Horrisberger, a Florida-based Coca-Cola executive and member of that state's citrus processors association. The other American's identity was not known. Lacayo, 67, is the son-in-law of former Nicaraguan President Violeta Chamorro and served in her Cabinet. He is chief executive of San Juan Fruit and TicoFrut. The Bell 206 I-4 helicopter with four people aboard was traveling from San Carlos, Rio San Juan, to Managua when it crashed early Tuesday from poor visibility, officials said. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega appears to have a clear path to a third consecutive term following recent moves that weakened the country's opposition. Polls show the former guerrilla fighter easily winning Sunday's presidential election with more than 50 percent of the vote in a field that includes five other lesser-known candidates. He's running with his wife, Rosario Murillo, as his vice presidential candidate. Nicaragua's steady economic growth and low levels of violence compared to neighboring Honduras and El Salvador have won support for Ortega and his leftist Sandinista National Liberation Front. Many Nicaraguans also cite the first lady's social programs as a major reason for the governing party's popularity. But his critics say his allies have manipulated the Central American country's political system to guarantee he stays in power by dominating its branches of government, allowing indefinite presidential re-election and delegitimizing the only opposition force seen as capable of challenging him. They accuse him of wanting to form a political dynasty together with his wife. "I don't think it's worth voting and wasting time, because it's already fixed," said Glenda Bendana, an appliance sales executive in a Managua shopping mall. "Here they have taken away not our right to vote, but to choose. Ortega wants to die in power and leave his wife to take his place." In July, Nicaragua's Supreme Electoral Council effectively decimated the opposition by ousting almost all its members from congress 28 active and alternate legislators from the Liberal Independent Party and its ally the Sandinista Renovation Movement for not recognizing Pedro Reyes as their leader. Reyes was appointed as head of the opposition by the Supreme Court but is seen by many as a tool of Ortega. The ousted legislators had supported former opposition leader Eduardo Montealegre. Since then, the most powerful opposition forces have moved to the sidelines of the nation's politics, urging Nicaraguans to join their boycott of the election, which they call a "farce." Many Nicaraguans, including political analyst Carlos Tunnerman, believe that the five other presidential candidates are not true opponents, but were placed on the ballot to make it seem that Ortega has legitimate competition. "The only thing they are looking to do is play along with Ortega, permitting him to get additional small bits of power in the National Assembly, Tunnerman said. Candidate Maximino Rodriguez, of the Liberal Constitutional Party, rejected that idea. "I only collaborate with the Nicaraguan people," he said. Ortega, who helped topple the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza as a Sandinista guerrilla leader, ruled Nicaragua from 1979-1990. After losing power in a shock electoral defeat, he later returned to power through the ballot box, assuming the presidency in 2007. Much of the criticism of Ortega dates back to 2010 when Nicaragua's Supreme Court, dominated by Sandinista-friendly judges, declared unconstitutional an article that barred the nation's president from running for a consecutive term. Ortega's detractors say it was the first step in ensuring his long-term hold on the country. His current campaign for another five-year presidential term has been low key, without the massive rallies of elections past. Voters will also elect a new legislature. "They are the dullest and least brilliant campaigns that we have had in recent times," political analyst Cairo Amador said. Edwin Castro, leader of the ruling party's caucus in the National Assembly, attributed the smaller gatherings to a change in style. "There are styles of campaigning," he said. "We're trying to make it the most environmentally friendly, doing events in towns, not big gatherings." If Ortega is re-elected, he will face an increasingly difficult regional landscape. Leftist ally Venezuela is overwhelmed by an economic crisis and Cuba is normalizing relations with the U.S. The U.S. House of Representatives has moved to punish Nicaragua since the opposition was gutted, passing a bill to require the United States to oppose loans to Nicaragua from international lending institutions unless the country takes "effective steps to hold free, fair and transparent elections." A companion bill was introduced in the U.S. Senate. "The lack of Venezuelan support, the international price of oil, the price of our exports and the possibility that (U.S. legislation passes) makes it a more complicated outlook for the Ortega in the next term," said Oscar Rene Vargas, a sociologist and economist from Central American University. Like us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter & Instagram Students attending United Nations-run schools in the West Bank and Gaza use textbooks that ignore the existence of Israel, according to a new report sure to fuel renewed claims about anti-Semitism within the world body. The schools, which teach mainly Palestinian children, are funded by the UNs Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and use texts from the Palestinian Ministry of Education. The books convey the ministry's refusal to recognize Israel, as well as the message that holy sites like the Western Wall and the Cave of the Patriarchs are exclusively Muslim sites, according to the report. "It is despicable that a UN agency is teaching Palestinian children racism and lies about Jews and Israel, Roz Rothstein, co-founder and CEO of StandWithUs, an international Israel education organization, told FoxNews.com. There will be no peace and no justice as long as Palestinian leaders, backed by the UN, continue to deny the history and rights of the Jewish people in their ancestral homeland." Use of the textbooks was discovered after an investigation was completed by Arnon Gross, who translated the books, and Ronni Shaked from the Harry Truman Research Institute at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem according to Ynet News. In their translations, the pair discovered that not a single mention is made of the historical connection of Jews to the land of Israel or the city of Jerusalem and that the UNRWA schools also make no mention of Jewish holy sites in their materials. Instead, the textbooks contain learning materials that say that these are all Muslim holy Sites that the Jews are trying to illegitimately control. Children at the schools are also taught to negate the existence of the Hebrew languages, according to the report. One text has a picture of a stamp used during the British Mandate period which has Hebrew, English and Arabic writing. The image of the stamp in the book has been altered to remove all the Hebrew writing. The researchers also discovered that maps accompanying the books contain no reference to the presence of Jews in Israel, with all Jewish cities and towns established after 1948 erased. Tel Aviv is even renamed "Tel al-Rabia." Hillel Neuer, executive director of Geneva-based UN Watch, said that the UNRWA is in breach of a recent agreement with the State Department. By teaching hatred and intolerance, UNRWA is in breach of the UN Charter, and of its just-signed agreement for 2017 with the U.S. State Department, he said in a statement to FoxNews.com. UNRWA schoolbooks that erase Israel and Jews from the geography and history of the region constitute a gross violation of the neutrality requirements applicable to all humanitarian agencies, and specifically negates provisions of UNRWAs just-signed agreement for 2017 with the U.S. State Department. The research into the schools and textbooks was commissioned by the Center for Near East Policy Research, and was published less than two weeks after passage of a UN Security Council resolution declaring construction and settlements in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem illegal. Officials for the UNRWA say that they are following a mandate put in place in the 1950s. Pursuant to a practice agreed by UNESCO and the Host countries in 1954, students in UNRWA schools are taught the curriculum of the Host country, which facilitates refugees access to Host country secondary schools and enables them to take state examinations and to transition to upper secondary and university, Christopher Gunness, of the UNRWA, said in a statement provided to FoxNews.com. UNRWA does not have a formal role in the development of the PA curriculum, something all governments view as a matter of national sovereignty. Gunness was careful to also point out that new books for pupils in first through fourth grade were released by the Palestinian Authority and that they are currently under a stringent review before they are circulated to UNRWA schools. A court in eastern Turkey has sentenced two former military officers to life terms in prison, in the first convictions over the failed military coup in July. The state-run Anadolu Agency said that the court in Erzurum on Thursday convicted ex-Col. Murat Kocak and ex-Maj. Murat Yilmaz of attempting to abolish Turkey's "constitutional order." The two were on duty at Erzurum's gendarmerie command at the time of the botched July 15 coup, which the government says was orchestrated by a network of followers of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen. The cleric denies involvement. The two defendants have rejected the accusation. Turkey declared a state of emergency after the coup attempt and engaged in an unprecedented crackdown on Gulen's movement, arresting 41,000 people and purging more than 100,000 from government jobs. Officials say a Malian employee of the International Committee of the Red Cross has been killed. Jean-Nicolas Marti, the organization's director in Mali, said Thursday that a colleague in the northern city of Gao was shot to death by armed men. Residents told The Associated Press that two armed men on motorcycles shot the aid worker while he was in front of a store and then sped off. The shooting takes place amid an increase in violence in Gao, where almost two weeks ago a French-Swiss woman was abducted. Authorities believe she is being held by jihadists, though there has been no official claim of responsibility for that attack. Gao was under the control of jihadists for about a year before a French-led operation in 2013. Joshua Holt, the Utah man held in a Venezuelan prison since June 30th on weapon charges, had his court hearing postponed - for the fifth time. As in previous times, the judge assigned to the case simply failed to appear. A printout posted at her door read No hay despacho, which translates to Not working today. Holt, 24, has had hearings scheduled every month since September but in every case the judge failed to appear. I just dont know anymore, said Holt's mother, Laurie Moon Holt, to FoxNews.com on Thursday afternoon, after the new delay was known. Ive been quiet and not ruffled any feathers, but it hasnt gotten me anywhere, said the distraught woman from Riverton, Utah. She said she is planning to reach out directly to the State Department and see what her options are now. Holt, a former Mormon missionary traveled to Venezuela to marry a woman he met online while looking for Spanish-speaking Mormons to help him improve his Spanish. Venezuelan officials allege he was using his wife's apartment to stockpile weapons and have suggested his case is linked to other unspecified attempts by the U.S. government to undermine President Nicolas Maduro's socialist rule. In September, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution calling for the release of Holt and Secretary of State John Kerry raised the issue during a meeting with Maduro in Caracas. But the pressure has so far yielded no tangible results. Human rights groups contend Maduro's government is using Holt and his jailed wife, an Ecuadorian national, as bargaining chips to extract concessions from the United States. I would love to travel to Venezuela, but I know thats not an option. Ive been pretty vocal too. They might arrest me, Moon Holt said. I just keep asking myself, wheres the justice? A car bombing linked to a major Turkish insurgent group killed at least two people in western Turkey on Thursday, police announced, saying officers shot and killed two attackers. Heavy gunfire heard in this video, following the explosion of a car bomb in Izmir #Turkey pic.twitter.com/T3Tu3RDfCC Michael Horowitz (@michaelh992) January 5, 2017 TURKEY POLICE CONDUCT NEW RAIDS AFTER NIGHTCLUB ATTACK The blast unfolded in the coastal city of Izmir. It remained unclear whether a third suspect was on the loose. Local media had reported soon after the explosion that a wanted suspect was wearing a black coat and a white beret, but officials later said only that police killed two attackers. The unnamed killers, packing an automatic rifle, a rocket launcher and eight hand grenades, fought with police outside a courthouse in the city before blowing up their car, an official in Izmir said, adding that the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, likely ordered the attack. FRANKLIN GRAHAM, SAEED ABEDINI PUSH FOR RELEASE OF PASTOR IMPRISONED IN TURKEY Izmir adliye patlama catsma sesleri varms pic.twitter.com/EpuKU3iIYM Aykut Kaya (@aykutcky) January 5, 2017 "Our police officers wanted to stop a vehicle at a police checkpoint in front of Bayrakli courthouse. In this clash, terrorists detonated the car bomb while trying to escape," provincial governor Erol Ayyildiz told reporters. The cache of weapons indicated they may have plotted a larger attack, Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak said. The two people killed in the bombing were a police officer and courthouse worker, investigators told local media. Ambulances raced to the scene, Sky News reported. "Six or seven" people were also wounded in the attack, Ayyildiz said, adding that police vigilance had foiled a bloodier assault. The blast unfolded near a courthouse entrance used by judges and prosecutors, local media added. Images from the scene showed flames erupting around the car as smoke filled the air. In a controlled blast, police detonated a second car that may have belonged to the attackers, Ayyildiz said. The PKK had tried launching as many as 313 thwarted attacks throughout 2016, compared to 22 from the Islamic State terror group, Turkey's interior minister told the country's parliament on Thursday. Still, Turkey remained on edge after a string of attacks in recent months, including the rampage at a nightclub early on New Year's Day in Istanbul. Police were closing in on the gunman who killed 39 people at the club, a senior official told The Associated Press on Thursday, insisting the attacker's possible whereabouts and contacts had been established. ISIS claimed responsibility for Sunday's attack. Click for more from Sky News. The Associated Press contributed to this report. next Image 1 of 2 prev Image 2 of 2 French officials have honored the 17 victims killed in attacks by Islamic extremists on satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, a kosher market and police almost two years ago. CAR BOMB KILLS 2 OUTSIDE COURTHOUSE IN TURKEY Interior Minister Bruno Le Roux and Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo laid wreaths and observed a minute of silence on Thursday at three sites of the attacks. On Jan. 7, 2015, two French-born brothers killed 11 people inside the Parisian building where Charlie Hebdo operated, as well as a Muslim policeman outside. Over the next two days, an accomplice shot a policewoman to death, then stormed a kosher supermarket in eastern Paris, killing four hostages. All three gunmen died. The Latest on the flow of migrants into Europe (all times local): 7 p.m. A British inquest has found that an unidentified migrant died while hiding in a truck crossing from France to Britain, with the coroner calling it a "poignant tragedy." The driver of the truck reported to authorities in October after he found the stowaway with his legs protruding from under a pile of Christmas catalogs. A post-mortem examination found the man, who was black and estimated to be in his 30s, died due to "traumatic compressive asphyxia". Assistant coroner Christopher Morris said Thursday he was unable to record a name for the man "a poignant tragedy given he was probably somebody's brother, son and friend." Scores of people fleeing fighting and poverty have tried to make their way to Britain many by hiding themselves in or under trucks. ___ 6:20 p.m. Greece's minister for migration says most people entering the country illegally from Turkey no longer are refugees, but economic migrants. Migration Minister Yannis Mouzalas said Thursday that the people arriving on Greek islands from are not predominantly from war-torn countries like Syria and Iraq, a shift from the mass arrivals in 2015. Mouzalas praised a 10-month-old deportation deal between the European Union and Turkey that human rights groups have criticized. He claims that 100,000 more migrants and refugees would have been stranded in Greece without the agreement. Greece has reported that about 60,000 people are stranded in the country due to border closures elsewhere in Europe last year. Most live in government-built camps or state-sponsored housing schemes. The Latest on Istanbul nightclub attack (all times local): 3:05 p.m. Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak says authorities are close to catching the gunman who killed 39 people at an Istanbul nightclub. Kaynak told A Haber news channel in an interview Thursday that "the circle is closing in" on the gunman who vanished after the attack. The deputy premier said authorities believe he is still inside Turkey, although they have not completely ruled out the possibility that he may have escaped. Kaynak said the man is believed to be from China's Muslim Uighur minority. ___ 1:20 p.m. A well-known Turkish fashion designer and critic of the ruling conservative party has been arrested on charges of inciting hatred on social media. The Daily News newspaper said Thursday that Barbaros Sansal posted a video tweet on New Year's Eve criticizing celebrations "while there is so much filth, vileness and poverty in the country." Hours later, a gunman attacked revelers at an Istanbul night club, killing 39 people. The attack was claimed by the Islamic State and was unrelated to the tweet. When Sansal was expelled from Turkish-controlled Northern Cyprus on Jan. 2 where he was on holiday, he was attacked by unknown assailants and some passengers as he was leaving the aircraft at Istanbul's main airport. His lawyer said Sansal sustained back injuries. After questioning, Sansal was arrested on charges of "inciting hatred among the public." Criticism considered to be insult to the state or deemed to be terrorist propaganda is punishable under Turkish laws. ___ 10:30 a.m. Turkey's state-run news agency says police have conducted more raids in their hunt for the gunman that killed 39 people at an Istanbul nightclub, detaining several people. Anadolu Agency said Thursday that anti-terrorism teams, acting on tips, conducted raids in Istanbul's outskirts, detaining a number of people from China's Muslim Uighur community. The report didn't provide any numbers, but said they were suspected of "aiding and abetting" the gunman. At least 39 other people are already in custody over suspected links to the attack on Istanbul's upscale Reina nightclub during New Year's celebrations. The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the massacre, saying it was in reprisal for Turkish military operations in northern Syria. The government says the gunman, who reportedly escaped in a taxi, has been identified. Angry over a sharp gasoline price hike that took effect on New Years Day, hundreds of Mexicans continue to block highways, burn tires and seize gas stations across the country. As of Thursday morning, 250 stores had been looted and 170 were closed or blockaded in all of Mexico, according to the National Association of Self-Service and Department Stores. At least 430 protesters were detained on charges of vandalism, including four police officers according to El Universal. In the Gulf coast city of Veracruz, store guards were overrun Wednesday by crowds who carried off clothing, food, washing machines, televisions, DVD players and refrigerators. The increases of up to 20 percent is part of the governments efforts to deregulate prices for gasoline and diesel, which it says represented subsidies that unduly benefited wealthier Mexicans. In a TV address, President Enrique Pena Nieto defended the unpopular measure that resulted and said he would try to help groups hit hard by the increases -- an apparent reference to bus, truck and taxi drivers. "I understand the anger and irritation felt by the general public," Pena Nieto said, saying that "this is an action that nobody would want to take." "If this decision had not been taken, the effects and consequences would have been far more painful," he added. The change boosted the average price for a liter of premium gasoline to 17.79 pesos (about 90 cents). That makes 4 liters, or about a gallon, equal to nearly as much as Mexico's just raised minimum wage for a day's work 80 pesos (about $4). AP and EFE contributed to this report. Thousands of parents and their children are packing the streets of cities across Spain for Epiphany parades to celebrate the arrival of the Three Kings, with security tightened amid worries about potential terror attacks. Madrid and Barcelona banned heavy vehicles from entering the city center and police were on heightened alert for the parades Thursday to help prevent any truck attacks like those in Berlin recently and Nice last year. Spain has been one step below maximum national security alert since attacks in Europe and elsewhere in 2015. The processions, held on the eve of the Christian feast of the Epiphany, feature decorative floats and people dressed as the kings bearing gifts for the baby Jesus. Christmas gifts are traditionally given on Epiphany in Spain and many Latin American countries. Police on Thursday conducted more raids in their hunt for the gunman that killed 39 people at an Istanbul nightclub, detaining several people at a housing complex in the city's outskirts, the state-run news agency reported. Anadolu Agency said gendarmerie police and special operations teams conducted raids in the Silivri district, detaining an undisclosed number of people from China's Muslim Uighur community. The report said that those rounded up were suspected of "aiding and abetting" the gunman. At least 39 other people including 11 women are already in custody over suspected links to the attack on Istanbul's upscale Reina nightclub during New Year's celebrations. The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the massacre, saying it was in reprisal for Turkish military operations in northern Syria. Most of the victims of the attack were foreigners from the Middle East. The government says the gunman, who reportedly escaped in a taxi, has been identified but authorities haven't revealed his name. Turkish media have widely published images of the suspect, including a selfie video filmed at Istanbul's Taksim Square. Sabah newspaper, which is close to the government, said the suspect is a Kyrgyz national who was born in 1988. Security has been tightened around Istanbul and at border crossings and airports to prevent him from fleeing Turkey. Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus suggested in an interview with the Hurriyet Daily news newspaper and other sister publications that "foreign intelligence services" could be behind the attack, pointing at the "professional" manner in which it was carried out. "I am of the opinion that it's not possible for the perpetrator to have carried out such an attack without any support. It seems like a secret service thing. All these things are being assessed," Hurriyet Daily News quoted Kurtulmus as saying in the interview published on Thursday. A group of about 20 suspects were detained on Wednesday in a police operation in Izmir, western Turkey. Anadolu said the suspects are from the largely Muslim Russian republic of Dagestan, as well as members of China's Muslim Uighur minority and from Syria. They are thought to have lived with the gunman in an alleged ISIS cell house in the central Turkish city of Konya, the agency reported. About 20 children who were with the detainees were also taken to a police station. next Image 1 of 3 prev next Image 2 of 3 prev Image 3 of 3 Turkey's state-run news agency says police have conducted more raids in their hunt for the gunman that killed 39 people at an Istanbul nightclub, detaining several people. Anadolu Agency said Thursday that anti-terrorism teams, acting on tips, conducted raids in Istanbul's outskirts, detaining a number of people from China's Muslim Uighur community. The report didn't provide any numbers, but said they were suspected of "aiding and abetting" the gunman. At least 39 other people are already in custody over suspected links to the attack on Istanbul's upscale Reina nightclub during New Year's celebrations. The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the massacre, saying it was in reprisal for Turkish military operations in northern Syria. The government says the gunman, who reportedly escaped in a taxi, has been identified. The UN Mission in Colombia on Thursday suspended three observers and their supervisor for attending a New Year's Eve party held by the FARC guerrilla group. "The Mission reiterates its determination to verify the commitments made by the parties on the cease-fire, end to hostilities and surrender of arms with full impartiality," UN officials said in a statement. The names of the observers involved in the Dec. 31 incident were not released. After conducting an investigation, the "decision was made to separate three observers present at the event and their direct supervisor from service," the UN Mission in Colombia said. The scandal over the observers' presence at the party broke following the release of a video shot by Agencia EFE at a Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) camp in Conejo, a village in the Caribbean province of La Guajira, where fighters are living before returning to civilian life. The video shows observers wearing blue UN vests dancing and fraternizing with guerrillas. The Colombian government on Wednesday expressed its "great concern" to the UN over the observers' behavior and requested that "corrective measures" be taken to avoid a repetition of acts like this one. On Nov. 24, President Juan Manuel Santos and FARC commander Rodrigo Londono Echeverri, better known as "Timochenko," signed a revised peace agreement in Bogota, ending the 52-year-old internal armed conflict. Colombia's civil war - involving the army, the FARC and other guerrilla groups, as well as rightist paramilitaries - has claimed at least 220,000 lives and displaced millions of people. There are 280 international observers from 14 nations in Colombia: 10 members of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States and four European countries. "The Dickey family congratulates Dennis Dacheux, Sr. and Dennis Dacheux, Jr. on opening their second Dickey's Barbecue Pit location," says Laura Rea Dickey, CEO of Dickey's Barbecue Restaurants, Inc. "Dickey's is growing rapidly throughout the nation and we are proud to continue our expansion in the state of Pennsylvania." Doors open this Thursday and guests can enjoy the grand opening events over the next four weeks: Thirsty ThursdaysAll guests will receive a free Big Yellow Cup with Dickey's new reusable travel lid and straw. The first 50 guests through the door will receive a complimentary taste of Dickey's Sriracha Chicken Taco. Philanthropy Fridays Uniformed first responders will receive 50 percent off their meal, and guests can donate to Barbecue, Boots & Badges, Dickey's charitable foundation. Kids Eat Free All Day Every Sunday With every $10 adult dine-in purchase guests will receive one free kids meal. To find the Dickey's Barbecue Pit nearest you, click here. Dennis Dacheux, Sr. and Dennis Dacheux, Jr. are a barbecue loving father and son duo who are passionate about the art of great barbecue. The new Dickey's location in York will be their second location to open within the past year. They are both extremely excited to open their new location in York and have the opportunity to serve their community delicious barbecue. "York is a great town with great people and we can't wait to give them a Texas-sized welcome this Thursday with authentic slow-smoked barbecue," says Dennis Dacheux, Jr. Residents of York can find their newest Dickey's location at 330 Town Center Dr. York, PA 17408. The phone number is 717-650-2630. Find Dickey's Barbecue Pit on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. About Dickey's Barbecue Restaurants, Inc. Dickey's Barbecue Restaurants, Inc., the nation's largest barbecue chain was founded in 1941 by Travis Dickey with the goal of authentic slow-smoked barbecue. Today, all meats are still slow smoked on-site in each restaurant living up to the company tagline, "We Speak Barbecue." The Dallas-based family-run barbecue franchise offers a quality selection of signature meats, home style sides, tangy barbecue sauce and free kids' meals every Sunday. The fast-casual concept has expanded to more than 570 locations in 43 states. This year Dickey's won first place on Fast Casual's "Top 100 Movers and Shakers" and ranked in the top ten of Franchise Times' "Fast and Serious." Dickey's Barbecue Pit was recognized for the third year by Nation's Restaurant News as a "Top 10 Growth Chain" and by Technomic as the "Fastest-growing restaurant chain in the country." For more information, visit www.dickeys.com or for barbecue franchise opportunities call 866.340.6188. Media Contact: Callie Head chead@dickeys.com SOURCE Dickey's Barbecue FASTSIGNS Certified as a 2016 World-Class Franchise By The Franchise Research Institute January 05, 2017 // Franchising.com // CARROLLTON, Texas 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. This certification from the Franchise Research Institute is outstanding validation of FASTSIGNS Internationals 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 Defenses 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 ( 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 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 Internationals 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 Defenses 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 ( mark.jameson@fastsigns.com or 214-346-5679) or download an eBook that explores the FASTSIGNS franchise opportunity at http://amzn.to/1FrnDJu 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 ### Add to Request List Added Request Information Comments: Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. Disqus The Kmart at Spotsylvania Crossing Shopping Center on State Route 3 in Spotsylvania is one of 150 Kmart and Sears stores that Sears Holdings Corp. announced Wednesday that it will close this spring. The Sears store at Spotsylvania Towne Centre will remain open. The Kmart has been an anchor at the shopping center since the late 1980s. Information on how many people are employed at the Spotsylvania store was not available Wednesday night. Macy's also announced Wednesday that it is closing 68 stores, but the Spotsylvania Towne Centre store is not on the list. Three other Kmart stores and one Sears store in Virginia are on the list of 108 Kmart stores and 42 Sears stores that will be closed across the country. The chain is closing Kmart stores in Roanoke, Norfolk and Salem and a Sears store in Bristol. The decision to close stores is a difficult but necessary step as we take actions to strengthen the companys operations and fund its transformation, the company said in a statement. Many of these stores have struggled with their financial performance for years and we have kept them open to maintain local jobs and in the hopes that they would turn around. But in order to meet our objective of returning to profitability, we have to make tough decisions and will continue to do so, which will give our better performing stores a chance at success. On Wednesday, the company said it told employees at 78 Kmart stores and 26 Sears stores that their stores would be closing this spring. The company did the same thing on Dec. 27 to workers at 30 Kmart stores and 16 Sears stores. Liquidation sales will begin as early as Friday at all stores that are closing, the company said. Eligible employees will receive severance and have the opportunity to apply for open positions at nearby Kmart or Sears stores. Sears and Kmart, two of Americas iconic chains, merged under the same holding company in 2005 but have continued to struggle financially. The company reported an adjusted loss of $333 million for the fiscal third quarter. The company has been closing hundreds of stores, firing thousands of employees and losing billions of dollars over the past decade. The Richmond Times-Dispatch contributed to this report. HIDDEN FIGURES (PG) A true story based on a team of African-American women who provide NASA with important mathematical data to launch the programs first successful space missions. With Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Kevin Costner. Rated PG for thematic elements and some language. 127 min. [PV, RF] A MONSTER CALLS (PG-13) A boy seeks the help of a tree monster of his own creation to cope with his single moms terminal illness. With Lewis MacDougall, Sigourney Weaver, Felicity Jones, Liam Neeson. Rated PG-13 for thematic content and some scary images. 108 min. [PV] UNDERWORLD: BLOOD WARS (R) The vampire death dealer, Selene, fights to end the eternal war between the Lycan clan and the vampire faction that betrayed her. With Kate Beckinsale, Theo James, Tobias Menzies. Rated R for strong bloody violence, and some sexuality. 91 min. [MC, RF]Rob Hedelt: 540/374-5415 The overarching theme emerging from Chinas ongoing Communist Party congress is one of continuity, not change. The weeklong meeting is expected to reappoint Xi Jinping as leader, reaffirm a commitment to his policies for the next five years and possibly elevate his status even further as one of the most powerful leaders in Chinas modern history. For many Chinese, weary of pandemic restrictions, the more immediate question is whether there will be any easing of zero-COVID after the party congress. The answer is probably not immediately, and when changes do come, they will most likely be gradual. Department store retailer Macy's Inc. is closing 68 stores, including two in Virginia, and eliminating more than 10,000 jobs after a disappointing holiday shopping season. The chain also lowered its full-year earnings forecast. The closings represent less than 10 percent of the chain's 730 stores. The 68 store closures are part of the 100 closings Macy's announced in August. Of the 68, three were closed by the middle of 2016, 63 will close in the spring and two will be closed by the middle of 2017. The stores in Virginia to close are in the River Ridge mall in Lynchburg and in the Landmark mall in Alexandria. Three other locations, including one in Tysons Galleria mall in McLean, are being sold or have been sold. Macy's is leasing the properties back and will keep operating those stores. The company said it plans to close about 30 additional stores over the next few years as leases or operating covenants expire or sale transactions are completed. Macy's estimates that 3,900 employees will lose their jobs as a result of the store closings. Some employees may be offered positions at nearby stores. The store closings are part of a series of actions the retailer said it is taking to streamline its store portfolio, intensify cost efficiency efforts and execute its real estate strategy. The streamlining includes closing the stores and reducing its field operations. Macy's plans to restructure parts of its business and sell some properties. This will lead to the reduction of 6,200 jobs. The moves are estimated to save $550 million annually. Overall, Macy's said, the job reductions represent about 7 percent of its workforce. The company, which owns the Macy's and Bloomingdale's brands, has been struggling with declining traffic in its stores, where the bulk of its business is still conducted. Macy's said it is closing stores that are "unproductive or are no longer robust shopping destinations" as well as selling those with highly valued real estate. It plans to invest some of its savings in growing its digital business. The retailer said Wednesday that sales at its established stores fell 2.1 percent in November and December compared to the same period last year. Macy's pointed to changing consumer behavior and said its performance reflects the challenges that are facing much of the retail industry. The company said it now expects to earn between $2.95 and $3.10 per share on an adjusted basis for its 2016 fiscal year, versus its prior forecast of $3.15 to $3.40 per share. The company is scheduled to report full results in February. Every two years, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation gives the bay a physicalchecking its habitat, fisheries and pollution levels. On the report issued Thursday, the bay showed a few signs of getting better, going from a D-plus to a C-minus. The stars of this years bay check-up were rockfish with an A-minus and blue crabs with a B, perhaps proving that fisheries management is working. Still, the grades are on a curve, said CBF President Will Baker, who spoke in terms of a scale of 1 to 100. A saved bay would be 100, what it was when Colonial settlers arrived, he said, explaining the curve. I think all of us will agree, with the difference of 44,000 Native Americans versus 18 or 19 million people in the watershed now, that will never be achieved. CBF scientists assign each indicator an index score from 1 to 100. Overall, this latest checkup shows a bay still polluted, but slowly improving. The C-minus or 34 is inching toward an A, which on the curve is a 70. And while people out on the bay this summer remarked on how clear the water was, that indicator still rates a D-minus. Forest buffers also showed a slight decline in this report. Despite federal and state commitments, forest buffer plantings were the lowest in the last 16 years. The states planted only about 440 streamside acres after committing to a goal of 14,000 acres annually, the report said. Still, Baker concentrated on the good news. Underwater grasses, while only a quarter of their original acreage when colonists arrived, showed a slight improvement. The dreaded dead zonewhere algal blooms during the summer feed off nutrient pollution and use up available oxygen, sending marine life fleeing and killing shellfish and plants that cant movehardly showed up. For the past two years, the bays main stem has not experienced pollution-related anoxia. This is a first since scientists began tracking aquatic oxygen levels in 1985, Baker said. CBFs goal is to get to a score of 40 by 2025, something it has been trying to do since 2000. If weand I mean the community at large, the states and federal agencies at largecould get to a 40, that would be the equivalent of meeting the 2025 goals of the Clean Water Blueprint, said Baker. The blueprint forces six states and the District of Columbia to reduce pollution, much of which comes from wastewater. Virginia and Maryland are both on track to meet their interim deadline by the end of this year. But there have been hurdles. In 2016, CBF won a challenge to the blueprint by 21 states and the American Farm Bureau, putting the goal of 40 back within reach. Were feeling pretty good about the legal foundation for the plan, said CBF scientist Beth McGee. She said there have been congressional attempts in the past, some by Congressman Bob Goodlatte of Roanoke, to undermine the Environmental Protection Agencys work. States like Virginia have shown a willingness to plow forward. Theyre on track and were hopeful theyll continue to do that, even if EPA becomes somewhat weaker under a new administration, McGee said. Virginia issues reports throughout the year on its markets for oysters, blue crabs and other fish. Those reports reflect the economic value of keeping waters pollution-free. Baker stressed the importance of continuing to work to meet goals. The recovery is fragile, he said. Any reduction in effort now and we will see the gains reversed and the decline begin again. Watching 19-year-old Will Goldstein perform in and direct a rehearsal of the musical Assassins earlier this week downtown, it hit me how accomplished the dramatist is for his age. And the young man who grew up in Fredericksburg and is a junior at California State University at Northridge certainly wasnt the only one with experience at the dress rehearsal Tuesday night at the Pickers Alley stage downtown. Some 20 youngish actors, directors, musicians and morefive of them college students, nine in high school or middle schooldecided they didnt just want to languish about on their holiday break. So the group decided to use the time to put on a show, the play Assassins, with music by Stephen Sondheim and book by John Weidman. It will be presented in three shows this weekend at the theater on the second floor of Pickers Supply at 902 Caroline St.: Friday and Saturday nights at 7:30, and a Saturday matinee at 3. Tickets are $10, and will be sold at the door and online at fredericksburgtheatre.org. Its no small challenge, this play that focuses on nine misfit men and women who attempted (four successfully) to assassinate American presidents, seeking to discover what they hoped to achieve by that. Set in a carnival shooting gallery, the play spans several musical styles and many decades in a dizzying series of musical and theatrical inventions that culminate in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Goldstein said he and co-director Kayla Rush first thought of doing the play while they were in another show, Phantom of the Opera, in the Richmond area. The Cal State Northridge film major had been in a production of Assassins at school, and had come away from it with some interesting ideas about the play and how to present it. We started talking about all the people we knew from other shows here in the Fredericksburg area and pretty quickly had ideas for who could play the roles in this, said Rush, whos a junior at Colonial Forge High School. We decided it would be fun to have this to do over the break. Another member of the cast, Wolfie Hammerbacker, who is also a member of the Fredericksburg Theatre Ensemble, said that group is glad to have productions like this added to the slate of performances at the theater. Assassins is being presented by an independent group of performers and producers, but in coordination with FTE. FTE took on this space earlier this year, and were very anxious to fill the stage whenever we can, said Hammerbacker, who said his job in counter-intelligence at Quantico actually provides skills that work in the theater. Goldstein, who sings as well as he acts in the show, said he scooted back and forth between California and Fredericksburg when he could to get the show going. Much of the work also fell to Rush and others in the cast who live in this area, with rehearsals starting a month or two ago and proceeding as quickly as possible. Rushs father even built some of the sets, and her family helped fund the production. With some in the cast away at college and others living elsewhere, things proceeded as quickly as they could. Said Jessie Taylor, who lives in Chesterfield and plays John Wilkes Booth, Ive only made it to five of the rehearsals, but did come in knowing all my lines. Goldstein, the son of radio professionals Allie Oakley and Bill Michaels, said he enjoys the challenge of staging Assassins, which he described as in your face style of drama. One of the themes of the play is trying to understand what crazy really means, said Goldstein. Two lines that really reverberate are Angry men dont write the rules and Guns dont right the wrongs. And much of the play makes you think about whats happening in politics today. He gave one slight warning, that the show is both R-rated and full of dialogue designed to incite. And when Saturday nights curtain goes down? Some of us will be on planes heading back to school, said Goldstein, to get ready for the next production. Political science students at the University of Mary Washington are learning from the best of the best, according to the State Council of Higher Education of Virginia. Stephen Farnsworth, University of Mary Washington professor of political science and director of the Center for Leadership and Media Studies, has received the 2017 Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award by SCHEV. Farnsworth is one of 12 faculty members in Virginia to receive this years highest state honor for professors, and the third UMW professor to earn the award. Stephen Farnsworth demonstrates excellence in everything he doeshere at UMW, throughout Virginia and the U.S., and in his significant global outreach efforts, said UMW President Troy Paino in a press release. The recipients will attend a February ceremony and luncheon in Richmond, and will be introduced on the floor of the General Assembly. I am thrilled beyond words to have been selected by SCHEV, said Farnsworth. Only a handful of Mary Washingtons most impressive faculty have been selected for this lifetime achievement award, and I am deeply humbled to be listed among such exemplary friends and colleagues. A political scientist who focuses on Virginia politics, Farnsworths research findings are reported by hundreds of media contacts a year on local, state and international matters. He has written five books and has moderated Virginia political debates and organized visits of prominent state officials to UMW. Still, he remains dedicated to being accessible to students and getting them involved in his work. Farnsworth has also won UMWs Alumni Association Outstanding Young Faculty Award, its Richard Palmieri Outstanding Professor Award and its Mary W. Pinschmidt Teaching Award. Last fall, the national political science association Pi Sigma Alpha recognized Farnsworth for his dedication and service. The two other UMW professors who received the SCHEV award are Miriam Liss, professor of psychology, who won in 2015; and Jeffrey McClurken, professor of history and American studies and special assistant to the provost for teaching, technology and innovation, who won in 2014. The Islamic Center of Fredericksburg achieved a small victory Wednesday toward the plan to expand its mosque in Spotsylvania County. The Planning Commission unanimously recommended lifting a requirement that 5 acres next to the mosque be developed as two multi-tenant retail buildings. The Islamic Center hopes to buy about an acre of that land from Silver Cos. to add parking and put an addition on its 3,100-square-foot mosque at 7020 Harrison Road, according to Islamic Center trustee Samer Shalaby. Commissioners did not mention the mosque during a brief discussion about Silvers request for more flexibility in developing the property, which is across State Route 3 from the Harrison Crossing shopping center. A self-storage facility would also be built on part of the site, pending final approval by the Board of Supervisors. The Islamic Center initially proposed building a larger mosque at the corner of Old Plank Road and Andora Drive, not far from its current facility. But that plan caused an anti-Islam uproar at a community meeting in November 2015, with one man declaring that all Muslims are terrorists. The incident drew national attention, and many Fredericksburg-area residents responded by expressing support for the mosque. The Islamic Center decided to try to expand its existing mosque rather than relocate in an attempt to quell the controversy. The Spotsylvania Planning Department is recommending approval of Silvers request, noting that the property has been vacant since it was rezoned for commercial uses years ago. Planning staffers wrote in a report that vehicles have just one way to enter and exit the property, perhaps explaining why it does not appeal to retailers. Officials with Silver Cos. also noted that the land is behind a Bank of America, limiting its visibility from Route 3. In addition, Chris Hornung, vice president for engineering and construction for Silver, cited a lack of demand for small retail space. What has occurred since the recession is that space that is currently available in the market for small retail enterprises has gone primarily vacant, he said. Hornung said in an interview last year that the Islamic Centers proposed expansion led the company to make the request earlier than it would have otherwise. But even if supervisors approve Silvers request, the Islamic Center will likely face resistance to a separate proposal to rezone the Old Plank Road tractwhere the new mosque had been planned. The rezoning would increase the number of homes that could be built on the 10-acre site from three to 19. The Islamic Center purchased the land for $250,000 in 2012. Shalaby, the Islamic Center trustee, hopes to sell the land to a homebuilder if he secures the rezoning. He emphasized that he is not out to make a profit, but to generate enough money to buy the $500,000 parcel next to the existing mosque. If supervisors deny the rezoning, were back to square one, Shalaby said last year. At a community meeting on the rezoning request late last year, some homeowners in the nearby Ashleigh Park subdivision expressed traffic concerns. One couple said the additional homes would create more traffic than the mosque, which holds prayers at 1 and 2 p.m. every Friday. No public hearings have been scheduled on the rezoning request. TWENTY-FIVE YEARS ago last week, the Soviet Union collapsed. Though the Cold War had no definitive peace treaty per se, with the Kremlins Communist empire in fragments, everyone knew the great military and economic struggle between the free world and the Communist bloc had ended. Fortunately, the Cold War didnt end with a nuclear bang. North Americans and western Europeans typically reacted with the same mix of relief and pinch-me disbelief that characterized their reactions on Nov. 9, 1989, the day the Berlin Wall cracked. Oh, there were some intellectuals who swore history had ended and liberal democratic free enterprise had defeated all comers. Others noted the brewing conflicts in the Balkans and thought they were about to get a return to ugly history. We could agree that with USSRs demise meant there was less to dread. But what would replace it? Starting in fall 1989, former Warsaw Pact nations such as Poland and Hungary began gleefully shedding their Communist chains. They were racing west, thank you, and looked forward to eventually joining NATO. Poland had been invaded in 1939 by the USSRs Red Army. Soviet dictator Josef Stalins army took over Poland, then an ally of Nazi Germany. In 1956, Hungary had revolted against the Soviet occupation. Historian Dr. A.A. Nofi argues that the liberation of Eastern Europe will prove to be the most significant long-term historical impact of the Soviet collapse. The Baltic nations were looking forward to the USSRs demise. The citizens of the other non-Russian Soviet republics had hated the dictatorship that ruled by fear. However, there were mixed emotions, especially in countries like Ukraine, which had substantial Russian population. No one knew quite what to expect. Russians were confused. They hated Stalinist Communism and its gulags, but the domestic poverty and crime they confronted gave many the impression that freedom was a form of dangerous anarchy. Russian pride took a heavy blow. Russia, as the USSRs kingpin, had been a world powerthe Kremlin versus Washington. Remembering the German reaction to losing World War I, American and British leaders tried to minimize the damage to Russian national esteem. Check the record: Both the George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations tried to include Russia as a diplomatic partner. But the Russian people knew they had lost a long war. The Russian Armythe core of the old Soviet Armywas a mess, but still overmatched the armies of former Warsaw Pact satellites and the ad hoc military forces that ex-Soviet Socialist Republics concocted. But Russians had lost their confidence. From their perspective, neighbors who feared them now mocked them. So they cheered when Russian forces lingered in Moldovas Transdnistr region, becoming peacekeepers protecting ethnic Russians. Left-behind Russians were (and still are) a problem. So were left-behind nukes, particularly in Ukraine. The Clinton administration, Ukraine and Britain thought they had solved the problem of ex-Soviet nukes and Ukrainian territorial sovereignty when the Kremlin agreed to the Budapest Accord of 1994. Ukraine would give up its nukes and Russia would respect Ukraines borders, as is, including the Crimean Peninsula, a region most Russians regard as Russian territory. However, in February 2014 Russian President Vladimir Putins modernized Russian Army launched a stealth invasion of Crimea and shredded the Budapest Accord. In March 2014, Putins Kremlin annexed the Crimean Peninsula. In Europe, armed land grabs followed by annexation have a history of inciting huge bloodbaths. The last nation to attempt it was Adolf Hitlers Germany. The war in eastern Ukraine is no blitzkrieg; its a creeping war of aggression, fought in fits and starts. There is nothing cold about this warits a simmering war, and it has spawned a simmering arms race. Poland has responded by expanding its military. As a political deterrent, NATO is slowly forward deploying U.S. and western European forces. History is never over. All victories are fleeting. Austin Bay is a columnist for Creators Syndicate. WHAT in the world was Bob Goodlatte thinking? Thats what a lot of people are wondering after the congressman from Roanoke schemed with other House Republicans to gut their chambers independent ethics office, despite objections from their leaders, Speaker Paul Ryan and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy. Goodlatte said the changes would strengthen the officepure Orwellian double-speak. The behind-closed-doors change by the House Republican Conference, approved 11974 by secret ballot without advance notice or public debate, ignited a fierce backlash within hours of its announcement by Goodlatte late Monday night. By early Tuesday afternoon, after spirited criticism from government watchdogs, Democrats and some Republicans, House members unanimously voted to reverse course. Earlier, angry constituents had bombarded lawmakers offices about the House conferences action to strip the powers of the Office of Congressional Ethics. People took to Twitter to declare Swamp: 1. House GOP: 0. Among the critics was President-elect Donald Trump, who questioned the moves timing, given his partys announced intentions to repeal Obamacare and overhaul the tax code. With all that Congress has to work on, do they really have to make the weakening of the Independent Ethics Watchdog, as unfair as it . . . may be, their number one act and priority. Focus on tax reform, health care and so many other things of far greater importance! Trump wrote. Another tweet came from Tom Fitton, president of the conservative Judicial Watch group that so bedeviled Hillary Clinton over her email server. Poor way to begin draining the swamp, he wrote. The fiasco eclipsed other news on the first day of the 115th Congress. Its like a circular firing squadour first day here and were passing around the handgun, Rep. Rod Blum, RIowa, told The Wall Street Journal. The changes championed by Goodlatte, who represents Virginias 6th District, would have meant the office couldnt investigate anonymous tips, employ a spokesman or refer criminal wrongdoing to prosecutors without express consent from the House Ethics Committee. The committee would have been empowered to summarily dismiss any probe by the independent OCE, and given oversight of the office. The House-rules amendment by Goodlatte, who chairs the Judiciary Committee, passed although Ryan and McCarthy argued that changes to the ethics office should be bipartisan. Several of the members who argued privately for Goodlattes move had come under its microscope, or their staff members had, POLITICO reported. This battle isnt over, since some Democrats as well as Republicans still want to cripple the office. Ethics Committee chair Susan Brooks of Indiana said her panel will study changes to the office and deliver a proposal before the House recesses in August. That plan should be divulged in broad daylight, and not voted on until the public has had time to fully considerand comment onwhat it would do. House members seem to have forgotten why the office was created in the first placeto save them from their own excesses and keep faith with their constituents. Not having independent ethics investigators is like letting the middle school kids be in charge of the principals office, former White House counsel Richard Painter told the Journal. The office examines possible violations of House ethics rules by members of Congress and their aides, and recommends to the Ethics Committee whether to pursue penalties. It is run by a nonpartisan staff and overseen by eight independent directors appointed by Republicans and Democrats. The idea was that lawmakers cant be trusted to keep tabs on themselves. Traditionally, the Ethics Committee is where ethics investigations are sent to die. The office was created after pay-to-play scandals snared Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and other GOP figures in the mid-2000s when Republicans ran the House. Those controversies helped Democrats win control of the House in the 2006 election. But this isnt a partisan issue. Its a simple matter of good government. With voters distrust of Congress now at an all-time high, more sunlightnot lessis needed to disinfect Washingtons ways. If public scrutiny causes congressmen or aides some pain or expense, so be it. An independent and fully empowered Office of Congressional Ethics is essential to discourage temptation and deter misdeeds. By Stef Gijssels We love solo bass albums, and it seems that they keep coming in great numbers. The overview below is indeed nothing more t... Free Freightnet Membership List your company in the Freightnet directory. It's Free, it's Easy and your company can be displayed in front of potential freight buyers within 24 hours. WHATS UP The Cherokee County Literacy Association is having a hot dog sale fundraiser on November 12 at 11:00 a.m.2:00 p.m. in the office parking lot at 409 Buford Street. Plates for... Blacksburg town employees to get bonus of $175 Blacksburg town employees were rewarded for their work Tuesday with a little extra in their holiday bonuses. Blacksburg Town Council unanimously agreed to give most full-time and part-time employees an... In this region, no one fights alone Traditional rivals Landrum and Liberty presented a $4,700 check at Fridays Blacksburg game from a competitive fundraiser to celebrate Pink Out Week. Students competed to see which school could raise... Pet Obituary Cameo CamiWard 7/27/2004 10/29/2022 Cameo chose her forever family by walking into their yard June 2006. She loved her cat proof backyard, window and screen porch. Cameo for many years played hide and go... AMD Ryzen Gaming Chips Outperform Intel Processors According To Initial Tests AMD Ryzen have brought impressive chips, outperforming the Intel hardware on some specific circumstances. However, Intel's unlocked i7 processors remain as the favorite choice for tech enthusiasts. Nevertheless, AMD Ryzen is set to change the course with the company's new AMD Ryzen chip architecture. AMD Ryzen Is On The Right Track Based On Recent Benchmarks In a recent test conducted by a French technology outlet named Conard PC, an early version of AMD Ryzen chips were pitted against the benchmark of Intel's i7 processors. Based on the results, the AMD Ryzen performed well in the calculation test, and was beaten only by the i7 6900k, while defeating the six-core i7 6800k. AMD Ryzen chip is reportedly less powerful, given that it is regarded as an engineering sample only. In fact, while AMD Ryzen has claimed to have boosted clocks on its chips up to 3.6GHz, the sample chip was only limited to an increase of up to 3.3GHz. However, the AMD Ryzen chip slightly stumbled in terms of gaming given the fact that there are vast majority of games that do not entirely use the large number of cores that the AMD Ryzen boasted. Nevertheless, many believe that it is still unlikely to predict at this point how the AMD Ryzen final product will actually perform, although the initial tests are considered to be notable for those who prefer AMD Ryzen, BGR reported. AMD Ryzen Is Highly Anticipated At CES 2017 Reports suggest that AMD Ryzen is the most exciting CPU that is likely to appear at CES 2017, which is expected to bring the company back to its greatness. In fact, AMD Ryzen has reportedly presented the processor in public for more than twice, creating some speculations that it would soon be coming out over at CES 2017. The company is also believed to provide further more information about its chips during the said major event, according to PC World. Experience AMD's New Horizon with AMD RyzenTM No additional cases of meningococcal disease have been reported since two Oregon State University students became infected in November, but local health officials say its too soon to say there wont be others. Three cases constitutes an outbreak, and weve only had two, said Charlie Fautin, deputy administrator of the Benton County Health Department. Hopefully we dont get a third, but national experience of these things shows that cases can be spread out over time. Fautin said hes advising health care workers at OSU, area hospitals and local urgent care centers to keep their eyes open throughout the winter and into the spring for signs of meningococcal disease, a potentially deadly illness that primarily afflicts young people. Were going to be especially watchful as students recongregate at school after winter break, he added. The two OSU students, who were infected with the same strain of the disease, have been released from Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center after receiving treatment. The students names have not been released because of federal privacy laws. While not highly contagious, the disease can be spread through prolonged exposure to an infected person. County and OSU health workers contacted about 200 people who might have been exposed to the affected students and treated them with antibiotics. Mindful of a 2015 outbreak that sickened seven people and killed one student at the University of Oregon, OSU offered vaccinations to students at the campus health center. Incoming OSU students are required to be inoculated against four of the most common types of meningococcal disease, but that vaccine does not protect against Strain B, the type that showed up on campus this fall. This log includes incidents in which there might have been a public disturbance or a risk to the public. Information comes from the Corvallis Police Department, the Benton County Sheriffs Office and Oregon State Police. It does not include all calls for service. The status of incidents might change after further investigation. Locations are approximate. People arrested or suspected in crimes are considered innocent until proven otherwise. Benton County Sheriff's Office SUNDAY, JAN. 1 DUII: 1:16 a.m., Northwest Van Buren Avenue and 11th Street. A deputy charged Gwyneth Helen Williams, 21, of Corvallis with DUII following a traffic stop. Williams had a reported blood alcohol content of 0.14 percent. DUII: 12:39 a.m., Southwest Philomath Boulevard and 35th Street. A deputy charged Dustin Duane Budd, 29, of Philomath with DUII following a traffic stop. Budd's reported blood alcohol content was 0.06 percent. SATURDAY, DEC. 31 FARM HOME ASSAULT: 4:20 p.m., 4455 N.E. Highway 20. A man at the Children's Farm Home reported that he was "punched in the head three to four times" by a 16-year-old client. The client was cited and released on a charge of fourth-degree assault. DUII: 1:50 a.m., Highway 99W and milepost 102, Monroe. A deputy arrested and charged Kayla Justine Brown, 30, of Springfield with DUII, attempt to elude and reckless driving. The deputy reportedly attempted to stop the vehicle for a headlight out, and the vehicle accelerated at a high speed and that Brown later fled from the car. Brown's reported blood alcohol content was 0.05 percent. She was booked into the Benton County Jail. DUII: 12:24 a.m., Northeast Highway 99W and Walnut Boulevard. A deputy arrested and charged Seth Charles Waddell, 42, of Corvallis with DUII. Waddell's blood alcohol content was not listed in the initial report. FRIDAY, DEC. 30 CHRISTMAS EVE THEFT: 1:58 p.m., 24400 block Settlers Lane, Monroe. A man reported that about $3,800 in cash was stolen from his home on Dec. 24. THURSDAY, DEC. 29 MACHETE BURGLARY: 3:33 p.m., 24700 block Evergreen Road, Philomath. A man reported that someone had broken into house and stolen a machete, flashlight, camera tripod and pliers. There were no known suspects and the man was unable to locate any entry point for the burglary. Some of the dust has started to settle from the rush late last year for various local entities to declare their jurisdictions as sanctuaries. In short order after the election of Donald Trump, Oregon State University, Benton County, the city of Corvallis and the Corvallis School District all adopted resolutions or issued statements in which they embraced, at least to some extent, the idea that they will not assist with federal government efforts to deport people who are not U.S. citizens. We don't mean to underestimate the importance of these declarations, especially as they recognize and try to ease the fears among some people that they might be targeted by the actions of a Trump administration. That in itself makes these declarations worthwhile. But let's not fool ourselves: We are hard-pressed to find, in any of the declarations, anything that wasn't already a matter of policy in these governmental jurisdictions, although the declarations might serve a useful purpose by clarifying existing policies. Again, there is importance in that, especially if the goal is to quell fear and, even better, to reassure immigrants that they won't have to stand alone through uncertain times. But we shouldn't be fooled into thinking that these sanctuary declarations, in this community, at this time, are acts of great courage. And let's remember this: It might be unwise to assume that approving the declarations marks the end of the story. As The Atlantic noted in a recent story on sanctuary campuses, Trump promised on the campaign trail that sanctuary cities (and, presumably, other entities that receive federal money) would "not receive taxpayer dollars." So, potentially what's at stake here are the millions of federal dollars that flow to entities such as OSU, the city, the county and the school district. In theory at least, Trump can't do that by himself. It would require approval from Congress, and it could very well be that the entire pool of federal funds is not at risk: The Atlantic story noted that the reason for withholding federal funds from governments likely would have to be somehow linked to the proposed use for the money. In the past, Democrats have stopped attempts by Republicans to strip away federal funding, but guess what: Republicans are running Congress these days, and the early indications are that GOP senators and representatives are going to give Trump wide sway, at least initially. Now, that could change as members of Congress get bombarded by calls of protest from cities, counties and universities in their district that stand to lose millions in funding. Members of Congress, regardless of political affiliation, like to be able to bring federal bucks back to their districts, and that could prove more potent than even a series of nasty tweets from the president. It also could be that there's safety in numbers: For example, some 400 universities, including OSU, have signed onto a petition supporting the idea of sanctuary campuses. And other communities in Oregon and across the nation have embraced the notion of sanctuary. It could also be that Trump didn't mean what he said during the campaign about immigration. But that seems like a long shot. So it's not at all out of the question that the administration, with assistance from a compliant Congress, will start to push on this issue. It could be, in fact, that local entities have put millions of dollars at risk by taking this stand. In short, the time for great courage on the issue of sanctuary may yet come. It's worth asking these questions now: If that time comes, where we will stand and what are we prepared to sacrifice? (mm) Erzberger Ufer in Bonn : City plans new hotel next to Beethovenhalle BONN The city wants to turn a former student home into another hotel in preparation for Beethoven 2020. The Left Party is arguing for more social housing. Teilen Teilen Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Tweeten Tweeten Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Drucken The plans for the Beethoven festival hall have been history for a while. Now there is a new venture for the one time concert hall site on the Erzberger Ufer: the city of Bonn wants to put the 6700 square metre site are out to tender as a hotel. The council is to make a decision in February. A former student home, Theodor-Litt-Haus, stands on the site and it is currently still being used by the city as accommodation for migrants. In its submission the city administration states the site is, in a prime position on the Rhine, is particularly suited to use as a hotel in the standard to premium range, in particular to offer visitors to events in the Beethovenhalle as the main arena during the Beethoven year 2020 suitable overnight accommodation in a city location. The city did not give any answer to the question posed on Wednesday as to whether there were already any potential investors. As previously reported, the building is in such poor condition that it is not worth renovating. It is to be demolished. When plans for the concert hall were rejected, there was an animated debate in the city hall about the further use of the site. The outcome was the council should look at the conditions under which public government-funded housing could be built there. Then the flood of migrants arrived in Bonn and the building was turned into a home for migrants. The Left Party criticised the hotel plans on Wednesday. Councillor Holger Schmidt said: This not only clearly contradicts the continuous assertions of wanting to build affordable housing, but also the council decision to find a plan for the site that provides social housing. CDU party leader Georg Fenniger sees things differently: A hotel is not a bad thing. One should certainly build something that fits with the idea of have a music campus there. Train travel : Some trains not stopping at Bonn this weekend BONN Works to platform one at Bonn main train station will mean some trains will not stop in Bonn on Saturday and Sunday. Teilen Teilen Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Tweeten Tweeten Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Drucken Works to platform one at Bonn main train station are not helping passengers: no Line RB 48 regional trains (Rhine/Wupper/Bahn) travelling towards Cologne will stop at Bonn main station from Saturday, January 7 from 7.52am to Sunday, January 8 at 11.53pm. Trains from the Line RB 48 will pass through Bonn without stopping. Passengers from Mehlem and Bad Godesberg can use the Line RB 26 direction Bonn. Passengers wishing to use the Line RB 48 from Bonn main station can take the Line RB 26 and change in Roisdorf onto the RB 48 direction Cologne/Wuppertal. The Line RB 48 will run according to timetable between Roisdorf and Wuppertal-Oberbarmen. Train towards Bonn-Mehlem will stop at Bonn main station. Bonn main station is to be modernised by the end of 2019. As well as a new roof, the platform hall will also get new and additional lighting. The modernisation of Bonns main train station is part of the initiative 1 of 150: modern railway stations for NRW. ZenUI Launcher ZenUI Launcher app customizes the user's experience. The app comes pre-installed with the smartphone. After updating the app, the user will be able to apply interesting themes, wallpapers, widgets, scroll effects and also change app icons, which will make the handset look more classy and appealing. Not only this, the ZenUI app also customizes font style and size, add widgets to the home screen, and more. Adding on, the application allows the users to be smarter than ever with the help of its Quick Find Feature, which enables them to smart search for apps, contacts, trending topics at just a single click. The key factor that the ZenUI app is built with is to provide enhance security layers as the app enable users to access other security concerned apps like AppLock, helping them to lock their personal information from being trapped with any malicious access. ZenCircle ZenCircle allows users to share photo stories similar to that of Snapchat or Instagram. Not only this, the application also let the users interact with other ZenCircle users. How to Use ZenCircle? #1 Sign up and Upload the photo. Note that up to 9 pictures can be uploaded at one shot to create a splendid photo story. #2 After selecting and uploading the photo, like in other social media platform, ZenCircle would require a story title, story description, story tags. #3 Adding all the details on the photo, ZenCircle also provides the scope to share the photo story with other social media platforms as well. Asus has always been concerned about its users security. Applying the similar strategy in ZenCircle as well, there is a separate option called "authorize my photo" which refrain other users to download and misuse your photos. However, your contacts using ZenCircle will be able to like and comment on your shared photo. Likewise, you can do the same on their photos. Asus Webstorage In our earlier report, we had mentioned that cloud storage apps are rising and are the future of the mobile app development space. Asus Webstorage application behaves as a personal cloud storage tool, quite similar to that of Dropbox. The app enables the users to securely save up to 5GB data and documents on the cloud which reduces the chances of losing them and can be accessed at any time. Not only that, this application allow the users to share data with others instantly. Photo Collage Befitting the name, this ZenUI support app allows users to create photo-collage of all the photographs present in their gallery. Here's how the app works: #1 You can select up to 9 photos from your phone gallery. #2 Click on next, after which the app with direct you to the next step where you can add frames and edit your photos. You can also add texts, change its font styles, size, and color. #3 Reset the resolution of the image from the options given and click on save. #4 Now add a title and description to the collage. #5 Your collage is now ready to share with your friends on social media. Asus Photo Collage app allow the users to directly share the edited photo collage on their social media accounts. Just in case if you're not willing to share the collage now and want to schedule it, you can simply share the photo collage with 'Do it Later' option, which will automatically save the collage for future reference and you can share it with your friends when required. Asus Router Providing the best Internet browsing experience, Asus Router manages the home network including the WiFi connection, WiFi router, Modem and other networks as well. This router application monitors routers, CPU and RAM, real time traffic, router status, and also multiple other routers. Not only this, Asus Router monitors clients device connected to the router, set bandwidth limit for better Internet browsing and if identifies any malicious activities occurring instantly blocks the Internet access to that device. As of now, the router app is compatible with a selective devices, however is all set to work with all the major used devices like the Asus Zenfone series, Padfone series, iPhone 5 and above versions, Samsung Galaxy S series and many more. Asus ZenFit This fitness app is aimed towards growing a healthier tomorrow. ZenFit as the name suggests let the user track their fitness activities, not only on your ZenFone but also on ZenWatch. With this app the user can track different fitness activities like walking, running, count burnt calories, heartbeat rate, and also provides daily tips to stay healthy and fit. ZenFit also behaves as the user's personal assistant, which provides them with health reminders on when to go for a walk or exercise. The app sends a personal message on Health Hub notifying the users on daily activities achievements and also provides tips for health and workout. Image Source Asus File Manager Asus File Manager let the users manage their documents in an efficient manner, without losing any data. The application lets them manage all the documents present in the phone, SD card, memory, local area network and cloud storage accounts as well. This pre-installed application allows you to copy, move, rename, delete, or share all the files including photos, videos, text documents or others. Asus Weather It is a just another weather app. Asus Weather provides accurate real-time prediction on the climate condition, if there's a chance for rain, humidity levels and wind strength, and more. The application also integrates seamlessly with ZenUI What's Next. Which means that the user will be informed about the weather updates and how to prepare yourself to fight the situation, via the lock screen. So, with Asus Weather application will notify on the worst climatic conditions, along with the precautionary measures to fight the situation. ZenUI Dialer & Contacts ZenUI Dialer & Contacts is an all-in-one contacts, dialer, and call log app that offers powerful phone call features enabling you to block calls from unidentified callers and spam senders using Smart blocking feature, use speed dial, link duplicate contacts, run smart search, view history with all important info and personalize your own theme on your dialer, call log, and contacts. The app comes with smart search feature which enables you to find contacts fast rather than scrolling on and on. Not only this, the application comes with "speed dial with a tap" one tap feature, and also let you safeguard your private contact details. With ZenUI Dialer & Contacts, you can password-protect your contact list and address book history from prying eyes. Other than just managing the contacts, the applications also let you trigger your phone's front camera into a security camera and capture photos of unauthorized users who try to hack in with wrong passwords. ASUS Backup This application simply backup and restore all the data housed in the device. Asus Backup is a simple and efficient tool which is compatible only with ZenFone devices. To create a back of all your data with Asus Backup app, the user is required to have an external SD card to proceed with the backup process. The app can create back up for all the other applications including ZenUI, and others, save or restore call logs and all personal settings. Do It Later: Tasks & To-Dos Befitting the name of the app, the Do It Later App allow the user to schedule task. Hence, as claimed by Asus, this application let users focus on the most important tasks without missing on a bit. Do It Later is seamlessly integrated with ZenUI applications as well as other third party apps and enable the user to start off with the point they left off. For instance, using this application, like we had earlier mentioned, a user can create a photo collage and put it to Do It Later folder available. This will save the task and later notify the user to share the photo collage with their family and friends on other social platform. Mobile Manager This Asus application manages and monitors the complete operation of the smartphone. Mobile Manager is an all-in-one app that comes pre-install will all the handsets, with which the users can easily control battery usage, check on memory availability, scan privacy, and completely optimizes the overall device performance. Mobile manage application let the user speed up the smartphone and deliver seamless user experience, not only that, the app cleans up apps that are unused, optimizes battery power with the help of power saver, and also protects the user data and prevent information leaks. Share Link Asus Share Link application lets the user transfer files to any Android device. This pre-installed app comes with the ability to both send and receive files of any kind, be it any multimedia file or text document. Not only can the app transfer music, photos, videos, apps, or documents to other phones, but can also connect to nearby Windows PCs and tramsfer files to desktops as well. MiniMovie This MiniMovie app comes packed with a wide range of Android devices, and Zenfone is no exception. MiniMovie app is a simple to use free slideshow and video making application which comes pre-installed with Zenfone 3 Max. The app helps users to easily and quickly create movies just by collecting photos, adding background music, and transforming them into a stunning video. Other than making videos, MiniMovie also let the users create interesting slide-shows, by adding music and texts to the photos. After creating the movie or a slide show, it can be directly shared to other social media platforms via the MiniMovie Maker application. Click Here for New Smartphones Best Online Deals Why Asus ZenFone AR Is A Phone That Matters! Features oi -Prajith When AR and VR co-exist. Google's one of the most ambitious technologies, Project Tango (based on Augmented Reality) made it's first appearance on a smartphone with the Lenovo Phab 2 Pro recently. While tech-savvy consumers anticipated the smartphone to raise the bar by one level, it barely managed to impress people and was deemed to be an "unfinished project" owing to several reasons. Asus ZenFone AR First Impressions - GIZBOT Now, that's the story of the first-ever Tango-ready phone. But today, we are here to talk about the second-ever Tango ready phone and trust us; the smartphone doesn't fall short of the "wow" factor. Okay, by now some must be wondering what we are talking about, and some must have guessed about the phone already, we are going to say its name anyway. SEE ALSO: Samsung Notebook 9 Gets New Updates at CES 2017, Becomes the Most Light-weight Notebook Ever Yes, we are talking about Asus ZenFone AR - the world's second-ever Tango ready phone and the world's first ever Tango-ready flagship phone. Apart from packing supreme hardware, the smartphone has a lot more to it than visible. And that's exactly what we are about to talk. Before we begin, in case you are wondering about the specs of the device, we already had it covered, you can read about it here. Okay, now that specs are out of the window, let's get into some interesting stuff. Tango-ready along with TriCam system As mentioned earlier, the Asus ZenFone AR is a Tango-ready smartphone. And for obvious reasons, it has an array of sensors each assigned with a specific task such as depth perception, motion tracking, area learning to render the AR capabilities to the smartphone. The smartphone packs top-notch hardware, Snapdragon 821 chipset and 8GB of RAM, for example, to handle AR smoothly. It also comes with Asus's TriCam system. As the name itself suggests, there are three rear cameras - one for motion tracking, one for depth sensing, and the 23MP camera. All the three sensors allow the smartphone to create a 3D-model of the surroundings of it. Once the 3D-model is created, the motion tracking camera tracks the location of the phone as it moves, the depth sensing camera measures the distance between the real-world objects, and these virtual objects will be simulated on the smartphone's screen with the help of the 23MP camera. Supports Googles DayDream VR tech In addition to Google's AR platform, the smartphone also supports the search-engine giant's VR platform. This makes it the only phone to support Google's both AR and VR platforms, for now. It has a 5.7-inch Super AMOLED QHD display which would make for a great screen for immersive VR experience. Okay, AR and VR co-exist, but theres no interplay happening Here's the thing: Both AR and VR co-exist on the Asus ZenFone AR. But, that doesn't necessarily mean that you could use AR sensors on the smartphone and VR headset at a time to enjoy the best of the both. Because, the device, when used with the Goggle's DayDream VR headset, covers the entire back of the phone. As a result, the depth sensing and motion tracking sensors are rendered useless. Moreover, AR on the ZenFone AR is not optimized for VR. So, latency will always be there until the device is optimized. Best Mobiles in India Mi 6 to be the first Snapdragon 835 based smartphone from China With the official announcement of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, we can say that the Xiaomi Mi 6 will be the first smartphone from China to arrive with its processor under its hood. Also, it could be one of the first smartphones to be launched globally with the latest high-end processor. Qualcomm claimed that the Snapdragon 835 processor announced at the CES 2017 brings 27% boost in performance as well as 40% lesser power consumption in comparison to the Snapdragon 820 processor. Eventually, the Mi 6 could be a great phone in terms of performance due to the latest processor that powers it. Source Mi 6 to join the fleet of phones with dual camera setup The same source that claimed that the Mi 6 will employ the latest Snapdragon 835 processor has also stated that the upcoming flagship phone will bestow the dual camera setup on its rear. As per the rumors, the Mi 6 might arrive with a dual 16 MP rear camera setup, but there is no further information regarding the same. Source Three variants of Mi 6 likely in the pipeline While it is widely speculated that the Mi 6 might arrive with the Snapdragon 835, we would like to make it clear that this will not be the only variant of the smartphone. As per a rumor by a Twitter user @KJuma, the Mi 6 could be launched in three variants with different chipsets. The China-based tipster has stated that the variants will be launched with the names Mi 6S, Mi 6E, and Mi 6P. The letter next to Mi 6 in these variants will indicate the chipsets - Pinecone SoC, Snapdragon 835 SoC, and MediaTek Helio SoC (MediaTek for E for unknown reasons or Exynos SoC remains a mystery). February 6 launch expected It is known that the Xiaomi flagship will be launched in the first half of the year. Likewise, there were rumors that the Mi 6 could be launched either in February or April. Later, the reports started tipping that the Mi 6 will be unveiled on February 6 and the sales will start in March. While there were claims regarding a delay in the production of the Snapdragon 835 SoC, the latest report rules out these claims. Source Android Nougat, 6GB RAM, etc. believed to be part of Mi 6 Apart from the above-mentioned aspects, the Mi 6 is rumored to arrive with a 2.5D curved display, a fingerprint sensor integrated into the home button, Android 7.0 Nougat based on MIUI 9, 6GB RAM and a 3,000mAh battery powering the smartphone. The Xiaomi flagship is also said to arrive with the USB Type-C port onboard. U.S. Department of Defense Press Operations News Transcript Presenter: Colonel John Dorrian, Operation Inherent Resolve Spokesman January 04, 2017 Department of Defense Press Briefing by Colonel Dorrian via teleconference from Baghdad, Iraq CAPTAIN JEFF DAVIS: Good morning. And before we get started, J.D., just want to make sure you can hear us and we can hear you. COLONEL JOHN DORRIAN: I've got you loud and clear, Jeff. CAPT. DAVIS: Looks like you can hear us. We can't hear you, though. Give us one more sound check there. COL. DORRIAN: Test-1-2-3-4-5-6-- testing 1-2-3-4-5-6. CAPT. DAVIS: We've got you. Can you hear us? COL. DORRIAN: Yeah, I've got you. CAPT. DAVIS: Terrific. Ladies and gentlemen, we're pleased to be joined today by Colonel John Dorrian, who is the spokesperson for Operation Inherent Resolve, coming to us from Baghdad. J.D., happy new year. Good to see your face again. And we look forward to getting an update from you. COL. DORRIAN: Outstanding. Good morning, happy new year, everyone. We'll start in Syria; we'll move to Iraq. In Syria, the Syrian Democratic Forces led by their Syrian Arab Coalition, are continuing their advance to isolate Raqqah along two axes, supported by coalition forces, providing advice and assistance, and coalition air power delivering -- delivering counter-ISIL strikes to Raqqah's north and west. Since this current phase began on December 9th, the SDF have liberated more than 500 square miles of Syrian land, home to tens of thousands of people who have been brutalized by ISIL's rule. Coalition airstrikes removed a significant number of ISIL fighters, more than 70 vehicles, and 200 fortifications from the battlefield. This degrades ISIL's ability to maneuver and defend the occupied cities. Of these strikes, more than 100 have taken place in the vicinity of Tabqa Dam, killing many ISIL fighters, including Abu Jandal al-Kuwaiti. As you know, Kuwaiti, a prominent foreign fighter and leader, had been sent to improve ISIL's control in the region in the face of SDF's advance. Recovering the Tabqa Dam from ISIL will result in return of Syria's largest dam to the Syrians, further allowing them to reclaim their homes and their liberty. We're working with our SDF partners to ensure the dam is effectively and safely recovered. ISIL has used the dam as a headquarters, a prison for high-profile hostages, and a training and indoctrination area for leaders since they seized control of it in 2013. Loss of this key terrain will damage the enemy's prospects and legitimacy as they continue to lose territory. In Iraq, Iraqi security forces have made significant progress since initiating phase two of their operation to liberate Mosul on the 29th of December. For phase two, Iraqi forces synchronized simultaneous attacks from three axes into the city, with elements of the Iraqi Counterterrorism Service, the Iraqi Army and the Iraqi federal police conducting the operation. What we're finding is that the synchronized attacks present the enemy with more problems than they can solve, and the Iraqi security forces are making progress with the continued benefit of coalition strikes and advisers. The axes are beginning to converge as the Iraqis make progress toward the Tigris. In Mosul and other areas around Iraq, precision coalition airstrikes have continued attacking ISIL leaders who facilitate and command and control the terrorist network. The latest examples are three ISIL facilitators and terrorist leaders from occupied cities. I can confirm the deaths of Imad Abdullah Hamud al-Mahallawi, Abu Turk and Falah al-Rashidi. Al-Rashidi, struck on December 4th in Mosul, was an ISIL leader who was involved in ISIL's use of VBIEDs in Mosul. His -- his removal further degrades ISIL's VBIED threat, which has been the enemy's weapon of choice for attacking Iraqi security forces and civilians. Al-Mahallawi, struck December 21st in Al-Qaim, was a legacy Al-Qaida Iraq member serving as an ISIL leader in Al-Qaim. His removal will disrupt ISIL's ability to conduct operations along the Euphrates River Valley. This is significant because as ISIL continues to lose population centers, they want to transition towards spoiler attacks in the outlying areas of Iraq and Syria. The loss of Mahallawi degrades ISIL's ability to make that transition. Abu Turk struck on December 4th in Sharqat, was an ISIL financial facilitator in Qanfusah, Iraq, who had connections to ISIL leaders and facilitated funds to the group. He was killed by an air strike while fighting from a rooftop position in Sharqat, where he and several other fighters were moving a heavy weapon to fire upon partner forces. His removal increases pressure on the ISIL financial network, which is already severely disrupted by several hundred strikes on oil infrastructure and bulk cash sites. Finally, I want to show you an important example of the impact of strikes against the enemy's networks. If you would, please bring up that image. The image that you're seeing now is a screen capture from an ISIL Amaq news propaganda video decrying a recent coalition strike against a vehicle that the enemy had been using to transport weapons. The enemy was trying to accuse the coalition of attacking near a protected site. However, they neglected to notice that their own propaganda video confirms the presence of the recoilless rifles that were observed them firing at the ISF. As you'll recall, the coalition has heavily targeted the ISIL propaganda machine. This is what happens when the enemy relies on less capable people as their subject matter experts are eliminated. And with that, I'll be happy to take your questions. CAPT. DAVIS: We'll start with Bob Burns from the Associated Press. Q: Colonel Dorrian, question for you on Iraq and your point about the -- the simultaneous attacks on -- on -- from multiple axes by the ISF recently. You mentioned that this present ISIL with more problems than they can solve. I'm wondering if you can flesh that out a little bit and explain what exactly it has revealed about ISIL defenses and tactics or their plans and just to flesh out that point you made? COL. DORRIAN: Sure, Bob. One of the things that's really important to understand about the ongoing battle in Mosul is that the city is completely surrounded without -- and the enemy doesn't have the ability to resupply or reinforce their fighters. They're increasingly isolated on the eastern side of the city because of the damage that has been done to the bridges that are there, so they don't have the ability to bring over resources or fighters from the west. And what that means is that as their resources dwindle, and to be clear, you know, there's been a lot of discussion about the losses that Iraqis are taking, the enemy is taking an order of magnitude greater. They don't have the ability to resupply to reinforce those fighters, so as the Iraqis move along three different axes, they don't have the resources to defend all three. So what they're having to do is make hard choices to defense one or another or defend each of them more weakly, and what happens then is the Iraqis are able to move more decisively against them. CAPT. DAVIS: Next to Idrees Ali with Reuters. Q: Thank you. Yesterday, we were told that U.S.-led coalition jets flew over or near al-Bab at the request of the Turkish government. I believe a month or a month and a half ago, you said the U.S.-led coalition was not supporting that operation. So I guess, with these flights, are you now supporting and going to continue supporting Turkey? COL. DORRIAN: Well, Turkish operations in al-Bab have been a subject of ongoing diplomatic and leader discussion between the coalition, between the United States and Turkey. This is something that's been ongoing for several weeks and I know that at a higher level there have been discussions at the diplomatic level about the way ahead. So, we have definitely, you know, you -- I have seen the reporting on that event where we had forces in air support to the Turkish forces that were there. This was a show of force that was conducted at the request of the Turkish forces that were operating on the ground and we do expect that there will be some ongoing support to Turkish operations in and around al-Bab. Q: What do you mean by ongoing support? Is it just going to be continuing flying over and not dropping ordinance or -- if you could explain that a bit more? COL. DORRIAN: I really -- really can't get into the details of what types of support are going to be offered, but I can confirm for you that those discussions have been happening and the Turks are aware of some of the things that might be in store. So, I can't get ahead of those discussions. We kind of have to leave it where it is. I hope you understand. Q: So, just to be clear, you are now supporting their move on al-Bab when you previously were not? COL. DORRIAN: Well, we have -- we supported with a show of force recently and there are ongoing discussions about the manner in which we'll support in the future. So I'm not going to get into the details of what is in store, but that's where it is right now. CAPT. DAVIS: Next, we'll go to Kasim Ileri with Anadolu. Q: Colonel, I will be following up with al-Bab and then I'll have a few others. You said that you can confirm that you have offered some kind of support and the discussions about it, you know, continues. Could you -- could you also tell us whether you have put any condition for that support in return for that -- in return of the support to the Turkish forces? COL. DORRIAN: Yeah, I'm afraid I can't go into those kinds of details. Frankly, I'm not privy to them. But one of the things that's very important to understand here is how much we value the Turkish support to the fight against Daesh. This -- the work that they've done in the northern part of Syria to isolate that border and stop infiltration into and out of the region has been invaluable. It's very important and it's also, you know, along that theme of giving the enemy more problems to solve than they have the command and control structure to do. It's also important on that level. So we have ongoing operations throughout Iraq. We have ongoing operations with partner forces in Syria. We have ongoing operations with the Turkish military and their partnered force. And we do have ongoing discussions between our countries and coalition to increase the amount of support in the participation that we'll be providing to Turkey as -- as they move forward in al-Bab. Q: Previously, when for a couple -- previously, the defense officials would say whenever we see Daesh fighters, we kill them. However, this time we see that you apparently have seen them and didn't kill them, rather just -- you just do a show of force sort of over them. Do you -- could you just explain, what was the reason why the aircraft didn't, you know, drop ordinates on these Daesh fighters firing at Turkish forces? COL. DORRIAN: Sure, the cardinal rule of close air support is to do no harm. And if you don't have forces on the ground and weather, you know, does not enable you to see exactly what you're firing at, you can create more danger for forces on the ground than you solve with the strike. So we conducted the operation that we could conduct at that time. And, you know, that -- that's what we could do right then and this is something, there are limitations that are driven by weather. They're driven by limitations in intelligence information that we have. But when we do have good fidelity on where the enemy is and where our partner forces are in relation to the enemy, then we do exactly as you described. We will strike enemy targets anywhere that they can be found. CAPT. DAVIS: Great. Next, to Tolga Tanis with Hurriyet. Q: Yes, colonel I had just a few quick follow-ups to this question, first to clarify, is there any U.S. adviser on the ground in Syria, in Northern -- in Northern Syria who are working with the Turkish forces? Not necessarily in al-Bab, but in the north of al-Bab? COL. DORRIAN: Yeah, we do have -- we do have coalition forces in northern Syria. We do have forces that are working with the Turkish military all the time. So this is something that's ongoing. As far as exactly where they are in relation to, you know, al-Bab, I really don't get into the -- the disposition of our forces exactly where they're operating from. But our forces are talking to the Turkish military all the time. You know, we have ongoing working relationships to share intelligence and -- and that sort of thing. Q: (inaudible) the conversation with Turkey will end positively, the coalition forces is ready to support the Turkish forces in al-Bab in terms of the intelligence gathering or other operational capability? COL. DORRIAN: Yes, as far as the -- the details of what's gonna be offered, I just can't get into that with you. I can confirm though, that there have been some good discussions at much higher levels about what type of support there would be, so. We'll just let that play out. That's a discussion at a higher level than I'm privy to. I hope you understand I just don't have that insight to offer right now. Q: Thanks. Last one, colonel. Today, Turkish officials in the cabinet levels, including the defense minister and the foreign minister, criticized U.S. for using Incirlik Air Base but not supporting Turkish forces in Al-Bab. And the defense minister said clearly that we could not reconsider the use of Incirlik Air Base. So could you please give us some details how Incirlik Air Base is playing crucial role in the operations right now? And are you using Incirlik base in Iraq or just in Syria? And a little bit on the use of use of Incirlik, as I said. Could you give a few details about the -- how it is crucial for the coalition? COL. DORRIAN: Well, a couple of things that are -- are really important to the -- the ongoing operations against Daesh are our provision of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance to our partnered forces, and also, our conduct of strikes against the enemy and his resources. So both of those things have been ongoing from Incirlik Air Base. It's absolutely invaluable, the base and what -- what capabilities it's made available for the coalition. Indeed, you know, really the world -- the entire world has been made safer by the operations that have been conducted there. So it's -- it's a very important base to the coalition and to the ongoing fight against Daesh. Q: Are you using Incirlik for the operations in Iraq or only for Syria? COL. DORRIAN: You know, I'd have to check that -- just double check that and get back to you. I'd have to check. CAPT. DAVIS: Next to Joe Tabet with Al Hurra. Q: I would like to follow up on Tolga's question about what Turkey's defense minister had said today, that the NATO operations in Incirlik are questionable. Are you concerned that Turkey could take a decision or could -- could decide that -- to limit the coalition operations from Incirlik? Do you have any concerns like that? COL. DORRIAN: Well, it would be inappropriate for me to speculate about that. I can tell you that there has been ongoing discussion at very high levels between our two governments, between the coalition and Turkey about the -- the invaluable resource that Incirlik is and how invaluable the participation of Turkey has been in coalition operations against Daesh. One of the things that we have tried to do very closely is to just orchestrate between all the coalition nations and all the partners in this very complex battle space, where everyone is and what they're doing, to try to have multiple axes in multiple areas in which ISIL is being attacked. So even as these discussions are ongoing and there -- I will certainly grant you that there has been a robust back and forth about those, there has been a tremendous amount of excellent work, all focused against defeating Daesh and we are going to do what we can to try and make sure that that continues. Q: Quick -- quick follow-up, Colonel Dorrian. Is it fair to say that currently the U.S. and Turkey are not on the same page when it comes to Al-Bab and also when it comes to the Incirlik operations? COL. DORRIAN: Well, again, I -- I just told you that there had been a lot of discussion at very high levels. I think that everyone has an interest in the defeat of Daesh. There's been a tremendous amount of cooperation and coordination that's happened in order to make very substantial progress in 2016. We -- we're working to make sure that that continues at pace in 2017. I don't have the details to offer you about what, you know, the way forward will be in al-Bab. But, I do know that there has been some good discussion on that. And Turkey is aware that the discussion. So, we'll just kind of leave it there and let that play out. CAPT. DAVIS: Next, to Laurie Milroie with Kurdistan 24. Q: Hello, Colonel Dorrian, my question concerns the Inspector General report that was issued just before the holidays regarding U.S. support for the Peshmerga fighting against Daesh. And that report was very critical of what -- of what the U.S. had done. There was a failure to arm the Peshmerga properly and to provide proper maintenance facilities for that equipment. But since they didn't have the equipment, I suppose it didn't matter that they didn't have the maintenance facilities, but I wonder now have those problems been corrected that the I.G. report pointed to? COL. DORRIAN: Well, I'm familiar with the report that you're referencing, but I don't know that I can say that every single thing in that report has been addressed. I can tell you that there's been a substantial effort to arm and equip the Peshmerga to do what they need to do in order to support operations in Northern Iraq. And their role has been absolutely magnificent. The cooperation between them and the government of Iraq and the Iraqi Security Forces has enabled the operation in Mosul too to progress. And, you know, we -- we -- we do plan on continuing that. So, if -- if, you know, as far as specifically everything in that report, I think I'd have to get back to you on -- on the status of each thing that you're asking about. Q: On the two big issues of whether the promised arms have been, you know, all delivered and maintenance facilities are there, I'd be most grateful. The report did provide a very positive picture of the Peshmerga forces, that they were responsive to criticism. They even had -- if you recall -- pictures of -- there was criticism about how munitions were being stored in a warehouse. And then they showed another picture a month later, and they had taken care of the problem. So, it seemed that they were really working very cooperatively with -- with the Americans. So, I mean, is that a legitimate conclusion that I'm reaching there? COL. DORRIAN: Well, it's definitely a legitimate conclusion that they've been very cooperative and very forward leaning and very effective in defeating Daesh. So, as far as the details of where all those items are, I think, you know, I'd just have to follow up with you to give you a specificity. I wouldn't want to get ahead of my headlights and give you information that's incorrect. CAPT. DAVIS: Next, Tara Copp with Stars and Stripes. Q: Hi, Colonel Dorrian. I wanted to follow up on Bob's questions on Mosul. Could you give us a sense of what is still needed to have Mosul fall? Is it that there's not enough forces? Or is more gun power needed? More airstrikes? What do you see is, like, the next steps to accelerate the fall of Mosul? COL. DORRIAN: Yeah, this, you know, the battle for Mosul, I've gotten a lot of questions about why it's taking a significant amount of time. The thing that you have to understand about Mosul, there are several things. The first is that the enemy has had more than two years to prepare for the battle that's now ongoing. So they have a tremendous amount of weaponry and resources, and they've had a tremendous amount of time to dig elaborate defenses and establish booby-traps to complicate the Iraqi security forces' advance. At the same time, they also have shown no reluctance whatsoever to attack civilians or use civilians as shields. And this slows things down. And then there are more than 200,000 buildings in Mosul. And really, in order to do this properly, given the way that the enemy has conducted themselves, you end up having to clear each one. And that goes from rooftop level, often in four-story or higher buildings, through every single room, and every single closet, and into tunnels that have been dug between these buildings, and sometimes beneath them. And it's just slow-going and it's just going to take some time. Now, what I would say is, the Iraqi security forces have done a tremendous job of doing that very, very dangerous mission and protecting civilians as they do it. But it's going to take time. It's going to be extraordinarily dangerous. And the Iraqis have definitely made sacrifices in order to do it. I think they're to be commended for the way that they've conducted themselves with tactical patience. And what we're seeing now is that this method, this three axes of advance where they're beginning to converge, is starting to really make things very difficult for the enemy. That once they get to the river, they're going to go into the west side and then, you know, it will be another very tough fight there as well. Q: And just to follow up, is there anything at this point that would further assist them in accelerating this advance? COL. DORRIAN: Well, there have been, you know, a number of things that have been done in order to accelerate the advance of the Iraqi security forces. Certainly, we've continued to conduct strikes against the enemy. We've also increased the number of advise and assist forces that are there with the Iraqi security forces command elements to help advise them as they move forward and to synchronize operations. The Iraqis have taken advantage of that, and that's been effective. If there are any other things that need to be done in order to do that, I'm sure that there will be a request made through the appropriate channels, and that would be General Townsend and his leadership team, to CENTCOM, and up to the secretary of defense and the White House for approval. Q: Without revealing specific numbers, could you give us an idea of how much -- how much the advisers have increased? Have you doubled them? Have you increased by 10 percent, increased by 20 percent? COL. DORRIAN: Yeah, I would give you a ballpark maybe around 450 or so advise and assist forces for the Iraqi Security Forces. That is right about double what we had been doing before. Q: Thank you. CAPT. DAVIS: Next to Courtney Kube, NBC News. Q: Hey, JD. Happy new year. I have a different question, but just one more thing on the advisers. So, just to be clear, what over -- what was the time period over which those numbers doubled? And are they actually -- how far forward are they? Are they actually inside the city of Mosul or are they outside the city limits? COL. DORRIAN: Well, the arrangements for the increase in advise and assist forces was made to support phase two of the operation, so it's been in the last couple of weeks. And then, I'm sorry, your second question is where they are? They have -- they've advised the Iraqi Security Forces as they've moved forward. They remain behind the forward line of troops. You know, as far as specifically where they are, we probably won't get into in great detail. Q: You can't say whether they're -- they've actually entered the city limits even though the Iraqi Security Forces are relatively far into the city now? You can't even say if there's any American advisers who are in the city at all? COL. DORRIAN: They have been in the city at different times, yes. Q: And, can you just -- I know it's two different countries and two different cities and everything but is there any way that you can compare how -- you just went into detail about how dug in ISIS is in Mosul. Can you compare that to Raqqah at all as far as what the fight there -- that you expect the SDF to see there? Are they -- do you expect ISIS to be even more dug in, even more booby traps? Is there any way to compare those two based on the fact that now the SDF are now within, you know, 20 or 30 miles of the city? COL. DORRIAN: Well, what I would say is that Raqqah is about 25 percent the size of Mosul. Still a very large metropolitan area and still going to be very dense urban fighting and it'll be very, very tough there. I think what we will see is a comparable level of enemy activity to dig in and fight there. So, it'll probably be a similar fight, but then, you know, smaller. Q: If everyone doesn't mind if I ask one more question. Our colleagues at the Marine Corps Times had a story, I think it was yesterday, about a Marine dog handler who was wounded, some sort of a head injury and I of course wouldn't ask you any of the details about his injuries, but can you talk at all about -- about what happened that -- what was the incident that caused this Marine -- and were any other Americans wounded in the incident? COL. DORRIAN: I'm afraid I haven't seen that report. I think we'll just have to take that one, Courtney, and try to get back to you. Generally we don't release information about forces that are wounded in action. I know that those statistics get released later, but for privacy reasons and then for ongoing battle damage assessment reasons, we just don't do that right around the time that it happens. And so those kinds of details usually come from home station and then, statistically later, from the office of secretary of defense. Q: Thank you. CAPT. DAVIS: Lucas Tomlinson, Fox News. Q: Colonel, in the opening days of the Mosul operation the Pentagon said that you were -- your coalition was ahead of schedule. Would you still say the coalition is ahead of schedule? COL. DORRIAN: Yes. You know, I -- I remember saying that and that was pretty much day one. And day one, you know, the Iraqi security forces had allocated the entire day to get to a certain area and they reached that area by mid-day. And so that's how we characterized it then. As far as the ongoing schedule, I'm not aware of a calendar-type schedule for the conduct of operations in Mosul for a variety of reasons; many that I've described today about, you know, the use of civilian shields, the elaborate defenses, the need to go through every single on of these buildings before they could move forward. I think that would be very difficult to predict with fidelity. But the Iraqi security forces do continue to make progress. One of the things, as tough as it is and as long as it is, the enemy can't reinforce and they can't resupply. So time is not on the enemy's side, it's on the side of the Iraqi security forces and they are going to retake Mosul. And they continue making progress in doing so. And we're going to continue to support the actions that they do with our air and artillery strikes, ISR and our advice and assistance. Q: Back to the advisers, can you discuss what kind of troops these are? Are these engineers, these special operations forces, are these intelligence soldiers? COL. DORRIAN: I would say probably all of the above. Q: And finally, is there any concern that Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki is -- is on a visit to Iran right now and meeting with the ayatollah? Is that at all concern to senior U.S. leaders? COL. DORRIAN: No. You know, Iran is a -- is a neighboring country with Iraq. They're going to have diplomatic relations and those types of things, they're very routine and ongoing. And, you know, we remain focused on fighting Daesh. CAPT. DAVIS: Laurent Barthelemy, Agence France-Presse. Q: About the new advisers that were sent to the Mosul area, I'm not sure I understood if they are American advisers or coalition advisers. COL. DORRIAN: They're coalition advisers. I'm a coalition spokesperson, coalition advisers. Q: But are they American? But are they American coalition members? COL. DORRIAN: Yeah, I'm not going to get into a breakdown of which nation does which number of advisers. I can't do that from memory, I'm afraid. But there are coalition nations other than the U.S. that provide advisory. Q: (inaudible) -- point, colonel, just for clarity's sake, I -- I thought you discussed that in the context of Secretary Carter's decision to increase the number of advisers or did I misunderstand? In other words it sounded like we were talking about Americans, but now you're saying we -- you're not talking about Americans or you might not be talking about Americans? Could you be more clear on that? COL. DORRIAN: Yeah, I -- I did -- I never brought up the secretary at all. So, I'm not sure where you got that from. We have American advisers and we have other nations that are also advising. Q: Can I just, one more -- one more for clarification. It's Courtney Kube again. When I asked my question about the advisers, I specifically asked about Americans going in to Mosul with the advisers. So, that still stands right? There are Americans that have gone in and out as advisers as part of this new 450? COL. DORRIAN: Yes. That's correct. Q: Thank you. CAPT. DAVIS: Okay, you have follow-up from Lucas. Q: Just a quick one colonel. Are these new Americans in to -- in country or are these being transferred in country to Mosul? COL. DORRIAN: These -- these are -- these are coalition forces that are already in country. CAPT. DAVIS: And, either follow ups? Can I get a -- yeah, Kasim? Q: (inaudible) -- Mosul, but it's a -- (inaudible), that there are reports in the past that the United States and Turkey established a joint military delegation sent them to Manbij to oversee the withdrawal of YPG elements and it, you know, we didn't hear anything more about it. Has this initiative failed or is it -- it still continues? Could you -- could you update us please? COL. DORRIAN: I can tell you that that -- that institution continues -- it continues to exist. I'm not going to get -- didn't at that time -- get into the details of what they are doing or what their discussions are. But they do -- yeah they -- we're still doing that. CAPT. DAVIS: All right, any others? Going once, going twice. All right. J.D., thank you very much for your time, as always. Good to see you, and we look forward to getting briefed from you again soon. COL. DORRIAN: Very good. Thanks very much. Thanks, all. Happy new year. http://www.defense.gov/News/News-Transcripts/Transcript-View/Article/1042073/ NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address IS Posts Drone Footage of Suicide Attacks as Group Struggles to Market Self By Jamie Dettmer January 04, 2017 Islamic State propagandists posted a 42-minute video online Wednesday that included the drowning in a fish tank of an alleged Iraqi spy and the beheading of another, as well as drone footage of more than a dozen suicide bombings in northern Iraq undertaken by teenage boys and a one-legged old man. The video is the latest in a sudden surge of big production propaganda material being posted by the terror group. In the past few months, the jihadists' media output had decreased significantly, likely as the result of the military pressure IS has come under across its self-declared caliphate in both Iraq and Syria. Just days before the IS-claimed New Year's Eve attack on the Reina nightclub in Istanbul that left 39 dead, the group released a video of two Turkish soldiers being forced to crawl on all fours before being burned alive. First posted with an Arabic language commentary on December 22 and re-released Monday with an English language voice-over, the video accused Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of siding with apostates and the Christian West. And just after Christmas, IS propagandists released a chilling half-hour video of child jihadists as young as nine years old participating in live-fire training exercises, shooting first at dummies and then at captives with their hands bound and trying to elude them in a debris-strewn building. In the video, captives are shown weeping after being cornered by the mini mob of indoctrinated boys, who gun them down at point-blank range. Scenes in the video included the boys, known as cubs of the caliphate, taking Quran classes, studying execution videos and pledging allegiance to terror leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, while brandishing automatic weapons. Military challenges The media surge is a response to the increasingly dangerous military challenge the group is facing, says former U.S. ambassador Alberto Fernandez, now with The Middle East Media Research Institute, a Washington-based research organization that monitors jihadist propaganda. "Just like IS has tried to surge in its overseas attacks and responded fiercely to military advances in northern Syria and Mosul, they are trying to fight against the idea that they are in an inexorable decline," he says. The video posted this week recalls earlier 2014 IS productions in terms of slickness and editing techniques. It begins with footage of multiple VBIED (vehicle-borne improvised explosive device) suicide attacks carried out by jihadists in Mosul. Suicide bombers are interviewed by IS videographers before bombing runs. One bomber is crippled and wheeled off to his waiting bomb-rigged vehicle in a wheelchair. As with others, his attack and its aftermath are filmed by a drone. Analysts have noted in recent months a sharp drop in the output of Islamic State propaganda, which is largely credited with having helped the terror group recruit an estimated 30,000 foreign fighters. Last year, the group posted online a fraction of the videos and images it produced in 2014 and 2015, and has for months appeared to be struggling to maintain production as it has come under growing pressure from foes on the battlefield, according to researchers. A study released in October by the Combating Terrorism Center at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, showed there had been a plunge, with a decline from a peak of 761 releases a month in August of 2015, to just 194 a year later. "It is clear the organization has been forced to cut back these activities in response to the increasing amount of pressure brought to bear," concluded the West Point researchers. Dwindling resources They argued the decline is evidence IS finds it a challenge to devote the personnel and secure the resources to keep up production rates of its propaganda bid. Most of the reduction in media output has likely been a direct consequence of military offensives against the group in Iraq and Syria, which have seen the territory controlled by the jihadists reduced dramatically. Media production facilities have been destroyed and propagandists killed in airstrikes. They include two of the terror group's top propagandists, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, who personally selected execution videos and was killed in late August, and his replacement, Abu Muhammad Furqan, who was killed a month later. Analysts point out the latest long-form videos produced by IS in recent weeks are less experimental and don't exhibit the more complex and demanding techniques used in IS videos in 2014 and 2015. Aside from the drone footage, less demanding filming and editing techniques are used in the video posted Wednesday. The terror group's propagandists also appear to be struggling to produce multi-language versions of videos. In 2014 and 2015, videos were posted in different language versions at the same time. Now the videos tend only to be in Arabic. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Alan Burkitt-Gray speaks to Don MacNeil, chief operating officer of GTT, about its company restructuring after coming out of Chapter 11 and its strategic roadmap for the next 12 months. Three elderly women were stalked and robbed at their homes Wednesday evening, and law enforcement in Danville and Caswell County, North Carolina, are investigating. All three victims were in their 60s and 70s, and they were apparently followed to their homes from Wal-Mart on Mount Cross Road in the city of Danville, according to a Danville police news release. The first incident happened to a 68-year-old woman at 6:40 p.m. Wednesday in the 200 block of Courtland Street. The woman told Danville police she exited her vehicle to go to her residence when she was approached by a man wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and camouflage pants, according to the news release. The suspect assaulted the victim by grabbing her hair and pulling her to the ground, then fled on foot with her pocketbook, which had personal items and an undisclosed amount of money inside, the news release continued. At 8:51 p.m. Wednesday, police responded to the 100 block of Martin Avenue for another report of a purse snatching. A 61-year-old woman pulled into her driveway and parked her vehicle. Three subjects approached her drivers side door, pulled it open and took her purse, the news release read. They were last seen running with the victims purse on Martin Avenue toward Westover Drive. The third incident happened in Pelham, North Carolina, where the Caswell County Sheriffs Office went to the 100 block of McKinney Road for a call of a snatched purse. A 72-year-old woman was unloading groceries from her vehicle in her driveway when three men and one woman approached her, the news release stated. One of the male suspects pushed her into the bushes, and fled with her purse. The three purses contained personal items and undisclosed amounts of money, police wrote in the news release. The individuals in the attached surveillance photos are persons of interest in these incidents. The Danville Police Department is urging the public to be vigilant and aware of their surroundings while leaving shopping areas. Report any unusual or suspicious activity to the Danville Police Department immediately by dialing 911. Anyone with information about these incidents is encouraged to contact Danville Crime Stoppers at (434) 793-0000, the Danville Police Department at (434) 799-6508, the Caswell Count Sheriff's office at (336) 694-9311, the Caswell County Crime Stoppers (336) 694-5119 or email crimetips@danvilleva.gov. Information given will remain confidential. CHATHAM A mother, a grandmother and a 2-week-old infant were in a car accident in June. Eloise Bernadett Coyne, 57, sat in the front passenger seat of a white 2013 Ford Escape but had taken off her seatbelt to tend to her 2-week-old granddaughter in the rear seat. She was ejected from the car before she could put the seatbelt back on. She was killed in the wreck. James Max Miller, 67, of Gretna, pleaded guilty to DUI involuntary manslaughter in Pittsylvania County Circuit Court on Tuesday morning. The two-vehicle crash occurred on the afternoon of June 22 at the intersection of U.S. 29 and Shula Drive. Miller was driving a blue 1990 Lincoln Town Car when Erin Lanier observed the defendants vehicle travel across the northbound lanes of U.S. 29 and cross the median without stopping or slowing down, according to a summary of evidence by the Pittsylvania County Commonwealths Attorney. Millers Town Car struck Laniers Escape, which caused Mrs. Laniers vehicle to spin and overturn multiple times, the summary stated. Coyne, of Hollywood, South Carolina, was ejected from the vehicle, who had unbuckled her seatbelt to tend to the baby in the backseat. The cause of Coynes death was blunt force trauma to the head, neck and chest, according to the medical examiners office. After the accident, Miller was approached by Virginia State Police Trooper D.A. Gulches, who smelled an odor of alcoholic beverage about the defendants person, the summary stated. He told the trooper he had drunk a couple of beers at 8 or 9 that morning. While at the Pittsylvania County Jail, Millers breath test revealed he had a blood alcohol level of 0.11. The defendant said that he saw the other vehicle, but it was too late when he tried to apply the brake, the summary of evidence stated. Miller is scheduled to be sentenced on March 1. 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. VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Jan 4, 2017) - Kaizen Discovery Inc. (TSX VENTURE:KZD) announced today that it has appointed mining industry veteran Tom Peregoodoff as its new President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), effective today. Mr. Peregoodoff will replace Eric Finlayson as the company's CEO. Mr. Finlayson has held the position on an interim basis since March 31, 2016, while the company completed its search for a qualified mining executive to replace him. Mr. Finlayson will remain with Kaizen in his role as a director of the company. Mr. Peregoodoff will share his time between Kaizen and Peregrine Diamonds (TSX:PGD), where he will continue in his role as President and Chief Executive Officer. "We are very fortunate to have someone of Tom Peregoodoff's stature to take on the role of President and CEO for Kaizen. In Tom, Kaizen gets an experienced, results-oriented mining executive who over the years has built strong relationships across the industry. He understands exploration, he knows what it takes to work with host communities and governments, and he understands the necessary steps a company must take for responsible mineral development," said Mr. Finlayson. "Over the past year, we have announced significant restructuring of our board and management team, with Tom's appointment capping off this restructuring," said David Huberman, Kaizen's Chairman. "Tom's skill set, which has developed from more than 25 years in the mining exploration industry, is well suited to advance Kaizen's existing projects and pursue new opportunities as we look to grow our company." "We are confident that Tom has the passion, energy and professionalism to drive Kaizen's exploration and development while performing a similar role with Peregrine Diamonds. I truly believe we are not only stronger today than ever before, but that we are uniquely positioned for growth through exploration success." "Given the continuing challenging market conditions for the junior mining sector, sharing of managerial resources is a cost-effective way for companies to gain access to top-calibre, senior executives. This dual role arrangement for Tom ensures that shareholders of both Kaizen and Peregrine Diamonds benefit from having an experienced President and CEO leading their companies at a significantly reduced cost." Mr. Peregoodoff has more than 25 years of mining and petroleum industry experience, including the last five years in senior management positions with Peregrine Diamonds. Mr. Peregoodoff spent 18 years with BHP Billiton, where from 2008 to 2011 he was Vice President, Early Stage Exploration and was accountable for global early-stage exploration activities across all commodities. He was a member of the Minerals Exploration Executive Committee that set long-term strategy and direction for BHP Billiton's Mineral Exploration division. Prior to this he held several senior roles in BHP Billiton's exploration division in commercial, operational and technical capacities, and has extensive global experience. He also is a director of Computational Geoscience Inc., a private service company providing geoscientific interpretation services to the oil and gas and mining industries. Mr. Peregoodoff obtained a BSc. in Geophysics from the University of Calgary. Mr. Peregoodoff commented, "I look forward to being part of Kaizen's team working to realize the potential of its exploration portfolio. The Pinaya Copper-Gold Project in Peru represents a tremendous opportunity to make a world class copper-gold discovery and I look forward to working with the team as we advance towards this goal. My background of building and leading global exploration teams gives me the experience required to lead both companies and the shared role ensures that the pool of talented mining professionals within each group is optimized." More information on Kaizen is available at www.kaizendiscovery.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. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS Statements in this news release that are forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties concerning the specific factors disclosed here and elsewhere in both Kaizen's periodic filings with Canadian securities regulators. When used in this news release, words such as "believe", "will", "could", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "intend", "may", "potential", "should," and similar expressions, are forward-looking statements. Information provided in this document is necessarily summarized and may not contain all available material information. Although Kaizen has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements, there can be other factors that cause results, performance or achievements not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate or that management's expectations or estimates of future developments, circumstances or results will materialize. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this news release are made as of the date of this news release, and Kaizen disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise such information, except as required by applicable law, and Kaizen does not assume any liability for disclosure relating to any other company herein. VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Jan 4, 2017) - Peregrine Diamonds Ltd. ("Peregrine Diamonds" or "the Company") (TSX:PGD) is pleased to announce the appointment of Chantal Gosselin to its board and updates to its senior management team. Ms. Gosselin has more than 24 years of combined experience in the mining industry and capital markets. She most recently held the position of Vice President and Portfolio Manager at Goodman Investment Counsel. Previously, she served as a senior mining analyst at Sun Valley Gold LLP, a precious metals focused hedge fund, the senior mining analyst and partner of Genuity Capital Markets and held positions with Haywood Securities and Dundee Securities. Previously, she held various mine-site management positions in Canada, Peru and Nicaragua. Ms. Gosselin received her Bachelor of Science degree (Mining Engineering) from Laval University and completed a Master of Business Administration at Concordia University. She has completed the Director Education Program offered by the Institute of Corporate Directors. Ms. Gosselin also serves as a Director of Silver Wheaton Corp. "Chantal is a well-respected mining executive with in-depth experience in both the mining and capital markets," said Eric Friedland, Peregrine's Executive Chairman. "As a Director of Peregrine Metals Ltd., a base-metal exploration and development company spun out of Peregrine Diamonds Ltd. in 2005, Chantal played a key role in the 2011 sale of Peregrine Metals to Stillwater Mining Company in a transaction valued at US$487 million. Chantal built her career in increasingly senior roles with several of Canada's leading mining investment banks and she is a welcome addition to our team of directors as we advance our Chidliak Diamond Project toward development." Since Peregrine Diamonds announced its positive Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA") for the Chidliak Diamond Project, Nunavut, Canada on July 7, 2016, the Company has been in discussions with a number of diamond producers and capital funds concerning the on-going development of this very valuable diamond asset. The Company is continuing discussions with various entities regarding options to finance future work programs and advance Chidliak towards commercial production. There can be no assurance that these discussions will be successful. Starting at the end of 2015, Management has undertaken certain reorganizational initiatives that have resulted in decreased administrative costs through the balance of 2016. As part of this focus on cost reduction, effective January 4, 2017, Peregrine's President and CEO, Mr. Tom Peregoodoff, has also been appointed President and CEO of Kaizen Discovery Inc. Mr. Peregoodoff's duties in his role as President and CEO of Peregrine Diamonds will continue unaffected by this appointment to Kaizen's management team and Mr. Peregoodoff will share his time and costs between the two companies. Kaizen Discovery is a TSX-V listed company controlled indirectly by Robert Friedland, a major shareholder of Peregrine Diamonds. ABOUT PEREGRINE DIAMONDS Peregrine is a TSX listed diamond exploration and development company with assets located in northern Canada and Botswana. For further information, please visit www.pdiam.com. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, that address activities, events or developments that the Company believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future including, without limitation, statements relating to future management of the Company, proposed exploration and development programs, funding availability, anticipated exploration results, grade of diamonds and tonnage of material, resource estimates, anticipated diamond valuations and future exploration and operating plans are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements reflect the current expectations or beliefs of the Company based on information currently available to the Company. Forward-looking statements are made based upon certain assumptions by the Company and other important factors that, if untrue, could cause the actual results, performances or achievements of the Company to be materially different from future results, performances or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. Such statements and information are based on numerous assumptions regarding present and future business strategies and the environment in which the Company will operate in the future, including the availability and continuation of experienced leadership for the Company, the price of diamonds, anticipated costs and ability to achieve goals. Certain important factors that could cause actual results, performances or achievements to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to: receipt of regulatory approvals; anticipated timelines for community consultations and the impact of those consultations on the regulatory approval process; market prices for rough diamonds and the potential impact on the Chidliak Project; and future exploration plans and objectives. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results of the Company to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements and, even if such actual results are realized or substantially realized, there can be no assurance that they will have the expected consequences to, or effects on, the Company. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things, uncertainties relating to continuity and availability of executive management, availability and cost of funds, timing and content of work programs, results of exploration activities, interpretation of drilling results and other geological data, risks relating to variations in the diamond grade and kimberlite lithologies; variations in rates of recovery and breakage; variations in diamond valuations and future diamond prices; the state of world diamond markets, reliability of mineral property titles, changes to regulations affecting the Company's activities, delays in obtaining or failure to obtain required project approvals, operational and infrastructure risk and other risks involved in the diamond exploration and development business. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. Although the Company believes that the 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 their inherent uncertainty. TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Jan 5, 2017) - Cordoba Minerals Corp. (TSX VENTURE:CDB)(OTCQX:CDBMF) ("Cordoba" or the "Company") and its joint-venture partner, High Power Exploration Inc. ("HPX"), a private mineral exploration company indirectly controlled by mining entrepreneur Robert Friedland's Ivanhoe Industries, LLC, are pleased to announce an initial Mineral Resource estimate for the Alacran Copper-Gold Deposit in Colombia. Highlights (the figures referenced are at end of news release) The initial, pit-constrained, Inferred Mineral Resource for the Alacran Deposit is 53.52 million tonnes at 0.70% copper and 0.37 g/t gold, or 0.95% copper equivalent (CuEq), including 7.37 million tonnes at 2.14% copper and 0.41 g/t gold above 1% copper (Cu) cut off. The Inferred Mineral Resource is contained within a shallow, north-south trending mineralized corridor that is approximately 1.3 kilometres long and up to 355 metres wide. Mineral resources are reported within a conceptual open-pit shell which extends for the full length of the 1.3 kilometre corridor and to a depth of 220 metres below surface (see figure 2 and 4). The broad horizontal widths of mineral resource zones from surface are considered favorable for potential open-pit development at relatively low potential strip ratios, subject to the demonstration of economic viability (see figures 2, 4, 5 & 6). Copper-gold mineralization has been intercepted in drill holes below the conceptual pit shell and also at depths greater than 220 metres below surface; however, this mineralization was not included in the initial Inferred Mineral Resource due to insufficient drilling at the Mineral Resource cut-off date (see figures 4, 5 & 6). This mineralization provides the joint venture with immediate drilling targets which could materially expand the Inferred Mineral Resource. The Alacran mineralized system remains open to depth. Surface copper-gold geochemical anomalies also indicate significant potential for additional mineralized zones to the east and west of the Mineral Resource. The potential for the discovery of the mineralizing source for the high-grade copper and gold at Alacran is considered strong. Drill targets have been identified and will be aggressively tested by the joint venture this year. Table 1: El Alacran Mineral Resource as at October 27, 2016 Inferred Material Grade Metal Copper Equivalent (Mt) Copper (%) Gold (g/t) Copper (Mlb) Gold (Koz) CuEq (%) CuEq (Mlb) >0.3 CuEq 53.52 0.70 0.37 827 644 0.95 1,121 >1.0% Cu 7.37 2.14 0.41 348 98 2.42 393 * Pit constrained mineral resources are reported in relation to a conceptual Whittle pit shell. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability. All figures are rounded to reflect the relative accuracy of the estimate. Mt: millions of tonnes; Mlb: millions of pounds; Koz: thousands of ounces. **Copper equivalent grades are based on estimated copper and gold values, metal prices $2.50/lb Cu and $1300/oz gold (Au). Metal prices are not constant and are subject to change. *** Pit constrained mineral resources are reported at a copper equivalent cut-off of 0.3% and applying assumed metal recoveries of 90% for Cu and 80% for Au. Note no metallurgical test work has been undertaken by Cordoba and the recoveries are estimates only. **** Capped copper and gold assay composites were interpolated by ordinary kriging constrained within geologically constrained copper-gold grade shell boundaries (Figure 3). The Mineral Resource estimate was independently prepared by Mining Associates Limited ("MA"), a leading global geological, resource and mining consultancy, and is reported in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101") and the 2014 CIM Definition Standards. The Inferred Mineral Resource estimate is based on 20,200 metres of diamond drilling completed as at October 27, 2016. Mario Stifano, President and CEO of Cordoba, commented, "We are pleased with the initial mineral resource which demonstrates the potential for the Alacran Project to host a significant tonnage of high-grade, potentially open-pittable copper-gold mineralization. This is just the beginning as our ongoing, aggressive drilling program is aimed at growing the mineral resources in size and confidence levels, extending high-grade copper- and gold-rich mineralized zones and drilling additional exploration targets with potential to add a new and significant exploration front to Alacran." Alacran Location and Geography The Alacran copper-gold deposit is located within the Company's San Matias Copper-Gold Project in the Department of Cordoba, Colombia, an area where access and infrastructure are considered favorable. The Alacran system is located on a topographic high in gently rolling topography, optimal for potential open-pit mining. Copper-gold mineralization at Alacran is largely hosted in a marine volcano-sedimentary package on the west-dipping limb of a faulted antiformal fold structure and partly in dioritic and felsic intrusions with sill-like geometries (Figure 1). The deposit comprises moderately- to steeply-dipping copper-gold mineralized zones, broadly concordant with host litho-stratigraphy and intrusion contacts. The copper-gold mineralization consists of chalcopyrite-pyrrhotite-pyrite veins, replacements (including massive sulfides) and disseminations that locally overprint hydrothermal magnetite-rich zones that are most strongly developed near intrusion contacts. Mineralization occurs over a strike length of more than 1,300 metres with horizontal widths up to 355 metres and has been drill-intersected to depths of 300 metres from surface. Mineral Resource Parameters The drilling database utilized in resource estimation was closed on October 27, 2016 and comprises 76 diamond drill-holes totaling 20,197 metres including 11,230 metres drilled by Ashmont Resources in 2011 and 2012 (see Table 3 for holes drilled by Cordoba). A total of 19,958 assay samples were used to constrain the resource estimation, of which 4,705 samples are copper-gold mineralized, providing 2,202 two-metre assay composites used to form the resource estimate. Composite lengths and high-grade cuts based on spatial distribution and probability plots were applied as follows: Copper and gold assay data was composited to two metres down hole within geological domains; a copper grade cap was applied at the 97.5 th percentile in high-copper domains and 98 th percentile in the lower grade domains. percentile in high-copper domains and 98 percentile in the lower grade domains. Gold assays were composited to two metres down hole within copper domains and were capped near the 98th percentile. Block model block-size selection (XYZ 20 x 20 x 10m) is based on approximately 1/2 the drill hole spacing in Mina Norte. Sub-blocking is permitted 5x5 x 2.5m for volumes. The block model is screened for LIDAR-based topography by sub-blocks. The geological resource is constrained by sub-block within seven wireframes ("grade shells") in domains based on lithology, structure and a minimum sample grade of 0.3% CuEq and may include minor internal dilution (e.g. Figures 3, 4, 5 & 6). Gold, iron and sulfur are constrained by the low-grade CuEq shells, iron and sulfur are also estimated unconstrained to inform the waste blocks. Separate grade-shells were created for high-grade copper and gold based on grade >1% Cu and > 1g/t Au respectively. The constraining grade shells are modelled within a corridor, elongate approximately 1.3 kilometres north-south, of up to 355 metres horizontal width and interpolated/extrapolated to depths locally reaching 300 metres from surface (Figures 2 and 3). Copper and gold grades were interpolated into the constrained block model by domain using ordinary krige techniques. Kriging parameters are derived from a study of variography by domain. The block model was validated by statistical and visual comparison of data and estimated grades and by alternate estimation methods. Routine bulk density measurements (747) show some variation with an average bulk density of 3.01 t/m3. Bulk density was calculated based on an iron regression, BD=0.0292 x Fe% + 2.5599, utilising block iron contents estimated as outlined above. Mineral Resources have been classified as Inferred. Resource classification is based on confidence in grade continuity and geological models of the primary commodities (Cu, Au). The inferred resource lies above -30 mRL and within a conceptual Whittle pit shell (Figures 2, 5, & 6). Drill spacing in Mina Norte approximates a 40 x 40 m grid, drilling at Mina Seca has one to two holes per section. Mineral Resources are reported at various copper grade ranges, within the 0.3% CuEq shell, clearly identifying the proportion of mineralization below 0.3% copper that is enriched in gold in the resource (Table 2) in both resource domains (Mina Norte & Mina Seca, Figure 3). Tonnages are rounded to the nearest million tonnes, copper grades are rounded to two decimal places and accessory minerals are rounded to one decimal place. Rounding as required by reporting guidelines reflect the accuracy of the estimates and may result in apparent summation differences between tonnes grade and contained metal. Table 2: Inferred Mineral Resource at El Alacran resource at various Copper Cut-offs (total inferred resource above 0.3% CuEq and within conceptual pit)* Inferred Copper Material Grade Metal Copper Equivalent Deposit Cut Off (Mt) Copper (%) Gold (g/t) Copper (Mlb) Gold (Koz) CuEq (%) CuEq (Mlb) Mina Norte 0.0 to 0.3 0.69 0.27 0.31 4 7 0.47 7 0.3 to 1.0 28.82 0.52 0.27 328 255 0.70 445 > 1.0 4.65 1.98 0.34 203 51 2.21 226 Sub Total 34.16 0.71 0.28 535 313 0.90 678 Mina Seca 0.0 to 0.3 4.35 0.24 0.65 23 91 0.68 65 0.3 to 1.0 12.29 0.46 0.49 125 193 0.79 214 > 1.0 2.72 2.41 0.54 145 47 2.78 167 Sub Total 19.36 0.69 0.53 293 331 1.04 444 Total > 0.3% CuEq 53.52 0.70 0.37 827 644 0.95 1,122 *Mineral Resources are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. Mineral resources are reported above a conceptual pit shell, and using a copper equivalent cut-off of 0.3% and apply assumed metal recoveries of 90% for Cu and 80% for Au. No metallurgical test work has yet been undertaken by Cordoba. Outside of the Inferred Mineral Resource, there is unclassified copper-gold mineralization identified in the grade shell models that either lacks confidence in grade and geological continuity (e.g. Mina Este, Figure 4, legend item 4) or is at depth below the -25m RL This mineralization provides immediate drilling targets for potential mineral resource additions. Further drilling may be expected to increase the confidence levels in, and also potentially add, mineral resources. The Company expects to update the Mineral Resources during the second quarter of 2017 after the expected completion of its current drilling program. The Alacran system remains open to depth along much of its strike length and surface copper-gold geochemical anomalies indicate the potential for largely untested mineralized zones to the east and west of current mineral resources. Alacran Option Agreement The Joint Venture has an option (the "Option") to earn a 100% interest in the Alacran Project by completing the remaining commitments (see Cordoba news release dated October 21, 2015): A US$250,000 payment to Sociedad Ordinaria de Minas Omni ("OMNI") on the 24-month anniversary of signing the Letter of Intent ("LOI"). A US$1,000,000 payment to OMNI on the 24-month anniversary of completion of the Definitive Agreement. Cordoba will file with the Colombian government for the relevant approvals to conduct activities of construction and commercial production at Alacran before June 30, 2018. A US$14,000,000 payment to OMNI when the environmental license and all other approvals, permits or licenses required to commence the construction and operation of a commercial mine at Alacran have been granted on a final basis by the Colombian government. OMNI will retain a 2% net smelter royalty with advance royalty payments of US$500,000 commencing three years after receipt of approvals to commence construction at Alacran or six years after filing for approval to commence construction at Alacran. HPX has previously purchased a 50.1% interest in OMNI (see Cordoba news release dated April 6, 2016). Technical Information The current mineral resource estimate was completed by MA, under the direction of Ian Taylor MAusIMM (CP), an independent Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101. The QP visited the El Alacran property and supervised the geological modelling input to the current study. CIMM definitions and guidelines were followed for Mineral Resource estimation based on the parameters outlined above. Readers are reminded that Inferred Mineral Resources do not have demonstrated economic viability. Mr. Taylor has reviewed this news release and consented to the inclusion of extracts from, or a summary of, the technical information prepared under his direction and supervision. A technical report providing details of the Inferred Mineral Resource estimate will be filed on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) within 45 days. The technical content of this news release has been compiled, reviewed and verified by Vic Wall, PhD, a Qualified Person for the purpose of NI 43-101. Dr. Wall is a geologist with over 45 years in the minerals mining, consulting, exploration and research industries and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists (AIG). About San Matias Project The San Matias Copper-Gold Project comprises a 20,000-hectare land package on the inferred northern extension of the richly endowed Mid-Cauca Belt in Colombia. The project contains several known areas of porphyry copper-gold mineralization, copper-gold skarn mineralization and vein-hosted, gold-copper mineralization. Porphyry mineralization at the San Matias Project incorporates high-grade zones of copper-gold mineralization hosted by diorite porphyries containing secondary biotite alteration and various orientations of sheeted and stock-work quartz-magnetite veins with chalcopyrite and bornite. The hydrothermal copper-gold mineralization at Alacran is associated with stratabound replacements and veining of a marine volcano-sedimentary sequence in the vicinity of dioritic intrusions. The nature of mineralization encountered at San Matias is similar to other large high-grade copper-gold deposits. Joint Venture Agreement The San Matias Project is a joint venture between Cordoba and HPX, a private mineral exploration company founded by mining entrepreneur Robert Friedland. HPX has earned a 51% interest in the San Matias Project and has entered Phase Three of the Joint Venture Agreement, whereby HPX can earn up to 65% by carrying the project to feasibility. About High Power Exploration HPX is a privately owned, metals-focused exploration company deploying proprietary in-house geophysical technologies to rapidly evaluate buried geophysical targets. The HPX technology cluster comprises geological and geophysical systems for targeting, modelling, survey optimization, acquisition, processing and interpretation. HPX has a highly experienced board and management team led by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Robert Friedland, Co-Chairman Ian Cockerill, a former Chief Executive Officer of Gold Fields, and President Eric Finlayson, a former head of exploration at Rio Tinto. For further information, please visit www.hpxploration.com. About Cordoba Minerals Cordoba Minerals Corp. is a Toronto-based mineral exploration company focused on the exploration and acquisition of copper and gold projects in Colombia. Cordoba has a joint venture with High Power Exploration on the highly prospective, district-scale San Matias Copper-Gold Project located close to sea level with excellent infrastructure and near operating open-pit mines in the Department of Cordoba. For further information, please visit www.cordobaminerals.com. ON BEHALF OF THE COMPANY, Mario Stifano, President and CEO Cordoba Minerals Corp. 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 This news release includes certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements include predictions, projections and forecasts and are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek", "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "forecast", "expect", "potential", "project", "target", "schedule", budget" and "intend" and statements that an event or result "may", "will", "should", "could" or "might" occur or be achieved and other similar expressions and includes the negatives thereof. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding the potential of the Company's properties are forward-looking statements that involve various risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Forward-looking statements are based on a number of material factors and assumptions. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from Company's expectations include actual exploration results, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, future metal prices, availability of capital and financing on acceptable terms, general economic, market or business conditions, uninsured risks, regulatory changes, delays or inability to receive required approvals, and other exploration or other risks detailed herein and from time to time in the filings made by the Company with securities regulators. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause such actions, events or results to differ materially from those anticipated. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate and accordingly readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements which speak only as of the date of this news release. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation, except to the extent required by law, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. To view Figure 1: Plan view of Alacran geological model showing generally west-dipping lithostratigraphy, with mafic to intermediate volcanics & volcaniclastics in the east and footwall to the main copper-gold mineralised zones hosted mainly by avolcaniclastic -epiclastic sequence that is intruded by intermediate sills and also larger dioritic bodies in the west and north. Mineralization also locally overprints the intrusions, please visit: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/Figure%201c.jpg To view Figure 2: Plan view of copper-gold mineralization "grade" shells, drill-hole traces and conceptual Whittle pit shell, please visit: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/Figure%202c.jpg To view Figure 3: 3D view (towards north-east) of west-dipping "grade" shells under Lidar topography, draped by surface imagery, please visit: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/Figure%203c.jpg To view Figure 4: Copper-gold mineral resources in the Inferred category and unclassified mineralized material in relation to a conceptual Whittle pit shell and drill-hole traces, 3D view towards northeast, please visit: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/Figure%204c.jpg To view Figure 5: Section 855740mN showing drilling results and the broad width of Inferred mineral resource copper grades within a conceptual pit. Copper-gold mineralization may extend to depth below the resource blocks and also below the conceptual pit, please visit: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/Figure%205c.jpg To view Figure 6: Section 855720mN showing drilling results and the broad width of Inferred mineral resource copper grades within a conceptual pit. Copper-gold mineralization may extend to depth below the resource blocks and also below the conceptual pit. Figure 4 & Figure 5 may be compared to give an impression of the north-south continuity of mineralization, please visit: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/Figure%206c.jpg Table 3: Table of intercepts for Cordoba drill holes contained within this Mineral Resource estimate HoleID From (m) To (m) Interval (m) % CuEq Summary %CuEq Cutoff ACD001 53 68 15 0.37 15m @ 0.25% Cu + 0.15g/t Au (from 53m) 0.30% 76 91 15 0.59 15m @ 0.58% Cu + 0.02g/t Au (from 76m) 0.30% 101 121 20 0.40 20m @ 0.33% Cu + 0.09g/t Au (from 101m) 0.30% 128 248 120 1.14 120m @ 0.87% Cu + 0.35g/t Au (from 128m) 0.30% including 143 156 13 1.97 13m @ 1.4% Cu + 0.74g/t Au (from 143m) 1.00% and 153 156 3 4.21 3m @ 3.25% Cu + 1.26g/t Au (from 153m) 2.00% and 163 212 49 1.54 49m @ 1.23% Cu + 0.41g/t Au (from 163m) 1.00% and 170 175 5 3.88 5m @ 3.29% Cu + 0.78g/t Au (from 170m) 2.00% and 179 184 5 2.43 5m @ 2.06% Cu + 0.48g/t Au (from 179m) 2.00% and 225 234 9 1.00 9m @ 0.77% Cu + 0.3g/t Au (from 225m) 1.00% 264 272 8 0.53 8m @ 0.48% Cu + 0.07g/t Au (from 264m) 0.30% ACD002 107 227 120 0.76 120m @ 0.56% Cu + 0.26g/t Au (from 107m) 0.30% including 158 177 19 2.39 19m @ 1.92% Cu + 0.62g/t Au (from 158m) 1.00% and 166 176 10 3.36 10m @ 2.72% Cu + 0.85g/t Au (from 166m) 2.00% 249 262 13 0.46 13m @ 0.42% Cu + 0.06g/t Au (from 249m) 0.30% ACD003 98 113 15 0.87 15m @ 0.65% Cu + 0.29g/t Au (from 98m) 0.30% 130 193 63 0.47 63m @ 0.37% Cu + 0.14g/t Au (from 130m) 0.30% ACD004 42 92 50 0.62 50m @ 0.53% Cu + 0.12g/t Au (from 42m) 0.30% including 69 74 5 2.08 5m @ 1.84% Cu + 0.32g/t Au (from 69m) 1.00% and 85 89 4 1.20 4m @ 0.94% Cu + 0.35g/t Au (from 85m) 1.00% 101 197 96 0.75 96m @ 0.61% Cu + 0.19g/t Au (from 101m) 0.30% including 122 127 5 1.21 5m @ 1.06% Cu + 0.2g/t Au (from 122m) 1.00% and 138 145 7 1.95 7m @ 1.54% Cu + 0.54g/t Au (from 138m) 1.00% and 141 144 3 2.73 3m @ 2.19% Cu + 0.71g/t Au (from 141m) 2.00% and 184 190 6 1.19 6m @ 0.93% Cu + 0.35g/t Au (from 184m) 1.00% 204 215 11 0.71 11m @ 0.55% Cu + 0.21g/t Au (from 204m) 0.30% ACD005 7 64 57 2.04 57m @ 1.52% Cu + 0.68g/t Au (from 7m) 0.30% including 19 21 2 5.52 2m @ 1.96% Cu + 4.7g/t Au (from 19m) 2.00% and 33 45 12 7.15 12m @ 5.81% Cu + 1.77g/t Au (from 33m) 1.00% and 33 41 8 10.47 8m @ 8.57% Cu + 2.51g/t Au (from 33m) 2.00% ACD006 0 80.5 80.5 0.74 80.5m @ 0.54% Cu + 0.26g/t Au (from 0m) 0.30% including 20 27 7 1.09 7m @ 0.54% Cu + 0.73g/t Au (from 20m) 1.00% and 31 35 4 1.12 4m @ 0.89% Cu + 0.3g/t Au (from 31m) 1.00% and 55 80.5 25.5 1.17 25.5m @ 0.86% Cu + 0.4g/t Au (from 55m) 1.00% and 74 76 2 2.72 2m @ 2.14% Cu + 0.76g/t Au (from 74m) 2.00% ACD006A 2 109 107 1.21 107m @ 0.95% Cu + 0.34g/t Au (from 2m) 0.30% including 19 38 19 1.96 19m @ 1.62% Cu + 0.45g/t Au (from 19m) 1.00% and 26 34 8 2.89 8m @ 2.38% Cu + 0.67g/t Au (from 26m) 2.00% and 45 73 28 1.24 28m @ 1% Cu + 0.32g/t Au (from 45m) 1.00% and 56 59 3 2.12 3m @ 1.83% Cu + 0.38g/t Au (from 56m) 2.00% and 79 86 7 2.46 7m @ 1.85% Cu + 0.8g/t Au (from 79m) 1.00% and 79 86 7 2.46 7m @ 1.85% Cu + 0.8g/t Au (from 79m) 2.00% and 94 108 14 1.36 14m @ 0.98% Cu + 0.5g/t Au (from 94m) 1.00% ACD007 2 17 15 0.32 15m @ 0.1% Cu + 0.29g/t Au (from 2m) 0.30% 24 104 80 0.90 80m @ 0.49% Cu + 0.53g/t Au (from 24m) 0.30% including 38 42 4 1.35 4m @ 0.97% Cu + 0.49g/t Au (from 38m) 1.00% and 81 91 10 3.34 10m @ 0.98% Cu + 3.11g/t Au (from 81m) 1.00% and 81 84 3 7.48 3m @ 1.98% Cu + 7.26g/t Au (from 81m) 2.00% 118 129 11 0.32 11m @ 0.31% Cu + 0.02g/t Au (from 118m) 0.30% 141 193 52 0.88 52m @ 0.69% Cu + 0.25g/t Au (from 141m) 0.30% including 153 167 14 1.04 14m @ 0.92% Cu + 0.15g/t Au (from 153m) 1.00% and 179 187 8 2.08 8m @ 1.34% Cu + 0.97g/t Au (from 179m) 1.00% and 182 185 3 2.75 3m @ 1.47% Cu + 1.69g/t Au (from 182m) 2.00% 263 270 7 0.68 7m @ 0.34% Cu + 0.45g/t Au (from 263m) 0.30% ACD008 31 105 74 0.75 74m @ 0.58% Cu + 0.23g/t Au (from 31m) 0.30% including 31 39 8 1.01 8m @ 0.99% Cu + 0.02g/t Au (from 31m) 1.00% and 87 101 14 2.12 14m @ 1.58% Cu + 0.7g/t Au (from 87m) 1.00% and 95 99 4 4.70 4m @ 3.83% Cu + 1.15g/t Au (from 95m) 2.00% 113 140 27 0.86 27m @ 0.6% Cu + 0.35g/t Au (from 113m) 0.30% including 134 138 4 1.48 4m @ 1.17% Cu + 0.41g/t Au (from 134m) 1.00% 187 202 15 0.94 15m @ 0.78% Cu + 0.21g/t Au (from 187m) 0.30% including 189 198 9 1.13 9m @ 0.93% Cu + 0.26g/t Au (from 189m) 1.00% ACD009 12 119 107 0.97 107m @ 0.57% Cu + 0.53g/t Au (from 12m) 0.30% including 43 50 7 1.19 7m @ 1.06% Cu + 0.16g/t Au (from 43m) 1.00% and 59 66 7 5.30 7m @ 0.69% Cu + 6.08g/t Au (from 59m) 1.00% and 59 62 3 11.27 3m @ 0.64% Cu + 14.02g/t Au (from 59m) 2.00% and 83 90 7 2.36 7m @ 1.84% Cu + 0.67g/t Au (from 83m) 1.00% and 83 89 6 2.53 6m @ 1.98% Cu + 0.72g/t Au (from 83m) 2.00% and 97 108 11 1.55 11m @ 1.26% Cu + 0.38g/t Au (from 97m) 1.00% and 101 104 3 2.33 3m @ 1.8% Cu + 0.7g/t Au (from 101m) 2.00% 146 181 35 1.74 35m @ 1.39% Cu + 0.45g/t Au (from 146m) 0.30% including 148 165 17 2.83 17m @ 2.26% Cu + 0.74g/t Au (from 148m) 1.00% and 158 164 6 4.90 6m @ 3.88% Cu + 1.35g/t Au (from 158m) 2.00% ACD010 2 31 29 0.50 29m @ 0.22% Cu + 0.38g/t Au (from 2m) 0.30% 38 64 26 0.88 26m @ 0.63% Cu + 0.33g/t Au (from 38m) 0.30% including 38 48 10 1.07 10m @ 0.53% Cu + 0.71g/t Au (from 38m) 1.00% 60 64 4 1.65 4m @ 1.59% Cu + 0.08g/t Au (from 60m) 1.00% 77 96 19 1.35 19m @ 1.31% Cu + 0.05g/t Au (from 77m) 0.30% including 77 91 14 1.72 14m @ 1.67% Cu + 0.06g/t Au (from 77m) 1.00% including 78 83 5 2.06 5m @ 1.96% Cu + 0.13g/t Au (from 78m) 2.00% 103 124 21 0.48 21m @ 0.4% Cu + 0.11g/t Au (from 103m) 0.30% 142 178 36 0.95 36m @ 0.78% Cu + 0.22g/t Au (from 142m) 0.30% including 151 160 9 2.06 9m @ 1.67% Cu + 0.52g/t Au (from 151m) 1.00% and 152 159 7 2.25 7m @ 1.8% Cu + 0.59g/t Au (from 152m) 2.00% 206 218 12 0.30 12m @ 0.28% Cu + 0.03g/t Au (from 206m) 0.30% ACD012 3 98 95 0.58 95m @ 0.51% Cu + 0.09g/t Au (from 3m) 0.30% including 13 28 15 1.15 15m @ 1.08% Cu + 0.08g/t Au (from 13m) 1.00% 111 193 82 0.97 82m @ 0.71% Cu + 0.34g/t Au (from 111m) 0.30% including 138 154 16 1.22 16m @ 0.76% Cu + 0.61g/t Au (from 138m) 1.00% and 150 154 4 2.15 4m @ 1% Cu + 1.52g/t Au (from 150m) 2.00% and 162 187 25 1.52 25m @ 1.21% Cu + 0.41g/t Au (from 162m) 1.00% and 164 167 3 2.47 3m @ 1.91% Cu + 0.75g/t Au (from 164m) 2.00% and 178 181 3 2.27 3m @ 1.77% Cu + 0.65g/t Au (from 178m) 2.00% 217 235 18 0.32 18m @ 0.25% Cu + 0.1g/t Au (from 217m) 0.30% ACD013 1 78 77 0.84 77m @ 0.72% Cu + 0.15g/t Au (from 1m) 0.30% including 24 36 12 2.33 12m @ 1.97% Cu + 0.47g/t Au (from 24m) 1.00% and 29 35 6 3.88 6m @ 3.21% Cu + 0.88g/t Au (from 29m) 2.00% 123 133 10 0.52 10m @ 0.4% Cu + 0.15g/t Au (from 123m) 0.30% 143 160 17 0.78 17m @ 0.68% Cu + 0.12g/t Au (from 143m) 0.30% including 146 150 4 1.57 4m @ 1.32% Cu + 0.34g/t Au (from 146m) 1.00% ACD014 1 7 6 0.41 6m @ 0.23% Cu + 0.25g/t Au (from 1m) 0.30% 39 91 52 1.31 52m @ 0.93% Cu + 0.5g/t Au (from 39m) 0.30% including 47 73 26 1.84 26m @ 1.38% Cu + 0.6g/t Au (from 47m) 1.00% and 51 57 6 2.55 6m @ 1.9% Cu + 0.85g/t Au (from 51m) 2.00% and 60 67 7 2.28 7m @ 1.65% Cu + 0.83g/t Au (from 60m) 2.00% and 87 91 4 2.31 4m @ 0.92% Cu + 1.83g/t Au (from 87m) 1.00% 99 110 11 0.35 11m @ 0.06% Cu + 0.38g/t Au (from 99m) 0.30% ACD015 3 24 21 0.76 21m @ 0.69% Cu + 0.08g/t Au (from 3m) 0.30% including 7 12 5 1.22 5m @ 1.01% Cu + 0.27g/t Au (from 7m) 1.00% 38 44 6 0.31 6m @ 0.29% Cu + 0.02g/t Au (from 38m) 0.30% 64 70 6 0.44 6m @ 0.22% Cu + 0.3g/t Au (from 64m) 0.30% ACD016 0 24 24 0.48 24m @ 0.35% Cu + 0.16g/t Au (from 0m) 0.30% 50 65 15 0.31 15m @ 0.21% Cu + 0.12g/t Au (from 50m) 0.30% 87 101 14 0.30 14m @ 0.06% Cu + 0.33g/t Au (from 87m) 0.30% 128 135 7 0.50 7m @ 0.24% Cu + 0.34g/t Au (from 128m) 0.30% ACD017 1 26 25 0.40 25m @ 0.31% Cu + 0.12g/t Au (from 1m) 0.30% 34 61 27 0.33 27m @ 0.28% Cu + 0.06g/t Au (from 34m) 0.30% 84 121 37 0.43 37m @ 0.35% Cu + 0.11g/t Au (from 84m) 0.30% ACD018 8 14 6 0.35 6m @ 0.28% Cu + 0.08g/t Au (from 8m) 0.30% 24 73 49 0.79 49m @ 0.61% Cu + 0.23g/t Au (from 24m) 0.30% including 39 60 21 1.31 21m @ 0.99% Cu + 0.42g/t Au (from 39m) 1.00% and 45 49 4 2.55 4m @ 2.17% Cu + 0.5g/t Au (from 45m) 2.00% 102 109 7 0.56 7m @ 0.33% Cu + 0.3g/t Au (from 102m) 0.30% 128 182 54 0.85 54m @ 0.57% Cu + 0.37g/t Au (from 128m) 0.30% including 153 157 4 1.40 4m @ 0.78% Cu + 0.82g/t Au (from 153m) 1.00% and 165 172 7 1.56 7m @ 1.21% Cu + 0.46g/t Au (from 165m) 1.00% and 167 169 2 2.90 2m @ 2.44% Cu + 0.61g/t Au (from 167m) 2.00% 212 218 6 2.05 6m @ 1.78% Cu + 0.35g/t Au (from 212m) 0.30% 212 215 3 3.35 3m @ 2.86% Cu + 0.64g/t Au (from 212m) 2.00% ACD019 70 85 15 0.77 15m @ 0.72% Cu + 0.06g/t Au (from 70m) 0.30% including 72 76 4 1.14 4m @ 1.06% Cu + 0.11g/t Au (from 72m) 1.00% 101 109 8 0.92 8m @ 0.9% Cu + 0.03g/t Au (from 101m) 0.30% including 102 106 4 1.07 4m @ 1.05% Cu + 0.03g/t Au (from 102m) 1.00% 123 131 8 0.40 8m @ 0.36% Cu + 0.04g/t Au (from 123m) 0.30% ACD020 1 7 6 0.40 6m @ 0.21% Cu + 0.25g/t Au (from 1m) 0.30% ACD021 0 13 13 0.38 13m @ 0.29% Cu + 0.11g/t Au (from 0m) 0.30% 24 46 22 1.86 22m @ 1.36% Cu + 0.67g/t Au (from 24m) 0.30% including 26 35 9 3.77 9m @ 2.73% Cu + 1.38g/t Au (from 26m) 1.00% and 26 32 6 5.18 6m @ 3.67% Cu + 1.99g/t Au (from 26m) 2.00% ACD022 25 54 29 0.87 29m @ 0.73% Cu + 0.18g/t Au (from 25m) 0.30% including 25 30 5 1.33 5m @ 1.13% Cu + 0.27g/t Au (from 25m) 1.00% 70 133 63 0.77 63m @ 0.63% Cu + 0.19g/t Au (from 70m) 0.30% including 84 90 6 1.28 6m @ 1.09% Cu + 0.25g/t Au (from 84m) 1.00% and 97 124 27 1.09 27m @ 0.86% Cu + 0.3g/t Au (from 97m) 1.00% 142 188 46 0.69 46m @ 0.55% Cu + 0.19g/t Au (from 142m) 0.30% including 182 188 6 1.05 6m @ 0.86% Cu + 0.25g/t Au (from 182m) 1.00% 199 215 16 0.66 16m @ 0.62% Cu + 0.05g/t Au (from 199m) 0.30% Table 4: Coordinates for Cordoba drill holes used in this Mineral Resource estimate HoleID East ** North ** RL ** Final Depth Azimuth Dip Type ACD001 418914 855761 210 280 85 -52 DD ACD002 418910 855812 218 306.2 90 -57 DD ACD003 418951 855863 212 290.7 90 -68 DD ACD004 418972 855759 228 323 85 -51 DD ACD005 419063 855914 255 240 90 -50 DD ACD006 419060 855870 248 80.5 90 -60 DD ACD006A 419074 855867 250 301 90 -60 DD ACD007 418975 855719 226 307.8 85 -46 DD ACD008 418957 855669 224 300 90 -51 DD ACD008A 418961 855666 224 56.4 90 -50 DD ACD009 419029 855758 227 283.5 85 -53 DD ACD010 419029 855714 234 308 85 -54 DD ACD011 419064 855957 258 442.3 85 -58 DD ACD012 418932 855721 206 304.6 85 -49 DD ACD013 419089 855783 209 315 88 -52 DD ACD014 419180 855783 188 313.2 88 -56 DD ACD015 419342 855782 179 358 88 -56 DD ACD016 419156 855051 227 314.3 88 -56 DD ACD017 419306 855065 198 315.9 88 -57 DD ACD018 419125 855247 205 302.2 88 -55 DD ACD019 419277 855251 168 300 88 -55 DD ACD020 419455 855249 153 279.2 88 -55 DD ACD021 419224 855782 189 130.9 88 -54 DD ACD022 419017 855803 226 313.5 88 -55 DD VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Jan 5, 2017) - West Kirkland Mining Inc. (TSX VENTURE:WKM) announces that the Company has granted an aggregate of 3.9 million stock options to directors, officers, employees and consultants of the Company. Each stock option entitles the holder to purchase one common share of the Company at a price of $0.11 per common share for a period of five years from the grant date. The options are to provide long term incentive. No year end or performance cash bonus or other annual increases in compensation were paid to any officer, director or employee for 2016. These stock options are governed by the approved Stock Option Plan of the Company and are subject to TSX Venture Exchange acceptance. About West Kirkland Mining Inc. West Kirkland owns a 75% interest in the Hasbrouck Gold Project in Tonopah, Nevada. A Pre-Feasibility Study and Environmental Assessment with construction-level drawings and all federal and state permits for the phase-one Three Hills Mine provides a ready-to-construct gold project. West Kirkland has recently announced a drill program targeting resource expansion within the permitted open pit at Three Hills and exploration drilling at the recently optioned Hill of Gold area nearby. West Kirkland also holds a 60% interest in the open pit heap-leach TUG Gold Project in Utah in Joint Venture with Newmont. On behalf of West Kirkland Mining Inc. R. Michael Jones, Chief Executive Officer Disclaimer for Forward-Looking Information This press release contains forward-looking information or forward-looking statements (collectively "forward-looking information") within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking information is typically identified by words such as: "believe", "expect", "anticipate", "intend", "estimate", "postulate" and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. Forward-looking information in this news release includes, without limitation, the statements regarding the use of proceeds and the holdings of the Company's major shareholders and other statements that are not historical facts. Information concerning mineral resource/reserve estimates and the economic analysis thereof contained in the prefeasibility study are also forward-looking statements in that they reflect a prediction of the mineralization that would be encountered, and the results of mining it, if a mineral deposit were developed and mined. Although West Kirkland believes that such timing and expenses as set out in this press release are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations and estimates will prove to be correct. The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking information provided by the Company is not a guarantee of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking information as a result of various factors, including, but not limited to, the state of the financial markets for the Company's equity securities, the state of the market for gold or other minerals that may be produced generally, significant increases in any of the machinery, equipment or supplies required to develop and operate a mine, a significant change in the availability or cost of the labor force required to operate a mine, a significant increases in the cost of transportation for the Company's products, variations in the nature, quality and quantity of any mineral deposits that may be located, the Company's ability to obtain any necessary permits, consents or authorizations required for its activities, to raise the necessary capital or to be fully able to implement its business strategies and other risks associated with the exploration and development of mineral properties. The reader is referred to the Company's public filings for a more complete discussion of such risk factors and their potential effects which may be accessed through the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Nevada mining operations continue on schedule and budget VANCOUVER, Jan. 5, 2017 /CNW/ - Rye Patch Gold Corp. (TSX.V: RPM; OTCQX: RPMGF; FWB: 5TN) (the "Company" or "Rye Patch") is pleased to announce that within four months of commencement of the Florida Canyon Restart Project in Nevada, Rye Patch has achieved a major milestone of loading oxide material onto the South Heap Leach Pad Expansion. "The Florida Canyon team has worked to achieve this transformational milestone with great enthusiasm," William C. Howald, Rye Patch's President and CEO, said. "The Project was completed in just four months and has placed the Company on the verge of becoming Nevada's next gold producer." The Florida Canyon Restart Project consisted of three key elements: refurbishing the mining fleet, moving the crusher and building the new leach pad. The December purchase of an additional Caterpillar 993K loader completes the mining fleet. The fleet now consists of three loaders, eleven 150-ton haul trucks and five 100-ton haul trucks. Mining commenced from the Jasperoid Hill deposit on November 1, 2016, and oxide material has been stockpiled adjacent to the crusher. With the crusher fully operational as of December 24, 2016, material is now being placed on the lower one-third portion of the phase one cell of the new leach pad. To date, approximately 45,500 tonnes have been placed on the pad. "The crusher expansion and move concluded with the delivery of the lime silo in December," Howald said. "With this last piece of equipment, the crusher is now fully operational." The projected ramp-up to 600,000 tons per month production (545,000 tonnes per month) is on track for April 2017. The first gold pour from the new leach pad is projected to occur in February, ensuring timely delivery in accordance with Company projections. Howald added, "While spot gold prices remain soft, the Company has the benefit of selling 100% of its sales into its hedge contract price of USD $1,276 per ounce, providing stability during the start-up and initial stages of production." Mr. William Howald, AIPG Certified Professional Geologist #11041, Rye Patch's CEO and President, is a Qualified Person as defined under National Instrument 43-101. He has reviewed and approved the contents of this news release. About Rye Patch Gold Corp. Rye Patch Gold Corp. is a Nevada based, Tier 1, mining company engaged in the mining and development of quality resource-based gold and silver mines and projects along the established Oreana trend in west central Nevada. Leveraging its strong financial position and cash to acquire the operating Florida Canyon Gold Mine, Rye Patch Gold Corp. now controls a trend-scale platform with operations, replacement assets and exploration upside. The combination of operations and exploration concentrated along a major Nevada gold trend positions Rye Patch as an emerging mid-tier gold producer with tremendous value added potential. For more information, please visit our website at www.ryepatchgold.com. On behalf of the Board of Directors 'William Howald' William C. (Bill) Howald, CEO & President Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking statements relating to future plans and objectives of the Company, proposed operations of the Company including mine development, funding requirements, future events and conditions and other statements that are not historical facts, all of which are subject to various risks and uncertainties. The Company's actual results, programs and financial position could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements as a result of numerous factors, some of which may be beyond the Company's control. These factors include: the requirement of the Company to satisfy the conditions for drawdowns in the credit agreement entered into with Macquarie Bank Limited ("Credit Facility"), the achievement of mine redevelopment plans and production results; the availability of funds; the financial position of Rye Patch; the timing and content of work programs; the results of exploration activities and development of mineral properties; the interpretation of drilling results and other geological data; the reliability of calculation of mineral resources; the reliability of calculation of precious metal recoveries; the receipt and security of mineral property titles; project cost overruns or unanticipated costs and expenses; fluctuations in metal prices; currency fluctuations; and general market and industry conditions. Forward-looking statements are based on the expectations and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made. The assumptions used in the preparation of such statements, 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. As a result, the Company cannot guarantee that the drawdowns under the Credit Facility and the Florida Canyon mine redevelopment will be completed on the terms and within the time disclosed herein or at all. 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. SOURCE Rye Patch Gold VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Jan 5, 2017) - Constantine Metal Resources Ltd. (TSX VENTURE:CEM) ("Constantine" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that Dowa Metals & Mining Alaska Ltd. ("Dowa") has completed its US$22 million earn-in to the Palmer VMS Project, Alaska ("Palmer" or "Project") and has exercised its option to participate as a partner in the Project. A Joint Venture has been formed for the purpose of further exploring and developing Palmer, with Constantine owning a 51% participating interest and Dowa owning a 49% participating interest. Approximately US$2 million in unspent funds will form the starting cash balance of the Joint Venture. Garfield MacVeigh, President and CEO states, "We are delighted to form the Joint Venture partnership and start the next phase in Palmer's advancement. Dowa has over a century of experience in mining and smelting VMS ore deposits and shares Constantine's conviction in the Project's potential and commitment to responsible exploration. With a projected shortfall in global zinc supply and a dearth of quality advanced stage zinc projects we anticipate an exciting 2017 and bright future for the Project and our shareholders." Update on $4,500,000 Horseshoe Claims Sale The previously announced sale of certain Ontario claims to Lake Shore Gold Corp., a wholly owned division of Tahoe Resources Inc. (see news release dated November 7, 2016) is nearing completion. Government documentation necessary to close the transaction, including completion of claim transfers, is expected to be finalized in January. The $4.5 million cash payment due in full upon closing will provide Constantine with a strong cash balance to fund its 51% share in the exploration development of the Palmer Project joint venture for 2017 and beyond. About the Palmer Project Palmer is a resource expansion stage, high-grade volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) project, with an Inferred Mineral Resource of 8.1 million tonnes grading 1.41% copper, 5.25% zinc, 0.32 g/t gold and 31.7 g/t silver*. The Project is being advanced as a Joint Venture partnership between Constantine (51%) and Dowa (49%), with Constantine as operator. Dowa Metals & Mining Alaska Ltd.is a subsidiary of Dowa Metals and Mining Co., Ltd., an integrated metals company that operates the largest zinc smelter in Japan. The project is located in a very accessible part of coastal Southeast Alaska, 60 kilometers by road from the year-round deep sea port of Haines. Mineralization at Palmer occurs within the same belt of rocks that is host to the Greens Creek mine, one of the world's richest VMS deposits. The district-scale, 108,000 acre, land package at Palmer hosts at least 25 separate base metal and/or barite occurrences and prospects, indicating the potential for discovery of multiple deposits. About the Company Constantine is a mineral exploration company led by a proven technical team with a focus on premier North American mining environments. In addition to the Company's flagship copper-zinc-silver-gold Palmer Joint Venture Project, Constantine also controls a portfolio of high-quality, 100% owned, gold projects in the Timmins camp Ontario. This includes the large, well located Golden Mile Property in Timmins and the Munro Croesus Gold Property that is renowned for its exceptionally high-grade past production. Management is committed to providing shareholder value through discovery, meaningful community engagement, environmental stewardship, and responsible mineral exploration and development activities that support local jobs and businesses. Please visit the Company's website (www.constantinemetals.com) for more detailed company and project information. On Behalf of Constantine Metal Resources Ltd. Garfield MacVeigh, President * 8.125 million tonne inferred resource grading 1.41% copper, 5.25% zinc, 0.32 g/t gold and 31.7 g/t silver. See the Company's news release date May 11, 2015 and available on www.sedar.com. Resource estimate utilizes an NSR cut-off of US$75/t with assumed metal prices of US$1200/oz for gold, US$18/oz for silver, US$2.75/lb for copper, and US$1.00/lb for zinc. Estimated metal recoveries are 89.6% for copper, 84.9% for zinc, 75% for gold (61.5% to the Cu concentrate and 13.5% to the Zn concentrate) and 89.7% for silver (73.7% to the Cu concentrate and 16% to the Zn concentrate) as determined from metallurgical locked cycle flotation tests. An "Inferred Mineral Resource is that part of a Mineral Resource for which quantity and grade or quality can be estimated on the basis of geological evidence and limited sampling and reasonably assumed, but not verified, geological and grade continuity. Confidence in the estimate is insufficient to allow the meaningful application of technical and economic parameters or to enable an evaluation of economic viability worthy of public disclosure. Darwin Green, VP Exploration for Constantine Metal Resources Ltd. and a qualified person as defined by Canadian National Instrument 43-101 has reviewed and approved the technical information contained in this release. Notes: Forward-looking statements: This news release includes certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (collectively "forward looking statements"). Forward-looking statements include predictions, projections and forecasts and are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek", "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "forecast", "expect", "potential", "project", "target", "schedule", budget" and "intend" and statements that an event or result "may", "will", "should", "could" or "might" occur or be achieved and other similar expressions and includes the negatives thereof. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding the expected. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Forward-looking statements are based on a number of material factors and assumptions. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from Company's expectations include actual exploration results, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, results of future resource estimates, future metal prices, risk of not closing the Horseshoe claims sale transaction, availability of capital and financing on acceptable terms, general economic, market or business conditions, uninsured risks, regulatory changes, defects in title, availability of personnel, materials and equipment on a timely basis, accidents or equipment breakdowns, delays in receiving government approvals, unanticipated environmental impacts on operations and costs to remedy same, and other exploration or other risks detailed herein and from time to time in the filings made by the Company with securities regulators. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause such actions, events or results to differ materially from those anticipated. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate and accordingly readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. THUNDER BAY, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Jan. 5, 2017) - NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES Source Exploration Corp. ("Source" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:SOP) is pleased to provide an update, further to its news releases dated September 28, 2016 and November 30, 2016, on the second tranche of its previously announced non-brokered private placement (the "Private Placement"). Following completion of the first tranche of the Private Placement on November 30, 2016, the Company is continuing with the Private Placement. The TSX Venture Exchange has granted the Company a 30-day extension of its conditional acceptance of the terms of the Private Placement and the Company intends to close the second tranche of the Private Placement on or before January 31, 2017. The second tranche of the Private Placement is subject to receipt of all required regulatory approvals including the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. About Source Exploration Corp. Source is a Canadian based mineral exploration company committed to building long-term value through the discovery, acquisition and advancement of mineral properties. The Company holds an option on the Las Minas gold, silver and copper exploration project located within the Las Minas mining district in the State of Veracruz, Mexico. The district hosts one of the largest underexplored skarn systems known in Mexico and has a strong production history that dates back to the Aztec era. CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION: This news release includes certain information that may constitute "forward-looking information" under applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, statements about the anticipated closing date of the second tranche of the Private Placement, the future exploration results relating to the Las Minas project, exploration plans for the Las Minas project and the exploration potential of the Las Minas project. Forward-looking information is necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including the risks identified in the Company's disclosure documents. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. All forward-looking information contained in this press release is given as of the date hereof and is based upon the opinions and estimates of management and information available to management as at the date hereof. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. An estimated 46 percent of the nation's urban population lives in a category of neighborhoods that local governments pay little attention to: America's "middle neighborhoods." These neighborhoods are generally affordable and attractive, and they offer a reasonable quality of life, but many of them are in danger of decline.Middle neighborhoods typically receive little or no attention from mayors, city managers and local housing officials, in part because they are not distressed enough to qualify for federal Community Development Block Grant funds and because financially stressed local governments seldom allocate local tax dollars to neighborhood-improvement strategies. Yet, these neighborhoods, which provide a substantial portion of local property-tax revenues, can easily tip into decline unless steps are taken to improve the investment psychology for them.A recently published collection of essays, "On the Edge: America's Middle Neighborhoods" (edited by one of this column's authors), provides some surprising insights into these neighborhoods. The portion of the population of the cities studied by the book's contributors living in middle neighborhoods, for example, ranges from 37 percent in Milwaukee and Pittsburgh to over 51 percent in Detroit and Baltimore. The book describes the challenges these neighborhoods face as they try to hold their market position in cities.Demographic and economic changes are certainly among those challenges. The middle class is shrinking, and numerous scholars report that we are increasingly segregated by family income. These trends represent a real threat to middle neighborhoods, which generally are more integrated, in terms of both race and income, than either strong or distressed neighborhoods.Another challenge is that family size and housing preferences have changed since many of the houses in middle neighborhoods were constructed, making many sections of middle neighborhoods difficult to market to today's homebuyers. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that in some metropolitan areas suburban housing -- with its perceived advantages of better schools and safer streets -- can be purchased for prices similar to those in middle neighborhoods.Access to jobs is also a challenge for middle neighborhoods. When they were first developed, these neighborhoods were close to job centers, but as jobs have suburbanized or located in the less-dense fringes of cities, middle neighborhoods have lost proximity to employers as an attractor to newcomers.A common theme across the essays is that while there are social benefits to stabilizing middle neighborhoods, there also are strong economic reasons to do so. Stabilizing a middle neighborhood is far less costly and more foreseeably successful than attempting to reclaim a neighborhood after the cycle of distress has devastated it.To that end, promising efforts to improve middle neighborhoods are underway in some cities. Baltimore and Milwaukee , for example, have adopted a model that helps these neighborhoods improve through active resident involvement, strategically selected public improvements, neighborhood marketing, and participation of lenders and foundations to make mortgages and home-improvement loans available on favorable terms. While these "healthy neighborhoods programs" are run by organizations outside of city government, the support of city governments is crucial.In other places, neighborhood-based groups are succeeding at marketing their middle neighborhoods in ways that are building demand in middle neighborhoods. And still other communities are deploying impactful preservation strategies, including appropriate financing vehicles, that improve older properties with visible maintenance issues. (To keep current on efforts like these, go to www.middleneighborhoods.org .)Local governments' goal should be to recognize the critical importance of middle neighborhoods and invest in them, as we already do in our very distressed neighborhoods and our downtowns, so that they can continue to serve their vital and historic role in American cities. As Henry Webber, one of the "On the Edge" essay authors, writes, "Without this assistance, many middle neighborhoods will decline and cities will be increasingly challenged." The last thing our struggling cities need is another challenge. David Eaves is a public policy entrepreneur and expert in information technology and government. He has worked closely with municipal and federal leaders in Canada and the United States on the intersection of technology and governance, and is currently the faculty director of digital HKS at the Harvard Kennedy School. GROWTH FORECAST Gov. Roy Cooper announced plans to expand Medicaid by executive action during an address to the business community here on Wednesday -- an action that is against a current state law and will likely face opposition from the Republican-led legislature.The call to expand Medicaid came during a speech Cooper gave at the 15th annual Economic Forecast Forum, which outlined some steps his new administration would take to boost the economy in the state.The forum, hosted annually by the North Carolina Chamber of Commerce and North Carolina Bankers Association at the Sheraton Imperial Hotel & Convention Center in Durham, looked ahead toward the prospects of the national and state economy in 2017.The Democratic governor said he planned to file an amendment to the state's Medicaid plan by Friday, which would let hundreds of thousands more people sign up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act.The Republican legislature passed a bill in 2013 that bans the executive branch from expanding Medicaid -- something Cooper said "invades on the core executive authority of the governor" during a press conference following his speech."We have to accept Medicaid expansion," he said. "... It will provide us significant investment."There's a reason I am saying this not at a health clinic, not at a hospital. I am saying this at an economic forum, at an economic outlook forum, because of the jobs it is going to bring [and] because it is fiscally responsible."Cooper said it was an opportunity to bring in $2 billion to $4 billion in investment and 20,000 to 40,000 jobs, along with expanding coverage for up to 650,000 people.He said that the federal government would contribute 95 percent of the funds for the expansion and that the remaining 5 percent would be covered by the state, adding that he would like the state's hospitals to cover the costs rather than use taxpayer money.In his speech, Cooper also targeted two other places where the government could improve the state's economy, saying he would make a larger investment in education as part of his budget proposal and continue to work toward a full repeal of House Bill 2.Cooper said he wants to make sure that the state has a four-year plan to boost teachers' salaries to at least the national average and to continue to invest in the state's community colleges and universities.The crowd, which numbered around 900, applauded Cooper when he promised to fix HB2 and put it behind the state.In a panel discussion that took place later in the day, a group of North Carolina-based economists forecast economic growth for the nation and the state in 2017."We might have some snow [this weekend], but there will be no recession," N.C. State University economics professor Michael Walden said, joking about the weather forecast.Walden said he thought that the business climate in the country had improved since the election of President-elect Donald Trump, a thought shared by the other three economists participating in the panel. The economists cited a potential decrease in regulations and the tax rate as a boon to business investment in the U.S.The four economists all agreed that North Carolina would grow faster than the rest of the country in 2017, forecasting the addition of thousands of jobs.Mark Vitner, senior economist at Wells Fargo, was the most optimistic of the group, saying that he anticipates 100,000 good-paying jobs being added this year. He also predicted that growth will be felt outside of the major cities of Raleigh, Charlotte and Durham in 2017.He added that Durham had the strongest job growth in the state last year.Reflecting on the words that the new governor shared with the crowd, the economists noted HB2 was hurting the state's economic development.Walden said HB2 had already cost the state potentially $500 million to $600 million -- though he added it's probably more that, since many companies have simply stopped considering the state for expansion."HB2 has already done the damage, and it is going to be with us for a while," said UNC-Charlotte economist John Connaughton. "When you look at our economic development in this state, we have benefited over the last three decades from a lot in-migration of companies ... That's come to a screeching halt."On the subject of Medicaid expansion, the economists were more muted, noting that the fate of the Affordable Care Act under a Trump administration is uncertain. Generally, the panel agreed that in the short run the expansion of Medicaid would be a positive, especially for rural parts of the state."The trick is, what do you think is going to be the real cost of the program in the future?" N.C. Bankers Association Economist Harry Davis said. "And that's unknown." The Pennsylvania House on Tuesday made it possible to more quickly expel members who are convicted of certain crimes.The change in House rules came on the day Rep. Leslie Acosta, D-Philadelphia, resigned, following a March plea to a federal corruption charge.The expedited process would apply to a legislator in Ms. Acosta's circumstance before her resignation, said spokesmen for the House Republican and Democratic leaders.Under the new rules, if a House member pleads guilty or no contest or is found guilty of a crime related to the office or a crime that renders a legislator constitutionally ineligible, then the Republican and Democratic leaders of the House Ethics Committee would be authorized to request a resolution of expulsion that would appear on the voting calendar for the next session day."If a member has pled guilty or no contest or is convicted by a court of law and a jury, then there can be a vote to expel them immediately, as opposed to waiting until they are sentenced," said House GOP spokesman Steve Miskin. "This streamlines it and gives the committee a little extra oomph to be able to do it."The changes to House rules, which were voted on as a group, were negotiated by leaders of both parties and were approved by the House 167-32 after members were sworn into office to begin their new two-year terms.Ms. Acosta was already running unopposed for re-election when the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that she had quietly pleaded guilty to a role in an embezzlement scheme that allegedly involved her former boss at a mental health clinic where she was employed before taking office. She won another term in November, but mid-December, amid calls that she step down, announced she would resign.The new House rules also strengthen the ability of the Ethics Committee to hire outside counsel and issue subpoenas, Mr. Miskin said. In a unanimous decision, the Vermont Supreme Court has ruled that outgoing Gov. Peter Shumlin lacks the authority to act this week to replace a justice who will retire at the end of March.The ruling came Wednesday afternoon, less than 24 hours before Shumlin was scheduled to leave office.Shumlin was unveiling his official portrait at the Statehouse in Montpelier at the time of the announcement. He later told reporters he disagreed with the high court's interpretation of the law but would abide by the decision.The case concerned the retirement of Associate Justice John Dooley, who first was appointed to the bench in 1987 and has announced plans to retire when his term ends March 31.Shumlin, a Democrat, had been "prepared" to name a replacement for Dooley from a list of six names submitted by the state Judicial Nominating Board, according to court documents. The Governor's Office had argued Shumlin simply was doing his job.Two Republican lawmakers, Rep. Don Turner of Milton and Sen. Joe Benning of Caledonia County, filed a petition at the high court late last month to challenge Shumlin's authority to make the nomination.The five-member court ruled unanimously that Benning had the right to challenge the governor's action and agreed with Turner and Benning on the merits of the case. The case sets a new precedent about the executive power of outgoing governors. As Chicago braces for the results of a federal civil rights probe into its police practices, the commander hired just six months ago from outside the department to guide reforms abruptly left to become police chief of Oakland, Calif.Anne Kirkpatrick was tapped in June in a surprise move by Superintendent Eddie Johnson. Three months earlier, Kirkpatrick was among three finalists for the superintendent's post in Chicago but was passed over in favor of Johnson.News of her departure comes at an inopportune time for the Police Department as the U.S. Justice Department is expected to be wrapping up its wide-ranging investigation into allegations of excessive force by officers and other potentially unconstitutional conduct.Kirkpatrick did not return a call or a text message from a Tribune reporter seeking comment Wednesday, but at a news conference in Oakland to announce her appointment, she said she was not looking for a job "at the time this opportunity came my way."She also told reporters she left Chicago "for no other reason" than she had long desired to work in Oakland."The reform efforts there (in Chicago) are very much at an incubator stage," Kirkpatrick said.Oakland has for years struggled to implement a 2003 federal consent decree that involved allegations of rampant abuse and bias by officers. More recently, the department has been rocked by scandal after revelations that officers had sexual contact with a teenage sex worker, prompting the resignation of the police chief amid the allegations. In September, the department moved to fire four officers and suspend seven others.A statement issued on Johnson's behalf thanked Kirkpatrick "for her contributions in helping to lay the groundwork for our reform efforts" and wished her his best "on this incredible opportunity."A former police chief of Spokane, Wash., Kirkpatrick was one of three finalists recommended for Chicago superintendent by Mayor Rahm Emanuel's hand-picked Police Board, but in a surprise, the mayor promoted Johnson, a department veteran, to the post in March even though he had not sought the job.Emanuel had fired Garry McCarthy as superintendent in late 2015 amid the fallout over the court-ordered release of a video showing police Officer Jason Van Dyke shooting Laquan McDonald 16 times. Van Dyke is fighting first-degree murder charges in the teen's killing.Despite losing out on the top job, Kirkpatrick joined the department in June to head up its reform efforts as Emanuel pushed to improve disciplinary measures and training to stay ahead of the Justice Department probe.Kirkpatrick brought the perspective of an outsider to the troubled Police Department, a necessary step if unpopular changes need to be made to deal with entrenched problems, according to many policing experts.As recently as two weeks ago, she spoke to the Tribune about the affect the reforms could have in Chicago."My experience here so far is that the officers, the members of this department, are not fighting this whole idea of reform," she said. "... When officers are trained with the best practices and constitutional policing ... they can be confident they are staying within the boundaries. And when they stay within the boundaries, they don't need to worry about getting into trouble."Lori Lightfoot, the head of the Chicago Police Board, said Kirkpatrick's departure was a loss for the city but didn't have to set back reform efforts. Lightfoot credited her with having the "integrity" to step into a supporting role after losing out on the superintendent's post."I think she is clear-eyed and extremely hardworking and dedicated," Lightfoot said. "... What this means is someone else is going to have to step up. The work still needs to get done."At least one police reform expert in Chicago downplayed the significance of Kirkpatrick's departure, saying Chicago's problems are so entrenched that even an outsider could not be counted on to usher in the change Chicago needs."I was not hopeful that any kind of real accountability would come from a position embedded within the Police Department given the depths of corruption and the code of silence," said Sheila Bedi, a professor with Northwestern University's MacArthur Justice Center. "People in Chicago's communities have a real sense of what has gone wrong with the excessive use of force and the racial profiling. The institution itself hasn't reckoned with these things."Bedi said true reform must be guided by strong civilian oversight, including a board that isn't appointed by the mayor that has strong powers to monitor investigations into police misconduct. A federal appeals court in St. Louis has declared that Minnesota's sex offender treatment program is constitutional -- handing a major victory to the state but potentially derailing long-awaited reforms to its system of indefinite detention for sex offenders.In a decision released Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower-court ruling and found that Minnesota's system of committing sex offenders beyond their prison terms serves a "legitimate interest" in protecting citizens from dangerous sexual predators.The ruling is a major setback for civil rights attorneys and a host of lawmakers who have spent much of the past five years pressing for reforms that would put offenders on a faster path toward release from the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP). The appellate panel essentially has given Minnesota's program a clean bill of health, relieving immediate pressure on state officials to make major reforms to a program that has long been criticized as inhumane.A class of sex offenders sued the state in 2011, arguing during a prolonged trial that Minnesota's system violated their due-process rights under the U.S. Constitution by depriving them of access to the courts and other basic safeguards found in the criminal justice system.But after reviewing the program and state law, the appeals court sided with the state, concluding that Minnesota provided adequate constitutional protections, including the right to petition for release."We conclude that the class plaintiffs have failed to demonstrate that any of the ... arguable shortcomings in the MSOP were egregious, malicious, or sadistic as is necessary to meet the conscience-shocking standard," the Eighth Circuit panel ruled.Reached Tuesday, the plaintiffs' lead attorney said the appellate judges used too narrow a standard for reviewing his clients' due-process claims, and said he is considering an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which must be filed within 90 days."Justice was not done today," said attorney Dan Gustafson. "We're still considering what we are going to do, but, as Gov. Dayton said the other day, we are not going quietly into the night."Among detainees at the MSOP's campus in St. Peter, Tuesday's ruling was met with "a mix of despair and anxiety," said Benjamin Alverson, 41, a sex offender who has been at the MSOP for more than 11 years. Word of the ruling spread through the campus just before noon as clients were heading to the cafeteria for lunch, he said. "There is a feeling that we should just give up, because now we're never getting out," he said. "There were a lot of heavy sighs."Minnesota has long stood out among the states for both the number of sexual predators it commits and for the duration of their confinement without review. During a federal trial in 2015, MSOP administrators admitted they may be detaining untold numbers of offenders who no longer meet the statutory criteria for confinement.In a history spanning more than 20 years, the MSOP has granted conditional discharge to only 14 offenders. Only one person, a 26-year-old confined for sexual acts he committed as a juvenile, has been fully discharged from MSOP, and that did not occur until August of this year.In June 2015, U.S. Judge Donovan Frank in St. Paul declared the MSOP unconstitutional, citing the program's low rate of release and lack of regular risk evaluations of offenders. While Frank stopped short of closing the program, he ordered state officials to make reforms designed to put less-dangerous offenders on a clearer path toward release. These included independent risk assessments of the roughly 720 offenders confined at secure treatment centers in Moose Lake and St. Peter, and the development of more options for housing offenders in the community. The Eighth Circuit Court had stayed these reforms while Frank's decision was on appeal.The threat of more radical sanctions, including the possible shutdown of the program and release of hundreds of offenders, acted as a powerful incentive for state officials to make the program less punitive. A record number of detainees at the MSOP have been moved closer toward release, and a total of 89 are now in dormlike settings on the MSOP's St. Peter campus, the final step before release.However, with the ruling Tuesday, the MSOP will no longer be under constant pressure to demonstrate that its program is not just a punitive system for segregating offenders, say legal experts."This is a train wreck for civil rights," said Warren Maas, an attorney who represents sex offenders. "My concern is that staff at MSOP will ... stop working as hard and just say, 'We're going to let these guys sit because it's the easiest thing to do.' "But in an interview Tuesday, Human Services Commissioner Emily Piper made it clear that her agency would continue with improvements at the MSOP, including pressing forward with millions of dollars in new infrastructure. In his bonding bill last year, Gov. Mark Dayton sought $12.4 million to build two facilities to house discharged sex offenders in the community, as well as $14.5 million to expand housing at a program at St. Peter designed to reintegrate offenders into the community. Dayton also sought funding to conduct more regular assessments of MSOP clients.For his part, Dayton said Tuesday that the ruling "means we can continue to make the reforms that we have started at our own pace ... rather than having it be done under a federal directive."While the governor's funding proposals failed last spring, Piper said she anticipates renewing them. "The need still exists. Nothing in this ruling will change the way we operate this program."Even so, the ruling may reduce pressure on Minnesota and other states to pursue reforms of civil commitment programs that hold offenders beyond their prison terms, said Eric Janus, a law professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law and author of a book on sexual predator laws."This decision will send a signal to states that they don't have to worry too much about the federal courts looking over their shoulders," Janus said. "Essentially, the Eighth Circuit has said: We are washing our hands of any kind of meaningful oversight of this kind of post-prison confinement." Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is pushing an ambitious agenda that includes courting the 2024 Olympic Games, curbing air pollution , fighting homelessness, massively expanding its light rail system, reinventing the citys overcrowded airport and integrating technology into city planning.Much of his liberal vision will almost certainly be at odds with plans from Washington, where President-elect Donald Trump and Republican majorities in Congress will likely push for cutting regulations and federal spending.But so far, Garcetti seems undeterred by the coming changes in the federal government. Since November, he has emphasized what mayors, and the cities they lead, can do on their own to address major issues.The mayor spoke within two interviews (once before the election; once after) about his leadership approach, the challenges posed by the federal government and many of his top policy priorities. The following conversation has been edited for clarity and length.So far, hes been very accessible, and he understands cities. But success wont be judged by how quickly you can talk to somebody. Its whether you can work together to produce results and whether your program furthers our economy, makes our streets safer, invests in our infrastructure -- or whether his policies endanger that.Weve had to already. Cities have increasingly had to go on our own for the last few decades. Ironically, at the time that people are coming back to cities, the federal government has been steadily withdrawing from them. In the '60s and '70s, as people were fleeing cities, the federal government engaged with them. Now that people are going back to them, through Democratic and Republican administrations, the federal government has withdrawn from cities.I told President Obama when the Class of 2013 met with him, If this was in the '60s or '70s, wed be coming to Washington asking for Washington to save American cities. I said, With all due respect, Washington is seen as a lot more broken now. I hope American cities can come here to save Washington. I dont think that has changed.I encourage the president-elect to use the best business practices he knows. Wouldnt you like to have $1 of federal money generate $2 or $3? We had a very good conversation about the importance of investing in urban infrastructure to have a better quality of life and produce jobs. We may add the benefit to the environment to that and may point that out to him. But Im not worried that this is an area he doesnt care about. Hes said it throughout the campaign and, in many ways, I think this is where he wants to lay down his legacy.You know, we are a donor state. Los Angeles and California subsidize projects throughout the country. We help rural Americans get roads and Internet access. We subsidize states in the South with job training dollars to help their economies out. We only get 72 cents back for every dollar we give. The idea of taking more of that away would just be unfair and un-American.Ive never believed that American cities, especially on the coasts, are somehow different than the heartland. Los Angeles is a Rust Belt city that has lost more manufacturing than anyplace else and still has more manufacturing than any other place in America. We know what that feels like when car factories close up. That didnt just happen in the last 10 years, that happened in the last 20 years for us.Increasingly, I think, we know how to put America back on track. We showed that with the vote on Measure M [a 2016 ballot measure that imposed a transportation tax]. Were showing that with innovation from SpaceX to Snapchat to advanced manufacturing. Whether its the goods that come through our ports or the investors and tourists that arrive through our airports, we are a gateway city to America and to its innovation. When L.A. prospers and American cities prosper, our country prospers.Angelenos are in a mood to invest and, like most Americans, theyre frustrated by Washingtons inability to lead. That said, Washington has been a very good partner with us and has co-invested. It used to be that, for infrastructure projects, youd go to the federal government and theyd pay 100 percent of it. Youre lucky if you get 50 percent now. But as long as you can go to the voters, go to the passengers, go to the customers at the airport to make your case, were finding the money. Its not as easy as it once was, but its doable.That model of stepping up local funds first, or being innovative and bringing in the private sector, andgoing to state and federal sources, I think is the model of how were going to do infrastructure.People dont expect mayors to be presidents or doing huge policy initiatives. They expect mayors to run a city well. For L.A., that airport is about economic development, visitors and people coming home. If you can get those three initiatives done well, people feel like, "This city government cares about me. This city government wants me to invest here. The city government welcomes me."In the last year, weve had more jobs, more residents, more visitors, more students than ever in our history. Thats the product I sell, and theyre all at new peaks.This is an Olympics town. It is in our DNA. We dont build things because of the Olympics only and hope the people benefit. We build things for the people and know the Olympics will benefit. But we love the fact that those things are connected, whether thats our public transportation system that were building out or the airport. Everybody loves a deadline, and it helps me push funds, focus and finalize these projects.That said, we have people coming through all the time who are Olympic officials or athletes. We have more Olympic athletes, I think, in Southern California than anywhere in the world. So we want that to be part of our character anyway. It happens to be well-timed for our bid for 2024.L.A. is becoming one of the three or four great hubs of the world, together with the Londons and the Tokyos and the Dubais and the New Yorks. L.A. is this place that is arguably the northern capital of Latin America, the western capital of the United States and the eastern capital of the Pacific. Description GIS - 05 January, 2017: The setting up of a Joint Commission of Cooperation (JCC) to further consolidate the bilateral relations between Mauritius and Kenya was at the fore of discussions this morning during a courtesy call by the Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs and International Trade of Kenya, Dr Amina Mohamed and the Prime Minister, Sir Anerood Jugnauth at the New Treasury Building in Port Louis. The setting up of a Joint Commission of Cooperation (JCC) to further consolidate the bilateral relations between Mauritius and Kenya was at the fore of discussions this morning during a courtesy call by the Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs and International Trade of Kenya, Dr Amina Mohamed and the Prime Minister, Sir Anerood Jugnauth at the New Treasury Building in Port Louis. Both Mauritius and Kenya are expected to benefit from the setting up of the JCC. In a statement following her meeting with the Prime Minister, Dr Amina Mohamed, spoke of the friendly and cordial relations existing between Kenya and Mauritius. She also expressed interest to strengthen both bilateral and economic ties with Mauritius as well as reinforce cooperation in areas of Trade and Commerce, Financial Services, Maritime Security, Education, Health and Regional Integration. Were also on the agenda, the issue of long term business visa to the business community from Mauritius to Kenya and vice versa in addition to improving air links between the two countries. The Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs and International Trade of Kenya, Dr Amina Mohamed, also discussed the putting in place of a mechanism to ensure the smooth implementation of the JCC in the agreed time frame and a proper monitoring following the setting up of the JCC. Earlier this morning, Dr Amina Mohamed had a working session with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade, Mr S. Lutchmeenaraidoo, to discuss and agree on the establishment of the JCC. Minister Lutchmeenaraidoo and Dr Amina Mohamed also exchanged views on possible areas of cooperation between the two countries in the following sectors: blue economy, health services, education, agriculture, financial services, tourism, air services and exchange of expertise between the two countries. Description GIS - 05 January, 2016: Around 600 Senior Police officers of the rank of Inspectors and above participated, on 4 January 2017 at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Indian Culture in Phoenix, in a working session which was conducted by the Commissioner of Police, Mr Mario Nobin. In his presentation, Mr Nobin gave a preview on his vision for 2017 and the roadmap of the Mauritius Police Force towards service excellence. The Commissioner of Police pointed out that the vision of the Police Force hinges on offering a quality service to the population by excelling in service delivery and addressing emerging challenges such as cybercrime and transnational frauds. The theme chosen this year by the Mauritius Police Force is Excellence in Service Delivery. On that score focus will be on trust by winning the heart and mind of the citizen; training of all officers in the Police Force; and utilisation of technology through the introduction of tablets in the mobile patrol teams. According to Mr Nobin training of Police officers will enhance the service delivery in the society whereas the introduction of tablets will assist in getting updated information on those persons wanted by the Police and stolen vehicles, amongst others. On the same day, 954 Police constables, out of which 158 women, received their letters of appointment after two years of training. (TNS) -- The city of San Diego used to have a performance measure for its handling of public records requests.The Human Resources Department, which processes such inquiries, listed percent of public records act requests completed within mandated timeline as a key performance indicator in city budgets.In 2013, about 75 percent were completed in the required 10 days. The measure increased to 84 percent in 2014 and 85 percent in 2015.The figure has not been updated more recently. Measurement of progress on this metric halted earlier this year, when the city rolled out NextRequest, an online portal for residents to request city government documents. The new online tool was touted as part of a transparency push.The online records portal is powered by a San Francisco-based vendor of the same name, at a cost to the city of $22,400 per year.The software allows city officials to track progress toward fulfilling requests by checking an administrative screen, which they do. It also allows for more in-depth monthly reports, which city officials are not using.Officials said they are not using such reports yet to monitor or track progress toward any performance metrics, although they plan to in the future.Because records of the requests are now in a database controlled by a vendor, public access to the requests themselves has declined.U-T Watchdog asked early this year for a log of records requests as part of a region-wide effort to assess open government practices. The city was able to provide a detailed database, which included the requesters name, date received, and details of what was requested.After the launch of NextRequest, city officials said they had no possession of any such documents.To be clear, the PRA request was not denied, said Katie Keach, director of San Diegos communications department. There were no responsive documents.According to Tamara Manik-Perlman, the co-founder and chief executive officer of NextRequest, city staff are able to export data, tracking progress on records requests with the click of a button.An administrative view of NextRequest has a dashboard of basic performance metrics, including the total number of requests that are new, the number that are closed, and the average amount of days to close, Manik-Perlman said. The vendors main website says the portal allows management to make data-driven decisions through analytics and reporting tools.Keach said the city relies only on the dashboard to monitor progress. These performance metrics are not publicly available either.The city does not export any data or generate reports to perform a more in-depth analysis of its compliance and use of resources either, she said.Business performance experts say such reports can help organizations reach efficiency goals.The most important thing that a business can do to improve efficiency is to have a well thought-out business plan, said Larry Miller, president of San Diego-based Business Performance Consultants. And then they need to find out how to track their compliance under that business plan.Keach said the city stopped monitoring its progress toward meeting the 10-day response time, which is required by state law, since more accurate reports would soon be generated through NextRequest.The reports are expected to be generated early next year, she said, but will not be released to the public because the city plans to first confirm the reports are accurate.We have not ruled out the possibility that at some point the reports will be a public record, Keach said. However, our first goal is to ensure that the reporting tool provided by the vendor conveys accurate data.Responding to requests through the online portal represents a massive coordination of city resources.According to a database compiled by U-T Watchdog using information from about 2,1000 requests posted publicly on NextRequest, at least 82 city employees from 45 departments help fulfill requests through the portal. They take an average of 14.5 days.Staff within the Human Resources Department monitors submissions and responses, and reviews all released records.Sacramento County launched its NextRequest portal in January of this year, according to county governmental relations and legislative analyst Elisia Debord.Right now I use it for big-picture monitoring, she said. Im using the information to manage [employees] at the department level, stay in compliance and address issues to avoid late responses.For example, Debord said a team of employees help send reminders to department coordinators when a request is almost due, or has been pending for too long.The group is also notified when a request is marked overdue, which means a department coordinator did not fulfill or respond to the request within 10 days.Debord said that, as in San Diego, staff has yet to export request data and use it for a more in-depth analysis. She hopes to do so in January, when the portal has one years worth of data and staff reconvenes for public records training. When I began my service at Washington State Emergency Management Division back in 1991, Bob Freitag was working for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Region X. We first crossed paths less than a month after I joined the civilian ranks as Bob and another cohort of his were coordinating an earthquake exercise called Response 91B (why I can remember that factoid I don't know).Bob moved on to another career after retiring from FEMA and is now with the University of Washington. I remember a few years back when we were at the same meeting (about the Washington State Resilience Plan) and I heard him make a comment. After he finished speaking I said, "Bob, you have turned into an academic!" An academic with a modicum of practical experience I'll add.Please see his short treatise below that I'm calling a "Guest Blog Post." I can't say that what he says will come true, but his reasoning appears to be on the money from my perspective and could likely be the type of thinking and action we can expect out of the next administration. We'll need a big disaster to prove Bob right or wrong, but I expect that will come along in due time.____________________Will a Trump administration promote community resilience, as has the Obama administration? Will the Trump appointee try to improve a communitys ability to adapt following a disturbance?I think yes, but not as we have been applying the concept. All depends on what community we are talking about. And, the resolve of state and local government.To understand this new administration and how they will view resilience, it is helpful to remember that resilience is value neutral. There are winners and losers after any disturbance. And your team might not be the more resilient.After the Mexico City earthquake, the financial interests were resilient and were able to rebuild and expand at the expense of temporary populations that had no legal claim to their land. After Hurricane Katrina, charter school systems replaced more traditional public education. After hurricanes, often single-family homeowners cannot afford the costs of reconstruction and meeting revised FEMA-imposed higher regulation, and must sell their land. Parcels are then re- assembled by more resilient interests, and developed to increased densities achieving higher and best economic uses.This damage/re-development to higher and best use process often defeats the intended objective of the revised codes resulting in higher densities and placing more people at risk. At least over the short run. Trumps campaign statements, his real-estate practice viewed along with the goals offered by his trusted adviser, the Heritage Foundation, all point to a preference in one key aspect of resilience transformation. We can think of three types of adaptations following disturbances incremental, lurching and transformational. Incremental and lurching adaptions to change assume that the change is stable and understandable. Transformational adaption refers to the pursuit of a new direction. Climate change is anything but understood and stable. Slow changes in the environment (sea level rise) along with increases in extreme events (hurricanes) will offer a bonanza of opportunities for transformational exploitation, especially if actions are unfettered by regulation. And, exploiting such opportunities is what Trump seems to pride himself on.Just think of the increase in transformational opportunities available if a swath of coastline development is destroyed by a storm and homeowners are forced to sell. Resilient financial interests can create an LLC (limited liability company), buy and assemble the land relatively inexpensively, and build apartments and condominiums. Once these are sold, the LLC can be dissolved and all risks transferred to the new owners (and government).You could make the argument that there is nothing wrong with this process. Dont all benefit? The homeowner gets some cash, the developer and his architects and engineers get some profit, government added revenue and more residents can enjoy the coast. It seems very American at first blush.But here is the kicker. What if the shoreline is retreating behind these newly developed properties? What if seas are rising and land subsiding? What if the intensity and frequency of extreme events is increasing? What if the risk of loss is projected to increase yearly and higher sea levels are expected to wash over the property within the life of the building, if not that of the buyer?I feel all would justified if: buyers knew the risks funds for restoration were internalized by the developer life cycle costs and risks were reflected in the sales price structural building design reflected the risk and building life costly attempts at protection are avoided local taxpayers were not left holding the bag and could actually bank the short-term profits.However, how convenient if you have an administration that pooh-poohs climate change, the need for adaptation, climate mitigation and other environmental concerns.Our president-elect has made his money by transforming property to higher economic uses. He feels there is too much limiting regulation in the system today and has expressed little appreciation for the unimproved environment.I feel we can expect increased interest in removing all barriers to transformation to higher and best uses. Think disaster capitalism!Addressing the fallout will be left to state and local government. And government is up to the task if it takes that proverbial bull by the horns and exercises its legitimate and expected control. How Does a U.S. President Settle on His Science Policy? Another Outing For Road X LG Announces Its Airport Guide Robot Boschs Internet of Things Includes Personalization, Smart Cities LAS VEGAS Panasonic officials trumpeted a strategic alliance with Disney theme parks during their Wednesday press conference at CES 2017, bringing none other than Mickey Mouse on stage to do it.But they turned serious, bringing on Denver Mayor Michael B. Hancock to discuss Pena Station Next, the 400-acre residential, mixed-use development that is home to Panasonics Enterprise Solution Division.Smart streetlights that automatically adjust to the time of night and light levels have already gone in. French-made, driverless shuttles will start running this year, and an iconic quarter-mile-long LED sign near the Denver International Airport is planned, Hancock told a packed room at this year's Consumer Electronics Show.Hancock called these foundational opportunities that will be the underpinning for the smart city to come.Were going to continue to evolve. Those opportunities are going to continue to evolve, Hancock said. And we look forward to our solar panels, our solar grid. Thats awesome stuff but its just the beginning.For Joseph M. Taylor, CEO for the Panasonic Corp. of North America, being part of Pena Station Next is one of the things hell be most proud of.This never could have happened without your partnership and support and the support of Governor [John] Hickenlooper, he said.Also during Panasonics Wednesday press conference, Tom Gebhardt, president of Panasonic Automotive Systems Co. of America, discussed the companys involvement in Road X, a joint project with the Colorado Department of Transportation to alert and interact with drivers on Interstate 70.The interstate connects Denver with prime Vail and Aspen ski country but alarmingly, the state has seen a 10 percent year-over-year increase in accidents during the past two years, said state Department of Transportation Director Shailen Bhatt.Were going the wrong way, Bhatt said. Thats the genesis of our Road X program, where we go to the private sector and say, What ideas do you have to make driving safer?Panasonic, Gebhardt said, is bringing some of the same technologies it has used in Japan to work at the state highway, to make highways smarter and safer.Smart 70, one Road X project, will begin to build out smart communication this year on 90 miles of the interstate, Bhatt toldWhat were starting to lay the foundation for is the communication between vehicles with the infrastructure and vehicle-to-vehicle, Bhatt said.Another Road X project, Smart 25, will deploy an algorithm on a 15-mile stretch of northbound Interstate 25 in the Denver metropolitan area, in an effort to cut traffic congestion.A similar effort in Melbourne, Australia, cut urban motorway congestion by 40 percent, he pointed out.I may not get 40 percent," Bhatt said, "but if I can get 20 percent, thats the equivalent of adding a lane."Robotics is one way forward for the Internet of Things that could have interesting implications for public agencies, representatives of electronics giant LG said during their press conference Wednesday at CES.As it unveiled smart refrigerators with interior cameras and intelligent grocery lists at the 50th CES, an LG executive said that later this year, examples of its Airport Guide Robot will greet travelers at Seouls Incheon International Airport.Its an effort not unlike that of Mineta San Jose International Airport, which in October introduced three robots by Future Robot of South Korea. San Joses program, which cost $120,000, hired Norma, Amelia and Piper to tell visitors how to find restaurants and shops via touchscreen.LGs robots may lack colorful names (and their cost wasnt revealed), but theyll do a bit more legwork for weary adventurers.The company said via press release that the robots will answer questions in English, Chinese, Japanese and Korean; offer detailed information about boarding times and gate locations by scanning a ticket; offer weather forecasts; show distances and walking times in the airport; and even escort lost or late travelers to their gates.The electronics companys DeepThinQ machine learning platform will help robots and other appliances make connections, said David VanderWall, vice president of marketing for LG US.LG DeepThinQ, powered by cloud-based big data will enable our appliances not just to be smart," he said, "but to be learning."Also on Wednesday, an official from electronics company Bosch, making its fifth CES appearance, discussed personalizing IoT and smart cities.Werner Struth, a member of the board of management for Robert Bosch GmbH, said the company is more enthusiastic about IoT and things that act as partners with individuals.This is why we see personalization as the next big connectivity front, and we are focusing on coming up with personal, emotional and responsible solutions, Struth said, discussing integrating motorcyclists with their machines through paired smartphone and helmet headsets with handlebar controls.In the years to come, demand for innovative solutions like these will continue to increase," he added. "By 2020, the global IoT market is projected to be worth some $250 billion."Bosch launched an IoT cloud in Germany last year, Struth said, and intends to do the same in the U.S. this year.The company is also working on technology to empower vehicles to find their own parking spots.What is a car without brains, without a smart city, to match it, Struth said. (TNS) -- David Sage has been using Yahoo Mail for the last 20 years. Every day, the 80-year-old San Francisco resident checks his email half a dozen times. A massive data breach affecting his account wont cause him to leave Yahoo.It would be a hassle, Sage said. He would have to move hundreds of contacts to another email service and notify them of his new address, and I dont have time for that.Indeed, Yahoo hasnt seen a major impact on traffic after it disclosed two huge data breaches last year, according to Verto Analytics, which measured mobile and Web traffic on Yahoo sites. One breach, disclosed in mid-December, affected more than 1 billion accounts in 2013 . The other, made public in September, impacted at least 500 million accounts in 2014.We do not believe the news about the data breach affected Yahoos user base or traffic significantly, said Verto CEO Hannu Verkasalo in an email. It certainly has affected Yahoos brand value, but we need to remember that most of todays Yahoo users have used Yahoo services for many years.The Sunnyvale company had nearly 45.7 million users on its services on Sept. 1, several weeks before the company publicly disclosed the 2014 data breach, and it stayed roughly steady despite the announcement. On Dec. 26, the most recent data available and nearly two weeks after Yahoo announced the 2013 breach, the number of users was 38.5 million. Traffic overall was down in mid-to-late December in the range of high 30 million to low 40 million. Verto said the cause could be seasonal, with people not going online as often during the holidays.The number of Yahoo users increased on Dec. 14, when the company announced the 2013 data breach. That probably occurred as users went online to change their passwords, said Patrick Moorhead, president of Moor Insights and Strategy.In October, Yahoo said that user engagement remained about the same or improved on some of its core services after its September disclosure of the 2014 data breach.Were working hard to retain their trust, and are heartened by their continued loyalty, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer said in a statement at the time.The company declined to comment on Vertos report or share new user data.Yahoo has been working toward selling its Internet properties to Verizon for $4.8 billion . Some analysts believe that Verizon may use the security breaches as leverage to negotiate a lower price. One reason Verizon was interested in buying Yahoo was because of its large customer base of more than 1 billion users across on all of its services, analysts said.Verizon declined to comment for this story. We will continue to evaluate the situation before making any final decisions, the company said.We are confident in Yahoos value and we continue to work toward integration with Verizon, Yahoo said.Some analysts believe many Yahoo users will stick with the company because they are longtime users, and its hard to get people to switch unless there is a compelling reason, like a much better service. In the 2013 Yahoo data breach believed to be the largest in the country some users had their security answers and passwords stolen, which could affect their accounts elsewhere. Yahoo said it did not believe that any credit card information was taken.Derek Wing, a 44-year-old resident of Washington state, said he plans to continue using his Yahoo email account. He views the data breaches as more of a nuisance than a danger.Its somewhat alarming, but I dont think its enough to make me switch, Wing said. Old habits die hard. (TNS) -- It could be through a bank or a hospital, an accounting firm or a higher education institution. It could be in a large government agency. Pretty much anywhere personal information is collected, it could be intentionally or accidentally compromised.On Tuesday, the state Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation made public an online archive of data breach notifications affecting Massachusetts residents from 2007 through 2016.The state's Data Breach Security Law, in effect since Oct. 31, 2007, requires businesses and others that own or license personal information of state residents to notify affected residents, the Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation and the office of the attorney general when they know or have reason to know that the personal information of a resident was acquired or used by an unauthorized person, or used for an unauthorized purpose.The updated Public Records Law signed by Gov. Charles D. Baker Jr. in June mandated agencies to post certain public records online, which agencies deemed were of significant interest, so the information can be obtained by the public and news organizations without having to file a public records request.A look at the year-by-year data shows how widespread data breaches are.Consumer Affairs Undersecretary John C. Chapman said the increase in the number of reported incidents since 2007 shows better compliance with the requirement to report breaches.Year-to-year fluctuations in the number of consumers affected reflect spikes from large-scale data breaches.But one thing the report doesn't differentiate online is whether a primary breach occurred, such as a bank's account holders' records being compromised, or whether it was a secondary breach, such as a credit card issued by a bank being compromised when used at a store."If they become aware of a breach, technically they're required to report it," Mr. Chapman said.Regional banks show up extensively in the database, although Mr. Chapman stressed that this reflected their compliance with reporting requirements more than a higher frequency of breaches than national banks.Webster Five, for example, showed more than 5,500 consumers were affected by a breach of credit or debit card information reported in March 2015, as well as several individual reports of breaches throughout the year.In August 2016, 550 residents were affected by another credit or debit breach, which the Telegram & Gazette reported resulted from a skimming device placed on ATMS in Dudley and Webster.The bank reimbursed customers whose debit cards were affected by the fraudulent activity, according to the news story. Credit monitoring was offered to customers as well.A Webster Five representative did not return a call for comment Wednesday.Mr. Chapman said, "They're doing exactly what they're supposed to do (by reporting breaches). It doesn't reflect their compliance efforts."At the other extreme, Bank of America, a large national institution, doesn't show up in recent breach notification reports."We don't have any enforcement mechanism to go after them," Mr. Chapman said. "It's really self-reporting."He added that the reporting differences between local and national businesses, and those reporting primary breaches within their institutions or secondary breaches that they become aware of, is "frankly something that needs to change at the commonwealth level."Some national businesses do appear in the report, such as outerwear retailer Eddie Bauer, which listed 33,450 Massachusetts consumers affected by a credit and debit card breach in August 2016. Free credit monitoring was provided to affected customers.Other large data breaches in Central Massachusetts in recent years include UMass Memorial Medical Group , which in February 2015 reported to the state 13,205 residents could have been affected after a former employee was accused of accessing thousands of patient billing records that contained credit card and debit card information.Anna Maria College had a breach of information from records reported in February 2015, affecting 1,161 residents. College spokeswoman Kay Zimmermann said in an email: "The 2015 data breach was due to an internal user error; it was identified and rectified immediately. All who were affected were notified of the breach. New policies and security equipment since then have been implemented to protect sensitive data."Mr. Chapman said the online archives were expected to raise awareness about data security, and his office has dedicated a full-time staff member to follow up with companies about reporting breaches.He added that the newly released reports were meant to make it easier for consumers and businesses to use, and demonstrated "the governor's commitment to greater transparency.""The information is better than what we had but it's not perfect," Mr. Chapman said. "I think information will get better and better as time goes on." (TNS) -- ALBANY -- The Legislature began its 2017 session on Wednesday with Republicans and Democrats in rare, early agreement: their relationships with Gov. Andrew Cuomo have soured considerably.The tensions have played out via personal battles on social media.There have been public pronouncements by legislators that Cuomo's six-year dominance over the Legislature will be sharply tested this year.There was a Cuomo staffer's text to Assembly Democrats a week ago blaming the GOP leader of the Senate for blowing up talks for a special session in December.And then there was Cuomo's decision to give his annual State of the State speech this year in a series of regional speeches, including next Monday afternoon in Buffalo, instead of before a joint session of the Senate and Assembly.Some lawmakers were upset at the snub, while others planned to boycott Cuomo's State of the State if he does appear before the Legislature,The battle has potential consequences for New Yorkers as discussions will begin soon over a $150 billion-plus state budget and an array of policy issues, from immigration and funding for legal services for the poor to whether to legalize ride-hailing upstate or permit physicians to assist terminal patients end their lives.Lawmakers have been grumbling for years that Cuomo's power was often too willingly ceded by the Legislature, and on Wednesday they provided offered pushback."It's very simple. The legislative power is vested in the Senate and Assembly,'' Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, a Long Island Republican, told reporters after giving an opening day session speech to colleagues that was peppered with vows to ask "tough uestions" of Cuomo's agenda and operations.Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, a Bronx Democrat, said his colleagues are "disappointed" in the Democratic governor for deals that never came together for a December special session. Among them was a pay raise for lawmakers and top state officials, including Cuomo."I wouldn't say we've ceded, but usually you try to go along and get along,'' Heastie said of lawmakers working with Cuomo.Assemblyman Sean Ryan, a Buffalo Democrat, said the Legislature is going to continue working with Cuomo."But having said that, the governor has enjoyed an unprecedented long honeymoon period with both the Assembly and Senate. And all honeymoons come to an end,'' Ryan said.He predicted the lawmakers this year "will begin to reassert their independence as co-equal branches of government.''The signs of discord are on full display. Lawmakers were grumbling that Cuomo gave a speech Wednesday to a group of business executives in Manhattan at the same time -- noon -- as the Legislature opened its 2017 session and Flanagan and Heastie were outlining some of their priorities for the year.Others noted they regretted giving in to Cuomo's push several years ago to weaken the state comptroller's oversight of some state university spending, such as major payments to Buffalo Billion and other projects that are now the subject of the federal prosecution of eight individuals, including people close to the governor.In his Senate opening session speech, Flanagan defended the right of lawmakers to ask "tough questions" and noted how some -- he did not specifically identify Cuomo -- "freak out" when questions are raised over such things as Cuomo's START-UP New York and regional economic development programs."Get over it,'' Flanagan said to a standing ovation from his colleagues.Flanagan vowed the Senate this year will demonstrate it is a separate branch from the executive. He started by raising questions Cuomo's economic development programs. He noted, for instance, that lawmakers have a "lot more talented intellect and better understanding" of local needs than Cuomo's regional councils.Richard Azzopardi, a Cuomo spokesman, responded to Flanagan's criticisms about the councils."Translation: Senator Flanagan didn't get a pay raise so now he wants a return of member items and pork barrel spending. They still don't get it and that's why 70 percent of New Yorkers don't believe they deserve a raise," he said.In his opening day speech, Heastie appeared to remind the Democratic Party's base -- the political left -- that the Assembly has driven progressive-style policies, referring to Cuomo's free college public proposal."The idea of college affordability started right here in this house,'' Heastie said.Heastie said the Assembly will push for higher tax rates on millionaires, a tax first imposed in 2011 but due to expire this year."We must tackle income inequality,'' Heastie said, setting up a brewing tax policy fight with Cuomo.Governors and lawmakers have tussled for as long as there has been a state government.Tensions between the governor and lawmakers seem personal, especially since Cuomo's appointees to a government pay commission last fall rejected a bid to give lawmakers their first pay raise since 1999. Some of the tensions are playing out on social media.The Capitol Pressroom, a public radio show, used Twitter on Tuesday to advance an upcoming interview with Sen. Joseph Griffo, a central New York Republican, and his "call for a check on Gov. Cuomo's power.''Melissa DeRosa, the governor's chief of staff, responded via Twitter: "It's actually quite simple: they didn't get a pay raise.''Griffo responded via Twitter that DeRosa's choice of words was "unfortunate rhetoric.""We don't do it for $, we do it cuz we care but believe in balance of power,'' he added."Yup. Sure,'' DeRosa then wrote.Over the weekend, Cuomo vetoed a bill requiring the state to take over the counties' costs of providing legal services for poor people accused of crimes. Cuomo said it was unaffordable.Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, a Manhattan Democrat, took to Twitter on New Year's Day."Too bad legal services for NYS indigent hasn't got some infrastructure component or ribbon cutting opportunity,'' she wrote.DeRosa again was the Cuomo administration's defender."Do you have $800M we don't know about? Or are you planning to get it by cutting education funding?" [Glick is chair of the Assembly higher education committee.] Jean Alesi has hailed Ferrari's decision to sign up an Italian driver for 2017. GP2 runner-up Antonio Giovinazzi will be the fabled Maranello team's reserve driver this year, a decision that has pleased former Ferrari star Alesi. "It's fantastic," the Frenchman told La Gazzetta dello Sport, "but it would have been astonishing if Ferrari had allowed such an opportunity to escape. "Giovinazzi is a well educated young man, which is rare these days, but above all he is an excellent driver," Alesi added. "He came within a hair of the title in his first GP2 season, now he just needs some good kilometres." Another Ferrari junior, meanwhile, is Alesi's own 17-year-old son Giuliano, but the youngster is staying put for a second season of GP3 this year. "Working with the (Ferrari) academy is a guarantee," said 52-year-old Alesi. "Giuliano can develop without rushing." Asked, however, if his son might make his breakthrough and test a formula one car this year, Alesi answered with defiance. "If necessary, I would lay down in front of the box exit!" he exclaimed. "Giuliano can only think of GP3 for now. "If he wants to get in a F1 car, then we have one at home that he can get in and I will take a photo." (GMM) The platform leverages Watson cognitive capabilities, including deep natural language processing and understanding, to answer questions and provide recommendations as well as directions while en route. The platform also introduces e-commerce capabilities for convenient in-vehicle purchases to make the most of a driver's time, as well as possible future cognitive driving solutions that monitor the vehicle condition for safer driving. At CES 2017, Panasonic Automotive Systems Company of America introduced the Panasonic Cognitive Infotainment platform designed to provide OEMs and fleet providers a set of cognitive vehicle solutions combining Panasonics infotainment expertise with IBMs Watson and cloud technologies. At CES 2017, Panasonic Automotive will demonstrate how the Panasonic Cognitive Infotainment conducts an e-Commerce transaction with a quick service restaurant. In a step-by-step demonstration, CES attendees will see how a meal order can be verbally placed through the infotainment system, paid for from the car and timed for more precise pickup while still driving to the restaurant. Panasonic Automotive was looking to push the boundaries of what in-vehicle infotainment systems might mean to tech-savvy and time-crunched travelers when we approached IBM. Working together, we are creating an enhanced set of cognitive capabilities that can give drivers and passengers a superior, more accurate, just-in-time in-vehicle experience while allowing them to keep mobile. Tom Gebhardt, President, Panasonic Automotive Systems Company of America This new platform is designed in collaboration with both Panasonic Systems Company of North Americaresponsible for more efficient strategic retail business systemsand IBM, leveraging the companys cognitive technology via its Watson APIs. Panasonic Automotive is building on Bluemix, IBMs cloud platform, which enables access to Watson APIs including Conversation, Natural Language Classifier, Text to Speech, Speech to Text and Personality Insights. Bluemix will also enable Panasonic to integrate weather and Twitter data into their solutions to showcase additional insights into the vehicle experience. Our partnership with Panasonic Automotive will enable a greatly enhanced driving experience. Vehicles integrated with the Panasonic Cognitive Infotainment system hold the potential for new industry breakthroughs that provide an intelligent, personal assistant inside the car. David Miller, General Manager, Global Industrial Sector The PCI technology will be on display at CES 2017 in the new Chrysler Portal Virtual Concept at the Panasonic booth and also displayed at IBM's Client Center at the Venetian Hotel. Panasonic, Qualcomm and Android. Also at CES 2017, Panasonic Automotive Systems Company of America and Qualcomm Technologies announced that they are working together to develop a next-generation Android-based in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) system. As part of the demonstration, Panasonic Automotive and Qualcomm Technologies have integrated Android 7.0 features to give drivers a unified experience across an automakers entire vehicle lineup, adjusting for different applications, screen sizes and resolutions. This adaptive user interface design concept is a cost-saving feature that will allow OEMs to optimize their system engineering investments and customize the infotainment system across vehicle lineups. Using a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820Am processor, this concept system is based on the latest version of the Android operating system (7.0 Nougat), which is designed to provide automakers with a superior, high-performing platform to quickly develop cloud-connected infotainment systems, helping accelerate the rate of innovation in both the in-vehicle infotainment experience as well as the connected car. The concept system will demonstrate how new connected services and applications will deliver a safety-focused and intuitive driving experience to consumers. The next-generation infotainment demonstration takes advantage of the high-performing connectivity, multimedia and graphics capabilities integrated into the Snapdragon 820Am automotive processor, including integrated X12 LTE modem supporting up to 600 Mbps downlink and 150 Mbps uplink speeds, integrated location services, power-efficient, custom-built quad-core Qualcomm Kryo CPU, Qualcomm Hexagon 680 DSP, Qualcomm Adreno 530 GPU for video processing capabilities and support for multiple high-definition displays. At CES, Panasonic Automotive and Qualcomm Technologies are showcasing this latest IVI system built upon Androids automotive features that control in-vehicle functions such as HVAC, and demonstrate the integration of Googles services and popular Android applications with the system. This next-generation IVI system concept features the Panasonic Automotive passenger application, which is designed to address the challenges that passengers have when entering navigation destinations or controlling music. President Tran Dai Quang and delegates at the meeting (Photo: VNA) The State leader made the request at a reception for 60 outstanding secretaries of Party cells from the Party Organisation of Central Business Bloc in Hanoi on January 4th. President Quang highlighted the significant role of the Party Organisation of Central Business Bloc in ensuring the Party leadership over the building and developing of Vietnams socialist-oriented market economy. He noted that enterprises under the bloc play an important role in different economic sectors, including industry, trade, service, transportation, construction, agro-forestry, finance-banking and insurance. He expressed delight that over the past 10 years, the Party Organisation of Central Business Bloc have showed strong performance in leading enterprises in implementing political tasks. The leader asked the organisation to continue implementing the Party Central Committees resolution on reforming growth model and enhancing growth quality, labour productivity and economic competitiveness as well as Party building. It should also realise the Politburos direction on stepping up the study and following of President Ho Chi Minhs moral example, he added. Businesses under the bloc need to promote their role as the key force of the economy, contributing to developing the socialist-oriented market economy featuring various forms of ownership and numerous economic sectors with State-owned sector playing a core role and private sector acting as an important driving force./. What are your personal goals for 2017? How will your financial planning support you in achieving them? While you have your New Years cap on, take this chance to make the personal financial resolutions that will get you closer to the life you want. Define your Objectives The SMART model is an effective guide for defining objectives that are: S pecific - so that you know exactly what you are aiming for and how you are going to get there; pecific - so that you know exactly what you are aiming for and how you are going to get there; M easurable - enabling you to keep track of your progress and assess how closely you have really met your goal; easurable - enabling you to keep track of your progress and assess how closely you have really met your goal; A chievable - so that you can take on the challenge with confidence and not become overwhelmed by a task that is too ambitious; chievable - so that you can take on the challenge with confidence and not become overwhelmed by a task that is too ambitious; R elevant - it is easy to come up with an array of good, creative objectives in a free brainstorm, but all of them may not get you to your desired end goal; and elevant - it is easy to come up with an array of good, creative objectives in a free brainstorm, but all of them may not get you to your desired end goal; and Time-bound - deadlines place healthy pressure on you to succeed. For example, "I want to buy a house someday" is a fine goal, but vague. "I want to save $10,000 this year toward a future home purchase" is better. "I want to save $10,000 in down payment money this year toward a future home purchase by increasing my investment income by $5,000 and cutting my expenses by $5,000" is better still. You get the idea. Assess your Situation Honestly and Holistically Review your financial progress over the last year. Are you particularly proud of one or two achievements? Do you wish you could go back and consider any decisions over again? Take a balanced look at your experiences and be frank with yourself about your financial situation and how you got here. Make sure your financial habits correspond to the rest of your lifestyle aspirations. It is a good idea to calculate or review your current net worth. Assessing all your assets and liabilities provides a useful benchmarking tool to prioritize your spending and saving habits going forward. Have you recently undergone a significant life change, such as having a child? Are you, for instance, expecting to retire in the coming year? Ask yourself some of these questions: Income How much did you make last year, and do you expect that amount to grow? Moreover, can you realistically help it grow? How much did you make last year, and do you expect that amount to grow? Moreover, can you realistically help it grow? Expenses How much did you spend last year? Did you have unusual expenses? Are your expenses trending in any direction? Do you have a monthly budget? (If not, you should.) Are your retirement savings included in your regular budget? How much cash do you keep for emergencies, and how much do you need? (Six months of expenses is a typical goal). How much did you spend last year? Did you have unusual expenses? Are your expenses trending in any direction? Do you have a monthly budget? (If not, you should.) Are your retirement savings included in your regular budget? How much cash do you keep for emergencies, and how much do you need? (Six months of expenses is a typical goal). Assets What are your assets and investments, what is their current value, and what portion is liquid? What are some plausible scenarios for investment returns during the year? And are you making maximum use of tax-advantaged investments like a 401(k), IRA, or 529 College Savings Plan? Finally, is your portfolio in need of rebalancing because of changes in your life (such as nearing retirement) or changes in the financial markets? What are your assets and investments, what is their current value, and what portion is liquid? What are some plausible scenarios for investment returns during the year? And are you making maximum use of tax-advantaged investments like a 401(k), IRA, or 529 College Savings Plan? Finally, is your portfolio in need of rebalancing because of changes in your life (such as nearing retirement) or changes in the financial markets? Debts and Credit Do you have upcoming future debts (like paying for a college education) and have you planned for them? What is your average credit card debt and do you pay it off regularly? What is your credit score? Do you have outstanding loans aside from a mortgage? Do you have upcoming future debts (like paying for a college education) and have you planned for them? What is your average credit card debt and do you pay it off regularly? What is your credit score? Do you have outstanding loans aside from a mortgage? Insurance Do you have the proper coverage for your family and possessions? Are your premiums reasonable for the coverage you have, or can you negotiate a better deal? If you don't know the answer to these questions, start with the simple goal of finding them out. This is an important part of setting realistic goals. Don't be surprised if you redefine or sharpen your goals after performing this exercise. Explore Your Options In this digital era, the range and volume of financial resources can seem overwhelming. It might even feel like sipping water from a fire hose! While self-education is a good place to start, don't hesitate to consult with professionals when exploring the full range of investment products and strategies that are available to you. The only stupid question is the one you didn't ask that costs you valuable dollars in the end. Make a Plan and Stick with It This is the toughest and most important part of any resolution. Whatever goal you have, it's likely to require significant financial discipline. Thats why, in consultation with your financial advisors, you should formalize your plan in writing. Give yourself frequent reminders of your goals throughout the year and review your progress. To keep you from extra spending, tie a string around your finger or stick notes to your forehead if you have to (although we would recommend different memory tricks). These are just a few of the many simple steps that can help you live a more prosperous 2017. Our professional community members are always here on MoneyTips.com to discuss more ideas to help you meet your financial goals. As Benjamin Franklin said, "Diligence is the mother of good luck". We wish you all the best for the year ahead. If you want to reduce your interest payments and lower your debt, try the free Debt Optimizer by MoneyTips. The next four years could mark a golden age for startups if, as he promised during his campaign, President-elect Donald Trump loosens regulations and special-interests influence -- and if entrepreneurs hold regulators and policymakers accountable. Related: Trump's Business-Friendly Economic Agenda When the president-elect declared that he would eliminate 70 percent of federal regulations, he attracted quite a bit of rancor from detractors and supporters alike. But from an innovation standpoint, the country could hardly ask for more uplifting news. If the incoming POTUS stays true to his word, businesses will find themselves in a friendly regulatory environment come January 20 (Inauguration Day). And that will be a welcome contrast to the hostile attitude many companies face now. Still, a loosening of regulations shouldnt be seen as an opening for corporations to take advantage of the public. Innovation is good for business and for the economy, so regulators and business leaders should seize the opportunity to collaborate for the enrichment of the country. At the same time, the question raised is: Can campaign rhetoric translate to real change? Under the current system, businesses often spend more resources on regulatory compliance than they do serving customers. Oversight standards are notoriously opaque, and the bureaucratic processes often prevent promising-looking companies from any chance at growth. Donald Trump ran for office on his business expertise; and he has navigated the regulatory landscape himself, so he understands the ways in which certain laws hinder innovation. The down side of Trump's protectionist message on immigration But hes also made concerning remarks about business. His protectionist rhetoric and tough stance on immigration could prevent bright innovators from developing their products stateside. And that's a big issue, because immigrants currently represent half of the founders in Silicon Valley and are responsible for having built the majority of American startups valued at $1 billion and up. As Trump finds a balance between making good on his campaign promises and actually crafting policies, he must be mindful of the important economic roles immigrants play. Trumps talk of mercantilism also raises red flags. Some services are better left outside the United States, so penalizing companies that outsource jobs is the wrong approach to generating domestic job growth. Instead, Trump should focus on reallocating resources to match our countrys strengths. Automation causes more job losses than cheap overseas labor, and theres no reversing that trend. The nation must provide workers with skills that meet new demands in the labor market, rather than chasing low-wage jobs across borders. If Trump is serious about economic stimulation, hell also need to contend with the banking monopolies that maintain a stranglehold on the financial system. Seventy percent of banking assets are controlled by 0.02 percent of banks. Thats a system that cannot survive -- not to mention a system that has no incentive to innovate. But deregulation could redistribute opportunities and spur creativity in the financial market. Regulations tend to consolidate power, while looser regulations decentralize it. The latter is far healthier for consumers in the long term. Related: 4 Lessons Every Entrepreneur Can Learn From Donald Trump Wresting power from the big banks wont be easy. They hold massive political power through incredibly strong lobbyists. And therein lies the crux of the industrys problem: When businesses rely more on political influence than competitive success to survive, the system is broken. Trump needs to make his drain the swamp campaign slogan reality in order to foment meaningful change. Trump-era entrepreneurs Despite the challenges Trump faces, startups and entrepreneurs have reason to be optimistic. The positive reactions of public markets to the election bolstered investors confidence, and thats good news for founders. If Trump loosens both regulations and special interests influence, the next four to eight years could be a golden age for startups. Heres how entrepreneurs can help make that happen: Every year, I take on a personal challenge to learn new things and grow outside my work at Facebook, Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post last year. From picking up a new language to writing a thank-you note every day for a year, each of Zuckerbergs challenges has served a purpose bigger than himself. After what Zuckerberg calls a tumultuous 2016, the Facebook founder has made it his 2017 resolution to visit and meet people in every state in the U.S. by the end of the year. Its his goal to learn how people around the country are living, working and thinking about the future. Facebook has been a social vehicle that has connected the world and given many people a voice. However in some cases it has also created division. Zuckerberg wants to hear different opinions and voices, figure out how he can empower people and help create a better future. Related: 7 New Year's Resolutions to Make 2017 Great Personal, social and business challenges inspire Zuckerbergs yearly resolutions. The challenges never apply to just one area in his life, either -- he makes sure that he will benefit from them in a number of ways. Studying Mandarin Chinese in 2010 helped him communicate for business, learn about a different culture and tackle his lifelong struggles with mastering a new language. When he created an AI system, Jarvis, to control his home in 2016, he found a way to apply his technical skills and todays technology to make his life easier. Check out some of Zuckerbergs most legendary New Years resolutions and discover the larger lessons behind them. 1. Use technology to make your life easier. Zuckerbergs 2016 resolution theme was invention, which is why he challenged himself to create an AI system to run his home. By the end of December 2016, Zuckerberg had successfully built Jarvis -- inspired by Iron Man -- that can control appliances, plays music, recognize faces and even entertain his two-year-old daughter. By utilizing todays technology -- which doesnt necessarily mean building a robot for your house -- and challenging yourself to be more inventive, you can find ways to make your life easier and daily routines more efficient. 2. Educate yourself. You dont need to travel to become cultured. Instead, use the resources around you to educate yourself. In 2015, Zuckerberg challenged himself to read a new book every other week in order to learn about different cultures, beliefs, histories and technologies. Books allow you to fully explore a topic and immerse yourself in a deeper way than most media today, he wrote in a Facebook post. 3. Practice humility. In a world where we email or chat a quick thanks! to someone, Zuckerberg challenged himself to handwrite or email a thought-out thank-you note to someone every day of the year in 2014. Its important to me because Im a very critical person, Zuckerberg told Bloomberg. Making a simple expression of gratitude like this a daily habit will help you develop humility and authenticity. 4. Meet one person a day outside of work. Dont let the walls of your office confine and shape those you interact with. Use your time outside of your 9-to-5 to connect with your local community and meet new people. For his 2013 New Years resolution, Zuckerberg committed to meeting one person a day outside of Facebook. A few months in, Zuckerberg told Fortune, Its going well -- Ive done a bunch of things in the community and just tried to get broader exposure. Related: 8 Steps to Crushing Ridiculous Goals 5. Pay attention to the details. As a CEO and founder, Zuckerberg isnt always responsible for micro-level details, although these smaller aspects are fundamental to Facebooks existence. Thats why he made it his 2012 challenge to code every day in order to better connect with his employees and better understand Facebook at its most granular level, according to Business Insider. 6. Make a sacrifice. Zuckerbergs 2011 challenge was to become a vegetarian and only eat meat that he killed himself. In order to practice thankfulness, I want to be more connected to the food I eat and the animals that give their lives so I can eat them, he posted on Facebook. Practice thankfulness by giving up something that you take for granted every day to realize its importance in your life. 7. Take up something intellectually challenging. In 2010, Zuckerberg challenged himself to learn Mandarin Chinese. He did this not only to better communicate in the business world, but also because this is a language many of his wifes family members speak. He demonstrated his command of the language in a Q&A at Tsinghua University in Beijing in 2015. As a result, Zuckerberg began to erase communication barriers and learn about a different culture, as well as overcome his struggle to learn languages in the past, he said in a Facebook post. 8. Find unique ways to motivate your employees or co-workers. In 2009, Zuckerberg decided that he would swap his sweatshirts and T-shirts for a tie. During tough times when most industries in the U.S. -- and the world -- were cutting back after the 2008 recession, Zuckerberg used his tie as a symbol. Great companies thrive by investing more heavily while everyone else is cutting back during a recession. But great companies also make sure they're financially strong and sustainable. My tie was the symbol of how serious and important a year this was, he said. Related: What You Can Learn From Mark Zuckerberg's Past New Year Resolutions World's Biggest Tech Company is Changing Its Focus From AI to Globalization Why Instagram Won 2016 and Snapchat Didn't Copyright 2017 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved Photo for illustration In December alone, imported CBU autos rose sharply with about 16,000 units, the highest number since the beginning of the year, valued at USD227 million. However, GSO reported, imported CBU units in December are small models with low value. Each imported unit was worth USD14,190, much lower than that of October and November with average import value of USD18,000 and USD15,833, respectively. Earlier, according to the General Department of Customs, in 11 months, Vietnam imported more than 98,800 CBU units, worth USD2 billion with Thailand, the Republic of Korea (RoK) and India being the three biggest markets exporting cheap CBU units to Vietnam. Specifically, the country imported nearly 30,400 units from Thailand, worth USD569 million, 17,900 units from the RoK, worth USD270 million and 16,800 units from India, worth USD361 million./. the inside game The Most Important Senate Race Is Also the Most Ignored The Most Important Senate Race Is Also the Most Ignored A total of 45 new banks have added support for Android Pay, Google's mobile payments service. The list includes Avidia Bank, Bridgehampton National Bank, Denmark State Bank, Freedom National Bank, Norwood Bank, and Scottrade Bank. To see if your bank now supports the service, head to the Source link below. Android Pay was first launched by Google in the US, something which happened back in September 2015. Since then, the service has been steadily launching in other markets around the world. In the last few months, the service has arrived in New Zealand, Poland, and Ireland. Source | Via Coolpad released an oddball phone - the Conjr. Its a $180 phone that offers some really top notch specs but a strange choice of chipset derails the whole thing. The Coolpad Conjr has a sleek metal body with 2.5D glass on the front (70.6% screen-to-body ratio). The screen, by the way, is a 5 IPS LCD of 720p resolution. Its camera department is particularly impressive, the main camera has a 13MP sensor and OIS, while the selfie cam has an 8MP sensor. Both cameras have LED flash and f/2.2 aperture. Theres even a fingerprint reader on the back. And heres where it goes wrong - the Conjr has a quad-core processor (Cortex-A53) clocked at a mere 1GHz. Thats it! And it cant even record 1080p video, capping the camera at 720p. Theres plenty of RAM - 3GB! - but that feels like too much for a lowly CPU like that. The Conjr runs Cool UI 8.0 (based on Android 6.0) and has 16GB of built-in storage, expandable through the microSD slot. Note that its a hybrid slot, the microSD replaces the second SIM. Yep, this is a dual-SIM phone with LTE connectivity (150Mbps) and 9 hours of talk time on 3G with the 2,500mAh battery. Coolpad Conjr Theres no word on launch date yet, but the phone will work with GSM carriers in the US (AT&T, T-Mobile) and there should be a Gold version later on. Source Following a bit of a controversy regarding its initial decision to seemingly not send out the final update for the Galaxy Note7, Verizon then changed its mind and announced it would just be skipping the holiday season. The carrier's release date for the infamous update was set as January 5, and guess what day today is? That's right. From this point on all remaining Note7 units purchased from Verizon will be receiving the software update that, once installed, will prevent the phones from charging. The message you can see in the screenshot to the left will pop up letting owners know what's about to happen. The new software build version is MMB29M.N930VVRS3APL2. AT&T's rollout was also planned for today, but so far it doesn't look like it's started. It might just be a matter of hours, however. T-Mobile was the first to issue the update last month, while Sprint will send it out starting on January 8, concluding the rollout for the Big Four carriers in the US. Samsung is currently doing all it can to ensure that it gets back even the last few Note7 units that remain in the wild. In its home of South Korea it will push an update that will limit charging to 15%, as we found out earlier today. Via Photo: VNA During the reception, Mr. Thuong congratulated and appreciated the significance of the recent 6th plenum of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, adding that as the Communist Party of Vietnam and the Communist Party of China share a lot of similarities, it is necessary to increase exchanges and cooperation at work, in order to increase the leading capacity of the two Parties. Regarding cooperation in popularization work and management of the press, Mr. Thuong suggested that the two sides should continue to efficiently carry out the cooperation mechanism between the two PCC Commissions on Popularization and Education; increase cooperation among communications agencies; and further discuss experience sharing about the management of the press and cyber security. Ambassador Hong Xiaoyong congratulated Mr. Thuong for being selected as a member of the Politburo during the 12th Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam, expressing his belief that Mr. Thuong, in his new position, will make greater contribution to developing the relationship between the two Parties, countries and peoples. He also informed Mr. Thuong of the significant developments in the relationship between the two countries, especially the exchange of high-ranking delegations, the cooperation between the two Parties and State, economic and commercial and investment cooperation, and the exchanges between the two peoples and press agencies. He confirmed that the Chinese Party, Government and people attach great importance to boosting the relationship with Vietnam, and that he will be willing to do his utmost to foster the relationship between the two Parties, countries and peoples./. On Jan. 3, Haitis Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) published the final results of the Nov. 20, 2016 presidential election, and there was no surprise. As contested preliminary results had suggested, Jovenel Moise, the candidate of former president Michel Martellys Haitian Bald-Headed Party (PHTK), won a first-round victory with 55.6% of the 1,062,839 valid votes cast. Shockingly, the former banana exporter, 48, known as Neg Banann or Banana Man, won power with only 9.55% of Haitis 6.2 million electorate, a total of 590,927 votes. (In contrast, former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide won with 1.6 million votes in 1990 and 2.2 million in 2000.) In fact, if one adds the 57,824 voided ballots to the valid ones, only 1,120,663 people had their votes counted, 18.11% of the electorate. This sets a new record low presidential election turn-out for Haiti and the Western Hemisphere. Therefore, a stunning 81.89% of Haitian voters were either not counted, prevented from voting, discouraged about voting, uninterested in voting, or refused to vote in protest against the continuing presence of the 3,000 troops and policemen of the United Nations Mission to Stabilize Haiti (MINUSTAH). This latter category of non-voters believe that no truly free, fair, and sovereign election can take place under a foreign military occupation, especially one that is acting on behalf of the U.S., France, and Canada, the three imperial powers most politically and economically invested in Haiti. The CEPs announcement of final results came immediately following the ruling of a five-judge National Electoral Challenges Court (BCEN), which found that there was no massive fraud, but the analysis of 12% of the voter tallies [proces verbaux or PV] revealed irregularities which could not affect the outcome. The random tally sheet review came in response to legal challenges by the three runners-up: Jude Celestin of the Alternative League for Progress and Haitian Emancipation (LAPEH), an affiliate of former president Rene Preval, who received 19.57% of the vote; Moise Jean-Charles of the Dessalines Children (Pitit Desalin) party, a Lavalas break-away, who got 11.04%; and Dr. Maryse Narcisse of Aristides Lavalas Family Political Organization (FL), who garnered 9.01%. After reviewing close to 1,300 PVs, the BCEN flagged only 78 of them as having irregularities, mostly poorly written or calculated totals for the candidates. Of those, they disqualified 70. Therefore, there was a difference of 7,103 votes (valid plus voided) between the final results and the preliminary ones, which had been announced on Nov. 28, 2016, auguring Mr. Moises win. In the end, 1,305 tally sheets were disqualified, 118 were never received at the Vote Tabulation Center (CTV), and 10,565 were counted. Out of the 27 presidential candidates who ran, the bottom 23 combined only amassed 4.78% of the vote. Three of the nine CEP members had abstained from signing off on the preliminary results, but all nine signed the final tally. Pitit Desalin and LAPEH questioned the partiality of the BCEN judges and refused to recognize the CEPs final results. The FL announced that it was suspending its legal challenges. The PHTK and other right-wing parties allied with it also dominated the parliamentary elections. Of 24 House of Deputies races, the PHTK won five seats, while its allies in KID, KONA, and Bouclier won five. In contrast, the FL won two seats, and Pitit Desalin one. Meanwhile, in three Senate run-offs where the top two finishers win seats, the PHTK took two seats, in the North and Center departments, while the infamous paramilitary DEA fugitive and PHTK ally Guy Philippe of Consortium was elected for the GrandAnse department. Boucliers Nawoon Marcellus, a former Lavalas deputy, also won a Senate seat for the North department. In ten other Senate first round races, the PHTK was leading in six, while its confederates in AAA, KONA, and Bouclier were leading in three. The final legislative run-offs are scheduled for Jan. 29. Haiti - Diplomacy : The diplomatic corps congratulates the new President of Haiti In a note, the diplomatic corps accredited in Haiti (Core Group) congratulates the newly elected President of Haiti Jovenel Moise and encourages all actors to work constructively towards the completion of the electoral cycle. "Sandra Honore, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the other members of the Core Group (the Ambassadors of Brazil, Canada, France, Spain, the United States of America and the European Union, and the Special Representative of the Organization of American States) take note of the publication of the final results of the 20 November 2016 Presidential and partial Senate elections and congratulate President-elect Jovenel Moise. The Core Group welcomes the leadership of the process provided by the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) and encourages all actors to respect the final results and to work constructively toward the peaceful completion of the electoral cycle, in keeping with the provisions of the Electoral Decree and the established calendar. The members of the Core Group look forward to the inauguration of the President-elect on 7 February and to working with the new administration in effective partnership in the interest of the people of Haiti." HL/ HaitiLibre Haiti - Elections : Congratulatory messages from Europe European Union Following the official confirmation of the election of the new President of Haiti, Jovenel Moise https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-19698-haiti-presidential-2016-final-results-jovenel-moise-58th-president.html Federica Mogherini, the High Representative and Vice-President of the European Union, declared in an official note : "I congratulate the elected President of Haiti, Jovenel Moise, following the announcement by the Provisional Electoral Council of the final result of the presidential elections. I am confident that under his presidency Haiti will benefit from the political stability and good governance that the country so badly needs. All political forces should now look to the future and work together for the well-being of the country and its people. It is urgent to face the many challenges in terms of the rule of law, citizen security, justice and respect for human rights, and to improve the living conditions of the population, aggravated by the devastating passage of hurricane Matthew. The European Union is fully mobilized and will continue to support Haiti in all its efforts to redress [...]" France Statement by Mr Jean-Marc Ayrault, Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Development : "I warmly congratulate Mr Jovenel Moise, whose election to the presidency of the Republic of Haiti has just been confirmed after a democratic electoral process. [...] I hope that these definitive results will enable Haiti to emerge from the institutional crisis and to devote itself fully to the challenges that affect the daily life of the population. As I said last month, when I was traveling to Port-au-Prince and Jeremie https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-19556-haiti-politics-france-can-do-better-dixit-jean-marc-ayrault.html Haiti can be assured of the support of France in this new stage, which will allow us to work together to strengthen the bonds of friendship and cooperation that unite our two countries and our two peoples." Kingdom of Spain "The Government of Spain congratulates the Haitian Provisional Electoral Council for the official publication of the final results of the presidential elections which took place on 20 November. With the publication of these results, the Haitian electoral process is successfully concluded, which will allow the democratic renovation of the Haitian institutions and the investiture of the democratically elected President. The Spanish Government conveys its most cordial congratulations to the newly elected President of the Republic of Haiti, Jovenel Moise, for his victory in the presidential elections and expresses its firm commitment to continue to work closely with the new Haitian authorities for democratic consolidation and economic and social development of Haiti [...]" See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-19705-haiti-politics-portrait-of-jovenel-moise-58th-president-of-haiti.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-19699-haiti-flash-address-to-the-nation-of-president-elect-jovenel-moise.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-19698-haiti-presidential-2016-final-results-jovenel-moise-58th-president.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-19690-haiti-flash-bcen-rendered-its-final-decision.html HL/ HaitiLibre Haiti - News : Zapping politics... Communal Electoral Bureau burned On the night from 3 to 4 January, the Communal Electoral Office (BEC) of Grand-Goave was burned by unknown... Liberation of Haitians in DR The Consulate General of Haiti in Higuey has arranged for the release of a group of 13 of our compatriots, that the Dominican authorities Immigration held in an illegal ways. Final results published in Le Moniteur The Executive made published in a special issue of the Official Journal Le Moniteur dated January 4, 2017 "the final results of the elections of November 20, 2016". FPH recommends caution to new President Pastor Sylvain Exantus, President of the Protestant Federation of Haiti (FPH), wishes good luck to the new legitimate president of Haiti and pleads for an opening government. "I congratulate Jovenel Moise for having won the longest electoral race in Haiti [...] Jovenel Moise must be careful. He should not allow himself to be monopolized by a small group of men who are likely to attempt this act. He must never forget that he is the President of all Haitians." Rain of congratulations "Haiti is the only winner of the long electoral process. Let us unite and support our new President Jovenel Moise so that Haiti can regain its dignity. I congratulate Jovenel Moise elected 58th President of Haiti [...]" said Edmond Bocchit, Ambassador of Haiti in London. "Congratulations to President-elect Jovenel Moise," declared Eric Jean Baptiste, a presidential candidate under the banner of the "Movement for Socialist Action" (MAS), which had given its support to the Pitit Dessalin Party. Jean-Gabriel Fortune, Mayor of Les Cayes, congratulated the new President of Haiti "I extend my congratulations to Mr. Jovenel Moise, the elected president of the Republic of Haiti" "I salute the victory of President Jovenel. The Chamber of Deputies is ready to work with you President, to improve the conditions of our brothers and sisters," declared Cholzer Chancy, Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies. "The Embassy of Haiti in Canada welcomes the victory in the first round of the candidate of the PHTK, Mr. Jovenel Moise, and congratulates him warmly," said Frantz Liautaud, Ambassador of Haiti to Canada. "I welcome the victory of the new President Jovenel Moise. Progressive forces in Parliament will be at his side to serve the people," stated the Deputy of Delmas Gary Bodeau, Quaestor of the Lower House Office. HL/ HaitiLibre Login or sign up to follow actresses, movies & dramas and get specific updates and news Login Sign Up New Ad-free Subscriber Login Email Password Password Username Your E-mail will only be used to retrieve a lost password. Stay logged in Help The latest FEMISE publication, "Corporate Performance in Transition: The Role of Business Constraints and Institutions in the South Mediterranean Region", is structured in three parts.After ha ving analysed the knowhow and constraints of companies located in the Middle East and North Africa, the report goes on to examine the case of Egyptian companies, looking at the obstacles impeding their performance.The third part of the report, coordinated by economics professor Inmaculada Martinez-Zarzoso, underlines the importance of governance in companies' ability to export or import.As part of the study, the FEMISE economists looked at bilateral exports between 189 trading partners and 19 exporting countries between 1996 and 2013. It transpires that, while democracy and well-functioning institutions are a prerequisite, the business environment not only has an influence on productivity, but also has an effect on the performance of the economy as a whole. Trading environment and institutional framework impact both corporate performance and the country's economic vitality. 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 Hawaii Earns a C on State Report Card, Ranks 25th in Nation From Education Week, December 30, 2016 (excerpts) This year, Hawaii finishes 25th among the 50 states and the District of Columbia, with an overall score of 73.8 out of 100 points and a grade of C. The nation as a whole posts a grade of C. Diving into the findings for the three graded indices, Hawaii earns a C-plus in the Chance-for-Success category and ranks 27th. The average state earns a C-plus. Because Hawaii is a single-district jurisdiction, it is not issued a grade for school finance, which analyzes the distribution of funding across districts within a state. For the K-12 Achievement Index, last updated in the 2016 report, it finishes 32nd with a grade of D-plus. The average state earns grades of C and C-minus in School Finance and K-12 Achievement, respectively. More details on results in these categories are reported below. Hawaiis 2017 Highlights Report includes summarized results based on each of the nearly 40 indicators that make up Quality Counts overall grading rubric. Tables with the full results are available in PDF form below: - Grading Summary - Chance for Success - School Finance - K-12 Achievement * * * * * HNN: Hawaii earns 'C' for education quality, future outlook Flashback, Blue Jay Wireless July 23, 2016: Feds Nail $2M Tribal ScamThousands Got Free Hawaiian Homelands Cellphones AUW: Find Discounted Utility Services from Blue Jay Wireless FCC: Lifeline Program gives schemers $18.50 per phone, per month * * * * * Blue Jay Wireless and Aloha United Way Partner Up to Help Homeless in Hawaii News Release from Blue Jay Wireless, LLC CARROLLTON, Texas, Jan. 3, 2017 -- Blue Jay Wireless, in Hawaii, partnered with Aloha United Way of Hawaii nearly a year ago and that has afforded them the ability to reach out to many who may qualify for Lifeline service. It is another way to meet the needs of potential customers, in addition to a local event or other location sites for distribution. The partnership brings two recognizable organizations together in the community to help a population that is in need in the state of Hawaii. Blue Jay has also partnered with many other non-profits and human service organizations in the Aloha State. Hawaii is a paradise to many, but it still has a number of homeless that struggle from day to day to keep up with society's demands. In Hawaii, human service and government officials associate Blue Jay as a potential communications solution for them and their clients. Blue Jay Regional Manager Hawaii, Patrick Campbell notes, " In essence, we are doing business that is in line with federal, state, and local government initiatives and efforts to end poverty and homelessness in America, and specifically, Hawaii. What an awesome thing." (PRNewsFoto/Blue Jay Wireless, LLC) Aloha United Way of Hawaii recently approached Blue Jay Wireless Hawaii and proposed a tandem financial contribution to support their upcoming efforts to give a waterproof zipper pouch to those that are literally homeless, without the assistance of a shelter, during the upcoming 2017 state-wide Point in Time Counts/Surveys (PITS). On January 31st, HS Case Managers from all over Hawaii will be in the field supporting these efforts. The homeless people they encounter in the field during PITS will receive one of these pouches. PITS counts are done each year to help State Government locate and count the "literally homeless" and attempt to educate them on resources, as well as collect information that is instrumental to better understand and manage their efforts to end homelessness in Hawaii. Each pouch will sport the Blue Jay logo to let them know who they can turn to for communication service. The pouches will include information about Blue Jay Wireless, including website address, local phone number, and some event site locations they can find Blue Jay Samaritans and representatives. Aloha United Way of Hawaii will provide other resource information in the pouch, as well. All in an effort to assist the homeless with information and potential access to important resources, including cell phones and service. This is a great effort by Blue Jay and the Aloha United Way of Hawaii to help in the fight to assist the homeless and end homelessness altogether. Blue Jay sets themselves apart as the socially conscious distributor of technology. They have become a beacon of hope in Hawaii for those who need a way to stay connected in a fast-paced world. Blue Jay Wireless serves Hawaii, as well as 17 other states and territories, providing Lifeline service to those who qualify. ---30--- Flashback, Blue Jay Wireless July 23, 2016: Feds Nail $2M Tribal ScamThousands Got Free Hawaiian Homelands Cellphones >In the second of a three part series, Nigel Purse outlines how to appeal to your CEO's emotional triggers to secure engagement on their agendaIts more than just the in thing. Employee engagement strategies have gathered a significant following in recent years, much to the improvement of business strategies everywhere. The working environment and its expectations on employees are ever-changing, and keeping employees motivated, performing well, and on the ball is essential. Yet, even though industry professionals such as David McLeod and Gallup have publicised the practical benefits of employee engagement, managements interest is fading.It is likely that you will not get much through to your CEO by talking a bunch of statistics at them they need something to connect the issue to them emotionally. In spite of their primary aim to make money, and their acknowledgement that (in theory) it is worth the time and money, facts and figures are usually not enough to motivate them truly.A simple understanding of a psychological concept - that of the fight or flight reflex can help you to better relate ideas and suggestions to your CEO. When faced with stimulus that is likely to cause us negative effects, it is a natural reaction to fight or avoid it in some way, and vice versa. We are naturally attracted to positive and secure influences, and are likely to respond much better to open and trusting conversation than to managerial jargon. Being persuasive doesnt come into play here its all about initiating a comfortable line of dialogue about feelings.Experts have identified three main emotional drivers that motivate the behaviour of those in management roles autonomy, reputation and legacy. Finding ways to stimulate these drivers without triggering the flight reaction will provide both parties with a much more level ground.Research conducted into human behaviours have shown that autonomy is often a central focus to our motivation, and consequently, in our engagement and performance too. Many CEOs savour this autonomy in an effort to protect their authority and turf from external influences, who may not be there to voice the most pleasant news. By the time it works its way up this chain, employee engagement makes every level of person happy, from customer up to manager. Employees are given new hope by their CEOs fresh approach and the positive feedback of customers; CEOs can then take pride in the happy and productive working environment they are head of; further than this, investors and shareholders can see that they made a wise investment, and continue a well-functioning business partnership.Reputation is often a priority for CEOs and others in managerial positions. The ways in which they are viewed and valued by their peers, superiors and employees are central to their feelings of worth as a leader. Being known, publicly and privately, as a fair, decent and compassionate business leader who maintains high standards and employee satisfaction is desirable to many. Achieving the status of being respected by others is a key factor to the CEO mentality.While current reputation is important, arguably more so is the legacy that CEOs will leave behind. Published reports from the last year or two detail CEOs average tenure times between 4.9 years and 9.7 years. During this relatively brief period, many CEOs feel it essential to establish a legacy, a praise attached only to those who made tangible and lasting changes for the better, who made their mark on the company. The introduction of employee engagement can be a major step in the direction of legendary status.Giving careful consideration to these emotional drivers when relating to your CEO will prepare you well for their responses. Take care not to apply these changes too forcefully, but take steps to involve employee engagement far more in your business strategy, and the rewards will soon become evident.Nigel founded The Oxford Group in 1987 following a career in HR and business management with the Mars Corporation and Burmah Oil (now part of BP). The Oxford Group is a people-focused business driven by a passion for helping organisations get the best from their people, unleash hidden talent and successfully manage their business through times of change. Since 2015 The Oxford Group has been part of The City & Guilds Group , a global leader in skills development, which enables people and organisations develop their skills for personal and economic growth. For more information, visit www.oxford-group.com By Jesse Wood The Linville Gorge Wilderness area has become so popular that rangers gave out parking tickets for the first time in a long time this past year, according to Grandfather District Ranger Nicholas Larson. While exact visitation numbers arent available, Larson said hes noticed a clear uptick in visitation from all sorts of folks enjoying the Linville Gorge, from backpackers and climbers to hunters and anglers to tourists and leaflookers, over the past couple years. Its been huge. Weve seen obvious marked increases in visitation in the past two years, and the hard part, one of the challenges we have, is providing parking and access for the number of people coming, especially during peak leaf season, Larson said. Both of the access roads into the Linville Gorge are two-lane roads. While spillover parking isnt usually a big deal, Larson said the situation becomes a safety hazard whenever an emergency vehicle or a full-size pickup truck cant navigate the area. Weve put up No Parking signs along some of the areas, Larson said. Giving a citation is the last resort. Larson said that the hope is to expand parking at the Linville Falls area in the future. But the Table Rock area is a tough one because you cant make the mountain any bigger, Larson said. We are hoping in the next year to figure out some creative ways to better accommodate folks, Larson said. But in the interim we cant block traffic and we cant limit access. Larson said that folks can park along the road where there are wide spots and pull offs without hindering traffic. He also suggested folks plan ahead, knowing that with the popularity of the gorge, the area will be packed on, say, a sunny Saturday. Maybe find a little less beaten path to explore, Larson said, whether thats a less-travelled trail in the Linville Gorge or another national forest area in the region, such as Wilson Creek, Big Lost Cove, Catawba Falls and more. Lynn Willis, an outdoor enthusiast and photographer, visits the Linville Gorge frequently. Willis noted that this past year, hes never seen so many people on either side of the gorge in my life. The parking area for Hawksbill has overflowed so far down in both directions on the side of the road that I couldnt believe it. And this past fall during peak leaves, I saw the biggest cluster jam Ive ever seen around the West side parking lot for the Linville Falls, Willis noted in an email. I even heard of people parking at Famous Louisas restaurant and walking to the falls from there. This past fall, Willis said he also saw dozens and dozens of trucks, just from bear hunters alone, along Kistler Road. In the end, Larson said its better to be popular than not. We certainly dont want to exclude people from the national forest, and were trying to get this cleaned up, Larson said. Well certainly take them. The thing I worry about is making sure people are having a good experience out there and if somebody breaks a leg and an ambulance cant get to them, [thats not good]. According to the U.S. Forest Service page on the Linville Gorge Wilderness area, the following are parking areas for the eastern and western rims of the gorge: Eastern Section: The first parking area is for Devils Hole Trail (Sitting Bear), two miles from Gingercake Acres. The second parking area is for Hawkbill (parking area on left and trail on right) one mile from Devils Hole. The third parking area is for Spence Ridge and North Table Rock trails, one mile from Hawkbill. Western Section: Parking lots accessing the western section of the gorge lead off Kistler Memorial Highway. Replacing Wooden Barriers with Boulders Visitors to the gorge recently might have noticed some boulders taking up parking spaces. This is only temporary, as these boulders will replace aging wooden parking barriers in the near future. Towards the end of January, heavy equipment will be used for the work and the parking areas for Hawskbill and Spence Ridge trailheads will be closed for two days during the construction activity. Cathy Dowd, a spokesperson for the National Forests of North Carolina, said that an alert will be sent out once the specific days are scheduled for the work. Once finished, the routine maintenance will open up a few additional spots that werent available previously. Share this: Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Reddit Pocket Statistics Finland reported late last month that a total of 48,810 births were registered in the country between January and November of 2016, representing a decline of almost 2,500 from the corresponding period in 2015 and one of 4,000 from the corresponding period in 2014. Esa Iivonen, a senior expert at the Mannerheim League for Child Welfare (MLL), has voiced his concerns about the continuing decrease of births in Finland. It's terribly lot, especially because it has taken place in two years, states Iivonen. The decrease in the number of births is attributable primarily to three factors, he estimates: the difficulty of finding a suitable partner, the deteriorating labour market position of young people and political decisions. There's certainly a trend of individualisation, says Iivonen. People don't have a partner to have children with and finding one is increasingly difficult. The difficulties of finding a suitable partner are compounded by the tendency of men and women to gravitate towards different careers and by regional differences in the proportion of men and women in the population rural areas being home to a higher proportion of young men and urban areas to a higher proportion of young women. The deteriorating labour market position of young people can similarly have an effect on the birth rate, according to Iivonen. Whenever young people find it more difficult to enter the labour market, it naturally has an effect on whether or not [they decide] to have children, he explains. He believes spending cuts can similarly have an impact on the willingness of couples to have children. The Finnish Government, he points out, has adopted a number of spending cuts with ramifications for the younger generations, such as the cuts in the student allowance, child benefits and early-childhood education. Families with young children are in a tough spot, he summarises. Iivonen urges policy makers to take action to address the drop in the number of births by, for example, increasing immigration. We'll have to increase immigration considerably, with the birth rate dropping so sharply. The question then becomes, is the country willing to increase immigration? he says. How will we be able to pay pensions in the future, if the generations in employment are notably smaller? Where will we find the employees and taxpayers? The Ministry of Finance should really be concerned about the development. The Finnish population is nevertheless growing. Statistics Finland's preliminary data also indicate that the population grew by 16,039 over the first eleven months of last year to 5,503,347. The population growth is a result of immigration. The surplus of births over deaths has continued to become smaller, reminds Iivonen. Aleksi Teivainen HT Photo: Mikko Stig Lehtikuva Source: Uusi Suomi The reason [for my resignation] has to do with the challenges of time use. A person employed in an executive role in the private sector has limited possibilities to concentrate on municipal decision-making, he explains in an interview with the commerce-oriented newspaper. Lasse Mannisto, the chairperson of the National Coalition Group on the Helsinki City Council, will resign from politics, reports Kauppalehti . Mannisto, who was named the head of outsourcing services at Mehilainen in 2015, says he will relinquish the leadership of the National Coalition Group in January and not run in the municipal elections in April. Mannisto was rising rapidly to political power until August, 2014, reminds Helsingin Sanomat. He won a seat in the Finnish Parliament at the age of 29 and was appointed as the chairperson of the largest political group on the Helsinki City Council while only in his second term as a councillor. He was later an integral part of overhauling the spending guidelines and organisational structure of the City of Helsinki. He then made what he describes as a mistake. He applied for the position of Deputy Mayor for Social Affairs and Public Health vacated by his close friend Laura Raty (NCP), who was appointed as the Minister of Social Affairs and Health to the Government of Alexander Stubb (NCP). The planned re-shuffle provoked such a public uproar that Mannisto ultimately decided against resigning his seat in the Parliament and applying for the position. I consider the situation that it created a personal mistake, Mannisto says to Helsingin Sanomat. A more talented politician could've avoided the risks and pitfalls and wouldn't have applied for the position. The upcoming municipal elections will also effectively decide the next Mayor of Helsinki. Mannisto reveals to Kauppalehti that he hopes that Jan Vapaavuori (NCP), a Vice-President of the European Investment Bank (EIB), will consider becoming the mayoral candidate for the National Coalition. I personally hope that Vapaavuori will be available as a mayoral candidate. He has the skills to lead the city, states Mannisto. Aleksi Teivainen HT Photo: Antti Aimo-Koivisto Lehtikuva Source: Uusi Suomi Cancer survivor Cormac Clancy, lecturer Dr Antoinette Perry, Grainne ORourke of the ICS, and survivors DJ Louise McSharry and rugby player Tony Ward at the campaign launch. Photo: Andres Poveda/Andres Poveda Photography Ltd By 2020, one in every two people will receive a cancer diagnosis at some point in their life, a leading charity has warned. The Irish Cancer Society (ICS) says that some 40,000 people are diagnosed with the disease each year in Ireland, with the figure on the rise. The harrowing statistics come as the charity launched what has been deemed as a "shocking" television advertising campaign in an attempt to get viewers to sit up and take notice. The "I Want to Get Cancer" campaign took two years to put together. The aim is to get people to tackle cancer and its symptoms before it becomes too late and to get their symptoms checked at an early stage. Head of communications at the ICS Grainne O'Rourke told the Herald that a large number of families who have been affected by cancer were consulted during the creation of the advertising campaign. She said it was imperative that they put together a bold campaign that would get people talking. "It's a hard-hitting, impactful campaign," she said. "The rationale behind it is that getting a cancer diagnosis is hard-hitting and very impactful and we have been trying to figure out how we can get people to understand that the fear they feel around cancer, the misinformation, can all be removed and people can be empowered to get the right information about cancer." Ms O'Rourke said that close to 150 people are diagnosed with the disease each day. Lecturer in cancer biology at University College Dublin, Dr Antoinette Perry, said that the increase in diagnoses is down to a number of different factors. "The survival rates in cancer are improving - we've seen survival rates almost double," Dr Perry said. "So now we see six out of 10 people who are diagnosed with cancer are surviving more than five years after their diagnosis. "It [the increase in diagnosis] is multifactorial. Awareness "We have an ageing population, so age is a factor for a number of different cancers. "There's also improving awareness, so more people are being diagnosed. "One example is prostate cancer, where we have seen a dramatic increase in incidents, but that is because we have better detection methods," she added. One such survivor is former Irish rugby player Tony Ward. Mr Ward has encouraged men in particular not to be afraid to get themselves checked. "I don't know whether it's a cultural thing, a societal thing, but we are very slow to talk about things, we're very slow to act upon little signs that are there, and I was that person," he said. Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) has raided an enterprise and notified five persons that they are suspected of seizing the property of the holding. The raid was part of an investigation into a criminal case related to the illegal seizure of one of the agroholding companies. "SBU raided several enterprises in a criminal case under Part 4 of Article 190 of the Criminal Code. A managing partner of one of the largest agroholdings seized some assets belonged to another partner," the press service of SBU reported on Wednesday. Offices of enterprises incorporated into the holding and houses of officials implicated into illegal activities were raided. During the raids law enforcers sized almost $390,000 in cash, 60 kg of gold ingots, certificates for 400 kg of gold ingots and documents and materials confirming unlawful operations of the suspected persons. "Five managers of the agroholding are suspected under Part 5 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine [Misappropriation, embezzlement or conversion of property by abuse of official post]. Investigation is underway," SBU said. Song of the Mountains Leave it to Song of the Mountains to shine a beaming national light upon a trio of mountain music acts. The taped live nationally syndicated PBS television program reignites on Jan. 7 at the Lincoln Theatre in Marion, Virginia. Led by host Tim White the monthly show will feature North Carolinas Mountain Faith, The Lang Sisters and The Molly Rose Band. North Carolinas Mountain Faith spun to life in 2000. Led by patriarch Sam McMahan, daughter Summer McMahan and son Brayden McMahan, the mountain roots-oriented outfit rose to national prominence in 2015 via NBC Televisions Americas Got Talent. A vibrant stage presence couples with substantive songs to fuel the talented band of music explorers. If You Go What: Song of the Mountains Who: Mountain Faith, The Lang Sisters, and The Railroaders When: Jan. 7, 7 p.m. Where: Lincoln Theatre, 117 E. Main St., Marion Admission: $25 Info: 276-783-6092 Web, audio and video: www.songofthemountains.org Justin Mychals Songs pour like rain from Kingsports Justin Mychals. They seem to nourish him, replenish us and greet all as if a new day has dawned. Hear Mychals ply his trade on Jan. 8 at Studio Brew in Bristol, Virginia. Fellow tunesmiths Mick Kyte and Adam Bolt will join Mychals as part of the musical swap meet-styled show. A longtime local standout, Mychals music beams in part from a pair of albums. From 1998s Days of Thunder and 2014s Mandolin Mornin, Mychals demonstrates a deft songwriting prowess that delves inward while looking forward. Tunes including Miners and Shiners feature deep family ties that extend well beyond his own family tree. Touching odes to thoughtful ballads, Mychals music serve well as love letters to his Appalachian home. If You Go Who: Justin Mychals, Mick Kyte, and Adam Bolt When: Jan. 8, 5 p.m. Where: Studio Brew, 221 Moore St., Bristol, Va. Info: 423-360-3258 Web, audio and video: http://justinmychals.com/ Roxanna Jane Cupid comes early this year. Like an arrow straight through the ticker, the music of Roxanna Jane may have many a concertgoer hanging onto their heart come Jan. 6 at Johnson Citys Willow Tree Coffeehouse and Music Room. She and Bristols Annie Robinette come well armed. They aim to please with songs tailored like a pirates treasure. Gold ensures. Jane summons a tear to her tongue via lyrics youre every dream Ive ever dreamed on Muse such to ease listeners directly into her heart. Now thats a feat. Jane navigates beauty in song like a mariner would a sea. As on Whisper Your Love, she sails along a tuneful canvas as a captain well in command of her craft. If You Go Who: Roxanna Jane and Annie Robinette When: Jan. 6, 8 p.m. Where: The Willow Tree Coffeehouse and Music Room, 216 E. Main St., Johnson City Info: 423-631-0600 Web, audio and video: www.reverbnation.com/roxannajane Music Notes A fellow at the wheel of a car eased into the parking lot of the Bristol Train Station shortly before 9 oclock on the drizzling rainy night of New Years Eve. The plates on his car indicated that he was from out of state. Bristols Virginia Ground were to officially reunite on stage for the first time in a decade about an hour later. But the fellow did not know that or them. Instead, he merely asked: Whats going on here tonight? Anything good? Several hours later, the no-named-fellow rocked on among the large crowd of merry-makers as Virginia Ground re-established their ground as one of the regions finest bands. Missed Virginia Ground? Fret not. Subsequent shows will crop up throughout the coming year, including a pair of performances slated during Septembers Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion. Maybe even a new album will color the jam band-ish bands near and far future. Meanwhile, Virginia Ground sure hung the Bristol moon as they waved goodbye to the past and welcomed the coming year in fine musical fashion. Free MP3 Downloads A bluegrass treasury heralds the new year of free MP3 downloads. Access Amazon. Search for Bluegrass Mastery Vol. 1. Find a 10-track album that features a sampling of Mountain Home Music Companys impressive roster including Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver (Gone at Last), Flatt Lonesome (Im Blue), the Grascals (Mystery Train) and more. Among many New Years Eve traditions is that of the Baby New Year, a depiction of an infant meant to personify the birth of the year to come as Father Time exits the year past. In tandem with that tradition is a long-held custom entrenched in local newspaper reporting: telling the story of the towns literal first baby of New Years Day. But some hospitals are opting to throw that tradition out with the bathwater. Citing recommendations from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Mountain States Health Alliance said in a Dec. 30 news release that its hospitals will no longer release information on babies born on New Years Day or other holidays. The health care group, which operates 13 hospitals in Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee, said its top priority is patient safety, both while they are in our facilities and after they return home. MSHA stopped publicizing births on Jan. 1, 2016. Robert Lowery is the vice president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Childrens Missing Children Division. He said protecting the identity and date of an infant birth is meant to prevent a person who would maybe, for nefarious reasons, want to abduct an infant. That sounds like it's maybe a little over the top, but the idea is that we do have reports of children taken, Lowery said. NCMEC is a non-profit corporation that works to find missing children, reduce child sexual exploitation and prevent child victimization. Hospitals have become more secure in recent decades and Lowery said it is extremely difficult to get children from a facility. Most hospitals no longer offer public visiting areas in maternity wards and infants are meticulously tracked throughout the building. Lowery said the more pressing concern about advertising a birth comes when the parents leave the hospital because potential abductors know an infant is in the familys home. Statistically, parents-to-be neednt worry: From 1983 to November 2016, NCMEC reports that 308 infants were taken from hospitals, homes and other places. Less than half of those abductions133were from hospital settings, according to Lowery. Even so, Lowery said the risk still exists. I think its important to keep in mind the motivation for abducting infants is much different than older children, he said. Most infants, in Lowerys experience with the NCMEC, are taken by mothers, those wanting to become mothers or women who present themselves as pregnant but maybe are not. The policy change by Mountain States follows a national trend: In December 2014, Community Health Systems one of the largest health care operators in the U.S. ordered its 207 facilities to stop publicizing the first baby of the year, according to the Associated Press. Not all hospitals have chosen to stop publicizing notable births. The first baby of 2017 at Bristol Regional Medical Center, owned by Wellmont Health System, was Boston James Fisher, who was born at 3:30 a.m. and weighed 7 pounds, 8 ounces. Boston was born to parents Sheena and Patrick Fisher of Norton, Virginia. Jim Wozniak, Wellmonts media relations director, said in a statement that Wellmont is aware of NCMEC guidelines and follows many of them for instance, Wellmont no longer issues announcements to local media about all children who are born. We have traditionally viewed New Years Day as a special event observed by many nationally to honor the first child born for each year, the statement said. However, release of details about a specific childs birth is contingent on the consent of the family. We rejoice with the families in this special achievement but honor their wishes concerning publicity for their children. Wozniak said safety is the primary concern of Wellmont hospitals and that robust security measures designed to prevent harm to [infants] and their families are in place. Overall, NCMEC doesnt advocate blanket restrictions on announcing holiday births, Lowery said. The group mainly stresses that hospital officials consider safety first and make the decision for themselves. All we really stress is caution, Lowery said. Ukraine's Presidential Administration (PA) has declared the inadmissibility of compromises with the Russian Federation in terms of aggression on its part, on which businessman Viktor Pinchuk called in his article in the British edition the Wall Street Journal. The Wall Street Journal published an official response of the Presidential Administration (PA) of Ukraine, signed by PA deputy head Kostiantyn Yeliseyev, to Pinchuk's article. The PA's position is published under the title "Respect for Ukraine Vital for a Lasting Peace," the Internet news service Yevropeiska Pravda (European Truth) said on Thursday. Yeliseyev strongly denies the possibility of a compromise on the key points proposed by Pinchuk. "I cannot agree with the appeal for compromises based on worries. Fear and weakness are bad advisers. They play into Russias appetites, invite even more aggression and greater human suffering," he said. The article lists three key positions of Ukraine: "No reversal in European and Euro-Atlantic integration of Ukraine. This would be a surrender of independence, sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Ukraine. No trade in the territory of Ukraine, be it Donbas or Crimea. These territories cannot be part of a trade-off for peace. No elections in Donbas with Russian [military] boots on Ukraines soil," Yeliseyev wrote in his response to Pinchuk's suggestion. According to him, "compromises on Russias terms are the wrong policy." As reported, in an article for The Wall Street Journal, published late last year, Pinchuk proposed to the authorities and to the citizens of Ukraine to make a number of "painful compromises" for the sake of finishing the conflict with Russia. Among the initiatives voiced by the businessman, were the following: temporary exclusion of stated goals of the country's membership in the EU, refusal of the intention to join NATO in the short and medium term and country's agreement to neutrality. He also insists on the stance that "Crimea must not get in the way of a deal that ends the war in the east on an equitable basis" while maintaining the position that Crimea is a part of Ukraine, and it must be returned. Furthermore, Pinchuk suggested that Ukraine should agree to the holding of local elections in separate districts of Donbas until Ukraine has full control over its territory in order to "to demonstrate Ukraine's commitment to peaceful reunification." One more Pinchuk proposal was the consent of Ukraine to the gradual lifting of the sanctions from Russia. ATO headquarters reports on one wounded soldier, 52 shelling attacks on its positions in past 24 hours Over the past day militants have opened fire 52 times using the weapons banned by the Minsk agreements on positions of the Ukrainian military in all sectors, the ATO staff press center said on Thursday morning. "Russian occupying forces have continued shelling our positions in all sectors. One of our soldiers has been wounded," the report says. In the Mariupol sector militants repeatedly fired Vodiane, Lebedynske and Shyrokyne using mortars of various calibers. Grenade launchers and small arms were used for attacking Hnutove, Shyrokyne, Talakivka and Pavlopil. Invaders repeatedly fired at Shyrokyne from infantry combat vehicles. In the Luhansk sector, 120 mm mortar shells were applied to shell at Novozvanivka and Bohuslavska, while Novo-Oleksandrivka and Stanytsia Luhansk were shelled by grenade launchers. In the Donetsk sector the enemy attacked Troyitske with 152mm artillery fire. At the same time, Troyitske, Zaitseve and Luhanske were shelled by 120 and 82 mm mortars. The adversary repeatedly fired Luhanske, Avdiyivka and Kruta Balka using grenade launchers and small arms. It's been 125 years since Dracula was published. And it's still scary. The main department on investigation of crimes committed by criminal organizations of the General Prosecutor's Office (PGO) of Ukraine on Wednesday sent a court indictment enclosed in the criminal proceedings against ex-head of Regions Party faction in the Verkhovna Rada of the seventh convocation Oleksandr Yefremov, Prosecutor General of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko said. The prosecutor general on his Facebook page listed five crimes involving Yefremov, in particular, the organization of seizure of the building of the Luhansk Regional State Administration (Part 3 of Article 27, Article 341 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), an accessory in the capture of the administration building of the Security Service of Ukraine in the Luhansk region (Part 5, Article 27, Article 341 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). Yefremov is also suspected of state treason (Part 1, Article 111 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), activities deliberately undertaken by a citizen of Ukraine to diminish the nation's sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence established by the Constitution (Part 3, Article 110 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). He is accused of supporting and establishing a terrorist organization - the so-called "Luhansk People's Republic" (Part 1 of Article 258-3 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). As reported, 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. Hungarian low-cost airline Wizz Air has put 750,000 tickets for Kyiv routes up for sale for 2017, which is 64% more in comparison with the previous year, according to a press release from the company. According to its data, in 2016 Wizz Air transported to/from Ukraine more than 418,000 passengers. As reported, in 2017 the Wizz Air fleet in Kyiv will be replenished with the second Airbus A320 aircraft. Wizz Air in Ukraine carries out flights on 16 low-cost routes from Kyiv to eight countries. In particular, flights from Kyiv to Copenhagen and Nuremberg, which will be open from August. In addition, from August the frequency of flights to Budapest (up to daily), Dortmund, Munich and Bratislava (up to four per week) and to Cologne and Hamburg (to three per week) will be increased. Formerly, Wizz Air Ukraine, a subsidiary of Wizz Air, operated in Ukraine, but its activity was suspended for several reasons, mostly commercial. Ukraine's Presidential Administration (PA) has declared the inadmissibility of compromises with the Russian Federation in terms of aggression on its part, on which businessman Victor Pinchuk called in his article in the British edition the Wall Street Journal. As reported on the official presidential site on Thursday, the official response of the Presidential Administration (PA) of Ukraine, signed by PA deputy head Kostiantyn Yeliseyev, to Pinchuk's article, published in the Wall Street Journal, says that compromises on Russian terms is the wrong policy for peace in Ukraine. "I cannot agree with the appeal for compromises based on worries. Fear and weakness are bad advisers. They play into Russias appetites," the article says. Yeliseyev agrees with Pinchuk's "noble appeal" for peace in Donbas, but cannot agree with the appeal for compromises "based on worries". "Fear and weakness are bad advisers. They play into Russias appetites, invite even more aggression and greater human suffering," he said. Thats why Ukraine has always advocated a solution based on the national interests and the will of Ukrainians who wish their country to be independent and prosperous, and their choices free of aggressive dictate. Let us be clear about red lines that no one in Ukraine would dare to crossnot now, nor in the future," Yeliseyev said. The article lists three key positions of Ukraine. "First of all, no reversal in European and Euro-Atlantic integration of Ukraine. This would be a surrender of independence, sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Ukraine. It would be like a return to the Soviet past in Ukraine something, even Mr. Pinchuk wouldnt welcome. Renouncing European integration would be political suicide for every politician in Ukraine who would dare call for such a dramatic reversal, especially after the Revolution of Dignity and its demand for modernization and reform," PA's deputy head said. "Secondly, no trade in the territory of Ukraine, be it Donbas or Crimea. These territories cannot be part of a trade-off for peace. They belong to Ukraine, and this is confirmed internationally including by the U.N. General Assembly Resolution on Crimea last month and by the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in November. Ukraine will never abandon the Ukrainians who were trapped behind the Iron Curtain of Russias military invasion in Crimea and Donbas," he said. "Thirdly, no elections in Donbas with Russian [military] boots on Ukraines soil. Ukraine stands for local elections there, but only based on Ukraines law and Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe standards. The Kremlin would definitely like to legalize its hybrid occupation and puppet regimes in Donbas by Ukrainian hands. No one should fall into this trap," Yeliseyev said. As reported, in an article for The Wall Street Journal, published late last year, Pinchuk proposed to the authorities and the citizens of Ukraine to make a number of "painful compromises" for the sake of finishing the conflict with Russia. Among the initiatives voiced by the businessman, were the following: temporary exclusion of stated goals of the country's membership in the EU, refusal of the intention to join NATO in the short and medium term and country's agreement to neutrality. He also insists on the stance that "Crimea must not get in the way of a deal that ends the war in the east on an equitable basis" while maintaining the position that Crimea is a part of Ukraine, and it must be returned. Furthermore, Pinchuk suggested that Ukraine should agree to the holding of local elections in separate districts of Donbas until Ukraine has full control over its territory in order "to demonstrate Ukraine's commitment to peaceful reunification." One more Pinchuk proposal was the consent of Ukraine to the gradual lifting of the sanctions from Russia. Kyiv Appellate Court has moved the consideration of an appeal by former head of the Regions Party faction in the Verkhovna Rada of the seventh convocation Oleksandr Yefremov for January 17. A meeting, which was planned for January 5, has been put off until January 17 in connection with the fact that the panel of judges is incomplete and therefore has no legal power. The agency's interlocutor didn't say the time, when the January 17 court meeting starts. There is no information on this matter on the website of Kyiv Appellate Court. As reported, 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. 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). 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. On January 4, the main department on organized crime of the Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) of Ukraine on Wednesday sent to court an indictment in the criminal proceedings against Yefremov. On January 4, 2017, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, together with the Canadian company Caravan Logstics and Canadian non-governmental organizations "Ukraine Appeal", GlobalFire, Global Medic and the Ukrainian Canadian League collected and sent 11 tons of humanitarian aid to Ukraine. The consignment consists of medical equipment and fire-fighting equipment, and will be transferred to hospitals and fire stations in the east of Ukraine, in particular in Mariupol. This is the fourth shipment of humanitarian aid to Ukraine indicated patrons, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry's press service reported. "The equipment collected by the Ukrainian community in Canada will allow improving the quality of provision of the first aid to victims of the Russian aggression against our country, and will allow enhancing the efficiency of fire fighting," the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry's press service reported. The Foreign Ministry said Ukraine appreciates the efforts of the Government of Canada and the Ukrainian Diaspora in this country in the provision of humanitarian aid to Ukraine. A teenage boy shot and killed in Charlotte previously lived in Burke County and folks have set up a GoFundMe page to help the family. Anthony Frazier, 14, was shot around 10:20 p.m. Monday at a house on Finchley Drive, near Eastway Drive. Investigators said the teenager and his aunt were pulling into the home on Finchley Drive, near Eastway Drive around 10:20 p.m., when they spotted two young men hiding in the bushes. Sources told Channel 9 the two men ran, then one turned around and fired several shots, hitting the teenager while he was sitting in the backseat of the car, the Concord/Kannapolis Independent Tribune reported. After the shooting, the aunt drove to 7-Eleven on Eastway to get help, according to the story in the Independent Tribune. Police are looking for two black males in their teens to early 20s. Anthony died on Tuesday. He is the son of Burke County natives and Kannapolis Police Officer Daniel Fraizer and his wife, Brandi. The Kannapolis Police Department is heartbroken over the loss of one of our family members, especially as this young person, Anthony Frazier, was just beginning his teenage years, Kannapolis Police Chief Woody Chavis said in a statement. Every member, of our extended family, plays an important role in our everyday lives and are critical to ensuring we are successful in carrying out our professional duties. Our families are the backbone of our department and without them we could not survive. Chaivs went on to say, May God place his protective and loving arms around Officer Daniel Fraizers family during this time of sorrow. A special thank you to the public for all the prayers, moral support, and acts of grace which you have shown us. Daniel and Brandi Fraizer are graduates of Freedom High School in Morganton. Anthony attended Oak Hill Elementary School through the fifth grade, said Cheryl Shuffler, public information officer for Burke County Public Schools. A GoFundMe page has been set up for the family at http://bit.ly/2iPYSh7. The page says, on behalf of the Freedom High School class of 2002, a GoFundMe campaign has been set up to help his parents. As you all know, now is the time to come together as a community and show support for Daniel, Brandi and their entire family, the page says. The funding goal is $20,000. As of 2 p.m. Wednesday, it had raised $2,725. Sharon McBrayer is a staff writer and can be reached at smcbrayer@morganton.com or at 828-432-8946. (Xinhua) 08:36, January 05, 2017 China will make more efforts to streamline administration through more power delegation and fewer certification and evaluation requirements, and will soon issue its first guideline for market supervision and regulation to make its business environment more inviting. The decision was announced during the State Council's executive meeting on Wednesday chaired by Premier Li Keqiang. Local government will take over approval of 53 administrative items, mainly covering business activities such as qualification certificates for private schools and business permits for cotton processing to make business registration more convenient. Delegation of 14 items will require further approval by the National People's Congress Standing Committee as law amendments are needed. Since 2013, a total of 230 administration items have been delegated to local governments. Another 20 agency-provided evaluation and certificate requirements will also be dropped, including areas such as railway facility construction and qualifications for legal professionals. "Our reform in streamlining administration for leaner and more effective government is stepping into a crucial stage," Li stressed. "All departments should seriously implement (the decisions), and make sure to drop institutional costs for enterprises." "The key in transforming government function is striking a balance between the government and the market, and our goal is to effectively unleash and grow productivity potential," he added. "There is no end to it, and we shall grasp the key link of reform to deliver results." It was also decided during Wednesday's meeting that China will soon issue its first guideline for market supervision for a more open, better regulated and attractive business environment. The guideline will be effective through China's 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020). The new guideline is geared toward a market environment offering easier market access, a platform for fair competition, and greater consumer safety. The measures to be adopted include: further streamlining of business registration; negative list-based market access with a focus on compliance oversight; a level playing field for non-local businesses with fair competition and bans on discretionary charges or subsidiaries; and highlighting regulation and enforcement of food and drug safety as well as other fields that are crucial to public safety and security. The government also needs to improve regulatory innovation through the Internet Plus Mode and big data, among other means. "Supervision must be carried out in a lawful and well-regulated manner so that companies will not be subjected to extra burdens," Li stressed. He pointed out that while the country is working hard to phase out excess industrial capacity, institutional hurdles should be reduced to allow room for new economic driving forces. "We should work hard to advance in transforming the role of the government. A more dynamic market is the cornerstone for development," Li said. HICKORY After a break for the holidays, workers are back out at the sinkhole by U.S. Highway 70 in Hickory. Work began around Dec. 8, and workers came back Tuesday after a break for the holidays, David Shupe, a grade former with Mountain Creek Contractors, said. The workers are putting in a storm drain to keep water away from the sinkhole, Shupe said. Shupe said the storm drain should be completed in about two or three weeks. After the storm drain is installed, a box culvert will be installed within in about three or four months, Shupe said. Shupe described the project as a "special job." This is something you dont see every day, not 50-foot deep, Shupe said. It looks worse than what it is, man, really, in my opinion. It aint going to be no easy job, but its more of an eye-sore than anything. The City of Hickory partnered with the North Carolina Department of Transportation on the project last year. The original deal called for the city and N.C. DOT to split the $3.2 million, with the N.C. DOT paying $1 million and the city covering the remaining $2.2 million in installments. After the lowest contract bid came in at $4.2 million, the Hickory City Council agreed to evenly split the $1 million in additional costs with N.C. DOT in November. The expectation is that the sinkhole will be repaired by the summer, Hickory Interim City Manager Andrea Surratt said in a December interview. CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) Police in North Carolina are looking for two men wanted in the shooting death of a 14-year-old boy. Charlotte-Mecklenburg police told local news outlets that Anthony Frazier died at Carolinas Medical Center on Tuesday. Frazier was the son of a Kannapolis police officer. Police said the teen was visiting family members in Charlotte when he was shot. No arrests have been made. Police say they are looking for two men in their late teens to early 20s. Police have not released a possible motive in the shooting. Kannapolis City Schools spokeswoman Ellen Boyd says counselors will be at the teen's school Wednesday to help students and staff dealing with his death. This domain has expired. If you owned this domain, contact your domain registration service provider for further assistance. If you need help identifying your provider, visit https://www.tucowsdomains.com/ On Wednesday, the DMK general council meet appointed MK Stalin, the party treasurer and son of party president M Karunanidhi, working-president of the party. Given the various roles Stalin has been playing in the party, especially since 2013 when he was given more power to manage district-level affairs, the appointment was a mere formality and does not come as a surprise. Karunanidhi, who has been the party leader since 1969, was not present at the general council meet. The 92-year-old five-time CM has been in poor health for some time now. Read | Accepting new responsibility with heavy heart, says DMK working president Stalin Three aspects need to be seen at this juncture: The timing of Stalins appointment, doubts of rebellion by his brother MK Alagiri, and whether the DMK should have ambitions of forming the government now. First, the timing of Stalins appointment is significant and a lot depends on how he decides to lead the party. It comes at a very crucial time when the political Richter scale of Tamil Nadu is likely to swing dangerously. The demise of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa, on December 5, has left the government and the AIADMK without a powerful leader. O Panneerselvam has taken over as CM and Sasikala Natarajan as party general secretary, but both do not command the respect nor wield the power Jaya did. The dual power centres (Jaya was both CM and party chief) have brought with it ambiguity and reports suggest that that there is restlessness within the rank and file of the AIADMK. All this works in Stalins favour because he is more popular and politically seasoned than Panneerselvam or Sasikala. Read | Why Sasikala as Tamil Nadu CM could backfire on many fronts However, Stalins elevation could be good news for Sasikala. The rivalry between Jaya and Karunanidhi was not just political. The bitterness between the two leaders often meant that there was little cooperation between the government and Opposition irrespective of which party was in power at Fort St George. Moreover it was Karunanidhi, and not Stalin, who was seen as Jayas opponent. Similarly, Sasikala would be punching way above her weight if her rival was the DMK patriarch. In many ways Stalin and Sasikala, both next generation leaders in their own right, are in the same league. Sasikala would gain more political acceptance if she were to oppose Stalin, and that is exactly what she is doing. On Wednesday Sasikala accused Stalin of misrepresenting facts and insulting Amma on the Jallikattu (a bull taming event) ban. DMK leader MK Stalin paying his last respects to AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa, Rajaji Hall, Chennai, December 6 (PTI) Second, doubts that there could be a rebellion from Alagiri are ill-founded. Alagiri was expelled from the party in March 2014 for allegedly working against Stalin. Since then, Stalin has reinforced his position in the party and has extended his influence even in Madurai, once an Alagiri stronghold. Stalin started from the lower rungs and grew in the party, while Alagiris was more of a lateral entry. Stalin, much like Karunanidhi, is a leader who has worked his way up the DMK hierarchy. Read | New rivalry in Dravidian politics sparks fireworks in Tamil Nadu Third, there are growing calls within the DMK that the party should make the most of the disarray in the AIADMK and government following Jayalalithaas demiseeven form a government if possible. That would be a bad move and Stalin should not heed such advice. There are many reasons for this. Economists, like R Srinivasan of the University of Madras, argue that Tamil Nadu will likely experience a financial crunch which will grow worse now. Many parts of the state are facing drought-like conditions and footing the welfare schemes promised by the government will be a tough task. Once the GST is implemented,Tamil Nadu, which is a manufacturing hub, is likely to lose revenue in the initial period. Hypothetically, if the AIADMK government were to fall and Stalin forms a new one, he would be inheriting this financial crunch. Read | Sasikala Natarajan: Jayalalithaas close aide, the power behind the throne Stalin over the years has devoted considerable time to building the party. His election yatra before the 2014 general elections was a part of this effort. Ideally, for the next four years he should focus on further consolidating the party base. Given these points, Stalins elevation as working-president of the DMK could not have come at a more appropriate time for the party and Stalin. The AIADMK leadership will have to get its act right, the earlier the better. This is because with every passing day the cadre is getting further confused and demoralised. Stalin, in the meanwhile, can afford to wait and watch. @VijuCherian SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The 320 youth, who have cleared the Madhya Pradesh police constables recruitment online exam and physical test, but were not selected owing to a mismatch of fingerprints, will be given another opportunity to prove their credentials on January 10 and 11. Being hit by the multi-crore Vyapam scam, both Vyapam and the state police introduced a unique barcode for each candidate during the online exam and every candidates entry at online exam centres was recorded visually and their fingerprints were scanned. Those who cleared the online exam had to go through another round of fingerprint scanning for appearing in the October physical proficiency test. However, there was a mismatch of fingerprints of 320 candidates. Since their pictures and barcode matched with those from the online exam, they were slotted as provisionally selected for final recruitment after the physical test. Now, the state police will hold a two-day special camp in six cities Bhopal, Indore, Jabalpur, Gwalior, Ujjain and Sagar to give a last opportunity to the candidates. According to ADG (selection and recruitment) Pragya Richa Srivastava, half the candidates will feature at the January 10 camp, while the remaining will feature at the next days camp, to be held in all the aforementioned cities barring Bhopal. At the two-day special camp, well scan the fingerprints of these 320 provisionally selected candidates. After getting fresh fingerprints, it will be matched with the two other fingerprints. If the fingerprints match this time, the candidate will automatically form part of finally selected candidates, said Srivastava. In case of those candidates whose fingerprints dont match again, well match their pictures, video recordings of both tests and all the relevant documents brought by them. If all this matches, they could be placed among those finally selected, maintained Srivastava. Those who fail to turn up at the two-day camp in six cities will automatically come under category of wrongdoers, followed by suitable action against them. The additional district and sessions court on Wednesday admitted the petitions filed by former DGP Swaraj Puri and ex-Bhopal collector Moti Singh challenging the November 19 court order against the duo in a Bhopal Gas tragedy case. The court admitted the two revision petitions for hearing, but refused to stay the November 19 lower court order, additional public prosecutor PNS Rajput told Hindustan Times. It also issued notices to the two petitioners of the case - social activist Abdul Jabbar and advocate Shahnawaz Khan - for hearing on February 17. Special judge (SC/ST atrocities) DK Paliawal sought records pertaining to the case from the chief judicial magistrate court. In November, the CJM court had observed in its ruling that prima facie thousands of people were dying due to leakage of poisonous gas, but the districts head, the then collector and superintendent of police were using their expertise and system not to save the people, but instead help a criminal escape. The order had come on a petition filed by Jabbar and Khan in 2010. Their contention was based on public interviews, media reportage and a book - Unfolding the Betrayal of Bhopal Gas Tragedy - penned by Singh, who was then the district collector and had accompanied Anderson to the airport. More than three decades after the deadliest industrial accident in the world, Bhopal chief judicial magistrate Bhubhaskar Yadav had ordered the police to book Singh and Puri in a criminal case for allowing Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson leave India. The former IAS and IPS officers were booked under sections that lay down punishment for harbouring an offender and using their powers as public servants to save an offender from punishment. Later, the duo filed revision petitions in the district and session court. On December 3, 1984, the Union Carbide plant leaked 42 tonne of methyl isocyanate gas, exposing more than 5 lakh people to toxic fumes that led to the deaths of more than 3,500 and left tens of thousands with disabilities. Inspired by neki ki deewar or wall of happiness, popularized by a number good Samaritans in Bhopal and a number of cities across the country, the state government has decided to set up anandam in every town of Madhya Pradesh. The wall of kindness on which people donate unwanted clothing, footwear, and even household items, are picked up by impoverished and needy people. The idea started in the north-eastern Iranian city of Mashhad, where someone installed a few hooks and hangers on a wall, next to the words: If you dont need it, leave it. If you need it, take it. Anandam perhaps borrows the concept from wall of kindness. Late on Tuesday, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan at a meeting with senior administrative officials, announced to set up anandam. Madhya Pradesh is the only state in the country to have a happiness department to plan activities to create an atmosphere of happiness in the society. Both the person who gives and the person who receives feel happy, a government spokesperson, quoting chief minister Chouhan, said. Anandam will provide a platform to people that will give both kinds of joy to peoplethe joy of giving and the joy of receiving, the spokesperson quoted the CM as saying. The CM said the government aims to create such an atmosphere in the society where everybody can draw pleasure and happiness. Chouhan asked administrative officials to lead an enthusiastically life and with feeling of ecstasy and happiness. He also appreciated the efforts of Vidisha deputy collector Ramprakash Ahirwar, who staring a programme called nai roshani ek pahal and announced to honour Ahirwar on Independence Day. He asked the divisional commissioners to send details of innovative programmes initiated by officials so that they too can be honoured. Chouhan also announced that students of classes 9, 11 and first-year undergraduate students will be taught about life and Art of Living during weekly anand sabha class. The Centres ambitious Ken-Betwa river linking project, which aims at addressing water needs of dry swathes in Madhya Pradesh and poll-bound Uttar Pradesh inter alia, has received environment, forest and tribal clearances, sources in Union Water Ministry said. However, there was no official confirmation in this regard. On the other hand, a booklet the Ministry released on Tuesday stated that the forest advisory committee of the ministry of environment and forest and climate change has considered the proposal for forest clearance during its meeting held on November 8 and decided to have some additional information before giving clearance. The environmental appraisal committee has duly considered and agreed for the project in its meeting held on December 30. The ministry of tribal affairs has also agreed for the clearance of the project during a meeting held on Monday, the booklet reads. The booklet, circulated at a briefing called by Union water resources minister Uma Bharti, also states that the clearances for the project are in a very advanced stage of completion and that the government will start implementing the national project as model link of inter-linking of river (ILR) programme. The phase I of the project, first ILR project, had received clearance from the Standing Committee of National Board of Wild Life in August last year... The remaining clearances, environment, forest and tribal clearances, too have been obtained, official communication regarding which though is awaited, sources said. Obtaining the wildlife clearance was the most difficult clearance to get in connection with the project. I am thankful to the board for giving us the clearance...now we are pursuing NITI Ayog to change its funding pattern to 90:10 (Centre : state share) from 60:40 for the project given it is a special project, Bharti said. Work on the project cannot be launched until the funding pattern is finalised. Phase I of the project, of linking Ken river in Madhya Pradesh and Betwa in Uttar Pradesh, at a cost of 9500 crore is envisaged to help irrigate an area of 6.35 lakh hectares annually. Of this, 3.69 lakh hectares will be covered in Madhya Pradeshs Chattarpur, Tikamgarh and Panna districts. The remaining 2.65 lakh hectares of area falls in Uttar Pradeshs Mahoba, Banda and Jhansi districts. The project is estimated to provide 49 million cubic metres of drinking water to a population of 13.42 lakh of people in Bundelkhand region in the two states. Besides, the project will also generate 78 mega watt of power. Envisaged first in 1980 to transfer surplus river water Envisaged first in 1980 to transfer surplus river water to dry/arid areas, the river-linking the national perspective plan, under which Ken-Betwa river-linking project is taking shape, aims at creating additional irrigation potential of 35 million hectare and generation of 34000 mega watt of power. Controlling flood, navigation, water supply, fisheries, salinity, drought mitigation and combating pollution are among the other stated objectives of the NPP, which gained momentum during the previous NDA regime led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Apart from the Ken-Betwa linking project, Par-Tapi-Narmada Link (to transfer water from surplus regions of Western Ghats to the dry areas of Kutch and Saurashtra and Damanganga-Pinjal link, which will provide water for the Greater Mumbai, are among the 30 such river links planned. The Madhya Pradesh police in Panna district arrested three suspected diamond smugglers on Tuesday night and seized 42 polished diamonds and 1.85 lakh in the new 2000 banknotes from them. Two of the accused are from Uttar Pradesh, while one hails from Maharashtra. All three are presently based in Mumbai and involved in the diamond business. Brijpur police station officer JS Rajput said they received a tip-off, following which Panna SP Riyaz Iqbal constituted a joint team of Brijpur and Kotwali police to catch the smugglers. The team nabbed the three accused from the Kachari rotary and seized the polished diamonds which they had kept in three small sachets. The diamonds were in cent weight and not in carats. Rajput said the three have been identified as Ayodhya Nath Choubey (54), Azizuddin Ansari (43) and Dashrath Naryan Kadam (54). They had travelled to Panna on January 2 and were staying at a local hotel. They were produced in court on Wednesday and remanded to a two-day police custody. Meanwhile, Iqbal told HT that the police are also investigating the source of these polished diamonds and their local selling point. He said police will also look into the issue where they got new currency notes. (Global Times) 11:32, January 05, 2017 Workers prepare seamless steel tubes for export to the US at a factory in Huaibei, East China's Anhui Province. File Photo: CFP Private-owned Sichuan Dawn Precision Technology Co Ltd recently scored a victory against US anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations, setting a good example for Chinese companies that may need to handle possible trade disputes under the upcoming Trump presidency. After US mechanical and power transmission equipment manufacturer TB Wood's Inc filed a complaint with the US International Trade Commission (USITC) to probe certain iron mechanical transfer drive components imported from China on October 28, 2015, Sichuan Dawn spent more than 386 days responding to the investigation, which could be a lesson for Chinese exporters that face similar trade disputes, Xie Longde, the company's vice president and the board secretary, told the Global Times on Wednesday. The company, which has an annual production capacity of 20 tons of mechanical components such as sheaves and flywheels, exports to 40 countries and regions every year. The machinery firm has recorded annual revenues of 500 million yuan ($72 million) during the last two years, but faced $284 million in duties levied by the US authority. "Also, a single trade dispute case has an impact on the whole industry. As mandatory respondent, our company has been facing huge pressure since [the USITC] launched the probe," he noted. From November 2015 to October 2016, the company received more than 500 pages of documents, and "every time we responded to their questionnaires, we took them very cautiously, and even set up a special group to deal with the case," Xie added. On November 16, 2016, six USITC commissioners voted against issuing anti-dumping or countervailing duties as a result of the probe. "While some of the charges were against individual companies, most were against whole industries. In both cases, responding to charges, even if it is by only a few companies in the industry, would likely retain some of the market share or result in slashed tariff rates," said Tu Xinquan, deputy dean at the China Institute for WTO Studies at the Beijing-based University of International Business and Economics. Industry associations can play important roles in responding to these charges, such as organizing response efforts and sharing the costs, he said, adding that collaboration and coordination among industry players is equally important. Tu also noted that there are shortcomings in regards to Chinese industry associations as many of them were born out of former government institutions and are somewhat less responsive to the needs of companies, compared with their foreign counterparts. "Actively facing challenges, actively responding to charges, using laws and regulations as weapons, and protecting the rightful interests of enterprises through every way and mean is how all Chinese companies should be eyeing overseas markets," Li Xinchuang, president of the China Metallurgical Industry Planning and Research Institute, told the Global Times Wednesday. Future challenges On Tuesday, US President-elect Donald Trumpnamed Robert Lighthizer as his chief trade negotiator, according to Reuters. Lighthizer was formerly part of the Reagan administration and has legally represented US steelmakers in anti-dumping and anti-subsidy cases for three decades. Lighthizer has been a harsh critic of China's trade practices, the Reuters report noted. Tu warned that there is a spillover effect in these investigations. "When the US does it, Chinese exports that were originally headed to the US divert to other markets, which causes other countries to also start investigations against Chinese exports. "No country is having a good time under the current world economic situation," Tu said, predicting that there will be more trade friction in 2017. Chinese companies have to hone their ability to predict possible trade disputes, and ready concerns over intelligent property rights, product standards and modern management systems in advance, not only for those that already have business overseas but also firms that are mulling on investing in foreign markets, according to Xie. The Madhya Pradesh police have rescued two more girls from Rajasthan after questioning members of the alleged child trafficking ring it busted in Gwalior on Monday. The gang allegedly abducted girls from busy areas in the city and sold them to brothels. The police have also arrested three more persons, including a woman, in connection with the alleged ring after conducting raids at various locations in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan on Tuesday and Wednesday. With the fresh rescue operation, the police have rescued nine girls and have arrested eight persons, including alleged kingpin Roshanbai (48). SP (city) DBS Bhadoria said the rescued girls have been handed over to the child welfare committee, who in turn will hand over them to their respective parents following proper verification process. Women and child department regional director Suresh Tomar told HT that the girls were kept at Shishu Grah, called Matra-Chaya. Actor Akshay Kumar has posted a strong and angry video message on Twitter and Facebook, reacting to the Bengaluru molestation case. A society which cant respect its women has no right to call itself a human society. A more shameful thing is that some people have the audacity to justify a girls molestation. Why did the girl wear short clothes? Why did the girl step out late night? I want to tell them that the girls clothes are not short but your mind is, said the 49-year-old. Besides the case of two men molesting a girl in a lane, as people watched from the road, multiple cases of molestation were reported on New Years Eve in Bengaluru. Girls are not weak than men. You are capable of protecting yourself. Nobody has the power to touch you without your consent The actor, who has always endorsed martial arts and self-defense training, is encouraging women to realize that theyre strong and can protect themselves. Girls are not weak than men. You are capable of protecting yourself. There are small techniques in martial arts to handle men. Nobody has the power to touch you without your consent. You dont have to be scared, but just have to stay alert. Learn self-defense and if someone tries to give you some advice on your clothes, please tell them to mind their own business, he further said in the video. Akshay isnt the only Bollywood star to have reacted to the horrific incident. Actors Aamir Khan, Farhan Akhtar, Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt, filmmakers Sanjay Gupta, Shekhar Kapur and music composer Vishal Dadlani have also expressed their anger over the issue. Going by the promos, a lot of hard work has clearly been put into Nawazuddin Siddiquis Haraamkhor. From a record shoot of 16 days to a landmark reversal of the central board of film certifications (CBFC) ban on the film by film certification apellate tribunal (FCAT), the film has crossed a few hurdles even before its release. With the first song of the film being released, we can now tell you about the efforts that went into making Kidre Jaawan. Music composer Jasleen Royal along with the lyricist Aditya Sharma and makers of Haraamkhor and actor Shweta Tripathi, visited various schools in Mumbai, Delhi and Lucknow meeting girls students between the age group of 12 to 16 asking them about their first crush, their understanding of love relationship and their evolution from adolescence to teenage. Jasleen has also crooned the song. The entire team spoke with more than 1500 girl students and took anecdotes from their feedbacks that helped Jasleen and the lyricist to pen down the lyrics to prepare the song. The lyrics of the song reflects a girls fantasy towards love and infatuation. The song describes a feeling of a girl who falls in a love with her tutor more than twice her age. While she believes she is in love, she is also confused about the relationship which treads on physical intimacy. Watch the song here: Talking about her research for the song, Jasleen said in a statement, We wanted to make the song authentic and to make sure that Shwetas character in the film is represented well in the song. The song is actually about anyone whos in dilemma of choices, sometimes not the best. We wanted to talk to school girls as girls often begin to get exposed to the idea of love, infatuation, and other things at this stage. We went and spoke to these girls to gauge an idea of what kind of emotions they feel to ensure our lyrics reflect the real life situations well. Directed by Shlok Sharma, Haraamkhor is slated to hit theatres on January 13. Follow @htshowbiz for more Digamber Negi, 37-year-old farmer in picturesque Doon Dwara village on the border of Dehradun-Tehri Garhwal districts, is cursing his fate after monkeys barged into his field a week ago and destroyed vegetable crop. Like Negi, several other villagers have similar plight to share. The village has a population of 320 people and they are dependent only on agriculture. Villagers complain that in the past one decade or so, attacks by monkeys and wild boars in their agriculture land have made things difficult. We keep guarding fields from monkeys during day and from wild boars during night, said Negi. Farming in hills is shrinking fast and farmers losing interest in it. Besides attacks by monkeys and wild boars, farmers facing problem due to lack of irrigation facility. Farming in hills is rain fed and canals are limited to some pockets. In Doon Dwara, villagers have either stopped or growing limited crops like millets, oats, vegetables like cucumber, tomatoes, potatoes etc. Shyam Singh, another farmer, said monkeys destroy vegetables while wild boars destroy potato fields. We are left with very little options, Singh said. Farming in hills has become a non-profitable entity. Government figure shows that agriculture land came down from 7.91 lakh hectares in 2009-10 to 7.41 lakh in 2011-12. Half of the states agricultural land falls in four districts of Dehradun, Nainital, Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar in plains and rest is shared by nine hill districts. Prakash Dimri, another farmer, said: 2,200 is the average cost that comes on sowing in an area of 0.02 hectares or 1 nali while the return is not more than 1,500. The land holdings are tiny and which are getting further fragmented over time. 87% farming in hills is rain fed while only 13% has irrigation facility, said Vijay Jardhari, an agro expert. Change in the climate pattern is also a big concern, rain cycle is no more regular thus farmers are left with little choice, he said. Jardhari said farmers must continue with millets since it survives drought like condition and give handsome returns. He, however, is clueless on providing solutions to farmers who were not growing millets owing to threat from wild animals. Due to growing population of monkeys, acres of arable land left untilled and agriculture activities have almost reduced to vicinity of houses in the villages. Villagers in Thano in the outskirts of Dehradun are trying to grow crops such as ginger, turmeric, bitter gourd and lady finger that usually monkeys dont eat. People in Balori village that falls in Pauri district have passed a resolution asking the district administration to either drive away monkeys or vasectomise them. The forest department is entrusted with the task of catching monkeys but it is confined to urban areas. In February 2016, the department gave permission with riders to kill the wild boars affecting farming in hills. Killing wild boars is not an easy task. In the absence of trained hunters, the order is meaningless said Ratan Aswal of village Mirchoda. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Congress main poll strategist Prashant Kishor along with 40-50 dedicated staff will camp in Uttarakhand till the assembly election is over, party sources said. His main task is to design the campaign in such a way that the February 15 election would look like a direct fight between chief minister Harish Rawat and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the sources told HT. The sources said the chief minister and party state unit president Kishore Upadhyay already held a meeting with Prashant two days ago in the state capital to discuss agenda for the poll. He is likely start working by next week. Upadhyay neither confirmed nor denied his meeting with Prashant. He, however, said: Prashant is welcomed here if he has been asked by the party high command to work in Uttarakhand. He is a known for his skills and abilities. Prashants work will help the Congress raise electoral prospects, Upadhyay told HT. The Congress sources said his primary agenda would be to highlight negative aspects of the prime minister as he knows him well. Prashant was Modis key strategist during the 2014 general election. The sources said the strategist would set up a control room in Dehradun and pay special attention to select constituencies where the Congress will lay maximum focus to win. The hill state will hold election to the 70-member state assembly on February 15. Demonetisation blues are still not over but long queues at banks are hard to find. Though bankers were expecting a huge rush in the new year, they now say that an increasing number of people are switching to digital payment and are better prepared to beat the pay day pangs. The great Indian jugaad has also been called into play. For instance, Ashish Vijay, a resident of Sarita Vihar, paid his maids salary by transferring 2,500 to the account of her landlord. She has to give 5,000 as rent. I got the idea from a friend who did the same, he said. Similarly, to overcome the crunch, Gunjan Vijay, a resident of Jasola, took cash from her relative, who runs an Aadhaar Crad enrolment centre, and returned it through an online bank transaction. A senior official of Corporation bank in North Delhi said, When demonetization was announced on November 8, several people had not even withdrawn their November salary. This led to long queues on pay days in December. But the queues became unusually small in January. We were expecting some rush at least in the first week of the month. But Delhiites were prepared for the second pay day. It seems that an increasing number of people have switched to internet banking, e-wallet and other digital platforms. An official spokesperson of Axis Bank said the bank has been adding 1,500 small merchants (customers) on digital platform daily over the past one month. This is three times more than the numbers before demonetization, he added. Our debit card transaction volume has increased by 137% after demonetization, he said. Though, the bank has not prepared any Delhi specific data, but the trend will be proportionately similar, he said. A senior official of Yes Bank also said that the volume of online transaction has increased by three times. Bankers believe that thinner queues in the last two weeks of December could have also been because people were not left with much money as they had withdrawn in advance to meet the pay day rush. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The strike threat issued by over 17,000 sanitation workers in east Delhi has residents worried. East Delhi was the worst hit by the previous two major strikes by the sanitation workers. Roads across east Delhi had piles of garbage dumped on them by striking workers; waste dumps overflowed and collection of garbage from homes was stopped. Delhi generates a total of 10,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste daily of which 2,200 tonnes is generated in east Delhi alone. Sanitation workers have gone on multiple strikes in the recent years. The situation became so serious that the Lieutenant Governor and the Delhi High Court had to intervene. I fail to understand why the corporation has not been able to solve the issue yet, said BS Vohra, president, east Delhi RWAs joint federation. After demonetisation, EDMC has collected a huge amount as revenue yet still they claim they have no money pay salaries to their staff. Why should the residents suffer for the corporations failure, asked Vohra. Read: MCD strike: Workers gherao transport ministers residence, dump garbage The workers, who threatened an indefinite strike on Thursday, are demanding their three months salary dues and arrears. ON all the previous occasions, payment of dues has been the main demand of the workers. With a budgetary deficit of over several thousand crores, the EDMC has survived on the support by the Delhi government and the Centre. Residents said it is high time that the blame game between the political parties should stop and someone fix the responsibility. I pay my property tax regularly so why should I suffer unnecessarily. Last year, garbage was not lifted from streets for two weeks. It happened in the month of October when chikungunya and malaria spread in Delhi due to unhygienic surroundings, said AK Jha, a resident of Anand Vihar. Mohanjeet Singh, EDMC commissioner, assured to make all necessary arrangements to ensure that residents are not harassed. There is no denying the fact that their salaries are pending for months but we dont have money. We are concerned about the families of the sanitation workers and are pursuing Delhi government to issue grants. We are expecting that funds are released in a couple of days, he said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON My son has apologized. He took the car keys without my permission. He told me it is the biggest mistake of his life, said the father of the 17-year-old minor who on Sunday almost ran over a 48-year-old woman in southwest Delhis Sagarpur. The victim, Kanta Anand (48), had a miraculous escape despite being dragged by the teenagers speeding Maruti Ertiga car for more than 50 meters. She is undergoing treatment at a hospital in Vasant Kunj. The chilling footage of the accident was captured by a CCTV camera and widely circulated on social media. On Thursday, when HT visited the teenagers house, his parents claimed that the boy has gone back to his school in Uttar Pradesh, where he is a twelfth standard student. Police have booked the teenager under the Juvenile Justice act while his father has been booked under sections of the Motor Vehicle Act for failing to keep the cars keys with him and endangering the lives of pedestrians. My son wants to be a doctor. His favourite subject is biology. He wants to save lives, but instead ended up seriously injuring a woman, the teenagers father said. Read: Minor in speeding car hits woman, drags her for 50 metres in Delhi The boy had come to Delhi for New Year celebrations. He had come on Friday and was set to return to Uttar Pradesh on Monday (January 2). I never realised he would take my car out when I was not at home. I shouted at him when I heard about the incident, the 47-year-old man said. On the day the incident took place, the boys parents were attending a satsang when the police informed them about the accident. Deputy commissioner of police (southwest) Surender Kumar said: The juvenile was produced before the Juvenile Justice Board. His father has been booked under the Motor Vehicles Act. The boy told HT over the phone that he had driven a car for the first time that day. A friend was sitting on the passenger seat. The teenager said that the accident occurred after an auto rickshaw suddenly came in front of him. I lost control of the car. I shouldnt have driven it in the first place. I am sorry, he said. The minor studied in Delhi till Class 9. After that he was sent to a relatives place in Uttar Pradesh for further studies. Residents of Sagarpur Pink Apartment, who saw the accident, alleged that the teenager was driving at a high speed. After hitting the woman and ramming his car into a WagonR, the teenager allegedly tried to escape but locals stopped his car and nabbed him. We managed to catch hold of the boy at the wheel. But his friend, who also appeared to be a minor, managed to flee before we could stop him, said Nizamuddin, a security guard at the apartment outside which the accident occurred. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Delhi government has proposed a special exemption to let two private schools continue reserving 60% of their nursery seats for children of public servants, suggesting they be kept out of a new rule mandating distance as the only yardstick for admission. According to sources, the exemption proposal sent to lieutenant governor Anil Baijjal for approval has been mooted for Sanskriti School and CRPF Public School, which reserve seats for children of central government employees and CRPF personnel respectively. This matter has been discussed but we are yet to get a formal word from the government, said Abha Sehgal, principal, Sanskriti School, which is run by a society formed by the wives of the civil servants. Sanskriti and CRPF Public schools are among 298 institutions running on Delhi Development Authority land. They will need to prioritise nursery admissions on the basis of how close a child lives. Guidelines for the process are being drawn up, and admissions to these schools have been embargoed till the process is complete. According to the proposal, however, Sanskriti and CRPF Public schools will need to follow the distance criteria for admission to the 15 general category seats. The matter was first raised in a meeting between the government and school heads on December 5 and a proposal was sent to the then L-G, Najeeb Jung, on December 20. Schools set up for specific category establishments such as defence forces/ paramilitary forces etc shall have the right to reserve seats for admissions for the wards of specific government servants. The extent of seats reserved shall be notified in the notice boards and website, the minutes of the meeting said. The remaining seats, if any, shall be filled on the basis of neighbourhood limit fixed by the school. It was discussed again on Wednesday when the directorate of education met representatives of eight schools to discuss their concerns about the new policy. The file is with the new L-G now. We have also received a query on this from the L-G office, said a government official. In June 2015, the Delhi High Court quashed Sanskriti schools 60% reservation for children of civil servants. The school moved the Supreme Court and as an interim measure, the court allowed the reservation to continue. The entire purpose of establishing a school will be defeated if we have to conduct admission under the neighbourhood/distance criteria. The school was established for CRPF cadets and if the government enforces this rule, they will lose out, Meenu Tiwari, principal, CRPF Public School, said SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Bookworms in the Capital can rejoice as the New Delhi World Book Fair, organised by the National Book Trust (NBT), India, in association with India Trade Promotion Organization (ITPO), will start on Saturday at the Pragati Maidan. The fair will run till January 15 and will be open to public from 11 am to 8 pm for the first eight days, and until 5 pm on the closing day. This years theme is Manushi. The fair will celebrate women writers and writings about women. It will also feature special pavilions dedicated to NBTs journey through 60 years of its existence, books for children, and international literature. Prominent writers and scholars such as Kailash Satyarthi, Hemant Singh Katoch, Omair Ahmad, Vikram Kapur and Vipul Mudgal, among others, will be available for interactions during the book fair. Photo exhibitions by the delegation of the European Union (EU) which examines the lives of the Indian diaspora in Europe, and by the Embassy of Peoples Republic of China which explains the Chinese New Year, will also feature at the fair. Other highlights this year include film screenings based on Shakespearean plays by the British Council. NBT chairman Baldeo Bhai Sharma said if reading habits are on the decline in the country, it is not because people are any less in love with books and reading, but because of other factors like lack of access and high costs associated with books, according to Sharma. Addressing the high costs associated with books, Sharma said they have spoken to publishers and distributors participating in the fair to try to offer books at discounted rates. We will also facilitate cashless transactions and digital payments, and have made arrangements for ATMs, including a mobile ATM, to ensure that business is not affected in the wake of demonetisation, said Sharma. The ITPO has also collaborated with BSNL to ensure better network connectivity at the fair, so that digital transactions can happen with ease. Entry is free for senior citizens and children in school uniforms. We have discussed free entry passes with ITPO, because it is unfortunate that people will have to pay to enter the fair, where they come to buy books, said Sharma. ITPO general manager SR Sahoo said they were considering issuing free passes from next year. General entry tickets will cost Rs 30 for adults and Rs 20 for children below 12 years of age. These are the Pragati Maidan entry charges, he said. The fares are Rs 10 higher than what they were last year because entry charges to Pragati Maidan were increased, not just for the book fair, Sahoo clarified. The fair will be inaugurated by Dr Mahendra Nath Pandey, minister of state for human resources development (higher education), on Saturday at 11 am. Dr Pratibha Ray, a Jnanpith Awardee and Odia writer, will be the guest of honour. 0Tomasz Kozlowski, ambassador of the delegation of the European Union to India, will also be present as a special guest. FIND OUT WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS FOR YOU AT NAKSHATRA 2017 Visitors to the book fair can also try to find out more about their future at ITPOs annual astrology event Nakshatra. The event will run from Saturday to January 15 at Pragati Maidan between 11 am and 8pm. ITPO executive director Shubhra Singh will inaugurate the event which will focus on astrology, vastu, palmistry, numerology, Feng Shui, among others. Seminars on astrology, geopathic stress, ayurveda and Jyotish Vastu Healing have also been scheduled. (Global Times) 12:51, January 05, 2017 A delegation of lawmakers from South Korea's biggest opposition party arrived in Beijing on Wednesday amid tension over bilateral relations resulting from a planned anti-missile system that China sees as a threat. The seven lawmakers, all from the Minjoo Party, also met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing on the first day of their three-day trip. Wang said during his meeting with the delegation that China-South Korea relations should be cherished, news site guancha.cn reported. The trip is aimed at mending ties with China which have cooled since President Park Geun-hye's administration reached an agreement with the US in 2016 to deploy the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system on the peninsula, the Yonhap News Agency reported Wednesday. Though South Korea and the US maintain that THAAD is for military defense against North Korean threats, it would also undermine China's and Russia's military deterrence. China will listen to these lawmakers, but the key to fixing bilateral relations must come from the South Korean side, Chinese experts said. On the first day of the visit, Yonhap reported that "lawmakers, including former Incheon Mayor Song Young-gil, are set to meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and attend a dinner hosted by his ministry." According to a report by Russia-based Sputnik news organization on Monday, the delegates said Minjoo leader, Moon Jae-in, who is also in the running for the next presidential election, would be in the delegation to Beijing. However, Moon did not show up with the delegation. "As the party leader and a potential presidential candidate, Moon is not likely to visit any country before the election, because this will make him look like a puppet," Wang Junsheng, a researcher on East Asian studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Wednesday. Wang will meet with the lawmakers on Thursday in Beijing. However, the Minjoo lawmakers have faced strong criticism from conservatives in South Korea, including the ruling Saenuri Party and offshoot New Conservative Party for Reform which condemned the visit, calling the move a form of "kowtowing," Yonhap reported. "Although Moon is not in the delegation, these delegates also represent a positive power in South Korea and they can deliver the message effectively, that's why they can meet with the foreign minister," Wang said. According to a report by the South China Morning Post, delegate Song Young-gil said "We will tell Beijing that our presidential candidates including Moon are calling for the THAAD issue to be reconsidered in the next government." Separate issues The delegation complained about China's "restrictions" on trade, travel and cultural exchanges with South Korea and said they were visiting Beijing to convince China to separate the THAAD dispute from bilateral cooperation. China has never acknowledged the existence of such restrictions. Foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said on November 21 that "I have never heard of any restriction on South Korea." "The Chinese side's steadfast opposition to the deployment of THAAD by the US in South Korea is well known to all. The Chinese public has voiced their dissatisfaction as well. Relevant parties must have taken note of that," Geng added. Lu Chao, a research fellow at the Institute of China's Borderland History and Geography Studies of the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that "the feeling of 'restriction' that South Korea has is real but it is not government-led; it's Chinese people's spontaneous behavior." "So South Korea cannot expect us to cancel the restrictions which have never existed," Lu said "but we have also pointed out the way-out to fix the problem, that is the cancelation of THAAD." Wang noted that as Minjoo is not the ruling party of South Korea, China will not expect them to promise anything, and the main task of the trip is to deepen mutual understanding and communication because the Minjoo may win the presidential election with Moon becoming president. "The ruling Saenuri Party is very obstinate on THAAD, and it's possible it might try to push the deployment to bring THAAD to South Korea before the presidential election," Wang said. In the backdrop of the NDA governments high decibel campaign against black money, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has done its bit by pushing the need to go digital as far as possible. Recapping its existing order that makes it mandatory for contestants to open separate bank accounts for their election expenses and for making payments over Rs 20,000 by cheque, it is ensuring not just an enforcement of its own rules but sees it as compliance with the governments move towards a digital economy. The EC has joined forces with the Centre in its surgical strike against black money by suggesting lowering the existing limit for cash donations to political parties from Rs 20,000 to Rs 2,000. And to prevent the inflow of illegal money into political coffers, it has asked for an investigation by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) into the finances of 255 registered but unrecognised political parties. The EC fears these could be a haven for unaccounted for money. Most political parties get away with transferring their donations to the books, making use of the provision that allows cash donations under Rs 20,000 to remain anonymous. Read: Centre must delay Union budget till state polls are over: Oppn parties tell EC Another addition this year has been the ECs announcement that it will monitor and account for the time spent on the publicity of candidates and parties on television channels owned or partly owned by them. Getting political parties and their candidates to adhere to the expense cap formulated by the Commission is a tall order as hiding expenses is an art they have mastered. The Commission here is trying to catch up, taking one step at a time, which explains the decision to add all expenditure incurred by candidates, their party agents, senior party leaders and star campaigners on their travel, boarding and miscellaneous expenses. The Commission will for the first time include charges incurred on setting up booths outside the polling stations in the candidates expense account. Eradicating graft has been underlined as one of the most crucial aspects of electoral reforms. Caches of cash, narcotics, alcohol and gifts seized in raids during campaigning have gone up with every election, reaching alarming figures. It was, therefore, seen as a first big step towards cleaning up the electoral exercise when the Commission countermanded polling in two constituencies, Aravakurichi and Thanjavur, during the 2015- Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, after it concluded there was evidence of graft in influencing the election outcome. Read: EC announces dates for assembly polls in 5 states: Highlights The Commissions bid to seek powers to countermand elections on grounds of money and muscle misuse as it does in the case of booth capturing awaits the governments approval; an indication that the political class is still reluctant to clean up the system. Bu the ECIs perseverance is a positive sign. The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE), which conducts ICSE and ISC examinations, said on Thursday the Class 10 and Class 12 board exams will be rescheduled as many of the dates are clashing with the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. The revised schedule for the Indian School Certificate exams, which were to begin on February 6, and the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education exams that were to start from February 27 will be announced in 10 days. The Election Commission announced on Wednesday that the assembly elections in the politically crucial northern state will be in conducted in seven phases starting February 11. I was on my way to Lucknow when the Election Commission announced the dates for five poll-bound states. We have noted down the poll dates and found at least 8 papers will now have to conducted on a different date, Gerry Arathoon, CISCE chief executive and secretary, told Hindustan Times. The ISC art paper 1 was scheduled for February 11 and the first phase of the polls for 73 seats is also lined up for the day. The computer science paper 2 was to be held on February 15 that clashes with the second phase of polls for 67 seats in the state. Similarly, the ISC English paper 1 and 2 was to be held on February 23 and 27 that clashes with the fourth and fifth phase of the elections for 53 and 52 seats. Lastly, the physical education paper 1 (theory) was to be held on March 8, the last phase of the polls. Likewise, the ICSE English language paper 1was scheduled for February 27 when the fifth phase for 52 seats will be conducted. The art paper 1 is slated for March 4 and second language and modern foreign language paper will be held on March 8. Arathoon was in Lucknow to attend the 95th annual conference of the Association of Heads of Anglo-Indian schools in India (AHAISI) at La Martiniere College. The poll panel had asked the Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad (UPMSP) to announce a fresh schedule for high school and intermediate board examination after the education board declared the dates in December. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Actor Emma Stone says she wants to ditch her stage name for her real name- Emily Jean Stone. The La La Land star was told she would have to change her title from Emily to something else when she signed up to the Screen Actors Guild, as under SAG rules no two members can have the same name and there was already an Emily Stone listed, reported Femalefirst. Well, I was 16 when I found out at SAG I couldnt have my own name. So to ask a 16-year-old to pick a new name is really an interesting process because I was like, Im going to be Riley. My name is going to be Riley Stone. Emma Stone attends 'Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone hand and footprint ceremony' at TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX on December 7, 2016 in Hollywood, California. (AFP) And so my name was Riley Stone for about six months and I did a guest spot on Malcolm in the Middle and one day they were like, Riley, Riley, and I had no idea who they were talking to and they were like, Hey, hey come on we need you on set. And I was like, Oh Im not Riley, I cant be Riley, she added. The 28-year-old actor would like to go back to her own name, even though she has achieved worldwide fame as Emma Stone, but she is unsure if she can do that now. Emm is not sure if changing her name back to the original will be a good idea. (AFP) I had the option of Emily J Stone and its kind of like Michael J Fox, and I love Michael J Fox, but I dont think I could pull off the J So then I changed it to Emma because you know its closer to Emily, but most people call me M, that know me well. I would love to get her (Emily Stone) back, Stone said. Follow @htshowbiz for more Angelina Jolie has slammed estranged husband Brad Pitt in her new court filing, saying the actor is insistent on sealing divorce documents because he is terrified the public will learn the truth. Pitt, 53, asked a Los Angeles Superior Court judge to seal all records relating to their six children, accusing Jolie of compromising their kids privacy by releasing details to the media through public court filings. According to the new documents, the 41-year-old actor has agreed to keep papers sealed but she strongly disputes the actors claims that she freely publicised sensitive information, reported People magazine. Hollywood actors Brad Pitt (L) and actress Angelina Jolie (2nd R) arrive with their children Knox (beside Pitt), Vivienne (R) and Pax (C) at Haneda international airport in Tokyo, Japan on July 28, 2013. (Reuters) There is little doubt that (Pitt) would prefer to keep the entire case private, particularly given the detailed investigations by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Dept of Children and Family Services into allegation of abuse, the new court documents state. But a source close to the situation said that Pitt has been cleared in all investigations. Its nice to see that she has finally come around to supporting the sealing of documents weeks after he requested this action. Considering that both the FBI and child services thoroughly investigated this matter and cleared the father, this line of attack doesnt make much sense, a source said. Jolie was granted full custody of all their six kids on December 2. The Court documents at the time stated that Pitt would continue to have agreed-upon therapeutic visits with the children. Follow @htshowbiz for more The model code of conduct might have kicked in, but the NDA government still retains a leeway to present pro-people sops in its upcoming general budget, experts say. The presentation of budget in the middle of the polls has already raised questions, the EC revealed on Wednesday. The chief election commissioner Nasim Zaidi said, The Commission has received one representation with regard to presentation of budget; we are examining it and will take call on it in due course. An EC source told HT, The government while announcing the budget cannot make any announcements that are specific to the poll-bound states. If there are new projects or allocation related to those states, those will have to be announced later. Read | Some income tax relief likely in upcoming budget Opposition parties like Samajwadi Party and AAP have raised questions over the timing of the budget. SP MP Naresh Agarwal has demanded that the budget should be deferred and AAP spokesperson Ashutosh tweeted, It will be wrong to present Budget just three days before polling in Goa and Punjab.EC should take cognisance/issue appropriate instructions. Former secretary general of Lok Sabha S Sreedharan told HT, The Budget is a constitutional compulsion. It is only a matter of morality and propriety whether they take the Election Commissions permission before announcing the budget proposals. Former parliamentary affairs secretary Afzal Amanullah said, The standard practice is that no such announcements should be made which may affect the poll results. And there cant be any announcements specific to the poll-bound states. Read | As political parties cry foul, Jaitley defends Budget presentation before polls In 2012, the then finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had presented his budget on March 16, after the polling was over for the states. Zaidi also defended the ECs timing of declaring polls against the criticism that the announcement was deliberately delayed to accommodate Prime Minister Narendra Modis address to the nation on the eve of the New Year. The charge is in realm of conjecture. EC has its own mind and an autonomous institution. It has always behaved independently. This time too, EC kept no stones unturned to prepare. In any preparation, looses ends have to be tied up. Political parties requested to hold polls after Christmas and the New Year. Only last evening, we concluded that we can go ahead, Zaidi said. Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat on Thursday will visit Jammu and Kashmir in his first official trip after taking over as Indias 27th Chief Of Army Staff. According to top army sources, he will be visiting army formation in Jammu. This will be his median tour to J&K after taking over as new army chief. Gen Rawat last week took over as the chief of the 1.3 million strong Indian Army succeeding Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag, who retired after 42 years of service. Gen Rawat superseded two senior most Lt Generals, Praveen Bakshi and P M Hariz. Rawat was commissioned in the Fifth Battalion of the Eleven Gorkha Rifles in December 1978 from IMA, Dehradun. He was awarded the Sword of Honour at the academy. Gen Rawat has vast experience in high altitude warfare and counter-insurgency operations. He commanded an infantry battalion, along the Line of Actual Control in the Eastern Sector, a Rashtriya Rifles Sector and an Infantry Division in the Kashmir Valley, a Corps in the Eastern theatre and the Southern Command. Gen Rawat has held important staff appointments at Directorate General of Military Operations and Military Secretarys Branch at Army HQ. The Bengaluru Police on Thursday arrested four men, including two delivery boys, for allegedly molesting a woman in a residential area of the city on the New Years Day, an assault that was caught on CCTV. The men were stalking the woman, who moved to the city a week before the incident, and had planned the attack, police commissioner Praveen Sood told mediapersons about the incident that came to light two days after mass molestation of women was reported from another part of the city around the same time. Two others have been identified and will be arrested soon, the city police chief said. He identified the man who groped the woman as Aiyappa (19), a delivery boy. Lenin Patrick, 20, a helper, was the one who drove him on the scooter. Somashekhar (24), a driver, and Sudesh (20), also a delivery boy, are the other two who were arrested. They had been stalking the victim for about four-five days, and since all the accused were involved in planning the attack, they have been booked under the same charges, Sood said. The four are charged with sexual harassment and wrongful restraint. All the accused were from the same locality, Kammanahalli, and the victim did not know them. An identification parade had not been conducted yet, Sood said. Police had acted on their own to register a case of molestation based on the CCTV footage that shows the men drive past the woman, take a U-turn and stop the vehicle. The pillion rider jumps off the vehicle, gropes the woman and the men drive away. During the day, Karnataka home minister G Parameshwara condemned the incident during a press conference. Bengaluru is safe for women and children. Kannadigas do not behave in this manner, he said. The commissioner, however, said all the accused were locals. The two assaults caused a great deal of anger, raising questions about policing and women safety in a city considered safe for women. Police had found no evidence of mass molestation during New Years Eve celebrations on MG Road and Brigade Road, Sood said again on Thursday. We have found no evidence of mass molestation in the footage we have examined. However, based on some media reports and posts on social media we have filed four cases suo motu, he said, adding none of the people who spoke to media had contacted police. A local court in Chhattisgarh on Tuesday acquitted two men accused of raping a 48-year-old Christian nun in Raipur in June 2015, citing lack of evidence produced by the police. The incident had sparked protests across the state and Raipur Police started an investigation in the case only after the National Human Right Commission (NHRC) intervened. The court acquitted the accused - Dinesh Dhurv (19) and Jitendra Pathak (25) - saying the case was very sensitive but the investigation was not up to the standard. The nun was allegedly gang raped at a nursing centre run by missionaries in Pandari area of Raipur. As per the complainant, she was sleeping when two masked men barged into the centre and tied her hands and feet before gang raping her. Her colleagues found her tied to the bed the next day and rushed her to the nearby hospital. Chhattisgarh Nagrik Samyukt Sangarsh Samiti (CNSSS), the organisation that raised the issue, said it is shocked and found the courts verdict and the inability of the police to investigate the case properly unfortunate. The role of police is under the scanner, which is reflected in the judgment. We will move to the upper court, CNSSS convener Goldy George said. We had come out on the streets after the incident. Schools were shut down. In Ambikapur and Jashpur nearly 40 thousand people marched. It was perhaps the lone case in Chhattisgarh, or even in central India, where for nearly four months the streets were jammed almost every other day, he added. Then we approached the NHRC and they instantly sent an investigation team. In three week, the investigation team came out with a report. The NHRC found that the police destroyed the evidence and suggested that they were protecting the culprits. They summoned the CS, director general of police, and Raipur superintendent of police and asked them to file a report in two weeks. The police didnt know what to do and in this case and hence picked up two young men, George added. In March 2015, a 74-year old nun was raped by six men at a local convent school in Ranaghar, West Bengal after they entered the premises to rob the building. Investigators had claimed that the elderly nun was picked out by the rapists, as they asked specifically for the senior most nun among the three nuns, who were present at the school. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON China on Thursday dismissed as untrue allegations of double standards by India by blocking its bid to list JeM leader Masood Azhar as global terrorist by the UN, claiming that it had adopted a just, objective and professional attitude in deciding the matter. With regard to the listing matter of the security council 1267 committee the so called double standards adopted by China on this relevant issue is not true. We take action based on solid evidence that is the standard upheld by us, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang told media briefing here. Responding to remarks made by minister of state for external affairs MJ Akbar on Azhars issue during the press conference in New Delhi on Wednesday Geng said, We have taken a responsible and constructive part in relevant discussion in a professional and objective way. Relevant members differed on this issue. The purpose of China to put forward technical hold on that issue is to create enough time for the committee and relevant parties to consult with each other on the relevant issue, he said. Akbar had said , We really do expect China to hear the voice of the world, not just voice of India on terrorism. Referring to Pakistans support to terror, India also hoped that as a responsible and a mature nation, China will understand the double standards and simply self-defeating and suicidal approach of Islamabad to terrorism. China was the only country among the 15-member 1267 counter terrorism committee of the UN Security Council which has objected to Indias application to list Azhar who is accused of masterminding the Pathankot terror attack. China had put two technical holds on Indias move -- first for six months followed by a second one for a period of three months ending Dec 31 -- after which India has to file a fresh application to get the Pakistan-based Azhar listed as a terrorist by the UN. When pointed out that China was the only member among the 1267 committee members to have objected, Geng said relevant attitude and action of China comply with the resolution of the UNSC and rules of procedure of the committee. China takes a very objective and just and professional attitude on that. Up to now the Committee is yet to come to an agreement on this issue and we would like stay in communication and coordination with all relevant parties including India on this, he said. The issue remained unresolved even after the two countries have held several rounds of talks on this issue. Elaborating on Chinas position, Geng said, It is regrettable that an agreement is yet to be made. Relevant actions taken by China in the committee is to safeguard the authority and effectiveness of the committee. Cash deposits in 285 district cooperative banks (DCBs) across India surged six fold in the first four working days after the recall of high-value currency on November 8, as compared to reserves a day before the announcement, HT has found. An analysis of classified bank transaction data revealed DCBs deposited Rs 3,051.2 crore with public sector banks between November 8 when Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 were withdrawn and November 14, when the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) banned the institutions from accepting cash. This is six times the Rs 496.88 crore reserves in the DCBs on November 7. All cooperative banks maintain a current account with a public sector bank, where they have to hold their cash deposits. Prime Minister Narendra Modi yanked the two banknotes out of circulation to drain illegal cash from the economy and announced a 50-day window to deposit or exchange the banned currency. Read | Can Keralas co-operative banking system survive the demonetisation crisis? But experts fear that most of the black money may have returned to the banks because of lax oversight, corrupt bank officials and fake deposits or accounts. On Wednesday, Bloomberg said 97% of the Rs 15.4 lakh crore, which was recalled, had come back to banks. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is already investigating 300 cooperative banks, set up to expand banking in rural areas. Emails and text messages to the RBI and finance ministry were unanswered. The highest cash deposit was made by the Amreli Jilla Madhyastha Sahakari Bank Ltd (AJMSBL) in Gujarats Saurashtra region. The bank had cash deposits of Rs 1.3 crore on November 7 but over the next four working days, it made deposits of Rs 209.15 crore in the State Bank of India branch in Kovaya, a small village in Rajula taluk of Amreli district. The highest deposit in the last quarter from the bank was Rs.6.2 crore. There are three types of cooperative banks in India, state cooperative bank, urban cooperative banks and district cooperative banks. Only DCBs were banned by RBI after allegations of money laundering. Read | RBI reminds cooperative banks to adhere to currency exchange rules But around 100 urban cooperatives banks are also being probed by the ED. In the first three weeks after demonetisation, nearly Rs 12,000 crore worth high-value cash deposits worth Rs 80 lakh each were made by 325 urban cooperative banks from remote districts, HTs investigation found. This is nearly a 25-fold increase in cash balance of these urban cooperative banks compared to their last balance on November 7. HT also found 1,12,465 individuals and other business entities who made more than Rs 1 crore cash deposits till November 30. Dileepbhai Sanghani, chairman of AJMSBL and Gujarats agriculture minister told HT, There was no specific ban on district cooperative banks accepting deposits until Nov 14. So the said 209 crore is the deposit in those four days. RBI asked us to give details of KYC of depositors and we have given all of it. In another case, cash deposits at Sindhudurg district cooperative bank jumped from Rs 2.22 crore on November 7 to Rs 78.3 crore by November 14. Read | Banned notes in hand, cooperative bank customers have nowhere to go The ED probe revealed one instance where a bank account had showed a fixed deposit of Rs 1.45 crore during November 9 to 30. However, the record showed there was no amount in the account between October 1 and November 8. Bank officials did not respond to HTs text message and telephone calls. The cooperative banks first came under the scanner after the ED found Maharashtra-based SVC Cooperative Bank Limited told the RBI that it collected Rs 1450 crore in old currency. But an ED inspection found only Rs 946 crore in its chest. This made SVC officials admit an error of approximately Rs 504 crore in reporting. Later, the ED initiated a probe against 300 cooperative banks. But Sanghani who is also the president of the national federation of state cooperative banks blamed the RBI and pointed out that no DCB official had been caught for fraud while other bank officials had been arrested. Yet, the RBI is not giving us new currency or accepting the deposits with us. The RBI and private banks are responsible for spreading defamatory rumours against us. RBI is responsible for the bad situation in rural agrarian economy by not releasing cash to district cooperative banks, he added. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON A stone lion on a bridge in Tianjin is covered with a mask in the heavy smog that has hit much of the country's northern regions. [Photo by TONG YU For China Daily] A combination of pollution and heavy fog affected countless road, rail and air passengers across northern China on Wednesday. By 4:30 pm, 154 flights had been canceled at Tianjin Binhai International Airport, with another 120 delayed. A total of 450 flights were scheduled to arrive and depart during the day. The city also closed all 20 freeways due to low visibility in the morning, although half were reopened at 2 pm, according to the local transportation commission. At Shijiangzhuang Zhengding International Airport in Hebei province, 88 flights were canceled and 17 delayed as of noon on Wednesday. All trans-provincial bus service from Beijing Capital International Airport was suspended. Zhou Caixiang bought tickets to fly from Zhengzhou, capital of Henan province, to her home city of Shenzhen in Guangdong province, weeks ago. However, on Wednesday she abandoned the plan due to heavy smog. The 26-year-old instead bought seats on the bullet train. "It is better to spend hours on a train than waiting anxiously at an airport," she said, adding that the journey takes two hours by air and seven hours by high-speed rail. At least 32 cities have issued red alerts for air pollution, the highest emergency response in the four-tiered system, the Ministry of Environmental Protection said. The lingering smog has made Beijing extend its orange alert, which started on Dec 30, until Saturday. Students in a primary school in Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei province, have their physical education class on Wednesday in a gym covered with an air cleaning system. [Photo by WANG XIAO/XINHUA] Along with the smog alerts, China also issued a red alert for fog on Tuesday, the first since the government revised the fog warning system in 2013. On Wednesday, heavy fog had engulfed vast northern regions including Beijing, Tianjin and the provinces of Hebei, Henan and Shandong, reducing visibility to 50 meters, said Gui Hailin, senior engineer of the China Meteorological Administration. The fog covered an area as large as 150,000 square kilometers, severely disrupting traffic, he said. The fog was forecast to lift in some parts on Wednesday night, thanks to wind, which will also ease the heavy air pollution, he said, adding that the affected areas are forecast to have clean air beginning on Sunday night. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) led by Arvind Kejriwal burst onto the national political scene in February 2015 with an astounding victory in Delhi. Bagging 67 of the 70 seats in the assembly poll was an unprecedented mandate in the national capital. Now, two years later, AAP faces another major test in the Punjab assembly polls on February 4. The party had won four seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, taking well-established players, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Congress by surprise and hasnt looked back since. Riding on Kejriwals popularity, AAP has not only been drawing impressive crowds at its Punjab rallies, but also managed to get a few defectors from other parties. But can it do a Delhi in Punjab? Though a lot seems to be going for the party, as things stands today, it would not be an easy feat. That is because Punjab is different from Delhi in several ways and so is its politics, as Kejriwal and his core team would have found out by now. AAP was born out of a pan-Indian anti-corruption movement that had Delhi as its epicentre, and was quickly accepted in the city. Punjabis, known for backing the underdog, also welcomed the rookie party with open arms in its first parliamentary outing two-and-a-half years ago. Though AAP contested over 400 Lok Sabha seats across the country, the four seats it won were all in Punjab. It benefited from two parallel anti-incumbencies a two-term Congress rule at the Centre and the SAD-BJP combines eight-year stint in the state. The party has gradually consolidated its support base, emerging as a serious contender in the conventionally bipartisan politics of Punjab. But Kejriwals core team mostly non-Punjabi strategists is seen as outsiders and at one stage was even accused of sidelining state leaders. The party leadership has had to bring the Punjabi leaders to the forefront. Besides, the party is yet to name its CM candidate in a state where politics is primarily personality driven. If the SAD-BJP alliance has five-time CM Parkash Singh Badal, the Congress is being led by former CM Capt Amarinder Singh. Even the earlier speculation that AAP may name Kejriwal as its CM candidate was an interesting but risky political proposition, as Punjab has not had a non-Sikh CM since its trifurcation five decades ago. AAP had come to power in Delhi with a clean slate, riding on the Anna movement goodwill and populist promises. But its 22-month rule has been riddled with controversies and unending battles with the Lieutenant Governor or the Centre. AAPs rivals in Punjab have been quick to pick on its Delhi track record. After its stupendous political show at the historic Maghi Mela in Muktsar, the internal squabbles have exposed its lack of cohesion and affected its poll momentum. If Kejriwal and team somehow win this battle, they will celebrate more than just a state election -- it would silence those who dismiss their Delhi win as a flash in the pan. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Election Commission of India on Thursday asked Samajwadi Party patron Mulayam Singh Yadav and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav to respond by January 9 to each others petitions. Sources said, the commission has asked both the factions to respond to the petitions filed before it staking claim to party and its poll symbol cycle. Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi yesterday said any query on freezing of the Samajwadi Partys poll symbol cycle is hypothetical, adding that the right decision would be taken at the appropriate time. The Commission has received one representation with regard to presentation of budget. We are examining it and will take call on it in due course. Taking cognizance of the symbol order and old precedents, we will examine the documents presented to us. Right decision will be taken at the right time, Zaidi told the media here. Read | No decision as yet on Samajwadi Partys election symbol: EC Any query on freezing of the Samajwadi Partys poll symbol is hypothetical right now. Let us first examine the documents, he added. With the father-son duo of Akhilesh and Mulayam refusing to give in, the ongoing political tussle in the Samajwadi Party has been witnessing twists on a daily basis. As of now, both factions have laid claim over the partys symbol cycle. However, the Election Commission is yet to take a call on the same. Akhileshs mentor and uncle Ram Gopal Yadav earlier on Tuesday staked claim to the partys symbol cycle before the Election Commission while stating that 90 percent of the MLAs are backing the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister. This came a day after Akhileshs father Mulayam staked claim to the same while asserting that the Samajwadi Partys election symbol is my signature. Amid a bitter family feud that has torn apart Uttar Pradeshs ruling party, Mulayam earlier on Monday claimed that the symbol - with its easy and established recall - should be considered his political property. The 77-year-old veteran visited the Election Commissions office on Monday, accompanied by his trusted advisor and younger brother Shivpal Yadav. At a party gathering on Sunday in Lucknow, Akhilesh was named the Samajwadi Partys president. He then pushed his father into retirement by declaring he would now function as patron and mentor. Mulayam and his aides like Shivpal Yadav and Amar Singh have insisted his faction is the legit Samajwadi Party. Read more | Yadav family feud: What next for Akhilesh, Samajwadi Party and UP Sponsored advertisements on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter will be included in the total election expenditure of a candidate, an Election Commission spokesperson said on Thursday. He said voice messages of candidates, even if they were received from other states, would be added to the expenditure of the candidate. He said the total amount of expenditure, of which is accounted under section 77 of Representation of Peoples Act 1951 and incurred or authorised in any assembly constituency in connection with general elections to the Legislative Assembly by any candidate of Punjab, is Rs 28 lakh. He asked printing press owners to print the names and addresses of printer and publisher of any election pamphlets, posters and such other material printed by them. Any violation would invite action, including revocation of license of the printing press, he said. He said the ECI has launched three IT applications being used in Punjab Vidhan Sabha election 2017 -- Samadhan, Suvidha and Sugam -- for uploading complaints by public, political parties and candidates. He said as per section 171 B of IPC, any person giving or accepting any gratification in cash or kind during election process, with a view to inducing a person to exercise his electoral rights is punishable with imprisonment up to one year or with fine or both and as per section 171 C of IPC, any person who threatens any candidate or elector, or any other person, with injury of any kind, is punishable with imprisonment up to one year or with fine or both. He said flying squads have been formed to register cases against both the giver and the takers of bribe and for taking action against those who are engaged in threat and intimidation of electors. A group of retired military personnel, which has been at the forefront in the demand for implementing One Rank-One Pension (OROP), on Thursday threw their weight behind the Congress in all-poll bound states. In a joint press conference in New Delhi with the Congress, Major General Satbir Singh of the Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement (IESM) said ex-servicemen will be supporting the party for it has assured them of fighting for their demands. The group has been agitating at Delhis Jantar Mantar for the past 571 days over the implementation of OROP, 7th pay commission and other issues related to ex-servicemen. So far, the Congress has fielded a battery of leaders, including Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh and his Uttarakhand counterpart Harish Rawat, to launch a stinging attack on the BJP-led NDA government over OROP and other issues. In a bid to woo the retired soldiers ahead of the assembly elections in Punjab, the Congress included a 21-point agenda for the ex-servicemen in its manifesto. Read | What is OROP and why are veterans still unhappy There will be a dedicated ex-servicemen (ESM) cell in the chief ministers office, said Punjab Congress chief Captain Amarinder Singh. We will also create department of Guardians of Governance at village, panchayat and block levels to monitor expenditure of funds and implementation of government schemes for retired military personnel, he said. Attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi and defence minister Manohar Parrikar, Amarinder said the leaders had not only put the OROP demand on the back-burner but also cheated the armed forces of their rightful due as a result of its revised ranking system that widened the disparity between civil and military officers. He also hit out at the NDA government for ignoring the interests of defence forces in the 7th pay commission. Virbhadra said it was shameful that soldiers were agitating and the government was oblivious to their cause, while Rawat claimed that the PM had diluted and diverted the OROP issue. Though OROP was implemented in September 2015, ex-servicemen said the scheme didnt address all the concerns raised. In November, a 70-year-old retired soldier, Subedar Ram Kishan Grewal committed suicide over the issue. Grewal, who was leading the protest of Haryanas retired servicemen, had attempted to meet Parrikar with a petition before taking the drastic step. A week after, Grewals arrears had been credited to his account. Read | OROP controversy: Stop playing politics with the Indian Army SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Based on forensic reports, suspended Haryana judge Ravneet Garg has claimed that his wife Geetanjali was murdered. Geetanjali Garg, wife of then Gurgaon chief judicial magistrate Ravneet Garg, was found dead in a park of police lines in Gurgaon on July 17, 2013, with a licensed revolver of judge lying close to her body. Earlier, Ravneet was charge sheeted on charges of dowry death. In his plea, Ravneet claimed that his wife was murdered as forensic reports suggested there were two firearms used and a bullet of country made weapon was discovered from the spot. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court, Haryana, issued notice to the CBI on his application for January 9. Ravneets parents, KK Garg and Rachna Garg, who are also accused in the case got bail on December 23, 2016. Ravneet Garg has pointed that two judges, one sessions judge and another additional district and sessions judge of Gurgaon, had recorded that Geetanjalis father Om Prakash Aggarwal had said sorry to Ravneet and asked him to maintain good relations with him after the death of Geetanjali. He also listed statements of peons who said that the relations between him and his wife were good. He claimed that he and his wife had gone to trips to hill stations a number of times to prove that relations were cordial. About the cars in dowry, he admitted that these belonged to father of Geetanjali and his in-laws had claimed depreciation regarding the cars in their income-tax returns. Regarding the plot in Sonipat, he said that he never got the sale deed executed in his favour for the plot at Omaxe City, which he was intended to purchase. He told the CBI court that high court had asked for the reason for not making the payment, which he had explained to the high court. According to CBI, cash worth 51 lakh, 101 gold coins, household items and a Skoda Laura car worth 16 lakh was given as dowry at the time of marriage of Ravneet and Geetanjali in 2007. Further, Skoda Superb car worth 21.63 lakh was given in 2008 at the time of marriage of younger brother of Ravneet. Besides, Ravneet used to take money for day-to-day expenses as well, said CBI. Opposition parties on Thursday met with the Election Commission to express reservations over the date of the presentation of the Union Budget. The parties including the Congress, Trinamool Congress and Janata Dal (United) want the date to be deferred to March 8 to avoid any effect on the coming assembly elections in five states. What is the row about? When will the government present its Budget this year? The NDA government will place the Union Budget in the Lok Sabha on February 1, pushing the schedule ahead by three weeks. Earlier the budget was announced on the last day of February. Why are Opposition parties protesting against the Budget date? The Election Commission announced the poll schedule for five states with polling in Goa and Punjab slated on February 4. The Opposition is alleging that it is too close to the Budget day. They are hinting that the budget announcements may have a direct impact on the polling. They met the Election Commission to demand a change in the poll date or budget day. How was the Budget date fixed? The cabinet committee on parliamentary affairs headed by home minister Rajnath Singh, met on January 3 and decided to call the session from January 31 and to present the Budget on February 1. In a way, the government avoided a collision with the ECs announcement for poll schedule. What had happened when UP, Punjab and other states went to polls the last time? UP, Punjab, Goa, Manipur and Uttarakhand faced assembly polls in the first quarter of 2012. That year, the UPA government presented its budget on March 16, after the polling was over. What can the EC do now? The poll panel can change the voting dates for Goa and Punjab. It is well within its purview. It may also request the Centre to reconsider the Budget date but it is unlikely that the Budget schedule will be changed. Read | Amid poll code, Budget may still roll out pro-people schemes SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON As Soni Wadwi breastfed her one-year-old son, Sonu, outside her hut in Khoch village, Palghar district of Maharashtra in western India, she recounted how he almost died from severe malnutrition four months ago. The family left the village last year for work for several months as many do. When they returned, Sonu was weak and admitted to a hospital. Wadwis son survived and made a full recovery but about 400 other children died from malnutrition-linked illnesses in Palghar between April and November 2016 -- a rising trend that campaigners put down to an annual pattern of migration for work. In the last three years, malnutrition has claimed the lives of about 1,600 children in Palghar, a tribal region battling high unemployment and poverty, with national headlines over child deaths prompting government action to address the problem. Read: Maharashtra tribals dont eat wheat, barter it for salt, oil, says study Khoch lies 150 km from Indias commercial capital Mumbai and close to the border with Gujarat, one of the countrys most prosperous states, but unemployment is forcing parents to move to cities to find work to feed their children. Palghars problem of malnutrition is shocking because of its proximity to Mumbai, but it is migration to Mumbai that is at the root of this problem, said Milind Thatte, founder of Vayam, a movement for tribal development. People from Palghar migrate to Mumbai for work, but the cost of living there is very high. They dont eat to save money. Villagers start leaving Palghar in December for the Mumbai satellite towns of Thane and Bhiwandi where they often work 12-hour shifts at construction sites or road building projects. Once the monsoon season halts construction, workers return to villages in July for a jobless spell until October, when the start of the harvest provides daily work on farmland. Locals refer to September as starvation month, when many people are unemployed and childrens deaths peak. The end of the harvest in December again signals the end of the villagers home stay. We have no work now, but we will leave soon. We are waiting for the seth (the construction site contractor) to come and take us, Wadwi said. BOTTOM OF THE LADDER Namdev Savara, a member of the Kathkari tribe, has devoted an entire wall of his one-room hut in Khoch to colourful depictions of Indian gods and goddesses. So when his son, Ishwar - which means the supreme lord in Hindi - died in September, he hung a black and white picture of the child on this wall of worship. Savara said he will not leave Khoch in 2017 and he will work on a local road construction project with his wife. The couple will stay close to their two other children who go to school. According to government data about 39% of Indian children suffer from chronic undernutrition and around 42.5% are underweight. In Palghar, malnutrition most affects the Kathkari tribe -- a one time forest community which is among the lowest in the pecking order of the Indian caste system. Most children who died this year due to malnutrition-linked illnesses were from the Kathkari community, said Nidhi Chaudhari, who heads the Palghar local government office. Vivek Pandit, an activist who has represented the area in the Maharashtra state assembly, said Kathkari people dont have land and are handpicked for their ability to do strenuous work. They work at construction sites, break stones for road construction or at brick kilns, Pandit said. Employers usually prefer to hire Kathkari couples as they coordinate better and are cheaper than two men, with men paid around 200 rupees daily and women anywhere between 50 and 100 rupees. The migrant workers survive on rice and the occasional dish of potato and onions, saving their money for the jobless months. WEAK AND VULNERABLE Doctors said children suffer due to irregular feeding patterns when both parents work long hours. The parents priority is not their childs health but to earn their daily wages, said Ramdas Marad, superintendent at the Palghar sub-district hospital that runs at twice its capacity in the monsoon months between June and September. Children are more vulnerable to disease such as pneumonia or respiratory infections during this time as they are weak and their immunities are compromised. The government is drawing up a list of Kathkari tribe members to ensure they benefit from the government schemes for jobs and education, among the others that they are eligible for. The government has even started a new road project in Khoch to attempt to slow migration, but only a handful of people who have bank accounts are so far eligible. Savara is among them but his decision to stay in Khoch this year is an anomaly in the village where migration began last month. Many, such as Wadwi, even committed to leave in September, when a contractor visited families and bought promises of migration against an advance payment. I know my child was malnourished when we migrated last year. But what will I feed him if I dont work? she said. Nearly USD 14 billion worth of defence offset obligations would be discharged in India by foreign original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) by 2028, MoS for Defence Subhash R Bhamre said on Thursday and indicated that the country envisages to reduce the defence budget by 50% within a decade. He said the defence industry has the potential to become a huge foreign exchange earner and also lead the country to its professed goal of self-reliance. Nearly USD 14 billion worth of defence offset obligations will be discharged by the foreign OEMs by 2028, he said while delivering the inaugural address at seminar - Leveraging defence expenditure as a tool for nation building - organised by College of Defence Management here. He noted that India has the 3rd largest armed forces in the world and spends approximately 40% of its total defence budget on capital acquisitions, and about 60% of defence requirements are met through imports. The present government has emphasised on indigenous manufacturing to reduce the defence budget by 50% within a decade, the Union minister said. There is an urgent need for innovation in the defence manufacturing sector with increased focus on R&D and to prepare a pool of human resource expertise which will help in making equipment and technologies cheaper, he said. Thanks to the Centres Make in India campaign, the defence sector has moved from the periphery to the core of Indian manufacturing, he pointed out. The sector not only has the potential to augment manufacturing but also add nearly one million direct and indirect jobs, Bhamre said. He also said the government is taking steps to bring in a framework that encourages collaboration between public and private sector companies for defence export based on public private partnership model. The DPSUs (Defence Public Sector Undertakings) and private sector should also put in place a system to share the capability and capacity to support overseas sales, servicing and maintenance throughout the life of the product, he said. Pointing out that the human resource capacity in the private sector has already demonstrated its worth in fields of automobile, IT and service sectors at global platform, he said the government is trying to replicate the same model by inducing private sector and foreign OEMs to invest in defence manufacturing. The Indian embassy in the US held its first open house as part of its effort to address the grievances of the community on visa, passport and Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) card. The initiative was announced by the new Indian ambassador to the US Navtej Sarna in his maiden address to the Indian Americans at a reception organised by the community in his honour last month. Similar open houses have been planned at all other Indian consulates in the US -- New York, Atlanta, Houston, Chicago and San Francisco. The embassy and its consulates will hold similar open houses in their premises every fortnight. In Washington, despite the short notice and bad weather conditions, several applicants turned up on Wednesday for the event. Individual applicants issues were personally attended to by senior officers in the consular wing. Apart from personal grievances, various general issues and queries were also responded to by embassy officials. The 350th Prakash Parv or birth centenary of Sikh Guru Gobind Singh here has given a boost to the prime ministerial ambitions of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, who went all out to make the celebrations a grand success. The warmth and hospitality accorded to around 4 lakh Sikhsabout 2 lakh from Punjabto the spiritual leaders birthplace, Patna, has bowled the community over, and given his JD(U) the confidence to target Punjab, which goes to polls next month. JD(U) national secretary general K C Tyagi said the party had formed a unit in Punjab, but a final call on its foray into the state would be taken in the next four-five days. The large number of Biharis in Punjab could turn out to be a deciding factor in the polls, experts believe. Tyagi claimed that Nitish commands a huge respectability, and his acceptability as an alternative leader was proved during Prakash Parv. On Thursday, he was leading the celebrations along in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Bihar CM had a warm meeting with his Punjab counterpart Parkash Singh Badal of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), who, Tyagi claimed, was in the JD(U)s scheme of things. Congress MP and former Punjab CM, Amarinder Singh has approached Nitish to campaign for the grand old party in Punjab. Lalu Prasad of RJD, which is JD(U)s coalition partner in Bihar, and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, whose AAP is a natural ally and is contesting in Punjab, were among several leaders of different parties to make their presence felt at the Parv, hoping to cash in on the celebrations. Prasad made it to the Gandhi Maidan, the venue of the PMs programme, although he could not make it to the dais alongside the PM on Thursday. JD(U) has also been approached by Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) led by Simranjit Singh Mann, sources said. More than 4 lakh Sikhs are estimated to have attended the celebrations which began on December 30 last year. JD(U) is contesting nearly 100 seats in Uttar Pradesh in collaboration with RLD, NCP, and JDS. Tyagi said the party has a strong presence in western and eastern UP. Nitish and Samajwadi Party (SP) Mulayam Singh yadav have not enjoyed the best of relations and the chasm between the two grew during Bihar assembly elections after the SP chief decided to contest on all assembly seats. Nitish reciprocated the gesture by turning down SPs move of a grand alliance. (Xinhua) 13:13, January 05, 2017 U.S. President Barack Obama attends an Armed Forces Full Honor Farewell Ceremony for the president at Joint Base Myer-Henderson in Washington D.C., the United States on Jan. 4, 2017. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu) Outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama and incoming Vice President Mike Pence visited Capitol Hill on the same morning for a direct opposite goal. Obama rallied Congress Democrats on Wednesday to chart out a plan to save at least parts of the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare and seen as his biggest domestic legacy, while Pence promised that repealing the law is "the first order of business" of the Donald Trump administration. In a rare meeting with Democratic lawmakers, Obama called for a fight against any Republican effort to repeal the law. The Democrats announced they would refuse to work with Republicans if the latter insist in forging ahead the repeal with no replacement plan. "We are telling Republicans if you are repealing, show us what you'll replace it with first and then we'll look at what you have and see what we can do," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. "We're united in our opposition to these Republican attempts to make America sick again," Schumer told reporters, co-opting Trump's well-known campaign slogan "Make America Great Again." In a separate session, Pence asked House Republicans to get the repeal bill ready by Feb. 20, one month after Trump's inauguration. "The president-elect and I, working with the leaders of the House and Senate, are determined to keep our promise to the American people and that all begins with repealing and replacing the failed policy of Obamacare, " Pence said in the House of Representatives. "It needs to be done," said Pence. Republicans have a 52-48 advantage in the Senate and a hefty 241-194 majority in the House. Once Trump takes oath on Jan. 20, Republicans will hold the White House and both chambers of Congress for the first time since early 2007. However, since most legislation needs 60 votes in the Senate, Republicans have to garner bipartisan support to fulfil their major policy tasks including repealing and replacing the whole package of Obamacare. In a bid to overcome the Democratic filibuster, Republican senators have been planning to unlock a fast-track budget process, known as "reconciliation", as the first step to dismantle the law, according to local media reports. Under the rules of "reconciliation", there is no limit on repealing the items in the law that have a direct impact on the federal budget. Therefore, Republicans are expected to use the procedure to pass the repeal in the Senate with a simple majority, leaving Democratic senators few legislative options at their disposal. However, this is technically not an official repeal and so far it is unclear how many items of Obamacare will be swiped away, when it would take effect and what the Republican plan for replacement is. Likely targets include the law's tax penalties for people who don't obtain insurance, its requirement that many companies cover workers and tax increases on higher-earning individuals and many health care firms, said a Fox News report, noting that Republicans have little chance of quickly agreeing on replacement legislation. A range of 18 months to three years, if not longer, has been under discussion, said the report. Earlier on Wednesday, Trump, who vowed to repeal the law during his campaign, warned Republican lawmakers not to let Democrats off the hook for a program he called a "disaster." "Republicans must be careful in that the Dems own the failed ObamaCare disaster, with its poor coverage and massive premium increases......" he tweeted as the new 115th Congress entered its second day. "Massive increases of ObamaCare will take place this year and Dems are to blame for the mess. It will fall of its own weight - be careful!" he said on Twitter. Against Trump's "disaster" vision, Democrats have prepared an aggressive public relations campaign to highlight how Obamacare has helped the 20 million Americans now covered because of the law, and the other benefits that they believe have occurred, such as better preventive care, according to local media reports. Federal data show that since the general elections, enrolment in ObamaCare has risen, with 8.8 million Americans signing up so far for 2017, compared to 8.6 million at this point last year. On Tuesday, Schumer, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders announced that Jan. 15 is a national "Our First Stand: Save Health Care" day of action for advocacy groups and Democrats to criticize Republicans for working to target the health care law. "The more the people understand what's included in the Affordable Care Act and how they benefit from it, the more popular the program is, and the harder it is for Republicans to have political support for tearing it down," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters Tuesday. The war over Obamacare repeal is likely to consume the two mainstream U.S. parties for much of Trump's first year in the White House, analysts say. Karnataka home minister G Parameshwara said on Thursday he was misquoted after widespread outrage about his comments over alleged incidents of molestation in Bengaluru, unveiling a raft of measures to bolster security in the city. His comments came a day after a security camera video caught two unidentified scooter-borne men chasing and assaulting a woman in the citys Kammanahalli area. Read | Bengaluru molestation case: Akshay Kumars powerful message to women The Kammanahalli incident was unfortunate. Kannadigas do not behave in this manner, the minister said. Parameshwara told reporters Bengaluru was a safe city for women and children and that the police were working round-the-clock to sift through camera footage and nab the attackers . He also alleged that he was misquoted by media, after reports that he dismissed allegations of mass molestation during New Year celebrations. I said New Year celebrations happens every time, not molestation. The impression given was that I said molestation happens every time. Never said I disrespected western clothing or culture. Parameshwara said more than 550 CCTV cameras would be installed across the city. Read | Aamir says Bengaluru molestation case shameful, Salim Khan asks PM to intervene A Kolkata group claimed to have been denied permission to host a seminar on refugees of Balochistan and Kashmir by the police who was not willing to show a green signal, apprehending that it might create problems in the city. Swadhikar Bangla Foundation has organised the seminar entitled Sufferings of people of Kashmir and Balochistan and what world needs to know which was scheduled to take place at a renowned club in Kolkata on January 7. But permission was denied permission after reservations were raised over the mention of Kashmiri refugees and their condition during the programme. According to the programs organiser Colonel (Retd) Dipatanshu Chowdhury, ...the club told us to omit the name of Kashmir from the programme and not to call two speakers who are known for their voracious anti-Pakistan statements. We said it is not possible following which the club informed us that police is not willing to give us permission with Kashmir as the theme, as police is apprehending that it might create problems in the city. The speakers of the programme were Dr Tarek Fatah, Lt Gen (Retd) J M Mukherjee, Maj Gen (Retd) G D Bakshi, Sushil Pandit, Arif Mohammad Khan and Abhijeet Bhattacharya. The committee of club has officially declined to host this unique event in Kolkata. This is discretely violating the fundamental rights of citizen of Kolkata to listen, know and exchange the views on Kashmir and Balochistan, the two issues raised by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. We see a clear interference of Kolkata Police which has created hindrance to organise the event to raise this important national issue, he said. Kolkata police however denied any role in cancellation of the event. The club wanted permission and later informed us that they have cancelled the programme. There was no question of Kolkata police denying permission to the event, Vinit Goel, additional commissioner of police, said. Puducherry Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi struck down on Thursday an order by chief minister V Narayanasamy that banned the use of social media platforms such as WhatsApp and Twitter for official communication. Narayanasamy had circulated the ban order after being informed that Bedi was directly interacting with government officials on WhatsApp, according to a source. The movie came after home minister and Congress state chief A Namassivayam questioned Bedis decision to suspend a PCS officer for allegedly posting an objectionable video in a WhatsApp group. AS Sivakumar, serving as the registrar of cooperative societies (RCS), was suspended after the video was discovered last week. On Thursday, Bedis order declared the social media ban circular as null and void, adding that such an order was in contravention of guidelines, rules and policies. Bedi announced the decision on Twitter. If Puducherry has to be a progressive UT, it cannot be retrograde in communications. Hence @CM_Puducherrys order stands cancelled:@PMOIndia (sic), she posted. The governments December 2 notification had directed all the government employees in Puducherry to desist from using social media for official work, saying that the servers of these multinational companies were based outside the country and that any foreign country could access the official communication. A source said the chief minister issued the order as he was unhappy that the Lt Governor was summoning officials through social media, bypassing the established protocols and hierarchy. The chief minister learnt about the suspension of the official -- carried out without the knowledge of the elected government -- when the bureaucrats sought his help. He then issued the blanket order that banned all social media communications. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Two people, including a local Congress worker, were shot dead in Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh late on Wednesday night. Raju Mishra (46), a Congress leader who had contested the last civic election unsuccessfully, and a man with previous criminal record Ranjeet Punjabi (32) were shot when they were standing near a gymnasium late last night, said inspector Pratul Shrivastava of Kotwali police station. Both were rushed to a private hospital. While Ranjeet was declared dead on arrival, Raju died during the treatment. Ranjeet was released from jail recently, inspector Shrivastava said, adding that he had had a fight with gangsters Vijay and Ratan Yadav while in prison. Police have announced a reward of Rs 10,000 for information about the culprits. Some six to eight motorbike-riding people were involved in the attack, according per the preliminary probe. Jallikattu or bull taming in Tamil Nadu, recently banned by the Supreme Court has become a catalyst of a new rivalry between the two newly anointed chiefs of the two Dravidian majors AIADMK and DMK VK Sasikala and MK Stalin. The fireworks have begun with the two Dravidian rivals picking up the issue of Jallikattu for immediate attention, given the emotional traction it gains in the state during the harvest festival. On Tuesday, Stalin alleged that the ban on Jallikattu had come about only due to the failure of the AIADMK government to adhere to the Supreme Court guidelines in 2014. The DMK, which in its general council meeting on Wednesday elevated Stalin as the working president of the party, resolved to urge the central government to ensure the conduct of Jallikattu during Pongal slated for second week of January. DMK leaders have been blaming the AIADMK for its inability to get the central government to facilitate the conduct of the traditional sport in the state where it used to be a regular feature for several years until the Supreme Court recently banned it. Read | Jallikattus dubious glory: Taking the bull of populism by its horns Until the DMK was in power, Jallikattu was properly conducted as per the safety guidelines. The issue started only when the AIADMK came to power in 2011, Stalin said, adding an Animal Welfare Board of India committee that subsequently conducted an enquiry found that the regulations were flouted. Subsequently a ban was imposed in 2014, Stalin said. Sasikala was quick to counter Stalin and charged him with making false statements on the issue over which Jayalalithaa fought vigorously. It was Jayalalithaa who filed a review petition on May 19, 2014, he said adding the Congress-led UPA government, an ally of the DMK, brought bulls under the show-display animals list along with tigers and bears and blamed it was for this reason jallikattu was banned, she said. In his rivalry with Sasikala, Stalin had fired the first salvo a couple of days back when he issued a statement seeking inquiry into the circumstances leading to Jayalalithaas death. He had also questioned as to how a person holding a constitutional position like that of deputy speaker of Lok Sabha, Thambidurai can ask Sasikala to take over as chief minister of Tamil Nadu. Thambidurai is the propaganda secretary of the AIADMK. The DMK also blames the state government responsible for the spate of suicides by the farmers because of a drought. On Wedneaday, Stalin led a delegation of farmers to chief minister O Panneerselvam to highlight their plight. A day earlier, the government had promised freebies to drought-affected families that possess ration cards. Read | Shadow, sister, secretary: The rise of AIADMKs new interim chief Sasikala SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Police said on Thursday they had not found any evidence or received any formal complaints of sexual assault at a New Years eve celebration after media reports of mass molestation, but had registered six separate cases based on the media coverage. Police said they had gone through hours of CCTV footage from the night in Bengaluru and had found no evidence to back up the reports. We started looking into the whole video footage from approximately 45-60 cameras, Praveen Sood, the police commissioner of Bengaluru, told journalists. Read: Bengaluru molesters caught on CCTV stalked woman for 3-4 days; 4 arrested It takes time, the whole team was looking at the camera footage and looking for molestation in the video. We could not find any sign of molestation, Sood said. Local reports featured testimony and photos of victims cowering from their attackers or fleeing for safety while video footage circulated on social media showed women screaming for help. Police have referred to the interviews and social media accounts of eyewitnesses and women who were allegedly molested to file six separate cases, Sood said. Read: Kannadigas do not behave like this: Home minister on Bengaluru molestations The attacks in Bengaluru have drawn comparison with last years mass sexual assaults at New Years celebrations in the German city of Cologne. The state government of Karnataka, whose largest city is Bengaluru, has faced severe backlash over its handling of the incident, particularly after a local minister criticised the women for dressing like westerners. India has come under intense scrutiny in the past for shocking levels of sexual assault against women, notably in December 2012 when a student was gang-raped on a bus in New Delhi and later died of her injuries. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) said on Thursday that the union Environment Ministrys notification exempting construction projects up to an area of 150,000 sq mtrs from obtaining clearance shall not be adhered until further orders. The Environment Ministry in December 2016 issued a notification which exempted the big building and real estate projects spanning on an area of 20,000 sq mtrs to 1,50,000 sq mtrs from getting environment clearance. The notification also replaced the environment impact assessment authority from the state of centre to the local urban authorities like municipalities or development authority. Until further order the notification will not be implemented.... If you grant even one clearance under the new notification we will stay the notification, NGT chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar said. The green court made the observation following the petition of an NGO Society for Protection of Environment and Biodiversity. The next hearing is due on January 11. Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said on Thursday the world needs to tell India enough is enough regarding its policy towards Jammu and Kashmir. Sharif was addressing an International Parliamentary Seminar on Kashmir in Islamabad. Relations between India and Pakistan have plummeted since an attack on an Indian Army base in Uri killed 19 soldiers. New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based group Jaish-e-Mohammed. There have since been repeated outbreaks of cross-border firing between the two sides. Seventy years of brutal repression and Kashmiri struggle in the face of that oppression have shown cries of freedom cannot be stifled by sounds of bullets, Sharif said on Thursday. He called for an end to the continued suffering in Kashmir, where a separatist campaign that New Delhi says is armed and financed by Islamabad has left thousands dead. Sharif called militant Burhan Wani, whose killing in July last year triggered widespread unrest in Kashmir, as a vibrant and charismatic leader who has become a rallying point for Kashmiris. He said India and Pakistan had promised to recognise the Kashmiri peoples right to self-determination. Sharifs foreign policy chief Sartaj Aziz said Pakistan was determined to support Kashmiris despite certain foreign policy challenges. Aziz said the government will continue highlighting the Kashmir issue and human rights violations there. Pakistan last year launched what it called an international outreach to mobilise support for its Kashmir pitch, sending 22 parliamentarians as special envoys to important international capitals amid a deadly unrest in the valley that left nearly 100 people dead after the July 8 killing of militant leader Wani. The turmoil in Kashmir, which India blamed on Pakistan, worsened the already deteriorating ties between the two countries. Aziz said it was not possible for the two neighbours to hold peace talks on unilateral conditions. The basic problem is that Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to improve relations on his own terms. One of his basic conditions is that there should be no discussion on Kashmir, Aziz said. Needling India, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Thursday again praised Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani, calling him a vibrant and charismatic leader. Addressing an International Parliamentary Seminar on Kashmir in Islamabad, Sharif called for an end to the continued suffering of generations in Kashmir. The world needs to tell India that enough is enough with regard to its policy towards Kashmir, Dawn newspaper quoted Sharif as saying. Referring to Burhan Wani as a vibrant and charismatic leader, he said that his martyrdom has become a rallying point for the freedom loving people. Read | Burhan Wani: Better living than dead? He claimed that a promise was made to Kashmir 70 years ago, not only by Pakistan and the United Nations, but also by India to recognise the peoples right to self-determination. He also spoke about the efforts made to highlight the plight of the Kashmiri people at international fora and told the conference that Pakistan would continue to support the struggle of the people in the region. Sharif had earlier praised Wani while addressing a joint session of Parliament in October last year, drawing a strong reaction from India which said this shows Pakistans attachment to terrorism. He had also praised the militant during his address to the UN General Assembly on September 21, 2016, describing him as a young leader. India had strongly criticised Sharifs speech at the UN, describing it as an act of self-incrimination by Pakistan. Read | Glorification of Burhan Wani is self-incrimination by Pak PM Sharif: India India has broken UN limits on nuclear arms and long-range missiles and Pakistan should also be accorded the same privilege, state-run Chinese media said on Thursday as it criticised New Delhi for carrying out Agni-4 and 5 missile tests whose range covers the Chinese mainland. India has broken the UNs limits on its development of nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missile, the ruling Communist Party-run tabloid Global Times said in its editorial. The US and some Western countries have also bent the rules on its nuclear plans. New Delhi is no longer satisfied with its nuclear capability and is seeking intercontinental ballistic missiles that can target anywhere in the world and then it can land on an equal footing with the UN Security Councils five permanent members, it said. India is promising in vying for permanent membership on the UN Security Council as it is the sole candidate who has both nuclear capability and economic potential, it said. China should realise that Beijing wouldnt hold back Indias development of long-range ballistic missiles, it said apparently highlighting Chinas limitations in restricting India developing a nuclear and missile deterrence against Chinese military power. Agni-5, a 5,000-km range intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), is widely regarded as a strategic missile targeted at China as it can reach almost all parts of the Chinese mainland. The editorial said that Chinese dont feel Indias development has posed any big threat to it. The daily known for its sabre-rattling rhetoric said India wouldnt be considered as Chinas main rival in the long run due to vast disparity of in power between the two countries. But at the same time it suggested that the best choice for Beijing and New Delhi is to build rapport. Read | China hopes for better relations with India next year However, while accusing India of violating limits imposed by UN on nuclear and long range missile development, if the Western countries accept India as a nuclear country and are indifferent to the nuclear race between India and Pakistan, China will not stand out and stick rigidly to those nuclear rules as necessary, it said. At this time, Pakistan should have those privileges in nuclear development that India has, it said, indicating that China which shared all-weather ties with Islamabad will back it if it develops long-range missiles. In general, it is not difficult for India to produce intercontinental ballistic missiles which can cover the whole world. If the UN Security Council has no objection over this, let it be. The range of Pakistans nuclear missiles will also see an increase. If the world can adapt to these, China should too, it said. The references to violation of UN rules by the daily were significant as the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying while reacting to Indias Agni-5 missile test said on December 27 that on whether India can develop this ballistic missile that can carry nuclear weapons, I think relevant resolutions of the UNSC have clear rules. China has been identified as one of the top priority post-Brexit markets for British food and drink, a government minister said on Wednesday. Andrea Leadsom, Secretary of State for Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs, said that the country's food, farming and fishing industries will be having an extraordinary opportunity to "thrive". Leadsom, in a speech at a farming conference in Oxford, spoke of the big world-wide markets beyond the EU for British food and drink. "I saw this for myself in China, where there's a growing appetite for British food and drink. We now have our biggest export team based there, and the past year has seen a huge rise in British exports to China, up over 50 percent on 2015," she said. Leadsom said China was just one of the priority markets Britain has identified in its international action plan. "Food and drink is already the UK's largest manufacturing sector, adding more value to our economy than the car and aerospace industries combined," she said. Non-EU dairy exports are up 91 percent; wheat exports are up 80 percent; and, a real triumph, British lamb was voted product of the year in France last year, added the minister. Commenting on forthcoming Brexit talks, Leadsom told an audience of farmers: "Food, farming and our environment will be central to the success of our negotiations -- as well as to our future outside the EU. "For too long, a bureaucratic system, which tries to meet the needs of 28 different member states, has held farmers back. Now, we have the chance to design a domestic successor to Common Agricultural Policy that works for all of you, rather than the entire European Union.," she told the farmers. Leadsom said the cutting of European red tape and Brussels bureaucracy as a potential big win for British farmers. "I am confident that leaving the EU gives us an unprecedented opportunity to design a system that's fit for the 21st century," she said. At the conference Leadsom announced extra government funding of nearly 150 million U.S. dollars for a new wave of projects as part of the Rural Development Program. Pakistan on Thursday released 218 Indian fishermen who had allegedly strayed into its waters. Despite a thaw in bilateral ties, Pakistan has now released 439 Indian fishermen as a goodwill gesture in the last 10 days. The 218 fishermen were freed from Malir jail on instructions from the interior ministry as a goodwill gesture, jail superintendent Hasan Sehto said. 219 fishermen were supposed to be freed but one of them died of a heart attack in Karachi jail hours before his release. Jeeva Bhagwan (37) -- whose name was on the list of 219 fishermen released on Thursday -- hailed from Khan village in Una tehsil of Gir Somnath district of Gujarat, senior vice president of Gujarat Fishermen Association Veljibhai Masani said. Indian fisherman display their travel documents at the railway station in Karachi. (AFP Photo) This is the second batch of Indian fishermen released from Pakistan jails since relations between the two countries became tense after the September terror attack on an Indian Army base in Uri for which India has blamed Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed organisation. On December 25, the Pakistan government had freed 220 Indian fishermen who were in jail for more than a year as goodwill gesture after Prime Minister Narendra Modi greeted counterpart Nawaz Sharif on his birthday. Sehto said the Indian fishermen who were released on Thursday will be handed over to Indian officials at the Wagah border. A Pakistani policeman takes a selfie with Indian fishermen at the railway station in Karachi. (AFP Photo) He said that around 110 more Indian fishermen remain in Landhi jail in Karachi. Last March, the Pakistan government had released 87 Indian fishermen who had been languishing in jail in Karachi for the last two and half years. Pakistan and India frequently arrest each others fishermen for violating the territorial boundary. Poor fishermen from both countries routinely find themselves arrested for illegal fishing as there is no clear demarcation of the boundaries between the two countries in the Arabian sea near Sir Creek and lack of technology has made life difficult for the fishermen of both countries. Last Friday, Pakistan maritime security agency arrested 66 Indian fishermen for illegally fishing in Pakistans territorial waters. Indian fishermen wave from the train at the railway station in Karachi after their release from prison. (AFP Photo) Fishermen from both countries end up languishing in jails for years even after serving their sentences and their only hope of getting released is through goodwill steps. Read | India, Sri Lanka to release fishermen in each others custody Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday praised Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar over his controversial move to ban liquor in the state despite objections from all quarters, calling it a courageous step. Social change is a very tough thing to forge, yet he has shown remarkable ability in implementing prohibition. I want to request everyone in Bihar to remember its not only Nitishs job but that of society as a whole to improve, and if this policy is successful in Bihar, the whole country will be inspired, PM Modi was quoted as saying by NDTV news channel. He was speaking at a public meeting to celebrate the 350th birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh, the 10th guru of the Sikhs who was born in Bihar. Modis praise for Kumar comes after he backed the Prime Ministers demonetisation of two high-value currency note in November last year even as his allies the Congress and Lalu Prasads Rashtriya Janata Dal trained their guns on the government over the surprise decision. Nobody can carry away anything he hoards after death, yet people try to make money for the next seven generations. There is no pocket in the shroud for money, yet people take bribe. I dont know why they do it and how much money they want, Kumar said in his support for the PMs decision. In 2013, Kumar walked out of an 18-year-alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over its decision to pick Modi as its prime ministerial candidate. His party managed to win just 2 of Bihars 40 seats in the national election in Bihar, while the BJP cornered 22. In the 2015 Bihar assembly elections, Kumars Janata Dal(United) allied with Lalu Prasads Rashtriya Janata Dal to form a Grand Alliance that dealt a major blow to the BJP in the state. Kumars stand on the demonetisation came as a blow to the Congress, which tried to stitch together a united opposition against Modi over the decision that resulted in a massive cash shortage and forced people to queue outside banks and ATMs to deposit old currency and withdraw money. Petitions seeking to debar candidates against whom criminal charges are framed from elections will soon be decided, the Supreme Court said on Thursday. We must clarify this matter so that people know the law by next election, a bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) JS Khehar said when a senior lawyer mentioned the matter before it. These petitions have been referred to a constitution bench which the CJI will set-up soon. Advocate Vikas Singh submitted before the court that the contentious issue needed to be decided soon as many dreaded criminals were planning to stand in the upcoming assembly polls. We cannot give an immediate answer to these questions since there is a fear of lodging false cases in elections, the bench said, asserting a detailed discussion was required on it. On March 8 last year a bench of three-judges had referred these cases to a larger bench. The top court has already ruled that an elected representative loses his or her seat if he or she is convicted and punished with three years or above of jail term. The guilty cannot contest elections for six years after the punishment is over. However, the petitions pending want disqualification at the stage when charges are framed. Ten Tamil Nadu fishermen were arrested and their two boats impounded by the Sri Lankan navy for allegedly fishing in the island nation waters, officials said on Thursday. The fishermen from Jegathapattinam in Pudukottai district were fishing in Neduntheevu on Wednesday night when the Lankan navy arrested and took them to Kankesanthurai in northern Sri Lanka, Pudukottai assistant director of fisheries Sekar said. The arrest comes three days after Sri Lanka agreed to set free 51 Indian fishermen already in its custody. Read: India, Sri Lanka to release fishermen in each others custody In another incident, more than 3,500 fishermen, who had put out to sea from here in 584 boats on Wednesday, returned to the shores without any catch after the Lankan naval personnel allegedly snapped the fishing nets of about 30 vessels and drove them away while they were fishing near Katchatheevu, Rameswaram fishermen association leader S Emerit said. With the latest arrest, the number of Tamil Nadu fishermen in Sri Lankan custody has risen to 61. On January 2, Sri Lanka agreed to release 51 fishermen in its custody and considered returning a large number of fishing boats. This was decided during a high-level ministerial level meeting of Sri Lanka and India held in Colombo on the vexed issue of fishermen. Indian and Lanka Coast Guard on Wednesday discussed various measures for the release and repatriation of the arrested fishermen among other areas of cooperation in the maritime security scenario. A three-member delegation led by director general Sri Lanka coast guard Rear Admiral Samantha Wimalathunge is on a three-day visit to India since January 3 for talks with the Indian coast guard. The Indian delegation was led by coast guard chief Rajendra Singh. Trinamool Congress supporters held demonstrations and blocked roads across Bengal for the second consecutive day on Thursday. Party workers, who were protesting the arrest of senior Trinamool MPs Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Tapas Paul, blocked the national highway connecting Kolkata and Delhi in Burdwan district for about an hour in the morning causing a massive jam. They also blocked railway tracks in Cooch Behar, halting a number of trains in the process. However, officials said the tempo of the protests seemed subdued when compared to the scenes witnessed in Kolkata and its adjoining districts on Wednesday. Read | Rose Valley chit fund scam: Sudip Bandyopadhyay remanded in 6-day CBI custody Women and child development minister Sashi Panja took out a rally at Bagbazar in north Kolkata. We are protesting the manner in which our leaders in the Lok Sabha were arrested. This was nothing but the Centre striking back against our supreme leader for criticising the demonetisation move. Let the central agency arrest us all, she told mediapersons. The state BJP headquarters has been placed under three-tier security cover to prevent clashes between party workers and Trinamool supporters. The two sides had clashed on Tuesday evening, after many Trinamool activists began agitating outside the building. Soon after Bandyopadhyays arrest on Tuesday, the chief minister had announced that agitations would be held in Bengal as well as other parts of the country. The following day, party supporters blocked roads and railway tracks, and took out protest rallies at various places across Bengal. On Wednesday, three separate delegations of the BJP, Trinamool and Left parties met governor KN Tripathi to lodge protests based on their interpretation of the situation. Trinamool secretary general Partha Chatterjee has announced that three-day dharnas would be held in front of the Reserve Bank of India office at Kolkata between January 9 and 11 to protest demonetisation. Akhil Giri, a Trinamool MLA from East Midnapore district, has been camping in Bhubaneswar to organise protests against the Centre. CBI officers had arrested Bandyopadhyay, leader of the Trinamool Congress in the Lok Sabha, for his alleged involvement in the `15,000-crore Rose Valley chit fund scam on Tuesday afternoon. Earlier, Paul was arrested on similar charges. The turtles shell is a wondrous thing, allowing the shy reptile a place of refuge when it detects the presence of a predator. However, even this fortress designed by nature isnt enough to protect these creatures from certain intelligent mammals with opposable thumbs, who prey on them for profit and at times a taste of its soft flesh. These days, a joint team of the special task force and the forest department has been assigned to monitor the activities of local fishermen in the swamps of Kali river in the Mainpuri-Etah district. Their objective is to thwart the operations of the Kanjad gang, which prowls the Isan and Arind basin area to catch turtles. The poachers, led by 45-year-old Dharmendra Kanjad, reportedly pack the shelled reptiles in gunny bags that are then couriered to Kolkata via Kanpur. Forest department officers say the Kanjad gang has smuggled over 1,000 turtles this year. The Kanjad gang is the not the only one targeting the endangered creatures; there are many others who prowl turtle habitats in the Ganga, Yamuna, Chambal, Ghaghra, Sharda, Ken, Betwa and Rapti river basins too. Environmentalist VK Joshi says turtles, which are an important part of the ecological system, keep rivers clean. Killing or whisking them away, therefore, is bound to have an adverse impact on the ecology. As many as 20,000 turtles are smuggled from UP every year, leading to a precipitous decline in its population. The indiscriminate hunting and smuggling of the creatures has come to a head in recent times, forcing the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau to issue an alert. Nailing the poachers Tilotama Verma, additional director of the bureau, recently visited Lucknow and held a meeting with director general of police Javeed Ahmed to discuss the spurt in turtle smuggling from Uttar Pradesh to Southeast Asia. He also made a presentation titled Wildlife crimes: National and international ramifications during police week to create awareness on wildlife crime. The state police have decided to set up a wildlife crime control unit to check turtle smuggling. However, director general of police Javeed Ahmed told HT that recent turtle hauls and arrest of agents have failed to deter smugglers. We will have to move beyond national borders and coordinate with international agencies to check the crime, he said. Additional superintendent of police (special task force) Arvind Kumar Chaturvedi, who heads the wildlife crime control unit, said the focus will be on turtle poachers. We have set a target of zero turtle poaching in the state, he added. The turtle smuggling network in the country extends from UP to Bihar, West Bengal and Assam. Kolkata has emerged as the main transit point for such smugglers, with turtles being illegally shipped to Bangladesh, Myanmar, China, Thailand, Hong Kong and other Southeast Asian countries from its shores. There is a huge demand for Indian turtles in the international market for three reasons meat, its feng shui connection, and production of aphrodisiacs. According to officials, the turtle smugglers network comprises local fishermen who trap turtles, collectors who buy the reptiles from them, couriers who transport them to transit points, and traders who ship the consignments to Southeast Asian countries. Though the special task force (STF) nabbed some of the poachers and busted the courier operation, the kingpin remains at large. We have information that the traders who run the smuggling racket are based in Kolkata, but havent been able to locate their hideouts, Chaturvedi said. STF and forest department officials nabbed 10 turtle poachers in Ambedkar Nagar district recently. While two of them were locals, eight hailed from West Bengal. This menace can be curbed only if we catch everybody in the smuggling racket, all the way from ground zero (the villages where turtles are captured) to Kolkata, a police officer said. Bhadohi district forest officer Manish Kumar Singh said smugglers recruit poor villagers in their illegal hunt for turtles. They pay a pittance to the hunters and sell the turtles at a premium in the Kolkata market, he added. On the brink Shailendra Singh, programme director of the Turtle Survival Alliance (TSA) in Lucknow, said seven of the 14 turtle species in the state face extinction. The demand for their meat and shells in national and international markets has led to a spurt in smuggling, he said, adding that many also keep them as pets. Rampant poaching has resulted in the virtual extinction of the shelled reptiles in Bihar, and the consequent shifting of focus to the river basins of UP, said Shailendra. The price of the turtle varies in accordance with demand. The meat of the Indian flapshell turtle known as sundari can fetch between ?5,000 and ?10,000 per kg. On the other hand, the meat of the Indian softshell turtle (called katahwa) costs ?5,000 to ?15,000 for the same quantity. Though small, the spotted pond turtle sells for $500 dollar each in Thailand. Turtles from UP are usually smuggled to Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok. The gangs involved in turtle smuggling are well-knit, and possess expert information on turtle habitats. The turtle hunting season reaches its peak in the post-monsoon months of September and October. From November to January, turtles are transported to Kolkata. Even if a consignment of turtles is recovered, releasing them into their natural habitat turns out to be a challenge for the TSA. The smugglers collect turtles from various regions and pack them in gunny bags for transportation. We have to ensure that the turtles captured from the Chambal, Ghaghra and Ganga basins are re-released in their respective habitats for survival, Shailendra said. Considering that turtles are transported by train almost as often as road, government railway police personnel (GRP) have been directed to be on the lookout for potential smugglers. We have nabbed several couriers and seized hundreds of turtles, Gopal Gupta, director general of the Railways, said. The UP forest department, for its part, has issued a statewide alert. In a letter to divisional and district forest officers, principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife) Rupak Dey said forest officials nabbed turtle poachers in various districts including Kanpur and Allahabad recently. He has directed them to conduct raids with the help of STF personnel and the local police to crack down on poachers. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Live presentation on cashless transactions through UPI and Bhim app, and participation of about 40 soldiers from the UAE will be some of the highlights of the Republic Day parade this year. Interestingly, while the National Security Guard will be part of the parade for the first time, special forces of the army wont be there. Sources said the information technology ministry would be showcasing digital transactions instead of cash transactions in line with the demonetisation decision of the Modi government. Also the much-loved canine squad of the Indian army will not be there unlike last year, sources said. The NSG will be showcasing their anti-terror, anti- hijacking and special operations capabilities. The chief guest for the Republic Day is Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, crown prince of Abu Dhabi. And hence, a platoon of the UAE army will also take part in the parade like the French soldiers last year. Last year, the French troops had participated because President Francois Hollande was the chief guest. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday took on Prime Minister Narendra Modi after former aide Rajendra Kumar, seeking retirement from government service, alleged that the CBI was pressurising him to implicate the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader. CBI raids my office, pressurises officer to implicate me. CBI raids Satinder Jains office. Why are you so so scared of us Modiji? Chill! Kejriwal tweeted, referring to CBIs December raid on Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jains OSD Nikunj Aggarwals office and Kumars allegations. IAS officer Rajendra Kumar, Kejriwals former Principal Secretary, earlier said he has tendered voluntary retirement request claiming officials at the Central Bureau of Investigation were pressurising him to name the Chief Minister. Kumar was principal secretary to Kejriwal until his suspension following his arrest by the Central Bureau of Investigation last year. The CBI had first raided Kumars office in connection with a corruption case on December 15, 2015. In his letter to Delhis chief secretary on Wednesday, Kumar said, During interrogation I was repeatedly told that I would be let free if I implicate chief minister of Delhi. May be this was the reason for the CBI to go to such extraordinary lengths. Not just this, just to force CBI to implicate me and the chief minister of Delhi, the interrogators have beaten dozens of people and some of them sustained permanent major injuries, Kumar alleged in the letter. Kumar, who has been accused of causing a loss of Rs 12 crore by awarding contracts to known people between 2007 and 2012, also likened his interrogation by CBI officials to that of BK Bansal, whose entire family including the IAS officer, committed suicide. Sources said procedurally, the chief secretary will have to forward the letter, with request of voluntary retirement, to the Union home ministry for further action. With a record five Indian Americans elected to the US Congress, the minority community has now set its eyes on doubling the number of its lawmakers followed by a White House occupant. The goal, which might look difficult, was set by the three-term Indian-American Congressman Ami Bera, who is now the senior-most of the four Indian-Americans members in the US House of Representatives. Read: Power play: Indian-American Fab Five formally enter US Congress on Tuesday Today is a historic day, Bera, 51, told a gathering of eminent Indian-Americans gathered from across the country to celebrate the election of Indian-Americans. Bera, who was elected for the first time to the US House of Representatives in 2012, said he was joined by three other Indian-Americans in the House: Raja Krishnamoorthi from Illinois, Pramila Jayapal from Washington State and Ro Khanna from California. Kamala Harris was also sworn in as the first Indian- American senator in the Congress. Four years ago, at a community reception in his honour in Washington DC, Bera had said he wanted to have five Indian-Americans in the Congress, including a senator. This is now a reality, chipped in Congressman Joe Crowley, a former co-chair of the Congressional India caucus, in his address to the Indiaspora gala. What is remarkable that in one generation our community has done so much, Bera said as he introduced the newly- elected Indian-Americans in the House to the hundreds of community members. Now we need to set a goal of having 10 Congressmen and our own Indian American president, Bera said, as his sentiment echoed in speeches throughout the night. Raja Krishnamoorthi at an election night event in Schaumburg on November 8, 2016. (AP file photo) We have come a long way, but we have long ways to go, said Silicon Valley-based venture capitalist and philanthropist MR Rangaswami, the brain behind the gala. I am so proud to be elected as the first Indian-American women to the US House of Representatives, said Jayapal. What I hope and believe that I would be the first Indian American woman elected to the Congress, but would certainly not be the last one, she said, urging the younger generation members of the community to join politics. We are going to make sure that Indian-Americans across the country see our election not only as personal victories for ourselves and our district and our country, but as opportunities and role models for others to be engaged in democracy to run for office themselves, Jayapal added. The election of five Indian-Americans to the Congress is really a testament of the accomplishments of the community, noted Krishnamoorthi. For all of those in the audience tonight who are thinking about running for office, there is no better time than now. You have role models, we have play book. Its time to get started, Krishnamoorthi said. Amid Samajwadi Party leaders making eleventh hour efforts to restore peace in the ruling party, UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav will meet with his faction of the party, including lawmakers (MLAs, MLCs, MPs), candidates and top office-bearers, on Thursday morning, a day after poll dates were announced by the Election Commission. With the father-son tussle splitting the party just ahead of the crucial assembly elections, it appears both factions of the SP will go to polls. Senior leaders, led by Azam Khan, have been attempting to patch things between party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son Akhilesh, but have failed to make any headway so far. Hours before the Election Commission announced the polls schedule, the urgency to broker peace appeared palpable so that the vertical split in the party does not create confusion among voters as to which was the real SP. Adding to the turmoil is the fact that both factions have staked claim to the partys symbol cycle saying they were the real Samajwadi Party. Election Commissioner chief Nasim Zaidi said he was examining the claims. The Commission, as per the symbol order, while keeping in mind precedents and set principles followed till now, will examine the documents before us and will take appropriate decision at the right time, Zaidi said. Meanwhile, the Akhilesh- appointed state party president, Naresh Uttam, revoked the changes made in four district units by Shivpal Yadav, the state president of the original party. There are at least 195 candidates in Shivpals list who are in Akhileshs camp. Also read | Akhilesh Yadav rejigs party, looks all set with UP polls preparation The year 2016 saw great strides for the Chinese military, with numerous achievements related to weaponry and equipment. Below are some of the standout weapons and equipment that were introduced in 2016. J-20 stealth fighter A J-20 stealth fighter made its debut on Nov. 1 at Sanzao Airport in Zuhai, at the 11th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition. The J-20 has filled a hole in the Chinese air force. It is expected to boost the fighting capacity of the Chinese air force, and help fulfill the mission of safeguarding national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity. Y-20 transport aircraft The Y-20 military transport aircraft officially joined the People's Liberation Army Air Force in July. With a maximum take-off weight of 200 tons, the Y-20 is ideal for transporting cargo and personnel over long distances, even under extreme weather conditions. The domestically designed and developed Y-20 made its debut at the 2014 China Air Show, earning the nickname "Fat Lady" for its large size. It currently ranks fifth in terms of overall strength. Liaoning aircraft carrier In formation with several destroyers and frigates, the Liaoning participated in reconnaissance, early warning, air interception, sea assault, air defense and anti-missile exercises. Carrying live ammunition, several batches of J-15 carrier-based aircraft performed strike exercises. Sea plane AG600 The AG600 is by far the world's largest amphibian aircraft, about the size of a Boeing 737. As the world's largest sea plane, it can be used to fight forest fires and perform marine rescues. With a maximum take-off weight of 53.5 tons, the aircraft is able to take in 12 tons of water in just 20 seconds. Type-96B tank The Type-96B tank is a pillar of China's tank force. Several of the tanks were sent to take part in the Masters of Automobile and Tank Hardware competition at the Alabino training range in Moscow. The handsome, sturdy and durable tanks made a lasting impression during the competition. 2016 China Air Show The 2016 air show in Zhuhai served as an excellent platform to showcase new Chinese military equipment. Many new pieces were introduced during the air show. Among them was the CM-302 supersonic anti-ship cruise missile, whose wide application scope can be used to improve naval capabilities. YLC-8B Anti-Stealth Radar, a 3-D surveillance radar that belongs to the fourth generation of domestically produced remote air intelligence radars, was also exhibited at the Zhuhai Air Show. The Rainbow No. 5 UAV, type VT2 and VT4 tanks made their debuts at the show as well. The warring Samajwadi Party factions raced against time to claim the party name and symbol as chances of reconciliation between Mulayam Singh Yadav and his chief minister-son Akhilesh grew dim on Thursday. While Mulayam and his brother Shivpal, flew to Delhi to meet Election Commission officials, Akhilesh Yadav started collecting affidavits of party legislators and office-bearers ahead of a meeting with the poll panel on Friday. Sources said the 43-year-old chief minister has the backing of at least 214 of the partys 229 MLAs and several office-bearers crucial if Akhileshs faction has to retain the partys popular election symbol, the bicycle. Team Akhilesh is meeting EC (Election Commission) tomorrow. Affidavits are being signed, member of legislative council Sunil Singh Saajan told Hindustan Times as he came out of the meeting briefly before returning to the CMs official residence. Full coverage of Uttar Pradesh elections The state goes to the polls in seven phases beginning February 11, where the SP is locked a tough fight with the BJP, Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress. Consider this as the last meeting (of legislators and top post holders) before polls. Our national president (Akhilesh) has now asked all MLAs and candidates to go to their constituencies, he added. About going a separate way from SP patriarch Mulayam and his family, Saajan said: The national president has chosen raj dharma over everything else. Two factions of the SP one headed by the CM and the other by his uncle Shivpal Yadav have been squabbling over party control for months. Read: Akhilesh Yadav rejigs party, looks all set with UP polls preparation Party patriarch Mulayam has sided with Shivpal but recent days have seen a groundswell of support for the young CM. Sources said Akhilesh and his faction were not showing any indication of conceding even an inch of ground on contentious issues and were going ahead with election preparation and refurbishing the partys district and the state unit. On Wednesday, Akhilesh indicated that he was the inheritor of the party and the symbol. Both factions have gone to the election commission this week, claiming to be the original SP. Cabinet minister Ravidas Malhotra, who was present at the meeting in Lucknow, quoted Akhilesh as saying, Netaji is my father. I have asked him (Mulayam) to give me authority for three months. After returning to power, he may decide whatever he wants. Sources in the Mulayam camp said the party supremo was armed with signed affidavits of MLAs, MLCs and MPs which he would furnish to the EC but their number was not immediately clear. In the 403-member UP Assembly, the SP has 229 MLAs. The EC has asked both factions to show strength of MLAs, MPs and MLCs supporting them through signed affidavits by January 9. After deposing Mulayam as SP boss, Akhilesh appeared to be consolidating his position further by appointing presidents of several district units. (With agency inputs) SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The MP governments decision to allot 20-acre land of Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia Krishi Vishwavidyalaya (RVSKVV) in Indore for construction of a modern district court complex triggered a protest on Wednesday. At least 250 people, including students, alumnus, agriculture scientists and social activists, gathered on RVSKVV campus for a dharna. The government last month allotted the land for the proposed court complex. This is a renowned institute for agriculture in the country and known for developing Indore method of composting, which is accepted as an ideal system of preparing organic manure world over, said Dr Akhilesh Sarraf, the president of RVSKVV alumni association. It is very unfortunate on the part of the state government and the district administration to snatch land meant for agriculture research for other purposes, he said. TGK Menon, an environmentalist and Padma Shri awardee, said: British botanist and pioneer in organic agriculture techniques, Sir Albert Howard, conducted a survey of entire Malwa region and selected this piece of land as best suited for agriculture research and set up this college in 1924. Earlier, construction of a modern district court complex adjoining to Pipliyahana Lake faced opposition from environmental activists and residents, forcing the government to rollback its decision. The Madhya Pradesh high court recently proposed construction of 1,300 cubicles that can accommodate 4,000 advocates and sought support from lawyers in construction of a modern district court complex. Majority of lawyers are in favour of construction of the court complex in the existing district court premises near Gandhi Hall. A 13-year old girl staying at a hostel for tribal girls in Udaigarh gave birth to a dead child last week, prompting the Alirajpur district administration to order an inquiry into the case. District Collector Ganesh Shankar Mishra ordered the inquiry on Tuesday after it came to light that the hostel authorities failed to detect the pregnancy in the last six months that the girl had been staying there. Also, the hostel authorities allegedly tried to keep the matter under wraps when they came to know of the pregnancy on December 17 during the course of a routine medical examination of the girls. The hostel superintendent, Joytsna Gehlot, then called the girls parents and handed her over to them. She delivered the dead child at her parents home. The girls father, meanwhile, admitted that he knew of the pregnancy. He said that he had left the girl with her brothers and had gone to Gujarat for work. During this period, she developed a relationship with a boy from the neighbourhood and became pregnant. Later, the father got her admitted to the tribal girls hostel in Udaigarh. The father said that he did not lodge a police complaint as he had reached a monetary compromise with the family of the accused boy. He accepted 80,000 from the boys family in two instalments of 40,000 each. After DC ordered the inquiry, hostel superintendent Joytsna Gehlot tried to wipe her hands off the issue saying the girl was already pregnant when she got admitted to the hostel in July last year. When we questioned the girl on nat having her periods, she claimed that it was because she had suffered a stomach ailment. We believed her. When we suspected that something was amiss, we called a doctor to examine her, she said. She, however, didnt reveal why the district administration was not informed about the pregnancy. Even at the age of 76 having lost his vision completely, his bond with and emotions for Ganashakti, the Bengali mouthpiece of CPI(M), is as strong as it was in 1967, when he started selling the newspaper in the Serampore-Baidyabati-Seoraphuli belt of Hooghly district, an industrial area where the Left could sense its new dawn. Meet Benoy Sengupta, the oldest distributor of Ganashakti, whose voluntary journey in selling the paper started with its birth in 1967. It was then published as an evening daily. The 76-year-old, dyed-in-the- wool Marxist was felicitated on January 3, 2017 by the CPI(M) politburo member and the partys state secretary in West Bengal, Suryakanta Mishra, on the occasion of the 50th birth anniversary of the paper. According to him, his daily routine in the initial years of publication of the mouthpiece was like this: boarding the Bandel local from Seoraphuli station sharp at 2.20 pm to reach Howrah, from where he reached the partys Kolkata office and collect copies for distribution. After collecting those copies, I used to return to Serampore and headed first to the local party office. From there my trips started carrying copies of Ganashakti on my bicycle and selling them door to door in the Serampore- Baidyabati- Seoraphuli belt, said the man who never married. Recalling the hindrances of selling Ganashakti during the turbulent period from 1967 to 1977 -- Bengal had two United Front governments between followed by a violence-ridden term of Congress in these 10 years -- he said he was attacked several times, beaten up and wounded by activists of Congress that ruled Bengal between 1972 1977. However, those attacks could not deter me. The red flag never lost its appeal to me despite the persecution, he said. In 1986, when Ganashakti was converted to a full-fledged morning daily, his task of selling the paper got a boost. Even now with his falling age and lack of vision, his bonding with the party mouthpiece is strong. I have to depend on my local comrades, who read out the entire newspaper for me. These days, when I hear about attacks on Ganashakti, I feel the same pain I used to feel earlier, he said. However, he is confident the low CPI(M) is going through currently in Bengal will not prevail for long. CPI(M) will regain mass support and march ahead and so will Ganashakti, Sengupta said on Tuesday, almost muttering to himself. Probably his belief prompted the packed audience at Promod Dasgupta auditorium on Tuesday to raise slogans in chorus, Comrade Benoy Sengupta Red Salute Red Salute, Red Salute, when he was felicitated. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) arrested a flier who was carrying 42 gold bars at the Mumbai international airport on Wednesday night. The seized bars weighed 4.9 kg and were worth Rs1.29 crore, officials said. The passenger, Kabadsha Mohammed Fawaz, 26, had arrived from Dubai at 11.15 pm on Wednesday when he was intercepted by the authorities. Investigations are currently on to trace the source of the gold. Sources in the DRI revealed that the accused is a carrier who was working for someone. According to sources, gold has been in high demand in India after the Centres move to demonetise old notes of Rs500 and Rs1,000 as gold is considered a safe way to launder black money. However, in the past two months, gold seizure has dropped at the airport. When asked about any link with demonetisation, a high-ranking DRI officer said, The smuggling of gold is independent of demonetisation. However, if there is surge in demand owing to some other factor, then it may give a push to smuggling too. DRI authorities said it received specific information about a passenger carrying gold, after which a team picked up the accused. He had concealed the gold in his backpack. Investigations are on to find out all the persons involved in the smuggling of the seized gold, added the officer. The accused will be produced before a court. Authorities said the holiday season was the ideal time for black-money hoarders to bring back money or gold from abroad and hence vigilance has been increased on that occasion. On Tuesday night, air intelligence unit (AIU) authorities detained a man, identified as Soraab Ali, who arrived from Riyadh. He was found carrying six gold bars worth Rs17.77 lakh, concealed inside the battery of a rechargeable LED torchlight. Last month, a passenger travelling to Canada with gold bars worth Rs65.76 lakh was intercepted by customs officials after a tip-off that the gold was bought using money that is unaccounted for. According to sources, several gold traders and jewellers had come under the scanner of income tax officials for finding a way around the demonetisation by allegedly converting black money through gold sales for a commission of 30-60%. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Sahar police on Wednesday arrested three men for trying to fly to Saudi Arabia using fake visas. The visas were allegedly forged to avoid clearance from Protectorate of Emigrants (POE). The police are now on the lookout for the agent who helped them. According to police officers, two of the accused are from Uttar Pradesh and one is from Karnataka. All three come from a poor economic background. They had come to Mumbai and were supposed to fly to Saudi Arabia. They were to first fly to Oman and then take a connecting flight. They had work visas for Saudi Arabia, but while going from here they used fake visit visas. The reason for doing so was to ensure that they do not require clearance from Protectorate of Emigrants (POE). The accused told the police that for obtaining clearance officially, they would have had to submit valid documents and pay charges. Also, the process is time consuming. So they resorted to forging visas. However, the immigration authorities at the airport called their bluff and detained them, and later handed them over to Sahar police. A first information report (FIR) was registered against them under section 420 (cheating) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). They were produced before a magistrates court and remanded to police custody till January 7. Also read: Same fictitious name nails two Punjab men in fake passport cases Bisexual men are at a greater risk of facing psychological issues like identity crisis and depression than gays. A study by the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, University of California, Johns Research Institute, Bengaluru, The Humsafar Trust, Mumbai, The Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, University of Minnesota and The University of Texas Health Sciences Center at Houston, said 82% of bisexual men pretended to be heterosexual owing to peer pressure and marriage as opposed to just 41% of gay men. On a subconscious level, the bisexual men try to choose the opposite sex as a preference since its a socially accepted preference. Gay men dont face the issues because they are not attracted to women at all, said Dr Sagar Mundada, MD psychiatry from KEM Hospital . He added that the after effects of hiding their sexual preference for a long time, results into perverseness, depression and sexual violence. Counselling and support groups could help bisexual men avoid an identity crisis and psychological issues, said psychiatrists and sexologists. Dr Parul Tank, consultant psychiatrist for Fortis Hospital, said bisexual men, as a result of suppressed feelings and identity crisis, face numerous issues like sexual dysfunction, anxiety, depression and sharp behavioural changes in the latter part of their lives. I have a number of bisexual patients, who usually after six months or one year of marriage, realised that they are homosexuals. While at one end, coming out of the closet becomes very difficult due to permanent female partners, orthodox marriage settings, and lack of support, on the other end, their suppressed sexual preference towards men, over a period of time, results into alcohol abuse, drug abuse, anger and the inability to perform in any relationship, said Dr Tank, adding that its a vicious circle of problems. Dr Mundada said considering the process of understanding their own sexual preference is a process that runs from adolescence to adulthood, majority of bisexual men, realise only in their mid 30s about their attraction towards the same sex. The experts stressed that support groups and intervention programs can be very helpful for bisexual men to accept their sexuality and not feel trapped in their marriages. Registering with NGOs and sharing their experiences with like-minded people as well as clinical experts, can result in better mental and physical health for the bisexuals. Read Gay, bisexual men under 26 years more prone to committing suicide From public toilets to beauty contests: Five wins for LGBTI rights in 2016 When both the ruling partners in the state government are involved in one-upmanship, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led state government has paved the way for a grand memorial of Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray to be built at mayors bungalow, which is situated at Shivaji Park, Dadar. The state has issued an ordinance that will enable the plot to be leased out at nominal rates to the Balasaheb Thackeray Rashtriya Smarak society, headed by Uddhav Thackeray, chief of Shiv Sena. The mayors residence is now likely to be shifted to Byculla, according to sources. The new mayor, to be elected in March this year, is likely to be shifted to the zoo-facing bungalow at Byculla. According to the existing provision, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) cannot sell, lease out or transfer any plot less than the market value. But with the ordinance in place, the BMC will now be able to lease out the up-market plot for the memorial at nominal rates. Sena was pushing for the sea-side bungalow for the memorial. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis in 2015 had declared that Thackerays memorial will be built at mayors bungalow. It was later acknowledged by the committee constituted to finalise the site for memorial. The committee was headed by chief secretary Swadhin Kshatriya. The committee approved the bungalow for the memorial after visiting several sites. The bungalow inside the Byculla zoo, which was recently renovated, is spread over about 6,000 square feet and has a sprawling garden. A senior civic official said, The mayor elected in March will be mostly shifted to Byculla. The decision is yet to be finalised. The civic elections are scheduled in February 2017. The current mayors, Snehal Ambekar, term will also end at the same time. Read Shiv Sena finalises trustees list for Bal Thackeray memorial While the demonetisation process, and the resultant liquidity crunch, has hit business across sectors, a deluge of applications for dance bar licences has stumped the Mumbai police. This is in view of the fact that traditionally business in dance bars is conducted in cash, which has become scarce on account of the prevailing curb on withdrawals. At the last count (till Tuesday), Mumbai police headquarters (HQ II), which is the licensing authority for dance bars, had received 64 applications, even as industry sources claimed that an equal number of fresh applications are going to be made in the next couple of weeks. This is in sharp contrast with the 34 applications the police had received till May last year, of which just three were approved. On November 24 last year, the Supreme Court (SC), in an interim order, had asked the state government to approve applications for restarting dance bars. In the first week following the order, the police had received 10 applications, which were from among those who had been rejected earlier. The number of applications in the corresponding weeks fell drastically as liquidity crunch started affecting business across sectors. Sources in the HQ II said that after a lull for about three weeks, applications started flooding in the last week of December as markets showed signs of revival. We are hopeful that conditions will improve in the next 2-3 months, after the government releases enough cash. We are in no hurry to start business after getting licences. Its a wait and see situation for time being, said Bharat Singh Thakur, owner of Uma Palace bar and restaurant at Mulund, who had applied for renewal of his dance bar licence a week after the SC order. Lot of dance bar owners who had surrendered licences following the 2005 ban, or those who had converted into orchestra bars are in queue seeking fresh licences, Thakur added. Prior to the 2005 ban, there were around 250 dance bars operating in Mumbai. However, following the ban, many of them shut shop while the rest converted to orchestra bars or bar and restaurants. Meanwhile, a senior official in the HQ II admitted that the sudden rush of applications has come as a surprise for the department . The premises licence fees for dance bars has increased to Rs2 lakh from the earlier Rs2,000 per annum. Moreover, several curbs have been put on their functioning as per the new regulations. In the prevailing cash crunch, how are they going to run the business? the officer said. Deputy commissioner of police (DCP) HQ II, Pradip Sawant, said the applications have been sent to senior police inspectors at the respective police station (where the dance bars are located) to file compliance report following inspection of the premises. Only after the receipt of the report a survey would be conducted by the HQ II before a dance bar is deemed fit for a licence, Sawant said. The police have made it clear that the dance bars would be required to follow the deadline of 11.30pm till the Supreme Court gives its verdict on the petition filed by the Indian Hotel and Restaurant Association (AHAR) against the conditional functioning of the dance bars, including timings, on January 11. Case history In May this year, the Mumbai police had given licence to Aero Punjab and Sai Prasad bars at Andheri and Indiana bar at Tardeo with conditions that they would adhere to the rules laid down in the license. In July, AHAR challenged the 37 new conditions the dance bars were required to fulfil to get licences. So strict were the conditions, the petition alleged saying that even two months after the state government issued licenses to the three dance bars, none of them were able to reopen. Those conditions included mandatory installation of CCTV cameras within the dance bar, their locations must be at least a kilometre away from educational or religious institutions, a ban on serving alcohol in the performance area and restrictive timings 6pm to 11.30pm. In September the court while upholding AHARs contention had stated that the bars would operate under the old terms and conditions that allowed CCTV cameras in the entrance and serving liquor in the permit room where the dance is performed. Also read: Issue licences to dance bars as per old rules: SC to Maharashtra govt SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Bombay high court on Thursday expressed the need to conduct a systematic study to ascertain how many prisons Maharashtra will require in the future. A systematic study must be conducted to ascertain how many prisons are required in the state in the future, say after 15 years, said the division bench of Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Amjad Sayed. The bench said a committee of retired police officials who have contributed to prison reform must be appointed to carry out this task. They must consider the current prison population, whether crime has increased or decreased, and accordingly determine how many prisons are required in the future. The judges said the committee could also suggest changes to infrastructure in the states jails. The bench was hearing two public interest litigations that raised concerns about poor infrastructure, sanitation and health facilities at major central prisons such as Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai and Yerwada Prison in Pune. The bench has now directed the state to inform it if it was willing to constitute such a committee on its own. During the course of hearing, assistant public prosecutor FR Shaikh informed the bench that the government had decided to increase the number of jails in the state. He added that officials are looking into places where the new jails can be constructed. Acting on the PILs, the court had earlier directed the Pune district judge to inspect Yerwada Prison and submit a report. The district judge submitted a report stating that while the capacity of the prison is 2,323, it houses 3,792 inmates, of which 2,887 are undertrials. The report added that more than 125 women prisoners and 16 of their children stayed in prison. Though there are 529 toilets in the men's barracks, there are no bathrooms. The and the male inmates have bath in the open. There are 19 toilets and two bathrooms in the womens barracks. The report said these toilets were not maintained and were dirty. The court has posted the PILs for further hearing on January 23. Read Prisons in Maharashtra plagued by overcrowding Maharashtra has most undertrials from other states On the first day of the new year, a fleet headed by aircraft carrier Liaoning held drills in the South China Sea. Around the same time, news was released that the USS Carl Vinson, a nuclear-powered American aircraft carrier, would deploy from San Diego, California to the Western Pacific region. This news quickly drew attention to the development of aircraft carriers in China and the U.S. In an interview with People's Daily Online, military expert Liang Fang said that although the Chinese aircraft carrier battle group is not comparable with its U.S. counterpart in tonnage or number of aircraft, it nevertheless boasts stamina and a bright future. According to reports, before entering the South China Sea, the Liaoning aircraft carrier battle group crossed the Bohai Sea, Yellow Sea and East China Sea, entering the Western Pacific through the Miyako Strait. Photos taken by Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force show that the group includes Type-052D destroyer Changsha, Type-052C destroyer Zhengzhou, Haikou, Type-054A frigate Yantai, Linyi, Type-056 light frigate Zhuzhou and integrated supply ship Gaoyou Lake. According to media reports, after the war in Iraq, the United States reduced the size of its aircraft carrier battle group. Liang said that, from the perspective of future development, the U.S. military clearly lacks stamina, and the country's insufficient military spending is proof of that. In addition, frequent problems with U.S. Navy Super Hornet, F-35C and other carrier-borne fighters have seriously hampered the aircraft carriers combat capability. In contrast, the Chinese militarys combat capability has grown by leaps and bounds in the past decade. At present, Chinas second aircraft carrier is under construction. In the near future, the Chinese navy is expected to own a third aircraft carrier battle group, capable of safeguarding territorial sovereignty and maritime rights, said Liang. Liang noted that China is developing its aircraft carrier technology to defend national interests rather than to seek hegemony. The Lonavala police have booked 13 people for allegedly assaulting trekkers from Pune and Mumbai, who had gone to Visapur Fort for a camp on December 31. Some of the victims were forced to remove their clothes, police said. The police have also lodged a case against the organisers of the camp after a complaint was filed by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), which is responsible for maintaining historical sites, including Visapur Fort. According to Vinayak Dhakane, inspector, Lonavala rural police station, a group of trekkers had come to Visapur Fort as part of a camp group on the evening of December 31, when a group of 13 local youths claiming to be fort lovers accosted the group. The accused group, comprising seven men and six women, objected to trekkers organising a camp at the Fort, saying it was creating a nuisance in the area and was disturbing the sanctity of the region. They came and shouted at us. They even assaulted us and forced a few men to remove their clothes, said Shalini Jhala, a trekker. According to Shalini, she went for camp along with her husband and some of their friends. We went there by making bookings through the Internet, after coming across an advertisement about the camp at Visapur Fort. According to the victims, the local youths forced them to shout slogans about Chhatrapati Shivaji. The local police also acted against the organisers of the celebration after it was found that no requisite permission was taken from the authorities. Read more: Trekkers celebrating New Year in Lonavala thrashed, stripped by fort lovers group SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON From the upcoming academic year, school teachers in the state will mark students attendance on an online application, generating instant attendance reports, which can be accessed by education officials. Increasing vigilance on schools, the school education and sports department has recently launched a new online daily attendance app, Upastithi for government-aided schools. The app has been developed by the National Informatics Centre, Pune. Education officials said they will keep a check on schools through attendance reports. We can access the report of any school, identify students with irregular attendance and take corrective steps, said Nand Kumar, principal secretary of the department. It will also help them ensure schools dont have fake students on roll. But city schools are worried that teachers using mobiles in classrooms will be distracted. We dont allow teachers to carry or use mobiles in the class, said Father Jude Fernandes, principal, St Marys School (SSC) Mazgaon. If we do, it will be tough to ensure that teachers dont keep use phones during lessons. Unlimited access to the internet is another problem. All teachers dont have android phones or data packs, said Uday Nare, senior teacher, Hansraj Moraji Public School, Andheri. Most aided schools cant afford WiFi, added Nare. Some teachers said they already mark attendance online on an app for mid-day meals. It is a duplication of efforts as we already mark attendance while serving meals, said Prashant Redij, principal, Hilda Castelino School and spokesperson of Mumbai School Principals Association. How will the application work - Teachers can download the app on their Android phones or computers - Register mobile number and login number, which will a unique login ID for the school head master or class teacher - Select the standard, division and date to submit attendance - An online roster containing the names of the students will be generated - Tick the names of absent students. Other students will be considered present - Click on the submit button to complete the attendance - The app will be linked to SARAL-governments online database on education - National Informatics Centre (NIC) Pune developed the app Also read Free sanitary pads may improve girls school attendance Schools get more tech-savvy, use apps to connect to parents SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Sahar police arrested two persons, who ran a placement agency in Andheri, for cheating around 50 engineering graduates by promising them jobs abroad. The men advertised the agency as Way To Success and had been operating it for the last one year from Marol in Andheri (East). The arrested accused were identified as Akram Khan alias Waliullah and Firoz shaikh. Various graduates from Punjab, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra had approached the placement agency after learning about the job opportunities through newspaper advertisements the duo had placed. The placement agency was officially registered in the name of Firoz, but we suspect someone else may have been operating the racket. During interrogation, Khan and Shaikh said that three other persons are also involved in the fraud. Our attempts are on to trace them, said an investigating officer. The applicants were asked to deposit Rs75,000 to Rs1 lakh for visa and the processing fees for various jobs opportunities abroad. The medical tests of the candidates were conducted and their passports were taken by the placement agency. The two would then assure the candidates that their passports will be returned with the visa and tickets once the formalities were complete, the officer added. Later, they would call candidates asking for more money. Whenever an applicants inquired about the progress, they would ask them tobe patient saying that the paperwork was in its final stage. However, Shaikh and Khan started avoiding the applicants calls and even failed to show up at the office.Reasling that they have been duped, the applicants approached the Sahar police station and submitted a written complaint. Around 30 to 40 candidates have approached us. After verifying the facts, we registered a case of cheating, said senior inspector B Mukhedkar from Sahar police station. Shaikh and Khan were produced in the court and were remanded in police custody for one week. Later, they were granted judicial custody, said Mukhedkar. Also read: Lawyer fools senior citizen into transferring Rs49 lakh into her sons account, held A man who murdered his French wife before chopping up her body and hiding it in a fridge three years ago in Mumbai was jailed for life on Thursday, police said. Girish Pote, 38, was found guilty on Wednesday of killing 33-year-old Madhuwanti Pathak on December 3, 2013 because she wanted to leave India to return to France, where she was born and raised. Pote murdered her in the flat they shared in Bhayandar, a northern suburb in Mumbai, after he purchased knives from a nearby shopping mall, a judge ruled. The accused has been sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering his wife, Dinkar Murlidhar Pingle, the police officer who led the investigation, told AFP. The court heard how Pote decided to chop up his wifes body and hide it in a refrigerator in their flat so his crime could not be detected by CCTV cameras installed in the lobby and lift of their building. The grisly crime only came to light after Pote confessed to a cousin, who then informed police. Madhuwanti wanted to go back to France after selling the property in Mumbai. During investigation, Pote revealed that his wife disliked India and wanted to take the money and fly back to France. But he had opposed the idea, leading to frequent fights between them, prosecutor Bhuleshwar Hinge had told the court during the trial, according to PTI. The couple had married in June 2011, the court heard, and had a child who was two years old at the time of Pathaks death, PTI reported. Pathaks mother, who was a French musician, owned the flat where the couple lived, the court heard. Pathak, whose father was Indian, held a French passport. Prosecutors had sought the death penalty but the judge at Thane district court, in the north of Mumbai, told a packed courtroom that Pote would remain in prison until his biological end, PTI said. Commuters on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway will soon be able to enjoy WiFi connectivity. The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) has decided to provide high-speed WiFi coverage zones on the 94-km expressway. On Wednesday, MSRDC invited bids from telecom operators to enable the WiFi zones. The MSRDC also aims to strengthen cellular network on the expressway. We have invited telecom operators to give us a detailed plan on which areas can be made WiFi zones, said Kiran Kurundkar, joint managing director, MSRDC. According to Kurundkar, the WiFi network will also help them and the state highway police to monitor CCTV footage along the expressway and at the toll booths in real time. The number of WiFi zones or hotspots and other modalities are yet to be finalised. The services are likely to be offered for free, but a decision is yet to be taken on this. Apart from WiFi, the MSRDC also plans to strengthen the mobile network. There are a lot of shadow areas on the expressway. We want telecom operators to install base transceiver stations (BTS) and other infrastructure so that there is continuous cellular network during the journey, Kurundkar said. The expressway, which was inaugurated in 2002, is used by more than 40,000 PCUs (Passenger Car Units) daily and the government is anticipating these numbers to increase in the near future. To cater to the increasing traffic, the MSRDC is widening the expressway. There is also a need to provide WiFi zones and better cellular connectivity, said an official. Also read: More than 1.3K dead on Mumbai-Pune Expressway in 6 years, but Maharashtra sits on trauma centre SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Suburban commuters on Central main line faced inconvenience during morning peak hours on Thursday after a technical snag hit a CST- bound slow train from Thane. The train (Thane-20) had stopped at Vikhroli station for nearly 45 minutes. The problem which started around 6.30am, affected the services with commuters claiming that trains were running at least 20 minutes late. They even said that no announcements in the train left most of them clueless. Central Railway (CR) authorities informed that CST-bound services on the slow line resumed after the snag-hit train left Vikhroli at 7.16am. During this time, all slow trains were diverted on the fast line between Mulund and Mantunga. Also read: Angry commuters block tracks at Titwala; CR services delayed by 30 mins SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Digital war rooms run by political parties to do social media campaigns for the 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly polls will be under the election commissions scanner in Gautam Budh Nagar. The biggest challenge for the election commission (EC) this election will be to calculate poll spending on social media activities. Three segments Noida, Dadri and Jewar in Gautam Budh Nagar district will go to polls on February 11 in the first phase of the assembly elections. A total of 12,52,266 voters in the district will cast their vote in the district and the results will be out on March 11. Election commission officials have their task cut out in monitoring social media campaigns and advertising done by political parties. Since Noida has majority of urban voters, parties conduct aggressive social media campaigns to woo them. This poses a challenge for the EC as it will have to calculate poll spending on social media activities. For example, if a person sends bulk messages in support of a candidate on WhatsApp or on Twitter, then how will the EC figure out the cost incurred? We have a media certification and monitoring committee to look into all kinds of promotion that a candidate or party carries out. If a person uses social media applications such as WhatsApp or Twitter, then we will calculate spending on the basis of how much the person pays for internet data, said NP Singh, district magistrate and chief election officer. This again raises the question of how spending will be calculated if the sender of bulk messages is availing of free internet data. We are brainstorming on how effectively we can deal with social media promotions, so that we can provide a level playing field to all political parties. We may form a dedicated team that will deal with social media promotions of each party, Singh said. As per rules, political promotions of all kinds need to be stopped 48 hours before polling day. This again will prove to be difficult when it comes to online campaigns. Banning social media promotions on Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp 48 hours before voting is not easy because monitoring is almost impossible as there are no clear guidelines on social media handling, said an election commission official. Gautam Budh Nagar district election officials have written to the chief election commission to advise them on how to stop social media promotions 48 hours prior to polling. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Writers in the English language are easily the best known in Karnataka today. RK Narayan (a Tamil Brahmin brought up in Mysore), Raja Rao (Smartha Brahmin), Girish Karnad (a Maratha Saraswatha Brahmin) and UR Ananathamurthy (Kannada Brahmin with a socialist ideological background) are among them. Apart from these, there are other well known social science, political and journalistic writers among Brahmins from the state. Why are no Other Backward Class (OBC) and Dalit writers from Karnataka known outside their state? A Dalit writer like Devanoor Mahadeva is known only within his state, that too more among Dalit circles. The upper castes of Karnataka do not give him the recognition that a writer of his stature deserves. Karnataka has produced many OBC politicians: Devaraj Urs, S Bangarappa and Siddaramaiah are well known politicians who became the chief ministers. Of these three, Devaraj Urs was from the Mysore royal heritage but Bangarappa and Siddaramaiah came from Idiga (toddy taping) and Kuruba communities, which are very backward castes. Such good leaders also did not get national status. Read: The new Dalit movement: Assertive, inclusive and beyond party politics The reason is that they are not projected by the English intellectuals of the state or national-level intellectuals who write in English. Though HD Deve Gowda, a Sudra upper caste leader, became the prime minister because of the support of the Sudra upper caste leaders like Chandrababu Naidu, the English media in Delhi showed him scant respect. Brahmin English-speaking leaders like PV Narasimha Rao and IK Gujral were shown in a positive light because they could engage with the English-writing circles of Delhi and the international media. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi is treated with disdain in some elite circles because of his lack of English-speaking abilities. Unlike united Andhra Pradesh or the Telugu two states, Karnatakas OBCs and Dalits produced Dalit political leaders. For example, Mallikarjun Karge is playing a national role as a leader of the Opposition party. Yet Kannada society has not produced an OBC and Dalit intellectual who could write in English. There are hardly any well known journalists, writers and transformative intellectuals from these communities. This is because most Dalit/ Other Backward Classes study in government schools, which teach only in the Kannada medium. At the same time, Karnataka is known for good English-medium schools in the private sector. Bengaluru is also known as an advanced English and software education and employment centre. But how many OBCs and Dalits are there in that sector? Read: Educate, agitate, organise: The Dalit student wont be silenced It was UR Ananthamurthy who opposed the government schools teaching in English but educated his children in English-medium schools. Girish Karnads son Raghu Karnad has also been educated in the West. But they want the labouring communities to learn only Kannada, knowing well that a good English education is the most empowering soft power. Unless the OBCs and Dalits defeat this sophisticated intellectual manipulation by the Kannada English-speaking Brahmins, the country will not move towards educational equality. If this inequality and caste oppression is not stopped by the lower castes by forcing the government schools to teach in English, nothing will change. Read: The great Dalit cauldron and why it matters Brahmins, who hated other languages, learnt Persian and Urdu when the Muslims were ruling India. They were the ones who gave up Persian and learnt English during colonial rule. Learning a little bit of English in the Kannada-medium schools and competing with convent school-educated Brahmins and other upper castes will not be possible for the OBCs and Dalits. The OBC and Dalit intellectuals must realise this important fact and work to change things. Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd is director, Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy, Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Gachibowli, Hyderabad The views expressed are personal Member of Parliament Kirron Kher has written a letter to UT Inspector General of Police (IGP) Tejinder Singh Luthra over the alleged misbehaviour of traffic cops with people while checking vehicles and documents. During my interaction with the citizens, I have found that traffic policemen misbehave with and sometimes harass citizens while checking documents and vehicles. I believe that traffic law violators should be punished, but traffic police also does not have any right to abuse or humiliate any citizen, the letter, dated January 4, states. This is the second letter she has written to the UT IGP over the past four months. On September 5, she had requested the IGP to look into the law and order situation in the city, following a spate of snatchings. Wednesdays letter states that city residents had verbally complained to her that some policemen dont even hesitate to use foul language in the presence of women and children. I request you (the IGP) to look into the matter earnestly... and issue necessary instructions. I also think that sensitisation workshops should be conducted for the police force, the letter says, adding that the use of foul language was not only a problem for the citizens, but also a blot on the image of the police department. When contacted for his reaction to the letter, IGP Luthra refused to comment. In the September 5 letter on law and order, the MP had asked Luthra to send an action-taken report to her office. Then, she had mentioned that residents of various areas including Dhanas, Mauli Jagran, Sector 25 (Bhaskar Colony), Maloya, Sector 38 West and Palsora, have brought to her notice that crimes such as murder, snatching, kidnapping and theft had become routine. Residents have also stated that some anti-social elements are trading in illicit liquor and drugs with impunity. She had then claimed that residents had been telling her that that the police was informed of all illegal activities, but the department failed to act. Chandigarh Its 12.30pm. A group of ten women enter the kitchen set up at Karuna Sadan, Sector 11. They are there to prepare food for the newly launched scheme Annapurna Akshaypatra of the UT Indian Red Cross Society, which provides meals for just 10 to economically weaker sections. Soon after entering the kitchen, the women wear aprons and caps before getting down to work. One of them cleans the area, while other rush to wash potatoes. The potatoes are boiled in huge vessels in the modern kitchen especially set up for the project. Also, huge machines worth Rs 70 lakh have been procured to knead flour and roll out chapatis. In one go, 2,000 chappatis roll out of the machines. The women between the age group of 18 and 35 are excited and move from one corner of the kitchen to another to prepare the vegetable. They are assisted by five youths, who are just 18. Soon after the chapatis and the vegetable is ready, the packaging starts, and by around 5.45pm the food packets are stuffed in the food vans. As of now, 500 packets are being prepared, but keeping in view the demand, the number will be increased to 1,000. Sources in the administration say the supply may be increased up to 10,000 packets within six months. In all 16 women and five youths have been engaged for the job. The women include students and homemakers, while the boys are students. They are putting up in Ram Darbar, Colony Number 4 and neighbouring areas. They have been attending training in computer and stitching, being imparted by the NGO Sewa Bharti. Talking to Hindustan Times, they said they were selected and imparted training for three months to work in the kitchen. They were trained at the Mansa Devi temple kitchen and Sector 34 gurdwara. Red Cross joint secretary SS Saini said: The women and youngsters are happy to be associated with the project and have been diligently performing the task. Sources in the administration said the term of contract and the salary to be offered to the selected candidates would be finalised in a couple of days. They are expected to be paid between Rs 5,000 and Rs 7,000 per month. They will be working for about five hours from 1pm to 6pm. Reena, a homemaker from Ram Darbar, said: I used to attend stitching classes at Sewa Bharti and was selected for the project. It is a good initiative and has given me a chance to help my husband by earning. Four 18-year-old girl students Ruchi, Poonam, Manju and Chanda, who are undertaking courses at Sewa Bharti, said: Working with the prestigious project of the UT Administration will give us exposure and some money to help our families. Echoing same sentiments, Amit of Colony No. 4 said: We are six members in the family and this job has given me an opportunity to help my father run the household. I am about to start college and this job will help me make some money. The scheme is already a hit among people across the city as they rush to the food vans set up at five locations to grab the 10 food packet. Each food packet has six chapatis, vegetable and a pickle. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON After 25 years of development, the relationship between China and the five Central Asian nations has become a role model for new type of state-to-state relations and regional cooperation, Peoples Daily said in a commentary published on Wednesday. The article, under the byline of Zhong Sheng, came as China and Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan celebrated their 25thanniversary of diplomatic relations in January, 2017. China and Central Asian countries have undergone three phases in their relations since establishing diplomatic ties 25 years ago. In the first phase, which lasted from 1992 to 2001, China, together with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, resolved the history-left border issues through friendly negotiations. This success not only turnedshared boundary of the Central Asian countries which spans more than 3,300 kilometers into a region of friendship and cooperation, but also laid a solid foundation for upgrade of bilateral ties. The second phase ranged from 2001, when the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) was established, to 2012. The SCOhas served as an important platform forChina and the Central Asian countries to launch all-round cooperation and pursue regional integration. During the third phase, starting from 2013 when the "Belt and Road" initiative was put forwarduntil now, China and the Central Asian countries have brought their ties into a new era of building a community of shared interests and seeking common development. The article pointed out that the strategic partnerships between China and Central Asian countries have stretched toall political areas. China staunchly opposes any attempts to intervene in the domestic affairs of the Central Asian countries, and supports them to develop in accordance with their own conditions as well as to maintain independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity. The Central Asian countries, in return, are strong supporters of China over the issues of Taiwan, Tibet and the South China Sea. China's total trade volume with its Central Asian counterparts stands at $30 billion each year, a hard-won target amid the weak recovery of world economy and low prices of global commodities, the paper praised the cooperation fruits in economic and trade front. China and Central Asian countries have joined efforts to combat terrorism, separatism and extremism, to crack down on drug trafficking and transnational organized crimes, to deal with regional threats and challenges, in a bid to maintain regional security and stability. The two sides enjoy increasingly active cultural exchanges, the article wrote, citing the frequent art troupe exchanges, cultural exhibitions and performances as well as deepened people-to-people understanding as examples. The "Belt and Road" initiative, proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013, has beenechoed by the Central Asian countries, the article stressed, adding that the Central Asian countries, in the past three years, have decided to adopt their own development strategies into the framework of the initiative. Besides, these five countries are beefing up their highway, railroad, port, tunnel, telecommunication line and other flight network constructions with the aim of better connectivity and creating a "modern three-dimensional silk road". China and Kazakhstantook the initiative to explore a new cooperation model for production capacity, the article said. In terms of financial collaboration, Central Asian countries have taken an active part in the establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, tried new financing modes for "Belt and Road" initiative and expanded cooperation with China in using local currencies as payment and settlement, the paper noted. Fourteen people were killed when a taxi swerved to avoid a cow and crashed into two large vehicles on what is known as Ugandas deadliest road, police said Wednesday. Eight people died on the spot including a journalist, while six others died later in hospital, regional traffic police chief, Scovia Birungi told AFP. Nine other other people had serious injuries, while the cow also died. The crash happened at Lwengo along the Masaka-Kampala highway on a stretch of road known locally as the most dangerous in Uganda. The accident took place when a speeding omnibus taxi avoided hitting a cow that was crossing the road, (and) rammed into a bus and a truck, said Birungi. The vehicles crashed into each other, subsequently killing and injuring people. And the cow was not spared, he added. More than 200 people had already been killed on the 130km (80 mile) stretch of road from January to September 2016, another traffic police officer, Edith Nanteza had said last year. New United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke with US President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday, and the two had a very positive discussion on US/UN relations, said a UN spokesman, a week after Trump slammed the world body on Twitter. Guterres, a former Portuguese prime minister and UN refugee chief who began his five-year term on Sunday, spoke by phone with Trump, who will take office on Jan. 20, said UN spokesman Farhan Haq. This was an introductory phone call during which they had a very positive discussion on US/UN relations. The secretary-general said that he looked forward to engaging with the president after his inauguration, Haq told reporters. Trump took to Twitter to disparage the 193-member world body after the United States abstained in a December 23 UN Security Council vote, allowing the adoption of a resolution demanding an end to settlement building by US ally Israel. Trump, who had called on the outgoing Obama administration to veto the resolution, warned that things will be different at the United Nations after he takes office, without offering any details. He followed up with another tweet on December 26: The United Nations has such great potential but right now it is just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time. So sad! Guterres responded in an interview with Snapchat on Tuesday: President(-elect) Trump also said the UN has an enormous potential. Thats exactly what I feel. My job is to make sure that potential becomes a reality. In an address to UN staff in New York on Tuesday, Guterres acknowledged that in some parts of the world there was a resistance and scepticism about the role of the United Nations. Trump spokesman Sean Spicer said on Wednesday that the president-elect would work with Rex Tillerson, his secretary of state nominee, and Nikki Haley, his choice for US ambassador to the United Nations, to demand some reform and change. Both Tillerson and Haley must be confirmed by the US Senate before taking office. The United States is the largest contributor to the United Nations, paying 22 percent of the $5.4 billion core UN budget and 28 percent of the $7.9 billion UN peacekeeping budget. Following passage of the UN resolution on Israeli settlements, a top U.S. senator threatened to work to cut US funding. This gives Guterres a reason for going big on reform quickly, said a senior UN diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity. He needs to make sure he is reforming the UN fast enough and radically enough in order to engage the incoming US administration. Listings for Indian flag-themed doormats on global etailer Amazons Canadian site were removed after a series of protests by people from India and of Indian-origin. In recent days, people from India found the unwelcome sight of the doormats when they visited the website. The doormats were described as Personalised Durable Machine-Washable Indoor/Outdoor items and featured a stylised version of the tricolour. They were available on Amazon.cas marketplace from the vendor XLYL. XLYL also lists similar doormats featuring the flags of countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States. The troubling listings for the doormat with the Indian flag were posted on Facebook by Phoenix-based Ratnesh Mishra. The presence of the product irked some Indian-origin browsers, and a few started a social media campaign targeting Amazon for allowing the product online. Among them was Mishra, who said a similar incident had occurred in the summer of 2016. This is really pathetic and (due to the) ignorance of such a big e-commerce organisation. This is not first time we have fought against them, he said. Screen grab of a listing by the same vendor on Amazons Canadian site for a UK flag-themed doormat. (Amazon) The Canadian chapter of the Overseas Friends of the BJP was among the critics, and it said in a social media post that it condemns insult of the Indian flag. No business should engage in denigration of the flag of any country. The Amazon business group should apologise and withdraw the product that denigrates Indian flag. Otherwise, people will reject Amazon for hurting their sentiments and engaging in unethical business practices, it said. Prabhat Joshi, who said he was offended by the listing, messaged the seller to complain: For Indians, having (a) national flag on the doormat is an insult. Indian flags are hoisted with highest respect. Screen grab of a listing by the same vendor on Amazons Canadian site for a US flag-themed doormat. (Amazon) The vendor, identified as Hana Houdek, responded to the requests and removed the listings, which no longer appear on Amazon.cas searches. Meanwhile, those like Mishra arent satisfied with the response. He has sought an assurance from Amazon that this will never happen again. At least nine people were killed in a car blast on Thursday in the centre of the Syrian town of Jableh in the coastal Mediterranean province of Latakia where two Russian bases are located, state television said. State media said scores of cars were on fire and shops were also damaged by the blast in a bustling commercial part of the town that lies in President Bashar al Assads minority Alawite sects heartland. Senior medical officer Ghassan Findi told state television the death toll was expected to rise with rescue operations still continuing and scores of injured still being rushed to nearby hospitals. State television showed footage of mangled cars and shutters of shops damaged and blown apart as rescue workers cleared the debris amid a heavy security presence in the bustling commercial area near a popular vegetable market and a garage depot. At least 150 people were killed and 200 wounded in May when bombs hit the town and the port city of Tartous on the Mediterranean coast that hosts Russian military bases. Islamic State claimed the May attacks in a statement posted online saying its fighters had targeted gatherings of Alawites. Hardline Sunni militants consider Alawites heretics. Australian authorities warned swimmers to avoid more than 20 beaches in or near Melbourne this week after torrential rains and flooding polluted waters with faecal matter. Bacteria levels peaked on Monday, when heavy storms flushed faeces and other pollutants down the citys waterways and into Port Phillip Bay, public broadcaster ABC reported. The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) asked swimmers to avoid the beaches because of concerns about gastroenteritis. The EPA rated the beaches as having poor water quality after testing the levels of enterococci, a group of bacteria recognised as the best indicator for measuring faecal contamination. After further tests, three beaches Port Melbourne, Mentone and Frankston remained closed on Thursday because of the effects of pollution run-off continue to linger, ABC reported. Anthony Boxshall from the EPA said there were still some beaches in the fair category, while the vast majority more than 20 beaches was in the good category. A poor quality forecast means an illness risk of between 5% and 10%. We have indicators we look forwhich is an indicator of faecal contamination, which is a really nice way of saying poo. Its bird poo, its horse poo, its cow poo and its people poo, he said. And authorities are hoping that sunlight and wind will help get rid of the contamination. Boxshall said there was little human intervention could do to alleviate pollution at the beaches, which was largely due to three weather elements, including a lack of rainfall. Its the rainfall if we get more of it, thats not a good thing, he said. The sunlight if we get more of it, thats a good thing, and the wind if we get a bit of that it kind of mixes it around a bit as well. So those elements of the environment will help, as long as the rain stays away. The EPA forecasts for water quality are based on weather, recent bacterial sampling results, pollution reports and 25 years of water quality history. A car bomb tore through a Baghdad market on Thursday, killing at least nine people in what appeared to be the latest in a series of deadly attacks by the Islamic State group. The car was parked near an outdoor fruit and vegetable market in a mostly Shia neighborhood. Seven civilians and two policemen were killed, while at least 15 other people were wounded, police and medical officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters. No one immediately claimed the attack, but it bore the hallmarks of IS, which has carried out a string of bombings in the Iraqi capital over the past week, killing nearly 100 people. The Sunni extremists frequently target Iraqs security forces and civilians in Shia neighborhoods. IS has managed to carry out a series of attacks across Iraq while also putting up stiff resistance in the northern city of Mosul, where U.S.-backed Iraqi forces have been waging a massive offensive since mid-October. Mosul, about 360 kilometers (225 miles) northwest of Baghdad, is Iraqs second largest city and the extremists last major urban bastion in the country. Iraqi forces have retaken around a quarter of the city since the offensive began. The founder of Bikram yoga has been ordered to turn over the proceeds from his global fitness business to go toward a $6.8 million judgment his former legal adviser won against him last year in a sexual harassment and wrongful termination lawsuit, the advisers lawyer said on Wednesday. The ruling by a Los Angeles superior court judge ordered Bikram Choudhury to turn over funds from his book sales and from the nearly 700 yoga studios in Europe, Asia and the Americas that pay to use his name. His payments will go to a court-appointed receiver. Carla Minnard, attorney for the former adviser Minakshi Miki Jafa-Bodden, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the series of orders issued in December include Choudhury turning over a luxury car collection he owns. Jafa-Bodden said in the lawsuit that Choudhury fired her when she refused to help him cover up a rape allegation. The suit also said he inappropriately touched her. She was awarded nearly $1 million in compensatory damages and more than $6 million in punitive damages. She had worked as head of legal and international affairs at Choudhurys Los Angeles yoga school from spring 2011 until March 2013 Choudhury, 70, has built an empire around Bikram yoga, a rigorous, 90-minute routine performed in a room that can reach more than 100 degrees. The technique is taught at more than 650 studios worldwide and has drawn a throng of devoted followers. He contended at the time the award was given last January, he was nearly bankrupt. A current attorney for Choudhury could not be found to offer comment, nor could he be reached. A bill backing key changes in the H1-B programme that allows skilled workers from countries like India to fill high-tech jobs in the US has been re-introduced in the US Congress by two lawmakers who claim that it will help crack down on the work visa abuse. The Protect and Grow American Jobs Act that makes important changes to the eligibility requirements for H-1B Visa exemptions was re-introduced on Wednesday by Republican Darrell Issa and Scott Peters both from California. The bill among other things increase the minimum salary of H-1B visa to $ 100,000 per annum and eliminate the Masters Degree exemption. The legislation, the lawmakers argued, will help crack down on abuse and ensure that these jobs remain available for the best and brightest talent from around the world. The bill comes after a number of companies --Disney, SoCal Edison and others -- came under fire for abusing the H-1B Visa programme to replace American workers with foreign workers. In order for America to lead again, we need to ensure we can retain the worlds best and brightest talent. At the same time, we also need to make sure programs are not abused to allow companies to outsource and hire cheap foreign labour from abroad to replace American workers, Issa said. The legislation were introducing today does both. It will ensure that our valuable high-skilled immigration spots are used by companies when the positions cannot be filled by the existing workforce, Issa said. By raising the salary to a level more in-line with the average American salary for these positions, it would help cut down on abuse by removing the profit incentive and ensuring these positions remain available for companies who truly need them, a media release said. Curbing abuse of the H-1B system will protect American jobs and help ensure that visas are available for innovators who need them to maintain a competitive workforce, Peters said. This bipartisan bill makes one of the much-needed updates to our high-skilled visa system to level the playing field and help prevent companies from taking advantage of the system to offshore jobs, the Congressman said. The two lawmakers claimed that the legislation would cut down on abuse by eliminating the masters degree exemption, which has become abused as foreign workers seeking H1B Visas have increasingly sought and obtained low-quality certificates to meet the requirements for an exemption just to qualify for H1B, instead of keeping the positions open for truly high-skilled positions that companies cannot fill domestically. The bill had faced opposition last year in Congress. Reshaping immigration is a central tenet of President-elect Donald Trumps push for companies to invest and hire more in the US. Trump has listed immigration reform among five executive actions he plans to take on his first day in office. They include asking the Department of Labor to investigate all abuses of the visa programmes that undercut the American worker. Two lawmakers have introduced a legislation in the House of Representatives seeking to prevent US companies from outsourcing American jobs and using H-1B visas to hire highly-skilled foreign workers. The bill moved jointly on Wednesday by a Republican and a Democratic member of the House proposes to raise the annual salary for an H-1B hire from $60,000 currently to $100,000 in order to prevent firms from employing cheaper labour from abroad. It also proposes getting rid of the masters degree exemption to ensure highly-skilled foreign workers are indeed highly skilled, and not, the lawmakers said in a statement, those who obtained low-quality certificates to meet the requirements. The bill will be tracked closely by US companies, among them subsidiaries of Indian IT giants such as TCS, Infosys and Wipro, which use H-1B visas to hire foreign workers, many of them from India, due to, they contend, a shortage of trained American hands. Critics of the H-1B programme some of whom are in senior positions in the incoming Trump administration have argued it is being used by US companies to bring cheaper labour from abroad to maximise profits. President-elect Donald Trump has expressed unhappiness with the programme, saying that though it serves a purpose, as he has used it himself in his businesses, he wants to make sure the visas dont lead to job cuts for Americans. Darell Issa, a Republican representative from California who moved the legislation with Scott Peters, a Democrat from the same state, made a similar case that the US needs the best talents from around the world, but not at the expense of Americans. Issa said in a statement that the US needs to ensure we can retain the worlds best and brightest talent. But he added, the programme should not be abused to allow companies to outsource and hire cheap foreign labour from abroad to replace American workers. The legislation were introducing today does both, he said. A statement from his office mentioned Disney and SoCal Edison, a power company, as the kind of alleged abuse the bill intends to prevent. The jobs they outsourced to contractors went to H-1B visa holders mainly from India. The layoffs attracted national attention coming in the middle of a bitter presidential elections in 2016, but a lawsuit by displaced Disney employees alleging visa laws were violated was rejected by a Florida court. The US issues 85,000 H-1B visas every year 65,000 to foreigners hired abroad, from their home countries mostly, and 20,000 to foreigners already in the US enrolled in schools, colleges and universities. Opponents of the programme have argued for cutting the annual intake drastically and making H-1B hirings prohibitively expensive for US companies by increasing the salary, as the new bill proposes, and the fees. A fortnight before the June 1989 massacre of protestors at Tiananmen Square, the British government was alerted that the Chinese authorities had decided the student-led demonstrations could not be ended without bloodshed, according to a recently declassified diplomatic cable. China crushed the protests by large crowds at the historic square in the centre of Beijing by sending in troops backed by helicopters and tanks on June 4, 1989. Official figures put the number of dead at 200 to 300 but some accounts have said thousands were killed. A secret cable that was part of a file declassified last month by Britains National Archives showed Alan Donald, then the British envoy to Beijing, had warned officials in London on May 20, 1989 that the Chinese government has decided that there is no way to avoid bloodshed. The cable has been posted online by the Margaret Thatcher Foundation. Donalds conclusion was based on information gathered by sinologist Stuart Schram from a Chinese contact and intelligence gathered by the US defence section. At a lunch on May 20, 1989, Schram told Donald that the Chinese contact had said that Communist leader Deng Xiaoping had commented: Two hundred dead would bring 20 years of peace to China. Screen grab of the cable sent by Alan Donald, then British envoy to Beijing, anticipating a crackdown on protesters at Beijings Tiananmen Square. (Margaret Thatcher Foundation) The implication clearly was that the sacrifice of a number of demonstrators lives now would stabilize the present situation and buy the time needed to complete the reform of China, Donald wrote in the cable. More ominous was the information gathered by the Americans. Donald wrote that the US embassys incident room had learnt that the Chinese government has decided that there is no way to avoid bloodshed and that the military has been instructed to do what is necessary to put down the situation. The envoy said some in the Chinese leadership were counseling moderation but the frustration and anger at the way the students have made the government and (Communist) party lose face may now be bringing matters to a crisis. Top US spy chiefs will testify in Congress Thursday on alleged Russian interference in the US election as President-elect Donald Trump continued to question intelligence that Moscow was behind the hacking of Democratic party computers. The American public could get a better idea of the strength of the evidence on the alleged hacking as the Senate Armed Services Committee holds a hearing led by strong Russia critic John McCain, who on Wednesday called Moscows actions to subvert the US presidential vote an act of war. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and National Security Agency Director Michael Rogers are due to testify amid a heated rift between Trump and the intelligence bodies he will rely upon for crucial advice when he become president on January 20. In tweets this week, Trump ridiculed the CIA and FBI conclusions, which are supported by outgoing President Barack Obama, that hackers working at the bidding of the Russian government stole embarrassing Democratic Party documents from the partys computers and leaked the via WikiLeaks to undermine the presidential campaign of Trump rival Hillary Clinton. Referring to a planned presentation to him by intelligence chiefs, Trump tweeted: The Intelligence briefing on so-called Russian hacking was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange! He then added to the insult by citing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in his dismissal of the findings of multiple US agencies that Russia was behind the hacking. Julian Assange said a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta - why was DNC so careless? Trump said, referring to the thousands of emails and documents robbed from the computers of the Democratic National Committee and from Clinton campaign chief John Podesta. Intel agency shakeup looming? Trumps taunts have boosted pressure on the White House, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Director of National Intelligence to back up their claims last month that the Russian government was behind the hacking, intentionally divulging the documents via WikiLeaks to disrupt the election and help Trump. The intelligence chiefs and Obama have pointed the finger at Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying no such operation could go on in Moscow without the highest level of approval. On December 29, Obama retaliated, expelling 35 Russian intelligence operatives, placing sanctions on Russian government officials and intelligence services, and alleged hackers. But the evidence made public by the agencies remains thin, allowing Trump, who has made clear he wants to improve fraught relations with Russia, to mount a challenge to the US intelligence establishment. The Wall Street Journal reported late Wednesday that Trump is already working on a plan to restructure the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which Trump believes has become bloated and politicized, the Journal reported, citing people official with the planning. The plan could also include revamping the CIA, cutting back its headquarters staff while boosting deployment of agents in the field, the Journal said. Trump rebuffed Trump will be briefed Friday by the heads of the CIA, FBI and DNI on the evidence behind their conclusion on Russia election interference. And a declassified version of a White House report on the case is expected to be released next week. But he meanwhile rankled officials in both political parties and angered the intelligence community by his choice of Assange as a reference for his views. In a radio interview Wednesday, Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan branded Assange a sycophant for Russia. He leaks, he steals data, and compromises national security. Democratic Senator Mark Warner said Trump showed frankly flabbergasting disrespect for the intelligence officials. I think the most important thing the intelligence community can always do is speak truth to power, he told MSNBC. And it seems like perhaps the president-elect doesnt want to hear those truths. Lawmaker Teuvo Hakkarainen from the nationalist Finns party was fined on Wednesday for a Facebook post calling for a Muslim-free Finland which a district court said amounted to agitation against an ethnic group. Hakkarainen, whose party is part of the countrys coalition government, made the call in a comment on the truck attack in France last July that killed 86 people. Prosecutors said the Tunisian-born driver had radical Islamist views. All Muslims are not terrorists but all terrorists are Muslims, the parliamentarian wrote in the comment. Central Finlands district court in Jyvaskyla imposed a 1,160 euro ($1,210) fine for Hakkarainen, who accepted the verdict. Local media quoted his assistant telling the court that the lawmaker was not aware of the legislation in question. The Finns party said it would next month discuss possible political sanctions for him. The party, previously known as True Finns, is known for its eurosceptic and nationalist views, but it has toned down its demands after joining Finlands three-party government in 2015. Finland has tightened its immigration policies, along with other Nordic countries, after about 32,000 migrants and refugees arrived in the country in 2015. Thousands of people rallied against ethnic hatred in Helsinki that year after another Finns parliamentarian called in a Facebook post for a fight against multiculturalism. A falling roof triggered a gas outburst in a central Chinese coal mine that killed five people and trapped seven others, state media said Thursday. The outburst occurred Wednesday night when 51 workers were underground at the mine in the city of Dengfeng in Henan province, state broadcaster CCTV said. Thirty-nine workers rose to safety while the others were trapped or killed, the report said. Workers were doing maintenance work in a pump room when the roof fell, causing the outburst of gas, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. Some reports said three rescuers were among those who died, but that could not immediately be confirmed. The mine company could not be reached. A city government official declined to comment. Chinas mining industry has long been among the worlds deadliest, and top work safety regulators have acknowledged that some mines cut corners on safety standards due to financial pressure. The survivors huddled atop a giant industrial freezer in terrified silence as the Islamic State gunman entered the nightclub kitchen. Wiping his Kalashnikov free of fingerprints, he didnt see them as he changed clothes and put on a Santa hat. Then smearing himself with the blood of New Years revelers killed in the carnage minutes earlier, he left the kitchen and blended into the crowd of survivors being evacuated. Inside one of Istanbuls most glamorous nightclubs, the attacker had just fired 180 rounds in seven minutes, killing 39 people. A traffic jam had nearly thwarted his arrival an hour earlier and he jumped out to walk the last few hundred yards (meters) to the Reina club. His Kalashnikov concealed beneath his coat, he pulled the weapon out only when he was within easy range of the clubs unarmed guards. Ali Unal, the Reina co-owner, was having a smoke outside and talking on his cellphone. It was 1:20 a.m. and Unal thought the gunfire was just New Years fireworks. Then bullets bounced off a heater in the entryway. After killing a guard and a bystander, the attacker tossed a stun grenade and entered the club unopposed. An hour of pure terror followed, according to the accounts of survivors interviewed by The Associated Press, as well as a review of surveillance video and reports in government-linked media. Read | Turkey has identified Istanbul nightclub attacker, says foreign minister Sprawling along the narrow strait that links Europe and Asia, the three-story Reina had five restaurants and curtained terraces cascading down to the edge of the Bosporus Sea. When the assailant entered, it was packed with some 600 people. Starting from the upper terraces, he opened fire as he crossed blue-lighted dance floors pulsating with rave music. Some revelers fled to the seaside terraces and grabbed the long gray curtains to drop into the water below; others desperately sought hiding places. Many simply dropped to the ground as bodies fell over them, praying they wouldnt be seen. I caught a curtain, said Karim Noureddine, a 27-year-old Lebanese who was at the club with his girlfriend. I rappelled down and she followed me and I was able to escape, he said, speaking at the Beirut funeral of his friend, Elias Wardini, who was among those killed in the bloodbath. I did not know what was going on inside, because I was out in the first 50 seconds and running toward the sea. For Sabri Ozturk, one of the clubs restaurant managers, time stretched agonizingly. The gunfire wouldnt cease, said Ozturk, whose wife and 19-year-old son had come to keep him company during the holiday shift. They say seven minutes, but it felt like seven hours. Ozturk dropped to the floor and shouted to his family to do the same. But it wasnt just them. It was everyone around them. Our feet and heads were on top of each other. My wife was beneath my arm. My hand was on my sons head because he is protesting. Im closing his mouth, telling him to be silent. Read | Two Indians among Istanbul nightclub attack victims: Sushma Swaraj They stayed that way for about an hour, Ozturk said. Then the noise stopped, but is the terrorist inside? Is he going to detonate a bomb? You start thinking: He should just blow it up so it can be over. Thats the state you are in. Yunus Turk, a 25-year-old Frenchman at the Reina with his cousin, was hiding on the terrace as the gunman moved through the club. He grabbed a table and held it in front of him as a shield, hearing bullets ping off the metal. I was just trying to calm the people around me, so the shooters wouldnt notice us. Because I thought at the time that there had to more than one. I would never have imagined that one person could do so much, 23-year-old Yussuf Kodat told France Television. Security experts said the methodical attack was carried out by an experienced killer who emptied four machine gun cartridges in rapid succession, with magazines tied to each other for quicker action. Im not just talking about a training camp, Im talking he fought, said Michael Horowitz, a security analyst. Most bullets hit upper torsos with deadly precision, and some people were shot point blank on the floor, according to witnesses and photos taken inside the club. I was shot when I was already on the ground. He was shooting people that he had already shot, William Raak, an American who was wounded, told NBC News. Alaa Abd El Hai, a 30-year-old Arab Israeli dentist who had come to the club with three friends, was on the dance floor when the gunman opened fire. She thought the music stopped, but wasnt sure what happened to the DJs. Sensing the shooter nearby, El Hai crawled 15 yards (meters) to the kitchen with one of her friends and other club-goers, desperately searching for a hiding place. They tried a storage room but it was locked. Then they saw the freezer. Big enough for all of them, but too high for everyone to reach. The men climbed up first, then reached down for the women. El Hai wasnt sure exactly how many were crammed into the small space: Two Germans, two Iranians, two Turks, an Egyptian woman, she recalled. Four rounds later, the gunman ran out of ammunition and went to the kitchen. The Egyptian woman saw the attacker through small openings in a curtain coming to the kitchen with the weapon pointed at the head of another woman. Thank God he did not see us, El Hai said. He spent 30 agonizing minutes wiping the Kalashnikov free of fingerprints then leaving it there along with his coat. He changed clothes, put on a Santa hat and blended into the panicked crowd smearing himself with blood on his chest, and limping. El Hai later learned that one of her friends, 18-year-old Layan Nasser, who became separated during the nights chaos, was among the dead. When police stormed the building 40 minutes after the massacre began, they demanded that everyone put their hands up. The survivors, not sure they were really policemen and terrified of a second wave of shooting, did not immediately comply. Read | Istanbul attack revives terror jitters as millions around the world ring in 2017 When the hundreds of people slowly evacuated into the street around 2:30 a.m., the shooter was among them. He hopped into a taxi unnoticed and remains at large. The cab driver told investigators the man spoke on his cellphone in Turkish and had no money to pay for the ride, according to government-linked media. Investigators later found 500 Turkish Lira ($140) in the pocket of his coat back in the kitchen. Hindus and Jews have gained ground in the new US Congress, even as a latest research suggests that the members of the legislative body remain overwhelmingly Christians despite significant change in the religious demographic profile of the country in less than five decades. This is for the first time in American history that the Congress has three Hindus members -- Tulsi Gabbard, Raja Krishnamoorthi and Ro Khanna. After Jews, who have 30 members in the new US Congress, Hindus and Buddhism, each having three members jointly share the third sport in terms of religious ranking of US Congress members, according to Pew Research Center analysis. Among members of the 115th Congress, 91% describe themselves as Christians. This is nearly the same percentage as in the 87th Congress (1961 to 1962, the earliest years for which comparable data are available), when 95% of members were Christian, the research said. Pew said among the 293 Republicans elected to serve in the 115th Congress, all but two identify as Christians; there are two Jewish Republicans -- Lee Zeldin of New York and David Kustoff of Tennessee -- who both serve in the House. Democrats in Congress also are overwhelmingly Christian (80%), but there is more religious diversity on this side of the aisle, Pew said. The 242 democrats in Congress include 28 Jews, three Buddhists, three Hindus, two Muslims and one Unitarian Universalist -- as well as the only member of Congress to describe herself as religiously unaffiliated, Kyrsten Sinema from Arizona. In addition, all 10 members of Congress who decline to state their religious affiliation are democrats. Among the lawmakers who declined to state their religious affiliations include Indian-American Pramila Jayapal who has been for the first time been elected to the House of Representatives. Her mother is a Hindu. Washington DC-based Hindu American Foundation (HAF), however, believes that Pramila Jayapal is a Hindu. Hindus who are about one percent of the US population are now 0.6% in the US Congress, Pew said. There are two Muslim lawmakers in the Congress. Among non-Christian religious groups, Jews and Hindus had the biggest gains (an increase of two seats each), Pew said comparing the religious onfiguration of the new Congress with the last one. Jews, who make up 2% of the US adult population, hold 30 seats in the new Congress (6%), up from 28 seats in the 114th (5%). However, Jews occupy far fewer seats than they did in the 111th Congress (2009-10), when there were 45 Jewish members of the House and Senate, it said. The city of Harbin in Chinas frigid northeast is hosting one of the worlds largest festivals featuring ice sculptures of animals, cartoon characters and famous landmarks. The festival, which officially opens late Thursday and last year drew more than a million visitors, showcases the regions tradition of snow and ice carvings as well as ice swimming in the Songhua River. Harbins temperatures can fall to minus 25 degrees Celsius (minus 13 degrees Fahrenheit). Harbins best ice and snow carvers have been busy putting the finishing touches to their sculptures, which are based on big chunks of ice that are dragged out of the nearby river and carved, brushed, and lit up. In this Jan. 3, 2017, photo, released by Xinhua News Agency, contestants carve ice sculptures during an international ice sculpture contest as part of the Harbin Ice and Snow festival in Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. (AP) The city of Harbin in China's frigid northeast is in its final stages of preparation for one of the world's largest ice and snow festivals, an annual event that last year drew more than a million visitors. (AP) The sculptures range from animals and cartoon characters to replicas of famous world monuments and landscapes, as well as a 340-meter (1,115-feet)-long slide that state media say took around 500 builders to complete. (AFP) People visit ice sculptures illuminated by coloured lights at the Harbin Ice and Snow Festival to celebrate the new year in Harbin on January 4, 2017. (AFP) A boy takes a ride on an ice sculpture illuminated by coloured lights at the Harbin Ice and Snow Festival to celebrate the new year in Harbin on January 4, 2017. (AFP) Iraqi army and security forces are working better together in their battle against Islamic State militants and are gaining momentum in the 11-week campaign to retake Mosul, the commander of the US-led coalition backing them said on Wednesday. During a helicopter tour over recently recaptured areas, US Army Lieutenant-General Steve Townsend said coordination had been largely absent in the first two months of the campaign, when Iraqi forces made slow progress after breaching the city. Elite counter-terrorism troops entered Mosul from the east and seized a quarter of the city but troops on other fronts stalled, leading to a military pause last month. Since resuming the offensive last week, the counter-terrorism service, rapid response division and federal police have retaken several eastern districts -- despite fierce resistance -- and joined flanks in areas that had been vulnerable to attack. Townsend said Iraqi commanders, with guidance from the coalition, decided two weeks ago that the various pro-government forces would have to coordinate much more closely. For about two months... what we saw is that there wasnt enough synchronization between each of the different attacking axes and forces, he told Reuters after visiting US troops and talking to Iraqi commanders at a coalition outpost north of Mosul. Right before Christmas was a decision to huddle a lot more frequently, so theyre doing that more. Read: UN: At least 6,878 civilians killed in Iraq violence in 2016 Townsend said the top Iraqi commanders now all come together every few days -- something the U.S. military does daily wherever it operates. Before... we were seeing progress mostly on one main axis and halting progress on the others. Now were actually seeing forward movement on all of the axes in eastern Mosul, he said. Townsend heads Operation Inherent Resolve, a coalition of military forces from Western and Arab countries that has been bombing Islamic State positions in Iraq and neighbouring Syria since 2014. It is now providing air support and some ground assistance to the Iraqi assault on Mosul, and has embedded officers with Iraqi commanders to help plan each step of the offensive. The Mosul assault, involving a 100,000-strong ground force of Iraqi government troops, members of the autonomous Kurdish security forces and mainly Shiite militiamen, is the most complex battle in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003. Read: Iraqi PM says three months needed to remove Islamic State from the country RESILIENT ENEMY An Iraqi victory in Mosul would probably spell the end for Islamic States self-styled caliphate, which leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared 2-1/2 years ago from the citys main mosque after Iraqi forces dropped their weapons and fled. But in recent days, the militants have displayed the tactics to which they are likely to resort if they lose the city, killing dozens with bombs in Baghdad and attacking security forces elsewhere. Though vastly outnumbered in Mosul, they have used the urban terrain and the cover of a civilian population to manoeuvre, launch attacks and avoid detection. Townsend said Iraqi forces were doing a better job of defending against suicide car bombs. That had helped stem casualties, which the government does not report but sources said on some days reached a few dozen. They (casualties) were daunting in the first few weeks here in the city back in October, early November and I was greatly concerned then. Much less concerned now. They seem to have adapted, said Townsend. He described Islamic State as a resilient enemy but said the group - which has separate cells fighting in dozens of neighbourhoods - appeared increasingly unable to coordinate across different areas it controlled inside Mosul. He said some senior Islamic State commanders are still directing the battle from inside Mosul but could not confirm whether that included Baghdadi, for whom Washington has offered a $25 million bounty. Read: Islamic State chief Baghdadi is alive and still leading, says US I have no idea where Baghdadi is, said Townsend. If you get a hint on where Baghdadi is, please let me know so I can kill him. In sunny Israel, solar energy supplies only a small percentage of the nations power needs, leaving it far behind countries with cloudier and colder climates. Now the fledgling solar industry is trying to make a leap forward with a large-scale project boasting the worlds tallest solar tower, as a symbol of Israels renewal energy ambitions. With Israel traditionally running its economy on fossil fuels, renewable energy has long been hobbled by bureaucracy and a lack of incentives. But the country is starting to make an effort, setting a goal of generating 10 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020, up from the current 2.5 percent. The Ashalim project, deep in the Negev desert, is made up of three plots, with a fourth planned for the future, each with a different solar technology. Together, the fields will be Israels largest renewable energy project when completed by 2018. They are set to generate some 310 megawatts of power, about 1.6 percent of the countrys energy needs - enough for about 130,000 households, or roughly 5 percent of Israels population, according to Israels Electricity Authority. Its the most significant single building block in Israels commitment to CO2 reduction and renewable energy, said Eran Gartner, chief executive of Megalim Solar Power Ltd., which is building one part of the project. The centrepiece is a solar tower that will be the worlds tallest at 250 meters (820 feet). Solar towers use a method differing from the more common photovoltaic solar panels, which convert sunlight directly into electricity. Instead, towers use a solar-thermal method: Thousands of mirrors focus the suns rays onto the tower, heating a boiler that creates steam to spin a turbine and generate electricity. Encircling the Ashalim tower are 50,000 mirrors, known as heliostats, in a shimmering blanket of glass over the desert. The tower is so tall because the panels were squeezed together to maximize use of the land - and the closer the panels are the taller the tower must be, Gartner explained. Another solar-thermal plot at Ashalim will be able to store energy even when the sun goes down. A third plot will use photovoltaic solar technology to produce energy. Yaron Szilas, CEO of Shikun & Binui Renewable Energy, the lead developer of the second solar-thermal plot, said combining the three technologies was a wise move because each has its own advantage. The amount of electricity it produces will be comparable to large-scale solar fields in California and Chile. There are around a dozen solar tower fields around the world, the largest being the Ivanpah plant in California with some 170,000 heliostats around three 140-meter-tall (460-foot) towers. Israel has developed some of the worlds most advanced solar energy equipment and enjoys a nearly endless supply of sunshine. But Israeli solar companies, frustrated by government bureaucracy, have mostly taken their expertise abroad. Countries with cooler climates have outpaced Israel. Germany, for example, gets nearly 30 percent of its energy from renewable sources. Israel has a potential to be a sunshine superpower, said Leehee Goldenberg, director of the department of economy and environment at the Israel Union for Environmental Defense, a non-governmental organization. Despite some steps in the right direction, Israels government hasnt really been pushing to reach its small goals regarding solar energy. Israel has often been reluctant to hand out huge parcels of land, a necessity for large-scale solar power production, Gartner said. Large projects also demand access to state-owned infrastructure like gas, water and electricity, and connecting to those utilities out in remote plants in the Negev desert often takes time. Israels Finance Ministry said the price of generating solar power in Israel has come down, and the ministry has pushed new laws to promote the industry. Recent legislation has also provided incentives and cut down some of the bureaucracy for Israelis wanting to install solar panels on their roofs. The ministry said if Ashalim is successful, it will aim for more such facilities. After the discovery of major natural gas deposits offshore, Israel now gets 70 percent of its energy from cleaner-burning gas. That discovery was welcome, Szilas said, but it has also delayed the impetus for promoting renewable energy. The developers in the Ashalim project say they want Israel to step up its renewable energy goals. With all the sun that we have and how progressed we are in technology, these goals are very, very, very modest, Szilas said. But these are the goals that were set, and we are working toward it. Turkish police carried out a dawn raid in a town on the edge of Istanbul on Thursday and detained suspects thought to be linked to the nightclub attack which killed 39 people on New Years Day, the state-run Anadolu news agency said. Counter-terrorism police, gendarmes and special forces swooped on a housing complex in Selimpasa, a coastal town just to the west of Istanbul, after receiving intelligence that individuals who may have helped the gunman were there. The gunman, who is still at large, shot his way into exclusive Istanbul nightclub Reina early on Sunday and opened fire with an automatic rifle, throwing stun grenades to allow himself to reload and shooting the wounded on the ground. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was revenge for Turkish military involvement in Syria. Turkish media reports have said the attacker is believed to be an ethnic Uighur from central Asia and Uighurs were among those detained in Selimpasa. The Uighurs are a largely Muslim, Turkic-speaking minority in far western China with significant diaspora communities across central Asia and Turkey. The gunman appeared to have been well-versed in guerrilla warfare and may have trained in Syria, according to a security source and newspaper reports. It was not immediately clear how many people were detained on Thursday, but at least 36 people have been held since the attack, according to earlier media reports. Police in the Aegean coastal city of Izmir on Wednesday detained what they said were 20 suspected Islamic State militants thought to be of Central Asian and North African origin. Fake passports, mobile phones, and equipment including night vision goggles and a GPS device were seized. Turkeys foreign minister said on Wednesday the identity of the gunman had been established but did not give further details. The authorities have not named the suspect. The nightclub attack in Istanbuls upscale Ortakoy district on the shore of the Bosphorus followed a failed coup in July and a series of attacks by radical Islamist and Kurdish militants which have shaken NATO member Turkey over the last year. President Tayyip Erdogan said the attack on the club, popular with local celebrities and wealthy foreigners, was being exploited to try to divide the largely Sunni Muslim nation. Among those killed in the attack were Turks and visitors from several Arab nations, India and Canada. Nasa is sending an African-American astronaut to the International Space Station for the first time. The traveller is Jeanette Epps, a physics and science whiz who used to work for the CIA as a technical intelligence officer. Epps will head to the ISS as a flight engineer in 2018. Her commander will be Andrew Feustel, a veteran astronaut. Each space station crew brings something different to the table, and Drew and Jeanette both have a lot to offer, said Chris Cassidy, chief of the Astronaut Office at Nasas Johnson Space Center in Houston. The space station will benefit from having them on board, said Cassidy. A dozen or so African-American astronauts have travelled on US space shuttle missions but Epps will be the first African American on the space station. She was selected in July 2009 as one of 14 members of the 20th Nasa astronaut class. Her training included Russian language, so as to be able to talk to cosmonauts on the ISS. Epps holds a PhD in aerospace engineering from the University of Maryland. Two missions announced Nasa also announced two unmanned missions to asteroids designed to study one of the earliest eras in the history of the solar system. They have been baptized Lucy and Psyche, and Nasa hopes to launch them in 2021 and 2023, respectively. The period Nasa wants to learn more about is an era less than 10 million years after the birth of the sun. The Lucy mission -- named for a famous, critical hominin fossil set found in Ethiopia in 1974 -- will involve sending a robotic spacecraft to study Jupiters so-called Trojan asteroids. These are thought to be relics of a much earlier era in the history of the solar system. Meanwhile the Psyche mission aims to explore a huge, one-of-a-kind metal asteroid, called 16 Psyche, that is about three times farther away from the sun than the Earth is. More than 800 girls were subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM) in northern Tanzania last month, a local government official said, despite a police crackdown to stop the practice that affects millions of girls in the east African country. Twelve women suspected to have carried out the ritual, which involves the partial or total removal of the external genitalia, have been arrested as the police investigate the case, Tarime district commissioner Glorious Luoga said. The police operation is still going on. We will not relent until all the perpetrators have been arrested and charged, Luoga told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. FGM affects an estimated 140 million girls and women across a swathe of Africa and parts of the Middle East and Asia, and is seen as a gateway to marriage and a way of preserving purity. Up to 7.9 million girls and women in Tanzania are thought to have undergone FGM, with the illegal procedure often carried out in secret initiation, or rite of passage, ceremonies. The ancient ritual causes numerous health problems that can be fatal. In Tarime, girls are usually cut between the ages of 12 and 17 in initiation ceremonies performed by circumcisers known as ngariba, often in unhygienic conditions. On Tuesday a senior official in the Ministry of Health warned communities to stop embracing the harmful tradition. FGM should be made history in Tanzania, the ministrys permanent secretary Sihaba Nkinga told girls who had completed an alternative rite of passage in Tarime involving reproductive health education. As a government, we cant afford to see such acts continuing to happen. It is not something to be proud of, she said. Read | Female Genital Mutilation: Indias dark secret A fired Kentucky high school principal has admitted to seizing students phones so that he could steal pornographic images and trade them online, investigators said. Stephen Kyle Goodlett, 36, of Elizabethtown, was indicted on Wednesday in Louisville on federal charges of possessing and transporting child pornography. Last month, he pleaded not guilty to 63 state felony child porn charges. Goodlett admitted to Kentucky State Police investigators that he has a pornography addiction, and that as principal of LaRue County High School, he searched for nude pictures on phones confiscated from students, said department of homeland security special agent Brady Oberholtzer in a federal complaint. Schools superintendent Sam Sanders announced his firing a few days after Goodlett was arrested at his home in October, calling it an unprecedented situation. Parents and staff at the schools expressed shock, some noting that he has a wife and children. The investigation began in September after a 20-year-old woman learned that naked images she had taken for her boyfriend when she was 15 had been uploaded to a pornography trading website based in Russia. She went to Elizabethtown police, who sought federal help. This anonymous image board is used to anonymously post images online, but authorities determined that the IP address of the device that uploaded the images matches an account registered by Goodlett, the federal complaint said. After executing a search warrant, police found 60 examples of child pornography on Goodletts devices. The national centre for missing and exploited children later identified images of the Elizabethtown woman as well as a naked girl aged 10-14 in Goodletts Dropbox account, the agent said. After signing a waiver of his rights and agreeing to a recorded interview with state investigators, Goodlett admitted to KSP that he had an addiction to pornography and that he transferred images from phones confiscated from students to his personal thumb drive without their consent or knowledge, the agent wrote. He said he would share them to the website with the intent of trading for more images. Philippine security forces have recaptured 34 out of 158 inmates who escaped after heavily armed Muslim rebels stormed a jail in the countrys south. The police said five inmates, one guard and one village official had been killed in pursuit operations. The Bureau of Jail Management and Penology on Thursday said the 34 inmates had been recaptured since the rebels on Wednesday attacked the North Cotabato District Jail in Kidapawan and facilitated what officials say was the biggest jailbreak in the country. Kidapawan is about 930km southeast of the capital Manila. The jail held 1,511 inmates, including rebels facing murder charges for a series of bombings in the province. It was the third attack on the provincial jail facility since 2007. South Koreas Constitutional Court on Thursday began to hear oral arguments in the impeachment trial of President Park Geun-hye, who lawmakers voted to remove over a corruption scandal that saw millions of people protest over the last several months. Parks lawyers and lawmakers, who serve as prosecutors in the trial, traded pointed arguments Thursday on the validity of accusations that she colluded with a confidante to extort money and favours from companies and allowed the friend to unlawfully interfere with government affairs. Lawmaker Kweon Seong Dong, the chief prosecutor in the trial, said Park betrayed the trust people put in her by broadly and gravely violating the constitution and criminal laws. Parks lawyer, Lee Joong-hwan, said the accusations stated in the impeachment bill lack evidence and fail to make legal sense because they were based on allegations and media reports, not criminal convictions. The hearing proceeded without Park, who refused to testify for the second time following her no-show on Tuesday. The nine-justice court cannot force Park to appear. Parks lawyers may prefer her not to testify because their chief argument is that the accusations against Park havent been fully proven, said Han Sang-hie, a law professor at Seouls Konkuk University. Park rejected requests by state prosecutors to question her and has yet to be questioned by the special prosecution team that has taken over the inquiry. The court, which will hear witnesses later Thursday, has six months to decide if Park should permanently step down or should be reinstated. Two Indian American men with exactly the same name same spelling, inflection and intonation grabbed the hot-new-hires limelight on Wednesday in diametrically different spheres, each no less influential than the other. Raj Shah, in the order of announcements, was named by President-elect Donald Trump as his deputy assistant and deputy communications director and research director, a role that will have him dig dirt on his bosss opponents. The other Raj Shah, according to the more recent announcement, will head the Rockefeller Foundation, one of Americas largest and most influential philanthropies, becoming its youngest, at 43, and first Indian American CEO. He is the better known Raj Shah as you can tell from his pictures that were published with news articles about the other Raj Shahs appointment in Indian media outlets. Full disclosure: Hindustan Times made the same mistake a few weeks ago. They are nothing alike one is 43, the other is 31; and, in a country still recovering from a bruising electoral fight, they come from opposite sides of the political divide. The Raj Shah named to the Trump administration is, no surprises, Republican and the other Raj Shah is Democratic, who served as administrator of the US agency for international development (USAID) in the Obama administration. Raj Shah will be Trumps fourth Indian American in his administration Nikki Haley, nominee as ambassador to UN; Seema Verma, head of medicare and medicaid services, and Preet Bharara as US prosecutor on Wall Street are the others. Shah, the Republican, is a long time operative of the party and serving in a senior position under the chairmanship of, and considered close to, Reince Priebus, who will take charge later this month as chief of staff to President Trump. Priebus is expected to be a powerful player in the Trump White House because of his control over access to the president that comes with the job and he has been staffing the administration with people he believes can insulate him from challengers. Priebuss spokesman from his days at the Republican National Committee chairman, Sean Spicer, was recently named as the White House spokesperson, and will be Trumps voice, outside the president-elects preferred media outlet, Twitter. As research director and deputy communications director at the Republican National Committee, Raj Shah was charged with collecting dirt on rivals called Opposition research in US politics a task that took him to Philadelphia last July. He was there to keep an eye on Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee, and her convention, for the Republican party and facilitate rapid response to emerging challenges and allegations. The young Shah spoke to some Indian reporters on the sidelines. A graduate of Cornell, he co-founded right-leaning opposition research firm America Rising LLC, where he developed the organisations Hillary Clinton opposition research book, which is essentially all the dirt that could be used against her. The older Raj Shah, who is a Democrat as mentioned before, had a meteoric rise on the other side of the political divide that made him the senior-most Indian American in the Obama administration for many years, as USAID chief. That post, which took Shah to trouble spots of all kinds around the world from natural catastrophes to man-made disasters requiring humanitarian aid, is equal in protocol to the position of US ambassador to the United Nation, a cabinet-rank position. In Trump administrations org-chart rolled out so far, Nikki Haley, as the president-elects nominee as ambassador to the UN, is the senior-most Indian American in the administration. Raj Shah held that rank not position for almost six years. As head of Rockefeller Foundation, Raj Shah will have $200 million a year to spend on health, hunger and social justice, issues close to his heart, around the world. And he knows that world well, having seen it first hand as USAID administrator. Also read | Five Indian-Americans take oath as members of Congress After several days at sea the migrants spotted land, thinking it was Italy. Several drowned trying to swim ashore. But when the survivors reached dry land they found they were still in Libya. The treacherous and ultimately futile journey by 80, mostly Senegalese migrants, had begun in Sabratha in western Libya three days earlier, one survivor recounted. After setting off, the boat was buffeted by rough seas and eventually ran aground on a beach in Tripoli some 70 kilometres to the east. We thought we had already arrived in Italy, one of the survivors said. Witnesses said several people had jumped from the boat to try to reach the beach but were unable to swim and drowned. Illegal immigrants gather after their boat washed ashore in the Andalus district of Tripoli on Wednesday. (AFP photo) Those who made it to the shore alive included two women -- one pregnant -- and a child, and they were all in shock. The pregnant woman sat in tears on the beach next to what was believed to be the body of her brother. She was later hospitalised. The Libyan Red Crescent said it had recovered the bodies of five passengers from the beach on Wednesday and taken 80 people to shelters. People-smugglers have exploited the chaos in Libya since the 2011 uprising which overthrew dictator Moamer Kadhafi to traffic migrants in boats to Italy 300 kilometres away. According to the United Nations, more than 5,000 migrants and refugees died last year while trying to cross the Mediterranean. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 5 By Seba Aghayeva Trend: Armenia continues to grossly violate the requirements of international humanitarian law, in particular, the Geneva Convention, Hikmat Hajiyev, spokesman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, told Trend January 5. Hajiyev added that Armenia has not yet returned the body of Azerbaijani serviceman Chingiz Gurbanov, killed as a result of an Armenian provocation. A reconnaissance group of the Armenian Armed Forces tried to violate the Azerbaijan-Armenia state border on Dec. 29 morning. The Armenian group found itself in the ambush of the Azerbaijani army while violating the borders and suffered heavy losses. Chingiz Gurbanov, a serviceman of Azerbaijani Armed Forces, went missing during the fight. In this regard, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, together with other relevant structures of the country, has sent a corresponding appeal to international organizations, Hajiyev added. Armenia disregards the international organizations appeals to return the body of the Azerbaijani serviceman, and thus continues to demonstrate its inhuman nature, he added. This provocation has once again showed that the current political regime in Yerevan is a threat to security in the region, he said. The main objective of that regime is to prevent the peaceful settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Armenia stands behind the provocations on the Azerbaijan-Armenia border, Hajiyev said. He added that Armenia, by trying to involve the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in the incident, is posing a serious threat to regional peace and security and is causing serious damage to the peace efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group. Despite the appeals made by a number of judicious individuals in the Armenian social, political and diaspora circles, who stand for a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the military and political leadership in Yerevan is trying by any means to slow down the negotiation process, he added. The recent statements made by Armenian Foreign Ministry and other structures in the country testify that Armenia continues its aggressive policy in the region, he said. The essence of this policy is to continue the aggression against Azerbaijan and preserve the status quo. 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. US President-elect Donald Trump has appointed Indian-American Raj Shah, who played a leading role in the Republican partys anti-Clinton campaign during polls, to a key White House position. Shah, whose parents immigrated to the US from Gujarat, was appointed as deputy assistant to the President and deputy communication director and research director, as per an announcement made by the Presidential Transition Team on Wednesday. Shah, who is in his early 30s, is currently head of Opposition Research in the Republican National Committee. In this position, he led a team of experts to carry out research against Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential candidate. Shah was behind all the anti-Clinton campaign during the presidential elections. The announcement of Shahs appointment to this key White House position was made by incoming White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus along with other appointments. These individuals will be key leaders in helping to implement the President elects agenda and bring real change to Washington, Priebus said. A second generation Indian American, Shahs parents are from Mumbai having roots in Gujarat. His father came to the US for studies in 1970s, went back to India and after marriage, moved back to the US with his wife in late 70s. They lived in Chicago and then moved to Connecticut, where he was born and raised. After deriding and mocking the US intelligence community for weeks, president-elect Donald Trump on Thursday declared himself a big fan of it, as spy chiefs told lawmakers they were more confident than ever that Russia meddled in the presidential elections. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told the US Senates armed services committee that the intelligence community was more resolute now than it was when it first announced the Russian hacking of Democratic party networks in October. Clapper was also categorical WikiLeaks founder Julian Assanges remarks have absolutely no credibility and he is someone who put American lives at risk. Other intelligence official deposing before the committee concurred. Trump has been skeptical of the intelligence communitys assessment of Russias alleged hack, has asked for evidence of it and has mocked it for delaying a briefing to get its story straight. On Wednesday, he cited Assange to cast doubt on the intelligence assessment, saying the hackings could have been carried out by a 14-year-old as the Democrats were extremely careless. These comments have put him at odds not only with the intelligence community but also his own party, and many Republican leaders have openly called for him to stop siding with Putin and, to their consternation, Assange. In a thinly veiled reference to Trumps continuing disregard for the intelligence assessment, chairman of the armed services committee Senator John McCain said, Every American should be alarmed by Russias attacks on our nation. President Barack Obama made a similar pitch to Trump, without naming him, in a separate speech earlier. Announcing the US retaliatory measures against Russia, Obama had said, All Americans should be alarmed by Russia's actions. Trump remains leery of the intelligence assessment. But he did seem to pay attention to criticism over his allegedly siding with Assange, a man who has been called a high-tech terrorist by some Republicans, and has sought to distance himself. The dishonest media likes saying that I am in Agreement with Julian Assange - wrong. I simply state what he states, it is for the people to make up their own minds as to the truth., he wrote in a pair of tweets on Thursday just before the senate hearing. He added, The media lies to make it look like I am against Intelligence when in fact I am a big fan! His tweets dont show that, though. They have been found troubling thousands of miles away in China as well. An obsession with Twitter foreign policy is undesirable, ran a headline in a comment piece in Xinhua, the state news agency. Everyone recognizes the common sense that foreign policy isnt childs play, and even less is it like doing business deals, said the article, adding, Twitter shouldnt become an instrument of foreign policy. Initial findings suggest the Kurdish PKK militant group was behind a car bombing outside a courthouse in the western Turkish city of Izmir on Thursday which killed two people, provincial governor Erol Ayyildiz said. A clash erupted after our police officers wanted to stop a vehicle at a police check point in front of Bayrakli courthouse. In this clash, terrorists detonated the car bomb while trying to escape, Ayyildiz told reporters in comments broadcast live. A police officer and a courthouse employee were killed in the attack, he said. He also confirmed that police had shot dead two of the attackers, and said they were armed with Kalashnikov rifles and grenades. The editor of Charlie Hebdo believes the world has become less tolerant of the French satirical newspapers black humour but he staunchly defends the right to offend, two years after jihadist gunmen killed many of its staff. Charlie Hebdo marked the grim anniversary in typical style with a front-cover cartoon showing a laughing man staring down the barrel of a jihadists AK47 rifle with the caption: 2017, at last, the light at the end of the tunnel. On January 7, 2015, in an attack that tore the heart out of the paper, brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi forced their way into the low-key Paris office building where it was based and killed 11 people, including star cartoonists Cabu, Charb, Wolinski and Tignous. The slogan Je Suis Charlie was quickly picked up as an estimated one million people marched in a mass outpouring of solidarity in Paris, and it soon became a rallying cry for freedom of expression around the world. The newspaper had long been a target for Islamic extremists because it was one of a handful of European publications that printed cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. Riss, the man who took over from Stephane Charb Charbonnier as editor following the attack, now wonders how much support he would get if he repeated that controversial move now. We get the impression that people have become even more intolerant of Charlie, he told AFP. If we did a front cover showing a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed now, who would defend us? Republican guards stand outside the Hyper Cacher supermarket ahead of a ceremony marking the second anniversary of the deadly attack against the store in Paris on January 5, 2017. (AFP) More threats Riss, whose real name is Laurent Sourisseau, said the number of threats received by the staff was increasing. Before they told us to be careful of Islamists. Now we must look out for Islamists, Russians and Turks, he said. That was partly a reference to a protest from Russian President Vladimir Putin over a cartoon Charlie Hebdo published in December after dozens of members of a Red Army choir were killed in a plane crash. It showed a choir member in uniform singing the wailing sound AAAAA as the plane plunges, under the title: The Red Army choirs repertoire is expanding. The anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo murders was marked on Thursday -- two days early -- in low-key ceremonies in Paris led by the citys mayor Anne Hidalgo. The killings continued after the attack on the offices. One of the Kouachi brothers shot dead a policeman in cold blood as the officer lay injured on the pavement. As the Kouachis went on the run, another France-based jihadist, Amedy Coulibaly, took up the baton by first killing a policewoman and then taking hostage Jewish shoppers in a kosher supermarket. He killed four men before police stormed the building and shot him dead. District mayor Francois Vauglin, Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo, French interior minister Bruno Leroux and state secretary in charge of victims Juliette Meadel stand at attention at the place of the attacks of Charlie Hebdo to mark the second anniversary of the attack on Thursday. (AP) The Kouachi brothers, who carried out the attack in the name of Al-Qaedas branch in Yemen, were themselves killed in a shootout with police after a siege northeast of Paris. The man said to have inspired the Charlie Hebdo killers, Farid Benyettou, this week published a book about what he says is his move away from extremism, called: My jihad, the journey of a reformed character. For the first time, he admitted in interviews that he was partly to blame for the bloodshed. I share part of the responsibility, I cant deny it, the 35-year-old said in an interview with Le Parisien newspaper on Thursday. Amid the soul-searching in the aftermath of the attack, Charlie Hebdo made millions from the sales of special editions and used some of the proceeds to launch a German-language edition last year. US Gulf allies are looking at Donald Trump to tilt Washington in their favour, analysts say, but fear a dangerous void if the incoming president goes so far as to tear up the Iran nuclear deal. Still fuming after the nuclear agreement was brokered over their objections, Saudi Arabia and its fellow Sunni Arab states in the Gulf hope Trump will rebalance ties at the expense of their regional rival Tehran. Washingtons traditional allies in the Middle East are concerned, however, over the potential uncertainty of a radical move to go back on the deal with Iran. Eight years of (President Barack) Obamas administration destroyed the balance of power in the region completely, says Mustafa Alani, a senior adviser to the Gulf research centre. Gulf states hope now that under Trump the regional balance of power is going to be restored after Obama just ignored Irans expansionist policy in the Middle East, Alani says. The oil-rich Gulf states have been highly critical of the nuclear deal, fearing it would lead to more regional interference by Tehran. The Sunni Gulf monarchies oppose predominantly Shiite Iran in a range of conflict-ridden countries across the Middle East, from Syria and Iraq to Yemen and Lebanon. Trump has also opposed the agreement, which lifted sanctions in exchange for curbs on Tehrans nuclear programme. He called it the worst deal ever negotiated. Huge new uncertainty The deal is a centrepiece of President Hassan Rouhanis expected re-election bid in May, and experts say Tehran is unlikely to be willing to make any concessions to Trump. If the Trump administration takes a strong stand and the Iranians refuse, the agreement collapses and there is no replacement, Alani says. Given the potential for uncertainty, many experts expect the deal to survive, despite Trumps rhetoric. I believe all the Gulf states will counsel Trump to maintain the agreement rather than introduce a huge new uncertainty into the region, says Richard LeBaron, an analyst associated with the Atlantic Council in Washington. Trump may choose to live with the Iran accord and focus on other aspects of the Iranian threat like its missile build-up, says Anthony Cordesman, of the center for strategic and international studies in Washington. Analysts say Trump is likely to rebalance relations in other ways, however. Cordesman noted that three figures known for their distrust of Tehran figure prominently in Trumps team. They are retired lieutenant general Michael Flynn, national security adviser; retired Marine general James Mattis, nominated as defence secretary; and former ExxonMobil chief executive Rex Tillerson, Trumps choice for secretary of state. All three see Iran as a serious potential threat, recognise the strategic importance of Iraq, and the role Arab states play in deterring Iran, Cordesman says. Strained Obama ties Ties with Obama became especially strained when he suggested in a magazine interview last year that the Saudis needed to share the Middle East with Iran. His criticism of the kingdom for exporting its fundamentalist Wahhabist version of Islam also struck at the heart of the ruling familys legitimacy. Saudi Arabia is regularly accused in the West of financing radical mosques and of fuelling extremism, even though the kingdom is part of a US-led coalition against the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq. Such concerns could impede Gulf ties with the new administration, which has faced accusations of Islamophobia over comments made by incoming officials including Trump. During the campaign he proposed a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States. There is a lack of understanding in the Trump team of the Gulfs effort against radical Islam, Alani says, noting that Gulf states have themselves suffered attacks. For LeBaron, the targeting of Muslims as the source of the security problem will inevitably darken Saudi-American relations. Another stumbling block may come in the form of energy policy, a crucial question for the Gulf and Saudi Arabia, the worlds largest oil exporter. Trump will certainly be very favourable to the development of shale oil and gas in the United States, says Jean-Francois Seznec of the Atlantic Councils Global Energy Center, putting Washington in potential conflict with Gulf producers. US intelligence agencies obtained what they considered to be conclusive evidence after the November election that Russia provided hacked material from the Democratic National Committee to WikiLeaks through a third party, three US officials said on Wednesday. US officials had concluded months earlier that Russian intelligence agencies had directed the hacking, but had been less certain that they could prove Russia also had controlled the release of information damaging to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The timing of the additional intelligence is important because US President Barack Obama has faced criticism from his own party over why it took his administration months to respond to the cyber attack. US Senate and House leaders, including prominent Republicans, have also called for an inquiry. At the same time, President-elect Donald Trump has questioned the US intelligence communitys conclusion that Russia tried to help his candidacy and hurt Clintons. Russia has denied the hacking allegations. A US intelligence report on the hacking was scheduled to be presented to Obama on Thursday and to Trump on Friday, though its contents were still under discussion on Wednesday, officials said. They said the post-election intelligence gave the Obama administration greater certainty about the full role of the Russian government in the hacking and leaks of documents than it had on October 7, when the US intelligence agencies had said they were confident Russia orchestrated the hacking. The additional intelligence also informed US President Barack Obamas decision to retaliate on Dec. 29 by expelling 35 suspected Russian spies and sanctioning two Russian spy agencies, four intelligence officers and three companies, a decision that capped four months of debate at the White House about how to respond, the officials said. The officials declined to describe the intelligence obtained about the involvement of a third-party in passing on leaked material to WikiLeaks, saying they did not want to reveal how the US government had obtained the information. In an interview with Fox News, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said he did not receive emails stolen from the DNC and top Hillary Clinton aide John Podesta from a state party. Assange did not rule out the possibility that he got the material from a third party. Trump on Wednesday sided with Assange and again questioned the US intelligence communitys conclusion that Russia tried to help his candidacy and hurt Clintons. Concern by US officials over the hacking first spiked in August, when intelligence agencies concluded that Russian intelligence, with the direction of President Vladimir Putin, had been trying to disrupt and discredit the presidential and congressional elections. Obama in August rejected recommendations from some of his advisors to disclose the Russian link and take some limited covert action as a shot across Putins bow to knock it off, one official with knowledge of the matter said. Instead, Obama warned Putin privately, arguing that a similar private message to Chinese President Xi Jinping had reduced Chinese hacking into US agencies and companies. In October, Obama again declined to take action, arguing such a move could be seen as an effort to help Clinton and discredit Republican Trump, one that could stain a Clinton presidency, one official said. Obama took public action on the issue only after Trump was elected and began disparaging the intelligence communitys reporting on the Russian hacking, another official said. Jeanette Rankin On November 6, 1916, lifelong feminist and pacifist Jeanette Rankin of Montana became the first woman to be elected to the U.S. Congress. As legislative secretary of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, Rankin helped the women of Montana win the vote in 1914, six years before all American women won the vote. Rankin was elected as a delegate-at-large to the U.S. House of Representatives. During her first term in Washington (1917-1919), Rankin strongly supported isolationismshe was one of 49 members of Congress to vote against war with Germany in 1917. Rankin served another term in the House of Representatives from 1941 to 1943, where she created a furor as the only legislator to vote against declaring war on Japan after the Pearl Harbor raid. This unpopular stand ended her political career, but Rankin remained politically active, even leading a 1968 march to protest American involvement in Vietnam. Jeanette Rankin died in 1973. More than 100 Muslim rebels attacked a jail in Philippines on Wednesday making it the biggest jailbreak in the country. Officials have stated that 158 inmates have escaped due to the incident that took place in Kidapawan the southern part of the country. According to NBC News, six people were reported to be shot dead when the unpleasant incident led to an open gunfire. Out of those six people a guard was killed and other inmates were also found wounded. Dozens of gunmen ambushed the North Cotabato District Jail in Kidapawan city, which is located around 580 miles southeast from the capital. The Cotabato Province have witnessed a massive jailbreak for the first time, out of the six people who were killed in the shootout five are said to be escapees. The police have managed to capture another eight inmates who were on the run and returned them to the facility. Senior inspector Xavier Solda said that gunmen came through the forest heavily armed and attacked the prison under the cover of darkness reported Fox News. The acting Provincial Jail Warden Supt. Peter John Bongngat Jr. said there were about 20 prison guards on duty at that moment, out of which one guard was killed. The gunfire continued for hours after the attack while the army troops along with the police in armored tanks hunted through the forests for the rebels and the escaped prisoners. The jail had more than 1500 prisoners, including criminals who were facing murder charges. This has been the third attack since 2007; the attackers are suspected members of outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters. These are people who broke away from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. The Philippines police are taking further steps to capture the escaped inmates and the attackers. The suspected Muslim rebels who attacked the jail fled into the forest and escaped. @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 5 By Azad Hasanli Trend: PASHA Yatirim Bankasi A.S. (subsidiary of Azerbaijans PASHA Bank in Turkey) plans to issue bonds in the amount of 150 million Turkish lira ($42.1 million) in 2017, Turkish media reported citing the banks General Manager Cenk Eynehan. PASHA Yatirim Bankasi already made a debut bond issue in the amount of 37.5 million Turkish lira ($10.52 million) in 2016. The period of bond circulation is 90 days until January 24, 2017 and the interest rate - 11.25 percent per annum. As for the loan issuance, Eynehan added that PASHA Yatirim Bankasi intends to increase its loan portfolio by 25 percent in 2017 compared to 2016. As of the end of the third quarter of 2016, net profit of the bank amounted almost 10 million Turkish lira ($2.81 million), which is 60 percent more than in the same period of 2015. The bank's loan portfolio amounted to 370.8 million Turkish lira, or $104.05 million (50.9 percent growth for the year), while total assets reached 436.8 million Turkish lira or $122.57 million (35.5 percent growth). The banks capital exceeded 240 million Turkish lira, or $67.35 million (4.4 percent growth). Turkey's Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BRSA) approved PASHA Bank's purchasing 79.9 percent shares in TAIB Bank, which was renamed to PASHA Yatirim Bankasi, on December 29, 2014. Later, PASHA Bank increased its stake to 99.9 percent. The remaining part belongs to other shareholders. Pasha Bank is a leading corporate bank in Azerbaijan. The bank, founded in 2007, renders a range of corporate banking services, including issuance of loans, operations in the securities market, asset management, and treasury services. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 5 By Maksim Tsurkov Trend: Frances Technip S.A. plans to complete work on design engineering as part of the construction of oil and gas processing and petrochemical complex (GPC) in Azerbaijan in the 2H2017, Technip said in a message posted on its website. The message said that Technip has been awarded by SOCAR GPC a service contract for the ethylene and cryomax technology licenses respectively for a petrochemical complex and for the NGL [Natural Gas Liquids] recovery section of a gas processing plant, which is part of a new gas and petrochemical complex, located in Garadagh, Azerbaijan. Technip has also been awarded a contract for the development of the process and engineering design of all the process units included in the gas and petrochemical plant, as well as the design of the related utilities and off-sites, according to the message. The scope of work covers the engineering design of: a new gas processing plant with capacity of 10 billion cubic meters per year single train highly integrated; a new petrochemical plant including a steam cracker with a capacity of 610,000 tons of ethylene and 120,000 tons of propylene per year. Technips operating center in Rome, Italy, will execute this contract, scheduled to be completed during the second half of 2017. We are proud of this award which reinforces the leading role of Technip in the Oil and Gas market as licensor and as engineering contractor in particular in the gas and petrochemical sector. This achievement consolidates also our long term relationship with a key client like SOCAR and at the same time reinforces our presence in Azerbaijan, considered a strategic market for Technip, said Marco Villa, president of Technip Region EMIA [Europe, Russia, Middle East, India, Africa and Latin America for Onshore-Offshore segment]. The GPC project envisages construction of gas processing and petrochemical plants 15 km away from Baku by the Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR. The cost of the project is around $4 billion. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @MaksimTsurkov W ith no English translation, Hygge (pronounced hue-gah) describes a warm, cosy and comfortable atmosphere. Norwegian chef Signe Johansen has partnered with Sainsbury's to encourage Brits to embrace the atmosphere in their kitchens. So, how can the Nordic state of mind transform a British kitchen? Hygge can fit into an everyday cooking routine. Cooking is, by its nature, a hyggelig thing to do, so you dont have to follow any rules to bring hygge into your cooking. But, if you're thinking of adapting a Nordic approach to cooking, I'd recommend keeping things simple. Spend a little time and effort stocking up on good ingredients such as bread, cured or smoked seafood and salty snacks to keep you going while you're cooking. I devote a section in my book How to Hygge on the kind of foods I keep in my kitchen to stave off those moments of feeling "hangry" - the rage which descends when you're tired and hungry! Venison meatballs with wild mushroom and chocolate sauce, with Sainsburys beetroot and potato Horseradish Mash is the perfect dish for a hygge-inspired dinner What are your top tips for creating Hygge in the kitchen? Make sure there are tidy surfaces, a well-stocked larder and fridge and a couple of succulent plants and herbs as uplifting greenery. A kitchen should feel like a space you'd like to spend time in. Why do you think the Brits should embrace Nordic living? We share a love of nature and the outdoors, a fondness for a drink or two, and we do quite like our knitwear, but in the Nordic region the work-life balance is a lot healthier. Working long hours for no reason is regarded as a sign of inefficiency, so the approach is to work very diligently in the hours you need to and that way make sure you have more more time for fun things. Do you have a favourite ingredient in Nordic cooking? It would have to be some form of seafood. We love our fish, crabs, mussels and seafood chowders. You feel great eating seafood and it's delicious, so what more could you want? What do you make for yourself for a simple evening meal? And what do you make if youre throwing a dinner party? A simple evening meal could be anything from eggs on buttered toast with spinach, or an easy pasta. Sometimes, I'll throw a whole load of seasonal vegetables in a pan and roast them, to be served with rice and beans or couscous. Each month I do a big batch of something, whether it's bolognese or a stew, that can be frozen into portions. Informal get-togethers with friends and family tend to be more of a Scandi smrgasbord in our household. I'll prepare a variety of dishes such as Nordic kale and Orkney crab salad, alongside a platter of gravlax and a range of breads, pickles and perhaps a warm dish. Is there a kitchen utensil or gadget you cant live without? One good, sharp chef's knife can do a multitude of things. You don't need to spend lots of money, but try a couple of different knives at a speciality store to get the feel of it. London is full of different cuisines but what is your favourite restaurant in the capital? Other than Nordic food, I adore Japanese food (actually I adore all cuisines, I'm a naturally greedy gal!) so I'd have to say Koya Bar on Frith Street in Soho. It's run by the phenomenal Shuko Oda and the food is always so full of flavour and nourishing. If you haven't tried their breakfast then give it a go! Visit expo > BMP Whole Blood Analyzer: GEM Premier ChemSTAT Platinum Supplier Respiratory Virus 12 Types Nucleic Acid Detection Kit Respiratory Virus Multiplex Test New Silver Supplier Diamond RealSeal Jerricans Plastic Jerricans New MICRONAUT6 Software Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing Software A new study mined a number of large routinely collected hospital data sets in an attempt to reveal relationships between nurse staffing and patient outcome variables, such as safety factors.Researchers at Birmingham City University (United Kingdom) and London South Bank University (LSBU) conducted a study to determine if relationships between registered and non-registered nurse staffing levels and clinical outcomes could be discovered through the mining of routinely collected clinical data. The secondary aim of the study was to develop the use of big data techniques, commonly used in industry, to this area of healthcare.The researchers collected data from the United Kingdom National Health Service (NHS, London), which included physiological signs and symptom data from the clinical database, that were then extracted, imported, and mined alongside a bespoke staffing and outcomes database. The physiological data consisted of 120 million patient entries over six years, while the bespoke database consisted of nine years of daily data on staffing levels and safety factors.The results revealed 40 correlations between safety, physiological, and staffing factors, including several inter-related elements that demonstrated a correlation between nurse availability and outcomes. The researchers also used the large volumes of data to analyze possible scenarios. One example scenario suggested that replacing six healthcare support workers with six registered nurses on wards with highest incidences of falls could decrease the monthly total number of falls by 15%. The study was published on December 16, 2016, in BMJ Open.This was a very exciting project to work on, as it's a different way of thinking about the contribution nurses make to patient safety, said Professor Alison Leary, RN, PhD, of the LSB School of Health and Social Care. We were very surprised that so many signals emerged from the data, and it is useful that we were able to feed the new knowledge back to the Trust, who then used it in many different ways to look at patient safety.Previous studies examining the relationship between nursing numbers and outcomes highlighted the non-linear relationships between staffing and length of stay. While data are increasingly collected, they are rarely mined within the context of nursing to explore variables associated with the complex work of specialist nurses. The researchers anticipate that such approaches could develop nursing knowledge through the identification of patterns and important links between data, nursing interventions, and patient outcomes. A rising degree of importance is being, nowadays, ascribed to experience creation and management. Starwood Hotels and Resorts, mirroring this new economic value, outline the materialization of this need in their brand through the Concierge's role. The Concierge is the official storyteller of the hotel and is defined by the brand standards as the Catalyst, the Curator, the Guide. Starwood Hotels and Resorts devote significant attention to their Signature Concierge program; the "gold thread" of the brand as it is eloquently called, enacting the performative authentication, uniqueness and locality that the brand identity reflects. The Concierge corresponds to "a perceived need to maximize feelings of place association and belonging among users" (De Nisco and Warnaby 2012). In doing so, the Concierge carries the paramount promise to choreograph the guest's local experience, an experience tailored to his very own profile, implicit and explicit needs. He is the key driver of the hotel in enabling collectable, exceptional indigenous experiences with deep personal meanings and associations as well as memorability. Such a significant example in the hospitality storytelling marketplace is the unique dramaturgy that Massimo Parlanti, scripted for an American couple. Massimo Parlanti is President "LeChiavi D'Oro" Toscana from 2013 and the Head Concierge of the St. Regis Florence and The Westin Excelsior Florence in Italy; a man always on brand, impeccably performing Starwood's brand promise of personally dedicated and interest-driven exclusive experiences for every unique guest. "Immediately upon arriving in Venice, Italy, a friend asked a hotel concierge where he and his wife could go to enjoy the city's best. Without hesitation they were directed to the Cafe Florian in St. Mark's Square. The two of them were soon at the cafe in the crisp morning air, sipping cups of steaming coffee, fully immersed in the sights and sounds of the most remarkable of Old World cities. More than an hour later, our friend received the bill and discovered the experience had cost more than $15 a cup. Was the coffee worth it, we asked? "Assolutamente!" he replied" (Pine and Gilmore 1999, p.2). These are the first words of Pine and Gilmore's benchmark study on the experience economy. In the vicinity of Venice, in the Tuscan artful city of Florence, Massimo not only would suggest a differentiating extraordinary experience but he would shape a personally dedicated plot. Westin Excelsior in Florence hosted a very particular couple of Americans. The couple was engaged and the man intended to make a wedding proposal to her fiance in the diffused eroticism and romanticism aura of the historic Italian city. Massimo suggested to the man all the extraordinary places and events that he could organize for his guest, but the man wanted something really special. Massimo asked him if his fiance had any special hobby or passion and the man answered "Yes, she loves poetry". After some really intense creative moments of storytelling, this is the experience that Massimo staged for his guests: Massimo searched the whole Tuscany region to find an actor that spoke masterfully the English language so as to recite to the man's fiance her favourite poem. It was a tough search. After offering a great salary, a Milanese renowned actor accepted to come in Tuscany and meet the couple in Ponte Vecchio Bridge. It was 18.30 and the couple was strolling around the historical that landmark. The actor had seen in photographs the couple so as to recognize them. And then the actor detected them. He took the fiance's hand and told her: "Please let me recite for you your favourite poem". He did so and then in the middle of the landmark bridge and among hundreds of tourists, the man knelt and asked her in marriage. The fiance at the time when the actor called her with her name and recited her beloved poem was so surprised. Massimo was there, on the bridge, acting like a tourist who took photographs of that special corner of Florence, so as to be sure that everything would go well. Among the photographs that Massimo took, he managed to capture the reactions of the fiance when she got surprised by the actor and also the whole wedding proposal scene. These photos were put in an album and it was Massimo's wedding present for his guests' marriage. What Massimo did was to use experiences as a privileged marketing tool to create added value for the guests and create an indelible storyable, extraordinary memory. It's high time we created our own experiential stories! There is a scene in the movie Brazil, a Terry Gilliam film, in which one of the characters gets killed by an overabundance of paperwork. Papers begin sticking to him, ultimately covering him from head to toe, and eventually taking his life. While this is a very extreme example of how paperwork can begin to take over one's work life, in some industries, paperwork has indeed become a repressive and costly issue. The multi-billion dollar tours and activities industry has technologically lagged behind other travel related sectors and is one of the industries suffering from a repressive paperwork problem. The airline and hospitality industries have both largely eliminated the requirement for paper tickets, paper confirmations, etc. Hotels are moving towards enabling guests to use smart devices to bypass the front desk, and airlines offer mobile electronic boarding passes. Indeed, in those industries, the only time a traveler actually requires any sort of paper is when they choose to print something out. Unfortunately, even with all the new emerging travel technologies, tours and activities suppliers are still dealing with a massive amount of paper, starting from when the guest uses paper to gain entry to the attraction right up until reconciliation requirements. According to a research report by travel research firm Phocuswright titled "The In-Destination Experience: Shopping, Dining, Activities & Tours", the in-person method for booking destination activities is still the most popular at nearly 40%, followed by calling directly, using online travel agencies like Expedia, and other non-mobile interactions (see figures in chart). All of these various booking scenarios lead to a surprising amount of required paper transactions (in the form of receipts, confirmations, vouchers, etc.) in order to experience the tour or activity. Often, the paper delivered the traveler via an online travel agency needs a secondary piece of paper to be verified, and then yet another piece of paper is printed prior to the guest participating in the attraction. This is simply annoying to the traveler and is much like the way things were done in the 90's not 2016. In the same report, Phocuswright states that there are specific reasons why travelers do not tend to book attractions online. The primary reason noted is that tours and activities suppliers are not merchandising their products as well as hotels and other travel brands. They have poor activity presentations online, no option for mobile ticketing, and searching for attractions on the internet can be extremely confusing. Often, suppliers offer no real advantages to booking online. Unlike more mature travel segments, there is also a lack of system integration. Only a small percentage of suppliers have electronic connectivity enabling their resale partners to sell their tickets electronically, meaning most transactions require a paper-based manual redemption process. More wide-scale use of electronic connectivity would decrease paperwork dramatically. Paper needs to go The excessive use of paper in tours and activities negatively affects all aspects of the business, providing friction at every touch point. It affects the guest purchasing the tour or activity, and it has use-cost ramifications for the supplier due to the need for reconciliation of vouchers as well as converting reseller paper to their own POS platform. The most inconvenient issue is the fact that travelers still require a piece of paper to enter most attractions. Firstly, they must print the voucher. Secondly, they need to make sure that they do not lose it. If they are already in destination and they require the voucher to be printed, they need to seek out a business center to print it. Finally, when at the attraction, they have to wait in long lines so that operators can validate their paper vouchers. During the entry process, the traveler needs to have their paper voucher scanned, then issued a ticket from the operators' ticketing system. The admissions staff usually does this. Unfortunately, these staff members are often overworked, having to recognize paper vouchers from hundreds of different resale partners in varying formats. This effort can equate to significant errors that will cost the attraction's owner and impact the bottom line. Having staff manually count, verify for accuracy, and reconcile paper vouchers every day, many times a day is highly inefficient. In some cases, they must reconcile all paper with two separate systems (their ticketing/POS system AND their accounting system). They also need to manually invoice some resellers, while for others they need to manually review payment invoices for correctness. There is significant inconsistency in how things are handled from reseller to reseller, and it is almost always wasteful, inaccurate, and a lot of work. Redeam research shows that some tours and activities providers will spend up to $5 USD to reconcile each voucher due to paper handling costs and staff time. To have a tourism business so focused on the use of paper restricts its capability to grow and meet the demands of today's tech-savvy travelers. Channel sales people who are overworked begin to feel as if they can no longer deal with more resellers because the paperwork overload is too burdensome already. This lack of new prospect sales generation can be not only a moral killer - but also has an extremely adverse effect on the activity provider who is constantly rejecting new and possibly more innovative resellers. There is no question the industry must find a way to eliminate paper from its landscape to stay competitive. The capability to accept mobile tickets, as well as the conversion of paper vouchers to a technological ticket redemption platform, is paramount for the tours and activities industry to thrive. The challenges that face this industry are not that different from the trials that travel sectors have had to deal with in the past, and have since begun to successfully overcome. It is finally possible, through the implementation of new technologies like Redeam, that we can - and will - make paper a thing of the past. About Redeam Redeam is based in Boulder, Colorado and has developed a platform that enables attractions to accept paper vouchers and mobile tickets from any reseller using Redeam's low cost, tablet based validation platform. Redeam also delivers a single, unified view of all tickets & vouchers accepted, giving an unprecedented view of daily, monthly and annual performance. Automatic reconciliation means less time spent counting paper and less administrative overhead. Redeam also enables resellers of attraction tickets to offer true mobile electronic ticketing to travelers on their mobile device using a single API. For more information, please contact us at www.redeam.com Redeam (formerly Actourex) is based in Boulder, Colorado and has developed a platform that enables attractions to accept paper vouchers and mobile tickets from any reseller using Redeam"s low cost, tablet based validation platform. Redeam also delivers a single, unified view of all tickets & vouchers accepted, giving an unprecedented view of daily, monthly and annual performance. Automatic reconciliation means less time spent counting paper and less administrative overhead. Redeam also enables resellers of attraction tickets to offer true mobile electronic ticketing to travelers on their mobile device using a single API. For more information, please contact us at www.redeam.com It looks like you've reached a page that doesnt exist (anymore). Please use the navigation or search above to find content on Hospitality Net. Go back to home Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 5 By Maksim Tsurkov Trend: Azerbaijans state oil company SOCAR exported 1.22 million tons of oil via the Baku-Novorossiysk oil pipeline in 2016 as compared to 1.27 million tons in 2015, SOCAR said in a message posted on its website Jan. 5. The company exported 79,850 tons of oil from the Russian port of Novorossiysk in December 2016. SOCAR exports the oil produced at its own fields, as well as the oil from joint ventures and operation companies working at Azerbaijans onshore fields, through Russias Novorossiysk port. Oil is delivered to the port via the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline operated by SOCAR. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @MaksimTsurkov Migos Bad and Boujee just became the trios first single to reach the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100, soaring all the way to number 2 this week. Like clockwork, the release date for their sophomore album C U L T U R E arrived just as the news was breaking. While the trio could easily ride the hype of their single which is rocking crowds from here to Nigeria until the album drops later this month, theyre getting ready to share another new track called T S H I R T later this week. According to an Instagram post from the group, the single will be accompanied by a video, and will be released this Friday January 6th. Check out the post, and possibly a screencap from the visual, below. Watch the trios video for Call Casting here. Migos The Foo Fighters' short-lived hiatus appears to be over as the band prepare for a number of live dates across Europe this year and now have plans to record a new album. The news came as Foo Fighters announced their first North American show of 2017, headlining BottleRock Napa Valley Festival in California this summer. Dave Graham, CEO of Latitude 38, the company that puts on BottleRock, let slip to local newspaper Napa Valley Register that BottleRock might be the only America show that the band play all year as they are currently working on a new album. "The Foo Fighters are in the studio all next year recording a new album and BottleRock may be their only show in 2017 in North America," he said. Foo Fighters are scheduled to play several dates in Europe this summer, stopping off to headline Open'er Festival in Poland in June and NOS Alive in Portugal. The Foo Fighters last released an album in 2014 with their record Sonic Highways. Advertisement Listen to Sonic Highways single 'Something From Nothing' here: This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate An expected thaw of U.S.-Russian relations under President-elect Donald Trump could open the country to more foreign investment, increased oil and gas exploration and exports of U.S. drilling technology and services, a former oil minister under Russian president Vladimir Putin said in an interview. Igor Yusufov, who served as energy minister from 2001 to 2004 and chairman of the largely state-owned oil and gas company Rosneft, said he was hopeful that two Texans, Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson, Trump's nominee for secretary of state, and former Gov. Rick Perry, the nominee for energy secretary, would be sensitive to oil and gas interests and help remove obstacles to the exploration of western Siberia, where the size of oil reserves are largely unknown but could have massive potential. Western sanctions, in the wake of Russia's annexation of Crimea and incursions into Ukraine, have blocked advanced drilling technologies and other support for Russia's oil industry. Yusufov, who is now the head of an investment company, Fund Energy, said he met Tillerson in 2002, when Yusufov was chairman of Rosneft, which partnered with Exxon to develop on and offshore oil and gas reserves for the far eastern Siberian island of Sakhalin. That deal became the foundation of Exxon's relationship with Russia, one that foreign policy specialists say could benefit Tillerson as secretary of state. More Information Igor Yusufov Age: 60 Nationality: Russian Minister of Energy for Russian Federation: 2001-2004 Chairman, Rosneft: 2002-2004 Director, Gazprom: 2003-2013 Founder, CEO, Fund Energy: 2011-present See More Collapse Yusufov called Tillerson "the best choice for our Russian-American relations." "He has got a great quality, which can allow him to normalize the relationships between the U.S. and Russia," Yusufov said in a telephone interview from Moscow. "He has got an enormous credit of trust from Putin." Yusufov also cheered Perry's selection by Trump as energy secretary. He said he met Perry at an energy summit in Houston in 2002 and was impressed by his knowledge of the oil and gas industry. "He could be very useful to the American companies that want to participate in other markets and in other countries," Yusufov said. "It's important to have a person like that in the American government." A spokesman for Perry could not immediately be reached for comment. Ideally, Yusufov said, the Trump administration would lift sanctions and open Siberia's potentially vast oil and gas reserves to American companies and technology, including the combination of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling, which spurred the North American shale oil boom. The sanctions have also kept energy services companies such as Halliburton of Houston, and Schlumberger, an international company with a large presence in Houston, from working in some areas of Russia. Foreign policy and energy specialists caution that Yusufov might underestimate the complexity of an American political system that is unlikely to quickly retreat from sanctions or make major shifts in foreign policy. To start, Perry, as energy secretary, would focus primarily on domestic issues and is unlikely to have much influence on international policies, specialists said. In addition, many American politicians do not see Tillerson's relationship with Russia as an asset - next week, he will start confirmation hearings, which will give Congress a chance to question his connections to a Russian government suspected of hacking into computer systems to try to influence the U.S. presidential election. Nonetheless, the relationship between the American and Russian top leaders could dramatically change, said Brenda Shaffer, a professor at Georgetown University's Center of Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies. In a departure from the Obama administration's stance, Trump has said he admires Putin. Shaffer described Obama's approach to Russia as one that became more confrontational as the administration condemned Russian moves, such as the invasion of the Crimea and support for pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine. Tillerson, she said, could bring a more business-like approach to foreign policy - one that does not so much condemn as it tries to find areas of common interest when conflicts arise. While a new approach to Russia seems inevitable, friendliness toward Russian leaders should not be confused with leniency toward Russian actions, Shaffer said. Instead, she hopes that Tillerson's familiarity with Russia will help him prevent Russia from invading nearby countries or meddling in foreign elections. "There is going to be a much more engaged foreign policy toward Russia. That doesn't mean Russia can do whatever it wants," she said. "We have more leverage." But Yusufov still sees Tillerson as a man who understands Russia and has earned Russian respect the hard way. In the early 2000s, when Exxon was ready to start producing from the Sakhalin project, the company had an agreement with the Russian government that would allow it to export natural gas. But Gazprom, the Russian oil and gas giant, blocked the exports under a Russian law that gives it a monopoly on natural gas exports. Exxon responded by decreasing its investment in the project, but continued to participate, said Ed Chow, a senior fellow with the Energy and National Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washingon think tank. Tillerson sits on the organization's board of directors. By not withdrawing from the project, Exxon won the respect of the Russian officials, Chow said. "A lot of the response (to Tillerson) that the Russian government has, as well as specifically people with Rosneft, comes from the fact that Exxon was good for its word," Chow said. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate WASHINGTON - Rex Tillerson, President-elect Donald Trump's pick for secretary of state, attempted to deflate concerns around his activities abroad as CEO of Exxon Mobil during a series of meetings with congressional leaders Wednesday. Over a more than 35-year career at the Irving-based oil giant, Tillerson has established relationships with world leaders in Russia and the Middle East, at times criticizing U.S. foreign policy and questioning the rationale, including the decision to impose sanctions against Russia over its annexation of Crimea, a former province of Ukraine, and support for pro-Russian separatists fighting against the Ukraine government. Leaders from both parties are eager to hear whether Tillerson still holds those positions now that he is slated to become the nation's top diplomat, ahead of an expected confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee next week. Following a more than hour-long meeting with Tillerson Wednesday, Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., the ranking Democrat of the Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters the two had a "very candid" discussion that touched on subjects including Russia and climate change. "Obviously he did business with Russia and was able to get things done there," Cardin said. "That's going to get a great deal of attention during the confirmation process. Russia is not a friend of the United States." In a much anticipated meeting, Tillerson was also expected to sit down Wednesday with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. Along with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., McCain has raised questions around Tillerson's relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom McCain has described as a "thug." Asked Wednesday whether he could support Tillerson's nomination, McCain told reporters, "Sure. There's also a realistic scenario that pigs fly." An aide to McCain said later McCain was joking and had not yet made a decision on how he would vote. Tillerson did not take questions as he moved around the Capital building in Washington on Wednesday, escorted by security personnel provided by the U.S. Department of State. Support from Corker Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., once a contender for secretary of state himself, has worked to persuade Senate Democrats of Tillerson's credentials. "People understand he's a distinguished individual. He really is," Corker told Politico on Tuesday. "If people can get comfortable with where he is, he could in fact have an overwhelming vote." While most observers see it as a long shot, even a small amount of Republican opposition could conceivably scuttle Tillerson's nomination. Republicans only have a 52 -48 advantage in the Senate. Were Democrats to unify against the nomination, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would need near unanimity from Republicans to get Tillerson approved. Beyond Russia, Tillerson's decision five years ago to cut a deal for oil rights with the Kurdish regional government in Iraq defied U.S policy at the time and angered the Iraqi government. Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., a member of the Foreign Relations committee, who also met with Tillerson on Wednesday, said he had not yet decided on whether to support his nomination. Coons has criticized Trump's statements questioning reports from U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia attempted to undermine the presidential election through hacking the computer systems of the Democratic National Committee and other political committees. "We all have to recognize a secretary of state is principally charged with carrying out the vision and priorities of the administration," Coons said. "But one area where I was somewhat encouraged is (Tillerson's) clarity that he views part of his role as stepping up and speaking to those values, helping to shape policy." Climate change talks Another issue likely to play a prominent role in the confirmation hearings, for which no date has yet been set, is climate change. As CEO of Exxon, Tillerson led the company away from its long-standing skepticism of climate science and opposition to regulation designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Exxon came out in support of the 2015 Paris climate agreement and has called for a so-called carbon tax as a way to provide incentives to select cleaner burning fuels and lower carbon dioxide emissions. On Wednesday Cardin struck an optimistic note that Tillerson could work with Democrats on climate change. "He stressed to me his background in science and he is a believer in science," Cardin said. "We had a long conversation on what we need to do in countries where extreme poverty has denied many people access to energy." Questions around Tillerson's finances continue to circulate. Senate Democrats have asked Tillerson to turn over his last three years of tax returns. In a questionnaire submitted to the Senate committee, Tillerson indicated he would comply with the request, but as of Wednesday afternoon, staff had not received the returns, a senior aide on the committee said. Cardin and Corker remain at odds over the need to review the tax returns. Cardin will continue to push for the returns' release, the aide said. Tillerson is already moving ahead in trying to clear up concern around his considerable wealth. Exxon Mobil announced Tillerson would sever ties with Exxon and cash out about $240 million in Exxon stock from his retirement package and other holdings, placing the proceeds in an independently managed trust to comply with conflict of interest regulations. On Wednesday afternoon, Tillerson also met with McConnell and was expected to meet with more members of Congress on Thursday. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 2 1 of 2 Jon Shapley/Staff Show More Show Less 2 of 2 Jon Shapley/Staff Show More Show Less Who: Chris Poldoian, general manager and wine director for Camerata at Paulie's Background: Having grown up in St. Louis in a family where "wine was always on the table," Poldoian's first trip to Europe with his parents included a stop in the Burgundy capital of Beaune. He went on to write a food column for the campus paper and a cooking blog while attending Tufts University in Boston. During a year spent studying in Madrid, where he found the wine "to be cheaper than water," his passion for sherry for sparked. After landing a job with the parent company of the restaurant chain Houston's, he moved to San Francisco, then Dallas, before taking charge of two Houston's restaurants in Bayou City. Poldoian discovered Camerata as a customer, became friends with his predecessor David Keck and, once Keck departed, slipped into the GM role. Eleven presidents of the University of Texas System, including financially ailing MD Anderson Cancer Center, received annual performance bonuses this week totaling more than $1 million. MD Anderson President Dr. Ron DePinho got the largest bonus, $208,000. He was followed by UT Southwestern Medical Center President Daniel K. Podolsky, who received 186,503, and UTMB-Galveston President Dr. David Callender, who got $146,938. UT-Austin President Greg Fenves turned down a $150,000 bonus. DePinho, whose cancer center is considering layoffs as a result of $110 million in operational losses in the September-through-November quarter, said through a spokeswoman he is donating his bonus back to the Houston institution for patient care, research, prevention and education. He called the donation "consistent with his annual charitable giving practices." "My family knew we could do the most good by donating my incentive compensation back to the institution," DePinho, now in his fifth year as president of MD Anderson, said in a statement. Through a spokeswoman, he declined a request to be interviewed for this story. DePinho's bonus brings his total annual compensation for fiscal year 2016 to $2,053,670. The bonuses, which come from the institutions' own funds, were paid to each president in one lump sum Monday. They were approved by UT System regents in November. The UT System awards such bonuses annually to top executives in lieu of raises, a compensation program that officials say makes presidential performance more accountable. The incentives, which are usually as much as 15 percent of the base salary but can go as high as 22 percent, are based on agreed-upon objectives. DePinho's objectives involved philanthropy, research grant funding, development of a shared governance model, achievement of a budgeted operating margin and implementation of an electronic medical record system. The implementation of the electronic record system was cited as one cause of the recent operational losses at the cancer center. Shared governance became an issue early in DePinho's presidency as a result of faculty complaints about their lack of input into decisions. "A president's performance is not measured solely on the basis of operating financial performance," UT System Chancellor William McRaven said in a statement. "The UT System is fully aware of the recent operating losses at MD Anderson, and I have confidence in Dr. DePinho and his leadership team's strategy to address the issue." McRaven said DePinho was successful in achieving the majority of his goals last year. The other bonuses awarded by the UT System regents included $118,862 to Dr. William Henrich, president of UT Health Science Center at San Antonio; $106,946 to Dr. Giuseppe Colasurdo, president of the UT Health Science Center at Houston; and $102,000 to Guy Bailey, president of UT Rio Grande Valley. All the others were under $100,000. UT-El Paso President Diana Natalicio also turned down her bonus. She would have received $60,000. The overall biggest annual bonus went to Mark Houser, chief executive officer of University Lands, which manages 2.1 million acres in West Texas. Houser, who makes more than $1.5 million, is getting a $841,500 bonus under a special incentive program. The office in fiscal year 2016 posted $60 million in incremental royalty and easement returns "above and beyond" usual amounts, UT system officials said. Besides Houser, the UT system's top 10 executive administrators declined their bonuses, a spokeswoman said. With the system facing possible layoffs, they said they hoped forgoing the pay would save jobs. All told, the presidents of UT's six medical institutions received a total of $841,000 in incentive pay. Five university presidents received $315,000. UT System presidents and executive officers with two exceptions do not have employement contracts, serving instead at the pleasure of the chancellor and board of regents. McRaven, who is not part of the incentive pay program, and Houser have contracts. GALVESTON - Plans for building a massive storm-surge protection system for the Houston area are rushing ahead before officials determine whether the project could harm Galveston Bay, environmental groups say. The Sierra Club and the Galveston Bay Foundation, the environmental groups most closely watching the planning process, worry that there's been too much focus on how to build the so-called Ike Dike and not enough on its impact on the bay. "The Ike Dike has gained traction and local government support," said Scott Jones, spokesman for the Galveston Bay Foundation. "We understand that, but we don't think the environmental questions have been answered." Brandt Mannchen, spokesman for the Sierra Club's Houston Regional Group, agreed. "We really need to look at the environmental impacts and, from our standpoint, should have looked at them first. We are kind of doing this backward." Potential harm cited Various parts of the project could potentially harm marine life in the bay or on the beaches, they warn. The details of what an Ike Dike would look like have yet to be worked out, but the six-county agency and two universities involved in planning support the idea of a coastal barrier with a storm gate at the entrance to the Houston Ship Channel between Galveston Island and the Bolivar Peninsula. Rice University's Severe Storm Prediction Education and Evacuation from Disasters Center also has designed a secondary defense system of gates and levees that would be built inside the bay, with another gate at the entrance to Clear Lake. That group and two others - the Gulf Coast Community Protection and Recovery District and Texas A&M University Galveston's Center for Texas Beaches and Shores - are all conducting studies to determine how the Ike Dike would affect the environment. Texas A&M researchers say environmental studies should be part of the planning process going forward, not done after a plan is devised. The Army Corps of Engineers is devising a storm-surge protection plan for the entire Texas coast that will be subject to an environmental impact study. Most of the studies are unlikely to be completed before the end of 2017. The groups are concerned that political momentum for the existing proposal may be so strong by then that the study results will have little influence. "Maybe the Ike Dike is the best thing since Wonder Bread, but right now we don't know because we haven't looked at it," Mannchen said. He said the barrier could impede the natural processes that form barrier islands and nourish the saltwater and freshwater marshes that are nurseries for shrimp and fish. He questioned the idea of protecting low-lying barrier islands like Galveston and the Bolivar Peninsula in the first place. (The Bolivar Peninsula is considered a barrier island although it is not a true island.) "Nobody wants to say this phrase, but let the Sierra Club be the first to say it: planned withdrawal," Mannchen said. Better to build a dike around the part of Galveston behind the seawall and petrochemical complexes, and gradually abandon the rest of the island, the Bolivar Peninsula and vulnerable areas along Galveston Bay, he said. Withdrawal unpopular A 2011 report by Rice University's Shell Center for Sustainability recommended planned withdrawal for Galveston Island, arguing that a structure like the Ike Dike was impractical if rising sea levels were taken into account. The report was greeted with little enthusiasm and was soon forgotten. Building on the island's western, unprotected areas continued apace. Jones, the Galveston Bay Foundation's spokesman, worried about how the surge gate between Galveston Island and the Bolivar Peninsula would affect the movement of fish, dolphins, shrimp and other marine creatures between the bay and the Gulf of Mexico. "We don't want any type of storm-surge protection for the bay to have unintended consequences," Jones said. Bill Merrell, the Texas A&M professor who originated the Ike Dike concept, agreed that environmental studies need to be done but believes the coastal barrier can be designed to be environmentally friendly. "I don't think the Ike Dike would harm Galveston Bay," Merrell said. He pointed to similar structures built in the Netherlands that were compatible with the country's environment. "I think the Dutch experience shows that we can design gates that don't harm the environment, but we have to prove it," Merrell said. Worried about effects Merrell said the Sierra Club's planned withdrawal idea was impractical. "There is too much investment in the infrastructure we have on the coast," he said. "We're going to have to learn how to live with the situation." The possible effect on salinity is a concern for Lisa Halili, whose family owns Prestige Oysters, the largest oyster company on Galveston Bay. She worries about unintended consequences of storm-surge protection structures on oyster beds in the bay. As an example of what could happen, she points to the blocking of the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet in Louisiana, which she says is restricting water flow and consequently damaging oyster reefs. "It's hurting our leases badly," she said. Although a storm gate will remain open during normal weather to allow traffic through the ship channel, the structure will block some of the natural flow, Jones said. A narrower channel means water will be pushed through faster. "Even if the gates are open, it's still going to have all that structure," he said. "It's going to increase velocities through the pass." The question is how that's going to affect marine life and the salinity levels in the bay that affect oysters and fish, he said. "Will they physically be injured or killed going through that? Will that change their ability to get in and out of the pass? That's a huge question we have to answer." This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Two Lufkin residents were arrested Tuesday afternoon when a traffic stop led authorities to drugs inside the vehicle. A Splendora officer pulled over a vehicle traveling 84 miles per hour in a 65-mile-per hour zone. When the officer approached the driver, he smelled marijuana through the door. A second unit was called to the scene, and both passengers were removed from the vehicle. MUGSHOTS: 15 suspects busted in central Texas drug ring The driver refused consent for officers to search the vehicle, so a K-9 was brought to the scene and alerted officers to two different parts of the vehicle. After a search warrant was obtained, police found 765.8 grams of methamphetamine, 5.8 ounces of marijuana, 138 methylenedioxy pills, three alprazolam (Xanax) pills and 4.1 grams of concentrated cannabis. Shane Cox and Dennis Warr were both charged with possession of a controlled substance and given a $250,000 bond. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan.5 By Leman Zeynalova Trend: General Manager and Board Member of PASHA Yatirim Bankasi A.S. (subsidiary of Azerbaijans PASHA Bank in Turkey) Cenk Eynehan has talked about expectations from the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) project. The construction of TANAP and Iron Silk Road in coming years will pave the way for bigger trade turnover between Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia, Eynehan told Turkish media. Implementation of these projects will enable the countries to ensure higher volume of trade turnover and highest level of cooperation, he said. In this context, we will also increase the allocation of resources to the region. Increasing the trade turnover in the region is a priority for PASHA Bank and in this context, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia and Iran will be of particular importance in the coming period, according to Eynehan. TANAP project envisages transportation of gas from Azerbaijans Shah Deniz field to the western borders of Turkey. The length of TANAP is 1,800 kilometers with the initial capacity of 16 billion cubic meters. Around six billion cubic meters of this gas will be delivered to Turkey and the remaining volume will be supplied to Europe. The gas will be delivered to Turkey in 2018, and after completion of the Trans-Adriatic Pipelines construction, the gas will be delivered to Europe in early 2020. TANAP shareholders are Azerbaijans state oil company SOCAR (58 percent), BOTAS (30 percent) and BP (12 percent). --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama met behind closed doors Wednesday morning with congressional Democrats to map out a strategy to defend the Affordable Care Act and other health-care policies - the day that Republicans began debate on how to get rid of the far-reaching law. As sharp political fault lines emerged - with Democrats saying they feel no obligation to devise a new health-care law and Republicans vowing to dismantle the existing one through legislation and executive actions - it could take six months or more to determine what sort of system might replace the ACA. Obama's rare visit to Capitol Hill, less than three weeks before Donald Trump assumes the presidency, is part of his administration's final push to hold onto its achievements before handing over the reins of power in Washington. The president arrived accompanied by Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla. While Obama took no questions from reporters, participants in the nearly two-hour meeting said he told members of his party that they did not have to "rescue" Republicans and that they should "stay strong" as they labored to replace the law Republicans and Democrats alike call Obamacare. Within 10 minutes of Obama's arrival, Vice President-elect Mike Pence joined House Republicans in the Capitol basement to discuss the incoming administration's plans to reverse not just the health-care law but a slew of other executive actions. Afterward, Pence told reporters that he and Trump would pursue a "two-track approach" to chip away at the ACA through a combination of executive powers and legislation. Trump is "working on a series of executive orders that will enable that orderly transition to take place," Pence said, and is eyeing other policies that can be reversed. Other actions at risk While Pence did not identify other policy targets, Republicans from Western states urged him Wednesday to undo some of the public land protections Obama has created through the 1906 Antiquities Act. Other executive actions, including those providing new safeguards for LGBTQ Americans and curbing greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change, also could come under fire. Asked to explain what specific executive actions regarding the ACA the president-elect is considering, Phillip Blando, a transition spokesman for health-care issues, replied: "We do not have any additional comment at this time beyond what the vice president-elect said today on Capitol Hill." According to a lobbyist in touch with congressional aides on the issue, the Trump transition team has been mulling ways to pare down a group of "essential health benefits" that define the services required under health plans that are sold to individuals and small businesses in the ACA marketplaces and beyond. The list of benefits is a regulation finished by the Health and Human Services Department in 2013, and the incoming administration could alter it without help from Congress. Trump took to Twitter on Wednesday morning to urge Republicans to "be careful in that the Dems own the failed Obamacare disaster." In a dig at Schumer and his allies, Trump added: "Don't let the Schumer clowns out of this Web." Less than half an hour after Trump's social media messages, Schumer tweeted: "Republicans should stop clowning around with America's health care. Don't .MakeAmericaSickAgain." Democrats, including Schumer, signaled they did not feel any responsibility to craft a substitute health-care bill. "If you are repealing, show us what you'll replace it with. Then we'll look at what you have and see what you can do," said Schumer, Sanders' call to action Democratic leaders and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., have called for a Jan. 15 "Day of Action" to oppose any cuts to health-care plans or subsidies from the incoming Trump administration, the latest example of the Vermont senator pushing his adopted party toward more activism. "Millions of Americans voted for Donald Trump after he promised not to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid," wrote Sanders, Schumer and Pelosi in a letter sent to colleagues in Congress. "He must be held to his promises and should veto any legislation which cuts these vital and necessary health programs." The letter calls for Democrats to help organize rallies across the country, an attempt to bracket what will come during the following days - a ramp-up to Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration and to Republicans calling for him to end ACA. AUSTIN - A U.S. district judge on Wednesday criticized Texas' rule requiring the burial of embryonic and fetal tissue as "political" and without "any benefit at all" to public health before delaying his ruling in the case until late January. Judge Sam Sparks extended a temporary restraining order blocking the new regulation until Jan. 27, putting off his decision on the controversial state rule that requires tissue from an aborted, miscarried or ectopic pregnancy to be cremated or buried without the woman's consent. Sparks said it was "obvious" the new rule has no health benefit, following two days of testimony about the potential costs, ramifications and logistics of the new rule. "I don't think there's any argument about that." The judge, who pointed to testimony and comments from the state's attorneys who stressed the rule change sought to ensure the dignity of the fetus, said he was most concerned about whether the rule posed an unreasonable restraint on access to abortion. He said he plans to rule on the case the week of Jan. 23. Requirements detailed Spurred by a lawsuit filed against the state by health facilities and abortion clinics, the second day of the hearing offered a glimpse of what the rule requiring the cremation or burial of fetal tissue could entail. Facilities that handle the tissue, such as abortion clinics, health centers and laboratories likely would need to buy additional freezers to store the remains for weeks or months before the tissue could be transported to a crematorium or cemetery. State health officials envisioned Texas' abortion providers pooling their resources and burying the remains in a single, mass grave, according to Jennifer Sims, deputy commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services. Bulk burial would reduce the cost to less than $2 per abortion they said. There were nearly 55,000 abortions performed in Texas in 2014, the latest year figures were available. The executive director of the Texas Conference of Catholic Bishops said its 15 dioceses across the state are willing to provide cemetery space and burials for fetal remains in wooden boxes, possibly stacked atop each other, in unmarked graves. The services would be provided free of charge, executive director Jennifer Carr Allmon said, but health clinics would be responsible for transporting the remains to the cemetery or funeral home. Politics vs. dignity Also Wednesday, Patrick Carnes, director of the state's busiest crematorium, Cremate Texas in South Houston, testified that he hoped to contract with eight hospital organizations to cremate the remains and would like to see their ashes scattered in the Gulf of Mexico. Sparks said he was convinced the state's fetal burial rule was political. "I haven't heard any evidence otherwise," the judge said during the attorneys' closing arguments, pointing to the timing of the rule's publication. The rule was drafted in the run-up to the U.S. Supreme Court's summer decision to strike down several provisions of the state's abortion law. The proposed regulation was published in the little-read Texas Register four days after the high court's June ruling.The new rule was to go into effect last month. State attorneys argued the decision was not political because the rule had been in the works for months prior to its posting. Instead, the state argued that limiting disposal of fetal tissue to cremation or burial ensures the dignity of the unborn. Currently, embryonic and fetal tissue is disposed of the same way as medical waste: via a chemical disinfection, grinding, incineration or cremation and placement of the remains in a sanitary sewer, sanitary landfill or by burial. Sparks' decision will rest on whether the new rule and the costs associated with it pose an unreasonable restraint on abortion, he said. Health benefit rule The U.S. Supreme Court decision in June struck down two parts of Texas' 2013 abortion law, calling them unreasonable restraints on the procedure. The decision nullified provisions requiring abortion clinics to undergo costly renovations to adhere to the standards of ambulatory surgical centers and mandated physicians obtain admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. The Supreme Court ruling also declared that any new restrictions on abortion by the state must have a public health benefit, providing the grounds for abortion rights advocates to challenge the burial rule. In the three years abortion providers fought the state in court, about half of the state's abortion clinics had closed, and none are set to reopen. Abortion rights supporters say the new rule is a tool to further weaken access to abortion by driving up the costs associated with the procedure by requiring the cremation or burial of the remains, and by imposing the government's belief on women and shaming them. "It's a choice that can be deeply disturbing for patients," said David Brown, senior staff attorney for the Center for Reproductive Rights, a national abortion rights advocacy group representing health care providers. Nick Anderson Doesn't Lt. Governor Dan Patrick have anything better to do than grandstand on a non-existent crisis? Doesn't Texas have more pressing issues for it's kids, like eduction, special ed, a poorly-funded CPS and a problematical foster care system? Apparently not. Step aside, North Carolina. We can make bigger fools of ourselves than you can. Click the gallery below to see many more cartoons by Nick Anderson. A year has passed since Sylvester Turner stood on a downtown stage to take the oath of office as Houston's mayor, fulfilling a dream the longtime state lawmaker held for at least a quarter century. As a son of a handyman and a hotel maid from Acres Homes, Turner choked up during an inaugural address that offered optimism and caution about the city's future. The new mayor spoke mostly in generalities that day, but he delivered one very specific promise. Every pothole reported to the city government, he vowed, would be "assessed and addressed" within a single business day. Within a couple of weeks, after donning work clothes for a photo op in which he personally repaired an ugly rut in a city street, Turner was able to tout the success of his war on potholes. How he tackled that festering traffic menace foretold much about what we've seen from Mayor Turner during his first year in office. This mayor has earned a reputation for focusing on one high-profile problem at a time and staying on it until he solves it. The downside of that approach is that he sometimes shrugs aside other issues demanding his attention. Turner's top priority and his most noteworthy accomplishment has been his effort to resolve Houston's complex and potentially catastrophic pension problems. All three of the city's pension funds basically agreed to give the mayor a total of $2.5 billion in benefit concessions as part of a complicated deal that would eliminate nearly $8 billion of underfunding over the course of 30 years. The jury is still out on his proposed solution - indeed, decades may pass before we know with any certainty whether the plan works or fails - but we commend Turner for finally getting it done. And to be sure, he also deserves credit for a series of lesser-known accomplishments. After paramedics scrambled to Hermann Park to treat more than a dozen people who overdosed on Kush, Turner unveiled a plan to redeploy police resources and crack down on merchants selling this dangerous drug. In an enlightened effort to fight crime in low-income neighborhoods, he launched a series of community resource fairs for ex-offenders struggling to get jobs after leaving prison. And he raised eyebrows and won praise among political insiders by passing his first budget in a surprisingly quick meeting that had city council members and their staffs back at work in their offices within a couple of hours. That short budget meeting - they often drag on into the night as bickering council members squabble over funding for pet projects - reflects one of the most notable features of Turner's administration. Although he won election by a narrow margin, he has deftly defused challenges from council members trying to pick partisan-style fights. As a skilled lawmaker who mastered his craft dealing with hundreds of state legislators, Turner works City Council with the confidence of a major league ballplayer running a Little League team. Now, conservative council members are some of this Democratic mayor's staunchest supporters. Still, there's a sense among City Hall observers that important business is getting pushed to the back burner. Turner has taken his time about tackling other parts of his job, most notably appointing his own leadership team. The police, fire and housing departments operated for months under temporary bosses. And Turner has retained a surprising number of his predecessor's top staff, leaving this mayor without his own trusted cadre of aides and advisers. Turner has a reputation as a smart, hard-working micro-manager who's reluctant to delegate power, but he can't run the city by himself. In the coming year, Turner must use all of his experience wheeling and dealing in the state Capitol to finesse his pension agreement through the Texas Legislature. After that, he plans to ask voters to roll back the revenue cap that threatens to hamstring him and future mayors as Houston grows into the nation's third-largest city. While he deals with those big issues, we hope he becomes more adept at the multi-tasking and delegation of authority essential to any successful chief executive to address pressing challenges of the day. Among them are the traditional basics such as traffic and storm-surge protection, but also the future challenges of an economy based on oil and gas at a time when these are being outpaced by development of renewable energy sources. Overall, our new mayor has had a good first year in office. We wish him - and our city - an even better 2017. Subscribing to our services is a three step process. First you have to create an account and then you have to pick if you want to subscribe to digital and or print. Some people only want to be a digital subscriber to get access online and others want to also receive the print edition. If you are already a print subscriber and want online access, it is free, you simply have to create an online account and then attach your print subscription account number to the online account you create. As an existing print subscriber it is easy to get FREE access to all our online content. When you click get started below it will walk you through creating an online account to attach your print subscription number to. After your account is created it will ask you to either add a subscription for online access or click on the print subscriber button. Click the print subscriber button header and it will open a dropdown, now click on get started. The page will reload and you will be prompted to enter an account number and a zip code. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO USE THE NUMBER OFF OF THE MOST RECENT ISSUE OR ANYTHING AFTER JANUARY 28, 2019 TO GAIN ACCESS! OLD ACCOUNT NUMBERS WILL NOT WORK The account number and zip code are easily available on your most recent issue of the High Plains Journal or Midwest Ag Journal in the address fields as is shown here. Sometimes the account number has extra zero's in front of it, just ignore those. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan.5 By Leman Zeynalova Trend: Iraq has started to reduce its oil production from January 2017 in line with the OPEC deal, the countrys Oil Minister Jabar Ali al-Luaibi said. "Iraq affirms its commitment to OPEC decision taken during the last meeting in Vienna by putting in place a studied plan to cut the production from the national fields, he said, according to the website of Iraqi Oil Ministry. Ali al-Luaibi also said that Iraq is working with the producers inside and outside OPEC to control the glut of oil supply on the global oil market in order to achieve the appropriate balance between the supply and demand and to raise the oil prices during the next period. During the Vienna meeting held Nov.30, OPEC members decided to implement a new OPEC-14 production target of 32.5 million barrels per day. Iraq undertook the second biggest cut after Saudi Arabia, as the country agreed to reduce its oil output by 210,000 barrels per day to 4.351 mbd. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn If you have had the good fortune to be born and raised in Canada you may not give much thought to just how lucky you are. Perhaps you have never encountered international students paying exorbitant student feesor supremely well-educated immigrants forced into blue-collar positions with wages not at all commensurate with their impressive and laudable experience. If you live in Toronto however, it is more likely than not that you have some exposure to the unfortunate landscape of inequity in employing individuals with overseas education. In the event someone is lucky enough to be able to continue in the field they invested a great deal of time becoming an expert in - it is probable they had to submit themselves to equivalency tests, re-doing their education, etc. Is this fair? That is a wholly rhetorical question. When politicians and corporations talk about offshore talent, are they doing a favour to the individuals they are employing or a disservice? When we read about huge global conglomerates who generate $3,000 per 5 seconds but pay workers $0.00014 cents for the same period.are we really distributing wealth? This is not to say that individuals deserve equal pay for unequal work, but rather that instead of perpetuating the cycle of immigration (not an easy process) what if we had systems in place to encourage economies without immigration? Take for example the woman who immigrates here to become a nanny and then sends home 80% of her ... Yes, its true: Your workplace is undergoing apocalyptic change. The millennials are coming- in fact, they're already here. And while I wouldn't compare millennials to zombie hordes, their large-scale entrance into the workforce will fundamentally change the professional climate just as the emergence of walking dead would fundamentally change daily life on earth. Earlier this year, millennials became the largest share of the American workforce, and by 2020, they will make up an estimated 46 percent of all U.S. workers. Managers who delay preparing for this impending millennial-pocalypse will certainly regret it. As millennials spread through the workplace, leaving a trail of tweets and Snapsterpieces in their wake, managers need to know what to do to prepare for the impending takeover. While much has been said about how employers should cater to millennials in the workplace, these conversations tend to avoid specific advice for coping with the coming seismic shift. So to help you better understand millennials motives, characteristics and feeding habits, heres a field guide to surviving, and even thriving, in your post-apocalyptic workplace. Don't skimp on skills If our world descended into a zombie deathscape tomorrow, any respectable ragtag band of survivors worth their weight in rations would need to acquire a certain set of skills to survive. Target practice and sparring lessons would be vital for ... This past new year was a big deal for three U.S. couples, who all welcomed a set of twins born in different years. For Arizona couple Brandon and Holly Shay, the births happened naturally. Their first son, Sawyer, was born at 11:50 p.m. on Dec. 31, 2016. Their second boy, Everett, was then born at 12:01 a.m. on Jan. 1, 2017, making him the first baby born at Banner Thunderbird Medical Center this year. Advertisement Jennifer Ruble, the hospitals public relations spokesperson, told KPNX that this is the first time something like this has happened at the clinic. I have been at Banner for 25 years and I don't recall this happening in our history, to have a New Years baby while their twin was born in the year previous, she said. Watch the video above to hear more about the Arizona twins. In San Diego, another couple welcomed twin girls just four minutes apart. The first was born at 11:56 p.m. on New Years Eve, and the other was born at midnight on New Years Day, CBS8 reports. Advertisement And finally, Georgia twins Aubree Rose and Asher Rey were born an hour apart at Northside Hospital-Cherokee to proud parents Maricka Webster and Shawn Kaferly. Aubree was the last baby of 2016 to be born at the hospital and arrived at 11:20 p.m. on Dec. 31. An hour later, at 12:20 a.m. on Jan. 1, her brother Asher was born and became the clinics first baby of 2017. Also on HuffPost If you hate running and aren't seeing any results from your daily sprints, you now have an excuse to stop. Researchers from Queen's University and the University of Ottawa believe when it comes to working out there is an exercise for everyone. Advertisement In a recent study published in the journal PLOS One, the researchers examined the physical fitness of 21 participants over the course of three weeks. During the test period participants were asked to ride a stationary bike for 30 minutes four times a week. At the end of the three weeks the researchers noticed minor aerobic improvement among two thirds of the subjects. The test group was re-examined a few months later, with changes to the exercise routine. Instead of riding steady, participants were asked to do sprint intervals throughout the 30 minute period. At the end of the second test the researchers once again noticed little improvement amongst two thirds of the group. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to exercise, Brendon Gurd, an associate professor of kinesiology at Queens University and an author on the study, told The New York Times. Advertisement To Gurd's point, some participants noticed a great improvement in their physical endurance after the test was completed. Those unaffected by the exercise are believed to be non-responders, meaning their bodies are simply rejecting the type of exercise they have chosen. Unfortunately, finding the best exercise for you isn't easy. Gurd suggests simply trying different activities and measuring your fitness levels by checking your pulse before and after you work out. Over time, the exercises should also start to feel easier, and if they don't it might be time to try something new. This is what it means to support your partner through thick and thin. Vancouver-native Ryan Reynolds recently talked about his anxiety in an interview with Variety magazine, and gave a shout out to wife Blake Lively for keeping him "sane." Talking about the anxiety that came with shooting his hit movie "Deadpool," the 40-year-old actor said he would stay up all night to write jokes because he didn't want to let his fans down. Advertisement I never, ever slept. Or I was sleeping at a perfect right angle just sitting straight, constantly working at the same time," he told the magazine. By the time we were in post [production], wed been to Comic-Con, and people went crazy for it. The expectations were eating me alive. His 29-year-old actress wife, he said, kept him calm. Blake helped me through that, Reynolds said. Im lucky to have her around just to keep me sane. Advertisement The "Green Lantern" star also talked about battling anxiety growing up as a kid. I have three older brothers, he told Variety. Our father was tough. He wasnt easy on anyone. And he wasnt easy on himself. I think the anxiety might have started there, trying to find ways to control others by trying to control myself. At the time, I never recognized that. I was just a twitchy kid. The lovebirds first met in 2010 as costars while shooting "Green Lantern." At the time, Reynolds was married to actress Scarlett Johansson and Lively was dating former costar Penn Badgley, Us reports. The couple officially tied the knot in 2012 during a secret wedding ceremony in South Carolina. They have two kids together, daughters James and Ines. Also on HuffPost Blake Lively And Ryan Reynolds See Gallery Many girls dream of owning a horse, and most dont get one. But one 18-year-old from New Zealand found a solution riding her cow instead. Hannah Simpson jumped on Brown Swiss cow Lilac at age 11 after a dare from her brother, she told The Guardian. Lilac didnt seem to mind. Seven years later, her "best friend" still enjoys going for rides and will even jump over obstacles more than a metre high if she feels like it, Simpson said. Advertisement "She is a cow and I cant expect her to ride like a horse. Without a bit of prodding she wouldnt really do anything, she has a very chilled-out nature." The teen doesnt use a saddle, just a halter and a small stick, but said her steed has bucked her off many times. She recently shared an impressive video on Instagram of Lilac jumping about a metre over the base of a tree. Advertisement Simpson told CBC As It Happens guest host Helen Mann that she and the heifer attract a lot of stares and questions, as well as the occasional negative comment. "But also there was a vet that commented it should be fine for the cow as long as you don't overdo it and if she's happy with it then that's fine," she said. Simpson now has her coveted horse, but keeps riding Lilac, even though shes "stubborn" and "lazy," she told As It Happens. Advertisement "She's really friendly and loves cuddles and scratches and food!" she said. Also on HuffPost Design Pics via Getty Images Person holding a maple leaf A new year is always a time to reflect and think about the future. This is a special new year. As Canadians, we are fortunate to celebrate our 150 anniversary. In so many ways we are a young country built by immigrants and the existing indigenous populations. Looking at the Canada 150 Twitter feed I was pleased to see a lot of pride and gratitude for the benefits of Canada and saddened to see it being used as a platform for criticizing the government instead of a place to reflect on what is great about Canada. As someone who has travelled extensively inside and outside of Canada I am constantly grateful for what we have in Canada. Nature abounds from seascapes to mountains, rivers, lakes and waving fields of grain to mention but a few. Our cities, are growing yet are far from crowded and continue to increase in vibrancy and, yes, challenges from their increasing diversity of populations. We have charming small towns dotted throughout our countryside that provide for great opportunities to slow down a bit and to participate in the many festivals and unique businesses these communities offer every year. Advertisement While we still have a long road ahead of us, we continue to advocate for and advance equality for all in Canada. In November, I was in India for two weeks for some touring and to attend an amazing wedding. While it is a fascinating and wonderful country with a lengthy history and different cultures and religions, the level of poverty, lack of infrastructure and chaos on their roads was difficult to see. I was very happy to see the paved streets in Canada and traffic that follows rules of the road. That is not to say we do not have poverty in Canada because it is ever present. Yes, we have deplorable conditions on some of our First Nations' reserves and individuals struggling to make ends meet or to feed their children including immigrants and refugees. While we have no easy answers to remedy these conditions, we do have a mindset and a social safety net that speaks to supporting and helping those less fortunate. Our health-care system is not perfect, but neither is it the terrible health-care system of Donald Trump's imagination and it is accessible to all. We have the means and I believe the desire to continue to support improvement and innovation in an already strong system. While we still have a long road ahead of us, we continue to advocate for and advance equality for all in Canada. Fairness as a concept appears to be strong and plays itself out in many positive ways when making decisions respecting the best interest of Canadians. Canadians are entrepreneurial and increasingly start and grow businesses that contribute to the economy and add products and services that enrich our country. A strong agriculture business sector allows us access to healthy and locally produced foods. Advertisement Sunset over a potato field in red earth, Prince Edward Island, Canada/Getty Images As a nation, we have been blessed with an abundance of natural resources which can help fuel our economy with careful stewardship to protect our environment. Access to education is universal and both girls and boys attend school unlike a number of other nations where girls are left behind. Our Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and human rights legislation protects our fundamental freedoms and the courts and human rights commissions are here to provide remedies. For me perfection is not the goal nor is it attainable. No government will ever satisfy all of our demands nor should we expect it of them. Fortunately, we do have a democracy where we can hold them accountable. All of us individually have a responsibility to contribute to the best of our ability wherever our strengths may lie. Our pioneering forefathers set the example when they came to this land and established settlements in conditions that were harsh given their tools and equipment. Indigenous Canadians lived on the land in harmony with the cycles of nature. None of the modern conveniences that we take for granted existed then. Growing up poor in Saskatchewan, I had a taste of that life living in a basic shack with no running water or electricity. My father worked hard on his small farm to grow food for his family and to contribute to the broader community. My early life taught me to be resilient and to look out for others and to work hard to achieve my goals. On Canada's 150, I am grateful for everything that we have in Canada and I accept our imperfections as opportunities to show our humanity and to innovate to continue to become stronger. Follow HuffPost Canada Blogs on Facebook There's been a lot of outrage over a new report that shows that Canada's wealthiest CEOs are paid 193 times more than the average Canadian. But there's an even darker side to the story. Ordinary taxpayers are subsidizing those multimillion-dollar salaries, courtesy of loopholes in our tax system. The stock option loophole is the most blatant example of how this happens. It gives tax-free status to half of all income earned when a CEO or corporate board member cashes in stocks options. And according to the report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, many of those CEOs look to million-dollar stock option payouts to fatten their contracts. Advertisement Not surprisingly, it is a popular practice in Canada's top publicly traded companies. Nearly a quarter of executive compensation is tied to some kind of stock option deal and it leads to payouts that high-profile money manager Stephen Jarislowsky calls "absolutely obscene." The Canadian government continues to forfeit hundreds of millions in tax revenue by keeping this loophole on the books. Paying for the stock option loophole is considered a government expenditure. It is a budgeting decision, just like money spent on health care, building bridges or funding Old Age Security. And while the Liberal government continues to shield stock option rules, we are told that pharmacare, child care or free tuition are beyond what Canada can afford. No one questions the economic returns of investing in our children and our health. But what's the return on investment for the stock option rule? It screams double standard. Advertisement Ottawa has come close to getting rid of this tax perk. During the last election, the Liberals promised to fully tax individual stock options gains exceeding $100,000. They branded it as their commitment to increase taxes on the wealthiest Canadians. Voters believed them. But then a flurry of lobbying just before the 2016 budget broke Finance Minister Bill Morneau's resolve. Those lobbyists claimed that stock options are a key tool for successful start-ups. A new enterprise is more likely to attract and retain high-powered talent, they said, if it can offer stock options in its early years, when it's unable to pay high salaries. Maybe. But hold on a moment... For them and their accountants, this is simply a tool to avoid paying tax on what they earn. The top users of the stock option loophole are not Canada's next big tech innovators or job creators. Instead, the list reads like the who's who of the one per cent, including real estate developers, the head of Canadian Pacific Railways and an energy firm heavily involved in pipeline development. The CEO of Cameco, a corporation currently being taken to court by the Canada Revenue Agency for using a tax haven to avoid corporate tax, is also the owner of $1.3 million in stock options. Advertisement The heads of Canada's five big banks have $6 million in options among them. There's nothing remotely "start-up" about any of those operations. These are long-established millionaires who are not taking money out of their pockets to invest in a new idea. For them and their accountants, this is simply a tool to avoid paying tax on what they earn. And guess who makes up the difference? It isn't just the stock options backtracking that is hurting regular taxpayers. Last year the finance minister hiked the top marginal tax rate for those with taxable income over $200,000. It was branded as the fulfillment of a Liberal promise to end tax breaks for the wealthy. It made some headlines. But did it really change anything? When a government changes the tax rate but protects a multitude of loopholes that only the wealthy can access, it changes nothing. Most of Canada's very wealthy find all sorts of ways to avoid paying the top marginal rate on their income. And the very wealthy get much of their income from investments, which also benefit from the 50 per cent capital gains discount on taxes owed. Advertisement When a government changes the tax rate but protects a multitude of loopholes that only the wealthy can access, it changes nothing. And it sends a message to Canadians about its commitment to fairness, transparency and just plain common sense. If a $400-an-hour tax lawyer can make it worthwhile to take advantage of loopholes, tax havens and other dodges, there is something seriously wrong. Experts and citizens' groups alike have urged the government to conduct a serious review of the tax code so that it can be modernized, simplified and made fairer. It will take years. In the meantime, how about taxing the stock option loophole for CEOs who earn more in three days than the rest of us earn in a year? It would be a good start. Follow HuffPost Canada Blogs on Facebook Also on HuffPost: Getty Humpback whales Watching season in Banderas Bay and Pacific Ocean near Puerto Vallarta. Puerto Vallarta is a coastal city that's tough to leave. From strolling the cobblestone streets of Old Town to sipping margaritas at Playa Los Muertos and lounging by the pool at the Casa Karma Boutique Resort, you don't have to venture outside of the city centre to have an unforgettable getaway. But those who don't travel beyond the bustling oceanside city streets are missing out on some of Jalisco's most beautiful beaches, charming small towns and richest culture. These three nearby destinations are ones that can be reached by car or water taxi in less than two hours and are guaranteed to transport you to Mexico's simpler days. Advertisement Playa Las Gemelas The views of the Pacific Ocean from the sand in central Puerto Vallarta are stunning, but they're often disrupted by half-naked beachcombers carrying ice-cold Coronas. When you're tired of sharing the beach with hundreds of other warm weather seekers, it's time to venture 40 minutes south to Playa Las Gemelas. Travellers who take the journey to the pristine sand and aquamarine waters of Playa Las Gemelas feel a sense of calm and relaxation immediately upon arrival. Palms and other tropical foliage provide shade for sun-kissed skin and the crystal clear ocean waters become a playground for local families on Sunday. Playa Las Gemelas is a place to discover some of Jalisco's postcard-worthy coastal scenery without the bracelet-selling beach vendors and selfie sticks. Lo De Marcos Photo credit: Christian Frausto Bernal Puerto Vallarta feels more authentic than other popular Mexican beach destinations like Cancun and Playa Del Carmen, but the towering resorts in the Hotel Zone and tourist-packed Senor Frogs can take some of the charm away. Lo de Marcos, roughly 1.5 hours north of Puerto Vallarta and 25 minutes north of the popular surf town of Sayulita, will put the authentic Mexican charm back into your beach vacation. Advertisement Mellow streets, flower-covered trees, quaint eateries and oceanfront palapas transport visitors to the Mexico of decades ago. Shop for fresh seafood sold by local fishermen, explore the town square and sip a drink on the sand without worrying about tourist taxes. Often overshadowed by nearby Sayulita and San Pancho, Lo de Marcos is one of the Vallarta area's best-kept secrets. Yelapa Travellers seeking even more adventure can travel to the remote, but not so far away, pueblo of Yelapa. Although it's not truly an island, this historic fishing village can only be accessed by boat, making it one of the best places to escape the crowds and admire unforgettable coastal scenery without venturing too far from the comfort of your hotel in the heart of town. The indigenous community dates back to the 16th century, and because no roads lead to Yelapa, you'll see locals and visitors getting around on horseback instead of by bus or rental car. Open-air restaurants, National Geographic-worthy scenery and Chelly the iconic "pie lady" are just a few of the experiences you can have in this off-the-beaten path town nestled between a thick tropical rainforest and the deep blue Pacific. Follow HuffPost Canada Blogs on Facebook Also on HuffPost: FogStock/Vico Images/Marv Johnson via Getty Images Businessman, portrait Imagine having your private health insurance -- dental, vision, prescription drug, life, travel and disability coverage -- suddenly terminated by your employer at age 65 while you're still working for them, and just when you may really need it. That's what happened to Maureen, a senior executive at a large and profitable computer company. She wasn't quite ready to retire. She still enjoyed her work and was really good at it, so she was happy to keep working well past age 65 and her employer was happy with her work performance. Even so, her employee health benefits plan disappeared with her 65th birthday. Advertisement "It was costly," recalls Maureen. "Suddenly, I was on the hook for all those things I was used to getting covered by insurance. I'd been with the company for decades, but that didn't seem to matter." Maureen's case is not an isolated one. Many employee benefit policies in Canada are null and void past age 65, regardless of a person's employment status. That's because many employer plans still use age 65 as a criterion for ending insurance contracts instead of basing coverage on active versus retired status. In the past, it was unusual for individuals to work past age 65, but with the baby boom cohort, it's now common for employees to continue working full or part-time well past their 65th birthday. Some continue to work because they enjoy it, some for economic reasons (not enough saved for retirement). "Currently, many of the various provincial human rights codes in place do not protect employee benefits beyond age 65. In contrast, over 35 years ago the United States shifted all employee rules and regulations for health benefits to include employees up to age 70." In 2015, according to Statistics Canada, over 400,000 full-time and almost 300,000 part-time Canadians were working past age 65. This is up almost 300 per cent from 1990. A recent survey of 170 Canadian employers indicates that about 25 per cent of employers no longer provide health and dental coverage for active employees past age 65, 40 per cent stop providing short-term disability and unreduced life insurance and 87 per cent cease offering their long-term disability coverages. The survey also indicates that only about one third of employers have developed any formal policies regarding employee health coverage past age 65. In other words, many health and employment policies have not kept up with the changing demographic reality. And it's not against the law. Currently, many of the various provincial human rights codes in place do not protect employee benefits beyond age 65. In contrast, over 35 years ago the United States shifted all employee rules and regulations for health benefits to include employees up to age 70. Clearly, Canada has got some catching up to do. The Ontario Human Rights Commission has recommended legislative changes to stop discrimination of benefits for active employees at age 65. These changes would extend benefits to older employees. But we're still waiting. Advertisement Some unions have challenged the termination of benefits at age 65 through mediation or included it as part of their contract negotiations. Other groups and individuals have challenged the termination of benefits at age 65 at Human Rights Tribunal hearings. (Gettystock) In one recent case, the age 65 limit was allowed by the Ontario Human Rights tribunal and this case is now proceeding with a challenge of the constitutionally of the Ontario Code itself under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In the meantime, the Commission encourages employers and unions to comply with the spirit of our current legislation, but without legislative change there's no impetus for change. Many people might think cost is the barrier for providing full coverage to aging employees -- but payouts for employee health and dental benefits actually decrease with age beyond age 65. Pharmaceutical costs in particular decrease on average 45 per cent after age 65. Why? Because many provincial plans kick in at that age and some, though rarely all, of the costs are covered by publicly funded health care. Advertisement While life insurance and long-term disability insurance costs do increase with age, insurance companies will accommodate any employer who wants to continue some coverage beyond age 65 for their active employees with the disability benefit limited to 12 or 24 months instead of stopping it altogether. Ideally, our publicly funded health care would provide full dental, vision, drug, health, disability and travel insurance for all our citizens at all ages. But that's not the reality and it doesn't appear to be coming any time soon. Having access to employer health insurance plans is a safeguard, and one that should not be denied based on age. From an employer perspective, keeping employees healthy and productive is one of the key goals of having a health plan in the first place. So what are we really saving when employee health benefits are cut off prematurely for senior staff? It's time for governments to protect employee health benefits for our aging workers. Follow HuffPost Canada Blogs on Facebook Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 5 By Elena Kosolapova Trend: Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev has left on a working visit to China, the presidential press-service reported Jan. 5. During the visit Atambayev plans to meet with President of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping. The heads of states will discuss topical issues of the Kyrgyz-Chinese relations, further plans to expand cooperation in a wide range of issues and exchange views on international and regional issues of mutual interest, the press-service said. China is one of the main economic partners of Kyrgyzstan. Follow the author on Twitter: @E_Kosolapova Michail_Petrov-96 via Getty Images The text Truth appearing behind torn brown paper Most will agree that 2016 was not good for much. We said goodbye to Prince, Bowie and many more, watched the political upheaval of Brexit and Trump, and fretted about the continuing tragedy in Syria. These events alone are enough to define a year, but there was another major theme that drew our attention, and that was fake news. This act of publishing knowingly false news information made headlines around the globe and aligned with 'post-truth' being announced as The Oxford English Dictionary 2016 word of the year. Advertisement Whether on issues of politics, celebrity or, heck, even the weather, the cry of fake news has now reached fever pitch. So it seems to be getting harder than ever to trust any news source. Or is it? In this bizarre, post-truth world, digital media has been called out for creating an epidemic of fake news. Facebook, in particular, has drawn the ire of many for hosting fake news items, while continuing to claim that most of its content is authentic. This was not helped by Mark Zuckerberg's tone deaf response that it was a "pretty crazy idea" that Facebook had any influence on the 2016 Presidential election. While the tech industry is very good at taking credit for so many transformative changes in our society, the reality in this case is something different. Fake news is not new. In fact, it is old news. Advertisement "News media has always had to balance political influence, editorial bias, audience interests, and the motivations of its owners." In 1917, as much of the world was at war, US senator Hiram Johnson declared that "The first casualty of war is the truth." This was reflected in censorship of what was really happening in the trenches to hide the scale of casualties and boost morale at home. Further back during the Spanish-American war of 1898, war illustrators reported from the front lines with images fabricating atrocities by Cubans to attract American support, and as a nice sideline, to sell more newspapers. While it's morally appealing to think that news, at least up until now, has been reported without bias, the reality is otherwise. News media has always had to balance political influence, editorial bias, audience interests, and the motivations of its owners. In the UK, the major print dailies have for decades been known by their political affiliations, which provide a lens through which they are read. When the Falklands War between Britain and Argentina peaked in June 1982, the left of centre Guardian headline read "British Hopes of Permanent End to Hostilities Look Fragile", while headlines in the right leaning Sun newspaper screamed "Gotcha" and "Stick It Up Your Junta". Was that post-truth reporting, or simply alternate interpretations of the reality on the ground? Advertisement Today's most influential media, from Facebook to Fox News are being accused of either knowingly framing news for their own political agenda, or having too little oversight to guard against those who aim to mislead. Either way, they have become the poster children for a news media run amok. (Gettystock) Of course, this should be no surprise at a time when legacy media is suffering the greatest turmoil since the invention of the Gutenberg press. Paid content, user-driven social platforms, unpaid blogger journalism and the drive for mere financial survival; these are among the ways that the news media is grappling with itself. With so much strife it becomes ever more difficult to put meaningful resources into deep, investigative journalism. Back in 1842, The Illustrated London News first appeared, making it the world's first illustrated news magazine. Its early issues covered eerily familiar topics such as the war in Afghanistan, a train crash in France and the US Presidential election. It was also staunchly conservative and aligned with the Church of England, which led to bias in reporting on matters of the royal family and extensive profiling of the Archbishop of Canterbury. As a major news source the paper thrived, but it's worth recalling that long before the digital era, audience opinion was being shaped by news reporting with bias. The responsibility for protecting truthful news must therefore be a collective one. The world is consuming more news information than ever before, but with this comes our job in considering the source, looking at alternative reporting on the same topic, and questioning the motivation behind what we read or view. Most of us seek out information that aligns with our existing thinking, rather than a contrary point of view. Advertisement Be honest, when was the last time you read the Breitbart News Network? Go ahead and engage in your news source of choice, but recognize that, while it may not be disinformation or fake news, it will almost always be inclined to come with a bias. The Oxford Dictionary Word Of the Year 2016 shortlist included another word that might be better suited to our times; Adulting. Defined as: The practice of behaving in a way characteristic of a responsible adult; I would suggest that in the world of news reporting and consumption, as in so many other areas of life, we should hope that 2017 brings a little more personal responsibility. Follow HuffPost Canada Blogs on Facebook AnaBGD via Getty Images Young couple with smartphones in their bed Tinder is an app that has recently set the dating world alight. The basis of tinder is simple. Users can upload up to six photos, along with a 500 character description. This is known as a profile, which becomes visible to other Tinder users in the vicinity. Users can then like ('swipe right') or dislike ('swipe left') other profiles. If two users like each other, it is a "match," and they can then interact via text messaging on the app. Launched in 2012, Tinder now has over 50 million active users. Tinder reports that the average user spends around 90 minutes per day on the app, logging on around 11 times. Advertisement Potential Benefits In contrast to other dating apps, Tinder gives little space for users to list hobbies, interests or desirable characteristics in a partner. As such, the uploaded photos generally determine the decision to swipe left or right. This has led psychologist Dr Jessica Strubel to somewhat disapprovingly state that Tinder has "a hyper focus on physical appearance and casual hookups." Indeed a Dutch study indicated that finding casual sex was one of the top two reasons for Tinder usage. Is this a good or a bad thing? To each their own, some may respond. Indeed, some people may find casual hookups rewarding. Women in particular have fought tirelessly for autonomy and choice in the sexual market place. Tinder facilitates increased sexual freedom. It is a space where users can negotiate relationships based on their own preferences, rather than suffocating social norms. However not everyone on Tinder is looking for casual sex. Tinder's own website says that "it is a powerful tool to meet people, expand your social group and meet locals when travelling." This is indubitably true. Such potential benefits should not be overlooked. Advertisement But is there a shadow side to Tinder use? Can it negatively affect mental health? Some research suggests this could be the case. The Cost of Rejection Tinder exposes users to considerable rejection. One study found a very low rate of matching (especially for men). It also found that only around 50 per cent of matches actually message back. Messages received are often crude or combative. As such, Tinder users are being 'disliked' constantly, and their matches often fail to reply, or respond in an unsavoury fashion. As a consequence, some users may begin to question their physical appearance, their online conversational skills, and the general integrity of the opposite sex. Some may doubt themselves and their value to others, leading to undue self-monitoring for perceived flaws and defects. Indeed, researchers at the University of North Texas compared Tinder users to non-users. Tinder users reported lower self-esteem, less body image satisfaction and lower psychosocial well-being. This may be related to constant rejection and frustration experienced on the App. Choice in a Throwaway Society Some academics have argued that overwhelming levels of choice have led to a "throwaway society." Do dating apps such as Tinder contribute towards a culture of human disposability? If so, does it create individual mental stress, as well as hostility and cynicism between the sexes? Advertisement Matches and potential matches can be disliked, ignored or deleted on a whim. Many users report the experience of being 'ghosted' after a few Tinder dates, sometimes multiple times. Some may find this whole experience dehumanizing and damaging. Indeed, the overwhelming choice offered by apps such as Tinder may impede the development of a monogamous romantic relationship, which research suggests is a top reason for Tinder use. All Tinder users know that another round of swiping (and more matches) is only a fingertip away; both for themselves as well as any incipient romantic interest. This can create intense anxiety, reducing mutual trust and respect. Is she still meeting other guys on Tinder? Will he ghost me for his other matches? Is there someone better on the next swipe? Endless questions, endless questing, endless disquiet. Expectations and Exploitation Tinder can lead to a merry-go-round of partners, resulting in a cycle of dissatisfying brief relationships. This is especially so given that matches can be easily exploited for nefarious ends. For example, one user may simply desire casual sex, but cloak their intentions in order to achieve their goal with more ease. Another user may be looking for a temporary meal-ticket, with no intention of taking the relationship further. This can leave users feeling exploited and used; the living detritus of a throwaway society. Advertisement Such dissolute behaviour would be more difficult if men and women met at work or through mutual friends, where their relationship was rooted in a pre-existing social ecology. No such social ecology exists within Tinder, where malefactors do not have to face social opprobrium from their peers. Indeed, they can repeat such profligate behaviour on Tinder as infinitum. The Future On the one hand, Tinder offers choice and autonomy in the dating world; it allows individuals to meet, experiment, remain or move-on depending on desires and preferences. On the other hand, the constant rejection, overwhelming choice and endless cycle of transient relationships may contribute to a lower sense of psychological well-being. All this in turn may alter the underlying psychosocial landscape; influencing the overall quality of human connections, gender relations and individual mental health. Like alcohol, Tinder may be fun, harmless and pleasant in small doses, but pathological when taken to an extreme. Be warned. Follow HuffPost Canada Blogs on Facebook T. Nakamura Volvox Inc. via Getty Images Grey Seal (Halichoerus grypus), is also known as Atlantic Grey Seal and Horsehead Seal, and is a member of the family Phocidae (Earless Seal, True Seal), Pinniped. off the coast of the Magdalen Islands, Gulf of Saint Lawrence, Quebec, Canada A small victory for common sense and wildlife protection is being celebrated as the province of Quebec, Canada, rejected a proposal to slaughter 1,200 grey seals in Brion Island Nature Reserve under the pretext of "scientific research." Sealers have reportedly been openly, and illegally, poaching grey seals on Brion Island for at least three years without repercussion. The area, which has been a protected ecological reserve since 1984, has become an important nursery for grey seals to give birth and nurse their pups. Having discovered -- not surprisingly --that a protected area is a remarkably good place to find large numbers of the animals they wish to kill, sealers have been lobbying for an opening of a commercial hunt. Advertisement Thankfully, a new proposal for lethal research "to analyze the health of the grey seal population" on Brion Island was been rejected by Quebec's fisheries and environment ministries. The proposal was put forth by Dr. Pierre-Yves Daoust, a wildlife veterinarian and pathologist at the Atlantic Veterinary College who has previously conducted research on how to kill seals. We do not need to kill animals to study their health. If there are now concerns that the meat and oil of these animals are of poor quality and inadequate for consumption, this has serious implications for the commercial hunting of all grey seals -- not just those found on Brion Island. The researchers then proposed to turn over the carcasses to the sealing industry, who would process -- and sell -- the skins, fat and meat. Leaving aside the fact that there are few markets for grey seal products, this type of "research" seems to bear a strong resemblance to Japan's so-called "scientific whaling" program. Japan slaughtered 333 minke whales in the Antarctic last year under a scheme designed to skirt international rules to protect whales. Critics of Japan's controversial whaling activities have long maintained that Japanese whale research is little more than a cover for commercial hunting, and that non-lethal methods could be instead used. Advertisement Proposing a research project under the guise of science to provide cover for an ongoing illegal slaughter of wildlife in a protected area and allow individuals to profit financially from it -- and then pretending that this has anything to do with "sustainable development" -- is a joke. We do not need to kill animals to study their health. Whether it be for seals, whales, or elephants -- wildlife poaching is a crime that should be taken seriously. We commend Quebec's Ministry of Fisheries and Environment for seeing this ploy for what it really is: an attempt to open a commercial slaughter for seals in a protected area under the guise of "scientific research," and in the process legitimizing the illegal poaching of wildlife in a nature reserve. Sadly, those in favour of the seal slaughter say they plan to fight the decision, and are now looking for another way to justify culling seals in this protected area. We strongly encourage the Province of Quebec to stop turning a blind eye to illegal hunting, and to crack down on the poaching of seals in Brion Island nature reserve. Protected areas are necessary sanctuaries for seals and other wildlife. They should not be abused as 'easy pickings' for those who wish to slaughter wildlife for profit. Advertisement Follow HuffPost Canada Blogs on Facebook This blog originally appeared on Indian Country Today Media Network. Joseph Boyden, author of The Orenda, is a figurehead in native literature and was recently scrutinized for his lack of proof concerning his native roots. Boyden has referred to himself as Celtic, Metis, Ojibway, Mi'kmaq and Nipmuc, and it's super confusing and suspicious. When APTN award-winning journalist Jorge Barrera questioned all of this, Boyden wrote an apologetic letter that notes how, while he is only a "little bit" native, he's enough and he belongs. He stated that he only wanted to discuss the issue further in the "sacred and safe place" of a "speaking circle." I'm sorry, Boyden -- unfortunately, Indians like us don't get pity. Advertisement When Indians mess up bad in the white world, our awards are taken away and we're not given a platform to apologize or elicit pity (with the possible exception of someone like Sherman Alexie). By the time we feel compelled to "speak our truth," we're already forgotten about or ignored. He requested APTN to bring forth their elder in residence to facilitate a "speaking circle." Does he know a TV corporation might not have an elder in residence? And if they do, I'd go ahead and say they shouldn't be bothered to coddle a successful author who was caught in some PR nightmare. When we start talking about what an Indian is and isn't, it can negatively affect our people. I get that he wants to repair his relationships with Indian Country and First Nations communities, but dialogue has to happen outside of a circle as well as in. We are contemporary Indians and we live outside of "traditional" spaces. We're on Twitter and Facebook, and a lot of our dialogue on identity and authenticity happens in real time online, and not in some conference room with an elder in residence. Boyden has the privilege to explain himself and be contrite. It seemed like a letter negotiating with himself on why he still "belongs" to indigenous communities. Advertisement The questions his identity raises are interesting and necessary, but if he's unwilling to have those conversations publicly, he's holding up progress. If he's unwilling to work within our community to discuss the issue of identity, nationhood and race, the best thing he could do is give up any money he'd won under the assumption he was native. He could give up his seat at the table, too. He should know our conflicts are ugly, even within our own communities -- within our own families. He's somewhat perpetuating a stereotype by assuming the only right way to handle an issue is to sit in a circle with an elder in residence. When we start talking about what an Indian is and isn't, it can negatively affect our people who have been displaced and just want to know about their ancestors. A native who doesn't know who her grandmother was, but sees traces of her in the shape of her own eyes, her skin and her hands -- she knows somewhere she belongs, and she's searching. I still welcome people like that. They do belong, and so does Boyden -- as people who are justified in their desire to ask questions. Advertisement Academics have been misguided when they talk about Boyden. They talk about kinship like it's a romantic and nostalgic thing based in belonging. Have they met any of our families? Seriously. They talk about belonging to their land and people as if that's what defines an identity. Academics seem like the least qualified people to talk about identity when they isolate native community members with their vocabularies and classism. At times they can be elitist in how they are more likely to cite an academic on identity over a tribal office worker or single mother on social assistance living on the rez. My relationship to my community doesn't define how Indian I am. My relationship to my indigenous land doesn't define how Indian I am. Paperwork is a white man's way of determining our Indian identity. My community is remote. My mother, my aunties and my elders helped me become the woman and mother I am. In many ways my community has also betrayed me. In many ways the government within my community has assimilated to the point where I don't trust them enough. I left my community, but I take the people with me every day. I write for my people and my family. But that relationship is personal -- mine, and it does not define how Indian I am. I am not more Indian for being on the rez, or for leaving it, or even if I never saw it. My land is not my own anymore. After my mother died, a family member asked me to sign my entitlement over. She put the paper and pen in my hands as she was about to give me a ride into town to buy baby formula. She was the only person who helped me get into town for necessities besides social workers, and I needed her. So I signed it. I can't go back to my home. I can't live on the property I grew up on. That does not make me more or less Indian. I work every day to call myself a member of this community. My mom raised me to dismantle oppressive forces to make things better for the people to come. I believe in deconstruction and decolonization. Paperwork is a white man's way of determining our Indian identity. Romantic ideas about community, lineage and ancestry aren't always perfect means to an identity when native people have been subjected to genocide and historical erasure. Advertisement The way Boyden talks, I don't think he can even grasp the way I think about being an Indian, or the way many of us think about it. I mean, in interviews he's defined himself as a bit of a "two-spirit," because he likes to live in New Orleans and Ontario? That's not how that works. He mentions our beliefs in interviews like it's a novelty, a fun fact. You can't sell Indian like a souvenir. I work every day to call myself a member of this community. Follow HuffPost Canada Blogs on Facebook Also on HuffPost: Steve Russell via Getty Images TORONTO, PQ- NOVEMBER 24 - as Mayor John Tory announced support for a hotel tax and other revenue tools in a bid to fix Toronto's perennial budget shortfall during a Toronto Board of Trade luncheon in Toronto. November 24, 2016. (Steve Russell/Toronto Star via Getty Images) By Christopher Hume Long before it began, expectations for 2017 were low. After the last 12 months, which were a genuine annus horribilus, the focus was more on the end of 2016, not the start of the new year. Who can blame us? Has there ever been so little to look forward to? With narcissist-elect Donald Trump about to become leader of the free world and his Russian puppet master, Vladimir Putin, firmly in control, prospects aren't great. The sorts of things that preoccupy us here in Toronto -- housing prices, parking, property taxes, congestion and bike lane creep -- seem insignificant in the face of such unrelieved awfulness. Advertisement But no issue is too small for Mayor John Tory and Toronto city council. Whether it's cutting down a private tree, approving underpass murals or spending $3.5 billion on a one-stop subway line, our elected representatives are hard at work on our behalf, making the tough decisions the rest of us would rather avoid. Unfortunately, Toronto needs the money now. Certainly, 2017 won't be easy for Toronto; it comes with a $91-million operating deficit and $33 billion in unfunded capital projects. Though council still officially maintains the fiction that there are "efficiencies" to be found at city hall, that's more a reflection of lack of imagination than observable reality. Council's fear of raising taxes continues unabated, but prodded by a desperate Tory, council did agree to explore tolls for the Don Valley Parkway and the Gardiner Expressway. But they wouldn't be applied until 2021, so far in the future they seem less than pressing. Unfortunately, Toronto needs the money now. The big challenge for council won't be just to raise revenues, but to reframe its relationship with voters. Currently, councillors view the electorate as a large amorphous beast, slow off the mark but quick to anger and although ever demanding, unwilling to pay the price. Traditionally, Toronto politicians have played along with residents, letting them believe they can have it all and that Daddy will never say no. Problem is, of course, they can't. Advertisement As the gap between what we want and what we can afford grows wider, residents become increasingly frustrated. But who's willing to take that first painful step toward honesty, if not maturity? When will that long-delayed "adult conversation" finally occur? Road tolls were a move in the right direction, but let's be frank, too little and a bit too late. Though they seem radical in a city 30 years behind the advanced world, they're anything but. Perhaps as city manager Peter Wallace told councillors at their last meeting of 2016, council must learn "to treat taxpayers as investors." Again, this will seem a radical notion at first. Accustomed to being treated as children, pampered and primped, voters won't all be thrilled about the idea of being forced to grow up. For councillors, such a demand will be terrifying. The ward system makes the city its personal playground. But Wallace was adamant. "We've got to show them the dividends," he argued. In other words, he was telling councillors, their task is to convince Torontonians that it's worth spending money on Toronto. The better the city does, the better we do. That would be obvious in most cities, but not here. Advertisement Last year, residents of Los Angeles, a.k.a. Car City, voted to raise their taxes to pay for public transit. Meanwhile, every post-amalgamation mayor except David Miller has reinforced the notion that city hall is the enemy, that it's out to waste our money and rip us off. The anti-public-sector rhetoric reached a crescendo under Rob Ford but it can still be heard loud and clear today. It appeals to our most selfish instincts and makes no claim to anything more elevated than Not In My Backyard. We need leaders willing to fight to restore confidence in public enterprise and the notion of the collective good. At a time when trust in government is so low Ford was elected mayor, we need leaders willing to fight to restore confidence in public enterprise and the notion of the collective good, indeed, in civil society itself. In effect, Wallace's enlightened suggestion was that we start the process by changing the culture of Toronto and asking residents to take more responsibility for the city that gives them at least as much as it takes. Rather than simply paying taxes that leaders have told us again and again simply disappear into some abstract general revenue fund, he proposed Torontonians reframe these demands as "investments" in projects that will generate prosperity and enhance quality of life. But before anyone buys into that idea, they need to know their investment will pay off, that the benefits are real. Even at the best of times, that's a hard sell. These days it might even be impossible. Advertisement About the Author:Christopher Hume, former architecture critic and urban affairs columnist at the Toronto Star, left the paper in 2016 to pursue other interests. He is currently working on several documentary projects, writing a book about the political history of 21st-century Toronto, and freelance writing for TorontoStoreys.com. Originally Published at Toronto Storeys. If you enjoyed this story click on "become a fan" at the top of the article, right next to our name. You'll be notified every time we post. Follow HuffPost Canada Blogs on Facebook Also on HuffPost: Sitting in front of her new home in Rabaable Village -- a hut made of dried branches covered with rugs -- Khadija Muuse, 70, sings about a family forced to be apart. Oh, you the deaf, let's move! The boats are ready, why aren't you? Oh, you the deaf, let's move! The boats have left, so have you! Oh, you the deaf, let's move! The boats have left, but why not me? Khadija is among three families -- made up of 15 women and children -- who recently settled in Rabaable village, 20 kilometres from Garowe, the capital of Puntland, Somalia. They are pastoralists uprooted by drought, which has ravaged the country after nearly four years of little or no rain. Advertisement Thanks to the support of the Government of Canada, UNICEF has been working to improve children's access to education and health services in Rabaable and other drought-ravaged areas of Somalia. "We were a poor family, never had that many animals. But even the few we had, we lost them all in the drought," says Khadija. Her extended family, like many Somali families under stress in situations like this, split into two groups -- the men went to the towns and cities to earn a living while the women and children moved in with relatives or went to villages or camps where there may be aid. "The men are in Garowe looking for work. We can't afford to join them so we can only stay here," Khadija says of her family's separation. Advertisement Khadija and her fellow villagers are among the five million people -- nearly two out of every five Somalis -- facing food shortages exacerbated as a result of the ongoing drought. Failed crops and the loss of livestock are causing widespread misery, malnutrition and disease. "We were a poor family, never had that many animals. But even the few we had, we lost them all in the drought." At the moment, 320,000 children are malnourished, among them more than 50,000 are at risk of death without urgent treatment. Shortages of water have hiked water prices, triggered outbreaks of water-borne diseases and exacerbated the malnutrition crisis. A major outbreak of severe diarrhea and cholera hit the country in early 2016, with 13,600 cases reported in the first nine months. But the worst may be yet to come. Precipitation in the currently rainy season, Deyr, which usually extends from October to December, has been well below average. The drought is getting worse in the most affected northern areas of Puntland and Somaliland, and has also spilled over into southern and central regions. With the current weather forecast, life will only get harder for Khadija and millions of Somalis at least until April 2017, the next expected rainy season. Our life is here For Meymun Suleiman, a resident of Rabaable town where Khadija is staying, this drought has been the most severe among all she has witnessed. Advertisement "In previous droughts, you could still see some green in the pastures, but now, all of them are dried up," says Meymun. Meymun runs a small tea shop on the side of the road. Her husband is blind so she is the sole breadwinner of the family of 13 children. She has lost 15 goats in the drought, and the business is not going well. "When our village was green, we had vegetable farms and plenty of animals. People used to stop by and enjoy our farms and also eat and drink. Now, no one is coming," says Meymun. One main reason that Meymun's family and other villagers haven't left Rabaable is that there is still running water. UNICEF recently rehabilitated a well in the village, as well as 11 others in nearby villages, with funds generously provided by donors, including the Canadian Government. Canada's contribution was used to support UNICEF's life-saving services in health and water and sanitation. Advertisement UNICEF also used the funds to set up temporary learning centres with water and sanitation facilities, and provide financial incentives to teachers to minimize the impact of drought on children's education. But the needs are immense. On Nov. 12, 2016, the Federal Government of Somalia issued an appeal to all Somalis and the international community for their support for the drought-stricken communities throughout the country. The authorities in Jubaland, Puntland and Somaliland all followed suit. The worst may be yet to come The UN and its humanitarian partners, meanwhile, have been calling for aid since the beginning of the year. Only a fraction of the $127 million required to respond to the drought in worst-affected Puntland and Somaliland has been raised. If aid comes too little, too late, UNICEF fears that there will be a sharp rise in malnutrition cases among children. The agency urgently needs US$10 million to prevent the situation from deteriorating further. "We are nomadic people, we depend on our livestock," says Meymum of her future plans. "Our life is here, we can't move to Garowe - it's a town - what would we do there?" To support UNICEF's work delivering life-saving assistance to families like Meymum's, click here. Kun Li is Communications Specialist with UNICEF Somalia Follow HuffPost Canada Blogs on Facebook Also on HuffPost: Advertisement Living close to a busy road increases the risk of Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia by up to 12%, a major study has found. Scientists who tracked the progress of more than six million Canadian adults for 11 years found a clear trend with dementia incidence rising the nearer people lived to main roads. Compared with those whose homes were more than 300 metres away, people living within 50 metres of heavy traffic had a 7% higher risk of developing dementia. Advertisement The increase in risk fell to 4% for residents living 50 to 100 metres from a busy road, and 2% at 101 to 200 metres. At more than 200 metres there was no evidence of a link with the condition. Being a resident of a major city or never moving from an urban location close to a busy road appeared to boost the effect. For people in both these categories, living less than 50 metres from a main road was associated with a 12% increase in dementia risk. Although the differences are small, the findings add to recent evidence that long-term exposure to air pollution and traffic noise may contribute to brain shrinkage and mental impairment. Advertisement Other results from the study suggested a connection between dementia and exposure to two common traffic pollutants, nitrogen dioxide and fine particles of sooty material generated by diesel engines. Lead scientist Dr Hong Chen, from Public Health Ontario, said: "Our findings show the closer you live to roads with heavy day-to-day traffic, the greater the risk of developing dementia. With our widespread exposure to traffic and the greater tendency for people to live in cities these days, this has serious public health implications. "Increasing population growth and urbanisation has placed many people close to heavy traffic, and with widespread exposure to traffic and growing rates of dementia, even a modest effect from near-road exposure could pose a large public health burden. "More research to understand this link is needed, particularly into the effects of different aspects of traffic, such as air pollutants and noise." The study, published in The Lancet medical journal, monitored the progress of every adult aged between 20 and 85 living in Ontario from 2001 to 2012. In total, around 6.6 million people took part in the research. Advertisement Post codes were used to determine how close people lived to a road, and rates of dementia, Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis (MS) obtained from medical records. During the study period, the scientists identified 243,611 cases of dementia, 31,577 of Parkinson's and 9,247 of MS. No association was seen between proximity to busy roads and incidence of Parkinson's or multiple sclerosis. British experts described the findings as "important" and "provocative", but stressed that they highlighted associations and did not demonstrate a causal link between exposure to traffic and dementia. Dr David Reynolds, chief scientific officer at Alzheimer's Research UK, said: "There are 850,000 people in the UK living with dementia, and therefore interest in the risk factors driving the condition is high. "This research is interesting in its identification of an association between dementia and major roads, but if any causal link exists between these two factors, it can't be confirmed by this study. Advertisement "Conditions like dementia have multiple risk factors including age and genetics, and other social factors relating to where people live in cities could also be playing a part here. "This study has identified major roads and air pollutants from traffic as possible risk factors for dementia, a finding which will need further investigation before any firm conclusions can be drawn about the relative risks of air pollutants for dementia versus other risks such as smoking, lack of exercise or being overweight." Professor Tom Dening, director of the Centre for Old Age and Dementia at the University of Nottingham, said: "Interesting and provocative findings .. It is certainly plausible that air pollution from motor exhaust fumes may contribute to brain pathology that over time may increase the risk of dementia, and this evidence will add to the unease of people who live in areas of high traffic concentration. "It is unlikely that Ontario has the worst air quality in the world, so the risks might be even greater in cities that are habitually wrapped in smog. "However, as the authors acknowledge here, the cause of these findings cannot be easily ascertained from a cross-sectional study. We simply can't tell if it's down to pollution or some other reason." Advertisement Jack Taylor via Getty Images This blog is adapted from a speech delivered by Chuka Umunna at the launch of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Social Integration interim report on integration of immigrants on Thursday 5 January 2017 This is an important moment for us - the launch of our first report marking the end of the first stage of our inquiry into immigration and integration. I'd like to thank my colleagues on the Social Integration APPG for all their hard work and also The Challenge for their invaluable support as our secretariat. They do the work I want to talk about - building relationships, connecting people, creating trust. Advertisement Immigration and globalization Immigration has been a defining issue in our national politics. We have experienced demographic change on an extraordinary level very quickly. Over the next fifty years our country will continue to change profoundly. We have seen nothing like it in our history. For many it has felt like a whirlwind over which they have little control. It has undermined their way of life and they worry it threatens their culture and identity. And all our main political parties have been far too slow to respond and so we have witnessed the rise of a populist right which claims to speak for 'our people' to the exclusion of others. Globalisation - by which I mean the amalgamation of international economies, the flow of people, capital, information, and services across borders, and new technologies of media and communication - has brought wealth to many but it has also brought instability and extremes of inequality too. People's jobs have been lost as those technologies have transformed work, and factories have shut down and moved overseas. The organisations created by workers to protect themselves and their families from the power of capital have either disappeared or been weakened. Wages have been stagnant and millions struggle to maintain their standard of living. Our country has become more divided as a result. Rich versus poor Our cities against our towns and country. The 52% versus the 48%. North versus south. Old against young. Inequalities of wealth and power that give one part of the country or some groups in society opportunity while robbing others of hope. And these divisions in our economy and national culture were laid bare for us all to see by the EU referendum. The vote to leave was symptom not cause. Lord Peter Hennessy, the historian, has described the referendum as a 'lightening flash that illuminated a landscape that has long been changing.' Advertisement Our country has been fragmenting. Our union of nations pulling apart. People are losing trust in the political system but also in each other. The ties that bind us together into society are frayed and in places they are broken. Our mission must be to rebuild this country. Society In this changing landscape politicians, of all parties have spent our time talking about the market and the state. These two institutions have dominated our politics for over thirty years. For those on the Right it is more of the market and less of the state, for those on the Left it is less of the market and more of the state. In this tit for tat we have neglected society. We have ignored the experience of individuals living and working together. Having families. Making friends. Creating communities. Sharing the good times and leaning on one another during the bad. And so Westminster has become a distant elite. It is the wish of myself and my colleagues on this APPG - of all parties - that we contribute to reversing this trend, putting society first and revitalising our democracy. It is a desire familiar to the best traditions of the socialism to which I subscribe, but of parts of liberal and conservative thought too. A politics that builds on what people hold in common, not on what divides them. Our mutual obligations to one another. A love of family. A commitment to work and to making a contribution. The need for a sense of belonging. A love of country. A willingness to live and let live. To stand for decency and to play fair. These values are deeply rooted in the traditions and institutions of our country. It is these values that will shape our future. The age of globalisation can threaten what is familiar and enduring in our national life but it need not be this way. Our task is to strengthen our common life embracing the best of our past, present and what the future can bring. Our time demands we confront inequalities of power, wealth and opportunity. Our challenge is not to ignore conflict, nor pretend differences between people don't exist, nor avoid the clash of competing interests but to resolve them. To defeat political extremism and restore trust in our system, our politics must be more democratic and must stand for the common good. Advertisement A politics of national renewal that builds a country secure in its borders and in its place in the world, a Parliament more responsive to all its people and a nation prosperous for all its citizens. Renewing our union by recognising people's desire to have more control over their lives in a fast changing world. The report This democratic politics of the common good begins with a full, frank and challenging conversation about the issues which lie at the heart of our national disunity. How will we build a more integrated and united Britain? First we need better controlled immigration. Second we need to improve social integration. Our national conversation on immigration has been polarised. Some believe the country is full. Others want an open door. But a consensus is there to be made. The majority of people - whether they voted Leave or Remain last year - want immigration to be managed democratically by the government they elect. It isn't as much about numbers as it is about control. This view is shared by my constituents in Streatham which voted overwhelmingly to remain and by towns like Boston or Halifax where big majorities voted to leave. What the decision to leave the EU gives us is the opportunity to design a new immigration system. So our report recommends an independent commission to explore how a devolved, regionally-led immigration system might give people a greater sense of democratic control over immigration and change in their area. Shaping immigration criteria to address national or regional needs will instil greater confidence that the system works for every area. Advertisement But Dame Louise Casey's report on opportunity and integration recognises that controlling immigration is not enough. Communities living separately, with few interactions between people from different backgrounds, allows mistrust and prejudice to grow, and leaves a vacuum for those on the extremes on all sides to exploit. Last August I visited Boston and Halifax to meet and talk to people about their experience of immigration. (We will be visiting Dagenham, Bethnal Green & Bow and Redcar in the coming months too.) The pace of change in these towns has created anger and insecurity. In Halifax settled immigrant communities and the majority population lead parallel lives. They do not meet or mix much. Trust is at a low ebb and it increases anxiety, prejudice and the fear of crime. In Boston, a woman told me that she wanted to build a friendship with the Polish woman next door but she had to wait for that neighbours' child to come home from school to translate. Other Bostonians told how they felt uneasy about the young Eastern European men who drank out on the street at night. But many of these men lived in properties without communal space and to which they were only allowed access at certain times of the day. They had nowhere else to go. Advertisement We can and we must act Social integration will grow from the bottom up. Members of the settled population and newcomers alike will shape and strengthen the ties that bind. The job of government - national and local - is to support them to do this. Our report calls on the government to develop a comprehensive national strategy for the economic, civic and social integration of immigrants. Joining up departments and policy making to put integration at the heart of the process of migrating and settling in our country. Enrolling those immigrants who don't speak English in compulsory classes upon arrival in the UK. Investigating whether new immigrants could be automatically placed on opt-out pathways to citizenship. On the role of local government, we say local authorities should have a new statutory duty to promote integration but they must be given the resources to respond to local needs. A new Integration Impact Fund can compliment the additional investment in public services in immigration hotspots established by the last Labour Government, scrapped and now promised to be reinstated by the current government. This new fund should be used to build institutions and community spaces which bring together immigrants and members of the settled population to meet, to resolve differences, to work together and to find what they hold in common. Our sense of belonging is formed through the inheritance of our culture and the everyday common experiences through which we recognise something of ourselves in one another. We all share a desire to live together. Our deeply felt need for community animates our attitudes toward change. But reaching out to people from different backgrounds is not straightforward but can be done. Government has a role to play in supporting integration and the process of creating shared cultures and identities. Earning and belonging I want to finish by returning to Brexit which hangs heavy over this policy area. Brexit is a profound moment for our country. There are many in my own party who believe it is a reactionary one. Advertisement A consequence of xenophobia. A desire to retreat from the world. There is a minority motivated by xenophobia, racism and prejudice. They were responsible for the appalling increase in hate crime recorded in the wake of the vote - we must give no quarter to their prejudice. But this was not what inspired the majority of people who voted to leave. There is no mood in the country for protectionism. England has no history of mass movements of fascism and antisemitism as there have been on the continent. England and Britain more widely is a moderate country with institutions that have evolved over generations to promote the rule of law, religious tolerance and the common good. What I believe Brexit represents is a democratic moment. I say this as someone who passionately campaigned to stay in Europe. But this is my country. I have no fear of it. I trust its people. I trust those who voted to leave because they want more control over their lives. I trust those who voted to remain. They voted differently, but they want the same thing - they believed that staying in the EU was best for the country. No one has a monopoly on patriotism. So there is no need for us to be divided. We have a difficult time ahead. But our country has chosen its course. And so it is ours for the making, as we forge a common life and meet these shared challenges together, unfolding where we work, in our schools, streets, pubs and places of worship, in the places where people from different walks of life come together. Let's build a country which all citizens can call their own. That is what our APPG is all about. PeopleImages.com via Getty Images Three years ago this week, my then ten-year old daughter embarked on the 11+ private school entrance exams. My empathy lies with those now facing the same brutal process, which I still recall so clearly. That year, Christmas fell between a gruelling term of preparation and the exams themselves. "I don't feel Christmassy, Mum," she said as we wrapped presents to the drifts of winter candles and Slade. So I cast aside her punishing school revision timetable. "We'll give you a whole week off over Christmas," I announced, "and we'll have a swear box if anyone mentions the 11+ or exams." Advertisement We made sure that she lived that particular Christmas just as a ten-year old should, blissfully and carefree. Still, I lay awake fretting over what I was about to put her through - my child who was so young she still wanted to believe in Santa. My gut knew that this 11+ circus was ridiculous, but I was a clown on a tricycle chasing all the others round and round that ring. Christmas over and a gloom descended as we trudged through the past papers for Maths, Comprehension and Composition. For the first time, I wondered if we should have gone down the tutoring route, as so many other parents had. We'd stood our ground, believing the head's words that it was not necessary, that secondary schools penalised for what they clearly perceived as a tutored child. What's more, they said if a child is not bright enough to pass the entrance exam without tutoring, then they'd not be able to keep up with the work once there, and that would be cruel. Whatever, it was all academic by then. Two days before her first exam we stopped work and she rested. We mulled over a new jigsaw, a photo of sweets in a heap, which gave her the chance to moot her nerves, and me to offer gentle reassurance. Finally, I cuddled her into bed and settled her down for an early night. Next morning, ours seemed to be the only lit house in the street. We set off in the pitch black to the school, where, with a bright smile and a thumbs-up she clipped off into the hall. When she emerged five hours later, she was still chirpy - apparently it hadn't been too bad - and we headed home to the telly. Over the following ten days, she sat a further four exams, as advised by her school to ensure a good spread and back-ups. But, let's face it, all we parents had a first choice in mind, even if we tried to shield our children from the burden of our hope (and if ever their antennae were up and twitching...). For me, one school had a certain magic about it, a tangible sense of community, of contentment, of inspirational teaching, and we dearly wanted her to get in. Admittedly, she wanted it for herself, though how much of that was... well you know where I'm going. Advertisement Her second exam was at this school - the biggie. After more of our tricky jigsaw and a brisk walk in the sunshine she found sleep easily enough and woke rested. A short bus ride and then we shuffled through a pavement queue, seemingly with all the other ten-year old girls in London. She emerged yet again smiling. It was not as tough as some of this school's past papers and she had coped, her stress visibly melting as we headed off for pizza. As for me, I felt... well I just felt again. Interspersed with the exams were interviews. Advised by school to 'sell herself' my daughter trotted off to her first one. "It means I've got to try and make the interviewer like me," she said. Yes, she'd got the gist I guess, but surely one so young lacked the self-awareness to pick out, evaluate and emphasise her qualities as 'selling points'? My own memories of being ten extend to snatches of The Big Ship Sails on the Alley Alley Oh. We rehearsed a bit of technique - 'look at this painting and tell me what that cat's thinking,' and a bit of the need to impress - 'tell them about the song you wrote and performed at that concert.' They, of course, were wise to that, asking her simply how she might raise a million pounds. Run a mile in the park she'd said - adding, well you'd have to do it a few times! Back home, the cat had started nicking pieces of the sweet-shop jigsaw; I found some on the stairs, and hoped he'd not been eating them too. The puzzle eased us through two more exams to the final one, which she tackled like an old hand, somehow marshalling that last spurt of adrenaline. It was over. I presented her with Taylor Swift tickets, her first ever concert, and her treat for such amazing resilience. We'd heard dreadful stories, of kids throwing up, of tears, and even meltdown, and our daughter had come out of this, the most intense experience of her life so far, optimistic and upbeat. She was so young that I could still count her age in months, she'd been on the planet for just 128 of them, but during that particular month she'd matured, and now seemed like a child who never had believed in Santa. It had been a rite of passage for her. It had been a far cry from the Big Ship Sails on the Alley Alley Oh. For me, it felt like some giant social experiment: how much can we squeeze out of a child so young? I fear it is now even more ferociously competitive. Will new schools open to meet demand? Will expensive tutoring become the norm? They say everyone gets a place somewhere, that it all comes out in the wash, but I would hate to go through this again. Triumphantly, we two slotted in the final pieces of our jigsaw - none had been snaffled by the cat - and then the long wait began. "I'm relieved, nervous and worried all at once, Mum," she told me. Quite a complex mix for a girl I'd assumed was unable to sell herself. The post came on Valentine's Day. At the thump on the mat I scuttled to the hallway looking only for fat envelopes, not red ones; there were four of them. I tore open the one from her first choice school and saw only, "We are delighted..." We skipped around the room. Later, as I shared texts with other mums it did feel suddenly as if the whole saga hadn't been that dreadful after all. But then we all knew that it had. As my mother-in-law said to her late husband on their wedding night, "Oh, Eric, it's all over!" And he cocked his head with a smile. "Don't you mean it's just beginning?" Goodshoot via Getty Images Mark Malcomson, CEO and principle of London-based college 'City Lit' since May 2011 has been honoured with a CBE in the 2016 honours list. While 'private' colleges like City Lit are thriving, state funded further education (FE) institutions are suffering. The elite may be able to access an education with a price tag but the National Union of Students' (NUS) is failing FE students. Further Education students are the biggest single group within the NUS, but it certainly doesn't feel that way. As a sixth former I felt underrepresented, marginalised and left behind. NUS is seeking to reverse this injustice but there's a long way to go. Advertisement Colleges have less money and aren't necessarily getting the union support they need. The Association of Colleges estimates that college funding has fallen by 27% since 2010. FE students are one of the many groups which have fallen victim to cuts. And they don't all necessarily know about it. Like most young adults in FE, Bea Isaacson didn't know that the NUS even 'represents' her. "It's no wonder students disassociate from the union and only use the card for a free McFlurry." Isaacson was only a fan of NUS because it meant a 20% student discount at Topshop. NUS seems to have failed her and many other sixth formers. NUS has become a service instead of a union. It's time we unify and change the system. Shakira Martin could be the force needed to inform and improve students like Isaacson's education. Re-elected for a second term as NUS VP for FE, Martin's "full of energy" and ready to take on the challenge. Representing 4.1 million students she takes her role of "educating and inspiring" seriously and does so "at the bus stop, in the club loo and everywhere I can". She acknowledges that "you can't expect people to care if their needs aren't being fulfilled" and is aiming to deliver the"true voice for our generation" to a united NUS. It's an issue close to her heart- Martin's community (Lewisham) have had the "lifeline taken away from kids- people are literally dying because of them. Men are on streets doing things they know they shouldn't be because they can't afford education". She's approaching a modern issue using modern (and any) means possible and is possibly FE's best chance of salvation. Advertisement It's important that Martin and NUS help to lay the foundations for change but it's useless if students aren't aware. Many colleges don't have unions. Welsh student Ebbi Ferguson's college encountered this, "so I made one". But student council has never been sexy. Student politics has a bad reputation of being 'full of nutters' and doesn't gather much of a turn out. Even if students like Furgeson step up and create unions, it may not be enough to remedy the age old issue of apathy. It's a two way street. If students want change, they need to be willing to turn up and protest for their rights. But with A Levels, BTECs and access courses time is short. For even the most politically engaged students it can be hard to prioritise the fight for freedom over your final grade. Active members of NUS (those attending conference and voting for representatives) who aren't in Higher Education are a minority. Charley Hasted, Lambeth College student, is outraged at how "FE students make up 2/3 NUS membership. At the recent LGBT conference only 15/300 delegates were from FE institutions". They're not only underrepresented but also overcharged. "Because we have so little money we're regularly paying far more proportionally to access NUS yet tend to have less people here." Should students be charged based on how loudly (and effectively) the voice delivering their message shouts? Many in FE have serious concerns that need to be adequately represented to authorities such as the government. Liverpool College student Ann Marie said that lack of funds stands between most Liverpudlians and the education they would otherwise pursue. "We're not like David Cameron and the rest of the blooming tories born with a silver spoon in our gobs". "I'm doing a level 2 photography course at the moment hoping to go to level 3. As an adult student I shouldn't have to take a loan out there should be free education for all". But Ann Marie is lucky, many students aren't making it to level 2 courses and figures show the numbers participating (in the first two quarters of 2015/16) fell by 21.4% compared to the previous year. Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Jan. 5 By Huseyn Hasanov Trend: The National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) has repeatedly violated its obligations during the implementation of the contract for the supply of Turkmen gas to Iran, the Foreign Ministry of Turkmenistan said in a message. Despite the fact that the take or pay principle is one of the main conditions of the contract, the NIGC hasnt taken large volumes of the Turkmen gas for several years, the message said. At the same time, the company didnt pay any financial compensation to Turkmenistan. In addition, the information posted by the NIGC on its website about the alleged violation of the contract by the Turkmengaz State Concern in terms of the quality and the volume of gas supplied to Iran, doesnt correspond to reality, said the message. We consider this tendentious and biased information posted by the NIGC as an attempt to confuse everybody regarding the issue related to the repayment of the companys debt to the Turkmen side, the Turkmen Foreign Ministry said in its message. The ministry also points out that the unilateral statements made by the NIGC about many hours of fruitless negotiations are unfounded and emotional. In this regard, it should be emphasized that meetings, consultations and negotiations with representatives of Irans Oil Ministry and the NIGC are regularly held namely at the initiative of the Turkmen side, said the message. In this process, the Turkmen side repeatedly made concrete proposals aimed not only at addressing the emerging issues related to gas supply according to the long-term contract, but also related to the expansion of the Turkmen-Iranian cooperation in the gas sphere. Thanks to such constructive approach of the Turkmen side, it was possible to achieve results on topical issues of the gas partnership between Turkmenistan and Iran, the Turkmen Foreign Ministry added. Turkmenistan supplies natural gas to Iran since 1997, after commissioning of the gas pipeline from its western Korpeje field to the Iranian city of Kordkuy. The current buzzword in the Scotch whisky industry seems to be experimentation. This year we have seen major brands releasing whiskies that have been matured in funky wine casks, creating new recipes and collaborating with craft beer brewers. But is the phenomena in danger of snowballing out of control? Experimentation has generally been seen as the realm of the craft or artisan distiller, especially those new to the scene. The major players argue that they have always been experimenting throughout their history and that this is simply taking it to the next level. So what are the big whisky brands trying to achieve from this experimentation? Is it to simply diversify their range? Is it to make their product more attractive to a wider audience or new drinkers? Or is it to be seen as a 'craft' product themselves? Advertisement The reality seems to be a combination of all three in most cases. The danger seems to be that these brands could potentially lose their distillery character and identity amongst the wealth of experiments and new flavours, or that their ranges become diluted by so many new expressions of whisky. However, amidst all of this innovation is there still a place for the good traditional Scotch whisky styles? After all, this is what has made the drink so popular in the first place and sees sales continuing to grow in numerous markets. A recent conversation with Dennis Malcolm, the legendary Master Distiller at the Glen Grant distillery in Speyside and a recent recipient of an OBE for his 50+ years of service to the whisky industry, made me think of this and the context of this current trend. One thing that he said particularly struck me. "Everyone is striving to be unique, but we at Glen Grant do not want to be like everyone else. We are good at what we do and want to celebrate that. We want to be the best in class." In this modern age where experimentation seems to be occupying many brands, there is something quite refreshing about this approach that I like. Essentially - be great at what you do and then continue to do it to the best level that you can. Dennis Malcolm receiving his OBE at Buckingham Palace. Image Gruppo Campari. Malcolm's and Glen Grant's ethos seems to hold true - it continues to bear fruit as they recently picked up the award of Scotch Whisky of the Year, and second place in the overall Whisky of the Year category, for their new 18 years old expression in the 2017 edition of Jim Murray's Whisky Bible. So is there a danger that people may forget just how good the traditional styles of whisky can be when they are made and matured well? That said, some of the experimental whiskies released recently have been impressive and very enjoyable. However, it is the same predicament as people seemingly forgetting what a good beer tastes like amidst the swarm of over-hopped hipster craft ales. Are people fixated on new craft distilleries and experimental products from established brands? Advertisement Glen Grant, and the few others across Scotland that continue to plough their traditional furrows, should be applauded and appreciated for what they are and what they are doing. The frenzy that greets every new experimental release is understandable and it is easy to get carried away. Photographer's Credit: Jo Harrison/ActionAid Over the last week the ever more shrill criticism of international aid found a new target - the practise of giving money directly to some of the poorest and most vulnerable people, otherwise known as cash transfers. The allegation made was that this amounted to setting up UK-funded cashpoints for the poor. However the reality is somewhat different. Clearly, every effort should be made to ensure aid money is never be misspent or wasted - but in the right circumstances cash-transfers are in fact widely recognised as both an effective and highly cost-efficient use of aid money. An argument rightly made by Prime Minister Theresa May when she publicly defended the approach. In the right circumstances, giving poor people the ability to make choices by cash transfers empowers them and is an efficient way to use resources. It is also backed up by extensive research Advertisement The National Audit Office, the UK Government's effectiveness watchdog, found that Department for International Development transfers were targeting aid at some of the most impoverished and vulnerable people and that the "transfers show clear immediate benefits including reduced hunger and raised incomes." A separate study by the respected Overseas Development Institute (ODI) found that cash transfers can be 25-30% more efficient than food aid, especially in humanitarian situations. Cash payments are effective because they allow people to spend the money on what they need most, rather than having other people decide on their behalf. This is particularly important to help empower women who might not otherwise have access to money or be able to make spending decisions. Money will often be spent in local markets, meaning that it can help protect local production, create jobs and benefit other people in the area. However, there should always be strong safeguards in place to ensure payments are not exploited for fraud or corruption. Advertisement Direct cash transfers have been shown to be one of the most effective and financially efficient ways of tackling poverty or assisting with disasters. Nepal earthquakes Cash transfers are widely used across the aid sector. At ActionAid, we have seen how cash payments can help empower women, particularly in emergency situations. In Nepal we helped 1,600 households to rebuild following the devastating earthquakes in 2015. Among them was Julum Tamang, 52 years old from Kavre district, who was one of many in her village who lost her home and livelihood as a result of the earthquake. ActionAid gave her the metal sheets and toolkits she needed to build a temporary shelter for her and her family, but also 15,000 Rupees (just over 110) to begin rebuilding their lives. With the support she received, she invested the money to buy an ox which she hires out to others to plough their fields or breed with their cows. She says: "The ox I bought has helped me a lot to support my livelihood... it has been a good economic source for me." Julum Tamang in her village Photographer's Credit: Jo Harrison/ActionAid Haiti hurricane In Haiti, ActionAid was the first organisation to reach women in some of the areas worst affected by Hurricane Matthew in October. Elphine Joseph, 70, had her home destroyed by the hurricane and had nothing to rebuild it with. We ran a programme to help support and empower 1,000 women like Elphine, giving them 10,000 Gourdes (around 120) through an already established local microfinance institution. This money enabled Elphine and women like her to start recovering from the storm's impact, and buy the things they needed like shelter materials or food. Advertisement Ephine's home was destroyed by hurricane Matthew An effective approach The UK has a proud history of supporting those most in need. We are one of the few countries to meet the UN target of spending 0.7% (the equivalent of 70p in every 100 the UK earns) on international aid - a commitment which is helping to transform the lives of people around the world. The generosity of the UK helps to cure disease, feed starving families and send girls to school for the first time. Aid money is precious and should always be spent wisely and focused on those who need it most. It is money that is needed to help give the poorest people in the world a decent and dignified life, and is a vital investment that is bringing us closer to a world without extreme poverty (the number of people earning less than US$1 a day has more-than halved since 1990). Giving cash directly to women like Julum and Elphine is not wasteful but it is empowering and effective. We need to be vigilant to always ensure aid money is not being misspent. User-generated content, bring your own device and big data were some of the fastest growing EdTech topics of 2016. Here are eight ideas and expert predictions for the year ahead. 1. Future Skills Proofing Increasingly, educators are recognising the need to equip young learners for a modern workplace where they will work with and compete against machines with artificial intelligence. As well as placing a greater emphasis on STEM education, many schools and universities are working to cultivate skills like creativity and empathy, which are thought to be harder for machines to replicate. EdTechX Global co-founder, Benjamin Vedrenne-Cloquet, says 'I think we will see future skills proofing in both primary and secondary schools.' Advertisement 2. More Learning Outside the Classroom 2016 saw flipped learning become mainstream in many schools and there now exist many opportunities for digitally assisted learning that can happen from any location. Technology at school is now better linked with technology at home and many predict that 2017 will see further disintegration of the classroom walls. 'I think we'll see an increased use of online, cloud-based platforms at schools' says Geoff Stead. 'Platforms such as Edmodo, Turnitin and Google Classroom blur the boundaries between inside and outside the classroom, allowing students to connect, submit work and see schedules on any device.' '2017 will see more opportunities for family, home-learning applications to connect and integrate with formal-learning, school-based software' predicts Marc Goodchild. Advertisement The popularity of flexible learning seems likely to continue into 2017 with mobile-based apps such as EduMe used to deliver corporate training. 3. Virtual Reality Headsets for Classroom and Conferencing Technology A controversial topic, since many remain convinced that VR is overhyped, but it seems likely that 2017 will see further experimental use of virtual reality headsets, allowing educators to evaluate both the pros and the cons. 4. Digital Textbook Provision in more Universities Mobile-optimised and integrated with collaborative learning tools, digital textbook providers such as Kortext are designed to appeal to an 'on-demand' generation of students who want immediate access to their learning materials, including core texts and journals. It's perhaps for this reason that 75% of educators surveyed believe that digital learning content will replace the printed textbook within the next 10 years, according to Deloitte's 2016 Digital Education Survey. 5. Machine Learning for Greater Personalisation 'We will see more personalised adaptive learning powered by machine learning' says Priya Lakhani 'We will see more machine learning, adaptive learning and cognitive platforms supporting autism' says Alan Greenburg, who references the work of Professor Simon Barron-Cohen from Cambridge University and The Autism Research Trust. Advertisement 6. Online Exams Research shows that today's students can type significantly faster than they can write and, using services like DigiExam, teachers can grade papers anonymously with the option to auto-correct single-choice questions. For these reasons it's predicted that a great number of schools and universities will switch to online exams this year. 7. Even more Blended Learning 'I think 2017 will see increased hybridity: mixing some AI type services (like the chatbot) together with traditional face to face teaching to supplement and extend' says Geoff Stead. 8. Chatbots for Mental Health Increasing numbers of children and young people are accessing mental health services say NHS England. Getty Forcing immigrants to learn English, migrant groups living "parallel lives", a "democratically" managed immigration system - as someone who has done my fair share of Ukip reporting, these are all phrases and arguments I have heard many times before. But today it was Labour MP Chuka Umunna - a man frequently described by Nigel Farage as the "high priest" of the so-called Metropolitan Liberal Elite - who was speaking those words. Advertisement At the launch of a report into the impact of immigration on social integration, Umunna made it clear that high levels of migration has had an impact on community cohesion. He set out a range of measures - including the forced learning of English - which he believes are needed to help tackle the issue. Does this new focus on immigration and integration mean that one of Labour's most recognisible politicians has shifted to the right and is aping Ukip? Or does it mean that topics which for so long were associated with Farage and Ukip are now finally being recognised by those in Westminster? I believe it is the latter: Umunna is not trying to be Farage. They have both diagnosed the same problem, but are prescribing different remedies. Advertisement "If we seek to align ourselves with people approaching this immigration issue who say 'shut the borders, all of the problems in our country are caused by immigrants' that will simply be a betrayal of our values and we may as well pack up and go home. But equally if we deny that population change poses a challenge to communities then the communities we represent will feel that we have got our heads in the sands" - Chukka Umunna When you consider the issues at play - the impact of immigration on working class communities across the country - it is slightly baffling as to why the Labour hierarchy has not focused on them before. As has been reported numerous times, particularly in the excellent Revolt on the Right book by Matthew Goodwin and Rob Ford, Ukip enjoy significant popularity in working-class communities precisely because they do talk about these issues. Quite simply, many clearly felt Labour did have its head in the sand when it came to immigration and integration. Umunna is not the only Labour politician in recent months to conclude that one of the lessons of the EU referendum is the impact of immigration on communities. Stephen Kinnock, Rachel Reeves, Emma Reynolds, Jonathan Reynolds and Andy Burnham have all called for immigration controls as part of any Brexit deal. Advertisement Umunna himself has admitted that if he was presented with the choice of the UK staying in the Single Market on its current terms, or claiming back control of immigration, he would opt for the latter. His critics, particularly those on the left, would claim that this MPs are simply giving in to the xenophobic politics pedaled by those on the right. But it is important to note what Umunna did not say - either in today's speech or the report. He didn't call for an actual reduction in the number of immigrants coming to the UK - despite, according to the Office for National Statistics, the figure running at an all time high. Umunna and his colleagues are instead arguing that those who come to the UK need to integrate better, not necessarily that fewer need to come. Unlike Farage, Umunna did not say that hearing foreign languages being spoken in public made him "feel awkward". The Labour MP's call for all immigrants to be able to speak English is designed to complement migrant's existing skills, not replace them. Advertisement Umunna is trying to find a middle way between the close-all-the-borders rhetoric of some Leave campaigners, and the protect-freedom-of-movement-at-all cost cries of hard-core Remainers. While this may be an intellectual responsible course of action for Labour, it could hold short-term pain at the ballot box. As Vernon Coaker, the Labour MP who coordinated the party's campaign in the Sleaford by-election in December, attested, the voters are still very much in a Leave or Remain mindset. Other issues, such as local NHS provision, "hardly caused a whisper", said Coaker in an article for Labour List. "Campaigning on the streets of Lincolnshire, I discussed little other than Europe with voters," he said. He went on to say that: "There is a majority in the UK who seek a tolerant, multicultural society united by a belief in fairness, greater equality and social justice. "We must be the voice of those people, but we can only do that by addressing their concerns, not what we believe are their concerns." Advertisement Route55 via Getty Images Today's publication of the All Party Parliamentary Group's report on the Integration of Immigrants is a welcome call for action. Since 2004, we have seen the largest single wave of in-migration that Britain has ever experienced, we have witnessed growing inequalities, rapid technological advancements driven by globalisation, and austerity measures which have undermined opportunities for social mixing and migrant integration. Yet, we have seen no proactive government policies to support the communities experiencing this extraordinary social change. Advertisement Instead, we have seen a distinct lack of leadership on immigration and integration. Rather than supporting immigrants and their receiving communities, government policy and rhetoric has often undermined integration efforts and pandered to tabloid headlines. The government's consistent failure to meet its own immigration targets, for example, has undermined public confidence in the ability to manage migration effectively and encouraged popular resentment against migrants. In addition, poor and belated planning by central government and local authorities, as well as the post-2008 austerity measures, have created pinch points in schools and GP services which are under pressure. This has further stoked resentment in communities that are already divided by language. Meanwhile, some second- and third-generation migrants, as well as white boys in deprived areas, continue to face entrenched economic problems of their own. We have failed to address these and get to grips with industrial decline and technological advances that have scarred many communities. Yet the problems in a place like Lambeth are very different from those in a place like Crewe, and that's why it has to be local authorities that take the lead in implementing integration policies. They need dedicated funds to do this and the government's 100 million Controlling Migration Fund promises to help ease the pressures on public services in those local authorities experiencing high levels of immigration. Yet this remains a reactive measure that deals with integration as an afterthought and not an upfront consideration in the planning of local services. In contrast, other parts of Europe have been more proactive on migrant integration by providing state-sponsored support to facilitate the civic integration of immigrants. Austria, for example, has an Integration Fund and Integration Centres which offer immigrants language courses, help to access the labour market and support with their education. There is a lesson here for the UK: integration cannot be left to chance. It requires state intervention to give immigrants the opportunity to participate equally in the social, civic and economic life of this country. Reversing the recent cuts to English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) provision and smoothing pathways to citizenship would be a start in this respect. Advertisement Brexit has been our wake-up call, revealing a country divided not just along the lines of nationality and race, but also of class, geography and age. Globalisation has not delivered for all and we need a comprehensive integration strategy from Government to tackle this. This plan needs to embody an inclusive, national narrative that defines integration as the responsibility of us all: a two way process which is the responsibility of both the 'host' society and the immigrant communities. It needs to define integration as the success of all groups, and not just a problem concerning 'Muslim women' or 'Black boys'. And it must adequately finance the practical aspects of integration, such as English language provision and adult learning and youth services, all of which have faced drastic cuts in recent years. This will mean tackling some difficult questions: how do we integrate migrants in low-skilled work that entails long hours and poor working conditions? How can we encourage social mixing between different communities that may be more engaged with their social media feeds than with each other? And how do we make integration happen at a practical level when austerity has impoverished working-class communities of all backgrounds? How do parents juggle their careers and manage their child's education? A recent Classlist survey suggests parents are far less involved in what's going on at school than they would like to be. Early evidence suggests this isn't good for educational outcomes. 'Tiger Moms' aren't the answer but absent parents could be worse. Technology can help - or can lead to reduced communication and exclusion. As co-founder of the UK's first purpose built parent-to-parent social platform, Classlist, I was curious to explore how parents feel about their relationship with the school community. Our recent survey of 1,540 parents found that three quarters don't feel as involved in their child's school life as they would like to be. On the engagement side, two thirds of parents don't know the names of their child's friend's parents - suggesting school communities are far weaker than we might suppose. Fathers were three times less likely to know. A third of parents never drop off or pick up their children from school, and almost one in ten parents said they never discuss school with their child. The juggling act Parenting in the UK has changed radically in the last twenty years. Single parent families make up a full one quarter of families with dependent children, and the majority of UK parents work full time*. My co-founder at Classlist, Clare and I know how hard it is to juggle parenting and full-time work. Trying to keep up to date with after school and homework clubs, school trips, exam timetables and who's who in the playground is exhausting for any parent, let alone those working 37+ hour weeks. Advertisement This month, we've seen the UK falling again in the global Pisa rankings for both Maths and English. So just how should parents follow UK OFSTED guidance and increase "parental engagement" with their school and with other parents? Technology - friend or enemy? Can technology help? Often it's quite the reverse. Once teenagers return from school, they prefer racing upstairs to Snapchat rather than talking about their day over the dinner table. Parents trying to link up with other parents through Facebook and WhatsApp groups tell us these often become very cliquey, or populated with serial moaners. Big social media sites never feel very private or secure - a major concern where children's details are involved. From direct experience working with over 500 UK schools, we find that if parents belong to a strong, supportive community it makes the job of parenting a whole lot easier. That's why we've built Classlist. We've also found that having a strong, active parent teacher association and supportive school heads really helps to make sure that everybody's included. It's all about trust Our survey shows that most parents want to be involved. But security, privacy and above all high levels of trust need to be in place before any of this can work online. It's worth the effort. If we can use technology to harness the power of the community and increase parent engagement, the prize is a supportive school environment where families help each other rather than feeling isolated. The kind of place where parents and pupils feel at home. The kind of place where communicating and learning matters, and Pisa scores take care of themselves.. Advertisement Stephan Senzel via Getty Images The decline of religious belief in the UK is happening. Its progress is slow, and inconsistent, but it is happening. The British Social Attitudes survey, an annual process, tracked the moment in 2013 when the Church of England's practising community fell below 50% of the total population. This year's BSA study recorded 48% of participants to have "no religion" at all. There is no doubt that generational shifts have a role to play. The number of senior celebrities passing away this year is a stark reminder of this truth. The interesting statistics lay, at least for me, in those surrounding young people. What their statistics show is a window into the future of religious practice; Professor Linda Woodhead saw small fluctuations as shadows of a larger-scale, declining trend we ought to acknowledge, "We shouldn't be looking to see a collapse in numbers in a few years, we have got to look at the long-term picture. But I can't imagine any factor that would lead this trend to change." Advertisement From personal experience, I remember attending church regularly for major holidays; a practice which has since ceased in our household. Christmas, for example, has always been about family values for me, but increasingly less about observing midnight mass. Focusing on what statistical evidence we do have; the data related to young people portrayed an increasing slump in those identifying with organised religious bodies, even bordering on increasing distrust of these entities. YouGov found over half of millennials had "no religion"; 38% of those not believing in any God or "greater spiritual power" whatsoever. More recent BSA findings found 62% of younger people (under 25) identify as "non-believers", which was actually a drop from 65%, the year before. That same poll noted that 41% of young, British people in the study also felt that religion was "the cause of evil, rather than good" in the world. There are plenty of factors that might have caused this statistic, however there is a definite inclination to point a finger to issues like growing instances of Islamophobia in relation to global conflicts, or abuse scandals closer to home. These issues have almost certainly triggered some degree of distrust in religious bodies. The most I can reasonably predict from my own inconclusive level of knowledge would be that young people are often finding a form of inner-spirituality, a more personal God if you will, as an alternative to the traditional format of organised church-going. As the population grows, we also must acknowledge the increasingly diverse population we now have. In 2013, approximately 1 in 10 people under 25 identified as Muslim, while the total number practising alternative religions to Christianity (Judaism, Sikhism, Hinduism and Islam, for example) trebled from 2% in 1983 to 6%. The issue with many of these studies is their leaning towards a decline in Christianity or Catholicism in the UK, which can be skewed by any number of factors beyond a sense of distrust in the church or lack of religious parenting. Advertisement Interesting statistics from European Global attitudes studies discovered that an overwhelming majority of young people feel that religious belief is not a prerequisite to being a moral person; 85% in France and 80% in Spain, respectively. This sort of information begins to offer insight into the future of what our religious world might become. An internal spirituality might be becoming the only church many us need. Although, this process will not only be incredibly gradual, but possibly too intertwined with other factors to ever be accurately pinpointed. The recent scandal surrounding Jewish people opting for certain Universities based on anti-Semitic perceptions of certain institutions was worrying to say the least, but ultimately difficult to classify as result of trending belief. In Exeter, for example, the Friends of Palestine Society hosted a renowned Anti-Semite to speak. This sort of issue, one found at many Universities who regularly host divisive speakers, can be equally related to freedom of speech and expression arguments as much as it is an issue of religious division and decline. Is there any hope for positive political developments and move toward democracy in Iran, or the hardliners have shut all the doors for the foreseeable future? Perhaps the fate of the leaders of Iran's Green Movement - former Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi and his wife Dr. Zahra Rahnavard, and former Speaker of the Majles [parliament] Mehdi Karroubi - can provide some clues to this important question. They have been under strict house arrest since February 2011. All are in their 70s, with Karroubi approaching 80. Their release from house arrest has been a national demand, with President Hassan Rouhani and Majles deputies adding their voice to the demand. During his campaign for president in 2013 Rouhani had promised to try to release them. Only Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei makes the decision for releasing the trio, and he has made it clear that he opposes it. In fact, he has repeatedly stated that the "sedition" - the name he gave to the Green Movement - is the "redline" of his regime. For example, in a meeting with Rouhani and his cabinet in 2014 Khamenei said, "The problem of the sedition and the seditionists is a critical issue and a redline that you gentlemen [the cabinet] must keep in mind and keep your distance from it, just as you promised when you received vote of confidence [from the Majles]." Most recently, Mohammad Reza Toyserkaani, Khamenei's representative to the Basij paramilitary force said on December 5, "The Supreme Leader wants [continuation of] the house arrest [of the trio]. If they repent, they will be treated kindly and pardoned. But without repenting it would be unwise to pardon them." Advertisement Ali Motahhari, Deputy Speaker of the Majles who has courageously pursued the release of the trio said recently, "Because the Supreme Leader wants to continue the house arrest, other officials do not discuss the issue [with him]." Since his election in 2013, President Rouhani has pursued release of the three leaders from house arrest, but has always been opposed by Khamenei, the IRGC high command, and some senior clerics close to Khamenei. Motahhari has also stated that Rouhani has spoken to Khamenei about releasing the three leaders from house arrest, as well as lifting the ban on the press publishing pictures of former Reformist President Mohammad Khatami, but has not been able to convince Khamenei to do so. The 10th Majles that was elected in February 2016 represented a small step forward in that, many of the elected deputies want the three leaders to gain their freedom, but only few of them dare to speak about it publicly. The current Majles is also much more moderate than the last one that was controlled by the extremists. But, pressure on Khamenei is mounting, prompting cleric Ahmad Alam-olhoda, Khamenei's ally and his representative to the Khorasan Razavi province (in northeastern Iran) to declare on December 30 that the three leaders have become agents of the United States to topple the Islamic Republic, and "from a most scared organ of the Islamic Republic, the Majles, whispers are heard in support of the "sedition." Knowingly or unknowingly, they [the Majles deputies] are sending signals to the United States that if it begins a new "sedition," they will act as the U.S. agents." Advertisement Khamenei's Desired "Bipolar" Political Environment The third step toward moderation, after electing Rouhani in 2013 and the 10th Majles last year will be taken in the next five months. Iran's next presidential elections will be held on 19 May 2017. Khamenei, his appointed clerics, and senior military and intelligence officials have been fiercely attacking Rouhani for negotiating the nuclear agreement with P5+1, claiming that he made a grave mistake, with some even declaring that Rouhani committed treason. Their goal is to either defeat him in the upcoming elections, or weaken him strongly, rendering him useless to the moderates and reformists., The hardliners have been trying to create a bipolar political environment based on dividing the people into "revolutionary" and "counter-revolutionary." The "revolutionaries" are those who oppose the U.S. and negotiating with it to resolve the disputes; support the "axis of resistance" in the Middle East - Iran, Syria, the Lebanese Hezbollah and Hamas - against Israel; support the "resistance economy", a vague notion proposed by Khamenei to help the poor, and profess continued loyalty to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and Khamenei. On the other hand, Khamenei and other hardliners believe that the "counter-revolutionaries" are those who support negotiations with the U.S. and are creating an even worse "sedition" by presenting the "criminal and imperialist" United States as a nation that can help Iran solve its problems: do not shout any slogan against Israel and do not support the "resistance axis;" advocate a neoliberal economy for Iran that will make the rich richer, and those who want to transform the Islamic Republic to a liberal democracy. December 31 is the 7th anniversary of the day that the hardliners claim the "Iranian nation" put down the Green Movement for good. Thus, using it as an excuse, the hardliners have been once again attacking fiercely the Green Movement's leaders, claiming that their house arrest is the "most merciful act" by Khamenei. Otherwise, they say, the trio must be put on trial with their least punishment being execution for committing treason, trying to stage a coup, starting a "colored revolution," and other "treasonous" acts. Advertisement Khamenei and his supporters are well aware that they cannot put the trio on trial, as it will leader to large-scale demonstrations throughout the country. Their goal in talking about executing the three is preventing further debates on their release from house arrest. Karroubi has repeatedly demanded to be put on trial, but the hardliners have refused. Yousef Tabatabaei, Khamenei's representative to the Isfahan province in central Iran said the other day, "As a judge of the Supreme Court I know that if they [the Green Movement's leaders] are put on trial, their punishment will undoubtedly be execution. Due to the interests of the nation, the Supreme Leader and other Marjas [grand ayatollahs and source of emulation for the Shiite masses] can sometimes reduce their punishment, which is what has happened here." Another hardline cleric, Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, has also stated multiple times that the execution is the appropriate punishment for the three leaders, but due to the interests of the nation, they have not been hanged on the order by Khamenei. Democratic Groups' Desired Bipolar political Environment As Iran's presidential elections are approached, the state usually allows more freedom of expression and the press in order to encourage people to participate in the electoral process. This provides the people with the opportunity to talk about their demands and aspirations. Although the hardliners try to present themselves as the true revolutionaries, and their opponents as the counter-revolutionaries, they do not like an open political environment, and support a society that is closed to the outside world, socially, economically, politically, and culturally. Their "anti-foreigners" tendencies are along the same lines as those of other right wingers worldwide, such as those in Europe and the United States. Of course, Iran's true revolutionaries are the critics of the present state-of-affairs. They want peaceful revolution - reforms - to change the system for the better. In particular, the release from prison of all political prisoners, including the Green Movement's leaders, is one of their prime demands. Thus, the main fissures in Iran are those that separate dictatorship from democracy. Democratic groups, which respect fundamental rights of the citizens, are standing against the groups that support the religious dictatorship. It is in this way that the democrats try to create a bipolar political environment in Iran. Given the current balance of power in the country and the conditions in the regions, the democratic groups have modest goals, but they are trying to eliminate the military and radical right from the political arena through democratic means. Advertisement The Iranian people have witnessed the catastrophic results of the military interventions of the West and its allies in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Yemen, which have resulted in total destruction, over a million dead, and millions of refugees, not to mention the possibility of disintegration of these nations. They do not wish a similar fate for their nation. But, due to its dictatorial nature, the Islamic Republic has, on the one hand, institutionalized ethnic, religious, and gender discriminations and, on the other hand, due to its confrontation with Saudi Arabia and Israel is being presented as a nation far more powerful than its actual strength, in order to demonize it so that it could have the same fate as Syria and Iraq. Thus the threat to Iran is grave. Under such conditions, wisdom and Iran's national interests call for caution. If Iran, a nation of 80 million people, has the same fate as Syria, millions will be killed and millions more will be refugees, the consequences of which will be catastrophic for the entire world. Thus, opposing the dictatorship of the Islamic Republic cannot be synonymous with opposing Iran as a nation and its people. The only way to move forward is through a peaceful transition to democracy and respect for human rights. Iran and the Incoming Trump Administration Polls indicate that a large majority of the American people also oppose military intervention in other countries. During his campaign for president Donald Trump repeatedly declared his opposition to "regime change" that the neoconservatives have favored. But, given the national security team that he has selected so far, the Iranian people cannot be sure about the direction that the Trump administration will take regarding their country. Many members of President-Elect Trump are fiercely anti-Iran. In the past, some in the GOP have called for bombing Iran. Sheldon Adelson, a major backer of Trump, even called for nuclear attack on Iran. Advertisement Iranian reformists and moderates, and the Green Movement's leaders want better relations with Western nations and the United States. They are worried that the Trump administration will take a course action that will only benefit Iran's hardliners, leading to the elimination of the moderates from power. Trying to scrap the nuclear agreement with Iran, or imposing new sanctions will only benefit the hardliners, but hurt the moderates. Iran and the United States have many common interests in the Middle East. Good relations between the two countries will contribute to Iran transitioning to a democratic state. On the other hand, external pressure will be used by the hardliners to further their repression of the Iranian people. If the reformists and moderates can defeat the hardliners in the upcoming elections by a wide margin, President Rouhani will be able to form a more effective cabinet. The defeat of Iran's extreme right is a major defeat for Khamenei. The democratic groups have no choice but supporting the moderates, so that the peaceful transition to democracy becomes possible. The threats that Khamenei and IRGC commanders make for executing the Green Movement's leaders and further tightening the restrictions against Khatami indicate, more than anything else, that they are terrified by the four leaders, and that the Green Movement has a powerful social base. Leaders of the Green Movement are Iran's national asset who can help their nation and their peaceful movement for a democratic state. The world should pressure Khamenei to release the three leaders. Iran is different from the rest of the world. In Iran Mohammad Mojtahed Shabestari proclaims that the Quran is not a direct revelation from God. He also proposes that the religious jurisprudence and its masters, the influential "Sources of Imitation" in Qum theological seminary are the Shi'a equivalents of ISIS. Finally, he publically challenges and invites him to a debate to prove him wrong. The former have introduced proxies for this debate, but he has refused and stipulated that he would only face the highest authorities, if they dare to confront him. In Iran it is possible to deny the truth of revelation and to equate the ruling religious doctrine and the rank and file of the clerical hierarchy with their mortal and highly despised enemy: ISIS. What other Islamic country would tolerate that? Advertisement Fighting for social and health justice is not what I went to medical school for, but it has now become the driving force behind my work. As the nation's health needs once again take center stage in the new political narrative of 2017, we physicians and other health professionals must not shy away from acknowledging and calling out the elephant, donkey, kangaroo or zebra in the room. To truly protect our patient's health, we must be on the frontlines of advocacy. Most of us are aware that health is determined by factors--called the social determinants of health--that are beyond the doctor's office and hospital walls. Those factors vary by zip code. Access to safe neighborhoods, clean parks, quality homes, great schools and well-paying jobs is rooted in and influenced by politics, economics and histories of oppression shaped by the "-isms." This is not to be denied. Advertisement Knowing we still have a ways to go, our country has successfully battled some of those "-isms" to advance health. In part, because of pressure from physicians and health leaders who raised their voices to demand not only increased health care access, but also improved public health and human rights. In the 1800s, for example, it was the persistent advocacy of a New York City physician, named John Griscom, avowing the horrid impact of the city's squalid living conditions and trash-ridden streets on health that spurred one of the most powerful public health movements--sanitation reform. It continues to save lives to this day. Now, it is crucial for physicians and other health professionals to broaden their advocacy efforts to include public health through the lens of social justice. Without this added perspective, we run the risk of losing hard earned gains in public health as we did last month, when new surveillance data showed that life expectancy dropped for the first time in the U.S. since 1993. How do we move forward? I suggest four strategies to consider that further our work to advance health and equity: Push the public health agenda. Promote and safeguard the public health infrastructure that protects people before they get sick (prevention!) and before they touch the health care system. Advertisement Vast and unnoticed, the public health infrastructure is the source of so much that we take for granted--clean drinking water, a safe food supply, daycare centers that are up to code, campaigns for immunizations and against tobacco use, home visiting programs for mothers and their families, interventions to curb the opioid epidemic, gun violence prevention and quick responses to threats such as Zika and Ebola. Yet, right now, there is an urgent need to replenish the empty Public Health Emergency Response Fund--our defense against the impact of disasters and epidemics. And we must not forget mental health--a core tenet of health. We need increased investments in services as we are doing in New York City with ThriveNYC. Expand our physician role to include social change work. Jack Geiger, M.D., a pioneer in the community health center movement in the 1960s in the South said it best: "As our national health care system continues to evolve, I believe it is time for community health centers to return to those early initial models [of the 1960s] that saw health care as an instrument of social change--partnering with communities to confront the social, economic, environmental, and political circumstances that so powerfully shape the population health status of the disadvantaged and marginalized. Access to good clinical primary care should remain their central contribution, but their task is incomplete without this broader social effort." Align with other movements fighting for social and health justice. As physicians, we need to expand our boundaries and become allies with those that are not in our usual spheres of influence and comfort. Other activists have already recognized the need to fight for better health care. The Movement for Black Lives is calling for equitable health care for all, mental health benefits, paid parental leave and care for children and elders--policies that most health professionals support. Towards the end of 2016, we all witnessed the collective power of stakeholders from different constituencies--students, health professionals, parishioners, veterans, politicians, unions and institutions--who stood together when the health of a community was threatened. They successfully prevented the completion of the Dakota Access Pipeline, a danger to their water supply and health. Advertisement In 2017 and beyond, we must embody the idealism of envisioning the world as it ought to be, instead of what is. We must deploy the pragmatism to seek out justice step-by-step. We must embrace the collectivism to recruit and welcome others to our cause. And lastly, we must display the courage to confront and call out policies, systems and practices that exacerbate the deadly inequities in health. James Baldwin once said, "Since we live in an age in which silence is not only criminal but suicidal, I have been making as much noise as I can." Let's make as much noise as we can to further the most integral of justices--equity in health. This was originally posted January 2017 on New York Academy of Medicine's blog. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting at his Jerusalem office December 25, 2016. REUTERS/Dan Balilty/Pool Recent developments in connection with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict demonstrated the huge gap between the Israeli government and the international community's position about the settlements in the occupied territories and the prospect of a two-state solution. United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, followed by Secretary of State John Kerry's speech condemning the Israeli settlements and characterizing them as a major obstacle to peace, were largely on the mark. But ending the settlements enterprise will not, in and of itself, resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Unfortunately, both the UN and Kerry have ignored other critical issues, particularly the poisonous socio-political atmosphere between the two sides, the fault lines in the peace process itself, and Hamas' and other Palestinian extremists' position that calls for Israel's destruction, to which Kerry made only scant reference. Advertisement The French Initiative to convene an international conference on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on January 15th is a momentous opportunity to offer a new approach that would mitigate the hostile relationship between the two sides and create a new socio-political environment conducive to restarting peace negotiations with a realistic prospect for success. However, the agenda of the conference and its outcome should seek to provide a framework for the Trump administration to align itself with because without the US' ultimate support, it will have no lasting impact in securing a viable Israeli-Palestinian peace. Although the UNSC called for taking "immediate steps to prevent all acts of violence against civilians, including acts of terror, as well as all acts of provocation and destruction," the resolution fell short in condemning Hamas by name and calling upon its leadership to renounce violence and accept Israel's right to exist. This glaring omission plays squarely into the hands of Netanyahu's right-wing government, which claims that Israel continues to be existentially threatened and only when the Palestinians unequivocally accept Israel's existence will negotiations produce a lasting peace agreement. In his speech, Secretary Kerry defended the US abstention in the UNSC, which allowed the resolution to pass, because it recognized the critical importance of combating terrorism and ending all acts of violence: "Everyone understands that no Israeli government can ever accept an agreement that does not satisfy its security needs or that risk creating an enduring security threat like Gaza transferred to the West Bank.... [but] the vote in the United Nations was about preserving the two-state solution." Advertisement Both the UN resolution and Kerry's speech, however, failed to recognize that the conditions on the ground have dramatically shifted not only because of the settlements, but also because of the psychological dimensions that impact and impede progress on every conflicting issue. There is profound distrust between the two sides which is compounded by mutually deep concerns over security, coupled with strong illusions held by right-wing Israeli and extremist Palestinian constituencies that claim to have an inherent right to the entire land stretching from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River. Hamas has made this claim time and again, and recently Israel's Education Minister Naftali Bennett stated that Israel should annex Ma'ale Adumim (located 4.5 miles east of Jerusalem), followed by Area C in its entirety, which is under Israeli control and is more than 60 percent of the West Bank. As Bennett, Netanyahu, and other coalition partners see it, the expansion of settlements and the retroactive legalization of many others built without initial government approval will create irreversible facts on the ground making a two-state solution simply inoperable, which is precisely what they want to secure. To be sure, the UN resolution and Kerry's speech are nothing but a call in the wilderness. Other than putting some political pressure on Israel and warning the Palestinians to stop incitements and acts of violence, there is no realistic international enforcement mechanism to compel either side to adhere to the UN resolution or Kerry's plea. Advertisement Netanyahu feels confident that as president, Trump will restore the US' traditional support of Israel's position and provide it with political cover any time attempts are made by the international community to pressure or coerce Israel to embrace policies contrary to its perceived national interests. The timing of the French Initiative may seem odd as it is taking place only five days before the inauguration of President-elect Trump. The French government, however, wants to build on the momentum produced by the UN resolution and Kerry's speech to engender wider international consensus beyond the UNSC against the settlements and save the two-state solution, which is viewed as sine qua non to enduring peace. Furthermore, the French are hoping to prevent the incoming Trump administration from rushing into taking a position completely supportive of Netanyahu and scuttling what's left of the peace process, especially at a time of regional turmoil and extremism, which the Israeli-Palestinian conflict feeds into with consequential adverse effects on the European community. For the French conference to succeed, however, it should not merely echo what the UN resolution and Kerry's speech called for, and not simply push for the resumption of direct or indirect peace negotiations that will meet the same fate as previous talks. The conferees must adopt a three-track approach that will be conducive for the resumption of constructive negotiations leading to a peace agreement that the Trump administration can support. Given the intense distrust, deep sense of mutual insecurity, and persistent illusion that either side can have all, it is critically important to begin the first track with a process of reconciliation for about two years to largely mitigate these three major obstacles. Advertisement During this period, neither side should be required to make concessions regarding any of the major conflicting issues--which in any case neither side is prepared to make at this juncture--but instead take government-to-government and people-to-people measures to create a new socio-political environment supportive of meaningful negotiations. The government-to-government measures should include: halting the mutually acrimonious public narrative, taking no provocative action (e.g preventing the Palestinians from suing Israel at the International Criminal Court), substantially slowing the expansion of settlements and providing only for natural growth, encouraging joint economic development ventures, further strengthening security cooperation to prevent violence, and releasing some Palestinian prisoners with no blood on their hands as a good-will gesture. Finally, textbooks should be modified to reflect the reality and rights of both peoples, which is one of the most critical measures that must be taken so that the next generation of Israelis and Palestinians see each other as friends and neighbors rather than eternally sworn enemies. In the area of people-to-people interactions, both sides should undertake several measures (some government-facilitated) including: engaging in an open public discourse to air out some of their concerns and aspirations for the future, allowing more Palestinian laborers to work in Israel, encouraging the media to report on any positive developments, facilitating tourism in both directions, emboldening women activism, supporting student interactions, providing Palestinian youth opportunities to study at Israeli universities, embarking on joint sport activities, and exchanging art exhibitions. The purpose of these activities is to humanize the Israelis and Palestinians in each other's eyes, stop the stereotyping, and construct a new relationship based on mutual acceptance and trust, which are essential to peace making. Advertisement To significantly allay Israeli concerns (real, perceived, or exaggerated) over national security, the second track is for the conference to call on Hamas and other Palestinian extremists to forsake violence and join the Palestinian Authority in the search for a peaceful resolution to the conflict. Hamas is an integral part of the Palestinian body politic, without which no Israeli-Palestinian peace can be forged, let alone endure. The conferees should especially call on Turkey and Qatar to pressure Hamas (on whom they enjoy tremendous influence) to renounce violence and accept the inevitability of Israel's existence without necessarily surrendering its arms. As an incentive, Hamas should be removed from the EU and US' list of terrorist organizations and provided with targeted financial aid to build housing, medical facilities, schools, and infrastructure, and pull the Palestinians in Gaza out of their rampant poverty and despair. Under such circumstances, Israel would ease the blockade and ultimately remove it altogether under conditions of peace. The third track is the adoption of the Arab Peace Initiative (API) as the overall framework for peace, which could rally the whole Arab world behind the French Initiative and create a roadmap for the establishment of Israeli-Palestinian peace in the context of a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace. The conferees should task three foreign ministers from Egypt, France, and the US to persuade Israel and Hamas to embrace the API, which offers several common denominators between them. There is perhaps no better time than now to do just that because of the intensifying collaboration on security and intelligence sharing between Israel and key Arab states in the Gulf, along with Jordan and Egypt, who seek to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and focus on the Iranian threat. By adopting these three tracks, the conference will put the Israeli government and the PA to the test, as they cannot profess to seek a two-state solution but then refuse to undertake such measures of reconciliation which are essential to a genuine peace agreement. Advertisement I am convinced that if the conference does not adopt the above outlined approach and subsequently elicit the endorsement of the Trump administration, it will fail. The failure will deprive the French and, by extension, the EU from having much of a say in addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the future, in which their stakes are extremely high. Given that the US is and will remain the main interlocutor between Israel and the Palestinians, the conference will provide Trump (through the three-track approach) the time and opportunity to genuinely assess the reality of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After all, Trump would not want to grant Netanyahu's wishes and let him expand the settlements and annex more Palestinian territories if such a move kills any prospect of a two-state solution and subjects Israel to a perilous future. Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Jan. 5 By Huseyn Hasanov Trend: Amanberdy Tuyliyev was appointed as deputy industry minister of Turkmenistan, according to the decree of the countrys President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov. It was earlier reported that the Turkmen Industry Ministry, along with the Academy of Sciences, Energy Ministry and the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, are entrusted with creating a number of enterprises by 2020 in line with the Turkmen state program on the development of domestic electronics industry and implementation of measures on import substitution. This involves creation of capacities for the production of semiconductors, units for processing solar energy, photovoltaic equipment, various kinds of electronic automatic equipment, light fixtures, including LED lamps, electric meters, etc. for the population. Work is being carried out to create a joint venture for the production of energy-saving LED lamps and light fixtures. Seeing is believing, and at Segal Family Foundation, we believe there is simply no substitute for site visits. We task our incredible Operations Team to visit our 200 partners throughout the year, we witness the high success rates of our partners when they are able to convince other would-be funders to visit them, and we understand how informative it can be when one partner visits another to learn from each others' models. This is why we provide stipends for Learning Visits. Read about one such visit in this guest post by Jean Bosco Bamuririmbe, Business Development Associate for our partner Komera. Five hundred kilometers north of the border, you reach a rural village in Hoima, Uganda that looks quite similar to the view outside our office windows in Rwinkwavu, Rwanda. Drought and erratic rainfall, a result of climate change, have been detrimental to farmers and especially harsh to small communities like Rwinkwavu and Hoima over the past ten years. Ninety percent of this community depends on agriculture as their main source of income, employment, and the main GDP. Subsistence farmers work small plots of land to grow cassava, bananas, maize, and beans to feed their families, with the meager remaining crops sold at the market. While many Western countries have the luxury of ignoring (or denying) climate change, it has become a reality for our community. The Ministry for Natural Resources reported that Rwanda has experienced a temperature increase of 1.4C since 1970, higher than the global average, and can expect an increase in temperature of up to 2.5C by 2050. Advertisement When crops aren't growing or selling and families are struggling to put food on the table, it becomes nearly impossible to save for other things like school fees and healthcare. More and more children are on the street instead of in the classroom. For a country that has seen stable economic growth over the past decade, Rwandans worry that with climate change on the horizon, they are going backwards in terms of development. Komera team members recently ventured north to Uganda to learn how to develop innovative and successful businesses in this challenging climate from fellow grantee Village Enterprise, thanks to support from Segal Family Foundation. Village Enterprise is devoted to ending extreme poverty through entrepreneurship and innovation. Similar to Komera's Parent Cooperative, Village Enterprise provides small grants to community members to launch businesses and provides mentorship, training, and support along the way. While Komera's main program focus is education and empowerment of young vulnerable women, we launched our Parent Cooperative as part of our holistic approach to address what it takes to develop a girl-- including a supportive family and vibrant community. Komera parents are invested in their daughters' education, and once accepted into the Komera program, parents and guardians are invited to join our cooperative. Village Enterprise has developed a model that has been very successful in mobilizing people to engage in trainings, mentorship, develop savings goals, and think strategically about business opportunities. Sitting in a large group circle, the business members prepare for a discussion with their mentor. Shared among the group are successful models of other group businesses--including snacks. The snack business is an innovative pivot from farming to retail, where soybeans, fruits, and vegetables are dried and packaged to sell at the market with a long shelf life. With unreliable weather to farm, the dried snacks give farmers flexibility to keep products on the shelf even when drought is rampant. Advertisement Jovan is young man whose business is growing cabbages on his farm. He shared that his trainings with Village Enterprise "sparked my thoughts for developing myself, as now I know how to turn my ideas into practice." This is at the core of Village Enterprise's mission. With training and development, the members begin to discover their true potential, believe in themselves, and feel empowered to make decisions about their future. If and when climate change begins to impact his farm, Jovan has the skills and training to shift his focus and business plan. He will be successful because Village Enterprise invested in him and has empowered him to make educated choices about his future. New York City - NY - USA - September 3 2015: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gestures emphatically during press conference at Trump Tower to announce he has signed a pledge not to run as an independent candidate It seems that people in the news media are struggling with the question of how Donald Trump should be covered. Many feel that the media failed to answer that question well in the many months leading up to Trump's election. There's reason to doubt about how many of our media organizations care about doing the kind of job the nation needs, as opposed to just going for high ratings and therefore big bucks. And there are grounds for fearing whether the media will yield to intimidation by the man who, as candidate and as President-Elect, has already stoked hostility against the media among his followers. Advertisement But even among some of those who wish to do their jobs right, and who have the courage to stand up to intimidation, there seems to be confusion about to cover Trump. Media organizations used to doing the usual, are uncertain what to do with so unusual a politician as Trump. Let me propose a part of an answer: Focus on what's unusual in what Trump says and does. That's what the news generally highlights--the extraordinary. The safe take-offs and landings of thousands of planes don't make the news, nor should they. It's the plane that crashes that needs to be reported. As the old adage says, "Man bites dog," being unusual, is bigger news than "Dog bites man." Trump's specialty is doing and saying what's outside the norms of American politics-- perhaps more than any major figure in American political history. Advertisement No one has ever treated his political rivals as he did. No presidential candidate has refused to release his income tax, or put his wealth into a blind trust, as he has. No one has ever just made stuff up as frequently or brazenly has he has. No President-Elect has refused to attend intelligence briefings as he has. No President-Elect has chosen - to head government agencies - people who have been so hostile to the missions of those agencies. No President-Elect has so intruded into the conduct of American international relations even before taking office. The list could be expanded at length. Regularly, Trump does or says things the likes of which we Americans have never seen at center stage of our politics. And he will likely continue to violate customary American political conduct. The violation of norms is no small thing. Although we are governed by the Constitution, and are "a nation of laws," the complex web of non-binding rules of conduct surrounding those structures also governs how power is used. When norms are violated, the nation itself is changed. It behooves us Americans, therefore, to observe and evaluate how the nation is being changed - for better or for worse - by a new president who doesn't feel bound by the usual norms. So that's what the media's job should be: call our attention to every violation of a long-standing norm of presidential conduct, and explore what it means for the nation and for our political culture for that norm to be ignored or attacked. Advertisement The media should discuss: Is this a norm that should be swept aside, because it gets in the way of our doing the nation's business at it needs to be done? Or is this a norm that has served the nation well? Covering this extraordinary political figure in a way that addresses those questions will enable the us citizens of the United States to evaluate for ourselves whether the man who is our new president is making America better, or whether he is tearing down what's good about America. It used to be that we as a nation could depend upon the conservatives among us to be protectors of the norms. It has historically been a fundamental part of the conservative creed that cultural norms are of vital importance. Societies cannot just be "engineered" by the passing of laws, conservatives have long argued, because so much of the heart and soul of a society is comprised of the customs and norms built up over generations. Norms are an essential part of a nation's tradition, and conservatives have long been the guardians of tradition. But in these times, the conservatives have given us a new president who seems adamant about not being restrained by norms. Advertisement So the media must now step up and fill the void left by this transformation of our traditional conservatives. As our political norms are being dismantled, transforming America into something different from what we have historically been, the media need to help us citizens decide what kind of nation we want to be. This piece will be appearing in newspapers in my conservative congressional district (VA-06) A woman places flowers at a makeshift memorial near the Emanuel AME Church June 18, 2015 in Charleston, South Carolina, after a mass shooting at the Church on the evening of June 17, 2015. US police on Thursday arrested a 21-year-old white gunman suspected of killing nine people at a prayer meeting in one of the nation's oldest black churches in Charleston, an attack being probed as a hate crime. The shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in the southeastern US city was one of the worst attacks on a place of worship in the country in recent years, and comes at a time of lingering racial tensions. AFP PHOTO/BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI (Photo credit should read BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images) Moreover, the Wisconsin statute singles out for enhancement bias inspired conduct because this conduct is thought to inflict greater individual and societal harm. For example, according to the State and its amici, bias motivated crimes are more likely to provoke retaliatory crimes, inflict distinct emotional harms on their victims, and incite community unrest. U.S. Supreme Court: Wisconsin v. Mitchell We're Our Brother's Keepers When the gentlest or most vulnerable among us are targeted for brutality because of their race, we must vigorously call out and punish the perpetrators, while also denying a platform for opportunistic bigots to exploit divisions through rumor and lies. Advertisement In a horrible chronological coincidence an unrepentant convicted white supremacist faces a possible death sentence for murdering nine of America's best at an African-American South Carolina church, just as four black Chicago area young adults face lesser charges on a despicable, though non-fatal torture attack on a special needs young white man, that is arguably both an anti-disability hate crime, as well as an anti-white one. During the attack which was live streamed over Facebook assailants exclaimed "F--k Trump" and "F--k white people boy." The four Chicago area assailants were charged today with hate crime, felony aggravated kidnapping, aggravated unlawful restraint and aggravated battery in connection with the torture of a young disabled man who had his scalp cut while being bound and gagged with duct tape. Some Internet provocateurs have already attempted to falsely connect this terrible crime to the Black Lives Matter movement. As the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King counseled: The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. Illinois hate crime law clearly envisioned punishment for such conduct: Sec. 12-7.1. Hate crime. (a)A person commits hate crime when, by reason of the actual or perceived race, color, creed, religion, ancestry, gender, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, or national origin of another individual or group of individuals, regardless of the existence of any other motivating factor or factors, he commits assault, battery, aggravated assault... Those who perpetrate criminal violence on the basis of race should have the additional communal harm that their bigoted selection wrought on our country punished. Today forty-five states and the federal government have hate crime laws on the books, with only Georgia, Arkansas, South Carolina, Indiana, and Wyoming lacking such statutes. Hate By The Numbers in Black and White African-Americans are the most victimized in hate crimes of any group tracked by the FBI. In 2015 African-Americans were far more likely to be victimized in racial attacks than whites. Indeed, according to the FBI, half of those killed in hate crime homicides last year died at the hands of the Charleston killer. African-Americans were the targets of hate crimes in 1,745 incidents nationwide in 2015, compared to 613 incidents involving whites, and the FBI anti-Black data is skewed lower by the lack of participation by various southern states with high proportions of African-Americans. African-Americans, who constitute only 13 percent of the American population, were 29.5 percent of all hate crime victims; while non-Hispanic whites at 61 percent of the American population accounted for 10.5 per cent of hate crime targets. Anti-white hate crime incidents increased by 3.4 percent in 2015 from 593 to 613, while anti-Black hate crimes rose 7.6 percent. For known hate crime offenders African-Americans constituted 24.3 percent of offenders, while whites were 48.4 percent of offenders. Donald Trump's picks for his cabinet and advisors created a climate denier's dream team, and their promises to renege on the Paris Climate Agreement and dismantle the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency are firing up the global Green movement big time. Trump's rejection of the Paris Agreement has generated "an unprecedented sense of solidarity among all the (signatory) countries," says Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy for the Union of Concerned Scientists. He believes that Trump has ceded climate leadership to China. Surely high levels of smog in Northern China help too: Beijing started the year in its third day of a smog alert, delaying flights and closing highways. On New Year's Day, 25 cities in Northern China issued (even higher) "red alerts" for smog, closing factories, schools and construction sites. Green heroes are emerging everywhere. One example is the unlikely conversion of Portland's Mayor, Charles Hale, once nicknamed "Fossil Fuel Charlie" for supporting a $500 million propane export facility proposed by the Pembina Pipeline Corporation, the largest pipeline in the Canadian tar sands and the largest business proposal in Portland history. Hale gave up his reelection campaign to push for projects including "the first stone in a green wall across the West Coast" -- a zoning ordinance that effectively bans all new fossil-fuel-export infrastructure within the city's limits, including the Pembina pipeline, and prevents expansion of existing facilities. On December 14, he got his wish, when the Portland city council voted unanimously for the ordinance. Advertisement Hale's conversion came after a sustained campaign of relentless protests and public action. As his spokesperson Dana Haynes explained, "Public sentiment is very, very strongly against it, wildly against this thing. The mayor called Pembina in Calgary and said: 'You're walking into the chopper blades here. I was willing to support you last fall, but you've lost my support.'" And these protests were even before Trump was elected. Now, chopper blades, where personal stakes meet collective action, are everywhere. In December, Nevada's Public Utilities Commission (PUC) voted to restore favorable rates to solar companies after a year of fee increases and a phase-out of credits for excess energy customers sent back to the grid. The reversal was supported by huge turnouts at the PUC hearings that included those whose power costs have gone up and those who suffered when major solar companies, including SolarCity and Sunrun, left the state as solar applications dropped from 1386 to 18 a month. Personal stakes are high. Hearing turnout is high. Chopper blades. Best known are demonstrations in North Dakota, where Native Tribes and environmentalists staged a protest thousands strong at Standing Rock, the Sioux Tribe's sacred land that was threatened by Energy Transfer Partners' Dakota Access Pipeline, or DAPL. When the protestors change their designation from climate justice Water Protectors, focusing as much on potential contamination of the Missouri River as on land rights and ancient burial grounds, the action drew affected farmers and renewed support from leaders like environmentalist Bill McKibben and journalist Amy Goodman. While that movement may have succeeded only temporarily, it did reset the agenda. "Water Protectors" pits fossil fuel companies against clean water, which many believe is a universal right. DAPL also engendered more protestors against the just-approved Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion from Alberta to Vancouver. This project enlarges an existing pipeline to deliver three times its current volume of highly toxic and viscous tar sands oil to seven times as many tankers in the Salish Sea, just a few miles north of the pristine San Juan Islands and Seattle. (Full disclosure: I live in Seattle and write on an island in Puget Sound.) Advertisement This 700% increase in oil tanker traffic is not sitting well in the Pacific Northwest. Water Protectors are already calling it "Standing Rock North." Thousands of chopper blades. The EPA releases a study that links fracking to water contamination. Fresh meat for chopper blades. A coalition of outdoors enthusiasts, veterans, local businesses and environmentalists successfully argued that a $3 billion copper-nickel mining lease in Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness was illegally granted. Chopper blades. Investors worth over $5 trillion have committed to dump fossil fuel stocks. Over 80% of that is from funds run for profit. More chopper blades. And Obama churns out environmental edicts daily. Trump will undoubtedly give no quarter to environmentalists or native tribes. With all that's happened since his election, we collectively are setting chopper blades against his disdain for climate action. Isn't this how a democracy is supposed to work? "In July of 64 A.D., a great fire ravaged Rome for six days, destroying 70 percent of the city and leaving half its population homeless". Rome's emperor Nero, at that time, "fiddled while Rome burned." In a previous blog we wrote about our concern that the crisis of Black on Black gun violence was getting insufficient attention from the media, community and political leaders. In an excellent column in today's New York Times, much of which we disagree, because, Charles Blow, a superb columnist, focuses on local and national ways we can organize and protest our displeasure with President elect Trump's inauguration. Advertisement Donald Trump has been elected POTUS and he will be inaugurated. Calling for persons to organize protests to his inauguration, while different in magnitude, under different historical conditions, Mr. Blow, is, directing our protest attention toward the wrong objective. Relative and comparative to the seriousness of gun violent deaths in Chicago, and elsewhere, nationwide, "fiddling" while Chicago burns. In the same column, however, evidencing his customary superb wisdom, he reminds us of precisely what we think IS important to remember in connection with addressing the ubiquitous Black on Black gun violence in Chicago. He writes: " When politics seem out of your control, remember that community and culture are very much in your control. We help shape the world we inhabit every day. A life is a collection of thousands of decisions, large and small, made every day. Make those decisions with purpose and conviction, especially for Jan. 20" (Charles Blow. "The Anti-Inauguration", NYT, Jan 5, 2017) Robert J. Sampson, a professor at Harvard and the author of "Great American City: Chicago and the Enduring Neighborhood Effect" reminds us "You can't divorce the gang problem from the problem of deep concentrations of poverty." Advertisement Douglas S. Massey, a sociology professor at Princeton University, concurs, writing that "What predicts violent crime rates is concentrated poverty and neighborhood disadvantage, and what determines concentrated poverty is high levels of black segregation combined with high levels of black poverty,...In Chicago, homicide rates correspond with segregation" Instead of directing protests against President Elect Trump's inauguration why is there no rising national call for him, as one of HIS first act's as our new POTUS, to address the growing virus of Black on Black crime and poverty in Chicago, and other African-American communities nationwide? As our nation nears it's national commemoration of the 88th birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr, it is useful again to quote parts of the speech that Rabbi Joachim Prinz, then President of the American Jewish Congress delivered at the August 28th, 1963 March On Washington For Jobs and Freedom. He said: "When I was the rabbi of the Jewish community in Berlin under the Hitler regime, I learned many things. The most important thing that I learned under those tragic circumstances was that bigotry and hatred are not the most urgent problem. The most urgent, the most disgraceful, the most shameful and the most tragic problem is silence". "A great people, which had created a great civilization, had become a nation of silent onlookers. They remained silent in the face of hate, in the face of brutality and in the face of mass murder. America must not become a nation of onlookers. America must not remain silent" . Efforts like the new Joan of Arc like person, Dr. Shari Lynne Rogers, from a suburb to Detroit Michigan, to reinvigorate the historic coalition that developed between the Jewish and African-American communities during our Civil Rights Movement are sorely needed TODAY. We need to bring greater national attention to the seriousness of Black on Black gun violence. Her documentary film, "Shared Legacies" may be just the unique tool essential to galvanize and organize a new, "fierce urgency of now", national conscience on this issue. Advertisement As Dr. King said in historic speech in opposition to the Vietnam War its, "TIME TO BREAK THE SILENCE" It is not "freedom of the press" when newspapers and others are allowed to say and write whatever they want even if it is completely false! -Donald Trump There's one more thing we have to do to make America wealthy again. And you have to be wealthy to be great, I'm sorry to say it. -Donald Trump Washington, D.C. On Tuesday, August 2, in the East Room of the White House, President Barack Obama, and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, of Singapore, held a joint press conference. (Photo by Cheriss May/NurPhoto via Getty Images) On January 14, 2014, a plainly worried President Obama convened a meeting of his cabinet in the Cabinet Room of the White House. The cabinet meeting had extra special, even, grave, importance. The Democrats had lost control of the Senate which meant that Congress was now completely dominated by the GOP. Obama boldly announced to the cabinet, "We're not going to be waiting for legislation. I've got a pen and I've got a phone. And I can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions and administrative actions to move the ball forward." However, Obama's liberal use of the executive pen to skirt Congress raised two thorny questions and posed two perils. The first: Would his successor in the Oval Office, Trump, make good on virtually the first promise he made after being elected in November, 2016 which was to repeal many, most, if not all, of Obama's executive orders? The other more far reaching question and peril was what impact would this have on sullying Obama's legacy of accomplishments? Advertisement The iffy questions had a deep impact on the significance and reach of his presidency, both during his White House years and afterwards. From the start to make his presidency work, he had to cling closely to the centrist blueprint former President Bill Clinton laid out for Democrats in the 1990s to win elections, and to govern after they won office. It meant that he had to emphasize strong defense, prosecute a vigorous war against terrorism, wind down the Iraq War, push for mild tax reform for the middle-class, and a workable plan for affordable health care and advocate tougher regulations to rein in Wall Street, back comprehensive gun control legislation, jump start climate control measures, put the obligatory Democratic Party stress on strengthening LGBT, women's and civil rights, and make moderate and balanced Supreme Court picks and administration posts. Obama has made it clear that he would not be a mere sideline silent spectator if there is an attempt to dismantle his programs. He walked the narrowest of tightropes in this balancing act. Every step of the way he faced a GOP that made it clear its primary goal was to make him a one term president, and, failing that, cripple his presidency by blocking his proposed initiatives and legislation. Advertisement Obama's careful, center-governing, non-racial staff and cabinet picks and his policies were plainly designed to blunt the standard Republican rap that Democrats, especially one branded a liberal Democrat, inherently pander to special interests, i.e. minorities, are pro expansive government, and anti-business. During every moment of his eight years in the White House, the GOP watched him hawk like for any sign of that. Yet, the Obama White House was a historic and symbolic first. It was a White House that kept a firm, cautious, and conciliatory eye on mid-America public opinion, and corporate and defense industry interests in making policy decisions and determining priorities. Obama would and could not have attained the White House if he hadn't done the same. This had nothing to do with race, or attaining the historic first of being the nation's first black president. It had everything to do with the requirement of White House governance. Obama would be praised in the inevitable historic assessment of a president for his signature successes from the Affordable Care Act to the elimination of bin Laden and criticized on the places where his administration fell short. Those places were foremost, the absence of comprehensive gun control legislation and an unfinished war in Afghanistan. That historic assessment must be made with the full recognition that Obama, as all presidents, was constrained by the inherent limit of the power of the office, the checks imposed on him by his foes, and the lofty, but often unattainable, expectations imposed on him by friends. The Obama legacy must not be defined solely by his historic first, but rather by his successes and shortcomings. Despite the much restricted and tightly defined parameters under which presidents must operate. There is more than enough in the way of accomplishment from Obama's presidency to say that his legacy is secure. Still, Trump's win stirred much talk and much anxiety about Obama's legacy being wrecked and that somehow Trump's win was a repudiation by Americans of his legacy. This was nonsense. Hillary Clinton got nearly 3 million more popular votes than Trump. She made it clear throughout the campaign that she would keep, and even expand on, his programs if elected. Advertisement There is, though, real danger that Trump and the GOP controlled Congress will gut some, or try to gut, all of Obama's program. Obama is well-aware of this possibility. Two weeks after Trump's win, he spoke at a conference of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Peru. He made it clear that he would not be a mere sideline silent spectator if there is an attempt to dismantle his programs. The clear and loud warning from this is that the one who would fight hardest to safeguard the Obama legacy, is Obama. Cultural mythologies are created by movies and books. For instance there was the Rome of Fellini's La dolce vita (1960) filled with itinerant intellectuals, who chased after women with large cleavages. A whole generation of Italian actors amongst them Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni came to prominence typecast for these roles. These were a little more than kin and less than kind, fallen aristocrats, high class hookers or both. And there was the more down at your heels world which Fellini immortalized in Le notti di Cabiria (1957) in which his wife Giulietta Masina played a lady of the night, who had fallen on hard times. Pier Paolo Pasolini, the director the infamous masterpiece of degradation, Salo (1975), and who knew the Roman underworld, was commissioned to write the dialogue. Paolo Sorrentino's La grande bellezza (2013) paid homage to Fellini's Rome, particularly with respect to the parody of outsized artistic personalities. But does the old Rome with its glamorous white telephones and squalid desperation still exist? Corrupt politicians like Berlusconi might have fit the bill, but he ultimately lacked the profound glamour of a 60's Italian film star. In some senses Rome has become a bit like New York. The world's oldest profession still plies its trade out in the E.U.R. the area on the outskirts which was the site of the aborted l942 World's Fair and the futuristic Palazzo della Civilta Italiana. However Rome itself has lost a certain color, as well as danger and despair. Though you are still warned to watch out for pickpockets, Rome is not the wide open city it once was. Of course you pay a price for the fleshpot. It was an Italian who directed Last Tango in Paris (1972), but he might easily have called it Last Tango in Rome. The once Never Trump Utah senator quickly came around, even comparing the former president to a Mormon hero, and is now in danger of losing his seat. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump (L) gives a thumbs up sign as he walks with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., November 10, 2016. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts In the presidential election, Donald Trump was outspent by Hillary Clinton two-to-one, but his campaign was victorious anyway, raising the question of whether money plays less of a role in elections than many have assumed. Don't let this narrative fool you -- at the presidential level, and down-ballot, big money mattered more than ever -- including in Pennsylvania's Senate race. Worse still, "dark money" -- spending by groups that conceal their funders from the public -- played a larger role than ever before, making it even more difficult to prevent the kind of corruption that often follows big political spending. Advertisement The fact is, even though candidates with more money don't always win, most federal candidates rely on big money to fund their campaigns. And the disproportionate influence of big money reaches beyond Election Day to give wealthy special interests outsized control over our government. Pat Toomey's reelection campaign in the most expensive legislative race in history illuminates the means by which big money plays an outsize role in boosting favored candidates. Pro-Toomey forces outspent those favoring challenger Katie McGinty by $14 million. Much of that spending came from super PACs, which unlike candidates' official campaigns, can take unlimited amounts of cash from each donor. The Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC with ties to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, spent $15 million in support of Toomey's reelection. Much of the Senate Leadership Fund's revenue comes from multi-million contributions from individuals in the financial industry. Former Toomey aides also created a super PAC dedicated to reelecting him, which attracted several six-figure donations from people who work in financial services and venture capital. Toomey has been a vocal critic of the structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which regulates financial services businesses. Toomey was also boosted by $14.6 million in dark money. The public doesn't know who spent that money, what they want, or what their relationship with Toomey is, frustrating the accountability to the electorate that is essential in a democracy. Advertisement The pattern was the same across several of 2016's key Senate elections -- incumbents attracted more money from big donors and dark-money groups than their opponents and went on to win. One exception: in New Hampshire, Sen. Kelly Ayotte's campaign outspent that of her opponent, Gov. Maggie Hassan. But outside spending, driven by multi-million dollar super PAC donors, preferred the challenger by $17 million, and Hassan was the winner. And if the Senate races demonstrate how big money helps candidates get elected, the Trump transition is illustrating the immense influence donors retain once their chosen candidates take office. During the primary, Trump himself repeatedly explained that he used campaign contributions to get politicians to "do whatever the hell you want them to do." Those who expected that this inside knowledge of the donor-politician relationship would make Trump less susceptible might be quickly disabused of that notion. Several of Trump's cabinet picks were major donors or fundraisers, giving a combined $12 million to his campaign, supportive super PACs, and the Republican National Committee. His pick for education secretary, Michigan billionaire Betsy DeVos, once candidly acknowledged that when her family gives money to politicians, they are "buying influence." Fundraising efforts for Trump's inauguration promise million-dollar donors the chance to meet Trump and Vice President-Elect Mike Pence. Hedge-fund heiress Rebekah Mercer is a member of the executive committee of the president-elect's transition team, and she made into Trump's orbit by dedicating a super PAC she controlled to electing him. Over the summer, Mercer reportedly influenced the campaign shake-up that brought in Steven Bannon, whose activities have been funded by the Mercer family for years -- and who has now been named Trump's chief White House strategist. Although the press has covered Trump's post-election meetings with big donors to his campaign and supportive super PACs, we know far less about the influence that the biggest donors in Senate elections enjoy. But major donors are confident that powerful elected officials know about and are grateful for their contributions. Advertisement The campaign finance system is out of balance because the rules give an unfair advantage to the richest few. The idea of our democracy is that our elected officials work for us. But with so much of the money behind elections coming from a small club of millionaires and billionaires, ordinary Americans are right to wonder whether government is really working for them. Details added (first version posted on 11:18) Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Jan. 5 By Huseyn Hasanov Trend: The National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) has repeatedly violated its obligations during the implementation of the contract for the supply of Turkmen gas to Iran, the Foreign Ministry of Turkmenistan said in a message. "Despite the fact that the take or pay principle is one of the main conditions of the contract, the NIGC hasnt taken large volumes of the Turkmen gas for several years," the message said. "At the same time, the company didnt pay any financial compensation to Turkmenistan." In addition, the information posted by the NIGC on its website about the alleged violation of the contract by the Turkmengaz State Concern in terms of the quality and the volume of gas supplied to Iran, doesnt correspond to reality, said the message. "We consider this tendentious and biased information posted by the NIGC as an attempt to confuse everybody regarding the issue related to the repayment of the companys debt to the Turkmen side," the Turkmen Foreign Ministry said in its message. The ministry also points out that the unilateral statements made by the NIGC about many hours of fruitless negotiations are unfounded and emotional. "In this regard, it should be emphasized that meetings, consultations and negotiations with representatives of Irans Oil Ministry and the NIGC are regularly held namely at the initiative of the Turkmen side," said the message. In this process, the Turkmen side repeatedly made concrete proposals aimed not only at addressing the emerging issues related to gas supply according to the long-term contract, but also related to the expansion of the Turkmen-Iranian cooperation in the gas sphere. "Thanks to such constructive approach of the Turkmen side, it was possible to achieve results on topical issues of the gas partnership between Turkmenistan and Iran," the Turkmen Foreign Ministry added. Turkmenistan supplies natural gas to Iran since 1997, after commissioning of the gas pipeline from its western Korpeje field to the Iranian city of Kordkuy. Unbelief in God is a permanent and inextirpable feature of human life: belief has never claimed one hundred percent of the population at any time in human history. And yet in a new Pew Research Center review, no member of the U.S. Congress purports to be an atheist. The real question is, Why don't the atheists in Congress admit it? Out of more than 500 members, depending on the term of self-designation, there are likely five or ten or twenty Atheists, Freethinkers, Agnostics, Non-Theists, Secularists, Rationalists, Skeptics, Humanists, Materialists, Naturalists, Ignostics, Brights. Why not declare it? The answer is at least 1,500 years old and traceable to Christian and Muslim outlawing of unbelief. Doubt, which is the safeguard of all critical thought, was moralized and deemed a crime punishable by death in matters of religion. Doubting God was actionable. Is there any wonder that the unbeliever would disguise his or her true thoughts in that atmosphere? And that atmosphere lasted a thousand years, with no published profession of disbelief during that time. Unbelievers undoubtedly existed, and errant vocal bursts of disbelief were met with torture and the stake, but no one risked committing their unbelief to writing. When the word 'atheist' came back into currency in the 16th-century, it was used inexactly as an epithet of reproach for all manner of heretical religious views. An 'atheist' might be someone who doubted the divinity of Jesus but who otherwise believed in God. Advertisement But slowly the word 'atheist' assumed the denotation suggested by its Greek origins: 'theos' (God) with the negating prefix 'a' means 'no God.' It was a label proudly embraced by some 18th-century Enlightenment thinkers. As secular governments began to relax the death penalty for unbelief, books of avowed unbelief appeared. The term 'atheist' persisted into the 19th century and eloquent books of unbelief multiplied over and over. But 'atheism' could never escape the taint of having been moralized as a defective state of being. And so in 1869 professor Thomas Huxley of England took the Greek word 'gnostic' (knowing) and affixed the negating prefix 'a' to it, producing 'agnostic' ('not knowing' as in not claiming to know if there is a God or not). Professor Huxley did not really invent a more exact term; he was simply trying not to offend his Sunday society Victorian friends who recoiled from the word 'atheist.' Doctor Huxley, the 'knowing' atheist, courted the approval of Victorian Christian friends by claiming he did not know one way or the other about God. Wondrously, the new term 'agnostic' worked. It was a softer word seemingly devoid of dogmatism. It fooled believers. It tricked them into thinking there was a difference between atheists and agnostics. But really there were now two words for the same disposition of unbelief in God, for in no way is an agnostic a believer in God because the agnostic is not convinced by any of the proofs or arguments for God. The agnostic simply need not voice his atheism in the name of 'not knowing.' All the other substitutes for 'Atheist' mentioned above -- Freethinker, Non-Theist, Secularist, Rationalist, Skeptic, Humanist, Materialist, Naturalist, Ignostic, Bright -- follow Huxley's agnosticism as softer terms of self-designation for the same mental stance: Unbelief in God. Even so, our Congressional members could not own up to any of these terms. We need not be too hard on them for this reason: belief and unbelief are yet moralized in the USA, falsely I must add, because belief in God never inoculated all believers from immorality or raising ill-bred children, and unbelief in God never prevented all unbelievers from performing the height of moral acts or raising uncommonly decent kids. The false crime of unbelief persists in the 21st century. Though Christianity cannot physically harm the unbeliever anymore, Christianity can still hector and bully and menace and hobble the unbeliever, especially the unbelieving politician. It is therefore best to remain prudently mute or, if pushed, to lie. Advertisement A country with an actual proposition in its Constitution denouncing religious qualifications as a condition for holding public office (Article VI) has established de facto religious qualifications for holding public office. We have made Article VI a sham and have invited religious hypocrisy into the corridors of government because every politician must now wear a fake or real patch of religiosity stitched high upon the sleeve of a Brooks Brothers or Calvin Klein suit. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump speaks at the USA Thank You Tour event at the Wisconsin State Fair Exposition Center in West Allis, Wisconsin, U.S., December 13, 2016. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton Seventeen U.S. intelligence agencies agree that the U.S. 2016 presidential election was hacked by Russia. Yet, the PEOTUS, Donald Trump, does not believe them. He belittles these agencies and instead praises Vladimir Putin and Julian Assange - a man he suggested in 2010 should face the death penalty. We might well ask why the Democratic Party has not been insisting on a redo of the election. Is that so bizarre under the circumstances? Why haven't journalists raised this at least as a possibility? Why is the Democratic Party negotiating yet again from a position of weakness -- starting their demands in the mushy middle? Advertisement Why, we might reasonably ask, do they insist that a smooth transition of power is more important than at least a delay of the inauguration while Americans digest the findings of U.S. intelligence agencies? You can be sure if the roles were reversed and a Clinton win had been facilitated by foreign actors and the FBI, Donald Trump and the Republican Party would be insisting on a new election. Having studied persuasion and negotiation throughout my career, I can say that when things seem most surreal it is usually because the rationale of the other side has not been fully grasped. For those who supported Donald Trump, the ends appear to have justified the means. Many are simply content with that. The most frightening thing is that we do not yet know what those ends will be. We do know that time-honored U.S. values will be taking an extraordinary hit. We know, too, that the concerns of Senators John McCain and Linsey Graham about Russian hacking are being quashed by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell whose wife, Elaine Chao, has been tapped to join Trump's Cabinet. Advertisement As if this weren't bad enough, we are about to have a president who rejects input from U.S. intelligence agencies -- despite a sudden tweet about being a fan of intelligence (of some sort), insists on his own security force, and does not roll with the punches. He takes criticism personally and switches quickly from adulation of foreign leaders to disdain -- a habit for which, God forbid, we could one day all pay dearly. A lot can happen in 15 years: You attend college. You get a new job. You rent your first apartment. You get married, start a family, buy a house. For Jossalyn, little has happened. She has spent the past 15 years homeless. Like many others I meet on the streets, Jossalyn has fallen through the gaps in the safety net. She is surviving now, but how long will it be before Jossalyn becomes critically vulnerable? I'm reminded of a question Nancy Lublin and her daughter asked me repeatedly on a recent tour of Skid Row. Besides 911, who can people call when they see a homeless person needing help? And there are people in dire need of homeless services everywhere. Advertisement An elderly gentleman lies on a park bench with a head injury. You ask if he is alright; he slurs that he is fine and waves you on. It becomes clear that he is intoxicated, most likely homeless and in need of medical help. In another city, a man asks if you can spare some money. You notice he has severe, deep sores on his arms that require medical attention. Using cardboard as flooring, a woman sits on a city street. You can clearly see a large tumor growing on her abdomen as she struggles. She needs urgent help. These are actual people suffering in cities across the country. Any decent person wants to call a professional to help. But who do you call? Advertisement More Support Needed for Homeless Services Some municipalities have homeless response teams providing outreach to those in need. In Philadelphia, for example, the city partners with Project Home offering a 24-Hour Homeless Outreach Hotline and an emergency response team will be dispatched. In Pittsburgh, one can call Jim Withers, a doctor that goes out on the streets to help homeless people. The Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program is another amazing service. Of course, Massachusetts has healthcare funding for chronic homeless. In LA, they have started C3 teams in different areas of the city that have mental health, nurses, housing and other stakeholders going out on the streets together. This is a huge step in the right direction, but services still need to be expanded significantly. Advertisement In other cities, emergency response numbers are provided for people to call. But the cities lack resources to send an outreach team to help. You can call the number, but no help will be provided. Not to mention an outreach worker is powerless without support services to plug people into. Most cities don't offer emergency response at all. There is simply not enough money to provide needed support for homeless people in cities big and small. More funding is needed for homeless services. Existing services also need to be extended. Many homeless services only operate from 9a to 5p Monday through Friday. However, the majority of homeless crises happen at night. I support the shift over the last few years of targeting the most vulnerable with the limited resources available. But if we are ever going to truly end homelessness, we need to figure out how to get everyone off the streets. The longer a person remains homeless, the more vulnerable they become. This leads to a greater need, which far outweighs the resources. Advertisement Real Solutions Needed for People Like Jossalyn I have been in a few conversations trying to find a solution for Jossalyn. While she receives general relief (welfare), which is not enough to pay any rent, she most likely does not qualify for supportive housing. Rapid Rehousing funds, if available, are only temporary. And, the theory behind Radpid Rehousing programs is a person will be able to support themselves in a given amount of time. Jossalyn is smart and articulate; she is not on drugs, she is not disabled or on SSI, nor does she have a visible mental illness. She does have a felony on her record and therefore has run into obstacles trying to get a job. In addition, she is a senior and she is black. She has also lived in the streets far too long. I believe she'd be a great worker after a little time and healing, but who is going to hire her with a wage that she can support herself? In every community, we need an emergency response for people to call when they see a homeless person who needs help. We also need better programs for people like Jossalyn to get everyone off the streets before they become vulnerable. Nationwide, we need real solutions to homelessness, not more shelter programs. We need housing and support services. 2016 was not all bad - despite what you may feel when you switch on the TV these days and aren't sure if you are watching "The Year in Review" or an obituary. Looking back at the year, I decided to sit down and challenge myself to find a good thing for every bad thing that happened in 2016. Actually, it wasn't too hard. Try it yourself: record temperatures and terrible natural disasters? Yes, but 2016 was also the year in which the Paris Agreement on climate change was ratified and entered into force in record time! A blocked UN Security Council which failed to tackle major threats to peace and security? Yes, but it was also the year in which a new, strong Secretary-General was elected through the most open and transparent process to date and in which the UN continued to deliver life-saving aid to millions around the world. Xenophobic and racist language permeating many of our societies? Yes, but also millions of people across the globe pushing back on those sentiments through extraordinary acts of solidarity and compassion. Often, these developments seem contradictory. But think of them in terms of Yin and Yang: seemingly opposite or contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected, and interdependent. The year 2016 has shown that our world is more interconnected and more complex than ever. Anyone who only looks at the good or only at the bad does not get the full picture. It is true that the international system was under intense pressure last year. The global humanitarian appeal reached a high of US$ 22.1 billion to meet the needs of 96.2 million people affected by humanitarian crises in 40 countries. Towards the end of 2016, only around half of this sum was funded and many of our agencies struggled to keep providing the most basic assistance to all those in need. But despite that, multilateral negotiations continued to deliver. At the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul over 3000 commitments towards a new commitments towards a new agenda for humanity and follow up mechanisms were established. The World Humanitarian Summit was not the only forum where progress continued to be made in 2016. In the face of the current refugee and migrant challenges, world leaders gathered in New York in September and agreed to work towards global compacts on migration and refugees to be agreed in 2018. Both of these summits were only the beginning of a process. In an ideal world, Governments, NGOs and all the other actors would have agreed on global refugee quotas and closed the humanitarian funding gap. In a flawed world, they would not even have met to talk. There would not be hope. But there is. We live in a world where governments and other actors sometimes disagree on one issue but then agree on another. They fight wars while searching for ways to relieve its horrific impact. Contradictions will always exist. Together they explain why progress takes time, but rarely stops. Advertisement One of the reasons why I am convinced that important progress was made in 2016 was the fact that short-term relief and long-term solutions began to be connected in new ways. Negotiating a ceasefire, saving people from a flood and many other immediate priorities make it difficult to maintain focus on prevention and risk reduction. However, in 2016, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals the world agreed to have now been incorporated into the policies of Governments, NGOs and particularly the private sector. I see this strong trend every day in my work in Geneva. In Ecuador, at the HABITAT III conference, a New Urban Agenda was put in place to ensure sustainable urbanization. And in Colombia, a peace-agreement ended one of the world's longest running civil wars while negotiations in Cyprus is bringing a peaceful and shared future within reach. The concept of sustainable peace has taken hold in the General Assembly and the Security Council and in people's minds across the globe. Did all this happen despite people's despair over high unemployment, rising inequality and a growing trust deficit in institutions and one-another? Did it happen despite the Security Council's inability to resolve the Syrian crisis and the many other terrible conflicts? Was it possible despite fake news on social media? No. "Despite" is not the right word here. All of these events and trends are connected. Governments and parliaments continue to care about their constituents and many of them know that cooperation is the way forward. 2016 has been provocative - at times in insulting ways. But by being provocative, 2016 helped to shake up old institutions and concepts while laying the foundations for new ones. Advertisement Sometimes the bad can help create the good and vice versa. This does not mean that a crisis like Syria and many other disasters of this year should have been allowed to happen. They will remain a stain on humanity. I want to thank both those who think that 2016 has been a glass half empty and those who think, like me, that it has been a glass half full. The first group have been busy reminding us of our many collective shortcomings, the second have been busy inventing new ways to deal with them and pointing to the many tools we already have at our disposal to do so. The Yin and the Yang! Without a strong light on what does not work, we would not have come up with possible solutions to all the major challenges we are faced with - and we are doing it on climate, development, migration, the rapid spread of technology, etc. Water was consistently in the news in 2016, perhaps more often than in years past - think of the drought that moved beyond California to the U.S. Southeast and Massachusetts, or the Democratic presidential primary that took place in Flint, Michigan against the backdrop of lead contamination, harming so many families. Plus, private industry began taking steps to reign in water waste. So, 2016 was a water reuse reality check, let's look at the reasons why: Advertisement Flint is just the tip of the iceberg: A recent Reuters examination of lead testing results from all over the U.S. found almost 3,000 areas with higher rates of lead poisoning than what we saw in Flint, resulting in lower IQs and stunted development. And it's not only lead contamination: A recent report from New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection's Drinking Water Quality Institute highlights an alarming difference in opinion between state and federal officials on safe levels of perfluorinated acid in drinking water - PFOA has been linked to cancer and other health concerns. According to The Intelligencer: "The amount of PFOA the EPA says is safe for millions of Americans to consume in drinking water actually is not [safe]. If the institute's criticism is correct, it would mean the EPA's 70-ppt level is five times less protective of cancer risks than typical standards call for". The report further shows that predetermined "safe levels" of PFOA vary greatly from state to state. The private sector has a role to play in providing innovation and technology that can mitigate these issues and help both state and federal organizations stay up to date. Expect to see more of that in 2017. 3. Private Industry Began Focusing on Water Efficiency and Reuse - and It's Starting to Work: Droughts and tainted water took over the headlines this year, and those are incredibly important stories. But, water waste among private industry fell below the fold. Many big companies are still using outdated, traditional technologies that waste large amounts of water. In high-income countries like the U.S., private industry uses 60 percent more water than all the farms or households combined, and the demand for water by industry is expect to skyrocket 400 percent by 2050. Water shortages and poor water quality can cause production shortfalls, price volatility, higher energy costs, regulatory issues and social unrest. In fact, Coca-Cola CEO and Chairman Muhtar Kent has said that "if you aren't responsibly managing water in your business, you won't be in business 20 years from now." Advertisement Coca-Cola, today a trailblazer in water use, is among those companies that have experienced an expensive lesson about water management in today's times of heightened water awareness, shortage and conflict. The company experienced disruptive consequences when it was accused of misusing water in India during a drought, suffering plant closures and damage to their reputation. Now, Coca-Cola - along with other companies including Procter & Gamble and Archer Daniel Midland - are among those working to reduce their environmental impact by relying on highly efficient reverse osmosis technologies like Desalitech's reverse osmosis systems, with water recovery rates of up to 98 percent to significantly reduce water consumption and wastewater production. There's increased interest in water efficiency and technology across the board - the lines between public and private sectors are blurring, with public sector utility leaders turning to innovative water companies to see what they can offer in terms of new technology and solutions. Also, Nestle has taken the unusual approach of internally creating a "shadow price" for water for its local operations, to ensure water is given a value to make it psychologically more difficult to waste. The water reuse and sustainability goals of top corporations are more important than ever, as is an increasingly water savvy public that will hold industry leaders accountable. 4. The U.S. Has a New President-Elect - and Only Time Will Reveal the Effects on Climate Policy: No year-in-review piece this year is complete without mention of the chaotic presidential election. President-Elect Donald Trump's position on climate change is quite unclear. While he's expressed on Twitter that "the concept of global warming" was created by China and has selected climate change denier Scott Pruitt to head the EPA, his soon-to-be First Daughter Ivanka Trump plans to make climate change one of her "signature issues". In fact, she and the president-elect have already met with climate change activist and former Vice President Al Gore to discuss climate issues. With this significant uncertainty surrounding environmental efforts, it is more critical than ever for private industry and municipalities to take the lead on preserving our most precious resources. I encourage President-Elect Trump to take a look at the government incentives around energy conservation that have been successful, like the EPA's Energy Star program and Federal Tax Credits to help offset energy costs. None of those government incentives exist for water conservation. To encourage more water reuse and conversion - an economic benefit as much as an environmental one - the federal government needs to create policies to make it happen. The Year of the Commando Cross-posted with TomDispatch.com They could be found on the outskirts of Sirte, Libya, supporting local militia fighters, and in Mukalla, Yemen, backing troops from the United Arab Emirates. At Saakow, a remote outpost in southern Somalia, they assisted local commandos in killing several members of the terror group al-Shabab. Around the cities of Jarabulus and Al-Rai in northern Syria, they partnered with both Turkish soldiers and Syrian militias, while also embedding with Kurdish YPG fighters and the Syrian Democratic Forces. Across the border in Iraq, still others joined the fight to liberate the city of Mosul. And in Afghanistan, they assisted indigenous forces in various missions, just as they have every year since 2001. For America, 2016 may have been the year of the commando. In one conflict zone after another across the northern tier of Africa and the Greater Middle East, U.S. Special Operations forces (SOF) waged their particular brand of low-profile warfare. Winning the current fight, including against the Islamic State, al-Qaeda, and other areas where SOF is engaged in conflict and instability, is an immediate challenge, the chief of U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM), General Raymond Thomas, told the Senate Armed Services Committee last year. SOCOMs shadow wars against terror groups like al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (also known as ISIL) may, ironically, be its most visible operations. Shrouded in even more secrecy are its activities -- from counterinsurgency and counterdrug efforts to seemingly endless training and advising missions -- outside acknowledged conflict zones across the globe. These are conducted with little fanfare, press coverage, or oversight in scores of nations every single day. From Albania to Uruguay, Algeria to Uzbekistan, Americas most elite forces -- Navy SEALs and Army Green Berets among them -- were deployed to 138 countries in 2016, according to figures supplied to TomDispatch by U.S. Special Operations Command. This total, one of the highest of Barack Obamas presidency, typifies what has become the golden age of, in SOF-speak, the gray zone -- a phrase used to describe the murky twilight between war and peace. The coming year is likely to signal whether this era ends with Obama or continues under President-elect Donald Trumps administration. Advertisement Americas most elite troops deployed to 138 nations in 2016, according to U.S. Special Operations Command. The map above displays the locations of 132 of those countries; 129 locations (blue) were supplied by U.S. Special Operations Command; 3 locations (red) -- Syria, Yemen and Somalia -- were derived from open-source information. (Nick Turse) In just the past few years, we have witnessed a varied and evolving threat environment consisting of: the emergence of a militarily expansionist China; an increasingly unpredictable North Korea; a revanchist Russia threatening our interests in both Europe and Asia; and an Iran which continues to expand its influence across the Middle East, fueling the Sunni-Shia conflict, General Thomas wrote last month in PRISM, the official journal of the Pentagons Center for Complex Operations. Nonstate actors further confuse this landscape by employing terrorist, criminal, and insurgent networks that erode governance in all but the strongest states... Special operations forces provide asymmetric capability and responses to these challenges. In 2016, according to data provided to TomDispatch by SOCOM, the U.S. deployed special operators to China (specifically Hong Kong), in addition to eleven countries surrounding it -- Taiwan (which China considers a breakaway province), Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, India, Laos, the Philippines, South Korea, and Japan. Special Operations Command does not acknowledge sending commandos into Iran, North Korea, or Russia, but it does deploy troops to many nations that ring them. Advertisement SOCOM is willing to name only 129 of the 138 countries its forces deployed to in 2016. Almost all Special Operations forces deployments are classified, spokesman Ken McGraw told TomDispatch. If a deployment to a specific country has not been declassified, we do not release information about the deployment. SOCOM does not, for instance, acknowledge sending troops to the war zones of Somalia, Syria, or Yemen, despite overwhelming evidence of a U.S. special ops presence in all three countries, as well as a White House report, issued last month, that notes the United States is currently using military force in Somalia, Syria, and Yemen, and specifically states that U.S. special operations forces have deployed to Syria. According to Special Operations Command, 55.29% of special operators deployed overseas in 2016 were sent to the Greater Middle East, a drop of 35% since 2006. Over the same span, deployments to Africa skyrocketed by more than 1600% -- from just 1% of special operators dispatched outside the U.S. in 2006 to 17.26% last year. Those two regions were followed by areas served by European Command (12.67%), Pacific Command (9.19%), Southern Command (4.89%), and Northern Command (0.69%), which is in charge of homeland defense. On any given day, around 8,000 of Thomass commandos can be found in more than 90 countries worldwide. U.S. Special Operations forces deployed to 138 nations in 2016. Locations in blue were supplied by U.S. Special Operations Command. Those in red were derived from open-source information. Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, and Russia are not among those nations named or identified, but all are at least partially surrounded by nations visited by Americas most elite troops last year. (Nick Turse) The Manhunters Special Operations forces are playing a critical role in gathering intelligence -- intelligence thats supporting operations against ISIL and helping to combat the flow of foreign fighters to and from Syria and Iraq, said Lisa Monaco, the assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, in remarks at the International Special Operations Forces Convention last year. Such intelligence operations are conducted in direct support of special operations missions, SOCOMs Thomas explained in 2016. The preponderance of special operations intelligence assets are dedicated to locating individuals, illuminating enemy networks, understanding environments, and supporting partners. Advertisement Signals intelligence from computers and cellphones supplied by foreign allies or intercepted by surveillance drones and manned aircraft, as well as human intelligence provided by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), has been integral to targeting individuals for kill/capture missions by SOCOMs most elite forces. The highly secretive Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), for example, carries out such counterterrorism operations, including drone strikes, raids, and assassinations in places like Iraq and Libya. Last year, before he exchanged command of JSOC for that of its parent, SOCOM, General Thomas noted that members of Joint Special Operations Command were operating in all the countries where ISIL currently resides. (This may indicate a special ops deployment to Pakistan, another country absent from SOCOMs 2016 list.) [W]e have put our Joint Special Operations Command in the lead of countering ISIL's external operations. And we have already achieved very significant results both in reducing the flow of foreign fighters and removing ISIL leaders from the battlefield, Defense Secretary Ash Carter noted in a relatively rare official mention of JSOCs operations at an October press conference. A month earlier, he offered even more detail in a statement before the Senate Armed Services Committee: Were systematically eliminating ISILs leadership: the coalition has taken out seven members of the ISIL Senior Shura... We also removed key ISIL leaders in both Libya and Afghanistan... And weve removed from the battlefield more than 20 of ISILs external operators and plotters... We have entrusted this aspect of our campaign to one of [the Department of Defenses] most lethal, capable, and experienced commands, our Joint Special Operations Command, which helped deliver justice not only to Osama Bin Laden, but also to the man who founded the organization that became ISIL, Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi. Advertisement Asked for details on exactly how many ISIL external operators were targeted and how many were removed from the battlefield by JSOC in 2016, SOCOMs Ken McGraw replied: We do not and will not have anything for you. When he was commander of JSOC in 2015, General Thomas spoke of his and his units frustrations with limitations placed on them. Im told no more than go on a magnitude of about ten to one on almost a daily basis, he said. Last November, however, the Washington Post reported that the Obama administration was granting a JSOC task force expanded power to track, plan and potentially launch attacks on terrorist cells around the globe. That Counter-External Operations Task Force (also known as Ex-Ops) has been designed to take JSOCs targeting model... and export it globally to go after terrorist networks plotting attacks against the West. SOCOM disputes portions of the Post story. Neither SOCOM nor any of its subordinate elements have... been given any expanded powers (authorities), SOCOMs Ken McGraw told TomDispatch by email. Any potential operation must still be approved by the GCC [Geographic Combatant Command] commander [and], if required, approved by the Secretary of Defense or [the president]. U.S. officials (who spoke only on the condition that they be identified in that vague way) explained that SOCOMs response was a matter of perspective. Its powers werent recently expanded as much as institutionalized and put in writing, TomDispatch was told. Frankly, the decision made months ago was to codify current practice, not create something new. Special Operations Command refused to confirm this but Colonel Thomas Davis, another SOCOM spokesman, noted: Nowhere did we say that there was no codification. With Ex-Ops, General Thomas is a decision-maker when it comes to going after threats under the task forces purview, according to the Washington Posts Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Dan Lamothe. The task force would essentially turn Thomas into the leading authority when it comes to sending Special Operations units after threats. Others claim Thomas has only expanded influence, allowing him to directly recommend a plan of action, such as striking a target, to the Secretary of Defense, allowing for shortened approval time. (SOCOMs McGraw says that Thomas will not be commanding forces or be the decision maker for SOF operating in any GCC's [area of operations].) Advertisement Last November, Defense Secretary Carter offered an indication of the frequency of offensive operations following a visit to Floridas Hurlburt Field, the headquarters of Air Force Special Operations Command. He noted that today we were looking at a number of the Special Operations forces assault capabilities. This is a kind of capability that we use nearly every day somewhere in the world... And it's particularly relevant to the counter-ISIL campaign that we're conducting today. In Afghanistan, alone, Special Operations forces conducted 350 raids targeting al-Qaeda and Islamic State operatives last year, averaging about one per day, and capturing or killing nearly 50 leaders as well as 200 members of the terror groups, according to General John Nicholson, the top U.S. commander in that country. Some sources also suggest that while JSOC and CIA drones flew roughly the same number of missions in 2016, the military launched more than 20,000 strikes in Afghanistan, Yemen, and Syria, compared to less than a dozen by the Agency. This may reflect an Obama administration decision to implement a long-considered plan to put JSOC in charge of lethal operations and shift the CIA back to its traditional intelligence duties. World of Warcraft [I]t is important to understand why SOF has risen from footnote and supporting player to main effort, because its use also highlights why the U.S. continues to have difficulty in its most recent campaigns -- Afghanistan, Iraq, against ISIS and AQ and its affiliates, Libya, Yemen, etc. and in the undeclared campaigns in the Baltics, Poland, and Ukraine -- none of which fits the U.S. model for traditional war, said retired Lieutenant General Charles Cleveland, chief of U.S. Army Special Operations Command from 2012 to 2015 and now a senior mentor to the chief of staff of the Armys Strategic Studies Group. Asserting that, amid the larger problems of these conflicts, the ability of America's elite forces to conduct kill/capture missions and train local allies has proven especially useful, he added, SOF is at its best when its indigenous and direct-action capabilities work in support of each other. Beyond Afghanistan and Iraq and ongoing CT [counterterrrorism] efforts elsewhere, SOF continues to work with partner nations in counterinsurgency and counterdrug efforts in Asia, Latin America, and Africa. SOCOM acknowledges deployments to approximately 70% of the worlds nations, including all but three Central and South American countries (Bolivia, Ecuador, and Venezuela being the exceptions). Its operatives also blanket Asia, while conducting missions in about 60% of the countries in Africa. Advertisement A SOF overseas deployment can be as small as one special operator participating in a language immersion program or a three-person team conducting a survey for the U.S. embassy. It may also have nothing to do with a host nations government or military. Most Special Operations forces, however, work with local partners, conducting training exercises and engaging in what the military calls building partner capacity (BPC) and security cooperation (SC). Often, this means Americas most elite troops are sent to countries with security forces that are regularly cited for human rights abuses by the U.S. State Department. Last year in Africa, where Special Operations forces utilize nearly 20 different programs and activities -- from training exercises to security cooperation engagements -- these included Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Kenya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda, among others. In 2014, for example, more than 4,800 elite troops took part in just one type of such activities -- Joint Combined Exchange Training (JCET) missions -- around the world. At a cost of more than $56 million, Navy SEALs, Army Green Berets, and other special operators carried out 176 individual JCETs in 87 countries. A 2013 RAND Corporation study of the areas covered by Africa Command, Pacific Command, and Southern Command found moderately low effectiveness for JCETs in all three regions. A 2014 RAND analysis of U.S. security cooperation, which also examined the implications of low-footprint Special Operations forces efforts, found that there was no statistically significant correlation between SC and change in countries fragility in Africa or the Middle East. And in a 2015 report for Joint Special Operations University, Harry Yarger, a senior fellow at the school, noted that BPC has in the past consumed vast resources for little return. Despite these results and larger strategic failures in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya, the Obama years have been the golden age of the gray zone. The 138 nations visited by U.S. special operators in 2016, for example, represent a jump of 130% since the waning days of the Bush administration. Although they also represent a 6% drop compared to last years total, 2016 remains in the upper range of the Obama years, which saw deployments to 75 nations in 2010, 120 in 2011, 134 in 2013, and 133 in 2014, before peaking at 147 countries in 2015. Asked about the reason for the modest decline, SOCOM spokesman Ken McGraw replied, We provide SOF to meet the geographic combatant commands requirements for support to their theater security cooperation plans. Apparently, there were nine fewer countries [where] the GCCs had a requirement for SOF to deploy to in [Fiscal Year 20]16. Advertisement The increase in deployments between 2009 and 2016 -- from about 60 countries to more than double that -- mirrors a similar rise in SOCOMs total personnel (from approximately 56,000 to about 70,000) and in its baseline budget (from $9 billion to $11 billion). Its no secret that the tempo of operations has also increased dramatically, although the command refused to address questions from TomDispatch on the subject. SOF have shouldered a heavy burden in carrying out these missions, suffering a high number of casualties over the last eight years and maintaining a high operational tempo (OPTEMPO) that has increasingly strained special operators and their families, reads an October 2016 report released by the Virginia-based think tank CNA. (That report emerged from a conference attended by six former special operations commanders, a former assistant secretary of defense, and dozens of active-duty special operators.) A closer look at the areas of the undeclared campaigns in the Baltics, Poland, and Ukraine mentioned by retired Lieutenant General Charles Cleveland. Locations in blue were supplied by U.S. Special Operations Command. The one in red was derived from open-source information. (Nick Turse) The American Age of the Commando Last month, before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Shawn Brimley, former director for strategic planning on the National Security Council staff and now an executive vice president at the Center for a New American Security, echoed the worried conclusions of the CNA report. At a hearing on emerging U.S. defense challenges and worldwide threats, Brimley said SOF have been deployed at unprecedented rates, placing immense strain on the force and called on the Trump administration to craft a more sustainable long-term counterterrorism strategy. In a paper published in December, Kristen Hajduk, a former adviser for Special Operations and Irregular Warfare in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict and now a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, called for a decrease in the deployment rates for Special Operations forces. Advertisement While Donald Trump has claimed that the U.S. military as a whole is depleted and has called for increasing the size of the Army and Marines, he has offered no indication about whether he plans to support a further increase in the size of special ops forces. And while he did recently nominate a former Navy SEAL to serve as his secretary of the interior, Trump has offered few indications of how he might employ special operators who are currently serving. Drone strikes, he announced in one of his rare detailed references to special ops missions, will remain part of our strategy, but we will also seek to capture high-value targets to gain needed information to dismantle their organizations. More recently, at a North Carolina victory rally, Trump made specific references to the elite troops soon to be under his command. Our Special Forces at Fort Bragg have been the tip of the spear in fighting terrorism. The motto of our Army Special Forces is to free the oppressed, and that is exactly what they have been doing and will continue to do. At this very moment, soldiers from Fort Bragg are deployed in 90 countries around the world, he told the crowd. After seeming to signal his support for continued wide-ranging, free-the-oppressed special ops missions, Trump appeared to change course, adding, We don't want to have a depleted military because we're all over the place fighting in areas that just we shouldn't be fighting in... This destructive cycle of intervention and chaos must finally, folks, come to an end. At the same time, however, he pledged that the U.S. would soon defeat the forces of terrorism. To that end, retired Army Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, a former director of intelligence for JSOC whom the president-elect tapped to serve as his national security adviser, has promised that the new administration would reassess the militarys powers to battle the Islamic State -- potentially providing more latitude in battlefield decision-making. To this end, the Wall Street Journal reports that the Pentagon is crafting proposals to reduce White House oversight of operational decisions while moving some tactical authority back to the Pentagon. Last month, President Obama traveled to Floridas MacDill Air Force Base, the home of Special Operations Command, to deliver his capstone counterterrorism speech. For eight years that I've been in office, there has not been a day when a terrorist organization or some radicalized individual was not plotting to kill Americans, he told a crowd packed with troops. At the same time, there likely wasnt a day when the most elite forces under his command were not deployed in 60 or more countries around the world. I will become the first president of the United States to serve two full terms during a time of war, Obama added. Democracies should not operate in a state of permanently authorized war. Thats not good for our military, its not good for our democracy. The results of his permanent-war presidency have, in fact, been dismal, according to Special Operations Command. Of eight conflicts waged during the Obama years, according to a 2015 briefing slide from the commands intelligence directorate, Americas record stands at zero wins, two losses, and six ties. The Obama era has indeed proven to be the age of the commando. However, as Special Operations forces have kept up a frenetic operational tempo, waging war in and out of acknowledged conflict zones, training local allies, advising indigenous proxies, kicking down doors, and carrying out assassinations, terror movements have spread across the Greater Middle East and Africa. President-elect Donald Trump appears poised to obliterate much of the Obama legacy, from the presidents signature healthcare law to his environmental regulations, not to mention changing course when it comes to foreign policy, including in relations with China, Iran, Israel, and Russia. Whether he will heed advice to decrease Obama-level SOF deployment rates remains to be seen. The year ahead will, however, offer clues as to whether Obamas long war in the shadows, the golden age of the gray zone, survives. A year that brought the passing of too many important public figures capped it off with the death of the past century's leading explainer of religion and the roles it plays in people's lives. Huston Smith died peacefully in his Berkeley California home, at age 97, on December 30th, after a long, steady weakening that had those who knew him scratching their heads about how he lingered so long and remained so lucid. He was beloved for his wit, his decency and the joy he derived from good company and stimulating conversation, and he was revered for his unparalleled contributions to the study of the world's religions. Born in 1919 in China and raised there by missionary parents, Smith came home to America at 17 and pursued his studies in religion and philosophy. Always a self-identified Methodist, he was an indomitable explorer long before spiritual eclecticism became fashionable, and his investigation was never the kind of shallow pursuit he advised against, comparing religious dilettantes to people at a buffet who get too much of what they want and not enough of what they need. He plunged deeply into traditions other than his own, not just as a scholar but as a seeker of spiritual illumination. He practiced Zen meditation; he practiced disciplines from the Sufi branch of Islam; he practiced yoga, famously bending and stretching his tall, lean body to demonstrate asanas (postures) in a 1950s film that launched his public career and again, in 1996, on Bill Moyers' five-part PBS series, "The Wisdom of Faith with Huston Smith." By then, he was, as the Christian Science Monitor put it, "Religion's Rock Star." Advertisement The non-Western tradition that had the biggest impact on Smith, and by extension all of his readers and students, was Hinduism--specifically, the Vedanta school of Hinduism, whose essence is articulated in the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita. When I asked him how influential Vedanta was in his life, he was 88 and already frail, but he straightened up in his chair and his voice boomed "Immense!" As a young scholar beginning his first teaching job, at Washington University in St. Louis, he was advised to look up Swami Satprakashananda at the local Vedanta Society. On his first visit, he purchased a copy of the Katha Upanishad. "I was overwhelmed in just two pages," he told me, "astonished by how much truth could be compressed into so few words. I was hooked." He was tutored on Vedanta by the learned swami for the next ten years. Those studies would inform his entire body of work, which in turn influenced the way millions of people understand religion, especially religions other than their own. Vedanta's delineation of different spiritual approaches for different personality types "came as a welcome revelation," he said. So did the core insight captured in the Rig Veda dictum usually translated as "Truth is one, sages call it variously." That perspective is known in scholarly circles as Perennialism, and Huston Smith described it better for laypeople than just about anyone, with the possible exceptions of his friends, Joseph Campbell and Aldous Huxley. For advocating the underlying unity of the world's religions, he was mistakenly accused of saying all religions are the same. This naive critique ignores the distinction Smith made throughout his distinguished career--between the exoteric aspects of religion (rituals, forms, behavioral codes, stories, etc.) and the esoteric (direct inner experiences). "Exoterically, they're very different," he said, "but esoterically they are one." That is, whatever pathway one might follow, if it is taken to its highest level it leads one to the same mountaintop as travelers on other paths. His seminal textbook, The Religions of Man (later retitled The World's Religions), first published in 1958, reflects that point of view. It was also unique in its day in that it took religion seriously. Scholar of religion Dana Sawyer, the author of an authorized biography of Smith titled Huston Smith: Wisdomkeeper, says, "Rather than trying to explain religion away, as so many of his colleagues did in the 1950s, Huston claimed the right to love what he studied. . . . By emphasizing the value of religion rather than its drawbacks, and by describing the religions in ways that their adherents could recognize, Huston opened fresh perspective on religion." The book was a landmark, Sawyer adds: "To treat the religions as equals was unusual, since there tended to be a Christian or Western bias at the time. When they were treated as equals it was as antiquated curiosities, all equally useless, not as relevant sources of wisdom." Advertisement Smith never stopped exploring and advocating, through his books, media appearances and countless lectures around the world. His was a sane voice, against fundamentalism and extremism and for pluralism (he helped get the Dalai Lama into the U.S. for instance). In the 1960s, already famous, he took part in the psychedelic experiments of Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (later Ram Dass). He was considered the grownup in the crowd, warning against the cavalier use of drugs and pointing out that the goal of spiritual experience was not just altered states but altered traits. When I was in graduate school, a professor kept making this joke about how Economics majors are just learning how to get money from poor people. It was Berkeley, so it got a few laughs each time he said it, but I think about that comment a lot today, especially as I've become a business owner and entrepreneur myself. I twisted the question around a bit: What are entrepreneurs going to college for? I am in college consulting and education in general, so going to college made a lot of sense--I have to practice what I am preaching. But I never intended to go into business when I first decided on a career in teaching. Over the years, I have seen tons of tech companies launch products at different schools where I have worked. Most were clunky and not teacher or student-friendly. Worst of all, they lacked pedagogy, something that is critical for ed tech tools. And then there were the times when firms would send their best and brightest to evaluate the school's finances. Most of those folks were fresh from undergrad and had a few years of tutoring at a community center between them. They were making decisions that would impact the entire educational system in the city. They made suggestions that were completely irrelevant to schools, and in most cases, damaging. Advertisement So yes, entrepreneurs and business people alike should go to college, and they should learn the ins and outs of the industry they would like to influence. While we can point to some top entrepreneurs who did not complete their college degrees, we know that Zuckerberg and Jobs did take courses in technology and design at two of the top universities in the world. They are anomalies because they didn't finish and still made a huge impact, but they attempted college and created products based on the information and experiences they gleaned in college. I think we rest too much on the data that 90% of start-ups fail, so we figure chances are we are going to fail, so why make the massive effort to know what we're doing from the outset? As entrepreneurs, we measure success regarding the number of start-ups we've founded, and how we continue to make money from those failures, and not the number of successful ones and the number of lives we've impacted in those efforts. I wasn't an Economics major, or as my professor would say, The Art of Making People Buy Stuff They Don't Need major. I studied education and later race in graduate school. And I'd like to think my business and where I am fixated on making change occur in those two realms. Had I not worked in education for nearly twenty years, I wouldn't have been able to see where those points are, and probably would not have been as effective in doing so. So I believe there is something to experience. But earning degrees in those areas has allowed me to think more broadly, much further than what my experience--while lengthy, it is still limited to me--would have told me. Advertisement So go to college and hear what other people are saying about environmental justice, or biological sciences, or art therapy. Then figure out what and where interjections should be made. And while you're at it, see what's happening in the Make People Broke in Ten Days seminar. This question originally appeared on Quora - the knowledge sharing network where compelling questions are answered by people with unique insights. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. More questions: Empowered by the election of anti-abortion president-elect Donald Trump, states are pushing restrictive abortion legislation that is so ruthless, it's beginning to take on the tenor of an angry mob with pitchforks. Besides Ohio's fetal-heartbeat legislation that would have made an abortion illegal after a heartbeat was detected (approximately six weeks) with no exception for rape or incest, there is the Texas rule that was set to go into effect December 19, 2016 that would require the burial or cremation of a fetus, whether aborted or miscarried, no matter what stage of gestation. Texas Governor Greg Abbott rationalizes the law thus: "I believe it is imperative to establish higher standards that reflect our respect for the sanctity of life." Imagine the shame and dismay a woman would feel being told (and I'm paraphrasing here), "The rule requires you bury or cremate your baby." Not only that, she's knocked to her hands and knees when she's also told, "The cost for the funeral is your responsibility." For the many women who are already struggling to pay for the procedure, this could be the toughest barrier to overcome. According to one estimate, the rules would double the cost of the procedure. Women need anonymity and privacy when they undergo this legal medical procedure. The fact that their medical records are protected under HIPPA facilitates their ability to move on with their lives. But a public funeral (funeral homes would handle the burials) would open them up to public shaming and all the repercussions, including possible violence, that would follow. Advertisement Fortunately, on December 15, 2016, a federal judge temporarily blocked Texas from enacting that rule. But we haven't seen the last of this legislation about burying a fetus. At this point, I'm reminded of George Carlin's question: Is a fetus a human being? As he pointed out, this is the central question of the controversy. Two of the questions Carlin asks to determine if a fetus is a human being are: 1) If a fetus is a human being, how come the Census doesn't count it? 2) If a fetus is a human being, how come if there's a miscarriage, they don't have a funeral? Who would have dreamed that Carlin's bitingly sardonic remark about a fetus funeral would have a very good chance of becoming actual law? Advertisement Current attempts to shame or scare women who are seeking abortions aren't working well enough for Governor Abbott. For instance, the booklet, "A Woman's Right to Know," is reading material that Texas abortion providers are required to give every woman seeking an abortion. It could be categorized as pulp fiction, since it's devoid of facts or reality and describes imaginary perils associated with abortions. Here are some of the fallacies (okay, lies) a woman can expect to find in the booklet: 1) Terminating a pregnancy increases your risk of getting breast cancer. Extensive studies and analyses have thoroughly refuted this myth. 2) Getting an abortion increases your risk of infertility. Abortion procedures are extraordinarily safe and effectively eliminate the possibility that a patient will become infertile. 3) Getting an abortion causes women to have depression or thoughts of suicide, grief, anxiety, lowered self-esteemed, regret, sexual dysfunction, avoidance of emotional attachment, flashbacks and substance abuse. There is absolutely no medical evidence to back this up. A new study just released by the University of California at San Francisco found that women who underwent an abortion were at less risk of adverse mental health effects (such as depression, anxiety, and dissatisfaction of life) than those who were denied an abortion because their pregnancy was further along than the facility's gestational limit. 4) The booklet lists extremely rare occurrences that are meant to horrify, including injuries to the internal organs, blood clots or serious infections, hemorrhaging, emergency hysterectomy, injury to the bowel or bladder, embolism, and, of course, that silver bullet--death. Advertisement What the Texas booklet omits is that abortion is far safer than childbirth. The risk of death from with childbirth is about 14 times higher than the risk of death from abortion. And you can be sure that no abortion-provider booklet informs women of the medically-accurate difference in the definitions of fetus and baby. Watch for this administration to dig in and encourage states to revisit the fetus-burial law. After all, vice-president-elect Mike Pence signed the same required burial law in his state of Indiana. Like Texas's law, it was eventually blocked from going into effect by a federal judge for violating women's right to choose. But this is where we are, and it will only get much worse, especially when you consider that Pence also proclaimed, "I long to see the day that Roe vs. Wade is consigned to the ash heap of history where it belongs and we again embrace a culture of life in America." He signed every anti-abortion bill that crossed his desk while he was governor of Indiana. Oh, and he has pledged to defund Planned Parenthood and divert those funds to health clinics that don't provide abortions. With the inescapable appointment of ultra-conservative, pro-life Justices to the Supreme Court, we're barreling towards a future that puts women in danger of becoming what George Carlin eerily discerned about Republicans: "They believe a woman's primary role is to function as a broodmares for the state." I would ask that you imagine this: From broodmare, it's a short stride to legislating that women who have abortions wear the equivalent of Hester Prynne's shameful Scarlet Letter... "On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the letter A." In Puritan New England, that stood for "Adulteress." In our time, the A will stand for "Abortion." Think this is far-fetched? Until November, 2016, so was electing a misogynistic, racist, xenophobic, p***y-grabbing, Russian-loving, alt-right supporting and frenetic-tweeting president. Advertisement We can no longer take rationale and normalcy as givens. If you feel like you've been living in an alternate universe since the election, you're about to enter the Twilight Zone. The fight for women to have control over their own bodies has always been a tough one, but it's about to get really nasty. Unless we fight back now by supporting those very effective organizations that are equipped to fight hard for women's choice, like Planned Parenthood, NARAL, the Center for Reproductive Rights, and Feminist Majority Foundation, among many others, this freshly-empowered righteous mob won't stop until we are, by law, forced to accept increasing increments of public shame as a form of punishment for asserting control over our own bodies. We have a line of defense with these feminist organizations if we get behind them with our own equivalent of pitchforks--our dollars. As Gloria Steinem recently said, "We'll have to be in full-out rebellion." Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Jan. 5 By Demir Azizov Trend: President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Chinese President Xi Jinping exchanged congratulatory messages on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, the Uzbekistan National News Agency (UzA) reported. The sides reaffirmed their commitment to the multifaceted cooperation, according to the news agency. "China, a confidently and dynamically developing country, which has a great reputation and influence in the world, has become Uzbekistans close and reliable partner, and we are tied by traditions of strong friendship, mutual understanding and respect," the Uzbek president said in his message. Mirziyoyev added that the joint statement signed during the visit of Chinese president to Uzbekistan in June 2016 has raised the Uzbek-Chinese relations to the level of comprehensive strategic partnership. "Uzbekistan is interested in further enhancing the constructive cooperation with China within the UN, Shanghai Cooperation Organization and other influential international organizations and financial institutions," Mirziyoyev said in his message. Chinese President Xi Jinping in his message to President Mirziyoyev wished "continuous strengthening and rapid development of friendship between China and Uzbekistan." "I attach great importance to the development of the Chinese-Uzbek relations," Xi Jinping said in his message. "China will continue to support the path of development chosen by Uzbekistan, as well as the countrys efforts to strengthen its independence, sovereignty and security, promotion of socio-economic development and the expansion of external relations." I am pleased to announce that our article reviewing research on effective secondary reading programs has just been posted on the Best Evidence Encyclopedia, aka the BEE. Written with my colleagues Ariane Baye, Cynthia Lake, and Amanda Inns, our review found 64 studies of 49 reading programs for students in grades 6 to 12, which had to meet very high standards of quality. For example, 55 of the studies used random assignment to conditions. But before I get all nerdy about the technical standards of the review, I want to reflect on what we learned. I've already written about one thing we learned, that simply providing more instructional time made little difference in outcomes. In 22 of the studies, students got an extra period for reading beyond what control students got for at least an entire year, yet programs (other than tutoring) that provided extra time did no better than those that did not. If time doesn't help struggling readers, what does? I think I can summarize our findings with three words: love, hope, and evidence. Advertisement Love and hope are exactly what students who are reading below grade level are lacking. They are no longer naive. They know exactly what it means to be a poor reader in a high-poverty secondary school (almost all of the schools in our review served disadvantaged adolescents). If you can't read well, college is out of the question. Decent jobs without a degree are scarce. If you have no hope, you cannot be motivated, or you may be motivated in antisocial directions that give you at least a chance for money and recognition. Every child needs love, but poor readers in secondary schools are too often looking for love in all the wrong places. The successful programs in our review were ones that give adolescents a chance to earn the hope and love they crave. One category, all studies done in England, involved one-to-one and small group tutoring. How better to build close relationships between students and caring adults than to have individual or very small group time with them? And the one-to-one or small group setting allows tutors to personalize instruction, giving students a sense of hope that this time, their efforts will pay off (as the evidence says it will). But the largest impacts in our review came from two related programs - The Reading Edge and Talent Development High School (TDHS). These both developed in our research center at Johns Hopkins University in the 1990s, so I have to be very modest here. But beyond these individual programs, I think there is a larger message. Both The Reading Edge (for middle schools) and TDHS (for high schools) organize students into mixed-ability cooperative teams. The team members work on activities designed to build reading comprehension and related skills. Students are frequently assessed and on the basis of those assessments, they can earn recognition for their teams. Teachers introduce lessons, and then, as students work with each other on reading activities, teachers can cruise around the class looking in on students who need encouragement or help, solving problems, and building relationships. Students are on task, eager to learn, and seeing the progress they are making, but students and teachers are laughing together, sharing easy banter, and encouraging each other. Yes, this really happens. I've seen it hundreds of times in secondary schools throughout the U.S. and England. Advertisement Many of the most successful programs in our review also are based on principles of love and hope. BARR, a high school program, is an excellent example. It uses block scheduling to build positive relationships among a group of students and teachers, adding regular meetings between teachers and students to review their progress in all areas, social as well as academic. The program focuses on building positive social-emotional skills and behaviors, and helping students describe their desired futures, make plans to get there, and regularly review progress on their plans with their teachers and peers. Love and hope. California's Expository Reading and Writing Course helps 12th graders hoping to attend California State Universities prepare to pass the test used to determine whether students have to take remedial English (a key factor in college dropout). The students work in groups, helping each other to build reading, writing, and discussion skills, and helping students to visualize a future for themselves. Love and hope. A few technology programs showed promising outcomes, especially Achieve3000 and Read 180. These do not replace teachers and peers with technology, but instead cycle students through small group, teacher-led, and computer-assisted activities. Pure technology programs did not work so well, but models taking advantage of relationships as well as personalization did best. Love and hope. Of course, love and hope are not sufficient. We also need evidence that students are learning more than they might have been. To produce positive achievement effects requires outstanding teaching strategies, professional development, curricular approaches, assessments, and more. Love and hope may be necessary but they are not sufficient. Advertisement Our review applied the toughest evidence standards we have ever applied. Most of the studies we reviewed did not show positive impacts on reading achievement. But the ones that did so inspire that much more confidence. The very fact that we could apply these standards and still find plenty of studies that meet them shows how much our field is maturing. This in itself fills me with hope. And love. Apology In a recent blog, I wrote about work we are doing to measure the impact on reading and math performance of a citywide campaign to provide assessments and eyeglasses to every child in Baltimore, from pre-k to grade 8. I forgot to mention the name of the project, Vision for Baltimore, and neglected to say that the project operates under the authority of the Baltimore City Health Department, which has been a strong supporter. I apologize for the omission. It's too easy simply to blame Donald Trump for the void that's suddenly apparent at the center of American government -- or will be on Jan. 20. In fact, I'm utterly sick of hearing his name, let alone accounts of his latest outrage or trivial impertinence, which is the equivalent of crack cocaine in the news cycle: all Trump, all the time. It's been that way for a year. Trump is a symptom. But, come on, far less of a symptom -- of a deep, raw social and cultural wrongness -- than, for instance, the global war and terror, environmental exploitation, climate chaos, poverty, racism (old and new), infrastructure collapse, the commonness of mass murder, the limitless expansion of the security state, or the congealing of a one-party status quo that ignores all of the above. Advertisement We kind of live with this stuff and the vague pain it causes -- because we know it's wrong and feel the wrongness deep inside us -- and in the process of ignoring this pain we have devolved ever more deeply into techno-escapism. We allow ourselves to be lulled and distracted by the superficial media, which continually presents us with new enemies to blame. (The Russians! The Russians! They messed with our election!) More and more, American unity is a spectator unity, the essence of which was immortalized by George W. Bush in early 2003, as his administration was preparing to invade Iraq, when he told the nation to go shopping. Could there be a more glaring disconnect between government and populace -- a more bald-faced dismissal of "the people" as irrelevant to the business of the nation? And we're still here, in this era of irrelevance. With the ascendance of Trump, we've managed to produce a leader who symbolizes, and even occasionally addresses (or tweets about), the surrealism of our collapsing social and political infrastructure. The way out of this slowly lethal absurdity is a lot more complex than simply resisting the Trump presidency, so that we can get ourselves back, with a huge sigh of relief, to the pre-Trump status quo. I suggest, instead, envisioning a different sort of future, beginning with a rethinking of our core mythology and its excruciating limitations: that we are separate sentient beings living on an inanimate, exploitable planet; that it's every man for himself and winning is everything; that my survival has nothing to do with your survival; that a detached (cynical) rationality is the best tool we have for understanding life and the world that surrounds us. Advertisement It's time to leave the Age of Disconnect. Its achievements are coming back to haunt us. Who are we? Charles Eisenstein, in his recent book The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible, talks about "an emerging Story of the People that is the defining mythology of a new kind of civilization." He calls it "the Story of Interbeing." The essence of this unwritten story is extraordinarily deep and extraordinarily simple: "That my being partakes of your being and that of all beings. This goes beyond interdependency--our very existence is relational. "That, therefore, what we do to another, we do to ourselves." Such words may be transgressions beyond the boundary established by cynics, but they are not random or abstract. We can feel the connection beyond ourselves: "Why," Eisenstein asks, "does it hurt when we hear of another person coming to harm? Why, when we read of mass die-offs of the coral reefs and see their bleached skeletons, do we feel like we've sustained a blow? It is because it is literally happening to our selves, our extended selves. . . . Certainly, as a little introspection will reveal, our desire to help is not coming from a rational calculation that this injustice or that ecological disaster will somehow, someday, threaten our personal well-being. The pain is more direct, more visceral than that. The reason it hurts is because it is literally happening to ourselves." Yet somehow we have chopped up the world in which we live into an infinity of separateness, gaining, in the process, control (for some) over other people and dominion, as they say, over the planet. In my last column, I talked about pledging one's allegiance not to a nation and its arbitrary borders, or to the flag that symbolizes the nation, but to the planet itself and to the future it is our purpose in being here to create. Advertisement But what would such a pledge mean? I'm obviously not talking about some rote recitation, but a heartfelt new exploration of the ancient question, who are we? To assist in our approaching this question with adequate seriousness, I summon the words of Harvard-trained neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor, who, a decade ago, wrote a book called My Stroke of Insight, about the stroke she suffered when she was 37 years old. She awoke one morning with something more than a headache, but not knowing what it was, she stepped into the shower as usual: "When the shower droplets beat into my chest like little bullets, I was harshly startled back into . . . reality," she wrote. "As I held my hands up in front of my face and wiggled my fingers, I was simultaneously perplexed and intrigued. "Wow, what a strange and amazing thing I am. What a bizarre living being I am. Life! I am life! I am a sea of water bound inside this membranous pouch. Here, in this form, I am a conscious mind and this body is the vehicle through which I am ALIVE! I am trillions of cells sharing a common mind. I am here, now, thriving as life. Wow! What an unfathomable concept! I am cellular life, no -- I am molecular life with manual dexterity and a cognitive mind!" Taylor's stroke recovery meant rebuilding her life. This is where it started -- with, you might say, her sudden, visceral awareness of the miracle of being. Somehow we need to expand this awareness into the story of who we are: the story at the core of the future we're building. - - - Robert Koehler is an award-winning, Chicago-based journalist and nationally syndicated writer. His book, Courage Grows Strong at the Wound is available. Contact him at koehlercw@gmail.com or visit his website at commonwonders.com. Advertisement Credit Drew Angerer/Bloomberg After the election, I made public my disgust of the alliance between Trump and evangelicals. I did so by stating my surprise--in addition to my chagrin--of the outcome. But I was wrong. I should not have been surprised by Trump's success among evangelicals. In fact, after I took some time to process and reflect, I now see that Trump is, in many ways, analogous to the evangelical God. Said differently, perhaps Trump is more like their God than I may have realized. Let me explain by making a few comparisons between Trump and evangelical ideas of God. On Women. How quickly we are to condemn Trump's "deplorable" language about groping and grabbing women by their genitalia, but have we really considered the view of women in evangelical churches and their sacred texts? Advertisement If we read the Hebrew Bible, we can see it is no secret that, based on the text, one could deduce that women have a lesser value or status than men. This is evident in all the nameless women, the collection of women and concubines (polygyny), the acceptance of rape, the expulsion of women on their menstrual cycles, the value placed on sexual purity (for the woman) and their ability to conceive and bear (boy) children. Fortunately, new feminist readings of some of the most gender-troubling texts have become more popular as people have begun challenging the harmful norms and practices in these texts. As author Rachel Hold Evans contends, in A Year of Biblical Womanhood, "Feminism is the radical notion that women are people." On War. While many have expressed grave concern about Trump's tendency to talk about nuclear weapon enrichment or the execution of terrorists' entire families, how do we consider this in light of a God of genocide? For most of my life, I have heard the God of the Hebrew Bible defended by the claim, "God is merciful, but God is just." That is how troubling passages were dealt with: gloss over them by making it about God's unquestionable character. As a result, questioning the passages is treated as questioning God completely. (Such moves are effectively motivated by shaming.) Making a lateral move like that helps distract us from when God kills everyone in a flood (Gen. 7), kills 500,000 Israelites (2 Chron. 13:15-18), and all the different God-sanctioned acts of genocide: (Deut. 2) (Deut. 3), (Joshua 6), and so on. How do we deal with a God that commands "Thou Shall Not Kill" and then commands those same people to kill? Advertisement Inherent in defenses of a God that kills is that people deserve it; because of the Fall, it is taught that we all deserve death. I wonder, in what ways does that make war easier? All that is needed to kill is a just cause. According to that line of theological thinking, there can be no atoning or wholeness without blood sacrifice. After all, "the wages of sin is death..." And just who gets to decide what is sinful? On Sovereignty and Power. Donald Trump has conteded that only he can fix the system in the US. With a bold claim, Trump assumes a special power. With the presidency now secured, he is afforded a certain sovereignty that comes with that power. He made clear that he alone is the answer to the current state of affairs in America; he is the only hope. That type of language sounds familiar. Throughout many of the Hebrew texts, God is portrayed and perceived as all powerful and, in all things, sovereign. With power and sovereignty, however, comes ultimate responsibility. God is, thus, the reason why droughts and famines occur, why people get sick and die, why the children of Israel constantly fall victim to aggressive enemies, and the only one that can rescue the people from enslavement (spoiler: it never works out). In this way, Trump is seen as a type of God. Just as evangelicals put all hope and trust in a powerful and sovereign God, they have put their hope in Trump. As I read through the scriptures, I am reminded of the people's desire for God to give them a king. Ironically, however, that never worked out. Yet, once again, a messianic hope has come from the Republican party, or so it seems. So, how do we respond? Now, I would be remiss if I did not push back against these harmful notions about God and their political consequences. Here is what I am suggesting: For the next four years, we must let our sense of humanity transcend our religious dogma. Needed now more than ever is a litmus test for our theology, not just our politics. Advertisement This means we must interrogate harmful views of God. Because harmful views of God lead to the harmful treatment of each other. The Reverend Dr. William Barber has recently made a compelling argument for how to deal with the coming challenges of the incoming administration: America needs a "Moral Center," not a "Religious Left." A moral agenda "must be anti-racist, anti-poverty, pro-justice, pro-labor, transformative and deeply rooted and built within a fusion coalition." In June of 2012 -- then Newark Mayor Cory Booker told the Star-Ledger "I've always been very compelled about the democratizing force in social media that is getting more voices engaged in the larger dialogue." He said that #waywire was conceived to be a "way for people to consume information, ideas, and media, but more importantly also to let their own voices be heard, engage in a different way." This was four years ago, long before the rise of Reddit as a political force driving r/the Donald and rise of the so-called 'alt-right.' Long before Donald Trump knew what Twitter was -- Cory Booker was using the medium to communicate with his constituents. Booker understood the power of social media as both a working politician and social media participants. Today Booker has 2.06 million Twitter followers. Booker told FastCompany: Millennials "want to see news and information coming not only from trusted news sources." They also want to see "opinions, ideas, and values that other people have about that news and information. We created a platform -- a new social stream -- for consuming information and ideas," Booker said. "But also for individuals to engage in that information and to participate in a more significant way." Advertisement "I've always been very compelled about the democratizing force in social media that is getting more voices engaged in the larger dialogue," Booker said, billing the site as a way for millennials "to let their own voices be heard, engage in a different way." "If we can find a way to empower people to talk about their issues, ideas and passions that they're concerned about, then we can find a way to further advance change," Booker told NJ.com. "The goal is to get [youth] involved in changing their communities and the world," he added. "It's not about getting them engaged in other leaders, but to be the voices of change themselves. I always believe the power of the people is greater than that of the people in power" said Booker. As he explained it to Mashable: " what we need to start doing is finding ways to give more people the tools necessary to influence the world around them, not let them be drowned out, glossed over or ignored. When you let their voices be heard, it becomes less ideological, you're opening arteries and dialogue, it becomes infinitely more pragmatic about getting things done and making a difference." "One of the big things that we feel is missing for millennials is the ability to contextualize news and information that matters to them," co-founder Nathan Richardson told Fast Company. "The best way to think about it is a media platform for Millennials; It's a network where they can contribute videos and they can discover videos." Advertisement If the Waywire concept rings a bell in your head, it may be because bears some similarity to Current TV, a cable channel co-founded by former vice president Al Gore in 2005. I worked with Gore on Current back then, basing it on the work we'd done with MTV Unfiltered to bring UGC to young content creators. Like Waywire, Current sought to make socially conscious programming engaging for younger viewers, inviting the submission of user-generated content on the website. But unlike Waywire, it was mostly a linear cable TV network -- not a social media driven enterprise. Now, how did Booker's Waywire vision turn out? Well, it turns out that driving CPM's and video views is hard. And harder still when you try and embrace the goals of social activism. So Waywire evolved to become a SaaS platform with great partners and a broader agenda. The evolution left the goal of empowering millennials behind. In hindsight, that's a decision I regret. Today, with Facebook driving a new generation of news and conversation, and Reddit and 4Chan now central to the conversation, on this is absolutely clear -- Cory was right. For lawmakers and advocates in Washington, D.C., this New Year marks the beginning of a new Administration, a new Congress, and an opportunity to reflect on a key racial justice, gender equity, and criminal justice reform issue for girls of color. January is National Human Trafficking Awareness Month, and this year we hope to shed light on how sex trafficking too often fuels a cycle of victimization and incarceration among vulnerable girls and young women here in the United States. Although awareness is growing every day, many still struggle to recognize that human trafficking--including child sex trafficking--doesn't just happen in other countries, but it happens in every community throughout the United States. And not only is it happening here at home, but according to the FBI, over 80 percent of all confirmed sex trafficking cases in the U.S. actually involve American citizens. A shocking 40 percent of those cases involve the sale of American children for sex. Evidence reveals that women and girls--especially women and girls of color--are overrepresented in the commercial sex trade. In King County, Washington, where African-Americans comprise less than seven percent of the overall population, they comprise a startling 46 percent of all child sex trafficking victims. And not only are girls of color more likely to be trafficked and exploited for sex, but they are also more likely to be criminalized for their exploitation. According to the FBI, African-American children comprise 52 percent of all juvenile prostitution arrests--more than any other racial group. So who are these girls? They are girls like Sarah. Advertisement Sarah was just 11 years old when she was first trafficked in California. Walking home one day from school with a friend, Sarah was spotted by a trafficker. Once he spotted them, the exploiter convinced the two girls to get in his car. He then kidnapped them, held them in a nearby apartment, and trafficked them to buyers throughout the Bay Area. Despite being a victim of child sex trafficking, Sarah was arrested for prostitution and kept in juvenile detention for several months. In any other situation, what happened to Sarah would be considered statutory rape or sexual assault of a minor, leading her abusers to be brought to justice. But because her abuse was paid for, the justice system saw Sarah as the criminal - landing her behind bars and holding her responsible for her own victimization. Tragically, Sarah is not alone. Sarah's story highlights the dangerous intersection of race, gender, and violence that too often fuels the incarceration of girls who simply need help. Sarah's story represents what we have named the "abuse-to-prison pipeline" - or the pathways of gender-based violence that funnel vulnerable girls into the juvenile justice system as a direct result of suffering trauma. Motivated by this profound injustice that touches the lives of so many young women and girls at the margin, we at Rights4Girls are dedicated to dismantling this pipeline and ensuring that trafficked and exploited girls are met with services and interventions instead of handcuffs and incarceration. Advertisement Over the last several years, we have been focused on putting an end to exploitation of young girls by traffickers and buyers here in the United States. Our team of human rights attorneys has been fighting to end injustices relating to child trafficking - working with survivors, judges, attorneys general, Congress, the White House, and providers to forge real and meaningful change in the way we view, treat, and name survivors of sexual exploitation and trafficking in the U.S. It is why in 2015 we launched the No Such Thing campaign to make clear that there is no such thing as a 'child prostitute' and that girls like Sarah are in fact, victims of crime. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 5 By Khalid Kazimov Trend: Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said that his country would have fought with enemies inside the Islamic Republic if threats had not been thwarted in Syria. He described those who fight against the Syrian government as ill-wishers and seditionists saying if they had not been confronted in Syria, the Islamic Republic would have stood against them in the Iranian provinces of Tehran, Fars and Khorasan, the supreme leaders official website reported Jan. 5. The leader further described the ill-wishers and seditionists fighting against Syrian government as the puppets of the US. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made the remarks at a meeting with a group of relatives of Iranian army servicemen killed in Syria. The report did not mention the exact date of the meeting but it said the meeting was held over this week. During the meeting, the Iranian supreme leader paid tribute to the memory of those who lost their lives in the Syrian conflict. Iranian army last April announced that it had deployed a group of its commandos to Syria to assist President Bashar al-Assad's forces in fight against terrorist groups. Over the past years and since the crisis broke out in Syria several Iranian nationals have been reportedly killed in clashes with "terrorists" there. Kansas men's basketball wins exhibition game against Pittsburg State The Jayhawks may not have started this exhibition game well Thursday, but they were able to recover and come away with a win. Ghostship Fire: Mourn The Dead, Fight Like Hell For The Living In this recent article, Marc Ribot explores how the tragedy at Oakland's GhostShip lofts is indicative of a broader issue concerning the marginalization of working artists. ____________________________ Guest post by Marc Ribot on The Trichordist Marc Ribot is an American Musician a member of NYC artists rights group MusiciansACTION http://musiciansaction.org/. Photo by Webb Traverse at English Wikipedia (Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons.) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons The initial horror evoked by Oaklands GhostShip fire is now turning into self questioning and anger at those who placed the victims in harms way. Yes, there will be individuals landlords, inspectors, event organizers held to account. But the political context of this tragedy is that artists not only musicians, but graphic artists, photographers and other content creatorshave been placed in a condition of risk and precarity by Silicon Valleys trashing of the copyright laws a mass expropriation of value which turned what was once an important source of income into an expense for working artists. Yes, marginal, new, and unsuccessful artists have long been precarious. But Silicon Valleys implementation of a business model earning itself hundreds of billions via the ad based exploitation of copyright infringing work has marginalized an increasingly large number of working content creators, driving many into substandard housing, work spaces, and multiple jobs; and out of health insurance, safe housing, and sleep. The geographically marginal location of the GhostShip lofts in Oaklands industrial zone, far from the nightlife centers of SF, is not only a metaphor, but a sign and symptom of a wider and deeper phenomenon: the economic marginalization of working artists. The GhostShips Oakland location right across the Bay from the SV corporations which drove them into fatal precarity is also more than metaphor. These artists were driven out of less precarious situations by rent increases. San Franscisco real estate has gone through the ceiling as a direct result of the huge wealth of Silicon Valley corporate execs, investors, financiers, and employees. Rage at this Silicon Valley driven gentrification has been local news for almost a decade. Conflict between local residents and SV employees broke into violence over Googles usage of public bus stops for their private busses. Leftists may not consider the local residents choice of an epithet (dot.communist) the ideal metaphor for evil, but it was meant to express the contempt Bay Area residents felt for the tech industry yuppies who drove them out of their homes and work places. Working artists were by no means the only San Franciscans displaced. But added to the injury of artist displacement was the insulting knowledge that the money enabling their displacers had been generated by their own labor, expropriated via ad based profits on infringing files of their own work, files often posted and used without their consent or remuneration. Silicon Valley propaganda outlets like the Google funded Electronic Frontier Foundation have long taken the position that the 60% collapse of the record industry caused by infringement was only hurting rich major record company execs, that somehow you could suck 7 billion a year out of an industry without hurting the working artists and engineers, and indie label staff, and photographers/graphic artists/designers etc who worked with them and lived off the sales of their music. So now the precarity caused by these policies has hurt real people. And the only thing unusual about those hurt or killed in the GhostShip fire was that, unlike the hundreds of thousands of individual, isolated disasters caused by structural precarity, this hurt made national headlines. Our personal disasters the broken relationships of those working two jobs, or forced onto the road because thats all thats left, the deferment or avoidance of family due to poverty.the dislocations, evictions, foreclosures will never be on CNN or Fox News. But we all know people, or are people, who have suffered them. Precarity describes the social dimension of supposedly natural disasters: the increased risk of death, injury, and misery for those pushed to the social edge. The cause of death may be attributed to natural phenomena: fire, flood, earthquake. But the degree of risk is created socially: politically, legally, economically. San Fransiscos Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989 registered 6.9 on the richter scale and resulted in 63 deaths. The 2010 Haitian earthquake was a similar magnitude (7.0), but resulted in over 160,000 deaths. The earthquake didnt kill: substandard housing did. Its poverty, not nature, that places people in substandard housing. And its the lack of political rights and power that condemn populations to poverty. The precarity pushing content creators to the social edge is entirely political, caused not by digital technology itself, but by: 1. the special privilege Safe Harbor clauses of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1997-98, which prevent artists from seeking damages from online corporations, even those, like YouTube, whose business model is based on the mass infringement of artists rights. 2. The 2ndary boycott provision of the Taft Hartley law which limits the target of collective economic (ie: union) action to the immediate direct employer (meaning that almost all corporate profiteering from content is off limits to labor action by almost all producers of content). Many people know that Taylor Swift withdrew her material from Spotify to protest its low rates of pay. Fewer know that if Ms. Swift had asked other artists to join her, or the public to boycott, she could have been sued for everything she ever made or ever will make. And if a union had made that call on her behalf, they could have seen all their assets, including pension funds, seized, and their officers arrested and placed under gag order. 3. Reagan era court decisions limiting the scope of anti-trust law, even when corporations are clearly using their monopsony power to crush producers. Rip, Mix, Burn The february 2003 edition of Wired Magazine celebrated the death of the recording industry with a cover (referring to Charles C Manns accompanying The Year The Music Dies article) consisting of a famous graphic image of the Hindenburg disaster, in which hundreds of passengers were burnt to death in the ill-fated zepellins launching.* This graphic image was accompanied by the text Rip, Mix, Burn, a slogan borrowed from an Apple campaign to both advertise their product as a tool for copyright infringement and rationalize the harm done to artists by presenting a for profit corporate campaign as anti-corporate direct action. Apple profited greatly from sales to consumers using their product precisely as suggested. Wireds advertisers are often tech corporations reaping similar profits. The clear implication of Wireds gleeful use of the Hindenberg disaster photo is now obscene. We now know that the music didnt die in 2003. Musicians still make music (using similar technological tools to those in use since the 90s). People still listen to the music musicians make. Their listening is still mediated by corporations, and still produces (now more than ever) profits for those corporations. Only now those profits arent shared by the people who produce them. This isnt creative destruction, or technological unemployment: its exploitation pure and simple. Thanks to the Safe Harbor clause of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and the 2ndary boycott provision of the Taft Hartley Law, content creators have been prevented from fighting this exploitation individually and collectively. Denied legal means of fighting back, politically swamped by the massive lobbying power and social media manipulation of Silicon Valley corporations, artists have been pushed into economic precarity and risk. As is so often the case with the violation of rights, violence against the body is the inevitable consequence. M. Ribot The author is a member of NYC artists rights group MusiciansACTION http://musiciansaction.org/. Share on: This morning we reported that SoundCloud could run out of cash within months. The news came straight from SoundCloud's latest financial filings; and at a time when the company is rumored to be in acquisition talks with Google. This afternoon, a SoundCloud spokesperson responded: "SoundCloud filed its 2015 accounts with Companies House in December, and they are now publicly available on their site as of today. The accounts show that, in 2015, we were heavily focused on putting the necessary measures in place to build out our monetization model, including our consumer subscription service, SoundCloud Go, and roll-out of advertising on the platform. This meant investing in technology, people and marketing, as well as securing complex licensing agreements with key music industry partners. As such, the company remained unprofitable. In 2016, we saw solid growth not only for the industry but for SoundCloud too. And we see this trend continuing throughout 2017. To date, we have successfully launched SoundCloud Go, our subscription service, and our ads business in eight markets, including the US, UK, Ireland, France, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Germany. We are on a very positive path to achieving our aim of enabling all creators to be paid for their work, while also building a financially sustainable platform where our connected community of creators, listeners and curators can continue to thrive." Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 5 By Khalid Kazimov Trend: Iranian Oil Ministry will not intervene in the countrys recent gas dispute with Turkmenistan over the outstanding debts for previous natural gas sales, oil minister said. Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh has said that the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) and Turkmen state company Turkmengas should resolve the commercial dispute themselves, Mizan news agency reported. He further expressed considerable reluctance to link the gas dispute between Iran and Turkmenistan to diplomatic issues, saying the commercial dispute should not have a negative impact on ties between the two countries. He also called on the NIGC and Turkmengas to resolve the issue through solutions envisaged in the existing contracts between the two companies. Reuters citing Turkmen Foreign Ministry reported Jan. 3 that Turkmenistan has limited natural gas supplies to Iran since Jan. 1 over unpaid past deliveries. In the meantime, the Iranian Foreign Ministry has also expressed the countrys disinclination to turn the gas dispute into a diplomatic issue. Adam Hinds, center, is being sworn in as state senator on Wednesday. (Photo Credit: Antonio Caban / State House News Service) Hinds Sworn In As State Senator PITTSFIELD, Mass. Adam Hinds was sworn in Wednesday as the Berkshires' newest state senator. Hinds took the oath of office in the Senate Chambers on Beacon Hill on Wednesday to serve the Berkshire, Hampshire, Franklin and Hampden District. The Pittsfield Democrat won election in November to fill the shoes of Benjamin Downing, who chose not to run for re-election after 10 years in office. "It was a profound honor to be sworn in today, during the opening proceedings of the 190th session of the General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts," Hinds said on Wednesday. "What a privilege it is to start the work of representing all citizens of the Berkshire, Hampshire, Franklin and Hampden District." Since November, Hinds held a number of public meetings to help "define our agenda" and will now spend the next three weeks turning what he heard into bills or support for bills, which need to be filed by Jan. 20. He said he is particularly focused on "getting the fundamentals" right, which include the district's infrastructure, education, and economic development. "There is a lot of work and that process was creating an agenda for working families," Hinds said. He said he's looking at policies to help small and medium-sized companies, worker needs such as paid family leave and reducing the cost of child care, and fixing the education funding from preschool all the way through college. However, committee assignments are still a month or so away. Senate President Stanley Rosenberg has asked for each senator's preference and he has a wide range of topics he'd like to address. "It's critical to be part of the conversation on jobs, on education, on energy and the environment all of the fundamentals," Hinds said. He is also in the process of opening offices and hiring his staff. He had already picked Bethann Steiner to be his chief of staff, a position she had for nine years under Downing. And he plans to open not just one district office, but two. "We'll have one right in downtown Pittsfield and another in Williamsburg to focus on the hilltowns," Hinds said. The legislative session will start out somewhat slow in the beginning as lawmakers write and file bills. But Hinds did get to cast one vote on Wednesday and that was to re-elect Rosenberg as the Senate president. "I've been impressed right from the start about his openness and transparency," Hinds said of the Amherst Democrat. Rosenberg was unanimously chosen as president. "I want to thank my colleagues for their support and allowing me to continue to preside over the Senate in this new term. There are many issues we need to tackle in this session. I look forward to working with my colleagues to make real positive change for the people of Massachusetts," Rosenberg said in a statement released Wednesday. Hinds has worked in politics in the past but hadn't been an elected official until just now. He said sitting in those chambers as a senator makes "the weight of the privilege so much more profound." "It feels all the more important when it is me sitting in that chair to work hard every moment I'm awake," Hinds said. "It really is a privilege and an honor." Hinds has been given a temporary office in the State House 413-F and an official email account. He expects to release more information about the offices, his staff, and contact information in the coming weeks. "This is a humbling way to start this new year, a year that must be one where we do all we can to ensure everyone has the opportunity to thrive. I couldn't be more proud to do that work with all of you," Hinds said. Doug Roberts, an architect with Hudson Design Group, goes over the size and location of the proposed monopole. The tower would be situated behind the old clubhouse, raising concerns with Planning Board about the future of the former golf course. RF engineer Jay LaTorre explains a coverage map. The green is the Florida Mountain tower, the light purple is the antennas in North Adams and the dark blue, the proposed tower. Verizon did a balloon test in late December. The red circle shows the balloon looking south on River Road. A closer view showing what the height of the tower would be. PreviousNext Verizon Cell Tower Plan Meets Opposition in Clarksburg CLARKSBURG, Mass. A second proposal to locate a Verizon cell tower at the former North Adams Country Club came under fire on Wednesday as residents sharply questioned its need. The telecommunications company wants to place a 140-foot monopole along River Road (Route 8) to increase the coverage and communications quality; residents say the placement of the pole along its most scenic byway will be an unnecessary eyesore on a property that's already gone downhill. "Go back and take a look. There maybe some other areas in town that could serve your purpose," said Bryan Tanner, an abuttor and outspoken opponent of the proposal. The Planning Board had initially set a public hearing for Wednesday for the special permit but determined prior to the hearing that an information session was more appropriate. Only a handful of residents attended the meeting at the Senior Center. The meeting was continued to February, with the likelihood a public hearing will be scheduled for that time. Verizon was also provided with a peer review of the proposal by Tighe & Bond on behalf of the town. Pittsfield Cellular Telephone Co., doing business as Verizon, has been looking at setting up another tower in the area for nearly three years, according to representatives, had initially proposed a 125-foot pole closer to the treeline but within 35 feet of Tanner's property line. To meet the town's new telecommunications bylaw, the tower would have had to be set back at least 150 percent of its height from the closest property line. The phone company returned in late November with a new proposal, pulling the tower away from the property line but in more visible location and increasing its height by another 20 feet to compensate for a drop in grade. Residents said this proposal, too, violated the terms of the bylaw that limited the height to 20 feet above the treeline and being within five miles of another tower as the crow flies. Jay LaTorre, a radio frequency engineer for Verizon, said the company has been working to fill in "dense" areas across the country to ensure capacity, reliability and redundancy. The need for simple voice coverage has been eclipsed by demand for fast and unbroken data streams he said, and single cell tower coverage can be inadequate in some circumstances. "The addition of data has increased the need for capacity," he said. "We use our phones to send photos to family members, we use our phones to look up recipes for dinner, we use our phones to send an update on Twitter or Facebook and so as technology has improved and as we've evolved the smart phone, the demand placed upon the network has increased significantly." The tower on Florida Mountain and antennas on the Holiday Inn in downtown North Adams would be buttressed by the monopole on Route 8, which would provide extra capacity along what he described as a "major highway," and west into Clarksburg and north into Stamford, Vt. The single tower on Florida Mountain covers a huge geographical area but that can also limit its ability to provide reliable service even with a good connection, LaTorre said. The River Road location had been chosen because it ticked off a list of requirements accessibility, availability, environmental concerns, coverage and density. There was also concern over the tower's visibility since it was no longer near any natural shielding. "It's going to stand out like a sore thumb," said Planner Gary Pierce. Daniel Tanner asked if Verizon had considered using the town's capped landfill that is on a higher grade on the west end of town. "It would be in spot where nobody would see or notice," agreed Pierce. LaTorre said he had only learned of its existence that day so could not speak to it. Bryan Tanner suggested moving the tower to Stamford. "Verizon took the easy way out, they ignored the rest of the town," he said. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 5 By Anakhanum Hidayatova Trend: The next fall session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (PA) will be held in Vienna, said the organization in a message posted on its website. The 16th session, scheduled for Feb. 23-24, will be opened by OSCE PA President Christine Muttonen, as well as other high-ranking officials. During the session, participants will discuss political and military issues, as well as issues related to environment, economy and human rights. An Azerbaijani delegation is also expected to attend the session. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Anahanum Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 5 By Orkhan Quluzade Trend: Turkeys safety zone starts from the territories of the neighboring countries, TRT Haber news channel quoted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as saying Jan. 5. There are security and stability threats in the region, the head of state noted. We cannot be safe if we do not remove these threats in the neighboring countries. We must not only protect ourselves from the threats but also destroy their roots, Erdogan said. He added that 5-6 million Turkish citizens live in Europe, and Turkey is also concerned over the instability in Europe. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @o_quluzade Details added (first version posted on 17:33) Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 5 By Orkhan Quluzade - Trend: 17:48 (GMT+3) The police cordoned off the blast area in the Turkish city of Izmir, NTV channel reported Jan. 5. According to the witnesses, the explosion occurred at 16:10 (GMT+3). At least three people died, DHA agency reported. 17:33 (GMT+3) Two car bombs exploded in front of the courthouse in the Turkish city of Izmir, Turkish Hurriyet newspaper reported Jan. 5. According to the newspaper, the rescuers and police officers were sent to the scene. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @o_quluzade God Is Our Refuge and Strength Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein | January 5, 2017 Dear Friend of Israel I offer my heartfelt wishes for a happy and blessed New Year. As we work to support Israel and serve Jewish people in need around the world, all of us at The Fellowship are deeply grateful to the faithful friends like you who make our work possible. During 2016, thanks to Gods blessing, The Fellowships lifesaving assistance was extended to more people than ever. Like the year that has just ended, 2017 will be filled with great challenges for the Jewish state. The United Nations continues its negative, disproportionate focus on Israel evidenced by the recent anti-Israel U.N. Security Council resolution while turning a blind eye to real and horrific human rights violations throughout the Middle East and the rest of the world. As we enter the new year, relations between Israel and the U.S. are uncertain, as the U.S. failed to block the U.N. resolution. Civil war continues to rage in neighboring Syria, and terrorism remains a constant threat both within Israels borders and throughout the region, such as the New Years Eve attack in Turkey that killed dozens. Meanwhile, rising anti-Semitism across Europe has inspired an increasing number of Jews to make aliyah (immigrate to Israel). Unrest continues in Ukraine, leading to ever-deepening instability and financial turmoil. And winter in the former Soviet Union is having a devastating impact on impoverished Jews, including many Holocaust survivors who cannot afford lifesaving necessities. While its all too easy to become overwhelmed by bad news, I am inspired by the good things The Fellowship is able to do every single day thanks to our supporters generosity. For instance, last year we helped over 4,000 Jews escape poverty and oppression by making aliyah to their biblical homeland. We provided financial and emotional support to Israels victims of terror attacks. We launched an emergency hotline and distributed emergency call buttons to struggling elderly in Israel. And we fed and provided winter relief to more hungry and cold Jews in Israel and the former Soviet Union last year than ever before, including many of the dwindling number of Holocaust survivors. Our faith calls us to believe that Israel will prevail despite her difficulties. This does not mean we should cultivate an optimism that turns a blind eye to evil or ignores history. Israel, more than most nations, knows the folly of such cheap optimism. No, I speak of the sort of hope expressed best in the words of the psalmist: God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea (Psalm 46:1-2). My friends, we place our hope in a benevolent God who never forsakes His children a God who is at all times sovereign not only over our lives, but over the entire world. In the year to come, let us recommit ourselves to bettering our world through prayer, material support, and action. On behalf of all of us at The Fellowship, I thank you for your generous heart for Gods children. With prayers for shalom, peace, in 2017, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein Founder and President The content you are trying to view is exclusive to our subscribers. To unlock this article: Details added (first version posted on 17:33) Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 5 By Orkhan Quluzade - Trend: 18:07 (GMT+4) Two terrorists were neutralized during the shooting, which occurred after the explosion in the Turkish city of Izmir, DHA agency reported Jan. 5. According to the agency, the explosion was a terrorist attack. Earlier, Turkey's National Intelligence Organization warned of possible terrorist attacks to be committed by the Islamic State (aka IS, ISIL, ISIS or Daesh) terrorist group in all the provinces of the country. 17:50 (GMT+4) A car bomb exploded in the parking lot at the entrance to the court building in the Turkish city of Izmir, DHA agency reported. According to the NTV channel, there was a skirmish at the scene after the explosion. The injured were hospitalized. 17:47 (GMT+4) The police cordoned off the blast area in the Turkish city of Izmir, NTV channel reported Jan. 5. According to the witnesses, the explosion occurred at 16:10 (GMT+4). At least three people were injured, DHA agency reported. 17:33 (GMT+4) Two car bombs exploded in front of the courthouse in the Turkish city of Izmir, Turkish Hurriyet newspaper reported Jan. 5. According to the newspaper, the rescuers and police officers were sent to the scene. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @o_quluzade Offers business intelligence solutions to help healthcare enterprises be more efficient Practo, the leading healthcare platform, recently announced the acquisition of Enlightiks - a Bangalore based provider of an advanced analytics platform, offering business intelligence (BI) solutions to healthcare enterprises. The acquisition further strengthens Practos industry leading portfolio in the healthcare enterprise segment and augments existing solutions that includes appointment management with Qikwell and a full stack HIMS solution with Insta. Enlightiks primary offering is called Querent, which is a business intelligence and predictive analytics platform providing actionable insights using complex mathematical, statistical, computational and cognitive models. This enables CXOs, optimize their business in real time from day one. Querent, can provide accurate predictions for key business metrics and help enterprises take actions proactively that can help make a positive impact on business decisions in the short to medium term. The platform has an ability to read both structured and unstructured information and apply advanced machine learning and deep learning techniques to uncover hidden insights. It uses Natural Language Generation (NLG) technology to provide automated insights to the business user by analysing large volumes of information residing inside Hospital Information System (HIS) and other transactional systems. The platform also allows visual interpretation of information and generate useful insights for healthcare enterprises across various departments including operations, finance, quality, pricing, marketing, customer management and risk assessment. Today, more than 200 healthcare centers including hospitals and clinics across the nation have already deployed this platform. Some of the prestigious customers of Enlightiks include - Apollo Sugar Clinics Ltd, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, Inamdar Multispecialty Hospital, Fernandez Hospitals Pvt Ltd, Eye-Q Vision Pvt Ltd, Sparsh Sandor Nephrocare Services Pvt Ltd, Ramesh Hospitals to name a few. The entire team of 50 people from the Enlightiks will join Practo and will form the Analytics Business Unit within Practo which will be headed by Vamsi Chandra Kasivajjala, Co-Founder & CEO, Enlightiks. This is our 5th acquisition and 3rd in the enterprise space. This brings Practo closer to its vision of simplifying healthcare by providing end to end solutions for the entire eco-system. With Querent, we will be able to help CXOs make their enterprises run more efficiently which should improve the overall quality of care while making it more affordable. I am very pleased to welcome Vamsi and the Enlightiks team to Practo and look forward to delivering game changing improvements to our enterprise customers - Shashank ND, Founder & CEO, Practo Enlightiks is thrilled to join Practo. We share the same passion for democratizing healthcare access for billions of people where business intelligence and analytics are critical. We chose Practo so that we can collaborate and work towards offering superior, comprehensive and integrated solutions for healthcare providers. I look forward to working with Shashank and the Practo team in realizing our shared vision of transforming healthcare. - said Vamsi Chandra Kasivajjala, Co-Founder & CEO, Enlightiks The healthcare industry is undergoing rapid changes, Enlightiks has helped us to use intelligent technology to look closely in to our system and utilize previously untapped areas to improve the quality of care we offer while at the same time deriving new business solutions. We sincerely look forward to work with Practo and provide a superior healthcare experience Rajesh Batra, VP-IT, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital & Medical Research Institute. Our association with Enlightiks has helped us greatly to optimize our business and utilize resources in a way which helps the entire system. These efficiencies have helped us to offer a superior quality of care to our patients. We are looking forward to work with Practo and help improve healthcare access and delivery- Saurav Panda, co-founder & director, Sparsh Sandor Nephrocare Services Pvt Ltd. Back to top Deputy Secretary of State Blinken To Host Trilateral Meeting With Japanese, South Korean Counterparts Washington, DC - Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken will host a trilateral meeting with his counterparts, Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Shinsuke Sugiyama and Republic of Korea First Vice Foreign Minister Lim Sung-nam January 5 in Washington. The meeting will be the sixth round of trilateral Deputy-level consultations, a forum that began in April 2015. The consultations have deepened our trilateral cooperation with these two important U.S. allies on shared regional and global priorities, including our efforts to promote peace and stability in the face of North Koreas threatening nuclear and ballistic missile development. Sign up to Roisin OConnors free weekly newsletter Now Hear This for the inside track on all things music Get our Now Hear This email for free Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Roisin OConnors email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Bradley Walsh has beaten Zayn Malik to become the biggest-selling debut artist of 2016, according to reports. You read that correctly. The host of gameshow The Chase has managed to surpass the former One Direction star along with rising indie band Blossoms, to become the only new British act to release a record that went gold this year. Walsh's first album Chasing Dreams, consisting of jazz covers such as 'That's Life' and 'Mr Bojangles' along with the title track, an original song written by Walsh, has sold an impressive 111,650 copies since its release by Sony CG in October, and is Britain's 7th best-selling LP overall, Music Business Worldwide reports. Walsh told the i Paper: "I grew up listening to legends such as Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr and Tony Bennett. "From those early days I've always been a huge fan of this style of music and now have the opportunity to record some of the greatest songs and arrangements ever written, alongside a 54-piece orchestra and band, is absolutely thrilling. "I never expected that [a gold album]. It just goes to show that great songs live forever." Stockport five-piece Blossoms had the second best-selling debut of the year, shifting a respectable 74,1455 albums in 2016, according to Official Charts Company figures. Zayn Malik's Mind Of Mine sold 65,208 copies, and Brits' Cricts' Choice winner Jack Garratt managed 62,954 copies with his debut Phase. It's worth keeping in mind that these figures show physical album sales but do not take streaming figures into account - on Spotify the numbers are very different. Walsh's most-streamed song on Spotify is his cover of 'That's Life' from Chasing Dreams, which has 17,256 streams. Zayn Malik's 'Pillowtalk' off Mind of Mine, meanwhile, has clocked 467,029,072. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A Japanese insurance company is replacing its staff with an artificial intelligence system. The move, which will see more than 30 people sacked to make way for the computer, is being seen as one of the clearest examples of the coming changes that robots and machines will bring to the workplace. Japan hopes that by introducing more robots into its workforce it can address the problem of its shrinking and rapidly ageing population. And the company itself Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance claims that the investment in the robot will start paying off after two years. Gadget and tech news: In pictures Show all 25 1 /25 Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gun-toting humanoid robot sent into space Russia has launched a humanoid robot into space on a rocket bound for the International Space Station (ISS). The robot Fedor will spend 10 days aboard the ISS practising skills such as using tools to fix issues onboard. Russia's deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin has previously shared videos of Fedor handling and shooting guns at a firing range with deadly accuracy. Dmitry Rogozin/Twitter Gadget and tech news: In pictures Google turns 21 Google celebrates its 21st birthday on September 27. The The search engine was founded in September 1998 by two PhD students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, in their dormitories at Californias Stanford University. Page and Brin chose the name google as it recalled the mathematic term 'googol', meaning 10 raised to the power of 100 Google Gadget and tech news: In pictures Hexa drone lifts off Chief engineer of LIFT aircraft Balazs Kerulo demonstrates the company's "Hexa" personal drone craft in Lago Vista, Texas on June 3 2019 Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures Project Scarlett to succeed Xbox One Microsoft announced Project Scarlett, the successor to the Xbox One, at E3 2019. The company said that the new console will be 4 times as powerful as the Xbox One and is slated for a release date of Christmas 2020 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures First new iPod in four years Apple has announced the new iPod Touch, the first new iPod in four years. The device will have the option of adding more storage, up to 256GB Apple Gadget and tech news: In pictures Folding phone may flop Samsung will cancel orders of its Galaxy Fold phone at the end of May if the phone is not then ready for sale. The $2000 folding phone has been found to break easily with review copies being recalled after backlash PA Gadget and tech news: In pictures Charging mat non-starter Apple has cancelled its AirPower wireless charging mat, which was slated as a way to charge numerous apple products at once AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures "Super league" India shoots down satellite India has claimed status as part of a "super league" of nations after shooting down a live satellite in a test of new missile technology EPA Gadget and tech news: In pictures 5G incoming 5G wireless internet is expected to launch in 2019, with the potential to reach speeds of 50mb/s Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Uber halts driverless testing after death Uber has halted testing of driverless vehicles after a woman was killed by one of their cars in Tempe, Arizona. March 19 2018 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie 'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway resembling the giant panda is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway, resembling a giant panda, is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A concept car by Trumpchi from GAC Group is shown at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A Mirai fuel cell vehicle by Toyota is displayed at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A visitor tries a Nissan VR experience at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A man looks at an exhibit entitled 'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A new Israeli Da-Vinci unmanned aerial vehicle manufactured by Elbit Systems is displayed during the 4th International conference on Home Land Security and Cyber in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv Getty The computer will be used to calculate how much policyholders should be paid out. Until now, that job was done by the companys staff but it will be taken over by a computer based on IBMs Watson Explorer, which uses technology like machine learning to be able to think and learn like a human. The computer will be able to use that technology to read things like medical certificates and understand the length of hospital stays. It will be able to factor in other information like medical history and surgical procedures and the work out how much people should be paid, according to Japanese newspapers. For now, the calculations will only be used as a way of saving time by reducing how long it takes to work out payouts. Those calculations will still need to be signed off by a human. But even doing that will allow the company to save about 140 million yen, or 1 million, per year. The system itself will cost the equivalent of 1.4 million and will cost 100,000 to maintain. Other Japanese insurance companies are already looking at similar systems, and some have already launched them but not yet sacked people. Japan is introducing artificial intelligence across the country in part to deal with a dangerously declining workforce. AI machines are going to be integrated into the work of government from next month, helping ministers look up answers to questions and cutting out the work done by civil servants. French police on Wednesday arrested former Kosovo prime minister Ramush Haradinaj, a guerrilla commander during the 1998-99 Kosovo war, on a Serbian arrest warrant, French police sources and Kosovo's Foreign Ministry said, Reuters reported. Serbia considers Haradinaj a war criminal for his role in leading a guerrilla insurgency in its former southern province of Kosovo, which declared independence with Western backing in 2008. Haradinaj served briefly as prime minister of Kosovo in 2004 and 2005, while it was a ward of the United Nations, before being tried and acquitted twice of war crimes at a U.N. court in The Hague. "He was stopped by French authorities based on an arrest warrant issued by Serbia in 2004 which for us is unacceptable," Kosovo Foreign Ministry said in a statement. The ministry said it was doing everything possible to secure his release, which it expected to happen. French border police arrested him upon his arrival at Basel-Mulhouse airport in eastern France on a flight from Pristina, the sources said. A French judiciary source said that investigators would on Thursday begin looking into whether there were reasons not to execute the extradition request, especially in the case that it had been issued for political reasons. They would look at whether he had already been tried before the U.N. court on the same charges as those the arrest warrant had been issued on, the source added. Haradinaj, the leader of the opposition party Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK), was traveling on a diplomatic passport when he was stopped by French authorities. In June 2015 Haradinaj was arrested by Slovenian police but was released after two days following diplomatic pressure. Kosovo and France enjoy good diplomatic relations and Paris remains one of the biggest supporters of the youngest European state. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Coca-Cola has been accused of using tactics similar to the tobacco industry in minimising the damaging health effects of its fizzy drinks and deceiving customers. The Center for Science in the Public Interest and the Praxis Project accused Coca-Cola and the American Beverage Association, of misleading customers, including children, regarding the health risks of consuming sugary drinks such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes. The lawsuit could potentially shake the soft drinks industry to its core as the company could face marketing restrictions and soda taxes. Praxis, a non profit group, compared Coca-Cola and ABA's efforts to those of the tobacco industry decades ago. From the 1950s until the late 1990s, the tobacco industry engaged in an elaborate campaign of disinformation to cast doubt on the science connecting cigarettes to lung cancer and other diseases, Maia Kats, litigation director for the centre, said in a statement. Like the tobacco industry, Coca-Cola needs to replenish the ranks of its customers, and it tries to recruit them young, Praxis said in its complaint, filed Wednesday in federal court in Oakland, California. Praxis accused both defendants of using euphemisms such as "balance" and "calories in, calories out" to mislead consumers, and Coca-Cola, the world's largest beverage company, of trying to mislead the public into thinking a lack of exercise was the real cause of obesity. The American Beverage Association and Coca-Cola acknowledged the lawsuit. Kent Landers, a spokesman for Coca-Cola called the lawsuit "legally and factually meritless. He said: We take our consumers and their health very seriously and have been on a journey to become a more credible and helpful partner in helping consumers manage their sugar consumption." The American Beverage Association called the lawsuit's accusations "unfounded." The amounts of sugar in food and drink Show all 6 1 /6 The amounts of sugar in food and drink The amounts of sugar in food and drink Minstrels A 42g bag contains 28.9g of sugar The amounts of sugar in food and drink Dairy Milk A 49g bar contains 26.8g of sugar The amounts of sugar in food and drink Skittles 45g of Skittles (about a quarter of a large 174g pouch) contains 40.4g of sugar The amounts of sugar in food and drink Ribena A 500ml bottle of Blackcurrant Ribena contains 23g of sugar, down from 50g/500ml after it was reformulated to avoid the government's tax on sugary drinks The amounts of sugar in food and drink Coca Cola A 330ml can of Coca Cola contains 35g of sugar The amounts of sugar in food and drink Innocent Smoothies A 250ml bottle of strawberries & bananas Innocent Smoothie (the middle size) contains 26g of sugar The lawsuit comes as beverage companies are trying to fend off regulatory assaults on multiple fronts. A new sugar tax on the soft drinks industry will be introduced in the UK, following the examples of France, Mexico and a set of US cities including San Francisco and Philadelphia. Coca-Cola previously pledged to increase efforts to reduce added sugar in its products. Last year, it changed its Coke Zero recipe and renamed it to Coca Cola Zero Sugar to make it taste more and look more like the original one. Coca-Cola took the decision after it found that half of British consumers were unaware that Coke Zero contained no sugar. Since 2012 our commercial strategy has focused on accelerating the growth of our no-sugar options. We know that millions of people love the taste of Coca-Cola and have been working to refine the recipe of Coca-Cola Zero to match the taste of the original but without sugar, said Jon Woods, general manager of Coca-Cola Great Britain. Additional reporting by Reuters Sign up for a full digest of all the best opinions of the week in our Voices Dispatches email Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Voices Dispatches email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} New higher education legislation being put before Parliament could put students and the reputations of UK universities at risk, even encouraging scam universities, independent experts have warned. An extensive report released by the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi) suggests nearly three quarters of new higher education providers opening in the next two years will remain unregulated after the Governments controversial new Higher Education and Research Bill comes into effect. Of 760 new alternative higher education providers, 553 are expected to remain outside of the new regulatory system, prompting concerns that taxpayer money will be used to fund unaccountable private companies marketing poor-quality courses for profit. Government ministers say the bill is designed to widen choice for students and deliver value for money in line with increasingly high tuition fees. Labour, Liberal Democrats and crossbench peers in the House of Lords have reacted against the new bill, however, stressing the move could lower standards and damage the reputation of British education altogether. The Hepi report, Alternative providers of higher education: Issues for policymakers, claims the new bill risks missing the Governments own declared objective of encouraging a vibrant and high-quality range of alternatives to traditional universities and private institutions offering degrees and other qualifications. Speaking to The Independent, Hepi Director Nick Hillman said while the 553 unregulated providers are not registered with the government, they are not deemed illegal. These companies are not obliged to provide any information as to how they are run, however, causing potential problems with scam universities offering low standard degrees. He said: The Governments rhetoric implies the bill is going to sort out the regulation of higher education in the UK. 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 The Governments position is that since tuition fees have tripled in 2012, higher education has needed to be reviewed. It certainly does not give the impression that there are going to be more than 500 higher education providers going unregulated. Almost 300,000 students currently attend 732 of the alternative institutions open in England. At many of them (122), students are authorised to draw tuition and maintenance loans from the Student Loans Company. Both parliamentary peers and academic leaders have raised concerns that the new Government reforms will make it easier for new institutions to be awarded university status, encouraging private companies to use institutions for a profit. Mr Hillman added: All higher education institutions were new entrants once, and many alternative providers are providing flexible and innovative provision to under-represented groups. Budget 2016: Education changes But, as the higher education market continues to change shape, we must be vigilant in ensuring bad apples do not contaminate the sector as a whole. University and College Union (UCU) said the Hepi forecast should sound alarm bells in government. UCU general secretary Sally Hunt said: If we are to protect our students and the global reputation enjoyed by UK universities, the new legislation must protect taxpayers money from being handed over to a potential pool of unscrupulous providers. We must have more rigorous quality measures applied before any new provider is allowed to access either degree awarding powers or state funding via the student loans system. Robin Middlehurst, another of the papers authors, said: Better protection of the public purse is overdue, especially given the growth in the number of for-profit providers. Experience in the USA and Australia shows overly generous rules for alternative providers are a magnet for questionable business practices. The end results can include stranded students, a bill for taxpayers and regulatory intervention. A Department for Education spokesperson said: More alternative providers than ever will be regulated thanks to the reforms being introduced through our Higher Education and Research Bill. As well as regulating all those receiving public funding, the Office for Students will have the ability to regulate alternative providers outside of public funding. The Bill, which is currently going through Parliament, will build a higher education system that offers students high quality teaching, more choice and greater competition. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A school official was filmed slamming a young female student to the ground at a North Carolina school and has since been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation. A school resource officer at Rolesville High School, identified by police as Ruben de Los Santos, a five-year veteran of the Rolesville Police Department, can be seen throwing 15-year-old Jasmine Darwin to the ground, with the circumstances that led to the incident as yet unclear. The victim's mother said to a local radio station that the young girl was trying to break up a fight between her sister and another student when the officer intervened. Recommended These charts show difference between police shootings in US and UK The officer's use of force has elicited heavy criticism on social media, while Darwin went to hospital to check for injuries, but returned home later that evening, on Tuesday. Desiree Harrison, Darwin's mother, says that Darwin has concussion and that she plans to take her out of the school. Police confirmed that the State Bureau of Investigation is now reviewing the incident, with the cooperation of the Wake County Public School System. The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina have heavily criticised the officer's behaviour, saying it was a "disturbing use of force....that should never be used against kids in schools". The principal of the school, Dhedra Lassiter, has said that she is "deeply concerned about what I saw in the video". Earlier in the week a Philadelphia police officer was filmed repeatedly punching a young black woman in the head and is under investigation. A similar incident to the Rolesville body slamming was a violent restraining in October 2015 of a young black student at Spring Valley High School in Columbia, South Carolina that brought attention for the ability of police brutality to be exhibited in schools. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Jocelyn Wildenstein, 76, is as well known for her immense divorce settlement as she is for her looks. Despite the Swiss-born socialite being awarded $2.5 billion (1.7 billion) from her former elite art dealer and horse-racing husband, Alec, in the late 1990s in one of the biggest divorce settlements in history, she claimed in the past week that she's broke. But the initial bumper payout was not the only thing that got her worldwide press attention. Her penchant for surgery to make her face more "feline" to please her ex-husband has been widely reported. Meanwhile, in December, her 14-year relationship with French designer Lloyd Klein came to an end after reports of domestic violence from both sides which they both strongly deny. There is more than meets the eye, though. Wildenstein is an accomplished hunter and pilot, and she has a love for art and "decoration." This is her crazy life: Jocelyn Wildenstein was born as Jocelynnys Dayannys da Silva Bezerra Perisset on August 5, 1940, in Lausanne, Switzerland. Not much is known about her upbringing in a middle-class family in Switzerland other than that she was the daughter of a struggling department-store buyer. At the age of 17 her life changed she started dating Swiss movie producer Cyril Piguet. She told New York magazine that after two years they moved to Paris together. "My life changed then," she said. "Lausanne is very plain, but I began meeting exciting, glamorous people." She told New York magazine she had never intended to pursue a career, instead she had a "different talent." "I never worry for my career. I am very good at decoration. I am maybe extremely good at decoration." She later dated European filmmaker Sergio Gobbi for five years and spent a lot of her time exploring Africa, a continent she fell in love with. "Africa is a paradise. You meet people who look at life differently. They love the adventure," she said to New York magazine. Her life as a socialite let her move in elite circles across the world. She met Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi pictured here with his wife through her love of hunting. He introduced her to her future husband, Alec Wildenstein, in Africa. Jocelyn Wildenstein attends Gallery Molly Krom in New York City. (Grant Lamos IV/Getty Images) In 1977, Wildenstein met Alec while on safari with friends in Kenya. Alec Wildenstein came from a family of art collectors and horse-racing experts. She told Vanity Fair that "on their first day together, they rode motorcycles to a hilltop and shared their first kiss." Here is Alec's brother Guy on the left at a Monet exhibition. On April 30, 1978, Alec and Jocelyn eloped in Las Vegas. But at their second wedding ceremony in Lausanne afterward, Alec's father, Daniel, was absent. "He was against marriage in general," Alec Wildenstein told Vanity Fair. "My father checks things out. My father tried to warn me." They eventually went on to have two children, Diane and Alec Jr. After one year of marriage, Jocelyn started to use her wealth for extensive cosmetic surgeries. She and Alec got "his and her eyelifts." According to a number of biographies, she continually changed her appearance to look more "feline." According to the Daily Mail, she spent 2 million on surgeries to please her husband, who loved big cats. She kept a Lynx as a pet, telling Vanity Fair "the lynx has perfect eyes." Alec Wildenstein told Vanity Fair: "She was crazy. I would always find out last. She was thinking that she could fix her face like a piece of furniture. Skin does not work that way. But she wouldn't listen." In 1997, Wildenstein says, she found her husband in bed with 21-year-old Russian model Yelena Jarikova, which led to an altercation in which Alec allegedly pulled a gun on Jocelyn and spent the night in jail. Alec left Jocelyn that year, and divorce proceedings started immediately. Jocelyn Wildenstein at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in California, 2004 (Photo by Mark Mainz/Getty Images) The divorce was messy and dragged out for two years. Alec told Vanity Fair there were rumours Jocelyne had worked for Madame Claude, the Parisian bordello owner, as a courtesan at one point. According to details in a long report by Vanity Fair, the divorce caused a rift between Alec and his children after he cut off Jocelyn's phone and credit cards, slashed her monthly allowance of $150,000 to $50,000, and fired her accountant. The press coverage of the case was bad for Jocelyn, which centred on her looks. Tabloids dubbing her "The Bride of Wildenstein" and "Catwoman." In response, she hired Republican campaign consultant and advisor Edward Rollins to handle her PR. Eventually, Jocelyn was awarded a $2.5 billion divorce settlement and $100 million each year for 13 years afterward. However, the judge stipulated that she could not use any of her divorce payments for further cosmetic surgery. In 2001, Alec inherited half of his father's business empire, estimated at $10 billion. It included one of the world's largest private collections of art. It helped fund his alimony payments. Seven years later, however, Alec died at 67. Since the divorce, Wildenstein has kept a low profile and is rarely seen in public. Lloyd Klein and Jocelyn Wildenstein (Grant Lamos IV/Getty Images) The only time she is pictured is when she attended her French designer boyfriend Lloyd Klein's fashion shows. He designs clothes for music artists such as Nicki Minaj and Pink. They started dating in the early 2000s. However, in December 2016, their relationship came to an abrupt end after a violent fight between the pair erupted in her apartment. Wildenstein was first arrested for allegedly clawing Klein across the face and slashing him with scissors in a fight. Klein claimed he was forced to put Wildenstein into a walk-in closet to stop her attack him before the police arrived. Later that month, Daily Mail obtained a video showing her hitting him with a tray while he urged her to calm down. However, just a few days later, Klein was arrested on charges of grabbing and pushing Wildenstein to the ground when he returned to the apartment to collect his belongings. Klein's representative told People magazine he was arrested "after patently false allegations were made to the NYPD by Mrs Wildenstein alleging a physical altercation with Mr Klein" and that they are fully cooperating with authorities to "clear Mr Klein of these allegations and expect this matter to be dismissed shortly." Jocelyn Wildenstein at the after party for the premiere of 'Coco Before CHANEL', 2009. (Jordan Strauss/Getty Images) Klein still awaits to hear whether he has been charged with assault, as well as robbery, grand larceny and criminal mischief, according to the Daily Mail citing a police source, after Klein also took an iPhone, another mobile phone, a Swiss ID and a credit card without Wildenstein's permission. Meanwhile, Wildenstein at the end of December told executive producer Daphne Barak in an interview that she is "broke" after her ex-husband's family trust have cut her off from her annual maintenance. She said her last monthly payment of $111,000 (90,000) came in March 2015 and then "then they stopped coming. I wasnt ready for it." Without that income, she says she is unable to travel or even buy food. Her statement falls in line with what Klein told the press, just days before the alleged altercation in her flat that led to his arrest. The Daily Mail reported that he said: "Jocelyn needs help. She doesnt have a penny. I have been paying all her expenses the last year and a half. I cant anymore, I am not Wildenstein. I am not that rich." Both Wildenstein and Klein have not discussed any further developments in their cases. However, Klein has spent the remainder of the holiday season with friends, including long-time friend and model Lauren Foster. Read more: 17 skills everyone should learn in their 20s Here's why Dry January is terrible and you should stop doing it 7 books that will change the way you work in 2017 Read the original article on Business Insider UK. 2016. Follow Business Insider UK on Twitter. Sign up for a full digest of all the best opinions of the week in our Voices Dispatches email Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Voices Dispatches email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} An artist has unveiled a clothing line designed to confuse facial recognition technology and hand privacy back to internet users. Adam Harvey, who has created various projects relating to mass surveillance at his headquarters in Berlin, said he intends to fight back against the now widespread commercial use of facial recognition with a new textiles strategy called Hyperface. By applying seemingly random patterns to clothing, these appear as thousands of recognisable faces during analysis and can overwhelm computer systems. Amazon recently started using facial recognition technology at checkouts in their physical store, while Facebook and Apple also use it to tag photos for users. Mr Harvey told the Chaos Communications Congress last year, that he was using the Hyperface project, created in partnership with Hyphen-Labs, to overload an algorithm with what it wants, oversaturating an area with faces to divert the gaze of the computer. He said: My projects are motivated by concerns about how computer vision will be used to extract knowledge with the cooperation or consent of an individual, adding that he felt facial recognition technology poses a significant threat to privacy. 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 Mr Harvey has already introduced CV Dazzle - an avant-garde form of makeup and hairstyling which could be used to confuse facial recognition. He views Hyperface as an extension of this earlier project. He also designed Stealth Wear, a collection of counter surveillance clothes which he said helped wearers hide from thermal imaging and drones. In December, a Russian company launched a controversial programme called FindFace that can identify a stranger among 300 million Twitter users in less than a second, despite a warning that the app violated the website's rules. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The father of a man who was shot dead by armed officers in West Yorkshire has demanded answers about the circumstances surrounding his sons death. Mohammed Yassar Yaqub was shot during a pre-planned operation near junction 24 of the M62 near Huddersfield on Monday night. Mr Yaqubs family joined a vigil by the side of the motorway at the spot where he died. Flowers were laid and a banner saying Rest in Peace Yassar. Justice for Yassar was displayed. Mohammed Yaqub, the 28-year-olds father, told reporters his son had been killed unlawfully. I want answers, full answers, nothing but the truth, he said, according to the BBC. How can you kill someone like this, at a time like this, without giving him a chance to get out or anything? Two of five men arrested on suspicion of possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear have been released on bail, according to West Yorkshire Police. Two more, aged 26 and 30, remain in custody. Man killed in motorway shooting named At the scene on the M62, a silver Audi with bullet holes in its windscreen was surrounded by other vehicles at the bottom of the off-slip of the westbound carriageway. Police said a car had also been stopped in the Chain Bar area of Bradford at around the same time where two of the five arrests took place. Bradford West Labour MP Naz Shah urged residents to remain calm in a message on her Facebook page after demonstrators brought traffic to a standstill in a protest in Bradford. Recommended These charts show difference between police shootings in US and UK Police were deployed in the city centre as protesters carrying banners reading police don't murder blocked roads on Tuesday evening. The Independent Police Complaints Commission said it was working hard to establish the circumstances around the father-of-two's death after what appeared to be a gun was recovered by investigators from the car Mr Yaqub was travelling in. It added that a post-mortem examination on Mr Yaqub's body is due to take place on Wednesday and investigators are continuing to seek relevant CCTV footage. Mohammed Yaqub, a well-known local businessman who owns a number of properties and a textile shop, spoke of the familys heartbreak and told the Guardian he had approached a solicitor after his sons death. I want answers from the police, from all the relevant bodies that can give me answers. Thats why weve got a solicitor involved. The truth will be revealed, he said. M62 Shooting: Police killed my son in 'pre-planned assassination' In 2010, Mr Yaqub was cleared of attempted murder and a firearms offence after it was alleged that he opened fire on a car in Birkby Hall Road, Huddersfield. People living close to Rudding Street said on Tuesday that Mr Yaqub's house was targeted by gunmen more than a year ago. In June 2015, police said two people suffered minor injuries when a shotgun was fired in Rudding Street by balaclava-clad gunmen in a targeted attack as children played. Mohammed Yaqub told the Guardian his son had never been convicted of any firearms or drug offence, and questioned whether the police had intended to assassinate Yassar. Pre-planned means that youve got intentions to assassinate someone and murder someone, he told the newspaper. Was that the case in this case? If it was pre-planned, pre-planned for what? Nadeem Murtuja, chair of human rights and racial justice campaign group Just Yorkshire, spoke of the importance of police transparency during the investigation. There is a great deal of disquiet in the community about the death of Mr Yaqub and it is crucial that both his family and the Huddersfield community are kept informed about the conduct of the investigation and the events that led to the fatal shooting, he said For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The father of the man shot dead by police on a motorway slip road believes his kind-hearted son was killed in a pre-planned assassination. Mohammed Yaqub also said his 28-year-old son was never convicted of drug or firearm offences. Son Mohammed Yassar Yaqub was shot in the chest at junction 24 of the M62 just north of Huddersfield following information about criminal possession of a firearm. Mohammed Yaqub, being interviewed by Sky News beside his weeping wife, claimed it was a 'pre-planned' operation Sky News (Sky News) The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said a non-police issue firearm was discovered in the car, after the shooting at about 6pm on Monday. I dont feel like he was a risk at all, said Mr Yaqub. I believe he was a target and it was a pre-planned assassination. Armed police officers outside Mohammed Yassar Yaqub's home in the Crosland Moor area of Huddersfield PA (PA) Mr Yaqub senior also compared the shooting to a string of police killings of black Americans. He was a very kind-hearted young man, added Mr Yaqub, speaking to Sky News, with his wife sobbing beside him. He would do anything for anybody and given the chance I would have the same son time, after time, after time. The family more or less doesnt exist anymore. Recommended Firearm found in car of man who was shot dead by police near M62 Five people were arrested as part of the operation, and three at the scene of the shooting, at around 6pm on Monday. The IPCC said that forensic officers were investigating three cars - a white Volkswagen Scirocco, an Audi in which Mr Yaqub was travelling, and one of the four unmarked police cars involved. Bullet holes were spotted in the Audi. The IPCC added in a statement: "None of the police officers involved were wearing body worn video cameras. So far no relevant CCTV footage of the incident has been found. "A non-police issue firearm, found in the Audi, was secured in the presence of IPCC investigators at the scene and is undergoing ballistics and forensic testing." Riot police were called to a small protest of around 100 people in Bradford, where people shouted chants critical of police, which blocked a road on Tuesday night. A Justice 4 Mohammed Yasser Yaqub Facebook page has collected more than 2,250 likes. The incident was the fifth fatal police shooting in England and Wales in the past nine months and the first involving West Yorkshire Police since 2010. An estimated 10 CCTV cameras surround Mr Yaqubs house, who in 2010 was cleared of attempted murder and a firearms offence. Mr Yaqub had described himself online as a stud badboy. He has since been described as a drugs kingpin, who sneaked Class A products into HMP Armley in Leeds, and a former neighbour said he was a formidable gangster who was a heroin and crack cocaine dealer. Police, who are redirecting enquiries about the investigation to the IPCC, refused to comment on Mr Yaqub's father's comments. IPCC Commissioner Derrick Campbell said: I would like to reassure the local and wider community that this will be a thorough and detailed independent investigation. "We will be carefully examining all the circumstances leading up to Mr Yaqubs death, including the planning of the police operation, and the actions of the officers involved that evening." Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Sadiq Khan has ordered the opening of emergency shelters amid warnings from homelessness charities that rough sleepers might die in the current cold weather. The Mayor of Londons intervention comes as local authorities across the UK implement Severe Weather Emergency Protocols in a bid to save the lives of those sleeping on the streets in freezing winter temperatures. The protocols, which come into force when local temperatures are forecast to be freezing or below freezing for three days or more, allow for emergency shelters to be set up in community centres, church halls and other public buildings. As temperatures fell below freezing on Wednesday night, Mr Khan announced that emergency cold weather shelters had been opened in London. He also urged people to help by reporting anyone they saw sleeping on the street to the Street Link rough sleeper support scheme. Its freezing out tonight, Mr Khan said. Look out for your fellow Londoners as the temperature drops. The Government has said it has invested 500m to tackle homelessness, including prevention funding and 40m for councils to help rough sleepers. But as the emergency shelters opened in London, Jon Sparkes, the chief executive of Crisis, warned that while cold weather could kill rough sleepers, local services were getting less money to help combat homelessness. He said: Snow and freezing conditions can prove fatal for anyone sleeping on the streets. Tragically, the average age of death for a homeless person is just 47. This is a desperate state of affairs, and as homelessness continues to rise, local services are being forced to do more with less. His warning came as The Independent campaigns with the youth homelessness charity Centrepoint for funds to create the first nationwide Young and Homeless Helpline to assist 16 to 25 year olds facing homelessness. Centrepoints research has suggested that as local authorities struggle with austerity cuts, up to one in three young people seeking help with homelessness are currently being turned away unaided by English local councils. Reacting to the opening of severe weather emergency shelters, Jennifer Barnes, Centrepoints head of policy and research, said: Its disgraceful that people are dying on the streets in the 21st Century. The cold weather and these tragic deaths bring home the dangers of rough sleeping but this is a year-round problem which all too often slips under the radar. We know this is particularly the case with homeless young people, who will take desperate measures to avoid the danger of spending a night on the streets. Emergency interventions in extreme weather are life-saving but focus on the symptom rather than cause. It is incumbent on government to address the core issues, such as overcrowding and a lack of affordable housing options, which can force young people into potentially fatal situations. The most recent street sleeping statistics, released by the Government in February, showed that the number of rough sleepers in England increased by 30 per cent between the autumn of 2014 and the autumn of 2015. Unveiling the Labour Partys strategy to eradicate rough sleeping last month, John Healey, the shadow housing minister, called street homelessness our national shame and wrote in The Independent: Britain is too decent and too well off to put up with people sleeping on our streets. But the deaths of homeless rough sleepers have already caused anxiety this winter. The causes of homelessness Show all 7 1 /7 The causes of homelessness The causes of homelessness Family Breakdown Relationship breakdown, usually between young people and their parents or step-parents, is a major cause of youth homelessness. Around six in ten young people who come to Centrepoint say they had to leave home because of arguments, relationship breakdown or being told to leave. Many have experienced long-term problems at home, often involving violence, leaving them without the family support networks that most of us take for granted The causes of homelessness Complex needs Young people who come to Centrepoint face a range of different and complex problems. More than a third have a mental health issue, such as depression and anxiety, another third need to tackle issues with substance misuse. A similar proportion also need to improve their physical health. These problems often overlap, making it more difficult for young people to access help and increasing the chances of them becoming homeless Getty/iStock The causes of homelessness Deprivation Young people's chances of having to leave home are higher in areas of high deprivation and poor prospects for employment and education. Many of those who experience long spells of poverty can get into problem debt, which makes it harder for them to access housing Getty Images/iStockphoto The causes of homelessness Gang Crime Homeless young people are often affected by gang-related problems. In some cases, it becomes too dangerous to stay in their local area meaning they can end up homeless. One in six young people at Centrepoint have been involved in or affected by gang crime Getty Images/iStockphoto The causes of homelessness Exclusion From School Not being in education can make it much more difficult for young people to access help with problems at home or health problems. Missing out on formal education can also make it more difficult for them to move into work Getty Images/iStockphoto The causes of homelessness Leaving Care Almost a quarter of young people at Centrepoint have been in care. They often have little choice but to deal with the challenges and responsibilities of living independently at a young age. Traumas faced in their early lives make care leavers some of the most vulnerable young people in our communities, with higher chances of poor outcomes in education, employment and housing. Their additional needs mean they require a higher level of support to maintain their accommodation Getty Images/iStockphoto The causes of homelessness Refugees Around 13 per cent of young people at Centrepoint are refugees or have leave to remain, meaning it isn't safe to return home. This includes young people who come to the UK as unaccompanied minors, fleeing violence or persecution in their own country. After being granted asylum, young people sometimes find themselves with nowhere to go and can end up homeless Getty Images/iStockphoto In Chatham, Kent, a rough sleeper known locally as Greg, was found dead in the town centre in the early morning of 29 December, hours before Medway Council implemented its severe weather protocols and opened an emergency shelter that night. Greg was found dead just a five-minute walk from where homeless grandfather Michael McCluskey had been found dead in a doorway near Chathams Central Theatre on Christmas Eve. Mr McCluskey had reportedly been booked to spend Christmas Eve at a charity-run emergency refuge that opens when the temperature drops to zero. Kent Online reported that shoppers had walked past Mr McCluskeys body without realising he was dead and after the alarm had been raised, families arrived for the theatres pantomime to find police and ambulance crews attending the scene. In Birmingham, Chiriac Inout was found dead behind a pub as temperatures dropped to -6C on 29 November during one of the coldest nights of the year. As readers of the local newspaper, the Birmingham Mail, deplored how Mr Inout had died freezing cold and alone, there was further outrage when CCTV footage was released appearing to show people searching through the dying Mr Inouts pockets while others took drugs nearby. A day later the homelessness charity Shelter released a report revealing that Birmingham was a homelessness hotspot, with 9,560 homeless people in the city, either living rough on the streets or in temporary and unsecured accommodation. The charitys Birmingham hub manager Vicky Hines said: Shelters founding shone a light on hidden homelessness in the Sixties slums. But while those troubled times have faded into memory, 50 years on a modern day housing crisis is tightening its grip on our country. Thousands of people in the West Midlands will face the trauma of waking up homeless this Christmas. Decades in the making, this is the tragic result of a nation struggling under the weight of sky-high rents, a lack of affordable homes, and cuts to welfare support. With wind and rain predicted by the Met Office to sweep Scotland and Northern Ireland on Thursday night and frost and fog predicted in southern Britain, Dan Olney, the coordinator of Londons city-wide emergency shelter provision, warned that the current weather could be fatal to rough sleepers. Mr Olney, of the homelessness charity St Mungos, said: Rough sleeping is harmful and dangerous but when temperatures drop, lives are at risk. Health problems connected to continued exposure to the freezing cold, including hypothermia and pneumonia, exacerbate peoples already poor physical and mental health. Its vital that we get help to people quickly so we can save lives but also, in the longer term, find people permanent accommodation and the space to recover. If you are concerned about someone sleeping rough, I would urge people to get in touch via the StreetLink website streetlink.org.uk to help connect someone with their local service as soon as possible. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Britain declined the opportunity to buy a fleet of German tanks due to worry about negative press headlines, a defence source has claimed. German manufacturer Krauss-Maffei Wegmann offered to sell between 100 and 400 second-hand Leopard 2 tanks to the Ministry of Defence in 2015, but despite it being allegedly the best deal, the offer was turned down. The German proposal was one of several being considered for a 700 million contract to upgrade Britains Challenger 2 battle tank fleet. They made that offer to us and we should have taken it but there was an arrogance: we invented the tank, we have to have a British tank, a defence industry source told The Times. There was a worry about negative press headlines. Hesitation around the deal also came from a reluctance to retrain British tank operators to use a new model, and the potential impact on the support chain, which is built around the Challenger 2. The German offer would have equipped the UK with tanks for a further three decades for roughly the same price as an upgrade to the Challenger 2 fleet, which would have extended its life by 20 years. However, one defence source told The Times the idea had not been ruled out entirely, despite the Government selecting two other companies, BAE Systems and Germanys Rheinmetall, to complete the Challenger 2 upgrade. If it turns out that buying second-hand would work out cheaper overall then finance is king, the source said. If it is cheaper they will go that way. One offer that still stands would involve a deal of 200 second-hand models of the Leopard 2 for roughly 2 million each. Recommended US sends tanks to Europe amid rising Russian aggression A further 500,000 per tank could then be paid to upgrade the vehicles to a common standard, and then up to a further 1 million to be upgraded to an A7V variant with increased firepower. However, one industry source said it would be unlikely for the MoD to retrofit the Challenger 2 with new technology, and that it would be more likely they would buy the second-hand tanks. Another senior military source disagreed telling The Times he did not believe buying second-hand would be the way forward: I dont think that is in the race at the moment. The Independent has contacted the MoD for comment. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Wales is considering banning parents from smacking their children, after it was announced Welsh leaders will be handed new powers allowing them to make changes to parental law. If politicians go ahead with the ban, which could come into force later this year, it will be the first time the practice has ever been made illegal in Great Britain. Labour First Minister Carwyn Jones indicated last summer that he intended to outlaw smacking, but new powers introduced as part of a devolution bill are expected to make it possible for him to do so for the first time. The Wales Bill is currently going through parliament, and includes a special amendment to give the Welsh Assembly the power to legislate on "parental discipline". This will make it possible for the country to strip away longstanding legal defences for parents who use corporal punishment to discipline children. Without the amendment, the Bill would reserve the right to make law on parenting and parental responsibilities to Westminster. The assembly is expected to produce a consultation paper this summer, to be followed by legislation in the autumn of 2017. The ban would affect millions of tourists and visitors from England and the rest of the world who work or holiday in the country. It could also provide a testing ground for anti-smacking laws that could follow in England and Scotland. The move follows decades of controversy over smacking, which has been condemned by lobby groups, UN officials, and the Childrens Commissioners for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. At the start of January, France became the 52nd country in the world to ban smacking, despite the vast majority of French people saying they were in favour of occasional corporal punishment for disobedient children. The move left Britain as one of only four countries in Europe where smacking remains a legal way for parents to discipline their children. The new Welsh law would dismantle the defence of "reasonable chastisement", which currently gives parents the right to smack their children, for the first time in 150 years. Tony Blair, under pressure for a ban, altered the law in 2004 so that parents can be taken to court if their smacking inflicts any kind of injury, physical or mental on a child, but there have no prosecutions under the new law. Welsh Assembly childrens spokesman Carl Sergeant said last year that a new law would follow consultation with "parents and stakeholders" and would not criminalise parents. In practice, removing the right of "reasonable chastisement", first set out by the courts in 1860, a parent who smacked their child would be vulnerable to charges of common assault, an offence that can bring a six month jail sentence. Critics said the ban would threaten parents who try to do the best for their children and pave the way for contentious, expensive and time-wasting prosecutions, the Mail online reported. Norman Wells of the Family Education Trust told the news site: "The Westminster government has been clear that it is opposed to criminalising parents who use a mild smack to discipline their children. "It therefore seems anomalous for ministers to go out of their way to give the Welsh Assembly the power to do that very thing. The 20 best places to raise children in the UK Show all 20 1 /20 The 20 best places to raise children in the UK The 20 best places to raise children in the UK The Orkney Islands The coast of the Orkney Islands near Bisray village Chmee2/Creative Commons The 20 best places to raise children in the UK The Shetland Islands A general view of the Shetland Islands JOHN D MCHUGH/AFP/Getty Images The 20 best places to raise children in the UK The Western Isles A man rides his bike on Harris, one of the Western Isles, also known as the Outer Hebrides Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images The 20 best places to raise children in the UK Winchester Choristers from Winchester Cathedral enjoy the artificial rink set up beside the cathedral The 20 best places to raise children in the UK Eden The Hartside Summit in the North Pennines in the district of Eden Christopher Furlong/Getty Images The 20 best places to raise children in the UK Craven A sheepdog works in Skipton, in the district of Craven Christopher Furlong/Getty Images The 20 best places to raise children in the UK Ryedale The Folk Museum in Ryedale Creative Commons/Dennis Smith The 20 best places to raise children in the UK Staffordshire Moorlands Three Shire Heads, which crosses over Cheshire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire Wikimedia Commons/Brian Jones The 20 best places to raise children in the UK Huntingdonshire St Ives in Cambridgeshire, which lies within the boundaries of Huntingdonshire snowmanradio/Creative Commons The 20 best places to raise children in the UK South Northamptonshire The village of Bradden and St.Michael's church, in south Northamptonshire Greg Fitchett/Creative Commons The 20 best places to raise children in the UK Harrogate Spring flowers adorn the front of the Crown Hotel in the Spa town of Harrogate in Yorkshire and The Humber Christopher Furlong/Getty Images The 20 best places to raise children in the UK Rutland Normanton Church in Rutland NotFromUtrecht/Creative Commons The 20 best places to raise children in the UK Warwick The West Midlands county town of Warwick David Alonso Perez/Creative Commons The 20 best places to raise children in the UK Surrey Heath St Michael's Church, Camberley, which is situated in Surrey Heath Len Willians/Creative Commons The 20 best places to raise children in the UK Chichester A view of the Cathedral in Chichester Evgeniy Podkopaev/Creative Commons The 20 best places to raise children in the UK South Lakeland Kendal, which lies in South Lakeland Mark Fosh/Creative Commons The 20 best places to raise children in the UK Richmondshire The swing bridge in Reeth in Richmondshire Kreuzschnabel/Creative Commons The 20 best places to raise children in the UK Tonbridge and Malling Ightham Mote in Tonbridge and Malling Brian Snelson/Creative Commons The 20 best places to raise children in the UK Stratford-on-Avon Straford-Upon-Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare Christopher Furlong/Getty Images The 20 best places to raise children in the UK Aberdeenshire Westhill in Aberdeenshire, Scotland SCOTT CAMPBELL/AFP/Getty Images "It is parents, and not national governments, who bear the responsibility for caring for their children, nurturing them, and correcting them where necessary. "Generations of parents have proved the benefit of the occasional moderate smack to correct their childrens behaviour, and research continues to show its positive effects when used in the context of a loving home where children are respected and cherished." A spokesman for the Wales Office said: "The Wales Bill that was published last year gives the Welsh Assembly the powers to enforce its own legislation. The amendment tabled for debate next week simply clarifies the power when it comes to parental discipline. It is up to the Welsh Assembly whether it chooses to change the law." Presidential candidate Marine Le Pen said she considered a national currency as a cornerstone of sovereignty, Sputnik reported. France should return to the franc, while retaining a common European currency in the form of a basket of European currencies, Marine Le Pen, the leader of French far-right party National Front and a presidential candidate in the upcoming April election, said. "[I want] a national currency with the euro, a common currency I want a national currency, because it is a cornerstone of sovereignty," Le Pen told BFMTV on Tuesday. The National Front leader said that this co-existence of national and common currencies had occurred already in the form of the European Currency Unit (ECU), the precursor to the euro, calculated as a weighted average of a number of European currencies. Le Pen also said that France had to take control of its borders, as, at the moment, it could only protect them efficiently at times of grave danger as opposed to the complete, definitive control. The presidential candidate also said that she would like to reform immigration laws to avoid the situation where a significant percentage of people whose asylum applications had been refused remain in France. According to Le Pen, France was receiving a large number of applications from the Albanians, which it should not even consider. Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Theresa May must take the UKs new ambassador to the EU into her confidence if Brexit talks are to succeed, an ex-British diplomat has warned. Sir Robert Cooper said the relationship between the Prime Minister and newly-appointed Sir Tim Barrow would be critical to the chances of securing a good post-Brexit settlement. He argued the atmosphere in Whitehall is strained because Downing Street is currently asking officials to work in a policy vacuum, giving them no clear direction. It comes amid concerns that Ms Mays administration is operating among an increasingly small inner circle of trusted aides, while Sir Tims predecessor Sir Ivan Rogers was said to have quit his post after losing the Prime Ministers confidence. Sir Robert, now an adviser to the EU Commission, said: [Sir Tims] relationship, his personal confidence with the Prime Minister, will be absolutely critical. He explained that there has to be one team for the UK negotiations, involving all the people in Brussels and all the people in London. Sir Robert told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: You always spend at least as much time negotiating with your own side as with the other side, the important thing is to go into the negotiations with a position that takes account of what others are going to do. Its no good people in Whitehall negotiating with themselves there are 27 others out there, thats the real negotiation. 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 So its very important that Tim should be closely involved in all the discussions going on in London. At the end of last year Ms Mays office was forced to state that she worked in an inclusive manner, following claims from top officials that she is centralising power more than her predecessor David Cameron. Meanwhile Tory MPs also today defended the need for civil servants to be listened to when delivering uncomfortable news to ministers. Discussing the situation Sir Tim will now have to deal with, Sir Robert added: At the moment there is a policy vacuum. Its not surprising. This is a gigantic enterprise thats been taken on, it needs a lot of thought. At the moment the atmosphere is difficult because people dont know where they are going. You need a sense of direction. Sir Ivan resigned while delivering a veiled attack on Britain's Brexit negotiating strategy, urging his colleagues in Brussels to challenge muddled thinking and ... speak truth to power. Ms May is due to make a speech later this month in which she has promised to set out further detail of her negotiating strategy. Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The Prime Minister of Norway has suggested Britain lacks the negotiating experience that will be critical to the country securing a good Brexit deal. Erna Solberg said the UKs ability to respond speedily during discussions is limited because it had been so long since the nation had represented itself in any talks. The comment comes as Westminster continues to reel from the resignation of the UKs ambassador to the EU, Sir Ivan Rogers, which saw him criticise what he described as muddled thinking over the Governments approach to Brexit. The Norwegian PM said she hoped Britain would be able to negotiate an agreement that keeps the country close to the EU, but explained that it would be difficult. Speaking at a meeting of the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) in southern Germany, she said: And we do feel that sometimes when we are discussing with Britain, that their speed is limited by the fact that it is such a long time since they have negotiated [alone]. She added: I fear a very hard Brexit, but I hope we will find a better solution. Britain joined the bloc in 1973, since when the EUs Commission in Brussels has handled trade and other negotiations on behalf of the UK along with other member states. Ex-minister Oliver Letwin admitted back in July that the country had no trade negotiators, with all British trade officials employed by the EU on the continent. 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 Meanwhile, there has been a rush to staff David Daviss Brexit department which will head the negotiations with the EU. Ms Solbergs comments come just days after Sir Ivan quit, while urging his diplomatic colleagues to call out muddled thinking on Brexit and to speak truth to power. In his letter he also highlighted that serious multilateral negotiating experience is in short supply in Whitehall, and that is not the case in the (European) Commission or in the (European) Council. Earlier today a Tory peer and former Downing Street trade envoy, Lord Marland, also warned that the UK does not have the skills to negotiate a good Brexit deal. Theresa May, expected to trigger Article 50 in March launching official Brexit talks, faces a backlash from Tories and civil servants over the Governments handling of the situation. Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Theresa May faces a growing Brexit backlash from Conservative MPs over the extraordinary resignation of Britains top diplomat in Brussels. Ex-Tory ministers lined up to sound the alarm over respected ambassador Sir Ivan Rogers departure, which they claimed casts doubt over the Governments approach to Brexit and risks the UKs chances of securing the right deal. One former Conservative secretary of state told The Independent Sir Ivans resignation is bad news for the Brexit process, while another ex-minister claimed it is a very public warning about the Governments approach to EU talks. Any hopes in Downing Street that Sir Ivans rapid replacement might counter criticism of Ms May, faded fast as critics from both her own party and others demanded her administration explain its handling of the incident at a Commons showdown on Monday. The row over Sir Ivans shock resignation not only threatened to lever open Tory divisions on Europe, with Brexit backers and their opponents scrapping over its implications, but also strained tensions between the Government and Whitehall, as the civil servants union attacked politicians for wanting yes men and women as advisers. Sir Ivans departure was accompanied by a letter urging his diplomatic colleagues to call out muddled thinking on Brexit and to speak truth to power. It was claimed he left after losing the confidence of Downing Street, with a leaked memo in which he suggested securing a Brexit deal may take a decade weighing heavily. But even as Number 10 moved quickly to appoint experienced Foreign Office veteran Sir Tim Barrow to replace Sir Ivan, ex-cabinet minister Nicky Morgan said the diplomats departure was a major loss. Theresa May refuses to comment on suggestions Brexit deal will take 10 years She told The Independent how she had worked with Sir Ivan, adding: He had extensive contacts in Brussels and obviously extensive corporate knowledge. The resignation is bad news for the Brexit process, regardless of whatever side of the debate you were on last year. If you wanted to leave, we still need to do it in a way that is positive for the country and is done properly. Ivan Rogers is one of the people who would have got that done. Meanwhile ex-Tory minister Alistair Burt wrote an article that echoed the words of Sir Ivans resignation letter, saying civil servants should be able to deliver uncomfortable news to ministers in the certainty they will be listened to. Mr Burt said: The manner of departure and the clarity of Rogerss concerns over speaking the unvarnished truth, challenging ill-founded arguments, and ensuring that there are in place those harnessing the best experience, shouts a very public warning about what is currently occurring on our nations behalf as we enter the most important negotiations of our peacetime life. If such warnings from a public servant who has devoted his working life to his country are dismissed simply as coming from a Europhile, who deserves clearing out with the others or similar nonsense, then we will all be the losers. Mr Burts call for a Commons statement on Monday was also backed by senior MP Neil Carmichael, who urged people to read the Bedfordshire MPs article, and fellow former minister Anna Soubry who posted a link to it on Twitter. 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 Meanwhile, the partys Brexiteers wasted no time in going on the offensive against Sir Ivan, with Tory former Trade Secretary Peter Lilley accusing him of sour grapes. He said: "Why did he put out this long, 1,400-word letter, half of which reads like a sort of CV this is my job, Im a very clever person, anyone who is looking for someone to employ, Im available and the other half looks like some degree of sour grapes, and possibly some genuine degree of misunderstanding between him and ministers, or concern about what ministers are doing? Tory MP Dominic Raab claimed the diplomats heart hasnt really been in Brexit and his resignation will be quietly, cautiously and respectfully welcomed at the top of Government. But Ms Morgan hit back, telling detractors their criticism of the diplomat is unhelpful. She added: Its another symptom of those who want to leave the EU, having won the referendum, being unable to stop campaign mode and start delivery mode. That means not undermining civil servants whose job is to give ministers unvarnished advice. Farage calls for more resignations after Sir Ivan Rogers quits Amid a sign of growing strain in Whitehall over the Governments Brexit approach, former Foreign Office permanent secretary Lord Ricketts attacked the denigration of Sir Ivan. He said: I dont think its sour grapes, I think its a sense that there is a huge task out here. I am really concerned about this undertone of denigration of Ivan as a person, and this feeling that it has got to be one of us next time. Thats a complete misunderstanding of what civil servants are for. Dave Penman, leader of senior civil servants union the FDA, said: If the civil service is to deliver a successful Brexit negotiation, the recipe for that success is unlikely to be to starve it of resources, lack clarity of objective and be surrounded with yes men and women who will not speak truth unto power. Labours shadow Brexit Secretary and Liberal Democrat Leader Tim Farron also weighed in to demand a Commons statement on Monday and a chance to question ministers over Sir Ivans departure. Announcing his replacement, Downing Street said Sir Tim would be a seasoned and tough negotiator, with extensive experience of securing UK objectives in Brussels. But the former Russian ambassador's appointment, and his long history at the Foreign Office, was unlikely to please Leavers who believe the Whitehall department to be institutionally pro-EU. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} New immigrants to Britain should be made to learn English on arrival in compulsory classes, according to Parliaments new all-party group on social integration. MPs and peers from all parties are co-authors of a new report that also suggests handing immigration powers directly to regions ahead of the current centralised system. It comes in the wake of a Louise Caseys report last month that warned that as Britain is becoming more diverse, it is also becoming more divided. Dame Caseys report also recommended that immigrants be required to swear an integration oath. Recommended Construction output surges despite pressure from weakened pound The all-party parliamentary group on social integration concludes that speaking English is the key to full participation in our society and economy and a prerequisite for meaningful engagement with most British people. The study added: The APPG believes that all immigrants should be expected to have either learned English before coming to the UK or be enrolled in compulsory ESOL [English for Speakers of Other Languages] classes upon arrival. It also proposed new policies for better dispersing migrant flows around the country, helping regional economies in the process. 10 things immigration has done for Britain Show all 10 1 /10 10 things immigration has done for Britain 10 things immigration has done for Britain The Mini The 1959 classic, that is, perhaps our greatest piece of industrial design, a miracle of packaging and revolution in motoring. Its genius designer was Sir Alec Issigonis, who was an asylum seeker. His family, Greek, fled Smyrna when Turks invaded this borderland in around 1920, and he wound up studying engineering at Battersea Polytechnic. He went on to create that most English of motor cars, the Morris Minor, as well as the Austin-Morris 1100, all much loved products of his fertile imagination. Getty Images 10 things immigration has done for Britain Marks and Spencer Once upon a time there was no M&S in Britain, difficult as that may be to believe. We have one Michael Marks to thank for our most famous retailer, and he was a refugee from Belarus, arriving in England in about 1882, and soon after set off to flog stuff around Yorkshire. He eventually teamed with Thomas Spencer to create the vast business we know today. Getty Images 10 things immigration has done for Britain Thunderbirds And many other TV shows created, funded and otherwise produced by that largest of larger-than-life characters, Lew Grade (also a world class tap dancer). The man who dominated commercial television gave us memorable entertainment such as The Prisoner, the Saint and brought the Muppets to Britain (a sort of fuzzy felt wave of immigration), as well as puppet shows where you could see the strings. All this from a penniless Jew from Ukraine, born Lev Winogradsky, who escaped the pogroms in Ukraine with his family in the 1890s. His nephew Michael Grade has also done his bit for British television. Rex Features 10 things immigration has done for Britain The House of Windsor Or the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha until George V prudently rebranded the family during the First World War. Well, our royals are a pretty German bunch, as well as having various types of French and other alien blue blood coursing around their veins. Twas ever thus. There was William the Conqueror, Norman French, who certainly broke the immigration rules; William of Orange, a direct import from Holland; the Hanoverian King Georges, the first barely able to speak English; Queen Victoria, who married a German, Edward VII, who couldnt stay faithful to his wife, a Danish princess; George V wed another German princess; Edward VIII married an American (though she hardly visited England and prompted his emigration and exile); and the Queen is married to man born in Corfu. The embodiment of the British nation, to many, but one thinks of them as quite multicultural really. Getty Images 10 things immigration has done for Britain I Vow To Thee My Country Our most patriotic hymn was the product of a man named Gustav Holst (pictured), born in Cheltenham, but of varied Swedish, Latvian and German ancestry, who adapted part of his suite The Planets to put a particularly stirring and beautiful poem to music, just after the Great War. As the second verse has it, there's another country/I've heard of long ago/Most dear to them that love her/most great to them that know. Imagine if the Holst family had been kept out because the quota on musical European types had been reached. Creative Commons 10 things immigration has done for Britain Curry and Cobra Chicken Tikka Masala is, so they say, a dish which not only the most popular in Britain but specifically designed to cater for European tastes. For that we probably have to thank an Indian migrant, Sake Dean Mahomed, who came from Bengal to open the first recognisable Indian restaurant, the magnificently named Hindoostanee Coffee House. History does not record if a plate of poppadoms and accompanying selection of pickles and yoghurts were routinely placed on the table for new diners, but we do know that we had to wait until 1989 to taste the ideal lager for a curry - Cobra. That brew was brought to us by Karan (now Lord) Bilimoria, a Cambridge law graduate who hailed from Hyderabad. Getty Images 10 things immigration has done for Britain That big red swirly sculpture at the Olympic Park Or Orbit, to give it its proper name, the work of Anish Kapoor, who arrived in 1973 from India and had the artistic imagination to fill a power station. Getty Images 10 things immigration has done for Britain The Sun Love it or hate it, and many do both, this has been a symbol of much that is successful and a lot that is awful in British journalism since its inception in 1969. In its turn it spawned the Page 3 Girl and some nastily xenophobic headlines. All the stranger when you consider its creator was, of course, Rupert Murdoch, born 11 March 1931 in Melbourne, Australia. Getty Images 10 things immigration has done for Britain Marxism OK, Karl Marxs philosophy was not much of a gift to the world, but for a while it seemed like a good idea. Though we might not dare admit it, Marxism still has a few insights to offer to anyone wanting to understand the workings of capitalism, though too few to excuse everything that was done in its name. Born in Germany spent much time in the British museum and the British pub, buried Highgate Cemetery. Oddly, his ideas never really caught on in his adopted homeland. Getty Images 10 things immigration has done for Britain The NHS They came from many, many backgrounds, including Ireland, the Philippines, east Europe, the Indian subcontinent, and Africa, as they still do, but the contribution of the black nurses who came to the UK from the Caribbean to heal and care for is a debt of honour that must be recognised. It so sometimes forgotten that it was Enoch Powell, then Minister of Health (1960-62), who campaigned to recruit their skilled nurses to come and work over here. One abiding legacy we can thank Enoch for. Getty Images Through the introduction of policies aimed at directing population flows to areas of the country which require higher levels of immigration or do not currently attract a great many immigrants, policymakers might minimise strain on public services and on community relations whilst bolstering regional economies, the report said. It highlighted the system in Canada, where provincial authorities can set their own specific requirements for immigrants. Labour MP Chuka Umunna, chair of the APPG, said: Its clear that immigration has impacted on different communities in different ways and the pace of change has alarmed many. Yvette Cooper interrogates Theresa May over immigration policy The Government has a duty to address the lack of integration of immigrants if it is to address this. Failing to do so has left a vacuum for extremists and peddlers of hate to exploit. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Jeremy Hunt and senior officials at the Department of Health colluded with a supposedly independent body responsible for billions of pounds in NHS funding to bully hospitals into imposing the controversial junior doctors contract, The Independent can reveal. Internal emails seen by The Independent show Jeremy Hunt and his officials collaborated with Health Education England (HEE), which provides trusts with some 3.65bn every year. HEE is supposed to be kept at arms length from the Department of Health but the emails, obtained under Freedom of Information law, reveal not only that Whitehall officials helped draft the bodys approach to contracts, but also that Mr Hunt himself was personally managing the message. Campaigners argue that once trusts saw that the body providing so much of their income was behind Mr Hunt, they had little choice but to agree to implement his contracts. It is the latest twist in Mr Hunts long-running drive to ensure new junior doctor contracts are implemented, which saw the minister fight off a High Court challenge brought by campaigners claiming he had compelled NHS employers to impose them. Jeremy Hunt on Junior Doctors Co-founder of Justice for Health Dr Ben White, who brought the case, said the emails shed new light on the matter and that the messages suggested HEE, with its hands on NHS pursestrings, had acted as an enforcer for Mr Hunt, leading to hospitals feeling bullied into accepting the proposals. He told The Independent: HEE is supposed to be an independent body responsible for the teaching and training of health care staff. Instead, this unaccountable body demonstrates collusion with the DoH to bully hospitals into imposing Hunts toxic contract. It has been shown Hunt has no power to impose this against the will of staff, therefore HEE is effectively the enforcer of Hunts botched settlement. Recommended Junior doctors lose high court challenge He added: HEE commands the future of doctors livelihoods, with the power to give and take away the right to become a consultant. They are therefore the NHS body with ultimate power over a junior doctors long term training. The organisation provides 3.65bn worth of funding to 429 trusts across the country and many NHS trusts are reliant on the cash. In a letter sent from HEE chief executive, Professor Ian Cumming, to all NHS trusts, the organisation endorsed the junior doctors contract proposal and emphasised the importance of the consistent implementation of the new junior doctor contract across the service. Several emails sent on 15 February showed drafts of the letter were sent to and from senior officials at HEE to Giles Denham, the then Director of Workforce at the Department of Health, for consideration. One email, sent to Mr Denham from Lee Whitehead, Director of People and Communications at HEE, says: Ian [Cumming] tells me that changes are being made to the draft, can you keep me in the loop on his behalf please? This is followed up with Mr Denham sending a combined draft of the letter to employees at HEE. Meanwhile another email, sent on the same day, from Prof Cumming to Mr Whitehead, shows Mr Hunts direct involvement. It says: SoS (Secretary of State) wants this [the letter] in draft by 15:00. There is already anecdotal evidence from around the country that the relationship between HEE and trusts has proved critical to Mr Hunts efforts to push the contract through. David Loughton, chief executive of Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, has claimed that although trusts around the UK wanted to walk away from the junior doctors contract it was not possible due to the need to manage relations with HEE. He argued that there is no question of us ignoring the Secretary of State as the contract will be imposed through HEE. Meanwhile Benjamin Tankel, the junior barrister representing Justice for Health, went further, telling the The Independent that the story exposed flaws in the transparency of NHS governance. He said: These documents show that DoH including the Secretary of State personally was very closely managing the message that HEE, a supposedly independent organisation, was sending out about the junior doctors contract. The NHS is a very complicated organisation. Its decisions are often taken in a fragmented way across different legal entities, which creates worrying gaps in accountability. This is a problem not only for junior doctors but for patients as well, because there will be many situations in which no one body is responsible when things go wrong. 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 However, Prof Cumming played down the significance of the discussions between his organisation and the DoH, telling The Independent they were little more than a common courtesy. He added: The letter sent to trust chief executives from HEE set out our belief that a robust, high-quality education and training system which has 50,000 doctors working in 70 specialties for over 350 different employers rotating through different specialties and employers on a regular basis requires a single, basic set of terms and conditions that apply across all employers. The BMA and NHS Employers agree with this which is why they support national bargaining for doctors. Introducing competition based on salary, rest periods, working hours, rotas and any number of other criteria into an already complex system would be worse for the NHS, worse for patients and worse for doctors in training, making the whole education and training system for doctors, which the NHS leads the world in, almost impossible to deliver. We, as a national arms-length body of the DoH, of course ensured we discussed this issue with colleagues in the DoH and other arms-length bodies before writing to all NHS trusts. This is common courtesy. A Department of Health spokesperson said: Patients would expect the Government to work closely with its agencies and arms-length bodies and it is right that HEE expressed its independent view in order to ensure the smooth implementation of the junior doctors contract. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Nigel Farage will attend Donald Trumps inauguration later this month, it has been announced. The former Ukip leader will attend the event as the guest of Mississippi governor Phil Bryant. Mr Farage still co-leads the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy group of MEPs in the European Parliament, and gave a speech endorsing the mogul during his campaign. Donald Trump's inauguration: All you need to know He was also the first British politician to meet the President-elect after his victory in the contest, posing for photos with him in a golden elevator at Trump Tower in New York. Mr Trump and the former Ukip leader have both suggested that the latter should be employed as a go-between or ambassador between Mr Trumps administration and the British government. Many people would like to see Nigel Farage represent Great Britain as their Ambassador to the United States, Trump tweeted in November. He would do a great job! Mississippi governor Phil Bryant (left) has been derided for his views on LGBT people (Getty) Mr Farages host Mr Bryant may raise eyebrows in the UK. The Republican governor said last year that he would rather be crucified than give up his anti-LGBT beliefs. During his time as governor he has signed laws that exclude gay people from the hate crime protections. Speaking about the legislation last summer, Mr Bryant said: They dont know that if it takes crucifixion, we will stand in line before abandoning our faith and our belief in our lord and savior, Jesus Christ. Donald Trump's most controversial quotes Show all 14 1 /14 Donald Trump's most controversial quotes Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Isis: "Some of the candidates, they went in and didnt know the air conditioner didnt work and sweated like dogs, and they didnt know the room was too big because they didnt have anybody there. How are they going to beat ISIS?" Getty Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On immigration: "I will build a great wall and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me and Ill build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words." Reuters Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Free Trade: "Free trade is terrible. Free trade can be wonderful if you have smart people. But we have stupid people." PAUL J. RICHARDS | AFP | Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Mexicans: "When Mexico sends its people, theyre not sending their best. Theyre sending people that have lots of problems. Theyre bringing drugs. Theyre bringing crime. Theyre rapists." Getty Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On China: "I just sold an apartment for $15 million to somebody from China. Am I supposed to dislike them?... I love China. The biggest bank in the world is from China. You know where their United States headquarters is located? In this building, in Trump Tower." Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On work: "If you're interested in 'balancing' work and pleasure, stop trying to balance them. Instead make your work more pleasurable." AP Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On success: "What separates the winners from the losers is how a person reacts to each new twist of fate." Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On life: "Everything in life is luck." AFP Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On ambition: "You have to think anyway, so why not think big?" Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On his opponents: "Bush is totally in favour of Common Core. I don't see how he can possibly get the nomination. He's weak on immigration. He's in favour of Common Core. How the hell can you vote for this guy? You just can't do it." Reuters Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Obamacare: "You have to be hit by a tractor, literally, a tractor, to use it, because the deductibles are so high. It's virtually useless. And remember the $5 billion web site?... I have so many web sites, I have them all over the place. I hire people, they do a web site. It costs me $3." Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Barack Obama: "Obama is going to be out playing golf. He might be on one of my courses. I would invite him. I have the best courses in the world. I have one right next to the White House." PA Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On himself: "Love him or hate him, Trump is a man who is certain about what he wants and sets out to get it, no holds barred. Women find his power almost as much of a turn-on as his money." Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On America: "The American Dream is dead. But if I get elected president I will bring it back bigger and better and stronger than ever before and we will make America great again." GETTY So if we are going to stand, now is the time and this is the place. Asked if he would be attending the 20 January event, Mr Farage told Sky News: I certainly am, I cant wait. Mr Trump won the US presidential election after winning 46 per cent of the vote compared to Hillary Clintons 48 per cent. The US electoral system however means that despite losing by nearly three million votes Mr Trump will become president. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Ex-Liberal Democrat Cabinet minister Sir Vince Cable has unexpectedly backed immigration controls, claiming he has serious doubts over whether EU free movement is "tenable or even desirable". The former-business secretary, a staunch supporter of the EU and the remain camp in the referendum, also said the economic case for free movement is "ambiguous". His remarks put him at odds with Lib Dems with whom he campaigned during the referendum, in particular the partys leader Tim Farron who advocates the UK remaining in the single market. Recommended Unite challenger piles pressure on Jeremy Corbyn over EU immigration Writing for the New Statesman, Sir Vince set out how he spent years battling the "battling the Tories foolish net immigration target", even claiming that Theresa Mays Home Office prevented him publishing reports on the beneficial effects of migration during coalition. However, he then writes: "But I have serious doubts that EU free movement is tenable or even desirable. "First, the freedom is not a universal right, but selective. It does not apply to Indians, Jamaicans, Americans or Australians. "They face complex and often harsh visa restrictions. One uncomfortable feature of the referendum was the large Brexit vote among British Asians, many of whom resented the contrast between the restrictions they face and the welcome mat laid out for Poles and Romanians." He argues that most benefits for migration go to migrants themselves and business owners, while the benefits are less obvious for the receiving country. Sir Vince adds: "The economic arguments are not conclusive but, on balance, favour some net migration of younger, skilled workers. More liberal Brexiteers concede that point. Theresa May on immigration in conference speech "It is also reasonable for Remainers to accept that there should be controls, as for non-EU migrants. That is also where public opinion is. Long-term social survey analysis suggests that the demand for effective immigration control coexists with greater tolerance of diversity." He goes on to call for a "more rational immigration policy", which guarantees the rights of EU nationals already in the UK and removes students from net migration figures. Talking of his time as coalition business secretary, The ex-Twickenham MP said: "Critics complain that immigrant workers depress wages and reduce job opportunities for natives. Undoubtedly, this happens in some occupations, like building and taxi driving. "But there are other areas where immigrants are not competing and bring complementary skills, creating jobs. When I was secretary of state I commissioned studies to evaluate this. The conclusions were sufficiently reassuring that the Home Office blocked my departments wish to publish them. Losers, however, there undoubtedly are. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Theresa May is to snub the BBC, breaking with convention to give her first interview of the year to a rival broadcaster. Sky News will be the first channel to interview the Prime Minister in 2017 in a break with tradition that usually sees the Corporation quiz the PM and set the agenda for the year ahead. The annual so-called curtain opener interview has been carried out by Aunties flagship Andrew Marr Show for years. The snub comes after a spate of complains by Tory MPs that the BBC is being insufficiently supportive of Brexit and being critical of the Government. Last month MP Steve Baker accused the BBC of manufacturing a backbench Tory rebellion about Brexit. He accused the Corporation of seeking to create problems for the Government, despite the fact the rebellion was widely reported by a number of media outlets. Separately, Andrew Rosindell tabled a motion criticising the BBC for failing to play the national anthem at the end of programming every day in honour of Brexit. Other right-wing Tory MP such as John Redwood and Davis Davies have also accused the Corporation of bias, notably against Brexit. Tory MP accuses BBC of 'manufacturing' Conservative backbench Brexit rebellion BBC bosses were reportedly upset by the decision to ditch the public broadcaster for Rupert Murdochs channel. A Government source reportedly told The Sun newspaper: The BBC have such a sense of entitlement that they couldnt believe the PM would want to sit down with anyone else for the start of the year interview. This will be a good lesson for them. The BBC and Sky News have long both fielded competing flagship Sunday morning politics programmes that tend to set the agenda for the week ahead. 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 Ms May is set to be interviewed by Sky News presenter Sophy Ridge, who will present a new programme, Sophy Ridge on Sunday. A BBC spokesperson said: "The Andrew Marr Show has seen its biggest audience ever in the last 12 months. The Prime Minister has been on the show twice since September and we continue to discuss with her team an alternative date for her to come onto the programme in the near future." She added: The BBC continues to report impartially on UK political events as they happen. Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A former Cabinet minister and leading Brexiteer has taken aim at Sir Ivan Rogers by calling the former EU ambassador's resignation email "emotionally needy"., Sir Ivan urged his colleagues in Brussels to challenge muddled thinking and...speak truth to power as he quit just weeks before Theresa May is due to trigger the process of leaving the union. He added that ministers needed to hear "unvarnished" and "uncomfortable" views from Europe. But the nature of his departure provoked ex-Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers. 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 "Sir Ivan was due to move on soon anyway, his successor's now been in place, his successor's been universally welcomed as an extremely able negotiator," she told Sky News. "I thought Sir Ivan's resignation email was, I don't know, rambling, a bit emotionally needy, but not something you expect." Sir Ivan had been expected to stay in his post until at least the end of 2017. But clear tensions with No 10 were laid bare in mid-December when it was reported that he had warned the Government it could take 10 years to complete a post-Brexit trade deal with the EU. Foreign Office veteran Sir Tim Barrow has been drafted in to replace him. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The state of California has hired President Barack Obamas former attorney general to represent it in any future legal fights against the Republican administration under Donald Trump. Leaders of the California Legislature said the appointment of Eric Holder Jr, the first African American man to hold the position of attorney general, gave the state a lot of firepower to safeguard the values of the people of California. The move has been viewed as possible preparation for legal tussles with Mr Trumps administration over a variety of issues. Mr Holder will likely oversee cases involving climate change, women and civil rights, the environment, immigration, and voting rights on behalf of California, according to senate leader Kevin de Leon. Mr Holder will serve alongside new state attorney general Xavier Becerra as an outside counsel and make recommendations on Californias legal strategy. This shows we are very, very serious about defending the interests of Californians, Mr de Leon told the New York Times. [Mr Trump] has surrounded himself with people who are a very clear and present danger to the economic prosperity of California. Mr de Leon said he and assembly speaker Anthony Rendon began contemplating hiring outside legal counsel almost immediately after Mr Trumps election, in the hope of protecting established state policies which contrast with the President-elects own positions. In the presidential election in November, Mr Trump won just 32.8 per cent of the vote in California, which has not been held by the Republican party since 1992. The Democrats control two-thirds of the states assembly and senate. 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 While we dont yet know the harmful proposals the next administration will put forward, thanks to Donald Trumps campaign, cabinet appointments and Twitter feed, we do have an idea of what we will be dealing with, Mr Rendon said in a statement. Responding to his appointment, Mr Holder said he was confident in being able to offer his considerable expertise to the state in all its federal legal and regulatory issues. During his tenure as US Attorney General between 2009 and 2015, Mr Holder fought for civil rights and defended President Obamas government following the killing of Osama Bin Laden. He previously served as deputy Attorney General during Bill Clintons second term as president. A week after the devastating deaths of two Hollywood legends namely Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, actress Billie Lourd broke her silence to talk about the consecutive losses. Moreover, she even thanked the fans that have been supporting them ever since the tragedy. Lourd, who also took part in "Star Wars Episode 7 The Force Awakens" as Lieutenant Kaydel Ko Connix, took to social media to express her love for her "Momby" and her "Abadaba," ABC News reported. In an Instagram post, Lourd thanked the fans who sent out their prayers and words of encouragement in a time where she thought that strength does not exist. She added that their support meant a lot to her and expressed how she will be missing both of them. Advertisement Meanwhile, Fisher's co-star, Mark Hamill wrote a column in The Hollywood Reporter reminiscing how it was working with the actress. He even described his relationship with Fisher as if they were in a garage band that somehow made it mainstream. Hamill also recalled the time where they still do not have the slightest idea how big "Star Wars" was until the time they went on tour to Chicago in the 70s to promote their space opera film. A huge crowd was waiting for them during that time and called out Fisher as he saw someone donning the famed "bun" hairdo that the actress immortalized in the "Star Wars" films. The actor also remembered how open Fisher was in telling some of her private life including her relationship with Eddie Fisher, her stepdad, and even her mother. He added that such gesture from the actress seems like being drawn into her world. Hamill also wrote the time where he does the silliest of things just to make Fisher laugh. He further explained that seeing onscreen sister smile through him always felt like an honor to be proud of. He ended his column stating that his life would be pretty much dreary if it weren't for Fisher's vibrant persona. Watch Billie Lourd talking about her grandma Debbie Reynolds: Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A motorcyclist has been struck by lightning during the gruelling Dakar Rally in South America. Slovakian rider Ivan Jakes managed to finish the 500-mile stage after the bolt shot through his body more than 180 miles from the finish line in Argentinas Salta province. Jakes was left with pain in his left arm but survived the strike and continued to finish in 15th place. Dakar rally crash The incident happened during the third stage of the annual rally raid or cross country rally which started in San Miguel de Tucuman and finished in San Salvador de Jujuy. Formerly known as the Paris-Dakar Rally, the race was moved to South America in 2009 in response to security concerns about parts of the route through Mauritania. Jakes was treated in hospital but was said to have asked to continue riding and competed in the following days stage. "Thank God he didn't put his feet on the ground, because it would have been like a ground wire," Motorsport.com quoted a member of his team as saying. Motorcyclists are more vulnerable to lightning strikes than other drivers as they are not protected by the metal box of a car. To survive a lightning strike, scientists advise people to limit the amount of contact they have with the ground, as lightning can hit the ground first before travelling up through the feet or body. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A group of more than 1,100 law school professors from across the US has sent a letter to Congress urging the Senate to reject the nomination of Senator Jeff Sessions for Attorney General. The letter, signed by professors from 170 law schools in 48 states, also ran as a full-page newspaper ad aimed at members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will be holding confirmation hearings for Sessions on 10 and 11 January. We are convinced that Jeff Sessions will not fairly enforce our nations laws and promote justice and equality in the United States, states the letter, signed by prominent legal scholars including Laurence H. Tribe of Harvard Law School, Geoffrey R. Stone of the University of Chicago Law School, Pamela S. Karlan of Stanford Law School and Erwin Chemerinsky of the University of California at Irvine School of Law. Donald Trump's inauguration: All you need to know The professors - from every state except North Dakota and Alaska, which has no law school - highlight the rejection of Mr Sessionss nomination to a federal judgeship more than 30 years ago. Robin Walker Sterling of the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, one of the organisers of the letter, said that 1,000 professors signed on within 72 hours. Clearly, there are many, many law professors who are very uneasy with the prospect of Attorney General Sessions, and they are willing to take a public stand in opposition to his nomination, she said. The law professors wrote that some of them have concerns about Mr Sessionss prosecution of three civil rights activists for voter fraud in Alabama in 1985, his support for building a wall along the nations southern border and his repeated opposition to legislative efforts to promote the rights of women and members of the LGBTQ community. Nothing in Senator Sessions public life since 1986, the letter states, has convinced us that he is a different man than the 39-year-old attorney who was deemed too racially insensitive to be a federal district court judge. Mr Sessionss former chief counsel William Smith, who is African American, has said that people who call Sessions racially insensitive are just lying. And they should stop the smear campaign. The people making these allegations against Senator Sessions dont know him, Mr Smith said in an interview. In the last 30 years, they probably havent spent 10 hours with him. I spent 10 years working with him . . . as his top legal adviser. There are not statements that he made that are inappropriate. Allegations of racial insensitivity were made against Mr Sessions at a 1986 Senate hearing when he was nominated by President Ronald Reagan to be a federal judge. His nomination was defeated after being opposed by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, People for the American Way and the NAACP, which is now protesting his nomination for attorney general, calling it despicable and unacceptable. President Trump protests Show all 20 1 /20 President Trump protests President Trump protests Patrons hold a sign as people march by while protesting the election of Republican Donald Trump as the president of the United States in downtown Los Angeles, California Reuters President Trump protests Demonstrators rally following the election of Republican Donald Trump as President of the United States, in Oakland, California Reuters President Trump protests Demonstrators march following the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States Reuters President Trump protests Thousands of protesters rallied across the United States expressing shock and anger over Donald Trump's election, vowing to oppose divisive views they say helped the Republican billionaire win the presidency AFP/Getty Images President Trump protests Demonstrators protest outside the Chicago Theatre in Chicago, Illinois Getty President Trump protests A police officer aims a launcher after demonstrators threw projectiles toward a line of officers during a demonstration in Oakland, California Reuters President Trump protests An officer examines a vandalized police vehicle as demonstrators riot in Oakland, California Reuters President Trump protests Demonstrators take over the Hollywood 101 Freeway just north of Los Angeles City Hall in protest against the election of Republican Donald Trump as President of the United States Reuters President Trump protests A woman holds up a sign reading 'Trump you are an Idiot' as demonstrators gather during a protest against President-elect Donald Trump outside the City Hall building in Los Angeles, California EPA President Trump protests A masked demonstrator gestures toward a police line during a demonstration in Oakland, California Reuters President Trump protests Demonstrators protest against the election of Republican Donald Trump as President of the United States, near the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Las Vegas, Nevada Reuters President Trump protests Musician Lagy Gaga stages a protest against Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on a sanitation truck outside Trump Tower in New York City Getty President Trump protests A woman yells as she takes part in a protest against President-elect Donald Trump in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood AP President Trump protests A man dressed in red-white-and-blue sits on the curb during a protest against President-elect Donald Trump in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood AP President Trump protests A protester sets off fireworks during a protest against President-elect Donald Trumpin Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood AP President Trump protests University of California, Davis students protest on campus in Davis, California, U.S. following the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States Reuters President Trump protests An Oakland police officer checks out damage after a window was broken by protesters at a car dealership in downtown Oakland, Calif AP President Trump protests A protester faces a police line in downtown Oakland, Calif AP President Trump protests President-elect Donald Trumpis victory set off multiple protests AP President Trump protests A fire burns during protests in Oakland, Calif AP Supporters of Mr Sessions note that his nomination has been endorsed by Gerald A Reynolds, a former chairman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. In a letter to the Judiciary Committees highest-ranking Republican and Democrat, Reynolds, who is African American, said: Sessions is a man of great character and integrity with a commitment to fairness and equal justice under the law. More than 100 former US attorneys who served under Democratic and Republican presidents have written to the Senate in support of his confirmation. Sarah Flores, a spokeswoman for Mr Sessions, in response to the NAACP statement that Sessions has dedicated his career to upholding the rule of law, ensuring public safety and prosecuting government corruption. Many African-American leaders whove known him for decades attest to this and have welcomed his nomination to be the next Attorney General, Floress statement said. These false portrayals of Senator Sessions will fail as tired, recycled, hyperbolic charges that have been thoroughly rebuked and discredited. From the Fraternal Order of Police and the National Sheriffs Association to civil rights leaders and African-American elected officials, to victims rights organisations, Senator Sessions has inspired confidence from people across the country that he will return the Department of Justice to an agency the American people can be proud of once again. Washington Post Sign up to our free fortnightly newsletter from The Independent's Race Correspondent Nadine White Sign up to our free fortnightly newsletter The Race Report Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the The Race Report email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Chicago police are questioning four people over a video in which a disabled teenager appears to be tied up and tortured while someone yells f*** Donald Trump and f*** white people. Captured in a broadcast on Facebook Live, the footage shows a young white man sitting in the corner of a room with tape over his mouth. It shows a large knife being held to his face and his scalp being cut, before he is kicked repeatedly and forced to drink toilet water. The victim is clearly forced to drink toilet water in the Facebook Live video Fox 32 (Fox 32) The group are shown taunting and swearing at the victim, while large parts of the footage focus on a woman rambling incoherently. While police officials did not confirm the races of the suspects or victim, video from Chicago media outlets appeared to show someone off-camera using profanities about "white people" and President-elect Mr Trump. Police superintendent Eddie Johnson said criminal charges against the four people arrested, two men and two women, were expected to be announced on Thursday. Its sickening," he said. You know it makes you wonder what would make individuals treat somebody like that. He said the victim, who has "mental health challenges," was recovering. Police said it was too soon to know whether the attack was racially motivated. Detectives say the victim met acquaintances in the northwest Streamwood suburb, before he was driven to Chicago in a stolen vehicle. The victim, thought to be 18 years old, is believed to have been held hostage for at least 24 hours in an apartment. On Tuesday, the same day the 30-minute video was uploaded by a woman, police say they spotted the victim walking on a West Side street in a state of distress. Although the President-elect is mentioned, Chicago police say they are not treating it as politically motivated. Chicago Police Commander Kevin Duffin said: Its quite a possibility that this is a kidnapping and thats certainly one of the charges well be seeking if it turns out to be that. But, hes traumatised by the incident and its tough to communicate with him at this point. Supt Johnson said: I think some of it is just stupidity, people just ranting about something that they think might make a headline. Police Supt Eddie Johnson implied the attack was not politically motivated and referred to the Donald Trump insults as 'stupidity' Fox 32/screengrab (Fox 32) "I don't think that at this point we have anything concrete to really point us in that direction, but we'll keep investigating and we'll let the facts guide us on how this concludes. Images in the video put on display the brazenness of the offenders who assaulted the victim and then broadcast it for the entire world to see." Anti-Muslim hate crimes reached near post-9/11 levels following Mr Trumps election win. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Donald Trump issued a threat against Toyota Motor Corp for a supposed plan to build a new plant in Baja California, Mexico. The President-elect warned that if he would hit the auto manufacturer with a "big border tax" if they carried through with plans to build the plant. Automakers are feeling intense pressure from the President-elect, following Ford's scrapping of its plans to build $1.6bn plant in Mexico a result for which Mr Trump quickly took credit. On Thursday, he took aim at the Japanese auto company for their plan to build small cars in Mexico facilities, originally announced in April 2015 "Toyota Motor said will build a new plant in Baja, Mexico, to build Corolla cars for U.S. NO WAY!" he tweeted. "Build plant in US or pay big border tax." Toyota issued a statement in response assuring that the production at the new facility in Guanajuato will not take away from US employment. "Toyota looks forward to collaborating with the Trump administration to serve in the best interests of consumers and the automotive industry," Toyota spokesman Scott Vazin said. Hours before Mr Trump's tweet, Toyota Motor president Akio Toyoda told reporters at a New Year's gathering that he was willing to take the President-elect's positions into account when expanding production in North America. Mr Toyoda said they have no plan to curb production in Mexico the company currently plans to build Corolla sedans at the new facility, despite Mr Trump's proposed penalties for auto companies that outsource labour to Mexico. "We will consider our option as we see what policies the incoming president adopts," he added. Within five minutes, Toyota's shares saw a 0.50 per cent drop or a loss of more than $1.2bn. President Donald Trump life in pictures Show all 16 1 /16 President Donald Trump life in pictures President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump poses in a rocking chair once used by President John F. Kennedy at his New York City residence Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Developer Donald Trump with his new bride Marla Maples after their wedding at the Plaza hotel in New York Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump and Celina Midelfart watch the match between Conchita Martinez and Amanda Coetzer during U.S. Open. She was the date whom Donald Trump was with when he met his current wife Melania at a party in 1996 Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas serving as the grand marshal for the Daytona 500, speaks to Donald Trump and Melania Knauss on the starting grid at the Daytona International Speedwa Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Developer Donald Trump talks with his former wife Ivana Trump during the men's final at the U.S. Open Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump and his friend Melania Knauss pose for photographers as they arrive at the New York premiere of Star Wars Episode : 'The Phantom Menace,' Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Billionaire real estate developer Donald Trump talks with host Larry King. Trump told King that he was moving toward a possible bid for the United States presidency with the formation of a presidential exploratory committee Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump answers questions as Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura looks on in Brooklyn Park. Trump said on Friday he 'very well might' make a run for president under the Reform Party banner but had not made a final decision Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Billionaire Donald Trump makes a face at a friend as he sits next to Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso before the start of the 2003 Miss Universe pageant in Panama City Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Entrepreneur Donald Trump is greeted by a Marilyn Monroe character look-a-alike, as he arrives at Universal Studios Hollywood to attend the an open casting call for his NBC television network reality series 'The Apprentice.' Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump and Simon Cowell present an Emmy during the 56th annual Primetime Emmy Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump and Megan Mullally perform at the 57th annual Primetime Emmy Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump, poses with his children, son Donald Trump, Jr., and daughters Tiffany and Ivanka Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Billionaire Donald Trump told Miss USA 2006 Tara Conner on Tuesday she would be given a second chance after reported misbehavior Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump holds a replica of his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as his wife Melania holds their son Barron in Los Angeles Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures U.S. property mogul Donald Trump stands next to a bagpiper during a media event on the sand dunes of the Menie estate, the site for Trump's proposed golf resort, near Aberdeen, north east Scotland Reuters Although Mr Trump has put a lot of stock in his labour negotiations-via-twitter, automakers' decisions are not necessarily tied to the threats he has issued before even taking office. While the New York businessman boasted Ford's decision was a result of his 140-character strong-arming, the company's chief executive said otherwise. "The bottom line is were not seeing the volume and the demand that we expected for that plant," Ford CEO Mark Fields said Bernie Sanders brings giant cardboard print out of Donald Trump tweet to Senate "Were looking at our capacity and saying, you know what, we can build that in an existing facility and use capacity that we already have." He added: "Over the last couple of years weve seen small cars markedly decline. Every year were looking at our capacity. "Were looking at our forecast for demand. It became very clear that we didnt need this plant. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Twitter and international diplomacy might not conventionally go hand in hand but for Donald Trump the two have been inextricably linked. The President-elect frequently uses the social media site to vent his frustrations about China, prodding them over everything from Taiwan to Chinas seizing of a US drone and most recently North Korea. Nevertheless, China is not happy about the billionaire property developers use of Twitter to disrupt diplomatic protocol. A column piece published by the countrys state news agency Xinhua has argued that Twitter should not be used an instrument of foreign policy. An obsession with Twitter foreign policy is undesirable, reads the headline of the article, which was published after Mr Trumps latest remarks on China, reports the New York Times. Everyone recognises the common sense that foreign policy isnt childs play, and even less is it like doing business deals. Trump and Putin passionately kiss in street mural Show all 14 1 /14 Trump and Putin passionately kiss in street mural Trump and Putin passionately kiss in street mural A lesbian couple kisses in front of mural depicting Russian President Vladimir Putin and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, on the walls of a barbecue bar 'Keule Ruke' on May 19, 2016 in Vilnius, Lithuania. Barcroft Media/Getty Trump and Putin passionately kiss in street mural A lesbian couple kisses in front of mural depicting Russian President Vladimir Putin and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, on the walls of a barbecue bar 'Keule Ruke' on May 19, 2016 in Vilnius, Lithuania. Barcroft Media/Getty Trump and Putin passionately kiss in street mural VILNIUS, LITHUANIA - NOVEMBER 23: A woman walks past a mural showing U.S. President-elect Donald Trump (R) blowing marijuana smoke into the mouth of Russian President Vladimir Putin on the wall of a bar-b-que restaurant on November 23, 2016 in Vilnius, Lithuania. Many people in the three Baltic nations of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are concerned that Russia, because Trump has expressed both admiration for Putin and doubt over defending NATO member states, will be emboldened to intervene militarily in the Baltics. Sean Gallup/Getty Trump and Putin passionately kiss in street mural A woman walks past a mural on a restaurant wall depicting US Presidential hopeful Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin greeting each other with a kiss in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius on May 13, 2016. Kestutis Girnius, associate professor of the Institute of International Relations and Political Science in Vilnius university, told AFP -This graffiti expresses the fear of some Lithuanians that Donald Trump is likely to kowtow to Vladimir Putin and be indifferent to Lithuanias security concerns. Trump has notoriously stated that Putin is a strong leader, and that NATO is obsolete and expensive. Petras Malukas/AFP/Getty Images Trump and Putin passionately kiss in street mural AP Trump and Putin passionately kiss in street mural A child walks past a graffiti depicting Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, on the walls of a bar in the old town in Vilnius, Lithuania, Saturday, May 14, 2016. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis) AP Trump and Putin passionately kiss in street mural People walk past a mural on a restaurant wall depicting US Presidential hopeful Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin greeting each other with a kiss in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius on May 13, 2016. Kestutis Girnius, associate professor of the Institute of International Relations and Political Science in Vilnius university, told AFP -This graffiti expresses the fear of some Lithuanians that Donald Trump is likely to kowtow to Vladimir Putin and be indifferent to Lithuanias security concerns. Trump has notoriously stated that Putin is a strong leader, and that NATO is obsolete and expensive. Petras Malukas/AFP/Getty Images Trump and Putin passionately kiss in street mural A man photographs a mural on a restaurant wall depicting US Presidential hopeful Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin greeting each other with a kiss in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius on May 13, 2016. Kestutis Girnius, associate professor of the Institute of International Relations and Political Science in Vilnius university, told AFP -This graffiti expresses the fear of some Lithuanians that Donald Trump is likely to kowtow to Vladimir Putin and be indifferent to Lithuanias security concerns. Trump has notoriously stated that Putin is a strong leader, and that NATO is obsolete and expensive. Petras Malukas/AFP/Getty Images Trump and Putin passionately kiss in street mural AP Trump and Putin passionately kiss in street mural A young woman walks past a mural showing U.S. President-elect Donald Trump (R) blowing marijuana smoke into the mouth of Russian President Vladimir Putin with the slogan "make everything great again," in reference to Trump's campaign slogan of "Make America Great Again," on the wall of a bar-b-que restaurant on November 23, 2016 in Vilnius, Lithuania. Many people in the three Baltic nations of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are concerned that Russia, because Trump has expressed both admiration for Putin and doubt over defending NATO member states, will be emboldened to intervene militarily in the Baltics. Sean Gallup/Getty Trump and Putin passionately kiss in street mural A morning commuter stops to look at a mural on a restaurant wall depicting US Presidential hopeful Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin greeting each other with a kiss in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius on May 13, 2016. Kestutis Girnius, associate professor of the Institute of International Relations and Political Science in Vilnius university, told AFP -This graffiti expresses the fear of some Lithuanians that Donald Trump is likely to kowtow to Vladimir Putin and be indifferent to Lithuanias security concerns. Trump has notoriously stated that Putin is a strong leader, and that NATO is obsolete and expensive. Petras Malukas/AFP/Getty Images Trump and Putin passionately kiss in street mural Restaurant owner Dominykas Ceckauskas pose next to a mural on the wall of his establishment depicting US Presidential hopeful Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin greeting each other with a kiss in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius on May 13, 2016. Kestutis Girnius, associate professor of the Institute of International Relations and Political Science in Vilnius university, told AFP -This graffiti expresses the fear of some Lithuanians that Donald Trump is likely to kowtow to Vladimir Putin and be indifferent to Lithuanias security concerns. Trump has notoriously stated that Putin is a strong leader, and that NATO is obsolete and expensive. / AFP / Petras Malukas (Photo credit should read PETRAS MALUKAS/AFP/Getty Images) Petras Malukas/AFP/Getty Images Trump and Putin passionately kiss in street mural A passerby photographs a mural showing U.S. President-elect Donald Trump (R) blowing marijuana smoke into the mouth of Russian President Vladimir Putin on the wall of a bar-b-que restaurant on November 23, 2016 in Vilnius, Lithuania. Many people in the three Baltic nations of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are concerned that Russia, because Trump has expressed both admiration for Putin and doubt over defending NATO member states, will be emboldened to intervene militarily in the Baltics. Sean Gallup/Getty Trump and Putin passionately kiss in street mural Getty But the article recognised that it was likely to be too late to get Mr Trump to stop using Twitter, saying that tweeting has become a habit for him. Tensions between Mr Trump and leaders of the worlds second largest economy, where Twitter is banned, have become increasingly difficult in recent days. On Monday evening, the Republican tweeted: China has been taking out massive amounts of money & wealth from the US in totally one-sided trade, but won't help with North Korea. Nice! In December, Mr Trump used the social media site to condemn China's seizing of a US drone which had allegedly been gathering unclassified information in international waters in the South China Sea. China steals United States Navy research drone in international waters rips it out of water and takes it to China in unpresidented act, he said, misspelling unprecedented. This follows his announcement in early December that he had spoken directly with Tawains President Tsai Ing-Wen and broken nearly four decades of US policy. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A New Hampshire man lost his job when he chose between work and welcoming his newborn son into the world. But once word of his sacking spread, he received an outpouring of support including a flood of new job offers. Lamar Austin worked for Salerno Protective Services, a private security group for college campuses and retail stores. He was in the middle of his 90-day trial period and was expected to be on call night and day. But Mr Austin could not attend his weekend shift once his wife, Lindsay, went into labour which lasted from Friday evening through Sunday morning, when Mr Austin received a text informing him he was terminated. Sometimes you lose something and you get something even better, Mr Austin told the Concord Monitor, while with his wife and new son, Cainin the first baby born in the state of New Hampshire in 2017. C-section births a trend in Brazil When the local newspaper first reported the story of Mr Austins job loss, former town board member and paid family leave advocate Sara Persechino, launched a GoFundMe campaign for the family. I dont think they should have to be worrying about financial issues right now; it should be a joyful time for them, she said. I dont think anyone should ever have to choose between their family and their job. In addition to the public support, Mr Austin said he had received three job offers, as well as an apprenticeship from the local business manager of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and from the labour union, AFL-CIO. Mr Austins former employer declined to comment on specifics of Mr Austins case, citing confidentiality of the business, but they told the Monitor: [Salerno Protective Services] is not in the practice of releasing employees stated in the article you published but must be cognizant of the product we give our clients!" Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Michael Moore has said the Republican congress have already begun to dismantle democracy since the new congress has been sworn in. The Oscar-winning documentary maker suggested the sh*tshow had started immediately and America is now in a p*ssy grabbing era. The 115th congress was sworn in on Tuesday, meaning that Republicans now control both houses of congress. Republicans marked this historic shift by immediately voting to scrap the independent Office of Congressional Ethics. However they were forced to drop the controversial plans after wide-reaching criticism from the public and questions from Donald Trump himself. Moore argued the attempt to remove the independent ethics office was evidence the Republicans were wasting no time in putting their political agenda to action. But we're in a different behavioural era now, where corruption and ethics can be damned, We're in the Pussy Grabbing Era, the political commentator wrote in a Facebook post. President Donald Trump life in pictures Show all 16 1 /16 President Donald Trump life in pictures President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump poses in a rocking chair once used by President John F. Kennedy at his New York City residence Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Developer Donald Trump with his new bride Marla Maples after their wedding at the Plaza hotel in New York Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump and Celina Midelfart watch the match between Conchita Martinez and Amanda Coetzer during U.S. Open. She was the date whom Donald Trump was with when he met his current wife Melania at a party in 1996 Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas serving as the grand marshal for the Daytona 500, speaks to Donald Trump and Melania Knauss on the starting grid at the Daytona International Speedwa Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Developer Donald Trump talks with his former wife Ivana Trump during the men's final at the U.S. Open Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump and his friend Melania Knauss pose for photographers as they arrive at the New York premiere of Star Wars Episode : 'The Phantom Menace,' Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Billionaire real estate developer Donald Trump talks with host Larry King. Trump told King that he was moving toward a possible bid for the United States presidency with the formation of a presidential exploratory committee Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump answers questions as Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura looks on in Brooklyn Park. Trump said on Friday he 'very well might' make a run for president under the Reform Party banner but had not made a final decision Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Billionaire Donald Trump makes a face at a friend as he sits next to Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso before the start of the 2003 Miss Universe pageant in Panama City Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Entrepreneur Donald Trump is greeted by a Marilyn Monroe character look-a-alike, as he arrives at Universal Studios Hollywood to attend the an open casting call for his NBC television network reality series 'The Apprentice.' Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump and Simon Cowell present an Emmy during the 56th annual Primetime Emmy Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump and Megan Mullally perform at the 57th annual Primetime Emmy Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump, poses with his children, son Donald Trump, Jr., and daughters Tiffany and Ivanka Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Billionaire Donald Trump told Miss USA 2006 Tara Conner on Tuesday she would be given a second chance after reported misbehavior Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump holds a replica of his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as his wife Melania holds their son Barron in Los Angeles Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures U.S. property mogul Donald Trump stands next to a bagpiper during a media event on the sand dunes of the Menie estate, the site for Trump's proposed golf resort, near Aberdeen, north east Scotland Reuters It makes sense that the first thing the Republicans would destroy would be the very body that is meant to guard us from... Republicans who are led by a Grabber-in-Chief. A man who doesn't even acknowledge the very idea of ethics, or conflicts of interest, or foreign meddling in our elections, or the need for the public to see his basic tax returns. Moores comments are a direct reference the President-elects leaked tape from 2005 in which Mr Trump could be heard bragging about groping and making unwanted advances on women and boasting he was such a star he could grab women by the p***y. Mr Trump initially dismissed his lewd and sexually aggressive comments as locker room talk but then apologised for the remarks. Moore, who in July correctly predicted Mr Trump would win, detailed the ways the Republicans would steamroll themselves through the floors of the Senate and House before the billionaires inauguration on 20 January. They can't get actual laws enacted until they have a President who can sign them. That's 17 days away, he explained. But what they CAN do is shake up the Congressional committees and change the Congressional rules. The can eliminate Congressional governmental watchdogs and redirect Congressional spending. They can do all that and more, and they won't waste a minute doing it. Moore called upon people to ring the US House of Representatives to voice their anger at the proposed scrapping of the independent ethics office. In a secondary post after Republicans chose to drop the controversial plans, Moore thanked those who had vented their frustrations. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A date has been set for an armed march on a small town in Montana, where neo-Nazis will be protesting against the towns Jewish citizens, their businesses and anyone who supports them, it has been reported. Andrew Anglin, the person behind neo-Nazi site The Daily Stormer and the proposed march, told ABC Fox Montana that the armed demonstration will take place on 15 January, just days before President-elect Trumps inauguration. The neo-Nazi march has been organised in support of white supremacist Richard Spencer and his mother Sherry and against the Jewish community of Whitefish in Montana. Mr Anglin told the news channel he wanted it to coincide with Martin Luther King Day, which will be observed the next day. He has outlined plans to carry high powered rifles on the day and expects around 200 people to take part in the racist demonstration. Montana has extremely liberal open carry laws, so my lawyer is telling me we can easily march through the centre of the town carrying high-powered rifles, he wrote on his anti-Semitic site, adding that he plans to be present on the day. Currently, my guys say we are going to be able to put together about 200 people to participate in the march, which will be against Jews, Jewish businesses and everyone who supports either, he wrote. Richard Spencer is the president and director of the National Policy Institute, a so-called white supremacist think tank. He recently spoke at a rally in Washington DC in which members of the audience were filmed giving Nazi salutes as Mr Spencer shouted Hail Trump! Hail victory! Richard Spencer discouraged the 'troll storm' in the town but made no direct call to Andrew Anglin to stop the march (AP) He is a part time resident of Whitefish, where is mother Sherry runs a business. Ms Spencer alleged in a blog post that a local real estate agent, Tanya Gersh, had threatened national media interest and 200-strong protests outside her business property unless she decided to sell the building and denounce her sons views. Ms Gersh has links to the human rights organisation Love Lives Here in Montana. Love Lives Here has denied threatening Ms Spencer. Taking up the allegations, Mr Anglin began a harassment campaign against the Jewish community of Whitefish and posted contact details and photos of members of Love Lives Here and local businesses that are affiliated with the organisation and Ms Gersh, urging its readers to take part in a mega troll storm. Protestors clash with neo-Nazis in Sacramento Mr Spencer said he does not know Mr Anglin but called him a rational person in a recent YouTube video. He said he is not involved in the march and has previously called it a joke, but has since stated he believes it will not happen. Last week Whitefish police chief Bill Dial told ABC Fox Montana the march would not go ahead. He said he had met with Mr Spencer and both believed it would not take place. But Mr Anglin told the news channel that Mr Spencer is not involved in his decision to hold the march and that the rally will continue as planned unless Ms Spencer receives an apology from the people he believes have wronged her. His statement came a day after Montana senators Jon Tester and Steve Daines, the states Republican Congressman and President-elect Trumps new interior secretary Ryan Zinke, governor Steve Bullock and attorney general Tim Fox, signed a joint letter offering support to the Jewish community of Whitefish and denounced the anti-Semitic language used against people in the town. Rest assured, any demonstration or threat of intimidation against any Montanans religious liberty will not be tolerated, the letter read. We say to those few who seek to publicise anti-Semitic views that they shall find no safe haven here, the Montana Standard reported. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Senior US Republicans are planning legislation that could stop US funding of the United Nations (UN) after the international body voted to condemn Israeli settlement building in the Occupied Territories. The House Freedom Caucus, a group of right-wing congressman, will meet next week to decide between two proposals for the new law. One would reduce American funding of the UN while the other would make funding voluntary and mandate that any contributions must be agreed by Congress every two years. One is an incremental step; the other is really a herculean leap," Mark Meadows, a Republican congressman for North Carolina who chairs the Freedom Caucus, told Buzzfeed. It comes after the UN Security Council unanimously backed a motion condemning the building of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The US has previously vetoed a number of resolutions criticising Israel but the Obama administration decided to abstain on the settlements motion, allowing it to pass by 14 votes to none. A number of Democrats and Republicans have since criticised President Obama for the decision. Mr Meadows said the controversy could help build support for the US to drop its commitments to the UN. Israel is a bipartisan issue so I think that [if the proposal] is measured and appropriate we could pick up a lot of Democrats to support it as well, he said. Nearly a quarter (22 per cent) of the UNs funding comes from the United States, meaning any reductions in contributions made by the incoming Trump Administration would be likely to have a significant effect. Last year the US contributed $594 million (480 million) to the UNs regular budget and an additional $2.3 billion (1.9 billion) to the peacekeeping budget. 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 Senior Republicans in the US Senate also promised to support members of the House of Representatives in attempting to slash US obligations to the UN. Ted Cruz, a Texas senator who ran against Mr Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, said he believed efforts to introduce new laws to this effect would take place very soon. He said: I believe Congress should end US taxpayer funding for the United Nations unless and until the UN reverses this anti-Israel resolution, and I believe there will be considerable support in Congress, I hope in both parties, to do exactly that. Senator Lindsey Graham, another former Trump rival, has previously said he will table a motion to pull US funding for the UN unless the Security Council repeals its motion on Israeli settlements. He told CNN: "If you can't show the American people that international organisations can be more responsible, there is going to be a break. And I am going to lead that break." "I will do everything in my power, working with the new administration and Congress, to leave no doubt about where America stands when it comes to the peace process and where we stand with the only true democracy in the Middle East, Israel," Senator John McCain, a foreign policy specialist who ran against Barack Obama in 2008, said he was all for that when asked about Mr Grahams comments. Im with him every step of the way, he added. Donald Trump has also been critical of the UN. After the settlement motion was passed, he wrote on Twitter: "The United Nations has such great potential but right now it is just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time. So sad! Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Oprah Winfrey has made it clear that speculation she could run for president in 2020 has no basis and she does not plan to throw her hat into the ring. The talk show host, who endorsed Hillary Clintons campaign, previously joked that Donald Trumps success made her feel really qualified to be president but she did not plan to run for office. Since then Michael Moore has suggested the Democrats should run a hugely popular celebrity like Winfrey or Tom Hanks for president. In turn, the Oprah2020 hashtag has gained increasing traction on Twitter. Appearing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Winfrey was asked whether she thought Michelle Obama would run for office - a rumour the First Lady has denied. Never," Winfrey responded. Is there any charismatic African-American woman that both sides of the political aisle really love? Colbert asked, prompting a round of applause from the audience. People news in pictures Show all 18 1 /18 People news in pictures People news in pictures 7 October 2015 Russian President Vladimir Putin takes part in an ice hockey match between former NHL stars and officials at the Shayba Arena in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. Vladimir Putin spent his 63rd birthday on the ice, playing hockey with NHL stars against Russian officials and tycoons EPA People news in pictures 6 October 2015 German designer Karl Lagerfeld (R) and model Cara Delevingne (C) appear at the end of his Spring/Summer 2016 women's ready-to-wear collection for fashion house Chanel at the Grand Palais which is transformed into a Chanel airport during the Fashion Week in Paris, France Reuters People news in pictures 5 October 2015 Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne addresses the Conservative party conference in Manchester. The Chancellor argued that reducing the payments to people in low paid jobs would give them economic security by reducing the Governments spending deficit Getty Images People news in pictures 4 October 2015 Cowboys captain Johnathan Thurston takes a moment in the centre of the field with his daughter Frankie Thurston, holding dark-skinned doll, after winning the 2015 NRL Grand Final match between the Brisbane Broncos and the North Queensland Cowboys at ANZ Stadium in Sydney. The image quickly became the talking point of Australias National Rugby League Final and provoked a strong reaction on social media, with many praising Thurston for giving his child a toy that promotes inclusiveness and diversity Getty Images People news in pictures 3 October 2015 Pope Francis gives a thumbs-up as he greets people at the end of an audience to the participants of a meeting organized by the "Food Bank" at the Paul VI audience hall in Vatican Getty Images People news in pictures 2 October 2015 Britain's Finance Minister George Osborne (L) throws an American football as he meets with former American football players Dan Marino (2nd R) and Curtis Martin (not pictured) at 11 Downing Street in London, ahead of the New York Jets playing against the Miami Dolphins at London's Wembley Stadium on 4 October Getty Images People news in pictures 1 October 2015 An honor guard opens the door as Russian President Vladimir Putin enters a hall to attend a meeting with members of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia People news in pictures 30 September 2015 Former Mrs America Lisa Christie, who alleges misconduct by Bill Cosby, holds up photos of her younger self during a news conference at the law office of attorney Gloria Allred in Los Angeles People news in pictures 29 September 2015 Matt Damon has defended himself against claims that he instructed gay actors to remain in the closet. He had said I think youre a better actor the less people know about you and sexuality is a huge part of that. Whether youre straight or gay, people shouldnt know anything about your sexuality but an appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres show said, I was just trying to say actors are more effective when theyre a mystery. Right? Getty People news in pictures 29 September 2015 Actor Marion Cotillard has said that there is no place for feminism in Hollywood. Speaking to Porter magazine, she saidFilm-making is not about gender/ You cannot ask a president in a festival like Cannes to have, like, five movies directed by women and five by men. For me it doesnt create equality, it creates separation. I mean, I dont qualify myself as a feminist." Getty People news in pictures 29 September 2015 Actor Paul Walkers daughter, Meadow, is suing Porsche over her fathers death in a lawsuit that claims he was trapped in the burning car because of design flaws and the seat belt. The Fast and Furious star was killed when the Porsche Carrera GT he was a passenger in hit a pole in California in 2013. The driver, his friend Roger Rodas, also died when the vehicle burst into flames. AP People news in pictures 28 September 2015 Robert Mugabe waits to address the United Nations General Assembly. The leader of Zimbabwe reportedly exclaimed 'We are not gay!' as he criticised Western nation's "double standards and attempts to prescribe new rights that are contrary to our values, norms, traditions and beliefs. In 2013 he described homosexuals as worse than pigs, goats and birds. Reuters People news in pictures 28 September 2015 South African comedian Trevor Noah hosts the first 'Daily Show' since taking over from Jon Stewart as host. Stewart had presented the US satirical news show since 1999 and was described by Noah during the show as a 'Political father' 2015 Getty Images People news in pictures 25 September 2015 Sir Elton John may have received a phone call from the real Vladimir Putin. Mr Putin's spokesman announced he had made contact weeks after the singer was duped by pranksters pretending to be the Russian President. Getty People news in pictures 25 September 2015 Actor Leonardo DiCaprio was mistakenly declared as the artist who produced the Mona Lisa by Fox News anchor Shepard Smith. It was in fact Leonardo da Vinci. People news in pictures 24 September 2015 A new biography claims Donald Trump expected to be dead by 40 and never marry. The Guardian says the a new book also claims that in 1980, Mr Trump manufactured a fake vice-president of his real estate conglomerate, whom he called John Baron. People news in pictures 24 September 2015 The Dalai Lama has said that Britain's policy towards China is just about 'Money, money, money.' And asked 'Where is morality?' People news in pictures 24 September 2015 Puff Daddy secured the number-one spot on the Forbes Hip Hop Cash Kings list, with the publication calculating he made an estimated $60million (39m) between June 2014 and June 2015. Never! Winfrey exclaimed repeatedly. No, its not my thing. Winfrey reflected on the extensive interview she did with Ms Obama at the end of last month, saying it had been bittersweet . The thing I said to her that I'm really going to miss is just the presence there," she said. For me, you know, African-American woman, being able to see that reflection of myself through the girls and through her, just their presence there, Im going to miss that. But it has meant so much to me. Winfrey was a supporter of Ms Clinton and insisted she had no plans of joining the billionaire property developer as his running mate back in June, saying Donald, Im with her! and arguing her candidacy was a pivotal moment for women. Winfrey is a significant influencer in the US and one estimate predicted that her endorsement of Mr Obama between 2006 and 2008 delivered over a million votes in the 2008 Democratic primary race. China's largest freshwater lake shrinks due to drought. (Photo : YouTube) Poyang, China's largest freshwater lake, is facing serious threat as it shrinks from drought. As time runs out, no consensus has been made on how to save it. During the wet season, the freshwater lake can expand to about three times the size of the U.S. state of Los Angeles. Home to the several critically endangered species such as the rare Yangtze finless porpoise and serving as a refuge for migratory birds such as endangered Siberian crane, Poyang plays an important role in the survival of these species. Advertisement But with the continuing threat of global warming, Poyang is now struggling to survive. In the recent years, the average expanse of the lake has been in decline, and winter water levels have been sharply decreasing. Mining and the construction of the Three Gorges Dam have also been pointed as possible causes for the lake's decline. Despite being pointed as one of the culprits of the crime, China's Three Gorges Dam is planning to discharge more water to the downstream Poyang. According to them, they will "take full advantage of its reserves from the flood season and gradually increase its compensation standard to downstream rivers during the dry season to alleviate the dam's impact on Poyang Lake and Dongting Lake Regions." Meanwhile, the local government is proposing its own solution. It plans to build a 10,000-foot sluice gate across the natural channel that connects Poyang and Yangtze, which according to the government would keep more water inside the lake during winter. Aside from alleviating the effects of the drought, the government's report said that the sluice gate would help stabilize the drinking water supply and promote shipping on the lake. Costing an estimated $1.9 billion, the Poyang Lake Water Conservancy Project has faced criticism from environmental activists and scientific experts, claiming that the project might further aggravate the destruction of the environment. With time running out, it is important that the government, scientific community and other concerned parties come up with short and long-term solutions that shall help save China's largest freshwater lake for the future generations. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} US intelligence officials have told Congress that Russia is a full-scope actor that poses a major threat to the United States, as President-elect Donald Trump continues to cast doubt on their conclusion that the Kremlin hacked the Democratic Party to try to influence the presidential election. Top officials appeared on Capitol Hill on Thursday morning before the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Foreign Cyber Threats to the United States, chaired by Sen John McCain. Mr Trump has been critical of the intelligence communitys assessment since it became public in December. In fact, he aligned himself with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who published the contents of the Democratic National Committee hack, followed by emails from Clinton campaign chair John Podesta in the final months of the election. Recommended Donald Trump uses Twitter to cast doubt on US intelligence agencies Russia is a full-scope cyber actor that poses a major threat to US government, military, diplomatic, commercial, and critical infrastructure, US intelligence chiefs said in a joint statement. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper expanded on the scope of the multifaceted campaign against the US by Russia. He later added that there were multiple motives for the cyber-attack. The hacking was only one part of it, he said. It also entailed classical propaganda, disinformation and fake news. Mr Clapper added: We have no way of gauging the impact ... it had on the choices the American electorate made. Whether or not that constitutes an act of war is a very heavy policy call that I dont believe the intelligence community should make. Officials are expected to release a declassified report of their findings to the public on Monday. Mr Obama ordered the full report last month for delivery before he leaves office on 20 January. The hearing comes a week after President Barack Obama announced sanctions on two Russian intelligence agencies and expelled 35 Russian diplomats. Trump's advisor suggests Obama's sanctions against Russia are to 'box in' the incoming President According to Mr Clapper, the sanctions were a consensus inter-agency view. The hearing marks an ongoing rift between Mr Trump and intelligence officials, whom he has attempted to discredit via Twitter since the December assessment alleging Russias involvement in the election hacks. He watered down some of his criticism of the agencies on Thursday morning, however, asserting that he is a big fan of intelligence. James Clapper listens to questions on Capitol Hill, while testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing (AP) Mr Assange has accused the Obama administration of attempting to delegitimise Mr Trump ahead of the inauguration. They are trying to say that President-elect Trump is not a legitimate President, Mr Assange told Fox News on Tuesday. During the interview, he denied Russias involvement in their obtaining the hacked documents. We can say, we have said, repeatedly that over the last two months that our source is not the Russian government and it is not a state party, he said. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A man has been banned from Starbucks for giving a 16-year-old barista a note so "creepy" that staff felt compelled to call the police. The 37-year-old later claimed on Facebook that the incident was an example of "age discrimination" and asked people to complain to the company on his behalf. But the coffee chain has instead been inundated with messages of support from members of the public. The man claimed the teenage girl said he was "funny" and that she liked him, so he "wrote her a nice note" asking her out to dinner. But he said the next day a police officer intercepted him as he tried to enter the cafe in Spokane, Washington, and told him he was banned because of his creepy letter. I know the female Starbucks barista was of legal age to date. I broke no laws. I merely took a chance with my heart, he said, in his re-telling of the incident, in which he likened being described as a creep to a racial or homophobic slur. I have a whole webpage dedicated to age gap love, he said in the post, adding in another message that he had not had a girlfriend for five years. The content of the note has not been shared online, but the man's Facebook wall reveals an obsession with dating extremely young women in their teens and early twenties, backed up by sometimes absurd and incoherent theories about enzymes, DNA, and reproduction. UK Uncut stages Starbucks protests over coffee chain's tax affairs Show all 3 1 /3 UK Uncut stages Starbucks protests over coffee chain's tax affairs UK Uncut stages Starbucks protests over coffee chain's tax affairs StarBucksGETTY.jpg Getty Images UK Uncut stages Starbucks protests over coffee chain's tax affairs starbucks2-getty.jpg Getty Images UK Uncut stages Starbucks protests over coffee chain's tax affairs starbucks-getty.jpg Getty Images I want to date 18 year old women, to be honest, he said, describing them as the best looking, most intelligent, sultry and insisting that his desire was supported by science. He ended the strange post with what is believed to be an echo of his letter to the barista: Dinner with me at Red Robin." It was signed off with: "And if not, Happy Holidays, bigots. The man called on supporters to contact the store to protest his treatment. However the coffee shop's Facebook page shows that hundreds of people did the exact opposite and got in touch to post messages of support for the staff and company, in addition to leaving five star reviews of the store. Thank you for standing up for your young employee who was approached romantically by an older man, one woman wrote. As a mom of two teen girls, I applaud a business for standing up for their employees when they feel violated or uncomfortable. I remember when I was a young and being friendly and kind to all customers and there were always a few creeps who thought I was flirting and were very inappropriate to me and my employers said to take it as a compliment. Gross. So proud of your stand Starbucks! 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 Another person said: Thank you so much for protecting your employees. Women are forced to deal with harassment on a daily basis and usually just have to take it when working in a service industry. A former teenage waitress added: High five for protecting an employee. I wish the company I worked for as a teen had protected me the way you protected them. A Starbucks spokesman said the company supported the shop's handling of the situation. We have no tolerance for any such inappropriate behaviour or harassment, and we will continue to support our store partners and local authorities investigating the situation, he said. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Theresa May will visit Donald Trump in spring this year following preparatory December meetings between key staff from Downing Street and the United States president-elect's team, a Number 10 source said. The Prime Minister's joint chiefs of staff Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill travelled to the US last month to build links with Mr Trump's team. The mission was part of Mrs May's efforts to build a relationship with the controversial tycoon ahead of his inauguration on 20 January. The source said: "This was part of a process leading towards the PM's first visit with President-elect Trump. "During the second phone call with President-elect Trump, the Prime Minister suggested it would be a good idea for key staff from both teams to meet. President-elect Trump agreed this would be useful. "We are pleased to have been able to make that happen and the Prime Minister looks forward to visiting the new president in the spring." Early last month Mrs May praised Mr Trump as "very easy to talk to", despite having criticised him during the US elections. Donald Trump's inauguration: All you need to know The Prime Ministers compliment formed part of her drive to build relations with the new administration, after a rocky start in which she and other senior Tories tried to move on from previous derogatory comments. Speaking during a visit to Bahrain, Ms May said: "He is somebody who very much values the relationship he has with the UK." During his campaign, when Mr Trump called for a ban on Muslims entering the US and claimed parts of London were no-go areas for the police, Ms May as Home Secretary said: "I just think it shows he does not understand the UK." Additional reporting by agencies Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Toyota shares plummeted within minutes of a negative tweet from the president-elect, causing the company to lose around $1.2 billion in value. The car company tanked on the stock market within five minutes of Donald Trump vowing to stop the firm from moving to Baja California in Mexico, where it already has a plant. Mr Trump was confused about the location of the new plant. Toyota had first announced plans for a new plant in Mexico in April 2015 - but in Guanajuato city. Bernie Sanders brings giant cardboard print out of Donald Trump tweet to Senate Mr Trump was seemingly responding to comments made by Toyota Motor president Akio Toyoda at an auto industry event that the company was still forging ahead with plans to up production in Mexico. "We will consider our option as we see what policies the incoming president adopts," he said. Honda president and CEO Takahiro Hachigo added: "We produce cars in Mexico for markets including North America and Europe and we have no immediate plan to change this." Mr Trump responded there was "no way" the move was going to happen. "Build plant in US or pay big border tax!" he tweeted. Mr Trump sent the tweet at 1.14pm ET, and within minutes the share price of the $200 billion market capitalisation company plummeted. Shortly before New York stock markets closed on Thursday, the share price had not recovered and were down from pre-tweet by 0.5 per cent. (Google Finance (Google Finance) The Baja California plant makes about 100,000 pickup trucks per year, but the company wants to raise this number to around 160,000. The proposed $1 billion plant in Guanajuato would shift production of the compact Corollas from Canada and make about 200,000 per year. The drop in shares, which are likely to rebound after the immediate shock has worn off, is not the first time Mr Trump's tweets have played havoc with company values. Airplane manufacturer Boeing lost $1bn off its share value shortly after Mr Trump tweeted that the company's government contract costs were "out of control" at $4 billion. A Boeing spokesman quickly refuted the claim, saying the contract to build the new Air Force One planes was only worth $170 million. Mr Trump has been criticised within the last month for taking sole credit for "saving jobs" at air conditioner manufacturing firm Carrier, when he only saved around half the jobs from moving to Mexico. Chuck Jones, the trade union boss that represents the plant, said Mr Trump "lied his a** off" about saving 1,100 jobs. He also claimed he had saved workers at car maker Ford from moving to Mexico, but Ford CEO Mark Fields said the firm had only planned to move one manufacturing line and the decision had to do with market conditions. Mr Trump also targeted General Motors in January, tweeting that they would pay a "border tax" if they continued to import cars to the US from Mexico. General Motors only imports hatchback versions of the Cruze car from Mexico and makes the majority of its vehicles in Ohio. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A declassified version of the US intelligence report on Russian hacking during the election will reportedly be released to the public on Monday. There will be three versions of the report: one which is public, another which is classified and a third which is said to be "highly compartmented", a US official told NPR. The three versions exist to protect the most sensitive intelligence by restricting the number of people who have access to it, the official added. Barack Obama: US will act on election hacking by Russia A full report into Russian election interference was ordered by President Barack Obama last month. US intelligence agencies have obtained what they consider to be conclusive evidence Russia provided hacked material from the Democratic National Committee to WikiLeaks through a third party during the November election , three US officials told Reuters. 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 Russia not only meddled in the election, but did so to help Mr Trump win, according to the intelligence agencies' assessment. But the administration has so far released only limited information to support that conclusion. In the absence of such public evidence, the President-elect has capitalised on some Americans' scepticism of US intelligence in general, citing high-profile missteps that led to the Iraq war. Mr Trump is to be briefed on the hacking report on Friday by CIA Director John Brennan, FBI Director James Comey and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. Last week, Mr Obama expelled 35 Russian diplomats as part of a raft of new sanctions. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} It is two weeks until Donald Trump will be sworn in as President of the United States but a removals van has already been spotted outside the White House. Barack Obama is preparing to leave after eight years as president, though he has said he will continue to live in Washington DC until his youngest daughter, Sasha, finishes high school. CNN reporter Michelle Kosinski snapped the white-and-blue Moving Masters van in West Executive Avenue, a street inside the White House grounds, as members of the administration began to move in preparation for Mr Trump's arrival. The van was outside the Eisenhower Executive Offices Building, next to the West Wing, which houses most of the White House staff offices. Before he departs Mr Obama is reportedly planning one final blow-out at America's most famous residence. He and First Lady Michelle Obama will host what they have described as a last "grown up" party for close friends and major donors on Friday (6 January). Those who are said to have accepted invitations include Beyonce, Jay-Z, Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen and Star Wars directors George Lucas and JJ Abrams. Donald Trump's inauguration: All you need to know Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage, who was famously the first UK politician to meet with Mr Trump after his victory in November, is due to attend his inauguration ceremony on 20 January. He will be the guest of Mississippi governor Phil Bryant. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A Chinese sword removed from its scabbard for the first time in more than 2,000 years was so well-preserved it was still shiny. Archaeologists discovered the ancient weapon, believed to be around 2,300 years old, in a tomb among the ruins of Chengyang City in central China. When they unsheathed the large blade from its muddied cover, they found it had not oxidised but was still sharp, shiny and in near-perfect condition. Pictures of the sword were shared by the Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology on Chinese social network Weibo (Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology) The team from Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology posted pictures and a video of the sword on Chinese social network Weibo. The artefact is believed to be from Chinas Warring States period, from around 475 to 221 BC, when the Zhou Dynasty region was divided between eight states which often saw fierce fighting. The sword, which had been buried inside a wooden coffin next to its owner, had been preserved because ancient tombs in the area are usually humid and sealed off from the outside, team leader Wu Zhijiang told the Daily Mail. The video clip, taken last week after the sword was discovered on 30 December, has been widely shared online and broadcast by Chinese media. In a Weibo post, the archaeologists said they hoped those reading would find 2017 as radiant and invincible as the glittering sword. Glass-floored skywalk circling China's Tianmen Mountain Show all 6 1 /6 Glass-floored skywalk circling China's Tianmen Mountain Glass-floored skywalk circling China's Tianmen Mountain Tourists walk on the 100-meter-long and 1.6-meter-wide glass skywalk clung the cliff of Tianmen Mountain (or Tianmenshan Mountain) in Zhangjiajie National Forest Park Getty Images Glass-floored skywalk circling China's Tianmen Mountain An aerial view of tourists walking on a glass-bottomed skywalk on the Panlong (coiling dragon) Cliff on Tianmen Mountain in Zhangjiajie, Hunan Province, China Getty Images Glass-floored skywalk circling China's Tianmen Mountain Tourists walk on the 100-meter-long and 1.6-meter-wide glass skywalk clung the cliff of Tianmen Mountain Getty Images Glass-floored skywalk circling China's Tianmen Mountain The 100-metre-long walk gives a clear view of the deep valley behind and is the third glass walkway in the scenic zone EPA Glass-floored skywalk circling China's Tianmen Mountain Tourist takes selfies on a glass-bottomed skywalk on the Panlong (coiling dragon) Cliff on Tianmen Mountain in Zhangjiajie, Hunan Province, China EPA Glass-floored skywalk circling China's Tianmen Mountain The Coiling Dragon Cliff skywalk, featuring a total of 99 road turns, layers after another, is the third glass skywalk on the Tianmen Mountain EPA The owner of the tomb in the city in the ancient Chu kingdom, located 25km north of Xinyang city in Henan Province, has not yet been identified. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Images have emerged of the body of a baby boy, reported to be a Rohingya Muslim child who drowned while fleeing violence in Burmas Rakhine state. Non-state media are banned from entering the north of Burma making it difficult to verify the the photograph and the government has dismissed the image as propaganda. Despite documented evidence by human rights organisations, Burmese authorities on Wednesday released a report denying allegations of human rights violations against the countrys Rohingya minority and warning readers against believing fabricated news and rumours. Critics have drawn parallels between the photograph of the toddler and that of drowned Syrian refugee Alan Kurdi, whose death in 2015 prompted an outpouring of outrage and sympathy from the international community. The baby in the recent photograph is purported to be Mohammed Shohayet, a 16-month-old who attempted to flee to Bangladesh to escape Burmas military, with soldiers allegedly searching for and shooting Rohingyas. When I see the picture, I feel like I would rather die, Zafor Alam, who claimed to be Mohammeds father, told CNN. There is no point in me living in this world. Burma's Rohingya Muslims: Aung San Suu Kyi's blind spot Show all 2 1 /2 Burma's Rohingya Muslims: Aung San Suu Kyi's blind spot Burma's Rohingya Muslims: Aung San Suu Kyi's blind spot lady-reu.jpg Reuters Burma's Rohingya Muslims: Aung San Suu Kyi's blind spot lady2-reu.jpg Reuters Mr Alam told the broadcaster Burmese soldiers had opened fire on his family in the Rakhine region, and his village had been razed to the ground. He said his grandparents had been burned to death. His account aligns with satellite imagery from the state, which has previously revealed hundreds of buildings across multiple villages in the northern state have been burned to the ground. But Burmese government officials deny that they are responsible for the attacks on the district, and have alleged that the Rohingya are burning down their own houses. Rohingya Muslims fleeing Burma recall the horrors they left In response to the destruction of their homes, many Rohingya make the hazardous journey to Bangladesh, and thousands are thought to have drowned at sea or in rivers. Mr Alam said his son had died after too many refugees boarded the boat he was travelling on across the Naf river to Bangladesh, causing it to sink. The image of Mohammed, reportedly captured with a camera on a mobile phone after he drowned, comes as state-media have warned that fake news images are being shared by the Rohingya press. Yet the government has been accused of attempting to discredit real reporting by making fake news claims. In Facebook posts, the government has shared images of atrocities in other countries, or even from Hollywood films, and claimed they are being passed off as images of brutality against the Rohingya. The recent surge in violence was triggered by the killings of nine police officers at border posts on 9 October in Rakhine. Several government officials blamed a militant Rohingya group for the attacks, which prompted security forces to launch a counter-insurgency operation. Rohingya women in the Rakhine state have in recent months alleged that Burmese soldiers raped and sexually assaulted them at gunpoint. In November, a senior UN official John McKissick said the security forces were striving towards the ultimate goal of ethnic cleansing of the Muslim minority in Myanmar. There has been disappointment that Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, whose party took power this year from the military, has failed to ease or even acknowledge the suffering of the Rohingya. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Four dolphins have escaped from an aquatic zoo resort in Japan, near to where dozens are killed during annual hunts. The creatures were able to swim away after the nets separating their pens from the ocean were slashed open at the DolphinBase centre in Taiji. Staff from the park said the animals were between three and five years old, and had been trained in small enclosed pools along the coastline. Taiji 'cove' dolphin hunt Every year fishermen from Taiji shepherd scores of dolphins into secluded bays and slaughter them for sport, a practice that has been widely condemned by activists around the world. At DolphinBase captured dolphins are exhibited in hourly shows, and tourists are invited to swim and interact with them. Staff said it was likely campaigners had cut the nets to free the dolphins. Annual dolphin hunt in Taiji, Japan Show all 15 1 /15 Annual dolphin hunt in Taiji, Japan Annual dolphin hunt in Taiji, Japan The annual dolphin hunt in Taiji, Japan A bottlenose dolphin was seen floating on back before slaughter Annual dolphin hunt in Taiji, Japan The annual dolphin hunt in Taiji, Japan Fishermen hiding their culture and tradition Annual dolphin hunt in Taiji, Japan The annual dolphin hunt in Taiji, Japan Remaining pod swims just a few feet from the slaughter of their family Annual dolphin hunt in Taiji, Japan The annual dolphin hunt in Taiji, Japan Dolphin drive out to sea Annual dolphin hunt in Taiji, Japan The annual dolphin hunt in Taiji, Japan Lathered in blood, fishermen receive more transfers of dolphin carcasses Annual dolphin hunt in Taiji, Japan The annual dolphin hunt in Taiji, Japan Fishermen enter the cove just after sunrise Annual dolphin hunt in Taiji, Japan The annual dolphin hunt in Taiji, Japan A juvenile Bottlenose barely surfaces during drive out. The chances of survival are slim after 5 tormenting days in the cove Annual dolphin hunt in Taiji, Japan The annual dolphin hunt in Taiji, Japan Cove Guardians Jac and Ian document the slaughter Annual dolphin hunt in Taiji, Japan The annual dolphin hunt in Taiji, Japan SSCS Cove Guardian Leader Melissa Sehgal interviews for CNN Annual dolphin hunt in Taiji, Japan The annual dolphin hunt in Taiji, Japan Fishermen in wetsuits hunt dolphins at a cove in Taiji, western Japan; U.S. ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy has expressed deep concern over the traditional dolphin hunt. Local fisherman corral dolphins in a secluded bay before killing many for meat Adrian Mylne/Reuters Annual dolphin hunt in Taiji, Japan The annual dolphin hunt in Taiji, Japan The selection process of dolphins, during the annual dolphin hunt in Taiji. With 250 dolphins, this was the largest round-up in years Annual dolphin hunt in Taiji, Japan The annual dolphin hunt in Taiji, Japan The agitated dolphins in the cove during the selection process. According to Sea Shepherd, Japanese fisherman rounded up more than 250 dolphins, including babies and juveniles Annual dolphin hunt in Taiji, Japan The annual dolphin hunt in Taiji, Japan Japanese fisherman are shown in the cove. Taiji town claims the hunt is an important ritual dating back centuries Annual dolphin hunt in Taiji, Japan The annual dolphin hunt in Taiji, Japan A rare albino calf swims close to his/her mother as the pod was herded into the cove. Dolphins captured in the cove are either sold into captivity, or slaughtered and sold for consumption, despite pleas from animal conservationists around the world against the event Sea Shepherd/EPA Annual dolphin hunt in Taiji, Japan The annual dolphin hunt in Taiji, Japan The process of selecting dolphins during the annual cull, which the mayor of the town defends 'on scientific grounds' We are enraged by this heinous act which can easily lead to the dolphins dying, the centre said in a blog post. It was a very optimistic, selfish and irresponsible act by someone without any knowledge, and we feel it risks the lives of these dolphins in a real way. Since their escape, three of the four dolphins have been returned to their pens. A spokesperson from Taiji Police said an investigation had been launched to find out who cut the nets. The annual dolphin hunt first gained global attention in 2009 when it became the subject of the documentary The Cove, which won an Oscar the following year. In December, activist group Ric OBarrys Dolphin Project reported that dolphins held in narrow show tanks at the nearby Taiji Whale Museum had started violently attacking each other in frustration at being kept in captivity. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} South Korea has appointed an official from its Ministry of Foreign Affairs to monitor President-elect Donald Trumps Twitter account. The countrys North American Affairs Bureau will now be closely screening the Republican leaders posts, with special attention given to tweets relating to Korea and northeast Asia, according to the JoongAng Daily. It comes after the real-estate mogul directed a series of inflammatory tweets at China and North Korea, in a break from historic foreign policy protocol. On Monday, Mr Trump posted on Twitter: North Korea just stated that it is in the final stages of developing a nuclear weapon capable of reaching parts of the U.S. It wont happen! Later that day, he took aim at China, writing: China has been taking out massive amounts of money & wealth from the U.S. in totally one-sided trade, but wont help with North Korea. Nice! In response, Chinas Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said: "China's efforts are widely recognised, and we hope all sides will avoid remarks and actions to escalate the situation. As of Thursday, the North Korea post had been retweeted over 25,000 times and received over 90,000 likes. The posts drew scepticism from the international community, with some security analysts criticising his approach to North Koreas nuclear advancement as ineffective. However, South Koreas Ministry of Foreign Affairs praised Mr Trumps stance and said it issued a clear warning to North Korea. President-elect Trumps Twitter message is his first time explicitly mentioning the North Korea nuclear issue since he was elected, which makes it significant and can be interpreted as a clear warning about Kim Jong-uns New Year address on ICBM and the possibility of provocations, said South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho June-hyuck. Recommended Donald Trump has done something completely unprecedented Chinese state media lashed out at the US following the tweets, calling the country just a shooting star in the ample sky of history, warning Mr Trump not to boss China around on economic and security issues. The Global Times newspaper, backed by the ruling Communist Party, took the strong line on Wednesday, shortly after the President-elect announced the appointment of a second outspoken critic of China to his trade team. Robert Lighthizer, who has condemned the east Asian country for failing to abide by international trade agreements in the past, will be Americas next chief trade negotiator. Vigil in Beijing after the Orlando shooting (Photo : Getty Images) A Chinese transgender man has won a landmark case against his unfair dismissal from his work at a medical clinic. However, some call the outcome as only a "limited victory." Considered as China's first case involving transgender discrimination in the workplace, the court ruled in favor of the plaintiff after being illegally dismissed from work. Advertisement The man, who is identified in the state media as Mr. C, was fired after his one-week probation at the Ciming Health Checkup Center in Guiyang. He brought the case to court after his complaint was dismissed at the labor tribunal. The Guizhou court awarded him with a month's wages. But despite the favorable outcome, this could only be considered as a limited victory for Mr. C's lawyers and the Chinese LGBT community as well. While the court has ruled that he was illegally fired, it also said that there was no proof that Mr. C was dismissed because of his sexual orientation. Because of this, the court did not grant his demand for a written apology from the company. According to Huang Sha, one of Mr. C's lawyers, the case highlights the problem of "invisible discrimination" because employers can always claim that they fired people for reasons other than the one they're accused of. But for Mr. C, filing the lawsuit was never about the compensation. He said that pursuing the case in court was about dignity, raising the awareness of the transgender and sexual minorities, and to call for an anti-discrimination legislation. He believes that his case might spark some initiatives and renewed efforts for an anti-discrimination legislation to protect people like him. When it comes to matters involving the LGBT community, China is still deeply conservative. Despite having a long way to go, the efforts of Mr. C and other members of the Chinese LGBT community will surely come a long way to end discrimination not only in China but for the rest of the world as well. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} South Korea says it has established a military unit to decapitate Kim Jong-un and other senior Communist officials in the North in the event of war. The special forces team, designed to paralyse North Korea's wartime command if a conflict erupts with the South, is being rushed through two years ahead of schedule amid heightened tensions on the peninsula. Seouls defence ministry confirmed that the unit will be launched later this year. It was originally planned to be ready by 2019. Included in the Souths plans is a "Korea Massive Punishment and Retaliation" system that would use special forces and cruise missiles to wipe out areas where North Korean leader Mr Kim and the rest of the country's decision-makers are located. North Korea claims success in fifth and biggest nuclear test North and South Korea are still technically at war as they signed an armistice but not a treaty following the end of the Korean War in 1953. The agreement created a two-mile-wide demilitarised zone or DMZ as a buffer between the borders of the two countries. The US has said it believes North Korea is pressing ahead with the development of nuclear and ballistic missile technologies. In a New Years Day address, Mr Kim said the North was close to test-launching an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), raising the prospect of putting parts of the US within range of a strike. The North Korean leader said: We are in the final stages of test-launching the intercontinental ballistic missile. North Korea is a military power of the East that cannot be touched by even the strongest enemy. Inside the daily life in North Korea Show all 19 1 /19 Inside the daily life in North Korea Inside the daily life in North Korea People reading a newspaper at the metro station Inside the daily life in North Korea Thoughts of the leaders on the tram. They have about a dozen of these on every tram, all with different thoughts Inside the daily life in North Korea Young people training for a big upcoming festival Inside the daily life in North Korea People at the Pyongyang's annual marathon Inside the daily life in North Korea Many stars on one of the trolleys in Pyongyang Inside the daily life in North Korea An intimidating poster in a primary school in North Korea. Inside the daily life in North Korea Solar panels installed on a street lamp. Inside the daily life in North Korea A poster on the window next to one of the venues we visited in Pyongyang Inside the daily life in North Korea Kids playing football next to the Arch of Triumph. After a while tourists were allowed to join, so some of us did Inside the daily life in North Korea Class in an educational center in Pyongyang (where people over 17 years old can attend any classes they choose after school, for free) Inside the daily life in North Korea People waving at me during the Pyongyang marathon Inside the daily life in North Korea People having a great time dancing at a public park Inside the daily life in North Korea A metro driver in a metro station in Pyongyang Inside the daily life in North Korea Fireworks to mark the birthday of the Eternal President Kim Il Sung on our last night in Pyongyang Inside the daily life in North Korea My wonderful tour guide at a public park Inside the daily life in North Korea One of the parks in Pyongyang Inside the daily life in North Korea A person rowing some boats for the day at a river in Pyongyang Inside the daily life in North Korea The National War Museum Inside the daily life in North Korea Public park in Pyongyang North Korea conducted two nuclear tests and a number of rocket test firings last year in an attempt to expand its nuclear weapons and missile program. But Pyongyang has never successfully test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). North Korea has its own decapitation units set up to eliminate senior members of the Souths government and military. Mr Kim said during a visit to one of the special operations units in November that they were ready to stab the enemy hearts with sharp daggers and break their backs. Chang Yong-seok, a researcher at Seoul National University's Institute for Peace and Unification Studies, said the creation of "decapitation units" on both sides of the border was the result of an arms race. He told South Korean news agency Yonhap: North Korea seemed to be advertising its special military unit in response to (what it called Seoul and Washington's) move to hit the North's leadership. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The British Government was warned the Chinese People's Liberation Army were preparing to kill hundreds of student protesters in Tiananmen Square two weeks before the massacre took place, recently declassified documents suggest. A secret diplomatic cable, recently declassified by the National Archives, showed Britain's envoy to Beijing had warned officials in London of the potential "bloodshed". "The Chinese government has decided that there is no way to avoid bloodshed," Sir Alan Ewen Donald wrote on 20 May, 1989. The secret diplomatic cable was recently declassified by the National Archives Communist leader Deng Xiaoping declared martial law on the same day and mobilised up to 300,000 troops to Beijing. Sir Donald also included information from his lunch with American sinologist Stuart Schram, who said his Chinese contacts had reported Mr Deng saying: "Two hundred dead would bring 20 years of peace to China." Dissidents barred from marking Tiananmen anniversary The diplomat added: "The implication clearly was that the sacrifice of a number of demonstrators lives now would stabilise the present situation and buy the time needed to complete the reform of China." He also cited US embassy intelligence suggesting the Chinese government had recalled all hospital workers and instructed the military to "do what is necessary to put down the situation". Dying for democracy: Tiananmen Square, remembered Show all 29 1 /29 Dying for democracy: Tiananmen Square, remembered Dying for democracy: Tiananmen Square, remembered 179927.bin Getty Images Dying for democracy: Tiananmen Square, remembered 179285.bin REUTERS/Str Old Dying for democracy: Tiananmen Square, remembered 179286.bin CATHERINE HENRIETTE/AFP/Getty Images Dying for democracy: Tiananmen Square, remembered 179287.bin CATHERINE HENRIETTE/AFP/Getty Images Dying for democracy: Tiananmen Square, remembered 179275.bin CATHERINE HENRIETTE/AFP/Getty Images Dying for democracy: Tiananmen Square, remembered 179276.bin CATHERINE HENRIETTE/AFP/Getty Images Dying for democracy: Tiananmen Square, remembered 179277.bin CATHERINE HENRIETTE/AFP/Getty Images Dying for democracy: Tiananmen Square, remembered 179274.bin CATHERINE HENRIETTE/AFP/Getty Images Dying for democracy: Tiananmen Square, remembered 179281.bin CATHERINE HENRIETTE/AFP/Getty Images Dying for democracy: Tiananmen Square, remembered 179279.bin CATHERINE HENRIETTE/AFP/Getty Images Dying for democracy: Tiananmen Square, remembered 179330.bin CATHERINE HENRIETTE/AFP/Getty Images Dying for democracy: Tiananmen Square, remembered 179282.bin CATHERINE HENRIETTE/AFP/Getty Images Dying for democracy: Tiananmen Square, remembered 179280.bin CATHERINE HENRIETTE/AFP/Getty Images Dying for democracy: Tiananmen Square, remembered 179336.bin CATHERINE HENRIETTE/AFP/Getty Images Dying for democracy: Tiananmen Square, remembered 179338.bin CATHERINE HENRIETTE/AFP/Getty Images Dying for democracy: Tiananmen Square, remembered 179340.bin CATHERINE HENRIETTE/AFP/Getty Images Dying for democracy: Tiananmen Square, remembered 179367.bin CATHERINE HENRIETTE/AFP/Getty Images Dying for democracy: Tiananmen Square, remembered 179360.bin CATHERINE HENRIETTE/AFP/Getty Images Dying for democracy: Tiananmen Square, remembered 179342.bin CATHERINE HENRIETTE/AFP/Getty Images Dying for democracy: Tiananmen Square, remembered 179343.bin CATHERINE HENRIETTE/AFP/Getty Images Dying for democracy: Tiananmen Square, remembered 179347.bin MANUEL CENETA/AFP/Getty Images Dying for democracy: Tiananmen Square, remembered 179349.bin MANUEL CENETA/AFP/Getty Images Dying for democracy: Tiananmen Square, remembered 179341.bin ATHERINE HENRIETTE/AFP/Getty Images Dying for democracy: Tiananmen Square, remembered 179353.bin THOMAS CHENG/AFP/Getty Images Dying for democracy: Tiananmen Square, remembered 179354.bin MANUEL CENETA/AFP/Getty Images Dying for democracy: Tiananmen Square, remembered 179357.bin MANUEL CENETA/AFP/Getty Images Dying for democracy: Tiananmen Square, remembered 179359.bin MANUEL CENETA/AFP/Getty Images Dying for democracy: Tiananmen Square, remembered 179319.bin MANUEL CENETA/AFP/Getty Images Dying for democracy: Tiananmen Square, remembered 179284.bin REUTERS/Str Old The student-led protests in Tiananmen Square were brutally crushed by the Chinese army, who shot several hundred unarmed protesters on 4 June, 1989. Official figures put the number of civilians killed between 200 and 300, but some estimates say thousands may have died. At the time, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said she was "shocked and appalled by the shootings". A Foreign Office spokeswoman declined to comment. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A Tunisian man who dined with the Berlin attacker the night before he carried out his massacre has been arrested as a possible accomplice in the terror attack. Prosecutors said the 26-year-old suspect was arrested at refugee accommodation in Berlin as the investigation continues into Anis Amris contacts in Germany and across Europe. The arrested man had known Amri since the end of 2015 and had a meal out with the Isis supporter at a restaurant in the German capitals Gesundbrunnen on 18 December. Frauke Kohler, a spokeswoman for federal prosecutors, said the pair talked intensely. Angela Merkel reacts to shooting of Berlin market attack suspect From this background the suspicion arose that the suspect may have been involved in the attack, or at least knew of Amris plans, she added. During searches, other means of communication have been confiscated that are currently being evaluated. The suspect was temporarily detained on Tuesday, with a separate arrest warrant issued by Berlin prosecutors on Wednesday. It came as more searches were carried out at the home of Amris former roommate, who is being treated as a witness in the case. The terrorist shared a room with the man in central Berlin from autumn onwards, with analysis showing Amri attempted to contact him in the morning and afternoon of the day of the attack. Whether that resulted in a conversation taking place is still open, Ms Kohler said. Amri, 24, ploughed a hijacked lorry into a Christmas market next to Berlins famous Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church on 19 December after pledging allegiance to Isis in a video the group later posted online. 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 He killed 12 people, including the lorrys Polish driver Lukasz Urban, who was found shot dead in the front seat. Investigators believe Amri hijacked the vehicle while it was stopped in Friedrich-Krause-Ufer, after visiting the Fussilet 33 mosque, which has long been accused of extremist links. He shot Mr Urban with the same pistol late used to fire at Italian police in the gun battle where Amri was killed, then drove the lorry towards the Christmas market in Breitscheidplatz. A dashcam caught the vehicle accelerating as it veered off the busy road and into crowds enjoying festive stalls and mulled wine, with the lorrys automatic braking system preventing more deaths by bringing it to a halt. Amri ran from the cab as survivors attempted to give chase at around 8.30pm local time. Surveillance footage from the Zoologischer Garten station, a few minutes' walk from the Christmas market, appears to show Amri shortly after the attack. Ms Kohler said investigators believe he knew he was being watched, turning to security cameras and raising a finger in a symbol that has become associated with Islamists. Amri then fled Germany via countries including the Netherlands, Belgium and France, before reaching Italy, despite being hunted as Europes most wanted man under an international arrest warrant. CCTV from Brussels North railway station show Anis Amri arriving on a train from Amsterdam on 21 December (Belgium federal prosecutor's office) (EPA) Dutch police have traced him to Nijmegen railway station on 21 December, before he travelled onwards to Amsterdam and caught another train to Brussels. Belgiums federal prosecutor said Amri spent two hours at the Brussels North railway station that evening, before travelling onwards to France. Officials released CCTV footage showing Amri dressed in a khaki coat, woollen hat a large black scarf that partially covered his face. He was shot dead in the early hours of 23 December by police in Milan, who stopped the suspect to ask for identification while patrolling near a railway station. Amri immediately opened fire and shot one of the officers in the shoulder before being chased down. Police continue to investigate how he obtained his weapon. Italian authorities attempted to deport Amri at the end of a prison sentence for arson in Sicily, after he arrived in Europe by boat in 2011, but were unable to send him to Tunisia because the government lacked proof of his nationality. He then travelled onwards to Germany, arriving in July 2015, where authorities swiftly identified him as a terror risk but dropped an investigation into a previous alleged terror plot in September. German authorities tried to deport Amri after rejecting his asylum application in June last year but the attempts were also rebuffed by Tunisia. Documents that would have allowed him to be expelled did not arrive until two days after the attack. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Ukip is among a number of eurosceptic parties to have benefited from millions of pounds of funding from the European Parliament, figures show. Among the hand-outs for populist and right-wing political parties represented in Brussels last year was a 1.2 million grant destined for the Alliance for Direct Democracy in Europe (ADDE). The group includes more than a dozen Ukip MEPs as well as a member of the German far-right party AFD and other Eurosceptic MEPs from across Europe. The money can be spent on meetings and conferences, advertisements, admin and travel costs and campaigning for European elections. But the money is not allowed to be spent on other campaigns, including referenda and national elections. UKIP wants the Irish government to help pay for a motorway in Wales with EU funds Scrutiny of the EU grants accepted by Eurosceptic parties follows a leaked audit obtained by Sky News last year that showed Ukip had misspent some of those funds on Brexit. In 2015 ADDE received 1.24 million (1.06 million) and a year later the grant increased to 1.4 million (1.19 million). Ukip was unable to confirm what proportion of ADDE's grant the party spent on its operations in Brussels. A spokesman told The Independent that some of the money had helped support Ukip events in the UK, but only when they are attended by non-Ukip speakers, as well as a conference in Sweden. Fellow far right parties in the Movement for a Europe of Nations and Freedom, which includes Marine Le Pens far-right Front National party, also benefited to the tune of 1.54 million (1.31 million) last year. What's the European Parliament ever done for us? Show all 5 1 /5 What's the European Parliament ever done for us? What's the European Parliament ever done for us? A cap on the amount of hours an employer can make you work The Working Time directive provides legal standards to ensure the health and safety of employees in Europe. Among the many rules are a working week of a maximum 48 hours, including overtime, a daily rest period of 11 hours in every 24, a break if a person works for six hours or more, and one day off in every seven. It also includes provisions for paid annual leave of at least four weeks every year Getty Images What's the European Parliament ever done for us? Helping the people of Britain to avoid smoking In 2014 MEPs passed the Tobacco Products Directive strengthening existing rules on the manufacture, production and presentation of tobacco products. This includes things like reduced branding, restrictions on products containing flavoured tobacco, health warnings on cigarette packets and provisions for e-cigarettes to ensure they are safe What's the European Parliament ever done for us? Helping you to make the right choices with your food Thanks to the European Parliament, UK consumers have access to more information than ever about their food and drink. This includes amount of fat, and how much of it is saturated, carbohydrates, sugars, protein and so on. It also includes portion sizes and guideline daily amount information so people can make informed choices about their diet. All facts must be clear and easy to understand What's the European Parliament ever done for us? Two year guarantees and 14-day returns policy for all products Consumers across the EU have access to a number of rights, from things which are potentially very useful, to things which used to be annoying. For example, shoppers in the UK receive a two-year guarantee on all products, and a 14-day period to change their minds and return a purchase, these things are useful www.PeopleImages.com-licence restrictions apply What's the European Parliament ever done for us? Keeping your air nice and fresh (and safe) Believe it or not, although the situation is improving, some areas of the UK have appalling air quality. A report by the Royal College of Physicians released on 23 February says 40,000 deaths are caused by outdoor air pollution in the UK every year. Air pollution is linked to a number of illnesses and conditions, from Asthma to diabetes and dementia. The report estimates the costs to British business and the health service add up to 20 billion every year A Brussels audit leaked in November revealed that Ukip misspent almost half a million pounds of EU funding on trying to win the Brexit vote and elect MPs. The party was deemed to have broken spending rules by diverting taxpayers cash to its own polling ahead of the EU referendum and in key target constituencies for last years general election. The leaked audit focused on money provided to ADDE. It found ADDE financed polling in the UK between February and December 2015, judged as indirect financing of a national political party and a referendum campaign. In the wake of that report, the European Parliament moved to toughen rules on grants including asking political parties to provide bank guarantees before they can access EU money. The European Parliament has also reduced the advance sum of money given to the ADDE for activities in 2017 in case the group misspends the money and is unable to repay it. A spokesperson for the European Parliament said: The European Parliament is concerned that grants for European political parties are spent for the aims intended and clearly laid down in the rules. Those aims do not include campaigns for national referenda and elections or the funding of national parties and election candidates. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A car bombing has killed at least two people outside a courthouse in the Turkish city of Izmir. It was followed by a gun battle between police and two suspected terrorists. A police officer and member of courthouse staff died as a result of the suspected terror attack, regional governor Erol Ayyildiz told reporters. He added that security forces identified the vehicle as a threat as it approached a checkpoint, causing the attackers to detonate their explosives and open fire. Recommended At least two killed in Turkey car bombing At least 10 people were injured by the blast and ensuing gun battle, with a large number of judges and lawyers standing around the entrance to the courthouse at the time. Gunfire broke out between police and the men suspected to have orchestrated the attack at around 4pm local time (1pm GMT), CNN Turk reported. Two suspects were shot dead at the scene, while a third attacker is thought to remain on the run. Photos taken from surrounding buildings appeared to show a vehicle on fire in the courthouse car park. In pictures: Istanbul nightclub attacked during New Year party Show all 9 1 /9 In pictures: Istanbul nightclub attacked during New Year party In pictures: Istanbul nightclub attacked during New Year party People talk to medics in an ambulance near the scene of an attack in Istanbul on 1 January 2017 AP In pictures: Istanbul nightclub attacked during New Year party People near the scene of an attack in Istanbul on 1 January 2017 AP In pictures: Istanbul nightclub attacked during New Year party Police secure area near an Istanbul nightclub, Turkey, January 1, 2017. Reuters In pictures: Istanbul nightclub attacked during New Year party Ambulances line up on a road leading to a nightclub where a gun attack took place during a New Year party in Istanbul, Turkey Reuters In pictures: Istanbul nightclub attacked during New Year party Turkish special force police officers and ambulances are seen at the site of an armed attack January 1, 2017 in Istanbul Getty In pictures: Istanbul nightclub attacked during New Year party People embrace near the scene of an attack in Istanbul, on New Year's Day AP In pictures: Istanbul nightclub attacked during New Year party Medics carry a wounded person after an attack at a popular nightclub in Istanbul on 1 January AP In pictures: Istanbul nightclub attacked during New Year party Turkish police secure the area at Ortakoy district under Bosphorus Bridge after the attack on Reina nightclub Getty Images In pictures: Istanbul nightclub attacked during New Year party People leave a nightclub in Istanbul after it was attacked on 1 January AP Ambulances and emergency services rushed to the scene and people were moved to safety amid fears of a second bomb. Mr Ayyildiz said preliminary evidence indicated that the militant Kurdish separatist group known as the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) were behind the attack. Police seized weapons, including a rocket launcher and eight hand grenades, and probably prevented a more serious incident by stopping the assailants from reaching the courthouse itself, he added. It follows a wave of attacks targeting civilians across Turkey carried out by Isis and Kurdish extremist groups in the last 18 months. Recommended Istanbul attack latest example of terrorism plaguing Turkey Isis claimed responsibility for the previous incident, when a gunman massacred 39 people at a nightclub in Istanbul in the early hours of New Years Day. Izmir, the third-largest city in Turkey, has been the focus of police and special forces attention since 1 January, as it is believed the Istanbul suspect stayed there prior to carrying out the attack. About 20 arrests have been made in the city in the last few days as police believe the gunman may have had assistance in planning the deadly rampage. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Nato has denied claims in Russia that one of the military alliances jets came close to colliding with a passenger plane in the far east of the country. The airliner, travelling from Sakhalin to the Kuril Islands, reportedly had to descend rapidly to avoid a mid-air collision with the unidentified jet after both aircraft were flying at an altitude of 20,000ft. Russian news agency Interfax quoted a source as saying the unidentified aircraft belonged to the North Atlantic alliance and had emitted Nato radio signals. A second Russian news agency, RBC, said the passenger aircraft was a turboprop plane, flying with Aurora Airlines, a subsidiary of Russian flag carrier Aeroflot. However, a Nato official speaking to The Independent denied one of their aircraft was involved. There were no aircraft under Nato command in the region in question, the source said. Aurora Airlines also issued a statement describing the reports as complete nonsense which is not even worth commenting on. NATO intercept Russian planes The Russian security source behind the initial claims was quoted as saying: Controllers spotted the aircraft was approaching on the same altitude and did not respond to requests from the ground. It was decided to urgently descend the passenger aircraft in order to avoid a dangerous approach or even a collision in the air." The source went on to claim that Russian air traffic controllers attempted to make contact with the jet after the incident but did not receive a response. Russias Defence Ministry did not respond to a request for comment from The Independent. Nato and Russia routinely trade accusations about airspace incursions at a time of heightened East-West tensions. Russian aircraft flying near the Baltics were intercepted by Nato 110 times last year, down on the 160 incidents recorded in the previous year and also lower than the intercepts made in 2014. The tragic recent history of Russian aviation Show all 10 1 /10 The tragic recent history of Russian aviation The tragic recent history of Russian aviation 3 July 2001 A Russian TU-154 'Dalavia' aircraft with 143 people on board dropped out of contact and crashed in southern Siberia ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP/Getty Images The tragic recent history of Russian aviation 1 July 2002 Victims' relatives gather at the wreckage of the crashed Russian Tupolev 154 passenger plane near Ueberlingen, Germany. The Bashkirian Airlines plane was involved in a mid-air collision with a cargo jet over German soil, killing 71 people. PIERRE ANDRIEU/AFP/Getty Images The tragic recent history of Russian aviation 25 August 2004 A Russian policeman checks the luggage and ID papers of passengers at Moscow's Domodedovo airport after the crashes of two jetliners minutes apart raised fresh questions about aviation security in Russia. Russian intelligence experts closely examined the possibility that two passenger planes, that crashed almost simultaneously, were brought down by terrorists, an FSB spokesman said. STRINGER/AFP/Getty Images The tragic recent history of Russian aviation 10 July 2006 Relatives of Airbus A-310 crash victims, cry at Irkutsk airport, after 137 people were killed when the passenger plane veered off a runway, slammed into a concrete wall and burst into flames while landing in the Siberian city of Irkutsk. ALEXANDER NOVIKOV/AFP/Getty Images The tragic recent history of Russian aviation 14 September 2008 Investigators look at the remains of Aeroflot-Nord Boeing 737 after a crash in Perm. All 88 people on board died including 21 foreign nationals, from countries including France, Germany and the United States KIRILL KUDRYAVSTSEV/AFP/Getty Images The tragic recent history of Russian aviation 5 December 2010 Police investigate the wreckage of Dagestan Airlines Flight 372, which rolled off the runway at Domodedovo airport and broke up into three pieces, killing two and injuring more than 80 of the 169 people on board. ANDREY SMIRNOV/AFP/Getty Images The tragic recent history of Russian aviation 24 January 2011 People lay flowers in central Moscow on January 2011 as they pay tribute to 35 people killed in a suspected suicide bombing in Moscow's Domodedovo airport. Russian opposition denounced the policies of Vladimir Putin's government and inefficiency of security forces following the blast. Alexey SAZONOV/AFP/Getty Images The tragic recent history of Russian aviation 29 December 2012 Four crew were killed when a Red Wings Tu-204 jet crashed into a motorway and broke up into three pieces after overshooting the runway at Vnukovo airport outside Moscow. NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA/AFP/Getty Images The tragic recent history of Russian aviation 17 November 2013 Relatives read lists of passengers killed when a Boeing 737 operated by Tatarstan Airlines crashed while attempting to land at the airport of the Volga city of Kazan, killing all 50 on board. ROMAN KRUCHININ/AFP/Getty Images The tragic recent history of Russian aviation 31 October 2015 The Russian airline Kogalymavias Airbus A321 on an airstrip of Moscows Domodedovo international airport. The Russian passenger plane crashed in Sinai, Egypt with more than 200 people. The Airbus A-321, which belongs to the airline Kogalymavia was due to land in St Petersburg. AP Photo/Tatiana Belyakova Moscow's jets also frequently fly close to airspace belonging to the UK and its European allies. In October two Russian Blackjack bombers were intercepted as they flew across Europe, skirting the airspace of countries from Norway to Spain. The frequency of incursions and interceptions by Russian jets has increased in recent years. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A Turkish court has sentenced two former military officers to life in prison, in the first convictions over Julys failed military coup. The colonel and major were convicted of attempting to abolish Turkeys constitutional order, the state-run Anadolu Agency said. The two defendants have denied the accusation. Turkey coup - 60 dead in 'act of treason' against the government The troops are expected to be the first in a long line of suspects handed heavy sentences for their roles in the uprising. Ex-Col Murat Kocak and ex-Maj Murat Yilmaz were on duty at Erzurums gendarmerie command which used to be part of the army during the unsuccessful putsch. President Recep Tayyip Erdogans regime blames the military action on US-based Imam Fethullah Gulen, and since the coup has embarked on a radical mission to purge enemies of the administration from public life. According to the Anadolu Agency, more than 41,000 people have been arrested over suspected links to the exiled Islamic preacher. Yet the true figure may be far higher, with some reports claiming there more than 70,000 have been arrested and imprisoned. The number of arrestees is in addition to more than 100,000 judges, police officers, journalists, academics and teachers, along with other public officials. In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Show all 17 1 /17 In pictures: Turkey coup attempt In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish President Erdogan attends the funeral service for victims of the thwarted coup in Istanbul at Fatih mosque on July 17, 2016 in Istanbul, Turkey Burak Kara/Getty Images In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Soldiers involved in the coup attempt surrender on Bosphorus bridge with their hands raised in Istanbul on 16 July, 2016 Gokhan Tan/Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt A civilian beats a soldier after troops involved in the coup surrendered on the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey, 16 July, 2016 REUTERS/Murad Sezer In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Surrendered Turkish soldiers who were involved in the coup are beaten by a civilian Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Soliders involved in the coup attempt surrender on Bosphorus bridge Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Supporters of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wave flags as they capture a Turkish Army vehicle Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt People pose near a tank after troops involved in the coup surrendered on the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey, 16 July, 2016 Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish soldiers block Istanbul's Bosphorus Brigde Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt A Turkish military stands guard near the Taksim Square in Istanbul Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Pierre Crom/Twitter In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish soldiers secure the area as supporters of Recep Tayyip Erdogan protest in Istanbul's Taksim square AP In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Murad Sezer/Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish soldiers detain police officers during a security shutdown of the Bosphorus Bridge Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish Army armoured personnel carriers in the main streets of Istanbul Getty In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Chaos reigned in Istanbul as tanks drove through the streets EPA/TOLGA BOZOGLU In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan speaks to media in the resort town of Marmaris Reuters In pictures: Turkey coup attempt Supporters of President Erdogan celebrate in Ankara following the suppression of the attempted coup Reuters The extend of the crackdown has been met with concern from the international community, particularly since President Erdogan has said he is considering bringing back the death penalty for the perpetrators of the putsch. Trials of those charged are expected to continue for months. In December, the high-profile trail of 29 Turkish police officers began who are accused of failing to defend President Erdogan during the attempted coup. A major trial is set to begin in February to determine if 47 suspects attempted to assassinate the country's controversial leader. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} According to newly released papers from the National Archive, Margaret Thatcher wooed the South African government with promises of a Marshall Plan for southern Africa and help to save the independence of Namibia. The events they cover provide an insight into a March 1989 visit to Britain by the then South African foreign minister, Pik Botha. The documents, from the prime ministers official papers, are now released as part of the regular transfer of declassified material to the National Archive. They shed new light on the British governments approach to South Africa in the final years of the apartheid regime. Thatchers administration was consistently criticised through the 1980s for supporting the white minority government in Pretoria, declining to impose sanctions on it, and reportedly decrying the ANC as a typical terrorist organisation. They also reveal just how serious South Africas financial predicament was as it attempted to negotiate an end to apartheid, and how the Thatcher government used the opportunity it presented to entice Pretoria into reforming the country and releasing Nelson Mandela. It did so by proposing a massive aid package for the whole region a Marshall Plan-style rescue plan to keep southern Africa stable even as South Africa underwent enormous change. This was a critical period for southern Africa. Talks with the African National Congress (ANC) had been underway for five years; negotiations over the future of Namibia which South Africa ruled had concluded with plans for the countrys independence. But South Africa, still the major player in the region, was rudderless. In January 1989, South Africas president, PW Botha (no relation to Pik) had a stroke, and the following month, FW de Klerk took over as leader of the governing National Party but he didnt become president until September 1989. The region was at a crossroads, between peace and continued conflict, and yet South Africa was stuck between leaders. It was at this moment that Pik Botha arrived in London for an hour-and-a-half meeting with Thatcher, an encounter from which all but their closest advisers were excluded. So sensitive were the issues that the material, officially classified Secret, carried this additional warning from her private secretary, Charles Powell: Some of the material in this letter is highly sensitive. It should be given a very limited distribution. Namibian independence Plans for the independence of Namibia had been negotiated with the aid of the United Nations and signed in Geneva, but the situation was far from stable. This was the background to the Pik Botha visit. Thatchers advisers briefed her on how to handle the discussion: "You will want to stress how important it is that the [Namibian peace] agreement should be implemented meticulously. The prospects of avoiding further sanctions at CHOGM [the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting] in October will depend very much on progress with implementation of the Namibia Agreement." Pik Botha had a short but highly confidential meeting with Margaret Thatcher in London This was what the prime minister did, and Pik Botha did not demur. Indeed, he admitted that it was unclear who would win the independence election, since South Africa had got the [Rhodesian] elections in 1980 so badly wrong. Botha conceded that it looked as if the South West Africa Peoples Organisation (SWAPO) would get over 50% but doubted it would reach two-thirds of the vote necessary to change the constitution. The key issue was whether a trip to what Thatcher described in her autobiography as Black Africa in March and April 1989 should include a visit to Namibia. In the end this did indeed take place, although the press pack accompanying the PM was only told once they had taken off from Malawi for the Namibian capital, Windhoek. Mrs Thatcher visits Rossing Uranium in Namibia, April 1989 She arrived in Namibia at a crucial moment. Just as peace appeared to be at hand, some 2,000 fighters from the SWAPO liberation movement crossed the border from Angola in an apparent attempt to establish a military presence in northern Namibia ahead of the independence elections. The delicate agreement looked as if it might fall apart. Thatcher described the events in her autobiography: "In flagrant disregard of previous undertakings that no armed personnel would come south of the 16th Parallel (well within Angola) hundreds of SWAPO (South-West African Peoples Organisation) troops crossed the border into Nambia with military equipment. I was not in the least convinced by the reaction of the SWAPO leader Sam Nujoma who claimed his organisation was faithfully abiding by the cease-fire and that the so-called invaders must be South Africans in disguise." Culture news in pictures Show all 33 1 /33 Culture news in pictures Culture news in pictures 30 September 2016 An employee hangs works of art with "Grand Teatro" by Marino Marini (R) and bronze sculpture "Sfera N.3" by Arnaldo Pomodoro seen ahead of a Contemporary Art auction on 7 October, at Sotheby's in London REUTERS Culture news in pictures 29 September 2016 Street art by Portuguese artist Odeith is seen in Dresden, during an exhibition "Magic City - art of the streets" AFP/Getty Images Culture news in pictures 28 September 2016 Dancers attend a photocall for the new "THE ONE Grand Show" at Friedrichstadt-Palast in Berlin, Germany REUTERS Culture news in pictures 28 September 2016 With an array of thrift store china, humorous souvenirs and handmade tile adorning its walls and floors, the Mosaic Tile House in Venice stands as a monument to two decades of artistic collaboration between Cheri Pann and husband Gonzalo Duran REUTERS Culture news in pictures 27 September 2016 A gallery assistant poses amongst work by Anthea Hamilton from her nominated show "Lichen! Libido!(London!) Chastity!" at a preview of the Turner Prize in London REUTERS Culture news in pictures 27 September 2016 A technician wearing virtual reality glasses checks his installation in three British public telephone booths, set up outside the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, Netherlands. The installation allows visitors a 3-D look into the museum which has twenty-two paintings belonging to the British Royal Collection, on loan for an exhibit from 29 September 2016 till 8 January 2017 AP Culture news in pictures 26 September 2016 An Indian artist dressed as Hindu god Shiva performs on a chariot as he participates in a religious procession 'Ravan ki Barat' held to mark the forthcoming Dussehra festival in Allahabad AFP/Getty Images Culture news in pictures 26 September 2016 Jean-Michel Basquiat's 'Air Power', 1984, is displayed at the Bowie/Collector media preview at Sotheby's in New York AFP/Getty Culture news in pictures 25 September 2016 A woman looks at an untitled painting by Albert Oehlen during the opening of an exhibition of works by German artists Georg Baselitz and Albert Oehlen in Reutlingen, Germany. The exhibition runs at the Kunstverein (art society) Reutlingen until 15 January 2017 EPA Culture news in pictures 24 September 2016 Fan BingBing (C) attends the closing ceremony of the 64th San Sebastian Film Festival at Kursaal in San Sebastian, Spain Getty Images Culture news in pictures 23 September 2016 A view of the artwork 'You Are Metamorphosing' (1964) as part of the exhibition 'Retrospektive' of Japanese artist Tetsumi Kudo at Fridericianum in Kassel, Germany. The exhibition runs from 25 September 2016 to 1 January 2017 EPA Culture news in pictures 22 September 2016 Jo Applin from the Courtauld Institute of Art looks at Green Tilework in Live Flesh by Adriana Vareja, which features in a new exhibition, Flesh, at York Art Gallery. The new exhibition features works by Degas, Chardin, Francis Bacon and Sarah Lucas, showing how flesh has been portrayed by artists over the last 600 years PA Culture news in pictures 21 September 2016 Performers Sean Atkins and Sally Miller standing in for the characters played by Asa Butterfield and Ella Purnell during a photocall for Tim Burton's "Miss Peregrines Home For Peculiar Children" at Potters Field Park in London Getty Images Culture news in pictures 20 September 2016 A detail from the blanket 'Alpine Cattle Drive' from 1926 by artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner is displayed at the 'Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum for Contemporary Arts' in Berlin. The exhibition named 'Ernst Ludwig Kirchner - Hieroglyphen' showing the complete collection of Berlin's Nationalgallerie works of the German artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and will run from 23 September 2016 until 26 February 2017 AP Culture news in pictures 20 September 2016 A man looks at portrait photos by US photographer Bruce Gilden in the exhibition 'Masters of Photography' at the photokina in Cologne, Germany. The trade fair on photography, photokina, schowcases some 1,000 exhibitors from 40 countries and runs from 20 to 25 September. The event also features various photo exhibitions EPA Culture news in pictures 20 September 2016 A woman looks at 'Blue Poles', 1952 by Jackson Pollock during a photocall at the Royal Academy of Arts, London PA Culture news in pictures 19 September 2016 Art installation The Refusal of Time, a collaboration with Philip Miller, Catherine Meyburgh and Peter Galison, which features as part of the William Kentridge exhibition Thick Time, showing from 21 September to 15 January at the Whitechapel Gallery in London PA Culture news in pictures 18 September 2016 Artists creating one off designs at the Mm6 Maison Margiela presentation during London Fashion Week Spring/Summer collections 2017 in London Getty Images Culture news in pictures 18 September 2016 Bethenny Frankel attends the special screening of Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" to celebrate the 25th Anniversary Edition release on Blu-Ray and DVD in New York City Getty Images for Walt Disney Stu Culture news in pictures 17 September 2016 Visitors attend the 2016 Oktoberfest beer festival at Theresienwiese in Munich, Germany Getty Images Culture news in pictures 16 September 2016 Visitors looks at British artist Damien Hirst work of art 'The Incomplete Truth', during the 13th Yalta Annual Meeting entitled 'The World, Europe and Ukraine: storms of changes', organised by the Yalta European Strategy (YES) in partnership with the Victor Pinchuk Foundation at the Mystetsky Arsenal Art Center in Kiev AP Culture news in pictures 16 September 2016 Tracey Emin's "My Bed" is exhibited at the Tate Liverpool as part of the exhibition Tracey Emin And William Blake In Focus, which highlights surprising links between the two artists Getty Images Culture news in pictures 15 September 2016 Musician Dave Grohl (L) joins musician Tom Morello of Prophets of Rage onstage at the Forum in Inglewood, California Getty Images Culture news in pictures 14 September 2016 Model feebee poses as part of art installation "Narcissism : Dazzle room" made by artist Shigeki Matsuyama at rooms33 fashion and design exhibition in Tokyo. Matsuyama's installation features a strong contrast of black and white, which he learned from dazzle camouflage used mainly in World War I AP Culture news in pictures 13 September 2016 Visitors look at artworks by Chinese painter Cui Ruzhuo during the exhibition 'Glossiness of Uncarved Jade' held at the exhibition hall 'Manezh' in St. Petersburg, Russia. More than 200 paintings by the Chinese artist are presented until 25 September EPA Culture news in pictures 12 September 2016 A visitor looks at Raphael's painting 'Extase de Sainte Cecile', 1515, from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence during the opening of a Raphael exhibition at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, Russia. The first Russian exhibition of the works of the Italian Renaissance artist Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino includes eight paintings and three drawings which come from Italy. Th exhibit opens to the public from 13 September to 11 December EPA Culture news in pictures 11 September 2016 Steve Cropper and Eddie Floyd perform during Otis Redding 75th Birthday Celebration - Rehearsals at the Macon City Auditorium in Macon, Georgia Getty Images for Otis Redding 75 Culture news in pictures 10 September 2016 Sakari Oramo conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Chorus and the BBC Singers at the Last Night of the Proms 2016 at the Royal Albert Hall in London PA Culture news in pictures 9 September 2016 A visitor walks past a piece entitled "Fruitcake" by Joana Vasconcelo, during the Beyond Limits selling exhibition at Chatsworth House near Bakewell REUTERS Culture news in pictures 8 September 2016 A sculpture of a crescent standing on the 2,140 meters high mountain 'Freiheit' (German for 'freedom'), in the Alpstein region of the Appenzell alps, eastern Switzerland. The sculpture is lighted during the nights by means of solar panels. The 38-year-old Swiss artist and atheist Christian Meier set the crescent on the peak to start a debate on the meaning of religious symbols - as summit crosses - on mountains. 'Because so many peaks have crosses on them, it struck me as a great idea to put up an equally absurd contrast'. 'Naturally I wanted to provoke in a fun way. But it goes beyond that. The actions of an artist should be food for thought, both visually and in content' EPA Culture news in pictures Culture news in pictures Culture news in pictures Thatcher met Pik Botha at the airport in Windhoek and persuaded him not to allow South African troops to move out of their barracks unilaterally. In the end they were allowed to confront the SWAPO fighters, but only under the auspices of the UN. There were casualties, but SWAPO was finally escorted back into Angola and a new ceasefire prevailed. In his book The End of Apartheid, Robin Renwick, Thatchers ambassador to South Africa, describes the events as even more confrontational: "The South Africans were on the verge of withdrawing from the settlement The scene shifted to a long and extremely difficult meeting with Pik Botha at the airport. Under pressure from the military in Pretoria, he was adamant that the South Africans would have to take the law into their own hands and call in air strikes against the SWAPO columns, whether the UN authorised them or not I argued fiercely against air strikes." In the end sanity prevailed, and a full-scale confrontation was avoided. There were clashes, but SWAPO withdrew into Angola and the independence election went ahead as planned. As Thatcher recalled it in her memoirs: "That autumn SWAPO won the election for the Namibian Constituent Assembly and Mr Nujoma became President in which capacity he thanked me when I was at the United Nations in September for my intervention I had been the right person at the right place at the right time. A Marshall Plan If Namibia had been an obstacle in the London talks, Thatcher had a carrot up her sleeve. Overhanging the discussions in London was of course the release of Nelson Mandela and the ending of apartheid. In the talks, Thatcher made it clear that the recent pace of reform had slackened under PW Botha. She described as Mandelas freedom as the crucial step that must be faced, saying the down-side risk of not releasing him was enormous. This was in line with her previous confidential talks with the South African government, in which she had refused to bow to their demands. The Botha government, she said, asked what South Africa would get in return for releasing Mandela. Such an approach was unrealistic. The country was having great difficulty rolling over its foreign debt and Governments and financial institutions would be reluctant to cooperate in the absence of internal progress, and in that event the financial pressures would become much more severe. Thatcher then pulled the rabbit out of her hat: a document grandly headed A Marshall Plan for Southern Africa. This, she said, had been agreed with Germanys Chancellor, Helmut Kohl. They had decided to spell out their assessment of the response which South Africa could expect to Mandelas release in a note, which she handed over. The documents reveal an extraordinary and little-known proposal to provide aid on an unprecedented scale. Western governments, they say, acknowledge Africas economic decline; European nations propose to grant and/or mobilise funds and expertise for extending and modernising the physical infrastructure of the region. No actual sums of money are mentioned, but calling the proposal a Marshall Plan suggests they were very substantial indeed. Recommended Margaret Thatcher faced penalty for poll tax confusion Pik Botha read the note and commented that he found it very reasonable, says the minute of the meeting. He would take it back to President Botha. The foreign minister described what he called hesitations on Mandelas release in the cabinet, but that the country was desperate for outside financial help. Time and again Thatcher stressed to Pik Botha that a deal had to be arrived at in which black South Africans had a real stake in the country: Improving the economic conditions of black South Africans was not on its own enough. Although Botha was in no position to make any final commitment on behalf of his government the message Thatcher left him with was clear: end apartheid, release Mandela or South Africa will face increasing sanctions. What is really revealing is that she dangled the prospect of such substantial aid in return. Nothing has ever come of these promises; no plan, Marshall or otherwise, was ever produced. But perhaps the hope of it was enough to persuade de Klerk to eventually take the step that Thatcher pressed for: to free Nelson Mandela. Martin Plaut, senior research fellow, Horn of Africa and Southern Africa, institute of commonwealth studies, School of Advanced Study. This article first appeared on The Conversation (theconversation.com) For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The family of a Palestinian assailant shot dead by an Israeli soldier as he lay injured and immobilised on the ground, have called for his killer to be tried in an international court. Sgt Elor Azaria was convicted of the manslaughter of Abed Fattah al-Sharif a 21-year-old who had attacked an Israeli soldier after being caught in the act on camera. A Tel Aviv military court on Wednesday delivered the landmark ruling after a ten-month-long trial that had been beset by widespread protests. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already called for Azaria to be pardoned, describing the manslaughter verdict as a "difficult and painful day for all of us first and foremost for Sgt Azaria and his family, IDF [Israel Defence Forces] soldiers, many citizens and parents of soldiers, myself included". Netanyahu congratulates Trump But, Fathi al-Sharif, Sharifs uncle, said he was disappointed with a ruling of manslaughter, and pledged to have the case brought before the International Criminal Court in The Hague. We'll go after him [Azaria] in every international arena, he told Haaretz. From the beginning, we stated that he had committed murder and needed to be convicted of murder. The fact that they changed the count of the indictment to manslaughter is a perversion of justice and of the court. He added that he thought that Azaria would be handed a light sentence given the resistance to the conviction demonstrated by Israel's right-wing. President Reuven Rivlin has the authority to issue pardons to those convicted in the country, but has said he will wait for the completion of the legal process before making his decision. Hundreds of angry Israelis gathered outside the court in support of Azaria ahead of the ruling on Wednesday, and the soldier's legal team have already announced they will appeal. Among others demanding a pardon is Naftali Bennett, leader of the right-wing Jewish Home party. Today a soldier who killed a terrorist who deserved to die, who had tried to slaughter a soldier, was put in handcuffs and convicted like a criminal, he wrote on Facebook. A spokesperson for the Azaria family, accused the court of picking up the knife [used to attack an IDF soldier] from the ground and stabbed it in the back of all the soldiers. But the Tel Aviv court said in its ruling: One cannot use this type of force, even if we're talking about an enemy's life." Azaria remained expressionless as his conviction was read aloud, but his mother yelled you should be ashamed of yourselves as the judges left. The case is the first conviction of an Israeli soldier for killing a Palestinian since the start of a surge of violence that began in October 2015. A report by Israeli human rights organisation Yesh Din found the IDF opened 186 criminal investigations into suspected offences against Palestinians in 2015, but only four charges were brought as a result. In 2015, 76 Palestinians died after clashes with soldiers in the West Bank, but only 21 deaths resulted in investigations, the group claimed. 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 According to the human rights watchdog, since October 2015 there have been at least 150 instances where security forces have fatally shot Palestinian adults and children suspected of violence against Israelis in Israel and the West Bank. Meanwhile, Palestinian assailants have killed 33 Israelis, including passersby and security officials, in Israel and the West Bank. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A man has spent 65 days on hunger strike in an Iranian prison to protest against his five-year sentence for taking part in a demonstration against acid attacks on women. Ali Shariati's health has deteriorated as his weight dropped dramatically, his mother said. The 30-year-old was sentenced to five years in September 2015 for attending a demonstration against government inaction following a spate of acid attacks in a number of Iranian cities. Women were reportedly targeted women for not being properly veiled. One woman died and another, Soheila Jokesh, lost the sight in one of her eyes after having the corrosive substance poured over her face. Iranian authorities made four arrests but said there was not enough evidence to charge anyone, sparking protest rallies in the capital Tehran and Isfahan where Mr Shariati was arrested. The charges against him were unclear but he was sentenced seven months later in September 2015. In an interview with Persian language channel Manato TV, Mr Shariati's mother Shayesteh Shahidi said her son's weight had dropped from 70kg to 50kg since he began his fast. Last week, during contact visitation, he collapsed on the ground in the visitation room," she said Iranian women continue to defy cycling ban It was hard for me as a mother to see [my] child collapsing on the ground in front of [my] eyes She also alleged Mr Shariati had been denied water by the prison authorities. My son is not a killer, hes not a criminal," she added. I want them [Iranian politicians] to save my child I want them to hear his voice." Amnesty International's Iran Researcher Raha Bahreini also appealed for Mr Shariati's immediate release. Ali Shariati has been unjustly imprisoned for peacefully protesting," she said in a statement. Hes a prisoner of conscience who shouldnt even be in prison in the first place. 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 His terrible predicament is part of a very disturbing pattern: the Iranian authorities punish those who bravely speak out against human rights abuses, but do little or nothing about the primary abuses themselves. Instead of watching Ali Shariati go to the brink of death on hunger strike, the authorities should release him immediately and unconditionally. Outspoken Iranian politician Ali Motahari has also condemned the treatment of Mr Shariati and other political prisoners. "I hope judicial officials resolve this issue wisely to prevent human rights excuses for the enemies of the Islamic revolution," he wrote in a social media post, alongside a photo in which Mr Shariati looked malnourished. Mathias Zwick: Skateboarders of Iran Show all 11 1 /11 Mathias Zwick: Skateboarders of Iran Mathias Zwick: Skateboarders of Iran Wall of skateboards in the Grand Bazaar of Tehran Mathias Zwick Mathias Zwick: Skateboarders of Iran Tehran, the most progressive city in Iran, is home to the country's largest community of skateboarders. They number about 500. The Alborz Mountains overlook the north of the capital. Skateboarders like to meet over there to go down from mount Toshal to city center skatepark. In Tehrans heavy traffic, this horde of skateboarders is in the middle of a very dangerous journey Mathias Zwick Mathias Zwick: Skateboarders of Iran Documenting themselves with Go-Pro cameras, the crew of skateboarders rides through the city, past the wide-eyed gazes of passers-by. The footage will be posted on Instagram, a popular social network among young Iranians. Unlike Facebook, Instagram is not blocked by the Iranian government Mathias Zwick Mathias Zwick: Skateboarders of Iran In Southern Tehran, Ashkan kickflips in front of a mural depicting the ayatollah Khomeini, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution in 1979 Mathias Zwick Mathias Zwick: Skateboarders of Iran In recent years, groups of skateboarders appeared in all of Iran's major cities. Iranian cities, where modern and traditional architecture intermingle, are their playgrounds. Unlike Tehran, there is no skate park in Isfahan. Young skaters must settle for the street Mathias Zwick Mathias Zwick: Skateboarders of Iran In front of a mosque in Isfahan, around 211 miles south from Tehran, Erfan is towed by a carriage usually meant for tourists Mathias Zwick Mathias Zwick: Skateboarders of Iran Persian rugs are traditionally used for sitting to eat, drink tea or rest. While waiting for friends from Ispahan to joint them, the skateboarders from Tehran improvise a game with a board without wheels Mathias Zwick Mathias Zwick: Skateboarders of Iran The Grand Bazaar in Tehran is usually filled with people, but Friday is the weekly day of rest in Iran. Amid ghostly decor skateboarders lose themselves in the many narrow alleys of the labyrinthine market Mathias Zwick Mathias Zwick: Skateboarders of Iran In Tehran, Erfan, 24, rides hurtles past the portraits of Khamenei (left), the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran since 1989, and his predecessor Khomeini (far right) Mathias Zwick Mathias Zwick: Skateboarders of Iran In Kerman, located in southeastern Iran, girls take ownership of skateboarding, too. Wearing mandatory veils and long sleeves, here are three that train regularly with boys Mathias Zwick Mathias Zwick: Skateboarders of Iran Although skateboarding is one of the few sports where genders intermingle, girls do not have the same opportunities than boys. Mandatory veils and long sleeves make practicing skateboard harder under the intense heat of a summer in Shiraz, said Ehlam, 21 years old, skater girl, electric guitar player and also breakdancer Mathias Zwick Earlier this week, another political activist in Iran, who is serving 15 years in prison for charges of conspiracy against President Hassan Rouhani's regime, ended a 70-day hunger strike after authorities agreed to temporarily release his wife from prison. Arash Sadeghi's wife Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee is serving six years for "insulting Islamic sanctities" and "spreading propaganda against the regime". Ms Iraee was imprisoned in October after Iranian authorities discovered an unpublished story she had written about a woman being stoned to death. In December President Rouhani unveiled a bill of rights that would protect freedom of speech, protest, fair trials and privacy, in an apparent effort to appeal to progressive supporters ahead of a re-election bid in May. No More Steel Glut? China to Produce More Steel in 2017, But Mostly for Own Consumption Steel pipes for shipment and export are piled up at Lianyungang Port in Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province. (Photo : www.gettyimages.com) China is set to produce more steel this year but mostly for domestic use, amid efforts to reduce its output to address steel overcapacity. Citing a recent report by BMI Research, CNBC reported that about 825 million metric tons of crude steel are expected to be produced by China in 2017, an increase of 0.5 percentage point from last year's, but 87 percent of these will be used in the country. Advertisement "Despite Western fears of steel dumping, increased production of Chinese steel will serve domestic demand more rather than flood international markets in 2017," BMI said in the report. As China's economy shifted from dependence on industrial exports to more home-grown demand, the country's steel sector has been urged to consolidate production to avoid surplus. At the same time, China's economic development is also dependent on the growth of the country's real estate and construction sector. BMI noted the trend for increased steel production for domestic use as the monthly average output from August to October increased by 3.6 percent year-over-year, compared to the monthly average export declines of 17.5 percent from the previous year. In November, China's steel inventories, in proportion to production, dropped to 8.2 percent. "This is because continued Chinese fiscal support to the construction sector has buoyed domestic industrial metal demand, especially through public-private partnerships in public infrastructure such as airports, water, rail, power and roads and bridges (that will) continue at least until the end of 2017," BMI added. BMI predicts that the surplus global steel market will be reduced from 10.9 million tons in 2016 to 3.2 million tons in 2017, as a result of increased demand in China, both the largest steel producer and consumer in the world. Investment bank Morgan Stanley agreed with the outlook, citing a recent report which said that the overall demand for steel is "stable and improving." "Infrastructure spending has been increasing, while reduced property inventories in lower-tier cities should result in a rise in new starts. Globally, many regions are showing signs of improved demand, from the economic recoveries in Brazil and India to (U.S. president-elect Donald) Trump's infrastructure plans for the U.S.," the investment bank added. This development is a reversal of the overcapacity in recent years, in which China was criticized for dumping steel into the global market, and the decline in prices. This year's improved outlook is expected to raise steel prices. In China, the price of steel has already gained 60 percent. Anticipating Trump's infrastructure plan, the prices of raw iron ore have also doubled. Meanwhile, China cut production to address overcapacity, leaving other factories idle. Morgan Stanley noted that as China was forced to reduce production, the return on equity in the global steel sector may rise to 12 percent by 2020, up from 2.9 percent in 2015. China may also reach its 150 million metric ton permanent capacity cut target by 2020, exceeding this year's target of 45 million tons, Morgan Stanley said. The merger between Baosteel Group and Wuhan Iron and Steel, and regional consolidation plans, indicate that the country may attain improved fundamentals in the next three to five years, the bank added. The steel stocks in China, India, Japan and Brazil are 20 to 40 percent more advantageous, compared to those in the U.S., Morgan Stanley said. Its top picks include Angang H & A and Maanshan H in China; U.S. Steel, AK Steel and Steel Dynamics in the U.S.; and ArcelorMittalSA and SSAB in Europe. Standard and Poor's, a ratings agency, however, said that the domestic steel industry may experience "short-term pain" amid cash flow issues and debt. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Two people have been arrested in Israel for using social media to incite violence against the judges who convicted a soldier of manslaughter over the killing of a wounded Palestinian assailant. The rare conviction on Wednesday of a soldier for operational conduct has deeply divided Israel and led to an unprecedented campaign in support of 20-year-old Sgt. Elor Azaria and against the military establishment, long the country's most admired body. Last March 21-year-old Abdel Fatah Al-Sharif stabbed an Israel Defence Force (IDF) soldier, before being shot and wounded himself. While Mr Sharif lay on the ground, Sgt. Azaria shot him in the head. As the lengthy verdict which found Sgt Azaria was guilty of manslaughter for acting out of sense of vengeance was read out, outside the courtroom protesters clashed with police. Some began calling for the soldier to be pardoned, and chanted veiled threats against the panel of three judges and the armys chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot. All four, as well as the cases chief prosecutor, have been assigned security details. Palestinian man shot by Israeli soldier as he lies on the ground A man was arrested in Jerusalem and a woman arrested in Kiryat Gat in Israels south on Thursday, police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld said, for making social media comments which constituted incitement to violence against the judges. A poll published on Wednesday by Israel's Channel 2 television showed that 67 per cent of respondents favour a pardon for the soldier. A November 2015 poll from the Israel Democracy Institute found that 53 per cent of Israeli Jews supported the killing of Palestinian attackers on the spot even if they no longer pose a threat. More than 150 Palestinians have been fatally shot on suspicion of carrying out terrorist attacks since October 2015 in cases which did not warrant lethal force, Human Rights Watch (HRW) says. Reuters contributed to this report For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The man who shot and killed partygoers in the Turkish city of Istanbul on New Years Eve is probably of ethnic Uighur origin, police have said, as several more people are detained over the possibility they helped him carry out the attack. Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak told state media on Thursday that security services now have a good idea of where the suspect is hiding. Authorities had previously released photographs of the man and said they had his biometric records, but have not released his name. Mr Kaynak described the man as a specially trained member of a cell who carried out the attack alone, but may have been assisted in planning by others. Dozens of people have been detained in connection to the investigation since Saturdays attack. Isis claimed responsibility for the shooting at the upmarket Reina nightclub that killed 39, saying it was revenge for Turkish military involvement in Syria. Police carried out a dawn raid in a town near Istanbul on Thursday, detaining suspects thought to be connected to the attack, state-run Anadolu news agency said. People of Uighur ethnicity were among those detained. Turkey releases video of air strikes on more than 100 Isis targets in Syria after Istanbul nightclub attack Uighurs are a largely Muslim, Turkic-speaking minority in far western China with significant diaspora communities across central Asia and Turkey. A security source and media reports have said that the gunman is thought to be a national of a central Asian country. Reuters contributed to this report For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Asya Abdullah is not a polished politician. She speaks slowly and deliberately in Kurmanji in a tone which suggests she has had to practise her material many times. But despite the reserved and careful exterior, Abdullah is one of the most radical and effective revolutionaries in the world today. In the chaos of Syrias civil war, the countrys Kurdish population has seized the chance to wrest their own destiny from the hands of others. Long marginalised by the Baathist regime in Damascus, after repelling government forces in 2012 Syrias Kurds have managed to carve out a relatively peaceful and stable new societal order based in Rojava in the north, flourishing despite the presence of enemies such as Isis on all sides. Abdullah has been a driving force in the battle for Kurdish freedom - but as the female co-chair of the Syrian Democratic Union Party, elected alongside male representative Salih Muslim in 2010, it is her particular role to safeguard womens liberation. The hallmark of a free and democratic life is a free woman, she said in her keynote speech at the Rojava New World Embassy in Oslo at the end of November. Isis would like to reduce women to slaves and body parts. We show them theyre wrong. We can do anything. Syrias Kurds stand at a crossroads in the regions history The Rojava experiment is unlike any other. Coalitions between the local Assyrian, Arab and Kurdish populations have created a small society by and large run on the principles of a communal economy, harmony with the environment, and self governance. It is also hard to conceive just how radically the Kurdish administration has overturned the existing state structures in Syria by putting womens emancipation at the forefront of the the sociopolitical agenda. Women in Rojava have equal status in property law, forced and underage marriage has been banned, quotas for women and ethnic groups ensure representation at all levels of politics - and of course, the armed womens fighting units, known as the YPJ, have played a central role in the liberation of towns such as Kobani and Manbij. What the Kurds broadly want, despite some infighting and extreme pushback from neighbouring Turkey, is stateless democracy - the idea that in a federalised Syria, their autonomy can be maintained on a local level, with a focus on bottom up power and little to no interference from the state. Artist Jonas Staal's temporary Rojava embassy inside Oslo's City Hall (Jonas Staal/New World Summit) This is the third way, Abdullah told The Independent on the sidelines of the New World Embassy sessions. We have been so busy working and sending representatives to spread the word around the world this is the first time many in the administration have been in the same room in years. The delegates were brought together by Dutch artist Jonas Staal as part of his New World Summit project, a series designed to create spaces of assembly that represent a new world and a new democratic ideal in the making. Blacklisted or otherwise marginalised independence movements, such as those in Rojava, Somaliland, Catalonia and the Azawad movement in Mali, have been invited to New World Summits to explore what stateless democracy means in theory and practice. Over the course of a weekend around 1,000 observers, democracy activists, politicians and journalists descended on Oslos City Hall, home of the Nobel Peace Prize, to see Staals temporary Rojava embassy - a circular construction designed to reflect the openness and dynamism of the new world the Kurds are seeking to create. "We never played princesses as little girls," a 30-year-old YPG fighter jokes (Diego Cupolo) The prevailing consensus on the political left is that the current crises in global democracy - the EUs inability to combat the refugee crisis, the rise of right wing populism across Europe and the US - show that our post World War II models are failing, Staal says. His work is designed to open up the idea other democratic political models are possible. Contemporary parliamentary democracy is in itself not much more than a century old. In that sense, I dont trust the stability of anything. Our political, economic and environmental crises have brought us to a crossroads, he said. So, we have to ask ourselves: what kind of politics do we truly desire? Defending what we have is no longer enough, we must push forward. The war on terror, Staal and his colleagues argue, has emerged as the greatest threat to democracy in the 21st century. Rojava is democracy with a vengeance, he said. The region, historically, has had types of government and statehood thrust upon it with little say in how to govern themselves. Now it is the Kurds and their allies that tell us what a genuine democracy actually looks like. It seems unthinkable - Until you remember that the modern European continent - from the French to the Russian revolution - also emerged out of a revolutionary situation, he added. Asya Abdullah, co-chair of the Syrian Kurdish PYD, addresses delegates at the New World Summit Rojava in Oslo In providing an effective ground force against Isis, the Kurds have completely changed the course of Syrias war, and their role in the countrys future, whether embattled President Bashar al-Assad stays or goes, is crucial. Despite this, the Rojava administration has been shut out of all peace talks at the request of Sunni rebel groups. The experiment also faces renewed hostility from Turkey - recently the YPG said a military base near Kobani had been targeted by Turkish artillery fire - and can no longer necessarily count on support from the US now that the incoming Trump administration has signalled it wants to work with Assad to defeat Isis. Abdullah is stoic, however, about the Rojava experiments future. Our first responsibility is to protect our sisters, to protect all women. Thats why our revolution is working, why Arab women and Yazidi women join when they see us. You cant have real change without putting women at the centre, she said. Kurdish women, of course, literally fight for their rights - they take on Assads army and allied militias, Turkish-backed forces, and Isis. The creation of the YPJ, or womens fighting units, is a fascinating development in a region where womens rights are often repressed. The Sinjar Womens Units was formed with the help of Kurdish fighters in 2015 to protect the Yazidi community in the wake of attacks by Isis (YBS) People think this movement sprang up out of nowhere, said Abdullahs colleague Sinem Mohammed, who represents the partys interests in Europe. But weve been working towards this for the last twenty years. For some of us, all our lives. The formation of the YPJ has led to a flurry of sensationalist, sexist media coverage on badass women who fight Isis: The death of one 22-year-old fighter in August was reported as the demise of the Kurdish Angelina Jolie because of her looks. Several of Asia Ramazan Antars fellow soldiers died in the same car bomb near Manbij but their deaths were not reported in English language media, many Kurdish sources were quick to notice. This narrative, it wasnt our idea. I wish we had better control of it, Abdullah muses. They say its propaganda, that we should merge the womens units with the mens units. But they exist as separate for a reason. We have the YPJ because women need their own autonomy, to prove they can do things themselves. Such symbolism is important to the fledgling state. The flags of dozens of fighting units - mostly made up of the colours yellow, green and red, with variations on stars, constellations and laurel leaves - made up the walls of the temporary embassy in Oslo, and will be incorporated into the real building when it is inaugurated in the spring. Fighters from the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), part of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), are seen in the village of Fatisah in the northern Syrian province of Raqqa (Getty) There is evidence that the Kurds' visionary and bold ideals are taking root elsewhere. In the past few months, hundreds of Yazidi and Arab women, freed from Isis by Kurdish women, have taken up arms to defend themselves in recent months with training from the YPJ. I am proud to join [the fight], especially after suffering a lot of suppression in my private life. Being a part of those forces would give me the opportunity to protect other women in my society and fight for their rights, one new Arab recruit in Manbij said. The future for Abdullahs female fighting units is uncertain, though. At the New World Summit the official party line was one of buoyant optimism that when - not if - Assad regains control of the country, in recognition of their track record of success against Isis and autonomous de facto state, in a federal Syria, they will be left to their own devices. There is some evidence that despite protesting their status as second class citizens under successive Damascene governments, the Kurds are not immune to realpolitiking if needs be: YPG fighters in Aleppo worked alongside government troops and Shia militias to bring down the city in recent months. Interior of artist Jonas Staals temporary Rojava embassy, set up inside Oslo's City Hall (Jonas Staal/New World Summit) As is ever the case in Syrias unpredictable and bloody civil war, it is unlikely things will play out in the Rojava administration's favour as much as they would like. Turkey is an ever-expanding threat to their new-found sovereignty and relations between Turkish President Recep Erdogan and the Syrian government, as well as Russian leader Vladimir Putin, are thawing, despite the assassination of the Russian ambassador to Turkey two weeks ago. If Rojava is to survive, awareness of what they are trying to achieve is key, Abdullah notes. But even more pressingly, she says, more women around the world need to become aware of their own fight. In a political climate where 53 per cent of American white women chose to vote for Donald Trump - a man with double digit sexual assault accusations to his name - over a real live female candidate, there is sad evidence she is right. Its all step by step. But we have no other choice. You say, Why build when the foundations are unstable?, but that is fatalistic. We need to build quality of life and security wherever we can. My message is that individual women around the world need to start paying attention to their own rights. That is what I ask. To understand yourself and the connection our movement has to womens struggles all over the world... Thats what we fight for. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Engineers and other experts have warned that the collapse of an eight mile (13 kilometre) long dam on the Tigris River in northern Iraq is just a matter of time, triggering an environmental disaster which could leave 1.5 million people dead and millions more as far away as Baghdad without food or electricity. The Mosul Dam, 40 miles (60 kilometres) away from the Isis-controlled city of the same name, holds 11.1 billion cubic metres of water, and has been plagued by problems since its construction in the 1980s thanks to the fact it was built on soluble ground. It has required constant maintenance to fill the cavities that form underneath the concrete to stop it collapsing ever since. A 2006 US Army Corps engineering report found the Mosul Dam is the most dangerous dam in the world - but the situation has become more precarious since Isis took control of the area in 2014, including, briefly, the dam itself. Many of the 1,500 workers stationed there fled, and the extremists damaged much of their equipment. It is just a matter of time. It will be worse than throwing a nuclear bomb on Iraq, Professor Nadhir al-Ansari of the Environmental Engineering Department at Lulea University in Sweden, who inspected the initial construction, told Al-Jazeera. A 2015 study from the European Commission's Science Centre found that even a partial breach of 26 per cent would unleash a flood of catastrophic proportions. A wave of water up to 100 feet (30 metres) high would engulf Mosul in two hours, taking with it people, unexploded bombs, buildings and cars, as well as toxic substances from oil refineries and human waste. The surrounding flood plains are already home to more than one million people living in tents after being displaced by fighting who would struggle to find protection from the water. In pictures: Mosul offensive Show all 40 1 /40 In pictures: Mosul offensive In pictures: Mosul offensive A doctor carries an Iraqi newborn baby at a hospital in Mosul, Iraq July 18, 2017. Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi girls play at a yard of a school in Mosul, Iraq July 18, 2017alal Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive A woman on crutches who is a relative of men accused of being Islamic State militants is seen at a camp in Bartella, east of Mosul, Iraq July 15, 2017. Picture taken July 15, 2017. Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive A displaced girl, who fled from home carries a doll at Hamam al-Alil camp south of Mosul, Iraq July 13, 2017. Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi federal police members and civilians celebrate in the Old City of Mosul on 9 July 2017 after the government's announcement of the "liberation" of the embattled city. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's office said he was in "liberated" Mosul to congratulate "the heroic fighters and the Iraqi people on the achievement of the major victory" AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive A picture taken on 9 July 2017, shows a general view of the destruction in Mosul's Old City. Iraq will announce imminently a final victory in the nearly nine-month offensive to retake Mosul from jihadists, a US general said Saturday, as celebrations broke out among police forces in the city. AFP In pictures: Mosul offensive Members of the Iraqi federal police raise the victory gesture as they ride on a humvee while advancing through the Old City of Mosul on 28 June 2017, as the offensive continues to retake the last district held by Islamic State (IS) group fighters. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive Smoke billows as Iraqi forces advance through the Old City of Mosul on 26 June 2017, during the ongoing offensive to retake the last district held by the Islamic State (IS) group. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive An Iraqi man wearing the green scarf of the Shi'ite faith kisses an Iraqi Army soldier on safely reaching the Iraqi forces position as Iraqi civilians flee the Old City of west Mosul where heavy fighting continues on 23 June 2017. Iraqi forces continue to encounter stiff resistance with improvised explosive devices, car bombs, heavy mortar fire and snipers hampering their advance. Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive A picture taken from the inside of an Iraqi forces armoured vehicle shows residents walking through a damaged street as troops advance towards Mosul's Old City on 18 June 2017, during the ongoing offensive to retake the last district still held by the Islamic State (IS) group. Military commanders told AFP the assault had begun at dawn after overnight air strikes by the US-led coalition backing Iraqi forces. They said the jihadists were putting up fierce resistance. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi Army soldiers advance in a destroyed street after an Iraqi forces airstrike targeted an Islamic State sniper position 17 June 2017 in al-Shifa, the last district of west Mosul under Islamic State control. IS snipers, as well as car and suicide bomb attacks continue to hinder the Iraqi forces efforts to retake the final district. A series of airstrikes by Iraqi helicopter gunships attempted to hit multiple Islamic State sniper positions in al-Shifa. Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive An Iraqi soldier frisks a displaced Iraqi man at a temporary camp in the compound of the closed Nineveh International Hotel in Mosul on 16 June 2017 which was recovered by Iraqi troops from Islamic State group fighters earlier in the year. A screening centre set up in the compound's fairgrounds sees a constant stream of Iraqis fleeing the battle for Mosul, awaiting their turn to be checked by the Iraqi forces who are searching for suspected Islamic State (IS) group members. The small fairground lies at the end of a pontoon bridge across the Tigris recently opened to civilians that is the only physical link between the two banks of the river. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqis staying at the al-Khazir camp swim in a river near the camp for internally displaced people, located between Arbil and Mosul on 11 June 2017. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi government forces drive on a road leading to Tal Afar on 9 June 2017, during ongoing battles to retake the city from Islamic State (IS) group fighters. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive An Iraqi policeman carries a poster bearing an image of Mosul's iconic leaning minaret, known as the "Hadba" (Hunchback), on 22 June 2017. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqis stand in line to receive food aid in western Mosul's Zanjili neighbourhood on 7 June 2017, during ongoing battles as Iraqi forces try to retake the city from Islamic State (IS) group fighters. Living conditions in Mosul have again deteriorated since the start of the Iraqi government's offensive on the city in October in which they retook a large part of the west of the city. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive Displaced Iraqis carry lightbulbs and sacks as they evacuate from western Mosul's Zanjili neighbourhood as government forces advance in the area during their ongoing battle against Islamic State (IS) group fighters on 13 May 2017 AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive A member of the Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) flashes the victory gesture as he patrols in western Mosul's al-Islah al-Zaraye neighbourhood on 13 May 2017 AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi army soldiers from the 9th armoured division on a truck flash the sign of victory as they drive back from Mosul to the town of Qaraqosh (also known as Hamdaniya) Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive Members of Iraqi forces flash the sign of victory on their vehicle as they advance towards Hammam al-Alil area south of Mosul Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive A member of Iraqi security forces gestures in Hammam al-Alil, south of Mosul, Iraq Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi children, one flashing the sign of victory, greet Iraqi army's soldiers from the 9th armoured division in the area of Ali Rash, adjacent to the eastern Al-Intissar neighbourhood of Mosul Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive Peshmerga forces look at a tunnel used by Islamic State militants near the town of Bashiqa, east of Mosul, during an operation to attack Islamic State militants in Mosul, Iraq Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive An Iraqi soldier takes a photograph with his phone as his comrade stands next to a detained man, whom the Iraqi army soldiers accused of being an Islamic State fighter, who was fleeing with his family in the Intisar disrict of eastern Mosul, Iraq Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive Iranian Kurdish female members of the Freedom Party of Kurdistan (PAK) hold a position in an area near the town of Bashiqa, some 25 kilometres north east of Mosul Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi families, who fled their homes in Hamam al-Alil, gather on the outskirts of their town Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive Displaced people walk past a checkpoint near Qayara, south of Mosul, Iraq AP In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi families who were displaced by the ongoing operation by Iraqi forces against jihadists of the Islamic State group to retake the city of Mosul, are seen gathering in an area near Qayyarah In pictures: Mosul offensive A boy who just fled Abu Jarbuah village is seen with his family at a Kurdish Peshmerga position between two front lines near Bashiqa, east of Mosul, Iraq Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive An Iraqi child eats a pomegranate upon the arrival of Iraqi forces in the village of Umm Mahahir, south of Mosul Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive People who just fled Abu Jarbuah village sit as they eat at a Kurdish Peshmerga position between two front lines near Bashiqa, east of Mosul, Iraq Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive A couple who just fled Abu Jarbuah village are escorted by Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive Women carry a boy over a wall as civilians flee their houses in the village of Tob Zawa, Iraq AP In pictures: Mosul offensive An Iraqi soldier and a civilian ride a motorbike as smoke rises behind them, on the road between Qayyarah and Mosul Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive A member of Iraqi forces, wearing a skull mask, waits at a checkpoint for people fleeing the main hub city of Mosul Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive An Iraqi soldier sits at a checkpoint in an area near Qayyarah Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi men prepare food portions for Iraqi forces deployed in areas south of Mosul Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi forces celebrate upon the arrival of vehicles bringing food to them Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi childen smoke cigarettes upon the arrival of Iraqi forces in the village of Umm Mahahir, south of Mosul Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive A member of Iraqi forces distributes drinks to children in the village of Umm Mahahir, south of Mosul Getty Within four days, both the EU and US experts predict, a wave between six - 36 feet (two - eight metres) high would reach Baghdad, 250 miles (400 kilometres) away. The UN predicted last year that in any flooding scenario, up to four million people will be left homeless, and aid will take up to two weeks to reach those in need if airports, electricity grids and roads are knocked out. Iraqs oil refineries and up to two thirds of its wheat fields would also be affected. New 234 million ($300 million) World Bank funded repairs are being carried out by an Italian engineering company, but the fragile security situation in the area is making completion of the work difficult. Millions in need of aid as Iraqi forces advance on Mosul Kurdish and Italian soldiers remain on constant guard for extremist attacks. In October, an Isis convoy armed with explosives tried to approach the dam but were killed by Kurdish missiles before they reached it. A better and more permanent solution would be to build a second dam - but the political and military instability and lack of funds mean this option is highly unlikely. Iraqi officials have tried to downplay scientists and the international community's fears of an imminent disaster, but Professor Ansari remains sceptical the problem will be solved in time. I am convinced the dam could fail tomorrow, he said. Sign up to Simon Calders free travel email for weekly expert advice and money-saving discounts Get Simon Calders Travel email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Simon Calders Travel email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} This year, its 7 January: the day deemed by the travel industry to be Sunshine Saturday, when they expect the highest number of holiday bookings. And as tour operators put out ambitious (some would say spurious) press releases predicting huge demand for the new resorts they are launching for the year, its also the day when the destination marketeers see how well their slogans perform. Florida set the pace when it grabbed the nickname the Sunshine State; rather more enticing than that for the location at the opposite end of the US East Coast: Maine, the Pine Street State. On a national level, its a wonder that some countries get away with slogans that are plain misleading. The national tourism agency for the former Soviet republic of Belarus has tried Keep Calm and Visit Belarus and the bizarre Your New Birthday is Here. But it has settled on the claim that it offers hospitality without borders. Yet the reality is that it is one of very few European countries that require you to jump through a series of bureaucratic hoops even to catch one of the international trains that clips a corner of Belarus. If you forget, says the Foreign Office, the border authorities will send you to Minsk to obtain the appropriate visa. You may also have to pay a fine of up to $300 and face deportation. In the marvellous nation of Colombia, apparently, The only risk is wanting to stay. Well, the US State Department suggests otherwise: Continued vigilance is warranted due to an increase in recent months of violent crime Terrorist groups and other criminal organisations continue to kidnap and hold civilians, including foreigners, for ransom. Other nations shy away from misleading claims, but make assertions that are, frankly, meaningless. Someone made a lot of cash out of persuading the government in Amman that the best way to sell the country was with the line: Yes, its Jordan. Which ranks for sheer uselessness alongside Brexit means Brexit. Guatemala in Central America wisely makes a bit of a land-grab with Corazon del Mundo Maya, Heart of the Mayan World. The subtext: Mexico, Belize and Honduras are mere hangers-on to the Mayan legends. Neighbouring El Salvador conjured up a one-word slogan, Impressive!, while Honduras un Pais Amor a Primera Vista (Honduras a Country Love at First Sight) takes six words to say something unconvincing. Talking of love: I had a lovely holiday in Slovenia between Christmas and New Year, in which the only irritation was the constant reminder from tourist posters and publications that someone thought I feel SLOVEnia was a great idea. The slogans that work are those which build on existing reputations, such as New Zealands 100 per cent Pure, or those which are temptingly concise boasts: Cameroon all of Africa in one country, Malaysia Truly Asia or Omans Beauty has an address. Back in the Sunshine State, slogans abound. As I drove south through Gulf County on the Florida panhandle, I passed a church with a sign outside that hinted at the conflict in America over the acrimonious presidential election. It urged passing motorists, hesitatingly: If possible be at peace with all men. The strip of Florida that extends so far west that it enters another time zone is far more Deep South than Miami Beach, but even here the marketing people have been busy making up words that will upset your spellchecker as well as your sensibilities. Such as ecosploring, as in, In South Walton theres no shortage of ecosploring opportunities among the forests, trails and lakes. And my rental-car company didnt send me a confirmation of my booking, but a carfirmation. But when I finally reached Pensacola in the far west of Florida, I discovered the best tourism slogan on the planet. The city embraces a superb island beach, rich heritage and wildlife. And a former mayor, Vince Whibbs, summed up Pensacola as: The western gate to the Sunshine State, where thousands live the way millions wish they could. Click here for the latest travel offers from Independent Holidays Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The New Years Eve massacre at the nightclub in Istanbul was another grim reminder of the vicious violence in which Turkey is now enmeshed. It also gave a glimpse into something which has hitherto received little international exposure how terrorism from the steppes of Central Asia is casting its lethal shadow in the bloody world of jihad. The murders at the Reina nightclub were carried out by adherents of Isis from that region, say the Turkish authorities, who also believe the same group may have been responsible for last years attack on Istanbuls Ataturk airport. The gunman is said to be an ethnic Uighur, a Turkic-speaking Muslim minority in China. Those arrested as alleged accomplices are said to include Uighurs, Kyrghyzs, and Turkmen. Four people died and a number were injured on Thursday in an assault using a car bomb and guns on a courthouse in Izmir. A number of people have been detained in the city over the Istanbul attacks, among them a group who have travelled from Konya, where the nightclub killer is known to have stayed for several weeks. Two of those killed were attackers, one a policeman and the other a civilian. It remains unclear, however, whether Islamists or Kurdish separatists of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) were involved but local Turkish officials were quick to blame the PKK. Recommended Turkey kill 18 Isis militants in Syria day after nightclub shooting The power and reach of the Central Asian fighters has grown in the violent maelstrom of Syrias civil war, with an estimated 4,000 serving in hardline Islamist groups. Abu Omar al-Shishani, of mixed Chechen and Georgian background, born Tarkhan Batirashvili, was one of Isiss most successful commanders, leading the Muhajireen Brigade, with a large contingent from the Caucasus, to a series of victories before being killed in a US air strike in July last year. The threat posed by fighters from former Soviet Asian republics was one of the reasons given by Vladimir Putin for his game-changing intervention in Syria. Chechen separatists have carried out a number of high-profile attacks in Russia and there were repeated threats from jihadis to carry out more bombings. As well as carrying out air-strikes the Kremlin has also been accused of running a clandestine campaign of assassinations inside Turkey where a dozen Chechens, Uzbeks and Tajiks were killed in 12 months. One of the main causes for so many of the Central Asian diaspora ending up in Turkey is President Recep Tayyip Erdogans desire to portray himself and his country as heirs of the Ottomans and the leaders of the Turkic people. A significant proportion of those who arrived were conservative Muslims, at odds with their governments at home. Members of these communities have crossed the Syrian border to take part in the civil war. Some had taken children with them having arrived in Turkey, like the Istanbul killer, with their families. Young boys from Central Asia form a large part of the Cubs of the Caliphate, child fighters of Isis, and several, some no more than eight years old, have appeared in videos carrying out executions. In pictures: Istanbul nightclub attacked during New Year party Show all 9 1 /9 In pictures: Istanbul nightclub attacked during New Year party In pictures: Istanbul nightclub attacked during New Year party People talk to medics in an ambulance near the scene of an attack in Istanbul on 1 January 2017 AP In pictures: Istanbul nightclub attacked during New Year party People near the scene of an attack in Istanbul on 1 January 2017 AP In pictures: Istanbul nightclub attacked during New Year party Police secure area near an Istanbul nightclub, Turkey, January 1, 2017. Reuters In pictures: Istanbul nightclub attacked during New Year party Ambulances line up on a road leading to a nightclub where a gun attack took place during a New Year party in Istanbul, Turkey Reuters In pictures: Istanbul nightclub attacked during New Year party Turkish special force police officers and ambulances are seen at the site of an armed attack January 1, 2017 in Istanbul Getty In pictures: Istanbul nightclub attacked during New Year party People embrace near the scene of an attack in Istanbul, on New Year's Day AP In pictures: Istanbul nightclub attacked during New Year party Medics carry a wounded person after an attack at a popular nightclub in Istanbul on 1 January AP In pictures: Istanbul nightclub attacked during New Year party Turkish police secure the area at Ortakoy district under Bosphorus Bridge after the attack on Reina nightclub Getty Images In pictures: Istanbul nightclub attacked during New Year party People leave a nightclub in Istanbul after it was attacked on 1 January AP Frayed relations between Ankara and Moscow over the presence of the Islamist exiles, and the alleged killings by the Russians, have been mended in the rapprochement between the two countries. The Erdogan government appeared to have initially encouraged demonstrations in solidarity with the Uighurs after the Chinese government was accused of a crackdown during Ramadan with the foreign ministry issuing a statement saying Our people are saddened over the news that Uighur Turks have been banned from fasting or carrying out other religious duties. But the protests were curbed after Chinese visitors and Chinese restaurants were attacked, followed by angry complaints from Beijing. As well as grave diplomatic repercussions, Turkey could hardly afford any further damage to a tourist industry severely hit after terrorist attacks and the upheavals around the failed coup last summer. Two years ago the Chinese government reported that around 400 Uighur fighters of the Islamist Movement of East Turkestan the separatist name for the Chinese province of Xinjiang were fighting in Syria. Their usual route has been through Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan, to Turkey before crossing the border. That number is said to have quadrupled since, accompanied by an increasingly violent challenge to the Chinese government. The Kyrgyzstan government claimed that Uighur fighters in Syria had organised an attack on the Chinese embassy last September in Bishkek. The attacker had used a Tajik passport to get into the country, illustrating cooperation between Central Asian insurgents. There have also been a rise in bombings and shootings in Xinjiang. The attacks have led to a significant change in Chinese foreign policy away from avoiding overt military involvement abroad. Beijing recently agreed to train the Assad regimes troops. The Central Asian connection continues to suck international powers into the quagmire of regional strife. Tim Cook has a moral obligation to come before the committee, Sinn Fein's Pearse Doherty said Apple boss Tim Cook has been accused of snubbing the Dail after refusing to attend hearings on a 13 billion euro tax bill that the company was hit with. John McGuinness, chairman of the Oireachtas all-party Finance Committee, invited the chief executive of the global tech brand to answer questions on the European Commission ruling next month. Committee member Sinn Fein's Pearse Doherty said he had been told the offer had been rejected and branded Mr Cook's rejection a snub to the Irish people and parliament. "Tim Cook has a moral obligation to come before the committee," he said. "I'd urge Government ministers to encourage Tim Cook to respond favourably to the request. It's a snub to the Irish people and a snub to the Irish parliament." Mr Doherty said Apple had told the committee that Mr Cook would not attend because the company is appealing the tax ruling through the European courts. The EU Commissioner for Competition, Margrethe Vestager, who issued the ruling on Apple tax bills last year, is due to attend the committee, despite also being a party to the appeal case. The watchdog's landmark ruling into the iPad and iPhone maker found it paid just 50 euro in tax for every 1 million of profit made outside the US in 2014 after getting assurances from tax inspectors about a complex corporate structure in 1991 and 2007 and how it routed sales figures through subsidiaries in Ireland and on to the US. Mr Cook previously appeared at a congressional hearing in Washington DC where he explained that Apple effectively paid 2% tax rate for its subsidiaries in Ireland, where the headline corporation tax rate is 12.5%. Apple has about 6,000 employees in Ireland and is planning to build a huge data centre near Athenry, Galway. The company wrote to the committee on December 20 last year and rejected the invite stating that the issue was "complex and challenging". Apple is understood to have said that contacts were ongoing with the Department of Finance, the Revenue Commissioners and the European Commission and that given "the sensitive nature" of the issue it had been advised not to do anything that could prejudice it. Mr McGuinness described Mr Cook's rejection as "more than disappointing". "Apple is a huge employer here. It's not just a question of Tim Cook being given an invitation it's about the profile of his company and its attitude to the Irish Government," the chairman said. "I would expect a lot more from his company." Campaigners are demanding more action from Nama to help homeless people The state's bad-bank Nama said it has delivered 2,378 social houses and apartments a mid renewed calls for it to make more property available for the homeless. The Home Sweet Home campaign demanded the Government force the agency to move faster as a deadline looms for the group to leave the Apollo House office block in central Dublin. Up to 40 homeless people have been living in the once empty civil service building since it was occupied by activists in the middle of December. Organisers are to meet Housing Minister Simon Coveney on Friday as behind-the-scenes efforts are made to avoid the potential for a forced eviction when a court order kicks in next Wednesday at midday. Brendan Ogle, one of those leading the campaign, said Nama can be forced to increase the amount of social housing available "at the stroke of a pen". "The bar has been raised in terms of the minimum standards that should be provided to our most vulnerable citizens, those homeless people who find themselves on the street," he said. Mr Ogle outlined a series of demands to deal with the housing and homelessness crisis and to help bring an end to the occupation of Apollo House. The campaign's emergency housing response plan includes calls for accommodation which homeless people can access 24 hours a day and remain in for six months, private beds and access to services. "We believe ... through Nama, our ministers are in a fortunate position. Angela Merkel doesn't have a Nama. There's homelessness in Berlin. Theresa May doesn't have a Nama and there's homelessness in London. And Francois Hollande doesn't have a Nama and there's homelessness in Paris," Mr Ogle said. The trade union official said Finance Minister Michael Noonan and his cabinet colleague Mr Coveney effectively control land and buildings which can be re-designated for the homeless people living in Apollo House. In its annual review Nama defended its work on social housing and said it delivered 2,378 houses and apartments in 167 individual projects in 19 counties. They include 899 in the four Dublin council areas, 445 in Cork city and county, 228 in Galway city and county, 51 in Waterford and 16 in Limerick. Another 370 homes are being worked on. It said it had identified 6,941 homes for social housing since 2012. In its statement it said: "Throughout 2016, Nama continued to work closely with the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government and the Housing Agency in seeking to match the residential stock held by its debtors and receivers with the requirements of local authorities for social housing." It said that it puts homes up for sale or rent in the private market if councils or the Housing Agency tell them there is no demand. Nama also said that it had 2.2 billion euro in cash at the end of last year and that it expects to turn a profit of about 2.3 billion euro when it finishes its work. It said that the number of unfinished or ghost estates on its books came down from 332 at the end of 2010 to 25 at the end of last year. Nama said it should be resolved this year. The Home Sweet Home campaign sent a petition to Mr Noonan earlier this week urging him to use a clause in the Nama act to force it to make property available for social housing. Leading Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage believes Ireland may follow Britain and exit the European Union. Former Ukip leader Mr Farage said there was a perception that Irish voters were major supporters of the EU - but that he did not believe this was the case. He said if Britain was in a better place in two or three years - after Prime Minister Theresa May activates Article 50 - then momentum may grow in Ireland to take a similar step. "If two or three years down the road and we are clearly better off... I think if we can do that, then the public opinion in Ireland is going to move in our direction," Mr Farage told RTE's Sean O'Rourke. Mr Farage, who is a serving MEP, said Irish voters twice voted 'no' in referenda on EU treaties. He also said he agreed with frustrations expressed by Irish politicians over the delay by London to spell out its Brexit strategy. "I do agree with the Irish Government. We do need the Brits to be clear about what they want," Mr Farage said. He added: "I think it's important that the British government develop something of a plan. "I believe it's important now, over six months since the referendum, we know what type of relationship that they wish to have with the European Union. It's not clear, to date, what that plan might be. Clarity "I believe that it's important now that we move towards a position of clarity. This is the most important and urgent economic challenge of our time." British Prime Minister Theresa May will visit Ireland later this month to discuss Brexit, and will meet with Taoiseach Enda Kenny during her trip. Speaking later on yesterday, Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan dismissed as "fanciful thinking" the claims put forward by Mr Farage. He said Ireland was on "Team EU" in the negotiations. "I think that's somewhat fanciful thinking. I'm not sure how familiar he is with Ireland or Irish people. I don't subscribe to his view. Irish people have embraced the European project," said Mr Flanagan. Positive And he added: "Ireland would obviously wish, post Brexit, that the relationship between the UK and the EU would be close. Our preference obviously is what has been described as a 'soft Brexit'." Asked about the resignation of the British ambassador to the EU earlier this week, Mr Flanagan said: "We in Ireland have always enjoyed a very positive and constructive relationship with Ivan Rogers. It's important that we work well with everybody." Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.'s stock performance is displayed on a monitor on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York. (Photo : Getty Images) Alibaba-backed company Sinosoft Technology has denied allegations that it falsified its revenues and profits as claimed by ZhongKui Research in a report. ZhongKui Research, a short-seller firm based in China, said in a report published Dec. 28 that Sinosoft Technology, in which Alibaba has a 13.32 percent stake, fabricated its revenue figures. Advertisement In the report, ZhongKui called Sinosoft "a serial fraudster at large," saying that the group had falsified its financial records while it was still listed in London. ZhongKui also alleged the fabrication of records continued when the group listed in Hong Kong. The second report "has made further allegations which again are groundless and contains various misrepresentations, malicious and false allegations and obvious factual errors of the group", Sinosoft wrote in a statement. It said that it will submit the necessary AIC filing information from 2006 to 2015 to the stock exchange. The company stressed that ZhongKui's report is inconsistent with the relevant AIC filing information, adding that ZhongKui is not an institution registered in the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong. Sinosoft halted trading in its shares when the first report was released, per Fortune. Its shares hit a 17-month low on Dec. 29, when the second report was made public. The company managed to bounce back when it officially denied the allegations, with shares jumping nearly 5 percent. "ZhongKui Research is a short seller and therefore stands to realize significant gains in the event that the price of the shares decline. In view of this, shareholders and investors should exercise extreme caution in reading and using the information in the ZhongKui Report," warned Sinosoft. Meanwhile, Sinosoft's second-largest shareholder Alibaba declined to comment on the matter. On its website, ZhongKui describes itself as "a highly experienced group of analysts intent on uncovering and exposing fraudulent companies globally." 'Mr Rogerss exit email lays bare the central problem with the UKs approach to Brexit it doesnt seem to have one yet.' Photo: REUTERS/Francois Lenoir/File Photo Britain's top man in Brussels didn't mince his words as he penned his exit letter to colleagues. Citing the absence of any clarity from Downing Street on the way forward on Brexit, and the lack of negotiating expertise in Whitehall, Ivan Rogers painted an unflattering picture of Theresa May's government. His abrupt departure as the UK's EU ambassador has shone a light on an administration seemingly unprepared for the daunting and complex task that awaits it. Mr Rogers's exit email lays bare the central problem with the UK's approach to Brexit - it doesn't seem to have one yet. As the UK's EU representative, Mr Rogers would have sat around the table with his European counterparts - including Ireland's Declan Kelleher - and no doubt faced questions about Downing Street's thinking. His email clearly reflects his frustrations. "We do not yet know what the government will set as negotiating objectives for the UK's relationship with the EU after exit," he wrote. He urged his colleagues to continue to challenge "ill-founded arguments and muddled thinking", and claimed the European Commission was way ahead of Britain in terms of negotiating expertise. The structure of the UK's negotiating team, he wrote, and the allocation of roles and responsibilities, "needs rapid resolution". And he urged colleagues to support each other in the "difficult moments" when they have to deliver messages that are "disagreeable to those who need to hear them". One senior Irish source said his comments chimed with feeling across Europe but meant we were "preparing with a blindfold on". "It supports the messaging that's been coming from Dublin and other capitals that there isn't some behind-the-scenes negotiation of a UK plan. Everybody is literally waiting to see and one imagines there's some fairly serious discussions about what they want internally given that there's nothing emanating from them to date. "We are preparing with a blindfold on at the moment by virtue of the fact that we haven't see their proposals. One might have imagined some degree of information would have come." Mrs May didn't waste any time in appointing Tim Barrow, a career diplomat and former UK ambassador to Moscow, as Mr Rogers's replacement. Ms May had been under pressure from the pro-EU exit camp, delighted at Mr Rogers's abrupt departure, to elevate a committed Brexiteer to the EU envoy role. They may be disappointed by Mr Barrow's appointment. Dubbed "one of the greatest experts" Britain has on EU matters by the former head of the country's foreign office, Mr Rogers had irked those from the pro-Brexit camp because of a leaked warning he made to ministers that a free trade deal between Britain and the EU post-departure could take up to a decade to thrash out. Former Conservative minister Iain Duncan Smith claimed Mr Rogers couldn't be trusted. But European Affairs Minister Dara Murphy said the personal view of those appointed to such a role didn't matter for the job. "I think it's really vital at this stage, over the next number of months, that we do see a concrete set of proposals from the United Kingdom," Mr Murphy told the Irish Independent. "Obviously they will have to have a co-ordinated, agreed position from their own system. Clearly, the permanent representative, the senior British official in Brussels, will have a key role in being a focal point for that co-ordinated position. "It's not up the ambassadors to come up with policy, it's up to the Government, so it doesn't really matter what the personal view of the ambassador would be." Theresa May is preparing to make a major speech on Brexit amid accusations by the disgruntled outgoing top UK civil servant in Brussels that the Government lacks an exit strategy. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Brexit Secretary David Davis are contributing to the content of the address, which is expected later in January. The Prime Minister will reportedly say Britain will pull out of the single market if the European Union fails to make concessions on freedom of movement, although No 10 sources insisted the claims were speculation. Mrs May moved swiftly to draw a line under the row sparked by the surprise resignation of UK permanent representative Sir Ivan Rogers by agreeing his replacement within 36 hours of his notice to quit. He is being succeeded next week by career diplomat Sir Tim Barrow, a former ambassador to Russia described by No 10 as a "seasoned and tough negotiator" who will help the Government make a success of Brexit. The appointment was welcomed by Labour but Ukip said the role should have been given to a "committed Brexiteer". In a fiery resignation letter, Sir Ivan had hit out at the "ill-founded arguments and muddled thinking" of politicians and said civil servants still did not know the Government's plans for Brexit. It sparked a war of words, with prominent Brexiteers Iain Duncan Smith and Peter Lilley accusing the diplomat of "sour grapes" while former senior civil servant Lord Ricketts attacked the "denigration" of the long-serving mandarin. Brussels officials said Sir Ivan's resignation meant the UK had lost a "professional" diplomat who had always "loyally defended" his Government. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said Sir Tim was "just the man" to secure the best deal for the UK. Expand Close Ivan Rogers, former UK ambassador to the European Union. Photo: Francois Lenoir/Reuters / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Ivan Rogers, former UK ambassador to the European Union. Photo: Francois Lenoir/Reuters "Tim Barrow has been invaluable since I joined the Foreign Office in July and I want to personally thank him for his relentless energy, wise counsel and steadfast commitment," he said. "He is just the man to get the best deal for the UK and will lead UKRep with the same skill and leadership he has shown throughout his career. I wish him all the best." Read More Sir Tim was appointed political director general at the Foreign Office last March after leaving his role in Moscow. He has had two previous stints working as part of the UK's Permanent Representation to the EU (UKRep). Mr Davis said: "His knowledge of Brussels means he will be able to hit the ground running at a vital time, and steer UKRep throughout the negotiation period. I am confident that with his help, the UK will be able to forge a new relationship with the EU that works to the mutual benefit of both sides. Sir Tim said he was "honoured" to be appointed to the crucial role. A Downing Street spokesman said: "We are delighted that Tim Barrow is taking up this role. A seasoned and tough negotiator, with extensive experience of securing UK objectives in Brussels, he will bring his trademark energy and creativity to this job - working alongside other senior officials and ministers to make a success of Brexit." Ukip former leader Nigel Farage said: "Good to see that the Government have replaced a knighted career diplomat with ... a knighted career diplomat." The party's Brexit spokesman Gerard Batten said: "This appointment is a disappointment because the last thing we need is another career diplomat wearing a Brussels jersey. "The Foreign Office needs a complete and revolutionary shake-up for it must begin to reflect the stated desire of the British people to leave the EU." Labour called for the Government to set out a clear timetable for the publication of its Brexit plans in the wake of the resignation. The party's Brexit spokesman Sir Keir Starmer said Sir Ivan's resignation was likely to be a "significant loss" for Britain and raised "a number of serious questions" about the Government's preparations for the talks, which Mrs May has said she will trigger under Article 50 of the EU treaties before the end of March. He added: "I welcome the appointment of Sir Tim Barrow as the UK's new Permanent Representative to the EU. It is of course vital that there should be no vacuum in such an important role and that the new Permanent Representative should be someone with a strong and distinguished record of service as a diplomat. "But a number of fundamental questions remain unanswered. In particular, Sir Ivan Rogers' confirmation that the Government lack a plan for Brexit and his statement that the UK does not have a proper and effective negotiating team in place." Lord Kerslake, who was head of the civil service between 2012 and 2014, said Sir Ivan's departure "deprives the Government of a very experienced and capable European expert at a critical moment". Read More "What is equally concerning though is the manner of his departure and what it tells us about the Government's state of readiness for what many see the biggest challenge this country has faced since the Second World War," he said in a letter to The Times. While the civil service is skilled and committed to serving the Government it needs to be "clearly led, resourced properly to do the job and listened to even when its advice is not welcome," Lord Kerslake said. Tom Fletcher, a former UK ambassador to Lebanon and former foreign policy adviser to three UK prime ministers, welcomed Sir Tim's appointment. He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "It's the toughest negotiation in our life times and I think he is up to it. "I have seen him in Brussels. He knows the corridors, he knows the characters. "But actually more importantly I saw him in Moscow where he was incredibly resilient as ambassador there, dealing with (Vladimir) Putin in a very testing time in our relationship and Tim had a reputation of being bulletproof out there." Meanwhile, Sir Robert Cooper, a former UK diplomat and European Commission official who knows Sir Tim, warned that the UK's team in Brussels currently lacks direction. He said: "I think at the moment there is a policy vacuum. It's not surprising. This is a gigantic enterprise that's been taken on and needs a lot of thought. "I think at the moment probably the atmosphere is difficult because people don't know where they are going. "You need to have a sense of direction." Leading Labour Remain campaigner Chuka Umunna said having the Brexit vote without an EU withdrawal strategy in place was "criminal". He told ITV's Good Morning Britain: "Holding this referendum without any plan as to what you would do if we voted to leave was criminal, in my view. "Well, I'm being rhetorical, it's clearly not illegal, but it was a silly thing to do, and now what have we got? We are flailing about, no direction, no-one knows what's happening." Lord Livingston, a Tory former minister for trade and investment and former chief executive of BT, warned a new trade deal with the EU could take a long time to secure. He said: "They do. First of all of course we have to actually sort out what's broadly going to be our relationship with the EU. "Are we going to be in the single market? Probably not. Are we going to be in the customs union? "Then you can turn your attention to other countries but the trade deal for instance with Canada still isn't fully implemented and that's about seven years on." He added: "You can do quick trade deals, you can do good trade deals, you can do wide-ranging trade deals - you just can't do all three of them at the same time." On the idea that the UK could leave the EU without a new trade deal in place, he told the BBC: "You can trade without one, you'll just do it better with one." Meanwhile, Lord Marland, chairman of the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council and a former trade envoy under David Cameron, expressed concerns about the Government's ability to conduct tough negotiations. He said: "My fear is that Whitehall as a whole has really not got the skill set to deliver a really hard-nosed negotiation and I think we have really got to up skill in that area to do it." Lord Marland also insisted that while trade deals are important, they are not "fundamental". He added: "If you're too hard on negotiation you don't win. Any negotiation has got to have something that's in it for both parties." Mats Persson, formerly David Cameron's special adviser for Europe, told the BBC he believed that, in hindsight, the former prime minister could have secured more in his negotiations with the EU prior to the Brexit referendum. He said: "I think, played differently and perhaps over a longer period of time, we could have perhaps achieved some more reforms, yes." Mr Persson rejected Lord Marland's suggestion that Whitehall lacked the skills to conduct tough negotiations. He said: "I do think the UK has, and Whitehall has, the skill set to deliver this." Farmers told to no worry about possible claims, in light of last year's court case that awarded 40,000 damages to a hill walker. Following the circuit court judgment last April Mountaineering Ireland refuted claims from the IFA and ICSA that farmers should be worried about the judgement which awarded a hill walker 40,000 in damages after she injured herself while walking the Wicklow Way. IFA said that while the judgement relates to property owned by the National Parks and Wildlife Service, farmers will be very wary of the consequences where hill walkers ramble off designated routes. However, Mountaineering Irelands spokesperson said This case could not have succeeded had the woman been injured by a fall on rocky ground, rather than a boardwalk. This judgement is under Section 4.4 of the Occupiers Liability Act where there is a higher duty of care on the landowner for structures that are provided for use primarily by recreational users. "That higher level of responsibility does not apply to other structures you would find in a farming environment or features in the natural landscape. Most structures provided for use by recreational users that are on private land, such as stiles, bridges and boardwalks are part of managed trails where there is an insurance policy in place to indemnify landowners." It went on to say that if a farmer puts in a stile for his/her own convenience and even if it is used by walkers his/her duty of care remains minimal - not to deliberately injure the person or damage their property. "If an accident was caused due to a deficiency in the stile, then the claimant would find it very difficult to plead a claim because the landowner doesnt owe them that higher duty of care." "The bigger picture here is that the law recognises that people engaged in outdoor recreation activities should be aware of the risk that is involved in what they do, and that they should take responsibility for themselves. This judgment should not be causing worry for farmers around the country. The High Court will rule in the coming weeks on an appeal against a decision to award a hill walker 40,000 for injuries from a fall on the Wicklow way in 2013. If we as farming people were to assess a year in just purely monetary terms, the sheep business for 2016 would look poor compared to the previous year. Go back to the first quarter of 2015 and you see factory lamb prices increasing to and beyond 6.00/kg. By the first quarter of 2016 prices were down by a euro and by the end of 2016 were another 50c/kg lower. Thats a 25pc fall in real terms in price from January 2015 to this week. And while I do have plants quoting more in the league table today (see below) one of our bigger operators is on 4.50/kg this week. The reason for the falling price can be partly seen in the Bord Bia statistics (opposite) that show the fluctuations in overall sheep and lamb numbers between 2015 and 2016. With overall numbers at just over 500,000 in early 2015, prices were heading for 6 plus, but once numbers began to rise the price slide was on. Numbers hit 800,000hd in the third quarter of 2015 and once a price slide starts it can be very hard to halt. If it was, once numbers settled back down as they did in the first quarter of 2016 overall average prices in theory should have gone back up to the 6.00/kg region, but they didnt. Granted the top end lambs pushed 5.80-5.90/kg in February, but the overall average according to Bord Bia stayed fairly flat at about 5.20/kg. Viability As the year progressed, prices fell further with factories using increasing supplies to dampen price expectations to their current levels. However, the viability of sheep farming, no different to all farming, cannot be measured in just purely monetary terms, which is why so many of us stay at it. There would have been far more hue and cry towards the end of last year in the sheep section if the weather had not taken up so very well. Remember the early part of the spring had seen very unfavourable conditions with wet and cold making the actually physical job of fattening sheep difficult on both stock and shepherd As the year progressed the mart trade with great assistance from the live trade and from store buyers went from flat to very buoyant which helped circulate more money through the system. As the year ended those store men who had invested heavily found that the months of November and December were not overly bad from a weather point of view. As I write this column, the weather continues dry and on occasion very sunny. And thats part of the issue in farming once we can get to do our job well, we tend to lose sight of the fact that we may not be getting all that well paid for it. Forecourt retailer Applegreen has agreed to pay 15.7m to buy a 50pc stake in a fuel terminal at Dublin Port. The Joint Fuel Terminal is currently equally owned by Valero Energy (Ireland) and Esso Ireland. It is one of three fuel importing facilities at the port. Applegreen is acquiring Esso's stake in the terminal. Esso Ireland was acquired by Topaz in October 2015 for 75m. At the time, Topaz was owned by businessman Denis O'Brien. Shortly after, he sold Topaz to Canada's Alimentation Couche-Tard for 450m. But as part of the deal to acquire the Esso operation, Topaz was told by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission to sell the Esso stake in the Joint Fuel Terminal. The stake had been for sale since early in 2016. Valero Energy (Ireland) is part of the US-based Valero Energy group. It markets Texaco in Ireland. It was reported that Valero Energy was probably interested in acquiring the 50pc stake in the Joint Fuel Terminal that it didn't already own. However, that could have resulted in competition issues. The fuel importing facilities at Dublin Port are understood to service about half of Ireland's oil market requirements. "The proposed acquisition provides Applegreen with the facility to import fuel directly from refineries, thereby securing a strategically valuable platform that provides a competitive supply for the majority of its Irish fuel requirements," the stock market-listed company said yesterday in a statement. It expects the acquisition - likely to be completed in the current quarter - to be earnings accretive from this year. Applegreen floated on the stock market last year, raising almost 92m and using the proceeds to help expand its presence in Ireland and the UK. It operates a total of 220 sites, including motorway service areas across the island of Ireland. It also has a handful of US outlets in Long Island, and has recently inked a deal to expand the brand into Massachusetts. In September, it reported that its first-half revenue rose 7.4pc to 556.6m, while its adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), was 15pc higher at 13m. Also in September, Applegreen's two founders - chief executive Bob Etchingham and chief operating officer Joe Barrett - sold a 7.5pc stake in the forecourt retailer for a total of 27m. The pair continue to be major shareholders in the company. Their Malta-based B&J Holdings entity still owns 60pc of Applegreen's share capital, with Mr Etchingham owning 75pc of B&J, and Mr Barrett owning 25pc. Tony Hanway, ceo of Virgin Media Ireland My 2016: The Irish economic recovery is continuing with consumer spending growing and continued gains in the number of people in employment. We work in an exciting sector that is instrumental in enabling consumers and businesses to fully participate in the digital revolution. Many people in the larger urban areas take high speed broadband for granted but in many towns there is a still a wide digital divide. I found it very motivational to feel the positive vibe as we continue to connect Irish homes and businesses to super-fast broadband because it reminded me that our products make a huge positive difference to communities right across Ireland. Hopes for 2017: My hopes relate to the macro side. Our world is an increasingly crowded and fractious place, therefore its essential our political and business leaders show their joint resolve to meet the myriad challenges we face through good judgment and ethical decision-making. I passionately believe there is a clear majority of people who realise we are all increasingly inter-dependent, so in 2017 lets demonstrate conviction that co-operation and goodwill is our best option for a sustainable future. Professor Martin Cormican, consultant microbiologist, Galway University Hospitals/Prof of Bacteriology at NUI Galway School of Medicine My 2016: For many people, the big infection story of the year was the Zika virus and the link with brain damage in infants of mothers infected during pregnancy. On February 1 2016, the Zika virus outbreak was declared a public health emergency of international concern by the World Health Organisation. A much bigger infection story of 2016 in terms of the number of people harmed is the continuing global epidemic spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and of DNA fragments that carry resistance. In 2016, this problem was considered by the General Assembly of the United Nations but action continues to be too little and too late as new forms of antibiotic-resistant bacteria emerge and spread, facilitated by poverty, poor sanitation and poor infection control in a global village awash with hundreds of thousands of tonnes of antibiotics. Hopes for 2017: We need pandemic antibiotic-resistant bacteria including drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and carbapenem-resistant gut bacteria (CPE) to be considered a public health emergency of international concern in 2017. Unlike Zika or Ebola, spread happens below the radar. Life-threatening disease may not happen for months or years. Hospitals, clinics and nursing homes facilitate early spread. Later, they are everywhere in the community, in food and in the environment. The effects of pandemic antibiotic-resistant bacteria have already been grave and will become worse. Control is a daunting and continuing challenge but that is a poor reason not to face it head on in 2017. Caroline Spillane, director general of Engineers Ireland My 2016: The UKs decision to leave the European Union colours every aspect of Irelands economic future, and the associated uncertainty is already affecting the business activity of our members. Nonetheless a sample survey of 3,000 of our member engineers in Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland and the GB region in late October showed that the sector is robust and resourceful, with organisations already adapting to the new Brexit business reality. And 40pc said they were proactively changing their business strategy to adapt to the new economic reality of Brexit, with most respondents optimistic that the major impact of Brexit will not be felt for several years. Engineers Ireland works with engineering firms and employers to reach a special CPD-accredited employer standard to ensure the standard of the work from member Irish engineering firms is of the highest calibre. Hopes for 2017: The Governments renewed focus on the importance of STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths) in schools, as evident in the recent publication of the STEM Education Review Group report, is encouraging. We need to increase competence in STEM and set targets for take-up. A solid grounding in STEM is naturally beneficial to a career in engineering. We particularly welcome that amongst the initial 21 actions, will be the introduction of computer science (including coding), as a Leaving Certificate subject. Were also excited about our Engineers Week nationwide programme from March 4-10, supported by SFI, which highlights STEM and celebrates the exciting world of engineering in Ireland. Dr Rhona Mahony, Master of the National Maternity Hospital My 2016: I am very lucky to work in a hospital that sees so many new lives coming safely in to the world. Birth is so universal and so fundamental. Every day here is extraordinary. The birth of a healthy baby is a wonderful gift. Equally, the loss of a baby a terrible tragedy. For me, the highlight must therefore be the safe delivery of 9,000 babies into the world at the hospital during 2016. The other big highlight was the agreement that finally paves the way for the development of a new National Maternity Hospital on the campus of St Vincents Hospital at Elm Park. Hopes for 2017: I hope to see the planning application lodged, which will be another major step towards this goal for women and infants in Ireland. Over the two decades of my working career, I have seen many advances in maternity care and going into a new year it is very exciting to look to the future and imagine how outcomes might further be improved by advancing technology. More generally, every day 25 to 30 babies leave the National Maternity Hospital to all kinds of different circumstance. I hope their world will be kind and tolerant and that it will foster their unique potential. Tadhg Daly, chief executive of Nursing Homes Ireland My 2016: My highlight of the year was at last feeling like what an investigative journalist must feel like when they eventually find the information they have been seeking. Nursing Homes Ireland had spent five years trying to prise out of the HSE the costs of care in their public nursing homes. I was up every hill and down every dale, got parliamentary questions asked, issued press releases, asked at Oireachtas Committees, badgered journalists to ask, went everywhere trying to get it out of them. Eventually, the HSE relented and published it in October. The reason for not publishing for five years became clear in some instances, the HSE pays its nursing homes up to seven times the amount payable in respect of residents in the private and voluntary nursing homes. It at last made sense as to why the great secret for five years. Now the Public Accounts Committee is investigating so I am pleased with that. Hopes for 2017: My wish for 2017 is that we get a proper plan for addressing the care requirements of our ageing demographics, recognising the key role of the private and voluntary nursing home sector as partners. If the euphemistic can has been kicked down the road once, it has happened 100 times for older people. Instead of kicking the can, it is now the older people who feel the kick as acute hospitals arent able to cope with the increase in our ageing population. For once and for all in 2017, we should try to develop an integrated plan across the system, with everybody involved at the table, not just the unions and Health Service Executive. Erotic-LA Sexual Entertainment Trade Show (Photo : Getty Images) Some Chinese men never learn. Despite viral videos of males needing an extra hand make that pliers and other tools to free their genitals from kinky sex toys, one incident happened again in Jiangsu Province. Shanghaiist reported that the Suqian City man attached a steel penis trap to his private part at around 2 a.m. He fell asleep and woke up likely with an erection to discover to his horror the sex toy could not be removed. Advertisement Last Recourse He first went to doctors who failed to help him. The poor guys next recourse were firefighters who actually are familiar with the problem and how to help adventurous and kinky men in that situation. When the firefighters came, they initially tried to break the metal ring using pliers. However, it would not break which led to the firefighters using a rotating saw to cut the penis rings. The operation was successful and done in 90 minutes. Besides stuck manhood, Chinese firefighters also helped a Guangdong man free his scrotum that were stuck between a pair of magnets. In late September, a young Chinese male from the Guangxi Autonomous Region had the same problem as the man from Jiangsu, but it took him two days before he sought firefighters assistance. German Men Too But it is not just Chinese men who find themselves in embarrassing situations like the two from Jiangxu and Guangxi. On the same week, firefighters in Osnabruck, Germany, liberated the trapped penises of two men with some help from lubricants and the saw. Still in Germany, like the Jiangsu man, the German husband fell asleep with the metal ring still attached to his penis after a night of sex with his wife and woke up with the sex toy still on his organ, Daily Star reported. The country's services sector improved significantly in December - a growth that reaches near the strength of the sector prior to the Brexit vote. The Investec Services Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) improved to a five-month high of 59.1 in December from 56 in November, keeping the index well above the 50 mark that separates growth from contraction. It had fallen to a three and a half year low of 54.6 in October from a near-perfect three year run above the 60 mark before the referendum. The sub-index measuring new export orders among Irish firms, which contracted for the first time since 2011 in November, rose to 54.1 from 49.8, a recovery some respondents put down to new business from Britain. Britain's decision to leave the European Union is believed to have the biggest impact on Ireland because of our close trading links. Following June's shock referendum result, growth slowed in both services and manufacturing. But today's reading was also ahead of the euro zone average of 54.4 in December, which was the fastest increase in activity in five and a half years, as a weaker currency boosted demand for goods and services across the 19 euro states. This follows the reading for manufacturing activity earlier this week which rose to its highest level in 17 months. Investec Ireland chief economist Philip O'Sullivan said Thursday's report shows "increased customer demand from both at home and overseas". "The New Business index rose at a sharp pace, with roughly four times as many panellists reporting an increase in new orders as opposed to the proportion who experienced a decline. "The New Export Business index recorded a decline for the first time in 64 months in November, but last month it snapped back into positive territory, with some respondents indicating that higher new business from the UK was responsible for this transition a welcome change given that Irelands closest neighbour had been viewed as an area of weakness by panellists in previous months." "An examination of the Investec PMI data suggest that the rate of growth in activity across much of Irelands private sector picked up in late 2016 after the soft patch endured in the wake of the UKs vote for Brexit," he said. "While noting that political developments have the potential to put a dent in the pace of growth once again this year, we draw comfort from the fact that the Irish manufacturing and services sectors proved sufficiently resilient to continue expanding in spite of all the challenges that the past year produced." Guaranteed Irish was set up in 1974 by the Irish Goods Council as a form of import substitution Guaranteed Irish (GI) was once the hallmark of the most revered brands. Recognisable around the world as a symbol of Irish quality, the GI logo also provided a stamp which stood out to consumers at home. With the onset of globalisation and the ever-expanding remit of the EU, the GI logo has faded into the background in recent years. Government policy has altered with the shifting economic sands, and Guaranteed Irish became something of an afterthought when it came to the promotion of Ireland Inc. Guaranteed Irish was set up in 1974 by the Irish Goods Council as a form of import substitution. The notion was that Irish consumers could show loyalty to domestic businesses by buying items produced at home. The GI logo became synonymous with well-known Irish brands such as Kerrygold and Flahavan's porridge. However, with the aforementioned changes in society, the logo risked getting left behind. Perhaps it was considered too quaint and insular at a time when the country was looking to the vast capital of foreign firms to stimulate burgeoning consumer demand and an insatiable desire for overpriced housing. However, newly appointed CEO Brid O'Connell believes now is just the time for a new impetus for the Guaranteed Irish logo. Ms O'Connell is keen to underline that the Guaranteed Irish logo is no longer confined to indigenous firms, adding that her vision for the brand will result in it becoming synonymous with community. "What we are looking to do is provide a collaborative code to promote Ireland Inc. We will not be accepting companies that are just here in a brass-plate capacity. What we will be doing is trying to attract companies that have been here a long time and who have invested heavily in jobs and the community in Ireland," Ms O'Connell said. A quick glance at the current list of Guaranteed Irish members provides a snapshot of the changes that have already occurred. French pharmaceutical giant Ipsen has revenues of 1.4bn, and sits alongside Pat The Baker as current members of the Guaranteed Irish stable. One of the original GI members, Tayto, has remained a loyal flag-bearer down the years, but these days it is accompanied by Activis/Teeva -manufacturers of Botox. While Ms O'Connell's remit is to give GI a rebrand, she is adamant the changes will be anything but cosmetic. She says there will be selectivity involved when it comes to who can carry the GI logo. "It's not like someone will be able to import a widget from China and slap the GI logo on it. We will make sure there are criteria that have to be met." She says those that do will receive strong support at home and abroad. While once it may have been thought of as a noble symbol from a bygone era, Ms O'Connell name-checks Google and Facebook when it comes to possible future ambassadors for the GI brand. If she can achieve that, it would represent quite the turnaround. Brexit remains a very real unquantifiable threat to Irish business. But domestic government policies that try to appease everyone and shirk any real tough decisions are just as big a threat IRISH businesses are worried. Could it be the unpredictability of the Donald Trump presidency? Or are they concerned about the implications a Marine Le Pen presidency in France might have for the future of the euro? No. The real concerns of business are often domestic bread and butter issues that arise at home. This also means the Government can have a real hand in easing those concerns and fixing some of the problems. A survey of 300 company chief executives by the Dublin Chamber of Commerce has found that three of the biggest threats they identify to their business are home grown. Unsurprisingly, the top concern for Irish business is Brexit and its implications. This is the big imponderable unknown. However, the next three biggest perceived threats are labour costs, political uncertainty in Ireland and skills shortages. Trump is well back in sixth. Even the threat posed by Brexit is somewhat contained, when you look at the figures in the survey. One in four companies (25pc) said it was their number one threat. It doesn't mean the others are not concerned about it, but you can almost picture the sectors and types of companies most likely to be worried about Brexit. From what we know, they are indigenous Irish exporting firms most likely in Brexit-vulnerable sectors, such as in food and tourism. The next biggest concern is pay rises. The survey was conducted in early December. It was just days after ICTU advised affiliated unions in the private sector to seek pay increases in 2017, that would "see basic pay rise by at least 1,000 annually or 4pc - whichever figure was higher". The survey was conducted at a time when a wave of public sector pay demands were being made by trade unions. Private sector pay has risen in the post-recession years. A recent IBEC survey found that 71pc of the 400 firms it polled plan to increase basic pay in 2017. The median pay increase they flagged was 2pc, similar to levels reported over the last three years. In the Dublin Chamber of Commerce survey, 69pc of companies expected to maintain or increase trading levels in 2017, with 31pc less optimistic. Only 9pc of firms said they expected to reduce staff levels this year, with almost half of them saying they expected to hire more people. Putting all of this together, the outlook for new jobs this year is very positive. But firms are worried about what they may have to pay their staff. With ICTU urging pay increases of double the rises businesses themselves expect to pay, companies are worried about this. Throw into the mix the fact there are skills shortages in key sectors, from IT to construction, and chief executives are concerned about whether the growth they feel is coming, will actually be delivered and if so, will it actually grow profits. Many employees in Ireland today are not in trade unions. They do not have that collective bargaining chip that can allow them to press a stronger case for pay increases. However, many private sector employers are more worried about staff leaving to work elsewhere if they do not get their desired pay increase than they are about strikes. Rising rents and house prices, along with general concerns about increases in the cost of living will feed into very genuine employee concerns about pay. Increases in the cost of health insurance this year, for example, are expected to wipe out any gains employees made through tax cuts in the last budget. So, as industrial relations tensions rise, mainly in the public sector and in private sector trade union companies, employers will be concerned about the pay expectations that arise across the board. It is worth noting that trade union participation rates in the workforce have been falling, through the crash years and more recently through the early days of the recovery. According to CSO figures, in June 2005, 542,000 people said yes in the quarterly national household survey to being members of a union or staff association. This represented 34pc of those at work. By mid-2011, that figure had dropped to 504,000 (32pc). In June of 2016, the figure was 407,000 (24pc) - a drop of 100,000 in five years. The data does not make a distinction between private and public sector, but it points to a private sector participation rate of less than one in five. Trade unions have somewhat different figures and point out that in the CSO survey, anyone who didn't answer the question was put down as not being a member. There are also issues around those who are members but were not working at the time the survey was done. Either way, the figures highlight the continuous shift in employment patterns in the Irish economy. Government policy on taxation, housing, the cost of living, how we regulate health insurance and manage the health service, all feed into these concerns that businesses have about labour costs. So it isn't surprising that political uncertainty in Ireland, comes in at number three in this survey. The business community was not impressed with the outcome of the 2016 general election, regardless of its party political preferences. The make-up of the Dail, and its subsequent minority government, do not facilitate real stability or predictability. The 'little for everyone' approach taken in the Budget, meant it was a lost opportunity to achieve anything focussed or substantial. Chief executives are clearly worried about the prospect of another general election and what kind of outcome that might bring, especially at a time of wider international uncertainty. It is ironic that with so much media attention on the unpredictable economic risks emerging everywhere, from Washington, London and Brussels, to Paris and Rome, uncertainty on Kildare Street features very prominently for businesspeople. Strong expectations about economic growth are built into the minority Coalition's programme for government. Businesses know they cannot deliver on that growth unless they can keep wage rises under control and actually find suitably qualified people to fill the jobs they can create. They also know that unless the Government makes some difficult decisions around fixing housing problems, and other pressures on the cost of living, then wage expectations and demands will simply go through the roof. Remember back in 2008, Bertie Ahern kept blaming it all on US sub-prime mortgages and the collapse of Lehman Brothers. If things go wrong here in the next three years, will a similar mantra emerge about how it was all David Cameron and Donald Trump who did it? Brexit remains a very real unquantifiable threat to Irish business. But domestic government policies that try to appease everyone and shirk any real tough decisions are just as big a threat to future economic prosperity. Ian Springett will be undergoing treatment for a medical condition Tullow Oil's Chief Financial Officer will be taking an extended leave of absence from Tullow for medical reasons. According to the announcement from the firm on Thursday morning, Ian Springett will be undergoing treatment for a medical condition. Vice President Finance and Commercial, Les Wood, will act as Interim CFO while Mr Springett is absent from his role. Mr Wood joined Tullow in 2014 as the Groups Vice President for Commercial. Before joining Tullow, he worked for BP plc for 28 years in various positions including Regional CFO roles in Canada and the Middle East. Ian Dodson, ceo of the Digital Marketing Institute, sees five trends impacting in 2017. Firstly, the gap between physical and online sales is set to narrow. Some 80pc of millennials use their mobile in-store and 74pc are happy to receive location-based mobile alerts. Live video is expected to ramp up this year. Online video accounts for half of all mobile traffic and video sharing and content creation is huge on social media. He says platforms like Periscope and Facebook Live make it easy for brands and businesses to connect with their fans and followers in real-time and get their message across by streaming live broadcasts and promoting them in advance. As consumer thirst for video stimulation increases, so will demand for live video content. Facebook bought WhatsApp, Twitter purchased Periscope and, as social becomes more consolidated, the way these platforms operate may well change, Godson says. One big digital marketing trend that is expected to blow up in the world of social media this year is expiring content. Think Snapchat and recently Instagram. Expiring content helps brands cut through the noise and clutter to create a sense of urgency. In 2015, the world's wearables market exceeded $2bn. This year, it's expected to reach over $4bn. There are currently 7.22 billion active mobile devices worldwide. Much like the emergence of mobile, Godson says, brands will have to develop their websites and social platforms to suit the needs of wearable users, and ensure they work on small, more interactive screens for user experiences and prompt sales. Finally, engagement is everything. Marketers succeed when audiences not only consume content but enjoy and act upon it, which is why interactive content will be a big thing in 2017. Interactive content engages consumers - by answering questions, making choices, exploring scenarios. It's a great way to capture attention. Compared to 36pc for static content, interactive content generates conversions moderately or very well 70pc of the time. * Checkout's annual conference will examine how Irish retailers can survive or thrive in 2017. Run in association with Tesco's Dunnhumby, speakers include Tobias Wasmuht, managing director of Spar International, and Dalton Philips, senior advisor at Boston Consulting and former ceo of Morrisons in the UK. Facebook's Aoife Moran and Antonia McTaggart will look at how brand owners can meet the needs of millennials. Michael Carey, chairman of Bord Bia and managing director of biscuit start-up East Coast Bakehouse; Vicky Bullen, ceo of London design agency Coley Porter Bell, and Mike Watkins, head of retailer and business insight at Nielsen, are also due to present at the conference in the Mansion House on Tuesday, January 31. Newstalk and TV3 presenter Colette Fitzpatrick will act as MC. * Lidl came in for some strong criticism for the amount of plugs it got during the last run of 'The Restaurant' on TV3. Now Gas Networks Ireland (GNI) is coming on board for the 11th series which goes into production this month. The series returns to Marco Pierre White's Courtyard in Donnybrook, with half a dozen celebrities become head chefs over six weeks. Food critic Tom Doorley is again the chief taster, with the shows voiced by Newstalk's Sean Moncrieff. While Lidl had little trouble in securing countless mentions during last year's hour-long episodes, it should be great gas seeing how GNI can pull off a similar feat. For the record, GNI delivers natural gas to 674,000 homes and businesses nationwide. * The Advertising Benevolent Society (TABS) hosted a reception in the RHA Gallery to thank agencies for the trade ads they created to widen the profile and understanding of TABS's work. The society raises funds to help people in the ad industry and their families experiencing economic and emotional upset. The agencies which took part in the campaign were Boys and Girls, Chemistry, DDFH&B, Havas, Irish International, McCannBlue, Ogilvy, OwensDDB, Publicis and Rothco. * The Marketing Institute has issued a reminder on the deadline for this year's All Ireland Marketing (AIMs) awards. Marketers interested in entering the competition should write a brief description of the business challenge, actions taken and results achieved, and submit the details by Tuesday, February 7. Those who are shortlisted and qualify for stage two will make presentations to the judges and furnish more details on the campaigns. The Irish Independent is the AIMs' media partner. * Rothco creative director Bernie Martin will help judge entries for advertising writing at this year's D&AD awards. Martin's appointment follows Rothco's executive creative director Alan Kelly's selection to judge the One Show awards. Michael Cullen is editor of Marketing.ie; cullen@marketing.ie Frank Daly, Chairman of NAMA arriving for the meetng of the Dail Public Accounts Committee at Leinster House. Photo: Tom Burke The National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) has released its annual results for 2016. The Sate agency generated a total of 5.8bn last year, which included 5.1bn in loan and assets sales during the period. NAMA also stated that it now has just 9pc of the overall debt (2.6bn) remaining to repay senior bondholders having paid a total of 27.6bn to date. Crucially, the agency said that it remains on course to deliver a final profit to the taxpayer of 2.3bn by the time it completes its work. The agency also revealed that 2,400 social housing units were completed by the end of this year. Pressure has come on the Government in recent weeks to use soe of NAMAs remaining assets to help solve the homelessness crisis. The number of ghost estates around the country has also dipped dramatically since the onset of the recession. NAMA said that there are now just 26 unfinished housing estates across the country, compared with 332 back in 2010. The number of assets still under Nama control could provide around 2,000 residential units as well as 4m square feet in commercial real estate space. NAMA said that 82pc of these sites have already received planning permission or are in the final stages of the planning process. The Help-to-Buy (HTB) incentive, which was announced in October's Budget, is designed to help first-time buyers (FTBs) obtain the deposit needed to purchase or self-build a house or apartment. It must be the family home, and the rebate does not apply to investment properties. It allows for a refund of income tax and DIRT paid over the previous four years, but not USC or PRSI. A maximum of 5pc of the purchase price of a home can be claimed, up to a maximum of 20,000. The rebate applies to homes costing up to 600,000 if purchased or built between July 19 and December 31 last year. From January 1, 2017, a 500,000 price ceiling applies. Those buying homes costing more than this amount do not qualify. A mortgage of at least 70pc of the price must be drawn down, meaning cash buyers cannot benefit. Who can claim? FTBs who purchase or self-build a home between July 19 last and December 31, 2019. The FTB may not have previously purchased a property. The scheme is open to multiple FTBs buying one property, but none may have previously owned a house or apartment. The maximum relief per property is capped at 20,000. The FTB must have signed a contract to buy a home on or after July 19, 2016, or drawn down the first tranche of the mortgage on or after the same date. What to do before you claim All FTBs must be registered with the Revenue Commissioners for myAccount (for PAYE workers) or ROS for the self-employed. The tax refund claim is made through these portals. PAYE workers must complete a tax return (Form 12) for the tax years selected for refund, if not previously done. Self-assessed workers must complete a Form 11. Any outstanding taxes must be paid. How to apply Applications are made online and certain information must be submitted. Details include confirmation that a contract has been signed, and a copy of same; details of the total deposit required and deposit paid; property details and purchase price; date of purchase; details of the mortgage provider;details of the FTBs claiming the relief and details of the developer in the case of new homes; and the solicitor if a self-build home. Once the claim is submitted, the details will need to be verified by the developer/contractor in the case of a new build, or a solicitor, acting on your behalf, in the case of a self-build. Can a claim be made if the property was bought before July 19 last? No. The contract must have been signed, or the first tranche of the mortgage drawn down, on or after this date. The date was chosen because it was the date the Government's Rebuilding Ireland plan was launched. It was decided that July 19 would apply for the HTB initiative to avoid any slowdown in house sales by buyers who might decide to defer purchasing pending the announcement of full details. Can workers who have been abroad, or retired people, apply? Yes. But the relief is based on income tax and DIRT paid over the previous four years. In the case of workers returning home, or retired people, the applicant must have worked and paid tax in Ireland in some of the last four years to claim the relief. If no income tax has been paid, no relief can be sought. However, there may be cases where a refund of DIRT can be made. Does an extension to an existing property qualify? No. A new build is defined as a property never previously occupied. How is the purchase price for self-builds calculated? This is based on the valuation approved by the mortgage provider. Can I rent out my home after I claim the rebate? No. The rebate includes a number of 'clawback' measures, including one which requires the property to be used as a principal private residence for five years. The incentive can be withdrawn if this condition is not adhered to. When and how are refunds made? Revenue says claims will be subject to "normal refund checks and criteria". For homes purchased in 2016, the refund is made directly to the FTB. For new homes purchased from January 1 this year, it is made directly to the contractor, subject to the taxpayer's consent. How will this work? The builder or developer must be approved as a 'qualifying contractor' by Revenue. They must provide information including evidence of tax compliance, VAT registration details and details of the planning permission granted for the units. They must also provide particulars of the properties being offered for sale. Details of qualifying contractors will be published by Revenue so buyers can check to see if a developer is approved. Are there other 'clawback' provisions? Yes. Where a contractor has received the rebate, but the purchase has not been completed within two years, a charge on lands owned by the developer will apply. In cases where Revenue has "reasonable grounds" to believe the purchase will not be completed within two years of the payment being made, such as failure to build a house, the relief can also be taken back. Further information is available at revenue.ie/en/online/help-to-buy.html. Pearse Doherty has said he is "disappointed and angry" at the decision by Apple not to come to Ireland and discuss the EU tax ruling. Tim Cook has been accused of snubbing the Dail after refusing to attend hearings on a 13bn tax bill that the company was hit with. Chairman of the Oireachtas all-party Finance Committee, John McGuinness, invited the Apple boss to answer questions on the European Commission ruling next month. Committee member Sinn Fein's Doherty said he had been told the offer had been rejected and branded Mr Cook's rejection a snub to the Irish people and parliament. "Disappointed and angry at Apple decision to refuse to attend Finance Committee. Legal excuse doesn't add up-others involved attending!," he said. "Will push Committee to ask Apple to reconsider. Tim Cook attended Senate hearings and claimed a deal was in place. Dail deserves same respect." Will push Committee to ask Apple to reconsider. Tim Cook attended Senate hearings & claimed a deal was in place. Dail deserves same respect Pearse Doherty (@PearseDoherty) January 5, 2017 Apple executive Claire Thwaites wrote a reply to the committee on Mr Cooks behalf to say that he had been advised not to appear. "As you will appreciate, this is a complex and challenging issue, and one on which we are receiving ongoing legal counsel. We are engaging with the Department of Finance and The Revenue Commissions, as well as the European Commission," she wrote. "Given the sensitive nature of the investigation and the timing, we have been advised not to undertake any other direct activities, which could potentially prejudice future outcomes. It is on this basis that we are unable to appear before the Committee on this occasion." Labour TD Sean Sherlock - a member of the Finance Committee - told independent.ie: "I can't see why Mr Cook wouldn't appear before the committee. "The issue is not sub judice and it would provide an opportunity for a public airing by Apple beyond the confines of government buildings. Mr Sherlock added that it was "a missed opportunity by Cook to speak directly to his employees in Ireland through the committee." More to follow... Natalie Portman played as Jane Foster in the first two films of "Thor." (Photo : YouTube/IGN News) Actress Natalie Portman has been with the first two installments of the movie "Thor" and she already stated in the past that she will no longer be part of the third film dubbed as "Thor: Ragnarok." However, reports suggest that the actress could be reconsidering in reprising her role as Jane Foster in "Ragnarok." Advertisement The Oscar award-winner sat down with Deadline and talked about her portrayal in her most recent project as Jackie Kennedy in "Jackie." When asked about the possibility of doing another "Thor" movie, Portman replied that she will be figuring it out one day. She further explained that working with the said project is an incredible experience for her and a different one as well. The actress went on saying that such genre requires a huge chunk of time acting on a blue screen and she needs to be more imaginative than ever in playing her part. Meanwhile, reports are also getting rife that "Doctor Strange" played by Benedict Cumberbatch will be tapped to be part of "Thor: Ragnarok." The outline of the upcoming film has been allegedly posted on Disney's fan club website stating that "Thor," together with "Hulk" and Doctor Strange" will be battling it out against "intergalactic baddies" in which both previous and new adversaries will be teamed up, Independent reported. Moreover, it was noted that "Ragnarok" will remain true to its comic book adaptation and will feature the planet Sakaar. For the uninitiated, the said planet is where Hulk was sucked in and became a gladiator that would also be an instigator to revolt against its tyrant - the Red King. "Ragnarok" will also showcase top brass actors such as Jeff Goldblum who will play as the Grandmaster, Idris Elba as Heimdall the gatekeeper, and Sir Anthony Hopkins as Odin. The film has an initial playdate of Nov. 3, 2017. Here is a clip about Portman stating that she's "done" with Marvel: Starbucks is poised to overtake McDonald's as the world's most valuable restaurant company, and the US coffee giant could ultimately have 50,000 locations - more than any current chain. That's the prediction of Nomura analyst Mark Kalinowski, who named Starbucks his top restaurant stock for 2017 in a report on Tuesday. He estimated that the company would increase its worldwide restaurant count by 8.4pc this year and boost same-store sales by more than 5pc. There's more room for growth in the beverage industry - and less competition - giving Starbucks an edge over McDonald's and other more food-focused rivals, Mr Kalinowski said. The Seattle-headquartered coffee chain's new upscale Reserve brand also could eventually generate $3bn (2.87bn) in sales, helped by pricier drinks. "It is only a matter of time before Starbucks overtakes McDonald's as the largest market cap restaurant stock, although likely not in 2017," Mr Kalinowski, an influential restaurant analyst who previously worked at Janney Montgomery Scott and was known for his McDonald's franchisee surveys, said. Starbucks' stock is coming off a weak 2016. It fell 7.5pc last year, dragged down by concerns about slowing growth. Ceo Howard Schultz also announced plans to step down, giving jitters to investors. The overall industry isn't expected to have a bright 2017, according to a prediction by NPD Group. US restaurants would see "little to no traffic growth" this year, the research company said in a separate report Tuesday. Though Starbucks has set a goal of having 37,000 cafes open by 2021, up from about 25,000 last year, Mr Kalinowski saw potential for a much larger operation. "Well beyond 2021, we would not be surprised to see Starbucks exceed the 50,000-store level," he said. That would vault the company past the current total of Subway Restaurants, a closely held company that currently has the most locations of any chain. Starbucks shares rose 0.1pc to $55.56 as of 10.09am on Tuesday in New York. Mr Kalinowski, who has a buy on the stock, maintained his target price of $70. Bloomberg Volkswagen AG and former Chief Executive Officer Martin Winterkorn must defend an investor lawsuit in California over the company's diesel emissions cheating scandal. In addition to the ruling, US District Judge Charles Breyer also rejected a request by VW brand chief Herbert Diess to have the proposed securities fraud lawsuits tossed out of a California court. Other defendants include VW's US unit and its Audi of America unit and the former head of its U.S. unit, Michael Horn. The investors suing are mostly U.S. municipal pension funds that invested in VW through American Depositary Receipts (ADR), a form of equity ownership in a non-U.S. company that represents the foreign shares of the company held on deposit by a bank in the company's home country. Volkswagen argued that German courts were the proper place for investor lawsuits. Breyer said in his ruling that "because the United States has an interest in protecting domestic investors against securities fraud" the lawsuits should go forward in a U.S. court. The pension funds include those representing Arkansas State Highway Employees and Miami Police. The lawsuits said VW's market capitalization fell by $63bn after the diesel cheating scandal became public. Read More A VW spokeswoman had no immediate comment Wednesday. Winterkorn resigned days after the scandal became public and much of the company's management has changed since 2015. VW in September 2015 admitted using sophisticated secret software in its cars to cheat exhaust emissions tests, with 11 millions vehicles worldwide affected. The cheating allowed nearly 580,0000 VW's U.S. diesel vehicles sold since 2009 to emit up to 40 times legally allowable pollution levels. The lawsuits said VW and its executives misled the investing public "assuring them to the contrary - namely, that the diesel vehicles met all applicable emissions standards" and it "understated the liabilities that it would suffer as a result of its known emissions non-compliance." Volkswagen has agreed to spend as much as $17.5bn in the United States to resolve claims from owners and federal and state regulators over polluting diesel vehicles. Volkswagen could still spend billions of dollars more to resolve a U.S. Department of Justice criminal investigation and federal and state environmental claims; come under oversight by a federal monitor and face other conditions. The Justice Department and VW are in settlement talks and it is possible a deal could be reached before Jan. 20, when President Barack Obama leaves office, according to sources briefed on the matter. Charities have demanded that animal welfare be taught as a primary school module. Stock Image: PA Charities have demanded that animal welfare be taught as a primary school module after expressing alarm at the number of youngsters involved in horrific acts of cruelty. Animal welfare experts admitted they were "shocked and appalled" at the involvement of minors in a number of sickening acts of cruelty which ranged from a cat being tortured to death in Dublin to a rabbit being beheaded in Cork. In Wicklow, animal welfare inspectors and gardai were left sickened by separate axe attacks on two horses. In Dublin, a pet dog was tortured and then beaten to death with the young thugs responsible leaving a note mocking the owners. There have also been multiple reports in Cork that a teenage gang is using fighting dogs to hunt pet cats which are then torn to pieces. A number of animal welfare groups ranging from the ISPCA to DAWG expressed concern at the spiralling number of cruelty cases they are now being forced to deal with. DAWG admitted that its resources were now "stretched to the limit" to deal with cases of deliberate cruelty and animals that are being abandoned or neglected. One ISPCA official said there was growing alarm over the number of children involved in serious acts of animal cruelty. "The concern I have with some of the cases that I see, and not just the ISPCA but with other welfare organisations, is there seems to be intentional and deliberate cruelty," she said. "Whether they are doing these acts of cruelty for a laugh or whether they are doing it for social media, I just don't know. "But we are getting an awful lot more reports of minors being involved in animal cruelty. "This is really very, very concerning going forward. The inspector argued that, as a society, Ireland had to tackle the trend head on. Criminal "I really believe that there has been enough talk about animal education in schools - I think it is now time to stop talking and go ahead and do it," she said. "We should be getting into the schools, showing people what is happening out in the world and using that as a platform to educate young people that this won't be tolerated. It is not right and it is a criminal offence." Such education modules in primary schools would also focus on the positives of animal ownership, care and enjoyment. The ISPCA said that, since the Animal Health and Welfare Act, 2014 came into force there had been a total of 40 prosecutions triggered by its inspectors. The HSE is hosting three open recruitment days at its Dublin headquarters from December 28 to 30 and is inviting any nurse interested in a job back in Ireland for an interview. Photo: Getty Images Stock As the HSE looks to attract Irish nurses working abroad back to Ireland and the overcrowding crisis in hospitals continues Independent.ie spoke to one nurse who has no intention of returning. Jennie Reid (26) works in a large hospital in central London in a management position and she said she and her friends would never glance at the HSEs recruitment material because they are so disillusioned with the Irish health system. Expand Close Jennie Reid has been working as a nurse in the UK for two years and has no plans to return / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Jennie Reid has been working as a nurse in the UK for two years and has no plans to return She went to work in London in January 2015, having qualified as a general nurse and she said she has no regrets. Her initial plan was to work in Ireland alongside her sister who works a radiographer but it became clear that there was much more on offer across the water. The hospital I trained in in Ireland was offering us jobs at a salary of 80pc of a general nurse and I thought going to London would be a better opportunity, she said. I havent regretted it since. Jennie said the recent coverage of the record number of people on trolleys in Irish hospitals has highlighted the differences between working here and working in the UK. I see that there are a lot on beds [in Irish hospitals] at the moment and that is unheard of. There might be an overflow ward that they put our patients into but youd never hear of 50 people in A and E waiting on a bed for two days, she said. If they waited on a bed for more than 12 hours its a major incident in the hospital. For us patient flow is a big thing but patients dont suffer as a result of it, she added. Read More A recent recruitment fair held to target nurses who were home for Christmas failed to attract big numbers, despite the fact that there are 1,000 jobs on offer. But Jennie said she is not shocked at the poor attendance. Im not surprised because I think in Ireland we are promised the world but we know that if we come back nothing will change, she said. Theyre not going to follow through on the promises. I went over there with ten Irish nurses and there are still ten of us over there, we know that they wont keep their promises, she said. At the time [before I went] I would have liked to stay because I would have liked to work with my sister. It was always the dream that we would work in the same hospital but now I dont think that dream will ever come true. I only went over and that summer they were recruiting for us to come back, they are still recruiting for us to come back. None of us would ever even acknowledge it, or be interested in even reading about it. Wed never mention coming home. Training and progression opportunities abroad are the key factors keeping Jennie aborad, as well as better working conditions. Incentive wise Ireland is not offering anything to bring me back, she said. Im leaving my current job to become a clinical nurse specialist... I wouldnt have that opportunity if I was 15 years qualified in Ireland, she said. In the UK they see you as young talent and they want you to progress and they want to give you as much as they can. They want to offer you training and get you up the career ladder. Irish nurses are known worldwide as some of the best trained nurses in the world but I think the Irish [Government] are wasting it, she said. If Irish nurses were given a chance and the support and the training we get elsewhere the HSE would really flourish under us. Gardai are appealing for witnesses to help find missing Susanne Krauss (50s) who is missing from the Portlaoise area. Susanne was last seen at the Dublin Road area, Portlaoise, Co Laois on January 3. Susanne who is a German national, is described as 5ft9 in height with slim build, dark hair and a pale complexion. When last seen she was wearing a purple top, blue jeans and carrying a blue handbag. Gardai are concerned for Susanne and asking anyone who has seen her or who can assist in locating her to contact Portlaoise Garda Station on 057 - 8674100, the Garda Confidential Line on 1 800 666 111 or any Garda Station. Suzanna Crampton in the kitchen of her home in Bennettsbridge, Co Kilkenny, with her lamb Teeny Tiny, which she is keeping warm in the oven, watched by her dogs, Big Fella and Pepper. Photo: Dylan Vaughan A newborn lamb who was put in the oven to keep him warm, has died less than 24hours after he was born. Sheep farmer Suzanna Crampton brought the lamb called Teeny Tiny back to life when he suffered from hypothermia after birth. Teeny Tiny weighed less than a pound when he was born along with his twin brother on Monday night. Suzanna, from Bennettsbridge, Co Kilkenny warmed the little lamb gently in her oven, hoping to give him a fighting chance. Expand Close Suzanna feeds Teeny Tiny / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Suzanna feeds Teeny Tiny The poor little thing died. He took a turn for the worst on Tuesday night and died at around 2am," Suzanna told Independent.ie. Usually when theyre that tiny their lungs are underdeveloped and the hypothermia put extra strain on his lungs. If I had found him sooner he would have had a better chance at survival. Suzanna tried to keep the little lamb alive by keeping him warm. I was trying to keep him going but he didnt live more than 24 hours. He was such a sweet little thing. Suzanna said Teeny Tinys twin brother is thriving. He was three pounds bigger and is flying. Hes a jolly, big, bouncing lamb. Hes loving that he has him mammy all to himself. Suzanna, who has been sheep farming for almost 20 years, uses some unusual methods to help the frailer members of her flock, including a tip she picked up from a vet on social media. "You need a huge needle and syringe and inject warm, sugary water directly into the abdominal cavity. It heats the lamb inside out," she said. Suzanna was lambing as an apprentice in the Wicklow/Carlow region in 1980s. She went to agricultural school in Vermont in the US and worked on training horses before returning to Ireland almost 20 years ago. She now has more than 60 rams, ewes and lambs in total - as well as three alpacas who are like "flock guards" - and produces wool for her company Zwartbles Ireland. Her pet dogs and cats are also getting used to seeing lambs in the kitchen. "My alsatian dog is good at cleaning the lambs. We as humans would warm up the lamb with a blanket but the process of licking the lamb is a huge stimulus," she said. "I love and trust my dogs, but I would never leave them alone with the newborn lambs," she added. "The dogs have a wolf instinct and I would not trust them with it." Health Minister Simon Harris said he is sorry for patients and staff enduring the extraordinarily difficult situation at Irish hospitals. Speaking at the official opening of the newly refurbished Scott Building on the grounds of the Midland Regional Hospital, Tullamore, Co Offaly, Mr Harris outlined a range of temporary measures aimed at tackling the overcrowding. At least 602 patients remained on trolleys yesterday, while Tuesday saw a record-breaking 612 patients on the trolley count. A total of 578 patients remain on trolleys today, according to the latest figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation. University Hospital Limerick is the worst-hit today with a total of 60 patients on trolleys. Cork University Hospital have clocked an extra eight patients on trolleys today, resulting in a total number of 40. In the wider Dublin area, Tallaght hospital is worst-hit with 45 patients on the trolley count. Our hospitals are going through an extraordinarily challenging period of time at the present," the minister said. Expand Close Tony OBrien, director general of the HSE. Photo: Philip Leonard / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Tony OBrien, director general of the HSE. Photo: Philip Leonard "I really am sorry for Irish patients and indeed for the staff working in our hospitals experiencing the conditions that they are having to put up with at the moment. "It isnt acceptable, the health service must do better, he said. Mr Harris insisted the HSE must redouble its efforts and I expect the health service to do more than outlined in the Winter Initiative. He was due to meet with the HSE Director General this afternoon where he will be seeking a range of temporary and immediate measures. Mr Harris said these measures include temporary capacity, where it is possible to put modular builds in place. He told the press he also wants to extend the opening hours of diagnostics so people can get in and out of the hospital environment quicker" to allow GPs make direct referrals to consultants rather than sending patients through the emergency departments. The HSE will also examine how it can work with nursing homes and residential units to allow older people be cared for in those environments. Minister Harris said fundamental shifts have to be taken to break the vicious cycle of overcrowding in the Irish health system. Central to this is bed capacity, recruitment of nurses and a new GP contract to support and resource care in the community, he stated. All three of those issues I have been working on in the eight months I have been in office, he explained. I am determined to try and break that vicious cycle, he added. While flu affects hospitals every year, Mr Harris said, What is different though is the flu season has come much earlier, but the strain of flu is different to the strain of flu we had last year. It is a strain of flu that is particularly challenging our older people. The flu is an additional compounding factor and what is already an extraordinarily historically busy time for our hospitals, he remarked. I hear people saying, 'well isnt this the same every year'. "Well actually, it is not having the same impact on attendance as every year because attendance for people over the ages of 75 is up 17pc, the number of calls to the doctors out of hours is up 50pc, the strain of flu is different to last year, he pointed out. Mr Harris acknowledged that the pressure being experienced in the hospitals was also occurring in primary care. He noted the comments of SIPTUs Paul Bell in relation to queuing ambulances and said he has requested, and was expecting, a report from the HSE on the matter this afternoon. Mr Harris said he will be meeting with the Emergency Department Taskforce on Friday morning. Meanwhile, Transport Minister Shane Ross said his cabinet colleague Minister Harris plans to "kick ass" when speaking with the HSE. "I think it's up to him and I think he intends to go in and kick ass today when he gets to talk to the HSE," he told Pat Kenny on Newstalk. "It's unreasonable to expect him as Minister to micromanage, in other words to blame him every time the trolley figures go up or down or to claim credit either way but there obviously is a big problem there," he added. Investment Director-General of the HSE today said the health system will need an investment of "hundreds of millions of euro" to stop the trolley crisis cycle. Tony O'Brien described the current health system as "well-designed for a previous era" and said it needs an effective redesign. The HSE chief spoke as it was revealed today that ambulance staff are holding patients outside Accident and Emergency departments for up to six hours as there is no space inside Irish hospitals. Speaking to RTE Radio One's Today with Sean O'Rourke, Mr O'Brien said the HSE is seeing "significant changes in the needs of the population". "We're facing a reality that we're operating a system that was well-designed for a previous era," he said. "We're seeing very significant changes in the needs of the population. "We require a redesign of the healthcare system if we are to get out of this cycle. "If we are to make fundamental changes, we need a transitional investment, I think we're talking about hundreds of millions," he continued. "In New York, they have a programme in place over a 3-5 year period and they are strategically building up services to keep people out of hospital. "It will take significant transitional investment and a number of years." Burnout A senior consultant has warned that staff in emergency departments are burning out as the over-crowding crisis continues. Gerry Lane, of the Irish Association of Emergency Medicine ,told RTEs Sean ORourke that he literally had nurses crying on me this week. Dr Lane who works in Letterkenny General Hospital said one nurse was brought to her knees by a mans complaint due to a four hour wait at around 4am in the morning. The nurses here are among the most sterling people with whom Ive ever worked with and these people are beaten down, he said. He said the HSE is losing staff and he is seeing people unable or unwilling to take on more extra duties. Senior nurses are working up to two and half extra hours a day. That kind of superhuman effort is only sustainable for a certain period of time before you have burn out, he said. Ambulance queues The HSE issued a statement saying the Christmas/New Year period has been exceptionally busy with many frail elderly patients presenting and requiring admission to hospital. But medical professionals have slammed the Health Minister for his reaction to the crisis and said the influenza season has yet to reach its peak, meaning the trolley crisis could still worsen. Now, queues of up to 16 ambulances have been pictured outside hospitals as ambulance staff are under pressure to find space for patients. SIPTU Health Division Organiser Paul Bell said the current average wait outside a hospital is between one and three hours, but some ambulances have been recorded waits as long as five and six hours. There were five ambulances on call in the wider Drogheda area yesterday, but there was only one available as four were forced to wait outside the A&E department. Speaking to RTE Radio One's Morning Ireland, Mr Bell said; "When they arrive at hospital, they are unable to safely transfer the patient to A&E. "This means that ambulances are being held on hospital sites around the country, and this means they are unavailable for emergency calls and they are unavailable to leave the hospital. The ambulance is now caught at the A&E department." Mr Bell said the major issue for ambulance staff is they cannot safely transfer the patient from the stretcher to the care of the hospital. "There's no space in the hospitals and, once there's no spaces, that's the position you're in," he continued. "Cork University Hospital, University Hospital Kerry and Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda are the most difficult at the moment for drivers. "This is an issue for us representing ambulance professionals. We were told there was an anticipation this was going to happen. "There was no planning put in place for how emergency ambulance drivers could do their duties. "We believe this could have been sorted before Christmas." Mr Bell called on the Health Minister Simon Harris to have a conversation about the current trolley crisis with ambulance management. "It's great to talk about bed openings, but what's forgotten is the people who need critical care arriving by ambulance. "I can say that ambulance professionals fear they are not giving the patient the best opportunity to get the best outcome because they are being prohibited. "The minister will have to have a conversation with the ambulance management. "This conversation is taking place every single year at this time and it's getting worse. There is no forward planning, it seems." HSE National Director for National Ambulance Service told the programme they are currently working to try and improve the situation. Damien McCallion said that the HSE have recorded a 5pc increase in the number of patients presenting themselves at A&E departments nationwide over the last 12 months. "Certainly at the moment, we're facing into a difficult period in relation to the demand on our services," he said. "We're trying to manage the risk in terms of safety in all of the settings. "The stories out there are clearly not acceptable to us. "We're working to improve the situation. We've made progress and the ambulance situation has improved massively in the last year." Mr McCallion described the healthcare sector as a "high risk business" and said he is "satisfied" that the "protocols and resources" are in place to support the situation. "We don't see 602 [patients on trolleys] as an acceptable figure," he added. Overcrowding The Irish Medical Organisation said the crisis of overcrowding will continue until the cuts to bed numbers in public hospitals are reversed. They also said Ireland needs to become an attractive location for Irish-trained doctors to want to work in. "Politicians often complicate what is a very simple explanation for our overcrowding crisis," Dr Peadar Gilligan, Consultant in Emergency Medicine at Beaumont Hospital and Chairman of the IMO Consultant Committee, said. "Its not because of seasonal issues or a spike in flu cases. "Its because politicians knowingly and deliberately took 1,600 beds out of our hospitals, introduced policies that were a direct cause of doctors emigrating and failed to invest in General Practice. "All this at a time when our population was rising and there are more elderly people than ever before in need of healthcare. It doesnt get simpler than this; weve reduced the size of the container but were still trying to get more and more into it every day. It just wont work. 'The Big Bang Theory' stars Mayim Bialik and Jim Parsons attend the 33rd Annual PALEYFEST of 'The Big Bang Theory' at Dolby Theatre on March 16, 2016 in Hollywood, California. (Photo : Getty Images/Matt Winkelmeyer) In the entire 10-year run of comedy sitcom "The Big Bang Theory," Jim Parsons has played the role of science nerd and theoretical physicist Sheldon Cooper exceptionally well. In his new movie "Hidden Figures," Parsons takes on the role of another genius. This time, he's an engineer working at NASA. Advertisement The movie, however, doesn't center on Parson's character, Paul Stafford. Instead, it tells the story of the Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monae)-a trio of African-American mathematicians whose massive contributions to NASA led to the success of John Glenn's orbit around Earth and Alan Shepard's travel to space. Glenn was the first American to orbit the Earth three times while Alan was the first man in space. The movie is based on the real lives of these amazing women who helped materialize some of NASA most iconic space missions. According to People, Johnson was one of NASA's most trusted and exceptional mathematicians so much so that Glenn relied on her to check the complex trajectory calculations made by a computer before NASA launched the Friendship 7 in 1962. Vaughan was NASA's first African-American manager and paved the way for more African-American women to join NASA. Before retiring in 1971, Vaughan contributed to the Scout Launch Vehicle Program. Jackson, on the other hand, was NASA's first African-American female engineer. Meanwhile, Parsons plays Stafford, the head engineer at NASA's Space Task Group. The character is someone who resists working with Henson's Katherine Johnson. Parsons' role in "Hidden Figures" is closely similar to what he does in "The Big Bang Theory." When asked about being typecast as the genius, Parsons appears to have to have no problem with it. "I used to get cast frequently as dumb people. Or rather, they were either not bright or had a certain idiot savant quality about them," Parsons told Variety about wanting to play a dumb person. "There is great joy in playing someone who doesn't know what the hell is happening." "Hidden Figures" is nominated in the 2017 Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. Former ministers for Health and Children, Leo Varadkar and James Reilly, sign the order banning smoking in cars with children, in December 2015 Picture: Tom Burke No fines have been handed down to people for smoking in cars, 12 months after a law came into effect banning the dangerous practise. It became illegal to smoke in cars with children present on New Years Day 2016. However, figures revealed to Independent.ie by gardai show that no fixed charge notices, which are set at 100, have been handed down to drivers. Prior to the introduction of the law a survey indicated that almost one in five children are exposed to smoke in cars. A garda association warned at the time that the law was going to be difficult to enforce and could damage the relationship between gardai and members of the public. Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) deputy general secretary John Jacob said gardai would most likely enforce the legislation passively. Id say like seatbelt enforcement what will happen is that if a checkpoint is running and someone drives up smoking with a child in the car, it will be addressed on the spot. It will have to be a similar approach with this as it wont work otherwise, he said at the time. In the UK police have criticised similar laws as unenforceable. However, former Senator and oncologist John Crown, who drew up the legislation, said that the fact there were no fines for the offence was wonderful news. Its really fantastic. The purpose of the legislation was not to make money from prosecutions but to encourage education and create a bit of debate, he told Independent.ie. Before the law was on the cards he said there had been little discussion about the fact that it was a very dangerous thing to do. Professor Crown dismissed the idea that the number of fines was zero because the law was difficult to enforce. Ive said repeatedly that the primary purpose of the legislation was to educate," he said. He said gardai were sure to be enthusiastic in enforcing all laws of the land. The Garda press office declined to comment further on the figure. The Department of Health pointed to the awareness campaign it ran when the law was first introduced when asked about the low enforcement figures. "The legislation was developed in consultation with the Department of Justice and An Garda Siochana. "Enforcement is a matter for An Garda Siochana, however, the existence of the legislation and awareness of it sends a strong message to people that smoking in cars with children present is no longer acceptable. As with other smoke-free legislation, high levels of compliance are expected that will continue to grow," a spokesman said. Health Minister Simon Harris urged the director general of the HSE, Tony O'Brien, to consider removing hospital managers who are failing to reduce the record number of patients languishing on trolleys in overcrowded wards. In a strongly worded letter, Mr Harris told Mr O'Brien to hold senior hospital managers accountable and implement policy which allows him to sanction under-performing HSE staff. The HSE's accountability framework allows Mr O'Brien to discipline managers up to and including removing them from their post. The letter was sent to Mr O'Brien late last night and Mr Harris is due to meet with the HSE chief today for an update on the trolley crisis. "Minister Harris emphasised the need for managers to be held accountable under the accountability framework which measures their performance on providing access to services for patients as one of its key benchmarks," a source said. The minister's intervention followed a second day of crisis in the health service which saw more than 600 patients waiting on trolleys following a serious outbreak of the flu virus over Christmas. Read more: Row of 'at least 16 ambulances' pictured outside A&E at major hospital - with nowhere to drop off patients Expand Close Click to view full size graphic / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Click to view full size graphic The minister received the highest health budget in the history of the State last year with 14.6bn earmarked for spending and also announced a 40m 'winter initiative' package aimed at tackling the spike in hospital admissions during the colder months. However, record numbers of patients were forced to wait for treatment on trolleys in overcrowded hospital wards. Meanwhile, doctors and union representatives warned the problem would only get worse if immediate action was not taken by the Government. Mr Harris's Cabinet colleague, Transport Minister Shane Ross, said the health system was "close to chaos", while Independent Alliance Junior Minister John Halligan called for the HSE to be disbanded due to its failure to find a solution to the overcrowding problem despite major investment. Labour Party health spokesman Alan Kelly said it was "naive" for Mr Harris to blame the situation on a sudden outbreak of the flu virus. "The minister's so-called 'perfect storm' is an indictment of his failure to adequately plan, prepare and ensure appropriate resources are in place," Mr Kelly said. Fianna Fail's health spokesman Billy Kelleher criticised the minister for "dressing up the problem" with the announcement of the 40m winter initiative last year. "It shows naivety that he believed there was enough money in the system and enough capacity in the system, and he announced with fanfare that there was going to be a new initiative when we all know the system isn't capable of coping," Mr Kelleher said. The controversy intensified as footage emerged of more than a dozen ambulances queuing outside University Hospital Limerick as they waited to admit patients. Cramped The recording, taken by Julie Byrne as she visited a friend, showed scores of people on trolleys lining the cramped hospital corridors as medics rushed to keep up with the demand. Ambulance staff reported having to hold arrivals for between one and three hours compared to the 20 minutes or less it normally takes to get a patient space in an emergency unit. Paul Bell, health division organiser with Siptu, said members of the unions were warning about conditions in more than 15 hospitals, including Letterkenny, Waterford, Our Lady of Lourdes in Drogheda and St Vincent's in Dublin. Read more: Hospital crisis is 'only going to worsen' as at least 602 patients remain on trolleys today Read more: Exclusive: Nurse admits colleagues 'dread' work because they're afraid of making mistakes while juggling too many jobs "Such delays are then having knock-on effects on other ambulance services including responding to emergency calls and routine patient transfers," he said. Liam Doran, general secretary of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, said there needed to be a lot less talk and more action done if the Government expected to alleviate this problem. "There have been many agreements and debates over the past number of years in an effort to reduce the number of people on trolleys, but it is obviously not working. "There now needs to be real action done. The bottom line is that we need a lot more additional beds, staff and primary care services introduced in our hospital," he said. The crisis has also resulted in contagious patients being isolated in cubicles with just curtains at Tallaght Emergency Department. Health Minister Simon Harris's proposals to introduce mandatory flu vaccines for healthcare workers have already met with opposition. Mr Harris yesterday sparked another row in the health service by suggesting that all practitioners and hospital staff should be obliged to get the flu jab. The Fine Gael politician said there had been a "disappointing" uptake of the jab this winter and a mandatory system was now under consideration. "There is an onus on all of us in the health service to get it," Mr Harris told 'Newstalk Breakfast'. The Wicklow/East Carlow TD added that some vaccines were already mandatory for health workers. "If the uptake is so low for the flu vaccine, then something will have to be looked at in the future," he said. However, Mr Harris's proposals received a mixed reception last night from groups representing doctors and nurses. Both the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) and the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) expressed deep reservations about the prospect of a mandatory flu jab for their members. "The IMO fully supports the flu vaccine programme. However, we would have serious reservations if healthcare staff were effectively forced to take the vaccine, thus removing the healthcare choice from individuals," an IMO spokesperson said. "The IMO would strongly support efforts made to increase the uptake on a voluntary basis." INMO general secretary Liam Doran said making jabs compulsory would be met with a lot of opposition. "The INMO would encourage people to get the vaccine, but it's very much a personal choice and I think the idea of making it compulsory will result in severe opposition from healthcare workers who may see it as a measure they are not willing to accept," he said. But consultant in emergency medicine Dr Fergal Hickey said healthcare workers should definitely get vaccinated. "It is the norm for people working in hospitals in the US to be made get vaccinated as they could be a threat to their patients," he said. "At-risk groups would be crazy not to get it - it would be like playing Russian roulette." Michelle Coonan had taken three-year-old grandson Sean to the emergency department at University Hospital Limerick with a suspected broken nose. Photo: Press 22 Michelle Coonan was "horrified" at the scene that greeted her in the Emergency Department at University Hospital Limerick (UHL). On Tuesday, she drove 85km to the Limerick ED from her home in Clonmore, north Tipperary, as accident and emergency services in the Premier County have been streamlined to Limerick. Ms Coonan had brought her three-year-old grandson Sean to UHL with a suspected broken nose. As they arrived at the hospital they came upon dozen of ambulances waiting at the ED to unload patients. Read More "I could see all the ambulances parked in rows, backed up towards the accident and emergency department. I had never seen anything like it. I thought the paramedics were on strike," she said. "When we got to the waiting room there was about 50 people sitting there." She said one woman with a "drip in her arm" had been waiting since the early morning. "The very second we went through the doors of A&E, it was like hell inside. There were people lying [on trolleys] everywhere. The paramedics were waiting to unload more patients. It was really sad. I was horrified," she said. "What I saw in there was shocking. I don't know how the staff coped. It was the worst I've ever seen it. God help the people who were in the ambulances. "We were like sardines packed into a can. I don't know how the staff were able to assist people. "The Irish Government should be ashamed of itself." Last night, the HSE issued a statement saying the Christmas/New Year period has been exceptionally busy with many frail elderly patients presenting and requiring admission to hospital. They said this can "unfortunately cause delays to ambulances when they arrive at UHL and the hospital regrets that any patient has to wait to be seen". A leading HSE doctor has said that health-care staff who have not been vaccinated can have "very big consequences" for the struggling health system but new figures show that less than a third of hospital staff have been vaccinated. Dr Kevin Kelleher, a consultant in public health, stressed the importance of staff getting the vaccine at a briefing on influenza. "We also have to make sure the staff are vaccinated too. If the staff arent vaccinated then there can be big consequences in terms of flu outbreaks. "We know every year that we get between 40 80 outbreaks of flu in health care institutions, predominately long care facilities for the elderly," he said. However provisional data from the HSE shows that across 77 long-term care facilities, including long term care facilities (LTCF) for the elderly, just 25pc of staff had been vaccinated. The data was correct as of December 19. Four LTFC's including a HSE run community nursing units, a nursing home and an intellectual disability unit reported that no staff had been vaccinated against the flu. The report found that across 45 hospitals less than a third of staff have been vaccinated. Staff most likely to be vaccinated were categorised as medical and dental staff, with just under half of these reporting vaccination. Temple Street Childrens Hospital had the most vaccinated staff, with 873 staff members getting the vaccine. The hospital was the only one where at least half the staff had been given the vaccination. Only three people working in Lourdes Orthopaedic Hospital in Kilkenny were vaccinated out of a staff of 86 people, making it the worst performing hospital in the country. Of the countrys larger hospitals a number reported vaccination rates of less than 20pc. These included: Mayo General Hospital (13.9pc) University Maternity Hospital Limerick (14pc) The Mater Hospital (17pc) Waterford University Hospital (17.7pc) University Hospital Galway (17.9pc) South Tipperary General Hospital in Clonmel (19.8pc) The hospitals where staff had high uptake levels for the vaccine were: Temple Street (58.3pc) The Rotunda (48.4pc) The Adelaide, Meath and National Childrens Hospital Tallaght (46.5pc) Our Ladys Hospital for sick Children in Crumlin (45.9pc) Beaumont Hospital (45.3pc) Minister Simon Harris has come under fire for suggesting that flu vaccinations for hospital staff could become mandatory. Speaking this week the Minister quoted statistics which showed that less than 20pc of nurses had been vaccinated which he described as disappointing . However, this is not the figure shown in the HSEs provisional data which shows that just over 24pc of nurses have had the vaccine. Despite repeated attempts to secure the more recent data referred to by Mr Harris neither the HSE nor his staff in the Department of Health were able to provide the figures showing less than 20pc uptake. Girls eat a cooked meal provided by the UN through a partner NGO in the eastern Aleppo neighbourhood of Tariq al-Bab, Syria. Photo: UNHCR/Reuters Ireland will continue "vital" humanitarian work overseas in 2017, Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan has vowed, as details of where our country spent 150m on aid last year were released. Amid the chaotic scenes in Aleppo in recent weeks, a range of organisations have stepped in to offer humanitarian assistance, funded by Ireland. Irish Aid helped people in 15 nations, 10 of them in Africa. Projects in Haiti, Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria and Iraq make up the balance. "The horrific violence that has gripped Syria since the outbreak of conflict has appalled us all," said Mr Flanagan. "We have prioritised the provision of humanitarian relief funding to those affected by the Syrian crisis since it began." Overseas Development Minister Joe McHugh said people understood Ireland's efforts. "There are 65 million displaced people globally. Behind these numbers are ordinary people, families and communities, whose lives are being torn apart by conflict and natural disaster," Mr McHugh said. The Singapore River Festival (Photo : Getty Images) While Chinas Ministry of Culture has banned the hiring of female strippers during funerals, in Taiwan, the practice continues. On Tuesday, Jan. 3, the funeral procession for Taiwanese politician Tung Hsiang included 50 strippers pole dancing on top of vehicles. The 50 women in their underwear and loud pop music attracted big crowds on Chiayi County while Tung Hsiangs funeral parade passed. Tung Hsiangs son, who organized the funeral, said he got strippers because his father, the speaker of the Chiayi County Council, enjoyed a buzz, Whats on Weibo reported. Advertisement EFC Industry He hoped that the inclusion of pole dancers in the funeral procession would be a happy departure for his father. Because of the prevalence of the practice in Taiwan, there is an Electric Flower Cars industry which rents out vehicles that carry performers who dance, grind, sing and bump during the funeral procession. Having strippers in a funeral in Taiwan is seen as an indicator of the deceaseds financial status. About one-third of the 2,000 funerals across Taiwan weekly have strippers. China Bans Practice In China, the practice was common in rural areas such as Hebei and Jiangsu Provinces. According to a CCTV report, in 2006, performing groups have about 20 dancing gigs monthly. They were then paid $322 per show. In late April 2015, China banned strip dancers for funerals. Earlier that year, a funeral in Handan, Hebei Province, featured six female strippers who performed erotic dance at the funeral where there were small children. The tradition, which is decades-old, is based on a Chinese cultural belief that respect for the dead is measured in crowd size, Huffington Post reported. Motorists are experiencing delays on the M50 this afternoon following an earlier collision. The hard shoulder and the left lane of the northbound road are blocked between Junction 5 Finglas and Junction 4 Ballymun. Emergency services attended the scene and traffic has been reduced to one lane in the area. Gardai said they don't know the condition of the people involved in the collision but their injuries aren't believed to be serious. They added that the tweet was sent out for traffic control purposes. It is the second traffic incident to occur on the north section of the M50 in the past 24 hours. Yesterday evening, a male pedestrian in his late twenties was killed after he was struck by an truck. DUBLIN: The hard shoulder and left lane of the M50 northbound are blocked between J5 Finglas and J4 Ballymun due to a collision. theAA.ie AA Roadwatch (@aaroadwatch) January 5, 2017 Meanwhile, train services through Grand Canal Dock have been suspended after a truck hit the bridge. Irish Rail are keeping their customers updated on their official Twitter account. Irish charity Goal has announced that it is looking for 25 redundancies as a result of "tighter funding". In a statement the charity announced that the job losses would be across all head office functions in Dublin and London. "The move reflects a much tighter funding environment for GOAL in 2017 as it seeks to mitigate the impact on its humanitarian relief programmes for millions of the worlds poorest and most vulnerable people," the charity confirmed in a statement. Staff were formally informed of the redundancy proposals in writing by management yesterday. In an effort to avoid compulsory redundancies, a two-week voluntary redundancy application period has been opened for all staff. Staff who either volunteer for, or is selected for redundancy, will be entitled to a statutory redundancy package. Commenting Ms Celine Fitzgerald, General Manager GOAL, said: 2016 was a challenging year for GOAL as we sought to continue our relief efforts whilst also taking significant steps to restore the confidence of our donors in our systems, controls and management capacity. "The last number of weeks have seen substantive progress in that regard with Irish Aid taking the welcome decision to resume payments to GOAL of almost 4 million in funds due for 2016, and USAID recently approving the awarding of a grant to GOAL for our programmes in Honduras, Ethiopia and Sudan. Read More Despite this progress and ongoing discussions with our major donors in respect of future funding we need to develop a more sustainable cost base to support our ongoing humanitarian relief efforts and regrettably, this is likely to involve some redundancies, Ms Fitzgerald added. The online piece by Irish-based US writer Nicholas Pell has caused a storm of controversy The Irish Times has defended its publication of a 'fawning' article on the Alt-right movement. The piece by Irish-based US writer Nicholas Pell has caused a storm of controversy after it included a glossary of derogatory terms the white nationalist group uses to describe black people, women and people who may have changed gender. The movement, whose members have been characterised as espousing neo-Nazi, anti-Semitic and anti-feminist views, came to prominence in recent months due to its support of incoming US President Donald Trump. The European Network Against Racism (ENAR) said it had logged 37 complaints about the article via its iReport.ie racist incident reporting system as of 6pm on Thursday. Expand Close Colm O'Gorman of Amnesty Ireland Picture: Maxwells / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Colm O'Gorman of Amnesty Ireland Picture: Maxwells ENAR Ireland director Shane OCurry said the level of complaints was off the charts. It normally receives just two or three reports per week relating to media racism. The complaints are a reflection of the public opprobrium the Irish Times has provoked in giving a platform to a blogger with far right sympathies and uncritically furnishing readers with a lexicon devised by the far-right as though it were fact, he said. Wtf is @IrishTimes doing publishing a guide to the 'alt right' by a fanboy of said racists and cowards without a mention of fascism? Gross maeve higgins (@maevehiggins) January 5, 2017 I have written for @IrishTimes and I know that good journalists and great people work there. This alt right fan piece is unbelievable. maeve higgins (@maevehiggins) January 5, 2017 Mr OCurry said ENAR Ireland would be complaining to the newspaper. Amnesty executive director Colm OGorman described the article as dangerous, unbelievable and just extraordinary. He was not alone in condemning the piece, which has unleashed a barrage of negative commentary on social media platforms. One Irish Times columnist, Maeve Higgins, tweeted that the article was gross. Mr OGorman said it was a huge surprise that the news outlet would publish what effectively is such a fawning piece about an ideology and a movement which spends most of its time preaching sneering hate. Im sure their own readers and people working in the Irish Times will be making those views very clear to their senior editors, he said. For a start, if you want to convey what the ideology of the so-called Alt-right is about, you need to name it for what it is. It is a white supremacist, misogynistic ultra-conservative ideology that wants to put women and minorities in particular kinds of boxes and that wants to assert some view of white male dominant power as the norm and acceptable order. It is extraordinary that any serious publication would run a fawning piece that in no way names or challenges those obvious facts. It is bizarre. Mr OGorman said it was important for news outlets to give voice to very diverse views, but the Alt-right article had crossed a line. I often find myself passionately disagreeing with things that are written in the Irish Times and the Irish Independent, but they usually give me reason to reflect or to think or there is stuff to engage with there. That is really valuable, he said. Nobody wants a media that just spouts a lazy, unchallenging or uncontroversial narrative. Nobody wants that. But this kind of stuff is just vacuous and worse than that, I actually think it is dangerous to give space to somebody who gives a fawning description of an ideology that is hateful and deeply misogynistic and xenophobic without in any way naming that is grossly irresponsible. Shortly after 12.30pm Irish Times Opinion Editor John McManus responded with a piece titled: 'Why we published Nicholas Pells article on the Alt-right'. He conceded that there had been "considerable adverse comment" on their decision to publish the piece. He said its purpose was to "stimulate and advance arguments about matters of public interest". "The piece by Nicholas Pell met these criteria. At a minimum it decodes a lot of the Alt-right movements language and at best it gives a clear indication of its thinking and idealogy." He continued: "The existence of the Alt-right cannot be simply ignored. It was a factor in the US election and is closely associated with figures in the incoming administration. We would argue, moreover, that anybody who seriously opposes it should want the public to know what the Alt-right really stand for. "Ultimately we trust in the ability of our readers to make their own minds up. We believe they expect to read things from time to time that challenge them. "Some of the language in the piece has clearly offended people which was not our intention. We felt on balance that that leaving it in gave a deeper insight into the nature of the Alt-right movement." Mr Pell, a freelance writer who has previously been published by the Washington Post, LA Weekly and Playboy, defended his article and said he had no regrets about the way in which it was written. He said he was not Alt-right but some of his views overlap with those of the movement. Mostly my overlap with them is seeing the establishment on the left and the establishment on the right take one on the nose, he said. He said he had voted for Donald Trump and was supportive of so-called new right European parties. I wrote this piece and I sent it off to the Irish Times. I honestly didnt expect to hear back from them, but they emailed me back straight away and said 'we are going to run with it', he said. In relation to offensive Alt-right terms listed in the article to describe black people and people with gender identity issues, Mr Pell said these were not terms he would use himself. All I did was explain what these terms mean. People have been reacting like I created them, he said. However, he said he would not condemn the use of such terminology. I am not in the habit of telling people what words they should and shouldnt say, he said. Asked if he was worried people might call him a racist, he said: I dont give a sh** if people call me that. I think racism is a curse word that leftists use to shut down discussion. The original article received a mixed reaction on Twitter: An elderly man has died in a house fire in Cork. The blaze, in a property at Old Friary Place off Shandon Street in Cork city, was detected early this morning by neighbours. The alarm was raised and Cork Fire Brigade units were at the scene within minutes at 11.30am. Units from Angelsea Street and Ballyvolane had the blaze under control a short time later. A man in his early 70s was later found unresponsive inside the property. The person is understood to have been pronounced dead at the scene before they could be rushed to Cork University Hospital (CUH). Gardai have sealed off the scene to allow for a full technical and forensic investigation. However, the initial indications are that the blaze was accidental. Gardai are investigating the stabbing of a woman during an attempted mugging in Drumcondra, Dublin. Picture: Arthur Carron 04/01/2017 Members of the Gardai at the scene of a stabbing which involved a 36-year-old woman who was walking home from work when she was approached by another woman who demanded her handbag on the Drumcondra Road Lower between Clonliffe Road and the Archbishop's House, Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins 04/01/2017 Members of the Gardai at the scene of a stabbing which involved a 36-year-old woman who was walking home from work when she was approached by another woman who demanded her handbag on the Drumcondra Road Lower between Clonliffe Road and the Archbishop's House, Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins 04/01/2017 Members of the Gardai at the scene of a stabbing which involved a 36-year-old woman who was walking home from work when she was approached by another woman who demanded her handbag on the Drumcondra Road Lower between Clonliffe Road and the Archbishop's House, Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins 04/01/2017 Members of the Gardai at the scene of a stabbing which involved a 36-year-old woman who was walking home from work when she was approached by another woman who demanded her handbag on the Drumcondra Road Lower between Clonliffe Road and the Archbishop's House, Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins 04/01/2017 Members of the Gardai at the scene of a stabbing which involved a 36-year-old woman who was walking home from work when she was approached by another woman who demanded her handbag on the Drumcondra Road Lower between Clonliffe Road and the Archbishop's House, Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins Gardai at the scene where a woman was atbbed during an attempted mugging in Drumcondra, Dublin. Picture:Arthur Carron A woman has been arrested in connection with a knife attack on a female pedestrian in Dublin earlier this week. The 36-year-old victim was stabbed in the neck after the female mugger demanded that she hand over her handbag on Lower Drumcondra Road on Tuesday. It is understood that the victim, believed to be a civil servant, had been making her way home from work when the attack took place shortly before 5.30pm. A garda on routine patrol came upon her and raised the alarm. Officers had been following a definite line of enquiry and a woman was arrested in Tallaght last night, shortly before 10pm in connection with the investigation. She was later transferred to Mountjoy Garda Station where she is being held under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984. She can be held for up to 24 hours. Expand Close 04/01/2017 Members of the Gardai at the scene of a stabbing which involved a 36-year-old woman who was walking home from work when she was approached by another woman who demanded her handbag on the Drumcondra Road Lower between Clonliffe Road and the Archbishop's House, Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp 04/01/2017 Members of the Gardai at the scene of a stabbing which involved a 36-year-old woman who was walking home from work when she was approached by another woman who demanded her handbag on the Drumcondra Road Lower between Clonliffe Road and the Archbishop's House, Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins The victim was taken to the Mater Hospital after the assault where she was treated for her injuries. This morning gardai have confirmed that she was discovered by an officer on patrol in the area. "The prompt action of Gardai on foot patrol, who assisted the injured woman, greatly assisted in this early arrest," a spokesperson confirmed. Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has described the incident as "tragic". "It's very sad to realise that someone just walking home from work would be attacked like that. I sincerely hope the woman will be OK. It's a tragic event," he said. Noel Rock, Fine Gael TD for Dublin North West, called for a heightened Garda presence in the area. "This is a dreadful, unprovoked attack in a normally peaceful part of the city," said Mr Rock. "It's simply not good enough that someone can't walk down one of the main pedestrian routes in our city in the early evening for fear of this kind of incident. "Gardai need to improve their presence in Drumcondra, and the city council must improve the lighting here as soon as possible. It's pitch black in parts." Rural Affairs Minister Heather Humphreys has hit out at any suggestion that her gender helped her get a position in Cabinet. Ms Humphreys was among four female Fine Gael TDs who made it into the new Cabinet, including first-timer Mary Mitchell O'Connor, who is the Minister For Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. Some party backbenchers have privately expressed the view that the Taoiseach chose them on gender grounds rather than their ability. Enda Kenny had promised that if re-elected to government, he would appoint a Cabinet made up of an equal number of men and women. However, 10 senior ministries went to men and just five to women. But Ms Humphreys (inset) denied there was a lack of experienced female TDs in the party. "I wasn't a gender candidate the last time and this is my second appointment. I don't agree with that," she said, adding: "I think that Mary Mitchell O'Connor will be very capable in her brief." Ms Humphreys, who has responsibility for Regional Development, Rural Affairs, Arts and the Gaeltacht, said she was looking forward to the challenges in her vast portfolio. "I spent most of my life in business and it's not for the faint-hearted either," she told the Irish Independent. Asked if she felt the Taoiseach struggled to find suitable women to live up to his pre-election promise on gender equality, Ms Humphreys said: "There's not a lack of qualified women - but I think the Taoiseach has appointed four Fine Gael women to Cabinet plus Katherine Zappone. "We are in a situation where the Taoiseach had to work in two different groupings of Independents, and in those two groupings there wasn't one woman," she said. "That's the highest number of women that have ever sat at the Cabinet table. And I would expect that he'll appoint more women when the junior ministers are appointed. "Any woman that gets appointed to a job wants to be selected on her ability to do the job. That's very important but there are very capable women there." Mr Kenny promoted Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald to Tanaiste, while Meath East TD Regina Doherty is the new Government Chief Whip. The Attorney General Marie Whelan also retained her position. Mr Kenny is also expected to promote a number of women to the junior ministerial ranks later this weekend, including Marcella Corcoran Kennedy and Helen McEntee. Ms Humphreys said that she had "no ideas" when it came to who should be the next leader of Fine Gael. "That question hasn't arisen so I'm not going to answer it until it does arise. "The Taoiseach has done very well in getting the Government together. It has been a long process," she added. A Fine Gael minister has described comments made about her by the Government Chief Whip as utterly inappropriate. Helen McEntee, the minister of State at the Department of Health, hit out at her party colleague Regina Doherty following remarks she made in a newspaper interview. Ms Doherty told today's Irish Times that Ms McEntee would walk past me in the corridor and wouldnt even blink her eyes. Ms Doherty added: I dont know why. Both Ms Doherty and Ms McEntee represent the Meath East constituency. While it is known within the party that the pair share a fierce rivalry, Ms Dohertys remarks will take TDs by surprise. Speaking to Independent.ie on Thursday, Ms McEntee said she will be dealing with the issue internally. They are utterly inappropriate comments to make about a colleague. I intend to address the matter internally in the party. Gardai at the scene of the fatal stabbing of a teenager in Kilclare Cresent, Tallaght this evening... Picture Colin Keegan Gardai at the scene of the fatal stabbing of a teenager in Kilclare Cresent, Tallaght this evening... Picture Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin. Gardai at the scene of the fatal stabbing of a teenager in Kilclare Cresent, Tallaght this evening... Picture Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin. Gardai at the scene of the fatal stabbing of a teenager in Kilclare Cresent, Tallaght this evening... Picture Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin. Gardai at the scene of the fatal stabbing of a teenager in Kilclare Cresent, Tallaght this evening... Picture Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin. Gardai at the scene of the fatal stabbing of a teenager in Kilclare Cresent, Tallaght this evening... Picture Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin. Gardai at the scene of the fatal stabbing of a teenager in Kilclare Cresent, Tallaght this evening... Picture Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin. Gardai at the scene of the fatal stabbing of a teenager in Kilclare Cresent, Tallaght this evening... Picture Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin. A teenager has died after he was stabbed in a house Tallaght in Dublin. The attack happened at approximately 3pm in a house at Kilclare Crescent, Jobstown. The victim, a 17-year-old boy named locally as Reece Cullen, was moved to Tallaght hospital where he was pronounced dead. Dublin Fire Brigade were first on the scene and alerted gardai. Expand Close Gardai at the scene of the fatal stabbing of a teenager in Kilclare Cresent, Tallaght this evening... Picture Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Gardai at the scene of the fatal stabbing of a teenager in Kilclare Cresent, Tallaght this evening... Picture Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin. No arrests have been made and investigations are ongoing. Friends of the victim said he was "a quiet, unassuming young lad" who was putting his life together. He had recently been enrolled in a Youthreach programme, the organisation which gives early school leavers the second chance of an education. "I don't know what to say, it's heartbreaking. Expand Expand Previous Next Close Reece Cullen Gardai at the scene of the fatal stabbing of a teenager in Kilclare Cresent, Tallaght this evening... Picture Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Reece Cullen "He was just a quiet young guy. He's been through some difficult stuff. It hasn't been easy for him. "But, he was getting it together and he had been enrolled with Youthreach," one friend said. Expand Close Gardai at the scene of the fatal stabbing of a teenager in Kilclare Cresent, Tallaght this evening... Picture Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Gardai at the scene of the fatal stabbing of a teenager in Kilclare Cresent, Tallaght this evening... Picture Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin. "He was into the normal kind of things young lads are into around here. "He liked the motorbikes, scramblers and that kind of thing," he added. Locals have expressed their shock after learning about the incident. "I was in work and I came home at around 3.30pm and saw the blue blights flashing outside. "You get the odd few messers here but I knew straight away that this was more serious. "Sometimes the fire brigade would be down in the estate, but this time there were guards, everything," she said. The woman, who didn't want to be named, said she has lived in the estate for the last three years, but here partner is from the area. "It usually feels quite safe, I haven't heard of anything like this,"she said. Another local expressed sympathy for the family of the boy. "I didn't know him myself, but can you imagine how that family feels?" he said Local South Dublin County Councillor Charlie OConnor said the community is outraged following the fatal stabbing. Its a terrible shocking thing. At 3:30 in the afternoon? he said. People are saying whats going on?, he told Independent.ie. Mr OConnor, whose home in Springfield is located near Kilclare Crescent where the stabbing occurred, said he was shocked himself when he was driving by and saw gardai in the area. He said he has no idea what sparked the stabbing but people in the area will be speculating and wondering what happened, he said. Its horrendous, he said. The initial reaction in the community is one of great shock. Fianna Fail TD in Dublin South West and Spokesperson for Dublin, John Lahart has described this afternoons fatal stabbing of a teenager as both distressing and shocking for our whole community. Deputy Lahart said, While the exact circumstances of this afternoons incident are unclear, this is a deeply frightening incident to have occurred for all in the locality, in particular the parents of young teenagers. Irrespective of any details, a young boy has very tragically lost his life and a family has been left shattered. I urge anyone who has information, or who may have seen anything suspicious, to alert the Gardai as soon as possible. SDCC Cllr Dermot Richardson lives less than five minutes away from were the incident took place. He said: The residents have been living here for a long time, its a very settled area, and people are shocked. A young man has lost his life today, theres a sense of shock across the whole community. A senseless act has happened. Its just across from the local swimming pool. The Sinn Fein councillors are going around the area talking to residents and making sure theyre ok, I dont know anything about the circumstances. A garda spokesman said: "The scene is currently preserved for a technical examination. The Garda Technical Bureau is scheduled to attend the scene later. "No arrests have been made at this time, investigations are ongoing. "Gardai wish to appeal to witnesses who may have been in the Kilclare area this afternoon between 2.45p.m and 3.30p.m. to contact them at Tallaght Garda Station on 01 666 6000, The Garda Confidential Telephone Line 1800 666 111 or any Garda Station." Man Holds Hotel Worker Hostage In China (Photo : Getty Images) A Chinese man who was brandishing a knife attacked nursery students at Pingxiang City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Wednesday afternoon. He injured 11 pupils who were rushed to the hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening wounds. Xinhua News Agency reported that the man climbed a wall to enter the school. The knife-wielding man told police he came to the nursery to pick up his son. Advertisement Growing Knife Attack Incidents Although the suspect is being held by the local police, he has not divulged his reason for the knife attack. The incident is one of the growing number of attacks on Chinese children. Among the past incidents involving children was the wounding in February of 10 kids in Haikou, Hainan Province, with the suspect taking his own life after the incident. A man stabbed three children and a teacher, who all died, and injured others in 2014 when the school refused to accept his daughter. A year earlier, six kids outside a school in Shanghai were slashed by a man. The six kids were among the 11 victims of the man. Meanwhile, in Tianxing City, Jiangsu Province, the court sentenced 47-year-old Xu Yuyuan for the stabling in April 2010 of 29 school children and three teachers. Beefed Up School Security In 2010, for three straight days, there were attacks that hit schools which resulted in the Ministry of Education beefing up security in school campuses and banning strangers from entering its premises. To fight the attacker Beijing police distributed long poles with prongs for use by school security guards, CNN reported. School workers and teachers were taught how to defend themselves after the April 2010 school attack. Buyers of big knives were ordered by the Chinese government to register. Ryanair has released 100,000 seats for sale this morning from just 9.99, for travel in January. The latest in a series of holiday sales sees the low fares available on some 200 routes throughout its European network on ryanair.com. The sales are available until midnight tonight (Thursday, January 5) only. As we publish, 9.99 fares are available from Dublin to Brussels (CRL) and several UK airports, including Bristol, Glasgow and Liverpool. Sale fares are also available from Shannon to Manchester, and from Ireland West (Knock) to the East Midlands in January. Ryanair recently announced that it carried 117 million customers in 2016, with December traffic up 20pc alone. Summer fares are also on sale from 14.99 each-way, while seats to Faro and Lisbon are available from 19.99 in January. Read more: Royal Caribbean is offering an amazing 'Intern-ship of the Seas' opportunity for one lucky Instagrammer. Want to cruise the world and get paid for it? Cruise giant Royal Caribbean has launched a search for an extraordinary explorer to fulfil the companys first Instagram Intern-ship of the Seas. Applications are being taken strictly via Instagram, and the winner will sail on three ships, over three oceans in a three-week period during the summer of 2017 - capturing the experiences of a cruise holiday for their followers. Expand Close Royal Caribbean's Independence of the Seas / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Royal Caribbean's Independence of the Seas Best of all, they'll be paid 3,500 to do it. Flights, accommodation and expenses will also be covered by Royal Caribbean for the Instagrammer whose snaps are judged to demonstrate "the best visual appeal, storytelling ability, originality and inspirational qualities". To enter, applicants just need to share their "most extraordinary travel photo" on Instagram, tagging @RoyalCaribbeanUK and #ExtraordinaryExplorer. Judges for the competition include Irish travel blogger Johnny Ward of onestep4ward.com, Travel Weekly Editor-in-Chief, Lucy Huxley and Royal Caribbeans Managing Director for Ireland & UK, Ben Bouldin. Expand Close Ripcord by Iflyer skydiving simulator, Quantum of the Seas. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Ripcord by Iflyer skydiving simulator, Quantum of the Seas. The novelty internship was inspired by a Royal Caribbean poll of 2,000 consumers from Ireland and the UK that showed nearly half (41pc) of holidaymakers rely on social media for inspiration when booking a holiday, the cruise line says. "Our cruise holidays are filled with extraordinary moments and we want to find a talented storyteller who can help us capture those and share them through one of the most inspirational social media platforms," said Ben Bouldin. Royal Caribbean has 25 ships visiting over 250 destinations worldwide. Read more: Trip cancellation accounts for more than half of all travel insurance claims in Ireland, a new study reveals. The study, by Allianz Global Assistance Ireland, found that 51pc of all travel insurance claims in 2016 came on foot of trip cancellation - due to factors ranging from unforeseen illness to accidental injury and bereavement. Medical reimbursement is the second most common reason for travel claims, with 14pc of claimants filing for hospital stays, medicines and doctors' bills, while loss of personal possessions such as wallets, phones and luggage accounts for 11pc. Top 5 Reasons for Travel Insurance Claims 2016 Trip cancellation 51%. Medical reimbursement 14% Loss of personal possessions 11% Travel delay 7% Trip interruption 5% Source: Allianz Global Assistance Ireland Travel delay accounted for 7pc of claims in 2016, according to Allianz, while trip interruptions arising during travel accounted for 5pc. The data comes during a boom in overseas travel, as new figures show a record number of Irish people took trips abroad in 2016. According to the Central Statistics Office, (CSO), more than 6.8 million Irish residents travelled overseas between January and November 2016, compared to 6.5 million who travelled abroad in the same period in 2015, and 6.1 million in 2014. "You may feel travel insurance is an unnecessary extra cost, but if you are investing hard earned money on a holiday and you go without travel cover your dream trip could turn into a nightmare," said Roland Hesse, Managing Director at Allianz Global Assistance Ireland. Travellers are advised to check out all policies in great detail, to read the small print, and to get the right insurance policy to suit them. Read more: In the recent past, I have supported Dr Munjed Farid Al Qutob (Irish Independent, January 4) in his determination to separate nihilistic Islamists from the vast majority of their Muslim co-religionists who are law-abiding and peace-loving citizens of their host Western state. However, as a historian, I have to absolutely depart from this supportive position when it comes to his resolute campaign which depicts King Abdullah II of Jordan as a utopian visionary, who holds the keys to a moral and peaceful solution to the ongoing tragedy of the Palestinian people. This is revisionism of the most cynical kind. The Hashemite Kingdom was, and remains, as concerned and indifferent to genuine Palestinian grievances as any other Arab state. Indeed, Jordan took one of the most interventionist and self-preservationist actions against Palestinians in the civil war of September 1970 - known in the Palestinian world as Black September - when King Hussein, Abdullah's father, engaged Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Liberation Organisation militants in order to secure his throne from being usurped. Consequently, more than 15,000 Palestinians, civilian as well as militant, were killed, while towns and refugee camps housing thousands of refugees were decimated, leaving anywhere between 50,000 and 100,000 homeless on Jordanian territory. Therefore, to suggest - as Dr Al Qutob does - that Jordan has some kind of special empathy towards Palestinian suffering is a cynical strategy to underpin the consistent depiction of Israel as the sole progenitor of the Palestinian tragedy. Jordan's dilemma is that if it allowed more Palestinians into the country, the kingdom, which already has a Palestinian majority, would be transformed into a de-facto Palestinian state. Indeed, it can be argued that by marginalising and exploiting Palestinian aspirations, Jordan is propelling them into the welcoming arms of Islamist extremists such as the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and, most especially, Isil. Dr Kevin McCarthy Kinsale, Co Cork Start HSE reform with cuts at top There is something seriously amiss with the intellect in both Fine Gael and Fianna Fail when they cannot make serious and urgently required reforms to the health services. If this 'trolley crisis' was a recent occurrence, one would say fair enough. But this has now been ongoing for almost a decade. Is it a bridge too far for both party leaders, in the current centennial commemorations, to put aside party differences and, just for once, put the people of Ireland before their own damned egos? If finance is at the root of the ongoing problem, then reduce the non-medical staff, starting with management, because if this was private enterprise, that is where the axe would fall first. Declan Foley Berwick, Australia Unborn baby indivisible from mum Opponents of abortion argue that an unborn baby is a human being, exactly the same as any other human being, and deserves the same rights. In my opinion, this clouds the issue by refusing to recognise that a baby in utero is part of the mother by virtue of the umbilical cord. An unborn baby's life in the womb is contingent upon the life and health of the mother. The philosophical argument that the two lives can be treated independently is nonsensical. This argument is only coherent after a baby has been born (i.e. physically separated from his or her mother). Look any pregnant woman in the eye and tell her that her unborn baby is not a part of her and she will not understand. Tell her that her unborn baby can be advocated for, in a court of law, independent of her own rights and she will know that the umbilical cord has already been cut. Alison Hackett Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin 'Post-truth' is same as propaganda Post-truth is what we knew as propaganda pre-November 2016. The young think they invent everything. Robert Sullivan Bantry, Co Cork No more 1916 please One thing I'm looking forward to in 2017 is the complete absence of any mention of 1916. However, I will be very surprised if RTE manages to avoid mentioning it, such was its obsession with the subject throughout 2016. I can't help wondering if the purpose of keeping it centre-stage for so long was to whip anti-British sentiment and keep it going for as long as possible. How ironic that while the commemoration of the rebellion against British rule was taking place, the country was, and still is, in a state of neurosis over Brexit, including the ludicrous spectacle of our Taoiseach visiting Britain to plead with the British people not to desert Ireland by voting to leave the EU. Which brings home the simple truth that there is a big difference between political independence and economic independence. Not that the republicans in our midst would be interested in that. Frank O'Connor Blarney, Co Cork Volunteering for yourself Regarding the letter 'Feeling like the last person on earth' (Irish Independent, December 24), my advice to the author is that volunteers are badly needed in a number of areas and, as one who does a small amount, I can say that he or she need never be lonely. Each of us is given some talent be it small or great. Like the parable says, "use it". If the person is of a religious nature, places of worship provide common meeting places, as do the Irish Countrywomen's Association (ICA), Men's Sheds, etc. Think positively and good luck. S Carroll Tallaght, Dublin 24 Fine Gael deserves some credit It is hard to believe Fianna Fail is climbing in the opinion polls. The party I once voted for has destroyed this country on a number of occasions and it was left up to Fine Gael to pull us out of the mess every time. Since Fine Gael came into office on the last two occasions they have steadily brought this country back to international acclaim and are creating a very successful economy that is the envy of the world. The Independents, excluding Catherine Murphy, are a waste of space, a joke, a waste of a good vote. My money is on a strong Fine Gael government which can get on with the job without petty distractions from the me feiners. As far as who the leader of Fine Gael should be, that is a matter for Fine Gael; if not Enda Kenny then I would suggest the very practical and able Simon Coveney. S O'Rourke Galway More than 200 high-tech positions will be located in new Limerick facility BD, a leading global medical technology company focused on advancing the world of health by improving medical discovery, diagnostics and the delivery of care, has announced its plans to open a new research and development (R&D) Centre of Excellence and Innovation in Limerick. The new R&D Centre, located in the North Technology Park of Limerick, will house more than 200 high-tech positions and bring 100 new jobs to the city. BD expects their new facility, currently undergoing renovations, to be a showcase of scientific innovation and a state-of-the-art work environment. The sites initial focus is on product and software development, clinical research instrumentation and prototype development, primarily for the companys Life Sciences businesses. BD is currently hiring Scientists; Mechanical, Electrical and Software Engineers; and Systems and Test Engineers. The new Centre is supported by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise & Innovation through Industrial Development Agency (IDA) Ireland. Ellen Strahlman, MD, MHSc, Executive Vice President R&D and Chief Medical Officer for BD recently shared: Ireland is an important part of our growth plans, and the Limerick Centre of Excellence and Innovation is foundational in our objective to build an agile, world-class global organization to deliver an R&D portfolio that drives growth. This will require significant hiring of R&D associates, collaboration with local universities and the development of new technical capabilities. Areas served by activities and products arising from our new R&D Centre of Excellence will include the fields of microbiology and molecular biology, clinical and cellular research analysis, and industrial microbiology. Customers will include hospitals, laboratories and clinics, reference laboratories, industrial laboratories, physicians office practices, alternate site health care, academic and government institutions, and research facilities. Limerick will be very important for our strategic growth. At a recent event, Minister Mary Mitchell O'Connor shared: "The Life Sciences sector makes a huge contribution to the Irish economy in terms of jobs and exports, and is one of our fastest growing sectors. BDs decision to open this new Research and Development Centre of Excellence is a great vote of confidence in Ireland and brings an additional 100 high quality jobs to Limerick. Every job created has a positive impact on a family and wider community. This new project builds on our existing cluster of Life Sciences companies in this region and is very welcome. The Mid West has a very skilled talent pool and this amongst other benefits is attracting some of the big players to the region. I wish BD's team every success for the future. Martin Shanahan, CEO of IDA Ireland was also quoted as saying: Im delighted to see BD expand its operations in Limerick, establishing its first Centre of Excellence in Ireland at the National Technology Park. Its a strong endorsement of Limerick and the Mid West region as an excellent location for global Med Tech companies. The 100 new jobs being created will be a significant boost for the city and region. I wish BD every success with this new project. BD has invested significantly in Irish Jobs and the Irish economy since 1964 with two sites in Drogheda and Dun Laoghaire, employing more than 500 people in highly skilled positions. With the recent acquisition of GenCell Biosystems Limited in Limerick, the number of BD employees in Ireland has risen to nearly 600. For more information on BD, and careers on offer please visit bdcareers.ie. It's only a matter of half a decade since Georgia Salpa was at the top of the Irish modelling scene, but how innocent a time that seems now. Were Georgia Penna to come along now, her career would be a very different creature than it was as it straddled the late 2000s and early 2010s. At the benign end of things, these days, she'd be expected to double-job as a model and fitness/nutrition/lifestyle guru. At the more difficult end of things, she'd be eaten alive by what we have come to know as the online 'haters'. We, and she, got a tiny taste of the latter last week, as Georgia announced on Twitter the arrival of her baby twin boys with husband Joe Penna, whom she married in the summer. Instantly, the comments came that Georgia didn't look at all pregnant in recent months and, before the day of her announcement was out, she was asserting that her children were not adopted and she would like some privacy for her family. The speculation continued, but Georgia, to her credit, kept quiet. All she had to say was: "They are not adopted. I won't be posting any photos of them on social media as I'd like to keep them private." And, given how Georgia Penna handles herself now and has always handled herself, you should believe her. In her own way, Georgia has long been the Irish Kate Moss. Georgia, like Moss, never pretended or strove to be anything other than what she is. She poses, she smiles, she knows how she looks good and she knows her living is looking good; but, beyond that, Georgia hasn't gone. The dalliance with C-list reality TV was short-lived, the celeb romance was brief and, ultimately, Georgia has simply made a good life off the back of a moderate modelling career. And, let's face it, she has been lucky. So why spoil it by saying too much? It was 2007 when Georgia became the face of Fas, in her bootleg jeans and with her curly hair, she was a striking combination of petite girl-next-door and curvaceous bombshell. Half-Greek and half-Irish, Georgia was refreshingly unlike a standard good-looking Irish girl. Georgia was four when she moved to Ireland from her father's native Greece, after her parents separated. She grew up in comfortable Killiney, south county Dublin, with her mother, Marie, and her stepfather and stepsiblings. She didn't quite fit the SoCoDu Rosanna Davison bill, though. And we loved her. The ad ran for four years. By which time Georgia was the biggest model in Ireland. There was a contradiction at play in Georgia. She was the ultimate girl in a bikini on Grafton Street, and her body was the subject of some cosmetic-surgery speculation, such was its juxtaposition of tiny and curvy. There was something low key about her at the same time, though. She didn't really do interviews and when she did, Georgia wasn't full of big talk. She referred to her figure as the "family heirloom", adamant that all the women in her family were the same shape as she. In a 2012 interview with Liadan Hynes in LIFE magazine, Georgia said she was "real confident. But, if I'm in a group of people I don't know, I'm really quiet". It was a contrast that worked well for her. There was a time, towards the end of the 2000s where she was overexposed, perhaps, such was the ubiquity of her image, but, at the same time, we knew little or nothing about her. Video of the Day And this, in a time when everyone around her began making it clear, through social media in particular, that they were a lot more than they seemed. Boasting was never Georgia's thing, though there was a time when it all went what you might call a bit silly. She was good fun and game for a laugh during her turns with Podge and Rodge and Republic of Telly, and then she made headlines for more than just her modelling. It started with TV3's Celebrity Salon at the start of the decade. One of her co-celebs was Calum Best, then well known for his womanising and partying. Georgia had split with her steady boyfriend, DJ Barry O'Brien, and soon after she began what might or might not have been a relationship with Best. She said years later that they weren't really a "proper boyfriend and girlfriend"; but that was in response to a long-overdue admission on Best's part that he had flagrantly cheated on her. The Best kerfuffle may have hurt Georgia's heart, but it won her headlines in the UK. She took a place on the 2012 run of Celebrity Big Brother, where she was exhorted by twin Playboy models to get a boob job, but was booted out third because she was seen as "boring". There it is again, the jarring Georgia contradiction. She moved to the UK and, for a time, was snapped at openings and events with party-going celeb types. And then she sort of went quiet. If you want to find her, these days, she's on Twitter and Instagram, but the latter is typically Georgia. She lets her image speak for itself and since she became engaged to super-rich hedge-fund manager Joe Penna at the end of 2013, most images are of her in beautiful places in beautiful clothes. And what need is there to say anything? Georgia married Joe Penna, a divorced father of one, in Italy in the summer. Her Dublin friends were in prominent attendance, including models Daniella Moyles, Michele McGrath and Karena Graham. The couple kept the wedding very quiet, but Georgia's Instagram captured the understated luxury of what is her life now. And it's a life she's guarding carefully. So, when last week Georgia Penna announced she had become a mother, she focused on the joy and played down the sensation. "Delighted with the arrival of twin boys, the most special, perfect little babies and we are so in love", she wrote on Twitter, before refuting rumours they were adopted. "I won't be posting any photos of them on social media as I'd like to keep them private," she added. "We're very, very happy." And that might be enough, as it has always been enough when it comes to Georgia. Her pictures speak a thousand words, but as for the rest of who she is and what she is, that's never been laid bare. Silence worked for her at the beginning, and, really, it has never stopped. Conor McGregor poses during the weigh-ins for UFC 205. (Photo : Getty Images/Michael Reaves) The UFC is on a two-week break to start 2017 after having one of its biggest and craziest years. However, there are significant news to start the year like Conor McGregor's amazing pay-per-view stats, the UFC hiring a former WWE commentator and more. Conor McGregor Can Outsell Entire UFC Roster In a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Joe Rogan revealed a staggering stat about the reigning lightweight champion's drawing power. He noted that McGregor's last three fights drew more buys than the entire 2014 UFC roster. Advertisement "Honestly, there's Conor McGregor and there's everybody else. There was a thing that they showed the other day that Conor in three fights drew more pay-per-view than the entire UFC roster in 2014," Rogan said. 2017 will be an even bigger year for "Notorious" because he is the only remaining draw in the company. Ronda Rousey lost a lot of star power after her second straight defeat at the hands of Amanda Nunes at UFC 207. UFC Hires Todd Grisham UFC 207 was longtime play-by-play announcer Mike Goldberg's last event for the company. He left after spending 20 years with the UFC. There is no official replacement for Goldberg just yet but the UFC hired a former WWE and current ESPN reporter. According to MMA Fighting, the UFC are bringing Grisham to work on the studio desk and play-by-play role for fights on FOX Sports. He will make his debut at UFC Fight Night: Penn vs. Rodriguez on January 15 in Phoenix, Arizona. The 40-year-old spent seven years in the WWE as a host, interviewer, and commentator. He joined ESPN in 2011 and he will continue working them while he is with the UFC. He was also part of the broadcast team for Glory in 2016. Brock Lesnar Officially Gets One-Year Suspension The United States Anti-Doping Agency has released a statement via their official website regarding the suspension of UFC and WWE superstar. Lesnar tested positive twice for banned substances but he can return to fighting again on July 15, 2017. UFC Announces Three More Fights The UFC has added Daniel Jolly vs. Khalil Rountree Jr. on the UFC Fight Night: Houston card for Super Bowl weekend. Also, Todd Duffee vs. Mark Godbeer and Mirsad Bektic vs. Darren Elkins are added to the UFC 209 card on March 4 in Las Vegas, per UFC.com. Check out the video below to see Grisham being attacked by John Cena during his time in the WWE. The scene of a car bombing near an outdoor market in Baghdad, Iraq (Karim Kadim/AP) Several attacks in and around Baghdad have killed at least 27 people on a particularly brutal day in the Iraqi capital. A suicide bomber targeted shops and food stands near a bus station in the city's Bab al-Muadam area after nightfall on Thursday, killing 11 and leaving another 22 people injured. Earlier in the day, bombings elsewhere in and around the city killed at least 16 people and wounded dozens more. No-one immediately claimed responsibility for any of the attacks but they bore the hallmarks of the Islamic State group, which has carried out a string of bombings in Baghdad over the past week, killing nearly 100 people. In one of Thursday's attacks, a car bomb tore through a market, killing nine people, while four other attacks - mostly by bombs that went off in commercial areas or targeted security forces - killed at least seven. In the market attack, the car bomb was parked near outdoor fruit and vegetable stalls in a mostly Shiite neighbourhood and two policemen were among the dead. IS has managed to carry out a series of attacks across Iraq while also putting up stiff resistance in the northern city of Mosul, where Iraqi forces have been waging a massive offensive since mid-October to retake the city. Mosul is the extremist group's last major urban bastion in the country, and Iraqi forces have retaken around a quarter of the city since the offensive began. Iraq announced a new operation on Thursday to recapture IS-held towns near the Syrian border. Maj Gen Qassim al-Mohammadi said the troops would try to dislodge IS from Rawah, Anah and Qaim, towns in the western Anbar province that fell to the extremists in the summer of 2014. Iraqi forces drove IS from the two main cities of Anbar - Ramadi and Fallujah - last year. A leading Egyptian activist behind the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak has been released from prison after serving a three-year sentence for violating a ban on unauthorised protests. Ahmed Maher, who returned to his Cairo home, will remain under surveillance for three years as part of his sentence, his lawyer Tarek Awadi said. He will not be allowed to leave the country. Maher, 36, was the co-founder of the April 6 movement, which used social media to bring protesters into the streets in Arab Spring-inspired demonstrations that forced Mubarak to resign in February 2011. Two-and-a-half years later, the military overthrew an elected but divisive Islamist president and the new government banned all unauthorised demonstrations. Maher was arrested in November 2013, and the following month he was convicted along with April 6 co-founders Mohammed Adel and Ahmed Douma. Each was fined and sentenced to three years in prison. Adel will finish his sentence within a month while Douma is serving a life sentence in another case and is awaiting an appeal trial in April. The government has waged a wide-scale crackdown on dissent over the past three years, jailing thousands of people. Most of those imprisoned are Islamist supporters of President Mohammed Morsi, who was overthrown and jailed in 2013, but the crackdown has also swept up prominent secular activists such as Maher, Adel and Douma. It is unclear whether Maher will be able to return to activism in the current climate. Awadi said the local police station charged with monitoring Maher would have wide discretion over his treatment. "If they decide to put a lot of pressure on him, humiliate him and treat him like they treat thieves and drug dealers, they could order him to spend each night of the coming three years at the police station," Awadi said. Maher's wife, Reham Ibrahim, welcomed his release in a Facebook post, saying: "We will make up for what we missed." The two have a son and a daughter. AP President Barack Obama walks with Frederica Wilson (C), Democrat of Florida, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (R) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (2nd R), as they arrive for a meeting of Democrats at the US Capitol in Washington President Barack Obama launched a final battle yesterday to stop "Trumpcare" replacing the health reforms he hoped would be the central plank of his political legacy. Two weeks before he leaves office, Mr Obama held a last-ditch meeting with Democratic senators and congressmen urging them to "fight" against president-elect Donald Trump and his Republican allies, who declared repealing Obamacare their "first order of business". According to Democrat politicians who attended the closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill with Mr Obama, he emphasised that they should refer to whatever plan Republicans come up with as "Trumpcare", contrasting it with "Obamacare". Mr Obama told the meeting: "Keep up the fight. Tell the stories about the people who have benefited from Obamacare. Our Republican colleagues don't quite know what to do. They're like the dog that caught the bus. They can repeal but they have nothing to put in its place." He also told them: "Don't rescue" Republicans by helping to pass "Trumpcare" which would be "something worse". As he left the room Mr Obama said: "Look out for the American people." It fired the starting gun on what promises to be the first high-profile legislative confrontation of Mr Trump's presidency, which begins on January 20. Opposition to soaring healthcare bills under Obamacare was a major plank of Mr Trump's campaign message in key battleground states. Paul Ryan, the Republican House Speaker, responded to Mr Obama's comments by saying that Republicans did have "plenty of ideas" and would not "pull the rug out from anybody". He added: "This law has failed; it is getting worse and families are hurting." Obamacare, otherwise known as the 2010 Affordable Care Act, led to more than 20 million Americans who previously had no health insurance getting coverage. It also stopped health insurers from putting limits on coverage and refusing insurance to people with pre-existing conditions. But amid growing costs and a problematic launch, the system became an opposition rallying cry for Republicans who condemned it as government overreach. Mike Pence, the vice president-elect, met for an hour with Republican senators and congressmen on Capitol Hill, telling them Mr Trump wanted to sign a law dismantling Obamacare on January 20, the day he takes office. Meanwhile, Mr Trump has sided with Julian Assange against the US intelligence agencies, in a remarkable statement that has confounded security experts and angered many within his own party. Mr Trump has consistently cast doubt on the intelligence agencies' conclusion that Russia was behind the hack of Democratic party emails, which were released to damage Hillary Clinton during the election. The hacked emails from the account of John Podesta, Mrs Clinton's campaign chief, were provided to WikiLeaks. On Tuesday night, Mr Assange, speaking from within the Ecuadorian embassy in London to Mr Trump's chief cheerleader at Fox News, denied that Russia had provided WikiLeaks with the emails. "Julian Assange said 'a 14-year-old could have hacked Podesta' - why was DNC so careless?" tweeted Mr Trump yesterday. "Also said Russians did not give him the info!" Lindsey Graham, the influential South Carolina senator who challenged Mr Trump for the Republican nomination, said Mr Trump's continued refusal to accept the verdict of the 16 intelligence agencies was "very disturbing". He said Mr Trump was foolish to side with Mr Assange. "Not only should he ignore Julian Assange, he should condemn him for what he has done to our country - putting our soldiers at risk," he said. "I don't believe a word of what Mr Assange said. This is a guy who harmed our troops, who is a fugitive from justice for heaven's sake, don't listen to him, listen to our patriots." Mr Trump is due to be briefed on the intelligence supporting the claim that Russia was behind the hack. He tweeted on Tuesday night that the briefing had been delayed suggesting it could be because the intelligence agencies needed more time to make their case. Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022] Firefighters tried to rescue the cat from the tree before the animal let go of the branch (RSPCA/PA Wire) An RSPCA officer caught a cat which was tumbling 40ft to the floor from a towering tree in a remarkable rescue. RSPCA animal collection officer Annie Janes completed the rescue in the Penylan area of Cardiff on December 29 last month. Members of the public had spotted the feline - named Pedro - who appeared scared and remained still in the tree, with weather conditions cold and icy. Attempts from residents to coax the cat down with food proved unsuccessful. The RSPCA and South Wales Fire and Rescue teamed up to rescue the cat, from the Salmon Close area in Cardiff - only to find him clasping his legs around branches at the very top of the tree. As a fireman climbed a ladder to reach the cat, the animal let go of the branch he was clinging to, and fell quickly to the ground - only to be safely caught by the RSPCA officer below. The cat was reunited with his owner, before being taken to a nearby veterinary practice. Pedro is now safely back at home after the ordeal. Ms Janes said: "The tree was higher than a neighbouring two-story building and its roof, so this cat had certainly got himself into a difficult situation. "RSPCA is grateful to South Wales Fire and Rescue Service for their help with this quite remarkable rescue. "As the fireman climbed the ladder to rescue the cat, he let go of the branch he was clasped to, and fell to the ground. "I was just relieved I was able to catch the cat, as the fall was from such an unbelievable height." The male shopper wrote on Facebook that he was appalled at seeing people in sleepwear in the Salford branch of Tesco A Tesco shopper has called on the supermarket giant to ban customers wearing sleepwear after posting a picture of two women walking the aisles in their dressing gowns. The man, who has since removed his post on the supermarket's Facebook page, asked Tesco to "put a rule in place" to stop customers wearing such clothing, branding it "bloody disgusting". The shopper wrote: "Dear Tesco, please can you put a rule in place that people like this will not be served in your stores. It's bloody disgusting. "This was at 7pm last night at your Tesco Salford store and I have seen other people dressed similar on a regular basis. I mean who doesn't have time to get changed into clothes to go shopping." In a reply to the post, Tesco said: "Many of our customers have told us that they feel uncomfortable when they see other shoppers wearing unsuitable clothing in our stores and we do try to find a balance that everyone is happy with." A Tesco spokesman later added: "We do not have a formal dress code in our stores and colleagues use their common sense and discretion when speaking to customers about this issue." The post prompted a debate, with some criticising the man for taking the photo. One person wrote: "I for one find it uncomfortable to have to shop alongside people who spend their time taking photographs of strangers minding their own business rather than just ignoring things that do not affect them in any way." Hate crime and assault charges have been filed against four people over an attack on a man with special needs which was streamed live on Facebook. Prosecutors in Cook County, Illinois, announced charges against three 18-year-olds - Jordan Hill, Brittany Covington and Tesfaye Cooper - and 24-year-old Tanishia Covington. The group have also been charged with kidnapping, aggravated unlawful restraint and assault with a deadly weapon. Three of them have additionally been accused of burglary. The charges stem from an incident which lasted 48 hours and targeted a white man police described as having "mental health challenges". All those charged are black. "He's traumatised by the incident, and it's very tough to communicate with him at this point," police commander Kevin Duffin said. Excerpts of the video show the victim with his mouth taped shut slumped in a corner. He has a wound on his head, and a red band appears to be around his hands. Police superintendent Eddie Johnson described the video as "sickening", and added: "It makes you wonder what would make individuals treat somebody like that." The investigation began on Monday after officers found a man "in distress" and "in crisis" walking on a street. The man was taken to hospital, and it was later discovered that he had been reported missing from a Chicago suburb. At about the same time, police took several people into custody at a nearby address where they found signs of a struggle and property damage. Investigators determined that the missing man had been at the same address. Rapper Soulja Boy attends BET 'Music Moguls' premiere event at 1OAK on June 27, 2016 in West Hollywood, California. (Photo : Getty Images/ Maury Phillips) Soulja Boy and Chris Brown's beef finished with a word of apology from the "Crank That" rapper after admitting it was his fault for acting out. The apology happened when he confirmed that his mother was hospitalized, and he don't want to add another burden to his sick mom. On Jan. 2, Monday, Soulja Boy and Brown's beef emerged after the former commented and liked Brown's ex-girlfriend Karrueche Tran's Instagram post. The "Leave Broke" rapper reportedly did not like it, so he challenged Soulja Boy for a fight. Advertisement Brown leaked Soulja Boy's phone number on the social media and exchanged heated words with him. Trans' former boyfriend added that Soulja Boy continuously called him on Face Time and accepted the fight. Adrien Broner, a boxer, added salt to the injury by promoting an epic fight between the two on Instagram. However, the social media troll is followed by Soulja Boy ending the epic battle. He apologized on Instagram, claiming that he is acting out in the recent months. He added that his mother is in the hospital and that he don't want to make his mom's condition worse by engaging in a fight. PSA A video posted by Soulja Boy (@souljaboy) on Jan 4, 2017 at 9:52am PST Soulja Boy and Brown's beef on the social media seemed to have ended, at least in the former's side. He also expressed his wish to collaborate with Brown and other artists in the future. Amidst Soulja Boy and Brown's feud, Trans called the rappers' rift on the social media "non-sense" and "ridiculous." Brown reacted violently on her comment and attacked her online by requesting her to stay away from the issue that gained her a lot of attention. Other rappers also weighed in on the feud of the two rappers. Waka Flocka Flame wrote on the social that he wished that rappers would so a reality check once in a while. Lil' Scrappy echoed Waka Flocka Flame opinion and added that rappers should not engage in word war through the social media, BET reported. Prior to Soulja Boy and Brown's beef, the former was attacked by an unidentified man when he was recording footage with his group on the street. He was heard exchanging words with the man and at one point, the altercation became physical, according to MIRROR. Watch the video that shows how the dispute between Brown and Soulja Boy heated up here: A suspected accomplice who dined with Anis Amri at a Berlin restaurant the night before the Tunisian jihadist drove a lorry into a crowded Christmas market and murdered 12 people was arrested yesterday. It came as newly released CCTV footage showed Amri had spent two hours at Brussels North station, arriving from Amsterdam, two days after the attack, before travelling to Italy via France. The suspect, a 26-year-old Tunisian who has not been named under German privacy laws, was held overnight after a raid on Tuesday at a refugee shelter in the Berlin suburb of Spandau. Prosecutors said they believed he knew about Amri's plans for the attack and may even have assisted. The two men shared a lavish dinner at a restaurant in the Gesundbrunnen neighbourhood of Berlin the night before the December 19 attack. The arrest came as prosecutors said Amri was captured on CCTV making a provocative gesture after the attack. Minutes after ploughing the lorry into people gathered at the Christmas market, Amri was recorded by security cameras raising his index finger in the gesture beloved of Isil and other jihadists. ( Daily Telegraph, London) Justin Huggler Nine judges of the Constitutional Court sit during a hearing on whether to confirm the impeachment of President Park Geun-Hye (Jung Yeon-Je/Pool Photo via AP) People pose for photos in front of effigies of impeached South Korean president Park Geun-hye and others (Ahn Young-joon/AP) South Korean president Park Geun-hye has been accused of "broadly and gravely" violating the constitution as her impeachment trial got under way. Politicians, functioning as prosecutors in the trial, argued that Ms Park should be removed from the presidency, but her lawyers said the accusations lacked evidence. The Constitutional Court has begun hearing oral arguments in the trial, in which Ms Park is accused of colluding with a long-time friend to extort money and favours from companies and allowing her friend to interfere with government affairs. As the impeachment hearing was taking place, Ms Park's friend, Choi Soon-sil, appeared in another court in Seoul where she told the judge she denies the allegations against her. Also in the courtroom were former presidential secretaries Ahn Jong-beom, who allegedly pressured companies which gave tens of millions of dollars to foundations Choi controlled, and Jung Ho-sung, charged with passing government secrets to Choi, such as information on ministerial candidates. The chief prosecutor in the impeachment trial, politician Kweon Seong Dong, said Ms Park abused her position by "broadly and gravely" violating the constitution to commit corruption and turn state affairs into a profit tool for her friend. He said Ms Park must be removed from office to repair the damage she had caused to the country's democracy. Parliament voted on December 9 to impeach Ms Park, suspending her powers and making the prime minister the government caretaker. The Constitutional Court has less than six months to decide if Ms Park should be removed or reinstated, and if it removes her, an election has to be held within 60 days. Ms Park's lawyer, Lee Joong-hwan, said the accusations stated in the impeachment bill "lack evidence and fail to make legal sense" because they were based on allegations and media reports, not criminal convictions. The hearing proceeded without Ms Park, who refused to give evidence for the second time and cannot be forced to do so. The court had planned to hear evidence from four of Ms Park's former and current aides suspected of helping Choi, but only one appeared. Besides the corruption allegations, the court will also hear accusations included in the impeachment bill that blamed Ms Park for restrictions on media reporting and for government inaction during a 2014 ferry sinking that killed more than 300 passengers. Yoon Jeon-chu, who has been Ms Park's aide since 2013, did not answer directly most of the questions asking about her interactions with Choi and what Ms Park did on the day of the ferry disaster. The court said it was not able to deliver subpoenas to former aides Ahn Bong-geun and Lee Jae-man, who both worked with Ms Park for nearly 20 years since her days as a politician, and said another current aide, Lee Yeong-seon, asked to appear later. Ms Park has publicly apologised for putting trust in Choi, but denied accusations that she colluded with her friend in criminal activities. Prosecutors also indicted Choi's niece and several former government and presidential officials who allegedly assisted Choi in manipulating state affairs and exploiting her connections with Ms Park to amass an illicit fortune. Ms Park's lawyers may prefer her not to give evidence because their chief argument is that the accusations against Ms Park have not been fully proven, said Han Sang-hie, a law professor at Seoul's Konkuk University. Ms Park rejected requests by state prosecutors to question her and has yet to be questioned by the special prosecution team that has taken over the inquiry. During Thursday's hearings, Seo Seok-gu, another Park lawyer, argued that the investigation into Ms Park was biased and suggested that the massive protests that pushed politicians to impeach her were influenced by groups sympathetic to North Korea. Seo accused news organisations that reported on the scandal of demagoguery, which he said threatens to make democracy "very dangerous", and compared Ms Park's impeachment to the "unjust" deaths of Jesus Christ and ancient Greek philosopher Socrates. AP Emergency services at the scene of an explosion in Izmir (AP) Suspected Kurdish militants opened fire at Turkish police who stopped them at a checkpoint in the western city of Izmir before detonating their explosives-laden vehicle, the province's governor has said. A policeman and a courthouse employee were killed in the attack while two assailants were shot dead. Governor Erol Ayyildiz said preliminary indications pointed to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which has carried out a string of attacks in the past year-and-a-half, mainly targeting Turkey's security forces. Islamic State militants have also carried out several deadly attacks in the country. "The information so far suggests it is the PKK. Such a conclusion was reached after we assessed the attack and ID'd the people," Mr Ayyildiz said. The governor did not refer to earlier reports that a third attacker was on the run. Mr Ayyildiz said the attackers were carrying two automatic rifles, rocket launchers and eight hand grenades. The attack occurred near a courthouse in Izmir's Bayrakli district, close to an entrance used by judges, prosecutors and other employees. Police detonated a second vehicle found near the scene of the incident. Mr Ayyildiz said "six or seven" people were also wounded in the attack, adding that police vigilance had foiled a possible more serious attack. "When you look at the preparations they had made, the weapons that were seized, the bombs and the ammunition, it is clear that a big massacre was planned," said deputy prime minister Veysi Kaynak. "Praise God, they were not successful." Earlier, Turkey's state-run news agency said police were looking for a third suspect who was on the run, described as wearing a black coat and a white beret. The incident follows a string of attacks, carried out by IS or Kurdish militants, which have left Turkey on edge. Thirty-nine people were killed in a nightclub attack in Istanbul during New Year's celebrations. IS claimed that attack, which it said was a reprisal for Turkey's military operations in Syria. On Wednesday, police had detained some 20 people in Izmir believed to have links to the nightclub attacker, who is still at large. Mr Kaynak suggested the attacks aimed to deter Turkey from its fight against the PKK in Iraq - where it regularly carries out air raids - as well as its military incursion in northern Syria, where it is fighting IS and taking steps to curb territorial advances of the Syrian Kurdish forces. "Turkey will remain effective in the region where it is present," Mr Kaynak said. "They will never prevent us from being present in Syria and in Iraq, which are like germ-infested nests." AP People living within 50 metres of heavy traffic had a 7pc higher risk of developing dementia Living close to a busy road increases the risk of Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia by up to 12pc, a major study has found. Scientists who tracked the progress of more than six million Canadian adults for 11 years found a clear trend with dementia incidence rising the nearer people lived to main roads. Compared with those whose homes were more than 300 metres away, people living within 50 metres of heavy traffic had a 7pc higher risk of developing dementia. The increase in risk fell to 4pc for residents living 50 to 100 metres from a busy road, and 2pc at 101 to 200 metres. At more than 200 metres there was no evidence of a link with the condition. Dementia Being a resident of a major city or never moving from an urban location close to a busy road appeared to boost the effect. For people in both these categories, living less than 50 metres from a main road was associated with a 12pc increase in dementia risk. Although the differences are small, the findings add to recent evidence that long-term exposure to air pollution and traffic noise may contribute to brain shrinkage and mental impairment. Other results from the study suggested a connection between dementia and exposure to two common traffic pollutants, nitrogen dioxide and fine particles of sooty material generated by diesel engines. Lead scientist Dr Hong Chen, from Public Health Ontario, said: "Our findings show the closer you live to roads with heavy day-to-day traffic, the greater the risk of developing dementia. With our widespread exposure to traffic and the greater tendency for people to live in cities these days, this has serious public health implications. "Increasing population growth and urbanisation has placed many people close to heavy traffic, and with widespread exposure to traffic and growing rates of dementia, even a modest effect from near-road exposure could pose a large public health burden. "More research to understand this link is needed, particularly into the effects of different aspects of traffic, such as air pollutants and noise." The study, published in 'The Lancet' medical journal, monitored the progress of every adult aged between 20 and 85 living in Ontario from 2001 to 2012. About 6.6 million people took part in the research. Of all the ways the world is likely to change in 2017, the destruction of the self-proclaimed Islamist caliphate in northern Syria and Iraq is one we can anticipate with some confidence. The only downside to the welcome end to the territorial project of Isil is that it will most likely result in a dramatic upsurge in Isil terror attacks in the Middle East and beyond. Isil's transformation from a state-building franchise to a global terrorist network is clearly evident in the new year attacks in Istanbul and Baghdad, which can be related to the increasing pressure Isil is under to prevent its caliphate's collapse in Iraq and Syria. In Iraq, a US-led coalition is making encouraging headway in its attempts to liberate Mosul from Isil. In Syria, the rapprochement between Russia and Turkey has seen Isil's stronghold in Raqqa come under renewed pressure. It is now clear that Isil's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, ordered the Istanbul nightclub attack that killed 39 partygoers in the early hours of New Year's Day, as well as the suicide car bombing in a busy square in Baghdad the following day, as a direct response to the setbacks Isil has suffered around Mosul and Raqqa. The Baghdad suicide bombing, which took place in the Shi'ite Muslim stronghold of Sadr City, was designed to send a clear signal to the Shi'ite government of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi that Isil's Sunni Muslim extremists had no intention of ending their campaign to establish and maintain their fiefdom in Iraq. The Reina nightclub massacre in Istanbul, on the other hand, was Isil's way of trying to persuade Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to end Turkey's recent military campaign against Isil in Syria. Mr Erdogan, who has shown Sunni Islamist sympathies of his own in the past, has no one but himself to blame for the upsurge in Isil attacks against Turkey during the past year. During the early stages of the Syrian conflict Mr Erdogan, a committed opponent of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, was accused of providing tacit support to Isil, allowing militants to smuggle arms across the Turkish border to their Syrian strongholds. But fears that Isil's dominance of northern Syria would enable Kurdish separatists to expand efforts to create an inwdependent state on the Turkish border obliged Mr Erdogan to make a U-turn, and close down the Isil supply routes. The result has been a wave of devastating Isil attacks, including last June's assault on Istanbul's airport. The concern now is that, with the military campaign to destroy Isil's main headquarters in Mosul and Raqqa set to intensify in 2017, the organisation will respond by carrying out even more outrageous attacks, including against Western targets. Isil has already demonstrated its willingness to use chemical weapons; intelligence officials believe it has carried out such attacks against civilians in Syria. And as Isil has no moral barrier to using chemical weapons against civilian targets, destroying Isil's terrorist infrastructure, as well as its territorial strongholds, should be our top priority in 2017. Otherwise there will be further atrocities on the scale of Paris, Nice, Berlin, Istanbul and the other places suffering at the hands of this barbarous movement. US president-elect Donald Trump's impending arrival at the White House certainly presents an opportunity to form a global consensus on defeating Isil, just as happened in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in 2001, when world leaders agreed on destroying al-Qa'ida. During the eight years President Barack Obama has been in office, attempts to formulate a common policy have often been undermined by wrangles between Moscow and Washington over the fate of Mr Assad, as well as the outgoing president's disinclination to involve himself. But now that Russia has succeeded in its objective of saving Mr Assad, Mr Trump has an opportunity to test Russian President Vladimir Putin's claim that his ultimate goal has been the destruction of Isil. For if the Russian leader is serious about destroying the modern curse of Islamist-inspired terrorism, and not just playing puerile mind games with the West, then there is no reason why 2017 should not only lead to the liberation of Isil's territorial strongholds, but also curtail its ability to terrorise the civilised world. Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022] Flowers and pictures of victims continue to pile up outside the Reina nightclub This is the man police suspect carried out the massacre The gunman behind the Istanbul nightclub attack on New Year's Day has been identified by Turkish authorities investigating the massacre. The move came as police detained dozens of suspected Isil members of Central Asian and North African origin. However, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu refused to give any details about the killer. The attacker shot his way into the exclusive Reina nightclub on Sunday, opening fire with an automatic rifle, reloading his weapon half-a-dozen times and shooting the wounded as they lay on the ground. Turks as well as visitors from several Arab nations, India and Canada were among the 39 victims. Isil has claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was revenge for Turkish military involvement in Syria. Turkish media reports have said the attacker is believed to be an ethnic Uighur, possibly from Kyrgyzstan. He appeared to have been well-versed in guerrilla warfare and may have trained in Syria, according to one security source. Police in the Aegean coastal city of Izmir said they had detained 20 suspected Isil militants thought to be of Central Asian and North African origin in raids on three addresses. Fake passports, cell phones, and equipment including night vision goggles and a GPS device were seized. Police did not say whether the detentions were directly linked to the Istanbul nightclub attack. But local media reports have said the gunman is thought to have entered Turkey from Syria and spent time in Konya, travelling with his wife and two children so as not to attract attention. At least 36 people have been detained since the attack, according to Turkish media reports. One TV station said that 14 people had been detained in Istanbul, while another reported that two foreign nationals had been held at Istanbul's main airport. Among those held in Istanbul were seven Uighurs detained at a restaurant in the working-class neighbourhood of Zeytinburnu, where the gunman was thought to have gone by taxi after the attack and asked to borrow money to pay the driver, according to the Haberturk newspaper. It said raids had been carried out on more than 50 addresses in the district. The atrocity in Istanbul's Ortakoy neighbourhood, an upmarket suburb in the Besiktas district, came after a year in which Nato member Turkey was shaken by a series of attacks by radical Islamist and Kurdish militants and by a failed coup. Turkish police have shot dead a suspected attacker in the western Aegean city of Izmir after an explosion outside a courthouse on Thursday, a security source said. At least three people were wounded in the suspected car bomb near a courthouse, a correspondent for the Dogan news agency at the scene told broadcaster CNN Turk. The correspondent said he saw the three people being put on stretchers by rescue workers. A large number of judges and lawyers were at the entrance to the courthouse at the time. Izmir adliye patlama catsma sesleri varms pic.twitter.com/EpuKU3iIYM Aykut Kaya (@aykutcky) January 5, 2017 Photos emerging on social media show a car on fire in the courthouse carpark. Emergency services attended the scene and police evacuated the area, believing there may be a second blast planned. It follows a series of terror attacks across Turkey by extremist groups. Isis claimed responsibility for the latest attack in the early hours of New Year's Day, where a gunman massacred 39 people at a nightclub in Istanbul. Izmir is the third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara. It is a popular city for tourists with easy access to the country's coastline. Israeli soldier Elor Azaria is surrounded by friends and family as he awaits the verdict in a Tel Aviv court A young Israeli soldier has been convicted of manslaughter for killing a wounded Palestinian in a divisive military trial that immediately prompted calls from right-wing politicians for a pardon. Sgt Elor Azaria (20) was found guilty in a courtroom inside the Israeli defence ministry in Tel Aviv yesterday as an angry crowd protested his innocence and scuffled with police outside. The case is a rare example of Israel's military convicting one of its own troops in a killing. The last manslaughter conviction involved a sniper who shot a British civilian activist in 2003. Sgt Azaria was arrested in March after video emerged of him shooting a wounded Palestinian man as he lay bleeding in the street in Hebron, a city in the occupied West Bank. The Palestinian, 21-year-old Abdul Fatah al-Sharif, had stabbed an Israeli soldier moments before and had been shot but not killed by other troops. The mobile phone footage shows Azaria calmly cocking his rifle and firing once into the man's head. The defence tried to claim that Azaria thought the wounded man might have a suicide vest on and acted to protect his comrades, but their argument was rejected by a panel of military judges. Col Maya Heller, the lead judge, said Azaria acted "calmly, without any urgency, in a calculated way" and was determined to kill the Palestinian in revenge for the stabbing attack. The trial was one of the most divisive cases in recent Israeli history and even before the judge finished giving her verdict, the country's politicians started releasing statements. Naftali Bennett, a cabinet minister and head of the far-right Jewish Home party, led a number of ministers in calling for an immediate pardon for Azaria. "Today a soldier was convicted like a criminal for killing a terrorist who tried to slaughter soldiers," he said. Azaria has not yet been sentenced and faces a maximum of 20 years in prison. He can be pardoned by Israel's president. He entered the court smiling and appearing confident, and he was embraced by a few dozen relatives and friends. But as the verdict was delivered, he stared gloomily ahead and tensions quickly boiled over in the crowded courtroom. Members of Azaria's family clapped sarcastically as the decision was delivered, some screaming "Our hero!" A female relative was kicked out of the courtroom for screaming at the judges and calling the decision a disgrace. A second woman stormed out, shouting: "Disgusting leftists." After the judges walked out, Azaria's mother, Oshra, screamed: "You should be ashamed of yourselves." The baby-faced soldier has become a wronged hero to the Israeli right and hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the court with posters of him and placards bearing slogans such as: "Don't leave any soldiers behind." Among the demonstrators was Baruch Marzel, a prominent settler from Hebron who lives just a few streets from where the shooting took place. "I'm here to say thank you to Elor Azaria because he killed a terrorist that endangered my family directly," he said. That view is widely shared in Israeli society and opinion polls taken after the shooting found that a majority believed he should not have been arrested, let alone convicted. Other Israelis were dismayed by the killing, which came amid of wave of Palestinian attacks against Israeli troops and civilians in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank. The public debate pitted some of the military's most senior leaders against right-wing politicians, with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, caught awkwardly in the middle. Both the head of the military and the defence minister at the time condemned the shooting as a breach of military discipline and an affront to the values of the Israeli Defence Forces. "This is a case of a soldier who committed a loathsome act, not a hero," said Moshe Ya'alon, the former defence minister. "What do you want, an army that's become dehumanised and lost its moral fibre?" Avigdor Lieberman, the current defence minister, said the verdict was "harsh" but said the country must "respect the court's ruling and show restraint". Palestinians and some human rights groups said the shooting was an example of a widespread culture in which Israeli troops use excessive force against Palestinians. Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022] Dusk falls 05 July 2005 over the Very Large Array (VLA), one of the world's premier astronomical radio observatories, on the Plains of San Agustin 50 miles west of Socorro, New Mexico ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images A mysterious signal coming from deep in the universe has finally been traced to its source. Fast Radio Bursts, or FRBs, have only been heard 18 times and have been a puzzle to scientists since they were detected in 2007. Nobody knows where they could be coming from or how they might be triggered, with speculation ranging from a huge star, jets of material shooting out of a black hole or even aliens. FRBs are powerful but very short radio waves, which last no more than a millisecond. The first was found by Australia's Parkes telescope in 2007. Since then, 17 have been heard, but only one of them has been heard repeatedly. That repeated burst was studied for six months, letting scientists find its exact position in the sky. It seems to be coming from a faint dwarf galaxy more than three billion light years away, scientists said. FRB 121102, as it is referred to, was found using the Very Large Array. That is a multi-antenna radio telescope operated by the US National Science Foundation. Dr Shriharsh Tendulkar, a member of the team from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, said: "Before we knew the distance to any FRBs, several proposed explanations for their origins said they could be coming from within or near our own Milky Way galaxy. We now have ruled out those explanations, at least for this FRB." Adding to the mystery, the FRB appeared to be accompanied by a stream of ongoing, persistent weaker radio emissions. Further high precision observations showed that the two emission sources could not be more than 100 light years apart, said the scientists whose findings appear in the journals Nature and Astrophysical Journal Letters. Dr Benito Marcote, from the Joint Institute for VLBI (Very Long Baseline Interferometry) in Dwingeloo, the Netherlands, said: "We think that the bursts and the continuous source are likely to be either the same object or that they are somehow physically associated with each other." What produced the FRB remains unknown. One likely candidate is a super-dense neutron star - possibly a "magnetar", a neutron star with a very powerful magnetic field - surrounded by debris from a stellar explosion. Alternatively, the source could be jets of material shooting out from the rim of a supermassive black hole. Co-author Dr Shami Chatterjee, from Cornell University in the US, said: "Finding the host galaxy of this FRB, and its distance, is a big step forward, but we still have much more to do before we fully understand what these things are." The research was presented at the American Astronomical Society's annual meeting in Grapevine, Texas. LG G6, which is LG's flagship phone for 2017 , has an unibody design and a screen size of 5.7 inches. (Photo : YouTube/My Smart Price Web Technology Pvt Ltd) LG Chief Technology Officer Skott Ahn has just confirmed that LG G6 is legit and that the rumor mill has been correct all along. On Jan. 4, Wednesday, the executive mentioned that the phone was assuredly LG's next flagship smartphone and that it would launch in the near future, although without a modular design like that of the LG G5. Advertisement Ahn was in an interview with The Wall Street Journal at CES 2017 when he sparingly leaked LG's plans. He asserted that the South Korean electronics maker plans to release a fresh flagship phone, dubbed LG G6 "in the very near future." Ahn also disclosed that the G6 will not come with the same modular design of the G5. Instead, the company plans to differentiate its upcoming products after the flop of its last version. With the G6, LG claims that it is committed to resuscitating its struggling phone division. "Spinning off the smartphone division is not something we would consider," Ahn told the publication. Apart from a price range of $500 to $600, the LG executive did not leak further details. The LG G6 is expected to launch in Europe, North America, and South Korea. In China and other countries, it will only be available online. As with the changes to the design of its LG G6, LG is simply responding to the feedback that consumers are not excited by modular phones. According to Phone Arena, the company has reportedly struggled to persuade its customers to buy additional modules for the G5 smartphones. LG, a giant company known for making home appliances and electronics, has been lately losing its market share in smartphones, ranking behind other giants like Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. A group of Chinese handset companies including Lenovo Group Ltd., Huawei Technologies Co., and Xiaomi Corp. have also provided stiff competition. Recently, LG's mobile unit posted a 23 percent drop in quarterly sales and continued to plummet with a string of losses. The poor results followed the company's launch of the LG G5 in February 2015, which it had spent a fortune to advertise. Nevertheless, the phone did not catch on with many consumers. Now LG hopes that the LG G6 will revive its dying smartphone division when it launches this year. Here is what the G6 looks like according to the Easy Fun Channel: An Irish American has spoken of her delight at becoming the first US citizen to receive an inter-sex birth cert. Sara Kelly Keenan, 55, was born with male genes, female genitalia and mixed internal reproductive organs. But an elaborate lie between the New York orphanage where she was placed in as a baby, her doctors and her adopted parents meant the truth was hidden from her for 40 years. But after the city issued her with a new birth certificate, she is understood to be the first US citizen to be designated as intersex on the document, instead of male or female. Speaking to Independent.ie Ms Keenan, who uses female pronouns, explained that her adoptive parents are Irish, with her father hailing from Castlerea in Co Roscommon. She said: "Gender is in the brain, not between the legs, and everyone is entitled to an accurate gender descriptor so long as governments continue to collect unscientific data about sex based on the appearance of genitals at birth or altered genitals after birth. Ms Keenan continued: "A huge amount of suffering is created in the world by forcing people to conform to the male/female binary gender classification system, which has been proven scientifically to be as valid as the 'flat earth theory'." She explained that she got the historic birth certificate by first getting a court order in California declaring her gender to be "non-binary." "Then I asked NY to honor that," she said. "They chose to create the third category "Intersex" which is a good first step. "But they erroneously attach gender identity to known biology, which currently denies queer people who identify as neither male nor female, or both male and female, from being included. Expand Close Sara and husband David / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Sara and husband David "I hope that will change soon when non-intersex people in NY petition for changes to their birth certificates to Non-Binary." Ms Keenan said she has been happily married to a man for almost 30 years. They live in an open and supportive community in California but Ms Keenan said there are many who live in parts of the US where she claims there will soon be a war on LGBTIQA+ community. Although it is difficult to accurately measure, since intersex conditions are not always accurately diagnosed, some experts estimate that as many as one in every 1,500 babies are born with genitals that cannot be classified as male or female. Despite being lied to about her gender identity for most of her life Ms Keenan, who now lives in California said she always knew I wasnt a normal female. She had grown to over six feet tall by the time she was 13. From 16, she knew she would not ever be able to have children and that she would need to take hormones for the rest of her life to prevent her bones from becoming brittle. Ive always felt like I was intergender, even before I knew about it, she said. Around seven years ago, just before her Irish father died, she asked him about it. He told me that he had found out about it when I was a teenager," she said. "The decision was made not to give me all the information because they thought it would confuse me in life. Despite this she now receives huge support from her adoptive family. Ms Keenan said more needs to be done for intersex babies. "They are still being surgically altered in America because society is uncomfortable with the appearance of their genitals. "We are talking about genitals capable of sexual activity and capable of providing pleasure that will be replaced with scar tissue and the absence of the sensitive tissue that provides sexual gratification. No society or parent should have the right to consign a baby to a less pleasurable life trapped in a body altered forever without their consent. "These surgeries, when strictly for cosmetic reasons and not for urological reasons, should wait until the owner of the genitals reaches an age to decide what gender is most true for them and whether or not they want their special, not wrong, genitals altered and are willing to risk the loss of sensation. " She said she hopes intersex recognition will "slow the rush to use scalpels on babies' genitals". "We don't necessarily need to be fixed. We are not a human weed, We are our own very special flower." AN Irishman has appeared in court accused of using a vehicle to smash into a bank in Canada - just across a car park from a pub where he is a managing partner. Patrick Shannon (29) is accused of being behind the break-in at a bank in Regina, Saskatchewan in the early hours of Monday morning. Police said the vehicle was driven into the bank at about 12:40am and that an armed man got out of the car and walked into the building. The man tried unsuccessfully to break into the bank vault before returning to his vehicle and leaving the scene. A suspect vehicle was later stopped by police, and it is alleged that the suspect assaulted police officers before being arrested. Mr Shannon is facing seven charges in total including assault, breaking and entering and possession of a weapon (a pellet gun). According to the local 'Regina Leader-Post' newspaper, Mr Shannon is listed on his LinkedIn profile as managing partner at Shannons Pub and Grill a business located just the opposite side of the Safeway parking lot from the Scotiabank location in question. Mr Shannon's Irish background is unclear, but it is reported that he is from Dublin and went to university there before moving to Canada. The case was adjourned to next week. America's top intelligence official has said Russia undoubtedly interfered in the 2016 US presidential election but stopped short of the explosive description of "an act of war". In a joint report that rocked the presidential campaign last autumn, the Homeland Security Department and the intelligence community said the US was confident of foreign meddling, including Russian government hacking of Democratic emails. In its assessment, the intelligence community has said Moscow interfered in the election to help Republican Donald Trump win. "We stand actually more resolutely on the strength of that statement than we did on the 7th of October," James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, told the Armed Services Committee. Pressed by Senator John McCain on whether the actions constituted an "act of war", Mr Clapper said that was "a very heavy policy call" more appropriate for other entities in the government to decide. Mr Clapper and other US intelligence said President Barack Obama has received a report on the Russian interference and other foreign meddling in the US election. They said Russia poses a major and growing threat to US government, military, diplomatic and commercial operations. Mr Clapper said politicians will be briefed on the Russian hacking report next week and an unclassified version is tentatively scheduled to be released shortly after that. He declined to discuss Russia's meddling beyond earlier statements, but said Russia's hacking "did not change any vote tallies". Mr McCain, the Republican chairman of the committee, said "every American should be alarmed" by Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential election. There is "no escaping the fact that this committee meets today for the first time in this new Congress in the aftermath of an unprecedented attack on our democracy", Mr McCain said. The hearing comes a day before the president-elect receives a briefing by the CIA and FBI directors - along with the head of national intelligence - on the investigation into Russia's alleged hacking efforts. Mr Trump has criticised their findings and even seemed to back WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's contention that Russia did not provide him with hacked Democratic emails. In new tweets early on Thursday, Mr Trump backed away from his apparent embrace of Mr Assange. Mr Trump blamed the "dishonest media" for portraying him as agreeing with Mr Assange, whose organisation has been under criminal investigation for its role in classified information leaks. "The media lies to make it look like I am against 'Intelligence' when in fact I am a big fan!" Mr Trump wrote. Mr Clapper told the committee Mr Assange has no credibility. The committee's session is the first in a series aimed at investigating purported Russian cyber attacks against US interests and developing defences sturdy enough to blunt future intrusions. Appearing before the committee were Mr Clapper; Marcel Lettre, the undersecretary of defence for intelligence; and Admiral Michael Rogers, National Security Agency chief and the top officer at US Cyber Command. Mr Obama struck back at Moscow in late December with penalties aimed at Russia's leading spy agencies, the GRU and FSB, that the US said were involved. The GRU is Russia's military intelligence agency. The FSB is the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB. But Mr Trump could easily rescind the sanctions. So far, he has publicly refused to accept the conclusion that Russia is responsible for the attacks. Mr Trump this week escalated his criticism of US intelligence professionals, such as Mr Clapper, by tweeting, without evidence, that an upcoming briefing on the suspected Russian hacking had been delayed until Friday, and said "perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange!" Intelligence officials said there had been no delay. Mr Trump suggested on Wednesday in a tweet that one of Russia's primary targets, the Democratic National Committee, could be to blame for being "so careless". The penalties imposed by Mr Obama came after he pledged a "proportional" response to the hacking of the Democratic Party and presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman. Emails stolen during the campaign were released in the final weeks by WikiLeaks. CIA director John Brennan said in a December 16 message to employees that the FBI agreed with the agency's conclusion that Russia's goal was to support Mr Trump in the election. Mr Brennan wrote that he had also spoken to Mr Clapper and said "there is strong consensus among us on the scope, nature, and intent of Russian interference in our presidential election". Moscow has denied the hacking allegations and dismissed Mr Obama's sanctions as an attempt to "harm Russian-American ties". Although Russian president Vladimir Putin rebuked the Obama administration for trying to punish Russia, he said his country would not immediately retaliate and would instead wait for a new US approach after Mr Trump takes office. AP Katie Holmes and Jamie Foxx have managed to keep their relationship off the radar, but the couple is still being hit by controversy. (Photo : Getty Images/Win McNamee) Katie Holmes and Jamie Foxx wedding rumors have been going on for quite some time. According to reports, the rumored couple recently tied the knot in a private and secluded wedding ceremony in Mexico. According to sources, Holmes and Foxx concluded 2016 with a bang by exchanging vows in a secret wedding ceremony in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Sources say the event took place on a private beach and were attended by their children. Advertisement However, some sources claim that the Katie Holmes and Jamie Foxx wedding rumors are not true. This is one of the many wedding rumors surrounding the secretive couple. It is said that the couple is planning to have a quiet ceremony in Holmes' vacation house in Michigan. Katie Holmes and Jamie Foxx wedding rumors spread like wildfire after the actress was reportedly spotted wearing a huge engagement ring. Previously, it was also reported that the couple have said "I do" after three years of dating. The actress, in an interview with the The New York Times, put an end to the rumors. "I'm not married," Holmes told the magazine. "But thanks for asking." Holmes and Foxx have kept quiet about their relationship for the longest time. Although they didn't public admit their relationship, some of their closest friends attest it. "Real Housewives of Atlanta" star Claudia Jordan, who is close to Foxx, said that he and Tom Cruise's ex-wife are indeed dating. According to E! News, Jordan said that the "Annie" actor is very happy with his relationship with the "Dawson's Creek" alum. After her statement caused some huge buzz, Jordan later retracted her statement and explained that she has now knowledge of Foxx and Holmes rumored relationship and that she's never seen the rumored couple together. In an interview, Foxx himself said that he is just good friend with Holmes. At the time the dating rumors broke, he explained that they were spending a lot of time together because they were working on an animated movie project. However, the paparazzi were to take a photo of Foxx and Holmes holding hands and being cozy with one another. CONCORD Serving families of the deceased goes way for Fred Robinson, who recently opened Robinson Funeral Service in Concord. After Robinson finished serving in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War era he went on to work in the Memorial Activity Department. There he identified and classified the military deceased in an oversea theater of operation command. He also served at the Receiving Vault where officials casketed military deceased who were temporarily housed for burial at Arlington National Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. But even before his time in the military, Fred Robinson had had a connection to the ministry of the funeral service industry, with his family operating Richardson Mortuary. Every morning before high school he would get up and wash and vacuum the cars for the mortuary and then take a shower before going to school dressed in a shirt and tie. Hed need the suit and tie, because as soon as school let out he was hopping into a limousine to head off to help out, ready to go because of already being decked out in a suit and tie. The look had him voted Mr. Esquire while in school, Robinson said with a laugh. This is a love and a ministry for me, Robinson said. At a very young age I was exposed to funeral directors and their families. I had a long line of relatives who chose the funeral industry as a life-long profession. I was always fascinated by what funeral directors represented to the community at large. Robinson Funeral Service is located at 381 Church Street N., Concord, on the corner of St. Mary Street and Church Street, across from Troutmans Bar-B-Que. We believe it an up-and-coming area for investment and it is a major thoroughfare in the City of Concord, Robinson said. He added that he and his wife, Dawn, had been looking to open their own funeral service for about 10 years, looking in Mecklenburg, Iredell and Cabarrus counties before settling here. Seeing the appropriate and acceptable location, building, cost and proper zoning, Robinson said. Only in Concord did all of the desirable conditions come together. Robinson said they spent the past year on renovations to the existing building, getting things ready for business. I have grown tremendously planning and developing this business, Robinson said. I decided to be the general contractor on the total renovation and retrofitting of my 115-year old building. In the building stages, I dealt with and interacted with the architects, city and county building code enforcement officials and other city and county department personnel. Fortunately, Robinson is used to working with a variety of people thanks to his career. Hes worked for General Electric and Ford Motor Company and had his own corporate maintenance company. Robinson Funeral Service is his latest endeavor. Even though Robinson had experience, with his family operating Richardson Mortuary, in order to qualify for a funeral directors license in North Carolina he had to serve one year of apprenticeship at a licensed funeral home. He also attended Fayetteville Technical College to complete the courses required for a license. I have had a lifelong desire to fulfill the dream of owning my own funeral home, Robinson said. My wife gave me the courage to pursue my dream. Visit http://www.robinsonfuneralservice.com/ or call 704-724-7072 for more information on Robinson Funeral Service. Song Couple (Photo : Twitter/Song Hye Kyo) A new survey released on Wednesday shows that Descendants of the Sun stars Song Joong-ki and Song Hye Kyo topped fans preference of celebrities whom they want to be real-life couple. The poll confirms what followers of the SongSong couple had been posting on the Instagram accounts of the two, pushing them to get married. Advertisement Panel Marketing Interactive, the polling agency in South Korea, surveyed 2,000 locals aged 20 and above whom among the couple that were nominees in the 2016 KBS Drama Awards they want to become married for real. The two got 16.4 percent of the votes, Yonhap reported. Ranking of Couples After the SongSong couple came the stars of The Gentlemen of Wolgyesu Tailor Shop Hyun Woo and Lee Se-young with 11.1 percent and the Love in the Moonlight couple Park Bo-Gum and Kim Yoo-Jung with 8.7 percent. After the three couples were the Dr. Romantic couple (8.4 percent), Five Enough (7.3 percent), Doctors (7.2 percent), W (5 percent), Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-joo (4.5 percent), Shopaholic Louis (4.3 percent) and Our Gap-soon (4.2 percent). PMI conducted the poll through the website www.tillionpanel.com. Following the Grand Excellence (Daesang) award of Song Joong-ki and Song Hye Kyo, the pressure from their fans for the two to get married became even greater, based on posts of their followers on Instagram. Wedding Picture Ayushera27 pointed out that their photo after winning the award looks like a wedding picture with Song Joong-ki in a maroon suit and Song Hye Kyo in a white gown. Get married comments were posted by anggunrarizahra, inmojoo, thallavia, rsywulan and many other fans of the SongSong couple. Songsongrina pleaded, Please beauty accept the proposal of big boss song joongki u look both perfect get married asap. However, the couple is expected to insist they are only friends. A 29-year-old Guangdong woman named Chen has been detained by police after she admitted to running her motorcycle over the legs of a six-year-old girl. Chen was arrested on Tuesday. She explained to the police that she drove over the childs leg for being naughty. It seems the victim lay on the ground and did not want to go home for dinner, Chinadaily reported. However, it turned out it was not a random accident because Chen and the victim are related by in some sort of way. Advertisement Family Ties Chen is living in since 2014 with the girls 50-year-old grandfather. They have a two-year-old son, while Chen has a six-year-old daughter from a past relationship. The girl is under the care of her grandfather and Chen, who as common-law wife, is sort of like the victims stepgrandmother. The girl was left under their care since April because her father, Ye, is working in another city, while her mother has divorced Ye and had married someone else. Chen called Ye to apologize for what she did. Leg Injuries The victim was brought to a hospital where physicians treated injuries on her legs when Chen ran over her limbs along Fuyuannan Road, Yangjiang City at 2 p.m. on Tuesday. Since the video became viral, Yangjiang Vice Mayor Liang Jinhai ordered a task force to investigate the incident that led to Chens arrest. Ye is now back in Yangjiang to take care of his daughter. According to Shanghaidaily, footage of the incident showed Chen kickstarted the motorcycle and then drove toward the child which from the video looks like she had crushed the victims legs while the child is heard crying. However, a staff from the citys Public Security Bureau said they are not sure if Chen really crushed the childs leg since the incident was captured from a blind corner. Maher was released after completing a three-year prison sentence for breaking the protest law The co-founder of April 6 Youth movement Ahmed Maher was released from prison on Thursday after finishing a three-year prison sentence on charges of breaking the protest law. Maher will be on probation for another three years according to the court sentence. Maher will have to report to a police station on a daily basis for 12 hours, from 6 pm to 6 am. Ahmed Maher, along with April 6 Youth Movement co-founder Mohamed Adel, and longtime activist Ahmed Douma, were charged in late November 2013 with illegally protesting and assaulting police officers outside a Cairo court. At the time he was handing himself in for questioning over accusations of illegally protesting on 26 November. In December 2013, an Egyptian misdemeanour court sentenced all three activists who were at the forefront of Egypt's 2011 uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak to three years in jail and fines of EGP 50,000 each on charges that included organising protests without seeking a police permit. Mohamed Adel is expected to join Maher and will be released later in January according to their lawyer Khaled Ali. Ahmed Douma, however, is serving a life sentence in another case and is awaiting an appeal trial in April. Search Keywords: Short link: A Russian delegation will visit Cairo airport between 18 and 20 January to inspect security procedures, German DPA news agency reported on Wednesday. The delegation's inspection will be the final Russian security check before flights are resumed between Moscow and Cairo, the agency said. In December, Russian President Vladimir Putin told Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi that Russian flights between Moscow and Cairo would resume soon, the Egyptian presidency said in a statement. Russia halted flights to Egypt a week after a passenger jet crashed in the Sinai Peninsula in October 2015, killing all 224 people on board, most of whom were holiday-makers. Shortly after the crash, the Islamic State militant group claimed it had downed the plane with a bomb, though Egyptian authorities have not yet confirmed the cause of the crash. JMC Projects India secures new orders of Rs2,277 crore; Stock gains 2.6% JMC Projects (India) Limited (JMC), a leading Civil Engineering and EPC Company has secured new orders of Rs2,277 crores. The details are as follows: Water Projects in India of... November 04, 2022 | 2:08 pm Lupin receives USFDA tentative approval for Drospirenone Tablets Global pharma major Lupin Limited (Lupin) has announced that it has received tentative approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its Abbreviated New Drug ... November 04, 2022 | 1:26 pm Bloomberg Report: Pegatron Corp starts production of iPhone 14 in India Pegatron Corp., a Taiwanese contract manufacturer for Apple Inc., has begun producing the most recent iPhone 14 model in India. Pegatron is now the second Apple supplier to manufacture th... November 04, 2022 | 12:48 pm JMC Projects India allots NCDs for Rs100 crore; Stock rallies over 3.5% The Management Committee of the Board of Directors of JMC Projects (India) Limited at its meeting held on November 04, 2022 has allotted 1000 Repo Rate, Unsecured, Rated, Listed, Rede... November 04, 2022 | 12:34 pm Nykaa receives shareholders' approval for bonus issue and ESOP; Stock down 1% The Board of the lifestyle retailer FSN E-Commerce Ventures Limited (Nykaa), on October 3, 2022, approved Bonus Issue of Equity Shares in the proportion of 5 (Five) fully paid-up Equity Sh... November 04, 2022 | 12:03 pm A number of Egyptian political parties and coalitions have called for protest against the agreement in front of the cabinet's headquarters in Cairo An Egyptian judge ordered on Thursday the 15-day detention pending investigation of 12 people for illegally protesting against the cabinets approval of the Egyptian-Saudi Red Sea island deal last week. The defendants were arrested on Monday after gathering at the Journalists Syndicate in Cairo to protest the cabinet's approval of the deal despite the absence of a final court verdict on a lawsuit challenging the agreement. The defendants are accused of illegal protesting, assaulting public officials, thuggery, illegal assembly, damaging public property and blocking traffic. The cabinet approved the deal last week and referred it to parliament despite a June ruling by an administrative court halting the implementation of the deal. A number of Egyptian political parties and coalitions have called for a protest on 11 January against the agreement in front of the cabinet's headquarters in Cairo. The parties which called for the protest include the Egyptian Popular Current, the Socialist Popular Alliance Party, the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, the Dostour Party, and the Karama Party. The April 2016 border re-demarcation agreement between Cairo and Riyadh would place the Egyptian-controlled Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir under Saudi Arabian sovereignty. Egypts High Administrative Court has set 16 January 2017 to rule on the governments appeal against the earlier June ruling. Search Keywords: Short link: Despite a snag in securing an anticipated $75 million federal grant for construction of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Red Line, work toward mass transit upgrades in Indianapolis continues. Congress failed to approve the 2017 transportation budget before the 2016 year-end deadline, stalling the grant funds for the first phase of the Red Line project and 30 other transit-related projects nationwide, but IndyGo Director of Public Affairs Bryan Luellen said the pre-construction preparations for the Red Line are still underway. Construction is scheduled to begin in June, but if Congress does not act by March, the project could begin to realize some delays, Luellen said in a media statement. Luellen said IndyGo would not enter into any contracts without the necessary funding in place, reiterating what he told the Recorder in an October 2016 interview: Were not going out and buying 13 60-foot electric vehicles on a hope and a dream, and were not hiring construction firms just hoping that this grant is going to come through. In Washington, Congressman Andre Carson (D-IN), who sits on the House Transportation Committee, is fighting to secure the Red Line funding for his hometown. Hes a big advocate for public transportation in Indianapolis, and he is going to continue to fight to get that funding, said Jessica Gail, Carsons communications director. Hes going to fight any way he can. Gail said there are several avenues Carson could pursue, including pushing for other grants or getting the Red Line funding into the presidential budget. Red Line construction is just one part of the overall Marion County Transit Plan, which also includes strategies for more frequent service, more efficient transfers, longer hours, advanced payment technology and real-time arrival information. So while the grant funds are tied up in Washington, mass transit advocates in Marion County continue to organize in support of the proposed income tax measure to fund IndyGos operations and the other planned improvements. The local funding at issue here is more important than any federal grants. Without increased funding, IndyGo will not be able to add service in the future, Luellen said. Local funding provides the revenue IndyGo needs to operate more frequent service, earlier in the morning, later at night, seven days a week, not to mention the local match for any future federal grants. Indianapolis currently has no dedicated transit funding, meaning the money for IndyGo operations fluctuates based on the city budget. Though Indianapolis is the 33rd largest region in the nation, the city ranks 86th in transit investment per capita. The .25-percent income tax increase appeared as a ballot referendum in November, and 59 percent of Marion County voters voiced their support. However, the measure was considered a non-binding referendum, so it requires final approval from the City-County Council. Indy Connect, a coalition made up of IndyGo, the Metropolitan Planning Organization and the Central Indiana Regional Transportation Authority, is urging transit supporters to contact their City-County councilors and attend upcoming meetings to voice their opinions. Upcoming meetings are scheduled for Jan. 9, 11, 19, 24 and 30 at the City-County Building. For more information on the Marion County Transit Plan, visit IndyConnect.org. For more information on the City-County Council, visit Indy.gov. The Junior League of Indianapolis (JLI) has issued a Request for Proposal to community organizations who are aligned with the JLIs strategic focus of preparing Marion County students for academic success. The JLI will commit its trained volunteers and strategic funding to organizations who are selected for the partnership. The Junior League has identified preparing students for academic success as a key objective in how and where we direct our resources, said Michelle Study-Campbell, JLI president. To that end, we have developed partnerships with schools and non-profit organizations to ensure young people in Indianapolis have a strong foundation that will support them in school and beyond. Since 2014, the JLI has provided financial and volunteer support to Stephen Foster Elementary School (IPS School 67). The JLI has invested more than $100,000 in the first three years of the four-year partnership, and has led school cleanups, a Kids in the Kitchen program, a neighborhood rummage sale, and the refurbishment of the schools media center. In 2015, the JLI opened a school-based food pantry that serves families with their most basic needs. Other JLI community partners have included Early Learning Indiana and School on Wheels. The JLI provided Early Learning Indiana with volunteers to support teachers and students in the classroom and in afterschool programming, and offered tuition assistance to low-income families. School on Wheels received funding and volunteer support for its Tutors in Action program. There are many organizations in the community who are leading worthwhile initiatives to reach some of our most underserved students, and we are eager to help move these efforts forward, Study-Campbell continued. Furthering the education of our young people is more than just a core value for us, it is an actionable goal where we are investing significant financial and human capital. The completed RFP must be submitted to the JLI by Jan. 31, 2017. The partnership will begin on June 1, 2017. What a conundrum - the same places that shaped the way we travel and make memories are also the ones that are now being bookmarked as the most polluted ones. Congested waters thick with slime and floating trash, lakes bursting at the seams with daily reject, and air that's steadily turning poisonous and killing us - these things have, sadly, become indicators of the kind of wasteful modern life we're suffering. The fact that we tend to invest little to no time in disposing off waste, is a darker truth still. We mapped some of the world's most polluted destinations here, and the images are not easy to see. 1. A boy collects 'offerings' thrown by worshippers in the waters of the Sabarmati River after the immersion of Ganesh idols, in Ahmedabad REUTERS/Amit Dave 2. Oil pools and trash in a lake in Balakhani, Azerbaijan Tomas van Houtryve 3. Workers clear floating plants and garbage off the surface of the Yangtze River at a section in Chongqing municipality, China REUTERS/China Daily 4. A child jumps on waste products that are used to make poultry feed as she plays in a tannery at Hazaribagh in Dhaka, Bangladesh Andrew Biraj/Reuters 5. A small island formed by the accumulation of trash is pictured in Tanjung Burung, on the coast of Indonesia's Banten province REUTERS/Enny Nuraheni 6. Cambodians ride a bicycle past a garbage dump in Takeo REUTERS/Damir Sagolj 7. A child swims in a polluted reservoir in Pingba, southwest China's Guizhou province REUTERS/China Daily 8. An elderly man exercises in the morning as he faces chimneys emitting smoke behind buildings across the Songhua river in Jilin, Jilin province REUTERS 9. An oil covered bird lies in front of Ukrainian soldiers removing oil pollution from the Black Sea shore at Kosa Tuzla island near Black Sea port REUTERS/ Gleb Garanich 10. People make their way through heavy smog on an extremely polluted day with red alert issued, in Shengfang, Hebei province, China REUTERS/Damir Sagolj 11. A man walks through garbage strewn on Ipanema beach in Rio de Janeiro REUTERS/Sergio Morae 12. A man sits on a stretch of train tracks close to Greece's border with Macedonia, near the Greek village of Idomeni REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis 13. Two men photographed in Masaya's municipal garbage dump, Nicaragua REUTERS/Oswaldo Rivas With inputs from Reuters Lead images: (India) REUTERS/Parivartan Sharma; (Cambodia) REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha Instagram Shahid Kapoor and Mira Rajput made their first ever appearance together on national television last week. People gave an overwhelming response to the couple and many have even crowned them as the informal brand ambassadors of arranged marriages. Star World It's their choice and if two people are happy with their personal decisions, who are we to make a big deal and rant about it? Star World After Koffee With Karan was aired, Shahid Kapoor spoke about Mira and Misha to Mumbai Mirror. During his interview, he spoke about how overwhelmed he is to see people responding to his and Mira's appearance on KWK and how he loves taking care of Misha. When he was asked if he is happy being called the 'brand ambassador' for arranged marriages after the show, he said, Instagram/Shahid Kapoor "List lambi hoti jaa rahi hai -arrange marriage, goody-two-shoes hubby -now I feel like growing a little rough around the edges. In the last year and a half, I've realised how happy and relaxed we are together. People on the outside were constantly wondering who Mira is? The show was a nice platform for us to get out there, to let people see us together, understand us as a couple. Everyone has responded so well to it." He also revealed how difficult his life was personally when his wife Mira was going through a tough phase during her pregnancy. He said, Instagram/Shahid Kapoor "Last year was overwhelming. I was going through a difficult time personally. Mira was hospitalised and I had to shoot and travel. My concerns regarding her pregnancy outweighed the Udta Punjab controversy. All I wanted to do at the time was be by her side." Talking about work-life balance and how he is handling Padmavati and Misha, a doting daddy Shahid said, Shahid/Instagram "I've been having sleepless nights taking care of Misha. I have no-food days now because I need to be in a certain shape for Padmavati. My character has a lot of close ups, body shots. But my priority is Misha, I want to come home to her. When you're single, you get a lot of time to hang out with friends but that has changed in the last year. It's just a phase, when things settle down, we'll be more out there as a couple." Stay blessed, you two! Shahid Kapoor is a protective daddy and why not? There is something extremely special about father-daughter relationships. On Koffee With Karan, Shahid jokingly threatened everyone that no one ever gets to marry his daughter Misha. Even though it was a joke, Shahid's protective nature was well evident. Twitter Shahid and Mira have often been spotted at the airport and photo-journalists have clicked them a lot of times. We have seen Daddy Shahid holding baby Misha in his arms, wrapped carefully. Twitter However, during one of Shahid-Mira's recent visits, they were returning to Mumbai and while they were at the airport, some photo-journalists went a little too ahead in order to get their perfect clicks. Forgetting that they were flashing the camera flash too close to Misha's eyes, this made Shahid really angry. Unfortunate how some journos don't realise how bad 20 cameras flashing 2 feet away are for an infants eyes. No common sense in their dna. Shahid Kapoor (@shahidkapoor) January 5, 2017 Shahid's anger is absolutely justified, right? Former Secretary-General of Egypt's State Council Wael Shalaby, who was found dead in police custody earlier this week, committed suicide, a statement from the prosecutor-general said on Thursday. Shalaby was discovered dead in custody on Monday, which sources at the State Security Prosecution attributed at the time to suicide. Shalaby had been arrested on Sunday and given a 44-day detention pending investigation on corruption charges. According to the forensic report on the deceased judges body received by the general prosecution, there were no signs of foul play. (Shalabys) body had no injuries that would point to criminal violence or resisting [violence], the statement read. According to the Forensic report there were no traces of poisonous or narcotic substances in the urine and blood samples examined, it added. Shalaby resigned from his post on Saturday, days after a procurement manager at the State Council, Gamal El-Laban, was charged with receiving bribes worth millions of Egyptian pounds. Shalaby also faced accusations of receiving a bribe while in office. Search Keywords: Short link: After unveiling a made-for-India Digital Unlocked program yesterday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai visited his alma mater today, IIT Kharagpur, after 23 years. While interacting with students there, he let slip the fact that Google was working on a US $30 or Rs 2000 Android smartphone exclusively for India. Will the Rs 2000 Android smartphone be like Google Project Ara or Android One? We at Google want to focus on usage of Internet in rural areas in India. We are big supporters of the Digital India program. We are also working on digitising payments and I am fully confident that India will be a global player in terms of digital economies, Sundar Pichai said at IIT Kharagpur earlier today. To enable the digital economy, the need for a really cost-effective, inexpensive smartphone is an absolute must, and Mr Pichai and Google is clearly targeting the largely untapped rural smartphone market with this upcoming $30 or Rs 2000 Android smartphone. Despite the tantalizing hint on the prospect of a Rs 2000 Android smartphone, Mr Sundar Pichai offered no further details on the specifications or make the $30 smartphone. Will it be similar to the Android One program launched in 2014, where Google tied up with Micromax, Spice and Karbonn to launch inexpensive smartphones in the country? Mr Pichai didnt give any further comments. While we know the upcoming $30 or Rs 2000 Android smartphone from Google wont be a Project Ara replacement, but we hope its a Google branded phone -- like the Pixel, but available for a whole lot less money -- instead of engaging with OEMs. Here are some other interesting things that Sundar Pichai said recently on his India visit in 2017. UPI is phenomenal Sundar Pichai had high praise about the Unified Payments Interface launched by the NPCI, a government body. Pichai said, These things can have tremendous multiplicative effects for a place like India. This country has a chance to leapfrog some things other countries have struggled with.Were doing it with cellphones instead of landlines. Similarly, in digital payments, the UPI stack in India is phenomenal. Something like that doesnt exist in most countries. I do think we have a unique opportunity. There is a lot more infrastructure here than people realise. The foundations have been set for digitising India on the payment side as well. I am not an expert on this. But I think it is a courageous move and from Googles perspective, if there is anything we can do to help, we would be glad to do so. No prizes for guessing Pichais hints here. We should all look forward to seeing Android and Google Play Wallet supporting UPI very, very soon, for Indian users. On autonomous cars I dont think a country like India is going to see, as Travis (CEO of Uber) said, completely automated cars. But just like technology is assisting humans, we can make cars so that they are safer, and the driving experience is comfortable and shared, Pichai said. He didnt comment on any dates or tests for self-driving Google cars in India anytime soon. Guess he knows a thing or two about our crazy on-road driving skills and traffic situation, eh? The worlds largest electronics expo is taking place in Las Vegas, and tech companies of all sizes are trying to wow visitors. Apart from getting an early glimpse of the most cutting-edge smartphones, laptops and TVs thatll launch through the year, CES 2017 also boasts off truly innovative products. Here are a few products that won CES 2017s Innovation Awards this year, an annual competition honoring outstanding design and engineering in consumer technology products. 1) Wireless charging ceiling tile Cota Tile delivers wireless power without plugs and pads. Built to replace a standard ceiling tile, Cota Tile can charge electronic devices within a 30-foot radius. From offices and hospitals to coffee shops and homes, Cota Tile makes power as convenient, safe and invisible as wireless Internet. Cota Tile has proven safe for operation around people, pets and plants. It is environmentally friendly and does not interfere with Wi-Fi or other wireless technologies and Cota power receivers are small enough to be embedded into smartphones, standard-size batteries or other aftermarket accessories. 2) AI that works wonder for the visually impaired Aipoly Vision is an artificial intelligence platform which allows mobile phones to recognise thousands of items in real-time to assist the blind and visually impaired, helping them explore their surroundings. If implemented well on all handheld devices like smartphones as a default feature, Aipoly Visions AI can be instrumental in easing the lives of hundreds of thousands of visually impaired people in India and around the world. 3) Self-administered eye exams Through a smartphone app, EyeQue aims to bring the eye exam into the comfort of your palm -- with no doctor attached. It does so with a Rs 2000 optical device that connects to the app. The startup is currently raising money for its EyeQue product by taking pre-orders on a Kickstarter. And the project has caught the imagination of a lot of people! 4) Sense heartbeat for identity detection Goodix Live Fingerprint Scanner is doing something very interesting. Apart from capturing the users fingerprint through the fingerprint scanner, the company also wants to learn sensing the users heartbeat and use it as an additional layer of establishing identity. This is biometric security that determines your heartbeat signature from your finger. Imagine this rolling out on a smartphone later this year? Pretty cool. 5) Floating in the air wireless speaker One look at Crazybabys Mars levitating speaker makes you wonder whether its a music device or some miniature alien spaceship. The mid-air floating speaker magnetically suspends over the woofer unit of the speaker, which bears an uncanny resemblance to a Mac Pro cylinder desktop. CES 2017 lasts from January 5 to 8 in Las Vegas, USA. Jane Austin once said, It is always incomprehensible to a man that a woman should ever refuse an offer of marriage. A man always imagines a woman to be ready for anybody who asks her. And how true that stands even today. It's not even limited to just marriage - most men seem to find it difficult, if not impossible, to take no for an answer. (Also read: Three Days After Bengaluru Was Shocked By Mass Molestation, Cops File FIR With 'Credible Evidence') Over the years, we've heard, seen, read, and discussed so many incidents of rape, assault, molestation, and harassment that we've become numb to it. However, the real question is, how long can we let this continue? The women and girls who went out on New Years' eve, thinking it will be just another night, weren't prepared for a mass molestation. They didn't know that hundreds of men would touch them, grope them, and feel them up, out in the open. (Also read: Another New Year's Eve Molestation Happens In Bengaluru, This Time Caught On CCTV!) Satshya Anna Tharien, from Tamil Nadu, decided to take out her anger through a poem and here's what she has to say. Her poem, which is simple yet brilliant, will pierce right through your heart, and you'll find yourself nodding your head in absolute approbation. Watch the full video here: More power to you! (Also read: Here Are Some Of The Most Sexist Things SP Leader Abu Asim Azmi Has Said About Women's Safety) AFP China often claims that it doesn't take India seriously, but with India launching Agni-V, it's first Inter-Continental Ballistic Missle (ICBM), China seems to have taken it quite seriously as now it says that if India increases its arsenal of long range missles, it will help Pakistan to do the same. "If the UN Security Council has no objection over this (ICBMs), let it be. The range of Pakistan's nuclear missiles will also see an increase," the state-run Global Times said in an editorial, hinting that China will help Pakistan come on par with India. Read more here. Here are 5 more stories for you: 1. People Who Live Close To Heavy Traffic Face Higher Risk Of Developing Dementia! AFP People living in metropolitan cities face higher risk of developing dementia due to heavy pollution. In a study published at The Lancet medical journal, the researchers in Canada have found that people who lived within 50 meters (55 yards) of high-traffic roads had a 7.0 per cent higher chance of developing dementia as compared to those who lived more than 300 meters away from busy roadways. "Air pollutants can get into the blood stream and lead to inflammation, which is linked with cardiovascular disease and possibly other conditions such as diabetes. This study suggests air pollutants that can get into the brain via the blood stream can lead to neurological problems." Read more here 2. Telegana Police Rescues Nearly 200 Child Labourers From A Brick Kiln, Some Of Them As Young As 4 AFP Police on Wednesday rescued nearly 200 children, most under 14 years of age from a brick kiln in Telangana in one of its biggest operations in region, officials said. The operation which was a part of Operation Smile, a national campaign to tackle child r=labour and missing children was carried out by police in Yadadiri district, 40 kms away from the state capital Hyderabad. The rescued children had moved from Odisha and were living and working with adults presumed to be their parents in the brick kiln, police said. "We are not sure if the parents are genuine and there is a possibility that some of the children were trafficked," Mahesh Bhagwat, a police commissioner was quoted by Reuters. Read more here amarujala For many clearing UPSC exam is nothing less than conquering the world. But there are only a few who clear in first go. Pranjal Patil (28), a visually challenged woman from Ulhasnagar in Maharashtra cleared the exam in first go in 2016, but she hasn't got the job till date. Pranjal had got the Indian Railway Accounts Service (IRAS) according to the rank, she obtained (773) after clearing the exam, but department didn't offer her a job owing to the reason that she was completely blind or visually impaired. Read more here 4. Unable To Get Her Money Exchanged, A 24YO Mother Of Two Strips In Front Of The RBI rediff We've stepped into the new year, but we've not managed to leave our baggage back in 2016. Namely, demonetisation. It is extremely difficult to think straight when pseudo-nationalists force feed information down your throat. Despite the bickering that's happening over the web, the bottom line remains - there's been a lot of suffering because of demonetisation. Even 2 months since the 8th of November, people are still going home empty handed, sleeping on an empty stomach, and fueling empty hopes. A similar case made it to the headlines when a 24-year-old woman stripped in front of the RBI after she was done running around in circles. Read more here 5. Google Is Working On A Rs 2000 Android Phone For India! After unveiling a made-for-India Digital Unlocked program yesterday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai visited his alma mater today, IIT Kharagpur, after 23 years. While interacting with students there, he let slip the fact that Google was working on a US $30 or Rs 2000 Android smartphone exclusively for India. Will the Rs 2000 Android smartphone be like Google Project Ara or Android One? We at Google want to focus on usage of Internet in rural areas in India. We are big supporters of the Digital India program. We are also working on digitising payments and I am fully confident that India will be a global player in terms of digital economies, Sundar Pichai said at IIT Kharagpur earlier today. Read more here Iraqi forces on Thursday launched an offensive aimed at retaking towns still under the control of the Islamic State group in western areas near the border with Syria, commanders said. "A military operation has begun in the western areas of Anbar to liberate them from Daesh," said Lieutenant General Qassem Mohammedi, commander of the Jazeera Operations Command, using an Arabic acronym for IS. He said the operation was led by the army's 7th division, police, and fighters from local tribes that have opposed the jihadists, with aerial backing from the US-led coalition. The main targets of the operation are Aanah, Rawa and Al-Qaim, the westernmost Iraqi towns along the Euphrates Valley. The jihadist hub of Al-Qaim, which lies 330 kilometres (200 miles) northwest of Baghdad, is still a long way down the road and the most immediate target of the new offensive is the town of Aanah. "Our forces started advancing from Haditha towards Aanah from several directions," Mohammedi told AFP. Haditha was never seized by IS when the group swept across much of Iraq's Sunni Arab heartland in 2014 and is home to a tribe that has led the fight against the jihadists in the area. "Zero hour has come to liberate the western areas," Nadhom al-Jughaifi, a commander with the Haditha tribal fighters, said. In 2016, Iraqi forces retook large parts of the vast province of Anbar, including its capital Ramadi and the city of Fallujah. Anbar is a desert area traversed by the Euphrates that borders Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria. Security in reconquered areas remains precarious and jihadists continue to move across the province. Tens of thousands of Iraqi forces are currently involved in an offensive to retake Mosul, the main northern city which is also IS's last major stronghold in the country. IS has lost more than half of the territory it once controlled in Iraq and the loss of Mosul would deal a major blow to the "caliphate" it proclaimed there in June 2014. Search Keywords: Short link: Thepolitical "fireworks" in recession-battered Greece was an internal party affair this week, as a European MEP elected on the ruling SYRIZA party's ticket took aim at Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras , who heads the leftist government in Athens Speculation over a meeting between Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Turkish Recep Tayyip Erdogan before a new round of talks in Geneva for a Cyprus solution was mostly laid to rest on Thursday , as government in Athens said no such prospect exists. Some angry passengers of Arik Air have been seen in a viral video clashing with a staffer of the airline at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos. The clash occurred on Tuesday after Arik had reportedly delayed their flights to Johannesburg, South Africa for 3 days without notice. Enraged customers approached the manager, demanding an explanation and then a fight ensued between them as other passengers took advantage and tried to let off anger by joining in the rift. Army spokesman, Brigadier General Sani Usman has announced that another Chibok schoolgirl has been found, one of the 219 stolen by Boko Haram insurgents on 14 April 2014. She was identified as Rakiya Abubakar. She has a six month old baby. She is the 23rd to be recovered so far, since the Buhari administration came into office. She was discovered by troops of Operation Lafiya Dole, in Maiduguri, during investigation of arrested suspected Boko Haram terrorists Usman, the Director, Army Public Relations, on Thursday in Abuja, said in a statement that preliminary investigation discovered that she is the daughter of Abubakar Gali Mulima and Habiba Abubakar of Chibok. She further stated that she was a student of Senior Secondary School Class 3B (SS 3B), before her abduction along with her colleagues on April 14, 2014 by the Boko Haram terrorists. Rakiya Abubakar is presently undergoing further medical investigation and would soon be released to the Borno Government, Usman said. Troops of 6 Division of the Nigerian Army on Wednesday shot dead five suspected cultists during gun battle in Omoku, Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of Rivers, the army said. General Officer Commanding (GOC) 6 Division, Port Harcourt, Kasimu Abdulkarim, who confirmed the killings, said the battle was part of Operation Cleanup of cultists and militants terrorising residents. According to him, troops have so far recovered five AK 47 assault rifles from cultists in the area since January 1. Army 6 Division has recorded appreciable successes in its bid to rid the local government of cultists and brigands, Mr. Abdulkarim said. It was gathered from community sources that the incident started when troops stormed the area after receiving distress call over the presence of cultists. A witness said the suspected cultists invaded Omoku town on Tuesday night and shot dead two unidentified young men before making attempt to escape. After killing the men, they shot sporadically before soldiers closed in on them, the witness said. Troops of the 6 Division of the Nigerian Army, Port Harcourt have five suspected cultists in Omoku, headquarters of Ogba Egbema Ndoni Local Council of Rivers State. The Guardian learnt they were executed in the early hours of yesterday during a gun duel. The General Officer Commanding, Major General Kasimu Abdulkarim, who confirmed the incident, said five AK 47 riffles have so far been recovered from hoodlums in the area since the beginning of the year. We have recovered a total of five AK47 riffles from cultists in the area since January 1, he said. Community sources said the army responded to a distress when the cultists stormed the town shooting sporadically. It was further learnt that the cultists had killed two young men before the soldiers closed in on them. Also yesterday, there was palpable tension in Yenagoa, as two persons were reportedly killed Tuesday when gunmen invaded the popular Swali Market in the Bayelsa State capital. The Guardian gathered that the incident, which occurred around 4:00 p.m., threw the entire market into confusion as sellers and buyers scampered for safety. The Police Public Relations Officer for the State Command, Asinim Buswat, who confirmed the incident, said: Four gunmen with pistol attacked one Raymond Agada (male) of Swali community, adding that the hoodlums shot the victim and dispossessed him of the N120,000 which he was going to deposit in a bank Source: Guardian Turkish police detained the chief legal advisor and a former chief executive of Dogan Holding on Thursday, the conglomerate said, as part of a probe into followers of a U.S.-based cleric blamed for a failed July coup. Dogan - which has interests in media, finance, energy and tourism and owns newspaper Hurriyet and broadcaster CNN Turk - said the raids were only on the personal offices and homes of the two individuals and that its operations were unaffected. Last month another Dogan Holding executive, Barbaros Muratoglu, was remanded in custody on an accusation of "aiding a terror group" as part of an investigation into the exiled Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen and his followers. Ankara refers to the group as the "Gulenist Terror Organisation". In its statement to the Istanbul stock exchange, Dogan said Thursday's detentions were part of the same investigation. Search Keywords: Short link: An infamous terrorist/cult leader in Omoku, ONELGA, Rivers State, Jungle boy and his gang were killed by soldiers this morning during a fierce shoot out. According to multiple reports online, the hoodlum and his gang had been a thorn in the flesh for residents in the area before meeting their end at the hands of military personnel. Its expected that some level of peace would be enjoyed henceforth as long as theres no resurgence of the group. See more photos below. Source: National Helm The Federal Government has resumed payments to former Niger Delta militants, as agreed under a 2009 amnesty deal, a government official confirmed on Thursday . President Muhammadu Buharis administration has been holding talks with militants to end attacks on crude pipelines, which cut Nigerias output by 700,000 barrels in 2016. The budget for cash payments to militants has originally been cut, but had to continue to halt the pipeline attacks. Two months of the ex-militants stipends were paid yesterday. The rest of their stipends will be paid later in batches by (central bank) CBN, Piriye Kiyaramo, an officer in the governments Amnesty Office, said. He said the paid stipends covered August and September. Each former militant is entitled to N65,000 ($206.68) monthly, plus job training. Ghanaian president-elect, Nana Akufo-Addo, has appointed Saratu Atta as a personal assistant as he ramps up activities ahead of his inauguration Saturday. Ms. Atta, 53, is a former wife of Nigerian politician, Femi Fani-Kayode. She has served as an executive aide to Mr. Akufo-Addo since 2009, a statement on the president-elects website said Wednesday. She is amongst the three women of a total 12 appointees so far named by Mr. Akufo-Addo, but the statement did not provide further details about her new role. The two other women are Akosua Osei-Opare, Chief of Staff to the President, and Clara Tia, a presidential staffer. A brief citation of Ms. Atta said that she is a graduate of the University of Warwick, UK, and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Politics and International Studies. She worked as a Securities Trader at First Securities Discount House in Lagos, Nigeria from 1993 to 1997, and went on to establish her own security printing company in Lagos. She is a member of the New Patriotic Party, one of the two major political parties in Ghana, and served as the partys campaign secretary since 2008. She married Mr. Fani-Kayode, Nigerias former Minister of Aviation, in 1987 and bore him a female child named Folake in the same year. They parted ways around 1989 when Mr. Fani-Kayode found a new wife, Yemisi Wada. Source: Premium Times Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel is on the verge of becoming the latest Premier League name to join Chinese Super League side Tianjin TEDA after undergoing a medical on Thursday according to the Evening Standard. The news comes somewhat as a surprise after it had been reported that Mikel was expected to snub the Far East in favour of remaining in Europe. The Nigerian was thought to have had reservations about playing in the CSL, citing the strain it would place on his family as a stumbling block. But the midfielder, who has not appeared in Chelsea colours under Antonio Conte, is understood to have undergone a medical with his new club on Thursday. Stamford Bridge has been his home since 2006, but he will now leave the Premier League to pick up a new 140k-a-week deal at his new club. The player had reportedly interested Marseille, Valencia and Inter Milan in the run up to the transfer window, but it appears the astronomical wage offer was simply too good to turn down for the 29-year-old. Mikel becomes the third Chelsea player to join the Chinese revolution directly, after Ramires in the same window last year, and most recently Oscar for a staggering 52m. Ninetyminutesport The police, yesterday, docked an unemployed man, Williams Eromosele, 27, before an Igbosere Magistrates Court in Lagos, for allegedly stealing N9,200 from a church offertory box. He pleaded not guilty and was granted N150,000 bail with two sureties in like sum. Magistrate A. A. Adetunji, who gave the bail condition, also said that the sureties must show evidence of tax payment to the Lagos State Government. She also ordered that the addresses of the sureties must be verified and adjourned the case till January 25 for mention. The prosecutor, Corporal Friday Mameh, had earlier told the court that the defendant committed the alleged offences on January 3, at 11a.m., at the Catholic Church on Musa Yardua Street, Victoria Island, Lagos. In the box He said that the defendant conducted himself in a manner likely to cause breach of peace by unlawfully entering into the church to steal from the offertory box. Mameh said Eromosele dipped his hands into the box and stole N9,200, which was a sacrilege. He said the said money belonged to Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church. The prosecutor said that the offences committed are contrary to Section 166(d) and punishable under Section 285 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011. Source: Vanguard The Nigerian Army has disclosed the rescue of yet another of the Chibok Girls, more than two years after they were originally abducted. Of the 276 girls, 20 were rescued in late 2016 following a negotiation between the Federal government and Boko Haram. The Army has now said the girl rescued today alongside her baby was part of the girls abducted by the terror group and she has been identified as , Rakiya Abubakar. Rakiya and her baby were reportedly rescued near Sambisa Forest, by Nigerian troops of the 27 Brigade around Alagarno area near Ajigin in Damboa Local Government area, Borno state earlier today. Nigerian newspaper headlines January 5, 2017. Punch The Nigerian military on Wednesday declared that the whereabouts of the leader of the Boko Haram sect, Abubakar Shekau, remained unknown even as it disclosed that three suicide female bombers were gunned down in Madagali, Adamawa State. Vanguard Voodoo rituals, near-drowning in the Mediterranean, abortions: Spanish police recounted Wednesday the harrowing experiences of young Nigerian migrant girls forced into prostitution in places like Benidorm and eventually rescued. Guardian The Federal Government has concluded plans to deploy light arms-wielding security guards as well as trained dogs in the nations airports. Thisday Ekiti State governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, has raised the alarm over a new plot by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to remove him from office with the connivance of the judiciary. Leadership Troops of 6 Division, Nigerian Army on Wednesday shot dead five suspected cultists during gun battle in Omoku, Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of Rivers. Premium Times Popular money-doubling scheme, MMM, has called on its participants whose accounts were frozen to begin online publicity for the scheme ahead of its resumption date. The Sun The Nigeria National Petroleum Cooperation (NNPC), has unveiled names of 39 companies that would lift and trade Nigerias oil for the 2017 crude oil term contract. The Nation Members of a vigilante group in Madagali Local Government Area of Adamawa State yesterday shot dead three suspected female suicide bombers attempting to enter the Gulak market. Nigerian airlines have told the federal government that there is no need to close the Abuja airport to conduct repairs on its runway. The Chairman of Airline Operators of Nigeria, Noggie Meggison, said though his members would support any decision taken by the federal government, such closure as announced was unnecessary. The Federal Government had announced that the airport would be closed from March 8 for six weeks to enable repairs on the only runway. Mr. Meggison, however, said the repairs could be carried out at night while flights are allowed to operate during the day. He said the operators were of the opinion that repairs of the runway could be carried out between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. while flight operations could take place during the day. The airline chief said Gatwick airport in the UK, which like Abuja airport has only one runway, did not shut down when repairs were carried out on its runway. This is despite that Gatwick has more than 10 times the volume of air traffic that the Abuja airport has, he said. Mr. Meggison spoke at a stakeholders forum in Abuja organised by the Minister of State, Aviation, Hadi Sirika. The chairman, who commended the minister for his forthrightness in piloting the affairs in the sector, said there had been a lot of actions by Mr. Sirika in the sector since he assumed office. He urged the government to explore possibility of carrying out the repairs on the runway at night while flights would be operating in the day time, saying his association was in total support of the rehabilitation of the Abuja airport runway which he said had become a safety concern. Similarly, Osho Joseph, a representative of foreign airlines in Abuja, said that Kaduna might be an alternative for local airlines, but not for foreign airlines at the moment. Mr. Joseph also suggested that February to March could have been the ideal time for the closure to beat onset of rainfall. The Deputy British High Commissioner, Harriet Thompson, express readiness to support the government throughout the period of the closure. She debunked the insinuations that the government of Britain might close down its embassy in Abuja, saying the country would stand by Nigeria at all times. The Representative of Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State, Gambo Hamza, assured of the state governments readiness to ensure smooth operations during the period. He said that the government had begun cleaning up of the airport, adding that adequate security arrangement had been put in place. The current arrangement by the Nigerian government during the repairs is that airlines would land at the Kaduna airport and passengers would be transported in secure buses from Kaduna to Abuja. Source: PremiumTimes The Maiden Edition of Mrs Accolade Nigeria event and awards was grandly staged in style at the prestigious Sheraton Hotels and Tower recently with high profile celebrities in attendance. The fully packed hall witnessed the crowning of the first and historical Mrs Accolade winner Mrs Onyinye Obiora-Okoye who was born on the 1st of October 1988 in Maiduguri, Borno State Nigeria. Married to Pastor David Obiora Okoye with three lovely children, the young entrepreneur and astute business woman was indeed the cynosure of all eyes as she dazzled on stage impressively to the excitement of both the judges and the overwhelming audience. The event which had Mrs feoma Monye, Mrs kama Chiwe and a host of credibly notable personalities as judges rated her performance as eye -catching and commendably arresting. The Accolade excellence award had several selected dignitaries and distinguished awardees like Dr. Mike Omotosho, Comr. Isaac Balama, Dr. Raymond Asemakaha, Amb. Sheni Nampon, Dr. Raymond Dokpesi, Sen. Osita Izunaso, Mr Linus Okorie, Mrs Sally William Chinebu, Dr. Princess Rabi Ibrahim, Amb. Utchay Odims, Engr. Markus Gundiri, Mrs Binta Pearl Ojoma, Rex Idaminabo, Ukeje Okechukwu ( Mr. Raw), Oku Udoka Chigozie (Selebobo), Fred Onwe, Doofan Abulamali, Hon. Jonathan Daniel, Hillary Emoh, twins Chidinma & Chidiebere Aneke, Alex Nwankwo (alexreports) and others were honoured for outstanding their performances in their individual fields of endearour. Mrs Onyinye Obiora-Okoye who carted away with a brand new car and cash prize believes that women need to be more productively involved in contributing to sustainable development. With loads of academic qualification ranging from Bachelor of Arts degree in History, Advanced Diploma in Personnel Management, Master\\s degree in History and currently a PhD student in Benue state University, the pretty lady is indeed a young intellectual giant whose height is yet to be determined. The lucky winner is not greenhorned in the industry of beauty pageant as she formerly emerged Miss LAWSAN 2004, Benue State University, 1st Runner- up Miss Benue 2006, Queen Nassarawa 2008, 1st Runner up Queen Nigeria 2008 and1st Runner up Nwa Ada Igbo 2012. The soft spoken ex- beauty queen was also crowned thehighly prestigious Oriflame Face of Nigeria in 2015 before finally emerging the star winner of Mrs Accolade Nigeria 2016. The mother of three has also won several awards including Iconic Queen Mother 2014, Woman on Fire 2015 etc. Mrs Okoye used her education, titles, businesses and privileges to Inspire and support people all over the world and in her community with her life long passion to REACH out to the less privileged. in her definition, R.E.A.C.H simply means Remember that Every Action Can Help. The CEO and Project director Amb. Ginika Tor Williams congratulated the winners for their feat and promised to support them in whatever capacity to ensure they reign supreme. The award winning media practitioner also commended the partners and invited guests whose presence added colour to the event. Source: Leadership The Senior Pastor of the Fountain of Life Church, Ilupeju, Pastor Taiwo Odukoya and his South African wife, Pastor Nomthi are celebrating their seventh wedding anniversary today. In an emotional Instagram post, Pastor Taiwo wrote, Its been seven incredible years with my lovely wife Pastor Nomthi and just like this picture, she has brought much joy and laughter to our home. Im grateful to God for having you in my life Pastor nomthi and I know that this is just the beginning. God has so much planned for us and so much He will still do through you in Jesus name. Happy Anniversary. Turkish police detained several new suspects on Thursday in fresh raids over the nightclub attack that killed 39, as authorities tightened borders to prevent the fugitive killer from escaping. A top official said the attacker was likely a Turkic Uighur and reports have indicated the authorities are looking into the possible existence of a cell, also including other jihadists from Central Asia. But with the prospect of a dangerous trained killer on the run in the city adding to tensions in Istanbul after a spate of attacks, the authorities have still not caught the individual. In the early hours of Sunday, a gunman stormed the swanky Reina nightclub on the shores of the Bosphorus in Istanbul and sprayed 120 bullets at terrified partygoers celebrating New Year. Of the 39 dead, 27 were foreigners including citizens from Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Iraq and Morocco. The Islamic State group (IS) took responsibility for the massacre in a statement on Monday, marking the first time it has issued a clear and undisputed claim for a major attack inside Turkey. The extremist group said it was a response to Ankara's ambitious military operation against it in northern Syria, where Turkish armed forces are supporting opposition fighters retaking territory from IS. Special forces detained several people suspected of links with the attack on the outskirts of Istanbul on Thursday, state-run news agency Anadolu said. Authorities also tightened Turkish land borders, Dogan news agency reported, over fears the killer planned to flee the country. The agency said checkpoints would be set up to search all vehicles and people leaving the country at border crossings in Edirne, western Turkey, which has a land border with Greece and Bulgaria. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Wednesday that the attacker had been identified but did not give a name or further details. Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak told A Haber broadcaster on Thursday that the attacker was "probably" of Uighur origin as he sought to play down fears that the gunman would escape Turkey. Most Uighurs, an eastern Turkic group, live in the Xinjiang region of China, although there are also significant populations in ex-Soviet Central Asian states. Previous reports had said the killer could be from Kyrgyzstan or Uzbekistan. Kaynak said airports had also taken important measures to ensure the killer did not escape. Responding to some reports in local media that there was a second gunman, Kaynak said security forces were "assessing all probabilities" but that the shots were fired from one gun. He said investigations continued into whether the gunman had help inside the club and what kind of assistance he had to prepare the attack. Kaynak described the massacre as "sophisticated and well planned", suggesting the gunman is part of a "well formed cell". Anadolu did not say how many were arrested during the raids in Istanbul but claimed those detained were of Uighur origin. Police reportedly got a tip-off that individuals linked to the killer were hiding in a housing complex in the district. Excluding the latest arrests, at least 36 had been detained in the probe by Wednesday, but the gunman himself remains on the run after giving police the slip in the aftermath of the massacre. Authorities had on Tuesday detained 20 adults -- along with 20 of their children -- from three families in the Aegean city of Izmir. They moved to Izmir on December 10 from the central city of Konya, where they are suspected of having been in touch with the killer during his stay there. Police are investigating possible links to IS of these suspects, who include Uighurs, Kyrgyz citizens and suspects from the Russian Caucasus region of Dagestan. The latest attack comes after Turkey suffered a bloody year in 2016 when multiple bombings blamed on Kurdish militants and IS jihadists killed hundreds of people. Turkey is also still reeling from a failed July 15 coup blamed by the government on the US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen that has been followed by a relentless purge of his alleged supporters from state institutions. Parliament on Tuesday extended a controversial state of emergency in place since the coup -- and which has seen over 41,000 people arrested -- by another three months to April 19. Search Keywords: Short link: Operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Lagos State Police Command have arrested a suspected fake soldier allegedly involved in stealing motorcycles, popularly known as okada across the country. The suspect, Benjamin Okon, who has been parading himself as a military officer, was arrested by policemen, who acted on a tip-off from members of the public. It was learnt that the policemen swooped into action upon receiving the information, which eventually led to the arrest of the suspect on Sunday, January 1, 2017 around 5p.m. The suspect was fond of intimidating members of the public under the pretense that he is a soldier. His hostile attitude made people not to associate with him. However, when we suspected his moves, we summoned courage to report to the police, the source revealed. The suspect, who made a confessional statement during investigation at the police command, said that he had an accomplice (name withheld) who received the stolen items from him. He revealed that he usually goes to neighbouring states to snatch motorcycles, and his receiver helped him to sell them to prospective buyers. I am an expert at snatching motorcycles from unsuspecting members of the public. I had stolen countless Okadas, which my accomplice had helped me to sell. I do travel far and wide across the country to perpetrate this crime. Once I bring the bikes to him, he will pay me off and I will move on to steal another one, the suspect revealed. In her reaction, the State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Dolapo Badmus, who confirmed the incident, said the suspect would be charged to court upon completion of investigation. She noted that efforts are in top gear to apprehend the receivers and others who have connection with the crime. Source: Guardian Three suspects have been apprehended by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), following the discovery of the decomposing body of Mrs. Christiana Agbulu, a lecturer at the Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Benue State, on the outskirts of Lokoja, the Kogi State capital. The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), William Aya, who confirmed the arrest, disclosed that the ladys handset has also been recovered, adding that the suspects were giving useful information to the police. It was gathered that one of the suspects identity was captured by an ATM camera, when he came to withdraw the ransom of N100,000 paid into the ladys account by her colleagues to secure her release. According to her colleagues, the abductors on that fateful day, used the victims mobile phone to demand N150,000 to set her free. However, they were able to raise N100,000, which was paid to her bank account. The kidnappers quickly used Agbulus ATM card to withdraw the amount. Sadly, the suspects refused to release her. Christiana Agbulu, Lecturer 1 in Biological Sciences department of the Federal University of Agriculture (FUAM), Makurdi, was declared missing between Benue and Kogi, on November 26, 2016 by members of the Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU) in FUAM. The decomposed body was exhumed from a shallow grave near NEPA installation, along Lokoja-Abuja Road through a combined effort of SARS and Rev Fr. Patrick Ugbaje. The Guardian learnt that Agbulu was on a visit to her friend, Mr. Levi Asambe, an employee of Obajana Cement Company before the unfortunate incident occurred. The deceaseds case has brought to fore the danger of using commercial motorcyclists as tour guide, as she was said to have been stranded in Lokoja on arrival. She spoke to her host, who advised her to give her phone to any commercial motorcyclist for direction. In spite of all the efforts to get the right description, the motorcyclist turned out to be her abductor, as the next information from her end was the demand of N150,000 ransom. The suspects in police net confessed to having raped her repeatedly for weeks and later when she died, they took her body to somewhere along Abuja-Lokoja Highway, where they buried her in a shallow grave. The universitys chapter of ASUU had made spirited efforts to secure the victims release, with repeated appeal to the Inspector General of Police and the Kogi State governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello to assist the union in rescuing one of their members. At a press conference held yesterday in Lokoja by the ASUU-FUAM, the acting Chairperson of the union, Bemgba Anjembe, said Agbulu, who was abducted in Lokoja was found dead on Tuesday morning. She appeared to have been murdered a long time ago. The remains have already been recovered and taken to Ugbokolo, her hometown for burial. May the good Lord grant all of us the serenity to accept this rude shock. He urged the Kogi State governor to beef up the security apparatus in the state. Security is not only about providing vehicles and gadgets to policemen, he must ensure that such sordid stories do not emanate from the state again. It seems the criminals that have been chased out from other states are converging in Kogi, he said. Source: Guardian Python may be getting a performance boost from a competitor: the Google Go language. Grumpy, an experimental project from Google, transpiles Python code into Go, allowing Python programs to be compiled and run as static binaries using the Go toolchain. It's as creative an application for Go as it is a transformation of Python's use cases. [ Download the InfoWorld megaguide: The best Python frameworks and IDEs. | Keep up with hot topics in programming with InfoWorld's App Dev Report newsletter. ] In a blog post announcing the open source release, Google stated the project stemmed from its efforts to speed up the Python-powered front end for YouTube. But Google hit an obstacle that's familiar to folks who've deployed Python in production: It's hard to get CPython -- the default Python interpreter written in C -- to scale efficiently. "We think Grumpy has the potential to scale more gracefully than CPython for many real world workloads," writes Google. Lose a little, gain a lot While Grumpy compiles Python code to a static binary via the Go toolchain, that's not the chief reason for its touted speed. After all, other projects to compile Python to binaries exist, but they don't necessarily provide a speed boost because of Python's dynamic type system. Cython, for instance, provides major speedups only when the developer supplies static C-style type information. According to Google, Grumpy speeds Python code by doing away with some CPython legacy baggage. The largest is a deliberate lack of support for C extension modules, which allows C/C++ code to be made available to Python. A huge number of libraries use C extension modules, including many supplied with Python's standard library (such as ctypes , for interfacing with C code from Python). Because it doesn't support C extensions, Grumpy doesn't have CPython's Global Interpreter Lock, which is commonly cited as a roadblock to running Python concurrent workloads smoothly. Grumpy also uses Go's garbage collection mechanisms to manage memory under the hood, instead of CPython's. Grumpy creates close interoperability between Python scripts and Go by allowing Go packages to be imported and used with the same syntax as Go modules. Other Python projects allow interoperation with different language environments -- pythonnet, for instance, allows to make calls between CPython and .NET/Mono runtimes. Grumpy, though, translates Python's AST to Go first, so it's better thought of as a transpiler from Python to Go, rather than an actual bridge between both language runtimes. Missing pieces Go and its toolchain have already been used by some third parties to develop new languages. The Have project employed Go as a transpilation target, and the Oden project experimented with Go's toolchain to create a functional language in the vein of Haskell or Lisp. Work on Oden ceased at the end of last year, although Have remains under active development. With Grumpy, Go's toolchain helps re-implement an existing language with a broad, existing user base. It's possible Google will see good internal results with it since it's part of a custom-built use case. But success with the broader Python community depends on lifting or working around many existing roadblocks. For one, Grumpy only supports Python's older Python 2.x syntax, though Python 2 itself is scheduled for decommission in 2020. Much of the standard library hasn't been ported, and functions like exec or eval , which execute Python code on the fly, are not yet implemented. The biggest missing piece isn't support for C extensions themselves, but the libraries that depend on them. Without C extensions, only the most vanilla Python scripts can be compiled and run under the current interation of Grumpy. In time, it might be possible to devise replacements for them written in Go rather than C, but that's not a trivial project. Many Python libraries with big followings, like NumPy, would be completely unusable -- and such libraries are a big part of Python's draw. [An earlier version of this article had a different and less accurate comparison between Grumpy and the "pythonnet" project. This version provides more details about the distinctions between the two projects.] Smithfield gets Clougherty from Hormel Smithfield Foods has completed the acquisition of Clougherty Packing, parent company of Farmer John and Saags Specialty Meats brands, and PFFJ farm operations from Hormel Foods Corporation. Smithfield Foods has completed the acquisition of Clougherty Packing, parent company of Farmer John and Saags Specialty Meats brands, and PFFJ farm operations from Hormel Foods Corporation. The closing followed the approval of the sale by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. We are proud to officially welcome Farmer John to our growing Smithfield familya move that has already created new value for our combined operations and set the stage for a strong 2017, said Kenneth M. Sullivan, president and CEO of Smithfield Foods. With this one acquisition, weve created a more efficient supply chain coast-to-coast and expanded our operations, product portfolio as well as our customer and consumer base. Smithfield will welcome three farms located in Arizona, California and Wyoming into its hog production division. Kenneth J. Baptist, vice president of operations for Smithfields packaged meats division, will now lead Farmer John operations, which includes both the Farmer John and Saags Specialty Meats brands. Baptist has more than a decade of experience at Smithfield and more than 30 years of experience in the food industry. German factory orders down, underlining recession fears AP - 1 hour ago Official figures show that German factory orders were down 4% in September compared with the previous month, underlining expectations that Europes biggest economy is heading into recession $SPX : 3,719.89 (-1.06%) $DOWI : 32,001.25 (-0.46%) $IUXX : 10,690.60 (-1.98%) Raw Sugar (SB) Testing 38.2% Fib Retrace of Apr-Sep Consolidation Tradable Patterns - Fri Nov 4, 12:49AM CDT Raw Sugar (SB) formed a second straight daily Hammer yesterday, and appears poised to test downchannel resistance (on the weekly chart) by next week sometime. Yesterdays close just shy of the 38.2%... SBH23 : 18.62 (+0.81%) SGG : 57.90 (-0.15%) RFD-TV Interview: Grain and Livestock Markets Blue Line Futures - Thu Nov 3, 6:38PM CDT What's on the radar for grain and livestock markets to round out the week? Cotton Bounce Continued through Thursday Barchart - Thu Nov 3, 4:48PM CDT Front month cotton futures ended with another triple digit bounce on the day. December closed at the allotted 4c limit, while the other nearbys were 138 to 353 point gains. Census data reported 703,536... CTZ22 : 84.97 (+2.37%) CTH23 : 83.20 (+1.25%) CTK23 : 82.90 (+1.10%) Red Thursday for Wheat Market Barchart - Thu Nov 3, 4:48PM CDT The nearby wheat market ended with mixed but mostly lower. SRW prices gave back 3 to 5 1/2 cents on the day. December stayed at a net 11 1/4 cent gain wk/wk so far. KC wheat held firmer with December up... ZWZ22 : 848-6 (+0.98%) ZWH23 : 868-2 (+0.99%) ZWPAES.CM : 7.7263 (-0.65%) KEZ22 : 952-6 (+1.22%) KEPAWS.CM : 8.9929 (+0.14%) MWZ22 : 951-4 (+0.90%) Hog Market Fades on Thursday Barchart - Thu Nov 3, 4:48PM CDT Lean hog futures held onto minimal gains in the December contract on Thursday, while the other nearby contracts dropped by 2 to 20 cents. The USDA National Average Base Hog Price was $3.36 weaker in the... HEZ22 : 83.375s (+0.09%) HEJ23 : 92.550s (-0.11%) KMZ22 : 94.000s (+0.16%) Weak Thursday for Cattle Market Barchart - Thu Nov 3, 4:48PM CDT Front month fat cattle futures ended the session mixed with a 55 cent gain in Dec and a 5 cent gain in the August 23 contract. The other nearby futures fell by 2 to 20 cents on a mixed / mostly weaker... LEZ22 : 151.950s (+0.36%) LEG23 : 154.875s (-0.02%) LEJ23 : 158.300s (-0.13%) GFX22 : 178.000s (-0.52%) GFF23 : 179.425s (-0.32%) Corn Faded on Thursday Barchart - Thu Nov 3, 4:48PM CDT Thursday action in the corn market left futures 2 3/4 to 8 1/4 cents lower. For December contracts that was the lowest close since 10/19. IHS Markit expects the national U.S. corn yield at 172.9 bpa,... ZCZ22 : 683-6 (+0.66%) ZCPAUS.CM : 6.8012 (+0.67%) ZCH23 : 689-0 (+0.62%) ZCK23 : 688-4 (+0.55%) Bahrain's prosecution on Thursday extended by two weeks the detention of Shia opposition leader Nabil Rajab over spreading "false information" about the Sunni-ruled kingdom, his lawyer said. The human rights activist "was interrogated by the prosecution, who decided to extend his pre-trial detention by 15 days over the accusation of spreading rumours and false information," Mohammed al-Jishi said. This accusation is linked to television interviews given by Rajab in 2014 and 2015, the lawyer said, adding a request to free him had been rejected. On December 28, the prosecution said Rajab would remain in custody to be questioned over "spreading false news about the situation in the kingdom", despite being granted bail in another case over tweets deemed hostile to Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, for which the next hearing is on January 23. In that case he is accused of "spreading false news and rumours and inciting propaganda during wartime which could undermine the war operations by the Bahraini armed forces and weaken the nation". Bahrain is part of a Saudi-led coalition since March 2015 battling Shia Houthi rebels in Yemen. Rajab, who had been pardoned for health reasons last year, was rearrested in June and is on trial on a list of charges, including insulting a state institution and Saudi Arabia in online postings. Rajab was questioned recently in custody over letters critical of the authorities that were published in September in The New York Times and in December in French daily Le Monde. Several rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have pressed Bahrain's authorities to release Rajab, a co-founder and president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights. Rajab has been repeatedly detained for organising protests and publishing tweets deemed insulting to the Gulf state's Sunni authorities. He previously served two years in jail on charges of taking part in unauthorised protests in the Shia-majority kingdom. Home to the US Navy's Fifth Fleet, Bahrain has been rocked by unrest since security forces crushed Shia-led protests in 2011 demanding a constitutional monarchy and an elected prime minister. Search Keywords: Short link: Performance at the veteran managers funds is mostly unaffected, but assets have taken a big hit since the Securities and Exchange Commission filed insider trading charges against the firm. Hedge fund legend Leon Cooperman and his firm, Omega Advisors, suffered another steep drop in assets in December as the fallout from the Securities and Exchange Commissions civil charges against the firm continues. The New York hedge fund firm reported that its assets under management declined by 27 percent in December alone, to $3.4 billion, from $4.7 billion the previous month. Assets have nearly halved from $6.7 billion at the start of the year and have plunged 64 percent over the past two years. In September, the SEC accused Cooperman and his firm of trading in the securities of Atlas Pipeline Partners, a Pennsylvania-based oil and gas company, while in possession of insider information, as well as violating other SEC regulations. (Omega received a Wells notice, a notification that the SEC is planning to file enforcement charges, in March.) While the firms assets have taken a big hit since the charges were filed, the governments lawsuit has not had a big impact on Coopermans investment team. In 2016, Omega Capital, which invests in all of the firms strategies, returned 8 percent. Gains came primarily from its credit strategy, which returned 16 percent, while its equities strategy added 10 percent, according to an individual familiar with the results. For his part, Cooperman is determined to fight the SECs charges and go to trial in order to secure his legacy. Let me state unequivocally and emphatically that the firm and I did not engage in insider trading, Cooperman, who has been running Omega for 25 years, told his investors during a conference call in September. The charges against us are entirely baseless, and we intend to defend ourselves in court. In any case, all of Omegas ten-largest long U.S. equity positions at the end of the third quarter were long-term positions established in earlier years. This underscores Coopermans assertions, in his public responses to the governments charges, that he is a long-term investor. Omegas best performer among its major positions in 2016 was Navient, its second-largest long. Shares of the student loan servicing company surged about 44 percent last year. Diversified holding company HRG Group, its fourth-largest long, rose 14 percent for the year. It sells a wide variety of consumer products as well as insurance. Another winner was insurance giant AIG, which surged nearly 25 percent. Other major positions rose by slow single-digit rates, such as Alphabet and Tribune Media Company. On the other hand, credit card processor First Data, Omegas largest long, lost nearly 11 percent last year. Aircraft leasing giant AerCap Holding, its third-largest long, slipped 3 percent. Dr Robert Holmes says its time to destigmatise mental health issues in the workplace so that employees can feel safe enough to say: Im not copingWhatever happened to Australian resilience? I remember a time when a bloke cutting timber nicked himself and stopped the bleeding with electrical tape. It wasnt so long ago that my wife delivered our seventh child unaided and unmedicated, like all the births before it. Have we become less resilient, less tough, less strong or is it something else?Stress is the opposite of resilience. Tough times come, harsh events hammer us and we cannot maintain our strength in the face of it. We are worn down. Or if we have not changed, then our environment must have. I make this assumption because stress is now the number one claim in the health insurance industry, costing twice as much as back injuries.Our working hours are up year on year. The Australia Institute believes that Australians work the highest number of hours in the developed world. The pace of change is relentless. We must be in a state of continual learning to just stand still.Maybe neither we nor our environment have changed. Perhaps medical science and public attitude have finally caught up with the truth we were this stressed out all along only now its OK to admit it. Yes, I think that might be closer to the truth. I think Australians are just as resilient now as ever before, but its OK to admit when were not coping. At least I hope thats true.A recent study by Curtin University found that in the face of a disaster, 72% of the population bounces back quickly (within a week). By disaster they mean a 9/11, or a tsunami, or an earthquake. When I first saw that number I was shocked. A full three quarters of us just bounce back. Boom. Another 18% take several months to recover. But overall, there you have it, 90% of us have resilience. While just a sliver of the population struggle more permanently with recovering, that is they are traumatised, the statistics show that the stressed are taking time off from work.One of the most helpful things a workplace can do is destigmatise mental health issues. Its time we recognised mental health is just as vital as physical health, and it is OK to recognise youre not coping. Of course Im not legitimising taking a sickie if your motive is to grab a long weekend and go fishing. But the truly stressed must learn to decompress, and the workplace must help employees to do this.Dr Robert Holmes is the people and change consulting lead at RSM Australia. RSM is a full service national accounting and advisory firm delivering expert corporate financial and advisory accounting services to clients across diverse industry sectors. Its one-firm structure means clients can more readily connect to its extensive national and international networks, expertise and industry experience. Nationally RSM has 29 offices, combined with over 90 years experience. Its network spans across 120 countries and comprises 763 offices. Enrolment in the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is expected to exceed the original estimate in the ACT by 23 per cent. But the implementation of the scheme in the ACT the only state where NDIS was fully rolled out has been fraught with issues, including shortage of support workers, faulty NDIS web portal, and low pay rates to care service providers, ABC reported. "Given the size and scale of the ACT, if we can't sort these issues out here, we have grave concerns about what this means for the rest of the country, Jan Chorley, Alzheimer's Australia ACT CEO, told ABC. One issue of concerned involves the estimates for how many participants would be eligible for the scheme in the ACT. Before launching the NDIS in the states and territories, their respective governments agree on a target estimate to determine the funding required. Originally, it was estimated that 5,075 people would be eligible in the ACT. Around September last year, that target had been reached and the scheme stopped taking in new participants. The scheme eventually started readmitting participants in the ACT when a backlog built up. It remains unclear, however, what is happening when it comes to setting a new target, the report said. In a statement, the ACT Government said it was "not involved in any re-negotiation of these agreements," and that costs for participants "above the target of 5,075 is a Commonwealth responsibility." The Federal Government was in disagreement, however, saying: "The Commonwealth is in negotiations with the ACT around funding arrangements." "There's been almost a lack of transparency around what it might look like in the future," Chorley said. "We're struggling a bit to sort of get information. And I think that's the biggest issue." A market position statement issued by the NDIS in September said that it is expecting 6,900 participants in the scheme in the ACT. What makes this a worry, advocates said, is that if other estimates are off across the country, it would put into question NDIS's basic assumption that it will be receiving 460,000 participants on full rollout in 2019, with a budget of $22 billion, ABC reported. Another issue is the lack of qualified support workers. Leslea Geary, mother of three children with varying levels of intellectual disability, told ABC that while the NDIS came along at just the right time... the issue is that the marketplace hasn't yet caught up. "We haven't yet got enough workers; we haven't got a sustainable workforce. Actually getting the workers in, and keeping them, is not easy." Adding to the long list of problems and frustrations with the implementation of the scheme in the ACT is the NDIS web portal, the report said. Geary said there are plenty of times when the NDIS web portal does not work when she signs in to submit invoices for services she has paid for. This sentiment is shared by many participants who, voice their complaints in online disability forums. The NDIS said problems have mostly been fixed, with successful payments to providers and participants now at 96 per cent. One emerging issue facing the NDIS in the ACT is the low rates paid by the NDIS to care providers who employ support workers, like those who look after Geary's children, ABC said. "Ultimately that NDIS rate is a bargain basement rate for what is expected to be a platinum quality service, said Rob Woolley, GM of Just Better Care in the ACT. The NDIA set the basic rate for support work at $43.58 per hour, as compared to the $52.80 per hour Just Better Care charges its non-NDIS clients. Fergus Nelson and Rob Woolley de-registered their company Just Better Care Canberra from the NDIS saying they had no choice because it lost $200,000 last year providing services on NDIS rates. "We think we're a prime example. If we can't make it work, nobody can, Fergus Nelson, franchise owner of Just Better Care Canberra, told ABC. Not everyone agrees that the rates make the scheme unsustainable, however. "It does not follow you become a registered provider and success flows, said Caroline van Til, leading expert on the NDIS market with PPB Advisory. If you want to aim for success as a provider in the new NDIS world, you need to make sure you've got the fundamentals of your business right. "[It's] about cost, it's about workforce, it's about services." Fergus said other providers are also considering de-registering from the scheme. If that happens, the number of workers available to provide services at NDIS rates could collapse, ABC said. "This is a great scheme. We've seen some fantastic outcomes with the people that we work with," he said. "But this pricing issue is putting that at risk." Related stories: Concerns raised over functionality of NDIS in remote areas Canberrans at risk of missing out on NDIS Half of NDIS enrolees receive disability support for the first time There has never been a more exciting time to be an insurance broker, an industry leader has said.Ive never been more excited both about the insurance industry, per se, and the results that its delivering at the moment, and Ive never been prouder and more excited and enthusiastic to be an insurance broker, Dale Hansen , CEO of Austbrokers Coast to Coast, told2016 was a big year for Hansen and Austbrokers Coast to Coast . At the Australian Insurance Industry Awards, the business was named Small Brokerage of the Year, and then Hansen was named NIBA s Broker of the Year at its annual convention.Next year, Hansen hopes to have a positive influence in the wider industry.Im looking forward to working with NIBA, promoting the role of an insurance broker, and promoting what insurance brokers do and our skillset and what were able to achieve to the greater community at large who, I think, to a large part arent actually aware of what we do, he says.Hansen would like to see the compliance and corporate governance regime tighten on businesses and brokers.I think all good businesses would welcome a tightening in corporate governance and compliance, he explains. I think thats something that is needed.Hed also like to see lines between insurance brokers and authorised representatives un-blurred.I dont think they should be treated differently, he states. I think thats causing great confusion in the marketplace with the industry at large and with customers. The same corporate governance and compliance regime should be applicable to all of us.Hansen says there are absolutely fantastic ARs out there who would also welcome such moves.He also looks forward to watching QBE s movements over the next five years.I really do think theyre a very strong business now and theyve made some very brave, strong decisions that, I think, are really sound QBEs very important to our industry in Australia, he notes. Theyre such an enormous player and its very important to our industry that theyre strong.Hansen is not intimidated by disruptors. He says its about concentrating on old-fashioned service.We just need to keep doing what we do well, as an industry, and we will prevail, he says. I think its important that we all dont buy into the doom and gloom. In its 1H Insurance Market Update 2016, Aon reported a global trend towards flat rates in the professional indemnity market.The report said all signs in the local market point towards a continuation of flat renewals in times ahead. Capacity, the report claimed, remains as high as ever, but the level of competition is creating a best-practice environment, where players are being compelled to provide the best wordings possible in order to compete.For the second year in a row, our broker readers were asked to name the top PI player in the agency space in Australia for our Brokers on Underwriting Agencies survey and, once again, DUAL Australia has come out on top. Commenting on its PI offering, one survey respondent said DUAL cater[s] for the majority of occupations at competitive prices, underwriting staff [are] helpful when needed [and] they also listen to feedback.Certainly, a business will win respect from its clients where it demonstrates its effectiveness in taking on board the comments of those clients. High Street Underwriting Agency also picked up a second medal here, taking silver. One surveyed broker told Insurance Business about an interaction theyd had this year with the agency, at which time they were looking to organise both PI and public liability coverage for a client.This was a hard-to-place account and no-one wanted to quote, the broker said. However, High Street came to the party and [has] delivered the quotes, bound the cover, plus done all the endorsements requested ASAP. The company has grown and so has the policy, but High Street [is] always happy to help.Taking bronze is Solution Underwriting , which also received its own strongly positive feedback, commended by one broker for excellent service and staff available to discuss [and] review, and [who] go out [of] their way to try and assist with clients requirements. The United Nations warned Thursday that sabotaging water supplies was a war crime after the main source for Syria's capital was cut, leaving more than five million people facing shortages. Water supplies from the rebel-held area of Wadi Barada near Damascus have been severed since December 22, with the regime and rebels trading blame. The head of a UN-backed humanitarian taskforce for Syria said Thursday the shutdown had already had "dramatic" consequences. Jan Egeland said water supplies to 5.5 million people had been hit "because of fighting, or because of sabotage or because of both". "To sabotage and deny water is of course a war crime, because it is civilians who drink it and civilians who will be affected by waterborne diseases" if supplies are not restored, he told reporters in Geneva. The shortages have sent prices for water in Damascus soaring. Residents said they have been forced to buy bottled water at twice the normal price as their supplies have run low and what little tap water is available is undrinkable. "We used to complain about power cuts, but now we can see that it's nothing compared with the lack of drinkable water. Water is life," said Faiz, a 50-year-old civil servant. The shortages have prompted a regime assault to retake Wadi Barada. Rebel fighters clashed with government forces backed by Lebanese Shia movement Hezbollah there Thursday, even as a nationwide ceasefire brought quiet to other parts of Syria. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said regime forces hit the area with air strikes, mortars and artillery. Syria's main opposition coalition urged the United Nations Security Council Thursday to put an "immediate" halt to what it said were regime violations of the truce. It accused the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of "violations and war crimes" in Wadi Barada. The regime says forces in Wadi Barada include former Al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham Front, previously known as Al-Nusra Front, which Moscow and Damascus say is excluded from the ceasefire. Rebels deny the group is in the area. The relative peace was also rocked by a car bombing on Thursday in Syria's coastal city of Jableh, a regime bastion, leaving at least 15 dead, the Observatory said. Syrian state television also reported the blast near the town's municipal stadium. The fighting threatened a truce aimed at paving the way for peace negotiations later this month in the Kazakh capital Astana. Despite backing opposite sides in the conflict, Ankara and Moscow have worked closely to broker the ceasefire and plan the Astana talks, which Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said could take place on January 23. The ceasefire and Astana talks are the latest bid to resolve nearly six years of conflict in Syria, which has been ravaged by violence since an uprising began in March 2011. The UN Security Council has backed the process, despite the fact it offers a competing track to UN-sponsored talks set to resume in Geneva in February. "We, the UN, welcome such efforts," the UN's Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura told reporters in Geneva Thursday. He said any effort that consolidates the cessation of hostilities "is certainly welcome". Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said fighting had eased considerably since the truce came into force. "The number of casualties has fallen a lot, with only 13 dead in the areas covered by the ceasefire since the truce began. That would have been the toll of a single air strike before it came into force," he told AFP. Karim Emile Bitar, professor of international relations at Saint-Joseph University in Beirut, said Syrian ceasefires had become "merely a continuation of war by other means". "This one is already shaky but has not yet completely collapsed," he said. "Russia and the Syrian regime have an interest in temporarily prolonging the ceasefire if only to consolidate their gains and prepare for the next battles." Search Keywords: Short link: Based on what we see in the trade press, it would appear most large businesses in the U.S. are addressing their exposure to data breaches in some way. But what about the small, Main Street businesses such as those we write on BOPs every day? How many of the owners of these businesses are even aware that theyre exposed to the same potentially debilitating data breaches that have plagued the mega businesses familiar to everyone? The ultimate dollar cost of these Main Street breaches obviously does not approach those very expensive breaches that have gained national and international attention. However, in proportion to the small firms net worth, the negative effect on the small firms bottom line of a breach of its data could be at least as significant. 47 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico impose specific and potentially expensive obligations upon a business that suffers a breach of personal data of others held by that business. The challenge for small business, however, is no traditional, off-the-shelf commercial insurance coverage covers the costs that are incurred to comply with the various state statutes and respond in a responsible and meaningful way to a data breach. Luckily, policies and endorsements have begun appearing that can provide a solution to this exposure. Please join our webinar on January 12th to hear more details about the data breach exposures of Main Street businesses and the desirable coverage characteristics of a meaningful data breach insurance policy or endorsement. Topics Cyber Commercial Lines Business Insurance Sedgwick LLP, has elected John W. Blancett as an office managing partner (OMP) in New York, effective January 1. Blancett represents leading U.S., London and European insurers in litigation, investigations and counseling with respect to significant claims involving financial institution bonds, commercial crime bonds, professional indemnity policies and D&O liability policies throughout North America, Europe and Asia. He has successfully defended insurers at trial and on appeal in state and federal courts throughout New York and has experience in bank regulation, commercial paper, funds transfers, payment systems, securities, letters of credit and bank fraud. A frequent speaker in the U.S. and international markets on litigation and overages issues relevant to financial institutions, Blancett is a member of the American Bar Associations (ABA) Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section. Sedgwick LLP provides trial, appellate, litigation management, counseling, risk management and transactional legal services globally. Source: Sedgwick LLP Topics Mergers & Acquisitions New York Talent Human Resources Hub International Ltd., the Chicago-based global insurance brokerage, announced it has acquired Mainline Insurance Brokers Inc., Indian Head Agencies (1980) Ltd., R&J McKay Agencies Ltd. and Cathedral Insurance Services (1995) Ltd. all known as Mainline. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Based in southeastern Saskatchewan, Canada, Mainline has 16 offices throughout the province and is a property and casualty and personal lines insurance solutions provider. Doug Trapp, CEO, Mainline, will join Hub Manitoba and report to Keith Jordan, president, Hub Manitoba. We are excited to expand our geographic footprint into southeastern Saskatchewan. The Mainline partners have built a tremendous organization of insurance professionals and experts. The partners of Mainline have been very community focused, and developed great relationships that Hub will continue to grow, said Jordan. Trapp said, The Mainline team is extremely excited to join forces with Hub. Hubs reputation and operating philosophy were important factors in our decision to align with them. As part of Hub, well draw upon the resources and expertise of an international insurance brokerage while retaining our commitment to local client and community service. About Mainline Mainline Insurance Brokers Inc. (MIB) was founded in 1991 in Grenfell, Saskatchewan as an association of insurance brokers, which formed a corporation, according to the companys website. Topics Mergers & Acquisitions Agencies Canada The pumping of waste from hydraulic fracturing operations into a closed Ohio injection well is expected to resume after a judges ruling that the states oil-and-gas regulator failed to consider a new plan after shutting down the well in 2014 because of two small earthquakes nearby. Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Kimberly Cocroft ordered the state and well operator, American Water Management Services, to submit language for a judgment order to reopen the well in Trumbull Countys Weathersfield Township, about 65 miles southeast of Cleveland. Cocrofts ruling in December said the state had the authority to shut down the well after earthquakes were detected below ground in July and August of 2014. But the ruling said the Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management should have allowed American Water to resume operations after submitting a plan that called for pumping brine at lower pressures and volumes. At least 20 other small seismic events were recorded in 2014 near the well before it was closed. The ruling noted that American Water was operating within state guidelines when the shutdown order came. A spokesman for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources said state attorneys are considering a response to Cocrofts order. The state argued in court that it was waiting to formulate state regulations based on guidance from a national workgroup studying the link between injection wells and seismic activity. Cocrofts ruling said its unclear when the workgroup would complete its study. Larry James, an attorney for American Water, said the company hoped to resume operations soon. The shutdown has cost the company a lot of money, James said, but didnt have a dollar figure for the loss. We understand safety and health concerns, James told The Associated Press. But there has to be some kind of engineering that supports shutting down a business in the anticipation that something might go wrong. The state argued that the well was a health and safety risk to the community. Regulators placed a temporary moratorium on injection well operations statewide in December 2011 after a 4.0 earthquake was detected above ground close to a well owned by a different company near Youngstown. The state cited evidence then that injecting fracking waste below ground caused existing fault lines to become stressed, resulting in earthquakes. That injection well remains closed. The Department of Natural Resources granted a permit to American Water in 2013, and the company began pumping brine into one of two planned wells in Weathersfield Township in April 2014. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Legislation Ohio Earthquake Employers will need to accept tradeoffs to foster digital trust with employees if they want to gather the workplace data necessary to realize the full benefits of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the sharing economy. Thats according to a report, The Data Sharing Economy: Quantifying Tradeoffs that Power New Business Models, by American International Group Inc. The insurer unveiled the study during the the giant Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. The IoTs potential seems limitless and borderless, with sensors, storage, analytics and other connected technology becoming faster, smarter and less expensive to implement. However, realizing the potential of the IoT relies on the willingness of businesses and employees to share data so that connected devices can generate insight, action and value. When benefits are perceived by those surveyed, the willingness of businesses and employees to participate in data sharing jumps to 75 percent from only 11 percent when no benefit is perceived. Employees are interested in the safety benefits provided by wearables at work, but not to the same degree employers are. Common Ground There is common ground between companies and employees about what conditions are needed to create a data sharing environment. Seventy six percent (76%) of employees surveyed globally indicate digital trust requires that employers notify them if data collection is taking place. The same percentage of companies surveyed (76%) agree that notifying employees about data sharing is important. Eighty one percent (81%) of employees also see their employer as responsible for keeping their data private, should they choose to share it, while more than 70 percent of companies responded that it is important to establish clear policies when it comes to data collection. Both businesses and employees agree by wide majorities (89% and 87%, respectively) that laws must be updated to accommodate new data sharing business models, balancing privacy protections with innovation, particularly in the IoT space. Smart, safe data sharing will power the new economy, said Rob Schimek, chief executive officer, Commercial Insurance, who spoke at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week in Las Vegas. We conducted this study to quantify the tradeoffs necessary for success in the sharing economy. A new kind of digital trust is being built in the workplace based on these tradeoffs, and every employer and employee using technology today is part of it. The report is based on the findings from a survey commissioned by AIG that targeted employees and business decision-makers in nine countries: the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Australia, Singapore, Japan and China. Approximately 400 employees and 250 business executives in each country were asked to complete a 20-minute online survey. The survey was conducted on behalf of AIG by RTi Research, an independent global research firm. AIG, which is one of the worlds largest workers compensation insurers, just one year ago announced it had made a strategic investment in Human Condition Safety (HCS), an early-stage technology startup company developing wearable devices, analytics and systems for use at worksites. Schimek discussed that investment at last years Consumer Electronics Show. New York-based HCS, part of a larger technology invention research organization and lab called Human Condition Global, is creating tools it says will help workers, their managers, and worksite owners prevent injuries before they happen. Digital Trust While there is some overlap in attitudes between companies and employees about data access, differences exist that may require tradeoffs to be made and compromises to be struck, according to the survey. The study shows that more than half of all businesses (56%) believe that firms should require employees to agree to workplace monitoring as a condition of employment. On average globally, about the same number of companies would ask employees to wear devices (wearables) that help ensure safety in the workplace. Employers further indicate they would be willing to invest in wearable devices and telematics in support of fleet vehicle safety to realize benefits. Employers in the U.S. would invest the most, up to $917 on wearables and $835 on telematics devices per employee per year which is about the cost of a mobile phone plan. Employees are also interested in the safety benefits provided by wearables at work, but not to the same degree employers are. Thirty eight percent (38%) of U.S. and Australian workers would agree to wearables, which was in line with workers in the U.K. and France (40%) and Japan (36%). Employees in Italy, Singapore, and China were most inclined to accept wearables (56%), while German employees were least open to the idea (29%). Of those employees globally who would accept wearables, they are most interested in sharing workplace environmental conditions, presumably for the benefit of their own health and safety. This suggests there is a basis for additional incentives and trust building to persuade more employees to share their workplace data, according to the report. Perhaps the most challenging divide revealed in the study is that while a majority of companies would mandate data monitoring, employees by nearly three to one (71%) feel they should be able to choose the data they provide to employers, rather than accept mandatory data sharing requirements. Game Changer In a video on its website last year with principals from HCS and AIG discussing the potential for the technology, an AIG executive called wearables a potential game changer for the industry in reducing costs and improving workers experience. AIG is not the only insurer interested in wearables. A survey reported by Accenture in May, 2015 found that that nearly two-thirds of insurers expected wearable technologies to have a significant impact on the industry within two years. Some insurers have experimented with Google glasses. Researchers at Virginia Tech have been combining tiny radio sensors that construction workers can wear on or inside vests with connected vehicle technology that allows cars to talk to one another, roadside infrastructure, and personal electronics such as mobile phones. IBM is also working on wearables and analytics for multiple uses including workplace safety. While wearables offer the promise of improving efficiency and reducing the risk of injury, some worry they also pose a data privacy and security risk in their collection and sharing of information. Others have raised concerns about potential health risks such as headaches, double vision and dizziness from wearing devices. Source: AIG Related: Topics USA InsurTech Tech The Texas Department of Insurances Division of Workers Compensation (DWC) re-certified 10 employers to self-insure workers compensation claims. Together, the companies employ about 15,000 people in Texas. DWC renewed: Associated Wholesale Grocers Inc. E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. The Sherwin-Williams Co. Space Exploration Technologies Corp. FedEx Freight Inc. Guardian Industries Corp. International Paper Co. James Construction Group LLC Louisiana-Pacific Corp. The Procter & Gamble Co. To be certified to self-insure, a company must meet state requirements and have a minimum workers compensation insurance unmodified manual premium of $500,000. Source: TDI Topics Texas Workers' Compensation West Virginia officials have reached a $3.5 million settlement with a wholesaler accused of flooding the state with millions of prescription pain pills. Attorney General Patrick Morrisey announced the settlement Tuesday with H.D. Smith Wholesale Drug Co. The settlement resolved allegations that H.D. Smith failed to detect, report and stop the flood of suspicious prescription drug orders into the state, contributing to widespread drug abuse. Morrisey says in a news release the settlement is the largest so far in a broader case. Settlements involving lesser amounts were previously reached against Miami-Luken, Anda Inc., The Harvard Drug Group, Associated Pharmacies, J.M. Smith Corp., KeySource Medical Inc., Quest Pharmaceuticals, Top Rx and Masters Pharmaceutical LLC. Litigation involving two remaining defendants is subject to a confidentiality order in Boone County Circuit Court. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Virginia Drugs A 28-year-old man has been arrested in connection with 14 home burglaries in south Alabama. Al.com reports that Mobile police say William Rotter was taken into custody Dec. 22 and charged with 14 counts of third-degree burglary. Early that morning, police say officers responded to the scene for a report of stolen property. When police arrested Rotter they said he was in possession of stolen property from 14 different residential burglaries in the Mobile area. Its unclear whether Rotter has an attorney. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Alabama A state lawmaker wants to make Utahs DUI threshold the strictest in the nation by lowering the blood-alcohol content limit to 0.05 percent. Though state numbers show alcohol-related driving deaths and DUI arrests are down in Utah, Rep. Norman Thurston said theres more to be done. The Provo Republican plans to introduce legislation lowering the BAC limit from 0.08 to 0.05 when Utahs lawmakers return for their annual session later this month. The BAC limit for most drivers is 0.08 in all states, but limits vary among states for commercial drivers or drivers who have had a past DUI conviction. If Thurstons bill passes this year, it would give the state the strictest BAC limit in the nation, but a tough stance on alcohol is hardly new for the majority Mormon state. An estimated 60 percent of the states residents and most of the state Legislature are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which instructs church members to avoid drinking alcohol. Thurston said he has received some early feedback from his colleagues and is hopeful his proposal will pass this year and other states will follow suit. A decade ago, another Utah lawmaker proposed lowering the BAC to 0.06, but the proposal never got much traction. At a BAC of 0.05 percent, a driver may have trouble steering and have a harder time coordinating, tracking moving objects and responding to emergencies, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. That comes from consuming two to three beers in an hour for a 160-pound man, though a number of factors, including gender, weight and how much food in someones stomach all affect how much a drink will raise someones BAC. For several years, the National Transportation Safety Board has encouraged states to drop their BAC levels to 0.05 or even lower, though local officials have not adopted the standards. It took years for all states to lower their BAC to 0.08, amid criticisms from the hospitality industry that the stricter limits punish responsible drinkers. Groups such Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) have declined to endorse proposals to lower the BAC to 0.05. MADD has said that lowering the threshold could cut deaths, but that would be years in the future and pursuing it would distract from their efforts to change other DUI laws. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics USA Legislation I must admit having been slow to the table when it came to discussions about the insurance industrys adoption of bitcoin and blockchain technologies. Although I certainly understand the concept, the idea that insurers would trust this technology right out of the gate didnt convince me that this new form of payment tracking would see insurers clamoring for immediate adoption. This is largely because of the mystery behind how the technology came to exist in the first place: the inventor of the bitcoin protocol, Satoshi Nakamoto. Nakamoto apparently published a paper via the Cryptography Mailing List in 2008, released the first version of the bitcoin software client in 2009, and then began withdrawing from the technology community in 2010 (perhaps after reaching billionaire status in bitcoins). The inventor meant to remain anonymous: When bitcoin.org was registered on August 18, 2008, the registrant used a Japanese anonymous registration service, and hosted it using a Japanese ISP, reports CoinDesk.com. To this day, there are groups trying to decipher the meaning of Nakamotos name. Already a part of legend, the story is that the mysterious Nakamoto worked with people on the open-source team, but took care never to reveal anything personal about himself, and the last anyone heard from him was in the spring of 2011, when he emailed a member of the team stating he had moved on to other things. Anyway, I questioned the premise behind insurers mainstream adoption of bitcoin and blockchain (the full list of blocks that have been mined and linked since the beginning of the bitcoin cryptocurrency): Should risk-averse insurers embrace a system of record(s) for all financial transactions that are held on a decentralized public, yet encrypted, network? Should they adopt a system that was developed by an anonymous technologist who has since faded into oblivion? Back in April, 2016 when INNs Nate Golia reported on John Hancocks decision to have its innovation center, the Lab of Forward Thinking (LOFT), collaborate with two companies (ConsenSys and BlockApps) on a proof of concept for using blockchain technology to onboard high-wealth clients, I still questioned insurers mainstream adoption. I was wrong. I was so busy stereotyping insurers risk management habits, I didnt consider the critical business goals defining its use. For John Hancock (and many others) that goal entails simplifying and enhancing the customer experience, and safely satisfying regulatory and legal requirements along the way. Despite misconceptions that blockchain is years away, we'll see full deployments in financial services, insurance, and healthcare industries next year, says Peter Loop, CoinDesk.com. This will completely disrupt our payment systems on an international scale revenue models and other processes will become obsolete, and payments will become faster, cheaper and safer. The technologys originator may be elusive, but its benefits are not. Around 20 more members of the Islamist militant group Boko Haram have surrendered in Niger, the government says. "About 50 Boko Haram fighters have now given themselves up" since December 27, Niger's interior minister, Bazoum Mohamed, said in an interview broadcast late Wednesday on the state TV channel Tele Sahel. The combatants surrendered at Diffa, in southeastern Niger, a Boko Haram stronghold close to the border with Nigeria, where 31 fighters turned themselves in at the end of last month. Mohamed attributed the success to a military squeeze on the group, launched in July, coordinated with security forces in Nigeria and Chad, where the group also operates. More surrenders will follow, he said, adding "in some sectors, the war (against Boko Haram) is already over." But he warned that "organised Boko Haram elements are training" in the marshes of Lake Chad, a zone that straddles the three countries. Three Niger soldiers were killed and seven wounded on the night of New Year's Eve when Boko Haram fighters attacked their position at Baroua, in the Diffa region, the military say. Fifteen assailants were killed and another one was captured, they say. Boko Haram is waging a seven-year-old uprising against the Nigerian state that has claimed more than 20,000 lives, with the insurgency spilling over the West African nation's borders into neighbouring states. The violence has left around 2.6 million people homeless, sparking a dire humanitarian crisis, with the United Nations warning the affected region faces the "largest crisis in Africa". Diffa is one of the worst-hit regions, with around 300,000 people supported by a local population which is already chronically poor. Search Keywords: Short link: Moscaroli has moved from DLA Piper and will advise clients on corporate and international tax matters, including tax planning, transfer pricing, as well as tax structuring of M&A, real estate, banking and private equity transactions. In addition, chartered accountant and auditor Federico DAmelio has also joined the same tax practice as an associate. He was previously a tax adviser at Clifford Chance. Panoramica privacy Questo sito web utilizza i cookies per fornire all'utente la miglior esperienza di navigazione possibile. L'informazione dei cookie e memorizzata nel browser dell' utente, svolge funzioni di riconoscimento quando l' utente ritorna nel sito e permette di sapere quali sezioni del sito sono ritenute piu interessanti e utili. Warren Edward Buffett, legendary value investor, turned an ailing textile mill into a financial engine that powered what would become the world's most successful holding company. Known as the "Oracle of Omaha" for his investment prowess, Buffett has amassed a personal fortune in excess of $100 billion, according to Forbes. He inspires legions of loyal fans to make a yearly trek to Omaha for an opportunity to hear him speak at Berkshire's annual meeting, an event ironically dubbed the "Woodstock of Capitalism." Alison Czinkota / Investopedia The Early Years Buffett was born to Howard and Leila Buffett on August 30, 1930, in Omaha, Nebraska. He was the second of three children, and the only boy. His father was a stockbroker and four-term United States congressman. Howard served non-consecutive terms on the Republican ticket, but espoused libertarian views. Making money was an early interest for Buffett, who sold soft drinks and had a paper route. When he was 14 years old, he invested the earnings from these endeavors in 40 acres of land, which he then rented for a profit. At his father's urging, he applied to the University of Pennsylvania and was accepted. Unimpressed, Buffett left after two years, transferring to the University of Nebraska. Upon graduation, his father once again convinced him of the value of education, encouraging him to pursue a graduate degree. Harvard rejected Buffett, but Columbia accepted him. Buffett studied under Benjamin Graham, the father of value investing, and his time at Columbia set the stage for a storied career, albeit one with a slow start. Upon graduation, Graham refused to hire Buffett, even suggesting that he avoid a career on Wall Street. Buffett's father agreed with Graham, and Buffett returned to Omaha to work at his father's brokerage firm. He married Susan Thompson, and they started a family. A short while later, Graham had a change of heart and offered Buffett a job in New York. 1:33 Warren Buffet: The Road To Riches The Foundation of Value Once in New York, Buffett had the chance to build upon the investing theories he had learned from Graham at Columbia. Value investing, according to Graham, involved seeking stocks that were selling at an extraordinary discount to the value of the underlying assets, which he called the "intrinsic value". Buffett internalized the concept, but had an interest in taking it a step further. Unlike Graham, he wanted to look beyond the numbers and focus on the company's management team and its product's competitive advantage in the marketplace. In 1956, he returned to Omaha, launched Buffett Associates, Ltd., and purchased a house. In 1962 he was 30 years old and already a millionaire when he joined forces with Charlie Munger. Their collaboration eventually resulted in the development of an investment philosophy based on Buffett's idea of looking at value investing as something more than an attempt to wring the last few dollars out of dying businesses. Along the way, they purchased Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.A), a dying textile mill. What began as a classic Graham value play became a longer-term investment when the business showed some signs of life. Cash flows from the textile business were used to fund other investments. Eventually, the original business was eclipsed by the other holdings. In 1985, Buffett shut down the textile business, but continued to use the name. Buffett's investment philosophy become one based on the principle of acquiring stock in what he believes are well-managed, undervalued companies. When he makes a purchase, his intention is to hold the securities indefinitely. Coca Cola, American Express and the Gillette Company all met his criteria and have remained in Berkshire Hathaway's portfolio for many years. In many cases, he purchased the companies outright, continuing to let their management teams handle the day-to-day business. A few of the better-known firms that fit into this category include See's Candies, Fruit of the Loom, Dairy Queen, The Pampered Chef and GEICO Auto Insurance. Buffett's mystique remained intact until technology stocks became popular. As a resolute technophobe, Buffett sat out the incredible run-up in technology stocks during the late 1990s. Sticking to his guns and refusing to invest in companies that didn't meet his mandate, Buffett earned the scorn of Wall Street experts and was written off by many as a man whose time had passed. The tech wreck that occurred when the dotcom bubble burst bankrupted many of those experts. Buffett's profits doubled. On the Personal Side Despite a net worth measured in billions, Warren Buffett is legendarily frugal. He still lives in the five-bedroom house he bought in 1958 for $31,000, drinks Coca Cola and dines at local restaurants, where a burger or a steak are his preferred table fare. For years, he eschewed the ideas of purchasing a corporate jet. When he finally acquired one, he named it the "Indefensible" - public recognition of his criticism about money spent on jets. He remained married to Susan Thompson for more than 50 years after their 1952 wedding. They had three children, Susie, Howard and Peter. Buffett and Susan separated in 1977, remaining married until her death in 2004. Before her death, Susan introduced him to Astrid Menks, a waitress. Buffett and Menks began living together in 1978 and were married in August of 2006. Legacy What do you do with your money when you are the world's most successful investor? If you're Warren Buffett, you give it away. Buffett stunned the world in June of 2006 when he announced the donation of the vast majority of his wealth to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which focuses on world health issues, U.S. libraries and global schools. It is on of the world's largest transparent charities. Buffett's donations will come in the form of Class B shares of Berkshire Hathaway stock. His total donation to the Gates Foundation is 10 million shares. It will be given out in 5% increments until Buffett's death or until the foundation fails to meet the spending stipulation or the stipulation that either Bill or Melinda Gates remain actively involved in the foundation's activities. Buffett's 2006 donation was 500,000 shares, valued at approximately $1.5 billion. At a June 2008 share value, the entire donation to the Gates Foundation is worth about $37 billion. Buffett expects stock price appreciation to increase that amount over time. Another stock donation of more than 1 million shares will be evenly divided among three charities run by Buffett's children. An additional 1 million shares will go to a foundation run in honor of his first wife. While the donation to the Gates Foundation was certainly a big surprise, Buffett's charitable endeavors are nothing new. He'd been giving money away for 40 years through the Buffett Foundation, renamed as the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation. This foundation supports pro-choice family planning causes and works to discourage nuclear proliferation. Buffett has always planned to give the bulk of his wealth to charity, but insisted that it would occur posthumously. The change of heart is quintessential Buffett - rational, decisive, maverick and blazing a path all his own. "I know what I want to do, and it makes sense to get going," he's famous for saying. The Bottom Line The future looks to hold an increase in the amount of money that Buffett will continue to give. In his own words: "I am not an enthusiast of dynastic wealth, particularly when the alternative is six billion people having that much poorer hands in life than we have, having a chance to benefit from the money." What Is the Fortune 500? The term Fortune 500 refers to a list of 500 of the largest companies in the United States compiled by Fortune magazine every year. Companies are ranked by their annual revenues for their respective fiscal years. This list includes both public and private companies using publicly available revenue data. To be a Fortune 500 company is widely considered to be a mark of prestige. Key Takeaways The Fortune 500 is an annual list of 500 of the largest US companies ranked by total revenues for their respective fiscal years. The list is compiled and published by Fortune magazine. Being on the Fortune 500 is considered to be prestigiousfirms on the list are considered to be of high quality. The Fortune 500 has put out a list of top companies since the year 1955. Understanding the Fortune 500 Fortune magazine was founded in 1929 by Henry Robinson Luce. The first issue was published the following year and has since become one of the world's leading business publications. Originally printed monthly, the magazine put out 16 issues every year and also has a major presence online. The magazine compiled its first list of the most successful American companiesboth public and privatein 1955. It was created by editor Edgar P. Smith in an effort to measure the size and power of American businesses during a time when the country's economic power was "the envy of the world." Originally called the Fortune Industrial 500, the name of the list was shortened to Fortune 500. The Fortune 500 survey includes companies that are incorporated and operate in the United States and file financial statements with government agencies. This includes companies that are both publicly traded and privately held. Private companies that don't file financial statements with government agencies, foreign corporations are excluded, as are American companies consolidated by other companies and those that neglect to report full financial statements for at least three quarters of the current fiscal year. As of 2020, companies are ranked by total revenues for their respective fiscal years as reported on their 10-K filings or comparable financial statements. About two-thirds of the Fortune 500 appear on the S&P 500 Index, so consider an S&P 500 index fund if you want to invest in many of these companies. More than 1,800 American companies have been featured on the list over the course of its history. The list has changed dramatically from the very first Fortune 500. Mergers and acquisitions (M&A), shifts in production output, and bankruptcies have taken companies off of the list. The impact of a recession can also take out multiple companies from individual sectors. The Fortune 500 list can often be a telling sign of how strong the economy is or if there has been an economic recovery after poor performing years. Special Considerations As of 2020, Walmart (WMT) took to the top spot on the Fortune 500 list for the eighth year in a row. The company earned revenue of $524 billion. Online retailer Amazon (AMZN) took the second spot with revenues of $280.5 billion, jumping up four spots from 2019. Exxon Mobil (XOM) came in third with revenues of $265 billion, while Apple (AAPL) and CVS Health (CVS) ranked in fourth and fifth. The three most profitable companies on the 2020 list were as follows: Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A/BRK.B) with net profits of $81.4 billion Apple with net profits of $55.2 billion Microsoft (MSFT) with net profits of $39.2 billion Notable newcomers to the list include Dow (DOW), Baker Hughes (BKR), and Uber (UBER). The History of the Fortune 500 As noted above, the idea for the list came from Edgar P. Smith, who was an assistant managing editor for Fortune. Smith's idea took off and provided the grounds for the popular annual list. The original Fortune 500 lists contained only companies that were in the manufacturing, mining, and energy sectors, limiting inclusion for many big-name companies. To secure a spot on the list, a company had to produce $49.7 million in annual revenue. In the original 1955 Fortune 500 list, General Motors (GM) was the top company with annual revenues of $9.8 billion. The Fortune 500 underwent its biggest change in 1995. The new list continued to include companies from the original manufacturing, mining, and energy sectors, but it also included service companies for the first time. The change greatly impacted the future of the Fortune 500 list. For example, service companies made up 291 of the 500 entries that year. Three of the newly included service companies even made the top 10 listings in the Fortune 500. Walmart ranked fourth, AT&T was number five, and Sears Roebuck took the ninth spot on the list. Walmart has spent several years at number onea position it would not have held if this change didn't occur. The joys of self-employment are many, but so are the stressors. High among those is the need to plan for retirement entirely on your own. You are in charge of creating a satisfying quality of life post-retirement. When it comes to building that life, the earlier you start, the better. Luckily, there are several retirement plans for those who are self-employed. Key Takeaways For self-employed workers, setting up a retirement plan is a do-it-yourself job. There are four available plans tailored for the self-employed: one-participant 401(k), SEP IRA, SIMPLE IRA, and Keogh plan. Health savings plans (HSAs) and traditional and Roth IRAs are two more supplemental options. Growth in Self-Employment Upwork's 2021 Freelance Forward survey found that 36% of the U.S. workforce are freelancers, contributing $1.3 trillion to the U.S. economy. That's up from $100 million in 2020. The percent of workers has held steady for a year, but the type of work is changing. There was a drop in temporary workers and an increase in skilled freelancing. While this entrepreneurial spirit is to be applauded, less laudable is the fact that 30% of those who are self-employed save for retirement sporadically while 15% arent even saving at all. That is a problem. If you are self-employed, you are busy but retirement savings must be a priority. Why Saving Is Hard for the Self-Employed The reasons for not saving toward retirement wont be a surprise to any self-employed person. The most common include: Lack of steady income Paying off major debts Healthcare expenses Education expenses Costs of running the business Setting up a retirement plan is a do-it-yourself job, just like everything else an entrepreneur undertakes. No human resources (HR) staffer is going to walk you through the company-sponsored 401(k) plan application. There are no matching contributions, no shares of company stock, and no automatic payroll deductions. Youll have to be highly disciplined in contributing to the plan and, because the amount you can put in your retirement accounts depends on how much you earn, you wont know until the end of the year how much you can contribute. Still, if freelancers have unique challenges when saving for retirement, they have unique opportunities, too. Funding your retirement account can be considered part of your business expenses, as is any time or money you spend on establishing and administering the plan. Even more important, a retirement account allows you to make pretax contributions, which lowers your taxable income. Many retirement plans for the self-employed allow you, as a business owner, to contribute more money annually than you could to an individual IRA. Self-Employed Retirement Saving Plans There are four retirement savings options favored by the self-employed. Some are single-player 401(k) plans, while others are based on individual retirement accounts (IRAs). They are: One-participant 401(k) SEP IRA SIMPLE IRA Keogh plan With all four of these options, your contributions are tax-deductible, and you wont pay taxes as they grow over the years (until you cash out at retirement). Their complexity and suitability vary, depending on the size of your business, both in terms of personnel and earnings. Lets look at each in more depth. To avoid penalties with any of these plans, youll need to leave your savings in the account until you are 59. However, there are certain hardship exemptions. One-Participant 401(k) A one-participant 401(k), as its officially dubbed by the IRS, also goes by the names solo 401(k), solo-k, uni-k, or individual 401(k). It is reserved for sole proprietors with no employees, other than a spouse working for the business. How a Solo 401(k) Works The one-participant plan closely mirrors the 401(k)s offered by many larger companies, down to the amounts you can contribute each year. The big difference is that you get to contribute as the employee and the employer, giving you a higher limit than many other tax-advantaged plans. So if you participate in a standard corporate 401(k), you would make investments as a pretax payroll deduction from your paycheck, and your employer has the option of matching those contributions up to certain amounts. You get a tax break for your contribution, and the employer gets a tax break for its match. With a one-participant 401(k) plan, you can contribute in each capacity, as an employee (called an elective deferral) and as a business owner (an employee non-elective contribution). Elective deferrals for 2022 can be up to $20,500, or $27,000 if age 50 or older. Total contributions to the plan cannot exceed $61,000, or $67,500 for people age 50 or older as of 2022. If your spouse works for you, they can also make contributions up to the same amount, and then you can match those. So you see why the solo 401(k) offers the most generous contribution limits of the plans. Setting Up a Solo 401(k) Some paperwork is required, but its not too onerous. To establish an individual 401(k), a business owner has to work with a financial institution, which may impose fees and limits as to what investments are available in the plan. Some plans may limit you to a fixed list of mutual funds, but a little bit of shopping will turn up many reputable and well-known firms that offer low-cost plans with a great deal of flexibility. Generally, 401(k)s are complex plans, with significant accounting, administration, and filing requirements, says James B. Twining, CFP, founder and wealth manager of Financial Plan. However, a solo 401(k) is quite simple. Until the assets exceed $250,000, there is no filing required at all. Yet a solo 401(k) has all the major tax advantages of a multiple-participant 401(k) plan: The before-tax contribution limits and tax treatment are identical. Order your copy of the print edition of Investopedia's Retirement Guide for more assistance in building the best plan for your retirement. SEP IRA Officially known as a simplified employee pension, a SEP IRA is a variation on a traditional IRA. As the easiest plan to establish and operate, its an excellent option for sole proprietors, though it also allows for one or more employees. How a SEP IRA Works The employer alone contributes to a SEP IRAnot employees. So, unlike the solo 401(k), youd only contribute wearing your employer hat. You can contribute up to 25% of your net earnings (defined as your annual profit less half of your self-employment taxes), up to a maximum of $58,000 in 2021 (increasing to $61,000 in 2022). The plan also offers flexibility to vary contributions, make them in a lump sum at the end of the year, or skip them altogether. There is no annual funding requirement. Its simplicity and flexibility make the plan most desirable for one-person businesses, but theres a catch if you have people working for you. Although you do not have to contribute to the plan each year, when you do contribute, you need to do so for all of your eligible employeesup to 25% of their compensation, limited to $305,000 in 2022. While SEP IRAs are simple, they are not necessarily the most effective means of saving for retirement. You can contribute more to a SEP IRA than a solo 401(k), excluding the profit-sharing, but you must make enough money since its based on the percentage of profits, says Joseph Anderson, CFP, president of Pure Financial Advisors. Setting Up a SEP IRA The account is simpler to set up than a solo 401(k). You can easily open a SEP IRA online at brokerages such as TD Ameritrade or Fidelity Investments. SIMPLE IRA Officially known as the savings incentive match plan for employees, a SIMPLE IRA is a cross between an IRA and a 401(k) plan. Although available to sole proprietors, it works best for small businesses. Companies with 100 or fewer employees that might find other sorts of plans too expensive. How A SIMPLE IRA Works The SIMPLE IRA follows the same investment, rollover, and distribution rules as a traditional or SEP IRA, except for its lower contribution thresholds. You can put all your net earnings from self-employment in the plan, up to a maximum of $14,000 in 2022, plus an additional $3,000 if you are 50 or older. Employees can contribute along with employers in the same annual amounts. As the employer, however, you are required to contribute dollar for dollar up to 3% of each participating employee's income to the plan each year or a fixed 2% contribution to every eligible employee's income whether they contribute or not. Like a 401(k) plan, the SIMPLE IRA is funded by taxdeductible employer contributions and pretax employee contributions. In a way, the employer's obligation is less. That's because employees make contributions even though there is that mandated matching. And the amount you (as the employer) can contribute for yourself is subject to the same contribution limit as the employees. Early withdrawal penalties are hefty at 25% within the first two years of the plan. Setting Up a SIMPLE IRA As with other IRAs, you must open these plans with a financial institution, which have rules as to what kinds of investments can be purchased. They may also charge plan administration and participation fees. The process is similar to a SEP IRA, but the paperwork is more complicated. Keogh Plan The Keogh or HR 10 plan (more commonly referred to today as a qualified or profit-sharing plan) is arguably the most complex for self-employed workers. But it also allows for the most potential retirement savings. How a Keogh Works Keogh plans usually can take the form of a defined-contribution plan, in which a fixed sum or percentage is contributed every pay period. In 2022, you can contribute up to 25% of compensation or $61,000. Another option, though, allows them to be structured as defined-benefit plans. In 2022, the maximum annual benefit was set at $245,000 or 100% of the employees compensation, whichever is lower. A business must be unincorporated and set up as a sole proprietorship, limited liability company (LLC), or partnership to use a Keogh plan. Although all contributions are made on a pretax basis, there may be a vesting requirement. These plans benefit high earners, especially the defined-benefit version, which allows greater contributions than any other plan. Setting Up a Keogh Keogh Plans have federal filing requirements, which can mean complex paperwork. As a result, it's best to seek professional help from an accountant, investment advisor, or financial institution. Your options for custodians may be more limited than with other retirement plans, which means you'll probably need a brick-and-mortar institution rather than an online-only service. Charles Schwab is one brokerage that offers and services these plans. A Keogh is best suited for firms with a single high-earning boss or two and several lower-earning employeesas in the case of a medical or legal practice. Health Savings Account (HSA) As a freelancer, you may have to pay for your health insurance. The deductibles for individual medical plans tend to be high. If thats your situation, consider opening a health savings account (HSA). Though created for medical expenses rather than retirement years, an HSA can function as a de facto retirement account. How a Health Savings Account Works HSAs are funded with pretax dollars, and the money within them grows tax-deferred as with an IRA or a 401(k). While the funds are meant to be withdrawn for out-of-pocket medical costs, they dont have to be, so you can let them accumulate year after year. Once you reach age 65, you can withdraw them for any reason. If its a medical one (either current or to reimburse yourself for old costs), its still tax-free. If its a non-medical expense, you are taxed at your current rate. To open an HSA, you have to be covered by a high-deductible health insurance plan (HDHP). For 2022, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) defines a high deductible as $1,400 per individual and $2,800 per family. Also, the annual out-of-pocket expenses, including deductibles, co-payments, but not premiums, must not exceed $7,050 for self-only coverage or $14,100 for family coverage for 2022. The annual contribution limit for 2022 contribution limit is $3,650 for individuals and $7,300 for families. People age 55 and older are allowed a $1,000 catch-up contribution. Traditional or Roth IRA If none of the above plans seems a good fit, you can start your own individual IRA. Both Roth and traditional individual retirement accounts (IRAs) are available to anyone with employment income, including freelancers. Roth IRAs let you contribute after-tax dollars, while traditional IRAs let you contribute pretax dollars. In 2022, the maximum annual contribution is $6,000, $7,000 if you are age 50 or older, or your total earned income, whichever is less. Most freelancers work for someone else before striking out on their own. If you had a retirement plan such as a 401(k), 403(b), or 457(b) with a former employer, the best way to manage the accumulated savings is often to transfer them to a rollover IRA or a one-participant 401(k). Rolling over allows you to choose how to invest the money rather than being limited by the choices in an employer-sponsored plan. Also, the transferred sum can jump-start you into saving in your new entrepreneurial career. Managing Your Retirement Funds It's important to start saving for retirement as soon as you begin earning income, even if you can't afford to save that much at the beginning. The sooner you begin, the more you'll accumulate, thanks to the miracle of compounding. As your savings build, you may want to get the help of a financial advisor to determine the best way to apportion your funds. Some companies even offer free or low-cost retirement planning advice to clients. Robo-advisors such as Betterment and Wealthfront provide automated planning and portfolio building as a low-cost alternative to human financial advisors. The Bottom Line Creating a retirement strategy is vitally important when you are a freelancer because theres no one looking out for your retirement but you. Thats why your mantra should be pay yourself first. Many people think of retirement money as the money they put away if there is any cash left at the end of the month or year. Thats paying yourself last, says David Blaylock, CFP, head of advice and planner compliance at Origin. Paying yourself first means saving before you do anything else. Try and set aside a certain portion of your income the day you get paid before you spend any discretionary money. 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. Check out our Podcasts for great investor ideas: Get new posts by email: Subscribe Powered by Investorideas.com Newswire: Subscribe to Investor Ideas Newswire Descalzi said that Egypt currently tops the 53-country list of Enis investment portfolio Italian energy company Eni plans to increase its energy exploration investments in Egypt to $3.5 billion in 2017, the companys CEO Claudio Descalzi said on Thursday after a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi. Descalzi briefed the Egyptian president on the latest developments regarding the massive Zohr gas field recently discovered off the Mediterranean coast, saying production is expected to start before the end of the year, a presidency statement read. Zohr, discovered by Eni in August 2015, is the largest gas field in the Mediterranean with an estimated 850 billion cubic metres of gas. According to the statement, Descalzi said that Egypt currently tops the 53-country list of Enis investment portfolio. In late December, Eni signed two new concession agreements with the Egyptian government for gas exploration in two Mediterranean fields. Eni has been operating in Egypt since 1954 through its subsidiary International Egyptian Oil Company (IEOC), with production of about 224,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day by the end of 2016. Egypts production of natural gas is currently estimated at around 4.4 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd), and is expected to increase by 1.5 bcfd by the end of 2017, according to a statement from the Ministry of Petroleum last week. In May 2016, the ministry expected production to range between 5.5 and 6 bcfd by the end of 2019. Search Keywords: Short link: Irish aid agency Goal is seeking up to 25 redundancies after what it describes as a "challenging" year. The Irish Government withheld millions of euro in funding from the NGO last May on foot of a US government investigation into its Syrian aid programme. However, it has since released almost 4m for the long-term development work of the agency. Despite this, Goal said that it has commenced a consultation process for up to 25 potential redundancies across all head office functions in Dublin and London. The staff were informed of the move yesterday. Any potential redundancies would take place on or around March 1. "2016 was a challenging year for GOAL as we sought to continue our relief efforts whilst also taking significant steps to restore the confidence of our donors in our systems, controls and management capacity," said GOAL general manager Celine Fitzgerald. "The last number of weeks have seen substantive progress in that regard with Irish Aid taking the welcome decision to resume payments to GOAL of almost 4m in funds due for 2016, and USAID recently approving the awarding of a grant to GOAL for our programmes in Honduras, Ethiopia and Sudan. "Despite this progress and ongoing discussions with our major donors in respect of future funding we need to develop a more sustainable cost base to support our ongoing humanitarian relief efforts and regrettably, this is likely to involve some redundancies." Self-defence fighters have killed three girl suicide bombers targeting a bustling market in north-eastern Nigeria, civilian and military officials said. They blamed the Boko Haram Islamic extremist group for the attempted bombing. The civilian fighters who work alongside the army challenged the girls as they approached a village near Madagali town, local council chairman Yusuf Muhammad Gulak told The Associated Press. The girls began running at the checkpoint and the fighters shot the girl in the lead, activating her explosives and killing her and a companion, he said. The third girl tried to flee and was gunned down, Mr Gulak said. Army spokesman Major Badare Akintoye confirmed the shootings, adding: "Our soldiers are on alert and commercial activities are going on" at the targeted market. Soldiers and civilian fighters have stopped many suicide bombers before they can reach heavily populated targets in recent months. However, two women suicide bombers killed 57 people and wounded 177, including 120 children, last month at Madagali market, 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the scene of Wednesday's shootings. Boko Haram has used scores of women and girls as young as seven in suicide bombings that have killed hundreds this year. Some of the bombers are suspected to have been previously kidnapped. A multinational force of troops from Nigeria and its neighbours has driven the Islamic extremists from most of the towns and villages where they had declared a caliphate to help create an Islamic state in Nigeria, a country of 170 million people divided almost equally between Muslims and Christians. Nigeria's president declared that Boko Haram had been crushed last month, but there's unlikely to be a swift end to the suicide bombings and attacks on remote villages and army outposts. Boko Haram's seven-year-old Islamic uprising has killed more than 20,000 people, driven 2.6 million from their homes and created a massive humanitarian crisis that the UN says has 5.1 million people facing starvation. This follows An Bord Pleanala granting Lidl the go-ahead for the store in spite of opposition from business group RGDATA, a local school, and local councillor Derek Mitchell of Fine Gael. Lidl has 150 stores, having recently opened new outlets in Dublin and in Virginia. Now employing 4,200 in the Republic, Lidl is currently spending 100m a year in its expansion plan. In Kantar Worldpanels most recent survey, Lidl increased its share of the market to 11.1%. The warning sent shockwaves through the UKs clothing retailers as the most successful performer of the last decade faltered. The company, which trades from about 540 shops in Britain and Ireland, said it was disappointed with its Christmas sales and highlighted exceptional levels of uncertainty in the sector, adding it was preparing for tougher times. Next, which repeatedly said shoppers are spending less on clothes, warned its fiscal 2018 pretax profit could come in a full 100m (117.6m) below market forecasts, wiping at one stage as much as 15% off a share price that had already slumped in 2016. A trading update from Next was always going to be interesting, but few thought it would be this interesting. Unsurprisingly, this has resulted in heavy selling across the rest of the clothing sector, with nuances in branding, demographics and pricing cast aside, said Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at online trader IG. Next was the first major British retailer to report on Christmas trading and its statement stoked concerns about lower customer numbers as shoppers increasingly shift to buying online. Shares in Nexts retail rivals also suffered. Marks & Spencer, Dublin-based Primark and Penneys owner AB Foods and Debenhams fell by 4.2%, 3.6% and 5.5% at one stage. Next chief executive Simon Wolfson believes UK shoppers are spending less on clothes and instead using spare cash on holidays, eating out and events. He is also anticipating pressure on spending as inflation rises. The company, which also has franchised stores overseas and the Directory online and catalogue business, forecast full price sales could fall by up to 4.5% in 2017 to 2018. In the run-up to Christmas, full price sales at stores fell 3.5%, while Next Directory sales were up by 5.1%, raising questions about the merits of opening more stores. Meanwhile, John Lewis, the UKs biggest department chain, said sales in the week before Christmas soared 36%. The six Coptic artefacts are the Egyptian Museums January Pieces of the Month The Egyptian Museum in Tahrir has put on display six Coptic-era artefacts at its entrance as the January Pieces of the Month in celebration of the Coptic Christmas on 7 January. Sabah Abdel-Razak, director-general of the Egyptian Museum, explains that the artefacts were carefully selected from the Coptic Museum in Old Cairo and include two pieces of Coptic textiles and three wood carvings. The first piece of textile has overlapping decorations coloured in beige and brown with a cross in the middle. The second is part of a Coptic robe with plants and geometric decorations, coloured in black, dark beige and red. Its lower part ends with tassels coloured with blue and gray. The first of the three wood carvings is decorated with images of an angel, a saint holding a book, and the Virgin Mary carrying the baby Jesus. The second carving is gilded and decorated with the image of two saints; Irene, whose name means peace, and Foteine, meaning the bright one. An image of Christ is depicted in the middle, with the names of all three written in Greek above each image. The third carving depicts the Virgin Mary carrying the baby Jesus and has a metal cover with ancient Russian writing. Search Keywords: Short link: Lynda OMahony, 41, also used balls of tin foil to scrape her skin leaving her skin torn and bleeding. The Mitchelstown, Co Cork mum suffered from a condition called Primary Billary Cirrhosis believed to be an auto-immune disease and is not caused by alcohol consumption which left her with an unbearable itch no medication could treat. She was effectively housebound by her condition and was edging closer to death when she got the call about the transplant. She received the call she was waiting for on December 9 and rushed to St Vincents hospital in Dublin for the liver transplant. She woke up at 4pm on December 10 post-operation with her dad looking down at her as if she was his newborn baby. It was just amazing. I felt better instantly, Lynda told Corks Red FM Neil Prenderville Show. I couldnt even begin to explain what I went through. What my family went through. The pain and the suffering. I just got sicker and sicker. I was wheelchair-bound at one stage. I had to go into nappies. I became incontinent. I lost my mind. I didnt know who my family were. I didnt recognise people. The toxins in my body robbed me of who I was. I had three bouts of liver failure that I was lucky to get through. Lynda issued an appeal to members of the public to donate blood: As much as I would like to highlight organ donation, a blood transfusion is equally important. Without blood, I would not have survived either. My body was so weak. I was bleeding internally. It was horrendous. You cant even begin to describe what liver failure is. We need an opt-out system in Ireland. So please everyone be open to organ and blood donation. I wouldnt be here without either. I just feel very special and I want to raise awareness to save other people from organ failure. I got the most wonderful gift of a call that saved my life. I had given up hope. I had gone home to die. Lynda says without the operation she wouldnt have made Christmas as her body was extremely weak. She had been told to write letters to her 18-year-old and 10-year-old to be read after her death. I was asked to have my children prepared. How do you prepare a 10-year-old innocent child that mammy might not make it? I couldnt do it. I was asked to have letters written and to have everything in order with solicitors. I was slipping in and out of a coma sleep. I felt in my heart I wasnt going to make Christmas. I was in nappies everything was gone from me. And now I dont even have a tingle in my skin. I was given the most amazing gift of getting my life back on the tenth of December. That was on a Saturday. On the Friday evening after that, I was out in Liffey Valley with my brother with a mask on me in my wheelchair doing my Christmas shopping. I was the happiest person you would ever see going around. For an organ donor card email donor@ika.ie or text DONOR to 50050. For details on giving blood visit www.giveblood.ie Details of the crime which occurred in 2015 have only now emerged following publication of the universitys annual financial statement for the year ending September 2015. It reveals that the university suffered a loss of 362,811 as a result of the fraud which it claimed was perpetrated by a third party. NUI Maynooth bosses reported the matter to gardai as well as the Higher Education Authority and the comptroller and auditor general. In October 2015, the Government announced it would spend 3m on a new Garda station for Glanmire, Co Cork. However, since then, there has been no announcement about where or when it is to be built. Little Island Business Association (LIBA), which represents 1,000 members who come under the jurisdiction of the Glanmire Garda District, has written to both the Garda Commissioner and Minister for Justice asking them to clarify the issue. LIBA chief executive Michael Mulcahy said that his members were anxious to know where the new station will be built and to get a timeline for its construction. LIBA has also asked both Garda Commissioner Noirin OSullivan and Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald to initiate a review of Little Island and based on the profile of the area, its residents and businesses, ascertain if a Garda station and/or Garda presence is specifically required there. The Garda Representative Association (GRA) says it is also concerned that it had heard nothing more about building a new station since early 2016. GRA central executive committee member Michael Corcoran said his organisation had received no briefing on the Glanmire situation since early 2016 and he hadnt been made aware of any movement on it. Garda Corcoran described conditions at the station as deplorable and added that despite all the adverse publicity about it over the years little had been done to improve the lot of colleagues working out of there. Former GRA president John Parker described the former RIC barracks as a deathtrap because there is no fire escape for gardai occupying the three-storey building. Huge chunks of plaster have fallen off the walls and the wooden staircase is in a very bad state of repair. Garda Corcoran said that members of the public only see the ground-floor public office and would be appalled if the saw conditions in the rest of the building. In addition, there is no disabled access and no secure parking available for the patrol cars, or private cars belonging to gardai. Prior to the 2011 General Election, an announcement was made that a suitable location had been found for a new station, but that was put on hold after legal issues arose between the OPW and the owner of the location. Garda Corcoran said the GRA would be seeking a meeting with the civil servant directly responsible for building garda stations. He said it was unfair to have gardai endure such Dickensian conditions. Mark Purcell, aged 44, of Orchard View, Banteer, Co Cork, had been remanded in custody in December after he pleaded guilty to three charges including the theft of two jumpers worth 72 from Leading Labels, a shop at the Killarney Outlet Centre, and a white Trek bicycle, the property of Derry OSullivan from OSullivans Bikeshop in High Street, on December 12 last. The property had been recovered, but there had been 120 in damage caused to the bike after Mr Purcell tried to scrape off the bicycles identifying numbers, Sgt Kieran OConnell had told the December court in evidence. Mr Purcell had 102 previous convictions, the court was told, and 29 of those were for theft. The court heard that at around 3.10pm, on December 12, gardai on duty at the Killarney railway station observed a man pushing a bike into the railway station and they became suspicious because of his behaviour. At the same time a report came over the garda radio that a bike had been stolen from a bike shop in High Street. The defendant had also been found with two jumpers from the shop near the railway station and the tags were still on the jumpers. The mans solicitor, Padraig OConnell, had sought to have Mr Purcell, who he said was a father of two young children, and who was dependent on social welfare, released for Christmas. Mr Purcell said only he could collect his social welfare payment at the post office. However, the judge refused Mr Purcell bail and remanded him in custody overnight to Tralee and in further custody to the January court in Killarney. Mr Purcells solicitor had said he would make arrangements to have the mans welfare payment collected. Yesterday, Padraig OConnell asked that his client be given bail to give him a chance to pay for the 120 criminal damage. Judge OConnor agreed to a short adjournment and remanded Mr Purcell with consent to bail to January 17 next when he would have to come up with the compensation for the damage he caused to the bicycle. Hes to leave Killarney straight away, the judge said. Be gone by 1pm. How are you going to get there? Judge OConnor then enquired. Mr Purcell said he would be able to get the 1.20pm train to Banteer from the Killarney railway station near the court. I have a travel pass, Mr Purcell said. At this Judge OConnor remarked: Tis a great little country. 102 convictions and a travel pass. Since 2008, more than 450 female entrepreneurs such as Cocoa Browns Marissa Carter have taken part in the national programme. Reports from last years programme show that participants businesses experienced a combined growth in sales over the cycle of 7.5m (+28%), the number of exports increased by 43% and employment in participants businesses rose to 485 (+17%). There are over 60 places available in this national programme, which is supported by Enterprise Ireland and KPMG. Whether you work in agriculture, technology or beauty or are registered as a limited company or work as a sole trader, the only stipulation to qualify for a place is that the participant be in a growth frame of mind. Our mission in Going for Growth is to support female entrepreneurs to achieve their growth ambitions and to get more female owner managers into a growth frame of mind, said Paula Fitzsimons, the programmes national director. I am delighted to say that we are doing just that through a focus on growth goals, peer support and the sharing of experiences in a collaborative and confidential environment. Female entrepreneurs can be characterised by having a higher aversion to risk when compared to their male counterparts; however, Ms Fitzsimons said it is a double-edged sword. What you find from research is that women seem to be less confident than men in their belief that they have the ability to run a business. We work with that to build their confidence. Goals are identified to be achieved and it is by achieving goals that you build confidence, she said. But risk aversion is a two-edged sword because research also indicates that women are less likely to close businesses compared to men, she added. One previous participant, Marissa Carter, said the programme assisted the growth of her hugely successful business. Going for Growth had an extremely positive impact on my business. I was driven by the competitiveness in our group but also by the will of seven other women to see me succeed, she said. The closing date to apply is January 20, and successful applicants will begin work with their lead entrepreneurs on February 17 for a six-month period. For more information go to www.goingforgrowth.com However, he believes that Enda Kenny will remain on as Fine Gael leader this year, despite previous speculation that the two-time Taoiseach might move aside by the summer. In an interview with the Irish Examiner, Mr Coveney refused to discuss his leadership ambitions. Instead, he stressed he was driven in his role and committed to tackling the housing crisis. Most opinion polls last year after the February general election put Fianna Fail ahead of Fine Gael. Nonetheless, Fine Gaels popularity at the next general election, Mr Coveney said, would improve, especially if he succeeded in housing. I think in the context of an election, Fine Gael will have a very strong message to sell and I think Fine Gael can beat Fianna Fail in the next general election, he said. I think we will. I think as time passes, people will see the last five years through a different lens than perhaps they have seen the last five years in the context of the last election. Memories are short in terms of where Ireland was five years ago [compared to] where it is now. We are able to solve problems like housing and water and healthcare and education and so many other things that need very significant investment from the State. Mr Coveney last month fought off attempts by Fianna Fail to alter new rent controls, in a move many said showed the Cork man was back in the race to be the next leader of Fine Gael. The minister said that the Fine Gael-led governments job in the coming months was to build on successes that were hard-won and to show Ireland was moving quickly in the right direction. But he refused to say if wanted to be the main person to deliver that message. Other people could make such a judgement, he contended. I like to set very ambitious targets and then go after them, that is what consumes me, he said. I have a big role to play in Fine Gael at the moment. Im in the Cabinet, Ive one of the most challenging political briefs, and if I deliver in that brief, I think I will enhance Fine Gaels standing with people. If I do that [deliver], well Ill see where it takes me in the context of I know there is going to be a leadership change in Fine Gael before the next election, Im happy to trust the Taoiseachs judgment in terms of when that should happen. I think all of us in the party should trust his judgment on that. But while some Fine Gael party figures believe Enda Kenny may step aside this year after promising not to lead into the next election, Mr Coveney is doubtful there will be a leadership change in 2017. Probably not. But I dont know for sure. That will be a decision for other people. While Fine Gael lost 26 TDs in the last election, Mr Coveney believes the impression that his partys image is now toxic is wrong. Pro-Brexiteers have welcomed it, pointing out that Sir Ivan Rogers is a man whose entire career as a diplomat has been shaped by Brussels groupthink. For Europhiles, still in denial about the result of the June referendum, its a devastating blow to Mrs Mays Brexit strategy if, that is, she has one. Downing Street have replaced Sir Ivan with Sir Tim Barrow, an experienced diplomat whose familiarity with the way in which the EU operates is equal to his but whose adherence to its mindset and methods is less so. Ownership and re-sale of original copies published between 1925 and 1945 has been permitted, though certainly not encouraged. Instead, Bavarias state government, which owns the copyright, has refused to re-publish it and moved swiftly in Germanys civil courts to stop anyone else doing so. What should be made of the growing interest in the book since the expiration in 2016 of the 70-year copyright and its re-publication with scholarly annotation by Munichs Institute of Contemporary History?Some 85,000 copies have been sold so far, and a sixth print run is planned for this month. Understandably, fears have been voiced, but there are grounds for thinking they are unwarranted. The book has been kept symbolically under the counter in Germany and Austria hence its novelty value but its been available in English for decades; copies can be bought today for 6.58 via Amazon. It contains nothing that todays ambitious racists and tyrants do not already know or believe. Comprising largely rewrites of the anti-Semitic tracts that had been swirling around Austria and Germany since the 1880s, its not so much a dangerous book as a dreary museum piece. Asia Burma Faces Danger From IS Militants, Malaysian Police Say Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay, the head of the Malaysian police special branch's counter-terrorism division, speaks during an interview in Kuala Lumpur on Jan. 1. / Ibrahim Harris / Reuters KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia Burma faces a growing danger of attacks by foreign supporters of Islamic State (IS) recruited from Southeast Asian networks in support of persecuted Muslim Rohingyas, Malaysias top counter-terrorism official has said. Malaysian authorities have detained a suspected IS follower planning to head to Burma to carry out attacks, the head of the Malaysian police counter-terrorism division, Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay, said in an interview. The suspect, an Indonesian whom he did not identify, was detained in Malaysia last month. The suspect was scheduled to be charged on Wednesday for possession of materials linked to terrorist groups, which carries a seven-year jail term or fine, Ayob Khan said. More militants are likely to try to follow his lead in support of the Rohingya cause, Ayob Khan said. He was planning to perform jihad in Burma, fighting against the Burma government for this Rohingya group in Rakhine State, Ayob Khan said. A Burma army sweep since October in the north of Arakan State, also known as Rakhine, on its border with Bangladesh, has sent about 34,000 members of the Rohingya minority fleeing into Bangladesh, the UN says. Residents and rights groups accuse security forces in predominantly Buddhist Burma of summary executions and rape in the army operation, launched in response to attacks on police posts on Oct. 9 that killed nine officers. The government of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi denies the accusations of abuse. Burma government spokesman U Zaw Htay told Reuters an official report into Octobers violence in Arakan State found no evidence of an IS presence there or that the attacks were linked to IS. Lightning Rod The conflict in Arakan State risks becoming a lightning rod for Islamists in a shadowy network stretching from the Philippines to Indonesia and Malaysia, with links to IS in the Middle East, security analysts and officials say. Scores of Southeast Asian Muslims, most from Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, have travelled to the Middle East to join IS, counter-terrorism police in the region said. Over the past year, IS has claimed several attacksor been linked to foiled plotsin Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. There is a high possibility that Muslims, be it from IS or other groups, will find the ways and means to go to Burma to help their Rohingya Muslim brothers, Ayob Khan said. The Indonesian suspect was among seven people arrested for suspected links to IS. The suspect was also involved in a plot to smuggle weapons to Indonesias Poso region, on Sulawesi island, Ayob Khan said. Indonesian authorities have detained several suspected foreign militants trying to reach Poso. Ayob Khan did not say what group the suspect, a factory worker who had been in Malaysia since 2014, was trying to link up with in Burma. He said the suspect was in contact with Muhammad Wanndy Muhammad Jedi, a Syria-based Malaysian militant who claimed responsibility on behalf of IS for a grenade attack on a bar in June last year. The International Crisis Group think-tank said in a report last month the coordinated attacks on Burma police in Arakan State were carried out by a group called Harakah al-Yakin. While the group had links to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, it would be wrong to over-interpret the significance of the international links, ICG said. Nevertheless, the longer violence continues, the greater the risks become of such links deepening and potentially becoming operational, it said. Large Pool of Recruits Muslim-majority Malaysia and Indonesia, which has the worlds biggest Muslim population, have led calls in Southeast Asia for Burma to stop the violence against the Rohingya. Rohingya have for years been fleeing persecution in Burma, which denies them citizenship because it sees them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. They often wash up on Southeast Asian shores in rickety boats seeking asylum. More than 55,000 Rohingyas are registered with the UN in Malaysia. Non-profit groups estimate as many as 200,000 Rohingyas are living in Malaysia, many working in restaurants and constructions sites. Analysts warn the large number of Rohingya migrants are a potential pool of recruits for militants. The network between Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and the Rohingyas is there, said Badrul Hisham Ismail, programme executive director of the Malaysian counter-militancy group, Iman Research. Ismail said his group had discovered Malaysian militants involved in recruiting Rohingyas and sending them to Poso for training. Rohan Gunaratna, a security expert at Singapores Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said Islamic State operatives in the region were determined to mount attacks both inside Burma and against Burma targets overseas. In November, Indonesian authorities detained an Islamic State-linked militant for planning an attack on the Burma embassy there. The highest threat to Burma emanates from Islamic State networks, Rohan said. The Rohingya conflict is emerging as one of the rallying issues for IS. At a strategic level, Burma should resolve the Rohingya conflict to prevent IS influence and expansion. Burma Farmers Arrested in Mandalay Division Villagers whose land was seized to allow the expansion of the copper mine in northwestern Myanmar held protests in 2013 that were crushed by police. / Reuters MANDALAY Twenty-one farmers from Khan Lu village in Mandalay Divisions Sintgaing Township were arrested on Tuesday amid an ongoing land dispute trial with local authorities. All 21 farmersincluding 16 women and a six-month-old childwere not arrested immediately but were told they would face trial in the township court following a dispute with a local military security unit that attempted last week to fence confiscated land, which the farmers claim is theirs. The farmers were told by local police officers that there would be no arrest; however, they were arrested at the court and charged with trespassing and destroying property, which does not offer bail, said Nay Aung, a farmer who has also had his land confiscated. They were sent to Mandalays Obo Prison, he added. More than 70 acres of land owned by 24 farmers was confiscated in 2001 by the military security unit. The farmers received minimal compensation for their crops. The farmers say they were told they could continue to grow crops on 50 acres of confiscated land that were not being used by the authorities. The military security unit began fencing the land in August. Weve sent an appeal to Naypyidaw and asked for our land back, as we heard in 2015 that most of the confiscated land would be returned to farmers, said Nay Aung. Were still waiting for a response. The farmers said they were appealing to the State Counselors Office, President Htin Kyaw, Vice President Henry Van Thiowho chaired the Central Review Committee on Confiscated Farm Lands and Other Landsand Burma Army commander-in-chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing regarding the recent arrest of fellow farmers. There are 29 farmers and land rights activists in Mandalay who have recently been put behind bars for charges of trespassing and destroying property. Land rights activists Myo Win and Toe Gyi, who are also currently detained at Obo Prison, will also face trial in Mandalay, along with 12 other farmers who have had their land confiscated. About a dozen farmers in Mandalay who have fought to have their land returned are on the regional governments wanted list. Burma Govt Releases Findings on Northern Arakan Amid Further Arrests Burma Army soldiers carry out security operations in Maungdaw Township, Arakan State. / Moe Myint / The Irrawaddy RANGOON Security forces arrested four militants and confiscated 14 homemade guns near Maung Gyi Taung village in Arakan States Buthidaung Township on Tuesday evening after a tip off, according to the State Counselors Office information committee. An investigation will be carried out in line with Burmas laws, according to a statement released Wednesday. The arrests and seizure is the first in Buthidaung Township, which has seen less police action than neighbouring Maungdaw, according to head of Buthidaung Township police Maj. Tun Wai. The situation is calm down here despite some rumors spread by the residents, he told The Irrawaddy, refusing to provide more information but stating that counter-insurgency operations are currently handled by the border police. Buthidaung resident U Aung Ko told The Irrawaddy on Thursday that the arrests had not disturbed residents. The government released a statement on Tuesday saying that eight Muslim residents had been found killed in northern Arakan State since Oct. 8, while three are missing and two have reported receiving death threats. An interim report from the Vice President U Myint Swe-led Arakan State Investigation Commission claimed that villagers who cooperated with government departments and organizations were at risk of violence from terrorists for being government informers. Since attacks on police border posts by suspected militants on Oct. 9, 10 government border police and eight soldiers have died in security operations, according to the report. Meanwhile, 80 suspected militants have been killed. The report states that 485 individuals were detained in 49 separate cases, of whom 10 have been released. Twenty-eight cases have gone to court, with convictions being handed down in three cases so far. The 13-member commission made special investigations into the allegations of Burma Army human rights abuses by international organizations, including accusations of rape, torture, extrajudicial killings, and arson. Referring to the self-identifying Rohingya community as Bengali, the Arakan State Investigation Commission reported that the groups presence in Maungdaw Township, in addition to the increasing population of Mawlawi, mosques and religious edifices, served as proof that there were no cases of genocide and religious persecution in the region. The commission reportedly interviewed local women in regard to rape allegations and found insufficient evidence to take legal action. The report stated that accusations of arson, illegal arrests, and torture were being investigated. The commission reported that 26 village bazaars and two township markets in the region had reopened, along with 171 schools of the 183 that were closed. The report claims there were no cases of malnutrition in the area due to the areas favorable fishing and farming conditions. The commission concluded that recent attacks in northern Arakan were designed to draw the attention of the international community and is harming the sovereignty of the State. It also described the situation as more complicated than previous incidents in northern Arakan State, as it alleged that area militants have connections with overseas organizations. Burma NLD Reaffirms Electoral Pledges on Independence Day A Rangoon regional minister for the National League for Democracy party was photographed at a flag-hoisting ceremony to commemorate the 69th Independence Day on January 4, 2017. / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy RANGOON Burmas ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party said the government is managing, step by step, a process to adopt a Constitution with democratic norms. In a statement released on Wednesday commemorating the countrys 69th anniversary of independence, the NLD mentioned the governments efforts and challenges in trying to implement its electoral pledges of adopting a democratic constitution, ending the long-running civil war and implementing a federal union. The statement quoted State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi who said, a genuine independence should be a common ownership of all citizens. [It] should allow [citizens] to equally enjoy basic human rights protected by law, she was quoted. A country where one individual group can oppress and torture the public by abusing power cannot be defined as a truly independent state, she said in the statement. Burma lowered the British Union Jack in 1948 and raised the national flag, declaring the countrys independence from colonial rule. Since gaining independence, the country has suffered from armed conflicts throughout ethnic regions. During the 2015 electoral campaign, the NLD pledged to amend the 2008 military-drafted Constitution and implement a democratic federal system. Ethnic minorities overwhelmingly voted for Daw Aung San Suu Kyis NLD party, which resulted in a landslide victory and replaced the military-backed quasi-civilian government. However, among the countrys ethnic communities, there is disappointment with the NLD governments as of yet unsuccessful efforts to end Burmas decades-long civil war. De-facto leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has also been criticized as lacking in power, while the military continues to control three major ministries designated in the Constitution: defense, border and home affairs. President U Htin Kyaw said in his Independence Day message published in the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar on Wednesday that the Constitution is the foundation of all laws and plays a vital role in a country. We all must collaborate to adopt the Constitution appropriate to the time and circumstances of current situations in building a democratic federal nation, he urged. The President encouraged all citizens to cooperate in bringing about national reconciliation and to participate in the 21st Century Panglong Peace Conference to end the ongoing civil war. He added that despite regaining independence, it was tragic to see that certain national races in some regions could not fully enjoy the fruits of independence, as armed crises have continued in some ethnic areas of the country. The armed struggles lasted for decades but were unable to solve the countrys political crisis, and instead left the country undeveloped, he said. On Wednesday, NLD patron U Tin Oo delivered a speech at the party headquarters and echoed the State Counselor that there was nothing that could substitute for national reconciliation. Hardship and difficulties we currently suffer can only be healed by the will of reconciliation, he said. He also said quoting Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, our generation now has the opportunity to bring about peace that previous generations were not able to enjoy and it is important that we grasp this opportunity firmly. Without achieving national reconciliation for internal peace, no reform process will be successful, he said. It is believed that none of the armed groups issued statements on the occasion of the Independence Day. Burma Public Consultations Precede National Level Dialogue in Dawei Public consultations are held in Dawei District on Jan. 5, 2017. / Kyaw Min Htaik Public consultations held prior to Burmas national level political dialogue started on Thursday in Dawei, Tenasserim Division. Two days of discussions are being held at the district level from Jan. 5-6, with government officials, political parties, Karen and Mon ethnic armed organizations and civil society groups participating. In late December, the Union Peace Dialogue Joint Committee (UPDJC), led by State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, formed regional political dialogue monitoring committees for Karen State in southeast, Tenasserim Division in the south and in Naypyidaw. Another two consultations will be held in Myeik and Kawthaung districts later this month, with regional recommendations consolidated in final talks on Jan. 23-24 in Tenasserim, also known as Tanintharyi. The topics include the political and economic issues, as well as land and the environment, said Ko Kyaw Min Htaik, one of the representatives joining the district forum. Ko Kyaw Min Htaik, who also represents the Tavoy (Dawei) Youth Organization, said that participants in the two-day consultations received only three minutes each to present their views. During his allotted time, Kyaw Min Htaik said he spoke on education and youth development under the category of politics. Daw Tin Tin Yee, a Lower House lawmaker from Tenasserims Kyun Su Township, told The Irrawaddy that due to the time constraints, those who were not able to present their concerns could share their papers at the regional level talks. When there are different perspectives on the same issue, we will include those in our regional recommendations, she said. In Karen State, public perspectives on each topic are to be collected through at least seven public consultations in ethnic Karen communities and shared at national level talks, Pado Kwe Htoo Win told The Irrawaddy recently. The consultations will also be held in Rangoon, Arakan, Chin and parts of Shan State. Talks are located in areas where nationwide ceasefire signatories the Arakan Liberation Party, the Chin National Front, the Restoration Council of Shan State and the Pa-O National Liberation Organization, are based. NCA signatory the All Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF) will start its own public consultations in Rangoon on Saturday, Jan. 7, and will share the findings with other ethnic armed organizations during the collective recommendations of the upcoming peace conference in February, according to U Myo Win, the vice chair of the ABSDF and a secretariat member of the UPDJC. Along with the public consultations for the political dialogue, the parallel civil society forum is scheduled to be held in Naypyidaw at the end of this month. Burma Uprooted by War, Fearing Troops, Burma Girls Learn Karate A camp for internally displaced persons in Kachin State. JE YANG, Kachin State Every afternoon, dozens of teenage girls at the school for displaced children line up on the grounds, dressed in white uniforms with belts of various colors: yellow, blue, white. They kick high and jump with glee before settling into their exercises, shouting in Japanese as they punch into the air. The reason many of these girls are in this class is sobering: They want protection from their own countrys military. Mostly between 13 and 16, they have lost their homes, and in some cases their families, to the long-running civil war in Burmas Kachin statea war in which soldiers have been repeatedly accused of raping girls and women, but rarely prosecuted. This karate class offers some small sense of power to the vulnerable. For all the girls, we teach them how to protect themselves when someone tries to sexually assault them and how to fight back, instructor Hkun Naw said. Basically teaching the girls to make themselves safe. We wanted to make sure all the internally displaced children have the right to do something that gives them joy, and to be confident. More than 100,000 people in Kachin State, in Burmas north, have been forced from their homes by fighting between government troops and ethnic Kachin rebels who have sought greater autonomy for decades. A 17-year-long cease-fire ended in 2011. Je Yang is among the most crowded camps, with more than 8,000 people, including 16-year-old Hkawn Ra. She fled fighting in her village of Man Dung while she was at school five years ago, when she was 11. She has not seen her parents since. She once dreamed of becoming a nurse, but no longer. Because of the political situation and civil war, I cannot become who I want to be, and I am not angry about it anymore, she said. Hkawn Ra is, however, learning karate, after hearing about rapes and sexual violence against women in the region. A community-based organization operating under the Kachin Independence Organization has held karate classes in Kachin-controlled areas since the year the cease-fire ended, seeking to teach girls and boys self-defense and self-confidence. They [the military] rape women and thats why I was interested, and decided to learn karate to protect myself at least, Hkawn Ra said. Womens organizations say the military has been long using rape as weapon of war. The Womens League of Burma says it has documented more than 100 cases of rape and sexual violence against ethnic women by the military army since 2010. The government and the military have remained largely silent on the issue. This fall, Muslim Rohingya and rights groups have said soldiers and police have repeatedly raped members of the ethnic minority in northwestern Arakan State. Authorities have been conducting sweeps of the region since October, when nine border guards were killed by unknown attackers. The government has blocked foreign media from the area, but Rohingya who fled to nearby Bangladesh report rapes and murders by security forces, and satellite images back up their claims of village-burning. At a recent press conference, military spokesman Soe Naing Oo denied that soldiers in Arakan State, also known as Rakhine, were committing any human-rights violations or sexual violence. The Kachin Womens Association of Thailand and the Legal Aid Network last year released a report on investigators lack of progress in the brutal 2015 rape and murder of the two Kachin volunteer teachers. Dozens of soldiers were housed closed to the rape scene, and several left shortly before the bodies were discovered, but no suspects have been identified. Prosecutions have been few. In 2014, a soldier was sentenced to 7 years in prison for raping a 7-year-old Kachin girl in northern Shan state. Accused Burma soldiers normally face a military tribunal, but in that case lawyers successfully pressed for a civilian trial. Ethnic minorities overwhelmingly voted for Daw Aung San Suu Kyis National League for Democracy last year, helping it replace an elected but military-dominated government. But many are now disappointed with her governments efforts to resolve a host of ethnic conflicts and what they see as the militarys impunity. Without talking about human rights violations and ignoring the truth and justice for the victims, there wont be a real peace and national reconciliation in our country, said Julia Marip, secretary of the Womens League of Burma. With little confidence that soldiers will be held to account for misdeeds, the girls in the karate class hope to at least deter them from committing any to begin with. They compete with each other, and some have dreams of fighting professionally. Our instructor said we can go abroad to learn more skills, and I want to go overseas and be a professional fighter, said 14-year-old Nu Ja. When they know how to defend themselves, said Hkun Naw, the instructor, they will be able to protect their families, their people and their country. Commentary Back From Mong Ko Mong Ko, northern Shan State. / Nang Seng Nom / The Irrawaddy In the third week of November, I went to Mong Ko in northern Shan State amid fierce clashes between the Northern Alliance and Burma Army. The Northern Alliance is comprised of four ethnic armed groupsthe Kachin Independence Army, the Taang National Liberation Army, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and the Arakan Army. The coalition launched joint offensives in several townships including in Muses border trade zone and in Mong Ko in northern Shan State on Nov. 20. Among them, Mong Ko was hit hardest by clashes, suffering the most severe damage and the highest numbers of casualties. The town lies at the Burma-China border and is accessible via Kyukok (Pangsai). But because of continuous clashes, no media outlets could get into the area to report on the conflict from the ground or to document the plight of the towns residents. In other words, Mong Ko was subjected to news blackout amid the clashes. I went with a reporter from the Kumudra Journal; it was a challenge to go and report on the situation there. As the road to Mong Ko via Kyukok (Pangsai) was blocked by clashes, we had to get there by traveling through China, and we encountered many checkpoints along the route. As I was told by Mong Ko locals not to bring cameras or laptops through China, I only took a backpack, two cell phones and a border pass. Because of this, we were able to pass the inspection gates on the Chinese side with ease. At the entrance gate of Chinese border town of Man Hai, located just across from Mong Ko, an ethnic Shan Chinese policeman, after checking my border pass, told me in the Shan language: Clashes are taking place at the opposite bank [in Mong Ko]. Who are you going to visit? Youd better take care. In Man Hai, we met assistant pastor Gam Seng of the Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC) who arranged for us to cross the border into Mong Ko. I was both excited and nervous about going into the town. I had heard before I went there that Mong Ko had experienced fierce fightinghouses were reduced to ashes and a Catholic church and a school were badly damaged by artillery fire. Before the trip, my colleagues had also warned me to take extra caution when entering houses hit by artillery, since there might be unexploded shells inside. Heading to Mong Ko, my heart was pounding. As soon as we entered the town, I felt there was a heavy silence lingering in the air, which was filled with smoke from burnt houses and other things. Fearless assistant pastor Gam Seng accompanied us as we conducted interviews and took photos throughout the town from our motorbike. We ran into U Ye Htun, head of the engineering department in Muse district municipality and U Ngwe Htay, the administrator of Mong Ko Township, while we were taking pictures. You are free to report what you see. If you need any help, let me know, U Ye Htun told me. The two also gave us their phone numbers. As a reporter, I was particularly curious about the Catholic church and the high school that had been damaged by artillery fire. As we arrived at the church, a soldier on duty there asked me what we as journalists refer to as the five Ws, including where I came from and what I was doing there. I answered that I was a reporter. He told me not to take photos, citing security reasons. However, I phoned the township administrator and managed to get into the church and the high school to see the damage. The two buildings had suffered worse damage than I had expected. Although I did not see much damage to the main structure of the church, as the government troops were repairing it, the wall of the church was riddled with bullet holes. Some troops were also stationed in the school, but the bullet holes bore witness to the recent past, which saw horrible clashes. I also saw houses burnt or hit by artillery fire, and in some places smoke was still in the air. How are we supposed to survive after our houses and grain have been burnt? asked a woman from Mong Kos Ward 2 who did not want to be named. Gam Seng told us that most of the houses that had been torched were located close to strategic hill posts belonging to government troops. You have to get back to China by 5:00. We have no electricity in Mong Ko now and it is not convenient for guests to sleep in the town, he said, before sending us back to the Chinese border gate. As we got back to our guesthouse in Man Hai, I checked the photos and videos I had shot. Suddenly, my phone rang. It was a clerk from Mong Ko Townships General Administration Department. He asked me where I was and if and when I would go to Mong Ko the next day. Around an hour later, Mong Ko Township administrator U Ngwe Htay also called me. As a reporter, I was suspicious of his call, but I still took it. Where are you now? Have you gone back to Muse? Who did you meet with? What have you asked them? Will you come again tomorrow? He bombarded me with questions. After poring over the decision for hours, I decided not to go to Mong Ko the next day. I returned to Rangoon via the Wan Tein Road in Kyukok (Pangsai). On my return, I went through three inspection gates set up by the Chinese police. On our way back, the Mong Ko township administrator called me again. Arent you coming back to Mong Ko? Where are you now? Please, dont publish the pictures of the church, he said. He called me several times, requesting the same thingnot to publish the pictures of the church. I and other reporters made a safe return from Mong Ko, but Gam Seng and his uncle Dumdaw Nawng Lat, also an assistant pastor who assisted with our trip, went missing on the evening of Dec. 24, Christmas Eve. I wish reporters had been in Mong Ko when locals fled to China after planes dropped bombs during the clash, Gam Seng had told me. (Editors Note: Northern Alliance troops retreated from Mong Ko on Dec. 4, following air strikes by the Burmese military. Earlier this week, two bodies were found in a septic tank in the town and the KBC believes that these were the bodies of two assistant pastors. They reported it to the police, and it is still under investigation.) Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko. Thursday, January 5th, 2017 (12:30 pm) - Score 1,026 The telecoms regulator has quietly published a new survey of 1,501 small and medium sized businesses (0-249 employees), which reveals that the vast majority (82%) feel well catered for by communication services but the highest levels of dissatisfaction remain with fixed-line broadband services. Apparently SMEs claim to spend, on average, 1.4k per year on communications services, with this spend increasing as they grow in size; from an average of 1,105 in 0 to 4-employee businesses to an average of 11,323 in 50 to 249-employee businesses. However the main area of SME frustration is still related to Internet connectivity and thats hardly a surprise when the majority still had ADSL and satisfaction with this service was lower than for all other forms of fixed broadband. Speed and reliability remained the two key issues. Overall a quarter of ADSL using SMEs (26%) were dissatisfied. ADSL is of course notorious for its unreliable speeds and service stability issues due, largely, to using poor or long copper lines. 1.3. Satisfaction with services used The areas of highest satisfaction were: PSTN landline: geographic coverage (89% satisfied), reliability (88%) and value for money (72%) Internet: being able to send and receive emails/access the internet (81% satisfied), geographic coverage (74%), and reliability (73%) Mobile phone: being able to send and receive emails/ access the internet (smartphone users 80% satisfied), value for money (78%), reliability of signal (75%) and geographic coverage (73%). The following were the key areas in which higher proportions of SMEs were dissatisfied with each service: PSTN landline: clear and understandable terms (15% dissatisfied), quality of customer service staff (14%), value for money (14%); Internet: connection speed (29%), access speed paid for (28% dissatisfied), availability of symmetrical services (24%); Mobile phone: geographic coverage (18% dissatisfied), signal reliability (16%). Ease of contacting the customer service department was a source of frustration across all three services, but notably for the internet (internet: 25% dissatisfied, PSTN landline: 19% dissatisfied, mobile: 10% dissatisfied). Among SMEs with fixed-line broadband, a quarter (23%) had fibre/superfast style services and 5% had cable (e.g. Virgin Media). Meanwhile ADSL/SDSL connections were more common among smaller SMEs and those in rural locations (73% in rural, 72% in remote rural), which isnt a surprise as the technology choice for rural areas tends to be rather more limited. On the other hand larger SMEs were more likely to have fibre/superfast connectivity (36% of small and 50% of medium SMEs). Elsewhere 32% of SMEs with fixed-line broadband in Northern Ireland said they had fibre/superfast, compared with only 12% in Scotland (78% had copper/standard). Of the 5% of SMEs with dedicated Internet, a third said this was provided via fibre Ethernet leased lines. Overall, 78% used some kind of Ethernet connection (rising to 90% of medium SMEs) and a fifth did not know the source of their dedicated internet access. Satisfaction levels varied according to the type of connectivity. For example, 69% were satisfied with their fixed-line broadband overall (62% with ADSL, rising to 81% for fibre/superfast and 87% for cable). Of those with dedicated internet access, 85% were satisfied. However the highest levels of dissatisfaction were with connection speed (29% dissatisfied), the ability to access the speed paid for (28%) and ease of contacting customer services (25%). The highest levels of satisfaction with service were: reliability to send and receive emails (81% satisfied), geographic availability (74%) and quality of connection (73%). Ofcom and the Government have of course been trying to push for improvements in the quality, coverage and performance of business broadband connectivity, although its a slow process and ultimately getting the networks out to all those who need them remains the biggest challenge. On the upside superfast broadband (24Mbps+) is expected to cover around 97% of the UK by the end of 2020 and theres a 10Mbps Universal Service Obligation (USO) on the way to help in remote rural areas, which is good. However many homes and businesses will no doubt demand more and theres clearly room for further improvement. The full report contains a lot more detail. GRC Programs: Building the Business Case for Value Michael G. Winstons name will probably forever be linked to the Great Recession of the late 2000s, but in a good way: Hes the whistleblower who dared to take on the subprime mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp. So what better person to ask about blowing the whistle as an IT pro? Now a leadership consultant and author of the book, World-Class Performance, Winston has become something of a folk hero in the recessions aftermath, never shying away from speaking out on corporate malfeasance. In a recent interview, I presented a hypothetical scenario to him in which a newly hired network engineer learns that the IT organization is engaged in an effort, initiated by the CEO, to hack into the networks of the companys competitors, and hes expected to go along with it. What should the network engineer do? Winston said he should say, No, which is what he did at Countrywide: I was asked to lie to Moodys. They said, Oh, Michael, youll take the Countrywide plane, well go across country, youll go and youll meet the guys from Moodys, and just put this spin on it. Moodys had done a governance report and had dinged us for six or seven things that they said we were doing wrong and we were doing them wrong. I had been fighting for years to get them to embrace new governance practices. But they asked me to lie. And I said, I know what youre asking me to do. But I cant do it. Im just not your guy. Beyond refusing to go along with it, what should this network engineer do? Where does he turn if the malfeasance is coming all the way from the top? Winston said it depends: Thats a very tough situation. As companies try to recover from the recession, more and more of them are turning to the dark side, and doing whatever they can do to get competitive advantage. So it depends. If there is a hotline in your company, and you can remain anonymous, thats where Id start. I also think theres strength in numbers, so if its offending your sensitivities and sensibilities, and feeling wrong to you, youve got to expect its feeling wrong to other people. So maybe a group of people writes a letter to the chairman. I wouldnt sign it, though. I worked for a company that had all sorts of rhetoric that they were ethical and honest, and they were not. If the CEO is ordering the hacking of a competitor, chances are that will not end well. If I think about my own situation, what I probably should have done is dust off my resume and just go somewhere else. There are all sorts of companies that are doing things the right way. But I couldnt, because there were almost a dozen people who had worked for me well before I joined Countrywide. They had worked for me at Motorola, and then subsequently at Merrill Lynch. They quit their jobs, they moved their families across the country to work with me again, so I was stuck there. But my situation is unique in that regard. Winston went on to explain what it took for companies to succeed post-recession: I saw people really focused on holding on holding on to their jobs, holding on to their positions in companies. And yet I saw a small sliver of the work force saying, Look, Im not going to hold on, Im going to build on. Im going to grow something right now. And those people, when the downturn started turning favorable, they were ready to pounce on the next opportunity. As opposed to resting on their laurels, they were creating next-generation stuff. Google built, Facebook built, all these companies said, To hell with the recession, were going to go guns blazing, and were going to go headlong into whatevers next. They didnt know whats next, so they created whats next. They created new tools, they created new technologies. Those were the companies that were better positioned. Some might argue, and Im one of them, that the recession is still with us. I dont believe at all the jobs reports that are put out. I think theyre put out for political reasons theyre not reality-based. But people are pouncing on the next opportunity. The companies that gain and, more importantly, maintain the leading edge are those that invent what happens to them. 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. When the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 devices first started exploding, everything was a mystery. The first incident was blamed on the user's alleged use of a non-Samsung charging device, so this incident was quite blamed on the non-Samsung charger. However, as more and more explosion cases came to surface and as more and more phones explode despite using legit chargers, it became evident that the problem was inside the Note 7. Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Explosions Originally, Samsung blamed the Note 7 batteries for all the explosion cases. However, when the company first recalled the devices and replaced them with new batteries, the replacement units continued to fire up. Needless to say, this led to Samsung fully taking out the Note 7 from the market. As of now, people still attribute the explosions to the device's faulty battery. This still makes sense since many of the explosions happened during charging. However, the battery may not be all that needs to be blamed. There's a good chance that the epic failure of the Note 7 was a combination of different factors. Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Mystery Solved As per Phone Arena, there were talks about Samsung's alleged in-house investigation to find out the real culprit behind the explosions. Needless to say, it was said that the investigation has finally been completed. However, Samsung is yet to do a public announcement to share this valuable information to the consumers who truly deserve their explanation. It was said that the company will do the announcement within this month. This would hopefully act as a closure to what seems to be a never ending novel from an unlikely category. Samsung To Redeem Its Reputation As the mystery of the Note 7 finally reaches its ultimate conclusion, everyone expects Samsung to finally have its reputation redeemed from all the negative controversies. Hopefully, whatever the real antagonist in the story is, the consumers can understand the error that the company accidentally made. However, so far, it looks like Samsung is headed towards the right direction. In fact, the negative connotation towards its name isn't as evident as one might have expected it to be. Actually, even though the Note 7 has been one controversial and dangerous smartphone, a bunch of its users still opted to keep it, leading Samsung to brick these units via an update. Just this December, news about Samsung's limiting update has surfaced. As per a CNN report, the company was to release an update to limit Europe-based devices charging capacity to 30 percent. If the company had to go this far in begging for Note 7 returns, this says a lot about how people view Samsung's products, and so far, their perception still seems positive. To add to the positivity, many people are already awaiting the Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy Note 8, and most of these people are Note 7 fans and owners who were unhappy about the recall. Based on people's statements and rants online, it's safe to say that Samsung really doesn't have a lot to fear when it comes to its reputation. So far, people have been awaiting the company's 2017 releases. Hopefully though, Samsung is able to correct their mistakes and be extra cautious when it comes to quality control. NASA 2020 mission to discover the secret surrounding black holes could shed more light on these energy fields. The space agency plans to launch the Polarimetry Explorer, a cosmic X-ray, to uncover the secret behind black holes. NASA 2020 Mission Black holes have always been fascinating objects for scientists at NASA. Since they can suck up everything surrounding them, studying black holes can be difficult. However, researchers found a way to learn more about these objects in the universe. By looking into the energetic space surrounding these objects, scientists can discover more about them. The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer mission which is slated for a 2020 launch might be the key to discovering how black holes work. The mission will include three telescopes that will measure the cosmic X-ray polarization. From this data, scientists can learn how physics works for these objects. Black Holes According to Ars Technica, total funding amounting to $188 million has been allocated to this mission. This will be used in the development of instruments and equipment. The Italian Space Agency will also donate X-ray with high sensitivity ratings. In an effort to discover extreme gravitational, electric, and magnetic fields, NASA plans to look into black holes. In science fiction, these enigmatic objects are favorites and are often shown as a passage to another dimension. Black holes will not be the sole focus of this probe. Exotic objects in space will also be part of the mission. The launch will be made through NASA's Astrophysics Explorers program. Initially, there were fourteen proposals submitted in 2014. Of those proposals, three concepts were selected. Based on a report by the Indian Express, Martin Weisskopf will lead the mission. Meanwhile, Ball Aerospace which is located in Broomfield, Colorado will build the spacecraft. NASA 2020 mission to explore black holes will improve humanity's understanding of these objects in space. Pesticides are made to prevent the pests from causing any more harm to the locals and anyone in the chosen environment of application. However, it has recently been confirmed that a certain pesticide has led to the deaths of four children in Texas, just while at home. Children Die In Amarillo, Texas After Being Accidentally Poisoned Of Chemicals In Pesticides Just recently, it has been confirmed that an incident occurred last Monday in Amarillo, Texas that led to the deaths of four children and five others in critical condition. According to reports, someone from their home had mixed water on the area that was previously applied with pesticide. This has then caused a negative reaction to the chemicals that were in the latter, causing a massive discomfort to the people inside the home. It has been reported that there were about 10 people inside when the reaction came about. The water was made to wash away the pesticide that was applied to the home, known as aluminium phosphide. However, the chemicals that were present in the pesticide are not compatible with water, causing people that were exposed to the pesticide to get extremely sick, and some dead. Among the four children that were proclaimed dead, one died at the scene while the three were still rushed to the hospital and died there eventually. The kids ranged from 7 to 17, according to some reports and that they were most likely to be most affected to the chemicals in the pesticide due to their young age and vulnerability of their immune system. Incident Report Ruled As Accidental Poisoning: 4 Die, 5 In Critical Condition It has been confirmed that the aluminium phosphide in the pesticide has been named in the highest and most toxic category of the Environmental Protection Agency. The pesticide was made to kill insects, bugs and the like; mixing it with water caused the pesticide to produce toxic phosphine gas which led to the casualties of young children. The incident was ruled merely as accidental poisoning. Being a full-time CEO of a multi-billion dollar company is not an easy job to handle. Just ask Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg. But despite all those setbacks and criticisms that he and his company have encountered, he has still remained humble, composed, and refuses to succumb to the pressure. This year alone, Facebook has faced a number of criticisms, allegations regarding fake news, censorship, and bias judgments. One famous censorship controversy about Facebook was when it took down a Swedish breast cancer awareness video last October in which Facebook labeled it as a violation of the website's policies. Of course, Facebook quickly apologized after the backlash it received and claimed it was all an accident. Mark Zuckerberg The Humanitarian (And Politician?) The Facebook CEO is known to set yearly goals for himself and to help and inspire others. In the past, he has accomplished to run 365 miles, learned Mandarin Chinese, read 25 books, and built a personal AI for his house that featured Morgan Freeman's voice. For this year, his plan is to meet and listen to people in all 50 states. According to him, his work is all about connecting the world and giving everyone a voice. However, many people see this as a political move by the Facebook CEO instead of just simply an act of reaching out to people without a voice and listen to what they have to say. As to why, there were reports not long ago indicating that Mark Zuckerberg has some sort of political plans in the future. Based on the court filings, there was no mention as to what specific political position will he be running for, but what is known is that the documents filed were considered a proposal that will allow him to work in the government while retaining control of Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg Is Now Religious Last December 25 of 2016, Mark Zuckerberg posted a message on his own Facebook page wishing followers a Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah on which many commented and was commented back by the Facebook CEO himself. It is well-known that he is not really the religious type, but as to when he became religious, some reports claim that it was after he met the Pope and praised Buddhism. Regardless as to what religion the CEO Facebook supports, one cannot deny that Mark Zuckerberg is a person who inspires people, helps people, gives them voices, connects people, and is a great example of a humble and successful man. Regarding if he will run for a position in the government or not, it will be great to have a man like him to take a seat in politics. And this is how Mark Zuckerberg plans to change the world in 2017. Hyundai Motors was one of the first automotive manufacturers that introduced Android Auto in their vehicles. They are now also integrating their newest infotainment and car-sharing system, named Blue Link, with Google Assistant. Hyundai car owners with the Blue Link enabled devices would not be able to send voice commands to their vehicles by using the service. Ok Google Commands On The Hyundai Hyundai owners would be able to send commands such as turning their vehicle engine on or off by using voice commands. Temperature can be set and destination can also be set in advance before stepping on to the vehicle. Owners can also use Google Assistant to ask information such as the weather. Remote Charging For Plugin Vehicles Are Now Made Possible Owners of Blue Link integrated Hyundai cars can give simple commands such as; "Ok Google, Find me a great steakhouse in Las Vegas." Or "Ok Google, ask Blue Link to Start my Tucson and set the temperature to 75 degrees." In summary, Blue Link Action can be used with Google Assistant to send destination to the cars' navigation system, activate horns and lights remotely, start or stop vehicle charging for plugin Hyundai vehicles and to start climate control remotely. Consumers Find Smart Home Integration Convenient Manish Mehrotra, Hyundai Motor Corporation's director of digital business planning and connected operations, said that consumers find the smart home integration appealing and that they are finding it useful and convenient. A customer, of course, needs to link his or her Blue Link account first to activate the service. Once activated, Google Assistant would then send the owner a Blue Link personal identification number. After which, remote Service commands will be sent to the Hyundai Vehicles. Customers with Blue Link-enabled vehicles can get the list of commands from Hyundai's official website. A demonstration of the service will be shown at Pepcom's Digital Experience ahead of the Consumer Electronics Show on January 4. Japanese company Nikon announced the D5600 DSLR in November 2016. However, the company bided their time to reveal that their model is arriving in the United States at CES 2017. Good news! The camera will be available this January for $799 and it's complete with 18-55mm kit lens. Nikon D5600 will have a 24.2-megapixel sensor (DX-format), an Expeed 4 image processor, 5 frames-per-second continuous shooting and a max ISO of 25,600. Nikon's Snapdragon featured in the product as Nikon's always on Bluetooth connection. When Snapdragon is used, the camera can easily send your pics to your phone just as you shoot them. In case you were looking to replace your current D5500, the D5600 was announced in November of last year and is simply a small update to Nikon's D5500. In related news, Nikon is still rolling out budget friendly compact cameras. It announced that the Coolpix W100 and A300 which are point and shoot cameras at around $200 are going to be available in the United States. The Coolpix W100 which was announced last summer is a camera made to withstand submersion of 33 feet. It packs 13.1 megapixel and 1/3.1-inch sensor. It's also supposed to be an update of the Coolpix S33, with added Bluetooth and options to edit like adding stamps and cartoonish effects. What's great about it is its design which is color and attractive for kids while being simple enough for very young camera lovers to use. The A300, on the other hand, won't be waterproof but the resolution is at 20.1 megapixels on a 1/2.3-inch CCD sensor with 8x optical zoom. Nikon will celebrate its 100th anniversary on July 25, 2017. It is rumored that the renowned camera company will announce a special "Df-like" camera and lens which makes sense since the current lifecycle of the Df line is supposed to be 3 years. The top smartphones of 2017 are set for a big power boost, thanks to a new launch from Qualcomm. At the CES 2017 show in Las Vegas this week, the American chipmaker, which powers many of the world's leading devices, has announced the latest generation of its Snapdragon processor. The Snapdragon 835 is the company's most powerful launch to date, and with the potential, and let' s your next smartphone more useful and flexible than ever before will soon be seen in some of the most exciting smartphones to be launched this year. So why is this important? Think of your smartphone's processor as the brain of your device. Much like the computer chip that powers your PC, Qualcomm's Snapdragon processors oversee the big range of services and tasks your phone deals everyday. That means it may well be the power behind the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S8, LG G6 also Huawei P10. Faster connectivity This will be provided through the chip's new integrated Snapdragon X16 LTE modem, which supports download speeds of up to one gigabit per second and also upload speeds of up to 150 megabits per second, Qualcomm mentioned. Additionally, the company said that the new Snapdragon is also the first certified commercial technology supporting the latest Bluetooth 5 standard and promises significant improvements over the previous Bluetooth 4 range and connection speeds. Extra Long Battery Qualcomm is promising that the next wave of smartphones will have a long and better battery life as well, up to 2.5 hours more in best case situations. Moreover, if you do run out of juice from all that VR gaming, you'll be able to charge up again quickly. Enhanced Photos Snapdragon 835 introduces improvements to mobile photography, and also video capture designed to deliver sleek zoom, enhanced autofocus, and vibrant, true-to-life colors. The SecurityThe Snapdragon 835 Qualcomm Haven Security Platform is engineered to support three layers of security such as the processor, device, and lastly, the system levels. Framed by the accusations of collaborating with the Russian government to sabotage the U.S. presidential elections, WikiLeaks leader Julian Assange claimed that his organization never colluded with any foreign government and that only he knows the truth behind the sites publication. Julian Assange Responded To The Intelligence Agencies Allegations The statements were made to the U.S. channel Fox News, which managed to make an interview to Julian Assange inside the Ecuadorean embassy, in which WikiLeaks founder revealed a new information regarding on what happened during the presidential elections in which the Republican Donald Trump got elected as the new chief of state. Answering the question of Fox News host Sean Hannity, Assange refuted the accusations of the U.S. intelligence agencies and explained that he was the only person who knows the reality about the leaks made during the political event. Extending on this point, Julian Assange explained that these institutions don't have any kind of evidence that proves WikiLeaks involvement with the Russian government. However, far from showing a proof that confirms his assertions, Assange told his position in the whistleblower organization is what makes him knows that intelligence agencies are lying. In addition to these statements, Julian Assange also told that the theory of a conspiracy between a state-party and WikiLeaks is only a strategy from the Democrats to delegitimize president-elect Donald Trump with false links to a clandestine interference with the presidential election outcome. In fact, Assange explained that this would be the weapon that the Democratic party will use to attack Trump during his government. WikiLeaks Is Offering $20,000 To Prevent The Destruction Of US Classified Documents Also, it has been reported that WikiLeaks offered through a Twitter post a reward of $20,000 to anyone who provides any kind of information relating to any destruction of files by a member of the Obamas administration. Apparently, Julian Assanges transparency radical organization is making this move in order prevent the destruction of the U.S. history. Apple is going to have an exciting lineup of products in 2017, which will project the company's futuristic vision last year. There is going to be a new iPad Pro to be released with highly improved hardware and software, an edge-to-edge display to follow a solely design for its mobile devices in 10- and 12.9-inch sizes, new chipset, enhanced camera and long-life battery and so much more. Rumors are also rounding up with details about the iPad Air 3, which will make its official presence in store this year. New rumors rising that Microsoft is busy preparing to release an upgrade to the Surface Pro 4 that will feature and upgrade to the tablet's screen resolution when it arrives early this 2017. Last October, Microsoft's Windows 10 event launched and went without mention of a successor to the Surface Pro 4, which was released a year earlier. According to a report from sources, Microsoft is readying to launch the Surface Pro 5 sometime during the first quarter of 2017.So, we've rounded up who will steal the spotlight from the best tablet this year, will Apple iPad Air 3? Or is it the Much awaited Surface Pro 5. The Apple iPad Air 3: Rumored Specs And Features The iPad Air 3 will likely to ship with an Apple Pen, which will compete with other tablet makers such as Microsoft's Surface range, and will also support 3D Touch technology on a 4K screen. Sait to feature from the iPhone 7, such as the dual camera layout, will also be transported to the iPad Air 3, although it's still believed to drop the 3.5mm headphone jack. iPad Air 3 is believed to powered by A9X chipset. To come with 3GB of RAM. In addition, the key features of the device which include a 13MP rear camera with LED flash. Microsoft Surface Pro 5 Rumored Specs And Features The Surface Pro 5 2-in-1 device will come along with a magnetic charging stylus and also with a 4K Ultra HD display. The Surface Pro 5 is believed to be powered by an Intel Kaby Lake processor. For the storage, rumors rounding up that Surface Pro 5 will come with a 512GB+ SSD, as well as a USB Type C and Thunderbolt 3 support. The device is said to equipped with a 16GB of RAM. Not just in politics, 2016 was a year of fake news epidemic that spread to all sectors of our lives including the field of science and medicine. Fake news is a term that encompasses misinformation, disinformation, hoaxing and propaganda. Fake news is corrosive and often lead people to believe data that are otherwise unfounded and not based on sound scientific principles. In the field of science and medicine, proliferation of such falsehood is dangerous and even life threatening. In recent years, there is an outbreak of journals from publishers that are based on pseudoscience. At first glance, these published journals appear to be based on real science, but they are nothing more than a sham. Retraction Watch is a one of the leading corrective websites that monitor and exposes fake news in the academia. Ivan Oransky and Adam Marcus, founder of the Retraction Watch cite several scientific journals that falsely claim to engage in peer review, but are not reputable as they would like to be portrayed according to an article by the Los Angeles Times. Some of the examples that these fake news are reports that link vaccines to autism. This questionable study has long been debunked. Another hugely misleading study states that HIV does not cause AIDS. Dr. Harriet Hall, a retired family physician writes about pseudoscience and questionable medical practice. She is a writer in the Skeptic Magazine and also a medical adviser on the Quack Watch. She calls these fake news in medicine as, fairy tooth science as reported by Forbes. This fake news epidemic may influence how people perceive how real medical science should be practiced and may even jeopardize the health of misinformed individuals. The proliferation of these so-called scientific studies and questionable medical journals are spreading. People must learn to tease out what is real and what is not. It was previously thought by archeologists and researchers that pot burial in ancient Egypt was a practice of poor people, recent discoveries suggest otherwise. Ancient people including the Egyptians often buried their dead in ceramic pots. These burial containers were long thought to be a make shift burial vessel for poor children. A new analysis reveals that in ancient Egypt, researchers have discovered that the burial pot used in sending off their departed were not limited to poor people or children. According to research, the ancient Egyptians were firm believers of the afterlife. Their concept of the world beyond is different from our own. According to their beliefs, the afterlife is a reflection of their lives here. Burial rites according to their belief ensure immortality after death. Thus, material objects can be found inside tombs such as jewelry, clothing and other personal possessions. Bioarchaeologist Ronika Power and Egyptologist Yann Tristant, researchers from Macquarie University in Sydney, reviewed publishing of pot burials at 46 sites. Most of these sites are located near the Nile and dated around 3300 B.C. to 1650 B.C. as reported in an article by Science News. More than half of these sites contain adult remains. According to the report, a tomb of a wealthy governor, a pot containing a baby was found in a bot which also had beads wrapped in gold foil. The new result suggests that pot burial in ancient Egypt can also be for adults and for the wealthy Egyptians. In other pots, trinkets made of gold, ivory and beads made out of ostrich egg shells were discovered. Other items such as clothing and ceramics were also found, according to a report by Latinos Health. Scientists now propose that the ancient Egyptians bury their dead in containers in part due to their symbolic nature. They deliberately select pots as these are hollow vessels that simulate the womb and may represent a rebirth in the afterlife. BMW Group, Intel and computer vision maker Mobileye today announced they will collaborate to create a fleet of about 40 autonomous BMW vehicles that will hit U.S. and European roads by the second half of 2017. The pilot project is aimed at demonstrating advances the three companies have made in technology that enables fully self-driving vehicles. The BMW 7 Series will be used as the initial platform for Intel processor and Mobileye computer vision technology during the global trials. Mobileye, an Israeli technology company, is a leader in developing both software and proprietary computer chip technology (EyeQ) to support vision-based advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) that provide warnings for collision prevention and mitigation. Mobileye has also partnered with other automakers and multi-billion-dollar tier 1 auto parts maker Delphi to supply its technology to the industry. Mobileye and Delphi plan to demonstrate their "Central Sensing Localization and Planning" (CSLP) platform for self-driving cars in urban and highway driving conditions during the Consumer Electronics Show taking place now in Las Vegas. They plan to start production in 2019. Mobileye, Delphi Mobileye and Delphi plan to demonstrate their platform for self-driving cars in urban and highway driving conditions during CES 2017 and start production in 2019. In July, BMW, Intel and Mobileye announced a development partnership that BMW said would result in a completely autonomous car called iNEXT, suited for both city streets and highways, by 2021. Like Google with its autonomous vehicle technology, the three firms have developed a scalable architecture that can be adopted by other automotive developers and carmakers to create differentiated brands. The offerings scale from individual key integrated modules to a complete end-to-end autonomous system that provides "a wide range of differentiated consumer experiences." BMW believes self-driving cars will be widely used in ride-hailing services such as Uber, which has already deployed a self-driving test car in Pittsburgh. In related news, Intel announced Intel GO In-Vehicle Development Platforms for Automated Driving, which is specifically tailored for the self-driving technology market in that it's highly scalable and designed to meet the high compute demands of the fully autonomous driving industry. Intel GO computer systems will span the car, connectivity and cloud with multiple development kits that scale in performance based on its next-generation Intel Atom processor as well as Intel Xeon processors plus Arria 10 FPGAs. The technology, Intel claims, is also the industry's first 5G-ready development platform for automated driving. Get unlimited access to all content and features at ivpressonline.com with our Full Online Access Subscription. Read our E-Edition, the digital replica of the print newspaper online, access content in exclusive sections including Family, Teen, Business, Databases, Farm and more. This option does not include daily home delivery of the Imperial Valley Press newspaper. For home delivery service, please select Premium or Premium Plus. Feds laud $83M to better Pell Bridge The congressional delegation of Rhode Island was in Jamestown to celebrate an $82.5 million grant to upgrade the bridge that connects Conanicut Island to Newport. U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, a... Local author, illustrator collaborate on book A local woman has turned her digital cross-country teatimes with her granddaughter into a childrens book. Tuesday Tea, written by Debby Furness Saletin and illustrated by Maryann England, both of... Local group asks for rental rules changes A group of residents is expected to present its recommendations on how to improve the ordinance that governs short-term rentals. Member Ron Ratcliffe said the item is scheduled to be... Reactions to US Abandoning Israel at UH Security Council Vote on Settlements Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu's Reacts to US Vote at the UN Security Council Benjamin Netanyahu , Israel's Prime Minister. "Israel categorically rejects the despicable anti-Israeli resolution at the UN, and will not adhere to it. While the Security Council does nothing to prevent the massacre of half a million people in Syria, it is shamefully singling out Israel - the only democracy in the Middle East. The Obama administration not only failed to defend Israel from this harassment at the UN, it cooperated with it behind the scenes." JCRC New York Decries US Failure to Veto UN Security Council Resolution 2334 The Jewish Community Relations Council of New York (JCRC-NY) is profoundly distressed by the failure of the United States to veto United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, which further isolates and delegitimizes Israel within the international community. While the resolution assigns the brunt of the blame upon Israel due to construction beyond the 1967 armistice lines, it utterly fails to underscore decades of Palestinian rejections of Jewish statehood, and a historical Jewish rootedness in the land, as the basis of the entire conflict. Indeed, the Jewish festival of Hanukkah which is being celebrated revolves around events two millennia ago on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. This unconscionable resolution devoid of any morality amounts to a shamefully biased indictment of Israel. Successive American administrations have recognized that peace can only be obtained through direct negotiations between the parties. This resolution empowers Palestinian leaders to distance themselves from final status negotiations with Israel. It sets back the creation of conditions necessary for the peace it claims to support. It also strengthens those who wish to harm Israel through the BDS movement, which the United States government has publicly opposed. It is well-known that Palestinian leaders have rejected several Israeli offers for a peaceful two-state solution, which would have long ago established the State of Palestine. Instead, they have consistently avoided good faith negotiations and chosen to unilaterally seek an eventual declaration of statehood through the United Nations. At the same time, incitement to terror attacks against Israeli civilians clearly demonstrates a preference by Palestinian leadership to eliminate the Jewish state rather than establish their own. It is long past due for the United Nations - and the United States - to pressure Palestinian leaders to negotiate with Israel to achieve a lasting resolution to the conflict. Until that time, such resolutions at the Security Council, the General Assembly, or any other United Nations body are nothing more than impediments to peace. Israel's Ambassador Danny Danon's Response Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon, responded harshly to the American decision not to veto the UN Security Council resolution: "Neither the Security Council nor UNESCO can sever the tie between the people of Israel and the land of Israel." Danon added: "It was to be expected that Israel's greatest ally would act in accordance with the values that we share and that they would have vetoed this disgraceful resolution. I have no doubt that the new US administration and the incoming UN Secretary General will usher in a new era in terms of the UN's relationship with Israel." Israeli-American Council Statement Following US Abstention in Vote on Anti-Israel Resolution in the UN Security Council The Israeli-American Council is troubled and deeply disappointed by the U.S. President's decision to abstain from voting on an anti-Israel resolution in the UN Security Council today. For many years, America has stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Israel as it has faced shameful discrimination and bias at the UN. Today we saw a disturbing break of this precedent. Bipartisan majorities in the U.S. Congress had urged the Administration to exercise America's veto of this kind of one-sided resolution, which is a direct attack on Israel's legitimacy. Although this is an unfortunate day in the history of the U.S.-Israel relationship, the extraordinary friendship between our two countries - built on common values and shared interests - will endure. The IAC will continue our work to strengthen the extraordinary bonds between the peoples of the United States and Israel. White House Explanation of its Vote to Abstain on Anti-Israel UN Security Council Resolution First of all, President Obama, of course, communicated his decision for the United States to take this action after several rounds of discussions with Ambassador Rice, Ambassador Power, Secretary Kerry, and members of his national security team. We have been following the development by different parties of a variety of resolutions at the United Nations, as we often do, over the course of the year. And this, of course, is the one that emerged in recent days and was put forward by the Egyptians yesterday, and counted the votes today. I'd just make a number of comments at the top. First of all, this is consistent with longstanding bipartisan U.S. policy as it relates to settlements, as it relates to our opposition to Israeli settlements, as it relates to our opposition to, and condemnation of, incitement and violence and terrorism, and, above all, about our affirmative support for a two-state solution. And one of our grave concerns is that the continued pace of settlement activity -- which has accelerated in recent years, which has accelerated significantly since 2011, when we vetoed the U.N. Security Council resolution that condemns settlements -- puts at risk the two-state solution, as does any continued incitement to violence. And we've been very concerned that these accelerating trends are putting the very viability of a two-state solution at risk. And 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. The second thing I would say is that it is -- again, not only has it been the consistent policy under bipartisan U.S. administrations to oppose settlement activity, it has also been consistently the case that U.S. administrations have addressed the Israeli-Palestinian issue, or the broader Arab-Israeli issue, through the U.N. Security Council. In fact, President Obama was, until this resolution, the first President in decades to not have such a resolution go forward during his time in office. The third thing that I would say just by way of opening is that we, as Samantha Power said, do have concerns about the U.N. as a venue for addressing aspects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. That is why, for instance, we have consistently resisted efforts to impose a solution to the conflict through the United Nations, through the drawing of borders, or the recognition of a Palestinian state. What this resolution does, again, is condemn the settlement activity as well as incitement and violence, which are steps that we believe are consistent with having a basis in the future for there to be a return to the negotiating table in pursuit of a two-state solution. But let's be clear here: We exhausted every effort to pursue a two-state solution through negotiations, through direct discussions, through proximity discussions, through confidence-building measures, through a lengthy and exhaustive effort undertaken by Secretary Kerry earlier in the President's second term. We gave every effort that we could to supporting the parties coming to the table. So within the absence of any meaningful peace process, as well as in the face of accelerated settlement activity that put at risk the viability of a two-state solution, that we took the decision that we did today to abstain on this resolution. Potential B/E Aerospace buyer makes deal Rockwell Collins, the potential buyer of B/E Aerospace Inc., said Wednesday it has acquired Pulse.Aero Ltd., a UK-based company specializing in self-service bag drop solutions and airline applications. Rockwell Collins said the purchase would enhance the companys passenger processing services for airports and airlines. The companies have joined forces on several airport initiatives, including Dublin Airport, where new self-bag drop units were installed. B/E, one of Winston-Salems largest private employers, said Oct. 23 it has agreed to be sold to Rockwell Collins for $8.3 billion $6.4 billion in cash and stock and $1.9 billion in B/E debt. Rockwell Collins is based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The deal, which requires shareholder and regulatory approval, is projected to close in the spring. B/E shareholders would own 20 percent of Rockwell Collins. Although B/E is based on Wellington, Fla., its largest U.S. workforce is in Winston-Salem, having grown from 850 to more than 1,300 employees since 2011. Richard Craver Macys to close two stores in North Carolina The Macys stores at Northgate Mall in Durham and Carolina Place in Pineville, near Charlotte, will close this year as the retailer continues to struggle with declining traffic. Nationally, the department store chain says it is eliminating more than 10,000 jobs and plans to move forward with 68 store closures after a disappointing holiday shopping season. The company said the 68 store closures are part of the 100 closings it announced in August. The retailer said Wednesday that sales at its established stores fell 2.1 percent in November and December compared to the same period last year. It pointed to changing consumer behavior and said its performance reflects the challenges that are facing the industry. Overall, Macys said, the job reductions represent about 7 percent of its workforce. The department store chain also lowered its full-year earnings forecast. Macys said it now expects to earn between $2.95 and $3.10 per share on an adjusted basis for its 2016 fiscal year, versus its prior forecast of $3.15 to $3.40 per share. HomeTrust completes TriSummit purchase HomeTrust Bancshares Inc., based in Asheville, said Tuesday it has completed its $16.1 million purchase of TriSummit Bancorp Inc. of Kingsport, Tenn. The acquisition increases HomeTrusts total assets by $350.1 million to $3.1 billion. TriSummit branches will be conveted to the HomeTrust system in March. HomeTrust said that TriSummits $7.1 million Troubled Asset Relief Program preferred stock all held by private shareholders was redeemed in connection with closing the merger. Richard Craver A sister of the man found dead Wednesday along Peters Creek Parkway during rush-hour traffic missed hearing her brothers voice that day, the first time in her life she didnt talk to him. Not a day went by I didnt speak to him, Nancy Vice, of Central Islip on Long Island, N.Y., said about her brother, Ivan Joseph Vice. He was very funny, very friendly. He loved his family, and we loved him very much. Ivan Vice had a daughter and was a grandfather to a 3-year-old grandson, who was the apple of his eye, Nancy Vice said. Ivan Vice is also survived by another sister and one brother. Vice, 46, was found dead on the side of Peters Creek Parkway, authorities said. Winston-Salem police indicated no foul play is suspected in Vices death. Officers had responded about 7:15 a.m. to a report of a body in front of the Big Toy Superstore at 2551 Peters Creek Parkway, about 100 feet from a bus stop. Dr. Anna Greene McDonald, a Forsyth County medical examiner, performed an autopsy on Vices body at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. The cause of death isnt yet determined, she said. McDonald said she is awaiting a toxicology report from the N.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Raleigh. Before he died, Vice told his friend, Sandra Rothrock of Walkertown, Tuesday night that he would be staying at her home in Winston-Salem. Rothrock said she was shocked when she learned about his death. Rothrock and Nancy Vice said that Ivan Vices troubled background doesnt paint an accurate picture of his life. Ivan Vice was a wonderful person, his sister said. However, Vice, a native of New York State, had his troubles with the law. Vice was convicted of second-degree kidnapping in Mecklenburg County in July 2015, according to the N.C. Division of Adult Correction. He also had charges of first-degree kidnapping, second-degree rape and second-degree sexual offense in 2014, according to an online criminal record, but he was not convicted. It was the first time that he was in trouble in his life, Rothrock said about the charges against Vice. Rothrock said that the woman who brought the charges against Vice in Charlotte didnt attend his court hearings. The prosecutor eventually offered Vice a plea deal. He could have pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of second-degree kidnapping or face the initial charges, said Rothrock, who attended Vices court hearing in Mecklenburg Superior Court in July 2015. Vice spent the past year in post-release supervision in Forsyth County after he was released from the Forsyth Correctional Center in December 2015, according to his prison record. During that time, he lived in Rothrocks home in Walkertown, she said. Vice grew up in Long Island, N.Y., as a Cub Scout who attended Catholic school, his sister said. He moved to North Carolina in 2002, living in Walkertown until his death. He was smart and a hard worker, bouncing between jobs, Nancy Vice said. He was creative, he liked to travel and come back home, she said. He was so loved. We loved him. Anyone with any information about Vice can call Winston-Salem police at (336) 773-7700 or Crime Stoppers at (336)727-2800. Several events are planned to commemorate the Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday on Jan. 16 and the weekend proceeding it. King, a leader of the civil rights movement, was born on Jan. 15, 1929. He was killed on April 4, 1968, by an assasins bullet in Memphis, Tenn. In 1986, Congress declared the third Monday in January as a King national holiday. U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., will be the keynote speaker at the King Day Breakfast Forum at 8 a.m. Jan. 16 at the Grand Pavilion Ballroom in the Embassy Suites Hotel in Winston-Salem. Ellisons brother Eric Ellison is a Winston-Salem attorney and the chairman of the Forsyth County Democratic Party. For more information, call The Chronicle, the events sponsor, at (336) 722-8624 ext. 100. The annual King Day march in Winston-Salem will leave the Embassy Suites area at 10:30 a.m. on Jan. 16, and proceed up to Sixth Street and turn north onto Trade Street, Mutter Evans, an event organizer, said in a statement. The 1-mile march will conclude at Union Baptist Church at 1200 Trade St. The Ministers Conference of Winston-Salem and Vicinity will organize the march. The 37th Annual King Noon Hour Commemoration will be held Jan. 16, at noon at Union Baptist Church. Organizers moved the event to the church because of the renovations of the upper level of Benton Convention Center. The Rev. Lamonte Williams, the senior pastor of Mount Moriah Outreach Center in Kernersville and the president of the Ministers Conference of Winston-Salem and Vicinity, will be the keynote speaker. D.L. Hughley, an actor, author, comedian and political commentator, will be the keynote speaker at the 17th annual King Day event at 7 p.m. Jan. 16 in the Williams Auditorium at Winston-Salem State University. The event is free and open to the public. WSSU and Wake Forest University are collaborating in staging this event, both schools said in statements. On Sunday, Jan. 15, Wake Forest will hold its 12th annual GospelFest at 3 p.m. in Brendle Recital Hall in the Scales Fine Arts Center. This year, the Intercultural Center will host Gospel recording artist Kierra KiKi Sheard and the Wake Forest University Gospel Choir. Tickets are available at https://wfugospelfest17.eventbrite.com. For more information on GospelFest, call the WFU Intercultural Center at (336) 758-5864. On Saturday, Jan. 14, Wake Forest University will hold its seventh annual MLK Day Read-In from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Room 401 in the Benson University Center. The event is being organized by Girl Talk Triad Chapter, HandsOn Northwest North Carolina, Salem College, UNC School of the Arts, Wake Forest University and Winston-Salem State University, WFU said in a news release. The Read-In promotes Kings legacy of service, literacy and community empowerment to children ages 4 to 10. For additional information, call Kyle Gassaway at (336) 724-2866 or email him at kylegassaway@handsonnwnc.org. Editor's note: Bart Hamilton Walsh, 55, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault with a deadly weapon on a government official on April 24, 2018, in Forsyth Superior Court, court records show. Under the plea deal, a prosecutor dismissed the charges of felony assault with a deadly weapon on a government official and misdemeanor communicating threats against Walsh. A judge gave Walsh a suspended jail term of two months, and placed him on probation for 12 months, a record shows. A Winston-Salem man was jailed Wednesday under a $500,000 bond on charges that he threatened officers responding to his apartment building on Hanes Mall Boulevard Monday night. Bart Hamilton Walsh is charged with felony assault with a deadly weapon on a governmental official and misdemeanor communicating threats. Police were told Monday that Walsh had called his ex-wife in Tennessee and made suicidal and homicidal threats toward her. When officers attempted to make contact with him at his apartment, he threatened to shoot himself and the officers, according to a police news release. He barricaded himself inside his apartment. The S.W.A.T. team was called to force entry into Walsh's apartment. He was taken into custody without incident and transported to Forsyth Memorial Hospital, and an involuntary commitment order was obtained for him. Neither Walsh nor any officers on the scene were injured. After charges were filed Wednesday, Walsh was arrested and placed into the Forsyth County Jail without incident. A man who was found dead Wednesday on the side of Peters Creek Parkway was a former inmate at Forsyth Correctional Center, authorities said. The deceased man was identified by Winston-Salem police as 46-year-old Ivan Joseph Vice. No suspicious activity or trauma is believed responsible for the death, police said. Officers had responded to a report of a deceased person about 7:15 a.m. in front of the Big Toy Superstore at 2551 Peters Creek Parkway, about 100 feet from a bus stop. Vice, a native of New York State, was convicted of second-degree kidnapping in Mecklenburg County in July 2015, according to Keith Acree, a spokesman for the N.C. Division of Adult Correction. Vice was arrested in May 2014 and charged by the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department with first-degree kidnapping, second-degree rape and second-degree sexual offense, according to an online criminal record. He spent 431 days in the Mecklenburg County Jail before he was convicted, Acree said. Vice spent five months in prison for the conviction, including time in Forsyth Correctional Center where he was released in December 2015, Acree said. Vice then spent a year in post-release supervision in Forsyth County, Acree said. At that time, Vice lived in Walkertown, and he worked various low-wage jobs, said Sherri Cook, the manager of the Forsyth County Community Corrections. Vice was a high-school dropout, but it wasnt clear Wednesday if he attended high school in North Carolina or New York State. It also was unclear when Vice moved to North Carolina, Acree and Cook said. His death is not an outcome we would want, Cook said. That is very sad. An autopsy will be conducted to determine the cause of death, police said. Vices relatives were notified of his death. Anyone with any information about Vice can call Winston-Salem police at (336) 773-7700 or Crime Stoppers at (336)727-2800. CHARLOTTE Prosecutors in North Carolina say a Charlotte SWAT officer was justified in shooting and killing a man with a gun wearing body armor who told officers they were going to have to shoot him. District Attorney Andrew Murray said in a news release that 41-year-old Sylasone Ackhavong could have shot several officers without warning in April and officer Olin Lester was justified firing after Ackhavong refused to put down his gun. Murray's report released Wednesday said Ackhavong repeatedly told officers they were going to have to shoot him and saying his death would be on their conscious and not his. Friends and co-workers told police that Ackhavong suddenly started acting strange seeing ghosts and thinking he was being poisoned about a week before the shooting. In his recent speech excoriating Israel for refusing to commit suicide by allowing a sworn enemy to have a state adjoining the Jewish state, Secretary of State John Kerry claimed the U.S. government did not draft or originate the UN resolution critical of Israeli settlements. Kerry said there were no American fingerprints on the resolution and that it was totally the idea of the Egyptians and Palestinians. Except that it wasnt, if one can believe Egyptian intelligence. The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) reports on a story published in an Egyptian newspaper with close ties to Egyptian Intelligence. According to the report, a secret meeting took place in Washington in mid-December attended by John Kerry, National Security Adviser Susan Rice and a rather large Palestinian delegation that included PLO Executive Committee secretary and negotiating team leader Saeb Erekat. If the report is true, the Palestinian delegation also supposedly met with representatives of Homeland Security and the CIA. Political discussions were also said to be part of the agenda. According to the transcribed minutes obtained by the Egyptian daily, Al-Youm Al-Sabi, the secret gathering reveals U.S. coordination leading up to the UN Security Council vote on Resolution 2334 regarding Israels settlements. ... It states that the sides agreed to cooperate in drafting a resolution on the settlements and that the U.S. representative in the Security Council was empowered to coordinate with the Palestinian UN representative on the resolution. The Egyptian newspaper further reported that the secret meeting in Washington was aimed at coordinating Kerrys attendance at the upcoming international Paris Conference set for Jan. 15, 2017, in order to propose his ideas for a permanent arrangement provided they are supported by the Palestinian side. Susan Rice is said to have warned the Palestinians about the danger of the incoming Trump administrations policies, adding that both she and Kerry had advised Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas not to make any preliminary moves that might provoke the new administration. The report also said Kerry and Rice had fulsomely praised Abbas policies and how he handled matters, and harshly criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying that he aims to destroy the two-state solution. This is remarkably cynical even in our cynical age. If the Egyptian newspaper report is true and the Obama administration has so far not denied it the administration is guilty of a two-faced solution to the conflict, which is no solution at all from the standpoint of Israel and the Jewish people who have been the targets of unprovoked attacks and wars since Israels rebirth in 1948. Not only has Abbas said he would expel all Jews from a Palestinian State, but neither he, nor any other regional player technically still at war with Israel has said they will ever recognize a Jewish state in their midst. Furthermore, since the Palestinian side now includes Hamas and Fatah in a unity coalition two entities that have vowed not only to never make peace with Israel, but to seek its destruction and the expulsion of all Jews from the land only a fool would believe that peace is possible under such circumstances. Peace, like success, is a byproduct, not a goal that can be reached without certain precursors. Success is achieved by hard work, a good education and right relationships. Peace is achieved when one side is victorious or two sides decide they dont want to fight anymore. Jordan and Egypt gave up on war, leading to peace with Israel. The Palestinian side fights on. They have an ally in the Obama administration, but only for a few more days. President-elect Trump has promised things will be different when it comes to U.S. policy toward Israel starting Jan. 20. One can only hope. CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. I came here during the holidays to visit an old friend whos fallen on hard times. Amid the cultural sensation of Lin-Manuel Mirandas Hamilton on Broadway, the protagonists arch-rival, Thomas Jefferson, has momentarily lost his place of honor in the founding narrative. If Alexander Hamilton is the hero, the Sage of Monticello, though not the villain (thats Aaron Burr) is an impediment. In truth, Jefferson and Hamilton were indispensable, the yin and yang of American democracy: Jeffersons love of liberty and Hamiltons taste for centralized power created the balance that built the worlds economic and military superpower. And they had common cause in defending their creation. Their system was under threat in 1800, when a quirk in the Electoral College left the federalist-controlled House of Representatives to award the presidency to one of two republicans, Jefferson and Burr. Miranda portrayed Hamilton as reluctantly drawn out of retirement to endorse Jefferson, but Hamiltons letters show he was zealous in persuading fellow federalists to choose Jefferson a man with whom he had more ideological differences than with Burr. The danger to the new country, Hamilton argued, wasnt ideological disputes, but the possibility that an unprincipled man would exploit public passions. Hamiltons letters from 216 winters ago, which I reread last week, provide much relevance to this moment, as our 45th president assumes office. Hamilton was no apologist for Jefferson, whose politics were tinctured with fanaticism, and who was a contemptible hypocrite. But, Hamilton wrote to Federalist James Bayard of Delaware, Jefferson is not zealot enough to do anything in pursuance of his principles which will contravene his popularity, or his interest. He is as likely as any man I know to temporize to calculate what will be likely to promote his own reputation and advantage; and the probable result of such a temper is the preservation of systems, though originally opposed, which being once established, could not be overturned without danger to the person who did it. Add to this that there is no fair reason to suppose him capable of being corrupted, which is a security that he will not go beyond certain limits. Some Federalists thought the non-ideological Burr would be more malleable. But, Hamilton countered, a man without theory cannot be a systematic or able statesman. Burr is more cunning than wise ... inferior in real ability to Jefferson, Hamilton wrote. Great Ambition unchecked by principle ... is an unruly Tyrant. The former Treasury secretary warned that Burrs trafficking in the floating passions of the multitude would lead him to endeavour to disorganize both parties & to form out of them a third composed of men fitted by their characters to be conspirators. Hamilton recounted that when Burr was told something wasnt permissible under the American system, Burr replied les grands ames se soucient peu des petits morceaux great souls care little about small things. This led Hamilton to conclude that Burr would consider a scheme of usurpation as visionary. Hamilton issued similar warnings in the winter of 1800-01 to James Ross of Pennsylvania, John Rutledge Jr. of South Carolina, Oliver Wolcott Jr. of Connecticut and Gouverneur Morris of New York. Certainly there was personal enmity between Hamilton and the bankrupt voluptuary he called Burr. But underlying Hamiltons aggressive campaign for Jefferson was a fear that Americas democracy was too fragile to survive Burrs ambition. He is of a temper to undertake the most hazardous enterprises because he is sanguine enough to think nothing impracticable, and of an ambition which will be content with nothing less than permanent power in his own hands, he wrote Bayard. The maintenance of the existing institutions will not suit him, because under them his power will be too narrow & too precarious; yet the innovations he may attempt will not offer the substitute of a system durable & safe, calculated to give lasting prosperity, & to unite liberty with strength. It will be the system of the day, sufficient to serve his own turn, & not looking beyond himself. The truth, Hamilton wrote, is that under forms of Government like ours, too much is practicable to men who will without scruple avail themselves of the bad passions of human nature. Hamiltons view of Burr would later become universal. Jefferson would come to see his former running mate as one of the most flagitious villainous of which history will ever furnish an example. Hamiltons intervention gave the country the triumphant presidency of Jefferson, sparing the young nation an unscrupulous man exploiting public passion to usurp power. Will we be as lucky in 2017? Blair Witch (R): The third film in the Blair Witch franchise does its best to hearken back to the 1999 original, while ignoring the misbegotten 2000 sequel. But the results are a middling attempt to recapture what was distinctive about the first film and became cliched afterward. The story revolves around James, the younger brother of Heather, the leader of the ill-fated expedition in the original film that went into the woods of Maryland investigating a witch legend. New evidence leads James to head with some friends into the woods to try to find whatever became of his sister. Once again, the story is told through the found footage technique, as if someone edited the lost video together into a film. But theres not much new to the proceedings. The DVD has commentary and a behind-the-scenes short; the Blu-ray adds a six-part documentary about the film and the Blair Witch film legacy. Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life (PG): This family film, based on James Pattersons popular series of books, is a comedy about a middle school student who clashes with his authoritarian principal (Andy Daly) by breaking every one of the rules the principal has laid out. Denial (PG-13): Rachel Weisz stars in this fact-based film about a woman who clashes with a Holocaust denier (Timothy Spall) and ends up as the subject of a libel lawsuit in British court. Tom Wilkinson and Mark Gatiss also co-star. The Ultimate Legacy (Unrated): The first two films in this wholesome Hallmark Channel trilogy, The Ultimate Gift and The Ultimate Life, were filmed in the Triad. But after the end of North Carolinas tax incentives program, this third installment in the movie series moved its production to Kentucky. The cast this time around includes such familiar faces as Lee Meriwether, Brian Dennehy, Raquel Welch and Bill Cobbs. Operation Avalanche (R): This playful mockumentary makes more interesting use of the found footage style than this weeks Blair Witch sequel. Avalanche tells the story of CIA agents who go undercover at NASA in the late 1960s and uncover a conspiracy. The DVD has extensive extras, including multiple commentaries, deleted scenes and behind-the-scenes footage. Jackie Chan Presents: Amnesia (PG-13): The iconic action star produced this updated version of his 1998 action comedy Who Am I?, with Ken Lo taking on Chans old role as a man with amnesia on the run from killers and trying to figure out his own identity. The movie has both English and Mandarin audio options. The Monkey King 2 (Unrated): This sequel to the 2014 Hong Kong fantasy action film continues the story of the Monkey King, a mythical Chinese character who has been imprisoned for 500 years and goes on a new mission to fight a demon. Aaron Kwok, who played a bad guy in the 2014 film, takes over the role of the Monkey King from Donnie Yen, who went on to co-star in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Extras include a five-part look at the making of the film. Capsule reviews of movies in local theaters Arrival HHH After UFOs land throughout the world, a linguist (Amy Adams) leads a team to communicate with the aliens. Also starring Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker. Rated PG-13. Showing: RED Cinemas Assassins Creed HH Through his genetic memories a man finds out he is related to a 15th-century Spanish swordsman and is descended from the Assassins, a secret society. Rated PG-13. Showing: Grand 18, closes Monday; RED Cinemas; Lexington Cinema The Brand New Testament (Le tout nouveau testament) HH God is living in human form in Belgium. His daughter decides hes not doing a good job and rewrites the world, taking his power. Not rated. Showing: Aperture Collateral Beauty H A man retreats from life and his friends after suffering a terrible tragedy. He writes to Love, Time and Death in an effort to make sense of things. He begins to understand, after receiving answers. Starring Will Smith, Kate Winslet, Helen Mirren and Edward Norton. Rated PG-13. Showing: Grand 18, closes Monday Doctor Strange HHH After losing the use of his hand in a traffic accident, Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), a former neurosurgeon, looks for hope with a group that is fighting a dark force. Rated PG-13. Showing: RED Cinemas Eagle Huntress HHH A documentary that follows a 13-year old Mongolian girl who is trying to become the first female eagle hunter in 12 generations of her family. Rated G. Showing: Aperture Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them HHH Newt Scamander stops in New Yorks secret witches and wizards community on the way home after scouting the Earth and documenting magical creatures. While there, some of his beasts escape and may cause problems for the secret and real world. This occurred in 1926, about 70 years before Harry Potter reads his book. Based on the J.K. Rowling book. Rated PG-13. Showing: Wynnsong 12; Grand 18, closes Monday; RED Cinemas Fences HHH Denzel Washington is a father trying to raise his family in 1950s United States amid race relations and the past events in his life. Also starring Viola Davis, Jovan Adepo and Stephen McKinley Henderson. Rated PG-13. Showing: Wynnsong 12, Grand 18, RED Cinemas, Lexington Cinema Hacksaw Ridge HHH Desmond Doss was a World War II army medic who took part in the Battle of Okinawa. He refused to kill people or carry a weapon. He was the first conscientious objector to be awarded the Medal of Honor. Rated R. Showing: RED Cinemas Hidden Figures HHH Three black women mathematicians, who work for NASA, work out the calculations to launch John Glenn into space and bring him back. Based on a true story. Rated PG. Showing: Wynnsong 12, Grand 18, RED Cinemas La La Land HHH A jazz pianist and an aspiring actress fall in love. As they become more successful, they have to make choices that may destroy their love. Rated PG-13. Showing: Wynnsong 12, Grand 18 Lion HHH A young boy roams the streets of Calcutta before being adopted by a couple from Australia. When the boy is about 30 years old, he goes back to look for his family. Rated PG-13. Showing: Aperture A Man Called Ove (En Man Som Heter Ove) HH Ove is the former president of his homeowners association, although he doesnt accept that he is no longer in charge. He still tries to run the community by walking the property and disposing of bicycles parked in the wrong place and chasing stray cats off. A family moves in across from him. After backing into Oves mailbox, a friendship begins to develop. Rated PG-13 Showing: RED Cinemas Manchester by the Sea HHHH After the death of his brother, Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck) must move back to his hometown to look after his teenage nephew, Patrick, (Lucas Hedges, a UNC School of the Arts student). After arriving, Lee has to deal with the past and why he left. Rated R. Showing: Aperture; Grand 18, closes Monday; RED Cinemas Moana HHH Moana uses her talents as a sailor to go to a celebrated island and is accompanied by Maui, a demi-god and her hero. Rated PG. Showing: Wynnsong 12, Grand 18, Lexington Cinema A Monster Calls HHH The mother of a lonely, 12-year-old boy has a terminal illness and he is being bullied at school. He turns to a tree monster for help. Rated PG-13. Showing: Grand 18, RED Cinemas Moonlight HHHH The story of a young black man as he grows up in a tough Miami neighborhood. Rated R. Showing: Aperture Nocturnal Animals HHH A woman gets a novel from her ex-husband that he has written. She hasnt seen or heard from him in 20 years, but he wants her to evaluate the book. As she reads it, she realizes that its a threat against her. Stars Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Shannon. Rated R. Showing: RED Cinemas Office Christmas Party H The CEO of a company (Jennifer Anniston) threatens to close the branch that her brother manages (T.J. Miller). He and his staff throw a wild Christmas party to impress a potential client and land an account. Also starring Jason Bateman and Courtney B. Vance. Rated R. Showing: Lexington Cinema Passengers HH On their way to a colony planet, two sleep chambers on a spaceship open prematurely and the man and woman awake 90 years early. Rated PG-13. Showing: Wynnsong 12, Grand 18, Lexington Cinema Rogue One: A Star Wars Story HHH The Rebels try to steal the plans for the Death Star. Rated PG-13. Showing: Wynnsong 12, Grand 18, Lexington Cinema Sing HHH Buster Moon, a koala bear, tries to save his theater by staging the worlds greatest singing competition. Rated PG. Showing: Wynnsong 12, Grand 18, RED Cinemas, Lexington Cinema Underworld: Blood Wars H Selene tries to stop the war between the Lycans and the Vampires. Rated PG-13. Showing: Wynnsong 12, Grand 18, RED Cinemas, Lexington Cinema Why Him? HH A father meets his daughters Silicon Valley billionaire boyfriend and an intense rivalry develops between them. Rated R. Showing: Wynnsong 12; Grand 18, closes Monday; RED Cinemas; Lexington Cinema Perceived opposites will merge into one this weekend when D. J. Sparr, a new-music composer and electric-guitar soloist, joins the Winston-Salem Symphony for a concert called Music in the New World at the Stevens Center. Sparr, 41, will play Violet Bond: Concerto for Electric Guitar and Orchestra, a piece that he composed. I consider myself a composer who plays guitar, Sparr said. I do more composing than guitar playing. But dont let him fool you. Sparr knows his way around a guitar, thank you, in large part because of the concertos namesake, Violet Bond, his great grandmother. My dad was interested in country music, and I used to watch Hee Haw, he said. I would stand in front of the television and pretend to play guitar with a broom, mimicking the moves of Roy Clark and Buck Owens. Perhaps she needed her broom back, but for my fourth birthday Nanny gave me a ukulele. From that moment on, I was hooked as a plucked string player and began guitar lessons a year later, which continued through to my graduate studies. The composing began right after the guitar lessons started. It wasnt like I was notating symphonic pieces, Sparr said. But when I would learn a new chord, I would write a song with that chord. Sparr was born and raised in Westminster, Md., and went to high school at the Baltimore School of the Arts. He attended the Eastman School of Music and has a doctorate degree in music composition from the University of Michigan. He lives in Lubbock, Texas, with his wife, Kimberly Sparr, a viola professor at Texas Tech University. As a sought-after electric-guitar soloist, Sparr has performed concertos with the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini (Parma, Italy), the New World Symphony, Cabrillo Festival of New Music with Marin Alsop, as well as with symphonies in Alabama, Dayton and Fort Collins. He will make a recording of a Kenneth Fuchs piece with the London Symphony this year. Most of my time is spent at home composing, he said. We have a nice set-up in a nice house, and we play music together. Sparr has written about 12 pieces for large ensembles, about 15 chamber-music pieces and four pieces for voice, including a one-act opera called Approaching Ali. He said that the inspiration for Violet Bond came from his great grandmother, combined with a made-up story, a technique that he sometimes uses when he is composing. I think she was quite something. There are pictures of her showing her ankles with her girlfriends, he said. I thought, What if (Gustav) Holst and (Philip) Glass) went to a Buddhist monastery to write a piece to play for my great grandmother? It was when I had a residency with the California Symphony, and I wrote this to play with them. I wanted to write an electric-guitar concerto that sounded beautiful and fit alongside the sonic palette of the orchestra. Its gentle but it has influences of Holst and Glass. Another thing about the piece is that there are parts where the guitar is notated and parts where the guitar improvises. The concert will open with Sibelius Symphony No. 5, one of the late Romantic symphonies. Sibelius struggled during its composition as he confronted the influence of new modernist forces that were sweeping Europe. Although it underwent several major revisions, the end result is an early 20th-century masterpiece. Sebelius is one of my favorite composers, Sparr said. Also, Stravinsky, Aaron Copland, Ravel and Debussey. I like the orchestrations of the impressionist masters, combined with the repetition of Americans. Im now interested in Eastern European minimalism. Sparr met Robert Moody, the Winston-Salem Symphonys music director, when Moody conducted the California Symphony. Sparr was the artist-in-residence. I workshopped the piece with him then, Sparr said. Someone like Robert Moody says things with his baton. Im looking forward to playing with him. I watched him work with the California Symphony. Following a conductor is a trained skill. The orchestra will perform Sparrs piece after the Sebelius, and the concert will close with Antonin Dvoraks Symphony No. 9, called From the New World. Dvorak came to America in 1890 and inspired the first great generation of American composers, Moody said. He told them to dig into their own soil to find their inspiration, and he wrote his epic New World Symphony to get things started. Over a century later, American composer D. J. Sparr has done just that with his electric-guitar concerto. Sparr also likes and plays rock music. He said that his jogging playlist is mostly dad-rock Paul Simon, James Brown, and he likes Indie Rock. Hes currently listening to the group, Childish Gambinos. Theyre kind of modern soul-funk, he said. But he is sensitive to the more refined sounds of strings and reeds that come with a symphonic orchestra. The volume of the amp on stage is way lower than if youre playing with a rock band, Sparr said. I always check with the principal second violin to see if the volume is two loud. With Violet Bond, Sparr said he was inspired to write, hopefully, the most beautiful electric-guitar concerto yet written. The guitar is presented with a clear tone, but uses electronic effects including delay, pitch shifting tremolo and looping effects. These augment the nature of a clean-sounding guitar by enhancing its sonic capabilities without distorting the natural sound of the instrument. I dont think Nanny would enjoy the idea of me on stage with a heavy-metal guitar blasting everyones ears off. Something as simple as the beauty of a bugs wing can inspire Julie Knabbs creativity in her bead embroidery and mixed-media art. My art gives me the freedom to create and discover the beauty in the world around me, Knabb, 65, said in an email. She is the owner and instructor at Studio 2 at SOHO Alley. I am still amazed each time I see a concept blossom into a finished piece of work. This creative process can be meditative and brings me joy. I begin each new bead embroidery project with a prominent focal point that captures my attention. It could be an unusual shape, a vintage component, a found object (e.g., a bug wing) and then the evolution occurs as I hand stitch each new embellishment to a foundation. She takes bi-annual trips to Africa and abroad that have inspired many of her newer designs as she incorporates tribal design elements with contemporary flare, according to her artist statement. Knabb also offers jewelry-making workshops in her studio. At this stage in my career as an artist, I get great satisfaction passing on my knowledge and experience to others, Knabb said. She has a wide range of workshops for beginner and intermediate levels. Knabb is a full-time artist. She retired after working for more than 30 years with R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. She and her husband, Harry Knabb, are founding members of Art for Arts Sake (AFAS). She currently serves as art director for AFAS and also served as vice-chairwoman for nine years, according to her artist statement. She is a founding member and artist member of Yadkin Valley Craft Guild; general member of DADA; and she has served on the board of directors at Sawtooth School for Visual Art and three past terms as president of the Winston-Salem Bead Society, where she is a founding member. Her work is available at Red Dog Gallery, Studio 2 at SOHO Alley, The Fiber Company and also at Karma Salon and Gallery. For more information, email textures@bellsouth.net or call (336) 413-6667, or go to her Facebook page Studio 2 at SOHO Alley. Q: How would you describe your art? Answer: Through my work is in jewelry, wearable art and mixed-media projects, I use my imagination to weave a bridge between unusual objects, shapes and colors to create a new story. Occasionally working from sketches and often working spontaneously, a new work is born. I credit travels abroad and my intense appreciation of primitive cultures with giving me an adventurous and uninhibited approach to my work. Q: What media do you prefer? Answer: Even though I use a variety of materials and processes in my jewelry, my first love is bead embroidery. Q: How have you evolved as an artist? Answer: After studying art at Western Carolina University, my first venture into art was designing and constructing leather apparel/accessories. Later I continued to evolve on an artistic path through painting on canvas. Then my path took a three-dimensional turn for over seven years to work exclusively in clay. Next came the age of experimentation in a wide variety of media. Then one day in the early 1990s I found that I desired a more structured direction. Thats when I decided jewelry and wearable art could encompass all the skills of my past and present. Q: Who has influenced your art? Answer: Its impossible to list all the people who have influenced my art. There have been notable artists, teachers, tribal people from sub-Saharan Africa, crafts people from Ecuador, Italy, Amsterdam, Morocco, and Cuba, friends, acquaintances and even strangers. Q: What is your biggest challenge? Answer: Having enough time to complete all the projects on my bucket list. Q: What do you hope your art does for the observer? Answer: I try to create beauty through my jewelry and wearable art. My hope is that others see that same beauty, appreciate the story and enjoy a close, personal relationship with each piece. My goal is to craft pieces that can be passed on to the next generation. Q: Do you have any advice for other artists? Answer: Always be receptive to explore new directions in your art form, learn new skills and stay passionate in all you do. 01/04/2017 The American Democracy Project at JSU will be hosting the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Service Week January 17-27. This event is sponsored by many schools nationwide as a way to honor King and his mission of unity, equality, and service to one another. There will be several community service events occurring during the week. Student organizations are invited to participate to give back and make new friends! The absolute deadline to sign up is January 18 at 4:30 p.m. Participants are encouraged to sign up as soon as possible so that volunteer groups can be assured to have enough people. This is a great chance to make a difference! See below for schedule: Jan. 17-27 Book Drive for United Way Please bring children or adult books to the Office of Academic Services in Rm. 107 of Martin Hall between the hours of 8 a.m.-noon and 1-4:30 p.m. A prize will be awarded to whichever student organization contributes the most books Jan. 21 Food Distribution at Piedmont Benevolence Center This group will be passing out food donations for people to take home between 7:30 a.m. until 11 a.m. This is part of a once a month drive to help people in need to make sure they have enough food to eat for the month. This group will carpool together, and 10-15 volunteers are needed. Pizza and beverages will be provided to students who volunteer. Jan. 24 Yard work/Cleaning at Anniston HOPE Womens Services This will begin at 2 p.m. and will involve both inside/outside work. This group will carpool; between 10-25 volunteers are needed. Rakes, gloves, clippers, and other equipment are needed if anyone has access to anything of this sort. Jan. 25. Games and Visit to Legacy Village Retirement Community This event will consist of bringing fun and joy to the young at heart! This group will carpool and arrive at Legacy Village at 1:30 p.m. There is no specific number of volunteers needed for this because the more the merrier. If anyone has games, they are encouraged to bring them. Please note that the times listed for the events above are the times that we would need to be at these locations. This does not include travel time. To sign up, please click here. For more information on any of the American Democracy Project events, please contact Angela Marino at amarino@stu.jsu.edu. Reddit Email 0 Shares By Alpaslan Ozerdem and Bahar Baser | (The Conversation) | Turkeys New Year was marred by a terrorist attack, claimed by the so-called Islamic State (IS), that killed 39 people and injured many more at a famous nightclub in Istanbul. After nearly two years of deadly incidents and alarming political instability, Turks were once again left counting the dead and wondering how much more their country can take. In the last 18 months, Turkey has seen 33 bomb attacks that have claimed 446 lives, 363 of them civilians. Some commentators even claim that low-level terror is now almost the norm in Turkey. To make things more complicated still, the latest attack comes only six months after a bizarre failed coup, undoubtedly one of the most significant events in Turkeys modern history. The coups planners had little public support, and opposition leaders have also constantly underlined that it would have been a tragedy if it had succeeded. So, the aftermath was a huge opportunity for Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president, and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to correct the countrys disturbing course: to restore trust between various ethnic and religious communities, to start a new peace process with the Kurds after the last one failed in 2015, and to bring greater democracy to the country. But instead of trying to put Turkey back on the right track, the AKP government has done quite the opposite. Divide and rule The post-putsch period has brought chaos and enmity as well as a total crackdown on groups and individuals, including academics, journalists, teachers, lawyers and judges. Some of them were supposedly linked to the followers of exiled religious leader Fethullah Gulen, while others support different opposition groups. This sort of authoritarianism has been brewing in Turkey for some time, especially since the elections of June 2015 failed to hand the AKP a ruling parliamentary majority. There followed an increased level of political violence and terrorism for a period of four months, enough to convince Turkish voters that without an AKP majority, there would be no end to the bloodshed the country was witnessing. After campaigning on that basis for a re-run of the June elections, Erdogan won the majority he so badly wanted but the result did nothing for peace and security. The coup attempt was the next critical turning point. Erdogan himself called it a gift from God that enabled the rulers of New Turkey to shore up their power with ever harsher policies. Only five days after the attempted coup, the AKP government declared a state of emergency; it was originally scheduled to last three months, but was then extended until mid-April 2017. It has become a useful tool for the government, which is still using the failed putsch as an pretext to crack down on opposition. Rather than downplaying the divisions among different ethnic and religious groups in Turkey in the post-putsch period, the ruling party and the president are deepening the countrys many divisions, all the while assisted by the mainstream media. They are creating a fractured political environment which will enable them to promote constitutional amendments, in the long run presenting Erdogans long-held dream of an executive presidential system as the only thing that can bring Turkey back from the brink. But the strategy may yet backfire. On the brink In the broadest sense, the countrys social and political order has proven remarkably resilient in the face of terrorism, disasters and civil unrest, but it is now under more pressure than ever. Despite the strictures of the state of emergency, Turkey clearly remains vulnerable to terrorist attacks. The violence of the last few years has so far boosted Erdogans already strong public support, with many Turks trusting him to keep them safe but with fear and uncertainty is on the rise. Erdogan is feeling pressure on various fronts. For example, IS recently released a video in December purporting to show two Turkish soldiers being burned alive in Syria; the authorities could not give a satisfactory answer on whether the claim was actually true. Then the Russian ambassador was assassinated by a Turkish policeman in the capital city, sending a message that no-one in Turkey is really safe. The continuing insecurity is already devouring the tourism sector, tanking the Lira, and undercutting the economy in general (with exports in particular on the wane). All this will make it increasingly hard for the AKP to consolidate its voter base. The government seems incapable of safeguarding the basic conditions of security and stability, and if IS and other groups mount further attacks like the one on New Years Eve, indecisive voters might actually start to move towards other political parties. The very insecurity that helped Erdogan strengthen his power base could yet be his downfall. Alpaslan Ozerdem, Chair in Peace-Building, Co-Director of Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, Coventry University and Bahar Baser, Research Fellow, Coventry University This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Related video added by Juan Cole: ABC News: 5 Detained in Turkey New Years Eve Terror Attack Investigation Reddit Email 1 Shares By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | Philip Mudd, former deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency counter-terrorist center and FBI National Security Branch, has been on CNN maintaining that there was a big difference between how the intelligence agencies were treated by the Bush administration and how the PEOTUS is treating them. He said that he was grilled on Iraqs alleged weapons of mass destruction by the Republican congress, but that he was treated with respect. He complains that Donald J. Trump is being disrespectful to intelligence professionals. With all due respect to Mr. Mudd (and I sincerely mean that), what he is saying makes no sense. Everyone knows that the Bush cabinet hated the CIA for not going along with its phony allegations of Iraqi biological and nuclear weapons. (The one lapse was a hastily assembled NIE produced under pressure from then vice president and unindicted felon Richard Bruce Cheney). Iraq didnt have such weapons and in 2002 when the press for war was made, did not even have programs. The main point is that while Bush and his cohort had a rule that they did not trash talk people in public, they displayed the utmost disrespect for intelligence professionals who would not turn weasel and tell them (and the public) what they wanted to hear. How could you disrespect intelligence professionals more than to set aside their analysis in favor of the talking points of Neoconservative hacks or to out them, putting their lives and those of their contacts in danger? And what more dangerous course than to go to war against the grain of the analysis of the trained professionals? The difference between Trump and Bush is only a matter of rhetorical style, and Trump hasnt had the opportunity yet to endanger America the way Bush and the Neoconservatives did. Here are four egregious examples of the Bush-Cheney (and especially Cheney) attack on CIA professionals: 1. A fraudulent document was circulated by former Italian and French intelligence officer with a businessman cover, Rocco Martino, purporting to be a purchase statement by the Niger government regarding an alleged buy of uranium by Saddam Hussein of Iraq. It was apparently taken seriously by British intelligence, but it was an obvious fraud, since the officials who allegedly signed it were not any longer in office on the date of the document. The whole thing may have been a project of Italian military intelligence, which has strong connections to surviving fascist circles in Italy, and is also connected to Michael Ledeen, Washington poobah who is now close to the Trumpies. (H/t to Josh Marshall who researched all this). My guess is that US Neoconservatives used Ledeen as a conduit to the Italian intelligence Neofascists, and put in an order for such a hoax. American CIA analysts looked at the document and quickly concluded that it was a fraud. Despite enormous pressure from Bush-Cheney officials, the Neoconservatives, the State Department and the CIA refused to go along with Bushs desire to include a reference to the forgery in his 2003 State of the Union Address. Bush (or David Frum?) therefore put it this way: The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. This way of lying while seeming to tell the truth. What Bush really did was to disregard the State Departments Intelligence and Research department and the CIA analysts and to find any alternative to this homegrown Washington expertise. In other words, Bush appealed to MI6 in just the way that Trump is appealing to Julian Assange. Both over-ruled their own intelligence professions. 2. In late 2005, Bush closed the Alec Station, the unit within the CIA that was tasked with finding Bin Laden. Bush directed intelligence resources instead toward Iraq, which he had illegally invaded and occupied under false pretenses. The CIA was not happy. The former head of the unit reacted, This will clearly denigrate our operations against Al Qaeda . . . These days at the agency, bin Laden and Al Qaeda appear to be treated merely as first among equals. And of course al-Qaeda did experience a resurgence. Indeed, the Iraq al-Qaeda affiliate morphed into Daesh (ISIS, ISIL). 3. In late 2005, someone on the Bush National Security Agency attempted to enlist the Director of National Intelligence and the CIA in violating the Agencys charter by having them investigate and smear a US citizen on American soil (me). A group of analysts who objected to the whole episode later blew the whistle on it, including Glenn L. Carle, the bravest man in Washington. They went public because they knew that what had been done, having the agency tasked to operate on US soil with regard to an innocent American, could have deeply damaged it. The irony is that in those days I was trying to help destroy al-Qaeda and frequently gave briefings and presentations to inter-agency audiences that included CIA analysts (and no, I was never an agent), attempting to help get them up to speed on the particulars of the challenge. And the Bushies stabbed us all in the back the same way they did Valerie Plame (see #4). 4. Bush-Cheney even went so far as to deliberately out a serving CIA field officer with a non-official cover (a NOC, who would be disavowed if captured by the enemy; unfortunately she was captured by Bush-Cheney). Younger readers may not know the Valerie Plame story, so here is a reprint edition from February 10, 2006, of it. [Valeries later thrillers are well worth reading.] . Cheney Authorized Libby to Disclose Classified Documents Once upon a time, a former agent of Italian military intelligence named Rocco Martino, who had had some experience in the African country of Niger, came into possession of some forged, fraudulent documents. These alleged Iraqi purchases of yellowcake uranium in 1999. In fact, the signatures were of Nigerien officials who had been in power a decade earlier, in the late 1980s. So they were clumsy forgeries. Martino passed them on to the Italian magazine Panorama, which passed them to the US embassy. Tantalizingly, President George W. Bushs chief political adviser, Karl Rove, has an indirect connection to Italian intelligence. Roves chief adviser on Iran policy is Neoconservative wildman and notorious warmonger Michael Ledeen, who has a longstanding connection to the darker corners of Italian intelligence. Vice President Richard Bruce Cheney heard of the alleged uranium purchase. Cheney asked George Tenet to look into the allegation. The issue went to the Directorate of Operations secret unit on counter-proliferation. Among the field officers there was Valerie Plame Wilson, who had spent her life fighting the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction under cover of a dummy corporation. Valerie Plame Wilson was married to former US Ambassador Joseph Wilson IV, who had served bravely as acting ambassador in Iraq in 1990, and when threatened by Saddam he showed up to a press conference wearing a hanging noose instead of a necktie. President George H. W. Bush highly praised him. Joe Wilson had not only served in Iraq, he also had been ambassador to the West African countries of Gabon and Sao Tome, and spoke fluent French. When Plame Wilsons superiors brought up the possibility of sending him as a private citizen to look into the plausibility of the report that Saddam had bought Nigerien uranium, she was consulted and agreed (she was not part of the decision loop). He went, and soon saw that the uranium industry in Niger was actually under the control of French companies and was strictly monitored. There was no possibility of corrupt Nigerien officials selling it off under the table. A separate military mission led by Marine General Carlton Fulford, Jr, deputy commander of the United States European Command (EUCOM), went to Niger the same month, February 2002. Fulford quickly came to the same conclusion as Wilson, that it was implausible that al-Qaeda or anyone else could secretly buy uranium from Niger. Wilson came back and was orally debriefed by people who wrote a report for Tenet, expecting that Tenet would pass it on to the high officials of the Bush administration. Wilson was amazed when the Niger uranium story was put into Bushs State of the Union address. Then Libby wanted Secretary of State Colin Powell to make allegations about Saddam and al-Qaeda before the United Nations Security Council. Powell was also pressed by someone to bring up the Niger uranium story. Powell is said to have exclaimed, Im not reading this bullshit! Libby appears to have been a big influence on the speech Powell gave, almost every detail of which was inaccurate, and at which United Nations officials who heard it openly laughed. After the war, Wilson wrote an opinion piece for the New York Times in which he revealed his mission and again called into question the Bush administration assertion that Iraq had an active nuclear weapons program. Cheney was extremely upset by Wilsons op-ed. He saw it as an allegation that he had personally sent Wilson and then ignored Wilsons report. Or at least that was the spin. But Wilson had said no such thing in the article. He simply said that Cheney had asked Tenet to look into the story, which Cheney probably did. Cheney was afraid that if the American public became convinced that there had been no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the war effort would collapse, along with all those billions of no-bid uncompetitive contracts for Halliburton. Cheney, it has now come out, then authorized Libby to leak the classified 2002 National Intelligence Estimate to the press. The NIE, which may have been produced under pressure from Cheney himself, had incorrectly suggested that Iraq was only a few years from having a nuclear weapon. In fact, Iraq did not have an active weapons program at all after the early 1990s when it was dismantled by the UN inspectors. The pre-war NIE in any case was just old bad intelligence, which was contradicted by David Kays team on the ground in post-war Iraq, which just wasnt finding much. Libby now began telling reporters that Wilsons wife was a CIA operative, itself classified information, since she was an undercover operative. Karl Rove engaged in the same routine. Apparently Cheney, Rove and Libby (and Bush?) believed that Wilsons credibility would be undermined if the Washington press corps could have it intimated to them that his story was a CIA plant. Robert Novak used the information given him by the White House staff to out Valerie Plame Wilson as an undercover operative. Her career was ruined. All her contacts in the global South were burned, and their lives put in danger. The CIAs careful project combating weapons of mass destruction collapsed. The same administration that alleges it should be able to listen to our phone calls at will for national security purposes deliberately undermined US security for petty political purposes, making us all much less safe. The likelihood is that the crimes of Bush, Cheney, Libby and Rove so far revealed are only the tip of the iceberg. *The iceberg artwork, signed Monk, is mirrored on several sites on the internet; I cant find any that seems the original but am glad to give credit if it is sought. It easily comes up on a google.images search. See Inflatable Dartboard. Reddit Email 0 Shares By Shahram Akbarzadeh | (Informed Comment) | The Islamic republic of Iran starts 2017 in a strong regional position, much to the annoyance of its detractors. Iran has managed to secure reprieve from international sanctions, see its ally in Syria survive a most devastating threat, and grow its military influence in the region to become indispensable in the fight against the so-called Islamic State Group (Daesh in its Arabic acronym) at least in Iraq. Regional events have put Iran in a position of a status quo power. This is a paradoxical twist as Iran is generally accused of seeking to export its model of government and destabilise its neighbours. At the same time, Irans arch rival in the region, Saudi Arabia, appears flustered by its failure to contain Iran. Riyadh has been at loggerheads with Iran over its 2015 nuclear deal, the war in Yemen and the rebellion against Bashar al-Assad in Syria. None has gone its way. The 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and P5+1 (five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany), negotiated under President Hassan Rouhani, seriously scaled back Irans nuclear program and brought it under an intrusive international inspection regime, paving the way for the removal of sanctions that had crippled Irans economy. The Saudis lobbied purposefully against the deal to no avail. The anti-deal agenda led Saudis to break a long standing taboo and hold formal talks with Israel to coordinate their response. While Riyadh might have considered this alignment an expedient geo-strategic tactic, the Saudi-Israeli coordination was a stark departure from Riyadhs standing position of not holding diplomatic relations with Israel due to the latters continued occupation of Muslim lands. On its southern border, Saudi Arabia made the unprecedented move to launch a military campaign against the Houthis in Yemen, which Riyadh accused of being sponsored by Iran. Saudi Arabias goal was to install a Saudi friendly government led by President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi. This was supposed to be a quick intervention, aided by a regional coalition. Nearly two years since the Saudi involvement in Yemen, that goal still remains out of reach. The Saudi agenda in Syria has become even more marginalised, due largely to Washingtons vacillation and shifting priorities. In the early phase of the rebellion against Bashar al-Assads rule, the Saudis anti-Assad agenda was embraced by the United States, Turkey and many other regional powers. There was a consensus that Assad had to go and this was expected to help contain Irans reach into the Levant. But the rapid rise of Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) changed Washingtons calculations. The threat posed by Daesh to the neighbourhood as well as Western states was deemed more urgent than the continued rule of Assad. The shifting priorities in Washington, though they are more implied than explicitly articulated, has helped relieve pressure on Irans ally. Riyadh sees this as another US betrayal after the nuclear deal. Now with the decisive Russian involvement in Syria, the embattled Syrian regime can see prospects of recovery, however costly it may be. Even Turkey has shifted its attention away from regime change in Syria as it focuses on the Kurds and its own internal security challenges. Amid this spaghetti of interests, Iran has managed to bolster its ties with Shia militia in Iraq and build them up into a formidable fighting force. Known as the Popular Mobilisation Units, the Shia militia have been instrumental in the battle for Mosul against Daesh. The rise of Daesh has changed the regional and global dynamics and shifted priorities in favour of Iran. Tehrans commitment to preserve the Assad regime and bolster the Iraqi government against internal challengers has turned it into a status quo power. This makes Tehran a potential partner for the United States (even under Donald Trumps presidency), and embolden Iran in its reginal ambitions. Professor Shahram Akbarzadeh is Chair of Middle East and Central Asian Politics at Deakin University, Australia. He most recent book is Iran in the World: President Rouhanis Foreign Policy, eds. Shahram Akbarzadeh and Dara Conduit (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016). Related video added by Juan Cole: TRT World: Saudi Arabia cuts diplomatic ties with Iran Reddit Email 0 Shares TeleSur | Three U.S. senators introduced a bill calling for U.S. embassy to be relocated to Jerusalem and recognizing city as Israeli capital. As it convened for the first Tuesday of the New Year, the new U.S. Congress made one of its primary orders of business the introduction of a bill to move the countrys embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, calling on Washington to recognize Jerusalem as the undivided capital of the State of Israel. The Jerusalem Embassy and Recognition Act, submitted Tuesday by former Republican presidential candidates and senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida as well as Nevada Senator Dean Heller, would withhold funds from the U.S. State Department until the embassy is moved. The bill calls for Washington to recognize the city as the undivided capital of the State of Israel, both de jure and de facto, according to a report by Haaretz Wednesday. Both Cruz and Rubio, as well as their opponent during the Republican primaries, President-elect Donald Trump, have repeatedly promised to fulfill the Israeli dream of moving the embassy to Jerusalem. Recognizing the highly-contested city as the Israeli capital would be a controversial move given Israels illegal occupation of East Jerusalem since 1967 and Palestinian claims to the city. Jerusalem is home to sites sacred to Jews, Muslims and Christians and the move would be a break from decades of U.S. policy. Successive administrations have refused calls to move the embassy and have promoted negotiations over the status of the city. The congressional bill would also be in line with promises made by Trump before and after he won the presidential elections in November. Israel has already built thousands of houses in East Jerusalem where thousands of illegal settlers live. Several ministers in Israel have welcomed the election of Trump, saying his presidency could put an end to Palestinian aspirations for statehood and realize the dream of making Jerusalem the capital of Israel. The real estate billionaire and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met in late September when Trump told Netanyahu that if elected, a Trump administration would finally accept the long-standing congressional mandate to recognize Jerusalem as the undivided capital of the State of Israel. In response to his pledge, Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations Riyad Mansour threatened in November to unleash all of the weapons that we have in the U.N. against the United States, Israeli media reported Sunday. The controversial move would also send shockwaves across the Arab and Muslim world as many see Jerusalem as a holy site for Muslims and refuse any Israeli claims to the city. According to Haaretz, the U.S. Congress had in fact passed the original Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 by a large majority, requiring Washington to move the embassy to the holy city by May 1999. However, the bill included a loophole allowing the president to postpone the move by signing a waiver twice a year based on national security concerns. Related video added by Juan Cole: NRC Norwegian Refugee Council, Urban planning in East Jerusalem JURIST Guest Columnist David M. Crane, founding Chief Prosecutor of the international war crimes tribunal in West Africa, discusses the UNs recent action that will allow for independent justice-seeking organizations to hold accountable parties committing international crimes in Syria On Wednesday 21 December, 105 member states of the United Nations General Assembly took an important step forward in seeking justice for the people of Syria. The action-taking was a resolution that paves the way for an independent organization to begin collecting, cataloging and analyzing data and other criminal information coming out of Syria into proper evidence to be used someday by a local, regional or international prosecutor someday to hold accountable all parties committing international crimes in Syria from March 2011 to the present. Since the beginning of the civil war in 2011 there have been dozens of efforts by various nongovernmental organizations to collect data on the crimes being committed in Syria. Though laudable in their efforts, this massive amount of data is useless in a court of law. It is unreliable and not authenticated with no chains of custody or other safeguards. Essentially almost all of the data being collected regarding crimes in Syria is tainted and inadmissible. Three organizations did begin to emerge that were working in tangent to correct this problem. The Syrian Accountability Center which I founded in March of 2011 to create a trial package for a future local, regional or international prosecutor. It is designed along the same methods I used to investigate and indict President Charles Taylor for war crimes and crimes against humanity in West Africa. Additionally, two other organizations are doing important work, the Coalition for International Justice and Accountability and the Syrian Justice and Accountability Center. The heads of these three organizations met and briefed various UN ambassadors on the evidence challenges in November. It was there I urged the creation of the accountability center concept. As we began to consider various mechanisms to cure this problem, an accountability center became apparent, a center run by experienced international criminal law professionals who could take this mass of data already collected, and still coming out of Syria, and turning it into that evidence necessary to hold accountable those parties committing crimes in violation of Syrian and international law. The international community has spent millions of dollars supporting efforts to build data bases by organizations who in large measure do not have the experience to build a criminal case. The accountability center concept was designed to fix this problem. Throughout the Fall of 2016, we carefully planned a campaign to garner the support necessary to succeed in creating the accountability center. Under the leadership of Ambassadors Christian Weneweser of Lichtenstein [PDF] and Alya Althani of Qatar [PDF] various paths were considered from the Security Council, the General Assembly, and possibly a regional organization such as the European Union or the Arab League. The General Assembly was the most realistic pathway to success. Past attempts to consider accountability solutions have failed in the Security Council due to the intransigence of Russia. Even the issuance of the Caesar Report, which I co-authored, in 2014 that confirmed horrific crimes against the Syrian people by Assad and his henchmen did not move Russia nor China to support a French resolution [PDF] calling for accountability. This stalemate in the Security Council has frozen any action until now. Our intent in proposing the accountability center concept in September was to create an efficient capability that over the next several years the international community can rest assured that all of the terabytes of data collected will be converted to proper evidence that can be used in a court of law. Additionally, the United Nations had to be seen to be doing something on behalf of the international community. Perhaps this is that something. It certainly is an important step forward. David M. Crane was the founding Chief Prosecutor of the international war crimes tribunal in West Africa, called the Special Court for Sierra Leone (now residual). He is also founder of the Syrian Accountability Project, and the I Am Syria Campaign. Crane currently is a professor at the Syracuse University College of Law. Suggested citation: David M. Crane, A Step Forward: the UN & Justice for Syria, JURIST Professional Commentary, January 4, 2017, http://jurist.org/dateline/2017/04/david-crane-a-step-forward.php. Several militias operating in Iraq have been committing war crimes using weapons manufactured in 16 different countries, including the US, Russia, China and Iran, Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] said in a report [text, PDF] Thursday. The report discusses [press release] the actions of four particular militia groupsMunathamat Badr (Badr Brigades or Badr Organization), Asaib Ahl al-Haq (League of the Righteous), Kataib Hizbullah (Hizbullah Brigades) and the Saraya Al-Salem (Peace Brigades). These militias operate under the popular mobilization units (PMUs) in Iraq, which include 40 or 50 distinct militias. Iraqs prime minister designated these PMUs as an official part of the Iraqi military in February. The report discusses four particular instances of human rights violations . In Diyala, Munathamat Badr and Asaib Ahl al-Haq have allegedly committed abductions, killings and torture of Sunni men and boys. In Anbar, 49 people have been reportedly killed and 643 remain missing after they were captured after fleeing fighting north of Falluja. Some witnesses who were released after being tortured stated they recognized the Kataib Hizbullah insignia on some of the members committing the torture. In Salah al-Din, PMU militiamen have reportedly kidnapped, tortured and killed Sunni men who were fleeing IS in the area. At the Al-Razzaza checkpoint, one of the only safe pathways out of Islamic State (IS) controlled areas, Kataib Hizbullah members have allegedly seized 2,200 people since late 2014, only 65 of whom have ever reappeared. The weapons the PMUs use are reportedly obtained from the Iraqi military and from Iran. These include US-made armored vehicles and tanks. AI states that the US and other countries should not supply Iraq with arms unless Iraq ensures that the weapons would only be given to militias when they can show that they can act consistently with full respect for international human rights and humanitarian law and that it is fully under the effective command and control of the Iraqi armed forces and subject to rigorous accountability mechanisms. The ongoing fighting against IS has resulted in ongoing claims of human rights violations. In December, Human Rights Watch reported [JURIST report] that an Iraqi militia executed IS supporters. The Parliament of Iraq voted [JURIST report] in November to give militias legal status, including giving them pensions and instructions from government leaders. Also in November the London-based analytical group IHS Markit released a report [JURIST report] stating the IS has used chemical weapons at least 52 times in Iraq and Syria since 2014. In October AI released a report [JURIST report] that stated the Iraqi government and Kurdish Regional Government were committing serious human rights violations and war crimes. In August the UN Secretary-General accused [JURIST report] IS of committing genocide against the Yazidi minority in Northern Iraq. [JURIST] Egyptian activist and youth leader Ahmed Maher, known for his role in the 2011 revolution [JURIST backgrounder] against former president Hosni Mubarak [BBC profile], was released from prison on Wednesday following his arrest in 2013. Maher, as well as fellow activists Ahmed Douma and Mohammed Adel, had been arrested [BBC report] for protesting against a new law that effectively bans public gatherings with more than 10 people. Egypts Court of Cassation [official website] later upheld [JURIST report] their convictions and prison sentences in 2015. Maher, though released, must remain under judicial supervision. Egypt has been internationally scrutinized in recent months over allegations of human rights infringements and free speech violations. In December Egypts Supreme Constitutional Court upheld [JURIST report] the effective ban against protests. The current law requires individuals seeking to protest to inform the interior ministry, at least three days prior, of any public gathering with more than 10 people, allows security forces to break up unapproved protests with water cannons, tear gas, and birdshot, and imposes up to five years of jail time for violation of various protest restrictions. Since its passing, thousands have been arrested, including many members and supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood. In September an Egyptian court froze assets [JURIST report] of five notable human rights activists and three NGOs for allegedly accepting foreign funds without governmental authorization. In July Amnesty International criticized [JURIST report] the Egyptian government for abducting and torturing hundreds of citizens during a crackdown on political activists and protesters. And in May the UN urged [JURIST report] the Egyptian government end its oppressive response towards human rights advocates in the country. The experts reported that Egypt has cracked down on protesters, journalists, lawyers and human rights defenders in recent years by conducting mass arrests, using aggressive force and invading peoples privacy. The Florida Supreme Court [official website] issued a one-paragraph order Wednesday informing judges and prosecutors that the states death penalty procedure is unconstitutional, marking the second such order in three months. Attorney General Pam Bondi [official website] argued that, although the court ruled the statute unconstitutional in October [JURIST report], prosecutors should be able to apply the death penalty to pending trails so long as the jury voted unanimously. Wednesdays 5-2 ruling concluded that, counter to Bondis argument, the unconstitutionality of the death penalty will universally prevent it from being applicable to all pending prosecution. At 1 PM ET on Wednesday afternoon, the court removed the order from its website due to a clerical error, according to a court spokesman. The spokesman did not indicate if or when the order would be reissued. Capital punishment [JURIST op-ed] remains a controversial issue in the US and worldwide. In October the US Supreme Court vacated [JURIST report] the death sentence of an Oklahoma man convicted of killing his girlfriend and her two children in a case where the trial judge permitted family members to recommend the sentence to the jury. Also in October, a group of UN human rights experts spoke on the subject of the death penalty and terrorism, calling the death penalty ineffective [JURIST report], and often times illegal, in deterring to terrorism. In September, four UN human rights experts and Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] called on Pakistan to halt the execution of Imdad Ali [JURIST reports], a mentally disabled man that was convicted of murder in 2001. The experts called Imdad Alis execution unlawful and tantamount to an arbitrary execution, as well as a form of cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment, and called for it to be annulled. Also in September in Oklahoma, after a botched execution in 2014 and numerous drug mix-ups in 2015, Attorney General Scott Pruitt refused [JURIST report] to set execution dates until new protocols have been approved. In May the Supreme Court upheld a stay [JURIST report] of execution for Alabama inmate Vernon Madison. A few days before that a Miami judge ruled [JURIST report] that Floridas revamped death penalty law is unconstitutional because it does not require a unanimous agreement among jurors to approve executions. In April Virginias General Assembly voted [JURIST report] to keep secret the identities of suppliers of lethal injection drugs. Former prime minister of Kosovo Ramush Haradinaj was arrested in France on Wednesday on charges of war crimes filed by Serbia. Serbia claims that Haradinajs unit, the Black Eagles, tortured and killed Serbian civilians. Kosovos current president, Hashim Thaci [official website], condemned the arrest [AP report], calling it a threat to stability in the region. Haradinaj appeared in court on Thursday in France, where he was ordered to be detained while the court decides whether he should be turned over to Serbian officials. Haradinaj was a senior commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), the ethnic Albanian guerrilla force, that opposed Slobodan Milosevic during the 1998-1999 Kosovo war [BBC backgrounder]. He was tried twice and acquitted of 37 charges of war crimes in both 2008 and 2012 [JURIST reports] by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website]. Lawyers representing a German owner of a diesel-powered Volkswagen (VW) [corporate website] vehicle equipped with a software that could cheat emissions tests filed the first lawsuit seeking compensation for damages on Tuesday. According to the Braunschweig district court [official website, in German], the German firm MyRight [firm website] filed on behalf of only a single VW consumer effected by the scandal. Although VW has paid damages to 535,000 US-based consumers, they have refused to do so in European countries. They cite differences in regulations as the basis for this decision and have only offered technical remedies to European consumers. Because Germany does not allow for American-style class-action suits, the decision on the present case will serve as a model for future litigation concerning other consumers seeking damages against VW. Should the current plaintiff succeed in his individual suit, VW may see similar suits filed all over Europe. VW is facing legal difficulty around the world over the emissions scandal. South Korea announced in December that it plans to fine [JURIST report] VW over false advertising. In October a Spanish court ordered [JURIST report] Volkswagen to pay damages to a VW vehicle owner who purchased his car in 2011. A US judge approved [JURIST report] a $14.7 billion settlement in October between VW and the US Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission, the state of California and car owners who filed a class action lawsuit over the companys emissions scandal. In September a German court said VW faces over USD $8.2 billion [JURIST report] in damage claims from investors. That same month, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission sued [JURIST report] VW and its local subsidiary for misleading customers. In August a district court in Germany ruled [JURIST report] that a collective complaint against VW may move forward. Like US-style class-action lawsuits, the collective complaint was launched on behalf of multiple investors who lost money following the diesel emissions cheating scandal. Last March the US FTC filed suit [JURIST report] against VW for false advertising. The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) [official website], which is under the US Department of Labor, filed a lawsuit [complaint, PDF] Wednesday against Google [corporate website] over the companys refusal to provide requested items related to their compensation policies. Google is under an Advertising and Integrated Marketing Solutions contract with the federal government. Part of that contract includes an equal employment opportunity clause. On September 30, 2015, Google was selected through a neutral selection process to undergo a compliance evaluation. On June 1, 2016, the OFCCP requested a compensation snapshot of September 2014 names, contact information, and job and salary history for employees in the September 2014 snapshot and the September 2015 snapshot. The September 2015 snapshot was previously given by Google. On June 17, 2016, Google notified OFCCP that they would not provide these requested items. OFCCP is requesting that the court require Google to supply the requested items and allow them to complete their compliance review. In the event that Google does not provide the requested items, OFCCP is requesting the cancellation of all federal government contracts with Google and disallowing Google from being awarded any future government contracts until it shows OFCCP that Google complies with the equal opportunity provisions. OFCCP also is requesting any other relief as justice may require. Google has stated [USA Today report] that the requested data includes thousands of employees private contact information that Google safeguards. Google has been the subject of several lawsuits in recent years. In November Google was accused [JURIST report] by the EU of abuses in market dominance related to their Android mobile phone operating system. In January 2015 a representative for Google signed an agreement [JURIST report] to rewrite the companys current privacy policy in response to pressure from the UK Information Commissioners Office [official website]. The same month Google was among four tech companies that reached a $415 million settlement [JURIST report] in a class action lawsuit claiming the companies unlawfully agreed to reduce employee compensation and mobility. NEWSLETTER Sign up Tick the boxes of the newsletters you would like to receive. Just Drinks Daily News The top stories of the day delivered to you every weekday. Just Drinks Weekly News A weekly roundup of the latest news and analysis, sent every Monday. Just Drinks Magazine The industry's most comprehensive news and information delivered every quarter Philippines-based San Miguel Corp. has confirmed plans to invest up to PHP75bn (US$1.5bn) in its San Miguel Pure Foods subsidiary including new processing facilities. Free Report Whats the forecast for the food and grocery industry? Market drivers and inhibitors Five-year forecasts and the impact of COVID-19 The performance of the online channel versus offline Major trends in the market including rapid delivery, ambient retailing, supply chain disruption, and inflation Assess developments within this sector to help your business thrive in 2022 and beyond. The food and grocery sector thrived during the pandemic, largely due to the shutdown of the food service industry and the sectors subsequent necessity, panic-induced bulk purchasing, and spending more time at home. The market has grown as a result of inflation. Consumer unwillingness to go out and socialize, and the reopening of several hospitality facilities, helped maintain the demand for groceries, particularly online, in 2021. As consumer behavior changes, we consume more food and drink at home, and inflation increases basket sizes. GlobalData predicts that the sector will continue to hold a higher share than had been predicted prior to the pandemic. This is true despite the fact that the food and grocery sector's share of overall retail will decline from its peak in 2020. This report will discuss market forecasts and key themes in the global food & grocery industry in 2022 and beyond. It covers:Assess developments within this sector to help your business thrive in 2022 and beyond. by GlobalData Enter your details here to receive your free Report. Please enter a work/business email address Country United Kingdom United States Afghanistan Aland Islands Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil British Indian Ocean Territory Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia Comoros Congo Congo, The Democratic Republic of The Cook Islands Costa Rica Cote D"ivoire Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-bissau Guyana Haiti Heard Island and Mcdonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq Ireland Isle of Man Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jersey Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Korea, Democratic People"s Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Lao People"s Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macao Macedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Pitcairn Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Reunion Romania Russian Federation Rwanda Saint Helena Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Pierre and Miquelon 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 Georgia and The South Sandwich Islands Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Svalbard and Jan Mayen Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand Timor-leste Togo Tokelau Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United States Minor Outlying Islands Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela Viet Nam Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, U.S. Wallis and Futuna Western Sahara Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe Download free Report By clicking the Download Free Report button, you accept the terms and conditions and acknowledge that your data will be used as described in the GlobalData privacy policy By downloading this Report, you acknowledge that we may share your information with our white paper partners/sponsors who may contact you directly with information on their products and services. Visit our privacy policy for more information about our services, how we may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications. Our services are intended for corporate subscribers and you warrant that the email address submitted is your corporate email address. Thank you.Please check your email to download the Report. Some PHP60bn of the investment is set to come in up to the start of 2018, the bulk of which will be spent on new production facilities for Pure Foods hot dog, corned beef and luncheon meat products, the company told just-food in a statement. San Miguel president and COO Ramon Ang said the investment would also see an expansion of the groups flour mills, to increase production capacity by an additional 1,200 tons daily, as well as adding to the annual capacity of its feed mills business, all of which are slated for completion by 2018. The group produces and markets flour under brands including Emperor and King. Ang said the group would also invest in new bottling lines for its beer business The boost is needed due mainly to resurgent demand from increasingly-affluent consumers and because traditional food business lines had taken a back seat in terms of investment during the conglomerates expansion over the past 10 years, Ang said. Ang said the group will build new plants for the production of processed meat products including hot dogs and chicken nuggets in the cities of Cavite, Cagayan de Oro and Cebu. He said construction would take place simultaneously, although no specific timetable was given. San Miguel also plans to produce Spam for exports to other south-east Asian countries under a partnership with US-based Hormel Foods. Ang said despite the popularity of Spam in the Philippines, demand had not been enough to justify local production until now. But that has changed in recent years due to the rising purchasing power of the Filipino middle class. He said the Philippines now takes delivery of some 40 container shipments of Spam every month, so it is now justified to build a plant to supply the domestic and export markets. A San Miguel spokesperson declined to comment further on the arrangement with Hormel or on export market targets. According to San Miguel, Hormel is foremost among its food group partners. The group said the Purefoods-Hormel Company, a joint venture with Hormel Foods, produces and markets processed meats which account for nearly two-thirds of the processed meats market, leading both the refrigerated and canned segments. Related Companies Dallas, 01/04/2017 /SubmitPressRelease123/ Atlanta, Georgia January 4, 2017 1800-Truck-Wreck attorneys of Eberstein & Witherite in collaboration with V-103 is proud to announce that it will host the Falcons Play-Off party. Atlanta Falcons Rise Up! $103 CASH Given Away Every 15 Minutes. EVERY 15 MINUTES! When: January 14, 2017 at 12:30pm Where: Magnolia St from Postell St NW to Northside Dr NW What: Atlantas Best Play-Off Party with free food, live dj and free giveaways! Cost: FREE! All you have to do is register below and show your registration email on your phone or print it out and show it at the door! http://www.1800truckwreck.com/event The Atlanta Falcons opponent will be determined after the Wild-Card matchups to be played on January 7th and 8th. Although there are 4 Wild-Card teams including the Detroit Lions, Atlanta will either play the Seattle Seahawks, Green Bay Packers or New York Giants on January 14th. Over 3,000 folks came to the last tailgate event and every 15 minutes I pulled out $103 to give away and I plan to do it again says Amy Witherite, founding partner of Eberstein & Witherite, Im pulling it out of my purse and giving it to you, but you have to register and show up! About: 1-800-TRUCK-WRECK specializes in helping personal injury victims obtain successful outcomes for their claims. The truck wreck lawyers of the Eberstein & Witherite law firm are dedicated to preserving the rights of truck accident victims who need help after a collision. Our founding partner, attorneys, and legal team have established a reputation in the legal community for aiding people injured in car and truck wrecks. The Atlanta, Georgia accident lawyers keep life running. Media Contact Lucy Tiseo Eberstein & Witherite, LLP Phone: 800-878-2597 Email: [email protected] www.atlanta.1800truckwreck.com Connect with Eberstein & Witherite on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter source: http://www.1800truckwreck.com/1-800-truck-wreck-lawyers-atlanta-host-falcons-play-off-party.html Social Media Tags:1-800-TRUCK-WRECK lawyers, 1800-Truck-Wreck attorneys, Eberstein & Witherite, Falcons Play-Off Party Newsroom powered by Online Press Release Distribution SubmitMyPressRelease.com Like Us on Facebook It's only fair to share... Pinterest Linkedin email Print Photo Credit: The Surfjack Honolulu, and in particular the Waikiki neighborhood, is already a world-class vacation destination. But now the famed beachfront zone has gotten a boost of much-needed cool thanks to a fun, friendly, beautifully curated new boutique hotel. The Surfjack Hotel & Swim Club has quickly become the social hub of the citys young social set, due also to its hip poolside bar scene and stylish, excellent restaurant Mahina & Suns, which President Obama made a point of visiting during his current Hawaii sojourn. Photo Credit: The Surfjack The design ethos of the 112-room Surfjack, which is centered around an oval swimming pool emblazoned with WISH YOU WERE HERE! on the bottom, is Laid-Back Modern Aloha. That translates to lots of surfing references layered with nods to Waikikis heyday in the Mid-Century era, when the city really came into its own and the legendary Duke Kahanamoku, who popularized the sport of surfing, could be found hanging out with heiress Doris Duke at her Honolulu estate Shangri La. Its also an antidote of sorts to the touristy claptrap that threatened to overtake the area at one point. Photo Credit: Jared Paul Stern This all gives the picturesque property something of a Palm Springs feel, though with a uniquely retro-Hawaiian flavor. Theres an emphasis on natural materials including rich tropical wood, woven surfaces, handcrafted textiles and ceramics, custom lighting and wallpaper, and a plethora of attractive artwork sourced from local painters and printmakers. And theres a focus on the creative spirit that comes across in everything that goes on at the hotel, from the art on the walls to the drinks on the cocktail menu. Photo Credit: The Surfjack To that end theres always something fun and interesting happening at the Surfjack, which has quickly become the place to see and be seen during events like the Hawaii International Film Festival and Honolulu Fashion Week, which have grown to attract a global crowd eager to check out the local talent and enjoy the beautiful locale. Add to that a constant roster of movie screenings, trunk shows, guest DJs, cocktail tutorials and other stylish goings-on centered around the hotels Swim Club, incorporating the beautiful bar that also anchors Mahina & Suns. Photo Credit: Naomi Christine courtesy The Surfjack There, to the delight of President Obama and other guests from all walks of Waikiki life, Honolulu-born chef Ed Kenney has perfected his brand of elevated home cooking using local, organic ingredients and imbuing every dish with a Hawaiian sense of place. Mahina & Suns is Kenneys fourth Honolulu restaurant, and a taste of his talents usually leads to reservations at one of his other mouthwatering spots, including Mud Hen Water, Town and Kaimuki Superette which have been at the forefront of Honolulus culinary renaissance. Photo Credit: Jared Paul Stern As noted, fashion and style with a uniquely Hawaiian flare are very important at the Surfjack, and much of it stems from its in-house boutique, Olive & Oliver, which, though fairly small, is so expertly curated that it has already considered by some to be the citys best. The mix of clothing and accessories for both men and women offers an authentic take on Hawaiian style which is classic, fresh, natural, colorful and beautifully made. In addition the space hosts a cafe which has fueled many an espresso-enabled shopping spree. Followed by the perfect Mai Tai at the Swim Club, of course. Photo Credit: Jared Paul Stern Yokahama China Town is said to be Japans largest. There are others in Nagasaki and Kobe all three were among the first Japanese ports to open to foreign trade and many Chinese traders settled there in the years to follow. Nagasaki is the oldest of the three, established in the 17th century, and is said to retain more of an authentic Chinese character. I hope to visit next time we travel to Kyushu on a future trip. Yokahama didnt open to foreign traders until 1859 but grew to cover a larger area. Today there are around 250 shops and restaurants in the district, mostly catering to the tourist trade. Choyo-mon gate and the streets just beyond There are four tall and attractive gates at the entrances to Yokahama China Town, and a few more within the area. We entered via the East Gate, Choyo-mon. The main roads in Yokahama China Town The main thoroughfares are reasonably wide, and thronged with visitors. Side streets in Yokahama China Town These are crossed by much narrower streets that are far less busy. Most of the buildings contain restaurants, cafes, fast food outlets, grocery and kitchen equipment stores, Chinese medicine specialists and souvenir shops. Panda-shaped steamed buns Some of the street food snacks are very cute panda-shaped steamed buns, anyone? Pandas are also a popular theme for souvenir shops and even local murals. My favourite snack was the jian dui (known in Japan as goma dango), served piping hot in a little paper cone. I love these chewy hollow balls coated in sesame seeds and with a pellet of sweet red bean paste inside and this was a really tasty one. Kanteibyo Temple There are two main temples in China Town Mazu Miao, a large and rather grand new temple that opened in 2006, and Kanteibyo, closer to the centre of the neighbourhood. The original Kanteibyo temple was built in the 1870s but has been rebuilt multiple times since then after being destroyed by the Great Kanto earthquake in 1923 and by two fires in the 1980s. These Chinese temples are very different in style and decoration to most of the Japanese Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines we have visited, much more ornate and colourful. Our hotel was in Bashamichi, just a couple of quick stops on the metro from Motomachi-Chukagai Station, at the eastern edge of China Town. We love taking public transport in Japan; its so wonderfully efficient and well run. We also enjoy the different designs of train carriages, local advertising posters, and even listening to the Japanese announcements that we cant understand. Of course, the port area of Yokahama is fairly small so you could easily walk to and from other tourist sites such as the Ramen Museum, Landmark Tower and Cosmoworld amusement park. You may like to check out previous posts about my travels to Japan. BROKEN BOW - For five decades, Broken Bow businesses have been thanking their rural customers with an annual appreciation banquet. Today marks the 50th anniversary of the Farmer/Rancher Banquet, sponsored by the Broken Bow Chamber of Commerce. Rancher Bob Smith, 74, and business owner Allan Woodward, 71, have attended nearly every banquet. Woodward served as the Broken Bow Chamber of Commerce president in 1974. "I guess I've been to about every one of (the banquets)," he said. "Everybody turns out and everybody helps. It's something the business people like to do." Early banquet programs featured an illustration of a handshake and the motto, "The strength of our community depends on understanding and cooperation between our farmers and our city folks." From 1956 to 1967, the suit-and-tie affair for almost 400 men was at the National Guard Armory. "That was the biggest place around at that time," Woodward said. In 1968, the event was moved to Broken Bow's Municipal Building, where it has been since. "It was a big dress-up deal back then," Smith said. For the first several years, he said, women were not invited to attend. Today, casual dress and the presence of women from the farming community are common. "There used to be a lot more farmers and ranchers back then," Smith said. "Some of them didn't get tickets. Then attendance dropped off, so women started getting invited." Sponsoring businesses have always distributed free tickets to active farmers and ranchers. Smith said a man died of a heart attack at the banquet in 1961. At another early banquet, an inebriated businessman took offense about comments that having his business closed on Saturdays was not a good way to support the rural community. "That (comment) caused a roomful of tension that night," Smith said. "It was a little touchy at the time." In 1971, the banquet speaker was nationally known cartoonist Ace Reid, famous for his Cowpoke characters. Smith said Reid came to the podium drunk. "It was not his best performance," he said. "We have had a lot of good speakers over the years," Woodward said. That list includes cowboy poet Baxter Black in 1982, radio and TV personality Chester Lauck in 1966, and Roger Welsch in 1996. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Welsch of Dannebrog had a weekly spot called "Postcards from Nebraska" on "CBS Sunday Morning." Smith said one of the only times a woman was the featured speaker was in 1990, when Joan Burney, the 1991 National Mother of the Year, entertained the crowd. Local poet R.P. Smith, who is Bob Smith's son, entertained in 1992, and Lexington veterinarian Joe Jeffrey made people laugh in 2005 with his photos and commentary about all kinds of posts. Smith remembers one year the speaker was an economist and his "entertainment" did not go over very well with the crowd. "People didn't come to get educated," Smith said. "They came to have a good time." Other entertainment has included vocalists, instrumental musicians and humorous skits. Tonight's speaker is Richard Kimbrough, a writer and teacher from Crete who also spoke in 1985. Over the years, the food, including an entree of beef or pork, has been prepared and served by different groups, including church groups, the band boosters, business owners and now professional caterers. "I don't think we ever served chicken," Smith said. Early banquets featured organ music during the meal and a speech by an area farmer or rancher. Recognition of the youngest and oldest farmer has been replaced in recent years by awards given for family dedication to agriculture, women in agriculture and innovation in agriculture. Throughout the years, the number of sponsoring businesses has varied. In 1957, there were more than 80 sponsors and nearly 100 in 1971. By 1996, there were fewer than 60 sponsors of the event. There are 42 sponsors listed for tonight. For most of the past 50 years, the banquet was in the fall, but Smith said that conflicted with harvest time. So the banquet was moved to the spring, and then it conflicted with calving. "They've switched (dates) a lot, looking for the ideal date, but there isn't any such thing," Smith said. Although a storm date has been set every year, Smith said he doesn't remember the event ever being changed. "We've had it on some bad nights, but I don't know that we've ever canceled it or postponed it," he said. e-mail to: The elections are over, and I would like to address a negative ad that was directed toward me during my campaign for re-election to the Nebraska Public Power District Board of Directors. It misinformed voters and NPPD ratepayers that directors use of the plane was abusive. The identical ad ran in North Platte, just with a different director and challenger. The ad I am referring to stated, You are paying for Ron Larsens private plane. NPPD is a $1 billion organization that operates across our state. Because of the vast area that must be served, NPPD needs a plane for its executives, employees and customers. The World-Herald and Kearney Hub both ran articles after a Kearney woman asked for a public records request on the NPPD aviation budget and then passed it on to the media. NPPD provided the information and the media reported it correctly. The negative ad came into play when an ad by my opponent said I was using the plane for my personal use. All NPPD directors used the plane for various reasons during 2015, the fiscal year that was questioned. On average we had three directors and, sometimes, other NPPD employees on the plane when we went to board meetings in Columbus. We drove to the meetings when we didnt feel it was economical to fly. This would save NPPD money on meals, mileage and an extra night in the motel for the directors. The ad correctly stated that the aviation budget is $1 million per year, however, it failed to report that only $43,000 of that was for all directors use. Now lets do some math. The $1 million aviation budget is only 1/1,000th of NPPDs total annual budget and the $43,000 for all the directors is only .000043 percent of the total budget. Now what did it cost the average ratepayer for a director flying on the plane? If the total for all directors was $43,000 for the entire year, you need to figure the share of each director by dividing by the 11 directors. The average expense for each director would be $3,909. Now how many meters or householders are there? NPPD has about 800,000 people in its vast districts. If we assume each household has five residents, we need to divide 800,000 by five and we get 160,000 meters. We can now divide the $3,909 by the 160,000 meters and come up with 2.44 cents for an entire year. Divide 2.44 cents by 12 and you come up with .002 or one-fifth of a cent per month for the average household. Did the ad in question present all the facts and figures? The above numbers would be even lower if you factor in the money saved on meals, mileage and lodging. The number of meters and people per household are conservative estimates. I also assumed that each director used the plane the same amount. I thoroughly enjoyed my 12 years as a dedicated director for NPPD. Thank you for your support. Ron Larsen, Kearney Why do people go to church on Christmas? It was one of the questions passersby asked in conversation as they noticed the security line before midnight Mass at St. Patricks Cathedral on Christmas Eve. There were some colorful things said, as well, as you might imagine after 10 p.m. on a Saturday night in the Big Apple. And there were also some people mistaking the crowd on Madison Avenue as a very long line for the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. But the scene did provide an opportunity for solidarity with those whose lives are at risk simply for what they believe. How many of us gave thought on Christmas Day to those who died in the attack on a Coptic cathedral in Cairo only days before? As we were moved by the deaths of Carrie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds, George Michael, Prince and other celebrities who died in 2016, how many of us remembered Father Jacques Hamel, who was murdered by Islamic militants earlier this year while celebrating Mass in France? Praying or keeping the persecuted in mind may not seem like much. But it means something to people living a world away from our Western lives, who do often feel forgotten by the cultural and political leaders and power brokers. Earlier this fall, Archbishop Bashar Matti Warda, from the Archdiocese of Erbil in Iraq, visited St. Patricks to talk about peace. His was not a political manifesto about what the United Nations or next White House needed to do, but an eyewitness account of terror. He explained that to be persecuted is the fate of the Church of the East. But to be forgotten, he added, this would be a really very painful, painful moment to realize that nobody remembers you. And so instead of pointing out U.S. policies that may have exacerbated the pain of his people, or calling Americans out on our routine indifference, he was thankful. Weve been blessed. Persecuted, but blessed that we were not forgotten. We have not been forgotten, because we have so many brothers and sisters, blessed and beloved, wonderful people like you, praying for us. Warda was particularly grateful that during the Easter season this year, New Yorks Cardinal Timothy Dolan had visited Iraq, bringing added awareness to the plight of the displaced Christians who Warda and the Church labor to build a hopeful future for. Hope is not a concept to be understood, the archbishop explained to me. Its a way of life ... live it today. Back in Erbil, hes opened a new university that equips people to do just this. There are certainly options for those who want to help professors who might want to consider teaching there, and Westerners who might want to support efforts to keep a Christian community in what we often think of as the Islamic world. But all Warda really asks of most of us is that we do not forget Christians in the Middle East and that we pray that our people will go back again to rebuild our villages and stay and be bridges of peace. Please, he said, do not forget your brothers and sisters whove been persecuted for their faith, for their belief in Jesus Christ all over the world, especially in Iraq and Syria. And tell our story, he said. When I asked him why its so important that Christians remain in Iraq and Syria, given all the risks, he said, The Middle East needs Jesus Christ. And no one else could give the Middle East Jesus Christ except the Christians. In the midst of all this violence, Jesus is needed. I thought of that as Cardinal Dolan put the statue of the Christ child in the manger as midnight Mass was to begin. That humble presence of God in the world that Christmas symbolizes is also Christianity at its most powerful. Kathryn Jean Lopez is senior fellow at the National Review Institute, editor-at-large of National Review Online and founding director of Catholic Voices USA. In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian citizens and security forces gather next to damaged cars at the scene where explosion hit a commercial street, in the costal town of Jableh, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017. A large explosion hit a Syrian government-held coastal town on Thursday, killing and wounding several people, according to Syria's state TV an attack that undermined a nearly week-old and already shaky Russia- and Turkey-brokered cease-fire. (SANA via AP) A politician and other state officials are assassinated Wednesday night in Nuevo Laredo. According to the website Nuevo Laredo Frontera al Rojo Vivo, one of the officials is Regional Coordinator for the Attorney General's Office Ricardo Martinez Chavez. Along with Chavez, two other officials were shot and killed. Another official was also injured, but was treated in a Nuevo Laredo hospital. According to the website, the attack was made at a street intersection after officials had concluded a meeting. Chavez, along with the two slain officials, took office last October. Tamaulipas Governor Francisco Garcia Cabeza de Vaca wrote last night on his Twitter account: "I regret and condemn the cowardly murders in Nuevo Laredo of the elements of the PGJ. I express my condolences to their families." Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content. Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist. If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider contributing and/or subscribing to our free daily Newsletter . Support our mission and join our community now. The new year began with the infamous floods which left a number of our towns and villages on high alert as rivers burst their banks. Thomastown, Inistioge, and Graignamanagh were among the worst affected, with dozens of homes and businesses damaged. Other areas in the south, such as Dunkitt as well as Bleach Road in the city were also badly affected. Tanaiste Joan Burton visited Kilkenny, where she expressed support for the Waterford - Kilkenny boundary remaining unchanged, ahead of the looming submissions deadline. As the deadline passed, almost 20,000 submissions were made. Baby Hollie Meaney was the first baby born here in 2016 at 9.47am on New Years Day. A 1916 remembrance service in County Hall on New Years Day marked the beginning of the Centenary celebrations. Annual events such as the Ballyhale Tractor Run and the Wellie Race in Castlecomer were all well attended by large crowds. Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield caused huge excitement when he visited the city, while the Goffs Thyestes Chase at Gowran saw a bumper crowd turn out. Kilkennys new by-laws banning sulky racing also came into effect in this month. Forty-three local students took part in the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition, taking home eight awards in total. Figures published at the beginning of March by the INMO showed that St Lukes General Hospital continued to suffer from one of the worst over-crowding rates in the country. The hospital warned that it was experiencing sustained pressure and asked the public to stay away unless absolutely necessary. A farmer in south Kilkenny discovered an old Civil War hand grenade on his land, which led to the army bomb disposal unit carrying out a controlled explosion. Local schools proudly flew the tri-colour flag on Proclamation Day, with speeches, drama, music and art events taking place around the county. The city and Kilkennys various towns and villages celebrated St Patricks Day in style, with fantastic parades, and the fourth annual TradFest adding to the fun. A host of familiar faces took to the catwalk to raise funds in aid of the Chernobyl Kilkenny Outreach Group, while the search for the Callan Rose also began this month. Marking the first anniversary of his disappearance, the family of missing local man Dean Roche made a heartfelt public plea for any information regarding his whereabouts. Kilkenny got a new councillor in the form of Sean Tyrrell, co-opted by the Sinn Fein group in place of newly-elected TD Kathleen Funchion. A dog walk took place for Inistioge Puppy Rescue. HANOI, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Here's a snapshot of Vietnamese dong exchange rates in the official market and indicative SJC gold prices in Hanoi at 0125 GMT. Jan 5 Jan 4 USD/VND mid-point 22,159 22,162 USD/VND interbank 22,725/22,730 22,670/22,760 SJC gold (mln dong/tael) 36.30/36.62 36.15/36.47 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, Jan 5 (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 0405 GMT. Jan 5 Jan 4 USD/VND mid-point 22,159 22,162 USD/VND interbank 22,620/22,700 22,670/22,760 USD/VND unofficial 29,800/23,020 23,060/23,100 SJC gold (mln dong/tael) 36.35/36.67 36.15/36.47 Interbank offered rates Overnight 3.0-4.7 4.1-4.9 1 week 4.0-5.0 4.5-5.1 1 month 5.0-5.4 5.0-5.5 3 months 5.2-5.4 5.1-5.4 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; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips) Alamos Gold Inc. (TSX, NYSE: AGI) reports that it has received the forestry permits required for the development of its Kirazli gold project from the Forestry General Directorate in Turkey. Kirazli will be low cost to build and operate. It is our highest-return project and will be a significant source of free cash flow in the years ahead. This represents a significant breakthrough for the project, says John A. McCluskey, president and chief executive officer. With the environmental impact study and forestry permits for Kirazli approved by the federal government, the company now is pursuing the business opening and operation permit from the Canakkale governorship. Feasibility studies to update the economics for both Kirazli and Agi Dagi, as outlined in a 2012 pre-feasibility study, are nearing completion, the company says. A number of significant changes, including weakness in the Turkish lira and lower diesel prices since 2012, are expected to positively impact what were already attractive project economics, the company says. BMO Capital Markets describes the permit news as positive for the companys shares. The reception of the Turkish forestry permits is a long-awaited milestone; we expect strength in the shares today on the back of this positive news, BMO says. By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com Jaguar Announces Recommissioning Of Mill At Turmalina Mine Jaguar Mining Inc. (TSX: JAG) announces the recommissioning of Mill No. 3 at its Turmalina Gold Mine in Brazil. The reconstruction began in April at an estimated cost of $1.34 million, funded from operating cash flow. The mill was fully commissioned on Dec. 28, with an estimated installed capacity of 1,600 tonnes per day or 580,000 tonnes per year, the company says. Turmalina is expected to process 533,000 tonnes of ore in 2017. Using only Mill No. 3, Turmalina will be able to achieve the entire through-put capacity of the plant with a lower operating cost, through electricity consumption savings, compared to using both the No. 1 and 2 mills in 2016, Jaguar says. The other two mills have been taken off-line for maintenance and will be kept on standby mode. The reconstruction of Mill No. 3 will allow the processing plant to be run at a full capacity of 2,000 tonnes per day or approximately 720,000 tonnes per year in future years, using a combination of mills, Jaguar adds. We expect that the increase in process tonnage and lower operating costs for Mill #3 will positively impact Turmalina's unitary costs, says Rodney Lamond, president and chief executive officer. By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com Millrock, Centerra Gold Form Strategic Alliance For Projects In Sonora, Mexico Millrock Resources Inc. (TSXV: MRO) announces it has entered a strategic alliance agreement with Centerra Gold Inc. (TSX: CG) for gold projects in region of the Sonora, Mexico. Millrock will undertake exploration and evaluate prospective properties to develop gold-exploration projects, while Centerra will provide funding of at least $250,000 this year, Millrock says. Upon making exploration expenditures of $2 million on a designated project, Centerra will vest with an 80% joint-venture interest and Millrock will retain a 20% interest, Millrock says. Centerra has already taken on two of our Sonora gold projects, says Gregory A. Beischer, Millrocks president and chief executive officer, adding that Centerra has shown confidence in our Mexico exploration team by entering this strategic alliance. Millrock says it will operate exploration in Sonora from its operations base in Hermosillo, Mexico, which it describes as the mining and exploration hub of Sonora. By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com By Mai Nguyen HANOI, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Farmers in Vietnam, the world's top robusta producer, released beans to cash in on rising prices ahead of the country's biggest holiday, traders said on Thursday. Traders quoted robusta grade 2, 5-pct black and broken at discounts of $65-$70 a tonne to the London ICE March contract , slightly tightening from $60-$70 a tonne earlier this week. The ICE price climbed 1.9 percent to close near a two-month high on Wednesday, pushing the domestic price in Vietnam on Thursday to 46,200 dong ($2.04) per kg, much higher than the 33,000-34,000 dong during the same period last year . "Despite a harvesting delay due to rainfall, farmers are actually selling more than usual as they need cash for Tet and as prices are attractive," said Phan Hung Anh, deputy director of Anh Minh Company in Daklak, Vietnam's top growing province. Tet, or the Lunar New Year, is Vietnam's biggest public holiday which will last from Jan. 26 to Feb. 1 this year. "With farmers selling beans, exporters have enough stocks for export orders which have started kicking in after the New Year holiday," Hung Anh said. Vietnam is expected to have exported 1.79 million tonnes (29.83 million 60-kg bags) of coffee in 2016, up 33.7 percent from a year ago, the government said last month, while traders expect coffee exports in January could hit 180,000 tonnes. In Indonesia, exporters' warehouses are closed through Jan. 9 for holidays. ($1 = 22,620 dong) (Additional reporting by Mas Alina Arifin in Bandar Lampung; Editing by Sunil Nair) By Gustavo Bonato SAO PAULO, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Brazilian soybean export premiums have nearly doubled from a year ago as a stronger currency encouraged local producers to delay sales of an expected record crop, Thomson Reuters data showed on Thursday. Export premiums rose to 57 cents a bushel over February futures in Chicago , 90 percent up from the 30 cents premium offered in early 2016. Soybean prices in reais are 24 percent below their 2016 peak, at 74.52 reais per 60-kg bag at the Paranagua port, as the local currency gained nearly 30 percent since early last year. The Brazilian real is currently trading at a near-two-month high, just above 3.2 per dollar. "If premiums were much lower, there would not be any deal. Demand is firm, but producers are reluctant to sell," said Glauco Monte, commodities director at brokerage INTL FCStone. Forward sales are below their historical average at about 34 percent of expected production so far, compared with 40 percent at this time last year, consultancy AgRural said in December. Traders say they are delaying deals as much as possible in hope of better prices. The government's crop supply agency Conab forecast that the 2016/17 soy harvest would reach a record 102.45 million tonnes, up 7 percent from the previous season. There are reports of early harvesting in small areas of top producing states. As work gains pace, large volumes of soybean should reach the market in January, in a period of the year when usually there is not relevant supply to feed exports. "Expectations are for a very good crop in Brazil... and for an early harvest. Buyers are showing up and exporters are trying to get more beans out of producers' hands," said Pedro Dejneka, president of analysis firm AGR Brasil, in Chicago. With prospects of stiff competition at the ports when harvest hits full throttle, analysts expect premiums to drop soon. "Sales will be concentrated during the harvesting period. Premiums will drop, and spot prices will come under pressure in February and March," FCStone's Monte said. (Writing by Silvio Cascione; Editing by Andrew Hay) Gold built on recent gains in overnight Asian-Pacific trade as the U.S. dollar eased, with the precious metal hitting a four-week high. As of 7:55 a.m. EST, spot gold was up $10.10 to $1,173.50 an ounce, while the euro was up to $1.05060 from $1.04882 late Wednesday. Further USD weakness coupled with demand out of China took gold higher once again during Asian trade today, says Sam Laughlin, precious-metals trader with MKS (Switzerland) S.A. Pre-Shanghai interest saw the metal test a break of $1,170, supported by a leg lower in USD/JPY back below 117. A solid bid tone throughout the afternoon had gold trading easily through $1,170, while a sharp move lower in USD/CNH (6.89 to 6.78) during the Shanghai lunch break provided the stimulus for a test toward $1,180 leading into European hours. Strong physical demand out of the far East in conjunction with whippy currency pricing and a reduction in ETF outflows should continue to provide support for gold. Laughlin lists nearby support for the metal at $1,170, while a break above $1,180 should provide the platform for further gains. By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com Barclays: Commodities Could Encounter Black Swan Events In 2017 Barclays says politics are likely to matter just as much as economics for commodity markets in 2017. There are a number of so-called black swan threats to supply, demand and transit of commodities that could potentially move markets in 2017, the bank says, defining a black swan as an extreme event or dynamic that market participants are not factoring into prices. During 2016, such surprises included Donald Trumps win in the race for U.S. president and the Brexit vote. In particular, the new politics of populism and protectionist-trade policies have the potential to disrupt global supply and demand assumptions for various commodities, Barclays says. Barclays lists a number of possible black swan events in 2017, include an escalation of U.S.-Iran tensions that leads to more Iranian ballistic testing, a Venezuelan debt default, a large-scale water contamination issue due to a wastewater disposal incident, riots after the general election that halt mine production in Chile, escalation of a trade war with China, and more. By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com ISTANBUL, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Here are news, reports and events that may affect Turkish financial markets on Thursday. The lira was at 3.5595 at 0530 GMT, firming from 3.5786 at the close on Wednesday. The yield on the benchmark 10-year bond was at 11.45 percent in spot trade on Wednesday and was at 11.32 percent in Thursday-dated trade. The main share index fell 0.62 percent on Wednesday to close at 76,143.59 points. GLOBAL MARKETS Asian stocks rose for an eighth consecutive day on Thursday, buoyed by further gains on Wall Street and an overnight bounce in oil prices that bolstered energy shares. Also underpinning the cautious streak of optimism has been a steady stream of upbeat factory and service sector surveys out of the U.S., Europe and Asia this week, prompting some banks to raise their global growth forecasts for 2017. NIGHTCLUB ATTACK Security forces are hunting for a gunman who killed 39 people in an Istanbul nightclub on New Year's Day, an attack claimed by Islamic State. Turkish police detained several people in a raid in an Istanbul suburb of Selimpasa on Thursday. It had taken into custody 20 suspected Islamic State militants thought to be of Central Asian and North African origin in the Aegean coastal city of Izmir on Wednesday, according to a police statement. AL-BAB OPERATION The United States is in talks with Turkey about the future support the U.S. military will provide Turkish forces around al-Bab, Syria, a U.S. military spokesman said on Wednesday, adding that he expected the assistance to continue. ERDOGAN President Tayyip Erdogan will attend an opening ceremony in Ankara along with Prime Minister Binali Yildirim and give a speech. (1100 GMT). For other related news, double click on: Turkish politics Turkish equities Turkish money Turkish debt Turkish hot stocks Forex news All emerging market news All Turkish news For real-time quotes, double click on: Istanbul National-100 stock index , interbank lira trading , lira bond trading (Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk) (Adds additional Cooperman comments) NEW YORK, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Hedge fund investor Leon Cooperman, the chief executive of Omega Advisors, told CNBC on Thursday his firm's assets had shrunk to $3.4 billion after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's insider trading charges. Cooperman, whose firm managed roughly $10.7 billion about two years ago before being charged by the SEC last September, said the agency's charges had damaged his business. "I was truly surprised at the destructive power the SEC has," Cooperman told the television network. "They've done substantial damage to my business, and I think, in the end, for no reason." The government accused Cooperman of benefiting from trades he made after using his position as a large shareholder to gain information about a planned sale that others did not know about. Cooperman said his firm's credit fund gained 16 percent last year, his equity-only fund 10 percent, and his diversified strategy 8 percent. He said his firm owned shares of Facebook , Amazon and Alphabet , with the last constituting 4 percent of the fund's assets. He said the U.S. stock market was "fully valued" and that he would turn bearish on stocks if they continued climbing higher over the next two months. The S&P 500 has gained about 6 percent since Donald Trump's U.S. presidential victory on Nov. 8. Cooperman also said his firm had added to its position in Gulfport Energy and that he expected oil prices to rise to between $65-70 a barrel in a year. U.S. crude last traded at $53.63 a barrel on Thursday afternoon. (Reporting by Sam Forgione; Editing by Bernadette Baum, Bernard Orr) With the Sir Peter Leitch controversy, I guess no one knows for sure what was said, except those there. But the allegation is he said: I go Yeah, Im actually born here. Thats when he said Well this is a white mans island and you should acknowledge that, she said. To me this fails the sniff test. It is not just something that anyone would say demanding a Maori women should acknowledge that Waiheke is a white mans island. Sure this might be what she genuinely thinks he said, but the wording seems preposterous. While Sir Peters version of events does not. Such a pity that today people feel the way to do deal with a conversation that upset them is to rush to Facebook and demonise the other person. Share this: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Reddit WhatsApp More Pinterest Print Tumblr There has been surprisingly little sensible reporting on what Israel is likely to do, in response to the role of NZ in the UN Security Council vote. As I have previously blogged, Israel did not threaten war. The normally very sensible Patrick Smellie has done a silly article speculating that Israel may launch cyber attacks on NZ. This is just nonsense. Some of his other suggestions may be closer to the mark such as private sector trade missions wont be allowed. Lets start with what we do know. Israel has withdrawn their Ambassador for consultations and has banned the NZ Ambassador from visiting. This is actually a very serious step for a country to take. In terms of diplomatic responses, this is only below cutting off diplomatic representation. Most diplomatic issues between countries are dealt with by way of private or public note between foreign ministries. Sometimes this will be elevated to Ambassadors or Ministers or even Prime Ministers. To give an analogy, NZ has (off memory) only recalled an Ambassador in situations like with Fiji. So Israel regards NZs actions akin to how NZ has regarded Fiji. This means that it wont just stop with the recalling the Ambassador for consultation. I expect there will be profound negative impact on relations, beyond just the diplomatic. Israel will of course make decisions based on its national interest, as does New Zealand. If they go overboard with their response, it may backfire in terms of public support. Share this: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Reddit WhatsApp More Pinterest Print Tumblr Shenandoah, IA (51601) Today Cloudy with periods of rain. Thunder possible. High around 45F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near an inch.. Tonight Rain with some snow mixing in overnight. Low 31F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of precip 100%. After 15 years of development, an Israeli tech firm is optimistic it will finally get its 1,500-kg (1.5-ton) passenger-carrying drone off the ground and into the market by 2020. The Cormorant, billed as a flying car, is capable of transporting 500 kg (around half a ton) of weight and traveling at 185 km (115 miles) per hour. It completed its first automated solo flight over terrain in November. Its total price is estimated at $14 million. Developers Urban Aeronautics believe the dark-green drone, which uses internal rotors rather than helicopter propellers, could evacuate people from hostile environments and/or allow military forces safe access. "Just imagine a dirty bomb in a city and chemical substance of something else, and this vehicle can come in, remotely piloted, and decontaminate an area," Urban Aeronautics founder and CEO Rafi Yoeli told Reuters. (Shenandoah) -- A new foundation is kicking off a campaign to raise $250,000 for the Shenandoah Community School District. The newly-formed Shenandoah Education Foundation recently announced its initial Founding Donor Campaign, with the goal of raising one-quarter million dollars and establishing a strong financial base. The foundation -- which was formed last January -- has a 501-C-3 designation and has an 11-member board of directors, which is made up of community members. Board President Corby Fichter says the foundation's goal is to assist the school system with whatever support it needs. "Basically, we are here to enhance and support all of our education here in Shenandoah, whether that's facilities, grants, scholarships or any kind of help to teachers and students." said Fichter. "This isn't a short-term thing. We're in this for the long-haul; we're here for years to come. This is just the way to get started." Fichter says all of the foundation's board members have contributed to the fund and are now looking for individuals to develop a strong financial base for the organization. "We are already putting a list of names of people together that we'd love to go see," said Fichter. "We want to have a lot of face-to-face contact with people here in Shenandoah or people that moved away, but Shenandoah was their home where they got their education. We're trying to compile that list and as board members, we'll reach to them and figure out what they can do to help us out." Shenandoah Superintendent Dr. Kerri Nelson says the foundation has already established a mini-grant program to assist teachers who spend their own money on classroom supplies. "A lot of times, teachers spend a lot of money out of pocket," said Nelson. "We started a mini-grant program just in December that offered teachers the opportunity to apply for $250. While that doesn't seem like a lot, $250 to a teacher in a classroom can make a tremendous difference. That's an initial step. We would like to see much larger things by contributing to advancing STEM or advancing other programs that we want to get involved in." In addition to assisting with classroom and curriculum expenditures, the foundation hopes to expand its efforts to facility improvements. Nelson says the district is currently in the process of evaluating its facilities needs with an assessment. "We are trying to understand what our needs are, how to prepare for our growth and adjust and move forward wisely," said Nelson. "We hope to work with the foundation as well on that end result of identifying what those needs are and how they can help support us." Donations to the foundation can be made in the form of cash, stocks, bonds, land or any other tangible asset. Donations can be made online through the Shenandoah School website. You can also contact one of the foundation's board members for more information. Members include: Fichter, Alan Armstrong, Nick Bosley, Star Ann Kloberdanz, Jeff Baker, Bruce Baldwin, Steve Lorimer, Amy Miller, Julie O'Hara, Chuck Offenberger and Duane Rexroth. More information about the group is available on their Facebook page. Shenandoah Education Foundation names board of directors (Shenandoah) Established in January, the Shenandoah Education Foundation is beginning to take shape. Shen board establishes school foundation (Shenandoah) -- Shenandoah's school district is joining the ranks of others in Iowa with fundraising arms. Shen board approves Sweeney's consulting contract (Shenandoah) -- The Shenandoah School District's former activities director will serve as a consultant with the district. Locals on the outskirts of the northern Danish town of Aalborg were startled to see Korean news crews and local police descend on a house in their leafy enclave earlier this week. Neighbors rushed outside to watch the ruckus, while a local TV crew was scrambled to cover the incident. But the residents of the house at the center of the commotion were eerily silent, closing all the curtains and covering other windows with paper. It was here that the fugitive daughter of President Park Geun-hye's longtime crony Choi Soon-sil had been hiding until her arrest on Sunday. Neighbors said they thought Chung Yoo-ra and her entourage, who came to the neighborhood in October last year, had something to do with horses. One local in his 60s said, "I asked a young man who was part of the group and he said they were engaged in equestrian work. I thought that was unusual since we don't see many people from Korea, but didn't think much of it because there's a riding center nearby." Another resident said, "There wasn't much contact since they didn't come out of the house during the day." Airman provides logistics for Obamas archival move By Air Force Staff Sgt. Christopher Gross ANUARY 5, 2017 at 11:41 a.m. Lt. Col. Vianesa Vargas, joined the Joint Task Force - National Capital Region in support of the 58th Presidential Inauguration, which will take place Jan. 20, 2017. Vargas, the chief of Joint Team Records, is leading the movement of President Barack Obamas records and artifacts from Washington D.C. to Hoffman Estates, Illinois, just on the outskirts of Chicago. Shes the lead logistician in charge of a joint team of Airmen and Soldiers who have been preparing semi-trucks full of artifacts. In all, more than 20 trucks are expected to make deliveries from October through February. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Dylan Nuckolls) FORT GEORGE G. MEADE, Md., Jan. 5, 2017 The presidential library system is a national network of 13 libraries hosting the many records and artifacts generated during the tenure of every president since Herbert Hoover, and a library in Chicago honoring the achievements of President Barack Obama will soon join the network. The items housed inside those libraries and museums arent transferred from Washington like a typical household goods move. Specially formed teams from the military and the National Archives and Records Administration have worked since late 2016 with White House staff to coordinate the transfer, with the final truckload expected to arrive in Chicago early this year. Air Force Lt. Col. Vianesa Vargas, the chief of Joint Team Records, is leading the charge for the more than 700-mile trek from Washington to Hoffman Estates, Illinois, just on the outskirts of Chicago. Shes the lead logistician in charge of a joint team of airmen and soldiers who have prepared tractor trailers full of artifacts. In all, more than 20 trucks are expected to make deliveries. Vargas described her team as the muscle behind the move. The NARA team packages the items from the White House and then coordinates with Vargas and her team for shipment. Our team will assist NARA in going over to the White House, picking up the documents, records or gift(s), and they bring it all to the National Archives and at that point its planned for onward movement, Vargas said. On the receiving end at Hoffman Estates is a team of sailors from Naval Station Great Lakes, Illinois. Vargas said the teams, despite being separated by 700 miles and two time zones, have been exceptional and among the best NARA has said theyve worked with. Vargas and her team are responsible for every record and artifact from the time its being loaded until its on the shelf at Hoffman Estates. She said her team has the ability to track the entire transit, including every stop along the route. Growing up just outside Sacramento, California, Vargas said she never envisioned being put in the position shes currently in, with the responsibility of moving historical artifacts for one of the most prominent people on the planet. When I left Sacramento I thought I was going to go to school and become a fitness trainer, one of the top fitness trainers in the nation, that was like my goal then life has a way of kind of pointing you in the direction of where it needs you to go, Vargas said. So joining the Air Force ROTC program, that opened up my mind and my heart to something much bigger, much bigger than myself. Vargas, who has been in the Air Force for 18 years -- her first 11 were active duty and the rest of her time served in the Air Force Reserve said her various logistics jobs, including joint assignments, have prepared her well for her current assignment. Aside from working with NARA and White House staff, Vargas has coordinated with multiple agencies from Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, and the Air Force District of Washington. Theres all these different parts that we have to all work with, and being a logistician, thats really where we excel is being the integrator of all of that, she said. John Laster, the director of the Presidential Materials Division for NARA, said Vargas and her team are very skilled and have been very efficient throughout the entire process thus far. He noted that the team has been very flexible and responsive when dealing with the challenges of moving an administration that is still hard at work running the country, making it difficult to plan very far ahead. Theres a lot of decisions that are made very quickly and the military has been fantastic about understanding that, Laster said. Although the library isnt expected to open until sometime in 2021, Vargas said she cant wait to take her family to visit and tell them how she had a role in making it all happen. Published January 5, 2017 The Asia Development Bank in a recent report recommended that Korea and Japan raise the retirement age to 69 and allow in more immigrants as their economically active populations shrinks. ADB said Asian countries' economies grew rapidly thanks to an ample economically active population, but now "a main concern is the high and growing share of economically inactive retirees in the total population. A further concern is that, with the decline of fertility rates, labor supply will suffer, ultimately damaging the region's economic output." ADB projected the economically active population across Asia to start shrinking between 2040 and 2050. It grew 18 percent in 2010 but will grow only six percent by 2030 and shrink five percent in 2050. Coway CEO Lee Hae-seon, second from left, promotes the company's robotic air purifier at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Wednesday (local time). / Courtesy of Coway By Lee Hyo-sik Coway is showcasing 23 "smart" home appliances and care services at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas from Jan. 5 to 8, the company said Thursday. It is the second time Korea's largest home appliance rental service firm has participated in the world's largest consumer electronics show. Coway's booth at the CES, "Care Station," has four sections that exhibit a wide range of air purifiers, water purifiers, bidets, mattresses and cosmetics products. The company plans to promote an internet-linked water purifier, a robotic air purifier, an air purifier equipped with Amazon's artificial intelligence (AI) platform, Alexa, and an air mattress. The firm also plans to pitch its innovative, big data-based home-care solution that provides unprecedented smart, ubiquitous and tailored user experiences. Hyundai Motor Vice Chairman Chung Eui-sun reads a book while being driven by the autonomous Ioniq sedan in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada. Chung made a presentation during this year's Consumer Electronics Show in the city to introduce the carmaker's strategy for future mobility. / Courtesy of Hyundai Motor By Jhoo Dong-chan Korea's largest carmaker Hyundai Motor's Vice Chairman Chung Eui-sun showcased the company's self-driving technology at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada, Thursday (local time). Hyundai Motor unveiled a video clip during its media conference presentation, of Chung riding in the Ioniq autonomous driving vehicle with his hands off the steering wheel, in downtown Las Vegas. He also drank coffee and read a book while being driven. "It was impressive. I was able to multitask, while being driven autonomously allowing me to be much more efficient," said Chung. "I am very confident that freedom in mobility may become a reality much sooner than everyone expects." In the presentation, Hyundai Motor suggested its three visions for future mobility Freedom in Mobility, Clean Mobility and Connected Mobility. It said Hyundai Motor is enhancing its safety technologies by developing artificial intelligence (AI) to counter potential accident situations. The carmaker has started to unveil its autonomous driving technologies with the Ioniq electric vehicle (EV) sedan at the Los Angeles International Motor Show last year, and showcased its self-driving technologies at night with local media in Las Vegas last month. The autonomous Ioniq sedan Chung tested at the show also met the level 4 standard by Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). SAE-level 4 means high automation, while level 5 means full automation. By Yoon Ja-young The government aims at reaching $510 billion in total exports this year by supporting exporters with trade financing and marketing activities. Manufacturers that inflict serious damage on consumers with their products, meanwhile, will face much stricter penalties as a punitive damages system will be adopted. These are part of the government's annual policy plans for 2017, announced Thursday. The ministries of Strategy and Finance, Trade, Industry and Energy, and Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) and the Financial Services Commission (FSC) submitted their annual policy plans to acting president Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn. The biggest priority for the trade ministry this year is to pull up exports, which have been falling for two consecutive years on global recession and toughening competition in major markets. The government suggested pulling up the country's total exports to $510 billion this year, up 2.9 percent from last year. To attain this, the government plans to expand trade financing to 229 trillion won from the previous 221 trillion won, as well as strengthen support for marketing activities, such as promotions by Hallyu stars, by over 30 percent. Another major focus is to nurture future growth engines. Through a 17 trillion won investment by both the government and private sector, 12 new industries including self-driving cars, the IoT, and drones will get support for development. Corporate restructuring in shipbuilding, steel and the petrochemical industries meanwhile will be accelerated, while preemptive corporate restructuring through the so-called "one-shot act" will be encouraged in other sectors as well. It also plans to prepare for the changes in global trade, which are anticipated with the beginning of the Donald Trump administration in the United States as well as strengthening of non-tariff barriers in China. The government will focus on improving the job market for the young. State-run enterprises and government organizations, which are supposed to hire a record-high 19,862 people this year, will complete over 55 percent of their planned hiring within the first half of the year, to improve the job market as soon as possible. It will also ease regulations on foreign exchange transactions. Currently, transactions of less than $2,000, with an annual sum below $50,000, are exempt from reporting. The government plans to raise the ceiling higher in July. The FTC plans to implement punitive damages on manufacturers that hurt consumers with their products. They will have to provide compensation up to three times above the actual damage to consumers. This act aims at preventing consumer damages like those incurred by the toxic humidifier disinfectant which claimed over 1,000 lives here. According to the policy plan submitted by the land ministry, self-driving public buses will be operated in Pangyo, Gyeonggi Province beginning December. It is the first time for Koreans to see and ride in a completely unmanned self-driving vehicle running on the street carrying passengers. It also plans to reduce the number of accident victims to below 4,000 annually. Speed limits on ordinary roads will be reduced to 50 kilometers per hour from the current 60 kilometers per hour in some regions. Senior-citizens who work as taxi drivers will also have to go through tougher screening. By Kim Jae-kyoung The Korean economy is facing another tumultuous year in 2017, with a number of cyclical and structural challenges both at home and abroad expected to undermine fundamentals and delay recovery. Externally, U.S. protectionism and the Chinese slowdown are likely to further weaken export growth, dealing a blow to the economy relying heavily on external shipments. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is likely to call for the renegotiation of free trade deals, while China is posing downside risks as it pushes for reforms to address overcapacity and rising debt. "In the short run the greatest concern should be to ensure that exports can continue," Mauro Guillen, director at the Lauder Institute of the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, told The Korea Times. "The biggest threats would be protectionism in the U.S., a Chinese slowdown, and geopolitical turmoil in East Asia," he added. Internally, domestic demand is likely to continue to stay in the doldrums. Consumer confidence has hit rock bottom due to mounting debts and the worst-ever political scandal surrounding President Park Geun-hye. According to the Bank of Korea (BOK), the composite consumer sentiment index came to 94.2 in December, the lowest level in nearly eight years. Korea's households have significant debt, reaching a record high of 1,300 trillion won in 2016. The burden could grow even larger as the U.S. Fed is likely to cut key rates at a faster-than-expected pace. "Korea's economy is likely to face headwinds in 2017, as global demand remains subdued and domestic demand struggles with rising private debt and a declining working population," Moody's Analytics economist Emily Dabbs said. "The high level of household debt is a major concern for Korea's economy in 2017," she added. "The BOK is limited in its ability to support broader economic activity through lower rates, as this would also push up credit which is already at record highs." What is of more concern is that Asia's fourth-largest economy is facing long-term structural challenges at the same time. Long term issues are population aging and the ability of the economy to remain competitive in a world with rapidly changing technologies. "Demographics is the most serious problem facing Korea and the problem is worse than many of Korea's trading partners," said Sohn Sung-won, an economics professor at California State University. "Without a young and growing labor force, it is difficult to grow an economy. Ideally, productivity gains could pick up the slack, but it is unlikely," he said. Korea's economic growth is forecast to remain below 3 percent in 2007 for the third consecutive year as the government cut its forecast to 2.6 percent, Thursday. Against this backdrop, policymakers need to come up with a two-pronged strategy to address both internal and external challenges. In the short term, the economy needs fiscal stimulus to inject new vigor into the economy. In the longer run structural reforms are needed to prevent the country from falling into a prolonged low growth trap. "Policymakers should reform the production structure of the Korean economy, basically restructuring heavy industry sectors and moving toward a services-based economy by cutting dependence on exports," Alicia Garcia-Herrero, Asia-Pacific chief economist at Natixis, said "There is no other way out since subsidizing all sectors will prove too costly," she added. ""For aging, Japan should be a clear example of what Korea should not replicate. Korea needs targeted but large immigration if it wants to continue to grow," she said. Finally, it is urgent for the economy to be more agile to respond to external shocks because the global economy and business world are likely to remain volatile for a while. "The most important thing is to have flexibility in the economy," Guillen of the Wharton School said. "If one product does not sell well, then you have to have others," he added. "If one market slows down or is protected, it is necessary to have others available." By Yun Suh-young The bankruptcy of Songin Books, the country's No. 2 book wholesaler, Tuesday is taking a toll on the already staggering publishing industry. Concerns are growing that its insolvency will trigger chain collapses of many other companies in the industry. Songin failed to honor 37 billion won ($31 million) in matured debt owed to smaller publishing companies and other creditors. Its collapse reflects poor management, and a reduced role of the wholesaler in the industry due to a decreased number of offline bookstores, and the increase in online purchases. The dwindling educational publication market amid the reduced student population was also another contributing factor. Those hit hardest by Songin's bankruptcy were small- and medium-sized bookstores that are dependent on wholesalers for their supply. Excluding large scale book stores, such as Kyobo Book Store, many smaller bookstores in the city and in provincial regions receive their books from wholesalers such as Songin. With the company's bankruptcy, around 2,000 clients who have done business with Songin will no longer be able to receive books. Songin Books started as Songin Seorim in 1959 and had worked with over 2,000 publishers over the years. Yet with the decreasing number of offline book stores, and due to the recently implemented fixed book price regulation in 2014 that limited bookstores from selling books at prices lower than those set by the publishers, sales of books in the offline market have dropped. Moreover, Songin suffered from competition with other wholesalers. "It's impossible for a wholesaler to survive under the current structure. Large publishers want their shares on time while book stores want lower distribution rates. The few wholesalers that compete are sandwiched in the middle suffering from low distribution prices and rates," said Han Ki-ho, director of the Korea Publishing Marketing Research Institute, lamenting the situation on his blog on the day the bankruptcy was announced. "The situation got worse with the fixed book price regulation. Book stores wanted wholesalers to distribute at lower prices." However, some industry insiders say Songin went under mainly due to its own poor management. "The difficulty is similar for other wholesalers too. If the industry's structural problem is the issue, other wholesalers should go bankrupt too, but that's not the case. Songin's management was poor and didn't take proper measures to prevent this situation in advance," said an industry official who requested anonymity. "From what I know, it tried to expand overseas a few years ago and they established a branch in the U.S., but it didn't go well and they bled financially from that." Songin is unique in their financial transaction method as they are one of the few companies that transact business with promissory notes. The bankruptcy came from its failure to pay back 8 billion won that was held in promissory notes. In reaction to the panic spreading among industry officials, the culture ministry said Wednesday that it will evaluate all possible measures including financial support to prevent small publishers from going bankrupt. It decided to meet with industry officials to further discuss ways to mitigate the situation. Songin's leftover balance and stock was handed over to creditors. Kim Dong-sun, right, with his lawyer at Gangnam Police Station in Seoul, Thursday. / Yonhap By Park Si-soo The third son of Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-youn faces arrest after going on a drunken rampage at a luxury bar in southern Seoul on Thursday. Police said they will seek an arrest warrant for Kim Dong-sun over the incident. The prosecution will soon decide whether to ask the court to issue an arrest warrant for him. The junior Kim, 27, is a friend of Chung Yoo-ra, the daughter of Choi Soon-sil who is at the center of the corruption scandal that led to President Park Geun-hye's impeachment. Kim and Chung won a gold medal in the team dressage competition at the Incheon Asian Games in 2014. According to Gangnam Police Station, Kim "slapped bar employees in the face several times for no reason" under the influence of alcohol at 3:30 a.m. Thursday. He was also accused of damaging a police car window and seat covers while being taken to a police station. This week alone, eight beauty injections have won government approval for sale. / Yonhap By Lee Han-soo The corruption scandal that led to President Park Geun-hye's impeachment has had an unexpected side effect -- it has triggered a massive craze for beauty injections. Pharmaceutical companies say the anti-aging shots are in high demand at upscale hospitals and clinics, with some even developing pricy anti-aging treatment packages. The phenomenon is attributed to President Park's fascination with anti-aging shots and related treatments, revealed by media reports and prosecutors' investigations. Park is known to have received anti-aging treatments at a hospital in southern Seoul for many years under the alias "Gil Ra-im." Pharmaceutical companies have reacted quickly, launching new beauty injections targeting rich women. This week alone, eight beauty injections have won government approval for sale. But experts say people should be wary of the injections because their effectiveness has not been fully tested. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, right, talks with Rep. Song Young-gil of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing, Wednesday. Song led six other lawmakers to visit China for talks on the planned deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery here. / Yonhap By Jun Ji-hye Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi virtually admitted Wednesday that his country committed retaliatory actions against South Korea for its planned deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery here. Wang also reiterated calls for Seoul to halt the deployment of the advanced U.S. anti-missile defense system during a meeting with seven lawmakers from the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) in Beijing. The lawmakers, led by Rep. Song Young-gil, are in China for a three-day visit amid the deepening diplomatic row between Seoul and Beijing over the deployment. In response to the lawmakers' request to lift China's retaliatory actions including its ban on K-pop and K-drama stars as well as on bilateral exchanges and cooperation, Wang was quoted as saying, "The Chinese government will make efforts to resolve this conflict if the deployment is put on hold." The comment was construed as his acknowledgement that the Chinese government has systematically retaliated, although it has never officially said so. Popular South Korean entertainers have been virtually banned from performing in China since late last year. Beijing also abruptly banned South Korean airlines from operating chartered flights between the two countries beginning this month. Wang said that China does not want relations with South Korea to move backward, but it would be unimaginable for the country to say it wants to expand relations when Seoul intends to accelerate the THAAD deployment, according to the lawmakers. When Seoul and Washington announced the THAAD deployment decision in July last year, they said the deployment would be completed by the end of this year. But they have recently indicated that the deployment will be finished sooner than expected. USFK Commander Gen. Vincent Brooks said last November the battery would be installed in eight to 10 months to counter growing nuclear and missile threats from North Korea. Defense Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun noted, based on the U.S. general's comment, "The deployment can be completed in June at the earliest." Beijing has ramped up its criticism of THAAD, repeating that the deployment will undermine regional stability and its security interests. Samsung will send out a debilitating software update for Galaxy Note 7 phones to encourage some 50,000 users who still cling to the combustible devices to turn them in. The automatic update out next Monday will limit the battery charge to just 15 percent to prevent the handsets from catching fire. So far, 94 percent of the Note 7s sold in Korea have been returned, but given that 950,000 were sold, around 57,000 people are still using them. By Kim Se-jeong The government has recently changed the rules of ceremonies involving the pledge of allegiance, making it difficult to honor pro-democracy fighters or other anti-government activists at public events. Civic groups called the revision an attempt to repress the people further and to devalue the Gwangju Democratic Uprising of 1980 and other anti-government movements. According to the revised rules on the pledge of allegiance, which went into effect on Jan. 1, "a silent tribute is only paid to patriotic martyrs and the souls of fallen heroes." The rules state that paying a silent tribute to other people, such as democracy fighters, may be possible only in limited cases if the participants at the event agree, but such figures are officially excluded. Also, the rules have new details about singing the national anthem such as "People should stand up while singing the national anthem and should not change the tune. And the silent tribute should be observed with eyes closed and one's head down." The rules for the pledge of allegiance are widely observed both on a national and regional level and students learn it at school as well. Civic groups criticized the new rules, saying setting such rules itself is nationalistic. "In summary, this is what a nationalistic government would attempt to do," said Cho Se-youl, secretary general at the Center for Historical Truth and Justice. "The government refuses to honor people who stood against its power. "The government is teaching citizens how to behave. It has no authority to do that. This is stupidity on the part of the government," Cho said. Kim Yang-rae from the May 18 Memorial Foundation based in Gwangju said he is worried about how the change will affect the way his organization commemorates victims of the Gwangju uprising, a civic movement in which more than 600 citizens were estimated to have been killed. "The new rules imply the government does not like to recognize victims of the May 18 movement," Kim said. Cho also raised a question about the timing of the change. "Why now? Why did the government want to change the rules now when the President is inactive?" Cho asked. The Ministry of the Interior, responsible for the revision, said the government does not have a specific aim. "There's nothing really new. We have just put what was already there into words," Kim Hang-seop from the ministry said. Armoured vehicles and police cars parked outside the hotel building after the shooting. By Jun Mai By Jun Mai A senior Sichuan official shot two of his supervisors on Wednesday morning in the middle of a high-level meeting before killing himself, Chinese media report. Panzhihua land and resources bureau chief Chen Zhongshu fired at the city's Communist Party chief, Zhang Yan, and mayor Li Jianqin before fleeing the scene, according to Shanghai-based news outlet Thepaper.cn. Zhang and Li sustained minor wounds and Chen was later found dead in the hotel building where the meeting was being held, the report said. Chen rushed in and fired at the two men while the meeting was under way, the report said. Both Li and Zhang were sent to hospital, where their wounds were described as not life-threatening. No motive was given for the attack and it was not clear how Chen obtained the firearm. Chinese civilians are prohibited from having guns under national law. The shooting took place just six months after Li, 53, arrived in the city and five after he became mayor. Li was reassigned to Panzhihua after spending more than 20 years working in the resources sector, including eight years in charge of the internal watchdog office of the Ministry of Land and Resources. A source told the South China Morning Post that Li was an expert in Chen's professional area and Chen had become a target of investigation before the shooting. The Southern Metropolis News quoted an unnamed government source as saying Chen had complained to his friends that Zhang and Li were "ratting on him". Zhang's official resume includes four years in various corruption-fighting departments. Li Jianqin (left) and Zhang Yan Chen had worked in the city's anti-corruption department for more than 10 years and received national praise in 2015 for keeping cadres under his watch in line, according to earlier Chinese media reports. Wednesday's shooting comes as President Xi Jinping's anti-graft campaign continues its sweep across the country, with officials felled at a rate not seen in decades. It also comes ahead of a major meeting of the party's top anti-corruption watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, which starts on Friday and Xi will chair, according to state media. Resources-rich Sichuan has been among the worst-hit provinces in the anti-graft campaign. Zhou Yongkang, once the party's security tsar, had badly influenced the political environment of the province, a senior Sichuan official said earlier. Zhou was sentenced to life imprisonment on corruption charges and abuse of power in 2015. There have been many cases of cadres committing suicide while under corruption investigations but it is very rare for officials to shoot their supervisors. Panzhihua, located in the mountainous area of southwest Sichuan, is a centre for iron ore, vanadium and titanium mining. Chinese researcher Liu Yong shows the darkened face mask filter (left), which was exposed to smog for 10 days alongside a new filter. By Wei Qi By Wei Qi What do we breathe into our lungs when we take a breath of smog? With residents across northern China battling severe smog in recent weeks, a Beijing-based professor decided to take a closer look at what people have been facing. Liu Yong examined smog particles collected on facial mask filters during the recent periods of severe air pollution and then photographed them under a microscope that enlarged the images by up to 2,000 times. He said he wanted to use the images of the smog particles to raise public awareness about the dangers caused by smog. "It's only when people are fully aware of the dangers of smog that we can push the government to do more to improve the air quality," Liu said. Liu, who works at a nanocomposite research laboratory at Beijing University of Chemical Technology, used seven to eight different facial masks for his research. The Chinese-made brand of face marks, Maixingren, which was chosen for the research, were worn by one of the team of researchers on 10 different days when the level of air pollution was severe. Traces of calcium carbonate, iron oxide and sulphate were found on the face masks. The masks were exposed to the smog for about seven to eight hours in total, with the final mask worn on Tuesday morning. "When the smog levels are severe, like they are today [Wednesday] and yesterday, a mask needs to be worn for only a short time in order to collect the samples," Liu said. It was clearly visible when looking at the filter exposed to the smog particles that it had become darkened compared with a new filter, China News reported. The visible dry particles contained traces of chemical elements including calcium carbonate, iron oxide and sulphate. Some forms of pollution would require other methods in order to be seen. An examination like Liu's could help to determine the origin of the smog on a mask and trace it back, for example, to the burning of coal at a factory. Liu said he agreed with research carried out at Britain's Lancaster University, which confirmed that the fine particles found in smog could penetrate people's lungs or be circulated in the blood and end up inside organs, such as the brain. Liu Yong highlights some of the fine smog particles found on the face mask during the recent periods of air pollution. "The smaller the particles are, the easier it is for them to access human organs." Liu said. "We don't know exactly how much damage the smog could cause. It may not show up instantly, but will remain within your system on a long-term basis." An increase in the number of lung-cancer patients in China could also be attributed to the severe smog conditions, Liu said. The research carried out at Liu's laboratory involves anti-pollution systems that use nanomaterials things with very tiny dimensions. He said proper use of nanomaterials in face-mask filters could help protect wearers against up to 99 per cent of PM2.5, the particle matter found in smog that is smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter and can cause the greatest harm to public health. Unfortunately, nanomaterials have not been widely used in face mask products and only about 20 per cent of facial masks use this kind of technology, he said. An orange alert the second highest in the four-tier air quality system is now in force in Beijing as it tackles another round of severe air pollution, which will reportedly last until the weekend. The Beijing Evening News reported that a large cruise ship carrying more than 2,000 passengers was stuck at sea for two days because it was unable to dock at its home port of Tianjin because of the heavy smog after a trip to South Korea and Japan. It eventually returned to Tianjin on Monday afternoon, which led to the next cruise being cancelled. By Noah Smith When you hear the name Rick Perry, you might recall that time during the 2012 Republican presidential primary race where he forgot the name of a government agency he wanted to eliminate. After saying he wanted to ax the Department of Commerce and the Department of Education, he blanked on the third. Later in the debate, he said that his forgotten target for destruction was the Department of Energy. A responsible leader doesn't forget the name of a government agency that he wants to shut down. A responsible leader studies the department in detail, learning all of the things that it does, and thinks about how things would change if the department were abolished. And so for Perry, that "oops" moment was enough to persuade voters that he lacked the firm grasp of the facts needed in a presidential candidate. He soon abandoned the race. But it seems like in the Republican Party of 2016, leaders are not rewarded for being responsible and informed. Instead, the party's leaders are rewarded for finding new targets, justified or not, for the outrage of their voter base. Unfortunately, this impulse for wanton destruction seems to be present at the intellectual level as well. In a recent op-ed in the Washington Examiner, economist Peter Grossman of Butler University called for the Energy Department to be closed. Unlike Perry, Grossman can at least remember his target; he's written a book calling U.S. energy policy a failure. But the case he lays out is weak and unpersuasive. Grossman views the Energy Department as a panicked response to 1970s-era theories of looming fossil-fuel scarcity: "The DOE was conceived in dark and pessimistic beliefs and forecasts that have proven totally wrong. The original legislation justified a Department of Energy becausewe were (supposedly) rapidly running out of fossil fuels, especially oil and natural gas." In reality, the department was created in an effort to increase government efficiency by combining of a bunch of existing agencies. One of these was the Energy Research and Development Administration, the successor to the Atomic Energy Commission, which itself grew out of the Manhattan Project. That agency managed the U.S.'s nuclear weapons programs. This is still one of the Energy Department's jobs it includes the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the safety of the U.S. nuclear stockpile. Let that sink in a moment. Grossman is proposing to abolish the agency that keeps U.S. nuclear weapons safe. He doesn't appear to have thought very carefully about who would take over that task, or whether valuable experience and knowledge would be lost in the hand-off. He also doesn't seem to have thought about what would happen to the department's extensive system of national labs, which research all sorts of next-generation technologies. But even if we forgive these oversights, Grossman's story doesn't add up. The Energy Department's roots in nuclear energy also show that it wasn't simply a response to high oil prices. Government support for nuclear power boomed in the 1950s, when oil was cheap. The goal wasn't to avert a fossil-fuel crunch, but to give humanity even cheaper sources of power. That's still the department's goal. As Bloomberg New Energy Finance reports, solar energy is now cheaper than coal power in many places, even without government subsidies, and is getting cheaper still. As a partial result of this technological improvement, coal is on the wane, while solar is booming. Scaling plays a huge part in this process. Solar's rise hasn't come because of a fundamental technological leap, but because of learning curves. As production rises, prices tend to fall. Here, via BNEF, is a graph of how this has worked for solar panels: That means the Energy Department's subsidy programs, which encouraged solar growth back before the economics made sense, probably had a hand in jump-starting the era of abundant energy that we now see stretching before us. Grossman doesn't acknowledge this. He writes that "the only energy breakthrough of the last four decades has been fracking." That's a bit like saying that the only new piece of consumer electronics in the last four decades was the flat-screen TV. So no, we shouldn't heed Grossman's call to abolish the department. More to the point, we should just stop rewarding intellectuals and politicians for casually calling for the abolition of government agencies in the absence of understanding what they actually do. No doubt, my call is likely to fall on deaf ears, at least while the Trump administration is in power. Perry has been nominated to head the Energy Department. Noah Smith is a Bloomberg View columnist. Readers may email him at nsmith150@bloomberg.net. A hanok in disrepair awaits demolition near Gongdeok Station, western Seoul, September 2016. / Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar By Jon Dunbar I lived in Bukchon Hanok Village for over two years, and each day I faced hordes of tourists coming to admire the traditional Korean hanok architecture of the area. Yet whenever I left my neighborhood, I'd see numerous examples of the Korean-style houses fallen into disrepair or doomed by urban renewal. They're demolished one at a time or in clusters, all around the city. Rarely are voices raised in protest at the devastation of cultural heritage, and those that are, are unlikely to find a sympathetic ear. It may sound surprising in days like these, when cosplayers rent cheap hanbok to promenade around Bukchon and Insadong, when young people are discovering nearby Ikseon-dong, and when hanok villages all across the nation see brisk tourism. But as I drove past Gongdeok station in western Seoul this fall, there at the side of the road was an ugly striped green-and-pink curtain, the unofficial colors of urban renewal in Korea. It concealed at least 40 hanok packed together in a tight network of alleys in various stages of eviction and demolition. They may not have been as fancy as the hanok of Gahoe-dong, or as historically significant, but there they were, destined to be ground into splinters and clay. Now, they have disappeared from the face of the Earth, existing only in memories and photographs. Former residents of the abandoned houses I've seen may not have appreciated the lifestyle, as many had covered their madang (courtyard) with a garish canopy. Likewise, as roof tiles are expensive, some homeowners neglect their upkeep, leading to graceful arched roofs hidden under tarps, often weighed down in vulgar fashion by old tires. But still, we are told that architectural preservation is in full swing, at least in some spots. A hanok in Gye-dong, Bukchon Hanok Village, central Seoul, is destroyed in April 2014 to make way for an entirely new hanok. / Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar It seems like as long as there are a few examples to hold up in central Seoul, what happens to the others doesn't matter. According to data from the Seoul Institute, the city that had 22,672 hanok in 2006 had only 11,195 in 2014, a loss of over 50 percent. Even those in Jongno aren't safe, as the district reduced its hanok count from 6,336 to 4,143 in the same period, a 35 percent loss. My first time coming to Bukchon, I wandered through the alleys trying to find the hanok village part, wondering if I'd even come to the right area. By the time I moved to Gye-dong in 2014, many of the hanok had been converted into cafes, restaurants and homestays. More would make that transformation in my time there. The area was designated a residential zone, even though the residency rate was low and dropping. This was apparent in the evening after the tourists all boarded their buses and disappeared, leaving the streets deserted, almost like that urban renewal zone by Gongdeok station. Shortly after I moved in, I noticed an unpleasant change in the view from my window: across the alley from me was a space where a building had recently been destroyed. Consulting earlier pictures, I confirmed there had been a hanok there only weeks earlier. Its removal created a blemish over the area. Over the next three months I observed as an entirely new hanok, totally unrelated in form, material and history to the previous one, was erected on that spot. This is apparently what passes as hanok "preservation." That practice has been widespread throughout Bukchon. David Kilburn's website, kahoidong.com, thoroughly documents this loss. This demolition of the area's architectural heritage has been ongoing for decades, but it's only been in recent years that the new buildings popping up have been new-style hanok themselves. And the new-style hanok village is a hit. Tourists and pro photographers alike hike up there to get that money shot showing those nice hanok-lined streets up on the slopes of Gahoe-dong, contrasted with the hyper-development of downtown in the background. Not enough people realize that too many of those houses were built in the 21st century. If they knew, would it matter to them? I don't know how to save Seoul's endangered hanok. It will take more than legislation, as citizens need to decide whether we want to save them, as well as how they will be used. The writer is a contributing writer to The Korea Times. Extension of suffrage needs to be top priority The newly created New Conservative Party for Reform (NCPR) has revoked its earlier decision to support lowering the minimum voting age to 18 and decided Thursday to discuss the matter again. So it's unclear if the election law will be revised during the ongoing extraordinary session of the National Assembly to allow 18-year-olds to vote in the upcoming presidential election. Why the new party, consisting of lawmakers who had left the ruling Saenuri Party amid the snowballing Choi Soon-sil scandal, changed its position is understandable. If the voting age is lowered, about 630,000 new voters mostly high school students will be able to vote in the election. Given that young voters usually support liberal opposition parties, the revision might alter the outcome of the presidential poll. Conservative legislators are sure to recall that their contender Lee Hoi-chang was beaten by Kim Dae-jung, the liberal candidate, by only 370,000 votes in the 1997 presidential election. It's for this reason that the parties have been engaged in a futile debate over the matter during the last 20 years since the voting age was lowered to 19 in 2005. There are plenty of reasons to lower the voting age this time. Foremost, the change could satisfy the need to balance generational voting demographics at a time when older voters, who are often conservative, outnumber young voters amid the rapid aging of the population. Korea is the only OECD member to have the age limit of 19 instead of 18. Most OECD members set the voting age at 18, with Japan lowering it to 18 from 20 in 2015. More important, given the level of political awareness and maturity of our teens, which was displayed in the recent candlelit vigils, allowing 18-year-olds to vote sounds more convincing, although a recent poll shows a close contest. It is a vague conjecture that lowering the voting age would tip the balance in favor of the liberal parties. Also many young people have become conservative as far as national security is concerned. Of course, there are concerns that teenagers are not mature enough to vote and even high schools could be shaken by the wind of politics. We might have to worry that irresponsible politicians will pollute the ''young voters'' with all kinds of sweet talk. This is why the parties should wake up and show respectable politics. There is no doubt that lowering the voting age is a global trend and is in line with our democratic principles the extension of suffrage. The parties must give up their blind pursuit of partisan interests and cooperate to make this a law without fail. By Donald Kirk WASHINGTON President-elect Donald Trump will be flexing America's muscles against both China and North Korea from almost the moment he sits down in the Oval Office of the White House, at least to judge from his recent tweets. "China has been taking out massive amounts of money & wealth from the U.S. in totally one-sided trade but won't help with North Korea," he said in one infamous tweet. "Nice," he added in sardonic understatement. Then, after Kim Jong-un in his New Year's address hinted at the imminent launch of an inter-continental missile, Trump fired off another highly quotable tweet. "North Korea just stated that it is in the final stages of developing a nuclear weapon capable of reaching parts of the U.S.," he observed. "It won't happen!" Is Trump saying the North does not have the technology to fix a warhead to the tip of a long-range missile or that he as president might order a strike on the launch facility before it's fired? Either way, these tweets are reminders of another of Trump's campaign promises that he would punish China with protective tariffs for what he sees as unfair practices including currency manipulation that give China a trade surplus with the U.S. of billions of dollars every year. There is, however, a blatant contradiction. How can Trump expect China to "help with North Korea" while blockading China's exports to the U.S.? By Yoon Sung-won Yoon Boo-keun, CEO of Samsung CE LAS VEGAS Yoon Boo-keun, president and CEO of consumer electronics at Samsung Electronics, said the company is set to take a leap in the Internet of Things (IoT) and connected device business through R&D and acquisitions both globally and domestically. "Though the IoT business has not been flourishing yet, we are gearing up for the IoT era by developing platforms, devices and sensors while acquiring businesses like Viv Labs, Joyent and Harman," Yoon said during a press conference at the Aria Hotel in Las Vegas, Wednesday. Comparing the connected device business in the United States, where enterprises are running businesses for multimillion households, the CEO pointed out the IoT has not been fully activated in Korea because it has not been recognized by consumers, changing their lifestyle. "Whereas the IoT business in Korea has remained slow in progress in the last two years, I believe it can jump exponentially in the future," he said. Highlighting "connectivity" as one of the keywords of this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Yoon said the company will make all home appliances and digital devices interconnected through Wi-Fi and be controlled by a single, integrated application. According to the company, it plans to realize it by 2020. LG Chem Vice Chairman and CEO Park Jin-soo, left, checks the firm's pharmaceutical plant in Iksan, North Chungcheong Province, Thursday. He said achieving a leap-forward in the bio-medicine industry is the firm's top priority this year. / Courtesy of LG Chem By Lee Min-hyung LG Chem said Thursday it will strengthen its bioscience business this year, expanding research and development (R&D) investment for synergy with two bio players that the firm acquired last year. The plan comes after the company took over Dongbu Farm Hannong, a Seoul-based processor of agricultural materials, in January last year, in what it said was a move to expand its presence in the "green biology" industry. The company finalized its acquisition of LG Life Science, Jan. 1 this year, as part of its efforts to turn the pharmaceutical business into its next key profit engine. The firm recently pledged to invest 500 billion won ($420 million) in the "red biology" business annually. Red biology means the medical and pharmaceutical area, developing new drugs to cure diseases in such areas as cellular therapy and antibody treatment. "We have to strengthen the competitive power in the bioscience industry by sharing expertise and technologies in red and green biology," LG Chem Vice Chairman and CEO Park Jin-soo said at a firm's manufacturing facility in Iksan, North Jeolla Province, Thursday. "Production-wise, LG Chem should focus on creating synergies by taking advantage of its massive manufacturing infrastructure and production know-how," said the LG Chem chief. He also called on its employees to remain open-minded to collaborate with talent from the two acquired companies. "We should forge a human resources network system and be ready to join hands to generate differentiated values and gain a competitive edge in our business," he added. The latest move came as part of the firm's aggressive bet on the bio-industry sector. In September, the firm unveiled its plan to generate over 5 trillion won in its annual bio business sales by 2025. Until then, LG Chem also hopes to become one of the world's top five chemical firms. In recent years, LG Chem has sought to diversify its revenue channels from the existing battery and chemical business to the emerging bio sector. The firm expects the global biotechnology industry to be worth some $140 billion by 2020, a steep growth from $100 billion in 2014. "Human beings determine the fate for a firm's survival and growth," Park said. "The future of LG Chem lies in technologies that can save the world and mankind." On Friday, he plans to visit the firm's Osong campu, North Chungcheong Province, to check production and quality management processes for vaccines. Beautiful actress Ko So-Young returns to TV drama after 10 years of hiatus since her marriage with famous actor Jang Dong-Geun and became the mother of two children. In her comeback to drama, she will star in the KBS drama Perfect Wife which will take over Hwarang. Ko will become the main character in the new KBS drama Perfect Wife as reported by Hankook Ilbo. She will play as a mother of two children Sim Jae-Bok whose suffering made her a mentally unstable and easily agitated person. In one occassion, she got involved in an unexpected situation that makes her rediscover herself. According to official release from the KBS, Ko will be able explore the other side of a housewife after an incident that changed her view and personality. The role is perfect for her as she is also mother of two children. Ko also agreed with the statement, saying that she can relate herself with the role very well because she has been a mother for the last six years. Ko So-Young will return to television drama in Perfect Wife drama on KBS, the announcement from KBS read. She is to play a housewife who has emotional problem. She is known for her role in the 1994 movie The Fox with Nine Tails which was recorded as the first Korean movie which used the computer generated image. She continued her successful career with the movie Beat which captivated many mens heart with her role as a rich school girl who involved in a romantic relationship with a mobster. The last prject for 45-year old actress is a 2007 movie Project Makeover movie and SBS drama Women in the same year. She married one of the most famous Korean actor Jang Dong-Geun in 2010. Together they have a six-year-old son and a three-year-old daughter. Watch the segment from Arirang TV program SNS Star Shot Ko and her husband Jang below: China appears to have resumed coal imports from North Korea recently after lifting a month-long suspension, VOA reported Wednesday. Three North Korean ships were seen anchored about 10 km from Qinhuangdao, China's leading coal trading port, from Sunday through Tuesday, VOA said quoting ship tracking website MarineTraffic. The Kumrung No. 5, Kumsan and Wonsan No. 2 are all coal bulk carriers. Two other North Korean ships are berthed at the Chinese ports of Longkou and Penglai, according to the website, and another two wait in waters 2 km and 10 km from Longkou. The ports closest to these ships are all stacked with huge piles of black material that looks like coal, VOA added. Last month, Beijing announced it was halting coal imports from the North until the end of the month in compliance with a new UN Security Council resolution. That left North Korean ships marooned in international waters. The resolution stipulates that total exports of North Korean coal must not exceed US$400 million or 7.5 million tons per year, whichever is lower. Under the new curbs, the North's annual coal exports estimated at some $1.1 billion will dwindle by about $700 million. This coming Sunday marks the 25th anniversary of weekly protests by women who were forced into sexual slavery by Japanese soldiers in World War II. The protests have been held in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul every Wednesday since Jan. 8, 1992, when they started ahead of a visit to Korea by then Japanese prime minister Kiichi Miyazawa. The 1,264th protest on Wednesday was attended by two victims, Kim Bok-dong (90) and Kil Won-ok (88), and about 200 activists and students from around the country. A suspected bank robber didnt get far on Tuesday afternoon. Springfield police arrested Anthony Dunlap within an hour a few miles from the bank that was robbed, hiding in the back seat of his girl friend's car. The robbery at Bank of America, 633 W. Kearney St., was about 4:30 p.m. A veteran teller who has been robbed more than once in the past said a man approached her station but seemed suspicious to her, according to an FBI agents affidavit. Thats because the customer had a hoodie covering his head. The man handed the teller a note. Its first line said, Stay calm. Thats when the teller knew she was being robbed. The teller told an agent that she didnt read any further but made eye contact with the robber, who looked toward his hand that was in his coat pocket. The teller took that as a sign that the man might be armed. The teller handed the man some cash but he said, Give me more. She took a second stack of money out of her drawer, and this one had a tracking device in it. The man stuffed the cash into his pockets and left the bank. The FBI agents affidavit says the robber got about $3,910. A bank security vice president was able to follow the location of the tracking device on a computer. He called the Springfield Police Department and officers were sent to the intersection of Wilden Avenue at Page Street on the east side of the city. He also called the FBI and said a more exact location was 2007 E. Page Street. Springfield police talked to a woman who had just parked her car at 2007 Page St. She denied any knowledge of a bank robbery and said she wanted to talk to an FBI agent. She told the agent that her boyfriend, Anthony Dunlap, had asked her to drop him off at a gas station on Kearney. She said she thought Dunlap, who is a heroin addict, was going to buy drugs, according to the FBIs affidavit. The woman said Dunlap told her to wait for him and he would be back shortly. When Dunlap returned, he told her to drive him to a house on Page where she could make some money by doing a friends hair. She said she pulled into the driveway on Page and got out while Dunlap hid in the back seat. She said Dunlap was still hiding in the back seat. The FBI agent asked for consent to search the womans car and she gave it. Springfield officers couldnt see in the back seat because of dark tint on the windows. When they opened the back doors, they found Dunlap and cash on the back floorboards. A loaded .40 caliber pistol also was on the backseat; it had 10 rounds in it. The cash totaled $3,910. At the Greene County jail, an FBI agent interviewed Dunlap and says he confessed to the bank robbery. He told the agent that he wanted the money so he could buy heroin. He also said his girlfriend had no knowledge of the robbery. He said he hid in the car because he knew he was about to be arrested. He denied any knowledge of the pistol, however. Dunlap also told the agent that he served 10 years in prison for a bank robbery in St. Louis in 2001. The agent checked a national crime database and found numerous felony arrests and convictions, including one in 2002 for which he received a 12-year prison sentence for five counts of second-degree robbery in St. Louis County. Dunlap is charged with bank robbery and being a felon in possession of a firearm that was transported across state lines. Hes in the Greene County jail without a bond. If you're still looking for a New Year's resolution, doctors have one in mind: stop cleaning your ears! Many people feel compelled to clean their ears as part of their usual bathing routine because there's a societal "yuck factor" to earwax. Earwax is not dirty, however. It's actually a healthy thing because it guards inner ears against dirt and other small particles. It also has antibacterial properties and may help protect against infections. Experts with the American Academy of Otolaryngology say cleaning out ears too much can cause major problems. "It's quite easy to abrate or scratch the skin in the ear canal, which can lead to a pretty nasty infection. There's also a risk that you can actually rupture or penetrate the eardrum, which can lead to really terrible problems as far as hearing and balance issues," said Dr. Seth Schwartz, American Academy of Otolaryngology. Earwax can possibly build up too much, causing slight hearing loss or even dizziness. In those cases, it's best to see a doctor. Some people use ear candles to get rid of earwax buildup but doctors strongly advise against it. They say there's no evidence it works and it could cause severe burns and injuries to the ear. A Lagos-based medical practitioner, Olugbenga Farajimakin, was today arraigned for allegedly partnering a self-acclaimed doctor to perform a Caesarean Section on a woman that led to her death. Farajimakin, 44, was docked at an Ebute Meta Chief Magistrates Court in Lagos on a charge of conspiracy. The accused, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge. The prosecutor, Insp. Adebayo Oladele, had told the court that the accused committed the offence on June 5 at Glorious Mercy Clinic situated at No. 14, William Akintunde St., Abule-Egba area of Lagos State. Oladele said that the accused had partnered one Shehu Abdulkareem, a registered nurse, only licensed to operate a convalescent home, but impersonated a medical doctor fit to carry out a Caesarean Section. The accused had joined Abdulkareem to perform a Caesarean Section on one Eunice Omokwudu that led to her death. Farajimakin ought to have prevented Abdulkareem from doing so since he was only a trained nurse, he said. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Abdulkareem, who had been arraigned sometime in 2016, is to face trial on negligence and murder before a Lagos high court following a legal advice received from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPPs). The prosecutor said the offence committed contravened Section 410 of the Criminal Law Cap C17 Vol. 3, Laws of Lagos State of Nigeria, 2015. Chief Magistrate M.O. Olajuwon admitted the accused to N200,000 bail with one surety in like sum. Olajuwon also ruled that the surety must be working in a reputable company and the prosecutor must verify his address as being genuine. She adjourned further hearing in the case to Jan. 26. Follow Us on Facebook @LadunLiadi; Instagram @LadunLiadi; Twitter @LadunLiadi; Youtube @LadunLiadiTV for updates An Oredo Magistrates Court in Benin on Wednesday granted two homosexuals, Paul Frank, 31, and Ejimofor Christian, 22, N100,000 bail each. The Chief Magistrates, Mrs M.C. Ojobo, who granted the accused persons bail said they should provide a surety each in like sums. She said that the sureties must be civil servants working with the Edo State Government. The duo, who are facing charges bordering on conspiracy, unlawful carnal knowledge and stealing were remanded in prison on Dec. 28 for the consideration of their bail applications. Earlier, the Prosecutor, O.A. Enebabor, had told the court that the accused committed the offences between Dec. 14 and Dec. 17 at Boundary Road, Benin. Enebabor alleged that the accused engaged in unlawful sexual act. He said that the first accused also stole one Techno Y6 Phone valued at N25, 000 from one Solomon Shaibu. The offences contravened Section 214 (3), 217 (3), 390 (3) and 516 of the criminal Code. The magistrate adjourned the case to Jan. 17 for hearing. Follow Us on Facebook @LadunLiadi; Instagram @LadunLiadi; Twitter @LadunLiadi; Youtube @LadunLiadiTV for updates Historic ties of north Meck span throughout region Though the north Mecklenburg area didnt see significant population growth until a few decades ago, its rich history dates back to the Revolutionary War. That was the basis of... An easier-than-expected first mammogram experience HUNTERSVILLE Scheduling a cancer screening probably ranks somewhere on your to-do list between "clean out the garage" and "donate those clothes that don't fit." Sure, you'll get to it at... Click to enlarge. More on atmospheric rivers. The Pacific has lined up some serious weather for California to start off 2017. It's no more than we've experienced in previous wet years, and below the really historic years, but it feels like it has been a long time since the weather aficionados were geeking out about atmospheric rivers and the like. What's going on is a line of storms that began by dropping very large amounts of snow on the upper Sierra Nevada. The next storm to roll over Central and Northern California is expected to bring a lot of rainfall and be relatively warm, which could melt a lot of the snow and lead to early winter flooding. Yosemite National Park, for instance, is making preparations to close this weekend in anticipation of the Merced River flooding across Yosemite Valley. The meteorologists are watching closely to see how much of the storms drift over Southern California. But the main events, for impact on the drought and California water storage, will be in the north. From UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain at his California Weather Blog: Much of the Sierra Nevada above about 6000 feet in elevation is in the process of being buried by many inches of snowand heavy snow rates will likely continue periodically for the next several days. By late Thursday, many places will likely be reporting totals in feet rather than inches. Due to the cold airmass still in place across NorCal, some spots as low as 2500 feet will experience unusually large accumulations before warmer air moves in. These recent, large snow accumulations have already led to a high risk of avalanches in steeper terrainand may add to the already considerable flood risk developing for the coming weekend. The second storm is (by far) the one of greatest concern, as it will take the form a moisture-laden and slow-moving atmospheric river. While the details with this second system are still somewhat uncertain, virtually all numerical forecast models are painting a very broad area of extremely high precipitation totals over the next 6-7 days across the entire Sierra Nevada mountain chain and also in the coastal mountains from the Oregon border south to Monterey County. Its still too early to say exactly how much precipitation will fall, but the potential is there for some very impressive numbersperhaps greater than 20-25 inches along favored western slope regions of the Sierra Nevada and greater than 15 inches in the coastal mountains. Even in low elevation urban areas near the Bay Area and Sacramento regions, 7-day totals exceeding 5-7 inches are entirely possible. Since this system is expected to be slow moving, the associated atmospheric river may stall over some portion of northern or central California on Sunday or Mondayor even waver back northward temporarily. If and when this occurs (as has been suggested by recent runs of both the ECMWF and GFS), there may be a 100-200 mile wide band of even higher precipitation totals. Its impossible to say at this time where any stalling or frontal waves might occur, but that has the potential to be a serious situation locally. This system will also be drastically warmer than its predecessor, and while snow levels could actually start out unusually low (locally in the 2,000-2,500 foot range), they will skyrocket as very strong warm advection occurs Saturday into Sunday.... Much of this snowpack could be erased by 24 hours of warm rain later this weekend. Swain makes updates on Twitter as the storms arrive and do their thing, sometimes defying the forecasts. At the moment, focus of very heavy precip appears to stay north of Southern California, but this could still change. Will still be wet.#CAwx pic.twitter.com/lUEH1UVEaD Daniel Swain (@Weather_West) January 3, 2017 Very high 850mb temps during most intense precip could lead to dramatic snowmelt in Sierra Nevada. Major flood concerns. #CAwx #CAflood pic.twitter.com/oYWAlPl6qD Daniel Swain (@Weather_West) January 4, 2017 Some other sources: This is going to be the greatest potential for significant flooding we've seen in over 10 yrs. Prepare for this next storm now. #cawx pic.twitter.com/iuHh0d5aWE NWS Sacramento (@NWSSacramento) January 5, 2017 2 atmospheric river events to bring very high impacts to the Sierra. 12"+ rain possible in the Sierra/ foothills below 8,000 ft. #CAwx pic.twitter.com/WBBcjlEjoT NWS Hanford (@NWSHanford) January 4, 2017 This condolence message appears in the January 6, 2017 issue of Executive Intelligence Review. HELGA ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Message of Condolence to the Alexandrov Ensemble and the People of Russia [Print version of this condolence message] Dec. 30In the name of the International Schiller Institute, I wish to express our deep condolences for the tragic loss of the 92 human beings who died in the plane crash on their way to Syria, most of whom were members of the Alexandrov Ensemble. This accident is all the more a cause for sadness, as the music and patriotic spirit characteristic of the members of the Alexandrov Ensemble would have brought a message of hope to the people of Syria. This is a people victimized by more than five years of the criminal policies of regime change and treated as the pawns in a geopolitical game in complete violation of their nations sovereignty. The Alexandrov Ensemble has been an expression of the highest moral values of Russia and, like Classical choral singing in general, speaks to the soul and the creative potential of its audience. It is therefore extremely important that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has announced that he is initiating auditions to find the best talents to fully restore the ensemble. The training of the singing voice is important for everyone, since a well-placed voice can express the creative intention of the composer and directly speak to the same creative faculty in the audience. It represents, therefore, an irreplaceable element of the harmonious development of the character. I would therefore like to share with you the idea that, in addition to rebuilding the Alexandrov Ensemble, thousands of Alexandrov choruses could be established in schools all over Russia to honor the heroic contribution of Russia in the liberation of Syria and, at the same time, to broaden the uplifting effect of choral singing on the younger generation. A New Paradigm is now coming into being, as exemplified by the integration of the Eurasian Economic Union and the New Silk Road Initiative, establishing a completely new kind of relations among nations. We need a dialogue of the best traditions of each culture for this New Paradigm to grow into a new era of civilization: Knowledge of the best of another culture will lead to a love for it, and will thereby supersede xenophobia and hatred with more noble emotions. In this new era, geopolitics will be overcome forever, and dedication to the common aims of mankind will establish a higher level of reason. It is a consolation for all of us, that the tragic death of the victims of this plane crash will contribute with their immortality to the building of that better world. Helga Zepp-LaRouche Chairwoman, International Schiller Institute This message was received at the Russian Consulate in New York on the afternoon of Dec. 30, and was also sent on request to the Russian news agency TASS. PRESS RELEASE Ohio Democrats Petition Trump: Put Glass-Steagall in State of the Union Jan. 4, 2017 (EIRNS)Groups of Ohio Democrats who have been having presentations and meetings with organizers from the Lyndon LaRouche Political Action Committee are circulating a letter and petition calling on Donald Trump to demand Glass-Steagall restoration in his first State of the Union address. Most circulators were Bernie Sanders supporters in the recent election, and now call themselves Our Revolution. Their call is headed, "Let Us Hold President Donald Trump to his word: Endorse the Glass-Steagall Act in Your State of the Union address!", and says: "Here in Northwest Ohio we are taking a positive approach to the New Year. Our Revolution of Northwest Ohio is calling upon President Donald Trump to make good on [his] campaign promise.... "This simple action ... initiates a positive action; brings varying groups together to build a coalition with a common purpose; will be synchronized with Congressional legislation and inform lobbying on Capitol Hill; be the basis for press conferences and public actions. Letters will be personally hand-carried to members of Congress and official representatives of President Trump." The initiators set Jan. 18 as the target date to gather signatures and to "secure endorsements of organizations; any and allOur Revolution, Tea Party, Republicans, Democrats, Labor and Business." The petition itself says, in part: "Open letter to Donald Trump: January, 2016 "We the undersigned strongly feel the need for protecting our economy from another unnecessary market crash and recession like the one experienced in December of 2007. As you take office, the conditions for a collapse are too similar to those of 2007: rising asset values together with a lack of separation between FDIC insured banking and risk-investment brokering. "We applaud your campaign statement in Charlotte, North Carolina, October 26, 2016, endorsing a call for A 21st Century version of Glass-Steagall and reintroducing a modern day Glass-Steagall Act. We trust that you understand that stabilizing the business climate and securing the assets as separate from Wall Street speculation is a key to prosperity during your administration. "To set the tone of discourse in Congress 2017, we ask that you restate your support for a Glass-Steagall Act during your State of the Union address. "Be assured in doing so, you will find common ground with both the Republicans and the Democrats since both party platforms have the support of banking legislation that separates insured accounts from Wall Street speculation in their respective platforms...." The petition returns are being centralized with Our Revolution in Northwest Ohio, c/o Dennis Slotnick, slotnicks4@aol.com. PRESS RELEASE Abe Wants Independence from the U.S., and Is Getting It Through Putins Intervention Jan. 4, 2017 (EIRNS)Daisuke Kotegawa, a former Japanese Finance Ministry official and a global statesman, when asked by EIR what direction Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will take regarding his earlier push to dump the pacifist Japanese Constitution, answered that Abes primary motivation is "independence" for Japan. His effort to end the Constitutional ban on Japan taking part in foreign wars, Kotegawa said, which has guided Japans foreign policy since World War II, was aimed at ending Japans dependence on U.S. military occupation and the U.S. nuclear umbrella. But now, with the December agreements between Abe and Vladimir Putin, Abe has been given the opportunity to assert independence through a new economic paradigm, rather than through a military policy, Kotegawa said. The Abe-Putin agreements call for joint development of the four contested islands (Kuril/Northern Territories, a territorial conflict which has prevented a formal peace treaty between Russia and Japan), along with extensive Japanese investments in the development of the Russian Far East. Through this process, Putin told the Japanese press, the two nations can build trust, based on real economic cooperation, just as Russia and China built such trust through development to achieve their strong partnership today. Twice before, in 1956 and 2000, an agreement was nearly reached to divide the four islands. In both cases, the U.S. essentially demanded that Japan step away from the deal, and Japan capitulated. But the deal is now back on the table, based not only on good sense, but on extensive real development and trust-building measures, demonstrating that Japan is far less likely to accept U.S. dictates. Kotegawa indicated that Abes LDP party has already put a hold on the plan for a constitutional change regarding their military posture. Lyndon LaRouche noted today that the powerful case put forth by Putin in Japan has dramatically strengthened Japan as a viable sovereign nation, but he added that this process will also contribute to nation building in Europe, for nations to free themselves from the British imperial grip represented by the EU and the eurozone. PRESS RELEASE Turkish Prime Minister Calls on Trump To Change Obamas Shameful Policy Jan. 4, 2017 (EIRNS)Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim has called on U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to end the Obama administrations "shameful" policy toward Turkey over the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) forces. "The world talks about Daesh [Islamic State] but it does not fight [against it]. It is only Turkey that fights against Daesh. The United States and others do nothing. They just supply the PYD with weapons," said Yildirim on Jan. 3, in a weekly parliamentary address to his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) members according to Hurriyet Daily News. "What we expect from the new administration is to bring an end to this shame," he said, referring to the incoming Trump administration. "We do not hold the new administration responsible for this situation, because it was the achievement of the Obama administration." On Dec. 29, 2016, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the U.S. of directly supplying the PYD with weapons. "You sent arms to terror organizations, but then say, We sent ammunition, not arms. We dont buy that or accept it. Although we are partners in NATO, you are giving this support to terrorist organizations, not us. Are the terrorist organizations your partner in NATO? If we are strategic partners in NATO, you should stand with us," Erdogan said. PRESS RELEASE Russian Scientists Are Developing an Ion Collider To Probe Matter-Antimatter Interactions, Beyond Standard Physics Jan. 4, 2017 (EIRNS)In todays edition, Russian news service Sputnik continues its series of articles on ground-breaking science in Siberia, following yesterdays article on the magnetic mirror fusion experiment at the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics. Today, the article describes work on a matter-antimatter ion collider to be based at the Dubna Institute outside Moscow, which would combine efforts with Budker to build what would be a science mega-project. Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics deputy director, Yevgeny Levichev, told RIA Novosti that the Super Tau Charm Factory, as it is called, would be a particle accelerator which would study the collision of beams of electrons and positrons to "identify phenomena and processes beyond the Standard Model of particle physics." Pavel Logachev, Budker Institute Nuclear Physics director, explained, "At present, and for the forseeable future, there is no other facility anywhere in the world with the capacity to conduct the kinds of research that the Super Tau Charm Factory would be capable of." The scientists explain that this would be the first of six government-approved science mega-projects, but that so far, the government has not allocated funding for the project, expected to cost about $446 million. But the physicists are continuing to work on it, using a grant from the Russian Scientific Foundation. The other science mega-projects include an experimental nuclear reactor complex at the Kurchatov Institute; a special-purpose synchrotron radiation source, also at Kurchatov; a center for extreme light studies, in Nizhniy Novgorod; and the IGNITOR fusion project, at Kurchatov. PRESS RELEASE Trump Refuses To Capitulate on Russian Scare, Quotes Assange in a Tweet Jan. 4, 2017 (EIRNS)Wikileaks founder Julian Assanges interview with Fox last week, was broadcast on Tuesday night. He issued strong advice for the Democratic Party regarding those who are peddling Obamas fairy tale about the Russians interference in the election: "They will seize on this and harp on it for the next four years. I think thats a mistake. I think thats a mistake not just in fact; thats a mistake for the U.S. Democratic Party. I think its a stupid maneuver." Assange reiterated that neither Russia nor any other state actor provided Wikileaks with the emails of the DNC and Podesta. He also ridiculed Podesta: "Podesta gave out that his password was the word password.... So this is something a 14-year-old kida 14-year-old kid could have hacked." As to the actual source, Assange said: "We have the trust of our readers, having never got it wrong, not evennot even one sustained allegation, even. We have a perfect record in relation to authenticating the material that we publish. Thats a very valuable reputation to have, and we try and preserve it.... But WikiLeaks is a source-protection organization. We are famous for never having exposed one of our sources over ten years. Thats why sources trust us and they come to us." Asked about former British diplomat Craig Murray, who has reported that he personally was handed the documents from a disgruntled DNC member who was angry at the betrayal of Bernie Sanders, and then gave them to Wikileaks, Assange said that Murray was a friend, but that he would not reveal the source, other than that it was not Russian. Donald Trump issued a tweet this morning: "Julian Assange said a 14-year-old could have hacked Podestawhy was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info!" He had also tweeted on Tuesday night: "The Intelligence briefing on so-called Russian hacking was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange!" Meanwhile, the "normal suspects" are up to their old tricks. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former CIA Director Mike Morrell, former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, former U.S. Ambassador to Russia (and rabid Putin-hater) Michael McFaul, and eleven others, issued a letter calling for an "independent commission" to investigate the charge against Russia, or else the country would be "vulnerable to another attack and, possibly worse, permit and normalize future interference." Homeless Encampments near LAX Members of a Los Angeles city sanitation crew clean up homeless encampments along W. 96th Street at Hindry Place where LAX plans to build a consolidated rental car lot. Charles Manson, 82, was rushed from a Central Valley prison to a hospital this week for an undisclosed medical issue. In 1974, Robert Kirsch, former book editor and critic at The Times, reviewed Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders, which has since sold over 7 million copies. Occasionally writers refer to a motiveless crime. Ive never encountered such an animal and Im convinced that none such exists, Vincent Bugliosi, prosecutor in the Tate-LaBianca trials, says in Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders. It may be unconventional; it may be apparent only to the killer or killers; it may even be largely unconscious but every crime is committed for a reason. The problem, especially in this case, was finding it. The volume, written with the assistance of Curt Gentry, is bound to produce controversy; indeed, the attribution of motive namely, that the murders were committed to ignite Helter Skelter, Mansons term for a black-white Armageddon which would end ultimately in power for Manson and his Family may turn out to be the least controversial aspect of the book. On the course of demythifying this bizarre and brutal case, Bugliosi is highly critical of certain aspects of police performance, of some of the actions of the press, of the probation system, of some judges and attorneys and of individuals who have elevated Manson as a symbolic and even heroic figure. Advertisement Bugliosis criticisms do not take the form of a blanket indictment. For the most part, he names names, and I am certain that by the time this review appears those who are blamed for ineptitude, or for inadequate performance, will have answered the charges he makes. It is equally certain that ulterior motives will be attributed to Bugliosi: political ambition, promotion of his book and justification of his own work as prosecutor. Yet none of these certainties is likely to undermine the force and fascination of the work. Though basically a prosecutors view of the complex case, the book attempts something more: the most comprehensive account of the murders, the investigation, the trials and the aftermath yet written. Some part of this account emerges from direct observation and months of immersion in the depths of the affair including the paradoxical nature of the authors contact with Manson, who often demonstrated his grudging respect for Bugliosi as an adversary by conversing with the prosecutor. It is a measure of the latters importance in Mansons eyes that Bugliosi was put at the top of the Familys death list. Idol Speculation The value of this book lies not only in its revelation of many facets hitherto unreported, or obscured by the succession of developments, but also in the nature of Bugliosis unique position in the case. As a prosecutor charged with presenting the evidence in the context of law, Bugliosi did not have the imaginative license granted to other observers. His was a professional task. And while he shared the curiosity and concern of commentators and the public, speculation was a luxury in which he seldom indulged. It is true that there is speculation in this book on the possibility that the Manson Family was responsible for as many as 35 or 40 deaths, including those of defense attorney Ronald Hughes and other possible victims, two as late as 1972. There is speculation, also, on the nature of Mansons techniques of control. But even this is based on evidence gathered by Bugliosi from those who knew Manson, and from his own observation. One thing is certain: Bugliosi does not buy the mysticism or magic of Charles Manson, nor does he make the common error of identifying Manson and his Family with the penumbra of the occult. His strongest point is common sense. Reminding us of the brutality of the murders, the harsh and ruthless invasion of victims homes, he strips Manson of the facile mysteries. The guru of killing was an enemy of society, a guerrilla on the fringes of civilized life, who discovered, as many have before and since, the fragile vulnerability of individuals in community. Manson was clever and glib, a stir-wise and sophisticated confidence man who exploited the human material and social climate in order to achieve his ends. And his ends included killing. Death was his trip, as one former Family member put it. Bugliosi also reminds us that many stood up to Manson and refused to bow down to his use of fear, to his appeal to deep-seated hostility, to his application of the coded messages of the Beatles music or to his selective prophecies of Biblical revelation the mishmash of new cultic ideas. It took considerable courage for some of his witnesses to testify, for ordinary people to resist the threat of death and come forward, for officials to do their jobs, for society itself to achieve not retribution but justice. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, Bugliosi reminds us in the words of Matthew, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very electWherefore, if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth In the sensation of the moment, the advice was not heeded. The very enormity of the crimes, the ineptitude of some investigators, the cultural climate of malaise and fear, produced terror and confusion. Some of it still persists; it is painful, even now, to read the details of the crimes, astonishing to see how otherwise sensible and decent people tended to imbue the Mason Family with attributes they never really possessed. The central point that Bugliosi makes whether or not one agrees with his specific criticisms or questions Bugliosis own motivations is that fear can becloud judgment. But the overriding obligation of society is to see that the victims did not die in vain. To blinker our view of this bestiality, to gloss over it with vague implications that somehow society itself is to blame, is to abandon the imperative of clear and rational thinking at a time when it is most sorely needed. This, for me, is the greatest value of the book. To see the law at work in the reality it must cope with groping, subject to limitations, to the rules of evidence, to the personalities of advocates and judges is a challenging experience. Whatever the readers feelings, the system and some individuals in it compel respect. Occasionally, weaknesses are revealed. The lack of liaison between and within investigative agencies demands scrutiny. So, too, do the methods of investigation, the reports of pathologists, the taking of physical evidence, the policies that permit the release of sociopaths into the general community, the roles of psychiatry and psychology, the procedures of the courts. Bugliosi raises questions that deserve the most careful attention. If Bugliosi is critical, he does not hesitate to give credit where he believes it due. And if he is bitter, it is understandable: He resents the attempts to elevate Manson to a folk-hero this man who was responsible for killing, whose racist ideas are repugnant (he told his followers: Hitler had the best answer to everything), who abused the hippie mystique, who debased those around him. The prosecutors case in court is filled out in these pages. He rejects the notion that Manson was a Pied Piper whose source of power is undiscernible: Those who joined him were notthe typical girl or boy next door Nearly all had within them a deep-seated hostility toward society and everything it stood for which pre-existed their meeting Manson. He quotes Dr. Joel Hochman, who testified at the trial that the reasons lie within the individuals themselves. The Family members were Mansons raw material: It was a double process of selection. For Manson decided who stayed. Obviously he did not want anyone who he felt would challenge his authority, cause dissension in the group or question his dogma. They chose, and Manson chose, and the result was the Family. The magic, Bugliosi contends, was and is explicable: Manson sensed and capitalized on the Familys needs. I strongly suspect that his magical powers were nothing more or less than the ability to utter basic truisms to the right person at the right time, Bugliosi argues. Drugs were a tool, but the evidence is that Manson used them sparingly, and that on the nights of the murders the assassins were not under the influence of drugs at all. Sex was another instrument. Both heightened suggestibility. The use of repetition and ceremonials systematically erased inhibitions. You can convince anybody of anything, Manson said in court, if you just push it at them all of the time. They may not believe it 100%, but they will still draw opinions from it, especially if they have no other information to draw their opinions from. Savvy Exploitation Manson created a climate of isolation. There were no newspapers at Spahn Ranch, no clocks. In that tight little social system, providing what passed as love for the loveless, supplying identity for the confused, playing on fear and alternating threat and acceptance, changing names and leading games, building on the Family members sense of alienation. (Dr. Hochman: I think that historically the easiest way to program someone into murdering is to convince them that they are alien, that they are them and we are us, and that they are different from us.) Manson exploited religion and music, Bugliosi points out: He used his own superior intelligence. He was not only older than his followers, he was brighter, more articulate and savvy, far more clever and insidious. With his prison background, his ever-adaptable line of con, plus a pimps knowledge of how to manipulate others, he had little trouble convincing his naive, impressionable followers that it was not they but society that was sick. This too was what they wanted to hear. I do not say that this is the definitive book on the Manson case. But in its detailed, documented and annotated pages, in its description of the way in which the case was investigated and presented, in the background information it provides on the events and persons involved, in its recapitulation of mood and of the actions behind the scenes, it is arguably an indispensable contribution to the necessary dialogue. Certainly it is unique because of the position Bugliosi occupied as a prosecutor. The fact is that we cannot afford to shrug away the Tate-LaBianca murders: Too much has happened since then to show the threat to society from casual and seemingly senseless violence, from the Santa Crux murders and the Houston mass killings to the crimes of the Symbionese Liberation Army. To accept these as simply symptoms of the malaise of the times is to abandon the obligations of civilization to rationally address even the most irrational and fearful events. Amazons Internet-connected home assistant devices can turn on your TV, read you the news and order you an Uber. Law enforcement officials in Arkansas hope an Amazon Echo can help them crack a murder case. When Bentonville police found the body of Victor Collins inside James Andrew Bates home in November, they also discovered a house outfitted with a number of Internet of Things devices, including an Amazon Echo. The gadget is constantly listening for spoken commands, but according to the company only records and stores snippets of conversation following a wake word in the Echos case, Alexa. Bentonville police say theres reason to believe that Amazon.com is in possession of records related to [their] investigation. Although Amazon has twice refused to release the data, the warrant is ringing alarm bells for some owners of so-called Internet of Things gadgets. If Alexa is always on and always listening, can she incriminate you? Advertisement We spoke to Lee Tien, senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights nonprofit, about the potential privacy risks surrounding always-on home devices. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity. How are the privacy concerns surrounding Amazon Echo different than those involving, say, smartphones? Traditionally, the home has been the apex of 4th Amendment privacy protection in respect to law enforcement. You know, a mans home is his castle, that sort of thing. You always need a warrant to get into someones house. The tricky thing about a device thats recording data inside of your home is that you may be transmitting that recording in such a way that the government can directly collect it, or, as in the case we have in Arkansas, it may be that the data is sitting on Amazons servers. What can people do to protect their information when using a device thats always listening even if its not always recording? Its really hard to. You dont know how they record, and you dont when theyre recording. We know that theres supposed to be a trigger word, but whats not clear to me is exactly whats going on when you havent said it, because in order for a voice command to turn on, its got to be on in some sense in the first place. Amazon says it wont turn over user information in this case, but if Amazon, or another Internet of Things manufacturer, caved to law enforcement requests, how would it affect consumers? A story like this highlights that your data doesnt stay at home its in the cloud. Its under the control of someone else, and because of the consent you signed or because of a legal process, they might be compelled to share it with the government. Whats unclear is how much people are aware of that. People may feel a certain amount of confidence or security that Amazon is only listening when theyre specifically addressing the device. If they believe that at no other time is any information gathered by the microphones and that turns out to be untrue that may be dissonant with their expectations. According to Amazon, the company will not release customer information without a valid and binding legal demand properly served. Why isnt a warrant a valid and binding legal document, and if it isnt, what is? For a warrant to be valid, it has to establish probable cause and describe what they want in particularity. Youre getting into problems if you say you want everything. What struck me about this warrant was the lack of particularity. It seems wrong to say that just because theres this device thats always on, that constitutes probable cause to believe that relevant recordings exist. Theres no clear establishment that there was any communication using the trigger word. Im going to assume that Amazon doesnt think the warrant has established probable cause, or has asked for more information than theyre entitled to. Some of the Silicon Valley companies have been known to withhold data unless the warrant is valid. Its a way to abide by the law and still demonstrate that theyre trying to protect their users. Theyre in a tough spot: They want to respond to valid government requests, but at the same time they dont want to look like they give the government whatever it wants whenever they ask for it. Theyre trying to walk this line, which may be even harder when theres a new technology. Its a balancing act. If a court rules that Amazon must comply and release the stored data, will it set a precedent regarding user privacy with always-on recording devices? The precedent that Im worried about is that there isnt sufficient probable cause to establish theres anything of interest. Right now there are a lot of Internet of Things devices that are connected, but they dont necessarily record any direct human communications. For example, Fitbits dont record. But there are a whole lot of implications given that microphones are getting smaller. It wont be long until other Internet of Things devices are capable of recording audio input. The prosecutor in this case has said Amazon will say its for privacy reasons, but they dont have a legal leg to stand on. How can Amazon fight this? The easiest way to fight it is exactly what theyve been doing simply not giving the government what its been seeking, saying weve given what we think is appropriate. That may end up in a battle of probable cause or particularity, or they may negotiate privately. Its hard to know. agatha.french@latimes.com @agathafrenchy ALSO Can Alexa help solve a murder case? Police think so, but Amazon wont give up the data Labor Department wants to ban Google from federal contracts, unless they turn over employee data Snapchat showed investors false user statistics, ex-employee alleges in lawsuit Fox News sent a strong signal that it has no intention of changing its conservative political stripes as Tucker Carlson was named to replace prime-time anchor Megyn Kelly. Carlson will become the anchor of Fox News Channels 9 p.m. Eastern time slot after Kelly does her final edition of The Kelly File on Friday. Kelly is leaving to join NBC News. The move means Fox is fortifying its block of politically right-leaning commentary programs in prime time, as Carlson will fill the hour between Sean Hannity and the networks top-rated anchor Bill OReilly. Advertisement Kellys program, while not completely without opinion, had been more news driven than the two shows surrounding her. She was the sole prime-time anchor who did critical reporting on President-elect Donald Trump, which often drew scornful criticism from many Fox News viewers on social media and in emails to the network. Carlson, 47, is a personal favorite of 21st Century Fox Executive Chairman Rupert Murdoch, who has been running Fox News since longtime Chairman Roger Ailes departed in July after several women including Kelly accused him of sexual harassment. He denied the allegations. Murdoch chose Carlson to replace longtime anchor Greta Van Susteren in the 7 p.m Eastern hour after she left the network over contract issues in September. Van Susteren has moved to MSNBC, where she will have a nightly show starting Jan. 9. After the departure of Ailes, a former media advisor to Republican politicians, there was speculation in TV news industry circles that Fox News might not court conservative viewers as aggressively going forward. But Trumps stunning White House victory has given the network a ratings lift, especially at the 10 p.m. Eastern time slot, where Hannity is the newly elected presidents biggest booster. The addition of Carlson is aimed at building on that success, though it leaves Fox without a female anchor during the key weeknight prime-time hours. Murdoch wanted to keep Kelly offering her upward of $20 million a year to stay at Fox -- as she was a home grown on-air star who helped to make Fox the top-rated cable network in 2016. But much of the positive press she generated was largely due to her willingness to challenge right-wing guests and orthodoxy. She became widely known beyond the Fox News audience after her tough questioning of Trump in the first Republican primary debate in August 2015. That earned her glamorous magazine cover shoots, but also some harsh backlash from Trump supporters. By turning to Carlson as a replacement for Kelly, Fox News is creating a lineup that is seamless in its political appeal and less likely to alienate the networks core audience. MSNBC has a similar formula with its prime-time lineup of liberal commentators Chris Hayes, Rachel Maddow and Lawrence ODonnell. Based on his ratings performance in the 7 p.m. Eastern hour that he took over in November, Carlson is seen as a surefire way to maintain or even increase the number of viewers who had been watching Kellys program. In less than two months, Tucker has taken cable by storm with his spirited interviews and consistently strong performance, Murdoch said in a statement. Viewers have overwhelmingly responded to the show and we look forward to him being a part of Fox News powerful prime-time lineup. In December, Carlson averaged 2.87 million viewers in the hour, making him the second-most-watched personality on Fox News after OReilly. He improved the ratings in the hour by 23%. But Carlson will face stiffer competition at 9 p.m Eastern time slot where Kelly was the second-most-popular host on Fox News, averaging 2.7 million viewers in 2016. The key will be his ability to hold the strong lead-in he gets from The OReilly Factor. A provocative commentator, Carlson has gained attention with some of his confrontations with liberal guests on his program. His recent throw-down with a Teen Vogue writer over her tweet about Ivanka Trump after the president-elects daughter was confronted by hecklers on a commercial flight. The exchange was heavily circulated online after it aired. Carlson is a veteran of cable news, having previously held hosting jobs on CNN and MSNBC. He founded the conservative site the Daily Caller and was co-host of the CNN debate program Crossfire, on which in 2004 comedian Jon Stewart famously said that the show was hurting America, a harsh critique that ultimately led to its demise. Frank Sesno, a former CNN Washington bureau chief who first put Carlson on TV, said he hopes the commentator will bring Fox News the more thoughtful brand of conservative thought he is known for and not just be a cheerleader for Trump. He brings a very powerful and energetic combination of wit and charm and acerbic conservative zeal to his television, said Sesno, now director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University. Hes very smart and very quick, but I hope he realizes he has an opportunity to navigate differently. He can still be a conservative who is committed and clever, but I hope not incendiary. Starting Jan. 19, Carlsons 7 p.m. Eastern time slot will be filled by a news program with Martha MacCallum called The First 100 Days that will focus on the early months of the Trump presidency. There is no decision on what will air in the hour after the actual 100 days is up. MacCallum, 52, who has been with Fox News since 2004, will also take Kellys spot in special event coverage. She will join anchor Bret Baier in covering Trumps inauguration Jan. 20. Carlsons program will be based in Washington; The First 100 Days will come out of New York. stephen.battaglio@latimes.com Twitter: @SteveBattaglio ALSO Amazons Alexa may be listening, but will she tell on you? Aerospace firms compete harder with Silicon Valley for young engineers Snapchat showed investors false user statistics, ex-employee alleges in lawsuit UPDATES: 4:20 p.m.:This article was updated throughout with analysis of Tucker Carlsons appointment and what it means for Fox News. This article was originally published at 8:35 a.m. Greta Van Susteren, who left Fox News in September over a contract issue, has landed at cable news competitor MSNBC. Van Susteren will anchor a nightly 6 p.m. ET program, For the Record with Greta Van Susteren, for the NBCUniversal-owned channel. Based out of Washington, she will begin on Monday. Van Susterens hiring, which has been in the works for weeks, follows the announcement that Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly is joining NBC News. Advertisement Kelly will not have a role on MSNBC. Van Susteren left Fox News suddenly when her contract was opened for renegotiation in September. The anchor, who had been with Fox News since 2002, had a clause in her deal that tied her commitment to the employment of the networks former chairman Roger Ailes. Ailes left Fox News in July amid sexual harassment charges made against him. Van Susteren, 62, is a lawyer who gained cable news prominence as a legal analyst during CNNs coverage of O.J. Simpsons murder trial. She was a prime-time host on CNN eight years before joining Fox News. Van Susteren was replaced at Fox News by conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, who on Thursday was named to take over the 9 p.m. ET hour being vacated by Kelly. stephen.battaglio@latimes.com Twitter: @SteveBattaglio USC mechanical engineering junior Stephanie Balais developed a passion for aerospace after joining the universitys AeroDesign team and helping to construct an airplane fuselage hours before transporting the plane to a competition in Kansas. As internships beckoned, she sent in a number of applications to top defense and aerospace firms. But Microsoft Corp. snagged her first. This summer, Balais, 20, will spend 13 weeks in Redmond, Wash., working in the tech giants manufacturing and supply chain department. Silicon Valley and other tech centers have always been popular landing places for young engineers, with their lure of cutting-edge technology and top-notch pay. But aerospace companies are facing an even stiffer challenge as Web and computer companies, and other sectors like the auto industry, move into areas like drones and autonomous systems. Advertisement Aerospace employers are realizing they have to dig deeper and adjust their messaging to capture top tech talent. They are starting to reach out earlier to potential employees as early as elementary school or even pre-kindergarten to get them interested in science and math. And theyre recognizing the challenge they have building awareness with a generation that never had a real space race, but grew up with Google, Snapchat and Apple as part of their daily lives. This is something thats very critical to our member companies, said Dan Stohr, spokesman for the Aerospace Industries Assn. trade group. Theyre putting serious money into this, to the tune of millions of dollars a year. Lockheed Martin Corp. has launched a program called Generation Beyond aimed at encouraging middle school students interest in deep space exploration. The initiative includes a class curriculum, a downloadable Mars weather app and a traveling school bus modified so that children riding it can see the Martian landscape through the windows. One of the things weve been seeing is that this generation of students doesnt necessarily know or have grown up with Lockheed Martin, as their parents did, said Steve Hatch, the companys director for central talent acquisition, of current college students. As we look at the competition, how do we go attract that talent sooner but at the same time, get them interested in STEM. In early 2015, Northrop Grumman Corp. opened an innovation center called NG Next based in Redondo Beach, where it is doubling down on basic research to figure out solutions to problems that may be years in the future. The organization takes a more aggressive approach to experimentation, which can be attractive to potential employees looking for a creative work environment. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 26,000 aerospace engineers were employed as of May 2015 in product and parts manufacturing, a category that covers about 70% of the aerospace and defense industry, but excludes many suppliers in sectors like shipbuilding. Joining them were about 5,900 electrical engineers, about 14,000 mechanical engineers and 12,000 software developers of systems software. In computer and electronic product manufacturing, there were about 5,700 aerospace engineers, 30,300 electrical engineers, 18,400 mechanical engineers and 48,600 software developers of systems software. Defense firms have long maintained a presence on college campuses, whether at career fairs, sponsoring student engineering competitions, serving on deans or department advisory boards or providing scholarships. Students encounter Google and Amazon frequently on the Web, said Jayathi Murthy, dean of UCLAs Engineering School. So in order for [defense companies] to be heard above that, they really need to engage with us on campus, and they do. A meeting with a Northrop Grumman executive during a USC recruiting event piquedJustin Jamesons interest in working at the company. It ended up being the only place he applied to after graduating from USC in 2009. Jameson, 29, has now worked at Northrop Grumman for more than seven years. I looked at a lot of the big consulting companies as well, but at Northrop Grumman, they offered me the chance to come in and work on real problems, he said. At a consulting company, I would be solving someone elses problems. Defense firms emphasize a mission of national security with recruits, said Robin Thurman, director of workforce policy at the Aerospace Industries Assn. And the unique, real-world nature of the work gives it a cool factor for some students. In the Internet world, theyre going to work on advertising algorithms big data analysis, which can be fun and exciting and interesting, said Chris Hernandez, vice president of NG Next. But Id like to compare my airplanes and spacecraft to that any day of the week. That aspect attracted Addison Salzman, 21, who will graduate from USC in May with a degree in aerospace engineering. Salzman, who is interested in higher-level aircraft design, has already landed a full-time job at Boeing Co. and will start in July. One of the big reasons that I chose it is because they have their hands in not just defense, but they have a very large commercial airplanes business, he said. It gives me a cool opportunity to explore the different applications of aerospace technologies. Timothy John, an aerospace engineering student at UCLA, has been interested in space exploration since elementary school and has sent out a number of job applications to defense companies. John, 25, said hes looking for longevity and growth in potential employers, but also hopes to work on an airplane or spacecraft. Im pretty indiscriminate, he said. Any projects that include planes, like anything with a jet turbine, like a F-16 or F-22 or stealth bombers. Or even missiles. Though Northrop Grummans NG Next was not established specifically for recruiting, it has become a useful tool in hiring, Hernandez said. New employees can be part of an environment of rapid development and experimentation not generally associated with large defense contractors. For us to achieve the great things that we need to achieve to solve the nations toughest problems, we have to push hard, Hernandez said. The organizations four main components basic research, applied technology, advanced design and rapid prototyping employ about 800 full- or part-time people, though faculty from research universities can also collaborate with NG Next scientists. The organization was also designed to have a larger tolerance for risk than what might be assumed for a big government contractor. We want to move fast and hard, cautiously and consciously, but its OK if we fail every now and then, Hernandez said, voicing a credo that aerospace engineers say held for the space program long before it became popular in Silicon Valley. If we dont, were probably not pushing hard enough. To read the article in Spanish, click here samantha.masunaga@latimes.com For more business news, follow me @smasunaga ALSO Troubled Faraday Future unveils a new species of automobile. Is it already extinct? Labor Department wants to ban Google from federal contracts, unless they turn over employee data Snapchat showed investors false user statistics, ex-employee alleges in lawsuit Days after Donald Trump won the presidential election vowing to deport millions of people in the country illegally and fortify the Mexican border, California farmer Kevin Herman ordered nearly $600,000 in new equipment, cutting the number of workers hell need starting with the next harvest. Herman, who grows figs, persimmons and almonds in the nations most productive farming state, said Trumps comments pushed him to make the purchase, larger than hed planned to buy otherwise. No doubt about it, Herman said. I probably wouldnt have spent as much or bought as much machinery as I did. Advertisement Others in Californias farming industry say Trumps tough campaign talk targeting immigrants in the country illegally including a vast number of farm workers spurred them into action, too. Theyre calling on congressional representatives to educate the president-elect on the workforce it takes to feed the country, and theyre assuring workers theyll protect them. San Joaquin Valley farmer Joe Del Bosque recently gathered about 20 year-round employees at a steakhouse in Los Banos for their annual holiday lunch. The festivities began on a serious note. The topic of immigration took a bigger part of the conversation this year because of Trump, he said. Del Bosque told his crew hell make sure the new administration knows their vital role in the farming industry. Its a message Del Bosque wants his managers to spread to the 300 seasonal workers needed at the harvests peak. Leticia Alfaro, a food-safety supervisor at the farm, said in an interview that many of her friends who work in the fields dont have proper documentation like she does, and they take Trumps threats seriously. Theyre terrified by his comments, Alfaro, 53, said in Spanish. They fear being deported and torn from their children who were born here, she said. They wonder whether, after Trump takes office, it will be safe to even make a trip to the grocery store, fearing checkpoints where theyd be pulled over and have to show their documentation. Trumps remarks were felt sharply in California, which produces nearly half the countrys fruits, vegetables and nuts, valued at $47 billion annually. But his words resonate elsewhere too. Texas, Florida and Georgia also have large migrant communities that dominate the home construction, healthcare and food service industries, said David Zonderman, a labor historian at North Carolina State University. California might be ground zero, he said of immigrant families living in the shadows. But its not a unique California issue. The fear stems from Trumps campaign rallies, where he received a rousing response each time he vowed to deport people who are in the country illegally up to 11 million. That position softened after Trump won the election, when he said hed start with 3 million who have criminal records. Some farmers point to Trumps post-election shift as a sign that his campaign bluster wont become reality. He is, after all, a businessman like them, they say. But others believe this shift underscores the president-elects unpredictable nature. Our workers are scared, said Joe Garcia, a farm labor contractor who hires up to 4,000 people each year to pick grapes from Napa to Bakersfield and along the Central Coast. If theyre concerned, were concerned. Since election day, Garcias crews throughout the state have been asking what will happen to them when Trump takes office. Farmers also are calling to see if theyll need to pay more to attract people to prune the vines, he said. Garcia tells farmers not to panic. Well plan around what we have, he tells them. Thats all we can do. Roughly 325,000 workers in California do the backbreaking jobs that farmers say nobody else will do, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Manuel Cunha Jr., president of the Nisei Farmers League farming association, estimates 85% of California farm workers live in the United States illegally. Farmers for years have scrambled to adjust to a shrinking labor pool. Mexicos improving economy has slowed the flow of migrant workers. The dangerous border, controlled by drug cartels and human traffickers, keeps away others. Herman, the farmer who bought three new almond sweepers, said that in addition to Trumps election, he was influenced by Californias rising minimum wage and a new law giving farm laborers overtime rights that are equal to those for workers in other industries. Plus, Herman said, he heard too many workers expressing doubts about whether they would return to California after their holiday trips to Mexico. Its stories like that that have motivated me to become efficient and upgrade my equipment, Herman said. Tom Nassif, a Trump advisor and president of the powerful Western Growers trade association, said farmers shouldnt fear the president-elect. Trump isnt interested in deporting their workers, he said. Nassif said he isnt privy to the details of Trumps immigration policy. He has recommended that Trump allow otherwise law-abiding farmworkers who are in the country illegally to stay if they serve a period of probation, pay taxes, learn English and obey all laws. I think hes looking at people who have committed more serious crimes and start with them first and rightly so, said Nassif, picked by Trumps campaign team to serve on an agriculture advisory committee. I think theres less reason to worry than most people believe there is. ALSO Amazons Alexa may be listening, but will she tell on you? Aerospace firms compete harder with Silicon Valley for young engineers Snapchat showed investors false user statistics, ex-employee alleges in lawsuit A former Snapchat employee alleged in a lawsuit that the company misrepresented its financial state while recruiting him and then pressured him to spill secrets about his time at Facebook. Anthony Pompliano worked in Snapchats business operations department for three weeks before his firing in September 2015. He alleged in court papers Wednesday that the company has lied about the reason for his termination since then, hindering his ability to land another job in the social media industry. Mr. Pompliano was terminated because he refused to participate in a scheme to deceive the public and artificially inflate Snapchats valuation in anticipation of its initial public stock offering, the lawsuit states. Advertisement Company spokeswoman Mary Ritti said the complaint was meritless. It is totally made up by a disgruntled former employee, she said in a statement. Snap Inc., the company behind the popular chat app Snapchat, recently began talking to investors about its plans to publicly list shares as early as March. The IPO could value Snap at more than $25 billion while raising around $4 billion for the Venice firm to invest in hiring, product research and other initiatives, sources have said. But concerns about the lawsuit could become a distraction, particularly because it calls into question the data the company shares about itself. Snapchat will not let anything stand in its way of an IPO, including obligations to represent material facts accurately, the suit says. DOCUMENT: Read the full complaint in Pompliano v. Snap Seven full pages and other portions of the 21-page filing in Los Angeles County Superior Court are blacked out. Pomplianos attorney, David Michaels, said the redactions protect information possibly subject to a confidentiality agreement between his client and Snap. The company has 10 days to file a motion to maintain the redactions. Among the statements unavailable are two statistics that Snap provided to Pompliano during the recruiting process that he claims are false. Similar data was provided to prospective Snap investors, including Chinese technology giant Alibaba, according to the lawsuit. Alibaba and several venture capital firms that own Snap shares didnt offer comment on the lawsuit. Last year, Snap added about 1,000 employees worldwide and reached deals with vendors to measure certain operations on the app, so its possible alleged deficiencies may now be rectified. Snap has said 150 million people use its mobile app each day, producing more than 10 billion daily views of short videos. Analysts estimate that the company generated close to $400 million in ad revenue in 2016. But Pompliano alleged through the lawsuit that Snap lacked sophisticated methods of verifying user statistics because its chief executive, Evan Spiegel, did not care for numbers. Pompliano raised concerns about misrepresentations to three superiors to no avail, according to the filing. He also claims to have angered Snap executives by refusing to divulge information about Facebook, where he had worked for the previous year. Snap and Facebook are locked in battle for the attention of consumers and advertisers. Facebook and its separate Messenger and Instagram apps have added several features popular on Snapchat, including the ability to decorate images with whimsical doodles and send disappearing messages. Likewise, Snapchat has added options such as group messaging that help it match what Facebook offers. Snapchat rejected a multibillion-dollar acquisition offer from Facebook in 2013. Pompliano is seeking an injunction that would bar Snap from misrepresenting the reason for his firing. He said Snap has told employees and others in the industry that he was incompetent. Separately, he has filed an arbitration claim that is in the early stages seeking lost wages and other damages for his allegedly wrongful firing. Pompliano founded and sold a small start-up that analyzed social media posts before becoming a product manager at Facebook. Facebook declined to comment beyond confirming his role there. Pompliano abruptly left for Snapchat to help the app add new users. This year, Pompliano opened a North Carolina venture capital firm, Full Tilt Capital. Its unclear from where the fund raised money. But among its investments are mobile app research firm Apptopia, college housing search service LoftSmart and charter bus service Skedaddle, according to Pomplianos blog posts. Snap has other legal issues outstanding, including a lawsuit filed by two women who say they werent appropriately compensated for appearing in the companys early marketing materials. A jury trial in that Los Angeles County case is scheduled for October. Snap also has denied patent infringement allegations lodged in a Texas federal court by Uniloc, a firm notorious for making intellectual property claims. In Canadas federal court, Snap has countersued in a case brought by investment group Investel, which says Snapchats location-based image filters infringe on patents for its iFramed app. paresh.dave@latimes.com / PGP Twitter: @peard33 UPDATES: 12:40 p.m., Jan. 5: This article was updated with responses from Alibaba and Facebook, details about other lawsuits against Snap and details about redaction procedures. This article was originally published at 7:45 p.m., Jan. 4. In high school, I had a social studies teacher who would occasionally scrap Californias curriculum mandates to do things like screen films about Latin American coups and African parasites. It was in this context that I first came across the work of English art critic John Berger, who in 1972 produced an essential four-part documentary for the BBC called Ways of Seeing. In it, Berger, in a very 70s shag haircut and an even more 70s patterned shirt, took the viewer on an unparalleled tour of visual culture. He evaluated the ways in which oil painting had historically served as the ultimate status of wealth and power throughout European history a luxury object often used to chronicle the ownership of other luxury objects. He inveighed against art world myth-making. And he casually elucidated how women have been historically depicted in Western art (nude and available). If Sister Wendy Beckett is the kindly grandmother who takes you by the hand, and leads you, beatifically, through the wonders of art history, John Berger was the hippie-Marxist uncle who gave you the red pill and told you it was all a mirage. In other words, he set my teenage mind on fire. Advertisement On Monday, Berger passed away at the age of 90 at his home in Paris. Over the course of his long life, he worked as an artist (his foray into art began with painting), as well as a critic and essayist, producing well-thumbed volumes on photography, reproduction, landscape and portraiture. He was also an accomplished novelist. In fact, in 1972 the same year he was stalking the airwaves of the BBC with his barbed art documentary he was awarded the prestigious Man Booker Prize for his novel G, about the life of a wandering Italian philanderer. Upon winning, Berger pledged to give half his prize money to the Black Panthers, since the awards sponsors had historical connections to indentured labor in the Caribbean. For me, Berger will always be the sternly charismatic figure on the grainy television in my darkened social studies classroom. Ways of Seeing examined what is shown on the walls of our museums and, more importantly, what gets left out (often, issues of poverty and labor). He deconstructed the ways in which advertising stimulates desire and enforces gender ideals and shows the connection it bears to Western painting. (Take that, Don Draper.) And he scolded historians and critics for burying accessible stories of art in piles of word salad. What so often inhibits such a spontaneous process is the false mystification which surrounds art, he states right into the camera in the first episode. For instance, the art book depends upon reproductions. Yet often what the reproductions make accessible, the text makes inaccessible. What may become part of our language is jealously guarded and kept within the narrow preserves of the art expert. Art for Berger, wasnt some venerational object in a museum. It was something that bore evidence of our systems of thought as well as our systems of commerce. These were objects with stories: the stories they told and the stories we layer on top in any given political or social context. Art was never above. It was right in the scrum, as much an indicator of our delights as it is of our prejudices. What Berger taught me is not just how to look at an image but to look through it and ask why and how. Im profoundly thankful to him, and to my teacher, Jim Mamer, who decided that an afternoon with Berger was better than anything the state of California could dream up. Rest in power, John Berger. You have no equal. Arts website UbuWeb has the full-four episode Ways of Seeing series online. Likewise, Hyperallergic has posted a number of filmed conversations and interviews online, including a discussion about storytelling between Berger and essayist Susan Sontag. Sign up for our weekly Essential Arts & Culture newsletter carolina.miranda@latimes.com @cmonstah ALSO We watch artist Harry Gamboa Jr. stage a fotonovela at the site of L.A.'s demolished 6th Street Bridge Art after Fidel: What Castros death means for a rising generation of Cuban artists It hasnt left me: How Black Lives Matter used performance to create unforgettable 2016 moments When Ricky Gervais hosted the Golden Globes for the fourth (and, hopefully, not final) time last year, he joked that the president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. threatened to personally pull him off the stage if he said anything offensive or crass or resorted to innuendo. Of course, the evening was filled with wall-to-wall offensive, crass innuendo, including jokes about Roman Polanskis love for Spotlight (best date movie ever), Ben Afflecks wayward eye (Gervais called Matt Damon the only person Affleck hadnt been unfaithful to) and introducing Mel Gibson with a comic bit that had the NBC censor scrambling for the mute button. It was all in keeping with Gervais mission of skewering Hollywood hokum and self-importance the very things that Jimmy Fallon, this years Golden Globes host, wears as a badge of honor on his late-night talk show. Advertisement To put it another way: The censors and the president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. can probably relax, unless a game of beer pong or beer shuffleboard gets out of hand. (Though, if presenter Amy Schumer was involved, itd probably be one of the nights most memorable moments.) Other than a level of obsequiousness unseen in the last seven years with hosts Gervais and the beloved tag team of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler (who once joked that George Clooney would rather float away in space and die than spend one more minute with a woman his age), what else can we expect from this years Golden Globes? Five burning questions and their answers. Some people are predicting Hacksaw Ridge is going to win top motion picture drama. If so, can Gervais present the award to Mel Gibson? Probably not. But more than a few Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. members have told us over the last few months how much the group loved Gibsons bloody war movie about Desmond Doss, a conscientious objector awarded the Medal of Honor for bravery in combat. Hacksaw Ridge taking this Globe over Manchester by the Sea and Moonlight would be surprising on many levels, none more so than the startling comeback it would represent for Gibson, who was openly mocked at this show just last year. Lets just hope he combs out the bread crumbs from his beard before he takes the stage. Wait. Did you say Manchester by the Sea or Moonlight might not win the best picture drama Globe? Wouldnt that cripple their Oscar chances? No. Spotlight didnt win the Globe last year. Neither did Birdman the year before. And both movies went on to win the Oscar for best picture. We wont go so far as to completely agree with Gervais contention that a Golden Globe is a bit of metal some nice old confused journalists wanted to give you in person so they could meet you and have a selfie. But thats pretty close. Theres no overlap between the 85 selfie-loving members who vote on the Globes and the motion picture academys 6,687 voters. But there is one difference this year: Oscar ballots went out Thursday, so the Golden Globes falls within the academys voting window. Anything a contender does or says at the show could make a lasting impression with Oscar voters. No pressure! Just maybe pass on the refills when the waiter brings around the wine. OK. We get it. No overlap. But is there any Oscar favorite with a lot to lose Sunday night? Because the Globes split movies into drama and comedy/musical categories, Damien Chazelles lovely musical La La Land is pretty much out by its lonesome in the latter group, fending off the feeble likes of Florence Foster Jenkins, Sing Street and (ahem) Deadpool for the title of best picture, musical or comedy. La La Land is not going to lose. How could it, right? Right? But if it somehow did lose and its stars Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling dont wind up holding trophies (at least one of them needs to win, preferably Stone), then a few academy voters might look at the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn.s verdict and think, Yeah. La La Land really isnt all that great. (Even though, having seen it three times, were here to tell you it is. So watch it again and get your mind right.) Will the show pay tribute to Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds? Normally, the Globes telecast doesnt include an In Memoriam segment. But these arent normal times that were living and dying in. So, yes, according to Globes producer Barry Adelman, there will be some sort of appreciation for the lives of mother and daughter, Reynolds and Fisher, who died within a day of each other in December. Other celebrities may also be included. Have your tissues at the ready. Who will give the nights most memorable speech? Memorable as in weird? Billy Bob Thornton for Goliath. Memorable as in shocked and life-changing? Issa Rae for Insecure. Memorable as in eloquent and empowering? Viola Davis for Fences. The 74th Annual Golden Globe Awards Where: NBC When: 5 p.m. Sunday Rating: Not rated glenn.whipp@latimes.com Twitter: @glennwhipp Under the glare of camera flashes, Gina Rodriguez, star of the television show Jane the Virgin, stepped onto a makeshift stage at the front of a bar in West Hollywood on Wednesday night. Whats up, everybody? Its an exciting week, right? Rodriguez asked. For the record: For the record: An earlier version of this post said that the competition winner would have their short film screened at Tribeca. Actually, the winner will be honored at a dinner held at the festival. After all, it was the Wednesday before the Golden Globes awards ceremony. After a bit of silence, she joked, No? Just me? And like that, the audience of about 100 laughed, breaking the ice. Advertisement Rodriguez, a Golden Globe winner and 2016 nominee, showed up at Doheny Room to help kick off the second Moet Moment Film Festival. Backed by champagne company Moet & Chandon, the competition is designed to support a new generation of filmmakers. Entrants must submit a 60-second film for a chance to win $25,000 and mentorship from industry insiders. Its always been a difficult journey to find where you belong, where your space is in this crazy industry, Rodriguez told the crowd. Film festivals like this one that can give you opportunity, that can push forward your art and your voice, and puts you in a position to find that voice, [are] a beautiful, beautiful thing. With the awards season upon us, the event was a sneak preview of the Hollywood glamour everyone expects in coming months. Laughter and the sound of rose and champagne bottles popping filled the air, with a subtle house bass line lurking in the distance. Pretty, stylish and completely unbothered by a celebrity presence, attendees mingled with entertainers in the low lighting of the two-story bar. A miniature red carpet and backdrop had been rolled out, where notables stopped for a quick photo on their way into the party. I think whats beautiful about Hollywood is we can use our art to start influencing tolerance and love and acceptance, and thats what art does, Rodriguez told The Times. We start to use art as a tool to build these broken bridges among fear, and I find that really exciting to be part of a wave of artists that can help heal. I think a short film is always an incredible challenge, said Elisabeth Sereda, a competition judge and Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. member. Ive done TV for a long time, and I know the shorter you have to be, the more challenging it is. On the other hand, there are so many great filmmakers out there that are not going to get the budget for a 10-20-30-40 million dollar movie right away. I want to see more independent film productions, more female directors, more female screenwriters, more female everything, Sereda continued. Bryce Dallas Howard, third-generation actor and 2017 SAG nominee, professed her love for short films. The Black Mirror star, who is a competition judge, has directed and starred in several over the last few years. I keep making short films, and I love that medium, said Howard, who was dressed in a dark red lace dress. I think with all these different ways in which we view stories now that short films existing unto themselves might not have to be a stepping stone. They unto themselves can be a piece of work and a piece of art. 2017 marks the first time the competition partnered with the Tribeca Film Festival. The winners short will be honored at a dinner held the festival in April. The best piece of advice I can give to an aspiring filmmaker is to find your own voice, said Sharon Badal, Tribecas vice president of filmmaker relationship and short programming and a competition judge. Where they come from, their story, is the root of their storytelling, and they should cling to those roots because thats what makes them who they are. And whats a champagne soiree without a proper toast? Howard took the stage, raising her glass and perhaps giving sound advice for the new year. This is your moment. Cheers! she said. Take whatever you think that means and run with it. makeda.easter@latimes.com @makedaeaster More details about Prince Harry and actress Meghan Markles romance have emerged, particularly the kind that come by way of the less-famous, less-royal people associated with the couple du jour. The British royal, 32, whos fifth in line to claim Queen Elizabeth IIs throne, is said to have met the Suits actress father about six months ago, according to the Daily Mail, which puts to rest reports that Markle and her father were on the outs. The report, quoting Markles brother, went on to say that her father was pretty happy about Harry and hes extremely proud of her. Well, who wouldnt be happy about their daughter landing a prince, and one of the worlds most famous ones to boot? Advertisement Her brother did not yet know whether Harry had met Markles mother. See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour Meghan Markle (Chris Pizzello / AP ) News of the royal pairing surfaced in October. At that point, the couple had reportedly been dating for about three months. Markles brother said that her dad knew about their relationship all along. We can imagine how that conversation went: Hey, Dad, Im hooking up with a prince and hes awesome and were probably going to be hounded by papz now. #sorrynotsorry. Meanwhile, the Toronto-based actress has reportedly charmed Harrys older bro Prince William and already has the approval of the queen, who is said to be fully supportive of her grandson, according to Us Weekly. Markle hasnt actually met the 90-year-old monarch yet, but thats no surprise. It took five years for Williams wife Catherine to get an introduction. In November, Harrys press secretary confirmed that Markle was indeed the princes girlfriend by unleashing a strongly worded letter chiding the media over the wave of abuse and harassment Markle experienced. The prince was worried about Ms. Markles safety and deeply disappointed that he has not been able to protect her, the letter said. Those statements and the fact that Harry publicly addressed the romance at all confirmed that they were the real deal. The Los Angeles-born actress, 35, who shares humanitarian interests as well as custom jewelry featuring her beau, reportedly stayed with him at Kensington Palace when she visited him in London in November and December. The twosome also made their public debut in last month while shopping for a Christmas tree and taking in a play in Londons West End. That came after the lovestruck royal diverted his flight bound for London to Canada to visit the actress following his two-week Caribbean tour. Follow me: @NardineSaad Roughly 20 minutes into the barnyard slasher flick Pitchfork, the cast gathers on a dusty old Michigan farm and performs a fairly elaborate line-dance, halfway between Bollywood and a boot-scootin boogie. Its a weird but welcome moment of personality in a horror exercise thats otherwise tediously routine. Brian Raetz stars as Hunter Killian, a gay New Yorker who brings a group of his friends with him back to his hometown, where he plans to come out to his conservative father. But not long after Hunter arrives, both his family and his pals are stalked by a feral savage in an animal mask, who has a pitchfork stitched onto one of his arms. Next to the big musical number, the look of the killer is the most indelible part of Pitchfork. Director/co-writer Glenn Douglas Packard tries to bring a little style and color to the film by relying on off-kilter camera angles and cartoonish supporting characters. But he mostly stays within the narrow parameters of the knocking off generically attractive youngsters one-by-one movie, never getting campy enough, bizarre enough or satirical enough. Advertisement According to Packards bio, he grew up on a Michigan farm before becoming a dancer and choreographer, which means hes put at least some small piece of himself into this picture. Next time, rather than using his personal experience as the foundation for a forgettable fright-flick, he should flip the formula. Keep the dancing, skip the stabbing. ------------- Pitchfork Not rated Running time: 1 hour, 34 minutes Playing: Arena Cinelounge, Hollywood See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour Its just a handful of days in, but 2017 already has a viable contender for Worst Movie of the Year. Despite attracting some top-drawer talent, Arsenal is a brutally unpleasant, bottom-of-the-barrel crime drama that unsuccessfully attempts to drown the terrible dialogue and pedestrian direction with buckets of gushing blood. Having always had each others backs, rural Mississippi brothers Mikey (Johnathon Schaech) and JP (Adrian Grenier) grew up to become two very different individuals. Advertisement JP has a family and a successful construction business, but ex-Marine Mikey has been living a life mired in petty crime, locking horns with twisted mustachioed mobster Eddie King (Nicolas Cage, with a bad wig and a fake nose). When it appears Mikey has been kidnapped, JP springs into action, padding the demanded ransom with sweet vengeance, aided by his detective pal Sal (John Cusack). If Jason Mosbergs cliche-ridden script and the films dripping molasses pace werent problematic enough, director Steven C. Millers m.o. is to prolong every spurt of blood and penetrating bullet in slo-mo so as to better appreciate his special effects budget. Speaking of effects, while Cages sadistic Sonny Bono get-up is anything but dull, his gleefully over-the-top performance is the sort of distraction that ultimately tends to capture the attention of the folks who hand out those annual Razzie awards. ------------- Arsenal Rating: R, for brutal bloody violence, language throughout, and drug use Running time: 1 hour, 32 minutes Playing: Laemmle Music Hall, Beverly Hills; also on VOD See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour The new Jackie Chan action comedy Railroad Tigers about ragtag Chinese thieves taking on the Japanese Imperial army is set in the early 1940s, but you wish it had been made in 1992, at the height of the Hong Kong superstars agility and comic prowess, and when his movies were last consistently good. That old feeling is what you want from Railroad Tigers, but instead of a grand lark of fast fists and derring-do, we get a lumbering, choppy voyage of minimal excitement. Chan plays rail worker Mu Yuan, who spearheads the occasional train heist against the Japanese with his scrappy gang of maintenance workers (and one sharpshooting tailor), until the chance to take on a greater mission presents itself: blow up a bridge on a strategic supply route for the Japanese forces. Director Ding Sheng can barely harness the sweep of this endeavor, which boasts big sets and remote locations but is routinely weighed down with cheap visual effects and shoddy assemblage. Even the charismatic twinkle in Chans eye that has had to compensate for his reduced stunt craft, is rarely in evidence. Advertisement One comic bit with him, his real-life son, Jaycee (who plays one of the tigers) and a makeshift pulley manages to recreate some classically silly Chan magic. But the cartoonishness is mostly charmless, and the drawn-out climax is more indicative of todays overkill action zeitgeist than any real affection for cinemas long history of spectacular train adventures. ------------- Railroad Tigers In Mandarin with English subtitles Not rated Running time: 2 hours, 5 minutes Playing: AMC Atlantic Times Square 14. Monterey Park; AMC Rolling Hills 20, Torrance; AMC Orange 30 See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour Movie recommendations from critics Kenneth Turan, Justin Chang and other reviewers. Click title for full review. Arrival Amy Adams stars in this elegant, involving science-fiction drama that is simultaneously old and new, revisiting many alien-invasion conventions but with unexpected intelligence, visual style and heart. (Kenneth Turan) PG-13. The Eagle Huntress A portrait of a 13-year-old Kazakh girl from Mongolia who defies eons of tradition by learning to hunt with fierce golden eagles is a documentary so satisfying it makes you feel good about feeling good. (Kenneth Turan) G. Advertisement The Edge of Seventeen Hailee Steinfeld gives a superb performance as a high-school misfit in Kelly Fremon Craigs disarmingly smart teen dramedy, the rare coming-of-age picture that feels less like a retread than a renewal. (Justin Chang) R. Elle Paul Verhoevens brilliantly booby-trapped thriller starring Isabelle Huppert is a gripping whodunit, a tour de force of psychological suspense and a wickedly droll comedy of manners. (Justin Chang) R. The Handmaiden The most absorbing feature in years from South Korean director Park Chan-wook (Oldboy) is a teasingly witty and elegant puzzle-box of a thriller about two women (played by Kim Tae-ri and Kim Min-hee) pursuing their destinies in 1930s Japanese-occupied Korea. (Justin Chang) NR. Jackie Star Natalie Portman as Jackie Kennedy and director Pablo Larrain brilliantly pull back the curtain on one of the most public of private lives. (Kenneth Turan) R. La La Land Starring a well-paired Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, writer-director Damien Chazelles tuneful tribute to classic movie musicals is often stronger in concept than execution, but its lovely and transporting all the same. (Justin Chang) PG-13. Loving Beautifully acted by Ruth Negga and Joel Edgerton, this involving, socially conscious Jeff Nichols drama shows the personal lives of the interracial couple whose marriage led to the 1967 Supreme Court ruling that anti-miscegenation laws were unconstitutional. (Kenneth Turan) PG-13. Manchester by the Sea Powerful, emotional filmmaking that leaves a scar, Kenneth Lonergans drama starring Casey Affleck and Michelle Williams is both heartbreaking and heartening, a film that just wallops you with its honesty, its authenticity and its access to despair. (Kenneth Turan) R. Moonlight Superb filmmaking and an exceptional level of emotional honesty universalize a very specific coming-of-age experience, that of a gay black man growing from child to adult starting in 1980s Miamis crack cocaine epidemic years. (Kenneth Turan) R. Neruda Pablo Larrains intoxicating puzzle of a movie is less a straightforward biopic of the great Chilean poet (played by Luis Gnecco) than a rigorous and imaginative investigation of his inner world. (Justin Chang) R. Paterson Jim Jarmuschs wonderfully serene and beguiling movie is a portrait of a young artist refining his craft, drawing impressions from his everyday existence and coaxing them into a pleasing and provocative shape. (Justin Chang) R. Silence Martin Scorseses wrenching adaptation of Shusaku Endos 1966 novel, about 17th century Portuguese priests experiencing a crisis of faith in feudal Japan, ponders the dogmas and mysteries of Christian faith with astonishing rigor and seriousness. (Justin Chang) R. Toni Erdmann Sandra Huller and Peter Simonischek give splendid performances as a high-strung businesswoman and her screw-loose dad in this magnificently unpredictable comedy from German writer-director Maren Ade. (Justin Chang) R. Things to Come The great Isabelle Huppert and director Mia Hansen-Love combine for a film about a woman newly on her own. Its quiet satisfactions very much sneak up on you. (Kenneth Turan) PG-13. 20th Century Women Mike Mills lovingly fictionalized snapshot of his late-1970s adolescence belongs to Annette Bening and her marvelously suggestive and layered performance. (Justin Chang) R. See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour Norman Lear sits with a script in his left hand and a yellow pencil in the other. Every so often, he gently scribbles notes on the margins. But mostly, he listens searching for the lines that prompt a burst of laughter or bring power to the lump-in-the-throat moments. Its a common sight on the set of the remake of One Day at a Time here on the Sony Pictures lot in Culver City. Lear attended every casting session, reviewed every script and was there for show tapings. On this particular August morning, Lear is attending a script reading by the cast for an upcoming episode. Ive been busy all my life why stop now? says the soft-spoken nonagenarian, wearing his signature white bucket hat and punctuating the question with a grin. Advertisement The legendary sitcom producer, now 94, developed the original series, created by husband-and-wife writing duo Whitney Blake and Allan Manings. The show chronicled the tale of a divorced single mom (Bonnie Franklin) raising two teen daughters (Valerie Bertinelli and MacKenzie Phillips) a groundbreaking premise when it aired on CBS beginning in the mid-70s. With its update for a Netflix audience, Lear returns as a producer. Lear credits producing partner Brent Miller with the idea of revamping the classic sitcom with a Latino family at the center. The concept was fueled by marketing data showing that single Latina mothers are a coveted demographic. It was a good piece of my life, Lear says of the sitcom, which was part of a number of forward-looking series including All in the Family, The Jeffersons and Maude that made the writer-producer a force in television. When they came to me with the idea, I thought, why not? Veteran writer and producer Mike Royce (Everybody Loves Raymond) was tapped by Sony Pictures Television, which owns the original series, to run the reboot. But as Lear admits, two white males dont exactly bring authenticity to a show about a Latino family. Gloria Calderon Kellett (How I Met Your Mother, Devious Maids) was brought on as co-show runner with Royce. But not without some hesitation. Friends with comedian-actress Cristela Alonzo, who has been vocal about her frustrations with how ABC handled her short-lived autobiographical comedy, Calderon Kellett was worried this twist on One Day at a Time would get watered down. I told Norman at our first meeting: I feel like, a lot of times, Ive seen incredible Latina comedians approached about doing a television show about our community, and it seems like somebody gets in there, and it loses some of its authenticity, says Calderon Kellett. I didnt want to always be fighting for my voice to be heard. And luckily, I havent. Every time weve talked about something and Ive put my foot down, theres been no pushback. Table read of Netflixs all-Latino update of One Day at a Time. TV legend Norman Lear (in white hat) talks with show runners Mike Royce and Gloria Calderon Kellett. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times ) The result is the One Day at a Time of 2017, which is set in L.A.s Echo Park and draws upon both the childhood of Cuban American Calderon Kellett and Royces family life. The series centers on three generations of the Alvarez family. Justina Machado (Six Feet Under) stars as Penelope, a war veteran and recently single mother of two children, 14-year-old Elena (Isabella Gomez) and younger brother Alex (Marcel Ruiz). Rita Moreno stars as Penelopes diva-ish, meddling mother who moves in to help. Its a simple sitcom something Royce says too often gets dismissed. I have teenagers, theres family things I want to bring to the table, you dont get to do a low-concept sitcom very often anymore, he says. A lot of times it has to be sold on a big high concept, and heres the opportunity to just tell some stories. The updated series retains the name, as well as the apartment layout and number on the door. But the story lines and characters are all new, with the exception of building superintendent Schneider though hes now a younger, more privileged, albeit well-meaning, version played by Todd Grinnell. The half-hour multi-camera sitcom, much like the original, isnt afraid to delve into uncomfortable and serious issues, such as mental illness, the problems veterans face and sexism in the workplace. Its classic Norman Lear, Machado says. It has a lot of heart and it makes you think. The series also explores the Cuban American experience, with references to Fidel Castro and the nuances of Cuban political exile in relation to immigration. (Castros death and the Cuban communitys varying reactions to it is something Calderon Kellett and Royce hope to explore if the show returns for a second season.) On One Day at a Times 12-person writing staff, half are female and half are Latino. There were even times when the writers would invite veterans into the room to share their PTSD experiences and family stories. At one point, Calderon Kelletts parents came in to talk about their experience with Operation Peter Pan, which refers to the mass political exodus of Cuban children to the U.S. in the early 60s. For Moreno, a native of Puerto Rico, its gratifying to be part of a show that centers on a Latino family because, growing up, that seemed unattainable. You just didnt see it, Moreno says. All these years later, its not like we are the first show to have a Latino family, but there are so few out today that doesnt make any sense when you look at the demographics in the U.S. There seems to be this dumb idea that you cant get into a show with Latinos if youre not Latino. Calderon Kellett just hopes the industry is in the midst of a sea change. After seeing the recent nominations for the NAACP Awards, she says it made me feel so hopeful for the future of other minorities in this country and having their stories told. Theres so much that still needs to happen, and so to be able to be a part of a show that obviously speaks to my journey in this country is really meaningful, and I hope starts more of a wave so that there are more. So that we see our similarities more than our differences. That notion of commonality is what Lear hopes is the main takeaway from the show. We are all versions of one another, he says. So, to see lots of television and not the version that represents you the best is deeply unsatisfying. Whether a Latino family or African American family or a Jewish family, we all go through the same experiences as humans and as a species. The most-read Entertainment stories this hour One Day at a Time Where: Netflix When: Any time, Friday Rating: TV-PG (may be unsuitable for young children) yvonne.villarreal@latimes.com Twitter: @villarrealy ALSO Review: Netflix reboot of One Day at a Time is bighearted fun Knight Rider is getting (another) reboot, this time from Fast & Furious director Justin Lin Review: Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher shine in Bright Lights Huston Smith, a pioneering teacher of world religions whose knowledge and respect for the traditions of the major faiths attracted millions of readers, has died. He was 97. Smith died at his home in Berkeley on Dec. 30 after a long illness, according to his official website. From the time he was in his 20s, Smith immersed himself in the practices of many faiths, studying the Hindu Upanishad texts in India, living with Zen Buddhists in Japan, keeping the Muslim monthlong fast of Ramadan and observing the Jewish Passover. Well into old age, Smith made Hatha yoga part of his daily spiritual practice. But, as the son of Methodist missionaries noted some years ago, I never canceled my subscription to Christianity. Advertisement He wrote more than a dozen books, including the 2009 memoir Tales of Wonder, but his best-known work remained a survey text, The Religions of Man, first published in 1958. It was reissued as The Worlds Religions in 1991 and has sold about 2 million copies. His informed yet accessible prose led many laymen to read his books as their introduction to religions of the East and West. Huston was unique, journalist and commentator Bill Moyers once told The Times. He spent his life trying to penetrate the essence of the worlds religions, not only to understand them intellectually but to experience their particularity. Moyers featured Smith in a 1996 PBS special The Wisdom of Faith With Huston Smith. His writings communicate powerfully that this mans interpretation is no academic exercise, Moyers said of Smith. He has been to the place he is describing. Smiths lifelong interest in the worlds major religions led him far from the United Methodist Church where he was raised and where he remained an active member. He was a regular presence in inter-religious discussions throughout his long career. He had an early insight into the future of religion in America when he recognized that the countrys expanding ethnic diversity would lead to greater curiosity about formerly unfamiliar traditions of various faiths. He also saw the potential for conflict on a global scale. Huston anticipated, almost prophetically, the contest of narratives that embroils the world today, as the worlds landscape rapidly changes under the resurgence of conflicting faiths, Moyers said. Asked how to manage in such circumstances, Smith told Moyers, We listen. We listen as alertly to the other persons description of reality as we hope they listen to us. Smith often pointed out that the worlds major faiths have essential aspects in common, including an emphasis on compassion, a belief in the existence of the human soul and the reality of the divine. His views, however, were not always welcome. In 1955, he hosted a television program about the major religions of the world that aired on educational television. The show offended some Christian leaders who rejected Smiths parallels between Christianity and other religious teachings. Decades later, his appearance in The Wisdom of Faith With Huston Smith, brought the opposite reaction. In one lifetime, the response went from dont watch it, to everybody should watch it, Smith said of the contrast. That signaled a real change in our cultures attitude. As the study of the worlds religions became more widely available at the college level, some scholars began to see Smiths approach as just one option. Huston was a universalist, who made generalizations about all religions, Wendy Doniger, a professor at the University of Chicago Divinity School, said some years ago in an interview with The Times. He believed that all people have a religious nature and all religions share certain things in common. He said that people answer lifes big questions Is there a God? Why do we die? in similar ways. More recently, Doniger said, many professors of religion in secular schools teach the subject in a comparative, cross-cultural way. They dont necessarily look for a common core, she said. Still, Doniger said, There is a great deal of virtue and wisdom in his writing. Religion gives traction to spirituality Huston Smith Born in Suzhou, China, on May 31, 1919, to Christian missionary parents, Smith spent the first 17 years of his life in that country, which he said most likely helped set him on his course as a scholar of comparative religion. He finished high school at the Shanghai American school before he journeyed to the West to continue his education. He graduated from what is now Central Methodist University in Fayette, Mo., in 1940 and went on to attend UC Berkeley and the University of Chicago, where he earned a doctorate in 1945. As an American college student fresh from rural China, Smith was fascinated by science and technology. Gradually, however, he became more cautious about science as the answer to all questions. Years later, when he was in his 70s, he wrote Why Religion Matters: Arguing the Need for the Sacred in the Scientific World (2000). In it, he argued that Americans now see technology as a replacement for the mysteries of life. He saw science and religion as compatible. Smith married Eleanor Wieman she later changed her name to Kendra in 1943. In 1945, he became a professor of philosophy and religion at the University of Denver, where he remained for two years, until he was hired as an associate professor of philosophy at Washington University in St. Louis. In 1948, he met English writer Aldous Huxley, who would play a crucial role in Smiths intellectual development. Huxley introduced Smith to a swami in St. Louis, which led the young professor to immerse himself in Vedantic philosophy. He traveled to Japan to study with a Zen master, studied Buddhism in Burma and worked among Tibetan refugees in northern India. In 1958, he ascended the academic ladder and became a professor of Asian philosophy at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he arranged for Huxley to deliver a lecture series. Smith had been fascinated by Huxleys account of his mystical experiences with mescaline in The Doors of Perception (1954) and asked how he could arrange to sample the drug himself. Huxley referred Smith to this interesting chap over at Harvard Timothy Leary. On New Years Day in 1961, Smith swallowed two mescaline capsules at Learys home in Newton, Mass. Smith later said that the experience helped him understand the biblical claim that no one can see God and live. He compared the drug-induced mystical vision to plugging a toaster into a power line. In 1965, his article Do Drugs Have Religious Import? was published in the Journal of Philosophy and became one of the journals most reprinted pieces. He tried hallucinogens a few more times but, unlike Leary and fellow traveler Richard Alpert (later known as Ram Dass), he soon gave them up. As Ram Dass told me, Smith wrote in his memoir, After you get the message, hang up. Smiths last full-time teaching position was at Syracuse University from 1973 to 1983. Asia-wise, that decade brought Islam into my lived world, he later recalled. He began to pray five times each day in the Muslim tradition. He also produced award-winning documentary films about Hinduism, Tibetan Buddhism and Sufism, the mystical branch of Islam. On retiring from Syracuse, Smith and his wife moved to Berkeley, where he taught part time until the mid-1990s. In the 1990s, Smith turned his attention to Native American religion, New Age philosophy and the care of the environment. He spoke out in defense of Native Americans when the U.S. government outlawed the use of peyote for religious rituals in 1990. The court decision was reversed four years later. His ongoing spiritual quest made him a popular workshop leader at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, a home for the human potential movement since the 1960s. He was sometimes referred to as a spiritual surfer, but in public lectures, Smith came down firmly in favor of commitment to a religious tradition as an essential part of a spiritual practice. Religion gives traction to spirituality, he told a crowded lecture hall at UCLA in 1999. Speaking for myself, it is good to have a grounding of perceptible depth in one of the religious traditions. Put another way, he said, If you are looking for water, it is better to drill one 60-foot well than 10 six-foot wells. In addition to his wife, Smith is survived by his brother, Walter; his daughters Gael and Kimberly; and three grandchildren. His oldest daughter, Karen, died of cancer in the mid-1990s. Rourke is a former Times staff writer. ALSO As clock ticks toward Inauguration Day, Muslims wonder whether Trumps tough talk will turn into action D.A. backs man who insists he was wrongfully convicted of notorious Palmdale murder Alexa may be listening, but will she tell on you? UPDATES: 9:35 a.m.: This article was updated with additional details on Smiths death This article was originally published at 8:05 a.m. Chor Ng became the owner of a run-down warehouse 20 years ago, part of a larger divorce settlement with her husband. For much of those two decades, she leased the building out to various renters, sometimes struggling to find tenants who would pay their rent in what was then a tough neighborhood. The last lessee was Derick Almena, who converted the warehouse into the Ghost Ship, an artists residence and underground concert venue. The space underscored the improving fortunes of the Fruitvale district, which was becoming popular with artists and musicians. Advertisement But last month, a fire broke out in the packed warehouse, killing 36 people. The nations deadliest fire in more than a decade prompted questions about how the Ghost Ship came to be. Its put a spotlight on both Ng and Almena. Although Almena appeared on the Today show to discuss the fire, Ng has not spoken publicly about the tragedy. Lawyers representing Ng and her insurance carrier against wrongful-death lawsuits filed by the families of two fire victims also declined to comment. The fire has spawned a criminal investigation and scrutiny of Oaklands tolerance of unpermitted warehouse conversions that house hundreds of young professionals and urban artists without adequate fire and earthquake protection. The tragedy has prompted some owners of converted warehouses to confront how they should deal with the various issues raised by the Ghost Ship fire. Ng, 62, came into that role by way of irreconcilable differences. County deeds show the giant warehouse and retail shops on the corner of 31st Avenue and International Boulevard were transferred to Ngs sole name in 1996 shortly after she and her husband were named in a lawsuit filed by other family members. In the split, her ex-husband, Hoi Man Ng, was awarded the familys $400,000 interest in a hotel in China. Chor Ng took their Chinatown deli and investment properties the Fruitvale warehouse, two Chinatown shops and the site of a dry cleaning business in San Francisco along with $550,000 in unsecured personal debt. She was 42, spoke little English and had two teens to support. I intend to sell the deli business and learn a new skill, she told the court. Oakland was in decline at the time. Court files show Ng had her share of problems keeping tenants who could pay rent. For a time, the warehouse was leased to a tire shop owner who eventually was evicted for nonpayment. He was followed by a store owner who used the building to stash spare inventory. A young woman who leases Ngs former family home, a 1960s tract house that shows its age, said she was happy with her landlord and praised Ngs daughter, with whom she does business, as sweet. Alameda County records show Ng moved to Pleasanton in 2015 with her daughter, Eva Ng, and her daughters fiance, an executive at a medical tech firm. Though city codes do not allow it, Almena rented out living quarters at the Ghost Ship and hired out the second floor for events. Former tenants said they were told to hide evidence they were living in the Ghost Ship whenever Ngs daughter came by. They definitely did not live there, Eva Ng, 36, told The Times the morning after the fire. I dont think people lived there. I think the artists come and go. She has declined to comment further. An estimated 100 people attended the electronic music show on Dec. 2 when a fire started on the bottom floor. Most of the 36 people killed were trapped upstairs, unable to escape down a stairway hammered together from old pallets and recycled wood. Federal and city fire investigators have yet to determine a cause of the blaze. Griselda Ceja and others cited frequent power outages in the industrial building, which had a shared power supply for all tenants, including the Ghost Ship, a tire business and retail shops. The wiring was antiquated and often would short out or arc, sending sparks jumping from light fixtures and the junction box, Ceja said. The man leasing space beneath Cejas hair salon filled the emergency exit stairwell with supplies, blocking egress. Rats were a common nuisance. It was dangerous and it was scary, she said. Repairs were slow to be made, and only after repeated complaints to Ngs two children. There were no sprinklers, no smoke alarms, said Enriqueta Soriano, who at one time leased space in the warehouse for a bridal boutique. The entire building wasnt kept up. Oh, but they collected rent on time. In 1998, Oakland required Ng to make earthquake improvements to the Fruitvale warehouse. The process involved punching holes in the roof, and there was a downpour. Soriano and her husband, Flaviano, returned to find their business knee-deep in water. They blamed Ng. It was a horrible loss, said Soriano. It was complete negligence on her part. They sued Ng for $100,000 in damages and settled for $48,275, court records show. Public files show citations resulted in more than $20,000 in city liens against Ngs properties for failing to promptly pay fines for building code violations. The warehouse and an adjacent empty lot were repeatedly cited for recurring blight. Within weeks of an ordered cleanup of trash in the vacant lot next door, the debris reappeared out front, obstructing pathways. The broken furniture, appliances and odd artifacts turned the sidewalk into a flea market of the bizarre. After cleanups in 2014, new violations were lodged in 2016, two weeks before the fire. The family sometimes did its own repairs, city records show. Eva Ng emailed a city inspector in 2014 saying she used the weekend off from work to paint over graffiti outside the Ghost Ship. When the city required her to remove wood boards affixed to the top of a tall fence, city records show Eva Ng sent the inspector an email noting that the artists using the warehouse thought it was artsy, and beautiful and are sad that they have to take it down. Around the corner on International Boulevard, the city also repeatedly issued citations for sidewalk debris, trash, a deteriorated facade and an illegal resident. Ceja said she complained to the city around 2003 about rats and garbage, and the inspector who answered left her with a warning. He told me were going to end up shutting it down, and then well have no jobs. She stopped complaining and resorted to her own repairs. When the hot water stopped flowing, Ceja said she bought and installed her own heater. paige.stjohn@latimes.com Times staff writer Ruben Vives contributed to this report. ALSO Ghost Ship fire mystery: What did fire officials know and when did they know it? The Ghost Ship fire was a matter of benign neglect. Its not the only one At one warehouse in L.A.'s Chinatown, artists feel blunt impact from deadly Ghost Ship fire Elisabeth Betty Broderick will remain in state prison, where she is serving time for the 1989 murders of her ex-husband and his new wife at their San Diego home, Californias parole board ruled late Wednesday. At the end of a daylong hearing, the two-member panel found that Broderick was not suitable for release and denied parole for the longest term possible: 15 years. Broderick could request another hearing sooner than that if she meets certain criteria. Now 69, she is serving a sentence of 32 years to life at the California Institution for Women in Chino. Advertisement This was the second time that the former socialite had been granted a parole hearing since being convicted in 1991 for the murders of Daniel Thomas Broderick III, 44, and his wife, Linda Kolkena Broderick, 28. Daniel Broderick was a well-known medical malpractice lawyer. Linda had been his office assistant before they married. Both were fatally shot the morning of Nov. 5, 1989, as they lay in bed at home. Betty Broderick is an unrepentant woman, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Sachs, who argued against a grant of parole at the hearing. She has no remorse and zero insight into the killings, Sachs said afterward in an interview. She just basically said, They drove me to do this. Betty Brodericks attorney declined to comment after the hearing. After one mistrial, Broderick was found guilty in December 1991 of two counts of second-degree murder. She previously was denied parole in 2010. During the trials, Broderick never denied firing the fatal shots, but contended that she had been pushed to do so by her husbands abuse during their contentious divorce and the custody battle over their children. The prosecution maintained that Broderick was a cold and deliberate killer who felt she had the right no matter the cost to others to act out in vicious and extreme ways just because she was angry. dana.littlefield@sduniontribune.com Littlefield writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune The strongest part of a series of storms barreled into Northern California on Sunday, bringing flooding, heavy snow and concerns about avalanches. Officials reported scattered flooding and mudslides throughout the region, including a washed out road in Windsor that required the rescue of two people. Local authorities were watching rising water levels at several key rivers including the Truckee, Merced, American and Russian. An extreme avalanche warning was issued for parts of the Sierra Nevada Mountains Sunday because of heavy snow. In Mammoth Lakes, officials said higher elevations recorded 48 inches of snow in the last two days. Advertisement Winds topped 50 mph in some areas. A woman was killed in the East Bay suburb of San Ramon on Saturday when she was struck by a falling tree at a golf course amid heavy winds. Up to 12 inches of rain is expected to fall on areas below 8,500 feet beginning Saturday morning, and up to 7 feet of snow could bury higher elevations, according to the National Weather Service. Forecasters said the storm was packing the same wallop as one that hit Northern California in 2005, causing $300 million in damage. This weekends system could bring 36 consecutive hours of heavy rain from Mammoth Mountain to Susanville, in Lassen County. Though that is good news for California, which is entering its sixth year of drought, the coming rain could melt already standing snow feeding watersheds swollen from storms earlier this week, forecasters said. Its going to be a busy weekend, said Edan Weishahn, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Reno, sighing. The rain moved in late Friday and continued into Saturday morning, with the most powerful punch expected later in the day. In the eastern Sierra Nevada, snow continued to fall at higher elevations while rain drizzled lower down as officials warned that wetter, rainier conditions on tap for later this weekend could spell trouble. 1 / 67 Surfer and Huntington Beach lifeguard Jachin Hamborg watches the dramatic sky and waves after surfing following his lifeguarding shift at dusk at the Huntington Beach pier. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 67 A man is silhouetted against a dramatic sky at sunset while walking on the Huntington Beach pier. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 67 A pedestrian takes to flight crossing 4th Street in Santa Ana after heavy rain flooded the area. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 4 / 67 Snowplows clear Highway 18 during a storm on Jan. 12, 2017, in Running Springs. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 67 Jessica Pompa and Albert Arroyo make a snowman at Firehouse Park in Running Springs. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) 6 / 67 Michelle Graves keeps an eye on the sky as she waits to cross Spring Street in downtown Los Angeles. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times) 7 / 67 Laurel Canyon Boulevard remained closed in both directions Thursday morning in the Hollywood Hills after part of a homes concrete foundation tumbled down a hillside after a round of rainfall. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 8 / 67 News crews gather on Laurel Canyon Blvd, which remained closed in both directions Thursday morning in the Hollywood Hills when part of a homes concrete foundation tumbled down a hillside after a round of rainfall. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 9 / 67 A pedestrian wades through a flooded 4th Street in Santa Ana. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 10 / 67 Traffic moved slowly on a snowy Highway 18 in the Running Springs area. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) 11 / 67 Members of a film crew shelter under umbrellas as the rain comes down in front of L.A. City Hall. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times) 12 / 67 A pedestrian wades through a flooded 4th Street in Santa Ana carrying her daughter. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 13 / 67 A man crossing the street gets caught in a heavy burst of rain on 4th Street in Santa Ana. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 14 / 67 A Guernville resident walks down steps toward the foodwater surrounding his home. (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images) 15 / 67 A portable toilet is submerged in floodwaters at a vineyard in Forestville. (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images) 16 / 67 A woman walks through water from a king tide that flooded onto the Embarcadero in San Francisco on Wednesday. (Jeff Chiu / Associated Press) 17 / 67 Caltrans worker Brad Larson is whipped by high winds on Tuesday as he mans a checkpoint closing all northbound traffic at U.S. 395 and State Route 203 near Mammoth Lakes. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 18 / 67 Caltrans worker Mark Reistetter tells a Reno-bound truck driver his options at a checkpoint closing all northbound traffic at U.S. 395 and State Route 203 near Mammoth Lakes. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 19 / 67 More than 100 trucks line Main Street in Lone Pine on Tuesday, stranded as U.S. 395 closed to high-profile vehicles in both directions because of high winds. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 20 / 67 A Mammoth Mountain employee directing traffic is dwarfed by a snow removal vehicle on Minaret Road leading to the Mammoth Mountain ski area in Mammoth Lakes. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 21 / 67 A tow truck driver pulls a pickup truck out of a snowbank in the median of U.S. 395 near Mammoth Lakes. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 22 / 67 Clouds drift over the Owens Valley in a view from above Round Valley near Bishop. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 23 / 67 Emma Soriano jumps in a puddle on the Manhattan Beach Pier after posing for pictures for her dad. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 24 / 67 With the Manhattan Beach Pier in the distance, surfers scan the waves of Hermosa Beach. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 25 / 67 Morgan Harris of Hermosa Beach rides home along The Strand after a couple of hours of surfing south of Hermosa Beach. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 26 / 67 A biker at Hermosa Beach, where people were dealing with a lingering rainstorm. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 27 / 67 A break in a series of storms moving across California highlights the snow-covered White Mountains looming over U.S. Highway 395 in Crowley Lake. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 28 / 67 Traffic moves slowly at the Donner Pass Road exit on snowy Interstate 80 in Soda Springs. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 29 / 67 The Green Church, a beloved landmark along U.S. 395, is partly obscured by snow during a break in a series of storms in the Eastern Sierra Nevada near Mammoth Lakes. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 30 / 67 Snow falls along Interstate 80 at Exit 184 in Truckee. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 31 / 67 A break in a series of storms in the Eastern Sierra Nevada highlights the snow-covered White Mountains near Convict Lake. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 32 / 67 A plow removes freshly fallen snow along Donner Pass Road in Soda Springs, Calif. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 33 / 67 On a snowy day, a sign makes it clear that chains are required on this stretch of Interstate 80 in Truckee. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 34 / 67 Snow-covered mountains provide a dramatic backdrop for Crowley Lake. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 35 / 67 Jack Ryan and his family came out to see firsthand water cresting the south bank of the American River, flooding American River Parkway in Sacramentos Discovery Park. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 36 / 67 Folsom Lake continues to rise as the Folsom reservoir releases water into the American River. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 37 / 67 Caltrans worker Wendy Payne clears debris after heavy rains caused flooding along Highway 89 near Truckee. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 38 / 67 Traffic is backed up while CalTrans removes falling rocks and mud which closed one westbound lane along Interstate 80 east of Truckee, near Floriston, Calif. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 39 / 67 Wendy Payne of CalTrans clears debris along Highway 89 near Truckee. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 40 / 67 Christian Ochoa of CalTrans removes debris to allow water to flow into the Truckee River. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times ) 41 / 67 Park Ranger Cullen Tucker walks across a bridge during a rain storm on the Merced River in Yosemite National Park. (Gary Kazanjian / Associated Press) 42 / 67 Resident June Barnard checks the level of the Truckee River at Bridge 11 along Highway 89. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 43 / 67 Mammoth Mountain ski patrolman Cliff Klock, left, and Forest Service member Jeff Karl fire a 105-millimeter howitzer on Sunday to mitigate avalanche paths at the top of the ski area in Mammoth Lakes, Calif. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 44 / 67 Mammoth Mountain ski patrolman Cliff Klock prepares to load a 105-millimeter shell into the breach of a 1943 howitzer. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 45 / 67 Heavy rains and ice dams cause flooding along Donner Pass Road in high Sierra Nevada, Soda Springs, CA, Jan. 8, 2017. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 46 / 67 A CHP officer proclaims aw man! as he is photographed after becoming stuck in heavy snow in the median of US 395 near Crowley Lake as snow falls on the Eastern Sierra Nevada. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 47 / 67 Monique Long hauls sandbags from her SUV to make a barrier to divert the rain and melting snow from flooding her garage, while her friend Jenna Shropshire, right, helps shovel snow, in Truckee, Calif. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 48 / 67 Mitch Brown operates a skid steer removing snow so water can flow freely preventing flooding in Soda Springs, Calif. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 49 / 67 Skiers coming off the mountain endured rainy conditions all day at the Sugar Bowl Ski Resort, in Norden, Calif. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 50 / 67 The train passes under an avalanche tunnel near the Sugar Bowl Ski Resort, in Norden, Calif., on Jan. 7, 2017. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 51 / 67 Caltrans snowplows clear heavy snow from the northbound lanes oh highway 395 as snow falls on the Eastern Sierra near Sherwin Summit, Calif. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 52 / 67 A sign at Wawona and Glacier Point roads alerts visitors that roads into Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National Park are closed. (Silvia Flores / Associated Press) 53 / 67 Actor Max Baer Jr., left, talks with emergency responders after flipping over his SUV in white-out conditions while traveling northbound on U.S. 395 near Crowley Lake as heavy snow falls on the Eastern Sierra Nevada, Calif. The star of The Beverly Hillbillies said his was not injured. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 54 / 67 A snowcat moves snow in near whiteout conditions on the slopes at Mammoth Mountain. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 55 / 67 A CHP officer maintains a checkpoint to ensure vehicles are compliant with R2 chain restrictions on the northbound 395 just north of Bishop as snow falls on the Eastern Sierra Nevada. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 56 / 67 Caltrans crews have a road-flooded sign in case of heavy rain and snow near the Eastern Sierra Nevada town of June Lake, Calif. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 57 / 67 Caltrans avalanche crew members Sky Greytak, right, and Pat Brannen, left, prepare to set off explosive charges remotely from a laptop during avalanche control operations near the Eastern Sierra Nevada town. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 58 / 67 Caltrans snowplow operator Mike Morgan prepares to turn his plow around after making loops on the 395 between Bishop and Toms Place, a route he drives 12 hours a day clearing heavy snow in the Eastern Sierra. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 59 / 67 Mammoth Mountain employees clear paths as snow falls lightly Saturday morning. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 60 / 67 A car spun out and off the road just outside Bishop in sloppy road conditions as the snowfall level fell below 5000. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 61 / 67 California Highway Patrol has established a chain checkpoint near Bishop. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 62 / 67 Supermarket shoppers stock up before the big storm. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 63 / 67 Snow covers vehicles in a parking lot in Mammoth Lakes. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 64 / 67 Snow covers vehicles in a parking lot in Mammoth Lakes. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 65 / 67 Jorge Gaydam digs out his truck in a parking lot. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 66 / 67 Snow blankets the Sierra Nevada crest north of Bishop along U.S. Highway 395 in Round Valley. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 67 / 67 A plow removes snow from state Highway 203 in Mammoth Lakes. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) Officials toiling to keep highways clear said they were concerned about a warmer phase of the storm that could fall as rain even at higher elevations, melting the built-up snow and unleashing mudslides, flooding and avalanches. Its the rain over the snow that were worried about, said Greg Miller, a Caltrans maintenance manager. Weve had snow since Christmas, but now with the warmer trend, were worried about water. With storm drains frozen, he said, an influx of rain could send water and mud into roadways. Miller said crews were taking special precautions to prevent rockslides from a segment of U.S. 395 near Lee Vining and avalanches from several other critical transportation corridors. Friday morning, Caltrans closed part of California 120 near June Lake while a crew set out off remotely detonated charges to clear avalanche-prone slopes of accumulating snow. Crews were plowing, sanding and blowing snow from roadways around the clock in 12-hour shifts, Miller said. The California Highway Patrol responded to several reports of rolled-over vehicles and other snow-related collisions on U.S. 395. Tire chain restrictions were in effect across much of the Sierra Nevada. Residents in Mammoth Lakes are concerned that warm rain and slush will dam up behind banks of shoveled snow piled high in empty lots and along roads throughout town, then flow wherever it can find a path, clogging existing drainage systems with debris and ice. Live updates: Winter weather slams California In this town, we dont even have rain gutters because they get ripped down by snow, said Lisa Isaacs, a resident and environmental activist. So, were very worried that this storm will flood homes and garages. The National Weather Service issued a flood watch warning for Sunday, and town officials advised residents to stock up on water, food, first aid supplies, clothing and bedding, tools and emergency supplies, along with special items for medical conditions. On a winter war footing, Mammoth Lakes residents lined up throughout the day on Saturday at the towns utility yard to load up on 40-pound sandbags they hoped would steer waves of slush away from homes, ground-floor condominiums and businesses. Among them were Mammoth Lakes residents Greg Newbry, 66, a recently retired Mono County employee, and his wife, Linda Salcido, 67, Mono Countys director of public health. I was here in 1982 when this town was wrecked by massive flooding, Newbry recalled. Main Street was under 2 feet of water. Businesses closed. The roofs of five mobile homes collapsed under the weight of rain on snow. If we get all the rain predicted in the forecasts, he added, every slab of concrete at ground level is vulnerable, and we live in a ground-floor condominium. As she helped tote 20 sandbags to their vehicle, Salcido said she was concerned about the potential effects of flooding countywide. Snow, even lots and lots of it, we can handle, she said. But a major flood event would lead to countless challenges. Up on Mammoth Mountain, the mood was more upbeat as thousands of skiers and snowboarders raced down slopes that had received as much as 80 inches of snow over the last week alone. Rising 11,000 feet from a gap in the Sierra Nevada range, Mammoth Mountains steep chutes stand in the path of freshly brewed atmospheric river systems. With relatively low mountains to the west of it, Mammoth receives most of their unspent snow. But big snowfall, high winds, warm rain and rising temperatures are forces that transform pile powder into unstable clumps that set off avalanches. So Mammoth Mountain Resort specialists were bringing snowpacks down with artillery including howitzers. Down in Mammoth Lakes, Isaacs spent Saturday hoping that the rain they keep talking about will turn out to be snow. But itll probably be like having a giant fire big hose turned on us and well be swamped, she said with a nervous laugh. I just hope that my little $150 water pump can keep with it. Mammoth Mountain Chief Executive Rusty Gregory had few answers. The main topic of conversation over cocktails on Sunday night, he mused, will be about what actually happened. As snow and rain continued to fall over the Sierra Nevada, highway patrols and maintenance crews were kept busy Friday responding to snow-related accidents and icy road conditions. Steve Coons operated a massive Caltrans wing plow. Its engine strained as it worked in tandem with another truck to clear and sand two northbound lanes of U.S. 395 north of Bishop, a key transportation corridor along the Eastern Sierra Nevada. From behind the wheel of the rumbling truck, Coons can feel the weight of the heavy, wet snow as it pushes against the plow blade and is shoved to the side of the highway. The truck is really chugging, he said. Its going to be a long day. Coons monitors closely the consistency of the snow, which wavers between soft, large flakes and icy shards. The more that falls as rain and ice, the more he worries it will make the roads slick and cause serious trouble for drivers. As soon as it gets cold all this ices up, Coons said. Not good. He and other plow operators are on the roads 24 hours a day, working 12-hour shifts. They will have no shortage of snow to clear with the series of storm cells expected to continue dumping moisture over the area for days. Our guys have pretty much been on since Christmas, and its not letting up, said Greg Miller, maintenance manager for Caltrans District 9, which includes Inyo, Mono and eastern Kern counties. The storm was also bringing wind gusts that topped 50 mph. Officials said they were low snow and icy conditions on Interstate 5 and 80 as well as U.S. 50 and some mountain highways. The National Weather Service on Saturday released a new timeline for the storms moving through the region: Saturday: Moderate to heavy snow in mountain areas. Sunday: Heaviest rain and snow, with risks of flooding. Monday: Showers and snow continue, with continued flood risk. Tuesday: New storm moves in, lower snow levels, flood risk. Wednesday: Showers and snow, with rivers running high. Were expecting heavy, heavy rain. It starts out as snow then turns to rain then turns to snow again, Hammitt said. Were concerned about the melt increasing waterways and all the lakes. Hammitt recalled storms in 1997 and 2005 when runoff overwhelmed local rivers and creeks and sent water into roads and homes, lifting some buildings off their foundations. We have streams, creeks, rivers. We have lakes and ponds, Hammitt said. Anybody near a water source could be in jeopardy depending on the severity of the storm. Two sinkholes have been reported on El Dorado County roads as a result of three days of rain this week. Residents have already filled 12,000 sandbags in preparation for the storm and an additional 20,000 were on the way in, Hammitt said. Anytime its Mother Nature, you have to be ready, Hammitt said. While Northern California faced the brunt of the storms, a less powerful system moved into Southern California overnight, bringing scattered showers Saturday morning. The rain was harder to the north along the Central Coast. The wet conditions should continue through the weekend. But much of the concern is focused on the Bay Area and Sierra. Its a once-in-10-year event, said Zach Tolby, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Reno. Its the strongest storm weve seen in a long time, the kind of setup we look for to get significant flooding. Indeed, large swaths of the Bay Area, Sierra foothills, Central Coast and parts of the Sacramento Valley were under flash-flood warnings. Flood concerns are heightened because officials fear that the snow may quickly melt due to heavy rain. The so-called atmospheric river of airborne moisture known as the Pineapple Express will be felt across much of the state this weekend, though rain will be much heavier in the north than in the south. Its going to be like buckets of water for a fairly sustained period of time, Tolby said. Wind gusts on mountaintops could top 130 mph in the northern Sierra, which is typical, Tolby said. At lower elevations gusts could reach 30 or 40 mph, he said, but thats an average windy day for us. Tolby said the storm is packing the same wallop as an atmospheric river that hit Northern California a decade ago that caused $300 million in damage, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Day 2 of the mega storm and still going strong with 40-84" of new snow and MUCH more on the way. Stay safe and remember to ride w/ a buddy. pic.twitter.com/6h4Z03yJ11 MammothMountain (@MammothMountain) January 5, 2017 Angelenos may remember the 2005-06 storm because it was the first time it rained on the Rose Parade in 51 years. But Tolby, who lives in Lake Tahoe, remembers the storm differently. It was pretty wild. I was here in 2005 and it was definitely the hardest rain Id ever seen. It didnt stop for 24 hours, he said. This weekends storm could bring 36 straight hours of heavy rain from Mammoth Mountain to Susanville, Tolby said. Below clear blue skies Friday, people in the snow-shrouded ski town of Mammoth Lakes were gleeful about the prospect of several more feet of snow. Yet some also worried that the big, wet storm could dump so much rain and snow that it could shut down some ski runs or roads. In preparation, snowplows were scraping icy roadways. Excavators and snowblower operators stayed busy clearing and moving huge piles of snow. Some cars sat abandoned on the roadside or at gas stations, covered with thick blankets of snow from the most recent storm. Mayor Sass provides important information and in preparation of the upcoming storms. pic.twitter.com/Et4YRE4dGI South Lake Tahoe (@cityofslt) January 6, 2017 Outside Kittredge Sports, store manager Terry Lucian took advantage of the clear weather to shovel away some of the mounds of snow that had built up outside the entrance. If the storm comes in as wet as theyre talking about, itll make for a big mess, the 60-year-old said as he scooped icy snow off the entrance to the A-frame building. Lucian said recent storms definitely helped to boost business, but he worried some skiers traveling to the area this weekend could be in for disappointment if storm conditions worsen to the point that they shut down parts of Mammoth Mountain. Everybody wants the snow, they just dont want it while theyre here, the 39-year Mammoth resident said. Itll be a rough couple of days, but we need the water. So its going to be OK. Up north, South Lake Tahoe Mayor Austin Sass urged residents to prepare for the storm. If at all possible, get up on your roof and get off whatever snow you have on there because the moisture combined with the snow will be extremely heavy and were worried about the integrity of your roof structure, Sass tweeted Friday. Do not go outside Sunday or Monday, he told his constituents. When the snow comes mixed with the rain, its going to be an absolute mess. So whatever you can do stay home, and most importantly, stay safe, he said. In the mountains, the rain could saturate the snow and trigger early melt, feeding extra runoff into watersheds already swollen from a week of rain. A combination of intense rain on saturated soils will lead to excessive runoff, the National Weather Service said in its weekend forecast. The Carson, Truckee and Susan rivers are all expected to become overwhelmed, and nearby communities may become increasingly isolated if the deluge triggers mud and rock slides. Weather officials issued a flood watch from Saturday to Wednesday that covers much of Northern California and extends down through the Sierra to Tehachapi. In Mono County, authorities offered sandbags to residents in preparation for the rain. In Yosemite National Park, officials announced Friday that the park would remain open through the wet weekend, but access to popular Yosemite Valley would be closed. Earlier in the week, up to 2 feet of snow fell in less than 24 hours in the Tahoe basin on Wednesday, at times coming down at more than 2 inches an hour. Now is the time to prepare! Dry weather thru Fri. Major storm, heavy rain & flooding this weekend. Additional storms past Monday. #cawx pic.twitter.com/FNO1QG7jBz NWS Sacramento (@NWSSacramento) January 5, 2017 The Sierra Avalanche Center reported a slight improvement in backcountry conditions. The risk of avalanche was lowered to considerable even as the threat increased of historically large avalanches caused by slabs of snowpack as thick as 8 feet above a weak layer of ice laid down by a mid-December rain. Near Lake Tahoe on Thursday, two skiers were caught in an avalanche that closed a local highway. But they were not injured, officials said. Sierra residents are preparing for a third onslaught over the weekend, bringing up to 12 inches of rain below 8,500 feet, and more snow above that. A fourth storm system is forecast to roll across Northern California two days after that. After the weekend storm, another rain-making system is expected to hit Northern California on Tuesday. For all the problems the storms may cause, it will bring more good news for Californias six-year drought. Officials have said steady rain in Northern California the last few months has filled reservoirs and increased the once-anemic snowpack. They emphasize the storms wont end the drought. But if the rains keep up for spring, they could make a major dent. paige.stjohn@latimes.com joseph.serna@latimes.com St John reported from Colfax, Calif., Serna from Los Angeles, Barboza from Mammoth Lakes, Calif. ALSO With snow piling up in the Sierra, what will it take to end Californias drought? Crashed helicopter and 2 bodies are found in Port of Los Angeles Suspect in killings of Long Beach mother, 4-year-old daughter will represent himself at trial UPDATES: 7:45 a.m. , Jan. 8: This post was updated with overnight news. 9:45 p.m.: This post was updated with death of woman. 4:45 p.m.: This story was updated with new details about road conditions from Caltrans. 3:45 p.m.: This article was updated with new details about residents of Mammoth Lakes preparing for a band of warm rain and possible flooding. 2:50 p.m.: This article was updated with new details about road conditions 11:15 a.m.: This article was updated with a revised weather forecast. 10:30 a.m.: This article was updated with a new forecast from the National Weather Service. 8:25 a.m.: This article was updated with information about road conditions. 7:30 a.m.: This article was updated with revised forecasts and rain reports in Southern California. 6 a.m., Jan. 7: This article was updated with storm developments. 9:30 p.m.: This article was updated with rain falling in Bay Area. 7:25 p.m.: This article was updated with information about flood risk. 3:40 p.m.: Jan. 6: This article was updated with details on storm preparations in the Sierra Nevada. 10:50 a.m. Jan. 6: This article was updated with comments from Sierra Nevada residents. 7:45 a.m. Jan. 6: This article was updated with new forecast details. 9:25 p.m.: This article was updated with information on the flood watch. 4:20 p.m. This post was updated with information on Californias drought. 3:11 p.m. This post was updated with information about L.A. rains. 2:10 p.m.: This post was updated with maps and updated forecast information. This post was originally published at 12:20 p.m. Jan. 5. Opponents of a controversial measure that would restrict L.A. real estate development have agreed to scale back some of their claims submitted for a city voter guide after being sued by the initiatives supporters. Backers of Measure S, which would temporarily halt construction projects that require changes in city planning rules, had accused their opponents of submitting inaccurate statements for the guide, which will be mailed to voters ahead of the March election and includes arguments for and against the ballot measure. The lawsuit, filed last month by attorney Grace Yoo, contended that it was misleading to call a critical study penned by Beacon Economics an independent analysis. Advertisement It was bought and paid for and so was the economist, Jill Stewart, campaign director for the ballot measure, said at a news conference Wednesday outside Los Angeles City Hall. The lawsuit also objected to claims about the economic impact of Measure S, arguing they were based on the false premise that real estate development would be restricted for a decade. The ballot measure includes a two-year moratorium on some construction projects, one of the most hotly contested parts of the plan. Stewart said that opponents had agreed to all the changes that were being sought and that Measure S supporters would drop their lawsuit. Under an agreement released Wednesday, opponents of the ballot measure will alter the disputed wording and no longer call the study independent. They will also adjust their stated estimates from that study of the economic fallout of the proposal including lost jobs and revenue to reflect a two-year restriction instead of a decadelong one. When the lawsuit was first filed, Measure S opponents had strenuously disputed its assertions, calling Beacon Economics an independent firm and saying that opponents had funded the study but did not direct it. Opponents also said they believed that restrictions on development could ultimately last much longer than two years because of other requirements embedded in the measure requirements that involve the lengthy process of updating community plans, said Josh Kamensky, spokesman for the opposition Coalition to Protect L.A. Neighborhoods and Jobs. Stewart disputed those assertions Wednesday, arguing that such plans could be approved much more swiftly and reiterating that the moratorium would only last two years. The agreement states that while opponents continue to deny the accusations in the lawsuit, both sides want to resolve the dispute without spending more money. Both supporters and opponents of Measure S painted the agreement Wednesday as a victory: Stewart argued that opponents had caved because their arguments would not hold up in court. The Coalition to Protect L.A. Neighborhoods and Jobs countered that proponents had conceded that the ballot measure would have devastating effects. This is, in effect, them saying, We recognize that this will cost 24,000 jobs and we dont care, Kamensky said Wednesday, referring to the amended claims that would appear in the voter guide. Stewart dismissed that argument. Were not agreeing to their amended claims. Theyre just trying to spin it, she said. The lawsuit was funded by the Coalition to Preserve L.A., which has been bankrolled chiefly by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. The foundation has been locked in a legal battle with the city over a new building project in the works next door to its Hollywood headquarters. Backers of Measure S argue that mega-developments are ruining neighborhoods, displacing longtime residents and worsening traffic. Their proposal to curb development has pitted them against labor, business and nonprofit groups that contend that imposing such restrictions would hurt the L.A. economy and exacerbate the citys housing shortage. emily.alpert@latimes.com Twitter: @LATimesEmily A man was fatally shot by Pomona police Wednesday after neighbors said he shot and wounded two other people while he was being evicted from an apartment. The incident occurred about 7 p.m. in the 900 block of North San Antonio Avenue, according to Deputy Juanita Navarro-Suarez of the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department. Authorities said the man was suspected of entering a residence and trying to kill a man and a woman. Advertisement Neighbors told KCAL-TV that it appeared the suspect, a resident of the apartment complex, opened fire while being evicted. The man shot and wounded the apartment manager and the apartment managers girlfriend, neighbors told the station. The apartment manager was shot in the chest and his girlfriend was shot in the stomach and chest, according to authorities. They were taken to a hospital and were listed in fair condition on Thursday, according to sheriffs Deputy Lisa Jansen. After shooting the couple, the man fired at a second residence, authorities said. A short time later, Pomona police officers arrived at the apartment complex and saw the armed man walking in the area of Columbia and San Antonio avenues, Jansen said. Police fired at the man, and he ran into an alley at the rear of the apartment complex. According to the Sheriffs Department, the man engaged in a shootout with the Pomona officers and was struck by gunfire. At least three officers fired their weapons. The man was pronounced dead at the scene, Navarro-Suarez said. His name was not released pending the notification of family members. A handgun was recovered at the scene, authorities said. The shooting was under investigation by the Sheriffs Department, according to Pomona Police Department protocol. matt.hamilton@latimes.com Twitter: @MattHjourno. ALSO Chicago police reformer is tapped to head Oakland Police Department, clean up frat house Killer Charles Mansons failing health renews focus on cult murder saga Crews search Port of Los Angeles for downed helicopter; cruise ship passenger reported crash UPDATES: 7:55 a.m., Jan. 5: This article was updated with additional details about the circumstances of the shooting 11 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details about the circumstances of the shooting This article was originally published at 10:05 p.m., Jan. 4. The long saga of Charles Manson, the cult leader whose murder spree more than four decades ago made him a subject of hate, fear, revulsion and fascination, moved to a hospital in downtown Bakersfield this week. Inside Mercy Hospital, Manson was being treated for gastrointestinal bleeding related to his colon, and according to one source with knowledge of his condition, was seriously ill. Manson was rushed there Sunday from Corcoran State Prison, and it remains unclear when his medical treatment will end. Manson, 82, was under heavy security, with officials concerned about the public getting into his room or causing disruptions. TV news crews stationed themselves outside the hospital awaiting word on the killers condition. Two California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation vehicles sat at the curb. The scene also drew some onlookers who could be seen roaming outside the hospital, occasionally filming the scene. Advertisement Mansons declining health has once again thrust him into the headlines where he has appeared with regularity over the years amid his disciplinary problems, romantic engagements and parole hearings. Mansons grandson, Jason Freeman, told The Times that he had spoken to his grandfather about two weeks ago via telephone and that he seemed to be in good spirits. Freeman, who said his father is Charles Manson Jr., received word via family friends that his grandfather was hospitalized and said that he is trying to petition correctional officials to allow for a visit. I think at age 82, hes in pretty good shape. For being 82 and locked up, hes kept himself together well physically, said Freeman, a married father of three who works in construction and Christian ministry in Florida. Old age is setting in. Nature is taking its course. There will be a day where he doesnt wake up again. Manson and other members of his so-called family were convicted of killing actress Sharon Tate and six other people during a bloody rampage in the Los Angeles area during two August nights in 1969. Prosecutors said that Manson and his followers were trying to incite a race war that he believed was in the Beatles song Helter Skelter. Tate, the wife of director Roman Polanski, was 8 months pregnant when she was killed at her hilltop home in Benedict Canyon on Aug. 9, 1969. Besides Tate, four others were stabbed and shot to death: Jay Sebring, 35; Voytek Frykowski, 32; Abigail Folger, 25, a coffee heiress; and Steven Parent, 18, a friend of Tates caretaker. The word Pig was written on the front door in blood. The next night, Manson rode along with his followers to the Los Feliz home of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, then left three members to kill the couple. Manson has incurred more than 100 rules violations since 1971. Over the years, he has been cited for assault, repeated possession of a weapon, threatening staff and possessing a cellphone, Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said in an email Wednesday. Suffice it to say that he cannot be described as a model prisoner, she said. In 1982, while Manson was housed at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville, prison guards discovered a hacksaw blade, marijuana and LSD in Mansons cell. Guards said they found other items in the facility that indicated Manson may have been trying to escape, including nylon rope and a catalog that showed how to order hot-air balloons. Two years later, Manson was doused with a flammable liquid and set ablaze by a fellow Vacaville inmate, who told guards he attacked Manson in retaliation for threats the cult leader made against him for practicing the Hare Krishna faith. Manson was treated for second- and third-degree burns, and his scalp, hair and beard were singed. In 1985, he tried to smuggle a hacksaw blade into San Quentin State Prison in the sole of his shoe, days after being transferred to that facility from Vacaville. During his sixth bid for parole in 1986, he described himself in a hearing as a caged, vicious animal and said he didnt like to read and preferred to spend his time making dolls in his cell. In the decade between his 1981 and 1992 parole hearings, he accumulated 60 prison violations. Parole transcripts chronicling his prison offenses show that female officers bore the brunt of his verbal abuse. Manson has been housed at Corcoran State Prison since 1989. He has obtained illegal cellphones in the facility at least three times, according to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. In March 2009, prison guards found an LG flip phone hidden under Mansons prison mattress. He made calls and sent text messages to people in California, New Jersey, Florida and British Columbia. Recordings of Mansons raspy, high-pitched voice, broadcast by the entertainment news show Inside Edition, featured him singing, Ive seen the world spinning on fire, Ive danced and sang in the devils choir. Prison officials found Manson with a second cellphone, equipped with a camera, in January 2011. Manson obtained an illegal cellphone again in 2016, Thornton said. After the last cellphone incident, Manson was punished with the loss of 90 days good time credit toward parole, Thornton said. In 2014, Manson and Afton Elaine Burton, a 26-year-old Manson devotee, were granted a marriage license, but it expired before the two could marry. She had faithfully visited him in prison for seven years. Mansons next parole hearing is scheduled for 2027, when he will be 92. State prison officials declined this week to discuss Mansons condition, citing privacy rules. For loved ones of Mansons victims, the latest twist in the saga has revived old feelings. Tates sister Debra Tate told the Associated Press shes waiting to learn more about Mansons condition. I would probably say a prayer for them and shed a tear and ask God to have mercy on their souls, but so far I havent allowed myself to feel anything because its unsubstantiated, Tate said. Im not allowing myself to feel anything until I know that its true. Times staff writer Paige St. John contributed to this report. richard.winton@latimes.com matt.hamilton@latimes.com hailey.branson@latimes.com Twitter: @lacrimes, @matthjourno, @haileybranson ALSO Charles Manson hospitalized for a serious illness, sources say During his decades in prison, Charles Manson has repeatedly broken rules, caused trouble This Manson family member is the longest-serving woman in California prisons. Will she get parole? UPDATES: 6 p.m.: This article was rewritten throughout and new details added. This article was originally published at 4:38 p.m. On a mountain lake deep in eastern Pennsylvania, S. Newman Darby fiddled with the sail and kept his balance on the wide board beneath his feet. He called the contraption a sailboard and guessed hed been inspired after watching his future wife, Naomi, navigate a small, rudderless boat while standing up, leaning into the sail to shift direction. By the time he refined the board a metal universal joint for the hand-guided sails, an actual surfboard for the base, sails sewn by Naomi there wasnt enough money left over to patent the device. He figured it was unnecessary anyway, since hed written a detailed story of the creation for Popular Science magazine in 1965, right down to a detailed schematic of the board and a list of materials Naomi had used for the sails. Advertisement Yet by the time the board made its way into the hands of consumers, exploding first in Europe and then becoming another option in the Southern California surf arsenal, Darby all but disappeared under the wake of its immense popularity. Credit for the creation of what is now known as the Windsurfer was bestowed upon a pair of Southern California surfers, Jim Drake and Hoyle Schweitzer. Darby, who died Dec. 3 at 88 at his home in St. Johns, Fla., chafed quietly that his involvement in the evolution of the board had become just a footnote. I guess you can be the father of the sport, but still get nothing for it, Naomi Darby said in a 1998 interview with the Florida Times-Union. Wendy Darby Brown said her father never resented those who had ridden the boards popularity to prosperity, but he wished hed been given more credit along the way. He was an inventor, not a businessman, she said. Born in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., on Jan. 31, 1928, Darby was a tinkerer from the start. He tried to build his own boat when he was 12, but it sank. He tried again when he was 14, with far more success. The idea of the sailboard was born from the desire to be free of the usual constraints of sailing tugging on lines, ducking as the boom came about, steering with a rudder rather than leaning into the wind and guiding the sails yourself. In one photograph of a primitive version of the sailboard, Darby is seen holding on to a kite-like device while his feet are planted on what looks for all the world like a door. With the help of his wife and a brother, he set up Darby Industries Inc. and manufactured an improved model of the board with an extra-wide hull. But sales came slowly, and after manufacturing about 160 of the boards some given away as gifts on the television show The Price is Right they closed shop. The Windsurfer, on the other hand, took off under the watch of Drake and Hoyle. Drake, who was cautious to call himself a re-inventor of the board, sold out to his partner in the 1970s for $32,000, devoting himself to his career as an aeronautical engineer. Schweitzer, meanwhile, became a leading manufacturer of the board. Watching from the other side of the country, Darby could only marvel when windsurfing became so popular that it was added as an event for men in the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Eight years later, it became an event for women, too. A windsurfer jumps over the water during the Freestyle Windsurfing World Championships on Lake Silvaplana in Switzerland in 2005. (Arno Balzarini / Associated Press ) He had faith that it would become a popular sport, and when it was added to the Olympics, his attitude was, Well, it should be, said Brown, Darbys daughter. Though few seemed to go out of their way to give Darby credit, a modest dose of fame came his way just the same. After a reader pointed out to the editors of American Windsurfer magazine that Darby had been overlooked in a 1996 article on the origins of the sport, the magazines editor responded by going to Florida and pulling together a lengthy piece on Newman and Naomi Darby. We came face to face with an elderly couple who fell in love with each other and during their courtship, conceived a sport, John Chao wrote. At the editors urging, the Smithsonian Institutions archive division investigated Darbys claim that he had designed a sailboard several years before it evolved into the hugely popular Windsurfer. The investigation led the National Museum of American History to collect and display Darbys early drawings, photographs, 8mm films of his first efforts on a rugged board and several of his sailboards. Alison Oswald, the archivist who led the effort, told the Times-Union that she was immediately impressed that Darby and his wife had far more pride in their creation than anger at being overlooked for so long. Money wasnt their motivation, Oswald said. They saw something that was fun, and they wanted to make it available to everyone. Darby, who was an artist and operated his own sign-painting business, never lost his fondness for sailing and outdoor activities, his daughter said. He was the parent you always wanted as a babysitter few rules and lots of adventure. Darby is survived by his wife, daughters Brown and Cindy Darby Tucker, a grandson and a brother. Wilkes-Barre, PA on January 31, 1928 Wilkes-Barre, PA on January 31, 1928 Wilkes-Barre, PA on January 31, 1928 steve.marble@latimes.com Twitter: @stephenmarble Despite Donald Trumps repeated calls for Americans to move on from Russias provocative cyberattacks during the 2016 presidential election, it wont be so easy partly because the president-elect refuses to move on. Trump launched another barrage of mockery at U.S. spy agencies Wednesday and aligned himself with Julian Assange, the fugitive founder of WikiLeaks, a secretive group that has published millions of stolen U.S. military, diplomatic and intelligence documents. The odd alliance emerged as Congress plans its first hearing Thursday on the Russian election hacks and as U.S. intelligence officials scramble to craft a convincing case for the skeptical president-elect and the public that Russian intelligence agencies interfered with the election by stealing and leaking emails to WikiLeaks and other websites. Advertisement On Friday, several top intelligence officials, including Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper, CIA Director John Brennan and FBI Director James B. Comey, are scheduled to meet with Trump in New York City to explain why theyve concluded that senior officials in the Kremlin, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, authorized the hacking operation. Sean Spicer, Trumps spokesman, said Wednesday that Trump questions U.S. officials judgments about Russian interference in the campaign, and not the intelligence itself. What he wants to hear from them is, how does the raw intelligence justify the conclusion that is being presented? Spicer said. The intelligence officials also will brief Trump on the broader review that President Obama recently requested on Russian and Chinese hacks during the 2008, 2012 and 2016 U.S. elections and what was learned from those intrusions, two U.S. officials said. They said the classified report is nearly done and may be given to Obama on Thursday. The president ordered it completed before he leaves office on Jan. 20 to ensure a full record is available, aides have said. Senior intelligence officials are grappling with how much of the report to make public without exposing sensitive surveillance systems and intelligence assets. They already have blamed two Russian spy services, the GRU and the FSB, for organizing the theft and release of sensitive emails last summer and fall, but havent said exactly how they know. Theres no debate in the U.S. administration about the fact and it is a fact that Russia interfered in our democratic election, a senior U.S. official told reporters in a recent briefing on condition of anonymity. Weve established that clearly to our satisfaction. New details may emerge Thursday when several of the nations top spies including Clapper and Adm. Michael S. Rogers, head of the National Security Agency testify at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the Russian hacks, the first since the November election. The committee chairman, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), and many others in Congress are perplexed by Trumps deriding of the intelligence and by his praise for Putin, who has denied any Russian interference in the U.S. election. This was done by the Russians, and I hope by Friday Mr. Trump will come to that realization, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a member of the committee, told CNN. Trumps open disdain for U.S. intelligence judgments has grown in recent weeks after the CIA and others concluded Russian leaders orchestrated the release of thousands of stolen emails from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clintons campaign chairman, John Podesta, to tip the election in Trumps favor. He has belittled the conclusions, comparing them to the CIAs inaccurate claims of Saddam Husseins stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons before the 2003 invasion of Iraq. And he questioned the motives of top intelligence officials, complaining Tuesday on Twitter that his briefing on so-called Russian hacking was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange! U.S. officials say the briefing was always scheduled for the end of the week, and was not delayed, to take advantage of the classified report prepared for Obama. On Wednesday, Trump tweeted praise for Assange for denying that Russians had provided the stolen emails to WikiLeaks. Russians did not give him the info! and a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta, Trump wrote, paraphrasing Assange. Assange made the claim to Fox News host Sean Hannity in an interview that aired Tuesday. Hannity, Trumps biggest supporter in the media, flew to London to meet Assange in the Ecuadorean Embassy, where he has lived in exile for more than four years. Our source is not the Russian government and it is not a state party, Assange told Hannity. Assange didnt address whether Russian authorities conducted the original hacking or how he knows Russian authorities were not behind the leaks. Assange remains in exile in the London embassy because he faces sexual assault allegations in Sweden. U.S. officials have said Assange is under criminal investigation. The White House challenged Trump for aligning himself with a figure whom many in the U.S. intelligence community consider a threat to national security. The president-elect will have to determine who hes going to believe, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Wednesday. On one hand, youve got the Russians and the aforementioned Mr. Assange. On the other side, youve got the 17 intelligence agencies of the United States government [and] outside cyber experts that have taken a look at this situation. Some Democrats all but accused Trump of supporting an enemy of the United States. That he would accept the transparently self-serving denials of the Kremlin is alarming enough, but that would now cite people like Assange who have demonstrated universal hostility to the United States and its interests takes him into new and even more treacherous territory, Rep. Adam B. Schiff of Burbank, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement. U.S. intelligence analysts and cybersecurity experts concluded that the Podesta hack was part of a massive spear-phishing operation that targeted more than 1,000 American politicians, academics and journalists and contained hallmarks of a Russian hacking ring working at the behest of the government in Moscow. On Friday, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security released a report outlining some of the evidence pointing to Russias role in the attacks on the Democratic National Committee and on Clintons campaign. At the same time, Obama ordered the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats suspected of spying and the closing of two Russian-owned waterfront estates, on Long Island in New York and on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, long used by Russian diplomats and believed to be harboring spies, in direct response to the cyberattacks. On Wednesday, the State Department said that all 35 Russians had left the country by Sunday with their family members. Many of the children of the expelled officials were invited to the Kremlins New Years and Christmas parties when they arrived in Moscow on Monday, according to the official Tass news agency. Twitter: @ByBrianBennett brian.bennett@latimes.com ALSO When Trump says he wants to deport criminals, he means something starkly different than Obama Yes, Trump can boost deportations and gut the Dreamer program for young immigrants An outsider takes charge of the Border Patrol and yes, hell wear the green uniform Senate Republicans broke with the GOPs incoming president in a nationally televised congressional hearing Thursday, criticizing Donald Trumps skepticism that hackers backed by Russian intelligence agencies had interfered with the 2016 presidential race. Only one of 14 Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, offered a modest defense of Trump, and he did so by suggesting the president-elects promises to boost military spending and production of oil and gas will serve to block Russian ambitions. There is some contrary evidence, despite what the media speculates, that perhaps Donald Trump is not the best candidate for Russia, Cotton said. Advertisement But as three American spymasters testified that only top leaders in the Kremlin, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, could have authorized complex cyberattacks against a U.S. presidential election, there was little pushback from Republican lawmakers who are highly suspicious of Russian intentions and deeply perplexed by Trumps repeated praise for Putin. Russia clearly tried to meddle in our political system, no two ways about it, said House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), who has had an on-again, off-again relationship with the incoming president. Every American should be alarmed by Russias attacks on our nation, said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz), who led the first congressional hearing on the hacking since the November election. There is no national security interest more vital to the United States of America than the ability to hold free and fair elections without foreign interference. Thanks to a series of mocking tweets and taunts, Trumps relations with the intelligence community has been tense for weeks. After the hearing ended, he signaled plans to give the 17 U.S. spy agencies new leadership. Aides said Trump would name Dan Coats, a former member of the Senate from Indiana, a onetime U.S. ambassador to Germany and a paid lobbyist, as director of national intelligence, the highest post in U.S. spying. If confirmed by the Senate, Coats would face a daunting task as the link between Trump and the intelligence community. He may also need to reconcile his own hawkish views on Russia, and Putin, with Trumps far friendlier posture toward the Kremlin. Sen. Coats was banned, along with McCain and several other members of Congress and White House officials, from entering Russia in 2014 after the Obama administration slapped economic sanctions on Russia for its annexation of the Crimea region in Ukraine. Coats, who served on the Senate Intelligence Committee, would succeed James R. Clapper, a career intelligence officer. Clapper previously had announced plans to resign when President Obama leaves office on Jan. 20. Clapper took careful note of Trumps caustic tweets on Thursday, suggesting some were unwarranted. I think there is an important distinction here between healthy skepticism, which policymakers to include policymaker No. 1 should always have for intelligence, but I think theres a difference between skepticism and disparagement, Clapper said. It remains to be seen whether Trump will moderate his doubts or his criticism after he gets a personal briefing Friday on the Russian hacks from a bevy of U.S. intelligence chiefs, including Clapper, CIA Director John O. Brennan and James B. Comey, head of the FBI. They are scheduled to brief Trump in New York about evidence they say confirms the Kremlin approved the hacking and leaking of thousands of emails from the Democratic National Committee and from Democratic nominee Hillary Clintons campaign manager, among other targets, last year. They will be armed with a newly-completed classified report that Clapper said would include details of Russias motivations including whether the operation was partly intended to help elect Trump, as U.S. officials have said privately. Obama ordered the inter-agency review after Trump repeatedly rejected statements by U.S. intelligence officials about Russias role. Aides said Obama was briefed on the findings Thursday. The full report will be given to Congress on Monday. Parts will be declassified and released to the public after that, according to the White House. Intelligence officials will scrub this report and make as much public as they possibly can, Josh Earnest, the White House spokesman, said Thursday. He called the report an unvarnished assessment. Though Clinton and her aides have said the leaked emails damaged her White House bid, Clapper said he had no way of gauging whether the Russian hacks influenced the choice the electorate made. The operation did not involve changing vote tallies, he said. Whether or not it was an act of war is a very heavy policy call, he added. I dont think the intelligence community should weigh in on that. I do think it should carry great gravity. Asked about his level of confidence that the theft and disclosure of Democratic Party emails was directed by the Russian government and not done by a teenage hacker pecking away in a basement, as Trump has suggested, Clapper responded, Its very high. Once in office, Trump is likely to face intense pressure from Republicans to punish Russia. He also will face demands to do a better job than Obama did at deterring foreign cyberattacks on U.S. targets. Clapper told the panel Thursday that since the election, Russia has continued to use computer hacks, leaks of pilfered material and fake news stories to erode faith in democratic processes and to try to weaken the U.S. government by portraying it as corrupt and dysfunctional. Clapper was joined by Adm. Michael S. Rogers, who heads the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command, and Marcel J. Lettre, undersecretary of Defense for intelligence. They provided few new details about the evidence, but were unequivocal in their judgments. We assess that only Russias senior-most officials could have authorized the recent election-focused data thefts and disclosures, based on the scope and sensitivity of the targets, the trio said in a statement. Russia poses a major threat to U.S. government, military, diplomatic, commercial and critical infrastructure and key resource networks because of its highly advanced offensive cyber program and sophisticated tactics, techniques, and procedures, they said. Times staff writers Noah Bierman and Christi Parsons in Washington contributed to this report. Twitter: @ByBrianBennett brian.bennett@latimes.com ALSO When Trump says he wants to deport criminals, he means something starkly different than Obama Yes, Trump can boost deportations and gut the Dreamer program for young immigrants An outsider takes charge of the Border Patrol and yes, hell wear the green uniform UPDATES: 2:55 p.m.: The story was updated throughout with new information. 8:50 a.m.: Updated with comments from Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.). 8:05 a.m.: Updated with details from Thursdays hearing. The story was originally posted at 5:30 a.m. A federal grand jury in North Dakota is looking into a violent November clash between Dakota Access pipeline opponents and officers in which a woman was seriously injured. Steve Martinez, 42, a pipeline protester from Williston, N.D., has been ordered to testify regarding the arm injury of Sophia Wilansky, 21, of New York, according to his attorney, Ralph Hurvitz. Protesters maintain she was injured by a grenade thrown by police, but authorities say she was hurt by a small propane tank that protesters rigged to explode. Grand jury proceedings are closed to the public, but Hurvitz confirmed the nature of Martinezs subpoena and supplied a copy of a motion he filed to quash it. The document states that the subpoena further directs him [Martinez] to bring with him information related to the injury of Sophia Wilansky on Nov. 21, 2016, including, but not limited to: photos/SD cards; written statements; any other information within possession. Advertisement Hurvitzs request was denied Wednesday in a closed hearing. U.S. Atty. Chris Myers said he could not comment on the case because grand jury proceedings were secret. Martinez had been scheduled to testify before the grand jury Wednesday, but Hurvitz said the matter was delayed to Feb. 1. Martinez made a statement outside the courthouse, saying he would refuse to cooperate and was prepared to go to jail if found in contempt of court. Losing my freedom is a small price to pay for keeping my dignity and standing up for whats right, he said. He declined to say what his role was in the clash that occurred late Nov. 20 and early Nov. 21, when protesters tried to push past a long-blocked bridge on a state highway near the protesters main encampment along the pipeline route in southern North Dakota. They were turned back by authorities using tear gas, rubber bullets and water sprays. Police said protesters were throwing objects including rocks, asphalt and water bottles at officers. One officer was hit in the head. About 40 protesters rallied outside the courthouse in support of Martinez, and court officials locked the courthouse doors. Pipeline opponents worry that the four-state, $3.8-billion project will harm the environment. Texas-based pipeline developer Energy Transfer Partners disputes that and says the pipeline will be safe. ALSO Dakota Access pipeline protester may lose her arm after small explosion, activists say How Faith Spotted Eagle became the first Native American to win an electoral vote for president Whats next for the Dakota Access pipeline President-elect Donald Trump plans to pick former Indiana Sen. Dan Coats to head the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, overseeing 17 intelligence agencies, according to a transition official. If he is confirmed by the Senate, Coats would face a daunting task as the bridge between Trump and the intelligence community. Trump has begun openly feuding with intelligence agencies over their conclusion that Russia hacked into Democratic computers to influence the election. Coats recently concluded a term in the Senate, after also serving there from 1989 through 1999. He has also served as the U.S. ambassador to Germany. Coats was banned from entering Russia in 2014 for backing U.S. sanctions on the country. Now that Republicans really can repeal much of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, theyre coming to grips with the problems such a drastic move would create. It was so much simpler when repeal Obamacare was just a slogan, back when congressional Republicans could count on a filibuster by Senate Democrats or a veto by President Obama to stop them from succeeding. With President-elect Donald Trump waiting to sign a repeal bill once he takes office, the consequences are real and the stakes exponentially higher. GOP leaders had planned to rush a bill through Congress this month much like the one they passed early in 2016, repealing the subsidies, taxes and insurance mandates in the law but delaying the effective date until after the next election to give them time to develop an alternative. (The 2016 bill died a fully predictable death when it was vetoed by Obama.) But a growing number of medical professionals, scholars and policy wonks are warning Republicans that this repeal-delay-replace strategy would violently disrupt the market for individual insurance policies, with millions of people potentially losing their coverage during the transition period. Theyre right about that. Repealing the law is bad enough, but doing so without an alternative that could preserve coverage for the estimated 20 million Americans who gained it through Obamacare would be reckless and irresponsible. Advertisement And thats just one problem. Heres another: Some Republicans are now questioning whether its wise to revoke all the tax increases in the Affordable Care Act, which offset some of the cost of the healthcare subsidies for lower-income and elderly Americans. In fact, there are at least two compelling reasons to leave those tax hikes in place. The first is that if Republicans really dont want to cause millions of people to lose their insurance coverage, they will need to provide either premium subsidies or, for those living near the poverty line, the coverage itself just as the ACA does. And thats expensive. It costs the feds about $100 billion a year to extend Medicaid to single adults and families with incomes up to 138% of the federal poverty line, as 31 states have done through the ACA. And Washington spends about $140 billion a year on premium subsidies for those with incomes up to 400% of the poverty line. The existing ACA taxes provide much of that revenue. Granted, the coverage proposals floated by Republicans in the past have carried lower price tags because theyre not built around comprehensive insurance policies, unlike the ACA. Instead, their subsidies would help offset the cost of more modest plans that offer no help for people with costly or rare conditions. Under the GOP vision, people who need more extensive coverage because of pre-existing conditions or health risks would likely wind up in federally subsidized state high-risk pools. Numerous states had high-risk pools before the ACA, and their premiums were exceptionally high and rising unsustainably because they typically covered only those with expensive chronic ailments. Nevertheless, even the Republicans more penurious subsidies would cost many billions of dollars. And as appealing as it might be to the GOP to eliminate the nearly two dozen tax increases in the ACA, it would be a lot easier to preserve some of them than to repeal them all and then impose new tax hikes later. A second argument against repealing the tax hikes is that its bad politics. The two biggest of the ACA taxes are also the most progressive, because they apply only to individuals earning more than $200,000 per year or couples earning more than $250,000. One is a 3.8-percentage-point surtax on dividends, interest and other unearned income, the other a 0.9-percentage-point increase in the payroll tax that helps fund Medicare. Eliminating the payroll tax increase would immediately push Medicares hospital fund back toward the insolvency that was looming before the ACA became law. And repealing the surtax would smack of sacrificing insurance coverage for lower-income Americans in order to cut taxes for the rich. Are those really the messages the GOP wants to send about its values? Rather than stampeding ahead with a reckless and inhumane plan to help wealthy Americans at the expense of the sick and the poor, Republicans should focus instead on ways to make Obamacare work better. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook The meaning of a safe space has shifted dramatically on college campuses. Until about two years ago, a safe space referred to a room where people often gay and transgender students could discuss problems they shared in a forum where they were sheltered from epithets and other attacks. Then temporary meeting spaces morphed into permanent ones. More recently, some advocates have turned their attention to student housing, which they want to turn into safe spaces by segregating student living quarters. Who would have imagined that the original safe space motive to explore issues in an inclusive environment would so quickly give way to the impulse to quarantine oneself and create de facto cultural segregation? Safe space activism stems primarily from the separatist impulses associated with the politics of identity, already rampant on campus. For some individuals, the attraction of a safe space is that it insulates them from not just hostility, but the views of people who are not like them. Students frequent demand for protection from uncomfortable ideas on campus such as so-called trigger warnings is now paralleled by calls to be physically separated too. Groups contend that their well-being depends on living with their own kind. Advertisement In 2015 and 2016, students of color at many colleges called for segregated safe spaces. For example, among the 14-page list of demands made by a group of Oberlin students was that spaces throughout the Oberlin College campus be designated as a safe space for Africana identifying students. Oberlins president refused, noting the whole list explicitly rejects the notion of collaborative engagement. Encouraging students to engage with the unfamiliar and account for their ideas used to be one of attributes of a vibrant academic institution. But other administrators appear to be falling over themselves to satisfy such demands. After the UC Irvine Black Student Union demanded the creation of a Black Scholars Hall (a safe space where Black history, culture, and intellectual thought is celebrated, according to the petition) in 2015, the initiative was approved within the year. Under the guise of establishing so-called living-learning communities, similar accommodation is provided at UC Santa Barbara and UC Berkeley. The Social Justice Living Learning Community offered by the University of North Dakota indicates that the balkanization of accommodation extends beyond ethnicity to students political convictions, too. It seems the cultivation of identity has encouraged such a psychic and emotional distance between people that some prefer to stay in their bubble everywhere they go. In this vein, Northwestern President Morton Schapiro wrote in the Washington Post last year that it is understandable that black students eating in the cafeteria would not want white undergraduates to join them. We all deserve safe spaces, he wrote, and black students had every right to enjoy their lunches in peace. Schapiros premise is that everyone should have a place apparently even a place in the dining hall where they are sheltered from dissimilar people. He enthusiastically cited a Jewish Northwestern graduates endorsement of her own safe space, Hillel House. She knew that when she was there, he commented, she could relax and not worry about being interrogated by non-Jews about Israeli politics or other concerns. Encouraging students to engage with the unfamiliar and account for their ideas used to be one of attributes of a vibrant academic institution. Todays university managers, however, are more likely to be complicit in relieving students of the uncomfortable burden of being interrogated. There are worrying signs that future undergraduates will be even more disposed to embrace such self-segregation than their predecessors. The campaign for establishing a Queer Housing Program at Haverford College expresses the spirit of the times. The president of Brown University Students for Israel, Ben Gladstone, has argued that Hillel House should serve as a safe space for Zionists on campus. A leader of UCLAs Bruin Republicans describes her group as a space for conservative students to share their opinion without facing criticism or attacks from faculty and students who disagree with them. These divisive trends came to a head in November during a UC Students of Color Conference that had as its objective the creation of a space to discuss, dissect and create relevant solutions to issues for this diverse group. According to one account the conference turned into a kind of oppression Olympics, where students argued over which minority group was oppressed the most rather than finding solidarity and understanding amongst each other. When everyone retreats to their separate corners, that subverts the foundation on which a tolerant and liberal university is constituted. Whereas historically the university freed its members from their cultural baggage to create a community of intellectual individuals, students in the contemporary era are regarded not as individuals in their own right but as the personification of a cultural group. The popularity of identity politics among insecure millennials threatens to fracture campus life to the point that undergraduates are inhabiting separate spaces and leading parallel lives. Frank Furedi is emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Kent, Canterbury, England. He is the author of Whats Happened to the University? A Sociological Exploration of Its Infantilisation. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinionand Facebook MORE FROM OPINION Jeff Sessions: An attorney general whos all in for prosecutors Why members of the Manson family still dont deserve parole after murdering my sister Trump hurts himself and the nation by trashing the intelligence community In 1997, a state judge in Birmingham, Ala., dismissed charges brought against Tieco, an industrial equipment manufacturer, for cheating one of its corporate customers. In his order, the judge adopted the defenses position that the Alabama attorney generals office had committed serious and wholesale prosecutorial misconduct that was so pronounced and persistent that it permeates the entire atmosphere for this prosecution. Moments after being publicly shamed, the attorney general in question gave an impromptu interview in the courthouse hallway. His central concern was not, as one might expect, his reputation, but what he saw as unfair disparagement of prosecutors. For the record: This article originally stated that Frederica Massiah-Jackson would have been the first female African American federal judge. Actually, she would have been the first in her district. Charges like prosecutorial misconduct offend me, said Jeff Sessions, now a United States senator and President-elect Donald Trumps choice for attorney general. Judges shouldnt use such language, Sessions argued, because if prosecutors are continued to be abused by defense lawyers, it can chill their willingness to take on high-profile, complex cases. Advertisement Once confirmation hearings begin, anti-Trump forces may want to save their ammunition for the climate-change deniers, the plutocrats, the bizarrely unqualified, or the nominees hostile to their intended departments. In this crowd, Sessions, an attorney general nominee who has actually been an attorney general, could seem like the grown-up keeping an eye on the playground. In our adversarial legal system, defense attorneys are supposed to do all they can for their clients... But Sessions doesnt see it that way. But hes as dangerous as all the others. Few of Trumps nominees would bring to their jobs a fixed ideology as poisonous as what Sessions would bring to the Department of Justice. As attorney general, Sessions would oversee federal prosecutors and, most likely, would have a say in whom the president appoints to the federal bench. From his perch he could further his conviction that prosecutorial misconduct is nothing more than slander. The problem is not only that Sessions has a soft spot for prosecutors, a typical position for a conservative Republican. What sets him apart is his belief that prosecutors are at a disadvantage, indeed are something of an endangered species, overrun by the vicious defense bar. In the Tieco case, Sessions office was accused of sharing evidence that it had seized for its prosecution with Tiecos rival, USX, which then sued Tieco in civil court. While litigation was still ongoing, Teicos lawyers filed an ethics complaint with the Alabama Ethics Commission. Although the commission ultimately decided that it had insufficient facts to proceed, Sessions response to the affair was, once more, revealing. People who file these kind of complaints need to be asking some real hard questions of themselves, if theyre capable of that, because its really an unhealthy process, Sessions said. I think it threatens and complicates the ability of good investigators to do their job. Faced with apparent gross misconduct by a prosecutor, the defense, according to Sessions, should hold its fire. Sessions has returned to this theme repeatedly. In 2010, as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he worried during one hearing that a lot of these powerful defendants are outgunning the prosecutors. It was a strange tangent, which came during his examination of John A. Gibney, a nominee for the federal bench in Virginia. The two men had been discussing arbitration for workplace disputes, a subject that had nothing to do with criminal defendants. Sessions was gathering his thoughts, and before he moved on to the topic of a judges role when he sees an ineffective counsel, he tossed off his comment about outgunned prosecutors. In our adversarial legal system, defense attorneys are supposed to do all they can for their clients. Anything less is malpractice. But Sessions doesnt see it that way. And when opposing judicial nominees, his favorite charge its practically a mantra is that they are biased against prosecutors. Sessions complaints are often leveled against nominees who are people of color. Before Susan Oki Mollway, an Asian American woman, was confirmed to the federal judiciary in 1998, Sessions worried that based on her background, including her activities with the ACLU in Hawaii, she could be expected to have the liberal, activist, anti-law enforcement mentality typical of the 9th Circuit, for which she was being considered. Frederica Massiah-Jackson would have been the first female African American federal judge in her district, but she eventually withdrew her nomination. I had a feeling, an intuition, that there was something unhealthy about this nominee, that there was perhaps an unstated bias against prosecutors and law enforcement, Sessions said about her. Its certainly not beyond the pale to worry about bias. Whats troubling is Sessions dog-whistling about nominees background, or their being unhealthy, as if those who care about defendants rights, or civil liberties, are an infection in the system. In opposing defense attorney James Coles nomination to be deputy attorney general in 2011, Sessions said, It is all right to defend an unpopular person, but 13 to 16 members of the Department of Justice, political appointees by this administration, have had as their background defending terrorists. Is it just me, or does somebody who says its all right to defend an unpopular person clearly mean the exact opposite? For his upcoming confirmation hearing, Sessions filled out a questionnaire in which he indicated that he sometimes did criminal defense while in private practice. But a Westlaw search turned up no court orders with him listed as defense attorney. That aside, Sessions identifies exclusively with prosecutors. I couldnt find a single example of Sessions stating in public that a prosecutor was too zealous, or that a defendant needed more vigorous representation. For Trumps intended attorney general, the arc of justice always bends toward the state. Mark Oppenheimer, a contributing writer to Opinion, is the host of the podcast Unorthodox. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook If Donald Trump is going to accept the notion that Russia hacked Democratic email accounts in an attempt to help his campaign and that remains a big if it will be partly because Republicans in Congress press him to so. That was clear at Thursdays hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee at which Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and two other officials bolstered the Russia did it theory. That version of events is expected to be further reinforced by a review commissioned by President Obama and in an intelligence briefing the president-elect is scheduled to receive on Friday, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the chairman of the committee, called the theft and dissemination of Democratic emails an unprecedented attack on our democracy. Addressing Trump, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said: What I dont want you to do is undermine those who are serving our nation in this area until youre absolutely certain they need to be undermined. Advertisement Neither of these prominent Republicans has been friendly to Trump. McCain said during the campaign that he would write in the name of some good conservative Republican who is qualified to be president. Graham said he voted for independent Evan McMullin, a former undercover CIA operative Trump mocked as Evan McMuffin. Still, McCain and Graham cant be accused of a participating in a Democratic plot to use the hacking scandal as a way to second-guess or delegitimize Trumps victory. Democrats are subject to that suspicion even when they dont engage in Trump-bashing and some of them have a hard time stifling that temptation. During her questioning, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) raised the question of who benefits from a president-elect trashing the intelligence community. She opined that there would be howls from the Republican side of the aisle if a Democrat had chosen to put [Wikileaks] Julian Assange on a pedestal compared to the men and women of the intelligence community. A sarcastic McCain responded: Thank you for that nonpartisan comment. As the Los Angeles Times observed in an editorial Thursday, Trump has portrayed the allegations against Russia as a partisan card played by his political opponents. And even some Republicans not known as Trump supporters spy a partisan ulterior motive in Democratic complaints about hacking. On Thursday, House Speaker Paul Ryan said the U.S. wouldnt condone any foreign actor, any outside interference from trying to mess with our elections. But he also struck out at those who would delegitimize a presidency before it starts. Trump has abruptly changed his mind on other things. Remember his belated admission that Obama was born in the United States? If Democrats want him to execute a similar switch on Russian hacking, they should leave the congressional campaign to change his mind to Republicans such as McCain and Graham. They have a better chance of accomplishing that feat than the party whose candidate he defeated. Or, as Trump would call them, losers. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook To the editor: I must confess that as a single woman, I have on occasion sat on a bench in a childrens playground while my car was being serviced nearby. Why do I choose that particular bench? Because as a single woman in the park, its where I feel safest. (L.A. councilman proposes banning adults unaccompanied by a child from playgrounds, Dec. 31) I know that with the mothers, nannies and children all around, I wont be harassed. I used to be a nanny who brought two girls to that playground, so I also go to that bench to remember happy days as I watch the new generation play. Not all single people in playgrounds are criminals; some of us may even be there to help protect a child when needed. I hope Los Angeles City Councilman Mitch OFarrell, whose proposal would ban adults unaccompanied by children from entering playgrounds at city parks, will consider all views before criminalizing innocent behavior. Advertisement Caitlin Prennace, Culver City .. To the editor: Constituents have contacted OFarrell regarding the downward spiral of the only pocket park and playground in the heart of Hollywood. Families who live in our densely populated neighborhood used to enjoy the space. Now this tiny park has become a permanent encampment during the hours it is open. Going there one day last week, I counted more than 20 people lying around the park. The grassy area was covered with sleeping bags and all the benches were taken. The adjacent playground was empty, despite being separated by a fence. This tiny park can no longer be used by families and organizations that could benefit from open space. I applaud OFarrells efforts to meet the needs of the neighborhood. This is what leaders do. Kerry Morrison, Hollywood .. To the editor: The greatest physical danger to children are their parents and nannies, not senior citizens such as myself. Ever watch parents at Little League games? Ive raised my children, part of which involved enjoying seeing them and others revel going down slides and soaring on swings. I might not be able to enjoy the glee of young children any longer or sit or ride on a swing anymore? Am I now a pariah? Bruce N. Miller, Playa del Rey Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook To the editor: Hillary Clinton will attend President-elect Donald Trumps inauguration as an important symbol about the peaceful transfer of power in America. But this election was not peaceful. (Hillary and Bill Clinton will attend Donald Trumps inauguration, Jan. 3) It was an election deeply marred by an angry demagogue who repeatedly said his opponent should be jailed and who still does not believe 17 U.S. intelligence agencies about their conclusion that the Russian government interfered in the campaign. That is not peaceful. The election was also marred by an FBI director who released damaging information that days later turned out to be nothing, a move eagerly anticipated by Trump surrogate Rudy Giuliani. Advertisement Trumps campaign did violence to our election system and our democracy. He does not deserve Hillary Clintons presence at his inauguration. I wish Democrats would not play nice and normalize this man. Joanne Parrent, Los Angeles .. To the editor: As the unthinkable is about to befall this nation, I renew my pledge to support our great country and all of its diverse people and cultures without reservation, pay my full and fair share of taxes and defend the spirit and body of our Constitution. I will also devote all within my power and pocketbook to lawfully check a Trump presidency and ensure that he is not reelected in 2020. As the least qualified person to be elected and having been rejected by a majority of the American voters, Trump was also assisted by the shadowy works of Russian hackers. During these times that will certainly try our souls, I can do no less than to remain engaged in the good fight to right this national embarrassment. William W. Carter, Newbury Park Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook This week, House Republicans got so much blowback from their attempt to neuter the independent congressional ethics office that they quickly reversed course. The tone-deaf assault on ethics oversight was part of a bigger package of rules changes that included another provision that should also have been stopped, but was not: a scheme to give away federal lands. The change, approved by the GOP-controlled House of Representatives on Tuesday, eliminates the requirement to account for the cost of turning over federal lands to state or local governments. Out of such small revisions are revolutions made. In this case, the revolt is being led by Republican politicians in the West with the enthusiastic backing of developers, mining companies and oil drillers who have long lusted after the vast areas of land that have been kept as a legacy for the American people. Those business interests know they can far more easily get their greedy hands on these pristine areas if the federal government is out of the picture and the only people they need to influence are malleable state legislators and timid local officials. Advertisement 1 / 51 la-1491523602-y7ephyarj1-snap-image (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 51 la-1491368625-0bgh58ihw8-snap-image (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 4 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los angeles Times) 6 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 7 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 8 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 9 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 10 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 11 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 12 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 13 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 14 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 15 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 16 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 17 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 18 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 19 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 20 / 51 Trump inspires millions to take to the streets -- to oppose him. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 21 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 22 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 23 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 24 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 25 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 26 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 27 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 28 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 29 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 30 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 31 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 32 / 51 Cartoon caption contest winner at the DENT conference in Sun Valley, Idaho: Jon Duval, executive director of the Ketchum Community Development Corporation. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 33 / 51 Old radicals and big media descend on Selma (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 34 / 51 Horsey imagined the creation of the Ann Coulter phenomenon in this cartoon from 2007. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 35 / 51 This David Horsey drawing is a reconfiguration of a cartoon he first published in 2006. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 36 / 51 Donald Sterling, owner of the L.A. Clippers, should give Cliven Bundy a call. After Sterling loses his NBA franchise and the deadbeat Nevada rancher loses his cattle, the two old racists will both need a buddy. Maybe they can team up together and open an all-white rodeo. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 37 / 51 Besides sending a chill up the spine of the international community, Vladimir Putin has accomplished one other thing by seizing Crimea and threatening the rest of Ukraine: Putin has brought back the bear. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 38 / 51 The right-wing insurrection at the Bundy ranch in Bunkerville, Nev., has taken another weird turn with new revelations about the family history of Cliven Bundy. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 39 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 40 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 41 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 42 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 43 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 44 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 45 / 51 David Horsey / Los Angeles Times (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 46 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 47 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 48 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 49 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 50 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 51 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) The ranking Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, Arizona Rep. Raul M. Grijalva, issued a statement urging his fellow Democrats to oppose the change which they did to no avail. The House Republican plan to give away Americas public lands for free is outrageous and absurd, Grijalva said. This proposed rule change would make it easier to implement this plan by allowing the Congress to give away every single piece of property we own, for free, and pretend we have lost nothing of any value. Republicans argue that folks living in Western states are unduly burdened because the federal government owns so much of the land, a share of territory that ranges from 30% in Washington state to nearly 85% in Nevada. They argue that, with control in the hand of the folks who live nearby, the land would be better managed and put to better use. Environmentalists counter that cash-strapped local governments would be unable to resist the temptation to make money off the land by selling it to the highest bidder. Somewhat surprisingly, one of the people who has expressed agreement with this view is President-elect Donald Trump. In an interview with Field & Stream magazine, Trump said he feared local and state authorities would unload the land to raise revenue. And I dont think its something that should be sold, Trump said. We have to be great stewards of this land. This is magnificent land. Those are encouraging words, but, of course, Trump says a lot of things to please whatever audience he is addressing in this case, the hunters and fishermen who read Field & Stream. More reassuring is his choice to run the Department of the Interior, Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke. A foe of federal land transfers, Zinke may be the best-positioned ally for those who do not want to see tract homes, strip malls, oil fields and mining operations spreading like a stain across undeveloped regions of the West. The test will be whether Zinke can resist the relentless attacks on federal lands that are sure to be coming from congressional Republicans and whether, when it comes to a fight, he has the backing of his boss. David.Horsey@latimes.com Follow me at @davidhorsey on Twitter In the 2018 governors race, Gavin Newsom leads the pack in fundraising Gavin Newsom, the first major candidate to jump into CA's 2018 governor's race, narrowly lead the pack in 2016 fundraising w/ $4.27 million Phil Willon (@philwillon) February 1, 2017 Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Schwarzenegger: Were going through some difficult moments ... but I guarantee we will work our way out of this By Seema Mehta (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Tuesday that the United States had faced trying times and political crises before, and has always persevered. Yes, were going through some difficult moments right now, as we have in the past, but I guarantee we will work our way out of this, Schwarzenegger said, speaking at an electoral reform event at the University of Southern California. He recalled immigrating to the United States and seeing the violent protests at the Democratic National Convention in 1968, Watergate and the economic troubles during President Jimmy Carters tenure. One thing you can count on in America is even though it falls every so often as we all do it dusts itself off, gets up and gets going again, Schwarzenegger said. That is why its the number one country in the world. Although Schwarzenegger did not mention President Donald Trump by name during his remarks, the comments appeared to be a reference to the turbulence since Trump took office less than two weeks ago. Tensions between Schwarzenegger, who replaced Trump as the host of Celebrity Apprentice, and the new president and fellow Republican have been escalating. On Monday, Schwarzenegger called the implementation of Trumps temporary ban on immigration from several Muslim-majority countries crazy. The previous week, Schwarzenegger slammed Trumps pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, Oklahoma Atty. Gen. Scott Pruitt, as a hypocrite. Earlier in January, Trump mocked Schwarzenegger for the first ratings of Celebrity Apprentice after the former governor took over as the host. During the presidential campaign, Schwarzenegger repeatedly made clear his disdain for Trump, pointedly casting his ballot in the California primary for Ohio Gov. John Kasich after he had dropped out. On Tuesday, Schwarzenegger was headlining an event about redistricting reform at his namesake institute at USC. He did not respond to reporters questions after the event. While governor, Schwarzenegger championed electoral reform, including an ultimately successful effort to take the redrawing of congressional and legislative districts away from politicians and give them instead to an independent commission. Both political parties have long tried to use gerrymandering to create districts that favor their politicians. But David Daley, author of The True Story Behind the Secret Plan to Steal Americas Democracy, argued that Republicans were able to make unprecedented changes in the 2010 redistricting that will have long-lasting effects on this nations politics because of a confluence of factors, including unprecedented technology such as mapping software, and a flood of anonymous money due to the Citizens United ruling. In 2010, gerrymandering enters its steroid era, Daley said. The end result, he said, was that while the nation remained relatively closely divided between the two parties, the GOP was able to exponentially expand its hold of statehouses, governors mansions and congressional seats. Speakers urged Californians to take the lessons they had learned through the states redistricting reform and try to help voters apply them in other states, through the initiative, or legislative or legal systems. We are the model for the rest of the nation and that is why we in California have to do everything we can to pull together all the things that happen successfully in California and nationwide, Schwarzenegger said. Because the rest of the states are waiting for us. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Top Democratic donor Tom Steyer is planning a larger role opposing President Trump By Chris Megerian On Sunday, Tom Steyer was holding a cardboard sign saying not on my watch at San Franciscos airport, one of thousands protesting President Trumps order preventing visitors from several predominantly Muslim countries. I went out there to participate, but also to listen, he said. Like other liberal leaders, hes been hunting for the right approach to counter Trump. Now the deep-pocketed Democratic donor is launching a new effort that could expand the scope of NextGen Climate, the San Francisco-based organization he created and funded. Although Steyer expects to stay active on environmental issues the onetime hedge fund manager is best known for advocating stronger steps to fight climate change and support clean energy hes looking to play a more expansive role in opposing Trump. The number of issues that have to be addressed are broader, he said in an interview, pointing to Trumps statements on issues such as voting that he considers to be a broader attack on fundamental American rights. In a video posted on Tuesday night, Steyer says, I promise to do everything in my power to stand up to Trump and asks for the publics thoughts on what next steps should be taken. Steyer spent $74 million in the 2014 midterm election, and then millions more last year to support Hillary Clinton and other Democrats. Although results have been mixed Republicans gained ground in both years Steyer said the experiences have positioned NextGen to educate and mobilize voters across the country. There are very few people who are set up organizationally to do what were trying to do, he said. Steyer has already played a role in opposing Trumps nominees, running advertisements criticizing his choice for secretary of State, former Exxon Mobil Chief Executive Rex Tillerson. Besides simply fighting Trump, Steyer also hopes to project an alternative view of the country one that comes with a dose of California sunshine. America can pursue a much more optimistic, a much more prosperous, a much more equitable and a much healthier future, he said. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Former aide is preparing to run for Rep. Grace Napolitanos seat if she retires By Javier Panzar Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-Norwalk), who turned 80 last year, has not made plans to retire. But one San Gabriel Valley politician is raising funds to run in case Napolitano does decide to bow out after 10 terms in Congress. Mary Ann Lutz, the former mayor of Monrovia and a former aide to Napolitano, reported having $101,000 in the bank to run for Napolitanos 32nd Congressional District seat, according to a new filing with the Federal Election Commission. But Lutz says she will run only if Napolitano retires. I have enormous respect for my former boss, Congresswoman Grace Napolitano, and would never run against her for any office, Lutz said in a statement. In the event that the 32nd Congressional District seat eventually opens up, I plan to run, and run aggressively. Napolitano suffered a minor stroke last February that affected her ability to write and slightly slowed her walk. She continued her reelection campaign and beat state Assemblyman Roger Hernandez (D-West Covina), who effectively ended his campaign in August after a judge granted his ex-wifes request for a domestic violence restraining order against him. During an interview with The Times a day before the November election, Napolitano said the health of her 90-year-old husband would be a key factor in her decision on whether to run for an 11th term in 2018. I would love to stay but it depends, she said. I will be ready to hang it up when I am ready. Lutz was elected in 2003 to the City Council in Monrovia, a city of 36,000 in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, and was elected mayor in 2009. She lost her reelection bid in 2015 and went on to work for Napolitano as an advisor on water issues. Lutz raised $26,000 and loaned her campaign committee an additional $75,000. Napolitano has $144,692 in the bank if she wants to run again. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print State Senate committee votes in favor of funding legal aid for immigrants in California facing deportation By Jazmine Ulloa (John Moore / Getty Images) A state legislative bill seeking to expand legal services for immigrants in the U.S. illegally moved out of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday on a 5-2 vote. The bill, introduced by state Sen. Ben Hueso (D-San Diego), would create a legal defense program funded with state money that would provide lawyers for immigrants caught in deportation or removal proceedings. It comes roughly three years after the Unaccompanied Undocumented Minors program began providing state-funded legal services for young refugees fleeing gang violence in Central America. Hueso said the measure faced new urgency given President Trumps executive orders last week on immigration. This is a bill protecting Californians, protecting their families, but also protecting Californias economic prominence, Hueso said. I hope we can all stand united on this and say, Yes, we stand by our immigrant community in California. Members of the committee raised concerns about whether it whittled away at defense services available for detainees convicted of certain crimes and over how the state would be able to afford it amid a looming deficit and budget cuts from the federal government. It is well-meaning, but it is a whole different agency that we are setting up in an expedited way, Sen. Bob Wieckowski (D-Fremont) said. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement California assemblyman wants state to make cleaner purchases By Chris Megerian (Alexis Cuarezma / For The Times) A California lawmaker wants state officials to consider greenhouse gas emissions when making new purchases, a proposal that would add a new wrinkle to the bidding process for government contracts. Assemblyman Rob Bonta (D-Oakland) said the legislation (AB 262) would harness the states enormous buying power to support clean manufacturing. The measure, which includes state agencies and university systems, would affect the purchase of materials such as asphalt, cement, steel and glass for projects such as hospitals, dormitories and roads. Companies bidding on state contracts would be required to report greenhouse gas emissions generated by the manufacturing and transportation of supplies. Officials would then factor that information into their decision. Given Californias goal of slashing emissions, Bonta said he hopes that the legislation puts the states money where its values are. He doesnt expect the requirement to report more information would be a significant burden on companies seeking contracts. This will just be one more piece of information that will need to be added, he said. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print First of several immigrant protection bills clears state Senate Public Safety Committee By Jazmine Ulloa (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images) As national debate and protests have taken place over President Donald Trumps executive actions on immigration and refugees, the state Senate Public Safety Committee on Tuesday passed the first of several bills aimed at protecting immigrants in California. Senate Bill 54, introduced by Senate President pro Tem Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles), would prohibit state and local law enforcement agencies from using resources to investigate, detain, report or arrest persons for the purposes of immigration enforcement. The proposal, dubbed the California Values Act, also aims to protect immigrants personal data, requiring state agencies to review their confidentiality policies and to ensure that they are only collecting information necessary to their departments. It moved out of committee with a 5-2 vote. Long line of advocates, lawyers in support SB 54, prohibiting law enforcement agencies from using resources for immigrants enforcement. pic.twitter.com/G0IV9ihRjE Jazmine Ulloa (@jazmineulloa) January 31, 2017 The bill seeks to strengthen immigrant protections threatened under Trumps executive actions. In orders signed last week, the president pledged to cut federal dollars from so-called sanctuary cities, which have policies limiting the cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities. At a committee hearing Tuesday, De Leon said the proposal builds on the California Trust Act, which Gov. Jerry Brown signed in October 2013. The state law prevents law enforcement agencies from detaining immigrants longer than necessary for minor crimes so that federal immigration authorities can take them into custody. A long line of immigrant advocates, lawyers and lobbyists rose in support of the bill, saying it would continue to help law enforcement officials build trust within immigrant communities and allow more victims and witnesses to report crime. Democratic members in the committee urged their Republican colleagues to vote for the legislation and move away from Trumps rhetoric, which they said stereotyped immigrants as criminals. They pointed to low crime rates in immigrant communities and stressed that many police chiefs do not want to enforce immigration laws. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), chair of the committee, said people across California were under economic stress that could be manipulated into fear. All of us want hardened criminals prosecuted under the law, she said. All of us. But what we are watching now is a pitting of people against each other, a targeting of immigrants. Opponents were not swayed. They said the bills language was too broad and could prevent communication among police agencies at different levels of government, allowing dangerous criminals to escape prosecution. Im concerned that you are basically making the state of California a de facto sanctuary state, Sen. Jeff Stone (R-Murrieta) told De Leon. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement California lawmakers seek stricter enforcement, more transparency at state toxics control agency By Melanie Mason Jose Gomez, at his home on South Hicks Avenue in East Los Angeles, is among thousands whose yards have been tested for contamination from the former Exide plant. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) Assembly Democrats unveiled a package of five bills Tuesday aimed at reforming the state agency tasked with regulating toxic substances. The Department of Toxic Substances Control has been roundly criticized for its flat-footed response in regulating and cleaning up pollution from the now-closed Exide battery recycling plant in Vernon. A Los Angeles Times review in 2015 found the department knew for years that the plant was violating environmental regulations but was slow to act on it. Too many communities, including communities I represent, have been harmed by toxic emissions that were released into their neighborhoods emissions that could and should have been stopped, Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount) said in a statement. The goal of this legislative package is a more transparent, accountable, and responsive Department of Toxic Substances Control and safer and healthier communities throughout California. The proposed legislation includes: AB 245 by Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez (D-Los Angeles), which would require hazardous waste facilities to comply with higher financial assurance requirements to make sure there are adequate funds for contamination cleanup. AB 249 (Gomez), which would increase maximum penalties the department can assess to match what the federal government can assess in similar situations. AB 248 by Assemblywoman Eloise Gomez Reyes (D-San Bernardino), which would require hazardous waste facilities to submit permit renewals two years prior to the current permits expiration to avoid lapses. AB 246 by Assemblyman Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles), which would promote the use of fence line monitoring by facilities to better detect leaks. AB 247 by Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia (D-Bell Gardens), which would create a statewide task force focused on reducing lead poisoning in the state. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Sen. Dianne Feinstein says she will vote no on Jeff Sessions nomination for U.S. attorney general By Sarah D. Wire California Sen. Dianne Feinstein announced this morning that she will vote no on the nomination of Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions for U.S. attorney general. The statement comes after protestors visited Feinsteins home and office out of concern that she may vote in favor of the nomination. Protesters marched on her home and California offices last night. #CASen https://t.co/U0HhsJxwTB Sarah D. Wire (@sarahdwire) January 31, 2017 JUST NOW: On Sessions attorney general nomination: I must vote no. pic.twitter.com/lfQnX5Khug Sen Dianne Feinstein (@SenFeinstein) January 31, 2017 It is very difficult to reconcile for me the independence and objectivity necessary for the position of attorney general with the partisanship this nominee has demonstrated, Feinstein said Tuesday. We are being asked to determine whether this nominees record demonstrates that he will have the objectivity to enforce the law for all Americans and be an independent attorney general and not an arm of the White House. Feinstein is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which votes today on the confirmation of Sessions to be President Trumps attorney general. Feinstein pointed to former acting U.S. Atty. Gen. Sally Yates as an example of what she is looking for. Yates was fired Monday, just hours after she announced that the Justice Department would not defend Trumps controversial executive order banning refugees and travelers from certain countries. Yesterday, early in the evening, we clearly saw what a truly independent attorney general doesI have no confidence that Senator Sessions will do that, Feinstein said. Instead, he has been the fiercest, most dedicated, and most loyal promoter in Congress of the Trump agenda, and has played a critical role as the clearinghouse for policy and philosophy to undergird the implementation of that agenda. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Where do Californias members of Congress stand on President Trumps refugee order? By Sarah D. Wire Noor Hindi, left, and Shah Najjar, middle, join the protest at the Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport on Monday. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times) President Trumps executive order Friday, which blocked U.S. entry to refugees and nationals of seven Muslim-majority nations, brought thousands of Americans to the nations airports in protest over the weekend. Several Democrats from Californias 54-member congressional delegation joined constituents at airports, and lobbied customs and Border Patrol officials to release the detained visa holders. Many of the states 14 Republican representatives were initially silent on the executive order. Several have since voiced their support, while others were critical of the orders rollout. Heres a look at what each member of the California congressional delegation has said about the executive order: Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print California state Senate passes resolution condemning President Trumps refugee ban By Jazmine Ulloa Protesters are held back by airport police on Sunday at LAX. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) After nearly two hours of debate, the state Senate on Monday passed a resolution that condemned President Trumps executive order banning immigrants and refugees from seven predominantly Muslim countries, calling it discriminatory overreach. Democrats introduced the resolution after the presidents order Friday spurred a weekend of protests and chaos at airports across the country. The resolution denounces Trumps actions and urges the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to comply with federal court orders permitting detainees to have timely access to counsel. It cleared the Senate floor with a 26-11 vote largely along party lines, reflecting the national rift over Trumps immigration order. Two Republican members abstained. On the Senate floor, Democrats called the executive order an affront on religious freedom that panders to fear and foments discrimination, and said it would not further public safety. Reaching to members across the aisle, they said the resolution was not about partisanship or opposing Trump, but about protecting American institutions. In a fiery speech, state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) said the order is unconstitutional and violates fundamental rights. You see this is how we end up with fascism and totalitarianism, she said. Sen. Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles) said she did not want four more years of executive orders crafted in the cover of darkness. But Republican members said that President Obama had taken similar actions and that they had a duty to their constituents, who were worried about national security and a vetting process they said did not stop terrorists from entering the nations borders. Obama has rejected comparisons of his policy to Trumps. We do not welcome those who have come here to harm us, Sen. Jim Nielsen (R-Gerber) said, urging a no vote. We cannot ignore contemporary reality. Our enemies do not reside beyond our shores. They are within. The resolution states that 134 million people are temporarily barred from entering or reentering the United States, including nationals with dual citizenship. Hundreds of thousands with visas are also blocked, it says. The resolution also denounces the manner in which the executive order was executed, saying it was not fully vetted by the departments tasked with protecting the nations national security interests. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print State attorneys general met in Florida to strategize on how to counter Trump, Becerra says By Patrick McGreevy California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra. ((Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) ) A joint statement by 15 attorneys general over the weekend condemning President Trumps refugee order grew out of a meeting in Florida between California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra and some of his concerned counterparts, Becerra said Monday. Becerra gathered Thursday in Fort Lauderdale with other attorneys general, including Washington Atty. Gen. Bob Ferguson, to strategize about responding to the Trump administration on various issues. The meeting took place at the annual winter conference of the Democratic Attorneys General Assn. Several of the AGs have been in communication, Becerra said in an interview with The Times. We made it very clear in our joint statement that we are going to do everything we can to make sure that the unlawful, unconstitutional executive orders by the Trump administration dont see the light of day. Officials who signed the joint statement included legal representatives from Washington, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Virginia. On Monday, Ferguson announced he was suing Trump over the executive order that suspended refugee entries for 120 days and barred entry to the U.S. for 90 days for those traveling from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Becerra said that he had been in contact with Ferguson and that the option to pursue legal action is under consideration for California. Thats one of many avenues of how we are looking to approach this, Becerra said. As a result of the Florida meeting, Becerra said, the top lawyers from the 15 states are collaborating on how to address various Trump directives. Everyone is doing a little bit of something, he said. Everyones trying to figure out how best to address this. Florida Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi, a Republican, did not attend the meeting, Becerra said. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement California warily watches President Trump while pushing forward on climate change By Chris Megerian (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) Its been a decade since California set its first target for slashing greenhouse gas emissions, one of several policies that has made the state an international leader in the fight against global warming. So while President Trump suggests hes going to roll back the countrys environmental regulations, state leaders insist they wont be knocked off track here. This is when you do your best work, said John Laird, secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency. We cant worry about pulling back just to sink with everyone else who isnt moving at all. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Rep. Duncan Hunter urges Trump to make an executive order exemption for Iraqis who aided U.S. military By Sarah D. Wire Reps. Duncan Hunter (R-Alpine) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) are asking President Trump to approve waivers to his executive order for Iraqis who helped the American military. Hunter and Kinzinger, who both served in Iraq and Afghanistan, said in the letter to Trump that they supported a request from Defense Secretary James N. Mattis that visa reviews for some Iraqis be fast-tracked. For the safety of these courageous individuals and their families, and in the interest of our national security, its critical that we make this exception and do so swiftly, the congressmen said in a statement. The executive order Trump signed Friday bars all refugee entries for 120 days, blocks Syrian refugees indefinitely and bars for 90 days the entry of citizens from Iraq, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Libya and Somalia. Some of the earliest stories of people caught up in the ban included military interpreters from Iraq who had visas. We respectfully ask that you take this action to ensure these individuals are not put in any further danger. Doing so would send a strong signal to those who show such immense courage to advance U.S. security interests at a risk to their own safety, as well as the many veterans and warfighters whove relied on the service of these individuals for their own protection and to accomplish their objectives, their letter states. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Democrats in the California Legislature move to condemn President Trumps immigration orders Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Assembly Republican leader Chad Mayes voices his misgivings about refugee order By Patrick McGreevy Assembly Minority Leader Chad Mayes (R-Yucca Valley) speaks in the Capitol on Jan. 11. (Rich Pedroncelli / AP) Assembly Republican Leader Chad Mayes of Yucca Valley on Monday joined a number of GOP politicians who are voicing misgivings about President Trumps order temporarily barring refugees from some majority-Muslim countries from entering the country. Religious liberty is a core value of our nation. My ancestors immigrated to America to flee religious persecution, Mayes said in a statement. While bolstering our national security is important, when forced to decide between security and liberty, I will always side with liberty. He is concerned about them [the orders], said Matt Mahon, a spokesman for the assemblyman. Trumps directives suspended refugee entries for 120 days and barred entry to the U.S. for 90 days for those traveling from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Rep. Zoe Lofgren and other ranking Democrats demand emergency meeting on refugee ban By Sarah D. Wire After two days of protests across the country over President Trumps order Friday banning refugees from seven countries, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose) and the ranking Democrats of three committees that oversee immigration issues are demanding a meeting with President Trumps new Homeland Security secretary, John F. Kelly. The move by Trump prevented green card and visa holders from reentering the country, and led to the detention of more than a hundred people landing at U.S. airports with valid entry documents. Late Saturday, a federal judge in New York issued a temporary stay against the deportation of anyone who had arrived with a valid visa. The letter demanding the meeting, signed by Lofgren, Judiciary Committee ranking member John Conyers (D-Mich.), Homeland Security Committee ranking member Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Elliot Engel (D-N.Y.), calls for it be scheduled by the close of business Wednesday. The Democrats also ask for more information about how the order is being implemented, whether the stays placed by federal judges over the weekend are being followed and whether green card holders are affected. Only two days after the order was signed it is clear that it has already led to panic and disorder, not to mention protests, the letter states. This is apparently due in part to the lack of internal administration review prior to its issuance as well as a lack of clarity and guidance provided thereafter. Lofgren, a former immigration attorney and the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committees Immigration Subcommittee, also plans to file legislation today to rescind the executive order. Getting such legislation through the House could be difficult with Speaker Paul Ryan supporting the executive order. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is proposing similar legislation in the Senate. House and Senate Democrats plan to hold a rally against the order outside the Supreme Court Monday evening. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement As California Democrats blast Trumps refugee order, Republicans in the congressional delegation hold their fire By Sarah D. Wire Only a few of the states 14 Republican representatives have publicly commented on an executive order signed by President Trump on Friday that barred refugees and green card holders from seven countries from entering the U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Tulare) released a statement Sunday night saying some tweaks are needed, but his background as chairman of the House Select Intelligence Committee leads him to support the executive order. In light of attempts by jihadist groups to infiltrate fighters into refugee flows to the West, along with Europes tragic experience coping with this problem, the Trump administrations executive order on refugees is a common-sense security measure to prevent terror attacks on the homeland. While accommodations should be made for green card holders and those whove assisted the U.S. armed forces, this is a useful temporary measure on seven nations of concern until we can verify who is entering the United States, he said. Rep. Ed Royce (R-Fullerton) told the Washington Post that pausing the intake of refugees from terror hotspots is the right call to keep America safe, but he hopes the cases of people traveling on visas who were prevented from reentering the country are resolved quickly. Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Turlock) said on Twitter on Sunday that the rollout has created confusion, and that executive orders arent the way to fix the countrys long-term problems. View Twitter post View Twitter post Several of Californias 38 Democratic congressional representatives and the states two senators were out in force over the weekend demanding the release of refugees and green card holders, and an end to the executive order. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) announced two pieces of legislation shell file in response. One would immediately rescind the presidents order. The second would limit executive authority under the Immigration and Nationality Act to prevent a president from unilaterally banning groups of immigrants. Its clear that the president gave little consideration to the chaos and heartbreak that would result from this order, she said in a statement. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) joined protesters outside the White House Sunday afternoon. We will fight against racism. We will fight against anti-Muslim rhetoric. We will fight against those who will marginalize who we are. pic.twitter.com/R54f3MDhvo Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) January 29, 2017 In Los Angeles, Reps. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) and Ted Lieu (D-Torrance) joined protesters at Los Angeles International Airport. On Saturday, Reps. Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park), Nanette Barragan (D-San Pedro) and Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana) joined the initial protests at the airport, and worked to get some of those being held released. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Dublin) accompanied protesters at San Francisco International Airport Sunday. Congresswoman @MaxineWaters is here at LAX protest leading the crowd in the chant "no ban, no wall, you build it up we'll tear it down" pic.twitter.com/iNEmkVVkmW Javier Panzar (@jpanzar) January 29, 2017 2:31 p.m. Jan. 30: This post was updated to clarify Rep. Ed Royces statement about the executive order. It was originally published Jan. 29. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print State Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra condemns Trumps refugee order and explores challenge By Patrick McGreevy Assyrian Christians, who fled unrest in Syria and Iraq, attend Mass at St. Georges Assyrian Church in Jdeideh, Lebanon. Trumps directive provides an exception for religious minorities. ( (AFP/Getty Images)) California state Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra on Saturday condemned an executive order by President Donald Trump barring people from some Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S. and said he is consulting with legal advisors over a way to challenge the directive. Trump has suspended all refugee entries for 120 days and barred entry to the U.S. for 90 days for those traveling from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Justice in America doesnt live or die on the stroke of one mans pen regardless of how high his office, Becerra said in a statement late Saturday, less than a week after taking office. The Trump Administrations anti-religion, anti-refugee executive order is in so many ways unjust and anti-American He said the order discriminates against people based on their faith and denies entry to those with fears of death and persecution. I have conferred with my team, and we are reaching out to others as well, to find every avenue possible to defend our family members and those who live permanently in our communities who may be barred from re-entry into America, Becerra said. The Trump executive order should not stand and must be confronted as a constitutional overreach, he added. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement California Politics Podcast: Reactions to President Trumps first week By John Myers Even before the weekend controversy and protests, Californias top elected officials spent much of the last week reacting to the first moves by President Donald Trump. On this weeks California Politics Podcast, we take a closer look at the sharp words offered by Gov. Jerry Brown in his State of the State speech when it comes to the new politics of Washington. We also focus much of this weeks discussion around three big topics that caught the attention of a number of California lawmakers: immigration moves by Trump; the rough week that was for the nations environmental protection enforcers; and rekindled but unproven allegations of widespread voter fraud. Im joined by Marisa Lagos of KQED News and Anthony York of the Grizzly Bear Project. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Gov. Jerry Brown will undergo new round of treatment for prostate cancer, but wont miss any work By John Myers Gov. Jerry Brown, who first was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2012, will begin a new round of treatment for the disease, his office reported on Saturday. Brown, 78, will maintain his duties as governor during the treatment, according to his staff. No additional details were provided about how long the treatment will take, or what prompted its timing. Fortunately this is not extensive disease, can be readily treated with a short course of radiotherapy, and there are not expected to be any significant side effects, said Dr. Eric Small, a UC San Francisco oncologist, in an emailed statement provided to reporters. The prognosis for Gov. Brown is excellent. Brown initially learned he had prostate cancer in late 2012 and underwent similar treatment for several weeks. The governor has also been treated for basal cell carcinoma a type of skin cancer twice in the past nine years, with reconstructive surgery on the right side of his nose in 2011. With almost two years remaining on his final term in office, Brown is already the oldest governor in California history. He often made a point of pointing out his physical fitness in his return to the job in 2011, including a 2012 challenge to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie of a 3-mile race, a push-up contest and a chin-up contest. Though hes been treated in San Francisco, the governor and First Lady Anne Gust Brown now live full-time in the historic governors mansion in Sacramento after moving out of Oakland last year. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra takes a jab at the Trump administration when asked about the battles to come Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Proposed law would make penalties for using fake immigration papers the same as those for using fake drivers license By Jazmine Ulloa A proposed California law seeks to ensure that a person who uses false documents to conceal their citizenship status faces the same punishment as a person who uses a fake drivers license. The legislation by Assemblyman Raul Bocanegra (D-Pacoima) would amend the penal code to make both crimes wobblers, meaning prosecutors would have the discretion to charge suspects in such cases with either felony offenses or lower-level misdemeanors. Under the proposal, the repercussions for defendants would be the same: If convicted of a misdemeanor, offenders would have to serve up to one year in county jail, while a felony conviction would mean up to 16 months in county jail, or two or three years in prison. A spokesman for Bocangera said the measure was introduced as a proactive response to President Trumps hard-line stance on immigration and would reverse part of Proposition 187, a controversial ballot measure to deny public services, such as education and healthcare, to immigrants in the country illegally. The proposition, approved by voters in 1994, requires any person who uses false immigration records to face felony charges. Bocangeras bill amending those provisions would need a two-thirds vote in the Assembly and the state Senate to pass. Today, if an underage college student uses a fake ID to purchase a six-pack of beer, he or she can be charged with a misdemeanor, Bocanegra said in a statement. However, if an immigrant is caught using that same fake ID, he or she is automatically charged with a felony and is subject to five years in prison. This is fundamentally unfair. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Fearing catastrophe, Californias Gov. Jerry Brown wants the worlds leaders to stop goofing off By Chris Megerian Gov. Jerry Brown pointedly criticized world leaders for goofing off instead of addressing looming problems with climate change and nuclear weapons during a radio interview on Friday. Theyre really averting their gaze, he said. And that is dangerous, very dangerous. Brown has become increasingly outspoken about issues he describes as existential threats to humanity, and the election of Donald Trump has only made him more concerned. During the interview, he spoke in sweeping terms about the need to support scientific research in the face of political denial. Darkness cannot totally extinguish the light, Brown said while criticizing Republicans for refusing to accept the scientific consensus around climate change and the need for dramatic changes to confront global warming. @JerryBrownGov in our studio (in fact, in my chair!) as he chats w/ Ira Flatow on @scifri pic.twitter.com/kIyGBFQW9X Beth Ruyak (@CapRadioRuyak) January 27, 2017 At another point, Brown mused that humans have accumulated vast power without a corresponding increase in wisdom. That creates a gap between the power to destroy and the wisdom to control those destructive forces. Brown reiterated his plan to push forward Californias policies on climate change even if Trump follows through on the federal governments plans. Were going to do everything we can to stay on track, he said. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Some California lawmakers say its time to expand how the state defines violent crime By Jazmine Ulloa As California undergoes the largest overhaul of prison parole in a generation, some lawmakers and law enforcement officials say its time to revisit how the state legally defines a violent crime. Gov. Jerry Browns Proposition 57, which voters overwhelmingly approved in November, continues a statewide effort to increase rehabilitation services and decrease the prison population. Among its provisions, the initiative gives the state parole board greater latitude to consider the early release of prisoners who have served their primary sentences, and whose crimes are not designated as violent under the California penal code. But since the early days of the ballot measure campaign, debate has brewed over just who the law will benefit, with prosecutors saying that short and porous list excludes certain rape crimes and other dangerous offenses. This legislative session, the discussion moves to the Capitol. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Fearing deletion, Tom Steyer copies Environmental Protection Agency website on climate change By Chris Megerian (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) With President Trump in the White House, information about climate change has been disappearing from government websites. Some fear the same thing could happen with the Environmental Protection Agency. Now the advocacy organization run by environmentalist and political donor Tom Steyer is taking steps to preserve the information. We will not allow Trump and the oil corporations to push us towards an Orwellian world full of official lies and misinformation. Tom Steyer (@TomSteyer) January 27, 2017 NextGen Climate copied the website and made it available at SaveOurEPA.com. As Americans, we will not allow Donald Trump to erase the truth or rewrite history, Steyer said in a statement. This information belongs to the people, and the public has a right to know the truth. Trump has taken other steps that have alarmed environmentalists. For example, he greenlighted two oil pipelines that had been stopped by former President Obama. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print For California, a return to center stage in the 2020 presidential contest By Mark Z. Barabak (Jose Luis Magana / Associated Press) Kamala Harris hadnt even arrived in Washington to take up her job as Californias spanking-new U.S. senator when the chatter began: Kamala for president! Never mind her disavowals Seriously? or the fact that the first balloting of the 2020 race is, at a minimum, 1,000-plus days away. The soul-sapping election of Donald Trump has Democrats desperately looking far, far down the road. Usually the candidates start sending signals, said Jim Demers, a longtime party strategist in New Hampshire, the state that traditionally holds the first presidential primary. This time Im hearing activists begging for the race to begin. With a wide-open contest (read: not a Clinton or Obama in sight), the list of would-be contenders, real and imagined, is lengthy, even by the prodigious standards of this early stage. Whats different in 2020 is that California huge in population, mighty in economic power, desperate to matter in presidential politics figures to be at the center of speculation in a way it hasnt for a generation. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Theres a major fight on the way over Trumps plans for sanctuary cities By Liam Dillon Immigrant workers marching in Los Angeles in 2014. (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times) Cities in California are gearing up for a legal fight against President Trumps plans to take away federal dollars from so-called sanctuary cities. These cities typically are defined as those that dont cooperate with federal immigration officials for deportation purposes, and the new president wants to strip them of funding unless they start doing so. But the language in Trumps executive order on the issue is vague, and San Francisco officials believe their city is already exempt from the mandate. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Fighting Trumps border wall on environmental grounds probably wont win in court By Liam Dillon A pair of fences separates Mexico, left, and the U.S. south of San Diego. (Bill Wechter / AFP) California political leaders are seeking all sorts of strategies to fight President Trumps plans to build a wall along the border with Mexico. One strategy thats likely to fail is a lawsuit based on state and federal environmental laws, legal experts said. Congress already has given the federal government broad authority to waive environmental laws to build a border fence and the courts have upheld that power. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Calexit organizers can now start collecting signatures to get California secession on the ballot By Christine Mai-Duc Supporters of the campaign for California to secede from the United States can now begin collecting the hundreds of thousands of signatures they need to get a proposed Calexit initiative on the ballot. California Secretary of State Alex Padilla cleared the proposed initiative to begin collecting signatures on Thursday. If the measure gets on the ballot and gains approval by a majority of voters, it would repeal clauses in the California Constitution stating that the state is an inseparable part of the United States and that the U.S. Constitution is the supreme law of the land, according to the title and summary prepared by the state attorney generals office. The measure would place another question on the ballot in 2019, asking whether California should become a separate country. If at least half of registered voters participate in that vote, with at least 55% of those voting to approve, the results would be treated as Californias declaration of independence. The current measures fiscal effect is dependent on various factors, writes the states nonpartisan legislative analyst, and if it succeeds would result in major, but unknown budgetary impacts. The proposals backers, known as Yes California, have argued that the state is culturally out of step with the rest of the U.S. and that California pays more money to the federal government than it receives in spending. The election of President Trump has only strengthened their argument, they say. California loses [by] being a part of America culturally and financially, said Marcus Ruiz Evans, one of the groups founders. It could be a nation all its own, everybody knows that. The only question is if they want to break off. Its unclear how the group will collect the required 585,407 valid signatures from registered voters over the next 180 days to qualify for the ballot. A campaign committee, Yes California Independence Committee, has raised no funds so far, according to records from the secretary of state. But Evans says that his group has more than 7,000 volunteers (significantly down from a 13,000 estimate in December) ready to gather signatures and that voters can expect to see signature gatherers on the streets in the next couple of days. Yes California says that even if the proposed initiative does land on the ballot and voters approve it, such an unprecedented move to secede would need to receive approval of at least a majority of the states in the union, among other legal hurdles. Evans says hes not fazed. America already hates California, and America votes on emotions, he said. I think wed have the votes today if we held it. UPDATE 7:01 p.m.: This post has been updated to clarify that the proposed initiative would place a future vote on Californias secession on the ballot in 2019. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Rep. Ted Lieu is trolling Donald Trump, and he hopes youre watching By Sarah D. Wire Rep. Ted Lieu is now placing an asterisk next to President Trumps name in news releases. Its the Torrance Democrats way of drawing attention to his concerns about the new administration, he said. Sometimes the best way to respond to crazy is with satire, Lieu said. Never before have I had this feeling where our leader is potentially unhinged and has a problem with the truth, and that is highly disturbing for the leader of the free world. So Ive decided Im just going to point that out as much as I can. The asterisk leads readers to the bottom of the email, where a postscript says: ***In addition to losing the popular vote, Trump as of January 20, 2017 is in violation of the Emoluments Clause set forth in Article I, Section 9 of the U.S. Constitution due to massive conflicts of interests and his refusal to put his global business holdings in blind trusts. Trump also benefitted from Vladimir Putin ordering a multifaceted and brazen Russian influence and cyber hacking campaign with the goals of undermining faith in the U.S. democratic process, denigrating Secretary Clintons electability, and helping Trumps election chances. Trump and his press secretary also routinely make stuff up. The sophomore congressman said he initially planned to give Trump the benefit of the doubt, hoping his rhetoric was a campaign tactic and that he would pivot to uniting the country following the election. Then Lieu listened to the presidents inaugural speech. I was hoping he would govern different than how he campaigned, he said. I came to the conclusion that it would be worse for America to normalize him. Lieu followed the addition to his news releases with a Cloud of Illegitimacy Clock that counts the time since Trumps swearing-in, which is how long Lieu says Trump has been in violation of the Constitution by not divesting from his businesses or putting them in a blind trust. The Constitution bans government officials from receiving gifts or payments from foreign governments. Next he posted a series of tweets mocking White House spokesman Sean Spicer for giving incorrect figures on how many people attended the inauguration, and top Trump aide Kellyanne Conway for using the term alternative facts. Was charged $2.99 for coffee listed at $2.59. That's why I have trust issues. Oh, and the fact that @seanspicer at #WhiteHouse makes shit up Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) January 23, 2017 Ive decided that the administration using alternative facts is more profane than anything that I could say, he said. When the administration lies, they just need to be called out on that. If they are going to lie about stupid little things, like crowd size, imagine what theyre going to say when they roll out their healthcare plan, whenever that might be. Lieu has needled Trump in responses to several executive orders this week, including by saying he would bet a nice bottle of California wine that the Administration will be unable to find a credible witness to testify under oath to the allegation that 3-5 million people illegally cast votes in 2016, and by mentioning the inauguration crowd while talking about Trumps proposed border wall. Lieu said hes absolutely hoping Trump will respond. I think satire is an effective way to highlight issues, and I want the American people to see who this president really is, because in 22 months they get to vote again on every member of Congress, and that will be a referendum on Donald Trump, Lieu said. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print California Democrats propose adding third, nonbinary gender option for drivers licenses and other official documents By Melanie Mason View Twitter post California drivers licenses and birth certificates could have a third option for gender in addition to male or female under legislation unveiled Thursday by Democratic lawmakers. The bill by state Sens. Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) and Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) would establish a new nonbinary gender marker for official state documents. Lawmakers framed the measure as an expansion of rights for transgender, intersex and other people who do not identify as male or female. It will keep California at the forefront of LGBTQ civil rights, Atkins said at a Capitol news conference. The bill, SB 179, also would streamline the process for people to change their gender on such documents. It would remove the requirement that an individual obtain a sworn statement from a physician certifying medical treatment for gender transition. It also would create a process for people younger than 18 to apply for a change of gender on their birth certificate. Jo Michael, of Equality California, a gay rights advocacy group, said the bill had personal resonance. Michael identifies as transgender and nonbinary. For the first time, Californians like me could have accurate gender markers that truly reflect who we are, Michael said. Wiener said the proposal places California in stark relief to other states in the country, including North Carolina, where a high-profile law regulating transgender peoples use of public bathrooms roiled the state. As the LGBT community but especially the trans community is under assault in this country, California needs to go in the opposite direction and embrace the trans community and support the trans community and modernize these laws, he said. The legislation does not specify what the alternate gender marker would be, but other countries that have implemented such a policy, such as Australia and New Zealand, have used the letter X alongside M for male and F for female, according to Sasha Buchert of the Transgender Law Center. Atkins, who is a lesbian and a member of the California Legislative LGBT Caucus, said this proposal marks an evolution for her in better understanding the concerns of the transgender and intersex community. She authored a law in 2014 that ensures death certificates reflect a persons gender identity, an experience she said made her more aware of the bureaucratic hurdles that transgender people often face. This years bill, she said, is moving us forward into a new world, where acceptance is ... letting people be who they tell you they are. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Former U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric Holder will visit Sacramento to meet with Democratic legislators next month By Melanie Mason (Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press) California lawmakers will have a chance to meet the Legislatures new outside counsel on Feb. 7, when former U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. travels to the state to address Senate and Assembly Democrats. Holder, leading a team of attorneys from the firm Covington & Burling, has been hired by Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles) and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount) to serve as outside counsel as the state prepares a legal strategy to deal with the administration of President Trump. But Senate and Assembly staff officials said his invitation to meet with lawmakers was extended prior to the contract, which begins in February, and that Holder is making the trip on his own personal time. His travel and accommodations expenses will not be paid with state funds, and his appearances will not be part of his billable hours, they said. Holder will address Senate Democrats at their annual policy retreat, and will speak to the Assembly Democratic caucus. His visit comes soon after state Democratic leaders this week denounced Trumps executive orders on immigration and pledged to take his administration to court should other legislative means of resistance fail. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement A guide to the guessing game that is the 2018 California governors race By Phil Willon While the race to succeed Gov. Jerry Brown already has attracted a small cadre of well-known Democrats, the behind-the-scenes strategizing, cajoling and guessing games surrounding a handful of other potential contenders could create havoc in whats expected to be Californias biggest political showdown since 2010. Among those watching closely are the candidates already definitely in the running, including Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and state Treasurer John Chiang. Delaine Eastin, who spent eight years as Californias top education official, announced she was running in November and officially launched her campaign and fundraising operation on Thursday. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print This is not a monarchy: California Senate leader Kevin de Leon bashes Trumps immigration orders By Jazmine Ulloa (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) California Senate leader Kevin de Leon took another shot at President Trump and his executive orders on immigration Wednesday night, calling his threat to withhold federal dollars from so-called sanctuary cities political blackmail and political vengeance. In an interview on the MSNBC show The Last Word with Lawrence ODonnell, De Leon said California was working with former U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. to study all of its legal options to oppose the directives. Under the 10th Amendment, the state Senate leader said, the federal government cannot commandeer and force local municipalities and police agencies from carrying out their work. The appearance came hours after Trump signed orders to temporarily halt the U.S. refugee program, cut funding for cities that offer immigrants protections and order federal officials to construct a U.S.-Mexico border wall. California will not become a cog in the Trump deportation machine, De Leon said. This is not a monarchy, and I know he fancies himself as a king, but this is a republic. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print President Trumps voter fraud allegation is a lie, says Californias top elections officer By John Myers Secretary of State Alex Padilla. (Damian Dovarganes/Associated Press) With President Donald Trump rehashing last years accusation of widespread voter fraud in California and elsewhere, the states top elections official is also restating his take: Its not true. When the president says millions of illegal ballots are cast, thats simply not the case, said Secretary of State Alex Padilla in an interview on CNN Wednesday. Its a lie. As was the case when Trump made the accusation in November, theres no evidence of such a broad attempt to sway the outcome in California. The president lost the Golden State to Democrat Hillary Clinton by almost 4.3 million votes. Trumps announcement on Wednesday of a major investigation into voter fraud reignited the issue, even though there was also Republican skepticism in the wake of the new round of accusations. Is it a question of millions of people? Thats a pretty steep hill to climb, said Assemblyman Matthew Harper (R-Huntington Beach), the vice chairman of the Assemblys elections committee. Youd have to have a very strong coordinated effort across California to pull that off. Harper said he believes the better discussion is whether new, independent audit capabilities need to be in place to examine election results. Others, though, were sharply critical of the presidents motives. Allegations of widespread voter fraud are not just alternative facts, they are a calculated and sinister attempt at voter suppression that takes a page from this nations bleak history of segregation, said Laphonza Butler, president of the state council of the Service Employees International Union. In the CNN interview, Padilla said he worried the president was sowing doubt in an effort to legitimize efforts such as a purging of voter rolls. I hope that its not a sign of things to come, he said. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Intelligence committee led by Californians investigating Russian influence in 2016 election By Sarah D. Wire The House Select Intelligence Committee is examining allegations that the Russian government tried to influence the 2016 election, Republican Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes and ranking Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff said in a statement Wednesday. The two Californians said the committee is looking at Russian cyber activity and other active measures directed against the U.S. It also will examine links between Russia and people working for political campaigns as well as the federal response to Russia, including leaks of classified assessments from the intelligence community. The statement does not specifically mention President Trump, the assessment of the U.S. intelligence community that Russia attempted to intervene in the presidential election to ensure he would win or news that Trumps national security advisor was in frequent contact with the Russian ambassador as President Obama was considering sanctions against Russia. This issue is not about party, but about country. The Committee will continue to follow the facts wherever they may lead, the statement said. The Senate Intelligence Committee, on which Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) serves, also is investigating Russian interference in the election, and the U.S. response. Two Republican senators have joined a number of House and Senate Democrats, including House Select Intelligence Committee member Eric Swalwell (D-Dublin) in pushing for a nonpartisan independent commission to examine the issue. Nunes, who served on Trumps transition committee, has previously said he doesnt think an independent commission is necessary. The statement also asked the new, Trump-appointed heads of intelligence agencies to bring documents requested by the committee directly to committee members. It will not be adequate to review these documents, expected to be in the thousands of pages, at the agencies. They should be delivered to the House Intelligence Committee to provide members adequate time to examine their content, it states. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print No stamp, no problem: Lawmaker says postage-paid ballots should be available to all Californians By John Myers (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) California voters would no longer have to scrounge around in search of a stamp to mail in their ballot under new legislation introduced this week at the state Capitol. We want to make sure voters dont have any barriers, said Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher (D-San Diego), the bills author. Ballot envelopes sent by elections officials would be marked as prepaid postage and the postage costs would be paid for by individual counties. A key question will be the cost for mailing in as many as 10 million ballots statewide. Not all ballots will weigh the same, given the numerous city and county measures that also are considered in regularly scheduled elections. The initial language of Assembly Bill 216 doesnt offer specifics on reimbursing counties, though Gonzalez Fletcher said she expects the proposals ultimate cost could be under $2 million, if the law also makes clear that voters can still place a stamp on their ballot. Regardless, postage fees are likely to be deemed a mandated cost that state government must cover. Gonzalez Fletcher said the advent of email and online bill-paying services have meant that fewer voters have stamps readily available, with busy working Californians scrambling just to find the time to exercise their right to vote. It starts to feel like a very small poll tax, she said. The proposal is another example of the steady evolution of elections conducted less by the ballot box than the mailbox in California, as more than half of all registered voters now permanently receive absentee ballots. A number of the states most populous counties are expected to soon embrace a sweeping new law shifting elections away from neighborhood polling places and toward a substantial number of votes being cast by mail. This is welcome legislation, said Kim Alexander, president of the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation. Requiring voters to pay for ballot postage sends a message that the government is putting up obstacles to make it more difficult to vote. In many cases, ballots placed in the mail without proper postage are already being delivered by the U.S. Postal Service. Some counties in California have offered prepaid postage in the past, but the vast majority have not. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement California improves grades from anti-smoking group with barrage of anti-tobacco laws By Patrick McGreevy California led other states in adopting a flurry of new laws restricting tobacco products last year, resulting in a big improvement in the states grades from the American Lung Assn. In a report released Wednesday, the health group boosted the states grade for the level of tobacco taxes from an F last year to a B, in recognition that California voters in November approved a $2-per-pack increase in the cigarette tax. The Legislature last year also adopted a half-dozen new laws, including an increase in the minimum age for smoking from 18 to 21 and an expansion of a smoking ban in public places, including restaurants and theaters, to also include use of electronic cigarettes. The states grade for smoke-free air policies rose from a B to an A, while California received a B for restricting tobacco to young people. The group gave the state an incomplete for funding of tobacco prevention programs because officials have not yet started collecting money from the tobacco tax increase in Proposition 56. In 2016, Californians fought back against Big Tobaccos grip on our state, said David Pogue, chairman of the American Lung Assn. in Californias governing board. Tobacco-related illnesses remain the single most preventable cause of disease and death in California, and were proud to reaffirm ourselves as a national leader in the effort to reduce smoking rates and exposure to secondhand smoke and to protect our children from a lifetime of addiction. The group cited the lack of significant new tobacco laws passed in Los Angeles for its decision to leave the citys C grade unchanged. El Monte and West Hollywood passed some new tobacco policies and raised their grades. Santa Ana earned a C, but was at top of the list in Orange County, where almost all the other cities received Fs, officials said. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Sen. Kamala Harris pushes Trumps budget director pick on timely disaster relief By Sarah D. Wire Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) pushed President Trumps budget chief pick Tuesday on whether hed advise the new Republican leader to offer timely disaster relief, especially to states like California that face earthquakes, fires, floods and other natural disasters. Can you assure me that when natural disasters hit various parts of the country like California, that you will be willing to put the immediate interests of people in need as the first priority for you, or will you insist that the budget cuts be made before agreeing to provide critical assistance to those victims? Harris asked Rep. Mick Mulvaney during a confirmation hearing Tuesday. The South Carolina Republican asked for spending cuts to offset billions in relief funding after Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast. There is a proper federal role in dealing with natural disaster relief, Mulvaney said in response to Harris questioning. Sandy is a tremendous example of something so large, its simply too large for one state or local government to deal with, it is an appropriate function of the federal government. Harris pushed a second time, So can you assure me that if a natural disaster hits other states, like California for example, that you will not hold up relief for the state, waiting to determine whether there are going to be budget cuts or cuts in order to provide that relief? Or are you going to sit back and crunch the numbers while people are waiting for help? Mulvaney replied, No, I see my role in that particular circumstance as advising the president. Mr. President, heres what weve done it in the past, heres how it worked out, heres how I think we should proceed in this circumstance and heres why. And then whatever the president says to do, I will enforce. Harris is still weighing how to vote on Mulvaneys confirmation, her staff said. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Trump is a hot topic in Californias race for governor, but not in a good way By Phil Willon Donald Trump at the California Republican Party convention in Burlingame in April. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) One of the most talked about politicians in Californias 2018 governors campaign isnt even running. Rarely does a day go by when Republican President Donald Trump isnt used as a political pinata by one of the top Democrats in the race. Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom took some jabs Tuesday when he addressed the California Legislature before Gov. Jerry Browns annual State of the State speech. Newsom mocked the Trump administration for its reliance on alternative facts a phrase used by a Trump senior advisor when defending inflated inauguration crowd figures and took a subtle shot at the presidents comment about American carnage in the nations cities. The insecurity of this man is near incomprehensible. These lies damage our democracy & country's reputation-Shameful https://t.co/ib7i6DqfH8 Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) January 24, 2017 On Monday, state Treasurer John Chiang criticized Trump for doubting the scientific evidence of climate change. President Trump may believe global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing noncompetitive, Chiang said. We Californians stand with the scientific community and the 195 nations that have declared climate change is an urgent and potentially irreversible threat to human societies and the planet. When Antonio Villaraigosa announced his bid for governor right after the general election, the former Los Angeles mayor was sure to include a dig at Trump. Im running because I think the answer to the divisiveness we see in the country right now is unity, and the answer to fear is hope, he said. Last May, Villaraigosa compared Trump to segregationist George Wallace. Californias former superintendent of public instruction, Delaine Eastin, last week ripped Trump for nominating Betsy DeVos for Education secretary. Eastin said DeVos, a charter school advocate and Republican fundraiser from Michigan, was a threat to public education in the country. In speeches, in fundraising emails, in tweets and Facebook posts, the Democrats have liberally excoriated Trump while largely avoiding lobbing any criticism at one another. Its a safe and easy tactic that appeals to a sizeable majority of voters in left-leaning California. In the November election, Trump was trounced by Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in California losing to her by more than 4.2 million votes. San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, a Republican being urged to run by fellow party members, has also rebuked Trump in the past. In May, Faulconer said he rejected Trumps divisive rhetoric about women and immigrants. Faulconer was absent at Trumps inauguration and skipped a Trump campaign rally in San Diego last spring. For any Republican to have a legitimate shot in the governors race, or any statewide election, the more distance they put between themselves and Trump the better, said GOP political consultant Rob Stutzman. Its important that youre not on the record gushing about Trump, Stutzman said. 3:30 p.m.: This story was updated to correct the title of Delaine Eastin. She is a former state superintendent of public instruction. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Californias House members vote along party lines on permanently banning federal funds for abortion By Sarah D. Wire Californias House delegation split along party lines Tuesday on a bill to permanently prohibit the use of certain federal funds for abortions. President Trump promised the anti-abortion community during the campaign that he would make the funding ban commonly called the Hyde Amendment permanent. It passed the House 238-183 and goes next to the Senate. The 52 members who represent California in the House split along party lines, with 36 Democrats against for it, and 14 Republicans voting for it. Reps. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance) and Jim Costa (D-Lieu) did not vote. Their staffs each said the member would have joined Democrats in voting against the measure. If passed by the Senate, it would permanently prohibit federal funding from being used to cover abortion costs except in cases of rape, incest or if the mothers life is in danger. It effects government employees health plans, Medicaid and health insurance plans offered under the Affordable Care Act. The amendment has been added to the annual appropriations bill for the past 40 years and the bill approved by the House Tuesday would make it permanent. During debate on the House floor Rep. Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park) called the bill a womens health catastrophe that will keep poor women on Medicaid or the Affordable Care Act from having access to insurance. In effect it makes abortion only an option for the wealthy, she said. Previous versions of the bill twice passed the House but were not considered by the Senate while President Obama was in office. 11:09 a.m. Jan. 25: An earlier version of this article reported that Democrats voted for the bill and Republicans voted against the bill. It was the opposite. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print California lawmakers to weigh whether younger children should be allowed to testify in custody cases By Jazmine Ulloa California lawmakers will weigh whether family courts should allow children as young as 10 to testify before judges regarding parent custody or visitation rights. A bill filed by state Sen. Connie Leyva (D-Chino) would lower the current threshold from age 14 to enable more children to express their wishes in court, some of whom she said could find themselves in life-threatening situations. The legislation was co-sponsored by the California Protective Parents Assn. and the Center for Judicial Excellence. Neither current law nor the bill would require children to testify in family cases unless they choose to. In a statement, Levya called the proposal an important child safety measure. As a family court makes critical life decisions for children, it makes sense for them to be granted a greater voice in court proceedings since they can contribute essential information before final decisions are made, she said. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Support for California secession is up, one poll says By Phil Willon Students from several high schools rally at City Hall in downtown Los Angeles on Nov. 14 after walking out of class to protest the election of Donald Trump. (Reed Saxon / Associated Press) Californians support for a breakaway California republic has increased, one poll has found. One-third of state residents support peacefully seceding from the United States, up from 20% since Californians were last asked the same question in 2014, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll. The polls margin of error for the California answers was plus or minus 5 percentage points. Still, half of Californians opposed the idea of succession, though Democrats were more inclined to support it than Republicans. The survey found that 60% of Republicans gave the idea of peacefully seceding a thumbs down compared with 48% of Democrats and 50% of independents. Nationally, 22% of those polled supported having their state break away from the U.S., according to the survey. A Calexit campaign already is underway to make California an independent nation. The effort faces extremely long odds. The poll surveyed 14,000 adults nationwide, and 500 in California, from Dec. 6 to Jan. 19. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Gov. Jerry Brown defiantly tells lawmakers California is not turning back in face of Trump and GOP proposals By John Myers Gov. Jerry Brown used his State of the State speech on Tuesday to promise a forceful defense of Californias efforts on climate change, healthcare and assistance to those in the country illegally against new proposals by President Donald Trump and national Republican leadership. California is not turning back, Brown said to applause. Not now, not ever. The governors remarks, delivered in front of lawmakers and state elected officials in the Assembly chambers, came just four days after President Trumps forceful inaugural address that signaled a dramatic new course for the federal government. While he never mentioned the president by name during the 16-minute speech, Brown said there are disturbing signs as to whats on the horizon. We have seen the bald assertion of alternative facts, whatever those are, he said, a reference to top Trump advisor Kellyanne Conways weekend comments on NBCs Meet the Press. We have heard the blatant attacks on science. Familiar signposts of our democracy truth, civility, working together have been obscured or swept aside. The annual event in the chamber of the state Assembly was unusual from the outset. Just minutes before beginning his speech, Brown gave the oath of office to Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra, the former Los Angeles congressman confirmed to the post on Monday afternoon by the state Senate. Legislators have had a decidedly unusual start to their new two-year session. After a raucous opening day in December that laid bare wounds from the presidential race, lawmakers were presented two weeks ago with Browns projection of a $1.6-billion budget deficit looming on the states fiscal horizon. But the sea change in national politics has been a persistent buzz in the state Capitol, and Brown promised a strong defense of Californias unique view on major policy issues. The governor made a special mention of the issue of illegal immigration, offering perhaps his strongest words to date. Let me be clear, the governor said, his voice rising. We will defend everybody every man, woman and child who has come here for a better life and has contributed to the well-being of our state. Even with those critiques, the governor veered from his prepared remarks to praise Trumps call for a new focus on infrastructure projects. I say, Amen to that, man! he said. And Brown urged members of the Legislature to reject the bitter partisan divisions of this moment in the nations history. Democrats are in the majority, but Republicans represent real Californians, too, he said to bipartisan applause. We have generally been civil to one another and avoided the rancor of Washington. I urge you to go even further and look for new ways to work beyond party and act as Californians first. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Xavier Becerra takes oath of office, is first Latino to become California attorney general By Patrick McGreevy Xavier Becerra ((Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) ) Minutes after resigning his seat in Congress on Tuesday, Xavier Becerra took the oath of office as Californias new attorney general, and he immediately made plans for a sit-down with sheriffs from throughout the state to talk about law enforcement issues. Becerra, 58, was given the oath of office at the Capitol by Gov. Jerry Brown, who predicted earlier that Xavier will be a champion for all Californians. The ceremony was held before Brown was scheduled to deliver his annual State of the State address, and a day after Becerra received final confirmation by the state Senate. I will do my utmost to uphold your faith in me to serve as our great states next chief law enforcement officer and legal advocate, Becerra said in a letter to Brown on Tuesday, letting him know he had resigned from Congress. And while I leave Congress with mixed emotions, I am ready to begin my work as Attorney General. Californias hard-working families are counting on us, and we wont let them down, Becerra said. Becerra was accompanied at the ceremony by his wife, physician Carolina Reyes, two of his three daughters, and his parents, both immigrants from Mexico. Brown appointed Becerra to fill a vacancy after former Atty. Gen.l Kamala Harris won election to a seat in the U.S. Senate. Becerra has pledged to challenge any attempts by the new administration of President Trump to roll back state policies on immigration, civil rights and the environment. Brown noted his appointees background during his speech. Like so many others, he is the son of immigrants who saw California as a place where, through grit and determination, they could realize their dreams, Brown said. And they are not alone, millions of Californians have come here from Mexico and a hundred other countries, making our state what it is today: vibrant, even turbulent, and a beacon of hope to the rest of the world. The first Latino to become state attorney general in California spent the last two weeks meeting with dozens of legislators as he went through confirmation hearings in both houses. Governor Brown and state legislators have already shared valuable ideas on our path forward, Becerra said in a statement after his confirmation. And next week I hope to sit down with sheriffs from across our state to begin our work together keeping our families safe and enforcing our laws fairly. The first focus on local law enforcement was welcomed by Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood, president of the California State Sheriffs Assn. He wants to start with law enforcement in the San Joaquin Valley, and I think thats a really positive step, Youngblood said. Im impressed with his credentials. Im impressed with his background, and I think hes going to be a good attorney general. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Watch: Gov. Jerry Brown delivers his State of the State address Gov. Jerry Brown will deliver his State of the State address at 10 a.m. PST. Watch live here: Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Xavier Becerras resignation from Congress took effect at 9:15 a.m.; he calls serving a distinct honor Xavier Becerra has submitted letter of resignation from Congress ahead of swearing in for California attorney general today Patrick McGreevy (@mcgreevy99) January 24, 2017 Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Californias senators split on CIA director confirmation By Sarah D. Wire Californias senators split Monday night on the confirmation of Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.), President Trumps pick to lead the CIA. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who serves on the Senate Select Intelligence Committee and backed Pompeo, said in a statement that Pompeo gave straightforward answers to her questions, and that House colleagues called him smart, hardworking and devoted to protecting our country. Congressman Pompeo has committed to following the law regarding torture, promised to provide objective analysis of Irans compliance with the nuclear agreement and insisted that he would continue to keep the Senate Intelligence Committee fully informed of CIA activities, Feinstein said. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) said in a statement that she appreciated that Pompeo was responsive, engaging, and has made a number of positive commitments during the confirmation process, but said she couldnt vote for him after looking at his entire record on issues such as torture, surveillance, and the collection and use of metadata. Pompeo was confirmed 66 to 32 Monday evening. Thirteen Democrats joined Feinstein in voting for him. While House members dont get to vote for confirmation, the leaders of the House Select Intelligence Committee, Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Tulare) and ranking Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) joined Feinstein in congratulating Pompeo for his confirmation. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Sen. Kamala Harris moves into some familiar digs on Capitol Hill By Sarah D. Wire (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times) Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and her staff can begin moving today into her official Senate office, the same space she interned in as a college student. Few offices can hold a staff as large as the ones allocated to the California members and as expected, Harris was assigned an office in the Hart Senate Office Building, the same space occupied by former Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). Harris can start moving in this morning, her staff said. Back home, Harris plans to have state offices in Fresno, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego and San Francisco, her staff said. It is a bit of a change from Boxer, who had additional offices in Oakland and Riverside, but did not have an office in San Francisco. The space in Washington should feel familiar. It was occupied by Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) when Harris interned for him as a mailroom clerk for a summer when she was a Howard University student in the 1980s. Two floors up in the same building is Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). Except for states where staff size is a consideration, Senate offices are assigned based on seniority and sitting senators have months to decide if they want to move offices. That means some new senators could spend months working out of temporary space. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Assembly speaker taps former Obama spokesman for communications strategy By Melanie Mason Bill Burton (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times) With Californias face-off against Washington, D.C., getting widespread attention, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon has turned to a veteran of national politics to help shape his public image: White House veteran Bill Burton. Burton, who once worked as deputy press secretary in the Obama administration, was hired this month by Rendon, a Democrat from Paramount, for communications strategy. Now a managing partner in the Los Angeles office for SKDKnickerbocker, a prominent liberal public affairs firm, Burton said he relished being involved in California politics, which he said sets a model for liberals nationwide. With President Trump and congressional Republicans controlling the national agenda, Speaker Rendon and his incredible staff are at the center of some of the most important progressive fights in the country and we couldnt be more excited to be helping any way we can, he said. Burton said his services, paid for out of Rendons campaign account, are meant to offer a more intentional approach to how hes been dealing with media a recognition, he said, of Rendons and Californias elevated role in national politics. Rendon is not the only legislative Democrat to be represented by SKDKnickerbocker. Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia of Bell Gardens also is a client. The firm also worked with Democratic Reps. Grace Napolitano and Linda Sanchez in their reelection bids, as well as freshman Rep. Nanette Barragan in her heated congressional race against fellow Democrat, former state Sen. Isadore Hall. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement State Senate votes for final confirmation of Xavier Becerra as state attorney general By Patrick McGreevy Gov. Jerry Brown, left, appointed Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles) as state attorney general. ( (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)) The state Senate on Monday voted 26-9 in favor of final confirmation of Rep. Xavier Becerra as Californias attorney general, putting on watch a veteran politician who has promised to block efforts by President Trump to roll back state policies on immigration, civil rights and the environment. Becerra, a Los Angeles Democrat and 12-term congressman, is set to take the oath of office on Tuesday before Gov. Jerry Browns State of the State address. As Attorney General, Xavier will be a champion for all Californians, Brown said in a statement after the party-line vote. Brown appointed Becerra as the states first Latino attorney general to fill the vacancy left when former state Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris was elected to the U.S. Senate. Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon said Becerra will be an effective counter force to Trump, who has threatened mass deportations and the repeal of some environmental laws. Many of us know him personally and can attest to his character, to his integrity and to his qualifications, De Leon said of Becerra. He will be a strong partner for our state to help us work with the federal government when we can and to resist when we must. State Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) said Becerra understands the challenges ahead. He will indeed vigorously defend the values of our state by taking the fight to the federal government when necessary, said Jackson, who chairs the state Senate Judiciary Committee. Becerra, 58, said during two weeks of confirmation hearings that he would also fight any attempt to weaken environmental protections or adopt stop-and-frisk police policies that allow officers to search anyone on the street. All Republican senators voted against Becerra or withheld their vote. I think when you are the top cop you have to enforce the law to the fullest extent, said state Sen. Joel Anderson (R-San Diego) before he voted against Becerra. Opponents cited Becerras support for sanctuary cities that refuse to have their officers help enforce immigration laws. San Francisco prohibits local authorities from holding immigrants for immigration officials if they have no violent felonies on their records and do not currently face charges. Trump has threatened to withhold federal funds from sanctuary cities. Sen. John Moorlach (R-Costa Mesa) also opposed Becerra, saying he is worried that the antagonistic tone being set by Democratic lawmakers with Becerra could put at risk the $86 billion the state and its cities gets annually from the federal government. I dont want to jeopardize those funds, Moorlach said. Becerra said he was humbled by the vote and ready to get working.He plans to meet soon with county sheriffs to discuss local law enforcement issues. As I embark on this new journey, my compass will be the experiences of hard-working families like the one I grew up in, Becerra said. As the son of immigrants, I know how important it is to protect the rights and dreams of every aspiring American. I will make sure no headwinds from outside our state can knock us down. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Attorney general nominee Becerra questioned on guns, death penalty and pot during confirmation hearings By Patrick McGreevy Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles), shown at a gun violence event in June, was selected by Gov. Jerry Brown to be Californias next attorney general. ((Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) ) In two weeks of confirmation hearings, state attorney general nominee Xavier Becerra has been asked for his position on many issues, including new gun control laws, the states death penalty policy and the recent voter approval of an initiative that legalized recreational marijuana use. The 12-term congressman is up for a possible final confirmation vote Monday in the state Senate. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print California attorney general nominee Xavier Becerra is warned against suing Trump early and often By Patrick McGreevy Rep. Xavier Becerra (Rich Pedroncelli / AP) With Xavier Becerra facing a final confirmation vote Monday for state attorney general, two former high-level officials in the office are warning against drowning President Trump in lawsuits. The pressure to sue Trump early and often is a trap, according to Michael Troncos, former chief counsel in the California attorney generals office, and Debbie Mesloh, a former senior advisor to the California attorney general, writing in an op-ed piece published by the Los Angeles Times. In this right-wing political moment, a major legal case on our climate change laws or our policies benefiting (young immigrant) Dreamers may well lead to a Trump White House victory, establishing precedents that far outlast this presidency, the two write. In fact, the cases Becerra chooses not to bring may be among his most important achievements. Courts cant rule on whats not before them. Troncos and Mesloh said California will be up against a U.S. Supreme Court remade in Trumps image, and that [a]sking a federal court to overturn federal immigration policies could be a fools errand. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print California cities would have to make it easier to build houses under new legislation By Liam Dillon California cities that are falling behind on housing production goals set by the state would be forced to remove some of their development restrictions under legislation from a Bay Area state senator. State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) released new details in his bill, SB 35, Monday morning that would require cities to approve new housing in areas already zoned for high-density development provided developers set aside some units for low-income residents. The bills provisions would only apply in cities where growth isnt keeping pace with housing production targets developed by the state every eight years that are designed to ensure California has enough homes for its growing population to live affordably. Right now, thats not happening. The states median home price of $485,800 is more than 2 1/2 times the national average, with the states poorest residents the hardest hit. And in the most recent eight-year housing cycle ending in 2014, production was less than half of the state target. Wiener, a former San Francisco supervisor, said Californias affordability crisis requires the state to involve its After demanding for six years that the Affordable Care Act be gutted, Republican leaders refused Wednesday to outline concrete steps to repeal and replace it, even as members of their party voiced growing reservations about rolling the law back without a viable alternative. Neither President-elect Donald Trump nor Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who met with House and Senate Republicans at the Capitol, offered lawmakers details about their repeal plan a centerpiece of their winning campaign short of vague promises that Trump would take executive action after he assumes office in just over two weeks. And GOP congressional leaders would not say how they will proceed or even how long they will take to develop a replacement for the current law, widely known as Obamacare. Advertisement This is going to take a little time, Texas Sen. John Cornyn, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, said after the meeting with Pence. The lack of detail underscored the complexities of undoing the biggest expansion of the social safety net in decades without interfering with healthcare for tens of millions of Americans. Republicans wavering just a day after the start of a new Congress also may give opponents additional time to shore up support for preserving Obamacare in some form. Cornyn and other Republican leaders repeated assurances Wednesday that consumers would not lose coverage while Republicans work to develop an alternative to the law. More than 20 million Americans have gained coverage through the law and many more depend on its key protections, including a guarantee that people can get coverage even if they are sick and limits on how much patients can be forced to pay out of their pocket for medical care. We dont want to pull the rug out from anybody, said House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.). We dont want people to be caught with nothing. After meeting with Senate Republicans, Pence told reporters at the Capitol that Trumps executive orders would ensure that there is an orderly transition during the period after we repeal Obamacare to a market-based healthcare economy in America. The assurances have not convinced patient advocates, leading medical groups or even many conservative health policy experts, who are urging the GOP not to roll back the law without first developing an alternative. Many are skeptical Republicans can craft one; they have failed to do so for more than six years. This week alone, leading physician groups, including the American Medical Assn., joined the push to slow the repeal campaign. Others urging caution include the American Diabetes Assn. and the advocacy arm of the American Cancer Society. A growing number of Republican senators are also voicing reservations about the lack of a clear plan, jeopardizing GOP leaders vision for swift repeal in a chamber where just three Republican defections could torpedo legislation. Were not sure exactly what direction were going to go to have a full and careful transition period, said West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, whose state has seen a dramatic drop its uninsured rate thanks to Obamacare. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a centrist who is being closely watched, urged party leaders to make more progress on an alternative to the current law before voting to scrap it. It would be far better to have a detailed framework of what replacement is going to include as we are moving toward repealing, Collins said. On Wednesday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who has publicly criticized the repeal push, joined Democrats in voting against a motion to start debating a resolution that would set the stage for repeal. Outside Washington, state Republican officials are raising concerns about repealing Obamacare as well. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, who was among the first Republican governors to expand Medicaid coverage through the healthcare law, called his states expansion a national model in an interview with the Detroit News. Under Republicans current repeal plan, the House and Senate over the next couple weeks would pass a budget resolution directing Congress to develop a repeal bill through a process called budget reconciliation. The House would then craft the repeal legislation, pass it and send it to the Senate. Under budget rules, Republicans, who have a 52-48 edge in the Senate, would need only a simple majority to pass the bill and send it to Trump. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Wednesday that the repeal package, which congressional committees are to draw up by Jan. 27, would hew closely to repeal legislation that Republicans developed in 2015 and sent to President Obama a year ago. Obama vetoed it. That bill removed the unpopular insurance mandates in the law that require Americans to have health insurance or pay a fine. It also rolled back federal aid for Medicaid, scrapped federal insurance subsidies for low- and moderate-income consumers and eliminated a Medicare surtax on high-income households and other taxes on medical device makers and health insurance companies that go toward funding the law. To allow Republicans time to develop an alternative, the bill delayed implementation of the repeal for two years. If congressional Republicans stick to this repeal-and-delay strategy, Trump could take steps through executive action that might help stabilize insurance markets while a replacement is being developed, said Larry Levitt, an insurance market expert at the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation. Trump made promises to blue-collar voters. Democrats plan to make sure he follows through These steps might include tightening rules on when people could sign up for coverage in Obamacare marketplaces or even loosening requirements on what benefits insurers must offer, which could lower premiums though would likely leave consumers with fewer protections. But in case those steps prove inadequate, Republicans appear to be laying the groundwork to shift blame back to Democrats. Trump said Wednesday that the current healthcare law would will fall of its own weight. And Pence outlined for lawmakers plans for the new president to barnstorm the country attacking Obamacare and keeping up momentum for the repeal-and-replace push. Im promising you, you will not be doing it alone, Pence told House Republicans, according to a source in the closed-door meeting, which was described as more of a pep rally than a strategy session. Well be making the case all around the country. Democrats, meanwhile, are working on their own political campaign, which is designed to capitalize on growing reservations in Republican ranks and polls showing public unease over repeal. After meeting separately in the Capitol with Obama, Democratic leaders warned that the GOP was risking chaos by unraveling Obamacare. They seek to rip healthcare away from millions of Americans creating chaos for our entire economy, warned Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.). It is their obligation they are voting for repeal it is their obligation to come with replace. In a twist on Trumps campaign slogan, Democrats warned that Republicans want to make America sick again. Times staff writer Michael A. Memoli contributed to this report. lisa.mascaro@latimes.com noam.levey@latimes.com Twitter: @LisaMascaro, @noamlevey ALSO: Trump and the GOP are charging forward with Obamacare repeal, but few are eager to follow Rolling out Obamacare was chaotic, but a repeal could be much worse Trump pledged to protect Medicare. His choice for health secretary has other ideas Happy New Year and pass the pot. But now that weed is legal for adults in California, we need somehow to keep more teens from toking. Regular use can stunt their mental growth. Theres plenty of research that shows youthful brain impairment caused by continual marijuana intake. Proof of cannabis damage to brain cells can be found in social media comments by potheads whenever anyone raises a red flag about dopes dangers. Reefer Madness rubbish is a common retort, as if that constitutes a dissertation. Advertisement There is a new study out by some PhDs that points to less fear and more use of marijuana by teens in Washington state after the drug was legalized there for adults. And across the country, there has been a decreased perception of risk associated with marijuana among adolescents, says study leader Magdalena Cerda, an epidemiologist an expert in the spread of disease at the UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program. After all, adults keep legalizing marijuana in state after state. So whats good for the parents must be OK for the kids, right? No, but not everyone is getting the message. Washington state legalized adult marijuana use in 2012. Cerdas researchers found that more Washington teens started getting stoned that year. They no longer believed the drug was dangerous. Among eighth-graders, their perception of harmfulness dropped 14%. Among 10th-graders, it fell 16%. Thats eye-opening when compared with kids in other states where marijuana has not been legalized. In those states, perceptions of harm dipped only 5% to 7%. In Washington, weed use increased by 2% among eighth-graders and 4% among 10th-graders. But in non-legal states, it actually decreased by about 1%. Some adolescents who try marijuana will go on to chronic use with an accompanying range of adverse outcomes from cognitive impairment to downward social mobility, financial, work-related and relationship difficulties, Cerda said in a UC Davis announcement of the study. Columbia Universitys public health school participated in the research. The researchers also looked at Colorado, which legalized adult use in 2012. They found no significant change there in teen perceptions or use. They theorize thats because Colorado unlike Washington already had been fairly pot-permissive and many teens there previously were weed-inclined. Updates from Sacramento Last winter, Cerda also led a study that found, in essence, that the more marijuana you use over the years, the more apt you are to be a loser. Our study found that regular cannabis users experienced downward social mobility and more financial problems than those who did not toke frequently, she told me last year. Regular long-term users, she continued, also had more antisocial behavior at work, such as stealing money or lying to get a job, and experienced more relationship problems, such as intimate partner violence and controlling abuse. She added: There is a common perception that cannabis is safer than alcohol. But [the 2016] study shows that cannabis is just as bad as alcohol. And in terms of financial problems, cannabis is worse. There was one particularly alarming passage in that report: On average, persistent cannabis users from middle-class origins attained lower adult socioeconomic status than did their parents even after we controlled for sex, ethnicity, family substance-dependence history, childhood self-control, childhood IQ. Short version: Marijuana is potentially bad stuff, especially for adolescents. Kids who start using it earlier are more likely to become dependent on marijuana, Cerda told me after the release of the latest report on teenagers. With long-term dependence, there are higher risks for mental health problems such as psychosis, depression and cognitive impairment earlier than what would be expected. In other words, premature aging of the brain. Yeah, I know: Reefer Madness. So what could be done to convince teens they should pass up pot? The UC Davis-Columbia University study recommended that government invest in major pot prevention programs for kids. Fortunately Proposition 64, which legalized so-called recreational marijuana for 21-year-olds and was approved overwhelmingly by voters, sets aside at least $10 million annually for youth substance abuse programs. But that wont kick in until mid-2018, when the state finally licenses pot peddlers. Meanwhile, Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature should dip into other funds and begin those education programs immediately. Proposition 64 also banned marijuana billboard advertising on interstate freeways. Good idea. Now the Legislature should extend the ban to all state highways. Assemblyman Rob Bonta (D-Alameda) has introduced a bill to do that. Youve got school buses filled with kids, carpools with kids, families driving, Bonta told me. Theres no conceptual difference between interstates and major state highways. Marijuana is not for kids. And it shouldnt be advertised for kids. The ballot initiative made it an infraction like a traffic ticket to drive while puffing pot, same as for sipping a beer. A bill by state Sen. Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo) would allow a prosecutor to charge the dumb driver with a misdemeanor. If a motorist is intoxicated, of course, he can be booked for drunken driving. But theres no way to tell yet whether a pothead is stoned. Proposition 64 provides $3 million to find a way, but it wont be available until mid-2018. Bontas bill would grab the money from the state general fund and spend it now. The biggest problem with legalizing marijuana remains: How do we keep it away from kids? The pot pushers the politicians and marijuana marketers now need to step up and help do it, as they promised. george.skelton@latimes.com Follow @LATimesSkelton on Twitter ALSO Pot ads along highways? Lawmakers wrangle over legalizations consequences California scrambles to implement new recreational pot law Updates from Sacramento With no discussion, the Costa Mesa City Council unanimously approved an urgency ordinance Tuesday aimed at preserving the citys current rules regarding marijuana, pending further study, after statewide voters in November legalized its recreational use. The 45-day ordinance will prohibit marijuana use in the city to the extent possible under state law and give city staff more time to study options for how this new law should be implemented in Costa Mesa, said Jay Trevino, a consultant with the citys Development Services Department. The council can extend the ordinance beyond the 45 days. Cities are allowed to pass temporary ordinances so they can determine what they can ban or restrict under the state law and what they cant. In a nutshell, this urgency ordinance preserves the status quo until the City Council can determine how best to implement Proposition 64, Trevino said Tuesday, referring to the recreational-marijuana measure on the Nov. 8 ballot. About 57% of California voters approved the measure, which authorizes people 21 and older to legally possess, use and grow marijuana for recreational purposes, with certain restrictions. Trevino said city staff believes some issues warrant further study, including whether cultivation of marijuana beyond the six plants allowed in Proposition 64 should be permitted including whether outdoor cultivation is permitted and, secondly, whether recreational-marijuana business should be allowed and, if so, where and under what conditions. The ordinance adopted Tuesday will temporarily prohibit indoor cultivation except as allowed by state law, and all outdoor cultivation, pending further analysis of regulatory options and approaches, according to city documents. After studying the matter further, Trevino said, staff will return to the council with additional information to review. Trevino said the ordinance does not affect Measure X, which Costa Mesa voters approved in November. That measure allows businesses that research, test, process and manufacture some medical marijuana products to open in the industrial and manufacturing zone north of South Coast Drive and west of Harbor Boulevard, provided they obtain permits from the city. Such businesses will not be allowed in South Coast Collection. Measure X maintains the citys ban on over-the-counter dispensaries. Local voters rejected Measures V and W, which would have allowed limited numbers of medical marijuana dispensaries in Costa Mesa. luke.money@latimes.com Twitter: @LukeMMoney Enrollment for the Segerstrom Center for the Arts new dance and music school for children with disabilities will be open until Jan. 30. The school, set to open Feb. 6, will offer kids ages 4 to 12 one class a week for six weeks in a studio performance space at the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall on the arts centers campus at 600 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa. The all-inclusive classes will aim to help children with autism, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy and other conditions improve their coordination and confidence. While students are in class, the center will provide an area where parents can meet. Students will be led by a team of professional musicians, dance instructors and physical and occupational therapists from around Southern California. The weekly classes will be held in three sessions: 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Mondays starting Feb. 6, 10 to 11 a.m. Thursdays starting Feb. 9 and 9 to 10 a.m. Saturdays starting Feb. 11. The entire six weeks of classes cost $120 per student. Scholarship opportunities are available. For more information, email Susan Marie Kendall at smkendall@scfta.org or call (714) 556-2122, ext. 4337. alexandra.chan@latimes.com Twitter: @AlexandraChan10 A third-grade student who made bracelets and sold them at the Montrose Harvest Market donated her earnings $625 to the YWCA in Glendale last week. The bracelets Amber Mase made featuring colorful erasers in the shapes of cartoons and animals can also be used as anklets, bookmarks or pen holders. But for Amber, her products key purpose is to serve as conversation starters. When I was new to the school, I didnt know anybody, and I was afraid I was going to get bullied, she recalled. She figured the bracelets could help start conversations, ignite friendships and prevent bullying. Join the conversation on Facebook >> Without the cheerful pigs, ducks or frogs featured on each of the bracelets, they would be just a bracelet, and they wouldnt be so much a conversation starter, Amber said. She came up with the idea after participating in an after-school club run by the nonprofit School-X at La Canada Elementary School. Eric Lin, program director for School-X, along with Zach Jennings, director of education for the nonprofit, wanted to teach students entrepreneurial skills and the importance of giving back. Amber was one of more than 30 students who went on to sell products they designed at the farmers market. The items included baked goods, bookmarks, screen-printed T-shirts and blankets. This shows the potential that these students have, Jennings said of Ambers bracelets, which she sold for $5 each. Lin said that Amber overcame her shyness to promote her bracelets at the market, where she came out of her shell with customers. She really transformed herself from a shy little girl to somebody who can really sell her idea, Lin said. After taking a tour of the YWCA, Amber said she knew it would be the best place to deliver her donation to help children and women. Tara Peterson, the YWCAs executive director, said she was grateful for both the donation and the fact that the project served as a self-esteem builder. If were able to give young girls the skills to succeed, to build self-esteem we really believe thats a tool in order to prevent violence against women, in having strong women, Peterson said. The other part is raising awareness, that there is a connection between bullying and domestic violence, and if we can reduce bullying, and if we can reduce unhealthy relationships at a young age, and teach kids how to interact with each other in a positive environment, then thats ultimately going to prevent domestic violence. -- Kelly Corrigan, kelly.corrigan@latimes.com Twitter: @kellymcorrigan From the upcoming reopening of the renovated Glendale Central Library to facility improvements at Glendale Community College, here are the stories were keeping an eye on in 2017. Glendale Central Library to reopen This spring, the Glendale Central Library will reopen its closed-off portions to unveil more than a years worth of renovations. The $15-million overhaul began in July 2015, and the final construction phase should be complete this month. A formal grand reopening is slated for March. The first changes started at the back of the library, remodeling the large book stacks with earthquake retrofitting, and there is now additional space for patrons. The next series of modifications were directed at advancing the librarys amenities to accommodate changes in technology in the building, which opened in 1973. Join the conversation on Facebook >> Other changes include an elevator, a remembrance room and the relocation of the librarys entrances to two different locations. We are on target and on time, said Cindy Cleary, the citys director of library, arts and culture, late last year. We are excited to be reopening. Its going to be a fabulous facility when its finished. Glendale may finalize plans for Space 134 While state officials consider naming a section of the Ventura (134) Freeway after departing President Barack Obama, Glendale is continuing with its plans to construct a park over part of the same freeway, modeled after a 5.2-acre park in Texas with a walking trail, trees and seating. Known as Space 134, the cap park would cover about 25 acres between Central and Glendale avenues with an estimated price tag of $150 million, according to the citys principal urban designer, Alan Loomis. Some residents have already expressed a desire for event spaces, restaurants and a walking trail spanning the length of the park. Originally envisioned as part of the Downtown Specific Plan in 2006, city officials will likely spend the rest of this year rallying support for the project, along with continued engineering and technical studies. Residents shouldnt expect construction until at least 2020. Language charter school plans opening Parent organizers plan to open a charter school in Glendale next fall modeled after Glendale Unifieds Benjamin Franklin Magnet School. The International Studies Language Academy, or ISLA, will offer students opportunities to learn in German, Spanish, Italian or French. In late 2015, parents Gillian Bonacci and Hilary Stern submitted a petition to open the school to the Glendale Unified School Board, which unanimously denied the request, and so did the Los Angeles County Office of Education when it went to that agency on appeal. In April, however, the states Advisory Commission on Charter Schools voted 6-0 to recommend that the State Board of Education approve the charter petition, and the board did so with a 7-2 vote in May. The schools initial five-year term was approved on the condition that it open within Glendale Unifieds boundaries. School officials plan to serve about 430 students in the first year in grades from transitional kindergarten through seventh grade. Eighth grade will be offered the following year. Voters approve $325M facilities bond Glendale Community College officials plan to make extensive upgrades to decades-old facilities that were built in the 1930s, 40s and 50s using funds from a $325-million bond voters approved in November. College officials recently celebrated the overwhelming victory of Measure GC 73% of voters supported it. The bond needed 55% of voters approval to pass. After approving a comprehensive facilities master plan in late 2015 which included a proposal for a new facility for the colleges highly regarded engineering, robotics and computer-aided manufacturing program officials began eying the bond as the best way to fund major improvements. Measure GC will also pay for other key infrastructure upgrades, such as replacing deteriorating electrical, sewer and gas lines, in addition to improving classrooms and job-training facilities used by students transferring to four-year schools or those training to become nurses or firefighters. College officials will soon reach out to residents to ask them to serve on the bonds oversight committee. Four members of the Canada Crescenta Democratic Club will contend on Saturday for a chance to be elected delegates to the California Democratic Party in Assembly District Election Meetings (ADEM). Nalini Lasiewicz, Andrew Blumenfeld and Desiree Rabinov, from Assembly District 43, and Lora De La Portilla from the 39th Assembly District hope to serve as district representatives for the 2017-18 term, according to a recent club release. The election meeting for Assembly District 43 (which includes La Canada, La Crescenta/Montrose and Glendale) takes place Saturday from 1 to 3 p.m. at the I.A.T.S.E. Local 80 headquarters, 2520 W. Olive Ave., Burbank. The meeting for Assembly District 39 (including Tujunga, Sunland, Lake View Terrace, Sylmar and San Fernando) will be held on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at El Cariso Regional Park, 13100 Hubbard Street, Sylmar. Join the conversation on Facebook >> The 14 delegates from each district will represent their constituents for state party conventions, regional meetings, endorsement videos and committee assignments. All registered Democrats are invited to vote in their home assembly district. On-site voter registration will be available. For more information, including candidate statements, visit cadem.org/our-party/adem. -- Sara Cardine, sara.cardine@latimes.com Twitter: @SaraCardine In a repetition of last years glory, members of the all-volunteer La Canada Flintridge Tournament of Roses Assn. were rewarded for their efforts Monday when their 2017 creation for the Rose Parade, Backyard Rocketeer, won the Bob Hope Humor Trophy. The float depicted a boy and his dog flying in a home-built rocket ship made out of items from his backyard. The logos for Jet Propulsion Laboratory and NASA graced the side and tail fin of the space vessel. We went to NASA and JPL and asked them if we could use their logos, said Chuck Terhune, president of the La Canada organization. They said it was OK and to get ready for takeoff. We were delighted. Join the conversation on Facebook >> 1 / 66 The La Canada Flintridge Tournament of Roses Association float Backyard Rocketeer, winner of the Bob Hope Humor Trophy in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 2 / 66 The La Canada Flintridge Tournament of Roses Association float Backyard Rocketeer, winner of the Bob Hope Humor Trophy in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 3 / 66 The City of Burbank float Home Tweet Home in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 4 / 66 The Donate Life float Teammates for Life, the Theme Trophy winner in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 5 / 66 The color guard of the Westlake High School Chaparral Band in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 6 / 66 Doal Packaged Foods float Spirit of Hawaii, winner of the Sweepstakes Trophy, in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 7 / 66 The 24 Hour Fitness float Do More with Your 24" in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 8 / 66 The Trader Joes float All Aboard! 50 Years of Serving the Best... in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 9 / 66 The American Armenian Rose Float Association float Field of Dreams which won the Past Presidents Trophy in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 10 / 66 The American Armenian Rose Float Association float Field of Dreams which won the Past Presidents Trophy in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 11 / 66 Performer Ilisa Juried sings on the Union Bank and The American Heart Association, Western States Affiliate float Keep the Beat Alive in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 12 / 66 Audience members in the stands on the corner of Orange Grove Blvd. and Colorado Blvd. at the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 13 / 66 The Pride of Broken Arrow marching band in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 14 / 66 Riders with the Victorian Roses Ladies Riding Society in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 15 / 66 Riders in the Norco Cowgirls & the LIttle Miss Norco Cowgirls Rodeo Drill Team in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 16 / 66 The Westlake High School Chaparral Band performs in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 17 / 66 Riders in a Wells Fargo Stagecoach in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 18 / 66 The United States Marine Corps West Coast Composite Band drum major salutes the audience in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 19 / 66 At 8:04 A.M., a B-2 Bomber, which has been a tradition to kick off the parade, flys over right on schedule in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 20 / 66 At 8:04 A.M., a B-2 Bomber, which has been a tradition to kick off the parade, flys over right on schedule in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 21 / 66 Young women in the opening show walk together in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 22 / 66 Team USA volleyball players play on the City of Los Angeles Follow the Sun float in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 23 / 66 The National Hockey League float A Century of NHL Greatness in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 24 / 66 Grand Marshal Janet Evans and her family wave to the audience in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 25 / 66 Grand Marshal Allyson Felix waves to the auidence in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 26 / 66 Grand Marshal Greg Louganis and his husband Johhny Chaillot wave to the audience in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 27 / 66 The Tournament of Roses Royal Court in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 28 / 66 The 2017 Rose Queen Victoria Castellanos waves to the audience in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 29 / 66 Rose Bowl Hall of Fame inductees Bobby Bell, Ricky Ervins, Tommy Prothro, and Art Spander, and a driver, drive a 1925 Lincoln Dual Cowl Sports Phaeton, which is smoking with engine problems, make their way passed the stands at Orange Grove Blvd. and Colorado Blvd. in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 30 / 66 A cheerleader from Penn State in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 31 / 66 Butterflies from teh Miracle-Gro Everythings Coming Up Roses in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 32 / 66 A dancer with the Pasadena City College Tournament of Roses Honor Band in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 33 / 66 The Pasadena City College Tournament of Roses Honor Band in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 34 / 66 USC cheerleaders in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 35 / 66 A big face, surrounded by bubbles on the Northwestern Mutual float Waves of Hope, winner of the Animation Trophy in the in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 36 / 66 Tournament of Roses Executive Director/CEO William B. Flinn and family wave to the audience in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 37 / 66 A lariat roper twirls a rope around himself in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 38 / 66 The Arcadia High School Apache Marching Band and Color Guard in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 39 / 66 Midway through the Rose Parade, The UPS Store, Inc. float Books Bring Us Together, winner of the Isabella Coleman Trophy, leads the group in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 40 / 66 The Lucy Pet float Lucy Pets Gnarly Crankin K-9 Wave Maker, winner of the Extraordinaire Trophy, in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 41 / 66 Surfing dogs on the Lucy Pet float Lucy Pets Gnarly Crankin K-9 Wave Maker, winner of the Extraordinaire Trophy, in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 42 / 66 Brass players in the Gifu Shogyo Hugh School Green Band in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 43 / 66 The Gifu Shogyo High School Green Band in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 44 / 66 The Shriners Hospitals for Children float Anything is Possible in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 45 / 66 Leopards in a tree on The Bachelor float Echoes of Love in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 46 / 66 The Ooltewah High School Marching Band in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 47 / 66 The back half of the parade, lead by a huge team of horses pulling Tournament of Roses President Brad Ratliff and company in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 48 / 66 The back of the La Canada Flintridge Tournament of Roses Association float Backyard Rocketeer, winner of the Bob Hope Humor Trophy in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 49 / 66 The Red Raider Marching Band of Pulaski, Wisconsin march and play in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 50 / 66 A mouse spins on a tea cup on the Sierra Madre Float Association float The Cats Away, winner of the Mayors Trophy, in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 51 / 66 A huge lion head on the Lions Clubs International float Celebrating 100 Years of Service in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 52 / 66 A bird on the Ragu Pasta Sauce float Simmered in Tradition, winner of the National Trophy, in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 53 / 66 The Bands of America Honor Band in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 54 / 66 A fireman on the City of Alhambra float No Call Too Small in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 55 / 66 The Budweiser Clydesdales in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 56 / 66 A dragon blowing smoke out its nose on the Torrance Rose Float Association float Be Your Own Knight, winner of the Tournament Volunteers Trophy, in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 57 / 66 Birds on the China Airlines float Return to the Beauty of Taiwan, winner of the International Trophy, in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 58 / 66 Women witn fans on the China Airlines float Return to the Beauty of Taiwan, winner of the International Trophy, in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 59 / 66 A pilot on a miniture fighter jet following the United States Air Force Total Force Band in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 60 / 66 The Farmers Insurance float We Came, We Saw, We Covered, winner of the Grand Marshals Trophy in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 61 / 66 A sleeping rabbit on the South Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association float Never Give Up in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 62 / 66 A couple riders with The New Buffalo Soldiers in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 63 / 66 Tigers on the Western Asset Management Company float Prosperity in the Wild, winner of the Directors Trophy, in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 64 / 66 The Santa Clara Vanguard marching band in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 65 / 66 At the back of the parade, with only the Kern County Sheriffs Mounted Posse behind them, the Santa Clara Vanguard marching band begins their trek down Colorado Blvd. in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) 66 / 66 The back end of the Rose Parade in the horizon is followed by protesters and departing audience members in the 128th Rose Parade on Monday, January 2, 2017. The parade theme Echoes of Success presented 96 entries with 42 floats, 22 bands, and 19 equestrian. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer) Terhune said more than 400 volunteers helped put together and decorate this years float. He said he believes that they would not have won without the support of La Canada residents. The spirit of the Rose Parade is about the communities, Terhune said. They like seeing the local community support. The associations 2016 effort, Up a Creek, won the same trophy for the most comical and amusing entry. In fact, since its inception in 1978, La Canadas float association has claimed 28 awards in various categories, a feat that neatly dovetails with Echoes of Success, the theme selected for this years Rose Parade by La Canada Flintridge resident Brad Ratliff. Ratliff, who joined the Pasadena Tournament of Roses in 1988, served as its 2016-17 president and announced the parade theme last January, encouraging participants to consider the importance of people coming together and helping others. As president, Ratliff and his extended family made their appearances on two large, mule-drawn Montana-built wagons that preceded the La Canada Flintridge float along Pasadenas famed Colorado Boulevard this week. Another La Canadan who along with Ratliff enjoyed a long day in the spotlight was Rose Princess Natalie Petrossian, an 18-year-old senior at La Canada High School who was named to the Royal Court last October. Garbed in a deep blue gown, long white gloves and carrying a spray of red roses, Petrossian rode aboard the courts float Monday along with Rose Queen Victoria Castellanos and Princesses Maya Khan, Audrey Cameron, Autumn Lundy, Lauren Powers and Shannon Larsuel, all of whom attend other Pasadena-area high schools. After the parade, Ratliff and the Royal Court presided over the 103rd Rose Bowl, a thrilling game that saw the USC Trojans in the final seconds of a contest that appeared to be heading to overtime secure with a field goal to claim a 52-49 win over the Penn State Nittany Lions. Streamlining administration and delegating government power to lower levels, two major measures in furthering reform and transforming government functions, continue to be among Premier Li Keqiangs top concerns. On Jan 4, the first State Council executive meeting of the year decided to continue to eliminate administrative approval items, approve a market supervision plan for the 13th Five-Year Plan period, and enhance government management and service supply. We are now at a crucial stage in reforming government administration, said the Premier. The government is facing more difficulties than before, when it was more clear what should be eliminated, he added. More efforts should be made to push ahead the reform, redrawing the boundaries between government and markets. Its the only way for the market to be given full creativity and vitality, the Premier said. At the first executive meeting after the current government was established in March 2013, administration reform was highlighted. In the following years, streamlining administration and delegating power remained a top priority at each opening executive meeting of the year, and Premier Li was able to fulfill ahead of schedule his promise when he took office that 1,700 administrative items would be cut at least by one-third. Enterprises burden outside of taxes is too heavy mainly because of high institutional transaction costs, said Premier Li. He called for more efforts to expand reform in streamlining administration, eliminating approval items or shortening the approval process and cutting service fees, with the goal of reducing institutional transaction costs. On top of the 230 administrative items that had been delegated to local government, the meeting decided to cancel another 53 administrative approval items and 20 intermediary service items. Legal businesses are required to go through the time-consuming approval process, and in the meantime illegal ones are selling their shoddy products on the market. So the government should first understand market entities needs before it can better transform its function and optimize services, said the Premier. Delegating power and enforcing regulations should be promoted and furthered with continuous efforts, stressed Premier Li. He also urged attaching great importance to market supervision, striking a balance between the government and the market. According to the meeting, China will soon issue its first guideline on market supervision geared toward a market environment offering easier access, platform for fair competition, and greater consumer safety. Supervision must be carried out in a lawful and well-regulated manner, so that companies wont be subjected to extra burdens, especially unnamed fees, Premier Li said. Premier Li said departments at the grassroots level should be able to carry out comprehensive and fair law enforcement, relieving the burden for market entities and people. We should continue to increase administrative reform, including delegating power, strengthening regulation and optimizing services, since it is the key to transforming governments function. And the reform will both stimulate enterprises vitality and benefit the people, said the Premier. Recently elected state Sen. Anthony Portantino, a former member of the La Canada Flintridge City Council, decided among his first legislative acts to name a portion of the 134 Freeway the President Barack H. Obama Freeway. While there may be several other important issues on the list of needs for California, Sen. Portantino put this near the top. This obvious political gesture, while appeasing to liberals, is inconsistent with the purpose of naming local roadways. While it is true that President Obama spent a little more than two years in California attending Occidental College, he did little else in California except attend numerous fundraisers for the Democratic party. Obviously, the purpose of this proposal is political, a way for the party to recognize one of its darlings, but there are better ways to make use of taxpayer dollars. I am more than a little dismayed at the behavior of the junior senator. I would have thought his judgment to be a bit keener given his resume. Perhaps being hopeful of meaningful legislative progress is too much to expect in this politically charged atmosphere. If Sen. Portantino needs a recommendation for something to do, may I suggest a joint legislative committee to consider the Oakland warehouse disaster where 36 people lost their lives, the worst fire in Oaklands history and one of the deadliest nationally? If he took on this task, he might be able to determine if the city of Oakland was abiding by its responsibility to provide for the safety and security of its residents. He might also be a leader in setting state standards for inspection and fire prevention. This is just a thought. It might be more important than naming a freeway. Bob Taylor La Crescenta Israeli police Thursday questioned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the second time over allegations that he improperly accepted gifts from wealthy supporters, pressing ahead with a probe that has threatened to challenge his entrenched leadership even as he has adamantly denied wrongdoing. Israeli media said investigators arrived at Netanyahus official residence in Jerusalem on Thursday in a probe that, according to local media, allegedly involves high-profile figures in international business and Hollywood. A grilling Monday lasted more than three hours. Police had no immediate comment. Few details of the allegations against Netanyahu have been officially released, with Israels Justice Ministry disclosing only that Netanyahu was being questioned on suspicion of receiving benefits from business people. Advertisement But Israeli media have reported that Netanyahu accepted favors from businessmen in Israel and abroad, allegedly including billionaire Ronald Lauder and Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan. Israeli Channel 2 TV has said that Netanyahu is the central suspect in a second investigation that also involves family members. Netanyahu has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, portraying the accusations as a witch hunt against him and his family by a hostile media opposed to his hard-line political views. He has pointed to previous suspicions raised against him, none of which resulted in any criminal proceedings, as a sign that he has done nothing wrong in this most recent allegation. There wont be anything because there is nothing, has been Netanyahus frequently repeated refrain. Serving his third consecutive term with a stable coalition government, Netanyahu is on track to become Israels longest-serving leader, should he complete his full term in office in 2019. He does not appear to have any serious foreseeable challenger to his rule. Although the probe is still in its infancy, a mounting investigation could put pressure on Netanyahu to step down. His predecessor, Ehud Olmert, did so in 2008 just months before he was formally indicted on corruption charges. Olmert is now serving a prison sentence after being convicted of accepting bribes. After eight years in office, in addition to an earlier term in the 1990s, Netanyahu has garnered a reputation as a cognac-swilling, cigar-puffing socialite who is as comfortable rubbing shoulders with international celebrities as he is making deals in parliament. Scandals have dogged him and his wife, Sara, over their lavish tastes. They have been chided for excessive spending on anything from pistachio ice cream and scented candles to ringing up $127,000 in public funds for a special sleeping cabin for a five-hour flight to London. The Haaretz newspaper reported Thursday that Milchan, the producer behind a slew of Hollywood blockbusters, is alleged to be connected to the affair. The radiation gauge beeped, signaling that isotopes were in the atmosphere. As our SUV followed a line of electricity towers marching across deserted farmland, we made an agreement: If the dosimeter hit 15, wed turn around. The device inched up to 12, its faint beep seeming more like a scream. Each time, edgily, we called out the number. Thirteen. The ventilation was off and the windows were sealed tight, even though the afternoon was warm. With our heads covered and our mouths sheathed in breathing masks, the SUV became a sauna as we bumped along roads with cracks as wide as a mans head. Advertisement The minutes ticked by. Fourteen. Miles past a police checkpoint, we finally saw it. In Japanese and English, a large blue sign. Fukushima, the place where no one else in the world wanted to be. We two journalists, an interpreter and a driver wanted to see the villain at the center of Japans nuclear nightmare. As we pulled up to the gate, we knew that somewhere in the near distance, scores of workers were scrambling to bring the damaged reactors under control. But those efforts were as invisible as the nuclear threat itself. Suddenly, as we approached the main gate, security guards were upon us, two figures whod seemingly stepped out of Star Wars, menacing in their dual-intake respirator masks and head-to-toe white hazmat gear. Peering into the SUV, expressions obscured, they shook their heads as they waved us off, refusing to answer questions, repeating the dismissive circular hand motion for a U-turn. They noted our license plate as we turned around and slowly embarked along a side road, briefly trailed by guards in another vehicle. A hundred yards away, several mysterious towers shone white in the afternoon sunlight, hiding their secrets. It was difficult to get a bead on the place; trees seemed to have been placed strategically to prevent a full-on view of things. To the side, we saw a sign posted by the nuclear plants safety committee. It carried an announcement: This months safety slogan: Make sure to check everything and do the risk assessment. The goal is zero disasters for this year. In the weeks since the March 11 tsunami destroyed Fukushimas emergency cooling system, people as far away as California have fretted over full nuclear meltdown at the plant 155 miles north of Tokyo. Explosions in four of Fukushimas six reactors have spewed dangerous radioactive isotopes of iodine, cesium and strontium, which can cause bone cancer and leukemia. Most residents within 18 miles have evacuated, leaving behind a post-apocalyptic landscape and a decades-old plant thats now sick and dying. We traveled to Fukushima with questions. What does it look like? Smell like? Would they let us inside? So far, the few pictures have come from aerial fly-bys that showed smoking reactors in a soulless industrial setting. As we neared the coastal plant, we peered out the SUV windows, trying to create a lasting mental image of a place many say will one day be sealed off in concrete to protect against nuclear poisoning. The best description of the scene: silence. We mostly stayed inside the vehicle, but once in a while, we opened a window, or briefly jumped out to take a picture. And we listened. They say that following the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, the birds stopped singing. At Fukushima, we didnt hear birds, or anything else. No children shouting, no car horns honking, not even the waves on the too-distant shore. Just the wind. Fukushima translates as fortunate isle, and it once signified purity, used to brand fruit and vegetables. Now it carries the whiff of Armageddon. This week, officials raised the severity rating of the nuclear crisis to a maximum level 7, a threshold reached only once before in the history of nuclear power, at the now-shuttered Chernobyl reactor. We didnt make the decision to go to Fukushima lightly. We brought along the dosimeter, which gives an accumulated total of radioactivity exposure. The device was loaned to us by a scientist who assured us it was safe to travel near the reactor as long as there was no explosion. Otherwise, our exposure would be equivalent to what we might get on a cross-country flight. In other words, not that much a level people experience daily. (An exam later at a nearby center confirmed it: We tested negative for radiation.) Still, our interpreter was worried at first. A 22-year-old college student, she wants to have children one day. The driver, on the other hand, never blinked. Also 22, he had on a previous trip to the hot zone worn a shirt that read, It is a good day to die. In the end, we didnt merely leave the plant; we fled. On the rise of a hill, we looked back a last time at the complex, but we saw nothing except the trees that shelter it from prying eyes. john.glionna@latimes.com Repressive military rule ended its golden age decades ago. Now that things are loosening up, can it make a comeback? Column One Myanmar's once-proud film industry a flicker of its former self Repressive military rule ended its golden age decades ago. Now that things are loosening up, can it make a comeback? By Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times Down a back road in northern Yangon, a sagging teak house fights back the jungle. On the gate, barely noticeable under the weeds, rusty ironwork spells out "A1 Film." Myanmar's first movie studio, once known as the Burma Film Co., opened nearly a century ago, its lineage dating to the nation's first feature film, "Love and Liquor," a 1920 cautionary tale about gambling and alcoholism that proved a big hit despite its rather monotonous single camera angle. "We used to be huge," said actor and director Ko Myint, the great-grandson of A1's founder, sounding like a Burmese version of "Sunset Boulevard" as he welcomed a rare Western guest in a sitting room of well-worn furniture and fading photos. His mother, Khin Hle, 93, toddled in. Beneath a shelf of dusty family awards, she reminisced about her film debut in 1925 as a child actor, then shuffled off to another room on a property that has shrunk from 25 acres to just one. "Indian and Thai actors used to come here because this was where it all happened," said another family member, teacher Aung Si, 68. "Now we Burmese leave for Japan to wash dishes." Decades of repressive military rule, with its accompanying global isolation, censorship and equipment shortages, left Myanmar's once-proud film industry reeling. "No one even had books to read for 40 years. How could they make good films?" asked Tin May Thein, a consultant helping foreign companies enter the Myanmar market. No one even had books to read for 40 years. How could they make good films?" Tin May Thein. Censors are relaxing and international sanctions against the regime are easing in the wake of nominally democratic elections last year, but turning around an industry that saw its golden age six decades ago won't be easy. Once-grand cinema halls are being torn down for cookie-cutter mini-malls: In December 2011, Myanmar had 71 cinemas, down from a peak of 244. Along cinema row on Bogyoke Road here in the country's old capital, three monuments to celluloid have been leveled; two others are said to be close behind. "The culture surrounding the stand-alone movie theater is quickly being stamped out in Yangon, if not all of Burma," said Philip Jablon, author of a blog on Southeast Asian cinema. And Hollywood is moving in. Last year, "Titanic 3-D" opened in Yangon, the first American film premiere in more than a decade. The market is saturated with pirated Thai, Chinese, South Korean and American DVDs. Video games and changing tastes have undercut a local industry many believe has lost the plot. "I never go to Burmese movies," said Yan Naing, 38, a disc jockey in Mandalay. The homegrown fare, he said, is "silly." His rhinestone flip-flops flashing and six gold rings glinting, director Maung Thi observed the preparations on the set of "Gon," took a breath and then shouted the classic Hollywood line: "Action!" And he meant it: The veteran filmmaker had seven days to shoot the film, a C-grade movie headed for small rural theaters or straight to video, one of 15 flicks he's pumped out every year since 1989. (His schedule is considered a luxury compared with those of competitors, who usually have to wrap in 72 hours.) The twisted plot, with a nod to "Romeo and Juliet," centers on two business rivals, one of whom elopes with the other's sister. But Shakespeare it's not. "I fall in love and run away," said leading lady May Kabyar, preening in a fluorescent red jacket. "That's about it, basic stuff." The long slide of the Burmese film industry began soon after the 1962 coup that brought the military to power. In the 1960s, cinemas were nationalized, acceptable topics were narrowed, and the industry was ordered to "march to Burmese socialism." The government tried to take over film production, but an early effort, "The Beloved Land," flopped. So the government left the creative side in private, and heavily monitored, hands. For a while, censors could still be influenced with "tea money" bribes and the industry remained relatively vibrant until the mid-1970s. "There was nothing else to do," said actor and director Thein Htut, Ko Myint's brother, sporting long gray sideburns and a Nehru jacket. "There was no TV, the cinemas were full, it was great." Kyaw Yin Myint, bureau chief at the weekly Kumudra Journal newspaper, recalled chomping on seeds Myanmar's popcorn equivalent in the early 1970s as oversized ceiling fans battled the tropical humidity. "Cinemas were hot, noisy and showed black-and-white films," he said. "It was magical." Some directors tried pushing the limits. On the coup's 10th anniversary, A1 shot "Journey to Piya," about a one-day road trip that becomes 10 after repeated breakdowns, a dig at the country's crippled socialist economy. Censors banned it and put Ko Myint's family on warning. "It was worth it," said brother Thein Htut. Sometimes the regime displayed its paranoia. In "Like Steel Wool," a mid-1970s A1 production about a runaway daughter, a character asks, "Whose empty chair is that?" Censors read this as a reference to Prime Minister U Nu, who was ousted in the coup. Cinemas were hot, noisy and showed black-and-white films. It was magical." Kyaw Yin Myint. "We had to change the plot six times and were interrogated by Special Branch police," Ko Myint said. "They saw things that weren't there." Guidelines ranged from the predictable to the quirky. The army had to be depicted gloriously. And despite its own reliance on astrologers for major decisions, the regime hated special effects or anything involving spirits, astrology or the supernatural. In the final scene of his 1960s biopic about a famous Burmese writer, director Myo Zaw Aung showed his subject withering away, leaving a skeleton. "They said it was too scary and snipped it," he said. "They never even watched the whole film." Other taboos included actresses in revealing Western clothing, actors in tight pants, depictions of drinking and smoking simultaneously (each was tolerated alone), drunken women who find boyfriends, and people living in bamboo huts. " 'Bamboo huts suggest we have poor people,' they said," said Ai Thein Htut, another director. " 'Myanmar's not poor,' they'd add." Over time, directors grew tired of fighting. Self-censorship increased, and in the 1970s and '80s, many retreated to mindless love-triangle stories Myanmar's "three flowers facing each other" genre or shamelessly copied foreign stories. After pro-democracy protests erupted in 1988, which many directors and actors joined, creative license all but disappeared. Myanmar's growing isolation as Western nations imposed economic sanctions also made it increasingly difficult to obtain equipment or film. "Everything was messed up by socialism," said Tin May Thein, the consultant, "and it only got worse." Those who cozied up to the regime the 1999 TV movie "Our Nation, Happily Prosperous" was well-received by the ruling generals saw their careers prosper, even as the regime sought to block foreign culture. "Rambo," the fourth movie in the Sylvester Stallone series, was banned in 2008 for depicting the Burmese military as bloodthirsty. "The Simpsons Movie" was blocked because censors, in a bizarre move, had forbidden using the colors yellow and red in films. With the dramatic changes brought about by the elections last spring, restrictions have eased and the film industry has been given seats on the censorship board. The military remains in control, however, and filmmakers still tread warily. "You can't criticize religion," Ai Thein Htut said. "And the military is still off limits, although you can touch corrupt police." Among the industry's biggest problems is its outdated mind-set, said Bill Bowling, a production consultant who has worked in Myanmar. The film establishment is so risk-averse and beaten down that any resurgence is likely to come from more dynamic television producers, he said. "There's so much potential," he said. "It's such a shame." Some younger filmmakers are taking risks. "Ban That Scene!" an 18-minute short, took first prize at a recent Art of Freedom film festival co-hosted by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The film portrays Myanmar censors gleefully chopping scenes about corruption, street fights and beggars. "If foreigners see this, they'll think Myanmar has beggars," a censor in the movie fumes. "Beggars may exist in real life, but not in movies." The character then shouts down suggestions that electricity is limited just before a blackout hits the projection room. "Ban That Scene!" avoided being banned itself through a technicality: The board screens films for sale, and this film was distributed for free. That's fine for intellectuals, said Maung Maung Thein, a poet and English teacher, but Myanmar still needs better indigenous productions, not silly comedies and action pictures. "Most of it isn't even entertaining," echoed Ma Thida, executive editor of the Myanmar Independent News Journal, a literary weekly. "It's mindless comedy that's not even funny." Column One: More great reads from the Los Angeles Times Tales of a teenage ballpark rat Trapped between the covers of Nevada's Black Book On Dapper Day, Disneyland is the nattiest place on Earth Contact the reporter Follow @markmagnier on Twitter Syrian state media said nine people were killed in a car bombing in a coastal, government-held town the first such explosion since a new cease-fire last week. The bombing took place in Jableh in Latakia province, a government stronghold. The area is the heartland of Syrias Alawites, a Shiite offshoot to which President Bashar Assads family also belongs. Videos from the scene showed several destroyed shop fronts and cars. Advertisement Jableh has been the target of similar attacks. In May, a string of blasts hit first a crowded bus station, then outside a hospital that was taking the wounded. About 120 people died in that attack, which was claimed by Islamic State. No group immediately claimed responsibility for Thursdays bombing. Islamic State and other militants are not part of a broad truce that the government and the opposition agreed on last week. All material is subject to strictly enforced copyright terms & conditions and cannot be repurposed or reproduced. 19882022 Latin American Financial Publications Inc. South Korea Latest Bird Flu Under Control: Government Claim staff@latinoshealth.com By Shafqat Mushtaq Jan 05, 2017 06:40 AM EST South Korea recently found itself engulfed in a national calamity with the outbreak of current bird flu. It affected every corner of the nation, but the government acting vigilantly, launched a nationwide action plan to cull chicken. In the process at least 30 million chicken infected with the flu were identified, separated and butchered. The government Officials maintain the flu is under control; the panic button is off now, as the number of infected birds, according to EFE report, is dropping remarkably. The government, however, made it clear that the decreasing number in no way suggests the end of flu. Every step necessary to ensure the complete eradication of Bird Flu will continuously be carried out by the government. So that there is not a single place left unchecked in the process which could potentially prove an open invitation to the danger associated with the outbreak of the Bird Flu, a Business Standard report claims. Cautioning the health experts, they are advised to remain wide-awake in case any anomaly came into being because of bird migration which is at peak right now. In areas where Bird Flu outbreak was maximum, authorities are working on war footing to sterilize each and every poultry farm in that area. In the process which started with the identification of the first H5N6 viral infection way back on November 16, 2016, 30 million chickens, including many other birds as well, have been slaughtered throughout the South Korea and the process is still on till every infected bird or chicken is not identified, separated and subsequently slaughtered. South Korea so far is successful in bringing down the otherwise mounting Bird Flu cases throughout the country but the country has to remain vigilant in the future as well to fight back any dangerous resurrection of the Bird Flu. The action plan government has adopted needs further improvement and implementation, a South Korean official claims. Subscribe to the latinos health newsletter! The Qualcomm was fined over $1 billion after proven guilty for breaching the national antitrust regulations in China back in 2015. Now, after the whole last year amending the licensing agreement, the world's largest manufacturer of smartphone chips have announced earlier that they have taken the deal and is now became partners between the smartphone maker Meizu. According to a report by The San Diego Union-Tribune, Qualcomm has already settled the legal dispute over patent licensing with the electronics firm Meizu and ending one battle in China but there is still another, the larger one is now looming in South Korea. Qualcomm said late Thursday that they inked the deal with the licensing agreement with Meizu wherein Qualcomm was sued back in July for infringing on its wireless patents. Meizu was one of the leading company, designer brand for the high-quality product in China and was founded in 2003. The company produces many affordable products and devices that compete with the other leading brand like Xiaomi. Furthermore, it counts Alibaba as its one of its investors. Back in June 2016, the Qualcomm has filed a patent infringement against Meizu. In the reports obtained by The Tech Portal, Qualcomm revealed that they already spent more than a year in negotiating with the Meizu just for signing a licensing agreement and in turning the favor to Meizu, the giant manufacturer of smartphone chips are dropping its legal cases against its partner, Meizu. Qualcomm dropped the cases in Germany, France, and in the United States. The Chinese company also agreed to pay Qualcomm for the using its 3G/4G mobile patents under set terms by China's anti-monopoly regulator in 2015 settlement with Qualcomm. According to the Head of Qualcomm Technology Licensing, Alex Rogers, he stated that the San Diego firm is pleased to sign the license agreement between Meizu and help enhance Meizu's product line, to generate a strong growth for the company in China and globally. Over the past two years, the San Diego giant tech firm has already signed a patent license with some top Chinese smartphone brands like Xiaomi, ZTE, Huawei, and Gionee recently joined Qualcomm. Earlier this week, I wrote about the Minnesota State Bar Associations decision to switch back to Fastcase as a member legal-research benefit, just six months after leaving Fastcase for Casemaker. Although I had reached out to Casemaker for comment, I did not hear back from the company until after I published that post. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to discuss the Minnesota situation with David Harriman, Casemakers CEO; Jim Corbett, director of business development; and Linda Franklin, director of client relations. Most of the comments were provided by Corbett. I will provide more details below. But I would sum up our conversation by saying that Casemaker made two overarching points with regard to Minnesotas decision: The reason the bar chose to switch to Casemaker in the first place was that it is in fact a superior research platform. Member dissatisfaction with Casemaker resulted from circumstances and misunderstandings unrelated to the core Casemaker service or platform. Let me expand on each of those points. A Rigorous Evaluation Process Corbett started off by saying that there were compelling reasons why the Minnesota bar made the switch last June from Fastcase to Casemaker. Before making the switch, the bar appointed a study committee and went through a rigorous evaluation process. At the end of the process, Corbett said, the bar chose Casemaker for several reasons. Key among the reasons was that the bar concluded that Casemaker has a superior citator. Whereas Casemaker has a comprehensive and integrated citator on a par with Shepards or KeyCite, Corbett asserted, Fastcase has only an automated tool that is not a real citator. The bar was concerned that their members were not getting the advantage of a citator and they were impressed with ours. Another key reason the bar chose Casemaker, Corbett said, is that the statutes and administrative codes it provides are bar none the most current of any online, including Westlaw and Lexis. Casemakers CEO Harriman was formerly president of The Michie Company, and when LexisNexis acquired Michie, Casemaker hired its statute editors. These editors track all 50 state legislatures and the U.S. Congress and, as bills are enacted, they typically get them online within four days. Historically, Corbett says, Fastcase updated its codes only once a year. (Let me interject that the purpose of this post is not to get into a factual, head-to-head comparison. I am simply reporting my conversation with Casemaker. For example, as to the latter point, Fastcase CEO Ed Walters says it is not true and that Fastcase regularly, for many states daily, updates its codes. I did write a head-to-head comparison in 2009 and clearly it is time for an update. But that will have to wait for another day.) Still another reason, Corbett said, was the Casemaker Digest, its service for keeping subscribers up to date on case law developments of interest to their practice areas. Prior to switching to Casemaker, the Minnesota bar was producing its own update service for members. Part of its reason for switching was replace its service with Casemakers and thereby free up staff time for other purposes. Two further reasons the bar switched, according to Corbett, were: User interface. To a man, everybody on the evaluation committee agreed the Casemaker interface was far easier and more intuitive than the Fastcase interface, Corbett says. Collection of materials. It was clearly demonstrated to the evaluation committee that Casemaker has a more comprehensive collection of material, Corbett says. There are many materials we have that just dont exist in Fastcase. No bar committee takes a process like this lightly, Corbett said. It was a very thorough and very intensive process. They looked at all these advantages and thought, this is a compelling reason to make the change. Circumstances after the Switch When Casemaker learned that the bar had decided to switch back to Fastcase, we were disappointed, Corbett said. He attributes the decision to two circumstances that arose after the bar implemented the Casemaker service in June. The first had to do with the digest service. To operate the digest service in the way that the bar envisioned, Casemaker had to make several adjustments to its existing service, Corbett said. Before it was done making those adjustments and before the service was ready, the bar released the service to its members. As a result, Corbett said, it did not work well and caused a lot of frustration among the members who were using the digest service. Members began to complain about the service and say that they wanted to go back to the digest reports that Fastcase had been providing, not realizing that it had been the bar, not Fastcase, previously providing the service. They attributed this benefit to Fastcase when Fastcase had nothing to do with it, Corbett said. We got lambasted for the bars releasing this product early. Fastcase got credit for something they werent even doing. Casemaker continued to work on improving the digest product and was finally ready to roll out the improved version when the bar announced its return to Fastcase. The other circumstance related to the organization of the Minnesota bar. The bars CLE arm, Minnesota CLE, is a separate non-profit corporation from the bar itself. In other states where Casemaker is a member benefit, it works with the bars to provide extensive member training programs, Corbett said. But because of the separation between the bar and its CLE entity, Minnesota never gave Casemaker the opportunity to provide such training. We werent able to show people the advantages that Casemaker has over Fastcase, he said. It was these two circumstances that led to members complaints, Corbett said, and the bar never gave Casemaker a chance to remedy them. When these two things that were beyond our control happened, the bar responded to comments from their members who were frustrated. The bar did not call us and say, Lets create a program to correct these problems. None of this should be taken as evidence that Fastcase is superior to Casemaker, Corbett argued. This does not prove, as Fastcase says, that it is a superior service. We have the superior service. That is why the Minnesota bar chose Casemaker after an extensive evaluation. These other things were added in that had nothing to do with the core product. Im not saying they didnt give us a fair chance, he continued. We thoroughly enjoyed working with the staff there. They believed that they were responding to the will of their members. But I think the will of their members was distorted by attributing value to Fastcase that which Fastcase had nothing to do with. Toyota reveals autonomous Concept-i at CES Jan 4, 2017, 6:52pm ET Designers started with a next-generation user interface and an \'AI Agent\' known as Yui. Toyota has revealed the futuristic Concept-i car at CES, highlighting the company's vision for an automotive user interface powered by artificial intelligence. Taking apparent inspiration from Apple's Siri technology, Toyota has given the name Yui to its virtual 'AI Agent.' Yui is a feminine Japanese given name that has various meanings, ranging from "think, consider, reflect" to "supportive," according to Wikipedia. Designers started with the Yui concept and then added the vehicle itself. The approach avoids screens on the central console, instead relying on head-up displays, colored lights, projectors and other technologies to convey information to the driver. Yui is represented visually both inside the vehicle and on the exterior, where it can greet passengers or communicate with other motorists. Toyota suggests it can show upcoming turns, warn about potential road hazards, or show wether the vehicle is in manual or autonomous mode. When manual operation is enabled, the Concept-i's AI system monitors the driver's attention and road conditions to 'buttress' driver engagement or help intervene in dangerous situations. Toyota has not confirmed plans to bring any of the specific technologies to market, though AI has become a central theme in bringing autonomous cars to market from many automakers. A lack of joined up thinking has led to two missed opportunities at either side of Laois, according to county councillors. Road works in Mountmellick and Durrow were raised with Laois County Council officials at a recent meeting in county hall. The 170,000 Mountmellick project went ahead without the inclusion of a pedestrian crossing that would serve many houses. The Durrow project proceeded without including cables for traffic lights at dangerous junction. The projects were raised at the recent Borris-in-Ossory Mountmellick Municipal District meeting was told. Cllr Paddy Bracken had asked that a pedestrian crossing be provided at Emmett St, Mountmellick. In reply the councils road design department said it had submitted a proposal to Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) for this year but it was not approved. A new request will be made for this year. However, Cllr Bracken felt a chance has been missed. There is major road works going on at Emmett St on the N80 I just felt that a pedestrian crossing was not included in the schedule of works. I welcome what has been done but that street needs a crossing. There is a huge number of houses on that road, he said. He felt money could have been found when the current project was planned for a crossing. It would be a traffic calming measure, he said. As for the Durrow project Cllr James Kelly called on the the council to provide infrastructure for traffic lights at a dangerous junction at Derry Road in conjunction with the new footpath and streetlights already installed in Carrigan Street. A reply stated that the junction had been discussed with Transport Infrastructure Ireland for 2016 but was not approved. A new application will be made this year. Brenda Cuddy, area engineer said the lights and footpath funding came TII. Cllr Kelly said cables should have been laid for the traffic lights as a street had to be dug up. That is another opportunity missed. It is a road safety issue. It would have made more sense to put in the infrastructure and not go back again and repeat the mayhem with a stop go situation. The joined up thinking isnt there said the Independent councillor. ANM: De vineri temperaturile incep sa scada / Care vor fi maximele la sfarsitul lunii noiembrie si cat de mari sunt sansele sa avem zapada la iarna We're sorry that the ministry you were looking for is no longer available on LightSource.com. However, below are some great ministries that offer related content. Enjoy the inspiration, encouragement, and Biblical challenge from these LightSource.com ministry partners! STUDENTS openly wept as they paid their last respects to Ogie Barrett, the 17-year-old student who died this week in a suspected case of Sudden Death Adult syndrome. A guard of honour of pupils clad in the navy uniforms of Crescent College Comprehensive stretched down Church Road to his family home in Raheen as people tried to come to terms with the heartbreaking and untimely loss of the up-and-coming rugby player. Ogie the youngest of three sons to Ita and the late Ray was found dead in his bed by his mother Ita early on New Years Day morning. Having died peacefully in his sleep, it is understood he lost his life to Sudden Death Adult Syndrome. At his funeral Mass in the Raheen Church this Wednesday, warm tributes were paid to the young man who touched so many peoples lives. Fr Jim Maher, who led the Mass, is chaplain at Crescent College, and he taught young Ogie up until Christmas. He was a lovely, lovely gentle presence in class. His facial expressions spoke volumes, and it was a real pleasure to teach him, the priest said. Fr Maher also recalled how Ogie had expressed a preference to serve in the direct provision centre in Meelick on his social placement to understand the story of people who are dislocated coming to Ireland and how he could help them. On the Bank Holiday Monday just gone, students gathered at the Dooradoyle school after news of Ogies shocking and incomprehensible death filtered through. I have never seen anything like it in my life before. There was a long and respectful silence. It was deafening you could hear a pin drop. Tears rolled down the cheeks. Nobody said anything. The language of pain, sorrow and incomprehension, Fr Maher told mourners. Leading the coffin into the church were his brothers Paul and Joe, and heartbroken mother Ita. A simple black-and-white picture of Ogie in a suit at his friend Muirnes wedding last summer sat on top of his coffin. He liked to maintain a certain image, his devastated brother Joe who is working as a trainee teacher at the Crescent smiled. And Fr Maher said, to some laughter from the congregation, that at that particular wedding, I can bet the mothers were eyeing him up and down as a potential son in law. The question which is the elephant in the church today is why? Why, why, why has this happened? Thats the question some of us would like to screech and scream out to God. Why did you let this happen, the priest asked. Struggling to hold back tears, Joe said: We are here under horrible circumstances. People say there is no such thing as perfect. But Ogie is as close as they came. He had clear morals and always did the right thing. I am heartbroken to have lost my brother, and my best friend, and I will always keep him with me. Ogies aunt Nora brought a variety of gifts to the altar, which reflected his life and personality. These included a bar of Hersheys chocolate, a piece of Lego, and a Family Guy DVD. He used to love TV, and used to sit through Desperate Housewives just to keep his mother happy, Nora smiled. Ogies death is the second tragedy to fall upon the family, who hail from the small Co Kerry village of Causeway. Their father Ray died suddenly almost three years ago. Among the mourners at the funeral were school principal Karin Fleming, and chairperson of the board of management Helen ODonnell. He is survived by mum Ita, brothers Joe and Paul, aunts Nora, Javinta, Kay and Jill, Pauls fiancee Aoife and Joes girlfriend Kayleigh. PATIENTS stuck on trolleys at A&E in University Hospital Limerick have spoken of the absolute chaos present in the facility. The Limerick Leader visited the emergency department at UHL this Thursday as it experienced the countrys second-highest ever rate of overcrowding in an Irish A&E since records began. At 10.30am, 60 patients were being treated on A&E trolleys and on extra beds, trolleys or chairs in the wards at the Dooradoyle facility. On Wednesday, there were 66 patients waiting to be admitted to a bed the highest rate ever recorded. In the midst of all this, Limerick is battling one of Irelands worst flu and Norovirus (winter vomiting bug) outbreaks, with close to 150 infected and many more unreported since early December. After the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation revealed the high trolley figures on Thursday, the Limerick Leader went to the A&E to witness the severity of the situation. One woman, who had been in the emergency department since the early hours of Thursday morning, said that it was absolute chaos in the A&E. Instead of waiting on a trolley in the A&E, I decided to wait out here. Its madness in there. Theres way too many people on trolleys in there, and the staff are doing the best that they can. Another woman, who was with her mother, said that there was one nurse who was looking after 13 patients that morning. The staff are brilliant in there, its just the circumstances that they are dealing with is the problem. We were kind of afraid to go to the A&E at first, but we figured we just had to, they explained to this reporter. On November 9 last year, the Limerick Leader witnessed more than 20 people on trolleys in A&E. The main concern for families attending the hospital was the length of time their loved ones would be spending on a trolley. On this visit, however, it became apparent that fears specifically revolve around the flu and vomiting bug outbreak. And though December has been an upsurge season for the outbreaks, the numbers are expected to increase further in January, the HSE has stated. People are piled up on top of each other, its no wonder the flu is being spread around, said a patient. Up to 16 ambulances were backed up outside the hospital on Tuesday, waiting to discharge patients - a situation that was captured on video and shared on social media, attracting thousands of views. People with influenza-like illnesses are advised to not attend the A&E without a GP referral. Dr Breda Corcoran, HSE national immunisation officer said: Anyone who gets flu should stay at home, rest, drink plenty of fluids and use over-the-counter flu remedies to ease symptoms. People in high-risk categories should contact their GP if they develop flu symptoms. Inside the A&E this Thursday morning, frontline staff attentively assisted all 20-something patients; most of whom were elderly and trying their best to rest in what was a busy, cramped, fast-pace environment. One man told the Leader: Theres barely any space to move in there. They are double-parking the trolleys. And this was the case upon entering the A&E, with a pair of paramedics trying to find space for an elderly patient lying on a trolley. And while chaotic overcrowding and severe viral outbreaks are creating problems in the hospital setting, nurses, porters and doctors have been working so hard with the patients, one family member said. Of the half dozen interviewed at UHL, none had to wait for more than four hours for a bed or to be seen by medical staff. On Wednesday, after overcrowding reached peak levels, a spokesperson for the UL Hospitals Group said: The ED in University Hospital Limerick is one of the busiest in the country with over 60,000 attendances annually. The Christmas/New Year period has been exceptionally busy with many frail elderly patients presenting and requiring admission to hospital. Levels of influenza and respiratory illness remain high, as of today, the 4th of January 2017, there were 10 confirmed cases of seasonal influenza in UHL, and visitor restrictions remain in place at the hospital. Traditionally, average attendances at the ED have been approximately 150 over a 24-hour period from Monday to Friday and 120 per 24 hours at weekends. On three consecutive weekdays last week, the daily attendance figures ranged between 180 and 211 patients and this pattern has continued into this week with 209 attendances yesterday (Tuesday). Overcrowding at this level can unfortunately cause delays to ambulances when they arrive at UHL and the hospital regrets that any patient has to wait to be seen. A full capacity protocol has been implemented by management at the hospital, which includes the addition of 17 beds and a number of measures to relieve the situation at UHL. These conditions have sparked outrage amongst local politicians and the public, with AAA councillor Cian Prendiville calling on the Government to declare a national emergency in all A&E services. The Minister is trying to claim no one could have foreseen this crisis, that this is a so-called 'perfect storm' but the reality is the crisis in our health service is an ongoing national emergency, he said. At this time every year there is a spike in hospital admittances, but the trolley crisis is consistent all year round with the record being smashed numerous times in the last year. Limerick is always one of the worst affected, following the closure of Ennis, Nenagh & St John's A&Es, he added. Jan 5, 2017, 8 AM A strip of the 1960 National Tuberculosis Association Christmas seals adorns the back of this cover, together with the autograph of the seals designer, Philip R. Costigan. One method of publicizing the 1960 Christmas seals was this flyer featuring the designs. The front is shown here. On the back of the 1960 Christmas seals flyer is a short biography of the designer Philip Richard Costigan, whose picture is shown at upper left. By John M. Hotchner Christmas seal designers dont get the glory that is accorded postage stamp designers, but their efforts are no less worthy of praise. Indeed their art enters more American homes than many postage stamps. Information about these designers is scarce, so I was pleasantly surprised to find a flyer that presents information about Philip R. Costigan, the designer of the 1960 Christmas seals (Scott WX204-WX207). Featuring choir boys and girls decked out for the holidays, these 1960s seals are among my favorites of the annual issues that began in 1907 for the purpose of raising money to combat tuberculosis and later, all lung diseases. Connect with Linns Stamp News: Like us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Find us on Instagram The 1960 seals are shown on the back of the cover shown nearby. This cover also bears Costigans autograph. The flyer obtained at the same time advertises the 54th Christmas seal campaign. On the reverse is a photo of Costigan, and his biography, from which the following is excerpted: Philip Richard Costigan, whose fertile imagination conjured up the youthful choristers, was born in the little village of Acocks Green, near Birmingham, in England. He received his secondary and undergraduate education in England, majoring in fine arts at King Edwards College. After college, he came to the United States and studied under Mr. Paul De Leslie of Lyons, France. He returned to his native England to further his education. After this was completed, he once again returned to the United States to make it his permanent home. He has designed crystal for Sweden, and textiles, wallpaper, posters and silverware for England. He now has his own studio in Lenhartsville, Pennsylvania, where he does free-lance designing for the decorating field. His designs in fine china have been exhibited in both European and American museums. The biography on the flyer concludes: Mr. Costigan has a highly personal interest in the fight against tuberculosis. His uncle, an English artist, retired and came to this country to live with Mr. Costigan. Later on he contracted TB and died of it here. Our 1960 Christmas seal artist has maintained his interest and, in fact, first thought of doing a Seal design because of his connection with the TB nurses at the chest clinic in Reading, Pennsylvania. The seals were popular with the public, and despite an economic downturn that lasted from April 1960 to February 1961, the seals realized $26.26 million dollars, about half a million less than the 1959 seals. Although it has not been unusual for an artist to design seals in more than one year, the 1960 seals were the only ones Costigan designed, but he certainly made them memorable. Should killer whales Skype? A new study suggests that virtual links between captive orca populations might be one way to improve the lives of these marine mammals. The keeping of orcas, or killer whales, in captivity has been a matter of public controversy, especially since the release of the documentary "Blackfish" in 2013. The film centers on the 2010 killing of a SeaWorld trainer, Dawn Brancheau, by a captive killer whale that had been captured from the wild in 1983. (That killer whale, named Tilikum, died on Jan. 6, Live Science reported.) As a result of the public outrage following the documentary, SeaWorld announced in March 2016 that it would shut down killer-whale shows in its parks, as well as its orca breeding program. But orcas live for decades (and some have been known to live past 100), and there are dozens in captivity that will remain at SeaWorld (and other captive-breeding establishments) for the rest of their lives. Now, two researchers at the University of Glasgow in Scotland have some suggestions for how to improve these orcas' lives. The suggestions go way beyond offering orcas more toys and activities. One idea is to establish audio communication channels between different captive populations and even wild populations so they can "talk" to each other. Another is to establish feeding systems that require whales to work together to get food, as they do in the wild. "We are at a stage where, for the most part, the physical welfare of animals in captivity is good and often a good deal better than in the wild," said animal welfare expert Graham Law, one of the authors of a paper listing the suggestions in the journal International Zoo Yearbook. "However, the psychological welfare is an area that needs more work." [Orca Gallery: See Gorgeous Photos of Killer Whales] Orca psychology Whales' psychological health is at the center of the controversy over Brancheau's death. A male orca named Tilikum dragged Brancheau into the water after a show. As Outside magazine reported, Tilikum's early years were traumatic. He was captured and taken from his pod at age 2. (In the wild, male whales typically stay with their mothers for the rest of their lives, and a son's survival depends on his mother well into adulthood.) The young whale then was kept in a barren concrete pool in Iceland for a year before being transferred to a now-defunct marine park in British Columbia. There, Tilikum was bullied by two dominant females. In 1991, the three understimulated whales killed a part-time trainer who slipped into their pool, Outside reported. Tilikum was then sold to SeaWorld, where, Outside reported, he had better care but was still harried by dominant females. In 1999, Tilikum was involved in the death of a man who snuck in after hours to swim in the orca pool. (It isn't known whether Tilikum killed the man directly, though he did mutilate the man's body.) "Tilikum is basically psychotic," Ken Balcomb, executive director of the Center for Whale Research, told Outside magazine. "He has been maintained in a situation where I think he is psychologically unrecoverable in terms of being a wild whale." Though there are many arguments over whether killer whales should be kept in captivity, the fact is that they are already there, Law told Live Science. As of 2016, there were 56 captive orcas around the world, according to the journal International Zoo News. At some point, Law said, there may be hard decisions to make about whether captivity might save the species. [Marine Marvels: Spectacular Photos of Sea Creatures] "The resident population of killer whales around Scotland are not doing very well, and soon they may be extinct" due to high levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in their environment, Law said. "We do not know what species we may need to protect in captivity in the future," he added. "We should, however, where possible, be aware of the best methods to do so." A better life Law and his colleague Andrew Kitchener, principal curator of vertebrates at the National Museums Scotland, focused on social, feeding, fitness and environmental recommendations for the care of killer whales. These recommendations have not been tested, they cautioned, but all are based on mimicking the whales' activities and environment in the wild. Socially, the researchers suggested, killer whales might benefit from communication with far-flung brethren. Orcas are vocally complex and can even learn new "dialects." Satellite uplinks between marine parks could connect disparate groups, Law and Kitchener wrote. Strange as it might sound, zoos have used sounds to promote natural behavior before, Law said. In 1989, researchers reported in International Zoo Yearbook that they'd used recorded gibbon calls to prompt a pair of gibbons in a London zoo to make their own territorial cries and to mate. The sound of what seemed to be nearby gibbons appeared to urge the primates to protect their territory and reproduce. Animals other than orcas also might benefit from more enriched soundscapes, Law said. For example, lions communicate across prides with loud roars, and leopard calls seem to be full of information about the caller's identity, he said. "We should think more about how unnatural it is to keep zoo animals in acoustic isolation," Law said. The researchers also recommended different methods of feeding that would require orcas to take an active role in finding food. Motion-sensor feeders could be programmed to release treats after whales perform a task. Methods that require whales to work together could mimic the requirements of hunting as a pod in the wild. Orcas are known to be clever hunters: They make waves to wash seals off ice, they eavesdrop on prey and they even set traps. Training could engage those sharp killer-whale brains, and build stamina. Law and Kitchener suggested training whales to hold their breath for long periods, thus simulating the deep dives the whales do in the wild. They also suggested more naturalistic features in tanks, like kelp (real or artificial), artificial boulders and wave-making machines. Acoustic materials could be varied in tanks to give whales something to echolocate off of, the researchers wrote. Tapes of ocean sounds could be played to stimulate whales' senses. All of these ideas, Law said, need to be tested scientifically. The public debate over killer whales in captivity is highly polarized, he said, but trainers at SeaWorld and other marine parks are very enthusiastic about improving the welfare of their animals. "As far as I am aware, husbandry changes were already in the pipeline by a number of organizations that keep orca to create better conditions for them," Law said. "I hope that the public will support any positive attempts to make things more interesting and challenging for animals in captivity." Original article on Live Science. The town of Center, North Dakota, is taking center stage, thanks to a geographer who has figured out that it's in the dead center of North America. The finding lays to rest the decades-old question on the location of the continent's bull's-eye. It's a question that has long eluded scientists in a 1964 report by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), for instance, experts wrote: "There is no generally accepted definition of geographic center [of any geographic area], and no completely satisfactory method for determining it." Not much progress has been made since then, although the USGS has certainly tried. In 1931, the USGS called a spot near the town of Rugby, North Dakota (population 2,900), the geographic center of North America, only to update it in 1995 to a small body of water about 20 miles (32 kilometers) to the southwest of the town, according to the Wall Street Journal. Understandably, the question is a difficult one. Researchers have debated whether the center of the continent should factor in North America's islands, and how to account for the constantly changing shorelines. [Earth from Above: 101 Stunning Images from Orbit] "There are all these people out there saying, 'There's no real good way to do this,'" Peter Rogerson, a professor of geography at the University at Buffalo in New York who developed the new geographical method, said in a statement. "[But] as a geographer, my feeling is that if we want to come up with a good way of defining a center, we can and we should." In 2015, Rogerson published a study in the journal The Professional Geographer detailing his novel method one that allows researchers to locate the geographic center of a region, whether it is a continent, an island or a country, he said. The technique accurately takes into account the curvature of the Earth, Rogerson said. This is important, as the curvature affects the true distance between two locations, he said. However, the method doesn't include the continent's islands, and instead focuses on the main landmass, he said. In late 2016, Rogerson tried out his method to find the center of North America. The result was serendipitously pleasing, given that the point fell in the middle of a small town named Center (population 570), he said. Center, North Dakota is in the smack-dab middle of North America. (Image credit: Google Maps) Center of attention A past method that people used to find a region's center was to balance its cardboard cutout on a needle, Rogerson said. His method is a bit more complex. It accounts for the mathematical definition of a geographic center: the spatial equivalent of the center of gravity in physics, he said. Moreover, its location minimizes the sum of the squared distances to all other points in a region, he added. [The Mysterious Physics of 7 Everyday Things] The technique uses a so-called "azimuthal equidistant map projection," which preserves essential qualities related to distance when a rounded, 3D model of a planet is projected onto a flat, 2D surface. Once a 2D projection was made, Rogerson paired it with a computer program and established a mathematical formula for locating the centroids of 2D polygons. This allowed him to narrow down the geographical center that met the mathematical definition of where a center should be located, he said. But even this new technique isn't perfect. The azimuthal projection assumes that Earth is a sphere, when it's really slightly ellipsoidal. "It could always be more exact," said Rogerson. He added that other scientists may take different approaches to the problem, and that his answer doesn't close the door to future pursuits. The town of Rugby and a bar in Robinson, North Dakota, may be glad to hear that. They're in the middle of a ferocious battle to be known as North America's geographical center, according to the Wall Street Journal. Apparently, being the "center" is good for business, which may explain why so many places don't even bother with being in the center of a continent, and instead claim to be the center of the universe, including New York's Times Square, a spot in downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle. Original article on Live Science. The aerial landscape images and other data from research at the Plain of Jars have been integrated into an advanced 3D simulation at the Cave2 virtual reality facility at Monash University. Archaeologists have recreated an ancient burial site in virtual reality, to help them study hard-to-access locations at the so-called Plain of Jars site in Laos and the millennia-old relics it contains. The researchers will also use virtual reality to study other archaeological sites at the Plain of Jars, many of them located where undetonated American bombs left over from the Vietnam War make it too dangerous to dig. The virtual-reality project combines aerial video captured by a drone with geophysical data and records of archaeological excavations at "Site 1" on the Plain of Jars, near the town of Phonsavan in central Laos. It aims to create a virtual record of the unique landscape and its hundreds of carved stone jars, some of which measure up to 11 feet (3 meters) tall and weigh many tons, say the researchers. [In Photos: Exploring the Mysterious Plain of Jars Site] The images and data have been integrated into a 3D video and data simulation at a room-sized, 360-degree virtual-reality facility at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. Named Cave2, the facility is being developed for advanced "immersive visualization" applications in medicine, science and engineering. Project co-leader Louise Shewan, an archaeologist at Monash University, said the main purpose of the virtual landscape is to preserve a step-by-step visual and scientific record of a major five-year archaeological investigation by Laos and Australian scientists at the Plain of Jars, which began with excavations at Site 1 in February 2016. Shewan said the virtual landscape will also be used to explore other jar sites in rugged and forested territory, and in areas where many of the estimated 270 million cluster bombs dropped on Laos by American warplanes during the Vietnam War make traditional archaeology too dangerous. To date, only seven of more than 85 known jar sites in Laos have been cleared, and an estimated 80 million undetonated bombs are scattered across the country, according to the Laos government agency that oversees the clearance efforts. The Cave2 simulation also records a timeline that can be stepped forward or back to show the state of the excavations at any time, and which will be updated as the digs and discoveries at the Plain of Jars continue at Site 1 and other jar sites in the years to come. (Image credit: Plain of Jars Archaeological Project/MIVP Cave2) "We certainly can't just go and put shovels into the ground," Shewan told Live Science. "[But] we can fly the drones through those sites, and put all that information and imagery into the Cave2 and make comparisons such as, is there a consistent placement between the jars, or between different types of burial markers?" Giant jars The excavations at Site 1 in 2016, led by Shewan and Dougald O'Reilly, an archaeologist at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, established for the first time that the giant stone jars were linked to an ancient burial practice. They discovered the remains of dozens of people buried in communal and individual graves around some of the largest jars. The researchers think the carved stone jars at Site 1 are around 2,500 years old, and that they were used by an Iron Age civilization to expose their dead relatives to the elements for a period of time before the bones were cleaned and buried. [The 25 Most Mysterious Archaeological Finds on Earth] Shewan said the virtual landscape at the Cave2 facility will be updated with new data and the results of further excavations at the Plain of Jars site, so the researchers can revisit and review their archaeological fieldwork from more than 4,800 miles (7,700 kilometers) away in Melbourne. "Long after we leave the field, we can continue researching, and we can actually be there with all our team members and go through the excavation again, and pick up on things that we've missed," she said. "It's also great for teaching, to be able to recreate the excavation It really is virtual-reality archeology, because we've got the time sequence of the excavation, and you can speed that up and see the trench go down in 10-centimeter [4 inches] steps." Mystery makers The images and archaeological data recorded in the Cave2 simulation will also serve as a digital record of scholarship about the Plain of Jars in support of its designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which is an ongoing process, Shewan said. (The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization or UNESCO designates sites as World Heritage Sites if they meet certain criteria for representing natural, historical or cultural significance.) The Laos government hopes the region's World Heritage status will stimulate tourism and spur further scientific research into the Plain of Jars and other archaeological sites. For now, the virtual Plain of Jars can be viewed only at the Cave2 facility in Melbourne, but Shewan hopes that 360-degree aerial footage of the site will be made available to the public or be integrated into a museum exhibition. She said the ongoing laboratory research on the samples from the latest excavations includes efforts by ANU geochemist Richard Armstrong to determine the geographic origin and accurate age of some of the jars at Site 1, by analyzing the radioactive decay of uranium into lead in traces of the mineral zircon in the rocks from which they were quarried. Shewan's own skeletal-chemistry research will focus next on strontium isotopes in human teeth from the graves at Site 1, which could provide clues about the identity of the mysterious jar makers, of whom almost nothing is known except their unusual burial practices. "We'll be able to work out where these people were living and what areas they were accessing their food from, based on the geological signature and that will be a really useful piece of information, because at the moment, we don't have any habitation sites, and so we know nothing about these people at all," Shewan said. Original article on Live Science. European ferry operator and logistics group says acquisition will further develop its logistics services between Sweden and Italy European ferry operator and logistics group DFDS has acquired 100% of the share capital of the Swedish company Italcargo to further develop DFDS logistics services between Sweden and Italy. Founded in 1998, Italcargo provides road transport services between Sweden and Italy, including full loads, part loads and premium services. Equipment, mainly trailers, is leased and haulage is subcontracted to external drivers. Italcargos revenue was SEK 65 million (US$7.2 million) in 2015/2016 achieved via just five employees. DFDS said Italcargos activities complements and strengthens DFDS existing transport services between Sweden and Italy. Increased flows will particularly benefit the offering to customers of part load services, and Italcargos express services fit with the aim of offering more premium customer services. The acquisition is expected to support DFDS goal of a 10% return on invested capital from the outset, the company added. The acquisition of Italcargo expands DFDS existing logistics services between Sweden and Italy, particularly enhancing our part load and premium services, said Niklas Andersson, DFDSs head of logistics in Sweden. The transaction has accounting effect from 21 December 2016. If you do not have a current print subscription to the Lodi News-Sentinel, but want to view unlimited articles for the month, please choose this option. Local News, Health & Wellness, Press Releases By Long Island News & PR Published: January 05 2017 Governor Cuomo announced the impact of potential repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on health care coverage of New Yorkers and the state budget. Albany, NY - January 4, 2017 - Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the impact of potential repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on health care coverage of New Yorkers and the state budget. If the repeal of the Affordable Care Act were enacted, an estimated 2.7 million New Yorkers would lose coverage and New York State would experience a direct state budget impact of $3.7 billion and a loss of nearly $600 million of federal funding that goes directly to counties, which they use to help lower property taxes. "The cost of a repeal of the Affordable Care Act, to state and local budgets and to the New Yorkers who depend on its health care coverage, is simply too high to justify," Governor Cuomo said. "Since its implementation, the Affordable Care Act has become a powerful tool to lower the cost of health insurance for local governments and New Yorkers, and it is essential that the federal government does not jeopardize the health and livelihoods of millions of working families." The NY State of Health exchange has successfully cut the percentage of uninsured New Yorkers in half, from 10 percent to 5 percent. It has also significantly expanded eligibility and access to health coverage, allowing hundreds of thousands of previously uninsured New Yorkers to achieve economic and healthcare security. Based on current enrollment levels, the repeal of the Affordable Care Act would result in over 2.7 million New Yorkers losing health coverage. The estimated number of individuals at risk of losing coverage, based on current enrollment levels, is broken down by counties below: County Individuals at Risk of Losing Coverage Albany 25,552 Allegany 4,608 Bronx 300,012 Broome 20,231 Cattaraugus 8,310 Cayuga 7,665 Chautauqua 15,270 Chemung 9,160 Chenango 5,184 Clinton 7,787 Columbia 6,827 Cortland 4,606 Delaware 4,461 Dutchess 25,074 Erie 93,403 Essex 3,660 Franklin 5,110 Fulton 6,038 Genesee 5,074 Greene 4,971 Hamilton 522 Herkimer 6,932 Jefferson 10,955 Kings 540,320 Lewis 2,932 Livingston 4,972 Madison 5,861 Monroe 75,512 Montgomery 5,473 Nassau 133,324 New York 218,937 Niagara 21,287 Oneida 24,781 Onondaga 45,682 Ontario 9,355 Orange 37,851 Orleans 4,522 Oswego 12,568 Otsego 5,785 Putnam 7,006 Queens 493,058 Rensselaer 12,540 Richmond 56,882 Rockland 38,526 Saratoga 16,340 Schenectady 16,056 Schoharie 3,079 Schuyler 2,065 Seneca 3,145 St. Lawrence 11,063 Steuben 10,039 Suffolk 152,631 Sullivan 9,668 Tioga 4,560 Tompkins 7,827 Ulster 19,850 Warren 6,796 Washington 6,689 Wayne 9,354 Westchester 91,844 Wyoming 3,700 Yates 2,515 Total 2,715,807 The estimated direct state budget impact of the repeal is $3.7 billion. New Yorks counties have been able to use the additional federal Medicaid funding through the Affordable Care Act, which goes to directly to counties and helps to lower property taxes. A repeal of the Affordable Care Act would result in a total loss of $595 million in funding. A county by county breakdown of the allocated annual funding that each county would lose is available below, based on the most recent year: County 2016-17 Funding Albany $4,738,862 Allegany $786,300 Broome $3,049,122 Cattaraugus $1,211,333 Cayuga $1,098,606 Chautauqua $2,443,709 Chemung $1,491,573 Chenango $686,373 Clinton $1,292,531 Columbia $833,957 Cortland $786,023 Delaware $666,830 Dutchess $2,974,044 Erie $17,149,148 Essex $400,176 Franklin $681,442 Fulton $879,897 Genesee $691,774 Greene $832,298 Hamilton $68,800 Herkimer $956,261 Jefferson $1,601,068 Lewis $294,378 Livingston $686,242 Madison $842,891 Monroe $13,023,431 Montgomery $797,695 Nassau $17,866,829 Niagara $3,849,704 Oneida $4,169,425 Onondaga $7,871,592 Ontario $1,042,122 Orange $5,021,173 Orleans $667,917 Oswego $2,281,144 Otsego $729,112 Putnam $561,094 Rensselaer $2,307,076 Rockland $3,867,080 St. Lawrence $1,564,073 Saratoga $1,864,638 Schenectady $2,462,377 Schoharie $475,760 Schuyler $312,126 Seneca $369,493 Steuben $1,514,370 Suffolk $18,310,813 Sullivan $1,439,822 Tioga $589,433 Tompkins $1,015,126 Ulster $2,935,566 Warren $787,632 Washington $746,252 Wayne $910,595 Westchester $15,243,258 Wyoming $382,781 Yates $282,426 Upstate Total $162,405,572 New York City Total $433,294,428 New York State Total $595,700,000 George Gresham, President, 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, said, New Yorks healthcare workers see the positive impact of the Affordable Care Act every day. Our patients are able to access preventative care instead of coming to emergency rooms in states of advanced illness. Our employers have reduced losses from uncompensated care. Our friends and relatives are relieved of the fear that getting sick equals financial ruin. Repealing the Affordable Care Act without an adequate replacement would have immediate and devastating consequences for millions of our fellow New Yorkers and for state and local budgets. We applaud Governor Cuomos leadership in educating New Yorkers about costs and are proud to stand with him to advocate for the health all New Yorkers, Greater New York Hospital Association President Kenneth E. Raske said, These deeply troubling numbers are only the tip of the iceberg if the Affordable Care Act is repealed. It will also severely harm the hospital community. 27 hospitals across New York State are on a watch list for financial stress and many more both public and private face similar fiscal challenges. Repealing the Affordable Care Act without an immediate and adequate replacement plan will make things dramatically worse for safety net hospitals and the vulnerable communities they serve. I applaud Governor Cuomo for his leadership and look forward to working with the bipartisan members of the New York Congressional delegation to ensure that the health care of all New Yorkers is protected. Bea Grause, President of the Healthcare Association of New York, said, In addition to providing care to those in need, hospitals are major employers in communities all across the state. Repeal of the ACA could have tremendous consequences for the delivery of healthcare and also in terms of jobs and economic activity. Its imperative that Congress be mindful of this reality. Im pleased to join the Governor in this important effort to protect New Yorkers. School & Education, Local News, Press Releases By Long Island News & PR Published: January 05 2017 Governor Cuomo unveiled a plan to provide free college tuition to thousands of middle- and low- income students here on Long Island and across the state. Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, with U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, unveiled the 1st signature proposal of his 2017 agenda: making college tuition-free for New Yorks middle-class families at all SUNY and CUNY two- and four-year colleges. Lindenhurst, NY - January 4, 2017 - Yesterday, Governor Cuomo unveiled a plan to provide free college tuition to thousands of middle- and low- income students here on Long Island and across the state. Affordable tuition is something that Ive been fighting to pass New York must reaffirm its commitment to ensuring every individual has the opportunity to pursue a college education. Income should not be a barrier to education and future success. As we begin the next legislative session, I will continue fighting to make higher education more affordable so that more New York students can get ahead. Local News, Press Releases By Long Island News & PR Published: January 05 2017 This morning, John E. Brooks was sworn in as Senator for New Yorks 8th Senate District following a grueling, hard fought election won by hand-counted votes. It's a new year and it looks like Long Island won't have to wait long for its first snowstorm of 2017. Though it was quite temperate on Wednesday, temperatures on LI plummeted into the 20s overnight with highs in the mid-30s expected for Thursday. It's not likely to be any warmer on Friday. As temperatures drop back below freezing Thursday night, the National Weather Service is forecasting an 80% chance of snow to accompany the cold weather. The snow should taper off around 9:00 Friday morning, with only a total of about 1-3" having fallen, but commuters will want to give themselves extra time to dust off their cars and potentially even break out the shovels if the snow totals end up on the high end of predictions. The snowstorm may not be a big one, but it could still make for a slower, messier drive than normal. A Hazardous Weather Outlook has been put into place by the NWS for Thursday night and Friday morning as the snow falls. The NWS is predicting highs around 34 for much of the Island on Friday, with slightly colder levels out east and slightly warmer temperatures toward western Nassau. 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 State Department announced today that Osama bin Ladens son, Hamza, has been added to the US governments list of designated terrorists. State cites Hamzas appearances in al Qaedas propaganda since Aug. 2015 as evidence of his important role in the organization. The junior bin Laden has called for terror attacks throughout the West, including inside the US, and he also encouraged Saudi Arabian-based tribes to unite with Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) to wage war against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Al Qaeda has released several messages from Hamza since mid-2015, but they have all been audio speeches. The terror organization has not published photos or video of Hamza as an adult, likely for security reasons. The last known images of him are as a child. Documents recovered in Osama bin Ladens compound show that Osama was concerned about Hamzas safety in the months leading up to the May 2011 Abbottabad raid. The al Qaeda master repeatedly discussed ways to prevent Hamza from falling into the hands of al Qaedas enemies. Osama wanted his son to avoid Waziristan, where the drones buzzed overhead, at all costs. And he suggested that Hamza flee to Qatar, where he could lie low for a time. However, Hamza didnt flee to Qatar. Instead, he was trained by Osamas subordinates and groomed to rise up through al Qaedas ranks. Atiyah Abd al Rahman, who served as al Qaedas general manger until his own death in Aug. 2011, ensured that Hamza was kept safe. In a letter written in Apr. 2011, Rahman complained bitterly about being tasked with protecting Osamas son. Rahman indicated that Hamza was being trained by Abu Khalil al Sudani, a senior al Qaeda leader who was subsequently killed in Afghanistan. Hamza has taken his family to our brother Abu Khalils house, Rahman wrote just weeks before Osamas death. They have been there for a few days because I arranged for Abu Khalil to have Hamza take Abu Khalils explosive training. Rahman was extra cautious: I emphasized the need to be safe, to avoid going out, moving around, or doing anything that might expose him to danger. God grants success. Hamza did, in fact, survive. He avoided capture and also Americas drones. More than four years after Rahmans letter, al Qaeda introduced Hamza as a key figure in its global organization. Featured in Al Qaeda propaganda since 2015 Al Qaeda released the first audio message from Hamza in Aug. 2015. The junior bin Laden was introduced to al Qaedas audience by Ayman al Zawahiri, who described him as a lion from the den of [al Qaeda]. [See FDDs Long War Journal report, Analysis: Osama bin Ladens son praises al Qaedas branches in new message.] Hamzas debut was recorded sometime in May or June of 2015, before the Taliban admitted that its first emir, Mullah Omar, had died two years prior. Following in his fathers footsteps, Hamza swore allegiance to Omar, referring to him as the Emir of the Believers, a title usually reserved for a Muslim caliph. The message was odd, given that Hamza, like Zawahiri and the rest of al Qaeda previously, was affirming his loyalty to a corpse. Al Qaedas leaders, including Osama, first swore bayah (an oath of allegiance) to Mullah Omar before the Sept. 11, 2001 hijackings. Al Qaeda aggressively marketed its fealty to the Talibans emir after the rise of the Islamic State in 2014. The so-called caliphate tells its followers that Abu Bakr al Baghdadi is the true Emir of the Believers. Al Qaeda argues this isnt so, pointing to the Talibans honcho as the only acceptable stand in for a true caliph. In his Aug. 2015 message, Hamza went on to honor the leader of each of al Qaedas regional branches. Osamas heir specifically mentioned Nasir al Wuhayshi, who led AQAP until he was killed in a US drone strike only weeks after Hamzas message was recorded, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghrebs Abdulmalek Droukdel, Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinents (AQIS) Asim Umar, Shabaabs Abu Obaidah Ahmed Omar, and Al Nusrah Fronts Abu Muhammad al Julani. Hamza did not mention Baghdadi or the Islamic State by name, but he clearly had the so-called caliphates men in mind when he addressed Julani, whom he described as the bold commander. Julani was originally Baghdadis lieutenant, but broke from Baghdadi to form his own al Qaeda branch in Syria under Zawahiris command. Al Nusrah is now known as Jabhat Fath al Sham. We thank your jihad, your firmness, and your great, unique sacrifices through which you have revived the feats of the ancestors of Islam, Hamza said to Julani, according to a translation by SITE Intelligence Group. Al Qaeda has released several messages from Hamza since his first. In May 2016, Hamza released a discussion titled, Jerusalem Is But a Bride, Its Dowry Is Our Blood. In it, Hamza argued that the jihad in Syria was the key to achieving victory in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Hamza called on the ummah (worldwide community of Muslims) to raise a large army, drawing in experts who can wage war on Israel. The best preparation field for raising this great army is in the blessed Levant, Hamza said. The path to liberate Palestine is far closer today, he claimed, because of the Syrian revolution. Therefore, the Islamic ummah must focus its efforts on the jihad in the Levant, guiding and directing it, spreading awareness of sharia, and uniting the mujahideens ranks there. [See FDDs Long War Journal report, Osama bin Ladens son says jihad in Syria key to liberate Palestine.] In July 2016, al Qaeda released another speech from Hamza in which he argued that the number of mujahideen around the globe has grown despite a decade and a half of war. Hamza also threatened revenge for the death of his father, claiming that America has not yet witnessed al Qaedas retaliation. [See FDDs Long War Journal report, Osama bin Ladens son says al Qaeda has grown despite 15 years of war.] Hamzas July 2016 message was titled, We Are All Osama. The same phrase was chanted during the al Qaeda-inspired protests at American diplomatic establishments in Cairo, Tunis, Sanaa, and elsewhere in September 2012. The cover of the tenth issue of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsulas Inspire magazine focused on this theme, celebrating the US Embassy protests and assaults. Footage from these rallies was also included in Hamzas first official al Qaeda message in Aug. 2015. Then, in Aug. 2016, al Qaeda released Hamzas lengthy critique of the Saudi regime. He called for regime change in Saudi Arabia and blamed the government for interfering in AQAPs jihad in Yemen. [See FDDs Long War Journal, Hamza bin Laden calls for regime change in Saudi Arabia.] Hamzas earliest appearances in al Qaedas propaganda were paired with messages from Ayman al Zawahiri, the successor to Osama as head of al Qaeda. The terror and insurgency organization undoubtedly thinks it is advantageous to use the bin Laden brand name in its jihadi marketing. Thomas Joscelyn is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Senior Editor for FDD's Long War Journal. Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here. The US has killed four mid-level Islamic State commanders in airstrikes in both Iraq and Syria since the beginning of December 2016, the military announced over the past week. The Islamic State commanders were involved in military, suicide, chemical, and financial operations, according to the US military. Colonel John Dorrian, the Spokesman for Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve, announced the deaths of Imad Abdullah Hamud al Mahallawi, Abu Turk, and Falah al Rashidi at a press conference yesterday. US Central Command issued a statement on the killing of Abu Jandal al Kuwaiti on Dec. 29. The US killed both al Rashidi and Abu Turk in separate airstrikes on Dec. 4, 2016. Al Rashidi was was involved in ISILs [Islamic State] use of VBIEDs, or suicide car bombs, in the city of Mosul, where the Islamic State is under assault from Iraqi forces, Iranian-backed Shiite militias, and Kurdish Peshmerga. The suicide bomb has been one of the Islamic States most effective weapons in Mosul, and Coalition aircraft have launched numerous airstrikes against suicide bombs and factories. The group claims to have used 220 martyrdom operations during the first 10 weeks of its defense of Mosul; this accounts for 20 percent of the claimed 1,112 suicide operations claimed in Iraq and Syria, during 2016. [See FDDs Long War Journal report, Islamic State claims historically high number of suicide attacks in 2016.] Dorrian described Abu Turk as an Islamic State financial facilitator in Qanfusah, Iraq, who had connections to ISIL leaders and facilitated funds to the group. He was killed during fighting in the Iraqi city of Sharqat just south of Mosul, which was recently wrested from the Islamic State. Al Mahallawi, a legacy al Qaeda Iraq member serving as an ISIL leader in Al Qaim, was killed on Dec. 21, 2016 in an airstrike in Al Qaim, the western Iraqi town on the border with Syria where he commands troops. The Islamic State controls Al Qaim and the towns along the Euphrates River Valley up to Anah. Dorrian described al Mahallawis death as significant because as ISIL continues to lose population centers, they want to transition towards spoiler attacks in the outlying areas of Iraq and Syria. Al Kuwaiti, who was killed near the Tabqa Dam in Syria, was described as an ISIL gang leader in Raqqah who previously served as a member of the Islamic States War Committee, which is tasked with directing the groups offensive and defensive military operations in Iraq and Syria. Al Kuwaiti was involved in the Islamic States December 2016 recapture of the Syrian city of Palmyra. Abu Jandal was involved in the use of suicide vehicles, IEDs and chemical weapons against the SDF, or Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of rebel groups and militias that is attempting to drive the Islamic State from its strongholds in northern Syria, including Raqqah. He was reassigned to Tabqa to try to improve ISILs defenses against the SDF. The US military has targeted senior and mid-level Islamic State leaders, external operations planners, and military commanders while also striking the groups military and civilian infrastructure throughout Iraq and Syria in an effort to deny the group territory and deal it a lasting defeat. Among the most important leaders killed in 2016 include Abu Muhammad al Adnani, the groups top spokesman and external operations leader; Abu Omar al Shishani, the Islamic States war minister; Wail Adil Hasan Salman al-Fayad, the information minister and central shura member; and Abd al-Basit al-Iraqi, the emir of the Middle East external networks. Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal. Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here. Style / World of Watches (WOW) A tale of history and centuries of dedication, Inoue Hikone brings us the story of its Seven Masters to help understand what goes into creating a watch winder Jan 05, 2017 | By Vimi Haridasan It takes a team to do any task successfully. Each equipped with their own set of skills, the members bring their own flair to the table and the Seven Masters at Inoue Hikone are no different. The company specialises in three watch winder designs, namely the Shihou, Hafu and Kuden that feature elements of Inoue Hikones traditional Butsudan structures. Equipped with the knowledge of craftsmen who first started creating butsudans or Buddhist altars 350 years ago, the masters showcase the ancient art of those who first helped defend Nanamagari Street in East Japan. The street, directly translated to Severn Turns, was known for crafting weaponry and armour before branching out to produce Buddhist ritual items. Today the area is known not only for being on the Eastern side of Japans largest lake, Lake Biwa but also for being home to a team of elite craftsmen. The century old brand shares with us the delicate and painstaking process that goes into producing a watch winder. Over the course of six months, the Seven Masters as they are known come together to produce one watch winder piece. The first of the seven, is The Kijishi who crafts the main body of the butsudan altar. Using the mortise and tenon joint technique, the craftsman combines carefully chosen pieces of wood to form a nail-free structure. This allows for the butsudan to be dismantled at a later time. Next, is The Kudenshi or palace maker. Responsible for the small details that join the roof of the butsudan (kuden), his role requires him to be precise in his measurement. Using the same joint techniques as the Kijishi, the craftsman ensures that there is accuracy in each joint. The third is The Sculptor who selects the design and carves it out of hinoki cypress or pine wood. The three dimensional depictions of flora and fauna help to add to the beauty of each watch winder. Next, is The Lacquerer who applies urushi lacquer to the carved wood using a brush before polishing the design with a premium technique called roiro finishing. The work provides a deeper hue and mirror-like surface that are all trademarks of urushi lacquer work. The next craftsman to aid in crafting the watch winder is The Gilder. By applying sheets of pure gold leaf, of approximately 0.0001mm, with the help of a special lacquer glue, the craftsman is responsible for gold leaf stamping. So delicate is the sheet used, that the craftsman risks losing it should even the slightest breeze occur. The Chaser helps to engrave, using a tagane or hammer, the shapes by manipulating copper and other metals to the necessary design. Like The Glider or The Lacquerer, the craftsman completes his task by applying a coating of urushi lacquer or gold plating. The final craftsman is The Makieshi who designs and paints natural landscapes, flowers and birds. Following his initial sketch using lacquer paint, the craftsman then adds sprinkles of gold or silver powders as well as inlays of mother of pearl to give each watch winder that luxurious look. As the last skilled eye to handle the watch winder, the Makieshi adds the finish touches to the creation to ensure that the polished look is complete. Literally everything about Apple stinks, including the things that dont. And the things they never even announced? Theyre late. Writing for Fast Company, Mark Wilson keys a hate letter to Apple. Dear Apple, Please Fix Boring Problems This Year. (Tip o the antlers to @JonyIveParody.) That thing you heard was really good? It cant be. Otherwise the story doesnt work. Then in 2016, Apple announced AirPodsa wireless earbud deemed ugly by the Wall Street Journal Well, we probably shouldnt look at the whole headline from that link, should we? I mean, Wilson couldnt be omitting any salient points from it, surely, because that would be uh, yeah, totally in character for him, yes, lets just take a peek Best Wireless Earbuds: Apples AirPods (Yes, Those Ugly Things). Best. Wireless. Earbuds. The Macalope has seen people bury the lede before but hes not certain hes seen someone bury the first half of a headline. And they are the best wireless earbuds, bud. Theyre great. The Macalope will say it again: Criticizing the AirPods is simply shorthand for saying I do not own AirPods. Are they perfect? No. They are not. However, they are the kind of classic Apple product thats so good when its good that it makes you forget when its bad. Also, its never as bad as the other truly bad products in the same category. But in Wilsons scenario of doom, they have to be bad because everything at Apple is bad. Even the stuff they dont actually make. Meanwhile, Apple scaled back the largest ambitions of its secretive self-driving vehicle program. Rumor has it the company will no longer build its own vehicle, but a system for car manufacturers to incorporate into their own designs. And amid all of these delays and misses How does one miss on the shipment of a product they dont even make yet? This is like an adjunct to the problem of Schrodingers cat in which the box containing the cat is put in a self-driving car that gets stuck in traffic. One thing that is certainly true, though, is that the market for self-driving cars is all sewn up now and its way too late for Apple to have an impact in it since everyone owns a self-driving car already and youre reading this article while you ride in one because the cars, they drive themselves. OH, WELL. BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME, APPLE. The Mac Prothe flagship of Apple desktop hardwarehasnt been updated since 2013 The iMac is unarguably the flagship of Apple desktop hardware, not the Mac Pro. But, hey, the iMac didnt get an update in 2016, either, which is the first year it hasnt received even so much as a speed bump since its introduction. One year isnt nearly as bad as the Mac Pros epic drought, however. The new Macbook Pro has a Touchbar [sic] that looks like something dreamed up by an intern at HP. Again, most people who use the Touch Bar actually like it, but we cant admit that because everything must be terrible and hated. Its the Tinkerbell of Apple doom: You just have to believe everything is awful. Boo, children! Only your relentless booing will save the Tinkerbell of Apple doom! Microsoft, smelling blood in the water, has given up on phones but focused on the future of the laptop and desktop. Its Surface line is not only selling well to the mainstream, its experimenting aggressively to score the Photoshopping, Maya-ing, and AutoDesk-ing market, too. Follow that link and youll see that Microsoft made $926 million in the third quarter of 2016 from Surface sales. Now, that is pretty good and, more importantly, its growing. But it still pales in comparison to the $5.63 billion in revenue Apple made from the Mac in the same quarter. Anyone who is compelled to trade in an Apple product for a discount on a Surface seems more likely to toss their iPhone for Android, too. Oh, totally. If youre frustrated with one problem, why not burn your entire world to the ground and salt the earth? That just makes sense. Yes, Apple has problems. (Microsoft also has problems but is always presumed to be able to Microsoft their way out of them because Microsoft!) Somehow, though, Apple just having problems is never good enough. The company must be made to look like it only has problems. The reasons for this continue to baffle this furry observer. New Delhi: About 97% of the old Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 notes have been deposited in the banks as of Dec 30 which amounts to about Rs. 14.97 lakh crore. When the Prime Minister announced the demonitisation on Nov 8, Rs. 15.44 lakh crore, constituting 86% of all currency, was declared void. There was also a view within some sections of the government that 20 to 40 percent of the illegal tender constituted black money and hence about three to five lakh crore rupees will not come back to the banks. But the latest reports have proved this wrong. Another day, another pipeline protest by "keep it in the ground" activists. On Dec. 8, a dozen people swarmed a construction site near the Hudson River in an attempt to halt construction of Spectra Energy's AIM pipeline, which is designed to carry natural gas from New Jersey to Massachusetts. The protesters, who call themselves the HudsonStand12, were arrested and charged with criminal trespass and resisting arrest by authorities in Cortlandt, New York. Those arrests come on the heels of the monthslong protests against the Dakota Access oil pipeline project in North Dakota, which, of course, followed the brouhaha over the Keystone XL pipeline. Climate activists are now hoping to block oil and gas pipeline projects across the country due to their claim that we must keep all hydrocarbons in the ground to avert catastrophic climate change. Those same activists repeatedly claim we don't need fossil fuels because we can rely solely on wind and solar energy. But while they obsess over our carbon footprint, climate activists don't give a fig about the land-use footprint of renewables. Indeed, the dirty truth about "clean" energy is that it requires shocking amounts of land. In a recent report for the Manhattan Institute, I show that using wind and solar energy to reduce domestic carbon dioxide emissions by 80% by 2050 (80 by 50) will require covering about 287,700 square miles of territory an area about the size of Texas and West Virginia combined. I calculated the land-use requirements by examining three decarbonization scenarios that have been published over the past few years including the wind, water, and solar scenario that has been endorsed by the leaders of the Sierra Club, Greenpeace, and 350.org. Averaging those three scenarios shows that achieving 80 by 50 with renewables alone will require about 1,958 gigawatts of wind energy capacity and about 2,441 gigawatts of solar capacity. I then used data from the Department of Energy and published media stories to calculate wind energy's capacity density, that is, its overall footprint. The result: wind energy's footprint is 3 watts per square meter, or 1 gigawatt per 131.3 square miles. I relied on published data for three large California solar-photovoltaic projects to calculate solar's capacity density. The result: solar's footprint is 36.3 watts per square meter or 1 gigawatt per 10.6 square miles. These land-use figures are relevant because of the growing rural backlash against renewable-energy projects. For instance, while national media focused on protesters who gathered near Cannon Ball, North Dakota, to oppose Dakota Access, they ignored the recent rejection of a huge wind project located about 170 miles west of there. On Nov. 15, Billings County officials rejected the application for a 383-megawatt wind energy project that was to cover some 25,000 acres. Chief among their concerns was the project's visual impact, including the fact that some of the turbines would have been visible from inside Theodore Roosevelt National Park. In New York, three upstate counties Erie, Orleans, and Niagara as well as the towns of Yates and Somerset, are all fighting a proposed 200-megawatt project called Lighthouse Wind. In Vermont, about 160 towns and cities have signed the Rutland Resolution which calls for more local control over the siting of renewable-energy projects. Renewables are also hammering wildlife. Not only are wind turbines killing significant numbers of eagles and other birds, a recent study by scientists from the US Geological Survey have found that wind turbines are now the planet's largest killer of bats. For decades, a central tenet of environmentalism has been small footprints in everything from agriculture to urban planning. But now, in the name of climate change, environmentalism has been turned on its head. Rather than advocate for people, landscapes and wildlife, our biggest environmental groups are cheering for renewable energy schemes that disregard all three. In short, keeping it "in the ground" requires decimating much of what's above ground. That's a lousy trade. This piece originally appeared in Investor's Business Daily ______________________ Robert Bryce is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Follow him on Twitter here. Raising Questions About Politics and the Mass Media Its the first week of January and the election returns are starting to trickle in. Its not for the rich Democratic white Hillary Clinton who captured the popular vote, nor for the rich Republican white Donald Trump who captured the electoral college and became the next president. This vote came from the campaigns of Clinton and Trump, and the beneficiaries were the TV media in select markets. The Clinton campaign and the groups supporting her spent about $1.4 billion, most of it for TV ads. The Trump campaign raised about $932 million. The only reason Trump didnt match Clintons total was because he didnt need tothe TV and social media were so intrigued by his tweets that they gave him more coverage than any other candidate.Overall, spending for all major races was about $6.9 billion, including $228 million on the Bernie Sanders campaign. About $226.6 million of that total was from individuals, most of that from $27 donations from about seven million individuals. Sanders had rejected contributions of lobbying groups. The highest total for Sanders was a paltry $15,000 from the American Postal Workers Union.The Federal Election Campaign Act Amendments of 1974, sometimes known as the McCain-Feingold act, placed limits on candidates. In March 2009, the Supreme Court opened up political spending in its ruling in Citizens United v. the General Elections Committee. The Court, in a contentious 54 decision, primarily along party lines, declared caps on political restrictions violated the First Amendment. The result of the ruling allowed a significant increase in spending by lobbyists. Democrats saw this as an erosion of fair campaigns; Republicans generally praised the ruling.If even half the $6.9 billion raised in this years campaigns would have been applied elsewhere, it could have supported medical research, aid to wounded military personnel, housing for the homeless, better roads and bridges, and numerous other domestic programs. But the money was spent on a presidential race that pays the victor $400,000, and members of Congress $174,000.The candidates often blame the media for all kinds of sins, with the conservative candidates calling the media the liberal, lying media. But, they use the media to get their word out, saving advertising dollars.The TV media have been beneficiariesand this raises an ethical issue. Although there is an invisible wall between the news and business division, just how flimsy is that wall? News Media corporations make contributions; candidates accept the media; the corporations then receive significant income from advertising funds.More important, how resilient are news directors from not giving significant coverage to following the money because their stations are benefitting? [Dr. Braschs current book is Fracking Pennsylvania, which looks at the impact of fracking upon public health, worker safety, the environment, and agriculture. The book--available at local bookstores and amazon. com--also looks at the financial collusion between politicians and Big Energy.] By Walter M Brasch PhD http://www.walterbrasch.com Copyright 2016 Walter M Brasch Walter Brasch is a university journalism professor, syndicated columnist, and author of 17 books. His current books are America's Unpatriotic Acts , The Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina , and Sex and the Single Beer Can: Probing the Media and American Culture . All are available through amazon.com, bn.com, or other bookstores. You may contact Dr. Brasch at walterbrasch@gmail.com Walter Brasch Archive 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. Theres No Such Thing as Europe Anymore BY PATRICK WATSON : The European Unions founders envisioned an ever-closer union that gradually eliminated national distinctions. It didnt happen, and geopolitical expert George Friedman of Geopolitical Futures says the opposite is now taking shape. Europe doesnt really exist in any meaningful way. No Commitment to Union Between Italys banking crisis and Germanys lagging export growth, Europes problems look mostly economic to some observers. Friedman disagrees. Speaking in a recent Mauldin Economics video about his 2017 forecast, he said the continents greatest challenges are political. The mechanisms that might solve Europes economic problems function only if the member states are willing to help each other, even when it is to their own disadvantage. No EU country currently has that kind of commitment. Collaboration Breakdown Is Europes Core Problem Regarding Italys failing banks, Friedman says a European Central Bank bailout is the only possible solution, but no one likes that idea so it is going nowhere. A series of time-buying superficial repairs disguise this reality for now, but cant do it forever. This collaboration breakdown is the EU and Eurozones fundamental problem, according to Friedman, and no one has an answer for it. EU Members Can Just Ignore Brussels Whats next? Friedman says the EU is effectively already gone. Nations dont even need to withdraw; they can simply ignore any edicts from Brussels they dont like. Several nations already are on immigration and refugee policies. Without an ability to sanction its member states, the European Union isnt a union in any meaningful sense. Friedmans only question is whetherand how longit can continue to function at all. Watch the full interview (3:24) below or on the Mauldin Economics site. Grab This Free Report to See What Lies Ahead in 2017 Now, for a limited time, you can download this free report from Mauldin Economics detailing the rocky roads that lie ahead for three globally important countries in 2017and how the economic fallout from their coming crises could affect you. Top 3 Economic Surprises for 2017 is required reading for investors and concerned citizens alike. Get your free copy now. John Mauldin Archive 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. Americans Prefer Pets to Kids After the Great Recession - How to Cash In BY PATRICK WATSON : More and more Americans seem to prefer pets to children and the resulting demographic trend has massive economic and investment implications. The numbers are startling and affect everyonewhether youre a parent, a pet owner, neither, or both. Its also an investment opportunity you might try in 2017. 4 million missing babies While the memories of the Great Recession may be fading, the effects are still very much with us. Among other places, the impact shows up in demographic data. Last summer, I ran across some fascinating analysis by University of New Hampshire sociologist Kenneth M. Johnson. He found that US fertility levels dropped sharply beginning in 2008 and have yet to recover. All those babies we didnt have add up to a big number. Professor Johnson calculated that if births had continued at the pre-recession rate, Americans would have had 3.4 million additional babies in 20082015. He found no evidence to suggest that this trend changed in 2016, so the total is likely near 4 million by now. This happened even though the number of women of childbearing age actually increased during this period. Its no mystery why People who are experiencing economic and financial difficulty are less likely to have children. The missing babies have a macroeconomic effect. All those jobs that would have been created in hospital maternity wards and eventually day care centers, kindergartens, and public schools arent materializing. And then theres the billions of dollars that arent spent on baby food, diapers, and clothes. Plus, sometime around 2025, we may start noticing fewer new workers entering the labor force. This plunge of birthrates is not a new phenomenon, by the way. Contrary to what many people believe, the developed world has been on the fast track to population decline since at least the 1970sa trend visible in many countries, from Germany to Japan. However, even without children, the primal human urge to care and nurture has to find an outlet. Which is where our furry friends come in. A recession-proof industry For many people, pets serve as a less expensive and less burdensome substitute for children. You get an idea just how much Americans adore their pets when you walk into PetSmart and see how much people spend on animal food, beds, and toys. Pets make our life better but they definitely arent free. According to the American Pet Products Association (APPA), US consumers will spend $62.75 billion on pet food, supplies, and services this year. Even more interesting is the growth curve in pet spending. Its been rising at the same time as human birth rates have been falling. The APPA data shows that pet spending in 2007, before the Great Recession, was $41.2 billion. That means the market has grown over 50% since then, far faster than most other sectors of our sluggish economy. Furthermore, pet spending has grown steadily every year for more than two decades. You would think people cut back on pet expenses in recessions, but amazingly, thats not the case. Its that caring instinct again. Just as parents put their childrens needs ahead of their own, many pet owners will tighten their own budget in order to provide for their animals. Subscribe to Connecting the Dotsand Get a Glimpse of the Future We live in an era of rapid change and only those who see and understand the shifting market, economic, and political trends can make wise investment decisions. Macroeconomic forecaster Patrick Watson spots the trends and spells what they mean every week in the free e-letter, Connecting the Dots. Subscribe now for his seasoned insight into the surprising forces driving global markets. John Mauldin Archive 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. The court held that employees who have not exercised the option to join the Employees Pension Scheme must be given a further chance of 6 months to do so. MARTINSVILLE The Harvest Foundation has added two new board members to its board of directors. Kelvin Perry and Danny Wulff join 12 others to comprise the organizations board. Both men reside in Martinsville with their families. Perry most recently served as president and chief executive of First State Bank in Danville until 2015. He has also served as president of Imperial Savings and Loan Association in Martinsville and assistant vice-president of First Union National Bank in Fayetteville, North Carolina. In addition, Perrys volunteer service includes presiding as past chairman of the Danville-Pittsylvania County Chamber of Commerce, former trustee for the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research, a member of the Patient Advisory Council at Danville Regional Medical Center and both president and a board member of the Big Brothers and Big Sisters program in Danville. Perry said he was excited and honored after being asked to serve on the Harvest Board of Directors. I believe Harvest is critical to the future success of the community, Perry said. I believe given the mission of Harvest, it is one of the key players in the community with the best position to make a great impact in transforming our area economically and enhancing the quality of life for residents. While serving on the Harvest Foundation Board of Directors, Perry said he hopes to assist the community in a way that will yield a positive impact on the area long after his term has ended. I plan to be prudent, a good listener, advocate for small businesses and engage in social and morally conscience initiatives that will improve Martinsville and Henry County, Perry said. Years from now when the Harvest Foundation is completing a new strategic plan, I want that board of directors to look back and be proud of the actions taken by their predecessors to move the community forward. Wulff serves as the owner and operator of Chick-fil-A of Martinsville. He said he was honored and humbled to be nominated to serve on the Harvest Foundation Board of Directors. The franchisee moved to Martinsville in 2009 with his wife. This community is our home now, Wulff said. Two of my children have been born here. I was actually raised by a missionary family and lived in Colombia, South America, for most of my life. This gives me a different perspective on cultures. I also own a small business that has great success locally. This has provided me with experience on employment and our areas workforce. Wulff said he hopes to bring a different viewpoint to the Harvest Foundation Board of Directors. From an outside perspective, Ive seen the large impact that Harvest has had on our community economically, educationally and financially, Wulff said. During my board service at Harvest, I want to help protect our communitys future. Harvest should be an organization that is in existence for my grandkids, and I take that responsibility very seriously. I also want to help our community move into the future and preserve the legacy of the foundation. I would like to walk away knowing I did my job in helping our community. Wulff has spoken to numerous professional and school groups in the area about business and leadership, received the Martinsville Police Department Outstanding Citizen of the Year Award in 2013, received the 2012 Small Business of the Year Award in Service by the Martinsville-Henry County Chamber of Commerce and he also serves on the board of directors for Piedmont Arts. The Harvest Foundation Board of Directors is a 14-member board that includes a new slate of officers for 2017. They are: Dr. Paul R. Eason, chairman; David L. Stone Jr., vice chairman; Monica T. Monday Esq., secretary; and William L. Bill Kirby IV, treasurer. Other members include W. Christopher Beeler Jr., Virginia Walker Hamlet, Cynthia Ingram, Rev. Jane B. Johnson, Dr. Gene Madonia, Dr. Jim Muehleck, E. Larry Ryder and Dr. Paulette Simington. For more information about the foundation, visit www.theharvestfoundation.org. COLLINSVILLEA Bassett woman pleaded no contest Wednesday in Henry County Circuit Court to 25 counts of health care fraud. Nineteen of the charges against Deloris Diane Hunt involved more than a total of $24,000 that Hunt allegedly billed for, charging for services given to Medicaid recipients. The other six cases involved claims Hunt allegedly submitted to Medicaid after recipients had died. Medicaid did not pay her for those claims. A summary of the commonwealths evidence submitted by special prosecutor Vaso Doubles of the Virginia Attorney Generals Office alleges the following. The Consumer Directed Program allows individual Medicaid recipients to remain in their homes and not enter into nursing facilities. The service facilitator is an independent Medicaid provider. The service facilitator is responsible for supporting the Medicaid recipient by ensuring the development and monitoring of the Consumer Directed Program. Routine visits must be conducted in the Medicaid recipients home and must be face-to-face visits. Once the Medicaid recipient is enrolled in the program the service facilitator must conduct routine face-to-face visits every 30, 60 or 90 days, the summary states. Hunt, owner of Home Sweet Home, a home health care business, enrolled as a service facilitator in the Consumer Directed Program in 2008. In 2012, the Department of Medical Assistance Services (also known as the Virginia Medicaid Program) conducted an audit of Home Sweet Home. The findings of the audit were released in September 2012. During the audit, Medicaid discovered that Hunt allegedly was using people as employees who were not properly vetted to do the assessments and monthly visits. Another issue discovered involved billing for services without the necessary documentation on the monthly assessments. Hunt was educated about these issues in how her business was conducted and specifically in her billing practices. Ms. Hunt advised Medicaid that she had been very ill and did the best she could. Medicaid retracted over $12,000 for the issues found in the audit, the summary said. After the audit of 2012, Hunt allegedly continued to bill Medicaid and did not rectify the issues and discrepancies found during the audit. She was on notice after the audit on how to properly bill Medicaid and what she needed to do to assure that her billing for claims was accurate, the summary said. In August 2014, investigators spoke with Hunt about an unrelated matter that was being investigating. At that time, Hunt advised that she had been ill since 2013 and had two helpers. These two employees did not have the necessary background checks and other Medicaid required documentation in their personnel files, the summary stated. This issue had been brought to Hunts attention during the 2012 audit. In December 2014, an investigator spoke with Hunt about an unrelated matter that was being investigated. The investigator requested two recipient files. Hunt allegedly told the investigator she was not good about keeping track of dates she performs assessments and advised that she was in poor health and tired at the end of the day. The defendant also admitted that she performed assessments from her home because of her bad health and she understood that assessments are to be performed at the Medicaid recipients home, the summary alleges. Medicaid received complaints about Hunt from Medicaid recipients and their family members. The Medicaid Fraud Control Unit conducted an audit and inspect in December of 2015 that (led) to an opening of a criminal investigation in January of 2016, the summary stated. The prosecution claims there is information from a number of Medicaid recipients, their care givers and attendants about Hunt allegedly not performing needed assessments, and that Hunt wasnt processing recipient paperwork. As a result, attendants who were caring for these Medicaid recipients were not getting paid and the recipients were losing their eligibility for the Consumer Directed Program. The prosecution also alleges that Hunt admitted that she was billing for services that were not rendered. The defendant further advised that she would sum it up to carelessness. Defendant stated she dropped the ball as a service facilitator, that she was dependent on the Medicaid money to pay her bills and she did not have knowledge to use her computer to input information for the program. Originally Hunt was indicted on 26 counts of health care fraud, but Doubles later dropped one of the charges because, in that one incident, the only witness has since died, according to a previous Martinsville Bulletin article. Originally the 26 indictments, in all, alleged that Hunt did unlawfully, feloniously, knowingly and willfully make or cause to be made any false statement or representation of a material fact in any application for any payment under medical assistance for services being provided to a total of 24 recipients. The offenses allegedly happened at various times between Jan. 1, 2013, and Oct. 31, 2015, with more than half of the indictments covering the period Jan. 1, 2014, through Sept, 30, 2015. On Wednesday, Judge David V. Williams found Hunt guilty of all 25 charges to which she pleaded no contest. Williams ordered a presentence report and set sentencing for April 12 at 2 p.m. BOSTON -- Raising the Massachusetts minimum wage to $15 an hour, as many activists want, could drive employers from the state, according to a survey released this week by Associated Industries of Massachusetts, which opposes the wage hike. The Boston-based business advocacy group has members across the state. It said 13 percent of member companies used to employ people at the former $10 per hour Massachusetts minimum wage. Another 24 percent of responding companies employed people at $10 to $15 per hour and would have to raise those wages if the minimum moved to $15. In the survey, 34 percent of companies said they employed people at slightly more than $15 an hour and would have to increase pay for some of those employees to keep them ahead of those making minimum wage. Another 37 percent of companies said they pay much more than $15 per hour and will not be affected by a minimum-wage increase. The Massachusetts minimum wage increased from $10 an hour to $11 an hour on New Year's Day. This was the last stage of an incremental set of increases. A law signed by then-Gov. Deval Patrick in 2014 raised the wage from $8 to $9 in 2015, to $10 in 2016 and to $11 in 2017. There is no further increase scheduled. Tipped employees have a minimum wage of $3.75 an hour as long as their tips bring them up to $11 an hour. Associated Industries said it believes that education and training workers so they can get better jobs is really the key to addressing income inequality. Workers are compensated based on skills, education and work ethic, the association said. "AIM believes that raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour, while emotionally appealing and politically expedient, is an ineffective way to address income inequality," the group said. "Raising the minimum wage, in fact, represents a fundamental distraction from addressing the real economic impediments that prevent all Massachusetts citizens from sharing in the state's prosperity. These are the same impediments, ironically, that contribute to the persistent skills shortage that threatens innovation and economic growth in Massachusetts." One employer told Associated Industries that its main competitors are outside the state, where the minimum wage is lower. If minimum wage hits $15 an hour, the employer said it would eliminate the jobs and hire temporary workers only for the busy season. Sears Sells Craftsman Sears has sold its Craftsman brand. (AP FILE) NEW BRITAIN, Conn. -- Stanley Black & Decker added to its portfolio Thursday by buying the venerable Craftsman brand from Sears for for $775 million. As part of the deal, Stanley Black & Decker will continue to sell Craftsman through Sears and Kmart stores. For the last several years, Craftsman has also been available at Ace hardware stores, including the local Rocky's chain. Stanley Black & Decker also promised to increase manufacturing in the United States in order to support growth of the Craftsman brand. "This will add jobs in the U.S., where we have increased our manufacturing headcount by 40 percent in the past three years," Stanley Black & Decker officials said in a news release. While calling itself a global company, Stanley Black & Decker says on its website that it manufactures many DeWalt brand tools in the United States, although using parts sourced around the world. In October, Stanley Black & Decker bought Lenox American Saw along with other parts of the the Newell Brands tool division for $1.95 billion in cash. That deal also included Newell's Irwin brand. That deal included the 500,000-square-foot Lenox American Saw factory in East Longmeadow, with its 640 employees. A total of 900 people manufacture and market Lenox saw blades and tools in more than 70 countries. Thursday, Stanley Black & Decker spokesman Tim Perra responded to questions about what the Craftsman deal means for American Saw by pointing out that the American Saw deal is not officially completed. "Therefore it is too early to comment on integration plans," Perra wrote. "As before, it's still important to note that the two businesses are complementary with little substantial overlap in terms of product offerings and distribution channels. The addition of the Irwin and Lenox brands strengthens Stanley Black & Decker's already strong portfolio of brands and the company's position in hand tool and power tool accessories products." The long-troubled Sears brand has been cutting back for years. Earlier this week, Sears announced it will close its store at the Enfield Square Mall this spring. Also on the chopping block are three stores in Massachusetts: two Kmart locations in Fairhaven and South Attleboro and a Sears Auto Center in Swansea. In September, Kmart announced it would shut down 64 stores around the country, including its Great Barrington location. The Great Barrington store was the last remaining Kmart in Berkshire County. As part of the Craftsman deal, Sears will get $525 million at closing, $250 million in three years, and a perpetual license for the Craftsman brand -- royalty free for 15 years -- and a 15-year royalty stream on all third-party Craftsman sales to new customers that could yield several hundred million dollars more over time. Danaher Inc. used to manufacture some Craftsman ratchets and wrenches in Springfield before shutting down in 2005. Staples32.jpg A shopper browses the aisle looking for office equipment at the Staples Office Supply store in Springfield, Ill., last summer. Sales at Staples Inc. climbed for the second straight quarter, but the largest office supply company in the U.S. reported a decline in fourth-quarter profit Tuesday, as some charges and delays in big-ticket purchases weighed on results. (File photo / Associated Press) The U.S. Postal Service has ended its relationship with office goods retailer Staples, according to an press release from American Postal Workers Union. Staples will remove Postal Services signage and branding from its a 500 U.S. locations that handle postal services by the first week of March. It's common for retailers like grocery and drug stores to sell stamps. But Staples was offering more, including priority mail and parcel shipping. The three-year-old arrangement between the Postal Service and Staples had long angered the American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO, which accused the Postal Service of shifting business from post offices staffed by its members to Staples. "The union contended that this privatization effort undermined the public's right to good quality and secure postal services and represented a shift of good living wage positions to low-wage jobs, thereby hurting the well-being of the communities where the union's members lived," the union's press release said. Postal Service spokeswoman Darlene Casey wrote in an email that the Postal Service is ending the relationship because the union was successful in its case against the Staples deal brought to the National Labor Relations Board. A National Labor Relations Board Administrative Law Judge issued an order on November 8, 2016, which requires the Postal Service to discontinue its retail relationship with Staples. The Postal Service intends to comply with that order, Casey wrote. The Postal Service began a pilot program of "mini post offices" in Staples locations in 2013 at select locations in California and in suburban Boston. The Postal Workers Union complained. Then the Postal Service said it was a "preferred shipper" program, a change the union said was a ruse. The union also opposed in 2015 the Staples planned, but ultimately unsuccessful, merger with Office Depot as a way of fighting the post offices in Staples concept. The American Postal Workers Union represents 200,000 employees of the United States Postal Service. Julie and Scott Brusaw, a couple from Sandpoint, Idaho, launched an Indiegogo campaign to bring their invention of Solar Roadways, pavement that generates power, to the public. They not only doubled their goal of $1 million, but also galvanized a global community of enthusiasts and even received an invitation to attend the White House Maker Faire. Their innovation aims to provide clean energy to the world by taking smart solar panels quite literally to the streets. Recently, Scott and Julie have been working on the new SR3 Panel which has 25% more solar gain and is able to display custom light colors. In addition to the production of their latest prototype, Solar Roadways is gearing up for the public installations of these panels. On October 3, 2016, the first Solar Roadways panels were installed in the hometown of its inventors in Sandpoint, Idaho. The team is using this pilot as the first of many to test the third iteration of their panels. Full Story: https://go.indiegogo.com/blog/2016/11/solar-roadways-clean-energy.html?utm_content=blog_cta_a&i=man2&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=usingfeed_blast_01052017_null&utm_term=null Partnership to Increase Reach of SBDC Services, Shark Tank Competition The Montana Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Network has partnered with the Governors Conference on Tourism and Recreation to increase its reach to one of Montanas leading industries. The Montana SBDC Network will host business consulting, business classes and its annual Shark Tank live pitch business plan competition at the conference. "Tourism, recreation and business development go hand in hand," said SBDC State Director Chad Moore. "This partnership is a real win for small business attendees, as they learn industry trends while also receiving consulting and training from expert SBDC advisors. Theyll also be entertained by Shark Tank, a first for the Governors Conference." Full Story: http://commerce.mt.gov/News/PressReleases/ArtMID/19685/ArticleID/5377/Montana-Small-Business-Development-Centers-Partner-with-Governor%e2%80%99s-Conference-on-Tourism-and-Recreation Across the U.S. people are working to build a more talented, skilled workforce, but often those efforts happen in isolation, separated from larger economic development efforts without engaging community and business leaders. A recently released playbook from the Aspen Institute and Futureworks, Communities That Work Partnership Playbook, aims to change a siloed approach and explores seven regional efforts to develop the local workforce for different industries and occupations. The playbook highlights key takeaways and is intended to provide guidance to others developing talent pipelines. SSTI also talked with individuals in Milwaukee and Kansas City about their regional efforts to develop the talent pipeline. By: Ellen Marrison Full Story: http://ssti.org/blog/playbook-provides-workforce-development-guidelines?utm_source=SSTI+Weekly+Digest&utm_campaign=d41ff201f3-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2016_12_29&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ecf5992d4c-d41ff201f3-212414005 Apex Group Ltd. has announced on the 2nd November 2022, the close of the acquisition of Implemented Investment Holdings Limited, the parent company of Implemented Investment Solutions (IIS) and InvestNow. Following Apex Groups entry into the New Zealand market with the recent addition of MMC, the acquisitions of IIS and InvestNow further expand Apex Groups presence in New Zealand and Australia to over 500 employees. IIS provides investment services to large global fund managers, enabling them to establish and distribute New Zealand domiciled funds to their investors. IIS is the issuer and manager of 22 investment schemes with approximately NZ$5 billion of assets under management and will further extend the geographic reach of Apex Groups existing third-party management company and distribution solutions currently delivered via FundRock and LRI subsidiaries. The acquisition of InvestNow adds a leading digital retail investment platform enabling over 25,000 clients to invest approximately NZ$1.3 billion of assets, online in over 150 different managed funds from New Zealand and global fund managers. Through these acquisitions, clients in the New Zealand investment industry will further benefit from access to Apex Groups cross-jurisdictional single-source solution, including solutions such as ESG Rating, Reporting & Advisory and Digital Banking, offered via a network of over 80 offices globally and delivered locally by 10,000 professionals. As part of Apex Group, IIS and InvestNow will continue to serve the New Zealand market, alongside the former MMC business. Anthony Edmonds, Founder and CEO of the IIS Group, and Gareth Fleming, CFO and Executive Director continue to hold senior management roles in the combined business, driving continued growth and providing continuity for clients. Peter Hughes, Founder and CEO of Apex Group comments: We are pleased to welcome IIS and InvestNow to Apex Group as we continue to strengthen our presence and single source offering in the New Zealand market. Our disciplined acquisition strategy is driven by a commitment to continuously enhance our client experience by providing all the services they need, wherever they need them, under one single partnership. As we integrate recent acquisitions and mature operationally, we will continue to extend the depth and reach of our solutions, while ensuring their delivery is underpinned by the highest levels of client service. Anthony Edmonds, Founder and CEO of IIS and InvestNow adds: We would like to thank our colleagues whose hard work has driven the success and significant achievements of the IIS and InvestNow businesses to date. This next chapter creates new opportunities for both our employees and clients as part of an institutional scale, independent and agile global business such as Apex Group. As the New Zealand investment industry continues to thrive, Apex Groups global reach and depth of product will enable us and our clients to continue to grow and capture the significant opportunity that exists, both domestically and globally. Clare Capital served as financial advisors to Implemented Investment Holdings Limited, with DLA Piper providing legal advice. Terms of the transaction are undisclosed. Bell Gully provided legal advice to Apex Group. Partager et informez vous aussi...... 0 shares Share Tweet LinkedIn Articles similaires Julio M. Ottino, dean of the McCormick School of Engineering at Northwestern University, has been awarded a prestigious national education prize for the development and implementation of Whole-Brain Engineering, the schools principal guiding strategy for more than a decade. The 2017 Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education from the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) honors Ottino and his innovative education efforts that have swept across both the McCormick School and the University. Whole-Brain Engineering is a reimagining of engineering education; it merges the analytical and technical components of engineering (left brain) with creativity, design and divergent thinking (right brain). This interdisciplinary approach for developing leaders has led to new Northwestern programs and initiatives for engineers and non-engineers alike and has attracted the attention of other engineering schools worldwide. Julios leadership and vision have helped form a new culture of collaboration at McCormick with far-reaching effects across the University and beyond, Northwestern President Morton Schapiro said. He has made engineering central to numerous initiatives across the Universitys disciplines -- music, journalism, social sciences and law -- and led collaborative partnerships with premier institutions, including the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Rehabilitation Institution of Chicago, President Schapiro said. The Gordon Prize is the highest honor in the country for engineering education. Ottino will be honored at the NAEs Gordon Prize ceremony May 30 at Northwestern. He will split the $500,000 prize money equally with the McCormick School. I am pleased to recognize Julio Ottino for his transformational program at Northwestern University, said NAE President C. D. Mote, Jr. Julio is the personification of a leader who is preparing the next generation of engineers to tackle societys greatest challenges. It is an incredible honor to be recognized on behalf of the outstanding faculty and staff at McCormick for the work that we have done, said Ottino, who, as both an engineer and an artist, exemplifies whole-brain thinking. From the beginning, we set out to reframe engineering, emphasizing that engineers should be thought of by how they think, not just by the things that they make. Northwestern has been an ideal environment to build interdisciplinary partnerships that helped put this vision into action. Ottino and his McCormick leadership team have established three key pillars for developing whole-brain engineers skilled in problem-solving: design, entrepreneurship, and leadership and personal development. These pillars underpin a wide range of programs and activities -- curricular, extra-curricular and research -- that span and connect students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Julios approach to engineering education mirrors the increased prevalence of engineering and technology in our everyday lives and prepares engineers to work with diverse teams and to understand the needs of the populations they serve, President Schapiro said. Whole-Brain Engineering and its integrated way of thinking are evident in McCormick, across the University and beyond: First-year students are introduced to Whole-Brain Engineering and the problem-solving process in the earliest days of their McCormick education and the problem-solving process in the earliest days of their McCormick education Nearly every engineering student works on a project to enhance the quality of life of a Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC) patient with a disability patient with a disability NUvention , McCormicks flagship interdisciplinary course that exposes Northwestern students to the entire innovation and entrepreneurial life cycle, has grown from one track to eight tracks, ranging from arts and analytics to transportation and therapeutics , McCormicks flagship interdisciplinary course that exposes Northwestern students to the entire innovation and entrepreneurial life cycle, has grown from one track to eight tracks, ranging from arts and analytics to transportation and therapeutics Design for America (DFA) , a student initiative in which students practice social service through design, was founded at McCormick, and DFA studios are now at 36 college and university campuses across the country , a student initiative in which students practice social service through design, was founded at McCormick, and DFA studios are now at 36 college and university campuses across the country The Segal Design Institute and the Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation attract students from across Northwestern to its events and courses, including the Farley Center's NUvention program By augmenting existing programs and developing new initiatives to complement an already strong technical curriculum, McCormick provides a better student experience, prepares engineers to have a bigger impact and imagine new possibilities in solving complex problems, and attracts more students into STEM fields. McCormick has developed collaborations with other schools and programs on campus, increasing the centrality of engineering within a comprehensive university. Many new courses bring together students from across disciplines and also partner with local institutions, such as RIC and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Ottino has led the development of Whole-Brain Engineering since 2005. Since making it the cornerstone of Northwestern Engineerings strategy, the number of women in the school has increased by more than 60 percent, and engineering enrollments are at all-time high levels. In addition to his role as dean, Ottino serves as Distinguished Robert R. McCormick Institute Professor, Walter P. Murphy Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering and professor (by courtesy) of mechanical engineering. He is the founder and former director of the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO). Ottino, who has supervised more than 50 Ph.D. theses, previously held positions at the University of Massachusetts Amherst as well as chair and senior appointments at the California Institute of Technology and Stanford University. He is both a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The Gordon Prize was established in 2001 as a biennial prize acknowledging new modalities and experiments in education that develop effective engineering leaders. Recognizing the potential to spur a revolution in engineering education, NAE announced in 2003 that the prize would be awarded annually. The NAE is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, an independent, nonprofit organization chartered by Congress to provide objective analysis and advice to the nation on matters of science, technology and health. Learn more about Whole-Brain Engineering Authorities said Thursday they arrested a Nebo man after he led a deputy on a high speed pursuit and rammed the officers vehicle. Deputy Adam Burnette of the McDowell County Sheriffs Office charged Justin Carroll Gibson, 23, of 1730 Macedonia Church Loop in Nebo, with assault with a deadly weapon on a government official and fleeing to elude arrest. At 10:45 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 4, Burnette was patrolling on U.S. 221 South, when he spotted an older model burgundy Honda that had just fled from Marion police officers. The vehicle, driven by Gibson, turned onto Interstate 40, and Burnette got behind it and attempted to stop it. The driver sped up, leading Burnette on a pursuit onto U.S. 221 South, hitting speeds up to 110 mph. On multiple occasions during the chase, Gibson slammed on his brakes, causing the deputy to have to go into the left lane to keep from colliding with the Honda. During those times, Gibson rammed his vehicle into the Sheriffs Office patrol car. Burnette finally got Gibson stopped on Glenwood Baptist Church Road and took him into custody. At the time of his arrest, Gibson was served by Marion P.D. with outstanding warrants from Sept. 10 for larceny of a motor vehicle and injury to personal property. Gibson is being held under a $42,500 total bond for all charges. The Maldives has rented an island near Male airplane terminal to a Chinese organization, an advancement that could have antagonistic key ramifications for India in its patio.Feydhoo Finolhu, the closest uninhabited island to capital Male and the global airplane terminal, has been rented to a Chinese organization for a long time at a cost of about $4 million, the Maldivian tourism serve Moosa Zameer declared on Tuesday, without revealing the name of the organization.China has been looking at chances to construct foundation in Maldives to grow its impression in the Indian Ocean Region as a major aspect of its 'One Belt One Road' availability activity. It is quick to opening its handbag strings to assemble a system of ports named the 'String of Pearls'.This has started worry in India, which may talk about the issue of renting of islands to remote firms with Maldivian outside clergyman Mohamed Asim on his visit to Delhi one month from now, individuals acquainted with the matter said. Feydhoo Finolhu, already utilized by the training service for school treks and cadet, scout, and young lady direct exercises, was among 11 islands and two tidal ponds recorded by the tourism service in late October for renting before the end of the year. The Maldives had changed its law in July to permit the legislature to sidestep focused offering process. Ban on liquor shops near highways to hurt food and beverage... After losing to India in FDI, China opens up economy more Biscuit sales down post demonetisation, says Parle by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, January 5, 2017 Personal assistants and intelligent agents made it to the top of Microsoft Bing's marketing search terms list in the U.S. for 2016. With 2016 behind marketers, Microsoft Bing Ads released the top marketing-related searches of 2016. Advances in chat bots and virtual assistants -- such as Cortana and Alexa from Amazon Echo as well as updates to several smartphone chat bots -- no doubt drove the uptick. Virtual and augmented reality stepped into the No. 2 spot, with the popularity of searches representing the growth of this technology throughout 2016. Search marketing came in at No. 3, followed by artificial intelligence at No. 4 and email marketing at No. 5. Moments in search may seem insignificant, but it's those moments that can connect brands with consumers, which makes keeping in tune with the trends and technology critical. "Bing has witnessed a year of considerable growth and The Bing Network is helping marketers reach a unique and growing audience whose online engagements provide significant insight into the people behind the searches," Steve Sirich, GM of Marketing at Bing Ads, told SearchBlog in an email during late December. The comment made in reflection of the top searches in 2016. advertisement advertisement "For marketers, the general trends as well as the depth of intent understanding Bing intelligence provides for custom audiences, enable the effective delivery of personalized, relevant and impactful campaigns," he wrote. Bings Top Searches of 2016 included self-driving Teslas, SoundCloud, and Textalyzer. Meanwhile, a list of top anticipated cars for 2017 based on the top search terms in 2016 include a line of 2018 cars such as Mercedes Maybach Pullman, Ferrari Dino, Infiniti Q100, Chevrolet Bolt, Lincoln Continental, Land Rover Defender, Toyota Supra, Honda Civic Type R, and Jeep Wrangler. There's one exception to the top 10 of 2018 models, which is the 2010 Lamborghini Asterion. by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, January 5, 2017 Google sent another warning to publishers, advertisers and developers this week that it would stop development of Flash in the Interactive Media Ads software development kits. With the warning for publishers, advertisers and developers to migrate away from Flash comes a message to become more comfortable with HTML5 SDK, as the company ends support for IMA SDK in Flash and support for Flash VPAID (Video Player Ad-Serving Interface Definition) ads in the HTML5 SDK. "We strongly encourage all publishers still using the Flash SDK to migrate to the HTML5 SDK," We also strongly encourage advertisers still trafficking Flash VPAID ads to migrate those ads to JavaScript VPAID." KSAT.com, Thursday, January 5, 2017 9:21 AM The Northside Independent School District in San Antonio, Texas has warned both former and current students and employees of a data breach on its network. This past August the school discovered that someone had hacked into the email accounts of some employees, but an investigation has found that the breach may have been more widespread. The school district now believes that some 23,000 people could have been exposed in the breach. Read the whole story at KSAT.com by Karlene Lukovitz @KLmarketdaily, January 5, 2017 The nonprofit Praxis Project on Wednesday filed a suit in federal court in California accusing The Coca-Cola Company and the American Beverage Association of downplaying the health risks of sugary sodas with deceptive marketing and biased research. Praxis, a national organization that describes its mission as helping to achieve health justice for all communities, is being represented by counsel for the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest, among others. Both Praxis and CSPI have been aggressive opponents of sugary beverages. The suit charges that Coca-Cola and the ABA executed a strategy of shifting focus away from sugar-sweetened beverages to a lack of exercise as a principal cause of the obesity epidemic and led consumers to believe that all calories are the same, when science indicates that sugar drinks play a distinct role in the obesity epidemic, sums up CSPIs announcement of the filing. advertisement advertisement The groups cite, for example, a Coke video currently on YouTube, Be OK, as among those spreading misinformation by suggesting that exercise, even small amounts like laughing or bowling, can offset the harmful effects of drinking soda. The video notes that the 140 happy calories in a 12-ounce can of regular Coke can be spent on extra happy activities such as 25 minutes of dog walking, 10 minutes of dancing, or 75 seconds of laughing out loud (shown above). The video (shown below) plugs Coca-Cola Zero at the end, with the message: Calories Optional. The Praxis complaint also cites the multiplatform Mixify campaign from ABA, Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Dr Pepper charging that it encourages kids to consume sugar-sweetened beverages and then exercise more and Coca-Colas 2014 investment of $22 million on physical activity programs around the world, saying that those promoted the companys products along with the idea that modest amounts of exercise are the key to avoiding soda-related diseases like obesity. Asked why the Praxis lawsuit does not name PepsiCo as a defendant, CSPI litigation director Maia C. Kats told Reuters that PepsiCo is not promoting itself as a voice of science, or misrepresenting the harms of sugary beverages, the way Coca-Cola is." CSPI already has a lawsuit underway against PepsiCo, alleging that the images on the products labels mislead consumers to believe they are paying for ingredients like berries and greens, whereas apple and orange juice are the dominant ingredients. That suit was filed in October. In the U.K., Coca-Cola ran essentially the same Be OK ad (that ad cited 139 happy calories) and a Coming Together ad that promoted its lower- and no-calorie product initiatives, in 2013, according to Campaign. Subsequently, the U.K.s Advertising Standards Authority banned Be OK on the grounds that the creative was ambiguous and did not clearly communicate to all viewers that it was a combination of all the activities depicted that would burn off 139 calories, reported the trade pub. Targeting Funded Research Citing a 2015 New York Timesreport, the Praxis suit also alleges that Coca-Cola covertly funded and publicized biased scientific research and substantially orchestrated a drumbeat of deceptive ABA press releases on science and health. In total, between 2010 and 2015, the company spent $120 million on research and other projects aimed at confusing consumers about, or denying, the science linking health risks to soda and other sugar drinks, CSPI asserts. In December, the Times also reported that a study published in The Annals of Internal Medicine, which criticized sugar guidelines from the World Health Organization and other health groups as being based on low-quality evidence, was paid for by the International Life Sciences Institute, which is funded by companies including Coca-Cola, General Mills, Hershey, Kellogg, Kraft and Monsanto. Coca-Cola Calls Suit Meritless A Coca-Cola spokesperson described the Praxis lawsuit to Reuters U.K. as legally and factually meritless, adding: We take our consumers and their health very seriously and have been on a journey to become a more credible and helpful partner in helping consumers manage their sugar consumption." As of Thursday morning, the ABA had not posted a response to the new lawsuit. Last September, ABA announced a Balance Calories Initiative, launched by ABA, The Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo and the Dr Pepper Group in conjunction with the nonprofit Alliance for a Healthier Generation, founded by the American Heart Association and the Clinton Foundation. The initiative declared the companies goal to reduce beverage calories consumed nationally by 20% by 2025, with emphasis on promoting calorie awareness and consumption of their bottled-water products, as well as introducing and expanding lower-calorie products and smaller-portion packages. Our industry has a longstanding commitment to being part of the solution to reducing obesity in America, says ABAs site, and the Balance Calories initiative will take our efforts to provide consumers with more choices, smaller potions and fewer calories to an ambitious new level. In October, Coca-Cola COO James Quincey, since chosen to succeed Muhtar Kent as Coca-Colas CEO as of this May, reported that the company is addressing calorie reduction with more than 200 reformulation initiatives, among other efforts. The Praxis lawsuit which also accuses Coca-Cola of advertising to minors, despite a pledge not to do so asks that the company and ABA be enjoined from engaging in unfair and deceptive marketing of sugar-sweetened drinks and any marketing directed to children. It also asks that they be required to disclose all corporate documentation and communications relating to the health impacts of sugar drinks and obesity, and to fund a major corrective education campaign to reduce the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages. Last May, the court in which the new suit was filed, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, upheld a San Francisco ordinance requiring that ads for sugar-added drinks bear a warning that drinking beverages with added sugar(s) contributes to obesity, diabetes and tooth decay. by Sara Guaglione , January 5, 2017 Conde Nast is developing a new e-commerce project to sell merchandise featuring iconic images from the archives of its magazines, according to a report published Wednesday by From the first cover of Vogue in 1892 to a photograph of Coco Chanel lounging on a sofa, Conde Nasts archive houses a trove of images from its legacy magazine brands that the publishing company hopes loyal readers will be willing to buy. For example, the photos would appear on limited-edition prints, T-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags and pillows. These images have unprecedented value, Cathy Hoffman Glosser, Conde Nasts senior vice president for licensing told the NYT. We want these assets to become more accessible. However, there are some restrictions when it comes to commercializing these images. Annie Leibovitz, who shoots for VanityFair and Vogue, owns the rights to her photographs. advertisement advertisement Former executive photo director of Vogue, Ivan Shaw, was named Conde Nasts photography director for the archive in June, with responsibility for expanding sales of these archival goods. He is part of a team that has begun developing an online store called Conde Nast Editions, which sells special-edition prints of vintage Vogue covers and New Yorker cartoons. Conde Nast tested out the appeal of such merchandise with prints of The New Yorkers May 2, 2016 Purple Rain cover illustration, a tribute to Prince by the artist Bob Staake. Shaw told the NYT 189 prints were sold for $95, as well as 121 copies of a $325 signed, limited-edition version of the cover. Publishers like Conde Nast are looking for new business opportunities in response to falling print ad revenue. In December, Conde Nast shuttered the print edition of Self magazine; the year before, Details was shut down. Shaw and his team are also developing exhibitions, book projects and a documentary on Conde Nasts fashion photography. Conde Nast did not respond to questions by press time. by Mike Azzara , Op-Ed Contributor, January 5, 2017 The whole congressional ethics tragical comedy in the news for 15 seconds earlier this week put me in mind of some pretty deep research I did on behalf of a client a couple of years ago. Unfortunately, I cant link you to it: the client decided not to publish the resulting analysis because they were not yet doing any of the things the research deemed necessary. Never mind that no one else was, then and probably not today, either. In the time since, what we found has become even more applicable and important. Our work focused on how, in the coming age where big data and machine learning algorithms enable you to learn and infer stuff about individuals that are profoundly invasive, marketers and companies in general will need to openly explore where their ethical boundaries lie. Before we get into it, I have a confession: AI ethics makes my brain hurt. The issues and questions are that big. Never mind corporate behavior; people, governments, policies and global geopolitics will all evolve differently depending on how we answer those questions. My brain is hurting right now. But if youre a marketer planning to use AI, youre going to hurt a lot more than your brain if you dont start examining the ethical questions. If you dont think through the issues and questions that pertain to you, you will end up damaging your brands reputation. As more and more people come to understand the Web-cookied, location-based, sensor-instrumented digital envelope in which they live their lives and who is watching them they will begin to ask questions, themselves. And if youre using AI to power chatbots or digital ads, customers may be coming to you with their questions. As tech angel investor Esther Dyson told me in an interview at the time, The advertising community has been woefully unforthcoming about how much data theyre collecting and what they're doing with it. And its going to backfire on them, just as the Snowden revelations backfired on the NSA. Some prescriptive advice that emerged from that work came from big data ethics thinker Kord Davis (he wrote the book, literally). Davis recommends companies do three things: explicitly align corporate values with what they do and dont do with big data and AI algorithms; openly discus their policies relating to data privacy, personally identifiable customer information, and data ownership; and be prepared to have lots of internal disagreements, because ethics are highly variable, personal issues. Meanwhile, Dyson says, Ethics dont change circumstances change, but the same standards apply. When I told her about Kords idea to connect company values to big data/AI actions, she said, Connecting company values to your big data activities is another way of saying the circumstances have changed but the same standards apply. Touche! Another writer and thinker on big data ethics is Jonathan King, vice president, cloud portfolio management and strategy at Ericsson and a visiting scholar at Washington Universitys School of Law in St Louis. He and his writing partner, Neil Richards, a law professor and recognized expert in privacy and First Amendment law, advise you to focus on four areas: Privacy: They say it isnt dead, and its not just about keeping information hidden. Ensuring privacy of data is a matter of defining and enforcing information rules not just rules about data collection, but about data use and retention. Shared private information: King and Richards say you can share information and still keep it confidential. Again, this relies on the information rules mentioned above. Transparency: They say, For big data to work in ethical terms, the data owners (the people whose data we are handling) need to have a transparent view of how our data is being used or sold. Identity: This is a really big brain-hurter. They say, Big data analytics can compromise identity by allowing institutional surveillance to moderate and even determine who we are before we make up our own minds. That identity issue is the My Tivo Thinks Im Gay problem writ large. Coincidentally, I ran into it during the time I worked on this project. I researched the Broadway play Tales From Red Vienna, but decided not to get tickets. For the next month, everywhere I went on the Internet the Red Vienna ad stalked me. Marketers make jokes about the stalking nature of simple retargeting today, but theres a creepiness to it that I dont think people will ever shake. What happens when AIs can predict much more intimate things about us, including what we may want to do or think next? How will people react? And, therefore, how will we want to handle such knowledge? Were far from there yet, but the time to start asking those questions is now. Similarly, how will we learn the things we dont know we need to know if AI predicts our future based on past performance, limiting the real-life serendipity that we were all heir to before the digital envelope encapsulated us? This is one of the big ethical issues marketers must explore, as it could cause people to evolve differently. Witness the disconnects that occurred in last years presidential election: It seems to me that a whole lot of people failed to learn things they didnt know they needed to know. Importantly, our work didnt suggest any simple single answers to any of these big questions. The point is for every organization to engage in open discussion to formulate policies that align their values with their AI/big data behavior, accounting for all four of the issues mentioned above. Does your brain hurt yet? by Philip Rosenstein , Staff Writer, January 5, 2017 On Wednesday, at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics, incoming White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer joined top Obama media campaign strategists and former senior White House staffer David Axelrod (Senior Advisor 2009-2011) and Robert Gibbs (Press Secretary 2009-2011), for a surprisingly frank and insightful discussion on the rise of Donald Trump and his future press operation. There was a palpable difference between Spicers approach to Wednesdays talk and how he interacted with writers from Politico, whom he spoke with in mid-December. Spicer treated his Democratic counterparts with reverence and respect, a noticeable difference from the way he treated those the Trump camp think of as adversaries in the press. The hour-long conversation focused on Spicers upcoming role as Press Secretary, and the relationship between the Trump White House and the press corps. advertisement advertisement One overarching theme present in Spicer discourse is his hostile approach to the press, an attitude that mirrors Donald Trumps. The Trump transition and administration will likely use press bias as a central tenet to their strategy when responding to unfavorable coverage. To kick off the talk, Axelrod asked Spicer about his mentality in the run up to the 2016 campaign and during the crowded GOP primary. The party needed to get out of the way of the voters, Spicer said. According to him, that proved one of the most crucial recommendations contained in the GOPs 2012 post-mortem report, the Growth & Opportunity Project. Axelrod deftly noted the same report also recommended appealing to Hispanics, young people and women a strategy Trump clearly ignored. Spicer disagreed with Axelrods assessment, claiming that Trump spent much more time in minority communities when compared to recent GOP candidates. Yet it was clear throughout the election cycle that Trump did not maximize GOP support among minorities or women. Spicer did concede the GOP must do more to appeal and reach out to those voters. Investing in data and a digital operation was the other recommendation from the report; Spicer sees both as key to Trumps success. The investment we made in data was unequivocally worth it. We knew exactly where the undecideds were and what was going to move them, and we knew how to go after them, he noted. The most telling moment of the event came as the conversation moved to fake news. Spicer was asked about the variety of false tweets and bogus statements from the president and his surrogates. His response was simply: Our job is to march forward, implement the agenda and get it out. He did not address the accuracy of arguments or the importance of presidential scrutiny and truth-telling. Spicer said he wholeheartedly believed that Trump strongly believes everything he tweets is true, particularly when asked about his claim that millions of people voted illegally. Axelrod pointedly replied: You're telling me he believed that when he said it, but that doesn't make it true." More telling: Trump relies on Twitter and Spicer, his top press advisor, has no control over what he tweets as president. The Washington Post, Thursday, January 5, 2017 1:37 PM The Bushes, George W. and Laura, didnt attend the GOP convention, but they will attend Donald Trumps inauguration on January 20. President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton will also attend the ceremony, in a strong sign of national unity, absent for much of the past year. Read the whole story at The Washington Post Scientists from Cincinnati Childrens Hospital Medical Center in Ohio have designed a way in which cells from the stomachs corpus/fundus region can be grown in the laboratory. These miniature organs could aid research into common gastrointestinal diseases and improve drug research. Share on Pinterest A microscope image shows the engineered human stomach tissues from the corpus/fundus region. Image credit: Cincinnati Childrens Stomach-related diseases are common, affecting millions of people. An estimated 25 percent of individuals in the United States are affected by gastrointestinal disorders. Globally, gastric cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths. To trial new drugs and get a better understanding of gastric disease mechanisms, it is vital to have a reliable model of the working human stomach. Although there are a number of animal models for human gastrointestinal conditions, they can be time-consuming and complicated to use. Principal investigator Jim Wells, Ph.D., director of the Pluripotent Stem Cell Facility at Cincinnati Childrens, has made it his mission to develop reliable, consistent models of the organs involved in digestion specifically, the intestines, stomach, pancreas, and esophagus. His team has designed ways to use pluripotent stem cells to grow organs. Pluripotent stem cells are undifferentiated in other words, they have the ability to develop into any cell type in the body. A new study led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) sheds light on how the brain stores memories. The research, published recently in the journal eLife, is the first to demonstrate that the same brain region can both motivate a learned behavior and suppress that same behavior. "We behave the way we do in a specific situation because we have learned an association - a memory - tying an environmental cue to a behavior," said Nobuyoshi Suto, TSRI Assistant Professor of Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience, who co-led the study with TSRI Professor Friedbert Weiss and Bruce Hope, a principal investigator at the National Institutes of Health's National Institute on Drug Abuse. "This study provides causal evidence that one brain region can store different memories." Scientists know that our memories are stored in specific areas of the brain, but there has been some debate over whether a single brain region can store different memories that control opposing behavior. For example, can the same region store the meanings of red and green traffic lights - the memories that make a driver stop a car at a red light, then hit the gas pedal at a green light? Suto's research focuses specifically on the brain circuits that control motivation. In the new study, he and his colleagues set out to examine how rats learn to press levers to get sugar water - and where they store those motivational memories. The researchers first trained the rats to press a lever to get sugar water. The researchers then trained the rats to recognize two colored lights: one signaling the availability of sugar reward, and the other signaling the omission of this reward. As a consequence, the animals learned to change their behavior in response to these cues: the cue signaling availability promoted the lever-pressing, while the cues signaling omission suppressed this reward-seeking behavior. Based on previous electrophysiology studies, Suto and his colleagues speculated that memories associated with these two lessons were both stored in a region of the brain called the infralimbic cortex. "We've seen correlational evidence, where we see brain activity together with a behavior, and we connect the dots to say it must be this brain activity causing this behavior," said Suto. "But such correlational evidence alone cannot establish the causality - proof that the specific brain activity is directly controlling the specific behavior." So scientists took their experiment a step further. Using a pharmacogenetics approach, the researchers selectively switched off specific groups of brain cells - called neural ensembles - that react to select cues signaling either reward availability or reward omission. The experiments demonstrated that distinct neural ensembles in the same region directly controlled the promotion of reward-seeking or the suppression of that behavior. Without those neurons firing, the rats no longer performed the behavior motivated by the memories in those ensembles. At last, the scientists appeared to prove the causality. Suto called the findings a step towards understanding how different memories are stored in the brain. He said the research could also be relevant for studying which neurons are activated to motivate - and prevent - drug relapse. He said he'd next like to look at what other regions in the brain these infralimbic cortex neurons may be communicating with. "Brain regions don't exist in a vacuum," he said. In addition, he also would like to determine the brain chemicals mediating the promotion or suppression of reward seeking. In addition to Suto and Weiss, authors of the study, "Distinct memory engrams in the infralimbic cortex of rats control opposing environmental actions on a learned behavior," were co-first author Amanda Laque (a joint post-doctoral fellow in the Weiss/Suto labs), as well as Genna De Ness, Grant Wagner, Debbie Watry and Tony Kerr of TSRI; Eisuke Koya of the University of Sussex; and Mark Mayford of the University of California, San Diego. Article: Distinct memory engrams in the infralimbic cortex of rats control opposing environmental actions on a learned behavior, Nobuyoshi Suto Amanda Laque Genna L De Ness Grant E Wagner Debbie Watry Tony Kerr Eisuke Koya Mark R Mayford Bruce T Hope Friedbert Weiss, eLife, doi: 10.7554/eLife.21920, published 10 December 2016. The researchers studied the genetic overlap between the risk of having these psychiatric disorders and measures of social communicative competence - the ability to socially engage with other people successfully - during middle childhood to adolescence. They showed that genes influencing social communication problems during childhood overlap with genes conferring risk for autism, but that this relationship wanes during adolescence. In contrast, genes influencing risk for schizophrenia were most strongly interrelated with genes affecting social competence during later adolescence, in line with the natural history of the disorder. The findings were published in Molecular Psychiatry. Timing makes the difference "The findings suggest that the risk of developing these contrasting psychiatric conditions is strongly related to distinct sets of genes, both of which influence social communication skills, but which exert their maximum influence during different periods of development", explained Beate St Pourcain, senior investigator at the MPI and lead author of the study. People with autism and with schizophrenia both have problems interacting and communicating with other people, because they cannot easily initiate social interactions or give appropriate responses in return. On the other hand, the disorders of autism and schizophrenia develop in very different ways. The first signs of ASD typically occur during infancy or early childhood, whereas the symptoms of schizophrenia usually do not appear until early adulthood. Features of autism or schizophrenia are found in many of us People with autism have serious difficulties in engaging socially with others and understanding social cues, as well as being rigid, concrete thinkers with obsessive interests. In contrast, schizophrenia is characterised by hallucinations, delusions, and seriously disturbed thought processes. Yet recent research has shown that many of these characteristics and experiences can be found, to a mild degree, in typically developing children and adults. In other words, there is an underlying continuum between normal and abnormal behaviour. Recent advances in genome-wide analyses have helped drawing a more precise picture of the genetic architecture underlying psychiatric disorders and their related symptoms in unaffected people. A large proportion of risk to disorder, but also variation in milder symptoms, stems from combined small effects of many thousands of genetic differences across the genome, known as polygenic effects. For social communication behaviour, these genetic factors are not constant, but change during childhood and adolescence. This is because genes exert their effects consistent with their biological programming. Disentangling psychiatric disorders "A developmentally sensitive analysis of genetic relationships between traits and disorders may help to disentangle apparent behavioural overlap between psychiatric conditions", St Pourcain commented. George Davey Smith, Professor of Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Bristol and senior author of the study, said, "The emergence of associations between genetic predictors for different psychiatric conditions and social communication differences, around the ages the particular conditions reveal themselves, provides a window into the specific causes of these conditions". David Skuse, Professor of Behavioural and Brain Sciences at University College London added, "This study has shown convincingly how the measurement of social communicative competence in childhood is a sensitive indicator of genetic risk. Our greatest challenge now is to identify how genetic variation influences the development of the social brain". The data on unaffected individuals for this study came from a general population cohort, the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, hosted by the University of Bristol. ASD and schizophrenia collections included several large, international autism genetic studies: the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium Autism group, the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium Schizophrenia group and the iPSYCH autism project in Denmark. In a study appearing in JAMA, David E. Stark, M.D., M.S., of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, and Nigam H. Shah, M.B.B.S., Ph.D., of the Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, Calif., examined whether funding and publication of gun violence research are disproportionately low relative to the rate of death from gun violence. The United States has the highest rate of gun-related deaths among industrialized countries, with more than 30,000 fatalities annually. To date, research on gun violence has been limited. A 1996 congressional appropriations bill stipulated that "none of the funds made available for injury prevention and control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] may be used to advocate or promote gun control." Similar restrictions were subsequently extended to other agencies (including the National Institutes of Health), and although the legislation does not ban gun-related research outright, it has been described as casting a pall over the research community. For this study, CDC mortality statistics were accessed from 2004 to 2014 (the most recent year available) and the top 30 causes of death were determined. For each cause of death, MEDLINE was queried for the total number of publications between 2004 and 2015. Research funding data from 2004 to 2015 (all years available) were accessed from Federal RePORTER, a database of projects funded by U.S. federal agencies. To determine how research funding and publication volume correlated with mortality, analyses were performed using mortality rate as a predictor and funding or publication count as outcomes. The researchers found that compared with other leading causes of death, gun violence was associated with less funding and fewer publications than predicted based on mortality rate. Gun violence had 1.6 percent of the funding predicted ($1.4 billion predicted, $22 million observed) and had 4.5 percent of the volume of publications predicted (38,897 predicted, 1,738 observed) from the analyses. Gun violence killed about as many individuals as sepsis. However, funding for gun violence research was about 0.7 percent of that for sepsis and publication volume about 4 percent. In relation to mortality rates, gun violence research was the least-researched cause of death and the second-least funded cause of death after falls. "Injury research has been generally undersupported - a finding replicated in the present study," the authors write. "Gun violence had less funding and fewer publications than comparable injury-related causes of death including motor vehicle accidents and poisonings. Given that gun violence disproportionately affects the young and inflicts many more nonfatal injuries than deaths, it is likely that the true magnitude of research funding disparity, when considering years of potential life lost or lived with disability, is even greater." This work was supported by a grant from the National Library of Medicine of the National Institutes of Health. DUBLIN CHICAGO Jan. 5, 2017 Corey Fishman Michael Dunne Japan $40 million November 2015 Patrick Heron , and/PRNewswire/ -- Iterum Therapeutics Limited, an Irish clinical-stage pharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of anti-infectives for patients with infectious diseases and other acute illnesses, today announced that its first product candidate, sulopenem, a novel oral penem antibiotic, is under development for the treatment of multi-drug resistant infections. Sulopenem, with a safety and efficacy profile similar to other penems, has demonstrated broad-spectrum coverage and is highly effective against the pathogens most commonly associated with uncomplicated urinary tract infections, complicated urinary tract infections and complicated intra-abdominal infections (uUTI, cUTI and cIAI), including potent in-vitro activity against Enterobacteriaceae (ESBL) mutants ofand"The emergence and spread of drug-resistant and serious infections is increasing, and new antibiotics are needed. We believe sulopenem can effectively address the need for new therapies given the existing and projected resistance to generic antibiotic options, particularly fluoroquinolones, which are the most often used antibiotic class for urinary tract infections," said, Iterum's CEO. "With both oral and IV options, sulopenem enhances the utility of penems, the 'gold standard' treatment of gram-negative infections. In the hospital setting, oral sulopenem will provide flexibility, allowing for simplified, effective step-down therapy upon patient discharge and potentially reducing the length of hospitalization. In the case of community-related infections, sulopenem will provide an efficacious treatment alternative, as well as the potential avoidance of hospitalization."Sulopenem was licensed from Pfizer in late 2015 and under the license agreement, Pfizer received an initial equity interest and an upfront cash payment from Iterum. Pfizer is also eligible to receive additional equity, development and commercial event-driven cash milestone payments and royalties based upon global net sales of any potential sulopenem products.In the initial indications of interest, it is estimated that there are more than 25 million infections annually in the U.S. alone, with approximately 80 percent of those occurring in uUTI. Resistance to fluoroquinolones, currently a main treatment in uUTI, has become an issue in many parts of the country and is expected to continue to rise. Additionally, there have been no new treatments approved for uUTI in the last 20 years. "With very limited products in late-stage development for uUTI, resistance rates to fluoroquinolones above 30 percent in some parts of the country and the strong profile of sulopenem, we believe that our new, unique oral agent will have a leading share of voice and be very well received in the marketplace," said Dr., Iterum's Chief Scientific Officer.Sulopenem's global development efforts to date confirm its safety and efficacy, having been studied in more than 1,100 subjects inwith its IV formulation and a Phase 2a oral study in community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in the U.S. Iterum anticipates commencing three Phase 3 studies under Special Protocol Assessment (SPA) with the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Scientific Advice from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in the initial indications of uUTI, cUTI and cIAI by the end of 2017 and filing a new drug application (NDA) and marketing authorization application (MAA) in the second half of 2019.As previously announced, Iterum secured aSeries A financing infrom a syndicate of sophisticated life science investors. The round was led by Frazier Healthcare Partners and joined by Canaan Partners, Sofinnova Ventures and New Leaf Venture Partners. These investors also backed two previous companies (MedPointe Healthcare and Durata Therapeutics) that the Iterum team led, grew and successfully sold. "The Iterum team has made tremendous progress over the last 12 months since licensing this asset. We are very excited to continue development of this novel asset and ultimately bring a new, powerful agent to the marketplace that provides an effective option to treat both hospital and community infections," said, managing general partner of Frazier Healthcare Partners.Separately, the FDA has granted the QIDP designation to sulopenem for its oral and IV formulations for the treatment of uUTI, cUTI and cIAI. The QIDP designation will make sulopenem eligible to benefit from certain incentives for the development of new antibiotics provided under the Generating Antibiotic Incentives Now (GAIN) Act, which include priority review and fast-track status. Further, if approved, sulopenem would be eligible for an additional five-year extension of Hatch-Waxman exclusivity.Iterum Therapeutics Limited is an Irish clinical-stage pharmaceutical company dedicated to developing differentiated anti-infectives aimed at combatting the global crisis of multi-drug resistant pathogens to significantly improve the lives of people affected by serious and life-threatening diseases around the world. Iterum is advancing its first compound, sulopenem, a novel penem anti-infective compound with oral and IV formulations in an IV only class of antibiotics that has demonstrated potentactivity against a wide variety of gram-negative, gram-positive and anaerobic bacteria resistant to other antibiotics. Iterum has received QIDP designations for its oral and IV formulations for the treatment of uUTI, cUTI and cIAI. Iterum is led by a highly experienced team and backed by a blue-chip venture capital syndicate including Canaan, Frazier, New Leaf and Sofinnova. For more information, please visit http://www.iterumtx.com. To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/iterum-announces-sulopenem-in-development-for-treatment-of-gram-negative-multi-drug-resistant-infections-300386218.html SOURCE Iterum Therapeutics Limited Yesterday, Nikhil Chinapaour very own dance music scene influencerwent on to his Facebook to give his fans, followers and every ardent dance music enthusiast the story of how his team managed to FINALLY get veteran DJ and producer, Eric Prydz to India. GDE Its basically one of the best manifestos an Indian dance music scene regular can read, imbibe and believe. And in his note, Chinapa revealed some of his most nostalgic experiences in the international and Indian music scene; about how it has finally come of age in India after 10 years of trying and breaking out of it a read yourself: The first time I heard the name Eric Prydz, it was off a record Pearl was playing at the time. That record was Diamond Girl and this was 2003. Back then, whenever we couldnt travel to buy our records, we listened to the music, on an absurdly slow internet connection, and ordered them online. The vinyls took a few weeks to arrive and if we were lucky, they survived the journey unscathed. You can imagine just how prized each vinyl was because of this. Pearl and I played completely different styles of music back then. We would test these vinyls soon as they arrived and get immersed in the process, with records scattered all across the living room usually. One day, Pearl was testing a new batch of vinyl that had just arrived and she played a track that sounded very different from everything else. I asked her what it was, telling her, itll never work and Pearl just smiled. She still gives me that smile when Im a bit clueless. A few weeks later, she was playing at Smirnoff Experience - a massive gig at Kamala Mills that Sasha was headlining. Pearl came on after Sasha and settled into her gritty, driving sound that had slowly become characteristic of her sets. The dancefloor settled into a heaving sweaty mess, heads down, arms working and feet moving rhythmically. Midway through her set, she dropped a tune and I remember that moment vividly. Whatever was unleashed through the speakers sent a huge surge of energy through the floor. The entire dancefloor picked their heads up and moved their feet harder. It was the kind of track that changes gears during a set. Curious about this incredible track, I jogged up to the console to ask her what it was. She pulled off her headphones, looked me in the eye and gave me that smile again. Its the one you said wouldnt work. Then she lightly touched my hand and turned back to her record bag. She does that hand-touching thing when Ive acted like an idiot, I know Ive been an idiot and she doesnt want me to feel too bad about it. For the record, it happens a lot me being an idiot. The track? It was Pryda Aftermath. Go listen to it and youll understand. After that came RYMD and Armed two sides of the same record and both, melodic monsters. No better way to put it. The next year brought Eric Prydzs mix of Paulo Mojo 1983 and its safe to say that every single DJ in the world worth their salt was either playing this tune or losing their marbles to it on a dancefloor when some other DJ played it. Theres a great video on Youtube, of Pearl playing it during our Submerge Beach Festival at Zanzibar in Goa in 2007 and all of us going nuts in the sand. By now, everyone in the world had heard of this amazing DJ called Prydz, and everyone also gradually learnt that he really didnt like planes and flying. 2007 was also the year I set out to build a new festival in Goa. Submerge had already been building a blueprint for such festivals through our annual Zanzibar events, which by now were drawing 15,000 people to Baga beach over the 5 days between Christmas and New Years. I named this new festival Sunburn and went about booking talent for it. One of the acts I booked for its first edition was a trio youve probably heard of called Above & Beyond. A&Bs booking agent was a really nice guy called Simon Clarkson, whom I met in London later that year to discuss details about their gig in Goa. India was still an unknown space for DJs to work in and some of those early conversations I had with agents, involved considerable convincing and cajoling ...and the explaining of local conditions. Simon also happened to be the booking agent of an artist I was very keen to book, but I knew I probably wouldnt be able to Eric Prydz. We all knew Eric didnt like to fly but Simon dropped an amazing bit of information. Eric had managed to slowly conquer his fears and was beginning to take some flights now. A tour of America was imminent and I told Simon, that when the time was right, Id love to bring him across to India. I left it that that. However, 2008 brought some bad news. Erics fears of flying had returned. He had tried to board a flight to Australia but was unable to. Seven dates in Australia and New Zealand were cancelled. When we heard that news in India, we muttered our groans and shrugged our shoulders. We now knew that Eric coming to India was going to remain a long, long shot. In 2010 or 2011, if my memory serves me right, I travelled to Ibiza in an effort to book another DJ for India. On that trip, I went to hear Prydz, who had just announced his residency on the island. He was playing the terrace at Amnesia, with Chase and Status in the other room. It was the first time Id heard him play and saying that I was blown away is an understatement! It was a phenomenal night, both musically and visually. A couple of years passed with me listening to more of his music in Pearls sets back home (Europa was a favorite then). People had also begun to recognize another avatar of Erics Cirez D. Pearl introduced me to Mokba and what a monster tune it was! The buzz across the world was that this was an act that wasnt to be missed. A few years later, I traveled to Tomorrowland to check the festival out and to have my usual meetings. Eric was playing at the festival that year. The DJ playing before Eric was AN21 and he and his manager, Ozgur, had become friends after theyd come and played for me the previous year. I went backstage to say hello to them and Ozgur grabbed me in a bear hug and yelled come and have some shots. We crawled unseen behind the DJ console and Ozgur poured out a bunch of Jager shots. He handed one to AN21, gave me one and handed one to someone who had crawled in beside me. It was Eric Prydz. If you were ever wondering what the definition of surreal was that was it. Having shots with Eric Prydz under the console right before his set. I stayed behind that console as Eric started his set and I couldnt see the dance floor from where I was crouched but when he dropped his opening track, I heard them. The track was his new edit of Personal Jesus and the roar that went up from the floor made my hair stand on end. My buddy Nawed Khan was on the floor when it dropped and he said hes never seen or heard anything like it. Till today, that set remains one of my favourite sets of Erics. Backstage at Tomorrowland was the first time I spoke to Eric about India, what wed been doing here and how many fans he had across the country. Like so many other DJs Id spoken to over the years, Eric was also surprised that people in India listened to his music and knew who he was. Somewhere along the way Eric switched agents and was now being looked after by Cris Hearn a senior agent from the UK. Every once in a while Id ping Cris about Eric and hed humour me (bless him) but we both knew it wasnt going to happen. India was too far away and the flights were too daunting. Then came the A380. Airbus new flying behemoth was so large that their 1st class suites could accommodate a double bed and a shower. Most importantly, flying in one of them didnt make you feel like you were in a plane at all. They called these suites (and rightly too) the apartments. Eric felt comfortable enough in one of these to fly more often. Fans of Eric in India smiled at this news but shrugged and said these planes will never come to India man. But a remarkable thing happened the A380s started to fly into India! I still remember being bombarded with messages from Prydz fans the day Emirates announced their flights to India, saying Look! He can come to India now!. It wasnt going to be as easy as that though. I spoke to Cris and he said it was still a long way to come and taking flights was still quite difficult. Sigh. Move on. As luck would have it, around this same time (around 3 years ago), Pearl was offered a slot to play at Global Gathering - a large UK festival at an abandoned airfield outside Startford-Upon-Avon. The stage was the Essential Mix stage and the headlining artist of her stage Eric Prydz. After Erics set, we met him backstage and both Pearl and I spoke to him again about the legions of fans he had in India. He also remembered meeting me backstage at Tomorrowland and introduced us to his manager Michael Sershall. Pearl and I told Michael about the scene in India, how far wed come as a scene, Erics fans here, and how wed love to see him playing here someday. Michael said, Send me an email. Ill be happy to see if we can make it work someday. I never sent that mail. I hadnt given up, but another piece of the puzzle - Vh1 Supersonic - wasnt in my life as yet and without a concrete plan and offer, I didnt see the point of sending that email. Michaels a really nice guy and he was just being nice to us this couple from India, fan-girling over Prydz as people generally do across the world. I did however keep pestering Cris and bless him, he never said No outright, he just kept humouring me. We both knew in our hearts that a miracle would be needed for this to happen. Eric was very much in demand globally and India was still too far away and still too hard a flight to take. I resigned myself to catching Erics sets across the world at EDC Las Vegas last year, where I again spoke to him backstage, Ultra Music Festival this year (we had another quick chat about India outside his trailer) and more recently at Tomorrowland playing B2B with the Mau5 where again we met and spoke about India before he started his set. Then out of the blue, the universe started making a miracle. The new head of Viacoms live business Saugato Bhowmick had taken the decision to relocate our festival Vh1 Supersonic to Pune and as I periodically do, I reached out to Cris to see if Eric was an option. This time, instead of brushing me off, he said, lets talk. Wait, what?! Eric was planning an Australia tour and it happened to be around the new dates of our festival. India was still very far away, but all the chats Id been having with Eric and Cris over the years, may have finally started to lead to something. The situation still was very complicated and needed a ton of planning before things would actually start to take shape. Saugato, Sameet Sharma, Ishaan Ahluwalia and I all a part of our SuperCrew from Vh1 Supersonic, went to work putting a comprehensive plan together and let me be frank about this no matter how dogged I was about bringing Prydz to India, this would not have happened in a million years if it wasnt for the team at Viacom 18 getting behind the idea and putting all the pieces together to make it work. Its also important to acknowledge that Supersonic wouldnt have got to where it is today, without the unstinting support of Starlight (Shailesh Shetty, Ashwin Raikar, Sandeep K. Raju, Uday Singh and Raghav Holla) our friends and festival partners from Goa. The next few weeks were filled with endless conversations, discussions and negotiations with Erics team. Plans were made, modified, bounced around, rejected, re-edited, tweaked it seemed like a never-ending process. Ive lost track of the number of phone calls I made or emails we wrote, working on every tiny aspect of putting this plan together. We presented the plan to Erics team and while waiting for news, I flew to Hyderabad to play a gig with my buddy Rohit Barker. Hes my closest friend in the whole world and though my head was buzzing with everything that was going on, I couldnt tell him what was on my mind. I think he sensed it though. I landed in Hyderabad and drove to my hotel. I had to record my weekly radio show and when I got to the room, I turned on my laptop and there it was. A mail from Cris telling me wed managed to get it over the line. I called Cris to have a chat and when we finished he said and I remember this clearly Mate, I cant believe this is happening. What, Cris? This. I never thought we could get him to India. I cant believe weve actually done it. He then started to laugh; I tried, but I couldnt. I was still a little shell-shocked. The first person I called was Pearl. I then called Saugato, Sameet and Ishaan and told them. Prydz was finally coming to India. From the time I first met Simon Clarkson (Erics previous agent) Its taken us our little Indian dance music scene - over 10 years to make this happen 14 years if you count the time when Pearl first started playing his music at a beach shack in Goa - and the greatest joy for us is being able to share his music with friends of ours who could never have traveled to Europe, America or Australia to hear Prydz play. Friends like Basith, whos heart, body and soul are tuned to Prydzs music at a cellular level, I kid you not. Im really not sure if hell ever be back after this trip and I have this to say wherever you are in India, please make a plan. Figure out a way to get to Pune from wherever you are. There are trains from every major city in India. Overnight buses from Bangalore, Goa, Ahmedabad and Surat and Mumbai is literally just a jog a way. Pune is filled with hotels, hostels, AirBnB apartments, OYO rooms the works. Just figure it out and get there. I honestly have no idea when ... and if, this will ever happen again. Yes, you can transfer your domain to any registrar or hosting company once you have purchased it. Since domain transfers are a manual process, it can take up to 5 days to transfer the domain. Domains purchased with payment plans are not eligible to transfer until all payments have been made. Please remember that our 30-day money back guarantee is void once a domain has been transferred. For transfer instructions to GoDaddy, please click here. The Deputy Foreign Minister for Greek Diaspora Affairs, T. Quick, met yesterday with the Georgian Ambassador to Greece, Ioseb Nanobashvili. During the meeting in question, there was a discussion about Mr. Quick's upcoming visit to Tbilisi, from 22 to 24 January, and the schedule of his meetings there. During his two-day stay in Tbilisi, Mr. Quick is scheduled to meet with his Georgian counterpart in order to exchange views on cooperation between the two countries' diasporas with members of the Georgian political leadership, with the Parliamentary Committees on Foreign and Diaspora affairs, and with members of the academic community. Within the framework of his visit, he will deliver a speech at the University of Tbilisi's Institute of Greek Studies, which is subsidised through the General Secretariat for Greeks Abroad. N. KOTZIAS: I met today with the Representative of the UN, Espen Barth Eide. We talked about the course of the Cyprus issue, and in a few days we will be meeting again, in Geneva, supporting the negotiation taking place between the two Communities, while we are also preparing for the International Conference on Cyprus. JOURNALIST: Mr. Eide said that, if it were up to the two leaders in Cyprus, the Cyprus issue would have been resolved, implying that the progress one might have expected has not been made on the matter of security and guarantees. N. KOTZIAS: Let that issue be raised with those who are blocking its progress. JOURNALIST: Are you preparing for all possible eventualities? Are you concerned about anything ahead of Geneva? Is there anything that worries you? N. KOTZIAS: No, I think that it is the obligation of the Foreign Ministry and our government to prepare for all eventualities and be in a position to set out alternative solutions. JOURNALIST: What might happen if the negotiation fails? N. KOTZIAS: There is no chance of the negotiation failing. What might happen is for it to be postponed or delayed. There is a difference, you know ... Failure means that a negotiation is stopped without a result. We have received assurances from the UN that the negotiations will be what we call, in international parlance, open-ended; that is, negotiations that, even in the case where they are stopped, will not be considered to have collapsed, but can be continued, with better preparation, in the future. JOURNALIST: Mr. Minister, are Greece and Cyprus going to Geneva with a common front and common stance? N. KOTZIAS: We are a common front. JOURNALIST: ... and the front within Greece, as well? N. KOTZIAS: I think that in Greece we have managed -- and this was shown by the latest meeting of the National Council on Foreign Policy -- to have a common line, according to which we support Cyprus and we support the position for the elimination of guarantees and of rights of intervention for any country in the internal affairs of Cyprus -- as well as the position in favour of the withdrawal of the occupying army. JOURNALIST: So, Mr. Minister, are you telling us that -- in our assessment -- the international Conference may be postponed, not take place? N. KOTZIAS: No. The international Conference will take place, but at some point it may need to be stopped and continued later on. It won't be a disaster for it to stop, but a part of the process. That is, the three leaders may talk and provide general guidance, with the discussion continuing on the level of experts. But the three leaders may work things out from the very first moment. We will see. But I want to underscore that if the negotiations stop being carried out in one form and are continued in another, this doesn't mean that the Conference failed or foundered. This is what we wanted to ensure, so that we don't have the phenomena we had some time ago in Switzerland. JOURNALIST: Do you have assurances that all of the key players will come; that is, Mrs. May and Mr. Erdogan? N. KOTZIAS: I imagine that Mrs. May will be participating, but I will be sure tomorrow, when I meet with the UK Minister of State for Europe and the Americas, who is handling the Cyprus issue on the part of the British government. I would also like to say that the UK Foreign Secretary has asked that we dine together in London, between my trip to New York and my trip to Geneva. JOURNALIST: Will Mr. Erdogan be participating in the Conference? N. KOTZIAS: Mr. Cavusoglu gave public assurances that Mr. Erdogan will be in Geneva. JOURNALIST: Will a Tsipras-Erdogan meeting take place, after all? N. KOTZIAS: A great many meetings are taking place -- meetings preparing the dialogue that will take place on the level of leaders, whether before or during the Geneva Conference. BAD AXE The results of the Huron County Board of Commissioners election for road commissioner were revealed Wednesday. One of the candidates has alleged that the board violated the Michigan Open Meetings Act (OMA) by casting secret ballots during the Dec. 29 meeting. County Clerk Lori Neal-Wonsowicz said last years board voted as follows: Allan J. McTaggart of Port Hope: four votes, from commissioners Clark Elftman, Rich Swartzendruber, John Bodis and David G. Peruski. Charles Bumhoffer of Sebewaing: two votes, from John A. Nugent and Sami Khoury. Todd A. Cooper: of Pigeon: no votes Commissioner Ron Wruble was absent. Cooper is calling for board action in response to what he says was a violation of the Open Meetings Act. Each commissioner wrote the name of the chosen candidate and their own initials on the ballot, folded it and submitted it. Swartzendruber and Peruski counted the votes. After officials announced the number of votes McTaggart and Bumhoffer received, no one disclosed who voted for whom. Cooper said he felt that this was wrong, so he called Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuettes office for direction. Cooper has not filed a complaint, but wrote a letter to the board expressing his concern. County Corporate Counsel Steve Allen told the Tribune earlier this week that the contents of the ballots would be placed in the meeting minutes, and thus be available to the public. By doing so, Allen said he believes that the board will avoid a violation of the OMA. But Cooper was not satisfied with that. You cant go back and fix it now he said Tuesday. That doesnt make it right. Cooper is calling for the process to restart, beginning with interviews. Allen has said that the board was not trying to hide anything, and the vote was conducted this way because thats how it has always been done. KINDE Three North Huron students will have an experience of a lifetime when they travel to Uganda in January with a national exchange program. Faith Yageman, Elizabeth Trudeau and Raegan Gembarski will be part of Foreign Links Around the Globe's (FLAG's) first group to do a short-term outbound program in the country of Uganda with the focus on agriculture. The students will be involved in meeting with Ugandan farmers, visiting local villages, teaching classes about American agriculture and experiencing a national wildlife refuge. The program, East Africa Scholarship Initiative (EASI), was originally started with a vision of energizing Ugandan youth about exploring and pursuing agribusiness and agriscience career opportunities in their country, and to give Ugandan youth an opportunity to experience life in the United States as foreign exchange students. During their exchange, Ugandan students live with nurturing families and attend Michigan High Schools with access to agriculture programs. This year, EASI has become a true bilateral exchange, where Michigan agriculture students can participate in a short-term outbound program to Uganda. Gembarksi, Yageman and Trudeau will join two other students from Lapeer County in this historic outbound program. The cost of travel is considerable and the students will be hosting a fundraiser to help with the costs. There will be a bowling fundraiser on Saturday at Biff's Bowling Bar in Kinde, with two time slots of 8 pin no-tap bowling at 7 and 9:30 p.m. There will be prizes for first place and door prizes awarded all night. Lane sponsorship will be available. Those interested in following along with the student's trip to Uganda can visit their blog at www.northhuronffa.wordpress.com and subscribe. For more information about how to help, call North Huron FFA Advisor Joe Ankley at 989-874-4101, or email ankleyj@nhuron.org. For more information on the FLAG program, call Tim Swope at 800-924-3524, or email tswope@flag-intl.org. SEBEWAING This fall, 35 Unionville-Sebewaing Area FFA members raised 100 chickens from when they were tiny chicks to the dinner table. They decided to give back to their community, and donated 200 meals through the chickens to the Trinity United Methodist Church Caring and Sharing Program. The Trinity United Methodist Church is located in Sebewaing, and uses the food and monetary donations they receive from the community to make presents and meal boxes to give away to around 100 local families that need a little extra help during the holiday season, according to information submitted to the Tribune. The USA FFA decided this past summer that they wanted to make a larger difference in their community during the 2016-2017 school year. "At the beginning of the year, we decided to make a bigger effort to give back to the community, and found a great opportunity to turn the chickens into a way to help families in need within the area," said USA FFA Chapter President Chelsea Faber. Defense secretary nominee James Mattis appeared on Capitol Hill for a second day in a row Wednesday, meeting with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in a wide-ranging discussion of his policy views and the issue of civilian control of the military. Gillibrand, a Democrat from New York, has maintained she will oppose a waiver that would allow Mattis, who retired from the Marine Corps as a general in May 2013, to serve in the position despite a law that requires the defense secretary to have been out of the military for at least seven years before assuming the role. Emerging from the closed-door meeting after 45 minutes, Gillibrand told reporters she will continue to oppose the waiver, emphasizing her belief in civilian leadership. "And when we created the secretary of defense and when we created the Department of Defense, Congress very intentionally said the secretary of defense will also be a civilian to be consistent with our constitutional requirements of civilian control of the military," she said. "We believe that should not be changed." While Gillibrand would not reveal any views Mattis shared during the meeting, she said the discussion ranged from terrorism to foreign policy to women serving in the military, hinting that the latter topic had highlighted differences of perspective between her and the nominee. "I do have some concerns about women in the military and how sexual assault in the military would be addressed, and I'll ask those questions in the hearing specifically so he can answer them for the record," she said. "I discussed some of the great work that women in the military have already done ... specifically the three women who just passed [Army] Ranger School and how admirable and inspiring those women are, and really highlighted some of the studies about how effective women are in combat in the military, which skills they bring to the table that are unique and different and really valuable," the senator added. Mattis, she said, had given general views on the topics, though she did not elaborate on those views. "But I'll ask much more specific questions at the hearing," she said. Gillibrand said the issue of sexual assault in the military had also been discussed, and she had reiterated her belief in the importance of moving the prosecution process outside the chain of command to increase professional knowledge in handling of the cases and to eliminate bias. "I think we had a full discussion, and I hope he keeps an open mind," she said. Gillibrand declined to name other senators who will stand with her in opposing the waiver. It's likely, however, that the move to oppose will be only a symbolic gesture. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have voiced support for Mattis, who distinguished himself in the military, most recently commanding U.S. Central Command. To pass the waiver, only 60 of the 100 members of the Senate must approve the measure. -- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at@HopeSeck. U.S. advisers moving with Iraqi forces are now operating on the front lines in the house-to-house fighting against the Islamic State inside Mosul as the number of U.S. and coalition advisers involved in retaking the city has doubled to 450 in recent weeks, a U.S. military spokesman said Wednesday. "They have been in the city at different times" to advise and assist in what is now a three-pronged offensive focused on the eastern sector of Mosul, said Air Force Col. John Dorrian, a spokesman for Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve. To back up the renewed offensive, which began Dec. 29 after a two-week lull, there are now "maybe around 450 advise and assist forces. That is right about double what we have been doing before," Dorrian said in a televideo conference from Baghdad to the Pentagon. "We have increased the number of advise and assist forces that are there with the ISF command elements to help advise them as they move forward and to synchronize operations," he said. The advisers operating in and around Mosul are under instructions to remain behind the Forward Line of Troops, or FLOT, Dorrian said, but he also described a constantly shifting line amid "room-to-room" fighting in urban warfare marked by constant attacks from ISIS Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Devices, or VBIED car bombs. "There are more than 200,000 buildings in Mosul. You end up having to clear each one," which means going through "every single room and every single closet," Dorrian said. "It's going to take time. It's going to be very dangerous." The Iraqi Security Forces are attempting to clear the eastern sector of Mosul in a drive to the Tigris River, which splits the city, Dorrian said. "Once they get to the river, they're going to go into the west side. There will be a very tough fight there as well." Currently, there are about 5,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, including trainers and other support forces. Dorrian said the 450 advisers in and around Mosul were drawn from forces already in the country. He said not all of the Mosul advisers are American, but include some coalition advisers. The Mosul offensive began in October amid predictions from Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi that the city could fall before the end of the year. He has revised his prediction to say that ousting ISIS from Mosul will take an additional several months. Dorrian said the new offensive in Mosul is proceeding along three axes by elements of the elite Counter Terror Services units, the Iraqi army and the Iraqi federal police. The attacks from different directions are "presenting the enemy with more problems than they can solve," Dorrian said. "The axes are beginning to converge as they progress toward the river," and the ISIS fighters "don't have the resources to defend against all three." In a November briefing, Dorrian suggested that U.S. advisers had been inside Mosul, but his remarks Wednesday were the first to confirm that they are now operating regularly within the city limits. President Barack Obama has barred U.S. troops from ground combat in Iraq and Syria while authorizing them to serve as trainers and advisers, which has frequently put them in combat situations. Earlier in 2016, Army Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland, then commander of CJTF-OIR, was authorized to place U.S. advisers with the Iraqis at the battalion level and that authority remains with his successor, Army Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend. -- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com. An engine fell from a B-52 Stratofortress bomber Wednesday while the aircraft was flying over North Dakota, according to the U.S. Air Force. The incident occurred during a training flight near Minot Air Force Base, officials confirmed to Military.com. The engine broke up and debris landed in unpopulated area, they said. No injuries were reported. "Earlier today, a B-52 dropped an engine while in flight," a spokesperson said in an email. "The aircraft landed safely with no injuries." The five personnel on board the Cold War-era heavy bomber landed back at the base, another official said. Crews dispatched a UH-1N Huey helicopter to recover what was left of the engine, according to a base spokesman who spoke with Defense News. Temperatures in North Dakota are frigid this time of year and were recorded at 12 degrees below zero in parts of the state on Wednesday. Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James was apparently visiting the base at the time of the incident. She was scheduled to meet with service leaders on Wednesday and airmen on Thursday, local Fox News affiliate KMOT reported. Col. Matthew Brooks, commander of the 5th Bomb Wing, part of Air Force Global Strike Command's Eighth Air Force, created a safety investigation board to determine what caused the mishap, according to the second official who emailed Military.com. The bomber runs via eight Pratt & Whitney-made TF33-P-3/103 turbofan engines. The Air Force has 76 of the aircraft in its inventory. The planes are among the oldest in the fleet. Three generations of airmen have flown the B-52 in combat, from Vietnam to Afghanistan, and the newest B-52 is more than a half-century old. Yet the Stratofortress continues to play a critical role in various theaters around the world. Recently, three U.S. Air Force B-52Hs returned from the Pacific, conducting flights near Australia and the contested South China Sea. In May, a B-52 from Minot crashed on Guam's Andersen Air Force Base flight line. The bomber, part of a contingent, was on a routine deployment also conducting a training mission as part of the Air Force's continuous bomber presence in the region. The crew was able to evacuate the aircraft safely. B-52s from Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, are currently deployed to Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, to conduct air operations against the Islamic State. A coveted aircraft during the operation, the B-52 has the ability to stay airborne for a longer duration, have capable sensors to identify targets, and carry a wide-variety of bombs "attacking everything from vehicles to large-site targets," according to Col. Daniel Manning, the deputy director of the Combined Air Operations Center. "Frankly, we want our partners and the enemy to see the airpower [the B-52] has overhead," Manning told Military.com in November. "A B-52 encourages our partner force that we have their back. Being seen is actually a pretty good thing." In April, several B-52s arrived at Al Udeid to join the American-led campaign in place of the B-1B Lancer. -- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214. 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... More than two years after departing Afghanistan as a fighting force, the Marine Corps may be sending troops back into the country in an advisory capacity. Maj. Gen. John Love, commander of the 2nd Marine Division, in recent months said that an element of the Camp Lejeune-based unit would be deploying to Afghanistan in the spring. "There is change in the air," Love said at a Marine Corps Association and Foundation awards event in November. "There is a new mission we've picked up in the Marine Corps. We are going to repurpose the infantry regiments against a new mission back in some familiar territory in Afghanistan, a province we've been to before and a location we've been to before." The mission: to advise the Afghan National Security Forces and the police forces, he said. Marines previously served in Helmand, the Taliban hotbed in the southwest region of the country -- and senior Marine advisers kept a team in Lashkar Gah, Helmand's capital and the headquarters of its police force. Speaking to Military.com the same day, Love said the Marine Corps element, the size and identity of which he would not disclose, would be taking over for an Army element with the same mission. "We've had advisers in Afghanistan ever since we concluded our major operations there, so the Marine Corps is going to pick up another one of those advisory missions that the Army's been doing," he said. "So the Army has been doing it, and the Marine Corps is going to go in and take over one of their teams for them." A spokesman for Marine Corps Central Command, Maj. Brad Avots, would not confirm the deployment of troops Love mentioned. "For operational security reasons, I don't have anything to provide on potential future force movements," he said in a statement provided to Military.com. "The U.S. Marine Corps and MARCENT stand ready to support any emergent requirements by the CENTCOM combatant commander." But another senior Marine officer, Col. Martin Wetterauer, commander of the 8th Marine Regiment, also mentioned the deployment during a December briefing following a tour with the Marines' crisis response force for Africa. "Second Marine Division regiments are going back to Afghanistan in April," he said. "Sixth Marines is going to be put against the southwest mission. Roughly 10,000 U.S. troops remain in Afghanistan. In a shift, President Barack Obama announced last July the presence will remain higher than expected this year -- at more than 8,000, up from a projected 5,500 troops. The majority of these troops are soldiers supporting Afghan National Security Forces in advise-and-assist roles in regions that played major roles during the 13-year war, including Bagram, Kabul, Jalalabad and Kandahar. For the Marine Corps, the service's presence in Afghanistan has been limited to small 100-man liaison teams deploying alongside Georgian troops to regions including Bagram in a partnership program that began earlier in the war. What remains unclear is the strategy in play behind sending more Marines in to assist the Army in the advisory mission. The Corps' most significant moments and gains in the war took place in Helmand province, the location of the sprawling Camp Leatherneck headquarters and adjoining British base, Camp Bastion. The entire complex was handed over to Afghan forces with the Afghan National Army's 215th Corps when the Marines pulled all troops out of Helmand in November 2014. Helmand was also the site of some of the most costly fights of the war. Marines launched lengthy campaigns in regions including Marjah and Sangin to root out Taliban in their remaining strongholds. As the Corps pulled out of Sangin in spring 2014, Marine officials celebrated leaving the region peaceful, with stable leadership and sharply reduced Taliban violence. But the picture following the pullout has been less rosy. Taliban forces have surged in Helmand, joined in some places by Islamic State-affiliated militants. In February, hundreds of troops from the Army's 10th Mountain Division pushed into Helmand to assist the ANA 215th Corps, serving as force protection for military advisers and trainers already in the area amid Taliban attacks. Earlier this week, a spokesman for Helmand said that Taliban activity was ramping up in Marjah and Sangin, ahead of the start of the group's traditional fighting season in the spring. -- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck. With ruffles and flourishes and a few tears in the audience, the U.S. military paid a "Farewell Tribute" Wednesday to President Barack Obama, who called his time as the civilian chief of the armed forces the "greatest privilege" of his life. "Mr. President, thank you for being a Commander-in-Chief that we have been proud to follow," Joint Chiefs Chairman Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford said on behalf of all the services. "You were there," Dunford said of Obama, when troops were deployed to combat zones, when they returned home to heal, and "finally, Mr. President, you were there at Dover Air Force Base to receive the remains of the fallen." Dunford, who will remain as Joint Chiefs Chairman in the Trump administration, noted that Obama was the first president to serve two full terms with the nation at war. "We recognize and appreciate your service, your sacrifice and your commitment to the force," Dunford said. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter followed Dunford at the pass-in-review ceremony at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall near the Pentagon and said that Obama will "feel the warm wind of a nation's gratitude at your back" as he departs the presidency. There was no mention in the tributes of the difficulties and setbacks that occurred on Obama's watch -- the return of troops to the Middle East to fight Islamic State militants, the terror raid in Benghazi, Russian aggression in Europe, China's push into the South China Sea, the ongoing civil war in Syria, newly-fraught relations with Israel, and many others. In his own remarks, Obama paid tribute to the troops and also appeared to grow emotional at times as he called on them to stay true to their "core principles" and uphold "American values" under a new Commander-in-Chief in President-elect Donald Trump. U.S. service members must respect the rule of law and do their utmost in their duties to avoid civilian casualties, Obama said. "We cannot sacrifice the very freedoms we are fighting for," he said. Any of the accomplishments attributed to him during the course of his presidency --"they're because of you," Obama said of all those in uniform. "And so, although I recognize that the formalities require me listening to praise directed in large part to me, I want to turn the tables -- I am still Commander-in-Chief, so I get to do what I want to do -- and I want to thank you," Obama said. "Of all the privileges of this office -- and there are many -- I will miss Air Force One, I will miss Marine One -- - -- but I can stand before you today and say that there has been no greater privilege, and no greater honor, than serving as the Commander-in-Chief of the greatest military in the history of the world." -- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com. A senior Marine Corps drill instructor forced a recruit to give up his Facebook password so he could hit on the recruit's sisters and made others complete his college homework, witnesses said in an Article 32 investigative hearing at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, on Thursday. Staff Sgt. Antonio Burke, whose identity was publicly revealed at the hearing for the first time, may face trial on charges including two counts of cruelty and maltreatment; two count of failure to obey an order or regulation; one count each of false official statement, wrongful appropriation, and insubordination; and five counts of general misconduct. Thursday's hearing will determine whether he will go to court-martial or face a lesser form of adjudication. Four former recruits from Kilo Company, Platoon 3044, at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina, testified that Burke, an administrative Marine by trade with nearly 10 years of service, frequently called them names including "stupid" and "f----t," among other unprintable expletives, and allowed other drill instructors to do the same. Multiple recruits testified that the drill instructors would bring members of the platoon into "the dungeon"-- an unoccupied building with an abandoned squad bay in disrepair and filled with a fine yellow dust. When the recruits were made to conduct incentive training, or strenuous physical exercise designed for correction, they would cough and struggle to breathe as the dust swirled, they said. These sessions, recruits testified, would last from 10 to 20 minutes at a time. To demonstrate the hazards of the dungeon, military prosecutor Maj. Gregg Curley presented Col. James Bartolotto, the preliminary hearing officer, with a large jar containing a sample of the dust, shaking it to show how easily it became a thick cloud. Witnesses also testified that Burke recruited self-identified "smart" recruits to come into the drill instructor hut to help him complete his college homework, a non-authorized activity for recruits, as Burke believed he was falling behind. The allegations against Burke came to light as part of a wide-ranging series of investigations regarding alleged mistreatment of recruits at Parris Island -- a pattern that was found to include abuse that prompted one recruit, Raheel Siddiqui, to take his own life last March. The alleged misconduct of Burke and a number of other drill instructors in Platoon 3044 was revealed after an anonymous letter from "Concerned loved ones of innocent recruits in Kilo Company" was sent to President Barack Obama in April 2016. In all, 56 recruits and three family members were interviewed as a result of the investigation. After the investigation was launched, all of the platoon's drill instructors were relieved of their duties and replaced by new ones last summer. Also accused were Staff Sgts. Matthew Bacchus and Jose Lucena-Martinez, and Sgt. Riley Gress, all of whom face similar charges and are set to be arraigned Friday. Lance Cpl. Kelvin Cabrera, a reservist with 4th Civil Affairs Group, out of Hialeah, Florida, testified that Burke would force recruits to show him photographs they received from home, sometimes keeping them for himself. After being forced to turn over a family photograph against his will, Cabrera said, he was summoned to the drill instructor hut in April 2016 and told Burke found one of his sisters attractive and wanted him to log onto Facebook so Burke could send messages to her. When Cabrera refused, he was made to perform burpees, or squat thrusts, until he complied, he said. Bacchus, he said, was also present. After logging on to his Facebook account on Burke's smartphone, Cabrera said the drill instructor expressed interest in another one of his sisters and forced him to call her. Then, Cabrera said, Burke grabbed the phone and tried to ask her out. "I couldn't explain [to my sister] what was happening," he said. "She told me not to do that again, to call her and give the phone to a random man." While Burke did not testify in his defense, he said in a recording played for the court that his habit of forcing the recruits to show him their photos was an "inside joke" and he never kept them. Zachary Mosier, a former recruit who was medically separated from Platoon 3044 as a result of an irregular heartbeat after passing out on three separate occasions during intensive physical training, testified that he had received inconsistent levels of medical attention on these occasions, and, under Burke's oversight, had not been seen by a corpsman or medical professionals on the second occasion. Another former recruit who left the Marine Corps shortly after boot camp due to injury, Evan Murdoch, said Burke had tried to cover up the first incident in which Mosier passed out, falling flat on his rifle during push-ups in what Murdoch described as "excessive" incentive training, lasting longer than the 15 minutes that is allowed. "He said, 'Look, that didn't happen today, did it,' hinting that no one should say anything," Murdoch testified. The commander of Marine Corps Training and Education Command, Maj. Gen. James Lukeman, is expected to make a decision this month on whether to send Burke's case to court-martial. -- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at@HopeSeck. The Marine Corps made history Thursday as three enlisted female Marines with infantry jobs join an infantry battalion that was closed to them at this time last year. The milestone comes more than four years after the Corps began to study the effects of opening infantry units to women and just over a year after Defense Secretary Ashton Carter issued a mandate in December 2015 requiring all services to open previously closed jobs to women. The three Marines are all bound for 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, out of Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, 2nd Marine Division spokesman 1st Lt. John McCombs told Military.com. While McCombs would not identify the women or reveal their ranks, citing privacy concerns as they acclimate to the fleet, he said they have the military occupational specialties [MOS] of rifleman, mortarman and machine gunner. Marine Corps Times, which first wrote about the arrival of the Marines, reported that all three graduated from the School of Infantry at Camp Lejeune as part of the Corps' multi-year effort to study the gender integration of the ground combat ranks. During this test period, some 240 female Marines graduated from Lejeune's Infantry Training Battalion course. While at the time this accomplishment did not make them eligible to hold an infantry MOS or serve in an infantry unit, the Marine Corps announced last January that these infantry graduates were now eligible to request a lateral move to serve in a grunt unit. In keeping with the Corps' plan to help female infantrymen adapt to the new environment, 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, has incorporated a small "leadership cadre" of more senior female Marines in support specialties, placed within the unit ahead of time, McCombs said. "That leadership consists of a logistics officer, motor transportation officer, and a wire chief," he said. "They will have been in place for at least 90 days prior to the first female infantry Marines arriving to the unit. This process ensures the Marine Corps will adhere to its standards and will continue its emphasis on combat readiness." McCombs said he could not speak to why that battalion had been chosen to receive the first female infantry transfers, and did not immediately know when the unit is next slated to deploy. More female infantrymen may soon join the fleet. Military.com broke the news last week that the first group of female infantry enlistees is set to graduate boot camp this month. The Corps reaches the milestone of adding female infantrymen to its ranks despite previous misgivings at the most senior levels. In September 2015, the service released the summary results of a study showing that in a year-long test of gender-integrated infantry units, teams with both male and female Marines had shot less accurately and performed more slowly than all-male teams. Ultimately, then-commandant Gen. Joseph Dunford, now the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, requested to exempt women from certain infantry units, a request that was denied by Carter. The nominee for secretary of defense, retired Marine Gen. James Mattis, has also voiced concerns about whether women are suited to the "intimate killing" of close ground combat. Asked about women serving in infantry units at a Washington, D.C., event in December, Commandant Gen. Robert Neller noted that women have been serving in combat while deployed for years, and said the Marine Corps is implementing its current guidance. Neller declined to speculate about whether the question of women in ground combat roles would resurface during the administration of President-elect Donald Trump, but said service leadership would address the issue if called upon. "If we're asked what our best military advice is, we'll make that known at that time," he said. -- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at@HopeSeck. The Blue Jays announced that theyve re-signed right-hander Gavin Floyd to a minor league contract and invited him to Major League Spring Training. Floyd, 34 later this month, spent the 2016 campaign with the Jays and pitched reasonably well when healthy, logging a 4.06 earned run average with a 30-to-8 K/BB ratio in 31 innings out of the Toronto bullpen. His season, however, came to an end in late June when he hit the disabled list with a shoulder injury that later proved to be a partially torn lat muscle. Floyd has been plagued by persistent arm issues since undergoing Tommy John surgery in May 2013, twice fracturing the olecranon bone in his elbow in addition to his 2016 shoulder woes, but hes steadfastly remained committed to getting back on a big league mound. Hes posted a 3.10 ERA in 98 2/3 innings since undergoing Tommy John, so the talent is clearly still there. The question with Floyd is simply one of whether his arm can hold up for the duration of a Major League season, even working in short relief stints. Certainly, it would seem that Toronto president Mark Shapiro and GM Ross Atkins are firm believers in Floyds abilities, as theyve been a part of signing him in each of the past three offseasons (with Cleveland prior to the 2015 season and with the Jays last winter). #PM-trapped miners PM urges utmost efforts to rescue 2 trapped miners Prime Minister Han Duck-soo on Friday called for utmost efforts to rescue two miners trapped underground for 10 days. They have been isolated in a vertical shaft about 190 mete... #KBO Landers outfielder trying not to let mistake affect defense Playing in the Korean Series for the second time, SSG Landers outfielder Han Yoo-seom has the baseball cliche down pat: he wants to take it one play at a time and make sure he does... Close Mark Zuckerberg and his Facebook team is looking into a more improved plan that will help the platform gain more revenue this year. It turns out that regions within the Asia-Pacific circle may be able to help lay out Facebook's plans. According to The Country Caller, Aegis Capital has kicked off coverage of Facebook's stocks. A Buy rating has been placed and a $150 price tag on the stock. Aegis pointed out that the biggest social media platform on the Internet today has improved in terms of stock prices. However, the firm also noted that there is a problem with advertising. Aegis Capital analyst Victor Anthony then suggested that Facebook should monetize Instagram and other messaging apps to make up for the advertising issue. Currently, most of Facebook's revenue is gathered from Canada and the United States. While this is true, the two countries combined only make up 13 percent of the platform's monthly active users. Things may take a huge turn once Facebook starts applying the plan to monetize Messenger, Instagram, and other messaging apps. According to FOX Business, Southeast Asia is the big fish when it comes to opportunities that Facebook can grab. Over 30 percent of the region's online commerce happens on social media, consulting firm Bain & Co. has reported. Compared to the U.S. that only has a 7 percent figure in terms of online commerce, there is a massive gap that Asia-Pacific can fill in. The outlet further explains that Southeast Asia's social commerce generally takes place through messaging apps such as Line or WhatsApp. Products or items will first be tracked down on Instagram or Facebook and these items will then be forwarded through a messaging app. Facebook has reported that its Messenger is a hit in the Asia-Pacific region. Thailand reportedly has twice the number of users that send messages involving businesses through Messenger. This is proof that messaging apps can boost the interaction of business-minded people. As messaging app users and business owners interact among each other, Facebook will then roll out various tools that should help businesses reach more people and in turn will ask for a certain fee. This plan is similar to Line's tool called Line@. Over 2 million businesses in Southeast Asia are making use of Line@. There are 629 million monthly active users in the Asia-Pacific region and this is something that Facebook can take advantage of. As more people use Messenger, Instagram, and other apps that the platform has, there are also more chances to generate revenue from the social commerce interactions within the apps. Copyright 2020 Mobile & Apps, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Close Lenovo has once again introduced a 2-in-1 champion device that can stand out in a market dominated by Microsoft. Dubbed as Lenovo Miix 720, it comes as a pretty solid competitor to the Surface Pro series, particularly Microsoft Surface Pro 4. Lenovo has a very wide array of convertibles ranging from entry-level to premium while Microsoft only has the Surface Pro and the Surface Book. Although these two are some of the best in the market regarding with its specifications, they aren't always cheap. With Microsoft leaving a tablet-shaped whole as they were not able to refresh its Surface Pro line last 2016, Lenovo Miix 720 can definitely fill in and could be the best alternative. Just like the Surface Pro, Lenovo's newly launched 12-inch Windows 10 tablet includes detachable keyboard cover with a touchpad and a fold-out kickstand that is adjustable up to 150 degree-angle. It differs as the keyboard is already included with the Mix at its starting price of $999 and it will be apparently shipped in April. Cutting-Edge Features and Specs Aside from the bundled keyboard, it is also loaded with cutting-edge features and specs. The Lenovo Miix 720 tablet runs on an Intel Core processor based on the latest Kaby Lake architecture and has an integrated graphics processor enabling a 4K video support. Plus, it has a 2.880 by 1.920-pixel resolution which is better than the 2736 by 1824-pixel resolution of Surface Pro 4. It uniquely has the USB-C port which is a high speed Thunderbolt 3 port to connect two external peripherals. Miix 720 includes USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports as well, PCWorld reported. Furthermore, Lenovo Miix 720 supports upto 16GB of faster DDR4 DRAM than the Surface Pro 4's older and slower DDR3 memory; a 1TB PCIe SSD for storage. The Lenovo tablet also has an infrared camera for Windows Hello, enabling a facial recognition feature that allows users to unlock their tablets. Copyright 2020 Mobile & Apps, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. you are here: business German regulator clears Wockhardt's Ankleshwar plant The German clearance allows the company to continue its supply of APIs across European Union. At the end of November 2016, contrary to a lot of expectations, OPEC announced that it would bring its collective output down to 32.5 million barrels. The group also got a commitment from non OPEC members to reduce production. OPEC nations currently produce a total of 33.7 million barrels of oil every day.Under the deal, they will bring it down to 32.5 million barrels per day, with Saudi Arabia, Iraq, UAE, and Kuwait making the biggest cuts. A number of non-OPEC producers have joined OPEC in these cuts. They have agreed to reduce production by about 560, 000 barrels per day.This was followed by another news over the weekend where Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih said that they will cut the production substantially to be below the target agreed last month with members of OPEC.A combination of all these new items have pushed crude prices up by almost 20% in a span of about 12 days. As a result, the current prices are close to 1.5 years high.The question that the oil market is grappling with is will this balance the market, how much will the prices increase or is this just a smoke screen and prices will fall back again?Lets first understand the deal - Saudi Arabia will cut about 500,000 barrels per day by reducing output to 10.06 million bpd. It may be ready to go a step further and reduce production below 10 million bpd. Iran plans to freeze output at close to current levels of about 3.8 million barrels per day.Kuwait, UAE, Iraq and Venezuela will also cut production. Libya and Nigeria will be exempted, as their output has been hurt by unrest and violence. Amongst non OPEC countries, Russia has pledged to reduce production by 300,000 barrels. Countries like Mexico and Kazakhstan have also committed to reductions. Although these may happen through natural field declines than active cuts. This probably covers 60% of the worlds oil producers and leaves out countries like USA, Canada, Brazil, Norway etc.This was a huge negotiation within and outside OPEC to balance the needs and demands of all the nations while identifying cuts that can stabilize the prices. This is a clear turn from the market share strategy of Saudi Arabia, as all oil producing nations struggle through their budgets. Saudi Arabia has already burned more than USD 100 billion worth of reserves and has been forced to cut social services and government salaries to compensate for lower oil revenues, threatening stability in the kingdom.This deal with big commitments across players has buoyed the market sentiment and some analysts are already predicting at USD 70+ oil by mid-2017.Since Saudi Arabia had started the price war, the US crude production has gone down by more than 1 million barrels, from 9.6 million barrels per day to 8.6 million barrels per day. Nearly USD 1 trillion in oil investment worldwide has dried up. However, the tussle between OPEC and shale producers is far from over.Huge trading activity happened on the back of this deal. Combined volumes of trading of Brent on ICE and WTI NYMEX surged past previous records. There is a lot of speculation that Shale producers are using this as an opportunity to hedge their future produce at these increased levels. As soon as prices started rising the rig count in US started increasing as well. It currently stands at the highest level for the year of 2016 in US. In the last month, US crude production has gone up by about 200,000 barrels a day. This suggests that the upside on prices may be capped and will struggle to cross the USD 60 mark.To say the least, there are a lot of skeptics of the deal given the history of OPEC and other countries.For example, Russia has agreed to a cut by 300,000 barrels per day by January "if technically possible." It is a significant reduction, almost 25% of the overall OPEC cut. However, it comes on the back of significant increase in Russias output in the recent time. They have increased production by 520,000 barrels in the 2 months leading up to November, reaching a record level. So this reduction does not even get it back to the August levels.The history also suggests that Russia may not keep up its end of the bargain. In 2001 Russia had committed to cutting but they boosted production instead. Similarly even after the cuts Saudis will be above the levels they were at in 2015 before they started increasing production. So these cuts may be real, but they are based on a very high historic production level and may not help restore balance quickly.Also, in general OPEC countries are known to not meet their targets and produce more than that. Especially given its state Iraq seems most at risk of not meeting its quota commitments.Even if all the cuts take place as planned, current inventory levels and shale production will create a ceiling on the prices. Inventory levels are 25% higher than historical averages. Also a lot of shale producers are said to have dug up wells and left it untapped ready to produce when the prices rise. So they could very easily surprise the market by increasing production quickly to take advantage of increased prices.OPEC is trying to draw a delicate balance here. Reduce production enough to drain out inventories, restore balance and increase prices but not to increase prices enough to encourage shale production or encourage long term investment in production. In the short term China demand is going to be a big variable. China has been filling up its strategic and commercial inventory over last year and that demand should go away in 2017.Also the Chinese tea pot refineries may come under more scrutiny forcing some reduction in demand from them. On the other hand economic data from China is more encouraging boosting outlook of commodities. This will be a key in whether the reduction in supply and increase in demand can be balanced in early 2017 or later.So, to figure out if it is a smoke screen or will it have a real impact analysts will be eagerly watching for compliance to cuts, China demand, shale production increases and inventory draw downs. This will create a lot of volatility in oil prices over next few months till the situation becomes clearer. budget Opposition not happy with Budget date; asks for postponement The polls will be held three days after the Budget announcement on February 1. Five states - Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Punjab, Manipur and Uttarakhand - will go to polls between February-March. business Bull's Eye: Buy Ashok Leyland, Castrol, Mindtree, Bharti Infra Kunal Saraogi of Equityrush is of the view that one may buy Bharti Infratel with a target of Rs 360. Education Montgomery County Community College will present the spring installment of the interview/talk show program Issues and Insights April 20 from 12:30 to 2 p.m. in Science Center room 214, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell. The programs will be simulcast to the Colleges West Campus in South Hall room 216, 101 College Drive, Pottstown. Dr. Kolsky will offer a humorous presentation, Carrots, Sticks and Politics: A State of the Nation and the World Message. In this speech, he will provide his interpretation of domestic and international politics and then welcome questions from the audience for discussion. Issues and Insights, is free and open to the public. For information, contact Dr. Thomas Kolsky, professor of political science, at 215-641-6380 or tkolsky@mc3.edu. Montgomery County Community Colleges STEM Scholars Program will host a STEM Jam! open house April 25 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the Advanced Technology Center at the Colleges Central Campus, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell. The drop-in event is designed for students interested in learning more about careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Activities will include STEM program information and career advising, STEM speakers throughout the day from industry and academia, micro-helicopter and robotics competitive obstacle courses and demonstrations and static models of STEM student and faculty work. For more information about STEM Jam! or STEM programs at MCCC, contact William Brownlowe at wbrownlowe@mc3.edu or 215-641-6644, or Robin Zuhlke at 215-619-7440 or rzuhlke@mc3.edu. Temple Ambler, located at 580 Meetinghouse Road, presents the following events: International Club Global Bazaar April 15 from 5 to 8 p.m. The Ambler Campus International Club invites all students, faculty, staff and the community to celebrate a multitude of diverse cultures, which will be showcased at the organizations Global Bazaar. This family friendly event will highlight cultural traditions and celebrations in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, South American, North America and Africa through music, entertainment, food and informative displays developed and presented by students at the Ambler Campus. Young visitors will be provided with passports, which they may get stamped at each country they visit. Prizes will be awarded to world travelers who talk to cultural representatives, answer questions about the countries theyve visited and take part in fun-filled activities designed to help them learn about the rich diversity of cultures found throughout the world. Refreshments will be served. The event is free. For more information, call 267-468-8108 or e-mail tuc36466@temple.edu. EarthFest 2011 April 29 from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. More than 75 exhibitors, including the Philadelphia Zoo, The Franklin Institute, the Academy of Natural Sciences, the Elmwood Park Zoo and the Insectarium, will take part in EarthFest 2011. School students of all ages are invited to attend and develop displays of their own. EarthFest partner the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society also offers its Kids Grow Expo, featuring the Junior Flower Show, as part of the event. For more information, call 267-468-8108 or e-mail duffyj@temple.edu. Annual Spring Plant Sale May 7 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The plant sale an Ambler Campus tradition dating back to the early 1900s will feature woody plants and perennials in portable sizes, hardy trees, shrubs, and vines, native plants that are attractive to wildlife, herbs, and hanging baskets. There will also be numerous special plants for sale to highlight Amblers special anniversary year. Garden books and garden tools will also be available for sale. Students, staff, and volunteers from the Department of Landscape Architecture and Horticulture and the Ambler Arboretum Advisory Committee will be available to answer questions. All proceeds from the Spring Plant Sale will support the Ambler Arboretum Fund and the Pi Alpha Xi National Honor Society. Information: 267-468-8001 or judy.shatz@temple.edu. Learn more at www.ambler.temple.edu/anniversary. June Homecoming/Louise Bush-Brown Garden Dedication June 5 from 12:30 to 2 p.m. (June Homecoming), Bright Hall Lounge; 2 p.m. (Garden Dedication), Ambler Campus Formal Perennial Gardens. Tickets June Homecoming: Participant $18 per person; Sustainer $25 per person; Benefactor $40 per person. The 2011 June Homecoming, sponsored by the School of Environmental Design Alumni Association, will include the Alumni Association annual meeting and luncheon. June Homecoming will be followed by the formal dedication of Temple University Amblers Formal Perennial Gardens as the Louise Bush-Brown Formal Gardens. During this 100th anniversary of the campus, Temple University Ambler and the Ambler Arboretum of the Temple University is honoring Louise Bush-Browns many contributions to the history of the campus by formally dedicating the gardens in her honor. During the program, campus Executive William Parshall will welcome guests, Ambler Arboretum Director Jenny Rose Carey will speak about the Bush-Browns and the history of the garden, and an official ribbon cutting will be held for the Louise Bush-Brown Formal Garden. Following the ribbon cutting, guests are invited to take a tour of the gardens, which will wend their way to the Campus Greenhouse for the School of Environmental Designs annual Plant Auction. Information (Garden Dedication): 267-468-8001 or judy.shatz@temple.edu. Information (June Homecoming): 215-482-0722. Learn more at www.ambler.temple.edu/anniversary. Northview Garden Tour and Fundraiser for the Ambler Arboretum June 12 from noon to 5 p.m. Call for reservations. Tickets: $15 per person or $20 at the door. In addition to the gardens of the Ambler Arboretum of Temple University, Arboretum Director Jenny Rose Carey has a garden oasis all her own right in Ambler Northview. Visitors will have the opportunity to take self-guided tours throughout the many gardens, where garden experts will be available to answer questions about the various designs. The Ambler Keystone Chapter of the Womans National Farm and Garden Association will also provide tea and refreshments. All proceeds from the tours will support the Ambler Arboretum of Temple University. Information or to register: 267-468-8001 or judy.shatz@temple.edu. Learn more at www.ambler.temple.edu/anniversary. The Senior Adult Activities Center of Montgomery County, 536 George Street, Norristown, will hold the following events: SAAC Adult Day Care, an alternative to Nursing Home Care is available for information call 610-275-1960 Volunteers are needed for Meals on Wheels Program (call the number above) SAACs Fifth Avenue Boutique opens Monday through Friday from 10 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Exercise with Theresa will be held every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 1 p.m. Dance class is held every Monday at 10 a.m. Tai Chi is held every Monday at 10 a.m. Yoga is held every Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. Line Dancing is held every Thursday at 10:30 a.m. Dancing with Joan is held every Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. Sculpture Class is held Wednesdays from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Why Should I Learn Spanish? will be held Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m. Generations On-Line computer classes for seniors will be held Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. 4 p.m. computers are available during those hours. Health Living will be held every Tuesday at 1 p.m. Boomer U will hold the following events. Boomer U is located at 45 Forest Avenue, Ambler. Registration & payment is required for all events: 215-619-8863. Pilates Class is held Wednesdays and Fridays at 9:30 a.m. First class is free; please bring a mat. For information call 610-291-5376. Blue Bell School of Dance, 921 Penllyn Blue Bell Pike, Blue Bell, hosts Argentine Tango Classes and a Milonga dance party every Friday evening. Lessons start at 8:30 p.m. followed by dancing at 9:30 p.m. Andrew Conway, master Argentine Tango dancer, instructor and performer and his partner Linda Chase will instruct. All levels welcome and no partner is needed. Refreshments will be served. Fee is $12 per person and includes lesson and dancing. Information: 215-634-1101 or www.amoretango.com. The Montgomery Hospital Medical Center will offer the following classes: Childbirth Education Class- all parents are invited to participate, including those who are delivering at other hospitals. For more information on maternity services or classes, call 610-270-2020. CPR and First Aid Courses are offered for beginners to experiences health care providers. Call 610-270-2313. The Ambler SAAC (Senior Adult Activities Center), located at 45 Forest Ave in Ambler will hold the following events: Tai Chi every Monday and Thursday at 11 a.m. Yoga is every Tuesday at 1 p.m. and Friday at 10:30 a.m. Strength and balance training every Wednesday at 10 a.m. Armchair Aerobics is held every Monday at 10 a.m. Gourmet Weight Wise every Thursday at 12:30. Fitness Center and Pool Room open daily 8 a.m.-4 p.m. The Diabetes Education Center will offer day and evening classes each month. Health insurance pays for diabetes education classes. Preregistration is required. Call 610-270-2301. For Kids & Families The Ambler Kiwanis Club will host its annual Easter Egg Hunt April 26 at 10 a.m. in Ambler Borough Park, located just off of the intersection of Hendricks Street and Valley Brook Road. Members of the Wissahickon Key Club will assist Kiwanians in hiding thousands of wrapped chocolate eggs in a designated area of the park. Also hidden will be plastic colored eggs, which are redeemed for prizes. Elementary school children are separated by age. Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation will hold its 21st annual Storybook Egg-Stravaganza April 15 fom 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Upper Dublin Township Building. Toddlers and preschoolers love this annual event where photo opportunities with favorite friends abound! Treasures are collected from UDP&Rs assortment of lifesize cutouts of favorite cartoon characters from Disney, Sesame Street, Nickelodeon and other well-known animation. Children can have their picture taken with Bugsy OHare; bring your own camera. And dont forget a basket for goodies! $7 for UD residents; $12 for non-residents. Pre-register at 215-643-1600 ext. 3443. Splash Week is a free week-long program that teaches children and families basic swimming skills and water safety practices. All YMCA branches will host multiple classes each day from April 11 to 15. For more information, contact the Ambler Area YMCA at 215-628-9950. Healthy Kids Day is April 16 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The day is filled with fun, engaging and artistic activities that cultivate healthy living as part of the YMCAs larger efforts to help more kids and families become physically active. All activities are free and open to the community. For more information, contact the Ambler YMCA at 215-628-9950. No reservation is required. The Ambler Area YMCA has added several new programs for area youngsters. Classes are held late afternoons or evenings on various weekdays. For more information, visit philaymca.org or call 215-628-9950. Basic Beading: Ages: 10+. Wednesdays 7 to 7:45 p.m. This class will teach you the fundamentals of wiring and stringing along with how color can be used to create unique and vibrant beadwork design. You will create various jewelry including earrings, bracelets, charm pendants and much more! Supplies will be provided. Bringing your own jewelry pliers or tools would be a plus. Messin with the Masters: Ages: 8-12. Thursdays 7 to 7:45 p.m. Learn about some of the worlds greatest artists. You will be inspired to create your own Starry Night with oil pastels and tempera paints, a tissue paper painted Monet garden, a Picasso head using scraps of paper, a Georgia OKeeffe clay flower bowl and a Rousseau jungle collage. Super Scientist: Ages: 5-7. Mondays 4:30 to 5:15 p.m. Well be concocting chemistry experiments such as making slime, mixing potions and having fun with magnet magic. Your budding little scientist will enhance his/her creative thinking and motor skills and to top it off will learn that science can be serious fun. Wacky Junk Art: Ages: 8-12. Thursdays 6 to 6:45 p.m. Why throw it away! Instead join us to make household junk into aliens from outer space, wacky specs, crazy hats, body masks or a recycled train. Globe Trotters: Ages: 4-6. Tuesdays 4:30 to 5:15 p.m. Youre never too young to start thinking globally. Each week, we explore a new country through crafts, games, music, stories and even some taste-testing. A perfect introduction to our great big world! Crazy about Crafts: Ages: 5-7, Thursdays 4:30 to 5:15 p.m. Let your childs creative juices flow with our fun arts and crafts projects each week. Fine motor skills and creative thinking skills will be enhanced with this crafty class. Come out and join the Ambler Area YMCAs Teen and Junior Leaders Club. Participants are given the freedom to plan community service projects year round and truly make a difference in the lives of people in need. Those in Teen and Junior Leaders also attend leadership retreats all along the East Coast three times a year and meet other leaders who are doing the same great work in their respective areas. Dont miss out on this inspiring opportunity. Teen Leaders, ages 13-17, meet every Wednesday from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Junior Leaders, ages 10-12, will begin in the spring and will meet every Monday. For more information, contact Mike Miles, Teen Director, 215- 628-9950 x 1540 or mmiles@philaymca.org. Did you know that the new Ambler Area YMCA holds childrens birthday parties at its site for members and non members as well. The Ambler Y does all the work from start to finish and birthday parties include a personalized cake, ice cream, beverage and paper products. Parties are held on Saturday and Sunday afternoons and include two party hosts to lead activities, set-up, clean-up and assist with serving. You can have a Splash Party for children ages six to 12 in the new zero depth entry pool with water slide and spray fountains. Up to 25 children have exclusive use of the pool area with 30 minutes in the party room. Sports Parties are offered for kids ages four to 12 with age appropriate activities and games, and sports such as floor hockey, soccer, basketball or dodge ball. Children ages three to five years of age will enjoy parties in the Family Active Center with use of the Moon Bounce and organized activities, such as parachute play and songs. For information, 215-628-9950 ext. 1583. Community Events at the Ambler Y: -YAchievers YMCA Achievers is a developmentally based, extracurricular, educational and team mentoring program designed to help students in grades five through 12 prepare for fulfilled livelihoods in college and beyond. Participation is free and all students in this program receive a free YMCA membership. Registration for the 2009 program begins now. You do not need to be a YMCA member to utilize these special services. Call 215-628-9950 to register. Greater Norristown Art Leagues Childrens Weeklong Summer Art Camps will be held at 800 West Germantown Pike in East Norriton, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday throughout the summer. The cost per session is $125 per student for ages 6 and up. Jo Ann Cooksey Bono teaches an introduction to basic drawing skills and techniques from 10 a.m. until the lunch break each day. In the afternoon sessions, Mary Vogel Lozinak involves the students in hands on projects such as collage, papermaking, T-shirt printing, 3D design and sculpy clay. Fridays Graduation Day includes an art show, awards ceremony and reception for parents, siblings, grandparents and friends. All supplies are included. Students provide their own lunch. A refrigerator is available and the building is air-conditioned. This is the 15th year to run this successful program. Both instructors are professional artists with State Police and Child Abuse Clearances. To register, call Jo Ann at 610-279-1008, or register on-line at www.gnal.org. Health Dresher Physical Therapy is hosting an interactive seminar discussing its Golf Assessment Progam April 30 from 10 a.m. to noon at Dresher Physical Therapy, 1075 Virginia Drive, Suite 200, Fort Washington. Physical therapist Chris Miller, certified through the Titleist Performance Institute, will discuss why your body may be the most important piece of golf equipment you invest in and how this can drastically improve your game. $10 in advance; $15 at the door. Call 215-619-4545 to reserve your spot. The Chestnut Hill Center for Enrichment, Center on the Hill and Chestnut Hill Hospital will host a Senior Health and Resource Fair April 14 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Chestnut Hill Presbyterian Church, 8855 Germantown Ave. The event is free. For more information, call 215-248-0180 or e-mail chseniors@cavtel.net. The Ambler Senior Adult Activities Center is hosting Help Yourself to Health, a new six-week workshop for older adults with ongoing health conditions such as arthritis, diabetes, high blood pressure, anxiety, heart disease and others. The free workshop will take place at the Ambler Senior Adult Activities Center, 45 Forest Ave. on six Thursdays, May 12 through June 16 from 9:30 a.m. to noon. Although there is no charge to participate, registration is required. To register, call 215-619-8863. The Ambler Senior Adult Activities Center is sponsoring an eight-week program called A Matter of Balance: Managing Concerns About Falls. Presented by the Montgomery County Health Department, this workshop will be held on Tuesdays, May 3 to June 21 from 10 a.m. to noon at the Ambler Center, 45 Forest Ave. If you pre-register by April 27, the fee is only $5! Registration at the first class is $10. (Checks should be payable to SAAC and will benefit our Meals on Wheels program that serves homebound seniors.) A workbook will be provided and refreshments will be served. Call 215-619-8863 to register or for more information. Fort Washington Wellness Center classes are ongoing. There are several offered during lunch or right after work, for your convenience: Boot Camp from noon to 1 p.m. on Monday; Zumba is MWF from 11 a.m. to noon and Friday at 4 p.m.; there are 25 cycling classes; Ashtanga and Vinyasana Yoga and Pilates; and a group Womens Strength Training class M-F from 10 to 11 a.m. Questions, call Cathy DeMarco at 215-641-1245. Following the success of other local area programs, Impact Sports and Upper Dublin Parks and Recreation are delighted to team up again to offer a spring program for the 2011 season! Upper Dublin area children ages 3-5 years old can attend a Sports Program featuring their favorite sports games; soccer, rugby, hockey, track and field, basketball, and more. The program will start on April 27 and run through June 1. Cost for the program is $85 for the six weeks. The classes will be running 12- 1 p.m.; 1- 2 p.m.; 2- 3 p.m. For more info or to register, call Upper Dublin Township on 215 643 1600 or visit their website a http://www.upperdublin.net. Spring Aquatic Programs UDHS Pool: -Summer is just around the corner Community Aquatic Programs at the UDHS Pool can help get you into shape! Programs begin in March; preregistration is required. Shallow Water Aerobics Two 5-week programs, Wednesday nights, 8-8:45 p.m., $40R/$50NR. Adult Swim Instructions Two 5-week programs, Wednesday nights, 7-8 p.m., $50R/$60NR -Open Rec Swims are fun for the whole family! Come out on Fridays from 7-9 p.m. or Saturdays from 1-4 p.m. and enjoy use of the pool and diving area. Fridays are offered through June 17; Saturdays are offered March 12-May 21. -Join a growing group of adult lap swimmers and water walkers. Lanes are set aside evenings and weekends for use; lanes are shared. Monday Thursday from 7:30-9:30 p.m.; Fridays from 7-9 p.m. and Saturdays (March 12-May 21) from 1-4 p.m. -Private Swimming & Diving Lessons for ages 3-adult are offered at the UDHS Pool through a partnership with the Upper Dublin Aquatic Club (UDAC). Visit the UDAC website for more information, www.udac.us, and click the link to UDHS Private Lessons. -Looking for local programs for US Masters Swimming (adults) or Water Polo (all ages)? UDAC and UDSD are working together to develop programs that will be offered at the UDHS Pool. Add your name to Interest Lists by emailing slohoefer@upperdublin.net. emails will be sent about clinics and program start dates. Questions about Community Aquatic Programs at the UDHS Pool, group use of the pool or pool rental? Contact Susan Lohoefer, Facility & Community Affairs Manager at slohoefer@upperdublin.net or call 215-643-8800 x8994. SilverSneakers Fitness Program. The Healthyways SilverSneakers Fitness Program is a result-oriented program that enables older adults to take charge of their health. The program is an innovative blend of physical activity, healthy lifestyle and socially oriented programing. Members of the program are eligible for a free YMCA membership, with use of the pool and exercise equipment, along with customized classes designed for older adults who want to improve their strength, flexibility, balance and endurance. If you are a subscriber to Independence Blue Cross (Personal Choice 65 PPO) or Keystone 65 HMO, Bravo Health, or Health Options Programs (HOP), call the Ambler Area YMCA, 215-628-9950 or Hatboro Area YMCA, 215-674-4545. You can also visit www.silversneakers.com. Zumba Fitness offers Zumba dance/fitness classes at Academy of Dance and Music/BBAD Studio located at 1524 DeKalb Pike in Blue Bell (behind Sherwin Williams). Classes are offered three times a week: Tuesdays at 6 p.m., Thursdays at 6:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 8 a.m. For a free trial pass for your first class, email us at info@danceandmusic.biz or call 610-277-2557. For more info, visit our site at www.academyofdanceandmusic.org. Chestnut Hill Health Systems presents the following Health Education Programs: FITNESS CLASSES Golden Yoga: A Breathing, Stretching and Relaxation Class. Fridays, 2:30-3:30 p.m. Lea Auditorium, Chestnut Hill Hospital, 8835 Germantown Ave. Registration for four classes at a time required. Golden Yoga is Classical Yoga, adapted by the SKY Foundation, to accommodate those who have difficulty getting up and down from the floor. The program includes postures, breathing, relaxation and meditation techniques, all performed while sitting in a chair and standing. Registration required. Call 215-247-3029. Cost: $20 for 4 classes per month. Tai Chi: Tuesdays & Thursdays, 8:30 9:30 a.m. Springfield Residence, 8601 Stenton Ave. Classes, for the novice or beginner/intermediate student, are designed to improve balance, power, posture, coordination, flexibility and mental focus. Slow, gentle movements are modified to most everyones abilities. For more information or to sign up for a free introductory class, call 215-882-2804. Cost: $8 per class/paid monthly. SUPPORT GROUPS Weight Loss Surgery Support Group: Fourth Wednesday of the month, 7-8 p.m. Williams Conference Room, Chestnut Hill Hospital, 8835 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia. Join us for a monthly get-together where well share information for those interested in weight loss surgery, learn from guest speakers discussing current news on issues including lifestyle modification, nutrition and exercise and provide ongoing support for those who have completed surgery. Registration required. Call 215-753-2000. Breast Cancer Networking Group: Fourth Tuesday of the month 5:30 7 p.m. Williams Conference Room, Chestnut Hill Hospital, 8835 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia. A free, confidential support group for women living with a diagnosis of breast cancer designed to provide a forum for sharing information, feelings and concerns associated with breast cancer. Facilitated by Tish Wakefield, LCSW, Oncology Social Worker. Registration required. To register or for more information, call 215-248-8047. New Moms Support Groups Tuesdays 10:30 a.m. 12 p.m.; contact Jeanine ORourke, MSW or 2:30 4 p.m.; contact Susan Schack, Ph.D Volunteer Conference Room, Chestnut Hill Hospital, 8835 Germantown Ave. The Center for Postpartum Depression at Chestnut Hill Hospital is pleased to offer two new support groups to support new moms. Both groups will be run by experienced mental health professionals who really get it when it comes to new motherhood and juggling relationships, extended family, work/family balance and self-care. If you are experiencing new mom challenges that often heighten anxiety and involve hormonally driven depression, join us for an informative and supportive forum to connect with other moms. Infants are welcome. $30 per session (flexible based on need). Registration is required. Call Dr. Schack, 646-265-2484, or Ms. ORourke, 215-206-2931. Man to Man Prostate Cancer Support Group Third Thursday of the month 8-9 a.m. Williams Conference Room, Chestnut Hill Hospital, 8835 Germantown Ave. A networking group for men diagnosed with prostate cancer designed to provide education, support and encouragement. Spouses and partners welcome. Harry M. Baer, MD, Chief, Urology Division, will host Ask the Doctor. Registration required. Call 215-248-8325. Contact the Senior Center by phone 215-248-0180 or email (chseniors@cavtel.net) with your questions about these programs or any of our on-going activities and classes. Holy Redeemer HomeCare and Hospice seeks compassionate and emotionally mature volunteers to provide support to local hospice patients and their families in Bucks, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties. Volunteers may also assist with pet therapy and administrative work within the hospice department and are requested to have daytime availability. Hospice patient care volunteers visit with patients in their homes or nursing facilities once a week for two to three hours. They provide emotional support and companionship to patients and family members, assist with errands or provide respite for caregivers. Bereavement volunteers support the families of hospice patients following the loss of a loved one, while administrative volunteers assist with typing, mailings and/or filing. Hospice care workers provide a great service to families and loved ones of hospice patients. Many volunteers also report a great deal of personal satisfaction as a result of their services. Patient care and bereavement volunteers complete an application and attend an 18-hour volunteer training program that covers the medical, psychological and spiritual aspects of hospice volunteering. Day and evening training programs are offered. To sign up for volunteer opportunities in Pennsylvania, contact Holy Redeemer Volunteer Coordinator Jean Francis at 215-698-3737 or email jfrancis@holyredeemer.com. Librarytalk Upper Dublin Public Library, 805 Loch Alsh Avenue, Ft. Washington, 215-628-8744 www.upperdublinlibrary.org APRIL CHILDRENS PROGRAMS: Storytimes: Please register in the library. o Wee Ones: 0 to 23 months Thursdays and Fridays 10:30 to 10:50 a.m. o Tiny Tots: age 2. Wednesdays 10:30 to 10:50 a.m. and Fridays 11 to 11:20 a.m. o Jr. Book Lovers: ages 3 to 6. Tuesdays 10:30 to 11 a.m. o Bedtime Storytimes: 7 to 7:30 p.m. April 20 and 27. Wear your jammies, bring your teddy & hear Miss Barbara read bedtime stories! For ages 3 to 6. APRIL TEEN PROGRAMS: North Hills Library Teens April 28 from 4 to 6 p.m. Movie Matinee APRIL UDPL ADULT PROGRAMS: NEW! ESL Conversation Group. Tuesdays from 7 to 8 p.m. Interested in practicing your English in a safe and caring environment? Come to our conversation group and improve your skills! Please register with Kay Klocko at 215-628-8744 or kklocko@mclinc.org. One-on-One Computer Mentoring. Get personalized assistance from experienced computer volunteers! Sign-up for a one-hour session. Limit one session per month. Please register contact info above. Book Groups Please register with Kay Klocko 215-628-8744. o Daytimers: April 21 at 1:30 p.m. Tired of book groups where you all read the same book? Read any fiction or non-fiction book on this months theme: Explorers. Please register. Meetings: Annual Meeting of the Friends of UDPL: April 14 at 1 p.m. Board of Directors: April 20 at 7 p.m. Blue Bell Library www.wvpl.org Upcoming Events: The Wissahickon Valley Public Library, 650 Skippack Pike (Route 73) in Blue Bell, is diagonally across from the Blue Bell Inn. Call 215-643-1320 or visit their website at www.wvpl.org. For children and teens at Blue Bell: * Story times with guitar music by Miss Michelle, the singing librarian. * Mondays at 10:30 a.m. for all ages. * Wednesdays at 4:30 p.m. for all ages. * Fridays at 10:30 a.m. for all ages. * Family Movies, new releases, second Saturdays of the month at 1:30 p.m. * May 14 Despicable Me * June 11 Alpha and Omega * Special Events * April watch for date of spring/Easter events * April 14 at 4:30 p.m. Junior Lego Club for children ages 3 through 5. Parents and caregivers need to stay with children. * April 14 at 7 p.m. Jeopardy for ages 11 to 18. Test your book and library knowledge for prizes. Sign up to be a contestant. No sign up to be in the audience. Snacks provided. * April 16 at 1 p.m. Adult Mystery Book Group discussing The Beekeepers Apprentice by Laurie King. * April 16 at 1:30 p.m. Childrens event for One Book, Every Young Child celebration. Story and craft for book Whose Shoes? * April 19 at 7 p.m. and April 26 at 1:30 p.m.- Adult book group discusses The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester. Group led by Adam Button. * April 30 through May 3 Friends book sale with about 10,000 items for sale for children, teens and adults. * May sign up for Science in the Summer * June sign up for Enrichment Programs for Elementary-Age children * June sign up for Summer Reading, all ages For adults at Blue Bell: * Daytime Book Discussion Group fourth Tuesday, Jan April at 1:30 p.m. * April 26 The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester * Night-time Book Discussion Group third Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m. o April 19 The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester * Art Series with Dr. Sheldon Weintraub, docent at The Barnes and speaker at local colleges o April 27 at 2 p.m. The Art of Looking at Art-Is She Nude or Is She Naked? *Mystery Book Discussion Group, third Saturday of the month at 1 p.m.; new mystery theme each month; www.wvpl.org/programs * Yoga on Mondays at 1:30 p.m. $20 for eight classes; $5 per drop-in class. * Tai Chi on Mondays at 3 p.m. with Dr. Kurt Findeisen. $20 for eight classes; $5 per drop in class. * Philadelphia Museum of Art presents class on their Marc Chagall exhibit, April 13 at 2 p.m. * Giant Book Sale, April 29 May 3 o Starts with almost 10,000 items for children and adults! o Held during library hours. o Preview for members of the Friends of the Library, April 28 at 7 p.m. o Join the Friends and attend the preview sale. Modest fee to join. * Blooms at Blue Bell Gardening Series o May 11 at 1 p.m. Summer Bulbs by PA Horticultural Society * Knitting group Mondays and Wednesdays at 10 a.m. Work on your project or observe and learn. The groups continue year-round in the community room. * Socrates Cafe discussion group every Monday at 7 p.m. You pick the topic to discuss each week. No sign-up, nothing to read. * Bridge every Friday at 12:30 p.m. New players welcome. * Mah Jong every Wednesday at 1 p.m. New players welcome. *Chess every Wednesday at 7p.m. for adults and teens 14 and older. * Movie Matinee showing recent releases every Thursday at 2 p.m. April 14: Maos Last Dancer; April 21: Welcome to the Rileys; April 28: Conviction; May 5: Inception; May 12: Inside Job; May 19 The Kings Speech; May 26 The Fighter; June 2 Rabbit Hole; June 9 Black Swan; June 16 127 Hours * Ongoing like-new, year-round book sale for adults & children during library hours * Library opening at 10 a.m. Monday through Saturday! Ambler Library, a branch of the Wissahickon Valley Public Library, 209 Race St., 215-646-1072. www.wvpl.org. All the following events occur at the Ambler Library. * Story times with guitar music by Miss Michelle, the singing librarian. * Tuesdays at 10:30 a.m. for all ages. * Thursdays at 4:30 p.m. for all ages. * For adults: * Beading Group meets the first and third Monday of every month at 1 p.m. Work on your own projects or come to watch and learn. * Free Family History Lookup with Connie Briggs. Email Connie for an appointment at the Ambler Library. conniebriggs@comcast.net * Special Events: * April 14 at 1:30 p.m. Book Group discusses Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian. * April 19 at 7 p.m. Travel to Paris with world traveler Harry Balin. Tea and scones at 6:30 p.m. * April 21 at 7 p.m. Art with Sara for children in fourth through seventh grades. *May 2 at 6:30 p.m. Discuss the movie Lone Star with Temple Professor Lisa Hawkins. Watch the movie ahead of time. *May 10 Robert Capucci discusses Art into Fashion. Tea and scones served at 6:30 p.m. Program at 7 p.m. *May 12 at 1:30p.m. Book Group discusses The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman. *May 17 Tour the gardens of Devon and Southwest England with Lois McMullen. Tea and Scones at 6:30 p.m. Program at 7 p.m. *June 13 at 6:30 p.m. Discuss the movie Blade Runner with Temple Professor Lisa Hawkins. Watch the movie ahead of time. Meetings and Lectures The Unisys Blue Bell Retiree Group will meet in the Church on the Mall in the Plymouth Meeting Mall April 14 at 1:30 p.m. Kathy Sacket Young, director/trainer with the North Penn YMCA, will speak on Keeping Fit in Retirement. For more information, contact Membership Committee Chairperson Jerry Feldscher at 610-275-3538 or President Al Rollin at 215-368-4833. The next FWBA meeting will be April 28 at the Hilton Garden Inn Fort Washington. Networking begins at 11:30 a.m.; meeting from noon to 1 p.m. Leon Singletary, Principal, First Contact HR and FWBA Executive Board, will present: Social Media: How to Use It To Get More Business. Lunch is provided courtesy of the Hilton Garden Inn Fort Washington. Members are welcome to bring a guest. An RSVP is requested by return email or 215-628-0313. Big Brothers Big Sisters Southeastern PA is hosting a information sessions over the next few weeks on how to become a Big Brother. The information sessions will take place: April 16 at noon, April 19 at 8 a.m. and April 28 at 6 p.m. All sessions will be held at the groups Norristown Office,t 530 DeKalb St., Norristown. For more information, call 610-277-2200. The North Penn Chapter of the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) normally meets on the third Tuesday of each month from now until May. Meetings are held at the William Penn Inn on Route 202 and Sumneytown Pike, Upper Gwynedd, PA. Social hour starts at 5:30 p.m., dinner is served at 6:30 p.m., and the technical program begins at 7 p.m. Cost with reservation is $28 for members. Members without reservations and guests pay $30. Students with reservations pay $15. Reservations may be made by noon on the Monday preceding the meeting by phoning 215-371-1854 or emailing the reservation to northpennima@yahoo.com northpennima@yahoo.com. Information about the North Penn Chapter is available at http://northpenn.imanet.org/. LeTip, a professional organization of men and women who are dedicated to the highest standards of competence and service meets every Tuesday at Cedar Brook Country Club, 180 Penllyn Pike, Blue Bell at 7 a.m. -meeting officially starts at 7:16 a.m. and ends at 8:31 a.m. Our purpose is the exchange of business tips, leads, and referrals. Each business category is represented by one member and conflicts of interest are disallowed. Guests are welcome to visit any of our breakfast meetings. Every third Thursday of month, Sunrise Assisted Living of Blue Bell (795 Penllyn Pike, Blue Bell, PA 19422, 215-619-2777) serves as a satellite site to 148th Legislative district PA congressman Mike Gerber from 10 a.m. to noon. Stop by for help needed with things such as disability placards and license plates, vehicle registration, utilities issues, birth/death certificates,property tax/rent rebates, etc. Notary services arranged by appointment. The Eastern Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce is an action-oriented organization dedicated to promoting its members and the economic health of eastern Montgomery county. The Chamber is committed to serving as a catalyst by uniting business, community agencies, government and education to make our county a great place to live and work. For information, call 215-887-5122 or visit www.emccc.org. Do you have a fear of public speaking? Blue Bell Toastmasters Club can help. We meet from 7 to 9 p.m., on the second and fourth Tuesday at the Marriott Courtyard, located on Route 202, directly across from the Montgomeryville Mall. Learn how to improve communication and leadership skills in a friendly and supportive environment. Guests are welcome. Admission fee: $5. For more info, visit www.bbtoast.org. The PennSuburban Chamber of Commerce will hold the following meetings (for reservations to any of the following, email info@PennSuburban.org) -Breakfast News Network, 7:30-8:45 a.m. at Normandy Farm Hotel (1401 Morris Road, Blue Bell, PA 19422) $15 members, includes full buffet breakfast. Join us for a networking program at Normandy Farm Hotel every Thursday morning for breakfast, business news, informative speakers, and plenty of networking. The cost includes a full breakfast buffet. Copies of the business cards will be made available to those who would like them. The BNI, Fort Washington Chapter meets every Monday at The Hilton Garden Inn, 520 Pennsylvania Ave., Fort Washington for a networking meeting. Meetings are from 11:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. Visitors are welcome. The only cost to attend is the cost of your meal. For information or a reservation to attend, please call Luanne Cram at 215-947-7784, or visit our Internet site at: http://www.BNIDVR.Com and click on the menu item Find a Chapter. For the past seven years, people have enjoyed participating in WVWAs Adopt-a-Tree program. Individuals can support the Association in its reforestation efforts by purchasing native trees to be planted. Supporters can plant their adopted tree or have WVWA volunteers will plant it. Trees cost $30 each. If you would like to volunteer or purchase a tree(s), please contact: Bob Adams at Bob@wvwa.org or call: 215-646-8866 for more information. Check www.WVWA.org for directions and maps. Sustainable Upper Dublin, http://sustainableupperdublin.org, meets the first Thursday of each month at 6:30 p.m., at the Upper Dublin Township Building, 801 Loch Alsh Avenue, Fort Washington, PA 19034. Please send any questions to suec@sustainableupperdublin.org or call 610-996-6316. To learn more about Sustainable Upper Dublin, view or join the discussion at http://googlegroups.com/group/sustainableupperdublin. Special Events The Mattie N. Dixon Community Cupboard will hold its first nutrition class April 19 at 10 a.m. at the Community Cupboard, 150 N. Main St., Ambler. Lynne Sinclair, a nutritionist from Abington Memorial Hospital specializing in diabetic nutrition, will conduct the class. Topics will include healthy eating, beneficial foods, recipes, making meals with every day foods, and how to use unfamiliar produce. A healthy snack will be provided.The class is is open to all residents in Montgomery County. The Historical Society of Fort Washington presents The History of Conshohocken April 19 at 8 p.m. at the Clifton House, 473 Bethlehem Pike, Fort Washington. Jack Coll will present an illustrated program on the history of the Borough of Conshohocken. Coll is a longtime resident of Conshohocken and a member of the Conshohocken Historical Society. He is co-author with his son, Brian, of the Arcadia Then and Now Series book Conshohocken. He has also done books Conshohocken and West Conshohocken Sports and Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Italian Feast. He has taken many photos for the Conshohocken Record and the Norristown Times Herald. This program is free. Refreshments will be served. For additional information, call 215-646-6065. Taste of the White House Soiree featuring former White House Chef Walter Scheib will take place April 29 at 6 p.m. at Manufacturers Golf & Country Club in Fort Washington to celebrate HealthLinks 10th anniversary and honor its founders, the Eugene Jackson Family. The evening will heat up with a Chef Meet & Greet, followed by a specially selected presidential menu. Gala tickets are $150 per person. Proceeds benefit HealthLink, a free clinic providing compassionate, quality medical and dental care to uninsured, working adults in Bucks and Montgomery counties who fall in between the health care cracks. Go to http://tasteofthewhitehouse.charityhappenings.org to make reservations online or lend support through sponsorship. For event information, call 267-699-0124 or email jmarushak@healthlinkmedical.org. The Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association will hold an open house at the Evans-Mumbower Mill April 17 from 1 to 4 p.m. The Mill is at the corner of Swedesford and Township Line Roads in Upper Gwynedd. The open house is free but donations are welcome. For more information, call 215-646-8866 o email info@wvwa.org. The Eastern Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce will host Breakfast With Your County Commissioners and State Representatives April 21 from 8 to 9:30 a.m. at the Holiday Inn Fort Washington, 432 W. Pennasylvania Ave. Commissioners: James R. Matthews (Chairman), Joseph M. Hoeffel (Vice Chair), State Representatives: Todd Stephens (District 151) and Josh Shapiro (District 153). Register onlineat www.emccc.org. $10 for EMCCC member; $20 for non-members. Upper Dublins Districtwide Allied Art Show will be held April 27 from 5:30 to 9 p.m. in the Upper Dublin High School Athletic Complex. The Rev. Alfred Muli, chaplain at Fort Washington Estates, will be the featured speaker at the Kiwanis sponsored breakfast observing the National Day of Prayer May 5 at 7 a.m. at the William Penn Inn. The breakfast is open to the public ($15). Reservations can be made by calling 215-646-4356 or by emailing georgesaurman@Juno.com. The Upper Dublin Shade Tree Commission invites people to participate in its spring bare root planting events, sponsored in part by Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation and Friends of Robbins Park. On April 9, zix trees will be planted at the Evelyn B. Wright Park & Community Pool, 401 Logan Ave., North Hills, at 9 a.m., followed by the planting of 10 trees at Sheeleigh Park, Loch Alsh Avenue and Douglas Street, Ambler, at 10:15 a.m. On April 29, students from Upper Dublin High School will join the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society to plant 16 trees in Robbins Park, Butler Pike and Meetinghouse Road, Ambler, to help launch the societys Million Trees campaign. This event will occur in conjunction with Temple Amblers EarthFest. Experienced tree-tenders are sought to assist the students. For more information,contact Ron Ayres at 215-653-0421 or 215-483-4348. The Friends of the Wissahickon and the Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association are teaming up once again to clean the Wissahickon Creek from top to bottom April 30 from 9 a.m. to noon. This spring marks the 41st anniversary of Wissahickon Valley Watershed Associations annual Creek Clean Up, and the second year that FOW has teamed up with WVWA. Volunteers of all ages will clean the creek, the surrounding trails and the many tributaries of the Wissahickon Creek. Armed with bags, volunteers will be assigned to sections of the creek. Following the clean up, all volunteers are invited to WVWAs Talkin Trash picnic in Fort Washington State Park, with food provided by Whole Foods Market of North Wales. The pavilion is located on Mill Road in Flourtown. To help out in Montgomery County, all volunteers must be pre-assigned a section of the Wissahickon Creek to clean. Please contact Bob Adams, WVWA director of stewardship, at 215-646-8866 ext. 14 or bob@wvwa.org. To work with the Friends of the Wissahickon in Philadelphia, meet at the pavilion along Forbidden Drive, a short distance south of the intersection of Forbidden Drive and Northwestern Avenue. Limited parking is available along Northwestern Avenue and other nearby streets. Volunteers are encouraged to bike or carpool to the event. To participate, register at www.fow.org. Contact Kevin Groves with questions at 215-247-0417 ext. 105 or groves@fow.org. Montgomery County Community Colleges International Club invites the community to the second annual International Festival April 20 from 5 to 9 p.m. at the Central Campus, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell. The rain date is April 26. The International Club will transform the outside quad area into multicultural celebration with various performances by dancers, singers and musicians. Artists will share their artwork at various display tables. Activities include games, raffles, Easter egg decorating and henna tattoos. Students will have samples of international cuisine at tables representing different countries and will serve food from various local ethnic restaurants. Throughout the evening, volunteers will accept donations and will raffle gift baskets and prizes to raise funds for Habitat for Humanity. Donations of food, international clothes and prizes are needed. Volunteers, including artists and performers, are welcome. For more information or to sponsor an activity, contact Gillian Nel, International Club president, at gnel9277@students.mc3.edu or 267-974-0163. The Arts and Humanities Division at Montgomery County Community College is partnering with the Philadelphia Writers Conference to host Memoirs Matter: How Life Stories (Including Yours) Can Transform Your Relationship to Literature April 23 from 1 to 3 p.m. in Advanced Technology Center room 101, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell. The event is free and open to the public. In the first part of this two-hour seminar, professor and author Robert Waxler will explain how writing his two memoirs affected his life as well as his relationship to literature. In the second part, blogger and workshop leader Jerry Waxler will present a sequence of steps to help writers find their own story. For information, contact Dana Resente at dresente@mc3.edu. The Maple Glen Garden Club will hold its fourth annual Plant Sale on May 7 from 8 to 11 a.m. Perennials, shrubs, vegetables and native plants grown by the club members will be sold. The club uses the plant sale proceeds to fund community projects, a college scholarship and community plantings. The sale will be held in the 500 block of Coach Road, Horsham, as part of a neighborhood garage sale. Plants will be sold at bargain prices. For more information, email MapleGlenGardenClub@gmail.com. The Relay for Life Craft Show is looking for local crafters to participate in show, which will be May 21 from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the Wissahickon High School track, 521 Houston Road, Ambler. There is a $10 entry fee, and 20 percent of sales are donated to the American Cancer Society. Participants will receive a 6-foot table under a tent. For information, contact Joanne at joannescoles@comcast.net or Mindy at mcamsilver@comcast.net. Spring House Estates is hosting its annual book fair on April 18 from 4 to 7 p.m. and April 9 from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Included will be hardback and paperback used books. Spring House Estates is located at 728 Norristown Road, Lower Gwynedd. The PennSuburban Chamber of Commerce will present the Penn Suburban/Hatfield Joint Business Card Exchange April 20 from 5 to 7 p.m. at Univest Bank Lansdale Area Financial Service Center, 120 Forty Foot Road, Hatfield. The event is free. To make reservations, visit PennSuburban.org/Events. Join Univest National Bank and Trust Co. for a spring-inspired Business Card Exchange at its newest office in the Hatfield Pointe Shopping Center. Come out and meet members of Univests executive management team while enjoying fine food and beverages. 13th Annual Community Reading Day Kick-off Breakfast Get Together April 26 from 8 to 9:30 a.m. at the North Wales Area Library, 233 Swartley St., North Wales. The event is free. To make reservations, visit PennSuburban.org/Events. For more information, contact the chamber office at 215-362-9200 or info@pennsuburban.org. Join presenting sponsor Verizon, chamber staff and fellow members for the Community Reading Day volunteer get together. The Community Reading Day program allows volunteers to read a designated book to second-grade students throughout 38 area public and private schools and present the book as a gift to each class. Even if you are not a volunteer, you are cordially invited to stop by to network, enjoy coffee and pastries. Ambler Mennonite Church is hosting a Spring Craft Show and Flea Market May 21 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Rain date will be May 28. The community is invited to shop the great craft booths, find some gifts and deals, as well as enjoy home baked goods and tasty lunch specials. Childrens activities are planned. All vendors are encouraged to contact the church at 215-643-4876 or AmblerMennonite@verizon.net. Advertising, signage, customer parking and a shuttle to auxiliary parking at nearby lots for vendors will be provided. 10 foot by 10 foot spaces can be rented for $5 each and tables for an additional $5 each. All proceeds from space and table rentals go toward school kits for children around the world. The church is located at the corner of East Mt. Pleasant Avenue and North Spring Garden Street, Ambler. The Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association presents The Life & Times of Aquatic Insects in the Wissahickon Creek April 16 from 1 to 3 p.m. Join WVWA for a hands-on program. RSVP required: www.wvwa.org or 215-646-8866. WVWA member fee: $5 per person / $15 per family. Non-WVWA member fee: $10 per person / $20 per family. The photography exhibition Natures Palette by photo-artist Judy Miller will run March 18 to May 19 at the Art in the Storefront gallery, 41 E. Butler Pike, Ambler. JPRN Networking For People in Transition & People Who Can Help Them Unemployment remains high. JPRN, the Jarrettown Professional Relationship Network can help. Are you trying to network your way to a new job? Do you have expertise or contacts that can help people in transition? Is your company or organization looking for people in the area? This is a free outreach program to support those seeking work, involve people with contacts and networking know how, and involve local companies. Meetings held monthly at Jarrettown United Methodist Church, Limekiln Pike. Pennsylvanias Low-Income Home Energy Assistance (LIHEAP) grant program is now open for the 2010-11 heating season. Grants are based on income, family size, type of heating fuel and region. Additional information, such as specific income limits, and applications for LIHEAP grants are available online via the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Access to Social Services (COMPASS) website at www.compass.state.pa.us. Applications are available at most public officals district offices, county assistance offices, local utility companies and community service agencies, such as Area Agencies on Aging or community action agencies. Begin your holiday shopping at Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation! Entertainment books for 2011, Philadelphia North, are now on sale at $30 each. Regal/United Artists movie tickets are on sale for just $7.50 each, and tickets to the Adventure Aquarium, Baltimore Aquarium, and the Philadelphia Zoo are also available. Discounted ski vouchers to area mountains will be arriving in December; call 215-643-1600 x3443 for more information. Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation office hours are Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. RSVP of Montgomery County and the Wissahickon Valley Public Library have partnered again to offer the public their popular free mock interview sessions. The mock interviews are conducted by RSVP volunteers who are retired professionals, some of whom were in hiring positions themselves. Packets of information which include a sample employment application and interviewing tips with mock interview questions are available at the library to pick up prior to a scheduled mock interview or will be sent via email once the interview is scheduled. To schedule your interview, please contact Janis Glusman at RSVP 610-834-1040, ext. 16. The library is also offering a free resume review service. Bring in your current resume and the professional reference staff will assist you with hints and tips on capturing your work history accurately. Registration for Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation summer playgrounds, Camp B.I.G. and Small Folks, X-Zone, and sports camps has began. Register online at www.upperdublin.net/store, or at the UDP&R office, 801 Loch Alsh Avenue, Fort Washington. Call 215-643-1600 x3443 for more information. Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation and Danielles Espresso Cafe presents Mornings at Mondaug Bark Park April 16 and May 21 from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. Meet fellow dog lovers. These events include complimentary coffee, treats for people and pups and raffles/giveaways. Upper Dublins Annual Spring Flea Market will be held June 4 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Reserve a table, or come and shop. Tables are $15 for UD residents, $20 for non-residents. This successful event occurs rain or shine. Refreshments available. Call 215-643-1600 ext. 3443 to register for a table. Regal movie tickets available for purchase at Upper Dublin Township Parks & Recreation. Reduced rate: $7.50 per ticket. Some restrictions apply. Call 215-643-1600 x3443. Whitpain Township Parks & Recreation movie tickets $7.50 Regal Cinemas, United Artist & Edwards Cinemas on sale throughout the year Monday Friday from 9 a.m. 4 p.m. Whitpain Township Parks & Recreation Camp Sign-ups for Stony Creek Day Camp Stony Creek Tracers and Park n Tots. Register on-line at www.whitpaintownship.org OrCome to Township Building with check or Visa MasterCard Monday Friday from 9 a.m. 4 p.m. For additional information call 610.277-2400 ext. 374 Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation offers exciting new programs for the fall: -Returning favorites include UK Elite Petite Soccer, Tiny Dancers, Kiddie Tennis, Fun-nastics, Messy Playtime, Little Chefs, and more. Babysitters Training will be offered in November and December. Continuing Adult Fitness Classes include Cardio Circuit, Core & More, Yoga, Boxing, and Adult G.Y.M. For more information call 215-643-1600 x3443. Register for programs online at www.upperdublin.net/store. Music and Theater The community is invited to a Cantors Concert April 16 at 8 p.m. Congregation Beth Or, 239 Welsh Road, Maple Glen. Listen and hum-along to the Yiddish, pop tunes and classical music performed by Congregation Beth Ors own Cantor David Green and his special guest, Cantor Irvin Bell, from Temple Beth Israel in Deerfield Beach, Fla. The cantors will be accompanied by Mark Sobol and his Klezmer musicians. Tickets are $18 in advance and $25 at the door. RSVP with payment to Barb Murtha, 239 Welsh Road, Maple Glen, PA 19002, or call 215-646-5806 ext. 220. Gwynedd Friends Coffeehouse will host the Jameson Sisters May 14. Doors open at 7:30 pm, performance at 8:00 pm. Gwynedd Friends Coffeehouse is located at the corner of Rte. 202 & Sumneytown Pike, Gwynedd. $5 suggested donation. Light refreshment available at a modest cost. For further information, call 215-393-9576 or visit gwyneddmeeting.org/coffeehouse.html. Celebrate patriotism through song with Gwynedd-Mercy Colleges choir, the Voices of Gwynedd, as it presents Hear America Singing April 15 at 8 p.m. The choir will perform song selections from all over the country, including Georgia on My Mind, New York State of Mind, and a medley including Philadelphia Freedom and Allentown. The performance will end with When the Saints Go Marching In to acknowledge the choirs upcoming tour in New Orleans. Hear America Singing will take place in the Julia Ball Auditorium, located in St. Bernard Hall. Parking is available in lots A, C and D. Admission is free. The Choristers will present Anton Dvoraks Stabat Mater April 16 at 7:30 p.m. at Upper Dublin Lutheran Church in Ambler. The choir will be accompanied by a 41-piece orchestra. Tickets are $20 for adults, $15 for senior citizens, $10 for students and children are free. Tickets will be sold in advance or at the door. For more information, call 215-542-7871 or visit TheChoristers.org Religious News The Staircase Gallery at Or Hadash: A Reconstructionist Congregation in Fort Washington will feature the work of Emily Ennuat-Lustine. The artist will be showing paintings and graphics inspired by her own personal spiritual journey and quest for meaning. Some of the works to be shown have been inspired by Biblical Psalms and writings. Her work has been shown at Abington Art Center, Cheltenham Arts Center and Old City Gallery of Jewish Art among others. The exhibition is open Friday evenings starting Feb. 18 after Shabbat services. Gallery hours are: Mondays through Thursdays 10-4:30, Fridays 10-3 and following Shabbat Services and Sundays 10-1. The synagogue is located at 190 Camp Hill Road in Fort Washington. For additional information contact the synagogue office at 215-283-0276. Reunions St. Matthews High School Conshohocken Class of 1961 is looking for classmates. For details, contact Greg Marincola at 215-646-2239, 215-740-1296 or gregcola@comcast.net. Olney High School Class of 1971 is Lloking for classmates for a 40th reunion Oct. 28. For details, contact Judy at ohsclassof71@yahoo.com or 215-870-7572. Abington High School Class of 1961 is seeking classmates for a 50-year reunion to be held Oct. 14-15, 2011.Visit the website, www.abington61.com, for details or call 215-947-1779. Overbrook High School class of January 1956 is having a 55 year reunion on May 22, 2011 at the Bala Golf Club in Philadelphia. For information please contact overbrookreunion56@comcast.net Germantown High School Class Of January 1961 is looking for classmates for 50th year reunion to take place in May of 2011. Please contact: 215-362-9148, 856-577-0659 or samdelcomo@comcast.net The June 1961 class of Germantown High School is holding their 50th reunion on May 15, which will be a brunch. For further details please contact Linda Dorfman Alten at lindaalten@yahoo.com or call 215-441-8411. Support New Life Presbyterian Church in Dresher, will host GriefShare, a special seminar and support group which will run on Monday evenings from 7 to 9 p.m., from March 7 through June 6. At each meeting there will be a DVD about the grief process, discussion and reference to a grief workbook. Preregistration is required to secure a place in the group and to purchase a GriefShare notebook (for a one-time fee of $15). The notebook goes along with the 13-week schedule covering such topics as: living with grief, the effects of grief, and stuck in grief. For more information or to register, call: Sandy Elder at 215-884-5149. PUPS (People Understanding Parkinsons) A self-help group for those adjusting to a new diagnosis or dealing with the early stages of Parkinsons Disease. Meets fourth Tuesday of the month from 1 to 2:30 p.m., at Abington Health Center, Schilling Campus, Willowood Building, 2510 Maryland Road, Suite 251, Willow Grove. For more information or to RSVP, contact Lorna at 215-542-2931. The North Penn Visiting Nurse Associations Meals on Wheels program is looking for volunteers to pack or deliver meals to the elderly and infirmed. Meals are packed and delivered mornings, Monday through Friday. You can volunteer for as many days per week or month as you would like. Packaging meals requires approximately 2-1/2 hours of your time each day and involves making sandwiches, packaging food into individual serving containers and packing coolers with the meals. Delivering meals requires approximately 1-1/2 hours of your time each day and involves loading coolers into your car and delivering a route of approximately 10 to 15 stops. The Meals on Wheels program is also in need of emergency, winter-weather volunteers to pack and deliver meals in bad weather. North Penn VNA is located at 51 Medical Campus Drive in Lansdale and delivers meals in the Lansdale, North Wales and Blue Bell areas. For more information or to volunteer, please call Bridget, North Penn VNA Meals on Wheels coordinator at 215-855-8296. Elkins Park Area CHADD (Children and Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) meets the first Tuesday of every month, 7- 8:30 p.m., at Einstein at Elkins Park Hospital in Elkins Park. For information on CHADD or ADHD, please see our website www.chadd.net/249 or call Claire Noyes at: 215-779-6656. Center for Loss and Bereavement, 3847 Skippack Pike, Skippack (610-222-4110) www.bereavementcenter.org Offers professional counseling for individuals, couples, children and families dealing with issues of loss and bereavement. Six-week adult support groups: Newly forming young adult grief support group every other Wednesday, 7 8:15 p.m. (free of charge); Monthly loss of child support second Mondays, 7-8:15 p.m.; Six-week young loss of spouse/partner Thursdays, 10-11:15 a.m.; Other groups scheduled as interest is shown for suicide loss support, adult loss of parent, motherless daughters, adult loss of sibling, coping with chronic illness and disability and mens loss of spouse. Nellos Corner Family Bereavement program offers peer grief support groups for ages 4 through teen and their caregivers Every other Tuesday or Wednesday (free of charge) Local chapter of Parents of Murdered Children also meets at the Center. Registration required. Call for further information. CHADD is a national organization for children & adults with Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder, providing education, advocacy and support for individuals and their families with AD/HD. Einstein at Elkins Park Hospital, 60 Township Line Road, Elkins Park, PA 19027, will host children & adults with Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder on the First Tuesday of each month 7 8:30 p.m. Free, no childcare provided. The Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphias Kehillah of Old York Road is sponsoring a free Caregiver Support Group for individuals who care for an elderly person with cognitive and/or physical impairments. The group meets at SarahCare Adult Day Care Center, 101 Washington Lane, Suite G-6, Jenkintown, Pa., on the first Wednesday of each month. Patty Rich, NORRISTOWN A court ruling on Tuesday ordering that undated Pennsylvania mail-in ballots be segregated wont change much in Montgomery County, according to election officials. With regard to dated and undated ballots, theres still some litigation surrounding them. So our plan is to handle that exactly how we did in the primary, Montgomery County Elections Director Dori Sawyer said on... Ex-choir director in Bucks County pleads no contest to molesting two students, secretly filming another Letter to editor: Voting is necessary to protect democracy Hope and help is at hand. Find out more about free mental health support in the UK, US and Australia. You matter. Our generation has a serious problem with mental health. Even though were doing everything in our power to destroy the stigma surrounding it, many of us are failing to actually get the help we so desperately need. According to a survey conducted by students at American University, Millennials feel cost and time are the biggest factors keeping their peers from seeking mental health care. Many of us are simply too broke to afford high-priced counselling sessions. I was struck by how half of the survey respondents thought that people their age didnt know where to go for mental health care. Maureen Rubin, Assistant Professor of Social Work at the University of Nevada, Reno, points out: After 18 years of age, kids are on their own. They are the ones who fall through the cracks because they dont have access to services. Please believe me when I say there is hope. If youre ready to get help, or if you just need someone to talk to, there are free programmes available for you to take advantage of across the world. This list doesnt cover every source of help out there but it does feature a wide variety of services. Hopefully one of them will meet your needs. Again, all programmes on this list are available free of charge. US Helplines Crisis Text Line Text HELLO to 741741 Crisis Text Line offers 24/7 trained support for those in crisis. Their priority is helping people move from a hot moment to a cool calm, and guiding them to create a plan to stay safe and healthy. IMAlive Chat Now Specifically aimed at those in crisis who are unable to speak on the phone, IMAlive is a virtual crisis center boasting 100% of their volunteers as trained in crisis intervention. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1.800.273.8255 The Lifeline provides confidential support for people in distress, as well as prevention and crisis resources. Its accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Live chat is also available. Trevor Lifeline 1.866.488.7386 Confidential support, crisis intervention, and suicide prevention for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth. Live chat is also available. Veterans Crisis Line 1.800.273.8255 and Press 1 The Veterans Crisis Line connects Veterans in crisis with qualified Department of Veterans Affairs responders 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Live chat is also available. UK Helplines Breathing Space (Scotland) 0800 83 85 87 Free, confidential, advice for anyone experiencing low mood, depression or anxiety. C.A.L.L. Helpline (Wales) 0800 132 737 Offers emotional support and information on mental health and related matters to the people of Wales. HOPEline UK 0800 068 41 41 Provides suicide intervention, confidential support, and advice on how to cope with thoughts of suicide, and where you can access help. Lifeline Helpline (Northern Ireland) 0808 808 8000 Counsellors are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to listen and help, in confidence. They can also provide face-to-face counselling in your local area within seven days. Samaritans 116 123 No matter what youre going through, Samaritans offers support for your concerns, worries and troubles. You dont have to be suicidal! 24/7/365 Australian Helplines Butterfly Foundation Helpline 1800 33 4673 Butterfly provides support for Australians who suffer from eating disorders and negative body image issues and their carers. Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800 A free, private and confidential, telephone and online counselling service specifically for young people aged between 5 and 25. Lifeline 13 11 14 Lifeline provides free, 24-hour telephone crisis support service in Australia. Volunteer Crisis Supporters provide suicide prevention services, mental health support and emotional assistance. Live chat is also available. MindSpot 1800 61 44 34 An online and telephone clinic providing free assessment and treatment services for Australian adults with anxiety or depression. Q Life 1800 184 527 Offering early intervention, peer supported telephone and web based services to LGBTI people experiencing poor mental health, psychological distress, social isolation, discrimination, experiences of being misgendered and/or other social determinants that impact on their health and wellbeing. Live chat is also available. Samaritans Australia 135 247 Providing support for all callers, regardless of their situation. SANE Helpline 1800 18 7263 Information about mental illness, treatments, where to go for support and help carers. Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467 Suicide Call Back Service provides free phone, video & online counselling for anyone affected by suicide. Live chat is also available. VVCS 1800 011 046 Free and confidential counseling for veterans and their families. Available 24 hours a day. Its time to make your mental health a priority. Take a moment to research affordable mental health treatment in your area. Start and maintain a vigorous self-care routine. Open up to your friends and family about your struggles. Most of all, never be afraid or ashamed to ask for help. You are so loved, and you deserve to be happy! Im rooting for you! January 05, 2017 Open Thread 2017-01 News & views ... Posted by b on January 5, 2017 at 19:22 UTC | Permalink Comments next page He was a relentless fighter for the environment, particularly to protect Lake James. But Paul Michael Braun lost his fight against cancer Tuesday night. Brauns wife, Mary, said he died at home after battling liver cancer. It was a life-long love of nature that drove Braun, 55, to become, as Mary called him, an environmental warrior. Braun grew in the Oak Hill area of Burke County. He and his seven siblings spent time riding horses and going to the lake, Mary said. He also was an avid motorcyclist, she said. He left a legacy of unspoiled vistas at the lake and places for future generations to learn and play and enjoy nature, Mary said. Mary said h is work to save Lake James from overdevelopment, as well as saving its pristine water, started after he saw the effect of overdevelopment on Lake Norman. He believed the same thing could happen to Lake James. Thats when he started the grassroots group Citizens to Save Lake James, she said. The group started in 1997 and collected more than 5,000 signatures on a petition. Crescent Resources, the real estate arm of Duke Energy was developing home sites around the lake. Braun, along with the grassroots group, fought to get Burke County to restrict development around the lake. Burke County listened and commissioners at the time put a moratorium on building around the lake. Crescent Resources then filed a lawsuit against the county. After mistrust, fighting and arguing, the two sides got together to come up with stricter ordinances on development at the lake. The work and the resulting ordinances have become an example of responsible development that protects the environment. On Wednesday, Susie Hamrick Jones, executive director of Foothills Conservancy of North Carolina, called Braun an incredible champion of the lake . Pauls passing is a huge loss to me personally, and all who loved Lake James and who understand and value the waters that come into and pass through the lake, she said. Without Braun, it would be highly unlikely that Lake James State Park would have been expanded and the shoreline and vistas would have been protected forever and for all, Jones said. The effort that he led to save Lake James has left a legacy that will last for generations and benefit all people and wildlife that depend upon and love the lake and its waters, she said. Jones said Braun spoke the truth and never relented in being a voice for conservation of our special places like Lake James. Theres nobody like Paul, she said. He did things that people will never know about. Eric Jenkins has known Braun for more than 25 years and fought alongside him to protect the lake. On Wednesday, Jenkins said Brauns focus and determination to protect the environment and natural resources only strengthened over the years. Paul has written a book documenting his journey, which he never shared with me, Jenkins said. I am looking forward to reading his book through his words detailing a journey of volunteerism, dedication, and commitment to Lake James and Lake James State Park. Braun was recognized throughout the state for his work and leadership in the effort to protect the lake. One of those recognitions was being named Morganton Man of the Year in 2005. The Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation recognized Brauns efforts by honoring him as a recipient of the Nancy Susan Reynolds Award in 2004. Burke County was set to recognize Braun at the next board of commissioners meeting. Because of his failing health, officials knew they needed make the presentation to him sooner. Several were set to make that presentation to him on Wednesday but Braun lost his fight before that could happen. The county planned to present a framed photo of the lake with a certificate recognizing Braun below it. The certificate calls Braun an environmental advocate and friend of Lake James. It also includes a quote by Leonardo Da Vinci: Vitality and beauty are gifts of nature to those who live according to its laws. The photo for the piece is a section of Lake James where a bench and picnic shelter at the Fonta Flora County Park will be placed in Brauns memory, said Scott Carpenter, community development director for Burke County. Carpenter said a dock likely will be built in the area and a trail marker will honor Braun. Braun was responsible for a lot of the recreational items included in Duke Energys Federal Energy Regulatory Commission relicensing. Those items included setting aside land for a county park, a loop trail, money for the OverMountain Victory Trail, an overlook area near Linville Dam and money for upgrades to the canoe/kayak put-ins and take-outs that North Carolina Wildlife Resources will be responsible for at the dam, as well as a weir take-out for Morganton and money for the Watermill boat access area upgrade, Carpenter said. In addition to Mary, Braun is survived by their son, Cory , and his wife, Samantha, and grandchildren, Zachary and Jack. Sharon McBrayer is a staff writer and can be reached at smcbrayer@morganton.com or at 828-432-8946. HICKORY For those who can imagine Van Morrison hanging out with Paul Simon playing Muddy Waters songs, this is how Tony Eltora describes the sound of his music. Eltora was born in Jessup, Pennsylvania, to a normal middle class Italian/Polish family before eventually moving to a suburb outside of Richmond, Virginia, at the age of 10. As a young boy, Eltora was what he would like to call a creative introvert, spending most of his time with his head in the clouds. Shortly after moving to Virginia, a friend from the neighborhood was starting a band and needed a guitarist, so Tony persuaded his mother to go down to the local secondhand store and buy him a guitar. From that point on, the guitar never left his side. Music was the perfect vehicle for Eltora to express himself creatively and emotionally, he says. Tony Eltora and his full band are scheduled to play at the Crescent Moon Cafe in Hickory on Sunday, Jan. 22 at 6:30 p.m. for a CD release party. The CD release party will feature Daniel Flynn (drums), Rick Cline (percussion), Jason Atkins (keys), Marcus Harmon (saxophone), Phillip Howe (trumpet) and Jack Kinder (bass). Sycamore Bones is set to open the party. Tickets are $10 at the door. Influenced by blues, rock and jazz music, Eltora began writing and performing with local bands at clubs and festivals in the Richmond area. Known for his raw soulful playing and smooth guitar tone, Tony slowly began turning heads as people started to take notice of his talents. Wanting to further his knowledge of music, Tony left the small town life and moved to the city where he began going to school for music. While living in Richmond, he started to fall prey to city lifestyles that folks can find in dark alleys and began a downward spiral that landed him broke, dropping out of school and disenfranchised with playing music. Watching friends and family struggle with addiction and alcoholism and slowly becoming a statistic himself, he found himself virtually homeless. Later that year, a chance opportunity to go to Africa came from a friend and Eltora decided to go. His life would suddenly take a drastic turn and Eltora would make a move to Lenoir. While in North Carolina, Eltora began working as a counselor with troubled youth and rediscovering the joys of writing and playing music again. He would once again start playing and touring with a few local and regional bands and start teaching private music lessons at a local music store. Because of his love of teaching kids and believing in the therapeutic power of music, Eltora helped found the Hickory Music Factory in 2012, a nonprofit organization in Hickory with the mission to build futures through music by teaching, performance and community outreach. Eltora has shared the stage with many national and regional musicians, including Tim Reynolds, Sam Bush, Keller Williams, George Porter Jr., Oteil Burbridge and Acoustic Syndicate, to name a few. His debut CD, Between Love and Tragedy, showcases Eltoras guitar playing along with his insightful and thought-provoking lyrics. Telling stories of love, loss and rebirth, the CD highlights the influence that blues, jazz and world music has had on him. The Crescent Moon Cafe is located at 256 1st Ave. N.W. in Hickory. For more information, visit tonyeltora.com. All this week, Morningstar.co.uk will be bringing you a Guide to Investment Ideas for 2017; stock picks, market reactions and political forecasts from the investment professionals. Emma Wall: Hello and welcome to Morningstar. I'm Emma Wall and here today to give his three stock picks is Simon Brazier, manager of the Investec UK Alpha Fund. Hi Simon. Simon Brazier: Hi Emma. Wall: So, what's the first stock you'd like to highlight today? Brazier: BT (BT.A), a UK telecoms company that actually in 2016 performed quite weakly. No, I don't think because of the internal performance of the Company, more some of the external pressures, the government talking about them breaking this up Openreach moving out, pressures relating to their pension fund potentially et cetera. Having said that, I think actually today this is a good quality company that has lots of opportunity to generate cash. The cost-cutting story we've seen for nearly 10 years continues and in a world of convergence, it's now got EE on the mobile side performing very well, it has got good fixed line exposure, BT Fibre, which it is rolling out right across the UK. And not only on top of that it trades on 12.5 times earnings with nearly 4% dividend yield. A good quality company, that is going to grow its profits, grow its revenues, grow its cash flow this year, a good solid base for my portfolio. Wall: And what's the second stock today? Brazier: Maybe well a bit more controversial would be ITV (ITV), it's a UK media company. It actually has two main drivers. Yes, it's exposed to UK advertising, you see the adverts in between the television programs, but actually it produces a lot of content which it obviously transmits on its own channels, but actually sells around the world, the likes of Downton Abbey, X-factor being some of the most famous ones. This is again a company that has performed badly last year, because people are concerned about the outlook for the UK economy. But I think a lot of that is now in the price. The stock trades relatively cheaply, low double digit earnings multiples. But to me, the left field thing to be, this is one of the last independent content producers left that could be readily available to anyone to buy. Liberty International owned a stake in it and to me, I believe in a world of convergence. We've just talked about BT. I can't see over the longer-term how this remains independent. Wall: So, a candidate for M&A? Brazier: Definitely. Wall: And what's the third and final stock? Brazier: The third one maybe seems to be slightly boring, but it's Reckitt Benckiser (RB.). I mean in a low growth world that we are in today, finding companies that can grow their top line, their revenue organically and more than 5% is virtually impossible. This is a company that does it. So, those who don't know Reckitt Benckiser, it's a global consumer staples business. And it's actually positioned in some really interesting niches particularly for example in consumer healthcare, where it is growing strongly both in the developed world, but also in the developing world. Doesn't look particularly expensive, has an 8% free cash flow yield, virtually has no debt. So, lots of opportunities to use its balance sheet and it will grow. And again, as I said in this type of world, it's a stock that again makes up a decent percent of the portfolio. Wall: Simon, thank you very much. Brazier: Thank you. Wall: This is Emma Wall from Morningstar. Thank you for watching. Maintaining independence and editorial freedom is essential to our mission of empowering investor success. We provide a platform for our authors to report on investments fairly, accurately, and from the investors point of view. We also respect individual opinionsthey represent the unvarnished thinking of our people and exacting analysis of our research processes. Our authors can publish views that we may or may not agree with, but they show their work, distinguish facts from opinions, and make sure their analysis is clear and in no way misleading or deceptive. To further protect the integrity of our editorial content, we keep a strict separation between our sales teams and authors to remove any pressure or influence on our analyses and research. Read our editorial policy to learn more about our process. As you all know I am always promoting Dayton events, but I gotta tell you,The Dragon Lights running through Monday, January 6th in Columbus is simply spectacular. Displayed at the Natural Resource Park at the Ohio Expo Center, just off I 71 north of the city, this walk through display of 38 vignettes of Chinese Lanterns is certainly worth a trip to see. And while they are called lanterns, they are really huge sculptures created by hand using silk fabric, steel frames, and tens of thousands of LED lights. Youll see pandas and peacocks, tulips and traditional characters representing the animals in the Chinese zodiac are all on display, but the 200 foot long dragon might just be the most impressive of all. The project is the work of 20 artisans from China, who were in Central Ohio for six weeks of set up, organizers said. Columbus is the seventh American city to host the festival. Previous tour stops included LA, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, New Orleans and Spokane. There are also daily performances at 6:30 and 8:00pm with a third set at 9pm on Friday & Saturday of traditional Chinese acts including jar balancing, kicking bowls on a rolling board, Chinese face-changing, martial arts, and umbrella juggling. Also offered a variety of Chinese fair food and some novelty merchandise booths. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate President-elect Donald Trump took aim at Japanese automaker Toyota in a tweet for its plans to bring a new Corolla plant to Mexico. In the tweet Trump said, Toyota Motor said will build a new plant in Baja, Mexico, to build Corolla cars for U.S. NO WAY! Build plant in U.S. or pay big border tax. Toyota Motor Corp.s stock dropped nearly a percent to $120.36 before recovering to $120.67 in trading on the New York Stock Exchange after the tweet. Toyota responded in an email statement and said: Toyota has been part of the cultural fabric in the U.S. for nearly 60 years. Production volume or employment in the U.S. will not decrease as a result of our new plant in Guanajuato, Mexico, announced in April 2015. With more than $21.9 billion direct investment in the U.S., 10 manufacturing facilities, 1,500 dealerships and 136,000 employees, Toyota looks forward to collaborating with the Trump Administration to serve in the best interests of consumers and the automotive industry. The statement added: Our manufacturing facilities in Baja, Mexico, established in 2002, support production at our San Antonio, Texas, plant, where 3,300 team members produced over 230,000 Tundras and Tacomas in 2016. RELATED: Americans buy record number of cars in 2016 Toyota has plans to build a $1 billion facility in Guanajuato, central Mexico, to build the next-generation Corolla sedan. The company has also pledged to invest $150 million to expand production at its plant in Baja California, Mexico, that builds the popular Tacoma midsize pickup truck. Toyota also builds the Tacoma at its San Antonio plant. When asked about Trumps statements regarding imposing taxes on imported vehicles, Toyota Division General Manager Bill Fay said in a conference call Wednesday that our goal is to work with the new administration and Congress to ensure that they develop business and tax policies that are fair and equitable across all industries so we can continue to grow the economy. rdruzin@express-news.net Twitter: @druz_journo Two Midland Police Department officers who were involved in a shooting in October are returning to their regular duties following a no bill ruling by a Midland County grand jury. After hearing evidence from a Texas Rangers investigation, the grand jury for the 142nd District Court ruled on Wednesday that Officers Aaron Renz and Aaron Trevino were found to have not committed criminal wrongdoing in a shooting that occurred on Oct. 10, according to a press release from the city. Kheyanev Littledog, 19, was fatally shot by the officers when he refused to comply with orders and reached for a handgun in his waistband. "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 ... The third teenager involved in the beating death of a Winter Park high school student has pleaded no contest in court on Thursday morning. Roger Trindade, 15, was beaten and found unconscious in October 3 teens were charged in his death 2 of the teens were placed under house arrest Third teen charged with witness tampering The third teenager, who is 14, pleaded no contest to witness tampering and simple battery. There was no plea deal and he was placed under house arrest until the trial date on Feb. 24. The two 15-year-old suspects are being charged with manslaughter. On Wednesday, a judge decided to place two of the teenagers, both 15 years old, on house arrest until they head to trial next month. Roger Trindade's mother and sister spoke in court on Wednesday and said the teenagers should stay in jail. "There has to be consequences for what they did," said Laura Thome Koch, sister of victim. In October, Trindade was found by police beaten and unconscious near Park Avenue in Winter Park. His mother said she is now living in Brazil, but returned for the hearings. "I'm going to pay more than these boys and these parents for sure. I'm going to remember my son," said Adriana Trindade, mother of victim. "My mom wakes up everyday and cries everyday and it's going to be like this for the rest of her life," said Koch. News 13 has decided not to name the teenagers because they are minors and they are not being charged as adults. The third teenager is expected to appear before a judge around 8:30 a.m. Thursday. WASHINGTON - U.S. Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Clarendon) introduced his first bill of the 115th Congress. The Death Tax Repeal Act, H.R. 198, will completely and permanently repeal the federal estate, gift, and generation-skipping taxes. The bill currently has 44 co-sponsors. This simple, two-page bill would permanently and fully eliminate the death tax, which undermines one of Americas most important means of capital formation: building a family enterprise, said Thornberry. Death should never be a taxable event. All Americans should be able to work hard, build, and save knowing that they can pass on what they have earned to their children and grandchildren. PLAINVILLE The town is giving area residents and groups a chance to contribute to the new Gold Star Monument expected to be in Veterans Park by Memorial Day. It will only enhance the tradition that we have in honoring those who serve, said Town Manager Robert Lee. The monument, which will pay tribute to mothers and families who have lost loved ones in war, was proposed by town resident Bob Doolittle in November. He got the idea after a recent trip to Arizona, where he saw a Gold Star memorial in a park. Next to the sidewalk was a stone and that stone just stuck with me, Doolittle said. Though Doolittle has offered to pay for the monument, Lee said the town would like to give others a chance to donate as well. The total cost is expected to be between $5,000 and $6,000, but the eventual price depends on the fundraising efforts, he said. So far residents from Plainville and Newington have donated along with the Bristol American Legion. The Gold Star committee, consisting of members of the VFW, American Legion and town officials, recently proposed that the monument be located on the west side of Veterans Park, located on the corner of Maple and Whiting streets. Tom Warnat, chair of the Parks & Recreation Advisory Board, is a member of the committee. Its a great idea and long overdue, he said. Lee said the location and design will be voted on by the Town Council in early March. The monument will be ordered from a Southington company. Donations will be accepted until March 1. For more information, contact the town managers office 860-793-0221, ext. 201. WALLINGFORD State officials say grant funding for the new Center Street Cemetery garage will be withheld from the town until it complies with state requirements regarding a violation of historic preservation law. Todd Levine, an architectural historian with the State Historic Preservation Office, said the town violated Connecticuts Environmental Policy Act by not notifying the office about its plans to cut an opening in the Center Street Cemetery wall. The hole was cut to allow equipment to move between the cemetery and new garage, at 60 Prince Street. The Environmental Policy Act states that municipal and state agencies must notify the Historic Preservation Office about state-funded projects that could alter or disrupt historical resources. An official from the Department of Economic and Community Development said part of a $275,000 grant given to the cemetery association to build the garage will be not be reimbursed until the town meets requirements put forth by the Historic Preservation Office. Last week, Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr. said the town did nothing wrong in cutting the wall and maintained the town reached out to all the proper state agencies before starting the project. Cemetery officials could not be reached for comment. The towns legal department did not return a request for comment. Since learning about the violation in November, Levine said his office is working with the town to reach a resolution. Levine said requirements could but will not necessarily include rebuilding the cut section of the wall. Levine said state officials met with the town on Nov. 30 to conduct an on-site review of the wall. During the meeting, the state requested documents from the town regarding details about the project and cutting. This week, however, Levine said his office hasnt received the documents yet. According to the DECD, the town has been reimbursed for about half of the $275,000 grant to date. To receive the remaining funds, the town would need to submit a requisition for reimbursement to the state. The town received the grant through a program sponsored by DECD. Agency spokesman David Treadwell said the funds will be withheld from the town until it meets requirements put forth by the State Historic Preservation Office. If the town does not meet requirements, Treadwell said, the attorney generals office could claim a breach of contract and ultimately withhold remaining funds. The balls in their court now, Treadwell said. Last week, Dickinson said the towns legal department has been in contact with state officials regarding the issue. He declined to comment further. The issue of cutting the Center Street Cemetery wall is not the first disagreement the town has had with the state regarding historic preservation. In 2011, a New Haven Superior Court judge ruled the town could not demolish the former American Legion building on South Main Street next to Town Hall. It was built in the 1890s and was originally owned by Wallingford tax collector Roger Austin. The town planned to raze the building, which is part of a downtown district listed on the National Register of Historic Places, for an expansion of Town Hall. The attorney generals office sued the town on behalf of the Connecticut Historical Society to block demolition. Dickinson fought to have the building torn down and criticized state intervention at the time . Following the ruling, the town sold the building for $35,000. A local couple spent more than $350,000 renovating it over two years. They moved into the house last year. mzabierek@record-journal.com 203-317-2279 A man was able to call a family member shortly before he died Wednesday in what detectives said was a drive-by shooting in southwest Houston. The man, believed to be in his late teens to early 20s, could only describe the vehicle his assailant was in: a red pickup truck with tinted windows, possibly a Dodge or Chevrolet, Houston police said. The man was walking along the 8400 block of Sands Point shortly after 7 p.m. Wednesday when the pickup approached him. "It slowed down enough to shoot three or four times," said Michael Arrington, a detective with the Houston Police Department's homicide division. The victim fell to the ground next to a sign that continued to flash a 30 mph speed warning for motorists even as HPD officers continued their investigation into the slaying. Detectives did not know whether or not there was any kind of interaction between both parties prior to the fatal shooting. The truck drove away after the shooting. The victim could report only the description of the pickup truck to the family member, police said. "She's the one who reported the shooting," Arrington said. The motive for the drive-by shooting remains under investigation. They weren't able to confirm if it was gang-related but they weren't ruling that out at the scene. "That's something we'll continue to look into," Arrington said. Police said they haven't found anyone who saw the shooting. Anyone with information is asked to contact Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS or HPD homicide detectives at 713-308-3600. A woman suffered critical burns in a fire that broke out at a condominium and spread to two other residences in San Francisco on Thursday morning, officials said. The blaze was reported at 8:05 a.m. in the 600 block of Clarendon Avenue and quickly went to a second alarm as it ripped through the three-story condominium and spread to two nearby condominiums, officials said. Police identified on Thursday the man stabbed to death in Oaklands Mosswood Park about a week before the New Year. Johnathan Ellis, a 47-year-old Oakland resident, was found dead Dec. 21 in the park on the 3500 block of Broadway around 7:20 a.m., police said. New York Rex Tillerson will get a $180 million retirement package from Exxon Mobil Corp. if he is confirmed as President-elect Donald Trump's secretary of state. Tillerson will give up more than 2 million Exxon shares he would have received over the next 10 years. In exchange, the company will make a cash payment equal to the value of those shares to a trust to be overseen by a third party. Exxon said Wednesday that Tillerson has already promised the State Department that he will sell another 611,000 shares he currently owns, worth about $55 million at Wednesday's price, if confirmed. His Senate confirmation hearing begins next week. Tillerson's selection raised potential conflict-of-interest issues because Exxon has business interests around the globe, including Russia. Putting his retirement nest egg into a trust is intended to ease concerns that Tillerson could make decisions as secretary of state that would financially help himself or his former associates. Federal ethics rules do not require government officials to sell off their investments but they must recuse themselves from matters that would affect those investments. Given Exxon's global operations, ownership of Exxon stock could severely limit Tillerson's actions as the nation's chief diplomat. Tillerson's move comes as pressure mounts on Trump to make clear how he would separate himself from his company. Presidents are exempt from federal ethics rules, though most recent holders of the office have sold off their financial holdings and put them in trusts as if the rules did apply to them. Trump has said he would hand management control of his business to his two adult sons, along with executives, but has given no indication he plans to sell his ownership interest in his company. Tillerson has been CEO and chairman of the Irving, Texas, oil giant since 2006. Exxon spelled out the arrangement with Tillerson in a regulatory filing Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Edwin Williamson, a former State Department legal adviser who has reviewed the agreement, said that Tillerson agreed to put the cash he gets from Exxon in a trust that will invest only in Treasury securities and diversified mutual funds. Democratic Sens. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts called Tillerson's payout egregious. Baldwin is proposing to ban corporate payments that are tied to an employee accepting a government job. More than 30 restaurants will participate in Galveston Restaurant Week, which began Saturday and ends Jan. 22. Proceeds from the fixed-price breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner specials will benefit Access Care of Coastal Texas, a group that provides services to people living with HIV and AIDS. The proceeds will fund weekly nutritious lunches to its clients, according to Galveston.com. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Last year saw the highest costs from natural disasters since 2012, with a pair of earthquakes in Japan in April accounting for the heaviest losses, a leading insurer said Wednesday. Losses from natural disasters worldwide totaled $175 billion last year, some $50 billion of which was covered by insurance, Munich Re said in an annual survey. The earthquakes on Japans southern Kyushu island caused $31 billion worth of damage, with $6 billion of the costs covered by insurance. Floods in China in June and July caused $20 billion in costs, only $300 million of which was insured. RELATED: San Antonio's April hailstorm damage topping $2 billion The third-costliest disaster was Hurricane Matthew, which hit the Caribbean and the eastern United States in August. It incurred losses totaling $10.2 billion, of which $3.8 billion was covered by insurance. Texas contributed to last years high costs, with record losses from spring hailstorms, primarily in San Antonio and the Dallas/Fort Worth area. The storms caused more than $4 billion in damages to thousands of homes in March and April, the Insurance Council of Texas reported. That included the April 12 hailstorm in San Antonio and other parts of Bexar County that resulted in $1.4 billion in damage the costliest hailstorm in the states history. The storms also produced record losses for cars and trucks. Damages from hail and flooding to autos are expected to reach $2 billion in insured losses, the Insurance Council of Texas calculated. It was the worst year for natural disasters in Texas since 2008 when Hurricane Ike swept through part of the state. RELATED: Inventive ways to avoid hail damage 2008 would be the worst, but 2016 is going to right on its heels, Insurance Council of Texas spokesman Mark Hanna said. In 2015, when the El Nino weather phenomenon reduced hurricane activity in the North Atlantic, global natural disaster losses totaled $103 billion, $32 billion of that sum insured. However, the number of people killed dropped to 8,700 last year from 25,400 the previous year. Last years losses were in the mid-range after three years of relatively low costs, Munich Re board member Torsten Jeworrek said in a statement. He stressed that losses in a single year are obviously random and cannot be seen as a trend. The company said there was an exceptional number of floods, which accounted for 34 percent of overall losses, compared with an average of 21 percent over the past decade. Those included $6 billion in losses, about half of them insured, resulting from storms and flooding in Europe particularly in Germany and the Paris region in May and June. Jeworrek said the high percentage of uninsured losses, especially in emerging markets and developing countries, remains a concern. Anticipation, apprehension, confidence, dread, hope and optimism fill the air as legislators head to state capitals and the nations capital. The actions these elected officials take locally, statewide and nationally will touch not only every resident but the entire range of industry. This year is even more significant, given that a new president is taking office. Texas and New Mexico Closer to home, the Texas Legislature will begin its biennial, 140-day session Tuesday in Austin, and the New Mexico Legislature is holding its biennial 30-day session in Santa Fe. Both of the upcoming sessions will be tedious due to budget constraints, said Ben Shepperd, president of the Permian Basin Petroleum Association. In an email, he told the Reporter-Telegram that both Texas and New Mexico depend on oil and gas tax revenue to keep the states running and the economic downturn over the last two years has hit both states hard. More from Oil Report Houston firm enters Permian, targeting San Andres Approximately 40 percent of the New Mexico budget comes from oil and gas. Revenues are down dramatically. Legislators must find ways to fund the state without penalizing the industry such that it is uneconomical to operate, he said. In Texas, Shepperd said the percentage of oil and gas revenues comprising the state budget is lower but still significant. He said he expects social issues rather than energy issues will dominate much of the legislative session, with guns, bathrooms and school choice just a few of the issues that will be debated extensively. These debates often lead to an environment of acrimony and mistrust amongst legislators and that sometimes spills over into our issues, he said. Ensuring the Railroad Commission passes sunset review and is funded properly are two of the associations top priorities, as the state must support the critical work the agency performs, Shepperd said. Eminent domain legislation will be debated heavily with some private property rights advocates dedicated to changing state statutes, he said. He explained that eminent domain changes could affect the oil and gas industrys ability to add pipeline and other infrastructure in the Permian Basin, threatening production. He said the association would also like to see legislation passed that clarifies the legality of allocation wells and the PBPA will continue searching for common ground on the subject with various stakeholder groups. One thing is clear: The Permian Basin is the most important oil- and gas-producing region in Texas and quite possibly the world. The PBPA will work diligently to protect our industry interests as well as the interests of the communities in which we operate, Shepperd said. Washington, D.C. As the new president is sworn into office, many in the energy industry wonder, as they have in the weeks since the election, about what the changes will mean for the nations energy policy. We are optimistic that the new administration will be open to long-overdue and much-needed reforms to federal policies impacting oil and gas, Shepperd said. He said the PBPA will be working with members of Congress not only on reforming the Endangered Species Act but on addressing the dozens of Environmental Protection Agency regulations that have been brought forth over the last eight years. Changes will not occur overnight but at least the daily avalanche of punitive regulations will subside, Shepperd said. Barry Russell, president and chief executive officer of the Independent Petroleum Association of America, told IPAA members in his congressional note, provided to the Reporter-Telegram, that Transitioning to a new Administration particularly when the party control changes is always challenging. With the magnitude of change from the outgoing Obama Administration to the incoming Trump Administration, the challenges are extensive. The IPAA developed for the Trump transition team and congressional leadership a 31-page list of regulations and policy positions the association hopes to see addressed early this year. Like the PBPA, the IPAA hopes to see litigation related to the Endangered Species Act addressed, as well as new or pending regulations related to the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act. The IPAA also wants to see the Bureau of Land Managements hydraulic fracturing rule making and royalty revisions reviewed. Russell told IPAA members the first target should be action taken under the Congressional Review Act to nullify regulations finalized under the final days of the Obama administration. The second target will be developing tax reform initiatives because indications are that Congress may try to act on tax reform in the early months of the session. Clearly, of all the potential major legislative initiatives that may be developing in early 2017, tax reform must be a key target for independent oil and natural gas producers, Russell said. During his annual State of American Energy address, webcast on the American Petroleum Institutes web site, API President and Chief Executive Officer Jack Gerard said the hope is there will be collaboration in the first 100 days of a Trump administration. A combination of administration and Congress coming together and capturing a vision of whats best for the people. People want change, to do things differently. I hope its a period of collaboration and leaders coming together, he said. Gerard noted the industry is currently dealing with 145 proposed or pending regulations just impacting oil and gas. We support smart regulations, common-sense regulations. Many of these are redundant and unnecessary and pass the costs on to consumers. He called for regulations that are not only smart but are focused on the consumer, help grow the nations economy, protect workers and improve the environment. Regulations that do not align with those basic and common-sense goals should be re-examined, revised or removed to make way for smarter and forward-looking energy policies, he said. Infrastructure is a pressing issue that goes beyond pipelines to highways and roads as well, he said. Such projects create thousands of jobs and stimulate economies, Gerard said. Referring to controversies over projects such as the Dakota Access Pipeline, he called for the government to honor the rule of law. When we go through an exhaustive approval process and change the route of pipelines to accommodate local interests, which we should accommodate, we need to ensure that when the (approval) decision is made, it is honored. Nothing is more chilling to the private sector than the unknown. We need to make sure that, in the permitting process, for any construction project, we have the public process honored and everyone has their say. Then, once the decision is made, we need to honor that decision. Gerard said energy is fundamental to modern society, with oil and natural gas the foundation of that energy. Few other issues enjoy energys level of bipartisan support, and energy remains one of the few that bridge the ideological divide between Democrats and Republicans, he said. Our goal is to broaden that common consensus to spur our lawmakers to harness the American voters embrace of energy policies that drive economic growth, lower consumer costs, continue current environmental improvement, increase American competitiveness and provide our allies with a reliable partner that uses its considerable energy resources as a way to lift people up. It is our hope that the incoming administration and incoming Congress will, like many pro-energy states, embrace our nations potential as a global energy leader and work with the industry to ensure that consumer demand is met and to help ensure that Americas 21st century energy renaissance will continue to deliver the economic opportunity and environmental benefits for many years to come. Its our belief energy needs should transcend partisan politics, Gerard said. The reality is, I look at some of our friends up for re-election in 2018. They understand the role of energy. Our hope is there is less conversation about a partisan divide and more about how we can come together for the benefit of all Americans. They want something produced by a process that reflects reality of our lives. GREENWICH Aquarion Water Company wants to take $10 million earmarked for customer rebates and use it to offset expenses caused by the areas ongoing drought. The company has petitioned the states Public Utilities Regulatory Authority to allow the utility to end what was supposed to be a three-year program of givebacks starting in 2014. The company said it had received an IRS rebate of about $30 million in 2013 and so far has used it to reduce customer bills by about $20 million. Now it wants to take the remaining money to help pay for pumps to bring water into Greenwichs Putnam Reservoir and 300 feet of above-ground piping to move water from Stamford to Greenwich and possible expenses going forward. It comes down to sort of the quantum of the expenditures weve had to put in place in response to the drought, said Troy Dixon, Aquarions director of rates. According to filings in November, Aquarion had spent $1.6 million to address the drought and anticipated spending $9.5 million more. The application to PURA said ending the rebate program after two of the planned three years would leave the $10 million needed for the drought expenses. Aquarions application also said that any money not used from the $10 million would be refunded to customers; costs higher than $10 million would be sought in a future petition to PURA. A public hearing to explain the application drew three people to Town Hall Wednesday: Greenwich First Selectman Peter Tesei, town Conservation Director Denise Savageau and John Zelinsky, a member of Stamfords Board of Representatives. Tesei said he wanted to know more about the droughts financial impact on Aquarion before taking a stand on its request; Savageau said the utility company should not have been surprised by the cost of drought mitigation. She also took no stand at the meeting. Im presenting this in context, so when youre talking about the rate case and whether this is really an emergency or its something you should have been prepared for, those are discussions you need to have, Savageau told PURA. Zelinsky strongly urged PURA to deny the request. I think (Aquarion) should have done something a lot sooner so we wouldnt have come to the point where we are, Zelinsky said. Also theyre a monopoly. Theres no other water company in Connecticut so our residents cant go someplace else to get their water. While Aquarion representatives were at the hearing, they did not offer testimony or respond to any of the remarks. Greenwich, among other western Connecticut communities, has been suffering from a severe drought for months. In October, the town put in mandatory water restrictions, a move Aquarion followed shortly afterward for other lower Fairfield County communities. As restrictions tightened in Greenwich, Tesei said, he and Aquarion worked closely to make sure people understood the necessity of limiting their water intake. As we go forward I think we have a shared understanding about our overall objective being to change peoples thinking as to the commodity that is water, Tesei said. It is a finite resource and there has to be changes to consumption behavior. When last measured by Aquarion on Jan. 2, the towns reservoirs were at 40.3 percent, which was an upswing from the 34 percent measured on Dec. 19. But Savageau noted that typically the reservoirs are at 85 percent this time of year. Zelinsky said he had been in contact with Aquarion about falling levels in Stamford and Greenwich reservoirs since September 2015 and said that not enough was done by the company at the time. I dont know why Aquarion did not check the reservoirs more closely to hopefully avoid the drought, Zelinsky said. Theres an old saying, An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. I think some of this could have been avoided. Peter Fazekas, director of public relations for Aquarion, said Thursday, Our Greenwich reservoir spilled in the spring of 2016 (water went over the dam because it was 100 percent full). At the end of 2015, our Stamford reservoir was improving and no longer in our first drought curve. The Stamford reservoir was 93 percent full in the spring of 2016, so there was no drought at that time. The hearing will be continued at 1 p.m. Jan. 8 in New Britain. More information about the application, which has been assigned docket number 13-02-20RE04, is available online at www.ct.gov/pura . kborsuk@scni.com This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Colonie Niko DiNovo, a Colonie Central High School junior badly burned in an October car crash, spent Wednesday in a lengthy surgery that might put him on a path to his first skin grafts. While he has a tracheotomy, the popular student also has been able within the past week to gather the strength to talk to his family using his vocal cords, said Davia Resciniti, Niko's aunt. The family is encouraged by his progress and hopeful for his future, she said. The student was in a car driven by his friend Michael Carr, which struck Blessing's Tavern Oct. 28 and burst into flames. Carr is charged with vehicular assault, reckless endangerment and driving while impaired by drugs and alcohol. Carr has been out of jail and under the supervision of the Albany County probation department on the condition he not drive. Niko remains at Westchester Medical Center, renowned for its burn unit. "He is progressing. He is moving forward," Resciniti said. "He is doing OK. He is fighting a couple of infections but that's to be expected. Every time he has a setback, he comes back really, really strong." More for you Colonie High students unite to help Niko Dinovo after fiery crash If Wednesday's surgery goes well, she said, he will have another one next Tuesday to prepare him for his first skin graft surgery next Thursday. She said she admires her nephew's strength. "I know he will be fine. He was speaking over the trach so he was able to communicate verbally," she said. "That's how strong-willed he is. He is talking right over it." If it happens on schedule, next Thursday's surgery would be the first cultured epidermal autograft operation he would receive. Though Niko was burned over 95 percent of his body, a skin graft was taken from an undamaged area, she said. His own skin cells were then cultured and grown in Boston, and they will be used to replace the top layer of his skin that was burned. Next week's surgery would be the first of several such operations, Resciniti said. "It's a pretty amazing process," she said. Still, his aunt said, the days when she knows her nephew is having an operation are difficult. "Surgery days are tough," his aunt said. "Today we have a serious prayer circle going on for Niko." In the long run, she said, she and the rest of his family remain optimistic that Niko will make something positive out of his experience. As a student, he was known among his peers as a friendly classmate who would talk to anyone. "I know he is going to take this life-changing disadvantage, and he is going to do great things," Resciniti said. "He never cared about what people looked like. We are very optimistic about his future." tobrien@timesunion.com 518-454-5092 @timobrientu GREENWICH Greenwichs political delegation met with the secretary of the state Office of Policy Management Benjamin Barnes in Hartford on Wednesday to fight for state reimbursement for the New Lebanon School construction project. The potential funding is not dead yet, said state Sen. Scott Frantz (R-36), after the conclusion of the meeting. Anything can happen in this building, and the delegation will continue to push for the successful passage in all of the committees that will be reviewing the project. On Saturday, Barnes sent a memo to the state school construction committee, a group of both House and Senate members charged with reviewing school construction grant applications, recommending that New Lebanon School be removed from the list of school construction projects that will be funded by the state. The state should not step in to pay for a new school which may or may not solve the problem of racial disparity within the Greenwich District until the town has made much greater efforts to find a remedy within its existing school infrastructure, wrote Barnes, a key adviser to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy. When asked how Malloy could respond to the memo, Chris Collibee, the governors press secretary, responded, Ben Barnes speaks for the administration. In their meeting Wednesday, Frantz said the Greenwich delegation, including state Reps. Livvy Floren (R-149), Mike Bocchino (R-150) and Fred Camillo (R-151), argued that the district is building the $37 million new school as a result of the states racial balance law, which says the percent of minority students at any school in a district must be within 25 percentage points of the ratio of minority students in the district as a whole. In Greenwichs racial balance plan, submitted to and approved by the state in 2014, a new, larger New Lebanon School was intended to house a magnet program that would draw in students from other parts of the district, in addition to easing the overcrowding in the present building. I am supporting (the construction project) because it is what the community wants and it is what the state wants us to do to have a racially balanced school in Greenwich, said Frantz. I do think the state is spending too much money on a lot of things and they are bonding a lot of things, but in this case, the state Department of Education asked for a racial balance plan, he added. He said the state approved Greenwichs plan and now should fund an 80 percent reimbursement for diversity school construction as is state law. We were very surprised about (Barness) reaction to the project, said Frantz. Bocchino, whose children attend New Lebanon School and is a former New Lebanon School PTA president, said he was unhappy that Greenwichs project was singled out by Barnes. He argued that the New Lebanon School project meets and exceeds every criteria listed by the state Department of Administrative Services, which oversees school construction. To stop a project when it has reached the latter stages and has gone through the process and has done the due diligence and everything that is expected of it by the Department of Education and the Department of Administrative Services is just wrong, he said. I think (Barnes) wasnt aware of all of the facts regarding the school and the project itself. Frantz said it was clear Barness opposition to the Greenwich project was because of the larger magnet school movement it is part of. He made it very, very clear that he thinks its bad policy to construct expensive magnet schools, said Frantz. Hes looking to change that policy, which may or may not happen this session. Bocchino argued, If were questioning the statute itself, then that is something we should be looking at for the next coming year, but we shouldnt be punishing this project alone because it is the only diversity project on the list. Barness official role in the process ended with Saturdays memo. After review by the school construction committee, the grants will pass to the education committee and then to the finance, revenue and bonding committee. They will next be considered on the floor of the General Assembly, before they reach Malloys desk. Members of the Greenwich delegation said that Barnes and Malloy could try to sway members of those committees not to approve the New Lebanon School project. Frantz and Bocchino said the delegation will oppose any negative influence the administration might bring to bear, however. Everybody in our delegation is 100 percent behind this, said Bocchino. This is a priority for us to make certain we are able to move this forward. Bocchino said he has already been speaking with legislators to articulate why Greenwich should receive funding for the project. So far, he said that legislators have been receptive. I guarantee you I am going to be talking to someone every day that I am up there to remind them that this is a worthwhile process that needs to move forward, he said. Frantz said he could employ another tool. He could threaten to vote to split bills in the funding committees separating the House and Senate votes until members agree to keep the New Lebanon project on the school construction grant list. Frantz said splitting the bills would cause ties among the Senate members, forcing the bills to be tabled. He added, Well certainly call for more meetings (with the administration) if we feel that any part of the project is in trouble. As for Malloy, Frantz said he is not worried. The governor could choose to veto the school construction grant list because New Lebanon School is on it, but the legislature could vote to override his veto. Frantz said he didnt think the governor would expend his political capital on the issue at that stage. Bocchino said, We knew coming into this that it wasnt just going to be an easy ride. He said that Wednesdays meeting made him feel more positively, though. It was good meeting and were pretty hopeful that things will work themselves out, said Bocchino. emunson@hearstmediact.com; @emiliemunson This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate HARTFORD Redistricting remains a possibility for Fairfield public schools after representatives of the district got feedback on classroom diversity Wednesday from the state Board of Education. The district has gone back and forth with the state for nearly a decade, trying to address racial imbalance among Fairfields elementary schools. The average proportion of minority students at the towns elementary schools hovers more than 25 percentage points below that of one school, McKinley Elementary, which enrolls nearly half minority students. After district officials traveled to the state capital Wednesday, presenting a plan that kept redistricting as a possibility, state Board of Education members asked for concrete steps. David Title, former Fairfield superintendent and part of the towns presentation, called McKinley truly racially balanced. He said the school district has been taking steps toward overall balance as McKinleys proportion of minority students has continued to grow, and that redistricting would be a last resort for Fairfield parents. Redistricting is almost the nuclear option it may have to happen at some point but people in this community are very committed to their neighborhood schools, Title said. Toward greater integration More Information Next steps for Fairfield The town's Board of Education must approve an amendment to its racial imbalance plan with additional methods - beyond the district's pre-kindergarten program and Open Choice enrollment - to meet state racial balance requirements. The district will also need an action plan, with measurable benchmarks, so the state Board of Education can monitor progress in coming years. Along with the additional amendment, that plan must set in 120 days. Holland Hill and Mill Hill Elementary School construction projects are in the works, projected for completion several years down the road. Redistricting would then be a possibility to permanently solve racial imbalance. In the meantime, a magnet program at McKinley Elementary School would be considered, a pre-K program could be moved and Open Choice enrollment upped. See More Collapse The state board conditionally approved an amendment to the towns plan to balance elementary school diversity, requiring Fairfield Public Schools to return in 120 days with an expanded plan. Racial imbalance law has its roots in the 1960s, intended to prevent racial segregation in Connecticut schools. We dont want to create ghettos in Fairfield, state board Chairmperson Allan Taylor said during discussion. I cant imagine it would, but thats at the root of this. State board members noted the benefit to racial majority students of diversity in school. Fairfields plan involves offering 36 more Open Choice seats to Bridgeport students in an attempt to add racial diversity, and moving a pre-kindergarten program to an elementary closer to McKinley, aiming to attract families to the program in which cost is based on what parents can afford. Children could then continue at the elementary school. Creating a magnet program at McKinley and redistricting were floated in Fairfield as possible courses of action. The state board asked for concrete steps toward those permanent fixes, many of its members frustrated by the nearly 10 years during in which Fairfield has failed to move solidly into compliance. Parental pleas For Fairfield parents, the prospect of redistricting spurs fears of losing the towns neighborhood schools. McKinley parents in particular have turned out to local meetings and in Hartford asking district and state officials not to redistrict. McKinley PTA President Michelle Gurner helped launch a petition that garnered more than 400 signatures in less than a week, calling on the state board to accept Fairfields plan. McKinley shows what the world is; the world is not one kind of person, Gurner, a parent of two, said in an interview. We want to keep that intact. No one at McKinleys complaining. McKinley parent Suzanne Graceffa, who lives within walking distance of the school, told the state board Wednesday morning that forced redistricting would tear apart what makes each of the towns elementary schools special. Joseph Vrabely, a state board member, said the McKinley environment sounded wonderful, but emphasized that Fairfield still needs to show progress toward meeting requirements. Thats a beautiful thing, he said of the diverse environment concentrated at McKinley, but its not the law. Lweiss@hearstmediact.com; @LauraEWeiss16 A Waldorf school art teacher will be forever memorialized as a "typical New Yorker" at the Second Avenue subway stop. A life-size image of Michael Whitney, created by international photographer and sculptor Vik Muniz, is assembled in mosaic tiles at 72nd Street in New York City. "How cool is that," said Whitney who visited his recently unveiled image on New Year's Day. "It's unbelievable to stand next to yourself in mosaic." The Waldorf School in Saratoga Springs practical arts teacher and father of three worked a dozen years for Muniz when both lived in Brooklyn. He built all of Muniz's cabinets, tables, sculpture pedestals and other high-end furniture for the artist. One day, prepared to install a new door for Muniz, he showed up in an orange shirt and ended up in a photo shoot. "He had me pose with all different facial expressions, looking different ways," said Whitney who now lives in Schuylerville. "He said he wanted me because I was a regular guy from New York. It was a fun experience but I had no expectations." Then two years later, Muniz's assistant sent Whitney a photo of his image being created in tiles in Turin, Italy. "I was pretty excited," said Whitney. At that point, "I took the shirt and put it in a drawer." Whitney wore that orange shirt again when he went to the unveiling with his three girls, Lizzy, Flora and Vivienne. Gov. Andrew Cuomo was there to see the mosaics, too. Whitney and the Governor were captured together in photograph, next to his mosaic, that the Governor tweeted out. Such a coincidence: ran into one of the people who is the inspiration for one of Vik Muniz's mosaics in the Second Avenue Subway! pic.twitter.com/gajzVva8qx Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) January 1, 2017 "I didn't expect that," said Whitney. "That was a cool experience." In addition to Muniz, works artists Sarah Sze, Chuck Close and Jean Shin are also featured on the Second Avenue subway line at 96th, 86th and 63rd streets respectively. The New York Times calls the subway art "one of the most ambitious contemporary art projects that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has ever undertaken." This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate RIDGEFIELD - Town officials have rejected a Freedom of Information request for the report on their investigation into the policy violation by that led to Fire Chief Kevin Tappes abrupt resignation Wednesday. First Selectman Rudy Marconi said Thursday he would not release the report, which was compiled by Human Resources Director Laurie Fernandez, because Tappes resignation closes the matter. He argued that the report, which he characterized as a draft, is not a public record. There is no final report and we do not need to finalize it because the chief retired, Marconi said. But Dan Klau, president of the Connecticut Council on Freedom of Information, rejected Marconis argument. The council is a nonprofit organization formed to protect the publics access to government. The reasons why a fire chief is essentially forced to retire are clearly matters of public interest, Klau said. I believe any individual arguments about not disclosing the report is just about, understandably, not wanting to embarrass the fire chief. The Hearst Connecticut Media Group, of which the News-Times is a part, intends to file a complaint with the state Freedom of Information Commission to require release of the report. Tappe was placed on paid administrative leave Dec. 22 by the Fire Commission, whose membership is the same as the Board of Selectmen. No reason was given for the move, other than to say the chief was under investigation for an unspecified policy violation. Marconi told the News-Times on Tuesday that a draft report on the investigation had been completed. That same day, he called a special meeting of the Fire Commission for Wednesday evening, just before the regular meeting of the Board of Selectmen. The Fire Commission convened at 6:30 p.m. and went immediately into executive session. After nearly an hour behind closed doors, the commission returned to public session, voted without discussion to recommend acceptance of Tappes resignation and then adjourned. Minutes later, members reconvened as the Board of Selectmen and, again without public discussion, voted 4-0 to accept the resignation. Chief Tappe has decided to retire, and we want to thank him for his service to the community, Marconi said after the vote. Marconi said Thursday that members of the Fire Commission were not given copies of the report, but that it was discussed during their executive session and that Fernandez was present. Also Thursday, the town released a separation agreement with Tappe saying that he will remain on paid leave until April 30, when his resignation takes effect. During that period, the agreement states, he will not perform any duties in any capacity on behalf of the town; he will not contact any employee of the town or any official of the town for any reason (unless in his capacity as a resident of the town or otherwise in a casual or social setting); and he will not access any town computer system or email system. In addition, he is not allowed to enter the fire department, unless it is to report an emergency situation that cannot be reported by other means or to gather his personal property after approval by the town. Assistant Fire Chief Jerry Myers has been acting chief during the investigation. Klau said calling a document a draft does not exempt it from state Freedom of Information laws unless revisions of it are needed before it is submitted to or discussed by town officials. Marconi himself admitted that no revisions of the document are required. It is a draft and it will remain as such, he said Thursday. Klau added that Ridgefields refusal to release the report follows a pattern developing throughout the state, particularity at the local level. Instead of recognizing that documents are really the publics documents, local departments and agencies often work hard to come up with reasons for not disclosing them, he said. In many cases the reasons are understandable from a human perspective, especially when talking about a personnel matter, but the fact is we are talking about public employees engaging in public business, particularly when it involves emergency personnel. These are serious jobs with serious responsibilities and the public has the right to know about performance issues, Klau said. Richard Moccia, vice-chairman of the Ridgefield Republican Town Committee and a former four-term mayor of Norwalk, said he did not know the details of the matter but said it appeared town officials tried to handle it fairly. I know, having been in a position as mayor and fire commissioner, we had to take action on employees, and it's a delicate balance to respect the employee and the process, he said. It's not for me to decide whether the report should be made public, Moccia added. Two years ago, Ridgefield paid $40,000 to settle a lengthy battle with the state FOI Commission over the legality of a special Board of Selectmen meeting held in 2006. Assistant Fire Chief Anthony Nick Gaeta, who had had a heated argument with Marconi the day before, was summoned to the meeting and forced to retire. The FOI Commission found that the meeting had been held illegally and reversed the selectmens decision. The town appealed, but the state Supreme Court upheld the FOI Commission. I still totally disagree with that decision, Marconi said Thursday. dperrefort@newstimes.com As the Kingwood Medical Center's 25th anniversary approached, its leaders decided to forgo an extravagant celebration and instead pay it forward. Chief Executive Officer Melinda Stephenson and the Kingwood Medical Center's Rewards and Recognition Committee, headed up by Jaunell Howard, selected Society of St. Stephens and Head Start as recipients during the holiday season. Stephenson challenged her staff to find ways Kingwood Medical could show its gratitude. "Whether it is 25 people, $25, or 25 times, plans are in the works for giving back in increments of '25' throughout our 25th year of service," Stephenson said. "We are so inspired by the great work that Society and Head Start do, the staff at Kingwood Medical Center wanted to recognize their great service." The society is an outreach of Kingwood United Methodist Church and provides services at no cost to its clients. During the holiday season, the society serves more than 500 families. The staff at Kingwood Medical Center donated truckloads of gifts for clients. Staff at the center also donated 25 trees to Head Start families. Head Start is an educational program providing children and their families skills they need to be ready for the demands of school. The organization works with income-eligible children and children with special needs. "MET Early Head Start, Head Start, and Child Care Partnership Families can enjoy the Christmas season with a tree in their homes," said Karen Sepulvada, program coordinator for head Start. "We want to thank all Kingwood Medical Staff who donated their time, and money to help our needy families." Ashley Pena and Jonathan Gutierrez, from Cleveland, Texas, welcomed their newborn twins into the world at 3:52 and 3:53 a.m. on Jan. 1, at Kingwood Medical Center. The babies' names are Melanie Aynsli and Jonathan Enrique Jr., and they weighed in at 4 pounds, 8 ounces and 4 pounds, 5 ounces respectively. The babies were born seven weeks early and will be residents of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit until they are healthy enough to go home. The babies' older brother, 5-year-old Jeremiah as very happy his siblings arrived, and he couldn't wait to take them home. Houston Methodist Cancer Center at West is offering a monthly support group to help women at any stage of diagnosis and treatment understand that cancer can also affect them emotionally and spiritually, not just physically. The mission of the hospital is to ensure that through information, empowerment and peer support, no one faces cancer alone. Investigators in the Tomball area are searching for clues in the disappearance of Deneice Brantley, 37, who was last seen on Dec. 29. Brantley was driving a dark gray 2015 Toyota Camry with Texas plates GPL-9743. ABC13 reports that Brantley is from San Antonio and was visiting family in Tomball. PHOTOS: Splendora police seize large amount of drugs Texas Equusearch said in a release that Brantley was wearing blue jeans, a red t-shirt with "Texas Forever" printed on the front of it, a black sweater and sandals or flip flops. She was wearing a ring on left middle finger, and a Band-Aid on right index finger. Anyone with information on this case is asked to call the Harris County Sheriff's Office at 713-755-7427 or Texas EquuSearch at 281-309-9500. More information will be posted as it becomes available. Every company has values, but not every company truly lives (and works) by them. Its those very beliefs that help build a strong team foundation and an even stronger company culture. However, a companys moral code can easily get lost in the hustle and bustle of the work day. The key to bringing organizational values front and center is to convert them into specific, behavioral examples. By modeling and rewarding behaviors that demonstrate each value, employees are constantly reminded of what their company stands for and how to better work by those principles. Additionally, these observable behaviors make it easier for employers to measure and manage company standards. Related: The 8 Values Every Company Should Live By Dont let organizational values sit on the company career page and in the new hire handbook. Here are four easy ways to bring them to life: 1. Put values front and center. It can be easy to lose sight of company values when focused on the task at hand. They should guide all aspects of business, from the decisions we make to the talent we source to the way we interact with customers. But they cant be applied if theyre not remembered. So how can employers make company values stick? Keep the companys moral code at the forefront of everyones mind by making it prominent within the workplace. In addition to featuring it on the company website and in the employee handbook (neither of which employees look at on a daily basis), post it where employees often gather (conference rooms, snack rooms, etc.). At ClearCompany, we have them painted on the walls throughout the office, along with our logo, to serve as a daily reminder for our team. Reminding employees of values doesnt stop after crafting, laminating and posting posters throughout the office, however. They need to be communicated from the top on a regular basis. 2. Hire based on values. Building a workforce that lives and works by the company moral code starts with hiring based upon values. For each of the companys values, develop a list of questions designed to assess a candidates character and potential fit. For instance, one of our values at ClearCompany is that were team entrepreneurial. Asking interview questions related to a candidates ability to be enterprising is essential to finding talent that shares and fulfills our values. Related: Are Business Ethics at a Low Ebb? People are often predisposed to sharing (or not sharing) the companys beliefs, so using the interview process to identify people who have similar principles is crucial to building a workforce that can successfully apply company ethics to everything they do. 3. Work (and play) by values. The best way to bring organizational values to life is to model them. In other words, dont just let them sit on the wall and call it a day. Live, work and play by them on a daily basis. One of software company VMwares values is to give more. The company does this by giving employees 40 hours of paid time off each year to volunteer. In addition to volunteering together, the company even has its own charitable foundation based on service learning, social investments, matching donations and milestone awards. Actively model company values by aligning them with company culture activities, such as taking time off to volunteer together. Most important, lead by example. Show employees how its done by using company character to guide business decisions and empowering employees to do the same. 4. Reward and promote values. Last, but certainly not least, promote organizational values by rewarding behaviors that demonstrate them. Dont hesitate to publicly reward someone for exhibiting behaviors that are in line with the companys character. Not only does this make the individual feel good, it also pushes the rest of the company to follow suit. One way we reward employees at ClearCompany is by featuring employees who demonstrate our values on our company website. Whether its by making individuals employee of the month, featuring the employee in the company newsletter, blog and/or website or by giving them a simple pat on the back, just be sure the behavior doesnt go unnoticed. After all, theres no better way to promote great behavior than to reward it. How does your company bring organizational values to life? Share in the comments section below! Related: When Employees Live a Company's Core Philosophies, Profits Follow Related: Copyright 2017 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Patients who are severely injured in car crashes or other traumatic incidents now can be admitted to Conroe Regional Medical Center, a move that officials are calling a "game changer" in critical medical care for Montgomery County and the region. The Texas Department of State Health Services and American College of Surgeons certified the hospital as a Level II trauma center, meaning that it can take the same kind of patients with traumatic injuries who previously had to go to hospitals in Houston. The certification, which came in days before Christmas 2016, is accompanied by a $2 million operating room designed specifically for trauma surgeries. Surgeons are expected to be able to use that room starting next week, hospital officials said. The room is larger and has more equipment needed for emergency surgeries, and can help hospital staff and surgeons perform those surgeries better. As for the Level II trauma center certification, it's a feat the hospital has been striving toward for a year. "We're ecstatic," said Reed Hammond, chief operating officer of CRMC. "To go from a general, acute-care hospital that does complex surgeries, and then leap off into a Level II and have the ability to take care of all those traumatic injuries, it's pretty impressive for this hospital." Being a Level II trauma center means the hospital is required to have all sorts of staff on call at the hospital 24/7. That includes an in-house anesthesiologist, operating room staff, neurosurgeon and surgical subspecialists all in the hospital ready to take patients. The certification also requires that a trauma surgeon be available for any surgery within 15 minutes' notice, among other requirements. For EMTs, the hospital's ability to now take more serious patients is a "game changer," said Montgomery County Hospital District Director of EMS Jared Cosper. Normally, patients with injuries that require a certain level of care were forced to go to hospitals in the Texas Medical Center in Houston, a drive that can take up to an hour. "Most patients who have traumatic injuries, they're oftentimes bleeding internally," Cosper said. "They're just not going to survive that long of transport." But now that CRMC is able to take those same patients, it means patient's chances of surviving a traumatic event go up substantially, Cosper said. Just Tuesday, Cosper and MCHD CEO Randy Johnson were traveling throughout the county visiting different medics who were on duty when they happened upon a major crash on FM 2854 near Ponderosa Drive. A man involved in the crash was ejected and suffering from cardiac arrest. While MCHD paramedics were able to revive him, he was still in need of critical care at a hospital. "Had we not had a Level II trauma center close by and we had to go (to Houston)," Cosper said, "that man would not have survived." The hospital has been taking Level II traumatic patients for a little more than a year now, even before receiveing certification in December. Building up the experience with hospital staff and doctors took that long, Hammond said, which helped them achieve the certification. "In order to become certified, you have to prove your expertise in those areas," Hammond said. "The only way to prove your expertise is to take those patients and prove that your quality is the type of care that you're working to become." As for beginning the shift to becoming a Level I trauma center, Hammond said the hospital is reviewing all of its options moving forward. The only difference between Level I and Level II trauma centers is the ability to perform research, according to the American College of Surgeons standards. "We take care of some pretty sick people here," Hammond said. "We've had some impressive outcomes. That speaks volumes for the staff and surgeons that we have onboard." Along with CRMC, Clear Lake Regional Medical Center also received its level II trauma center certification. Harris Health System's Ben Taub Hospital, Memorial Hermann Hospital-Texas Medical Center and Texas Children's Hospital in Houston are the only medical facilities with Level I trauma centers in the region, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. The next closest Level II trauma center to Conroe is CHI St. Joseph Regional Health Center in Bryan. Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Hospital is a Level III trauma center, though it is acting as a Level II trauma center just as CRMC did when it was working toward its accreditation. Representatives with Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Hospital said they expect to receive their Level II trauma center certification later in 2017. NORWALK Emergency units responded to a gas leak at a Connecticut Avenue business late Wednesday night after a car apparently struck a gas meter. Shortly before 11 p.m., a truck driver contacted dispatch to report the smell of gas and a hissing sound at 525 Connecticut Ave., a building which houses Pet Smart and Banfield Pet Hospital. Police said that there was a broken external gas meter on the building, which someone had apparently backed into. Yankee Gas crews were called to the scene and police say that by 11:45 p.m., the gas had been manually turned off and repairs were made. llake@hearstmediact.com HURON COUNTY Gov. Rick Snyder has proclaimed January as Radon Action Month in Michigan, and the Huron County Health Department is distributing free radon test kits in observance of this event. Radon is a tasteless, odorless, colorless, radioactive gas found in almost any kind of soil and rock. It travels through the ground and enters buildings through cracks and openings in the foundation floor or walls, including floor/wall joints, sump openings, and other penetrations caused by plumbing, wiring, or ductwork. Outdoors, it is diluted by the atmosphere, but indoors, it tends to be more concentrated and can accumulate to unhealthy levels. Exposure over time can increase one's risk of contracting lung cancer. Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States and is the leading cause among nonsmokers. It is a significant environmental health threat that can be easily detected. When elevated radon levels are found, additional testing should be done to confirm the problem, and then steps can be taken to lower the radon levels. If a house is found to have radon levels at or above the danger zone of 4 pCi/L (picocuries per liter), homeowners should contact a radon mitigation contractor to correct the problem. Fixing high radon levels doesn't require major home remodeling, but can include installing a fan and ventilation system to circulate the radon outdoors, sealing the cracks in foundations which allow radon to enter the home, or using soil reduction techniques in order to remove radon from the earth surrounding the house. Some newer homes have been built with anti-radon features already installed. Statewide surveys indicate that elevated levels of radon would be expected in one out of eight homes in Michigan. Testing is easy and inexpensive. The best time to test is in winter months when people keep their windows and doors closed. The do-it-yourself test kits distributed by the health department are free only in the month of January. Kits are available from the Huron County Health Department Environmental Health Division, 1142 S. Van Dyke Road in Bad Axe. Test kits may also be available from some hardware stores or home improvement centers, but not all include postage and analysis, so citizens are urged to read the packaging before making their purchase. Kits are available for $9.95 online at www.mi.radon.com. For more information, call the Huron County Environmental Health Division at 989-269-3308. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality also has a toll-free number at 1-800-723-6642. District Attorney Brett Ligon again is urging elected officials to be mindful of ethics as the political climate remains heated in Montgomery County. Ligon used his time at the podium Sunday to address more than 15 newly and re-elected officials during the New Year's Day swearing-in ceremony at the Lone Star Convention Center. The eight-year DA entering his third term told the crowd, "Don't do anything you wouldn't want your mother to know about or anything that would make you want to take the Fifth before a grand jury." While Ligon said his previous ethics-related remarks were directed toward Montgomery County Commissioners Court, this time it was an opportunity to speak to a large number of officials at once at the start of a new year. "I thought it was the appropriate audience and the appropriate time," he said. "... I think a lot of those words were hard-fought lessons that I have learned." In his remarks, Ligon advised the officials to surround themselves with qualified people, not to change their spending habits as to not be tempted to exploit new opportunities for personal gain and to keep their friends, but make new friends including adopting a shelter animal. "It's not only a humane thing to do, but I promise you at the end of the day they may be the only ones who still are excited to see you and them pooping on you is usually just an accident," he quipped. County Attorney J D Lambright, who was sworn in for his second term Sunday, agrees with Ligon and said a fundamental building block of any organization, whether it's in the private sector or in government, "is to construct it around people who have a high level of integrity and who adhere to the highest standards of conduct both in their professional as well as their personal lives." Lambright noted he and his staff are bound by the State Bar of Texas to adhere to stringent Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct and The Texas Lawyer's Creed A Mandate for Professionalism. Similarly, he said, in 1982 the State Bar of Texas adopted a Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility applicable to paralegals. "As such, virtually all of the people on my staff are obligated at all times to maintain the highest level of professional and ethical standards," Lambright said. "Although not required by any state mandate or county policy, I expect the entirety of my staff to honor these same standards." "When I first ran for county attorney, I pledged to do the right thing, in the right manner, and for the right reasons. I again made those same comments this past Sunday when I was sworn in to my second term. Consequently, I would wholeheartedly support any efforts by our county government to continue to enhance transparency in all of our dealings among ourselves and with our citizens, and to take appropriate measures to ensure that we maintain the highest levels of accountability." Ligon addressed county commissioners in 2013 after a grand jury penned a scathing letter to the court urging them to adopt an ethics policy and board following a criminal investigation regarding the construction of the Joe Corley Detention Center and the Montgomery County Mental Health Facility. That investigation ended with no indictments. The grand jurors cited a lack of ethics in decision making, failure to disclose personal relationships and a "pure disregard" for best practices and above-board dealing. The grand jury recommended the county judge and Commissioners Court continuously train in ethics and best practices to ensure a repeat doesn't occur. Much of the grand jury's concern stemmed from relationships with vendors doing business with the county, including a $500,000 loan to one commissioner from a business contracted to do work on the facility projects involved in the investigation. Ligon told the commissioners and urged the court to stop using the DA's Office as a "threshold of what is permissible as opposed to what is advisable." "This court has used criminal law as its threshold for its engagement in regard to its dealings with vendors in the community which is why y'all's conduct continues to come under review by the DA's Office because you are using me as a hard stop," Ligon told the court during the April 8, 2013, meeting. Last April, three years after the grand jury pushed for an ethics policy, commissioners adopted an ethics code for elected officials and high-ranking employees. But the 13-point policy, taken from a boilerplate, doesn't impose any new restrictions on county leaders or establish a way to implement and enforce the ethical standards. For Ligon, the New Year is a chance for new beginnings and an opportunity to learn from the past. "Being sworn in on New Year's Day gives you the chance to reflect on the past but gives you the opportunity of a bright as of yet unwritten future," Ligon said. "My comments were directed at all the new, incoming elected officials that hopefully can learn from others' mistakes and lead their constituents in the future ethically and legally. "I look forward to working with them all and have nothing but enthusiasm for 2017." An unclassified document from the Drug Enforcement Agency shows the areas of influence generated by Mexico's major criminal organizations. The "intelligence report," dated July 2015, includes three maps that show the various DEA offices around the country and the cartel-related cases they deal with; potential markets that drug cartels will exploit due to population density; and heroin deaths by state. Commuting to New York is part of the daily lives of many Fairfield residents, and during the holidays families enjoy taking the train to see the tree in Rockefeller Center and the windows at some of the worlds best department stores. But that trek was much more complicated until 168 years ago. Back on December 27, 1848, the first train passed through Fairfield, coming from New Haven on its way to New York. In 1844, the Connecticut General Assembly approved the charter for the New York and New Haven Railroad Company to begin construction of a rail line. Four years later, the first train arrived. Many of the towns residents did not greet this event with enthusiasm, since it threatened to change their quiet way of life. In fact, the railroads impact was profound. Suddenly New York City was only a 2-hour and 10-minute ride away. Fairfield men could work in New York City and return the same day if they chose. The new mobility also affected women, who gained the freedom to visit friends and family in the city much more frequently. People who had previously grumbled about the construction of a railroad soon saw its advantages, including the economic benefits to the town. The Southport Station (pictured here) was built in 1848, and the images accompanying this article are from 1873 and 1874. The arrival of the trains also opened up access to Connecticut and to its coastline for recreation. After the trains started coming through Fairfield, many city dwellers began building cottages and homes in the Fairfield Beach area. Well-to-do city dwellers found respite in the peaceful setting with its ocean breezes, and some built lavish summer homes in the town. Others stayed at the fashionable and imposing new hotel, Fairfield House, situated near the town green. Construction of the hotel in 1848, the towns first, coincided with the new railroad. The hotel stood on the northeast corner of Main Street (Old Post Road) and Center Street (Beach Road), and was said to be the largest of its kind in the state, boasting more than one hundred rooms. It also featured a ballroom, dining room, and spacious verandas where summer visitors could enjoy the setting and fresh air. In 1889 the name was changed to Hotel St. Marcs, and a large annex was constructed, the only portion that remains today on the property. More Information 1848 The year the first train passed through Fairfield, coming from New Haven on its way to New York. See More Collapse The history of the development of the Fairfield coastline is documented in a current exhibition at the Fairfield Museum, Rising Tides, Fairfields Coast: Past to Future. The exhibition is open daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and runs through Feb. 28. And if you love trains, the Holiday Express Train Show has its final moments this weekend, running from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Plus, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. this weekend, visitors can see a model steam train. Watch real steam rise from a model train that travels around an elevated track. Collector Harvey Campbell will share his knowledge and enthusiasm about how these unique trains work. The Fairfield Museum and History Center is at 370 Beach Road. Learn more about the history and culture of Fairfield, view rotating exhibitions and purchase Fairfield-themed gifts at the Museum. For more information, visit Fairfieldhistory.org or call 203-259-1598. The Museum and Museum Shop are open daily, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. An appellate panel on Wednesday in New Orleans heard arguments about whether two San Antonio landlords and two South Texas immigrant shelters can challenge a state law that punishes those who harbor undocumented immigrants. The judges for the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals will determine whether a San Antonio federal judges temporary restraining order against a 2015 Texas law that creates criminal penalties for someone who encourages or induces a person to enter or remain in this country in violation of federal law by concealing, harboring, or shielding that person from detection should stand. Community, civic and spiritual leaders will gather in Windcrest on Saturday for a town hall forum about gun violence in San Antonio. Titled How to Reduce Gun Violence in Our Community, the event is co-hosted by the local chapter of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, a grassroots organization formed in response to the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings. The top state prosecutor in the Mexican border city of Nuevo Laredo was assassinated Wednesday night. Ricardo Martinez Chavez, who headed the local office for the Tamaulipas state attorney general, and several other law enforcement officials were attacked by gunmen at about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday as they left a meeting at a government office, according to a news release from the Tamaulipas government. RELATED: 'A massive cemetery': Mexico's surge of deadly violence shows no signs of relenting Martinez and three other officials were killed and another was wounded, according to the news release. Nuevo Laredo had been experiencing a period of relative calm until last year, when infighting between factions that once formed the notorious Zetas drug cartel spread to the city. For the last several months, the city has been the site of occasional shootouts between security forces and heavily armed gang members. RELATED: Deadly Mexico fireworks blast hit market packed for holidays Until the fighting started in 2016, Nuevo Laredo had experienced nearly three years of peace. Before then, the city had suffered under almost a decade of unchecked cartel violence. Between 2005 and 2013 at least three of the citys police chiefs were assassinated or disappeared. The city currently does not have a municipal police force and is patrolled by federal and state security agents. jbuch@express-news.net Twitter: @jlbuch SAN ANTONIO The police department is asking for assistance in solving a capital murder case from six years ago. Daniel Meza was found dead Jan. 9, 2011, at an apartment in the 7800 block of Callaghan Road. Police responded at about 2:55 a.m. for a robbery call, where they found him suffering from severe head trauma. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Fort Hood officials are investigating an alleged racially-charged incident at the Killeen, Texas base two days before Christmas. U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Jonathan Charlot was headed to his car to drive home Dec. 23, 2016, when he discovered his vehicle was undriveable, according to the Killeen Daily Herald. The tires on his car were slashed, the interior had been doused with gasoline and the words "Die n-----" were spray-painted across the outside, according to photos and details posted on a GoFundMe page setup to help Charlot pay for repairs. "Although racism still exists in this country, I never thought I would realize this kind of hatred personally," said John Martinez, Charlot's best friend who set up the crowdfunding page. RELATED: Police look at hate crime laws in Chicago attack Tyler Broadway, III Corps spokesman, said the Dec. 23 incident was under investigation by Fort Hood's Criminal Investigation Division, but provided no additional details. Chris Grey, CID spokesman, said the department was investigating the incident, but could not release any details. Charlot told the Killeen Daily Herald he felt disheartened after receiving a call about the vandalism. He was planning on heading home to Houston the day of the incident, the newspaper reported. RELATED: Trump supporter allegedly assaults black man "It makes me feel disgruntled, unwanted that the America I love isn't the same anymore," he said. So far, $3,850 has been raised for Charlot. kbradshaw@express-news.net Twitter: @kbrad5 AUSTIN Setting up what looks to be one of the most heated fights for Texas lawmakers in the upcoming legislative session, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst unveiled a long-awaited bill to regulate which bathrooms Texans may use in public buildings. Senate Bill 6, called the Texas Privacy Act, would prohibit city or county officials from adopting an ordinance that prevents a business from making policies for their bathrooms and dressing rooms. It also would bar local officials from considering these measures when awarding government contracts. Another part of the proposed legislation would require each locker room or restroom in government buildings, public schools and universities to be designated for use based on biological sex. The bill, which allows schools to make special accommodations, would authorize the attorney general to levy a civil penalty if they do not follow the regulations. "This is a significant step for the majority of Texans who are alarmed by misguided efforts to shatter our expectations of security and privacy, especially for our children," the Republican from Brenham said. "Senate Bill 6 may have my name on it, but the responsibility falls on all of us to protect citizens and ensure that their personal and private rights are secured." Story continues below. She said her bill is a response to the Obama administration's letter sent to school districts last year that offered guidance on protecting the rights of transgender students. The letter said districts that do not comply with longstanding federal anti-discrimination laws, which the U.S. Justice and Education departments said extend to transgender students, could risk a revocation of federal funds or a lawsuit. On Thursday, Kolkhorst said she filed the legislation "not to start a controversy but to end one." The lieutenant governor, who said he had been working on the bill since September, has argued before that sexual predators may use trans-friendly bathroom policies to target potential victims. However, there never has been a reported case in Texas of someone using a nondiscrimination ordinance to go into a women's restroom and commit an assault. "The Super Bowl is set for 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 7," Patrick said, responding to concerns from business groups in the state that the bill will stifle economic competitiveness. "We are the 10th largest economy in the world, and that's not going to change." Patrick and the bill's Senate backers already have a fight on their hands less than a week before the start of the legislative session. A broad coalition of Democrats, pro-LGBT groups and business leaders, including the state's most powerful business lobby, oppose the measure that they argue will negatively impact Texas businesses of all sizes. If Kolkhort's bill becomes law, the state's economy could take an $8.5 billion hit each year and put at risk at least 185,000 jobs, according to a study commissioned and released by the Texas Association of Business. The study said the measure would devastate Texas' tourism and travel industry, as well as make it harder for businesses to attract workers from other places. The dairy industry is having a cow about plant-based milks. The industry has gone nuts about almond milk. It has lost its beans over soy milk. It has sowed seeds of dissent about rice milk. And now more than 20 lawmakers representing dairy states have sent a letter to the Food and Drug Administration demanding that these milks change their names. Drink would be preferable, they say. As in almond drink. Theres a proliferation of other drinks, and many of them are being placed in the dairy aisle right next to milk, U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, D-Ben & Jerries Ice Cream in Vermont, told the Washington Post. Dairy is really crucial in Vermont, and its really crucial in many parts of rural America, and (dairy farmers are) hanging on by their fingernails. Welch has rightfully noted that the FDA defines milk as the lacteal secretion, practically free from colostrum, obtained by the complete milking of one or more healthy cows. But words and their meanings evolve over time. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary has several definitions of milk. The traditional one about cows comes first, but there is a secondary definition: a liquid resembling milk in appearance. Notably from plants, coconuts or grains. Besides, as the Soyfoods Association of North America has noted, basically no one who buys a milk alternative thinks they are buying cows milk. But people use these alternative milks for all the same reasons as traditional cows milk. The name holds up. Changing soy milk into soy drink isnt going to put the milk back into the bottle. This week, the Texas Education Agency will unveil its preliminary ratings for schools across the state. Considering the extent to which test score data will be used in determining the rating -- or grade -- we are dont have much expectation that Midland ISD will fare well. That is life as we know it in a community where a school district spent about a decade on the decline. There is a lot of anxiety over the release of these grades. Many are expecting the worst. Our message to the community is this: These scores are old news and will have little value for the people in our community. This newspaper spent a large chunk of 2016 helping explain how Midland ISD went to the bottom of the largest school districts in the state. We helped bring to light -- which for years previous superintendents and school boards didnt do -- that there had been a decline in performance and achievement, and there are way too many schools that require improvement. This newspaper called for more efforts by community members to hold MISDs school board accountable and rally around its school district. We celebrated efforts such as the creation of Educate Midland, and we appreciate those who started Midland Students First, which we believe will keep the community more informed on schools performance and help hold its leaders accountable. This newspaper sees 2016 as the bottom and has every intention of looking forward. That is why there wont be much attention given to these preliminary ratings. We see the next set of ratings in the fall of 2018 as the target. Are we seeing progress or not? Are the superintendent and trustees providing the leadership needed for a school district on the rebound, or are they providing the same excuses we have heard for the last few years. The excuses stop now. Interim Superintendent Rod Schroder has called for a no-excuses philosophy in the classroom, so we are calling for a no-excuses attitude when it comes to district leadership. We expect that board member Karen Nicholson is going to introduce a resolution protesting the new rating system that gives a grade to each campus. The board says that grade -- good or bad -- doesnt tell the entire story of a school. The resolution -- if introduced -- is another example of a school board creating excuses for a lower-performing school district. Those who ran for school board in the November election told us they wanted to change the culture when it came to board leadership. Well, here is your chance. Stop blaming Austin, the Texas Education Agency, the state Legislature, Republican leadership, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Gov. Greg Abbott, state Rep. Tom Craddick or anyone else the Texas Association of School Boards says to call out. That is wasted effort that would be better used to fix the problem we have in Midland with low-performing schools. Again, this newspaper is willing to push the latest set of ratings (grades) as yesterdays news, but thats if we see MISD leadership focused on the problem. We believe 2017 can be a turnaround year for MISD, but only if we are focused on the problem and move the culture of leadership from wanting to make excuses and blaming others. In his final accountability editorial of 2016 https://goo.gl/OdI6hK Republican U.S. House Rep. John Moolenaar explained how he had made it a priority to be available for his constituents in all 15 counties in Michigans Fourth Congressional District. Michigans well-gerrymandered Fourth is comprised of Clare, Clinton, Gladwin, Gratiot, Isabella, Mecosta, Midland, Missaukee, Ogemaw, Osceola, Roscommon, Shiawassee and Wexford counties, and parts of Montcalm and Saginaw counties. Never once while recounting his legislative accomplishments on Capitol Hill did Midlands favorite son mention his campaign pledge to quickly repeal and replace the healthcare coverage which more than 345,000 underserved Michiganders finally now have under Obamacare. Nor did Congressman Moolenaar openly and honestly admit that, under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), another 4.4 million Michigan residents no longer have to worry about living with pre-existing physical or mental health conditions which formerly could have legally denied them insurance coverage or exposed them to exorbitant prices if they or their loved ones needed immediate medical care. In his cheerful end of the year missive, your U.S. House representative also failed to mention how he voted to repeal each of his unsuspecting constituents new healthcare coverage multiple times during his first two years in office without having any viable replacement plan formulated. In last years Why Im Running campaign material, Moolenaar promised, if re-elected, to replace his constituents newly acquired insurance with a better health care system that puts patients first and emphasizes private sector, market-based quality, accessibility and affordability. Does anyone in Michigans Fourth District fully appreciate or understand exactly what that kind of private sector, market-based commitment financially means for them and their families? The same campaign webpage states that Congressman Moolenaar is also committed to keeping his personal pledge to Michigans growing population of senior citizens and retirees with regard to maintaining their Social Security and Medicare benefits. Anybody remember exactly what those campaign promises entailed? Who else recalls how President-elect Donald Trump beautifully boasted, bragged and tweeted how hed also never do anything to change Social Security or Medicare? Were you aware that Rep. Tom Price, R-Georgia, Trumps nominee for the secretary of health and human services (who, incidentally, currently chairs the House Budget Committee), recently released a new agenda http://budget.house.gov/uploadedfiles/bpr-longsummary-30nov2016.pdf that would enable automatic across-the-board cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other programs for low- and middle-income Americans? Did you know that Tom Leppert, the former mayor of Dallas whom The Donald tweeted would be the point man for his landing team in the Social Security Administration, once released a plan calling for the privatization of Social Security and Medicare? His plan was also private sector and market-based. Heres a list of the number of Rep. Moolenaars constituents in each county within Michigans Fourth Congressional District projected to lose their healthcare coverage in the likely event that the GOPs plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act is passed as promised in 2017. Clare 3,271 Clinton 4,045 Gladwin 2,342 Gratiot 3,201 Isabella 5,211 Mecosta 3,639 Midland 6,463 Missaukee 1,594 Ogemaw 2,541 Osceola 2,092 Roscommon 2,740 Shiawassee 5,583 Wexford 3,599 Montcalm 5,671 Saginaw 18,348 Source: ACASignups.net Repeal Loss by Michigan County Chart https://goo.gl/36fvor That means that in 2017 as many as 70,340 of Congressman Moolenaars constituents and 886,141 Michiganders may lose their healthcare benefits under both the ACA and the Healthy Michigan Medicaid Plan if and when President Trump and his Republican colleagues in the GOP-controlled U.S. House and Senate fulfill their partisan campaign promises to repeal and replace Obamacare. The latest numbers show there are more than 23 million Americans currently enrolled this year who find themselves in the same boat being torpedoed by the GOP nationwide. Are you, your family members, friends, neighbors and coworkers wondering why none of this was mentioned in Rep. Moolenaars year-end editorial? Have you seen your representatives private sector, market-based health insurance replacement plan mentioned anywhere in Midland? In Michigan? In America? According to the official U.S. House Legislative Agenda, Feb. 20-24 is the first week in 2017 that elected congressional members have committed to work in their home districts. Wouldnt it be amazing if Rep. Moolenaar would start the new year by issuing a open invitation to hold an public Q&A meeting at the Grace A. Dow public library in Midland that week? The 262-seat auditorium room is available on either Thursday or Friday evening. Arranging an open, honest community-wide conversation would help ensure that Michigans interested and already invested constituents completely understand their elected representatives long-term private sector, market-based legislative agenda in Congress in 2017 and beyond. Eric Anders is a resident of Midland, which is in Michigans 4th Congressional District. A Bridgeport man was arrested Monday night in New York after he allegedly stole a motorcycle and a van, crashed the van into a police cruiser and then attempted to post his bail with counterfeit money. New York State police said that a Millbrook, N.Y. resident reported that someone took a Kawasaki motorcycle from his garage and drove away with it in a white Ford Econoline van. Troopers observed a van which matched the description of the suspects vehicle traveling south on the Taconic State Parkway in the area of Arthursburg Road, said Major Robert M. Nuzzo of the Poughkeepsie barracks. An attempt to conduct a traffic stop was made however the driver failed to comply with the patrol vehicles emergency lights and sirens, Nuzzo said. The van crossed the center median of the parkway and started to drive southbound in the northbound lanes, striking an East Fishkill Police vehicle, the state police spokesman said. The East Fishkill officer was not injured, according to a press release, but the patrol car was extensively damaged. The suspect, identified as Jaquan Rosado, 24, of Bridgeport, then got out of the van and led police on a brief foot pursuit before he was taken into custody by members of the State Police and the East Fishkill Police Department. The van had been reported stolen from Bridgeport, Nuzzo said. Rosado posted a $700 cash bond at the East Fishkill police department on charges of attempted second-degree assault, second-degree reckless endangerment, unlawful fleeing of an officer, reckless driving and leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident involving property damage. The suspect was then brought to the state police barracks in Poughkeepsie, and while he was there East Fishkill police reported that Rosado had used counterfeit $100 bills to post the bond, Nuzzo said. State police charged Rosado with criminal possession of a forged instrument, third-degree burglary and possession of stolen property, first-degree reckless endangerment, fourth-degree grand larceny and possession of stolen property. He is being held on a $5,000 bond and will be presented in court on Friday. 1 Pipeline bombings: An Arab separatist group has claimed two pipeline bombings in Irans oil-rich south and threatened to launch more attacks in the coming year as the country tries to boost production following the nuclear deal with world powers. Iranian Interior Ministry spokesman Salman Samani later denied the claim by the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz, which said it bombed the pipelines early Tuesday in Khuzestan province. Iran has faced low-level separatist unrest from Kurds in its northwest, the Baluch in its east and Arabs in its south since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. 2 Reporter freed: Police on Wednesday questioned an Iraqi journalist who was abducted last week from her Baghdad home, after she was released by her captors the previous night. Details remain sketchy about the abduction of Afrah Shawqi al-Qaisi, a veteran journalist and a vocal critic of Iraqs endemic corruption who is also an employee of the culture ministry. No group has claimed responsibility for snatching her. The case of al-Qaisi has shaken Baghdad residents. The gunmen who abducted her on Dec. 26 had claimed they were members of the security forces and asked to search her home before snatching her. They also took gold, money, phones, laptops and her car. War Veterans leader, Ambassador Christopher Mutsvangwa, is no longer President Emmerson Mnangagwas special advisor, the office of the president has confirmed. Mutsvangwa was initially appointed as Minister of Information and Publicity, but was then appointed as the Presidents advisor in Mnangagwas first cabinet, installed shortly after the November military driven operation restore legacy. However, when new cabinet appointments were made after the July elections, Mutsvangwa was not restored to his position, as the President sought to further trim his cabinet. Officials from the Office of the President and Cabinet told media that despite Mutsvangwas absence on the most recent letters of appointment, members of the media had assumed that he had continued in his role, and continued to refer to Mutsvangwa as the Presidents advisor. Ambassador Mutsvangwa has not been the Presidents advisor for a long time. Everyone who was appointed as part of the new cabinet and to positions within the OPC had their names gazetted in announcements. Mutsvangwas contract and appointment to that role was not renewed. He continues to be referred to, and quoted as the Presidents advisor, which is incorrect., the office of the President said. Mutsvangwa recently accused a local businessman, Kuda Tagwirei of running a forex cartel in the country. Mutsvangwa accused Tagwirei of getting preferential treatment from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) through shady forex allocation as well as running a monopoly on the fuel supply. Tagwireis business gets about US$80 to US$90 million every month for fuel from the RBZ, yet many companies, some of them largest fuel dealers in the world, want to come and invest in the fuel industry in the country. You can ask (Energy) minister Joram Gumbo. There are many who want to come. We cant have a whole country for one man, he said. Agencies Breaking News via Email 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 scribbles occasional travel pieces for The National. President-elect Donald Trump has announced the selection of Jay Clayton, a general practice partner at the white shoe law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, to serve as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Unlike his immediate predecessor, Mary Jo White, Claytons not a litigator, but a corporate law specialist, with a broad practice, who has worked on capital offerings (including the AliBaba IPO) and mergers and acquisitions (for clients including Ally Financial, Barclays Capital, Bear Stearns, Goldman Sachs). He has also represented clients on regulatory and enforcement matters matters before various agencies, including the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). From the Trump press release announcing the nomination: Clayton will play an important role in unleashing the job-creating power of our economy by encouraging investment in American companies while providing strong oversight of Wall Street and related industries. Robust accountability will be a hallmark of his tenure atop the SEC, and the financial security of the American people will be his top priority. Jay Clayton is a highly talented expert on many aspects of financial and regulatory law, and he will ensure our financial institutions can thrive and create jobs while playing by the rules at the same time, said President-elect Trump. We need to undo many regulations which have stifled investment in American businesses, and restore oversight of the financial industry in a way that does not harm American workers. I want to thank President-elect Trump for the opportunity to serve as SEC Chairman, said Jay Clayton. If confirmed, we are going to work together with key stakeholders in the financial system to make sure we provide investors and our companies with the confidence to invest together in America. We will carefully monitor our financial sector, as we set policy that encourages American companies to do what they do best: create jobs. Mainstream White Shoe Pick In making many of his previous Cabinet appointments, Trump has prized early loyalty above all else, and has appointed Republicans on the verges of the party. By contrast, Clayton is a surprisingly conventional pick to chair the SEC. S & C trains its lawyers to be generalists who practice within broad practice areas, and a partner from this firm has precisely the subject matter expertise necessary to head this agency. Clayton is only one of the most recent of a long line of Big Law partners to be nominated for such a role. Further, while Claytons campaign finance contributions suggest that he might lean Republican, he appears to be neither a doctrinaire Republican party nor Trump partisan. The New York Times Dealbook column reports hes donated to Mitt Romney and Mr. Obama in previous presidential elections and to Jeb Bushs primary campaign in 2015, according to public records. Full disclosure: I was an associate at S & C, also in the general practice group although I left the firm a couple of years before Clayton arrived. I neither know him personally nor by reputation so, Im afraid, I cant offer up any anecdote or any apt sobriquet that reveals his character or provides any insight as to how he might behave if confirmed. As readers might well recognize, one often has a bit of a love-hate relationship with an ex-employer: guilty as charged. I freely confess to my ancient S & C connection now more than two decades old so that readers might be alive to any bias embedded herein either pro-or anti. Previous Experience Save for a post-law school clerkship with federal district court judge Marvin Katz, Clayton has been an S & C lifer, with no prior government experience. As a partner in what S & C calls general practice and the rest of the world calls corporate law his job has been to ensure the companies comply with the plethora of laws and regulations that apply to capital markets and mergers and acquisition activities, and to engage in negotiations with regulatory agencies that have launched investigations including enforcement actions into various activities of his clients. I object rather strenuously in fact to the lazy claim much of the media is making that the appointment of non-litigator Clayton to be chairman of the SEC signals a willingness to go easy on enforcement and eschew rule-making, compared to the agencys record under Mary Jo White. Reason: Any journalist that bothered to examine the record would see that despite the snake oil White herself peddled including the ridiculous claim that the agency produced bold and unrelenting results during her tenure her record was rather weak. Pathetic, actually. So pathetic, in fact, on both the rule-making and enforcement side, that Senator Elizabeth Warren called for her firing as SEC chair. In that position, White succeeded Mary Shapiro, who compiled a similarly lackluster record while presiding over the agency from 2009-2012. So suggesting that Clayton is going to weaken some fortress SEC is ludicrous. As Ive written previously in this post, the SECs rule-making record under White has been dismaying. In that earlier post, I quoted extensively from a David Zaring commentary in MarketWatch: The SEC didnt pass many substantive rules during Whites tenure, couldnt get unanimity on the rules it did pass and left the controversial regulations to other regulators. Whites agency continued to implement Dodd Frank, of course, but missed plenty of deadlines before rules required by Congress were promulgated. Its farthest-reaching initiative, the revisions to the oversight of money-market funds, was something forced upon the agency by other financial regulators, rather than something the SEC itself seemed interested in doing. Imposing fiduciary obligations on financial advisers was a matter left to the Labor Department, after the SEC curiously elected to eschew doing something about an industry over which it had an excellent claim to regulate. The agency has done nothing to oversee high-frequency trading and nothing on a potential and much wished for by the left wing of the Democratic Party rule on the disclosure of corporate contributions to political candidates. As I then summarized the state of play: Why does this matter? Well, Trump has promised to roll back Dodd-Frank. Some have questioned whether he can effectively do this: short answer, with the co-operation of a Congress in which Republicans hold majorities in both houses, he can. But his ability to unravel the entire multi-faceted Dodd-Frank regulatory program would be seriously complicated if the SEC had managed to complete rule-making procedures mandated previously by Congress, according to statutory deadlines, and had firm regulations now in place. And in fact, its not out of the question that some if not many in the industry might prefer certainly, and not advocate scuttling of some regulations particularly the more wishy-washy ones rather than lining up wholeheartedly behind a program of wholesale regulatory rollback. In that case, the securities law regulatory framework would be in far better shape if Whites SEC had managed to meet its regulatory responsibilities, and had finished the rule-making procedures with which it had been charged, than is the current situation where serious tasks remain incomplete). Turkeys Dont Vote for Thanksgiving Im going to go out on a limb here (irony alert), and suggest that Clayton wont smash the securities law framework or necessarily go especially slow on enforcement especially compared to the existing White/Shapiro baseline precisely because hes come from S & C one of the leading law firms in the country, with an unparalleled securities law practice. Such a firm wouldnt want to see the securities framework dismantled or appreciably diminished. Why? Well, thats how its lawyers make their money: by advising clients how to comply with the law. If any significant element of the securities law framework is dismantled there goes a huge chunk of S & Cs raison detre. For a former S & C partner to willy nilly trash securities laws would be akin to a turkey voting for Thanksgiving. Crucially, how serious the SEC is about enforcement will depend on who is appointed to be director of enforcement, and how serious the DoJ is about targeting and investigating white collar and corporate offenses, and trying cases when evidence of wrongdoing is uncovered. I should also point out here that although an SEC chair has great power to shape the agencys agenda, many of the more far-reaching reforms Trump has hinted at would require legislation. Now, Trump does appear to be dead serious about regulatory reform in particular, rolling back Dodd-Frank although like many aspects of Trump policy, exactly what he means by that is vague, often inconsistent, and not completely clear. He has indeed recently appointed activist investor Carl Icahn to serve as a special adviser on regulatory reform. Icahn will advise in an individual capacity, so as to skirt federal conflicts of interest and disclosure requirements, and will not hold any official federal or special government position. I should point out as the piece cited immediately above explores at greater length Icahn himself is not reflexively or completely anti-regulatory in the securities law area, and unsurprisingly, favors expanding disclosure regulations that benefit his business model. Based on what we know now, however, in selecting Clayton over Paul Atkins a member of his transition team and a past SEC commissioner Trump went with a more mainstream entity with no prior strong public views on the appropriate level of regulation. This stands in contrast to Atkins, who served as an SEC commissioner from 2002-2008, and was particularly outspoken, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, in denouncing what he described as large fines levied against companies, arguing that these punished shareholders rather than the companies. Atkins is serving as a member of Trumps transition them and is reportedly in line to be put forward as vice chairman of the Federal Reserve. Its difficult to compare a relative unknown with someone who has a public service record that includes well-known public statements on securities law. Among the measures Atkins is currently reportedly promoting, according to a report in Fox Business, is a measure to neuter New Yorks Martin Act, a 1921 state statute that predates the federal securities law framework and that crusading New York state attorneys general such as Eliot Spitzer have relied on to take on Wall Street abuses. State Blue Sky laws are also under scrutiny. Details on these discussions have been scant, but current New York state attorney general Eric Schneiderman has taken them seriously enough to describe such proposals as deeply troubling. The Atkins record is far more radical than anything Ive seen Clayton has thus far proposed. Goldman Connection: Cause for Concern One point I do find more problematic is that Clayton is yet another Trump appointee with a strong Goldman Sachs connection. Despite making considerable political hay during the presidential campaign over Hillary Clintons Goldman Sachs connections and speeches, Trump has made unseemly haste in tapping alumni and affiliates of the Vampire Squid for White House and Cabinet appointments. These include: former Goldman executive Steven Mnuchin, Trumps choice to lead the Treasury Department; Steve Bannon, a former Goldman investment banker named as a senior counselor to Trump; and former Goldman President Gary Cohn, who will run the National Economic Council (the economic analogue to the National Security Council in the West Wing, initiated under Richard Nixon, revived under Bill Clinton and headed by Robert Rubin, former co-chair of Goldman, who subsequently became Treasury Secretary); For those who are unaware of the long and intertwined S & C-Golman connections, their embrace goes beyond Claytons representation of Goldman on some key legal matters that link is so obvious that even Matt Yglesias noticed it in this article from yesterday. As the Wall Street Journal notes, Sullivan & Cromwell is a key outside legal adviser to Goldman and is more closely associated with Wall Street than perhaps any other law firm, though Mr. Claytons focus has largely been around capital markets. The Goldman-Sullivan special relationship is longstanding and well-known to most on Wall Street, including the legions of S & C and Goldman alumni. The same Journal piece also recognizes, Unlike some of its competitors, Sullivan & Cromwell doesnt have a reputation for feeding the SECs revolving door. More of its alumni land in corporate roles than in top government jobs. Part of the reason most S & C partners stay put is that virtually no other law firm would compensate them as lavishly. In those rare instances when a partner jumps ship, its for a corporate position which sometimes in-house positions at guess where? IIRC, former partner Robert Katz was the first ever S & C partner to leave the firm for another legal job but he didnt stray far, walking up Broad Street S & Cs offices at number 125 to a position as Goldman Sachs general counsel at what were then Goldmans old offices at number 85. Later, partner Gregory Palm made the same journey, to the same job, as subsequently did partner Esta Stecher, with a prior detour to head Goldmans tax practice. Both Palm and Stecher currently serve on Goldmans management committee. Previous Writing Just a few final points. First, Clayton seems to be such a surprise pick to head the SEC that the first press accounts are stretching to come up with criticisms. One such criticism stems from a 2011 article he co-authored on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) entitled, The FCPA and its Impact on International Business Transactions Should Anything be Done to Minimize the Consequences of the U.S.s Unique Position on Combating Offshore Corruption? But, to put this in context, Clayton chaired a drafting committee comprised of members of the Committee on International Business Transactions of the New York City Bar Association suggesting that this perspective was not exactly a minority or offbeat project. Im also not sure that the committees conclusion is particularly recherche or controversial: While accepting and fully embracing the ultimate policy goal of the FCPAthe prevention of corruption worldwidethe purpose of this article is to call for an assessment of (1) the ability of the United States to achieve that goal unilaterally and (2) the direct and indirect costs of continuing such an effort. This paper has identified several factors, including the incentives of the various participants and the decrease in the relative importance of the U.S.-regulated companies in the international marketplace, that strongly and clearly suggest that the United States cannot continue to do it alone. The costs of pursuing such an approach are substantial and, in certain cases, irreversible and, consequently, a realignment of the U.S. position in the global anti-bribery enforcement regime is necessary (p. 26). And also, I should also point out that many commentators including yours truly, a writer not known for being a corporate stooge (or at least I so hope) have criticised the DoJs focus on FCPA violations, at the expense of more serious systemic abuses closer to home. See my November post on this issue, in which I quote from a speech by assistant attorney general Leslie R. Caldwell: This is why the fight against international corruption has been, and continues to be, a core priority of the Department of Justice. It has been a core priority for the Criminal Division, and our commitment to the fight against foreign bribery is reflected in our robust enforcement record in this area, which includes charges against corporations and individuals alike from all over the world. Since 2009, the Criminal Divisions Fraud Section has convicted more than 65 individuals in [FCPA] and FCPA-related cases, and resolved criminal cases against more than 65 companies with penalties and forfeiture of approximately $4.5 billion. Allow me to quote from that November post at length, beginning with the section that discusses the Caldwell quotation immediately above: Sounds reasonable, right? I mean, after all, no one would come right out in favor of more international corruption? But when we unpack it, we butt up against a few problems. First, to quote my contact the white collar defense specialist again. The lack of an effective DoJ deterrent has enormously complicated his practice and his ability to get his clients to understand and act on prudent legal advice. What Ive seen happening more and more in the last couple of years is the chairs of audit committees of major companies openly mocking the DoJs enforcement capability. This leads the companies to pursue courses of action that they wouldnt dare to undertake if they worried that the DoJ would aggressively pursue securities law violations. Where does this leave their lawyers? Well, it often means that they must either moderate their advice, or risk losing their clients. Clients who want to do something will resist their impulses and continue to listen to what they hear as their lawyers crying wolf only for so long. Eventually, the less scrupulous among them are going to ignore the contrary advice, or get another lawyer. The lack of effective enforcement at the DoJ hinders the efforts of the best, most prudent, and most ethical members of the legal profession to practice law as we would want them to. So, what happens instead? Well, the most scrupulous of them will continue to give what they regard as sound legal advice (even if what some privately call the Department of Jokes does not enforce the law in a way that lends credence to that approach). But that means they often have to develop new areas of expertise when their clients beat a path away from their doors. We have to act sometimes as shoe salesmen, flogging competence in FCPA violations, that occur in subsidiaries or with foreign suppliers, says my white collar defense specialist contact. This work leads us to countries and legal systems we dont know well, to uncover chickenshit violations that occur far from home. Far better, he believes, would be for the DoJ to focus on law-breaking that occurs in the United States, as that could be effectively deterred by the agency refocusing its enforcement priorities. Now that would be a legacy we could all believe in. So, given what I just wrote about the FCPA a couple of months ago, it would be rather unseemly to call for the tarring and feathering of Clayton merely for co-authoring an article about FCPA deficiencies. Finally, I also noticed that Clayton has an interest in cybersecurity issues. In reading Ten Commandments of Cyber Security Can Enhance Safety yesterday an articIe he coauthored with a half dozen other co-authors I couldnt help but think how the 2016 presidential election might have turned out differently if Hillary Clinton and members of her staff had followed some its recommendations (and perhaps if some of those staffers had challenged their fearless leader to do the same), especially the bulleted points under commandment one, Develop and Practice Strong Cyber Hygiene: Conduct full background checks of personnel to mitigate insider threats. Implement robust passwords or other advanced means of multi-factor authentication. Ensure security of computing and communication devices, especially when traveling abroad. Train employees on email etiquette and spear-phishing schemes. Keep personnel up-to-date as to relevant incidents, causes and consequences. Increase and demonstrate cybersecurity common sense as part of performance reviews. Utilize surveillance and malware detection and detonation software. Assess the security needs for encrypted phones, laptops and smart devices. Bottom Line Jay Clayton would probably not be my first choice to fill one of the three vacant spots as SEC commissioner especially the crucial chairs position. Nor would he, I suspect be Senator Elizabeth Warrens top pick, either. But hes a well-qualified, perfectly respectable pick for a Republican SEC commissioner. And although I have by no means conducted thorough and systematic research in the short time since his nomination was announced, at least based on his public record, he seems to hold the sort of considered, cautious, middle-of-the-road positions that cause one to be relied on as a trusted legal adviser to the countrys largest companies and financial firms. In other words, William O. Douglas he aint. Trump considered and rejected, at least so far candidates I would have found to be far worse. Hell have the opportunity to propose some of these candidates to the two unfilled commissioner positions but not to the crucial chair position (if Clayton gets confirmed). Meanwhile, the President-elect has put forward other Cabinet nominees Steven Mnuchin (Treasury), Scott Pruitt (EPA), and Jeff Sessions (DoJ), who pose much more serious threats. I suggest congressional Democrats should get their act together and focus their attentions on defeating these more problematic appointments. Guest post by Jamie Rhein Berlin, Ohio in Holmes County is known for everything Amish from apple butter and fried pies to handcrafted furniture. Cheese is another Holmes County claim to fame. Years ago, we bought a roll top desk from an Amish woodworker whose shop is in nearby Charm. When it was ready, we received a notice by mail to come pick it up. If you head to this part of northern Ohio in the summeror in the fall when leaf peeping is at its finest, tourists seem to take over. Two weeks ago when I was on assignment researching Donnas Premier Lodging for an article on romantic getaway stays, I experienced Berlin dressed up for the holidays on a weekend where the weather was keeping most people home. The result was quiet restfulness accompanied by down-home cooking and a morning of window shopping that gave me the urge to return soon. I did find out a few details to consider when planning a Berlin weekend getaway. Many shops are closed on Sunday, so if you have your heart set on finding that perfect antique or fine crafted item like a quilt or a basket, make sure you have time on Saturday or you are staying until Monday. Also, several restaurants are closed on Sunday as well. Fortunately, I arrived in Berlin in time Saturday evening to head to the Farmstead , a family-friendly, crowd-friendly restaurant with Amish style food and a buffet with so many options that I ordered meatloaf off the menu so I wouldnt overdue. The mashed potatoes that I chose as a side dish are a customer favorite. Theres a video you can watch when you wait to be seated that shows how the mashed potatoes are made. As with many Amish-themed eateries, there are plenty of items to take home. Fresh baked breads and jars of jam and butter pickles are hard to pass up. After dinner, when I headed back to my cottage at Donnas Premier Lodging to enjoy the fireplace and the ambiance of the tasteful coziness, I thought, Heres where planning ahead would have come in handy. A glass of wine or a beer seemed like the perfect cap to the evening. I didnt have any, and Berlin doesnt have a place to buy alcohol. A short drive to Millersburg, the next town over, fixed the dilemma. Millersburg is the county seat of Holmes County and is worth a visit for its shopping and dining. If you go, notice the hitching posts outside the courthouse. These are for Amish to use when they come to town with their horse drawn buggies. After picking up beer at a gas station, I headed back to Berlin for the night. On the way, a buggy passed going the opposite way, its light flickering in the darkness. Although every store in Berlin was closed when I looked around on Sunday before heading home, I took time to drive along the country roads and stopped by Guggisberg Cheese, the go-to place for cheese wheels, Baby Swiss and more. My other favorite stop, Hershbergers Farm and Bakery across the road from an Amish farm was also closed. But the scenery was worth the drive. If you do go, I highly recommend Donnas Premier Lodging. There are 17 units from which to chose ranging from the one room cottage I was treated to, to a upscale rustic cabin in the woods. Each unit has an in room Jacuzzi tub made for two. I found it a mighty fine stay for one. A continental breakfast is included in the rate. You can order a country breakfast from an extensive menu for an extra fee. If I had planned ahead, I could have ordered a bottle of wine. Wine is another extra. So are rose petals, candles and chocolate covered strawberries. Add to the Amish experience and ask Donna or her staff to arrange for a buggy ride. Post and photos courtesy of Jamie Rhein (I was hosted by Donnas Premier Lodging. Since my stay, Ive raved about it to several friends. Its terrific.) The bond of two stars of chemistry: graphene and porphyrin (Nanowerk News) Porphyrins, the same molecules that convey oxygen in haemoglobin and absorb light during photosynthesis, can be joined to the material of the future, graphene, to give it new properties. This was recently shown by a team of scientists at the Technical University of Munich, in which a Spanish researcher also participated (Nature Chemistry, "Fusing tetrapyrroles to graphene edges by surface-assisted covalent coupling"). The resulting hybrid structures could be used in the field of molecular electronics and in developing new sensors. When the porphyrin molecule heats up it loses its outer-layer hydrogen atoms and can bond to the graphene sheet on a surface of silver. The resulting structure (illustrated and viewed under the microscope in these images) endows the graphene with new properties. (Image: Yuanqin He - Technical University of Munich) (click on image to enlarge) At the moment, it is difficult to find a material that attracts as much attention from scientists and engineers as graphene, which is made up of a layer of carbon atoms arrange in a hexagonal structure. It is flexible, extremely thin and clear, while being highly resistant and a conductor of electricity ideal requirements for a number of uses, especially in the field of electronics. However, using graphene to capture solar energy or as a gas sensor requires specific properties which it lacks, although it can acquire them by addition or functionalisation with certain molecules. A team of researchers from the Technical University of Munich (TUM), led by Professor Wilhelm Auwarter, has succeeded in bonding an important biochemical group to the graphene sheet: porphyrins, protein rings which are part of chlorophyll, essential for photosynthesis in plants, and haemoglobin, which is responsible for conveying oxygen in animals blood. As Spanish researcher Manuela Garnica Alonso, co-author of the study at the German university, tells SINC: The new hybrid structures can be used in the field of molecular electronics in which electronic circuits are composed of molecular units as well as in catalytic processes in which numerous chemical reactions accelerate, and in the development of new gas sensors. The technique involves growing a graphene layer on a surface of silver to use its catalytic properties. Then, under ultra-high vacuum conditions, porphyrin molecules are added. These lose the hydrogen atoms from their periphery when heated on the metal surface, and they end up joining to the graphene edges. For the first time we have managed to covalently bond porphyrins to graphene edges, in other words to create stable chemical bonds, without altering their worthwhile properties, Garnica explains. The researchers used an atomic force microscope to characterise in detail the chemical structure of the molecules involved. With this tool they observed, for example, a metal being incorporated at the centre of the porphyrins, as well as the specific bond of gas molecules, such as carbon dioxide, without altering the graphene properties. Researcher turns 'SARS mask' into a virus killer (Nanowerk News) A University of Alberta engineering researcher has developed a new way to treat common surgical masks so they are capable of trapping and killing airborne viruses. His research findings appear in the prestigious journal Scientific Reports ("Universal and reusable virus deactivation system for respiratory protection"). Hyo-Jick Choi, a professor in the University of Alberta Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, noticed that many people wear a simple surgical-style mask for protection during outbreaks of influenza or other potentially deadly viruses such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) or Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). Trouble is, the masks weren't designed to prevent the spread of viruses. "Surgical masks were originally designed to protect the wearer from infectious droplets in clinical settings, but it doesn't help much to prevent the spread of respiratory diseases such as SARS or MERS or influenza," says Choi. UAlberta materials engineering professor Hyo-Jick Choi (right) and graduate student Ilaria Rubino examine sample of filters treated with a solution that kills viruses. Choi and his research team have devised a way to improve the filters in surgical masks so they can trap and kill airborne pathogens. (Image: University of Alberta) Airborne pathogens like influenza are transmitted in aerosol droplets when we cough or sneeze. The masks may well trap the virus-laden droplets but the virus is still infectious on the mask. Merely handling the mask opens up new avenues for infection. Even respirators designed to protect individuals from viral aerosols have the same shortcoming--viruses trapped in respirators still pose risks for infection and transmission. Masks capable of killing viruses would save lives, especially in an epidemic or pandemic situation. During the 2014-2015 season nearly 8,000 Canadians were hospitalized with the flu. That same year, deaths related to influenza in Canada reached an all-time high of nearly 600. Knowing that the masks are inexpensive and commonly used, Choi and his research team went about exploring ways to improve the mask's filter. And this is where a problem he is struggling with in one field of research--the development of oral vaccines like a pill or a lozenge--became a solution in another area. A major hurdle in the development of oral vaccines is that when liquid solutions dry, crystals form and destroy the virus used in vaccines, rendering the treatment useless. In a nifty bit of engineering judo, Choi flipped the problem on its head and turned crystallization into a bug buster, using it as a tool to kill active viruses. Choi and his team developed a salt formulation and applied it to the filters, in the hope that salt crystals would "deactivate" the influenza virus. The mechanics of simple chemistry make the treatment work. When an aerosol droplet carrying the influenza virus contacts the treated filter, the droplet absorbs salt on the filter. The virus is exposed to continually increasing concentrations of salt. As the droplet evaporates, the virus suffers fatal physical damage when the salt returns to its crystalized state. While developing solid vaccines, Choi observed that sugar used for stabilizing the vaccine during the drying process crystalizes as it dries out. When crystals form, sharp edges and spikes take shape and they physically destroy the virus vaccine. "We realized that we could use that to our advantage to improve surgical masks," said Choi. In a series of experiments and tests at the University of Alberta and in the Department of Medical Zoology at the Kyung Hee University School of Medicine in Seoul, South Korea, the team arrived at a perfect treatment that improves the efficacy of the fibre filter inside the masks. By using a safe substance (table salt) to improve an existing, approved product, Choi sees very few roadblocks to implementing the innovation. The Tipperary Cancer Colour Fun Run, hosted by Tipperary Racecourse, has raised 70,519.12 for two very worthy charities - the Irish Cancer Society and Circle of Friends Cancer Support Centre, Tipperary. The unique Colour Fun Run took place over 1 furlong in August 2016. The atmosphere was electric and about 600 runners of all ages from all over the country took part. Former professional rugby player for Munster and Ireland, Alan Quinlan, was the official starter for the race. Trainers and jockeys including Fozzy Stack, Kate Harrington, Billy Lee and Emmet McNamara, Gary Carroll and Shane Foley also got involved in the fun run after racing, as well as a large number of people working in the racing and breeding industries. The presentation of cheques took place just recently at the Hideout Bar in Solohead. We at the Tipperary Racecourse were very proud to host this event and would like to thank everyone who took part and raised the much-needed funds for these very worthy causes, said Andrew Hogan, Tipperary Racecourse Manager. Great credit is due to Con and Theresa Marnane and the team at Bansha House Stables who worked tirelessly with the Circle of Friends Cancer Support Centre Committee and our team at the racecourse. Without them, this event would not have been possible and their hard work and determination is greatly appreciated. Con Marnane from Bansha House Stables also addressed the supporters who had gathered for the cheque presentation. It was a pleasure working with everyone involved and we would like to extend a massive thank you to everyone who helped or contributed in any way for these very worthy causes. We are so grateful for your support. Jennifer Jones, founder of the Circle of Friends Cancer Support Centre was very grateful to receive the money that was shared equally with the Irish Cancer Society. We are amazed by the amount of money raised and the goodwill of all the people who supported the event by both donating money and donating their time to help. It was a pleasure to work with Con and Theresa Marnane and the team at Tipperary Racecourse. The money raised has given Circle of Friends a massive financial and morale boost which will go towards the building of the new cancer support centre in Tipperary Town that puts us on target to start the build in March 2017. A California consumer group on Thursday urged the Senate Finance Committee to delay an upcoming nomination hearing into Treasury Secretary-designate Steven Mnuchin after a leaked 2013 memo described alleged illegal foreclosure practices at OneWest Bank when he was chairman and CEO. The California Reinvestment Coalition said the claims against Mnuchin should be investigated by Congress. The memo, published Tuesday by the news site The Intercept, documented alleged evidence "suggestive of widespread misconduct," in OneWest's foreclosure operations. Mnuchins nomination hearing is expected soon, but has not yet been scheduled because he has not submitted all the required paperwork. The memo recommended that a civil enforcement action be filed against OneWest; ultimately no case was filed by Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., who was California's attorney general at the time. The memo described how the California investigation was hampered by an inability to subpoena OneWest, and the bank's efforts to block third parties from turning over loan files to investigators. "The Senate should demand that Mr. Mnuchin turn over all evidence that the bank clearly obstructed an investigation and determine whether he broke the law," said Paulina Gonzalez, the California Reinvestment Coalition's executive director, in an interview. "Is the Senate going to vote in favor of a Wall Street insider who profited at the expense of the American people and flouted the law, when they promised to protect working class families?" Mnuchin was chairman and CEO of OneWest for six years until the bank was sold in 2015 to CIT Group. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was the conservator of the former IndyMac Bank for several months before the bank's assets were sold in 2009 to a group of Wall Street investors led by Mnuchin. Since 2009, OneWest foreclosed on roughly 35,000 California homeowners and initiated foreclosures on another 45,000 homes. The 22-page memo could become an issue in Mnuchin's nomination hearing. The memo, written by four deputy attorneys general, described the pros and cons of California bringing an enforcement action against the bank including the possibility that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency would side with OneWest or that the FDIC would intervene. Deutsche Bank is considering an unusual approach to providing relief to subprime mortgage borrowers as part of a $7.2 billion settlement with the U.S. government: lending money to private equity firms and hedge funds. Germany's biggest bank, dogged last year by questions about its capital levels, is exploring ways to avoid using its balance sheet to buy soured mortgages that it can partially forgive, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. One option it's reviewing is to instead lend to firms like Lone Star Funds, which specialize in buying bad mortgages from government auctions and lowering consumers' obligations. Amanda Williams, a spokeswoman for Deutsche Bank, declined to comment. Preliminary terms of the agreement with the Department of Justice included $4.1 billion of relief to borrowers over at least five years, Deutsche Bank said last month. The bank is still finalizing the settlement that resolves a years-long U.S. investigation into its dealings in mortgage-backed securities. It's not clear that the government would allow it to get credit for borrower relief by financing these funds, the person said. Other banks that have settled with the U.S. have bought loans, or have received credit for modifying loans they made themselves, even if they no longer owned them. "Lending money to private equity or hedge funds would tie up a vastly smaller amount of capital than taking a soured security onto the balance sheet and writing it down to basically zero," said Piers Brown, an analyst with Macquarie Bank Ltd. "The question is, will the DOJ accept this? They have accepted a lot of fudges from banks before and it would be weird for them to tighten on Deutsche Bank." If Deutsche Bank does go this route and the government approves it, the deal could draw protests from consumer activists who argue that banks have not done enough to provide relief to borrowers. Investors have had no trouble getting funding to buy bad loans from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the government doesn't need to encourage banks to finance those bids, said Julia Gordon, an executive vice president at the National Community Stabilization Trust, a nonprofit that focuses on housing. The bank may also look to get credit for any prior financing it provided to investors like private equity firms, the person said, asking not to be identified because the matter is not public. The Justice Department declined to comment. Deutsche Bank's settlement is the latest in a string of deals with big banks designed to hold the lenders accountable for excesses in mortgage-backed securities that helped inflate the housing bubble. The Department of Justice has extracted more than $50 billion from banks in these agreements. The German bank's deal features more consumer relief in percentage terms than prior settlements, which helped lift the company's shares when it was announced late last month. The borrower relief provisions of these settlements have garnered criticism from investors, community groups and others, which have said that the banks have not had to bear the burden of the aid offered. Bank of America Corp., for example, received credit for relief on loans it originally made but had sold, and that others had modified. Lawmakers including Elizabeth Warren joined with consumer groups in 2015 to criticize the kind of government auctions where Deutsche Bank would be funding bidders, saying that investment firms that buy soured loans often rush to foreclose on borrowers instead of modifying their mortgages. The agencies that run or help oversee the auctions including Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, their regulator the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the Department of Housing and Urban Development have changed the rules to make it easier for nonprofits to buy loans. A spokesman for HUD referred to an October 2016 report that shows that the agency has been reaching out to nonprofits. It may make sense for banks to have an incentive in their settlements to work with nonprofits in auctions rather than investors like private equity firms to earn credit for mortgage relief, said National Community Stabilization Trust's Gordon. "It's outrageous to get credit for financing private equity firms," Gordon said. "I don't see how that helps the public good." One of the firms that came up in Deutsche Bank's internal conversations about the settlement is Lone Star Funds, which is among the most active at the auctions, the person said. The Dallas-based private equity manager won $3.9 billion worth of mortgages during a single sale in 2014. The firm has been described by its own investors as "one of the best, if not the best" in the business of profiting from soured home loans. Lone Star believes there is an opportunity to repair abandoned houses and modify mortgages to keep borrowers in homes, and that it views foreclosure as a last resort, said Christina Pretto, a spokeswoman for the company. It has kept more than 54,000 people in their homes since 2008, she said. Deutsche Bank is looking to avoid directly holding subprime mortgage assets because under new regulations the loans must be funded with relatively high levels of capital. Investors and analysts fretted about Deutsche Bank's capital levels for much of last year, although the European Central Bank eased some requirements for the bank last week. There will be some job cuts and United Guaranty Corp. will eventually be rebranded now that the purchase of the private mortgage insurer by Arch Capital Group Ltd. has been completed. American International Group, New York, agreed in August to sell United Guaranty to Arch Capital for $3.4 billion. The deal closed on the last day of 2016. UG was the largest private mortgage insurance company as measured by insurance-in-force with $186.4 billion as of Sept. 30, 2016. Arch Capital got into the business in January 2014 when it purchased CMG Mortgage Insurance from The PMI Group and CUNA Mutual in January 2014. Arch U.S. MI, as it is now called, finished the third quarter sixth out of the seven active companies with IIF of $40.3 billion. Radian Guaranty is the second largest in terms of IIF with $181.2 billion, while Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp. is third with $180.1 billion. Now that the deal is completed, the headquarters of Arch U.S. MI is being moved from Walnut Creek, Calif. to United Guaranty's offices in Greensboro, N.C. David Gansberg will remain in charge of Arch U.S. MI Holdings as its president and CEO. UG's president and CEO Donna DeMaio will stay on as a senior advisor at Arch Capital Group (US) Inc., said Andrew Rippert, the CEO of Arch Capital's global mortgage group, in an interview. In that capacity she will report to Marc Grandisson, the president and COO of the Hamilton, Bermuda-based Arch Capital Group Ltd. DeMaio will work with Arch on integrating the operations of UG, along client transitions and cultural integrations. Plus she will work with Grandisson on broader issues across Arch as those opportunities and issues arise. "The great thing is that Donna will be around to make sure, to help us to integrate and transition customers, which I think is a very important thing because customer service for us at Arch as it was at UG a is of paramount importance. We can't have any disruption in customer service, client service of our mortgage insurance business," Rippert said. For now, United Guaranty will continue to operate under its current name. But "ultimately it will be under the Arch brand" which is common practice at the company, he said. There will be cuts in the sales force. Prior to the completion of the deal, UG had a 100-person sales organization, while Arch had a 75-person team. "Having a 175-sales person team for a sales operation for any MI company is probably way too many people. UG had the right size sales force for the size operation they were," he said. The prevailing view after the deal was announced was that Arch would not retain the pro forma combined market share of new insurance written because mortgage lenders like to diversify their risk among their counterparties. In the third quarter, UG, which became the market leader after the housing crisis, slipped to second among the MIs with NIW of $15 billion. Arch's NIW was $8.75 billion, ranking it sixth. Radian had the most NIW at $15.7 billion and MGIC was third at $14.2 billion. "Even if it was one and one equals two from a market share perspective, which there is a chance it could be, you still don't need a sales force the size of the combined sales force of both organizations," Rippert said. "It still doesn't require that number of people." There are also likely to be job reductions in Walnut Creek, although Arch will maintain a presence there even after the move to Greensboro is completed, which could take as long as two years. Prior to the deal, Arch Global MI had 400 employees and the transaction added about another 1,000, Rippert said. Right now Arch's primary focus is on continuity in customer service and the writing of new business. "Our guiding principle is to be efficient but not be efficient to the point of disrupting customer service or new business production," he said. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg welcomed Japanese Defence Minister Tomomi Inada to NATO Headquarters on Thursday (5 January 2017). It was the first visit to NATO by a Japanese Defence Minister since 2007. The two leaders discussed progress in NATO-Japan cooperation and exchanged views on the security situation, including in the Asia-Pacific region. The Secretary General praised Japan for its close cooperation with NATO in the maritime domain, in the context of international efforts to combat piracy. He also welcomed Japans efforts to implement the Women, Peace and Security agenda and the countrys focus on cyber defence, including participation in NATOs Cyber Coalition 2016 exercise, as an observer. Japan is NATOs longest-standing global partner, having established ties in the early 1990s. In May 2014, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan signed an agreement to deepen political dialogue and practical cooperation between the Alliance and Japan, including in the areas of counter piracy, disaster relief and humanitarian assistance. (Natural News) The biotechnology technique known as CRISPR has brought down the costs of genetic engineering by 99 percent and slashed the time required to create new modifications to a matter of weeks. And while Frankenfood companies such as Monsanto are already eagerly pursuing this technology in their efforts to gain more control over the food supply, the most wide-reaching effects of this new technology will probably lie in the medical arena. CRISPR and associated gene editing technologies have come under fire for many of the same reasons as traditional genetic engineering, but now Dr. Jim Kozubek has raised a new concern: CRISPR may actually enable doctors to eliminate certain neurological and psychiatric diseases that have actually been the key to producing many of humanitys great minds throughout history. Kozubek is author of Modern Prometheus: Editing the Human Genome with Crispr-Cas9. Can mental illness be a gift? CRISPR is short for CRISPR/cas9, itself an abbreviation for Clustered Regularly-Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats/CRISPR associated protein 9. The technique works by using a special RNA strand to guide a DNA-splicing protein to a particular site on the genome. It can be paired with other techniques to insert new DNA into the site where the old code has been removed. Scientists are already investigating ways to use CRISPR to eliminate various human diseases. Before we begin modifying our genes with gene editing tools such as Crispr-Cas9, wed be smart to recall that genetic variants that contribute to psychiatric conditions may even be beneficial depending on the environment or genetic background, Kozubek said. For example, Kozubek noted, the rate of bipolar disorder is 10 times higher among writers than among the general population, and 40 times higher among poets. Thomas Edison was addled and kicked out of school. Tennessee Williams, as a teenager on the boulevards of Paris felt afraid of the process of thought and came within a hairsbreadth of going quite mad,' Kozubek said. According to Kozubek, the idea of editing genetic disease out of the human population reflects a poor understanding of evolution. Scientists tend to think of variations in life as problems to be solved, deviations and abnormalities outside of a normal curve, he said. In reality, Darwin showed us that evolution does not progress toward an ideal concept or model, but rather is a work of tinkering toward adaptation in local niches. Science rushes recklessly ahead Kozubeks comments come in the context of the United States and China both having announced the worlds first clinical trials on CRISPR in humans, with the United Kingdom expected to follow close behind. In the Chinese trial, already underway, a man was injected with immune cells that had been taken from his body and modified, with CRISPR, to attack his lung cancer. The team plans to perform the same intervention on another nine people, and monitor them for six months. This will be followed by other Chinese trials on CRISPR-modified treatments for bladder, prostate and kidney cancers. In the United States, the trials are focused less on the effectiveness of CRISPR cancer treatments and more on their safety. Human participants will be injected with immune cells taken from their body and then modified to seek and destroy cancer cells, hide from cancer cells that will destroy them. Another edit is intended to prevent other immune cells from interfering with the process. Critics have warned that contrary to the promises of the biotech industry, CRISPR editing has a very high error and mutation rate, and does not confer particularly precise control over the biological outcomes of the gene editing. Another major danger posed by the ease of CRISPR editing is the allure of making modifications to human sperm, eggs or embryos. These germline modifications are able to affect every organ in the body and can be passed on to future generations making their overall effects nearly impossible to know ahead of time. Sources: Express.co.uk BigThink.com NaturalNews.com NaturalNews.com NaturalNews.com Thursday, January 05, 2017 by: JD Heyes Tags: brainwashing , media , propaganda This article may contain statements that reflect the opinion of the author (Natural News) You may not know this, but intelligence agencies around the world have, for decades, infiltrated target countries by having their agents and operatives pose as journalists (no, Im not an intelligence operative). That served two purposes: 1) it provided the operative with legitimate cover; and 2) it allowed the operatives government to use the operatives media position to shape public opinion in the host country. Brainwash them, in other words, with propaganda. But in truth, that kind of propagandizing and brainwashing is also done by institutional media pushing a specific political agenda. Think back to our recently concluded presidential election cycle and what the mainstream media did in a failed effort to get its anointed candidate, Hillary Clinton, elected. They lied, made up narratives out of whole cloth, and tried to smear her opponent, now-President-elect Donald J. Trump, in an effort to defeat him. As reported by The Waking Times, experts denote a number of techniques that are used by the establishment media to brainwash the public and create/control the daily narrative. The mainstream media are the real purveyors of fake news Edward Bernays is known as the father of modern propaganda. He was the first to use social engineering techniques spread via the mass media of the day. In the early 20th century, he laid the groundwork for what became cultural programming at the societal level by assisting in the transformation of a mostly rural, agrarian-based American society into a homogenized culture of devout statists and consumers. The principles he developed and implemented have greatly influenced the growth of American culture, how it grew and the direction it took. Having picked up Bernays torch in the 21st century, several experts on modern brainwashing, mind control and propaganda have recently given insight into their craft. Think about what is ailing our country today, in terms of societal problems. There is corruption of so-called grassroots movements that are actually funded by Left-wing billionaires such as George Soros and Bill Gates, and yet the movements are portrayed by the establishment media very often as spontaneous and locally brewed, but all are attempting to achieve a specific social and political result. The efforts of these allegedly organic groups are amplified many times their size by the media, which gives them both credence and a megaphone with which to shout their views. And what do they shout? America is racist, bigoted, homophobic, unfair, politically broken, etc. Never are the calls for unity or praise for our country given any attention at all. Much of this is done via a technique known as astroturfing. Seasoned veteran investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson explains, Astroturf is a perversion of grassroots. Astroturf is when political, corporate or other special interests disguise themselves and publish blogs, start Facebook and twitter accounts, publish ads, letters to the editor, or simply post comments online, to try to fool you into thinking an independent or grassroots movement is speaking. Controlling our thoughts by creating false narratives Another technique used is subliminal messaging. This is a cornerstone of mind control, and when a person is unwittingly bombarded with cleverly concealed information, an emotion can be trigged leaving a persons intellect and better judgment subjugated in favor of a mental process like fear or sexual desire. You may never consciously understand or realize why you begin to adopt certain behaviors, products of lifestyles, but the attraction is nonetheless real and that manifests itself through actual personal choices. In a 2011 documentary called Programming the Nation, filmmaker, graphic artist and digital media producer Jeff Warrick, a former advertising sales rep, provided examples of how subliminal messaging and other subconscious methods are employed by ad executives and other media to create cultural norms and social programs like consumerism, materialization of womens bodies, health choices and the glorification of violence. Could such techniques really be contributing to a variety of social, political and economic problems currently present in our culture? Such as obesity, anorexia, and other eating disorders? The ongoing war on terror? And what about the ever-increasing amounts of debt, that has tightened its grip on a growing percentage of the population? the documentary says. Other techniques include fake newsyes, by the mainstream mediaomission (not covering an issue as though it wasnt real or important); slanting coverage through the use of biased expert sources; and publishing falsified data and science as though it were legitimate. J.D. Heyes is a senior writer for Natural News and News Target, as well as editor of The National Sentinel. Sources: WakingTimes.com YouTube.com Freedom.news A swamp battle between a Burmese python and an alligator has been caught on camera. According to United Press International, the carnage was witnessed and filmed by a reported in South Florida while on a bike ride in a nature preserve in the Everglades. Capozzi, who is a staff writer for Palm Beach Post writes: "Right there, just off the edge of Loop Road, no more than 15 feet away, an alligator was rising tail first and belly up over the surface of the water and then plunging back down. It was clear it was moving against its will. Then, as the gator rolled over and sank, something else came into view: the muscular coils of a very large snake." The stunned reporter described the experience as something mesmerizing and beautiful, but at the same time terrifying. He estimated the alligator to be five-foot long, quite short for the 15-foot python. Although he did not capture a blow by blow fight, the splashes and flipping that the alligator made as it struggles to win the fight, made it clear that he was in the mercy of the coil of a snake. "And this python was hard to miss. With giraffe-like blotches across its body and a head topped with an arrow-shaped blotch, it moved like a slinky on steroids, slowly squeezing the life from the poor gator," he adds. In the end, it was clear that the Burmese python emerged victorious, leaving the poor alligator defeated, and well, eaten. Local News 10 said that the Burmese python is not a native creature of Florida, so it is suspected that the wild creature was released in open by people. Meanwhile, alligators are known to be populous anywhere in Florida. National Geographic reported that Burmese pythons are among the largest snakes on Earth. One important trait of Burmese pythons aside from their strong muscles that could crash a prey, is that they are good swimmers. They can stay submerged for up to 30 minutes before surfacing for air. The craziest thing that doctors can do when performing a surgery is leaving a surgical instrument inside the patient's body. Unfortunately, this was what happened to Ma Van Nhat 18 years ago. According to United Press International, the Vietnamese underwent surgery Saturday at a hospital in Thai Nguyen Province after specialists from Viet Duc Hospital in Hanoi were asked to help with the procedure. Nhat had started to experience stomach pain only a few months back. And in December last year, Nhat went for an ultrasound, and that was when doctors found out he had a pair of surgical scissors in his body. The surgical scissors were apparently accidentally left when Nhat underwent an operation at the Bac Kan Provincial Hospital after a road accident in 1998. Global News quoted the 54-year-old in an interview with Vietnam's state VTV who said, "After that [1998 surgery], I went home but there was a mild but long-lasting pain, so I went to a clinic where they said I had an ulcer, so I only took pain relief medicine for it." Vietnamese local news site said the pair of 6-inch long surgical scissors lied next to his colon. Because it had been there for a long time already, it had become rusty and some of the organs had stuck to the medical device. The operation lasted for had three hours, according to Ngo Trung Thang, deputy head of general affairs at Gang Thep Thai Nguyen hospital. But Nhang is recovering well. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health has required the management of the hospital in Bac Kan, to be investigated. Bac Kan hospital recognized the issue but said that since hospitals usually keep records of 15 years, it might be hard to gather evidence pertaining to Nhat's case. This is not the first time surgical errors had occurred in Vietnam. Reports from previous years said there were cases when doctors operated on the wrong limbs of patients. The United States Navy has confirmed that they will lend their highly-trained war dolphins to help conservation groups and the Mexican government to locate and capture the critically endangered vaquitas. According to the report from The Verge, the U.S. Navy planes to deploy four of their bottleneck dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico this coming spring. These dolphins were highly trained and usually use their sonar to hunt down underwater mines and enemy divers. However, the present mission of dolphins will not require them to do such things. Instead, the dolphins will be used to search out the world's smallest porpoise and rarest marine mammal. For the mission, the dolphins will be released in the Gulf from a boat. They will then start their underwater search for the vaquitas. Once the dolphins spotted their tiny relative, they will resurface and return back to the boat where they were launched. The dolphins will then guide to the place where it spotted vaquitas. The International Committee for the Recovery of the Vaquita is still looking for definite ways on how to spot, capture and safely relocate the porpoises. The plan is to temporarily house the captured vaquitas to a protected section of the Gulf, dubbed as Sea of Cortez, where they might be able to safely breed. However, the current plan to capture and relocate the vaquitas could be highly dangerous. Experts noted that the tiny marine mammal was never been held in captivity before, making the plan extremely risky and a potential driver to the extinction of the marine species. Vaquita, Phocoena sinus, is the world's rarest marine mammal. Listed as Critically Endangered, Vaquita's population only has fewer than 60 individuals left. One of the main factors contributing to the decline in Vaquita population is the use of gillnets. Poachers used this gillnets to capture the critically endangered totoaba. The vaquita could get caught and entangled in the gillnets, which results to their death. The tech marketplace can be a bumpy ride for those trying to hawk new wares: Products sell or flop, stock prices soar or dive. But Intel, arguably one of the more sedate companies in Silicon Valley, was apparently so concerned about its virtual reality demo Thursday night at the annual CES convention in Las Vegas, company reps handed out barf bags along with Oculus Rift headsets. [NATL]Check Out the Latest Smart Tech at CES 2017 No word if any of the assembled fans actually needed them. (And, by the way, the barf bags are the one detail anyone seems to remember from the speech. Not necessarily a good look for Intel.) Contrast that with early talks from chip rival Nvidia, which laid out a plan to, among other things, develop a car using artificial intelligence with Audi (they're aiming for 2020), and Faraday Future, a shambolic, all-over-the-place company that also aims to bring AI into its electric cars. FF, as it calls itself, wants to take on Tesla while also using artificial intelligence to self-park its cars. As the remaining ballots cast in Tuesday's presidential election are counted Wednesday, there's the possibility Hillary Clinton will win the popular vote after having lost the electoral college to Donald Trump. As of 10:12 a.m. Wednesday, Clinton held a lead of more than 170,000 votes nationally, NBC News reported. She conceded the race, however, early Wednesday morning after Trump took Wisconsin, putting the electoral college out of her reach. If Clinton wins the popular vote after losing the electoral college, it would be the second time in 16 years a Democratic nominee has done so. Once again, CES is reaching for the stars, and promising things that only the future knows if it can deliver. And that's good news. When the economy was slow, CES showed us incremental growth. These days, with the stock market soaring and tech promise seemingly unlimited, CES is taking some wild guesses. Will the industry deliver? In a year that's about to be filled with all sorts of drama, crazy visionary companies are welcome. Strap yourself in .. and if you need it, there's a bag below. Scott roams CES on Twitter & Periscope: @scottbudman A piece of artwork displayed at the United States Capitol depicting police officers as pigs is creating controversy from coast to coast, with police officers demanding it be removed. The painting, which was created in Missouri, has angered police in the Bay Area and across the nation. It shows police officers as pigs pointing guns at African Americans. NBC Bay Area obtained a letter that police in California sent to Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, demanding he remove the painting immediately. "It's a hateful message," said Sgt. Paul Kelly with the San Jose Police Officers Association. The painting, which sits in the office of St. Louis Congressman William Lacy Clay, was one of the winners in a student art competition. Clay's office sponsored the art contest. Clay is African American. In a letter to Ryan, the San Jose police union joined with unions in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Oakland in demanding tihe speaker use his power to take down the art immediately. "The broad brush of this artwork that says all police officers are racist against African Americans," Kelly said. "That's false and that does create violence." But in a response to NBC Bay Area, Clay said he had no role in selecting the winner. "The U.S. Capitol is a symbol of freedom, not censorship," Clay said. "The young artist chose his own subject and the painting will not be removed." Kelly said he supports free speech. But with all the deadly police ambushes last year, Kelly insists the artwork on Capitol Hill will only incite violence. "He has been serving in that position for 15 years," Kelly said of Clay. "He should have known better." The San Francisco Fire Department said new fire codes this year could help save lives. Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White announced new rules on Wednesday that owners must comply with to keep renters safe. A series of apartment fires in the Mission District in recent years prompted the Board of Supervisors to pass the new fire codes. "There's overcrowding, so we need to work with agencies to make sure we're as safe as a city as we can be," Hayes-White said. Renters said they are glad the new rules will open communication with apartment owners. "I think it's a good idea," renter Daniel Smith said. Smith said he wonders whether smoke detector batteries have been changed in his apartment complex. He said he never discussed the concern with the owner. "It was a lease," Smith said. "You sign it and away you go." But now, not so fast. The fire department unveiled signs and forms that apartment owners now have to discuss with current and future tenants. The fire department said escape routes must be posted and unobstructed in new and old apartments. Owners also must conduct a pillow test where the smoke alarm is tested in the building. A smoke alarm tested in the building must be heard from the tenants' pillow to make sure the alarm is effective, according to the test. In the annals of effective self-promotion, Swedens tourist association pretty much killed it. Last April it concocted a phone number anyone around the world could call and have a conversation with a "random Swede." The idea exploded some Swedes who signed-up to take calls receiving some 10 calls an hour, with questions ranging from 'do you have Swedish fish?' to 'what kind of animal would you be if you could choose one?' But certainly the tourist association never imagined anyone falling for the promotion as hard as Oakland photographer Jennifer Leahy. The first day the phone line opened, she called the number. She spoke to a man named William who told her about his town and life. Leahy called the number every day that week, speaking each time with a new Swede. She called again the week after. And the week after that. By the time the promotion ended a few months later, shed spoken to dozens of random Swedes about their lives. Then she took things a step further. She flew to Sweden. "What if I saw a country through that sort of serendipitous connections?" Leahy wondered before taking the travel plunge. Leahy etched a plan to meet up with the "random" Swedes shed talked to. Shed photograph the people, their celebrations and the geography they inhabited. After landing in Stockholm, she made her way from town to town contacting people from the road to arrange meetings. She met Ali for coffee. She visited Helene, a Waldorf school teacher who invited Leahy to stay in her home. "Just had fun conversations," Leahy said back in Oakland. "Just hung out with them at their home for a day." Her human itinerary lead her to the home of fellow-photographer Anders Andersson in Halmstad where she stayed with his family. "She told me she had a ticket booked to Sweden and wanted to know if she could come by?" Andersson said from his home in Sweden. "And I said, 'Sure you can.'" Leahy spent two days with Anderssons family and was invited to a traditional Swedish crayfish party where people donned bibs adorned with the victims' caricatures and went to town devouring the crustaceans. "Great that she fulfilled her dream and actually came here," said Andersson, who fielded dozens of phone calls from strangers during the promotion. "I though it was really cool." Jennifer Leahy During her travels, Leahy clicked-off pictures of farm houses, churches, fields, birthday parties and cafes not with the fleeting eye of a tourist, but rather that of a consummate storyteller. She marveled at how people, whose previous connection to her had been a mere phone call from a stranger 5,000 miles away, could welcome her into their homes and their lives. "Just the generosity of strangers," Leahy observed, "and how many of us want to connect with each other." In the way the experiment was an anomaly in an era knee-deep in social media, a plain old-fashioned phone call could lead to a travelogue of purely human interaction. It set Leahys mind wandering about all the missed connections in the routine of daily life. "Then it makes you think about everybody else on the street or in the world," Leahy said, "and how like theyre just a connection waiting to happen." Leahy lamented the hardest part of her journey was saying goodbye to newly formed connections within a day of meeting in person. But such are the demands of a hastily unfolding itinerary in a foreign land. She says shes stayed in contact with most of the people she met and has most their photographs. Leahy is still trying to figure out what to do with the photo project. In the meantime its back to photographing weddings and corporate affairs. As far as the Swedish tourism association and its unusual promotion Leahy professed her admiration for its simple genius "Their number totally worked." Heavy snowfall in the Sierra Nevada shut down Interstate 80 in both directions from Colfax to the Nevada border on Wednesday night, leaving traffic backed up for miles and many travelers stranded. Drivers within the closure area were forced to pull to the side of the road and wait out the snowstorm, some sitting in their vehicles for hours. The California Highway Patrol called for the closure in the early afternoon. Both lanes reopened Thursday between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. Peggy Evanoika of Truckee said she had been parked on the shoulder since about 1:30 p.m. She and dozens of others holed up in their vehicles near a Shell gas station in Nyack. "I've lived in Truckee for 45 years, and this is the first time I didn't plan it right," she said. "I gave them all kinds of excuses, but they wouldn't let me through." On the day after Donald Trump is inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States, tens of thousands of women and their allies plan to march in the Bay Area to denounce the divisive and sexist campaign rhetoric that he rode to victory. The Jan. 21 marches mirror those planned across the country, including the Womens March on Washington, which is expected to draw some 200,000 people. That event is anticipated to be one of the largest demonstrations against the president-elect thus far and there have been many following his stunning victory. Renee McKenna, an organizer of the San Francisco march, said the aim of the local event isnt to protest Trump, but rather to celebrate diversity and inclusivity themes arguably absent from the real estate moguls campaign. The spirit of the Womens March is to bring people together in community around the things that we believe in and the things that were for, she said. Organizers have also "worked closely" with police to develop safety protocols. A lineup of event speakers will be announced in the coming days, according to organizers. The following solidarity marches are expected across the Bay Area: Womens March San Francisco: 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Jan. 21 at the Civic Center. More than 14,000 people have RSVP'd on Facebook, and another 31,000 appear to be interested in attending. Womens March Oakland: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m on Jan. 21 at 9th and Madison streets. More than 19,000 people have RSVP'd to the Facebook event invite, and more than 40,000 others are interested in attending. Womens March Contra Costa County: 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Jan. 21 at Walnut Creek Civic Park. Close to 400 people have RSVP'd via Facebook; more than 700 are interested in attending. Womens March San Jose: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Jan. 21 at San Jose City Hall. More than 2,500 people have RSVP'd on Facebook, and 6,000-plus more are interested in the event. Womens March Santa Cruz County: 1:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m on Jan. 21 at Santa Cruz City Hall. More than 1,000 people have RSVP'd via Facebook, with another 531 interested in attending. Other marches happening in California and across the nation can be found here. Some protests happening on the morning of the inauguration are targeting Trump more specifically, including a second wave of the #NotMyPresident protests that erupted immediately after the election. Those, too, are likely to draw thousands in the Bay Area. Are you planning on attending one of the marches? Are you organizing a rally supporting President-elect Donald Trump? If so, contact Gillian.Edevane@nbcuni.com or 669-263-2895. The University of California Board of Regents is expected to consider a plan to increase tuition for the first time in six years. University of California officials unveiled the plan Wednesday, saying that the proposed increases would be a modest way to boost mental health services, financial aid and faculty hiring. Students currently pay $12,294 a year in tuition and fees. The proposal calls for a $282 increase in tuition and $54 increase in fees, bringing the new total to $12,630 starting in 2017-18. UC spokeswoman Dianne Klein said financial aid would cover the increases for two-thirds of the system's California undergraduate students. Critics have said higher tuition would put too much of a burden on students already struggling to finance their educations. The Board of Regents meets Jan. 25-26. An escaped inmate who had been on the run since New Year's Eve was arrested on Thursday afternoon in Somerville, Massachusetts, according to Massachusetts State Police. James Walker Morales was arrested by a state police trooper after attempting to rob a bank in Somerville, just hours after he tried to rob another bank in neighboring Cambridge, according to officials. He is being booked at state police barracks in Medford. James Morales was on the run since his escape from a Rhode Island prison on New Years Eve. He was captured Thursday after a pair of attempted bank robberies in Massachusetts. "We're just grateful for the heroic efforts of law enforcement to capture a very dangerous person," Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone said. "He's pretty capable of anything, and was acting very brazenly. We're just grateful nobody was hurt." Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone discussed the capture of escaped Rhode Island inmate James Morales. The first attempted robbery took place at the Bank of America at 727 Massachusetts Ave. around 9:30 a.m. Morales passed a note to the teller but did not get away with any money and fled in the direction of Harvard Square. The second attempted bank robbery occurred at Citizens Bank in Somerville. A trooper spotted Morales in the area of Route 28 and Mystic Avenue. The suspect ran and the trooper pursued him on foot for about two blocks before apprehending him as Morales was attempting to jump a fence in the Foss Park neighborhood. A neighbor said within minutes, more than a dozen police cruisers were on scene. Morales, 35, escaped from the high-security Wyatt Detention Center in Central Falls, Rhode Island on the evening of Dec. 31. He broke out during recreation by climbing onto a roof and scaling barbed wire fences, the warden said. Excellent teamwork by public safety officials to bring this fugitive into custody, including MSP Trooper Merrick who apprehended Morales. https://t.co/A6I9EK6hRI Charlie Baker (@MassGovernor) January 5, 2017 U.S. Marshals weren't notified of his escape for five hours. During that time, he allegedly stole a getaway car and ditched it in Framingham, Massachusetts, where his ex-girlfriend lives. Three corrections officers and one supervisor have been placed on leave pending an investigation into the escape. The prison board was scheduled to meet to discuss the matter on Thursday. Morales, a former Army reservist, is accused of stealing six assault rifles and 10 handguns from the Lincoln Stoddard Army Reserve Center in Worcester in 2015. He was arrested in New York days after the theft, and most of the guns were recovered. Police say James Morales tried to rob a bank in Cambridge, Mass. Thursday morning. He has a long criminal history dating back to 2009, including a child rape charge for allegedly sexually assaulting his friend's young daughter. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Rhode Island said Morales has also been charged with escape from custody of the attorney general as a result of his prison break. Several area communities were on heightened alert after the inital bank robbery on Thursday. James Morales, who escaped from a RI facility, was captured in Somerville, Mass. after police say he tried to rob a second bank. Cambridge sent an email to city leaders just before noon informing them of the search and noting that Morales is a former Cambridge resident. Somervillle placed its schools on hold, cancelling outdoor activities, and sent out a reverse 911 warning to residents. Arlington police issued an alert on its social media channels telling residents that helicopters were in the area searching for the bank robbery suspect. But schools were not put in lockdown. At the request of police, MBTA service on the Red Line was temporarily held up as police investigated Thursday morning's bank robbery, causing minor delays between Alewife and Central stations. "We were very anxious as things unfolded," Mayor Curtatone said. "It is a great sigh of relief to all of us that we have a captured fugitive." Escaped Inmate Captured Following 5-Day Manhunt Morales will be held in federal custody overnight and will appear in federal court in Providence, Rhode Island Friday. Massachusetts is taking action after the NBC Boston Investigators exposed the high numbers of wrong way drivers in Massachusetts. Wednesday, the day after our exclusive investigation, the state took the first step that could lead to big changes on state highways. Our report focused on the 13 people who died in Massachusetts in 2016 in wrong way driver crashes. We also showed how Rhode Island has stopped the problem all together. One day after our report, MassDot went to Rhode Island. The NBC Boston Investigators started asking questions about wrong way drivers in October after five people died in a wrong way crash marking 12 deaths in the state. We profiled then Rhode Islands efforts where led signs light up alerting wrong way drivers. Troopers immediately hit the road and huge highway signs alert other drivers. Since the new alert system went into place 20 months ago, 68 times wrong way drivers self-corrected. Bob Rocchio, Managing Engineer of Rhode Island DOT said, Weve had zero crashes, zero injuries, zero fatalities. With such a successful program, we took the issue then to Massdot. MassDot Highway Administrator Tom Tinlin told the NBC Boston Investigators in October, By the time the warning system goes off to the response time there could be a lag there as well. When asked if not following Rhode Islands example was an expense issue Tinlin said, No, you dont put a price on public safety. If there was some technology available we thought would make it a safer roadway to benefit the public we wouldnt let the price get in the way. Since that interview 2 months ago, we tracked at least three more wrong way drivers. Also, another death, 22-year-old James Keating of Bridgewater State University. Throughout our investigation we learn the state doesnt track wrong way driving incidents. So we did. With so many deaths, 13 in one year, we went through thousands of police and MassDot records. The numbers are astonishing: 407 wrong way drivers in Massachusetts 36 percent were crashes 22 killed 109 injured The numbers could be higher. Crash data only goes through 2014. One day after our report, the NBC Boston Investigators confirm Massdot went to Rhode Island tweeting Thank you... for hosting MassDot to look at your latest wrong way driving alert technology. NBC Boston Investigators asked to speak with Massdot highway administrator Tom Tinlin. His office declined but did issue a statement saying they look at best practices and scheduled the Rhode Island visit in December, which is two months after we questioned him about Rhode Islands success. We are now taking the issue to legislators. Four prison workers are on leave after an inmate escaped on New Year's Eve, sparking a five-day manhunt. James Walker Morales escaped from Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, Rhode Island, breaking out during recreation by climbing to a roof and ultimately scaling barbed wire fences, according to the warden. Morales was captured Thursday in Somerville, Massachusetts, after he attempted to rob a bank. U.S. Marshals were notified about the escape nearly five hours after it happened. In that time, Morales is accused of stealing a getaway car and ditching it in Framingham, Massachusetts, where his ex-girlfriend lives. An internal and independent investigation is underway at the prison. Three corrections officers and a lieutenant are on paid leave. "Anyone and everyone responsible for this escape will be held accountable," said Luke Gallant, chair of Wyatt's board of directors. "We want to know what happened, how it happened, and we want to improve the Wyatt so that it never happens again." Richard Ferruccio, president of the Rhode Island Brotherhood of Correctional Officers which does not represent the officers at the Wyatt Detention Facility said staffing levels may have played a role in Morales' escape. There are more than 40 vacancies for corrections officers at the facility. "When you run short, you can have a breakdown. I think that's kinda what happened here," he said. A union official who represents the workers at Wyatt Detention Facility says corrections officers can work up to 80 hours a week, and that wages are substantially less than a state-run facility. "We want to learn the timeline of counts, and accountability of Mr. Morales, from the time he was allowed to enter the recreation yard until the facility discovered him to be missing at 10:30," Gallant said. Morales a former Army reservist stole six assault rifles and 10 handguns from the Lincoln Stoddard Army Reserve Center in Worcester in 2015. He was arrested in New York days after the theft, and most of the guns were later recovered. He has a long criminal history dating back to 2009, including a child rape charge for allegedly sexually assaulting his friend's young daughter. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Rhode Island said Morales has also been charged with escape from custody of the attorney general as a result of his prison break. Watch Carol's interview with President Obama in a live report from Washington D.C. at 4 p.m. Thursday on NBC 5 News. Before President Barack Obama signs off with a historic farewell speech next week in Chicago, he will sit down with NBC 5 political editor Carol Marin for a one-on-one interview at the White House. The interview is scheduled to take place Thursday at the White House. The interview caps Obama's journey from Illinois senator based in Chicago's South Side to a two-term president. Marin is no stranger to the president's journey. She has covered Chicago for nearly four decades, focusing on state, local and national politics -- including Obama's career -- in the past 10 years. The two reunite Thursday at the White House to discuss his time in office and what lies ahead. Social media responded in droves to Marin's request for questions for the president. Tune in to watch the interview in a live report from Washington D.C. at 4 p.m. Thursday on NBC 5 News. Gov. Bruce Rauner said he wont attend President-elect Donald Trumps inauguration later this month. Im not going to go, Rauner said in an interview with NBC 5's Mary Ann Ahern. Im focused on Illinois. I really try to minimize the distractions. I minimize my time out of state. Rauner reportedly had a good, positive conversation with Trump following the Republicans election last November. During Wednesdays interview, Rauner noted that members of his administration are still in touch with Trumps incoming administration from time to time. Nevertheless, the governor remains focused on passing a full, balanced budget with reforms. The states latest stopgap budget ended at the start of the year, leaving state funding for higher education and health and human services in limbo. Rauner halted further negotiations last month after House Speaker Michael Madigan and Illinois Democrats failed to put forth a budget proposal. During Wednesday's interview, the Republican made it clear that he won't consider an income tax hike unless lawmakers agree to elements of his turnaround agenda. Rauner faulted Illinois Democrats Wednesday for not considering his proposed reforms. If you dont like the changes that Im proposing term limits, property tax freeze, pension reform, school funding reform if you dont like those, make your recommendations, the governor said. But we need to change the system. Madigan, Rauners primary political adversary, is up for reelection as house speaker next week. The governor claimed Wednesday that hes staying out of the election altogether. Im not getting involved in any of the General Assemblys decisions on their leadership, Rauner told NBC 5. However, the Illinois Republican Party has gotten involved in the race, launching a Boss Madigan blog targeting Illinois Democrats with ties to the longtime speaker. Rauner dumped millions into the Illinois Republican Partys coiffeurs in the lead-up to the 2016 general election, but claimed Wednesday that he doesnt run the party. I support it, he said. We need a two-party system. We were a one-party state for a long time." The vote on speaker leadership will take place next Wednesday, after the new General Assembly is sworn in. Madigan has been the speaker for 31 years and has rarely faced a challenger. Watch Carol Marin's interview with President Obama in a live report from Washington D.C. at 4 p.m. Thursday on NBC 5 News. What would you ask during a one-on-one interview with President Barack Obama? When Carol Marin posed this question to her social media followers, the answers came in droves. From inquiries about his legacy and biggest regrets, to multiple requests to ask about a commutation of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich's prison sentence and even a request to take the Polar Plunge for Special Olympics, you had a lot to say. Here were some of our favorites. To chime in, follow Carol Marin on Facebook and Twitter. Is he going to fill the empty seat on the Supreme Court before he leaves office? Why did it take eight years for him to sit down with you for an interview? What are his regrets? Will he be returning to Chicago? Why is there nothing being done to nullify this past election when they know it was influenced and affected by a foreign entity Russia ? Isn't that part of the electoral college's mandate ? Does he feel that the Republican congress blocked him because of race? I would love, from his POV, a reflection on his mother-in-law - Michelle's mother, and Sasha's and Malia's grand. I have to imagine that Marion Robinson was a vitally important part of the Obama family and their years in the White House. Please just convey my appreciation and respect to him for his service too the country. He will truly be missed Please tell him thank you. Do you need someone to carry your stuff???? How has he maintained his sanity and civility amidst eight years of disrespect and innuendo? Please just extend my admiration and appreciation. Is he going to commute Blagos sentence? Beg him and Michelle to come back to Illinois and run for governor/mayor. My question isn't original. But I think Obama does owe us an explanation for why he has not appointed Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court during this Congressional recess. He has the authority to do it. So what's holding him back? What will his emphasis be as a private citizen? Please ask about the Standing Rock situation, and existing, and future pipelines...thank you!!! Will he commute Blago's sentence? Is he/why didn't he pardon rod blagojevich I'd like to know what he considers his highest & lowest moments. #2 is where his inner strength comes from. His poise is to be admired. What would he say to his daughters about Donald Trump and taking over their Dad's job? Is he starting a foundation and where to send a resume? Does he want to be the Secretary General of the UN ?? If this comment gets 100 likes, will he and Joe Biden have a sleepover with bunk beds and matching pajamas? If they will, I would be happy to tie it to a gofundme fundraiser, and if the target amount was reached, donate it to a Chicago charity. It doesn't even have to happen before they leave office! WHADUHYASAY?!? when does he get back to Chicago? If he was still a community organizer, what actions would he recommend for people today? Why did he fail to.address the violence here with more than just a mere remark during the State of the Union? Why did he spend more time of putting together a "beer summit" than addressing the constant violence in Chicago? Please ask him when he will commute sentence for Rod Blagojevich. Please! Why did he lift the traveling embargo to Cuba when they have one of the worst human rights records? What did Cuba agree to in return for him lifting the traveling embargo? Thank you! Does he ever reflect on the financial crisis that he walked in on when he took office after 8 years of republican party control and why wasn't it made a bigger topic during the election? He got nearly zero credit for righting the country. Ask him if he wouldn't rather move to Hawaii then stick around Washington until his daughter graduates? Very interested in his thoughts on appointing/not appointing Supreme Court justice during the recess. What was your biggest surprise when you moved into the White House? Ask him about the Biden/Obama memes. I would like to know why he was not more visible on the campaign trail or on TV as an advocate for Hillary Clinton. Also will his first stop out of office be Manny's for The Obama Special? For you: Do you still go to Fernando's? Ask him with his all of his pardons why didn't he pardon or reduce the sentence for Blagojevich. will he be going to disney world after doing such a hard job of being president? Was it worth the gray hair? What would you have done differently if you were the one running against Trump? I would like to know what he liked the most about being predident. And if he could pick one thing he did and make it a "do over"' what would it be. By the way- so proud of you getting to do a one on one. Please let those of us outside of Chicago know how it goes. "Will you come and plunge for Special Olympics Chicago/Special Children's Charities this year? #polarplunge How can we most effectively protect his legacy? Mr. President, if it was up to you, what do you want your legacy to be? -Why did it take eight years for him to sit down with you for an interview? -What are his regrets? -Will he be returning to Chicago? -I would love, from his POV, a reflection on his mother-in-law - Michelle's mother, and Sasha's and Malia's grand. I have to imagine that Marion Robinson was a vitally important part of the Obama family and their years in the White House. -Is he going to commute Blago's sentence? -Beg him and Michelle to come back to Illinois and run for governor/mayor. -My question isn't original. But I think Obama does owe us an explanation for why he has not appointed Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court during this Congressional recess. He has the authority to do it. So what's holding him back? -What will his emphasis be as a private citizen? -Please ask about the Standing Rock situation, and existing, and future pipelines...thank you!!! -Will he commute Blago's sentence? -Is he/why didn't he pardon Rod Blagojevich? -I'd like to know what he considers his highest & lowest moments. #2 Where his inner strength comes from. His poise is to be admired. -What would he say to his daughters about Donald Trump and taking over their dad's job? -Is he starting a foundation and where to send a resume? -When does he get back to Chicago? -If he was still a community organizer, what actions would he recommend for people today? -Why did he fail to address the violence here with more than just a mere remark during the State of the Union? Why did he spend more time of putting together a "beer summit" than addressing the constant violence in Chicago? -Please ask him when he will commute sentence for Rod Blagojevich. Please! -Why did he lift the traveling embargo to Cuba when they have one of the worst human rights records? What did Cuba agree to in return for him lifting the traveling embargo? Thank you! -Does he ever reflect on the financial crisis that he walked in on when he took office after 8 years of Republican Party control and why wasn't it made a bigger topic during the election? He got nearly zero credit for righting the country. -Ask him if he wouldn't rather move to Hawaii then stick around Washington until his daughter graduates? -Very interested in his thoughts on appointing/not appointing Supreme Court justice during the recess. -What was your biggest surprise when you moved into the White House? -Ask him about the Biden/Obama memes. -I would like to know why he was not more visible on the campaign trail or on TV as an advocate for Hillary Clinton. Also will his first stop out of office be Manny's for The Obama Special? For you: Do you still go to Fernando's? -Ask him with his all of his pardons why didn't he pardon or reduce the sentence for Blagojevich. -will he be going to disney world after doing such a hard job of being president? -Was it worth the gray hair? -What would you have done differently if you were the one running against Trump? -I would like to know what he liked the most about being predident. And if he could pick one thing he did and make it a "do over"' what would it be. By the way- so proud of you getting to do a one on one. Please let those of us outside of Chicago know how it goes. -Will you come and plunge for Special Olympics Chicago/Special Children's Charities this year? #polarplunge -Mr. President, if it was up to you, what do you want your legacy to be? The Golden Globe Awards arrive on NBC Sunday night with host Jimmy Fallon to kick off the major awards season. Here are five things to watch for at what tends to be a loose and unpredictable affair: Jimmy Fallon Makes His Mark Seven years after Ricky Gervais poked the Globes back to life with his barbs, Fallon presumably will bring his gentler, more celebrity-friendly style to the broadcast. Fallon might not pack the pointed wit of four-time host Gervais or the one-two punch of the 2013 to 2015 Globes duo Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, but look for him to use his trademark charm to wheedle laughs out of both the stars in the crowd and the folks at home. Last year the Golden Globes red carpet was about sheer panels on dresses and lots of white, but 2016 will be all about color and bling. Tune in to catch it all. It's unclear whether any tweaks are on tap for the relatively staid format. The "Tonight Show" star, though, is no doubt eager to put his own imprint on the Globes, which come seven weeks before his late night rival Jimmy Kimmel tackles the Academy Awards. Hollywood Politics Fallon isn't known for political humor, but current events likely will permeate the Globes as Donald Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration looms. It's all but inevitable that some winners will use the stage to weigh in on the next president, who is far from a Hollywood favorite. Leonardo DiCaprios impassioned plea last year to protect indigenous lands from corporate interests could be a harbinger of whats to come Sunday. Whether politically tinged speeches spark buzz or turn off the segments of home audience or both is anybody's guess (much like the course of the next four years). O.J. and TV Run Away With the Show The Globes are widely seen as the pre-Oscars, but this could be the year that the small screen overshadows the big screen. Television is coming off another strong year, with "Westworld," "Stranger Things" and "This is Us" among the breakout shows. Look for the excellent The People V. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story miniseries to rule multiple categories, as it did at the Emmys. Oscar Betting Tips Yes, television might dominate the night. But the Globes still are poised to set the Oscar predictions race into high gear, with critical favorites "Moonlight" and Manchester by the Sea up for big awards. Globes winners for best drama or best musical/comedy matched subsequent Academy Award Best Picture picks three out of the most recent five years. Still, who can tell in a year where the ultra-violent anti-hero superhero flick "Deadpool" made the Globes' best musical/comedy category. Expect the Unexpected From the bizarre "Deadpool" nod to Pia Zadora's infamous 1982 new star of the year win for "Butterfly" to Gervais' awkward (and censored) encounter last year with feuding partner Mel Gibson, the Globes toss its share of knuckleballs. But that's the fun of the Golden Globes: Keep the crowd off-balance and give them plenty to talk about, long after the final award. 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 man has filed a lawsuit against a hotel in Chicagos Near North neighborhood, claiming that he was attacked by bed bugs in two separate rooms while staying there over the summer. Allen Brown said he was staying at the Courtyard Marriott Chicago Downtown/River North hotel, located at 30 E. Hubbard St. on August 16, when he suffered numerous bed bug bites in his sleep, according to the lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court on Dec. 27. Brown, of Springfield, Ohio, notified hotel staff that he had been bitten by bed bugs, according to the lawsuit, at which point he was moved to a second room in the hotel where he was bitten by more bed bugs. "We counted about 130 total bites on my body," Brown said. "When you wake up to a bed bug bite, it digests your blood immediately. When I woke up there was blood all over the sheets. There was blood on me." The suit against the Courtyard Management Corporation and Marriott Hotel Services, Inc. claims that the hotel rented rooms to guests knowing the rooms were infested, failed to conduct a reasonable inspection of its rooms, and failed to provide pest control services. "My hands were swollen. My feet were swollen. I couldnt shower," Brown added. "When I put clothes on I mean, its excruciating." Brown said his encounter has left him scarred both physically and mentally. "Every little tickle," he said. "Every time the sheets move, you dont know. I still have scars on my hands and my arms and my feet." Brown seeks $50,000 plus court costs and attorney fees through the lawsuit, according to the complaint. The suit was filed just days before the annual ranking of "Top 50 Bed Bug Cities" was released, with Chicago dropping from the top spot for the first time in five years. Pest control company Orkin reports the city moved down two spots for 2016 to take third behind Baltimore and Washington, D.C., when it comes to bed bug infestations. When contacted, Courtyard Marriott said they do not comment on pending litigation. Rep. Bobby Rush responded to Donald Trumps tweet about violent crime in Chicago Tuesday, inviting the president-elect to tour his congressional district, which includes much of the citys South Side. In his tweet, Trump bemoaned the citys violence, asserting that Mayor Rahm Emanuel should ask for federal help if local authorities cant handle the crisis. We welcome all the help we can get, Rush tweeted. Come visit my district. Data made available by the Chicago Police Department shows 2016 was one of the most violent years in the city since the mid 90s. In total, Chicago saw 762 murders, 3,550 shooting incidents, and 4,331 shooting victims in 2016. Over the course of the campaign, Trump repeatedly referenced Chicagos violent crime. In Chicago, theyve had thousands of shootings thousands since January first, Trump said during the first presidential debate in September. And Im saying, Where is this? Is this a war-torn country? What are we doing? The Chicago City Council voted in November to remove honorary Trump Plaza street signs near the president-elects riverfront hotel and condominium tower, putting an exclamation mark on officials decision to slight Trump in retaliation for his divisive rhetoric about the city. Mayor Emanuels office responded to Trumps tweet Monday, signaling a working relationship between the mayor and the president- elect. Emanuel met with Trump last month in New York City, delivering a letter from mayors across the country calling for protections for young immigrants. "As the president-elect knows from his conversation with the mayor, we agree the federal government has a strong role to play in public safety by funding summer jobs and prevention programming for at-risk youth, by holding the criminals who break our gun laws accountable for their crimes, by passing meaningful gun laws, and by building on the partnerships our police have with federal law enforcement," Emanuel spokesman Adam Collins said in a statement. We are heartened he is taking this issue seriously and look forward to working with the new administration on these important efforts, Collins added. Rep. Cheri Bustos railed against Republicans plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act during a speech Wednesday on the House floor. Republicans have talked about repealing for almost seven years the Affordable Care Act, but they have no plan for replacement, Bustos said. Again and again weve heard that repealing Obamacare will make America great again. Well I say it will make America sick again. Bustos warned that repealing the legislation would result in substantially higher prescription drug costs for seniors, higher rates for womens basic care, discrimination against Americans with pre-existing conditions and denial of care to cancer patients who have reached lifetime limits on insurance policies. Vice President-elect Mike Pence told reporters Wednesday that the GOP-controlled Congress plans to move forward with the plan to repeal the law. The first order of business is to repeal and replace Obamacare, and that was our message today and that will be our message on Capitol Hill, Pence said after a meeting with Congressional Republicans. President Barack Obama also met with lawmakers in Washington Wednesday, urging them to defend his namesake legislation, which has provided 20 million with insurance. Meanwhile, President-elect Donald Trump tweeted a warning Wednesday to Republican lawmakers attempting to repeal the legislation. The president-elect also blamed Democrats for "massive increases in the healthcare marketplace that are set to take effect this year. Republicans must be careful in that the Dems own the failed ObamaCare disaster, with its poor coverage and massive premium increases like the 116% hike in Arizona, Trump said in a pair of tweets. Also, deductibles are so high that it is practically useless. Dont let Schumer clowns out of this web. After Wednesdays meeting with Obama, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer responded to Trumps tweets, criticizing the GOP plan to repeal the law, according to the NBC News report. I think Republicans should stop clowning around with the peoples Medicare, Medicaid and healthcare, Schumer told reporters. Schumer claimed the Republicans' plan would throw destabilize the country's health insurance marketplace, increase costs for all Americans and blow a trillion dollar hole in the deficit. Cash-strapped Chicago State University has agreed to a $1.3 million settlement in a whistleblower lawsuit brought by a former administrator who said he was fired for reporting financial misconduct by then-President Wayne Watson, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting. Settlement of the lawsuit by CSUs former chief financial officer, Glenn Meeks, came in the 11th hour, as the case was scheduled to go to trial Monday. Aside from the schools deductible, the payout will come from CSUs insurance carrier. Meeks March 2014 lawsuit alleged he was fired for blowing the whistle on out-of-control administrative salaries, staffing and expenses, among other things, as well as on Watsons intimate relationship with a university employee who was hired and promoted under false credentials. We believed that the conduct of the university in firing Mr. Meeks was reprehensible, since he was trying to help identify financial problems at Chicago State and get the university back on track, said Meeks lawyer, David Heilmann. Because he disagreed with those who were in charge, he was retaliated against. The settlement amount is a clear indication that there was a problem with what they had done, he added. Meeks will receive some $850,000 in back pay, and some $450,000 in lawyers fees two-thirds of which has already been received since both sides inked their Dec. 9 agreement. As part of the settlement, CSUs Board of Trustees was dismissed from the case and the university admits no liability. In exchange for immediate payment from the universitys insurance carrier, Meeks was precluded from personally discussing the case, and required to turn over names of CSU employees who secretly provided him documents. In the Universitys efforts to continue to focus on the importance of educating their students, CSU reached a settlement agreement with former employee Glenn Meeks to fully resolve his lawsuit filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County, the university said in a statement. By agreeing to settle the case, Chicago State University, its agents and employees do not admit to any liability or any violation of any federal, state or local law. Rather, Chicago State University made the decision to resolve the case to minimize the continued anticipated costs and distractions associated with continuing to litigate, the statement said. The suit is the second whistleblower lawsuit slamming the struggling South Side school in the past 2 1/2 years. In a lawsuit filed in 2010 and settled in 2014, CSUs former senior legal counsel, James Crowley, also alleged he was fired in retaliation for reporting improprieties by the school. A jury awarded Crowley $2.5 million; the case was believed to be the first claim under Illinois decade-old State Officials and Employees Ethics Act, designed to weed out corruption by public officials and protect state employee whistleblowers. Then a Cook County Circuit Court judge doubled the back pay awarded to Crowley, and added interest, bringing the total potential payout to over $3 million. CSU lost its appeal in that case last year, and the trial judge is expected to rule soon on the final amount, with interest, owed Crowley. However, in that case, CSUs insurance carrier is disputing responsibility for the payout, citing exclusions in the universitys policy of claims involving violations of law by the university and its employees. Sen. Dick Durbin met with President-elect Donald Trumps nominee for attorney general, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, on Wednesday afternoon in Washington, D.C. "I have a long and personal relationship with Senator Sessions and know him to be a strong advocate for his political positions," Durbin said in a statement Wednesday. "However, the job of U.S. Attorney General requires a much broader world view than his current one." According to Durbin's office, the senator discussed a range of issues with Sessions, including gun violence and Justice Department funding in Chicago, comprehensive immigration reform, criminal justice reform, policing and civil rights, race relations, and Trump's proposed ban on Muslims in America. "My responsibility as a member of the Judiciary Committee is to fairly and thoroughly consider nominations to positions in the Department of Justice, the Attorney General of the United States being the most important," Durbin added. "While cabinet nominees are always cautious, our exchange was frank, and I told Senator Sessions that he would be hearing about these issues again at his hearing next week." Sessions, who was one of the first members of Congress to endorse Trumps candidacy, has faced considerable pushback since being named the president-elect's nominee for attorney general. On Tuesday, leaders from the NAACP staged a sit-in at Sessions' Mobile office to protest the nomination. In a tweet, NAACP President Cornell Williams Brooks claimed the group would occupy the office until he withdraws as a AG nominee or were arrested." Later that evening, Brooks was among a group of six protesters arrested at Sessions' office, charged with misdemeanor criminal trespass and released on bond, the Associated Press reports. Additionally, over 1,100 law school professors nationwide oppose Sessions nomination, according to the Washington Post. In a letter to Congress, the group claimed theyre worried that Sessions will not fairly enforce our nations laws and promote justice and equality in the United States. Sessions has pushed expanded immigration enforcement, argued against expanding LGBT protections and compiled a controversial record with African-Americans, according to NBC News. Over the course of his career, Sessions attempted to prosecute charges of voter fraud by black civil rights activists when we was the U.S. attorney in Mobile in the 1980s. Additionally, the former prosecutor's failed 1986 nomination to the federal bench was derailed by allegations of racist remarks. The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to begin hearings on Sessions nomination Jan. 10. The Democratic National Committee wants Sessions to recuse himself from the vote, which is customary for senators nominated for cabinet posts, MSNBC reports. A federal jury convicted six alleged leaders of the Hobos street gang of a racketeering conspiracy in the biggest gang trial in recent Chicago history. The verdicts followed a three-month trial of accused Hobos boss Gregory "Bowlegs" Chester, hitman Paris Poe and four others on charges of a racketeering conspiracy that included nine murders. It comes at the end of a particularly bloody year in Chicago, where police blame gang rivalries for a majority of the 762 homicides - the highest number in two decades. Deliberating jurors sent a note to the presiding federal judge last week saying they were deadlocked on at least one count after four full days of deliberations. The primary charge in the 10-count indictment is the racketeering conspiracy charge that applies to all six alleges Hobos leaders. Nine other stand-alone counts include drug and gun charges. At the biggest gang trial in recent Chicago history, prosecutors told jurors the Hobos cultivated a reputation for brutality, once torturing someone with a clothing iron. Some witnesses were visibly nervous testifying and one refused outright to testify "for the sake of me and my family." "The Hobos street gang were as bad as it gets," said US Attorney Zach Fardon. "These men were ruthless in their pursuit of crime and violence. They sought to join forces to enrich themselves and empower themselves through fear and violence." The afternoon note last week did not say which count the 12 panelists were stuck on, but it makes clear there is disagreement. And it at least raises the prospect that there could be a hung jury after three months of often chilling testimony and sometimes complex legal arguments. "There are some strong beliefs on both sides," the jury note says. Without fully explaining, it added that one juror "refuses to give a guilty verdict" and "at least one...refuses to give a not guilty verdict" on one count. U.S. Judge John Tharp, who read the note in open court and outside the presence of jurors, told attorneys he needed to be careful about not appearing to pressure jurors. In the end, he sent a back to the jury room that read simply: "I have received your note. Please continue deliberating." Jurors took Friday through Monday off, returning to deliberate only on Tuesday after the long New Year's holiday weekend. If jurors had remained deadlocked, the judge said he could give them a special instruction, known as the Silvern Charge, that uses firmer language about a juror's duty to do their best to reach a decision. But Tharp said he's "reluctant to bring out the canon at this stage." Thursday's note was the clearest sign of jurors' struggles to reach unanimity. But there were some earlier hints of trouble. One juror, referred to only as Juror No. 49, sent a note to the judge at the end of the first day of deliberations, asking if he could be dismissed from the jury. "For me to sit here for a week or more ... is a waste of my time," he told Tharp in court later. After the juror said he thought he could still fairly judge the evidence, Tharp told him he was keeping him on the jury. The alleged crimes jurors must deliberate on include Poe allegedly killing government witness Keith Daniels in 2013 in front of his screaming step-children to stop him testifying, standing over him and shooting him at close range. "The evidence of outright police corruption and dishonesty against Mr. Chester was undeniable and reasonable doubt apparent," Chester's attorney Beau Brindley said in a statement. "His conviction results, not from evidence of anything he actually did, but from prosecutors' use of the RICO statute to obtain convictions in the absence of proof and provide the public with a convenient scapegoat for the city's violence epidemic." Macy's says it is eliminating more than 10,000 jobs and plans to move forward with 68 store closures after a disappointing holiday shopping season. The department store chain also lowered its full-year earnings forecast. The retailer said Wednesday that sales at its established stores fell 2.1 percent in November and December compared to the same period last year. Macy's Inc. pointed to changing consumer behavior and said its performance reflects the challenges that are facing much of the retail industry. The company said the 68 store closures are part of the 100 closings it announced in August. Of the 68, three were closed by the middle of 2016, 63 will close in the spring and two will be closed by the middle of 2017. Some may be offered positions at nearby stores but Macy's estimates that 3,900 employees will be affected by the closures. Macy's also said it plans to restructure parts of its business and sell some properties. This will lead to the reduction of 6,200 jobs. The moves are estimated to save $550 million annually. Overall, Macy's said, the job reductions represent about 7 percent of its workforce. The company, which owns the Macy's and Bloomingdale's brands, has been struggling with declining traffic in its stores, where the bulk of its business is still conducted. It said it is closing stores that are "unproductive or are no longer robust shopping destinations" as well as selling those with highly valued real estate. It plans to invest some of its savings in growing its digital business. Macy's said it now expects to earn between $2.95 and $3.10 per share on an adjusted basis for its 2016 fiscal year, versus its prior forecast of $3.15 to $3.40 per share. The company is scheduled to report full results in February. Shares in Macy's fell nearly 10 percent to $32.30 in after-hours trading. Here are the stores closing in Illinois: Alton Square, Alton, IL (180,000 square feet; opened in 1978; 54 associates) Stratford Square, Bloomingdale, IL (149,000 square feet; opened in 1981; 87 associates) Eastland, Bloomington, IL (154,000 square feet; opened in 1999; 55 associates) For a complete list of store closures, click here. The American Red Cross as issued an emergency appeal for blood and platelet donations amid a severe blood shortage, the organization announced Wednesday night. The Red Cross said that they received about 37,000 fewer donations in November and December than was needed, blaming the deficit on severe weather and hectic holiday schedules that discouraged regular donors from making donations. According to the organization, nearly 100 blood drives were canceled in December, a loss of more than 3,100 donations. Organization officials said currently blood and platelet donations are being distributed faster than they are coming in. NBC Connecticut is partnering with the Red Cross to host a blood drive in Farmington on Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017. The drive will run from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Red Cross Farmington Blood Center at 209 Farmington Avenue. One donation can help up to three people in need of blood. For more information or to schedule an appointment to donate blood, visit redcrossblood.org or call 1-800-RED CROSS. Anyone who donates in January will receive a $5 Dunkin' Donuts card as a thank you. Connecticut residents looking to renew a drivers license or ID card in the New Year can no longer do that at AAA Northeast offices in New Haven and Fairfield Counties. After shutting off its equipment at AAA Northeast locations Sunday morning, a DMV spokesperson said it has added extra staff at offices in both counties. I was lucky I got the service before it closed, Diane Baranowsky said. Baranowsky last renewed her license in June at the AAA Northeast branch in Branford. I cant even count how many times, but its always been a very efficient service, she said. Its very disappointing because it was very convenient for us in the community and as a AAA member it was a nice added service. The DMV and AAA Northeast had been in negotiations since October about renewing their agreement. Commissioner Michael Bzdyra said the DMV could not agree to AAAs terms of excluding non-members from DMV services. "We need to maintain service levels while controlling costs, Bzdyra said, As such, we cannot subsidize a private organization's provision of DMV services if that organization is not willing to find ways to serve the general public." A spokesperson for the AAA Northeast could not be immediately reached. At the DMV in Hamden Wednesday, Petros Timos from Wallingford said he was surprised he only waited about half an hour to renew his car registration. And it seems like it improved for the New Year, he said, so Im pretty content with it. Baranowsky said she hopes the lines wont be too long the next time she needs to go to the DMV. Thats always been a nightmare in the past, she said, but thats what we have to do we have to do it. DMV services are still available at eight AAA offices in other parts of the state for both AAA members and non-members. Those offices are located in Avon, Cromwell, Enfield, Manchester, Old Saybrook, Plainville, Waterford and West Hartford. Later this year, the DMV plans to roll out an online system where residents can renew their drivers licenses at home. Residents will only have to visit the DMV every 12 years to take a new photo. The man state troopers shot while responding to an incident in Burlington on Tuesday afternoon has been arrested. State police said troopers responded to Angelas Way around 1:30 p.m. to investigate a suspicious incident and a person threatening to harm himself and found Maciej Konferowicz, 49, of 29 Angela's Way, with a gun. He refused orders to drop his weapon and at least one trooper shot at least one round from a duty weapon and hit Konferowicz, police said. Konferowicz was transported to St. Francis Hospital has been released from the hospital, police said. Police took him into custody just before 5:30 p.m. Wednesday and Konferowicz has been charged with interfering with an officer. He posted the $50,000 bond and is due in court on Jan. 17. Two state troopers have been placed on administrative duty during the investigation into the shooting. State police identified them as Sgt. Jack Goncalves a 19-year veteran of the Connecticut State Police and Trooper First Class Laurie Deltorto, a 22-year veteran of the Connecticut State Police. Placing the troopers on administrative leave is standard procedure, pending the outcome of the investigation. Amtrak held train traffic for hours Wednesday night after the driver of a tractor-trailer hit a pole in Wallingford, brought down wires and left the scene, according to police. Someone drove up to a police officer who was parked near South Colony Road just after 7:30 p.m. and said wires were down on Toelles Road and the officer found a telephone pole on the northwest corner of the intersection of Toelles and South Colony roads with wires that crossed the train tracks. The traffic lights at the intersection, as well as those at the Interstate 91 exit ramp with South Colony Road, were out. Witnesses said a tractor-trailer going south on South Colony Road hit the pole as it was turning right onto Toelles Road and the driver got out of the truck, looked at the damage and drove west on Toelles Road, police said. Several electrical wires were severed and fell onto a car on South Colony Road that was behind the tractor trailer, causing minor damage but no injuries. A witness said the tractor-trailer was heading east on Toelles Road and police stopped it, police said. Police identified the driver as 22-year-old Travis Fahey, of Wallingford, and charged him with evading responsibility and failure to drive in proper lane. He was released on a $1,000 bond and is due in court on Jan. 17. Amtrak held all train traffic until midnight and Toelles Road was shut down for through traffic. While an arrest has been made in the massive fire that burned an abandoned downtown building New Years Eve night in Waterbury, the investigation continues into what caused this fire to burn so quickly. Rubble is all thats left on the South Main Street site, a former manufacturing mill built in the early 1900's, but there are about a dozen abandoned properties throughout the city similar in size to the old 200,000-square foot structure. Big concern. It has been for many years for us residents that live here in Waterbury, said Waterbury resident, Luis Zayas. The vacant buildings also a concern for city officials. Fire Chief David Martin said his biggest concern is a building on Freight Street, a former brass company. Theres some abandoned tanks there that are a concern, the integrity of the structure is of concern as well, said Chief Martin, who told NBC Connecticut the city has teamed up with the Environmental Protection Agency to do environmental work there. There are three other buildings on South Main Street, one on Cherry Avenue and one Bristol Street that are also of concern. They can pose a threat for firefighters if they get an emergency call at any of them. Just from a safety standpoint we try to go through these buildings as best as possible, outline any portions that are maybe lacking structural integrity, said Chief Martin. The city has worked on trying to make sure abandoned sites throughout the city are secure by boarding them up and fencing the properties as needed. Make these sites and locations as secure as you can. Whether its fencing, just a general board up to try and keep vagrants and people that are trying to do anything nefarious in these locations...try to keep them out, said Director of Operations for the City of Waterbury, Joe Geary. Until the city can put up fencing on the site of the New Year's Eve fire, the property is being secured by a police officer. City officials are hoping state and federal aid will help offset whats expected to be an expensive cleanup, expected to be well in the thousands, according to Geary. Fire marshals deemed the building was intentionally burned to the ground. Police arrested a 58-year-old homeless man, Timothy Carlson, on Tuesday. Civil rights attorneys in Washington, D.C., have declared victory after the National Park Service said it would issue permits to groups seeking to protest the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump. Park service spokesman Mike Litterst said in a statement Thursday that the agency will be issuing permits soon, particularly for the Ellipse near the White House. [NATL-DC] IMAGES: Tickets, Map Unveiled for Trump Inauguration More than 30 groups have applied for permits. As of Thursday, all but one of those permits -- to the Act Now to Stop War & End Racism (ANSWER) Coalition -- had not been issued because the inaugural committee had yet to confirm which locations they do not need to use, a Park service representative told NBC 4 Washington. The park service typically reserves space on and around the National Mall for use by the Presidential Inaugural Committee. But the attorneys representing protesters said the agency went too far this time in blocking access to public space. They had threatened to sue by Friday if permits weren't granted. Talladega College said on Thursday, Jan. 5 that its band will perform in Donald Trumps inaugural parade, despite criticism. Some alumni and community members werent happy with the bands participation, saying they dont believe that Trump reflects the values of the historically black college. Presidential Inaugural Committee spokesman Alex Stroman said the inaugural committee supports peaceful protests. "People have the right to protest, thankfully, in our country. As long as it's done peacefully and done to follow all laws and regulations, we welcome it," he said. Attorney Mara Verheyden-Hilliard calls the park service announcement "a significant victory for free speech." According to NBC 4, street vendors are also waiting on the inaugural committee to release space for them to use. [NATL] Seen in Trump's Orbit: Jared Kushner, Jack Ma Chicago police said Wednesday night that four teens are being held and questioned in connection with a Facebook Live video showing a group of people beating and cutting a teen who appeared bound and gagged as they shouted F--- Donald Trump. Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson called the video a "brutal act" that was "broadcast for the entire world to see." He said the victim has "mental health challenges." NBC News reported that officials said they expect to file charges against the four 18-year-olds, two men and two women, within the next 24 hours. Police said officers on patrol found a disoriented man walking Tuesday afternoon in the 3400 block of West Lexington in the city's Homan Square neighborhood. The man was transported to an area hospital for treatment. Then, just before 5:30 p.m., officers responded to a battery at a residence in the 3300 block of West Lexington, where they discovered signs of a struggle and damage to the property -- a scene they linked to the disoriented man. Officers later became aware of social media video depicting a battery of an adult male which is believed to be the same individual, police said in a statement Wednesday. Authorities said the video, which shows a group of black men and women kicking, cutting and slapping a white man, who at one point appears to be bound and gagged, is credible. The video was posted around 2 p.m. Tuesday and had been seen more than 62,000 times before it was removed from Facebook. In the footage, some in the group can be heard saying "F--- Donald Trump" and "F--- white people." The victim is an 18-year-old man from northwest suburban Crystal Lake who had been reported missing and "has mental health challenges," police said. His parents reported him missing late Monday, telling police they had not heard from him since Dec. 31, when they dropped him off at a McDonald's at Schaumburg and Barrington Roads, according to a release from Streamwood police. His parents began receiving text messages from persons claiming to be holding him captive, authorities said, and officials discovered the Facebook video while investigating the source of the messages. Police said the teen was "extremely traumatized" but has been released from the hospital. Authorities believe he knew one of the suspects and had gone with that person willingly before he was eventually brought to the city in a stolen van and held against his will. He had been with the suspects for at least 24 hours, authorities said. "It's sickening," Johnson said. "It makes you wonder what would make individuals treat someone like that." Police are investigating whether the attack was a hate crime, though they have not yet said that it is one. Commander Kevin Duffin told reporters that it may have been people "ranting about something they think might make a headline." When asked if the attack was politically motivated, Johnson said "at this point we don't have anything concrete to point in that direction." A newly elected prosecutor in South Texas wore a Dallas Cowboys jersey during a private swearing-in ceremony on a game day. The Corpus Christi Caller-Times reports Nueces County District Attorney Mark Gonzalez (D) wore a No. 11 jersey on Sunday, as Philadelphia beat Dallas 27-13. Gonzalez, who's a fan of wide receiver Cole Beasley, later tweeted a photo of himself wearing the jersey. (Pictured, above) Gonzalez said he's received some criticism for wearing the jersey while being officially sworn in by a judge, before friends and family, but says he has complete respect for the office. I think if they understood it was in a very small courthouse where I grew up (Agua Dulce), in front of nothing but my family and very close friends, they would see it in a different light, Gonzalez told the Caller-Times. I have complete respect for the office Im taking and thats why Ive been working hard since day one. The former defense attorney plans to wear more formal attire during his public swearing-in courthouse ceremony on Jan. 12 in Corpus Christi. But Gonzalez also says he might wear a Cowboys tie. Michelle Obama is making her final visit as the nation's first lady to "The Tonight Show" on January 11. It will be her third "Tonight Show" appearance. Her previous visits were in February 2014 and in April 2015, when she displayed her dancing skills with host Jimmy Fallon in a presentation of "The Evolution Of Mom Dancing." "The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon" airs at 11:35 p.m. EST on NBC. [NATL] Top Entertainment Photos: Best of the American Music Awards, and More For months NBC5 Investigates has been examining public records obtained from Dallas County Schools (DCS), a government agency that serves as the bus contractor for nine local school districts: Aledo ISD Carrollton/Farmers Branch ISD Cedar Hill ISD Coppell ISD - contract canceled in March - contract canceled in March DeSoto ISD Dallas ISD (actively seeking new proposals for choice/magnet schools) Highland Park ISD Irving ISD Lancaster ISD Richardson ISD Weatherford ISD - contract canceled in March - contract canceled in March White Settlement ISD - contract canceled in April This page is designed to give viewers a first-hand look at the key documents NBC 5 Investigates used to form the basis of the investigation. Red Light Running Tickets Finding: More than 200 DCS school bus drivers accumulated a total of 480 tickets for running red lights and also running past the stop arms of other school buses. The violations were captured on red light cameras and stop arm cameras. The Records: DCS check registers available online showed the district had written approximately $80,000 in checks for what were described as "DPS Violations." We entered the check register information into a spreadsheet: NBC 5 filed an open records request with DCS asking for the purchase orders, invoices and citations for each of the checks written for DPS violations. The district sent us more than 1,100 pages of documents which showed the checks were written to cover red light camera and stop arm camera tickets accumulated by drivers. The "invoices" turned out to be the tickets for the violations committed by the drivers. Here are some sample records of the tickets and the checks DCS wrote to pay them: For more on how the team uncovered this part of the story, CLICK HERE to watch the Facebook live video which discusses the findings in more detail. Outcome: After NBC 5 Investigates questioned DCS about the ticket records, the agency fired 13 bus drivers and announced it would suspend 229 more. Two high ranking managers were demoted the executive director of transportation and the agencys top business manager. DCS says the transportation director has since retired and the business manager was terminated. DCS leadership acknowledged the agency had not been enforcing the districts policy which called for drivers to be suspended for first and second red light ticket offenses and fired for third offenses. That had not been happening for approximately two years. DCS also implemented a new policy that will result in immediate termination for any bus drivers who run past a stop arm camera - even once. Bus Crash Records: Finding: Texas Education Agency Records show, in the 12 school districts where DCS provides bus transportation, DCS reported numbers that show a 103 percent increase in bus accidents from the 2014-15 school year to the 2015-16 school year. In 2014-15 they reported a total of 200 incidents while in the 2015-16 school year the number they reported more than doubled to 405 crashes. The numbers include crashes with injuries and also minor incidents where students were on board. The Records: The Texas Education Agency requires school districts to report yearly bus accident numbers in what is known as the BARS reporting system. DCS forwards crash statistics to districts it serves and they typically forward the information to the TEA. Most of those records are available on line: Download the data For any school district DCS serves that had not yet supplied accident data to TEA, NBC 5 Investigates contacted them directly to obtain their BARS reports. In this chart we compiled all of the BARS numbers by school district: The TEA BARS reports also show at least 86 students have been injured on DCS buses since 2009. After NBC 5 reported the BARS report numbers, DCS said it wanted to revise the numbers it had provided to the TEA. However the TEA says it will not accept any revision to the numbers reported once the reporting deadline has passed. Still, DCS released this second chart to us which includes some lower accident totals. For example the 405 number originally reported for 2015-16 was reduced to 345. DCS did not provide an explanation for that change. The chart shows mileage driven has stayed roughly the same over 6 years and an increase in incidents over that time period, from 124 accidents in 2010/11 to 345 in 2015/16: When NBC 5 questioned a PR firm hired by DCS about those numbers they responded with a statement saying DCS wished to revise the numbers even further. The statement said DCS employees made "mistakes" and over-reported accidents. DCS now wants revise the number of accidents reported ion 2015-16 from 405 to just 3. Their reasoning is that TEA rules give districts "discretion" in deciding whether to report cases where there was no citation to a vehicle involved in the crash. The TEA however says it will not accept revised numbers after the reporting deadline has passed, so the 405 number will remain the official number on file. Because DCS is a government agency it is not required to report accidents to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. This makes it difficult to compare DCSs record to other private for-hire bus companies. FMCSA rules require reporting of all crashes with a death, injury or where a vehicle involved was towed. While in Texas, TEA rules require only the reporting of incidents where students were on the bus and a citation was issued. Outcome: NBC 5 has requested DCS release its internal records detailing all incidents so that we can more thoroughly examine this issue. As soon as we have received complete information, and are able to analyze those records, we will report that information. Driver Complaints Finding: DCS bus drivers received more than 4,100 complaints called in by citizens in about a 20 month period. Approximately 2,000 of those complaints are for reckless driving and speeding. The Records: NBC 5 requested all records of what DCS calls "Q-calls." These are calls made by citizens reporting concerns about DCS buses. DCS provided us with a database that tracks the calls. The database shows more than 4,100 complaints about drivers over about 20 months. About 2,000 of those complaints are for reckless driving and speeding. DCS points out, because these are citizen calls, some complaints are unreliable: Download the data (Disclaimer: - Because some complaints were not verified we have redacted the names of the drivers and complaint callers from the version posted on-line.) The database shows 26 DCS bus drivers received 10 or more complaints in less than two years. One driver received 32 complaints. Out of the more than 4,100 total complaints, the database lists just one complaint that resulted in termination following complaint investigation. According to the database 14 complaints resulted in suspension, 13 resulted in loss of merit pay and 56 drivers received retraining. Outcome: On Dec. 8, 2016, DCS announced it would implement weekly random check rides for more than a dozen drivers with 10 or more complaints, including the driver who received 32 complaints mostly for reckless driving and speeding. DCS also reported four drivers with ten or more complaints had been fired after further investigation, beyond the one firing listed in the database. Two more drivers with 10 or more complaints have retired while others have been ordered to re-training. On-time / Late Bus Records: Finding: DCS and the school districts it serves have received numerous complaints about late and no-show buses over the last year. The Records: NBC 5 requested internal emails and logs of complaints maintained by school districts that contract with DCS including Carrollton-Farmers Branch, Coppell, Irving, Lancaster and Richardson. Those records detail many complaints of late or no-show DCS buses from parents, teachers and principals since the beginning of last school year. Irving ISD has maintained a detailed database of complaints this school year: Here are some samples of the complaint emails from other school districts: NBC 5 also requested internal "Q-call" records from DCS which detailed about 200 complaints phoned in to DCS for late and no-show buses over approximately 20 months. These are complaints called in by citizens to a phone line maintained by DCS. Outcome: NBC 5 Investigates has requested more complete on-time arrival date from DCS and school districts that contract with DC. As soon as we have received complete records and are able to analyze it we will report that information. DCS claims their on-time arrival data shows their buses are on time 90 percent of the time. But Dallas ISD insists the most recent data provided by DCS shows that as of April 2016 buses were on time only 66.7 percent of the time. Dallas-based Southwest Airlines is coming to the Cincinnati region's airport while pulling out of Dayton, Ohio, some 80 driving miles away. The carrier Wednesday announced plans to begin daily service June 4 to Baltimore-Washington and Chicago Midway out of the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in Hebron, Kentucky. Meanwhile, it will end service after June 3 at Dayton International Airport, where Southwest has daily Dayton-Chicago Midway flights. Southwest spokesman Dan Landson told the Dayton Daily News that leaving cities is "never an easy decision," but that the carrier needed to go where it is needed most. Dayton officials say the announcement reflects a growing trend of airlines concentrating service in larger hub markets. The Southwest announcement marked another milestone in efforts by the Cincinnati airport's leaders to expand lower-cost flight offerings. A federal judge appears to be casting doubt on the legality of new Texas rules requiring burial or cremation of fetal remains, questioning whether they override existing state cremation laws. U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks on Wednesday pressed state attorneys on whether Texas believes fetal tissue is different from "human remains." When the reply was yes, Sparks said: "So you're bringing dignity to non-human remains?" State health rules seek to ban as "undignified" the disposing of remains from abortions and miscarriages as biological medical waste, meaning they usually go to sanitary landfills. But state law already allows scattering ashes on any private property, which can include landfills. Texas contends that that only applies to human remains, not fetal tissue. Sparks has blocked the rules while hearing evidence on them. After Wednesday's hearing, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton released the following statement: I am confident in our arguments today and in the constitutionality of these rules. Texas values the dignity of the remains of the unborn and believes that fetal tissue should be disposed of properly and humanely. I look forward to the court upholding the rules on January 27." It's a voice-activated device that can keep kids busy for hours with knock-knock jokes, music and shopping made so simple, even a 6-year-old can do it. "I am very surprised," said Megan Neitzel. Christmas night, 6-year-old Brooke Neitzel was playing with their new Amazon Echo Dot. Megan says she hadn't had a chance to set her parental controls. "I said to her, 'Alexa can you please order me a dollhouse and some cookies?'" said Brooke. It wasn't just any dollhouse it's a $150 version, plus four pounds of Danish Butter Cookies. "I immediately tried to cancel the order and Amazon wrote me back and said we can't cancel it. It's already shipped," Megan Neitzel explained. Hours later, the dollhouse and cookies showed up. Megan Neitzel says she immediately logged on to set her parental controls, which revealed another surprise: a transcript of the entire order. "What it said on there was, 'Will you play dollhouse with me and order me a dollhouse?' And then the Kidcraft one pops up and says shipment confirmed," Megan said. She had the option to return it, but Megan Neitzel says she'll donate the dollhouse instead. The cookies on the other hand, don't stand a chance. "The whole thing we thought was funny, really funny, but it won't be funny if she orders it again though," the mother said. The experience also delivered a valuable lesson about the power of having a personal assistant in the palm of your hands. When asked what she'll do next time, Brooke replied, "Ask my mom and dad." An Amazon spokesperson says parents can manage shopping settings by turning off voice purchasing. You can also require a confirmation code before every order, something now in place at the Neitzel household. Texas lawmakers are preparing to return to the statehouse for the start of the legislative session. One prefiled bill from Rep. Jonathan Stickland aims to remove the need for the handgun license process. The Constitutional Carry bill would give residents the right to carry a gun with or without a permit. We dont think that Texans should have to pay for their Second Amendment rights, Stickland said. This would get rid of the mandatory test and fee Texans are currently having to pay and restoring constitutional rights. Stickland said the bill does not do away with the permit for classes, but makes them optional. If people were trying to pass a required test and make you pay a fee for your First Amendment rights, then people would be going insane about that, he said. Why its somehow become allowable with the Second Amendment? I have no idea. This bill does not expand who can carry or where they can carry, he added. If you are a felon, or anything like that, this is not an expansion of who can carry. You will still have to go through the background checks of purchasing the weapon. If passed, Texas would be the eleventh state with a Constitutional Carry law. Vermont, Alaska, Arizona, Wyoming, Kansas, Maine, West Virginia, Mississippi, Idaho and Missouri already have similar laws. Unfortunately Texas is not leading on this issue, Stickland said. Constitutional Carry passing means there is a whole new group of people previously who have not been able to afford the fees and pay the price for the mandatory classes will now be able to carry. Amanda Johnson is a member of the group Texas Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America and is also a gun violence survivor. If it takes a license to legally drive a car, the same should be true for carrying a weapon in public, she said. Allowing for the complete removal of permitting requirements for both open and concealed carry of handguns in public would increase the risks of tragedies by eliminating any firearm safety training requirement. Parents should not have to worry if the armed stranger standing next to their children is a responsible gun owner or a threat to public safety, she added. Strickland said the bill would not negatively affect public safety. I think passing Constitutional Carry would affect crime in a positive way. I think an armed society is a safe society, he said. Any time we can start getting people to take personal responsibility for their own well being, its a good thing. Police said they arrested four people suspected of stealing a car and leading officers on chase in Dallas early Thursday morning. Dallas police said officers saw a Buick SUV that was reported stolen in a carjacking and tried to stop the driver. The driver fled on westbound U.S. 175, northbound Interstate 45 and southbound Interstate 35E before stopping on the Fleming Place bridge at about 3:30 a.m. Police spokesman Terrence Rhodes tweeted that officers arrested four people suspected in a carjacking that preceded the chase. No injuries or property damage were reported. One of the nation's top cancer hospitals, Houston's MD Anderson Cancer Center, is cutting about 1,000 employees to address millions of dollars in operating losses. Officials say the reductions, through layoffs and retirements, account for about 5 percent of the hospital's workforce and will not include doctors and nurses. During the September-November quarter of 2016, the hospital reported losses of $110 million. Officials say factors include higher insurance deductibles for patients and a shrinking number of insurance companies willing to pay for expensive treatments. The cuts have been announced the same day the Houston Chronicle reported the University of Texas System, which operates the hospital, gave the cancer center's president, Dr. Ronald DePinho, a $208,000 performance bonus for fiscal 2016. He says he's donated it back to the hospital. A 55-year-old man is facing charges after his mother told police he stabbed her while fatally stabbing his father during an argument last month. Dallas police said neighbors requested a welfare check on New Year's Day for an elderly couple who live at a home on the 1600 block of East Redbird Lane after noticing uncollected newspapers in the yard. Police arrived, entered the home and found the 83-year-old Choyce Moon in a chair, "deceased from homicidal violence," and his 80-year-old wife, Mae Francis Moon, injured in the bedroom. Mae Moon was transported to Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas for treatment. While recovering, she told police her son Donald Moon had stabbed her when she tried to intervene in an argument between him and his father. She said Donald Moon also stabbed his father several times. Police said a tip and the help from U.S. Marshals led to the arrest of Donald Moon near downtown Dallas at about 5 p.m. Wednesday. Investigators said Donald Moon waived his right to remain silent and confessed to the attacks during an interview at the police station. Donald Moon has been charged with murder and aggravated assault and is being held on $600,000 bond, police said. Police said a person was involved in a fatal crash after shooting another person in Dallas Wednesday night. Dallas police said the shooting happened on Brewster Street near North St. Augustine Drive at about 10 p.m. The victim was transported to a hospital in unknown condition. The shooter fled south on St. Augustine Drive and crashed into another vehicle at the traffic light at the intersection of Scyene Road, according to police. The shooter ran from the scene. One person was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. One vehicle sustained significant damage. The other, a Chevy Camaro, had crashed through a fence onto the grounds of C.A. Tatum Jr. Elementary School. Dallas police had intersections closed while they investigated. Firefighters are reporting a significant spike in fires from Christmas trees toward the end of January. So, they recommend disposing of trees sooner rather than later. A lot of people don't realize that house fires with Christmas trees happen after the holidays. A lot of people in the fire department dont even realize it, said Jason Evans, Public Information Officer with Dallas Fire-Rescue. NBC 5 met a father who is not taking any chances. He took his tree down days ago, saying the longer it's in the house, the more he had to be on guard. Maybe something's going to happen to the connection. You gotta take it down and be safe," said Mike Al Ashoor. Chances are the tree in your home was first cut down in October and sat drying out on trucks, tree lots and then in your living room. With the temperature dropping outside, we blast the heat, which makes matters worse. Weeks ago, the Fort Worth Fire Department demonstrated how a fresh cut tree with water in its leaves doesn't burn. They also showed how one that's dried out goes up in flames quickly. The dry trees are a big reason why fires spike significantly at the end of January. More than a third of Christmas tree fires happen then, according to Evans. Evans said even those who are good about the watering in December start to slack off now. During the holiday people are aware of the need to hydrate the tree, they want to look good for pictures and whatnot. But after Christmas passes, people forget they still need to get that tree hydrated, he said. The gloves are off in Washington as lawmakers battle over whether to repeal or uphold the Obama administration's Affordable Care Act. Republican law makers are holding strong to the repeal and replace message. The hard promise of repeal is tied to a shaky plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, which currently provides health care for approximately 20 million people. Democrats are fighting back with a new slogan, Make America Sick Again, urging law makers to uphold the health care plan. Within the last 30 days, 775,000 Texans have signed up to receive coverage under Obama Care. According to Stephen Love, President and CEO of the DFW Hospital Council, says 215,000 of those are North Texans. Love says that, under the Affordable Care Act, many people have benefited. Medicare coverage and prescription drugs for seniors are more affordable. Young adults will remain on their parents insurance until the age of 26, and people with pre-existing conditions receive coverage as well, Love said. 4.5 million Texans, approximately 27 percent, have some form of pre-existing condition that prior to the affordable care act would either one have no coverage or would have to pay an extremely high premium to have coverage, said Love. He believes modification could be made for small business owners to elevate some of their burden. Vice President Elect Mike Pence is advocating for a swift, yet smooth transition process, and Love is hoping the transition period runs between two and three years, so families are not taken off guard. The repeal could potentially have a $165 billion dollar negative impact for hospitals across the country, said Love. Firefighters performed a challenging rescue Thursday when a young U.S. Navy seaman fell 20 feet down into the hold of a ship near Naval Base San Diego. San Diego Fire-Rescue Department (SDFD) Battalion Chief Mike McBride said crews were called to the BAE System's shipyard on Belt Street just before 9 a.m. to rescue a Navy worker injured in the plunge. McBride said the victim a 19-year-old seaman was working on a ship that was being repaired on the dry dock when he fell through a hatch, down two stories into the interior of the ship. A crew went into the ship and treated the young man as best as they could; meanwhile, from above, McBride said other firefighters used a rope system and crane to pull the victim out. SDFD Capt. Joe Amador told NBC 7 the rescue took about an hour. It was a very difficult situation, Amador explained, adding that a special rescue team was called into perform what is known as a vertical rescue. Amador said that because the seaman was injured in a very tight, small space, the rescue proved especially challenging. He said the SDFD did an incredible job getting the man out as quickly as possible. The SDFD posted photos of the rescue on social media: McBride said the victim suffered severe head injuries and fractures in the fall. He was rushed to UCSD Medical Center. As of 10:30 a.m., the mans condition was unknown. No one else was hurt in the incident, officials said. Douglas Sayer, Commander of Naval Surface Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet, told NBC 7 the Navy is aware of the incident. Sayer said the Navy will launch an investigation into the fall of the sailor. Preventing people from driving under the influence is easier said than done, but a pilot program underway in California aims to try. The new law requires a DUI offender convicted in criminal court to install an Ignition Interlock Device (IID) on their car for a certain period of time. After that period of time, the driver would then be able to get a restricted license or reinstated license. The IID works to help prevent drunk drivers from getting behind the wheel: if the driver's blood-alcohol level is over the legal limit, the car will not start. "Hopefully [IID] will eliminate the crime of DUI and people driving under the influence," said California Highway Patrol Officer Josh Nelson. The law is in effect in several counties including Los Angeles, Alameda, Tulare and Sacramento. "San Diego is not one of them. After the pilot program is concluded in Jan 2019, it will be a state wide effort," Nelson said. The pilot program will continue until 2019 when all data is collected. Then, it will become a statewide requirement. Vincent Ross is an attorney with San Diego's DUI Attorney Law Firm. The team deals with approximately 40 new DUI cases a month. He says interlocks aren't perfect, but more DUI drivers are being ordered to install them in the City of San Diego. It varies from city to city within the County. "It is unusual say in Vista, or Chula Vista, or El Cajon to have the ignition interlock required, especially on a first time DUI. You see it more frequently on a second or a third," Ross said. The device is meant to prevent deadly DUI crashes. Just last month, nurse and mother Sarita Shakya was killed in a head-on crash. The other driver, Alexandria Bayne, faces criminal charges on the crash. Bayne has two previous DUI convictions. Despite her record, Bayne had a valid driver's license at the time of the crash. "The rules vary on a case by case basis," said attorney Brandon Naidu, with the San Diego DUI Attorney Law Firm. "There are minimum suspension periods depending on whether it's a first offense, second or third offense." Experts say it is extremely rare for drivers to have their licenses revoked permanently, even with prior DUIs. As of 2015, almost 330,000 interlock devices were in use throughout the country. One-time San Diego socialite and convicted killer Elizabeth "Betty" Broderick has been denied parole for the second time since her double murder conviction in the shooting deaths of her ex-husband and his bride. Broderick, 69, was "defiant, smirked, and in complete denial" during the hearing at the California Institution for Women in Corona Wednesday after spending decades in prison for the crimes, according to San Diego County Deputy District Attorney Richard Sachs. Her demeanor was basically to be defiant, to smirk throughout the hearing, to act in complete denial, and not understand where she is, why shes there and what happened," Sachs said. The hearing lasted all day as each side argued their case and victims gave impact statements. Sachs said over the course of the day, it became evident that the former La Jolla socialite did not feel remorse for the crimes she committed. One of the commissioners just felt shes inherently working from evil and is evil. And cant, theres a certain amount of diabolical thing going on where she cant see her own role in these criminal offenses," Sachs said. The Board denied parole; Broderick will have to wait 15 years until she can petition again. Sachs called the decision "tremendous" and said justice was served in an "extremely satisfying way tonight." She is definitely someone with no regrets, no remorse, unrepentant and completely feeling like they are in the right," he added. Broderick was convicted in 1991 of second-degree murder and sentenced to 32 years to life in prison for shooting and killing ex-husband Daniel Broderick, 44, and Linda Kolkena Broderick, 28. At the time, she used a key she took from her daughter prior to the crime and sneaked onto the stairs and up to their bedroom, using a five-shot revolver to shoot into the bed where they slept. Though the victims dived for cover, three fatal shots hit them, according to the DA. The remaining two narrowly missed. When her ex-husband attempted to reach for the telephone to call for help, Broderick walked to the bed, grabbed the phone, pulled it from the wall and dumped it in the hallway, out of reach, according to the DA's office. The socialite has maintained she was driven to kill by a bitter divorce and custody battle. Her story gained national attention and became the subject of a book and two TV movies. On Wednesday, the San Diego County District Attorney's office oppossed Broderick's potential release. "Elizabeth Broderick remains an unreasonable risk of danger to society," DA Bonnie Dumanis said in a statement. "She still has not developed appropriate insight or remorse for these gruesome murders, which she committed with a callous disregard for human suffering." At her first parole hearing in Jan. 2010, the board decided that then-62-year-old Broderick was unrepentant, had no insight into what she had done and would be a danger to society if she were released. She was denied parole. She has not shown any remorse over the years and really, its all about her and not about the victims and the families, District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis said at the time. Sachs appeared on behalf of the State of California at the Wednesday hearing and argued she remains a risk to society. Palo Alto police are actively searching for a suspect after a handful of spaces were vandalized with hate graffiti. Eight black swastika-like marks were drawn on utility boxes and street signs near Page Mill Road and Stanford Avenue in the College Terrace neighborhood, police said. The graffiti was reported on Dec. 30. Three outlying graffiti marks were also found outside Whole Foods market in the downtown area. The three to four inch marks were drawn backward, police said. One of the marks was accompanied by the words No Jews Allowed, prompting investigators to believes each mark was intended to be a swastika. Sarah McDermott saw the graffiti on Stanford Avenue Sunday afternoon as she was driving from her parents home. I was pretty upset, McDermott said. Its right near a bilingual preschool and church. McDermott reported the graffiti to the city's Public Works Department and expressed her outrage in a Facebook post the next morning. As a Jewish woman I am always upset to see [swastikas] but I think its a symbol that represents hate and xenophobia [of people] from all different backgrounds, McDermott said. Im always shocked to see that someone would actively engaged in hate, and while its upsetting to see near my home, Im not shocked to see in Palo Alto. Its a reminder that we have to fight hate in our communities and not point to it elsewhere. Palo Alto City Councilman Cory Wolbach read about the graffiti from McDermotts social media post. He drove to the neighborhood and removed the marks with an alcohol wipe. This is not something we tolerate in Palo Alto, Wolbach said. Wolbach was lead author of a city resolution to proclaim Palo Altos commitment to a diverse and protective community, motivated by an uptick in hate crimes following the November presidential election. The resolution passed unanimously on Dec. 12. Wolbach said this incident is a reminder for the city to be vigilant against hate, and to reach out to the community for ways to make the community even more inclusive. Someone who wants to spread a message of hate in Palo Alto will not have that message up long, Wolbach said. The police department is looking for video surveillance in order to identify a suspect. No suspect has been named at this time, and no additional graffiti has been reported. Anyone who may have information about this crime may call the police department's 24-hour dispatch at 650-329-2413. New Year's Race: True, there's no denying it, and the calendar tells us so: The first of January 2017 has now passed. But the New Year's-type reveleries and resolution-y to-dos continue, capped with this mondo race that's notable for a couple of different things. One? It has "New Year's" in its name, and those looking to commit to exercise as a resolution can use it as a first step. Two? It happens in the evening, through lit-up downtown. There's a 5K and a 10K, and Grand Park is your start point on Sunday, Jan. 8. Oshogatsu Family Festival: The Year of the Rooster is on its way, and the Japanese American National Museum is throwing a sweet welcome party, complete with "New Year-themed activities, performances, and crafts!" Look for a Nerdbot Photo Booth, a cool time capsule happening, and other auspicious and awesome doings during the free event. It's on Jan. 8, Sunday. Goodbye, "Spaghetti" Sculpture: Los Angeles is home to some mighty well-known artworks, from "Urban Light" at LACMA to the Jeff Koons "Balloon Dog" at The Broad. Like those two pieces, this walk-into-it work, also at LACMA, has been a favorite photo op for visitors, who must now get their pics quick. Jesus Rafael Soto's "Penetrable" leaves on Feb. 12, but a special snapshot day is scheduled for Sunday, Jan. 8. Step into the spaghetti er, plastic yellow tubes and smile. Happy Birthday, Elvis: Honoring The King on the anniversary of his birth is as simple as throwing some vinyl down on the ol hi-fi, but Presley buffs around SoCal can do something even niftier: Visit the house where he and Priscilla honeymooned. It's in Palm Springs, there shall be tribute artists, there shall be tours, and it all happens on Mr. P.'s birthday eve: Saturday, Jan. 7. Pageant of the Masters Tryouts: It's a bucket-list-y goal for many people around Orange County, whether those people have ever officially acted before or not: Pose inside a "painting" during the summertime Laguna Beach spectacle. Auditions are just ahead, from Jan. 6 through 8, and if travel is your love, be glad, for the 2017 theme is "The Grand Tour." Nope, you don't need theatrical experience to give this a go, either, but you should be able to hold very, very still. A Waterloo cabinet manufacturer is taking its more than 800 employees on a company-paid Caribbean cruise to celebrate achieving key goals as it recovers from the recession. Bertch Cabinet manufacturing co-founder Gary Bertch told his employees last week that the company had met its goals for the year and they would go on a week-long cruise. Employees depart on Jan. 8, the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reported. The company, founded in 1977, once employed more than 1,000 people. Employment dropped to about 600 people in 2011, but the company has since added about 240 workers, Bertch said. "We finally got into the black again last year after we made it through the recession," Bertch said. He challenged employees a year ago to meet certain goals and offered the cruise as an incentive. Cruises had been reward to employees since 1989, but that hadn't happened since 2005 because of the recession. Bertch noted the recovery has been "very slow" in his industry. "We were anticipating we'd have better sales again this year," Bertch said. "We just tried to get all of our people pumped up a little more to achieve the various goals, both customer-oriented goals and financial goals." A former maintenance chief at Miami International Airport has been sentenced to seven years in federal prison after pleading guilty to fraud in the purchases of thousands of lighting fixtures. Court documents show 46-year-old Ivan Valdes also was ordered by a judge Thursday to pay $5.4 million in restitution and to surrender at a prison in March. Valdes was maintenance division director for the Miami-Dade County Aviation Department. The total fraud was estimated at more than $5 million. State bribery, bid tampering and other charges are pending. Valdes pleaded guilty to theft charges in October. Prosecutors say he conspired with lighting company executives and other airport employees to receive kickbacks from the rigged purchase of more than 9,000 lighting fixtures over a five-year period. Four other people were charged. Five days after a Miami-Dade police officer shot and killed Jamar Rollins detectives were back in the West Perrine neighborhood speaking with people who may have witnessed the shooting. Rollins family argues that the 21-year-old had his hands up when he was fatally shot. However, Miami-Dade police director Juan Perez said Rollins pulled out a gun during the incident. Earlier Wednesday, detectives canvassed the area near the scene speaking with neighbors, trying to find witnesses. This is something they were not able to do yet. People who knew Rollins all described him the same. "He don't bother nobody. He was never the type to start drama," said Latifah Thompson. Neighbor Phillip Stroud described the 21-year-old as a good kid. Police hope the release of this video will help find a witness to the shooting involving two officers. On Wednesday, Miami-Dade Police released the name of the two officers involved in the shooting as Andrew Garcia and Jesus Coto. They are on paid administrative leave pending the investigation. NBC 6 obtained surveillance video that appears to show Rollins passenger -- identified as Devin Smith running from the vehicle moments before the shooting. An unmarked police car then makes a U-turn back to where Rollins had been pulled over. Police say he was pulled over after officers noticed he was driving erratically. Detectives say they recovered a gun at the scene. Police director Perez met with dozens of concerned residents in the community Tuesday to discuss the investigation. Rollins family voiced their anger while Perez promised transparency in the investigation. For decades, broadcast meteorologists and weather presenters have been asked to provide on-air support and analysis on everything from earthquakes and meteor showers to rocket launches and aircraft accidents. A request to discuss these science-related subjects often comes from the TV-news directors, who see their weather anchor as their station scientist. But in the United States, you rarely if ever see a station scientist receive a request from the manager to discuss climate change on a newscast. Anthropogenic global warming is very likely the greatest scientific challenge facing humanity in this century. Yet, unless a weather presenter takes the initiative to discuss climate change on the air, it rarely happens. The main reason for this, of course, is well known. Unlike the rest of the world, in the U.S. climate change is a politicized subject. News directors and station managers are afraid that they will upset a part of the audience by having their weather presenter discuss the facts and consequences of global warming. In certain cities and states, the percentage of the audience that may be offended by climate change information is significant. Broadcast meteorologists know that their bosses experience varying degrees of nervousness fear about the potential impact to viewer ratings from an unpopular climate change presentation. But as we have advanced further into the 21st century, the effects of climate change have become undeniable. Weather presenters even in America are seeing many more opportunities to discuss climate on the air. When done right, there is little chance that anyone will be offended. I have found that the best way to do it is to always tie-in climate change to an ongoing event. So, for example, if theres excessive rainfall in Florida, I will discuss the details of the event and always remind the audience that the propensity for heavier rainfall is increasing as the world warms. Recently Ive discussed the numerous heat-related records weve set in Miami, adding details such as the unbalanced ratio of record-heat to record-cold readings (which was approximately 5-to-1 in the United States in 2016). In tracking hurricanes well into the North Atlantic, I discuss the warmer-than-normal sea surface temperatures linked to global warming that are allowing stronger cyclones in more pole-ward latitudes. In addition, American weather presenters have had the benefit of Climate Centrals Climate Matters program, which for the past 3 years or more has provided data and graphical support to aid in the presentation of climate change related subjects. Their graphics are tailored for each television market, making it extra-easy to use on-air. In August 2007, former AMS president Bob Ryan and I co-authored an editorial in the Bulletin of the AMS (BAMS) urging broadcast meteorologists to divorce themselves from personal, political and religious biases and present the state of the science of climate change to their audience. Today, almost ten years later, I see positive momentum in this area. But a lot more can and should be done. Sometimes, it takes courage to take that first step. This is a time, like no other, to be courageous. Wilton Manors Police want businesses and residents to "remain vigilant" after federal charges were dropped against a man accused of making online threats against members of the gay community. Police handed out flyers Thursday providing an update on Craig Jungwirth's case to businesses along Wilton Drive. "The Wilton Manors Police Department takes all threats seriously; our number one priority is always the safety of our community," the flyer reads. "Always remain vigilant - if you see something, say something." The police flyer, which includes photos of Jungwirth, notes that the federal investigation is still ongoing. "There's no immediate threat or danger to our community that we are aware of but of course if anyone sees or hears anything let us know," Officer Jennifer Bickhardt said. Jungwirth, 50, was arrested in September after allegedly posting a Facebook threat to "exterminate" members of the LGBTQ community. A judge on Wednesday approved a request by prosecutors to drop the charges, weeks after the federal government admitted the evidence in the case was "weak." Jungwirth, who now lives in Orlando, has been in jail since September following his arrest for the offense after prosecutors say he wrote a message saying "none of you deserve to live" and alluded to planning a mass shooting even bigger than the Pulse nightclub incident this June in which 49 people were killed. Jungwirth remains behind bars in Broward County on unrelated charges of defrauding an innkeeper and criminal mischief. He appeared in court on those charges Thursday morning and was ordered held without bond. His next court date is scheduled for Monday. News that the federal charge was dropped was troubling to some business owners. "He has been very active in this community for years. He's been in our store, he's caused havoc everywhere on the drive so I think it's very important that this guy is watched," said Karen Carroll, with Chic Optique. "It's a little nerve wracking, a little scary, threatening. We don't need another Pulse reaction here." A fake traffic sign that briefly popped up at a Staten Island intersection in November appeared to prohibit drivers from turning left. Many drivers who had lived in the area for years turned left anyway -- but some ended up getting ticketed by police, and despite officials determining the sign was fake, they're still stuck with the tickets. Louis Fricke is among the drivers flagged down by police in mid-November at the intersection of Arden and Woodrow. He hadn't seen the sign, which appeared to prohibit him from turning left onto Arden. Fricke recalled, "I rolled down the window, he says, 'You made an illegal turn.'" "I said, what do you mean?' He said, 'There's a sign, you can't make a left turn,'" said Fricke. "I was like, 'I didn't see it, I've lived here for seven years." Fricke was among several in the neighborhood who got ticketed in mid-November. Councilman Joe Borelli got calls soon afterward about the odd sign. "This was a sign that was put in a very poorly visible location," Borelli told NBC 4 New York. "It appeared smaller than an original DOT no-left turn sign, and it didn't have the official DOT logo." After getting calls from Borelli, the Department of Transportation checked it out. It turned out it was a fake sign, possibly put up by a contractor doing work, Borelli suggests. The sign was taken down by the DOT, and a letter provided to drivers who were cited for making left turns stated, "A review of our records... does not indicate a left-turn restriction at this intersection." Still, some people have been ordered to pay the fine. One driver was told the date of the letter, Dec. 1, didn't line up with his mid-November ticket. "What is incredibly inexplicable is how the judge found them guilty after they had been given a letter by the DOT," said Borelli. Asked about Judge Brian Levin's ruling and the tickets, the Department of Motor Vehicles told NBC 4 in a statement, "Under state law, if a person believes that he or she was improperly convicted, they may appeal within 30 days of the conviction to the DMV Appeals Board." The NYPD would only say that officers enforce all moving violation laws in the city. Fricke plans to take his ticket to court, hoping the same judge will dismiss the violation and clear up the street sign confusion. "Is this how we're living now? I could hang up a sign and a cop can start handing out tickets?" said Fricke. A man dressed as an elf, replete with a Christmas tree skirt and holiday cloak, followed a woman onto a Manhattan subway with an ice pick in his hand after she saw him smoking a cigarette by a turnstile over the weekend, authorities say. Police say the 29-year-old woman saw the man, described as being about 5 feet 3 inches tall, smoking as she entered the East 59th Street and Lexington Avenue subway station shortly around 12:20 a.m. New Year's Eve. She started walking toward the mezzanine to the platform and noticed the colorfully dressed man following her; he was holding an ice pick in his left hand, police say. Both the woman and the man got onto a southbound N train, but in different cars. The woman saw the man get into her car as it left the station, and she got out at the 42nd Street/Times Square stop. The elf stayed on the train. Anyone with information about the man is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS. Two women were allegedly fired from their jobs at Delta Airlines after complaining that their supervisor was masturbating at his desk, according to a lawsuit filed in New York City Thursday. Lauren Heffernan, 29, and Kayla Jenkins, 19, began working as cargo agents for for Delta in the summer of 2015 and were assigned a "mentor" to train them in their duties, named in the lawsuit as Mike Keve, a Delta employee of 25 years. Jenkins claims in the lawsuit that in February 2016, she was doing work on a computer with Keve nearby, and when she realized that he was no longer typing, she "turned her head slightly and saw Keve sitting at his desk, with his penis out." Jenkins, who was 18 at the time and still in high school, was worried about reporting the incident to management so she texted Heffernan about the encounter, according to the lawsuit. Heffernan responded that a similar incident that happened to her the month before. Jenkins and Heffernan then complained to numerous Delta supervisors, but were dismissed, according to the lawsuit. In one conversation, Heffernan claims that she was told "Keve had been a valued employee and that reporting his conduct could 'ruin' him." Then in May, Jenkins was fired without warning, told that her schoolwork was preventing her from working enough hours, according to the lawsuit. Heffernan was fired later that month after she returned late from her lunch break. The women are each seeking $5 million in damages. Delta said in a statement to NBC 4 New York that its investigation into the allegations "resulted in the termination of two employees, though the company didn't specify whether Keve was one of them. The statement also said that Heffernan and Jenkins "were legitimately terminated for reasons completely unrelated to any allegations of misconduct by others." "Delta takes allegations of inappropriate conduct very seriously. We promptly investigate and take appropriate action when issues of this nature are brought to our attention," the company said. What to Know Federal officials said it will take days to figure out what caused an LIRR train to derail in Brooklyn on Wednesday; more than 100 were hurt Police were still searching for a man believed to be armed and dangerous Thursday following a shootout with police on Staten Island The fight over the future of President Obama's signature health care law is already underway in Washington 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. LIRR Crash Probe to Take Days Federal investigators said it will take three to seven days to investigate what caused a Long Island Rail Road train to derail at Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn. The National Transportation Safety Board has dispatched investigators to the scene. Theyll work to determine the cause of the crash, which happened during Wednesday's busy morning rush. More than 100 people suffered minor injuries when the train hit a bumping block at the end of a track. An NTSB spokesman says the train's event recorders have been recovered and that the train's engineer has undergone drug testing. Healthcare Law Front and Center in D.C. The messaging battle is over on repealing and replacing President Barack Obama's health care law, and the balance of power in Washington may be at stake. For Democrats and Republicans both, the repeal-and-replace fight represents a risky and unexpected do-over nearly seven years after Democratic majorities in the House and Senate passed the law on a party-line vote. A voter backlash helped send Democrats into the minority in the House in the 2010 midterms, but in November's elections, Donald Trump and GOP House and Senate candidates ran on promises to repeal the law and replace it with something better. Macys to Close Dozens of Stores Macy's announced Wednesday it is shutting down 65 stores in 2017 and eliminating an estimated 10,000 jobs as it battles slowing sales and growing online competition. The closures are part of a previously planned shutdown of about 100 stores, out of its 730, that the company announced in August 2016. Macys already shuttered three stores in the middle of 2016. On Wednesday, Macys said it will close 63 locations in early spring 2017 and another two mid-year. Disturbing Facebook Live Video Surfaces Chicago police said Wednesday night that four teens are being held and questioned in connection with a Facebook Live video showing a group of people beating and cutting a teen who appeared bound and gagged as they shouted F--- Donald Trump. Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson called the video a "brutal act" that was "broadcast for the entire world to see. A pair of New Yorkers say they narrowly escaped death Tuesday at the Brussels Airport, walking away from a check-in kiosk seconds just before deadly blasts. "The second explosion was f---ing huge," said Jason Jacques. "It was fire across the ceiling as far as you could see.... I thought the building would come down." Jaqcques, from Manhattan's Upper East Side, said he and Donald Gajadhar, of Brooklyn, were about to fly back to New York City from the Belgian capital on the day of the attacks that killed 31 people, including a woman on her way to New Jersey for her sister's wedding, and injured more than 200 others. They decided to step away from the check-in counter to redeem a shopping tax refund. While they were there they heard the first blast, followed by a more violent second explosion. "People were running, blood was flying, ceilings were collapsing, smoke was billowing everywhere," Jacques said. "Time just kind of stood still." He added "I thought, another Paris, they're coming with guns. We're under attack." Jacques and Gajadhar made it out unscathed. They said they were rocked by the harrowing experience. "Death's coming whenever it's due," Gajadhar said. "You can't cheat it." They weren't the only people with tri-state ties to narrowly escape injury in the attacks. Ashley Bruggemann of New Jersey was passing through the departure hall of Brussels Airport where the attack happened, on her way to Copenhagen after a work trip in Brussels, when she suddenly saw people running toward her. Bruggemann said she never heard the explosions. She only saw the carnage on the news later. People in the airport were shepherded to a hangar and to outside of the airport after the attack, where they waited for two hours, she said. She returned to her parents' home in Wyckoff Wednesday after she and other coworkers drove 3.5 hours to Paris, from where they flew back to the U.S. When her parents woke up Tuesday to news of the attack, they were alarmed, knowing their daughter was at their airport -- but then saw her text letting them know she was OK. Bruggemann, who had studied abroad in Brussels and considers it her second home, said she won't let the attacks terrorize her and she plans to continue to travel. She told NBC 4 New York she feels extremely fortunate and is grateful. Three students at Connecticut's Quinnipiac University were also in the airport at the time of the explosions. ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attacks. A courier en route to deliver packages in Beiing, Oct 11, 2014. [Photo/IC] Alibaba Group Holding Ltd has achieved one-third of its pledged goal of creating 100 million jobs in 20 years, as the e-commerce giant sees 2017 as a crucial year to "redefine the real economy". The internet conglomerate, incorporating both its e-tail platforms and payment arm Ant Financial Services Group, paid 23.8 billion yuan ($3.42 billion) of tax in 2016 and has created a cumulative total of more than 30 million jobs since 2003, the Hangzhou-based firm said on Tuesday. The figures echoed what company founder Jack Ma advocated as "blurring the lines" between real and virtual companies. "A new form of economy has emerged to bring forth an enormous social effect. Alibaba will be a key player in this transformation," said Daniel Zhang, chief executive officer of Alibaba. With China's employment rate surging, efforts by the likes of Alibaba in bringing employment flexibility into the economy should be well acknowledged, according to a report on job creation issued by Renmin University of China. Alibaba also invested more than 100 billion yuan in traditional industries, from bricks-and-mortar retail malls like Suning Commerce Group Co Ltd to domestic couriers such as Shanghai YTO Express (Logistics) Co Ltd. On the financial front, Ant Financial is empowering small and micro enterprises with easier access to loans. Its electronics payment platform Alipay has facilitated more than 600 million users globally to make payments and is quickly expanding into wealth management and credit scoring, based on big data backed by cloud technologies. The cloud business, which is the latest area that Alibaba is actively venturing into, has maintained a three-digit growth rate over the past six quarters, making AliCloud in the same league as peer services such as Amazon.com Inc's AWS and Microsoft Corp's Azure. Hate crime and kidnapping charges were filed Thursday against four people who Chicago police say bound, gagged and beat a teenager with special needs while broadcasting the attack on social media. The brutal attack, which had political and racial connotations the victim is white, and the suspects are black sent shockwaves across the nation, and was even addressed at the White House press briefing Thursday. "The actions in that video are reprehensible. That along with racism have absolutely no place in the city of Chicago or anywhere else for that matter against anyone regardless of their race, gender, state of mental health or any other identifying factor," Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson said at a news conference Thursday. Thirty minutes of the torturous attack were streamed live on Facebook, but authorities said it was a six-hour ordeal that evolved out of a play fight, with the victim beaten, kicked, cut and forced to drink from a toilet. The victim, who is not being identified, is an 18-year-old with "mental health challenges" from Crystal Lake. Jordan Hill, 18, of Carpentersville; Tesfaye Cooper, 18, of Chicago; Brittany Covington, 18, of Chicago and Tanishia Covington, 24, of Chicago, were each charged with aggravated kidnapping, hate crime, aggravated unlawful restraint and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. Hill, Cooper and Brittany Covington also face charges of residential burglary. Hill was also charged with robbery and possession of a stolen motor vehicle. They are expected to appear in court Friday afternoon; it is not clear if they have attorneys. The two men and two women were taken into custody Wednesday after being seen violently beating a teenager on Facebook Live. The suspects are black and the victim is white, and one of the suspects suspects allegedly yelled profanities about white people and President-elect Donald Trump during the live video. Police had earlier said they do not "have anything concrete" to suggest the attack was politically motivated, however. A second potential video in the attack is being looked into by police, showing the group forcing the teen to drink toilet water. Its just sickening, sickening, Johnson said Wednesday in reaction to the video. "It makes you wonder what would make individuals treat somebody like that." Speaking at a news conference Thursday evening, the victim's brother-in-law said the teen is doing "as well as he could be" and asked for "continued prayers for all those involved and for our familys privacy as we cope and heal." CPD A Facebook spokesperson confirmed the site removed the original video, saying in a statement, "We do not allow people to celebrate or glorify crimes on Facebook." "In many instances, though, when people share this type of content, they are doing so to condemn violence or raise awareness about it. In that case, the video would be allowed," the statement read. Authorities believe the teenager knew Hill from school and went with him willingly on New Year's Eve after meeting at a suburban McDonald's. They allege Hill stole a van and picked the victim up from the Streamwood restaurant, ultimately bringing him to the city, 50 miles from his home, police said. The victim's parents knew the teen would be spending the night with a friend, but reported him missing the next day, police said. It wasn't until Tuesday police said the attack happened and the teen was able to escape before police found him in the 3400 block of West Lexington "bloodied," "battered," and "discombobulated." He then led the police back to the nearby home where he was tortured. "I just can't believe anybody would do that to someone, especially a special needs child," the victim's grandmother told NBC. Streamwood authorities also say the suspects had been sending the victims parents text messages while holding him hostage. "This is going to affect him for probably the rest of his life," the teen's grandmother said. Anne Kirkpatrick became Oaklands fourth top cop in seven months on Wednesday, inheriting a beleaguered police department that has been embroiled in a sex-abuse scandal involving a teenage girl that cost the three former police chiefs their jobs. In all, the Oakland Police Department has had six police chiefs since 2011: Paul Figueroa, Ben Fairow, Sean Whent, Anthony Toribio, Howard Jordan and Anthony Batts. Kirkpatrick, who introduced herself on Wednesday to Oakland with some feisty Southern charm, is the first woman to lead the city's police department. "Y'all have been nothing but absolutely welcoming to me," the Memphis, Tennessee, native said with a laugh, teasing Californians as the ones with the strange accent. "I'm so excited to be here in Oakland." Kirkpatrick admitted that she was not looking for a job when Schaaf offered her the position, but acknowledged that now there is work to be done. "I am so proud to be an Oakland police officer, but I also know I need to earn the right to be their chief," she said. "And I'm going to do everything I can to earn that and to earn your respect as an outsider coming into Oakland." Interestingly, Kirkpatrick applied to run Oaklands police department under former Mayor Jean Quan, a source told the East Bay Times. However, she was passed over for Whent, who was appointed interim chief in May 2013, and was the first chief to resign in the wake of the sex scandal with Jasmine aka Celeste Guap who said she had relations with about 30 officers across the region. According to public records, Whent was being paid $235,000 when he left. Kirkpatrick, who plans to live and work in Oakland and is slated to start her new job on Feb. 27, will earn a base salary of $270,000, pending City Council approval, according to city officials. Mayor Libby Schaaf, who launched her search for a police chief in August, said Kirkpatrick is "the reform-minded leader that Oakland has been searching for." She added that Kirkpatrick is "unafraid to hold officers accountable to the highest standards of conduct." In the past, Schaaf expressed disgust with some of the behavior within the Oakland Police Department, adding she was not hired to oversee a "frat house." Kirkpatrick touted her "courage" to hold officers accountable, but said that practice begins with herself. The new chief also said to Oakland's officers, "I have the courage to stand by you and I will. And you have a community that wants to love you and I'm going to do everything I can to earn that for you." Kirkpatrick said her goal in the new role is not reform a buzzword surrounding police departments nationwide. Instead, she has her eye on transformation. "Thats the change of thinking. Thats the cultural change," she stressed. Oakland Police Department In a brief statement, Oakland Police Officers' Association president Sgt. Barry Donelan said: "We are glad that the uncertainty surrounding the position of Oakland Chief of Police is finally settled." He added that his officers look forward to working "collaboratively" with Kirkpatrick. Despite the lack of a permanent chief since the summer, Schaaf thanked officers who "continued to serve the community during these trying times," delivering a 2016 that was the city's safest year since 2005. With 34 years of law enforcement experience, Kirkpatrick has for some time had an eye on being the police chief of a big city. She has applied for the position in Chicago, Phoenix, Seattle and San Francisco, the East Bay Express reported. She was the police chief of Spokane, Washington, from 2006 to 2012, where she struggled with the aftershocks of a fatal police beating and hog-tying of a janitor. The incident prompted outcry and a demand for police reforms and accountability. However, Kirkpatrick's attempt at holding officers responsible for their actions did not sit well with the department's rank-and-file, according to the Chicago Tribune. In fact, a detective sued her and the city of Spokane for defamation and wrongful termination after he was fired for allegedly threatening his wife. Not only was Jay Mehring awarded over $700,000 by a jury, but he was also reinstated to the force. After Kirkpatrick's departure, a Justice Department review reprimanded the Spokane Police Department for a "lack of transparency, accountability, and community outreach efforts," which, they said, "increased the distance between the police and its community." Kirkpatrick has also served as chief deputy of the King County Sheriff's Office in Washington state, where she supervised a staff of more than 1,000 from November 2012 to June 2014. Most recently, she spent six months as the Chief of Bureau of Organizational Development for the Chicago Police Department. Kirkpatricks LinkedIn profile indicates she has been a licensed attorney in Washington state for 23 years, after graduating from the Seattle University School of Law. She also graduated from the FBI National Academy, the FBI National Executive Institute as well as the FBI's Law Enforcement Executive Development School. Stakeholders in town said they want to keep an open mind about the new chief. Civil rights attorney John Burris, who is a vocal Oakland police critic, said Wednesday that he hopes Kirkpatrick develops an appreciation for the different interest groups in the community. He said its not enough to just be concerned with officers. Meanwhile, Black Lives Matter organizer and Anti Police-Terror Project founder Cat Brooks was critical of Schaaf's decision to hire a chief without waiting for input from the newly minted police commission that Oakland voters approved in November. Schaaf did not directly address the police commission question. But she did say that "community input" served as the "cornerstone" of the recruitment process. She heard from more than 300 Oakland residents over a dozen meetings and over 600 more shared their thoughts in an online survey. All participants were "very clear" about their vision for their hometown's chief cop, she said. "Oaklanders wanted a leader with integrity, able to change culture," she said. "Someone who would deliver on fair and just policing, prevent violence and increase accountability, and, of course, most importantly, build community trust." As for her part, Kirkpatrick acknowledged that the Oakland Police Department, like officers all over the country, are in the midst of a "very hard time." "I will promise you leadership," she said. "We'll get there." The Oakland City Council is scheduled to receive a proposal from Schaaf sometime this month. At that time, members are are expected to vote on Kirkpatricks contract and salary, city officials said. NBC Bay Area's Lisa Fernandez and Bob Redell contributed to this report. Supermodel Naomi Campbell said Thursday that she sympathizes with Kim Kardashian West because she was targeted by Paris robbers in a 2012 attack. Campbell recounted her experience in an appearance on "The Wendy Williams Show." "In 2012, I was attacked in Paris," Campbell told Williams. "They followed me from the airport. They attacked me. They opened my car door and said, 'Naomi Campbell, we're going to kill you.'" Campbell said she was just off a flight from Switzerland when she was followed in a car to designer Azzedine Alaia's home by the robbers. She said her driver, who was likely in on the robbery plot, rolled down the windows to the car so the thieves could strike in front of Alaia's home. Campbell was able to stave off the robbers, who were after her handbag, she said. She did not make the robbery attempt public at the time, she said Thursday. It's unclear if she reported it to French law enforcement. But the experience made her sympathize with her friend Kim Kardashian West, who was robbed in a Paris hotel room last fall. "I very much sympathize with her," Campbell said. "I felt for her right away." Campbell's publicist and a representative for Alaia did not immediately respond to request for comment. A graduate of a Pennsylvania college was sentenced to more than 13 years in prison for sexually assaulting two of his fraternity brothers as they slept. The Reading Eagle reports Robert Convery Jr., of Williamstown, New Jersey, was convicted of assaulting the two Albright College students. Each attack occurred after the victim fell asleep after fraternity parties. Prosecutors say Convery sexually assaulted one fraternity brother on separate occasions in 2013 and 2014. The second victim was assaulted in 2015. Convery said he made a mistake. Both victims testified at Convery's sentencing Wednesday in Reading. Judge Paul M. Yatron also read a four-page letter from the victim who was assaulted twice. The 23-year-old Convery will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. A Bucks County man was arrested after he allegedly groped several college students as they slept in their dorm rooms. Jon Cannon, 25, of Levittown, was arrested on December 31 and charged with criminal sexual contact, burglary and trespassing. Police say Cannon entered a dorm room at The College of New Jersey back on October 19, 2016 and fondled a student as she slept. He also allegedly broke into the dorms of sleeping women at TCNJ back on September 10 and October 21 of 2016 but didnt touch them during those incidents, according to investigators. Prior to his arrest, Cannon was enrolled in a Pre-Trial Intervention Program, a program for first time offenders, in connection to similar incidents at Rider University. Police say Cannon groped sleeping students on two different occasions on Riders campus back in September of 2015. He also entered a Rider sorority during a third incident but fled after he was spotted, according to police. Cannon entered Mercer County Superior Courts PTI program in connection to the Rider University incidents. While in the program, Cannon submitted a DNA sample which led to a match to another incident at the University of Wyoming back on May 6, 2016, investigators said. During that incident, Cannon allegedly entered a sorority house and masturbated in a students room while she slept. Cannon is currently in prison on $100,000 bail. Anne Venezia prefers shopping at Macy's to shopping at Macys.com. And the Montgomery County woman prefers the Macy's at Plymouth Meeting Mall to fighting the hustle and bustle (and parking woes) to shop at the department store at the King of Prussia Mall. Soon, her top option will be gone. "I always shop at Macy's. And I prefer coming into the store, seeing what I'm purchasing," the longtime West Norriton resident said as she perused the women's wear for some post-Christmas deals at the Plymouth Meeting Mall's Macy's. "King of Prussia is too overwhelming for someone my age. I've been coming here for years." She said she doesn't know what she'll do when it closes later this year. The Plymouth Meeting Mall's anchor store is among three in the Philadelphia region that will close as part of a corporate downsizing by Macy's, which announced the closures of 68 stores nationwide along with 10,000 job cuts by the end of 2017. In addition to the Plymouth Meeting Mall store, which celebrated its 50th year at that location in 2016, the Macy's stores at Moorestown Mall and Voorhees Town Center in New Jersey and Neshaminy Valley Mall in Bucks County will also close. The Neshaminy location opened in 1968 and the Moorestown location opened in 1999. The three stores had a combined staff of 270, according to a press release announcing the locations to close. Macy's previously announced 100 store closures, of which these stores are part of that move in a large corporate restructuring. "As weve noted, it is essential that we maintain a healthy portfolio of the right stores in the right places. Our plan to close approximately 100 stores over the next few years is an important part of our strategy to help us right-size our physical footprint as we expand our digital reach, the company said in statement. One of the region's largest real estate holdings trusts, PREIT, which owns the Plymouth Meeting and Moorestown malls, said in a statement Thursday that the corporation is confident it will fill the large retail spaces when Macy's vacates. "Demand for the Macy's spaces is robust with new opportunities situated in desirable locations in quality, high barrier-to-entry markets," PREIT CEO Joseph Coradino said. "For Moorestown and Plymouth Meeting Malls, we are negotiating (letters of intent) for replacement stores and anticipate making detailed announcements in the near future." Police are searching for a man who they say exposed himself outside a womans home in Evesham Township, New Jersey. Police say the man stood on a womans patio on Woodlake Drive Wednesday and looked inside the home while exposing himself. Officers were already in the area on an unrelated call and responded to the home at 5:48 p.m. Police did not find the unidentified man however. The suspect is described as a tall and slender man with pale skin wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt with the hood drawn tightly over his face. Police are also investigating three other lewdness incidents in Evesham Township and Medford Township that occurred in December and November. They have not yet revealed whether the suspect in those incidents is the same suspect involved in Wednesdays incident. The suspect in the prior three incidents is described as a heavyset man however. If you have any information on any of the incidents, please call Evesham Police at 856-983-1116, the Confidential Tip Line at 856-983-4699 or email Facebook@Eveshampd.org. A Blainesville's beaked whale washed up dead on a New Jersey beach, only the second time in a generation the extremely rare specimen has been seen on the region's shores. The Marine Mammal Stranding Center reported Wednesday that the 15-foot male weighed roughly 800 pounds when it was found at Island Beach State Park. It was already decomposing when found, so it was not clear when the animal actually died. The last time this particular type of whale washed up in the state was 1989. Part of that animal is in the center's museum in Brigantine. According to the conservation charity WDC, the whale is known for a beak that resembles a dolphin's, and prefers deeper, tropical waters. The Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police blasted District Attorney Seth Williams for not charging a teenage girl who was involved in a caught on cam fight with a police officer in Southwest Philadelphia Monday. Videos were shared on social media showing the unidentified officer repeatedly punching the 16-year-old girl near 54th Street and Springfield Avenue. The female officer, who was placed on administrative duty, admitted to punching the girl after the teenager allegedly slapped the officer in the face, police said Tuesday. The teenager allegedly admitted to slapping the officer during interviews with detectives after the fight. She was released in the hours after the fight and police recommended to the District Attorney that the girl be charged with assault of an officer and disorderly conduct, a police spokesman said. A spokesman for the District Attorney's office told NBC10 Wednesday however that they would not file charges against the girl. "After reviewing the evidence, we have declined charges against the juvenile," the spokesman said. The decision was criticized by Fraternal Order of Police President John McNesby who released a statement that was later posted on Twitter. As many as 30 people were involved in the street fight around 3:30 p.m. Monday, police said. Family members of some of the brawlers called police from a nearby house, according to one witness, Takeema Bundy. Two videos posted to social media showed the fighting. A video posted on Instagram first pans across the street, capturing the scope of a mass melee. Within a few moments, the video focuses in on a female police officer who is pushing a teen girl away from the center of the fracas. The teenager yells at the officer and the two begin to push each other. For about a second, the video moves away, but when it returns to the officer and teenager, the officer is seen throwing the teen girl to the ground. The officer then straddles the teen and repeatedly punches the teen as the teen swings back. The officer then pulls the teen girl up by her hair as other brawlers swarm around the two and another officer comes into the frame. The video then ends. They threw me against the car and they slammed her on the ground, the teens legal guardian, who did not want to be identified, told NBC10. [NATL] Top News Photos: Pope Visits Japan, and More Another video posted on Facebook also shows the incident between the officer and the teen, though it does not show the large brawl that occurred right before. Toward the end of the Facebook video, a second assisting officer can be seen separating some of the brawlers from surrounding the initial female officer and teenager. Bundy, who is also a friend of the teen, claimed the girl was actually trying to break up the brawl but threw a punch at someone before she was confronted by the police officer. She also told NBC10 the teen's mother died two weeks ago. I just feel like she didnt deserve it, Bundy said while in tears. She lost her mom. She dont got nobody and I feel she was there for me and look where shes at. The Internal Affairs Bureau continues to investigate the incident. Warning: This video contains violence and strong language On his way out the door, one of Pennsylvania's most polished politicians didn't pass up an opportunity at low-brow humor. "Is it one-ply or two-ply?" soon-to-be state Attorney General Josh Shapiro asked jokingly before a vote on the county's purchase of "paper products" during his last meeting as Montgomery County commissioner. After the county clerk assured him it was two-ply, Shapiro said he wanted to make sure the 2,700 county employees he oversaw the last five years were taken care of after he left. Some of those employees, mostly from Shapiro's staff and upper department management, filled the eighth-floor boardroom Thursday for the outgoing commissioner. Many of them lauded him for his time in office. Fellow Commissioner Val Arkoosh, a Democrat like Shapiro who took over as chairwoman of the three-member board, choked up as she recounted her time working with Shapiro. "What started out as a political acquaintance has become a deep friendship," Arkoosh said, cheerfully remembering the time a couple years ago when she bought an Apple Watch for herself the day before Shapiro bought himself one. "That may be one of the only races you've ever lost," she said. After the meeting, Shapiro said he would submit his letter of resignation to the Montgomery County president judge. That would begin the process of filling his seat on the commissioners' board, Arkoosh said. The next step would be a period for nominations to be submitted by the public to the county Court of Common Pleas, whose 21 judges would then appoint a successor to fill Shapiro's remaining term. The term runs through 2019. A prosecutor says Bill Cosby's trial should remain at a suburban Philadelphia courthouse, despite the comedian's argument that there's been widespread negative press coverage of the sexual assault case. In a response to a motion filed by the 79-year-old comedian's lawyers last month, Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele on Thursday says he wouldn't oppose Cosby's request to bring in a jury from elsewhere. Once the jury is selected, Steele asks the judge to bring it back to Montgomery County for the trial, set for early June. Last week, Cosby's attorneys filed a motion seeking to move the trial or bring in a jury from another county, saying news coverage made juror bias inevitable. Cosby is accused of drugging and molesting a woman he knew through Temple University. President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday hired a political adviser Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie cut ties with two years ago in the fallout from the George Washington Bridge lane-closing scandal. Trump announced Bill Stepien will fill the position of deputy assistant to the president and political director. Stepien, a close adviser who served as Christie's campaign manager in 2009 and 2013, wasn't charged in the so-called "Bridgegate" case. But his name cropped up repeatedly during testimony in the trial last fall of two former Christie allies charged in a political retaliation scheme. David Wildstein, the government's star witness who pleaded guilty, testified Stepien knew about the plan to close traffic lanes near the bridge in September 2013 to create gridlock to punish a Democratic mayor who didn't endorse Christie. Bridget Kelly, Christie's former deputy chief of staff and a Stepien protege, and Bill Baroni, a top Christie appointee to the bridge authority, were convicted in November. Stepien's attorney has said his client had no role in the scheme or an ensuing cover-up. When thousands of pages of emails and texts related to the case were released in early 2014, Christie fired Kelly and cut ties with Stepien, asking him to withdraw a bid to become the next state GOP chairman. At the time, Christie said he was disturbed by the "callous indifference" displayed by Stepien in some of the emails. Other emails appeared to show Wildstein and Kelly mocking the Fort Lee mayor's increasingly desperate pleas for relief from the traffic jams. Wildstein also testified Stepien helped formulate a strategy for Christie staffers to use the powerful Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the region's major transportation agency and the operator of the George Washington Bridge, as a source of political favors to gain endorsements from Democrats. Before his association with Christie, Stepien was national field director for Rudy Giuliani's 2008 presidential campaign and then worked with John McCain's campaign in the general election. As the Craft Beer Capitol of America, it's no surprise that San Diego breweries are partnering with big-name bands for extra special brews. Recently, our buds over at Belching Beaver joined forces with hard rock juggernauts Deftones for their Phantom Bride IPA, and Denmark-based Mikkeller (which opened a brewery in Miramar last year) teamed up with punk legends Descendents for Feel This Coffee IPA. Fall Brewing's also been in on the local music scene action by branding one of their flagship brews the Loudspeaker Rye IPA, after 91x's local music radio show of the same name. So you'd think when it came time for Megadeth frontman (and noted Fallbrook resident) Dave Mustaine to lend his band's name to a beer, he'd just walk down the street and plop down in the nearest brewery to make it happen. Well, you'd be so wrong. No, Mustaine has curiously paired his love of suds with a brewery well outside county lines. Never one to do anything by the book, the outspoken Mustaine eschewed all 131 (and counting) San Diego breweries for Unibroue -- an operation based in Quebec, Canada. The Unibroue brewery, which got its start in 1993 and was bought by Sapporo in 2006, has always maintained a focus on Belgian-style beers and some of their best known variations include the amber-red ale Maudite ("Damned"), the La Fin du Monde ("The End of the World") Belgian tripel, and the Don de Dieu ("Gift from God") wheat ale. In October, Mustaine announced he had partnered with Unibroue for the Megadeth-themed beer, A Tout le Monde. Titled after the band's 1994 song of the same name (which is French for "To all the world" or "To everyone"), the music video for the single was famously banned by MTV after the station claimed it was pro-suicide. The chorus of the "Youthanasia" song (which is sung in French) translates to: "To everyone/ To all my friends/ I love you/ I have to leave." In a 1994 interview, Mustaine explained the lyrics: "It's when people have a loved one that dies and they end on a bad note, you know, they wish they could say something to them. So this is an opportunity for the deceased to say something before they go." Either way, Unibroue's A Tout le Monde is a Belgian-style dry-hopped golden saison ale that rings in at a relatively light 4.5 percent ABV. It seems like Mustaine is pretty stoked on it, as evidenced by his appearance on the SiriusXM "Trunk Nation" show and his recount of events that led to the beer's creation. "We started last summer when we headlined the [Festival D'ete De] Quebec festival [in front of] 80,000 people," Mustaine told Eddie Trunk. "We had pulled up in the middle of the day and went to the hotel with this guy named Jerry Vietz from Unibroue. And we both had a lot of stuff in common and we hit it off right away. I was kind of sampling some of the different beverages that he had. And [I told him], 'I like this. I like this about this one. I like this about that one.' And we made a second round, brought the liquid down to Nashville and tried it again. And I said, 'Okay, so it's getting really close. I like this about this, and I like this about that.' And then I got to taste the final product for the first time on [Oct. 21] in Orlando [Florida]. And it's just been a huge smash. I heard yesterday they sold 240 cases in one day in Tampa. That's just one city in the nation, and they distribute to five continents." If you are wondering, the beer is also available at various locations right here in town too including Blind Lady Ale House in Normal Heights; Bottlecraft, Berkeley Pizza, and Boulevard Wine & Spirits in North Park; and at various BevMo! locations around San Diego (among other spots). For a map of all the locations, visit Unibroue's website. To be honest, we're kind of bummed Mustaine didn't make use of any of the 100 million breweries right here at home -- but hey, it's his beer and he can do what he wants with it. But is it too much to ask for a hefty, barrel-aged "In My Darkest Hour" Imperial Stout or a super hoppy "Head Crusher" double IPA though? Beerdos, let's make it happen. Dustin Lothspeich books The Merrow, plays in Diamond Lakes, and runs the music equipment-worshipping blog Gear and Loathing in San Diego. Follow his updates on Twitter or contact him directly. What to Know City of San Diego lays out demands for Rural/Metro ambulance company. From July to November 2016, Rural/Metro failed to meet mandated emergency response times resulting in fines. After months of reportedly responding late to emergency calls, the City of San Diegos ambulance service, Rural/Metro, has been given a strict list of terms to abide by in order to avoid what the city calls a material breach of the terms of the EMS agreement. The list of terms were laid out in a letter sent by the City of San Diegos Chief Operating Officer Scott Chadwick on December 1, 2016 to the companys top west coast management. In 2015, Rural Metro was acquired by AMR, which took over all Rural/Metro operations. The letter along with other documents pertaining to the citys new requests about Rural/Metros services within San Diego, was released to NBC 7 Investigates through a California Public Records Act request. NBC 7 Investigates first reported Rural/Metros non-compliance with mandated response times in October 2016, when the city fined Rural/Metro $291,000 in penalties. According to the companys contract with the city, it is required to meet a response time of 12 minutes or less, 90% of the time. To read that story, click here. In the letter, Chadwick states Rural/Metro has failed to meet the response time standards in multiple medical response zones for the months of July through November, 2016. Repetitive quarterly fines for failure to meet response time standards will not be tolerated, Chadwick said. To read the letter, click here. Throughout the letter, the city spells out demands for AMR, requesting new data, setting specific deadlines and asking for in-person meetings. According to the letter, the city requested: AMR provide the city a robust ambulance system deployment plan on how the company can improve response times based off of 911 incident demands from December 1, 2015 to November 30, 2016. The company provide, by January 31, evidence the company can build and maintain a stable workforce, showing the steps the company plans on taking to permanently secure and retain a stable, long term workforce. AMR provide turnover rates for employees who worked in San Diego in 2015 and 2016. The ambulance company provide monthly reports that detail wages, hours and working conditions of AMR employees, as well as plans to retain and grow veteran Paramedics and EMTs so as to sufficiently staff its workforce to meet the EMS Agreements response time requirements. The letter provides a deadline for AMR to comply with the demands. In an email to NBC 7 Investigates, San Diego Fire-Rescue Captain Joseph Amador said, AMR has complied with all of our requests for information and deadlines. The city and fire department declined to talk on-camera or answer any additional questions, until after he [Fire Chief Brian Fennessy] reviews the end of Q2 data and the Mayor & City Council have received the information. AMR did not answer questions on-camera for this story. Jason Sorrick, Director of Communications and Government Relations for AMR sent an email to NBC 7 Investigates and said, AMR has provided the city of San Diego with all the information that was requested last month, and we are pleased to report that we have exceeded all response time requirements for the months of November and December." The city did not confirm AMRs claim of compliance for the month of December. Until we have completed our review of the Quarter 2 data, we wont know whether AMR-RM has been contractually compliant Citywide and in all eight (8) zones, Amador said. In the letter it states if the company does not accept the terms of this Plan-to-Cure notice by the end of December, the city of San Diego may have no choice but to begin drafting in January of 2017 a Notice of Breach and Intention to Terminate the EMS Agreement. Last month, NBC 7 Investigates spoke with Joseph Ross, a former Rural/Metro Emergency Medical Technician, EMT, who spoke about, what he called, unethical business practices and staffing shortages he witnessed. Were not having enough ambulances in service on our city streets, Joseph Ross told NBC 7 Investigates. If you have somebody whos gone on a chest pain [911 call] 500 times in their career versus someone who has gone on a chest pain [911 call] five times in their career, its a lot more smooth when you have an experienced person. To read more about that story, click here. To help the company meet mandated response time standards, the city offers to help staff a limited number of Rural/Metro ambulances with San Diego Fire-Rescue Department Firefighters and rated Paramedics per day, for a predetermined length of time, according to the letter from the city. If AMR takes advantage of the offer, the city would require personnel and other incidental costs reimbursed per normal city cost recovery formulas. It is AMRs responsibility to fund what is necessary to staff the requisite number of ambulances, Chadwick states in the letter. In addition to the letter, NBC 7 Investigates received a memo sent to the Mayors office and San Diego City Council members on December 7, 2016, a week after the Plan-to-Cure letter was sent to AMR. In it, City of San Diego Fire Chief Brian Fennessy said AMR responded to the citys latest letter four days after it was sent and acknowledged response times were negatively impacted in select zones for the FY 2017 Quarter 1 and 2 (July 1, 2016 through November 30, 2016.) However, according to the memo, AMR told the city, they were in full compliance in all medical response zones for the month of November. To read the memo, click here. According to the memo, the city and AMR have a scheduled a meeting to discuss the citys concerns that were not addressed in the companys initial response. Gallons upon gallons of water rushed into homes in North Park early Thursday morning after a water main broke in the neighborhood, leaving behind a huge, wet mess. The water rapidly made its way down staircases, streets and into homes. Brooms and buckets in hand, residents scooped water out of their homes, trying to prevent the flooding. #NorthPark neighbors waking up to a river of water gushing through their yards near Lincoln & Hamilton Street after water main breaks #NBC7 pic.twitter.com/FEXGayqRqo Liberty Zabala (@LibertyNBC7SD) January 5, 2017 I woke up to a strange noise and I saw the local authorities with their lights flashing, resident Joe Carta told NBC 7. I couldnt believe my eyes. This water thats rushing right down there is rushing down the street and into the bottom floor of my house and into my garage. "Nobody wants to see a stream of water running into the bottom floor of their house," Carta added. "Nobody." Arian Collins, spokesperson with the City of San Diego Public Utilities Department, said a cast iron water main 30 inches in diameter broke early Thursday near the intersection of Polk and Oregon streets. A water main break in North Park sent water rushing into the streets Thursday morning, flooding homes and creating a huge mess for the neighborhood. NBC 7s Liberty Zabala reports. A crew with the department shut down the water at around 5:30 a.m. Collins said the main is not connected to water meters, so no customers in that area will be without water. Some residents may experience low water pressure for the time being. Kathy Nelson still sweeping water out of her apartment in #NorthPark after a water main break this morning. #NBC7 pic.twitter.com/EhGS0C0kxS Liberty Zabala (@LibertyNBC7SD) January 5, 2017 Collins said some homes in the area sustained flood damage but that damage was till being assessed hours later. He said property owners impacted by the water main can file a claim with the Citys Risk Management Department via the citys website or by calling (619) 236-7300. For residents like Carta, the clean up will be a huge undertaking. "I have to start thinking about how to get the clean up done and getting the water removed," he lamented, adding that he worries about mold and other problems that could arise from the flooding to his property. Officials do not yet know how long it will take to complete repairs in the neighborhood. For now, drivers are advised to avoid the area. As of 6 a.m., several streets were closed due to the water main break: Idaho Street between University Avenue and Polk Street; University Avenue between Idaho and Arizona streets; Lincoln Avenue between Idaho and Hamilton streets. No injuries were reported. The Red Cross and its Disaster Services team was at the scene helping residents displaced by the flooding. (2/2) The @SDICRedCross temporary evacuation point is located at the North Park Rec Center at 4044 Idaho St., San Diego, CA 92104. SDIC Red Cross (@SDICRedCross) January 5, 2017 The Red Cross set up a command center for victims of the flooding at Oregon Street and Howard Avenue. Also, the North Park Rec Center on Idaho Street was serving as a temporary evacuation point for those forced to leave their homes due to the flooding. Julio Canizal, director of the City of San Diegos Risk Management Department, told NBC 7 the department sent three claims representatives out to North Park Thursday to speak with residents and business owners impacted by the water main break. The citys contractor was also dispatched to the area to help assess the extent of the damage to properties. The citys Risk Management Department was answering phone calls throughout the day from residents impacted by the flooding, too, Canizal said. At this point, he said those impacted by the water main break should document the extent of their damages and contact the department for information about the claims process. San Diego police say two recent break-ins in Kensington are likely connected because they happened the same day, around the same time and the thief used the same method to enter the homes. The victims, who live in the 4900 block of Marlborough Drive and the 4800 block of Edgeware Road, told NBC 7 their back French doors were kicked in on New Years Day. Both victims returned home that afternoon to find a mess. The thief went through drawers, dressers and desks. He stole electronics, jewelry and even family heirlooms. It was pretty traumatic. I was angry and I felt violated, said the victim who lives on Edgeware Road. He did not want to give his identity, still shaken up from the incident. That night I didnt sleep at all. I havent sleptwe now have an alarm system. Ive been sleeping a little better with that," he said. These crimes and other suspicious activity have been buzzing on the neighborhood app called Nextdoor. Its become popular place for residents to report local crimes. Police agree its a good tool, but want to remind neighbors to report the crimes directly to the police department too, because detectives cant view private posts. Thus, they cant investigate what they dont know. Police said they are still investigating the break-ins and they have not made an arrest. San Diego Police are looking for two suspects who stole phones from a victim at gunpoint before fleeing from police - a crime that may be connected to others in the neighborhood. The incident happened at 41st Street and K Street at approximately 7:14 p.m. in San Diego's Mount Hope neighborhood, police said. Two men between 18 years old and 20 years old robbed two people who came to their home to sell them their cell phones, police told reporters on scene. During the conversation, one suspect pointed a gun at the victim's torso and demanded their cell phones. The suspects stole the phones and fled, police said. At first, it appeared the men went into a nearby house that may have been vacant, though police later learned the men fled the house before police arrived. Authorities have contacted the owner of the property. Police on scene said two recent robberies involving fake pizza delivieries may be related to this incident. No other information was immediately available. A man stole a pair of gloves while armed from a Home Depot in San Diego's Mountain View neighborhood, police said. The alleged robbery took place at the store on the 300 block of Marketplace Wednesday shortly after 4 p.m., San Diego police said. The male suspect is believed to have ran under a freeway overpass and into a canal area. Police also searched the 4600 block of Nogal Street, but were unable to find the man. The suspect is outstanding. He is described as a man approximately 5 feet 11 inches, approximately 25 years old with a medium build. He was last seen wearing a black trenchcoat. No other information was immediately available. USS Carl Vinson Strike Group ships deployed from San Diego Thursday with a combined 7,500 service members on board all bound for the Western Pacific. The sailors are part of a unique mission -- they will take part in an operational construct that hasn't been carried out by the U.S. Navy since World War II. The USS Carl Vinson deployed at about 7 a.m. Thursday morning, headed to a mission working on a new construct called COM Third Fleet Forward. The U.S. Navy says USS Carl Vinson will remain under the U.S. Third Fleet command and control while deployed. Loved ones gathered at Naval Air Station North Island Coronado to bid their farewell to 7,500 Marines and sailors -- always a poignant scene of emotion -- that marks a challenging day in the life of military families. For many families, it was their first experience of having a relative or spouse deploy. The group of departed vessels included the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70), Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 2 and embarked Destroyer Squadron (CDS) 1, deployed with Ticonderoga class guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Champlain (CG 57), according to the U.S. Navy. Some other vessels in the group were the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers USS Michael Murphy (DDG 112) and USS Wayne E. Meyer (DDG 108). The Carrier Air Wing 2 and Destroyer Squadron 1 will focus on maritime security operations. USS Wayne E. Meyer deployed from Naval Base San Diego at about 11 a.m. Thursday. For the past six months, USS Carl Vinson Strike Group has been preparing for this mission in San Diego with rigorous training sessions. A young girl was found in a car involved in a police chase on the Capital Beltway Wednesday night, police say. About 8:30 p.m., police pulled a vehicle over in the 1800 block of Gainesville St. SE, but when the officer approached the vehicle, the driver backed into the police cruiser and took off. The officer sustained a minor injury while trying to get away, D.C. police said. Police pursued the vehicle into Virginia and eventually, the driver was stopped again on Interstate 495 westbound just before I-95. Officers found a young girl inside the vehicle. Police did not say if she was injured. Police have not given a description of the suspect or said why the vehicle was originally pulled over. Stay with News4 and NBCWashington.com for more information. Inauguration isn't until Friday, but three days of events kicked off Thursday, with concerts around the National Mall and a wreath-laying at Arlington Cemetery. Here's what to know about the events: Thursday, Jan. 19 'Voices of the People,' JFK Hockey Fields south of the Reflecting Pool -- 1:30 p.m. Voices of the People was set to feature groups such as the D.C. Fire Department Pipes and Drums, the King's Academy Honor Choir, the Republican Hindu Coalition and the Montgomery Area High School Marching Band, among others. Wreath-Laying Ceremony, Arlington National Cemetery -- 3:30 p.m. President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence participated in a private ceremony at the military cemetery. 'Make America Great Again!' Welcome Celebration, Lincoln Memorial -- 4 p.m. The Presidential Inaugural Committee (PIC) called this the "official kickoff to the inaugural events." Trump will give his first major speech here, PIC spokesman Alex Stroman said in an interview with News4. Country music star Toby Keith, actor Jon Voight and rock band 3 Doors Down are among the participants. Military bands will also participate, and a fireworks show will follow. See the full list of participants online here. The event begins at 4 p.m., with Trump scheduled to speak at 5:50 p.m. Fireworks will begin at 6 p.m. Tickets will be required for special viewing areas but not for general public viewing areas. Friday, Jan. 20 In line with tradition, before Trump is sworn in, he will stay at Blair House, known as the president's guest house. On the morning of Inauguration Day, he will have coffee with President Barack Obama and attend a service at St. John's Church. Inaugural Swearing-In Ceremony, the U.S. Capitol Trump will be sworn in as president on the west side of the Capitol building. Security screening gates will open at 6 a.m., music will begin about 9:30 a.m. and opening remarks will begin at 11:30 a.m. The 16-year-old soprano Jackie Evancho, who was a contestant on the reality show "America's Got Talent," will sing the national anthem. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, which is renowned for its soaring renditions of religious and patriotic music, and the Radio City Rockettes also are set to perform. Six prominent clergy members will give readings at the ceremony, The Washington Post reported: Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Rev. Franklin Graham, Rabbi Marvin Hier, Bishop Wayne T. Jackson, the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez and Pastor Paula White. Tickets will be required for special viewing areas located east of Fourth Street NW but not for general public viewing areas west of Fourth Street NW. The Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies has issued nearly 250,000 color-coded tickets to the ceremony. Tickets were released to members of Congress -- who are considered the hosts of the event -- earlier this month. Every person headed to a ticketed area needs a ticket, including children. Inaugural Parade, Pennsylvania Avenue Forty organizations, including several military and veterans groups, will march in the inaugural parade. Seven high school marching bands are set to perform. It was a longstanding tradition for a D.C. high school marching band to play in the parade, but not one school applied to participate this time. The parade will move from the Capitol to the White House. It is expected to be shorter this year, at about an hour and a half. "That's probably a testament to this president's willingness and eagerness to get to work for the American people," Stroman said. Tickets will be required for special viewing areas but will not be required for general public viewing areas. Official Inaugural Balls Trump is expected to attend three official inaugural balls. Tickets will be required. Saturday, Jan. 21 National Prayer Service, Washington National Cathedral An interfaith prayer service will be held the day after Trump becomes president. For updates, stay with News4 and NBCWashington.com, and download the NBC Washington app. Maryland State Police are investigating the death of a man whose remains were found Wednesday in the forested mountains of western Maryland shortly after a female companion walked out of the woods, suffering from hypothermia, authorities said. Alexander A. Stevens, 24, of Frostburg, Maryland, was found dead on a logging road, Maryland State Police spokesman Greg Shipley said. Stevens' body showed signs of trauma, according to police. The state medical examiner's office will determine the cause and manner of death, Shipley said. Police say all possibilities are being considered, and nothing has been ruled out at this time. "We just have a lot of unanswered questions at this point,'' Shipley said in a telephone interview. Stevens and the woman were last seen together around 5 p.m. Tuesday near a Savage River State Forest trailhead near the rural community of Barton, about 140 west of Baltimore, Maryland Natural Resources Police spokeswoman Candy Thomson said. She said her agency launched a search at about 3 a.m. Wednesday in response to a 911 call reporting them missing. Thomson said the woman walked out of the woods to a house shortly before 9 a.m., and emergency responders were called. A Maryland State Police helicopter crew spotted Stevens' body shortly thereafter on private property adjacent to the 54,000-acre state forest, she said. Police have not released the woman's name. The pair drove separately to the trailhead area, where both cars were found, Thomson said. Shipley said Stevens was found near Pine Swamp Road, which is crossed by the Big Savage Mountain hiking trail. The trail there follows a logging road through steep, rocky terrain, according to the website of Garrett Trails, a nonprofit group that promotes hiking in Garrett County. The night was relatively mild, with overnight lows in nearby Frostburg and Cumberland never dropping below 40 degrees. Live traffic cameras operated by the Maryland Department of Transportation show little snow cover remaining along Interstate 68 after a storm Friday covered the region with up to 6 inches. A Metro worker was seriously injured after he fell 35 feet down a shaft near the Bethesda Metro station, Montgomery County fire officials say. The worker fell into a utility shaft along Wisconsin Avenue at about 1:30 a.m., Pete Piringer, a spokesman for the Montgomery County Fire Department, said on Twitter. "There's a platform and some access areas, and this worker fell about 35 feet below grade," Piringer said. Firefighters pulled the worker out of the shaft after about 90 minutes. Piringer said the man suffered injuries to his legs, back and was also suffering from hypothermia. Montgomery County police say 19-year-old man and his teenage girlfriend used Facebook to lure a New Jersey man to Maryland, where he was murdered and buried in a shallow grave. Hikers found Jordy Mejia's body in a wooded area of Gaithersburg, Maryland, on Nov. 12, 2016. According to court documents, Mejia's mother said he left New Jersey on Oct. 15 to travel to Maryland to meet a girl. She reported him missing three days later because she had not heard from him. After Mejia's disappearance, his family found conversations he had on Facebook with someone who identified herself as "Shaila Smith." Police say it appears Smith was the girl he went to see in Maryland. In one message, Smith gave Mejia a phone number to call for someone that would take him to her. Police also listened to several voice messages Smith left on Mejia's Facebook account, court documents said. Detectives tracked the phone number Smith gave Mejia and another New Jersey number that contacted Mejia's phone the night of Oct. 15. According to court documents, detectives used Facebook and phone records to connect 19-year-old Neris Moreno, of West New York, New Jersey, to Meija's death. On Monday, police arrested Moreno and his girlfriend, 16-year-old Jackelin Leiba-Esperanza, of Brentwood, Maryland. Police said Leiba-Esperanza confessed to recording the voicemails pretending to be Shaila Smith and said she did it for Moreno. Moreno and Leiba-Esperanza have been charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in Mejia's death. Leiba-Esperanza has been charged as an adult. Police have not said how Mejia was killed and no motive for the murder has been released at this time. Police in Manchester, New Hampshire say two armed men broke into a home Thursday morning while the homeowners kids were home alone. The incident happened around 7:20 a.m. at a Belgrade Street home. The homeowner said two masked men entered the home minutes before he returned home from work. Police say the men ransacked the home and fled on foot when the homeowner arrived. He gave chase to the suspects, who fired at least one gunshot in his direction. Ultimately, the two men escaped. No injuries were reported. No descriptions of the suspects were available. A Massachusetts cat truly has nine lives after being found days after jumping from a moving car in Boston. For James Norton and Erin McCutcheon, it has been a long week and a half. It was Christmas morning and the two were headed to New Hampshire. As they drive on the I-93 elevated bridge, the unthinkable happened. Their beloved cat, Juno, managed to jump out of the car. "I thought she had flown over the railing, and really, I didn't know if I would ever see her again," Norton said. Norton and McCutcheon spent long days looking for Juno, blanketing the city with posters. All to no avail. Then, early Wednesday morning, their luck changed. "For the last week and a half we have been seeking all these posters go up about a lost cat," Jay Frasier said. "We have been actually kind of looking for it while we are working." All that looking paid off, as one of Frasier's co-workers saw Juno. But Juno was scared, and initially wouldn't come to the beckoning workers. Frasier knew he had to act, as the cat kid was 80 feet off the ground on an I-beam. "Just to get this cat," he said. "I just wanted to get this cat. I'm an animal lover myself, I had to get this cat. I had to." Finally, a little cat food did the trick. "Eighty feet up in the air, lying across an I-beam, with a cat eating off my finger, and next thing I know I get a little bit out of the can, and he jumped into my arms," Frasier said. Frasier and his fellow electricians from Local 103 were able to get Juno into their warm truck where they fed her some food and water. "We are just super excited they found her" McCutcheon said."This is the greatest gift of the New Year that we could have ever hoped for." No verdict was reached Thursday after a jury began deliberations to decide if Gary Lee Sampson will be put to death for the brutal killings of two men. The playing field is unbalanced, theres no question about it, but weve known that since day one, said Jonathan Rizzos father Mike Rizzo. The families of murder victims Jonathan Rizzo and Philip McCloskey are left to sit and wait while a jury of seven men and five women decide whether Sampson will be put to death, after his previous death sentence was vacated. Sampson is accused of carjacking and killing the two men in Massachusetts, before killing a third man in New Hampshire on a week-long rampage in July of 2001. Jonathan Rizzos father says this time around isnt any easier, just different. Mike Rizzo said, Weve been through it before, but last time it was kind of raw, we were still kind of numb and we were very close to the time when Jonathan was killed, so we didnt really understand the whole process, we didnt get the full impact. Jurors are not only weighing aggravating factors, including the heinous nature of the murders, but also 115 mitigating factors including the defenses contention that Sampson suffered traumatic brain injury as a child and that he has end stage liver failure. Legal Editor Randy Chapman says the death penalty is never an easy decision for any jury. Chapman said, They are deciding issues about whether or not somebodys going to be put to death, which is nothing that should ever be taken lightly. Jurors will resume deliberations Friday. '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!!!! The Manchester High School community is mourning the loss of a beloved security guard who died of an apparent heart attack this morning and students have been dismissed early. Barry "Mitch" Mitchell, a husband and the father of two, passed away suddenly after suffering a medical emergency at work on Wednesday. Principal Jill Krieger said in a message to the school staff that the school community lost a special man. "I recognize this is a huge loss to all of us," Krieger wrote. "Please keep his family in your thoughts and prayers." School officials said Mitchell was a longtime and beloved security guard who was also a steady presence at dances, sporting events and other school activities. Mitchell's wife, who was too upset to be interviewed on camera, said he seemed fine and went to the gym just last night. Students were shocked by the news. "A lot of us were very surprised because we just saw him yesterday and he was fine," Lizzy Gammeter, a junior, said. Eddie Agosto, a 2003 graduate of Manchester High School, said Mitchell was a father figure to many people. "A lot of people were going down the wrong paths and he would give you life advice, try to get you on a better path for when you get out of high school so you can better your life," Agosto said. Wednesday night a vigil was held at Manchester High School in Mitchells honor. Current and previous students attended and shared memories of a man many described as a father figure and role model. He used to call me Koby all the time, said Willie Ferrell, Class of 2009. When my sister came and she just graduated he called her young Koby. Joseph Pierro, class of 2008, said the community lost an idol, role model, and genuinely good person in Mitchell. Mitch taught me respect honestly he taught me always strive to do better never really close a door on anything, he said. Supt. Matt Geary said in a Facebook post that Mitchell was widely respected by everyone, especially the students and the school and community are stronger, better places because of him. A Facebook account listed as being that of Olympian Michael Hartfield, of Manchester, says the athlete was shaken by the news. The post says Hartfield met with Mitchell in November and shared his experiences of being in the Olympics in Rio and meeting President Barack Obama. The Manchester Schools Twitter account says Mitchell, who served the school community for at least 15 years, died of an apparent heart attack and after-school activities have been canceled. Police continue to search for a man who robbed a gas station while holding a knife in Easton, Massachusetts on Tuesday evening. The robbery happened at the Mutual Oil on Washington Street just before 6 p.m. The clerk told police that the masked man jumped over the counter and demanded cash while holding a foot-long knife. The robber allegedly told the clerk to crawl outside and wait until he got away. The masked man then fled the scene with more than $700. The FBI told NBC Boston that they are investigating whether the incident is related to other robberies that have occurred in the area recently. An 81-year-old woman was stabbed to death in Vermont, authorities have determined. Police investigating the death of Helen Jones in Arlington are exploring possible connections to recent burglaries in the area. State police say they were called Wednesday evening by a neighbor after a friend of Jones, an Arlington resident, was called by an out-of-state relative and found her dead inside her Buck Hill Road home. After an autopsy, stab wounds to Jones' torso were determined to be the cause of her death. Anyone with information is asked to call Vermont State Police 802-442-5421. A Massachusetts man who served time for killing a man, is now the new boss of a non-profit in Somerville and is focused on improving the lives of others. Its a job that John Valverde started this week, but a journey that began long before he stepped foot in the corner office. Its surreal sometimes, Valverde said. Its hard for me to imagine I was ever prison. Valverde served 16 years in a prison in New York after killing a man accused of raping his girlfriend. He was 20-years-old when he was convicted of manslaughter. I knew that what I did was wrong and I knew I needed to work to make amends, he said. He spent most of his time behind bars working on himself, earning two college degrees and creating programs to help other inmates. He was denied parole three times before he was released. The work he did in prison only helped him land a job at a non-profit in New York before taking on the role as the chief executive officer job at YouthBuild in Somerville. YouthBuild is a non-profit organization that aims to help young people who remind him of himself. After 7 interviews, he beat out 124 candidates for the position. There are 260 YouthBuild programs in the United States, including one on the North Shore in Salem where students say they cannot help but be inspired by Valverdes story. About one-third of its students have been convicted of an offense prior to enrolling in YouthBuild. Im looking at it like if he could do it, I could it. Its not hard, Bryan Fernandez said, who enrolled in the program two months ago. With four felonies on his record, Fernandez says YouthBuild is helping him turn his life around. He says the lessons hes learning have new meaning with an example at the top. Were a second chance program and Im living out my second chance, Valverde said. A violent outburst in a New Hampshire courtroom is shedding light on the suspect in a five-day crime spree in Lebanon. The details, from the suspect himself, are disturbing. I think you should give me about $500 bail so I can go out and stab my cousin to death, maybe kill my aunt and Uncle Kevin, Anthony Boisvert said in Lebanon District Court Wednesday. Maybe I can cut them up, and eat them on a frying pan. This outburst came after police arrested him Sunday for allegedly stabbing two people and setting two fires over the course of five days. Its a whole different street now, said Lebanon, New Hampshire resident Laurie Rodgers. The 150 year old steeple is gone, the First Baptist Church in Lebanon is destroyed and to learn exactly how Boisvert claims he did it, is like pouring salt on a wound. According to court documents, Boisvert told police he broke into the church, watched child pornography on a rectory computer, lit an American flag on fire and left it to burn. Ron Michaud and his wife live next door to the church. Theyve both been in the mental health field for more than 60 years. Were both traumatized, Michaud told NBC Boston. Ive never experienced this before, this is huge, big time. Boisvert is also accused of setting fire to a home at 68 Mascoma St. He told an officer he did it because he knew children lived there. The five-day rampage and emerging details are leaving a lasting impact on this typically quiet community. It shakes your well-being, it does, Michaud said. Police say Boisvert also admitted to stabbing his two friends because they had talked to investigators. Police in Watertown, Massachusetts, are searching for a suspected wanted for breaking and entering into a truck. According to police, the male suspect was spotted wearing a high-visibility jacket and breaking into a truck located in the driveway of a residence on Spring Street. Surveillance video shows the suspect breaking into the truck and stealing a few items then leaving the driveway. Anyone with information is asked to contact police. For the first time in more than six years, Vermonts chief executive is a Republican. Gov. Phil Scott, R-Vermont, took the oath of office at a ceremony in the Statehouse in Montpelier Thursday afternoon. Vermonts House of Representatives and Senate, meanwhile, remain firmly in control of Democrats, sparking calls for bipartisanship. "This transition comes at a time when the political divide, across the country, feels as deep, and as personal as it ever has," Gov. Scott noted in his inaugural address. Scott called on state lawmakers to rise above partisanship and work together to solve real and diverse problems facing Vermonters. The new governor outlined four main policy goals: combating opiate addiction, revitalizing economic development, improving education across all age levels, and building sustainable state budgets. Rep. Kiah Morris, D-Bennington, said the kind of cooperation needed to achieve those goals is possible in Vermont. "Deep down, we all have a deep love, care, and passion for our state," Morris told necn. "I dont know that a change in leadership, just because of a particular party designation, is going to make us lose focus of what needs to be done for Vermonters right now." Former Governor Peter Shumlin, a Democrat, did not seek reelection in November. In his farewell address to the legislature, Shumlin said this week that under President Donald Trump, the nation will need Vermonts brand of togetherness and respect now more than ever. In his inaugural speech, Scott thanked Shumlin for his service to the state, and called his new job an "incredible privilege." The Massachusetts Legislature opened a new two-year session Wednesday by returning veteran Democrats Robert DeLeo and Stan Rosenberg to their leadership positions in the House and Senate, respectively. Both pointed to significant debates ahead with Rosenberg in particular outlining an ambitious liberal agenda in defiance of an expected tilt to the right in Washington. DeLeo faced no challengers within his party on his way to being re-elected House Speaker, a post he's held since 2009. If he serves out his full term, the Winthrop Democrat would become the longest-serving speaker in state history, eclipsing the late Thomas McGee who presided from 1975 to 1984. Rosenberg was similarly unopposed in winning his second term as Senate leader. The 160-member House and 40-member Senate were sworn in to new terms by Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, who has enjoyed a mostly amicable relationship with Democratic leaders who hold veto-proof supermajorities in both chambers. Yet there are signals that tensions between lawmakers and the governor could grow as Baker girds for a likely re-election bid in 2018 and conflicts loom over spending and taxes. In remarks to the Senate, Rosenberg called for a new fiscal approach, including tax increases. "We are nearly 20 years into the 21st century and we have a budget that is built on a foundation laid decades ago, when Massachusetts began its campaign to shed the `Taxachusetts' label," the Amherst Democrat said. "Virtually every credible national study says the level of taxation in Massachusetts now puts us in the middle of the pack nationally. Mission accomplished." Rosenberg suggested closing tax loopholes and taxing services such as Airbnb. He also urged voters to approve a constitutional amendment calling for a surtax on people with incomes above $1 million, and chided Baker _ though not by name _ for cutting state programs to address a budget shortfall. Senators in the coming session would debate plans to modernize the state's deteriorating transportation system, revamp the state's education funding system, abolish minimum sentences for most crimes and address "the gnawing disparity in incomes in our state and nation," Rosenberg said. On the latter point, he called for passage of a family leave bill and a further hike in the state's minimum wage, which rose by $1 to $11 per hour on Jan. 1. DeLeo planned to detail his legislative agenda later this month, but told reporters after a Democratic caucus that he expected debate over the state budget to be "somewhat complicated." He said a decision whether to support new taxes would come after discussions with other lawmakers. The speaker also made clear that blue state Massachusetts won't hesitate to challenge the incoming Donald Trump administration at any turn. "When he or some of the members of his administration seem to go astray ... in terms of what is best for the people of Massachusetts, than he better be damn sure that he is going to hear from me and a lot of other elected (officials) from Massachusetts," DeLeo said in response to a question about the potential dismantling of the federal Affordable Care Act. Shortly after being elected House leader for the first time, DeLeo backed a rule that imposed a limit of four terms for speakers. But he would later change his view and engineered another rules change to allow him to serve beyond eight years. Brushing off the prospect of becoming the state's longest-serving speaker, DeLeo said Wednesday he was more interested in solving problems than breaking records. Dynamic resource management for cloud computing is at a critical crossroad. The ultimate objective when provisioning software-defined infrastructure, synchronizing inter-cloud resources, or allocating network bandwidth is allowing applications to successfully execute on demand without concern for capacity. While these approaches are effective in supplying applications with additional capacity on demand, the downside is that application performance may not be optimized in the process. Cloud applications and services have become so complex that the runtime synchronization of resources required to support them drags down overall performance and leaves capacity unused. To tap this unused capacity, and deliver the performance expected, we need to enhance resource management with something like intelligent resource execution. Let me explain. Auto-scaling VMs and private virtual clouds is arguably the most critical type of dynamic resource management. This scaling capability now allows cloud applications to be designed and operated such that if more storage capacity is needed, that capacity and the resolution of its network address will be seamlessly provided. Further, these applications depend on an increasingly complex and automated set of cloud-native services to manage things such as data replication and synchronization, load distribution and VM failover. + Also on Network World: Apps be nimble, apps be quick + Auto-scaling techniques work well for provisioning additional capacity, but they do not address application performance issues. Im not referring to whether storage capacity is provisioned with the right cost performance metrics or if networks have sufficient raw bandwidth to handle surging inter-VM or inter-cloud traffic. I am referring to a number of lesser-known, but increasingly important, issues around how modern-day cloud applications can take advantage of parallel execution in CPU cores, network and I/O resources. Todays applications are developed to be agnostic of cloud infrastructure, and to execute efficiently, the underlying infrastructure must to be autonomic in detecting the necessary SLA an application requires. But how is that done? One commonly used approach is to provide an infrastructure API through which an application can specify the right resource types and SLA. But this goes against the principle of building infrastructure-agnostic cloud applications and is unlikely to work for inter-cloud application transportability due to their fundamental provisioning and SLA enforcement differences. Additionally, modern cloud applications have embraced multi-threading and vCPU pinning to exploit scaling across multi-core processors. But this is leading to growing performance inefficiencies due to issues such as kernel contention and layers of virtualization, so the most advanced apps are leveraging software-defined virtual devices to cut through the OS kernel to avoid hypervisor and container overhead. The implications of this technique are that application- and operating system-level resource contention has grown so complex that simply making infrastructure provisioning differentiated by an SLA metric will not work. Dynamic resource execution The bigger point is that there is a growing gap between cloud applications and cloud infrastructure, and it is not being addressed by todays dynamic resource management techniques. We need a way to tell the infrastructure and the OS that an applications performance is degrading due to resource contention. And then we need to communicate what additional resources should to be provisioned to alleviate the bottlenecks. Since resource contention is highly correlated to the way an applications process threads are executed, we can analyze the data path and apply machine learning techniques to identify contention and bottlenecks experienced by critical software threads. Based on that, new resources can be provisioned instantly, likely without the application having to intervene or even be aware of this action. This new approach can enable dynamic resource management tools to go beyond just provisioning. Perhaps this is something we could call dynamic resource execution. A dynamic resource execution framework must be standards based, leveraging the latest innovations already in place from software-defined networking and software-defined storage. Conceptually, it can be thought of as having a resource abstraction layer followed by a dynamic resource resolution layer. For instance, in Linux applications, sockets are the resource abstraction for a logical network connection from which the kernel or the hypervisor will dynamically resolve the network path and network addresses that need to be translated. Further, it should be an on-demand resource provisioning framework that is application-specific with per process or per thread granularity. The latter is necessary for modern day cloud applications running over multi-core processors in order to orchestrate per thread resource allocation to distinguish important elephant threads from less important mice threads, as well as to allocate scarce infrastructure resources for elephant threads that have the highest performance impact. Fortunately, recent advancements in device virtualization will make it easier to provision resources at the granular level, thanks to their ability to create a large number of virtual devices per physical device. While the above is quite reflective of where we are in cloud and infrastructure technologies, the ability to extract application contextual intelligence so that the infrastructure can infer application intent remains unresolved. Closing the gap between applications and infrastructure Infrastructure and the operating systems that applications run over are not application aware and cannot be made so because both are designed to fairly share scarce resources and treat application processes and threads equally, only differentiated by their priority or I/O states. The insights into where application contention lies and what resources are critical when contention occurs are beyond their scope and design objectives. What we ultimately need is a framework in which information about the resources an application requires is automatically deduced from process or thread execution. Then by leveraging the software-defined capability of the infrastructure, the information is passed down to the infrastructure so it can properly respond. Dynamic resource execution can do this without any application intervention and without imposing any changes to the cloud-native application development paradigm. Perhaps the coolest thing about IBMs 9th Five Innovations that will Help Change our Lives within Five Years predictions is that none of them sound like science fiction. With advances in artificial intelligence and nanotechnology, we aim to invent a new generation of scientific instruments that will make the complex invisible systems in our world today visible over the next five years, said Dario Gil, vice president of science & solutions at IBM Research in a statement. +More on Network World: IBM says soon you won't need passwords; mind reading will be routine; the so-called digital divide will cease to exist and junk mail will become important+ Among the five areas IBM sees as being key in the next five years include artificial intelligence, hyperimaging and small sensors. Specifically, according to IBM: 1. In five years, what we say and write will be used as indicators of our mental health and physical wellbeing. Patterns in our speech and writing analyzed by new cognitive systems will provide tell-tale signs of early-stage mental and neurological diseases that can help doctors and patients better predict, monitor and track these diseases. At IBM, scientists are using transcripts and audio inputs from psychiatric interviews, coupled with machine learning techniques, to find patterns in speech to help clinicians accurately predict and monitor psychosis, schizophrenia, mania and depression. Today, it only takes about 300 words to help clinicians predict the probability of psychosis in a user. Cognitive computers can analyze a patients speech or written words to look for tell-tale indicators found in language, including meaning, syntax and intonation. Combing the results of these measurements with those from wearables devices and imaging systems (MRIs and EEGs) can paint a more complete picture of the individual for health professionals to better identify, understand and treat the underlying disease. 2. In five years, new imaging devices using hyperimaging technology and AI will help us see broadly beyond the domain of visible light by combining multiple bands of the electromagnetic spectrum to reveal valuable insights or potential dangers that would otherwise be unknown or hidden from view. Most importantly, these devices will be portable, affordable and accessible, so superhero vision can be part of our everyday experiences. A view of the invisible or vaguely visible physical phenomena all around us could help make road and traffic conditions clearer for drivers and self-driving cars. For example, using millimeter wave imaging, a camera and other sensors, hyperimaging technology could help a car see through fog or rain, detect hazardous and hard-to-see road conditions such as black ice, or tell us if there is some object up ahead and its distance and size. Embedded in our phones, these same technologies could take images of our food to show its nutritional value or whether its safe to eat. A hyperimage of a pharmaceutical drug or a bank check could tell us whats fraudulent and whats not. 3. In the next five years, new medical labs on a chip will serve as nanotechnology health detectives tracing invisible clues in our bodily fluids and letting us know immediately if we have reason to see a doctor. The goal is to shrink down to a single silicon chip all of the processes necessary to analyze a disease that would normally be carried out in a full-scale biochemistry lab. The lab-on-a-chip technology could ultimately be packaged in a convenient handheld device to let people quickly and regularly measure the presence of biomarkers found in small amounts of bodily fluids, sending this information streaming into the cloud from the convenience of their home. There it could be combined with data from other IoT-enabled devices, like sleep monitors and smart watches, and analyzed by AI systems for insights. When taken together, this data set will give us an in-depth view of our health and alert us to the first signs of trouble, helping to stop disease before it progresses. 4. In five years, new, affordable sensing technologies deployed near natural gas extraction wells, around storage facilities, and along distribution pipelines will enable the industry to pinpoint invisible leaks in real-time. Networks of IoT sensors wirelessly connected to the cloud will provide continuous monitoring of the vast natural gas infrastructure, allowing leaks to be found in a matter of minutes instead of weeks, reducing pollution and waste and the likelihood of catastrophic events. Scientists at IBM are working with natural gas producers such as Southwestern Energy to explore the development of an intelligent methane monitoring system and as part of the ARPA-E Methane Observation Networks with Innovative Technology to Obtain Reductions (MONITOR) program. 5. In five years, we will use machine-learning algorithms and software to help us organize the information about the physical world to help bring the vast and complex data gathered by billions of devices within the range of our vision and understanding. We call this a "macroscope" but unlike the microscope to see the very small, or the telescope that can see far away, it is a system of software and algorithms to bring all of Earth's complex data together to analyze it for meaning. By aggregating, organizing and analyzing data on climate, soil conditions, water levels and their relationship to irrigation practices, for example, a new generation of farmers will have insights that help them determine the right crop choices, where to plant them and how to produce optimal yields while conserving precious water supplies. Beyond our own planet, macroscope technologies could handle, for example, the complicated indexing and correlation of various layers and volumes of data collected by telescopes to predict asteroid collisions with one another and learn more about their composition. +More on Network World: What advanced tech will dominate your car by 2025? IBM knows+ IBM has had some success with its five in five predictions in the past. For example, in 2012 it predicted computers will have a sense of smell. IBM says sniffing technology is already in use at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, working to preserve and protect priceless works of art by monitoring fluctuations in temperature, relative humidity, and other environmental conditions. And this same technology is also being used in the agricultural industry to monitor soil conditions, allowing farmers to better schedule irrigation and fertilization schedules, saving water and improving crop yield, IBM said. +More on Network World: Will your car become a mini-data center? IBM thinks thats just the beginning+ In 2009 it had an expectation that buildings will sense and respond like living organisms. IBM said it is working with The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) to develop and install advanced smart building technology in 50 of the federal governments highest energy-consuming buildings. Part of GSAs larger smart building strategy, this initiative connects building management systems to a central cloud-based platform, improving efficiency and saving up to $15 million in taxpayer dollars annually. IBM is also helping the second largest school district in the U.S. become one of the greenest and most sustainable by making energy conservation and cost savings as easy as sending a text message, IBM stated. Residents of a small island community in Virginia are up in arms over Verizon insisting the towns volunteer fire company pony up $73,000 to have telecommunications equipment moved off a parcel of land on which the department is building a new firehouse. (UPDATE, Jan. 6: T-Mobile's John Legere gets involved.) At the center of the clash is the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company, which besides selflessly protecting the islands 3,000 residents is also renowned for its stewardship over the Chincoteague Ponies, a herd of 150 wild horses that, well, has nothing to do with the Verizon dispute but is so interesting you should take a few minutes to check out this website. U.S. Coast Guard Wild ponies swim across the Assateague Channel into Chincoteague, Va. While Verizon is being eviscerated on the fire companys Facebook page, the service provider tells a local reporter that the community is underestimating the scope of whats being asked. (And there is no reason to believe Verizon has anything against ponies.) If we have to pay the $73,000 they are asking from us then something in our budget is going to take a hit, Denise Bowden, a fire company spokesperson, writes on Facebook. Our fundraising money buys $500k fire trucks, $200k ambulances plus outfitting them and also takes care of our PRECIOUS PONIES that everyone loves. We cannot understand how this company can justify these prices. OK, maybe the ponies do have something to do with this dispute. As for Verizons justification, here is what the company told DelmarvaNow.com: Whats been missing from the story about the cost to complete the work is this: Were not talking about moving a phone line or two. This is about relocating some 1,100 feet of 1200-pair copper cable along with fiber optic lines serving a large portion of Chincoteague Island. To meet the fire departments specifications, we proposed burying those cables - an expensive process - but there are other ways to accomplish this. Well consider any design changes they are willing to make to reduce costs or lessen the impact to the islands telecom equipment. Not everyone chiming in on Facebook sees Verizon as a villain: They have an easement established by law to have those lines in place and (the fire company) should have known about this before now, writes one commenter. Verizon is under no obligation to even move the line and if you want it moved, you have to pay to have it done just like everyone else who places a commercial building within a utility right-of-way. I have no horse in this race myself, but the choices for Verizon would seem clear: Does it want to be a good corporate citizen and swallow the $73,000 tab? Or does it want to be accused of taking hay out of the mouths of these famous ponies? Seems like an easy call for a company the size of Verizon. (Update, Jan. 6: Enter T-Mobile CEO John Legere, who took to social media Thursday evening both to chastise Verizon for its business decision and vow to pick up the $73,000 tab for the fire company if Verizon doesn't come around.) (Update, Jan. 20: Verizon and the firefighters make peace.) Welcome regulars and passersby. Here are a few more recent buzzblog items. And, if youd like to receive Buzzblog via e-mail newsletter, heres where to sign up. You can follow me on Twitter here and on Google+ here. Looking to offer more complete network services offerings, Cisco and Ericsson have broadened their 14-month old partnership to include new wireless offerings. Specifically, the companies will offer a new service package called Evolved Wi-Fi Networks (EWN) which will include products and support from both companies. EWN includes pre-integrated and verified offerings based on Ericsson and Cisco products and Ericsson's customer support, design and deployment services as well as Ericsson's managed services, the companies stated. Ericsson said EWN can be offered as a fully managed service with the global reach of more than 180 countries. +More on Network World: Cisco/Ericsson: Assessing the mega-deal a year later+ "With Wi-Fi traffic predicted to grow to 50% of the total IP traffic by 2020, a top priority for service providers is to deliver the best possible connected experiences to their customers," said Yvette Kanouff, SVP & GM of the Service Provider Business Unit, Cisco. "Through our extended strategic partnership with Ericsson, we are committed to providing WiFi solutions of the highest quality performance and reliability." The companies went on to say that this weeks announcement will be supported by multiple agreements that include commitments to network transformation through reference architectures and joint development, systems-based management and control, a broad reseller agreement and collaboration in key emerging market segments. The companies have also agreed to discuss Fair, Reasonable, and Non-Discriminatorypolicies and enter a licensing agreement for their respective patent portfolios, enabling joint innovation and providing certainty for customers of both organizations. As part of this agreement, Ericsson will receive license fees from Cisco, the companies stated. The companies said the agreement will enable several new applications including: Combining indoor Ericsson access networks with Cisco WLAN enables deployment in venues of both Wi-Fi and cellular connectivity. Letting operators who have outdoor Ericsson access networks use Cisco WLAN to offer access to subscribers. Integrating Cisco WLAN with either Ericsson macro or indoor access networks via Ericsson's Real Time Traffic Steering feature lets operators steer users between mobile and Wi-Fi access networks, ensuring the best end-user experience. Integrating Cisco WLAN into Ericsson packet core using trusted configurations will allow operators to offer all their core network services over Wi-Fi for multimode devices. Ericsson's Wi-Fi Calling capabilities already deliver seamless voice mobility over Cisco WLAN. + Also on Network World: Cisco CEO Robbins: Wait til you see whats in our innovation pipeline + The expanded agreement will address a missing component in the Cisco/Ericsson partnership which the companies formed November, 2015. With that announcement Cisco and Ericsson combined their core strengths in routing, enterprise networking, wireless, data center, cloud, management and control, and global services to offer integrated systems for service providers, mobile enterprises, and Internet of Things packages. Future activities, the companies said would get backhaul, indoor/outdoor access, systems integration, managed services and tech support for enterprises. Ericsson also gets to resell Cisco products and the companies will cross-license each others patents, which combined number 56,000. The partnership started with some ambitious goals not the least of which was to generate $1 billion in revenue for each company by 2018. As for exactly how much revenue has come from the partnership both companies say that over 60 deals have been signed a grand total hasnt been revealed. The expanded deal could also help Ericsson as it struggles to battle competitors Nokia and Huawei as well as an industry decline in mobile equipment spending. A report last year by HIS Technology said that for the first time since LTE technology hit the mainstream in 2012, worldwide market for carrier wireless equipment has declined. The decline was a sharp one, the report said the global market for macrocell infrastructure dropped by 18% in the first quarter of 2016, down to $10 billion overall. The mobile infrastructure sector in general was down 8% in the same time frame, and LTE equipment specifically dropped by 23% on a quarterly basis. But the companies have remained optimistic about that relationship. Weve extended the partnership from its original service provider focus to now also include the enterprise and public sector segments with particular demand in transportation, Smart City, and utility areas, as well as into the web segment, wrote Doug Webster, Vice President of Global Marketing and Corporate Communications for Cisco on the anniversary of the deal. Our global coverage is now complete after recently receiving regulatory approval to now operate in Brazil, and we have increased the scope of technologies being included in the partnership with the addition of security, WiFi and datacenter switching portfolios. Ericsson has also worked aggressively to extend their leading services capability by achieving more than 2,500 Cisco networking certifications or qualifications to better address the IP Transformation needs of customers worldwide. Webster listed several other milestones in the past year, including: Extending the partnership into the enterprise and public sector segments with demand in transportation, Smart City, and utility areas, as well as into the web segment Completing global coverage after receiving regulatory approval to now operate in Brazil Increasing the scope of technologies being included in the partnership with the addition of security, WiFi and datacenter switching portfolios Delivering Ericsson-certified solutions in different areas, as Mobile Backhaul, IP Core, and SP WiFi where certification is ongoing, with additional solutions on the way, where Cisco is contributing with products, expertise and use cases. Developing a joint services portfolio based on Ericssons scale and skill in systems integration and managed services and Ciscos IP competence. The portfolio is developed in the areas of Networks, Enterprise, SP WiFi and small cells, Data Center and Cloud and Security. Achieving around 2,500 Cisco networking certifications or qualifications by Ericsson sales and service engineers. Check out these other hot stories: IBM: Next 5 years AI, IoT and nanotech will literally change the way we see the world Cisco talks 2017 SD-WAN predictions The new rulers of the cybersecurity realm: Automation, Analytics Artificial Intelligence NASA embraces IBMs Watson for future space, aerospace technology development Arista wins big in latest court patent case go-around over Cisco U.S. DOT advances mandate for vehicle-to-vehicle communications technology By ANI NEW DELHI: The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has signed three more unilateral Advance Pricing Agreements (APAs), which takes the total count to 120. The three APAs signed pertained to the Engineering Goods and Shipping sectors of the economy. The international transactions, covered in these agreements, include intra-group services and support services. With this, the total number of APAs, entered into by the CBDT, has reached 120, which includes several bilateral APAs and 113 Unilateral APAs. A total of 56 APAs (four bilateral APAs and 52 unilateral APAs) have been entered into in the current financial year till date. The CBDT expects more APAs to be concluded and signed in the near future. The APA Scheme was introduced in the Income-tax Act in 2012 and the Rollback provisions were introduced in 2014. The scheme endeavours to provide certainty to taxpayers in the domain of transfer pricing by specifying the methods of pricing and setting the prices of international transactions in advance. Since its inception, the APA scheme has evinced a lot of interest from taxpayers and that has resulted in more than 700 applications (both unilateral and bilateral), being filed in just four years. The progress of the APA Scheme strengthens the Governments resolve of fostering a non-adversarial tax regime. The Indian APA programme has been appreciated nationally and internationally for being able to address complex transfer pricing issues, in a fair and transparent manner. The approach and functioning of the officers in the APA teams have been appreciated and acknowledged by the industry in India and abroad NEW DELHI: The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has signed three more unilateral Advance Pricing Agreements (APAs), which takes the total count to 120. The three APAs signed pertained to the Engineering Goods and Shipping sectors of the economy. The international transactions, covered in these agreements, include intra-group services and support services. With this, the total number of APAs, entered into by the CBDT, has reached 120, which includes several bilateral APAs and 113 Unilateral APAs. A total of 56 APAs (four bilateral APAs and 52 unilateral APAs) have been entered into in the current financial year till date. The CBDT expects more APAs to be concluded and signed in the near future. The APA Scheme was introduced in the Income-tax Act in 2012 and the Rollback provisions were introduced in 2014. The scheme endeavours to provide certainty to taxpayers in the domain of transfer pricing by specifying the methods of pricing and setting the prices of international transactions in advance. Since its inception, the APA scheme has evinced a lot of interest from taxpayers and that has resulted in more than 700 applications (both unilateral and bilateral), being filed in just four years. The progress of the APA Scheme strengthens the Governments resolve of fostering a non-adversarial tax regime. The Indian APA programme has been appreciated nationally and internationally for being able to address complex transfer pricing issues, in a fair and transparent manner. The approach and functioning of the officers in the APA teams have been appreciated and acknowledged by the industry in India and abroad By IANS MUMBAI: Reacting to media reports about the quantum of demonetised currency that has been returned to the banks by the December 30 deadline, the Reserve Bank of India on Thursday said such estimates may not be correct. The RBI said the aggregating of accounting entries made at the various currency chests still requires to be reconciled with the actual cash balances in order to eliminate accounting errors and double counting. "The periodical SBN (specified bank notes) figures released by us were based on aggregation of accounting entries done at the large number of currency chests all over the country," an RBI said in a statement here. "Now that the scheme has come to an end on December 30, 2016, these figures would need to be reconciled with the physical cash balances to eliminate accounting errors/possible double counts etc. Till this is completed, any estimate may not indicate the actual numbers of the SBNs that have been returned," it said. The RBI is taking all steps to complete the process expeditiously so as to release firm figures of SBNs received at an early date. On November 8, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 currency notes were no longer a legal tender, saying the move was aimed at eliminating black money, counterfeit currency and terror financing. Citizens were given up to Decmber 30 to deposit the old currency in banks. Media reports on Wednesday, citing sources, said that about 97 percent of the demonetised currency notes worth Rs 14.97 lakh crore have been deposited back as on December 30. The government had earlier estimated that about Rs 15.4 lakh crore was to be taken out of the system by way of demonetisation. Under fire for the slow pace of re-monetisation and the on-going cash crunch, the government has announced various concessions to promote digital transactions and has been urging the public to move towards an economy that transacts less in cash. MUMBAI: Reacting to media reports about the quantum of demonetised currency that has been returned to the banks by the December 30 deadline, the Reserve Bank of India on Thursday said such estimates may not be correct. The RBI said the aggregating of accounting entries made at the various currency chests still requires to be reconciled with the actual cash balances in order to eliminate accounting errors and double counting. "The periodical SBN (specified bank notes) figures released by us were based on aggregation of accounting entries done at the large number of currency chests all over the country," an RBI said in a statement here. "Now that the scheme has come to an end on December 30, 2016, these figures would need to be reconciled with the physical cash balances to eliminate accounting errors/possible double counts etc. Till this is completed, any estimate may not indicate the actual numbers of the SBNs that have been returned," it said. The RBI is taking all steps to complete the process expeditiously so as to release firm figures of SBNs received at an early date. On November 8, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 currency notes were no longer a legal tender, saying the move was aimed at eliminating black money, counterfeit currency and terror financing. Citizens were given up to Decmber 30 to deposit the old currency in banks. Media reports on Wednesday, citing sources, said that about 97 percent of the demonetised currency notes worth Rs 14.97 lakh crore have been deposited back as on December 30. The government had earlier estimated that about Rs 15.4 lakh crore was to be taken out of the system by way of demonetisation. Under fire for the slow pace of re-monetisation and the on-going cash crunch, the government has announced various concessions to promote digital transactions and has been urging the public to move towards an economy that transacts less in cash. By Express News Service NEW DELHI: In a bid to tap into the 51-million small and medium businesses (SMBs) market in the country of which only 32 per cent are online or are leveraging the power of the digital, Google India wants to digitally empower the remaining 68 per cent in 2017, according to global chief executive officer Sundar Pichai. Reaffirming Googles commitment to SMBs at an event in New Delhi on Wednesday, the leading search engine has also announced to soon unveil a product made out of India that, it plans to hawk globally. Google in association with industry body, FICCI has launched Digital Unlocked a training programme to enable SMBs get online and start using Internet to grow their business. Over the next three years, 5,000 workshops will be held across 40 Indian cities. Pichai also took the opportunity to discuss with IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, future partnerships with the Indian government, in its digital initiative. In 2016, Google has already made a proposal to Ministry of Information Technology to push its project Loon. The project Loon uses big balloons floating at a height of 20 kilometers above earth with light weight transponders to offer Internet services. When we solve for a place like India, we solve for everyone around the world. That has led us to grow our team here and spend more time and ensure the products are useful for everyone, Pichai said. In addition, Google also launched Primer, a free mobile app designed to teach digital marketing skills in a quick, easy and interactive way. Primer also works offline and is currently available in English and Hindi with Tamil, Telugu and Marathi versions coming shortly. NEW DELHI: In a bid to tap into the 51-million small and medium businesses (SMBs) market in the country of which only 32 per cent are online or are leveraging the power of the digital, Google India wants to digitally empower the remaining 68 per cent in 2017, according to global chief executive officer Sundar Pichai. Reaffirming Googles commitment to SMBs at an event in New Delhi on Wednesday, the leading search engine has also announced to soon unveil a product made out of India that, it plans to hawk globally. Google in association with industry body, FICCI has launched Digital Unlocked a training programme to enable SMBs get online and start using Internet to grow their business. Over the next three years, 5,000 workshops will be held across 40 Indian cities. Pichai also took the opportunity to discuss with IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, future partnerships with the Indian government, in its digital initiative. In 2016, Google has already made a proposal to Ministry of Information Technology to push its project Loon. The project Loon uses big balloons floating at a height of 20 kilometers above earth with light weight transponders to offer Internet services. When we solve for a place like India, we solve for everyone around the world. That has led us to grow our team here and spend more time and ensure the products are useful for everyone, Pichai said. In addition, Google also launched Primer, a free mobile app designed to teach digital marketing skills in a quick, easy and interactive way. Primer also works offline and is currently available in English and Hindi with Tamil, Telugu and Marathi versions coming shortly. Pramod Thomas By Express News Service KOCHI: Pear imports become peer in the country with exporters across the globe targeting a growing demand for the fruit in India. According to figures published by the Indian government in 2015, Indias per consumption has doubled between 2001-2002 and 2015-2016 period, reaching 365000 tonnes and Mumbai is the biggest consumers of Pear in India. Interestingly, India imported 25,266 tonnes of pear during April-November 2016 period. Indias pear imports grew by almost 35 per cent year-on-year in 2015 at 22,000 tonnes. Simply over 3000 tonnes more came to the country in this year in just eight months. Mumbai-based importer Yupaa had received first-ever shipment of Spanish pears recently. Indian Pears are priced between Rs 50 to Rs 150/kg, with recent entrant of BelOrta Belgian Conference Pear into the Indian market, are priced around 100-150 per kg. BelOrta expects to sell 1 million Euros worth of Belgian Conference Pear in India and USP of this Pear is that its seedless, no wastage in the fruit and is consumed completely at any stage of ripening, with an excellent shelf life, and can be stored for a long period, Tarun Arora, Director, IG International, one of the leading fresh produce importer company in India. There are total 10 different varieties of Pear that exists in the world. Till today, China dominates the worlds Pear market, producing almost 16 million tonnes. Other countries that fulfil the pear consumption in India are the US, Belgium, Argentina, Italy and Turkey. Incidentally, India also produces several varieties of pears such as Patharnakh (Sand Pear), Keiffer (P), China Pear, Max-Red Bartlett, William Bartlett, Hardy, Flemish Beauty, and Comice. Pear is now in major demand in the country. With more varieties coming especially from Europe, people have created a particular taste for the fruit. The stocks are being sold in a swift manner and it seems the demand will only increase going forward, says Ashraf, a fruit retailer in Kochi. The area under cultivation of pear is steadily increasing in North India. In Punjab, pear occupies an area of 2147 hectares. Cultivators require high chilling hours (900-1000) at higher hills of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. While China remains the dominant producer of pears, comprising 75 per cent of total output, South Africa (26 per cent) and the US (11 per cent) accounted for the vast majority of supplies. KOCHI: Pear imports become peer in the country with exporters across the globe targeting a growing demand for the fruit in India. According to figures published by the Indian government in 2015, Indias per consumption has doubled between 2001-2002 and 2015-2016 period, reaching 365000 tonnes and Mumbai is the biggest consumers of Pear in India. Interestingly, India imported 25,266 tonnes of pear during April-November 2016 period. Indias pear imports grew by almost 35 per cent year-on-year in 2015 at 22,000 tonnes. Simply over 3000 tonnes more came to the country in this year in just eight months. Mumbai-based importer Yupaa had received first-ever shipment of Spanish pears recently. Indian Pears are priced between Rs 50 to Rs 150/kg, with recent entrant of BelOrta Belgian Conference Pear into the Indian market, are priced around 100-150 per kg. BelOrta expects to sell 1 million Euros worth of Belgian Conference Pear in India and USP of this Pear is that its seedless, no wastage in the fruit and is consumed completely at any stage of ripening, with an excellent shelf life, and can be stored for a long period, Tarun Arora, Director, IG International, one of the leading fresh produce importer company in India. There are total 10 different varieties of Pear that exists in the world. Till today, China dominates the worlds Pear market, producing almost 16 million tonnes. Other countries that fulfil the pear consumption in India are the US, Belgium, Argentina, Italy and Turkey. Incidentally, India also produces several varieties of pears such as Patharnakh (Sand Pear), Keiffer (P), China Pear, Max-Red Bartlett, William Bartlett, Hardy, Flemish Beauty, and Comice. Pear is now in major demand in the country. With more varieties coming especially from Europe, people have created a particular taste for the fruit. The stocks are being sold in a swift manner and it seems the demand will only increase going forward, says Ashraf, a fruit retailer in Kochi. The area under cultivation of pear is steadily increasing in North India. In Punjab, pear occupies an area of 2147 hectares. Cultivators require high chilling hours (900-1000) at higher hills of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. While China remains the dominant producer of pears, comprising 75 per cent of total output, South Africa (26 per cent) and the US (11 per cent) accounted for the vast majority of supplies. By Reuters NEW DELHI: India's sugar production in 2016/17 is likely to fall to 22 million tonnes, down 4.3 percent from an earlier estimate, as mills in its key producing state are closing early due to a cane shortage, industry officials told Reuters. A drop in production below India's consumption of around 25 million tonnes could lift local prices and prompt the world's second-biggest consumer to allow duty-free imports of the sweetener, supporting global prices that are trading near their highest level in 1-1/2 months. In the last two years back-to-back droughts have ravaged the cane crop in Maharashtra, the country's top sugar producer. "The impact of drought was much more severe in Maharashtra than we anticipated. The State could end up with production of around 4.5 million tonnes," B.B. Thombre, president of the Western India Sugar Mills Association (WISMA) told Reuters on Thursday. The WISMA was earlier expecting the country to produce 23 million tonnes of sugar in the 2016/17 crushing season that started on Oct. 1, anticipating Maharashtra will churn out 5.5 million tonnes. As Maharashtra's output has been revised down, the country's total production could fall to 22 million tonnes, Thombre said. Maharashtra had produced 8.41 million tonnes of sugar in the 2015/16 season, while India's total output was 25.1 million tonnes. Sugar mills in Maharashtra typically operate between November to April, but this year so far 25 mills have stopped crushing due to lower cane supplies. "Some sugar mills have already closed operations due to cane shortage and most mills will close operations by February end," said Sanjeev Babar, managing director of the Maharashtra State Co-operative Sugar Factories Federation, on Wednesday. Local sugar prices are moving up on an expected shortfall in output and could prompt the government to allow duty free imports of the sweetener, a Mumbai-based dealer with a global trading firm said on Wednesday. "Ahead of state elections the government will try to keep a lid on prices. Right now it is more interested in protecting consumers than farmers," the dealer said. India's election commission on Wednesday scheduled five state polls for the next two months that will test support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's gamble to abolish high-denomination banknotes. NEW DELHI: India's sugar production in 2016/17 is likely to fall to 22 million tonnes, down 4.3 percent from an earlier estimate, as mills in its key producing state are closing early due to a cane shortage, industry officials told Reuters. A drop in production below India's consumption of around 25 million tonnes could lift local prices and prompt the world's second-biggest consumer to allow duty-free imports of the sweetener, supporting global prices that are trading near their highest level in 1-1/2 months. In the last two years back-to-back droughts have ravaged the cane crop in Maharashtra, the country's top sugar producer. "The impact of drought was much more severe in Maharashtra than we anticipated. The State could end up with production of around 4.5 million tonnes," B.B. Thombre, president of the Western India Sugar Mills Association (WISMA) told Reuters on Thursday. The WISMA was earlier expecting the country to produce 23 million tonnes of sugar in the 2016/17 crushing season that started on Oct. 1, anticipating Maharashtra will churn out 5.5 million tonnes. As Maharashtra's output has been revised down, the country's total production could fall to 22 million tonnes, Thombre said. Maharashtra had produced 8.41 million tonnes of sugar in the 2015/16 season, while India's total output was 25.1 million tonnes. Sugar mills in Maharashtra typically operate between November to April, but this year so far 25 mills have stopped crushing due to lower cane supplies. "Some sugar mills have already closed operations due to cane shortage and most mills will close operations by February end," said Sanjeev Babar, managing director of the Maharashtra State Co-operative Sugar Factories Federation, on Wednesday. Local sugar prices are moving up on an expected shortfall in output and could prompt the government to allow duty free imports of the sweetener, a Mumbai-based dealer with a global trading firm said on Wednesday. "Ahead of state elections the government will try to keep a lid on prices. Right now it is more interested in protecting consumers than farmers," the dealer said. India's election commission on Wednesday scheduled five state polls for the next two months that will test support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's gamble to abolish high-denomination banknotes. By Express News Service NEW DELHI: The Reserve Bank of India will remove restrictions on cash withdrawals after assessing market situation, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Wednesday even as he ruled out interfering with the conditions barring anyone other than NRIs and Indians returning from abroad from depositing the junked notes in select central bank branches. RBI will decide by assessing market situation. Many a time, actions are taken in phases, so relaxations are also done in phases, he said when asked by when restrictions on cash withdrawals are expected to be removed. Currently, an account holder is allowed to withdraw `24,000 per week from the counters and `4,500 per day from ATM. To a question on people not being able to avail the facility due to some genuine reasons, the Finance Minister said this facility was available for everyone and he would not like to interfere with the criteria set by the RBI. Without committing to any easing of the restrictions for those who failed to avail the window, he said, People in large number have already exchanged. Only a few are left... we dont go by... Whatever reason, the RBI has fixed their own criteria. At least, I will respect that criteria. Jaitley also noted that the Prime Minister had specifically mentioned that RBI will fix terms and conditions. The word terms and conditions was part of Prime Ministers address, he stressed. They can go to specified offices of the RBI up to March 31, 2017 and deposit the notes after submitting a declaration form, he added. NEW DELHI: The Reserve Bank of India will remove restrictions on cash withdrawals after assessing market situation, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Wednesday even as he ruled out interfering with the conditions barring anyone other than NRIs and Indians returning from abroad from depositing the junked notes in select central bank branches. RBI will decide by assessing market situation. Many a time, actions are taken in phases, so relaxations are also done in phases, he said when asked by when restrictions on cash withdrawals are expected to be removed. Currently, an account holder is allowed to withdraw `24,000 per week from the counters and `4,500 per day from ATM. To a question on people not being able to avail the facility due to some genuine reasons, the Finance Minister said this facility was available for everyone and he would not like to interfere with the criteria set by the RBI. Without committing to any easing of the restrictions for those who failed to avail the window, he said, People in large number have already exchanged. Only a few are left... we dont go by... Whatever reason, the RBI has fixed their own criteria. At least, I will respect that criteria. Jaitley also noted that the Prime Minister had specifically mentioned that RBI will fix terms and conditions. The word terms and conditions was part of Prime Ministers address, he stressed. They can go to specified offices of the RBI up to March 31, 2017 and deposit the notes after submitting a declaration form, he added. By Express News Service CHENNAI: The Buhari group and ETA Star group of companies came under the scanner of the Income Tax department as raids were carried out in 74 places across the country. Income tax sources told Express that searches were conducted in 49 places in Chennai, including at a reputed educational institution, the Chennai Citi centre and several other places, as they suspected large-scale tax evasion by the groups. Searches were also carried out in two premises of Coastal Energen Pvt Ltd (Energen), the Power Generating Flagship Company of the Coal and Oil Group in Thoothukudi. Energen is setting up a 1200 MW coal fired thermal power plant in the district. The group is one of the top suppliers of imported coal to leading power producers in India like Tata, Reliance, Torrent Power, Gujarat Electricity Board, Maharashtra State Electricity Board and Calcutta Electric. In Ramanathapuram district, the house of one Hameed Khan at Keelakarai was raided. A cashier at ETA Star Group company in Dubai, he had come down for a holiday. A 10-member team led by Madurai Chief I-T Commissioner Ajay Rathore Singh carried out the raid for over seven hours at the house on Ahmed Street. The team sealed some rooms and seized documents before detaining Hameed for enquiry. Buhari Group and its associates have footprints across the globe in diversified fields like property and construction, engineering, materials, services, energy, shipping, retailing and trading, with a workforce exceeding 1,00,000 people. Further, I-T sources said raids were also conduted at the premises of the group in Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata. A total of 450 personnel are involved in one of the raids, which is still going on. CHENNAI: The Buhari group and ETA Star group of companies came under the scanner of the Income Tax department as raids were carried out in 74 places across the country. Income tax sources told Express that searches were conducted in 49 places in Chennai, including at a reputed educational institution, the Chennai Citi centre and several other places, as they suspected large-scale tax evasion by the groups. Searches were also carried out in two premises of Coastal Energen Pvt Ltd (Energen), the Power Generating Flagship Company of the Coal and Oil Group in Thoothukudi. Energen is setting up a 1200 MW coal fired thermal power plant in the district. The group is one of the top suppliers of imported coal to leading power producers in India like Tata, Reliance, Torrent Power, Gujarat Electricity Board, Maharashtra State Electricity Board and Calcutta Electric. In Ramanathapuram district, the house of one Hameed Khan at Keelakarai was raided. A cashier at ETA Star Group company in Dubai, he had come down for a holiday. A 10-member team led by Madurai Chief I-T Commissioner Ajay Rathore Singh carried out the raid for over seven hours at the house on Ahmed Street. The team sealed some rooms and seized documents before detaining Hameed for enquiry. Buhari Group and its associates have footprints across the globe in diversified fields like property and construction, engineering, materials, services, energy, shipping, retailing and trading, with a workforce exceeding 1,00,000 people. Further, I-T sources said raids were also conduted at the premises of the group in Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata. A total of 450 personnel are involved in one of the raids, which is still going on. By Express News Service KOCHI: Director Siby Malayil has said that the film fraternity was hoping that the tussle between producers and exhibitors would end soon. He was speaking to reporters at Ernakulam Press Club on Wednesday. According to Siby Malayil, the people associated with the film industry are hoping that the issues between producers and exhibitors would be resolved through discussions. The intervention of the State Government is a good indicator. He said a permanent solution is required so that film releases do not get affected by such issues. KOCHI: Director Siby Malayil has said that the film fraternity was hoping that the tussle between producers and exhibitors would end soon. He was speaking to reporters at Ernakulam Press Club on Wednesday. According to Siby Malayil, the people associated with the film industry are hoping that the issues between producers and exhibitors would be resolved through discussions. The intervention of the State Government is a good indicator. He said a permanent solution is required so that film releases do not get affected by such issues. By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: FORMER chief minister Oommen Chandy remains never say die on the grave suspicions he had raised a few days ago against the Narendra Modi government with regard to demonetisation and links with a blacklisted UK-based currency note printing firm. To strengthen his arguments,Chandy has unearthed the hasty withdrawal of a website page the other day which had highlighted the firms deep involvement in the Indo-UK Tech summit held at New Delhi on November 7 last year,a day before the demonetisation declaration. The summit was inaugurated jointly by British Premier Theressa May and the Indian Prime Minister. Unfazed by the lack of response from the Union Government and an initiative from the Congress Central leadership too on the points he had raised against the UK firm De La Rue last weekend,Chandy has dashed off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking an explanation on various points. Addressing a news conference here, Chandy said there is more reason now to believe that the Union Government is making attempts to involve the blacklisted firm to expand its operations in India and print plastic notes. Available documents clearly show that the company De La Rue has been working in India as part of the Make in India initiative by the Prime Minister and has also been collaborating with the Commerce Ministry. Moreover, Shiv Sena MP Hemant Godse went on record in an online newspaper the other day disclosing that an agreement was signed by the Devendra Fadnavis-led BJP government in Maharashtra with De La Rue six months ago, and awarded 10 acres of land in Aurangabad for printing both Indian and foreign currency notes, Chandy said. Though I had raised valid doubts at a press conference earlier on December 31, there was no response from the government on the pertinent points. I had never stated that the UK firm was entrusted with the job of printing notes. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had stated that his ministry was in no way connected with the British firm,while responding to the charges made by the AAP. Altogether,serious doubts have risen among the people,which needs a clarification, the former chief minister said. Chandy pointed out that the relevant links of the website which showed that De La Rue was a platinum sponsor of the India-UK summit was summarily removed from website pages after his first press conference on the issue. THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: FORMER chief minister Oommen Chandy remains never say die on the grave suspicions he had raised a few days ago against the Narendra Modi government with regard to demonetisation and links with a blacklisted UK-based currency note printing firm. To strengthen his arguments,Chandy has unearthed the hasty withdrawal of a website page the other day which had highlighted the firms deep involvement in the Indo-UK Tech summit held at New Delhi on November 7 last year,a day before the demonetisation declaration. The summit was inaugurated jointly by British Premier Theressa May and the Indian Prime Minister. Unfazed by the lack of response from the Union Government and an initiative from the Congress Central leadership too on the points he had raised against the UK firm De La Rue last weekend,Chandy has dashed off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking an explanation on various points. Addressing a news conference here, Chandy said there is more reason now to believe that the Union Government is making attempts to involve the blacklisted firm to expand its operations in India and print plastic notes. Available documents clearly show that the company De La Rue has been working in India as part of the Make in India initiative by the Prime Minister and has also been collaborating with the Commerce Ministry. Moreover, Shiv Sena MP Hemant Godse went on record in an online newspaper the other day disclosing that an agreement was signed by the Devendra Fadnavis-led BJP government in Maharashtra with De La Rue six months ago, and awarded 10 acres of land in Aurangabad for printing both Indian and foreign currency notes, Chandy said. Though I had raised valid doubts at a press conference earlier on December 31, there was no response from the government on the pertinent points. I had never stated that the UK firm was entrusted with the job of printing notes. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had stated that his ministry was in no way connected with the British firm,while responding to the charges made by the AAP. Altogether,serious doubts have risen among the people,which needs a clarification, the former chief minister said. Chandy pointed out that the relevant links of the website which showed that De La Rue was a platinum sponsor of the India-UK summit was summarily removed from website pages after his first press conference on the issue. By IANS NEW DELHI: Aiming to give a technological edge to the small and medium businesses (SMB) in India, Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Wednesday announced two initiatives. "Small businesses are the backbone of India's economy. Internet is for everyone," Pichai said while addressing the media here. He said Google, along with Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci), have developed a training programme called 'Digital Unlocked'. The programme would be certified by the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad. It would offer online and mobile courses to SMBs across the country. "We plan to impart 5,000 training workshops in 40 cities in three years," Pichai added. The global search giant also started another initiative 'My Business Website'. Its a free tool, which would help make a website in 10 minutes. "Any small business can sign up. It will first start in India (later this year), and then will be launched in other countries," Pichai said. Only six per cent of small businesses in India has website. NEW DELHI: Aiming to give a technological edge to the small and medium businesses (SMB) in India, Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Wednesday announced two initiatives. "Small businesses are the backbone of India's economy. Internet is for everyone," Pichai said while addressing the media here. He said Google, along with Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci), have developed a training programme called 'Digital Unlocked'. The programme would be certified by the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad. It would offer online and mobile courses to SMBs across the country. "We plan to impart 5,000 training workshops in 40 cities in three years," Pichai added. The global search giant also started another initiative 'My Business Website'. Its a free tool, which would help make a website in 10 minutes. "Any small business can sign up. It will first start in India (later this year), and then will be launched in other countries," Pichai said. Only six per cent of small businesses in India has website. Namita bajpai By Express News Service LUCKNOW: A referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modis demonetisation, a verdict on Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadavs governance in the past five years, a reaction to the Yadav pariwars internal squabble, and a semifinal to the big battle of 2019 the Uttar Pradesh elections could be all of these and many other factors rolled into one. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav honours renowned poet Gopal Das Neeraj in Lucknow on Wednesday | PTI As far as the four main parties are concerned, the BSP appears to be the most prepared of the lot. It has already announced 403 candidates, has its chief ministerial face leading from the front and its big rallies and small sabhas are underway for quite some time. The ruling SP, on the other hand, is a divided house and the BJP is yet to announce its chief ministerial candidate, though both Modi and party chief Amit Shah have launched their blitzkrieg across the state. For the Congress, all hopes are on a much talked-about alliance with the ruling party. The implications of the recent Supreme Court order banning political players from seeking votes in the name of religion, caste, creed or language would be visible as the electorate stands sharply divided along religious and caste lines. The fate of the SP seems to be hanging in the balance with the daily twists and turns in the intense clash of egos among the Yadavs. All Opposition parties are keeping a close eye on the developments in the SP to reap maximum benefits from the situation. The BJP is yet to announce its candidates. We will announce the list of our candidates in phases, said party spokesperson Dr Chandramohan. We will fight and win on the issues of good governance and development. This time the lotus will bloom on over 300 seats, said BJP state chief Keshav Kumar Maurya. The Karaina exodus, Muzzafarnagar riots, Bulandshahr rape case and the overall poor law and order situation in the state will be some other issues besides development that the party will focus on in these polls, Chandramohan said.Asked about the partys chief ministerial face, said a senior party functionary, There is no dearth of leaders in the BJP. When the time comes, we will present the CM candidate. BJP leaders also feel that the note ban will up the partys chances in the state. And the BSP is operating at a different level. We have been working silently. Our party candidates are final. The names have been announced at the district level and the candidates are already working in their constituencies, said a party leader. LUCKNOW: A referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modis demonetisation, a verdict on Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadavs governance in the past five years, a reaction to the Yadav pariwars internal squabble, and a semifinal to the big battle of 2019 the Uttar Pradesh elections could be all of these and many other factors rolled into one. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav honours renowned poet Gopal Das Neeraj in Lucknow on Wednesday | PTIAs far as the four main parties are concerned, the BSP appears to be the most prepared of the lot. It has already announced 403 candidates, has its chief ministerial face leading from the front and its big rallies and small sabhas are underway for quite some time. The ruling SP, on the other hand, is a divided house and the BJP is yet to announce its chief ministerial candidate, though both Modi and party chief Amit Shah have launched their blitzkrieg across the state. For the Congress, all hopes are on a much talked-about alliance with the ruling party. The implications of the recent Supreme Court order banning political players from seeking votes in the name of religion, caste, creed or language would be visible as the electorate stands sharply divided along religious and caste lines. The fate of the SP seems to be hanging in the balance with the daily twists and turns in the intense clash of egos among the Yadavs. All Opposition parties are keeping a close eye on the developments in the SP to reap maximum benefits from the situation. The BJP is yet to announce its candidates. We will announce the list of our candidates in phases, said party spokesperson Dr Chandramohan. We will fight and win on the issues of good governance and development. This time the lotus will bloom on over 300 seats, said BJP state chief Keshav Kumar Maurya. The Karaina exodus, Muzzafarnagar riots, Bulandshahr rape case and the overall poor law and order situation in the state will be some other issues besides development that the party will focus on in these polls, Chandramohan said.Asked about the partys chief ministerial face, said a senior party functionary, There is no dearth of leaders in the BJP. When the time comes, we will present the CM candidate. BJP leaders also feel that the note ban will up the partys chances in the state. And the BSP is operating at a different level. We have been working silently. Our party candidates are final. The names have been announced at the district level and the candidates are already working in their constituencies, said a party leader. Express News Service NEW DELHI: Amid allegations of corruption, the Army commander who was ignored for the post of Army chief met Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Wednesday. Interestingly, Lt. General Praveen Bakshi did not meet Army Chief Bipin Rawat. Normally, every Army Commander makes a courtesy call to the Chief, whenever he is in Delhi. Bakshi had assured full support to Army chief and continued to serve, putting speculations of his resignation to an end. But, he has gone on a month-long-leave till end of this month. Wednesdays meeting was the second between Bakshi and Parrikar. Sources said that Parrikars office had received complaints of misappropriation of funds allocated to the Eastern Army Commander. Bakshi, had mentioned that he wanted to come clean from the allegations by investigating the issue. NEW DELHI: Amid allegations of corruption, the Army commander who was ignored for the post of Army chief met Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Wednesday. Interestingly, Lt. General Praveen Bakshi did not meet Army Chief Bipin Rawat. Normally, every Army Commander makes a courtesy call to the Chief, whenever he is in Delhi. Bakshi had assured full support to Army chief and continued to serve, putting speculations of his resignation to an end. But, he has gone on a month-long-leave till end of this month. Wednesdays meeting was the second between Bakshi and Parrikar. Sources said that Parrikars office had received complaints of misappropriation of funds allocated to the Eastern Army Commander. Bakshi, had mentioned that he wanted to come clean from the allegations by investigating the issue. YATISH YADAV By Express News Service NEW DELHI: Its an election stunt, Congress leader Vayalar Ravi had thundered in Parliament on March 21, 1978, accusing the Morarji Desai governments move to demonetise high-value notes with an eye on targeting political parties. The Janata Party government had then denied any political motive behind the move. However, its poor performance in six State polls that were held after notebandi may not augur well for the incumbent government. Will the positive outcome be interpreted as peoples vote for demonetisation and rejection of the Oppositions attempt to cash in on peoples suffering? There are no straight answers to this question from the BJP leadership who cited recent victories in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Chandigarh civic polls. They are upbeat about the partys good performance. The answer to Modi vs Rest battle in five states perhaps lies in the comparison of two Gujaratis Modi and Morarji who faced massive Opposition onslaught that the ultimate aim of demonetisation was to purge huge political finances of certain parties just before the elections. Of the six assemblies, the Janata Party government could do well only in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam though it had decimated the Opposition less than a year ago. The BJP will have to test the waters in UP, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur in FebruaryMarch. There is absolutely no comparison because people have voted for the governments decision to demonetise high-value notes in the recent local body elections. The results are an endorsement of Modis move and initiative to curb black money and make every paisa accountable. He (PM) is working for the poor and money that will come into the system will benefit poor and marginalised sections, said a BJP leader. But can demonetisation and politics be seen in separate spheres? Perhaps not, as Modi himself, in an apparent swipe at BSP in a Lucknow rally, said there is a party whose worry is where to keep the money. Hukumdev Narayan Yadav, Janata Party member in 1978 and now BJP Lok Sabha member from Bihar, had made similar observations quoting media reports that big notes were found to be in possession of a particular party hinting about then and now opposition Congress. C N Visvanathan, who had told Parliament in March 1978 that there could be some political motive behind the move, made this clear. People are thinking whether this bill (demonetisation) is intended to curb indirectly the funds of a particular party before the elections in six states. Why was this step taken before the elections in six states especially Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka? The ordinance was promulgated on 16th January but actually instead of helping to stop the illegal transactions, this bill may help stop the financiers of the political parties from contributing to them, Visvanathan had said. It is not about elections. It is about our fight against corruption, taking economy to a new level of transparency while going digital and curbing black money. We understand people faced troubles in the process but that will reap long-term gains and our party is confident about it, said a senior BJP leader. NEW DELHI: Its an election stunt, Congress leader Vayalar Ravi had thundered in Parliament on March 21, 1978, accusing the Morarji Desai governments move to demonetise high-value notes with an eye on targeting political parties. The Janata Party government had then denied any political motive behind the move. However, its poor performance in six State polls that were held after notebandi may not augur well for the incumbent government. Will the positive outcome be interpreted as peoples vote for demonetisation and rejection of the Oppositions attempt to cash in on peoples suffering? There are no straight answers to this question from the BJP leadership who cited recent victories in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Chandigarh civic polls. They are upbeat about the partys good performance. The answer to Modi vs Rest battle in five states perhaps lies in the comparison of two Gujaratis Modi and Morarji who faced massive Opposition onslaught that the ultimate aim of demonetisation was to purge huge political finances of certain parties just before the elections. Of the six assemblies, the Janata Party government could do well only in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam though it had decimated the Opposition less than a year ago. The BJP will have to test the waters in UP, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur in FebruaryMarch. There is absolutely no comparison because people have voted for the governments decision to demonetise high-value notes in the recent local body elections. The results are an endorsement of Modis move and initiative to curb black money and make every paisa accountable. He (PM) is working for the poor and money that will come into the system will benefit poor and marginalised sections, said a BJP leader. But can demonetisation and politics be seen in separate spheres? Perhaps not, as Modi himself, in an apparent swipe at BSP in a Lucknow rally, said there is a party whose worry is where to keep the money. Hukumdev Narayan Yadav, Janata Party member in 1978 and now BJP Lok Sabha member from Bihar, had made similar observations quoting media reports that big notes were found to be in possession of a particular party hinting about then and now opposition Congress. C N Visvanathan, who had told Parliament in March 1978 that there could be some political motive behind the move, made this clear. People are thinking whether this bill (demonetisation) is intended to curb indirectly the funds of a particular party before the elections in six states. Why was this step taken before the elections in six states especially Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka? The ordinance was promulgated on 16th January but actually instead of helping to stop the illegal transactions, this bill may help stop the financiers of the political parties from contributing to them, Visvanathan had said. It is not about elections. It is about our fight against corruption, taking economy to a new level of transparency while going digital and curbing black money. We understand people faced troubles in the process but that will reap long-term gains and our party is confident about it, said a senior BJP leader. By Express News Service NEW DELHI: Sheila Diskhit, who has been projected as the Congress chief ministerial face for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh elections, said on Wednesday that she would be happy to have Akhilesh Yadav as the chief ministerial candidate if her party forged an alliance with the Samajwadi Party. The former Delhi chief minister told NDTV that she thought Akhilesh was a much better chief ministerial candidate for the politically crucial state. She, however, clarified that no final call had been taken on teaming up with the Samajwadi Party, which is currently embroiled in a bitter power tussle between two factions. In November, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had made it clear to the Samajwadi Party that he was willing to consider an alliance in Uttar Pradesh only if Akhilesh was to be given the full command of the party. Akhilesh too had indicated that he was open to the idea of allying with the Congress, but his father and Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav had clearly ruled out any pre-poll alliance. This is also seen as one of the reasons for the growing estrangement between father and son. The Samajwadi Party is on the brink of a split, with Akhilesh and Mulayam divided into two camps and fighting over their party symbol, the cycle. However, the two factions tried to hammer out a truce on Tuesday, with Akhilesh even holding talks with his father for over two hours, but nothing conclusive came out of it. Most state Congress are of the view that Akhileshs clean and popular image would help in defeating communal forces. And the party appears to have kept its doors open for a pre-poll alliance, given the inclination of Akhilesh for such a tie-up to garner over 300 Assembly seats. As of now, we are working on the recommendations of the screening committee for all the 403 seats in the state ...what can happen in future will be known only later ... but there is a lot of pressure on secular parties (for an alliance), AICC general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad told newspersons on the sidelines of the Congress executive committee meeting in Lucknow. The 36-member central election committee will meet here from tomorrow for three days in which names of the candidates will be finalised, he said. The Congress leader, however, did not openly advocate alliance with any party for the coming polls. NEW DELHI: Sheila Diskhit, who has been projected as the Congress chief ministerial face for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh elections, said on Wednesday that she would be happy to have Akhilesh Yadav as the chief ministerial candidate if her party forged an alliance with the Samajwadi Party. The former Delhi chief minister told NDTV that she thought Akhilesh was a much better chief ministerial candidate for the politically crucial state. She, however, clarified that no final call had been taken on teaming up with the Samajwadi Party, which is currently embroiled in a bitter power tussle between two factions. In November, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had made it clear to the Samajwadi Party that he was willing to consider an alliance in Uttar Pradesh only if Akhilesh was to be given the full command of the party. Akhilesh too had indicated that he was open to the idea of allying with the Congress, but his father and Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav had clearly ruled out any pre-poll alliance. This is also seen as one of the reasons for the growing estrangement between father and son. The Samajwadi Party is on the brink of a split, with Akhilesh and Mulayam divided into two camps and fighting over their party symbol, the cycle. However, the two factions tried to hammer out a truce on Tuesday, with Akhilesh even holding talks with his father for over two hours, but nothing conclusive came out of it. Most state Congress are of the view that Akhileshs clean and popular image would help in defeating communal forces. And the party appears to have kept its doors open for a pre-poll alliance, given the inclination of Akhilesh for such a tie-up to garner over 300 Assembly seats. As of now, we are working on the recommendations of the screening committee for all the 403 seats in the state ...what can happen in future will be known only later ... but there is a lot of pressure on secular parties (for an alliance), AICC general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad told newspersons on the sidelines of the Congress executive committee meeting in Lucknow. The 36-member central election committee will meet here from tomorrow for three days in which names of the candidates will be finalised, he said. The Congress leader, however, did not openly advocate alliance with any party for the coming polls. By PTI JAMMU: Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat will today visit Jammu and Kashmir in his first official trip after taking over as India's 27th Chief Of Army Staff. According to top army sources, he will be visiting army formation in Jammu. This will be his median tour to J&K after taking over as new army chief. Gen Rawat last week took over as the chief of the 1.3 million strong Indian Army succeeding Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag, who retired after 42 years of service. Gen Rawat superseded two senior most Lt Generals, Praveen Bakshi and P M Hariz. Rawat was commissioned in the Fifth Battalion of the Eleven Gorkha Rifles in December 1978 from IMA, Dehradun. He was awarded the 'Sword of Honour' at the academy. Gen Rawat has vast experience in high altitude warfare and counter-insurgency operations. He commanded an infantry battalion, along the Line of Actual Control in the Eastern Sector, a Rashtriya Rifles Sector and an Infantry Division in the Kashmir Valley, a Corps in the Eastern theatre and the Southern Command. Gen Rawat has held important staff appointments at Directorate General of Military Operations and Military Secretary's Branch at Army HQ. JAMMU: Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat will today visit Jammu and Kashmir in his first official trip after taking over as India's 27th Chief Of Army Staff. According to top army sources, he will be visiting army formation in Jammu. This will be his median tour to J&K after taking over as new army chief. Gen Rawat last week took over as the chief of the 1.3 million strong Indian Army succeeding Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag, who retired after 42 years of service. Gen Rawat superseded two senior most Lt Generals, Praveen Bakshi and P M Hariz. Rawat was commissioned in the Fifth Battalion of the Eleven Gorkha Rifles in December 1978 from IMA, Dehradun. He was awarded the 'Sword of Honour' at the academy. Gen Rawat has vast experience in high altitude warfare and counter-insurgency operations. He commanded an infantry battalion, along the Line of Actual Control in the Eastern Sector, a Rashtriya Rifles Sector and an Infantry Division in the Kashmir Valley, a Corps in the Eastern theatre and the Southern Command. Gen Rawat has held important staff appointments at Directorate General of Military Operations and Military Secretary's Branch at Army HQ. By ANI KOLKATA: A united opposition will visit the office of the Election Commission on Thursday to discuss about the date of the Budget Session.Trinamool,Congress,SP,BSP,JDU,RJD & some other Oppn parties to meet Election Commission 11am. Subject: budget date too close to polls, OBrien tweeted. Three from Trinamool to be part of Oppn party delegation to meet Election Commissioner in Delhi: Derek O'Brien, Dinesh Trivedi, Saugato Roy, he added. The Budget Session of the Parliament will begin from February 1. The session is being advanced as the government wants early allocation of funds for various schemes-- from April 1, the beginning of the financial year. The Election Commission yesterday announced seven-phase polling for 403 assembly constituencies in the politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, two-phase polling in Manipur and one-phase polling each in the states of Punjab, Uttarakhand and Goa respectively. Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi said that the counting of votes in all the five states will take place on March 11. KOLKATA: A united opposition will visit the office of the Election Commission on Thursday to discuss about the date of the Budget Session.Trinamool,Congress,SP,BSP,JDU,RJD & some other Oppn parties to meet Election Commission 11am. Subject: budget date too close to polls, OBrien tweeted. Three from Trinamool to be part of Oppn party delegation to meet Election Commissioner in Delhi: Derek O'Brien, Dinesh Trivedi, Saugato Roy, he added. The Budget Session of the Parliament will begin from February 1. The session is being advanced as the government wants early allocation of funds for various schemes-- from April 1, the beginning of the financial year. The Election Commission yesterday announced seven-phase polling for 403 assembly constituencies in the politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, two-phase polling in Manipur and one-phase polling each in the states of Punjab, Uttarakhand and Goa respectively. Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi said that the counting of votes in all the five states will take place on March 11. Ejaz Kaiser By Express News Service RAIPUR: The use of honeybee hives will soon be experimented upon as a protection mechanism to restrain the marauding wild elephants from causing havoc in eight states including Chhattisgarh. Experts and scientists working in the field of honeybee have gone for intensive exercise to compose a Detail Project Report (DPR) taking a cue from the experience of South Africa model that showed the use of beehives to minimise invasive wild pachyderm raids that led to trauma for humans besides causing loss of property and agricultural crops. According to the recent estimate of the environment ministry on an average 400 people lost their lives and around 100 elephants killed across India in human-elephant conflict every year. Various measures adopted by different state governments couldnt effectively prevent the tuskers from causing destructions. The scientists who attended the plenary session of Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) Biennial Workshop of the All India Coordinated Research Project on honey bees and pollinators held in Solan (Himachal Pradesh) in October last have formulated an idea on how the honey bees can be effectively used to keep elephant at bay. As a result, a DPR has recently been given a final shape. The humming tone produced by honey bees is actually ultrasound which is much unpalatable for the elephant. Such buzzing sound can only be heard by an elephant. It is this advantage that led the African scientists to devise a technique to use beehives as an effective guard and even profitable way to keep away elephants, said Professor S S Shaw (Entomology), who was part of the expert team at Solan. Shaw is a director (Instructions) in Indira Gandhi Agriculture University, Raipur. The practical knowledge and exposure of South African scientists and farmers on using beehive fences have been incorporated in the DPR. The surveys by the university too found that the herds of wild tuskers didnt venture close to places where the beehives exist on trees. Practically they were effective and the success rate as high as over 80 percent. Local materials can be sourced to build beehives that can be placed as barriers along the designated borderlines of crops or human habitats. Eight affected states -- Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Bihar, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Goa, Jharkhand and Assam -- will be joining the project that will work on network mode, Shaw told Express. In Chhattisgarh, the project will be operated in northeast districts of Jashpur, Korba and Raigarh where herds of wild elephants frequently haunts the region. The cost of the beehive fencing project per centre is likely to be Rs 50-60 lakhs for a period of three years, it was told. RAIPUR: The use of honeybee hives will soon be experimented upon as a protection mechanism to restrain the marauding wild elephants from causing havoc in eight states including Chhattisgarh. Experts and scientists working in the field of honeybee have gone for intensive exercise to compose a Detail Project Report (DPR) taking a cue from the experience of South Africa model that showed the use of beehives to minimise invasive wild pachyderm raids that led to trauma for humans besides causing loss of property and agricultural crops. According to the recent estimate of the environment ministry on an average 400 people lost their lives and around 100 elephants killed across India in human-elephant conflict every year. Various measures adopted by different state governments couldnt effectively prevent the tuskers from causing destructions. The scientists who attended the plenary session of Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) Biennial Workshop of the All India Coordinated Research Project on honey bees and pollinators held in Solan (Himachal Pradesh) in October last have formulated an idea on how the honey bees can be effectively used to keep elephant at bay. As a result, a DPR has recently been given a final shape. The humming tone produced by honey bees is actually ultrasound which is much unpalatable for the elephant. Such buzzing sound can only be heard by an elephant. It is this advantage that led the African scientists to devise a technique to use beehives as an effective guard and even profitable way to keep away elephants, said Professor S S Shaw (Entomology), who was part of the expert team at Solan. Shaw is a director (Instructions) in Indira Gandhi Agriculture University, Raipur. The practical knowledge and exposure of South African scientists and farmers on using beehive fences have been incorporated in the DPR. The surveys by the university too found that the herds of wild tuskers didnt venture close to places where the beehives exist on trees. Practically they were effective and the success rate as high as over 80 percent. Local materials can be sourced to build beehives that can be placed as barriers along the designated borderlines of crops or human habitats. Eight affected states -- Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Bihar, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Goa, Jharkhand and Assam -- will be joining the project that will work on network mode, Shaw told Express. In Chhattisgarh, the project will be operated in northeast districts of Jashpur, Korba and Raigarh where herds of wild elephants frequently haunts the region. The cost of the beehive fencing project per centre is likely to be Rs 50-60 lakhs for a period of three years, it was told. By Express News Service CHANDIGARH:The chief electoral officer of Punjab went into an overdrive, after the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced the schedule for Assembly polls in the State. Soon after the announcement, V K Singh imposed a Model Code of Conduct across the State with immediate effect. With 50 companies (over 5,000 personnel) of paramilitary forces reaching the State and 50 more expected soon, he instructed the government to remove all photos of political leaders from advertisements, as preparations for the much anticipated Assembly polls are underway. Singh said that it was for the first time that 35 high profile and sensitive constituencies would have EVM machines attached with VVPAT (Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail) in which every vote cast would have a printed record. Two apps, Samadhan and Suvidha, were also launched for the elections. The complaints registered in Samadhan would be addressed within 24 hours. In Suvidha, candidates can apply for permissions for rallies that would be dealt online within 24 hours. Strict action would be taken against persons carrying more than `50,000, Singh said. Surveillance teams and flying squads are operational across the State to check the misuse of money power, liquor and narcotics. More than 100 observers will reach the State on January 18 to oversee the poll process, he added. Singh said the elections to 117 assembly constituencies in Punjab would be held on February 4. The last date for filing nominations would be January 18 while scrutiny of nominations would be done on January 19. The date of withdrawal of candidature has been fixed for January 21 whereas the date of counting is March 11. Sources said the government was also asked not to give any advertisements and to remove hoardings across the State. Ministers have been asked to use their official vehicles only for travelling to their office from their residence. The VVIPs in Z-plus and Z category security cover, however, are allowed to use official vehicles. The government had asked for 500 companies of paramilitary forces for peaceful polling in Punjab. Sources said the EC had sent instructions for posting police officers as the State government had sent a list of 20 IAS and 40 IPS officers to the EC CHANDIGARH:The chief electoral officer of Punjab went into an overdrive, after the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced the schedule for Assembly polls in the State. Soon after the announcement, V K Singh imposed a Model Code of Conduct across the State with immediate effect. With 50 companies (over 5,000 personnel) of paramilitary forces reaching the State and 50 more expected soon, he instructed the government to remove all photos of political leaders from advertisements, as preparations for the much anticipated Assembly polls are underway. Singh said that it was for the first time that 35 high profile and sensitive constituencies would have EVM machines attached with VVPAT (Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail) in which every vote cast would have a printed record. Two apps, Samadhan and Suvidha, were also launched for the elections. The complaints registered in Samadhan would be addressed within 24 hours. In Suvidha, candidates can apply for permissions for rallies that would be dealt online within 24 hours. Strict action would be taken against persons carrying more than `50,000, Singh said. Surveillance teams and flying squads are operational across the State to check the misuse of money power, liquor and narcotics. More than 100 observers will reach the State on January 18 to oversee the poll process, he added. Singh said the elections to 117 assembly constituencies in Punjab would be held on February 4. The last date for filing nominations would be January 18 while scrutiny of nominations would be done on January 19. The date of withdrawal of candidature has been fixed for January 21 whereas the date of counting is March 11. Sources said the government was also asked not to give any advertisements and to remove hoardings across the State. Ministers have been asked to use their official vehicles only for travelling to their office from their residence. The VVIPs in Z-plus and Z category security cover, however, are allowed to use official vehicles. The government had asked for 500 companies of paramilitary forces for peaceful polling in Punjab. Sources said the EC had sent instructions for posting police officers as the State government had sent a list of 20 IAS and 40 IPS officers to the EC By ANI JABALPUR: As many as two persons, including Congress leader Raju Mishra were shot dead by unidentified gunmen last night in Cherital area of Madhya Pradeshs Jabalpur. The other victim has been identified as Kukku Sardar. It was around 10 at night when the assailants opened indiscriminate firing at the victims, completing a total of 14 rounds. It is being said the victims were standing at a food stall when the attackers started firing from behind. The police have recovered bullets and blood samples from the incident site. A forensic enquiry has also been launched into the matter. The police are trying to know the motive behind the incident. Sources said, the aggressors had come to attack Kukku, but targeted Raju as well on finding him there. JABALPUR: As many as two persons, including Congress leader Raju Mishra were shot dead by unidentified gunmen last night in Cherital area of Madhya Pradeshs Jabalpur. The other victim has been identified as Kukku Sardar. It was around 10 at night when the assailants opened indiscriminate firing at the victims, completing a total of 14 rounds. It is being said the victims were standing at a food stall when the attackers started firing from behind. The police have recovered bullets and blood samples from the incident site. A forensic enquiry has also been launched into the matter. The police are trying to know the motive behind the incident. Sources said, the aggressors had come to attack Kukku, but targeted Raju as well on finding him there. Namita Bajpai By Express News Service LUCKNOW: A day after the Election Commission announced the dates for five poll-bound states including Uttar Pradesh, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) released the first list of its 100 of 403 candidates here on Thursday. UP will have a seven-phase election starting from February 11, 2017. All the 100 names figuring in the list released by BSP president Mayawati are from Western UP which will go to polls in the first phase on February 11. As BSP has decided to go it alone in the election to 403 Assembly constituencies in UP, this list of 100 gives a fair idea of partys strategy to focus on Dalit-Muslim combo in UP West. According to the list, the party has given tickets to over 37 Muslim candidates, 50 upper caste leaders and also some sitting MLAs, including Muzaffarnagar riot accused and SP MLA from Charthawal Noor Saleem Rana. Earlier on Tuesday, BSP chief had given a detailed caste-wise breakup of her candidates according to which the party would be fielding 97 Muslim, 113 upper castes, 106 backward castes and 87 Dalits in the upcoming UP elections. The BSP, being main opposition in poll-bound UP, had taken the lead in finalising party candidates for the upcoming assembly elections much earlier, however, it had planned to make the candidate list public only after the proclamation of schedule by the Election Commission. In western UP, over 20 Assembly constituencies have fairly huge chunk -- 55-60 per cent of Muslim electorate. As per 2001 census, the total population of UP West is over 5.5 crore of which Muslims constitute 26 per cent and majority Hindus 72 per cent. This share of Muslim population in western UP is higher than their overall --19 per cent --in the states population. Notably, In western Uttar Pradesh, communal divide seems to be more conspicuous as compared to the other regions of the state. In 2014 General Elections, Muzaffarnagar riots played a crucial deciding factor leading to the polarisation of Hindu votes in favour of BJP in a major way. In the first phase, while BSP and Samajwadi Party would fight for Muslim electorate in the region, the BJP would targeted the consolidated Hindu votes in its favour. LUCKNOW: A day after the Election Commission announced the dates for five poll-bound states including Uttar Pradesh, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) released the first list of its 100 of 403 candidates here on Thursday. UP will have a seven-phase election starting from February 11, 2017. All the 100 names figuring in the list released by BSP president Mayawati are from Western UP which will go to polls in the first phase on February 11. As BSP has decided to go it alone in the election to 403 Assembly constituencies in UP, this list of 100 gives a fair idea of partys strategy to focus on Dalit-Muslim combo in UP West. According to the list, the party has given tickets to over 37 Muslim candidates, 50 upper caste leaders and also some sitting MLAs, including Muzaffarnagar riot accused and SP MLA from Charthawal Noor Saleem Rana. Earlier on Tuesday, BSP chief had given a detailed caste-wise breakup of her candidates according to which the party would be fielding 97 Muslim, 113 upper castes, 106 backward castes and 87 Dalits in the upcoming UP elections. The BSP, being main opposition in poll-bound UP, had taken the lead in finalising party candidates for the upcoming assembly elections much earlier, however, it had planned to make the candidate list public only after the proclamation of schedule by the Election Commission. In western UP, over 20 Assembly constituencies have fairly huge chunk -- 55-60 per cent of Muslim electorate. As per 2001 census, the total population of UP West is over 5.5 crore of which Muslims constitute 26 per cent and majority Hindus 72 per cent. This share of Muslim population in western UP is higher than their overall --19 per cent --in the states population. Notably, In western Uttar Pradesh, communal divide seems to be more conspicuous as compared to the other regions of the state. In 2014 General Elections, Muzaffarnagar riots played a crucial deciding factor leading to the polarisation of Hindu votes in favour of BJP in a major way. In the first phase, while BSP and Samajwadi Party would fight for Muslim electorate in the region, the BJP would targeted the consolidated Hindu votes in its favour. Namita Bajpai By Express News Service LUCKNOW: BSP chief Mayawatis first list for 100 seats of Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls is dominated by Muslim candidates who have got over 35 per cent of tickets. Having finalised the candidates much in advance, the list released to the media a day after the announcement of dates for the elections, has names of candidates from western UP. With a sizeable population of the minority community, this part of the State will go to polls in the first and second phases on February 11 and 15. BSPs first list clearly reflects its tested formula of social engineering, this time based on Muslim-Dalit combination, especially in western UP. Here, by and large, Muslims constitute 26 per cent of the population, higher than their total share in UPs population 19 per cent. In some districts like Moradabad, they even comprise 50 per cent of the population. BSP chief Mayawati In western UP, the communal divide has always been more obvious than any other region. In the 2014 LS elections, the Muzaffarnagar riots played a crucial role leading to polarisation of Hindu votes in favour of the BJP in a major way. In the first phase, while BSP and SP would fight for the Muslim electorate in the region, the BJP would target the consolidated Hindu votes. According to the list, the BSP has given a maximum of 37 tickets to Muslim candidates. Among others, 27 upper caste candidates, including 17 Brahmins and eight Thakurs, have been given the ticket apart from 20 OBCs, who account for 45 per cent of the States population. Besides, 16 Dalit candidates are in the fray. The prominent Muslim face in the list includes Qazim Ali Khan from Swar constituency in Rampur. Khan, who switched loyalty from Congress last year, is considered a strong rival of Samajwadi Party strongman and Cabinet minister Azam Khan in the west UP district. Sitting SP MLA and Muzaffarnagar riots accused from Charthalwal, Noor Saleem Rana, and Haji Yakub Qureshi from Meerut, Ali Yusuf Ali from Chamaruwa, Mohammad Islam Khan from Gunnaur and Syyeda Begum from Budhana in Muzaffarnagar have also been given tickets. In the 2012 elections, the blue brigade had won 30 seats of these 100. Springing a surprise, Mayawati dropped 10 of her sitting MLAs from the region in the ensuing elections. While four defected MLAs were replaced with new faces, six loyal ones were also dropped for reasons best known to her. On the contrary, if winnability was the criteria for ticket distribution, as claimed by a senior party leader, nine defeated candidates have been repeated in the current list. Mayawatis close confidante and BSPs Brahmin face Ramveer Upadhyay has been shifted from Sikandra Rao to Sadabad. His brother Mukul is also a party candidate from Shikarpur in Bulandshahr this time. Besides, fortune has smiled on the three Yadavs.BSP eyes UP Maya with 35 per cent Muslim candidates in its first list LUCKNOW: BSP chief Mayawatis first list for 100 seats of Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls is dominated by Muslim candidates who have got over 35 per cent of tickets. Having finalised the candidates much in advance, the list released to the media a day after the announcement of dates for the elections, has names of candidates from western UP. With a sizeable population of the minority community, this part of the State will go to polls in the first and second phases on February 11 and 15. BSPs first list clearly reflects its tested formula of social engineering, this time based on Muslim-Dalit combination, especially in western UP. Here, by and large, Muslims constitute 26 per cent of the population, higher than their total share in UPs population 19 per cent. In some districts like Moradabad, they even comprise 50 per cent of the population. BSP chief Mayawati In western UP, the communal divide has always been more obvious than any other region. In the 2014 LS elections, the Muzaffarnagar riots played a crucial role leading to polarisation of Hindu votes in favour of the BJP in a major way. In the first phase, while BSP and SP would fight for the Muslim electorate in the region, the BJP would target the consolidated Hindu votes. According to the list, the BSP has given a maximum of 37 tickets to Muslim candidates. Among others, 27 upper caste candidates, including 17 Brahmins and eight Thakurs, have been given the ticket apart from 20 OBCs, who account for 45 per cent of the States population. Besides, 16 Dalit candidates are in the fray. The prominent Muslim face in the list includes Qazim Ali Khan from Swar constituency in Rampur. Khan, who switched loyalty from Congress last year, is considered a strong rival of Samajwadi Party strongman and Cabinet minister Azam Khan in the west UP district. Sitting SP MLA and Muzaffarnagar riots accused from Charthalwal, Noor Saleem Rana, and Haji Yakub Qureshi from Meerut, Ali Yusuf Ali from Chamaruwa, Mohammad Islam Khan from Gunnaur and Syyeda Begum from Budhana in Muzaffarnagar have also been given tickets. In the 2012 elections, the blue brigade had won 30 seats of these 100. Springing a surprise, Mayawati dropped 10 of her sitting MLAs from the region in the ensuing elections. While four defected MLAs were replaced with new faces, six loyal ones were also dropped for reasons best known to her. On the contrary, if winnability was the criteria for ticket distribution, as claimed by a senior party leader, nine defeated candidates have been repeated in the current list. Mayawatis close confidante and BSPs Brahmin face Ramveer Upadhyay has been shifted from Sikandra Rao to Sadabad. His brother Mukul is also a party candidate from Shikarpur in Bulandshahr this time. Besides, fortune has smiled on the three Yadavs.BSP eyes UP Maya with 35 per cent Muslim candidates in its first list Anand ST Das By Express News Service PATNA: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday showered praise on Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for the prohibition drive in the state and the grand success of Prakashotsav as the two leaders shared the stage for the first time after demonetisation. Addressing a large crowd at Gandhi Maidan comprising mainly of Sikhs drawn from around the country and abroad for Prakashotsav, the 350th birth anniversary celebrations of Guru Gobind Singh, Modi was expansive in his admiration of Kumars initiatives. Minutes before this, Kumar also briefly praised Modi for maintaining prohibition in Gujarat. Modis praise of Kumar caught political circles by surprise and renewed speculation about the two leaders inching closer, especially after Kumars support for demonetisation despite his party JD(U)s strong reservations. I congratulate Nitishjee from my heart for his campaign for prohibition. Bringing reform in society is a very difficult task. It is also difficult to even touch it. But despite that, the way he has run the campaign for prohibition and the pain he has taken to save the coming generations from addiction is praiseworthy. I congratulate him very much, said Modi. Indicating his desire for nationwide prohibition, Modi added: This is neither Nitish Kumars or Bihars task alone. I urge the people of all sections to make it a success Bihar will become an example. Nitish Kumars campaign will certainly succeed. Kumar, addressing Modi as our honourable prime minister, spoke about Bihars initiatives such as organization of Prakashotsav in Patna, Kalchakra Puja of Buddhists in Bodh Gaya, plans to celebrate the centenary of Mahatma Gandhis freedom and social reform movement in Champaran, and the ongoing implementation of total prohibition. For 12 long years, he (Modi) has ensured maintenance of prohibition in Gujarat, said Kumar. Before delivering their speeches, Kumar and Modi were seen sharing light moments and laughing together as they sat shoulder by shoulder on the dais along with Union ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan, Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal and Bihar Governor Ramnath Kovind. Modi also praised the grand organization of Prakashotsav lavishly, saying the event, though organised in Patna, would send a message of peace and fraternity around the world. I was told he (Kumar) himself came to Gandhi Maidan to personally take stock of the preparations. I congratulate him whole-heartedly, said Modi. RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and his two sons Tej Pratap Yadav and Tejaswi Yadav, both ministers in Bihar government were also present at the venue. On being asked about Modis praise of Kumar for the prohibition drive in Bihar, the RJD chief said: He (Modi) has praised what is true. It is not Nitish Kumar alone who has done this. We all (JD-U allies RJD and Congress) have contributed to its implementation. PATNA: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday showered praise on Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for the prohibition drive in the state and the grand success of Prakashotsav as the two leaders shared the stage for the first time after demonetisation. Addressing a large crowd at Gandhi Maidan comprising mainly of Sikhs drawn from around the country and abroad for Prakashotsav, the 350th birth anniversary celebrations of Guru Gobind Singh, Modi was expansive in his admiration of Kumars initiatives. Minutes before this, Kumar also briefly praised Modi for maintaining prohibition in Gujarat. Modis praise of Kumar caught political circles by surprise and renewed speculation about the two leaders inching closer, especially after Kumars support for demonetisation despite his party JD(U)s strong reservations. I congratulate Nitishjee from my heart for his campaign for prohibition. Bringing reform in society is a very difficult task. It is also difficult to even touch it. But despite that, the way he has run the campaign for prohibition and the pain he has taken to save the coming generations from addiction is praiseworthy. I congratulate him very much, said Modi. Indicating his desire for nationwide prohibition, Modi added: This is neither Nitish Kumars or Bihars task alone. I urge the people of all sections to make it a success Bihar will become an example. Nitish Kumars campaign will certainly succeed. Kumar, addressing Modi as our honourable prime minister, spoke about Bihars initiatives such as organization of Prakashotsav in Patna, Kalchakra Puja of Buddhists in Bodh Gaya, plans to celebrate the centenary of Mahatma Gandhis freedom and social reform movement in Champaran, and the ongoing implementation of total prohibition. For 12 long years, he (Modi) has ensured maintenance of prohibition in Gujarat, said Kumar. Before delivering their speeches, Kumar and Modi were seen sharing light moments and laughing together as they sat shoulder by shoulder on the dais along with Union ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan, Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal and Bihar Governor Ramnath Kovind. Modi also praised the grand organization of Prakashotsav lavishly, saying the event, though organised in Patna, would send a message of peace and fraternity around the world. I was told he (Kumar) himself came to Gandhi Maidan to personally take stock of the preparations. I congratulate him whole-heartedly, said Modi. RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and his two sons Tej Pratap Yadav and Tejaswi Yadav, both ministers in Bihar government were also present at the venue. On being asked about Modis praise of Kumar for the prohibition drive in Bihar, the RJD chief said: He (Modi) has praised what is true. It is not Nitish Kumar alone who has done this. We all (JD-U allies RJD and Congress) have contributed to its implementation. By Express News Service NEW DELHI: Just a month before the upcoming assembly elections in five states, the Supreme Court on Thursday said that a new constitution bench would be constituted at the earliest to decide issues whether people facing trial in serious crime cases can be allowed to contest and at which stage of trial, a lawmaker would stand be disqualified. At present, a person, convicted in a serious criminal case, is barred from contesting polls and a lawmaker stands disqualified in the event of conviction "We must clarify this matter so that people know the law by next election," a bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar said while considering the submission that these issues needed to be decided at the earliest as many dreaded criminals, against whom charges have been framed by courts in serious cases, are planning to contest upcoming Assembly polls. Senior advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for lawyer and Delhi BJP spokesperson Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, mentioned the PIL on the issue for urgent hearing on grounds including that many people, facing trial in serious cases, may contest and win elections and hence the legal questions needed to be settled. Upadhyay, in his application seeking setting up of a larger bench, said, "At present, more than 33 per cent legislators have criminal cases and Election Commission data shows that criminalisation is increasing every subsequent year. This trend is not good for a healthy democracy." A three-judge bench had on March 8 last year, referred various PILs including the one filed by Upadhyay to the CJI saying the questions like can a lawmaker, facing criminal trial, be disqualified at conviction stage or at the framing of charge in a case have to be decided by a larger bench. Election Commission has told the Supreme Court that it must be made mandatory for the candidates to disclose their sources of income along with that of their spouse and dependents at the time of filing nomination to bring transparency in the election process. The poll panel also sought amendment in the Representation of the People Act to make sure that a candidate is disqualified not only when he has an existing contract with the government but also when any member of his family has a similar financial agreement. NEW DELHI: Just a month before the upcoming assembly elections in five states, the Supreme Court on Thursday said that a new constitution bench would be constituted at the earliest to decide issues whether people facing trial in serious crime cases can be allowed to contest and at which stage of trial, a lawmaker would stand be disqualified. At present, a person, convicted in a serious criminal case, is barred from contesting polls and a lawmaker stands disqualified in the event of conviction "We must clarify this matter so that people know the law by next election," a bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar said while considering the submission that these issues needed to be decided at the earliest as many dreaded criminals, against whom charges have been framed by courts in serious cases, are planning to contest upcoming Assembly polls. Senior advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for lawyer and Delhi BJP spokesperson Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, mentioned the PIL on the issue for urgent hearing on grounds including that many people, facing trial in serious cases, may contest and win elections and hence the legal questions needed to be settled. Upadhyay, in his application seeking setting up of a larger bench, said, "At present, more than 33 per cent legislators have criminal cases and Election Commission data shows that criminalisation is increasing every subsequent year. This trend is not good for a healthy democracy." A three-judge bench had on March 8 last year, referred various PILs including the one filed by Upadhyay to the CJI saying the questions like can a lawmaker, facing criminal trial, be disqualified at conviction stage or at the framing of charge in a case have to be decided by a larger bench. Election Commission has told the Supreme Court that it must be made mandatory for the candidates to disclose their sources of income along with that of their spouse and dependents at the time of filing nomination to bring transparency in the election process. The poll panel also sought amendment in the Representation of the People Act to make sure that a candidate is disqualified not only when he has an existing contract with the government but also when any member of his family has a similar financial agreement. Vikram Sharma By Express News Service AZAMAGARH : Though intelligence sources suggest that elements within the banned SIMI and Zakir Naiks IRF are poised to forge closer links, Shahid Badr Falahi, who was the president of the student outfit when it was banned in 2001, rejects the claims. Shahid Badr Falahi There is no such SIMI-IRF understanding. Nor is there any new radical outfit going to be formed. As per the rules in SIMI, a member becomes automatically ineligible to continue after turning 30. In the IRF, no such rules exist. We are different from each other, he told Express. A Unani doctor from Azamgarh, Falahi said Naik had come to Azamgarh in 2012 for the golden jubilee celebrations of the seminary Jamiatul Falah. The IRF shouldnt have been banned. Every Islamic organisation that works for betterment of the community is not a terrorist organisation, just like SIMI was not a terror outfit, he said. Asked whether the Indian Mujahideen was an offshoot of SIMI, Falahi said, What is the Indian Mujahideen? Who are its members? Who is its founder? This is a creation of the Intelligence Bureau to harass Muslim youth. Theres not a shred of evidence to prove something called IM even exists, he said. Falahi refuted reports that the SIMI is still active despite the ban. Had they been active, why are police not arresting them? Im still fighting to ensure that the ban on SIMI is revoked and I will continue to fight this battle legally till my death. SIMI is not a terrorist organisation, he asserted. AZAMAGARH : Though intelligence sources suggest that elements within the banned SIMI and Zakir Naiks IRF are poised to forge closer links, Shahid Badr Falahi, who was the president of the student outfit when it was banned in 2001, rejects the claims. Shahid Badr Falahi There is no such SIMI-IRF understanding. Nor is there any new radical outfit going to be formed. As per the rules in SIMI, a member becomes automatically ineligible to continue after turning 30. In the IRF, no such rules exist. We are different from each other, he told Express. A Unani doctor from Azamgarh, Falahi said Naik had come to Azamgarh in 2012 for the golden jubilee celebrations of the seminary Jamiatul Falah. The IRF shouldnt have been banned. Every Islamic organisation that works for betterment of the community is not a terrorist organisation, just like SIMI was not a terror outfit, he said. Asked whether the Indian Mujahideen was an offshoot of SIMI, Falahi said, What is the Indian Mujahideen? Who are its members? Who is its founder? This is a creation of the Intelligence Bureau to harass Muslim youth. Theres not a shred of evidence to prove something called IM even exists, he said. Falahi refuted reports that the SIMI is still active despite the ban. Had they been active, why are police not arresting them? Im still fighting to ensure that the ban on SIMI is revoked and I will continue to fight this battle legally till my death. SIMI is not a terrorist organisation, he asserted. By ANI NEW DELHI: Venting out its ire against the Centres demonetisation move and the arrest of party MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay in the Rose Valley chit-fund scam, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Thursday took their protest to the Prime Ministers Office (PMO) and raised slogans of 'Modi hatao desh bachao'. The protesting TMC leaders were detained by the police. We have gathered here to protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modisa demonetisation and the political vendetta against the Trinamool Congress. We are not concerned of what the BJP says. Our protest will go on, TMC leader Saugata Roy told the media here. Accusing the Centre of indulging in political vendetta, Roy earlier in the day said that his party cannot be cowed down by the threats and actions of the BJP-led NDA regime and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Our protest is to show that we cannot be cowed down by the threats and the actions of the Central Government and the CBI. As far as West Bengal is concerned, there have been some spontaneous protests against the arrest of our Lok Sabha leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay. But our main movement is against demonetisation, which has harmed the common people and put them to terrible difficulty, he added. Meanwhile, a BJP delegation comprising of party leaders Kailash Vijaywargiya, Sidharth Nath Singh and Rahul Sinha met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to submit a memorandum against the alleged violence in West Bengal. The TMC workers yesterday blocked the National Highway-2 near Asansol in protest against the arrest of the TMC MP besides agitating in front of the BJP office in central Kolkata. The TMC has alleged that Bandyopadhyays arrest is an example of vendetta politics by the Centre. The CBI earlier on January 3 arrested Bandyopadhyay in connection with the Rose Valley chit-fund scam. This came after TMC MP and actor-politician Tapas Paul was arrested by the CBI in the same case. NEW DELHI: Venting out its ire against the Centres demonetisation move and the arrest of party MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay in the Rose Valley chit-fund scam, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Thursday took their protest to the Prime Ministers Office (PMO) and raised slogans of 'Modi hatao desh bachao'. The protesting TMC leaders were detained by the police. We have gathered here to protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modisa demonetisation and the political vendetta against the Trinamool Congress. We are not concerned of what the BJP says. Our protest will go on, TMC leader Saugata Roy told the media here. Accusing the Centre of indulging in political vendetta, Roy earlier in the day said that his party cannot be cowed down by the threats and actions of the BJP-led NDA regime and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Our protest is to show that we cannot be cowed down by the threats and the actions of the Central Government and the CBI. As far as West Bengal is concerned, there have been some spontaneous protests against the arrest of our Lok Sabha leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay. But our main movement is against demonetisation, which has harmed the common people and put them to terrible difficulty, he added. Meanwhile, a BJP delegation comprising of party leaders Kailash Vijaywargiya, Sidharth Nath Singh and Rahul Sinha met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to submit a memorandum against the alleged violence in West Bengal. The TMC workers yesterday blocked the National Highway-2 near Asansol in protest against the arrest of the TMC MP besides agitating in front of the BJP office in central Kolkata. The TMC has alleged that Bandyopadhyays arrest is an example of vendetta politics by the Centre. The CBI earlier on January 3 arrested Bandyopadhyay in connection with the Rose Valley chit-fund scam. This came after TMC MP and actor-politician Tapas Paul was arrested by the CBI in the same case. By Express News Service NEW DELHI: A day after the announcement of the poll schedule for five states, Opposition parties on Thursday approached the Election Commission (EC) with a plea that the Union Budget, to be announced just three days before polling begins, must be rescheduled. The Congress, Trinamool, Samajwadi Party, BSP, Janata Dal (U) and RJD met the EC to push for deferring the Budget which, they said, would give the government an unfair advantage ahead of the State elections. Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said there can be no concession to any political party and it is against the Constitution and the ideal of democracy. We said that to ensure fair elections, the Budget must be deferred to after the election results on March 11. Party leader Anand Sharma said the presentation of the Budget prior to the elections would seek to a vitiate free and fair mandate. It is the mandate of the EC to ensure that no situation arises that may vitiate free and fair polls. We have already informed President Pranab Mukherjee about the issue, he said. The ruling BJP termed it a non-issue and slammed the Opposition for politicising the governments constitutional duty. The Budget is a constitutional duty of the government and not related to any one State. The presentation of the Budget is not a sudden decision, rather it was decided beforehand with prior information to the stakeholders, said Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. The simple solution is to present the Budget after March 8 and get it passed before March 31. We are optimistic, said Trinamool Congress leader Derek OBrien, who tweeted about the meeting in the morning, saying the Budget date is too close to the polls. Elections will be held in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand and Manipur from February 4 to March 8. Opposition parties claim the government can sway voters with announcements in the Budget. In 2012, when the same states were up for election, the Budget, usually announced on the last working day in February, was moved to mid-March after voting was completed. The incumbent government has decided to advance the date of the General Budget to ensure proposals take effect from April 1. NEW DELHI: A day after the announcement of the poll schedule for five states, Opposition parties on Thursday approached the Election Commission (EC) with a plea that the Union Budget, to be announced just three days before polling begins, must be rescheduled. The Congress, Trinamool, Samajwadi Party, BSP, Janata Dal (U) and RJD met the EC to push for deferring the Budget which, they said, would give the government an unfair advantage ahead of the State elections. Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said there can be no concession to any political party and it is against the Constitution and the ideal of democracy. We said that to ensure fair elections, the Budget must be deferred to after the election results on March 11. Party leader Anand Sharma said the presentation of the Budget prior to the elections would seek to a vitiate free and fair mandate. It is the mandate of the EC to ensure that no situation arises that may vitiate free and fair polls. We have already informed President Pranab Mukherjee about the issue, he said. The ruling BJP termed it a non-issue and slammed the Opposition for politicising the governments constitutional duty. The Budget is a constitutional duty of the government and not related to any one State. The presentation of the Budget is not a sudden decision, rather it was decided beforehand with prior information to the stakeholders, said Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. The simple solution is to present the Budget after March 8 and get it passed before March 31. We are optimistic, said Trinamool Congress leader Derek OBrien, who tweeted about the meeting in the morning, saying the Budget date is too close to the polls. Elections will be held in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand and Manipur from February 4 to March 8. Opposition parties claim the government can sway voters with announcements in the Budget. In 2012, when the same states were up for election, the Budget, usually announced on the last working day in February, was moved to mid-March after voting was completed. The incumbent government has decided to advance the date of the General Budget to ensure proposals take effect from April 1. Both Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe are in denial in the face of a growing perception that their SLFP-UNP coalition is losing support due to inconsistent policies, internal contradictions and drastic actions taken by a coterie without due consultations. Following the recent resignation of Minister Piyankara Jayaratne and a claim by the Opposition led by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa that ten more will quit, Sirisena assured anxiety-ridden UNP MPs that his party, the SLFP, will not scuttle the government. He banned his partymen from having any truck with Rajapaksas faction which goes as the Joint Opposition and Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna. UNP leader and PM Wickemesinghe has pooh-poohed Rajapaksas boast that he will topple the government this year as a pipe dream. But such posturing has not changed public perception that the regime is inherently weak and divided. Its reluctance to hold polls for local bodies for the past year and a half is cited as proof. Sirisena has also challenged Wickremesinghes decision to give 80 per cent stake in the Hambantota harbour to a Chinese company and grant 15,000 acres of land on a 99-year lease. Since coming to power, Sirisena has overturned a host of taxation proposals and opposed the hauling of military officers on corruption charges. But Sirisenas firefighting has not shored up the image of a regime seen as directionless and indecisive. While issues such as high taxation and rise in prices have alienated the majority Sinhalese, the lack of concern for commitments made have alienated the minorities, whose en masse support had enabled him to win the presidency. The Tamils feel wartime issues have not been addressed. Return of seized lands is tardy and there is no sign of the promised provincial autonomy. The Muslims feel radical Buddhist monks are being deliberately encouraged to abuse them. Both Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe are in denial in the face of a growing perception that their SLFP-UNP coalition is losing support due to inconsistent policies, internal contradictions and drastic actions taken by a coterie without due consultations. Following the recent resignation of Minister Piyankara Jayaratne and a claim by the Opposition led by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa that ten more will quit, Sirisena assured anxiety-ridden UNP MPs that his party, the SLFP, will not scuttle the government. He banned his partymen from having any truck with Rajapaksas faction which goes as the Joint Opposition and Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna. UNP leader and PM Wickemesinghe has pooh-poohed Rajapaksas boast that he will topple the government this year as a pipe dream. But such posturing has not changed public perception that the regime is inherently weak and divided. Its reluctance to hold polls for local bodies for the past year and a half is cited as proof. Sirisena has also challenged Wickremesinghes decision to give 80 per cent stake in the Hambantota harbour to a Chinese company and grant 15,000 acres of land on a 99-year lease. Since coming to power, Sirisena has overturned a host of taxation proposals and opposed the hauling of military officers on corruption charges. But Sirisenas firefighting has not shored up the image of a regime seen as directionless and indecisive. While issues such as high taxation and rise in prices have alienated the majority Sinhalese, the lack of concern for commitments made have alienated the minorities, whose en masse support had enabled him to win the presidency. The Tamils feel wartime issues have not been addressed. Return of seized lands is tardy and there is no sign of the promised provincial autonomy. The Muslims feel radical Buddhist monks are being deliberately encouraged to abuse them. By Express News Service KERALA: LDF gained an upper-hand in the local body by-elections, the results of which were announced on Thursday. Out of the 15 local body wards where the elections were held, LDF won nine seats, BJP retained three seats, UDF bagged two seats while Kerala Congress (M) which contested on its own, after deserting UDF, won a seat. In LDF, CPM won seven seats and CPI won two while the Congress and the Muslim League shared one each in UDF. KASARGOD The CPI wrested the Majbail ward of Meenja Panchayat from the BJP in the by-election held on Wednesday. It was clear that the UDF voters, a minority in Majbail, did not want the BJP to win, and cast their ballots for the CPI as UDF got only 17 votes. The CPI's P Shantarama Shetty defeated the BJP's Chandrahara Alva by 133 votes and the Muslim League's Hassan Kunju received only 17 votes. The UDF came third with 80 votes. The 15-member Meenja Gram Panchayat Council is controlled by the UDF, with seven members. Post the byelection, the LDF and the BJP are even with four members each. KOTTAYAM Kerala Congress (M) recorded its first electoral victory as an independent block in the State politics after it severed ties with UDF based on the decisions of Charalkunnu camp. It won the by-election held at Thekkummury ward of Mutholi Panchayat in the Pala Assembly Constituency. KC (M) candidate P R Sasi secured the seat for a majority of 71 votes in four cornered contest. While Sasi got 365 votes, his nearest competitor, C P Raju of Congress could gain only 294. The candidate of CPM, in its sitting seat, gained only 43 votes. Following the victory, KC (M) gained independent majority in the 13-member Panchayat Council with seven members. KOLLAM BJP candidate B Shylaja won Thevally in the Kollam Corporation by securing 1,274 votes of the 3,278 votes polled. The LDF's N S Bindu came second with 874 votes and UDF's S Lakshmi was pushed to the third position with 657 votes. PALAKKAD In Thenkara panchayat, C Usha of the Congress wrested the ward from the LDF by a margin of 18 votes. In Ambazhakode ward of Kottopadam Panchayat held by the LDF, the UDF candidate Ghafoor Kotturthazath of Muslim League won by a margin of 48 votes. In the eighth ward of the Mankara Panchayat, which is held by the Congress candidate KK Dhan, VK Shibu of CPM won by a margin of 31 votes. The share of votes of the BJP declined by more than 20 votes vis a vis the last election in the Thenkara and Kottopadam Panchayats where the UDF won. KANNUR In the bypolls held Padana in Dharmadam Panchayat, LDF candidate Rameshan won by 999 votes. While BJP candidate Jayadeep got 57 votes, the Congress candidate Sujith managed to get just 39 votes. At Mottammal in Kannapuram Panchayat, the CPM candidate U Mohanan won by defeating the BJP candidate Sumesh by 462 votes. The UDF which had received 165 votes in the last election was pushed to third position with a mere 105 votes. However the biggest setback for Congress came in Rajagiri ward of Cherupuzha Panchayat as Lali Thomas of CPM clinched the seat by nine votes. With this, CPM equaled the Congresss tally of eight in the 19 member governing body. Congress, however, had the support of a Congress rebel. Reportedly, CPM has its eyes set on two members from Kerala Congress (M). However despite the loss, BJP had something to smile, as they made grounds in the red bastion by coming second in two of the wards. Surprisingly the Congress, which had substantial votes in these wards were pushed down. PATHANAMTHITTA Thankappan Pillai of BJP won the fourth ward of Ranni-Pazhavangadi Panchayat. KOZHIKODE LDF and BJP retained the wards. At Mariyapuram ward in Thiruvambadi CPM candidate Ramla Chola retained the ward with a margin of 424 votes. ERNAKULAM BJP candidate Haridas Narayanan won in the 10th ward of Kuvappadi Panchayat by 70 votes. ALAPPUZHA Anitha Prasad of CPM has won in the by election of the Cherukalikayal ward of the Kainakari panchayat and Nija Anilkumar of CPI won in the Anandeswram ward of the Purakkad panchayat. KERALA: LDF gained an upper-hand in the local body by-elections, the results of which were announced on Thursday. Out of the 15 local body wards where the elections were held, LDF won nine seats, BJP retained three seats, UDF bagged two seats while Kerala Congress (M) which contested on its own, after deserting UDF, won a seat. In LDF, CPM won seven seats and CPI won two while the Congress and the Muslim League shared one each in UDF. KASARGOD The CPI wrested the Majbail ward of Meenja Panchayat from the BJP in the by-election held on Wednesday. It was clear that the UDF voters, a minority in Majbail, did not want the BJP to win, and cast their ballots for the CPI as UDF got only 17 votes. The CPI's P Shantarama Shetty defeated the BJP's Chandrahara Alva by 133 votes and the Muslim League's Hassan Kunju received only 17 votes. The UDF came third with 80 votes. The 15-member Meenja Gram Panchayat Council is controlled by the UDF, with seven members. Post the byelection, the LDF and the BJP are even with four members each. KOTTAYAM Kerala Congress (M) recorded its first electoral victory as an independent block in the State politics after it severed ties with UDF based on the decisions of Charalkunnu camp. It won the by-election held at Thekkummury ward of Mutholi Panchayat in the Pala Assembly Constituency. KC (M) candidate P R Sasi secured the seat for a majority of 71 votes in four cornered contest. While Sasi got 365 votes, his nearest competitor, C P Raju of Congress could gain only 294. The candidate of CPM, in its sitting seat, gained only 43 votes. Following the victory, KC (M) gained independent majority in the 13-member Panchayat Council with seven members. KOLLAM BJP candidate B Shylaja won Thevally in the Kollam Corporation by securing 1,274 votes of the 3,278 votes polled. The LDF's N S Bindu came second with 874 votes and UDF's S Lakshmi was pushed to the third position with 657 votes. PALAKKAD In Thenkara panchayat, C Usha of the Congress wrested the ward from the LDF by a margin of 18 votes. In Ambazhakode ward of Kottopadam Panchayat held by the LDF, the UDF candidate Ghafoor Kotturthazath of Muslim League won by a margin of 48 votes. In the eighth ward of the Mankara Panchayat, which is held by the Congress candidate KK Dhan, VK Shibu of CPM won by a margin of 31 votes. The share of votes of the BJP declined by more than 20 votes vis a vis the last election in the Thenkara and Kottopadam Panchayats where the UDF won. KANNUR In the bypolls held Padana in Dharmadam Panchayat, LDF candidate Rameshan won by 999 votes. While BJP candidate Jayadeep got 57 votes, the Congress candidate Sujith managed to get just 39 votes. At Mottammal in Kannapuram Panchayat, the CPM candidate U Mohanan won by defeating the BJP candidate Sumesh by 462 votes. The UDF which had received 165 votes in the last election was pushed to third position with a mere 105 votes. However the biggest setback for Congress came in Rajagiri ward of Cherupuzha Panchayat as Lali Thomas of CPM clinched the seat by nine votes. With this, CPM equaled the Congresss tally of eight in the 19 member governing body. Congress, however, had the support of a Congress rebel. Reportedly, CPM has its eyes set on two members from Kerala Congress (M). However despite the loss, BJP had something to smile, as they made grounds in the red bastion by coming second in two of the wards. Surprisingly the Congress, which had substantial votes in these wards were pushed down. PATHANAMTHITTA Thankappan Pillai of BJP won the fourth ward of Ranni-Pazhavangadi Panchayat. KOZHIKODE LDF and BJP retained the wards. At Mariyapuram ward in Thiruvambadi CPM candidate Ramla Chola retained the ward with a margin of 424 votes. ERNAKULAM BJP candidate Haridas Narayanan won in the 10th ward of Kuvappadi Panchayat by 70 votes. ALAPPUZHA Anitha Prasad of CPM has won in the by election of the Cherukalikayal ward of the Kainakari panchayat and Nija Anilkumar of CPI won in the Anandeswram ward of the Purakkad panchayat. By Express News Service CHENNAI: The Leader of Opposition in the Assembly and DMKs new working president M K Stalin on Wednesday had a 25-minute meeting with Chief Minister O Panneerselvam at the Secretariat. The meeting marks a the beginning of a new, inclusive political culture. Sources said this was a first of its kind interaction in decades as the Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition had always been confrontational. Newly minted working president of the DMK, M K Stalin along with other party leaders, calling on Chief Minister O Panneerselvam at the Secretariat on Wednesday | Express During the previous terms of Assembly, the head of the government and the leader of the main opposition would even avoid making eye contact in the House. Emerging from the Chief Ministers chamber, Stalin said he took up two main issues relating to drought and uncertainty over jallikattu with the Chief Minister. I urged the CM to convene a special session of the House to pass a resolution to declare the State as drought-hit. I appealed to him to exert pressure on the Centre to expedite steps to enable the conduct of jallikattu, he told reporters. CHENNAI: The Leader of Opposition in the Assembly and DMKs new working president M K Stalin on Wednesday had a 25-minute meeting with Chief Minister O Panneerselvam at the Secretariat. The meeting marks a the beginning of a new, inclusive political culture. Sources said this was a first of its kind interaction in decades as the Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition had always been confrontational. Newly minted working president of the DMK, M K Stalin along with other party leaders, calling on Chief Minister O Panneerselvam at the Secretariat on Wednesday | Express During the previous terms of Assembly, the head of the government and the leader of the main opposition would even avoid making eye contact in the House. Emerging from the Chief Ministers chamber, Stalin said he took up two main issues relating to drought and uncertainty over jallikattu with the Chief Minister. I urged the CM to convene a special session of the House to pass a resolution to declare the State as drought-hit. I appealed to him to exert pressure on the Centre to expedite steps to enable the conduct of jallikattu, he told reporters. Debjani Dutta By Express News Service PUDUCHERRY: The turf war between lieutenant governor Kiran Bedi and chief minister V Narayanasamy is becoming more intense with the former cancelling the chief ministers order banning official communication on social media. In her order issued through the lieutenant governors secretariat on Thursday, she declared the circular dated Jan 2, 2017 of the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms (Personnel Wing with the subject, Public Services- use of social media Instruction issued) as null and void with immediate effect. The circular has been issued in contravention of guidelines, rules and policies in force, she stated. If Puducherry has to be a progressive UT it cannot be retrograde in communications, observed Bedi in her twitter posting. She posted the order issued by her as well as the order issued by the chief minister, on twitter and tagged the PMO office. This exertion of authority by the lieutenant governor comes after the chief minister acted against the lieutenant governors favourite modes of communication with the officials through various Whatsapp groups. Reportedly, Narayanasamy was opposed to the directions issued to government officials through the social media as it bypassed the official hierarchy. On several occasions, the chief minister or the concerned minister had no knowledge of the order issued. He even raised the matter with the bureaucracy at chief secretariat a few months back, but the bureaucracy sat on the fence as they were confused on whose order they should take. Now after the bureaucracy were perturbed with the mode of handling of the case involving Senior PCS officer A S Sivakumar for posting pornographic video on a WhatsApp group of the lieutenant governor, they approached chief minister for help. Finding this as an opportunity to get rid of social media communication and draw the bureaucracy on to his side, he obliged by issuing the order directing all government officers, officials and employees of societies, organisations run by government to desist from use of social media for official work. The order was justified by citing Violation of Official Secrets Act and also against the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Information Technology, Government of India. Since the servers of these social media are based outside the country, foreign country can access the confidential communications and documents uploaded, it stated. The order also stated that no groups should be formed on social media for official communication and the officials should not be members of any such groups. They were also directed to not interact with seniors bypassing the administrative hierarchy and routine official channel. The order cautioned officials that violation of the order would mean disciplinary action. As a consequence, all officials right from chief secretary had exited from the official Whatsapp groups of the Lieutenant governor. Faced with revolt from the administration, the lieutenant governor rushed to New Delhi, called on Union home minister Rajnath Singh and minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju. It is speculated that after discussing the issue with them and minister for information technology Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday, she issued orders nullifying the chief ministers order. PUDUCHERRY: The turf war between lieutenant governor Kiran Bedi and chief minister V Narayanasamy is becoming more intense with the former cancelling the chief ministers order banning official communication on social media. In her order issued through the lieutenant governors secretariat on Thursday, she declared the circular dated Jan 2, 2017 of the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms (Personnel Wing with the subject, Public Services- use of social media Instruction issued) as null and void with immediate effect. The circular has been issued in contravention of guidelines, rules and policies in force, she stated. If Puducherry has to be a progressive UT it cannot be retrograde in communications, observed Bedi in her twitter posting. She posted the order issued by her as well as the order issued by the chief minister, on twitter and tagged the PMO office. This exertion of authority by the lieutenant governor comes after the chief minister acted against the lieutenant governors favourite modes of communication with the officials through various Whatsapp groups. Reportedly, Narayanasamy was opposed to the directions issued to government officials through the social media as it bypassed the official hierarchy. On several occasions, the chief minister or the concerned minister had no knowledge of the order issued. He even raised the matter with the bureaucracy at chief secretariat a few months back, but the bureaucracy sat on the fence as they were confused on whose order they should take. Now after the bureaucracy were perturbed with the mode of handling of the case involving Senior PCS officer A S Sivakumar for posting pornographic video on a WhatsApp group of the lieutenant governor, they approached chief minister for help. Finding this as an opportunity to get rid of social media communication and draw the bureaucracy on to his side, he obliged by issuing the order directing all government officers, officials and employees of societies, organisations run by government to desist from use of social media for official work. The order was justified by citing Violation of Official Secrets Act and also against the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Information Technology, Government of India. Since the servers of these social media are based outside the country, foreign country can access the confidential communications and documents uploaded, it stated. The order also stated that no groups should be formed on social media for official communication and the officials should not be members of any such groups. They were also directed to not interact with seniors bypassing the administrative hierarchy and routine official channel. The order cautioned officials that violation of the order would mean disciplinary action. As a consequence, all officials right from chief secretary had exited from the official Whatsapp groups of the Lieutenant governor. Faced with revolt from the administration, the lieutenant governor rushed to New Delhi, called on Union home minister Rajnath Singh and minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju. It is speculated that after discussing the issue with them and minister for information technology Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday, she issued orders nullifying the chief ministers order. By PTI BEIJING: India has "broken" UN limits on nuclear arms and long-range missiles and Pakistan should also be accorded the same "privilege", state-run Chinese media said today as it criticised New Delhi for carrying out Agni-4 and 5 missile tests whose range covers the Chinese mainland. "India has broken the UN's limits on its development of nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missile," the ruling Communist Party-run tabloid Global Times said in its editorial. "The US and some Western countries have also bent the rules on its nuclear plans. New Delhi is no longer satisfied with its nuclear capability and is seeking intercontinental ballistic missiles that can target anywhere in the world and then it can land on an equal footing with the UN Security Council's five permanent members," it said. "India is 'promising' in vying for permanent membership on the UN Security Council as it is the sole candidate who has both nuclear capability and economic potential," it said. "China should realise that Beijing wouldn't hold back India's development of long-range ballistic missiles," it said apparently highlighting China's limitations in restricting India developing a nuclear and missile deterrence against Chinese military power. Agni-5, a 5,000-km range intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), is widely regarded as a strategic missile targeted at China as it can reach almost all parts of the Chinese mainland. The editorial said that "Chinese don't feel India's development has posed any big threat to it". The daily known for its sabre-rattling rhetoric said "India wouldn't be considered as China's main rival in the long run" due to vast disparity of in power between the two countries. But at the same time it suggested that the "best choice for Beijing and New Delhi is to build rapport". However, while accusing India of violating limits imposed by UN on nuclear and long range missile development, "if the Western countries accept India as a nuclear country and are indifferent to the nuclear race between India and Pakistan, China will not stand out and stick rigidly to those nuclear rules as necessary", it said. "At this time, Pakistan should have those privileges in nuclear development that India has," it said, indicating that China which shared an all-weather ties with Islamabad will back it if it develops long-range missiles. "In general, it is not difficult for India to produce intercontinental ballistic missiles which can cover the whole world. If the UN Security Council has no objection over this, let it be. The range of Pakistan's nuclear missiles will also see an increase. If the world can adapt to these, China should too," it said. The references to violation of UN rules by the daily were significant as the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying while reacting to India's Agni-5 missile test said on December 27 that "on whether India can develop this ballistic missile that can carry nuclear weapons, I think relevant resolutions of the UNSC have clear rules". BEIJING: India has "broken" UN limits on nuclear arms and long-range missiles and Pakistan should also be accorded the same "privilege", state-run Chinese media said today as it criticised New Delhi for carrying out Agni-4 and 5 missile tests whose range covers the Chinese mainland. "India has broken the UN's limits on its development of nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missile," the ruling Communist Party-run tabloid Global Times said in its editorial. "The US and some Western countries have also bent the rules on its nuclear plans. New Delhi is no longer satisfied with its nuclear capability and is seeking intercontinental ballistic missiles that can target anywhere in the world and then it can land on an equal footing with the UN Security Council's five permanent members," it said. "India is 'promising' in vying for permanent membership on the UN Security Council as it is the sole candidate who has both nuclear capability and economic potential," it said. "China should realise that Beijing wouldn't hold back India's development of long-range ballistic missiles," it said apparently highlighting China's limitations in restricting India developing a nuclear and missile deterrence against Chinese military power. Agni-5, a 5,000-km range intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), is widely regarded as a strategic missile targeted at China as it can reach almost all parts of the Chinese mainland. The editorial said that "Chinese don't feel India's development has posed any big threat to it". The daily known for its sabre-rattling rhetoric said "India wouldn't be considered as China's main rival in the long run" due to vast disparity of in power between the two countries. But at the same time it suggested that the "best choice for Beijing and New Delhi is to build rapport". However, while accusing India of violating limits imposed by UN on nuclear and long range missile development, "if the Western countries accept India as a nuclear country and are indifferent to the nuclear race between India and Pakistan, China will not stand out and stick rigidly to those nuclear rules as necessary", it said. "At this time, Pakistan should have those privileges in nuclear development that India has," it said, indicating that China which shared an all-weather ties with Islamabad will back it if it develops long-range missiles. "In general, it is not difficult for India to produce intercontinental ballistic missiles which can cover the whole world. If the UN Security Council has no objection over this, let it be. The range of Pakistan's nuclear missiles will also see an increase. If the world can adapt to these, China should too," it said. The references to violation of UN rules by the daily were significant as the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying while reacting to India's Agni-5 missile test said on December 27 that "on whether India can develop this ballistic missile that can carry nuclear weapons, I think relevant resolutions of the UNSC have clear rules". By Associated Press RIO DE JANEIRO: After days of silence, Brazilian President Michel Temer said on Thursday that the killing of 60 inmates in two Amazon prisons was a "dreadful accident" and that public agencies have no clear responsibility because the prison where most died was run by a private company. Four prisons in the Northern state of Amazonas saw riots Sunday and Monday and one of them suffered the worst bloodshed at a prison of the South American country since 1992, with half of the slain beheaded and several others also dismembered. "The prison was outsourced and privatized and therefore there was not an objective, clear and defined responsibility of the public agents," Temer said at a Cabinet meeting in the capital, Brasilia. Claudio Lamachia, the chairman of Brazil's bar association, disagreed. "The fact that the prison was run by a third party does not exempt the public agents from surveilling, following up and policing the facility," Lamachia told The Associated Press. The Amazonas section of the bar association is suing the state government, accusing it of negligence, and a judge has given state Gov. Jose Melo until the end of the week to respond to the accusation. If courts determine the governor was negligent, he potentially could be ousted. State authorities say the incident began when local Family of the North gang attacked members of Sao Paulo-based First Command, Brazil's biggest criminal organization. The two fight over the control of prisons and drug routes in northern Brazil. Temer also promised to build five prisons to address overcrowding nationwide. He did not detail where those would be placed. A total of 184 inmates escaped from Amazonas prisons in the disturbances. Only 65 had been recaptured as of Thursday afternoon, according to police. RIO DE JANEIRO: After days of silence, Brazilian President Michel Temer said on Thursday that the killing of 60 inmates in two Amazon prisons was a "dreadful accident" and that public agencies have no clear responsibility because the prison where most died was run by a private company. Four prisons in the Northern state of Amazonas saw riots Sunday and Monday and one of them suffered the worst bloodshed at a prison of the South American country since 1992, with half of the slain beheaded and several others also dismembered. "The prison was outsourced and privatized and therefore there was not an objective, clear and defined responsibility of the public agents," Temer said at a Cabinet meeting in the capital, Brasilia. Claudio Lamachia, the chairman of Brazil's bar association, disagreed. "The fact that the prison was run by a third party does not exempt the public agents from surveilling, following up and policing the facility," Lamachia told The Associated Press. The Amazonas section of the bar association is suing the state government, accusing it of negligence, and a judge has given state Gov. Jose Melo until the end of the week to respond to the accusation. If courts determine the governor was negligent, he potentially could be ousted. State authorities say the incident began when local Family of the North gang attacked members of Sao Paulo-based First Command, Brazil's biggest criminal organization. The two fight over the control of prisons and drug routes in northern Brazil. Temer also promised to build five prisons to address overcrowding nationwide. He did not detail where those would be placed. A total of 184 inmates escaped from Amazonas prisons in the disturbances. Only 65 had been recaptured as of Thursday afternoon, according to police. By AFP ISTANBUL: A car bomb exploded outside a courthouse in the western Turkish city of Izmir on Thursday, wounding at least 10 people and sparking clashes in which at least two "terrorists" were killed, officials and reports said. Several ambulances were rushed to the scene after the blast outside the prosecutors and judges' entrance to the court in the usually peaceful city on the Aegean Sea, the channel said. Police then clashed with "terrorists" during which two of them were killed and one escaped, according to state-run Anatolia news agency. The mayor of the local Bayrakli municipality, Hassan Karabag, told NTV television that at least 10 people were wounded, one of them seriously. The wounded were taken to hospital as police secured the scene. The blast came after a gunman stormed an Istanbul nightclub killing 39 people during New Year celebrations on Sunday. In connection with that attack, authorities had on Tuesday detained 20 adults -- along with 20 of their children -- from three families in Izmir, Turkey's third largest city. As is customary after such attacks in Turkey, the authorities slapped a broadcast ban on images from the incident, state-run Anadolu news agency reported. ISTANBUL: A car bomb exploded outside a courthouse in the western Turkish city of Izmir on Thursday, wounding at least 10 people and sparking clashes in which at least two "terrorists" were killed, officials and reports said. Several ambulances were rushed to the scene after the blast outside the prosecutors and judges' entrance to the court in the usually peaceful city on the Aegean Sea, the channel said. Police then clashed with "terrorists" during which two of them were killed and one escaped, according to state-run Anatolia news agency. The mayor of the local Bayrakli municipality, Hassan Karabag, told NTV television that at least 10 people were wounded, one of them seriously. The wounded were taken to hospital as police secured the scene. The blast came after a gunman stormed an Istanbul nightclub killing 39 people during New Year celebrations on Sunday. In connection with that attack, authorities had on Tuesday detained 20 adults -- along with 20 of their children -- from three families in Izmir, Turkey's third largest city. As is customary after such attacks in Turkey, the authorities slapped a broadcast ban on images from the incident, state-run Anadolu news agency reported. By PTI NEW YORK: Former USAID head Rajiv J Shah is set to be named as president of the Rockefeller Foundation, one of America's largest and most influential philanthropies, becoming the youngest person and the first Indian-American to lead the group. "Thrilled & very proud to be named the next @RockefellerFdn president," Shah, 43, tweeted yesterday. A report in the New York Times said the Rockefeller Foundation will today name Shah to succeed Judith Rodin, who has been president for 12 years. The appointment will make Shah one of the "most powerful forces in charitable giving" overseeing a foundation that donates roughly USD 200 million each year, the report added. The selection will make Shah the youngest person and the first Indian-American to lead the Rockefeller Foundation, which was founded in 1913 by the oil tycoon John D Rockefeller. "I've seen what's possible when people come together," Shah said in an interview to NYT this week. "We were able to save tens of thousands, if not millions, of lives". The NYT quoted Shah as saying that he was committed to the broad themes of resilience and inclusive economies. "That core concept of resilience is extraordinarily important going forward," he said. "It gives us the opportunity to evolve into the future". Shah added that he would look for opportunities to address divisions in the American electorate in the current political scenario. "It is a different time today than it was 10 or 15 years ago. We live in a more fractured world," he said in the NYT report. NEW YORK: Former USAID head Rajiv J Shah is set to be named as president of the Rockefeller Foundation, one of America's largest and most influential philanthropies, becoming the youngest person and the first Indian-American to lead the group. "Thrilled & very proud to be named the next @RockefellerFdn president," Shah, 43, tweeted yesterday. A report in the New York Times said the Rockefeller Foundation will today name Shah to succeed Judith Rodin, who has been president for 12 years. The appointment will make Shah one of the "most powerful forces in charitable giving" overseeing a foundation that donates roughly USD 200 million each year, the report added. The selection will make Shah the youngest person and the first Indian-American to lead the Rockefeller Foundation, which was founded in 1913 by the oil tycoon John D Rockefeller. "I've seen what's possible when people come together," Shah said in an interview to NYT this week. "We were able to save tens of thousands, if not millions, of lives". The NYT quoted Shah as saying that he was committed to the broad themes of resilience and inclusive economies. "That core concept of resilience is extraordinarily important going forward," he said. "It gives us the opportunity to evolve into the future". Shah added that he would look for opportunities to address divisions in the American electorate in the current political scenario. "It is a different time today than it was 10 or 15 years ago. We live in a more fractured world," he said in the NYT report. By AFP JAKARTA: Indonesia is setting up an agency that will tackle fake news after a flood of untrue stories on social media, an official said on Thursday, including claims that China was waging biological warfare against the country using contaminated chilli seeds. The new cyber agency will also seek to protect state institutions from hackers, said presidential spokesman Johan Budi. Chief Security Minister Wiranto said that the move was necessary to combat a flood of news on social media that was "slanderous, fake, misleading and spread hate". "Freedom (of speech) is a right in a democracy but there is also an obligation to obey the law," he said. Officials said among the agency's tasks would be to monitor news circulating online to check for false stories. It will be overseen by the security ministry and will work alongside other government agencies, they said, without giving further details. It came after President Joko Widodo declared his intention at a cabinet meeting in December to combat fake news in a country where people are rapidly getting online for the first time, with over 130 million out of 255 million inhabitants now estimated to be internet users. One of the most high-profile cases in recent times was a false claim circulating on social media in December that Beijing was seeking to wage biological warfare against Indonesia, after a true story that four Chinese citizens were arrested for using imported chilli seeds infected with bacteria on a farm south of Jakarta. The Chinese embassy in Jakarta was forced to issue a statement saying that the reports were "misleading and have caused great concerns". Another fake story that spread online said that millions of Chinese workers had entered Indonesia to replace local workers. It comes as anti-Chinese sentiment is running high with Jakarta's ethnic Chinese governor standing trial for alleged blasphemy. Indonesian internet expert Nukman Luthfie said he hoped the new agency would not breach people's privacy, but added it was too early to tell. "It would be really unfortunate if it was going to be used to monitor public discussions because that's people's right," he said. There has been growing global concern about the spread of fake news, with some critics claiming a flood of false stories circulating online may have helped brash billionaire Donald Trump win the US election. JAKARTA: Indonesia is setting up an agency that will tackle fake news after a flood of untrue stories on social media, an official said on Thursday, including claims that China was waging biological warfare against the country using contaminated chilli seeds. The new cyber agency will also seek to protect state institutions from hackers, said presidential spokesman Johan Budi. Chief Security Minister Wiranto said that the move was necessary to combat a flood of news on social media that was "slanderous, fake, misleading and spread hate". "Freedom (of speech) is a right in a democracy but there is also an obligation to obey the law," he said. Officials said among the agency's tasks would be to monitor news circulating online to check for false stories. It will be overseen by the security ministry and will work alongside other government agencies, they said, without giving further details. It came after President Joko Widodo declared his intention at a cabinet meeting in December to combat fake news in a country where people are rapidly getting online for the first time, with over 130 million out of 255 million inhabitants now estimated to be internet users. One of the most high-profile cases in recent times was a false claim circulating on social media in December that Beijing was seeking to wage biological warfare against Indonesia, after a true story that four Chinese citizens were arrested for using imported chilli seeds infected with bacteria on a farm south of Jakarta. The Chinese embassy in Jakarta was forced to issue a statement saying that the reports were "misleading and have caused great concerns". Another fake story that spread online said that millions of Chinese workers had entered Indonesia to replace local workers. It comes as anti-Chinese sentiment is running high with Jakarta's ethnic Chinese governor standing trial for alleged blasphemy. Indonesian internet expert Nukman Luthfie said he hoped the new agency would not breach people's privacy, but added it was too early to tell. "It would be really unfortunate if it was going to be used to monitor public discussions because that's people's right," he said. There has been growing global concern about the spread of fake news, with some critics claiming a flood of false stories circulating online may have helped brash billionaire Donald Trump win the US election. By PTI ISLAMABAD: Claiming that Kashmir was an "integral part" of Pakistan, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif today needled India yet again by praising slain Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani as a "vibrant and charismatic leader". Addressing the inaugural ceremony of a two-day international parliamentary seminar on Kashmir here, Sharif also praised the spirit and determination of the Kashmiri people for their struggle for the right to self-determination. "Our hearts beat and sink with our Kashmiri brethren," Radio Pakistan quoted Sharif as saying. The world needs to tell India that "enough is enough" with regard to its policy towards Kashmir, he said, while asserting that Kashmir is an "integral part" of Pakistan. He claimed the "martyrdom of vibrant and charismatic Kashmiri leader Burhan Wani has given a new turn to the Kashmiri movement". Sharif regretted the "Indian aggression" against Kashmiri people in the wake of protests triggered by the killing of Wani by security forces on July 8. Sharif said supporting the Kashmiri struggle for their right to self-determination is faith of every Pakistani. He said Pakistan will continue to extend moral, political and diplomatic support to the Kashmiri people in their indigenous struggle and continue to shake the conscience of the international community for their rights. Sharif said Pakistan had sent special envoys to important countries to sensitise them about the situation in Kashmir. He said that he personally raised the dispute in his address to the UN General Assembly session. Referring to the four points he presented before the UN, Sharif once again urged the world community to make all out efforts for the realisation of the promise it made to the Kashmiri people seventy years ago. He said the UNSC resolutions should be implemented and the continued sufferings of Kashmiri people must come to an end now. Sharif while addressing a joint session of Parliament in October last year had praised Wani, drawing a strong reaction from India which said this shows Pakistan's attachment to terrorism. He had also praised the militant during his address to the UN General Assembly on September 21, describing him as a "young leader". India had strongly criticised Sharif's speech at the UN, describing it as an act of "self-incrimination" by Pakistan. Speaking at today's seminar, Sharif's Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said that Kashmir issue "is a stigma on the international process". He said both Kashmir and Palestine are the two longest unresolved items on the UNSC agenda. He pointed out relentless struggle is continuing despite the hardest measures adopted by India. ISLAMABAD: Claiming that Kashmir was an "integral part" of Pakistan, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif today needled India yet again by praising slain Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani as a "vibrant and charismatic leader". Addressing the inaugural ceremony of a two-day international parliamentary seminar on Kashmir here, Sharif also praised the spirit and determination of the Kashmiri people for their struggle for the right to self-determination. "Our hearts beat and sink with our Kashmiri brethren," Radio Pakistan quoted Sharif as saying. The world needs to tell India that "enough is enough" with regard to its policy towards Kashmir, he said, while asserting that Kashmir is an "integral part" of Pakistan. He claimed the "martyrdom of vibrant and charismatic Kashmiri leader Burhan Wani has given a new turn to the Kashmiri movement". Sharif regretted the "Indian aggression" against Kashmiri people in the wake of protests triggered by the killing of Wani by security forces on July 8. Sharif said supporting the Kashmiri struggle for their right to self-determination is faith of every Pakistani. He said Pakistan will continue to extend moral, political and diplomatic support to the Kashmiri people in their indigenous struggle and continue to shake the conscience of the international community for their rights. Sharif said Pakistan had sent special envoys to important countries to sensitise them about the situation in Kashmir. He said that he personally raised the dispute in his address to the UN General Assembly session. Referring to the four points he presented before the UN, Sharif once again urged the world community to make all out efforts for the realisation of the promise it made to the Kashmiri people seventy years ago. He said the UNSC resolutions should be implemented and the continued sufferings of Kashmiri people must come to an end now. Sharif while addressing a joint session of Parliament in October last year had praised Wani, drawing a strong reaction from India which said this shows Pakistan's attachment to terrorism. He had also praised the militant during his address to the UN General Assembly on September 21, describing him as a "young leader". India had strongly criticised Sharif's speech at the UN, describing it as an act of "self-incrimination" by Pakistan. Speaking at today's seminar, Sharif's Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said that Kashmir issue "is a stigma on the international process". He said both Kashmir and Palestine are the two longest unresolved items on the UNSC agenda. He pointed out relentless struggle is continuing despite the hardest measures adopted by India. By Reuters SINGAPORE: Singapore prosecutors on Thursday filed 16 charges against the local branch manager of Swiss-based Falcon Private Bank AG, as part of an ongoing investigation tied to scandal-hit state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB). The bank, which is also under investigation at home, was the second Swiss lender whose Singaporean unit was ordered to cease operations last year after BSI Bank Ltd. The action came as the city-state tried to repair the reputation of its financial centre which played host to some 1MDB-related activity. 1MDB, founded by Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak, is the subject of money laundering investigations in at least six countries, including Switzerland, Singapore and the United States. U.S. investigators traced nearly $700 million that was sent from an account at Falcon in Singapore in 2013 to accounts in Malaysia belonging to "Malaysian Official 1", which U.S. and Malaysian officials have told Reuters refers to Najib. Najib, who also chaired 1MDB's advisory board, has denied wrongdoing and said Malaysia will cooperate with international investigations. 1MDB has also denied wrongdoing. In Singapore on Thursday, prosecutors filed 10 charges of providing false information, five charges of failing to disclose suspicious information and one charge of failing to submit suspicious transactions against Swiss national Jens Sturzenegger, who headed Falcon's local branch. Falcon is owned by Abu Dhabi's International Petroleum Investment Co PJSC. The charge sheet states Sturzenegger, who was arrested in October, gave false information to officials at the Monetary Authority of Singapore and Singapore Police Force's Commercial Affairs Department. In one instance, Sturzenegger said he became aware of Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho through press articles though he knew him "in person", the charge sheet showed. Singapore authorities previously identified the financier, commonly known as Jho Low, as a person of interest in 1MDB-related investigations. Low is also named in civil lawsuits filed by the U.S. Department of Justice, which allege more than $3.5 billion was misappropriated from 1MDB. Authorities in Singapore have frozen Low's assets though the 34-year-old has not been charged with any offence related to 1MDB. Reuters could not reach Low for comment. Falcon's Sturzenegger intends to plead guilty at a hearing on Jan. 11, his lawyer Tan Hee Joek from Tan See Swan & Co told the court. It was not immediately clear on which charges he would plead guilty. Singapore last year jailed three ex-BSI bankers, seized assets and sanctioned several lenders in what it has called its most complex, sophisticated and largest money-laundering case. SINGAPORE: Singapore prosecutors on Thursday filed 16 charges against the local branch manager of Swiss-based Falcon Private Bank AG, as part of an ongoing investigation tied to scandal-hit state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB). The bank, which is also under investigation at home, was the second Swiss lender whose Singaporean unit was ordered to cease operations last year after BSI Bank Ltd. The action came as the city-state tried to repair the reputation of its financial centre which played host to some 1MDB-related activity. 1MDB, founded by Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak, is the subject of money laundering investigations in at least six countries, including Switzerland, Singapore and the United States. U.S. investigators traced nearly $700 million that was sent from an account at Falcon in Singapore in 2013 to accounts in Malaysia belonging to "Malaysian Official 1", which U.S. and Malaysian officials have told Reuters refers to Najib. Najib, who also chaired 1MDB's advisory board, has denied wrongdoing and said Malaysia will cooperate with international investigations. 1MDB has also denied wrongdoing. In Singapore on Thursday, prosecutors filed 10 charges of providing false information, five charges of failing to disclose suspicious information and one charge of failing to submit suspicious transactions against Swiss national Jens Sturzenegger, who headed Falcon's local branch. Falcon is owned by Abu Dhabi's International Petroleum Investment Co PJSC. The charge sheet states Sturzenegger, who was arrested in October, gave false information to officials at the Monetary Authority of Singapore and Singapore Police Force's Commercial Affairs Department. In one instance, Sturzenegger said he became aware of Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho through press articles though he knew him "in person", the charge sheet showed. Singapore authorities previously identified the financier, commonly known as Jho Low, as a person of interest in 1MDB-related investigations. Low is also named in civil lawsuits filed by the U.S. Department of Justice, which allege more than $3.5 billion was misappropriated from 1MDB. Authorities in Singapore have frozen Low's assets though the 34-year-old has not been charged with any offence related to 1MDB. Reuters could not reach Low for comment. Falcon's Sturzenegger intends to plead guilty at a hearing on Jan. 11, his lawyer Tan Hee Joek from Tan See Swan & Co told the court. It was not immediately clear on which charges he would plead guilty. Singapore last year jailed three ex-BSI bankers, seized assets and sanctioned several lenders in what it has called its most complex, sophisticated and largest money-laundering case. By Associated Press SEOUL: South Korea is accelerating plans to create a special military unit tasked with decapitating North Korea's leadership in the event of war as it looks for options to counter its rival's nuclear weapons and missiles, an official said Thursday. The brigade, which will aim to remove the North's wartime command and paralyze its function if war breaks out, will be launched this year, according to an official from Seoul's Defense Ministry, who refused to be named, citing office rules. The unit was originally planned to be ready by 2019. The official refused to confirm whether the unit will train to execute pre-emptive strikes. The plan was included in Defence Minister Han Min Koo's policy briefing to Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, who took over as government caretaker following President Park Geun-hye's impeachment over a corruption scandal. North Korea conducted two nuclear tests and a slew of rocket test firings last year in attempts to expand its nuclear weapons and missile program. Following the North's latest nuclear test in September, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff announced plans to strengthen its ability to conduct pre-emptive strikes. It also said a "Korea Massive Punishment and Retaliation" system would use special forces and cruise missiles now under development to destroy areas where North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and the rest of the country's decision-makers are located. SEOUL: South Korea is accelerating plans to create a special military unit tasked with decapitating North Korea's leadership in the event of war as it looks for options to counter its rival's nuclear weapons and missiles, an official said Thursday. The brigade, which will aim to remove the North's wartime command and paralyze its function if war breaks out, will be launched this year, according to an official from Seoul's Defense Ministry, who refused to be named, citing office rules. The unit was originally planned to be ready by 2019. The official refused to confirm whether the unit will train to execute pre-emptive strikes. The plan was included in Defence Minister Han Min Koo's policy briefing to Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, who took over as government caretaker following President Park Geun-hye's impeachment over a corruption scandal. North Korea conducted two nuclear tests and a slew of rocket test firings last year in attempts to expand its nuclear weapons and missile program. Following the North's latest nuclear test in September, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff announced plans to strengthen its ability to conduct pre-emptive strikes. It also said a "Korea Massive Punishment and Retaliation" system would use special forces and cruise missiles now under development to destroy areas where North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and the rest of the country's decision-makers are located. Express News Service COLOMBO: Sri Lanka is going to re-negotiate the deal entered into with China on the US$ 1.4 billion Hambantota port, the Minister of Strategic Development and International Trade, Malik Samarawickrama told newspersons here on Thursday. Given the heated public controversy over the grant of 80 percent equity in the port to the state-owned China Merchants Ports Holding Company, and also President Maithripala Sirisenas recent steps to subject the existing deal to a review, the Sri Lankan cabinet has decided to re-negotiate the deal. The cabinet has appointed a committee to discuss the matter with the China Merchants Ports Holding Company and come to an agreement by the end of January, Samarawickrama said. Only a Framework Agreement had been signed thus far, and that eight or nine more agreements are to be negotiated, he said. Samarawickrama denied that he ever said that the entire deal would be wrapped up and signed on January 7, a day before the second anniversary of Sirisenas Presidency. The new cabinet committee will comprise United National Party (UNP) members Samarawickrama, Ravi Karunanayake, and Sagala Ratnayake; and Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) members Nimal Sriplala Silva, Sarath Amunugama, and Arjuna Ranatunga. The two parties represent Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and President Sirisena respectively. Asked if there is a likelihood of the 80 percent stake may be scaled down, Samarwickreme was evasive but he did hint of the possibility. However, he added that under no circumstance Sri Lankas stake will be less than 20 percent. But Prime Minister Wickremesinghe had said on Wednesday that there is no problem with giving 80 percent stake to the Chinese company because through it, a huge debt will be converted into equity. The new committee is a more representative one than the panel which thought of and signed the controversial Framework Agreement which gave the controversial 80 percent stake to the Chinese company and 99-year lease over 15,000 acres of land to build an economic hinterland for the port. The Framework Agreement was not signed by the Posts Minister Arjuna Ranatunga but by two others who had nothing to do with ports. Ranatunga is not averse to giving 80 percent stake to the Chinese company but he does not want the Sri Lanka Ports Authority to lose control over the security of the port. Prime Minister Wickremesinghe is of the view that the security of the port should be in the hands of the joint venture to be formed with the Sri Lankan navy assisting it, as is the case in all major international ports operated by the private sector. It remains to be seen if the UNP and SLFP members ( ie the representatives of the Prime Minister and the President respectively) will pull together in the committee and negotiate with the Chinese as a team. There are strong arguments for and against giving 80 percent stake to the Chinese company. The strongest in favor of it is the conversion of a huge debt into equity when Sri Lanka is hard up for cash and has a balance of payments crisis on its hands. Few countries have come forward to offer it money. As a business editor said that Sri Lanka cannot afford to up its stake in the port from the current 20 percent. The deal is also in line with the governments policy of developing the country by getting FDIs and not burdensome loans. But the argument against the arrangement is that the country will have virtually no control over the port which in course of time might become a national and strategic asset. The Hambantota port will be Chinese and not Sri Lankan. And that could also mean inviting unwanted international strategic interest in the port and converting Sri Lanka into a theater of regional and global rivalries, principally between China and India. COLOMBO: Sri Lanka is going to re-negotiate the deal entered into with China on the US$ 1.4 billion Hambantota port, the Minister of Strategic Development and International Trade, Malik Samarawickrama told newspersons here on Thursday. Given the heated public controversy over the grant of 80 percent equity in the port to the state-owned China Merchants Ports Holding Company, and also President Maithripala Sirisenas recent steps to subject the existing deal to a review, the Sri Lankan cabinet has decided to re-negotiate the deal. The cabinet has appointed a committee to discuss the matter with the China Merchants Ports Holding Company and come to an agreement by the end of January, Samarawickrama said. Only a Framework Agreement had been signed thus far, and that eight or nine more agreements are to be negotiated, he said. Samarawickrama denied that he ever said that the entire deal would be wrapped up and signed on January 7, a day before the second anniversary of Sirisenas Presidency. The new cabinet committee will comprise United National Party (UNP) members Samarawickrama, Ravi Karunanayake, and Sagala Ratnayake; and Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) members Nimal Sriplala Silva, Sarath Amunugama, and Arjuna Ranatunga. The two parties represent Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and President Sirisena respectively. Asked if there is a likelihood of the 80 percent stake may be scaled down, Samarwickreme was evasive but he did hint of the possibility. However, he added that under no circumstance Sri Lankas stake will be less than 20 percent. But Prime Minister Wickremesinghe had said on Wednesday that there is no problem with giving 80 percent stake to the Chinese company because through it, a huge debt will be converted into equity. The new committee is a more representative one than the panel which thought of and signed the controversial Framework Agreement which gave the controversial 80 percent stake to the Chinese company and 99-year lease over 15,000 acres of land to build an economic hinterland for the port. The Framework Agreement was not signed by the Posts Minister Arjuna Ranatunga but by two others who had nothing to do with ports. Ranatunga is not averse to giving 80 percent stake to the Chinese company but he does not want the Sri Lanka Ports Authority to lose control over the security of the port. Prime Minister Wickremesinghe is of the view that the security of the port should be in the hands of the joint venture to be formed with the Sri Lankan navy assisting it, as is the case in all major international ports operated by the private sector. It remains to be seen if the UNP and SLFP members ( ie the representatives of the Prime Minister and the President respectively) will pull together in the committee and negotiate with the Chinese as a team. There are strong arguments for and against giving 80 percent stake to the Chinese company. The strongest in favor of it is the conversion of a huge debt into equity when Sri Lanka is hard up for cash and has a balance of payments crisis on its hands. Few countries have come forward to offer it money. As a business editor said that Sri Lanka cannot afford to up its stake in the port from the current 20 percent. The deal is also in line with the governments policy of developing the country by getting FDIs and not burdensome loans. But the argument against the arrangement is that the country will have virtually no control over the port which in course of time might become a national and strategic asset. The Hambantota port will be Chinese and not Sri Lankan. And that could also mean inviting unwanted international strategic interest in the port and converting Sri Lanka into a theater of regional and global rivalries, principally between China and India. By Associated Press WASHINGTON: The Obama administration has announced terrorism-related sanctions against a son of Sept. 11 mastermind Osama bin Laden. The State Department says Hamza bin Laden has been "determined to have committed, or pose a serious risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security." Hamza bin Laden was officially named an Al-Qaeda member in 2014 by his father's successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri. The State Department says the younger Laden in a 2015 audio message called for acts of terrorism in Western capitals. In an audio message last year, he threatened revenge against the U.S. and warned Americans they would be targeted at home and abroad. Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. special forces in Pakistan in 2011. WASHINGTON: The Obama administration has announced terrorism-related sanctions against a son of Sept. 11 mastermind Osama bin Laden. The State Department says Hamza bin Laden has been "determined to have committed, or pose a serious risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security." Hamza bin Laden was officially named an Al-Qaeda member in 2014 by his father's successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri. The State Department says the younger Laden in a 2015 audio message called for acts of terrorism in Western capitals. In an audio message last year, he threatened revenge against the U.S. and warned Americans they would be targeted at home and abroad. Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. special forces in Pakistan in 2011. By Associated Press WASHINGTON: The U.S.-led military coalition in Iraq has doubled the size of its adviser corps, reflecting the intensified effort to help Iraqi forces retake the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul, a U.S. officer said Wednesday. U.S. Air Force Col. John Dorrian, speaking from coalition headquarters in Baghdad, told reporters at the Pentagon that the adviser corps has expanded to roughly 450 "in the last couple of weeks," since Iraqi forces launched what they call "phase two" of the Mosul campaign. The advisers perform a range of roles, from accompanying Iraqi troops as they move around the battlefield to providing engineering and intelligence support. They are not meant to be involved in direct combat, although they have come under fire at times. One adviser, Navy Chief Petty Officer Jason C. Finan, was killed by a roadside bomb on Oct. 20 near Mosul. Dorrian said that for security reasons he could not disclose advisers' specific locations, but he said they are not on the front line of combat. "They remain behind the forward line of troops," Dorrian said, but added that they have entered the city itself "at different times." The total number of U.S. troops in Iraq is 4,935, by the Pentagon's count. They include trainers, security forces and other support troops. Dorian said the Iraqis were succeeding in putting IS fighters under greater pressure. The militants' capture of Mosul in June 2014 led to the start of the U.S.-led bombing campaign and the return of American troops to advise the Iraqi government and retrain its forces. After lengthy preparations, Iraq launched its campaign to recapture the city in October. Dorrian offered several reasons for the slow pace of their advance. He said the militants have developed well-established defenses in and around the city, and that once Iraqi security forces penetrate them, they have to deal with more than 200,000 buildings that are potential death traps. "You end up having to clear each one," he said. "And that goes from rooftop level, often in four-story or higher buildings, through every single room, and every single closet, and into tunnels that have been dug between these buildings, and sometimes beneath them. And it's just slow-going." Dorrian also said the U.S. government is consulting with Turkish officials about the type and level of military support for Turkey's campaign against IS militants in the Syrian city of al-Bab. The U.S. had previously said it was not supporting that operation. Dorrian said U.S. warplanes recently flew over the city after Turkey requested air support. He said the planes provided a "show of force" but did not drop bombs. Next U.S. steps are under discussion, he said. "The Turks are aware of some of the things that might be in store," he said. The counter-IS campaign has put enormous strain on U.S.-Turkey relations, which were further tested by accusations of U.S. involvement in a failed coup by members of the Turkish military last summer. The Turkish government also is suspicious of U.S. support for Syrian Kurdish fighters, whom the Turks view as terrorists and a threat to Turkey. On Wednesday, Turkey's defense minister, Fikri Isik, suggested that these tensions are putting in doubt the continued use of Turkey's Incirlik air base by U.S. and coalition air forces. Asked about this, Dorrian, the U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said he could not comment directly on Isik's remarks, but he stressed the importance of Incirlik, which hosts American and coalition attack and surveillance aircraft. "It's absolutely invaluable," Dorrian said. "Indeed, you know, really the entire world has been made safer by the operations that have been conducted there. So it's a very important base to the coalition and to the ongoing fight against (the Islamic State)." WASHINGTON: The U.S.-led military coalition in Iraq has doubled the size of its adviser corps, reflecting the intensified effort to help Iraqi forces retake the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul, a U.S. officer said Wednesday. U.S. Air Force Col. John Dorrian, speaking from coalition headquarters in Baghdad, told reporters at the Pentagon that the adviser corps has expanded to roughly 450 "in the last couple of weeks," since Iraqi forces launched what they call "phase two" of the Mosul campaign. The advisers perform a range of roles, from accompanying Iraqi troops as they move around the battlefield to providing engineering and intelligence support. They are not meant to be involved in direct combat, although they have come under fire at times. One adviser, Navy Chief Petty Officer Jason C. Finan, was killed by a roadside bomb on Oct. 20 near Mosul. Dorrian said that for security reasons he could not disclose advisers' specific locations, but he said they are not on the front line of combat. "They remain behind the forward line of troops," Dorrian said, but added that they have entered the city itself "at different times." The total number of U.S. troops in Iraq is 4,935, by the Pentagon's count. They include trainers, security forces and other support troops. Dorian said the Iraqis were succeeding in putting IS fighters under greater pressure. The militants' capture of Mosul in June 2014 led to the start of the U.S.-led bombing campaign and the return of American troops to advise the Iraqi government and retrain its forces. After lengthy preparations, Iraq launched its campaign to recapture the city in October. Dorrian offered several reasons for the slow pace of their advance. He said the militants have developed well-established defenses in and around the city, and that once Iraqi security forces penetrate them, they have to deal with more than 200,000 buildings that are potential death traps. "You end up having to clear each one," he said. "And that goes from rooftop level, often in four-story or higher buildings, through every single room, and every single closet, and into tunnels that have been dug between these buildings, and sometimes beneath them. And it's just slow-going." Dorrian also said the U.S. government is consulting with Turkish officials about the type and level of military support for Turkey's campaign against IS militants in the Syrian city of al-Bab. The U.S. had previously said it was not supporting that operation. Dorrian said U.S. warplanes recently flew over the city after Turkey requested air support. He said the planes provided a "show of force" but did not drop bombs. Next U.S. steps are under discussion, he said. "The Turks are aware of some of the things that might be in store," he said. The counter-IS campaign has put enormous strain on U.S.-Turkey relations, which were further tested by accusations of U.S. involvement in a failed coup by members of the Turkish military last summer. The Turkish government also is suspicious of U.S. support for Syrian Kurdish fighters, whom the Turks view as terrorists and a threat to Turkey. On Wednesday, Turkey's defense minister, Fikri Isik, suggested that these tensions are putting in doubt the continued use of Turkey's Incirlik air base by U.S. and coalition air forces. Asked about this, Dorrian, the U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said he could not comment directly on Isik's remarks, but he stressed the importance of Incirlik, which hosts American and coalition attack and surveillance aircraft. "It's absolutely invaluable," Dorrian said. "Indeed, you know, really the entire world has been made safer by the operations that have been conducted there. So it's a very important base to the coalition and to the ongoing fight against (the Islamic State)." By Associated Press MAIDUGURI, NIGERIA: Soldiers interrogating captured Boko Haram suspects have found one of the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram nearly three years ago, along with her baby, Nigeria's military said Thursday. Nearly 300 girls were kidnapped by the insurgents from a government boarding school in the remote northeastern town of Chibok in April 2014, a mass abduction that shocked the world and brought Boko Haram international attention. Most of the girls remain in captivity. In May, one girl escaped. In October, the government negotiated the release of 21 more. Another girl was freed in November in an army raid on an extremist camp in the Sambisa Forest. Army spokesman Col. Sani Kukasheka Usman identified the latest girl to be freed as Rakiya Abubakar and said she has a 6-month-old baby. He said her identity was discovered when soldiers were interrogating some of more than 1,000 suspects detained in recent weeks of army raids on the Sambisa Forest. The military released a photograph showing Abubakar with mournful eyes, her head covered by a white scarf, and clutching the baby wearing a white beanie cap. Nigeria's government announced that troops two weeks ago destroyed that last stronghold of Boko Haram, and President Muhammadu Buhari declared the extremist group was finally "crushed." That raised questions about the whereabouts of the other Chibok girls, believed held in the forest. Some 196 remained missing before Thursday's discovery, though some of the freed girls have said that several in their group have died from things like malaria and snakebite. Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau issued a video last week to contradict Buhari's assertion that "the terrorists are on the run, and no longer have a place to hide." Shekau declared that the war was just starting and urged his fighters to keep killing, bombing and abducting people. Nigeria's government has been criticized over its treatment of the freed girls, who have been sequestered in Abuja, the capital, allegedly for trauma counseling and rehabilitation. The freed girls insisted on being taken to Chibok for Christmas, but they were kept in the home of a local legislator and prevented from attending Christmas service at their EYN Church of the Brethren, supposedly for security reasons. They were not reunited with their parents until the day after Christmas. Chibok is a small Christian enclave following a branch of the U.S.-based Brethren in mainly Muslim northern Nigeria. Many parents of the girls are translating the Bible into local languages. More than a dozen of the parents have died since their daughters were kidnapped, relatives say from stress-related illnesses. Nigeria's government has said it continues to negotiate with Boko Haram for the release of all of the Chibok girls. But Chibok community leader Pogu Bitrus has told The Associated Press that more than 100 of the girls appear unwilling to leave their Boko Haram captors. He said the unwilling girls may have been radicalized or are ashamed to return home because they were forced to marry extremists and have babies. In captivity, Boko Haram forced the girls to convert to Islam and "married" many of them to fighters. There have been unverified reports that some were carried across borders into Cameroon and Niger and Shekau had threatened to sell some of them into slavery. Boko Haram's seven-year Islamic uprising has killed more than 20,000 people, spread across Nigeria's borders, forced. 2.6 million from their homes and created a massive humanitarian crisis in which the U.N. says 5.1 million people face starvation in northeast Nigeria. Hundreds of innocent victims have died in the hands of the military, Amnesty International has charged, including babies held with suspects detained in military raids on Boko Haram camps. MAIDUGURI, NIGERIA: Soldiers interrogating captured Boko Haram suspects have found one of the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram nearly three years ago, along with her baby, Nigeria's military said Thursday. Nearly 300 girls were kidnapped by the insurgents from a government boarding school in the remote northeastern town of Chibok in April 2014, a mass abduction that shocked the world and brought Boko Haram international attention. Most of the girls remain in captivity. In May, one girl escaped. In October, the government negotiated the release of 21 more. Another girl was freed in November in an army raid on an extremist camp in the Sambisa Forest. Army spokesman Col. Sani Kukasheka Usman identified the latest girl to be freed as Rakiya Abubakar and said she has a 6-month-old baby. He said her identity was discovered when soldiers were interrogating some of more than 1,000 suspects detained in recent weeks of army raids on the Sambisa Forest. The military released a photograph showing Abubakar with mournful eyes, her head covered by a white scarf, and clutching the baby wearing a white beanie cap. Nigeria's government announced that troops two weeks ago destroyed that last stronghold of Boko Haram, and President Muhammadu Buhari declared the extremist group was finally "crushed." That raised questions about the whereabouts of the other Chibok girls, believed held in the forest. Some 196 remained missing before Thursday's discovery, though some of the freed girls have said that several in their group have died from things like malaria and snakebite. Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau issued a video last week to contradict Buhari's assertion that "the terrorists are on the run, and no longer have a place to hide." Shekau declared that the war was just starting and urged his fighters to keep killing, bombing and abducting people. Nigeria's government has been criticized over its treatment of the freed girls, who have been sequestered in Abuja, the capital, allegedly for trauma counseling and rehabilitation. The freed girls insisted on being taken to Chibok for Christmas, but they were kept in the home of a local legislator and prevented from attending Christmas service at their EYN Church of the Brethren, supposedly for security reasons. They were not reunited with their parents until the day after Christmas. Chibok is a small Christian enclave following a branch of the U.S.-based Brethren in mainly Muslim northern Nigeria. Many parents of the girls are translating the Bible into local languages. More than a dozen of the parents have died since their daughters were kidnapped, relatives say from stress-related illnesses. Nigeria's government has said it continues to negotiate with Boko Haram for the release of all of the Chibok girls. But Chibok community leader Pogu Bitrus has told The Associated Press that more than 100 of the girls appear unwilling to leave their Boko Haram captors. He said the unwilling girls may have been radicalized or are ashamed to return home because they were forced to marry extremists and have babies. In captivity, Boko Haram forced the girls to convert to Islam and "married" many of them to fighters. There have been unverified reports that some were carried across borders into Cameroon and Niger and Shekau had threatened to sell some of them into slavery. Boko Haram's seven-year Islamic uprising has killed more than 20,000 people, spread across Nigeria's borders, forced. 2.6 million from their homes and created a massive humanitarian crisis in which the U.N. says 5.1 million people face starvation in northeast Nigeria. Hundreds of innocent victims have died in the hands of the military, Amnesty International has charged, including babies held with suspects detained in military raids on Boko Haram camps. "Which kids may not be getting presents this Christmas", investigates Kaspersky Lab New Delhi [India], Dec 26 : While the world is enjoying this festive season celebrating Christmas and New Year there are expectant children worldwide hoping for presents from Santa Claus for their good behavior, Kaspersky Lab has revealed which countries' children are the worst culprits for risky online behavior over the last 12 months. (Posted on 26 December 2016, 1667553965 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/computer-news.php (Posted on 26 December 2016, 1667553965 173O212O198O32) Based on global statistics for its Parental Control module, the research shows that the most attempts to visit dangerous websites by an underage user were recorded in Israel (775), followed by the UK (460), the US (352), Sweden (345) and Canada (302).The research covers the year from December 2015 to November 2016, and includes data gathered from Kaspersky Lab security solutions for Windows and Mac OS X with the Parental Control module enabled. The statistics are based on the number of attempted visits the module records to sites that fall under the seven preconfigured categories deemed most dangerous for kids by Kaspersky Lab experts. The statistics are presented as the number of attempts per user per year.The results of the research show that children from Japan are most likely to try and visit sites categorized as 'Adult content' (39 attempts) and 'Software, audio, video' (104) the latter category includes sites with unlicensed content.It turns out that young Italians are most interested in gambling (3.6 attempts), while youngsters in Portugal were the most frequent visitors to sites with explicit language (60). Israeli kids showed most interest in alcohol, tobacco and/or narcotics (687 attempts per user) and weapons (3.8), while most attempts to visit violent content sites (1.8) were made by children in the US.In fairness, it should be noted that not all these attempts are deliberate; for example, children can end up on these sites by accidently clicking a banner or a link shared by someone else. Meanwhile, another study conducted by Kaspersky Lab in 2016 and covering 3,780 families in seven countries found that, by their own admission, young Russians and Americans were more likely than other kids to hide evidence of potentially dangerous online activity from their parents, as well as use content that was inappropriate for children."Knowledge is power, as the saying goes, and this is especially true for parents who today have to protect their children from undesirable and sometimes dangerous information in both the real and virtual worlds," comments AltafHalde, Managing Director, South Asia at Kaspersky Lab."A mom or a dad cannot always be next to their kid to prevent a casual encounter with, say, pornographic content or sites promoting drug use. That's why specialized IT solutions are so important in warning parents and helping to prevent children from visiting this type of content."Categories of websites which can be blocked by the Parental Control module in Kaspersky Lab's solutions are: Adult content; Alcohol, tobacco, narcotics; Computer games; E-commerce; Explicit language; Gambling, lotteries, sweepstakes; HTTP query redirection; Internet communication media; Job searches; News media; Religions, religious associations; Software, audio, video; Violence; Weapons, explosives, pyrotechnics.The statistics presented in this press release includes seven categories: Adult content; Alcohol, tobacco, narcotics; Explicit language; Gambling, lotteries, sweepstakes; Software, audio, video; Violence; Weapons, explosives, pyrotechnics. Google dedicates it 'waterproof' doodle to Charles Macintosh! New Delhi , Dec. 29 : Wake up to a chilly morning and sense a bit of rain! (Posted on 29 December 2016, 1667553966 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/computer-news.php (Posted on 29 December 2016, 1667553966 173O212O198O32) That's the exact feeling one will have as soon as he/she starts working on Google today, as it is celebrating the 250th birth anniversary of Scottish chemist Charles Macintosh, inventor of the waterproof material, which led to the making of modern raincoat.Dedicating the doodle today to Macintosh, it shows an animation, where he is seen standing wearing a raincoat and rain droplets all around.Describing the doodle, Google wrote on its website, "It's a wonder how the weather-beaten Brits coped before Scottish chemist Charles Macintosh invented his eponymous waterproof coat. His invention, patented in 1823, came about as he experimented with coal-tar naphtha and rubber and realised they could be fused together with fabric to create a waterproof surface. These days in the U.K., it's common to call any type of raincoat a "Mac".""Today's Doodle shows Macintosh enjoying a Scottish rain shower whilst testing his ingenious invention," it added.Born in Glasgow, was first employed as a clerk. But he devoted all his spare time to science, particularly chemistry, and before he was twenty resigned his clerkship to take up the manufacture of chemicals. This New Year, engage your child with unconventional methods to help them learn better New Delhi , Dec. 30 : New Year calls for a new beginning! (Posted on 30 December 2016, 1667553967 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/special-features.php (Posted on 30 December 2016, 1667553967 173O212O198O32) Another year of growing up brings new challenges, and with a new session approaching, the challenges are plenty.The change of syllabi, new subjects and new course structure makes it difficult for them to adapt easily.Here are a few tips handy for any parent to help their kids adapt to the coming change:Learning in a gamified format making learning fun!CG Slate- It is the perfect learning gadget for a child. With accessible content mapped according to the NCERT syllabi, it offers an ecosystem where learning is as fun as playing! Catering to kids from Kidergarten to Grade 5, CG Slate offers quality content with a play-way approach.Curated content (videos, games, worksheets) for easy understanding!AppyStore: For engaging your kids productively, one can log on to Appystore for the content curated for kids. From learning videos to preschool education to even parenting tips, Appystore has it all!Online learning content for easy access to a vast content!LIV Kids- Sony LIV's newly launched LIV Kids platform helps kids to access kids friendly video content. Kids can learn from the curated content in a fun and easy way.Book learning classes online for booking tutorials!Classboat- It is a marketplace that collaborates with educators and instructors to offer a variety of classes in an easy-to-navigate space. For learners, it's a one-point destination to acquire new skills such as language, cookery skills or even martial arts. Book a course for your child & make them learn better. Debbie really wanted to be with Carrie, opens up son Todd Fisher Washington D.C. [USA], Jan 1 : After the sudden deaths of mother Debbie Reynolds and sister Carrie Fisher, Todd recently opened up about his family's devastating loss. (Posted on 01 January 2017, 1667553967 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/hollywood-news.php (Posted on 01 January 2017, 1667553967 173O212O198O32) "Debbie did not die of a broken heart," Fisher told ABC News' 2020 in an episode that aired Friday. "She just left to be with Carrie," reports People Magazine.The 58-year-old, who was with his mother at the time of her death, described her final hours as he stated, "Debbie said she really wanted to be with Carrie. In those precise words and within 15 minutes from that conversation she faded out and within 30 minutes, she technically was gone.""She started to have a stroke, and she just effectively went to sleep and didn't wake up. She closed her eyes, peacefully like you're going to sleep, and she literally went to sleep and left. My mother, if anybody, had somehow a way to do that, and I watched it happen in front of my face, Todd told host Elizabeth Vargas, I was on her bed with her, and I watched her leave and go to Carrie."Debbie died within a day of the 'Star Wars' actress, who had suffered a heart attack on December 23.The late actresses will be buried next to each other and among friends, including actress Bette Davis and pianist Liberace, at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in L.A.We're brokenhearted, those of us that are left behind. We also are happy that they're together. It's horrible. It's beautiful. It's magical they're together, Todd admitted. It's beyond words. It's beyond understanding. Sorry, that page not found! Please visit our Home Page for latest updates Shimla: No snowfall on New Year Eve leaves tourists disappointed Shimla (Himachal Pradesh) , Jan.2 : After celebrating New Year Eve at the historic Ridge Maidan, the tourist here desperately waited for snow to fall, but were left disappointed. (Posted on 02 January 2017, 1667553968 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/travel-india-news.php (Posted on 02 January 2017, 1667553968 173O212O198O32) Although enjoying the chill and soothing weather, the tourist who visited from different part of the country wasn't very much satisfied as there was no snowfall which is generally expected here at this time of year."Shimla is a nice place to celebrate New Year. This was my first visit to this place. We were expecting snowfall, but could not witness any. So, we are a bit disappointed" said Manpreet Singh, a tourist."We were expecting a bit of snow here, because, after 25 years, there was snowfall on Christmas. But we did not see any snow, so, a bit of disappointment was there. But our experience was good," said Rajiv Shrivastava, another tourist.However, the tourist visiting here still enjoyed the New Year night party and carnival which drew majority of crowd to the place.As per a rough estimate over one lakh tourists visited Shimla on December 31. Renault India registers sales of 11,244 units in December 2016 New Delhi, Jan 2 :Renault India, one of the fastest growing automotive brands in India, on Monday said it has registered a growth of 9.2pc with monthly sales of 11,244units in the month of December 2016 as against 10,292units in the corresponding month last year. (Posted on 02 January 2017, 1667553969 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/automobile-news.php (Posted on 02 January 2017, 1667553969 173O212O198O32) In the calendar year2016, Renault India sold 132,235unitsas against 53,847unitsin the preceding year, thereby registering a cumulative growth of 146%.Sumit Sawhney, Country CEO Managing Director, Renault India Operations said, India is a priority market for Groupe Renault and plays an important role in Renaults international growth. In a short span of time, Renault has grown its presence exponentially, becoming one of the youngest and fastest growing automotive brands and the number one European brand in India. We are on track with a 4.5 percent market share at the end of 2016 achieving a robust three-digit growth over 2015. Our focus for 2017 will be to continue and build on our growth journey, reflecting our long-term commitment to the Indian market. We plan to launch at least one new product every year, over the next 5 years, beginning with some exciting product innovations starting this year. We will continue to build our network this year as well, with strategic measures to make our cars more accessible to customers across the country. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi launches Haj Committee of India mobile app preparations begin for Haj Pilgrimage 2017 New Delhi, Jan 2 : Union Minister of State for Minority Affairs (Independent Charge) and Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi launched Haj Committee of India Mobile App at Haj House in Mumbai on Monday. (Posted on 02 January 2017, 1667553969 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/travel-india-news.php (Posted on 02 January 2017, 1667553969 173O212O198O32) Speaking on the occasion, he said that it is for the first time that Haj application process is going to be digital. This mobile app will available on Google Playstore from on MondayNext Haj has already been announced and application will be accepted from on Monday.The last date for submitting applications is Jan 24.The Ministry of Minority Affairs has joined digital India campaign in a big way, he added. Several processes have been made in this regard.The Centre has been encouraging online applications to ensure fair opportunity for the pilgrimage with complete transparency and comfort.Applying for Haj, enquiry and information, news and updates and e-payment are main features of Haj Committee of India Mobile App. Application for Haj can be made directly from the app. Five adults and two infants can apply together as a group.A PDF copy of the form will go to applicants email. After affixing the photo, the printout with documents is to be sent to the state haj committees. Registration fees can also be made through this app.Naqvi said that last month a new website of Haj was launched in New Delhi. The website is in Hindi, Urdu and English languages which will provide all the necessary information regarding Haj.Naqvi said that the website will also be very useful for those who will be applying for Haj online.The website gives detail information regarding Ministry of Minority Affairs, Haj Department, Haj pilgrimage, rules and regulations on Haj, Haj Committee of India and private tour operators.The website also has Dos and Donts during Haj pilgrimage and also a film informing about various aspects of the pilgrimage.He said that the Central Government and Haj Committee of India have already started preparations to ensure that the next Haj is completely smooth and convenient for the pilgrims.Naqvi said that. several important suggestions have been received on Haj pilgrimage. Discussion have been held with officials of Civil Aviation Ministry to ensure aircrafts with modern facilities for Haj pilgrims.During Haj 2016, about 45,843 people had applied for Haj online which was about 11 per cent of total applications received from across the nation for Haj.Efforts are on to make the process of online application simple and easy so that more and more people can apply online for next Haj pilgrimage. Maharashtra topped in online applications for Haj 2016 with a total of 10,960 people applying online followed by Kerala with 9257 online applications and Uttar Pradesh with 5407; 2983 from Telangana; 2426 from Jammu and Kashmir and 2425 online applications had been received from Gujarat.About 99,903 people went to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for Haj from 21 embarkation points across India through Haj Committee of India during Haj 2016.Apart from this, about 36,000 Haj pilgrims had proceeded for Haj through the private tour operators. SsangYong Motor's 2016 Sales Surpass 150,000 units in 14 Years Seoul, Jan 3 : SsangYong Motor Company, part of the Mahindra Group, on Tuesday announced that the company recorded its highest ever annual sales in 2016 in 14 years, posting a record-high monthly sales in December 2016. (Posted on 03 January 2017, 1667553970 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/automobile-news.php (Posted on 03 January 2017, 1667553970 173O212O198O32) In December 2016, SsangYongs monthly sales hit a record high to 16,705 units, a growth of 10.5% over December 2015. It is the best monthly sales performance in the companys history, driven by its top-selling car Tivoli brand Tivoli and Tivoli Air (export name: XLV).Sales of Tivoli brand exceeded 9,000 units in December for the first since its launch.In 2016, the company also achieved its highest annual sales since 2002 at 155,844 units, up 7.7% compared to 2015. It is the second time that the companys yearly sales surpassed 150,000 units.SsangYongs best year is 2002 when the company sold a total of 160,010 units.The Tivoli brand led this significant growth by selling 85,821 vehicles in 2016, up 34.7% compared to 2015.Sales of the Tivoli brand, which have remained No. 1 in the compact SUV market since its launch in January 2015, surpassed 100,000 units on an accumulated basis on November 20, 2016. It took 23 months to reach the 100,000 mark since its launch, and it is the fastest time for any SsangYong model.Helped by the sales growth of the Tivoli brand models, SsangYongs 2016 domestic sales also rose by 3.9% year-on-year, exceeding 100,000 units in 13 years since 2003 (131,283 units). Furthermore, the company recorded continued sales uptrend for the seventh year in a row.In addition, 2016 exports of the Tivoli brand jumped 54.7% over 2015 thanks to huge popularity in not only Europe and Central and South America but also Iran. It was contributed to SsangYongs overall exports growth of 15.9% year-on-year.SsangYong expects to see a promising future in overseas markets since the company expanded its market from Europe and Central and South America to new emerging market, by entering Southeast Asia, and resuming shipping to Russia. The Middle East including Iran, SsangYongs No. 1 export market in 2016, is also emerging as the main export market.Choi Johng-sik, CEO of SsangYong Motor Company, commented, In 2016, SsangYong achieved the best year in 14 years by selling more than 150,000 vehicles based on the sales growth of the Tivoli brand models, adding, In 2017, we will further strengthen our status as a prestigious global SUV maker by launching a large premium SUV successfully in addition to No.1 compact SUV Tivoli brand. Tata Motors introduces new Tata Xenon Yodha range of pick-ups Mumbai/Kolkata, Jan 3 : Tata Motors on Tuesday launched its first product of the year, the new Tata Xenon Yodha, in the presence of its newly appointed brand ambassador, Akshay Kumar. (Posted on 03 January 2017, 1667553970 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/automobile-news.php (Posted on 03 January 2017, 1667553970 173O212O198O32) Setting new benchmarks in the pick-up segment, the new Tata Xenon Yodha is suitable for a wide range of commercial applications a rugged, comfortable, safe and stylish work horse, characterised by everyday practicality, high levels of performance and lowest operating cost.The Tata Xenon Yodha comes with impressive features that gives it a competitive edge among other pick-ups. The smart pick-up is available in multiple variants 4x2 4x4 and in single double cab options. Powered by a common rail diesel engine, the new Tata Xenon Yodha delivers high power and torque, for varied business requirements, for ease of day-to-day operations.{image_1}The new Tata Xenon Yodha is an ideal solution for diverse commercial usage transporting agri-produce (Fruits Vegetable), poultry, fish, milk, a cash van, a service support vehicle at construction sites. etc.Announcing the launch of the new Tata Xenon Yodha, Ravi Pisharody, Executive Director Commercial Vehicles, Tata Motors, said With the introduction of the new Tata Xenon Yodha, we at{image_2}Ravi Pisharody further went on to add I am happy to have Akshay Kumar here with us, for the launch of the new Xenon Yodha the first Tata Motors commercial vehicle, the actor is making an appearance with. Tata Motors association with Akshay Kumar will be supported by a high-decibel, 360 marketing campaign, starting with the Xenon Yodha. Besides products and solutions, Akshay will be actively involved in a host of innovative marketing and customer experience initiatives, to be rolled out by Tata Motors commercial vehicles division. GST Council discusses issues related to Integrated GST New Delhi , Jan. 3 : The Goods and Services (GST) Council on Tuesday discussed issues related to Integrated Goods and Services Tax in a meeting held in New Delhi and chaired by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. (Posted on 03 January 2017, 1667553972 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/business-india-news.php (Posted on 03 January 2017, 1667553972 173O212O198O32) The council has ministers from states as members. It will meet again tomorrow to make consensus on key issues including dual control over assessees.Talking to reporters after the meeting, West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra said, all the coastal states, irrespective of parties' affiliation demanded state jurisdiction up to 12 nautical miles in high seas to levy GST on trade of goods.The states also demanded increase in the number of items on which cess is to be levied to compensate the states to deal with revenue loss post demonetisation. In the previous meeting held last month, the council had approved the primary drafts of Central GST and state GST laws.The council had also cleared the basic draft of compensation law. Under it, the states will be fully compensated for any loss of revenue for five years due to the implementation of new direct tax regime.The compensation to the states will be paid every two months. The Centre is keen to finalise the draft GST legislations to ensure they are tabled in Parliament and state assemblies in the ensuing Budget Sessions. Hello! Meet the Roshans at their best New Delhi , January 4 : Be it Rakesh or Hrithik or the young lads Hrehaan and Hridhaan, whenever it comes to looks and style, the Roshans are a very tough competition for the rest. Proves the cover picture of Hello! magazine's January edition! (Posted on 04 January 2017, 1667553973 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/bollywood-news.php (Posted on 04 January 2017, 1667553973 173O212O198O32) Hello! Magazine, sometimes back shared a small clip from behind the scene of the cover shoot."Witness the three generations of the Roshans, Hrithik Roshan , Rakesh Roshan , Hrehaan and Hridhaan in the Behind The Scene of our January cover shoot!" they wrote alongside on Facebook.Reposting it on their Twitter handle, Hello! wrote alongside, "Witness the three generations of the Roshans, @iHrithik & family in the Behind The Scene of our January cover shoot!"The 1.20-minute video shows the three generations enjoying every bit of their togetherness. The strong family bond was also evident from it.Hrithik and his sons were also seen playing and posing with ease and comfort.The 42-year-old actor shared the video and wrote, "Thank u Hello."Sometimes back, Hrithik and his former wife Sussanne Khan, who are on good terms even post their divorce, were seen enjoying a family holiday with their sons in Dubai.On the work front, he will next be seen in Sanjay Gupta directed and Rakesh Roshan produced 'Kaabil,' along with Yami Gautam, slated to release on January 25, 2017.The movie revolves around a physically disabled man who sets out to take revenge for his loved one.On a related note, the movie is set to compete Shah Rukh Khan-starrer 'Raees' at the Box Offce, which also will be releasing on January 25. Cheer up guys! Kim Kardashian's back on social media London , January 4 : Since the armed robbery in Paris back in October 2016, Kim Kardashian stayed away from the limelight. (Posted on 04 January 2017, 1667553974 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/hollywood-news.php (Posted on 04 January 2017, 1667553974 173O212O198O32) Now she is finally back!On Tuesday, the 36-year-old reality star took to both her Twitter and Instagram to share an adorable family photo.In the snap, Kardashian is joined by hubby Kanye West and their two children- three-year-old daughter North and one-year-old son Saint.The adorable snap. that saw the family, all in white, posing together on a wooden deck, was shared with the simple caption, "family."The 'Keeping Up With The Kardashians' star was robbed of over 8.5 million dollars worth of jewelry by gunpoint at the No Address Hotel in Paris.Her last post on Twitter before the hiatus was on October 2, as it featured a video message to promote her game app.On Instagram, she shared a few photos from Paris Fashion Week just days before the robbery as she strutted her stuff wearing Balenciaga. 'Old' Venus Williams pulls out of Auckland Classic with injury Johannesburg [South Africa], Jan. 4 : Seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams has pulled out of the Auckland Classic after suffering from an arm injury. (Posted on 04 January 2017, 1667553975 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/world-news.php (Posted on 04 January 2017, 1667553975 173O212O198O32) Williams issued a brief statement just hours after "feeling old" in overcoming unsung teenager Jade Lewis 7-6 (7/2), 6-2 in the first round match."I love this tournament and I'm really sad that I have to withdraw," Sport24 quoted the American as saying.36-year-old Williams struggled past Lewis in her first round match against Lewis to fix a second-round contest against Japan's 19-year-old Naomi Osaka."The first match of the year is never perfect," the American said after the match."But I'm happy to be into the next round and playing another teenager. I'm just feeling old," she added.The seven-time Grand Slam champion also took to Twitter to thank her fans in New Zealand. NASA selects mission to study Black Holes, cosmic x-ray mysteries Washington, Jan 4 : NASA has selected a science mission that will allow astronomers to explore, for the first time, the hidden details of some of the most extreme and exotic astronomical objects, such as stellar and supermassive black holes, neutron stars and pulsars. (Posted on 04 January 2017, 1667553976 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/technology-news.php (Posted on 04 January 2017, 1667553976 173O212O198O32) Objects such as black holes can heat surrounding gases to more than a million degrees. The high-energy X-ray radiation from this gas can be polarized vibrating in a particular direction.The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) mission will fly three space telescopes with cameras capable of measuring the polarization of these cosmic X-rays, allowing scientists to answer fundamental questions about these turbulent and extreme environments where gravitational, electric and magnetic fields are at their limits.We cannot directly image whats going on near objects like black holes and neutron stars, but studying the polarization of X-rays emitted from their surrounding environments reveals the physics of these enigmatic objects, said Paul Hertz, astrophysics division director for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. NASA has a great history of launching observatories in the Astrophysics Explorers Program with new and unique observational capabilities. IXPE will open a new window on the universe for astronomers to peer through. Today, we can only guess what we will find.NASAs Astrophysics Explorers Program requested proposals for new missions in September 2014.Fourteen proposals were submitted, and three mission concepts were selected for additional review by a panel of agency and external scientists. NASA determined the IXPE proposal provided the best science potential and most feasible development plan,read the NASA website.The mission, slated for launch in 2020, will cost $188 million.This figure includes the cost of the launch vehicle and post-launch operations and data analysis. Principal Investigator Martin Weisskopf of NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, will lead the mission. Ball Aerospace in Broomfield, Colorado, will provide the spacecraft and mission integration.The Italian Space Agency will contribute the polarization sensitive X-ray detectors, which were developed in Italy.NASAs Explorers Program provides frequent, low-cost access to space using principal investigator-led space science investigations relevant to the agencys astrophysics and heliophysics programs.The program has launched more than 90 missions, including Explorer 1 in 1958, which discovered the Van Allen radiation belts around the Earth, and the Cosmic Background Explorer mission, which led to a Nobel Prize. NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the Explorers Program for the agencys Science Mission Directorate.Image: NASA website Air Marshal Sanjay Sharma takes over as Air Officer-in-Charge Maintenance at Air headquarters New Delhi, Jan 4 : Air Marshal Sanjay Sharma assumed the responsibilities of Air Officer-in-Charge Maintenance at Air Headquarters, New Delhi, on Jan 1, 2017, an official release stated. (Posted on 04 January 2017, 1667553977 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/india-news.php (Posted on 04 January 2017, 1667553977 173O212O198O32) The Air Marshal was commissioned in the Aeronautical Engineering (Electronics) branch of IAF on July 12, 1979.He is a graduate in Electronics Engineering from University of Indore and post graduate in Computer Science and Data Processing from IIT Kharagpur.He is also an alumnus of the prestigious National Defence College.He has rich and varied experience in the fields of High Power Radars, Real Time Data Processing Systems, Automation of Command Control Systems and Communication Information Technology.Prior to assuming the present appointment, the Air Officer had held various important staff and field appointments, notably, Chief Technical Officer of THD 1955 Radar Stations, Senior Project Engineer (Radar) at erstwhile RCPO, Director IACCS (Tech Planning), Director Signals (Air), Principal Director of IACCS, Assistant Chief of Air Staff (Signals IT) at Air HQ, Deputy Senior Maintenance Staff Officer atHQ Maintenance Command, Assistant Chief of Air Staff (Maintenance and Planning) and Director General (Aircraft) at Air HQ.He has also commanded a major Communication Hub Centre and was deputed to Government of Botswana for three years to oversee installation commissioning of Radar Automation System of Botswana Defence Forces besides setting up the Technical Training Wing for their Air Defence Operations Centre.For his service, Air Marshal has been commended twice by Chief of Air Staff on Oct 8, 1998 and on Jan 26, 2007. Cabinet approves transfer of land from DDA New Delhi , Jan. 4 : The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved the transfer of 34.87 Ha land in Sector 24, Dwarka, New Delhi from Delhi Development Authority to Land and Development Office (L and DO) for the purpose of the Second Diplomatic Enclave. (Posted on 04 January 2017, 1667553977 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/india-news.php (Posted on 04 January 2017, 1667553977 173O212O198O32) Currently, there is one Diplomatic Enclave in Chanakyapuri, where land has been allotted to the Embassies by L&DO.The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has expressed need for more land for allotment to Diplomatic Missions/ International Organizations for building their Chanceries/ Embassies in Delhi.For this, the DDA has earmarked 34.87 Ha land in Sector 24, Dwarka, which will be transferred to L&DO.This will provide land for Second Diplomatic Enclave in the capital. Digital Unlock: Sundar Pichai pitches for use of internet by SMEs New Delhi , Jan. 4 : Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Tuesday pitched his voice in support of adoption of internet technology by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) with the vision of making them big and powerful. (Posted on 04 January 2017, 1667553979 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/computer-news.php (Posted on 04 January 2017, 1667553979 173O212O198O32) "Sadly today, it is mostly the large companies which are making use of them, but truly, anyone can harness the power of technology. The internet is as much for the established local merchant as it is for a high-flying startup. And with internet, even a small business can become large one in the blink of an eye," said Pichai while speaking at the SMEs event here.Discussing the transition that has taken place since years, Pichai drew comparison between him as a kid and children of today's times. He said he would have to get a book in order to access information but in today's time a kid can easily access the same information which a professor or anyone else in world would, courtesy internet."We work on open platforms like android because we can reach as many people as possible. It's always been like this with Google since the beginning and this is what drew me to Google a decade ago. We have worked on products for everyone. When I was growing up in Chennai, information was a luxury. I would work hard to get access to any book I could, to gain new information. Today, a kid growing up in Chennai with an internet connection can access the same information as a Stanford Professor or anyone else in the world," he said.Announcing Google's new initiative in the same field, Pichai threw light on their programme which would conduct training workshops to encourage small business leaders to turn their vision of achieving big into reality."I am happy to announce that we are making quality digital skills training to every single small business in India that wants it. We are developing it in partnership with one of India's leading industry groups, FICCI and its certified by ISP," he said"We are calling the program 'Digital Unlock.' You'll have online and mobile courses but also real world trainings in classrooms. Also, for the next three years, we will hold 5,000 training workshops across 40 Indian cities. We hope to reach thousands of businesses. In fact, the first of these, with more than 100 small business leaders is actually happening right now, right across the hall. Any small business with an internet connection can sign up and get started on these trainings today," he added.Pichai also discussed Google's another initiative which would allow any Indian business to create a website of its own for free."To make this journey easier, we are also launching a new tool later this year in India first, and we will expand it globally later, that will allow any Indian business to create a simple website for free. It's called the mybusiness website and our goal is to allow any small business in India to have a website of their own that works on mobiles and desktops. All you need to set up is a smartphone, a few free minutes and any small business can build their own site and control it completely and they will be able to easily organise their actions they care about," he said. EC announces Assembly election dates in five states New Delhi, Jan 4 : : The Election Commission on Wednesday announced the dates and phases of Assembly elections for 5 states - Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Manipur, and Goa- to be held between February 4 and March 8. (Posted on 04 January 2017, 1667553981 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/india-news.php (Posted on 04 January 2017, 1667553981 173O212O198O32) Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi made the announcements, a day after the poll panel held a meeting with the Chief electoral officers of the 5 concerned states.With this announcement the Model code of conduct comes into immediate effectZaidi said polling will be held in the total of 690 Assembly constituencies.According to the EC, elections in Goa and Punjab will be held on February 4, in Uttarakhand on February 15-all in a single phase, while Manipur will go to polls in two phases on March 4 and March 8.However, Uttar Pradesh, the state with the highest number of constituencies will witness a seven-phase election to be held between February 11 and March 8. The dates of UP are Feb 11, Feb 15, Feb 19, Feb 23, Feb 27, March 4 and March 8.The Assemblies in Goa (40) , Manipur (60) and Punjab (117) expire on March 18, in Uttarakhand (70) on March 26 and in Uttar Pradesh (403) on May 27.Zaidi said nearly 16 crore voters will be participating in the 2017 Assembly elections and 1.85 lakh polling stations will be set up to enable them to exercise their franchise.The limit for expenses for candidates is Rs 28 lakh for UP, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Rs 20 lakh for Manipur and Goa, the CEC said.He said that in Uttar Pradesh and Manipur voters lists will be published on January 12, Uttarakhand on January 10, and in Goa and Punjab on January 5. High stakes battle for UP from Feb.11 as EC sounds poll bugle New Delhi , Jan. 4 : The Election Commission of India on Wednesday announced seven-phase polling for 403 assembly constituencies in the politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, two-phase polling in Manipur and one-phase polling each in the states of Punjab, Uttarakhand and Goa respectively. (Posted on 04 January 2017, 1667553981 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/india-news.php (Posted on 04 January 2017, 1667553981 173O212O198O32) Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi said that the counting of votes in all the five states will take place on March 11.He said that Model Code of Conduct comes into force from today.As per the announcement, the first-phase of polling for 73 assembly constituencies covering 15 districts of Uttar Pradesh will take place on February 11.The date of notification in this phase is January 17, the last date of nomination is January 24, the scrutiny of nomination will take place on January 25 and the withdrawal of candidature will take place on January 27.The second-phase of polling for 67 assembly constituencies covering the bordering districts with Uttarakhand will take place on February 15.The date of notification in this phase is January 20, the last date of nomination is January 27, the scrutiny of nomination will take place on January 28 and the withdrawal of candidature will take place on January 30.The third-phase of polling for 69 assembly constituencies covering 12 districts of Uttar Pradesh will take place on February 19.The date of notification in this phase is January 24, the last date of nomination is January 31, the scrutiny of nomination will take place on February 2 and the withdrawal of candidature will take place on February 4.The fourth-phase of polling for 53 assembly constituencies covering 12 districts of Uttar Pradesh will take place on February 23.The date of notification in this phase is January 30, the last date of nomination is February 6, the scrutiny of nomination will take place on February 7 and the withdrawal of candidature will take place on February 9.The fifth-phase of polling for 52 assembly constituencies covering 11 districts of Uttar Pradesh will take place on February 27.The date of notification in this phase is February 2, the last date of nomination is February 9, the scrutiny of nomination will take place on February 11 and the withdrawal of candidature will take place on February 13.The sixth-phase of polling for 49 assembly constituencies covering seven districts of Uttar Pradesh will take place on March 4.The date of notification in this phase is February 8, the last date of nomination is February 15, the scrutiny of nomination will take place on February 16 and the withdrawal of candidature will take place on February 18.The seventh-phase of polling for 46 assembly constituencies covering seven districts of Uttar Pradesh will take place on March 8.The date of notification in this phase is February 11, the last date of nomination is February 18, the scrutiny of nomination will take place on February 20 and the withdrawal of candidature will take place on February 22.Goa will vote in a single-phase on February 4. The date of notification is January 11, the last date of nomination is January 18, the scrutiny of nomination will take place on January 19 and the withdrawal of candidature will take place on January 21.Punjab will also go for polls in a single-phase on February 4. The date of notification is January 11, the last date of nomination is January 18, the scrutiny of nomination will take place on January 19 and the withdrawal of candidature will take place on January 21.Uttarakhand will vote for 70 assembly constituencies in a single-phase on February 15. The date of notification is January 20, the last date of nomination is January 27, the scrutiny of nomination will take place on January 28 and the withdrawal of candidature will take place on January 30.Manipur will vote for 60 assembly constituencies in two-phase on March 4 and 8 respectively.The date of notification for 38 assembly constituencies in the first phase is February 8, the last date of nomination is February 15, the scrutiny of nomination will take place on February 16 and the withdrawal of candidature will take place on February 18.The date of notification for 22 assembly constituencies in the second phase is February 11, the last date of nomination is February 18, the scrutiny of nomination will take place on February 20 and the withdrawal of candidature will take place on February 22.Zaidi said over 16 crore voters will exercise their democratic rights in these five states.The terms of the legislative assembly of Goa, Manipur and Punjab will expire on March 18, and Uttarakhand on March 26. The legislative term of Uttar Pradesh Assembly ends on May 27.The Election Commission yesterday held a meeting with the Chief Electoral Officers of these five states to fine tune the arrangements for the assembly polls.More than 160 million voters will participate in these elections. Voting will be conducted in as many as one lakh 85,000 polling stations. Electronic Voting Machines will be used in all five states. Congress ready for Punjab polls, will defeat both BJP and AAP: Amarinder New Delhi , Jan. 4 : Congress leader Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesday welcomed the Election Commission's decision to conduct single-phase polling in Punjab and expressed confidence that the grand old party would emerge victorious in the electoral battle. (Posted on 04 January 2017, 1667553982 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/punjab-news.php (Posted on 04 January 2017, 1667553982 173O212O198O32) The former Punjab chief minister told ANI that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) stand on chances, adding both parties will be rejected by the people."We will definitely give a strong competition to the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Aam Aadmi Party and we will show where we stand in Punjab," he told ANI.Captain Amarinder further said former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh will release the Congress Party's manifesto in the coming days."Our manifesto is very comprehensive and former PM Manmohan Singh ji will release this manifesto. We had requested the Election Commission to conduct polls in a single-phase in Punjab," he said.The Congress, which is leaving no stone unturned to win the Punjab Assembly polls, has invited Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to Punjab to campaign for the grand old party."I requested Nitish for support in the Punjab assembly polls and was hopeful of getting the same," Captain Amarinder said earlier, adding that the Congress and Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United) were working well together as an alliance in Bihar and had a lot to learn from each other.Punjab will go for polls in a single-phase on February 4. The date of notification is January 11, the last date of nomination is January 18, the scrutiny of nomination will take place on January 19 and the withdrawal of candidature will take place on January 21.Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi, who today announced the dates for assembly polls in Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Manipur, said the counting of votes in all five states will take place on March 11. BJP, Congress confident to win UP battle courtesy SP feud New Delhi , Jan. 4 : As the Election Commission announced dates for the upcoming seven-phase polling for 403 assembly constituencies in the politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress asserted that they are ready for the electoral battle and would leave no stones unturned to conquer the throne of Lucknow. (Posted on 04 January 2017, 1667553982 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/india-news.php (Posted on 04 January 2017, 1667553982 173O212O198O32) Congress chief ministerial candidate Sheila Dikshit told ANI that the grand old party, with the dates being announced, would now work in a time bound manner to ensure victory."It is good that the election dates have been announced. Now, we will work in a time bound manner. We will make our programs for our victory in the assembly elections. Elections bring challenges, parties know it; now that the dates are announced we can schedule programs better," Dikshit said.The Congress chief ministerial candidate further said that a new challenge has now come up before all parties in the wake of the simmering power tussle in the Samajwadi Party."Till now, there were four parties-BSP, SP, Congress and BJP. But now, as the SP has broken, a new challenge has appeared before all political parties including the Congress," she said.With the father-son duo of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and Samajwadi Party patron Mulayam Singh Yadav refusing to give in, the ongoing political tussle in the party has been witnessing twists on a daily basis.As of now, both factions have laid claim over the party's symbol 'cycle'. However, the Election Commission is yet to take a call on the same.Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh BJP chief Keshav Prasad Maurya said the saffron party with its agenda of good governance and development will win the assembly polls."The BJP welcomes the announcement of the elections. Our agenda in the forthcoming elections is good governance and development. We have people's support and we are confident we will win," Maurya told ANI.The Election Commission earlier in the day announced seven-phase polling for 403 assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh.The counting of votes will take place on March 11. Budget session should be postponed in order to ensure fair elections: Naresh Agarwal New Delhi , Jan. 4 : Expelled Samajwadi Party leader Naresh Agarwal on Wednesday requested the Election Commission of India (ECI) to postpone the budget session to be held during the elections, as it might influence the people leading to a biased election. (Posted on 04 January 2017, 1667553983 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/india-news.php (Posted on 04 January 2017, 1667553983 173O212O198O32) "I would urge the Election Commission to postpone the budget session, called by the Central government in the mid of the elections. This is because the people will be influenced by the announcement made by the government during the budget session and the elections won't be fair then," Agarwal told ANI.Welcoming the Election Commission's decision to begin the first-phase of polling in Uttar Pradesh from February 11, Agarwal said the decision has ruined the idea of the Centre to hold elections in the month of April-May."We were ready for the elections. The Uttar Pradesh government had asked the Election Commission for UP elections to be held in February. We protested what the Centre was trying to do i.e. trying to let elections held in April-May. February is the best month for holding elections," he said.The Election Commission earlier today announced seven-phase polling for 403 assembly constituencies in the politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, two-phase polling in Manipur and one-phase polling each in the states of Punjab, Uttarakhand and Goa respectively.As per the announcement, the first-phase of polling for 73 assembly constituencies covering 15 districts of Uttar Pradesh will take place on February 11. Thousands join procession to mark 350th birth anniversary of 10th Sikh Guru in Patna Patna, Jan 4 (TheBiharPost/IBNS): Hundreds of thousands Sikh devotes from Indian and abroad are joining a colourful procession being taken on the streets of the Patna on Wednesday to commemorate the 350th birth anniversary of the 10th Sikh guru, Guru Govind Singh. (Posted on 04 January 2017, 1667553984 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/more-news.php (Posted on 04 January 2017, 1667553984 173O212O198O32) The procession or Nagar Kirtan which began from Gandhi Maidan will reach sacred Takht Harimandir Sahib.Several musical bands, apart from horses and camels are are joining the procession.Reports said the devotees will cover the eight km-long distance by the night.Authorities have made massive security arrangements in view of the large number of devotes joining the procession. Not only the plying of all kinds of vehicles has been banned but the cops have been deployed all along the route in adequate strength to ensure smooth passage of the procession.Till now, more than 400,000 devotes have landed in Patna. Quite many Sikh devotees in batches have arrived from USA, Canada, UK, Australia, China, Mexico and Italy.A centre of attraction is a delegation of nearly 125 American Sikhs led by Bibi Inderjeet Kaur Yogi.Elegantly dressed in traditional Sikh attire, this delegation comprising men, women and children of American origin is fondly greeted and thronged by the devotees wherever they go.This delegation is affiliated to Sikh Dharma International founded by the great Sikh scholar late Harbhajan Singh Yogi in USA around for decades ago for the propagation of Sikhism in every nook and corner of the world.Apart from them, quite a number of political leaders such as former Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh, current CM Prakash Singh Badal and others have reached Patna to be a part of this historic moment while Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be reaching Patna tomorrow.The state government has made elaborate arrangements for the visiting devotes.Guru Govind Singh was born on December 22, 1666, to ninth Sikh Guru, Guru Tegh Bahadur, and Mata Gujri. He was anointed the supreme leader of the Sikhs at the age of nine, becoming the last of the Sikh Gurus.On the site of the house in which the 10th Sikh Guru was born and where he spent his early childhood, now stands the sacred Harimandir Sahib one of the five most honoured seats of religious authority for Sikhs.The Gurudwara was built by Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the first Maharaja of the Sikh empire in remembrance of the Guru at his birth place.http://thebiharpost SAIL marks 16pc growth in sales during April-December '16 New Delhi, Jan 4 : Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) on Wednesday said it has posted a solid sales growth of 16pc during the April-December'16 period over the corresponding period last year. (Posted on 04 January 2017, 1667553986 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/business-india-news.php (Posted on 04 January 2017, 1667553986 173O212O198O32) The improved domestic sales as well as expanding exports, with the latter recording a remarkable rise of around more than double during this period, contributed to the improved sales numbers.The companys exports rise is in keeping pace with the SAILs focus to expand its global foot prints.At the production front, SAIL produced 10.18 Million Tonnes (MT) of saleable steel during Apr-Dec16 period, of which 1.18 MT alone came in December16, registering a 15% growth in saleable steel production over Apr-Dec15.With enhanced performance from the modernized units, the techno-economic parameters also exhibited improvement during the first nine months of FY 16-17 (BF productivity: 7% and Coke Rate: 3% improvement). This is conforming to the companys constantendeavors to attain most effective utilization of all resources as SAIL recognizes that its business activities have direct and indirect impact on the society.The company realizes that water is a vital resource and should be judiciously utilized.In this endeavor, SAIL is observing January 2017 as Water Conservation Monthacross all its Plants and Units with a target to reduce water consumption by 25%. Cabinet approves signing of MoU between India, Portugal in the field of agriculture, allied sectors New Delhi, Jan 4 : The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday given its approval for signing of an Agreement for cooperation in the field of Agriculture and allied sectors between India and Portugal. (Posted on 04 January 2017, 1667553986 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/india-news.php (Posted on 04 January 2017, 1667553986 173O212O198O32) The Agreementcovers various activities in these fields which include exchange of scientific and technical information, trade in plants and plant products, exchange of information in phytosanitary issues, training programmes, seminars and visits of experts and consultants, read a government statement.The Agreement provides constitution of a Joint Working Group comprising of representatives from both countries, the task of which would be to monitor the implementation of the present MoU and making concrete proposals for agriculture cooperation and develop guidelines and priorities for future cooperation in the field of agriculture and allied sectors.The Agreement shall enter into force on the date of its signing and shall remain in force for a period of five years and shall be automatically extended for a subsequent period of five years unless either Party gives written notice through diplomatic channels to the other Party of its intention to terminate the Agreement at least six months before its expiration. Tata Trusts, Google India partner with MobiKwik to encourage adoption of digital wallets New Delhi , Jan 4 : Tata Trusts and Google India expand the 'Internet Saathi' program by enabling cashless transactions through MobiKwik, with an aim to drive digital economy in rural parts of India. (Posted on 04 January 2017, 1667553988 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/business-india-news.php (Posted on 04 January 2017, 1667553988 173O212O198O32) Internet Saathi initiative aims to transform the lives of over 200 million with digital literacy in India. The initiative focuses on training communities to go online, whilst providing them access to internet powered devices and educating them about cashless payments."As a part of the Digital India initiative and Tata Trusts' overall digital strategy, our aim is to drive empowerment with a focus on digital innovation to create a revenue opportunity for the communities at a larger level with sustainable impact. Enabling digital wallet is a big step towards ensuring that the community benefits from services with great amount of saving in time and cost. Tata Trusts sees digital livelihoods as an opportunity that is truly path breaking and in line with the ethos of 'Lead, not follow'," said Project Director Tata Trusts, Raman Kalyanakrishnan.Tata Trusts and Google India launched the Internet Saathi programme with an objective to reduce gender barrier for access to the internet and its benefits.Launched in July 2015, Internet Saathi program is now live in 10 states reaching out to over 26,000 villages. Close to 12, 00,000 women have benefited from the programme by getting trained on digital and internet literacy."Demonetization has encouraged millions of Indians in rural villages to adopt the new way of wallet payments. However, most of them do not possess a smartphone and can't download and operate an app by themselves. Internet Saathis shall help resolve this issue at a grass root level, which is the need of the hour. Earlier this month, our government marked the beginning of a cashless revolution and this initiative is our contribution towards making wallet payments a reality for masses in India," said co-founder MobiKwik, Upasana Taku.The community members are encouraged to actively seek information related to the daily livelihoods activities through the platform established in the village and adopt MobiKwik payments for their local or internet enterprises by the Internet Saathi programme.Critically, the platform provides internet enabled devices and a trained person in Internet Saathi at the village. This transformational campaign is launching in Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh today."We are thankful to Tata Trusts and Google India for extending their support to our vision of making mobile wallet payments ubiquitous," added Upasana.Financial inclusion and digital payments: Internet Saathis are going to betrained to be able to provide services such as online payment of utility bills, mobile bills and recharges of all leading telecom service providers, and to undertake mobile wallet transactions. Tata Trusts is partnering with Mobikwik, a leading mobile wallet, for delivering these services.Digital citizenship services: Another such digital initiative is to provide access to information on social schemes for rural households with the help of an intelligent algorithm that maps households to eligible schemes. Tata Trusts has partnered with Haqdarshak for enabling the Internet Saathis deliver services in villages through a mobile application.Frequently used services: The Internet Saathis are also being used as effective field functionaries by a leading mobile operator to serve as retailers of SIM cards, connections and top-up products in rural areas.Digital communication agents: The potential of the extensive platform of Internet Saathi on the field is also being leveraged by engaging the Internet Saathis in developmental programmes, such as Swachh Bharat Mission, driving behavior change in communities. People of Punjab, Goa desperate to uproot ruling-government: Kejriwal New Delhi , Dec. 4 : Welcoming the announcement of assembly election dates in Punjab and Goa, Delhi's Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday said people of both the states were waiting desperately for this announcement to uproot the ruling-governments. (Posted on 04 January 2017, 1667553990 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/india-news.php (Posted on 04 January 2017, 1667553990 173O212O198O32) "People in Punjab are in a miserable condition and very desperately want to uproot the coalition government of BJP and Akali. They want AAP's honest government here so that they get rid of drugs and corruption," Kejriwal told the media here.Kejriwal further said that now people in both the states will come out openly as Model Code of Conduct is imposed."Similarly, the people of Goa are also impatient to throw the ruling BJP Government out of their state," he said.There will be seven-phase polling for 403 assembly constituencies in the politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, two-phase polling in Manipur and one-phase polling each in the states of Punjab, Uttarakhand and Goa respectively.Zaidi said that the counting of votes in all the five states will take place on March 11. EC seeks help from defence ministry to produce film for service voters New Delhi , Jan 4 : The Election Commission of India wrote a letter to the Ministry of Defence seeking their assistance in making a film to educate the voters serving in the various armed forces and the paramilitary. (Posted on 04 January 2017, 1667553991 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/india-news.php (Posted on 04 January 2017, 1667553991 173O212O198O32) It has sought help from the armed forces and central para-military forces in its bid to educate the services voters.The Commission has also given a nod to the Defence personnel and the central para-military forces personnel to cast their votes through one-way electronic transmission system.As per the sources, a meeting was held with various wings of the Armed Forces on facility of ETPBS (Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballet Paper System).The film will help the Armed Forces through their various channels to reach out to the last soldier, airman and sailor.The Commission has engaged the services of the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) to shoot the film, which is expected to be of 10 to 15 minute duration.The Election Commission has communicated the relevant locations in order to cover all the diversified terrains in which the armed forces are deployed.The preferred set of location sought for shooting the film are Leh, Munabo, Vishakhapatnam and Jodhpurs. While Leh will showcase the Army serving in the high altitude, Munabo location will be used to shoot both Army and the Border Security Force. The Navy and Coast Guard will be filmed in Vishakhapatnam while Jodhpurs will be exclusively used to film the Air Force.Meanwhile, the Commission also announced the dates of the elections to be held in five states of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur. President to deliver New Year message to Governors and Lt. Governors through video conferencing New Delhi, Jan 4 : President Pranab Mukherjee will deliver through Video Conferencing a New Year Message to the Governors and Lt. Governors of States or UTs on Thursday. (Posted on 04 January 2017, 1667553991 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/india-news.php (Posted on 04 January 2017, 1667553991 173O212O198O32) The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee will deliver through Video Conferencing a New Year Message to the Governors and Lt. Governors of States/UTs using the National Knowledge Network from Rashtrapati Bhavan tomorrow (January 5, 2017), read an official statement. Tata Trusts launches 'Kalapana', a festival promoting art forms of India Mumbai /Kolkata, Jan 4 : To celebrate the diverse forms of arts and crafts in India, Tata Trusts has launched 'Kalapana', a specially curated festival featuring lead performing artists and craftsmen. (Posted on 04 January 2017, 1667553992 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/west-bengal-news.php (Posted on 04 January 2017, 1667553992 173O212O198O32) Kalapana provides an otherwise inaccessible platform in metro cities to showcase the talents of groups and organisations that are supported by Tata Trusts in their effort to preserve, promote and perpetuate contemporary and traditional art practices and craft forms from across the country.The two-day event will kick-off on the lawns of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS) in Kala Ghoda of Mumbai and will showcase three performing arts as well as 10 craft organizations from different parts of the country.The participating performing arts organisations include Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts (Contemporary Dance) from Bangalore; Dhrupad Sansthan (Indian Classical Music) from Bhopal; and NINASAM (Theatre) from Shimoga District in Karnataka. Heritage craft forms such as Handloom Weaving, Embroideries, Leather craft, Dhokra Metal, Natural Fiber Craft, and Folk Art among others, will be exhibited at the venue.The Media, Arts, Crafts and Culture portfolio of Tata Trusts concentrates attention on conserving Indias heritage and those who embody it and has focused on three main areas conservation-related projects, encouraging traditional and contemporary forms of performing arts and helping to sustain livelihoods based on crafts and more recently has worked in the area of art education.Kalapana was conceived as a two-way celebration, says Deepika Sorabjee, Head, Media, Arts and Culture, Tata Trusts, To show the work of all the organisations and artists supported, by Tata Trusts and how these choices are made. Hopefully, this Kalapana imagination - will grow in many ways, but in this first event, performing arts and craft are highlighted. Theatre rooted in language and community, Dhrupad passed on to a new generation that has taken roots not only in the country but around the world, and contemporary dance that has harnessed the talents of a newer generation in India, are the three presentations this time. This multiplicity of art forms is apt it is the portfolios intent in reaching out to precarious traditions as well as seeking innovative new forms. Imagine the arts, is Kalapanas byline, that asks the audience and patrons of art, to participate with the artists and the Trusts, to imagine a more involved engagement with the diversity of arts that we are so privileged to have in our country.Kalapana will also showcase a curated group of craft organisations who have worked in remote outposts of the country to revive and contemporize some of Indias finest handicrafts.The intent, said Reshma Anand, Head Strategy, Partnerships and Crafts, through this event is to establish a platform for artisans to connect with craft patrons, share their stories and their inspiration for their signature designs. The trend towards sustainable, local products in an increasingly globalised world has opened significant possibilities for artisanal products crafted in India. Kalapana is the Trusts contribution to this movement.Speaking on the importance of preservation and awareness on these arts and crafts, Tara Sabavala, Associate Director- Tata Trusts said, For Tata Trusts support of the Arts has not only been a part of the mandate defined by the founders, but intrinsic to building communities in a holistic way; our interventions are designed not only to preserve our rich heritage but also to integrate art into the present and learn from the past in order to define the future.Kalapana will be showcased on Jan 7th and 8th at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS) in Kala Ghoda. Khandu cabinet clears deck for commencement of Itanagar-Banderdewa four lane highway Guwahati, Jan 4 : In a major decision, the Arunachal Pradesh state cabinet headed by Chief Minister Pema Khandu on Wednesday cleared deck for commencement of work for much awaited Itanagar-Banderdewa four lane highway. (Posted on 04 January 2017, 1667553994 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/more-news.php (Posted on 04 January 2017, 1667553994 173O212O198O32) Cabinet, after minutely going through the cabinet note circulated by the Comissioner PWD on compensation estimate prepared by government constitued committee, approved the recommendation and directed for release of compensation amount to the beneficiaries through the deputy comissioner.With this decision, the work on the four lane highway will start soon.Giving yet another new year gift to AIS officers, central service officers on deputation to state government and regular state government employees, pensioners, family pensioners, the state cabinet approved for release of 2% DA and DR w.e.f 1st January 2017 at par with the central government employees.Despite financial crunch, the state government under Chief Minister Pema Khandu had recently implemented the 7 CPC for the state government employees.In order to reorient governance and make working structure more effective, cabinet in another major decision approved for amalgamation of Directorate of Supply and Transport with Directorate of Food and Civil Supplies.More such decisions are expected in the near future.While the matter of renaming of Rajiv Gandhi University, Itanagar to Arunachal University was reffered to be tabled in the ensuing Budget Session for discussion, the cabinet approved for renaming of General Hospital Ziro after Late Gyati Takka, former Minister in lieu of Abotani Community Hall, Hapoli which was notified earlier.Cabinet further decided to upgrade Pongchau and Wakka circle headquarters to SDO headquarters respectively in Longding district.It may be mentioned that CM during his recent visit to Wakka had announced to upgrade the existing administrative headquarters of Wakka and Pongchou for effective administration.Cabinet also approved for regularisation of services of Contractual General Duty Medical Officers (Allopathy, Dental and Ayush).Their regularisation will be through a screening process by the APPSC.The selected GDMOs shall be on 3 years probation to serve in remote areas.For every year of service rendered in remote areas, these GDMOS shall get 10% weightage for pursuing PG courses in the State Medical College in the near future.Approval was also accorded to regularise services of contractual paramedical staffs, physiotherapist, staff nurse, laboratory technician, blood bank technician, pharmacist, health assistant(junior), refrigirator mechanic (RM) and drivers under the department of Health and Family Welfare.These regularisation also shall be through a state level screening committee headed by Commissioner Health with members from Finance, Law, AR and technical members from health department.For ensuring smooth functioning of government policies and programmes, the Cabinet decided to hire technical manpower for various central as well as state government programmes.Technical manpower would be hired for implementation of the Chief Ministers Dash Board, Ease of Doing business and Direct Benefit Transfer.(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath) Free legal service clinic set up in Srinagar Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir) , Jan. 4 : A clinic that would provide free legal service to the poor and marginalized sections of the society was established on Wednesday at Bemina in Srinagar. (Posted on 04 January 2017, 1667553994 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/more-news.php (Posted on 04 January 2017, 1667553994 173O212O198O32) The District Legal Service Authority, Srinagar opened the legal clinic on the directions of Executive Chairman State Legal Services Authority, Justice Mohammad Yaqoob Mir.The clinic will be manned by two panel lawyers and a para legal volunteer on rotational basis. One super star working with another is new for Bollywood: Akshay Kumar Mumbai (Maharashtra) , Jan. 4 : Bollywood star Akshay Kumar, who will soon be working with Salman Khan under Karan Johar's producton, supports the idea of one superstar working with another in movies. (Posted on 05 January 2017, 1667553995 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/bollywood-news.php (Posted on 05 January 2017, 1667553995 173O212O198O32) Speaking to the media at a press conference in Mumbai, he said, one super star (Salman Khan) working with another is new for the industry because usually this happens only in Hollywood."An actor signs another 'A' actor for his production is something new and I hope it starts trending in our industry," he added.The news about the upcoming big project was announced by Akshay, Karan and Salman via their social media handles that they are joining forces for a "special film."Karan Johar had also tweeted about his new venture, where he said, "Supremely excited to co-produce with Salman Khan on a film starring Akshay Kumar and directed by Anurag Singh. Releasing 2018." Libya: Amid threat of renewed conflict, UN envoy urges restraint New York, Jan 4 : Expressing concern at escalating tensions and threat of renewed conflict following developments in central Libya, the United Nations envoy for the country urged all parties to work together on reconciliation and to refrain from any rhetoric that could inflame the situation. (Posted on 05 January 2017, 1667553996 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/world-news.php (Posted on 05 January 2017, 1667553996 173O212O198O32) I urge all parties to act with restraint and to resolve issues through peaceful dialogue, said Martin Kobler, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Libya and the head of the UN Support Mission in the country (UNSMIL).According to UNSMIL, Kobler also emphasised the need for urgent renewed efforts to find solutions to political issues that will allow for the full implementation of the Libyan Political Agreement.Signed in December 2015, the Agreement contains four main principles: ensuring the democratic rights of the Libyan people, the need for a consensual government based on the principle of the separation of powers, oversight and balance between them, as well as the need to empower State institutions like the Government of National Accord so that they can address the serious challenges ahead, respect for the Libyan judiciary and its independence.However, its slow implementation has been noted as an issue of concern.In mid-December 2016, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon cautioned that the road to peace is long and the Libyan people have not yet achieved the stability and security they deserve.At the time, Ban also urged the parties that are not currently engaged in the process to join efforts to find a consensual solution to the ongoing crisis.UN Photo/Manuel ElasSource: www.justearthnews.com Toronto flights delayed as two planes collide Toronto, Jan 4 : Two airplanes at Toronto Pearson International Airport collided wings on Tuesday evening, media reports said. (Posted on 05 January 2017, 1667553996 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/world-news.php (Posted on 05 January 2017, 1667553996 173O212O198O32) An airport spokesperson told Global News that an Air France plane was parked when a taxiing Pakistan International Airlines plane made light contact and struck the parked plane around 6 p.m, Global News reports said.The spokesperson said there were no injuries.Photos provided to Global News showed end of a wing of a plane was damage.Usman Sherazi, who was on board PIA Flight PK789 when it landed in Toronto from Lahore, Pakistan at around 5:50 p.m., said he didnt feel it when the planes made contact.He said passengers were kept on the plane for about 45 minutes after it arrived at the gate with the seatbelt lights kept on adding the crew didnt say what happened.Sherazi added passengers had to wait for their bags for up to three hours after they got out of the plane.Air France spokesman Herve Erschler told Global News on Wednesday that at that time cabin crew and two pilots were inside the aircraft but no passengers were on board the Air France planeThe plane, which was supposed to depart for Paris Tuesday evening, will remain in Toronto until the damage is inspected and repaired, the official said.Erschler said a maintenance team from Paris would repair the damage to the plane.No one from PIA was available for comment.The Transportation Safety Board had been called in to investigate.Aviation expert Jock Williams said incidents like were not unusual and added both planes would fly after their inspection had been completed and they were fully certified for flight.(Reported by Asha Bajaj) Gen. Rawat to visit Jammu to review security, operational preparedness Jammu (Jammu and Kashmir) , Jan. 5 : Newly appointed Chief of Army Staff General Bipin Rawat will visit Jammu today. (Posted on 05 January 2017, 1667553997 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/india-news.php (Posted on 05 January 2017, 1667553997 173O212O198O32) He will visit Northern Command to review the security and operational preparedness.General Rawat will also interact with the troops and commanders in forward areas.General Rawat took over as the 27th Chief Of Army Staff (COAS) earlier on December 31.General Rawat, who took over as Vice-Chief of Army Staff in September 2016, bypassed Eastern Commander Lt. Gen. Praveen Bakshi (Armoured Corps) and Southern Commander Lieutenant General P.M. Hariz (Mechanised Infantry) to bag the coveted post.He has remarkable experience of serving in combat areas and at various functional levels in the Indian Army over the last three decades. BJP hails Modi's policy after UAE freezes Dawood's properties New Delhi, Jan 5 : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rejoiced the success of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's foreign policy after the United Arab Emirates (UAE) reportedly seized properties of underworld don and 1993 Mumbai serial blast mastermind Dawood Ibrahim, media reports said. (Posted on 05 January 2017, 1667553997 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/india-news.php (Posted on 05 January 2017, 1667553997 173O212O198O32) The gulf nation has sealed properties worth Rs 15,0000 crore held by Dawood who runs the organised crime syndicate named D-Company.The move was made following the UAE governments inquiry on the mafias assets.Terming it as a masterstroke, the BJP tweeted, Major diplomatic success of PM Modi: One of Indias most wanted criminals, Dawood Ibrahims properties worth Rs. 15,000 crore seized in UAE.Reports said National security adviser Ajit Doval had pursued Indias case against Dawood with the UAE government leading to the action. Canadian National Railway: Uncertain future ahead Calgary, Jan 5 : Canadian National Railway didn't fare well in the past 12 months with decline in cargo volumes, a failed takeover bid and divisions within the industry, according to media reports. (Posted on 05 January 2017, 1667553999 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/world-news.php (Posted on 05 January 2017, 1667553999 173O212O198O32) Although economic growth and elevated level of consumer confidence are likely to better things in 2017, yet taxes and trade could be act as destabilizing forces, reports said.Experts are also awaiting US President-elect Donald Trumps overall implementation of policies regarding trade and commerce, media reported.There is far from complete clarity on whether Trump will carry out all of his campaign promises, but overall our assessment is that his potential policies will be mixed for Canadian railways, sSaid Cameron Doerksen an analyst from the National Bank.Doerksen said, More restrictive trade policies including the implementation of tariffs on softwood lumber, potential changes to NAFTA and tariffs on Chinese imports would clearly be negative for the railroads particularly for Canadian National Railway Company, which has a large exposure to lumber as well as cross border and international containers.However, lower U.S. corporate taxes would be positive for CN and potentially lower their combined tax rates by five to six percentage points, he said.Canadian Pacific Railway, which had abandoned its hostile take over bid of Virginia-based Norfolk Southern Co. on the face of opposition of US Government said Trumps tax break could reduce the companys effective tax rate to 20 percent from 26 percent.According to reports, American Association of Railroads (AAR) was unhappy with planned rules proposed to cap certain freight rates as well as a requirement that would open a portion of railway network to competitors.Big operating railways in the US, including CP and CN Railway are supposed to meet the dead-line to complete the installation of fail-safe train controls designed to improve safety by overriding human errors.However, the biggest question is hovering around whether Trump Administration would scrap the NAFTA Agreement and erect barriers to cross-border trade.Experts believe since CP and CN have significant cross-border trade and have much at stake, the three country trade deal might be renegotiated and not discarded.However, it is to be seen how the cross border trade takes shape for CP and CN Railways with the assumption of charge by Donald Trump on Jan 20.(Reporting by Chandan Som ) Tata Motors and Castrol sign global strategic partnership for commercial vehicle oils supply Mumbai/Kolkata, Jan 5 : Tata Motors and Castrol, on Thursday, announced the signing of a three-year strategic partnership agreement for supply of Commercial Vehicle Oils to Tata Motors globally. (Posted on 05 January 2017, 1667553999 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/automobile-news.php (Posted on 05 January 2017, 1667553999 173O212O198O32) The agreement will cover over 50 markets including SAARC and ASEAN region, Middle East, Africa, Russia and Latin America, the companies sad.As a preferred partner of Tata Motors, Castrol will work closely with the Tata team to co-engineer products suited to meet specific requirements of new engine technology and environment regulations, the release said.Commenting on the agreement, Guenter Butschek CEO and Managing Director, Tata Motors Limited, said: Tata Motors has had a long and enduring partnership with Castrol in India, delivering exceptional products and outstanding service for our customers. We are delighted to extend this partnership to a global level and look forward to leveraging our complementary strengths to offer our channel partners high quality support.Mandhir Singh, CEO, BP Lubricants, said: Tata Motors is a valued key global strategic account for Castrol and we are excited about extending our relationship to global markets. As Tata Motors explores new markets, we are committed to supporting them with our pioneering technology products, superior service offers and expertise in retail marketing and promotion, to add value to this partnership.Tata Motors Limited is Indias largest automobile company, with consolidated revenues of INR 2,75,561 crores (USD 41.6 billion) in 2015-16. Through subsidiaries and associate companies, Tata Motors has operations in the UK, South Korea, Thailand, South Africa and Indonesia. Among them is Jaguar Land Rover, the business comprising the two iconic British brands. It also has an industrial joint venture with Fiat in India. Tata cars, buses and trucks are being marketed in several countries in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, South East Asia, South America, Australia, CIS and Russia.Castrol, one of the worlds leading lubricant brands, is part of the BP group and serves customers in the automotive, marine, industrial and energy sectors. PM Modi congratulates Nitish for his 'nasha-mukti abhiyan' Patna (Bihar) , Jan. 5 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday congratulated Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for his 'nasha-mukti abhiyan', and said it would inspire others as well. (Posted on 05 January 2017, 1667554000 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/india-news.php (Posted on 05 January 2017, 1667554000 173O212O198O32) "I congratulate Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for his nasha-mukti abhiyan. It can save the coming generations and act as an inspiration to other states," Prime Minister Modi said while speaking at Patna's Gandhi Maidan on the occasion of Prakash Parv.The Prime Minister also thanked the Bihar Chief Minister for organising the special event on Guru Gobind Singh's 350th birth anniversary.Entrusting his faith on Bihar, Prime Minister Modi asserted that the state would play a major role in the development of the nation."We remember the greats who belong to Bihar. The people from Bihar have distinguished themselves and served the nation," he added.Invoking tenth Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh, Prime Minister Modi said the ideal did not believe in any form of social discrimination and treated everyone equally."Guru Gobind Singh ji put knowledge at the core of his teachings and inspired so many people through his thoughts and ideals," the Prime Minister said.On the same occasion, Nitish Kumar also did not miss the opportunity to applaud Prime Minister Modi for banning liquor in Gujarat during his 12-year tenure as the state's chief minister."Our Prime Minister was the Chief Minister for 12 years and he implemented prohibition of liquor very effectively in Gujarat," said Nitish. Owing several missiles doesn't mean you are a nuke power: Chinese media to India Beijing [China], Jan. 5 : India, who has been trying for long to become a member of the 48-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), should realise that owning several missiles does not mean it is a nuclear power, Chinese media has stated. (Posted on 05 January 2017, 1667554001 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/world-news.php (Posted on 05 January 2017, 1667554001 173O212O198O32) This comment in the media comes after India successfully tested its long-range ballistic missile, Agni-IV, which can travel 4,000 kilometers and carry a nuclear warhead on Monday, more than a month after it had successfully test-fired Agni-V that has a range of more than 5,000 kilometers.A Global Times editorial read, "For India, China is something to inspire ambition and invoke patriotism. However, India should realize that owning several missiles does not mean it is a nuclear power. Even though India does become a nuclear power, it will be a long time before it can show off its strength to the world."It further said that India has broken UN limits on its development of nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missile."The US and some western countries have also bent the rules on its nuclear plans. New Delhi is no longer satisfied with its nuclear capability and is seeking intercontinental ballistic missiles that can target anywhere in the world, and then, it can land on an equal footing with the UN Security Council's five permanent members," the editorial said."India is 'promising' in vying for permanent membership on the UN Security Council as it is the sole candidate who has both nuclear capability and economic potential.""China should realize that Beijing wouldn't hold back India's development of long-range ballistic missiles," he added.While on the one hand, the editorial says that the Chinese don't feel India's development has poses any big threat to it, it calls for promotion of bilateral rapport."And India wouldn't be considered as China's main rival in the long run. It is simply believed that currently there is a vast disparity in power between the two countries and India knows what it would mean if it poses a nuclear threat to China. The best choice for Beijing and New Delhi is to build rapport," it read."If the Western countries accept India as a nuclear country and are indifferent to the nuclear race between India and Pakistan, China will not stand out and stick rigidly to those nuclear rules as necessary. At this time, Pakistan should have those privileges in nuclear development that India has."The opinion piece further states that China is sincere in developing friendly ties with India, but it will not sit still if India goes too far."In general, it is not difficult for India to produce intercontinental ballistic missiles which can cover the whole world. If the UN Security Council has no objection over this, let it be. The range of Pakistan's nuclear missiles will also see an increase. If the world can adapt to these, China should too," the editorial said."India still maintains a strategic defensive posture before China. The Chinese people should not be led astray by India's extreme words online about its deterrence ability against China. There are similar rhetorics targeting at India in China's cyber world. But, these aggressive online rhetorics count for little," it added. Sahara Diary: Rahul Gandhi dares PM Modi to face probe New Delhi , Jan. 5 : Reacting to granting of immunity from prosecution to Sahara India, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to face a probe if his conscience is clear. (Posted on 05 January 2017, 1667554002 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/india-news.php (Posted on 05 January 2017, 1667554002 173O212O198O32) "Immunity for Sahara or immunity for Modiji? If your conscience is clear Modiji why fear investigation?," Gandhi tweeted.Sahara India has been granted immunity from prosecution and penalty following raids conducted on November 2014 during which "diaries" listing alleged pay-offs to politicians were recovered, a leading English daily reported on Thursday.Significantly, the Income Tax Settlement Commission (ITSC) has concurred with Sahara's claim that the "evidentiary value" of the "loose sheets" recovered during the raids "could not be proved" by the Income Tax Department.The 50-page order by the ITSC says that the panel agreed with Sahara's claim that the "evidentiary value" of the "loose sheets" recovered during the raids could not be proved by the Income Tax Department.The final page of the order states that only Rs 137.58 crore - which was seized during the raids - will now be taxed, which too can be paid by the company in 12 instalments. Guru Gobind Singh is an inspiration for all: PM Narendra Modi Patna, Jan 5 (TheBiharPost/IBNS): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday described 10th Sikh guru, Guru Gobind Singh as a great personality who did not believe in any form of social discrimination and treated everyone equally. (Posted on 05 January 2017, 1667554003 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/india-news.php (Posted on 05 January 2017, 1667554003 173O212O198O32) Addressing a function organized at Patnas Gandhi Maidan to commemorate the 350th birth anniversary of the 10th Sikh Guru, the PM said the Prakash Parv conveys a message of unity and communal harmony.Stating that Guru Gobind Singh put knowledge at the core of his teachings and inspired so many people through his thoughts and ideals, the PM said the world should know how the 10th Sikh Guru has inspired so many people.Modi also thanked Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar for the magnificent arrangements for the event and also praised for the effort he has undertaken to save future generations from alcoholism.He said, People from Bihar have distinguished themselves and served the nation. He also said that Bihar will play a major role in the development of the nation.More than 400,000 Sikha devotees from home and abroad have already reached Patna to be a part of the grand event being held to mark the birth anniversary of 10th Sikh Guru, who spent his early childhood days in the lanes and bylanes of Patna.Guru Gobind Singh was born on December 22, 1666, to ninth Sikh Guru, Guru Tegh Bahadur, and Mata Gujri. He was anointed the supreme leader of the Sikhs at the age of nine, becoming the last of the Sikh Gurus.On the site of the house in which the 10th Sikh Guru was born and where he spent his early childhood, now stands the sacred Harimandir Sahib one of the five most honoured seats of religious authority for Sikhs.The Gurudwara was built by Maharaja Ranjit Singh in remembrance of the Guru.http://thebiharpost.com/IBNSImage: AIRNews Twitter PM Modi praises Bihar CM for the liquor ban in state Patna, Jan 5 (TheBiharPost/IBNS): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday praised Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar for enforcing alcohol ban in the state. (Posted on 05 January 2017, 1667554004 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/india-news.php (Posted on 05 January 2017, 1667554004 173O212O198O32) Bringing social change is a difficult task. Despite that, Nitish Kumar has launched a campaign against alcoholism in the state. I really appreciate him for this effort, Modi said.He made these observations while addressing the concluding day function of the Prakash Parv at Patnas Gandhi Maidan organized to commemorate the 350th birth anniversary of the 10th Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh.The PM also commended the chief minister for the splendid arrangements for the Prakash Parv.In his address, Kumar also referred to how Modi as the chief minister of Gujarat too had effectively implemented the liquor ban in the state.He said the country would prosper if quit all forms of intoxication.http://thebiharpost.com/IBNS RBI asks for documents from airports for accepting banned notes New Delhi, Jan 5 : The Reserve Bank of India has now directed that those who want to deposit old Rs.500 and Rs.1000 notes at its offices should carry a stamped document from the airport to prove that they were abroad. (Posted on 05 January 2017, 1667554006 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/business-india-news.php (Posted on 05 January 2017, 1667554006 173O212O198O32) The RBI has made it clear that it would not accept the banned notes from anyone except for those who were abroad during the period allowed by the government to deposit them at the banks.Several big queues have been spotted outside the RBI offices.Some people have been seen protesting outside RBI branches.Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday told reporters that he would not interfere with the RBI directives related to the acceptance of the banned noted after Dec 30.The Centre on Nov 8 banned old Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 currency notes. Rwanda, Kenya Presidents to attend Vibrant Gujarat Summit New Delhi , Jan. 5 : Upon the invitation from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Presidents of Rawanda and Kenya will attend the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit and participate in business events. (Posted on 05 January 2017, 1667554008 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/gujarat-news.php (Posted on 05 January 2017, 1667554008 173O212O198O32) President of Rwanda Paul Kagame will be on a state visit from January 9 to 12.Kagame accompanied by business officials, will hold official talks with Prime Minister Modi on January 9 in Gandhinagar.He will attend the Summit on January 10 scheduled to be held at Gandhinagar and will be addressing a National Business Seminar on Rwanda. Rwanda will also be participating in the Global Trade Show 2017.Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, who will be accompanied by several of his Ministers, will pay a visit from January 10 to 12.Kenyatta will also hold hold official talks with Prime Minister Modi on January 11 in New Delhi and on next day, he is expected to attend a business forum in the national capital.During the visit, President Kenyatta is also expected to call on President Pranab Mukherjee.Vice President Hamid Ansari, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Minister for Defence Manohar Parrikar are also expected to call on President Kenyatta. Japan to assist India with development of three smart cities New Delhi , Jan. 5 : Japan has decided to assist India with the development of Chennai, Ahmedabad and Varanasi as smart cities. (Posted on 05 January 2017, 1667554009 173O212O198O32) https://www.newkerala.com/india-news.php (Posted on 05 January 2017, 1667554009 173O212O198O32) The same was conveyed on Thursday by Japan's Ambassador to India Kenji Hiramatsu during his meeting with Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu.Hiramatsu said that Japan is quite interested in urban development initiatives of the Government of India and decided to be a partner, said a statement.Responding to Naidu's observation about the need for speedy action, Japan's Envoy said "We would like to match the action oriented approach of the Government under Prime Minister Shri Modi".High Commissioner of United Kingdom Dominic Asquith also met Naidu and discussed converting into action the MoU signed between the two countries on cooperation in urban development sector during the recent visit of British Prime Minister Theresa May to India.He said institutionalizing government to government cooperation for smart city development has huge potential.So far, leading countries have come forward to be associated with development of 15 Indian smart cities.These include United States Trade Development Agency (USTDA) for Visakhapatnam, Ajmer and Allahabad, UK for Pune, Amaravati and Indore, France for Chandigarh, Puducherry and Nagpur and Germany for Bhubaneswar, Coimbattore and Kochi. Vote now! Who is The Daily News Athlete of the Week for Oct. 24-30? Champaign, IL (61820) Today Cloudy with gusty winds developing this afternoon. High near 75F. Winds S at 20 to 30 mph. Higher wind gusts possible.. Tonight Windy with periods of thunderstorms late. Low 59F. Winds SSE at 25 to 35 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Higher wind gusts possible. NOTICE: This Consumer Medicine Information (CMI) is intended for persons living in Australia. Levonorgestrel and Ethinylestradiol Tablets Consumer Medicine Information What is in this leaflet This leaflet answers some common questions about Monofeme. It does not contain all the available information. It does not take the place of talking to your doctor or pharmacist. All medicines have risks and benefits. Your doctor has weighed the risks of you taking Monofeme against the benefits this medicine is expected to have for you. If you have any questions about taking this medicine, ask your doctor or pharmacist. Keep this leaflet with the medicine. You may need to read it again. What Monofeme is used for Monofeme is an oral contraceptive, commonly known as a "birth control pill" or "the Pill". Monofeme tablets contain two hormones (levonorgestrel and ethinylestradiol), which prevent you from becoming pregnant if taken correctly. They are similar to the hormones that your body normally produces. Monofeme prevents pregnancy in several ways: It inhibits the egg release by stopping it maturing It changes the cervical mucus consistency making it difficult for the sperm to reach the egg It changes the lining of the uterus making it less suitable for implantation. Ask your doctor if you have any questions about why Monofeme has been prescribed for you. Your doctor may have prescribed Monofeme for another reason. This medicine is available only with a doctor's prescription. Monofeme is not habit-forming. This medicine is not expected to affect your ability to drive a car or operate machinery. Before you take Monofeme When you must not take Monofeme Do not take Monofeme if you have an allergy to: Any medicine containing ethinylestradiol or levonorgestrel Any of the ingredients listed at the end of this leaflet Any other similar medicines (such as other oral contraceptives). Some of the symptoms of an allergic reaction may include: shortness of breath wheezing or difficulty breathing swelling of the face, lips, tongue or other parts of the body rash, itching or hives on the skin. Do not take Monofeme if you have or have had any of the following medical conditions: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) and are on medicines called anticoagulants which are used to "thin the blood" Blood clots or a history of blood clots in the: Legs (thrombophlebitis or deep vein thrombosis (DVT)), Lungs (pulmonary embolism) Eyes. Hereditary or an acquired disposition for venous thromboembolism Multiple risk factors VTE including obesity, age above 35 years, smoking, high cholesterol Major surgery and have been confined to bed for long periods of time Arterial thromboembolism (ATE) or a past history of these that include: Stroke Angina Transient ischaemic attack or "mini stroke". Hereditary or an acquired disposition for ATE History of migraine, accompanied by blurred vision, difficulty in speaking, muscle weakness, or increased sensitivity to light, sound, or noise Multiple risk factors for ATE or a serious risk factor for ATE that include: Uncontrolled high blood pressure Diabetes with blood vessel damage Severe lipid disease Sickle cell anaemia. Disease in any blood vessel(s) Inflammation of the pancreas, which is associated with very high blood levels of triglycerides (fatty substances) Breast cancer or cancer of the lining of the womb, cervix or vagina, or you think you have or have had these conditions Unexplained vaginal bleeding Liver tumour or liver disease Yellowing of the whites of the eyes or of the skin (jaundice) during pregnancy or during previous use of an oral contraceptive Vaginal bleeding, the cause of which is unknown Cancer or suspected cancer of the breast or sex organs (e.g. cervix, vagina, ovaries, endometrium, womb) and known or suspected oestrogen-dependent tumours. If you are not certain whether these may apply to you, or you are worried by anything in this list, tell your doctor. Do not take this medicine if you are pregnant or you think you are pregnant. Pregnancy must be excluded before you start taking Monofeme. Do not take this medicine if you are taking anti-viral hepatitis C virus (HCV) medicinal products containing ombitasvir/paritaprevir/ritonavir and dasabuvir with or without ribavirin. If you are not sure about your anti-HCV medication, tell your doctor. Do not give this medicine to a child. Do not take this medicine if you have already experienced menopause. Do not take this medicine after the expiry date (EXP) printed on the pack or if the packaging is torn or shows signs of tampering. If it is expired or damaged, return it to your pharmacist for disposal. Before you start to take Monofeme You must have a thorough medical check-up, including a Pap smear, breast check, blood pressure check and urine test. You must tell your doctor if you or anyone in your immediate family has, or has had blood clots in the legs or lungs. Blood clots are a rare occurrence when taking an oral contraceptive. The risk of a blood clot is highest during the first year of taking an oral contraceptive for the first time or if you are re-starting the "pill" after a break of 4 weeks or more. The risk of having a blood clot is higher in oral contraceptive users than in non-users, but is not as high as during pregnancy. Tell your doctor about any of the following conditions as these are risk factors for developing blood clots: Cancer Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) Haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS) - a disorder of blood coagulation causing failure of the kidneys) Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis (chronic inflammatory bowel disease) Sickle cell disease Smoking particularly if you are heavy smoker (15 or more cigarettes per day) and are aged over 35 years Have had any recent surgery or trauma Recently had a baby Lost a baby in the second trimester Are pregnant Had major surgery and have been confined to bed for long periods of time Also tell your doctor if you are planning a long haul plane flight (greater than 4 hours). You must tell your doctor if you or anyone in your immediate family has, or has had a stroke or heart attack. Taking oral contraceptives is linked with an increased risk of having a heart attack, angina, stroke or a "mini stroke". Tell your doctor if you have any of the following conditions: Heart disease including heart valve disorders or certain heart rhythm disorders High blood pressure, a history of high blood pressure or high blood pressure during pregnancy High cholesterol Hepatitis C Diabetes Migraine or other headaches Hyperhomocysteinemia. Tell your doctor if over 35 years of age or are overweight. If you are not certain whether any of the above may apply to you, check with your doctor. Tell your doctor if you have any other health problems, especially: Breast lumps, abnormal breast X-ray or mammogram Epilepsy Depression Gallbladder disease Fluid retention or kidney disease Asthma Fibroids Yellowing of the whites of the eyes or skin (jaundice) during pregnancy or during previous oral contraceptive use Hereditary angioedema. (swelling of the face, lips, mouth, tongue or throat). If you have any of these conditions you should have regular check-ups with your doctor to make sure that taking Monofeme is not making the conditions worse. Tell your doctor if you plan to become pregnant or are breastfeeding. Your doctor can discuss the risks and benefits involved with you. If you have not told your doctor about any of the above, tell him/her before you start taking Monofeme. Monofeme contains lactose. If you know that you are intolerant to some sugars, or your doctor has told you so, speak to your doctor before taking it. Tell your doctor if you are allergic to any foods, dyes, preservatives or any other medicines. Taking other medicines Tell your doctor if you are taking any other medicines, including: All prescription medicines All medicines, vitamins, herbal supplements or natural therapies you buy without a prescription from a pharmacy, supermarket, naturopath or health food shop. Some medicines may be affected by Monofeme or may affect how well it works. You may need different amounts of your medicines, or you may need to take different medicines. Your doctor will advise you. Tell your doctor or pharmacist if you are taking any of the following: Anti-viral hepatitis C virus (HCV) medicines such as ombitasvir, paritaprevir, ritonavir and dasabuvir Rifampicin and rifabutin for the treatment of tuberculosis Antibiotics such as ampicillin, other penicillins and tetracyclines Anti-fungal agents such as griseofulvin Barbiturates (certain types of medicines prescribed for epilepsy, such as phenobarbitone) Medicines for epilepsy (such as phenytoin, primidone, carbamazepine and topiramate) Ritonavir for the treatment of HIV infection Modafinil used to treat excessive daytime sleepiness St. John's Wort, an ingredient in many medicines you can buy without a prescription from a pharmacy, health food shop or supermarket Corticosteroids such as dexamethasone. While you are taking any of these medicines and for the next 7 days after stopping them, you must use an additional non-hormonal method of contraception (such as condoms or a diaphragm, but not the rhythm or temperature methods). If you come to the end of the white tablets during these 7 days, start the next pack straight away. Skip the 7 red tablets. If you take rifampicin and some other medicines, you may need to use additional non-hormonal contraception for four weeks after finishing the course of treatment. Ask your doctor or pharmacist about how long you need to use additional non-hormonal contraception. Tell your doctor or pharmacist if you are taking any of the following: Atorvastatin used to treat high cholesterol Indinavir for the treatment of HIV infection Anti-fungal agents such as itraconazole and fluconazole Paracetamol and ascorbic acid (Vitamin C). Cyclosporin used to prevent organ rejection Theophyllines used for asthma and other breathing difficulties Corticosteroids Lamotrigine used for seizures. If you have not told your doctor or pharmacist about any of the above, tell them before you start taking Monofeme. Your doctor and pharmacist have more information on medicines to be careful with or avoid while you are taking this medicine. How to take Monofeme Follow all directions given to you by your doctor or pharmacist carefully. They may differ from the information contained in this leaflet. If you do not understand the instructions on the box, ask your doctor or pharmacist for help. How to take it Swallow tablets whole with a full glass of water. When to take Monofeme You must take Monofeme every day, regardless of how often you have sex. Monofeme will work best if you do not miss any tablets and take it at the same time each day. Taking Monofeme at the same time each day will also help you remember when to take the tablets. It does not matter if you take Monofeme before or after food. If you are concerned about this, please speak to your doctor or pharmacist. Starting a hormonal contraceptive for the first time To start taking Monofeme follow these steps: 1. On the first day of your menstrual bleed, take a white tablet that matches the day of the week from the green shaded section of the blister pack. You must also use an additional non-hormonal method of contraception (such as condoms or a diaphragm, but not the rhythm or temperature methods) until a white tablet has been taken daily for 7 days without a break. 2. Then take one white tablet each day, following the arrows so that you are taking the correct tablet for the day of the week until all 21 white tablets have gone. 3. Then take one red tablet each day for the next 7 days. 4. You will have a 'withdrawal' bleed, similar to having a period, during the week of red tablets. If you do not have a period while you are taking the red tablets, and there is any chance that you have not followed all the instructions in this leaflet, contact your doctor to check if you are pregnant. Going on to further blister packs On the day after your last red tablet, begin the next pack with a white tablet from the green shaded section of the blister pack that matches the day of the week. Do this even if you are still bleeding. Each new pack is started with a white tablet on the same day as the first pack, so that you have 21 days on white tablets, then 7 days on red tablets. There is no break between packs. If you start taking your new pack late, you must also use an additional non-hormonal method of contraception (such as condoms or a diaphragm, but not the rhythm or temperature methods) until a white tablet has been taken daily for 7 days without a break. Switching from a different combined oral contraceptive When changing from a different combined oral contraceptive to Monofeme, it is important to follow the instructions below carefully. Monofeme works best if you do not miss any tablets and take it at the same time each day. Follow these steps if your current oral contraceptive contains an oestrogen and a progestogen: 1. Stop taking your current oral contraceptive after you have taken the last active tablet. If your current oral contraceptive pack also contains reminder tablets, do not take them. 2. The next day, take the first white Monofeme tablet from the green shaded section that matches the day of the week. You must also use an additional non-hormonal method of contraception (such as condoms or a diaphragm, but not the rhythm or temperature methods) until a white tablet has been taken daily for 7 days without a break. 3. Then take one white tablet each day following the direction of the arrows until all 21 white tablets have gone. 4. Then take one red tablet each day for the next 7 days. 5. You will have a 'withdrawal' bleed, similar to having a period, during the week of red tablets. If you do not have a period while you are taking the red tablets, and there is any chance that you have not followed all the instructions in this leaflet, contact your doctor to check if you are pregnant. Switching from a progestogen-only contraceptive You can stop taking a progestogen-only contraceptive tablet any day and start taking Monofeme the next day, at the same time. If you have been using a progestogen-only implant, start taking Monofeme on the day the implant is removed. If you have been using a progestogen-only injection, start taking Monofeme on the day the next injection would be due. In all cases start Monofeme by taking a white tablet from the green shaded section that matches the day of the week. You must also use an additional non-hormonal method of contraception (such as condoms or a diaphragm, but not the rhythm or temperature methods) until a white tablet has been taken daily for 7 days without a break. After having a baby If you have just had a baby, talk to your doctor before you start taking Monofeme. After a miscarriage or abortion Your doctor will advise you how to take Monofeme after a miscarriage or abortion. How long to take Monofeme Continue taking your medicine for as long s your doctor tells you. Your doctor may prescribe Monofeme for long periods, until you no longer need or want contraception. If you are not sure how long you should be taking Monofeme, ask your doctor. If you forget to take your tablets If you forget to take Monofeme every day, it may not work as well in protecting you from becoming pregnant. Do not try to make up for missed doses by taking more than one tablet at a time. Forgetting one white tablet: If you forget one white tablet but it is less than 12 hours late, take the missed tablet immediately. Take the next tablet at your usual time, even if this means taking two white tablets in one day. If you do not take the missed tablet within 12 hours, Monofeme may not work as well in protecting you from becoming pregnant. If one white tablet is missed and is remembered more than 12 hours late, take the last tablet as soon as you remember and the next tablet at the usual time. Continue to take tablets at your usual time but you must also use an additional non-hormonal method of contraception (such as condoms or a diaphragm but not the rhythm or temperature methods) until a white tablet has been taken daily for 7 days without a break. If you come to the end of the white tablets during the 7 days after a missed tablet, start the next pack straight away. Skip the 7 red tablets. Forgetting two white tablets: If you forget two white tablets, take the last missed tablet as soon as you remember and the next tablet at the usual time. Continue to take tablets at your usual time but you must also use an additional non-hormonal method of contraception (such as condoms or a diaphragm but not the rhythm or temperature methods) until a white tablet has been taken daily for 7 days without a break. If you come to the end of the white tablets during the 7 days after the missed tablets, start the next pack straight away. Skip the 7 red tablets. You may not have a withdrawal bleed until the end of this new pack, but you may have spotting or breakthrough bleeding when taking the white tablets. If you don't have a withdrawal bleed at the end of the new pack, contact your doctor, who must make sure that you are not pregnant before you start the next pack. Forgetting three or more white tablets: Contact your doctor for advice on what to do. Forgetting a red tablet: If you miss one or more red tablets, leave them in the pack and do not worry. However, if you miss red tablets and then forget to start the next pack on time, start as soon as you remember by taking a white tablet that matches the day of the week from the green shaded section. You must also use an additional non-hormonal method of contraception (such as condoms or a diaphragm but not the rhythm or temperature methods) until a white tablet has been taken daily for 7 days without a break. If you are not sure what to do, ask your doctor or pharmacist. If you are having trouble remembering to take Monofeme, ask your pharmacist for some hints. If you vomit or have diarrhoea after taking Monofeme If you have vomiting or diarrhoea within 3 to 4 hours after taking a white tablet, you must use an additional non-hormonal method of contraception (such as condoms or a diaphragm, but not the rhythm or temperature methods) until a white tablet has been taken daily for 7 days without a break. If you come to the end of the white tablets during these 7 days, start the next pack straight away. Skip the 7 red tablets. The tablet may not have time to be absorbed properly and may not protect you from becoming pregnant. If you have vomiting or diarrhoea after taking a red tablet, do not worry. If you take too much (overdose) Immediately telephone your doctor or the Poisons Information Centre (Australia telephone 13 11 26, New Zealand telephone 0800 764 766) for advice, or go to Accident and Emergency at your nearest hospital if you think you or anyone else may have taken too much Monofeme. Do this even if there are no signs of discomfort or poisoning. You may need urgent medical attention. Symptoms of an overdose may include: Feeling sick or vomiting Dizziness Feeling sleepy or tired Women may also experience menstrual bleeding. While you are taking Monofeme Things you must do Tell any other doctors, dentists and pharmacists who are treating you that you are taking Monofeme. If you are about to start taking any new medicines, tell the doctor or pharmacist that you are taking Monofeme. If you become pregnant while taking Monofeme, see your doctor immediately. If you are about to have any blood tests, tell your doctor you are taking Monofeme. It may interfere with the results of some tests. If you miss a period and you have taken your tablets correctly, continue taking your tablets as you would normally. Sometimes you might not have a menstrual period while taking Monofeme. If you miss a period and you have not taken your tablets correctly, keep taking your tablets and see your doctor immediately. Not taking your tablets correctly includes missing one or more tablets or starting a new pack later than you should have. If you miss two menstrual periods, stop taking your tablets and see your doctor, even if you have taken the tablets correctly. You must use a non-hormonal method of contraception, (such as condoms or a diaphragm) during this time. Your doctor should make sure you are not pregnant before you start taking Monofeme again. Have regular check-ups from your doctor, including a Pap smear. Oral contraceptives should not be prescribed for longer than one year without your doctor carrying out a check-up. Your doctor will advise you how often you need a Pap smear. A Pap smear can detect abnormal cells lining the cervix. Sometimes abnormal cells can progress to cervical cancer. The most important risk factor for cervical cancer is persistent human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. However, cervical cancer has been reported to occur more often in women using an oral contraceptive for a long time. This finding may not be caused by the oral contraceptive, but may be related to sexual behaviour and other reasons. Perform regular breast self-examination. Risk factors for the development of breast cancer include increasing age, family history, obesity, never having had a baby, and late age for first full-term pregnancy. Breast cancer has also been found slightly more often in women who use oral contraceptives than in women of the same age who do not use them. This slight increase in the number of breast cancer cases gradually disappears during the course of the 10 years after stopping use of oral contraceptives. It is not known whether the oral contraceptive causes the difference. It may be that the women were examined more often, so that the breast cancer was noticed earlier. If you are concerned about contracting a sexually transmitted disease (STD), ask your partner to wear a condom when having sexual intercourse with you. Monofeme will not protect you from HIV-AIDS or any other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) such as chlamydia, genital herpes, genital warts, gonorrhoea, hepatitis B, human papilloma virus and syphilis. To help protect yourself from STDs, you need to use a barrier contraceptive such as a condom. Tell your doctor you are using Monofeme at least 4 weeks before any planned hospitalisation or surgery. Your doctor may tell you to stop taking Monofeme several weeks before surgery or at the time of immobilisation. Your doctor will tell you when you can start taking Monofeme after you are back on your feet. To avoid pregnancy during this time you must use a non-hormonal method of contraception such as condoms or a diaphragm. Things you must not do Do not take Monofeme to treat any other complaints unless your doctor tells you to. Do not give your medicine to anyone else even if they have the same condition as you. Do not stop taking Monofeme, or change the dosage, without checking with your doctor. If you stop taking Monofeme or do not take a tablet every day, without using another form of contraception, you may become pregnant. Side Effects Tell your doctor or pharmacist as soon as possible if you do not feel well while taking Monofeme. All medicines can have side effects. Sometimes they are serious, most of the time they are not. You may need medical attention if you get certain side effects. It can be difficult to tell whether side effects are the result of taking Monofeme or are side effects of another medicine you are taking. Do not be alarmed by the list of side effects. You may not experience any of them. Ask your doctor or pharmacist to answer any questions you have. Tell your doctor if... Tell your doctor if you notice any of the following and they worry you: Changes in bleeding patterns, including breakthrough bleeding/spotting Painful periods Missed periods, but if you have not taken Monofeme as directed you should check whether you are pregnant Changes in mucus from the vagina Changes in the cervix Vaginal thrush (candida) Breast pain, tenderness, enlargement, possible milk secretion Changes in sex drive Nausea or vomiting Abdominal pain, cramps or bloating Mood changes, including depression Headache, including migraines Nervousness Dizziness Contact lenses becoming uncomfortable to wear Weight change (increase or decrease) Changes in appetite Swelling of the hands, ankles or feet Acne Rash Darkening of the skin, which may persist after stopping your medicine Loss of scalp hair Increase in body hair. The above list includes the more common side effects of your medicine. Tell your doctor as soon as possible if... Tell your doctor as soon as possible if you notice any worsening of conditions that you may already have such as: Chorea (involuntary muscle spasm) Porphyria Systemic lupus erythematosus (Lupus) Varicose veins Gallbladder disease Hereditary angioedema (swelling of the face, lips, mouth, tongue or throat). Go to hospital if... Tell your doctor immediately, or go to Accident and Emergency at your nearest hospital if you notice any of the following: Unexplained or persistent pains in the head, chest, arm or below the breastbone Severe pain, swelling or discolouration in either of your legs Shortness of breath Rapid or irregular heartbeat Blurred or double vision Partial or complete loss of sight Eye protrusion, swelling of the eye or eye lesions Dizziness or fainting, sometimes with loss of balance Sweating, nausea or vomiting An unusual cough Weakness or numbness in any part of your body Discomfort radiating to the back, jaw, throat or stomach Confusion, trouble speaking or understanding Bloody diarrhoea Abdominal pain Fever Feeling of indigestion or choking Rectal bleeding Feeling tired Lose your appetite or lose weight Breast lumps Jaundice or a yellowing of the skin or eyeballs, often with fever, fatigue, loss of appetite, dark coloured urine or light coloured bowel movements. Taking oral contraceptives has been associated with an increased risk of having a benign liver tumour and, in very rare cases, liver cancer. The risk appears to increase the longer oral contraceptives are taken Migraine headaches for the first time More frequent migraines if you already suffer from them Itchy rash You are an epileptic and your fits become more frequent Rise in blood pressure. You may experience headache, blurred vision or palpitations. Sometimes your blood pressure may rise without you experiencing any of these symptoms. It is important to keep your routine doctor's appointments so that your blood pressure can be checked Swelling around the eyes or mouth. Whilst these side effects are rare, they are serious. You may need urgent medical attention or hospitalisation. Other side effects not listed above may also occur in some patients. Tell your doctor if you notice anything else that is making you feel unwell, even if it is not on this list. After stopping Monofeme If your periods do not return within 2 to 3 months of stopping Monofeme tell your doctor. Some women have short-term problems getting pregnant after stopping Monofeme, especially if they had irregular menstrual cycles before starting to use an oral contraceptive. If you are planning to become pregnant after stopping Monofeme, use a non-hormonal method of contraception such as condoms or a diaphragm for 3 months before trying to fall pregnant. Ask your doctor or pharmacist for advice about taking folate if you plan to become pregnant. After taking Monofeme Storage Keep your tablets in the blister pack until it is time to take them. If you take the tablets out of the blister pack they may not keep well. Keep your tablets in a cool, dry place where the temperature stays below 25C and is away from light. Do not store Monofeme or any other medicine, in a bathroom or near a sink. Do not leave Monofeme in the car on hot days or on window sills. Heat and dampness can destroy some medicines. Keep it where children cannot reach it. A locked cupboard at least one-and-a-half metres above the ground is a good place to store medicines. Disposal If your doctor tells you to stop taking Monofeme, or the expiry date has passed, ask your pharmacist what to do with any medicine that is left over. Product description What it looks like Monofeme comes in a 16-week box containing 4 blister packs. Each blister pack contains 21 white hormone tablets and 7 red non-hormonal tablets. The blister pack is marked with days of the week next to each tablet. Ingredients Each white tablet contains 150 micrograms of levonorgestrel and 30 micrograms of ethinylestradiol as the active ingredients. Red tablets do not contain active ingredients. The white and red tablets also contain the following inactive ingredients: Lactose monohydrate Maize starch Povidone Purified talc Magnesium stearate Sucrose Macrogol 6000 Calcium carbonate Glycol montanate (red tablets only) White beeswax (white tablets only) Carnauba Wax (white tablets only) The red tablets also contain the colouring agents: Brilliant scarlet 4R Erythrosine Monofeme does not contain gluten, tartrazine or any other azo dyes. Supplier Monofeme is supplied in Australia by: Pfizer Australia Pty Ltd Sydney NSW Toll Free number: 1800 675 229 www.pfizer.com.au Australian Registration Number AUST R 296399. The foundation of the professional practice of nursing exists with the aim to provide quality care for all individuals. In order to fulfill this purpose, practicing nurses should: Maintain adequate credentials Follow the code of ethics, standards, and competencies Continue professional development and education In most countries throughout the world, the practice of nursing is regulated by national or state law to keep the practice standards high. As such, an individual wishing to enter and continue in the profession is required to pass certain education and training requirement set by the government. This Is Modern Nursing Play Ethics, Standards, and Competencies Nurses are responsible for the care of all individuals from every ethnicity and religious background, including both healthy and ill individuals. This is usually a holistic care approach comprising of the patients physical, emotional, psychological, intellectual, social, and spiritual requirements. In order to provide this care, nurses use scientific theory with technological aids for the best patient outcomes. Although the exact code of ethics differs for each country, there are four main principles that form the foundation of nursing practice, as follows: Prioritize the care of individuals with respect to their dignity Cooperate with other health professionals to promote the health and wellbeing of patients Provide exemplary care at all times Act with integrity and honesty to uphold the reputation of the profession These principles hold the base of good professional practice and should be followed by all nurses to ensure that the care provided to patients is the most beneficial for each individual. Professional Development and Education In order to be recognized and practice as a nurse, an individual needs to hold adequate credentials in terms of education, training, and experience, as determined by the regulatory body in the respective country of the world. A nurse may practice as a licensed practical nurse (LPN) or a registered nurse (RN). The entry requirements and scope of practice of these roles differ slightly for each country. In general, a university degree is required for an RN, whereas qualifications for an LPN can be obtained via a shorter diploma. Registered nurses provide the scientific and technical knowledge needed to make decisions in practice and also have the option to do further study to gain specialized knowledge. It is important that a nurse continues to learn and improve their standard of practice throughout their career as a nurse. This involves continued professional development through education and experience. In many countries, it is a requirement of LPNs and RNs to complete a number of development activities each year to continue practicing as a nurse. Female Predominance in Nursing Profession Although there is equal opportunity for individuals of any gender to become a nurse, the profession has traditionally been, and continues to be, dominated by females. To illustrate this, the male:female ratio in the United States and Canada is approximately 1:19 and this remains relatively consistent in other regions of the world, with a few exceptions. References Further Reading The University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre (CRCHUM) has been awarded a grant of US$2 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to pilot the Canadian component of a study to determine the optimal amount of blood to transfuse in anemic patients who have suffered a myocardial infarction. "Most people who suffer a first infarction do not need blood transfusion, but for those who do, the mortality rate is higher. These are often elderly patients who sometimes have other diseases. The problem is that we don't know how much blood we should give them," says Dr. Paul Hebert, head of the medical department at CHUM and co-principal investigator of the study known as MINT, for Myocardial Ischemia and Transfusion. MINT is a vast clinical trial directed by Dr. Jeffrey Lee Carson of Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Jersey (United States). This randomized trial conducted in more than 70 hospitals in the United States and Canada will compare two blood transfusion strategies--liberal and restrictive--in 3,500 patients at risk of myocardial infarction. "We are going to determine whether giving more blood to keep the patient at a threshold of 100 g/L hemoglobin is preferable to giving less blood with a threshold of 80 g/L. We will see the impact on mortality after 30 days," says Dr. Hebert, also a professor in the Department of Medicine at Universite de Montreal and holder of the Hema-Quebec - Bayer Chair in Transfusion Medicine at Universite de Montreal. A pilot trial on 110 patients published in The American Journal of Cardiology showed that mortality was higher after 30 days in patients who received less hemoglobin compared with those who received more: seven people died in the restrictive group compared with just one in the liberal group. The researchers therefore believe it is better to give more blood to patients affected by myocardial ischemia, that is, heart disease caused by a cessation of, or decrease in, irrigation of the heart. Lab Diagnostics & Automation eBook Compilation of the top interviews, articles, and news in the last year. Download a copy today Yet in a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1999 that revolutionized blood transfusion practices around the world, Dr. Paul Hebert and his colleagues demonstrated that people hospitalized in intensive care have a greater chance of survival if transfusions of hemoglobin are limited. "This generally is true, but the heart is a special organ that needs constant irrigation with oxygen. We think that if you have a heart attack and are also anemic, this is a concern and more blood must be transfused," Dr. Hebert says. Blood transfusions are not without risk of infection or immune responses. Some believe that when a patient truly needs a blood transfusion, it is always preferable to limit the hemoglobin administered. "This clinical trial is the logical follow-up to our research on transfusion thresholds going back more than 30 years. It will help us resolve one of the last major issues in the field," says Dr. Jacques Lacroix, an intensivist at Sainte-Justine Hospital, professor at Universite de Montreal, and contributor to the MINT study. The MINT team will also assess whether the amount of hemoglobin given to cardiac patients affects the risk of complications such as thrombosis or pneumonia. "Our findings will definitely influence practice and ultimately save lives. We can be more effective when an anemic patient suffers a heart attack, and prevent recurrences," Dr. Hebert concludes. The World Health Organization says that cardiovascular diseases account for some 17.5 million deaths a year. Myocardial ischemia is the leading cause of death and the risk of dying is especially high among elderly and anemic patients. A chance meeting between a spider expert and a chemist has led to the development of antibiotic synthetic spider silk. After five years' work an interdisciplinary team of scientists at The University of Nottingham has developed a technique to produce chemically functionalised spider silk that can be tailored to applications used in drug delivery, regenerative medicine and wound healing. The Nottingham research team has shown for the first time how 'click-chemistry' can be used to attach molecules, such as antibiotics or fluorescent dyes, to artificially produced spider silk synthesised by E.coli bacteria. The research, funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) is published today in the online journal Advanced Materials. The chosen molecules can be 'clicked' into place in soluble silk protein before it has been turned into fibres, or after the fibres have been formed. This means that the process can be easily controlled and more than one type of molecule can be used to 'decorate' individual silk strands. Nottingham breakthrough In a laboratory in the Centre of Biomolecular Sciences, Professor Neil Thomas from the School of Chemistry in collaboration with Dr Sara Goodacre from the School of Life Sciences, has led a team of BBSRC DTP-funded PhD students starting with David Harvey who was then joined by Victor Tudorica, Leah Ashley and Tom Coekin. They have developed and diversified this new approach to functionalising 'recombinant' -- artificial -- spider silk with a wide range of small molecules. They have shown that when these 'silk' fibres are 'decorated' with the antibiotic levofloxacin it is slowly released from the silk, retaining its anti-bacterial activity for at least five days. Neil Thomas, a Professor of Medicinal and Biological Chemistry, said: "Our technique allows the rapid generation of biocompatible, mono or multi-functionalised silk structures for use in a wide range of applications. These will be particularly useful in the fields of tissue engineering and biomedicine." Remarkable qualities of spider silk Spider silk is strong, biocompatible and biodegradable. It is a protein-based material that does not appear to cause a strong immune, allergic or inflammatory reaction. With the recent development of recombinant spider silk, the race has been on to find ways of harnessing its remarkable qualities. The Nottingham research team has shown that their technique can be used to create a biodegradable mesh which can do two jobs at once. It can replace the extra cellular matrix that our own cells generate, to accelerate growth of the new tissue. It can also be used for the slow release of antibiotics. Professor Thomas said: "There is the possibility of using the silk in advanced dressings for the treatment of slow-healing wounds such as diabetic ulcers. Using our technique infection could be prevented over weeks or months by the controlled release of antibiotics. At the same time tissue regeneration is accelerated by silk fibres functioning as a temporary scaffold before being biodegraded." The medicinal properties of spider silk recognised for centuries. The medicinal properties of spider silk have been recognised for centuries but not clearly understood. The Greeks and Romans treated wounded soldiers with spider webs to stop bleeding. It is said that soldiers would use a combination of honey and vinegar to clean deep wounds and then cover the whole thing with balled-up spider webs. There is even a mention in Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream: "I shall desire you of more acquaintance, good master cobweb," the character 'Bottom' said. "If I cut my finger, I shall make bold of you." 'I think we could make that!' The idea came together at a discipline bridging university 'sandpit' meeting five years ago. Dr Goodacre says her chance meeting at that event with Professor Thomas proved to be one of the most productive afternoons of her career. Dr Goodacre, who heads up the SpiderLab in the School of Life Sciences, said: "I got up at that meeting and showed the audience a picture of some spider silk. I said 'I want to understand how this silk works, and then make some.' "At the end of the session Neil came up to me and said 'I think my group could make that.' He also suggested that there might be more interesting 'tweaks' one could make so that the silk could be 'decorated' with different, useful, compounds either permanently or which could be released over time due to a change in the acidity of the environment." The approach required the production of the silk proteins in a bacterium where an amino acid not normally found in proteins was included. This amino acid contained an azide group which is widely used in 'click' reactions that only occur at that position in the protein. It was an approach that no-one had used before with spider silk -- but the big question was -- would it work? Dr Goodacre said: "It was the start of a fascinating adventure that saw a postdoc undertake a very preliminary study to construct the synthetic silks. He was a former SpiderLab PhD student who had previously worked with our tarantulas. Thanks to his ground work we showed we could produce the silk proteins in bacteria. We were then joined by David Harvey, a new PhD student, who not only made the silk fibres, incorporating the unusual amino acid, but also decorated it and demonstrated its antibiotic activity. He has since extended those first ideas far beyond what we had thought might be possible." David Harvey's work is described in this paper but Professor Thomas and Dr Goodacre say this is just the start. There are other joint SpiderLab/Thomas lab students working on uses for this technology in the hope of developing it further. David Harvey, the lead author on this their first paper, has just been awarded his PhD and is now a postdoctoral researcher on a BBSRC follow-on grant so is still at the heart of the research. His current work is focused on driving the functionalised spider silk technology towards commercial application in wound healing and tissue regeneration. Where will we be in 5 years' time? Dr Goodacre said: "It is likely that this paper is just the start of a very exciting range of studies using the new spider silk material. Some of the future work will also be supported by other, neat ideas from the world of spiders and their silk, which the SpiderLab is currently trying to unravel." Current recommendations that a central catheter is required for continuous intravenous infusion of 3 percent sodium chloride solution should be re-evaluated, according to a study in the American Journal of Critical Care (AJCC). The study, "Safety of Continuous Peripheral Infusion of 3% Sodium Chloride Solution in Neurocritical Care Patients," suggests that safe administration of continuous intravenous infusion of hypertonic saline via a peripheral catheter may help avoid unnecessary placement of central catheters, which could lead to fewer associated complications and lower healthcare costs. This is the first study to examine the safety of peripheral administration of 3 percent sodium chloride solution in adults. More than five million central catheters are placed each year in the United States, accounting for 15 million days of treatment with central access. Although valuable tools in patient care, central catheters are also associated with serious complications, such as catheter-associated bloodstream infections and symptomatic thrombosis. Critically ill patients may receive hypertonic saline for a variety of indications, and numerous drug information resources recommend that the solution be administered via a central catheter. These recommendations may contribute to patients having a central catheter placed solely for the purpose of administering continuous intravenous infusions of 3 percent sodium chloride solution. The research team included G. Morgan Jones, PharmD, BCPS, BCCCP, clinical pharmacy specialist at Methodist University Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee and assistant professor of clinical pharmacy, neurology and neurosurgery at University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center. He was joined by post-graduate pharmacy residents Lauren Bode, PharmD, from the University of North Carolina Hospitals and Clinics and Heidi Riha, PharmD, from Methodist University Hospital and by Michael J. Erdman, PharmD, BCPS, clinical pharmacist at University of Florida Health, Jacksonville. Neuroscience eBook Compilation of the top interviews, articles, and news in the last year. Download a copy today "We observed a limited number of infusion-related reactions even when 3 percent sodium chloride solution was administered peripherally for a prolonged time and even at rates as high as 75 mL/h," Jones said. "Current recommendations to infuse 3 percent sodium chloride through a central line only are largely based upon data from parenteral nutrition administration. Our data suggests that this may not be applicable to 3 percent sodium chloride infusions and current recommendations should be re-evaluated." The researchers conducted a retrospective, multicenter cohort study at Methodist University Hospital and at the University of Florida Health, which are large urban teaching hospitals with dedicated neurocritical care teams. They examined the records of all patients who had continuous intravenous infusion of 3 percent sodium chloride solution via a peripheral catheter during a three-year period. Of the 213 neurocritical care patients in the study, infusion-related reactions occurred in only 15 patients. Phlebitis occurred nine times, extravasation six times, with no documented episodes of thrombophlebitis. Of note, eight of the 15 patients with infusion-related reactions had continuous intravenous infusion of 3 percent sodium chloride solution resumed at an alternative peripheral intravenous site with no further documented reactions. Although administration was changed to a central catheter in 56 patients, only five changes were due to an infusion-related reaction. The most common electrolyte abnormalities were hyperchloremia (49.3 percent) and hypokelamia (46.9 percent), but the clinical importance of these remains unclear. The researchers were also able to determine various sites of administration, needle gauges and infusion rates that might aid in characterizing the safety of continuous intravenous infusion of 3 percent sodium chloride solution via a peripheral catheter. Chemists at The University of Texas at Arlington are developing new methods to synthesize groups of chemical compounds to provide faster, less expensive routes to produce the compounds for subsequent use in medical drug discovery and development. The project focuses on compounds containing carbon-silicon bonds, which are called organosilanes or organosilanols. These molecules are in increasingly high demand for use in a variety of applications, including pharmaceutical and other medical-related activities. They are also widely used in organic chemistry, particularly as protecting groups, reducing agents and synthetic intermediates. "The goal of our research is to develop novel compounds from readily accessible, simple chemical building blocks," said Junha Jeon, UTA assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry and leader of the project. "The synthetic methods developed in this research will provide broadly applicable, time- and cost-saving, synthetic routes to provide rapid access to compounds for subsequent use in drug discovery and development, thus contributing to the promotion of human health." The project, titled "Catalytic Reductive C-H and C-C Silylation with Silyl Acetals," is funded by a three-year, $424,720 grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, one of the National Institutes of Health. Current methods to prepare these organosilanes utilize multi-step procedures which demand considerable time and effort. The project's goal is the design and application of single-pot, transition metal-catalyzed reductive C-H and C-C silylations for the synthesis of a new class of organosilanes. A single-pot, or one-pot, synthesis improves the efficiency of a chemical reaction by subjecting a compound to successive chemical reactions using a single reactor. This method is preferred by chemists because it avoids a lengthy separation process and purification of the intermediate chemical compounds which saves time and resources while increasing chemical yield. Jeon said the research will deliver several positive outcomes. "There are three main aims of the research," he said. "In the first two, we will develop a new, simple, catalytic strategy for breaking an ubiquitous yet inert carbon-hydrogen bond and installing a new highly useful silicon moiety. This will allow for the rapid preparation of bio-medically important drugs. "The third aim will provide a new tool to selectively break a strong carbon-carbon bond over adjacent, abundant carbon-hydrogen bonds and incorporate a silicon moiety. This method will be highly useful to prepare biologically active, secondary metabolites and pharmaceuticals." Drug Discovery eBook Compilation of the top interviews, articles, and news in the last year. Download a copy today The project has already yielded one paper, titled "Catalytic Reductive ortho-C--H Silylation of Phenols with Traceless, Versatile Acetal Directing Groups and Synthetic Applications of Dioxasilines", which was published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society in June. Jeon co-authored the paper with Yuanda Hua, a UTA postdoctoral researcher; and two of the graduate students who work in his laboratory, Parham Asgari and Thirupataiah Avullala. Jeon explained that during the past three decades, significant advances have been made to the organic processes of selectively transforming ubiquitous yet inert carbon-hydrogen bonds to other useful chemical entities. One reliable strategy for selective carbon-hydrogen bond cleavage within an organic is the use of a transition metal catalyst and a directing group, Jeon said. However, such a directing group is often difficult to install and manipulate after processes are completed. "In this paper we describe how we first developed a general strategy for transition metal catalyst-assisted, site-selective carbon-hydrogen bond cleavage and insertion of a silicon moiety to phenols with a traceless directing group," Jeon said. "We believe that our new carbon-hydrogen bond functionalization approach to exploit readily available phenols and silanes more efficiently and cleanly will ultimately allow the practical production of diverse, biomedically important phenol derivatives and silicon-based materials." A traceless directing group means that after a specific group directs, or guides, a catalyst to a specific position of a carbon-hydrogen bond within phenol, the group disappears without a trace. Phenols are a group of organic compounds whose aromatic ring is bonded to an alcohol group. Because phenol contains an alcohol group, it is able to form a very strong hydrogen bond with other molecules and often displays significant biological activities. Silanes are the basic building blocks of silicon chemistry and are versatile materials used in a wide range of applications. Fred MacDonnell, professor and chair of the UTA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, said that Jeon's research has the potential to provide major positive impact on health and the human condition, one of four main themes in UTA's Strategic Plan 2020: Bold Solutions | Global Impact. "Dr. Jeon's work is really starting to get a lot of attention from the scientific community and speaks to his creativity in this very challenging research area," MacDonnell said. The lower a neighborhood's socioeconomic status is, the more likely its black residents are to develop heart disease and stroke, according to a new Drexel University-led public health study. While many neighborhood-level public health studies focus on physical aspects of a neighborhood -- such as the availability of affordable, healthy foods or the walkability of the location -- this study examined how a neighborhood's social and economic makeup was linked to the development of cardiovascular disease. "This is an important contribution because it is the largest study among blacks to look at the link between neighborhood socioeconomic status and adverse neighborhood conditions such as violence and disorder in relation to cardiovascular disease," said Sharrelle Barber, ScD, a research fellow at Drexel's Dornsife School of Public Health, who led the study published in the American Journal of Public Health. Barber and her team -- which included Dornsife School of Public Health Dean Ana Diez-Roux, MD, PhD -- looked at heart disease and stroke incidence from 2000 to 2011 among black men and women who participated in a National Institutes of Health project called the Jackson (Mississippi) Heart Study. This information was linked to data on neighborhood poverty, unemployment and other socioeconomic indicators from the 2000 U.S. Census, along with other data on violence and disorder. Barber and her team found that every step down on an established disadvantage scale resulted in a 25 percent increase in risk of cardiovascular disease. When they measured violence and disorder levels in neighborhoods, there was a similar increase in risk of cardiovascular disease for each negative step on the scale. "For decades, centuries, even, researchers have linked adverse neighborhood economic and social conditions to health," Barber said. "For example, in 'The Philadelphia Negro,' a groundbreaking study conducted by W.E.B. DuBois, mortality rates among Blacks in Philadelphia at the turn of the 20th century were higher in the poorest wards of the city." When it comes to examining chronic disease risk, Barber feels it is "critical" to delve deeper and identify true root causes so that policies and strategies can be as effective as possible. Among the issues that clearly need addressing are violence and disorder. "These are symptoms of the broader issues of racial and economic inequality that is rampant in urban areas across the United States," Barber said. "These issues arise from decades of persistent, concentrated poverty and disinvestment in communities of color, including limited opportunities for good jobs, proper education and other resources necessary for the full wellbeing of individuals and communities." "One way of addressing this issue is to invest in economic and social policies at the neighborhood level -- such as creating jobs and educational opportunities -- in tandem with evidence-based efforts to reduce violence," Barber concluded. Scientists report in Nature using pluripotent stem cells to generate human stomach tissues in a petri dish that produce acid and digestive enzymes. Publishing their findings online Jan. 4, researchers at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center grew tissues from the stomach's corpus/fundus region. The study comes two years after the same team generated the stomach's hormone-producing region (the antrum). The discovery means investigators now can grow both parts of the human stomach to study disease, model new treatments and understand human development and health in ways never before possible. "Now that we can grow both antral- and corpus/fundic-type human gastric mini-organs, it's possible to study how these human gastric tissues interact physiologically, respond differently to infection, injury and react to pharmacologic treatments," said Jim Wells, PhD, principal investigator and director of the Pluripotent Stem Cell Facility at Cincinnati Children's. "Diseases of the stomach impact millions of people in the United States and gastric cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide." The current study caps a series of discoveries since 2010 in which research teams led or co-led by Wells used human pluripotent stem cells (hPSC) - which can become any cell type in the body - to engineer regions of the human stomach and intestines. They are using the tissues to identify causes and treatments for diseases of the human gastrointestinal tract. This includes a study published Nov. 21, 2016 by Nature Medicine, in which scientists generated human intestine with an enteric nervous system. These highly functional tissues are able to absorb nutrients and demonstrate peristalsis, the intestinal muscular contractions that move food from one end of the GI tract to the other. The primary focus of Wells' laboratory is to study how organs form during embryonic development. This includes the esophagus, stomach, pancreas and intestines. Wells and his colleagues have a particular interest in finding new treatments for genetic forms of diseases like monogenic diabetes and Hirschsprung's disease. Starting from Scratch A major challenge investigators encountered in the current study is a lack of basic knowledge on how the stomach normally forms during embryonic development. Genetics & Genomics eBook Compilation of the top interviews, articles, and news in the last year. Download a copy today "We couldn't engineer human stomach tissue in a petri dish until we first identified how the stomach normally forms in the embryo," explains Wells. To fill that gap, the researchers used mice to study the genetics behind embryonic development of the stomach. In doing so, they discovered that a fundamental genetic pathway (WNT/-catenin) plays an essential role in directing development of the corpus/fundus region of the stomach in mouse embryos. After this, researchers manipulated the WNT/-catenin in a petri dish to trigger the formation of human fundus organoids from pluripotent stem cells. Study authors then further refined the process, identifying additional molecular signaling pathways that drive formation of critical stomach cell types of the fundus. These include chief cells, which produce a key digestive enzyme called pepsin, and parietal cells. Parietal cells secrete hydrochloric acid for digestion and intrinsic factor to help the intestines absorb vitamin B-12, which is critical for making blood cells and maintaining a healthy nervous system. Wells said that it takes about six weeks for stem cells to form gastric-fundus tissues in a petri dish. Translational Direction Researchers now plan to study the ability of tissue-engineered human stomach organoids to model human gastric diseases by transplanting them into mouse models. In particular, Wells and his collaborator Yana Zavros, PhD, associate professor at the University of Cincinnati, want to explore how the fundus organoids respond after being infected with H (Helicobacter) pylori bacteria. H pylori causes chronic gastritis, stomach ulcers and is a major risk factor for the development of stomach cancer. Stomach organoids can also be used in combination with intestinal organoids to study how the body controls digestion and proper nutrient uptake, as well as a variety of other medical conditions affecting the gastrointestinal tract. These include gastrointestinal motility disorders, inflammatory diseases, drug uptake studies, and studying helpful microbes (probiotics) as well as harmful ones. Source: A yoga program for children with cancer can be carried out even during cancer treatment, and has quality of life (QOL) benefits for the children as well as their parents, suggests a study in Rehabilitation Oncology, official journal of the Oncology Section of the American Physical Therapy Association. The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer. "Our findings support the notion that yoga for pediatric cancer patients during active treatment is feasible and potentially helpful in improving both patient and parent well-being," according to the new research, led by Dr. Andrea Orsey of Connecticut Children's Medical Center, Hartford. The report is part of a special issue focused on Pediatric Oncology Physical Therapy and Cancer Rehabilitation. New Research on Benefits of Physical Therapy for Children with Cancer In a pair of preliminary studies, Dr. Orsey and colleagues evaluated the feasibility and effectiveness of a yoga intervention for children with cancer and their families. Yoga has emerged as an effective complementary therapy for adults with cancerbut few studies have evaluated its benefits for children undergoing cancer treatment. In an initial survey, 20 children and adolescents with cancer and their parents expressed interest in doing yoga during treatment. They also perceived several barriers to such a program, including concerns about side effects, pain/discomfort, and physical limitations. With these barriers in mind, the researchers developed a yoga intervention for pediatric cancer patients, delivered by certified yoga instructors. The program was designed to be performed in a variety of settings and tailored to the children's physical condition or mobility issues. A pilot evaluation included ten children with cancer and their family members/caregivers. Although limited by its small size, the study suggested improvements in health-related QOL for both parents and children, including social and emotional QOL. Both parents and children were highly satisfied with the yoga program and said they would recommend it to others. One mother cited several benefits of yoga for her daughter: "It gave her more energy and made her more positive!" The pilot study will help to guide future efforts to provide the benefits of yoga to children with cancer and their families. A key issue will be coordinating yoga sessions with the medical demands of chemotherapy. The special issue highlights the growing body of evidence to guide rehabilitation and physical therapy for children with cancer. While more children are surviving cancer, they face long-term effects on health and functioning due to their disease and its treatments. "Physical therapists are uniquely suited to design and implement interventions that target these impairments," according to an introduction by Guest Editor Kirsten K. Ness, PT, PhD, FAPTA. Other topics in the special issue include the safety of using symptoms, rather than blood counts, to determine whether children with cancer can safely undergo physical therapy; a community-based exercise program for childhood cancer survivors; and specific exercise programs for children bone cancer (osteosarcoma) and leukemia. Kirsten Ness adds: "These data are exciting and provide a good starting point documenting original research in pediatric oncology rehabilitation." Source: Wolters Kluwer Health: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins Honda Navi Chrome Edition. (Photo: Honda Motorcycles) Honda Navi has been a success ever since the company launched it last year. As we found out during our testing of the motorcycle, it catches attention unlike any other bike in the market wherever it goes.Now, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Pvt Ltd (HMSI) has introduced Adventure & Chrome editions for the Navi. This introduction is an extension to the currently available customization options in vibrant colours red, orange & green and a utility box which provides the convenience of storage to the riders. The decision to come out with more variants of the motorcycle comes after the Navi garnered strong sales numbers for the company. It crossed 50,000 unit sales mark in the month of October, within six months of market availability.Honda Navi achieved another significant milestone as its exports crossed 2000 unit dispatches within four months. It is currently being exported to Nepal and Sri Lanka, where the response has been very encouraging. Continuing its expansion drive it will soon explore new export markets.Speaking on the occasion Yadvinder Singh Guleria, Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing, HMSI said, We are extremely pleased with the response that Navi has received. We have succeeded in grasping the imagination of the youth with this unique product. The new shiny sparkling chrome and wild untamed Adventure editions are sure to provide an extra dose to those who have an appetite for FUN. If it were not for the locked doors, knives chained to the table and uniformed staff, the food factory inside Taoyuan women's prison would resemble any commercial kitchen. Inmates wearing masks and hair nets mix cocoa powder to make chocolate, or chop cabbage to marinate for kimchi. They are part of a burgeoning food industry in Taiwan -- artisan snacks, made behind bars. The additive-free delicacies made by prison inmates have gained a loyal public following, and generate hundreds of millions of dollars each year. Demand is driven by quality and affordability after a string of food safety scandals has made Taiwan consumers extra vigilant. Last year sales revenue reached more than Tw$500 million ($15.62 million), with money going towards victim compensation, improvement of facilities and a wage for inmates. Some prisoners, like 39-year-old Chen, had little culinary experience before joining the production line in Taoyuan, in the north of the island. The prison rolls out a wide range of snacks, from sweets to fermented tofu. "I'm happy to learn some useful skills," Chen told AFP. "I didn't know how to use a kitchen knife properly before as my mother always cooked for me and I didn't need to go into the kitchen. "I've learnt that it looks simple to make food, but it's actually quite complicated." Inmates near release or parole can apply for the programme and are prioritised. Long-term prisoners who are judged to have behaved well or have relevant experience can also apply. The range of jail-made food bought from prisons across Taiwan includes local favourites such as pineapple cake and peanut brittle, as well as soy sauce and free-range chicken. - Future hopes - What started in 2006 as a smaller programme designed to teach inmates practical skills and raise funds for prison facilities has now been rolled out to all of Taiwan's adult jails. More than 50 prisons make around 300 types of product which can be ordered by the public by phone, online or by fax, or bought direct from prison offices. "We use good ingredients and we do not use additives or over-process food to make profits," said Chiu Hung-chi, deputy chief of the Agency of Corrections. "Our foods are natural, high quality and inexpensive," he added. It is a winning sales pitch to a public wary after big-name companies were found to have adulterated their products with banned chemicals or recycled "gutter oil" to lower costs, which led to massive recalls of food items in recent years. Shoppers at a food fair in central Taichung city organised by the agency were quick to vouch for made-in-prison food. "I've been buying food made by inmates regularly for more than a year. They are organic, good quality and relatively cheap. I also rally my friends to place orders together," said businesswoman Wang Lung-feng, who drove nearly two hours from southern Tainan city to the fair, which lasted four days and drew thousands of visitors. Wang spent over Tw$10,000 on noodles, chicken, soy sauce and snacks. "I think the programme is very meaningful. The inmates are learning some skills that can help them find work and readjust to society," she told AFP. Inmates earn an average monthly "labour allowance" of around Tw$2,000-3,000. Some responsible for top-selling items, such as soy sauce made in a prison in southern Pingtung county, can make 10 times the average pay during peak holiday seasons, according to Chiu. Besides producing their own brand of food, some prisons make soaps and handicraft, or take orders from local factories to manufacture garments, paper bags and accessories. Inmate Chen said she hopes to launch her own small food business after her release. "My mother loves to cook and she cooks well. She said as long as I am not afraid of hard work she will work with me to start our small food business. "I hope to combine my mother's cooking with what I've learnt to create better food." New Delhi: A video came to light on Thursday of a woman being sexually assaulted by a mob while she was on bike in New Delhi's Mukherjee Nagar on New Year's Eve.When police personnel tried to intervene, the mob turned on them and thrashed them. The men were allegedly drunk. Some women police personnel were injured in the attack.The mob also damaged police property, including a first response vehicle.The mob also later vandalised the police chowki in the area.Anil Kaushik, a cop, said "We were standing at the barricade when we saw two people including a woman coming on a bike. There were some 200 drunk men around and they tried to stop the bike and tried grabbing the girl. We intervened and helped the girl get away. We caught two men.""The drunk boys then came back with friends from a nearby restaurant and started pelting stones. We were few in number so we retreated to the Batra chowki. They then attacked the chowki and forced their way in to rescue their friends. They beat us with rods. Several women cops were injured by them too," he said.Reacting to Delhi shame, former Delhi Minister and Congress leader Kiran Walia said, "It seems nobody has fear of law."Earlier in Bengaluru, a CCTV footage of a young woman being groped and molested in a deserted lane of Kammanahalli area on the night of December 31 by two bike-borne assailants came to light and caused the outrage. Bengaluru: Ever been to one of those weddings where your aunts friend asks your aunt, abhi kuch socha hai (have you thought about it)? about your wedding? That cringing moment is akin to what the Karnataka Home minister is going through now, now that the Delhi Commission for Women has asked the Delhi Police to lodge an FIR against him. Its perhaps the first time that one state government agency is trying to book a representative of another state government, for an incident that happened in the latter state. On Wednesday, Delhi Commission for Women chairperson Swati Maliwal wrote to the Delhi Police chief asking for registration of an FIR under Section 509 of the IPC (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of woman) against Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara and Samajwadi Party MLA Abu Azmi. She further asked for an action-taken report on the same. Both dont live in Delhi and their rants on women were not made in Delhi. Our legal team is checking whether they have jurisdiction or not. If not, we will not respond, we will ignore it, was all Parameshwara said. Women rights activist Pramila Nesargi, who has headed the Karnataka Commission for Women earlier and has been strongly campaigning and protesting against Parameshwaras statements, is surprised at the DCWs action. Maybe they sent by mistake. Or without knowledge (of the law). Or it could be political also, she told News18, adding that the DCW should be sending people notices over similar incidents (of molestation) that happened in Delhi, not other places. Karnataka High Court advocate KV Dhananjay concurs. We have our own state commission. And the National Commission for Women. They have jurisdiction, DCW cant do anything. Maybe they want to be seen as doing something. Or want to express their concern. Their act touches nothing, except for making news, says Dhananjay. InvestorPlace This is the second time I get to write about safe stocks to buy and hold. I liked the list I put together in October (and have positions in a couple), but Im happy to have a second bite at the apple and give this list a revision. Thats because there are more than seven safe stocks, and more than one way to think about them. One tried-and-true method is to look for best-in-class stocks. Long-term investments should consider buying the best and forgetting the rest. Sure theres a place for a spe Unhappy over the poll dates announcement, the Opposition leaders have reached the Election Commission in New Delhi on Thursday to demand announcement of Budget after Assembly elections in the five states. Opposition objected to the fact that the polls will be held three days after the Budget announcement on February 1. Five states Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Punjab, Manipur and Uttarakhand will go to polls between February-March. Voting starts on February 4, just days after the budget is to be revealed, and ends on March 8. Counting for all five states will be held on March 11. Stay tuned for LIVE updates. Read all the Latest News , Breaking News , watch Top Videos and Live TV here. Were told that event as perceived by Kolkata Police is sensitive.They felt it will fuel unnecessary tension:Organiser of Calcutta Club event pic.twitter.com/IsJypdjYoO ANI (@ANI_news) January 5, 2017 What was to be an event attended by the Bengal intelligentsia at the Calcutta Club on January 7 has been cancelled due to alleged pressure from the Kolkata Police. Organisers of the panel discussion titled The Saga of Balochistan and Kashmir were informed in an email by the club authorities on January 4 that the programme at the club premises stands cancelled due to unavoidable circumstances.The event speakers Pakistani author Tarik Fateh, activist Sushil Pandit, Major General GD Bakshi and Baloch activist Brahmadagh Bugti are crying foul. The organisers of the event, Swadhikar Bangla Foundation, feel this is an attempt to silence the voices on an issue which is seen as controversial. The club authorities asked the organisers to drop the word Kashmir from the posters.Calcutta Club authorities also said they were called to the Kolkata Police headquarters at Lalbazar and pressurised to drop the event. The CEO and secretary Ranjit Dutta who sent the email to the organisers was unavailable for a comment.The Kolkata Police on their part had received a formal submission on the first day of the event, which had international guests as panelists. But a day later, the Kolkata Police received a letter saying the event was cancelled.Reacting to the cancellation, Pakistani author Tarik Fateh tweeted: Afraid of Islamists, Mamata Government forces cancellation of Tarik fatehs talks on Balochistan.In a Facebook post, Major General GD Bakshi said: It said even Baluchistan could not be discussed! This is putting CURBS on the right to FREE SPEECH guaranteed by the Constitution of India. These are vital national security issues that merit debate and discussion. Why is the State Govt of Bengal Stopping this? We would like to know the reasons. (sic) Patna: Sikh devotees from Delhi and Punjab have converged in Patna for the 350th birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh, even as gurudwaras in the national capital wear a festive look to mark the grand occasion. Bihar government has made elaborate arrangements, from tent cities to beautification drive, to host a sea of people, who have descended in the Bihar capital, from all parts of the world, to pay obeisance to the 10th Sikh Guru at his birthplace. While most of the 'sangats' have reached Patna, many will reach on Thursday, as the celebrations culminate in that city, after weeks of grand festivities. In Delhi, gurudwaras, from small to big, have been lit up and display banners of the 350th birth anniversary. The national capital is home to a huge population from the Sikh community, many of whom are in Patna to join in the festivities, while those who could not travel out, would mark the occasion here. From Punjab, thousands of people have already travelled by train, bus or flights, to reach Patna Sahib or Takht Harmandir Sahib, considered one of the holiest places by Sikh, after the Golden Temple in Amritsar. "Everyday six buses are travelling to Patna to ferry 'sangats' for the celebrations. People are travelling in big numbers, from Delhi and Punjab," a staff of Punjab Roadways said. Delhi's major gurudwaras include Sisganj Gurdwara in Chandani Chowk, Moti Bagh Gurudwara and those in south Delhi at Lajapt Nagar are decked up for the occasion. "This is a grand occasion and whether in Patna Sahib or here, we are united by one spirit. The teachings of Guru Gobind Singji is for humanity and this celebration is also a time to look back on his life and learn lessons for a better society," said a member of a gurudwara in south Delhi. A huge tent city has been erected in the famous Gandhi Maidan at Patna, and two more at the Kangan Ghat and Bypass Road. Inside Gandhi Maidan, a huge and striking replica of Takht Harmandir Sahib gurudwara has been erected while temporary ornate structures have been built around it, which have also been lit up, drawing a huge crowd. A special laser show has also been organised at the Mangal Talab, a pond located near Patna Sahib, which has been given a major facelift for the occasion. New guest houses have also been constructed to accommodate devotees coming from other parts of the country and world over, including Canada, the UK, the US and Australia. Patna Sahib railway station has been redeveloped on a larger scale and bathed in glittering lighting to welcome devotees arriving in Patna City by trains. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the CBI to investigate an alleged scandal in the purchase and leasing of aircraft by Air India between 2004 and 2008 when the Congress-led UPA was in office. The allegations, made by NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation, include allotment of bilateral routes to private airlines at the expense of the national carrier. Nationalist Congress Party leader Praful Patel was the Civil Aviation Minister when the aircraft were purchased and taken on lease. The bench of Chief Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar, Justice N.V. Ramana and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said it would be open to the petitioner organisation to move the court if it was not satisfied with the outcome of the CBI probe. Disposing off the PIL, the court expressed hope that the investigating agency would adhere to the deadline of completing the probe by June 2017. The counsel for the petitioner organisation CPIL had sought a court monitored probe. But Chief Justice Khehar said one could understand the plea if the same government was there. "When the government is different, (the) party in power is different... We must have faith in our investigating agency," the Chief Justice said. An intensive 18-month programme in farm distress-hit Vidarbha region that deployed health workers from within the community has seen an effective reduction in suicidal behaviour besides encouraging more and more people to seek professional help on depression, a new study has found. Reputed international medical journal The Lancet details the campaign called VISHRAM that was carried out by trained grassroot community health workers armed with mental health first-aid kits, some with no background in mental health care in Amravati district of Vidarbha, Maharashtra. Architects of the programme say that the cost-effective model could now be replicated across such distress-hit pockets of the country with the help of the government. The study found that after 18 months of the programme (VISHRAM or Vidarbha Stress and Health Programme) suicidal behaviour in the 30 selected villages came down by 50 percent, and people seeking healthcare went up six fold: from 4.3 percent to 27.2 percent. The prevalence of depression also fell from 14.6 percent to 11.3 percent. The studys authors however, cautioned that this could not be linked to directly reducing suicide, as the number of participants was too small. Though the suicides in the region came from 28 to 22 in the duration of VISHRAM, the authors said that a direct link could only be established by a randomised clinical trial, for which the numbers needed were too large and thus unfeasible. VISHRAM was conceived a mental health care addition to the existing socio-economic measures, such as debt relief package that the Government of Maharashtra has extended to the region. Professor Vikram Patel who led the programme said the existing aid packages have not reduced suicidal behaviour of farmers so far. Patel said that the WHO defined suicide as a product of social and economic difficulties and mental health issues such as depression. A psychiatrist associated with the Public Health Foundation of India and with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Patel had earlier told News18 about the importance of engaging local health workers and of speaking to patients in the language and the metaphors that they would understand, people for whom depression would be an unfamiliar and alienating word. He stressed on this again and on the importance of frontline ASHA workers, the lay counsellors trained for the study, who came before the psychiatrists in primary health centres and rural hospitals. Patel had, in December 2016, released two papers on the importance of lay counsellors, people with now medical background, plucked from the community and trained to provide regular counselling. These counsellors showed remarkable results in helping people with depression, men with alcohol abuse, women with domestic violence, and 70 percent of those under the lay counsellors completed the treatment, very high for people who often had no prior exposure to health care. It is these counsellors and community workers who could talk to the largely agrarian population in the Amravati, talk about the tension people felt and helped them realise this tension was depression and how to cope, said Patel and Suvarna Damle of Prakriti, a local NGO that helped implement the programme. The frontline workers deployed by the programme were intimately familiar with the problems the rural community faced, such as no empathy from villagers for families that had suffered a suicide, especially for widows. VISHRAM then worked with existing resources, the only new addition being the 10 lay counsellors. The authors see it as a cost effective and efficient model that can be scaled up or implemented in different parts of the country, but it needs government help. Through two surveys, a baseline survey 1465 of before the programme started and a follow-up of 1887 people after it ended, all randomly selected, the study could measure and close the treatment gap in the communities. It found that people seeking more access to care were evenly distributed across caste, class, gender, religion, even if their reasons for needing help were different. New Delhi: Behind the Indian aviation boom lies a crumbling structure. People who fuel the industry are stretched to their limits despite the multiple safety layers. The warning beeps have been on for some time, but in the hurry to grow, they have been ignored. The three main pillars of aviation that are directly responsible for you flying safely have been compromised. The Air Traffic Controllers are stretched and understaffed, and the pilots pushed to the brink because of an expanding industry. Industry watchdog DGCA battles staff shortage and lack of skilled officers who truly understand aviation. It is headed by a bureaucrat who usually has only a couple of years at such a crucial position. Lets first focus on the Air Traffic Controllers or the ATCs, the people responsible for guiding the aircraft safely till you get to your port. Delhi alone with its glitzy Terminal 3 needs 600 officers; today they have just 360. A senior officer at the Airports Authority disagrees. This requirement for Delhi is after our transition to our new automation system and new building. Those manning the radars feel otherwise. After a long shift, we could manage a clear day off. This has now been given a go-by because of shortage of manpower and training in new IATS. Now at least 50 percent of the controllers are made to do duties on their off days. Where is the planning? The scary scenario is that they are sometimes made to work on more than one airspace. Its like playing a video game with double speed, double attacks, hence, double stress. One controller should not handle more than 15 planes, but in Delhi and Mumbai they handle around 30. This is not funny. A senior air traffic official maintains that there are enough officers in Delhi, but admits that there is a shortage in Mumbai. The statistics by the DGCA itself should have got the warning bells ringing between 2011 and May 2016, they found that 71 of the 129 potential collisions were because of ATC glitches. Airports Authority officials admit that the increase in movements has been alarming and growth is beyond what the current infrastructure can take. Over the next 14 years, India will need 40,000 air traffic controllers to handle flights, according to the International Civil Aviation Organisation. Thats about 3,000 officers every year. This year alone, 600 ATCs were recruited, trained and put on duty, and 400 more have been interviewed. By 2020, they plan to hire 700 more officers. In case of an incident, the ATC officer is derostered pending enquiry, which takes a minimum of six months because of the lackadaisical approach of the DGCA, says a senior officer at the Airports Authority of India. A source at DGCA says most cases are disposed of in two months and only those that are complex need six months. More numbers show how dismal the ground condition is between 2012 and 2015 when a lakh and a half flight departures were added, not a single ATC officer was recruited. There is much dependence on automation these days. Former director general of Civil Aviation says, Humans become too complacent depending on automation. The fatigue impacts their decision making skills. Pilots need to be alert always. A pilot who does not want to be named feels: "I dont think the crunch is affecting the performance. There is so much automation today that it is manageable. As airlines expand, the aviation sector expands, and India has all the bench strength to meet the requirement, be it AME, pilots, cabin crew, ATC personnel or ground staff. But it does get tiring to fly so much. Even on my reserve days I get pulled out to work. The fatigue does accumulate as one needs to concentrate and be alert while flying." A fatigued pilot and one that is well-rested is what stands between safety and disaster. The margin is very small. At a time when training and recruiting pilots should be a priority, DGCA is busy solving HR issues between airlines and pilots. The recent Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR) issued by aviation regulator DGCA proposed strict action against pilots for reporting late for duty as well as falsely claiming to be sick despite being rostered. This was opposed by a large section of the pilots who felt they were being targeted because of a few rotten apples. It had also heeded to request from some airlines and sent a recommendation for 'considering' increasing the notice period to nine months or a year. This was struck down by the aviation ministry. All these developments coupled with the corruption within the DGCA and red tape has a lot of angry pilots flying, says a senior commander with a full-service airline. Shakti Lumba, former Indian Airlines pilot with 28 years of experience in aviation, said in a recent interview to The Business Standard: This directorate started taking control and instead of being a facilitator of pilots, it became a controller of pilots. Now the directorate exerts control on every aspect of a pilots training and flying career. They are like a super director of operations for pilots of all airlines. They interfere in every airline. Pilots are being overworked. A recent surveillance found 63 pilots of SpiceJet had operated flights exceeding flight duty period a worry considering some of the major aviation disasters have been due to sleepy pilots. There have been numerous incidents and the media is guilty of sensationalising some of them. Every incident reported is not catastrophic or life threatening. There are enough safeguards, multiple safety layers or firewalls are built in for safety. However, when the system is pushed against the wall these safety channels are bound to fail. As the sector heads for rapid growth all around development is a must growth does not mean adding more aircraft, the infrastructure and manpower that supports these airlines must grow simultaneously. Bhopal: At the time when Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhans security has been heightened post SIMI operatives encounter in Bhopal on Nov 8, a video has gone viral in which one of the Chouhans security officers was seen carrying his shoes rather than keeping an eye on his safety. Chouhan on Wednesday had gone to meet saint Tapobhumi Jain in Ujjain. After the meeting, he left for party abhyas varg barefooted and one of the security officers quickly picked up his shoes. However, as soon as the media men spotted him carrying shoes, he disappeared in the crowd in no time. Last year, Chouhan had drawn flak when his pictures being carried on shoulder by security men in ankle deep flood water had gone viral. The chief minister was visiting one of flood-hit villages in Panna district then. As his cavalcade had stopped at one nullah, Chouhan had decided to cross the drain and was carried through the shallow waters on the shoulders of two home guards jawans. CM House spokespersons had cited safety constraints behind this joyride. Thats the mentality at play. A woman who is attempting to breach a mans domain should be put in her place, is asking for it. It all boils down to the ideology that only men can and should have access to public spaces. This is the mindset that men refer to when they speak of women ruining the Indian culture. The cult of masculinity is to blame. The police didnt have the instinct to pursue these molesters, they didnt want to deter these men, former Uttar Pradesh DGP Vikram Singh told CNN-News18. Weve been here before too many times to keep count. Each time the faces change, the names of the perpetrators change, the location shifts the narrative doesnt.Women attacked, molested, assaulted, raped. Women degraded, reminded that their place is at home, preferably with a burqa over their heads at all times.After the initial outrage, there are calls for stricter laws and almost simultaneously (like a rite of passage) the victim blaming and shaming begins. From what she was wearing, to why she was out so late to laments of these modern, promiscuous girls the shame is always the womans. This time around Samajwadi Party leader Abu Azmi and Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwar led that brigade by nonchalantly dismissing the horror of that night as women provoking men by wearing short dresses and with an off-the-cuff these things always happen.As tragic as it sounds, the problem isnt these two men. What they said was simply putting a voice to thoughts that all those men who assaulted those women had.There is no difference between an Abu Azmi, a G Parameshwar and that drunk molester they all thought its okay for a woman to be assaulted, that it was the womans fault, that she had no right be out and about after midnight, enjoying a drink or two with her friends. These men reacted in different ways but the result and the intention was the same to degrade and demean the women. Some used words, others their physical might.It was the same psychology that came to light when British filmmaker Leslee Udwin shot the documentary Indias Daughter. One of the men who brutally raped Nirbhaya on December 16, 2012, Mukesh Singh, explained why those six men targeted her that night A decent girl won't roam around at 9pm. A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy. Housework and housekeeping is for girls, not roaming in discos and bars at night doing wrong things, wearing wrong clothes. About 20% of girls are good. We had to teach her a lesson.A recent survey by ActionAid UK found that 84% of Indian women polled have experienced harassment in public spaces thats four in five women. Almost all of these women, the survey says, were aged between 25 and 35 years and were working women or students. A third of these women had been groped in public or faced someone exposing themselves.Youd expect this is where the law would come in, but as witnessed on New Years Eve, police officers are often part of the problem and not the solution.There were 1,500 police officers stationed on the streets of Bengaluru that night. They claim they were outnumbered and that they did their best to help the women. Forget going slow on the probe and not filing an FIR with any sense of immediacy the police officers and their complicity in the act is much more grave. Why did they not arrest those men immediately? Before they began harassing women, emboldened by the silence of the cops, werent these inebriated men already a public nuisance? The cops are guilty of tacitly encouraging the crime.Noted feminist V Geetha postulates that there is possibly an element of class envy at play here. "For these male, uniformed police officers, there is a sense of resentment. These women have access to services, a lifestyle that they cannot enjoy and this is when this hostility comes out in terms of gendered violence. The cop knows he cant take on a man from the same class as these women, so the woman then becomes an easy target."She adds that since police officers are also looking at women as outsiders breaching a male bastion, the attitude is one of men just having fun. If the woman didnt want the attention, she should have stayed at home. These men may been uniformed, but they also treated access to that public space as a mans right and a womans request.Another former top cop said on condition of anonymity that from the highest police officer to a constable, the attitude is why was the woman out at that time? If she had stayed at home, none of this would have happened.Policing women comes easily to these men cops, politicians, family members and strangers. The attitude in most men is one of centuries of entitlement. When we speak of changing mindsets, this is where we start. Not with the women, but with men who treat patriarchy like their birthright. Pakistan Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa on Thursday denied that India carried out "surgical strikes" on Pakistan-occupied areas in September."Pakistan's armed forces are fully geared to respond to any aggression by India," the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) spokesperson Major Gen Asif Ghafoor quoted Gen Bajwa as saying.Maj Gen Ghafoor tweeted that Gen Bajwa rejected the "self defeating claims" of Indian Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat about so-called surgical strikes and its possible recurrence.India had carried out the surgical strikes in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir on September 29, targeting terrorists and destroying their training camps, 10 days after a terror attack on an army camp in Uri town of Jammu and Kashmir killed 19 Indian soldiers.CNN-News18 had aired a sting operation on a police officer in PoK, who confirmed the surgical strikes. Under the impression that he was speaking to his superior IG Mushtaq, Ghulam Akbar, SP (Special Branch) of the Mirpur Range in PoK, revealed details about the strike. He further claimed that the bodies of terrorists were also removed by Pakistans military.Ghulam Akbar had said that the Pakistani Army took away the dead bodies in ambulances, adding that they may have been buried in villages. Akbar had also claimed that five Pakistani Army men had died, contradicting Pakistan's claim that two soldiers died in cross-firing.Gen Bipin Rawat, who took over as the 27th chief of the Indian Army on December 31, has said India will give a calibrated "hard" response to terror activities that will compel Pakistan to completely rethink its strategy on supporting insurgency and terrorism."We will calibrate the response in a manner it hits them hard and compels them to think in the long run whether they need to completely rethink their strategy on supporting insurgency and terrorism in our state," said Gen Rawat, who as the Vice Chief was actively involved in the surgical strikes on terror camps across the LoC.(With agency inputs) Delighted to be a part of #350thPrakashParv celebrations of Guru Gobind Singh ji in Patna today. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 5, 2017 All eyes are on Patna today where Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his one-time political rival Nitish Kumar will share a dais, the first time the two are coming together on a stage after the bitterly-fought assembly polls in Bihar that saw Kumar trumping BJP to emerge as the chief minister.Kumars political ally and one of the staunchest critics of the PM, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav, too will be present on-stage at the function to mark Prakash Parv, the 350th birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh.Apart from the programmes at Gandhi Maidan in Patna, where a makeshift Gurudwara has been set up, the PM will also be releasing special commemorative stamps to mark the occasion.Nitish Kumar has recently surprised political pundits by openly supporting Narendra Modis move to demonetize high-value bank notes even though his party JDU had opposed it in Parliament.Lalu, incidentally, is a staunch critic of demonetization. Kumars support for the note ban combined with his discomfort with some RJD leaders who have openly criticized him had led to speculation if he is moving back to the BJP camp. JDU had strongly refuted this and has said that not much should be read into Kumars support for one policy of the Central government.Kumar had been a BJP ally but broke off after Narendra Modi was nominated by BJP as its PM candidate prior to the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Chennai: Composer Sathish Selvam has recorded the background score of upcoming Tamil thriller Dhayama, a film to be completely shot in a single room, with the help of 60 piece orchestra at Macedonia. "Composing for a single room thriller is really a tough task and for a debutant composer, it is even more challenging.AThe film's story is such that its genre changes every 10th minute. The background score needs to accentuate the mood of the film. Hence, we decided to record it with 60 piece orchestra in Macedonia," Sathish told IANS. "The background score will travel as a character throughout the film," he said. Directed by Kannan Rangaswamy, the film stars Santhosh Prathap, Jayakumar, Jiiva Ravi and Aira Aggarwal. #serena #xxxthereturnofxandercage #january2017 A video posted by Deepika Padukone (@deepikapadukone) on Oct 31, 2016 at 3:44am PDT #behindthescenes #fun #leadingman #serenaunger #xXxTheMovie #ReturnOfXanderCage @vindiesel A video posted by Deepika Padukone (@deepikapadukone) on Jul 27, 2016 at 9:58pm PDT A photo posted by Deepika Padukone (@deepikapadukone) on Jul 29, 2016 at 1:14pm PDT #3YearsOfRamLeela A photo posted by Deepika Padukone (@deepikapadukone) on Nov 15, 2016 at 9:03am PST I'm watching you... #BooWatch #BeBad ... Happy Halloween, everyone! @baywatchmovie A photo posted by Priyanka Chopra (@priyankachopra) on Oct 31, 2016 at 6:14am PDT I told u to watch out @therock haha! That's how we roll at #baywatch .. This was too fun! A video posted by Priyanka Chopra (@priyankachopra) on May 16, 2016 at 9:52pm PDT So delighted that my Oscar outfit featured in @Google's #YearInSearch! Thank you for the love! #ZuhairMurad Google.com/2016 A photo posted by Priyanka Chopra (@priyankachopra) on Dec 14, 2016 at 11:04am PST Thank you @davidbeckham and @milliebobby_brown for inducting me into the @UNICEF global family. Always delighted to meet likeminded people who believe that there is humanity left in us after all. And @milliebobby_brown you were a superb host tonight... congratulations on the #GoldenGlobes nod #foreverychild A photo posted by Priyanka Chopra (@priyankachopra) on Dec 12, 2016 at 7:22pm PST 2017 is a year of new possibilities for Bollywood. Not just because this year the industry is going to see big releases like Raees, Tubelight, Jagga Jasoos and Padmavati all in 365 days time, but also because two of Bollywood's leading ladies are all set to mark their debut in Hollywood. Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra are set to slay the world with their acting prowess this year in XXX: Return of Xander Cage and Baywatch respectively.While Priyanka is already a known face because to her American TV Series Quantico, it is going to be Deepika's first global appearance. The actress who has been in the news all throughout 2016, for her sassy action avatar as Serena Unger and for her on and off screen camaraderie with film's leading man Vin Diesel, is set to show off unseen action skills in the film.Deepika, known for her professionalism in the industry, impressed everybody on the sets of Xander Cage. From Samuel L Jackson to Nina Dobrev and Ruby Rose. Her adorable videos with Vin Diesel created a buzz in 2016.With her dimpled smile and sassy action moves, Deepika is going to leave a mark in the minds of the audience all over the world this time.The reckless, relentless Serena is unlike any of the characters done by Deepika in Bollywood. Thus, the Hollywood debut of the actress has left us with much anticipation and we are waiting to see our favourite actress create her stardom in Hollywood as well.XXX: Return of Xander Cage is releasing in India on January 13th, a week before its UD release, proving that even the makers trust the fan base of Padukone in India and want to cash in her stardom as much as possible.Later in 2017, Deepika will be back in Bhansali's camp with the ambitious project of Padmavati, alongside Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapoor. While we are still not over Mastani, Deepika is all set to rule our hearts this year with two completely different, powerful roles.Next is line of Hollywood debut is American television's one of the popular new faces Priyanka Chopra. Bollywood's 'desi girl' is already a global icon and has been making her presence felt in every way possible. Apart from starring as Alex Parrish in action-thriller Quantico, she was in the news for presenting Academy Awards in 2016 and also winning and presenting People's Choice Awards. She has also been an entertaining guest at popular chat shows like Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Ellen DeGeneres Show.Priyanka, who is currently shooting for Season 2 of ABC's show, is all set to debut as Victoria in Dwayne Johnson, Zac Efron starrer Baywatch. Based on the 90's popular beach show by the same name,is a action-comedy where Priyanka will be seen playing a sassy villain.The actress will also be seen presenting an Award at the prestigious Golden Globes as well.Priyank was also declared UNICEF Goodwill ambassador recently and was inducted by none other than David and Victoria Beckhem.It's good to see our leading ladies carrying the baton of different roles in Hollywood. Unlike how Indian women are mostly portrayed in America, both the actresses have chosen roles that defy the stereotypes. While, Deepika's Serena in a XXX operative who is deadly with weapons, Baywatch's Priyanka is a manipulative millionaire who knows the hooks and crooks of business.Kudos to the ladies who are setting a benchmark for other Indian actors in Hollywood and now we are waiting for 2017 to be the year of Priyanka Chopra and Deepika Padukone. New Delhi: With less than 45 days left for the polls, a temple cannot be built. Hence, this isnt an issue. The main focus is development and good governance, Uttar Pradesh BJP chief Keshav Prasad Maurya told News18 on the day the Election Commission sounded the poll bugle for five states. Maurya may have stated the obvious BJP line of Ram Temple not being an election issue, but a matter of faith. However, sources in the party say that the alleged mass exodus of Hindus from Kairana in western Uttar Pradesh will be an important election issue for the party. News18 spoke to a number of leaders who have been involved in designing the BJP strategy and they did accept that the reason the BJP did well during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and managed a stunning 71 seats was because of its stellar performance in western Uttar Pradesh. Western UP has large pockets of Jats and minorities. In fact, Jats make up around 17% of the population. BJP chief Amit Shah who was personally managing and strategising in UP had also played on communal polarisation in western UP, which has been epicenter of deadly riots. Hence, hoping for a repeat of 2014, the party will be going back to its tested script, but this time hiding it under the narrative of poor law and order under the Akhilesh Yadav tenure. Sources told News18 that the alleged exodus of the majority community will be a primary narrative for the party in this election. Another reason is that the BJP doesnt want to irk the Supreme Court, which recently passed a stricture that political parties cannot seek votes in the name of religion and caste. Sources said Ram Mandir may not be an issue, but in case it is raked up by other parties, then the BJP has its response ready. According to top leaders, the BJP is in direct contest with either the BSP or the SP in over 350 of the 403 assembly seats, with the common factor being the BJP. Two days after the PMs rally in Lucknow where he scripted the line for the party this election ending the 14 year vanvas (exile) of development because of misgovernance of the BSP and the SP government the party is now looking at the narrative that will get them the votes. Keshav Maurya also told News18 that every BJP worker is a potential CM face, and whether the party names a CM candidate or not, it will win UP. Heres the full interview with Keshav Prasad Maurya: The election is happening in seven phases, starting with western UP, moving to eastern UP. How prepared is the BJP? We welcome the dates put forth by the Election Commission. BJP is totally prepared. Our workers are also ready and so are the people of UP. They want good riddance from the BSP and SPs mismanagement. People gave their verdict in 2014 itself... Now we want to repeat that. All of our initiatives focusing on elections have been successful. The rally on January 2 was also successful. The PMs top agenda is welfare of poor people. How will you assess the impact of demonetisation? Will it be right to say its a referendum? People who have opposed note ban or who are opposing it still are just supporters of corrupt people. And aam janta is aware of this. People have already punished such supporters, and there is more to come. This decision was taken for the poor and those opposing it will be punished by the people. The rift between Akhilesh and Mulayam how are you seeing this? Lotus (BJPs party symbol) stands for development. I request the people to choose kamal (lotus) this time. Its time to get rid of corruption, family feud, mafia and goonda raj. Will the BJP project any CM candidate? Every BJP worker is a potential CM face. Whether the central committee decides on a CM face or not, the BJP will come to power with majority. We will win more than 300 seats. Is Ram Mandir a poll issue? Just 45 days are left for the elections and mandir cant be built. Hence, this is not the issue. Main focus is on development and good governance. Lucknow: Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav on Thursday left for New Delhi to again stake his claim on the party symbol, the 'cycle'. He was accompanied by his brother Shivpal Yadav. Close aides said Mulayam Singh would give a sworn affidavit to the Election Commission buttress his claim vis-a-vis his leadership of the party. The Election Commission has served notices to both the Mulayam Singh and Akhilesh Yadav factions to provide supporting documents and evidence in their favour for claiming the party symbol. Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, who has rebelled against his father, has called a meeting of party legislators here. The poll panel has reportedly given both sides time till January 9. Uttar Pradesh will elect a new assembly between February 11 and March 8. Akhilesh Yadav late on Wednesday revoked the suspension from the party of four district chiefs Google CEO Sundar Pichai Thursday visited IIT Kharagpur to interact with the distinguished alumnus of the institute. Pichai during his visit to India has already announced training programme in association with B-school Indian School of Business and FICCI to empower SMBs with essential digital skills that will enable them to get online and start using the power of the internet to grow their business. Also Read: Google India Announces Free Digital Training For Small Businesses Google also previewed My Business Websites, an easy-to-use offering to help businesses to have a rich, mobile optimised digital presence that will be launched later this year. Here are the highlights of the event at IIT KGP where CEO Pichai had interacted with students. Read all the Latest News , Breaking News , watch Top Videos and Live TV here. Washington: President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday again cast doubt on US intelligence findings that Russia hacked the presidential election, repeating WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's assertion that leaked information damaging to Democrats did not come from Moscow. "Julian Assange said 'a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta' -- why was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info!" the Republican posted on his preferred communication platform, Twitter. Trump was referring to thousands of emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee and from Clinton campaign chief John Podesta, which were published by WikiLeaks in the weeks ahead of the November 8 presidential election. "Somebody hacked the DNC but why did they not have 'hacking defense' like the RNC has," Trump added, referring to the Republican National Committee. The US intelligence community has concluded that the hack-and-release of the emails was designed to put Trump -- a political neophyte who has praised Russian leader Vladimir Putin -- into the Oval Office. Moscow has repeatedly dismissed the allegations that it was responsible for the cyber-meddling. Assange said in an interview with Fox television broadcast Tuesday that Podesta's Gmail account was "something a 14-year-old kid could have hacked." He insisted that no Russian government-linked party was the source of the hacked material. "The source is not the Russian government. It is not state parties," the 45-year-old Australian told Fox. Trump has asserted that US intelligence services were mistaken when they said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, a finding that led the country into war, and has publicly and repeatedly questioned their work. Elephants are an inevitable part of everyday life in Nepal and they are highly respected and attributed to playing a crucial role in the conservation parks and wildlife in the Himalayan country.Elephant tourism has been the key factor in not just financing the parks survival but also in financing the reintroduction of rare one-horned rhinos and Royal Bengal tigers here. Not to mention the breeding of elephants themselves.While elephant tourism ethical or not has provided mass employment to Nepalis and the protection of the National parks without which the poaching of the tigers and rhinos would return to the 1970s-1980s level, the tourism seems quite different from that of Thailand or Kenya, according to the article published by Dave from the Longest Way Home Nepal is a country with very little income. Yet, its turning away the easy profits of Thai-style elephant tourism in favour of elephant and national park conservation.Elephant bathing in Rapti river, Chitwan. (News18)Deepak Bhattarai, President of the United Elephant Cooperative, Chitwan told us how elephants have been playing such an important role in patrolling the area for poachers along with the park rangers. Theres been no poaching of rhinos now for three straight years. In fact, Nepal is one of the few rare places in the world where elephant, tiger and rhino populations are increasing. The elephant tourism in Nepal is different from the rest of the world because without the elephant tourism in Chitwan, there would be no national park, tigers or rhinos here, said Bhattarai.He also cited examples of Thailand still fighting to get drugged tigers out from the Tiger Kingdom and to stop the elephant rides that reportedly kill tourists every year, and how Nepal is making small but effective strides on ethical elephant tourism.Roshan Lama, a local from Chitwan and a tourist guide, tells us how Deepak Bhattarai, the new president, has helped initiate a straight 70 per cent change in the policies here since he took over the leadership.Bhattarai has overseen some radical changes, which now means that there are no more chained-up private elephants during the day in Chitwan. Yes, bull elephants are still chained as they are otherwise uncontrollable if there are females around.Keep in mind that bull elephants also come in from the wild at night. So theres an ongoing need to protect both villages and other elephants alike. Mahouts are no longer allowed to use metal hooks on elephants. Now, only wooden sticks are allowed, said Roshan.Two baby elephants have already been successfully raised using non-traditional methods. In other words, the traditional method of beating a calf and keeping it from its mother to break it in is no longer the preferred method in Chitwan.Roshan Lama tells us that Bhattarai has also introduced a mahout of the year contest for the mahout who looks after his elephant the best using these new methods throughout the year.An elephant walk with Santikali, a 60-year-old jumbo, in Chitwan National Park. (News18)Asked how elephants play such an important role in boosting the tourism of a country and why this shift to the ethical elephant tourism here, Bhattarai said: No matter what we do, animal rights activists are never happy. We are years ahead of places like Thailand and still they want an outright ban on elephants with tourists here.The United Elephant Cooperative has challenged the animal rights groups to come up with a way to fund the national park, to give the mahouts a new livelihood, to look after the elephants and pay for their feeding and medical expenses. And, to help patrol the national park. He has been met with silent suggestions.The organisation also challenged them to deal directly with the government. If you ride an elephant, are you helping or harming the elephant? In Thailand, I wouldnt go near an elephant. Ive seen how they are treated and I strongly disapprove of this treatment. Maybe Europeans or North Americans visiting Chitwan could discuss horse racing or dog racing or bull riding in their own countries before criticising Nepals ethical elephant tourism? Or the Spanish/ Mexicans on bullfighting? Fox hunting in the UK and more, added Bhattarai.Moreover, its quite easy to spot park rangers taking elephants out for patrols to protect the parks from the poachers in the night and thus, helping in increasing the rhino and tiger population. Only few people know that traditionally, a mahout lives taking care of one elephant for his entire life and they form such a strong bond that only breaks with his death.Its impossible to spot an elephant being chained and dragged in the streets or being taken into various resorts and made to paint pictures or balance on giant swings of Kathmandu or the lake town of Pokhara. One can spot elephants mostly at Chitwan National Park and in other conservation parks such as one in Bardia throughout the day and night roaming around as freely as humans. In fact, elephants in Chitwan can be hired for one-hour jungle safaris and for 30 minutes to an hour elephant walks, elephant baths twice every day.Coranne Plummer giving bath to an elephant in Jhawani, Chitwan. (News18)We rent an elephant or two from the local owners here for 3000 NPR per elephant and on the request of tourists, take them out for an hour-long walk in to the jungle and for a bath for 1800 NPR per tourist almost every day. We take the elephants for a walk till the Rapti River and its a delight to be walking with the elephants matching your step with theirs in absolute silence. This kind of experience helps you to communicate with nature instantly, said Coranne Plummer, animal rights activist and a volunteer with Hands To Help, an NGO that works towards the well-being of elephants in Nepal.Plummer and other volunteers at the Hands To Help plan to own an elephant soon. It is quite an expensive affair to own and we are planning to have Santi Kali who has just turned 60 after paying $10,000-15,000 to the owner. We have already conducted over 25 walks in the past couple of months by generating awareness on how an elephant ride causes so much harm to the animal but only few people are able to understand completely and agree. Most of the tourists just want to land here and jump on an elephants back and ride away in the jungle, which needs to stop at the earliest, adds Plummer.Floriane Blot treating elephants with turmeric. (News18)Floriane Blot, an elephant lover, veterinary assistant and zookeeper from Saint Dizier, France who also works at the Chitwan National Park for two-three months every year, shares her experience of the jumbos here. The experience that you gain while walking with the elephants in the jungle all the way to the river and see them bathing in the river and the love for swimming will just leave anybody with an everlasting impression. It is anyday a better idea to walk with an elephant and respect the giant animal than just enslave it by riding them and kicking them, said Blot.Floriane provides pedicure to elephants and takes care of the open wounds on the giant animals body that gets injured every day. There are sometimes snails stuck in the nails of the elephants or sharp objects such as pins, small stones, nails and more that cut into the elephants spine, elbows and feet. We want the mahouts to stop riding the elephants and kick them or beat them up all the time for the sake of earning some money. In fact, the mahouts know the animals as they spend their entire lives taking care of these animals and they know them the best so they can also encourage people in taking elephant walks in the jungle all the way to the river and ask the animal lovers to help him give a bath to the jungle king, added Blot. Beirut: Thousands of people are starting to return to formerly rebel-held east Aleppo despite freezing weather and destruction "beyond imagination", a top U.N. official told Reuters from the Syrian city. In the last couple of days around 2,200 families have returned to the Hanano housing district, said Sajjad Malik, country representative in Syria for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). "People are coming out to east Aleppo to see their shops, their houses, to see if the building is standing and the house is not that looted ... to see, should they come back," he said in an interview. People returning face appalling conditions. "It is extremely, bitterly cold here," said Malik. "The houses people are going back to have no windows or doors, no cooking facilities." Aid is vital to prevent more deaths. The U.N. is helping people to restart their lives in one room of their apartments to start with, he said, giving them mats, sleeping bags and plastic sheets to cover blown-out windows. BREAD AND WATER Hanano was one of the first Aleppo neighbourhoods to fall to rebels in 2012, and the first to be retaken by the Syrian government on its way to seizing back full control of the northern city last month - the biggest victory for President Bashar al-Assad in nearly six years of war. As government forces rapidly advanced after months of fierce Syrian and Russian air strikes, some residents stayed put, tens of thousands fled of their own accord and around 35,000 fighters and civilians were evacuated in late December in convoys organised by the Syrian government. Reconstruction will take a long time, Malik said, but the immediate priority is to keep people warm and fed. U.N.-supported partners provide hot meals twice a day to 21,000 people, and 40,000 people get baked bread every day. Over 1.1 million people once again have access to clean water in bottles or through tankers and wells. Mobile clinics are up and running, and more than 10,000 children have received polio vaccinations. Thousands of children who have not been able to attend school need reintegrating into the education system through remedial classes to rebuild their confidence, Malik said. There was no register of births, deaths and marriages in the rebel-held sector, so the U.N. is working with the government to issue people with papers. "I met a woman with five children and she was excited that she now has her kids registered as Syrians. She has ID cards and a family book," he said. Bombing has destroyed hospitals, schools, roads and houses, and damaged the two main water pumping stations. The experienced U.N. official said the level of destruction surpassed anything he had seen in conflict zones like Afghanistan and Somalia. "Nothing would have prepared us to see the scale of destruction there, it's beyond imagination." Washington: The US Army has issued a new regulation under which servicemen who wear turbans, hijabs or beards can now be enrolled in the military, making the force more inclusive of minority religions and cultures. The new set of rules, issued by Secretary of the Army Eric Fanning, allows religious accommodations to be approved at the brigade-level. Previously it was at the level of Secretary. Once that approval occurs, the change will ensure that the religious accommodation is enduring and applies to most positions within the US Army. "This is a major progress, not just for the Sikh-American community but for our nations military. Sikh-Americans love this country and want a fair chance to serve in our country on equal footing. Todays announcement will help do just that," Congressman Joe Crowley said welcoming the directive issued by the US Army Secretary. "We are a stronger nation, with a stronger military because of our respect for religious and personal freedom," he said. The move has been welcomed by Sikh-Americans and US lawmakers who have been on the forefront of a national campaign in this regard for the past several years. Before the January 3 changes announced by the US Army, Sikh-Americans and others had to be granted a limited accommodation or permission to serve in the army while maintaining their articles of faith. Such accommodations were neither permanent nor guaranteed, and had to be renewed after virtually every assignment. Service members had also been required to remove their articles of faith while their accommodation request is pending, once again subjecting them to the difficult position of choosing between their faith and job. Sikh-American Coalition, which has been on the forefront of such a campaign, welcomed the move, but said that this is still short of what they have been asking for. "While we still seek a permanent policy change that enables all religious minorities to freely serve without exception, we are pleased with the progress that this new policy represents for religious tolerance and diversity by our nations largest employer," said the coalitions legal director Harsimran Kaur. The new provisions updates rules governing religious liberty that significantly improve the standards for Sikhs and other religious minorities who seek to serve their country with their religious articles of faith intact, she said. Under the new policy, Brigade commanders must grant religious accommodations for unshorn beards, unshorn hair, turbans and Muslim hijabs unless the requestors religious belief is not sincere or the army identifies a specific, concrete hazard. One stock that might be an intriguing choice for investors right now is Alaska Air Group, Inc. ALK. This is because this security in the Transportation-Airline space is seeing solid earnings estimate revision activity, and is in great company from a Zacks Industry Rank perspective. This is important because, often times, a rising tide will lift all boats in an industry, as there can be broad trends taking place in a segment that are boosting securities across the board. This is arguably taking place in the Transportation-Airline space as it currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 30 out of more than 250 industries, suggesting it is well-positioned from this perspective, especially when compared to other segments out there. Meanwhile, Alaska Air is actually looking pretty good on its own too. The firm has seen solid earnings estimate revision activity over the past month, suggesting analysts are becoming a bit more bullish on the firms prospects in both the short and long term. ALASKA AIR GRP Price and Consensus ALASKA AIR GRP Price and Consensus | ALASKA AIR GRP Quote In fact, over the past month, current quarter estimates have risen from $1.25 per share to $1.29 per share, while current year estimates have risen from $7.03 per share to $7.05 per share. The company currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), which is also a favorable signal.You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. So, if you are looking for a decent pick in a strong industry, consider Alaska Air. Not only is its industry currently in the top third, but it is seeing solid estimate revisions as of late, suggesting it could be a very interesting choice for investors seeking a name in this great industry segment. Zacks Best Private Investment Ideas While we are happy to share many articles like this on the website, our best recommendations and most in-depth research are not available to the public. Starting today, for the next month, you can follow all Zacks' private buys and sells in real time. Our experts cover all kinds of trades from value to momentum . . . from stocks under $10 to ETF and option moves . . . from stocks that corporate insiders are buying up to companies that are about to report positive earnings surprises. You can even look inside exclusive portfolios that are normally closed to new investors. Click here for Zacks' private trades >> 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 ALASKA AIR GRP (ALK): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Lynchburg firefighters responded to a Florida Avenue residence Wednesday afternoon to find a house filled with smoke from a furnace. Lindsay Wright said she was upstairs at 1801 Florida Ave. when she heard a smoke alarm and noticed black smoke creeping upstairs. Fire officials said the oil furnace flue in the basement was stopped up with soot and caused the smoke to flood into the structure. Capt. Bob Mays, of the Lynchburg Fire Department, said the alarm went off at 2:43 p.m. Wright said she called her boyfriend Kenny Fulcher and 911, then scooped up two of three dogs in the house and evacuated. Once he got to the house, Fulcher said he opened the back door to give firefighters access to the house. Advised not to go into the house, he struggled with how to get the third dog Furby, a Pomeranian out and to safety. I was like, I got an $800 or $900 dog in the house, he said. Thats kind of expensive, and thats a life, also. Fulcher said the dog usually comes running to the door when people knock, so he pounded on the front door to coax him out of the house. Furby emerged safely. Police reduced Florida Avenue traffic to one lane until responders left the scene by about 3:30 p.m. Mays said no one was displaced or injured because of the incident, and the house suffered very little damage. All appears calm at the small stone atop the Moorman family cemetery in the heart of Liberty Universitys main campus. I think weve got a real beautiful setting for the memorial right in place right now, David Corry, LU general counsel, said in December. Its landscaped in a loving and beautiful way, nicer than its ever been. Yet the legal battle over the remains of the family some 16 feet below ground is far from over. In 1761, Quakers Zachariah and Elizabeth Terrell Moorman purchased the land now home to Liberty Universitys West Campus. The Moormans descendants lived on the land until 1972, when Embra Moorman Tillotson sold the final parcel, which contained the family cemetery, to The Old Time Gospel Hour created by Jerry Falwell Sr., who then built Liberty Baptist College on the site. The Moormans descendants want to exhume and relocate the remains within the family cemetery at LU to a cemetery in Campbell County. In 2015 in a pre-emptive strike designed to protect the college, Liberty University filed a complaint against the descendants of the Moorman family asking a judge to affirm the school has adhered to the 1979 court order between Tillotson and Falwell Sr., who died in 2007, and that it is not required to pay to relocate the cemetery. The family later filed a countersuit seeking for the courts permission to exhume the remains within the cemetery and relocate them to Whites United Methodist Church on English Tavern Road in Campbell County, where succeeding generations of Moormans have been buried. The family estimates the entire endeavor will cost about $50,000, and according to the 2016 court filing, would be done at the familys expense. The family is not asking for any money from the university. In response, Liberty asked the court to deny the Moorman familys exhumation request because it would require the use of Libertys property outside of the bounds of the memorial area, constituting a temporary taking of private property. Were still here, we want answers, we want to understand what went on and want our ancestors remains relocated to a more suitable site, Chad Burchett, a Moorman descendant, told The News & Advance in April. The parties now are involved in the discovery phase of the latest case, with each side providing documentation to the other. Corry, representing LU, said the school has provided all of the information that has been requested and now is waiting to hear if the family wishes to proceed with its case, despite knowing the costs involved with exhumation and relocation. We calculated that cost [at] close to $300,000, Corry said in December. Burchett, one of the almost 100 descendants who filed suit against the school, said he spoke with his attorney, John Francisco, on Dec. 5, and at that time, his side had not received all of the information they had requested from Liberty University. We are still awaiting information from LU, where we feel more information is necessary to understand exactly what has happened to the site over time. We lack information from [the] 1979-2011 time period, said Burchett, whose family hopes documents will reveal more information about campus development near the cemetery over the years. Francisco filed a subpoena request for documents from The Old Time Gospel Hour on April 6, 2016, and the documents have not been delivered, Burchett said in an email Dec. 29. Francisco did not return calls or respond to emails seeking additional information. It was 1972 when Tillotson sold the final parcel of Moorman land to The Old Time Gospel Hour for $6 cash and $49,700 in a trust fund. It was that parcel stretching from what later would become U.S. 460 to the Norfolk and Southern Railroad line that contained the 105-foot-by-105-foot family cemetery. It contained five marked Moorman family graves, 22 additional graves and the graves of an unknown number of slaves. In the years that followed the sale, Liberty Baptist College began building, and according to court records, it regraded the terrain to such an extent that said cemetery now lies several feet below the lane immediately surrounding said cemetery lot That said family cemetery plot has been neglected to the extent that it is now overgrown with trees and shrubs and has become a repository for litter and other debris such that it constitutes a nuisance and health hazard. So in 1979, Tillotson and the Rev. Jerry Falwell Sr. created an agreement to protect the cemetery. According to that court order, the cemetery could be covered over, re-marked and landscaped with due care, dignity and decency rather than having the graves removed and relocated on the condition no building be constructed so as to encroach upon area formerly used as said gravesite. Corry said Liberty has adhered to that agreement. I think that the wishes of the original family members have been respected, and to tear all that up again and to remove them just seems to be a sad thing to do as theyre resting now in such a beautiful location, Corry said in December. Now the Moorman ancestors are believed to be buried beneath about 16 feet, or 771 cubic yards, of dirt, according to documents. Liberty conducted ground penetrating radar examination in 2016, and what our experts told us was because of the type of soil involved and the depth after a certain depth, it just doesnt register anything, Corry said. The results were completely inconclusive for the depth at which we would have expected to find headstones that we know are there. The Moormans, familiar with the findings, are undeterred. In December, Burchett said in an email, We are patient and know that lawsuits take time to resolve and settle. In this particular case, a public apology to the Moorman Family would go a long way towards resolution of this matter, he said. A mistrial was declared after a jury deadlocked Wednesday in the trial of a Florida man accused in May of shooting a Lynchburg man on Candlers Mountain Road then leading police on a chase at more than 100 mph ending in Pittsylvania County. After deliberating two hours and 45 minutes, the jury told Lynchburg Circuit Court Judge F. Patrick Yeatts they could not agree on a verdict for Enrique Hernandez, 40, of Orlando. He faces a new trial and remains held in Lynchburg Adult Detention Center without bond, said Chief Deputy Commonwealths Attorney Chuck Felmlee. Yeatts declared a mistrial on two felony charges malicious wounding and use of a firearm in commission of a felony and dismissed the jury at about 9 p.m. Wednesday. Yeatts set a Feb. 6 hearing to schedule a new trial. Jurors spent more than six hours Wednesday hearing differing accounts of what happened on the rain-drenched day of May 14, 2016 when police alleged Hernandez shot 42-year-old Raymond Lonny Ferguson during an altercation on Candlers Mountain Road. Prosecutors said Esteban Castrillo, 42, was driving the vehicle with Hernandez and Ferguson as passengers when the car stopped on the off-ramp of southbound Lynchburg Expressway at Candlers Mountain Road. Ferguson got out of the front passenger seat, and Hernandez out of the back, and they argued briefly before Hernandez allegedly shot Ferguson in the leg, prosecutors said. Then Hernandez got into the front passenger seat and the car sped off, leading to the high-speed chase, prosecutors said. Felmlee called two eyewitnesses to testify they saw someone shoot Ferguson, who then dropped onto a grassy section next to the off-ramp, roughly across the road from Chick-fil-A.When found by the eyewitnesses and police, Fergusons clothes were bloody and he had been shot once in the upper leg and pelvis area. His wound was not life-threatening and he testified in court Wednesday. In court Wednesday, Ferguson identified Hernandez as the shooter, but had a different account from Felmlee as to how he encountered the other two men. Felmlee told jurors that Castrillo, of Port St. Lucie, Florida, and a cousin of the victim, had traveled from Orlando with Hernandez to Lynchburg. On the day of the shooting Castrillo and Hernandez confronted Ferguson, who got into the car with them shortly before the altercation, Felmlee said.In court, Ferguson said he was never a passenger in the car, but instead, was walking along Candlers Mountain Road when approached by the car. Ferguson said he was asked something about drugs and then Hernandez got out of the vehicle and shot him. Whether Castrillo or Hernandez was driving the car at the time of the shooting was crucial to the case, because based on the eyewitness accounts, whoever shot Ferguson could not also have been driving. Felmlee said Castrillo drove, often exceeding 100 mph, leading authorities up and down Wards Road and eventually to Chatham before being caught. Several agencies got involved in the pursuit. During the chase Hernandez allegedly tossed the gun, later recovered by police, out of the drivers side window, the prosecutor said. Castrillo was convicted in December of several offenses in Campbell County tied to the police chase, and still faces a charge in Lynchburg of accessory after the fact in a felony for allegedly driving the car away from the scene with the suspected shooter inside. Castrillo in court Wednesday also identified Hernandez, whom he described as a lifelong friend, as the shooter. He said under questioning from the defense lawyer for Hernandez that he did not gain anything from prosecutors in his own case by testifying. I havent been promised anything, he said. Carlos Hutcherson, the defense lawyer, repeatedly emphasized in the trial that the eyewitnesses did not positively identify his client as the one who shot Ferguson, and that test results have not been returned showing gunpowder residue on his hand or even that the recovered gun was the one used. Hutcherson said the car was lost for a period of time during the multi-jurisdictional chase, so it was not ultimately clear who was driving. He argued the commonwealth could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that his client committed the alleged offenses.Felmlee said the residue sample and gun have been sent for testing but results were not back before trial. He contended it was never completely clear in the trial what the defense of Hernandez was. Felmlee also argued Hernandez, even if not convicted as the actual shooter, was responsible as a participant in the crime. The investigation into Timothy Wesley Barbour's disappearance ended Wednesday afternoon when Pittsylvania County sheriffs deputies and Virginia State Police troopers found a body at the scene of a crash site. At 1:15 p.m. Wednesday, Pittsylvania County sheriffs deputies and the Virginia State Police aviation division discovered a 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee with a Virginia license plate SKNYRD in a single vehicle crash in the 7000 block of West Gretna Road in Gretna, according to a Pittsylvania County Sheriffs Office news release. The vehicle matched the description deputies said Barbour, 56, was driving when he was last seen. A deceased white male was also located within close proximity to the crash site, the news release stated. The body is being transported to the medical examiners office for identification. The Pittsylvania County Sheriffs Office was assisted by the Virginia State Police Aviation Division, Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and Virginia Department of Emergency Management. Peake backed in 22nd District It is my distinct pleasure to commend Mark Peake to the voters of the 22nd Senate District as your next state senator. I have known him, personally and professionally, for almost 25 years. He is of the highest moral character and integrity a principled conservative who can always be counted on to do the right thing and get the job done well! From the first time I met him, working together fielding legal questions as part of a pro bono community endeavor, he has consistently demonstrated his ability to quickly and correctly assess both the people with whom he comes into contact and their relative positions on any of a myriad of issues. Among his many outstanding attributes, his frankness enables him to engage others in open and honest dialogue. He is forthright and not easily intimidated which places him in good stead in dealing with the challenges of families, small business owners and the need for high-quality local jobs. He has served on a number of different boards and understands state government, including his experience on the Commonwealth Transportation Board where he gained much insight into our regional transportation issues. All in all, hes an articulate, well-spoken man, organized in thought, as well as, written expression in a word, a statesman. He is highly efficient and motivated to succeed with unlimited potential from which the 22nd District can only benefit. Please join me in voting for him Jan. 10. DARREL W. PUCKETT Appomattox Editors note: The writer is the commonwealths attorney for Appomattox County. Whos still in the swamp? On the first day of the new 115th Congress, our congressman, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, has again shown his interest in the creatures in the swamp with his effort to let the alligators protect their own ethical nests, rather than addressing the work of the people, much less the interests of his own constituents such as me, a longtime resident of Lynchburg. How many people in our Sixth District have lobbied our congressman to revise the House ethics rules? Very few if any, I would assume. More particularly, how many self-serving Washington lobbyists encouraged his shameful proposal to gut the House ethics rules, which was immediately and embarrassingly rejected by the tweet of the president-elect and then the closed-door vote of his GOP colleagues? It looks like our congressman is still stuck in the stinky muddy swamp. ANDY SALE Harrisonburg While most photos of the Appalachian Trail focus on the natural beauty that encompasses the 2,190-mile route, Parker Michels-Boyce, chief photographer at Randolph College, and Richmond-based freelance photojournalist Chet Strange took a different approach with Mile 806, a series of portraits taken on the trail. An exhibit featuring those photographs of hikers opens at Riverviews Artspace Friday. It seems like the natural backdrop of the trail ends up kind of being a backdrop for the human experience, Strange says during a joint phone interview with Michels-Boyce, a former photographer with The News & Advance. Mile 806, a collaboration between the two photographers, kicks of Riverviews Emerging Artist Series, which will feature new artists worth discovering every January. This is a great photo essay of the Appalachian Trail and it relates to our region, says Kim Soerensen, executive director of the venue on Commerce Street. It's such a human story; each individual hiker has such a fantastic human story. Michels-Boyce and Strange, who have each had work featured in high-profile publications, including The New York Times and USA Today, both have deep, personal connections to nature and saw the photo series as a way to give back to the communities that have impacted their lives. To create Mile 806, the photographers lugged a backdrop and studio lights into the great outdoors, set up a traditional photo studio under a pop-up tent and spent a rainy day over Memorial Day weekend snapping portraits of through-hikers at Long Mountain Wayside near mile 806. They chose the location because of its spot roughly a third of the way through the trail, at a point where the novelty of embarking on a great adventure has started to wear off and the reality of the hike has kicked in, says Strange. Theyre starting to realize this trail is home now. Theyre starting to get into rhythm of life on the trail, he continues. Once you get to that point, and youve made it that far, youre in it. We picked it because a lot of the people we found, we knew they were going to be a little more serious about hiking it. While taking the portraits, the photographers asked their subjects a short series of questions, such as their trail names as well as the story behind them and their personal reason for hiking. The subject and the background [are] pretty fascinating and the portraits themselves, the contrast is really phenomenal, says Soerensen. And then you add the human stories to it, its really an interesting subject. [Theres] also an underlying sense of humor I really enjoy in this work. Although Michels-Boyce, who hiked 600 miles of the trail in 2014, original pitched the project to Strange, it ended up being a collaboration in every sense of the word, he says. We traded off shooting the photos, posing the subjects and manipulating the lights. Even looking through the photos a few days later, we couldn't remember who shot which frames, Michels-Boyce says. And we liked that idea, that artists can share ownership of a project and both contribute to the creative process. In addition to the photos and some of the responses, the installation also will feature what Michels-Boyce describes as the man-made or unnatural things on the trail [that] play into the AT culture. These items include 25 shelter logs notebooks from different shelters on the trails where hikers write what they did that day and leave notes for those who follow from lodges in seven different states as well as through-hiking equipment from three Lynchburg residents. Michels-Boyce and Strange also chose to enlarge the photos to between three and five feet for the installation. We definitely wanted people to be really drawn in to the details you see on peoples faces, and in their clothes and on their packs, Strange says. I think a project like this that is so focused on the human element, we wanted to do everything we could to draw people into that humanity. Just to let you lose yourself in the details of those people. Both Michels-Boyce and Strange say they would like to continue the project, photographing portraits at both the beginning of the trail and at the end, possibly following the same hikers through at these spots. The photographers would also like to show Mile 806 in other cities after it finishes its six-week run in Lynchburg, saying they want to give the project as much life as they can. The hikers make each others trip possible for the most part, says Michels-Boyce, reflecting on his hike. I think the reason people have such a good time is because of the friendships and the connections and the memories they make on the trail. Macys in Lynchburg will close in 2017, and by the end of the year, the former Sears building will be demolished to make way for an outdoor shopping area and main entrance, according to Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr., whose school owns majority shares of the mall. The River Ridge mall Macys store is one of 100 locations nationwide that will be shuttered as the chain tries to recover from declining profitability. The company released the locations of 68 of those 100 locations today, following a 2.1 percent drop in comparable sales for November and December. Liberty University, which purchased a 75 percent share of the mall in 2016, plans to purchase Macys space and lease it to a new tenant, Falwell Jr. said Wednesday. We have already identified a new tenant but cannot release who it is yet until the deal is done, Falwell said. It will be very beneficial to the redevelopment of the mall. Falwell suggestion highlights traffic challenges of Wards Road growth As Liberty University continues to grow, and more retailers and restaurants sprout up on War CBL Associates, the company that owns the minority share and manages the mall on Libertys behalf, could not be reached for comment Wednesday. According to Falwell, the former Sears building will continue to house the 500 employees who currently work there until the end of 2017. That area then will be turned into an outdoor shopping area and mall entrance that will have stores on pads in the parking area and where the former Sears building currently is located. The identities of tenants for this area have not been released yet. The Lynchburg Macys opened in 2006. It employs 60 people, according to a news release from Macys. Markdowns on items at Macys will begin Monday, Jan. 9, and will run for about eight to 12 weeks, according to CNBC. Before the space was occupied by Macys, it was a Thalhimers department store. Tammy Curling, a longtime employee of Thalhimers, hopes whatever goes into Macys will be a positive addition to the mall. I used to work there for 10 years when it was Thalhimers, and thats where I met my husband, she said. A lot of my life happened in there, and Im sad to hear Macys is leaving. Hopefully the new store will be something with good quality and prices. Sharon Mays, from Amherst County, learned of the closure of Macys while she was shopping Wednesday. I cant believe its closing, she said. I will have to come by and stock up before they close. I really like the clothes, and I can usually find things I like here. The way things are going, there wont be anywhere to shop in Lynchburg soon. The company promised in August to close 100 stores in 2017 amid declining sales in order to focus on better performing stores, according to CNBC. In addition to Lynchburgs store, the Macys at the Landmark Mall in Alexandria also is closing. BLACKSBURG Virginia Tech researchers are getting ready to show off their vision for a smart house of the future, complete with movable walls, a countertop that charges your phone and a closet that remembers where you left your shoes. The project, dubbed FutureHAUS, has been under construction for three years in a Virginia Tech warehouse off Peppers Ferry Road. Pieces of the house have already been displayed at trade shows across the country, with the final pieces a bedroom, home office and laundry room being unveiled at the Kitchen and Bath Industry Expo in Orlando, Florida, next week. Joseph Wheeler, the Tech professor leading FutureHAUS development, said the whole project is built on the idea that homes should be manufactured like vehicles: in a factory, as one integrated system with technology built in from the beginning. Instead of nailing together pieces of wood on a job site and then installing wiring, Wheeler and his team of about 12 Tech students are developing a manufacturing technique that would ship homes as a set of cartridges. Each would arrive with plumbing and electrical built in, ready to be fit together like LEGO blocks. One cartridge could be a bathroom wall with a touchscreen mirror, sink and the necessary water pipes. That piece could connect to a kitchen wall with electrical outlets and cabinets, or an office wall with a desk that folds down into a bed. By fitting about a dozen cartridges together, Wheeler said a 2,200-square-foot house could be assembled in a matter of days. Since all the pieces are built in a factory, he also said the home could incorporate technology that could otherwise be impractical. Its all about integration, Wheeler said. The technology is here, this is the way we build now and its not working. So were trying to come up with a better way to build for that to happen. Standing inside the FutureHAUS, Wheeler pushes a button to demonstrate how one of his walls separating a bedroom and office could be moved on a motorized track. With the push of one button, the wall moves toward the office, doubling the size of the bedroom for nighttime. Press the other and the wall slides back, expanding the office for working hours. In another demonstration, Wheeler shows how a television could be shared between two rooms. In the office, it could be used for teleconferencing. But swivel that wall 180 degrees, and the same TV is moved to the living room for movie night. Inside one FutureHAUS closet is a touchscreen mirror that shows all the shirts you have in your closet at that moment. Pick an outfit, and a conveyor belt brings it to the front. Walk over to the shoe rack and an LED light points to a pair for selection. Some of these really could take off; others seem ridiculous, Wheeler said. But thats what we do. Were doing research; were exploring what is the best solution and what is the best way to build. We cant explore, we cant improve until we build it and try it out. Wheelers team has already assembled one of its cartridge homes as a proof of concept in Charlottesville, where home prices are cheaper than Blacksburg, he said. Virginia Techs FutureHAUS will be on display in Florida next week. When it comes back to Virginia, Wheeler said he expects it to receive a permanent home inside Techs new smart village near U.S. 460 in the coming years. Someday, Wheeler even said he hopes to build an on-campus dormitory for students with cartridges. Its going to happen, Wheeler said of the construction industry he believes is already beginning to embrace modular design. What you see now is going to happen. This makes complete sense. GamesRadar+ 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. Home News Sports Social Obituaries Events Letters Coronal hole could result in spectacular light show January 4, 2017 Thanks to a huge coronal hole over the sun which is facing directly at Earth, there's a good chance of geomagnetic storms over the earth's north pole, which could be a boon to those who wander out tonight and tomorrow night and look at the northern sky; odds are good that you'll see one of nature's most spectacular light shows; the aurora borealis, or northern lights. Photo by Karl Battams Huge coronal hole on the Earth-facing side of the sun, January 3, 2017. NASA predicts the odds of a geomagnetic storm January 4-5 at 65-percent, and thanks to the coronal hole, the aurora borealis show can be seen much farther south than is usual, and North Idaho is well within the expected viewing area. In fact, the shimmering, colorful lights may well be seen by viewers as far south as Colorado and Kansas. On a good note for viewers in North Idaho, skies tonight through tomorrow night are expected to be mostly clear. While there is no way to predict the optimum time to see the northern lights, experienced watchers say 9:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. is typically best. The coronal hole is an area over the sun where the sun's magnetic field has peeled back, allowing solar wind to escape. As that solar wind buffets the Earth's magnetic field, the dancing lights known as aurora borealis flicker in the Earth's northern night sky. Because of the hole, NASA's Space Weather Prediction Center is calling for auroras at 60 degrees north, well south of where aurorae normally occur. Questions or comments about this article? Click here to e-mail! Apple (AAPL) reported Thursday that developers raked in $20 billion on its App Store in 2016, a 40 percent jump since 2015. That suggests Apple reaped at least $8 billion in revenue from its App Store, an analyst said. "2016 was an amazingly great year for the App Store," Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, told CNBC. "We continue to advance what is available for developers to create. And our catalog of apps grew 20 percent to 2.2 million." Schiller said the biggest drivers for the App Store included games such as "Pokemon Go," which was the most downloaded app in 2016; "Super Mario," which was the most downloaded app on Christmas and New Year's days; and subscription-based apps, such as Netflix (NFLX), Hulu and Time Warner's (TWX) HBO Go. The tech giant said its biggest day of sales on the App Store was on Jan. 1, 2017, when customers spent a record $240 million. The top grossing markets included the U.S, U.K., Japan and China, which saw 90 percent year-over-year growth. Investors pay close attention to the performance of the App Store, as Apple now emphasizes its role as a services company. The broad smartphone market is maturing, and the tech giant is highlighting recurring revenue streams that do not depend on new device sales. Some research suggests that the best days of growth in the apps market may have come and gone. Schiller disputed that, pointing to his store's recent performance. "I will let the success of the App Store speak for itself," he said. "The App Store is bigger than ever and growing faster than ever. There is a lot of success ahead for developers." Based on Apple's traditional cut of 30 cents for every dollar that moves through the store, the revenue generated by the app sales totaled about $8 billion to $9 billion for Apple last year, according to Jan Dawson, chief analyst at Jackdaw Research. Digital stores represent big battlegrounds between Apple and rival Google (GOOGL). Story continues According to App Annie, which provides market data for the app economy, Google Play's worldwide downloads were 115 percent higher than Apple's App Store downloads in the third quarter, which is the latest data available. However, Apple maintained its advantage in revenue. In the third quarter, App Store revenue was 100 percent higher than Google Play's. Disclosure: Hulu is partially owned by CNBC parent NBC Universal. More From CNBC TT on hot destination list Yes, change will come but not overnight. Rather than join the mad rush to experience Cuba now, head to Trinidad and Tobago. The islands unique mix of wild nature and distinct culture make them a refreshing alternative to the typical Caribbean beach vacation. Katalina Mayorga, the trendsetting owner of El Camino Travel, was so blown away when she visited Trinidad and Tobago last year that she immediately developed a trip for 2017. The weeklong itinerary mixes cultural experiences (dancing to soca music and tasting that national dish, roti) with jungle adventures and beach lazing. TT was named as the Caribbean alternative to visit as opposed to Cuba. In the introduction to the article it defined TT as, a Caribbean destination with just as much culture as Cuba, minus the crowds. The other countries and states to make the list are Georgia; Oman; Langkawi, Malaysia; Madagascar; Sri Lanka; Idaho; Jordan; Aarhus, Denmark and Colombia. Destra ready for Carnival 2017 Thanks to all Destra/QOB/ Lucy fans and supporters that came out to Vas Lounge for the launch, she later posted on Instagram. Thanks to all the media and all my friends and family who made this event a success also You guys are amazing! Love always. Those who were there also got a taste of my upcoming music and I took lots of photos with my fans as well Garcias latest releases, Waistline Killer, Closer and Run Road were all well-received, alongside her classic hits such as: Tremble It, Whey Yuh Want, Max It Up, I Dare You and the all-time favourite, Its Carnival. However, it was her latest duet with Farmer Nappy (who was absent) entitled, Technically that had the audience singing along, streaking and wilding out the most __ even though Garcia said she didnt want to perform it without Nappy present, the masses insisted on hearing it and sang both her parts and those of the missing collaborator. For almost two hours, Garcia and company worked the stage and interacted warmly with the assembly __ stepping down from the stage often to immerse themselves in the midst of the audience and putting them through various dance moves and motions throughout the set. Destra is the Queen of Soca and the Queen of Bacchanal, Alibocas said afterward. Its an honour for us to work with her and to share in her energy and her fan-base and her timeless voice. Were extending our marketing and promotional skills to her brand this year and thus far, we are seeing great results as she continues to solidify her position in the market. Our team wrote two of the four songs she has out right now and we have helped her to market and promote all of her music and also her brand as we prepare for a strong 2017 Carnival season and beyond. This coming week, Garcia will release her 2017 Power Soca offering, which has been titled, Destra vs Lucy and promises to be yet another exciting musical contribution. Fans who missed the Destra at Vas experience can look forward to seeing her live onstage with her Bakanal band at the annual Army Fete on February 17 and of course at Bakanal Wednesday scheduled for February 22 at a venue to be announced. BIRTHDAY BLOODSHED The shooting left residents of Commonwealth Drive in Freeport in a state of shock and bewilderment with residents saying that their quiet community has been scarred by this incident permanently. The dead have been identified as Michael Brown, 26; Winston Edwards and Elton Amera. Birthday boy Spencer was shot in the arm and face and is one of three persons warded in critical condition. Police reported that the victims were liming at Spencers home when at 12.3o am, without warning, gunmen emerged from nearby bushes, stormed the house and shot the occupants with automatic weapons. As persons started dropping to the ground under the hail of bullets, the gunmen left the house and disappeared into the night. Several persons were rushed to hospital. Of the seven survivors, four were treated for flesh wounds and discharged. Police sources said that this mass shooting which left three dead plus an unrelated murder in Santa Cruz, have sent the countrys murder toll within the first four days of 2017, to seven. Eyewitnesses were willing to tell their story but too afraid to give their names. I was coming outside in my gallery to blow up balloons and make party bags when I heard people running through the bush in my backyard. I had to gather all my children and put them in one room. I saw about seven or eight of men, some with small guns and two with big, long guns, said a resident. The person said that rapid gunfire was then heard followed by the gunmen slinking back into the bushes from whence they came. This place was quiet but now we have been stained by this incident. They could call her hell town now, another resident said. Relatives of Brown told Newsday that he was a hard-working young man who worked construction, reared sheep and goats and loved to care for birds. His life, they say, was taken away for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Relatives said that Brown was a childhood friend of Edwards, who in turn was a cousin to Spencer __ the host of the birthday party. Browns common-law-wife Racquel Hypolite wept as she reminisced on the good times spent with him. He was a good man who did not deserve to die this way...gunned down like a dog in the road, she cried. Relatives of Amera and Edwards were too distraught to speak with reporters. The bodies of the three victims were taken to the Forensic Science Centre in St James for autopsies. Contacted on the incident, Head of Police Central Division Snr Supt Kenny McIntyre said the police were in the process of putting together an official statement on the matter. He said the number of gunmen remains unknown and investigations were at a very sensitive stage at this point in time and he would not want to comment further. Member of Parliament for Couva North Ramona Ramdial, in a statement, called on Minister of National Security Edmund Dillon, Acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams and others to act immediately on the mass shooting. In addition to these shootings and murders there is also an increase in robberies of businesses and homes. The businesses in Central are reeling from the negative impact of crime. Constituents are living in fear daily as they go to sleep wondering if their lives and property will fall victim to the criminals, Ramdial said in the release. She also asked for confirmation on whether the promise made by Minister Dillon to establish an army base in Chaguanas would be fulfilled. It must not continue like this where citizens live in mortal fear daily. Our leaders, especially those entrusted with the responsibility for safety and security of the nation, must step up and act now. Trinidad and Tobago is fed up of the talk and we the people deserve more. Freeport Police are continuing investigations. Up to press time, no arrest was made. Missing woman found physically unhurt Lallas husband, Ashook Naggassar, reported to police that she went missing on Thursday last from their home located at Hill View Lane, Lower in Couva. He lodged the Missing Persons report at the Gran Couva Police Station at about 3.40 pm on Saturday, after attempts to contact her proved futile. On Tuesday, the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) issued a press release seeking the public assistance in relocating her. Police sources yesterday confirmed that Lalla was staying at a house in Caroni and with the help of the public, police were able to locate her on Tuesday night. Oil stalemate All we can say is what they said and they said that as recently as when we were coming up here for this meeting, he requested more information from them with respect to different costing levels. However, Roget said both sides agreed to further conciliation and will meet again at 1.30 pm tomorrow at the Industrial Court. He said that meeting will give the Minister of Finance the chance to put some sort of proposal to the union. Roget said the union had also agreed to a meeting next Tuesday in the event the matter is not resolved by then and also had a meeting with the Minister of Labour today and our preference for that is that she comes accompanied by a high-powered team from the Government and discuss in its entirety this whole issue putting on the table some kind of a proposal but thus far, I want to repeat the point, the Government is remaining silent. We have not had any proposal from the Government is only zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero and we cant take that. He said through all these meetings the union is communicating to everybody that we are using every available effort and using every available opportunity to try to bring resolution to this issue. Still, he reminded the country that the union has served strike notice and the clock is ticking and over the next 96 hours plus another 24 hours the workers will be walking off their various work stations, withdrawing their labour legally for the next three months if that becomes necessary. He said this was not what the union wanted to happen but the public and everybody must understand that this is an issue of respect for the oil worker. He said the oil worker has not had a wage increase, a settlement or even an offer for periods that other people got. Everybody else got but the oil worker didnt get and zero, zero, zero and another zero, zero zero and nobody is talking to us to determine how they are going to deal with this outstanding payment, that is disrespectful. And the other part of that is that we are saying clearly that we are not demanding all this big set of money in backpay. We are saying that for the period in which everybody else got, let us apply an increase and quantify the debt and over an extended period of time the company can discharge this debt, but dont for heavens sake dont disregard us and dont disrespect us by not having the conversation. In the conversation once we sit down and examine different proposals and so on we will be able to arrive at a settlement, but thus far, the Government has been very silent and the company who was talking with us, they say they dont have authority. So could you imagine that, if they say they dont have authority and the Government has authority but the Government is not talking with them. Calendar to raise funds for Children with Diabetes Camp This is intended to be the first of such publications for 2017 as part of its fundraising efforts, the release issued to media said. The calendar features art pieces from primary school children throughout the country and from its diabetes camp for children. The calendar also contains local healthy recipes, diabetes educational information and the associations annual events. The release said, For 2016, we decided to place a special focus on children, with our theme Diabetes Prevention: It starts with the Child. Children are now more vulnerable to develop Type II diabetes than ever before in human history. In Trinidad and Tobago we have an estimated adult prevalence of all forms of diabetes between 15- 17 percent. We now have data that shows that around one third of our children are either overweight or obese and are well on the way to becoming Type two diabetic if interventions are not taken. Type I diabetes (T1DM) is also becoming more prevalent in Trinidad, however, many people are not aware of the characteristics of this form of diabetes. The release noted that there are over 100 children in TT living with Type I diabetes and close to 500 adults. It is the associations hope that the camp aids the improvement of the lives of children in TT living with diabetes. The association noted that at the end of the camp, held annually at around July, the children are better able to self-monitor, inject insulin and plan appropriate meals which set them on a path to longer and happier lives. Usually children living with Type 1 diabetes have a hard time adjusting to the pace of life among healthy children. The association said the greatest triumph of the camp is the development of friendships spanning across age groups and geography. The calendar is being sold at $20 per copy and distributed at the associations 18 branches as well as all Superpharm branches. Get the news faster. Tap to install our app. Access Newser even faster. Click here to install our app on your desktop. X (Newser) China has started an overhaul of its salt industry, easing a monopoly that has existed in some form for more than 2,000 years and predates the Great Wall, the AP reports. New regulations went into effect at the start of this year. Under a plan published by China's State Council last year, government regulators will allow private companies to enter the salt market. Existing wholesalers will be allowed to operate outside their previously designated areas, run marketing campaigns, and introduce "modern ways of distribution." Government planners will retain supervision over retail pricing to "prevent abnormal fluctuations," but prices will otherwise be set by the market, according to the State Council. Dynasties dating back more than 2,000 years have tightly controlled how salt is manufactured and sold. Under Communist Party rule, government planners and salt manufacturers have worked hand in hand to set production targets and prices, with a special police force sniffing out and shutting down private producers. But China has pledged in recent years to open up its economy to more private and foreign competition and make government-run companies more competitive. Its handling of salt could be a test of those promises. Store managers and observers of the market told state media that they are hopeful that salt prices will soon fall and that new salt products will arrive on shelves. (Read more salt stories.) (Newser) With the GOP now running Congress and Donald Trump looking for a full repeal on his first day in office, ObamaCare appears to be in dire straits, and the New York Times explains how Republicans could use a process called budget reconciliation to streamline its dismantling. Although the rewriting procedurean expediting of legislation related to taxes or spending that typically needs only a simple Senate majority to passis sometimes deemed "arcane," it's also "probably the most potent budget enforcement tool available to Congress for a large portion of the budget," per the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. The GOP attempted a reconciliation bill against the ACA in 2016, but President Obama vetoed it. More on ObamaCare's possible fate: The CBC runs through the ACA's potential fast-track demise, offering a refresher on what the federally managed insurance exchange is, why the GOP wants to take it down, and how soon that could happen. The New York Times lays out the four-step blueprint Republicans are likely to use to start the repeal process, starting with a Democratic filibuster-shielding resolution and capped off by whatever alternative the GOP has to offer. And that GOP alternative? The Washington Post points out there doesn't seem to be one right now and that "unanswered questions" remain, including whether health care taxes will immediately get the ax. "If you are repealing, show us what you'll replace it with. Then we'll look at what you have and see what you can do," Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer said Wednesday after meeting with VP-elect Mike Pence. NPR tries to suss out the truth between what the Democrats and the GOP are claiming, noting "both sides are trying to position themselves as the protectors of Americans' health care, while branding the other party as a dangerous threat." Sign-ups on HealthCare.gov hovered near 8.8 million as of Saturday, per NBC News, about 200,000 more than last year's open-enrollment period. "It is clear that Americans want and need this vital coverage," HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell says. NBC News also notes the failure of one ObamaCare adversary's attempt to rally support online. GOP Rep. Marsha Blackburn got an overwhelming response to her Twitter poll asking if followers wanted a repealthough not in the direction she hoped. (Read more ObamaCare stories.) (Newser) It's possible there are two sick puppies in this story about Justin Bieber pawning off his dog of less than six months onto one of his backup dancers. Page Six reports the pop star got a puppy named Todd last summer and fawned all over it on Instagram. But one of Bieber's backup dancers, CJ Salvador, tells TMZ Bieber gave the dog to him after he realized he was too busy to take care of it. Salvador has now created a GoFundMe page to raise money for the 7-month-old Chow Chow. He says Todd was born with severe hip dysplasia and needs "very specialized surgery" in order to maintain his ability to walk. The fundraising page has already exceeded its $8,000 goal, no thanks to Bieber, who TMZ notes didn't contribute. Salvador says Bieber doesn't know about Todd's health problem, and he doesn't want to bother the star about it. Both TMZ and Page Six note Bieber has had a spotty history with pets, ditching a previous dog and a monkey, auctioning off a snake, and giving a hamster to a fan at a concert (it died soon after). "Three words you don't associate with Justin Bieber: responsible pet owner," TMZ states. (Click to see a picture of the puppy.) (Newser) The chimaera, or so-called "ghost shark," is an elusive deep-water fish that has fascinated biologists for more than a century. Like its relative the shark, however, it's made of cartilage and thus rarely fossilizes, so little is known about its evolutionary past, reports Live Science. Now the blanks have been filled in thanks to a "remarkable" 280 million-year-old fossil found on a farm in Cape Province, South Africa, in the 1980s that was thought to be a symmoriid shark. Researchers at the University of Chicago Medical Center report in a ScienceDaily news release that the specimenmicro CT scan images of which one reviewer describes as "dripping with data"is actually an early chimaera, not a shark. The specimen offers "a glimpse of the preconditions from which modern chimaeras evolved." Reporting in the journal Nature, the team says the fossil establishes strong links between the brains, major cranial nerves, nostrils, and inner ears of early and modern chimaeras. We're learning more about elusive modern chimaeras, too: Scientists recently said they think they've captured video of a type of ghost shark never filmed before; the Washington Post published the footage of what's believed to be a pointy-nosed blue chimaera last month. Filmed off the coast of central California, it's the first seen outside the Pacific waters of Australia and New Zealand, suggesting widespread populations. Scientists have yet to work out what chimaeras eat, how often they reproduce, or even how long they live. (Researchers who filmed the ghost shark say it came down to "dumb luck.") (Newser) A French cyclist has set a new record for riding 14 miles in one hour. If that doesn't sound so remarkablethe world record is 33.8 milesconsider the category in which Robert Marchand was competing: over 105. The retired firefighter did it the first time riding in under one hour in the over-100 category in 2012, then topped it two years later at age 102, the Guardian reports. He also holds the 100-plus record for fastest 100km (4 hours, 17 minutes). He turned 105 a few months ago and competed Wednesday in the new category created just for him. Marchand circled the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome near Paris 92 times with a crowd cheering him on. Afterward, he was modest about his feat, telling BFMTV via the BBC that he "could have done better" but missed a sign telling him he had 10 minutes to go. He adds, "My legs didn't hurt My arms hurt, but that's because of rheumatism." Marchand, who cycles daily and once biked from Paris to Moscow, tells the AP he's "now waiting for a rival." Chips in his physiologist: "He could have been faster but he made a big mistake. He has stopped eating meat over the past month after being shocked by recent reports on how animals are subjected to cruel treatment." (This French sailor set an around-the-world record.) (Newser) A pregnant Alabama woman who suffered a miscarriage at six weeks can sue her doctor for wrongful death, the Alabama Supreme Court has ruled, with judges citing a 2009 state law making it a crime to kill or harm "an unborn child in utero at any stage of development." Physicians who make mistakes are usually protected from civil suits, and a lower court in August dismissed the wrongful death portion of Kimberly Stinnett's claim. But the high court overruled that last week in a unanimous decision that "reaffirms the principle that unborn children are protected by Alabama's wrongful-death statute from the moment life begins," writes Judge Tom Parker, per AL.com. The ruling is a swipe at Roe v. Wade, which Parker has previously called "incoherent" because "life begins at conception." The case goes back to May 2012, when Stinnett sought treatment for abdominal cramps and fever. An ER obstetrician who treated her suspected an ectopic pregnancy and performed a dilation and curettage, AL.com reports, followed by an injection of a drug intended to stop the pregnancy. The Helena woman had a history of two miscarriages and one ectopic pregnancy. A follow-up ultrasound by Stinnett's regular OB-GYN showed the pregnancy was uterine but failing, possibly because of the injection. In June, Stinnett miscarried and filed a civil lawsuit against the doctor who first treated her. ProPublica has written that Parker's writings pose "the biggest threat to abortion in a generation," but the ruling was cheered by the chair of Liberty Counsel "for defending the legal rights of the unborn as clearly stated in Alabama law." (A study finds a miscarriage can be followed by PTSD.) (Newser) A few too many tweets directed at China may have finally prompted the country to lash out at Donald Trump. An editorial posted to the Chinese website of state-run news agency Xinhua on Tuesday slammed Trump's "obsession with 'Twitter diplomacy'" as "undesirable." It continued: "Diplomacy is not a child's gameand even less is it business dealing" and "Twitter should not be a tool for foreign policy," reports CNN. In other words, Xinhua "asked Mr. Trump to shut up," interprets the New York Times. Trump has criticized China repeatedly on Twitter in recent weeks. On Monday, he accused China of "taking out massive amounts of money & wealth from the US in totally one-sided trade," but said the country "won't help with North Korea. Nice!" The Chinese governmentwhich advised Trump against "saying or doing anything that may escalate tensions"isn't the only one paying attention to his tweets. South Korea's foreign ministry has tasked an official with the sole job of monitoring Trump's tweets, reports the Telegraph, via the JoongAng Daily. The South Korean paper says the government hopes to get a better sense of what a Trump White House will look like, calling the tweets "currently the most effective insight into policies of the incoming administration." The paper indicates that what it calls the "new tweet compiler" is already hard at work, having communicated news of Trump's "It won't happen!" Monday tweet to the country's foreign minister; a rep then commented on South Korea's perception of Trump's take on the situation. (Read more Donald Trump stories.) (Newser) Interest in the JonBenet Ramsey case was resurrected with the 20th anniversary of the 6-year-old's December 1996 death, and now Netflix is joining the revival. Per Variety, the company has acquired the rights to Casting JonBenet, a documentary by Kitty Green set to debut at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah later this month. After its premiere in Park City, the filmwhich Netflix says will be its first nonfiction flick to make a Sundance showingwill air on Netflix and in some theaters nationwide in the spring. The filmmakers plumbed the community of Boulder, Colo., where the Ramsey family lived when JonBenet was killed, documenting locals looking back on the unsolved crime and analyzing its effect on families there. "Netflix is the ideal home for showcasing Kittys sharply rendered vision of a mythic American tragedy to a global audience," a Netflix programming exec says. Rolling Stone and the Hollywood Reporter note the film joins a glut of recent JonBenet coverage, including Lifetime's Who Killed JonBenet?, A&E's The Killing of JonBenet: The Truth Uncovered, and CBS' The Case of: JonBenet Ramsey, which spurred a lawsuit from JonBenet's brother, Burke (the special theorized Burke may have accidentally killed her). Wondering if Netflix's cinematic coup is an attempt to cash in on the obsession with true-crime hits like the Serial podcast and Netflix's own Making a Murderer? Megan Reynolds doesn't think so. "The Ramsey case has consumed the national imagination for the twenty years it's gone unsolved," she writes for Jezebel. "It feels crass to say that a new take on the case is refreshing, but examining the impact of the case through this lens is a perspective that we have yet to see." (New DNA tests are in the works in JonBenet's case.) (Newser) British officials knew in advance that the Chinese government was likely preparing to kill student protesters at Tiananmen Square in 1989and their intelligence didnt come at the last minute. Indeed, a telegram sent to Margaret Thatcher's administration from Britain's ambassador to China on May 20, 1989the same day Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping declared martial lawquoted Deng as saying "200 dead could bring 20 years of peace to China." Sir Alan Ewen Donald was repeating what had been told to a US expert on China, with whom he'd just had lunch, per Quartz. He said the Pentagon had also concluded that Deng saw "no way to avoid bloodshed" and had instructed the military "to do what is necessary to put down the situation." "The implication clearly was that the sacrifice of a number of demonstrators [sic] lives now would stabilize the present situation and buy the time needed to complete the reform of China," Donald wrote. The revelation of the UK's intelligencewhich one reporter describes as "stunning"comes from the Dec. 30 release of scores of government files from 1989 and 1990, which were previously classified. Two weeks after Donald's telegram was sent, the People's Liberation Army shot and killed hundreds of unarmed students occupying Beijing's Tiananmen Square in protest of recent violence against pro-democracy demonstrators. Prime Minister Thatcher at the time said she was "shocked and appalled by the shootings," reports the Independent. (China's last Tiananmen prisoner just went free.) * Vivendi creates new role to bolster group * Genish stepped down as Telefonica Brasil CEO in Oct * Task will be to connect Vivendi assets more closely * Expansion in southern Europe key pillar of strategy (Adds details, context) By Guillermo Parra-Bernal and Mathieu Rosemain SAO PAULO/PARIS, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Vivendi has tapped Amos Genish, the former head of Telefonica's Brazil unit, to lead efforts to converge the French media company's content, platforms and media distribution strategies. The move comes as Vivendi, led by billionaire and corporate raider Vincent Bollore, has been building up its stake in Italian broadcaster Mediaset as part of a strategy to expand in southern Europe. European media and telecoms groups are betting on the convergence of TV content with Internet and phone services as they face increasing competition from online providers such as Netflix and Amazon. Genish's task will be to foster greater collaboration between Vivendi's wide range of assets in the newly created role of chief convergence officer, which the French group announced late on Wednesday. Bollore has made no secret of his intentions to create a southern European powerhouse able to compete with the likes of Time Warner and Rupert Murdoch, whose Twenty-First Century Fox struck a $14.6 billion deal last month to buy European pay-TV firm Sky, uniting a media empire across two continents. Since becoming Vivendi's chairman in 2014, Bollore has hired and fired top management and taken key strategic decisions, including the company's big bet on Telecom Italia, in which Vivendi built up a 24 percent stake, becoming the biggest shareholder. Genish, 56, an Israeli citizen, sold Brazilian phone carrier GVT SA to Vivendi in 2009. He became CEO of Telefonica Brasil after Vivendi sold GVT to the local unit of Spain's Telefonica SA in 2015. Under his tenure, Telefonica Brasil grew at the expense of rivals and became Brazil's most profitable carrier in spite of the worst recession in more than eight decades. Story continues He stepped down as CEO in October, citing unspecified personal reasons. RISING INFLUENCE Vivendi's stake building in Mediaset has riled the Italian government amid concerns that Bollore, who is influential in Telecom Italia's strategy and is a key shareholder in Italian bank Mediobanca, could end up with even greater influence in Italy's corporate world. Vivendi said last month that it now controls 29.94 percent of Mediaset's voting rights along with 28.8 percent of the company's share capital - just below the 30 percent stake at which a full bid for Mediaset would be required. Vivendi, whose biggest unit is French broadcaster Canal Plus Group, also acquired French mobile video games maker Gameloft last year and has built up a 25 percent stake in Gameloft's larger sister company Ubisoft. Genish will be based in London and Paris, Vivendi said in its statement announcing his appointment. Telefonica Brasil said on Wednesday that Genish had resigned from the company's board, turning his seat over to Jose Maria Del Rey Osorio. He also quit his post as head of the company's strategy committee. He was replaced as CEO in October by Eduardo Navarro. (Reporting by Guillermo Parra-Bernal and Bruno Federowski; Editing by Susan Fenton) (Newser) A man entered a San Diego bank on May 13 and demanded money from a teller, saying, "You're being robbed. Don't make a mistake." He's probably kicking himself over his own gaffe, which helped send him to prison for three years and 10 months as part of a plea deal on Tuesday, per Fox 5. Before he'd made his demands, the robber had swiped his debit card at the teller window, which made it easy for police to track him down, reports the San Diego Union Tribune. Alvin Lee Neal, 56, a registered sex offender, later admitted to the robbery and was ordered Tuesday to repay the $565 he was handed by the teller. (Read more weird crimes stories.) (Newser) A month ago, Lamar Austin was hired by a security company for a 90-day trial period that involved him being on call 24/7. On New Year's Day, Austin's son was born. Austin, who had already had to miss one shift offered to him due to a doctor's appointment for his wife, ended up missing shifts on Friday and Saturday. Son Cainan was born Sunday, and at 1am that day, Austin got a text notifying him he'd been terminated from Salerno Protective Services. Austin's story made headlines, especially due to the fact that Cainan was the first baby born in Concord, NH, in 2017. "If I have to choose between work and family, Im always going to pick my family," Austin told the Monitor shortly after his son's birth. Since then, people have been stepping up to help Austin, a 30-year-old military veteran and father of four, big-time. He's gotten offers for at least three jobs, plus money raised for him on a GoFundMe page set up by a mother who was upset by what happened to Austineven though, as experts explain to the Concord Monitor, it's perfectly legal in an "at-will" employment state such as New Hampshire. In a statement reported by WCVB, Anthony Salerno Jr. cited confidentiality in not commenting on the particulars of the situation, but did say "SPS is not in the practice of releasing employees for reasons stated in the article published in the monitor [sic] but must be cognizant of the product we give our clients!" But there's no bad blood, Austin tells the Monitor. "[Salerno] had his company, which is like his baby, and I had my baby ... Naturally, hes going to pick his baby over my baby. I can't blame him for that." (This waitress lost her job for firing a shot at robbers.) By Gustavo Bonato SAO PAULO, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Brazilian soybean export premiums have nearly doubled from a year ago as a stronger currency encouraged local producers to delay sales of an expected record crop, Thomson Reuters data showed on Thursday. Export premiums rose to 57 cents a bushel over February futures in Chicago, 90 percent up from the 30 cents premium offered in early 2016. (S-BRZPAR-B1) Soybean prices in reais are 24 percent below their 2016 peak, at 74.52 reais per 60-kg bag at the Paranagua port, as the local currency gained nearly 30 percent since early last year. The Brazilian real is currently trading at a near-two-month high, just above 3.2 per dollar. "If premiums were much lower, there would not be any deal. Demand is firm, but producers are reluctant to sell," said Glauco Monte, commodities director at brokerage INTL FCStone. Forward sales are below their historical average at about 34 percent of expected production so far, compared with 40 percent at this time last year, consultancy AgRural said in December. Traders say they are delaying deals as much as possible in hope of better prices. The government's crop supply agency Conab forecast that the 2016/17 soy harvest would reach a record 102.45 million tonnes, up 7 percent from the previous season. There are reports of early harvesting in small areas of top producing states. As work gains pace, large volumes of soybean should reach the market in January, in a period of the year when usually there is not relevant supply to feed exports. "Expectations are for a very good crop in Brazil... and for an early harvest. Buyers are showing up and exporters are trying to get more beans out of producers' hands," said Pedro Dejneka, president of analysis firm AGR Brasil, in Chicago. With prospects of stiff competition at the ports when harvest hits full throttle, analysts expect premiums to drop soon. "Sales will be concentrated during the harvesting period. Premiums will drop, and spot prices will come under pressure in February and March," FCStone's Monte said. (Writing by Silvio Cascione; Editing by Andrew Hay) OTTAWA, Jan 5 (Reuters) - There is no question of separating the Canadian and U.S. economies, Canadian Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Thursday when asked about the potential impact of a Donald Trump presidency. Trump, who will formally become President on Jan. 20, has vowed to either scrap or renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, under which Canada sends 75 percent of its exports to the United States. (Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Chris Reese) OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Jan 4, 2017) - Cornerstone Capital Resources Inc. ("Cornerstone" or "the Company") (TSX VENTURE:CGP)(GWN.F)(GWN.F)(CTNXF) announces the following project update for the Cascabel copper-gold porphyry joint venture exploration project in northern Ecuador, in which the Company has a 15% interest financed through to completion of a feasibility study. SolGold Plc is funding 100% of the exploration at Cascabel and is the operator of the project. Figures, table and photographs referred to in this news release can be seen in PDF format by accessing the version of this release on the Company's website (www.cornerstoneresources.com) or by clicking on the link below: http://www.cornerstoneresources.com/i/pdf/NR17-01Figures.pdf. HIGHLIGHTS: Drill Hole CSD-16-019 ("Hole 19") intersects 835m of copper mineralization (estimated true width (1) of 560m) from 325.6m to current depth 1161.50m, including a more intensely mineralized section from 545.9m. Bornite (a copper rich sulphide mineral containing 63% copper) and molybdenite are present in the mineralized section of Hole 19. Bornite mineralization mapped at surface, and in Hole 19 to date, support the existence of Hematite Hill, Alpala Southeast, and Cristal as high priority targets over 750m of strike extension southeast of Alpala Central. Preparations for drill rigs 4 and 5 continue ahead of drill testing the zone southeast of Alpala. Hole 18 encountered intense veining and mineralization over 665m from 903.9m to 1568.9m, and continues at 2144.8m depth, testing the lower levels and southwestern side of the Alpala system. Hole 20R entered brecciated (fragmented) porphyry style copper mineralization at 905.4m, approximately 200m higher than predicted, supporting the existence of widening and shallowing of the mineralized zone on the east and northeast sides of Alpala Central. Mineralization continues to current depth of 1050.0m. (1) Estimates have been made in defining true widths due to insufficient drilling in the outer limits of the currently known extension of the Alpala deposit and drill results not having yet been assayed and interpreted. These estimates may change as more drilling is completed and results continue to be processed. FURTHER INFORMATION: The Cascabel Project is located within the gold-rich northern section of the prolific Andean Copper belt renowned as the production base for nearly half of the world's copper (Figure 1). The project area hosts mineralization of Eocene age, the same age as numerous Tier 1 deposits along the Andean Copper Belt in Chile and Peru to the south. The project base is located at Rocafuerte, in northwestern Ecuador just west of the City of Ibarra, approximately 3 hours drive north of Quito and close to water, power supply and Pacific Ports (Figure 2). SolGold holds an 85% interest in ENSA (Exploraciones Novomining S.A.) which holds the Cascabel concession. Fourteen different targets have been defined at Cascabel and only one of these, the Alpala Deposit has been drilled to date. The deposit at Alpala continues to grow with each new drill hole. Drilling has focussed on defining the geometry of the Alpala deposit, which is open in all directions. Over 27,000m of drilling has been completed to date (Figure 3). Planned drilling for the coming quarter focuses on expansion of the Alpala deposit as well as testing of the south easterly extensions of the greater Alpala system, at Hematite Hill and Alpala Southeast. (Figure 4). Examples of selected mineralization in drill core intersected recently in Holes 18, 19 and 20R show copper mineralization being encountered (Figures 5, 6, 7). Planned Drill Rig Deployment Solgold is continuing to deploy multiple drilling rigs at Cascabel. Currently there are three operational rigs at the project and upgraded infrastructure and services will enable the deployment of two additional rigs in the next two months. Rig 1 (current) will continue testing the upward extensions of the Alpala Central deposit. Rig 2 (current) will relocate southeast of Alpala Central to the Hematite Hill area. Rig 3 (current) will continue testing the deepest portion of the Alpala Central deposit, below known mineralization. Rig 4 (proposed) is scheduled to commence in February 2017 an extensive multi-hole directional drilling program on the Alpala Deposit in February 2017. Rig 5 (proposed) is scheduled to commence in March 2017 testing of the Alpala South area, approximately 1km southeast of the current drilling area at Alpala. Solgold plans to have 7 drilling rigs active on the project by the end of October 2017. Planned drilling over the coming quarter is shown in Figure 8, and priority target areas along the Alpala southwesterly trend are shown in long-section view in Figure 9. Independent Technical report on the Cascabel Project under National Instrument 43-101 and accompanying documents by SRK Exploration Pty Ltd are in preparation. About Cascabel: SolGold Plc owns 85% of the equity of Exploraciones Novomining S.A. ("ENSA"), an Ecuadorean company that holds 100% of the Cascabel concession in northern Ecuador. Cornerstone owns the remaining 15% of ENSA. SolGold is funding 100% of the exploration at Cascabel and is the operator of the project. Cornerstone's 15% interest is financed through completion of a feasibility study. Cascabel is located in northwestern Ecuador in an under-explored northern section of the Andean Copper Belt, 60 km northeast of the undeveloped inferred resource of 982 million tons at 0.89% Cu Llurimaga (formerly Junin) copper project (0.4% Cu cut-off grade; Micon International Co. Ltd. Technical Report for Ascendant Exploration SA, August 20, 2004, pages 28 & 29). Mineralization identified at the Llurimaga copper project is not necessarily indicative of the mineralization on the Cascabel Property. Plans: To date SolGold has completed geological mapping and soil sampling over 25 km2, along with and an additional 9km2 of Induced Polarisation and 14km2 Magnetotelluric "Orion" surveys over the Alpala cluster and Aguinaga targets. SolGold has completed over 27,000m of drilling and expended over USD 35M on the program, corporate costs and investments into Cornerstone. Intense diamond drilling is planned for the next 12 months with multiple drill rigs. The Alpala deposit is open at depth and in the upper extensions, as well as to the north, north-east, south-east and south-west. The mineralized zone at Alpala and Moran is closely modelled by magnetic signatures and currently encompasses over 10Bt of magnetic rock expected to be mineralized with copper and gold. SolGold is focussing on extending the dimensions of Alpala before completing a resource statement and drill testing the other key targets within the Cascabel concession at Alpala Southeast, Aguinaga, Trivino, Moran, Alpala Northwest, Hematite Hill, Cristal, Parambas, Carmen, Tandayama-America and Chinambicito. SolGold is planning further metallurgical testing and completion of a conceptual early stage mine and plant design and a scoping study (which may not be the equivalent of a National Instrument 43-101 Preliminary Economic Assessment) for an economic development at Cascabel. SolGold is investigating both high tonnage / low-medium grade open cut and underground block caving operations, and a high grade / low tonnage underground development. Qualified Person: Yvan Crepeau, MBA, P.Geo., Cornerstone's Vice President, Exploration and a qualified person in accordance with National Instrument 43-101, is responsible for supervising the exploration program at the Cascabel project for Cornerstone and has reviewed and approved the information contained in this news release. Logging, sampling and assaying Holes referred to in this release were or are being drilled using HTW, NTW, NQ and BQ core sizes (respectively 7.1, 5.6, 4.8 and 3.7 cm diameter). Geotechnical measurements such as core recovery, fracturing, rock quality designations (RQD's), specific density and photographic logging are performed systematically prior to assaying. The core is logged, magnetic susceptibility measured and key alteration minerals identified using an on-site portable spectrometer. Core is then sawed in half at the ENSA core logging facility, and half of the core is delivered by ENSA employees for preparation at LAC y Asociados ISO 9001-2008 certified sample preparation facility in Cuenca. Core samples are prepared crushing to 70% passing 2 mm (10 mesh), splitting 250 g and pulverizing to 85% passing 75 microns (200 mesh) (MSA code PRP-910). Prepared samples are then shipped to MS Analytical Services (MSA), an ISO 9001-2008 laboratory in Langley, BC, Canada where samples are assayed for a multi-element suite (MSA code IMS-230, 0.2g split, 4-acid digestion, ICP-AES/MS finish). Over limit results for Cu (>1%) are systematically re-assayed (MSA code ICF-6Cu, 0.2 g, 4-acid digestion, ICP-AES finish). Gold is assayed using a 30 g split, Fire Assay (FA) and AAS finish (MSA code FAS 111). Over limit results for Au (>10 g/t) are systematically re-assayed (MSA code FAS-415, FA, 30g., gravimetric finish). Drill hole intercepts from the Cascabel Property are calculated using a data aggregation method, defined by copper equivalent cut-off grades and reported with up to 10m internal dilution, excluding bridging to a single sample. Copper equivalent grades are calculated using a gold conversion factor of 0.89, determined using copper price of US$2.20/pound and gold price of US$1350/ounce. Copper equivalent calculation assumes 100% recoveries of copper and gold. All reported drill core intervals from the Cascabel Property are core lengths, unless otherwise indicated. At present the true thicknesses of all of the holes has not been calculated by SolGold. Low-grade intersections, where applicable, are expressed as average true widths (utilizing the "B-vein > 0.5%" shell orientations). High-grade intersections are better constrained for holes 1, 5, 8 and 9, and these intersections are also expressed as average true widths (utilizing the "B-veins > 20%" shell orientations). Quality assurance / Quality control (QA/QC) The MSA Analytical Laboratory is a qualified assayer that performs and makes available internal assaying controls. Duplicates, certified blanks and standards are systematically used (1 control sample every 15-20 samples) as part of Cornerstone's QA/QC program. Rejects, a 100 g pulp for each core sample and the remaining half-core are stored for future use and controls. About Cornerstone: Cornerstone Capital Resources Inc. is a well funded mineral exploration company with a diversified portfolio of projects in Ecuador and Chile, and a proven ability to identify, acquire and advance properties of merit. The company's business model is based on generating exploration projects whose subsequent development is funded primarily through partnerships. Further information is available on Cornerstone's website: www.cornerstoneresources.com and on Twitter. Cautionary Notice: This news release may contain 'Forward-Looking Statements' that involve risks and uncertainties, such as statements of Cornerstone's plans, objectives, strategies, intentions and expectations. The words "potential," "anticipate," "forecast," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "may," "project," "plan," and similar expressions are intended to be among the statements that identify 'Forward-Looking Statements.' Although Cornerstone believes that its expectations reflected in these 'Forward-Looking Statements' are reasonable, such statements may involve unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors disclosed in our regulatory filings, viewed on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com. For us, uncertainties arise from the behaviour of financial and metals markets, predicting natural geological phenomena and from numerous other matters of national, regional, and global scale, including those of an environmental, climatic, natural, political, economic, business, competitive, or regulatory nature. These uncertainties may cause our actual future results to be materially different than those expressed in our Forward-Looking Statements. Although Cornerstone believes the facts and information contained in this news release to be as correct and current as possible, Cornerstone does not warrant or make any representation as to the accuracy, validity or completeness of any facts or information contained herein and these statements should not be relied upon as representing its views subsequent to the date of this news release. While Cornerstone anticipates that subsequent events may cause its views to change, it expressly disclaims any obligation to update the Forward-Looking Statements contained herein except where outcomes have varied materially from the original statements. On Behalf of the Board, Brooke Macdonald, President and CEO Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. New Delhi: Apple Inc. plans to invest USD 1 billion in SoftBank Group Corp.'s giant new technology fund, adding its name to a growing list of interested parties and giving the iPhone maker a new avenue to tap up-and-coming technologies. Qualcomm Inc. also said it will participate in the fund, but the terms and the amount of its investment are still under discussion. Foxconn Technology Co. Ltd. and Oracle Corp. Chairman Larry Ellison also intend to contribute, according to a person family. "We've worked closely with SoftBank for many years and we believe their new fund will speed the development of technologies which may be strategically important to Apple," said Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet. The Wall Street Journal earlier reported the investment. The $100 billion Vision fund, which Japan's SoftBank aims to launch this year, will be based in London and make investments in startups around the world. Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook has often faced questions. Kharagpur: Google CEO Sundar Pichai expressed confidence India will soon emerge as a global player in digital economy while claiming that in the next 3-4 years, big software companies will start emerging from India. India will be a global player in the digital economy and it will be competitive with any country in the world. There is a timing issue. We are doing well as a country. We need to stay at it. We need a few more years and we will get to it. I am absolutely confident, Pichai said at IIT Kharagpur campus. Also Read: Google CEO Sundar Pichai gets emotional at alma mater IIT Kharagpur He was asked by a student to comment on whether India can take on China.He said within the next five to ten years, they will see big global software companies coming out of India. Also Read: Surprised to find young IITians with IIM aspirations: Sundar Pichai Pichai advised Indian companies to aim higher and compete with MNCs, as the local market is not large enough to invest in technology.Part of the problem is that in India, the potential is there and market is developing. It will take a few more years for it to realise its potential. Digital market is still developing, Pichai said, while asking Indian companies to set their sights higher as trends are in their favour. New Delhi: The nine-year-old son of an aspiring film producer, who was in the process of producing a film on Akhilesh Yadav, allegedly consumed poison in New Delhi on Wednesday as he was apparently upset over the recent developments in the Samajwadi Party. The incident occurred in southeast Delhi's Jamia Nagar area following which the boy was rushed to a hospital where he was stated to be out of danger. Muneer, a class IV student and a resident of Shaheen Bagh, was apparently a fan of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and the policies he had implemented, his father Azhar Dilshad Khan said.Describing Muneer as a "brilliant" student, he said while children of his age usually spent time playing, he used to discuss the political scenario of Uttar Pradesh with his mother. Khan added that he was in the process of producing a film on Akhilesh and had stalled the project after the family feud in the SP surfaced. "Muneer was supposed to play the role of a young boy in the film who is in awe of the chief minister. We could not foresee that it would turn out to be a case of the real imitating the reel," Khan said, adding that the boy "grew up" watching YouTube clips of Akhilesh. All the members of the family, which hailed from Meerut, were fans of Akhilesh, Khan said. Meanwhile, police said that even though the family members told them that Muneer was a fan of Akhilesh and was upset over the recent developments in the SP, in writing they maintained that the boy had "accidentally" consumed an unknown poisonous substance. He was admitted to Alshifa Hospital, said a senior police officer."The boy is now fit to give statement and is out of danger. His father has given in writing that his son had accidentally consumed some poisonous substance and he does not want any legal action. His mother has said that her son was a fan of Akhilesh Yadav and had consumed rat poison by mistake and that she does not suspect any other person's involvement in the matter," he added. Lucknow: As Election Commission has announced the dates for assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh in February and March, the UP Board examinations will be held after March 11, according to sources. As counting of votes will be held on March 11 for assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa, the UP Board exam will take place after this date. Voting for 403 assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh will be held in seven-phase election on February 11, 15, 19, 23 and 27 and March 4 and 8, Election Commission has announced. Earlier, the Uttar Pradesh Examination Board had announced the dates between February 18 and March 21 for Class 10 and Class 12 examinations. Later, the Election Commission deferred the dates after summoning the secondary education department authorities along with the officials last month. More than 60 lakh students will appear in the UP Board exams. About 34, 04,571 candidates have registered for Class 10 exams, while 26, 24,681 candidates have registered for Class 12 exams. The date sheet for the UP Board exam has not been released yet. New Delhi: Om Swami has been one true troublemaker on Bigg Boss 10 and went on to create a new ruckus inside the house as the show has entered its 12th week. But in Thursday's episode Om went on to cross all the limits on the show. The day started with the tunes of 'Chalak Chalak'. It was an important day for the housemates as they were suppose to get a new house captain today. There has been a direct competition between Bani J and Om Swami for captaincy. Housemates are seen discussing about the sudden change in Bani's behavior to get the captaincy. On the othe hand, Om is determined to become the new captain of the house. He not tried to convince Bani to let him be the captain but also told Bigg Boss that he will go to any extent to win the task. #OmSwami tells Bigg Boss that he will go to any extent to win the task! #BB10 a Bigg Boss (@BiggBoss) January 5, 2017 A Soon BB came up with the captaincy task for Om and Bani, where in they were suppose to save their pyramids, the other housemates have to try and make the opponents' pyramids fall. It was said that the housemate with the most number of blocks in their pyramid will win and become the next captain of the house. While #OmSwami & @bani_j have to save their pyramids, the other housemates have to try and make the opponents' pyramids fall! #BB10 pic.twitter.com/g9ZJYyPLsd a Bigg Boss (@BiggBoss) January 5, 2017 Manveer Gurjar was appointed as the facilitator of the task. Om and Bani were given the chance to choose representatives for themselves. It seemed liked most of the housemates don't want Om Swami as their next captain. However, Bigg Boss warns the housemates to play the task as per the rules and not hit each other with the balls. But despite BB's warning, Rohan Mehra and Manveer gets into war of words. Rohan was furious after Manveer was interrupting him during the task. Rohan gets cornered after all the housemates gang up against him during the captaincy task and he breaks down on the show. On the other hand, Manu and Manveer try to encourage Om to play the task sportingly and not give up. However, it was during the task that Om stoops to the lowest of the low and apparently threw his pee on Bani and Rohan leaving everyone appalled. Bani and Rohan loose their cool after Swami's unapologetic actions and they along with the housemates locks him up in the jail. Housemates lock #OmSwami in the jail after he gets out of control! #BB10 pic.twitter.com/ELopgt8Xbj a Bigg Boss (@BiggBoss) January 5, 2017 Housemates are in a state of shock after Om's demeaning actions seem to be never ending. Bigg Boss also asks all the housemates to boycott him. Housemates are in a state of shock after #OmSwami's demeaning actions seem to be never ending! #BB10 pic.twitter.com/VsGtD6TVJL a Bigg Boss (@BiggBoss) January 5, 2017 Looks like BB is not in a mood to let go off Om Swami's cheap actions this time and is planning to take a strict action against him which inturn comes as a sigh of relief for everyone. Adding more to the twist is host Salman Khan coming up with his 'Weekend Ka Vaar' episode on Friday for the first time in this season. We wonder how he will react to Om Swami's demeaning actions in the next episode. Mumbai: Irked by the molestation case in Bangalore on New Year Eve, Bollywood star Akshay Kumar posted a video message on twitter calling the incident "truly shamefula. The actor posted a video on Twitter, which he captioned as, aThe Bangalore incident makes me feel we are evolving backwards, from humans to animals, rather beasts because even animals are better! Truly shameful.a Akshay said he found it disgusting and questioned where te society is heading. He said, "if society can't give respect to its women then we have no right to be called as human." aI am ashamed to be a human being today. I was returning from my New Yearas vacation in Cape Town and when I was coming out from airport A holding my four-year-old daughter in my arms, I saw this video of molestation incident in Banglore. I donat know how did you all feel about it, but my blood started boiling. aI am a father of a daughter but even if I was not one, I feel if a society cannot respect its women, it doesnat deserve to be called a humane society. Whatas most disgusting is that people have the guts to justify such shameful acts by criticising women for their choice of clothes,a Akshay said. Several women were allegedly molested despite huge police presence at a large gathering in Bangalore during New Yearas Eve. A The Bangalore incident makes me feel we r evolving backwards,from humans to animals,rather beasts coz even animals are better!Truly shameful pic.twitter.com/FJwJ80Mkby a Akshay Kumar (@akshaykumar) January 5, 2017 For all the Latest Entertainment News, Bollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: "Universal Soldier" stars Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren have joined hands for a new action movie "Black Water". The actors will star as on-screen partners for the first time in the upcoming film, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The film's director is yet to be announced. The script is provided by Chad Law, which centers on a deep cover operative (Van Damme) who awakens to find himself imprisoned in a CIA black site on a submarine. The movie will hit the US theaters sometime next year. It's produced by Richard Switzer alongside Tyler Konney. For all the Latest Entertainment News, Hollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Lucknow/New Delhi: In a show of strength, 221 Samajwadi Party MLAs, 60 party MLCs from Uttar Pradesh signed affidavit in favour of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav in a meeting of legislators in Lucknow on Thursday. Earlier on the day, SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav left for Delhi to furnish details of support to the Election Commission for retaining the 'cycle' symbol. The faction led by his son Akhilesh met loyalists in Lucknow to collect signed affidavits to be presented to the poll body. However, sources in the Mulayam camp said the party supremo was armed with signed affidavits of MLAs, MLCs and MPs which he would furnish to the EC, the number of the signed affidavits with him was not immediately clear. ALSO READ | Upset over SP tussle, 9-year-old 'Akhilesh fan' consumes poison in Delhi Mulayam was accompanied by Shivpal Yadav, who was "removed" from the post of state SP chief at the party's disputed national convention where Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav was crowned as SP President replacing his father. As Mulayam and Shivpal left for the national capital, Akhilesh met his loyalists at his 5-Kalidas Marg residence to collect their signed affidavits to be presented before the EC in a day or two to claim the party symbol, party sources said. Giving ample indications that he was not in a mood to climbdown, a defiant Akhilesh said on , "We are going for polls... Will return again." The Election Commission has initiated the process for the two warring factions of the Samajwadi Party - one led by Mulayam and the other by Akhilesh - to prove their majority for getting the party symbol. In the 404-member UP Assembly, SP has 229 MLAs. The EC has asked both factions to show strength of MLAs, MPs and MLCs supporting them through signed affidavits. At the "national convention" of SP convened by Ramgopal Yadav on Jaunary 1, over 200 of the 229 MLAs had turned up besides a large number of MLCs and MPs and senior party leaders and office bearers. SP MP Naresh Agarwal, who is close to the chief minister, claimed that majority of the party MLAs, MLCs and MPs were with Akhilesh. "Kahan nut-bolt lagana hai, kahan hathura isteymal karna hai, sahi sey karengey. (Where to tighten screw and where to use hammer, we will do it effectively)," Akhilesh had said on . ALSO READ | SP feud: Akhilesh Yadav calls crucial meet tomorrow, Azam's eleventh-hour efforts failed to make peace With the two warring sides agreeing to disagree, hectic back channel moves to broker peace were witnessed in the state capital during the past two days, but all efforts failed to salvage the ruling party from split. The announcement of poll schedule too did not make the two sides bury the hatchet. In fact, after parting ways with his father, Akhilesh appeared to be further consolidating his position in the party by announcing appointment of party presidents in several districts in his capacity as the "new SP chief". The presidents in these districts had been removed by Shivpal. "On the directives of national president Akhilesh Yadav, state president Naresh Uttam directed Deoria, Kushinagar, Azamgarh and Mirzapur district presidents to continue on their posts and strengthen the party," an official release issued by the Akhilesh faction said late . ALSO READ | SP feud: Mulayam, Shivpal reach Delhi; may release fresh candidate list These office bearers were asked by Akhilesh to work in favour of the party and ensure victory of SP candidates. Polls will be held in seven phases in Uttar Pradesh on (73 constituencies), (67 constituencies), (69), (53), (52), (49) and (40). (With inputs from PTI) For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Amaravati: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu will attend the World Economic Forums annual conference in Davos Klosters, Switzerland, from January 16 to 21. He will lead a state delegation comprising, among others, Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu, Principal Secretary (Infrastructure and Investment) Ajay Jain, Secretary (Industries) Solomon Arokia Raj and three consultants of the AP Economic Development Board, according to Secretary (Political) N Srikant. The Chief Minister has been a regular at the WEF and will address one of its sessions during the visit. The Andhra Pradesh government will organise a road show at Davos to promote the Partnership Summit to be held in Visakhapatnam on January 27 and 28, a senior official said. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Claiming that West Bengal is facing a total law-and-order breakdown, a BJP delegation on Thursday met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and demanded that the Centres review the situation in the state. The BJP leaders also alleged that the political violence in West Bengal has blessings of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and state police was a silent spectator. Such an unfortunate and serious situation warrants an immediate review of the law and order situation in the state and whether the state government is capable of carrying out its responsibility in accordance with the Constitution. Therefore, we request your immediate and determined intervention in this matter, the delegation led by BJP National General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya said in a memorandum submitted to the minister. ALSO READ | TMC protests continue in West Bengal over arrest of its MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay Many of our workers were injured in the mayhem created by Trinamool Congress activists at the BJP office in Kolkata, Vijayvargiya, the partys in charge in West Bengal, said. It is palpable that the fundamental rights of people of West Bengal have been breached with impunity, while the state administrative machinery was kept ineffective under political pressure, the memo alleged. The BJP leaders said a number of party offices in West Bengal have been ransacked and the house of Union Minister Babul Supriyo besieged by TMC workers. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Hundreds of Trinamool Congress workers staged a protest demonstration outside the Prime Minister's Offce in Delhi on Tuesday after the CBI arrested party MP Sudip Bandopadhyay for his alleged involvement in the Rose Valley chit fund scam. The police detained several TMC workers who shouted slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi accusing him of indulging in a political vendetta after the party raised its voice against the demonetisation move. The tussle between the Modi government and the TMC has escalated since the arrest of Bandopadhyay. Earlier in the day, Union minister Babul Supriyo alleged that several workers of the ruling party attacked his house in Kolkata. Supriyo also tweeted a video in this regard. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: In an escalation of tense ties with the Congress government in Puducherry, Lt Governor Kiran Bedi on Thursday cancelled the order of Chief Minister V Narayanasamy banning the use of social media for official communication. Bedi, who was in Delhi for the past few days, posted a copy of her order on her personal Twitter handle declaring the government circular null and void with immediate effect on the ground that it was issued in contravention of guidelines, rules and policies of the government. If Puducherry has to be a progressive Union Territory it cannot be retrograde in communications. Hence @CM_Puducherrys order stands cancelled: @PMOIndia (sic), she tweeted. Narayanasamy had issued the circular even as Bedi was pushing with her plan to promote WhatsApp communication by officials. The government circular dated January 2 had said the chief minister had directed all the officers, heads of departments and employees of government-owned undertakings to immediately desist from using the social media such as Twitter, WhatsApp and Facebook. It had added that the servers of these multi-national companies were based outside the country. Any foreign country can get access to these official communications and documents uploaded which is a violation of the Official Secrets Act and also against the guidelines issued by Union Information Technology Ministry, it had said. Describing the order as retrogade, Bedi said it is against the clear-cut policy of the Central Government. How can the Chief Minister take away the power of communication? That is why I have declared it null and void. I have met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singhji, IT and Communication Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Minister of State in the PMO Jitendra Singh and apprised them about the issue, Bedi told PTI. Bedi said Prasad also thinks it is a retrograde measure by the Chief Minister. It is now up to the Centre to respond. I have left it to them. It is a major issue. How can a Chief Minister issue gag orders in times of open communication and free flow of ideas? Government of Indias entire grievance redressal mechanism is based on open communication. So many ministries including the External Affairs Ministry is using social media so effectively, she said. She had recently created a WhatsApp group for exchange of information and details of implementation of various government schemes. An Officer on Special Duty at Raj Nivas is the administrator of the group. The governments circular was seen as a counter to Bedi suspending a Puducherry Civil Service officer for posting an obscene video clip on the WhatsApp group. Meanwhile, the Election Commission has stayed Bedis December 30 order suspending the Registrar of Cooperative Societies, AS Sivakumar, an official told PTI. Sivakumar was appointed by the EC as Electoral Registration Officer for three Assembly seats in Puducherry. Bedi in another round of tweets defended her order. Why I cancelled CM Puducherrys gag order. It takes us back to non technology days, not good for #properouspudducherry: With WhatsApp, Im Trying To Ensure Common Man Gets Immediate Help. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: A day after all efforts of a patch up between Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son Akhilesh Yadav failed, the Uttar Pradesh chief minister met party MLAs and minister on Thursday to chalk out his next strategy. The MLAs met the chief minister at his official residence in Lucknow. The meeting comes a day after the Election Commission announced a seven-phase poll scheduled for Uttar Pradesh. Meanwhile, the EC has also asked the father-son duo to reply on each other's petitions on claims of party and its election symbol. Here are the live updates: # Mulayam Singh Yadav, brother Shivpal Yadav reach Delhi, likely to release fresh list of Samajwadi Party candidates # Meeting begins between Akhilesh Yadav and Samajwadi Party MLAs and ministers # EC asks Akhilesh Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav to reply by 9 January on each other's petitions claiming party and its poll symbol # Akhilesh to go ahead to fight election on Samajwadi Party ticket and its cycle symbol # Sources say there wont be any compromise between Akhilesh and Mulayam over the Samajwadi Party and its symbol # Akhilesh will file and affidavit before the Election Commission to stake claim on bi-cycle symbol For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Chennai: Concurring with the Centres view that the probe over money laundering charges on Aircel-Maxis deal was being monitored by the Supreme Court, the Madras High Court on Thursday dismissed a batch of petitions including that of former Union minister P Chidambarams son Karti challenging summons by the Enforcement Directorate. Petitioners, including Karti Chidambaram and Advantage Strategic Consultants Private Limiteds directors had challenged the summons. The firm, facing probe into the Aircel-Maxis deal had challenged the search operations (besides the summons) conducted in its premises as against the law. Karti, through his power of attorney N R R Arun Natarajan, had sought quashing the summons issued to him by ED. He had, inter alia contended that the summons was malice in law, adding a campaign was on to bring discredit and harm to the reputation of his father Chidambaram, a leading Opposition leader. Karti had received ED summons last year, in June, July and August. On November 30 last year, P Chidambaram alleged in the High Court that the ED proceedings against his son under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act had been launched to cause political embarrassment to him. It was contended by Advantage Consultants that the summons and searches carried out in December 2015 by the ED violated Article 14 of the Constitution and were disproportionate to the powers conferred under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, read with the Income Tax Act. Similar grounds were cited by Karti Chidambaram against the summons. After hearing arguments of both sides, Justice B Rajendran concurred with the argument of the Centres counsel that the overall probe and related matters in the Aircel-Maxis case were being monitored by the Supreme Court. Special Public Prosecutor Anand Grover argued that the present petitions were outside of the jurisdiction of the High Court. In his order, the Judge said since the investigation carried on by the authorities is being monitored by the Supreme Court, it is too early for this court to take up these writ petitions for adjudication on merits. He said the preliminary objection raised by ED is sustained, adding the petitions were dismissed as they are not maintainable before this court. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Nearly 30 TMC MPs were detained by police as they tried to march and protest outside the Prime Ministers residence. The TMC MPs are protesting against the arrest of party leaders and MPs Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Tapas Paul in the Rose Valley chit fund case. TMC also protested outside Prime Minister's office and shouted anti-Modi slogans before being rounded up by the police. TMC has a total strength of 45 MPs in both Houses and nearly all of them turned up to protest. Its MPs from Lok Sabha as well aas Rajya Sabha, including Saugata Roy and Derek OBrien, were also part of the protests. We are protesting against Prime Minister Narendra Modis demonetisation and political vendetta against the Trinamool Congress. So, the protest will go on. Wherever we get opportunity, we will protest, Roy said before being whisked away. Sudip Bandyopadhyay was arrested by CBI in Kolkata on Tuesday in connection with the Rose Valley chit fund scam, prompting West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to allege that Modi was using central agencies like CBI, ED and I-T department against his political rivals who are raising voice against demonetisation. Also Read: Rose Valley scam: Sudip Bandyopadhyays arrest sparks fresh tussle between BJP, TMC Since then, TMC has been holding protests in Kolkata as well as the national capital. On Wednesday, West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra walked out of the meeting called by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to hold pre-Budget consultations with states. Accusing the government of indulging in vendetta politics, TMC MPs raised slogans of Modi hatao, desh bachao (remove Modi, save country} before they were taken into custody and taken to Mandir Marg police station. TMC MPs had taken out a protest march on Wednesday too and were detained at Tughlaq Road police station for about three hours. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif again praised Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani on Thursday calling him a "vibrant and charismatic leader". Sharif while addressing an International Parliamentary Seminar on Kashmir in Islamabad, called for an end to the "continued suffering" of generations in Kashmir. The world needs to tell India that "enough is enough" with regard to its policy towards Kashmir, Dawn newspaper quoted Sharif as saying. Referring to Burhan Wani as a "vibrant and charismatic leader", he said that his "martyrdom has become a rallying point for the freedom-loving people". ALSO READ: (National Conference legislator describes Burhan Wani as 'martyr') He claimed that "a promise was made to Kashmir 70 years ago, not only by Pakistan and the United Nations, but also by India to recognise the people's right to self-determination". Sharif also spoke about the efforts made to highlight the plight of the Kashmiri people at international fora and told the conference that Pakistan would continue to support the struggle of the people in the region. Sharif while addressing a joint session of Parliament in October last year had praised Wani, drawing a strong reaction from India which said this shows Pakistan's attachment to terrorism. He had also praised the militant during his address to the UN General Assembly on September 21, describing him as a "young leader". India had strongly criticised Sharif's speech at the UN, describing it as an act of "self-incrimination" by Pakistan. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: The Supreme Court dismissed on Thursday a petition filed by expelled AIADMK MP Sasikala Pushpa seeking a probe into former chief minister Jayalalithaa's death. Sasikala had moved the apex court seeking a CBI probe or a judicial investigation by a SC judge into the matter in December last year. In her petition, the MP had alleged that Jayalalithaas death was suspicious as her actual medical condition was not disclosed, no one was allowed to visit her, her funeral photographs showed embalming marks and everything from her hospitalisation to her death was kept under wraps. The Rajya Sabha MP had also sought directions to the Centre, the Tamil Nadu government and Apollo Hospital, where Jayalalithaa was hospitalised, to disclose details of her health report and treatment in a sealed cover to the apex court. (With inputs from PTI) For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Jammu: Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat will visit Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday, in his first official trip aftertaking over as India's 27th Chief Of Army Staff.According to top army sources, he will be visiting army formation in Jammu. This will be his maiden tour to J&K after taking over as new army chief. Army Chief to visit Northern Command to review security and operational preparedness and interact with troops in forward areas. Gen Rawat last week took over as the chief of the 1.3 million strong Indian Army succeeding Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag, who retired after 42 years of service. Gen Rawat superseded two senior most Lt Generals, Praveen Bakshi and P M Hariz. Rawat was commissioned in the Fifth Battalion of the Eleven Gorkha Rifles in December 1978 from IMA, Dehradun. He was awarded the 'Sword of Honour' at the academy. Gen Rawat has vast experience in high altitude warfare and counter-insurgency operations.He commanded an infantry battalion, along the Line of Actual Control in the Eastern Sector, a Rashtriya Rifles Sector and an Infantry Division in the Kashmir Valley, a Corps in the Eastern theatre and the Southern Command. Gen Rawat has held important staff appointments at Directorate General of Military Operations and Military Secretary's Branch at Army HQ. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Nayagarh : Two robbers in Orrisa have been lynched and another has been critically injured by a mob when the three were fleeing with cash looted from a bank in Nayagarh district, police said. The armed robbers who came in a motor-cycle stormed into a nationalised bank at Kasanda under Ranapur police station limits and looted around Rs 3 lakh, Sub-Divisional Police Officer (Sarankul), Jagannath Reddy said. The three moved out of the bank with the cash after threatening its staff and customers by showing crude bombs and sharp weapons, he said adding that when locals tried to stop them the robbers hurled a bomb. However, the three were finally caught by locals who severely thrashed them. While two of them died, another was critically injured and admitted to the district headquarters hospital here, the SDPO said. The identity of the three was yet to be ascertained. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati released on Thursday the first list of 100 party candidates for the upcoming assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. The BSP is contesting the crucial polls on its own amid an ongoing feud within the ruling Samajwadi Party. Just two days ago, the BSP supremo had indicated caste-wise details of her party's list during a press conference in Lucknow. Mayawati had said that of the 403 seats, "85 are reserved for the SCs and 87 tickets have been given to dalits, 97 to Muslims, 106 to OBCs, 113 to upper castes (66 to Brahmins, 36 to Kshetriyas and 11 to Kayasthas, Vaishyas, Punjabis)." The BSP chief said that she had decided the candidates long ago and there will be no change in it. (With inputs from agencies) For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Cramer outlines exactly how Trump plans to 'roll back years of regulations' Deregulation is a large part of President-elect Donald Trump 's economic agenda, but many skeptics have asked Jim Cramer how that could really happen. Trump plans to deregulate through executive appointments, Cramer said. The President and his subordinates have a significant amount of discretion on how laws are enforced. Oklahoma Attorney General Greg Pruitt was nominated by the president-elect to run the Environmental Protection Agency. "If he gets approved, he could roll back years of regulations," the " Mad Money " host said. Love it or hate it, Cramer thinks Pruitt will have a field day, which will be good for the earnings of companies related to fossil fuels, utilities, refiners and pipeline operators. Maybe not-so-good for the environment, though. Andy Puzder is the CEO of CKE Restaurants, the franchiser of fast food companies Hardee's and Carl's Jr., and was nominated as secretary of labor. Puzder has been an open critic of raising the minimum wage, thus Cramer expressed doubt on his plans to represent the interests of labor. Trump also tapped corporate finance lawyer Jay Clayton to head the SEC on Wednesday, and Cramer doesn't expect any new regulations from him. Clayton's a dealmaker, he said, and will look for ways to help business, not hurt it. "Cynics might call this government of, by and for the corporation. I say that is the stock market's favorite form of government," Cramer said. Questions for Cramer? Call Cramer: 1-800-743-CNBC Want to take a deep dive into Cramer's world? Hit him up! Mad Money Twitter - Jim Cramer Twitter - Facebook - Instagram - Vine Questions, comments, suggestions for the "Mad Money" website? madcap@cnbc.com More From CNBC New Delhi: It will certainly be a proud moment for India when the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will blast off no less than 103 satellites, a record number, that too on a single go in February this year. 100 out of the total 103 satellites are foreign, including the US and Germany, while 3 are Indian. ISRO will carry out the launch in the first week of next month in a record feat which has not been attempted by any country in the world yet. ISROs workhorse rocket PSLV-C37 will carry the satellites from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. We are making a century by launching over 100 satellites at one go, S. Somnath, Director of the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), told a plenary session on the second day of the ongoing Indian Science Congress. Earlier, ISRO had plans to launch 83 satellites in the last week of January out of which 80 were foreign. But then 20 more foreign satellites were added and hence the launch was delayed by a week. But now, the launch will take place in the first week of February, Somnath said. However, he did not specify the number of foreign countries that would launch their satellites under ISROs mission but said it includes US and Germany. These will be 100 micro-small satellites, which will be launched using a PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle)-C37. The weight of the payload will be 1350 kgs, of which 500-600 kgs will be the satellites weight, Mr. Somnath added. Last year, ISRO launched record 20 satellites under single mission. In 2014, Russia has set a record by launching 37 satellites in a go. US launched 29 satellites, the highest number of satellites launched in a single mission after Russia. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modis pet South Asian satellite project will kick off in March this year. M. Nageshwara Rao, Associate Director of ISRO said, the South Asian satellite will be a part of GSAT-9. The communication satellite was scheduled to be launched in December 2016 but was delayed. According to sources, the talks with Afghanistan to have it on-board for the project are at final stages. The project, earlier known as SAARC satellite, faced protest from Pakistan as it wanted it to be launched under the aegis of the South Asian regional forum. Pakistan later backed out of the project. The satellite will not only benefit India but also Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. For all the Latest Science News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Washington : The US Army has issued a new regulation under which servicemen who wear turbans, hijabs or beards can now be enrolled in the military, making the force more inclusive of minority religions and cultures. The new set of rules, issued by Secretary of the Army Eric Fanning, allows religious accommodations to be approved at the brigade-level. Previously it was at the level of Secretary. Once that approval occurs, the change will ensure that the religious accommodation is enduring and applies to most positions within the US Army. "This is a major progress, not just for the Sikh-American community but for our nation's military. Sikh-Americans love this country and want a fair chance to serve in our country one qual footing. Today's announcement will help do just that, "Congressman Joe Crowley said welcoming the directive issued by the US Army Secretary. "We are a stronger nation, with a stronger military because of our respect for religious and personal freedom," he said. The move has been welcomed by Sikh-Americans and US lawmakers who have been on the forefront of a national campaign in this regard for the past several years. Before the January 3 changes announced by the US Army, Sikh-Americans and others had to be granted a limited accommodation or permission to serve in the army while maintaining their articles of faith. Such accommodations were neither permanent nor guaranteed and had to be renewed after virtually every assignment. Service members had also been required to remove their articles of faith while their accommodation request is pending, once again subjecting them to the difficult position of choosing between their faith and job. Sikh-American Coalition, which has been on the forefront of such a campaign, welcomed the move but said that this is still short of what they have been asking for. "While we still seek a permanent policy change that enables all religious minorities to freely serve without exception, we are pleased with the progress that this new policy represents for religious tolerance and diversity by our nation's largest employer," said the coalition's legal director Harsimran Kaur. The new provisions updates rules governing religious liberty that significantly improve the standards for Sikhs and other religious minorities who seek to serve their country with their religious articles of faith intact, she said. Under the new policy, Brigade commanders must grant religious accommodations for unshorn beards, unshorn hair, turbans and Muslim hijabs unless the requestor's religious belief is not sincere or the army identifies a specific, concrete hazard. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS, Jan 4 (Reuters) - New United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday, and the two had "a very positive discussion on U.S./U.N. relations," said a U.N. spokesman, a week after Trump slammed the world body on Twitter. Guterres, a former Portuguese prime minister and U.N. refugee chief who began his five-year term on Sunday, spoke by phone with Trump, who will take office on Jan. 20, said U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq. "This was an introductory phone call during which they had a very positive discussion on U.S./U.N. relations. The secretary-general said that he looked forward to engaging with the president after his inauguration," Haq told reporters. Trump took to Twitter to disparage the 193-member world body after the United States abstained in a Dec. 23 U.N. Security Council vote, allowing the adoption of a resolution demanding an end to settlement building by U.S. ally Israel. Trump, who had called on the outgoing Obama administration to veto the resolution, warned that "things will be different" at the United Nations after he takes office, without offering any details. He followed up with another tweet on Dec. 26: "The United Nations has such great potential but right now it is just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time. So sad!" Guterres responded in an interview with Snapchat on Tuesday: "President(-elect) Trump also said the U.N. has an enormous potential. That's exactly what I feel. My job is to make sure that potential becomes a reality." In an address to U.N. staff in New York on Tuesday, Guterres acknowledged that in some parts of the world there was a resistance and skepticism about the role of the United Nations. Trump spokesman Sean Spicer said on Wednesday that the president-elect would work with Rex Tillerson, his secretary of state nominee, and Nikki Haley, his choice for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, to "demand some reform and change." Both Tillerson and Haley must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate before taking office. The United States is the largest contributor to the United Nations, paying 22 percent of the $5.4 billion core U.N. budget and 28 percent of the $7.9 billion U.N. peacekeeping budget. Following passage of the U.N. resolution on Israeli settlements, a top U.S. senator threatened to work to cut U.S. funding. "This gives Guterres a reason for going big on reform quickly," said a senior U.N. diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity. "He needs to make sure he is reforming the U.N. fast enough and radically enough in order to engage the incoming U.S. administration." (Additional reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Jonathan Oatis) BRDO PRI KRANJU, Slovenia, Jan 4 (Reuters) - The European Union is more unified in its policy towards Britain's leaving the bloc than on anything else in its past, the new holder of the EU presidency said on Wednesday. "I spoke and visited basically all other 26 (EU) member states and there's a ... convergence on the attitude towards Brexit. I have never seen such a convergence within the European family," Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat told reporters on the sidelines of a diplomatic conference in Slovenia. When asked to comment on the resignation of Ivan Rogers, the British ambassador to the EU, he said: "That's a totally national issue for them .... We stick to the point that there should be no negotiation without notification." The EU says it will not begin negotiations until Britain formally invoked Article 50 of the EU treaty triggering withdrawal. British Prime Minister Theresa May says she will do soe by the end of March. Muscat also said the EU needs to secure its borders, stressing those at sea. "We are keen and want to put forward proposals on the securing of maritime borders  that is why we believe that a replication of any deal which is similar to the Turkish deal in the central Mediterranean is very important in the next few months before there is a larger crisis." Malta, which is close to North Africa, is one of the frontline EU states in the migrant crisis. (Reporting By Marja Novak Editing by Jeremy Gaunt) Merkel backs migrant surge, says Germany fights terrorism with compassion Germanys Chancellor Angela Merkel recently made a New Years address to the country, where she defended her open borders migration policy which brought terrorists to the country. Merkel said that her government will fight terrorism with compassion. Merkel suggests that recent terror attacks, committed by Islamist migrants across several German cities, were not attacks on western civilization, rather against refugees and Germanys welcome culture. Merkel feels that terrorists mock those who need and deserve the governments protection, along with the governments willingness to help. She views terror attacks committed by migrants as bitter and repulsive. It is insulting to attack the country you claim to seek protection in. Germany has recently experienced terror at levels not seen in the country since the 80s. Everything from suicide bombings, shootings, and axe attacks, to a truck rampage over the holidays. The country has also experienced an alarming number of sexual assaults. Angela Merkel had no issues pushing back against criticism of her open-door policy. In response to her unwavering commitment to mass migration, Merkel insists that Germany will fight hatred and terrorism with humanity and unity. With pictures from Aleppo on display, Merkel said how important and right it was for our country to help those who really need our protection find their feet here and integrate. [sic] Merkel acknowledges that Islamic terror has been one among a year of huge tests for Germany, but hinted at new security measures, opposed to changes in her migration policies. There are over 1 million unvetted migrants who have entered Germany with Merkels open-door invitation, hundreds of which could be Islamic State fighters. This brings an additional risk of the terror organization weaponizing the migrants who are already inside. Merkel suggests that the state is taking all possible measures to ensure security and freedom to its citizens, and that Germans should seek consolation in one another during these difficult times. Merkel closed her speech by asserting that Germans need to be open, and hold an open view of the world. Germany is stronger than terrorism and Merkel remains confident for the future of the country. The government released text by Merkel preceding the broadcast which read, In going about our life and our work, we are telling the terrorists: you are murderers full of hatred, but you will not determine how we live and want to live. We are free, considerate and open. It remains to be seen whether new security measures will have any effect on curbing Islamic terror in Germany. Merkel has pledged that the government will take quick action where political and legal changes are necessary in 2017. Sources: Breitbart.com Yahoo.com Submit a correction >> Russia claims foreign intelligence preparing to cyber attack its financial sector The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) claims it has evidence foreign intelligence agencies are preparing to launch cyberattacks to destabilize Russias financial system and attack its largest banks, RT reports. According to the FSB, the attacks will begin on December 5 and will include a large spam text message campaign and social network and blog posts. The attack is designed to exploit the crisis of the credit and financial system in Russia, officials say. The Russians claim the attacks will originate from a hosting service in the Netherlands. As a result of operational search activities found that the server capacity and command and control centers for cyber attacks are located in the Netherlands and belong to BlazingFast Ukrainian hosting company, the FSB warned on December 2. A number of Russian officials have been the target of cyber attacks. A network of Ukrainian hackers released a cache of emails obtained from the account of an aide to Kremlin adviser Vladislav Surkov in October and in November Russian banks Sberbank and Alfa Bank said they were victims of cyber attacks. The FSB says it is working to neutralize the threat. Russian banks are also preparing to repel the expected attack. We hope that the banks cyber security systems will be able to repel [the attacks], we think that banks are generally very well prepared. However, if necessary, the Central Bank and the Treasury will provide additional liquidity, Deputy Minister Aleksey Moiseyev told TASS, the official Russian news service. The situation is under control. Banks have been given necessary guidance, the Russian central bank said in a statement, Reuters reported. Reuters quoted Anton Onoprichuk, director of Kiev-based BlazingFast, who said the FSB has not contacted his service. Onoprichuk said it is technically possible for a cyber attack to be mounted from its servers. Technically it is possible. It is possible with any hosting company, where you rent a server. You can attack whatever (you want) from it and in 99 percent of cases it will become known only after the event, he said. Following the DNC hack, Democrats, the Obama administration, and the Department of Homeland Security said Russia was responsible. In response to the unsubstantiated claim, Vice President Joe Biden said the United States would mount a proportional response to Russia. Were sending a message, Biden told Chuck Todd of NBCs Meet the Press. We have the capacity to do it. Sources: RT.com FSB.ru Time.com Fortune.com Reuters.com DHS.gov TheHill.com NYTimes.com NBCNews.com Submit a correction >> This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate DANBURY Dozens of trainees cleaned glasses, set tables and shined forks on Wednesday afternoon as they learned the Z Hospitality way in preparation for the restaurant groups opening of Terra Ristorante Italiano in the new Hotel Zero Degrees Danbury. The restaurant, the eighth for Z Hospitality, will open for dinner on Tuesday. Management said it hopes to be open for lunch as well starting the following week. Terra has 130 seats and, when weather permits, an additional 60 seats in an outdoor area, which will include its own bar and kitchen. It has a nice feel about it, Ramze Zakka, owner of Z Hospitality, said. The ceiling heights are amazing and I love the modern look to it. Outdoor dining will be really exciting, too, come spring. Albert DeAngelis, executive chef and Z Hospitality partner, added: The design is really great. I love the baguettes (round tables) and we cant wait to open the outside area. Terra Ristorante Italiano will serve northern Italian fare, including wood-fired pizza. The menu also includes soups, salads, gluten-free options, appetizers and main dishes, such as Amish chicken, flat iron steak, grilled bronzino and linguine with clams. We try to provide chic, high-quality experiences, but also keep it very comfortable and casual, Adam Zakka, director of operations for Z Hospitality, said. It will be warm and cozy with pastas and a wood-fired oven for pizzas. Prices span the spectrum. The restaurant will employ about 30 people. Terra Ristorante Italiano joins Z Hospitalitys seven other restaurants: Terra, in Greenwich; Sole, in New Canaan; Eastend, in Greenwich; Aurora, in Rye, N.Y.; and Mediterraneo, in Greenwich, Norwalk and White Plains, N.Y. Eastend and Mediterranea of White Plains opened within the last year. Its been a busy year and a half for us, DeAngelis said. Zakka added: Were very excited about being in Danbury. Its a great town and we feel its slightly underserved with the number of people who are here. This is a great opportunity for us to come in and be a part of this community. Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, who said in his State of the City address last month that we enjoy a good meal in Danbury, said Z Hospitality has a good reputation and he is eager to try out its first restaurant in the city. Its another great restaurant that is adding its products to Danburys food lineup, Boughton said. Were excited to have them here. Mediterraneo in Norwalk is also located within a Hotel Zero Degrees. Zakka said the majority of the restaurant customers are not hotel guests. He hopes people in the Danbury area do not shy away from Terra Ristorante Italiano because it is located within a hotel. Theres a trend of people going to restaurants in hotels. The stigma of being a hotel restaurant is passe, he said. Were really a separate entity and business. We have the privilege of serving hotel guests and doing events for the hotel, but we are open to the public, as well. Terra Ristorante Italiano is located at 15 Milestone Road across the street from Regional Hospice of Western Connecticut. It may be reached at 203-730-9200. cbosak@hearstmediact.com; 203-731-3338 This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate BROOKFIELD - Housatonic Railroad officials hope to clear the scene of a train derailment near Silvermine Road by the end of the day Friday. Because of muddy conditions left by rain earlier in the week, crews had to bring in special cranes to put three derailed cars back on the tracks. Matt Whitney, an attorney for the railroad, said he expects that effort to be complete or nearly completed by the end of the work day Friday. Its not an emergency situation or a big hurry, so when the work is done it will be done, Whitney said. The freight train was heading north toward Pittsfield, Massachusetts, around noon Tuesday when several cars derailed directly behind the U.S. Post Office on Pocono Road near its intersection with Silvermine. No one was injured. Officials do not yet know why the cars went off the track, but will investigate after the accident is cleared. Until everything is picked up, there is no way to tell, Whitney said. Everything is covered in mud and its not rerailed yet. But Whitney said earlier that a review of the trains event recorder gave no indication that excessive speed or other operating problems contributed to the accident. There was nothing hazardous on the train, and there were no spills as a result of the derailment, he said. Michael Bishop, who lives on Chatham Court near the accident site, said Thursday the derailment made him nervous because of what could be in the cars. If those chemicals start leaking out, thats what concerns me, he said. The train included two tanker cars labeled with a code number for isopropyl alcohol, though those cars did not leave the tracks and it was not clear whether they were full. This is the second time in the past year that Housatonic Railroad cars have derailed. In June, seven cars went off the tracks in the Gaylordsville section of New Milford. That derailment, which occurred at a private crossing, resulted from a broken rail at the crossing, local officials said at the time. Nobody was injured in that accident and the train was back in service later that afternoon. GRAY, France (AP) Gray is a dying town, its residents lament. Big businesses have moved away, taking jobs with them. Though it still lives up to its nickname "Gray la jolie," or "Gray the pretty," many stores now lie vacant, with fading "to rent" signs in their windows. But for one Syrian family, the picturesque streets, red-tiled rooftops and quiet river walks offer hope of rebuilding their shattered lives, away from the fear of death lurking around every corner in their homeland. "I will start to love life another time," said Abd Alwahab Alahamad, a 43-year-old Damascus oncologist. "Because sometimes (in the) last two years, I thought it will be very difficult to stay alive." Like hundreds of thousands before them, the Alahamads risked everything to escape war and the dark brutality of the Islamic State group, embarking on a perilous and uncertain journey through checkpoints, bombs and a nightmarish sea crossing to Greece. But after months of uncertainty and doubt, their luck began to change. Alahamad, his wife Iman Mshanati and their three children 5-year-old Nora, 2-year-old Ahmed and baby Layan, born in Greece six months ago were among the fortunate few accepted so far into an ambitious European relocation program. Launched in late 2015, the program was designed to relieve pressure on Greece and Italy, the main entry points for more than a million people fleeing into the European Union. But it has come under fire for moving too slowly. Of the 66,400 people who should be relocated from Greece by this September, just 7,286 had been resettled by the end of December, according to figures from the International Organization for Migration, which organizes the transfers. France has taken in the most refugees from Greece, 2,420. The next highest-receiver is the Netherlands, which has taken 836. Applicants cannot choose their destination. The Alahamads were assigned to France, a country neither the Russian-trained doctor nor his wife, a 33-year-old nutritionist and beautician, had ever visited. Story continues "We are going into the unknown; We do not know the city, the people, nothing," said Mshanti in a small apartment in Athens the day before the family's flight to Paris, three small suitcases sitting neatly packed on the floor. "But we hear from people who had left before us that they are happy, and we felt relieved." The family had never intended to leave Syria. They didn't expect the 2011 street protests against Syrian President Bashar Assad to turn into a full-blown civil war. "At first everybody thought not only me that it will finish tomorrow, the day after tomorrow," Alahamad said of the early days of the rebellion. The trials of their months-long journey are etched on their faces. In 2014, warned government forces were looking for him after he treated a man for gunshot wounds, Alahamad fled Damascus. He moved the family to an eastern town near the city of Deir-e-Zor, where his parents are from, and quickly found a job in a private clinic. But the war followed. The area was overrun by IS extremists who imposed strict Islamic rule. Mshanti had to wear the all-enveloping black abaya; Alahamad was questioned for treating female patients, and forced to watch a public killing. A family friend was beheaded, his body left on the street for three days. Relentless bombings claimed the lives of relatives and friends. After a particularly close call, when rockets landed near their home, wounding relatives, Alahamad decided the time had come. "I left. I left everything behind," he said. With two young children and a pregnant wife, the journey was harrowing. The nighttime treks and border crossing, the smugglers, the ride jammed into the back of a truck with nearly 100 others. But nothing compared to the boat crossing from Turkey to Greece. Nora cried, clutching her father's hand. She was convinced they would die. Their first try failed. The couple paid $800 each, for four spots in an overcrowded dinghy that nobody on board knew how to drive. They went round in circles on the Aegean Sea until the Turkish coast guard intercepted the boat and took all its passengers to a detention center. On their second attempt, a fellow passenger motored for hours through rough seas to the Greek island of Chios. The family reached mainland Greece 10 days later. Alahamad spent months working as a volunteer doctor in refugee camps housing some of the more than 62,000 asylum seekers stranded in Greece by border closures and a deal between the EU and Turkey intended to stem the flow of migrants into Europe. He and Mshanti thought of staying, but Greece's asylum system was overwhelmed. So they applied for relocation. Months of waiting ensued, punctuated by interviews with authorities for the relocation procedure and Layan's birth. Then in September, the news they had been waiting for: Their application was successful. The Alahamads were assigned to Gray, a pretty, sleepy medieval town in eastern France of about 6,000 people on the River Saone just before it flows into Burgundy. They would be part of the second group of families sent there from Greece. The first arrived in March, with a maximum 29 people arriving each time. Gray Mayor Christophe Laurencot stipulated the town would accept only families, and each would be assigned a social worker. The families are given housing while they apply for asylum, a process that normally takes about four months in the fast-track relocation procedure, said Guillaume Germain, regional director of the French Immigration and Integration Office. Once granted refugee status, they can stay in state housing for another six months while searching for jobs and living arrangements of their own, but are free to move elsewhere in France if they prefer. Of the first five families to arrive in Gray, four have moved elsewhere. But small, close-knit towns do not always embrace outsiders. To facilitate integration, Laurencot decided the best tactic was full transparency and informed residents about the program before the first arrivals in March. "We had reactions straight away," he said. "Good, less good or bad, I had them all." Some residents offered overwhelming generosity, while others questioned why the state should help foreigners. But, Laurencot said, "France is after all a country of hosts, a country of reception, a welcoming country. And it's not enough to say it; we had to do it." So far, the mayor's tactic appears to be working. "It's very, very good, we see them pass by, there are no worries on that account, everything is going well," said Stephanie Vanhee, who runs an optical shop in Gray. Toddler Ahmed squealed with joy at being allowed to pet her puppy, Morito, during the family's first tour around town. "It must be done, you know. We must receive them." Clothing store owner Roberte Fouillot said reactions were more or less positive, although there was some initial reticence to the idea, what with the recent terror attacks by Islamic extremists and demands on social services by needy French people. But images of the war in Syria in the media shocked her. "These poor kids, these poor families who are suffering it's unacceptable in our day and age," Fouillot said. As for the issue of integration, Fouillot does not foresee problems. "They are people like everyone else. We all have our religion," she said. "Today, if everyone reached out to each other, well, there might be less wars, less misery in the world." The Alahamads arrived in Gray on a foggy mid-December night. Allocated a bare but warm apartment, Alahamad and Mshanti breathed a sigh of relief. They look forward to learning French, finding work and sending the children to school. Alahamad hopes France will recognize his Russian medical degree. An exploratory walk, with Nora and Ahmed playing excitedly in a small playground near the river, cemented their impression: The town was perfect. The worst, they hoped, was finally behind them. "It's difficult. We lost many things," Alahamad said. "I want to start a new life. Now, I think we have a chance." There are thousands of reasons to train and develop employees. New employees need to understand how to perform the required work. Current employees need to keep their skills sharp. Changes in technology, new product introductions or modifications to policies and procedures are all reasons for training. Related: 4 Ways to Train Employees Effectively A major portion of our careers has focused on creating effective workforces. As you might guess, we are huge proponents of training and developing workers. Well-trained staffers produce higher quality work, less scrap and less wasted time. They're better prepared for future challenges and additional roles in your organization. However, all reasons for focusing on workforce development boil down to performance. We've previously written two of a five-part series on ways to improve employee performance in your organization. These paths include include providing clear objectives, removing roadblocks internal to the company, emphasizing training and development, motivating staffers and coming to grips with an employee unable or unwilling to perform. Doug often says that business is about figuring out what to do and getting people to do it. Therefore, concentrating on those two goals makes good business sense. Here'll, we 'll address the third lever business owners and managers can pull: training. First, though, a word of warning: Training and development is not always the answer. Dont get pulled into the trap that says, "If my employees are underperforming, I should provide more training." Instead, first ask the following questions to determine why employees underperform. What are my employees doing or not doing that is causing the issue in my organization? Do the employees know how to perform that specific action/process/procedure? Have the employees been given enough time to become proficient? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then training is not the solution. Look to the four other possibilities in this series for your solution. But if the answer to your questions is no, then ask this question: "Exactly what do I want my employees to be able to do differently as a result of the training? Do they need to recognize quality problems, answer customer questions more completely and accurately, garner more sales? Once you have analyzed the need, determine the "make or buy decision." Do you have the skills and resources to provide the training internally, or would it make more sense to engage resources outside of your organization to develop and/or deliver the training? Related: 4 Secrets Behind the Best Employee Training Training that's internal to the organization Many organizations provide new employee orientation and on-the-job (OTJ) training. Training normally consists of one or more experienced employees passing on her/ his knowledge to the newcomer. Since smaller organizations often dont have well-documented processes, the success of such programs may vary. Training depends on the skills of the experienced employee to deliver correct and consistent information. Even when a process is in place, most internal OTJ and orientation programs we've seen have no clear objectives and do not measure outcomes. If a new employee fails to catch on, the student is often blamed, not the teacher or the training itself. An example: We worked with a broker-dealer in Philadelphia. The investment advisors complained about the inconsistencies in the company's employees' performance. Sometimes those employees executed their trades in two days, and sometimes it took them five or more days to execute. Mistakes were the norm. Through our analysis, we found that what employees believed to be "the process" depended completely on who had initially trained them. So, we took action, developing clear processes; we assigned internal resources to retrain the back office staff. This solved the immediate problem, as well as created a consistent process for future training. Such internal training can be highly effective, but requires that organization leadership determine training objectives, develop processes/curriculum and deliver the information in a way that maximizes the probability that employee will perform in the desired way. Internal training also requires that outcomes be evaluated. Determining whether or not the organization has the time and the expertise to develop and deliver these programs is critical to the organizatin's overall success. Training that's external to the organization Sometimes it makes sense to bring in outside resources. Organizations can use human resource development (HRD) professionals in a variety of ways: Determine training needs : Experienced HRD professionals can conduct surveys, focus groups, interviews and other techniques to help an organization determine the skill and knowledge gaps in its workforce. Gap analysis can ascertain exact needs, allowing the organization to target training and development to specific individuals or organizational requirements, ultimately saving both time and money. : Experienced HRD professionals can conduct surveys, focus groups, interviews and other techniques to help an organization determine the skill and knowledge gaps in its workforce. Gap analysis can ascertain exact needs, allowing the organization to target training and development to specific individuals or organizational requirements, ultimately saving both time and money. Develop curriculum : Sometimes the organization knows what it needs but lacks the time or expertise to create the programs and materials. In this case, the company should hire an outside expert to work with one or more subject matter experts (SME) internal to the organization to develop the curriculum. The SMEs provide the internal knowledge while the curriculum expert develops the appropriate materials. : Sometimes the organization knows what it needs but lacks the time or expertise to create the programs and materials. In this case, the company should hire an outside expert to work with one or more subject matter experts (SME) internal to the organization to develop the curriculum. The SMEs provide the internal knowledge while the curriculum expert develops the appropriate materials. Delivering information : If you want a message given special attention, having an outside expert deliver it may do the trick. Internal experts can suffer from prophet in their own land syndrome. We worked with an HR manager who had been trying for several months to get the managers in her organization to hire employees with a particular system without success. As external experts, we explained the hiring system to the managers in a training session -- and they accepted the system immediately. We were able to provide the needed emphasis and, therefore, help to change behavior. : If you want a message given special attention, having an outside expert deliver it may do the trick. Internal experts can suffer from prophet in their own land syndrome. We worked with an HR manager who had been trying for several months to get the managers in her organization to hire employees with a particular system without success. As external experts, we explained the hiring system to the managers in a training session -- and they accepted the system immediately. We were able to provide the needed emphasis and, therefore, help to change behavior. Determining delivery : An outside expert may be able to help you determine the best method/s for delivering the information. Would your organization be best served by using a classroom method, via computer, through self-study or a combination of these or other vehicles? An experienced HRD professional can help you to determine the most effective methodologies given your specific goals. : An outside expert may be able to help you determine the best method/s for delivering the information. Would your organization be best served by using a classroom method, via computer, through self-study or a combination of these or other vehicles? An experienced HRD professional can help you to determine the most effective methodologies given your specific goals. Evaluating training: Finally, an HRD professional can help you to determine the effectiveness of your training. How much and what did the participants learn? What knowledge, skills and behaviors have they used in their job and did the changes have the desired effect? Measuring the results of your training and determining ROI can help you improve your training processes. Related: Online Training For Employees Is Consistent and Will Save You Cash Whether you decide to assess needs, develop and deliver your training internally or use the skills of an expert to help with some or all of the process, your focus should be on increasing the skills and performance of the employee. If you concentrate on outcomes, your training will benefit your organization. (Next: employee motivation). Related: Will Training Help Improve Employee Performance? 4 Ways to Make Your New Employee a Raving Fan Taking Command: The Crew Is Only as Good as the Captain Copyright 2017 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved Peterhansel wins Dakar Rally third stage for cars Costa Rica,Sports,Motorsports, Thu, 05 Jan 2017 IANS Buenos Aires, Jan 5 (IANS) Defending champion Stephane Peterhansel recovered from a slow start to clinch the third stage of the Dakar Rally for cars. The 51-year-old Frenchman rallied late to finish the 780-km stage from Tucuman to Jujuy in four hours 18 minutes and 17 seconds, almost two minutes ahead of his Peugeot car team-mate Carlos Sainz of Spain, reports Xinhua. France's nine-time world rally champion Sebastien Loeb, also in a Peugeot, crossed the line in third, three more minutes behind Peterhansel. Earlier, Spain's Joan Barreda assumed the overall lead in the motorcycle category by taking the third stage in four hours 23 minutes and 41 seconds on his Honda. The 33-year-old finished more than 12 minutes ahead of KTM rider Sam Sunderland of Britain, with Frenchman Pierre Renet another three minutes further back on his Husqvarna. Australia's defending champion Toby Price was ninth on his KTM, more than 21 minutes adrift of Barreda. Barreda also leads the overall standings, 10 minutes ahead of Sunderland and 13 minutes clear of Portugal's Paulo Goncalves. --IANS sam/vt US will stay committed to one-China policy: Kerry China,Politics,Defence/Security,Diplomacy, Thu, 05 Jan 2017 IANS Beijing, Jan 5 (IANS) Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that outgoing US Secretary of State John Kerry told him in a phone call on Thursday that America will stay committed to the one-China policy, the media reported. The call between the two powers' top diplomats came days ahead of a stopover in the US by Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, said a report in South China Morning Post. The one-China policy, which maintains that Taiwan is part of China, has been the bedrock of Sino-US relations for four decades, said the report. "The one-China policy based on the three Sino-American joint communiques remains the consensus of both (Democratic and Republican) parties," Kerry was quoted as saying. During the phone conversation with Wang, Kerry also stressed the importance of Sino-US ties. Beijing in recent weeks expressed unease over US President-elect Donald Trump's earlier statement casting doubt on the one-China policy. Beijing also expressed concerns over the incoming US President's decision to pack his administration with many vocal veteran China critics, and has sought Washington's reassurance on the Taiwan issue. Wang also urged the incoming US administration to deal carefully with bilateral ties and to heed Beijing's concerns on a host of issues concerning its national interests and sovereignty. --IANS soni/bg grayson allen Duke guard Grayson Allen returned from his suspension for tripping an opponent on Wednesday night for Duke's game against Georgia Tech. The suspension, which was initially called "indefinite," lasted one game. Duke went 0-1 in Allen's absence, losing to Virginia Tech last Saturday. Allen's punishment came after a game against Elon when he got tangled up with Elon guard Steven Santa Ana on a play and extended his foot afterward to trip Santa Ana. The play was third such incident during Allen's time at Duke, causing Mike Krzyzewski to suspend him. Here's the trip that caused the suspension: According to ESPN, Duke's game against Georgia Tech will be Krzyzewski's last before leaving the team to undergo back surgery. NOW WATCH: Here's the diet and workout routine LeBron James uses to stay in insane shape More From Business Insider 19 militants killed in Afghanistan Israel,Indo-Pak/Pakistan,Terrorism, Thu, 05 Jan 2017 IANS Kabul, Jan 5 (IANS) Afghan security forces have killed at least 19 militants in fresh military operations across the war-torn country, the Defence Ministry said on Thursday. According to a statement, the operations began on Wednesday in 18 of 34 Afghan provinces. "In one operation, the Afghan air force struck the enemies' positions, killing five Taliban militants and destroyed two vehicles in Maruf district, southern Kandahar province," Xinhua news agency said, quoting the ministry statement. Ten insurgents, including two foreigners, were killed and nine wounded during a cleanup operation along a highway connecting southern Helmand province with the neighbouring western Nimroz province, the statement said. It said the security forces also found and defused 20 landmines and Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) there. The Afghan army commandos destroyed a militants' bunker and seized arms and ammunition in Maywand district of Kandahar, the statement said. The remaining casualties occurred in separate provinces. The statement did not disclose if security forces suffered any casualties. Also, a security guard was killed and a passerby injured in an IED explosion in Jalalabad. --IANS sakshi/sar/bg Vajpayee feared coup by Advani camp in 2002, says new biography Delhi,National,Politics,Art/Culture/Books, Thu, 05 Jan 2017 IANS New Delhi, Jan 5 (IANS) Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee feared a coup by a section of his BJP that wanted to have him replaced by his deputy Lal Krishna Advani, a new biography has claimed. The "coup of sorts" was in the works a few months after Advani took over as the Deputy Prime Minister in June 2002, says the book, "The Untold Vajpayee: Politician and Paradox" (Penguin/304 pp/Rs 599), by journalist Ullekh N.P. Citing an unnamed minister whom Vajpayee summoned to his residence, the author says: "The Union minister asked Vajpayee not to worry too much about it. "The PM replied that he was merely stating that he knew of a plan to unseat him and replace him with Advani. He didn't know who was behind it, but he was convinced of the plan. He had earlier been asked by an RSS honcho to become India's President, and leave the PM's role to Advani," the book contends. The author also claims that Vajpayee offered a "compromise formula" during the 1975-77 emergency by asking activists of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) -- the RSS student wing -- to own up to destruction of public property so that the opposition could cut a deal with the government. "Vajpayee spoke about the arson and destruction of public property in many parts of the country by miscreants and told Rai (Ram Bahadur Rai, then ABVP General Secretary) that it was time for the ABVP to own up to its mistakes and tender an apology before the government could start thinking of repealing the Emergency laws," Ullekh, who is the Executive Editor of Open magazine, mentions in the book. Dubbed by Penguin as the "the biggest political biography of the year", the book takes a fresh look at the former Prime Minister and shows that he had often taken "brief excursions into the hard-line camp". The book, according to the publisher, is thoroughly researched, supported by hard facts and accompanied by inside stories and anecdotes, insightful interviews and archival photographs, and opens a window to the life and times of the poet-politician. "Vajpayee's early speeches and comments show him to be a dyed-in-the-wool Sanghi, who, over the decades, turned out to be liberal and Nehruvian in his approach and pronouncements," Ullekh, whose first book was "War Room: The People, Tactics and Technology behind Narendra Modi's 2014 Win", told IANS. "However, he made frequent excursions into the hardline camp, as evident from his provocative speeches in Assam in 1984 and to karsevaks in Ayodhya in 1992. His public persona of being a moderate was different from his deafening silence over contentious issues within the party. He could afford to do things on his own terms thanks to his unbeatable popularity," Ullekh added. The book also says that Advani, as Home Minister, tried to "use Shias of Iran to nullify the claims of Sunni Muslims in India on Babri Masjid" in a bid to make way for a Ram Temple in Ayodhya. "But Advani's plans were foiled by Vajpayee loyalists who feared that the former would take all the credit for resolving the burning issue." The book also provides some additional details on a significant moment in the party's and the nation's history -- the aftermath of the Gujarat riots of 2002. According to the book, Vajpayee, after the Godhra train burning and the riots that followed, was resolute that (then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra) "Modi has to go" but Advani said that Gujarat would descend into chaos if that happened. Referring to a conversation that took place onboard a flight in which Vajpayee, who was reading a newspaper, and some other leaders were headed to a national executive meet in Goa, Ullekh writes: "Then (Arun) Shourie surprised himself. He pulled the newspaper out of Vajpayee's hands and interjected, 'Vajpayeeji, newspapers can be read later also. Why don't you tell Advaniji what you wanted to tell him?'" "Vajpayee kept the newspaper away, and muttered in his usual style about what had to be done. First, Venkaiah Naidu would replace Jana Krishnamurthi as the BJP president. Then he said, 'Modi has to go'. By the time they landed in Goa, the decision was taken: Modi would go," the book claims. The author mentions that Jaswant Singh shared another version of the episode. "He narrated that though Advani didn't protest when Vajpayee insisted that Modi had to go, the Home Minister added, 'There will be chaos in the state'," says the book. Eventually, Modi stayed on as the Gujarat Chief Minister. Vajpayee was India's 10th Prime Minister, first for 13 days in 1996 and then from 1998 to 2004. He is ailing now and resides in a heavily-guarded bungalow in Lutyens Delhi and has not been seen in public for more than a decade. (Saket Suman can be contacted at saket.s@ians.in) --IANS ss/vm/sac/hs/mr Implement UNSC ceasefire resolution, China urges Syrian parties China,Politics,Defence/Security, Thu, 05 Jan 2017 IANS Beijing, Jan 5 (IANS) China on Thursday called on all parties in Syria to implement the ceasefire resolution reached by the UN Security Council on the last day of 2016 in order to restart peace talks at an early date. "We hope all relevant parties, including the Syrian government and opposition groups, can cherish the hard-won results to work together to transform the resolution's text into concrete actions," Xinhua news agency quoted Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang as saying. The 15-member council on December 31 unanimously adopted a resolution supporting the Syria ceasefire arrangement brokered by Russia and Turkey. New peace talks among the conflicting parties are set to be held in Astana, capital of Kazakhstan. However, several opposition groups announced on Monday that they were freezing talks on planned negotiations with the Syrian government in response to what they called "major violations" by the government forces in a four-day ceasefire. Geng said setbacks and difficulties in implementation are unavoidable, "yet the key is to have sincerity and goodwill" and exercising more self-restraint rather than accusing one another. --IANS soni/bg 'Military for US' protection, not to be used politically' United States,Politics,Defence/Security, Thu, 05 Jan 2017 IANS Washington, Jan 5 (IANS) President Barack Obama warned that the US military should be used to protect the country's security and not to respond to political motivations, an apparent message directed at his successor, President-elect Donald Trump. Obama on Wednesday made these remarks during his farewell speech to the Armed Forces at the Myer-Henderson Hall military base in Arlington, Virginia, Efe news reported. "One of the greatest tasks before our Armed Forces is to retain the high confidence that the American people rightly place in you. This is a responsibility not simply for those of you in uniform, but for those who lead you. It's the responsibility of our entire nation," said Obama before dozens of soldiers and members of Congress. In his speech, the President made reference to the values that must guide the future of the Army, but he did not mention the name of Trump, who on January 20 will become commander-in-chief of the US Armed Forces. "We must never hesitate to act when necessary to defend our nation, but we must also never rush into war - because sending you into harm's way should be a last and not first resort. It should be compelled by the needs of our security and not our politics," the president said. Upon assuming presidency in 2009, Obama said that he had "made a promise to (the members of the military), which, to the best of my abilities, I've tried to uphold every single day since, that I would only send you into harm's way when it is absolutely necessary, with the strategy, the well-defined goals, with the equipment and the support that you needed to get the job done." "Each of you made a solemn pledge. You committed yourself to a life of service and of sacrifice," Obama said, adding that "a lot of Americans don't see the sacrifices you make on our behalf. But as commander-in-chief, I do." More than 15 years after the US invasion of Afghanistan to topple the Taliban regime, the Obama administration has managed to bring some 180,000 US troops deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan back home, such that currently there are only 15,000 American soldiers stationed in those countries. Obama said he felt privileged to have been able to direct the Armed Forces in 2011 to kill Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and to spearhead the international coalition that has wrested from the Islamic State "half their territory" in Syria and Iraq. "You've shown that when it comes to fighting terrorism, we can be strong and we can be smart," Obama added. --IANS ksk Presidents of Rwanda, Kenya to visit India Delhi,National,Diplomacy,Business/Economy, Thu, 05 Jan 2017 IANS New Delhi, Jan 5 (IANS) The Presidents of Kenya and Rwanda will visit India next week, an official statement said on Thursday. Both leaders of the East African countries will also be attending the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit scheduled to be held at Gandhinagar next week. Rwandan President Paul Kagame will be on a working visit to India from January 9-12, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday. He will hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Gandhinagar on January 9. A business delegation would accompany Kagame, who will be addressing a National Business Seminar on Rwanda. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta "will pay a state visit to India from January 10-12 on an invitation extended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi", the release said. The two leaders will hold official talks on January 11 in New Delhi. "During the visit President Kenyatta is also expected to call on the President.Indian dignitaries including the Vice President, Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Defence are also expected to call on President Kenyatta," release added. President Kenyatta is likely to be accompanied by several Ministers. He is expected to attend a business forum in Delhi on January 12. Modi paid a state visit to Kenya in July 2016, the first by an Indian Prime Minister in 35 years. The 8th edition of the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit will be held from January 10-13 in Gandhinagar, Gujrat, with the central focus of "Sustainable Economic and Social Development". --IANS rs-vd Car bomb kills 4 in Turkey Turkey,Defence/Security,Terrorism, Thu, 05 Jan 2017 IANS Istanbul, Jan 5 (IANS) A car bomb exploded outside a courthouse on Thursday in Turkey's western city of Izmir, killing four persons including two attackers and one policeman, a top official told media. Izmir Governor Erol Ayyildiz told the state-run Anadolu Agency that a court employee, a female usher, lost her life as well in the bombing attack. He put the number of the wounded at seven, three police officers plus four civilians. The attack occurred near a police checkpoint at the courthouse, and an exchange of fire erupted between three militants and the police, with two militants killed later and the other on the run. The governor said that two Kalashnikovs, eight handmade bombs and eight rocket launchers were seized from the terrorists. Preliminary reports indicate the Kurdistan Workers' Party outlawed by Ankara is behind the attack, said the governor. The bombing came in the wake of a shooting attack early Sunday on an Istanbul nightclub that left 39 dead, 25 of them foreigners. The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the nightclub carnage, but the gunman remains at large. --IANS ahm/bg Former USAID chief Rajiv Shah to head Rockefeller Foundation United States,Diaspora,Business/Economy, Thu, 05 Jan 2017 IANS New York, Jan 5 (IANS) Rajiv Shah, who headed the US government's foreign aid operations, has been appointed the head of the Rockefeller Foundation, a multi-billion dollar private global charity with programmes in India. The New York-based Foundation said Thursday that its trustees had selected Shah, who is a medical doctor and was the administrator of USAID, to be its next president. He will take over the job from Judith Rodin in March. The 43-year-old will be the youngest person and the first Indian-American to lead the organisation, which has an ambitious $75 million project to bring electric power to Indian villages. Shah received the Pravasi Bhartiya Samman award for distinguished Indian diaspora in 2011. "I look forward to charting a course for The Rockefeller Foundation to engage with partners to promote the well-being of humanity, and to take on the challenges of today and tomorrow both in the United States and around the world," Shah said. Shah's appointment came a day after another Indian American with the same surname and a similar first name, Raj Shah, was appointed by President-elect Donald Trump to be his deputy assistant and research director. The Rockefeller Foundation, which sits on assets of $3.4 billion according to Bloomberg, says that it focuses on health, ecosystems, "secure livelihoods," and urban problems. Announcing the appointment, the Foundation said that Rajiv Shah "is best known for elevating international development in foreign policy, delivering results through public-private partnerships and the respect he earned working with counterpart governments from Afghanistan to Central America and with bipartisan leaders in the US Congress". He will be taking over the Foundation at a time when the Indian government is tightening supervision of the work of foreign charities and NGOs. The other major American philanthropy, the Ford Foundation, has had run-ins with the government over its funding of certain groups or individuals with a perceived political bent. Born in the US and educated in the US and Britain, Shah, as a medical student, had volunteered in a poor community in India. He has a medical degree and a masters in health economics from the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania. He was the head of USAID from 2010 to 2015 and among the highlights of his work there was mobilising action against the Ebola epidemic in Africa and organising relief for Haiti after its earthquake. After leaving the government he was appointed Distinguished Fellow in Residence at the Georgetown University, a Jesuit-run institution in Washington. He also founded a private equity firm, Latitude Capital, which aims to finance power and infrastructure projects in developing countries. He started in President Barack Obama's administration in 2009 as chief scientist and Agriculture Undersecretary and the next year was appointed USAID head. He has also worked for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. --IANS al/vd US to resume aircraft refuelling exercise in Japan Japan,Defence/Security,Diplomacy, Thu, 05 Jan 2017 IANS Tokyo, Jan 5 (IANS) Japan's Defence Ministry has announced that the US military will resume from Friday aerial refuelling training for the contentious Osprey aircraft in Japan's Okinawa Prefecture. The announcement on Thursday came less than a month after one of the MV-22 Osprey aircraft deployed at the US Futenma base in the city of Ginowan made a water crash-landing off Okinawa on December 13, injuring two of the five crew members aboard, Xinhua news agency reported. The incident, according to the US military, was caused by damage to the aircraft's propeller in the process of aerial refuelling training by a plane. Following the accident, Japan had asked the US military to suspend its Osprey flights in Okinawa until the cause of the accident was known. The US military, however, resumed Osprey flights in Okinawa less than a week later, saying the accident was not caused by any problem with the aircraft itself, despite safety concerns and protests of the local people. Okinawa Governor Takeshi Onaga had called the Japanese government's approval of the flights resumption "outrageous," and called for the removal of all the contentious tilt-rotor aircraft from the island prefecture. --IANS soni/bg Trade, security on New Zealand PM's 1st official trip agenda United Kingdom,Business/Economy,Diplomacy, Thu, 05 Jan 2017 IANS Wellington, Jan 5 (IANS) New Zealand's new Prime Minister Bill English will visit three European capitals in January to shore up trade and security links, an official statement said. English said on Thursday that his first overseas trip as the country's Prime Minister would take him to Brussels, London and Berlin from January 9 to 18, Xinhua news agency reported. "This is an opportunity to exchange views on a range of issues facing Europe and the world, and to reaffirm that New Zealand remains a committed friend and partner," English said in the statement. "The focus of my trip will be to advance New Zealand's business and trade opportunities in the region, including starting the negotiations on an FTA (free trade agreement) with the European Union in 2017." In Brussels, English would meet with the three presidents of the EU -- European Council President Donald Tusk, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and European Parliament President Martin Schulz -- as well as Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel. In London, English would meet with British Prime Minister Theresa May. "I will be interested to hear Prime Minister May's views on Brexit and will take the opportunity to reaffirm New Zealand's commitment to working towards a high quality trade deal when Britain is in a position to negotiate," English said. In Berlin, he would meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble. He would be accompanied by Trade Minister Todd McClay in Brussels and Foreign Minister Murray McCully in London and Berlin. New Zealand's ruling centre-right National Party selected English as its leader in December 2016, after the shock resignation of John Key, who had served eight years as the Prime Minister.--IANS in/ MONTREAL, Jan. 4, 2017 /CNW Telbec/ - Montreal Port Authority (MPA) President and CEO Sylvie Vachon today presented the Gold-Headed Cane to Shipping Agent Denis Blondeau of SMK Tanker Agency, who accepted it on behalf of South Korean national Captain Danel Ju, master of the Chem Sirius, the first ocean-going vessel to enter the Port of Montreal without a stopover in 2017. The Chem Sirius left the Port of Antwerp, Belgium on December 19 and crossed the Port of Montreal's limits at 3:16 a.m. on January 1. Sylvie Vachon addressed the gathering, saying: "So soon after his arrival from Antwerp, Belgium, Captain Ju has already departed for Charleston, South Carolina aboard the Chem Sirius. But this time when he returns home in March, he will be bringing with him the honour of winning the Gold-Headed Cane, reflecting a longstanding port tradition specific to Montreal. By doing so, he joins an elite group of 177 other navigators who sailed, or are still sailing the world, marked by Montreal, port of destination and of tradition!" Several representatives from the marine industry, the Montreal business community and the world of politics attended the ceremony of the 178th Gold-Headed Cane. Guests included the Member of Parliament for Montarville, Michel Picard, representing the Honourable Marc Garneau, minister of Transport of Canada, the Minister for Maritime Affairs for the government of Quebec, Jean D'Amour, and the mayor of the City of Montreal, Denis Coderre. When it was implemented in 1840, the ceremony recognized the arrival of the first ocean-going vessel that made it through the ice in spring to reach the Port of Montreal. Today it reminds us that the Port of Montreal has been open year round since 1964. 2017 celebrations This marine tradition is particularly meaningful this year in light of the celebrations of the 375th anniversary of the City of Montreal and the 150th anniversary of the Confederation of Canada. Ms. Vachon said: "The Port of Montreal is at the heart of these anniversaries and I am certain that our partners feel as strongly about history, as the shipping trade played a leading role in the development of the city and the country. The Port was a founding component of the City and an engine for its economic and ethnocultural development. Furthermore, Montreal's port facilities are at the heart of the settlement and development of Canada's industrial age. Today, the awarding of the Gold-Headed Cane has greater value on the strength of this rendezvous with history and everything epitomized by the Port of Montreal, a key player then and now, and resolutely focussed on the future for the benefit of all." The Chem Sirius Flying the flag of Liberia, the Chem Sirius is a chemical tanker commissioned in 2011 and chartered by Ace Tankers CV shipping company. The Chem Sirius docked at Berth 57 at the Port of Montreal. Its cargo went to the storage and handling company Vopak. The tanker and its crew departed on January 1, after the quick unloading of its cargo of phosphoric acid, which is used in fertilizers, among other things. Once processed, it can also be used as an additive in food and cosmetic products. 2016: The growth continues According to preliminary statistics, the Port of Montreal handled 35.2 million tonnes of freight in 2016. This unaudited figure is higher than last year's traffic results. In fact, it corresponds to an increase of more than 10% in freight traffic. It is also a historic record for the Port of Montreal. In 2016, Montreal received close to 86,000 cruise passengers and crew members. In 2017, the Port of Montreal expects to welcome 110,000 passengers and crew members at its new cruise terminal, more than a 20% upswing. About the Port of Montreal Operated by the Montreal Port Authority (MPA), the Port of Montreal is the second largest port in Canada and a diversified transshipment centre that handles all types of goods: containerized and non-containerized cargo, liquid bulk and dry bulk. It is a leading container port served by the largest container shipping lines in the world. The Port of Montreal has its own rail network directly dockside. It is connected to the two national rail networks and a highway system. The Port operates a passenger terminal. All other terminals are run by private stevedoring firms. Port activity supports 16,000 jobs and generates $2.1 billion in economic benefits annually. SOURCE PORT OF MONTREAL For further information: Melanie Nadeau, Director of Communications, Montreal Port Authority, [email protected], T: 514-283-1385 Related Links http://www.port-montreal.com/ CAMBRIDGE, ON, Jan. 5, 2017 /CNW/ - exactEarth Ltd. (the "Company") (TSX: XCT), the leading provider of Satellite AIS data services, announces that it will issue its fiscal 2016 financial results at 06:30 ET on Thursday January 19, 2017. Peter Mabson, CEO, and Sean Maybee, CFO, will host a conference call that morning at 08:30 ET to discuss the Company's results. Webcast Information: For the live webcast, please visit http://bit.ly/2j4XWES or the exactEarth website to register. A webcast replay will be available for 90 days after the call. Dial-In Information: Toll-Free Dial-In Number: (888) 231-8191 Local Dial-In Number: (647) 427-7450 Dial-in Replay Information: Encore Toll Free Dial-In Number: (855) 859-2056 Encore Password: 48338794 Dial-In Replay Availability: 19/01/2017 11:30 ET - 02/02/2017 23:59 ET About exactEarth Ltd. exactEarth is a leading provider of global maritime vessel data for ship tracking and maritime situational awareness solutions. Since its establishment in 2009, exactEarth has pioneered a powerful new method of maritime surveillance called Satellite AIS ("S-AIS") and has delivered to its clients a view of maritime behaviours across all regions of the world's oceans unrestricted by terrestrial limitations. exactEarth has deployed an operational data processing supply chain involving a constellation of satellites, receiving ground stations, patented decoding algorithms and advanced "big data" processing and distribution facilities. This ground-breaking system provides a comprehensive picture of the location of AIS equipped maritime vessels throughout the world and allows exactEarth to deliver data and information services characterized by high performance, reliability, security and simplicity to large international markets. For more information, visit exactearth.com. SOURCE exactEarth Ltd. For further information: Dave Mason, Investor Relations, Tel: +1 416-985-3647, [email protected] Related Links http://www.exactearth.com/ BANGALORE, India and PALO ALTO, CA, Jan. 4, 2017 /CNW/ - Infosys Limited (NSE, BSE, NYSE: INFY), a global leader in consulting, technology, outsourcing and next-generation services, will announce the results for its third quarter ended December 31, 2016 on Friday, January 13, 2017 around 9.00 a.m. Indian Standard Time (IST) (10:30 p.m. US ET on January 12, 2017; 7:30 p.m. PST on January 12, 2017; 3:30 a.m. London time; 11:30 a.m. Singapore/Hong Kong time). The results will also be available on www.infosys.com. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130122/589162 ) Following the release, the leadership team will be part of a common television interaction at 10:00 a.m. IST. The participating executives will address questions from the media during this interaction which will be streamed live on the Investor Relations section of the Infosys website. An archive of this event will be uploaded on www.infosys.com after 2:00 p.m. IST on January 13, 2017 (after 3:30 a.m. US ET on January 13, 2017). Earnings call I (11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. IST; 1:00 a.m. - 2:00 a.m. ET) The company will conduct a 60 minute conference call at 11:30 a.m. IST (1:00 a.m. US ET; 10:00 p.m. PST on January 12, 2017; 6:00 a.m. London time; 2:00 p.m. Singapore/Hong Kong time) on January 13, 2017 (open to investors / analysts in all regions), where the senior management will discuss the company's performance and answer questions from participants. To participate in the conference call, please dial the numbers provided below 10 - 15 minutes before the scheduled start time of the call. During this time, the operator will provide instructions on how to ask questions. As participation in the call is limited, early registration (by calling the numbers 10 - 15 minutes before the scheduled start time) is encouraged. This event will be webcast live on the Investor Relations section of the Infosys website, following which it will be archived at www.infosys.com. The archive will be available after 3:30 p.m. IST on January 13, 2017 (after 5:00 a.m. US ET on January 13, 2017). In addition, a transcript of the conference call will be available at www.infosys.com. Earnings call II (7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. IST; 8:30 a.m. - 09:30 a.m. ET) The company will also conduct a 60 minute conference call at 8:30 a.m. US ET (7:00 p.m. IST; 5:30 a.m. PST; 1:30 p.m. London time; 9:30 p.m. Singapore/Hong Kong time) on January 13, 2017 (open to investors/analysts in all regions), where the senior management will discuss the company's performance and answer questions from participants. To participate in the conference call, please dial the numbers provided below 10 - 15 minutes before the scheduled start time of the call. During this time, the operator will provide instructions on how to ask questions. As participation in the call is limited, early registration (by calling the numbers 10 - 15 minutes before the scheduled start time) is encouraged. This event will be webcast live on the Investor Relations section of the Infosys website and an archive can be accessed at www.infosys.com after 11:30 a.m. ET on January 13, 2017 (after 10:00 p.m. IST on January 13, 2017). A transcript of the conference call will be available at www.infosys.com. Summary of events Event Earnings release over the wire services Date and Time 8.45 a.m. January 13, 2017 (IST) 10:15 p.m. January 12, 2017(ET) Web-site/Channel - http://www.infosys.com Event Live broadcast of management's comments on the results Date and Time 10:00 a.m. January 13, 2017 (IST) Web-site/Channel - Business television channels Event Archived webcast of management's comment on the results Date and Time 2:00 p.m. January 13, 2017 (IST) 3:30 a.m. January 13, 2017 (IST) Web-site/Channel - http://www.infosys.com Event Earnings conference call I (open to questions for investors/analysts in all regions) Date and Time 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. January 13, 2017 (IST) 1:00 a.m. - 2:00 a.m. January 13, 2017 (IST) Questions during the call can be addressed to [email protected] Web-site/Channel - http://www.infosys.com Telephone/Fax No. India Toll, Mumbai: 022 6746 5898 022 3938 1098 Toll, Bangalore: 080 3940 3977 Singapore Toll-free: 800 101 2045 Toll-number: +65 3157 5746 Hong Kong Toll-free: 800 964 448 Toll-number: +852 3018 6877 Japan Toll-free: 0 053 116 1110 Toll-number: +81 3 4589 9421 UK Toll-free: 0 808 101 1573 Toll-number: +44 203 478 5524 Germany Toll-free: 00 8001 424 3444 Canada Toll- free: 011 8001 424 3444 France Toll-free: 0 800 914 745 US Toll-free: 1 866 746 2133 Toll-number: +1 323 386 8721 Event Replay of conference call Date and Time Till January 19, 2017 Web-site/Channel - http://www.infosys.com Telephone/Fax No. Toll-free: USA 1 855 436 0715 US International toll: +1 863 949 0105 Toll, Mumbai: 022 6181 3322 022 3065 2322 Toll, Bangalore: 080 3940 3988 Passcode: 4636# Event Earnings conference call II (open to questions for investors/analysts in all regions) Date and Time 7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. January 13, 2017 (IST) 8:30 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. January 13, 2017 (IST) Questions during the call can be addressed to [email protected] Web-site/Channel - http://www.infosys.com India Toll, Mumbai: 022 6746 5898 022 3938 1098 Toll, Bangalore: 080 6000 1221 080 3940 3977 Singapore Toll-free: 800 101 2045 Toll- number: +65 3157 5746 Hong Kong Toll-free: 800 964 448 Toll- number: +852 3018 6877 Japan Toll-free: 0 053 116 1110 Toll- number: +81 3 4589 9421 UK Toll-free: 0 808 101 1573 Toll-number: +44 203 478 5524 Germany Toll-free: 00 8001 424 3444 Canada Toll free: 011 8001 424 3444 France Toll-free: 0 800 914 745 US Toll-free: 1 866 746 2133 Toll-number: +1 323 386 8721 Event Replay of conference call Date and Time Till January 19, 2017 Web-site/Channel - http://www.infosys.com Telephone/Fax No. Toll-free: USA 1 855 436 0715 International toll: +1 863 949 0105 Toll, Mumbai: 022 6181 3322 022 3065 2322 Toll, Bangalore: 080 3940 3988 Passcode: 4637# About Infosys Ltd. Infosys is a global leader in technology services and consulting. We enable clients in more than 50 countries to create and execute strategies for their digital transformation. From engineering to application development, knowledge management and business process management, we help our clients find the right problems to solve, and to solve these effectively. Our team of 199,000+ innovators, across the globe, is differentiated by the imagination, knowledge and experience, across industries and technologies that we bring to every project we undertake. Visit www.infosys.com to see how Infosys (NYSE: INFY) can help your enterprise thrive in the digital age. Safe Harbor Certain statements in this release concerning our future growth prospects are forward-looking statements regarding our future business expectations intended to qualify for the 'safe harbor' under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding fluctuations in earnings, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, industry segment concentration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks or system failures, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which Infosys has made strategic investments, withdrawal or expiration of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability and regional conflicts, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, and unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2016. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. In addition, please note that the date of this press release is mentioned at the beginning of the release, and any forward-looking statements contained herein are based on assumptions that we believe to be reasonable as of this date. The company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the company unless it is required by law. SOURCE Infosys For further information: Contact Investor Relations, Sandeep Mahindroo, +91-80-3980-1018, [email protected]; Media Relations, Sarah Vanita Gideon, +91-80-4156-3998, [email protected]; Pete Daly, +1-857-600-6839, [email protected] Join dignitaries and special guests as they travel through a 150-shaped activity course TORONTO, Jan. 4, 2017 /CNW/ - It's time to get moving! After almost half a million votes and submissions from Canadians, ParticipACTION is ready to reveal the ParticipACTION 150 Play List with a celebratory event in Toronto. With help from a few Olympians, dignitaries and special guests will have their hand at checking off a few activities on the list while travelling through a 150-shaped activity course. Curling? Stick pull? Wheelchair racing? Come and find out! The ParticipACTION 150 Play List is the ultimate list of 150 physical activities that define us as Canadian. The Toronto event will be the first of 100 events taking place across Canada in 2017, encouraging Canadians to try out as many activities on the list as possible. We hope you will join us for this visually-appealing and unique photo opportunity as ParticipACTION leaps into high gear, inspiring Canadians to sit less and move more. Canadians can visit www.participACTION.com/150 for more information, to sign up and win some great prizes! WHO The Honourable Carla Qualtrough, Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities Kamal Khera , Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health The Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell , Lieutenant Governor of Ontario Elio Antunes , President and CEO, ParticipACTION Sara Hennessey , ParticipACTION 150 Play List Ambassador and Canadian comedian Mary Desjardins , AVP Philanthropy & Sponsorship , Manulife Laura Pacey , Brand Director, Chevrolet Chethan Lakshman, VP Communications and Public Relations at Shaw Communications WHAT Photo opportunity that reveals the ParticipACTION 150 Play List through a visually compelling, 150-shaped activity course The course will reveal all physical activities that made the ParticipACTION 150 Play List through icons and fun facts The course will feature five activities from the ParticipACTION 150 Play List that participants can try out with help from some special guests, including: CFL player Chad Owens Olympic silver medalist in curling Cheryl Bernard Olympic bronze medalist in soccer Allysha Chapman Canadian sprinter Sam Effah Paralympic bronze medalist in sledge hockey Tyler McGrego Former CFL player and Tackle My Reno host Sebastian Clovi Photo opportunities include: Dignitaries travelling the obstacle course with the Play List ambassador, ParticipACTION CEO Elio Antunes and kids Olympians and celebrity coaches teaching kids and dignitaries some "tricks of their trade" WHERE Nathan Phillips Square 100 Queen Street West, Toronto, ON M5H 2N2 For satellite trucks, please enter media pad at Armoury St. and Chestnut St. WHEN Friday, January 6, 2017 10:15 a.m.: Media registration located at the entrance of the activity course 10:30 10:40 a.m.: informal remarks and ceremonial reveal of the ParticipACTION 150 Play List 10:40 11 a.m.: photo opportunities; one-on-one interviews to follow SOURCE ParticipACTION For further information: To RSVP, pre-book an interview or for more information, please contact: Kaitlin Marrin, Hill+Knowlton Strategies, W: (416) 413-4565, M: (905) 616-0385, [email protected]; Katherine Janson, ParticipACTION, W: (416) 913-1471, M: (647) 717-8674, [email protected] Kanetix.ca releases new survey findings on Canadians' views on autonomous driving TORONTO, Jan. 4, 2017 /CNW/ - At this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, running from January 5-8, 2017, the reality of driverless cars on our roads will accelerate. But, how ready are Canadians to hand over the controls? Kanetix.ca has released new survey findings of Canadians' attitudes on the (not so) futuristic vehicles. One in four (26 per cent) of Canadians said they couldn't wait for the day when driverless cars would be reality, up slightly from last year when 25 per cent said the same. Many drivers however remain neutral on the idea, with 56 per cent saying it would depend on the technology and how well it works, compared to 52 per cent last year. Only 18 per cent said no thanks, they love driving too much, down from 23 per cent. Perhaps not surprisingly, the younger demographic, age 18 to 34, are the most excited about driverless cars, with 36 per cent saying they can't wait for the day. "Technology is continually improving and innovating, and we've already seen auto manufacturers incorporate self-driving safety aspects in some existing vehicles, such as automatic emergency braking (AEB) or sensors that temporarily control steering to avoid collisions," said Andrew Lo, chief operating officer and tech expert at Kanetix.ca. "It's still a jump for most people to make in terms of going completely driverless but Canadians are interested in these improved safety features and, as a result, seem willing to slowly adopt more automated functions." Indeed, the survey finds that 59 per cent of Canadians would buy or lease a car with improved self-driving safety features; features like front crash prevention, adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning and blind spot detection to name just a few. Some features could even help lower auto insurance premiums. "Some of these improved safety features have caught the eye of insurers," explained Mr. Lo. "Aviva Canada recently announced that policyholders who drive vehicles equipped with AEB will be eligible to receive a 15 per cent auto insurance discount. It's expected that more insurers will follow." But while Canadians may not be entirely ready for a fully driverless experience, the overwhelming majority increasingly believe that autonomous cars will have a positive impact on our roads. Eighty-one per cent agree it will eliminate the threat of distracted driving, 73 per cent say it will reduce accidents and auto-related fatalities, and 68 per cent agree it will increase safety for pedestrians and cyclists. Less than half, however, feel that reduced traffic will be a benefit. And when it comes to the overall driving experience, Quebecers are the most likely (71 per cent) to say driverless cars will bring an improvement, while only 55 per cent in Atlantic Canada agree. In any case, Canadians feel they have plenty of time before driverless cars will be available to the public; 80 per cent say it won't happen for another 15 or more years. Visit Kanetix.ca for more survey results and an infographic that illustrates the key findings. About the Survey The Kanetix.ca survey was conducted online in December 2016 with a nationally representative sample of 1000 Canadians. A sample of this size is accurate to within +/-3 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. About Kanetix.ca Launched in October 1999, Kanetix.ca was Canada's first online insurance marketplace and today provides over a million quotes per year to consumers looking for insurance, as well as comparisons for mortgage rates and credit cards. The Kanetix.ca comparison service is a one-stop shopping environment for consumers. Each day, thousands visit the Kanetix.ca website to comparison shop their various financial needs. Shoppers choose what they want to compare, obtain a quotation and complete an online application or, with the help of Kanetix.ca connect with the provider to purchase or apply for the product over the phone. SOURCE Kanetix.ca For further information: or media inquiries, please contact: Tara Bolger, 647-228-3944, [email protected] All figures are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise noted. Readers are referred to the section entitled "Forward-Looking Statements" at the end of this release. MONTREAL, Jan. 5, 2017 /CNW Telbec/ - Power Corporation of Canada (Power Corporation) (TSX: POW) today announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire an additional 3.9% equity interest in China Asset Management Co., Ltd. (China AMC) for RMB936 million (Can$179 million). The seller, a Chinese state-owned enterprise, is a non-strategic investor. Together with a 10% interest purchased in 2011, Power Corporation's ownership in China AMC will be 13.9%. China AMC was established in 1998 and was one of the first asset management companies approved by the China Securities Regulatory Commission. It is recognized as a leading company in the Chinese asset management sector, with RMB1.1 trillion (Can$215 billion) in assets under management, serving over 40 million retail investors and 400 institutional mandates as at June 30, 2016. China AMC is an affiliate of CITIC Group Corporation Ltd., China's largest conglomerate, with which Power Corporation has had an association since 1986. "This is an important addition to our portfolio in China, investing in the fast-growing asset management sector and in one of the best companies in its class," said Olivier Desmarais, Vice-President of Power Corporation. "Through this transaction, we are building on Power Corporation's long-standing presence in China and deepening our 30-year relationship with the CITIC Group of companies." Mackenzie Financial Corporation (Mackenzie Investments), an indirect subsidiary of Power Corporation, also announced that it has agreed to acquire, in two separate transactions, a 13.9% interest in China AMC. Upon completion, Power Corporation and Mackenzie Investments will hold a combined 27.8% interest in China AMC. The transaction is expected to be accretive to Power Corporation's earnings. "We are very pleased that Power Corporation has increased its ownership interest in China AMC," said Yang Minghui, Chairman of China AMC and President of CITIC Securities. "We look forward to continuing our relationship and shared interest in growing China AMC's business." "We have great confidence in the leadership of China AMC and this investment allows Power Corporation to increase its exposure to the dynamic Chinese asset management market alongside CITIC Securities, China's largest securities dealer," added Peter Kruyt, Vice-President of Power Corporation and Chairman of Power Pacific Corporation Limited. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2017 and is subject to customary closing conditions, including Chinese regulatory approvals. Power Corporation expects to finance the acquisition of the additional 3.9% interest through the issuance of debt and/or preferred shares. ABOUT CHINA AMC Founded in 1998 as one of the first fund management companies in China, China AMC has maintained a market leading position in China's asset management industry with total assets under management of approximately RMB1.1 trillion at June 30, 2016. The company currently serves over 400 institutional mandates and 40 million retail investors. China AMC has one of the industry's strongest investment teams with over 200 dedicated investment professionals. To learn more, visit www.ChinaAMC.com. ABOUT MACKENZIE INVESTMENTS Mackenzie Investments was founded in 1967, and is a leading investment management firm providing investment advisory and related services. With Can$63.2 billion in assets under management as of November 30, 2016, Mackenzie Investments distributes its investment services through multiple distribution channels to both retail and institutional investors. Mackenzie Investments is a member of the IGM Financial Inc. (TSX: IGM) group of companies. To learn more, visit www.MackenzieInvestments.com. ABOUT POWER CORPORATION Power Corporation of Canada is a diversified international management and holding company with interests in companies in the financial services, communications and other business sectors in North America, Europe and Asia. To learn more, visit www.PowerCorporation.com. Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements in this news release, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements based on certain assumptions and reflect the Corporation's current expectations, or with respect to disclosure regarding the Corporation's public subsidiaries, reflect such subsidiaries' disclosed current expectations. Forward-looking statements are provided for the purposes of assisting the reader in understanding the Corporation's financial performance, financial position and cash flows as at and for the periods ended on certain dates and to present information about management's current expectations and plans relating to the future and the reader is cautioned that such statements may not be appropriate for other purposes. These statements may include, without limitation, statements regarding the operations, business, financial condition, expected financial results, performance, prospects, opportunities, priorities, targets, goals, ongoing objectives, strategies and outlook of the Corporation and its subsidiaries, as well as the outlook for North American and international economies for the current fiscal year and subsequent periods. Forward-looking statements include statements that are predictive in nature, depend upon or refer to future events or conditions, or include words such as "expects", "anticipates", "plans", "believes", "estimates", "seeks", "intends", "targets", "projects", "forecasts" or negative versions thereof and other similar expressions, or future or conditional verbs such as "may", "will", "should", "would" and "could". By its nature, this information is subject to inherent risks and uncertainties that may be general or specific and which give rise to the possibility that expectations, forecasts, predictions, projections or conclusions will not prove to be accurate, that assumptions may not be correct and that objectives, strategic goals and priorities will not be achieved. A variety of factors, many of which are beyond the Corporation's and its subsidiaries' control, affect the operations, performance and results of the Corporation and its subsidiaries and their businesses, and could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations of estimated or anticipated events or results. These factors include, but are not limited to: the impact or unanticipated impact of general economic, political and market factors in North America and internationally, interest and foreign exchange rates, global equity and capital markets, management of market liquidity and funding risks, changes in accounting policies and methods used to report financial condition (including uncertainties associated with critical accounting assumptions and estimates), the effect of applying future accounting changes, business competition, operational and reputational risks, technological change, changes in government regulation and legislation, changes in tax laws, unexpected judicial or regulatory proceedings, catastrophic events, the Corporation's and its subsidiaries' ability to complete strategic transactions, integrate acquisitions and implement other growth strategies, and the Corporation's and its subsidiaries' success in anticipating and managing the foregoing factors. The reader is cautioned to consider these and other factors, uncertainties and potential events carefully and not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Information contained in forward-looking statements is based upon certain material assumptions that were applied in drawing a conclusion or making a forecast or projection, including management's perceptions of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other considerations that are believed to be appropriate in the circumstances, including that the list of factors in the previous paragraph, collectively, are not expected to have a material impact on the Corporation and its subsidiaries. While the Corporation considers these assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available to management, they may prove to be incorrect. Other than as specifically required by applicable Canadian law, the Corporation undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which such statement is made, or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, whether as a result of new information, future events or results, or otherwise. Additional information about the risks and uncertainties of the Corporation's business and material factors or assumptions on which information contained in forward-looking statements is based is provided in its disclosure materials, including its most recent Management's Discussion and Analysis and Annual Information Form, filed with the securities regulatory authorities in Canada and available at www.sedar.com. SOURCE Power Corporation of Canada For further information: Mr. Stephane Lemay, Vice-President, General Counsel and Secretary, 514-286-7400 Related Links www.powercorporation.com MONTREAL, Jan. 2, 2017 /CNW Telbec/ - Ms. Sylvie Vachon, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Montreal Port Authority (MPA), invites the media to the 178th Awarding of the Gold-Headed Cane. This ceremony will mark the arrival of the first ocean-going vessel to reach the Port of Montreal without a stopover in 2017. This ceremony will also mark the Montreal's 375th Anniversary and the Canada's 150th Anniversary. The event will take place on Wednesday, January 4th, at 11:00 a.m., at the Montreal Port Authority Building, 2100 Pierre-Dupuy Avenue, Wing 1, in the presence of representatives of the marine industry, the political community and the Montreal business community. Ms. Vachon will meet with the media after the ceremony. She will be available for interviews. Notice Space will be reserved for camera operators and photographers at the back of the room (about 30 ft. from the podium). Camera operators and photographers are also authorized to shoot throughout the room before the ceremony starts. January 4, 2017 WHAT 178th Awarding of the Gold-Headed Cane Press briefing WHO Sylvie Vachon, President and CEO of the Montreal Port Authority (MPA) Other maritime and political scene personalities WHERE Montreal Port Authority Building 2100 Pierre-Dupuy Avenue, Wing 1 Dominic J. Taddeo Room WHEN 11:00 a.m. SOURCE PORT OF MONTREAL For further information: Melanie Nadeau, director of Communications, Montreal Port Authority, Phone: 514 283-1385, [email protected] Related Links http://www.port-montreal.com/ First 150 kids receive free admission in 2017 TORONTO, Dec. 28, 2016 /CNW/ - Celebrate Canada's sesquicentennial at the Ontario Science Centre with Canada 150: Discovery Way, a new installation that recounts the rich stories behind Canadian discoveries and innovations, and with The Energy Show, a new stage presentation that takes the Centre's iconic Electricity Demonstration to a shocking new level. To start its Canada 150 celebrations, the Ontario Science Centre is offering free general admission to the first 150 kids (ages 3-12) on January 1, 2017. "As a centennial project, the Ontario Science Centre has been celebrating discovery, wonder and curiosity since it first opened its doors," said Dr. Maurice Bitran, CEO and Chief Science Officer, Ontario Science Centre. "During Canada's sesquicentennial, it's natural to reflect on the growing impact that science and technology plays in our lives and how they are shaping our future. Through our diverse offerings in 2017, we will inform, engage and inspire our visitors, demonstrating that science is more than knowledge it's about action for a better future." Top ten ways to celebrate Canada's sesquicentennial with science at the Ontario Science Centre in 2017: 1. Take pride in Canadian scientific achievements. What do insulin, the electric wheelchair and five-pin bowling have in common? From the far reaches of space to common household items, learn about notable Canadian scientific discoveries and innovations and the Canadian trailblazers behind them. The Canada 150: Discovery Way installation inspires through diverse, home-grown stories and uniquely Canadian artifacts. At every step along the way, visitors will be moved by great scientific achievements and may even be inspired to be Canada's next great innovator. 2. Power up at our new electrifying stage show. Building upon the Science Centre's iconic Electricity Demonstration, The Energy Show delves deeper into the principles and concepts of energy. From solar to geothermal, and from transformation to storage, the show seeks to uncover the world's ultimate source of power. Make hypotheses, conduct experiments, upload data and test very unique equipment, including a seven-foot Tesla coil. 3. Discover how science influences art. Experience Legacy, a life-sized, anatomically correct killer whale skeleton, carved entirely from reclaimed cedar. Created by award-winning Canadian artist Ken Hall, Legacy demonstrates how science and nature can influence art and how art can expand the appreciation of science, while challenging us to think about our future. 4. Hop on board for the ultimate in railway travel. Beginning January 9, 2017, relive the age of steam when Rocky Mountain Express returns to our giant IMAX Dome screen. Take a present-day steam train journey through the breathtaking vistas of the Canadian Rockies, and learn about the extraordinary story of how our nation's first transcontinental railway was laid. 5. See how humans draw inspiration from the innovations of nature. Find out how all living things, including humans, are machines built to survive, move and discover when Biomechanics: The Machine Inside opens on February 8, 2017. Take a fascinating look at the marvels of natural engineering in an interactive, specimen-rich experience that brings the science of biomechanics and biomimicry to life and explores the exciting promise they hold for the future. 6. Get a fresh perspective on what it means to be an engineer. Celebrate human ingenuity and innovation when Dream Big opens on February 17, 2017. Using the full power of the immersive IMAX experience, Dream Big showcases the diverse faces of engineering today: people from all walks of life working on creative solutions to improve human life and create a sustainable future for us all. 7. Learn how to milk a sturgeon. Step into the rescue and recovery efforts of people who dedicate their lives to saving animals when Wildlife Rescue opens in May 2017. From seabirds to turtles and elephants to orangutans, this wildly interactive exhibition explores the innovative ways used to capture, raise and release endangered species back to the wild. 8. Take in Toronto's history by way of a tree trunk. The Ontario Wood Carvers Association has given new life to the silver maple tree behind Alexander Muir's 1867 song "Maple Leaf Forever." This installation features 35 hand-carved leaves, each depicting a historically-significant event or place in Toronto's history. After more than 10,000 volunteer carving hours, this ambitious project goes on permanent display on July 1, 2017. 9. Celebrate the power of human understanding and ingenuity from quantum to cosmos. Explore the incredible ability of the human mind to question, make and innovate when Power of Ideas stops in Toronto from August 23 - September 1, 2017. Designed and developed by the Ontario Science Centre for the Perimeter Institute, this immersive travelling science exhibition highlights cutting edge science, technology and engineering. 10. Maximize your exposure to science in 2017. There's a lot to see and do at the Science Centre in 2017! A new membership program launches in January 2017 to ensure you make the most out of every visit. The Ontario Science Centre, a Centennial project, has welcomed more than 51 million visitors since it opened in 1969, implementing an interactive approach now adopted by science centres around the world. Today, the Science Centre is an international leader in free-choice science learning and a key contributor to Ontario's education and innovation ecosystems, offering lifelong learning through hands-on, engaging experiences. The Ontario Science Centre is an agency of the Government of Ontario funded in part by the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport. As a publicly assisted organization, the Science Centre relies on generous individuals, corporations and foundations who share a commitment to science and education for additional operating support. For more information about the Ontario Science Centre, please visit OntarioScienceCentre.ca. SOURCE Ontario Science Centre For further information: Media contact: Anna Relyea, Director, Strategic Communications, 416-696-3273 | c: 416-668-1967, [email protected] Related Links https://www.ontariosciencecentre.ca A Connecticut man was charged with several felonies on Tuesday after stealing a motorcycle in Upstate New York, leading police on a chase, crashing into a police car and posting bail with counterfeit money. Jaquan Rosado The Poughkeepsie Journal reports state police charged Jaquan R. Rosado, 24, with six felonies. East Fishkill police charged Rosado with first-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument, second-degree assault, second-degree reckless endangerment, unlawfully fleeing an officer in a motor vehicle, reckless driving and leaving the scene of property damage auto accident, the Journal says. A Millbrook man reported that someone had stolen his Kawasaki motorcycle from his garage on Monday. The man provided police with a description of the suspect's car, which was broadcasted to nearby patrols. The description matched a white Ford Econoline seen on the Taconic State Parkway, and police attempted to make a traffic stop in the area. But the driver, later identified as Rosado, didn't stop for authorities. Instead, the vehicle crossed the center median and began driving southbound in the northbound lanes. After Rosado posted $700 cash bail and left the East Fishkill Police Department, police discovered that he had paid with counterfeit currency. Rosado was then charged with criminal possession of a forged instrument. State police later found that the Ford Econoline was stolen from Bridgeport, Connecticut, and Rosado was in possession of counterfeit $100 bills. - By Tim Melvin Tim Melvin: Alright, we're on today with Doug Raucy with 1347 Property Insurance Holdings Inc. (PIH). How are you this morning, Doug? Thanks for spending some time with us on what is kind of a dreary morning here in central Florida. Raucy: Yea. Doing great. Thanks. Tim Melvin: You're a small cap insurance company that is kind of off the radar screen. Can you tell us a little bit about the company? Raucy: I started the company back in 2012 in Louisiana. We initially did a depopulation of wind and hail only policies because our strategy is really focused on wind and hail on the coast and supplementing that with homeowners and manufactured homes, dwelling fire policies more inland, and we were able to make that strategy work for us in Louisiana. Then we complement that with homeowners and dwelling and fire, which is rental type properties and then some manufactured homes in and around the rest of the state. We write that through independent agents. The strategy worked well. One of the issues behind the strategy, of course, is we want every line to be profitable, so that mixture of policies is really important for us because we don't want to expose the entire book to any one certain kind of peril. Around mid-2014 we decided to take the company public. The main thinking behind that was just to make sure we had the capital to fuel our growth. One of our commitments to our agents is that as long as they kept giving us good business, we would not limit them in any way. Tim Melvin: Just for the reader who's not really familiar with the insurance business and the nuts and bolts, could you explain the concept of depopulating for them. Raucy: It's interesting. A lot of the states in coastal areas will form what they call a residual market, or a market of last resort for people who cannot get insurance in the private market. So it's actually government-run insurance for homeowners that the private market will not insure because of certain risks. The private market goes in and out, and the definition of what that is changes all the time. Story continues Really, it's just a place for people who have a nice home right on the coast that can't get insurance for in the private market. They need a place to get insurance, so what a lot of states have done is started these state pools to capture all these high risks. They are set up as nonprofits, but they are really a place for what we call residual, or high risk policies to go into. Are you interested in stocks like 1347 Property Insurance? Subscribe to Tim Melvin's Banking On Profit for commentary and analysis on the world of under the radar bank stocks. Tim Melvin: The phrase "high risk" brings me to what I think is going to be the biggest question on a lot of investors' minds when they look at the company. You're writing hail and wind insurance and homeowners insurance in areas that have a lot of hail and wind and storm damage. Isn't that a really high risk business model? Raucy: I think it is one of the things we do is we carry the proper amount of reinsurance. And for those people who don't understand reinsurance, it's the concept of us insuring ourselves against what we consider to be frequent or severe storms. So we will carry so much of the risk on our books, and then we will cede the rest of it off to a reinsurance company for a fee. Most of those are offshore, but some of them are domestic. That's been a very healthy market because, honestly there have not been a lot of global events to drive capital out of that market. Reinsurance costs have continued to come down, which has really helped us to thrive. But the concept is that we carry x amount of risk ourselves based all of our modeling and all our formulas if we know that we could have a year similar to, say, 2016 where the weather hit us pretty hard. Still, we are still are probably going end the year somewhere around a small loss or breakeven point. So it just goes to prove to our investors that the model that we have set up shows that when we do get events, whether it be multiple or large events, we're probably going to have about a breakeven year. Then the years that we do not get events we're going to do very well, which to us would be a 15% or above return on equity in quiet years. So far it's been about one storm every year for the past four years that we've been involved and we think that's probably about normal. Tim Melvin: Okay, and as long as that ratio is kind of three or four good years to one year with a whole bunch of storms holds, this could actually be a very high return business. Raucy: Well, years like 2016 are very rare. We renew our reinsurance on June 1st to coincide with hurricane season, but last year we had an event prior to June 1st. We got hit pretty hard there and went through a full deductible. It's very unusual that you'll go through two of those in one year. So we've got it figured out that if we go through one [storm] in one calendar year, we're certainly going to be profitable. Click here for part 2. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Ex- President Olusegun Obasanjo has dismissed as tissues of lies and untruths some aspects of Oba Sikiru Adetonas autobiography. The... Ex- President Olusegun Obasanjo has dismissed as tissues of lies and untruths some aspects of Oba Sikiru Adetonas autobiography.The Awujale and Paramount ruler of Ijebuland, in his Awujale: The autobiography of Alaiyeluwa Oba S. K. Adetola, Ogbagba II (Mosuro Publishers 2010, pp. 187-195) tells of how Obasanjo frustrated Globacom chairman Mike Adenugas bid to obtain a GSM licence, despite being a beneficiary of the businessmans generosity.Adenuga was said to have started building the Administration Block of Bells University, which is owned by Obasanjo. But the ex-president, in a statement issued from his residence, Presidential Hilltop, Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, said former Vice-Chancellor Prof. Julius Okogie invited Mike Adenuga to contribute to the project but never told him about it until the businessman pulled out.Obasanjo noted that Adenuga did not need to send anything to satisfy him or establish his innocence but only needed to satisfy the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).According to him, by sending documents to him (Obasanjo), the Awujale was insinuating that he was the one to be satisfied rather than the EFCC.The former President also stated that such documents faxed to him by Oba Adetona were not paid any attention.Obasanjos response: The extract from your autobiography, Awujale: The Autobiography of Alaiyeluwa Oba S. K. Adetola, Ogbagba II, published by Mosuro Publishers 2010, pp. 187-195, which I attach to this letter was presented to me for my attention.Your assertion in the publication was a tissue of lies and untruths. Olopade is one of my best friends and yes, I would be at his birthday celebration but I would not have invited Mike, your cousin, to meet me anywhere other than my office or official residence as President of Nigeria. Kabiyesi, do you think I would set the press up to capture me and Mike in a photograph for the newspapers? That would be puerile of me as President. Of course, I could not say that Mike could not do that. That you think that I, as President of Nigeria, would descend to such depravity makes me think of you much less than I thought of you, until now.The invitation to Mike to contribute to the building of the Library block of Bells University was issued to him by the then Vice-Chancellor, Professor Julius Okogie, who never told me about inviting Mike to so contribute until Mike pulled out. And that I have not and I will not talk to Mike about it should convince you that I know nothing about its genesis.Under my watch, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, was free to do its job as it saw fit. Common sense would suggest that wild rumours should not be perpetrated by an Oba of your calibre. Kabiyesi, your cousin did not tell you that my Chief of Staff, Abdul Mohammed, put his reputation on line by assuring EFCC that Mike would go nowhere and they should trust him to give him his passport.I did not even know that Abdul had done that until the Chairman of EFCC, Nuhu Ribadu, reported the case of my Chief of Staff seemingly colluding with Mike to run out of the country. But I had implicit confidence in my Chief of Staff and I was to resolve the issue. Should your cousin not have mentioned to Abdul who guaranteed the release of his passport his fears and intention to go on exile?On several occasions, Nuhu Ribadu has asserted that, under my watch, he was a free agent to do his work as he deemed fit. Where it was necessary, he reported the outcome of his work to me and the subsequent or follow-up actions he intended to take. On no occasion did I guide, lead or direct him on what to do.Mike did not need to send anything to me to satisfy me, he needed to satisfy EFCC and so your sending any documents to me was insinuating that I am the one to be satisfied rather than the EFCC. So, such documents were not paid any attention by me. You, as the cousin and part beneficiary from Mike as you have told me in the past, would not be able to see the tree from the forest as far as the mode of operation of Nuhu Ribadu was concerned viz-a-viz Mike.If the EFCC was investigating anybody, I did not consider it right for me as the President of Nigeria to be undermining EFCC by hobnobbing with that person. EFCC must be given free hand to do its work. Even if such a person was my child, the best I could do would be to secure a good lawyer to handle the matter before the EFCC for that child.It is not only in the case of Obajana Cement that you were rumour-mongering about me. You have done that repeatedly on many occasions. The latest one you did in 2016 was you telling me that you heard that I had gone to Rasak Okoya to seek to marry her daughter, Abiola, when it was the girl that came to appeal to me to intervene to placate and appeal to her father to forgive her for all her misbehaviour to her father. I did and the father and daughter were reconciled.I told you even then that it was unbecoming of an Oba. Of course, I am used to such rumours, slandering and insinuations since my days as a Unit Commander in the Army and I have developed thick skin. If ten per cent of the rumours ascribing businesses and properties I know nothing about were true, I would be the richest man on earth. But recently, when Aliko, yourself and myself were together, Aliko assured you that I never ever had a single share in any of Alikos business interests but whenever he has called on me to help within and without to promote his business interest, I have always helped and I will always do because that is part of my job as a Nigerian leader to help Nigerians grow their businesses or interests and I have done that for other Nigerians and indeed for non-Nigerians, Africans and non-Africans who have requested me for help. It was revealing to me on that occasion when Aliko made the point that one of his directors on his cement company is somebody very close to you.I owed nobody any apologies in the course of doing my work as I believe I should do it or in the course of defending the interest of Nigeria and defending my integrity. As I could not open the treasury for S. O. Bakare for your so-called political support to me, I did not regard that as an offence. To the extent that I believed and regarded as proper, I instructed Tony Anenih as Minister of Works to patronize S. O. Bakare as a Peugeot car dealer. I will not comment on Atiku issue that you touched upon in your book because I have dealt with that elsewhere and you were only dabbling into an area where and thing you are absolutely ignorant about.All that you wanted me to do in respect of Mike was improper whether when I was President or when I was out of office. I must not be seen to be in the way of allowing law to take its natural course. All I should do is to help the course of the law and help secure a good lawyer to help the process.It is of interest to me that Mike did not tell you that when he wanted national honour, he came to me and I did not react until Babangida recommended him and said, Of all those I have helped, Mike is one of the most appreciative.Kabiyesi, if I have squandered all the goodwill I had, you would not have contacted me on behalf of All Progressive Party, APC, to receive them in 2014 and you would not have been personally present when I received them as I demanded. I probably have greater goodwill today internally and externally than I had in office.Kabiyesi, the total sum of what you have put down in those pages of your book is that I dislike Mike. Maybe I need to remind you that if there was any iota of truth in such a position or mindset, Mike would not have been granted the mobile telephone licence which made him a billionaire. It was my prerogative as the President so to do.You may also be reminded that in the first round of the auction which Mike did not make, the country earned $285 million for each licence. The country earned only $200 million from the licence transaction with Mike and in the subsequent transaction with Etisalat, the country earned $400 million. It was a deliberate action on my part that a Nigerian should own one of the licences. Anybody else but Mike could have been that Nigerian.Kabiyesi, the type of hate propaganda you have tried to project in that section of your book against my person is grossly unbecoming of an Oba let alone an Oba of your status and stature.However, I still accord you the respect which I believe an Oba should be accorded and one for that matter who I presume to be a friend. In spite of your unfortunate projection, my position remains the same respect for you as an Oba and a friend.Kabiyesi, I believe that I should set the record straight for posterity and to caution you from engaging in unedifying rumour-mongering and untruth. Anthony Cardinal Okogie, former President, Christian Association of Nigeria, has complained about President Muhammadu Buhari's silence... Anthony Cardinal Okogie, former President, Christian Association of Nigeria, has complained about President Muhammadu Buhari's silence in the face of the ongoing killings in the southern part of Kaduna State.Okogie in an article titled, The Wisdom of the Sultan, likened Buharis silence on the killings in Southern Kaduna to how former President Goodluck Jonathan allegedly abdicated his duty to protect the citizenry against the Boko Haram insurgents during his tenure.Okogie wrote, In his inaugural address on May 29, 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari said inter alia, Boko Haram is a typical example of small fires causing large fires. Through official bungling, negligence, complacency or collusion, Boko Haram became a terrifying force taking tens of thousands of lives and capturing several towns and villages covering swathes of Nigerian sovereign territory.While those remarks represent a pointed reference to what had been perceived as abdication of responsibility on the part of the administration of his predecessor, former President Goodluck Jonathan, the ceaseless silence of President Buhari on the banditry of herdsmen represents a sad reminder of the negligence he so eloquently disparaged.Given the recent massacre of hundreds of innocent Nigerians in Southern Kaduna by herdsmen, not a few Nigerians expected this silence to be broken. But those who harboured such expectation got a rebuke from one of the presidential spokespersons, Mr. Femi Adesina.Mr. Adesina is reported to have said that, in consonance with the principle of federalism, the President did not need to say a word on the recent killings. The responsibility for security in Kaduna State, he claimed, belonged to the state Governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai. But Mr. Adesina did not consider the fact that the latters effectiveness as chief security officer has been eroded.The governor had said that he had paid a pacifying visit to the marauders when in fact he should have had them arrested.Mr. Adesinas remarks do not serve the President. They remind one of a saying that the late President Harry S. Truman of the United States of America made popular.On President Trumans desk was a sign bearing the inscription, The buck stops here. Truman understood the imperative of a decisive and responsible Presidency. In the same vein, it is simply inexcusable for our own President to remain silent while innocent Nigerians are being slaughtered.Silence in the matter of marauding herdsmen negates the content and message of President Buharis inaugural address. Moreover, Mr. Adesinas explanation of the silence by recourse to the principle of federalism is in clear contradiction of another remark made by President Buhari in the same address of May 29, 2015.Constitutionally, there are limits to powers of each of the three tiers of government but that should not mean the Federal Government should fold its arms and close its eyes to what is going on in the states and local governments.The Catholic bishop also recalled the admonition offered by the Minister of Interior, Lt. Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau (retd.), who spoke through his Press Secretary, Mr. Ehisienmen Osaigbovo, warning religious leaders to refrain from reading and interpreting the killings in Southern Kaduna through the lenses of religion.For him, it is an altercation between herdsmen and farmers. One would agree with the minister that this is a conflict between herdsmen and farmers. But it is also the case and the ministers admonition clearly avoids admitting this that the herdsmen are of one ethnic and religious affiliation, while the farmers are of another ethnic and religious affiliation, Okogie noted.Unfortunately, successive governments have failed Nigerians in this regard. President Buharis remarks in his inaugural address raised expectation that the government he leads would be an exception. But there is now a wide gulf between expectation and experience. This gulf will need to be bridged.Instead of his presidential silence, the ambivalence of Governor El-Rufais pacifying visit, Mr. Adesinas attempt to pass the buck, and General Dambazaus utterly unhelpful admonition, there is need to put out this small fire now before it engulfs the whole country.If and when President Buhari breaks his silence and takes a decisive stance on the menace of herdsmen, he would underscore the veracity of his own words in the same inaugural address: Today marks a triumph for Nigeria and an occasion to celebrate her freedom and cherish her democracy.Killing of innocent Nigerians has nothing to do with the triumph of democracy. We are not free if our lives are in danger while government that ought to protect us appears to be helpless. The head of U.S. intelligence told a Senate committee Thursday that Russia poses "an existential threat to the United States." James Clapper made the comment while testifying about Russian hacking during the presidential campaign. "I don't think that we have ever encountered a more aggressive or direct campaign to interfere in our election process," the director of national intelligence told the Senate Armed Services Committee. But Clapper also said the Russian hacking efforts "did not change the vote tallies" in the election, which ended with Donald Trump 's victory. Clapper was referring specifically to the question of whether voting machines could have been manipulated to affect the outcome. Clapper added that when it comes to the the question of whether Russian hacking affected "the choices that the electorate made ... there's no way for us to gauge that." "Russia clearly has assumed an even more aggressive cyber posture," Clapper said. He said later: "They do pose an existential threat to the United States." Clapper told the committee that a forthcoming intelligence report "will ascribe a motivation" by Russian President Vladimir Putin for the hacking. But he said he did not want to "pre-empt" the report by revealing the suspected motivation. President Barack Obama has been briefed on the report, a senior intelligence official told NBC News. Obama last week ordered a series of retaliatory steps against Russia for the hacking. During the hearing, the price of VanEck Vectors Russia, an exchange-traded fund that seeks to replicate the price of the DAXglobal Russia+ Index of larger Russian companies, fell more than 1.5 percent. The decline put the ETF on pace for its first negative day since Dec 19, when RSX lost 2.23 percent. Questions about Russian interference have swirled furiously since Trump's victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton in November. While the intelligence community believes top Russian officials were behind cyberattacks aimed at Clinton, Trump has been dismissive of those claims. Trump's backers also have seen the claims as an attack on the legitimacy of his election, but some Republicans have insisted that the matter must be thoroughly investigated. Story continues "Every American should be alarmed by Russia's attacks on our nation," committee Chairman Sen. John McCain , R-Ariz., said at the start of the hearing. "There is no national security interest more vital to the United States of America than the ability to hold free and fair elections without foreign interference." Cyber Command Chief Adm. Mike Rogers said that the hacking of America's election system and process "is of great concern." The committee's cyberthreats hearing comes a day before the president-elect receives a briefing by the CIA and FBI directors along with the head of national intelligence on the investigation into Russia's alleged hacking efforts. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., said at the hearing that he believes "the best approach" is to create a special select committee of the Senate to probe such efforts. Trump has criticized the intelligence community's findings and even seemed to back WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's contention that Russia did not provide him with hacked Democratic emails. Responding to previous reports that U.S. intelligence had concluded that Russia was behind hacks of Democratic Party officials during the election, Trump scoffed at the agencies for incorrectly reporting before the Iraq War that Saddam Hussein had amassed weapons of mass destruction. Trump spokesman Sean Spicer on Thursday denied reports that Trump is planning to restructure the intelligence community infrastructure. And Trump himself tweeted that he was "a big fan" of intelligence. McCain discussed Assange with Clapper early in the hearing, saying: "I believe he is the one who's responsible for publishing the names of individuals who work for us who put us in direct danger." "Yes, he has," Clapper replied. "Do you think there's any credibility we should attach to this individual?" McCain asked. Clapper said, "Not in my view." "I second those comments," Rogers said. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., asked Clapper about how Trump has been dismissive of the intelligence community's findings of Russian interference in the election. "I think there's a difference between skepticism and disparagement," Clapper said. Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola has said the recession occurred to teach Nigerians some lessons and make the nation great and econom... Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola has said the recession occurred to teach Nigerians some lessons and make the nation great and economically viable.He spoke at the New Year special prayer session organised by traditional religious worshippers in collaboration with the government in Abere, Osogbo, the state capital.Represented by Deputy Governor Grace Titi Laoye-Tomori, the governor said there were indications that the recession was easing out, urging residents to look inward and be active.Aregbesola appealed to people, especially youths, to combine education with vocational skills to become entrepreneurs rather than job seekers.The governor warned pupils bringing charms to schools to desist, saying anybody caught will be expelled.The Araba Awo of Osogbo, High Chief Ifayemi Elebuibon, enjoined residents to boost the nations economy by patronising locally made goods. Hillary Clinton and her husband, Bill Clinton will be attending the inauguration of President-elect, Donald Trump on January 20. Hillary Clinton and her husband, Bill Clinton will be attending the inauguration of President-elect, Donald Trump on January 20.The attendance of the Democratic Party candidate at the 2016 Presidential Election, was confirmed by their respective aides and reported on ABCs Good Morning America.Clinton had lost to Trump despite winning popular vote by more than 2.9 million votes.Trump, however, became the 44th president of the United States through votes from the Electoral college.It is typical of former US Presidents to attend the inauguration of an incoming Presiden Security operatives, Wednesday evening, laid siege to an Abuja house belonging to a brother-in-law to Nigerias former president Goodluc... Security operatives, Wednesday evening, laid siege to an Abuja house belonging to a brother-in-law to Nigerias former president Goodluck Jonathan.The house is located in Maitama, one of the enclaves of Nigerias rich in Abuja.The spokespersons for the headquarters and Abuja command of the police said they were not aware of the operation, but security sources confirmed that police officers in uniform carried out the raid.According to our sources, the operatives searched all the rooms in the house.The house was allegedly bought for her brother by Patience Jonathan, who was said to be in Port Harcourt when the raid occurred on Wednesday.Although Mrs. Jonathan has been having a running battle with the anti-graft agency, EFCC, over the ownership of a controversial $15 million, sources at the commission said the EFCC did not carry out the raid. The police, yesterday, docked an unemployed man, Williams Eromosele, 27, before an Igbosere Magistrates Court in Lagos, for allegedly st... The police, yesterday, docked an unemployed man, Williams Eromosele, 27, before an Igbosere Magistrates Court in Lagos, for allegedly stealing N9,200 from a church offertory box.pleaded not guilty and was granted N150,000 bail with two sureties in like sum. Magistrate A. A. Adetunji, who gave the bail condition, also said that the sureties must show evidence of tax payment to the Lagos State Government. She also ordered that the addresses of the sureties must be verified and adjourned the case till January 25 for mention.The prosecutor, Corporal Friday Mameh, had earlier told the court that the defendant committed the alleged offences on January 3, at 11a.m., at the Catholic Church on Musa Yardua Street, Victoria Island, Lagos.He said that the defendant conducted himself in a manner likely to cause breach of peace by unlawfully entering into the church to steal from the offertory box. Mameh said Eromosele dipped his hands into the box and stole N9,200, which was a sacrilege. He said the said money belonged to Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church.The prosecutor said that the offences committed are contrary to Section 166(d) and punishable under Section 285 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011. A former Governor of Abia state, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, has berated state Governors on arbitrary expenses incurred on purchasing exotic cars. A former Governor of Abia state, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, has berated state Governors on arbitrary expenses incurred on purchasing exotic cars.He urged them to rather use such funds to provide social infrastructure for state citizens.The former Governor, stated this in Okwu community in Ikeduru local government area of Imo state, when he attended the commissioning thanksgiving service of a newly built Catholic church in the area.According to him, as the Governor of Abia state for eight years, he never used bullet proof cars because he believed there was no reason for that.As the Governor of Abia state, I never used bullet proof cars. Even up till now, I am not using bullet proof cars. I made use of buses as Governor and I am still using buses up till now.I dont believe anybody can kill me except God. Instead of spending huge money in buying expensive bullet proof cars, Governors should use the money to provide electricity and other basic social amenities for their people.The former Governor of Imo State, Chief Ikedi Ohakim, also present, called on all Nigerians irrespective of their party, ethnic or religious affiliation, to support the President Buhari-led government, stating that if the President fails, then the whole Nigerians have failed.Also, the Catholic Archbishop of Owerri Catholic archdiocese, Anthony Obinna, expressed concern over the killing of Christians in southern Kaduna, stating that it is a war orchestrated to wipe out Christians in the country.The clergyman then raised an alarm that if the crisis is not well managed, it can degenerate into a serious National challenges which would spread to every nook and cranny of the country.He then tasked the President to quickly ensure that those involved in the dastardly act are brought to face the full wrath of the law. Environmental campaigners visit Taiji, Japan, every year to protest an annual slaughter of dolphins (AFP Photo/Toshifumi Kitamura) (AFP/File) Japanese police said Thursday they were investigating the escape of four dolphins from a park in a Japanese town that has gained international notoriety for staging an annual slaughter of the mammals. A fisherman in the city of Taiji noticed that four bottlenose dolphins from the facility were swimming outside their netted enclosure in the early morning, police said. "We are investigating the case on suspicion of criminal damage," a police official in the nearby city of Shingu told AFP. He said two of the nets at the DolphinBase park were apparently cut with a sharp object, allowing the mammals to escape, before three of them returned to the enclosure of their own volition. A fourth dolphin was swimming nearby. Taiji, a small port in western Japan's Wakayama prefecture, was thrust into the global spotlight after the 2009 documentary "The Cove." The Oscar-winning film depicted an annual dolphin slaughter in the area, where some of the animals are also captured and sold to aquariums. Environmental campaigners visit Taiji every year to protest the slaughter and authorities have boosted security to prevent clashes between locals and activists. Defenders of the hunt say it is a tradition and point out that the animals are not endangered, a position echoed by the Japanese government. In September 2010, a net owned by a local fishermen's union in Taiji was cut, with an Amsterdam-based environmental group claiming responsibility for the act, but no arrests were ever made in that case. DolphinBase officials could not immediately be reached for comment on Thursday's incident, but expressed outrage on their blog. "We feel furious about this egoistic and irresponsible act," they said. Ric O'Barry, the director of "The Cove", was detained in Japan last year for nearly three weeks after being denied entry to the country, and was eventually deported. O'Barry's Dolphin Project, a dolphin protection and campaign group, criticised the alleged cutting of the nets. "While we are against keeping dolphins in captivity, we do not condone illegal behaviour," it said on its web site. WASHINGTON (AP) The Latest on Congress (all times EST): 5:30 p.m. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says Democrats have identified eight of President-elect Donald Trump's "most troublesome" Cabinet picks and are hoping for fair hearings on those nominees. Those potential nominees are Rex Tillerson for secretary of state, Tom Price for secretary of Health and Human Services, Steven Mnuchin for Treasury secretary, Scott Pruitt for administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Mick Mulvaney for director of the Office of Management and Budget, Jeff Sessions for attorney general, Betsy DeVos for education secretary and Andrew Puzder for labor secretary. Missing from the list are Trump choices who are expected to have an easy time winning Senate confirmation, such as James Mattis for defense secretary and John Kelly for Homeland Security. Schumer says a "fair hearing" means at least two days, and says all of the paperwork on the nominee's background, tax returns and other disclosures must be in. ___ 5 p.m. House Republicans have passed legislation that would allow Congress to overturn, with a single vote, executive branch regulations finalized near the end of an outgoing president's term. The bill was approved Wednesday by a 238-184 vote. It is part of the GOP's efforts to block or undo scores of regulations and executive orders issued by President Barack Obama. Republicans say the bill would stem what they call a growing trend by presidents of both parties to impose costly "midnight rules" during their last few months in office. The bill's chief sponsor, Rep. Darrell Issa of California, says it would strengthen executive-branch oversight and "ensure that unaccountable, last-minute regulations don't continue crippling our economy, crushing small businesses and raising costs on middle-class families." The bill now goes to the Senate. ___ 4:40 p.m. The Obama administration says at least 8.8 million people signed up through Dec. 31 for 2017 coverage under the president's health care law. That's about 200,000 more than at the same point in the last open enrollment season. Story continues Wednesday's numbers are partial, for 39 states using the federal HealthCare.gov website. Others including major states like California and New York were not included because they run their own insurance markets. Independent expert Caroline Pearson says it will be a stretch for the administration to meet its nationwide target of 13.8 million sign-ups. Pearson is with the Avalere Health consultancy. The administration says demand is strong and growing, heading toward the end of open enrollment Jan. 31. The report comes as the Republican-led Congress is moving to repeal the health care law. ___ 4:35 p.m. A Republican-run House panel created to investigate Planned Parenthood and fetal tissue research wants to halt federal payments to the organization. The recommendation was included in the special committee's final report and was no surprise. Many Republicans hope that with Donald Trump becoming president, Congress will cut off money to the women's health organization. Most GOP lawmakers have long opposed the organization because many of its clinics provide abortions. Their antagonism intensified after anti-abortion activists released secretly recorded videos in 2015 showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing how they sometimes provide fetal tissue to researchers. Democrats say Planned Parenthood payments should continue and say House GOP investigators have unearthed no evidence of wrongdoing. Planned Parenthood has denied breaking laws and says the videos were doctored. ___ 4 p.m. Republican Sen. Rand Paul is blasting his party for a budget blueprint that would increase the national debt by almost $10 trillion over the coming decade. The Kentucky lawmaker gave a speech on the Senate floor Wednesday in which explained why he opposed taking the first step toward repealing President Barack Obama's health care law. He says the vote would have been an endorsement of an unbalanced budget. Paul, who hails from the GOP's small-government, libertarian wing, is lambasting his party for ignoring the nation's debt problems in the very first piece of legislation brought up in the era of Donald Trump. Paul asks, "Is that really what the Republican Party represents?" The Senate is debating the budget measure, a precursor to a bill to repealing the health care law. ___ 1:49 p.m. Add another confirmation hearing to the growing list of Senate hearings next Wednesday. The Senate Intelligence committee will hold its hearing on President-elect Donald Trump's pick for CIA Director, Rep. Mike Pompeo. The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions will holds its hearing on Betsy DeVos, Trump's choice for education secretary, the same day. Separately, Senate panels plan confirmation hearings that same day for Sen. Jeff Sessions, the choice for attorney general, and Rex Tillerson, the pick for secretary of State. Even though Trump won't be sworn in until Jan. 20, Senate Republicans are intent on moving swiftly to get his Cabinet and other agency leaders in place. ___ 1:35 p.m. The top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee says Rex Tillerson told him he supports the Paris climate agreement to reduce carbon emissions. Ben Cardin of Maryland spoke with reporters Wednesday outside his Senate office after a one-hour meeting with Tillerson, the Exxon Mobil CEO whom President-elect Donald Trump has tapped for secretary of state. Cardin says Tillerson's backing of the international pact to combat climate change "was encouraging to hear." He says Tillerson stressed his background in science and told Cardin "that he is a believer in science." During the presidential campaign, Trump said he would pull the U.S. out of the Paris accord. But since being elected, he's shifted that stance and now says he is "studying" the agreement. Tillerson's Senate confirmation hearing is tentatively scheduled for next week. __ 1:20 p.m. The Senate has taken its first vote on the way to repealing so-called Obamacare. The 51-48 procedural tally broke mostly along party lines and officially begins debate on a special budget measure that is a precursor to a follow-up bill to repeal Obama's health care law. Kentucky Republican Rand Paul opposed the measure since it endorses large budget deficits. Once Wednesday's legislation passes both House and Senate, Republicans controlling Congress could pass the follow-up measure without the threat of a filibuster by Senate Democrats. The vote came after both Vice President-elect Mike Pence and President Barack Obama trekked to Capitol Hill to rally their respective sides for the looming fight. The preliminary measure is on track to pass both House and Senate next week, but details on the binding repeal bill are still being worked out. __ 1:10 p.m. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer is sending a warning to President-elect Donald Trump: Democrats will oppose a Supreme Court pick "with everything we have" if a nominee isn't what they consider mainstream. Schumer in an interview explains his concern. He says "with the hard right running the show," the likelihood of the nominee "being mainstream is decreasing every day." The New Yorker made the comments one day after saying on MSNBC's "The Rachel Maddow Show" that Democrats will "absolutely" do their best to keep the vacant Supreme Court open if Trump doesn't nominate someone Democrats support. The seat has already been open for 11 months since the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked consideration of President Obama's nominee, Judge Merrick Garland. ___ 12:30 p.m. House Republicans say they will begin introducing legislation on Jan. 30 to repeal a series of Obama administration regulations, with the early focus on environmental rules. Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy says GOP leaders haven't yet picked which agency regulation Congress will seek to overturn first. He said he expects swift action on invalidating a rule designed to reduce methane emissions and another designed to reduce the environmental impact of coal mining on the nation's streams. McCarthy says the two rules "limit our energy production." Republicans will also seek to repeal regulations implementing an education reform bill that some state officials have complained erodes local decision-making. Before the House goes after specific agency rules, McCarthy says it will tackle the regulatory process itself to give Congress more control. ___ 11:13 a.m. "Look out for the American people." Those were President Barack Obama's parting words after a lengthy closed-door meeting with House and Senate Democrats about preserving his health care law. Republicans are pushing ahead on repealing the law while they work on a replacement. Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly says Obama's message was to "make sure that every American who loses his or her health care knows that the Republican repeal vote did that." Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer warns that repeal would throw the insurance marketplace into chaos. ___ 10:30 a.m. Democrats say President Barack Obama is making the case for keeping his health care law. Obama made a rare trip to the Capitol on Wednesday to meet with House and Senate Democrats. New York Rep. Louise Slaughter says Obama focused on how well the law is working, and on how many letters he's gotten in support of it. She calls it "a very nostalgic speech." Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin says Obama's message is that the individual parts of the law are popular, and that repealing it would affect all Americans. "We need to personalize this," Cardin says echoing the president. Republicans promise to move quickly to repeal the law, but they've failed to coalesce around a replacement. ___ 10 a.m. Once he's sworn in, President-elect Donald Trump will move swiftly to undo Democratic President Barack Obama's policies. That's the message from Vice President-elect Mike Pence to House Republicans at a Capitol Hill strategy session Wednesday. On Jan. 20, Trump will use his power through executive orders to target the health care law and other policies. New York Rep. Chris Collins and Missouri Rep. Ann Wagner specifically mentioned health care, though it's unclear what changes could be made through executive order on the nearly 7-year-old law. Texas Rep. Blake Farenthold says Pence told the GOP: "What can be done with a pen and a phone can be undone with a pen and a phone." ___ 9:40 a.m. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is holding a closed-door briefing Thursday for members to learn more about the Obama administration's response to suspected Russian interference in the 2016 election and harassment of U.S. diplomats. Also, U.S. intelligence officials, including national intelligence director James Clapper, are set to testify Thursday in an open session by the Senate Armed Services Committee. President Barack Obama struck back at Moscow last week with a set of punishments targeting Russia's leading spy agencies that the U.S. has accused of meddling in the presidential campaign. The U.S. also kicked out 35 Russian diplomats in response to what the White House says has been Russia's harassment of American envoys. ___ 9:30 a.m. President Barack Obama is at the Capitol to give congressional Democrats advice on how to combat the Republican drive to dismantle his health care overhaul. Vice President-elect Mike Pence is meeting with GOP lawmakers to discuss the best way to send Obama's cherished law to its graveyard and replace it with well, something. The separate strategy sessions come on the second day of the new GOP-led Congress. In 16 days, Republican Donald Trump replaces Obama at the White House, putting the party's longtime goal of annulling much of the 2010 health care overhaul within reach. Katie Kramer | CNBC. Leon Cooperman's Omega Advisors bought two media stocks in the first quarter, according to a Monday filing with the U.S. Assets under management at Omega Advisors have shrank by more than half to $3.4 billion since the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged the hedge fund giant for insider trading, Leon Cooperman , chairman and CEO, told CNBC on Thursday. In a statement released to CNBC, Cooperman said he is, "truly surprised at the destructive power the SEC has." "This will cost me well over ($100 million) before it's over for no reason because, in the end, the facts will make it clear no improper trading was done," Cooperman said. In September of last year, 73-year-old Cooperman and his hedge fund were accused by the SEC of using insider information in 2010 to generate illegal profits, and then allegedly trying to cover their tracks. According to the investigators, Cooperman bought into Atlas Pipeline Partners (: APL) ahead of a deal, using his status as one of its largest shareholders to acquire nonpublic information about an upcoming transaction. When Atlas struck a deal to sell its Elk City, Oklahoma, operating facilities, its shares' value increased by more than 30 percent. "By doing so, [Cooperman] allegedly undermined the public confidence in the securities markets and took advantage of other investors who did not have this information," said Andrew J. Ceresney, director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement. Cooperman previously told CNBC the charges from the SEC are "without merit," and he planned to fight them "vigorously." After investigators subpoenaed Omega and Cooperman, the hedge fund manager said he had learned a lot about the process and is "anxious" to get into the courtroom to explain the facts. He added that he was saddened by money being "wasted" on the case and said he found the reaction from investors "interesting." "I have one-half dozen legendary and iconic investors that contributed to making America great either managing or founding Fortune 25 companies. To a person, they expressed support for me and Omega, saying they know who I am, what I stand for, and they know what the SEC is all about and stayed with me," he said. Story continues "Then you have the institutional investor who, more often than not (with a professional representing them), redeemed out," he said. "They didn't buy into the fact that under the American system of jurisprudence you are innocent until proven guilty." Cooperman said 100 percent of the redemptions were honored in cash. Andrew J. Ceresney, SEC enforcement director, was scheduled to leave the agency at the end of 2016, according to a press release from the SEC dated Dec. 8. Jon Marino contributed to this report. More From CNBC Is child care in Louisiana affordable? Report says yes, but local experts disagree What are the world's safest airlines? And is it getting safer to fly? Mexicans have blocked service stations, disrupted highway traffic and held protests since the government increased fuel prices by 20.1 percent on January 1 (AFP Photo/HECTOR GUERRERO) (AFP) Mexico City (AFP) - Looting broke out at dozens of stores in Mexico on the sidelines of protests against a steep gasoline price increase as authorities detained more than 200 people. Mexicans have blocked service stations, disrupted highway traffic and staged protests since the government increased fuel prices by 20.1 percent on January 1. Vandalism and looting erupted amid the rising tension, prompting Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong to instruct the National Security Commission to support local authorities. The National Association of Self-Service and Department Stores said 79 shops were looted while access to more than 170 was blocked, mainly in the state of Mexico, the capital, the central state of Hidalgo and the western state of Michoacan. The government of the state of Mexico, which surrounds the capital, said in a statement that 161 people, including 35 minors, were detained for "various acts of vandalism and thefts at shops" in six municipalities. The statement said "some groups of people have seized on the situation to commit thefts and acts of vandalism under the pretext of protesting the liberalization of the price of gasoline." Media images showed people using motorcycles and pick-up trucks to steal goods. Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera told the Televisa network that 23 shops were looted in the capital and 64 people were detained. Some shops closed in the afternoon, but city secretary general Patricia Mercado told local radio "there's no need for that" as she vowed to police would prevent further vandalism. Federal police said 20 new protests and roadblocks have been reported in various parts of the country on Wednesday. State energy company Pemex warned on Tuesday that the blockades were affecting the distribution of fuel and that it had reached a "critical situation" in the northern states of Chihuahua and Durango and the central state of Morelos. President Enrique Pena Nieto defended the price increase, saying it was necessary due to a rise in global oil prices. "I understand the irritation and anger among the population in general," he said, arguing that not increasing the prices would have been more painful for the economy. The government says the increase is a first step before letting the market dictate how much drivers will pay in March as part of a sweeping energy reform. New Orleans police said they have linked Curtis Belton, 23, to a series of at least six armed robberies, the kidnappings of three people and possibly two or more carjacking attempts between last Nov. 18 and Jan. 2. It was a normal Friday night in the French Quarter. Tourists clustered beneath streetlamps as guides pointed out the sites of memorable homici 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. If your home came with unhappy surprises like leaks, cracks, broken mechanical systems, or other defects, the financial responsibility might not be yours alone. What if something was wrong with your house at the time of purchase and someonethe seller, the property seller's real estate agent, or the inspectorcould have or should have told you about it beforehand, but failed to do so? Such problems can come to light days, weeks, or years after the sale, leaving you angry and wondering whether you really have to shoulder the entire financial burden. In such cases, you might actually be able to ask the responsible person to pitch in, and take the matter to court if they don't. Ideally, you'll be able to resolve matters without filing a lawsuit suit. To give you a picture of what might be ahead, however, this article will analyze: who might be held legally responsible, and whether going forward with a lawsuit makes sense. Minor Home Defects or Natural Aging Aren't Grounds for a Lawsuit You probably knew when you bought the house that it wasn't in perfect condition. Some problems, such as a crack in the front walk, might have been obvious. Others, such as aging plumbing, the seller might have told you about in the course of the sale. (In most states, laws require home sellers to disclose all "material" defects to prospective buyers.) Your home inspector, assuming you hired one, probably also told you about a few problems. Then after the sale, your home probably continued its normal process of aging and decaying, leaving you to deal with the consequences. None of these sorts of issues provide any grounds upon which to run back to the seller to complain. Will your insurance company cover the damage? If so, there may be no need to take action on your own. For how to work with your insurance company, see After the Fire or Disaster: Dealing with Your Insurance Company. Could the Home Seller Be Held Legally Responsible? Even if you think you've been wronged, you can't sue everyone who was involved in the sale of your home. The home seller is the first one to consider, of course. As mentioned, nearly every U.S. state has laws requiring sellers to advise buyers of certain defects in the property, typically by filling out a standard disclosure form before the sale is completed. (This responsibility remains even if you bought the house "as is.") The form usually asks the seller to state whether the property has certain features (like appliances, a roof, a foundation, systems for electricity, water, and heating, and more) and then to rate or describe their condition. Some states' disclosure laws are more comprehensive than others, and if a feature isn't on the list, the seller might not be required to speak up. Also, the seller isn't usually required to scout out problems. If there's clearly a place on the form where the seller should have stated a problem but denied it, your job is to try to figure out whether the seller in fact knew about it. For example, if the seller patched over or hid problem areas, or if the neighbors have told you about the seller's efforts to deal with a problem, the evidence is on your side. And even if you're in one of the few states with no mandated seller disclosures, it might be possible, particularly in an egregious situation, to sue the seller for: negligence fraud breach of contract breach of warranty, or negligent misrepresentation. Could the Seller's Real Estate Agent Be Held Legally Responsible? Some states' laws make sellers' real estate agents liable for failing to disclose problems they observed or were told of by the sellers, though often their duties are fairly limited. Check your state's disclosure laws and try to figure out whether the problem would have been apparent to the broker, but not to you, before the sale. Could Your Home Inspector Be Held Legally Responsible? Hopefully, you got a home inspection before buying. In theory, the inspector should have spotted problems that the seller wasn't aware of, or was turning a blind eye to. If the inspector missed problems that an expert (a professional peer) should have noticed, the inspector might be on the hook; that is, legally liable. Read over your inspection report to see what it said about the area in question. Some buyers are embarrassed to find that the problem is spelled out right in the report, or falls within an area that the inspector rightfully excluded from the report. But in other cases, the inspector failed to meet basic standards of professional competence. Do You Have a Solid Case? Once you've figured out the possible responsible parties, you'll want to know whether their actionor inactionmight entitle you to compensation. If your situation meets the criteria below, you might have a good case. We've collapsed a few legal principles into this list, but it will apply to most situations in most U.S. states. The defect was there before you bought the home. The seller couldn't have hidden problems that didn't exist during the period of ownership. Again, problems that started post-purchase or that are a natural result of the home's aging or your lapses in maintenance are yours to deal with. Of course, determining when a problem started can get complicated. For example, a blockage in your sewer line could be a new problem, or it could be a recurrence of a long-time issue with roots growing into the pipes. You might need a professional's analysis. But if the problem could have started before you bought the house, keep reading. The seller couldn't have hidden problems that didn't exist during the period of ownership. Again, problems that started post-purchase or that are a natural result of the home's aging or your lapses in maintenance are yours to deal with. Of course, determining when a problem started can get complicated. For example, a blockage in your sewer line could be a new problem, or it could be a recurrence of a long-time issue with roots growing into the pipes. You might need a professional's analysis. But if the problem could have started before you bought the house, keep reading. It's not an obvious defect that you could have seen yourself before buying. If there was a huge crack running across the living room ceiling at the open house and you've only now decided to bring it up, no dice. But if the crack was hidden by a false ceiling, the matter might be worth pursuing. Don't worry if your inspector should have seen the problem. That just means you've got a potential claim against the inspector, too. If there was a huge crack running across the living room ceiling at the open house and you've only now decided to bring it up, no dice. But if the crack was hidden by a false ceiling, the matter might be worth pursuing. Don't worry if your inspector should have seen the problem. That just means you've got a potential claim against the inspector, too. No one told you about the defect before the sale, or someone actually lied to you about it. The responsible party might have been the seller, the seller's agent, or the inspector, as explained above. The responsible party might have been the seller, the seller's agent, or the inspector, as explained above. You relied on the lies or nondisclosures. This one's usually easy. If, for example, you took the seller's word that a remodel job was up to code in deciding to buy or in setting your price, you acted in reliance. This one's usually easy. If, for example, you took the seller's word that a remodel job was up to code in deciding to buy or in setting your price, you acted in reliance. You've incurred monetary damage as a result. Your costs of repairs or related damages (such as destruction of your personal property due to a flooded basement, or a decrease in your property value due to an undisclosed environmental hazard) will become legally speaking, the "damages" that you may collecteven if you haven't paid any out-of-pocket costs yet (for example, you need a new foundation but haven't actually hired a contractor to build it). But don't expect to collect damages that go beyond the house itself, such as for your pain and suffering or lost time. Your costs of repairs or related damages (such as destruction of your personal property due to a flooded basement, or a decrease in your property value due to an undisclosed environmental hazard) will become legally speaking, the "damages" that you may collecteven if you haven't paid any out-of-pocket costs yet (for example, you need a new foundation but haven't actually hired a contractor to build it). But don't expect to collect damages that go beyond the house itself, such as for your pain and suffering or lost time. You're within any appropriate deadlines ("statutes of limitation"). Every state puts limits on how long you have, from the date you discover a problem or reasonably should have discovered it, to sue someone. The legislators don't want you dragging the seller into court 20 years after the sale, when no one recalls what happened. Most statutes of limitations are somewhere between two and ten years, but this will depend on where you are and what type of claim you have. Even if you think you meet the above criteria, remember that in an actual lawsuit, it will be your job to convince a judge. Hence the more evidence you can start gathering, the better. Legal Basis for Filing a Lawsuit In legalese, you could potentially sue someone based on any of the following principles, or some combination of them: Again, the law in your state will govern which theory might best fit your case. Where to Sue Over Home Defects Your main options for actually filing a lawsuit include: small claims court, if the damages are under a certain limit, or state court. Filing in small claims court allows you to proceed with your case without a lot of the expensive administrative hassles of a "regular" lawsuit. You can represent yourself (in some states, attorneys are actually forbidden), the rules are typically not as rigid, and your case should be resolved relatively quickly. However, every state places a dollar limit on the amount of damages you can sue forusually somewhere between $1,500 and $15,000. To find your state's exact limit, see 50-State Chart of Small Claims Court Limits. Even if your damages are over the limitfor example, if the repairs cost $8,000 and the limit is $5,000bringing a suit for $5,000 and forgetting about the rest might make economic sense because you will save time and attorney's fees. If the amount of monetary damages you're asking for exceeds the small claims court limit, your next option is filing suit in state court, most likely with the help of an attorney. Some attorneys will take this type of case on a contingency basis, meaning you don't pay a fee upfront but pay a large percentage (30-40%) of the damage award. You might still be responsible for paying court costs and other fees, plus expenses such as the attorney's phone calls and postage. Or, the court may award reimbursement of attorney's fees as part of your damages. CHARLESTON, SC / ACCESSWIRE / January 4, 2017 / Mission Solutions Group ("MSG"), Inc., a Delaware Corporation and Veteran Owned Small Business (VOSB), announced today the closing of a financing received from Inmost Partners, LLC ("Inmost"). The funds received were part of the establishment of Inmost's new Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) geared towards providing affordable term loan financing in the Government receivables space. MSG is a family of premier companies providing dedicated mission critical support in the Communications/Cyber-Security and Sustainment verticals, which includes Marshall Communications and Sidecar Enterprises, a Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB). Part of the company's growth strategy is through acquisition of additional companies in these spaces and the debt instrument with Inmost Partners provides a low-cost venue to facilitate this activity. "We are excited about the closure of the debt instrument with Inmost, as it will enhance our ability to continue our growth activities through both M&A and organic growth and, even more importantly, it does so in a manner that provides a cost-effective alternative, which will further enhance our profitability. The company completed its first acquisition just over a year ago, and has since grown to two companies in our portfolio and is a $30 Million profitable company in its first year of operations." said Damon Walsh, Mission Solutions Group's CEO. Eliot Kang, CEO/Managing Partner of Inmost stated, "Inmost is equally excited about taking this initial step as a means of providing viable debt financing alternatives to Veteran Owned Small Businesses serving the U.S. Government; we believe this is an underserved market to which we can offer a valuable service." Under the terms of the agreement, Inmost provides term financing, with an initial funding of $2 Million, using an innovative approach of collateralizing the loan with Government and other highly reliable accounts receivable. Story continues Ardour Capital Investments, LLC (a member of FINRA and SIPC) acted as Financial Advisor in facilitating this agreement. About Mission Solutions Group Mission Solutions Group ("MSG") is a family of premier companies providing dedicated mission critical support in the Communications/Cyber-Security and Sustainment verticals to support the U.S. military's important missions around the globe. MSG was founded by military and defense industry veterans with Special Operations, Force Protection, and solution development / implementation backgrounds. The MSG executive leadership team represents over 150 years of professional experience serving the DoD and commercial marketplace in all facets. For more information on Mission Solutions Group, please visit www.missionsolutionsgroup.com. Safe Harbor Statement This news release may contain "forward-looking" statements. These forward-looking statements are only predictions and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ from those in the forward looking-statements. Actual results may differ materially from the forward-looking statements in this press release. Statements made herein are as of the date of this press release and should not be relied upon as of any subsequent date. The Company does not undertake, and it specifically disclaims, any obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect occurrences, developments, events, or circumstances after the date of such statement. Contact: Damon Walsh CEO Mission Solutions Group, Inc. 717 Old Trolley Road, Suite 6-275 Summerville, SC 29485 PH: 843-860-9074 SOURCE: Mission Solutions Group Working and Other Daily Life Issues for Undocumented Immigrants Although many immigrants live in the U.S. without lawful immigration status, that doesn't mean they're entirely without rights. If you're in this category, learn more about these rights, and various day-to-day issues, here. If you miss the filing deadline set by Wyoming's statute of limitations, your property damage lawsuit will likely be dismissed. In Wyoming, as in every state, if you've had your property damaged as a result of someone else's careless or intentional action, you might consider filing a lawsuit over what happened. If so, it's critical to understand the statute of limitations and how it applies to your potential case. A "statute of limitations", for those not familiar with the term, is a state law that puts a strictly-enforced limit on how much time can pass before you must file your case. Miss the deadline and you effectively lose the right to bring your case to court. Every state has these laws on the books, with different time limits depending on the kind of case being filed. In this article, we'll explain the property damage lawsuit filing deadline in Wyoming, the consequences of missing the deadline, and a few rare situations in which you might be able to extend the time limit. The Lawsuit Filing Deadline in Wyoming In Wyoming, whether your potential case involves damage to real property (your house, some other building, or your land) or personal property (including vehicle damage), it must be brought to the state's civil court system within four years, according to Wyoming Statutes Annotated section 1-3-105(a)(iv) . Specifically, this statute sets a four-year deadline for all lawsuits arising from: "trespass upon real property" "taking, detaining or injuring personal property", and "an injury to the rights of the plaintiff, not arising on contract and not herein enumerated" (This is something of a "catch-all" time limit, in other words. If damage to real property is not considered a "trespass" under the circumstances, then a lawsuit for damage to real property will almost certainly fall under this description). So, a vehicle damage claim after a car accident must be brought within four years in Wyoming. The same goes for a lawsuit by a homeowner who alleges that physical damage to the exterior of his/her house was caused by someone else's negligence. The four-year "clock" typically starts running when the property owner becomes aware (or should reasonably have become aware) of the incident that led to the damage. Missing the Filing Deadline in Wyoming If you try to file your Wyoming property damage lawsuit after the time limit has passed, you can count on the defendant (the person you're trying to sue) filing a motion with the court, asking that the case be dismissed. And the court is certain to grant the dismissal unless rare circumstances make an extension of the deadline appropriate (more on these rules later). If your lawsuit is dismissed as time-barred under the statute of limitations, you've essentially lost your right to any legal remedy for your damaged property. So it's crucial to pay attention to (and comply with) the Wyoming statute of limitations for property damage cases, even if you're fairly certain you'll be able to resolve the situation without resorting to a lawsuit. Extending the Lawsuit Filing Deadline in Wyoming For property damage claims -- and for most other kinds of civil lawsuits in Wyoming -- a number of situations could serve to extend the four-year lawsuit filing deadline. For example, special rules usually apply if, at the time the property damage occurs, the property owner is under the age of 18 or is considered to be under any other "legal disability." That usually includes a plaintiff who has been declared mentally incompetent in the eyes of the court. Once the period of disability ends -- meaning the property owner turns 18 or is declared mentally competent, for example -- he or she will have the full four years to get the property damage lawsuit filed. This rule can be found at Wyoming Statutes Annotated section 1-3-114. And, under Wyoming Statutes Annotated section 1-3-116, if the person who is alleged to have caused the property damage "departs from the state or absconds or conceals himself" within the state of Wyoming before the lawsuit can be filed, the period of that absence or concealment probably won't be counted as part of the four-year time limit for filing suit. Other circumstances may affect the Wyoming statute of limitations, and how it's calculated. If you've got questions about the statute of limitations as it applies to your potential property damage lawsuit, an experienced Wyoming attorney will have the answers. Learn more about Finding an Excellent Lawyer. Welcome to nonleaguedaily.coms news provision, your go-to source for all non league updates, rumours, interviews, and much more besides. Founded by a team with a genuine passion for the world of non league football, nonleaguedaily.com understands exactly what supporters of the so-called lower leagues are looking for. You want the high-quality reporting, in-depth analysis, and match reporting that matches that is more commonly found in the journalism for the top flights, but with the focus firmly fixed on the national leagues. We understand that your passion, interest, and dedication is constant, and we believe you need a news service that matches that commitment with its own dedication and thoroughness so thats what you can expect from our site. The latest non league news, as and when it happens Conventionally, non league news has always travelled fairly slowly, especially when compared to the instantaneous, constant breaking news cycles found in the upper leagues. Tales are told on terraces, rumours passed between pub patrons and circled between supporters at the latest game, often forced to remain somewhat local initially before word eventually spreads to other locales. For us, this slow spread may be fairly organic in nature, but it simply isnt compatible with the modern football environment. Its also not conducive to the current fast-paced, always-available media landscape, nor the way that people tend to consume news nowadays. Thats why we have put together a non league news source that fans can turn to for the latest updates, as and when they happen, and as and when you want to read them. Non-league news now is the only acceptable speed at Betting.co.uk. We update our non-league football news coverage constantly, bringing you all the latest developments and seeking to spread the word as quickly and accurately as possible. So if youre wondering whats happening both with your local team and with the lower leagues as a whole, you can visit us for non league news now, and be confident the stories you find are completely up to date. News reported by passionate fans Our efforts to bring you the very best non league football news are undeniably a professional concern, and one that we take seriously. We are if youll excuse the uncharacteristic tooting of our own horns good at what we do, and we know that the efforts we make in this regard are one of the reasons our site has enjoyed such success thus far. However, everyone who writes for us also shares our readers enthusiasm for non league football. Were not just churning out content in the hopes of cashing in on a professional dream; were here because we want to be, and will always be dedicated and committed to non league football as an entity and thriving in the experience of being able to talk about our favourite subject whenever we can. We create non-league news now that is written by genuine fans and enthusiasts, for fans. We know what you want to know and what matters most to an ardent non league supporter, and we always ensure that focusing on these elements is our guiding principle as we seek to solidify our status as an online non league paper fans can always rely on. When compiling non league news, we think with the mind of a fan first and foremost. We cover the angles and stories that we find compelling and that we know our fellow non league enthusiasts also care about. News doesnt have to be dry and formulaic, in our opinion. When its written by people who are genuinely as fascinated by the stories they are reporting on as their readership will be, we believe news can be interesting, compelling, and even have a sense of personality and humour. News content written with passion and expertise We believe that thanks to our dedication, insightfulness, and commitment to our subject matter of non league today, we are offering the best of both worlds to those searching for an online non league paper. We give you the professional approach we feel is appropriate for news about one of the most intriguing aspects of UK football; an aspect that we genuinely feel does not receive the interest and plaudits that it should be generating. Nevertheless, we dont let that professionalism take over everything we do: we remain committed fans, nurturing our own personal interest in non league football and ensuring every word we compose is infused with a sense of passion and dedication that enhances the posts we create. Its therefore obvious that our non-league content today isnt ever going to be dry, basic, or put together by a tired staff writer who has never heard of any team below the Championship before they rush off to the pub for the evening. Our writers are genuine experts: were covering non league football because we want to, because we believe in it, and because its where our strengths lie. The result is informed content that capitalises on our deep knowledge of the history, as well as the present-day realities, of non league football in the UK. Beyond news: the nonleaguedaily.com interview series One of our goals with nonleaguedaily.com is to not just dryly report the news from an outsiders perspective, effectively regurgitating press releases that are devoid of genuinely illuminating information. We also go right to the source of the stories: the managers and club insiders who have direct experience, and often influence, on the sport and how it is managed. We regularly conduct interviews as part of our news provision, asking the questions that are on everyones lips and providing the best possible view into the non league world. We have reporters pitchside at matches, microphone to hand and plentiful questions ready to be asked. The end result for you, the reader, is the kind of information and close-up looks into the non league world that just cant be found anywhere else. As our commitment to providing interesting interviews amply demonstrates, we want to be involved in breaking the stories that everyone then talks about, rather than following along and focusing solely on what everyone already knows. If youre looking for leading content that you cant find anywhere else, and that goes right to the centre of the non league world, then you can turn to nonleaguedaily.com for all the benefits of a conventional non league paper, but in electronic, easily-accessed form. A host of other content to enjoy alongside the non league today Our focus on providing non league news will always be maintained: we consider this aspect the most important of what we do, and it will always be the recipient of our time, dedication, and interest. Well be here, a consistent and trustworthy news portal, for as long as non league football news exists. With that said, when you have read up on the latest goings-on, were here with further content for you to enjoy. Naturally, given our partnership with leading brand Betting.co.uk, we provide guidelines for those interested in the world of sports betting. Well help you find the best UK bookmaker with our plentiful coverage of existing brands; ideal if youre looking to put your newfound knowledge, courtesy of us, about non league to use and place a few bets. Furthermore, we also provide highlights of all the latest UK betting offers, so you can ensure youre achieving the best value with all the latest betting deals whenever youre betting on the latest non league matches. Youll find all of this coverage is as consistent and reliable as our non league news provision, Non league features and deep dives Returning to the world of non league football, we also provide a range of feature content that goes deeper and further into the non league world than ever before. Less instantaneously topical but still hugely relevant to the modern game, our features are the dream deep dives that we feel non league fans deserve. Were always striving to do better, offer more, and ensure that non league fans can enjoy the same wealth of content as followers of the top tiers, so you can expect top-flight content with the same commitment and dedication as found throughout the upper echelons of the sport. So whether youre looking to find the most recent non league football news, seeking a new bookmaker for your non league bets, or hoping to delve deep into a niche non league-related topic, nonleaguedaily.com is always going to be worth a visit. Return to nonleaguedaily.com for all your non league news needs Weve told you what you can expect from nonleaguedaily.coms news; now we need to put our confidence where our promises are, make sure we deliver on those promises, and establish trust as an online non league paper you can trust. We look forward to welcoming you back to our news section and showcasing the best we have to offer, from exciting new non league interviews to cutting-edge news to transfer speculation. If you want to truly have your finger on the non league pulse, then nonleaguedaily.com is always going to be here for you. NASA will launch two space missions to asteroids to gather evidence about the early days of the solar system. The unmanned Lucy and Psyche missions will launch in 2021, and 2023, respectively. Both will travel to asteroids Lucy to a cluster of asteroids near Jupiter known as the Trojan asteroids, and Psyche to an unexplored, and unusual, large asteroid made of metal in the main asteroid belt. The Trojan asteroids near Jupiter are thought to be remnants of an earlier period in the history of the solar system. "This is a unique opportunity," said Harold F. Levison, principal investigator of the Lucy mission from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, in a news release."Because the Trojans are remnants of the primordial material that formed the outer planets, they hold vital clues to deciphering the history of the solar system. Lucy, like the human fossil for which it is named, will revolutionize the understanding of our origins." The Psyche mission will travel to the asteroid 16 Psyche, which is comprised mostly of iron and nickel, unlike most asteroids, which tend to be rocky or icy, according to the release. The metals are also found in the Earth's core, leading researchers to think the asteroid may be the remnants of a Mars- or Earth-like planet that long ago lost its rocky outer layers. "16 Psyche is the only known object of its kind in the solar system, and this is the only way humans will ever visit a core," said Psyche Principal Investigator Lindy Elkins-Tanton, of Arizona State University. Something went wrong, please try again later. Invalid email Something went wrong, please try again later. Our free email updates are the best way to get headlines direct to your inbox The deal to buy a key development site in Nottingham that has lain derelict for more than three decades has now been completed for 13.5m. Conygar Investment Company PLC has told the London Stock Exchange it now owns the 38-acre "Boots Island" site in the city's Eastside, which could eventually bring hundreds of homes and thousands of jobs. It comes after the Post revealed in November that a buyer had been lined up to take over the land from Heathcote Holdings, which had not begun any work to transform the wasteland despite owning it since 1994. Regeneration specialist Lavignac Securities was said to be the buyer but it has now emerged that fellow London firm Conygar completed the deal, with the two companies now working together in a partnership. The Post understands this is because of the previous difficulties in having a single owner trying to bring forward a development plan for a project on this scale. In a statement to the Stock Exchange, Conygar said: "The site represents an extremely interesting development opportunity with the potential for a mixture of office, residential and student housing accommodation. "The site has a lapsed planning consent for a mixed-use scheme and the company will provide a further update once a new planning application has been submitted." Conygar chief executive Robert Ware added: "We are delighted to have secured this exciting development opportunity which has not progressed for many years. "Working with Nottingham City Council and several identified potential occupiers, we look forward to developing this site as soon as is practical." Lavignac has previously had success developing other sites across the UK, including a mixed-use Royal Mills in Great Ancoats Street, on the outskirts of Manchester. Development director Douglas West told the Post in November it hoped to submit a planning application to the council in 2017. He believes the site, which sites between Manvers Street at the bottom of Sneinton and London Road, could accommodate about 600,000 sq ft of office space and 500 apartments. Conygar's projects it is currently working on include a 40m superstore and restaurants complex at The Old Brickworks site at Llandudno Junction, in Wales. But it announced this week it had pulled out of a 100m waterfront development in Pembrokeshire after the 8m estimated costs more than doubled. Councillor Jon Collins, leader of Nottingham City Council, welcomed the Boots Island deal. He said: "After a long period of stagnation on the Island site, we are pleased to hear of the change of ownership and hope this will mean development of the site soon. "We look forward to working positively with Lavignac and Conygar as they endeavour to bring forward plans that Nottingham can be proud of for the site." The council first unveiled a masterplan proposing high-quality apartments, office space, commercial premises and light industrial units in December 2014. As part of a process that could eventually lead to the council making a compulsory purchase order, it began investigatory works to assess the site's suitability for such a proposal in September. Despite the Conygar and Lavignac deal, Mr Collins said last month the council would continue to pursue the order as a precaution, in case the project collapsed once more. Library offers computer series for beginners The North Platte Public Library is planning three computer classes at 6:30 p.m. on Mondays, Jan. 9, Jan. 23 and Jan. 30. This three-class series is for the beginning computer user and taught on Windows 7 laptop computers in the librarys first floor meeting room. While new computers have Windows 10, the basic concepts of using computers are the same This class will get attendees familiar with using the mouse and keyboard, learning to use Windows operating systems, opening programs, using WordPad, saving a file and using the internet. Each class is two hours and attendees will receive a take-home handout. Minimum class size is three people with a maximum number of 10 per class. The cost of the series is $10 per person. Preregistration is required. Call the library at 308-535-8036, ext. 3320, to register or for questions. Home painting program offered at public library If repainting rooms is one of your New Years resolutions, come to the North Platte Public Library at 10 a.m. on Saturday. Home Improvement 101 is a new program series sponsored by the library, Habitat for Humanity and Lincoln County Community Development Corporation. This series is all about tips and techniques for home repair and upkeep from local business experts. This month, the speaker is Nicky Weitzel, manager of Sherwin-Williams. She will talk about differences between paint brands and types such as satin and flat. Weitzel will also give painting technique tips and advice on the fastest way to paint a room. No reservations are needed. Campaign puts 74 drivers under arrest Troopers with the Nebraska State Patrol arrested 74 impaired drivers during the two-week long You Drink and Drive, You Lose national enforcement campaign from Dec. 15 through Jan. 1. In addition to the 74 impaired drivers arrested, 15 juveniles were cited for minor in possession of alcohol and 48 open container citations were issued. Troopers also issued 5,441 speeding citations/warnings, 119 driving under suspension and 59 no proof of insurance citations. Troopers also wrote 322 seat belt and 50 child restraint citations/warnings. Motorist assistance was provided to 1,141 travelers. Troopers and Communication Specialists put in overtime hours during the special enforcement, thanks in part to a $27,375 grant from the Nebraska Department of Roads-Highway Safety Office. LEXINGTON A second person has been charged in connection with a Dawson County homicide. Melissa Callahan, 34, of Elm Creek was arrested on suspicion of felony accessory to first-degree murder and with two felony counts of probation violations, according to the Dawson County Jail roster. She was in the jail this morning. Sheriff Gary Reiber said the accessory to first-degree murder charge is in connection with the first-degree murder case in Dawson County. Jose Regalado-Mendez, 40, was arrested and detained in Dawson County Jail Wednesday on suspicion of murder. He was charged with first-degree murder, a Class IA felony, and use of a weapon to commit a felony, a Class IC felony, according to court records. The Dawson County Sheriffs Office said the homicide occurred at Regalado-Mendezs residence 2 miles north of Lexington on 434 Road. On Dec. 12, the body of Jose Hernandez, 37, also known as Juan Marco Ornelas and Chepe, was found by law enforcement personnel under pallets and fencing near a corn bin on the five-acre property, Dawson County Chief Deputy Mike Hudson said in a December interview. According to an autopsy, Hernandez died of blunt force trauma and asphyxiation, Hudson said in December. Continuing investigation into the matter revealed that on or about Oct. 4, Regalado-Mendez pointed a firearm at Hernandez and fired at him, which contributed to Hernandezs death, court records now say. Where Hernandez was from hadnt yet been determined, Hudson said in the December interview, but Hernandez did have ties to Lexington and had been staying in the Lexington area. Hernandez had family in California, Hudson said. During the investigation on Dec. 12, Hudson said, drugs were allegedly found in Regalado-Mendezs home. According to a Kearney Police Department report, it helped with the investigation and noted blood spatter, weapons, ammunition and drug paraphernalia were found during the investigation. On Dec. 12, Regalado-Mendez was arrested and detained in the Dawson County Jail on charges of possession of a controlled substance, a Class IV felony; and misdemeanor narcotic equipment possession, an infraction; according to court records. Regalado-Mendez was questioned about the human remains and denied any knowledge of its existence, identity or his involvement that led to the remains being discovered on the property, court records say. Regalado-Mendez was also charged in Dawson County Court with theft by receiving stolen property, a Class IV felony. A stolen Chevrolet Trailblazer was allegedly found on his property on Oct. 24. On Nov. 3, the case was dismissed without prejudice, which means the case may be refiled later. Regalado-Mendez is set to be arraigned on the drug charges on Jan. 23. His preliminary hearing for the murder case is on Jan. 26 in Dawson County Court. Bond was not allowed, and he remains in jail. If convicted of a Class IA felony, Regalado-Mendez faces up to life in prison, and if convicted of a Class IC felony, he faces up to 50 years in prison. VALPARAISO More than hosting a speaker and a day off from classes, Valparaiso University's annual celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is intended to engage the university and all of Northwest Indiana in a dialogue about race and justice. VU's 27th annual MLK Celebration is set for Jan. 16. "We don't take a day off, we consider it a day of service," said Byron Martin, director of multicultural programs at Valparaiso University. The university will remember the legacy of the civil rights leader at its celebration, which this year will focus on the theme Conscious Humanity: What is Justice? The daylong program includes lectures, presentations and interactive discussions. Martin said the sessions will deal with the questions of humanity and justice and what it means in today's culture, both locally and around the country. The format for this year's program is different from previous years. Participants this year will choose one of four tracks with different takes on the theme of justice. One deals with the basics of justice, one deals with justice and society, a third deals with justice and faith and the final track addresses criminal justice both locally and around the country, Martin said. This year's keynote speaker is Cornel West, lecturer and activist, professor of philosophy and Christian practice at Union Theological Seminary and professor emeritus at Princeton University. He is the author of Black Prophetic Fire, about 19th- and 20th-century African-American leaders and their visionary legacies. He has appeared on the Bill Maher Show, CNN and C-Span. "We will talk not only about Martin Luther King's dream, but where do we go from here," Byron said. He said a committee of faculty, staff and students from all areas of the campus are involved in planning the event. "Students engage in a real and tangible way," Martin said. "Everybody dives in." Many in the community will participate, including city workers, nonprofits and their clients, and other individuals. Some schools send students. Martin praised the involvement of Valparaiso city officials for their participation. "Martin Luther King Jr.s life is an American story of courage, justice and equality; a compelling story that must never fade from our collective conscience," said Mayor Jon Costas. "The city is proud to be a sponsor of VUs inspiring MLK events. It's a celebration I look forward to every year." Martin said many people are off work that day. He encourages people to use the day to learn more about the issues of humanity and justice by participating. It also can be used for staff development for businesses in the Region. He said many businesses are dedicated to issues of diversity and inclusion, and the MLK program is a way to sharpen those skills of diversity and inclusion. The goal of the program is to move people to action and motivate people to examine the issue of justice in their lives, Martin said. "It's not a one-day-and-done kind of thing," he said. "It's a day on, not a day off. It's who we are," Martin said about VU's commitment to MLK's message. "I hope for us to re-energize and rethink our conversations about humanity and how we see each other as human beings and examine our day-to-day walk with others." All programs are free and open to the public. There is a cost for meals. For more information about location, times and to register, go to valpo.edu/mlk. The Sears Appliance and Hardware Store in Valparaiso will soon be shuttered, the latest in a spate of big-box store closings across the Calumet Region. This year has been a very bloody one so far for retail in the Region. Carson's will close its Clearance Center in Lansing on Jan. 31, and Sears Holdings Corp. just announced it would close the Kmart big-box stores in Chesterton and LaPorte. Macy's does not plan to shut down any Region locations when it winds down 68 stores nationwide, but it is planning 10,100 layoffs across the country, which could include some jobs at its locations in Hobart and Calumet City. All in all, the Region could lose more than 300 retail jobs amid the wave of closures. The retail sector is a major employer in Northwest Indiana. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates more than 40,000 people work in the retail trade in Lake, Porter, LaPorte, Jasper, Newton, Starke and Pulaski counties. Macy's will lay off 3,900 employees at the stores it is closing, but also plans to slash another 6,200 jobs. Some of the cuts will come from eliminating layers of management at its headquarters. But Macy's will also make "changes to the way stores are operated and reducing field infrastructure given the reduced store sales and evolving customer behavior," according to a news release. Company spokeswoman Holly Thomas said Macy's did not have a breakdown of the number of jobs to be eliminated by location, outside of at the stores that would be shuttered. Macy's hopes to save $550 million from the cuts and invest $250 million in growing its business online and in stores. Chairman and CEO Terry Lundgren said Macy's was adjusting as more customers migrate to online and mobile shopping, such as by putting more focus on in-store pickup of online orders. "We continue to experience declining traffic in our stores where the majority of our business is still transacted," he said. Sears Holdings is not yet disclosing how many employees will lose their jobs when it closes the Kmart stores in Chesterton and LaPorte, leaving the Griffith and Valparaiso locations as the only ones remaining in Northwest Indiana. Kmart reported in a WARN notice to the state of Indiana that it laid off 99 employees when it closed its Merrillville big-box store in December. The company is required by law to inform the state of mass layoffs. "Those associates that are eligible will receive severance and have the opportunity to apply for open positions at area Sears or Kmart stores," Corporate Communications Director Howard Riefs said. "Most of the associates are part time and hourly." A Kmart store also closed in July at 17355 Torrence Ave. in Lansing. The 20,000-square-foot Sears Appliance and Hardware Store at 1270 Strongbow Center in Valparaiso is now having a liquidation sale. An employee said the big-box store should close within a week. It is near a Wal-Mart Supercenter, and it opened in 1996 to replace a much smaller location by a Wiseway supermarket on U.S. 30. The Sears appliance and hardware store employed about 45 workers when it first opened. The reeling Sears corporation, which is trying to stay afloat by selling off its Craftsman brand of tools, also shuttered its Sears Appliance and Hardware Store on Indianapolis Boulevard in Schererville last year. All told, Sears Holdings will soon have closed six different Calumet Region stores since the beginning of 2016. Bon-Ton Stores Inc. also decided not to renew the lease this year for its 20,000-square-foot Carsons Clearance Center at The Landings Shopping Center, which it opened in 2013 after closing its Carson's department store at the nearby River Oaks Center in Calumet City. The 60 displaced employees were offered jobs at other Bon-Ton locations or career transition benefits, including severance, according to the company. Closing this store was a difficult decision, said Kathryn Bufano, president and chief executive officer for The Bon-Ton Stores, Inc. We would like to thank the loyal customers who have shopped with Carsons over the years as well as our devoted store associates for their dedication and friendly customer service to this community." If there's one musical artist proven to be recession-proof, politics-proof and truly unifying when it comes to people of all ages, races and cultures, it's that shaky-legged kid from Tupelo, Mississippi. Elvis Presley -- the image, the songs, the very name -- transports folks to a simpler time when the nation was united as a people, and kids from coast to coast raced to local record stores to snatch up the latest record by the rocker. Elvis shows with tribute artists are like a snapshot in time," said Danny Lentino, guitarist and band leader of The Fabulous Ambassadors Show Band. "These shows take people back to a time long passed. They give people a chance to experience what Elvis was like in concert in his prime. His fans know the songs and want to experience the music live. These tribute artists give them that opportunity. "Elvis epitomizes a time in our history when a dirt poor sharecroppers son could grow up to become a king," added Northwest Indiana concert promoter Omar Farag. Farag, along with Lentino, fans the flames of "burnin' love" for the late rock 'n' roll icon with the presentation of the annual Elvis Tribute Artist Spectacular. Quite simply, Elvis Presley was the greatest entertainer of all time," said Farag, whose "O.M.A.R. Presents...," celebrates the anniversary of Presley's Jan. 8 birth each year by assembling an amazing collective of performers to recreate the various eras of Presleys career. The annual two week traveling Elvis Tribute Artist Spectacular tour kicks off next week, starring internationally-famous Elvis performers Shawn Klush, Ryan Pelton, Cody Ray Slaughter, and Rick Saucedo, who was the first headliner when the tour began 30 years ago. The tour stops at Star Plaza Theatre on Saturday. The show also hits Skokie's North Shore Center today, Rockford's Coronado Performing Arts Center Friday, and Indianapolis' Pike Performing Arts Center on Jan. 13. The tour also travels to Ohio, New York Utah and Kentucky. Full tour and ticket info: elvisbirthdaytribute.com. "Elvis music is timeless. We see the audiences get younger and younger. People of all ages connect with his music in a way like no other entertainer except maybe the Beatles, added Farag. There was only ONE Elvis," said Klush, considered the world's best Elvis tribute artist. " What I do is a celebration of Elvis life and music. I want people to bring their kids and grand kids to the shows to introduce them to Elvis legacy. This is how we can continue to keep Elvis memory alive for generations to come. (shawnklush.com) An Elvis tribute artist for many years, Pelton even portrayed a fictional Elvis-type character in the 2015 Hollywood film, "The Identical," opposite Ashley Judd. "I really enjoy singing Elvis' songs and seeing the way people light up when they hear them," Pelton said. (ryanpelton.com) The first time I went on stage as Elvis was in second grade, added Slaughter, the youngest of the side-burned bunch of entertainers. I had a homemade jumpsuit, a bad wig and I lip-synced at a school talent show. (codyrayslaughter.com) Elvis' original drummer DJ Fontana (heard on all of Presley's records through the 1960s), Mark Blackwood's Blackwood Quartet, and The Sweet Inspirations, all contribute to the Elvis Tribute Artist Spectacular musical performances. They add a sense of authenticity to the mix with their stories about the Elvis they knew. (blackwoodquartet.net) The stories and memories they share are wonderful, said Klush. DJ was with him from the beginning and The Sweets worked with Elvis from 1969 until June 26, 1977 in Indianapolis for his final concert. Having them perform with us on these shows just as they did with Elvis is phenomenal. Elvis always had a presence that can still be felt whenever you hear those old songs, noted Rock And Roll Hall of Fame inductee Fontana, nicknamed The Tennessee Thunder. When Elvis walked into a room you could just feel the energy and when he unleashed that energy on stage, whoa boy, watch out! (djfontana.com) Of being called by Elvis to play live on the historic Christmas Special later dubbed as "The '68 Comeback Special," Fontana recalled "Elvis wanted some of us from the old days with him for that because he was really nervous. The Beatles changed music while he was off making movies and Elvis didn't think people would want him anymore. It helped him having us there. Of course, he pulled it off and was amazing." More than anything else, Elvis loved singing gospel music," remembered Estelle Brown, the sole surviving member of The Sweet Inspirations line-up that backed the legend. "Elvis would warm up before shows with all of us gathered around him singing gospel songs he sang as a child in church," Brown said. "I personally believe Elvis would have gone on to focus more on gospel music and would have recorded more gospel records if he had lived. Elvis was one of the most spiritual people Ive ever known and I still feel him up there with us every night when we perform. (thesweetinspirations.org) "Elvis' voice still connects with people in a very special way," said Farag. "A song that Elvis, DJ, Scotty and Bill did over 50 years ago still rocks today like it rocked then. Elvis' style was cool then and it still is, which is why these shows attract so many fans not even born when Elvis was alive." "He would be surprised I think, and of course very happy about it," Fontana said, of what Presley might think of all the hoopla his name and music still create. "Yes," agreed Brown. "I believe that Elvis is smiling down on us all, very happy to see so many people still remember and love him." FYI: Elvis Tribute Birthday Spectacular, starring Shawn Klush, Ryan Pelton, Cody Ray Slaughter, and Rick Saucedo will be performed at 8 p.m. Saturday at Star Plaza Theatre, Interstate 65 and U.S. 30, Merrillville. Tickets are $25 to $55. Call (800) 745-3000 or visit starplazatheatre. GARY A 20-year-old faces charges of resisting law enforcement and reckless driving after leading a police officer on a car chase early Wednesday with a 15-year-old passenger in the vehicle, according to police. Isaac J. Meyes, of Gary, also was cited for disregarding a stop sign, reckless driving and driving with a suspended license, according to Mark Back, spokesman with the Lake County Sheriff's Department. About 3:20 a.m. Wednesday, a Lake County sheriff's officer was in the area of 47th and Grant streets when he saw a white Chevrolet Impala disregard two stop signs, Back said. The officer activated his emergency lights and sirens to conduct a traffic stop, Back said. Meyes fled several blocks until he almost lost control of his vehicle in the 5200 block of Harrison Street as he passed another vehicle, police said. At that point, the officer lost sight of Meyes, police said. The vehicle was stopped later by Merrillville police in the 6100 block of Broadway where Meyes was taken into custody. A 15-year-old passenger was released on the scene to an adult guardian. CROWN POINT The Lake County Council is preparing to take towing away from the scandal-ridden Sheriff's Department. The County Council announced Thursday at its first workshop meeting of 2017 that it is preparing an ordinance to be read as early as Tuesday removing from Sheriff John Buncich the authority to hire towing firms county police use to remove cars from public streets. The ordinance would transfer that power to the Lake County Board of Commissioners. County Councilman Dan Dernulc, R-Highland, said, "We are doing this because of the things that have been happening." That is a reference to the federal investigation into towing bribery that became public Nov. 10 when the FBI and state police raided the Sheriff's Department for towing records. A week later, U.S. Attorney David Capp charged Buncich, Tim Downs, the sheriff's second in command, and a Lake Station towing firm owner on allegations Buncich solicited bribes and campaign contributions. The government alleges Buncich personally chose which towing firms were on the department's approved list and gave the more lucrative assignment to the firms that gave him the most money. Buncich has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial. Downs pleaded guilty last month to soliciting political contributions from towing firms under Buncich's order. Ray Szarmach, the council's attorney, said the commissioners used to control towing contracts until the council changed the rules 17 years ago and gave it to the sheriff. Buncich didn't attend the workshop meeting and couldn't be reached Thursday for comment. Commissioner Mike Repay, D-Hammond, said Thursday, "I welcome this." He said the commissioners will be preparing specifications similar to those used by state police to ensure only the most qualified towing firms work for the county. The ordinance states a qualified towing firm must be open for business 24 hours a day and carry at least $1 million in liability insurance. "We may want them to have a certain number of trucks or have been in business for a certain length of time," Repay said. Repay said he would expect commissioners to debate and hire towing firms at public meetings. Buncich had named approved towing firms without any public input. The ordinance also will take from the sheriff's department the $50 "franchise fee" towing firms pay to the county for each vehicle they remove. The sheriff said in the past he has been using those fees, which have brought in between $160,000 and $200,000 a year to pay the salaries of some county police officers. The ordinance would direct the fees to the county's general fund, where most of the county's money is held. The Portage City Council is looking at measures to make the process of choosing towing firms for their community more transparent. The U.S. attorney also charged Portage Mayor James E. Snyder late last year with soliciting and receiving $12,000 in bribes in exchange for a towing contract with the city of Portage. Snyder is pleading not guilty. LAKE STATION A special prosecutor won't charge a former court clerk for letting hundreds of serious traffic offenders go unpunished. However, LaPorte County Prosecutor John M. Espar states Miranda Brakley committed "gross malfeasance" for failing to report to state officials the reckless and drunken driving convictions taking place in Lake Station City Court between 2008 and 2012. Espar's findings as a special prosecutor state Lake Station traffic convictions should have been sent to the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles so officials in Indianapolis could assess penalties, including driving license suspensions on traffic violators. Instead, Brakley stored them, unreported, in court files without the knowledge of local or BMV officials. Espar said there is no evidence she or anyone else committed bribery, official misconduct or was a ghost employee. Local officials finally sent records of 700 Lake Station traffic convictions last June to the BMV, which belatedly applied administrative penalties against the drivers. Brakley and her attorney, Thomas Vanes, declined to comment Wednesday. Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter, who called for Espar's independent investigation last June, said Wednesday, "I'm satisfied with his findings." Carter praised Indiana State Police investigators Sgt. Al Williamson, Detective Christopher Campione and Trooper John Holmen for "their thorough job in the case." Scrutiny of Lake Station City Court began following the March 25 arrest of Randolph L. Randy Palmateer, business manager for the Northwestern Indiana Building and Construction Trades Council, by Hammond police at a sobriety checkpoint. The Lake County prosecutor's office originally charged Palmateer with operating while intoxicated, then let him plead guilty to the reduced charge of reckless driving six weeks later. When The Times questioned why Palmateer had avoided an OWI conviction for the second time in five years, Carter said he didn't know Palmateer had received a similar plea-agreement reduction in Lake Station City Court in 2011. Carter said his staff was misled, because it had checked Palmateer's record through the BMV and found no 2011 conviction, because the City Court never reported it to the BMV. Carter then widened his search and found other OWI cases that weren't transmitted downstate from Lake Station. He called in state police and Espar to determine if a crime was committed and who was responsible for it. Espar said state police investigators questioned numerous witnesses, including former and current city judges, clerks and deputy clerks, BMV representatives and technicians of the county's court database of traffic violation records. Espar said the evidence established Brakley was primarily responsible for sending SR-16 forms, containing details of Lake Station City Court traffic convictions to the BMV. He said they have city records that Brakley reported to work while at the court, discounting any suspicion she was a ghost employee. He said there isn't any evidence Brakley solicited or accepted bribes to conceal the conviction to benefit violators. He said the General Assembly changed the legal definition of official misconduct in 2011 to decriminalize a public official's failure to perform official duties. He said any of Brakley's failures to report convictions to the BMV before 2011 is now beyond the state's five-year statute of limitations. Alante D. Green was sentenced Thursday to 45 years in prison in the 2016 murder of 23-year-old Iyuan Yarbrought. Green was accused of killing Yarbrought March 31 in a daytime shooting in the 1000 block of Drackert Street in Hammond, according to a probable cause affidavit. Green, 23, allegedly told police after his arrest he was out hunting Yarbrought, who insulted him in a rap song on social media, the affidavit states. Yarbrought also dated Green's on-again, off-again girlfriend, the affidavit states. Green pleaded guilty to murder Oct. 27. A co-defendant, Robert A. Stone, also initially was charged with murder in Yarbrought's death on allegations he served as Green's getaway driver. Stone pleaded guilty Nov. 22 to assisting a criminal, a level 5 felony, and he was sentenced last month to four years in prison followed by two years probation. Yarbrought's aunt, Christina Clinton, said at Stone's sentencing hearing her nephew brought light to every family gathering, and she decried the killing as senseless. Green received credit for the 265 days he served in jail awaiting adjudication. INDIANAPOLIS House Republicans hope to funnel more state education spending into the classroom by incentivizing schools to share the costs of "back-office" functions, such as purchasing and administration. House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, told reporters Thursday that the yet-to-be-unveiled GOP budget proposal, House Bill 1001, will include a process to better track how schools are spending their money and reward those that prioritize teachers and student learning. He said currently less than 60 percent of the $7 billion in annual state education spending makes it to the classroom, in part because federal data show Indiana has more non-teacher school employees than any state in the country. "We know that everyone likes their own independent school, but to have independent purchasing, independent administration in every case doesn't always make sense," Bosma said. To that end, he indicated the budget legislation will provide an additional per-student grant to schools and school districts that agree to cooperate and reduce non-classroom costs, as well as unspecified "relief from their current property tax levy." Bosma also said he expects the Republican-controlled General Assembly will agree to boost overall school funding for the two-year budget period that begins July 1. But he cautioned that it's too soon to say exactly what the increase will be, given the pessimistic short-term state revenue forecast. "It's going to be tighter than the last two record increases that we gave to local public schools," Bosma said. Hoosier lawmakers this year also are expected to tackle the state's student testing imbroglio, decide whether to spend additional money on pre-kindergarten education and revamp the teacher performance pay system. CROWN POINT A state judicial commission has filed disciplinary charges against a former Lake Superior Court judge convicted in November of drunken driving. The Indiana Commission on Judicial Qualifications requested Wednesday that Senior Judge T. Edward Page be sanctioned after the jurist pleaded guilty Nov. 15 to operating a vehicle while intoxicated, a class C misdemeanor. Page, an attorney in Merrillville and part-time judge, said Wednesday he would respond within 20 days to the commission's complaint. I am completely ashamed of myself, Page said in a statement. My family, friends and colleagues expect better of me and I expect better of myself. I am sorry to have let everyone down. Page was arrested Oct. 1 after his vehicle was stopped by Porter County sheriff's police on Ind. 149 near County Road 550 North, according to the judicial complaint. Page failed a field sobriety test at the scene and a breath test indicated he had a 0.20 blood alcohol content, more than twice the legal limit to operate a motor vehicle, the complaint states. Page was initially charged with three counts of operating a vehicle while intoxicated, but he pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor offense through an agreement with the Porter County prosecutor's office, according to court records. Page was sentenced to 60 days in jail, which was suspended with credit for one day served in jail. Judge Julia Jent placed Page on unsupervised probation for 180 days and imposed fines and court costs of $883. Page served as magistrate judge of the Lake Superior Court from October 1984 to December 2000, according to his LinkedIn page, and he continues to serve as a part-time judge through the state's senior judges program. In 2016, Page served more than 58 days as a senior judge at superior and circuit courts in LaPorte, Jasper, Putnam and Tippecanoe counties, according to state records. Page served as a senior judge at Tippecanoe Superior Court five days after his OWI arrest, records state, but he has not served since then. The Supreme Court will have final authority to determine whether Page engaged in misconduct, according to a news release. CHESTERTON A loaded handgun was found Saturday on the grounds of St. Patrick Catholic Church and School. According to Chesterton police, a parishioner who was cleaning the church that day noticed something shiny in the grass between the rectory and school. Police said when the man realized it was a revolver, he picked it up, pointed it at the ground and began to test what he thought was a manual safety, so that he could take it to the Chesterton Police Department. However, the man accidentally fired the gun into the ground. No one was hurt. Police said the man took the gun to the police station and turned it over to an officer and reported that he accidentally fired it. Police said he faces no penalty for firing the gun, because his intentions were to remove the gun from the church and school grounds. The Rev. James Meade, pastor at St. Patrick Church, said no one at the church knows how the gun ended up on church property. "Fortunately, a kid didn't find it," Meade said. He encouraged the owner to file a report with police. Police entered information about the firearm into the National Crime Information Center and Indiana Data and Communications System databases, but have received no information. The gun has not been reported as stolen, police said. Police said the gun is a Smith and Wesson .38 Special revolver. Police believe the ammunition is possibly hand-loaded. The nickel-plated brass standard-pressure .38 Special cases bear the Starline Brass logo two stars connected by a curved line around the headstamp. Police said ammunition loaded by an unknown source should never be fired by anyone unfamiliar with the person who loaded it. Anyone with information about a missing or stolen gun is asked to call the Chesterton Police Department at 219-926-1136. WASHINGTON President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday escalated his blunt public challenge to the U.S. intelligence agencies he will soon oversee, appearing to embrace WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's contention that Russia did not provide his group with the hacked Democratic emails that roiled the 2016 election. Trump's defiance has increased the pressure on intelligence officials to provide decisive evidence of Russian election interference. A full report was ordered by President Barack Obama last month, and Obama will receive the report and be briefed on it Thursday, according to a White House official who wasn't authorized to speak to reporters and requested anonymity. High-level intelligence officials are heading to New York Friday to brief Trump on the classified findings. The Obama administration also plans to make an unclassified version public before the president leaves office Jan. 20. Russia not only meddled in the election, but did so to help Trump win, according to the intelligence agencies' assessment. But the administration has so far released only limited information to support that conclusion. And in the absence of such public evidence, the president-elect has seized on some Americans' skepticism of U.S. intelligence in general, citing high-profile missteps that led to the Iraq war. But this Trump campaign has so far been a lonely one in Washington. His views put him at odds with Obama and leaders in his own party who see Moscow as a growing threat. And they put him in line with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Assange, whose organization has been under criminal investigation for its role in classified information leaks. Since 2012, Assange has been in the Embassy of Ecuador in London, unable to leave without being arrested for breaching his bail conditions. Taking to Twitter on Wednesday, Trump noted that Assange "said Russians did not give him the info" referring to the trove of emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee and John Podesta, a top aide to Democrat Hillary Clinton. Vice President-elect Mike Pence commended Trump for his "very sincere and healthy American skepticism." "Given some of the intelligence failures of recent years, the president-elect's made it clear to the American people that he's skeptical of conclusions from the bureaucracy, and I think the American people hear him loud and clear," Pence said after a meeting on Capitol Hill with Republican lawmakers. Trump is to be briefed on the hacking report Friday by CIA Director John Brennan, FBI Director James Comey and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. Brennan, in an interview Tuesday with PBS NewsHour, said the report will include "what was collected, what was disclosed and what the purpose and intent of that effort was." Clapper is testifying on Capitol Hill Thursday. But he could be limited in what he can say about the report's conclusions given that Trump and perhaps Obama may not have been briefed by that time. Indisputable evidence of responsibility for hacking is difficult to come by and often technical. The information the administration has released so far does not lend itself to firm conclusions. The most recent information has come from a joint analysis by the Homeland Security Department and the FBI that ties Russian government activities to the hacks of the DNC and others. The analysis includes a list of internet addresses identified by the administration as potentially tied to Russian hackers. Many other addresses are untraceable. The Associated Press found at least 20 percent of the addresses had traced back to computer servers that help users browse the web anonymously, often for legitimate purposes. That web service, called Tor, was initially funded by the U.S. government and is now used prominently by activists and journalists working in hostile countries who need to keep their identities secret. Other internet addresses released by DHS trace back to servers at several American universities, as well as tech giant Yahoo Inc. The government cautioned that the addresses weren't automatically tied to Russian malicious activity, but instead were indicators that computer security experts should investigate further. Trump aides say that while he has received "raw data" on the Russian hacking, he is skeptical of the conclusions being drawn. Steven Hall, a retired chief of Russia operations at the CIA, set expectations low for the public hacking report, saying agencies typically lean toward protecting intelligence-gathering techniques. "The more information that is revealed, the more likely it is that sources and methods could be compromised, thereby limiting our ability to collect in the future," Hall said. At the White House, press secretary Josh Earnest noted that all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies had agreed on the assessment about Russia's activities and added of Trump: "Who are you going to believe?" "The decision he makes about that I think will have long-term consequences for the way he chooses to govern the country," Earnest said. Indeed, Trump's challenges to the intelligence community since winning the election have been striking. The nature of the presidency gives the commander in chief discretion to decide how to respond to intelligence assessments. But any skepticism about the agencies' conclusions usually plays out privately in the Situation Room and Oval Office, not on Twitter . Trump's posture has appeared to be driven in part by concern that evidence of Russian meddling would raise questions about the legitimacy of his election. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., one of his party's fiercest Russia critics, said the issue was not about the validity of the election, but "the fact that a foreign entity hacked into a political party." "When you compromise one political party, you compromise all political parties," Graham said. ___ Associated Press writers Tami Abdollah, Jack Gillum Laurie Kellman, Deb Riechmann and Josh Lederman contributed to this report. ___ Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC and Eileen Sullivan at http://twitter.com/esullivanap If a particular bit of knowledge could double a loved one's chance of surviving an emergency, wouldn't you want to possess it? Unfortunately, only about 7 percent of the general public knows how to perform life-saving CPR to victims who've stopped breathing, the Northwest Indiana branch of the American Heart Association reports. That means 93 percent of us don't know how to perform CPR on loved ones or others who need it. It means a vast majority don't have the knowledge to double a cardiac arrest victim's chances of surviving. Those numbers are unacceptable, and we're challenging all of our readers to take advantage of opportunities to change the Region's live-saving equation. It began Sunday with a column by Times Publisher Chris White, who implored readers to learn this life-saving technique as a New Year's resolution. The Times is partnering with the American Heart Association with a goal of training at least 5,000 Region residents in performing CPR without rescue breaths. The training will be completed through the American Heart Association's CPR Anytime Family and Friends Kit a 30-minute session meant to train, not including certification. We'll be promoting and partnering in these events throughout the year, and we ask all interested parties to join us. Three training opportunities already have been scheduled for 2017, with more to come. A list of the events is attached to this editorial. Please commit to enriching yourself in a way that could save lives. The NYPD says the number of serious crimes in the city fell again in 2016, setting a record low in the modern era, and that a new policing strategy is responsible. NY1's Dean Meminger filed the following report. The de Blasio administration tried a new approach to tout the NYPD's latest gains in making the city safer, creating a photo exhibit of what New York looked like in the days of high crime. "We had 5,200 shootings in 1993. We are under 1,000. This a huge change," said Bill Andrews, the NYPD's deputy commissioner of strategic communications. Last year, there were 998 shootings, to be exact, down more than 80 percent since the NYPD began tracking crime trends with computers in 1994. It's believed to be the lowest number of shootings in one year since at least the 1960s. There were also 335 murders last year, a 4 percent drop from 2015 and down from the record of 2,262 in 1990. "What's impressive about some of these statistics when you look at them is the initial drop. But then, Dean, it stays down. It stays down and continues a downward trend," said Dermot Shea, the NYPD's chief of crime control strategies. So how does the NYPD continue to keep crime low when many other major cities have seen spikes in crime and murders? They call it precision policing, zeroing in on those who repeatedly commit crime, especially gang members. "The use of new technology. The identification of both people and pattern, who's doing the most amount of crimes, whose names continuously come up," Shea said. "And technology has aided us in this." Precision policing represents a change from the controversial and, critics say, random use of stop, question and frisk tactics. The number of stop-and-frisks has plunged from nearly 700,000 in 2011 to about 13,000 last year. "We've got a very good model now for organizing and structuring and mounting investigations of high-value individuals, high-value subjects who are committing a lot of the violence in the city," Andrews said. "I don't need to take all the credit as a representative of the NYPD. I am just glad to be a part of the overall process. But with that being said, we are pretty damn proud of the work that we have done," Shea said. Although police usually take the credit for low crime numbers, there has been pressure for the city to recognize community groups who are also in the fight against violence. "I again want to thank all the men and women of the NYPD, but I want to thank their partners as well, the men and women who are a part of the the crisis management system," Mayor Bill de Blasio said. Those city-funded groups try to squash beefs in the community before they become violent and offer counseling to troubled young people. "We are out there in 18 sites, 52 organizations working on the front line with people who have the potential to be shot or shoot somebody," said Erica Ford of Life Camp Inc. The mayor and police commissioner say they believe they can push crime numbers even lower, but they need the help of all communities. The sister of a man shot dead by police in Brooklyn says authorities are not telling the truth about what happened. Police say 63-year-old James Owens was wielding a 13-inch knife (seen at left) and refused to drop it. It happened on East 99th Street near Avenue J in Canarsie shortly before 10 p.m. Tuesday night. Police say they shot Owens three times after a taser was ineffective. But his sister, the Rev. Daisy Wright, says police shot him three times in the chest before they tased him and did not do enough to calm him down. "He got upset with the cops, and he picked up a knife. And the cop didn't say, 'Drop it.' They didn't try to talk him down. They didn't say nothing," Wright said. "From the time the cops came and to we entered the kitchen, in six minutes, my brother was dead. Within six minutes." Owens was taken to Brookdale Hospital, where he died. No officers were injured. The NTSB is on the scene in Brooklyn looking into Wednesday's Long Island Rail Road crash. More than 100 were injured, but no one was killed. NY1's Jose Martinez filed the following report. Federal investigators arrived in Brooklyn Wednesday night to begin piecing together what led to the morning crash at the Atlantic Terminal. "Track. Operations. How the trains are run, the ules. Mechanical, which includes the power, mode of power and equipment. Signal systems. Human performance," said Jim Southworth of the National Transportation Safety Board. In short, everything connected to the crash in which Long Island Rail Road train 2817 plowed through a barrier and left at least 104 injured as the first car derailed. The train was arriving from Far Rockaway, Queens at aroud 8:20 a.m., carrying more than 400 commuters. "Our mission is to understand not just what happened, but why it happened," Southworth said. NTSB officials sounded a similar refrain after a New Jersey Transit train plowed into a platform at the Hoboken Terminal in September, killing a woman. But Southworth, who was an investigator in that case, cautioned against tying the crashes together too closely. "My main concern while I'm on site here is to investigate this accident in this terminal from beginning to end without concern related to what was going on Hoboken," he said. Officials said the train was in a 5 mph zone when it crashed. Robert Paaswell, a City College engineering professor who once headed the Chicago Transit Authority, said a lot is in the train operator's hands at that point. "Once it's in the station, going less than 10 or 15 miles an hour, the engineer is in control. So the engineer has a routine and standard operating procedures. They know what steps they should do," Paaswell said. Investigators said they expect to begin talking with the three-person crew on Thursday and to examine the contents of the train's recorders. Mark Epstein, the head of the Long Island Rail Road Commuter Council, said the latest LIRR crash, which follows another in New Hyde Park in October, is troubling. "We pay exorbitant fares, and the only request is on-time performance and safe performance. So we as a council will continue to push for more and more safety," Epstein said. NTSB officials say they expect to remain on the scene in Brooklyn for up to a week as they embark on the initial stages of their investigation. An imprisoned political activist in Iran who began a hunger strike more than two months ago to protest the incarceration of his wife halted the fast on Tuesday when the judicial authorities released her at least temporarily, rights groups and Iranian news media reported. The showdown between the authorities and the activist, Arash Sadeghi, who was sentenced in 2015 to at least 15 years for acts deemed seditious, including spreading propaganda, appeared to be a rare instance of compromise by a government not known for leniency. The release of Mr. Sadeghis wife, Golrokh Ebrahimi-Iraee, came a day after an equally rare demonstration on the couples behalf by protesters in front of Tehrans Evin Prison, where both have been held. Videos of the demonstration were spread on Twitter. The demonstration followed a campaign on social media to support the couple, which became a trending topic internationally despite the heavy restrictions on the use of Twitter and Facebook in Iran. A former Barclays trader pleaded guilty on Wednesday to federal charges arising from a global investigation into the manipulation of foreign-exchange prices at major banks, the Justice Department said. Jason Katz, a former Barclays trader who later worked at BNP Paribas, pleaded guilty in Federal District Court in Manhattan to participating in a price-fixing conspiracy, becoming the first person to admit criminal wrongdoing in the inquiry. Mr. Katzs plea came after Barclays and three other banks pleaded guilty last year to conspiring to manipulate currency prices. Barclays agreed to pay $2.4 billion to settle various related investigations by United States and Britain. Prosecutors said that from January 2007 until July 2013, Mr. Katz, while working at three different financial firms, conspired with others to suppress competition by fixing prices in currencies from countries in Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Women and minorities continued to make small, slow gains in their numbers at major American law firms last year, according to the National Association for Law Placement, a legal employment tracker. The groups increased their representation among law firm partners in 2016. Women made up 22.13 percent of partners, compared with 21.46 percent in 2015. And minorities accounted for 8.05 percent of partners, up from 7.52 percent in 2015. In the associate ranks, women held 45 percent of the positions last year, slightly more than the 44.68 percent they held in 2015, but not quite the 45.66 percent they held in 2009, the year law firms began to feel the effects of the economic crash. Minorities made up 22.72 percent of associates last year, up from 22 percent in 2015 and 19.67 percent in 2009. The National Association for Law Placement issues the Report on Diversity at U.S. Law Firms, an annual compilation of the representation of women and minorities in the industry based on information from more than 112,000 partners, associates and other lawyers in 1,082 offices of law firms nationwide. The digital publishing company Medium on Wednesday laid off 50 employees a third of its staff as part of a larger redefinition of its business model, its founder announced in a blog post. The founder, Evan Williams, said the San Francisco-based company wanted to turn away from the ad-driven business model used by most online media companies and turn itself into what he called a transformational product for curious humans. The move came despite a year of substantial growth in Mediums readership. Mr. Williams did not address the companys financial situation in his announcement, but he said there was a business case for it to continue using its current business model. The changes are being made in pursuit of what he called the companys vision. Mr. Williams said the company, which provides a blogging platform for writers and for publications like the liberal news site ThinkProgress, had not decided what its new business model would look like. He said only that it would allow writers and creators to be rewarded based on the value theyre creating for people. Rajiv J. Shah, a trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation, was asked about six months ago to join the committee that would select the foundations next president. He said no. Instead, Mr. Shah, who until recently had been the administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, ultimately said he wanted to be considered for the post. He got the job. On Thursday, the Rockefeller Foundation, one of the countrys largest and most influential philanthropies, will name Mr. Shah to succeed Judith Rodin, who has been president for 12 years. The appointment will make Mr. Shah one of the most powerful forces in charitable giving, overseeing a foundation that donates roughly $200 million each year and corrals governments, companies and organizations to contribute money and resources in tandem. Mr. Shah, 43, will be the first Indian-American to lead the Rockefeller Foundation, which has gained stature in recent years through some prominent projects but has sometimes been criticized as being more interested in its publicity than its grantees. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York said on Wednesday that with a complete overhaul of La Guardia Airport underway, he wants to rebuild New York Citys other airport, John F. Kennedy International. Mr. Cuomo outlined a plan to spend more than $10 billion modernizing Kennedys terminals and improving the highway and transit systems connected to the airport. He did not provide a timetable for the plan or say specifically where all of the money would come from. The next step is to tackle J.F.K., because La Guardia isnt enough, Mr. Cuomo said, speaking at a meeting of the Association for a Better New York, a business group, in Manhattan. We need to build a new airport at J.F.K. and go through the same process as we did with La Guardia. In promoting big infrastructure projects, including the Second Avenue subway, which opened Sunday, Mr. Cuomo is building his legacy in New York, and perhaps raising his national profile. But first there was the issue of cellphones. Early in the day, Democrats in the Senate still smarting from a surprising showing from the Republicans in November, and the continued alignment of eight of their members with the Republican majority objected to a clause newly added to the chambers rules that would prevent members from using cellphones to take photographs, videos or perform any other recording function in the Senate chamber, galleries or lobbies without permission of the Senate secretary, who is named by the majority. To Democrats, that new rule smacked of censorship and was reminiscent of similar efforts by Republicans in Congress to impose fines for unapproved use of photography or video devices in the wake of a raucous June protest by Democrats, who were trying to enact new gun-control laws while shooting cellphone video from the floor. The Senate G.O.P. are following their national colleagues and enacting Trump-style censorship and a direct attack on the free press, said Mike Murphy, a Democratic spokesman. But the Republicans, who control the chamber, scoffed at the assertion, saying that the new rule was meant to maintain decorum, and that it echoed an earlier rule usually ignored barring cellphones in the chamber. I recall many times where people were taking photographs, and laughing and joking, like this was basically a fun time, in the playground, said Senator John A. DeFrancisco, a Republican from the Syracuse area. Thats the type of thing were trying to avoid. The New York City public advocate, the City Council speaker and other elected officials called on the Police Department on Wednesday to fix inequities in how it deploys investigative resources in poor, predominantly black and Hispanic neighborhoods. Elected leaders were also working on measures seeking information from the department about how it assigns detectives and about the precinct-by-precinct rate at which it solves violent crimes. That would represent a sharp break from years of secrecy around how the department investigates serious crime in different parts of New York. The calls for transparency followed the publication of an article last weekend in The New York Times that analyzed confidential deployment data and found that precinct detective squads and homicide squads in parts of the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens were sharply understaffed compared with those in Manhattan. Precinct detectives in the Bronx, the borough with the highest violent crime rate, carried an average of 20 more violent felonies last year than detectives in Brooklyn and Queens, and 30 more than detectives in Manhattan and Staten Island. Overall violent crime in the Bronx murders, rapes, robberies and felony assaults rose last year through late December, even as the city on Wednesday touted citywide declines in crime. WASHINGTON Vice President-elect Mike Pence and the top Republicans in Congress made clear on Wednesday, more powerfully and explicitly than ever, that they are dead serious about repealing the Affordable Care Act. How they can uproot a law deeply embedded in the nations health care system without hurting some of the 20 million people who have gained coverage through it is not clear. Nor is it yet evident that millions of Americans with pre-existing medical conditions will be fully protected against disruptions in their health coverage. But a determined Republican president and Congress can gut the Affordable Care Act, and do it quickly: a step-by-step health care revolution in reverse that would undo many of the changes made since the law was signed by President Obama in March 2010. Step 1: Defang the filibuster The Senate intends to pass a budget resolution next week that would shield repeal legislation from a Democratic filibuster. If the Senate completes its action, House Republican leaders hope that they, too, can approve a version of the budget resolution next week. Whether they can meet that goal is unclear. Just a year ago, they might have seemed the oddest of couples. But now President-elect Donald J. Trump and Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, have formed a united front against the conclusion of American intelligence agencies that Russian intelligence used hacked emails to interfere in the presidential election. Mr. Assange, long reviled by many Republicans as an anarchist lawbreaker out to damage the United States, has won new respect from conservatives who appreciated his sites release of Democratic emails widely perceived to have hurt Hillary Clintons campaign. And Mr. Trump has been eager to undercut the conclusion of the F.B.I., the C.I.A. and other agencies that those emails were provided to WikiLeaks courtesy of Russian government hackers. In a lengthy interview with Sean Hannity of Fox News that aired on Tuesday night, Mr. Assange repeated earlier denials that WikiLeaks had received the hacked emails from Russian intelligence. Our source is not the Russian government, Mr. Assange said. And it is not a state party. Mr. Trump picked up on Mr. Assanges claim on Twitter on Wednesday morning, referring to the main targets of the hacking, the Democratic National Committee and Mrs. Clintons campaign chairman, John D. Podesta: Julian Assange said a 14-year-old could have hacked Podesta why was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info! WASHINGTON The wife of a 74-year-old Massachusetts man revealed for the first time that her husband had been abducted in Afghanistan more than two years ago while trying to interview the head of the Haqqani militant network, a Taliban faction. In an article published on Thursday in The News International in Islamabad, Jane Larson, the wife of Paul Overby, said in a statement that he disappeared in May 2014 as he tried to cross into Pakistan from Khost in eastern Afghanistan. Ms. Larson also provided a statement to The New York Times but declined an interview. I appeal for mercy on behalf of my dear husband, Paul Overby, to those holding him, she said. I believe he is being held hostage by the Haqqani network, yet I have received no messages from him or his captors. PARIS Since 2011, when investigators first impounded luxury cars held by the family of Equatorial Guineas president, anticorruption groups hoped that France would deal a mortal blow to the injustice they believe has enriched the countrys elites while many of its citizens languish in poverty. On Wednesday, a judge decided they would have to wait a bit longer. Three days into the closely watched trial of the presidents son, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, on embezzlement and money-laundering charges, the presiding judge, Benedicte de Perthuis, agreed to give the defense more time to prepare. The judge rescheduled the trial for June 19. Mr. Obiang, known by the nickname Teodorin, is the son of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who took power in a 1979 coup and is the longest-serving head of a government in Africa. A former Spanish colony, oil-rich Equatorial Guinea has experienced a boom that started around 2004, but the gains have been far from evenly distributed; half the country lives in poverty. MEXICO CITY President Enrique Pena Nieto of Mexico, in a move to improve his governments footing as it prepares for the presidency of Donald J. Trump, on Wednesday named as his foreign minister the man who resigned his previous cabinet post after championing Mr. Trumps enormously unpopular visit to Mexico City last year. The appointment was a remarkable political resurrection for the man, Luis Videgaray, a longtime confidant of Mr. Pena Nietos. He replaces Claudia Ruiz Massieu, who had been the foreign minister since 2015 and reportedly opposed Mr. Trumps August visit. Mr. Pena Nieto, in announcing the change during a news conference in Mexico City, said he had ordered Mr. Videgaray, who stepped down as Mexicos finance minister in September after Mr. Trumps trip, to accelerate dialogue and contacts so that from Day 1 of the new administration, the basis of a constructive working relationship can be established. The Mexican government, not to mention the nations business community, has been bracing for a Trump administration and the possible impact it could have on all facets of the complex relationship between the United States and Mexico. Mr. Trump has promised to renegotiate or revoke the North American Free Trade Agreement and to get tougher on illegal immigration by building a wall along the Mexican border and stepping up deportations. Having signaled a tough attitude and tightened purse strings toward the United Nations, President-elect Donald J. Trump spoke by phone on Wednesday with the organizations newly installed secretary general, Antonio Guterres, who has hinted at his own plans for budget restraint. A United Nations spokesman, Farhan Haq, said at a regular daily briefing that Mr. Guterres had initiated the conversation. This was an introductory call, Mr. Haq said, adding that it went quite well. He said the two men had discussed a number of avenues for participation and cooperation, but he did not elaborate on them. A spokesman for Mr. Trump, Sean Spicer, also did not specify what had been discussed except to say in a statement that the incoming administration would demand some reform and change to ensure that the organization used American tax dollars effectively. Mr. Trump has criticized the United Nations in statements and Twitter posts, describing it as an organization that causes problems rather than resolving them. He has threatened to renounce the Paris agreement on tackling climate change that was a signature achievement of Mr. Guterress predecessor, Ban Ki-moon. It was a close call for the queen. A walk around the grounds of Buckingham Palace in the very early morning hours nearly got Queen Elizabeth II shot by one of her guards, The Times of London reported on Wednesday. When she has a difficult time sleeping, the queen will put on a raincoat and walk around the palace grounds, The Times reported, quoting a former guardsman. He was on patrol inside the palace walls at 3 a.m. on an unspecified day several years ago when he saw a figure in the darkness, according to reports. Thinking he had spotted an intruder, The Times said, he called out, Whos that? To his surprise, it was the queen, according to the account. Bloody hell, Your Majesty, I nearly shot you, he blurted out. Elizabeth Murray was a great painter who didnt have a great late phase. One certainly seemed possible after her 2005 retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, but, sadly, she died of cancer in 2007 at the age of 66. So its not surprising that the excellent if slightly random survey of Murrays drawings at the gallery Canada, on the Lower East Side, has a bittersweet, if-only undercurrent. It confirms the love of drawing and all its sundry instruments from traditional pastel to ballpoint pen at the heart of Murrays art. Everything comes from drawing out my ideas, she once said. The high quality, diversity and incessant energy of these works also suggest how much more Murray might have accomplished. This show has been orchestrated although not exactly selected by the writer, publisher and independent curator Dan Nadel (whose areas of expertise include the comics and the Chicago Imagists inspired by them) and the artist Carroll Dunham, a painter whose work, like Murrays, deliberately treads the border between abstraction and representation and is indebted to cartoons. Mr. Nadel and Mr. Dunham went to Pace Gallery, which represents Murrays estate, and were shown about 50 drawings to select from. They took the whole batch. It is remarkably effective and includes everything from quick doodles to finished studies in pastel and, later, colored pencil. It even includes one painting the relatively small, odd Dust Tracks to show where the drawings were headed: toward works full of formal and physical eccentricities, psychological tensions as well as legible images, including in this case a keyhole peeking through what seems to be a jagged break in some ice. George Caleb Binghams painting The Verdict of the People (1854-1855), which depicts the results of a small-town Missouri election, is in many ways a celebration of democracy. That is why the St. Louis Art Museum made it available on loan as the centerpiece of Donald J. Trumps inauguration luncheon on Jan. 20. It is also why two St. Louis-area women in the arts are fighting to reverse the museums decision. In a petition on Change.org, the art historian Ivy Cooper and the artist Ilene Berman called on the museum to cancel the loan, which was initiated by the United States Senator Roy Blunt, Republican of Missouri and chairman of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies. We object to the paintings use as an inaugural backdrop and an implicit endorsement of the Trump presidency and his expressed values of hatred, misogyny, racism and xenophobia, the petition states. We reject the use of the painting to suggest that Trumps election was truly the verdict of the people, when in fact the majority of votes by a margin of over three million were cast for Trumps opponent. Perhaps the documentary Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds would seem less poignant and compelling had its subjects not just died, or had they not died, stunningly, within a day of each other. But the movies plucky intimacy shines through that fog. Its a portrait, not a tribute though as the documentary reminds us, every portrait is in some way a tribute to something. The film, directed by the actor Fisher Stevens and Alexis Bloom, debuts on HBO Saturday night after the cable network moved up its premiere from March. That decision is hard to begrudge. As this movie makes evident, these two were no strangers to making headlines. Ms. Reynolds was well known to one generation for, in part, the tabloid bonanza surrounding her when her husband Eddie Fisher skipped out with her best friend, Elizabeth Taylor. Several other generations have grown up surrounded by all things Princess Leia, memorably played by Ms. Fisher in the Star Wars films. Bright Lights finds mother and daughter living in separate houses in what they call the compound. Ms. Fisher takes a souffle out of her oven and carries it on a tray down the path to her mothers house. I usually come to her, Ms. Fisher says. She pauses. I always come to her. IN 2009, when the Kia Soul was introduced, it was roundly criticized as a blatant copy of the square-shaped Scion xB. At the time, Toyotas youth brand had sold an average of 46,000 xBs annually over six years to coveted younger buyers, a good reason for Kia to go to the square-shaped well. The combination of practicality, affordability and hipster-hamster marketing has made the Soul so successful its often neck and neck with the Optima as Kias best-selling car. On track to sell more than 150,000 copies in North America for 2016, the Soul has outlived other boxes such as the Nissan Cube, the Honda Element and, of course, the xB (R.I.P. Scion). How do you improve a sales powerhouse? Well, add power of course. That is what Kia has done with the 2017 Exclaim model (or ! in Kia-speak), dropping in a 1.6-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder engine. This motor runs exclusively with a sure-shifting 7-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission. The lower-rung Plus (or +) model has a standard 6-speed automatic. At 201 horsepower and 195 pound-feet of torque, the Exclaim increases the Pluss 2-liter 4-cylinder by 40 horsepower and 45 pound-feet of torque. Consider it your hamster on speed. Who will Americans miss more, Barack or Michelle Obama? He needs her, its become clear, the way ivy needs an oak. As this estimable couple shift into private life, others may need her as well, and lonely eyes will increasingly turn in her direction. Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama is all of 52. She has, you suspect, a memoir to write. And after that? Whether or not she ultimately enters politics, her every move will be political in a way it has rarely been for most of this countrys first ladies. She will be watched for lessons in how to speak for certain values, in how to behave, in how to live a meaningful and expressive and nondull life. The most interesting things she has to offer might still be in front of us. A new book, The Meaning of Michelle, collects essays from 16 writers, many of them African-American women, about what its been like to witness Michelle Obama in the White House. Witness is the correct word. The first thing most of these writers admit is that theyve been unable to take their eyes off her. 1. Frictions between American intelligence agencies and the incoming administration are worsening. At a Senate committee hearing, the director of national intelligence, James R. Clapper Jr., above, criticized the disparagement of the intelligence community over its findings that Russia interfered in the presidential election. Bolstered by the support of senators from both parties, he will brief President-elect Donald J. Trump himself Friday. Mr. Trump took on Democrats and the health care law in a new Twitter blitz, calling Senator Chuck Schumer the Democrats head clown. In recent years, the industry has increased its sway among Republicans, supporting a rightward shift toward sharp cutbacks of Social Security and Medicare and the rollback of environmental protections. And the Kochs find themselves well positioned to influence the Trump administration, with many allies in important cabinet and transition posts. President-elect Donald J. Trumps nominee to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, the attorney general of Oklahoma, has received contributions from Kochpac, the political action committee of Koch Industries. Mr. Trump tapped Mr. Pruitt after entrusting the agencys transition to Myron Ebell, who is a director at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, an advocacy organization that has received funding from the Kochs charitable foundations, and who has been hostile to the work of the E.P.A. But numerous polls show that a majority of American voters continue to support many environmental regulations, including those that govern carbon dioxide emissions. And there is significant support among voters, even in red states, for renewable energy sources like wind and solar, which the Kochs have long worked to quash. Fueling U.S. Forward seeks to narrow that schism by courting public support. The group is set to air ads in Virginia and Indiana, the news site Environment & Energy reported in September. The ads portray fossil fuels as the driver of human progress. This moment were in didnt just happen. We didnt just arrive here by luck a world where billions of people have greater opportunities came about through years of progress, a preview posted on the groups site states. In the backdrop is video of people driving, turning on lights and plugging in appliances. We got here, the ad says, by harnessing the power of the earth and the natural fuels of soil and rock. It remains unclear who else, apart from the Kochs, is financing Fueling U.S. Forward. It is registered as a nonprofit business association, a designation that allows its involvement in both lobbying and political activities. But because it is so new, it has not yet made public filings detailing its financial and other activities. Two chefs cook side by side at Karu Cafe, one from Paraguay, the other from Venezuela. Never mind that a continent away, the two nations are hardly on the best of terms. In August, Paraguay recalled its ambassador to Venezuela and proclaimed a freeze in diplomatic relations. But in an unassuming storefront in the shadow of the elevated train in Woodside, Queens, there is harmony. So Venezuelan arepas, airy corn cakes barely a fingers width thick, may share the table with Paraguayan chipas dense, bulging curls of cassava flour and cornmeal fattened by cheese, eggs, milk and butter and looking like lopsided bagels. Chipa tastes like a gougere after a gravitational collapse, but little pops of anise cool the mouth and lend a curious leavening effect. Zuny Llano, who grew up in Asuncion, Paraguay, opened the restaurant in October with her husband, Augusto Acevedo, a native of Caracas, Venezuela. Although its menu celebrates both their heritages, its name belongs to hers: Karu means to eat in Guarani, the indigenous language spoken throughout Paraguay by peasants and aristocrats alike and declared equal to Spanish by the Constitution, defying the legacy of the conquistadors. (The poet Ramon Silva noted that Guarani is the perfect language for verbally disemboweling an adversary.) The show must go on, and the wedding must go on, too. Kathleen Littlefield, 28, now knows what it is like to be center stage for both. On the same day. On Dec. 15, Ms. Littlefield, as an understudy, filled in for the ill Zoe Kazan in the role of Rose in the five-person ensemble of the dark comedy Love, Love, Love, an Off Broadway play at the sold-out Roundabout Theater in Manhattan. Ms. Littlefield also had plans that day to marry Michael Pantozzi, 32, at the Green Building in Brooklyn. Go ahead. Laugh at our motto, All the News Thats Fit to Print. Or scowl. You wont be the first. But remember, it could have been worse. News, Not Nausea, was one suggestion offered 121 years ago by readers who thought mistakenly that they could improve on the phrase. Truth Without Trumpery, was another. So was, Fresh Facts Free From Filth. In late 1896, All the News Thats Fit to Print was an advertising slogan on an electric billboard overlooking Madison Square. One of the challenges of health reporting is communicating the complexity of the scientific process to readers. Phase 1 trials are very different from Phase IV ones. The results of prospective trials can have different implications than those of double-blinded trials. Students can read this explanation of how clinical trials work by the Department of Surgery at Columbia University Medical Center. They can view this image from PHD Comics about the Science News Cycle. (Heres our lesson plan for analyzing cartoons.) And, they can read one journalists struggle with reporting on health issues when new, and often contradictory, scientific findings are coming out all the time. Then, they should answer and discuss the following questions: What is the purpose of a clinical trial? What different steps do scientists take to try to eliminate bias and yield the most accurate results? What role does the media play in educating the public about trial results? How could it do a better job? What responsibility does it have to provide more information and what information should it provide? Part III: Questioning Sources: Determining the Scientific Accuracy of Health-Related News Students will be exposed throughout their lives to many sources of health-related news that come from less-than-reputable sources, and they should learn how to evaluate reliability before accepting what they read or hear. As an assessment to see how savvy they are in questioning what they read, you may give students this source, which suggests the true cause of the Brazilian microcephaly outbreak. Allow them to read and discuss the article in groups, and see if they begin to question the source. After reading, students can view the World Health Organizations page dispelling rumors around Zika and complications as well as this CBS News article about the claim. After reading, ask students: What are the competing claims regarding the cause of microcephaly? Which claim is better supported by scientific evidence? How do you know? Ask students to return to the first article, Larvicide Manufactured by Sumitomo, Not Zika Virus, True Cause of Brazilian Microcephaly Outbreak? Ask them to reread it with an eye to identifying possible clues that the source may not be reliable and to determine ideas for how to check the accuracy of information presented in the source. They can share their discussion with the class. (For a specific teaching point, you can direct them to the original Times article cited in this article, and ask them to compare how the Times article was used versus what the Times article actually says.) While Sunset Park is known mostly as a Latino and Chinese neighborhood, Palestinian and Yemeni families settled there around the time the Sarsours did. Back then, there was already a mosque here, and even if your family wasnt really religious, they knew their people would be here, Linda said. Maha, who never cooked growing up, found she had a cousin nearby, whom she could learn from. Thirty-eight years later, I stood in her kitchen and took notes as she took 18 pounds of chicken and rice and flipped it upside down without losing a single grain. We brought it to the table. Lindas brothers had arrived, as well as one of Lindas daughters and some more children. The house was buzzing on a Tuesday with three generations of Sarsours. In Palestine, Hanady said, maqluba is something you might do once a month. But here, we can have it whenever, because we can have the money to do so. Gizelle, Hanadys 2-year-old, ran to get Nidal in the living room. Welcome! Your food is ready, she said, and took his hand. He got up, she ran to the table, he waited for a moment and sat back down. She ran back to him. Welcome! Your food is ready, she said, and took his hand again. Its their ritual, and she insists on sitting on his knee. Nidal said to me: Im so happy. The grandchildren come every day. Hanady laughed. Yeah, she said. He doesnt give us a choice. Were all here every night. The maqluba was glorious: The chicken gave its flavor to the rice, intertwined with toasted cinnamon, cloves, allspice and garlic. I tried to serve some to Maha. You are the guest! she said, refusing. Gizelle and one of her cousins yelled, Youre ugly! at each other until they collapsed in a hug, and Nidal shouted, Shut up! at a crying baby to everyones laughter. When youre privy to this kind of playful snapping around a family table, you feel pretty instantly like part of the family. On the upper floors of the grand courthouse, above the Corinthian columns chiseled from granite and the lobby with sweeping marble staircases peeking out from scaffolding, the rows of shelves, barely shoulder wide, form a maze that never seems to end. Caked in dust on the shelves are leather-bound volumes and stacks of parchment that, in a way, sketch out the story of New York City. Some of the early records swear allegiance to King George III, and the names of historic figures like Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr pop up in documents from when they were working as lawyers in the city. The rows, on the seventh and eighth floors of the Surrogates Courthouse in Manhattan, include the condemnation records of the properties taken to make way for Central Park and the citys grid system of streets. In one room, shelf after shelf is filled with the immigration documents of Europeans who sought to become citizens of the United States. The vast collection, once part of a bureaucracy aptly named the Division of Ancient Records, is visited occasionally by researchers, like historians and genealogists (both academic and amateur). It is mostly the province of the staff members who tend to the documents, many of which predate the Declaration of Independence. Police officers shot a man three times in the leg as he drew a handgun, while responding to a call about gunfire on Staten Island early Thursday morning, the New York Police Department said. And when the man, Patrick Allen, was taken into custody, the officers discovered that he was wearing a ballistics vest, which had absorbed another bullet. It was the third time in less than 36 hours that police officers had shot someone in the city. The police said the two other men, who were killed in separate shootings in Brooklyn, had also brandished weapons. The first shooting occurred around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, when officers responded to a call about an emotionally disturbed person in a house in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn. The police said that after a woman let officers into the home, James Owens, 63, advanced toward them with a 13-inch kitchen knife. An officer used his Taser on Mr. Owens, but it had no effect, the police said. A second officer then fired at Mr. Owens, who was pronounced dead at Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center. To the Editor: Re Australias Death by Numbers (column, Dec. 31) and Broken Men in Paradise (column, Dec. 11), by Roger Cohen: The abominable conditions in Australias refugee camps highlighted by Mr. Cohen are worsened by the poverty of the islands where the incarceration is off-shored. The poverty of these places is a proximate cause as to why they agree to situate such prisons. Some interesting reasons that underlie this poverty may be discerned by shining a little light into some dark corners. For example, the island nation of Nauru originally went from being the richest island in the South Pacific to the poorest, by selling its actual island off as phosphate rock, damaging its environment as well. This poor country then became even poorer because it was sued by a hedge fund, as reported in The New York Times a year ago. The question then becomes, Who would give a hedge fund hundreds of millions of dollars to invest in such schemes? The answer is the only entities with that kind of money: large government pension funds and major university endowments. Gov. Andrew Cuomo raised an exciting possibility on Tuesday when he unveiled a proposal that would cover tuition at public universities and colleges in New York State for families earning up to $125,000 by 2019. The plan, which requires legislative approval, recognizes that middle-income families that might not be eligible for student aid based on current measures of need are grappling with student debt, too. But public higher education officials who favor the idea in principle are worried that the Cuomo administration might be lowballing cost projections as a way of selling the proposal and that public institutions that are already struggling to meet the needs of their students might be further squeezed. The Legislature needs to conduct a thorough analysis of the costs before it moves ahead with the tuition program. New Yorks public universities are a relative bargain compared to those in many other states. Full-time tuition at four-year State University of New York campuses stands at $6,470 per year; the City University of New York charges about the same. The state spends nearly $1 billion annually through its tuition assistance program which provides aid for families with an adjusted gross income of just under $100,000 and whose top awards stand at $5,165. Under the Cuomo plan, the state would supplement existing state and federal aid. The administration says that 940,000 families would qualify for the new program based on income, but many of those young people would not attend college, would chose a private college or would attend school out of state. That would leave about 200,000 eligible students benefiting from the free tuition program by 2019, when the program would be fully enacted. The program would begin this fall, with a $100,000 income limit. In theory, the bishops, or the opposition, or some other country, could offer him amnesty and a haven if he left peacefully. But Congo has one of the most violent histories in Africa, and Mr. Kabilas brutal police tactics have made him many enemies in his 16 years in office. And he is aware that no offer carries a guarantee Charles Taylor, the equally repressive former president of neighboring Liberia, left office under international pressure only to be arrested and sentenced to 50 years in prison by an international tribunal. So there is every reason to be skeptical that Mr. Kabila will honor the deal. In fact, while members of both his and the opposition party have signed it, he has not thinking, perhaps, that he can kick the can down the road and that a solution that preserves his power will pop up. It is therefore up to the bishops, the opposition, the United States and others interested in bringing a modicum of democracy to Congo to persuade him that he has been offered the best and only available exit plan. The United States has already imposed sanctions on some of Mr. Kabilas top officials for interfering in the democratic process, and has advised the president that the sooner he steps down the better his chances of avoiding prosecution. Western envoys also have been calling on the president to step down. But more pressure is needed: The Catholic Church, to which about half the population belongs, and which created the deal, can now help mobilize the people behind it. ATHENS Eight Turkish military officers who may or may not have been involved in the attempted coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last July are now at the center of a tense standoff between Greece and Turkey. At a time when Greeces economy is still in limbo and Turks are caught between an increasingly authoritarian government and a surge in terrorist attacks, neither country can afford such a distraction. Yet the two neighbors find themselves at odds once again. The men two majors, four captains and two noncommissioned officers turned up in the northern Greek town of Alexandroupolis in a military helicopter the day after the attempted coup. They have claimed that they were not knowingly involved in the rebellion that they followed orders but were not aware a coup was in progress but fled to escape persecution, asking for political asylum. The government in Athens, one of the first to condemn the coup attempt while it was developing, was flustered. On the day the men turned up in Greece, Turkeys foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, spoke by telephone with his Greek counterpart, Nikos Kotzias, and demanded their extradition. On Twitter, he wrote that Mr. Kotzias told him that eight traitors who fled to Greece will be returned to Turkey as soon as possible. The Greek Foreign Ministry said the asylum request would be examined on the basis of the provisions of Greek and international law, but it will be borne very seriously in mind that the arrested parties stand accused in their country of violating constitutional legality and attempting to overthrow democracy. Since then, the officers have become a touchstone by which many Greeks are testing the independence of their own judiciary and their countrys democratic principles. Those Greeks feel that even if the eight were involved in trying to topple a legitimate government, they should not be sent back to face a judicial system that, they fear, cannot guarantee fair trials. For the Turkish government, however, the eight are traitors, and their flight to Greece was in itself a provocation. Every year, the federal government asks its employees whether they have what they need to do their jobs well. This year more than 400,000 of them responded, and the Partnership for Public Service, an organization whose goal is improving government effectiveness, distilled the results in Best Places to Work in the Federal Government. Its a report that Donald Trump could profit from, if he were inclined to read reports. Just in case: Mr. President-elect, you can find it at bestplacestowork.org. The ranking measures employee engagement satisfaction, commitment, and most important, employees willingness to come up with creative ways to get things done. It reveals that federal workers are highly mission-driven, and why not? Government employees sue polluters, negotiate with and spy on foreign governments, inspect mine shafts and mountaintops, bust Wall Street bad guys and solve medical mysteries. The more important they perceive their mission to be, the more engaged an agencys workers tend to be. No wonder the top five best large federal agencies to work for are, in order: the National Aeronautics and Space Administration; the Department of Commerce (whose National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration monitors the oceans and atmosphere;) the intelligence community; the Department of State, and the Department of Health and Human Services. N.A.S.A. is ranked as the best agency to work for the fifth year in a row, its employees remaining bullish even in years when government shutdowns battered budgets and paychecks. If anyone wonders how that outlook benefits the taxpayer, consider that during the last government shutdown, some N.A.S.A. employees worked for free, in quiet defiance of the law. That Mars Rover wouldnt run itself, after all. Still, federal employees severely lag their private sector counterparts in engagement. The biggest reason? The boss. To the Editor: Re Nixon Looked for Monkey Wrench in Vietnam Talks to Help Win Race (news article, Jan. 3) and Tricky Dicks Vietnam Treachery, by John A. Farrell (Sunday Review, Jan. 1): When President Lyndon B. Johnson announced his decision not to seek a second term on March 31, 1968, he said he would devote the rest of his presidency trying to secure peace in Vietnam. Using secret channels to Ho Chi Minh, the North Vietnamese leader, L.B.J. worked relentlessly to persuade Hanoi to begin peace negotiations. He even offered $1 billion to help repair the damage of the war, much as the Marshall Plan did in Germany after World War II. He offered to halt the bombing in return for peace talks. Finally, in May 1968, the North Vietnamese agreed to meet in Paris with United States and South Vietnamese representatives. But the South Vietnamese delayed their participation. Newly discovered notes by Bob Haldeman, a Nixon aide, disclose that it was the candidate Richard Nixon himself who, through Anna Chennault, a prominent Republican, encouraged the South Vietnamese to stall until after the 1968 presidential election. For all these months, Chief Justice Roberts has deflected questions about the impact the vacancy has had on the court, even as evidence has mounted that the polarized justices are having trouble even agreeing on what to decide. On the February argument calendar the court issued late last month, only seven of the 10 usual argument slots are filled. (Only the fact that the Presidents Day holiday falls on Monday, Feb. 20, ordinarily an argument day, saved the court from having five argument slots go unfilled, rather than three.) The February calendar omitted as had the October, November and December argument calendars an important religion case, Trinity Lutheran Church v. Pauley, that the court accepted last January and that has been fully briefed and ready for argument since the summer. The case challenges the constitutionality of a provision of the Missouri Constitution that prohibits the expenditure of public money directly or indirectly in aid of any church, sect or denomination of religion, in this case the states refusal to let a church nursery school use a state grant program to upgrade its playground. The facts of the case make it appear almost trivial, but the question is a profound one of what limits the Constitution places on public financial support for religious institutions. The church lost its case in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, and Justice Scalias vote to hear the appeal last January was one of the last significant votes that he cast. Its evident that without his vote on the merits, the remaining eight justices are locked in a 4-to-4 tie and have decided not to proceed. Four votes are needed to accept a case for argument. The court does not announce how individual justices vote on granting a case, but from the extrinsic evidence of the current eight-justice deadlock, I feel safe in assuming that no more than five justices voted to accept the case, and that Justice Scalia was one of them. Ill grant that it would have been a delicate matter for the chief justice to wade into national politics at this almost impossibly freighted moment, weeks before he is to administer the presidential oath to Donald J. Trump. (However awkward that moment might be, given that Mr. Trump has denounced Chief Justice Roberts as a nightmare for conservatives, it probably wont match the awkwardness eight years ago. The chief justice then had the task of administering the oath to Barack Obama, who as a senator had voted against confirming him to the court.) But it seems to me that if there was ever a moment to put delicacy aside, this was it. If the court isnt suffering internally from the prolonged vacancy, it is surely suffering in the eyes of the public. People dont have to be familiar with the intricacies of the docket to regard the court as little more than a prize of presidential politics, perhaps a tarnished prize at that. No one expects the chief justice to take political sides in this ugly political season. But Chief Justice Rehnquist hated the exclusionary rule that Judge Baer invoked in suppressing the tainted evidence, and he strongly opposed the citation of foreign law, and yet he found a way to speak up for judicial independence in a way that stood apart from politics. There should be nothing partisan about the chief justice of the United States declaring that keeping a Supreme Court seat vacant for a year (actually, it certainly will turn out to be more than a year) so that an incumbent president couldnt fill it was an unfortunate development that should not be permitted to become the norm. If making such a statement is regarded as unduly partisan, were in even worse trouble than I thought. Volunteer. If you cant travel to Washington or if there are no protests being organized in your area, volunteer at an agency or nonprofit that serves a community or advocates on an issue that has been directly targeted by the incoming president. These range from womens rights, to civil liberties, to immigrant outreach, to environmental protection. Donate. If you cant find a way to volunteer, donate. These groups will need as much funding as possible to defend themselves and their positions from a hostile administration and compliant Congress. Subscribe. Coming from me this may sound self-interested, but please try to look over my obvious and admitted conflict to see that the press, even with all its flaws particularly those exposed during this election is one of the last lines of defense against corruption and a slide toward autocracy. Trumps hostility to, and delegitimizing of, the press is a deliberate tactic meant to shield him against future discovery and disclosure. As Frank Sesno, director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University, said on CNNs Reliable Sources last month: If Donald Trump is trying to inoculate himself in advance, its like giving himself a vaccine, to prevent the illness thats going to come when the media turn on his tax returns if they get another leak on it, when they look at some of the business dealings as hes talking to foreign leaders. There are all kinds of stories that you can imagine, that have already been written, some of them, and what hes trying to do here is, as I say, sort of inoculate himself by demonizing media. So, dont believe anything they say. Read. Spend part of the day reading about the rise and fall of empires and how it always seems far-fetched and inconceivable until it actually happens. There are many books that address this topic, but if you want something shorter, try Andrew Sullivans Democracies End When They Are Too Democratic, a counterintuitive meditation on how tyranny can spring from populism, or my colleague Paul Krugmans How Republics End. But, by all means, read something. That is oppositional in and of itself when facing a frightening man who seems constitutionally averse to intelligence from national intelligence to individual intelligence and who is apparently, how shall I say this, far from a voracious reader. Watch. If you must watch something on Jan. 20, try to find specific anti-inauguration counterprogramming. CNN this week reported one such effort: A group of entrepreneurs have banded together to create Love-a-thon, a Jerry Lewis-style telethon for the digital age. Love-a-thon will be a three-hour Facebook Live broadcast, beginning at 12:30 p.m. E.T. on Inauguration Day, January 20. The move is a part of an effort to raise money for three organizations the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, Planned Parenthood and Earthjustice. I want to point out one theme that keeps popping up in Altmans piece and existed long before Obamcare: A lot of Americans are deeply frustrated by the logistical headaches built into our health care system. As Altman writes: They were especially upset by surprise bills for services they believed were covered. They said their coverage was hopelessly complex. If they had their way, Altman says, their insurance would become much more understandable. I share their frustration, and I imagine most of you do, too. Just this week, a member of my family endured the Kafkaesque experience of being told that she needed to show up for an appointment even if she were no longer sick or face a penalty, thanks to insurance rules. Strikingly, some of the Trump voters told Kaiser that they resented lower-income people who were enrolled in Medicaid, which they viewed as a better deal. Medicaid has its own complexities (and its own problems), but government-run programs do tend to be simpler than private ones. Its true of Medicare, and its true of single-payer systems in other countries. Obamacare looks the way it does because its designers wanted to cause the least possible disruption to the status quo while providing insurance to many more people. By that measure and others, as a new Times editorial notes the law has been a big success. SAO PAULO, Brazil The end of the world has already arrived in Brazil. At least thats what people here are saying. A constitutional amendment passed by the Senate last month is being called the end of the world amendment by its opponents. Why? Because the consequences of the amendment look disastrous and long lasting. It will impose a 20-year cap on all federal spending, including education and health care. The government justified the measure on the grounds that Brazil faces severe budget shortfalls. But the people arent buying it. A poll last month found that only 24 percent of the population supports the amendment. Brazilians took to the streets to express their disapproval. They were, as usual, met with tear gas and mounted police officers. High school students occupied as many as 1,000 schools in protest, many in the southern state of Parana. The government isnt backing down. The end of the world amendment is just one of many neoliberal measures being pushed through by Michel Temer, the president. It should be cause for concern that Mr. Temer can undertake so many such reforms, especially considering most of them, including the budget cap, go against the agenda of the person who unlike Mr. Temer was actually elected president. And survival will be a real issue. The bottom line of the G.O.P. approach is that millions of Americans will lose insurance, and thousands more will die unnecessarily each year because of lack of care. The paradox of Obamacare is that it is both unpopular and saves lives. Preliminary research suggests that it has already begun saving lives, but its too early to have robust data on the improvements to life expectancy among the additional 20 million people who have gained insurance. It is notable that an Urban Institute study found that on the eve of Obamacares start, lack of health insurance was killing one American every 24 minutes. One careful study found that the Republican health care plan in Massachusetts, which was the model for Obamacare, noticeably lowered mortality rates. For every additional 830 adults covered by insurance, one death was prevented each year. The American College of Physicians warned this week that the G.O.P. course could result in seven million Americans losing their health insurance this year alone, by causing parts of the insurance market to implode. Back-of-envelope calculations suggest that the upshot would be an additional 8,400 Americans dying annually. How can insurance make such a difference? Ive written about my college roommate Scott Androes, a fellow farm boy from Oregon, who switched careers in 2003 and didnt buy health insurance on the individual market because it was so expensive. Then in 2011 he had trouble urinating and didnt see a doctor because of the cost. They spoke anxiously about rising premiums, deductibles, copays and drug costs. They were especially upset by surprise bills for services they believed were covered. They said their coverage was hopelessly complex. Those with marketplace insurance for which they were eligible for subsidies saw Medicaid as a much better deal than their insurance and were resentful that people with incomes lower than theirs could get it. They expressed animosity for drug and insurance companies, and sounded as much like Bernie Sanders supporters as Trump voters. One man in Pennsylvania with Type 1 diabetes reported making frequent trips to Eastern Europe to purchase insulin at one-tenth the cost he paid here. Surveys show that most enrollees in the Affordable Care Act marketplaces are happy with their plans. The Trump voters in our focus groups were representative of people who had not fared as well. Several described their frustration with being forced to change plans annually to keep premiums down, losing their doctors in the process. But asked about policies found in several Republican plans to replace the Affordable Care Act including a tax credit to help defray the cost of premiums, a tax-preferred savings account and a large deductible typical of catastrophic coverage several of these Trump voters recoiled, calling such proposals not insurance at all. One of those plans has been proposed by Representative Tom Price, Mr. Trumps nominee to be secretary of Health and Human Services. These voters said they did not understand health savings accounts and displayed skepticism about the concept. When told Mr. Trump might embrace a plan that included these elements, and particularly very high deductibles, they expressed disbelief. They were also worried about what they called chaos if there was a gap between repealing and replacing Obamacare. But most did not think that, as one participant put it, a smart businessman like Trump would let that happen. Some were uninsured before the Affordable Care Act and said they did not want to be uninsured again. Generally, the Trump voters on Medicaid were much more satisfied with their coverage. There was one thing many said they liked about the pre-Affordable Care Act insurance market: their ability to buy lower-cost plans that fit their needs, even if it meant that less healthy people had to pay more. They were unmoved by the principle of risk-sharing, and trusted that Mr. Trump would find a way to protect people with pre-existing medical conditions without a mandate, which most viewed as un-American. If these Trump voters could write a health plan, it would, many said, focus on keeping their out-of-pocket costs low, control drug prices and improve access to cheaper drugs. It would also address consumer issues many had complained about loudly, including eliminating surprise medical bills for out-of-network care, assuring the adequacy of provider networks and making their insurance much more understandable. Buoyed by Donald Trumps election, Europes far-right and populist parties are hoping for similar upset victories in elections this year and next in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Austria. If this werent worrying enough, Mr. Trumps overtly conciliatory attitude toward Russia and his open admiration for Vladimir Putin have inspired the leaders of these European parties to dream of a grand new alliance between themselves, Mr. Putin and Mr. Trump. On Dec. 19, Heinz-Christian Strache, the leader of Austrias Freedom Party, signed what he called a cooperation agreement with Russias ruling party. This was shortly after he reportedly paid a visit to Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, whom Mr. Trump named as his national security adviser, at Trump Tower in New York. Internationally, the Freedom Party continues to gain in influence, Mr. Strache boasted. While Mr. Straches party failed to win the countrys largely symbolic presidency in elections last month, it is favored to win a substantial number of seats in parliamentary elections scheduled for 2018. Marine Le Pen, the leader of Frances far-right National Front party, heralded Mr. Trumps election as the emergence of a new world. She said a trio of world leaders that included herself, Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin would be good for world peace. Ms. Le Pens party received an $11.7 million loan from the Kremlin in 2014. She is expected to win enough votes in the first election round to make the runoff. Polls now predict she will face off against the establishment right-wing candidate Francois Fillon, an old friend of Mr. Putin who wants to lift European sanctions against Russia for its war in Ukraine and its annexation of Crimea. If you are reading this in China, congratulations. Not many people are. That is because Chinese authorities instructed Apple late last month to remove The New York Times news app from the Apple app store. As Katie Benner and Sui-Lee Wee report, the move follows Chinas 2012 blocking of The Timess website. In 2012, the shutdown appeared to be the result of a series of reports in The Times on the extensive wealth amassed by the family of Wen Jiabao, who was then Chinas prime minister. It is not clear why the app was removed. Apple would not even say what regulatory violation, if any, caused the removal; who in the Chinese government told Apple to do it; or whether any legal case had been made, or legal documents presented, before Apple acceded to Chinas wishes. The removal happened on Dec. 23. Earlier that day, David Barboza, a Times reporter, spoke with Apple executives in conjunction with an article that would be published on Dec. 29 on the billions of dollars in perks and subsidies that China provides to the worlds largest iPhone manufacturer, Foxconn, a manufacturing partner of Apples. Image The move underlines the difficulty news organizations face in reporting on China, particularly when the countrys own people are also the readers. When Lucas Hedges was a child, he fantasized about becoming an actor in Hollywood, imagining himself doing all the superficial stuff being interviewed, having his photo taken, getting an IMDB page, winning awards. Now Mr. Hedges is living out that childhood dream. A breakout role in Kenneth Lonergans celebrated film Manchester by the Sea, as a randy, wisecracking teenager grappling with the death of his father while being cared for by his soul-scarred uncle, has already earned him the breakthrough performance prize from the National Board of Review; Screen Actors Guild and Independent Spirit award nominations; and considerable Academy Award buzz. He also shot two more high-profile films this year Greta Gerwigs directorial debut, Lady Bird, opposite Saoirse Ronan, and Martin McDonaghs Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri with Frances McDormand while taking a year off from college at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, where he is majoring in drama. Right now, though, hes immersed in a new challenge, making his professional stage debut Off Broadway in Anna Jordans Yen. The play, produced by MCC Theater, begins previews on Thursday, Jan. 12. Its really interesting to be 20 years old and to have your wildest dreams come true, Mr. Hedges said over a veggie burger and fries near his parents home in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. Its sort of like, where do you go from here? The actor Mark Ruffalo is returning to Broadway, a decade after his first and only appearance there, to star in a revival of Arthur Millers The Price. Mr. Ruffalo is replacing a fellow movie star, John Turturro, who had been scheduled to star in the play but is withdrawing, citing an unspecified film commitment. The play, which is scheduled to begin performances Feb. 16 and to open March 16 at the American Airlines Theater, is about a policeman returning to his childhood home in Manhattan to sell off his parents estate and, in the process, reckoning with his life choices and relationships. Mr. Ruffalo will play the returning son, Victor Franz. Jessica Hecht will play his wife, Tony Shalhoub his estranged brother, and Danny DeVito a furniture dealer. While Mr. Ruffalos breakout role was onstage, in Kenneth Lonergans This Is Our Youth, his only Broadway credit was in the 2006 revival of Awake and Sing!, a play by Clifford Odets. He was nominated for a Tony Award as best featured actor. (Nobody slings it with more panache than Mark Ruffalo, the soulful movie and stage actor making his Broadway debut here, Charles Isherwood wrote in The New York Times.) Everyone has theories for why well-educated, higher-income professionals are moving back into parts of cities shunned by their parents generation. Perhaps their living preferences have shifted. Or the demands of the labor market have, and young adults with less leisure time are loath to waste it commuting. Maybe the tendency to postpone marriage and children has made city living more alluring. Or the benefits of cities themselves have improved. There are all sorts of potential other amenities, whether its cafes, restaurants, bars, nicer parks, better schools, said Ingrid Gould Ellen, a professor of urban policy and planning at New York University. But a huge piece of it, she said, I think is crime. New research that she has conducted alongside Keren Mertens Horn, an economist at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, and Davin Reed, a doctoral student at N.Y.U., finds that when violent crime falls sharply, wealthier and educated people are more likely to move into lower-income and predominantly minority urban neighborhoods. As city leaders, we owe this to our youngest Angelenos to create safe spaces for them, he said in a letter to constituents. Our park facilities should be a safe haven, and we must do our part to provide the proper shelter for our kids. The letter was sent out as Mr. OFarrell faces questions about whether his proposal was an overreach, impeding the activities of law-abiding adults who dont have children and who might want to enjoy the pleasure of sitting in a playground. If you are worried that somebody is going to molest children, there are laws to prevent that, said Peter Eliasberg, the chief counsel of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. You cant just assume that because youre an adult you dont enjoy the sound of kids or watching kids in a playground. Mr. OFarrell asked the citys department of law to draft an ordinance based on his proposal. It would have to come to the City Council for approval before it could take effect. Casey Revkin, a mother of a 2-year-old son who lives over in Silver Lake, said she supported Mr. OFarrells initiatives. I believe we can have sections of our parks designated for children and still have vibrant, diverse public spaces and communities, she said By representing himself in the penalty phase of his trial for the church massacre in Charleston, S.C., Dylann Roof joins a roster of notorious killers who have gone that route a list that could serve as a caution to anyone considering following their lead. Some criminal defendants who act as their own lawyers want a stage to promote an ideology; some apparently want the spotlight or think they can fare better than a real lawyer; some are too controlling to let anyone else be in charge; some are too paranoid to trust lawyers; and some are just delusional. Whatever the motive, it rarely ends well for the defendant. Judges routinely advise against it, and often insist that court-appointed counsel be on hand as a backup. A teenage girl who was tackled and pinned on the ground by a police officer at a Texas pool party in 2015 has filed a federal lawsuit claiming that the officer used excessive force, and is seeking $5 million in damages, the girls lawyer said on Thursday. Cellphone footage posted on YouTube showed the officer, Cpl. David Eric Casebolt, who is white, throwing the teenager, Dajerria Becton, who is black and was 15 at the time, to the ground in McKinney, north of Dallas, in June 2015. The jarring images and the protests that resulted became part of a nationwide debate about the treatment of African-Americans at the hands of police officers. The officer resigned from the McKinney Police Department within days of the episode, but a grand jury decided last year not to charge him with any criminal offense. Ms. Bectons lawyer, Kim T. Cole, said in a telephone interview on Thursday that she had filed the lawsuit in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in December. She had not publicly announced the lawsuit until Wednesday, after local reporters began asking about it. WASHINGTON The nations top intelligence official, in a comment aimed at President-elect Donald J. Trump, said on Thursday that there was a difference between expressing skepticism of intelligence reports that Russia interfered with the American election and disparagement of the intelligence community. The official, James R. Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence, was testifying at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, where Republicans and Democrats defended Mr. Clapper and others just as Mr. Trump has questioned foreign involvement. Other highlights from the hearing: Intelligence officials said Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, should not be given credibility. Senator Lindsey Graham accused President Obama of throwing a pebble at the Russians. He said he would use a rock. The President-elects threat of a big border tax is bad policy and bad precedent, said the political action committees president, David McIntosh. American consumers, workers and businesses would be the big losers if tariffs were used to arbitrarily punish companies. The auto industry has been a popular target of the president-elects, especially as he campaigned on bringing back jobs to the United States. It has managed to knock the industry on its heels, as it comes off a record year of sales. Ford, an early target of Mr. Trumps, said on Tuesday that it was ditching plans to build a plant in Mexico and instead would invest millions building out production in Michigan. But keeping or creating more of these auto manufacturing jobs in the United States may not necessarily be a good thing for everyone. In Mexico, wages rarely cross $10 an hour, a third of what a majority of unionized workers in the United States earn. For Americans looking to buy cars, those higher wages could add up to higher sticker prices. One last effort to derail Trumps presidency Could Mr. Trumps presidency be derailed on a technicality? Probably not, but his opponents keep trying. A joint session of Congress will convene on Friday, with Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. presiding, to count the electoral votes and officially name Mr. Trump the 45th president of the United States. But wait! A team of anti-Trump lawyers has done a painstaking, exhaustive look at each of the 300-odd electors who cast their votes for Mr. Trump. Their conclusion: at least 50 were ineligible to serve as electors, either because they did not live in the congressional district they represented or they held dual posts elector and some other position contrary to the rules of their states. We urge you, our representatives, to prepare written objections for Jan. 6th, the team wrote at the top of a 1,000-page legal brief. Protesters clash with riot police during a rally to demand a referendum to remove Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela, September 1, 2016. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins Venezuela's deepening economic and political dysfunction have spurred waves of outmigration in recent years. In the years since Hugo Chavez took office in 1999, well-off Venezuelans left the country, followed by educated professionals, and, most recently, the youth and middle class. Now another marginalized group has begun to head for the exits: Venezuelan Jews, who have in the past moved to the US or Panama but have struggled to do so as Venezuela's economic crisis drains more of the country's wealth. Official Israeli figures cited by The Washington Post list 111 Venezuelan Jews as immigrating to Israel in 2015, or making "aliyah," as it is referred to in Hebrew. That 2015 total was more than double the number who immigrated in 2012. Official totals for 2016 have yet to be released, but a charity that helps Jews from troubled areas reach Israel told The Post that it helped about 90 people get to the Middle Eastern country. Venezuela's current Jewish community, mainly Orthodox, is thought to be between 6,000 and 9,000 in number, down from roughly 30,000 in the country around 2000. Venezuela has a long history of Jewish communities. The oldest such community was a Sephardic congregation in Curacao a Dutch territory just off Venezuela's Caribbean coast that dates back to 1651. Since then, Venezuela has, at times, encouraged European migration, and Jewish people were able to integrate with relative alacrity. Venezuela's recent relationship with Israel, however, has been fraught. Israel Venezuela Lebanon Egypt Palestine protest Story continues After moving away from the US in the wake of the 2002 attempted coup against Chavez, Venezuela denounced Israel for the 2006 invasion of Lebanon, which Chavez called a "new Holocaust" against Palestinians and Lebanese. The governments of Chavez and his successor, Nicolas Maduro, have been quick to condemn Israel went it comes in conflict with neighbors, especially Palestine and Iran, with whom Venezuela has formed close alliances. And their broad rhetoric has been accused of stoking anti-Semitic attitudes and behavior. "For several years, we have seen anti-Semitic accusations and themes appear in Venezuelan public discourse," Jonathan A. Greenblatt, chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League said in August 2016, in response to anti-Semitic imagery that appeared on a Venezuelan magazine. "At present, most Venezuelan Jews do not face open discrimination from their neighbors," Daniel Lansberg-Rodriguez, a Foreign Policy contributor and professor at Northwestern, wrote in late 2014. "Even so, a sense of dread and isolation is pervasive among much of the community." Venezuela Iran Jews Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Chavez expelled the Israeli ambassador in 2009, and the two countries still do not have diplomatic relations, which complicates Venezuelan Jews' efforts to relocate. In the last month, nine such immigrants have found their efforts to move stymied by the resistance of the Israeli government. Israel's law of return requires Jews of choice who want to relocate to Israel to have been converted in a "recognized Jewish community" with a full-time rabbi and an active synagogue, according to Haaretz. The nine Venezuelans were converted by a Conservative rabbinical court in 2014, after three years of study. Their hometown, Maracay, does not have a recognized Jewish community, but the group joined a synagogue in the nearby city of Valencia, where the Jewish community is recognized. Despite that, Israel's Interior Ministry told Haaretz that "during the entire period when they were preparing for their conversion and in the period that followed, they did not belong to a Jewish community." The decision has spurred frustration and criticism from a number of people from across Judaism's denominations. Documentation provided to the Jewish Agency recommendations from which the Israeli Interior Ministry typically bases its immigration-eligibility decisions on confirmed that the nine Venezuelans had joined the community in Valencia. In this case, it appears that the ministry disregarded the agency's recommendation, and the chairman of the agency is reportedly considering intervening. During a special Israeli parliament session at the end of December, at which American rabbis were present, Israel's government was rebuked for its decision. "These nine individuals underwent conversions that were 100 percent in line with the Law of Return, and I am saying that as an Orthodox rabbi," said Asher Lopatin, a modern Orthodox rabbi, according to Haaretz. "They must be allowed to come to Israel." Israel Ethiopia immigrant Jews protest racism police brutality Race and ethnicity and their relation to Israel's immigration decisions have been a controversial topic. The country has approved less than 1% of the asylum applications it's received since signing the UN Refugee Convention 60 years ago. Israel has also been resistant to granting asylum to African refugees, about 60,000 of whom have entered the country since 2005 former Interior Minister Eli Yishai said Israel's intention was to "make their lives miserable." "Sadly it is all too common that issues of race and denominational affiliation play into the decisions made by the Interior Ministry," Andy Sacks, a rabbi and director of the Conservative movement's Rabbinical Assembly in Israel, said, according to Haaretz. Sacks also said the Israeli prime minister's office ignored his requests to intervene. Aryeh Deri served time in prison for taking $155,000 in bribes Reuven Hammer, a rabbi and former president of the International Rabbinical Assembly of the Conservative movement, told Haaretz the ministry's decision indicated a "hidden agenda" against non-Orthodox converts. The current interior minister, Aryeh Deri, is the chairman of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party. Orthodox rabbis have spoken out against the decision, with one calling it a "dangerous precedent" during a meeting at the Israeli parliament and another telling Haaretz that the Venezuelans' conversions were valid and that they should be allowed to immigrate. "These people, regardless of the denomination of their conversions, decided to unite their destiny to that of our people," Daniel Askenazi, an Orthodox rabbi and spiritual leader of the Jewish community in the western Colombia city of Barranquilla, told Haaretz. "It is our duty as Jews to raise our voices and demand that the State of Israel ... expedite the adsorption of these people." NOW WATCH: 'Friends need to tell each other the hard truths': Kerry explains why the US abstained from the UN resolution on Israel More From Business Insider WASHINGTON A united front of top intelligence officials and senators from both parties on Thursday forcefully reaffirmed the conclusion that the Russian government used hacking and leaks to try to influence the presidential election, directly rebuffing President-elect Donald J. Trumps repeated questioning of Russias role. They suggested that the doubts Mr. Trump has expressed on Twitter about the agencies competence and impartiality were undermining their morale. Theres a difference between skepticism and disparagement, James R. Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence, said at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee on the Russian hacks. He added that our assessment now is even more resolute that the Russians carried out the attack on the election. The Senate hearing was the prelude to an extraordinary meeting scheduled for Friday, when Mr. Clapper and other intelligence chiefs will repeat for Mr. Trump the same detailed, highly classified briefing on the Russian attack that President Obama received on Thursday. In effect, they will be telling the president-elect that the spy agencies believe he won with an assist from President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. WASHINGTON President-elect Donald J. Trump lashed out at Democrats on Thursday over their efforts to preserve President Obamas health care coverage law, insulting their top legislative leader and denouncing the measure as a lie as he called for a less expensive and more effective system. The Democrats, lead by head clown Chuck Schumer, know how bad ObamaCare is and what a mess they are in, Mr. Trump wrote in the first of three early-morning posts on Twitter. The posts arrived the day after Mr. Obama huddled with Democrats on Capitol Hill to strategize over protecting the Affordable Care Act and Vice President-elect Mike Pence met with Republicans about how to gut it. Instead of working to fix it, they do the typical political thing and BLAME, Mr. Trump continued on Twitter. The fact is ObamaCare was a lie from the beginning. Keep you doctor, keep your plan! WASHINGTON The Pentagon announced on Thursday that it had transferred four Yemeni detainees from the wartime prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Saudi Arabia, beginning an expected flurry of transfers in the waning days of the Obama administration. The transfers reduced the remaining detainee population to 55. But 19 are on a list of detainees recommended for transfer if security conditions can be met in the receiving country. Officials have said they expect most of the men on that list to be gone when President Obama leaves office on Jan. 20, leaving about 40 still in the prison. All four men sent to Saudi Arabia will continue to be held for a period in a custodial rehabilitation program for lower-level Islamist extremists. They were captured as part of the Afghanistan conflict and had been imprisoned by the United States without trial for about 15 years. They included two men, Mohammed Ali Abdullah Bwazir and Abdullah Yahia Yousf al Shabli, who were approved for transfer by a six-agency task force in 2009 but remained stranded because Yemen was in chaos. The Obama administration gave up on Yemen stabilizing and began resettling Yemeni detainees elsewhere in late 2014. Heading home from an office party in Stillwater, Okla., Angie Mendez became the main character in a frightening medical mystery. Suddenly, she felt so sick that she wasnt sure she could drive the last few blocks to her house. Chills, nausea and stomach cramps hit with little warning, like a lightning strike, she said. She barely made it into the house before explosive vomiting and diarrhea started. Her temperature spiked to 102. Her back ached. Ms. Mendez, the marketing director for a restaurant and clothing store, is the subject of an article published Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine by Dr. James N. George and other researchers. She was not named in the article, but was contacted through Dr. George, and agreed to be interviewed. Her illness occurred in 2009. Still sick and in pain the morning after she first became ill, she went to an emergency room. There were hints that something might be seriously wrong. Her blood counts were abnormal: White cells were high, platelets a bit low. She couldnt produce a urine sample. But she was 35 and healthy, and her main symptoms matched those caused by run-of-the-mill stomach bugs. Doctors gave her nausea medicine and intravenous fluid, and sent her home. Two days later, she was back in the emergency room. Now, her body was clearly under siege. She had not urinated in days, not since the illness began. Something had shut down her kidneys. HONG KONG Smog and corruption are among the problems that the Chinese government has vowed to combat. Now another problem, which lies right under many tourists noses, is in the authorities cross hairs: unsightly toilets. The China National Tourism Administration, a government agency, announced a five-year plan in December to enhance the countrys tourism industry, including a project to build, expand and renovate 100,000 toilets in scenic areas and along tourist routes. The plan complements a campaign to add 57,000 modern public toilets nationwide by late 2017. The agencys chairman, Li Jinzao, has said that a failure to upgrade toilets could damage the reputation of Chinas tourism industry, which the United Nations said earned $114 billion from international visitors in 2015, second only to the United States. SEOUL, South Korea Oral arguments began on Thursday in the impeachment trial of President Park Geun-hye of South Korea, with one of her lawyers saying that she was a victim of mob justice and comparing her trial with those of Christ and Socrates. Socrates was put to death, and Jesus crucified, in mob trials, the lawyer, Seo Seok-gu, told the Constitutional Court, denouncing the National Assemblys vote to impeach Ms. Park and criticizing local news coverage of the corruption scandal that has engulfed her in recent months. Our democracy is in danger because of so-called majority opinion instigated through demagogy, he said. The Constitutional Court has until June to decide whether the National Assemblys Dec. 9 vote to impeach Ms. Park was justified; if so, the president, whose powers have been suspended, will be formally removed from office. NICE, France At times it was hard to know who was on trial, the smuggler or the state. The defendant, Cedric Herrou, 37, a slightly built olive farmer, did not deny that for months he had illegally spirited dozens of migrants through the remote mountain valley where he lives. He would do it again, he suggested. Instead, when asked by a judge, Why do you do all this? Mr. Herrou turned the tables and questioned the humanity of Frances practice of rounding up and turning back Africans entering illegally from Italy in search of work and a better life. It was ignoble, he said. There are people dying on the side of the road, Mr. Herrou replied. Its not right. There are children who are not safe. It is enraging to see children, at 2 in the morning, completely dehydrated. I am a Frenchman, Mr. Herrou declared. The trial, which began on Wednesday, is no ordinary one. It has been substantially covered by the French news media for its rich symbolism and for the way it neatly sums up the ambiguity of Frances policy toward the unceasing flow of migrants into Europe and the quandary they present. She is the No. 1 most-wanted domestic terrorist, as she has been crucial in managing the Revolutionary Struggle, but more specifically in recruiting, Mr. Chronopoulos said in a phone interview. Starting in 2010, Ms. Roupa and Mr. Maziotis served 18 months in pretrial detention, the maximum possible, on terrorism charges. They were released in 2012 and were required to check in with the local police once a week, but instead they went on the run. In 2013, they were sentenced in absentia to 50 years in prison. Another leader of the group, Costas Gournas, also received a 50-year sentence. The group, which had been thought to be inactive, claimed responsibility for an April 2014 bomb that was placed in a parked car in central Athens. No one was injured in the attack. That July, Mr. Maziotis was arrested after a shootout with the police in central Athens in which he and three other people a police officer, a German tourist and an Australian tourist were injured. Early last year, the police said, Ms. Roupa tried to free Mr. Maziotis and other prisoners. She rented a helicopter and tried to force the pilot at gunpoint to fly over the prison where they were being held. But the pilot refused, and in the struggle that followed, he managed to regain control and land the helicopter. Ms. Roupa ran off. Over the last year, the police had been collecting significant information and indications leading us to the municipalities of southern Athens, Mr. Chronopoulos said on Thursday. The police monitored the house over the past three days, he said, and on Wednesday evening, when we were made sure that it was indeed Pola Roupa living in that house, we decided that it was time to go in with the raid. The United States on Thursday officially listed a son of Osama bin Laden as a global terrorist, and warned that the younger man, who has called for attacks around the world, poses a risk to American national security. The son, Hamza bin Laden, who has pledged to take up Osama bin Ladens violent mantle and avenge his death, is actively engaged in terrorism, the State Department said, putting his age at 27. Placing Mr. Bin Laden on the government list, formally known as the Specially Designated Global Terrorist list, gives officials legal tools to isolate him and hamper his movements and transactions. It is also a reminder of the continued terrorism campaign by Al Qaeda, which Osama bin Laden founded, and its affiliates, and of its aim to recruit and groom a new generation of jihadists. Hamza bin Laden, one of Osama bin Ladens 23 children, was named a member of the terrorist group in 2014 by his fathers successor, Ayman al-Zawahri. Since then, in a series of recorded messages, Mr. Bin Laden has called for attacks on Western capitals and warned Americans that they would be targeted in the United States and abroad, the State Department said. WellCare Health Plans, Inc. WCG has completed the previously announced acquisition of the subsidiaries of Care1st Health Plan Care1st Health Plan Arizona, Inc. and ONECare by Care1st Health Plan of Arizona, Inc., collectively known as Care1st Arizona. This buyout will enable WellCare Health to extend its footprint into Arizonas thriving Medicaid and Medicare markets. The company has been boosting its inorganic growth profile through strategic acquisitions, which has helped it to grow its top line. The growth story is also evident from the companys share price, which gained 75.3% in 2016 compared with 21.02% for the Zacks Categorized Health Maintenance Organization industry. Care1st Arizona offers Medicaid and Medicare benefits to about 115,000 people in Arizonas largest geographic service areas Maricopa and Pima counties. The acquisition is expected to be accretive to earnings per diluted share in the first year itself. Care1st Arizona is renowned as a superior quality health plan that has met the criteria of government-sponsored programs in Arizona for more than 13 years. The health plans commitment toward community-based relationships and combined delivery of medical care and social services is in sync with the acquirers objective of providing enhanced health benefits to low-income families, children, the disabled, seniors and individuals with complex medical needs. The company has made a number of acquisitions since the past many years. In Dec 2016, the company entered into an agreement to acquire assets like Medicaid membership and certain provider contracts from Tenet Healthcare Corp.'s THC affiliate, Phoenix Health Plan. In Nov 2016, WellCare announced its intention to acquire Universal American Corp. Last June, the company acquired certain assets of Advicare Corp.s Medicare business. The buyout will allow the health maintenance organization to expand its footprint to South Carolina and strengthen its partnership with the state via delivery of quality, cost-effective health care solutions to low-income children and families. Currently, WellCare carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Some other players in the space to consider are Magellan Health, Inc. MGLN and UnitedHealth Group Inc. UNH. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Magellan Health has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), carries a VGM score of B and witnessed a rise in earnings estimates over the past 60 days. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. UnitedHealth Group has a Zacks Rank #2 and a VGM score of A. It witnessed a rise in earnings estimates over the past 90 days. Zacks Best Private Investment Ideas In addition to the recommendations that are available to the public on our website, how would you like to follow all Zacks' private buys and sells in real time? Our experts cover all kinds of trades from value to momentum . . . from stocks under $10 to ETF and option moves . . . from stocks that corporate insiders are buying up to companies that are about to report positive earnings surprises. You can even look inside exclusive portfolios that are normally closed to new investors. Starting today, for the next month, you can have unrestricted access. Click here for Zacks' private trades >> 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 UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (UNH): Free Stock Analysis Report WellCare Health Plans, Inc. (WCG): Get Free Report Magellan Health, Inc. (MGLN): Free Stock Analysis Report Tenet Healthcare Corporation (THC): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research For Immediate Release Chicago, IL January 04, 2017 Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include BP plc (NYSE: BP Free Report ), ExxonMobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM Free Report ), SeaDrill Ltd. (NYSE: SDRL Free Report ), Petrobras (NYSE: PBR Free Report ) and Eni SpA (NYSE: E Free Report ). Today, Zacks is promoting its ''Buy'' stock recommendations. Get #1Stock of the Day pick for free . Here are highlights from Tuesdays Analyst Blog: Oil & Gas Stock Roundup: BP, XOM & More Heading into the New Year, both oil and natural gas futures surged to multi-month highs after gaining handsomely in 2016. On the news front, British energy giant BP plc (NYSE: BP Free Report ) agreed to buy a chain of petrol stations from Australian retailer Woolworths Ltd., while supermajor ExxonMobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM Free Report ) declared a new natural gas discovery in Papua New Guinea. Overall, the sector ended 2016 on a bullish note. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures added around 3% for the week to close at $53.72 per barrel, while natural gas prices jumped 6.2% to $3.724 per million Btu (MMBtu). (See the last Oil & Gas Stock Roundup here: Chevron's Asset Sale, Petrobras' TOTAL Deal and More .) Posting its biggest annual gain since 2009, oil prices closed 2016 up 45%. The bullish momentum continued during last weeks trading, with the commodity attaining its highest closing in 17 months as investors and analysts grow more confidant that producers will adhere to their agreed output cut quotas, which will reduce the global inventory glut next year. Oils-Energy Sector 5YR % Return Meanwhile, natural gas was 2016s best-performing commodity, gaining 60% during the period. The heating fuel surged to a 2-year high last week following a massive withdrawal that sent storage into a deficit versus the five-year average. The commodity was further buoyed by predictions of abnormally frigid weather over the entire U.S that is set to translate into strong demand. Story continues Recap of the Weeks Most Important Stories 1. BP plc has agreed to shell out A$1.785 billion ($1.3 billion) for Woolworths Ltd.s portfolio of Australian gas stations in a deal that will likely make the London-based oil company one of the nations biggest fuel providers. Per the deal, the British energy company will acquire 527 fuel outlets as well as 16 development sites. The Woolworths fuel outlets are supplied by rival Caltex Australia Ltd. Currently, BP owns 350 retail locations across Australia and supplies fuel to an additional 1,000 outlets owned by independent business partners. BP and Woolworths partnership also includes the continuation and expansion of a scheme offering fuel discounts for supermarket customers. The purchase by BP marks a deviation from the trend of the recent years that has seen a smaller share of Australias retail fuel operators being owned by the major oil companies. There are about 6,400 outlets Down Under, while 52% of them were associated with one of the four major oil companies operating in Australia as of Jan 2016, only 9% were directly controlled by them. Subject to regulatory approvals, the transaction is not expected to conclude before Jan 2, 2018. (Read more: BP to Buy Woolworths Australian Gas Stations for $1.3B .) 2. Worlds largest publicly traded oil company ExxonMobil Corp. announced that it has made a new natural gas discovery in the Papua New Guinea North Highlands. Located 13 miles (21 kilometers) northwest of the Hides Gas Field, the Muruk-1 well came across similar high-quality sandstone reservoirs as the Hides field, same as the pre-drill expectations. The well was drilled to a depth of 10,630 feet (3,130 meters). Located in petroleum prospecting license 402, the well spans across an acreage of 126,000 acres (510 square kilometers). The size of the discovery is currently being assessed. Oil Search Limited is the operator of the well with a holding of 37.5%. ExxonMobil holds 42.5% and the remaining 20% is owned by Barracuda Limited, a subsidiary of Santos Limited. Oil Search started drilling the Muruk-1 well on Nov 2. ExxonMobils involvement in exploration in Papua New Guinea dates back to the 1930s. Moreover, the Muruk exploration success validates the strength of ExxonMobils long-term investment approach and reiterates its commitment to Papua New Guinea. (Read more: ExxonMobil Hits Natural Gas in Onshore Papua New Guinea .) 3. Hamilton, Bermuda-based offshore drilling firm SeaDrill Ltd. (NYSE: SDRL Free Report ) reported that it has entered into a three-year agreement extension with Saudi Aramco for the AOD III jackup rig at a rate of $102,740 per day. The contract will now expire in Dec 2019. SeaDrill currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here . The extension of this agreement is expected to add approximately $112.5 million in contract backlog. Also, this follows the three-year contracts extensions of two sister rigs AOD I and AOD II that are set to expire in Jun 2019 and Jul 2019, respectively. The three units have been working for Saudi Aramco since 2013. The ownership of these rigs lie with Asia Offshore Drilling a partnership venture between Seadrill and Mermaid Maritime that own 66.24% and 33.76% equity interest, respectively. (Read more: Seadrill Signs 3-Year Rig Extension for AOD III Jackup .) 4. Brazil's state-run energy giant Petrobras (NYSE: PBR Free Report ) reported that it has signed an agreement to divest non-core business assets worth $587 million. This move is to reduce its debts and revive investor confidence shattered by a corruption scandal. Under the terms of the agreement, Petrobras has agreed to offload its 45.97% stake in sugar and ethanol producer Guarani SA. The buyer, Frances Tereos Internacional, is slated to pay $202 million for the buyout. In a separate arrangement, Petrobras has agreed to divest certain petrochemical assets worth $385 million to Mexican petrochemical company Alpek S.A.B. de C.V. The petrochemical units, namely Petroquimica Suape and Citepe, are located in the state of Pernambuco and can produce 700,000 tons of purified terephthalic acid per year. The units also churn out 450,000 tons of polyethylene terephthalate per year. Petrobras asset sale plan is in sync with its efforts to lower its huge debt burden. In fact, the company with a debt of $122.65 billion at the end of third-quarter 2016 is the most indebted in the world. As a result, Petrobras intends to divest assets worth $21 billion over 20172018. (Read more: Petrobras to Divest Non-Core Assets worth $587 Million .) 5. Italian energy company Eni SpA (NYSE: E Free Report ) recently gained two exploration blocks offshore Cyprus, in the competitive international bid round 3rd Licensing Round. Eni will be the operator of Block 6 with 50% interest, while the balance will be held by partner, Frances TOTAL SA. Eni will acquire a 100% stake in Block 8. Enis successfully explored areas in the neighboring Egyptian offshore, including the Zohr massive gas field, which have geological similarities with these newly awarded areas. These awards further strengthen Enis strategic position in the area. Notably, the company was awarded the blocks 9, 3 and 2 in the 2nd international bid round in 2012. The company also holds three exploration blocks on the Egyptian side Shorouk (where the Zohr field is located), Karawan and North Leil. Eni holds 50% stake and 100% stake in Karawan and North Leil, respectively. Eni has been enjoying a strong foothold in Cyprus since 2013, where it holds and operates the offshore exploration blocks 2, 3 and 9. (Read more: Eni Wins Twin Exploration Block License in Offshore Cyprus .) Today, Zacks is promoting its ''Buy'' stock recommendations. Get #1 Stock of the Day pick for free . About Zacks Equity Research Zacks Equity Research provides the best of quantitative and qualitative analysis to help investors know what stocks to buy and which to sell for the long-term. Continuous coverage is provided for a universe of 1,150 publicly traded stocks. Our analysts are organized by industry which gives them keen insights to developments that affect company profits and stock performance. Recommendations and target prices are six-month time horizons. Strong Stocks that Should Be in the News Many are little publicized and fly under the Wall Street radar. They're virtually unknown to the general public. Yet today's 220 Zacks Rank #1 "Strong Buys" were generated by the stock-picking system that has nearly tripled the market from 1988 through 2015. Its average gain has been a stellar +26% per year. See these high-potential stocks free >>. Get the full Report on BP - FREE Get the full Report on XOM - FREE Get the full Report on SDRL - FREE Get the full Report on PBR - FREE Get the full Report on E - FREE Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/zacksresearch Join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Zacks-Investment-Research/57553657748?ref=ts Zacks Investment Research is under common control with affiliated entities (including a broker-dealer and an investment adviser), which may engage in transactions involving the foregoing securities for the clients of such affiliates. Media Contact Zacks Investment Research 800-767-3771 ext. 9339 support@zacks.com https://www.zacks.com/ Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release. 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 BP PLC (BP): Free Stock Analysis Report EXXON MOBIL CRP (XOM): Free Stock Analysis Report SEADRILL LTD (SDRL): Free Stock Analysis Report PETROBRAS-ADR C (PBR): Free Stock Analysis Report ENI SPA-ADR (E): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Colt presses Derby claims Cha Siu Baos performance in the Gr.2 Great Northern Guineas has boosted confidence in his ability to rise to a greater challenge in the autumn. The Lance OSullivan and Andrew Scott-trained three-year-old got home late to finish fourth at Ellerslie in the New Years Day feature, during which he also lost a plate. Cha Siu Bao Photo: Race Images Christchurch He ran home the fastest last 600 metres of the race after he was slow to begin, Scott said. It was a really encouraging run so it all looks good for him going forward. Fourth in the Gr.1 New Zealand 1000 Guineas at his previous appearance, Cha Siu Baos target race is the $1 million Gr.1 Vodafone New Zealand Derby at Ellerslie on March 4. Well probably run him in the Waikato Guineas and then, all going well, a traditional path into the Derby, Scott said. Victory would complete a memorable double for his Hong Kong-based owners Hermitage Thoroughbreds. They also raced Cha Siu Baos former stablemate Willie Cazals, who won the Gr.1 Livamol Classic last spring before a suspensory ligament injury forced his retirement. Meanwhile, OSullivan and Scott also have high hopes for Miss Foxy Gal, who will debut in the Cambridge Stud Stallions 2YO at Ruakaka on Friday. The Foxwedge filly, to be ridden by Craig Grylls, was put aside after a trial in the spring and more recently she won her 800 metre heat at Avondale. That trial was very good, she jumped out and showed good speed, Scott said. Shes an improving filly and were confident that shes going to run very well. NZ Racing Desk. LOS ANGELES The expansion of the Los Angeles regions subway network got a $1.6 billion boost Wednesday as federal officials announced grants and loans that will help push the tracks west through Beverly Hills, toward the Pacific Ocean. The package will help complete the second phase of an underground extension that will after a third extension connect downtown Los Angeles with part of the citys congested west side that lacks train service. This push of the Purple Line through Beverly Hills met with local opposition, but on Wednesday U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx joined local transportation officials to pledge the federal help. In all, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority projects the cost at $2.5 billion for two new stations, which are slated to open in 2026. A historically black colleges decision to have its marching band participate in President-elect Donald Trumps inauguration parade on Jan. 20 is coming under fire from some of the schools alumni, students and Trump opponents across the country. In the days since the Talladega College Marching Tornado Band announced that it would take part in the parade, it has been hammered on Facebook and social media by critics who have called on the 150-year-old Alabama school to cancel its appearance in the parade. No other bands from historically black colleges will be marching through Washington on the day Trump is sworn in. My first reaction was Oh, hell no. Thats just wrong on so many levels, said Shirley Ferrill, a 1974 Talladega graduate who set up a online petition asking the school to change its decision because she believes the Trump administration will be detrimental to African Americans. She says many of her friends and classmates feel similarly. To perform at the inaugural smacks of some level of support for Trump, Ferrill said. The man has been consistently nasty and vile to African Americans in general. I find him totally reprehensible. I believe there is saving grace for every human being, but he hasnt shown that he wants to seek it. If the band does choose to go ahead with its plans to perform, Ferrill says she will be very disappointed and upset. The parade, which is expected to last about three hours and will include approximately 8,000 participants representing more than 40 organizations, is slated to begin on Pennsylvania Avenue NW near the U.S. Capitol and will head west toward the White House. There, President Trump and his family and invited guests and dignitaries will look on from a viewing stand. While most of the online reaction to the schools decision has been negative, others have said the 200-member band should take part in the historic day. Dollan Young, a senior who is a member of the band, started a separate online petition to garner support for the bands performance. We believe that this parade is not about politics its about seeing first hand the process of a transition, Young wrote. We are not one-track thinkers and believe everyone is entitled to their own beliefs. As with all other participants, the Talladega College marching band applied to take part the inaugural parade, according to a spokesman with the Presidential Inaugural Committee. It is unclear, however, whether the school will require all band members to participate. The schools president, Billy C. Hawkins, did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday. Attempts to reach Talladegas Board of Trustees Chairman Harry Coaxum and the marching bands director were unsuccessful. A representative of the school said Hawkins plans to make a statement addressing the issue on Wednesday. Founded by former slaves during Reconstruction, the school of 1,500 students is one of a number of historically black colleges that opened its doors shortly after the end of the Civil War. Before last years presidential election, Chinese-language media in Southern California were surprisingly abuzz with news and commentary voicing support for Republican nominee Donald Trump. Now, those voices often are silent. A December phone call from the Taiwanese government that was accepted by Trump, plus the president-elects choice of an extreme China hawk to head a new foreign trade council and lots of post-election tweets disparaging the Chinese government are casting a pall on one of Southern Californias most important foreign relationships with China. That, in turn, could sting financially and culturally. Any big change with China has the potential to alter everything from commercial projects in downtown Los Angeles to new neighborhoods in places like Irvine and Moreno Valley to enrollment at UCLA, UC Riverside and USC. For now, the mood for many Chinese Americans including some who supported Trump is cautious. We try to block the bad stuff Trump says about China, said David Wang, a 33-year-old Diamond Bar resident who founded Chinese Americans for Trump and serves on Trumps Asian American advisory board. To be honest, I think hes just testing the waters. That last idea was widely held just a few weeks ago. PRE-ELECTION SUPPORT Before the election, while polling showed Asian Americans generally favored Democrat Hillary Clinton and as Trump used China as a foil in his stump speeches and in national debates his brash style and positions on issues like education and immigration nevertheless galvanized support from some in the Chinese and Taiwanese enclaves of places like the San Gabriel Valley and Orange County. His Chinese American fans were small in numbers but often loud. They offered public support at his rallies and flooded the popular Chinese messaging app WeChat with pro-Trump discourse. That, in turn, captured attention in Southern Californias vibrant Chinese-language media, which include several newspapers and websites. Before the election there were newspaper articles saying that he would be good for China. There were groups of Chinese people for Trump who bought billboards, said Long Liu, a San Gabriel lawyer whose firm primarily serves clients in Southern Californias ethnic Chinese community. It had an impact, Liu added. There were a lot of Chinese people who ended up voting for Trump. But since Trumps surprise victory and more specifically, since he accepted a congratulatory phone call from the president of Taiwan in early December the president-elects Chinese American supporters have largely gone silent. After the phone call, it was like all of those people, all of those articles, magically disappeared, Liu said. No one talks about him anymore. The silence is not surprising. In addition to taking the phone call from Taiwan, the president-elect has doubled down on the anti-Chinese rhetoric he campaigned on, making it clear his administration might take aggressive steps to curtail Chinese-U.S. trade. Trump has so frequently provoked the Chinese government on Twitter that Chinas state news agency demanded this week that the president-elect stop using the microblogging platform to conduct foreign policy. And last month, Trump appointed UC Irvine economist Peter Navarro, a fierce critic of Chinas economic policies, to head a newly created White House council tasked with overseeing global trade. For Trumps Chinese American supporters, many of whom are first-generation immigrants from mainland China, the president-elects aggressive posturing toward China has come as a surprise and injected a degree of uncertainty about the candidate whom they rallied around during the campaign. Being Chinese American, you are always in the awkward position of deciding who you are loyal to, said Wang. UNPRECEDENTED ENGAGEMENT Trump also is inspiring unprecedented engagement in a community that has often seemed indifferent to American politics. This is an issue that will impact everyone in every community, said Yulan Chung, who runs the South Coast Chinese Cultural Association and Irvine Chinese School in Orange County. Everyone is trying to figure out whats going on and what (the Trump administration) stands for. This is a country of immigrants, Chung added. But everyone wants to protect their own interests. Increasingly, the interests of Chinese Americans, Chinese investors and Southern Californias economy are entwined. China has replaced Mexico as the country sending the most immigrants to California including 33,000 in 2015, according to federal data. China also is the leading source of foreign students at Californias public colleges. California is a top destination for Chinese foreign investment, taking in $25.5 billion between 2000 and 2016, according to the Rhodium Group, which tracks global economic trends. Theres a lot at stake when it comes to Californias engagement with China, said Karthick Ramakrishnan, a public policy professor at UC Riverside who directs the National Asian American Survey. Everyone is in a state of uncertainty now, waiting to see what Trump will do on trade, on immigration, on foreign policy. Trumps recent remarks on China, Ramakrishnan added, have heightened that policy uncertainty. A lot of people who didnt take Trumps anti-China rhetoric seriously during the campaign have been sort of rudely awakened. SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EFFECT Any policies the Trump administration pursues are likely to have an outsize effect in Southern California, and particularly in Los Angeles County. The county is home to the largest ethnic Chinese population in the country 421,665, according to census data much of which is centered in the San Gabriel Valley. Chinese communities are also growing in Orange County and the Inland region, according to U.S. census data. (Based in part on immigration from China, Irvine recently became the largest city in the mainland United States with a plurality of Asians.) Chinese investment and tourism also are a major driver of economic growth, specifically in Los Angeles, with Chinese investors spearheading several downtown real estate development projects. There are lots of people in California who are making money off of our relationship with China, said Jerrold Green, president of the Pacific Council on International Policy. Chinese tourism to California is absolutely enormous. There are lots of Chinese students here; there are lots of Chinese businesses interested in being here. Trumps administration could put that relationship in jeopardy, Green added, particularly in light of his hard-line stance on issues like immigration and trade. Still, for now at least, many others believe changes in U.S.-China relations under Trump arent likely to affect the flow of people and money from China to California. Theres a fundamental confidence among Chinese Americans that the U.S. is stable, politically and socially, said Yong Chen, a history professor at UC Irvine. The road to a better relationship between the two countries will be more bumpy, because its so uncertain. But it wont stop people from wanting to live and study here. Contact the writer: gwyler@scng.com Oral arguments were heard Wednesday in California Supreme Court that will decide whether the city of Newport Beach followed local and environmental laws when it approved a retail and housing development on Banning Ranch, the last large, undeveloped privately held coastal parcel in Southern California. Both sides emerged confident that their arguments were persuasive enough to sway the seven-justice panel. At this point Ill say I think we did a good job, said Banning Ranch Conservancy Executive Director Steve Ray. Now its the waiting until the decision is issued. At this point, were cautiously optimistic. The legal battle has its origins in a 2006 vote in which Newport Beach residents approved an amendment to the citys general plan. That initiative added a provision to the general plan that prioritized the preservation of Banning Ranch as open space. Six years later, the Newport Beach City Council approved a plan that would allow development of 1,375 homes and the restoration of much of the land. One month after developers received approval, however, the Banning Ranch Conservancy sued the city, saying it didnt follow its own laws and didnt do the environmental work necessary to approve the plan in the first place. The legal case now hinges on three factors: whether Newport Beach worked with the California Coastal Commission to find sensitive habitats that shouldnt be developed; whether the city even needs to identify such areas as outlined in the states Coastal Act; and, more broadly, how much discretion cities should have when interpreting their own laws. At Wednesdays hearing, Banning Ranch Conservancy attorney John McClendon argued that efforts to minimize the impact to sensitive lands should be an integral part of the process before approving a development, not an afterthought. Newport Beach relied on other agencies to protect the environment on Banning Ranch, McClendon said, and acted ostrich-like in identifying environmentally sensitive areas. In doing so, he said, the city accepted a deficient environmental report that totally ignored no-brainer fragile habitats. Theres no mystery or magic here, McClendon said. The determination is science-driven, and the definition is clear. In turn, the citys attorneys said identifying fragile land isnt as straightforward as following a recipe from a cookbook. The citys commitment to preserving Banning Ranch didnt stop when the environmental report was issued, its attorneys argued, and the city planned to further work with the California Coastal Commission throughout the building process to ensure that sensitive habitats were protected. The city also emphasized the level of discretion city officials should have in interpreting their own laws, saying that unless the city is acting arbitrarily it should be able to interpret its laws as it sees fit. The courts justices are expected to issue a decision by the first week of April. Contact the writer: lawilliams@scng.com After a disappointing holiday shopping season, the nations largest department stores and some of the shoppers who still depend on them are set for an unhappy new year. Macys, Kohls and other department stores are hurting as more people shop online, visit lower-priced stores or spend more of their money on smartphones and other gadgets. The future of department stores seems bleak as they close locations and thus give shoppers fewer options at the mall and more reason to just stay home and shop online. I dont think there are any happy endings, said Mark Cohen, a retail studies professor at New Yorks Columbia Business School and a former Sears Canada CEO. Macys said it will close 63 of its 730 stores this year and expects to cut more than 10,000 jobs as it seeks to reduce costs. Sales at established stores fell 2.1 percent in November and December, the New York-based retailer said late Wednesday. Kohls also reported a 2.1 percent sales drop at established stores in the last two months of 2016. Sears, which has lost money for years amid falling revenue, said it plans to shut 150 locations, including 109 of its Kmart stores. Among those closing is Kmarts first store, the Detroit Free Press reported, which opened in 1962 in Garden City, Mich. And Sears is also set to part with another part of its history: It reached a deal to sell its famous Craftsman tools brand to Stanley Black & Decker Inc., but will continue to sell its products in its stores. None of the stores to be closed is in Orange County. Macys, which has tried to woo shoppers with more exclusive products and designated areas for smartwatches and an Apple shop at its flagship New York store, is also vacating the downtown Minneapolis building that was for decades the headquarters and flagship store of the Dayton Co. department store chain. Tammy Curling lamented the announcement that a Macys in Lynchburg, Va., would be among those closing. She worked at that location when it was a previous department store, Thalhimers. Thats where I met my husband, she told the News & Advance of Lynchburg. A lot of my life happened in there. For department stores, though, the future looks no brighter. Macys and Kohls both said they now expect full-year earnings to be lower than they previously forecast. Many department store stocks fell sharply Thursday. Macys Inc. dropped 14 percent to $30.86, Kohls Corp. fell 19 percent to $42.01, J.C. Penney Co. fell 7 percent to $7.86 and Dillards Inc. fell 10 percent to $56.54. Sears Holdings Corp. shares rose 3 cents to $10.51. Besides online retailers, department store operators are also getting hurt by so-called fast-fashion stores such as H&M and Forever 21. Those stores add new clothing designs much more frequently than department stores do, Cohen said. Theyre stuck with a large number of large stores filled with merchandise customers dont want to buy anymore, unless its deeply discounted, said Cohen. Staff writer Hannah Madans contributed to this report. With the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror now officially closed at Disney California Adventure, some local theme park fans continue to insist that Disney is making a mistake in converting the drop tower to a Guardians of the Galaxy-themed ride. (Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout! will open this year.) Unlike those fans, I think that the new Guardians theme could work on the old Tower of Terror, and Im looking forward to experiencing the new version of the attractions. Disney has made plenty of changes to the Disneyland Resort over its 61 years, and, for the most part, the changes end up being for the better. Heck, as much as I adored Adventures Through Inner Space, theres no way I would want that simple old dark ride returned at the expense of losing Star Tours, the attraction that took its place in Tomorrowland. But no ones perfect, and Disneys no exception. If people want to talk about Disneys mistakes, Im game. I wont count Tower of Terror among them, but I would include the following: PeopleMover Disneyland removed this elevated track ride around Tomorrowland in 1995, replacing it with the high-speed Rocket Rods, which lasted a little over two years on the PeopleMovers unbanked tracks before Disney got sick of the breakdowns, gave up and closed the ride. The track remains unused and visible, more than 14 years later. The Florida PeopleMover remains popular, where a slightly different version continues to run above Walt Disney Worlds Tomorrowland. Disneyland might have been better off leaving its PeopleMover alone. Country Bear Jamboree This closed at Disneyland in 2001 to make way for the Winnie the Pooh ride. But what is the very English Winnie the Pooh doing next to the Song of the South-themed Splash Mountain? If this were Tokyo Disneylands amazing trackless version of the Pooh ride, I would welcome it, but this copy of Walt Disney Worlds Fantasyland ride puts visitors in slow, bulky ride vehicles that are difficult for the young riders who are its target audience to see out of. Country Bear Jamboree ran three versions of its Audio Animatronics show, including Disneys first holiday overlay with the Country Bear Christmas Special. Its strong characters provided a solid platform upon which Disney could have developed a series of new musical shows, to keep annual passholders happy with fresh attractions in the park at a relatively low cost. Court of Angels OK, I get it. Disneyland needed to expand Club 33 to placate the big-spending members who were complaining of cramped quarters in the old private club space above New Orleans Square. And if changing the clubs layout meant changing the location of its entrance, so be it. But Disney didnt have to close the entire Court of Angels to day guests to accommodate that. We could have shared! Golden Horseshoe Revue The longest-running stage show in theme park history played for 31 years before its replacement ran eight years, closing in 1994. Disney brought back a version of the show as a tribute for a few weeks in early 2013, but the response wasnt big enough to persuade Disney to invest in running what would be an expensive live-action show in a theater with extremely limited seating. But instead of writing off the Golden Horseshoe as a fancy but low-traffic counter-service restaurant, Disney could try justifying the expense of the live show by running it as an up-charge dinner theater show, like the wildly popular Hoop Dee Do Musical Revue at Walt Disney World. Id gladly pay to enjoy a fresh version of this Disneyland classic, and I suspect many other fans would, too. Walts Office Disneyland sent its reproduction of Walt Disneys office to the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida many years ago. But when it removed the office in 2015, Disney returned it to the Walt Disney Studios lot in Burbank. Thats nice, but many more Disney fans would be able to see this tribute to the man who started it all if it came back to the Main Street Opera House. Yes, that would mean finding a new home for whats left of the Disney Gallery exhibit. How about making this a two-fer, then, and sending the gallery back to its much larger, original home above Pirates of the Caribbean, reclaiming the Disneyland Dream Suite as public space? Then we can just forget these mistakes ever happened. Robert Niles is the founder and editor of ThemeParkInsider.com. Follow him on Twitter: @ThemePark. Authorities late Wednesday were searching the waters off the Port of Los Angeles for a helicopter that reportedly ditched into the water near the Angels Gate Lighthouse with two aboard, officials said. Several passengers on an outbound cruise ship, the Star Princess, called 911 about 5:45 p.m. to report seeing a small black helicopter approach the water and crash, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Andrea Anderson. She said searchers believe the helicopter was a Robinson R-22 that took off from Torrance Municipal Airport with two people on board. The Coast Guard has not been able to make contact with the helicopter, which bears a tail number of N702JJ. Federal Aviation Administration records show a Robinson R-22 with the number is registered to JJ Helicopters Inc., a Torrance-based company that offers helicopter tours of Los Angeles and aerial photo flights. The aircraft was manufactured in 2005, according to the registry. The helicopter was seen near the lighthouse just outside the 2.1-mile-long breakwater that jets out from Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro. Port of Los Angeles spokesman Phillip Sanfield said reports put the helicopter around Buoy 3. Assisting in the search were a Coast Guard helicopter from Point Mugu and Coast Guard boat crews, Los Angeles Port Police and Los Angeles County Fire Department, Anderson said. No signs of the helicopter or its occupants had been found, Anderson said, but he added that rescuers planned to continue their search late into the night. The helicopter reportedly circled the cruise ship before crashing, according to a Facebook comment from a woman who said her parents witnessed the impact. My parents are on the cruise liner that the helicopter crashed near. It is so shocking and sad!! Karah Street Ludington wrote. They said it flew around them a few times and then went into a spin and crashed. Disappeared into the water fast. They havent seen anyone surface. Last week, three people were injured when a Robinson R-44 helicopter made a hard landing on Mount Baldy. Robinson R-22 helicopters have been involved in 160 fatal crashes, with 239 deaths, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. The Torrance-based manufacturer came under scrutiny from a New Zealand aviation agency last year, which suspended the use of Robinson helicopters after a series of crashes. Local musician Mike Gabby Gaborno died Wednesday after a battle with liver cancer. Gaborno was the frontman and founding member of Orange County punk rock band Cadillac Tramps, as well as punk parody supergroup Manic Hispanic and more recently, his more bluesy project dubbed Santos Y Sinners. Fans flooded Gabornos official Facebook page with condolence messages and photos Wednesday afternoon. From the first show that we ever played, Gabby just floored us, Brian Coakley, guitarist from Cadillac Tramps, said of his longtime friend and band mate. Every one of us had an inner talent that was waiting to come out, but Gabbys was enormous. It wasnt even fair to other bands because at the time when Cadillac Tramps were packing all the clubs in Orange County and blowing other bands off the stage, we really had a secret weapon and it was Gabby because of his personality, his charisma and his extreme comedic talent. It was incredible to watch. Bandmate remembers Mike Gabby Gabrono Gabornos health has deteriorated over the past decade as he has battled hepatitis C, diabetes, liver and renal failure. He also suffered a stroke, heart attack and in 2015 he was diagnosed with liver cancer, which had spread to his stomach by late last year. Though ailing with all of these conditions, Gaborno would still perform with his bands from time to time, as well as continue to work his day job in construction to pay the bills. The Southern California punk rock community also came together on numerous occasions to raise money to help ease the financial burden of healthcare for Gaborno, who also has a 7-year-old son, Presley. The latest GoFundMe effort, set up in November, has raised more than $18,000. A number of local bands, including Cadillac Tramps, came together in October to celebrate his 51st birthday with a show at Alexs Bar in Long Beach, a show he told fans would likely be his last. Cadillac Tramps formed in the late 80s as its members found each other while in rehab for drug and alcohol addictions. The band, which also included guitarists Coakley and Jonny Two Bags Wickersham, bassist Warren Renfro and drummer Jamie Reidling, released a quartet of albums before disbanding in 1994, just as fellow O.C. artists such as No Doubt, the Offspring and Sugar Ray were making it big. The Tramps blend of fast and furious punk rock, swampy blues and unapologetic rock n roll, all fronted by Gabornos stage presence, made the group one of the most influential and at the same time one of the most underrated bands on the Southern California music scene. The members eventually reunited in 1999 and continued to play club and festival gigs. The bands career will be chronicled in a yet-to-be released documentary titled The Cadillac Tramps Life On the Edge, which was directed by Coakleys wife, Jamie. In 1992, Gaborno and Agent Orange and the Adolescents guitarist Steve Soto also founded Manic Hispanic, a band that was known for its hilarious gigs and parodies of punk rock and hardcore songs in which the group would change lyrics to reflect their Chicano/Mexican backgrounds and culture. Rep. Bob Goodlatte saw his plan to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics sail through a closed-door meeting of the Republican caucus Monday night, only to be upended 19 hours later after public outcry and two critical tweets from president-elect Donald J. Trump. Goodlatte, the 13-term Republican congressman from Virginia, declined a request Tuesday to discuss his proposal at the center of an embarrassing day for Republicans, who had hoped to display unity as the 115th Congress convened but instead found themselves caught in chaotic dischord over the ethics proposal. Goodlattes plan to remake the ethics office, stripping it of its independence and ability to investigate anonymous claims, was applauded by some conservatives. But it was widely panned by Democrats and government watchdogs and, after criticism from Trump, GOP lawmakers backed away from it. A terse statement released by Goodlattes office Tuesday suggests he is sticking by his assertion that his proposed changes would have strengthened due process for lawmakers accused of ethical lapses. Gross misrepresentation by opponents of my amendment, and the media willing to go along with this agenda, resulted in a flurry of misconceptions and unfounded claims about the true purpose of this amendment, he said in a statement. Friends and colleagues say Goodlattes dedication to his beliefs unpopular though they may be have long defined him. As chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Goodlatte has played a central role in some of the most contentious debates in Congress, from criminal justice and immigration reform to internet sales tax and intellectual property law. Bobs always been powerful. Its just people havent been paying attention, his longtime friend Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., said. Up to the eve of the election, Goodlatte maintained pressure on FBI Director James Comey to answer questions about Hillary Clintons emails. Goodlatte, the most senior Republican in the Virginia congressional delegation, is known as a serious student of policy in Washington who keeps a close watch over state and local GOP politics. President-elect Donald Trump easily carried his district, which stretches from the Shenandoah Valley to the Roanoke Valley and east to Lynchburg, the home of Liberty University. Straight arrow Goodlatte, 64, is a devout Christian Scientist who hosts an annual Super Bowl Party at his home south of Roanoke, loves the Red Sox and aims to visit the homes of all the presidents, friends say. The father of two recently became a grandfather for the first time, softening him a bit, they say. A straight arrow, his former law partner, Donald W. Huffman, said. He loves his wife. Hes honest. Hes truthful. State Sen. Mark D. Obenshain, R-Rockingham, praised Goodlattes lack of pretention and said he is motivated to fundamentally change the way government works. But he noted, I probably would not pick Bob as the guy I would go out and have a couple of beers with. The son of a manager of Friendlys restaurants in Massachusetts, Goodlatte studied government at Bates College in Maine and earned a law degree from Washington and Lee University School of Law. He ran for Congress in 1992 with the help of Tim Phillips, now president of Americans for Prosperity on a promise to serve only 12 years. He has since abandoned the pledge, saying everyone must agree to term limits for the policy to work. Goodlatte was chairman of the Agriculture Committee before leading the Judiciary Committee. He rejected separate calls from within his party to try to impeach President Barack Obama and the IRS commissioner, saying there was insufficient evidence. In his reelection bid last year, his Democratic opponent accused him of a conflict of interest because his wife owns stock in Roanoke Gas Company and sits on its board, which could benefit from an interstate pipeline under federal review. Goodlattes top donors include Comcast, Facebook, the National Association of Broadcasters and Google parent company Alphabet, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks giving. Griffith, the Republican congressman from Virginia, said Goodlatte plans to continue pressing for changes to the ethics office despite pushback. Whether hes successful, time will tell, he said. One of Goodlattes amendments did pass in a rules package. Starting at 10 a.m. Thursday on the House floor, he will lead members in a recitation of the U.S. Constitution. SANTA ANA The family of a woman who was raped, killed and left in a trash bin has sued the U.S. probation agency accusing agents of providing lax oversight of two convicted sex offenders, who authorities suspect of carrying out the murder as well as at least three previous slayings in Anaheim. Two weeks after an Orange County jury recommended the death sentence for Steven Gordon, who along with Franc Cano was charged with the murders of Jarrae Estepp and three other prostitutes, attorneys for Estepps mother filed the wrongful-death suit at the U.S. District Courthouse in Santa Ana. The lawsuit targets federal probation and five unnamed agents. A lawsuit filed in 2015 by Estepps mother and the victims son made similar arguments against state parole agents. Gordon, who represented himself in his high-profile trial, admitted to helping abduct the women, forcibly taking them to an Anaheim industrial park and helping to dispose of their bodies. Gordon alleged that Cano, who is awaiting trial, assisted with the abductions and rapes, and was the one who strangled the women. Estepp, 21, is believed to be the last woman killed and is the only one whose body was discovered. Authorities have identified, but never located, three other victims: Kianna Jackson, 20, Josephine Vargas, 34, and Martha Anaya, 28. Gordon told authorities that he and Cano kidnapped and killed a fifth woman, but she has never been identified. Gordon and Cano were both convicted sex offenders who wore GPS ankle monitors at the time of the killings. A Register investigation, Illusion of Safety, conducted after the serial killings found that an over-reliance on tracking devices and overworked parole agents can lead to a false sense of security. The newly-filed lawsuit notes that data from Gordon and Canos GPS units show that the pair were in frequent contact, an apparent violation of their parole. Mr. Gordon and Mr. Cano, two known dangerous and violent sex offenders who were under the supervision of the (United States Probation and Pretrial Services) and (the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation) raped and murdered Ms. Estepp, Attorney Marina Pacheco says in the federal complaint. The lawsuit alleges that the agencies failed to properly staff, train or monitor their officers and didnt share information between the state and federal offices and used defective GPS units. The state parole and federal probation agents testified, in Gordons trial, that they kept track of Canos and Gordons movements separately, but acknowledged that they did not compare the mens data. At the time, they said, they didnt see a need. In his trial, Gordon told a U.S. probation and parole officer that if the agent and his colleagues had been paying proper attention to the data, Estepp would still be alive. Because of your negligence, she is not, Gordon said. Gordon acknowledged that he and Cano cut off their GPS units and went to Nevada at one point, after their supervisors indicated they planned to rescind the pairs parole after an Anaheim police officer spotted the pair together. The pair turned themselves in, served several months in federal prison, then went back to hanging out together in Orange County and allegedly committed the crimes from late 2013 to early 2014. After the discovery of Estepps body, Anaheim detectives used the GPS information, along with tracking data from the womens cell phones, to tie both Gordon and Cano to the abductions and killings. Their case was bolstered by the discovery of the mens DNA on a tampon found in Estepps body, as well as Gordons confession. State and federal probation officials did not return calls seeking comment. Gordon is scheduled to return to court on Feb. 3, when Orange County Superior Court Judge Patrick H. Donahue is expected to say whether the convicted killer should go to Death Row or receive life in prison. Contact the writer: semery@ocregister.com BENGHAZI, Libya Warplanes under the command of a rival Libyan army general have attacked an air base under the control of the U.N.-backed government in a central area south of the countrys Mediterranean coast, officials said Wednesday. In a statement late on Tuesday, the Tripoli-based government said several government-allied troops were wounded when an aircraft they were traveling in was struck in the attack by the eastern-based forces. Libya fell into chaos following the 2011 ouster and killing of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi. It remains divided between east and west, with no effective government and a multitude of rival factions and militias. Field Marshal Khalifa Hifter, the military strongman in question, answers to Libyas parliament that is based in the east. That parliament is at odds with the Tripoli government, which it doesnt recognize. Internal conflicts are escalating even as Islamic State militants have been driven out of the central coastal city of Sirte, which had been the extremist groups last bastion in the country. The Libyan National Army, led by Hifter, said the attacks, said it hit al Jufra air base Tuesday and Wednesday, destroying a C-130 military aircraft that was carrying ammunitions and forces loyal to loyal to Misrata militias when it landed, and a militia leadership meeting, resulting in one killed and eight wounded. The militias nominally back the Tripoli government, and are believed to receive arms from Turkey. At a news conference in the eastern city of Benghazi, army spokesman Col. Ahmed Mosmary demanded the militias withdraw from the south or face continued attacks. In a statement on Wednesday that did not mention the attacks specifically, the U.N.s envoy to Libya warned against the risk of escalation leading to renewed conflict in the North African nation. I urge all parties to act with restraint and to resolve issues through peaceful dialogue, Martin Kobler said, urging renewed efforts to find solutions to the political crisis and the Tripoli governments difficulties in exercising authority over the country. On Monday, a prominent member of the presidential council of the U.N.-backed government resigned, citing the inability of the government to rule the country a major blow to the fledgling body. Last week, the deputy head of the presidential council, Fathi al-Mijabri, issued a decree to appoint one of his loyal supporters as the head of the intelligence services, stoking the ire of other members who called his move illegal. In a separate televised news conference, also Wednesday, Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj rescinded recent decrees issued by al-Mijabri, Including all appointments of security officials, and urged the council member who resigned, Musa al-Koni, to reconsider the move. When California voters hear calls for tax increases in the near future they should think of pensions. That truth has never been clearer now that the California Public Employees Retirement System board voted to establish a more realistic return rate on its investments. The end result of this action is that state and local governments will have to chip in even more money for public employee pensions. For years, defenders of the government retirement system justified healthy retirement payouts by claiming that CalPERS investments will bring an annual return of 7.5 percent. That assertion was defended despite the fact that over the last 20 years investment returns averaged only 6.9 percent, with the current annual return bringing in only 2.3 percent. Facing market realities, the board lowered the estimate to 7 percent, a mark that still may be unattainable. For taxpayers, the number change likely means more dollars from state and local government budgets will be directed to cover pension liabilities and less will be available to meet services supplied by government. The city of Los Angeles already dedicates 20 percent of its budget for pension obligations, Anaheim 13 percent, Long Beach 11 percent and San Jose as high as 27 percent. These numbers will only increase after the CalPERS boards decision. Pension funds come from employee contributions, retirement system investments or government (read: taxpayer) contributions. If CalPERS new number more accurately reflects a smaller return on investments and employees resist contribution increases necessary to manage the retirement deficit, that leaves taxpayers on the hook. Voters will never see a pension tax measure on the ballot. The effort to meet pension obligations will be subtler. Want more police services? Raise your taxes. Want to improve schools or parks? A tax increase is called for. A $10 car registration increase goes into effect in 2017 specifically to deal with California Highway Patrol pension obligations. In the November election, about 80 percent of the approximately 430 local tax and bond measures passed. Most of the tax measures were dedicated for specific purposes, but, in government, dollars are fungible. Covering a service cost with a new tax allows freed up money to be used for pensions. For the business community, the CalPERS boards decision could result in broader efforts to seek more revenue from businesses in the form of business property tax increases or other taxes on business products and services. The new Trump administration has talked about tax reform, including reducing the United States highest-in-the-world corporate taxes. If that were to occur, it is probable that Americas businesses would become more valuable, resulting in higher payouts to shareholders, including CalPERS. More money to cover those pension costs from investments would ease the need to increase government or employee contributions. Its ironic, then, that many public employee unions lead the charge for business tax increases when, in the end, profitable businesses may aid in covering pension debts. But until anything that positive occurs, taxpayers should ask if any move to increase taxes is simply a way to deal with governments pension obligations. Joel Fox heads the Small Business Action Committee, co-publishes the website FoxandHoundsDaily.com and teaches at Pepperdine Universitys School of Public Policy. All too often campuses are forgetting one of the most basic principles of the First Amendment: Speech cannot be punished simply because it is offensive, even deeply offensive. The most recent example of this occurred when an investigative report for the University of Oregon concluded that a professor had created a discriminatory learning environment by wearing blackface at a Halloween party in her own home. Earlier the professor had been suspended for doing this. No doubt many were offended by her actions, but unquestionably she was engaged in speech protected by the First Amendment and any discipline is unconstitutional. In October 2016, University of Oregon law professor Nancy Shurtz hosted a Halloween party for about 25 students, faculty members, alumni and family members. Her costume was wearing black makeup on her face and hands, an Afro wig and a white doctors lab coat. She told her guests that she was inspired by the anti-racist message of Damon Tweedys memoir about a black man starting his medical career, Black Man in a White Coat. She also had recently attended her daughters white coat ceremony a tradition that begins a medical students first year and she noticed an almost complete absence of black men. She said that she meant to draw attention to the lack of diversity in higher education. Word quickly spread of Professor Shurtzs costume and by the next day, she was condemned by students, faculty and University of Oregon President Michael Schill in a message expressing outrage to the entire university community. Shurtz was suspended from teaching pending review. Within a few days of the party, 23 law school faculty members wrote a letter urging Professor Shurtz to resign. It concluded: If you care about our students, you will resign. If you care about our ability to educate future lawyers, you will resign. If you care about our alumni, you will resign. The University of Oregon commissioned an investigation which concluded: We find that Nancy Shurtzs costume, including what constitutes blackface through use of black makeup, constitutes a violation of the universitys policies against discrimination. We further find that the actions constitute discriminatory harassment. The report found that her costume exacerbated racial tensions on campus in a way that had a disproportionate impact on students of color, because minority students [felt] they have become burdened with educating other students about racial issues and racial sensitivity, and because some students used other offensive racially based terminology during class times in the context of discussing this event and broader racial issues. Professor Shurtz exercised poor judgment in choosing her costume and not realizing that some would be very offended by it. But poor judgment and offending people cannot be a basis for a university punishing speech. In countless cases, the courts have been adamant that speech cannot be punished because it is offensive. The Nazi Party had the right to march in Skokie, Ill., despite the offense to its largely Jewish population and the many Holocaust survivors who lived there. Members of the Westboro Baptist Church have the right to go to funerals of those who died in military service and express a vile, anti-gay and anti-lesbian message. The government would have almost limitless power to censor speech if offensiveness is a sufficient ground for punishing expression. Likewise, it cannot be that a university can punish a professors expression on the grounds that it offends students and thereby will make their learning more difficult. That is the primary justification for punishing Professor Shurtz. If that is enough to justify suspending or removing a professor, it would provide a basis for doing so any time a faculty member participates in activities that make a significant number of students uncomfortable. Under this rationale, campuses in the 1950s would have been justified in firing professors who were perceived as having communist leanings or in the 1960s could have removed professors who participated in the civil rights movement on the ground that such speech made students uncomfortable and interfered with their learning. I, of course, am not arguing that free speech on campus is absolute. Campuses can punish speech that is incitement to illegal activity or that threatens or directly harasses others. Campuses also can engage in more speech, which long has been recognized as the best response to the speech we dont like. There can be efforts to educate the community about the history of blackface. There should be debates about whether it is ever appropriate to use blackface even when advocating against racism in higher education. But what campuses never can or should do is punish speech because it is offensive. I would have hoped a law school faculty and a university president who is a lawyer and law professor would have recognized this. Unfortunately, what happened at the University of Oregon is all too typical of what is happening on campuses across the country where the desire to create inclusive learning environments for all students has led to punishing speech protected by the First Amendment. Erwin Chemerinsky is dean of the UC Irvine School of Law. If you had never bought a cookbook before this year, the crop of 2016 could build a first-rate culinary library. But because you are reading this, you probably own cookbooks. (Come to think of it, who doesnt? Even my friends who say they never cook have some on their shelves.) Im happy to report the recipe collections that always draw me in the most handsome, practical, full of dishes you have to try come from the wisest cooks I know. They inspire and teach us. Cookbooks are listed in alphabetical order within each category: For bakers Art of the Pie: A Practical Guide to Homemade Crusts, Fillings, and Life, by Kate McDermott (Countryman Press, $35). She is the Piechiatrist, after all a title that speaks to the bits of wisdom in these pages. Breaking Breads: A New World of Israeli Baking, by Uri Scheft with Raquel Pelzel (Artisan, $35). Scheft, the force behind Lehamim Bakery in Tel Aviv and Breads Bakery in New York, has contributed mightily to the canon of bread-focused books. Classic German Baking: The Very Best Recipes for Traditional Favorites from Pfeffernusse to Streuselkuchen, by Luisa Weiss (Ten Speed Press/Penguin Random House, $35). This overdue guide is a happy marriage of European craft and American sensibilities. One Weiss tip that will may come in handy elsewhere: Euro size M eggs are equivalent to large ones in the States. The Cardamom Trail: Chetna Bakes With Flavours of the East, by Chetna Makan (Mitchell Beazley, $30). The former Great British Baking Show finalist empowers the average home baker to experiment. For a culture dive My Two Souths: Blending the Flavors of India into a Southern Kitchen, by Asha Gomez with Martha Hall Foose (Running Press, $35). The authors sure hand and Kerala roots make for a stunning fusion of culinary traditions. It can be as subtle as adding nutmeg and white pepper to the batter of an angel food cake or as seamless as pork in a vindaloo-inspired gravy that can be mopped up with cardamom corn bread. Land of Fish and Rice: Recipes From the Culinary Heart of China, by Fuchsia Dunlop (W.W. Norton, $35). You wont find a Chinese food cookbook with shorter ingredient lists than this one a welcome surprise for the genre. Preserving Italy: Canning, Curing, Infusing, and Bottling Italian Flavors and Traditions, by Domenica Marchetti (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $23). Expect sure-handed advice with a clear and personal point of view. Scandinavian Comfort Food: Embracing the Art of Hygge, by Trine Hahnemann (Quadrille, $35). The range of recipes steps outside the typical American casserole zone, yet it offers a level of enticing familiarity, especially with grains. For those who really cook Cooking for Jeffrey, by Ina Garten (Clarkson Potter, $35). Her painstaking approach to recipe development and testing translates to easy for the rest of us. The skillet-roasted lemon chicken is destined for classic status. Cooking School Secrets for Real World Cooks: Second Edition, by Linda Carucci (Author House, $28). Youd be hard-pressed to find a more comprehensive guide for anyone whos new to the kitchen or wants to up their game. Theres a nice balance of scientific explanation and practical tips. The authors two exercises for seasoning soup and steak may forever change the way you salt your food. Life in Balance: A Fresher Approach to Eating, by Donna Hay (HarperCollins, 2016; $35). Just about every dish is photographed to seduce. The recipe writing skews minimal yet does not leave too much room for guessing. How to Celebrate Everything: Recipes and Rituals for Birthdays, Holidays, Family Dinners, and Every Day in Between, by Jenny Rosenstrach (Ballentine Books, $30). The average cook-host whos so often stumped by party menu planning will appreciate the straightforward recipes here, as well as the authors friendly writing style and party game suggestions. Small Victories: Recipes, Advice + Hundreds of Ideas for Home-Cooking Triumphs, by Julia Turshen (Chronicle, $35). The Superfun Times Vegan Holiday Cookbook, by Isa Chandra Moskowitz (Little, Brown and Co., 2016; $32). This could be the sleeper cookbook of the year, as it steers party food toward a mode thats increasingly sought-after and appreciated. V Street: 100 Globe-Hopping Plates on the Cutting Edge of Vegetable Cooking, by Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby (William Morrow, 2016; $34.99). These vegan Philadelphia chef-restaurateurs are especially adept at seasoning and saucing. For fun The Asian Slow Cooker: Exotic Favorites for Your Crockpot, by Kelly Kwok (Page Street Publishing, $22). The recipes are not so exotic, in fact, but doable renditions for anyone who has a pantry full of supermarket-access Asian ingredients. Slow-cooker enthusiasts tired of chili, this ones for you. The Bushcraft Field Guide to Trapping, Gathering, and Cooking in the Wild, by Dave Canterbury (Adams Media, $17). Practical and sized just right, for places where Google cant always be summoned. Includes a guide to whats edible for foragers and key illustrations, in addition to recipes. Everything I Want to Eat: Sqirl and the New California Cooking, by Jessica Koslow with Maria Zizka (Abrams, $40). This is fun and it has a different look that doesnt alienate the average cookbook reader. Costa Mesa Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, an ally of President-elect Donald Trump and a longtime enthusiast of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Wednesday that he is planning to lead a congressional delegation to Russia next month and expects to meet with Russian officials to discuss how we can work with the Duma, Russias lower chamber of parliament. Were going to look at certain goals we can set with our Congress and the Duma, the Russian legislature, the Republican said. What could we actually set in the legislature of Russia and in Congress? Could we work together, for example, and cooperate on space activities? Rohrabacher went on to list the rise of the Islamic State group and President Obamas latest round of sanctions against Russia as additional agenda items that he expects to come up during the talks in Moscow. First, though, Rohrabacher needs to be reappointed to the Foreign Affairs Committee and to the panels subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia and Emerging Threats, which he chairs and under whose auspices hed likely make the trip. Hell then need the approval of the committee chairman, currently Rep. Ed Royce, R-Fullerton. The committee has not received any travel requests, nor is it in a position to consider them since we have not yet formally organized, said Foreign Affairs Committee spokesman Cory Fritz. A spokeswoman for House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., who holds a far more hawkish view on Russia than Rohrabacher, declined to comment. In a recent statement, Ryan said, Russia does not share Americas interests. In fact, it has consistently sought to undermine them, sowing dangerous instability around the world. Rohrabacher, a former White House speechwriter for Ronald Reagan, said Russian leaders are eager to meet with U.S. lawmakers to talk directly about the sanctions and many other lingering political tensions. Well go within a month of the inaugural, the lawmaker said. Its going to be an official trip of my subcommittee. Rohrabacher was coy when asked whether his group would meet with Putin. I really cant say that, he said after a pause and a half-smile. Its possible. Staff writer Martin Wisckol contributed to this report. The UC Board of Regents will consider increasing annual tuition by $282 and the student-service fee by $54 for University of California students, the 10-campus system announced Wednesday. That would boost the annual tuition for California students by 2.5 percent to $11,502, and the service fee by 5 percent to $1,128. Out-of-state students would pay an additional $1,330 in tuition each year under the proposal. If approved, the increase which would be the first tuition boost since 2011 would take effect in the fall. UC officials said the money, in all an additional $88 million, would go back into services for its 252,000 students. The new revenue, they said, would allow campuses to hire more faculty, expand course offerings, increase financial aid and mental-health services and provide greater support for graduate students and teaching assistants. UC today educates more California students than ever, UC spokeswoman Dianne Klein said in an e-mail. Weve maintained this commitment to California students through severe cuts in state funding and a six-year tuition freeze. This has forced us to do more with less. Now weve reached the point where it is critical to invest in improving the student experience on campuses and maintaining UCs academic excellence, she said. Two-thirds of California undergraduates on financial aid would be covered on the fee hikes, according to UC officials who called the increase modest and necessary. But to some college students, that extra cost is significant, said Parshan Khosravi, a UCLA graduate student who serves as treasurer for the University of California Student Association. Im a working student, said Khosravi, previously president of UC Irvines undergraduate student body. I dont know where to get $300. The UC system is not getting the support it needs from the state, said Khosravi, who added that the students hardest hit are from middle-class families not eligible for financial aid. But at the same time, were also seeing the UC unload those costs on the backs of the students. In the 23-campus Cal State University system, annual tuition has been frozen at $5,472 since the 2011-12 academic year. In November, trustees approved a $5.8 billion budget that contains a $168 million gap to be either filled with more money from state coffers or a possible $270 annual tuition hike. Contact the writer: rkopetman@scng.com BEIJING (AP) Taiwan has protested to Vietnam after the country deported four Taiwanese accused of fraud to its rival, China, alleging that this was done under pressure from Beijing. Scores of Taiwanese have been arrested around the world in the past year in connection with vast telecoms fraud scams targeting Chinese. Countries including Malaysia, Cambodia and Kenya have recently deported Taiwanese suspects to China, in deference to Beijings claim to sovereignty over the self-governing island. Taiwan has vigorously protested the deportations, saying it should be allowed to prosecute its own citizens. But it lacks diplomatic relations with many of the countries, which have close diplomatic and economic ties to Beijing. The Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said this week that it regretted that the Vietnamese government violated the principle of governments exercising their jurisdiction over their overseas nationals. The ministry said mainland officials obstructed Taiwanese attempts to look into the case and visit its citizens, and despite several meetings, Vietnam forcibly sent the suspects to the Chinese mainland under intense pressure. Beijing contends that Taiwan gives light treatment to the suspects, who are accused of extorting hundreds of Chinese by posing as bank or government officials. Chinese authorities say they should try the cases because their citizens are the primary victims and have been swindled out of millions of dollars. China has upped pressure on Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in recent months, suspending contacts with her administration and waging a diplomatic campaign to further isolate Taiwan after she refused to endorse Beijings claim that Taiwan and the mainland are part of a single Chinese nation. LAS VEGAS Authorities in Las Vegas have identified a California woman killed in an apparently accidental shooting on New Years Day. The Clark County Coroners Office said Tuesday that 22-year-old Maryann Rofail of Anaheim died of a gunshot wound early the morning of Jan. 1. Las Vegas police say she and a friend were in a car with two men theyd met at a New Years event when a gun was brought out and accidentally discharged. Rofail was taken to a hospital where she died of her wounds. No one has been arrested in the case. Police say that when the investigation is complete it will be handed over to prosecutors to decide if criminal charges are warranted. Her death is the first homicide investigated by Las Vegas police this year. You probably know what kind of experience to expect from Hidden Figures, so the task of this review is more or less to tell you that youre right and thats mostly good news. It is old-fashioned in a good way, classical and well-acted, and that it has no surprises keeps it from being disappointing, even as it keeps it from being great. It tells the story of three black women who worked at NASA in the very early days of the 1960s, back when the Soviets were outpacing us in the race for the moon. It takes place, not in Houston, but in NASAs Northern Virginia headquarters, which is important, as this was the South before civil rights. In a very early scene, the three women, stuck on the side of the road with car trouble, are approached by a white highway trooper. The dynamic is positively weird the women have to practically do everything but kiss his ring and it would be nice to be able to say that, more than 50 years later, that kind of tension is foreign to our modern understanding. All three of these real-life women all made contributions to American space exploration, but Katherine Johnson, played by Taraji P. Henson, is at the center of the film. A math prodigy from childhood, she was one of a team of people assigned to double check NASAs mathematical calculations. Gradually, she began to stand out from the pack and assume greater importance, though at the time no one expected genius in the form of a woman, or a black person, or most especially a black woman, so nothing was easy for her. Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) was the leader of a computing team, back when the word computers referred to people who did computations. Eventually, she would become an expert in computers as we now know them. And Mary Jackson (Janelle Monae) became an aerospace engineer. Because its based on fact, Hidden Figures is not as immediately satisfying as a fictional version of this story might have been. For one thing, the women remain hidden figures. Though they achieve professional respect and security in their positions, people dont fall over themselves to tell them how right and wonderful they are, and the movie doesnt overestimate their impact. Hidden Figures is quietly, cumulatively, calmly gratifying. Theodore Melfi (St. Vincent), who directed and co-wrote the film, based on the book by Margot Lee Shetterly, does a nice job of organizing and telling a complicated story, involving three women and their personal and professional lives. Where the movie lets us down is in the matter of tone. It feels light at times too light and so we get a scene of the three women dancing around the house, which is obligatory in all Hollywood movies dealing with female friendship. More problematic is the recurring scene of Katherine having to run to the bathroom. Apparently, in the division in which Katherine worked, there were no colored bathrooms, and so she had to walk (or run) a half mile every time she needed to relieve herself. But the movie underscores these scenes with music suggesting that this situation is comic or at least farcical, when its neither. Henson, Spencer and Monae all excel, conveying the intensity and worthiness of these womens ambitions, even as they deal, almost in a matter of fact way, with obstacles that are maddening. Through them we see the shadows of thousands and millions of others in our history, whose gifts dried up unused and unrecognized. The waste is painful to contemplate, and so its right that movies to celebrate where they can. Kevin Costner is nicely cast as Al Harrison, Katherines boss, who is mostly too busy to differentiate the very smart people on his staff from the flat-out geniuses. Costner is a useful actor to have in period films, because he can slip into that mid-century vibe like nobody else. Its more than just short hair and a white shirt, but rather a whole way of being, an attitude, the life history. In a way, hes the most authentically 1962 thing in the movie. Speaking of 1962, the late John Glenn missed seeing Hidden Figures by a few days, and thats too bad, especially since they got a 28-year-old actor (Glen Powell) with a full head of hair to play Glenn back when he was a bald 40-year-old. And thats the beauty of film in a sentence. If nature wont give you a full head of hair, Hollywood can at least correct the oversight. Agricultural News Embezzlement Investigation Shows $2.6 Million Stolen by Former Employee of Oklahoma Beef Council The embezzlement investigation at the Oklahoma Beef Council continues- and the state beef checkoff group has released a statement this afternoon on the forsenic analysis to this point, revealing that $2.6 million dollars is involved over an eight year period. Last September, Executive Director Heather Buckmaster released a statement revealing the apparent theft of money by an employee who was immediately terminated once wrong doing was discovered. The statement on September 21st signaled the start of what has developed into a lengthy investigation- "We recently became aware of employee wrongdoing at the Oklahoma Beef Council. We immediately terminated the employee and launched an internal investigation and engaged a third-party accounting firm to conduct a forensic analysis and assessment of our financial records. When our investigation revealed possible criminal activity by our employee, our legal counsel contacted the proper authorities and we are turning over information as they request." The statement released today signals that both criminal and civil charges are being pursued- and the Beef Council has acknowledged the length and the extent of the embezzlement in today's statement. Here is the statement as provided by the Oklahoma Beef Council's Buckmaster: "In September 2016, the results of an internal investigation into potential Oklahoma Beef Council employee wrong-doing by a former employee, the director of Accounting and Compliance, were turned over to Federal authorities in Oklahoma. At this point, due to an ongoing criminal case and civil matters, we are limited in the details we can share regarding this but what we can share are the actions taken by the Oklahoma Beef Council upon the discovery of it. "When initial evidence was discovered, we immediately terminated the employee and hired an accounting firm to perform an extensive forensic analysis and assessment, which documented $2.6 million in employee theft between 2009-2016. The Oklahoma Beef Council provided this information to Federal authorities in September to ensure swift action could be taken. Our goal throughout this process has been to speed recovery and restitution to the greatest extent possible. The board of directors and staff have cooperated fully with Federal authorities as the investigation has moved forward. "According to Tom Fanning, a cattleman and the Chairman of the Oklahoma Beef Council, "Our board and staff take great pride in serving beef producers in investing their Beef Checkoff dollars to grow and protect beef demand. Discovering you have a staff member that did not share that vision and abused our trust, has been a devastating blow to all of us. We have taken every step to address this matter to ensure we are following through in our responsibilities to Oklahoma beef producers and are awaiting the results of the criminal investigation." "In the meantime, the OBC has taken the findings from the forensic analysis and assessment to strengthen our accounting systems and internal controls to ensure the integrity of the organization. We have moved forward in our operations with a third-party accounting firm to ensure an additional level of oversight and a greater level of segregation of duties. The OBC will be adding a new position to our team, Director of Compliance, to assist with checkoff compliance and outreach. "We have taken what we have learned from this situation to create a stronger organization with a clear vision to moving forward in our mission of serving Oklahoma's farming and ranching families," says Tom Fanning." ********** Shortly after the release from the Oklahoma Beef Council, Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association President Charlie Swanson issued the following statement: "OCA has received and reviewed the statement released today by the Oklahoma Beef Council. While we are shocked at the amount stolen, OCA remains firmly committed to the mission and purpose of the beef checkoff. The past and future success of promoting our product to consumers far outweighs the negative, criminal activity of one bad employee. We send our appreciation to the board members and staff for their fortitude and continued commitment to promote beef during this difficult time." Editor's Note- I have covered the National Beef Checkoff since its inception in the 1980s- and I cannot remember any embezzlement of checkoff funds at either the national or state level. It appears that the case now under investigation is the first such theft of checkoff monies that has ever been discovered. WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady NSI Top Agricultural News Three Nebraska locations will be featured on TVs State Plate A new episode of State Plate, a program on INSP, will feature two Nebraska restaurants and a farm. The show, hosted by American Idol winner Taylor Hicks, will stop at Daniels Produce, a family-owned farm outside of Columbus; Johnnys Cafe in Omaha; and Kolache Korner Cafe in Prague. The show will air Jan. 27 at 8 p.m. For more information on the show, or to find the channel on your cable carrier, visit insp.com/shows/state-plate. Producers Choice Chef Awards returns The Nebraska Sustainable Agriculture Society and No More Empty Pots are once again hosting the annual Fabric of Local Foods Producers Choice Chef Awards. This years gala will take place March 5 at 4:30 p.m. and will include a multi-course meal prepared by local chefs using local ingredients. All the proceeds support the NSAS and No More Empty Pots. The event takes place at the Metropolitan Community College Institute for the Culinary Arts, 32nd and Sorenson Parkway. Tickets will go on sale soon here. LINCOLN An Omaha senator wants Nebraskans to celebrate at least three additional birthdays before they can legally use tobacco and e-cigarettes. Legislative Bill 73 would raise the age for smoking, chewing or vaping to 21 from the current minimum of 18. The bill was introduced Thursday in the Nebraska Legislature by State Sen. Merv Riepe, the new Health and Human Services Committee chairman. Possession of tobacco by an underage person would be a misdemeanor offense with a maximum fine of $100. Those caught selling tobacco products to customers under 21 would be guilty of a misdemeanor carrying a maximum penalty of three months in jail and a $500 fine. Riepe, a retired hospital administrator from Ralston, said the move to age 21 could prevent youth from starting smoking. He said the change would make it easier for retailers because the ages for buying alcohol and tobacco would match. Nebraska drivers licenses are oriented vertically, instead of horizontally, until a person turns 21. Riepe said his goal is to help address a serious public health issue in a way that doesnt increase taxes, like last years attempt to raise the tobacco tax. About 7 percent of middle school students and 25 percent of high school students have used some kind of tobacco product, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data from 2015. Young people need to get started on the right track, Riepe said. If the bill is approved, Nebraska would join California and Hawaii, he said. WASHINGTON (AP) Hardening battle lines for the brawl to come, President Barack Obama urged congressional Democrats to look out for the American people in defending his legacy health care overhaul. Meanwhile, Vice President-elect Mike Pence stood firm Wednesday in telling Republicans that dismantling Obamacare is No. 1 on Donald Trumps list. Were going to be in the promise-keeping business, Pence declared at two separate Capitol press conferences. Pence said repealing and replacing Obamas law will be the president-elects first order of business. The American people voted decisively for a better future for health care in this country, and we are determined to give them that, Pence said. Outnumbered in the new Congress, Democrats didnt sound confident in stopping the Republicans cold but signaled that they wouldnt make the GOPs job any easier. New Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said that if the Republicans do scuttle the health care law, they will have to come up with a replacement plan before Democrats consider whether to help them revamp the system. That adds pressure on Republicans, who for years have battled among themselves over what a new law would look like, including how to finance its programs and whether to keep Obamas expansion of Medicaid for more lower-income people. Theyre repealing. Were not. Its their obligation to come up with a replacement, Schumer said, a sentiment he said he believed Democrats shared unanimously. Obama and Pence held dueling strategy sessions with lawmakers at the Capitol as the new Republican-led Congress commenced its drive to dissolve the health care statute. The 2010 overhaul, which has extended coverage to 20 million people and reshaped the nations $3 trillion-a-year health care system, has long stood as one of Obamas proudest triumphs and the ascendant GOPs top target for extinction. Despite the negativity, you have a big chunk of the country that wants this thing to succeed, Obama told Democrats, according to an aide who attended Wednesdays session. The two sides traded insults through the day. Dont let the Schumer clowns out of this web, Trump wrote on Twitter. Said Schumer: The Republican plan to cut health care wouldnt make America great again, it would make America sick again. Previewing an attack line sure to be heard again in this years debate, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said the GOP is aiming to also scuttle Medicaid and Medicare, going after programs that are very personal in the lives of the American people. Even with White House and congressional control, annulling Obamacare and replacing it looms as a daunting task for the GOP. Leaders hope to have legislation voiding much of the law on Trumps desk by late next month, Republicans said. But after six years of failing to unite behind an alternative, GOP leaders are discussing postponing when repeal would take effect for 18 months or longer, allowing more time to craft replacement legislation. Underscoring the laws widespread constituency, the Obama administration said at least 8.8 million people signed up through Dec. 31 for coverage in 2017. Even so, outside experts doubt that the administration will meet its nationwide target of 13.8 million signups. Trump has provided few details about how he would redesign the law but has said he wants to retain popular provisions such as ensuring coverage for people with pre-existing medical problems. Republicans will also need to figure out how to protect health coverage for millions of Americans during a transition period and how to avoid marketplace bedlam as nervous insurance companies stop selling policies or boost rates. Seemingly acknowledging that danger, Trump tweeted warnings to GOP lawmakers Wednesday. Massive increases of ObamaCare will take place this year and Dems are to blame for the mess, he wrote. It will fall of its own weight be careful! Republicans said Pence told them in their private meeting to argue that Democrats broke the health care system and Republicans would fix it. Trumps team is already working with GOP congressional leaders on plans to undo Obamas law with legislation and executive action that the president and federal agencies would be able to take, Pence said. Lawmakers said that according to Pence, Trump would sign some orders the day he takes office. Pence did not specify what those actions would be. But House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., told reporters they would involve transition relief. In the Democrats meeting, Obama accepted some blame for not sufficiently promoting the law. The president said, I guess we all could have done a better job of messaging to the American people, said Rep. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y. Obama made his remark about looking out for the American people as he left the meeting. Meanwhile, the Senate voted 51-48 Wednesday to begin debating a budget that, once approved, will prevent Democrats from using a filibuster to block future Republican legislation to void the health care law. Republicans control the Senate by 52-48, but it takes 60 votes to end a filibuster, a procedural roadblock that can kill legislation. All four GOP senators from Nebraska and Iowa voted in favor of starting debate on the budget measure that would pave the way for repeal. Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., said the American people are demanding repeal of the health care law, which she described as a disaster collapsing under its own weight. But she also said that she wants to see that the millions who have received health insurance through Obamacare remain covered, and she urged her colleagues on the other side of the aisle to work with Republicans toward that end. She suggested that the laws problems stem from Democrats failing to include Republicans in their legislative process and passing the measure on a partisan basis. Thats not the way to move forward if were truly going to care for the people of this country and make sure that they have accessible and affordable health insurance, Fischer said. The Senate is expected to complete the budget by next week, with House approval to follow. World-Herald staff writer Joseph Morton contributed to this report. Copyright 2017 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Convenience and grocery stores will be required to carry a wider variety of healthful foods if they want to continue accepting food stamp dollars because of new federal rules. But Nebraska consumers may not see much of a change, store operators say, because many food stores here already meet the new rules, which were watered down in a compromise with industry interests. For us, it will be easy to meet, said Butch Gilman, director of operations for Cubbys, the Omaha-based chain of convenience stores. While the Cubbys Bennington gas station store isnt a supermarket, it does sell fresh meat including ribeye steaks cut in-house along with fresh dairy products, fruits and vegetables, breads and cereal far more variety than needed to meet the laws requirements. Also easily meeting the requirements are the chains north Omaha supermarket, Phils Foodway, and its smaller downtown Omaha Cubbys grocery store. That doesnt mean convenience stores are turning into farmers markets. Most of the Bennington stores lunchtime customers on a freezing weekday were construction workers buying energy drinks, Cheetos, pizza and hot fried chicken. Do you want beef or chicken gravy? a store worker asked a customer. And the store has more shelf space devoted to both chips and alcohol than it does to fresh produce and dairy combined. But Cubbys and other convenience stores have significantly expanded their supply of healthful foods in recent years because of customer demand and because of initiatives like a Douglas County Health Department push to get stores to add healthful options. Cubbys participates in the program. Under the new rules, approved by the USDA in December and taking effect this spring: Stores will have to stock seven varieties of food in each of four food groups (produce, dairy, grains and meats), up from three varieties. Stores will have to stock three units of each of those seven varieties at a time; for example, having three bananas or three jugs of milk on the shelf at a time. Thats a compromise from the six units originally proposed. The total number of items required to be on the shelf will increase to 84, from todays minimum of 12, but wont be as high as the 168 originally proposed. Another compromise: The USDA will continue to allow items with multiple ingredients such as TV dinners to count toward the requirements. The USDA also backed away from not counting some snacks toward the item count. And it didnt go as far as proposed in disqualifying some stores from the food stamp program based on the percentage of the stores sales that come from hot or prepared foods, which are ineligible for purchase under the program. The new rules balance the need to improve the variety of healthful foods available to low-income consumers, while maintaining grocery access for people in underserved rural and urban areas, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said. In other words, some industry groups argued that if the rules were too strict, some stores would go out of business, leaving low-income and rural shoppers with even less access to food. Not being able to accept food stamp benefits would severely cut into sales at some stores: Nationally, Americans got a total of $70 billion in benefits in 2015. The new rules do not change the items that food stamp recipients are allowed to buy with those benefits. Jonathan Raborn, manager of the Bennington Cubbys, said his store sees only between two and five food stamp transactions a day. A national lobbying group for convenience stores said some of the new rules still cause concern but said the compromises removed provisions that would have made it impossible for tens of thousands of retailers to continue to accept food stamps. The National Association of Convenience Stores reported that two-thirds of convenience retailers said their food sales grew last year, and that better-for-you items like fruit and nuts saw strong sales. Gilman said Cubbys has added more fresh food in response to customer demand: Thats where the market is going. Iowa-based convenience store chain Kum & Go said the same. Kum & Go offers a variety of healthy and better-for-you options, and were pleased to be able to continue to participate in SNAP (the food stamp program) to serve our customers, company attorney Charley Campbell said. At this time, we are still determining how the changes in SNAP rules will impact our stores but we dont anticipate major disruptions to how we operate today. (SNAP stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.) The final rules will make it possible for rural Nebraska stores, some of which have limited shelf space and limited access to fresh food delivery, to continue to accept food stamp benefits, said Kathy Siefken, executive director of the Nebraska Grocery Industry Association. I think it was a good compromise, she said. COUNCIL BLUFFS A Council Bluffs mother accused of purposefully shoving her babys arm into hot coffee to teach him a lesson has pleaded not guilty. Rebecca Brahier, 36, is being held at the Pottawattamie County Jail on $10,000 bail. She is charged with suspicion of willful injury and child endangerment, both class C felonies. Her jury trial is scheduled for Feb. 7. According to court documents, Brahier was arrested Nov. 19 after officers were dispatched to Jennie Edmundson Hospital on a report of possible child endangerment. Medical staff told police that the burns the child suffered did not correspond with the mothers story. The child had second-degree burns on his arm. Police interviewed the mother, Rebecca Brahier, 36. She told police she had a hot cup of instant coffee on a table near her bed. Her child was sitting on her lap on the edge of the bed and reached for the coffee cup, submerging his left arm in the hot coffee, according to what she told medical staff. She ran cold water over the burn and then took him to the emergency room. The child had severe burns to his left arm, which caused blistering and skin was sloughing off, the report reads. Investigators interviewed Brahier, the father of the burned child and Brahiers daughter. The father did not have knowledge of the incident, police learned. During the interview, Brahier reportedly said she intentionally submerged the childs arm in hot coffee in an attempt to teach the child a lesson. Brahier told police that the child tried to touch her hot coffee several times before she placed his arm in the mug. Police said she reportedly told officers she put his arm in the coffee to prove a point to the child that the coffee was hot. The child was transferred to a burn unit at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. Brahiers daughter has been placed in protective custody. A no-contact order has since been filed between Brahier and the children. If convicted, she could face up to 10 years in jail and $10,000 in fines. The Westside High School students accused of mixing their semen with frosting and serving it to their home ec teacher denied the charges against them in juvenile court Thursday. The two 14-year-old boys have been charged with disturbing the peace and lewd conduct both misdemeanors. Youths who appear in juvenile court can enter pleas of admit or deny. Deny is the equivalent of a not-guilty plea. On Dec. 8, the students went to a school bathroom, masturbated into containers and then mixed their semen with frosting meant for turnovers, a law enforcement official has said. The boys then served the turnovers to their home economics teacher, who was doing a quality-control taste test. The teacher realized something was wrong, and another student later approached her after overhearing the boys discuss their plan. Three boys had planned to commit the act, but only two went through with it, the law enforcement official has said. Juvenile court judges can decide the consequences for youths whose cases are referred to the court. Judge Christopher Kelly told the boys that if convicted, they could be placed on probation, sent to the youth rehabilitation center in Kearney or required to live with another suitable family. The father of one of the boys declined to comment after Thursdays hearing. Edward Hotz, an attorney hired to represent the other teen, also declined to comment. The mother of that boy could not be reached. Westside Superintendent Blane McCann alluded to the incident in a letter sent to parents last month, but said he could not provide more details on what happened or what disciplinary actions have been taken against the students because of privacy concerns. An online petition asking to take action against sexual assault by properly punishing the boys and expel them has reached about 10,000 signatures. Michael Fryda, president of the Westside Education Association, said the teachers union is working with administrators to be sure the situation is addressed properly. (We are) deeply concerned with any violence perpetuated against teachers and other school employees, Fryda said. What happened at Westside High School was not a harmless prank and it should not be treated as such. A 42-year-old man has been charged with motor vehicle homicide in connection with an Interstate 80 pileup in August that killed a man. Jeffrey Kluck, of Rogers, Nebraska, has pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor charge and is scheduled to have his next hearing in March. Deputy Douglas County Attorney Jameson Cantwell filed the charge on Tuesday. Kluck waived his arraignment hearing Wednesday. If convicted, Kluck faces a maximum of one year in prison. About 5:20 p.m. Aug. 25, police have said, Kluck was driving a 2015 Freightliner semitrailer truck west on I-80 near 84th Street when the truck rear-ended a 2002 Chevrolet Malibu. The car was stopped because of backed-up traffic. The collision caused a chain-reaction pileup involving four other vehicles, including a 2013 Subaru Impreza. Nicholas Moneymaker, 24, driving the Impreza, suffered a head injury and died five days later. Cantwell said that based on the physical evidence, the truck rear-ended both Moneymakers car and the Malibu. It does appear (Moneymakers) vehicle was likely the first vehicle struck, Cantwell said. James Martin Davis, Klucks attorney, said one witness saw Moneymaker abruptly change lanes twice before the collision. Davis said Kluck, who still is employed as a truck driver, didnt violate any traffic law. My client wasnt following too close he had the appropriate distance, Davis said. There wasnt much he could do ... trucks cant stop on a dime. In December, relatives of Moneymaker filed a negligence lawsuit against Kluck, the trucking company and the insurance company, alleging negligence. Court documents claim Kluck did not slow down and slammed directly into Moneymakers car, causing it to crash into another car, off the Interstate and into a concrete wall. The lawsuit asks for an unspecified amount to compensate the family for damages. Omaha police detectives say they hope additional tips from the public and results of lab tests will help them arrest the people responsible for the citys last homicide of 2016. Michael Brinkman, 50, was fatally shot on Dec. 23 in his Millard home during what police say was an attempted robbery. Detective Larry Cahill said Wednesday that the homicide unit has not determined whether the robbery was a targeted one. He said he cant yet confirm whether the two men who were at the house at the time took anything before they fled. On Friday, police released photos from a neighbors surveillance cameras of a white Dodge Durango SXT leaving the home at 18139 Tammy Trail. Cahill said the Durango is from 2015 or early 2016 with a Rallye package that gives the SUV a sport look. Police think the two men are black. One, they said, was wearing a clown mask and a gray hooded sweatshirt. He was heavier and about 6 feet tall. The other man was thinner, slightly taller and wore a dark-colored mask, dark sweatshirt and jogging pants with stripes on the sides, police said. Brinkmans body was found in a bedroom, according to a police report. His longtime girlfriend and the couples son were in the home at the time, but Cahill said they did not witness the shooting. Brinkman had owned a roofing company, Xcel Roofing, though he recently had sold the business. Cahill said police have sent evidence from the scene to labs for forensic, DNA and ballistics testing. Im fairly confident that well be able to get some decent information out of those results, Cahill said. Weve got plenty of information that were following up and working on. Cahill said he thinks someone knows the men who are involved. People with information that leads to an arrest could receive a reward of up to $25,000. Were hoping someone can give us a jump on things and provide us with the information leading to these suspects, he said. Anyone with information about the crime should call the homicide unit at 402-444-5656 or Crime Stoppers at 402-444-7867. LINCOLN With a nearly $900 million budget gap looming over the state, Gov. Pete Ricketts broke with tradition Thursday to give an early budget proposal to lawmakers. He unveiled the proposal, along with a call for quick legislative action, a week earlier than governors normally deliver budget plans to the Legislature. Legislative leaders promised to consider the plan carefully while trying to meet the governors timetable. It can happen, said Speaker of the Legislature Jim Scheer of Norfolk. Ricketts plan would take care of $276 million worth of the states budget gap and balance the budget for the fiscal year ending June 30. It would spare K-12 education, corrections and some Health and Human Services programs, while making across-the-board cuts to most state agencies and dipping into the states rainy day fund. The University of Nebraska would see smaller cuts than most agencies. The plan also would take advantage of an expected increase in state sales tax revenues from Amazons decision to start collecting taxes from Nebraskans buying online. Ricketts said state lawmakers need to act soon because there are only six months left in the current fiscal year. He said he hopes the Appropriations Committee will send a package to the full Legislature by early February. This is a pressing matter that we have to address, he said. It is important we get this one done quickly to set up the next (budget) biennium. The proposal unveiled Thursday marks the first step in closing a budget gap currently pegged at about $900 million through June 30, 2019, the end of the next two-year budget period. Ricketts is to announce his plans for the rest of the shortfall during his State of the State speech, set for Jan. 12. State Sen. John Stinner of Gering, the new Appropriations Committee chairman, said the committee will start working through the proposal early next week and will try to meet the governors timetable. He said he didnt see any big concerns with Ricketts recommendations at first glance, though he hadnt had a chance to fully digest them. Were not giving up our prerogative to be independent and to change, modify and adjust, he said. Sen. Kate Bolz of Lincoln, a fellow Appropriations Committee member, said she wants to be sure the committee has time to study the proposal and that Nebraskans have time to weigh in on it. It will be very important for us to be deliberate and thoughtful with how we move forward, she said. But she praised the governor for proposing a combination of budget changes, not just cuts. Scheer said lawmakers could move quickly on the three-bill package that makes up the governors budget plan, although much will depend on the Appropriations Committee. The budget-making committee, which includes members from across the state and a variety of political ideologies, is a good barometer for how bills will be received by the full body, Scheer said. Ricketts recommendations include 4 percent cuts to the amount previously appropriated to most state agencies, plus cuts to some specific programs. The budget cuts add up to about $171 million, but they are partly offset by $20 million of proposed spending increases. Among the increases is $7.8 million needed to pay the Nebraska Families Collaborative, which manages child welfare cases in eastern Nebraska, for serving a larger-than anticipated number of children. Along with the increases, Ricketts said about 70 percent of the states budget total would be spared from cuts, including state aid to schools, special education funding and corrections. School aid accounts for the largest portion of the state budget, coming in at $952 million this year. Special education funding accounts for an additional $222 million. Most direct care services and public aid programs within HHS also would be spared. The University of Nebraska would face a smaller, 2.3 percent cut to its operations budget. Ricketts said he worked with the university so that it shares in the budget pain while still meeting the needs of students. We worked collaboratively with them to really come to an agreement with how we could help them, he said. NU President Hank Bounds said the proposed $13.3 million cut is painful, but it will be manageable. We made enough good decisions early that we can manage this, he said, referring to hiring freezes, travel limitations and other spending slowdowns that started last year. But Bounds said he fears that an enormous cut lies ahead for the 2017-19 biennial budget, while the university is locked in to health care spending increases and, for the long term, collectively bargained raises for faculty members at the Omaha and Kearney campuses. Along with cuts, the governors plan calls for taking $92 million from the states cash reserve fund, sometimes called the rainy day fund, and dipping into a number of other cash funds. This really is what the rainy day fund is supposed to be used for, Ricketts said. His plan also makes use of an anticipated $11.2 million boost in state sales tax revenues from Amazon purchases. That total represents five months worth of sales taxes on items that Nebraskans buy through Amazon. State revenue officials project that the Amazon bump for a full year will be about $28.2 million. Ricketts began taking steps to deal with the states budget shortfall in July, after it became clear that the state would finish the 2015-16 fiscal year with revenues falling $95 million below expected levels. He ordered all of the agencies under his control to rein in spending and urged other agencies to do the same. He also directed state officials to hold back some of the money appropriated to the agencies for the current year. As projections of the shortfall grew, with new revenue forecasts, he increased the hold-back to 4 percent of appropriations for most agencies. Bolz and others have questioned the legality of that approach, saying only the Legislature can set the state budget under the Nebraska Constitution. Ricketts rejected the criticism, saying the executive branch is responsible for the allotments of state appropriations through its budget director. The governor cant cut the budget, but he can manage it, he said. What we have done is given the Legislature the freedom to act, he said. Ricketts said he worked closely with state agency officials in crafting the current budget proposal. Most of the specific cuts were to programs that had unneeded funds. For example, he proposed $22.5 million worth of cuts to the Medicaid budget. That includes $7.5 million that is not needed because expenses are lower than anticipated. The state can save the remaining $15 million because HHS took action to start collecting drug rebates for previous years. Renee Fry, executive director of the OpenSky Policy Institute, raised concerns that the proposed higher-education cuts would lead to tuition increases and, in the case of community colleges, property tax increases. She also questioned the wisdom of taking so much money from the cash reserve fund when national trends suggest that the state could face a long run of budget woes. World-Herald staff writers Rick Ruggles and Emily Nohr contributed to this report. Also read: 5 hefty challenges facing Nebraska lawmakers RUSHVILLE, Neb. Continuing beer sales in the notorious border village of Whiteclay, Nebraska, would not only be immoral but would violate state liquor laws, a rural county board was told Thursday. This would be the most courageous decision you ever make if you decide to deny the (liquor) licenses, a Native American activist, Frank LaMere, told the Sheridan County Board. But the four beer-only liquor stores which sell the equivalent of 3.5 million cans of beer a year, almost all to residents of the impoverished, and officially dry, Pine Ridge Reservation had plenty of supporters, too. They argued that the beer stores were legal businesses and that closing them would not halt the rampant alcoholism and alcohol-related problems on the reservation, but would just make people drive farther to get alcohol, creating more drunken drivers. Its a simple problem of supply and demand. Until we fix the demand, were not going to fix the problem, said local veterinarian Jeff Erquiga. The comments came during four hours of hearings on whether the liquor licenses for the four beer outlets in Whiteclay should be renewed. Typically, thats a routine process. But this year, the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission, citing concerns that law enforcement was inadequate in Whiteclay, an unincorporated village of a dozen people, required the outlets to reapply for the licenses and to justify why they should be renewed. The County Board is scheduled to decide Tuesday whether to recommend renewal of the licenses. The commission will make the ultimate decision on the renewals, probably in February or March. Lawsuits challenging any decision are a possibility. About 60 people attended the public hearing, held at a local American Legion Hall. Testimony was at times emotional, but mostly civil. The main issue discussed was whether law enforcement was adequate in Whiteclay, as required by state law for liquor to be sold. Whiteclay is about 20 miles from the County Sheriffs Office. Critics testified Thursday that it took 45 minutes or more for law enforcement to respond to 911 calls in Whiteclay, making such calls fruitless. A street minister said he broke up more fights in the town than law enforcement. The lack of law enforcement, detractors said, allows beer to be openly consumed on the streets and lets street people urinate and pass out openly, spawning the towns nickname, the Skid Row of the Plains. Jack Anderson, the chairman of the Sheridan County Board, testified last fall at a legislative hearing that the county lacked adequate resources for law enforcement in the county. But Thursday, he said his comments referred to finding other sources of funding. Still, he said, Whiteclay could use an almost full-time police officer as it had decades ago, when a special state-funded deputy sheriff patrolled the town. About 20 percent of the countys law enforcement calls come from Whiteclay, according to a preliminary estimate by the County Sheriffs Office. With only $3,500 in property tax revenue coming per year from the village, thats an economic disaster for taxpayers, Alan Jacobsen, a Lincoln business owner, said Thursday. Sheridan County devotes about one-fourth of its $5.2 million annual budget to its Sheriffs Office and jail, nearly three times more than neighboring Dawes County, which has about twice the population. For advocates for Native Americans and children, the Thursday hearings provided another chance to make their case that the beer sales prey on a vulnerable population, contributing to alcohol-related deaths and rates of fetal alcohol syndrome that have been estimated at one in four children born on the reservation. The costs to taxpayers of raising such children, due to their physical and emotional handicaps, can be as high as $195,000 a year per child, said Barbara Vancil of Hay Springs, who has been a foster parent to two kids with fetal alcohol syndrome. Where is our moral responsibility? Vancil asked. Weve got to step up to the plate (and deny the licenses). Other critics compared the beer sales to selling a gun to a suicidal person. One person said continuing the sales was racist. If this was happening to white people, would you allow this to happen for so long? asked Kim Greager of Rapid City, South Dakota. A former president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe said Nebraska should back up the tribes decision to ban liquor possession on the reservation by not selling it just across the border from the South Dakota reservation. We know what (liquor) does to our people, Byron Brewer said. We would just like the State of Nebraska to respect and honor our government. More than half of the audience appeared to oppose renewing the licenses. The bulk of the supporters were from the local area. They blamed wider social problems for the alcohol woes on the reservation and said if the Whiteclay stores were closed, street people and problems with drunken driving would just move to other nearby communities, such as Rushville, Chadron and Gordon. Removing the alcohol from Whiteclay does not remove the addiction problems (with alcohol), said Jack Sheridan, the city manager in Gordon. Representatives of the liquor stores State Line Liquor, the Jumping Eagle Inn, D&S Pioneer Service and the Arrowhead Inn said they run law-abiding businesses and shouldnt be blamed for problems on the reservation. WASHINGTON Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt has a date with a group of Midwestern senators seeking promises he wont gut federal policies that promote renewable fuels such as corn-based ethanol. Pruitts ability to assure those farm-state lawmakers during the meeting, scheduled for this afternoon, could determine whether hes confirmed as President-elect Donald Trumps pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency. Pruitt has criticized the agency for what he considers regulatory overreach a position that thrills regulation-weary farmers and the Republican senators who represent them. But Pruitt also has criticized the agencys Renewable Fuel Standard, echoing complaints from the oil industry that such a policy is simply unworkable. The RFS, which by law requires certain amounts of renewable fuels be blended into the gasoline supply, has been key to the explosive growth of the ethanol industry, particularly in Iowa and Nebraska the No. 1 and No. 2 ethanol-producing states. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, arranged todays meeting with Pruitt to discuss the importance of renewable fuels. Sens. Deb Fischer and Ben Sasse, both Nebraska Republicans, and Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, plan to attend. Fischer and Ernst both sit on the Environment and Public Works Committee that will be responsible for overseeing Pruitts confirmation. Both told The World-Herald that theyd like to see him publicly state the assurances related to the RFS that hes made privately to senators. Ernst said farmers arent just feeding the world, theyre now fueling it as well. We dont want to see an administration that will come in and rip that away from those that have invested heavily in the technology, invested their capital, their families hopes and dreams into this, Ernst said. Fischer met with Pruitt separately on Wednesday. She said he assured her that he believes in following the law, which calls for the RFS to continue. She said she has heard some concerns from Nebraskans about Pruitts nomination. Im hopeful that well be able to put their concerns at ease in the nomination process, Fischer said. Sasse said hes looking forward to hearing more of Pruitts views on issues important to Nebraska agriculture. Also on the attendance list: Sens. John Thune and Mike Rounds of South Dakota, Roy Blunt of Missouri and Pat Roberts of Kansas. All are Republicans. Iowa is the top ethanol-producing state in the country at more than 4 billion gallons produced last year. Nebraska comes in second place with more than 2 billion gallons last year. And they want those gallons to keep flowing. Its very important that we continue to have policies that promote both domestic and international growth in biofuels like ethanol, said Todd Sneller, Nebraska Ethanol Board administrator. Sneller said he expects Pruitt to hear from the Governors Biofuels Coalition and others on the subject. Sneller said Pruitt could make immediate moves to help the industry by revisiting the technical data that underlies restrictions on the use of E-15 blends. That point was echoed by Monte Shaw, executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association. This EPA could move very quickly to equalize the volatility regulations that govern E-10 and E-15, which would open up huge markets, huge markets, for E-15 blends that right now are problematic, Shaw said. Shaw said the current uncertainty over the new administrations direction on renewable fuels could have a chilling effect on new investment in infrastructure. But he also noted that, as a candidate, Trump expressed support for renewable fuels. In fact, he used the issue to attack a chief rival, Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican who had criticized the RFS. An Oklahoman with a fairly long track record of not supporting the RFS was not at the top of my wish list to head the EPA, Shaw said. But thats who President-elect Trump has picked, and the fact of the matter is the policy is going to be set at the White House by Mr. Trump. He said the key is ensuring that Pruitt lives up to the incoming presidents campaign promises. I certainly hope that the Iowa senators and the other Midwesterners make sure that Mr. Pruitt is ready to toe the line with what Donald Trump has promised, Shaw said. The night he won the presidency, Donald Trump gave a speech that was praised for its magnanimity. Now its time for America to bind the wounds of division; have to get together, he said, reading his prepared remarks from the teleprompter. To all Republicans and Democrats and independents across this nation, I say it is time for us to come together as one united people. Its time. I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be president for all Americans, and this is so important to me. For those who have chosen not to support me in the past, of which there were a few people, Im reaching out to you for your guidance and your help so that we can work together and unify our great country. Those who opposed Trump didnt immediately embrace him. For several nights after he won, protesters marched in opposition to his victory crowds that had large contingents of young people, women and people of color. After the two met in the Oval Office, President Barack Obama recommended that Trumps attempts to unify the country focus on those groups. I did say to him, as Ive said publicly, that because of the nature of the campaigns and the bitterness and the ferocity of the campaigns, its really important to send some signals of unity, Obama said to reporters following that meeting, and to reach out to minority groups, or women, or others that were concerned about the tenor of the campaign, and I think thats something that he will want to do. Trump chose not to do so. He dismissed the protesters as professionals who were incited by the media, calling the protests unfair. He named Stephen Bannon, the controversial head of Breitbart News, as a senior adviser who would staff him in the White House. He seemed, in short, to define unity as America embracing him and not his reaching out to meet those Americans who opposed him halfway. This came into focus Saturday, the final day of 2016, thanks to another tweet from the president-elect. Happy New Year to all, including to my many enemies and those who have fought me and lost so badly they just dont know what to do. Love! The tweet echoed his famous Sept. 11 tweet from 2013, in which he extended his best wishes to everyone, even the haters and losers. In case it needs to be said, Trumps words now carry a different weight. No one is required to embrace his enemies. But referring to those who have fought me and lost so badly is a deliberate twist of the knife, another part of his victory lap against Hillary Clinton and her supporters. Most of Trumps victory-lapping came in the form of a series of thank you events in states he won, several of which were spent mostly rehashing his victory and his defiance of the odds, several of which also included similar dismissals of his opponents, of Clinton and of Obama. Before Thanksgiving, Trump released a video message offering his thoughts to the country. It is my prayer that on this Thanksgiving we begin to heal our divisions and move forward as one country, strengthened by a shared purpose and very, very common resolve, he said. He continued: We have just finished a long and bruising political campaign. Emotions are raw and tensions just dont heal overnight. It doesnt go quickly, unfortunately, but we have before us the chance now to make history together to bring real change to Washington, real safety to our cities and real prosperity to our communities, including our inner cities. So important to me, and so important to our country. But to succeed, we must enlist the effort of our entire nation. . . . I am asking you to join me in this effort. It is time to restore the bonds of trust between citizens. Because when America is unified, there is nothing beyond our reach, and I mean absolutely nothing. Less than two weeks later, he made his first thank you tour stop in Ohio. The Posts report on the event summarized the topics covered: the dishonest press, his frustration with Republican Gov. John Kasich (who didnt support him) and how protesters at the event dont know that Hillary lost a couple of weeks ago. Despite that, he insisted that we are going to bring our country together all of our country. Were going to find common ground, and we will get the job done properly. As the crowd chanted lock her up, he said, we did have a lot of fun fighting Hillary, didnt we? Part of Trumps frustration over his political opponents stems from the fact that he only narrowly won, earning more Electoral College votes despite losing the popular vote by almost 3 million votes. (Hes tried to dismiss this as being the result of votes cast illegally, which is patently untrue.) He has also more recently been annoyed at suggestions that Russias apparent hack of the Democratic National Committee may have pushed him over the finish line. In response, Trump has said that Russias efforts are old news that everyone should move past. Past presidents have similarly entered office to lead a divided nation. For Trump, the path to unity is narrow: Stop complaining about him and unify around him. When given a teleprompter, Trump makes the sort of pronouncements about working together that youd expect of a president-elect. Once he grabs his phone and starts tweeting, though, his real thoughts as always leak out. Checking Fischers facts I read Nebraska U.S. Sen. Deb Fischers Jan. 3 More Commentary, A new chapter for U.S. begins today. She stated Health insurance premiums climbed by an average of 25 percent in 2016. This statement sounded bogus to me, so I researched the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that focuses on major health care issues facing the nation. Its report Analysis of 2016 Premium Changes in the Affordable Care Acts Health Insurance Marketplaces stated: Among these major cities, the percent change from last year in the benchmark premium ranges from -10.6 percent in Seattle, Washington, to 38.4 percent in Nashville, Tennessee. The simple average of these rate changes is 10.1 percent before accounting for the premium tax credit. Could Sen. Fischer cite where this 25 percent figure comes from? We have had too many misleading statements during the 2016 presidential election. We dont need more misinformation, especially from a senator who represents us. Stu Wood, Bellevue VA center has state-of-the-art equipment Through collaboration by Sen. Deb Fischer and then-Rep. Brad Ashford, President Obama signed the Chip in for Vets Act of 2016, which allows the VA to accept donations of real property, including medical facilities, at no additional cost to the government. They worked with key Omaha community leaders to propose five pilot infrastructure projects under the Chip in for Vets Act. In contrast to comments made by Jan. 1 Public Pulse writer Scott Massin (VA clinic doesnt address vets needs), our facilities have state-of-the-art medical equipment. The imaging equipment there is some of the most modern in the area. Our CT scanners were replaced last month. A new MRI machine was installed in July 2016. New nuclear medicine equipment is being installed this week. Although the current Omaha VA Medical Center building is 67 years old, we provide excellent care for more than 52,000 veterans each year. Veterans continuously indicate they are pleased with the care. Omaha VAs overall patient satisfaction ratings of inpatient hospital and primary and specialty care providers are in the top 20 percent compared to all other VA medical centers nationally. If Omaha is awarded one of the five pilot projects under the Chip in for Vets Act, veterans would continue to receive this excellent health care in a modern medical ambulatory care center with state-of-the-art medical equipment. Will Ackerman, Omaha Director, communication and voluntary service VA Nebraska-Western Iowa Health Care System Mello will tackle infrastructure woes Heath Mello is exactly what the City of Omaha needs in City Hall. With Omahas aging infrastructure, we need a mayor who is willing to take action when its necessary. In the past, Mello has worked on projects that helped set aside money to upgrade Omahas sewer system. Mello has concrete plans to repair Omahas streets and develop the riverfront. This kind of initiative is much needed. Kamrin Baker, Omaha GOP is late to this game It seems the Republicans are now very interested in infrastructure after using the obstruct and delay tactic for eight years. And Nebraska U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer and President-elect Donald Trump are being given credit for the idea (Bridging a costly infrastructure gap, Jan. 2 World-Herald). However, Democratic leadership and President Barack Obama pressed for this action relentlessly, only to be blocked by the majority Republicans. In March 2015, a $478 billion infrastructure amendment to the budget bill was defeated along strict party lines. The plan was paid for yet still could not get GOP support. Their real interest was political obstruction, not the welfare of the nation. Neal Von Seggern, Papillion Dems have only themselves to blame Im not surprised by how much (and by how far) we missed the boat. The Democratic Party and feckless Republicans like Sen. Lindsey Graham are continually jabbering about the Russian hacking and how it may have altered the election in favor of Donald Trump. Could it be that the real reason the Republicans have garnered complete control is that the Democrats are out of touch with America? I guess its easier to blame the Russians. Steve Countryman, Omaha Mideast was a mess before Obama Dec. 26 Public Pulse writer Scott Bray stated that, if not for the Obama administration, the Middle East would be stable. Seriously? Im not a fan of all the presidents policies, but this type of mindset borders on childlike, with nothing stated to back it up. In my lifetime (Im 55) I have never seen stability in the Middle East, and to say Obama is the sole obstruction to it is sheer ignorance and/or bias. Bunny Geist, Omaha Medical and engineering colleges in UP to have Hindi textbooks from next academic year 10 MBBS students arrested for ragging in Mangaluru India oi-Oneindia By Oneindia Staff Writer Mangaluru, Jan 5: The Dakshina Kannada police on Wednesday arrested 10 MBBS students of KVG Medical College, Sullia in Karnataka for allegedly ragging junior students. The arrest was made based on a complaint filed by a second year MBBS student, Nishant. He initially lodged complaint with the college administration who then advised him to approach police. According to the complaint, Nishant alleged that all the 10 senior students assaulted him and his classmates for disrespecting them and even threatened to kill if the mistake was repeated. It is learnt that the incident happened on December 28 in of the room of a senior student when eight junior students including Nishant were locked up in the room and ragged. As the victims raised an alarm, passersby gathered near the room. Fearing trouble, the accused let off the victims. Cases have been filed against all the 10 senior students under various IPC sections and the Karnataka Education Act. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, January 5, 2017, 12:33 [IST] Sushma Swaraj shuts down a troll who said she will be remembered like Sheila Dikshit Delhi loses two of its former CMs in span of two weeks Final Goodbye: From Sushma Swaraj to Sheila Dikshit - A look at politicians that India lost in 2019 Akhilesh better than me, says Sheila Dikshit: Is an alliance brewing in UP? India oi-Vicky New Delhi, Jan 5: The Congress' chief ministerial candidate in Uttar Pradesh, Sheila Dikshit, made a surprise announcement in which she said that the Samajwadi Party's Akhilesh Yadav would make a better candidate than her. [Also Read: Akhilesh Yadav favourite CM candidate: ABP News-Lokniti CSDS opinion poll] "I would be happy to make way for Akhilesh," she told a television channel. Political experts are of the view that the message put out by the veteran Congress leader is an intentional one and not one of those tongue in cheek moments. It is a signal that the Congress is trying to back Akhilesh in a bid to defeat the BJP. There is a lot of infighting within the SP today and the chances of a split are very high. The former Delhi CM's comments are meant to suggest to Akhilesh that he has the backing of the Congress to defeat the BJP in Uttar Pradesh. While the central leadership has been terming the SP's war within as a political drama, others in the UP state Congress feel that Akhilesh is the only candidate who has it within him to defeat the BJP. Most parties have literally written off the BSP and say that the party led by Mayawati is a non-starter in UP. The UP Congress feels that the decision by Akhilesh to distance himself from his uncle, Shivpal Yadav has only bettered his image. He could capitalise on his image of being a clean and popular leader which in turn would help fighting the BJP. Opinion polls have been divided on UP. While one poll gives the BJP a clean sweep the other suggests a tough fight between the SP and the BJP. OneIndia News Explained: Why did the ECI freeze the symbol of the Shiv Sena Not just future of Sena but democracy at stake, says Uddhav Assembly polls: After Opposition, BJP ally Shiv Sena asks Centre to postpone Budget India oi-Oneindia By Oneindia Staff Writer Mumbai, Jan 5: On Wednesday, we saw how almost all the opposition parties in unison asked the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre to postpone the presentation of the Union Budget on February 1. Shiv Sena, an ally of the ruling BJP in Maharashtra, has now supported the demand of the Opposition to postpone the Budget as 'elections are close'. "The Budget should be postponed as elections are close; allegation of appeasing public can be levied on the ruling party in this case," Sanjay Raut, senior Shiv Sena leader, told ANI on Thursday. The call to defer the Budget came after the Election Commission on Wednesday announced the dates for the upcoming assembly polls in five states. Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray also urged President Pranab Mukherjee not to allow presentation of the Budget before the five states vote. In fact, the Budget will be tabled at the Parliament just three days before Punjab and Goa go to assembly polls and 10 days before the first phase of elections in Uttar Pradesh. The Opposition says that the move to advance the Budget, which is generally presented in April, is an indirect ploy to hold an upper hand in the upcoming assembly elections by the ruling BJP-led NDA government. The Opposition adds the Centre's decision to go ahead with the Budget is a violation of the poll code. However, experts say that the government's plan is in no way violation of the model code of conduct, which came into place on Wednesday. Leaders of several opposition parties including the Trinamool Congress, the Congress, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Janata Dal-United and the Rashtriya Lok Dal, to name a few, on Thursday went to meet the officials of the EC to discuss the budget date being too close to polls. The elections for the five states - Goa, Manipur, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand - will begin on February 4. Counting of the votes will take place on March 11. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, January 5, 2017, 13:18 [IST] Babul Supriyo dares Mamata to reveal evidence against him India oi-Oneindia By Oneindia Staff Writer Union Minister Babul Supriyo on Thursday hit out at the TMC for linking him with the Rose Valley chit fund scam and said Mamata Banerjee should come forward with the evidence, if there are any. The TMC had alleged that Supriyo was involved in the multi-crore Rose Valley chit fund. The arrest of TMC MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay in the case has irked the party workers and they allegedlly tried to break into the Kolkata apartment of Supriyo. "During CPM rule also there was a free hand for hooligans, and now TMC has taken it to another level...If Didi has any evidence against me in the Rose valley case then she should bring it forward," news agency ANI quoted Supriyo as saying. According to reports, Supriyo had earlier said that he was planning to file a defamation case against Trinamool Congress MP Tapas Pal for dragging his name into the Rose Valley chit fund scam. Sudip Bandyopadhyay was arrested in connection with the Rose Valley chit fund scam. TMC has come out in support of their leader and taken to streets in protest. His bail plea was on Wednesday rejected by a court in Bhubaneshwar. Bandyopadhyay alleged that the arrest was the result of political vendetta against him and the TMC by the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government. Last week the CBI arrested actor-turned-TMC MP Tapas Pal in connection with the Rose Valley chit fund scam. Also, Pal's daughter Sohini appeared before the CBI for interrogation in Bhubaneswar for the second time. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, January 5, 2017, 8:58 [IST] Bhatkal man arrested with foreign currency in Mangaluru India oi-Anusha By Anusha Ravi Officials from the revenue intelligence department detained a 51-year-old man at Mangaluru international airport on Thursday morning for illegal possession of foreign currencies. The man identified as Mohammed Farooque Armar is a resident of Bhatkal and was arrested while trying to board a flight to Dubai. Foreign currency worth Rs 25 lakh was found among Armar's possessions. Following a tip off, officials from the revenue intelligence intercepted Farooque as he waited to board a flight to Dubai after completing check-in and immigration formalities. Thorough examination of his bags revealed bundles of foreign currency notes that were concealed inside biscuit and confectionery packets. The currencies included US dollars, British pounds, Euros, UAE dinars, Saudi Riyals and Qatari riyals. The total value of the currencies are pegged at Rs 25.07 lakh. The currencies were seized under RBI guidelines and Customs act with FEMA regulations. Further investigations revealed that the arrested person has smuggled items to and from the Gulf earlier. Farooque is said to have confessed to have acted as carrier of smuggled goods including phones. Officials have also learnt that he purchased the foreign currency from illegal operators in Bhatkal. The officials are now trying to unearth the illegal currency racket and hawala channels in Bhatkal. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, January 5, 2017, 16:45 [IST] UP ATS picks up two more accused in Al-Qaeda radicalisation case EC seeks Mulayam, Akhilesh's response by Jan 9 over party name, symbol India oi-Oneindia By Oneindia Staff Writer With both Akhilesh Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav led factions staking a claim on the Samajwadi Party's name and symbol, the Election Commission on Thursday sought their response by January 9, said reports. EC asks Akhilesh Yadav&Mulayam Singh Yadav to reply by 9 Jan on each other's petitions filed before it claiming party&poll symbol:EC sources ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) January 5, 2017 On Sunday, the SP witnessed a major split after Chief Minister Akhilesh was declared the party chief in a meeting. Mulayam, however, declared the meeting as illegal. Legal experts however say that the meeting cannot be declared unconstitutional as the required norms were followed. In other key decisions taken at an emergency meeting of Akhilesh supporters, Shivpal Yadav was sacked as the state unit head while Amar Singh was expelled from the party. Both are Mulayam's close confidants. Akhilesh on Tuesday met his father and SP supremo Mulayam at his residence, leading to speculation that efforts were being made for a patch-up which the faction led by the chief minister discounted. Akhilesh reached Mualyam's residence here after the latter returned from New Delhi where he had knocked at the doors of the EC to claim the 'cycle' symbol. OneIndia News BJP's tact to divert attention from Morbi, says a stung Kejriwal after Sukesh's claims Not farmers, we're responsible for stubble burning in Punjab, says Kejriwal Goa assembly election 2017: Kejriwal to address public meetings India oi-PTI Panaji, Jan 5: AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal will address four public meetings in poll-bound Goa this weekend. "Kejriwal will be addressing public meetings at Benaulim and Vasco on January 7 and at Mapusa and Sankhalim on January 8," AAP's Goa spokesman Rupesh Shinkre told PTI on Thursday. The Assembly elections in Goa are scheduled on February 4. This would be the second visit of the Delhi Chief Minister to the coastal state during last one month. On December 19, Kejriwal had addressed a public meeting in Cuncolim constituency, where he announced former bureaucrat Elvis Gomes as AAP's chief ministerial face. AAP has already announced 36 candidates out of total 40 constituencies. The party had on Wednesday said that announcing the Budget before the polls was a bad idea. PTI For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, January 5, 2017, 18:50 [IST] Thousands throng Golden Temple Thousands of devotees thronged the 'Harmandir Sahib', also popularly known as the Golden Temple on January 5, 2017, to participate in the celebrations to offer prayer on the 350th birth anniversary of the 10th Sikh master, Guru Gobind Singh. Importance of Guru Purab day: India celebrates 350th birth anniversary, or Prakash Parv' of Shri Guru Gobind Singh on January 5. Guru Purab means 'guru', the spiritual teacher, and 'purb', that is festival in Sanskrit. In Sikh tradition, the day signifies the celebration of the holy day to commemorate one or another anniversaries related to lives of the Gurus. Photo courtesy:Twitter @shreyaofficial Night view of Golden Temple: Golden Temple, Sikhs holy shrine, was illuminated on the occasion of 350th birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh Ji in Amritsar. Photo courtesy:Twitter @shreyaofficial About Guru Gobind Singh Ji: Guru Gobind Singh was born on December 22, 1666, to ninth Sikh master, Guru Tegh Bahadur, and Mata Gujri. He was annointed the supreme leader of the Sikhs at the age of nine, becoming the last of the 10 living Sikh gurus. Photo courtesy:Twitter @shreyaofficial Modi pays obeisance on Prakash Parv Narendra Modi took part in the celebrations for the 350th birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh at Patna Sahib, the birth place of the 10th Sikh Guru in Bihar. Haryana: CBI to look into plot allotment to AJL India oi-Oneindia By Oneindia Staff Writer New Delhi, Jan 5: CBI is examining the request of Haryana Government to probe the alleged irregularities in the re-allotment of a plot to Associated Journals Limited, which runs National Herald, in Panchkula in 2005. CBI sources said they have received the reference from the Haryana Government to probe the land allotment to AJL on which legal opinion is being taken. After taking the opinion, CBI can either register a preliminary enquiry and an FIR or refer it back in case some legal discrepancy is found, the sources said. Haryana state vigilance bureau had registered a case of cheating and corruption against former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and four HUDA officials for allegedly realloting a plot to AJL in 2005. The case under various IPC sections, including criminal breach of trust by a public servant, cheating, criminal conspiracy and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act was registered against Hooda, the then Haryana Urban Development Authority chairman. The plot had been initially allotted to AJL, the owner of National Herald newspaper, in 1982. After the expiry of the lease period in 1996, the then Haryana Vikas Party government led by Bansi Lal resumed its possession. It was reallotted to AJL after the Congress leader came to power in 2005. The vigilance bureau had alleged that the act by the then HUDA chairman and the officials had caused a huge financial loss to the public sector undertaking as the plot should have been sold through open auction instead of being allotted again to AJL. Hooda had then alleged it was political vendetta. PTI For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, January 5, 2017, 11:45 [IST] Prez, PM Modi express grief over deaths in Gujarat bridge collapse, Cong asks party workers to extend help Morbi bridge collapse: Congress wants probe headed by retired SC or HC judge Madhya Pradesh: Congress leader Raju Mishra shot dead India oi-Oneindia By Oneindia Staff Writer Congress leader Raju Mishra along with another person were shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur on Wednesday night, said reports. Madhya Pradesh: Two people including Congress leader Raju Mishra shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Jabalpur ANI (@ANI_news) January 5, 2017 According to reports, half a dozen bike borne men fired several rounds at Mishra and Kukku Punjabi. The incident took place at around 10 pm on Wednesday. Both, Punjabi and Mishra, were involved in a conversation in front of a shop when assailants fired at them indiscriminately and fled. Reports say that that some explosions were also heard from the spot. Both were rushed to hospital, where they were declared brought dead. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, January 5, 2017, 9:16 [IST] Meghalaya: Court issues warrant against MLA booked for sexual exploitation of minor India oi-PTI Shillong, Jan 5: A local court on Wednesday issued an arrest warrant against absconding Independent MLA Julius Dorphang, wanted in a case of sexual exploitation of a 14-year-old girl. The chief judicial magistrate, Shillong, issued the warrant against Dorphang, legislator of Mawhati constituency, who is supporting the ruling Congress government. East Khasi Hills district SP M Kharkrang said the police began searching for the MLA who disappeared after being booked for his alleged role in sexually exploiting and trafficking the girl. Dorphang was also the founding chairman of the outlawed Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) militant outfit. The case was registered at Laitumkhrah police station in the city and Dorphang was booked under section 366 (A) of the IPC read with section 3 (a)/4 of the POCSO Act and under section 5 of Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act (ITPA). The matter first surfaced last month after a waiter at a guest house owned by Meghalaya Home Minister HDR Lyngdoh's son was arrested for trafficking the victim. She later told the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights that she had been taken to many guest houses and hotels. Five persons including four women were arrested in the case for allegedly acting as the pimp of the girl. Women activists demanded that Chief Minister Mukul Sangma drop the Home Minister to allow a free and fair trial of the case. PTI Rijiju praises PM Modi for his 'day and night work for welfare of people' Modi praises Nitish Kumar over mega 'Prakash Utsav', liquor ban India oi-IANS By Ians English Patna, Jan 5: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday praised Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for organising a mega "Prakash Utsav" here, marking the 350th birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh. He also hailed Nitish Kumar's decision of imposing prohibition in the state and urged all political parties and people to back his move. "Nitish Kumar, his government and the people of Bihar deserve credit for making arrangement on such a large scale for holding the Prakash Utsav," Modi said while addressing the main function in the Darbar Hall of a makeshift gurdwara in a "tent city", set up in historical Gandhi Maidan, in the heart of Patna. Modi mentioned Nitish Kumar not less than a dozen times during his address to praise him for holding the Prakash Utsav and his decision of total prohibition. "Nitish Kumar has worked hard, day and night monitoring and personally inspecting preparations for the Prakash Utsav for months. He deserves credit for this mega event," the Prime Minister said. Modi said such mega Prakash Utsav in Patna will inspire all across the country. He has termed Nitish Kumar's decision of prohibition a "brave step" for social change. "Taking an initiative for social change is very difficult, but Nitish Kumar has initiated it by enforcing prohibition. All people including political parties should back him for it." Modi shared stage with Nitish Kumar and was seen talking with him. Modi also released special commemorative stamps on Prakash Utsav. Earlier in the day, the Prime Minister arrived here in an Indian Air Force aircraft to attend Prakash Utsav, said Senior Superintendent of Police Manu Maharaj. He was received by Governor Ramnath Kovind and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Modi offered prayers and also served during the "langar". Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, union ministers Ram Vilas Paswan and Ravi Shankar Prasad and a large number of Sikhs from India and abroad will take part in the event. IANS Now, 88 million cows to get unique AADHAAR-like ID cards! India oi-Oneindia By Oneindia Staff Writer New Delhi, Jan 5: The government is now planning to give unique identification number to 88 million cows in the country. The main purpose of this concept is to track the health of cows and check for timely vaccinations. The total expense for this project will cost around Rs 148 crore. The technicians will place polyurethane tag inside the ears of cows with tag applicator. The technician will then update the 12-digit identification number with the help of an online database and also provide the cattle owner with all the information regarding the cow. The polyurethane tag which is in yellow colour is made of thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer. The tag is fixed in the centre of the earlobe. The tag just weighs eight grams so that it doesn't cause any inconvenience to the animal and the cost of the tag is Rs 8 per piece. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, January 5, 2017, 15:15 [IST] SC throws out petition seeking CBI probe into Jayalalithaa's death India oi-Anusha By Anusha Ravi The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a petition seeking CBI probe into the death for former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa. Expelled AIADMK MP Sasikala Pushpa had moved the court seeking a probe into Jayalalithaa's death deeming it suspicious. Sasikala Pushpa had alleged that death and treatment given to Jayalalithaa was shrouded in mystery and people of Tamil Nadu suspected a conspiracy behind her death. She had sought a CBI probe to fun details of treatment as well as cause of death. The apex court however dismissed her petition. The Bench took a very serious note and stopped short of terming the petition as frivolous ordered the petitioner's counsel to stop arguing. Taking serious exception for filing the case under Article 32, the SC threatened to levy costs on the petitioner. " What monitoring do you want? What do you want us to do? Stop right now or we will order cost," the Bench also observed. The Madras high court earlier this week had also closed a petition moved by Sasikala Pushpa. The court on Monday closed a petition seeking stay on Sasikala Natarajan taking over AIADMK as its general secretary. The court passed its order following a petition from the party stating that Sasikala Pushpa had no say in party affairs since an was no longer a member. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, January 5, 2017, 11:22 [IST] Send firm message to Sri Lanka on fishermen arrests: TN CM to Modi India oi-PTI Chennai, Jan 6: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O Panneerselvam on Thursday appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take up the issue of apprehension of the state's fishermen by Sri Lankan Navy at the "highest diplomatic level," besides ensuring their safety and security. Referring to the latest incident, where 10 fishermen from Pudukottai district were arrested by the Lankan Navy last night, Panneerselvam in his letter to Modi said, it has taken place at a time when the state's fishermen were hopeful that a "pragmatic and permanent solution" would emerge after the Ministerial meeting was held recently. "A firm, clear, unequivocal and unambiguous message should be sent out by the Government of India to Sri Lanka to ensure that these trends are reversed," he added. Tamil Nadu strongly reiterates the need to restore the traditional fishing rights of fishermen in Palk Bay by "annulling the Indo-Sri Lankan agreement of 1974" as it has been challenged in Supreme Court, he said. Pointing out that 116 boats seized by the island nation were yet to be released, the Chief Minister said, the strategy of not releasing the boats caused great frustration among the state's fishermen. Recalling the memorandum submitted by him to Modi last month seeking a financial package of Rs 1,650 crore including a recurring grant of Rs 10 crore so that the socio-economic status of fishermen in coastal districts of Palk Bay area be "improved", he said, it is requested that concerned Ministries may be directed to sanction the package at the earliest. Panneerselvam requested Modi to secure the immediate release of 61 fishermen and 116 fishing boats without any delay. Only on January 2, Sri Lanka had agreed to release 51 fishermen in its custody and consider returning a large number of fishing boats in its custody. This was decided during a high-level ministerial level meeting of Sri Lanka and India held in Colombo on the vexed issue of fishermen. Indian and Lankan Coast Guard had discussed various measures for the release and repatriation of arrested fishermen among other areas of cooperation in the maritime security scenario. PTI Sonia Gandhi pays obeisance to Guru Gobind Singh India oi-IANS By Ians English New Delhi, Jan 5: Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Thursday paid obeisance to Guru Gobind Singh on his 350th birth anniversary, hailing him for fighting against injustice, tyranny and social differences. "Guru Gobind Singh ji was not only creator of the gracious "Khalsa" but was a renowned spiritual master, warrior, poet and philosopher. He sacrificed his entire life at the altar of safeguarding the rights of underprivileged," Gandhi said in a statement. "He fought against injustice, tyranny and social differences. It is a day to rededicate ourselves to the ideals of equality,..of leading an honest, truthful and virtuous life continues to guide and inspire entire humanity," she added. Guru Gobind Singh was the 10th Sikh guru. IANS For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, January 5, 2017, 11:22 [IST] Telangana, Assam join Uday discom debt scheme India oi-IANS By Ians English New Delhi, Jan 5: With Telangana and Assam joining the central government's Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojna (UDAY) and Tamil Nadu coming on board next week, over 90 per cent of the debt of state electricity distribution companies will be covered by the debt restructuring scheme for discoms, an official statement said on Wednesday. "An overall net benefit of approximately Rs 6,116 crore to Telangana and Rs 1,663 crore to Assam will come from joining the scheme," Power Minister Piyush Goyal said at an event here. "With these two states coming on board, states with over 90 per cent of total discom debts to be covered under UDAY after Tamil Nadu comes on board," he said. With Telengana and Assam, the total number of states covered under the Uday scheme have reached 20, a Union Power Ministry statement said here. According to the statement, the Telangana government will take over Rs 8,923 crore of the total Rs 11,897 crore of discom debt. The Assam government will take over Rs 928 crore out of total Rs 1,510 crore discom debt, being 75 per cent of their respective discom debt outstanding as on September 30, 2015, as envisaged in the scheme, and the balance debt would be re-priced or issued as state-guaranteed discom bonds. States and discoms collectively have issued bonds worth Rs 1.83 lakh crore so far to pay off their accumulated debt. Goyal also said the power ministry is planning schemes to reward states for their performance on various parameters under the UDAY scheme. "The time has come for some reward schemes. The states and discoms which have done well should be rewarded," Goyal said, while addressing the launch here of the UDAY Web Portal and Mobile App. IANS Man rapes 8-year-old to use her blood for removing obstacles to his marriage WB: TMC denies its role in unleashing violence against BJP supporters, establishments India oi-Oneindia By Oneindia Staff Writer Kolkata, Jan 5: A day after West Bengal witnessed large-scale violence -- the target of which was mostly BJP supporters and offices and allegedly carried out by Trinamool Congress cadres--the ruling party in the state has denied its role in any wrongdoing on Thursday. "We don't support any such attack on any party's office. Why will we spoil our name? The BJP is a small and insignificant force in WB," Saugata Roy of TMC told ANI on Thursday. After TMC MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay was arrested in connection with the Rose Valley Chit Fund case, several violent incidents were reported from across the state on Wednesday. From Kolkata to Durgapur, untoward episodes were reported from across WB. Three BJP offices were set on fire in Dum Dum, Kolkata. Shops owned by BJP cadres and supporters were torched in Digha. A BJP office was also ransacked in Durgapur. In fact, the Kolkata residence of BJP MP Babul Supriyo, where his parents live, was gheraoed by TMC workers raising slogans. The Crime Bureau of Investigation has also arrested TMC MP Tapas Pal for his involvement in Rose Valley Chit Fund case, involving several crores. The Chief Minister of WB and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee said that the arrests were carried out on the behest of the Centre as her party opposed Narendra Modi government on the issue of demonetisation. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, January 5, 2017, 12:18 [IST] What is being done to halt farmer suicides: HC directs TN govt to file affidavit India oi-Anusha By Anusha Ravi The Madras high court on Thursday asked the Tamil Nadu government to file an affidavit on the steps it has taken to curb farmer suicides in the state. The court has given four weeks' time for the state government to file the affidavit. The HC's directive to the government follows a petition moved by K K Ramesh, the managing trustee of Tamil Nadu Centre for PILs. Ramesh had petitioned the Madras HC seeking directions for steps to arrest suicides of farmers and also to set up an expert committee to create awareness among farmers about latest technology in the agriculture sector. The Madras HC direction comes a day after Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O Panneerselvam acknowledged the prevailing situation in the state and announced sops for farmers. He, however, did not declare the state drought-hit. "Northeast monsoon usually brings 440 mm of rainfall to Tamil Nadu, however, only 163.8 mm of rain was received. Of the 32 districts in Tamil Nadu, 21 had a deficiency of 60 per cent," O Panneerselvam said. Reports in Tamil Nadu claim that over 12 farmers have died in the last 2 months due to crop failure. Farmers of Tamil Nadu lost their summer crop due to Cauvery water sharing dispute with neighbouring Karnataka while their winter crop withered due to poor monsoon. Many political observers believe that the Tamil Nadu government is busy stabilising itself instead of declaring a drought situation in the state. The court's direction comes on the same day of centre granting Rs 1,700 crore drought relief to neighbouring Karnataka that has already been declared drought-hit. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, January 5, 2017, 18:04 [IST] Why does the Masood Azhar ban always hit China's 'great wall' India oi-Vicky The move by India to enforce a ban on Maulana Masood Azhar by the United Nations ran into the mighty Chinese wall again. China remained adamant and refused to back the ban as sought by India. Azhar is an accused in the Pathankot, Parliament, Uri and Nagrota attacks. Indian officials say that China is adamant, ill-advised and its decision to yet again block the ban mindless. This is not the first time that China has played truant when India has sought a ban on terrorists from Pakistan. While the bid to block a ban on Azhar has been done several times, similar actions have been seen in the cases of Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin, Lashkar-e-Tayiba operatives Abdul Rehman Makki and Azam Cheema. China has also blocked questions on how the likes of Hafiz Saeed and Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the Lashkar's top bosses have been able to access funds in Pakistan despite a UN ban. What is China's agenda? Officials explain that it is not just bi-lateral. China has called Pakistan an all weather friend, while Azhar the man himself has called China the almighty. Apart from these aspects and the fact that Azhar guards China's assets in Pakistan it is also to ensure that India does not become supreme in the region. China would not like India having its say in the UN. China has also been instrumental in blocking India's NSG bid several times. It is a case of being supreme and throwing its clout around says an informed officer in New Delhi. The officer says that although all nations say it openly that the war against terror is important, the fact of the matter is that all are divided in their approach. There are different equations at play. The stakes in Afghanistan are very high. Russian President Vladimir Putin in fact changed the country's long standing policy against the US in Afghanistan. US was able to take over Afghanistan after Putin allowed the US set up base in Central Asia. China too has a major stake in Afghanistan and the recent statement by the Taliban in which it said it would not target infrastructure projects in Afghanistan is also significant. China has high stakes in Afghanistan and would not want that to be disturbed. Any move in the UN on Azhar is likely to change China's equation with the Taliban which is considered to be close to the Jaish-e-Mohammad boss. More control in the UN for India would also tilt the balance against China. Officials explain that the reason for the block goes beyond the all weather friend or Azhar playing bouncer for Chinese investments in Pakistan theories. It is all about supremacy in the region, the officer also explains. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, January 5, 2017, 13:39 [IST] Car bomb in Turkey's Izmir wounds 10, clashes erupt International oi-PTI Istanbul, Jan 5: A car bomb on Thursday exploded outside a courthouse in the western Turkish city of Izmir, wounding at least 10 people and sparking clashes in which at least two "terrorists" were killed, officials and reports said. Several ambulances were rushed to the scene after the blast outside the prosecutors and judges' entrance to the court in the usually peaceful city on the Aegean Sea, the channel said. Police then clashed with "terrorists" during which two of them were killed and one escaped, according to state-run Anatolia news agency. The mayor of the local Bayrakli municipality, Hassan Karabag, told NTV television that at least 10 people were wounded, one of them seriously. The wounded were taken to hospital as police secured the scene. The blast came after a gunman stormed an Istanbul nightclub killing 39 people during New Year celebrations on Sunday. In connection with that attack, authorities had on Tuesday detained 20 adults -- along with 20 of their children -- from three families in Izmir, Turkey's third largest city. As is customary after such attacks in Turkey, the authorities slapped a broadcast ban on images from the incident, state-run Anadolu news agency reported. PTI Donald Trump firm cancels talks over projects in India, Brazil International oi-PTI New York, Jan 5: The Trump Organisation has cancelled "exploratory talks" over possible projects by the global firm in India, Brazil and Argentina as President-elect Donald Trump readies to assume office in about two weeks and questions about conflict of interest between his presidency and business continue to be raised. A report in Fox News yesterday quoted Trump lawyer Alan Garten as saying that the company would not continue "exploratory" talks over projects in Pune in India and in Buenos Aires. The company has also cancelled a "memorandum of understanding" to continue discussions with local partners over possible office towers in Rio de Janeiro. The report added that discussions over the possible project in Pune were separate from two residential towers already built there that bear the Trump name. Trump also has his name on a residential tower in Mumbai. Late last year, licensing deals for hotels in Brazil, Azerbaijan and Georgia were also cancelled as Trump had come under pressure to separate from his business before assuming office. While Trump has given no indication that he plans to sell his interest in his business, he has pledged to do "no new deals" while president and to leave management of his company to his two adult sons. The report added that Trump has stakes in 500 companies in about 20 countries, some of which appear to be set up for tax or legal reasons. It said the Argentina talks came under scrutiny last year after several media outlets reported that Trump tried to speed along the Buenos Aires project by mentioning it in congratulatory call from Argentine President Mauricio Macri. The project in Brazil involves plan to build five office towers in Rio de Janeiro, but the development got tied up in a corruption investigation that was unrelated to Trump himself, the report said. PTI Indian American community wants to increase representatives in US Congress International oi-PTI Washington, Jan 5: With a record five Indian Americans elected to the US Congress, the minority community has now set its eyes on doubling the number of its lawmakers followed by a White House occupant. The goal, which might look difficult, was set by the three-term Indian-American Congressman Ami Bera, who is now the senior-most of the four Indian-Americans members in the US House of Representatives. "Today is a historic day," Bera, 51, told a gathering of eminent Indian-Americans gathered from across the country to celebrate the election of a record number of Indian-Americans to the US Congress. Bera, who was elected for the first time to the US House of Representatives in 2012, said he was joined by three other Indian-Americans in the House: Raja Krishnamoorthi from Illinois, Pramila Jayapal from Washington State and Ro Khanna from California. Kamala Harris was also sworn in as the first Indian- American Senator in the Congress. Four years ago, at a community reception in his honour in Washington DC, Bera had said that he wanted to have five Indian-Americans in the Congress, including a Senator. "This is now a reality," chipped in Congressman Joe Crowley, a former Co-Chair of the Congressional India Caucus, in his address to the Indiaspora gala. "What is remarkable that in one generation our community has done so much," Bera said as he introduced the newly- elected Indian-Americans in the House to the hundreds of community members. Now we need to set a goal of having 10 Congressmen and our own Indian American president," Bera said, as his sentiment echoed in speeches throughout the night. "We have come a long way, but we have long ways to go," said Silicon Valley-based venture capitalist and philanthropist M R Rangaswami, the brain behind the gala. "I am so proud to be elected as the first Indian-American women to the US House of Representatives," said Jayapal. "What I hope and believe that I would be the first Indian American woman elected to the Congress, but would certainly not be the last one," she said, urging the younger generation members of the community to join politics. "We are going to make sure that Indian-Americans across the country see our election not only as personal victories for ourselves and our district and our country, but as opportunities and role models for others to be engaged in democracy to run for office themselves," Jayapal said. T The election of five Indian-Americans to the Congress is "really a testament" of the accomplishments of the community, noted Krishnamoorthi. "For all of those in the audience tonight who are thinking about running for office, there is no better time than now. You have role models, we have play book. It's time to get started," Krishnamoorthi said. PTI For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, January 5, 2017, 14:36 [IST] Pew Research Center analysis says Hindus and Jews gaining ground in US Congress International oi-PTI Washington, Jan 5: Hindus and Jews have gained ground in the new US Congress, even as a latest research suggests that the members of the legislative body remain overwhelmingly Christians despite significant change in the religious demographic profile of the country in less than five decades. This is for the first time in American history that the Congress has three Hindus members -- Tulsi Gabbard, Raja Krishnamoorthi and Ro Khanna. After Jews, who have 30 members in the new US Congress, Hindus and Buddhism, each having three members jointly share the third sport in terms of religious ranking of US Congress members, according to Pew Research Center analysis. Among members of the 115th Congress, 91 per cent describe themselves as Christians. This is nearly the same percentage as in the 87th Congress (1961 to 1962, the earliest years for which comparable data are available), when 95 per cent of members were Christian, the research said. Pew said among the 293 Republicans elected to serve in the 115th Congress, all but two identify as Christians; there are two Jewish Republicans Lee Zeldin of New York and David Kustoff of Tennessee who both serve in the House. Democrats in Congress also are overwhelmingly Christian (80 per cent), but there is more religious diversity on this side of the aisle, Pew said. The 242 Democrats in Congress include 28 Jews, three Buddhists, three Hindus, two Muslims and one Unitarian Universalist as well as the only member of Congress to describe herself as religiously unaffiliated, Kyrsten Sinema from Arizona. In addition, all 10 members of Congress who decline to state their religious affiliation are Democrats. Among the lawmakers who declined to state their religious affiliations include Indian-American Pramila Jayapal who has been for the first time been elected to the House of Representatives. Her mother is a Hindu. Washington DC-based Hindu American Foundation (HAF), however, believes that Pramila Jayapal is a Hindu. Hindus who are about one per cent of the US population are now 0.6 per cent in the US Congress, Pew said. There are two Muslim lawmakers in the Congress. "Among non-Christian religious groups, Jews and Hindus had the biggest gains (an increase of two seats each)," Pew said comparing the religious configuration of the new Congress with the last one. "Jews, who make up two per cent of the US adult population, hold 30 seats in the new Congress (six per cent), up from 28 seats in the 114th (five per cent). However, Jews occupy far fewer seats than they did in the 111th Congress (2009-10), when there were 45 Jewish members of the House and Senate," it said. PTI For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, January 5, 2017, 11:06 [IST] Hindus in Britain are very well behaved, smart and rich Tim Barrow to be Britain's new EU ambassador International oi-IANS By Ians English London, Jan 5: The British government will appoint senior diplomat Tim Barrow as its new ambassador to the European Union, the media reported. The decision to name a new ambassador to the EU has come one day after his predecessor decided to step down in a surprising manner, Xinhua news agency reported citing the British media on Wednesday. Barrow, Britain's former ambassador to Moscow, is expected to play a key role in Britain's Brexit negotiations, replacing the outgoing EU Ambassador Ivan Rogers. The British government on Tuesday confirmed Rogers had quit his job but gave no reasons for the move. The sudden resignation came just weeks after Rogers was accused of damaging the Britain's Brexit negotiations. Rogers had warned that it would take a decade to forge a new trade deal with Europe, saying that was the view of the other 27 member states with the bloc. Political commentators said the relationship between Rogers and the government had become strained over the grim warning of a prolonged Brexit. IANS Trump to meet intelligence officials over Russian cyberattacks International oi-IANS By Ians English New York, Jan 5: US President-elect Donald Trump will meet top US intelligence officials in New York on Friday to analyse the issue of Russian cyberattacks. Participating in the meeting, among others, will be CIA Director John Brennan, FBI Chief James Comey and National Intelligence Director James Clapper, a spokesman for Trump said on Wednesday, Efe news reported. The meeting would focus on analyzing the evidence gathered by the Barack Obama administration's intelligence team on Russian cyberattacks during the US presidential election campaign, which Trump won on November 8. A spokesman for Trump's transition team said in the daily telephonic conference with reporters that the meeting was requested last week by the transition team and was to be held once an official report had been prepared. Spokesman Sean Spicer said that the meeting was ultimately scheduled for Friday, although it is not known if Trump or the presidential transition team will make any comment about it afterwards. In a Twitter message, Trump had said that the meeting had been "delayed" until Friday and added "Perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange!" In remarks last week in Florida, Trump cast doubt on the implication that Russian authorities had ordered the hacking, adding that it was time to focus on more important matters. When Spicer was asked what Trump based his skepticism about Russian hacking on, he said on Wednesday that the president-elect wants be given all the data and the conclusions that intelligence officials have drawn from them. "I think what he wants to hear from them is, how does the raw intelligence justify the conclusion that is being presented...?" Spicer said. IANS US did not share Osama bin Laden's location with Pakistan due to lack of trust US designates Osama's son Hamza as 'global terrorist' International oi-PTI Washington, Jan 5: Al-Qaeda leader Hamza bin Laden, the son of the terror group's slain leader Osama bin Laden, was on Thursday designated as a "global terrorist" by the US. The US move comes nearly year and half after Hamza was officially announced by al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri as an official member of the group. Hamza, who is in his mid-twenties, has become active as an Al-Qaeda propagandist since his father's death in 2011. The designation by the State Department imposes sanctions on foreign persons determined to have committed, or pose a serious risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of US nationals or the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States. As a result of this designation, all property subject to US jurisdiction in which Hamza has any interest is blocked and US persons are generally prohibited from engaging in any transactions with him. The State Department said on July 9, 2016, al-Qaeda issued another audio message from Hamza bin Laden threatening revenge against the United States and warned Americans they would be targeted in the United States and abroad. "In 2015, (Hamza) bin Laden called for lone offender attacks against US, French and Israeli interests in Washington, D.C.; Paris, France; and Tel Aviv, Israel," it said. "Additionally, in 2016, (Hamza) bin Laden called on Saudi Arabian-based tribes to unite with al-Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen to wage war against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," the State Department said. Simultaneously, the State Department also designated Ibrahim al-Banna, a senior member of Al-Qaeda in Arabian Peninsula, as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. Al-Banna has served as AQAP security chief and provided military and security guidance to AQAP leadership. A 2010 edition of AQAPs English online magazine, Inspire, contained an article by al-Banna describing the 9/11 attack as virtuous and threatened to target Americans both domestically and elsewhere, in response to US actions overseas, the State Department said. Before joining AQAP, al-Banna was a leader of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad in Yemen from 1996 to 1998 and subsequently was in-charge of the training and intelligence sectors for the group. "Al-Banna is also subject to a US government reward of up to USD 5 million," the State Department said. PTI US diplomat Nisha Biswal to visit India to deepen bilateral relations International oi-PTI Washington, Jan 5: Nisha Desai Biswal, one of the top ranking Indian-American officials in the outgoing Obama administration, will make her last official visit to India this week to discuss a range of bilateral and global issues. Biswal, assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, will travel to New Delhi, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Mumbai from January 5-12 where she will meet with government officials and business leaders to discuss the dynamic growth in ties between the United States and India, the State Department said in a statement on Wednesday. "While in India, the Assistant Secretary will meet government leaders to discuss trade and business ties, as well as a range of bilateral, regional, and global issues to deepen the US-India strategic partnership," the State Department said. Biswal, among other things, will meet with government and community leaders. She will also attend the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in Bengaluru and the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit in Ahmedabad. This would be Biswal's last visit to India in her current capacity as the Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia. She would leave office on January 20 when President Barack Obama's term ends. PTI Expert Safety Tips, For Protecting Yourself , in a Crowd Crush. On October 29, at least 156 people died in a crowd crush in.. Wibbitz Top Stories 01 Nov 2022 Rumble 01 Apr 2022 Update on the completion of the minor recall for the Ford Fusion Energi and an update on the Subwoofer and how to make sure.. SFGate 04 Oct 2022 The Oakland Police Department released a video on Tuesday of suspects associated with the Sept. 28 school shooting on the King.. Samoas Police are investigating an attack on a man involving three underage street vendors.Police spokesperson Su'a Muliaga Tiumalu confirmed the incident occurred during the festive season.Surveillance video provided by WT Media owner, Rudy Bartley shows three young street vendors punching and kicking an unknown man who was sleeping on the footpath.Sua says the police are on alert and are scrutinizing the video as part of their investigations.The thing is we dont actually have a law that forbids street vendors out so late and at any age too. However, there are laws against things like this assault, he added.The incident follows previous ones involving children roaming the streets of the city after midnight.What were doing now is looking for the kids first, then we will find their parents and have consultation. If this is a first offense we will give them first a formal warning. But if it is a second offense then it will go to court and usually this kind of thing means a year for the child, no matter how old, in prison at Oloamanu, Sua added.The parents of the children though may be liable for charges as well, but Sua says the Police must first finish off investigations.This also calls for the police awareness to go back out to villages. The roles of villages and their councils are very important and so we need to connect with the villages these kids are from to resolve the issue, he added.Loop Somoa Our website uses cookies to improve your experience. Learn more Komfie Manalo, Opalesque Asia: The rising market volatility is seen as a great opportunity for hedge funds to create returns, but they have one main concern. Their investors, now mostly comprised of conservative pension funds and college endowments, do not want hedge fund managers to make risky bets and urge them to be cautious. Martin Visairas, global head of capital introduction at Citigroup, told The Journal, "The institutionalization of the industry has pushed managers to rein in volatility and manage risk-taking," said Citigroup's global head of capital introduction. He added that hedge fund performance has become unstable over the past three years unlike during the previous decade. Citigroup said that institutional investors currently account for 71% of total hedge-fund assets, compared with only 20% in 2002. Several industry insiders added that institutional investors are demanding safer bets from their hedge fund managers, as well as more transparency and disclosure. What they don't want are high-stakes investments which hedge funds are traditionally known for. Nicolas Rousselet, head of hedge funds at Swiss investment firm Unigestion, said: "We see investor risk appetite as very low. We don't see them willing to invest in managers taking big swings." Unigestion manages $20 billion in assets. Roussele...................... To view our full article Click here From Palestine Chronicle Obama or Trump, US government will remain an Israeli ally and benefactor. (Image by (Photo: Video grab)) Details DMCA Israel is dizzy. January 20th has been like another Christmas Day and Donald Trump is jolly old Santa Claus bearing gifts. The writing is already on the wall as President-elect Trump has appointed an extremist, David Friedman, as the next US Ambassador to Israel who intends to relocate the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and who supports the expansion of illegal colonies that have already sliced up the envisaged Palestinian state into South Africa-like Bantustans. Thus, it must be odd, if not altogether provocative, to suggest that a Trump presidency could be the coup de grace that Palestinians and, in fact, the entire Middle East needs to liberate themselves from the weight of an overbearing, arrogant and futile American foreign policy that has extended for decades. Unmistakably, a Donald Trump presidency is clearly terrible for Palestinians in the short term. The man does not even attempt to show a degree of impartiality or an iota of balance as he approaches the Middle East's most protracted and delicate conflict. According to the seemingly infinite stream of his tweets, Trump is counting the days to when he can show Israeli leaders how pro-Israel his administration will be. Shortly after the United States abstained from voting on a United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 that condemned Israel's illegal settlements on December 23, the President-elect tweeted, "As to the U.N., things will be different after January 20th." Trump took to Twitter once more, shortly before John Kerry delivered a major policy speech on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, where the Secretary of State chastised Israel for jeopardizing the two-state solution and called the current government of Benjamin Netanyahu the most right-wing in Israel's history. In his retort, Trump called on Israel to "stay strong" until his inauguration on January 20th. Israeli leaders are eyeing the date, too, with the likes of Naftali Bennett, head of the extremist Jewish Home Party, expecting a "reset" of Israeli-US relations once Trump is president. Furthermore, "we have a chance to reset the structure across the Middle East," Bennett, who is also Israel's Minister of Education told journalists last November. "We have to seize that opportunity and act on it," he said. One of the impending opportunities presented by the Trump presidency is that "the era of the Palestinian state is over." Of course, Kerry is right; the current Israeli government is the most right-wing and most extreme, a trend that will not change any time soon, since it is an accurate reflection of the political and societal mood in the country. Read how Bennett responded to Kerry's speech. "Kerry quoted me three times, anonymously, in his speech in order to demonstrate that we oppose a Palestinian state," he said, "so let me state it explicitly: Yes. If it depends on me, we will not establish another terror state in the heart of our country." As for Kerry's reiteration that Jerusalem should be a capital for both Israel and Palestine, Bennett responded: "Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital for 3,000 years. That is in the Bible, open it and read." The stranglehold of religious zealotry on Israeli politics is irreversible, at least not in the foreseeable future. While, in the past, secular Jewish politicians used religious notions to appeal to religious Jews in exchange for their votes and to populate illegal settlements, it is the religious groups that now set the tone of mainstream Israeli politics. So how could this benefit Palestinians in any way? Simply put: clarity. Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). This is a reprint from NewsBred. Alwar in Rajasthan is a two-hour drive from Delhi, the Capital of India. In this region of forts and lakes, you often come across women in blue sarees who once were scavengers, picking up night soils, cleaning latrines/gutters and carrying excreta on their heads. Now they make edible items likes papads, noodles, pickles which are sold far and wide in Delhi, Chandigarh and Ahmedabad. They are also taught embroidery, make-up, jute bags and are also making sarees. As many as 105 women have been liberated from the stigma; freed from the yoke which they inherited from their parents. This is all part of a revolution sweeping India by the name of Sulabh International, a project entirely the work of one Dr. Bindheshwar Pathak, one of the most important social reformers of modern India. The 73-year-old lives and breathes by the dictum of Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar: "When everybody will go to a temple to worship, when everybody will take bath in the same pond, everyone will draw water from the same well and everybody will dine together," then a new, caste-free India would be born. The basis of all this is Sulabh, of course. "Relating ourselves with the upper caste, leave alone making something which could be used by people who even didn't consider us human beings was an impossibility," says a redeemed scavenger. Today, 1.3 million bucket toilets have been converted into Sulabh Shauchalaya, more than a million scavengers have been liberated and 640 towns have been made sacavenging-free. In its model, Sulabh device is hugely efficient and simple. It consists of two pits with sealed covers and a water seal. Both the pits are used alternately. After one pit fills, excreta is diverted into the second pit, keeping the first pit in a "rest period" for 2 years during which excreta converts to solid, odourless, pathogen-free manure. It can be dugout easily by the beneficiary and used as manure. This technology does not require manual cleaning of human excreta. The two-pit-pour-flush toilet has been successfully introduced in urban areas. This compost toilet does not cause water pollution. Horizontally, bacteria does not travel more than 3 metres. Vertically, the seepage is not more than 1 metre. The toilet is built at a safe distance from the source of water. No vent pipe is needed since the gas gets absorbed in the soil. Given the space, the pits could be shaped in rectangular, circular or linear in shape. Sulabh toilets could be constructed on the upper floors of buildings. It can easily be connected to sewers. The technology has been declared as one of the Global Best Practices by UN-Habitat/UNCHS (UN Centre for Human Settlements) and recognized by international agencies such as WHO, UNICEF and UNEP among others. The UNDP has recommended its use to the 2.6 billion people around the world, especially in developing countries who have no hygienic toilets in their houses. Pathak is the man whose vision has transformed the lives of millions, restoring their human dignity and dismantling their ostracisation within society. He recounts his journey in his own words and its worthy of our attention: "When I was a boy, a lady used to come to my home to deliver bamboo objects. When the lady used to leave, my grandmother would sprinkle the entire house with holy water. I was curious about this lady. Many people used to come to our house, but my grandmother didn't sprinkle water those times. I asked my grandmother and she said that the lady is untouchable and if I touch her, I would get polluted. "My curiosity led me to touch the lady and I found no change in my body! My grandmother made a hue and cry and summoned the Pandit to come and tell the family of how we could overcome this crime. I was looked at as a criminal." The Pandit came up with a solution. "If you put cow dung in his mouth, cow urine to drink and make him bathe in the holy river (during winters), then he will be pure." Young Dr. Pathak went through this ordeal and this was his first brush with the issue of untouchability in India. He began as a school teacher and then tried his hands in the business of medicines for a year. In 1967, the issues of scavenger community got his attention and he decided to live in a scavenger colony in Bettiah district of Bihar for three months. A Brahmin staying in an untouchable colony was unthinkable in those times. Another incident was a game-changer in Dr. Pathak's life. In his own words: "One day, I saw a newly-wed girl from the community, crying bitterly because her in-laws were forcing her to go to Bettiah town to clean toilets. I asked the mother in law -- Why are you forcing her? The mother in law replied -- What will she do anyway? If she sells vegetables, no one will buy from her." Dr. Pathak says that this is one of the black spots in Indian history that if you have committed a crime, not a heinous one, you can be released from jail but Indian society is such that if you're born an untouchable, you will die an untouchable and suffer with scant chance of escape. Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). On election day, Californians favored Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump by a near 2 to 1 margin -- 61.7 percent to 31.6 percent. Now, faced with a President many of us detest, California's best stance is to become a model of Democratic principles. But the Golden State faces intriguing challenges. California is not an independent state; we're not going to be able to secede from the union. Nonetheless, we are the 6th largest economy in the world and Trump is not going to be able to ignore us. California can have the most impact on the national political environment by demonstrating that the best way to grow good jobs and provide a healthy democratic environment is by a judicious combination of taxes and regulation. The Golden State can serve as a vital alternative to the Republican model: minuscule corporate taxes and zero governmental oversight, which has turned states like Louisiana into sewer pits with deplorable public health, while failing to create the promised jobs. On November 8th, Trump prevailed because many Americans believed that he, rather than Clinton, would create good jobs. At this writing, Trump's jobs program is a composite of an ill-defined effort to rebuild America's crumbling infrastructure, threats to force manufacturers to "make it in America," and, primarily, tax cuts and deregulation. The Trump infrastructure plan will probably bog down in Congress, where GOP "deficit hawks" are understandably wary of a trillion-dollar unfunded initiative. Meanwhile, California has its own $12 billion infrastructure initiative to modernize our water-distribution system. Obviously, corporate tax cuts would benefit all US companies not just those in California. However, threats to "make it in America" could have a major impact on California technology companies such as Hewlett-Packard and Apple. Both corporations have a substantial overseas manufacturing presence. If Trump took steps to ensure that final assembly of most products was done in the U.S., his actions could have major consequences for California corporations -- for example, the Apple iPhone contains parts from all over the world and final assembly happens in China and other countries. After jobs, the Trump policies having most impact on California are immigration, climate change, and health care. Trump's immigration policies will be hotly contested by most Californians. However, Trump's plan to build a wall along the southern border isn't going to affect Hispanic immigration; last year more Chinese immigrants came into California than did Mexican immigrants. A national roundup of undocumented immigrants would primarily impact California's agricultural sector; it's the nation's largest but represents only 2 percent of the California's economy. (Ironically, California's farmers, typically Republicans, were strong advocates of the "pathway to citizenship" initiative that Trump's GOP has abandoned.) Many agricultural workers are undocumented but typically have been in the state at least a decade. A national roundup would drive up agriculture prices. Of course, a national roundup of undocumented immigrants would be a huge political issue in California. The Golden State's population of 39 million includes 15 million Hispanics (the largest group). There are an estimated 2.67 million undocumented immigrants in California; about 1 million of these live in Los Angeles County. (By the way, there are roughly 250,000 "Dreamers" in California.) Across the board, California public officials have pledged to protect undocumented immigrants. However, Trump has promised to punish those who oppose his initiative; for example, by penalizing sanctuary cities which include Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, and Oakland. Theoretically, this could have a major financial impact on the Golden State. After immigration, California's biggest conflict with Trump will regard global climate change. Trump is a climate-change denier and appears ready to gut the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agencies that fund climate scientists. Meanwhile, California leaders such as Governor Jerry Brown take climate change seriously and have led multiple initiatives to protect the Golden State's air and water and natural beauty. (California is the number one U.S. tourism destination.) Finally, millions of Californians depend upon Obamacare. If Trump repeals affordable healthcare, this act would present a huge challenge for the Golden State. It's likely that some residents would lose coverage. For example, 3 million low-income Californians are covered by Medicaid, which is entirely paid by the federal government. As strong as the California economy is, the Golden State each year depends upon the federal government for approximately $96 billion -- 36 percent of our budget. (By the way, California is "a giver" not "a taker;" we contribute more than $300 billion in federal taxes.) Of the $96 billion, $69 billion goes for health and human services, primarily insurance coverage for the poor, children, and seniors. Trump could impact this directly by repealing Obamacare or indirectly by withholding federal funding, on the basis that California is not in compliance with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement policies. If the Trump Administration threatened to withhold some of the $96 billion, the Golden State would have to make tough choices: comply with Trump policies to keep the $ flowing, cut services, or increase taxes to offset loss of Federal funds. It's possible that Californians could raise their own taxes to thwart the Trump Administration. But probably not income taxes. Californians could repeal the notorious Proposition 13, which would raise $ billions in property taxes. In addition, the Golden State favors carbon taxes; a variety of these taxes (for example, taxing transport of fossil fuels such as coal) could erase much of the $ billion potential deficit. Another possibility is a "tourism" tax. The battle is joined: the Trump resistance begins in California. The US Court of Appeals ruled back in mid December that federal laws cannot be used to prohibit states and counties from creating laws regulating, labeling, and even banning genetically modified crops. This monumental decision by the Ninth Circuit US Court of Appeals was a ruling regarding whether federal and Hawaii state laws supersede the authority of individual counties to regulate the use of genetically modified crops and pesticide use. Because of its almost limitless growing season and its being a testing ground for all kinds of Monsanto genetic experimentation and modifications, Hawaii has been in the middle of the debates over Genetic Modification for decades as Monsanto and others have used the islands for many kinds of agricultural research and local farmers have vigorously resisted them. This is a victory for Hawaii's farmers and for the 7000 year old history of agriculture itself. Many of these same companies have abused the very concept of research by spraying 20 times more insecticides and pesticides than is permitted in the mainland of the United States. The most egregious violations occurred in 2012, when 18 tons of chemicals prohibited in Europe like atrazine, paraquat, and others, were broadcast all over Kauai, an island with a land mass of about 20 by 30 miles. A large jump in birth defects occurred almost immediately, and schoolchildren were hit heavily with lung problems and eye irritations, according to reports from many physicians on the island, plus a 50% jump in special education statistics over the rest of the islands. The relevant Court of Appeals decision was welcomed in the many desperate Hawaiians. The decision will partially limit the unbridled and abusive powers exercised by Monsanto, Dow Chemical, Sygenta, and other "research" corporations. Federal law does not prevent state or local governments from passing local laws which regulate or ban the commercial growing of GM crops. By such a ruling, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals recognized the medical harm that wold derive from large scale GM agriculture. They wrote that "the cultivation and testing of GE [genetically engineered] plants raises several well-documented concerns." The ruling is entirely consistent with the 9th and 10th Amendment to the US Constitution which allows states to exercise control over areas that are not explicitly claimed by prior federal statutes and other measures passed by Congress. How is this ruling relevant? By ruling that "the regulation of commercialized crops, both of GE and traditional varieties, remains within the authority of state and local governments," they temporarily put a stop to unchecked corporate abuses of reasonable health standards. The court ruled that "transgenic contamination has previously caused significant economic impacts on farmers of conventional, non-GE crops," and that the "cultivation of GE crops also may raise environmental concerns, such as harm to beneficial plants and animals caused by the increased use of pesticides sometimes associated with testing and growing GE crops, the proliferation of 'superweeds' and other pests resistant to pesticides, and the reduction of biodiversity." How long will this stand up? At least, until it is heard by the United States Supreme Court, which may or may not uphold the Circuit Court of Appeals. Strategically, the corporations will most likely wait until the Trump administration appoints a new Supreme Court Justice, but even then, Justice Clarence Thomas might have to recuse himself, having worked formerly as a Monsanto corporate lawyer. He left his job in the administration of John Danforth, Missouri's Attorney General, when Danforth was elected to the United States to become a Monsanto corporate lawyer for 3 years, from 1976 to 1979. Would that disqualify him from ruling on a corporate driven appeal of the 9th's decision? In a sane world, yes, one would think so. I would hope he would voluntarily and ethically recuse himself from this one, if it is to be heard at all. This decision could be viewed as an important vindication of local and state governments and their powers. Yet, inexplicably to me, it will barely advance the cause of Hawaii communities hoping to regulate or ban GMOs and pesticide use. Something for the Hawaii Legislature to take up, for sure, and of the 25 members of the state Senate, only five or six Senators I believe have the integrity, courage, and intelligence to take this further in specific legislation. There will be posturing there for sure, but remember also that Hawaii's Governor, David Ige, have proven that he is willing to be a veiled but deadly tool for Monsanto, even as a public relations gesture when it pertains to products no longer made by Monsanto. Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). Empathy (Image by sinclair.sharon28) Details DMCA Our species is capable of great compassion, kindness and tolerance; it is also capable of cruelty, selfishness and hate. Which of these characteristics dominate depends on another characteristic, namely empathy., defined as "the ability to understand and share the feelings of another". This sharing of feeling could so easily be switched off if the "other" happens to have a different colour, religion or culture. It is argued that empathy cannot be taught but could happen through our positive non-judgemental interaction with others. We need to listen and to imagine what it is like to be the other. It is always easier to interact with others if they belong to our group, and hence it is easy to empathise with them as they experience sufferings and hardships through life. So the first step to be taken towards developing empathy is interaction, through which we can jump the psychological barriers that prevent us from reaching out to others who do not belong to our group. Our humanity is the bond that connects us all on this planet that we share with every living thing on it. Our survival as a species depends on cooperation between nations and individuals. Exceptionalism applied to a state or to a group who identify themselves by their ethnicity, culture or religion has led to endless wars, genocide and slavery. Exceptionalism is the mechanism by which the "other" is dehumanised and by which our empathy is turned off. It is a fact of life that a minority in a dominant culture gets judged by the actions of its worst individuals. This, in my view, is due to a lack of interaction between the minority community and the dominant community, the correcting mechanism that tells us that this is a very small minority within the minority group does not function as it should with many people. So next time you see or hear in the news about a crime, or a heinous act committed by an individual within a minority, resist the urge to generalise and to damn the whole community by that action. We all have the propensity to do that instinctively. What is needed is to resist instincts and to engage our brains to be objective in our reaction and the way we view the minority group. We must resist the temptation to block our empathy by the barriers of colour, religion or ethnicity. Our humanity should trump such feelings. It is the stronger bond that bind us all to this fragile planet. Vast numbers of our fellow human beings are sad and miserable as a result of dislocation, escaping wars and grinding poverty through no fault of their own but the circumstances of their birth and interference by other nations. Mental illness and unhappiness as a result of homelessness, family breakups and dysfunctional relationships are on the increase particularly among our young. We, as individuals, can't be expected to solve these problems but a little understanding, providing a listening ear that says I understand your difficulties, could bring some happiness to those vulnerable and most in need. Providing some happiness to others would boost our own happiness quotient. As a new year dawns, let us resolve to reach out beyond our comfort zone to be more tolerant towards the stranger, the refugee, the lonely and those experiencing difficulties in their lives. Help as much as you can materially, and above all let empathy happen by positive interaction with those less fortunate than you are. (Image by Egberto Willies) Details DMCA Ali Velshi shows what journalism is all about as he challenged lying Congressman Tom Cole, Republican of Oklahoma, who attempted to malign Obamacare. MSNBC's Ali Velshi gave a clinic in this excerpted video on how journalists should interview lying politicians as they attempt to use the airwaves to misinform. MSNBC Host Ali Velshi reminded Congressman Tom Cole (R-OK) that Republicans had seven years to come up with a plan to replace Obamacare. "At some point, if there is a plan," Velshi asked. "Is someone's going to tell someone about it or is it a secret?" "I don't think it is a secret," Cole said. "Part of the problem is that we are inheriting a failing system. It's already collapsing, and that was going to happen no matter who the next president of the United States was. Rates are going up. Insurance companies are fleeing the marketplace." "You are aware congressman that rates were always going up, right?" Velshi interjected to correct Cole's misrepresentation. "In fact, the rate of increase has slowed." "Not like 116% in Arizona or an average of 25% across the board," Cole continued. "No, they are not always going up and not at this rate." Velshi then came in for the kill. In other words, he had the facts, graph and all. (Image by Egberto Willies) Details DMCA "I just want to put up a graphic that is from the Kaiser Family Foundation," said Velshi. "It divides health care cost increases between 2006 and 2011, a five-year period. And then the latest five-year period which is 2011 to 2016. The first five-year period saw 31% health care premium increases. The new one is 20. So in fact, you can dice this and slice this a lot of ways. But premiums across the board are not actually increasing faster than they were before. I think that is something Republicans are going to have to face." Cole changed his tune somewhat as he tried to attribute some of the price improvements to Republican passage of Medicare Part D, a big government program that itself had some problems initially. "But your point is a fair one," Cole conceded. "It is a very complex picture. I think Obamacare Exchange rates have gone up exceptionally high, others not quite so much. And again, that's partly because of the nature of the population you have in those exchanges." Obamacare is complicated because, in fact, it is market-based. If it were a single-payer system, if that system could negotiate pricing to prevent drug company and hospital gouging, Americans would see a system that works efficiently like those in Canada, Germany, and other industrialized countries. From To The Point Analyses Netanyahu called the resolution "shameful." He went so far as to tell the foreign secretary of New Zealand, one of the countries that brought the resolution forward for a vote, that this action was the equivalent of "an act of war." He then started recalling Israeli ambassadors from the Security Council states that backed the resolution. Finally, Netanyahu said Israel would "not abide by it [the resolution]." All in all, it was quite a performance. In order to put the prime minister's outrage in context, let's look at what, in part, the resolution actually says. It "reaffirms the obligation of Israel, the occupying Power, to abide scrupulously by its legal obligations and responsibilities under the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War ... and recalling the advisory opinion rendered on 9 July 2004 by the International Court of Justice, condemning all measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, including, inter alia, the construction and expansion of settlements, transfer of Israeli settlers, confiscation of land, demolition of homes and displacement of Palestinian civilians, in violation of international humanitarian law and relevant resolutions..." In other words, UNSC Resolution 2234 told the Israeli government that it is obliged to follow the rule of law -- in this case international law. Mr. Netanyahu's response was to repudiate that law. Thus, the Israeli prime minister ran from the law -- something outlaws do. This is nothing new. Israel has been acting in a criminal fashion in (among other areas) the West Bank of Palestine for the past 50 years -- and doing so with impunity. "Impunity" is the key word here. The prime minister's response was, in part, to the unexpected refusal of the United States to continue its half-century practice of protecting the Zionist state from any consequences for its illegal behavior. However, and this is the important point, what is missing from these responses to Netanyahu's tantrum is any public recognition of the main point of Resolution 2234. That is the fact that Israel stands in violation of the rule of law. And by doing so for decades, the Zionist state has eroded the force of international law generally. No state leader, including those who directly voted for the resolution at the U.N., has deigned to follow up on this point publicly. Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). From Counterpunch There is a dark side to President Barack Obama's legacy on national and international security matters that will enable President-elect Donald Trump to damage America's political institutions as well as its standing in the global community. President Obama, a Harvard-trained lawyer and an expert in constitutional law, was insufficiently scrupulous in protecting our moral obligations, creating an ironic and unfortunate page in U.S. history. Instead of making the "world safe for democracy," the clarion call of President Woodrow Wilson 100 years ago, President Obama contributed to the furtherance of a national security state and a culture of secrecy. The administrations of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama tilted too far in the direction of the military, which already plays far too large a role in the policy process and the intelligence cycle. Strategic intelligence has suffered from the Pentagon's domination of a process that is now geared primarily to support the war-fighter in an era of permanent war. The strategic intelligence failures during the Obama administration include the absence of warning regarding events in Crimea and the Ukraine; the "Arab Spring;" the emergence of the Islamic State; and Russian recklessness in Syria. The militarization of intelligence presumably will worsen in the Trump administration, which will be dominated by retired general officers and West Point graduates at almost all of the key departments and agencies in the foreign policy community. The CIA has become a para-military organization in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, with too much attention to covert action. President Obama campaigned on the basis of transparency and openness, but ignored accountability for the CIA's transgressions and fundamentally weakened the role of oversight throughout the national security community. A statutory Inspector General was created at the CIA in 1989 due to the crimes of Iran-Contra, but President Obama made sure there was no IG in place at CIA during most of his eight-year presidency and acquiesced in the destruction of the Office of the Inspector General at CIA. The Senate intelligence committee's authoritative report on the CIA's illegal use of torture and abuse could not have been prepared without the work of the Office of the Inspector General, but President Obama tolerated the CIA director's interference with the committee's staff and ignored calls for the release of the full report. As a result, it will be easier for a Trump administration to reinstate the use of torture that violates constitutional and international law, let alone common sense and decency. With regard to the now-banned practice of waterboarding, Donald Trump stated that "only a stupid person would say it doesn't work." The Obama administration also conducted a campaign against journalists and whistle-blowers that was unprecedented, using the 100-year-old Espionage Act more often than all of his predecessors combined. In fact, he misused the act, which was designed to prosecute government officials who talked to journalists and not to intimidate legitimate whistleblowers who report crimes and improprieties. Leonard Downie, a former executive editor of the Washington Post, called Obama's control of information "the most aggressive I've seen since the Nixon administration." President Obama, in his high-minded rhetoric, denounced torture and abuse that "ran counter to the rule of law;" warned that our use of drones will "define the type of nation that we leave to our children;" and that "leak investigations may chill investigative journalism that holds government accountable." Nevertheless, he sought no accountability for those who broke laws in conducting torture and abuse; expanded the use of drone warfare; and, according to the executive director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, "laid all the groundwork Trump needs for an unprecedented crackdown on the press." As long as Congress defers to the president on the conduct of national security; the courts intervene to prevent any challenge to the power of the president in national security policy making; and the media defer to official and authorized sources, the nation will have to rely on whistleblowers for essential information on national and international security. Their role will be particularly essential in a Trump administration in view of the president-elect's reckless statements on nuclear forces, nuclear proliferation, the use of force, and U.S. relations with key allies. The fact that Trump remains hostile to intelligence briefings and that his first three appointments to the National Security Council are conspiracy theorists creates a horrifying scenario for furthering the dark side of the Obama legacy. This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here. Don't think the fad for "draining the swamp" began on the campaign trail with Donald Trump. It didn't, although the "swamp" to be drained in the days after the 9/11 attacks wasn't in Washington; it was a global one. Of course, that's ancient history, more than 15 years old. Who even remembers that moment, though we still live with its fallout -- with the hundreds of thousands dead and the millions of refugees, with Islamophobia and ISIS, with President-elect Trump, retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, and so much more? In the never-ending wake of one of the most disastrous wars in American history, the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq, it's hard to imagine any world but the one we have, which makes it easy to forget what the top officials of the Bush administration thought they would accomplish with their "Global War on Terror." Who remembers now just how quickly and enthusiastically they leapt into the project of draining that global swamp of terror groups (while taking out the Taliban and then "decapitating" the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein)? Their grandiose goal: an American imperium in the Greater Middle East (and later assumedly a global Pax Americana). They were, in other words, geopolitical dreamers of the first order. Barely a week after 9/11, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was already swearing that the global campaign to come would "drain the swamp they live in." Only a week later, at a NATO meeting, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz insisted that, "while we'll try to find every snake in the swamp, the essence of the strategy is draining the swamp [itself]." By the following June, in a commencement address at West Point, President George W. Bush would speak proudly of his administration's desire to drain that swamp of "terror cells" in a staggering "60 or more countries." Like Washington for Donald Trump, it proved the most convenient of swamps to imagine draining. For the top officials of the Bush administration launching a global war on terror seemed like the perfect way to change the nature of our world -- and, in a sense, they weren't wrong. As it happened, however, instead of draining swamps with their invasions and occupations, they waded into one. Their war on terror would prove an unending disaster, producing failed or failing states galore and helping to create the perfect atmosphere of chaos and resentment in which Islamic extremist groups, including ISIS, could thrive. It also changed the nature of the U.S. military in a way that most Americans have yet to come to grips with. Thanks to that permanent war across the Greater Middle East and later Africa, a secretive second military of startling proportions would essentially be fostered inside the existing U.S. military, the still-growing elite forces of Special Operations Command. They were the ones who, at least theoretically, would be the swamp drainers. TomDispatchregular Nick Turse has long been following their development and their increasingly frenetic deployment globally -- from, as he reports today, an already impressive 60 countries a year in 2009 to a staggering 138 countries in 2016. Those special operators would train and advise allied armed forces, while launching raids and drone strikes against terrorists across a significant part of the planet (including, of course, taking out Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in 2011). In the process, they would be institutionalized in ever more ways, even as the terror groups they were fighting continued to spread. Perhaps you could say that they didn't so much drain the swamp as swamp the drain. Today, as we approach the new era of Donald Trump, Turse offers his latest report on their rise and possible future. Tom The Year of the Commando U.S. Special Operations Forces Deploy to 138 Nations, 70% of the World's Countries By Nick Turse They could be found on the outskirts of Sirte, Libya, supporting local militia fighters, and in Mukalla, Yemen, backing troops from the United Arab Emirates. At Saakow, a remote outpost in southern Somalia, they assisted local commandos in killing several members of the terror group al-Shabab. Around the cities of Jarabulus and Al-Rai in northern Syria, they partnered with both Turkish soldiers and Syrian militias, while also embedding with Kurdish YPG fighters and the Syrian Democratic Forces. Across the border in Iraq, still others joined the fight to liberate the city of Mosul. And in Afghanistan, they assisted indigenous forces in various missions, just as they have every year since 2001. For America, 2016 may have been the year of the commando. In one conflict zone after another across the northern tier of Africa and the Greater Middle East, U.S. Special Operations forces (SOF) waged their particular brand of low-profile warfare. "Winning the current fight, including against the Islamic State, al-Qaeda, and other areas where SOF is engaged in conflict and instability, is an immediate challenge," the chief of U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM), General Raymond Thomas, told the Senate Armed Services Committee last year. SOCOM's shadow wars against terror groups like al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (also known as ISIL) may, ironically, be its most visible operations. Shrouded in even more secrecy are its activities -- from counterinsurgency and counterdrug efforts to seemingly endless training and advising missions -- outside acknowledged conflict zones across the globe. These are conducted with little fanfare, press coverage, or oversight in scores of nations every single day. From Albania to Uruguay, Algeria to Uzbekistan, America's most elite forces -- Navy SEALs and Army Green Berets among them -- were deployed to 138 countries in 2016, according to figures supplied to TomDispatch by U.S. Special Operations Command. This total, one of the highest of Barack Obama's presidency, typifies what has become the golden age of, in SOF-speak, the "gray zone" -- a phrase used to describe the murky twilight between war and peace. The coming year is likely to signal whether this era ends with Obama or continues under President-elect Donald Trump's administration. (Image by Nick Turse) Details DMCA America's most elite troops deployed to 138 nations in 2016, according to U.S. Special Operations Command. The map above displays the locations of 132 of those countries; 129 locations (blue) were supplied by U.S. Special Operations Command; 3 locations (red) -- Syria, Yemen and Somalia -- were derived from open-source information. (Nick Turse) CLICK TO ENLARGE "In just the past few years, we have witnessed a varied and evolving threat environment consisting of: the emergence of a militarily expansionist China; an increasingly unpredictable North Korea; a revanchist Russia threatening our interests in both Europe and Asia; and an Iran which continues to expand its influence across the Middle East, fueling the Sunni-Shia conflict," General Thomas wrote last month in PRISM, the official journal of the Pentagon's Center for Complex Operations. "Nonstate actors further confuse this landscape by employing terrorist, criminal, and insurgent networks that erode governance in all but the strongest states... Special operations forces provide asymmetric capability and responses to these challenges." In 2016, according to data provided to TomDispatch by SOCOM, the U.S. deployed special operators to China (specifically Hong Kong), in addition to eleven countries surrounding it -- Taiwan (which China considers a breakaway province), Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, India, Laos, the Philippines, South Korea, and Japan. Special Operations Command does not acknowledge sending commandos into Iran, North Korea, or Russia, but it does deploy troops to many nations that ring them. SOCOM is willing to name only 129 of the 138 countries its forces deployed to in 2016. "Almost all Special Operations forces deployments are classified," spokesman Ken McGraw told TomDispatch. "If a deployment to a specific country has not been declassified, we do not release information about the deployment." Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). There is a new branding phrase of which we all need to be aware: Universal Access, but first, some background. An overwhelming majority of Americans want the security and affordability of a Universal Health Care System (as it has been called) as all the other developed countries in the world enjoy. Poll after poll has established that fact. It is also often called "Medicare for All." Since its inception, Medicare has been a highly successful program and is an existing, efficient, and effect model to address the scale a national system would require. As a matter of fact, its original intent was to expand eventually it's coverage to every American. That never happened. Why? The privatization forces had to make a profit off of surgery, suffering, and medication. Republicans are experts at bumper sticker messaging and have utilized this branding technique for decades. Two words are hammered into the American psyche, the most recent of which was "Political Correctness," to launch a thought virus that is often highly distorted and emotionally charged for political manipulation and gain. For example, other political thought viruses have been: Welfare Queen, School Choice, Family Values, Big Government, Economic Freedom, and Anchor Babies (my personal favorite). I could go on and on. In the coming year, we will hear that the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) will be replaced by the Republican plan of "Universal Access." Sounds great, right? The word universal has been absconded with and then attached to the word access instead of system. Wool anyone? So what does this mean? With this thought virus, they want every American to think that they will be getting universal health care coverage. Ha! There is a night and day difference between the words access and coverage. I have "access" to my local Ferrari dealership by walking into the lobby. I have access to the car because I'd be invited to sit in one and smell the leather. I have access to that lobby anytime I'd want to visit to drool over the Ferrari's sleek lines, but I will never have the money to cover the cost! Also, some may remember, Ronald Reagan already gave the America people "Universal Access" decades ago. We got access to emergency rooms, and treatment had to be provided to whoever walked into the lobby. When the uninsured injured or suffering arrived in the lobby, they received treatment and a bill. If they could not afford the bill, then taxpayers covered the costs. They had access, right? Coverage, no. We must call our elected representatives, "blow up the phones", and point out to them that health access is not health coverage. That we will not be manipulated by a two-word thought virus, and that we know what we want, poll after poll states the American people want a universal health care system that provides affordable, financial coverage when we are suffering. In my view, making a profit off of another American's suffering and pain is immoral. No matter how clever the branding is, we must be more clever. One of the precipitating causes of the war in Syria (no pun intended) was the increasing scarcity of water in the Tigris-Euphrates Basin as a result of climate change and the deliberate policies of weaponization of water supplies by Turkey and its neighbour states. Drought has had a firm grip on the region since 1998 and the recent dry spell is likely the driest period on record in 900 years and almost certainly the worst drought in 500 years. The drought during 2005 caused 75 percent of Syria's farms to fail and 85 percent of livestock to die between 2006 and 2011, according to the United Nations. The collapse in crop yields forced as many as 1.5 million Syrians to migrate to urban centres, like Homs and Damascus. [i] The projections for the region show a continued drying trend throughout the coming century as climate change contributes to a shift in circulation patterns. That means what's happening there now could just be the start of more prolonged, more severe drought. In a region already wracked by water scarcity and conflict, more drying could ratchet up tension even further. [ii] It was the continuing crisis over water which provided the backdrop to the Syrian Crisis. By 2011, drought-related crop failure in Syria had pushed up to 1.5 million displaced farmers to abandon their land; those displaced farmers became a wellspring of recruits for the Free Syrian Army and for such groups as the Islamic State (also called ISIS or Daesh) and al Qaeda. Testimonies gathered by reporters and activists in conflict zones suggested that the lack of government help during the drought was a central motivating factor in the anti-government rebellion in Syria. Moreover, a 2011 study shows that today's rebel strongholds of Aleppo, Deir al-Zour, and Raqqa were among the areas hardest hit by crop failure. In other words, drought changed the economic, social, and political landscape of Syria. Iraq, already reeling from Daesh and sectarian tension, was next. In 2006, a leaked U.S. State Department cable forecast that Syria's "emerging water crisis carries the potential for severe economic volatility and even socio-political unrest." This cable was a clear warning about Iraq as well. By 2011, Iraqi wheat yields had fallen by over 50 percent. Much of the country's livestock had died, affecting hundreds of thousands of fieldworkers and farmers. Despite losing 1.6 million tons of grain to Daesh and consuming 2.5 million tons more than it can produce, Iraq had planned to become a grain exporter by 2017. This closely mirrored Syria's ambition at the time of the 2006 cable. In those years, Damascus hoped to dramatically increase agricultural production as a part of an economic diversification plan. Syria had already doubled its irrigated land in the preceding 15 years, and its 2006 five-year plan projected further increases. In the cable, embassy officials note that agriculture experts believed that Syria's growing water demand was outstripping water availability. Despite this situation of decreased water flows the Turks continued to build dams, restricting the flows even further. Between 1975 and 1991, on three occasions, Syria and Iraq threatened Turkey with military action (and at one point they threatened each other) over reduced river flows due to dams in Turkey. Negotiations stopped and started as relations between the nations fluctuated. Since then, climate change and population growth have put extreme pressure on regional freshwater, heightening the impact of the damming of the two rivers. One of the key players in the control of the water flows in the nations of the Fertile Crescent (Turkey, Iraq and Syria) is Turkey through which these rivers flow. In the 1960s, Turkey, Syria and Iraq negotiated a new phase of their relationship over water, as a result of Turkey's decision to construct the Keban Dam on the Euphrates. After prolonged negotiations, Turkey guaranteed to maintain a discharge of 350 m3/s immediately downstream from the dam, provided that the natural flow of the river was adequate to supply this discharge. Tigris-Euphrates Rivers (Image by EASWordStudies 1989) Details DMCA The price for an agreement between Turkey and Syria was that the Syrians would crack down on the large Kurdish population living near the Turkish border. [iii] The fundamental problem in this division of the waters of the Tigris-Euphrates is that the levels of water have been gradually diminishing and water shortages are an ever-growing problem for Syria and Iraq.[iii] Since 1975, Turkey's extensive dam and hydropower construction has reportedly reduced water flows into Iraq and Syria by approximately 80 per cent and 40 per cent respectively. Approximately 90 per cent of the water flow in the Euphrates and 50 per cent in the Tigris originate in Turkey. This has left Syria and Iraq vulnerable. The Turks only use about 35% of the water flow and this is largely because it manages the flow through an elaborate system of dams. The piece de resistance of the program of dam-building in Turkey was the gigantic Southern Anatolian Project (known by its Turkish acronym, GAP), which commenced in the 1970s and encompasses 22 dams, 19 hydroelectric power plants and several irrigation networks. GAP remains the second biggest integrated water development project in the world, covering approximately 10 percent of Turkey's population and an equivalent surface area. [iv] The GAP (Image by Kurdish Herald 9/9/2009) Details DMCA This situation was made critical with the rise of Daesh. The ongoing spread of Daesh across the region has ended up with Daesh seizing control of water resources in both Syria and Iraq. Daesh is able to use water structures as a means to prevent local populations (especially near Baghdad and the Shiite population inhabiting the southern part of Iraq) from accessing water. However, Daesh in northern Syria and near Mosul in Iraq are dependent on water flows from Turkey. This means that there is a limited amount of pressure that either Iraq or Syria (and Daesh as well) can apply to Turkey without risking a severe shortage of water. Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). From Smirking Chimp "There's no savior out there." That's a line from "Lord's Prayer," a song written by TV Smith for the Lords of the Church, a band that trafficked in 1980s melodic punk. Here's some more: "There ain't no savior out there "Your stairway to heaven leads nowhere "Don't look to me for emancipation "You are your only salvation." That's my message to Americans who want to resist Donald Trump and his works -- or more precisely the policies of the most right-wing cabinet in American history. Waiting for divine intervention is lunacy. If you're serious about slowing down the Pencites, you'd better get ready to take them on yourselves. You sure won't be able to count on the Democratic Party. Take Trump's cabinet nominees -- please! In the old days, Democrats would only have needed 40 senate seats to filibuster a would-be attorney general accused of racism, an energy secretary who forgot the name of his own department and a sitting CEO of ExxonMobil as secretary of state. Unfortunately for the republic, then-majority leader Harry Reid was such a fool that he thought Democrats would never lose another election. So, in a fit of staggering ahistoricity, he eliminated the filibuster for most nominees in 2013. As a result Trump will probably get all his picks, perhaps minus Jeff Sessions because he's widely disliked by his colleagues. OK, so unless you're a character in the too generously reviewed movie "Arrival," what's past is past, no do-overs. But Democrats don't seem to have much appetite for anti-Trump combat even when you consider their new self-imposed limits. Democrats' approach to policy is likely to boil down to "let the Republicans do what they want, then take the blame when they overreach." They may even let the GOP repeal the Affordable Care Act, the Obama Administration's sole major policy achievement. "Republicans are about to learn that there's a big difference between being against something and being for something," said Steve Israel (D-New York). "They've already stumbled out of the gate, and we should let them continue to stumble." Unasked: How many Americans will die for a tactic? On the nominees, look for bureaucratic foot-dragging of approvals with procedural votes and other stalling tactics. "I don't want to needlessly prevent President Trump from being successful," Senator Chris Coons (D-Delaware) told The Politico. "But accelerating the confirmation of unacceptable candidates who have views that are outside the mainstream is not constructive." In the end, though, those unacceptable candidates will get their gigs. Dems even plan to try to find common ground on rebuilding infrastructure -- an admirable goal that I've pushed for years. But Trumpism is already so extreme that Democrats ought to ask themselves whether they're missing the fuhrer for the trees: is it possible to get behind an autobahn without endorsing the tyrant who builds it? If they really wanted to mount a resistance to Trump, Congressional Democrats could do so with considerably more vigor. Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). In 1968, both Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. were assassinated, and U.S. cities erupted in riots; anti-war demonstrators chanted the whole world is watching as police beat and tear-gassed them in Chicago outside the Democratic convention. George Wallace led a popular political movement of Klan sympathizers and White Citizens Councils in a vicious backlash against the gains of the Civil Rights movement; and the vengeful, paranoid Richard Nixon was elected president and began to intensify the war in Vietnam and pursue his program of harassment and imprisonment of black Americans and anti-war activists through Hoovers FBI (and later the bogus war on drugs). Good times, and given several pertinent similarities to our current moment, it seems like a year to revisit if we want to see recent examples of organized, determined resistance by a very beleaguered Left. We might look to the Black Panthers, the Yippies, or Students for a Democratic Society, to name a few prominent and occasionally affiliated groups. But we can also revisit a near-revolution across the ocean, when French students and workers took to the Paris streets and almost provoked a civil war against the government of authoritarian president Charles de Gaulle. The events often referred to simply as Mai 68 have haunted French conservatives ever since, such that president Nicolas Sarkozy forty years later claimed their memory must be liquidated. May 1968, wrote Steven Erlanger on the 40th anniversary, was a holy moment of liberation for many, when youth coalesced, the workers listened and the semi-royal French government of de Gaulle took fright. As loose coalitions in the U.S. pushed back against their government on multiple fronts, the Paris uprising (revolution or riot, depending on who writes the history) brought together several groups in common purpose who would have otherwise never have broken bread: a crazy array of leftist groups, students, and ordinary working people, writes Peter Steinfels, including revisionist socialists, Trotskyists, Maoists, anarchists, surrealists and Marxists. They were anticommunist as much as anticapitalist. Some appeared anti-industrial, anti-institutional, even anti-rational. Be realistic: Demand the impossible! was one of the May movements slogans. A great many more slogans and icons appeared on extremely fine examples of polemical poster art like those you see here. These come to us via Dangerous Minds, who explain: The Atelier Populaire, run by Marxist artists and art students, occupied the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and dedicated its efforts to producing thousands of silk-screened posters using bold, iconic imagery and slogans as well as explicitly collective/anonymous authorship. Most of the posters were printed on newssheet using a single color with basic icons such as the factory to represent labor and a fist to stand for resistance. The Paris uprisings began with university students, protesting same-sex dorms and demanding educational reform, the release of arrested students and the reopening of the Nanterre campus of the University of Paris, notes the Global Nonviolent Action Database. But in the following weeks the protests escalated and gained more popular support, because of continuing police brutality. Among the accumulating democratic demands and labor protests, writes Steinfels, was one great fear that contemporary capitalism was capable of absorbing any and all critical ideas or movements and bending them to its own advantage. Hence, the need for provocative shock tactics. This fear was dramatized by Situationists, wholike Yippies in the Statesgenerally preferred absurdist street theater to earnest political action. And it provided the thesis of one of the most radical texts to come out of the tumultuous times, Guy Debords The Society of the Spectacle. In a historical irony that would have Debord spinning in his grave, the Situationist theorist has himself been co-opted, recognized as a national treasure by the French government, writes Andrew Gallix, and yet, no onenot even his sworn ideological enemiescan deny Debords importance. The same could be said for Michel Foucault, who found the events of May 68 transformational. Foucault pronounced himself tremendously impressed with students willing to be beaten and jailed, and his turn to political militancy within a post-1968 horizon was the chief catalyst for halting and then redirecting his theoretical work, argues professor of philosophy Bernard Gendron, eventually leading to the publication of Discipline and Punish, his groundbreaking genealogy of imprisonment and surveillance. Many more prominent theorists and intellectuals took part and found inspiration in the movement, including Andre Glucksmann, who recalled May 1968 as a moment, either sublime or detested, that we want to commemorate or bury. a cadaver, from which everyone wants to rob a piece. His comments sum up the general cynicism and ambivalence of many on the French left when it comes to May 68: The hope was to change the world, he says, but it was inevitably incomplete, and the institutions of the state are untouched. Both student and labor groups still managed to push through several significant reforms and win many government concessions before police and de Gaulle supporters rose up in the thousands and quelled the uprising (further evidence, Anne-Elisabeth Moutet argued this month, that authoritarianism is the norm in France). The iconic posters here represent what Steinfels calls the movements utopian impulse, one however that did not aim at human perfectibility but only at imagining that life could really be different and a whole lot better. These images were collected in 2008 for a London exhibition titled May 68: street Posters from the Paris Rebellion, and theyve been published in book form in Beauty is in the Street: A Visual Record of the May 68 Paris Uprising. (You can also find and download many posters in the digital collection hosted by the Bibliotheque nationale de France.) Perhaps the co-option Debord predicted was as inevitable as he feared. But like many radical U.S. movements in the sixties, the coordinated mobilization of huge numbers of people from every strata of French society during those exhilarating and dangerous few weeks opened a window on the possible. Despite its short-lived nature, May 1968 irrevocably altered French civil society and intellectual culture. As Jean-Paul Sartre said of the movement, Whats important is that the action took place, when everybody believed it to be unthinkable. If it took place this time, it can happen again. via Dangerous Minds/Messy N Chic Related Content: Striking Posters From Occupy Wall Street: Download Them for Free Theodor Adornos Radical Critique of Joan Baez and the Music of the Vietnam War Protest Movement Bed Peace Revisits John Lennon & Yoko Onos Famous Anti-Vietnam Protests Josh Jones is a writer and musician based in Durham, NC. Follow him at @jdmagness Its nothing at all. Absolutely nothing. It was a joke. I wanted to make a parody of Jean Cocteaus first film. Thats all. We shot it in two hours, for fun, one Sunday afternoon. It has no sort of meaning.Orson Welles The Hearts of Age may have indeed been a lark when it was shot in 1934, but given that one of the two teenagers went on to direct Citizen Kane seven years later, no doubt its worth a second look. Like all things Welles, his 19-year-old life was much more fantastic than most high school grads. Though he and school chum William Vance shot the film at their alma mater, the Todd School in Woodstock, Illinois, Welles had graduated three years earlier. According to Senses of Cinema, Welles had spurned a scholarship to Harvard University, visited Ireland on a sketching tour only to talk his way into performing for the Dublin Gate Theatre, written detective stories for pulp magazines, and travelled through London, Paris, the Ivory Coast, Morocco and Seville, where he spent an afternoon as a professional bullfighter. After returning to America in 1933, introductions to Thornton Wilder and Alexander Wolcott led to a position in Katherine Cornells touring repertory company. Welles toured with the Cornell company from November 1933 to June 1934, appearing in three plays and making his New York debut as Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet. Back in Woodstock to sponsor a theater festival at the school, Welles and Vance borrowed a camera from their old principal and shot this eight minute short. William Vance, Welles friend and co-director, kept the only copy until he donated it to the Greenwich Public Library, where film historian and writer Joseph McBride discovered it in 1969. McBride then wrote about it in Film Quarterly and the secret juvenilia of Welles was out of the closet. (Why did Joe have to discover that film? Welles was quoted as telling his cameraman). Never entered into copyright, its a public domain film and so has been available on various platforms for years. (I saw it in the 90s as part of a before they were famous short film festival with student work by Lynch, Scorsese, and Spielberg). The short indeed looks like a parody of surrealist film, a bit like Jean Cocteaus Blood of a Poet as Welles intended, but with a bit of Rene Clairs EntrActe and some good ol Eisensteinian montage thrown in. Welles appears in heavy stage makeup as a rich, older man in a top hat and cane, looking not too far from the elderly Charles Foster Kane. His then girlfriend and future first wife Virginia Nicholson plays an old hag who rides forlornly back and forth on a bell. Theres a clown in blackface played by Paul Edgerton, an Indian in a blanket (co-director William Vance in a cameo) and a Keystone cop, which some websites say is also Nicholson. But Charles Blackie ONeal is also credited as a performer without a role and he indeed may be the actor playing the Keystone Cop. (ONeal, by the way, would later be father to Ryan ONeal.) Although he dismissed the film, Welles preoccupations with death are here, right at the beginning of his career, with suicides, coffins, skulls, and gravestones featuring prominently. And though its no masterpiece and honestly a bit of a mess, it shows a director interested in experimenting with film, with humor, and the wonders of makeup. Related Content: Stream 61 Hours of Orson Welles Classic 1930s Radio Plays: War of the Worlds, Heart of Darkness & More Is It Always Right to Be Right?: Orson Welles Narrates a 1970 Oscar-Winning Animation That Still Resonates Today Young Orson Welles Directs Voodoo Macbeth, the First Shakespeare Production With An All-Black Cast: Footage from 1936 Ted Mills is a freelance writer on the arts who currently hosts the artist interview-based FunkZone Podcast. You can also follow him on Twitter at @tedmills, read his other arts writing at tedmills.com and/or watch his films here. Global Industry Insight: Wave and Tidal Energy Market Development and Demand Forecast to 2020 www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/wave-and-tidal-energy-market www.psmarketresearch.com/industry-report/chemicals-materials-and-energy www.psmarketresearch.com The Wave and tidal energy market is expected to grow at a significant rate in the coming years due to substantial cost reduction opportunities through capacity up-scaling and technological innovations. As wave and tidal energy are renewable forms of energy, almost all countries around the world are trying to develop wave and tidal energy because they provide a constant and steady source of clean energy. According to the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) of U.K., wave and tidal energy combined has a potential to distribute approximately 20% of the electricity needs in the U.K.Plenty of ocean surfaces and considerable potential of energy generation in the countries around the world has led operators to engage in ocean energy generation. The wave and tidal energy technology development is in its initial phase, so there is a sufficient scope for new entrants in the wave and tidal energy market by bringing up advanced technologies.To Browse Full Report Visit Here:Wave energy is transport of energy by ocean surface waves and uses that energy for water desalination, electricity generation, pumping of water and various other tasks. Tidal energy is a type of hydropower that converts the energy from the tides to generate electricity. Wave and tidal energy help to increase energy security, decarbonizes the energy supply and reduce the consumers dependence on imported fossil fuels.On the basis of type, the wave and tidal energy market can be categorized as tidal energy and wave energy. On the basis of the generation of tidal energy, the wave and tidal energy market can be categorized as dynamic tidal power, tidal stream generator, tidal lagoon and tidal barrage. Tidal stream generator use kinetic energy of moving water to power turbines, but tidal barrage use the potential energy from the difference of height between low and high tides to power turbines.Browse For Related Research:On the basis of generation of wave energy, the wave and tidal energy market can be categorized as oscillating wave surge converter, surface attenuator, point absorber buoy, overtopping device and oscillating water column. Point absorber buoy floats on the surface of water and uses rise and falls of swells to drive hydraulic pumps and generate electricity. Oscillating water column devices are located on the shore or in deeper water offshore and air chamber compress air in chambers through an air turbine to create electricity.Some of the factors driving the growth of the wave and tidal energy market are scalability within a small area, allowing large project development in phases, strong government policy framework and incentive schemes, predictable and constant source of renewable energy, and generation of power for remote locations where drawing grid connections are not cost effective or feasible. The risk of marine mammals and fish being struck by tidal turbine blades is a major factor restraining the growth of the wave and tidal energy market to some extent.As it is an immature technology, so there is a lack of funding channels and commercial deployment of projects which is also hindering the wave and tidal energy market growth.About P&S Market ResearchP&S Market Research is a market research company, which offers market research and consulting services for various geographies around the globe. We provide market research reports, industry forecasting reports, business intelligence, and research based consulting services across different industry/business verticals.As one of the top growing market research agency, were keen upon providing market landscape and accurate forecasting. Our analysts and consultants are proficient with business intelligence and market analysis, through their interaction with leading companies of the concerned domain. We help our clients with B2B market research and assist them in identifying various windows of opportunity, and framing informed and customized business expansion strategies in different regions.Contact:AbhishekExecutive Client Partner347, 5th Ave. #1402New York City, NY - 10016Toll-free: +1-888-778-7886 (USA/Canada)Email: enquiry@psmarketresearch.comWeb: Global Process Liquid Analyzers Market by Type - 2024 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=11678 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/process-liquid-analyzer-market.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com https://tmrresearch.blogspot.com/ Global Process Liquid Analyzer Market: OverviewIn the manufacturing sector, the precise measurement of liquids and gases is crucial. This report focuses on how the demand for process analyzers for liquids has changed over the years and the factors that have brought this change into effect. Process liquid analyzers may be used for measuring a wide range of dissolved ingredients, the conductivity of liquid materials, their pH levels, turbidity, or other factors that are integral to manufacturing operations.Since these devices lend themselves to a myriad of operations, their use is not limited to a particular industry. They are a ubiquitous part of the following industries: Electronics and semiconductor, food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, metal and alloys, pulp and paper, textiles, waste water and water management, power and refineries, and oil and gas. Because of these wide-ranging uses of process liquid analyzers, their demand is projected to remain consistently high worldwide. TMR projects a positive outlook for the global process liquid analyzer market till 2024.With manufacturing operations being increasingly governed by demanding standards and specifications, using devices that offer accurate readings are a priority for manufacturers. This need will augur well for the global process liquid analyzer market in the years ahead.The report on the global process liquid analyzers market makes use of meticulous primary and secondary research to highlight the changes that are occurring in this space. Untapped opportunities are also determined using both qualitative and quantitative analysis. A dedicated chapter on the top players in the market helps companies map the competitive landscape.Request a PDF Brochure with Report Analysis:Global Process Liquid Analyzer Market: Trends, Drivers, and RestraintsThe use of process liquid analyzers has seen an uptick in recent years in developing countries where industrialization is spreading fast. Moreover, larger companies acquiring niche market players to include specialized products in their portfolios is a defining trend in the global process liquid analyzer market. The launch of smart and integrated sensors is the biggest trend currently in developed countries. The adoption of intelligent sensors may take a few years in developing markets.As the number of vendors in the global process liquid analyzer market is high, competition across the world is intense. Thus, companies that have been able to ace product differentiation have emerged as leaders. Yet, the market will have to counter forces such as a shortage of specialized process technicians and the lack of adequate professional support for maintenance projects.Global Process Liquid Analyzer Market: SegmentationThe global market for process analyzers for liquids can be segmented based on geographical regions, on the type of analyzer, and by application or end use. The key geographical segments of the market are: North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Rest of the World. North America currently represents the largest regional market for process liquid analyzers. The region, which is home to large industrial bases, will likely continue to exhibit a high demand for process liquid analyzers. Moreover, the massive manufacturing sectors in countries such as India and China will also boost sales in the global process liquid analyzers market.Countries in Europe are expected to fare well as far as demand for process liquid analyzers is concerned. The strong performance of the pharmaceutical and allied industries can be credited for this. The report analyzes the market for process analyzers for liquids in a detailed manner to help readers uncover emergent trends and opportunities.The market is characterized by a remarkably high number of vendors operating both locally and internationally. Top companies that have been profiled in the report include: Yokogawa Electric Corporation (Japan), Cemtrex Inc. (U.S), Emerson Electric Co. (U.S), ABB Ltd. (Switzerland), AMETEK Process Instruments (U.S.), and 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.Browse Full Research Report on Process Liquid Analyzer Market:About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Browse market research blog: Global Outlook for Varicose Vein Treatment Market by Size and Share - 2024 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=11714 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/varicose-vein-treatment-market.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com https://tmrresearch.blogspot.com/ Global Varicose Vein Treatment Market: Overview and ScopeThe global varicose vein treatment market is primarily driven by the rising incidence of varicose veins. 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Key varicose vein treatment products include ultrasound guided sclerotherapy devices, endovenous ablation devices, and surgical stripping devices.The research publication examines the global varicose vein treatment market by segmenting it on the basis of key parameters such as product and technology type and geography. Each segment and sub-segment has been evaluated in depth to give readers a clear understanding of the structure and scope of the market. Various market dynamics such as drivers, opportunities, and restraints have also been studied in the report. A detailed assessment of the vendor landscape makes for an interesting read and gives clients sharp insights on their competitors.Get Sample Report:Global Varicose Vein Treatment Market: Key Drivers and ChallengesThe global market for varicose vein treatment is fueled by factors such as reduced trauma, greater exposure to the site of application, high operative success rates, and faster blood flow restoration.Demand for endovenous ablation treatment devices is anticipated to expand at a rapid pace in the next few years due to factors such as short treatment time, improved blood circulation, minimal invasion, and complete closure of the treated area. Ultrasound sclerotherapy devices have also been witnessing strong demand owing to benefits such as time and cost efficiency, reduced risk of collateral damage to surrounding tissues, painless procedure, increased penetration, no requirement of anesthesia, fewer post-operative complications, less scarring, and minimal need for incisions during the procedure.In contrast, the market for varicose vein treatment faces a few challenges in the developed regions of Europe and North America. 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In addition, favorable reimbursement policies, especially in the U.S., have significantly boosted the market for varicose vein treatment in North America.The Asia Pacific varicose vein treatment market is anticipated to witness impressive growth in the near future owing to factors such as surge in disposable income, improvement in health care infrastructure, and increase in patient awareness about the advantage of seeking early treatment.Some of the prominent players competing in the global varicose vein treatment market are VNUS Medical Technologies, Astra Tech, Covidien PLC, Kreussler Pharma, InaVein, B.Braun Melsungen, Vascular Solutions, Dornier MedTech, and AngioDynamics. Most of these players have been adopting various strategies to gain market share. Key strategies adopted by leading companies include mergers and acquisitions, product line and geographic expansion, R&D investments, and competitive pricing policies.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.Browse Research Reports:About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Browse market research blog: Chinese Magnifying Glass Global Market Share, Opportunities, Segmentation and Forecast to 2022 Chinese Magnifying Glass Market https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/853388-global-and-chinese-magnifying-glass-industry-2016-market-research-report https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/853388-global-and-chinese-magnifying-glass-industry-2016-market-research-report https://www.wiseguyreports.com/checkout?currency=one_user-USD&report_id=853388 www.wiseguyreports.com www.wiseguyreports.com COMPLETE REPORT DETAILS @The 'Global and Chinese Magnifying Glass Industry, 2011-2021 Market Research Report' is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the global Magnetic Frame industry with a focus on the Chinese market. The report provides key statistics on the market status of the Magnetic Frame manufacturers and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the industry.Firstly, the report provides a basic overview of the industry including its definition, applications and manufacturing technology. Then, the report explores the international and Chinese major industry players in detail. In this part, the report presents the company profile, product specifications, capacity, production value, and 2011-2016 market shares for each company. Through the statistical analysis, the report depicts the global and Chinese total market of Magnetic Frame industry including capacity, production, production value, cost/profit, supply/demand and Chinese import/export. The total market is further divided by company, by country, and by application/type for the competitive landscape analysis. 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Overall, the report provides an in-depth insight of 2011-2021 global and Chinese Magnifying Glass industry covering all important parameters.SAMPLE REQUEST@CONTINUEDTable of ContentsChapter One Introduction of Magnifying Glass Industry1.1 Brief Introduction of Magnifying Glass1.2 Development of Magnifying Glass Industry1.3 Status of Magnifying Glass IndustryChapter Two Manufacturing Technology of Magnifying Glass2.1 Development of Magnifying Glass Manufacturing Technology2.2 Analysis of Magnifying Glass Manufacturing Technology2.3 Trends of Magnifying Glass Manufacturing TechnologyChapter Three Analysis of Global Key Manufacturers3.1 Company A3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Product Information3.1.3 2011-2016 Production Information3.1.4 Contact Information3.2 Company B3.2.1 Company Profile3.2.2 Product Information3.2.3 2011-2016 Production Information3.2.4 Contact Information3.3 Company C3.2.1 Company Profile3.3.2 Product Information3.3.3 2011-2016 Production Information3.3.4 Contact Information3.4 Company D3.4.1 Company Profile3.4.2 Product Information3.4.3 2011-2016 Production Information3.4.4 Contact Information3.5 Company E.......Chapter Five Market Status of Magnifying Glass Industry5.1 Market Competition of Magnifying Glass Industry by Company5.2 Market Competition of Magnifying Glass Industry by Country (USA, EU, Japan, Chinese etc.)5.3 Market Analysis of Magnifying Glass Consumption by Application/TypeBUY THIS REPORT @Contact Us:NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)Contact Us:NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.ADDRES: Pune, India Global (US, EU, Japan & China) Teflon fabric Industry 2017 Analysis and Forecast to 2021 Market Research Report Teflon fabric Market https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/851828-global-and-chinese-teflon-fabric-industry-2016-market-research-report https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/851828-global-and-chinese-teflon-fabric-industry-2016-market-research-report https://www.wiseguyreports.com/checkout?currency=one_user-USD&report_id=851828 www.wiseguyreports.com The 'Global and Chinese Teflon fabric Industry, 2011-2021 Market Research Report' is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the global Teflon fabric industry with a focus on the Chinese market.The report provides key statistics on the market status of the Teflon fabric manufacturers and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the industry.Firstly, the report provides a basic overview of the industry including its definition, applications and manufacturing technology.Request For Sample Report @Then, the report explores the international and Chinese major industry players in detail. In this part, the report presents the company profile, product specifications, capacity, production value, and 2011-2016 market shares for each company.Through the statistical analysis, the report depicts the global and Chinese total market of Teflon fabric industry including capacity, production, production value, cost/profit, supply/demand and Chinese import/export. The total market is further divided by company, by country, and by application/type for the competitive landscape analysis. The report then estimates 2016-2021 market development trends of Teflon fabric industry.Analysis of upstream raw materials, downstream demand, and current market dynamics is also carried out. In the end, the report makes some important proposals for a new project of Teflon fabric Industry before evaluating its feasibility. Overall, the report provides an in-depth insight of 2011-2021 global and Chinese Teflon fabric industry covering all important parameters.Complete Report Details @Table Of ContentsChapter One Introduction of Teflon fabric Industry1.1 Brief Introduction of Teflon fabric1.2 Development of Teflon fabric Industry1.3 Status of Teflon fabric IndustryChapter Two Manufacturing Technology of Teflon fabric2.1 Development of Teflon fabric Manufacturing Technology2.2 Analysis of Teflon fabric Manufacturing Technology2.3 Trends of Teflon fabric Manufacturing TechnologyChapter Three Analysis of Global Key Manufacturers3.1 Company A3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Product Information3.1.3 2011-2016 Production Information3.1.4 Contact Information3.2 Company B3.2.1 Company Profile3.2.2 Product Information3.2.3 2011-2016 Production Information3.2.4 Contact Information3.3 Company C3.2.1 Company Profile3.3.2 Product Information3.3.3 2011-2016 Production Information3.3.4 Contact Information3.4 Company D3.4.1 Company Profile3.4.2 Product Information3.4.3 2011-2016 Production Information3.4.4 Contact Information3.5 Company E3.5.1 Company Profile3.5.2 Product Information3.5.3 2011-2016 Production Information3.5.4 Contact Information3.6 Company F3.6.1 Company Profile3.6.2 Product Information3.5.3 2011-2016 Production Information3.6.4 Contact Information3.7 Company G3.7.1 Company Profile3.7.2 Product Information3.7.3 2011-2016 Production Information3.7.4 Contact Information3.8 Company H3.8.1 Company Profile3.8.2 Product Information3.8.3 2011-2016 Production Information3.8.4 Contact Information............Chapter Four 2011-2016 Global and Chinese Market of Teflon fabric4.1 2011-2016 Global Capacity, Production and Production Value of Teflon fabric Industry4.2 2011-2016 Global Cost and Profit of Teflon fabric Industry4.3 Market Comparison of Global and Chinese Teflon fabric Industry4.4 2011-2016 Global and Chinese Supply and Consumption of Teflon fabric4.5 2011-2016 Chinese Import and Export of Teflon fabricChapter Five Market Status of Teflon fabric Industry5.1 Market Competition of Teflon fabric Industry by Company5.2 Market Competition of Teflon fabric Industry by Country (USA, EU, Japan, Chinese etc.)5.3 Market Analysis of Teflon fabric Consumption by Application/TypeContinued.Buy This Report @CONTACT US:NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)ABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India Photocatalytic Global and Chinese Market 2017 Analysis of Production, Future Demand, Sales and Consumption Research Report to 2021 Photocatalytic Market https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/851383-global-and-chinese-photocatalytic-industry-2016-market-research-report https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/851383-global-and-chinese-photocatalytic-industry-2016-market-research-report https://www.wiseguyreports.com/checkout?currency=one_user-USD&report_id=851383 Photocatalytic MarketDescriptionThe 'Global and Chinese Photocatalytic Industry, 2011-2021 Market Research Report' is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the global Photocatalytic industry with a focus on the Chinese market. The report provides key statistics on the market status of the Photocatalytic manufacturers and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the industry.Request for Sample Report @Firstly, the report provides a basic overview of the industry including its definition, applications and manufacturing technology. Then, the report explores the international and Chinese major industry players in detail. In this part, the report presents the company profile, product specifications, capacity, production value, and 2011-2016 market shares for each company.Through the statistical analysis, the report depicts the global and Chinese total market of Photocatalytic industry including capacity, production, production value, cost/profit, supply/demand and Chinese import/export. The total market is further divided by company, by country, and by application/type for the competitive landscape analysis.The report then estimates 2016-2021 market development trends of Photocatalytic industry. Analysis of upstream raw materials, downstream demand, and current market dynamics is also carried out. In the end, the report makes some important proposals for a new project of Photocatalytic Industry before evaluating its feasibility. Overall, the report provides an in-depth insight of 2011-2021 global and Chinese Photocatalytic industry covering all important parameters.Leave a Query @Table of ContentsChapter One Introduction of Photocatalytic Industry1.1 Brief Introduction of Photocatalytic1.2 Development of Photocatalytic Industry1.3 Status of Photocatalytic IndustryChapter Two Manufacturing Technology of Photocatalytic2.1 Development of Photocatalytic Manufacturing Technology2.2 Analysis of Photocatalytic Manufacturing Technology2.3 Trends of Photocatalytic Manufacturing TechnologyChapter Three Analysis of Global Key Manufacturers3.1 Company A3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Product Information3.1.3 2011-2016 Production Information3.1.4 Contact Information3.2 Company B3.2.1 Company Profile3.2.2 Product Information3.2.3 2011-2016 Production Information3.2.4 Contact Information3.3 Company C3.2.1 Company Profile3.3.2 Product Information3.3.3 2011-2016 Production Information3.3.4 Contact Information3.4 Company D3.4.1 Company Profile3.4.2 Product Information3.4.3 2011-2016 Production Information3.4.4 Contact Information3.5 Company E3.5.1 Company Profile3.5.2 Product Information3.5.3 2011-2016 Production Information3.5.4 Contact Information3.6 Company F3.6.1 Company Profile3.6.2 Product Information3.5.3 2011-2016 Production Information3.6.4 Contact Information3.7 Company G3.7.1 Company Profile3.7.2 Product Information3.7.3 2011-2016 Production Information3.7.4 Contact Information3.8 Company H3.8.1 Company Profile3.8.2 Product Information3.8.3 2011-2016 Production Information3.8.4 Contact Information......Buy now @Continued...Contact Us: Sales@Wiseguyreports.Com Ph: +1-646-845-9349 (US) Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India 2016-2021 Analysis of Ferroelectric RAM Market http://www.marketintelreports.com/report/esr0234/ferroelectric-ram-market-analysis-by-application-access-control-energy-security-systems-sensor-networks--smart-cards-by-product-computer-desktops-laptops-energy-meters-mobile-devices-personal-digital-assistants--others-with-forecast-20162021 http://www.marketintelreports.com/pdfdownload.php?id=esr0234 http://www.marketintelreports.com/purchase.php?id=esr0234 www.marketintelreports.com Ferroelectric RAM Market Analysis: By Application (Access Control, Energy, Security Systems, Sensor Networks & Smart Cards); By Product (Computer Desktops, Laptops, Energy Meters, Mobile Devices, Personal Digital Assistants & Others) With Forecast (2016-2021)Browse Our Recent Research on Ferroelectric RAM Market @One of the key requirements for any storage technology is the ability of the technology to have density storage capabilities whilst allowing for the memory to be recovered or recalled. Power consumption by the technology is also vital as there is a common power source for the storage device as well as for the other components of the overall product. In this respect, there have been a number of storage technologies which have been developed and deployed across different electronic devices depending on the size of the device, the amount of memory that the device is expected to hold and the memory recall requirement. Ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM) stands for random access memory. This memory combines the benefits of DRAM, ROM and flash memory. Faster read and write access is the key benefit FRAM. Higher memory retention is also a key advantage of FRAM over other storage technologies.As the term suggests FRAM uses a ferroelectric layer as against the standard dielectric layer as a result of which the benefits mentioned above ca be realized. The biggest advantage of FRAM however is the low power requirement for the storage device the makes it popular amongst many device manufacturers. Also, FRAM has the benefit of faster memory recall which is in line with the advantages associated with flash memory, but with higher memory retention. Security applications are expected to be a key driver for the FRAM market because of the higher memory and faster recall properties associated with the storage technology.In terms of technological development, vendors operating in the market have already invested heavily in R&D of storage technology especially in ferroelectric RAM technology. The technology is expected to be used widely in data centers as well as for wireless sensor operations where data recall will be done wirelessly and hence, speed would have to be of the essence.Avail more information from Sample Brochure, Get a copy @Ferroelectric RAM MarketThe Ferroelectric RAM market can be segmented on the basis of application: Access control Energy meters Security systems Sensor networks Smart cardsIn terms of product, the Ferroelectric RAM market has been segmented across the following: Computer desktops Laptops Meters Mobile devices Personal digital assistantsThe market has been segmented based on the following geographies: North America South America APAC Europe Middle East AfricaFollowing are just a few of the companies that are operating in the Ferroelectric RAM market: Cypress Semiconductor Fujitsu Ltd Infineon Technologies International Business Machines LAPIS Semiconductor Texas Instruments Toshiba CorporationProcure this report @About us:MarketIntelReports (MIR) aim to empower our clients to successfully manage and outperform in their business decisions, we do this by providing Premium Market Intelligence, Strategic Insights and Databases from a range of Global Publishers.A group of industry veterans who are well experienced in reputed international consulting firms after identifying the sourcing needs of MNCs for market intelligence, have together started this business savior MarketIntelReports.Contact us:Sales ManagerMayur S2711 Centerville Road, Suite 400,Wilmington,Delaware,19808United Statespr@marketintelreports.comTelephone: 1-302-261-5343 Extremely High Frequency (EHF) Technology Market Analysis to 2021 http://www.marketintelreports.com/report/itr0063/extremely-high-frequency-ehf-technology-market-analysis-by-type-isr-navigation-and-satcom-by-product-hardware-software-and-middleware-by-application-aerospace--defense-telecommunications-and-space-exploration--with-forecast-20162021 http://www.marketintelreports.com/pdfdownload.php?id=itr0063 http://www.marketintelreports.com/purchase.php?id=itr0063 www.marketintelreports.com Extremely High Frequency (EHF) Technology Market Analysis: By Type (ISR, Navigation and SATCOM); By Product (Hardware, Software and Middleware); By Application (Aerospace & Defense, Telecommunications and Space exploration) With Forecast (2016-2021)Browse 165 Pages of Recent Research on Global Extremely High Frequency (EHF) Technology Market @High frequency technology is employed in cases where secure communication is required along with reliable communication. Extremely high frequency technology is the next level where data is transmitted securely irrespective of the distance. Data can be transmitted through any medium and over any platform without fear of the data being intercepted, corrupted or jammed. Because of the hardware, software and special middleware which is required for the technology, it is not used commercially across all segments and hence is restricted to just aerospace & defense, telecommunications and space exploration. Within telecommunications, the technology is again not used for day to day enterprise applications but along the lines for secure data communications at the highest level of the respective country.Extremely high frequency technology is also used for navigation purposes wherein through the data transmitted and received, navigation can be made possible. The technology is used extensively by the armed forces and agencies for intelligence gathering and military communications. The technology has extensively been used by the US and European armed forces for over the last decade and as such are the largest contributors to the market as of 2015. The technology has been used to provide real-time data to ground troops on enemy movement and possible threats in the vicinity. Based on data and intelligence gathered, troops are able to make informed decisions. As a result of the tactical advantage which extremely high frequency technology provides, the military of numerous governments have invested heavily into the technology.In terms of investment in space exploration, the technology is widely used for transmission between satellites and stations, probes etc as the data transmitted through the large distance is done so with minimal loss which is extremely important considering the type and volume of data being transmitted over the large distance.Avail more information from Sample Brochure, Get a Copy @Extremely High Frequency (EHF) Technology MarketThe Extremely High Frequency (EHF) Technology Market can be segmented on the basis of type: ISR Navigation SATCOM OthersIn terms of product, the Extremely High Frequency (EHF) Technology Market has been segmented across the following: Hardware Software Middleware OthersIn terms of application, the Extremely High Frequency (EHF) Technology Market has been segmented across the following: Aerospace & Defense Telecommunications Space exploration OthersThe market has been segmented based on the following geographies: North America South America APAC Europe Middle East AfricaFollowing are just a few of the companies that are operating in the Extremely High Frequency (EHF) Technology Market (GPU) market: Boeing Lockheed Martin Northrop Grumman Raytheon ThalesProcure this report @About us:MarketIntelReports (MIR) aim to empower our clients to successfully manage and outperform in their business decisions, we do this by providing Premium Market Intelligence, Strategic Insights and Databases from a range of GlobalPublishers.A group of industry veterans who are well experienced in reputed international consulting firms after identifying the sourcing needs of MNCs for market intelligence, have together started this business savior MarketIntelReports.Contact us:Sales ManagerMayur S2711 Centerville Road, Suite 400,Wilmington,Delaware,19808United Statespr@marketintelreports.comTelephone: 1-302-261-5343 The Asquith Group Asia, Tokyo Japan on Individual Investors http://theasquithgroup.com/ The Asquith Group works diligently to achieve our clients' financial objectives.Your Investments at your ConvenienceFor The Asquith Group, it is vital that it can handle their clients assets in a manner which satisfies their needs. As a partner, the company collaborates with you to develop your own personalized investment profile which includes your vision, goals, risk capacity level and specialized needs; building your individual investment plan in the end. At whatever pace you desire, we will work accordingly.Investment Management and Financial PlanningOur company will take sufficient time to determine what you value and to develop a strategy for enhancing your assets which is tailor-made to suit your objectives, aspirations and preferences. Maintaining your investments within a single portfolio guarantees that all your assets function as one to build present and future wealth for you and your family. Acquiring a total perspective of our clients assets and liabilities provides us dependable and broad knowledge needed to assess your accounts performance. Doing so allows us to furnish educated investment advice more attuned to your specific objectives. The Asquith Group Investment Advisors offers financial guidance to help protect your interests and establish your family heritage.Your Omnipresent PartnerWe focus on providing an accessible, client-based service; and we have established durable partnerships with many clients through the years. As a result, our clients have trusted our capability to serve their interests for years and for many generations.Together We Can Make Decisions for Your Bright FutureThe Asquith Group will act as your Registered Investment advisory firm and fiduciary to counsel you through the various crucial investment steps you will take from hereon. Likewise, we provide the expertise of forming a group of professionals to develop a comprehensive financial and estate plan. Specifically, we can seek a qualified lawyer and CPA to assist with business-succession strategies, estate planning, individual financial planning, and even tax mitigation and other issues. The Asquith Group will work with you to show you the right decisions to attain financial security.The Asquith Group offers Registered Investment Advisory service on fee-only basis; hence, we do not charge commission for our financial services, in contrast to insurance agents, securities-sales practitioners and wire-house brokers. Our investment counsellors sit beside our clients during meetings to remove any appearance of threat that every decision they make will entail a monetary exposure. Obviously, no one will gain any benefit in promoting anything that brings no benefit. Having a fee-only partner working with the client, you only pay for investment advice, not commissions based on investments bought or sold.The Asquith Group Asia, Tokyo JapanAddress: 10F S-GATE Akasaka sanno,2, Akasaka, Minato-ku,Tokyo 107-0052, JapanEmail: info@theasquithgroup.comTel: +81 3 4243 3187Fax: +81 3 6740 2388Website: Global Spark Plugs Market is Expected to Grow at a CAGR of 5.5% by 2022 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1931 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/spark-plugs-market https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/microcontroller-embedded-systems-market Market Research Future published a half-cooked research report on global spark plugs market. The global market spark plugs is expected to grow at a CAGR of about 5.5% during the forecast period, 2016 to 2022.Market Highlights:Spark Plugs are the device to transfer the electric current from ignition system to combustion chamber of a vehicle. Stringent regulations & norms by government regarding emissions & fuel efficiency and growth of automotive industries are driving the market for spark plugs. Advanced spark plugs improves cold starting and generates efficient combustion which in turn increases the fuel efficiency and performance of the vehicles. Hot spark plugs by product type contributes the largest share of the global spark plugs market. Also, shift towards electric vehicles is restraining the growth of global market for spark plug. The global Spark Plugs market is expected to show a growth at CAGR of about 5.5% from 2016 to 2022.Asia-Pacific is expected to dominate the spark plugs market in the forecast period. Asia-Pacific holds the largest market for the automotive industries. Asia-Pacific region is dominated by spark plugged petrol engine vehicles which in turn is expected to drive the market for spark plug.Request a Sample Copy @Key Players of Spark Plugs Market: NGK Spark Plug Co. Ltd. Federal-Mogul Corporation Borgwarner Inc. Denso Corporation, Robert Bosch Gmbh General Motors (Acdelco Corporation) Delphi Automotive Valeo Weichai Power Co. Ltd. UCI-Fram Autobrands (Autolite)Scope of the report:This study provides an overview of the global spark plugs industry, tracking market segments across the categorized four geographic regions. The report provides a five-year forecast for the market size in terms of value for North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of the world. The scope of the study segments the global spark plugs market based on product type, material type, market, and vehicle type.Access Report Details @Brief TOC for Spark Plugs:1. Report Prologue2. Introduction2.1. Definition2.2. Scope of the Study2.2.1. Research Objective2.2.2. Assumptions2.2.3. Limitations2.3. Market Structure2.4. Market Segmentation3. Research Methodology3.1. Research Process3.2. Primary Research3.3. Secondary Research3.4. Market Size Estimation3.5. Forecast Model4. Market Dynamics4.1. Drivers & Opportunities4.2. Challenges & Restraints4.3. Value Chain Analysis4.4. Porters Five Forces Analysis5. Spark Plugs Market, By Product Type5.1. Introduction5.2. Hot Spark Plug5.3. Cold Spark PlugsContinueTarget Audience: Manufacturers of Spark Plugs Raw material suppliers for Spark Plugs Automotive OEMs and Aftermarkets Government and research organization Investment bankers and M&A ConsultantsRelated Report:Global Microcontroller Embedded Systems Market information research report, by scale (small, medium and large), by type (software, hardware), by application (automotive, healthcare, telecommunication, consumer electronics, aerospace and defense) - Global Forecast 2027Know more about this report @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Contact:Akash AnandMarket Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com Global Lower GI Series Market is Increasing Globally - In Depth Industry Analysis & Forecast to 2027 Lower GI Series Market Overview: A lower GI series also said to be a lower gastrointestinal series or barium enema is one of the medical procedure which are used in the examination and diagnose with the problem related to human colon or large intestine and rectum. Lower GI series is one of the test which helps to detect the diseases and abnormalities and diagnose the symptoms such as. The lower GI series test can be examined by the X-ray pictures of patients. This examination assesses the transverse colon, ascending and right colon, the left or descending colon, the sigmoid colon and the rectum. It also includes the portion of small intestine and appendix. Key Players of Lower GI Series Market: GastroIntestinal Endoscopy GastroIntestinal Specialists Eisai US Cadila Pharmaceuticals Limited PeaceHealth Purdue Pharma L.P. Alfa Wassermann NOVADAQ Mount Sinai Beth Israel AstraZeneca Ironwood Pharmaceuticals Request a Sample Copy @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/771 Market Segmentation: For the purpose of this study, MRFR has segmented the global lower GI series market into applications, test types and end users. The application segment is divided into Colon polyps, tumors, Diverticular disease, Gastroenteritis, Strictures Crohn's disease or lcerative colitis and others such as constipation, pain or blood in the stools. The test types segment is divided into the single-contrast technique and the double-contrast technique. The end users are divided into hospitals, laboratories and clinics. Lower GI Series Market Application: The lower GI series test or barium enemas are mostly used to examine the rectum or large intestine. The lower GI series test are examine to identify and detect the diseases such as Colon polyps, tumors, Diverticular disease, Gastroenteritis, lcerative colitis or Strictures Crohn's disease and others such as constipation, pain or blood in the stools. The lower GI series tests are widely used by the hospitals and clinics due to the large number of patients increasing across the globe. Access Report Details @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/lower-gi-series-market Market Growth Influencer: The global lower GI Series market has seen a prospective growth in the recent days. Earlier, the diagnoses of the diseases such as Colon polyps, tumors, diverticular disease, gastroenteritis, strictures crohn's disease or icerative colitis was very complex and difficult to diagnose. But the invention of lower GI series test has pushed the healthcare industry to the upper level. The technological advancements, growing disposable income, rising people awareness about the lower GI series test has put a potential scope for the global lower GI series market across the globe. Increase in the number on healthcare centers, hospitals, clinics and laboratories have also driven the market. The major key challenges for this particular market are that X-rays observed and managed to give the minimum amount of radiation to create the picture. Most specialists feel that the danger is low contrasted and the advantages. Children and pregnant ladies are more touchy or sensitive to the risk and dangers of ionizing radiation. Related Report: Global Ovarian Cysts Market Information, by type (functional cysts, polycystic ovary syndrome, dermoid cysts, endometriomas and others), by treatment (polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) drugs, laparoscopy, laparotomy and others), by end user (hospital, clinics and others) - Forecast to 2022 Know more about this report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/ovarian-cysts-market-research-report-global-forecast-to-2022 About Market Research Future: At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services. MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions. Contact: Akash Anand Market Research Future Office No. 528, Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road, Hadapsar, Pune - 411028 Maharashtra, India +1 646 845 9312 Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com This release was published on openPR. Permanent link to this press release: Copy Please set a link in the press area of your homepage to this press release on openPR. openPR disclaims liability for any content contained in this release. Global Telecentric Camera Objective Market 2016 Industry Trends, Sales, Supply, Demand, Analysis & Forecast to 2021 Telecentric Camera Objective http://bit.ly/2iKqYwR http://bit.ly/2iKvWtK Global Telecentric Camera Objective Industry 2016 Market Survey Study Analysis and Overview : Industry Trend, Size, Share, Growth and ForecastThe report on the Telecentric Camera Objective market offers a broad overview of the dynamics at play on both the buy side and sell side. In order to deepen readers understanding of the Telecentric Camera Objective market, the report provides brief historical highlights that have influenced developments herein. Furthermore, the report segments the Telecentric Camera Objective market on the basis of fundamental yet critical parameters such as: applications, product/technology types, and geographical regions. Given that the value chain is an inextricable part of the Telecentric Camera Objective market, the report analyzes the same in great detail.Click Here to Request Sample Report @Factors that are external to the Telecentric Camera Objective market, yet influence its future course are discussed by the team of analysts working on this report. A number of other analytical essentials such as the present and projected economic situation and macroeconomic environment form an integral part of the report.The report also provides recommendations for growth based on the present regulatory environments, focusing on regions that will hold future growth opportunities. Key factors such as the availability of alternatives to Telecentric Camera Objective , the threat from emerging competitors, and buying power of customers are assessed to provide strategic insights. The report on the Telecentric Camera Objective market lays emphasis on the competitive landscape, with a detailed evaluation of the current market leaders, their revenues, strategic collaborations and plans, and pricing tactics.Browse Full Report at @The findings of this Telecentric Camera Objective report will prove valuable in formulating new market entry plans, financial models and competition tracking. The Telecentric Camera Objective market research study has been composed using key inputs from industry experts. Furthermore, the extensive primary and secondary research data with which the report has been composed helps deliver the key statistical forecasts, in terms of both revenue and volume. In addition to this, the trends and revenue analysis of the China Telecentric Camera Objective market as compared to the global Telecentric Camera Objective market has been mentioned in this report. This will give a clear perspective to the readers how the Telecentric Camera Objective market will fare Globally.About Us:QYResearch Group is a single destination for all the industry, company and country reports. QYResearch Group also carries the capability to assist you with your customized market research requirements including in-depth market surveys, primary interviews, competitive landscaping, and company profiles. We feature large repository of latest industry reports, leading and niche company profiles, and market statistics. QYResearch Group is the comprehensive collection of market intelligence products and services available on air.Contact US:Joel John3422 SW 15 Street, Suit #8138,Deerfield Beach, Florida 33442,United StatesTel: +1-386-310-3803GMT Tel: +49-322 210 92714USA/Canada Toll Free No. 1-855-465-4651 DPI Research Report: Zika Virus Vaccines Market - Clinical Trials Insight & Recent Development http://www.dpiresearch.com/ http://www.dpiresearch.com/report-details.php?P_ID=92 It is predicted that Zika virus vaccines shot will available to the public by 2018.Zika virus is an emerging viral disease that is transmitted through the bite of an infected mosquito, primarily Aedes aegypti, the same vector that transmits chikungunya, dengue and yellow fever. Zika has a similar epidemiology, clinical presentation and transmission cycle in urban environments as chikungunya and dengue, although it generally causes milder illness.The highest risk is to pregnant women due to the connection the virus has with serious birth defects. Pregnant women who contract the virus have a high possibility of giving birth to a baby with microcephaly, a neurodevelopment disorder, where a baby is born with an unusually small head due to abnormal brain development in the womb or after birth. Complications of this disorder include seizures and developmental issues.Due to the serious nature of global risk, the WHO has declared the microcephaly cases associated with the Zika virus a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). With no vaccines or cure the virus and its risks are expected to continue to spread. The WHO is predicting up to 4 Million Zika cases in the Americas by 2016 and the World Bank is projecting the short-term economic impact for 2016, in Latin America and the Caribbean to be about US$3.5 Billion.With fears of Zika virus reaching new heights,Zika virus vaccines are gaining popularity. Many Government agencies and research institutes support pharmaceutical companies for the development & manufacturing of Zika virus vaccines. It is predicted that Zika virus vaccines shot will available to the public by 2018.The research report presents a comprehensivestudy of the Zika virus vaccines with details. It provides essential insights of introduction of Zika virus, current situation and areas with Zika virus and funding in Zika virus vaccines research. Additionally, the report includes assessment of clinical trials and regulatory landscape of Zika virus vaccines development. Key trends in terms of partnerships, collaborations and licensing agreements are analyzed with details. The report concludes with the profiles of major players in the Zika virus vaccines development such as Sanofi Pasteur,ImmunoVaccines Inc, Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc, Valneva, Bharat Biotech International Pvt. Ltd., NewLink Genetics. The major players are evaluated on various parameters such as company overview, product outlook and Zika virus vaccines latest development and trends.report has been analyzed from 7 viewpoints:1. Zika Virus Introduction, Signs and Symptoms, Transmission, Diagnosis, Treatment & Prevention2. Current Situation & Areas with Zika Virus3. Competitive Landscape of The Zika Virus Vaccines Companies4. Funding in Zika Virus Vaccines Research5. Zika Virus Vaccines Clinical Trials Insight by Phase & Trial Status6. Zika Virus Vaccines Regulatory Landscape7. Key Companies AnalysisContact Info:Name: Maria Rai,Sales ManagerEmail: sales@dpiresearch.comOrganization: DPI ResearchPhone: + 91 728-994-9987DPI Research is a business solutions firm which offer bespoke syndicated research reports, custom research solutions, marketing services and social research across multi geographies and industry verticals. We deliver wide range of cutting-edge research solutions that helps organizations in making better decisions of the business to business needs.DPI Research provides high standard of business research reports to the clients across industry verticals comprising Life Sciences, Information Technology, Telecom & Internet, Food Beverages & Agriculture, Travel & Tourism, Consumer Goods & Retail, Education and Social Sciences. We are committed to use advanced analytical tools and methodologies to help clients with crucial industry information for decision making.DPI Research approaches for the business research led by a team of dynamic industry experts. DPI Research provides a real insight for effective decisions to help business with the help of current source and accurate data available in the market. DPI Research reach across the globe with global standards from established markets in the North America and Europe to emerging markets in South America, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa to provide the best business solutions.DPI ResearchVasant Kunj, New Delhi - 110070press@dpiresearch.com(+91) 7289949987 Surgical Gowns Market: Software, Service, Deployment, Vertical, and Region - Global Forecast to 2021 https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/sample/surgical-gowns-market https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/inquiry/surgical-gowns-market https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/report/surgical-gowns-market https://zionmarketresearch.wordpress.com/ http://www.zionmarketresearch.com Surgical gowns are the hygienic clothing worn by surgeons and other operating theatre staff during an operation. It is also defined as a protective plastic gown worn by a surgeon during a surgery or operations. Surgical gowns provide with the high level of protection by reducing the risk of transmission of bacteria from the surrounding medium to the person performing the surgery or operation. Surgical gowns are necessary as there are always microorganisms on the skin and in the surrounding medium even after strict hygiene and sterilization procedure. The advantage of using surgical gown during surgeries is that it provides precaution against the spread of infection. These gowns provide its user against blood, urine, bodily fluids, saline, and other chemicals while surgery. Some of the surgical apparels available in the market are surgical gowns, surgical gloves, head wear, chemotherapy gowns, face masks, footwear, surgical drapes and scrub suits.Request Free Sample Report @The global surgical gowns market is growing at a considerable rate owing to rising number of surgeries and technological advancements in the medical field. Factors such as cost effectiveness, product innovations, increase in awareness about hospital-acquired infections, rising need for better infection control, growing concern about patient protection, an increase in ageing population, and growing stringent regulations for healthcare professionals and patient safety are fuelling the growth of the global surgical gowns market. Conversely, strict government regulations on the quality and price of the products act as a restraint for the growth global market.On the basis of type, the global surgical gowns market is segmented as reusable gowns and disposable gowns. Reusable gowns are made up of fabric, usually cotton, which can withstand repeated laundering in hot water. These gowns are usually fastened at the back with twill tape ties. On the hand, disposable gowns are made up of paper or thin plastic which can be fastened at the back with paper or plastic ties. Most of the surgical gowns are manufactured taking into account some important factors such as dignity, comfort, and safety. These factors play an important role in the growth of the global surgical gowns market.Inquire more before buying this report @North America and Europe dominate the global market for surgical gowns owing to a large number of aging population and increasing healthcare coverage resulting in the increase in surgeries. Some of the key factors that are driving the North American surgical gowns market include increasing stringent regulations for healthcare professionals and patient safety and number of surgical procedures. Also, Asia-Pacific is considered as an emerging market owing to increasing market penetration in this region. Rest of the World (RoW) holds the fourth position in the global medical protective clothing market due to its poor economic and health conditions in most of the African countries.Major companies dominating the global surgical gowns market are C.R. Bard, 3M Health Care, Halyard Health, Cardinal Health, Johnson & Johnson, Hartmann AG, Lohmann & Rauscher, Molnlycke, Kimberly-Clark Health Care, and Stryker. Other key players dominating the market are Paul, Cardiva Integral Solutions, and Medline.Browse detail report @Surgical Gowns Market: Regional Segment AnalysisNorth AmericaU.S.EuropeUKFranceGermanyAsia PacificChinaJapanIndiaLatin AmericaBrazilMiddle East and AfricaVisit Our Blog:About UsZion Market Research 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. Zion Market Research experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants uses 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.Contact US:Zion Market Research4283, Express Lane,Suite 634-143,Sarasota, Florida 34249, United StatesTel: +49-322 210 92714USA/Canada Toll Free No.1-855-465-4651Email: sales@zionmarketresearch.comWebsite: Surgical Apparel Market will explore robust size & growth during 2015 2021 https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/sample/surgical-apparel-market https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/toc/surgical-apparel-market https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/report/surgical-apparel-market https://zionmarketresearch.wordpress.com/ http://www.zionmarketresearch.com Surgical apparels are the hygienic clothing worn by surgeons and other operating theater staff during an operation. It is also defined as a protective plastic gown worn by a surgeon during a surgery or operations. Surgical apparels provide with the high level of protection by reducing the risk of transmission of bacteria from the surrounding medium to the person performing the surgery or operation. Surgical apparels are necessary as there are always microorganisms on the skin and in the surrounding medium even after strict hygiene and sterilization procedure. The advantage of using surgical gown during surgeries is that it provides precaution against the spread of infection. These apparels provide its user against blood, urine, bodily fluids, saline, and other chemicals while surgery. Some of the surgical apparels available in the market are surgical apparels, surgical gloves, head wear, chemotherapy apparels, face masks, footwear, surgical drapes and scrub suits.Request Free Sample Report @The global surgical apparels market is growing at a considerable rate owing to rising number of surgeries and technological advancements in the medical field. Factors such as cost effectiveness, product innovations, increase in awareness about hospital-acquired infections, rising need for better infection control, growing concern about patient protection, the increase in aging population, and growing stringent regulations for healthcare professionals and patient safety are fuelling the growth of the global surgical apparels market. Conversely, strict government regulations on the quality and price of the products act as the restraint for the growth global market.Request Report TOC (Table of Contents) @On the basis of type, the global surgical apparels market is segmented as reusable apparels and disposable apparels. Reusable apparels are made up of fabric, usually cotton, which can withstand repeated laundering in hot water. These apparels are usually fastened at the back with twill tape ties. On the hand, disposable apparels are made up of paper or thin plastic which cane fastened at the back with paper or plastic ties. Most of the surgical apparels are manufactured taking into account some important factors such as dignity, comfort, and safety. These factors play an important role in the growth of the global surgical apparels market.Browse detail report @North America and Europe dominate the global market for surgical apparels owing to a large number of aging population and increasing healthcare coverage resulting in the increase in surgeries. Some of the key factors that are driving the North American surgical apparels market include increasing stringent regulations for healthcare professionals and patient safety and number of surgical procedures. Also, Asia-Pacific is considered as an emerging market owing to increasing market penetration in this region. Rest of the World (RoW) holds the fourth position in the global medical protective clothing market due to its poor economic and health conditions in most of the African countries.Major companies dominating the global surgical apparels market are C.R. Bard, 3M Health Care, Halyard Health, Cardinal Health, Johnson & Johnson, Hartmann AG, Lohmann & Rauscher, Molnlycke, Kimberly-Clark Health Care, and Stryker. Other key players dominating the market are Paul, Cardiva Integral Solutions, and Medline.Visit Our Blog:Surgical Apparel Market: Regional Segment AnalysisNorth AmericaU.S.EuropeUKFranceGermanyAsia PacificChinaJapanIndiaLatin AmericaBrazilMiddle East and AfricaAbout UsZion Market Research is an obligated company. We create futuristically, cutting edge, informative reports ranging from industry reports, a company reports to country reports. We provide our clients not only with market statistics unveiled by avowed private publishers and public organizations but also with vogue and newest industry reports along with pre-eminent and niche company profiles. Our database of market research reports comprises a wide variety of reports from cardinal industries. Our database is been updated constantly in order to fulfill our clients with prompt and direct online access to our database. Keeping in mind the clients needs, we have included expert insights on global industries, products, and market trends in this database. Last but not the least, we make it our duty to ensure the success of clients connected to usafter allif you do well, a little of the light shines on us.Contact US:Zion Market Research4283, Express Lane,Suite 634-143,Sarasota, Florida 34249, United StatesTel: +49-322 210 92714USA/Canada Toll-Free No.1-855-465-4651Email: sales@zionmarketresearch.comWebsite: SMART RESEARCH:Global Almonds Ingredients Market Research Report 2016 http://www.researchbeam.com/global-almonds-ingredients-research-report-2016-market/request-sample http://www.researchbeam.com/global-almonds-ingredients-research-report-2016-market/enquire-about-report http://www.researchbeam.com/ Research Beam added a report Global Almonds Ingredients Market Research Report 2016Description:Global Almonds Ingredients Market Research Report 2016:The Global Almonds Ingredients Market Research Report Industry Research Report is a comprehensive study of the recent market trends and consumption analysis in the global industry. The report provides an in-depth analysis for the historic period, 20112016 and the forecast period, 20162021. Market overview is offered on the basis of product overview and scope of Global Almonds Ingredients Market Research Report 2016in the Food and Beverage. Furthermore, the study covers a detailed segmentation in terms of types, applications, and regions.Download Sample Report @:Regional analysis for the Global Almonds Ingredients Market Research Report 2016 in the Food and Beverage Research Report 2016 market is provided based on revenue, sales, and growth rate. In addition, sales and market share for each segment are included for each region.Following regions are analyzed: North America Global China Japan Southeast Asia IndiaMajor manufacturers are analyzed in the report in terms of basic information, manufacturing base, product specifications, and business overview. Furthermore, comprehensive analysis of sales, revenue, price, and gross margin of each manufacturer is covered.Following manufacturers are analyzed: ADM Olam Kanegrade Bredabest Barry Callebaut Schweiz Intersnack Borges CG Hacking & Sons Besanaworld VoicevaleGet Enquire @Manufacturing cost analysis is offered based on raw material analysis and cost structure along with manufacturing process analysis. The research offers industry chain analysis in terms of upstream raw material sourcing and downstream buyers. Moreover, an extensive analysis of production, consumption, and revenue for each segment is offered for the forecast period.Data & statistics are provided with the help of tables and figures to help manufacturers, investors, and shareholders gain comprehensive understanding. Research conclusions are offered at the end of the report.Table of Contents:1 Almonds Ingredients Market Overview2 Global Almonds Ingredients Market Competition by Manufacturers3 Global Almonds Ingredients Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2011-2016)4 Global Almonds Ingredients Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2011-2016)5 Global Almonds Ingredients Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type6 Global Almonds Ingredients Market Analysis by Application7 Global Almonds Ingredients Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis8 Almonds Ingredients Manufacturing Cost Analysis9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders11 Market Effect Factors Analysis12 Global Almonds Ingredients Market Forecast (2016-2021)13 Research Findings and ConclusionAbout Us:With the arsenal of different search reports, Research Beam helps you here to look and buy research reports that will be helpful to you and your organization. Our research reports have the capability and authenticity to support your organization for growth and consistency. With the window of opportunity getting open and shut at a speed of light, it has become very important to survive in the market and only the fittest and competent enough can do so. So, we try and provide with latest changes in the market that can suit your needs and help you take decision accordingly.Contact Us:5933 NE Win Severs Drive,#205, Portland, OR 97220United StatesU.S. & Canada Toll Free: + 1-800-910-6452International: + 1-503-894-6022UK: + 44-845-528-1300India: +91 20 66346070Fax: +1 (855) 550-5975Email: help@researchbeam.comWeb: NEW RESEARCH:Global Brazil Nuts Ingredients Market Research Report 2016 http://www.researchbeam.com/global-brazil-nuts-ingredients-research-report-2016-market/request-sample http://www.researchbeam.com/global-brazil-nuts-ingredients-research-report-2016-market/enquire-about-report http://www.researchbeam.com/ Research Beam added a report Global Brazil Nuts Ingredients Market Research Report 2016Description:Global Brazil Nuts Ingredients Market Research Report 2016:The Global Brazil Nuts Ingredients Market Research Report Industry Research Report is a comprehensive study of the recent market trends and consumption analysis in the global industry. The report provides an in-depth analysis for the historic period, 20112016 and the forecast period, 20162021. Market overview is offered on the basis of product overview and scope of Global Brazil Nuts Ingredients Market Research in the Food and Beverage. Furthermore, the study covers a detailed segmentation in terms of types, applications, and regions.Download Sample Report @:Regional analysis for the Global Brazil Nuts Ingredients Market Research Report 2016in the Food and Beverage Sector Research Report 2016 market is provided based on revenue, sales, and growth rate. In addition, sales and market share for each segment are included for each region.Following regions are analyzed: North America Global China Japan Southeast Asia IndiaMajor manufacturers are analyzed in the report in terms of basic information, manufacturing base, product specifications, and business overview. Furthermore, comprehensive analysis of sales, revenue, price, and gross margin of each manufacturer is covered.Following manufacturers are analyzed: ADM Olam Kanegrade Bredabest Barry Callebaut Schweiz Intersnack Borges CG Hacking & Sons Besanaworld VoicevaleGet Enquire @Manufacturing cost analysis is offered based on raw material analysis and cost structure along with manufacturing process analysis. The research offers industry chain analysis in terms of upstream raw material sourcing and downstream buyers. Moreover, an extensive analysis of production, consumption, and revenue for each segment is offered for the forecast period.Data & statistics are provided with the help of tables and figures to help manufacturers, investors, and shareholders gain comprehensive understanding. Research conclusions are offered at the end of the report.Table of Contents:1 Brazil Nuts Ingredients Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Brazil Nuts Ingredients1.2 Brazil Nuts Ingredients Segment by Type2 Global Brazil Nuts Ingredients Market Competition by Manufacturers3 Global Brazil Nuts Ingredients Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2011-2016)4 Global Brazil Nuts Ingredients Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2011-2016)5 Global Brazil Nuts Ingredients Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type6 Global Brazil Nuts Ingredients Market Analysis by Application7 Global Brazil Nuts Ingredients Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis8 Brazil Nuts Ingredients Manufacturing Cost Analysis9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders11 Market Effect Factors Analysis12 Global Brazil Nuts Ingredients Market Forecast (2016-2021)13 Research Findings and ConclusionAbout Us:With the arsenal of different search reports, Research Beam helps you here to look and buy research reports that will be helpful to you and your organization. Our research reports have the capability and authenticity to support your organization for growth and consistency. With the window of opportunity getting open and shut at a speed of light, it has become very important to survive in the market and only the fittest and competent enough can do so. So, we try and provide with latest changes in the market that can suit your needs and help you take decision accordingly.Contact Us:5933 NE Win Severs Drive,#205, Portland, OR 97220United StatesU.S. & Canada Toll Free: + 1-800-910-6452International: + 1-503-894-6022UK: + 44-845-528-1300India: +91 20 66346070Fax: +1 (855) 550-5975Email: help@researchbeam.comWeb: Propionic Acid Market Expecting Worldwide Growth by 2026 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/12130 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/12130 Propionic acid is a colorless liquid with pungent smell. It is miscible with water and few organic solvents and is also known by synonyms like carboxylic acid, carboxyethane, ethanecarboxylic acid, ethylformic acid, etc. Propionic acid is a naturally occurring substance which is available in the form of esters in essential oils. Key raw materials used for the production of propionic acid are carbon monoxide and ethylene.A sample of this report is available upon request @Propionic acid is used as a versatile preservative for human food and animal feed. It also serves as a synthetic intermediate to produce pharmaceuticals, crop protection agents and solvents. Moreover, propionic acid is used to manufacture esters, vitamin E and also as a flavoring agent in food products. In the manufacture of cellulose acetate propionate (CAP), a thermoplastic, propionic acid is utilized as an intermediate. Growth trends of food, feed, and pharmaceutical industries are expected to remain key factors affecting the market growth of propionic acid and the global market is expected to increase at a moderate CAGR over the forecast period 2016-2016.The increasing application of propionic acid as a food & an animal feed preservative is expected to be a key factor driving the growth of the propionic acid market globally. Consumption of propionic acid in herbicides and in the manufacture of cellulose acetate propionate is also expected to be significant through 2026.Ever increasing global food demand, coupled with the rising need for hygienic food products, drives the demand for food preservation which, in turn, is expected to boost the global propionic acid market for its use as mold inhibitors in food products. Due to changing lifestyle, consumption of packaged food, which requires the use of preservatives, has significantly increased over the past few years and is expected to fuel the demand for propionic acid across the globe.The macroeconomic growth of the agricultural industry is further expected to push the demand for propionic acid globally. Propionic acid is used to control the growth of molds on crops and also protects various agriculture products from bacteria. A significant amount of propionic acid is consumed globally to manufacture cellulose acetate propionate (CAP). Moderately growing downstream consumption of CAP is expected to facilitate the growth of the global propionic acid market, though at a modest CAGR, over the forecast period.Request to view Table of content @Human exposure of propionic acid, either through skin, eye, ingestion, and inhalation, may be dangerous and special care is required while treating and transporting the same.Due to growing population and food & feed production, market outlook for Asia-Pacific is expected to remain fairly positive over the coming years. In North America and Western Europe, the propionic acid market is expected to increase at moderate CAGR. USA and Western Europe are estimated to stand among key suppliers of propionic acid. USA was a net exporter of propionic acid and its salts & esters in 2015. China and India accounted for significant shares in the overall Asia Pacific market demand and major demand was met was imports in 2015.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.Persistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd.305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.com High Voltage Cable Market Expected to Be Biggest Emerging Market by 2021 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/8146 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/8146 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/ Any voltage above 1,000 volts is defined as the high voltage. High voltage cables are used for electric power transmission at high voltage. This kind of cables are manufactured with the protective jacket, insulation and one or more conductors. High voltage cables can be used for underground & underwater applications, buildings and overhead lines to transmit electricity. The insulation of the high voltage cables does not deteriorate due to high voltage. For the insulation purpose or to control the electric field around the conductor, high voltage cables have additional layers. The cables with higher power distribution capacity are insulated with oil and paper. The insulation over the cable prevents the direct contact with persons and other objects as well. The length of the high voltage cable varies as per the application and requirement. For instance, high voltage cables of longer length are used in an industrial application and as well as at buildings and shorter cables are used in the apparatus.A sample of this report is available upon request @The quality of high voltage cables depends on semiconducting layers and the insulation. To maintain a high quality of the cable, the insulation has to be cavity and defect free.The global high voltage cable market is primarily driven by the growing demand from industries and energy distribution centres. Across the globe, industries are investing the development or updating the infrastructure to accommodate the power transmission requirements. In regions like North America, where the grids have become less effective and efficient as they are aged, the grid infrastructure needs up gradation to provide continuous power supply to avoid power shortages. The importance of renewable energy is growing globally, and governments are investing in creating infrastructure for the same. For instance, governments in countries such as U.S. and China are investing in creating infrastructure for renewable energy sources. Energy infrastructure up gradation and instalments are fuelling the growth in the global high voltage cable market during the expected period.The global high voltage cable market is expected to be inhibited by the fluctuations in the raw materials. The global high voltage cable industry players are expected to experience the drop in the profit margin, which is further expected to inhibit the market growth.The global high voltage cable market by value is expected to expand at a CAGR of around 79% during the forecast period (2015-2025), due to increasing demand for high voltage cables from various industries.The global high voltage cable market can be segmented by end-use, by Products and by regions.Based on end-use, the global high voltage cable market is segmented as:UndergroundOverheadSubmarineBased on products, the global high voltage cable market is segmented as:Overhead ProductsoConductorsoFittingoFixturesUnderground and SubmarineoMI CablesoCable JointsoCable TerminationsoXLPE CablesThe global high voltage cable market is expected to register a single-digit CAGR for the forecast period. Depending on geographic regions, global high voltage cable market is segmented into seven key regions: North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan, Japan, and the Middle East & Africa (MEA). In terms of market revenue, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan high voltage cable market is projected to register a significant CAGR during the forecast period. Growing industry activities are fuelling the growth of high voltage cable market in APEJ. Growing demand for energy is another factor, which is expected to fuel the demand for high voltage cable in APEJ.A TOC of this report is available upon request @Some of the key market participants in global high voltage cable market are Finolex Cables, Okonite, Belden, General Cable, Prysmian, Nexans, Sumitomo Electric Industries, Southwire, Okonite, KEI Industries and International Wire Group.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 using a suitable set of assumptions and methodologies. The research report provides analysis and information according to categories such as market segments by geographies and by end-use and by product type.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 ATM Market is Expected to Witness Significant Growth Over the Period 2016 - 2022 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/8368 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/8368 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/ ATM is the abbreviation used for Automatic Teller Machine, which is a product of technological advancement developed to enhance the financial services such as cash withdrawals, funds transfer, cash deposit, transactions as payment of bills by credit card or debit card, mini statements and other financial enquiries. ATM does all these processes by an accessing personal identification number (PIN) & a plastic card having a magnetic strip over it containing the customer identity. A decade ago, ATM were used only as a cash dispenser machines, means were used only to withdraw cash and for balance enquiry. Now days every financial institution is using this system to attract their customers & to serve them even outside the banking hall. Before some years banking processes and transaction was very easy tasks of walk in the bank venue & deposit or withdraw the cash through a manual counter without much congestion and queues by cheque books or cash books, but in recent time it is becoming tedious and time consuming process as the complexity of human demand & business demand force customers to go in and out of banking halls frequently & hence ATM is becoming a good substitution for it.A sample of this report is available upon request @The global ATM market is progressively growing in a developing regions and with addition of smart ATM s, Solar ATM s enhancing the market size of Global ATM market.The key trends responsible for the growth of the Global ATM market are the transition of a class banking to mass banking as well as customers have been more interested in the self-service channels for last some years. The key drivers of ATM market driving its market are tremendous growth of retail automation for last some years, robust security standards, Banks are focusing on increasing the number of ATM s globally, advancement in the wireless communication. On the flip side, the key restraints inhibit the growth of global ATM market which are mentioned below; some security threats, major risk linked with the ATM machines as theft, rise in skimming activities, hacking of customers personal information and transactional details, connectivity and operational issues are limiting global ATM market.The segmentation of Global ATM market is done on the basis of; solution or service type, product type & Geography. On the basis of solution type or service type, Global ATM market is segmented into following types as; installation solution, Managed services & ATM card solution. Installation solution is further segmented into On-site ATM, Off-site ATM, mobile ATM & worksite ATM . Managed service is sub segmented as cash management, network management, currency management, security management and retail & enterprise solution.Segmentation of Global ATM market by its product type is done as; Conventional/Bank ATM, Solar Powered ATM, self-cashed or fully serviced ATM, smart ATM, cash dispenser ATM, free standing ATM, through-the-wall ATM, brown label ATM & others. With the addition of Smart ATM and white label ATM the growth of Global ATM market has been increasing tremendously.Geographical segmentation of ATM market is done into seven regions which are; North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Japan, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ), and Middle East and Africa (MEA). Presently North America is a global leader of ATM market and is expected to maintain the leadership throughout forecasting period.A TOC of this report is available upon request @The key players of global ATM market are GRGBanking, Hitachi Payment Services Pvt. Ltd, DIEBOLD INC., NCR Corporation, Triton Systems of Delaware LLC, Wincor Nixdorf AG & others.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 Bit Error Rate (BER) Tester Market is Expected to Witness Exponential Growth in Near Future http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/8389 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/8389 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/ Bit error rate (BER) is the number of bit errors per unit time or bit error ratio is defined as the ratio of total number of bits transferred over a communication medium to the total number of bit errors at the recipient side. Bit Error Rate (BER) testers are the systems used to detect the BER over any communication link as radio link, optical fiber, copper cable or others. When the data is transmitted from one place to another over a communication medium, there is a chances of error get introduced within the information data, especially because of the noisy environment of the medium over which information is transmitted. In short it is used to test the quality of link or the medium of communication, if there is less bit error rate which indicates good quality of system.A sample of this report is available upon request @Traditionally, bit error rate was associated only with radio links for communication, later bit error rate or bit error testing is applicable on other system also as Ethernet links, fiber optics links and other types of link system. Bit error tester doesnt only test the performance of links/medium but it tests the performance of whole system including transmitter receivers and the link between them.The key trend of Bit Error Rate (BER) tester market is the demand of Bit Error Rate (BER) tester because of compliance testing and validation of 40GbE & 100GbE networks will increase. The key growth drivers of Bit Error Rate (BER) tester market are increased demand of modular BERTs, increased growth of digital interfaces in global market, new and advanced emerging standards like 40 gig & 100gig are also the factors supporting the growth of global Bit Error Rate (BER) tester market. On the other hand lower education level in emerging regions, lower awareness of end user about Bit Error Rate (BER) testers applications & also the competition for standalone BERTs are the key restraints for Bit Error Rate (BER) tester market.Segmentation of Bit Error Rate (BER) tester market is done on the basis of product type, end user, applications & Geography. On the basis of product type, global Bit Error Rate (BER) tester market is segmented into two segments, traditional Bit Error Rate (BER) tester (BERT) or unframed BERT & other one is functional Bit Error Rate (BER) tester (BERT) or framed BERT. Functional Bit Error Rate (BER) tester is expected to witness higher growth rate owing to its high usage in maintenance and installation of network applications. On the basis of end user, global Bit Error Rate (BER) tester market is segmented into following segments; service providers, component system manufacturers (C&SM), enterprises & others (government contractors and contract manufacturing companies).On the basis of applications, global Bit Error Rate (BER) tester market is segmented into following three segments; installation and maintenance, research and development & manufacturing. Geographically, Bit Error Rate (BER) tester market is segmented into seven regions which are ; North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Japan, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ), and Middle East and Africa (MEA). Among all the seven region Asia Pacific is the highest contributor in term of revenue in global Bit Error Rate (BER) tester market, and is expected to maintain leadership during forecasting period as well in market of Bit Error Rate (BER) tester across the globe.A TOC of this report is available upon request @The key players of global Bit Error Rate (BER) tester market are Agilent Technologies Inc., JDS Uniphase Corporation, Anritsu Corporation, Centellax Inc., SHF Communication Technologies AG, Luceo Technologies GmbH & others.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each PMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With a wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports strive to serve clients and satisfy their overall research requirement.For information regarding permissions, contact:Persistence Market Research305 Broadway,7th FloorNew York City, NY 10007United StatesTel: +1 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWebsite:media@persistencemarketresearch.com Global VoIP Services Market is Expected to Account for US$ 194.5 Bn by 2024 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/4710 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/voip-services-market/toc http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/checkout/4710 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/ Global VoIP services market is anticipated to increase at a CAGR of 9.5% in terms of revenue over 20162024, to be valued at US$ 194.5 Bn by 2024.Request for Sample Copy of Report @According to the latest market report published by Persistence Market Research titled, Global Market Study on VoIP Services: Increasing Hybrid Cloud Communications in Small and Large Enterprises to Drive Market Growth over the Forecast Period, 2016 - 2024, the global VoIP services market was valued at US$ 85.9 Bn in 2015 and is anticipated to increase at a CAGR of 9.5% over 2016 - 2024, to reach US$ 194.5 Bn by 2024.Currently, the global VoIP services market is mainly driven by factors such as low maintenance cost with higher flexibility and minimum staff support, along with wider connectivity, increasing internet penetration in semi-urban and satellite cities as the internet is a basic tool and a global platform to make a business grow fast and in a more economical way. However, factors such as fluctuations in internet quality may affect market growth and can be a prominent restraint. During peak hours, the network may be congested due to many subscribers using internet services in a locality through single-cable network line and unsatisfactory contract proposals are some of the major factors expected to restrain growth of the global VoIP services market during the forecast period.In this report, the global VoIP services market has been segmented on the basis of call type, end use, configuration, services, and region. The APAC VoIP services market is expected to account for the highest market value share in the global VoIP services market by 2024 end, followed by Europe. The Latin America VoIP services market is expected to be the fastest growing market over the forecast period. Growth of the Europe VoIP services market is primarily attributed to the introduction of a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises. Also, expansion of the unified communication market in Belgium is expected to support growth of the VoIP service market in Europe over the forecast period. The VoIP services market in Europe is expected to increase at a CAGR of 8.4% in terms of value over the forecast period.The North America VoIP services market is expected to witness moderate growth over the forecast period; it accounted for 27.0% value share of the overall market in 2015 and is expected to register a moderate CAGR of 8.5% in terms of value over the forecast period. Increasing adoption of bring your own device (BYOD) policy is a major factor expected to drive growth of the VoIP services market in North America.The report provides detailed information about various market trends and offers analysis and insights about the potential of the global VoIP services market. Furthermore, the VoIP services market is segmented on the basis of call type into international long-distance VoIP calls and domestic VoIP calls. International long-distance VoIP services segment is estimated to be the highest contributor to the global VoIP services market in terms of value share by 2016 end, followed by domestic VoIP call segment.Request for Table of content @The VoIP services market has also been segmented on the basis of end use into Individual User and Corporate User. Individual User segment is expected to be the fastest growing segment in the end-use category over the forecast period. The segment is expected to increase at a CAGR of 9.2% over the forecast period in terms of revenue.Key players in the global VoIP services market include Vonage Holdings Corporation, 8x8 Inc., ShoreTel Nextiva Inc., RingCentral Inc., West Corporation, Verizon Communications Inc., Thinking Phone Networks, Inc., Inphonex LLC, and Phone Power LLC.To Buy Full Report for a Single User @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each PMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With a wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports strive to serve clients and satisfy their overall research requirement.For information regarding permissions, contact:Persistence Market Research305 Broadway,7th FloorNew York City, NY 10007United StatesTel: +1 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWebsite:media@persistencemarketresearch.com Global Smart Machines Market Value to Increase from US$ 55.3 Bn in 2015 to US$ 258.5 Bn by 2024 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/8872 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/smart-machines-market/toc http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/checkout/8872 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/ Smart machines are deployed to enhance networked resources and implement distributed intelligence in manufacturing industries. Integration of devices provides more accessibility. Smart machines can be easily connected to a broader network of connected devices, enabling users to share data on numerous devices. This ensures users to connect/access their devices from anywhere and anytime. This is expected to fuel demand for smart machines in various industries. The market in Australia is expected to witness substantial growth in adoption rates of smart machines over the next five years. Autonomous robots are expected to find applications in agriculture and commercial sectors to overcome the lack of labor in the country. Australia-based companies have also been investing significantly in advanced technologies such as IoT.Request for Sample Copy of Report @Persistence Market Research (PMR) delivers key insights on the global smart machines market in its upcoming report titled, Smart Machines Market: Global Industry Analysis and Forecast, 2016-2024. In terms of value, the global smart machines market is projected to register a healthy CAGR of 18.8% during the forecast period. This is attributed to various factors, regarding which PMR offers vital insights in detail.On the basis of a component, the global smart machines market has been segmented into hardware, software, and service. Demand for smart machines is enhanced by increasing need to process and analyze big unstructured data among different sectors such as manufacturing, healthcare, aerospace, and defense. On the basis of machine type, the global smart machines market has been segmented into robots, autonomous cars, drones, wearable electronics and others.On the basis of technology, the global smart machines market has been segmented into cloud computing, big data, internet of everything (IoE), robotics, cognitive technology and effective technology. Affective technology segment is expected to expand with a substantial CAGR over the forecast period. Various enterprises working on cognitive computing are facing glitches and errors in technology. This, in turn, is encouraging adoption of affective computing. Cognitive computing technology enables emotions linking to a robot, assisting the robot in making rational decisions and performing more complex tasks.Smart machines are programmed to make intelligent decisions in a time efficient manner. They are built to learn from their interactions and their precision increases over time. Hence, new developments in operational intelligence are encouraging companies to adopt systems that are smarter and efficient. Narrative Science Inc., a company that offers analytical solutions uses its virtual assistant Quill, which is programed using natural language processing to provide relevant solutions.This report covers trends driving each segment and offers analysis and insights of the potential of the smart machines market in specific regions. The markets in Europe, North America, and Asia Pacific are expected to register high growth rates between 2016 and 2024. MEA is a small but significant market for smart machines as governments in the Middle East countries are investing in this sector to digitize government services. The market in Europe is expected to gain substantial market share in terms of revenue. This is attributed to increasing demand for smart machines from the automobile and manufacturing industries in countries such as Germany and France. The APAC accounted for the highest market share in 2015 and is expected to gain 232 BPS by an end of 2024.Request for Table of content @Key players in the global smart machines market include Apple Inc., Google Inc., Microsoft Corporation, BAE Systems, Creative Virtual Ltd., Digital Reasoning Systems, Inc., IBM Corporation, Narrative Science Inc., Rethink Robotics, ABB Limited, Rockwell Automation, Inc., and General Electric Co. others.To Buy Full Report for a Single User @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 Bio-plastics Market to Witness 28.8% CAGR from 2014 to 2020 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb--69 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb--69 www.futuremarketinsights.com Future Market Insights (FMI), in its latest report titled, Bio-plastics Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment 2014 to 2020, estimates that the global bio-plastics market is expected to account for US$ 43.8 Bn by 2020, registering a CAGR of 28.8% during the forecast period. A growing beverage packaging industry, government support for adopting bio-based materials, and rising consumer acceptance for bio-plastics are expected to contribute to the growth of the global bio-plastic market over the forecast period.In terms of materials, the global bio-plastics market is segmented as bio-PET, bio-PE, bio-PA, bio-degradable polyesters, PLA & PLA blends, starch blends, PHA and others. Currently, the bio-PET material segment dominates the bio-plastics market, and was estimated to be US$ 5.6 Bn in 2014. This segment is expected to reach US$ 29.1 Bn by 2020, with a momentous CAGR of 31.4% for the forecast period. Moreover, an increasing demand for bio-plastics from the beverage packaging industry and effectiveness of bio-plastics in one-time use application has driven the demand for the bio-PET in the last few years.Request For Report Sample@On the basis of application type, the bio-plastics market is segmented as bottlers, other packaging, food-services, agriculture/horticulture, consumer products, automotive and others. Among all the afore mentioned applications, bottles segment is expected to dominate the market with 34.4% of the total revenue share by 2020. However, automotive segment is anticipated to exhibit the second highest CAGR of 27.5% as compared to other applications during the forecast period. Additionally, influx of new entrants is predicted to fuel the growth of others application segment, thereby accounting for 5.0% market share by 2020.Key regions considered for this market study include North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and RoW (Rest of the World). Asia Pacific represents the most lucrative market, followed by North America. Asia Pacific is expected to contribute 33.7% market share to the overall bio-plastics market by 2020. The growth of Europe is supported by the strong influence of regulatory framework and awareness regarding greener products through various media among the consumers.Send An Enquiry@Assessing the various factors driving this market, a FMI lead analyst, said, Increasing consumer awareness regarding benefits of greener products, strict regulations to incorporate bio-based products in automotive & packaging, and increasing investments by local companies are expected to fuel the demand for global bio-plastics market.Key players in the global bio-plastics market are BASF SE, Arkema, DSM NV, E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, Evonik Industries, NaturePlast, NatureWorks LLC, RTP Company, Techno polymer Co. Ltd. and Toray Industries Inc.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: Mineral Fiber Market Set to Grow Exponentially by 2026 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/11407 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/11407 The demand for mineral fiber is being conceded away with the increasing construction activities in the developing nations across the globe. With large market potential and growing infrastructural developments in developing regions, the global mineral fiber market is likely to observe a substantial growth in the near future.A sample of this report is available upon request @The non-flammable properties associated with mineral wool makes it an ideal material for the fire protection which has made it very common in all types of buildings be they homes, schools, offshore oilrigs, petrochemical refineries and others. The properties of mineral wool has forced development of a wide variety of application to meet the specific needs of industry.The most important driving force behind the ongoing innovation of mineral wool products is the high demand for thermal insulation. The building materials using glass wool insulation consistently has proven it the most cost effective solution. This has increased the demand for heat insulation products for the industrial applications to avoid heat loss and save energy.The global mineral fiber market growth will also be supported by the rising demand for acoustical insulation in the residential and commercial buildings that is expected to positively influence the demand of mineral wools as it is the primary acoustic material used in the construction of acoustic panels and bass traps.The better availability of raw materials coupled with the growing building and construction sector is expected to positively influence the demand for mineral fiber market.Although, the global mineral fiber market will remain highly reliant on construction sector, the growing special purpose mineral fiber made of glass in marine and aircraft applications are also rising the significance of the mineral fiber in different industries.The global mineral fiber market is also facing some challenges such as the regulations and standards applicable and mandatory compliance with the rules owing to the health hazards associated with the use of the material.The mineral fiber market is expected to register a favourable growth for the forecast period, 2016-2026. North America market is projected to endure control on the global mineral fiber market due to its flourishing end user industries. Some of the other fastest growing regions in mineral fiber market are Latin America, Middle East and Asia Pacific. The North America and Western Europe are expected to register a moderate growth rate owing to the saturation of end use markets in the regions. The Eastern Europe is expected to depict a high growth in the future ahead.Request to view Table of content @The key players in the global mineral fiber are Saint-Gobain, CertainTeed Corp Rockwool International, Industrial Insulation Group, LLC. Knauf Insulation., Guardian Fiberglass, Inc., Owens Corning, Johns Manville, Roxul Inc., Rock Wool Manufacturing Co., Thermafiber, Inc. and USG Interiors, Inc. 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 using a suitable set of assumptions and methodologies. The research report provides analysis and information according to categories such as market segments, geographies, types, technology and applications.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.Persistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd.305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.com Bone Marrow Transplant Market will Reach US$ 6.02 Bn by 2021 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/4288 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/bone-marrow-transplantation-market/toc http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/checkout/4288 Persistence Market Research (PMR) delivers key insights on the global bone marrow transplant market in its latest report titled Global Market Study on Bone Marrow Transplant: Latin America to Register Highest Growth Rate by 2021, Owing to Increasing Density of Bone Marrow Transplant Centers.A Sample of this Report is Available Upon Request @Revenue from the global bone marrow transplant market is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 4.1% during the forecast period. By procedure type, the market is divided into segments viz. autologous bone marrow transplant and allogeneic bone marrow transplant. Allogeneic bone marrow transplant procedure segment accounted for a highest revenue share of 63.4% in 2014, and revenue from this segment is expected to expand at CAGR of 4.4%, thereby accounting for market share to 65.7%. However, in terms of volume, the autologous bone marrow transplant procedure segment is expected to continue to lead the global bone marrow transplant market as a result of increasing adoption of the procedure owing to low chances of side effects. On the basis of disease indications, the leukemia segment is expected to remain the leading segment and is expected to be valued at US$ 2,679.6 Mn by the end of 2021. By disease indication, lymphoma segment currently ranks second in terms of both value and volume.By end user, the market is segmented into hospitals, multispecialty clinics, and ambulatory surgical centers (ASC). Among these, hospital end user segment leads the global bone marrow transplant market, accounting for over 91% volume share of global bone marrow transplant market in 2014. This is partly attributed to requirement for advanced healthcare infrastructure for conducting the procedure. The multispecialty clinics segment is expected to register highest CAGR of 4.8% during the forecast period, with 1.4X increase in procedural count.Market growth is primarily driven by factors such as global increase in prevalence of blood cancers, expansion of bone marrow transplant registry, growing investment in logistic services, and improvement in survival rate after treatment. Being a procedure with the likelihood of highest success rate for the treatment of leukemia and other blood cancers, adoption of bone marrow transplant procedures is increasing, and is expected to fuel market growth to a significant extent over the forecast period. However, high cost of the treatment, scarcity of bone marrow donors, and uncertainty of reimbursement in several developing countries are factors expected to hamper growth of the global bone marrow transplant market over the forecast period.This report covers trends in the global market as well as trends for each segment, and offers analysis of market potential. Globally, the market in Europe is expected to remain dominant among other markets in the global bone marrow transplant market, accounting for over 59% revenue share. This is attributed to high density of bone marrow transplant centers in the region and expanding bone marrow registries. The market in Latin America is anticipated to witness rapid increase growth in terms of volume owing to high number of potential candidates for the procedure.The report begins with the evolution of the bone marrow transplant procedure, offering an overview of the global bone marrow transplant market in terms of value and volume. Comparative analysis of bone marrow transplant centers and number of procedures being conducted annually in regions such as North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, and Middle East & Africa explains the reasons for gaps in the market.Request to View Tables of Content @Key market players covered in this report include Lonza Group Ltd., Merck Millipore Corporation, Sanofi-Aventis LLC, AllCells LLC, STEMCELL Technologies, and American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) Inc.To Buy Full Report for a Single User @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated re-search, 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, Con-sumer 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 en-gagement models are highly flexible 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 ASEANs IoT leaders to gather in Singapore to drive IoT developments in the region Singapore 5 January 2017 ASEANs Internet of Things (IoT) and Machine to Machine (M2M) thought leaders will gather in Singapore, in February, for the 12th edition of Asia IoT Business Platform. Debuting in Singapore after 11 editions held across ASEAN in the past four years, the program will witness leading IoT leaders engage in panel discussions and present case studies on the regions latest and most relevant IoT developments.ASEAN is proving to be a bright spot for enterprise IoT projects; Frost & Sullivan estimates the IoT market in ASEAN to be valued at USD 1.68 billion in 2016 and it is expected to grow 35 per cent a year. This accounts for 10 per cent of the total Asia-Pacific IoT spending. Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines lead the regions IoT spending, with a strong focus on key areas such as smart cities, manufacturing, automotive, transport & logistics, and agriculture.There is no doubt that there is massive potential for enterprise IoT in ASEAN. We have seen many enterprises across different industries, from manufacturing and industrials to agriculture, already deploying IoT and reaping its benefits. There is a clear demand for such technologies to help transform enterprises to become more efficient and productive. This is an opportunity that IoT solution providers should quickly seize, said Zaf Coelho, project director of Asia IoT Business Platform.Zaf also noted that because of the rapid adoption of IoT in the region, it is now more important to understand the challenges that enterprises face in trying to deploy IoT in their businesses.The challenges that enterprises face in implementing IoT will determine how they view the benefits of IoT implementation and in turn, affects the demand for IoT technologies. By bringing the programme to Singapore, we hope to inform IoT solution providers here of the latest IoT developments in the region and to help them understand the different issues and challenges regarding IoT adoption, he added.The Asia IoT Business Platform in Singapore will feature three sessions dedicated to keynote, ASEAN smart city projects, and ASEAN enterprise IoT projects. The program aims to not only help IoT stakeholders keep abreast of the latest and most important developments in the region, but to also bridge them with the local ASEAN markets to foster important connections that will help drive the regions enterprise digital transformation and IoT growth.About Asia IoT Business PlatformWith a focus on local telecommunication companies and verticals, the Asia IoT Business Platform is an educational platform crafted by the industry, for the industry, with the aim of addressing key issues facing the adoption of IoT technologies in the ASEAN region. We drive enterprises to understand and learn about the adoption of IoT technologies for their business. Since its inception in 2013, the Asia IoT Business Platform has secured strong support from local governments and telecommunication companies for the past 11 editions. The 12th edition of Asia IoT Business Platform in Singapore will bring together leading IoT leaders from ASEAN on a single platform to engage in important discussions and share on the latest IoT case studies from the region.About Industry Platform Pte LtdIndustry Platform Pte. Ltd. is a Singapore incorporated firm focused on the global telecommunications sector. We are Southeast Asia's leading organizer of Machine-to-Machine (M2M) and Internet of Things (IoT) conferences and exhibitions. We work with local and global businesses, as well as public sector bodies and associations who are looking to expand their reach in Asian markets. We provide the best platforms for industry professionals to network and shape developments.Abdullah ZaidaniMarketing and PRTel: +65 6733 1107Email: zaidani@industry-platform.com46 Kim Yam Road #03-08Singapore 239351 In-Vitro Toxicity Testing Market Is Progressing Towards A Strong Growth By 2021 Persistence Market Research Report http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/3587 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/3587 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com In-vitro testing market is growing at a significant due to technological advancements in the field and increasing number of R&D procedures which require in-vitro testing. In-vitro toxicity refers to a process of analyzing the effects of toxic chemical substances in mammalian or bacterial cells. In-vitro toxicity testing is done to study about the potential of hazardous substances. In addition, in-vitro toxicity is also done to study for the availabity of certain toxic properties in useful substances such as food additives, agricultural chemicals and therapeutic drugs. In-vitro toxicity testing market is growing at a significant rate due to growing awareness and increasing R&D for detecting toxicity at early stages.A sample of this report is available upon request @The global market for in-vitro toxicity testing can be segmented on the basis of industry, methods used, applications and technology. On the basis of industry, the global in-vitro toxicity testing market can be segmented into pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, cosmetics, chemicals and food. Of these, pharmaceutical industry dominates the market whereas cosmetic industry has the fastest growing in-vitro toxicity testing market. Growing bent towards detecting the toxicity during initial stages of production is driving the in-vitro toxicity testing market in pharmaceutical sector. Whereas, support from regulatory authorities for using in-vitro and in-silico methods for studying toxicity of a substance is driving the in-vitro toxicity testing market in cosmetic industry. On the basis of methods, the global in-vitro toxicity testing market can be segmented into biochemical assays, cellular assays, in-silico and ex-vivo. Of these, cellular assays dominate the global in-vitro toxicity testing market. Cellular assays are used as bio markers. In addition, they are used to study about the biological properties of the potential drug compounds.On the basis of applications, systemic toxicity testing is the largest segment in the global in-vitro toxicity testing market. Europe, followed by the North America dominates the global in-vitro toxicity testing market due to technological advancement and increased R&D initiatives in the region. In addition, government initiatives such as passing of anti-animal testing laws and more awareness among the people are some of the major factors driving the in-vitro toxicity testing market. Asia is expected to experience high growth rate in the next few years in in-vitro toxicity testing market. China and India are expected to be the fastest growing in-vitro toxicity testing markets in Asian region. This is due to large investment by various major companies in these countries. Some of the key driving forces for in-vitro toxicity testing market in emerging countries are rising government funding and growing awareness about new technologies.Rising demand for in-vitro techniques, increasing drug discovery and innovations are expected to offer good opportunities for the global market for in-vitro toxicity testing. However, reluctance of regulatory authorities for using in-vitro toxicity testing methods and validation of new in-vitro method are some of the challenges faced by the global market for in-vitro toxicity testing. One of the latest trends that have been observed for the global in-vitro toxicity testing market includes shifting focus to innovative approaches of 3d cell culture.Some of the major factors that are driving the in-vitro toxicity testing market are increasing acceptance by regulatory authorities for using in-vitro toxicity testing methods. In addition, factors such as advancement in the field and government initiatives are driving the global market for in-vitro toxicity testing. However, technological disadvancements linked with limiting the use and decreasing adoption rate are restraining the driving the global market for in-vitro toxicity testing. In addition, inability of in-vitro models to detect auto immunity and immunostimulation are restraining the global market for in-vitro toxicity testing.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @Some of the major companies dealing in the global in-vitro toxicity testing market are Agilent Technologies, Alere, Inc., Bio-Rad, BioReliance (Sigma Aldrich), GE Healthcare and Quest Diagnostics. Some other companies having significant presence in the global in-vitro toxicity testing market includes Catalent Pharma Solutions, Life Technologies Corporation (Thermo Fisher Scientific), Charles River Laboratories and Covance.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.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb: SATO Launches New Group Companies in the Philippines - Demonstrates long-term commitment to serving all customers www.satophilippines.com www.peza.gov.ph/ http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/issues/the-economy/assets/world-in-2050-february-2015.pdf www.satoworldwide.com www.linkedin.com/company/sato-worldwide Manila, January 5, 2017 SATO, a leading global provider of Auto-ID solutions that empower workforces and streamline operations, announced it will launch two new group companies in the Philippines. By establishing SATO Philippines AIDC Solutions Inc. and SATO Philippines Auto-ID SP Inc., the SATO Group seeks to better serve customers in the country. SATO Philippines AIDC Solutions Inc. was registered with the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA1) and began engaging with PEZA-registered foreign companies from January 3, 2017 while SATO Philippines Auto-ID SP Inc. will do business with non PEZA-registered local companies from February 2017.The Philippines is projected to be the 20th largest economy by 20502 (currently #36) due to its growing workforce and ease of communication in English, which is one of its two official languages. Manufacturing is also shifting from China to Southeast Asia, including the Philippines, due to rising wages and changes in production costs in China. These combined factors further supported SATOs decision to expand its presence in the country.SATO has maintained a presence in the Philippines through a network of business partners and a representative office. The opening of two new group companies will not only further strengthen its foothold in this market, but more importantly enable SATO to provide stronger direct support for business partners and customers and reach out to more local manufacturing, retail, logistics and healthcare companies and related government agencies in the market that can benefit from world-class AIDC solutions.SATO Philippines AIDC Solutions and SATO Philippines Auto-ID SP President Katsutoshi Moriyuki explained, Over the past couple of years, we have been able to build a robust network of business partners in the Philippines. We believe that by establishing these two new companies, we can now offer customers and business partners timelier direct support and peace of mind as well as solutions that are of greater value to them.The Philippines is an exciting place to be and with the positive economic outlook of this country, we are certain that SATO can support businesses there, said SATO Asia Head Hayato Shindo. This expansion plan is one of the key drivers of SATOs growth strategy for Asia and we look forward to not only better catering to the diverse AIDC needs in this country but also contributing towards the countrys economic growth.For more details, please visit1. A Philippine government agency tasked to promote investment:2. PwC forecast based on GDP:About SATOSATO (TOKYO:6287) is a leading global provider of Auto-ID solutions that connect people, goods and information. It serves a diverse range of customers, delivering end-to-end solutions that streamline operations, empower workforces and help customers reduce their environmental impact. For the fiscal year ended March 31, 2016, it reported revenues of JPY 105,504 million (US $880 million*). More information about SATO can be found ator*Conversion is based on an average exchange rate of 1 US Dollar = 120.14 Japanese YenFor Media Enquiries:Kevin LeidheiserPublic Relations GroupSATO Holdings Corporationgrp-koho@sato-global.comTel: +81-3-5745-3412 Global EDiscovery (Software; On-Premise Software & Off-Premise Software And Services) Market Size, Shares, Key Drivers, Opportunity and Forecast Report 2016 http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/sample/905882 http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/pressreleases http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/ Production, means the output of eDiscovery (Software; On-Premise Software & Off-Premise Software and Services)Revenue, means the sales value of eDiscovery (Software; On-Premise Software & Off-Premise Software and Services)This report studies eDiscovery (Software; On-Premise Software & Off-Premise Software and Services) in Global market, especially in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan, focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringDaegisEpiq SystemsRecommindModusCommvaultLighthouse eDiscoveryLexisNexisVeritasKroll OntrackMarket Segment by Regions, this report splits Global into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue, market share and growth rate of eDiscovery (Software; On-Premise Software & Off-Premise Software and Services) in these regions, from 2011 to 2021 (forecast), likeNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanKoreaTaiwanSplit by product type, with production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, can be divided intoOn-Premise SoftwareOff-Premise SoftwareServicesSplit by application, this report focuses on consumption, market share and growth rate of eDiscovery (Software; On-Premise Software & Off-Premise Software and Services) in each application, can be divided intoCorporateEducationGovernmentThird-party plannersOthersDownload Sample Copy Of This Report:Table of ContentsGlobal eDiscovery (Software; On-Premise Software & Off-Premise Software and Services) Market Research Report 20161 eDiscovery (Software; On-Premise Software & Off-Premise Software and Services) Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of eDiscovery (Software; On-Premise Software & Off-Premise Software and Services)1.2 eDiscovery (Software; On-Premise Software & Off-Premise Software and Services) Segment by Type1.2.1 Global Production Market Share of eDiscovery (Software; On-Premise Software & Off-Premise Software and Services) by Type in 20151.2.2 On-Premise Software1.2.3 Off-Premise Software1.2.4 Services1.3 eDiscovery (Software; On-Premise Software & Off-Premise Software and Services) Segment by Application1.3.1 eDiscovery (Software; On-Premise Software & Off-Premise Software and Services) Consumption Market Share by Application in 20151.3.2 Corporate1.3.3 Education1.3.4 Government1.3.5 Third-party planners1.3.6 Others1.4 eDiscovery (Software; On-Premise Software & Off-Premise Software and Services) Market by Region1.4.1 North America Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.2 Europe Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.3 China Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.4 Japan Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.5 Korea Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.6 Taiwan Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of eDiscovery (Software; On-Premise Software & Off-Premise Software and Services) (2011-2021)2 Global eDiscovery (Software; On-Premise Software & Off-Premise Software and Services) Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global eDiscovery (Software; On-Premise Software & Off-Premise Software and Services) Production and Share by Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)2.2 Global eDiscovery (Software; On-Premise Software & Off-Premise Software and Services) Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)2.3 Global eDiscovery (Software; On-Premise Software & Off-Premise Software and Services) Average Price by Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)2.4 Manufacturers eDiscovery (Software; On-Premise Software & Off-Premise Software and Services) Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type2.5 eDiscovery (Software; On-Premise Software & Off-Premise Software and Services) Market Competitive Situation and Trends2.5.1 eDiscovery (Software; On-Premise Software & Off-Premise Software and Services) Market Concentration Rate2.5.2 eDiscovery (Software; On-Premise Software & Off-Premise Software and Services) Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Manufacturers2.5.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion3 Global eDiscovery (Software; On-Premise Software & Off-Premise Software and Services) Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2011-2016)3.1 Global eDiscovery (Software; On-Premise Software & Off-Premise Software and Services) Production by Region (2011-2016)3.2 Global eDiscovery (Software; On-Premise Software & Off-Premise Software and Services) Production Market Share by Region (2011-2016)3.3 Global eDiscovery (Software; On-Premise Software & Off-Premise Software and Services) Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2011-2016)3.4 Global eDiscovery (Software; On-Premise Software & Off-Premise Software and Services) Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2011-2016)3.5 North America eDiscovery (Software; On-Premise Software & Off-Premise Software and Services) Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2011-2016)3.6 Europe eDiscovery (Software; On-Premise Software & Off-Premise Software and Services) Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2011-2016)3.7 China eDiscovery (Software; On-Premise Software & Off-Premise Software and Services) Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2011-2016)3.8 Japan eDiscovery (Software; On-Premise Software & Off-Premise Software and Services) Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2011-2016)3.9 Korea eDiscovery (Software; On-Premise Software & Off-Premise Software and Services) Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2011-2016)3.10 Taiwan eDiscovery (Software; On-Premise Software & Off-Premise Software and Services) Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2011-2016)4 Global eDiscovery (Software; On-Premise Software & Off-Premise Software and Services) Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2011-2016)4.1 Global eDiscovery (Software; On-Premise Software & Off-Premise Software and Services) Consumption by Regions (2011-2016)4.2 North America eDiscovery (Software; On-Premise Software & Off-Premise Software and Services) Production, Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2011-2016)4.3 Europe eDiscovery (Software; On-Premise Software & Off-Premise Software and Services) Production, Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2011-2016)4.4 China eDiscovery (Software; On-Premise Software & Off-Premise Software and Services) Production, Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2011-2016)4.5 Japan eDiscovery (Software; On-Premise Software & Off-Premise Software and Services) Production, Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2011-2016)4.6 Korea eDiscovery (Software; On-Premise Software & Off-Premise Software and Services) Production, Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2011-2016)4.7 Taiwan eDiscovery (Software; On-Premise Software & Off-Premise Software and Services) Production, Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2011-2016)About usMarketResearchReports.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.To View The Latest Industry Press Releases:ContactTel: +1-518-621-2074E-Mail: sales@marketresearchreports.bizWebsite:MarketResearchReports.biz supports your business intelligence needs with over 100,000 market research reports, company profiles, data books, and regional market data sheets in its repository. Our document database is updated by the hour, which means that you always have access to fresh data spanning over 300 industries and their sub-segments.State Tower90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948(USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz Low Power Wide Area Network Market Size, Key Drivers, Opportunity, Status And Forecast 2021 Focus On United States, EU, Japan, China, India And Southeast Asia http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/sample/906060 http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/pressreleases http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/ Production, means the output of Low Power Wide Area NetworkRevenue, means the sales value of Low Power Wide Area NetworkThis report studies the global Low Power Wide Area Network market, analyzes and researches the Low Power Wide Area Network development status and forecast in United States, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia. This report focuses on the top players in global market, likeSemtech Corporation (California)LORIOT (Switzerland)NWave Technologies (London)SIGFOX (France)WAVIoT (Texas)Actility (France)Ingenu (San Diego)Link Labs (Maryland)Weightless SIGSenet, Inc. (Portsmouth)Vodafone (U.K.)Orange (France)Market segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEUJapanChinaIndiaSoutheast AsiaMarket segment by Type, Low Power Wide Area Network can be split intoPublic SectorPrivate SectorDownload Sample Copy Of This Report:Market segment by Application, Low Power Wide Area Network can be split intoSmart Waste ManagementSmart BuildingsSmart Gas and Water MeteringSmart StreetlightsSmart ParkingLivestock MonitoringOthersTable of ContentsUnited States, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia Low Power Wide Area Network Market Size, Status and Forecast 20211 Industry Overview of Low Power Wide Area Network1.1 Low Power Wide Area Network Market Overview1.1.1 Low Power Wide Area Network Product Scope1.1.2 Market Status and Outlook1.2 Global Low Power Wide Area Network Market Size and Analysis by Regions1.2.1 United States1.2.2 EU1.2.3 Japan1.2.4 China1.2.5 India1.2.6 Southeast Asia1.3 Low Power Wide Area Network Market by Type1.3.1 Public Sector1.3.2 Private Sector1.4 Low Power Wide Area Network Market by End Users/Application1.4.1 Smart Waste Management1.4.2 Smart Buildings1.4.3 Smart Gas and Water Metering1.4.4 Smart Streetlights1.4.5 Smart Parking1.4.6 Livestock Monitoring1.4.7 Others2 Global Low Power Wide Area Network Competition Analysis by Players2.1 Low Power Wide Area Network Market Size (Value) by Players (2015-2016)2.2 Competitive Status and Trend2.2.1 Market Concentration Rate2.2.2 Product/Service Differences2.2.3 New Entrants2.2.4 The Technology Trends in Future3 Company (Top Players) Profiles3.1 Semtech Corporation (California)3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.1.4 Low Power Wide Area Network Revenue (Value) (2011-2016)3.1.5 Recent Developments3.2 LORIOT (Switzerland)3.2.1 Company Profile3.2.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.2.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.2.4 Low Power Wide Area Network Revenue (Value) (2011-2016)3.2.5 Recent Developments3.3 NWave Technologies (London)3.3.1 Company Profile3.3.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.3.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.3.4 Low Power Wide Area Network Revenue (Value) (2011-2016)3.3.5 Recent Developments3.4 SIGFOX (France)3.4.1 Company Profile3.4.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.4.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.4.4 Low Power Wide Area Network Revenue (Value) (2011-2016)3.4.5 Recent Developments3.5 WAVIoT (Texas)3.5.1 Company Profile3.5.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.5.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.5.4 Low Power Wide Area Network Revenue (Value) (2011-2016)3.5.5 Recent Developments3.6 Actility (France)3.6.1 Company Profile3.6.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.6.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.6.4 Low Power Wide Area Network Revenue (Value) (2011-2016)3.6.5 Recent Developments3.7 Ingenu (San Diego)3.7.1 Company Profile3.7.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.7.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.7.4 Low Power Wide Area Network Revenue (Value) (2011-2016)3.7.5 Recent Developments3.8 Link Labs (Maryland)3.8.1 Company Profile3.8.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.8.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.8.4 Low Power Wide Area Network Revenue (Value) (2011-2016)3.8.5 Recent Developments3.9 Weightless SIG3.9.1 Company Profile3.9.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.9.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.9.4 Low Power Wide Area Network Revenue (Value) (2011-2016)3.9.5 Recent Developments3.10 Senet, Inc. (Portsmouth)3.10.1 Company Profile3.10.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.10.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.10.4 Low Power Wide Area Network Revenue (Value) (2011-2016)3.10.5 Recent Developments3.11 Vodafone (U.K.)3.12 Orange (France)4 Global Low Power Wide Area Network Market Size by Type and Application (2011-2016)4.1 Global Low Power Wide Area Network Market Size by Type (2011-2016)4.2 Global Low Power Wide Area Network Market Size by Application (2011-2016)4.3 Potential Application of Low Power Wide Area Network in Future4.4 Top Consumer/End Users of Low Power Wide Area Network5 United States Low Power Wide Area Network Development Status and Outlook5.1 United States Low Power Wide Area Network Market Size (2011-2016)5.2 United States Low Power Wide Area Network Market Size and Market Share by Players (2015-2016)6 EU Low Power Wide Area Network Development Status and Outlook6.1 EU Low Power Wide Area Network Market Size (2011-2016)6.2 EU Low Power Wide Area Network Market Size and Market Share by Players (2015-2016)About usMarketResearchReports.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.To View The Latest Industry Press Releases:ContactTel: +1-518-621-2074E-Mail: sales@marketresearchreports.bizWebsite:MarketResearchReports.biz supports your business intelligence needs with over 100,000 market research reports, company profiles, data books, and regional market data sheets in its repository. Our document database is updated by the hour, which means that you always have access to fresh data spanning over 300 industries and their sub-segments.State Tower90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948(USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz Hepatitis E Diagnostic Market Size by Global Industry Research 2024 http://bit.ly/2jcKToY http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/hepatitis-e-diagnostic-tests-market.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com https://tmrresearch.blogspot.com/ Hepatitis E diagnostic tests market is fuelled by the increasing occurrence of hepatitis E in numerous economies globally. The global hepatitis E diagnostic tests market stood at US$43.7 mn in 2015 and is poised to touch US$60.4 mn by 2024, rising at a 3.80% CAGR between 2016 and 2024.Transparency Market Research (TMR), a market intelligence company, throws light on the main test types and end users in the market for hepatitis E diagnostic tests. The dynamics impacting the development of the market have also been presented through this study.Q. Which test types will fuel the growth of the global hepatitis E diagnostic tests market?Amongst the key test types, ELISA HEV IgM test kits are experiencing a huge demand in the market as compared to other test kits owing to them being extensively utilized in primary tests to carry on diagnosis of hepatitis E infections. In addition, due to the increasing occurrence of hepatitis E globally, researchers predicted that the demand for ELISA HEV IgM test kits to consistently rise exponentially in the coming years.On the other hand, the segment of RT-PCR test kits is predicted to trail the segment of ELISA HEV IgM test kits during the forecast period. This is owing to the fact that RT-PCR test kits have also emerged as direct tests in order to diagnose hepatitis Es acute infections. The segment of ELISA HEV IgG test kits is poised to experience a moderate progression in forthcoming years.Request a PDF Brochure with Report Analysis:Q. What factors are providing impetus to the development of the hepatitis E diagnostic tests market?The dearth of sanitation and the rising scarcity of potable water will raise the count of patients having hepatitis E in the coming years. This, in return, will give rise to the requirement for hepatitis E diagnostic test in forthcoming years. On the other hand, this market may experience serious hurdles in the coming years owing to the growing occurrence of asymptomatic diseases, which can be difficult to diagnose. In addition, the absence of awareness amongst consumers is also poised to come up as a prime factor impeding the development of the market in forthcoming years.Which factors will drive the growth of the market in Asia Pacific?Geographically, the Asia Pacific hepatitis E diagnostic tests market held a key share of over 42% in 2015 and is predicted to maintain its superiority in forthcoming years. This is due to the fact that numerous countries such as Nepal, India, Pakistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Thailand, Burma, and Kazakhstan experience hyperendemicity of hepatitis E, which results in an increased requirement for hepatitis E diagnostic tests, hence boosting the development of the market in Asia Pacific.On the other hand, the Middle East and Africa will also experience growth in the hepatitis E diagnostic tests market in forthcoming years. This is due to the increasing occurrence of hepatitis E in numerous nations such as Nigeria, Morocco, Kenya, and Uganda owing to dearth of safe drinking water and poor sanitation.Browse Full Research Report on Hepatitis E Diagnostic Tests Market:About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Browse market research blog: Biopower (By Technology - Biogas and Biomass) with Growing Demand For Energy and Promote Economic Growth https://goo.gl/gDrf4W "Biopower Market (By Technology - Biogas and Biomass) - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Trends, Analysis, Growth and Forecast 2014 - 2020" The Report covers current Market Trends, Worldwide Analysis, Global Forecast, Review, Share, Size, Growth, Effect.Description-Rapid growth in the renewable energy industry is anticipated to boost growth in the global biopower market. The global demand for biopower market is primarily driven by the growing demand for energy. Biopower is a niche renewable energy market; however, the market is estimated to grow rapidly in the future. Biopower is both cost-competitive and reliable source of power and further helps the U.S. and several European countries to meet their goals set under renewable portfolio standards (RPS). Additionally, power generation from biopower technologies can also promote economic growth of the countries involved in generating power from biopower technologies. The aforementioned factor is further likely to create diverse job opportunities for small businesses, equipment suppliers, power plant vendors, utilities, and agribusinesses. Moreover, it also helps in reducing impacts to the climate and environment. The market is expected to register a significant growth in the future on account of factors mentioned above.Get Sample Report With TOC @Biopower is the energy produced from renewable energy sources such as biomass and to a small amount by biogas. Biopower is emerging as an attractive alternative for utilities to supply power in the case of intermittent supply of electricity from renewable energy sources, including wind. The global market for biopower can be fragmented on the basis of technology and geography to portray an overall picture of the market. On the basis of technology, the global biopower market can be segmented as biomass and biogas. Presently, most of the power is majorly generated from solid biomass such as wood in commensuration to the smaller amount of biopower generated from biofuels, municipal solid waste (MSW), and biogas. Globally, the biopower plants are owned and operated by a wide range of stakeholders including small-scale community users (institutional users), independent power producers, utilities, and industrial users (lumber companies, and pulp and paper mills).Various technologies of biopower potentially transform raw biomass material indirectly or directly into electricity, including anaerobic digestion, pelletization, torrefaction, pyrolysis, gasification, cofiring with natural gas or coal. The market for biopower is expected to increase significantly in the future on account of underlying factors. The primary growth driver in the global biopower market is an increase in global energy demand. Additionally, climate and environmental concerns are likely to further propel growth in the market. Increasing investments by governments in the biopower technologies to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels and increase their energy security is likely to play a key role in the markets growth. Regulatory support to the use of renewable energy sources for power generation has been a key catalyst to the growth of biopower market. The continuing need for subsidies for development of biopower in European countries along with high capital and operating costs, and lack of uniform and well-characterized feed stocks may restrain growth in the biopower market across the globe. However, increasing research and development coupled with a certain policy environment for investors and tax parity for biopower is likely to escalate growth in the global biopower market.The global biopower is a niche market in the renewable energy industry and is likely to grow at a significant rate in the future. North America and Europe hold the largest market share in the global biopower market. Countries such as the U.S., Germany and UK contribute the most to the markets growth; the growth in these regions is driven by the regulatory support and increased demand for power from renewable energy sources. Stringent environment regulations along with higher carbon prices are likely to drive growth in these regions in the future. Asia Pacific is an emerging growth market of biopower. India and Brazil are likely to contribute the most to the growth in the Asia Pacifics biopower market.Some of the key players in the global biopower market include A2A, Biopower Operations Corporation, Dalkia, EnviTec Biogas AG, MVV Energie SG, Schmack Biogas GmbH, and Weltec Biopower GmbH.ResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMozs service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Researchmoz Global Pvt. Ltd.90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United States,Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free),Tel: +1-518-621-2074 Advanced Dashboard Cameras - Highlights Demand Supply Trends, Product And Technology Trends, Original Equipment Suppliers And Manufacturer Trends https://goo.gl/2tjHZj "Dashboard Camera Market (By Product Type - Basic Dashboard Cameras, Advanced Dashboard Cameras and Smart Dashboard Cameras)" The Report covers current Market Trends, Worldwide Analysis, Global Forecast, Review, Share, Size, Growth, Effect.Description-Dashboard cameras are real-time video recording devices usually attached on the windshield of vehicles and integrated with dashboards in the vehicle. These devices are designed to record real-time videos that capture the inward as well as outward sides of vehicles. Dashboard cameras find its applications in private cars, law enforcement vehicles, and rental and other commercial vehicles. These cameras provide continuous video recording, which could be used as evidence in event of an accident or civil or criminal lawsuits. Dashboard cameras are categorized based on technology, type and geography. The demand for dashboard cameras is majorly driven by their numerous advantages, especially their utility in case of accidents, emergency services, and for evidence gathering, among others. Dashboard cameras help insurance companies to expedite claim settlements as these cameras provide lucid evidence of the incidents. Various insurance companies offer discounts on insurance premiums for car owners who equip their vehicles with dashboard cameras. Rising support from insurance companies to install dashboard cameras is another major factor influencing the growth of this market.Get Sample Report With TOC @The report on the dashboard cameras market provides the current scenario as well as the future market potential of dashboard cameras, globally. The market for the dashboard cameras has been extensively analyzed on the basis of product type, technology and geography. Based on type, this market is also segmented into basic dashboard cameras, advanced dashboard cameras and smart dashboard camera. The market size and forecast in terms of revenue (US$ Mn) as well as volume (thousand units) for each of these segments have been provided for the period from 2012 to 2020, considering 2012 and 2013 as the base years. Based on the technology, dashboard cameras are categorized into single lens (single channel), multi lens (dual channel) and rearview dashboard cameras. The report also provides the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for each segment of the market for the forecast period from 2014 to 2020 and analyzes the contribution of sales channels i.e. OEMs (car manufacturers and retail). This would help dashboard camera manufacturers to select ideal distribution channels according to their requirements. The report also highlights the views of car manufacturers about integrating dashboard cameras with their new cars.Geographically, the market for dashboard cameras has been segmented into regions: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and the Rest of the world. The market size and forecast for each region have been provided for the period from 2012 to 2020 along with the CAGR (%) for the forecast period from 2014 to 2020. The report also includes country level analysis for major markets in Europe (Russia, France, Germany, UK, Norway and Sweden) and Asia Pacific (China, Korea, Japan and Oceania). The dashboard camera market report includes the quantitative analysis in terms of unit shipment (thousand units) as well as revenue (US$ Mn) and forecast for the period 2014 to 2020. The report also highlights attractive market segments in each regional and global market which helps manufacturers and suppliers in their tactical decision making. The study also includes qualitative analysis of the competitive scenario in these regions. The market overview chapter in the report includes qualitative analysis of the overall market highlighting the factors determining the market dynamics such as drivers, restraints, and opportunities along with market attractiveness analysis and value chain analysis. This report also highlights demand supply trends, product and technology trends, original equipment suppliers and manufacturer trends in the global as well as in regional markets.The report also provides a section on the competitive landscape, wherein the market positioning of leading players in the global dashboard cameras market in 2013 has been analyzed. The report concludes with the profiles of major original equipment suppliers (OESs) and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in the global dashboard cameras industry such as Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) US LLC, Delphi Automotive Systems Pvt Ltd, Papago Inc., Toyota Motor Corp, Harman International Inc, Garmin International Inc, Qrontech Co., Ltd. (Lukas), Pittasoft Co. Ltd. (BlackVue), DCS Systems Ltd. (RoadHawk UK), and others.ResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMozs service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Researchmoz Global Pvt. Ltd.90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United States,Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free),Tel: +1-518-621-2074 Opportunities for the global vehicle surveillance market to reach $54.6 billion by 2021 Insights that Matter www.lucintel.com www.lucintel.com According to a new market report published by Lucintel, the future of the global vehicle surveillance market looks promising with opportunities in the passenger car and commercial vehicle industries. The global vehicle surveillance market is expected to reach an estimated $54.6 billion by 2021 and it is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 13.4% from 2016 to 2021. The major drivers of growth for this market are growing demand for premium cars with advanced safety and security features and stringent government regulations concerning passenger safety.In this market, in-vehicle, out vehicle, and under vehicle are the segments by product type. Lucintel forecasts that the in-vehicle segment is expected to remain the largest segment due to the growth in vehicle production and increasing demand for parking assistance, blind spot detection, and information and navigation system to meet the safety and security requirements. On the basis of its comprehensive research, Lucintel predicts that under vehicle surveillance system (UVSS) is likely to experience the highest growth in the forecast period supported by increasing demand in the areas of military & defense and government buildings to ensure the public safety.Within the in-vehicle surveillance market by vehicle type, passenger car is expected to remain the largest market due to the increasing demand for premium cars. The commercial vehicle segment is expected to experience the highest growth rate in the forecast period supported by increasing demand for vehicle tracking and information system.In the in-vehicle surveillance market by technology type, adaptive cruise control, parking assistance system, blind spot detection systems, lane departure warning system, heads-up display, and GPS are used for vehicle surveillance. Lucintel forecasts that the GPS segment is expected to remain the largest segment due to the growing demand for vehicle tracking in cargo companies, tour and travels, and banking industry. Lucintel predicts that adaptive cruise control is likely to experience the highest growth in the forecast period supported by increasing concern towards passenger safety by automatic adjusting the speed and maintaining the distance.North America is expected to remain the largest region during the forecast period due to the stringent government regulations for improved safety and security.Asia Pacific and the Rest of the World are expected to witness good growth over the forecast period because of growing awareness related to transportation, passenger safety, and increasing automotive production.For business expansion, the report suggests innovation and new product development to reduce cost and improve safety. The report further suggests the development of partnerships with customers to create win-win situations and development of low-cost solutions for the end user.Emerging trends, which have a direct impact on the dynamics of the industry, include advanced video surveillance as a service (VSAAS) solutions for out-vehicle surveillance and increasing use of high definition camera. Robert Bosch GmbH, Delphi Automotive PLC, Continental AG, Magna International Inc. and Comm-Port Technologies are among the major suppliers of the vehicle surveillance.Lucintel, a leading global strategic consulting and market research firm, has analyzed growth opportunities in the global vehicle surveillance market by type, technology, end use, and region and has come up with a comprehensive research report entitled Growth Opportunities in the Global Vehicle Surveillance Market 2016-2021: Trends, Forecast, and Opportunity Analysis. The Lucintel report serves as a spring board for growth strategy as it provides a comprehensive data and analysis on trends, key drivers, and directions. The study includes a forecast for the global vehicle surveillance market by type, technology, end use, and region as follows:By type [Value ($M) analysis from 2010 to 2021]: In-Vehicle Surveillance Out-Vehicle Surveillance Under-Vehicle SurveillanceIn-vehicle surveillance market by vehicle type [Value ($M) analysis from 2010 to 2021]: Passenger Car Small Car Medium Car Large Car Commercial VehiclesIn-vehicle surveillance market by technology [Value ($M) analysis for 2015 and 2021]: Adaptive cruise control Parking assistance system Blind spot detection systems Lane departure warning system Heads-up display GPS OthersUnder vehicle surveillance system (UVSS) by type [Value ($M) analysis from 2010 to 2021]: Fixed type Portable typeUnder vehicle surveillance system (UVSS) by end use industry [Value ($M) analysis from 2010 to 2021]: Military & Defense Government Buildings, Embassy compounds Energy plant entrances Commercial OthersBy Region [Value ($M) analysis for 2010 2021]: North America Europe Asia Pacific The Rest of the WorldThis 176-page research report will enable you to make confident business decisions in this globally competitive marketplace. For a detailed table of contents, contact Lucintel at +1-972-636-5056 or helpdesk@lucintel.com. Lucintel offerings include Mass Transportation, Transportation Market Report, SWOT Matrix, Due Diligence and Mergers & Acquisitions.About LucintelLucintel, the premier global management consulting and market research firm, creates winning strategies for growth. It offers market assessments, competitive analysis, opportunity analysis, growth consulting, M&A, and due diligence services to executives and key decision-makers in a variety of industries. For further information, visitThis report answers following 11 key questions:Q.1 What are some of the most promising, high-growth opportunities for the global vehicle surveillance market by type (in-vehicle surveillance, out-vehicle surveillance, and under vehicle surveillance), In-vehicle surveillance by technology (adaptive cruise control, parking assistance system, blind spot detection systems, lane departure warning system, heads-up display, GPS, and others), In-vehicle surveillance by type (passenger car and commercial vehicle), Under vehicle surveillance by vehicle type (fixed and portable), Under vehicle surveillance by end use (military & defense, government buildings, embassy compounds, energy plant entrances, commercial, and others), and by region (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Rest of the World)?Q. 2 Which segments will grow at a faster pace and why?Q.3 Which regions will grow at a faster pace and why?Q.4 What are the key factors affecting market dynamics? What are the drivers and challenges of the market?Q.5 What are the business risks and threats to the market?Q.6 What are the emerging trends in this market and reasons behind them?Q.7 What are some changing demands of customers in the market?Q.8 What are the new developments in the market? Which companies are leading these developments?Q.9 Who are the major players in this market? What strategic initiatives are being implemented by key players for business growth?Q.10 What are some of the competitive products and processes in this area and how big of a threat do they pose for loss of market share via materials or product substitution?Q.11 What M&A activity has occurred in the last 5 years?Lucintel, the premier global management consulting and market research firm, creates winning strategies for growth. It offers market assessments, competitive analysis, opportunity analysis, growth consulting, M&A, and due diligence services to executives and key decision-makers in a variety of industries. For further information, visitLucintel222 Las Colinas Blvd West, Suite 1650, Irving, TX 75039, USAPh: +1-972-636-5056 Fax: +1-877-883-5140marketing@lucintel.com Crowdfunding Opportunity: Casa Esperanza Of Angels Charity Launches Indiegogo.com Project Ron Brown, Managing Director of Casa Esperanza of Angels Foundation with some of the children of Sitio Baybay. www.casaesperanzaofangels.com/sitiobaybay TANJAY CITY, Philippines, January 5, 2016 - The charity nonprofit organization Casa Esperanza of Angels (CEA) Foundation Inc. has launched a crowdfunding campaign on the Indiegogo.com platform to help raise funds for its upcoming community outreach project in this city.The outreach project scheduled on January 28, 2017 is designed to benefit impoverished children and their families in a fishing village called Sitio Baybay, Barangay San Isidro, in Tanjay City, Philippines.Our aim in this campaign is not just to raise funds but to connect with more people, as well, shared Emmanuel Gonot, Communications Director of Casa Esperanza of Angels. Hopefully, the story of Sitio Baybay resonates among users of this platform, we'd love to meet new supporters of our nonprofit.Supported by over 15 million backers from 223 countries, Indiegogo.com is one of the most effective and prominent crowdfunding sites to date. Casa Esperanza of Angels campaign on Indiegogo.com was created using the platforms flexible goal model.The funds collected under this campaign through Indiegogo and through direct donations will be used to purchase food and grocery items for the villagers of Sitio Baybay, explained Mr. Gonot. These will be distributed by our volunteers on January 28th. We're looking at about 45 children and 19 families from the village who will benefit from this activity.Tanjay City is a fourth class city located in the province of Negros Oriental in the central part of the Philippines. In recent years, due to the uptick in remittances from overseas workers and from the presence of a large professional workforce, the city and the province have experienced remarkable economic strides. However, remote villages like Sitio Baybay where children endure extreme poverty and hunger, remain.These people have so little in terms of basic necessities, remarked Mr. Gonot. We'd like to visit this village and share a little to bring happiness to the children of this community.Fundraising through crowdfunding platforms like Indiegogo.com can be a tough challenge for those who are new to it. Users on these sites are wary of unknown charities and many are focused instead on funding tech innovation projects.Of course, we're new to the platform and we don't expect immediate support. We've set a modest goal for this campaign as this is the first time we're doing crowdfunding, confided Mr. Gonot. Our goal is to encourage our own longtime donors and supporters to donate to this project via Indiegogo.com and hopefully, that will start the ball rolling. Casa Esperanza of Angels Foundation, Inc. is a nonprofit organization founded by Ronald Brown with his wife Georgia Olis Brown to help protect and care for the growing number of orphans, abused or abandoned children, and those in dire circumstances in the province of Negros Oriental, Philippines.Ronald BrownExecutive DirectorCasa Esperanza of Angels Foundation, Inc.Barrio Sta. Ines, Tanjay CityNegros Oriental, Philippines 6204Phone: (+63) 905-1850060ronald@agapeasia.orgWebsite: Global E-Coat Market to Expand at 5.1% CAGR during 2016-2022 https://www.mrfreports.com/sample-request/global-e-coat-market-research-report-forecast-to-2022 https://www.mrfreports.com/reports/global-e-coat-market-research-report-forecast-to-2022 https://www.mrfreports.com/reports/light-olefin-market-research-report-forecast-to-2027 Market research future published a half cooked research report on E-Coat Market. The global e-coat market is expected to grow over the CAGR of 5.1% during the period 2016 to 2022.Market HighlightsOver the past few years, the global market has seen a substantial growth due to increasing demand of e-coat. This has resulted into a higher growth rate at the end of forecasted period.Request a Sample Copy @Key PlayerThe key players of e-coat market report include Ad-Tech Industries Inc. Axalta Coating Systems Nippon Paint Holdings Beacon Industries, Inc. BASF SE PPG Industries KCC Corporation Valspar Corporation Noroo Paint & Coatings Hawking Electrotechnology.As per the market analysis, different factors have created boom in the global e-coat market are rapidly increasing number of vehicles, high physical strengths with superior properties, green environment regulations, low cost of coating, emerging economies and others.Target Audience Manufactures of end-use industry Raw material Suppliers Aftermarket suppliers Research Institute / Education Institute Potential Investors Key executive (CEO and COO) and strategy growth managerBrowse full report @Asia-Pacific is projected to be the largest market during the forecast periodGeographically, Asia-Pacific is expected to be the largest market for e-coat market. However, the emerging market such as China, where the rapid increasing population has become a major driving factor. Along with this, the increasing demand of e-coat from the application segment and government support and subsidies have been a major growing factors which has fueled the demand for e-coat in the regional market. Followed by this Europe is expected to be the second ruling region and North America would be the third ruling region.Table of Content1. Executive Summary2 Scope Of The Report2.1 Market Definition2.2 Scope Of The Study2.2.1 Research Objectives2.2.2 Assumptions & Limitations2.3 Markets Structure3 Market Research Methodology3.1 Research Process3.2 Secondary Research3.3 Primary Research3.4 Forecast Model4 Market Landscape4.1 Five Forces Analysis4.1.1 Threat Of New Entrants4.1.2 Bargaining power of buyers4.1.3 Threat of substitutes4.1.4 Segment rivalry4.2 Value Chain/Supply Chain of Global E-Coat Market5 Industry Overview of Global E-Coat MarketContinue.List of TablesTable 1 World Population By Major Regions (2015 To 2030) (Million)Table 2 Global E-Coat Market: By Region, 2014-2022 (Usd Million)Table 3 North America E-Coat Market: By Country, 2014-2022 (Usd Million)Table 4 Europe E-Coat Market: By Country, 2014-2022 (Usd Million)Table 5 Asia-Pacific E-Coat Market: By Country, 2014-2022 (Usd Million)Continue.LIST OF FIGURESFigure 1 Global E-Coat Market SegmentationFigure 2 Forecast MethodologyFigure 3 Five Forces Analysis Of Global E-Coat MarketFigure 4 Value Chain Of Global E-Coat MarketFigure 5 Share Of Global E-Coat Market In 2014, By Country (In %)ContinueRelated ReportsLight olefin market Research by type (Propylene and Ethylene) by derivatives (Polypropylene, Propylene Oxide, Acrylonitrile, Cumene, Acrylic Acid, Oxo ; Polyethylene, Ethylene Oxide / Glycol, EDC / VCM / PVC, Styrene, Alpha Olefins, Vinyl Acetate Monomer (VAM) ) by application (refinery and chemical commodities industry)- Forecast to 2027.Know more about this report @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com Motor Vehicle Sensor Market to Demonstrate Progressive Growth Thanks to Accelerating Government Support http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=1051 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Transparency Market Researchs new research study, titled Motor Vehicle Sensor Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast, 2012 - 2018, provides a 360-degree view of the market. According to the report, the global motor vehicle sensor market will expand at an admirable CAGR of 11.9% from 2012 to 2018.The market is anticipated to reach a total value of US$25.4 billion by the end of 2018.The global market for motor vehicle sensors is classified according to application into engine and drivetrain, emission control, safety and security, and others. Engine and drivetrain is the largest application of global motor vehicle sensors and held a 34% market share in 2012. On the other hand, the safety and security sector is forecast to be the fastest growing segment, with an expected CAGR of 12.9% during the forecast periodProduct-wise, the global motor vehicle sensor market is segmented into process variable sensors, physical property sensors, chemical property sensors, proximity and positioning sensors, and others. Physical property sensors hold a majority of demand from the global market and will observe a 12.1% CAGR during the forecast period to exceed US$8 billion by 2018.Physical property sensors are employed to measure vital physical properties of the vehicle, such as speed, force, vibration, etc. Proximity and positioning sensors will emerge as the fastest growing application sector of the global motor vehicle sensors market with a progressive 12.6% CAGR from 2012 to 2018. The rapid growth of this sector is a result of an increased focus on motor vehicle safety from thefts and accidents.Get More Information:According to regions, the global motor vehicle sensor market is divided into Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World (RoW). In 2012, Asia Pacific accounted for a market share of more than 40% in the global motor vehicle sensor market. Bosch, Valeo, Denso, Hitachi Automotives, and Continental AG are some of the leading manufacturers of motor vehicle sensors. Bosch held a significant part of the market with a 13% share in 2011, followed by Denso.The global motor vehicle sensor market is driven by the growing consumer demand for increasing safety and rising environmental concerns.Legal and regulatory compliances addressing the same also help fuel the growth of the global motor vehicle sensor market.Large corporations and emerging market players in the global motor vehicle sensor market will benefit from the accelerating sales of motor vehicles globally. In 2011, worldwide motor vehicle production was noted at 65.44 million, out of which China contributed 18.09 million and Japan contributed to 8.19 million (source: statista.com).The high cost of implementation decelerates the growth of the global motor vehicle sensor market. However, researchers have developed motor vehicle sensors that claim to cut the cost of implementation by approximately 40%.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: Inkjet Papers and Films Market Global Industry Analysis 2016 - 2024 Global Inkjet Papers and Films Market http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=3125 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/ http://globalresearchmarket.blogspot.in/ Inkjet papers are specially designed for inkjet printers and are identified by their opacity, smoothness, brightness, and weight. These papers are manufactured from good quality chemical pulp or deinked pulp and have exceptional dimensional stability. Likewise, inkjet papers and films also possess extensive surface strength and good surface smoothness. These papers can be classified into matte, satin, semi-gloss, semi-matte, and glossy finish. The thickness of these papers varies accordingly. The glossy inkjet papers are made by the use of polyvinyl alcohol and silica and can be used for double sided as well as single sided printing. Photo paper is a kind of inkjet paper which is designed for the purpose of reproducing photographs. This kind of paper is coated with high absorbent materials that prevent ink diffusion from the point of contact and is also tremendously bright.The report is a broad investigation into the growth trajectory in terms of the past, present, and future progress and prospects of the global inkjet papers and films market. It provides an evaluation of the aspects that are likely to impact the growth of the market and the principal trends have also been mentioned in the publication. The report further offers a diverse outlook of the competitive scenario of the market by utilizing the value chain and Porters five forces analysis.GET PDF BROCHURE FOR MORE PROFESSIONAL AND TECH-NICAL INSIGHTS:Global Inkjet Papers and Films Market: Trends and OpportunitiesThe global market for inkjet papers and films is projected to be driven by the growing printing industry across the globe. Moreover, the rising demand for labels from the packaging industry is another factor that is expected to fuel the demand for inkjet films and papers. Labels used in pharmaceutical and food packaging is generally manufactured by employing inkjet papers. Manufacturers of medicines and food products basically use inkjet papers to provide information on the composition of salts and nutrient content in drugs and food products. There is a substantially high demand for packaging and labeling in developing countries which is further anticipated to boost the demand for inkjet papers and films over the coming years. Besides, the demand for photographic printing and offset litho printing is also expected to bolster the growth of the inkjet papers & films market. However, growing prices of raw materials are likely to impede the market growth for inkjet papers and films.Global Inkjet Papers and Films Market: Regional OutlookGeographically, the global inkjet papers and films market is segmented into Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, and the Rest of the World. Among these, the market in Asia Pacific is expected to grow at a considerable rate owing to the growing demand for packaging and printing in Indonesia, Vietnam, South Korea, India, and China. This demand is due to the rising income level of consumers and availability of inexpensive raw materials in the region. The market in North America is also expected to exhibit promising growth owing to the progress of the printing industry in the region. Manufacturers can seek growth opportunities in the growing markets of the Middle East and North Africa.Companies Mentioned in the ReportThe chief players operating in the market are Kodak, Ricoh, Konika Minolta, Epson, and Hewlett Packard. The report highlights the research and development projects, mergers and acquisitions, details on collaborations and licensing. The study provides insights into the marketing strategies, products, and shares of these key players operating in the inkjet papers and films market.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.Contact Us:-Transparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Visit Blog: Synthetic Textile Fiber Market - Global Industry Analysis 2016 -2024 Synthetic Textile Fiber Market http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=2931 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/ http://globalresearchmarket.blogspot.in/ Synthetic textile fibers are referred to the textile fabric that is not a naturally occurring fiber but a man-made one. The most common synthetic textile fibers are polylactide, olefin, spandex, nylon, lyocell, lurex, luminex, ingeo, acrylic, aramid, polyester, tencel, acetate, and rayon. Several scientists discovered synthetic fibers with extensive and incessant research over the past few years. Synthetic textile fibers were developed chiefly from extrusion, fiber-forming raw materials through spinnerets into the air and thus creating a thread. Before the introduction of synthetic fibers, textile fibers were mainly produced artificially from a material known as cellulose, which is extracted from plants. It is, however, obligatory for textile companies to provide details on the textile contents on the label of their product. This information is then processed for testing textiles under several conditions and to meet the required safety standards.The report is an in-depth investigation into the growth trajectory in terms of the past, present, and future opportunities of the global synthetic textile fiber market. It provides an evaluation of the dynamics that might probably impact the growth of the market and the dominant trends have also been mentioned in the research publication. The study further presents a diverse outlook of the competitive scenario of the market by utilizing the value chain and Porters five forces analysis. The market shares, strategies, and product description of the leading companies have also been mentioned in the study.GET PDF BROCHURE FOR MORE PROFESSIONAL AND TECH-NICAL INSIGHTS:Global Synthetic Textile Fiber Market: Trends and OpportunitiesSynthetic textile fibers are commonly used than the naturally occurring fibers and comprise of almost the half of the total fiber usage across the globe. The synthetic textile fibers are employed in almost every fiber and textile technology field, especially in the fashion industry. These fibers have unique characteristics that make them suitable for being used as a dress material. These synthetic textile fibers are abundant in nature as they are not dependent on any agricultural crops. Some of the qualities of synthetic textile fibers are stain and rot resistance, easy to wash and dry, are resistant to pests and insects, and they pick up dyes very easily. The other factors that are expected to drive the demand for synthetic textile fiber market are its durability and low cost.However, the synthetic fibers also have some disadvantages such as they burn comparatively faster than natural fibers, they melt easily, and cant be worn for a longer period of time as they are not skin friendly. To combat these issues, scientists and researchers are focusing on developing biofibers to reduce the dependence on synthetic textile fibers and reduce the pressure on oil sources.Global Synthetic Textile Fiber Market: Regional OutlookThe demand and production of synthetic fibers is considerably high in North America thus making it the leading market for synthetic textile fibers trailed by Latin America and Europe in the exact order. The market is likely to mature over the coming years owing to environmental regulations in the region and the rising use of green fibers. Manufacturers are likely to focus on the Asia Pacific market owing to fewer regulations and rising demand.Companies Mentioned in the ReportA few of the leading companies operating in the global synthetic textile fiber market are Bridgestone Corporation, BP Amono Plc., Univex SA, Bayer AG, BASF SE, and DuPont (EI) de Nemours.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.Contact Us:-Transparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Visit Blog: Nurse Call Systems Market worth 1.75 Billion USD by 2021 http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/nurse-call-system-market-230909048.html http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestsample.asp?id=230909048 http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownload.asp?id=230909048 The report "Nurse Call Systems Market by Instrument (Buttons, Integrated Communication Systems, Intercom Systems, Mobile Systems), Technology (Wired Systems and Wireless Systems), Application (Emergency Medical Alarms, Workflow Support, Wanderer Control, and Other Applications), End User (Hospitals, Assisted Living Centers and Nursing Homes, Clinics and Physician Offices, Ambulatory Service Centers, and Other End Users) - Global Forecast to 2021", The global nurse call systems market is expected to reach USD 1.75 Billion by 2021 from USD 1.12 Billion in 2016, at a CAGR of 9.3% from 2016 to 2021.Browse 147 market data Tables and 37 Figures spread through 175 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Nurse Call Systems Market"Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report.Aging population and rising prevalence of chronic diseases, new product launches, technological advancements, and increasing healthcare expenditure are some major factors driving the growth of the nurse call systems market.This report segments the nurse call systems market based on instruments, technologies, applications, end users, and regions.On the basis of instruments, the nurse call systems market is segmented into buttons, integrated communication systems, mobile systems, and intercom systems. Integrated communication systems segment is expected to account for the largest share of the market in the forecast period owing to increasing number of hospitals integrated with these systems and new product launches.Get The Free Sample Pages@On the basis of technologies, the nurse call systems market is segmented into wired systems and wireless systems. The wired systems is expected to account for the largest share of the global nurse call systems market owing to low-cost and speed of transmission of wired communication.On the basis of end users, the nurse call systems market includes hospitals, assisted living centers & nursing homes, clinics & physician offices, ambulatory care centers and other end users. The hospitals segment is expected to account for the largest share of the global nurse call systems market in 2016. Increasing geriatric population and the increasing number of private and public hospitals, especially in emerging countries are the major factors driving the growth of this market.On the basis of applications, the nurse call systems nurse call system market is segmented into emergency medical alarms, wanderer control, workflow support, and others applications. The emergency medical alarm segment is expected to account for the largest share of the market during the forecast period. Growth in this segment is driven by new product launches.Download the PDF Brochure@On the basis of regions, the global nurse call systems market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia, and RoW. Asia is expected to account for the highest CAGR during the forecast period. Growth in this regional segment is driven by the factors such as increasing diabetes prevalence and growing geriatric population.The key players in the nurse call systems market include by Ascom Holding AG (Switzerland), Hill-Rom Holdings, Inc. (U.S.), Tyco International PLC (U.S.), Honeywell International, Inc. (U.S.), and Rauland-Borg Corporation (U.S.).About MarketsandMarkets:MarketsandMarkets is the largest market research firm worldwide in terms of annually published premium market research reports. Serving 1700 global fortune enterprises with more than 1200 premium studies in a year, M&M is catering to multitude of clients across 8 different industrial verticals. We specialize in consulting assignments and business research across high growth markets, cutting edge technologies and newer applications. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors.M&Ms flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "RT" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. The new included chapters on Methodology and Benchmarking presented with high quality analytical infographics in our reports gives complete visibility of how the numbers have been arrived and defend the accuracy of the numbers.We at MarketsandMarkets are inspired to help our clients grow by providing apt business insight with our huge market intelligence repository.Contact:Mr. RohanMarketsandMarkets701 Pike StreetSuite 2175, Seattle,WA 98101, United StatesTelephone No: 1-888-600-6441 Global Sodium Gluconate Market: Trends,Opportunities and Forecasts, 2015-2021 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/4535 www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/4535 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com Sodium gluconate is a salt of gluconic acid. It is a white powder, odorless and soluble in water. Sodium gluconate is used as chelating agent in various applications such as cement, alumina dyeing and plating industries. Sodium gluconate is also used as a surface cleaning agent. It is an effective sequestrant for magnesium, iron, aluminum, copper and calcium. It is used as a softener in water treatment.Request Sample:The market for sodium gluconate was mainly driven by construction and industrial sector. Sodium gluconate is also used in textile industry in degreasing and cleaning fibers, sequestrant for metal ions. It can be used as retardant and plasticizer in construction industry. Sodium gluconate is used in treatment of metallic surfaces, aluminum etching and metal degreasing among other. Construction sector can provide major opportunities for sodium gluconate in near the future. However, higher manufacturing costs can be major restraint for the market in upcoming years.In terms of demand, Asia Pacific was the leading region in the sodium gluconate market. The demand is high due to the huge demand from construction industry. China is one of the major producer and consumer for sodium gluconate and is expected to be the same in near future. India and Japan are likely to exhibit more demand for sodium gluconate across the forecast period. Asia Pacific was followed by North America. The market for sodium gluconate is huge from metal cleaning and textile market. Europe market is anticipated to grow and is likely to show greater demand in upcoming years owing to huge demand for sodium gluconate from various manufacturing sectors. The Rest of the World market is likely to potential market for sodium gluconate in next few years.Request for Table of content @:Some of the key manufacturers in the sodium gluconate market are Akzo Noble N.V, BASF SE, Cargill Incorporated, Kemira Oyj, Lanxess AG, Sigma-Aldrich Corporation and The Dow Chemical Company 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: Global Regulatory Affairs Outsourcing Market Is Expected To Expand At A Substantial 11.5% CAGR From 2015 To 2023 And Rise To A Valuation Of US$5.7 bn By 2023 http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=228484 http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=E&repid=228484 http://www.researchmoz.us/ http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Regulatory Affairs Outsourcing Market (Services - Regulatory Submissions, Clinical Trial Application and Product Registration, Regulatory Writing and Publishing, Regulatory Consulting and Legal Representation and Other Regulatory Affairs) - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2015 - 2023" to its huge collection of research reports.This research study analyzes the market for regulatory affairs outsourcing services in terms of revenue (US$ Mn). The stakeholders of this report comprises the clinical research organizations. The global regulatory affairs outsourcing market has been broadly segmented on the basis of services (Regulatory Submissions, Clinical Trial Applications and Product Registrations, Regulatory Writing and Publishing, Regulatory Consulting and Legal Representation and others regulatory affairs, and Geography (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa). Each geographic region is further analyzed at the country level for regulatory affairs outsourcing market. The market for each of these segment has been analyzed on the basis of various market dynamics such as technological advances, its advantages and increasing use of outsourcing by leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Market revenue in terms of US$ Mn for the period between 2013 and 2023 along with the compound annual growth rate (CAGR %) from 2015 to 2023 are provided for all the segments, considering 2014 as the base year.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The regulatory affairs outsourcing market report comprises an elaborate executive summary, which includes a market snapshot that provides information about various segments and sub-segments of the market. The market overview section of the report explores market dynamics such as drivers, restraints, and opportunities affecting the demand and acceptance of outsourcing regulatory affairs activities across the globe. The report provides a detailed industry analysis of the global regulatory affairs outsourcing market with the help of Porters Five Forces model which pose an impact on the sustainability of the companies and value chain analysis. The forces analyzed are bargaining power of buyers, bargaining power of suppliers, threat of new entrants, threat of substitutes, and degree of competition. The market attractiveness analysis has been provided in the market overview section in order to elucidate the intensity of competition in the market in different regions across the globe. The competitive scenario between different market players is evaluated through market share analysis in the competitive landscape section of the report. All these factors would help the market players to take strategic decisions in order to strengthen their positions and expand their shares worldwide.A list of recommendations has been provided for new entrants as well as existing market players to assist them in taking strategic initiatives to establish a strong presence in the market.The report also profiles major players in the XPS market on the basis of various attributes such as company overview, financial overview, business strategies, product portfolio, and recent developments. Key players in the global regulatory affairs outsourcing market are Quintiles Transnational Corporation, Covance, Inc.(LabCorp), PAREXEL International Corporation, Pharmaceutical Product Development, LLC, ICON plc, and WuXi ApptecThe global regulatory affairs outsourcing market is segmented into the following categories:Global Regulatory Affairs Outsourcing Market, by Services- Regulatory Submissions- Clinical Trial Applications and Product Registrations- Regulatory Writing and Publishing- Regulatory Consulting and Legal Representation- Other Regulatory AffairsGlobal Regulatory Affairs Outsourcing Market, by Geography- North America- U.S.- Canada- Europe- U.K.- Germany- Rest of Europe- Asia Pacific (APAC)- India- China- Japan- Rest of APAC- Latin America (LATAM)- Brazil- Mexico- Rest of LATAM- Middle East and Africa (MEA)- South Africa- Rest of MEAMake 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 Water Market: Facts, Figures and Analytical Insights by 2026 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/4543 www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/4543 www.persistencemarketresearch.com Water mater provides waste water services and drinking water to commercial, residential and industrial sectors. On the basis of ownership the industry is classified as local government, national government, private ownership and cooperatives. On the basis of application, the water market is classified as utilities, bottled water, irrigation equipment, industrial water and point of use equipment among others. Utilities are the leading application for the water market.Request Sample:The market for water was mainly driven by utilities sector majorly from manufacturing sectors. There is huge demand for water from various manufacturing industries. In addition, the demand is huge from packaged drinking water sector owing to poor water quality and scarcity of water in some regions. The demand for water is also huge from agricultural and energy sector. Scarcity of water has lead to lower crop yield in some of the regions. Poor water quality and quantity issues and scarcity of water can be major restraints for the global water market. However, environmental regulations and government initiatives are likely to provide more opportunities for the growth of the water market in the near future.In terms of demand, Asia Pacific is the leading region for water market. The demand is huge owing to the huge manufacturing activities coupled with growing population in this part of the world. Additionally, national governments in countries such as China, India and Japan are taking initiatives for urbanization and water treatment process. The demand from North America, South America and European countries market is also substantial owing to increased demand from bottled water and utility sector. The Rest of the World is likely to exhibit huge demand for water especially, the Middle East and North Africa where there is major issue of poor water quality.Request TOC:Some of the key providers in the water market are SUEZ Environment, United Utilities, ITT, American Water, Nalco Corporation, Siemens water technology, and Danaher 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: Global Cancer Diagnostic Market with Focus on Lung and Breast Cancer (2016-2020) | Now Available at Researchmoz.us Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Cancer Diagnostic Market with Focus on Lung and Breast Cancer (2016-2020)" to its huge collection of research reports. The report entitled Global Cancer Diagnostic Market with Focus on Lung and Breast Cancer (2016-2020), provides analysis of the global cancer diagnostics market and the US cancer diagnostics market, with detailed analysis of market size and growth, penetration and market share. The report also provides the analysis of the global and the US cancer market, by prevalence, new cases, deaths, type of cancers, etc. The report provides the market sizing of the global lung and breast cancer diagnostic market by value and by segments. The report also discusses about the different diagnostic test of lung cancer and breast cancer. The diagnostics test analyzed in the report are: MetaStat (Meta Test) (Breast Cancer Test), OncotypeDX (Breast Cancer Test), OncoCyte (Lung Cancer Test), Veracytes Test (Lung Cancer Test) and Integrated Diagnostics, Inc. Test (Lung Cancer Test). Country Coverage North America (US) Executive Summary A disease caused by abnormal growth of cells in the body, is called Cancer. In this disease, the formation of new cells slows or start dividing, forming lumps. However, all lumps are not cancerous; and this can be known by diagnosis. There are various types of cancer- prostate cancer, breast cancer, lung and bronchus cancer, colon and rectum cancer, bladder cancer, melanoma of the skin, non-hodgkin lymphoma, kidney and renal, pelvis cancer, thyroid cancer, endometrial cancer and others. Cancer is diagnosed using various tools, which confirm the presence of tumour, and the rate of its growth within the body. Cancer diagnosis can be segmented into: imaging testing, endoscopy, biopsy and tumour marker. Each segment can be sub segmented. The global cancer diagnostic market is expected to increase at a significant growth rate during the forecasted period (2016-2020). The global cancer diagnostic market is supported by various growth drivers, such as the rising incidence of cancer, sedentary lifestyle, growing technological advancement, increasing awareness, etc. To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @ http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=841071 Table Of Content 1. Executive Summary 2. Introduction 2.1 Cancer Overview 2.2 Cancer Diagnostic: Overview 2.3 Cancer Diagnostic: Liquid Biopsy 3. Market Analysis 3.1 Cancer Prevalence Analysis 3.1.1 Global Cancer New Cases and Death 3.1.2 Global Cancer Prevalence, New Cases and Death by Type 3.1.3 US Cancer Prevalence 3.1.4 US Cancer New Cases and Death by Type 3.2 Cancer Diagnostic Market Analysis 3.2.1 Global Cancer Diagnostic Market by Value 3.2.2 Global Cancer Diagnostic Market by Segments (Type of Tests) 3.2.3 Global Cancer Diagnostic Market by Segments (Type of Cancer) 3.2.4 Global Cancer Diagnostic Market by Region 3.2.5 North America Cancer Diagnostic Market by Value 3.3 Lung Cancer Diagnostic Market Analysis 3.3.1 Global Lung Cancer Diagnostic Market by Value 3.3.2 Global Lung Cancer Diagnostic Market by Segment (Type of Test) 3.3.3 Global Lung Cancer Cases by Type 3.4 Breast Cancer Diagnostic Market Analysis 3.4.1 Global Breast Cancer Diagnostic Market by Value 3.5 MetaStat (Meta Test) Analysis (Breast Cancer Test) 3.5.1 Mena Testing: An Overview 3.5.2 Mena Breast Cancer Test Market Opportunity (US) 3.5.3 US Mena Test Market Opportunity 3.5.4 US Mena Test Market by Number of Test and Addressable Population 3.6 OncotypeDX (Breast Cancer Test) 3.6.1 OncotypeDX by Addressable Market 3.7 OncoCyte (Lung Cancer Test) 3.7.1 OncoCyte Test by Average Price and Revenue 3.7.2 OncoCyte Test by Test Volume and Market Penetration 3.8 Veracytes Test (Lung Cancer Test) 3.8.1 Veracytes Percepta Test Overview 3.9 Integrated Diagnostics, Inc. Test (Lung Cancer Test) 3.9.1 Integrated Diagnostics, Inc. Test Overview Make an Enquiry of this report @ http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=E&repid=841071 About ResearchMoz ResearchMoz 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. Nachiket State Tower, 90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany NY - 12207 United States Email: sales@researchmoz.us Website @ http://www.researchmoz.us/ Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free) Tel: +1-518-621-2074 Follow us on LinkedIn @ http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG This release was published on openPR. Permanent link to this press release: Copy Please set a link in the press area of your homepage to this press release on openPR. openPR disclaims liability for any content contained in this release. Global Andalusite Market: Set to Grow Exponentially by 2021 www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/4546 www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/4546 www.persistencemarketresearch.com Andalusite is an aluminum nesosilicate mineral belonging to the sillimanite family and found in metamorphic rocks. It is a polymorph with two other minerals: kyanite and sillimanite and is named after Andalusia, a province in Spain. Since it is polymorph, it has similar chemical composition but different physical structure as compared to kyanite and sillimanite. Andalusite is commonly used for production of refractory materials and as a precursor for porcelain which is used in spark plugs and other products. Andalusite generally forms under low pressure and high temperature and converts to sillimanite or kyanite at different temperature-pressure regime. It comes in pink, green, yellow, violet and gray colors among others.Request for Sample Report:Andalusite is a precursor for production of refractory materials, which is used in linings for incinerators, furnaces, kilns and reactors. It can also be used for the production of crucibles. A refractory material should be physically and chemically stable at high temperatures, resistant to thermal shock and chemically inert. Andalusite has high purity, stable volume, good creep resistance, a high thermal shock resistance, metal penetration resistance and low porosity that make it suitable for production of refractory. The steel, glass, aluminum and cement industry are the key end users of andalusite.The andalusite industry is driven by the growth of refractory industry. The global demand for longer lasting, higher quality and low cost refractories is rising in emerging economies of the Asia Pacific, especially China and India due to rapid economic growth. The refractory industry follows the trend set by the main end user, the steel industry. The steel production makes up the majority of demand for refractories and profitability of the refractories industry is influenced by investment in steel production and steel plants. The continued demand for andalusite by China for its refractive industry will drive the demand of andalusite. Although end users other than the steel industry consume less andalusite, they have a strong impact on the growth of andalusite industry. The ceramic, glass, aluminum and cement industry contribute heavily to the growth of andalusite industry. However, fluctuations of major currency such as Euro and Dollar, rising oil prices and availability of substitutes such as bauxite could hamper the growth of this market.The Asia Pacific is one the biggest consumer of andalusite due to the rapid growth of refractory industry in emerging economies such as China and India. China is the main producer and user of refractories, mainly driven by the steel industry. Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Russia and Turkey are some of the other key markets in this region. The future of the refractories will depend on emerging economies of Asia and Latin America. Brazil remains the most promising end market for andalusite in Latin America. The consumption of refractories will be moderate in the European Union and North America.Request for Table of content:The production of andalusite is concentrated in the hands of few companies who produce majority of andalusite for the global market. Some of the key players in this market are Andalusite Resources, Rhino Minerals Pty Ltd (IMERYS), Samrec Pty ltd (IMERYS), Damrec (IMERYS), Picobello Andalucita and Andalucita S.A. among others. Damrec, subsidiary of IMERYS, is the largest producer of Andalusite and has operations in China, South Africa, France and Peru. Andalusite Resources (Pty) Ltd is a newcomer to the Andalusite Industry and plans to increase its production capacity due to strong growth potential of andalusite market.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: Tyre Inner Tubes Market Growth to be Driven by Technological Advancements, 2021 Tyre Inner Tubes Market, Tyre Inner Tubes, Tyre Inner Tube Market, Tyre Inner Tube, Tyre Tube http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/4361 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/4361 www.persistencemarketresearch.com Inner tubes which are larger in size possess the ability to be re used for other applications such as rafting and swimming. These tubes are large inflatable toruses which are manufactured for these applications while also offering a choice of decks, handles, fabric covering, colors and other various accessories, eliminating the protruding valve stem. Manufacturers such as Schrader International develop inner tubes for two wheeler vehicles which provide high performance to motorcycle tube tyres. The company provides valve vulcanization for inner tubes ensuring high quality rubber adhesion and leaks. Schrader International also provides inner tubes for other vehicles such as agricultural and industrial machinery, buses, trucks and cars.Sample of this report is available upon request @Tyre inner tubes are the internal components of the primary tyre which are designed to sustain air pressure. Majority of the tyres which are used in motorcycles, bicycle, large vehicles such as tractors, heavy trucks, cars, and buses are designed for their application with inner tubes. These are made from impermeable materials such as synthetic, elastic, soft rubber for the purpose of avoiding air leakge and are torus shaped in nature.The global inner tube industry is dependent on raw materials such as rubber suppliers as well as the buyers which mainly include automotive manufacturers. More than half of the global rubber production goes into the manufacturing of automotive tyres. In addition, the inner tube and tyre industry serve as the largest application segment in the overall rubber industry. The Rubbers Manufacturers Association (RMA) represent the rubber industry where members of the association contribute to more than half of revenues generated in the rubber industry. The industry for inner tubes has always been dependent on the automotive industry. The degree of competition between the tyre inner tube manufacturers has been strong, specifically for original equipment manufacturers (OEM) among the tyre manufacturers. Due to the fact that automobile end users are more inclined towards purchasing replaced tyres of the same product which is originally sold on the car, tyre and inner tube manufacturers have to reluctantly reduce the prices and have to make the automobile manufacturers select their product, which leads to high bargaining power of buyers.Besides automotives, tyre inner tubes are used largely in the aerospace industry. Large scale corporations such as Goodyear, Bridgestone Corporation, and Dunlop are significantly involved in the manufacturing of aircraft tyres that are eco-friendly, more intelligent, economical, safer and less noisy. They are consumed in significant quantities for various civil and military applications, where military operation hold huge demand on aircraft tyres where loads can be highly substantial with speed going more than 225 miles per hour. Companies such as Dunlop have been involved in the industry as a key player which manufactures tyres used in military aircrafts from the well known Vulcan and Spitfire to the modern F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, Heavy military aircraft such as C-130, the Tornado and the Hawk, and the latest A400M. The company serves various segments of the military aviation industry such as marine corps, naval forces and air forces across the world with tyres designed to give maximum operation characteristics in the fluctuating environmental conditions as well.TOC of this report is available upon request @Bridgestone Corporation, Dunlop, Goodyear, Michelin, and Schrader International are some of the key players involved in the tyre inner tube industry.Key geographies evaluated in this report are: North Americao U.So Canada Europeo France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UKo Eastern Europeo CIS APACo Chinao Indiao Japano Australiao Others Latin Americao Argentinao Brazilo OthersKey features of this report Drivers, restraints, and challenges shaping the Tyre Inner Tubes market dynamics Latest innovations and key events in the industry Analysis of business strategies of the top players Tyre Inner Tubes market estimates and forecasts(2015 -2021)About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a full-service market intelligence 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 flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb: Global Cellulose Acetate Butyrate (CAB) Market: Quantitative Market analysis, Current and Future Trends by 2015-2021 www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/10909 www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/10909 www.persistencemarketresearch.com Cellulose acetate butyrate (CAB) is an amorphous, transparent thermoplastic material with uses from trim for automobiles to tool handles, pens and blister packaging among others. It can be melted and remodeled into new shapes without altering its molecular structure. It is resistant to ultraviolet rays, has low moisture absorption and high impact strength. In addition it has high transparency, aesthetic appeal, high dielectric constant, excellent machinability, compatibility with human skin and ability to be offered in unlimited range of colors. It has soft and pliable nature and can be stretched up to 60% of its original length. It is expensive than its precursor cellulose acetate because of additional steps necessary in producing the compound. Since, cellulose acetate butyrate is resistant to ultraviolet, it can be used for applications where high surface gloss is needed such as production of lacquers for lenses and for various forms of plastic film.Request for Sample Report:Cellulose acetate butyrate is resistant to household chemicals and can be used in manufacture of numerous types of toys and sporting goods. Since, cellulose acetate butyrate has low electrical conductivity, high internal resistance and external resistance, it serves as a good insulating material. It also finds variety of applications in products such as textile fibers, wound dressings, photography, slip covers, steering wheels, goggles, pneumatic system traps and magnetic tape among others. Majority of cellulose acetate butyrate is consumed for making cigarette filters.Cigarette tow and textiles are the key end use application for cellulose acetate butyrate. The major demand comes from cigarette filter tow manufacturing companies that are also engaged in manufacture of textile fibers. Rising consumption of cigarette in low to middle income countries such as China and India, introduction of longer cigarette filters, preference for low tar cigarettes is driving the demand for cellulose acetate butyrate. Absence of stringent government regulations regarding cigarette consumption and demand for lesser emission of nicotine in the smoke is also accelerating the demand for cellulose acetate butyrate in emerging economies. A company must incur huge sunk costs to build a dedicated production facility, this act as a significant barrier for new players to enter the cellulose acetate butyrate market.Cellulose acetate butyrate is a mature product and growth has slowed down in the U.S and Western Europe. Cigarette applications are getting diminished in Europe and the U.S as a result of increased awareness of health hazards of smoking and stringent government regulations. Demand for cellulose acetate butyrate is growing in Eastern and Central Europe, India, China and Latin America as cigarette consumption is growing in these regions. The Asia Pacific region is the largest consumer for Cellulose acetate butyrate. It is also one of the fastest growing regions for cellulose acetate butyrate, largely driven by filter tow market. China is the largest market in terms of filter tow consumption and new cellulose acetate filter tow production facilities and capacity expansions are expected to be constructed in China in the coming years. There is also a shift of textile production facilities from western countries towards China that favors the growth of domestic market.Request for Table of content:The key companies in the cellulose acetate butyrate market include Mitsubishi Rayon Co. Ltd, Daicel Corporation, Eastman Chemical Company, Celanese Corporation, SK Chemicals Co. Ltd, Celanese Acetate, Rhodia Acetow GmbH, Primester, Simagchem Corporation, Haihang Industry Co. and Hangzhou Dayangchem Co. Ltd 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: Global BIPV Glass Market: In-Depth Market Research Report 2015 to 2021 www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/3831 www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/3831 www.persistencemarketresearch.com Building integrated photovoltaic or BIPV modules are essentially panes of glass with photovoltaic cells embedded between two sheets of glass. Used for making roofs, skylights, facades, spandrels, and curtain walls of buildings, BIPV glass is ideal for making those parts of a construction which do not require a high degree of transparency, such as an atrium roof. Various advance technology such as thin-film PV, OPV and DSC offers light weight and flexible BIPV glass . BIPV glass allows the entry of natural light and provides both thermal and sound insulation. It filters out harmful radiation and produces clean and free energy. Along with the conventional roles of providing protection from noise and rain, BIPV glass facilitates electricity generation and offers light and thermal management, effective shading, and glare protection.Request for Sample Report:Awareness about carbon footprint reduction and growing focus towards generation of electricity at lower cost from conventional and renewable sources act as key drivers for the growth of the BIPV glass market. The buildings sector accounts for the largest market share (over 80%) of the global BIPV glass market. BIPV modules act as key enabling technologies for zero net energy buildings. BIPV modules are being used extensively for the construction of educational, corporate, commercial, and residential buildings as well as hotels, hospitals, and retail outlets. The BIPV glass market is expected to grow rapidly during the forecast period. Growing investments in the architectural segment would further help boost the growth of the BIPV glass market. On the basis of end users, this market is segmented into commercial buildings, residential buildings, and industrial buildings, among others.Global players, such as Suntech Power Co., Ltd., Pilkington Group Limited, and Asahi Glass Co., Ltd., in the BIPV glass market offer innovative BIPV glass products with emphasis on latest technology and better quality. Growing investments in research and development of BIPV products and introduction of new technology further boost the BIPV glass market.Asia Pacific is one of the most prominent markets for BIPV glass. With growing investments in domestic and institutional building construction, the demand for BIPV glass is also on the rise. Growing economies and increasing household income are some of the key triggers fuelling the growth of the BIPV glass market in Asia Pacific. In North America, the U.S. holds the largest market share of the BIPV glass market. The total number of zero-net energy buildings in the U.S. and Europe is growing exponentially. EU Directives demand zero energy capability for all buildings by 2021. Such initiatives by governments help boost the BIPV glass market in North America as well as in Europe. The global BIPV glass market is expected to exhibit a double digit growth rate during forecast between 2014 and 2020.Request for Table of content:Major companies operating in the global BIPV glass market are Suntech Power Co., Ltd., Asahi Glass Co., Ltd., Onyx Solar, Ascent Solar, Canadian Solar, Hanergy, Hanwha Solar One, EMMVEE Solar Systems Private Limited, Ascent Solar, DuPont, First Solar, GE, Solar Frontier Pilkington, CENTROSOLAR Group AG, Power Film, Inc., Pythagoras Solar, and Sun Power.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: New Study Reveals Global Digital Music Market with Focus on Live Streaming: Size, Trends and Forecasts (2016-2020) http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=810263 http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=E&repid=810263 http://www.researchmoz.us/ http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Digital Music Market with Focus on Live Streaming: Size, Trends and Forecasts (2016-2020)" to its huge collection of research reports.The report entitled Global Digital Music Market with Focus on Live Streaming: Size, Trends and Forecasts (2016-2020) analyzes the global digital music market with detailed analysis of market sizing and growth. It analyzes market by value and market share by sources with focus on streaming music.A detailed overview of streaming music market is also discussed in the report. Streaming music market analysis has been done on the basis of value, volume and market segment. The report also provides an analysis of consumer behavior on the basis of consumer preference, spending nature of consumer, consumer interest in streaming services, consumer listening hours and consumers respond towards top streaming music players.A brief regional analysis of the US and Germany digital music market is also being done in the report. The US is the largest market for digital music globally with the highest revenue. Germany is the largest digital music market within the European region and third largest in the world. The report provides detailed description of the US and Germany on the basis of value, volume and market share by segment.The report also assesses the key opportunities available and summarizes the driving forces that are and will be accountable for growth of the industry. Growth of digital music market has also been forecasted for the period 2016-2020, taking into consideration previous growth outlines, growth drivers and the existing and forthcoming trends.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Furthermore, the report portrayed a competitive landscape of the digital music market with detailed comparison of top market players. Apple music is the market leader with highest revenue and number of paid subscribers in 2015.A brief company profiling of major market players namely Apple Inc., Spotify Limited, Deezer and Pandora Media Inc. has provided in the report on the basis of aspects like business overview, financial overview and business strategies adopted by these companies.Country CoverageThe USGermanyCompany CoverageApple Inc.Spotify LimitedDeezerPandora Media Inc.Executive SummaryMusic market has two major segments: Physical and digital. Physical music market comprises of music in the form of CD or vinyl whereas digital music market composed of audio content that is distributed to the music lovers through internet. Digital sector includes downloads as well as on demand digital streaming. Digital streaming is either subscription based or ad-supported which is free of charge. In ad-supported music, advertiser is liable to pay for the music streaming on behalf of customers. Current music marketplace offers a wide variety of digital options like download, streaming, cloud, music videos and ringtones.The global digital music market is growing tremendously with astonishing growth rates over the past few years and is anticipated to grow further over the forecasted period (2016-2020). Major factors contributing in the growth of the market are rising smartphone penetration globally specially in developing economies, availability of cheap internet services, expansion of streaming format, technological advancements, change in consumer behavior and consumer desire to access latest music etc.In the forecasted period, market will be pushed by increasing number of on- demand consumers, collaboration between music providers with social media platform, rising number of catalog software and blending of streaming music with wearable technology. In spite of high growth, market is still facing certain challenges that are hampering the growth of the market. Challenges encountered by the market are lack of unique services, rampant piracy, legal complexity and intense competition.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 @ Tissue Banking Industry Will Expand At A Promising 11.3% CAGR From 2016 Through 2024 And Rise To A Valuation Of US$2.1 bn By 2024 http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=893339 http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=E&repid=893339 http://www.researchmoz.us/ http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Tissue Banking Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2014 - 2024" to its huge collection of research reports.Tissue Banking devices are used to store tissues in controlled environment for quality, safety and effective use in different disease treatment. The report on global Tissue Banking market, analyzes the current and future prospects of the market. The report consists of an executive summary that provides information about the products, its segments and sub-segments, along with a market snapshot and comparative analysis by geography, in terms of revenue %, for 2015.Global Tissue Banking Market: Scope of the ReportA detailed overview of market dynamics, including the drivers, restraints, and opportunities of the Tissue Banking market, along with porters analysis, and value chain analysis, of the global market, has been provided in this report. Market revenue and volume analysis for all the above mentioned segments, and their sub segments has been provided for the forecast period of 2016-2024, considering 2015 as the base year, and 2014 as the historical year, along with compound annual growth rate (CAGR %), for the forecast period of 2016-2024. Market share estimations were based on in-depth analysis and study of products, and their features, prices etc. Pricing analysis, for every region has been provided considering the Average Selling Prices (ASP), of products, in these regions.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @This report provides in-depth analysis of the Tissue Banking market. The stakeholders for this report include companies involved in the manufacturing of Tissue Banking devices. For providing a snapshot of this market to the stakeholders, executive summary section is included in this report, which summarizes the market size, trends and competition in different regions. Market share analysis among the market players is analyzed to signify percentage share of the major players operating in the Tissue Banking market. Furthermore, the report incorporates market attractiveness analysis by geography that depicts the most attractive and significant region in the global market in 2015.The research methodology is a combination of primary and secondary research. Primary research includes information collected via e-mails, and telephonic interviews of Key Opinion Leaders (KOL), and forms the bulk of our research. Secondary research includes information collected from various sources, by study of company websites, annual reports, stock analysis presentations, press releases, and various national and international databases.Global Tissue Banking Market: SegmentationBased on Equipment type, the global Tissue Banking market has been segmented into Freezers, Storage system, Thawing Equipment, Labelling and Coding Equipment, Alarming and Coding equipment. Freezers are the highly growing market growing at a CAGR of % which is followed by storage system. Based on applications, the Tissue Banking are segmented into Clinical and Therapeutic, Research & Development, Drug Discovery. Tissue banking are highly used in clinical and therapeutics and growing at a CAGR of % and followed by research and development. Based on end users, the market is segmented as Hospitals, Tissue Banks, Research and Academics Institutes and Diagnostic Laboratories. Umbilical cord blood transfusion is highly growing therapeutic treatment segment in tissue banking globally.Global Tissue Banking Market: Geographical and Competitive DynamicsBased on geography, the market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. The regions are further segmented into major countries which include, U.S., Canada, Germany, U.K., France, Italy, Spain, rest of Europe, China, Japan, India, Australia, Rest of Asia Pacific, Brazil, Mexico, Rest of Latin America, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Rest of Middle East & Africa. The report also comprises list major players in the market, their SWOT analysis, market share of these players in the Tissue Banking market, key business strategies, product portfolios, and recent developments. Key market players profiled in this report include, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Brooks Automation, Taylor-Wharton, Panasonic Biomedical, Backman Coulter Inc., Custom Biogenic Systems, Inc., Sigma-Aldrich Corporation, and BioLife Solutions, Inc., others. Majority of companies acquiring strategy of merger and acquisition for overall market growth. The technological advancement are another trend adopted by several companies for growth of business segment.Global Tissue Banking market has been segmented as follows:Global Tissue Banking Market, by Equipment- Freezers- Storage System- Thawing Equipment- Labelling and Coding Equipment- Alarming and Monitoring EquipmentGlobal Tissue Banking Market, by Application- Clinical and Therapeutic- Research & Development- Drug DiscoveryGlobal Tissue Banking Market, by End-users- Hospitals- Tissue Banks- Research and Academics Institutes- Diagnostic LaboratoriesGlobal Tissue Banking Market, by Geography- North America- U.S.- Canada- Europe- U.K.- Germany- France- Spain- Italy- Rest of Europe- Asia Pacific- China- Japan- India- Australia- Rest of Asia Pacific- Latin America- Brazil- Mexico- Rest of Latin America- Middle East & Africa- Saudi Arabia- South Africa- Rest of Middle East & AfricaMake 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 @ United States Digital Medicine Industry Key Trends, Size, Growth, Shares And Forecast (2016-2020) http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=717514 http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=E&repid=717514 http://www.researchmoz.us/ http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "The United States Digital Medicine Market: Size, Trends & Forecasts (2016-2020)" to its huge collection of research reports.The report titled The United States Digital Medicine Market: Size, Trends & Forecasts (2016-2020), provides an in-depth analysis of the scenario of digital medicine market in the United States.The US digital medicine market has been analysed on the basis of value, segments and clinical trials sponsors. The report also provides the digital health market by categories of healthcare apps.The report also assesses the key opportunities in the market and outlines the factors that are and will be driving the growth of the industry. Growth of the US digital medicine market has also been forecasted for the period 2016-2020, taking into consideration the previous growth patterns, the growth drivers and the current and future trends.The competition in the digital medicine market is fragmented by the several small private players, such as Livongo, WellDoc, Inc., Ginger.io, Inc., Akili, Mocacare, AliveCor, Inc., 2morrow, Inc., Glooko, Inc., Omada Health, Inc., and Voluntis, etc., whose business profiling has been done in this report, which include their business overview and respective business strategies.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Company Coverage- 2morrow, Inc.- Akili Interactive Labs, Inc.- AliveCor, Inc.- Glooko, Inc.- Livongo- Mocacare- Omada Health, Inc.- Proteus Digital Health, Inc.- Voluntis- WellDoc, Inc.- Ginger.io, Inc.Executive SummaryGlobally the health related issues are on rise. These health issues surround diseases, syndromes and disorders, etc. Many of these health issues can be detected early and can be tackled by a mere dose of medicine, but there are several others that get detected on the advanced stage and have no cure. Hence, scientists and doctors are trying to accommodate the use of advanced technology and apps in the field of medicine, thus bringing digital medicine and digital health at the doorstep via mobiles.Digital health is a platform that combines technology with personal health and genetic information, so that healthcare could be made personalized and precise. Digital health includes consumer focused fitness apps that have little or no clinical validation for patients and physicians. Digital health has been classified into EMR/HER, mobile health, telehealth and wireless health.Digital medicine is disease oriented healthcare, that is currently at nascent stage. Digital medicine is a subset of digital health. The concept of digital medicine revolves around studying and analysing the patients health and accordingly prescribing the customised medical aid. It involves either a combination of drugs with therapeutic treatments or simply digital therapeutic treatments; thus, providing real-time health information to the patients and the corresponding healthcare team. The major focus of digital medicine is on curing or managing the disorders or diseases that have no cure by alternative drugs, such as type 2 diabetes, obesity, mental disorders, etc. The digital medicine has three phases namely, commercialization, combination therapies and stand-alone digital therapeutics.The digital medicine is supported by various growth drivers, such as increased smartphone usage, growing software industry, mobile phone proliferation, increasing biopharma investments, rising healthcare expenditure, and increasing population with chronic diseases, etc. Yet the digital medicine market faces several challenges, such as lack of clinical evidence, narrow functionality of apps, huge time and capital to be incurred, and regulatory hurdles, etc.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 Spandex Market Anticipated to Grow US$ 8,704.6 Mn By 2021 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/4358 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/spandex-market/toc http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/checkout/4358 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com According to a new market report published by Persistence Market Research titled, Global Market Study on Spandex Market: High demand for stretchable fabrics in clothing sector to drive growth, the global spandex market has been estimated to reach US$ 4,834.8 Mn in 2015, and is expected to expand at a CAGR of 10.3% over 2015-2021, to reach US$ 8,704.6 Mn by 2021.A sample of this report is available upon request:According to the U.S Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Spandex is a manufactured fiber in which the fiber-forming substance is a long-chain synthetic polymer comprising at least 85% of segmented polyurethane. This fiber, also called elastane, is a synthetic long-chain polyurethane-polyurea copolymer composed of rigid diisocyanate segments and flexible macro-glycol segments arranged in a specific order. The fiber is characterized by exceptional stretch and recovery properties, with the elongation at break of around 400% to 600%. These characteristics entail its wide-scale use in a diverse set of applications in textile & clothing and healthcare industries. Some prominent areas of application for spandex fibers include sportswear, casual clothing, home furnishings, and undergarments. Medical and healthcare-related applications of spandex fibers include diapers, compression stockings & hoses, and bandages.In the recent past, there has been a steady increase in demand for spandex-based stretchable clothing & apparel in developing regions. Steadily rising population, coupled with increasing disposable income, in these regions is expected to drive the growth of the global spandex market over the forecast period. Besides, increasing demand from healthcare-related applications is another major factor driving the growth of the global spandex market during the forecast period. On the contrary, relatively slower economic growth in some major clothing & apparel-importing countries is expected to act as a deterrent to the growth of the global spandex market over the forecast period. Revenue from the global spandex market is expected to increase from US$ 4,834.8 Mn in 2015 to US$ 8,704.6 Mn by 2021, expanding at a CAGR of 10.3% over the forecast period.In terms of market value, Asia-Pacific is expected to dominate the global spandex market during the forecast period, whereas the Middle East & Africa, Latin America, Europe, and North America are expected to account for a relatively smaller share in the global spandex market value during the forecast period. Asia Pacific is expected to register a CAGR of 11.0% in terms of market value over the forecast period.On the basis of application, the medical segment is slated to expand at a relatively faster CAGR during the forecast period. Growth in this segment is primarily driven by increasing demand for medial textiles & apparel and rising demand for diapers from certain regions. In terms of market value, a medical segment is expected to expand at a CAGR of 10.8% over the forecast period. In terms of overall market value, clothing segment is expected to dominate the global spandex market throughout the forecast period.Request to view Table of Content:Hyosung Corporation, INVISTA, Asahi Kasei Corporation, and Zhejiang Huafon Spandex Co. Ltd are leading players in the global Spandex market. Other players in the market include Yantai Tayho Advanced Materials Co., Ltd, TK Chemical Corp., Taekwang Industrial Co. Ltd., Jiangsu Shaungliang Spandex Co., Ltd, Xiamen Lilong Spandex Co., Ltd, and Indorama Industries Limited.To Buy Full Report for a Single User:About Us:Persistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact Us:Persistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb: Global Protective Coatings Market is Expected to Surpass US$ 23.2 Bn by 2022 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/3082 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/protective-coatings-market/toc http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/checkout/3082 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com According to the latest market report published by Persistence Market Research titled Global Market Study on Protective Coatings: Water-borne Protective Coatings Projected to Reflect Impressive Growth Over the Forecast Period , the global protective coatings market is estimated to be valued at US$ 13.8 Bn by 2016 end, and is expected to increase at a CAGR of 9.0% during 2016-2022.A sample of this report is available upon request:The protective coating is a covering that is applied over a surface to ensure protection from external environment that could damage the function or integrity of an item or part. Protective coatings find application in consumer products as well as in heavy machinery, marine, automotive and oil & gas industry, etc. Protective coatings are generally classified by their basic resin type, such as epoxy, alkyd, acrylic, or polyurethane. However, different blends of resin, pigments, solvents, and additives result in different serviceability and properties of protective coatings.Growing demand for new infrastructure in developing economies and increased investments to upgrade aging infrastructure in developed economies are expected to emerge as major factors driving the growth of protective coatings market during the forecast period. Innovations in product and technology focused on eco-friendly and cost-efficient solutions and increasing adoption of water-borne protective coatings due to stringent environmental regulations are other factors expected to fuel the growth of the market over the forecast period. However, stringent government regulations focusing on reduced VOC emissions, availability of substitutes at cheaper costs and volatility of raw material costs are projected to impede the growth of the global protective coatings market during the forecast period. Global protective coatings consumption is expected to increase from 5,657 kilotons by 2016 end to 8,509 kilotons by 2022, increasing at a CAGR of 7.0% during the forecast period.In terms of market value, Asia-Pacific is expected to dominate the global protective coatings market over the forecast period, with North America being the second largest market, accounting for revenue share of 23.4% of the global estimated market value by 2016 end. Asia Pacific protective coatings market is slated to expand at the highest CAGR of around 11.8% in terms of value during the forecast period.On the basis of technology, the water-borne segment is expected to expand at the fastest value CAGR during the forecast period. The growth of this segment is primarily driven by increased adoption of water-borne protective coatings over solvent-borne due to the stringent environmental regulation limiting VOC emissions. On the basis of resin type, revenue contribution of the epoxy segment is expected increase at the highest CAGR of 9.4% during the forecast period. On the basis of application, infrastructure segment is expected to dominate the market, accounting for a revenue share of 22.2% by 2016. Commercial real estate and industrial plants & facilities segments are expected to witness CAGRs of 8.0% and 7.7% in terms of consumption during the forecast period.Request to view Table of Content:Akzo Nobel N.V., PPG Industries Inc., The Sherwin-Williams Company, Hempel Group, The Valspar Corporation and Jotun are the leading players in the global protective coatings market. Other players include Sika AG, Kansai Paints Co. Ltd, and Wacker Chemie AG.To Buy Full Report for a Single User: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: We value your privacy. Focus Taiwan (CNA) uses tracking technologies to provide better reading experiences, but it also respects readers' privacy. Click here to find out more about Focus Taiwan's privacy policy. When you close this window, it means you agree with this policy. Commercial Aircraft Avionics Systems Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 6% during 2016-2021 Commercial Aircraft Avionics Systems Market https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1493 Study Objectives of Global Commercial Aircraft Avionics Systems Market :To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 5 years of the various segments and sub-segments of the Global Commercial Aircraft Avionics Systems MarketTo provide insights about factors affecting the market growthTo analyse the commercial aircraft avionics systems market based on various factors- price analysis, supply chain analysis, porters five force analysis etc.To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to four main geographies and their countries- North America, Europe, Asia, and Rest of the World (ROW)To provide country-level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospectiveTo provide country-level analysis of the market for segment by sub-system, platform, and fitTo provide strategic profiling of key players in the market, comprehensively analysing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the marketTo track and analyse competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the Global Commercial Aircraft Avionics Systems MarketMarket Synopsis of Global Commercial Aircraft Avionics Systems Market:The Global Commercial Aircraft Avionics Systems Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 6% during 2016-2021. The key factors driving the growth are demand for lightweight avionics systems, growing fleet size & aircraft orders, increase in demand from emerging economies, and regulation related to aviation safety.request a Sample report @Key PlayersSome of the key players in the Global Commercial Aircraft Avionics Systems Market areCobhamHoneywellPanasonic AvionicsRockwell CollinsThalesCurtiss-WrightElbit SystemsGarminGE AviationL-3 CommunicationsUniversal Avionics SystemZodiac Aerospace.Target AudienceAircraft Avionics OEMsComponent SuppliersAftermarket suppliersResearch Institute / Education InstitutePotential InvestorsKey executive (CEO and COO) and strategy growth managerRegional and Country Analysis of Commercial Aircraft Avionics Systems MarketAs per the MRFR analysis, the EMEA region will continue its dominance in the forecast period to reach $XX billion. Whereas, APAC will have significant growth and is expected to grow at healthy CAGR of around 9% during the forecast period.Americas market is driven by adoption of advanced technology to improve the aircraft efficiency, the rising need for real-time data, the existence of a well-established air network, and aircraft modernization with improved avionics systems.The reports also cover country level analysis:Americas (North & Latin)USCanadaBrazilOthersEuropeGermanyFranceItalySpainUKRest of EuropeAsia PacificChinaIndiaJapanAustralia/New ZealandRest of Asia-PacificMiddle East & AfricaUAE,KuwaitIsraelRest of Middle East & AfricaAt Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research Future+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com Household Induction Cook-tops Market - Top Vendors(Miele & Cie. KG, Smeg, Sub-Zero Wolf, AB Electrolux, Stoves) http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=987 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com The household induction cook-tops market refers to the global market for cook-tops, also known as hobs, which operate on the concept of induction heating/cooking. These are considered as one of the advanced technological innovations in the field of cooking. This type of cooking not only has energy efficiency benefits, but also provides health and safety benefits to users. Induction cook-tops, which are relatively new to many regions in emerging Asia-Pacific economies, are already enjoying fast adoption across consumers in Europe. The induction cook-tops market is experiencing a moderate single digit growth rate, and is expected to see gradual rise towards end of the forecast period. This is due to growing awareness and rapid urbanization in Asia-Pacific and Eastern Europe regions.Download Research Brochure PDF@There are many factors driving the market growth for induction cook-tops, and the key influencer is the growing awareness and rise in disposable income. Induction cook-tops, which are currently considered as high-end consumer products, are gradually finding growing acceptance among consumers. The impact of disposable income growth is further multiplied by various macro and micro economic factors, such as rising fuel cost for conventional cook-tops (gas, electricity, and others), growing trend of modular kitchens in new houses, preference for a comfortable work environment in the kitchen, improved heat control with induction cooking, advanced technologies and their benefits towards healthy cooking, and many more.Induction cook-tops are of two types, free-standing (portable) and integrated (built-in) cook-tops. Of these, the integrated cook-tops dominated the global household induction cook-tops market in 2012, and is expected to retain its leading position by 2019, growing at a CAGR of 5.3%. Demand for built-in hobs is largely contributed from regions such as Europe and Middle East, which have large houses (floor space and dedicated kitchen space). Even the trend of joint or large families in the region has positive impact on the built-in hobs demand.For the same reasons, geographically too, Europe is the biggest market for induction cook-tops, and accounted for more than one third of the global induction cook-tops market. However, the Asia-Pacific market is the fastest growing, and forecast to account for the highest growth share of the global market for induction cook-tops. This is because of growing acceptance of induction cooking as part of lifestyle standards. Moreover, with trend of modular kitchen being promoted by real estate developers for their projects, this demand is further expected to go up in the mid to long term.As a result, leading players from the white goods industry are quickly moving into the induction cook-tops market in the Asia-Pacific region. Factors, such as high competition from domestic manufacturers in Europe, which has healthy concentration of both domestic and global manufacturers, is also driving these global players to look for opportunities in the Asia-Pacific market. Renowned players in the European market are Miele & Cie. KG, Smeg, Sub-Zero Wolf, AB Electrolux, Stoves, and many more. The popular names in the Asia Pacific market are Philips Electronics, Panasonic, Whirlpool, and others. Product innovation is observed as the key strategy followed by industry leaders, who are introducing cook-tops with multiple hot surfaces, advanced auto cook features, and more trendy designs.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: Global Pyridine Market to be Worth US$ 1,741.4 Mn by 2025 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/3521 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/pyridine-market/toc http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/checkout/3521 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com According to a new market report published by Persistence Market Research, titled Global Market Study on Pyridine: Increasing Demand for Synthetic Pyridine to Drive Growth During Forecast Period 2015 -2025 , the global pyridine market is estimated to reach US$ 1,741.4 Mn by 2025 from US$ 786.4 Mn in 2015.A sample of this report is available upon request:Pyridine is a toxic and soluble flammable liquid base with a distinct, strong odor. It is often considered the parent compound of several naturally occurring organic compounds. It is the preferred choice as a precursor to agrochemicals and pharmaceuticals. Initially, pyridine was extracted from coal tar or obtained as a by-product of coal gasification. The process was very expensive and inefficient as coal tar constituted only 0.10.2% of pyridine after extraction. Currently, pyridine and its derivatives are produced synthetically. The most commonly used reactions for pyridine synthesis are Chichibabin synthesis, Bonnemann cyclization, and Cobalt-catalyzed alkyne-nitrile cyclotrimerization, etc.By region, the market in Asia Pacific has been estimated to account for 51.6% volume share of the overall pyridine market by 2015 end, followed by Europe and North America. Due to increase in usage of pyridine and its derivatives in agrochemicals and pharmaceuticals segments in Asia Pacific, the pyridine market in the region is projected to expand at a higher than average CAGR of 9.9% over 20152025 in terms of revenue. The U.S. pyridine market, which has been estimated to account for 89.5% revenue share of the overall market in North America by 2015 end, is expected to be driven by increasing adoption of pyridine and its derivatives in chemicals and pharmaceuticals segments. The pyridine market in the Middle East & Africa is estimated to register increased revenue due to a growth of pharmaceuticals and chemicals segments in the region. Europe market is anticipated to witness lower revenue growth in the coming years as compared to other regions due to the economic downturn in the region.Globally, pyridine N-oxide segment volume is estimated to expand at a lower than average CAGR of 7.4% over 20152025. Demand for 2-Methyl-5-Ethylpyridine (MEP) and gamma-picoline is expected grow significantly due to increasing application of these product types in chemicals segment. Alpha picoline finds wide application as a solvent in chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and food industries. The segment is projected to exhibit moderate growth over the forecast period. Key growth contributor for alpha picoline segment is 2-vinylpyridine, which is used as a raw material for styrene-butadiene-2-vinylpyridine terpolymer latexes (SBV latexes). Beta picoline is used to produce Vitamin B3. In terms of value, beta picoline segment is projected to experience significant growth rate over the forecast period. This is mainly attributed to rising demand for niacin in developing regions such as APAC and Middle East & Africa.Request to view Table of Content:Asia Pacific is the most attractive region in terms of CAGR and market share in the global pyridine market. India has been estimated to account for 24.4 % of the total APAC pyridine market by 2015 end due to expected increase in domestic pyridine production by 40%. In terms of value, gamma-picoline segment is expected to experience the highest growth rate during the forecast period in the Asia Pacific market. The Middle East & Africa accounts for the smallest market share. However, it is expected to expand at a CAGR of 9.9% in terms of value over the forecast period. Food segment is expected to expand at the highest CAGR in terms of volume during the forecast period in the Middle East & Africa market. Pyridine manufacturers are strengthening their presence in the regulated markets of Japan, North America and Europe as well as in key emerging markets. They are also focusing on local tie-ups and out-licensing of local companies in order to strengthen their regional presence.To Buy Full Report for a Single User:About Us:Persistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact Us:Persistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb: Global Market size for Multiparameter Patient Monitoring Market Outlook to 2022 http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/analysis/860377 http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/sample/860377 http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/pressreleases http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/ "The Report Asia-Pacific Multiparameter Patient Monitoring Market Outlook to 2022 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"GlobalDatas new report, "Asia-Pacific Multiparameter Patient Monitoring Market Outlook to 2022", provides key market data on the Asia-Pacific Multiparameter Patient Monitoring market. The report provides value, in millions of US dollars, volume (in units) and average price data (in US dollars), within market segments - High Acuity Monitors, Mid Acuity Monitors, Low Acuity Monitors and Multiparameter Central Stations.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.View Report at:The data in the report is derived from dynamic market forecast models. GlobalData uses epidemiology and capital equipment-based models to estimate and forecast the market size. The objective is to provide information that represents the most up-to-date data of the industry possible.The epidemiology-based forecasting model makes use of epidemiology data gathered from research publications and primary interviews with physicians to establish the target patient population and treatment flow patterns for individual diseases and therapies. Using prevalence and incidence data and diagnosed and treated population, the epidemiology-based forecasting model arrives at the final numbers.Capital equipment-based forecasting models are done based on the installed base, replacements and new sales of a specific device/equipment in healthcare facilities such as hospitals, clinics and diagnostic centers. Data for average number of units per facility is used to arrive at the installed base of the capital equipment. Sales for a particular year are arrived at by calculating the replacement units and new units (additional and first-time purchases).Extensive interviews are conducted with key opinion leaders (KOLs), physicians and industry experts to validate the market size, company share and distribution share data and analysis.Get Sample Copy Of This Report @Scope- Market size for Multiparameter Patient Monitoring market segments - High Acuity Monitors, Mid Acuity Monitors, Low Acuity Monitors and Multiparameter Central Stations.- Annualized market revenues (USD million), volume (units) and average selling price ($) data for each of the market categories. Data is provided from 2008 to 2015 and forecast to 2022.- 2015 company shares and distribution shares data for Multiparameter Patient Monitoring market.- Global corporate-level profiles of key companies operating within the Asia-Pacific Multiparameter Patient Monitoring market.- Key players covered include Philips Healthcare, GE Healthcare Limited, Draegerwerk AG & Co. KGaA, Mindray Medical International Limited and Others.Reasons to buy- Develop business strategies by identifying the key market segments poised for strong growth in the future.- Develop market-entry and market expansion strategies.- Design competition strategies by identifying who-stands-where in the market.- Develop investment strategies by identifying the key market segments expected to register strong growth in the near future.- What are the key distribution channels and whats the most preferred mode of product distribution - Identify, understand and capitalize.Read our latest Press Release atTable of Contents1 Table of Contents1 Table of Contents 21.1 List of Tables 61.2 List of Figures 82 Introduction 112.1 What Is This Report About? 112.2 Multiparameter Patient Monitoring Market Segmentation 112.3 Definitions of Markets Covered in the Report 123 Multiparameter Patient Monitoring Market, Asia-Pacific 143.1 Multiparameter Patient Monitoring Market, Asia-Pacific, Revenue ($m), 2008-2022 143.2 Multiparameter Patient Monitoring Market, Asia-Pacific, Category Comparison by Revenue ($m), 2008-2022 163.3 Multiparameter Patient Monitoring Market, Asia-Pacific, Revenue ($m), 2008-2015 183.4 Multiparameter Patient Monitoring Market, Asia-Pacific, Revenue ($m), 2015-2022 203.5 Multiparameter Patient Monitoring Market, Asia-Pacific, Volume (Units), 2008-2022 223.6 Multiparameter Patient Monitoring Market, Asia-Pacific, Volume (Units), 2008-2015 243.7 Multiparameter Patient Monitoring Market, Asia-Pacific, Volume (Units), 2015-2022 263.8 Multiparameter Patient Monitoring Market, Asia-Pacific, Company Share by Revenue ($m), 2015 284 Multiparameter Patient Monitoring Market, Australia 304.1 Multiparameter Patient Monitoring Market, Australia, Revenue ($m), 2008-2015 304.2 Multiparameter Patient Monitoring Market, Australia, Revenue ($m), 2015-2022 324.2.1 High Acuity Monitors Market, Australia, Revenue ($m), by Segment, 2008-2015 344.2.2 Low Acuity Monitors Market, Australia, Revenue ($m), by Segment, 2008-2015 364.2.3 Mid Acuity Monitors Market, Australia, Revenue ($m), by Segment, 2008-2015 384.2.4 High Acuity Monitors Market, Australia, Revenue ($m), by Segment, 2015-2022 404.2.5 Low Acuity Monitors Market, Australia, Revenue ($m), by Segment, 2015-2022 424.2.6 Mid Acuity Monitors Market, Australia, Revenue ($m), by Segment, 2015-2022 444.3 Multiparameter Patient Monitoring Market, Australia, Volume (Units), 2008-2015 464.4 Multiparameter Patient Monitoring Market, Australia, Volume (Units), 2015-2022 484.4.1 High Acuity Monitors Market, Australia, Volume (Units), by Segment, 2008-2015 504.4.2 Low Acuity Monitors Market, Australia, Volume (Units), by Segment, 2008-2015 524.4.3 Mid Acuity Monitors Market, Australia, Volume (Units), by Segment, 2008-2015 544.4.4 High Acuity Monitors Market, Australia, Volume (Units), by Segment, 2015-2022 564.4.5 Low Acuity Monitors Market, Australia, Volume (Units), by Segment, 2015-2022 584.4.6 Mid Acuity Monitors Market, Australia, Volume (Units), by Segment, 2015-2022 604.5 Multiparameter Patient Monitoring Market, Australia, Average Price ($), 2008-2022 624.6 Multiparameter Patient Monitoring Market, Australia, Distribution Share by Revenue ($m), 2014-2015 644.7 Multiparameter Patient Monitoring Market, Australia, Company Share by Revenue ($m), 2015 655 Multiparameter Patient Monitoring Market, China 675.1 Multiparameter Patient Monitoring Market, China, Revenue ($m), 2008-2015 675.2 Multiparameter Patient Monitoring Market, China, Revenue ($m), 2015-2022 695.2.1 High Acuity Monitors Market, China, Revenue ($m), by Segment, 2008-2015 715.2.2 Low Acuity Monitors Market, China, Revenue ($m), by Segment, 2008-2015 735.2.3 Mid Acuity Monitors Market, China, Revenue ($m), by Segment, 2008-2015 755.2.4 High Acuity Monitors Market, China, Revenue ($m), by Segment, 2015-2022 775.2.5 Low Acuity Monitors Market, China, Revenue ($m), by Segment, 2015-2022 795.2.6 Mid Acuity Monitors Market, China, Revenue ($m), by Segment, 2015-2022 81MarketResearchReports.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.Mr. Nachiket90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz Research focused on the EU5 Micro-Electromechanical Sensors Market Outlook to 2022 http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/analysis/860367 http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/sample/860367 http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/ "The Report EU5 Micro-Electromechanical Sensors Market Outlook to 2022 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"GlobalDatas new report, "EU5 Micro-Electromechanical Sensors Market Outlook to 2022", provides key market data on the EU5 Micro-Electromechanical Sensors market. The report provides value, in millions of US dollars, volume (in units) and average price data (in US dollars), within market.The report also provides 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.View Report @The data in the report is derived from dynamic market forecast models. GlobalData uses epidemiology and capital equipment-based models to estimate and forecast the market size. The objective is to provide information that represents the most up-to-date data of the industry possible.The epidemiology-based forecasting model makes use of epidemiology data gathered from research publications and primary interviews with physicians to establish the target patient population and treatment flow patterns for individual diseases and therapies. Using prevalence and incidence data and diagnosed and treated population, the epidemiology-based forecasting model arrives at the final numbers.Capital equipment-based forecasting models are done based on the installed base, replacements and new sales of a specific device/equipment in healthcare facilities such as hospitals, clinics and diagnostic centers. Data for average number of units per facility is used to arrive at the installed base of the capital equipment. Sales for a particular year are arrived at by calculating the replacement units and new units (additional and first-time purchases).Extensive interviews are conducted with key opinion leaders (KOLs), physicians and industry experts to validate the market size and distribution share data and analysis.Get Sample Copy Of This Report @Scope- Market size for Micro-Electromechanical Sensors market.- Annualized market revenues (USD million), volume (units) and average selling price ($) data for each of the market categories. Data is provided from 2008 to 2015 and forecast to 2022.- 2015 distribution shares data for Micro-Electromechanical Sensors market.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 and capitalize.Table of Contents1 Table of Contents 21.1 List of Tables 41.2 List of Figures 52 Introduction 62.1 What Is This Report About? 62.3 Definitions of Markets Covered in the Report 63 Micro-Electromechanical Sensors Market, EU5 73.1 Micro-Electromechanical Sensors Market, EU5, Revenue ($m), 2008-2022 73.2 Micro-Electromechanical Sensors Market, EU5, Revenue ($m), 2008-2015 93.3 Micro-Electromechanical Sensors Market, EU5, Revenue ($m), 2015-2022 103.4 Micro-Electromechanical Sensors Market, EU5, Volume (Units), 2008-2022 113.5 Micro-Electromechanical Sensors Market, EU5, Volume (Units), 2008-2015 133.6 Micro-Electromechanical Sensors Market, EU5, Volume (Units), 2015-2022 144 Micro-Electromechanical Sensors Market, France 154.1 Micro-Electromechanical Sensors Market, France, Revenue ($m), 2008-2015 154.2 Micro-Electromechanical Sensors Market, France, Revenue ($m), 2015-2022 164.3 Micro-Electromechanical Sensors Market, France, Volume (Units), 2008-2015 174.4 Micro-Electromechanical Sensors Market, France, Volume (Units), 2015-2022 184.5 Micro-Electromechanical Sensors Market, France, Average Price ($), 2008-2022 194.6 Micro-Electromechanical Sensors Market, France, Distribution Share by Revenue ($m), 2014-2015 205 Micro-Electromechanical Sensors Market, Germany 215.1 Micro-Electromechanical Sensors Market, Germany, Revenue ($m), 2008-2015 215.2 Micro-Electromechanical Sensors Market, Germany, Revenue ($m), 2015-2022 225.3 Micro-Electromechanical Sensors Market, Germany, Volume (Units), 2008-2015 235.4 Micro-Electromechanical Sensors Market, Germany, Volume (Units), 2015-2022 245.5 Micro-Electromechanical Sensors Market, Germany, Average Price ($), 2008-2022 255.6 Micro-Electromechanical Sensors Market, Germany, Distribution Share by Revenue ($m), 2014-2015 266 Micro-Electromechanical Sensors Market, Italy 276.1 Micro-Electromechanical Sensors Market, Italy, Revenue ($m), 2008-2015 276.2 Micro-Electromechanical Sensors Market, Italy, Revenue ($m), 2015-2022 286.3 Micro-Electromechanical Sensors Market, Italy, Volume (Units), 2008-2015 296.4 Micro-Electromechanical Sensors Market, Italy, Volume (Units), 2015-2022 306.5 Micro-Electromechanical Sensors Market, Italy, Average Price ($), 2008-2022 316.6 Micro-Electromechanical Sensors Market, Italy, Distribution Share by Revenue ($m), 2014-2015 32MarketResearchReports.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.Mr. Nachiket90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz Snowy Hydro Limited - Power Plants and SWOT Analysis, 2016 Updated Edition Reports http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/analysis/895983 http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/sample/895983 http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/ "The Report Snowy Hydro Limited - Power Plants and SWOT Analysis, 2016 Update provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"The report contains a detailed description of the power generation companys business operations, history, corporate strategy, and business structure. This report contains a detailed SWOT analysis, information on key employees (executives), and major products and services.View Report @Scope- Major Power Plants (assets) - summarized and detailed information about the power plants (assets).- Operational Metrics (capacity, generation, revenue, sales, number of consumers).- Business description - A detailed description of the companys operations and business divisions.- Corporate strategy - GlobalDatas summarization of the companys business strategy.- SWOT analysis - A detailed analysis of the companys strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats.- Company history - Progression of key events associated with the company.- Major products and services - A list of major products, services and brands- Key employees - A list of the key executives and personnel heading key departments/functions.- Executive biographies - A brief summary of the executives employment history.- Financial deals - Coverage of key financial deals from 2006 onwards, depending upon information availability- Important locations and subsidiaries - A list of key locations and subsidiaries of the company, including contact details.Download Sample copy of this Report atReasons to buy- Gain key insights into the company for academic or business research purposes. Key elements such as SWOT analysis, corporate strategy and major products and services are incorporated in the profile to assist in various business decisions (M&A and JV).- Identify potential customers and suppliers with this reports analysis of the companys business structure, operations, major products and services and business strategy.- Understand and respond to competitors business structure and strategies with GlobalDatas detailed SWOT analysis. In this, the companys core strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats are analyzed, providing an up to date objective view of the company.Table of ContentsTable of Contents 2List of Tables 3Company Snapshot 4Key Information 4Company Overview 4SWOT Snapshot 4Operational Metrics 5Snowy Hydro Limited, Operational Metrics, By Capacity 5Snowy Hydro Limited, Operational Metrics, By Generation 5Snowy Hydro Limited, Operational Metrics, By Sales 5Snowy Hydro Limited, Hydro Power Plants 6Snowy Hydro Limited, Hydro Power Plants, Australia 6Snowy Hydro Limited, Thermal Power Plants 7Snowy Hydro Limited, Thermal Power Plants, Australia 7Business Description 8Business Overview 8Major Products and Services 9History 10SWOT Analysis 12Overview 12Snowy Hydro Limited Strengths 12Energy Related Operations 12Working Capital Surplus 12Reinforcement of Customer Reach 12Snowy Hydro Limited Weaknesses 13Operational Performance 13Snowy Hydro Limited Opportunities 13Increase in Demand for Electricity 13Thermal Power 13Positive Outlook for Renewable Energy 13Snowy Hydro Limited Threats 13Environmental Laws and Regulations 13Operational Issues 14Socio-Environmental Impact 14El Nino Southern Oscillation Phenomenon 14Key Employees 15Key Employee Biographies 16Company Statement 17Locations And Subsidiaries 18Head Office 18Other Locations & Subsidiaries 18Financial Deals Landscape 20Snowy Hydro Limited, Deals Summary 20Snowy Hydro Limited, Power, Deal Details 21MarketResearchReports.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 Resuscitation Devices Market Revenue Predicted To Go Up by 2015 to 2021 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/5564 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/5564 Resuscitation devices are used in almost any emergency situations, aiming to initiate spontaneous breathing. Resuscitation devices comprises various devices such as ventilators, resuscitation masks, resuscitation suction and mechanical pumps, resuscitation trolley, resuscitation pediatric spacer and others. Resuscitation devices are commonly disposable type, latex-free and for single patient use. However, when non disposable devices are used, companies have to file decontamination record between uses in different patients. In addition, personal protective equipment such as apron, eye protection and gloves should be used with resuscitation devices.A Sample of this Report is Available Upon Request @Continuous efforts of key player to develop novel resuscitation devices will drive the market growth. For example, ZOLL Medical Corporation provides a comprehensive set of resuscitation technologies and devices that helps clinicians and healthcare professionals. The company offers Code-Ready monitor defibrillator. These devices provide clinicians and healthcare professionals comprehensive support for resuscitation. In addition, resuscitation devices are also available for neonatal use. This factor would further increase the scope to use these devices and hence drives the market growth. Introduction of novel resuscitation devices will stimulate the market growth. For example, Medical Equipment & Gases Australia Pty Ltd offers Oxy-Viva 3 Resuscitator Kit that provides suction, resuscitation and oxygen therapy kit in one compact kit. Thus, these types of offering will attract new customers to use resuscitation devices and hence drives the market growth. Efforts of many organizations such as Resuscitation Council of Southern Africa and United Nations Foundation in order to increase the awareness and knowledge about these devices will further drive the market growth. For example, United Nations Foundation is the government organization, aiming to develop women and children health.This organization has conducted case study on global need of resuscitation devices by neonatal patients. It is sated by the case study that there will be high demand of resuscitation devices among healthcare providers and facilities in near future. Thus, efforts of these types of organizations indirectly impact positively on the growth of the market of resuscitation devices. Moreover, companies like MedChannel and St John Ambulance provides online customer services for resuscitation devices. This factor will eventually increase the uptake of resuscitation devices and hence potentiate the market growth. However, lack of trained professionals to use these devices will restrain the market growth. In addition, high cost of resuscitation devices will further restrain the market growth. Additionally, countries like Australia demands Advanced Resuscitation Certificate (ARC) before user will use the resuscitation devices. Thus, these types of regulation will ultimately restrain the market growth of resuscitation devices.Geographically, North America dominates global resuscitation devices market. Incessant launch of new resuscitation devices by key players in this region led to increase adoption of resuscitation devices and hence drives the market growth. Europe is considered as the second largest market of resuscitation devices. Increasing use of resuscitation devices by pharmaceutical and medical practitioner in Europe will enhance the market growth. Asia-Pacific region considered as an emerging market for resuscitation devices due to increasing awareness and knowledge about resuscitation devices in Asia-Pacific region.To View TOC of this Report is Available Upon Request @The leading players competing in resuscitation devices market are ZOLL Medical Corporation, Medical Equipment & Gases Australia Pty Ltd, Life Medical Supplier, St John Ambulance, MedChannel, Opto Circuits India Limited (OCI), General Electric Company, NIHON KOHDEN CORPORATION and others.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated re-search, 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, Con-sumer 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 en-gagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.com Global Aerospace Foams Market 2017 : Rogers Corporation, Boyd Corporation, Zotefoams Plc, Evonik Industries AG, Benien Aerospace Gmbh Aerospace Foams http://bit.ly/2j7nbqd http://bit.ly/2hTZAwO The report delivers in-detail study of the "Global Aerospace Foams Market" done by our qualified researchers. The estimated growth rate based on deep analysis provides an in-depth information of the Aerospace Foams market and its performance over the forecast period. The report presents comprehensive data that projects precise valuation and size of the Aerospace Foams industry in coming future. The Aerospace Foams market report focuses on the growth factors and restraints that are responsible for the progress of the Aerospace Foams industry.Download Sample Copy Of Report :Major Manufacturers Covered in this research areArmacell International S.ABASF SEBenien Aerospace GmbhBoyd CorporationERG Materials and Aerospace Corp.Evonik Industries AGGeneral Plastics Manufacturing CompanyRogers CorporationSABIC Innovative Plastics Holding BVUFP Technologies, Inc.Zotefoams PlcThe report also highlights the latest trend respective to new technology and developments and various growth prospects that are projected to grow in the future. The report includes future-based predictions, which is an output of well-researched data using analytics and techniques. This in turn gives a clear view of the Aerospace Foams market augmentation during the forecast period.The report presents in-depth segmentation of the global Aerospace Foams industry based on end-users, Aerospace Foams market application, product type, technology, and its various methods. In addition, the report includes individual study of every segment and their future growth perspectives. The Aerospace Foams market report comprises integrated and applicable data fetched from authorized sources to identify the growth of the relative sectors worldwide.Enquire Here :The worldwide Aerospace Foams industry report also provides an overall summary of the major key players and their manufacturing techniques with statistical data and depth analysis of the products, contribution, and revenue. The deep study of demand and need analysis will enable the user to identify the future demand of the Aerospace Foams industry. Report highlights ongoing development to meet the future needs based on technological aspects, reliable, cost-efficient, and environment-friendly solution.About Us :Business worldwide are a trusted brand in the research industry with capability of commissioning complex projects within a short span of time with high level of accuracy. At Business worldwide, we believe in building long term relations with our clients. Our services cover a broad spectrum of industries including Energy, Chemicals and Materials, Automotive and Aerospace.Contact Us :Business WorldwideUnited States Future of Global Postmenopausal Osteoporosis Therapeutics Market : 2015 - 2021 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/5882 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/5882 Osteoporosis is an orthopedic condition where the bone density and bone mass decreases and eventually increases the risk of bone fracture. Osteoporosis is one of the most common age related diseases worldwide and also represents a major public health problem. Osteoporosis is common among females than in the male population. Women with age more than 50 years are more prone to osteoporosis due to hormonal changes occurring after menopause. The currently available technologies fail to cure postmenopausal osteoporosis completely and thus healthcare professionals prefer medicinal therapy for treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis.A Sample of this Report is Available Upon Request @Considering the relation of age in postmenopausal osteoporosis, aging of population worldwide is the major factor that is increasing the morbidity rate of postmenopausal osteoporosis. Increasing prevalence of this condition and innovations in the corresponding drug market are major driving forces of the postmenopausal osteoporosis therapeutics market. While high standards for approval of any new product to launch into the market, competition from the emerging alternative technologies and intense competition from generics are restraining growth of this market. Mergers and acquisitions taking place in the market is one of the major restraining force of postmenopausal osteoporosis therapeutics market.To View TOC of this Report is Available Upon Request @Currently, North America dominates the postmenopausal osteoporosis therapeutics market and is closely followed by Europe. Asia-Pacific is a lucrative regional market for such drugs considering factors such as increasing healthcare spending and improving healthcare infrastructure. Gradual; development of the medical tourism industry in the region is also expected to further spur the growth of postmenopausal osteoporosis therapeutics market in Asia-Pacific. Some of the major companies contributing to the global postmenopausal osteoporosis therapeutics market are Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Inc., F. Hoffman La Roche, Procter & Gamble and Merck.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated re-search, 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, Con-sumer 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 en-gagement models are highly flexible 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 Wheel Loaders Market is Expected to Witness a Steady Growth by 2024 Wheel Loaders Market, Wheel Loaders, Wheel Loaders, Wheel Loaders market http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/10397 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/10397 www.persistencemarketresearch.com The buckets attached are used to scoop up lose material from the ground which may include dirt, sand or gravel. Wheel loaders are primarily used to transfer stockpiled materials from one place to another. They are also used to load materials into truck, clearing rubble, placing pipes, digging and other such activities. The front load bucket capacity is much greater than the backhoe loader bucket, as the backhoe loader bucket is majorly used as a digging equipment. The backhoe digging equipment can dig deeper than the machines wheel level. Front loaders are also used to remove snow from parking areas, sidewalks and other areas in snow-prone regions. Unlike bulldozers, wheeled loaders are flexible enough to travel across any part of the roads or construction sites. Wheel loaders steering mechanism is maneuvered by articulate steering system which is hydraulically actuated. This system allows better control over the machine even under greater weight holding operations. Loader is a type of wheeled tractor mounted with square bucket on the front, rear or sometimes at both the ends.Sample of this report is available upon request @Major areas deploying wheel loaders comprise of construction zones, mining vicinities, defense lands and others. Rising urbanization and industrialization has greatly supported the construction activities to grow in the last couple of decades. This has raised the adoption of wheel loaders largely in the construction sector. Deployment of armored wheel loaders in military and defense areas has proved greatly proficient as a part of combat engineering missions under hostile territories. The armored wheel loaders are also used for building bridges and bases, removing road blocks, and other allied activities. This has posed a positive impact on wheel loaders market. Moreover, there are certain activities which cant be carried out by large bulldozers due to their size, such tasks are easily carried out by wheel loaders owing to their flexibility. The Asia pacific and European regions have proven to be the major contributors of heavy duty machineries market. Thus, the market size for wheel loaders in this regions is significantly large.Wheel Loaders Market can be segmented on the basis of type as follows: Armored Wheel Loaders Tractor Front Loaders Compact Front End Loaders Skid Loaders & Track LoadersThe global wheel loaders market can be segmented on the basis of types of wheel loader, net operating power, types of bucket, end-use application, and geography. The segmentation on the basis of types include front loader, backhoe loader, compact loader and armored wheel loader. On the basis of net operating power, the wheel loader market is segmented into 20 40 hp, 40 80 hp, 80 120 hp, 120 160 hp, and 160 hp and above. The segmentation on the basis of types of bucket equipped in the wheel loaders comprise of wedge bottom bucket, flat bottom bucket, backhoe bucket, demolition bucket, excavating buckets and others. The end-use areas deploying wheel loaders include stone quarries, mining zones, construction sites, military & defense, and public sectors. The global wheel loaders market on the basis of geography includes North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and Latin America.TOC of this report is available upon request @Some of the key players in the global wheel loader market includes Caterpillar Inc., Hitachi Ltd., Deere & Company, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Limited, Komatsu Ltd., Larsen & Toubro Limited, and New Holland Construction.The report covers exhaustive analysis on: Wheel Loaders Market Segments Wheel Loaders Market Dynamics Historical Actual Market Size, 2013 - 2015 Wheel Loaders Market Size & Forecast 2016 to 2024 Wheel Loaders Market Current Trends/Issues/Challenges Competition & Companies involved Wheel Loaders Market Drivers and RestraintsRegional analysis includes North America Latin America Europe Asia Pacific Middle East & AfricaReport Highlights: Shifting Industry dynamics In-depth market segmentation Historical, current and projected industry size Recent industry trends Key Competition landscape Strategies of key players and product offerings Potential and niche segments/regions exhibiting promising growth A neutral perspective towards market performanceAbout UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a full-service market intelligence 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 flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb: To activate the text-to-speech service, please first agree to the privacy policy below. Taipei, Jan. 5 (CNA) Taiwan and Australia said Thursday that they hoped to work more closely together under the Taiwan government's New Southbound Policy, which is aimed at advancing ties with countries in Southeast and South Asia, as well as Australia and New Zealand. Global Scar Treatment Market to Exceed US$ 12,607.1 million by 2024 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/10819 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/global-scar-treatment-market/toc http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/checkout/10819 According to the latest market report published by Persistence Market Research, titled Global Market Study on Agriculture Micronutrients: Established Players Are Focusing to Strengthen Partnerships along the Value Chain to Gain Better Market Access over the Forecast Period 2016 - 2024, revenue from the global scar treatment market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 3.8% during the forecast period 2016 - 2024.A Sample of this Report is Available Upon Request @In the report, the global scar treatment market is analyzed based on product type, scar type, end-user (distribution channel), and region. Based on product type, the overall market has been segmented into topical products, laser products, surface treatment products, and injectable products. The topical product segment is further segmented into creams, gels, oils, and silicone gel sheets. The laser segment has been sub-segmented into CO2, excimer, and pulse-dyed lasers. Based on scar type, the market has been sub-segmented into atrophic scars, hypertrophic scars and keloids, contractures, and stretch marks. The distribution channels or end-users in the market include hospitals, private clinics, pharmacies and retail drug stores, and e-commerce. The market has been analyzed in terms of value. In the overall market, topical products and atrophic scars are the prime segments driving revenue growth currently. Accordingly, the topical product type segment is expected to reach a value of 7,318.7 Mn by the end of 2024, registering a moderate CAGR over the forecast period.The prime drivers for the market include the availability of attractive reimbursement facilities in developed markets and rising incidences of atrophic scars (primarily acne) in developing markets, primarily due to rapidly changing food habits and lifestyles. Furthermore, growing adoption of combination therapeutics is another factor expected to drive demand for various combinations of scar treatment product and treatments over the forecast period. Currently, there are no formalized guidelines for treatment of scars. All treatments are done on a best-effort basis, guided mostly through word-of-mouth by expert clinicians and surgeons. However, efforts are underway to formalize treatment guidelines at least for common scars. In this regard, under the U.K. governments cosmetic intervention guidelines, patient and patient parties need access to independent and evidence-based information to form their decisions. Many of these scar treatment and aesthetic beautification procedures are considered similar to consumer goods by both the purchaser and provider. A change in this perspective could help boost manufacturers and service providers potential revenue base.Barriers to the market include fragmented documented clinical evidence for popular topical products such as onion extract gels (containing silicone). This hampers the product uptake by the educated section of the patient base in both developed and developing countries. Other barriers include psychological issues such as fear of side-effects and consideration of scar treatment as a non-necessary expenditure item in the overall consumption basket. Even some of the well-known regulatory agencies do not accept scar treatments as medically necessary as they mostly arent life-changing in nature.Based on region, the market has been divided into North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the MEA. Developed pharmaceutical markets such as the U.S. and EU are expected to emerge as the main markets for scar treatment products over the forecast period while markets in Brazil and Central Asia are expected to witness growing adoption of laser treatments due to booming medical tourism and aesthetic corrective procedures in these regions.Increasing involvement of patients in treatment formulation processes is an important attribute being adopted by reputed physicians as it could lead to a marked improvement in adherence levels of prescribed treatments and increase treatment effectiveness.This report assesses the market trends, by product, scar type, end-user and region, to offer analytical insights about the potential emerging demand for particular scar treatments in specific regions. North America is estimated to dominate the scar treatment market over the forecast period, accounting for a maximum revenue share of the overall market by the end of 2015. By 2024 end, North America and Europe markets are expected to account for over three-fifth market value share of the global scar treatment market. Markets in Latin America and APAC region are estimated to expand at the most moderate CAGR over the forecast period.Request to View Tables of Content @Key companies covered in this report include Smith & Nephew PLC, Merz Inc., Enaltus LLC, Occulus Innovative Sciences Inc., CCA Industries Inc., Cynosure Inc, Avita Medical Limited, Lumenis, Syneron Medical Ltd., Nutramarks Inc., Molnlycke Health Care, Pacific World Corporation, Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc., Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (AC. Alma Lasers), and Beijing Toplaser Technology Company Limited. These companies are primarily focused on enhancing their product portfolio through research and development and on the introduction of innovative and cost-effective advanced manufacturing procedures in order to gain higher market share and to strengthen their respective positions in the global market.To Buy Full Report for a Single User @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated re-search, 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, Con-sumer 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 en-gagement models are highly flexible 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 Skincare US: Market Value and Opportunities Research Report to 2020 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/864119-hand-care-skincare-market-and-forecast-analytics https://www.wiseguyreports.com/checkout?currency=one_user-USD&report_id=864119 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/864119-hand-care-skincare-market-and-forecast-analytics Request a Sample Report @SummaryHand cream is a rich moisturizer used to repair and prevent dry, cracked hands. Hand cream is technically different than hand lotion, though sometimes the terms are used interchangeably to refer to a moisturizer designed for the hands. Hand cream is, in general, thicker and richer with a more emollient base than hand lotion and is designed for very dry skin. Hand Care (Skincare) Market in United States of America - Outlook to 2020: Market Size, Growth and Forecast Analytics is a broad level market review of Hand Care market of United States. The research handbook provides the up-to-date market size data for period 2011-2017 and illustrative forecast to 2020 covering key market aspects like Sales Value and Volume for Hand Care and its variants Mass Hand Care and Premium Hand Care.Sales Values in the handbook are depicted in USD ($) and local currency of United States and Volumes are represented in M Units. Furthermore, the research handbook details out Sales Value for top brands for the year 2012 to 2017 and overall market sales by Distribution Channel (Hypermarkets & Supermarkets, Convenience Stores, Department Stores, Dollar Stores, Variety Store, Cash & Carries and Warehouse clubs, eRetailers, Food & Drinks specialists, Drug stores & Pharmacies, Health & Beauty Stores, Other general retailers and others) where ever applicable.The research handbook acts as an essential tool for companies active or planning to venture in to United States of America's Hand Care (Skincare) market. The comprehensive statistics within the report provides insight into the operating environment of the market and also ensures right business decision making based on historical trends and industry model based forecasting. This is an on-demand research handbook and will be delivered within 2 working days (excluding weekends) of the purchase.Key Findings- Overall Hand Care (Skincare) market value and volume analytics with growth analysis from 2011 to 2020.- Sales Value and Volume analytics for variants of Hand Care; Mass Hand Care and Premium Hand Care- Value terms for the top brands.- Distribution channel sales analytics from 2012-2017.SynopsisHand Care (Skincare) Market in United States of America - Outlook to 2020: Market Size, Growth and Forecast Analytics is a broad level market review of Hand Care market of United States. The research handbook provides the up-to-date market size data for period 2011-2017 and illustrative forecast to 2020 covering key market aspects like Sales Value and Volume for Hand Care and its variants Mass Hand Care and Premium Hand Care. The research handbook also provides analytics on Sales by Brands and by Distribution Channel.Reasons to Buy- Get access to authoritative and granular data on the Hand Care (Skincare), market and fill in the gaps in understanding of trends and the components of change behind them.- Enhance your understanding of the market to update your strategic and tactical plans based on volume and value changes, brand dynamics and distribution trends.- Analyze the components of change in the market by looking at historic and future growth patterns.- Use the data to understand future patterns of the market trends from winners and losers to category dynamics and thereby quickly and easily identify the key areas in which you want to compete in the future.Buy now @Table of Contents1 Introduction1.1 what is this Report About?1.2 Definitions2 United States Hand Care Market Analysis, 2010202.2.2 Hand Care Market by Volume by Segments, 2010203 United States Hand Care Market Analysis, by Segments 2010203.2.2 Premium Hand Care Market by Volume, 2010204 United States Hand Care Brand Analysis, 2012174.1 Hand Care Brand Analysis, 2012175 United States Hand Care Distribution Channel Analysis, 2012175.1 Hand Care Distribution Channel Analysis, 2012176 AppendixComplete Report@Contact Us:Norah TrentPartner Relations & Marketing ManagerSales@Wiseguyreports.ComPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe.WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTD75 Arlington Street, Suite 500,Boston, Massaachusetts - 02116United States of AmericaPh: +1-339-368-6938info@wiseguyreports.com Global Ray Fluoroscopy Instrument Market Estimated to Grow Strongly by 2021 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/3672 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/3672 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com Fluoroscopy procedures are used to diagnose diseases and guide physicians during treatment practices. Some fluoroscopy procedures performed as out-patient practices. For instance, upper gastrointestinal series are used to examine the esophagus, small intestine and stomach. Other procedures are performed as hospital procedures or sometimes as inpatient procedures. For instance, cardiac catheterization is used to examine the heart and the coronary arteries that supply blood to the heart muscle.A sample of this report is available upon request @Fluoroscopy, also known as motion X-ray, produces mobile images of the bodys parts and organs. In fluoroscopy procedures, X-rays are passed through the body and received by an image intensifier. Image intensifier converts the X-rays into a visible and moving image on a monitor.In addition, fluoroscopy permits the radiologist to visualize the organ system of the patient for the diagnosis of diseases. Radiologist studied patients organ systems with the aid of contrast agents. Contrast agents are very necessary for fluoroscopy procedures due to soft tissue require enhancing for the visualization of tissues.Fluoroscopy instrument is divided into two main types: remote-controlled systems and patient-side control system. Remote-controlled fluoroscopy systems are designed with the X-ray tubes over the table and remote operation. However, patient-side controlled fluoroscopy systems are designed with table-side controls for examinations where it is required to remain at any side of the patient. This is specifically designed for pediatric patients.In terms of geographic, North America dominates the global ray fluoroscopy instrument market. This is due to improved healthcare infrastructure in North America. The U.S. represents the largest market for ray fluoroscopy instrument followed by Canada in North America. Germany, France and the U.K. holds major share of ray fluoroscopy instrument market in Europe. However, Asia is expected to show high growth rates in the next five years in global ray fluoroscopy instrument market. This is due to many companies constructing their manufacturing plants in the region. In addition, increasing number of conferences and exhibitions by manufacturing companies to promote ray fluoroscopy instruments is also contributing in the growth of ray fluoroscopy instruments market in the region. Japan, China and India are expected to be the fastest growing ray fluoroscopy instruments markets in Asia.In recent time, increasing prevalence of diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases and gastrointestinal diseases is key diver of the global ray fluoroscopy instruments market. Improving healthcare infrastructure and innovative applications of fluoroscopy instruments have also fueled the growth of global ray fluoroscopy instruments market. In addition, increasing healthcare spending in developed and developing parts of the world and technological advancement in the fluoroscopy procedures are also supporting in growth of the market. For instance, introduction of small volume and light weight portable ray fluoroscopy instruments offers easier and convenient services to end users.However, high cost of instruments is key restraint of global ray fluoroscopy instrument market. In addition, lack of skill labor to operate expensive instruments and stringent regulatory standards also hampers the growth of global ray fluoroscopy instrument market. Increasing mergers and collaborations between key players is key trend of the global ray fluoroscopy instrument market.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @Some of the major companies operating in the global ray fluoroscopy instrument market are Siemens Healthcare, GE Healthcare, Philips Healthcare and Shanghai Bojin Medical Instrument Co., Ltd.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.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb: Growth Predicted for the Global ENT Devices Market by 2021 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/3673 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/3673 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com The global ENT devices market is segmented into hearing aid devices, voice prosthesis, diagnostic devices and hearing implants.In terms of geographic, North America dominates the global ENT devices market due to technological advancement in ENT arena in the region. The U.S. represents the largest market for ENT devices followed by Canada in North America. In Europe, France, Germany and the U.K. holds major share of ENT devices market. However, Asia is expected to show high growth rates in the next five years in global ENT devices market. This is due to many companies constructing their device manufacturing facilities in the region. In addition, increasing awareness about ear, nose and throats related medical conditions is also supporting in the growth of ENT devices market in the region. Moreover, rapid urbanization in developing countries of the Asia has also contributed to the growth ENT devices market. Rapid urbanization has increased the prevalence of ENT disorders in the region. This has resulted in significant rise in the demand of ENT devices in Asia. Japan, China and India are expected to be the fastest growing ENT devices markets in Asia.A sample of this report is available upon request @Ear, nose and throat are some of the most important parts of the human body. It is very essential to keep these parts function properly. There are many factors, such as aging and sinusitis, affect the normal function of these organs. ENT, one of the most important branches of medical science, primarily focused to diagnosis and treatment of the various problems associated with ear, nose and throat. In addition, various ENT devices are available for the diagnosis and treatment of these organs associated diseases. Some of the most common ENT devices are diagnostic devices, surgical devices and therapeutic devices. Deficiencies related to hearing, smelling and speaking are diagnose and treated by the help of these ENT devices.In recent time, increasing aging population and prevalence of ENT disorders are some of the major drivers of global ENT devices market. Aging enhances the probability of hearing loss and disorders of nose and throat. To overcome this problem, aged people require ENT devices for treatment of hearing loss and disorders of nose and throat which further increase the demand of devices.Technological advancement in hearing aid devices has also fueled the growth of global ENT devices market. For instance, introduction of rechargeable consumer hearing aid devices offers numerous advantages compared to the conventional hearing aid devices. Rechargeable hearing aid devices are smaller in sizes. Moreover, these rechargeable hearing aid devices are environmentally friendly and easy to use.However, problem associated with voice prosthesis and high cost of ENT devices are some of the major restraints of global ENT devices market. In addition, less battery life of hearing aid devices and lack of adequate number of professionals to dispense and fit ENT devices also hamper the growth of global ENT devices market. Increasing mergers and collaborations between ENT devices manufacturing companies is key trend of the market.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @Some of the major companies operating in the global ENT devices market are Cochlear Ltd., Sonova Holding AG, Siemens Healthcare, Starkey Laboratories Inc., William Demant Holding A/S, Widex A/S, GN ReSound A/S, Sonic Innovations Inc., Panasonic Corp., Beltone, Rexton Inc., Avada Hearing Care, Miracle-Ear Inc., MED-EL GmbH, Nuear Hearing Aids Inc., Audiosync Inc., Bernafon, American Hearing Systems Inc., Unitron Hearing Inc. and Zounds Inc.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.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb: Electric Power Distribution Automation Market Explores New Growth Opportunities By 2024 Electric Power Distribution Automation Market, Electric Power Distribution Automation, Electric Power Distribution http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/10795 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/10795 www.persistencemarketresearch.com Distribution Automation System refers to a set of intelligent processors, communication technologies and sensors the enables to coordinate and monitor the distribution assets of electric power. Electric power distribution automation system is important part of smart grid systems. Distribution automation system provides benefits of efficient and reliable operations within the grid.Sample of this report is available upon request @The Electric power distribution automation market across the globe is expected to show a substantial growth with a double digit increase in CAGR by the year 2019. Some of the key factors driving the market are need for automation and intelligent systems in electric power distribution. Some of the factors inhibiting the market growth are less technologies availability in electric power system and implementation of the system. The market is having opportunities in residential market and in geographies such as Asia Pacific including India, Australia and many more.Global Electric Power Distribution Automation market is segmented on the basis of end users, technology and geography. By end users the market can be segmented into manufacturers, commercial, information technology, telecom and many others. On the basis of technology the market is segmented into communication, sensors, monitoring devices, advanced power electronic technologies and many more. By geography the market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Rest of world.TOC of this report is available upon request @Some of the key players in the market are ABB Ltd., Schneider Electric, Siemens AG, GE Corp., S&C Electric Co., Atlantic City Electric Co., including many others.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a full-service market intelligence 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 flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb: Education Directory Shows Significant Increase in International Students in the U.S. http://www.w3education.org W3Education, an online education directory for college students and professionals seeking to advance their learning, has revealed that the number of foreign students seeking to study in the United States has increased. In 2015, there were over one million international students who arrived in the country for higher education.In California, 5 major schools welcomed the foreign students. UCLA hosted 11,513 students while USC hosted 13,340 international students. University of California in San Diego as well as the Irvine and Berkeley campuses also welcomed them.It was also noted that many of these foreign students who decided to study in America enrolled in prestigious Business Schools. Some were fortunate to qualify for study grants but majority sought financial resources independently.The number of international students in the Golden State alone was nearly 11% higher than the preceding academic year.The Institute of International Educations senior counselor Peggy Blumenthal said that the higher education network in California is massive and the presence of strong public and private universities in the state are the main factors that contribute to its appeal amongst foreign students.It is the aim of W3Education to help students find the right match for them in terms of the kind of institution they should apply to, what programs to enroll in and even help them find employment opportunities after graduation.The organization offers a School Directory which students can use as a guide in matching their current interests, aspirations and goals; whether it is in the Arts, Engineering Business or Communications.Interested individuals will find plenty of helpful information on their website. Their school directory is very comprehensive, and they can even point you towards the best institutions should you wish to study online.Janine Lorenzo, who recently enrolled in an online Business program offered by Maryville University, said that she is very satisfied with the help she obtained from W3Education.As a career person living in Southeast Asia, it was difficult for me to apply to different schools in the United States. I didnt have a lot of time to figure out what requirements are needed or if I even qualify for their programs. Im very thankful that I found W3Education because they made the whole process so much easier, she said.Another student, an engineer from India, Prakesh Singh, agrees. It took me 2 months doing research but I still wasnt confident about the information I gathered. Finally, a friend recommended W3Education and after just two weeks, I was able to send my application to several schools.Currently, China holds the highest number of students to the United States, followed by India and Saudi Arabia.To learn more, visitThis website is an online school directory and career guide that hopes to help visitors get to know more about the best schools in the US as well as provide them with tips and advice that will help them improve their careers and employment opportunities.Contact :Casella Postale 143,Castagnola, Ticino6976, SwitzerlandPhone : 0041794207743Fax : 0041794207743 Global Therapeutic Vaccines Market Expected to Be Biggest Emerging Market by 2021 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/3705 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/3705 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com Therapeutic vaccines spur the immune system to attack targeted tissue. A therapeutic HIV vaccine is also known as treatment vaccines. Some of the drugs used for HIV treatment include atripla, epzicom, prezista, truvada, kaletra, isentress, reyataz and viread. In addition, there are large numbers of therapeutic vaccines which are under clinical developments. Therapeutic vaccines are also used to treat cancer as they provide greater bioavailability and specificity with minimal side effects. Some of the side effects associated with therapeutic vaccines are swelling, redness, soreness and pain at the site of injection. In addition, mild-flu like symptom is another side effect for therapeutic vaccines.A sample of this report is available upon request @A vaccine is a biological medical product designed to stimulate antibodies inside human body. Vaccine helps in providing immunity against various infectious diseases. Some of the common types of vaccine include inactivated vaccines, subunit vaccines, DNA vaccines and recombinant vector vaccines. Vaccines may be prophylactic and therapeutic. Therapeutic vaccine is a biological combination designed to develop immunity against a diseased cell or tissues. Therapeutic vaccines are developed to treat ailments from various cancers, HIV and Alzheimers disease. Therapeutic vaccine is used for cure and prevention of cancer whereas prophylactic vaccines are only used for prevention of cancer. Therapeutic vaccines are specially designed for HIV positive people who have healthy immune system. HIV virus damages human immune system, which results into weaker immune system and thus leading to less ability to fight with microorganisms.North America followed by Europe is dominating the global therapeutic vaccines market due to increasing accessibility and affordability of highly expensive tests for HIV and cancer. Rising technological support for the development of new vaccines is also fuelling the growth of the North American therapeutic vaccines market. Asia is expected to be the fastest growing market in coming five years due to rising prevalence of various infectious diseases and aging population.In recent time there is increased use of therapeutic vaccines due to rising incidence of diseases such as cancer and HIV. Technological advancements in HIV diagnosis and rising number of clinical trials for HIV and cancer vaccines are some of the key factors driving the growth of the global therapeutic vaccines market. In addition, increasing awareness among people for severe diseases and increasing R&D investments for therapeutic vaccines are also fuelling the growth of the therapeutic vaccines market. However, higher cost of vaccines and less availability of therapeutic drugs are some of the key factor restraining the global therapeutic vaccines market. In addition, stringent regulation for the approval of therapeutic vaccines is also inhibiting the global therapeutic vaccines market.Human papillomavirus mediated malignancies could develop an opportunity for the growth of the global therapeutic vaccines market. Adverse side effects of therapeutic vaccination could lead a challenge for the growth of the global therapeutic vaccines market. Some of the trends for the growth of the global therapeutic vaccines market are rising number of product innovation and rising number of mergers and acquisitions.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @Some of the major companies operating in the global therapeutic vaccines market are Agenus, Inc., GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis AG, Pfizer, Argos Therapeutic Inc., Merck & Co., Celldex Therapeutic Inc., Cytos Biotechnology AG and Dendreon Corp.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.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb: Analysis and Growth of Global Type 1 Diabetes Market by 2021 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/3706 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/3706 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com In type 1 diabetes, the immune system is activated against self-insulin producing cells. This results into low production of insulin and also disrupts blood glucose homeostasis. In type 1 diabetes, exposure to viral infection such as mumps and coxsackie viruses results into pancreas damage which results into low insulin secretion. Type 1 diabetes is highly prevalent in young people and children whereas type 2 diabetes is common type of diabetes. Some of the common symptoms for type 2 diabetes are overweight, high blood pressure and high triglycerides. Diabetes is treated with the help of insulin delivery devices and drugs. Diabetes diagnostic devices includes analog blood meter, test strips, lancets and lancing devices whereas, insulin delivery devices includes insulin syringe, insulin pump, insulin pen and insulin jet injectors. Severe problems such as blindness, kidney failure, coronary heart disease and strokes may result due to lack of proper treatment.A sample of this report is available upon request @Diabetes refers to a group of metabolic disease characterized by high blood sugar level. Diabetes occurs due to inadequate secretion of insulin inside the pancreas. Some of the common symptoms for diabetes are frequent urination, excessive thirst, increased hunger, weight loss and tiredness. Type 1, type 2 and gestational diabetes are three types of diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease occurred due to high blood glucose level whereas, type 2 diabetes is a lifelong chronic diseases caused due to excess secretion of insulin inside the body.North America is dominating the global type 1 diabetes market due to rising prevalence of diabetes. The U.S. is dominating the North American diabetes market. Asia Pacific region is expected to show high growth rate due to rising aging population in coming five years.In recent time there is increased use of insulin delivery devices due to rising number of chronic diseases associated with diabetes. Rising awareness among people and technological advancement in insulin delivery devices are some of the key factors driving the growth of the global type 1 diabetes market. In addition, increasing government initiatives for diabetes control is also fuelling the growth of the global type 1 diabetes market. However, high cost of diagnosis and treatment is restraining the growth of the global type 1 diabetes market. In addition, unfavorable reimbursement policies are also inhibiting the growth of the global type 1 diabetes market.Side effects associated with diabetes therapies could lead a challenge for the global type 1 diabetes market. Strong pipeline and development of molecules from newer class of diabetes drugs would be an opportunity for the growth of the global type 1 diabetes market. In addition, development of non-invasive diabetes diagnostics and drug delivery devices would also develop an opportunity for the growth of the global type 1 diabetes market. Increasing demand for artificial pancreas and home infusion therapy for diabetes treatment are some of the trend for the growth of the global type 1 diabetes market.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @Some of the major companies operating in the global type 1 diabetes market are Eli Lilly and Company, Astrazeneca Plc., B.Braun Melsungen AG, Novo Nordisk A/S, Sanofi-Aventis US, LLC, DiaVacs, Inc., XOMA Corp., Biodel, Inc. and Macrogenics, Inc.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.Contact UsContact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb: Increasing Use of Smartphones Makes it Easier for Social Gaming Market Players to Reach Customers http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=501 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com The global social gaming market is primarily dominated by Zynga Inc. The early entry of Zynga Inc. into the then-nascent and risky social gaming market has paid off in the years since then, with social media becoming one of the most easily accessible modes of mass marketing. Electronic Arts Inc., one of the major game developers in the world, is another major player in the global social gaming market.According to a lead analyst at Transparency Market Research, The market for social gaming is thriving on its lower cost as compared to console- or PC-based video games. Unlike the latter, which have to be bought separately and installed on ones own machine, social gaming can be built into the architecture of existing social media websites. As the massive popularity of Facebook-based games shows, this has made all the difference for the global social gaming market.The primarily ad-based revenue generation system of social gaming has also benefitted the global social gaming market, as it has resulted in online games being available to play for free. This is a major driver for the social gaming market in developing regions, where the presence of social media is growing but the disposable income of the consumers remains much lower than that in developed countries.Download Complete Social Gaming Analytical Brochure:Increasing Use of Smartphones Makes it Easier for Social Gaming Market Players to Reach CustomersThe increasing demand for smartphones is another major driver for the global social gaming market. Due to the consistent and rapid technological advancements in the telecom sector, the online functionality of smartphones is being enhanced on a regular basis. This has allowed makers of online games to develop their own product portfolio and add innovative features.On the other hand, the restrictions on the usage of social media websites in workplaces are a major restraint on the global social gaming market.In terms of the key demographics for the global social gaming market, users in the age group of 19-25 emerged as the key consumers in 2012. By gender, women held the majority in the global social gaming with a 54% share.Apart from advertising, the in-game sale of virtual goods and lead generation offers are the other two major sources of revenue for the global social gaming market. The virtual goods segment is expected to exhibit a robust growth in demand over the coming years, with the segment expected to exhibit a 15.2% CAGR from 2013 to 2019.Asia Pacific Set to Dominate Global Social Gaming MarketBy geography, the Asia Pacific social gaming market emerged with the largest share in 2012. The increasing GDP of developing Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia, and the robust economic performance of regional giants such as India and China have led to an increasing demand for social gaming. The booming smartphone sales in Asia Pacific are also a key contributing factor towards the dominant share of Asia Pacific in the global social gaming market.According to a market study recently released by Transparency Market Research (TMR), titled Social Gaming Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast, 2013 - 2019, the global social gaming market was valued at US$5.4 bn in 2012. Exhibiting a robust 16.10% CAGR from 2013 to 2019, the market is expected to rise to a valuation of US$17.4 bn.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: Driver Assisting Systems Market Revenue Predicted To Go Up by 2024 Driver Assisting Systems Market, Driver Assisting Systems, Driver Assisting System Market http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/10846 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/10846 www.persistencemarketresearch.com Major automobile manufacturers have introduced driver assistance systems in passenger cars to provide improved driving experience with high safety, higher performance, increased accessibility and eco-friendly models. Automatic driver assistance system (ADAS) is one of the fastest growing markets in automotive sector. With the increase in vehicle fleet globally, the total number of road mishaps, accidents and casualties have increased.Sample of this report is available upon request @This has brought the attention of automobile manufacturers and governments towards the vehicle and road safety. The technological segmentation of ADAS market gives parking/reversing assistance, tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS), night vision, LDWS, heads-up display, e-call telematics, drowsiness monitor, distance warning system, blind spot and adaptive front lighting. The growth in demand for high-end cars coupled with safety regulations is driving the market for ADAS. The ADAS market is dominated by TPMS, LDWS and park assist systems in terms of volume while in revenue terms drowsiness monitor, ACC, and TPMS are leading technologies.TOC of this report is available upon request @APAC is the biggest passenger car manufacturing region world over. It is expected to maintain its high growth rate in coming years. This region has also become important market for ADAS considering high growth trend in vehicle demand, improvements in lifestyle and change in buyers preferences. Similar trends are expected in North America and Europe with USA, UK, Germany and France leading the growth chart. The key drivers for automated driver assisting systems are push by governments for better road safety, new features are required by automakers, decrease in prices of ADAS and growing consumer awareness and interest. The major challenges for driver assistance systems can be listed as customers reaction to potential system failures, current lukewarm reaction by insurance industries and competition from phones and aftermarket devices. Opportunities lie in investing in research and develop products that are a better and wholesome experience to the end-user. The key players in this market are Continental AG, Denso Corp., Robert Bosch GmbH, Valeo SA, Gentex Corporation, Autoliv Inc., Delphi Automotive PLC, Elektrobit Corporation, Ficosa International SA, Freescale Semiconductor Inc. and Texas Instruments among others.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a full-service market intelligence 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 flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb: Digital Pathology Market to Surpass US$ 950 Mn in Revenues by 2025 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-124 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-124 www.futuremarketinsights.com Future Market Insights (FMI) recently announced the release of its report titled Digital Pathology Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment, 2015 - 2025. According to the report, the global digital pathology market, estimated to be valued at US$ 326.7 Mn in 2015-end, is expected to expand at over 11% CAGR to total US$ 954.4 Mn by 2025.According to FMIs report, growing need for real-time access to pathology outcomes is a key factor fuelling widespread adoption of digital pathology services. Increasing initiatives by pharmaceutical companies to develop novel medicines for cancer treatment has also contributed to increase the scope of digital pathology systems.Request Free Report Sample@Adoption of digital pathology services and solutions is anticipated to witness robust growth in the regions of North America and Western Europe, owing to favourable regulations and affordability. Although the use of digital pathology in primary diagnosis is restricted in the U.S., robust adoption across research centres has provided an impetus to the market in the country.According to FMIs report, Asian countries are facing challenges in adopting digital pathology solutions owing to high cost structure, complexity in practical implementation of cloud-based digital pathology systems, and a general lack of awareness about digital pathology systems.FMIs report has segmented the digital pathology market on the basis of components, screening services, and end-users. The report also offers region-wise forecast and analysis on the key companies operating in the digital pathology landscape.On the basis of components, the digital pathology market is broadly segmented into hardware, software and services.The hardware segment includes scanner and other platform technologies, which currently accounts for major share of the global market. The software segment comprises on-premises software and cloud-based software. The on-premises software solution sub-segment has been estimated to account for largest share in the overall digital pathology software market in 2015.On the basis of screening services, the histopathology screening segment has been estimated to account for 81% share of the overall digital pathology market in 2015. This is attributed to increasing usage of digital pathology systems in cancer research for histopathology screening of test samples.On the basis on end user, the research centre segment is estimated to remain dominant in the global digital pathology market over the forecast period, owing to higher adoption among drug discovery and development industry, which includes, research centres, contract research organisation and others. This segment has been estimated to account for 63% share of the overall digital pathology market revenue in 2015.Key trends identified in the digital pathology market include use of digital pathology as second-opinion collaboration technology in cancer treatment, increasing research activities in personalized medicines, and integration of LIS, LIMS and EMR solution with digital pathology.Implementation of image lifecycle management, disaster recovery solutions, tiered storage management plans in data management in on-premises as well as cloud-based solution are driving the adoption of digital pathology in the healthcare sector globally.Send An Enquiry@Leading Companies in Digital Pathology MarketKey market players covered in the report include Perkin Elmer, Inc., MedImmune, LLC (AstraZeneca), Sectra AB, Koninklijke Philips N.V, GE Healthcare, Inspirata Co., Ventana Medical Systems, Inc., Leica Biosystems, 3D-Histech Ltd, Hamamatsu Photonics, K.K., Digipath Co., ZEISS, Olympus Corporation, and Yokogawa Electronic Corporation.These leading players are bolstering their position through product launches and acquisitions as a key development strategy in order to sustain their position in the competitive market. The Tier 1 companies are focusing on a collaborative approach with cloud service providers to provide overall service to end-users.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: North America and Europe Retail Automation Market 10-Year Forecast and Trends Analysis Research Report http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-na-200 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-na-200 www.futuremarketinsights.com OverviewAutomation is the latest advancement set to revolutionise the global retail market. The retail automation market is expected to witness steady growth, owing to such avant-garde collaboration between global retail and consumer goods sector, and the global electronics and IT industry. Considering the fact that retail industry drives the growth of several business and trade ventures around the world, the influence of automation will bring more efficiency to billions of retail transactions.Visual merchandising, planogram, and big data in retail are the key trends fuelling the demand of automated services in retail markets. Effective automated products and programs that speed up the sales mechanism, create efficiency in product supplies, and develop easily-accessible business platforms that can produce a lucrative environment for the growth of the retail automation market globally.The global market for retail automation is gaining traction in Asia Pacific, Western Europe, and Middle East & Africa (MEA). The two most lucrative regions for the growth of the global retail automation market are North America and Europe.Retail Automation in North AmericaOf these two regions, North America is the current market leader, holding the greater pie of retail automation market share. The North American retail automation market is likely to register high growth rate during 2014-2020 period.North America remains a lucrative market for retail automation globally, with the US and Canada witnessing steady demand. North American consumers have adopted the prominent trend of relying on retail automated products and services for business transactions, which has made an affirming impetus on the retail automation market. Economic progress and rising purchasing power of consumers are some of the trends, specific to North America, that make the outlook of retail automation market considerably positive.Request Free Report Sample@The European Retail Automation MarketEurope, on the other hand, is closing in on North America in order to become the leading key region in the global retail automation market. Several retail chains and multiple product lines established in Europe are helping the setting up of retail automation in European nations. The European regional market is primarily segmented into UK, Germany, Spain, France and others. Britains exodus from EU is likely to impact the implementation of automation in UKs retail market. But, the economic stability in other European countries is expected to create a supportive dais for building up the retail automation market.Factors Benefiting the Growth of Retail Automation MarketNorth America and Europe, collectively, will continue their prominence in the global market, with respect to the market size, revenue share, and overall demand. The factors that will incite this growth are,Growth of Local Retail & Customer ReceptionLocal retail markets are growing in several parts of North America & Europe. Combined with a positive consumer response, automated retail will continue flourishing in niche retail markets.Overflowing Investments on Automation Products & ServicesRetail giants dominating the existing retail market are investing in automated programs and devices for creating efficient output. The cost advantage is increasing the demand for automated retail services.Proliferation of Shopping Centres and SupermarketsConsumers in the US and European countries prefer buying from hypermarket and malls, which is great platform for automated retail kiosks.Challenges in the Global Retail Automation MarketThe retail automation market in North America and Europe is growing steadily, but there are a handful of factors that may restrain or slow down its growth. In the US and Canada, a key challenge for retail automation is its greatest disadvantage -- the loss of job. Labours and working professionals at retail outlets are a major contributor of the regions economy. Rising unemployment levels could plunge the local economy, having a rippling effect on the national economies of North America.In Europe, the instability of economies across its constituent nations is restraining the growth of its retail automation market. Improving financial conditions in Turkey, Russia and Poland could influence the expansion of automated retail products; however, theundulating economies of Spain, Italy as well as Britain, can impede the adoption of automation in European retail sector.Request For TOC@Besides, maintaining the continuous supervision of retail kiosks, high dependency on electricity and the implications arriving from variable internet regulations are some other restraints recoiling the progress of retail automation in Europe and North America.SegmentationThe segmentation of the retail automation market is done on the basis of geography, the operator type and the product type.Geographic SegmentationNorth America (sub-segmented into United States, Canada & others)Europe (sub-segmented into Spain, France, UK & others)Operator Type SegmentationUnattended TerminalsHuman-Operated TerminalsProduct SegmentationCurrency CounterBarcode ReaderBill PrinterCash CounterCash RegisterCard ReaderSelf-Checkout SystemWeight ScaleKiosks/Vending MachineOthersKey CompetitorsElectronic companies such as Seiko Epson, Fujitsu, First Data Corp., Siemens, Toshiba and Wincor Nixdorf are some of the top players in the global retail automation market. Most of these ICT companies are headquartered in Europe, making the region a credible platform for new manufacturers and startups in retail automation. Meanwhile, North American retail giants such as Walmart and Kroger are developing their own devices and services to reap benefits from the amalgamation of retail and automation.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.comWebsite: Research Offers 10-Year Forecast on Metrology Software Market http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-226 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-226 www.futuremarketinsights.com Metrology is a field of science which involves study of all practical and theoretical aspects of measurements. With the rising sophistication and growing demand for metrology services from different industries, automation has become key criteria to achieve desired levels of efficiency and accuracy. Thus, software solutions used for achieving automation have become critical to ensure metrology devices/equipment perform with utmost efficacy. These metrology software solutions affect the ways through which users interact with measurement systems required in a manufacturing processes. It includes monitoring, controlling, displaying and reporting every part of the measuring process. It also includes understanding and analysis of measurements, surface defect analysis and performance review solutions. Metrology software is recognized for its high accuracy, design flexibility and hardware independent features allowing software support for multiple hardware combinations. Additionally, its capability to integrate several functions within a single unit helps to minimize the size and space requirements of the measuring equipment.Metrology software is useful in a number of applications that include evaluation and measurement of positional and structure tolerances. Since past three decades, industries have been shifting towards computer aided measurement systems for improvement in quality of the products. Moreover, through accurate measurements, it is possible to reduce the wastage of resources such as fuel, energy and time in manufacturing of a product. Core industries such as automotive, electrical, pharmaceutical, and aviation find extensive use of metrology software. Electrical industry relies on the metrology software for accurate measurement of the electrical components due to growing concerns regarding safety and reliability of these components. In pharmaceutical industry, due to stringent government regulations, metrology software finds use to ensure accuracy in proportion of chemical compounds.Request Free Report Sample@With emerging trend of precise engineering in instrumentation, the shift towards development of advanced metrology software witnessed a massive boost. This led to the improvement of ground breaking solutions in metrology, delivering accurate results. The next generation metrology software solutions are highly perceptive, fully featured, easy to use and customizable. As the manufacturing industry moves towards complete automation, healthy demand for metrology software is expected in near future. Growing industries such as automobile and aviation that heavily depend upon measurement systems are expected to be major drivers of metrology software market. In addition, international standardization of metrology, which decides upon common issues such as how often each quantity should be measured and what instrument technology be used to measure the same, is another driver for metrology software. Other factors driving growth opportunities of metrology solutions include the increasing application of software in the manufacturing of various parts and products in industries such as biomedical, textile, heavy equipment, shipbuilding, electronics, renewable energy, defense, telecommunications, consumer goods and satellite among others.Geographically, North America and Europe are pioneers in adoption of metrology software solutions due to extensive growth in automobile industry. Asia-Pacific region, however, is expected to show high growth rate in metrology market due to increasing industries in this region. . Furthermore, the aerospace companies in North America and Europe are expanding their manufacturing units in Asia-Pacific region owing to rising demand and low cost of operation in this region. This is expected to maintain high growth rate of metrology software in near future..Request For TOC@Some of the leading vendors of the metrology software include AICON 3D Systems GmbH, 3D Systems Corporation, Carl Zeiss Industrial Metrology, ., Hexagon Metrology Inc., Image Metrology A/S, New River Kinematics Inc., Innovative Metrology Solutions, Konica Minolta Sensing Inc., Kotem Technologies Inc., Metrologic Group SA, Micro-Vu Corporation, Nikon Metrology Inc., Optical Gaging Products, Renishaw Plc, , Rudolph Technologies Inc., Verisurf Software Inc. 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.comWebsite: Document Outsourcing Services Market Key Trends 2014-2020 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-256 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-256 www.futuremarketinsights.com Document outsourcing involves the outsourcing of document processing to a third-party service provider. Document processing service providers convert typed and handwritten text into paper-based electronic documents by using intelligent character recognition (ICR), data entry techniques, and optical character recognition (OCR).Global Document Outsourcing Services Market Will Witness High Single-Digit Growth Through 2020The global document outsourcing services market is anticipated to expand at a single-digit CAGR over the next five years. Increasing demand for end-to-end document outsourcing services is projected to be the key factor for the growth of this market. Other key factors for the growth of this market include decreasing print volumes, increasing demand for new technologies, and a focus on reducing the operational costs.Globally, organisations are understanding the importance of having a seamless process for business processes so that they can get maximum productivity from their resources. Organisations around the world are banking on the expertise of third-party service providers for their document processing services and this is projected to be another reason for the growth of the global document outsourcing services market.On the other hand, document outsourcing services providers are trying their best to capitalise on the opportunities provided to them and they are offering a variety of document processing services to their clients. As more service providers broaden their portfolios, it is forecasted that there will be an increase in the number of organisations outsourcing their document processing work, and this will lead to a growth in the market over the next five years.Request Free Report Sample@Technological innovations have brought dramatic changes in the whole process of document processing and due to this many organisations have become increasingly reliant on third-party vendors for managing their document processing services. Furthermore, most organisations don't have the time or resources to train their employees on new tools and systems. This is where document processing service providers are stepping and helping the organisations with end-to-end solutions. These factors are further projected to contribute to the growth of the global document outsourcing services market through 2020.Challenges for the Global Document Outsourcing MarketIssues related to the flexibility of service level agreements (SLAs) are projected to be the key challenge for the growth of the global document outsourcing services market. Document processing service providers do not allow any changes in the document processing SLA once the key points have been agreed upon and this creates problems for the the companies as they are not able to customise the services according to their requirement. It is projected that the rigidness in SLAs could be the key challenge for the growth of the global document outsourcing market in the future.Key Regions for the Global Document Outsourcing Services MarketWestern Europe, the U.S., and Asia Pacific are the key regions for the growth of the document outsourcing processing market. The document outsourcing services market was estimated to be worth US$ 30 Bn in 2014, and it is projected that the market will reach a valuation of around US$ 35 Bn by 2020. The document outsourcing services market in the U.S. is expected to witness a CAGR of around 3% through 2020. As discussed before, the focus of clients to decrease the operational costs will be the key driver for the growth of this market in these regions.Request For TOC@Key Players in the Global Document Outsourcing Services MarketXerox Corp., Lexmark International Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co., and Ricoh Co. Ltd., are the key players in the global document processing market.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.comWebsite: Optical Sensor Market Revenue, Opportunity, Forecast and Value Chain 2015-2025 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-655 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-655 www.futuremarketinsights.com Optical sensor converts the light into electric signals. It measures physical quantity of light and converts light into form which can be interpreted by instrument. Optical sensor is connected to electrical trigger which can reacts as per change in signal. Optical sensor has ability to measure change in wavelength of light. Optical sensor works with either single point method or through distribution point method. In single point method single phase change is required to activate the sensor. In distribution point method, the sensor is reactive along a series of sensors.Optical sensors have been evolved significantly since its introduction during the last four decades. Technological advancement in last decade have resulted in development of optical sensors that have been developed to be suitable to work with a wide range of wavelength from ultraviolet (UV) to infrared (IR).Global Optical Sensor Market SegmentationGlobally, the optical sensor market is segmented on the basis of sensor type, applications and region. Optical sensor has various application in Consumer electronics, automation, industrial process control, energy & utility, Military & Defense, transportation & navigation and others. The consumer electronics application holds biggest market share in optical sensor market. On the basis of type, global optical sensor market is segmented into Fiber Optics, Image sensors, Position sensors, Ambient Light sensors, Proximity sensors, Infrared sensors and others.Request for sample report:Global Optical Sensor Market: Region-Wise OutlookBy region the global solid-state drive market can be segmented into seven region such as North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan), Japan as a separate Region, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa region. The global optical sensor market is characterised by high competition and presence of few big players and several small regional players. The global Optical sensor market is expected to reflect a double digit CAGR over the forecast period. At present, share contribution of North America is highest in global Optical sensor market. Asia Pacific region followed by Western Europe and Japan is expected to reflect highest CAGR over the forecast period. Latin America and Middle East & Africa are expected to experience slow growth as compared to other geographic regions. Increase in shipment of optical sensor in Asia-Pacific region is attributed to increase in demand of handheld and mobile devices in developing region such as China and India.Global Optical Sensor Market: DriversThe optical sensors market has gained a significant market in the last couple of years. Significant developments and innovations are taking place in global optical sensor market. Due to this, market is expected to reflect exponential growth over the forecast period. The factor that drive the growth of global optical sensor market is significant increase in demand of optical sensors for wide range of applications. Use of optical sensors in various applications such as oil & gas, border security and smart homes applications has boosted the growth of optical sensor market.On other hand, lack of standardization and high cost hinders the growth of optical sensor market. Furthermore, lack of awareness and less acceptability of optical sensors is responsible for hampering the growth of optical sensor market. Tremendous opportunities lies in developing optical sensors for emerging applications.Request for TOC:Global Optical Sensor Market: Key PlayersSome of the top companies present in global optical sensor market are Waloong Electric Instruments Co. Ltd., Solution Galore Electronics, Shanghai Lanbao Sensing Technology Co. Ltd, Profelmnet, I-Linear Automation Sdn Bhd, ZeeAnn, Shenzhen Leini-Lile Technology Ltd and Medel Elektronik. These players focus on strategic collaborations with big players in semiconductor and automation industry in order to enhance their footprints in wide range of applications. Efforts are needed to develop low cost fabrication process for optical sensors.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.616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705T (UK): + 44 (0) 20 7692 8790Email:sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: Semiconductors in Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Power Systems Market Opportunity, Key Trends 2014-2020 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-271 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-271 www.futuremarketinsights.com In recent years, energy efficiency, environment compatibility, and cost reduction have been emerging as critical issues across the semiconductor industry. The electronics and semiconductor industry has launched various semiconductor solutions such as insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) for solar power systems. Various semiconductor products used in solar PV market include PV cells, insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs), metal oxide field effect transistors (MOSFETs), diodes, couplers, analog IC, logic IC, micro components and optical semiconductors, among others. Factors driving the growth of the solar power market include volatility in fossil fuel prices, environmental concerns, government incentives, and technological developments.The demand for semiconductor power devices in solar PV is spurred by rising concerns over efficiency in performance to reduce power losses. Continued focus on design improvements across the electrical and electronics industry has been driving the growth in demand of semiconductors in solar power industry. At the same time, the renewable and alternative energy market has gained an increased demand, especially the solar energy market, which is expanding rapidly. Further, increase in incentives by governments and feed-in tariff policy are creating significant growth opportunity for semiconductor manufacturers in solar PV market.Request Free Report Sample@Across the globe, energy security has emerged as a critical issue and governments have been prioritizing renewable energy sources such as solar power in order to create a balanced energy portfolio. Recent developments in GaN (gallium nitride) and SiC (silicon carbide) technologies represent an emerging opportunity in solar power market for semiconductor industry players as these technology offer better features such as better power efficiency. Competition from conventional energy sources which are offered at a subsidy across different countries represents a challenge to the growth of solar power market owing to cost issues. This in turn affects the growth of semiconductors for renewable energy including solar PV.Europe was the leading region for solar power and has seen significant growth in demand for semiconductor products and solutions in order to cater the growing demand for efficient solar power production .The growth of solar power industry in this region is driven by regulatory factors which have mandated reduction in emission and harmful gases and increased reliance on renewable energy. Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest growing market for solar power driven by growing investment in solar power by countries such as China, Japan and India. This in turn is expected to propel the growth in demand of semiconductor products and solutions over the coming years. North America lead by increasing demand for solar power in the U.S. owing to regulatory pressure and need to create a mixed source of energy is also expected to experience increasing growth in demand for semiconductors in solar PV. Key players in this market include Fairchild Semiconductor International Inc. (U.S.), JA Solar Holdings, Co., Ltd. (China), Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (Japan), Infineon Technologies AG (Germany), ABB Ltd. (Switzerland), Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. (China), Hitachi Power Semiconductor Device Ltd. (Japan), Toshiba Corporation (Japan), STMicroelectronics N.V. (Switzerland), Fuji Electric Co. Ltd. (Japan), Vishay Intertechnology Inc (U.S.), Semikron Inc (Germany), and First Solar, Inc. (U.S.), among others.Request For TOC@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 type and distribution channels.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.comWebsite: Food Coating Ingredients Market Volume Analysis, Segments, Value Share and Key Trends 2015-2025 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-640 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-640 www.futuremarketinsights.com Overview:Coating is a major stage in food processing controlling a products development, arrangement, texture and taste structures. The procedure includes placing the product particles in motion and instantaneously applying the coating ingredient in a particular pattern to expose one to another. Thus, coated food ingredients are delivering unique possibilities for development of product, quality and processing enhancement. Escalating food processing industry will certainly drive the Global Food Coating Ingredients market in the coming few years.Global Food Coating Ingredients: Market SegmentationThe Global Food Coating Ingredient market is segmented on the basis of type such as fats and oil, cocoa and chocolates, spices, flours, starches, syrups and sugar, salts, hydrocolloids, and others. The Global Food Coating Ingredients Market can also be divided by application areas which includes confectionaries, ready-to-eat cereals, dairy products, bakery products, nutritional bars and snacks, meat and poultry products, vegetables and fruits and others.Request for sample report:Global Food Coating Ingredients: Growth DriversInclining demand for health foods, rising intake of confectionaries along with ready to eat fried food and bakery products especially in developed countries are strengthening the growth of food coating ingredients market across the globe. Apart from this, the requirement for anti-microbial coating is also compelling the food coating industry to introduce various coating ingredients for products related to foods.Global Food Coating Ingredients: Regional OutlookThe Global Food Coating ingredients industry is studied for the major regions which include North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific, Japan, Middle East and Africa. It has been observed that North America captured the highest market share in the Global Food Coating Ingredients Market in 2015, this is majorly due to increasing confectionary market of the zone. The Global Food Coating Ingredients market is at budding stage in Asia-Pacific region with significant prospects for confectionary and dairy industries. Thus in the near future, robust demand for bakery and chocolate products along with significant agriculture growth in India and China is anticipated to have a progressive impact on Global Food Coating Ingredients industry in the next few years. Recently, the Indian government declared the initiation of several food parks which will boost the food and beverage segment in the country. These developments are anticipated to ease investments in food processing market and would bolster the Global food coating ingredients market growth in the coming few years.Request for TOC:Global Food Coating Ingredients: PlayersSome of the key vendors capturing the substantial market share in the Global Food Coating Ingredients Market include Cargill foods (U.S.), Archer Daniels Midland Company (U.S.), Dohler Group (Germany), Agrana Group (Austria), Tate & Lyle Plc. (U.K.) and PGP International Inc. (U.S.).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.616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705T (UK): + 44 (0) 20 7692 8790Email:sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: Global Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm (SCARA) Market 2016 : Production, Capacity, Cost, Price, Revenue-2022 Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm (SCARA) http://bit.ly/2hUkmMW MRS Research Group addsGlobal Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm (SCARA) Market 2016 Share,Size,Trends and Forecast to 2022 Market Research Reportreports to its database.The MRS Research Group Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm (SCARA) report by QY Research represents an inclusive evaluation of the Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm (SCARA) market and comprises considerable insights, historical data, facts, and statistical and industry-validated data of the global market. Additionally, it consists of estimated data that is evaluated with the help of suitable set of methodologies and assumptions.The MRS Research Group report research highlights informative data and in-depth analysis of Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm (SCARA) market and its corresponding segments that are based on technology, geography, and applications.Get Free Sample Research Report @The report comprises precise information, comprehensive analysis in two waysqualitative and quantitativeindustry experts inputs, and information provided by industry analysts and industry participants involved in the entire value chain.The report highlights exhaustive study of major market and their present trends, along with corresponding market segments. The Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm (SCARA) report also provides data regarding various market factors and their impact on the overall market and its segments.Every market segment of the Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm (SCARA) industry is analyzed in a quantitative as well as qualitative way in order to provide the customers with a relative estimation of the global market. Essential information such as definition, the industry value chain and its analysis, and the trends are also explored in the MRS Research Group Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm (SCARA) report.This Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm (SCARA) report is an in-depth market research report in this domain.The report focuses on regional as well as global market, its key players, along with market segments including detailed study on various divisions and its applications. The report provides comprehensive information on each and every segment covered of the Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm (SCARA) market.The research report analyzes the scope of Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm (SCARA) industry including size, share, analysis, sales, supply, production, definition, specification, classification, demands, application, forecast trends, industry policy, and news.Further, the examination on value chain of Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm (SCARA) market is also provided which covers the growth factors and restraints of the industry along with the key market competitors.Furthermore, the report evaluated major market points such as production, revenue, capacity utilization rate, gross, price, capacity, gross margin, supply, cost, demand, export, consumption, import, growth rate, market share, and so on.The Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm (SCARA) report is a helpful source which assists manufacturers, distributors, suppliers, customers, and individuals and investors who have interest in this market.MRS Research Group is the worlds giant collection of the Market research Reports. Where we specialized in global publisher, tailor made reports and specialists consulting. Global Publisher provides in-depth analysis of global and Chinese market. Tailor-made reports represent methodologies deliverable to proper insight of the client. While, expertise research specialist helps to provide strategic solution in specialists consulting. It consists of head such as, latest report, category, niche market and news. Reports published on the million of category like chemical, machinery and equipment, consumer goods, manufacturing and construction etc. Latest national, international, business News published under news portal.Joel John3422 SW 15 Street,Suit #8138Deerfield Beach,Florida 33442United StatesToll Free : +1-855-465-4651 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-386-310-3803Email: sales@mrsresearchgroup.com Now Available Acidity Regulator Market Forecast And Growth 2015-2025 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-329 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-329 www.futuremarketinsights.com Acidity regulators are pH control agents that are used as food additives in order to regulate the acidity or basicity of the food product. Acidity regulators may be mineral or organic acids, neutralizing agents, bases or buffering agents. Acidity regulators are indispensable to the food and beverage industry and are extensively used in diverse applications such as beverages, processed food, condiments, bakery items, confectionary items, sauces and dressings, among others. They regulate and stabilizethe pH balance and act as preservativesfor the food product in order to optimize its shelf life. Apart from improving the shelf life of the food products, acidity regulators also act as a flavoring substance in confectionary items and condiments. They are also used as taste modifiers and often add a sharp taste to the food product and also function as gelling agents. Acids are naturally present in many fruits and vegetables such as lemons, oranges, mangos, tomatoes, strawberries and apples. Acidity regulators can either be extracted from natural sources or manufactured synthetically.Based on types, acidity regulators can be broadly classified into acetic acid, lactic acid, citric acid, maleic acid and phosphoric acid. These food additives exhibit preservative, anti-microbial and pH stabilizing properties that increase the shelf life of the food products. The acidity regulator market has gained considerable momentum over the past decade owing to the growth in demand for end-user applications such as beverages and processed food. There has been an increased demand for processed food and health-conscious products among the new age consumers which has positively affected the demand for food acidity regulators.The end-user segment for beverages (non alcoholic and soft drinks) constituted the largest share for acidity regulators demand followed by sauces, dressings and condiments. Processed food is expected to exhibit the third largest demand for acidity regulators globally. By product types, citric acid enjoys the largest demand, closely followed by phosphoric acid. These acids are preferred over the others in the beverage applications due to their properties, which explain their high demand.Request Free Report Sample@The growing consumer acceptance for processed food and ready-to-drink beverages has also favorably affected the demand for acidity regulators. Rising disposable income levels and time constraints faced by the global population has also increased their preference for packaged food. Moreover, in the fast-paced lifestyles, ready-to-eat and readyto-cook foods find preference among the young consumers as it saves precious time. Acidity regulators are used in frozen foods, canned foods as well as dried foods.The acidity regulator market has witnessed a number of innovations and improvisations among manufacturers in recent years and this is expected to bode well for the industry in the coming years. Traditionally, most of the acids were extracted by the process of natural fermentation. However, many manufacturers turned to various modern extraction techniques such as methanol carbonylation, acetaldehyde oxidation and oxidative fermentation which provide higher yield of acids, to cope with the increasing demand.Asia Pacific accounted for the highest demand for acidity regulators in 2014, and China generated the highest demand, followed by India. China also accounted for a huge number of manufacturers, providing tough competition for the Western companies. Asia Pacific is also expected to the fastest growing region in terms of acidity regulator demand. North America accounted for the second largest market for acidity regulators in the same year, followed by Europe.Request For TOC@Some of the key companies that operate in this market are American Tartaric Products, Fuerst Day Lawson, Archer Daniels Midland, FBC Industries Inc., Parry Enterprises India, and Chemelco International, among many 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.comWebsite: Global Lunch Box Industry 2016 Growth Segments by Market Types, Food Preservation Solutions, Pricing & Key Companies http://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=867516&type=E http://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/global-lunch-box-market-research-report-2016.htm http://www.qyresearchreports.com/press-releases.htm http://www.qyresearchreports.com This report offers a detailed evaluation of the global Lunch Box market. Using historical data and current market scenario as a base, it makes insightful projections of the markets trajectory in the foreseeable future. These expected future trends are useful for both existing and new players in the Lunch Box market. In addition, the report also provides recommendations by industrial experts that can aid players in forming important business strategies.The Lunch Box market, its affiliated industries, and its presence across different regions are an important part of the report. The report profiles key players along with their revenue structure, business strategies, contact information, and latest developments. It also takes into account a SWOT analysis that discloses the estimated trajectory each market player will witness. It provides essential insights into their financial structures and market shares at the global and regional level. The report presents a comprehensive study of the competitive landscape of the global Lunch Box market. It uses reliable analytical tools such as Porters five force analysis and market attractiveness analysis to calculate the competitive scenario.Visit to Get a Free Sample Report Copy @This report studies Lunch Box in Global market, especially in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and India, focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer.The report uses investment feasibility and return analysis and value chain analysis to methodically examine the nature of the Lunch Box industry. The latter includes analysis of the cost structure of the product catalog, the manufacturing capacity and value in its utilization, and industry policies that impact the global Lunch Box market.For a coherent understanding, the report segments the market using different criteria including type, application, technology, and geography. It offers a holistic perspective of the markets growth across different regions on the basis of revenue as well as volume. It also mentions a detailed description of drivers, restraints, and opportunities influencing the dynamics of the global Lunch Box market.Visit to Explore Full Report with TOC @Table of ContentsGlobal Lunch Box Market Research Report 20161 Lunch Box Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Lunch Box1.2 Lunch Box Segment by Type1.2.1 Global Production Market Share of Lunch Box by Type in 20151.2.2 plastic Lunch Box1.2.3 wood Lunch Box1.2.4 Stainless Steel Lunch Box1.3 Lunch Box Segment by Application1.3.1 Lunch Box Consumption Market Share by Application in 20151.3.2 Crisper1.3.3 Microwave Heating1.3.4 ?Heat Preservation1.3.5 Others1.4 Lunch Box Market by Region1.4.1 North America Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.2 Europe Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.3 China Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.4 Japan Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.5 Southeast Asia Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.6 India Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Lunch Box (2011-2021)Latest Media Section @QYresearchreports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations.QYresearchreports1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-618-1030Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com Bismuth Oxide Market Trends, Regulations And Competitive Landscape Outlook to 2025 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-356 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-356 www.futuremarketinsights.com Bismuth is a chemical element that is represented using symbol Bi. Bismuth is a pentavalent chemical that resembles chemically with antimony and arsenic. In the earths crust bismuth is twice as abundant as gold. Elemental bismuth occurs naturally and is a free element that is 86% as dense as lead. Bismuth is brittle metal that is silvery white in color when produced freshly. However, bismuth turns into pink tinge mainly after its surface oxidation. Bismuth is one of the most abundantly available diamagnetic elements and thus, has one of the lowest thermal conductivity among other metals. Bismuth metal has its physical property similar to that of tin and lead. Bismuth oxide is the most important industrial compound manufactured from bismuth. Bismuth oxide has a common starting point as that of similar to the bismuth chemistry. Bismuth oxide is naturally found as the mineral bismite, however, it is also obtained as a by-product from the smelting of lead ores and copper ores. Bismuth trioxide is widely used to manufacture the dragon eggs effects in fireworks as it is a major alternative for lead. Bismuth trioxide is commercially manufactured using from bismuth subnitrate. Bismuth subnitrate is manufactured by dissolving bismuth in hot nitric acid. Bismuth oxide is mainly found as a heavy yellow powder. Thus, bismuth is an essential raw material used to manufacture bismuth oxide.Bismuth oxide has few commercial applicationshowever; none of applications use bismuth oxide on a large scale. Bismuthoxide is used as an ingredient in the pharmaceutical industries. However, the use of bismuth oxide in dental materials is slowly declining. Compounds such as bismuth oxychloride have a wide range of applications in the cosmetic industry. Bismuth oxide is used as a pigment in manufacturing paints for eye shadows, nail polishes and hair sprays. Growing cosmetic industry is expected to boost the overall demand for bismuth market. Bismuth oxide are widely used in manufacturing of several machineries such as automatic sprinkler systems for fires. Bismuth oxide is used as an alternative to lead and hence, has been used in range of applications where previously lead was used. Bismuth oxide is mainly used as an alternative for lead especially in the manufacturing of bullets, shots and other ammunition. Currently, bismuth oxide is being evaluated as a lead replacement in manufacturing free machining brasses especially for plumbing applications. Owing to its low toxicity bismuth oxide is used in the manufacturing of food processing equipments and other copper processing pipes. Growing food industry is expected to drive the overall growth in the demand for bismuth market. Bismuth oxide is also used in automobile industry.Request Free Report Sample@Asia Pacific is expected to be the leading manufacturer of bismuth oxide. Presence of large scale bismuth manufacturers in China is expected to further boost the growth of the market. North America and Europe are expected to be the major consumers of bismuth oxide. The growing awareness about the hazardous effect of lead is further expected to augment the overall growth of the market.Hunan Jinwang Bismuth Industrial Co., Ltd, The Shepherd Chemical Company and The Kurt J. Lesker Company are among the major participants of the bismuth oxide market. The companys are mainly focused towards increasing their production capacity in order to reduce the overall demand supply gap.Request For TOC@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.comWebsite: Renal Denervation Devices Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, and Forecast 2012 - 2021 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=400 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/pressrelease/global-renal-denervation-devices-market.htm http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com According to a recent market research report released by Transparency Market Research, the global renal denervation devices market is estimated to take a leap at a CAGR of 41.2% during the period between 2012 and 2021. The report, titled Renal Denervation Devices Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, and Forecast 2012 - 2021, projects the global renal denervation devices market to be worth US$1.9 bn in 2021. The overall market was worth US$88.5 mn in 2012.Growing prevalence of hypertension among urban population has significantly contributed to the growth of the global renal denervation devices (RDN) market. Renal sympathetic nerves are directly affected in hypertension. The report cites the increasing cases of treatment resistant hypertension and uncontrolled hypertension as the key factors driving the global renal denervation devices market. Short duration and permanent effect of renal denervation procedure will increase adoption of RDN devices. Further, rapid development of RDN devices and growing geriatric population worldwide will augment the growth of the global renal denervation devices market.However, the report mentions that the shortage of clinical evidence is restraining the expansion of the global renal denervation devices market. Lower awareness of RDN devices as compared to drug-based therapy along with unstable reimbursement regulations will hinder the growth of the overall market during the forecast horizon. The report points out that the renal denervation devices market has a huge opportunity to grow in the emerging economies.On the basis of technology, the global renal denervation devices market has been segmented into ultrasound- based renal denervation systems, renal sympathetic denervation procedure, radiofrequency-based renal denervation systems, and micro-infusion catheter-based renal denervation systems. In 2012, radiofrequency-based RDN devices accounted for the largest share of the market. Due to benefits such as time-efficiency and safety, radiofrequency-based RDN devices will continue to dominate the global renal denervation devices market.On the basis of product, the report focuses on ReCor Medical's Paradise, Boston Scientific's (Vessix Vascular) V2, Medtronic's Symplicity, St. Jude's EnlighHTN, and Covidien's OneShot. In 2012, Medtronics Symplicity accounted for around 85.5% market share. However, during the forecast period, this product is expected to face stiff competition from other emerging products in the market.global-renal-denervation-devices-market-2012-2021The report studies the global renal denervation devices market across four key regions: Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World. Europe leads the global renal denervation market owing to a large number of research and development activities and device approvals. The region held 80% of the market in 2012 and is estimated to dominate the overall market during the forecast horizon. Asia Pacific is expected to follow Europe as the second largest market for renal denervation devices.The report profiles some of the key players in the global renal denervation devices market such as Medtronic Inc., Kona Medical, Boston Scientific Corporation, St. Jude Medical, Covidien PLC, CardioSonic, and Mercator Medsystems.Download Free exclusive Sample of this report:The research study has been segmented as below:Renal Denervation Devices Market, by TechnologyRadiofrequencyUltrasoundMicro-infusionOthersRenal Denervation Devices Market, by ProductSymplicityEnlighHTNOneShotParadiseV2Renal Denervation Devices Market, by GeographyNorth AmericaEuropeAsia PacificRest of the WorldBrowse : Our new press releasesAbout 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.ContactMr.Sudip S90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Protein Ingredient Market Global Industry Analysis, size, share and Forecast 2015-2025 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-833 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-833 www.futuremarketinsights.com Proteins are polymers of amino acids joined together by peptide bonds. Proteins are the building blocks of body tissue, and can also serve as a fuel source. Proteins are constantly synthesized and degraded in living entities through metabolic processes for energy recovery and storage. Proteins play very important role in living organisms by participating in every process within cells. With the increased attention on health and body building the number of gyms and health clubs are increasing over a world. Protein ingredients are widely consumed in health and wellness food in the form of pre workout fuel, post workout replenishment. In addition, it is also used in food and beverages, pharmaceuticals and some cosmetic products.Protein Ingredient Market: SegmentationProtein ingredient market is segmented on the basis of source as animal protein and plant protein. Overall demand for plant protein is growing in market as its a cost effective solution and dose not causes any intolerance in kids. Animal protein is sub-segmented as dairy protein, egg protein and gelatin. Dairy protein ingredient account for largest market share in forecast period in animal protein market. Dairy proteins are categorized as whey and casein. Among these categories whey protein market is expected to grow during forecast period. Furthermore, plant protein is sub-segmented into soy protein, wheat protein and other (pea). Among these sub-segments soy protein ingredient is contributing highest market share in terms of value and pea protein ingredient share is expected to grow at a moderate rate during forecast period.Request for sample report:Protein ingredient market is segmented on basis of application such as food and beverage, animal feed, pharmaceutical and other (cosmetics and personal care). Among these segments food and beverage is expected to grow at faster rate during forecast period. Food and beverage is sub-segmented as food, beverages and supplements. The supplement sub-segment is expected to grow at healthy CAGR during forecast period. Animal feed and cosmetics and personal care products are found to be emerging segments.Protein Ingredient Market: Region-wise OutlookProtein ingredient market is segmented on the basis of region includes North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific, Japan and Middle East and Africa. The protein ingredient market is expected to witness healthy CAGR by 2025 due to the rising demand for healthy and convenience food across the globe. North America contributes higher market share and expected to exhibit healthy CAGR during forecast period.Protein Ingredient Market: DriversIncreased demands for processed food and healthy food product is driving the protein ingredient market as, protein provides all essential amino acids. Growing application of protein ingredients in nutraceuticals, food and beverage, and health supplement is expected to fuel the market growth in the coming years. With the increasing number of health conscious consumers, growing number of fitness centers and health clubs, and rising demand for health supplements, energy drinks and processed foods is expected to fuel protein ingredients market. Consumers are looking for a great product with palatable taste, with high national value, so manufacture are investing on research and development of new products. For instance in 2013 PepsiCo has launched new protein rich product especially for women.Request for TOC:Protein Ingredient Market: Key PlayersThe key international players operating in Protein Ingredient Market includes Archer Daniels Midland Company, CHS Inc., Cargill, Incorporated, Arla Foods Ingredients Group P/S., Axiom Foods Inc., Kerry Group plc., Amco Proteins, and E. I. du Pont de Nemours and CompanyFuture 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.616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705T (UK): + 44 (0) 20 7692 8790Email:sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: Southeast Asia and India Seed Treatment Industry 2016 Key Market Solutions, Technology, Methods, Chemicals & Application http://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=840428&type=E http://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/southeast-asia-and-india-seed-treatment-market-report-2016.htm http://www.qyresearchreports.com/press-releases.htm http://www.qyresearchreports.com The latest study on the Southeast Asia and India Seed Treatment market presents to its readers analytical information pertaining to all macro and micro aspects governing its growth. The Seed Treatment market has been evaluated based on various economic factors, the present regulatory policies and conditions around the world, and the key regional and product segments. A detailed analysis of the value chain of the Seed Treatment market has also been included in the report.The publication offers data on the Seed Treatment market and is collated from various primary and secondary research sources, such as magazines, news reports, company websites, newsletters, proprietary databases, and brochures. The data has been gathered by industry experts and is supported by appropriate graphical representations. The accurate and updated nature of the information provided in the Seed Treatment market report as well as the reliable industry tools used to evaluate it makes this publication an ideal tool for all stakeholders in the Seed Treatment industry.Visit to Get a Free Sample Report Copy @This report studies sales (consumption) of Seed Treatment in Southeast Asia and India market, especially in Thailand, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and India, focuses on top players in these countries, with sales, price, revenue and market share for each player in these regions.Domestic and Southeast Asia and India factors that influence the Seed Treatment market during the course of the review period as well as the forecast period have been studied at length in this publication. The trajectory of the Seed Treatment market is mapped from 2016 to 2021, the forecast horizon of the report. Several analytical tools such as the Porters Five Forces analysis model, SWOT analysis, value chain assessment, and market attractiveness have been employed to assess the relative impact of the different dynamics on the Seed Treatment market in the aforementioned forecast period.The systematic examination of the Seed Treatment market is aimed at providing readers a birds eye view of the Southeast Asia and India market and help interested parties come up with the most successful, viable, and profitable strategies for expansion in the long term.Visit to Explore Full Report with TOC @Table of ContentsSoutheast Asia and India Seed Treatment Market Report 20161 Seed Treatment Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Seed Treatment1.2 Classification of Seed Treatment1.2.1 chemical seed treatment1.2.2 non-chemical seed treatment1.2.3 Type III1.3 Application of Seed Treatment1.3.1 Corn/maize seed treatment1.3.2 Soybean seed treatment1.3.3 Wheat seed treatment1.3.4 Rice seed treatment1.3.5 Cotton seed treatment1.3.6 Other crops1.4 Seed Treatment Market by Countries1.4.1 Indonesia Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.2 Thailand Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.3 Philippines Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.4 Malaysia Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.5 Singapore Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.6 Vietnam Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.7 India Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.5 Southeast Asia and India Market Size (Value and Volume) of Seed Treatment (2011-2021)1.5.1 Southeast Asia and India Seed Treatment Sales and Growth Rate (2011-2021)1.5.2 Southeast Asia and India Seed Treatment Revenue and Growth Rate (2011-2021)Latest Media Section @QYresearchreports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations.QYresearchreports1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-618-1030Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com Expanding at a healthy CAGR of 8.2%, Respiratory Monitoring Devices Market is predicted to achieve a value of US$2.79 bn in 2023 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/respiratory-monitoring-devices.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=1415 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=1415 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/ As described in a research report released by Transparency Market Research, the fragmented nature of the global respiratory monitoring devices market allows for a very high intensity of rivalry. This market is exceptionally dynamic as it is primarily controlled the rapid rate of technological development in the devices.The market for respiratory monitoring devices in major economic regions is more or less saturated due to the strong presence of multiple prominent players. As a result, the threat of new entrants is expected to remain moderate to low.The global market for respiratory monitoring devices is expected to expand at a CAGR of 8.2% in terms of revenue from 2015 to 2023. By the end of 2016, this revenue is expected to reach US$1.60 bn and US$2.79 bn by 2023.Read Full Report:Global Respiratory Monitoring Devices Market: SnapshotFactors at the forefront of driving the demand in the global respiratory monitoring devices market are the rising number of cigarette smokers and a worsening air quality on account of rampant pollution. Further, a burgeoning geriatric population highly susceptible to lung diseases has also pushed up the demand in the market. Countering its growth, however, are the steep prices of newer, sophisticated respiratory monitoring devices, particularly advanced spirometry devices. They are much more expensive than peak flow meters or even pulse oximeters. This has somewhat dampened the demand for improved products leveraging better technologies. Further, dearth of skilled personnel to install advanced respiratory monitoring devices is also creating a gap between demand and supply in the market.Expanding at a healthy CAGR of 8.2% from 2015 to 2023, the global market for respiratory monitoring devices is predicted to achieve a value of US$2.79 bn in 2023.Widespread Prevalence of Asthma and COPD makes North America Market LeaderThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) pegged chronic lower respiratory disease (COPD) as the third main cause of death in the U.S. in 2014. As per its findings, about 15.7 million people, which is about 6.4% of the nations population, were afflicted with COPD in 2014. Numbers were equally alarming for asthma cases. In fact, North America has the maximum cases of COPD and asthma and this has been the single-most important factor driving robust uptake of respiratory monitoring devices in the continent, thereby catapulting it to the leading position in the global market. The market in North America is slated to attain a value of US$266.0 mn by 2023.Download exclusive Sample of this report:Europe is another dominant market on account of the widespread prevalence of cystic fibrosis. Asia Pacific is proving to be a promising market too due to solid pace of development of healthcare and medical devices industries in the region. Other factors positively impacting its market are the strong economic growth in the densely populated countries of China and India, rising instances of respiratory illnesses, increasing government aid in healthcare development, and soaring popularity of medical tourism. The market in Asia Pacific is expected to register a healthy CAGR of 8.5% from 2015 to 2023.Hospitals Generate Maximum Revenue due to Better Respiratory Monitoring DevicesDepending upon end users, the global market for respiratory monitoring devices can be segmented into laboratories, hospitals, and home use. Among them, hospitals lead the market with maximum share. Going forward too, it is predicted to retain its dominant share by exhibiting a stellar CAGR of 8.3% from 2015 to 2023. In terms of revenue, hospitals are slated to attain a value of US$1.89 bn by 2023. This is because of the large number of patients opting for treatment in hospitals for different respiratory problems. The trend is most noticeable in developed countries where hospitals have advanced respiratory monitoring devices for diagnosing modern strains of respiratory diseases.Brochure Download:In terms of product, the market can be classified into peak flow meter, spirometer, capnograps, and pulse oximeters. The global market for respiratory monitoring devices is dominated by a few players who hold a sizeable chunk of the market share. A host of other smaller players compete with each for the remaining share. Some of the prominent names in the market are CareFusion Corporation, Smiths Medical, and ResMed, Inc. On account of the presence of both large and small players, the global respiratory monitoring devices market is highly competitive. This market is dynamic too as it is characterized by rapid technological development.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a U.S.-based provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Systemic Lupus Erythematous SLE Drugs Market Global Industry Analysis, Trends and Forecast, 2015-2025 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-1149 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-1149 www.futuremarketinsights.com Systemic Lupus Erythematous (SLE) is a chronic autoimmune disease which causes the immune system to mistakenly attack health body tissue. In SLE, body immune system can affect any part of the body, such as joints, organs, eyes, skin, etc. Often SLE can result in symptoms such as malar rash, discoid lesions, sub-acute cutaneous lesions, photosensitivity, oral ulcers, arthritis, serositis, nephropathy, neurologic involvement, thrombocytopenia, haemolytic anemia, fever, Raynauds phenomenon, livedo reticularis, thrombosis, and myositis. It is also known as a disease of flare-ups and remissions and can range from mild to life threatening severity. It is also called as drug-induced lupus erythematosus due to common observation against drugs such as isoniazid, hydralazine and procainamide. Currently, there is no complete treatment for SLE. While only two biologic agents have been approved by FDA to treat SLE, synthetic drugs are still the mainstay of therapy in SLE. Based on available evidence, azathioprine and mycophenolate mofetil are the drugs of first choice. Hydroxychloroquine should be considered an anchor drug in SLE because of the multiple beneficial effects of this agent.Systemic Lupus Erythematous (SLE) Drugs Market: Drivers & RestraintsGlobal Systemic Lupus Erythematous (SLE) Drugs market is projected to grow due to high prevalence of autoimmune diseases particularly systemic lupus erythematous (SLE). Major drivers for global systemic erythematous drugs market are development of novel SLE therapies, increasing availability of bio similar drugs and increasing support for emerging research areas for new drug molecules. At the same time, increasing awareness of disease diagnosis and treatment as well as consistent research and development processes for novel drug molecules are important drivers for global lupus erythematous market. Additionally, safety and quality of systemic lupus erythematous controlling therapy may possibly be a challenge for the growth of the global systemic lupus erythematous drugs market. Moreover, numerous public awareness programs targeted to increase awareness levels are also being accompanied. For instance, Lupus Foundation of America (LFA) has been implementing various projects to increase central support for SLE research and services to support people and families affected by SLE. However, serious side effectswith steroids, sensitivity with antibiotics, limited usage of Benlysta for severe SLE patients, and stringent regulatory approvals for new treatment options with better levels of efficacy and safety are obstructing the global systemic lupus erythematous drugs market.Request for sample report:Systemic Lupus Erythematous (SLE) Drugs Market: SegmentationThe global systemic lupus erythematous drugs market is classified on the basis of molecule and region.Based on type of molecule, the global systemic lupus erythematous drugs market is segmented into the following:CorticosteroidsPrednisoneCortisoneHydrocortisoneNon-Steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs)Over-the-counter NSAIDs includeIbuprofen (Motrin)Naproxen (Naprosyn)Prescription versions includeIndomethacin (Indocin)Nabumetone (RELAFEN)Celecoxib (Celebrex)Anti-InflammatoriesAspirinAcetaminophen (Tylenol)Disease-Modifying Anti-Rheumatic Drugs (DMARDs)Hydroxychloroquine (Plaquenil).Cyclosporine (Gengraf, Neoral, Sandimmune)Azathioprine (Azasan, Imuran)AntimalarialsChloroquine (Aralen)Hydroxychloroquine (Plaquenil)BLyS-specific Inhibitors or Monoclonal Antibodies (MAbS)Belimumab (Benlysta)Immunosuppressive Agents/Immune ModulatorsAzathioprine (Imuran)Methotrexate (Rheumatrex)Cyclophosphamide (Cytoxan)AnticoagulantsLow-dose aspirinHeparin (Calciparine, Liquaemin)Warfarin (Coumadin)Request for TOC:Systemic Lupus Erythematous (SLE) Drugs Market: OverviewGlobal systemic lupus erythematous drugs market growth is fast in North American region and is estimated to project remarkable CAGR growth throughout forecast period. In North America, the SLE is more prevalent among Hispanics, Asians, and Native Americans according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The second largest and fastest growing global systemic lupus erythematous drugs market is Europe and is projected to reach nearly US$ 550 Mn and register a double digit CAGR due to higher prevalence of SLE in Europe. Among the European countries Sweden, Iceland, Spain had the highest prevalence according to Lupus Journal article, published in 2006. A drug called hydroxychloroquine being the last drug was approved by FDA in 1955 for SLE treatment. Recently, a drug called belimumab has been approved by FDA after 50 years long gap specifically for SLE on March 9, 2011. It is the first ever targeted biological drug for the treatment of SLE patients developed by Human Genome Sciences Inc. in collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline. It will be the primary driver for global systemic lupus erythematous drugs market growth in the US, France, Germany, Italy Spain, the UK and Japan. Benlysta will lead market sales in coming years because of its excellent safety profile as well as proven efficacy in clinical trials. NSAIDS such as Ibuprofen and aspirin are widely prescribed drugs for suppressing symptoms of SLE. Immunosuppressants by Roche (CellCept (Mycophenolate mofetil), by Novartis (Neoral (Cyclosporine)), by GSK (Imuran (Azathioprine)) are also commonly prescribed for SLE treatment. Additionally, the entry of four first-in-class (FIC) biologics such as Bristol-Myers Squibbs Orencia (abatacept), atacicept, epratuzumab and LY2127399 are anticipated to show a major role in the expansion of the global systemic lupus erythematous drugs market.Systemic Lupus Erythematous (SLE) Drugs Market: Key PlayersThe global systemic lupus erythematous drugs market key players are Anthera Pharmaceuticals BMS, GSK, ImmuPharma, Merck Serono, UCB, Amgen, HGS, Immunomedics, Johnson and Johnson, MedImmune, Sanofi, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries.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.616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705T (UK): + 44 (0) 20 7692 8790Email:sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: Global Water Soluble Film Market to grow at a CAGR of 5.64% during Forecast period 2016-2020 http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=775794 http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=E&repid=775794 http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG Albany, NY, Jan 05: Water soluble films possess dimensional stability, reduced toxicity, have a high moisture and gas barrier, and are biodegradable, and easy to use. These advanced films are used to package goods like dyes, agrochemicals, laundry, electrical appliances, and linen bags. Agrochemical, water treatment chemicals, and detergent packages are key end-users of water soluble films.The global water soluble film market to grow at a CAGR of 5.64% during the period 2016-2020. The report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global water soluble film market for 2016-2020. The report also presents the vendor landscape and a corresponding detailed analysis of the top five vendors operating in the market.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:- APAC- Europe- North America- ROWGet a Sample Research PDF with TOC:Technavio's report, Global Water Soluble Film Market 2016-2020, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendors- Aicello- Arrow Coated Products- Kuraray- Sekisui Chemical- The Nippon Synthetic ChemicalOther prominent vendors- AMC- Amtrex Nature Care- Changzhou Water Soluble- Cinch Packaging Materials- Extra Packaging- HARKE Group- Huntingdon Fusion Techniques- INFHIDRO- KK NonWovens- Neptun Technologies- Noble Industries- Soluble Technology- Soluclean- Yongan SYFEnquiry at:Key questions answered in this report- What will the market size be in 2020 and what will the growth rate be?- What are the key market trends?- What is driving this market?- What are the challenges to market growth?- Who are the key vendors in this market space?- What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors?- What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?ResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMozs service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-621-2074Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn at: Embedded System Market Industry Analysis, Trend and Growth, 2016-2026 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-1510 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-1510 www.futuremarketinsights.com An embedded system consists of embedded software into computer-hardware that makes the system devoted for an application or specific portion of an application or part of a larger system. An embedded system is not a microchip deployed in a traditional computing application, but a microprocessor used as a module in another piece of technology. These systems are used to control, assist or monitor the operation of machinery, equipment or plant. The term embedded reflects the fact that they are an integral part of the system, and they offer significant characteristics such as speed, accuracy, size, reliability and adaptability. Automation in processing & manufacturing sectors, and energy metering is seen as a major propeller for embedded system industry growth.Embedded System Market: SegmentationEmbedded system market is segmented on the basis of type, microcontroller performance, functionality, end-use industry and region. By type, embedded system market can be segmented into embedded hardware and embedded software. Embedded system market can be segmented according to microcontroller performance which includes small scale embedded system, medium scale embedded system and large scale embedded system. On the basis of functionality, embedded system market can be segmented into stand-alone embedded system, real time embedded system, mobile embedded system and networked embedded system. Regionally, embedded system market can be segmented into North America, Western Europe, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Middle East & Africa (MEA), Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) and Japan.Request for sample report:Embedded System Market: Regional OutlookEmbedded systems came into existence with the invention of microcontrollers and since then it is being actively used in machine control applications as well as various new verticals. These systems are now equipped with customizable rich features and are thus gaining popularity globally. North America is estimated to be the leading contributor to the regional market share with large deployments of smart meters and smart grids positively impacting the market. Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) is anticipated to show highest growth potential in the forecast period.Embedded System Market: DriversThe global embedded system market is primarily driven by factors such as increasing demand for embedded systems with multi-core technologies and embedded graphics and escalating demand for embedded systems in the automobile industry. Moreover, persistent research & development to introduce smarter and energy efficient electronic devices is expected to positively impact the growth of global embedded systems market. Also, widespread application of these systems in application areas such as automotive, aeronautics, space, rail, mobile communication, and electronic payment solutions is set to bolster the growth of the global embedded system market during the forecast period. However, security and smaller lifespan concerns associated with usage of embedded systems in various process-related applications is restraining the growth of this market. Also, design constraints pertaining to real time embedded system are also hindering the progression of embedded system market.Request for TOC:Embedded System Market: Key PlayersThe key vendors in the embedded system market include Atmel Corporation, Intel Corporation, Texas Instruments, Freescale Semiconductor, Infineon Technologies, NXP Semiconductors N.V., Microsoft Corporation, Samsung Electronics Corporation, Renesas Electronics Corporation, and others. Major players in the embedded system market have invested significantly in developing systems that offer latest technology-based advanced functionality. To expand market presence across the globe, strategic partnership and collaborations with regional vendors is major strategy adopted by the leading vendors of the embedded system market.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.616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705T (UK): + 44 (0) 20 7692 8790Email:sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: Forecast On Low Rolling Resistance (LRR) Tire Market Global Industry Analysis and Trends till 2026 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-1533 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-1533 www.futuremarketinsights.com Tires are considered as an important factor to improve the vehicle efficiency and reduce overall fuel consumption. According to International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), it is estimated that improvements in tire energy efficiency could reduce the fuel consumption by 3 to 5% and greenhouse gas emissions by 100 million metric tons annually, across all existing passenger vehicle fleets. In the quest for increasing fuel efficiency and gas mileage, automotive manufacturers are pushing tire makers to develop LRR tires, which have shown improvements in increasing fuel economy in recent years. While LRR tires are frequently used for hybrid cars, mainstream vehicles are expected to gain traction for LRR tires over the forecast period. Tire and automotive manufacturers globally have strived to increase fuel efficiency in recent years by equipping automobiles with LRR tires.Low Rolling Resistance(LRR) Tire Market: Drivers & RestraintsThe main factors driving the demand for LRR tires, is their ability to save significant amount of fuel when compared to tires that are not designed for LRR. It has been estimated by the automotive industry that a 10% increase in the tire rolling resistance will result in about 1.5% decrease in the vehicle fuel economy. More and more fleets every year are recognizing the benefits of LRR tires which represent a good investment for dealing with fuel economy, thus accelerating the demand of global LRR tires throughout the forecast period. Moreover, government regulations, stringent emission and safety norms globally is anticipated to fuel the demand of LRR tire market over the forecast period (2016 2026).The fact that the cost to operate LRR tires is relatively higher as compared to other tires which do not have low rolling resistance technology, is one of the factors inhibiting the growth of LRR tires market globally. Increasing adoption of LRR tires by commercial vehicles such as on highway truck fleets in last two years, is one key trend observed in global LRR tire market.Request for sample report:Global Low Rolling Resistance (LRR) Tire Market: SegmentationOn the basis of vehicle type, the global LRR tire market is segmented into,Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV)Heavy Commercial Vehicle (HCV)Passenger VehicleOn the basis of configuration, the global LRR tire market is segmented intoDual tireWide-baseOn the basis of sales channel type, the global LRR tire market is segmented intoOEMAftermarketGlobal Low Rolling Resistance (LRR) Tire Market: Regional OutlookIn terms of geography, the global LRR tire market has been divided in to seven key regions including North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan, Middle East & Africa and Japan.The global LRR tire market is expected to register healthy CAGR during the forecast period. North America is anticipated to be the dominant market for LRR market followed by Europe and Asia Pacific. Factors such as adoption of safety regulations by government agencies along with an increase in vehicle sales and safety installations per vehicle, are fuelling the demand for LRR market globally.Request for TOC:Global Low Rolling Resistance (LRR) Tire Market: Key PlayersSome of the market participants in the global LRR tire market are Apollo Tyres Ltd, Bridgestone Corporation, Continental AG, Michelin, Maxxis International, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, Pirelli & C.SpA, Yokohama Rubber Company and Sumitomo CorporationMajor automotive companies are now introducing new vehicles with LRR tires and that more than 50% of new vehicles will have LRR tires by the end of 2020. For instance, in 2015, Nissan Motor Company Ltd had introduced its Nissan Murano crossover with LRR tires, and was one of the key features to its marketing strategy.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.616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705T (UK): + 44 (0) 20 7692 8790Email:sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: With a steady CAGR of 10.0%, Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) Market will be worth US$960.8 mn by 2023 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/cone-beam-computed-tomography-market.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=10508 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/ Cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) is widely used in dentistry and maxillofacial surgery due to its benefits over traditional techniques. Cone beam CT (CBCT) systems have many advantages over conventional CT for dental treatment and planning, such as lower radiation dose to patients in most cases, smaller acquisition times for the resolution needed in dentistry, a reasonable alternative to CT in terms of cost, and improved resolution with more details. A CBCT scanner extracts high-resolution images for one-tenth of the cost and an element of the radiation compared to conventional CT scanner.The trend in the global cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) indicates that players must invest in developing countries to cater to consumers unmet medical demands and attain bigger revenue shares, says Transparency Market Research in a new report. Danaher, Planmeca, and Sirona jointly held a massive share of 70% in the global market in 2015.Analysts have identified Asia Pacific as the most promising region for growth in the coming few years. Furthermore, leading players are also focusing on strategic mergers and acquisitions to expand their product portfolio and their access to the customers.Read Full Report:Rising Pool of Geriatrics to Determine Market GrowthStatistics published by the United Nations Population Division in 2013 suggested that the aging population is anticipated to reach 2 billion by the end of 2050 from 841 million in 2013. This whopping rise is likely to be the basic premise ushering in a new wave of growth for the CBCT technologies across the globe. The dental complications of the aged people are going to increase the demand for sophisticated imaging techniques in dentistry, thereby propelling the revenues earned by these technologies in the coming few years. This growth will also be complemented by factors such as the need for effectiveness in medical interventions and result-oriented research and development activities.Heavy Excise Duties Hamper MarketThe tough excise duty imposed on the sale of medical devices across the U.S. is an unfair constraint for the CBCT market. The high cost of utilizing this technology is also holding back several institutes and healthcare centers to use CBCT technologies. TMR analyst says, The adamancy to stick with conventional methods instead of adopting new-age technologies is also hampering the growth of the CBCT technologies across the world.Developing Nations Open Up Growth OptionsAnalysts predict that strengthening economies of Mexico, Brazil, China, and India will offer a score of opportunities to the overall CBCT market to grow in the near future. Furthermore, the increasing healthcare expenditure of these countries is also going to play a major role in the surge of this market. The improving disposable incomes of Asia Pacific are also going to contribute generously to the CBCT market in the coming years.Download exclusive Sample of this report:The report published by Transparency Market Research states that the opportunity in the global CBCT market will be worth US$ 960.8 mn by the end of 2023. As of 2014, the market was valued at US$407.5 mn. However, the market will expand at a CAGR of 10.0% between 2015 and 2023. The report also suggests that oral surgery will be fastest-growing application segment promoting the use of CBCT technology. As of 2015, this application segment held a share of 26.4% in the overall market. Regionally, North America held a share of 41.4% in the total of CBCT market in 2015. The soaring demand for dental procedures is expected to keep this region as the leading geographical segment in the coming years.The review of the global CBCT market is based on the findings of TMR research report, titled Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) Market: Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 2015 2023.The global CBCT market has been segmented as follows:Global CBCT Market, by ApplicationCBCT in Dental ImplantCBCT in OrthodonticsCBCT in Oral SurgeryCBCT in EndodonticsCBCT in General Dental SurgeryGlobal CBCT Market, by GeographyIntroductionNorth AmericaU.S.CanadaEuropeGermanyFranceU.K.Rest of EuropeAsia PacificChinaJapanAustraliaTurkeyIranIndonesiaRest of Asia PacificLatin AmericaBrazilMexicoColumbiaArgentinaRest of Latin AmericaRest of the WorldRussiaMiddle East & AfricaTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a U.S.-based provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Exhibiting a robust 7.30% CAGR, Blood Pressure Monitoring Devices Market will reach US$3.8 bn by 2023 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/blood-pressure-monitoring-market.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=1630 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/ The report studies detailed qualitative analysis of the market dynamics that affect the growth of the global blood pressure monitoring devices market. Factors responsible for driving and restraining the growth of the global blood pressure monitoring devices market and future opportunities has been provided in the market overview section. This section of the report also provides comprehensive market comparative analysis and market attractiveness analysis for the global blood pressure monitoring devices market by geography for the base year, Porters Five Forces analysis, and market share analysis by key players (%) for the base year, operating in the blood pressure monitoring devices market. The report also encompasses detailed pricing analysis and strategy analysis by market leader for the global blood pressure monitoring devices market.Global Blood Pressure Monitoring Devices Market: SnapshotThe demand for blood pressure monitoring devices has taken off with the emergence of home care. Blood pressure monitoring can usually be carried out in a competent manner by the patient or their relatives, removing the need for hospitalization and constant monitoring. This has led to a growing demand for blood pressure monitoring devices for use in cases where the patient has a low risk of complications and is thus not hospitalized.Read Full Report:The global blood pressure monitoring devices market was valued at more than US$2 bn in 2014. Exhibiting a robust 7.30% CAGR from 2015 to 2023, the market is expected to almost double in valuation, with a valuation of US$3.8 bn expected by 2023.One of the key drivers for the global blood pressure monitoring devices are the consistent product advancement efforts made by key companies in the market. The strong R&D avenues of the blood pressure monitoring devices industry have resulted in widespread adoption of the devices due to increased patient confidence. The growing geriatric population across the world has also boosted the demand for home care involving blood pressure monitoring devices, since the elderly are more likely to suffer from long-term cardiovascular conditions requiring constant monitoring.Rising Demand from APAC Threatens Dominance of North America Blood Pressure Monitoring Devices MarketNorth America is the leading contributor to the global blood pressure monitoring devices market, with the regions share calculated at close to 33% in 2014. While North America is likely to retain its dominant position in the global scenario in the coming years, the emergence of Asia Pacific as a lucrative investment destination is likely to lead to many Western medical devices manufacturers making significant inroads into the APAC market in the coming years. Asia Pacific is thus expected to become a close contender to the North America market for blood pressure monitoring devices in the coming years, with the two expected to hold near-equal market shares by 2023.Download exclusive Sample of this report:Rising Utilization of Blood Pressure Monitoring Kiosks Favors Global MarketBy end use, the home care segment accounted for the leading share in the global blood pressure monitoring devices market in 2014. The US$911.8-mn valuation of the home-based blood pressure monitoring devices market in 2014 was twice that of the other key contributor to the market hospitals. While home care is likely to exhibit a strong CAGR in the 2015-2023 forecast period and remain the leading contributor to the blood pressure monitoring devices market, the growing popularity of blood pressure monitoring kiosks in developed nations presents significant promise for the global blood pressure monitoring devices market.Blood pressure monitoring kiosks have become common in developed countries, notwithstanding the concerns raised about the use of a standard-sized cuff, which can alter the blood pressure readings for patients whose arms dont fit the cuff. The demand for blood pressure monitoring devices in kiosks is expected to exhibit a formidable growth rate in the coming years, and is likely to benefit from the steady expansion of blood pressure monitoring kiosk infrastructure in developed countries. The kiosks segment of the blood pressure monitoring devices market is expected to exhibit a robust 10.30% CAGR from 2015 to 2023.In terms of competitive dynamics, the global blood pressure monitoring devices market is reasonably consolidated, with the top five companies likely to account for more than 50% of the market through the forecast period. Omron Healthcare, Welch Allyn, and Panasonic Corporation are among the key players in the global blood pressure monitoring devices market.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a U.S.-based provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) Market is expected to expand at a positive CAGR of 7.4% during the period 2015 - 2023 http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=224919 http://www.researchmoz.us/ict-market-reports-96.html http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG http://deep-research-report.blogspot.com/ ResearchMoz added Latest Research Report titled " Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) Market is expected to expand at a positive CAGR of 7.4% during the period 2015 - 2023 " to it's Large Report database.Global Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) Market: SnapshotA highly positive short-term driver for mobile virtual network operators is the displacement of excess bandwidth by 3G telecom operators into MNO and MVNO for leverage. A lot of 3G bandwidth is going unused in developed economies, which can be easily rented out to mobile virtual network operators. The operators can use this to boost their revenue generation and add better customized services. This is currently working because most mobile virtual network operators do not require 4G/LTE internet access for gauging consumer parameters and to perform setups, which still are essential to an MVNOs function.The governments of several nations have also stepped in to show their support to MVNOs for maintaining a more efficient use of the current bandwidths that are available. The European Commission has played a key part in the formation of several milestone MNO and MVNO mergers. MNOs, through the growing use of MVNOs, are gaining large numbers of virtual customers. This is consequently helping MNOs reduce the overall cost of customer acquisition by reducing the required promotional and marketing programs.Request for Sample PDF of Premium Research Report with TOC:This, however, can be a double-edged sword for MNOs that are not particularly welcoming of the changes that MVNOs are bringing. There is a strong chance for MVNOs to cannibalize MNO business, which the latter will definitely see as a key threat over the coming years.With all the above factors in the equation, the global market for mobile virtual network operators is expected to expand at a positive CAGR of 7.4% in terms of revenue, from 2015 to 2023. This revenue is expected to reach US$45.86 bn by the end of 2016 and US$75.25 bn by the end of 2023.Europe Trumps Implementation Rate of Mobile Virtual NetworksEurope is expected to remain the leading region for the use of mobile virtual networks, due to the large-scale implementation of MVNOs in Western Europe. This region is showing a steep incline in the competitive sense along with a highly positive support system established by the regions governing bodies. The practices by MVNOs in Western Europe are quickly being adopted in Eastern Europe, which is showing a speedy rate of development and incorporation of mobile virtual networks. Compared to other regions, the market for mobile virtual network operators in Europe is already saturated. The high level of competition in this region is resulting in the reduction of ARPU and many companies are attempting to differentiate themselves by offering unique data-related services or value-added services.North America follows in second place in terms of MVNO adoption. This region offers a great infrastructure of high-speed 4G networks that a lot of internet players are using to turn into MVNOs. This allows them to generate greater profits.Read All ICT Market Research Reports @Table of Content1. Preface1.1. Report Description1.2. Market Segmentation1.3. Research Methodology2. Executive Summary2.1. Global Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) Market Snapshot2.2. Global Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) Market Revenue, 2013 2023 (US$ Mn) and Year-on-Year Growth (%)3. Global Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) Market Analysis, 2013 2023 (US$ Mn)3.1. Key Trends Analysis3.2. Market Dynamics3.2.1. Drivers3.2.2. Restraints3.2.3. Opportunities3.3. Global Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) Market Analysis, By Operational Model, 2013 2023 (US$ Mn)3.3.1. Reseller MVNO3.3.2. Service Operator MVNO3.3.3. Full MVNO3.4. Global Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) Market Analysis, By Type, 2013 2023 (US$ Mn)3.4.1. Business3.4.2. Discount3.4.3. M2M3.4.4. Media3.4.5. MigrantAbout ResearchMozResearchMoz is the world's fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMoz's service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Contact Us:Mr. Nachiket Ghumare90 State Street, Albany NY, United States - 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074 / Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn at:Follow me on Blogger at: Legal Marijuana Market Size Driving Industry Demands (Medical & Recreational) With Focus On US & Canada: Industry Analysis (2016-2020) http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/sample/883529 Cannabis, also known as marijuana, belongs to a family of plants called Cannabaceae. There are over 700 varieties of cannabis, which have been described till date. Based on characteristics such as shape, color, height, smell, it is usually recognized by two main types: Cannabis Sativa, which originated in the Western hemisphere and Cannabis Indica, which originated in Central and South Asia.The report Marijuana Market provides an in-depth analysis of the US and Canada market on the basis of its segments. The major trends, growth drivers as well as issues being faced by the industry are being presented in this report. The key players in the industry, American Cannabis Company, mCig, Inc., GreenGro Technologies, Inc. and Mentor Capital Inc. are being profiled.The key factors driving the growth of the marijuana/cannabis market are technological advancement, premium pricing due to high energy consumption in marijuana production, rising social acceptance of marijuana and growing business opportunities, increasing business sophistication, large base of potential cannabis consumers, medical cannabis on the rise, growing popular support in cannabis market and the growth of the vaporizer industry. Some of the noteworthy trends and developments of this industry are national expansion & brand growth, emergence of large grow, banking & financial services, cannabis as healthcare treatment and innovative product development. However, the expansion of marijuana/cannabis market is hindered by legal issues.Download Sample Copy Of This Report:In addition to the legalization of medical marijuana, there are states which have also legalized the recreational use of this drug for adults who are 21 years old or older. So far, four states as well as the District of Columbia have legalized recreational marijuana use, and 23 states allow marijuana use for medical purposes. These changes in state laws have helped the growth of the cannabis industry. The new and revised laws show that people are finally starting to realize that this drug can have legitimate uses.MarketResearchReports.biz supports your business intelligence needs with over 100,000 market research reports, company profiles, data books, and regional market data sheets in its repository. Our document database is updated by the hour, which means that you always have access to fresh data spanning over 300 industries and their sub-segments.State Tower90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948(USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz Commercial Refrigeration Equipment Market - Reporting And Evaluation Of Recent Industry Developments http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=723 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/commercial-refrigeration-equipment-market.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Commercial Refrigeration Equipment Market: SnapshotThe rate of international food trade has picked up speed over the past decades, giving rise to larger volumes of trading in horticulture, processed foods, and seafood. Supplying the proper methods to transport these highly perishable foods and beverages are the manufacturers of commercial refrigeration equipment, thus gaining a higher ground in terms of market growth rate. The promise of growth appears to remain strong over the coming years owing to the growing demand by consumers for food from across the world. There has, for instance, been a significant increase in production rates of aquaculture from Peru and seafood in India, Indonesia, and China due to a growing global demand. This high demand forms the primary driver that commercial refrigeration equipment makers can look forward to.Commercial refrigeration, however, has to compete against the growing scope of alternative cooling solutions, such as temperature-controlled packaging. Most of these alternatives can provide effective cooling solutions that can be availed in many sizes and shapes, thereby causing the usually large area taken up by commercial refrigeration equipment seem more cumbersome.PDF Sample For Technological breakthroughs is @The overall global market for commercial refrigeration equipment is expected to progress at a CAGR of 9.1% from 2015 to 2022. By the end of 2016, this revenue is expected to reach US$ 39.44 bn, and by 2022 is expected to reach a valuation of US$66.88 bn.commercial-refrigeration-equipment-marketMassive Horticulture and Seafood Demand from APAC Boosts Commercial Refrigeration NeedsAsia Pacific, the region that holds the leading food industry in the world, is a key target for most globally prominent commercial refrigeration equipment manufacturers. The fact that economies in this region are also emerging and progressing at a strong pace adds to the demand for food within the region itself, further boosting the need for commercial refrigeration. Additionally, the rising consumer trends based on growing disposable incomes is fuelling the demand for a greater rate of international food and horticulture trading.North America is another major consumer of foods that require commercial refrigeration. One of the key reasons for this is the promotional work done by the AFFI to increase the consumption of frozen foods in the U.S. North America has a greater proportion of imports over exports of foods, including meat. While this is an advantage for many commercial refrigeration equipment makers, the recent changes in government regulations that will steadily replace older refrigeration systems with modern, greener units are something that each concerned player needs to look out for.Food Service Industry Demand for Commercial Refrigeration Equipment ImprovesHotels, restaurants, and the massive chain of transportation and storage that they use for food and beverages constitutes the leading application for commercial refrigeration equipment. Freezers, refrigerators, ice machines, refrigerated display cases, and beverage refrigeration equipment are in very high demand across the global food service industry. With equipment such as beverage refrigeration equipment being required by practically every food service avenue, manufacturers of commercial refrigeration equipment also focus on development of components to improve efficiency and reduce space taken.The key providers of commercial refrigeration equipment in the world currently include Daikin Industries, Ltd. United Technologies Corporation Unit (Carrier), Dover Corporation, Illinois Tool Works Inc., Hussmann Corporation, Metalfrio Solutions SA, and Beverage-Air Corporation (Ali S.p.A).Market Insight can be Viewed @Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a global 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.Transparency Market Research90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Automotive Transmission Market - A Complete Backdrop Analysis, Which Includes An Assessment Of The Parent Market http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=6958 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/automotive-transmission-market.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Demand for Smoother Driving Experience Fuels Automotive Transmission MarketThe growing demand for automatic transmission in entry-level vehicles in developing countries is boosting the global automatic transmission market. The adoption of advanced automotive transmission is witnessing a remarkable uptake as drivers prefer a smooth driving experience on congested roads due to poorly managed traffic. Additionally, the fuel efficiency brought about by technologically-advanced automotive transmission systems is also bolstering the markets growth. The introduction of 9-speed automatic transmission has completely revolutionized the scenario global automotive transmission market; its impact will continue to be felt in the short term.According to a research report published by Transparency Market Research, the global automotive transmission market is expected to be worth US$181.8 mn by 2021 growing steadily from US$119.7 mn in 2014, as the market exhibits a CAGR of 5.9% from 2015 to 2021. The growing pressure from governments across the globe to cut down carbon emissions is also prompting consumers to purchase vehicles with improved automotive transmission as they render improved fuel efficiency. The emergence of continuous variable transmission (CVT) will open up new growth avenues for the global market as drivers will prefer the convenience of shifting gears without any jerks or difficult clutch-brake operation. This technology will also reduce the number of times the driver will have to shift gears, thus making it a preferred choice in the near future.Asia Pacific Marks its Dominance as Vehicle Sales Show Steep GrowthThe report suggests that Asia Pacific has a strong foothold in the automotive transmission market with Japan dominating the luxury car segment, while India presenting a phenomenal scope for growth across all vehicle segments. The Asia Pacific segment is expected to rise at CAGR of 6.6% between 2015 and 2021 with rapid infrastructural developments that require a strong support from all types of vehicles to speed up construction activities.PDF Sample For Technological breakthroughs is @Additionally, a growing business class across China and India with higher disposable income are also boosting the automotive transmission market in Asia Pacific. This region will make a significant contribution to the passenger car segment as the majority of consumers are opting for advanced transmission that delivers reduced fuel consumption and driving comfort.Automatic Transmission Poised to be the Technology of ChoiceThe types of automotive transmission can be divided into manual and automatic. Currently manual transmission dominates the global market; however, automatic is estimated to be the emerging technology during the forecast period. Analysts predict that the automatic transmission segment will expand at a CAGR of 6.9% between 2015 and 2021. Improvements in the driving experience, added comfort, and convenience on congested roads, are fueling the demand for automatic transmission. Moreover, the added benefit of fuel efficiency is expected to tip the scales in favor of automatic automotive transmission in the years ahead.The growing demand for an automatic transmission in small car segment is yet another reason propelling this type segment. Owing to these reasons, the opportunity in the automatic transmission segment will be worth US$71.2 mn by 2021.Market Insight can be Viewed @BorgWarner Inc., Continental AG, ZF Friedrichshafen, Aisin SEIKI Co. Ltd., Allison Transmission, and GKN PLC are the key players in the global automotive transmission market. Players will focus on investing in research and development activities to develop advanced automotive transmission systems that deliver never-seen-before fuel-efficiency and driving experience.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a global 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.Transparency Market Research90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Global Sintering Process Market Key Trends by 2020 http://bit.ly/2hVVkvr http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sintering-process-market.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com https://tmrresearch.blogspot.com/ According to a new research report by Transparency market Research (TMR), the global market for sintering processes is expected to gain a substantial impetus in the forthcoming years. The study, titled Sintering Process Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 20142020, further states that the phenomenal expansion in the powder metallurgy industry across the world is the key factor driving the growth of this market.Although the growth prospects of the global market for sintering processes looks flourishing, the growing concerns over the perilous effect caused by these processes are likely to impede the growth rate over the next few years. However, technological advancements in the field of sintering are expected to expand its application base to a number of end-use industries, notes the study.Request a PDF Brochure with Report Analysis:On the geographical front, Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, and the Rest of the World have been recognized as the predominant segments of the worldwide market for sintering processes. Asia Pacific, among these, has acquired the leading position in the global market due to the substantial rise in the construction and automotive industries. The upswing in the demand for sintering from China, India, and Indonesia is likely to drive this regional market further to great extents in the near future, states the research report.On the other hand, Europe and North America are projected to witness a steep decline in their respective markets for sintering processes, owing to the stringent norms and policies put forth by the governments in order to control the harm caused by sintering processes to the environment through various hazardous emissions. In addition to this, the swift industrial, as well as technological, developments are projected to offer lucrative opportunities for the growth of the market for sintering processes in this region over the next few years, reports the study.The competitive landscape of the global market for sintering processes has also been evaluated in this research report. With only two leading players, namely, Pacific Sintered Metals and GKN Sinter Metals, this market demonstrates a highly consolidated landscape, finds the report.Researchers have reviewed the profiles of the leading market players thoroughly and have also studied the historical performance and the future prospects of each of the participants in order to identify the existing hierarchy in this market. For sustenance, the key companies operating in this market mostly rely on innovation and advancements in technologies. However, their focus has begun to shift towards partnerships, mergers, and acquisitions for business expansion across geographies.Browse Full Research Report on Sintering Process Market:About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Browse market research blog: Military Helicopter Seats Market: Positive Long Term Growth Expected by 2016 - 2024 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=16565 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com The demand for military helicopter seats is increasing due to rising demand of military helicopters and it is likely to witness high growth due to several reasons such as increasing threats from terrorism and extremism among others.Based on product types, the military helicopter seats market is segmented into ejection seats, crashworthy seats and others. In 2015, the ejection seat segment anticipated to be the major market and anticipated to be the same during the forecast period of 2016 2024. The major factor boosting the demand of the market is increasing use of military helicopter in developing regions such as Asia Pacific, South America and Middle East and Africa. Some of the other factors boosting the demand are the raise in the fleet of helicopters.PDF Brochure Download atBased on the various maintenance types, the military helicopter seats market is segmented into airframe maintenance, field maintenance, engine maintenance, component maintenance and others. In 2015, the component maintenance segment expected to be the most important market and anticipated to be the same during the forecast period. Component segment includes maintenance of foams & fittings, seat actuators and among others. These are very important components of military helicopters seat and should be maintained according to the standards set by European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). In 2015, the field maintenance and repair market is highly influenced by the growing orders of military helicopters from developing regions. For instance, in 2015, Korean Aerospace Industries to build up next generation light civil helicopter and light-armed helicopter and South Korea awarded a contract to airbus helicopters.Based on the various component types, the military helicopter seats market is segmented into foams & fittings, seat actuators and others. Among different types of components, seat actuator is anticipated to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period of 2016 2024, due to rise in the designed seats from the actuators. The others segment accounted for highest share in 2015 and expected to be the same during the forecast period of 2016 2020 which includes metals, thermoplastics, plastics and fibres among others.Based on the regions, the military helicopter seats market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, South America and Middle East and Africa. North America holds the major market share followed by Europe. In addition, Europe is the second largest market for military helicopter seats market followed by Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa and South America. The U.S. is the key contributors to the military helicopter seats market in North America. Military helicopter seats is high in North America is due to concentrated funding for military helicopter procurement will positively affect growth in the maintenance market. Asia Pacific is anticipated to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period of 2016 2024. The demand for military helicopter seats is increasing in developing countries such as India, China and Japan among others due to border problems among countries such as China and India and India and Pakistan among others. One of the major factors fueling the market for military helicopter seats market is Brazilian Army is investing enormous amounts for advancing its military.Some of the important players in the military helicopter seats market include are ORO Manufacturing Company (Carolina), B/E Aerospace, Inc. (U.S.), Recaro Aircraft Seating GmbH & Co. KG (Germany) and Zodiac Aerospace (France),). These top players are aiming to penetrate increasing economies and are adopting various methods to drive their market share. Some of the others players are Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. (United States), Thompson Aero Seating Ltd. (U.K.) and Aircraft Seating (U.K.), Acro Aircraft Seating Ltd.( United Kingdom), HAECO Americas (United States), Stelia Aerospace (France), Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. (Israel) and Martin Baker (United Kingdom) 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. 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: Polyolefin Market worth $300 Billion by 2022 at CAGR of 7% Polyolefin Market Research Report https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample-request/global-polyolefin-market-research-report-forecast-to-2022 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/global-polyolefin-market-research-report-forecast-to-2022 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/global-agricultural-films-market-research-report-forecast-to-2022 Market research future published a half cooked research report on Global Polyolefin Market. The global market for global polyolefin market is expected to grow over the CAGR of around 7% during the period 2016 to 2022.Market HighlightsThe Global Polyolefin Market is expected to cross USD 300 Billion mark at the end of the forecasted period and is expected to show a staggering growth at CAGR of approximately 7% from 2016 to 2022.The Global Polyolefin Market is driven by the increasing demand for eco-friendly packaging and ease of availability of raw materials in emerging nations. The increasing awareness among the consumers on recyclable products, increasing greenhouse emissions and eco-friendly packaging in the day to day consumer goods has led to the growth of the market globally.Request a Sample Copy @Key PlayersThe key players of Global Polyolefin Market report include- BASF SE, The Dow Chemical Co. E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, Formosa Plastics Corporation, Sinopec Corporation, LyondellBasell Industries Holdings B.V. ExxonMobil Corporation, China National Petroleum Corporation SABIC, Braskem S.A. Total S.A. Ineos Group AG Arkema S.A.Today the consumption has gone for finished plastics in all applications such as packaging, industrial and automotive. The production of polyolefin was valued above 135 million tons in 2015 and is expected to trend similarly and cross 180 million toes by the end of 2022.Ask for your specific company profile and country level customization on reportsTarget Audience Manufactures Raw material Suppliers Aftermarket suppliers Research Institute / Education Institute Potential Investors Key executive (CEO and COO) and strategy growth managerAPAC will be the fastest growing marketBrowse full report with detail TOC @Table of Content1 Executive Summary2 Scope of the Report2.1 Market Definition2.2 Scope Of The Study2.3 Markets Structure3 Market Research Methodology3.1 Research Process3.2 Secondary Research3.3 Primary Research3.4 Forecast Model4 Market Landscape4.1 Five Forces Analysis4.2 Value Chain of Global Polyolefin Market5 Industry Overview of Global PolyolefinContinuedList of TablesTable 1 World Population By Major Regions (2015 To 2030) (Million)Table 2 Global Polyolefin Market: By Region, 2014-2022 (Usd Million)Table 3 Global Polyolefin Market: By Region, 2014-2022 (Kt)Table 4 North America Global Polyolefin Market: By Country, 2014-2022 (Usd Million)Table 5 Europe Global Polyolefin Market: By Country, 2014-2022 (Usd Million)Continued..List of FiguresFigure 1 Global Polyolefin Market SegmentationFigure 2 Forecast MethodologyFigure 3 Five Forces Analysis Of Global Polyolefin MarketFigure 4 Value Chain Of Global Polyolefin MarketFigure 5 Share Of Global Polyolefin Market In 2014, By Country (In %)Continued.Related ReportGlobal Agricultural Films Market Information by Material (LDPE, LLDPE, HDPE, EVA/EBA, Reclaims, and Others), by Application (Greenhouse Films, Mulching Films, Silage Films, and others) and Region - Forecast to 2022.Know more about this report @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com Building Information Modelling Market Increasing Demands In Australia, New Zealand And India Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, And Forecast 2016 - 2024 http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/sample/905062 Australia, New Zealand and India Building Information Modeling (BIM) Market: Report ScopeThe Building Information Modeling (BIM) market report provides an in-depth analysis of the BIM market for the period 2014 2024, wherein 2015 is the base year and the years from 2016 to 2024 is the forecast period. Data for 2014 has been included as historical information. The report covers all the prevalent trends playing a major role in the growth of the BIM market over the forecast period. It also highlights various drivers, restraints, and opportunities expected to influence the markets growth during the forecast period. The study provides a holistic perspective on market growth in terms of revenue estimates (in US$ Mn), across the countries. The report provides analysis of the BIM market in terms of market estimates and projections for all the segments across country. The report also covers profiles of major players, their growth strategies, various recent developments, and includes market positioning analysis of key players operating in the BIM market.Australia, New Zealand and India Building Information Modeling (BIM) Market: OverviewBuilding information modeling (BIM) is a three-dimensional (3D) graphical presentation of a technical diagram which includes the elevation, plan, and segment of a building. It is a type of digital building system in which the real model of the structure with precise value is digitally constructed. The BIM market is expected to experience high growth in the coming decade owing to factors such as rise in construction activities and government initiatives to lift BIM adoption rate in these countries.Download Sample Copy Of This Report:Australia, New Zealand and India Building Information Modeling (BIM) Market: SegmentationThis research study on the BIM market provides a detailed analysis of various solution types of building information modeling available in the market. Based on solutions, the market is further segmented into software, and professional & consultancy service. The software BIM market is further categorized into on-premise and cloud-based. Based on end-use industry, the BIM market is categorized into water and waste water, rail, transit and aviation, bridges, roads and highways, energy generation facilities, educational institutions and commercial spaces, houses and apartments, factories and warehouses, government buildings, health care infrastructure and dams and others. On the basis of end-users, the market is segmented into engineers, architects, contractors and developers. The report includes a comprehensive coverage of the underlying economic development factors under the key trend analysis section. To depict holistic view of the BIM market, value-chain analysis and ecosystem analysis is included in the report. The section describes current supply chain model and potential impact of forward backward integration.The report aims to provide a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the BIM market across different countries, which is also provided based on solutions, end-use industries, and the end-users. The report also provides country level key trend analysis for different segmentations included.Australia, New Zealand and India Building Information Modeling (BIM) Market: Competitive DynamicsThe report highlights the competition matrix of the BIM market, positioning all the major players according to their geographic presence, historical roadmap, competitors, market position, key recent developments, and segment growth. The matrix has been designed to show comparative strength of players active in the BIM market. The important business strategies adopted by them, their market positioning, and recent developments have also been identified in the research report. Also, distinct representation of market competition in terms of market shares of global and regional/local players has also been included.Under the company profiles section, the report provides an overview of the players operating in the market, the strategies adopted by them to gain competitive advantage, the annual revenue generated by them in the past two or three years, and their relevant business segment revenue. The report also provide market share analysis of the BIM market. The key players profiled in this report include Autodesk Inc., AECOM, Dassault Systemes SA, Beck Technology Ltd., Synchro Software Ltd., Bentley Systems, Inc., Tekla Corporation, Pentagon Solutions Ltd., GRAITEC and Nemetschek AG.Market Segmentation:Building Information Modelling Market Analysis, by SolutionSoftwareOn-premiseCloudProfessional & Consultancy ServiceBuilding Information Modelling Market Analysis, by End-use IndustryWater and Waste WaterBridges, Roads and HighwaysRail, Transit, and AviationEnergy Generation FacilitiesHouses and ApartmentsFactories and WarehousesEducational Institutions and Commercial SpacesGovernment BuildingsHealthcare InfrastructuresDams and OthersBuilding Information Modelling Market Analysis, by End-userEngineersArchitectsContractorsDevelopersBuilding Information Modelling Market Analysis, by CountryAustraliaNew ZealandIndiaMarketResearchReports.biz supports your business intelligence needs with over 100,000 market research reports, company profiles, data books, and regional market data sheets in its repository. Our document database is updated by the hour, which means that you always have access to fresh data spanning over 300 industries and their sub-segments.State Tower90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948(USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz Artificial Organ Bank Market Expected To Observer Major Growth By 2020 http://www.syndicatemarketresearch.com/request-for-sample.html?flag=S&repid=50875 https://goo.gl/jbrKvn https://goo.gl/5wImqZ http://www.syndicatemarketresearch.com/market-analysis/artificial-organ-bank.html http://www.syndicatemarketresearch.com An artificial organ is a man-made device that is implanted human body to replace a natural organ, for the purpose of restoring a specific function so that patient may return to a normal life as soon as possible. Artificial organ is used to replace the function of missing organ or other part of the human body. Artificial organs include the artificial heart and pacemaker, the use of dialysis to perform kidney functions, and the use of artificial substitutes for missing limbs. Artificial organs can eliminate the need for transplantation altogether.Get a copy of free Sample Report @Increase in prevalence of heart disorders coupled with increasing population and increase in injuries and accidents are the drivers contributes for the growth of the market. Growing demand for diagnostics with advanced technology is expected to fuel the market growth in coming years. However, high cost of devices and scarcity surgical expertise are expected to be major restraint of this market. The report also analyzes several driving and restraining factors and their impact on the market during the forecast period.The report segments the artificial organ bank market on the basis of product type, technology and geography. Major product segments covered in this report includes artificial pancreas, artificial lungs, artificial kidney, heart, liver and bionics. The market for bionics further segmented into vision bionic, cardiac bionic, ear bionic and brain bionic. Heart and kidney widely used in artificial organ. Technology is segmented into mechanical bionics and electrical bionics.Get in-depth TOC (Table of Contents) with Tables and Figures @On the basis of the geography, the artificial organ market can be segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Middle East and Africa with its further bifurcation into major countries including U.S. Germany, France, UK, China, Japan, India and Brazil. North America was leading region which accounted for largest share of total market. North America closely followed by Europe.In order to give the users of this report a comprehensive view on the artificial organ bank market. The report includes detailed competitive scenario and product portfolio of key vendors. To understand the competitive landscape in the market, an analysis of Porters Five Forces model for the artificial organ bank market has also been included. The study encompasses a market attractiveness analysis, wherein type segments and applications segments are benchmarked based on their market size, growth rate and general attractiveness.Inquire more before buying this report @The report provides comprehensive competitive analysis and profiles of prominent market players, such as Berlin Heart Gmbh, Second Sight Medical Products, Inc., Boston Scientific Corporation, Biomet, Inc., Asahi Kasei Kuraray Medical Co. Ltd., Lifenet Health, Heartware International Inc., and Abiomed Inc.Artificial Organ Bank Market: Product Segment AnalysisArtificial PancreasArtificial LungsArtificial KidneyHeartLiverBionicsVision BionicCardiac BionicEar BionicBrain BionicArtificial Organ Bank Market: Technology Segment AnalysisMechanical BionicElectrical BionicArtificial Organ Bank Market: Regional Segment AnalysisNorth AmericaU.S.EuropeUKFranceGermanyAsia PacificChinaJapanIndiaLatin AmericaBrazilMiddle East & AfricaBrowse detail report @About 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: Cosmetic and Perfume Glass Bottle Market: Growing Aspirations of Better Physical Appearance and Beauty Boost Demand http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=9299 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com The improved lifestyle coupled with increased disposable income and desire towards better personality are the prime reasons for growing demands of beauty products. The rapid growth in consumption and production of these products is evident that the look and feel of the packaging is also a considerable factor. Hence, manufacturers are highly focusing on better packaging solutions which gives customers a premium feel in a cost effective way. Quality packaging not only offer an attractive options for customers but it also maintain the quality and effectiveness of the product inside the bottle.The global cosmetic and perfume glass bottle market is primarily driven by the growth in cosmetic and perfumery industry. The global cosmetic industry is forecasted to be of more than US $ 600 Bn by 2019. The growing aspirations of better physical appearance and beauty is anticipated to be the major driving factor for the cosmetic and perfume glass bottle market.Download PDF Brochure atThe fierce competition in cosmetic industry is supposed to force the cosmetic and perfumery industry to choose innovative and better glass packaging solutions which is anticipated to be the driving factor for the global cosmetic and perfume glass bottle market. The increased disposable income and growing inclusion of cosmetic and perfumery products into everyday grooming practices is projected to the driving factor for the global cosmetic and perfume glass bottle market. On the other hand the growing use of plastic in cosmetic and perfumery packaging is anticipated to be the major restrain in the growth of the global cosmetic and perfume glass bottle market.The opportunity of global cosmetic and perfume glass bottle market lies in providing durable packaging solutions at cost effective especially in mid and low range perfume and cosmetic segments. Improving the product visibility and attractiveness is anticipated to be the major challenges for the global cosmetic and cosmetic and perfumery which can be perceived as an opportunity for the global cosmetic and perfume glass bottle market by providing innovative packaging solutions.The global cosmetic and perfume glass bottle market is segmented on the basis of product into high-end cosmetic and perfumes, mid-range and low range. The mid-range cosmetic and perfumery market is anticipated to register the highest growth in global cosmetic and perfume glass bottle market. By application the global cosmetic and perfume glass bottle market is segmented into hair care, skin care, make-up, fragrances, bath and shower and others. Where skin care and fragrances is anticipated to be the major contributor of the global cosmetic and perfume glass bottle market.On the basis of geography the global cosmetic and perfume glass bottle market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), the Middle East and Africa (MEA) and Latin America. Europe is anticipated to be the largest market for global cosmetic and perfume glass bottle market primarily driven by strong demand and higher consumption of cosmetic and perfumery products. Asia pacific is anticipated to be the second largest market for the global cosmetic and perfume glass bottle market primarily driven by growing per capita income and increasing awareness of cosmetic and perfumery especially in rapidly growing urban population. The strong demand in Japan, India and China are the major contributing factors for the demand in Asia pacific region. The North America is also anticipated to contribute significantly in the global cosmetic and perfume glass bottle market followed by Asia pacific. Middle East is also expected to contribute to the demand of global cosmetic and perfume glass bottle market primarily due to rapid urbanization and rising expenditure on beauty care products.Some of the key players in the global cosmetic and perfume glass bottle market are Heinz-Glas Group Holding, SGD Group, ZIGNAGO VETRO S.p.A., Rockwood & Hines, Gerresheimer Group, Saverglass, Piramal Glass, Groupe Pochet and 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: Worldwide Enterprise Mobility Market - Boosted by Demand for Operational Efficiency in Enterprises http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=6113 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com In its latest report, Transparency Market Research studies the growth trajectory exhibited by the global enterprise mobility market and the factors compelling organizations to adopt these advanced solutions. The report is titled Enterprise Mobility Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2015 - 2022, and is available on the companys website for sale.Mobility is regarded as an important element for business organizations to enjoy uninterrupted operations. Earlier desk phones or wired telephones used to be the most common mode of communication in organizations. However, the advent of sophisticated wireless devices helping people stay connected online or with one another at any time of the day from anywhere, has revolutionized the paradigm of mobility for enterprises worldwide. Enterprise mobility has, therefore, emerged as the most viable solution for businesses, helping them cope with the demands of a competitive business environment.Enterprise mobility refers to the trend promoting a shift in work culture, allowing employees to work from outside office premises by using cloud services and mobile devices. With the introduction of the latest technologies, enterprise mobility has become indispensable for organizations regardless of their size or specialization.This is a sophisticated solution enabling businesses to stay connected with their clients and employees irrespective of their location. With an increasing number of companies from around the world seeking enterprise mobility solutions to leverage the latest wireless technologies, the market for enterprise mobility is anticipated to exhibit robust growth.Get More Information:According to the findings of the TMR report, the global enterprise mobility market, which in 2014 stood at US$86.36 bn, is anticipated to reach a valuation of US$510.39 bn by the end of 2022. If the figures hold true, the global market for enterprise mobility will exhibit an incredible CAGR of 24.7% between 2015 and 2022.With organizations around the world increasingly demanding better operational speed and efficiency, the global market for enterprise mobility is poised to expand exponentially. Enterprise mobility solutions are usually customized as per the distinct requirement of enterprises to keep the complex web of their activities and assets running without any disruptions.Based on device, the global enterprise mobility market is segmented into laptops, tablets, and smartphones.In 2014, laptops emerged in the market as the most preferred device. However, the demand for smartphones is also anticipated to increase substantially during the reports forecast period. In terms of software, the global enterprise market is segmented into mobile application management, mobile device management, telecom expense management, mobile message management, and content and enterprise email management. Of these, mobile device management emerged as the most widely used software.Based on application, the market is segmented into BFSI, education and government, IT and telecommunications, hospitality and retail, automotive and manufacturing, media, life sciences, and healthcare. In 2014, the IT and telecommunications segment accounted for the largest share in the market.Regionally, North America led the global market for enterprise mobility. Growth in the region is mainly facilitated by the emergence of a mobile user workforce across multiple industry domains.The report provides an executive-level blueprint of the global enterprise mobility market, presenting insights into the factors impacting the markets growth trajectory and growth exhibited by the various market segments.To provide a holistic overview of the markets competitive landscape, it profiles some of the leading companies operating therein.The market for enterprise mobility is fragmented in nature, with the presence of several companies. The majority of these enterprises are focusing on expanding their businesses by catering to the varying demands of consumers. Some of the most prominent companies profiled in the report are Symantec Corporation, MobileIron, SOTI, Inc., Microsoft Corporation, Alcatel Lucent S.A., Avaya Inc., Citrix Systems Inc., Cisco Systems, Inc., AirWatch LLC, Aruba Inc., Meru Networks, and 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.ContactMr. Atil Chaudhari90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Good Growth Opportunities in Microfluidic Device System Market Till 2020 http://www.syndicatemarketresearch.com/request-for-sample.html?flag=S&repid=51651 https://goo.gl/9kHrMw https://goo.gl/kosM10 http://www.syndicatemarketresearch.com/market-analysis/microfluidic-device-system-market.html http://www.syndicatemarketresearch.com Microfluidics device system deals with the several systematic applications areas including medicine, cell biology research and protein crystallization. It is a developing scientific field having significant commercial potential. Microfluidic device system helps to reduce side effects and improve the efficacy of medical treatments. Scientifically, microfluidic study involves study of the behavior of fluids in micro-channels and technically, it deals with the manufacturing of microfluidics devices for applications. Microfluidic device system has many applications in other areas such as inkjet printers, blood-cell-separation equipment, biochemical assays, chemical synthesis, genetic analysis, drug screening, electrochromatography, surface micromachining, laser ablation and mechanical micromilling.Get a copy of free Sample Report @Increasing demand of microfluidic device system from point of care testing and pharmaceutical industry are the major factors driving the microfluidic device system market. Rising demand of microfluidic device system in genomics and proteomics strongly associated with the growth of microfluidic device system market. However, harsh regulatory requirements may hamper the growth of this market.The report includes detailed competitive landscape of the global microfluidic device system market. It includes company market share analysis, product portfolio of the major industry participants. The report provides detailed segmentation of the microfluidic device system market based on material, industry, application and region. Glass, polymer and silicon are the material segments of microfluidic device system market. These materials are used in manufacturing of microfluidic devices.Get in-depth TOC (Table of Contents) with Tables and Figures @On the basis of industry segment microfluidic device system market can be segmented into three major industries include in-vitro diagnostics, pharmaceuticals and medical devices. Due to increased demand from in-vitro diagnostics industry, it is the largest industry segment of microfluidic device system market.Point of care testing, pharmaceutical and life science research, drug delivery, analytical devices, clinical and veterinary diagnostics, environment and industrial are the key applications involved in the microfluidic device system market. The microfluidic device system is widely used in clinical and veterinary diagnostics application. Therefore clinical and veterinary diagnostics applications segment was the leading segment of global microfluidic device system market in 2014.Inquire more before buying this report @Major regional segments analyzed in this study include North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. This report also provides further bifurcation of region on the country level. Major countries analyzed in this reports are U.S., Germany, France, UK, China, Japan, India, and Brazil. Microfluidic device system market was dominated by North America. Asia Pacific region is expected to exhibit the rapid growth of this market in coming years.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 Abbott Laboratories, Roche Diagnostics, Becton Dickinson and Company, Agilent Technologies, Bio-Rad Laboratories, Siemens Healthcare, Fluidigm Corporation, and Johnson & Johnson.Browse detail report @The report segments the global microfluidic device system market into:Global Microfluidic Device System Market: Material Segment AnalysisGlassPolymerSiliconGlobal Microfluidic Device System Market: Industry Segment AnalysisIn-vitro diagnosticsPharmaceuticalsMedical DevicesGlobal Microfluidic Device System Market: Application Segment AnalysisPoint of care testingPharmaceutical and life science researchDrug deliveryAnalytical devicesClinical and veterinary diagnosticsEnvironment and IndustrialGlobal Microfluidic Device System Market: Regional Segment AnalysisNorth AmericaU.S.EuropeUKFranceGermanyAsia PacificChinaJapanIndiaLatin AmericaBrazilMiddle East & 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: Modern Op Art by Evie Zimmer Opening Reception - January 7, 2017 6-9pm http://www.fusionartps.com http://www.fusionartps.com Palm Springs, CA, USA -- Fusion Art () is pleased to announce the opening of Modern Op Art by Fusion Artist, Evie Zimmer. Evie's featured show will run from January 7th through January 31st from 6-9 p.m.Evie is an American artist creating and teaching in Cleveland, Ohio. Her early work consists mainly of traditional portrait paintings, although she had always been drawn to the intricate design, and energetic beauty of op-art. Eventually, Evie began to explore her fascination and her work blossomed into her current mesmerizing style.Evie's work has been described as a "strange loop" of process and product. Her oil paintings radiate an inherent energy not unlike traditional mandalas with acidic colors transforming into soothing pastels, and geometric patterns melting into exotically organic shapes.Located at 2658 S. Cherokee Way, in Palm Springs' historic Backstreet Art District, Fusion Art is one of an assortment of artist-owned galleries and working studios that feature diverse collections of original, contemporary art by locally, nationally & internationally recognized artists. The Backstreet Art District is located just off Hwy 111 (behind the Mercedes Dealership and the Estate Sale).Founded by Chris and Valerie Hoffman, the gallery was envisioned and formed out of a passion for art and the artists who create it. Fusion Art promotes and connects emerging and established artists with collectors and art enthusiasts, while offering the opportunity to participate in art experiences, art related education, engage in dialogue with artists, and purchase fine works of art.Please join us for the opening reception. Evie will be in attendance to meet and discuss her art with all. Gallery hours are Wednesday - Saturday 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. and by appointment. For additional information please contact Valerie Hoffman at 760-832-7568.About Fusion ArtFusion Art is an online gallery website where new, emerging and professional artists can enter online juried art exhibitions, obtain competition experience, as well as gain exposure to art collectors and art professionals.Media Contact:Valerie HoffmanFusion Art2658 S. Cherokee WayPalm Springs, CA 92264(Mailing Address: PO Box 4236Palm Springs, CA 92263)760-832-7568info@fusionartps.com Strategic Assessment Of Emerging Technologies In Multi-Parameter Patient Monitoring Equipment Market By 2023 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=1692 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/multi-parameter-patient-monitoring-equipment.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/ Global Multi-parameter Patient Monitoring Equipment Market: SnapshotThe primary driver for multi-parameter patient monitoring equipment in the coming years is expected to be the rising population of the geriatric. With their medical needs already at an all-time high, any increase in the near future will only lead to a significant pressure on the manufacturing rates of devices. This applies especially to multi-parameter patient monitoring equipment due to the growing number of patients suffering from respiratory and cardiac diseases.For Any Queries Get Solutions With A PDF Sample :Other factors promoting the use of multi-parameter patient monitoring equipment are the advancements in technology created recently that are making them more popular with wireless and mobile device users, and the massive surge of home healthcare services that are causing a high demand for mid- and low-acuity patient monitoring equipment.The resultant rate of expansion of the global multi-parameter patient monitoring equipment market is seen as a CAGR of 4.4% from 2015 to 2023 in terms of revenue. This revenue is expected to reach US$3.47 bn by the end of 2016 and US$4.65 bn by 2023.North America Continues to Take up Majority Demand for Multi-parameter Patient Monitoring EquipmentBy 2023, 51.3% of the total market value of multi-parameter patient monitoring equipment is expected to be taken up by North America. Factors attributed to this majority share include the evolved healthcare system, the high percentage of the elderly, and the specifically higher growth rate of patients with chronic illnesses.The overall market share held by North America is nearly as consistent as its share in 2014, with a slight reduction. This share has been taken up by the booming demand for healthcare devices in Asia Pacific and Europe. The latter holds a very high percentage of geriatric citizens that need regular monitoring, while Asia Pacific is one of the most promising regions for growth in healthcare devices.Hospitals to Remain Key End Users of Multi-parameter Patient Monitoring EquipmentThe function of multi-parameter patient monitoring equipment is to monitor and display relevant patient data for medical assessment. These readings include ECG, blood pressure, respiratory rate, and heart rate. Therefore, the wide utility of multi-parameter patient monitoring equipment has allowed it a high preference in all hospitals across the world. This end-user industry has led the market demand in 2014 and is expected to continue leading it till 2023. Multi-parameter patient monitoring equipment allow a continuous monitoring of patients inside the hospital premises and are an extremely vital and inseparable part of hospital intensive care units and operating rooms, where critical care is needed and is based on patient readings.View exclusive Global strategic Business report :The overall share held by hospitals in multi-parameter patient monitoring equipment is in a way being challenged by the home healthcare segment. This segment is witnessing a phenomenal rise in demand owing to the advantages it offers, such as reduced hospital visits and a significant reduction in medical expenses. This is a much-needed service for the patients suffering from chronic diseases, cardiac, and respiratory illnesses, whose numbers are currently growing at a very high rate.The top manufacturers of multi-parameter patient monitoring equipment from a global standpoint include GE Healthcare, Philips Healthcare, Nihon Kohden Corporation, Dragerwerk AG & Co. KGaA, and Spacelabs Healthcare.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 us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Non-Lethal Weapons Market: Remarkable Rate of Technological Advancements and Growing Internal Security Threats drives Demand http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=5705 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Civic Unrests Create Demand for Non-Lethal WeaponsThe remarkable rate of technological advancements and growing internal security threats have both created a significant demand for non-lethal weapons. These weapons are readily being procured by the militaries across the globe to modernize their weaponry and arsenal. The demand for non-lethal weapons also stems from the increasing need to control crowds in the war-torn regions of Brazil, Ukraine, India, and Israel. Owing to these reasons, militaries are adopting non-lethal weapons such as directed energy weapons, gases and sprays, conducted energy weapons, explosives, and water weapons. Growing development of lethal weapons that do not compromise on stealth but minimize the collateral damage is also fueling the overall market.Request a PDF Brochure atAccording to the latest report published by Transparency Market Research, the global non-lethal weapons market was worth US$3.2 bn in 2014 and is expected to reach a valuation of US$4.8 bn by 2021. The expansion of this market between 2015 and 2021 will be at a CAGR of 6.1%.The use of non-lethal weapons has been especially beneficial for militaries in maintaining domestic peace, ensuring riot control, and preventing insurgencies. Consumers have also been investing in non-lethal gases and sprays such as pepper sprays for self-defense purposes for merely disarming the assailant and averting a crime.North America Witnesses Rise in Usage of Non-Lethal Weapons for Self DefenseEvolving warfare tactics have been the primary growth driver for the increasing adoption of non-lethal weapons market in North America. Researchers predict that this regional segment is accepted to rise at a CAGR of 5.8% between 2015 and 2021. The growth in this region will also be attributable to the expansion of law enforcement agencies and the efficient development of non-lethal weapons.Furthermore, the growing demand from civilians to possess non-lethal weapons for self-defense needs in times of rampant terrorism has also proven to be a key factor driving the global market. The growing military budgets across the North America region and the need to contain unrests with minimal harm to the civilians is also anticipated to boost this market in the near future. The strong presence of manufacturers of non-lethal weapons is yet another important factor responsible for the rise of this market. In the near future, this region witness a significant demand for gases and sprays as civilians are seeking non-lethal weapons to safeguard themselves.Modernization Programs across Militaries Lead to Adoption of Non-Lethal WeaponsThe modernization programs across global militaries and deployment of militaries in non-combat zones have led to a sudden rise in the demand for non-lethal weapons. To keep up with the changing nature of combat, where human shields are becoming a common norm, militaries are opting for non-lethal weapons to prevent permanent damage to human lives. The increasing strength of law enforcement agencies has also created a huge demand for non-lethal weapons. Batons, tear gas canisters, flash grenades, water cannons, acoustic devices, and stun grenades are some of the popularly used non-lethal weapons in the global market.Some of the leading players operating in the global non-lethal weapons market are General Dynamics Corporation, The Raytheon Company, BAE Systems Plc, Lamperd Less Lethal, Inc., TASER International Inc, Boeing Company, FN Herstal, and Safariland Group. These companies are focusing on product innovation and intensive research and development for the forthcoming years. Companies in developing regions are also anticipated to garner a remarkable share as they will focus on contract manufacturing in the near future.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Telepathology Service Market: Accurate Pathological Assessment, Quick Diagnoses, Timely Treatment boost market Demand http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=13427 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/telepathology-service-market.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Telepathology refers to the electronic transmission of high quality pathological data by the means of telecommunications technology to practice pathology from a distance. It opens the door for transfer of high quality image-rich pathological data between different locations for the purposes of diagnosis, education, and research. This technology is being utilized for purposes such as expert opinion on referral cases, emergency services, diagnosis at remote location, quality assurance, conferences and meetings, and for educational training. Telepathology is an emerging technology that offers advancement of telecommunication to reach out patient in remote location and provides best diagnostic inference to distant healthcare provider.Telepathology Service Market: Growth EnablersIn the current economy, cost cutting is a cardinal driver for the advancement of any technology which offers cost effectiveness and global reach to the entire market. Accurate pathological assessment, quick diagnoses, timely treatment and delivery of high-quality healthcare are some of the prime factors that would emphasize the global market demand for telepathology.Download PDF brochure atIn addition to that, the widespread presence of cancer, the increasing workload of healthcare providers, and advances in laboratory diagnostic tests drives the growth of telepathology market globally. However, the high initial setup cost and error in sampling pathological data would be catastrophic for global telepathology service market. Other factors which may restrain the telepathology services markets are rigorous regulatory requirements for telepathology systems as different issues arise in quality assurance and assessment of competence.It is of paramount importance to have equivalence between telepathology system and pathologist`s usual method of practice in order to recognize and acknowledge differences. The telepathology systems attributes and advantage differ from one company to the other. Every companys system differs in their telecommunication technology, scanning software and backup. The key to establishing a presence in the telepathology service market is to have a setup with a system design for pathologists that are service provider-centric, that is based on requirements of provider and designed to meet end-user requirements.Telepathology Service Market: SegmentationTelepathology is primarily segmented in three domains, namely, static image-based systems, virtual slide systems, and real-time systems. The global market for telepathology is segmented based on scanning technology, application type (hospital based, home based), software and hardware configuration, clinical application and geography. An aging population in North America and Asia Pacific and rising demand for home-based treatment are expected to boost the current and future telepathology market.View Report:23 million individuals aged 80 years or over were living in China in 2013. The USA contributed to about 12 million, followed by India and Japan, which had 10 million and 9 million, respectively. Apart from this increase expenditure in healthcare is also responsible for the shifting paradigm for future technology. It reflects the net result of the aging of the population on demand of technology that would be utilized for home based pathological diagnoses.Telepathology Service Market: Key PlayersMajor market players profiled in this report includes include Canada Health Infoway, University Health Network, Meyer Instruments, Inc., Telemedicine Clinic (TMC), AMD Global Telemedicine, Inc., Emerge MD, Focal Point , Nationwide Medical Licensing, Polycom, Inc, Remote Medical Technologies, USAC - Universal Service Administrative Company, Visual Share, Inc., Wolf Vision Inc.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Wood Pellets Market to Exceed US$ 20 Billion by 2023 https://www.marketresearchengine.com/requestsample/wood-pellets-market https://www.marketresearchengine.com/reportdetails/wood-pellets-market https://www.marketresearchengine.com/ New York, January 05: Market Research Engine has published a new report titled as Wood Pellets Market, by Application (Power Plants and Heating) - Global Industry Analysis, Trends and Forecast 2016 - 2023The wood pellets market is expected to exceed more than US$ 20.0 Billion by 2023 growing at a CAGR of more than 14% in the given forecast period 2016 to 2023.Download Free Sample Report:Wood pellets are a form of biomass fuel produced from wood waste products, sawdust, industrial byproducts and forestry wastes. The virgin trees are specially grown for producing pellets. The shape of wood pellets is cylindrical in shape and having diameter between 6-12m.m and length is 1-3c.m. After manufacturing of wood pellets it should be used as fuel for commercial building, homes or in power plants. Wood pellets are dry, easy to store and hydraulic rate of wood pellets is stable as compare to other biomass fuel. It has high energy density so it can be transported long distance at once. Wood pellets is burnt it generates very small amount of carbon dioxide that is CO2 so this fuel broadly standardized as more eco friendly fuels.The major driving factors of wood pellets market are as follows:Government rules and contractFinancial inducement by centralized agenciesLong term supplyLow price of wood pelletsThe restraints factors of wood pellets market are as follows:Flue Gas Release during Storage of Wood PelletsBrowse Full Report here:The wood pellets market is segmented on the lines of its application and regional. Under application segmentation wood pellets market covers power plants and heating. The wood pellet market is geographic segmentation covers various regions such as North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Middle East and Africa. Each geography market is further segmented to provide market revenue for select countries such as the U.S., Canada, U.K. Germany, China, Japan, India, Brazil, and GCC countries.This report provides:1) An overview of the global market for wood pellets and related technologies.2) Analyses of global market trends, with data from 2013, estimates for 2014 and 2015, and projections of compound annual growth rates (CAGRs) through 2023.3) Identifications of new market opportunities and targeted promotional plans for wood pellets4) Discussion of research and development, and the demand for new products and new applications.5) Comprehensive company profiles of major players in the industry.REPORT SCOPE:The scope of the report includes a detailed study of global and regional markets for various types of coatings with the reasons given for variations in the growth of the industry in certain regions.The report covers detailed competitive outlook including the market share and company profiles of the key participants operating in the global market. Key players profiled in the report 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.. Company profile includes assign such as company summary, financial summary,business strategy and planning, SWOT analysis and current developments.The Top Companies Report is intended to provide our buyers with a snapshot of the industrys most influential players.The Wood Pellets Market has been segmented as below:By Application AnalysisPower PlantsHeatingBy Regional AnalysisNorth AmericaEuropeAsia-PacificRest of the WorldAbout MarketResearchEngine.comMarket Research Engine is a global market research and consulting organization. We provide market intelligence in emerging, niche technologies and markets. Our market analysis powered by rigorous methodology and quality metrics provide information and forecasts across emerging markets, emerging technologies and emerging business models. Our deep focus on industry verticals and country reports help our clients to identify opportunities and develop business strategies.Media ContactCompany Name: Market Research EngineContact Person: John BayEmail: john@marketresearchengine.comPhone: +1-855-984-1862, +91-860-565-7204Country: United StatesWebsite: IT Robotic Automation Market To Cross US$ 13.0 Billion Globally By 2022 New York, January 05: Market Research Engine has published a new report titled as Global IT Robotic Automation Market (RPA Tools and RPA Services) - By Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2016 2022 The IT robotic automation market is expected to exceed more than US$ 13.0 billion by 2022 Growing at a healthy CAGR of more than 60.0% in the given forecast period 2016 to 2022. Browse Full Report: https://www.marketresearchengine.com/reportdetails/global-it-robotic-automation-market Robotic process automation is new technology which uses the application software. Handles repeatable tasks and having machine learning and artificial intelligence facility. This software is used for businesses that have complex and many different systems which require interact collectively gracefully. The technology is projected to decrease the requirement for individuals to achieve workflow, high-volume IT support, back office processes and remote infrastructure. When robotic process automation software has trained realize and understand particular procedure then automatically it manipulate data, process transaction, communicate with other device and activate response. The major driving factors of IT robotic automation market are as follows: Growing acceptance in finance & accounting division to slash cost In IT acting it have an alternative to offshore outsourcing Improved efficiency and cost benefits Capability to control other application software without integration The restraints factors of IT robotic automation market are as follows: Security concern of the technology above improved access to an person Public proposition to release people from their responsibility Download Free Sample Report: https://www.marketresearchengine.com/requestsample/global-it-robotic-automation-market The IT robotic automation market is segmented on the lines of its type, service and tools. Under type segmentation it covers tools and services. The service segment for IT robotic automation includes professional, consulting, integration and development, application management, infrastructure management, BPO, application management, infrastructure management and training. The IT robotic automation market is segmented on the lines of its tools like model-based application tools and process-based application tools. The IT robotic automation market is geographic segmentation covers various regions such as North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Middle East and Africa. Each geography market is further segmented to provide market revenue for select countries such as the U.S., Canada, U.K. Germany, China, Japan, India, Brazil, and GCC countries. This report provides: 1) An overview of the global market for IT robotic automation and related technologies. 2) Analyses of global market trends, with data from 2013, estimates for 2014 and 2015, and projections of compound annual growth rates (CAGRs) through 2022. 3) Identifications of new market opportunities and targeted promotional plans for IT robotic automation 4) Discussion of research and development, and the demand for new products and new applications. 5) Comprehensive company profiles of major players in the industry. REPORT SCOPE: The scope of the report includes a detailed study of global and regional markets for various types of coatings with the reasons given for variations in the growth of the industry in certain regions. The report covers detailed competitive outlook including the market share and company profiles of the key participants operating in the global market. Key players profiled in the report include Blue Prism, IPSoft, Inc., Be Informed B.V., Appian Corporation, and Automation Anywhere Inc. whereas RPA service providers include Sutherland Global Services, Tata Consultancy Services, Accenture plc, Cognizant Technology Solutions, Infosys Limited, and Hewlett Packard Company. Company profile includes assign such as company summary, financial summary, business strategy and planning, SWOT analysis and current developments. The Top Companies Report is intended to provide our buyers with a snapshot of the industrys most influential players. The IT robotic automation Market has been segmented as below: By Type Analysis Tools Services By Service Analysis Professional Consulting Integration and Development Application Management Infrastructure Management BPO Application Management Infrastructure Management Training By Tools Analysis Model-based Application Tools Process-based Application Tools By Regional Analysis North America Europe Asia-Pacific Rest of the World About MarketResearchEngine.com Market Research Engine is a global market research and consulting organization. We provide market intelligence in emerging, niche technologies and markets. Our market analysis powered by rigorous methodology and quality metrics provide information and forecasts across emerging markets, emerging technologies and emerging business models. Our deep focus on industry verticals and country reports help our clients to identify opportunities and develop business strategies. Media Contact Company Name: Market Research Engine Contact Person: John Bay Email: john@marketresearchengine.com Phone: +1-855-984-1862, +91-860-565-7204 Country: United States Website: https://www.marketresearchengine.com/ This release was published on openPR. Permanent link to this press release: Copy Please set a link in the press area of your homepage to this press release on openPR. openPR disclaims liability for any content contained in this release. Apprise Named 2016 Lehigh Valley Business of the Year www.apprise.com BETHLEHEM, PA (January 5, 2017)Apprise Software, Inc., a leader in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Supply Chain Management (SCM) solutions for consumer goods businesses, was recently named the 2016 Business of the Year (100+ employees). The honor is awarded by the Lehigh Valley Business Journal in recognition of a companys commitment to professional excellence, business growth and community.Were honored to have been selected as this years Business of the Year, said Jeff Broadhurst, CEO, Apprise. This wouldnt have been made possible without the hard work of our team members, and Im proud of what they continually accomplish.During more than three decades in business, Apprise has expanded its global operations to six countries on four continents. With offices in the U.S., U.K., Netherlands, Czech Republic, China and Australia, Apprise provides innovative ERP solutions and support to consumer-goods businesses at the local, regional and international levels.Helping to earn this top spot is the companys ability to deliver solutions that help their clients become more successful, while providing a continual learning environment for team members. Apprise is also dedicated to its many charitable and social causes globally, including SHARE Africa, Habitat for Humanity, and assisting women in rural parts of China with their educational achievements.About Apprise Software, Inc.Apprise is making business management better for consumer goods distributors. Founded in 1984, Apprise creates integrated Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Supply Chain Management (SCM) solutions for companies all around the world. With headquarters in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and offices in Europe, Australia and China, Apprise is focused on working with local, regional and global distribution businesseshelping them become more efficient and profitable.For more information, visitBrett RaymondApprise Software, Inc.3101 Emrick BoulevardBethlehem, PA 18020United States of AmericaTel: +1 (610) 991-3900Fax: +1 (610) 991-3901 Bills release multiple artist renderings of new stadium The morning of Oct. 27 was a day Buffalo Bills fans have been patiently waiting for a reveal of what the new stadium will potentially look like. The team... County officials, law firm representatives host public hearing on new stadium SEQR Erie County officials, representatives from Phillips Lytle LLP, power players for a new stadium and interested Buffalo Bills fans packed into one of the community rooms of the Brush Mountain... BZ_PORT_FALLOUT_29273410.JPG The Port of Portland is the latest entity to sue Monsanto UPDATE: This story was updated with comments from Monsanto. The Port of Portland has sued Monsanto in federal court, alleging the agricultural chemical giant knowingly produced toxic chemicals for decades and left the port with the bill to clean it up. Monsanto was the sole producer of the chlorine compound polychlorinated biphenyl, known as PCBs, for decades, until the federal government banned it in 1979. The lawsuit alleges Monsanto knew as early as 1937 that its product -- used in paint, transformers, caulk and other items -- was hazardous to humans and wildlife. But the company did nothing, the lawsuit alleged. PCBs have been connected to cancer and other serious health conditions, including developmental delays in children, reproductive issues and decreased resistance to viruses. "Any decision to conceal facts about human health should have consequences," Curtis Robinhold, the Port's deputy executive director, said in a statement. "Monsanto reaped huge profits from the manufacture and sale of PCBs, and it is entirely appropriate for those faced with the cost of cleaning up this contamination to hold them accountable." The Port of Portland is just the latest public entity to sue the agricultural giant on allegations it conspired to conceal its role in producing the industrial and commercial contaminants. Eight West Coast cities - including Portland - have sued the company. Washington state also filed suit last month. The port hasn't attached a dollar amount to the lawsuit, but is seeking compensatory and punitive damages that could range from tens of millions to hundreds of millions of dollars for the cost of "past, present and future" cleanup costs, according to its attorney. According to the lawsuit, a 1937 company memo showed the company knew its Aroclor product caused a "acne-form skin eruption." A report two decades later indicated the company knew the product was "toxic, but the actual limit has not been precisely defined." Scott Partridge, Monsanto's vice president of global strategy, said in a statement the port's case lacks merit. "PCBs have not been produced in the U.S. for four decades, and the Port is now pursuing an experimental case on grounds never recognized in Oregon history," he said. Monsanto said the lawsuit targets a past product that was "lawful and useful" for decades. The company had more than $13.5 billion in net sales in 2016, according to its annual report. John Fiske, an attorney with Dallas-based Baron & Budd, which is representing all 10 entities, said his clients believe "the cause is absolutely righteous." "Cities, taxes, ratepayers are having to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to clean up Monsanto's PCBs," he said in an interview. PCBS are one of the principal pollutants identified by the Environmental Protection Agency as dangerous in the Willamette River's Portland Harbor, a federally recognized Superfund site. The Port is one of several public and private entities expected to help pay for cleaning up those contaminants. The Port operates four terminals on the Willamette and Columbia Rivers, plus the airport, all of which have documented PCBs on or around their property. City of Portland officials documented PCBs on Swan Island Lagoon, in the heart of the Superfund site, as recently as 2012, according to the lawsuit. The EPA is expected to release its latest cleanup plan for the 10-mile stretch of river within days. Fiske said the lawsuit is independent of the federal cleanup plan, but the Port expects to pay somewhere between "tens and hundreds of millions" to remediate, remove, manage and reduce pollutants along the Willamette River. Partridge, the Monsanto representative, said the port's lawsuit "threatens to delay and derail" the Superfund cleanup. Last fall, Monsanto's shareholders approved a $66 billion offer from Bayer to buy the company. That deal must be approved by federal regulators. UPDATE: A previous version of this story had the incorrect offer price for Monsanto. It's $66 billion. Like most seasoned real estate experts, Charlie Kimberly has seen his share of off-putting elements included in a home sale. But a recent listing in Northeast Portland forced him to wonder if what he was selling was legal: A large marijuana plant was growing in the backyard. Turns out, it's fine with the state, with some restrictions; not so with the feds. Still, how would potential buyers react? "I addressed it with the client, keeping his best interest at heart, and mentioned that it might not be acceptable to everyone," said Kimberly of the Portland Real Estate Group, who likened the federally illegal grow to something offensive or unsightly, like a rusted RV parked on the side of the house. "I told him that we could leave it or take it out," he said. Instead of pulling the plant, they pulled a photo of it near the house off real estate websites like Estately. The plant also wasn't listed among the fenced property's features in marketing materials, but there was a reference to the fixer-upper at 1635 NE 155th Ave. being "on a very private dead-end street great for a little urban farm." After almost 900 days on the market, a buyer paid $165,000 cash for the quarter-acre property that was sold "as is." Since there were fewer than four allowed cannabis plants on the residential site and the buyer didn't needed a loan, some potential legal issues were sidestepped. But not all. Buying a residential property with homegrown cannabis plants could set off legal problems at the federal and state level, and jeopardize a bank loan, said attorney Dave Kopilak of Emerge Law Group in Portland, which has expertise in cannabis and marijuana law. Under federal law, the seller has committed a crime by growing the cannabis plants and, after the real estate transaction closes, so has the buyer if the buyer knowingly bought property with illegal plants on it. Since federally insured financial institutions typically include a clause in mortgage documents that the owner cannot conduct an illegal activity, the buyer would risk defaulting under the loan if the plants were discovered after funds were issued. The seller would be in violation of Oregon law if the seller receives any financial consideration specifically for the marijuana plants. If the seller markets the property as having the plants or asks for extra compensation as one would for a refrigerator or sofa, that would cross over into commercial use, which is prohibited under Oregon law. Another sticking point could be the state statute that allows two adults in the household to share 16 ounces of marijuana. "It's not entirely clear, but when a new owner buys the house, it could be considered exceeding the homegrown delivery limit," said Kopilak. Despite federal laws, homeowners currently are at low risk of being arrested if they are acting in compliance with state law. "For years, the federal government has adopted a policy of not enforcing federal marijuana laws in states that have a regulated legalization system," said Kopilak. But that could change with President-elect Trump, he said, adding: "That's a wildcard." -- Janet Eastman jeastman@oregonian.com 503-799-8739 @janeteastman Ivanka Trump Moving to Washington, DC: Ivanka Trump, daughter of President-elect Donald Trump, looks out of an elevator as she arrives as at Trump Tower, Monday, Nov. 21, 2016 in New York. (Carolyn Kaster) An exclusive neighborhood two miles from the White House has famous, new residents: The outgoing White House family, the Obamas, and incoming White House family member, Ivanka Trump. The New York Times reports Ivanka Trump, President-elect Donald Trump's oldest daughter, is moving with her husband, Jared Kushner, and their three children from New York to a modern white house on Tracy Place in the upscale Kalorama section of Washington, D.C. The 6,870-square-foot mansion sold in December for $5.5 million. The previous owner was Latvian-born financier Dan K. Rapoport of Rapoport Capital, who has investments in Russia, including nightclubs, according to the New York Times. Until real estate transaction records are made public, it's not known if the Kushners bought or will rent the six-bedroom dwelling. The Kalorama section, near Embassy Row, is already home to ambassadors and members of Washington's social circuit. The median list price in the tony area is $2.75 million ($708 a square foot), according to the real estate database Redfin. News agencies have reported that President Barack Obama and his family will live in a rented nine-bedroom Tudor-style home on Belmont Road in the Kalorama section after they leave the White House. The rental is owned by NFL's executive vice president for communications Joe Lockhart and his wife, Giovanna Gray Lockhart, the Washington editor of Glamour. The quarter-acre property sold in May 2014 for $5.295 million, according to the Washingtonian. Kalorama residents told the New York Times that the Obamas' property is undergoing extensive security renovations and there will be a security checkpoint at the intersection of Belmont Road and Tracy Place, where Ivanka Trump will live. President Obama will be the first former president since Woodrow Wilson to stay in D.C. after leaving the White House. Another coincidence: The real estate database Zillow conducted a poll to determine which celebrity would be the best and worse neighbor. The most-desirable neighbor for 2017 was the Obama family. In seventh place were Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner. The least-desirable star next door: Justin Bieber. -- Janet Eastman jeastman@oregonian.com 503-799-8739 @janeteastman Unsustainable growth: Bravo to "It's the overpopulation" by Richard Thompson, (Letters, Jan. 1). We do "need a new paradigm." The answer is not more roads and more growth: the answer is the removal of barriers to contraception, population education in our schools, increased monetary contributions to the United Nations Population Fund and Title X funds for Planned Parenthood. We must realize that the earth's resources are limited. The current growth rate in the United States and worldwide is not sustainable and it only exacerbates the serious problems we face in regard to food supply, energy production, vehicular use, availability of land, air and water pollution, and species extinction. Greg Jacob, Hillsboro McMansions and mega development: I keep hearing lots of people say we need to tear up the urban growth boundaries and build everywhere. What is overlooked is that this works great for mega development companies but not for everyone. I look at what is being built in subdivisions now compared to what was built 50 to 60 years ago along the Portland/Gresham boundary. Back then, most of the houses were not huge and gaudy. They were built by local people and companies. Around my house, there are still small vacant lots, but they remain vacant because of the cost of the property and the cost to build. Banks are not willing to do anything for anyone not wanting to make maximum profit. Now all I see are new subdivisions filled with McMansions on the edges of the metro area or half decent, semi-affordable houses being ripped down for something bigger and fancier. Where is the money coming from to buy these places? When I look at the majority of what is advertised for employment I don't see that many high paying jobs. Bill Hall, Northeast Portland Measure 97 was the right solution: I find it interesting - actually amusing - that The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board is crying out for businesses to pay more taxes to fund education and other social services just a few weeks after they did their part to scuttle the solution to Oregon's inability to fund education, health care and senior services. The editorial board vociferously sent out the alarms about the $3 billion per year that would have been generated per year had the Measure 97 corporate tax passed. Their argument was that lawmakers should simply do their job to create tax policy that would tax businesses more fairly. Lawmakers simply have to go to work to make this happen. This is not a small feat for Democrats to get Republican lawmakers to go along to impose any kind of tax on corporations. Of course the board then brings back the bad old obligation the state has to PERS. Thwarted by the the Oregon Supreme Court ruling that it's unconstitutional to roll back public employee retirement benefits, the board is now saying that elected officials now have the opportunity to make changes that will merely "blunt the burden" that PERS contractual obligations imposed. What does that mean? It means the board should have supported Measure 97. But Republican ideology was ascendent thus ensuring, that we would have a $1.7 billion budget deficit, not the needed $3 billion annual revenue to go a long way to fix education and social services. Too bad, Measure 97 was the solution! Cliff Goldman, Northeast Portland ETHICS.JPG Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, left, talks with Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. House Republicans had voted Monday night to gut the independent Office of Government Ethics, an unsuccessful move sponsored by Goodlatte, the House Judiciary chairman. (AP Photo) By Noah Feldman The stealth Republican move Monday night to weaken the ethics oversight office in the House of Representatives is a good reminder that the U.S. Constitution provides only limited protections when a single party rules. But the swift rollback of the plan on Tuesday is also a good reminder that the Constitution does have an oversight mechanism built in: the press. When one party controls the legislature and presidency, the "Fourth Estate" isn't just a metaphor. It's a necessity for functioning free government. The Office of Congressional Ethics wouldn't be anomalous in northern Europe, where many countries have independent ombudsman offices that oversee government ethics. But it's a fairly unusual entity in U.S. terms. It was created in 2008, not by a law requiring a presidential signature, but in a resolution passed by the House itself, under Democratic leadership. The office is under the control of an eight-member board of directors, who are private citizens. It can't subpoena, and it can't punish. Its power comes from its twin mandates of efficiency and publicity. It must complete its two-stage review process relatively quickly, by Washington standards (30 days and 45 days, respectively). And it must make public the recommendations it makes to the House Ethics Committee. It can also refer cases to the Department of Justice. In short, the ethics office is designed to ensure that an independent, nonpartisan entity makes a public judgment when there are allegations of ethical violations by House members. If that task sounds familiar, it should: It's also part of the essential function of a free and independent press that takes the job of in-depth investigations seriously. In essence, the cuts would have taken away the office's independence by giving the House Ethics Committee power to block investigations and by barring the office from investigating anonymous reports or referring investigations to federal prosecutors without first getting permission from the committee. The proposed cuts, which were initially approved by the Republican conference, can only be explained by the existence of a single party majority in both houses of Congress and soon in the White House. True, the office supervises only the House. But House Republicans didn't take this step when they formed a majority in 2010, or at any time since. The difference now is that the Republican House is about to start passing major legislation that is going to become law, which wasn't the case as long as the Democrat Barack Obama was president. That legislative process is going to involve some heavy-duty lobbying by representatives of major regulated industries. And it's a lot easier to streamline the passage of legislation if members of Congress don't have to worry about an ethics office looking over their shoulders. What's more, House Republicans are clearly feeling empowered by the Republican ascendancy across the branches. Democrats can make objections, to be sure. But the bully pulpit of the presidency, in particular, will only be occupied by a Republican. All this starkly points to the reality that when the president and Congress come from the same party, the checks and balances contained in the Constitution have a far more limited effect than when there is partisan opposition across the branches. When James Madison generated his constitutional design, he aspired to block the effects of political parties from the federal government. In the words of the historian Richard Hofstadter, Madison sought to produce a "constitution against parties." That didn't work out, as Madison himself learned in the first Congress. Eventually Madison embraced partisanship and became the founder of the Republican Party, which was arrayed against Alexander Hamilton's Federalist Party. But the U.S. was left with a system that attributed an unrealistic interest in balancing to a Congress controlled by the same party as the president, or vice versa. Yet there is an all-important constitutional provision that does assure some oversight even when the president and Congress come from the same party: Madison's First Amendment, specifically its guarantee of freedom of the press. According to a later attribution by the writer Thomas Carlyle, it was the great English political thinker and parliamentarian Edmund Burke who first referred to the press as the "Fourth Estate" alongside -- and perhaps more important than -- the Commons, Lords and Clergy represented in Parliament. If the attribution is accurate, then the notion arose around the time Madison was drafting the First Amendment. The basic idea is that a free press has an essential constitutional job: It oversees the branches of government, even when they aren't checking each other. For this to work, the press doesn't have to be "objective." It can have a political bent. Newspapers were partisan in Madison's age. The Gazette of the United States was identified with the Federalist Party, and Madison helped create and then wrote for the competing National Gazette to express the Republican point of view. The point is that a newspaper, even a partisan newspaper, keeps publishing even when the party it supports isn't in power. The House Republicans can gut the ethics office, but they can't gut the national news media. Investigating members of Congress isn't always easy. In its infinite wisdom, Congress hasn't extended the Freedom of Information Act to itself. Identifying backroom deals and directions of lobbyist influence is hard work. But it's also work that is absolutely crucial to the functioning of democratic government in the years ahead. In this way, the Constitution doesn't just permit a free press: It requires it. That's the difference between one-party political dominance, which the U.S. will soon have, and one-party rule, which we know from Russia, Egypt, Turkey and the like. (c) 2017, Bloomberg View Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg View columnist and professor of constitutional and international law at Harvard University. Lightbar+ Salem police arrested Logan Alphonso Boucher, 31, for allegedly striking three people with a car early Jan. 1, 2017. (The Oregonian/OregonLive file photo) A man is facing attempted murder charges for hitting three people with a car during a fight early New Year's Day in Salem, police said. Logan Alphonso Boucher, 31, was arrested Tuesday night, police spokesman Lt. Dave Okada said. He is charged with three counts of attempted murder, three counts of first-degree assault and reckless driving. He will also be charged with failure to register as a sex offender, Okada said. Boucher hit three people in a black Audi after a fight broke out at the Shack Bar & Grill, 2865 Liberty St. NE, Okada said. The fight spilled into a nearby Fred Meyer parking lot, Okada said. Okada said Boucher got into the car, circled the crowd then drove into the people fighting. Three people were injured, Okada said. They have all been released from the hospital. Police are still looking for the car they say Boucher drove. The black 2005 Audi A4 may have damage to the front section and windshield, Okada said. The car was last seen driving eastbound through the Fred Meyer parking lot. Police ask anyone with information about the case contact them. -- Samantha Matsumoto 503-294-4001 markohatfieldcourthousebeth.jpg Cory Jaques, 39, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Portland on Wednesday to six and a half years in federal prison for conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute heroin. (Dave Killen|Staff) A Portland man who became addicted to prescription oxycodone and turned to less expensive heroin to feed his habit burned through a $100,000 inheritance from his grandmother before he got caught in a federal drug-trafficking investigation. On Wednesday, Cory Allan Jaques, 39, accepted a plea agreement that will send him to prison for six and a half years, one of 23 defendants charged in the investigation. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute heroin and possession with intent to distribute heroin. Cory Jaques Prosecutors had evidence that he sold between three and 10 kilograms of heroin to a federal informant from June 2014 through January 2015. During that time, he received a monthly supply of more than 20 ounces of heroin from traffickers to distribute. Jaques was convicted in 2012 in Washington County of selling heroin, but had resumed distribution when agents from the U.S. Drug and Enforcement Administration began tracking him and a wider drug-trafficking operation in 2014. His co-defendants are accused of smuggling heroin from the state of Nayarit in Mexico into the United States and distributing it throughout the Portland area. Heroin was delivered to Jacques, and he sold it to others. Prison terms for co-defendants have ranged from three years to more than 12 years. "I was a slave to heroin,'' said Jaques, standing before the judge and dressed in a jail uniform of gray sweatshirt and tan pants. "I take full responsibility for my actions. My addiction controlled me. I apologize to all the people that I hurt.'' His attorney called Jaques a "poster kid'' for heroin. According to the Oregon Health Authority, more drug poisoning deaths in Oregon involve prescription opioids than any other type of drug, including alcohol, methamphetamine, heroin and cocaine. Heroin is the second-leading cause of fatal overdoses in the state. Jaques, who grew up in Tigard, started off using oxycodone, legally prescribed after he suffered an on-the-job injury in 2010 while working as a pipe layer and framing carpenter, according to court records. He was treated for a bulging disc and a tear in his lumbar spine. He got addicted to the high dose of pain medication. When workers compensation wouldn't cover treatment at a pain management clinic, he switched to heroin because heroin was cheaper, his lawyer Mark Bailey said. He had lost all of his possessions and said he was glad he got arrested on federal charges, his lawyer said. While in custody, he's learned how to be a cook and a barber and has started a nightly inmate group that gathers to read from the book "The Purpose Driven Life" and the Bible. "I think the most important thing is Cory's alive,'' his mother, Leslie Bielefeld, told U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones. "He has absolutely nothing left, but we're glad we have Cory back.'' She told a federal judge she just wanted to hug her son, that she hasn't been able to do so for two years. "You can do that right now,'' Jones told her. Bielefeld stepped up to her son, pulled him close, embraced him with tears streaming from her eyes and told him, "I love you." Jones said Jaques must be punished for his crimes, but urged him to continue to seek treatment and put his addiction behind him. -- Maxine Bernstein mbernstein@oregonian.com 503-221-8212 @maxoregonian Daily traffic Thursday might very well be the coldest morning of the this very cold week. Temperatures around Portland ranged from 16 at the Hillsboro airport to 23 at Cedar Hills to 19 in Oregon City. Cold, everywhere. The low dew point and breezy conditions helped keep out any freezing fog and the roads have stayed mostly dry. Remember any "wet-looking" spots are going to be ice. If you're waiting on public transportation, bundle up. Bikers, walkers and joggers should do the same. Exposed skin is going to suffer in these temps. INNER SOUTHWEST 8:25 a.m.; Stalled TriMet bus on Southwest Macadam Avenue northbound before the Ross Island Bridge. Two left lanes are blocked. *** SOUTHEAST PORTLAND 8:01 a.m. Non-injury crash reported on Southeast 130th Avenue south of Mill Street. *** TUALATIN 7:47 a.m.; Crash with a fuel spill Southwest Tualatin Road at 115th Avenue. *** EAST VANCOUVER 7:45 a.m.; Traffic incident on the right shoulder SR 14 westbound after 164th Avenue. Some slowing in that area. Update 8 a.m.; Both lanes now open. Still police in the right emergency lane. *** TRIMET MAX LINES 7:40 a.m.; Seeing some heavy complaints about late and non-arriving MAX trains. No official word from TriMet. Bundle up and expect delays. Update 8:08 a.m.; TriMet reports (via Twitter) that one Yellow line train was pulled from service this morning due to a mechanical issue. Other lines have reported delays as well. Expect 20 min waits. *** NORTH PORTLAND 7:30 a.m.; Injury crash involving a pedestrian on North Villard Avenue and Willamette Boulevard on the bluff. *** Landslide on U.S. 20 near Toledo TOLEDO OREGON 6:53 a.m.; A landslide is blocking a lane of U.S. 20 east of Newport near the town of Toledo. Expect delays. Update 8:20 a.m.; The landslide has closed U.S. 20 one mile west of Toledo (milepost 5.5) and is blocking both lanes of travel. The road is expected to be closed for most of the morning as crews clear the slide debris. Travelers should avoid the area or consider using alternative routes such as OR 34 south of U.S. 20 or OR 18 to the north. Update 8:50 a.m.; A local detour is in place for passenger vehicles only at Southeast Bay Boulevard to Southeast Moore Drive. *** Road work in Vancouver: Drivers in both directions on Northeast 18th Street, between 112th and 107th avenues will alternate through a single lane through Friday, Jan. 6 as crews do irrigation and landscape work. Expect delays 6 a.m.-6 p.m. Interstate 5 is now open from Ashland to the California border after the dumping snow storm Tuesday-Wednesday. Also U.S. 20 over the Santiam Pass has opened following an avalanche on Wednesday. Travel carefully and use the required traction devices as roads are still snow-covered and hazardous. Check back throughout the morning for the latest commuting updates and follow us on Twitter: Keep stockpiling your extra blankets and sweaters, Oregonians -- cold and snowy weather is expected to persist through Thursday and into the weekend. Portlanders won't see precipitation until Saturday afternoon, when a slight chance of snow is likely to quickly turn into freezing rain, but conditions will stay very cold, according to the National Weather Service. Temperatures will drop into the low to mid-20s on Wednesday night and stay close to freezing Thursday, meteorologist Colby Neuman said Wednesday afternoon. Despite the cold and looming threat of freezing rain, Portland's had it pretty easy compared with the rest of the state. Snowfall totals Wednesday ranged from 1 to 5 inches in the Willamette Valley. Nearly 51/2 inches fell south of Eugene. In southern Oregon, as much as 2 feet fell between Tuesday and Wednesday in some areas, according to the National Weather Service in Medford. Nearly 81/2 inches fell at the Medford airport Tuesday, the weather service said. The coldest low temperature was near Christmas Valley south of Bend, where it dropped as low as 8 degrees below zero. Power throughout parts of the state was lost because of the weather. Pacific Power reported about 12,000 customers remained without power Wednesday afternoon in southern Oregon and northern California. Some may not have their power restored until Friday, the company said. More than 4,200 Portland General Electric customers had no power Wednesday afternoon, with more than 1,500 remaining in the dark into the night. Snow showers may linger Wednesday night in some parts of the state, Neuman said. In eastern Oregon, snow will fall overnight, and temperatures are expected to drop below freezing, he said. Snow is expected turn to freezing rain in southern and eastern Oregon over the weekend, Neuman said. Travel conditions across the state were difficult Wednesday and will likely stay that way during the next few days, meteorologists said. Avalanches closed U.S. 20 west of Santiam Pass for several hours. Even after it reopened, Oregon Department of Transportation officials advised people to travel with caution. "I'm advising anybody who is thinking of traveling over the pass to postpone their travel," ODOT spokesman Lou Torres told The Oregonian/OregonLive. "Between heavy snow and other conditions, the visibility is poor. ... Right now, not only do you have icy and snowpack roads, you have a lot of fresh snow coming down." Interstate 5 southbound into California was closed Wednesday morning at Ashland because of snow-covered roads and hazardous driving conditions. Shortly before 11 a.m., a limited number of vehicles were permitted on the freeway into California. As the cold sticks around for the next few days, Neuman advised people to pay attention to the forecast and plan around the weather. "It's not going to improve a lot over the next day or two," he said. "It's still going to be pretty cold." -- Samantha Matsumoto 503-294-4001 Larry the cat spotted out in new 'Brexit' Union flag collar Larry vs Palmerston: By Helena Horton4 January 2017The TelegraphLarry the cat has been spotted on Downing Street in a new collar.Having been snapped for the first time since Christmas, it appears the new decoration could be a Christmas present.Many online have joked that it could mean the political puss supports Brexit, or that it could have been a gift from Theresa May, who left him in the Number 10 offices over the festive break.However, a Number 10 spokesperson told The Telegraph that all Larry's costs are met by staff members, which implies the collar was most probably a gift from a kind civil servant.Fans of Larry the cat were shocked to hear he spent Christmas working, and as did his rival mouser Palmerston of the Foreign Office.The Telegraph was told "there will be staff in Number 10" over Christmas, but failed to comment on whether were any Christmas treats for Larry.This collar could be evidence that the puss was pampered over the festive period, after all.As of December 2016, there are now five political felines in Westminster.Ossie and Evie were adopted by the Cabinet Office to tackle the mouse problem in Government offices.A spokesperson said: "The cats are named Evie after Dame Evelyn Sharp, the first female permanent secretary, and Ossie after Sir Edward Osmotherly, author of the Osmotherly Rules, the guide that civil servants have when giving evidence to parliamentary select committees.The place is now over-run with animals, as a week prior to this Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond moved his dogs into 11 Downing Street, where he lives with his wife.A source told The Telegraph he locks his dogs away to protect them from ferocious Larry.The dogs are not free to roam around the house. The cat is all over the place, said one friend. Larry fights, he is pretty feisty. The dachshund is pretty small and I am not at all sure if it really came to a punch up who would come off best. Very sad story with a possible sexually abusive step father. the video is heartbreaking and can be found on the internet for those interested.A Polk County girl died on Dec. 30 after she was found by emergency officials with self-inflicted wounds outside her home and police are investigating reports she live streamed the act.According to Polk County Coroner Tony Brazier, Katelyn Nichole Davis, 12, of a Silver Creek address in Polk County, was pronounced dead at Polk Medical Center's Emergency Room after officials tried to save her after she was first found around 6 p.m. on Dec. 30, 2016.He said her body had been sent to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's Crime Lab for an autopsy.Det. Kristen Hearn said the Polk County Police Department is obtaining search warrants for Davis's phone, Facebook account and a third social media site after unconfirmed rumors were reported the incident was recorded by the phone on a live streaming website.She said she will seek the warrants on Tuesday to be able to get into the phone and confirm if the rumors are true.Hearn said the investigation remains open and further details would be forthcoming.Davis was a Cedartown Middle School student according to Polk School District Superintendent Darrell Wetheringtononline diary was taken down but here's a recap from someone that read it:I read all of the diary, sad stuff. It wasn't very long, just a few entries over about a week, the last one being on the eve on Dec 27th, 3 days before her death.She talked about being dumped by her boyfriend who she still loves dearly and is trying to find him, she even reaches out to anyone who reads her blog for any information on his whereabouts. Random.She also talks about her illness, medication, cutting herself - wants to know if there's a safer way to release pain but is equal to the satisfaction of cutting yourself. Fukk.She talks about her home life, how poor her family is, how wrecked her home is, constant leaks, mould, dampness and how she sleeps on a mattress.Then finally, she talks about her a$$hole stepdad who i don't think lived with them, but every time he came over, gave her and her siblings a bad time - tried to rape her, and touched her and her siblings, doesn't want to tell her mom, she hates her.She talks about how she hates this time of year (Christmas) because that's when she usually sees the step dad, oh, the stepdad also told her to "stop being a whiny little bitch and go kill yourself" when she complained about the abuse and threatened to tell her mom.her instagram: On Sept. 7, 1974 Mary Ann LaMott was watching the Miss America contest at the apartment of Lee Welch, a young man she had been dating. He had an apartment on Orchard Drive with roommates Carlos Salamanca and Joel Sager. Halfway through the program, Mary Ann asked Lee to take her home. She was having a migraine attack and wanted to be alone, without company. Lee and Mary Ann got in her Camaro with his folks Shirley and Ed Welch following in their car so Lee would have a ride home. With her head resting on the back of the seat she saw a deer jump over the hood of the car on M-20 as they headed for Mary Anns where she lived with her mother, Anna LaMott. Lee said, You should really put your engagement in the paper. Mary replied, Who am I going to marry? Lee said, Me. Mary said, Anything. Just take me home. As Lee and Mary Ann walked up to the door, Lee said, Just a minute. And he reached down and took her hand. He said, A handshake is more binding than a kiss. Mary Ann went into the house and Lee got in the car with his mom and dad and drove away. The next day Lee came to the LaMott home to see how Mary Ann was feeling. Mary Ann said, I was still asleep and in bed, getting over the migraine. Mom came into the bedroom and said that Lee was there to see me. I got out of bed and went to the living room to see him. I didnt know that he had asked her permission to marry me. He was sitting down, eating peanuts out of a dish on the end table. I asked him if they were good and he said they were sort of bland. I said it was probably because Mom had sucked all the chocolate off and put the peanuts back in the dish. She couldnt chew peanuts. Lee got up from the chair and gave Mary Ann a sculpture of his hands holding a pewter cup with a candle in it and a card. The card read, For making me the happiest man in the world. I damn you to an eternity of happiness. Anna came out of the bathroom and asked Mary Ann what she said to his proposal? Now Mary Ann found out that Lee had asked for her hand in marriage two weeks before he proposed to her. Surprised, Mary Ann said, You did? And he said yes. Mom said, He fits like an old shoe. Hes very comfortable. Mary Ann said, He fell in love with my mom and thats why he proposed to me. But before meeting and becoming engaged to Lee Welch, Mary Ann LaMott grew up as next to the youngest child of Frank and Anna (Beck) LaMott. Married in Mount Pleasant on Nov. 24, 1924, Frank and Anna LeMott had their first two children there: Ella was born Feb. 23, 1926 and Jack was born on Sept. 30, 1928. Frank and Anna moved to a house on Chippewa River Road where six more children were born. Joanne was born April 27, 1933. (Joanne and her husband Denny Lyons owned the successful Soup n Stuff Restaurant on M-20 for years.) Roberta (Bobbie) was born May 9, 1940. (She was employed at The Midland Daily News until she retired and moved to Florida.) Sally was next, born on November 3, 1944 and became the family caregiver in many ways. Chuck was born April 10, 1946, Barry on July 7, 1948 and Mary Ann was born Feb. 2, 1950. The LaMott home stood where the Midland Iron Works later had their business office. The LaMott family moved from their home on Chippewa River Road to a house on M-20 just past Six Mile Road which was better known as Dices Corners. Frank LaMott rode the Mercury Bus Lines which traveled from Mount Pleasant to Midland where they let the riders off at The Dow Chemical Company. Mary Ann and her brother Barry would wait for their dad and when he got off the bus he would have a surprise for them in his dinner pail. Men on the bus would give him whatever they had left over from their lunch so he would have something to give Mary Ann and Barry. Mary Ann said, He would pick me up and put me on his shoulders and I would take his flat-billed cap off and pat his head. Thursday night was the day the Dow employees were paid and the LaMott family would walk down to Dices Corners to the Jones Market for groceries and a treat. Each child got a nickel to spend on whatever they wanted. Mary Ann said, Dad told me if I bought a candy bar I would eat it and it would be gone. If I bought a package of Necco Wafers, I would have something to last me all week. Frank LaMott died on Jan. 28, 1954 and Mary Ann turned 4 on Feb. 2, 1954 but she had a vivid memory of the day he died. He had been shoveling snow before going into Dow to get his paycheck. When he came home, he said he didnt feel good and he went in to lay down on the bed. The next thing Mary Ann remembers is standing on the stair landing looking out the window and seeing an ambulance drive up to the house. They were living in Midland by now in a house on Grove Street. Frank LaMott was 51 when he died Jan. 28 , 1954 from a cerebral hemorrhage. Mary Ann said, When my mother came home from the hospital it was dark out. Jack was behind her and she was crying. I went to her and put my head in her lap. After Frank died and school ended, the family moved to North Five Mile Road in a house that Tony Furst owned. There were two bedrooms, a garage and a utility room and a cistern. They couldnt play near the cistern because they might fall in. The boys slept in the sun porch in trundle beds. Sally, Patty (adopted) and Bobbie slept in one bedroom. Mary Ann slept with her mother. Rent was $40 a month. A cookstove and a pot bellied stove sat in the kitchen. An oil burner heated the living room and the bedrooms. The oil burner didnt keep the temperature warm enough for sleeping and Anna put bricks in the hot oven and then wrapped them in a towel before putting them in the beds for warmth. Anna LaMott got a job working at Youngs Market. Nicholas Beck, Annas father, lived in a house across the road from Youngs Market. Today a trailer park is there. This ends Part I. Part II will continue in two weeks. The following list includes recent reports from the Midland County Sheriffs Office and the Midland Police Department. Wednesday, Jan. 4 1:08 a.m. A motorist was arrested at East Ellsworth and George streets for drunken driving, improper plate and driving without insurance. 4:14 a.m. Police cited a driver for a license violation at Isabella and West Main streets. Tuesday, Jan. 3 5:30 a.m. Police were called to a Swede Avenue address for a domestic assault. 7:50 a.m. Gasoline, valued at $20, was stolen from a gas station in the Village of Sanford. 9:07 a.m. A deputy discovered a ditch in a Jerome Township ditch, and the driver was cited for allowing an unregistered vehicle to be driven on a roadway. 9:54 a.m. Police assisted probation and parole agents in the 200 block of West Ellsworth Street. 11:55 a.m. Police investigated a case of fraud in the 2500 block of North Saginaw Road. 4:15 p.m. Police investigated a hit and run crash in the 900 block of Joe Mann Boulevard. 6:32 p.m. Police investigated a case of fraud in the 2500 block of North Saginaw Road. 8:58 p.m. A deputy responded to a report of a drunken driving in Jerome Township and found an elderly driver who was lost. The driver was guided home. 9:42 p.m. A Saginaw County man, 30, was arrested in Ingersoll Township for driving while his license was revoked and unregistered vehicle. Monday, Jan. 2 11:08 p.m. A motorist was arrested at North Saginaw Road and Drake Street for driving on a suspended license. To the editor: Unrelenting instances of international terrorism appear to be the new, horrific normal. Many perpetrators of these violent acts are young, single, jobless and joyless males who adhere to a pathological version of righteousness. These murderers all have mothers though. If the women in the nations where these alienated fanatics were raised had more say within their own families, more sway within their own societies about parental roles and positive child rearing, perhaps their sons would not feel ostracized or be drawn to barbaric cults as a way to demonstrate their virility, their lifes purpose or their value in the world. Terrorists need psychiatric treatment; they suffer from severe psychosis how else to explain their warped world vision or their unending slaughter of innocents? If mothers were sanctioned to nurture and constructively guide their children, how many boys would then turn their backs on society and become mass butchers? Terrorism it starts in the home. All cultures need to provide mothers the ability, the prestige and the resources to raise respectful kids and not savage killers. Women mothers especially, if given the chance and the responsibility have the power to change the world. MARSHA RADULOVICH Lincoln Township Setting himself up to be taken out of authority early by the Pentagram.The good news is all the hardware like tanks and artillery pieces can be left to guard the EU banks from the EU people should the EU ever suffer a revolt (when haven't they been involved in some revolt somewhere?)It's poverty at it's lowest levels, that is why he is so unpopular, zero profit for the elite.Let's say it can be done in 10 years. For the US to be able to have reliable customers to export to it has to be a product they can't get anyplace else and at a cost lower than the competition is, if they exist. If they exist they will resist losing a customer base. America could see it as the 'moon mission', and all the new products invented along the way are in use today or have led to new products.Quake proofing an elevated highway would call for a steel shell enclose all the concrete. It might be possible to reduce that to straps of webbing can be used at the joints and securing them prevents the total collapse of the roadway.Who is the clown behind him? If the rest of his crew dresses like that we are all in a lot of deep trouble. With the unwrapping of a New Year comes the unveiling of a new crop of art shows and exhibits at area galleries. Following is a preview of what's on tap in the weeks ahead. McLean County Arts Center Three exhibits will open Friday in the McLean County Arts Center, 601 N. East St., Bloomington, followed by a combined reception for the shows' artists from 5 to 7 p.m. Jan. 20. In the Armstrong Gallery, through Feb. 25, is "Thin Deep Ribbon photography of the sky," featuring the work of Illinois State University professor of art Scott Rankin. Through years of photographing the sky, both from the ground in from airplane seats, Rankin has been drawn to constantly changing depths, colors, forms and sensations. The exhibit presents clouds creating abstracted space. Rankin will discuss his work in a free Art Talk at 6 p.m. Feb. 3. In the Brandt Gallery, through Feb. 18, is "point|line|shape|form," a group show featuring the works of five Illinois artists who outline the basic principles of geometry, defining spaces with lines and planes, isolating composition with color and creating movement and visual vibrations. Featured is the photography of Juan Fernandez, the metal-point drawings of Jonathan Higgins, the wall constructions of Mark Holmes, the linear prints of Travis Janssen and the stretched acrylic drawings of John Nelson. The artists will discuss their work during the Jan. 20 reception, at 6 p.m. In the MCAC's Sales Gallery, through Feb. 25, is "Lost & Found," featuring the photography of Peoria artist Chrissy LaMaster, whose examination, dissection and manipulation of family photographs serve as the exhibit's basis. University Galleries Illinois State Universitys 2017 MFA Biennial will open Jan. 14 at the University Galleries' new location in Normal's Uptown Station. Continuing through Feb. 15, the show is held every two years and features art by all students currently pursuing a master of fine arts degree in ISUs School of Art. Works in various media by 17 candidates will be on view during regular galleries hours: noon to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday and Wednesday through Friday, and 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday. A reception will be 5 to 7 p.m. Jan. 24. Merwin & Wakelely Galleries Two new shows open Jan. 19 in Illinois Wesleyan University's Merwin and Wakeley Galleries. "Hang Ups," in the Merwin Gallery through Feb. 23, features the work of Champaign-based painter and printmaker Eric Cain. Cain's paintings combine concepts of deception, illusion and trickery to capture the state of human instability. He will discuss his work in an Artist Lecture at 4 p.m. Jan. 14 in room 218 of IWU's Ames School of Art. "Now and Then," in the Wakeley Gallery through Feb. 23, features work of Chicago-based painter, printmaker and educator George Liebert. Beginning with traditional plein air studies, and filtering them through digital and print media before incorporating them into his paintings, Liebert examines the longing for, and alienation from, nature. Liebert will present a gallery walk of his work at 4:30 p.m. Jan. 19. Joe McCauley Gallery In the Joe McCauley Gallery at Heartland Community College in Normal, the new offering is "Amy Wolf: Steady as She Goes," opening Jan. 17 and continuing through March 3. Featured will be Wolfe's mixed media and found objects constructions. A reception for the artist will be from to 5:30 p.m. Feb. 16. The gallery is located in Heartland's Instructional Commons Building 2507, and is open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays. Pontiac Community Art Center The January gallery show at the Pontiac Community Art Center in Pontiac is "Wood to Paper," opening Thursday and continuing through Jan. 29. The show is a collaboration between local artists Pam Beeson, a photographer, and Jim Woodburn, a wood craftsman. Both artists share a love for modern rustic, wide open spaces and Longhorn cattle. Winter hours for the art center, located at 103 W. Madison St., are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday. GILMAN An Arkansas man faces attempted murder and weapons charges after police said he shot a Chicago man Tuesday night at a Gilman truck stop and fled the scene in a semitrailer truck. Jason Sanders, 36, of West Memphis, Arkansas, was formally charged Thursday with attempted murder, aggravated battery with the discharge of a firearm, aggravated discharge of a firearm and unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon. He remained at the Iroquois County jail in lieu of posting $1 million, according to court records. The victim, who was shot twice in the torso, remains in stable condition at Carle Hospital in Urbana. A motive for the shooting has not been released. Following the incident, which was reported about 9:30 p.m., Illinois State Police spotted the southbound truck on Interstate 57 near Champaign, prosecutors said. Champaign County sheriffs deputies and Champaign city police officers assisted state police troopers with the arrest, and he was taken into custody without incident. Those brave officers put their lives on the line, said state police Director Leo P. Schmitz in a news release. They knew the man had a gun and they knew he had already shot someone. "These police officers did what officers across the country do every day. They ran toward a situation, putting themselves in danger to protect innocent citizens. Their professionalism and dedication to protecting others ensured this incident ended quickly and without anyone else getting hurt. GILMAN Police in Iroquois County are investigating a shooting at the Pilot Travel Center in Gilman. Police said a victim whose name was not disclosed was shot twice in the upper torso about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday in the parking lot. When police arrived, the victim was inside the store and was taken to Iroquois Memorial Hospital in nearby Watseka. The man was later transported to Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana where he was listed in stable condition on Wednesday, according to the Iroquois County Sheriffs Department. Later, Illinois State Police located a man driving a semitrailer truck in Champaign County and described him as a person of interest in the investigation. BLOOMINGTON Prosecutors in McLean and Peoria counties are continuing their review of possible charges including felony murder counts against a man accused of kidnapping two Normal men, including one who later died of injuries he suffered during the incident. Danny Smith Jr., 28, of Peoria is charged in Peoria County with the Dec. 22 kidnapping of Maunds Bryant, 41, and his stepfather from their home in the 100 block of West Raab Road, Normal. Bryant died in a Peoria hospital on Dec. 25 of injuries he suffered in a fall at his home during the abduction, according to police. Peoria County State's Attorney Jerry Brady said Wednesday that "both counties are still reviewing what, if any, felony murder charges to bring." Smith remains in Peoria County jail in lieu of $300,000 bond on aggravated kidnapping charges. McLean County State's Attorney Jason Chambers said the investigation into Bryant's death is ongoing. The scope of the investigation into what was initially a home invasion and kidnapping case expanded after the victim's death, said Chambers. With the suspect held on felony charges, no deadline exists for filing new charges, said Chambers, adding, "We will be filing charges in McLean County." Authorities believe there may be a connection between the kidnapping and a lottery prize won by the victims' family in the summer. Smith did not mention the winnings when he allegedly forced his way into the Normal home at gunpoint, but he did demand an undisclosed ransom from Bryant's mother. She did not call police after Smith left with Bryant and Bryant's stepfather in her vehicle because the suspect threatened to harm the men if she summoned officers, said Normal police. The stepfather was able to escape from a home in Peoria where he and Bryant were taken, said police. Peoria police received a call from the stepfather, who had run to a nearby house. Officers found Bryant unresponsive in the basement of a house in the 800 block of West Kettelle Street, Peoria. Police said no apparent connection has been found between Smith and the two Normal men. It also is not known how Smith got from Peoria to Normal, said police. BLOOMINGTON A rise in flu cases in Tazewell and Peoria counties has prompted hospitals in those counties to ask young or sick visitors to stay away. Other Pantagraph-area hospitals had not enacted restrictions as of Wednesday but were monitoring the increasing flu activity. Hopedale Medical Complex in Hopedale, Pekin Hospital in Pekin and OSF Saint Francis Medical Center and UnityPoint Health-Methodist/Proctor, both in Peoria, announced Wednesday that effective immediately they are asking the public to voluntarily limit hospital visits. "This is a precautionary measure to protect patients, visitors and staff from spreading the flu and other upper respiratory illnesses," the hospitals said in a joint statement with the Tazewell and Peoria counties' health departments. The request came as the number of positive flu tests is increasing in the two counties. Hospital visitor restrictions happen when flu has been diagnosed throughout a region. The hospitals and health departments in Tazewell and Peoria counties are requesting that: Hospital visitors should be at least 18 years and older to minimize patient exposure to children who are at higher risk for transmission of viral infections and to protect children from getting sick. Individuals who aren't feeling well shouldn't visit hospitalized patients. All hospital visitors should wash their hands with soap and water or use alcohol-based hand sanitizer gel when entering and leaving a patient room. Everyone should cough or sneeze into their arm, shoulder or tissue to reduce the spread of germs. Representatives of other area hospitals said Wednesday that the level of flu activity in their areas didn't warrant visitor restrictions but they are monitoring the situation. The hospitals are Advocate BroMenn Medical Center in Normal, OSF St. Joseph Medical Center in Bloomington, OSF Saint James-John W. Albrecht Medical Center in Pontiac, Abraham Lincoln Memorial Hospital in Lincoln, Advocate Eureka Hospital in Eureka, Warner Hospital & Health Services in Clinton and Gibson Area Hospital & Health Services in Gibson City. St. Joseph and Saint James "are vigilantly monitoring influenza cases in the area and will make visitor restriction requests if necessary," said OSF spokeswoman Libby Allison. So far this flu season, there have been five confirmed flu cases at Saint James and 21 at St. Joseph, Allison said. "We have not seen a high level of influenza at the hospital or in the community yet so we do not feel the need to impose additional visitor restrictions at this time," said Advocate BroMenn Infection Preventionist Pam Bierbaum. "As always, we discourage anyone from visiting at the hospital if they exhibit any symptoms of illness and support ... good hand hygiene and proper cough and sneeze control to prevent catching or spreading illness," Bierbaum said. If 2016 taught us anything at all, it's that hatred is alive and well. If 2017 can teach us anything at all, it's that hatred must be addressed and discussed. Easy? No, but nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty," said President Theodore Roosevelt. With that in mind, we call upon Central Illinois its leaders, business owners, teachers, families, ministers, visitors to focus on eliminating hatred: Call it out. Report it to authorities, confront speakers, take a stand. But also listen. Several weeks ago, during a public meeting hosted by the local Black Lives Matter organization, a teen-aged boy said he believed he'd been singled out because of the color of his skin. Emotions ran high during that meeting, but what prompted the teen's feelings should not go unheeded. If someone feels victimized, we must listen to what they say, determine what made them feel that way, and then work toward a common solution. Combating hatred only will work when both sides respectfully listen and discuss the root of the issue before agreeing to accept a decision. A recent story by the Arlington Heights Daily Herald shared an interesting way that racism was fought at Warren Township High School after racist graffiti was found on bathroom stalls. The idea? Have students write kind messages on sticky notes and post them on all 2,500 student lockers. A school board member in upstate New York, who used racist comments to make New Year's wishes involving President and Mrs. Obama, was ordered to quit, or his seat would be forwarded to a state agency to be filled. In writing about the New York controversy, a Washington Post editorial said "the best response to racism is to call it out, loudly and by name." We agree. The local chapter of the anti-racism group Not in Our Town which celebrated its 20th anniversary last summer, has a visible presence on Facebook, but needs more public support and visibility. Reasonable discussion is key, but it can be a hard and sometimes vicious road. The Southern Poverty Law Center offers six steps to speak up against everyday bigotry once you've first assessed your physical and emotional safety: Be ready: Think of yourself as the one who will speak up and use an open-ended question to start the discussion. Identify the behavior: Avoid labeling, name-calling and the use of loaded terms. Appeal to principles: Talk about the person's better instincts. Set limits: Draw a line on what you will tolerate, and then follow through by leaving or asking for the person to respect your wishes. Find an ally/be an ally: Seek out like-minded people and work together. Be vigilant: Change happens slowly. Stay prepared, and keep speaking up. Graphic Packaging Appoints Joe Yost as Senior Vice President and President, Americas Joe Yost Jan. 5, 2017 - Graphic Packaging International, Inc. today announced the appointment of Joseph P. Yost as Senior Vice President and President, Americas. He will have responsibility for the food and beverage commercial and converting organization within the Americas. Yost's career with Graphic Packaging spans over 27 years and includes roles such as SVP, Global Beverage and Europe; Chief Integration Officer & European CFO; and SVP, Global Supply Chain. "Joe has been instrumental in our profitable growth and ongoing acquisition strategy within Europe," said President and CEO Mike Doss. "His deep experience within our industry makes him the ideal candidate to lead the Americas region." As a result of this structural change, Mike Ukropina, formerly SVP, Consumer Packaging Division, will leave the company. Graphic Packaging International, Inc., headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, is a leading provider of paper-based packaging solutions for a wide variety of products to food, beverage and other consumer product companies. To learn more, please visit: www.graphicpkg.com. SOURCE: Graphic Packaging International, Inc. The city of Plattsmouth is taking required "baby" steps in for a rebirth of the former Castaway Pointe residential area into a riverfront recreational area. The next step has Plattsmouth city planners considering a proposed redevelopment plan for the project. The plan proposes turning 28.5 acres on the east side of Plattsmouth and along the Missouri River into a commercial campground and marina recreational area. Having the Planning Commission study the proposal and return it with a recommendation to the Plattsmouth Community Development Agency is one of the next steps in the process of redeveloping the area. According to Plattsmouth City Administrator Erv Portis, sending the proposal to the city planners is one of many statutory requirements needed before actual work progresses at the site. Getting this ready for redevelopment is very complex, Portis said. Our intent is to take the 28.5 acres, convey them to a developer to turn into a commercial recreational campground with at least 150 RV pads. The city of Plattsmouth purchased the property for $1.5 million in 2014. The purchase ensured that any claims the former owners, Castaway Pointe LLC, filed against the city in 2010 regarding the property would be dismissed. Before the purchase, there had been $4.5 million in liens against the property. To fund the purchase, the city issued nearly $2.2 million in Economic Development Fund Bonds. After the purchase, the city began taking the necessary steps to redevelop the area. The first step was completing study on the feasibility of turning the area into a commercial campground and marina. The study was completed by David Gorin & Associates in March 2015. The feasibility study conducted for the city by David Gorin & Associates illustrates that the redevelopment of the project area will provide the city and its surrounding area with significant new recreational tourism and new retail activity, expanding both the tax base and employment opportunities within the city and the immediate area located outside of the boundaries of the area of the redevelopment project area, the plan states. The redeveloped acres would be a nice fit for the riverfront, which sits adjacent to the Schilling Wildlife Management Area operated/managed by the state of Nebraska. Following the feasibility study, the city had RDG Planning and Design of Omaha determine whether the property met criteria for a blight and substandard designation, a necessary step for use of Tax Increment Financing (TIF). To get that designation, the property must meet one or more of the objective criteria and one or more of the subjective criteria. This property qualified on several criteria and earned the designation in June 2016, Portis said. The next step was the preparation of a redevelopment plan and the plan must conform to statutory criteria. Last fall, the council approved annexing the 28.5 acres into the city of Plattsmouth, another step in a very complicated redevelopment process. To date, the property is zoned medium and high density residential. Before a redevelopment could occur, another step in the process is getting the zoning changed to General Commercial with a Planned Unit Development Overlay District. According to Portis, the planning commission will be looking over multiple pieces of this project, before a contract may be agreed upon between the city and a redeveloper. The next step is sending the proposed plan to the planning commission for a recommendation. If the plan is approved, the city council will subsequently hold public hearings on the plan. Next, the city council would make a decision on the redevelopment plan. If it is approved, the final piece would be to enter into a contract with a developer, Portis said. Cost of the project is estimated at $2.5 million. Initially, the redeveloper will start site excavation, fill, repair of infrastructure damaged by the 2011 flood, dredging of and improvements to the marina, sewer and water line improvements and connections. Site preparation will begin upon redevelopment contract approval, the plan states. In addition to the 150-plus RV pads, the plan includes construction of a few structures needed to support a commercial recreation campground and marina, such as a small bar/restaurant, limited liquor sales and marina gas and pump facilities. Some infrastructure upgrades will also be necessary. Although sanitary sewer mains exist within the East Main Street and Castaway Lane, additional extensions may be necessary throughout the project area, the plan states. Another step before redevelopment starts would be securing up to $400,000 in TIF for the redeveloper. The redevelopment of the project area is not economically feasible without assistance from tax increment financing because the current layout of the ground requires significant costs for acquisition, repair of existing flood-damaged infrastructure, site preparation and necessary public improvements including roads, trails, water, sanitary sewer, storm sewer, electricity, natural gas and telecommunications, the plan states. Our goal is for this project to be active as early as possible in 2017, he said. Comedian Aparna Nancherla's Twitter feed is a reminder of the power and versatility of the medium -- 140 characters missives packed with double entendres, social commentary, and self-reflection. Her observations, like "The epi-pen of female friendship is telling another lady she ain't crazy," are articulated with a clarity and simplicity that is easy to consume, but difficult to replicate. Her humor both on and off social media is witty and deadpan, while also emotional and vulnerable, spanning observations on how Sundays feel ("Walking the plank but you are holding a frittata the whole time") to her observations on dating and being single in New York City, to her experiences with depression. In 2016, she starred in a TV comedy special, released her new album Just Putting It Out There, went on tour, and co-hosted her web series Womanhood with Jo Firestone. We sat down with her to talk about recording her first album, the fluidity of stand up, and understanding your various selves as a performer. You've had a really busy year. Could you tell me a little bit about your writing process. Do you sit down and say, "Ok, now I'm going to write" or just whenever you have a new idea? It's kind of a mixture. When I'm walking around and out in the world, I'm constantly aware of things and jotting down ideas, and I tweet a lot. A lot of times, it'll be a little observation and then when I make the effort to sit down and write, I'll usually write kind of free form to start out and then after that, I'll work on specific jokes that need to be fleshed out more, or I'll look at some tweets that might be potential for bigger ideas or a longer joke. It's kind of a mish-mash of different things. How is the process different when you're collaborating, like for your web series with Jo Firestone? A lot of times we would have a shared Google Doc, and us and the director and producer would all add ideas to it, and a lot of that one was pretty improvised. It was just us riffing back and forth. When you're collaborating, it's more that you're bouncing ideas off each other and a lot of funny stuff comes from just talking it out. How do you think about writing on social media versus writing stand up? You mentioned that they're related in that you will revisit tweets when writing standup. They're related, in that tweets will generate the nugget of an idea, and in a longer piece you're able to explore it more. Twitter has a very specific language to it, and there are jokes that are very Twitter-specific. Whether it's a punctuation or a spelling thing that wouldn't necessarily translate out loud, or in a longer piece it might not make sense. As you use the medium more, you learn what your comfort zone is, or what you enjoy writing, and write towards that. But a lot of it does still feel collaborative, in that you're also reading other people's tweets, and a lot of times people will make the same joke about something. Also just structure and tone--sometimes I'll see a structure someone uses and I'll be like, "Oh I should try to write a joke like that!!" I read an interview where you were talking about the use of props, and how comedy can be more fluid than just a person on stage with a microphone. I'm curious what other mediums you have considered working into your stand up? I like to play with PowerPoint a lot. I think it's a funny way to translate an idea. I gravitated towards it because I had done a show in New York that's a mock debate where two teams of comedians debate a funny rivalry like "cats vs. dogs" or "cake vs. pie," and each team has to present an argument. Every time I've done it, I've used a PowerPoint, and I think I realized it's a funny way to make a point on stage. Anything where you can explore a topic in a different way appeals to me. I think some people are purists about stand up, and they're like "That's kind of the beauty about it, is that's all you need." But even just to entertain myself, I like to explore different things. You just put out your first comedy album. Did it feel different having a permanent record versus a live set? It did. I had always been hesitant to put out an album because it did feel permanent, and I never feel like I'm done with a joke; I feel like it's constantly in need of improvement, or can be tweaked in some way, or evolves as you evolve in your life. Tig Notaro, another comedian that I really look up to, asked if I would be interested in putting out an album under a new label she was starting, and it felt like I couldn't say no to that, so that was the kick in the pants to actually do it. I feel like a lot of comedians' first albums, and mine definitely felt like this, are a snapshot of all the stuff you've written up to the point that you record the album. It's less about one period in your life, and [instead] spans from when you're newer to where you are now. So, I think it's usually unique in that sense when you hear someone's first album, versus their second or third. I read in an interview that you don't like it when you know a lot of people in the audience because you feel like it's another version of yourself that's on stage. I'm wondering if you still feel that way. If so, how do you talk about that self with your close friends and family? I've learned to not be as self-conscious about it. I have realized that we do have different selves for different parts of our lives anyway, like you might be different around your family than your friends, and then you might be different around different groups of friends. [It doesn't mean that] you're being fake or superficial, just that you slightly adapt to the people you're around. I've categorized stand up and performing as another self I can inhabit and I don't worry as much that people will be like, "Oh, that's not what she's really like" or something. It doesn't feel like an [act], it's just like, "Oh this is just a different way that I can be, and that I found works for being up here." I like your standup bits when you talk about online dating. A couple of my friends somehow managed to find their soulmates within two or three dates on Tinder, but I always feel so alienated from the guys I match. They're always like, "Looking for a partner in crime to explore Bushwick with!" And it just sounds like they're really excited to gentrify or something. Do you have hope for online dating apps? I feel like it is a crapshoot. It's weird, in that the terms of dating, with apps and social media, have changed in terms of how much you can find out about someone, or how you can be flakier about making plans. There are so many more factors that you have to contend with. People think they have so many choices and they're not willing to commit to anything or anyone. So in that sense, it feels a bit daunting, but I think at the end of the day, the things that have worked before work now. If you do connect with a person, it transcends that culture and you still know pretty soon when you meet someone whether they're going to be a good fit for you. I think it does feel like you have to wade through a lot of not-great experiences to get to a good one, but I tend to be an optimist and want to retain my optimism, even if it is coded in a lot of cynicism. You wrote recently about the need for compassion in the face of Trump's bigotry. I'm curious how you think we should all start doing that, and what you're hoping to see from America. It could be small daily things or large structural changes. I think part of it does feel like day-to-day acts of kindness [are important]. In terms of the bigger picture, things are very much in flux right now, and I feel like there are two polarized parts of the country. We have seen that hate crimes have spiked since Trump got elected, but someone was telling me the other day, "Yeah, but even if Hillary had won, the same thing probably would have happened." And I was like, "Oh yeah, that's a good point." We've sort of come to a head on things that I don't think would have been resolved even if she had won. Not that that shouldn't have happened--that would still be preferable, but I do think there are issues that are going to take a long time to disentangle. And it feels like it has to start very locally, in your own community but also in local government instead of just hoping [change] will trickle down from the top, because I think we've found that doesn't work. Influential author and critic James Baldwin made his name exploring racial and social tensions of mid-20th century America. And while he has an exhaustive list of influential works, one manuscript, titled Remember This House, was never completed. A 30-page work that Baldwin left behind when he passed away in 1987, Remember This House was a personal account of his relationship with civil rights leaders like Malcom X, Martin Luther King and Medgar Evans. An incredible story, for sure -- so it only makes sense that legendary Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck would be the one to transform Baldwin's writing into a new documentary examining the evolution of race relations in America. Dubbed I Am Not Your Negro, the official synopsis describes the film as "a radical, up-to the minute examination of race in America", and will include Baldwin's original words. I Am Not Your Negro will be released in theaters on February 3 -- but until then, you can peep the trailer below. Parent Herald understands how important family time is, so they picked the best 2017 summer holidays for toddlers and babies. Here are their chosen baby-friendly summer destinations for 2017. Once children started walking and running, they are ready and all set to explore. These best holiday destinations will surely engross their young minds. Manoir La Croix de la Jugie This charming farmhouse located in Limousin, France offers a beautiful setting for family holidays, retreats and even weddings. It has a gated, heated pool, several games and six acres of grounds, making the break suitable for families with toddlers and newborns. In this holiday retreat setting, fathers are given more time to play and bond with their children assisted with a childcare support. Moms, on the other hand, are offered time for themselves like stretching, cardio, toning and Pilates. Mawgan Porth This pretty and serene beach sits in the unspoiled location for a relaxing, peaceful and pleasingly memorable holiday in Cornwall. This epic beach offers towering cliffs, stunning dunes, huge surf waves, a long stretch of fine yellowish sand and sea caves perfect for beach lovers. At the end of the town, there sits a family-centered and award-winning hotel known as Bedruthan Hotel. The hotel holds everything from children's clubs that include treasure hunts to silent corridors for newborns. A two-hour child care service is also included in the hotel price. Sani Hotel Beach Resort This beach resort in Greece offers clubs and creche, which are open for kids age 4 to 17. It also includes a unique Babewatch service at the beach and so parents can drop their children with nannies while they go for a swim in the sea. A car is also not necessary at this holiday destination as the Sani holds three hotels, marina, spa, 18 restaurants and three beaches. Holy Mama Yoga Retreat Ibiza This holiday destination is designed specifically for moms and their tots. In here, moms can do yoga every morning while the kids play with Montessori teachers. During lunchtime, the children are returned to their revitalized mommies and by afternoon, the whole family can explore and see the island. At the end of the stay, families will fly home with toned bodies and glowing skin. Simpson's Creche and Children's Club and the Periyali villas in Zakynthos Toddlers love beaches as there are so many things to do and explore in a beautiful beach. Simpson's Creche and Children's Club and the Periyali villas provide the opportunity for families with babies to have all their specific needs met. Children will love this place as the mood in here is of freedom and space, yet in a child-friendly and safe environment. A one week stay in a villa costs from 633 per person, based on four sharing, the Telegraph has learned. A family gateway is the best chance for parents to bond and relax with their children. In fact, a little break away somewhere is just what the doctor ordered, the Mother&Baby has learned. Choosing where to go should not be daunting, just opt for a place that is child-friendly, not too cold or hot for little children and includes all the things required for a memorable and comfortable stay. A six-year-old boy who has been missing since Saturday is believed to have been found by the authorities. Police said that they found the body of a child underneath the ice at a Colorado pond on Tuesday. The pond is located in Aurora, Colorado and a dive team searched the small pond at the Olympic Park the same day that the body was found. The missing boy was identified a David Puckett. USA Today reported that a K9 picked up the scent of the boy in the area on Monday evening and the search in the area was just a precaution, Aurora Police Chief Nick Metz said. During the search for Puckett, more than 150 people from different agencies have been deployed. They have been out since New Year's Eve after reports about Puckett went missing reached the authorities. He was last seen at around 4:30 p.m. near the 15700 block of East Amherst Place. Puckett's family looked for him for an hour before police were notified. He left their home after having an argument with one of his siblings and police were told that he had a history of wandering off. The Colorado Bureau of Investigation eventually issued an alert due to the time that the boy has been missing. The cold weather was also a factor in the alert. Metro Denver Crime Stoppers also offered a $10,000 reward to anyone who could give information about the whereabouts of Puckett. Authorities also said that they had no proof of reason to believe that the boy was abducted. Metz noted that the family of the boy being notified about the body that was found devastated them. Investigators have not determined yet if there was any foul play that led to the death of the boy. The coroner is yet to confirm the identity of the child, The Denver Channel reported. A friend of Puckett, Jake Trapp, seven, said that he is sad that the boy died. He was at the memorial to pay respects for Puckett and Trapp said he left his friend a stuffed animal, a note and a glow stick. The two attended Dartmouth Elementary together. A horrifying news recently surfaced in which four children at a Texas home died of pesticide poisoning. Along with the kids, six other people have severely suffered and are currently hospitalized. The reason for the tragedy is thought to be a poisonous gas, which was released when a pesticide was mixed with water. This pesticide had been sprayed on that house and as someone tried washing it away, the gas turned toxic, leading to 4 deaths and 6 in critical conditions. According to New York Post, this gas is believed to be phosphine, which can be a product of mixing the chemicals in pest control with water. No particular cause of the death has been disclosed yet for the four little children. In addition, it was reported that the six people affected by this poisonous gas are still not out of danger since their conditions were extremely critical. The captain of the Amarillo Fire Department, Larry Davis, said in an announcement that when the crews initially got the call about the incident at 5:00 in the morning, they believed the poisoning was due to the toxic gas, carbon monoxide. However, it was later discovered that this was not the case. Out of the four child deaths, one died right on the spot whereas the other three died in the hospital. As Washington Times explains, no information about these children has been released yet. Neither the ages of the children or their relation to each other has been told. Furthermore, no clues to identify the kids have been disclosed either. It is only known that they all lived in that house together. Davis also reported that the responders were taken to the hospital too to ensure that they had not suffered from the poisonous gas. Meanwhile, for more added information about the tragedy, watch the video below. For more news and updates, check out Parent Herald. A project that aims to promote gender equality and women protection has pushed for the involvement of Brazilian men in childcare to change their attitudes and make them better fathers. The ultimate goal of the program, however, is to engage Brazilian men in unpaid work like taking care of children, which is an important part of the campaign to end violence against women and promote gender equality. "To us, it seemed obvious that we needed to figure out more constructive ways to engage men on this topic," said Promundo CEO and founder Gary Barker. While women who are financially better off have lesser chances of being in a violent relationship in the long term, there is a chance that men may not be ready for that and may feel disempowered economically. "[Her partner] may be feeling economically disempowered, the power dynamic feels like it's shifting ... and in some settings and some relationships, men might not be ready for that," Barker added. Promundo addresses this problem by implementing in Brazil a project that trains government staff who administer the government's cash transfer program called bolsa familia. Under the companion project, the staff is trained on gender equality and shared care work strategies which they impart to the families especially to the men when administering the cash transfer program. The Guardian said around 93 percent of the beneficiaries of balsa familia are women. After encouraging the fathers to help the children with homework and to meet with school teachers, a hundred percent of the participants acknowledged that childcare was included in their responsibilities as opposed to only 75 percent before the implementation. HNV News said Promundo was also responsible for the successful campaign to entitle men to an increased paid paternity leave from only five days to 20 days. Promundo gets financial support from the World Bank, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other government sources. Brazil is one of the few countries in the global south to afford fathers to take a paid paternity leave. It is hoped that this will reduce the gap in the caregiving time between men and women as well as reduce the rate of gender-based violence. The State of the World's Fathers report from Promundo Global in 2015 shows the men spend only 10 hours and eight minutes in domestic work and care as opposed to the 22 hours a spent by women every week. While the results look promising, Barker admits there is a need to scale up the engagement of men from the households to the community level to make this more mainstream. Missouri residents will face the new year with new laws and one of which will make school fights among children a basis for the filing of serious criminal cases. Under the new law, students involved in bullying or in school fighting will not only be slapped with a suspension but can be held liable for felony charges, which carry a penalty of imprisonment of up to four years. Some legislators, however, claim that nothing has really changed as school fights are not specifically addressed by the new law. Instead, the new language of the law has changed the views of the state on assaults, which could affect students who are arrested by police officers based in schools. Rep. Elijah Haahr said the fines on felonies have always existed. Even though the new law will be applicable to students who are 17 years old and above beginning Jan. 1, 2017, Fox4KC reported that there is no telling if prosecutors will actually charge the student. But this could be a useful tool to discourage bullies in school and could also protect potential victims of bullying. Civil rights advocates, however, are opposing the new law as it only criminalizes children. St. Louis County's Hazelwood School District has already sent a letter to parents warning them that school fights can now be considered as Class E felonies, which according to Huffington Post, were only previously considered as misdemeanors. Ferguson-Florissant, another school, also released a video to explain the changes in the law. "If two students are fighting and one child is injured, the student who caused the injury may be charged with a felony," the school district explained. "Student(s) who are caught fighting in school, bus or on school grounds may now be charged with a felony (no matter the age or grade level), if this assault is witnessed by one of the School Resource Officers/police officers (SRO) or if the SRO/local law enforcement officials have to intervene." As per CBS News, a student who causes harassment and emotional distress can be guilty of bullying and can be charged with felony. With the new law, a simple fight can be a serious mark in the student's criminal record. But school officials assured parents that they do not want to punish children unnecessarily, saying they would just impose discipline in schools. The most important thing a soon-to-be mom should do is to make her body healthy by eating good food and engaging in healthy activities like exercising. It is an effective way to keep the little pumpkin growing inside healthy and strong. Unfortunately, a recent study showed that not all women can find motivation in keeping their focus on healthy habits, especially when it comes to burning calories. Based on the details gathered through the research, women who have experienced miscarriage or those who are overweight have the tendency of not engaging with exercise and have poor psychological health, Futurity reported. This result can be alarming especially that pregnant women who choose to not engage with exercise can have a higher risk for depression and anxiety. The study includes 113 women as their correspondents. Among them were 41 women who had a history of miscarriage and 72 women who were obese. The lead author of the study, Danielle Downs, a professor of kinesiology and obstetrics and gynecology at Penn State, explained that, with the results, it is obvious that women who experienced miscarriage "may not know about the benefits of exercise in their next pregnancy for managing their psychological health." That is why it is important to let them get informed that exercising safely can make them become healthier by helping them "manage anxiety and depressive symptoms." Raul Artal, M.D., chairman of the OB-GYN department at Saint Louis University in Missouri and lead author of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' guidelines on prenatal exercise, also explained through an interview posted in Fit Pregnancy that the real hazard is when a person gets no exercise at all. By not getting active, high blood pressure, aches or pains and gestational diabetes can manifest. Even babies inside them are likely to develop diabetes or could also become overweight. By doing a simple exercise or just by enjoying a 30 to 60-minute walk a day can promote a lot of benefits not just to the pregnant woman but also to her unborn child, Mayo Clinic posted. Positive effects of getting enough and safe exercising can help improve energy levels and boost one's mood. It can also help reduce sleepless nights, constipation, bloating, backaches and swelling. Julie Lyles Carr, an Austin blog writer and pastor of the women's ministry at Life Austin urges her followers to be a part of a beautiful mystery when parenting a child differently from the other siblings. The "Raising an Original" author and her husband, Michael have eight children with various temperaments. In "Raising an Original," Carr revealed the uniqueness of each twin from the other even before they were born Merci is relaxed while Jake is restless. According to KQED Science, twins may have the same set of DNAs but their genetic mutation is not perfect. Carr also explained that there are four categories of personalities: the director, the inspirer, the steadfast and the curator. Carr stressed that there are also people with a mixture of these personalities. Hence, respect for each individual and knowing each child for who she or he really is are important. In the home front, understanding different personalities and identities can be tough. But respect and love conquer them all. One or two house rules will do but lots of creativity and a room to grow are far more healthy and fun.In addition, an effective conversation can also be helpful. As an online blogger in Austin, Carr learns not to compete with magazine writers. Being judged on social media comes handy and in real time, she can only attest to her own experience and verify that with facts to be credible with her stories, just like in "Raising an Original." Honoring the difference in each child aids in developing them as a unique individual. If understanding is there, the challenges in parenting are minimized because nurturing young people according to their purpose is not going against nature. The choice to resist the tide or ride safely with it belongs to the parents, as per Austin 360. America's new president, Donald Trump, is set to assume office in a few weeks. Since his win in the elections, education has been singled out as one sector that could experience big changes, particularly on the matter of public schools. Liberals believe the government should advocate for students who are likely to have few opportunities in public education. This includes low-income families and rural households, minorities and special needs. If the federal government safeguards their interests and looks out for their welfare, then it's also accountable for the results. Thus over the years, the federal government has set up reform programs geared for the improvement of disadvantaged students' plight in public schools. Public education has seen a big push under President Obama's administration, according to PBS. It is believed to be one of Obama's lasting legacy for the American people. Some of these programs, however, failed in its goals. As a result, the accountability bore on the federal government. Hence, Congress stepped in to defund programs that saw little benefits or good results, as per U.S. News & World Report. This highlight why some are against federal government involvement in education because funds and efforts could be channeled in other areas of government service instead. Those who are against it are mostly conservatives who believe that states and districts should decide on education. They prefer minimal involvement and intervention from the federal government, thus accountability is left up to the states, the district, the schools and to some extent, the parents themselves. What this highlights is the importance of school choice for families. It also gives states and school districts much leeway in coming up with specific programs geared for its community, as opposed to generic federally-funded programs. Such a stance, however, brings up concerns from those who believe that there should still be federal government involvement to provide oversight and balance, as well as protect and improve public schools. It's a common argument that President-elect Trump and his Education secretary of choice, Betsy DeVos, who are both from the conservative party, will give little importance to public education in favor of charters and vouchers, according to The Prospect. There have also been talks of Trump doing away with the Education department's role in his government. This has been suggested many times in his election campaign. It opens up the big question of who would become accountable for these students whose families cannot afford charters and vouchers. In effect, the worry is that disadvantaged public school students will likely become more disadvantaged with the new administration as no one will be looking out for their welfare. Do you believe that this will be the case? Talk to us in the comments! A 52-year-old man from Murdock was arrested on a felony cruelty to animal charge Jan. 2, after officials found three dead and two malnourished horses on his property. Cass County Sheriffs deputies assisted by Nebraska Humane Society and Cass County Emergency Management Agency (CCEMA) responded to a call about neglected horses at 5206 322nd St. in Rural Murdock. The property is owned by 52-year-old Tim Tiedeman, who was subsequently arrested. CCEMA is working with the Department of Environmental Quality regarding the improper disposal of the dead horses. The humane society seized the two malnourished horses. A 17-year-old teenager was killed by a DuPage County sheriff's deputy on Sunday night near Villa Park. Authorities said Trevon Johnson argued with a deputy who responded to an emergency call involving violence and was later shot. His family rushed him to Elmhurst Memorial Hospital, where he died. Around 11:30 p.m. on Sunday, Trevon Johnson's sister called 911, begging them to send some police over their house because Trevon had a knife and was beating her harshly. On the recorded audio of the 911 calls, the sister was heard saying that Trevon put his hands on her, punched her in the head several times, broke the glass in their dining room and even threw their Christmas tree. DuPage County sheriff responded and went to Johnson's house after midnight. When the authorities arrived, the first deputy disputed with the teenager, who was prompting the officer to shoot him. Subsequently, the officer shot Johnson. Johnson's family brought him to Elmhurst Memorial Hospital but was later pronounced dead, the Chicago 5 has learned. He died because of multiple gunshot wounds, the DuPage County coroner reported. "This 17-year-old is the victim, make no mistake about it," Larry Rogers Jr., Johnson family's attorney, said to ABC7. The attorney added that the teen should not have been shot and killed in his home. Illinois State Police is now investigating the incident. Meanwhile, the shooter of the teenager is now on paid administrative leave, as announced by the sheriff's office and as per the policy of the department. Johnson was a working student and went to his uncle's church regularly to worship. His family described him as a young and full of energy kid. His uncle even said that he was "pleasant to be around." Meanwhile, for more related incidents, please watch the video below. For more news and updates, please follow Parent Herald. There's another tragic incident regarding trees falling after a girl died when a tree fell on their home in Oregon. The girl was a daughter of a firefighter. KGW reported the girl was identified as 8-year-old Zaylee Schlecht. North Lincoln Fire and Rescue said crews were dispatched at 11:13 p.m. on Tuesday as they received a call about a tree that fell on a home and a girl was trapped inside. The home was in Otis. Two adults and four children were inside the residential property where the tree fell and Schlecht was in a bedroom with another girl. Aside from Schlecht, no other person was hurt in the incident. A woman named Pam Farrar said that she had the children at her home when the tree fell and told them that their sister will be okay. She noted that she heard the tree crash and her home shook. Farrar added she then heard the mother of the children screaming for someone to call 911 as she was crying and talking about one of her kids being trapped under the tree. Schlecht was still taken to a hospital but did not survive her injuries. Zaylee was the daughter of Ryan Schlecht, who is a volunteer firefighter for the North Lincoln Fire and Rescue. He was not at the home when the tree fell as he was working but what was so tragic was the fact that he was among those who responded to the call regarding his daughter being trapped. North Lincoln Fire & Rescue Captain Jim Kusz said in a statement that he knows Ryan very well. Kusz added there has been "a great outpouring, from school districts, sheriff's office, and everyone else to get together and see what we can do to handle this." A GoFundMe page has also been set up to help the family with the funeral costs. ABC News reported that high winds were considered a factor in the tree falling incident. Around 18 firefighters responded to the scene and used chainsaws to cut through the tree. It was estimated that the tree was around 70 feet high and 42 inches wide. The downing of the tree also brought down power lines and other smaller trees in the area. The Lincoln County School District will also have counselors available at Taft Elementary School, where Zaylee attended her third-grade education. The counselors will be available on Thursday. This service applies to you if your subscription has not yet expired on our old site. You will have continued access until your subscription expires; then you will need to purchase an ongoing subscription through our new system. Please contact the Parsons Sun office at (620) 421-2000 if you have any questions Videos Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos. Some years ago, Child Evangelism Fellowship got in trouble for teaching children I Samuel 15:3 in their Good News Clubs. I Samuel 15:3Now go and strike Amalek and utterly destroy all that he has, and do not spare him; but put to death both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey. The Guardian described the lesson as follows: The CEF has been teaching the story of the Amalekites at least since 1973. In its earlier curriculum materials, CEF was euphemistic about the bloodshed, saying simply that the Amalekites were completely defeated. In the most recent version of the curriculum, however, the group is quite eager to drive the message home to its elementary school students. The first thing the curriculum makes clear is that if God gives instructions to kill a group of people, you must kill every last one: You are to go and completely destroy the Amalekites (AM-uh-leck-ites) people, animals, every living thing. Nothing shall be left. That was pretty clear, wasnt it? the manual tells the teachers to say to the kids. Even more important, the Good News Club wants the children to know, the Amalakites were targeted for destruction on account of their religion, or lack of it. The instruction manual reads: The Amalekites had heard about Israels true and living God many years before, but they refused to believe in him. The Amalekites refused to believe in God and God had promised punishment. The instruction manual goes on to champion obedience in all things. In fact, pretty much every lesson that the Good News Club gives involves reminding children that they must, at all costs, obey. If God tells you to kill nonbelievers, he really wants you to kill them all. No questions asked, no exceptions allowed. Asking if Saul would pass the test of obedience, the text points to Sauls failure to annihilate every last Amalekite, posing the rhetorical question: If you are asked to do something, how much of it do you need to do before you can say, I did it!? If only Saul had been willing to seek God for strength to obey! the lesson concludes. I never attended a Good News ClubI was homeschooled, and these clubs take place in public schoolsbut I grew up in an evangelical home and I remember this lesson. My mother would read the Bible aloud to us children each morning after breakfast, asking questions like the ones posed here to draw meaning out of the text. Child Evangelism Fellowship was not pleased with the heat it received. The story of Saul and the Amalekites (1 Samuel 15:3) is found in any version or edition of the Bibles of the Jewish, Catholic and Protestant faiths since the first manuscripts were inscribed. Only a misinterpretation of the cited passage could be used to buttress genocide (How Christian fundamentalists plan to teach genocide to schoolchildren, 30 May). The goal of Child Evangelism Fellowship is the proper teaching of this passage, which is not an instruction in genocide. Though truly many brutal acts appear in both the Old and New Testaments, including the torture and crucifixion of Jesus by the Romans, nothing could be more un-Christian than the promotion of genocide of any group of human beings under the New Covenant introduced to the world by Jesus Christ. CEF and the Good News Clubs would never teach children that God would instruct them, or anyone today, to commit genocide. There is so much going on here. While it is true that Jews, Catholics, and mainline Protestants all have this passage in their holy books, they do not all approach their holy books (or this passage) in the same way. Second and relatedly, it does not take a misinterpretation of the cited passage to conclude that God commanded and endorsed genocide. All it takes is the sort of straightforward reading evangelicals champion. The Jewish Virtual Library notes that Saul is commanded to exterminate the Amalekites in the context of the Amalekites having attacked the Israelites on their way out of Egyptin stark contrast to Child Evangelism Fellowship stating that the Amalekites were killed because they refused to believe in God. In addition, the entry concludes that Despite the pre-deuteronomic literary framework of [Samuel] chapter 15 and its prophetic-ideological aim, embedded in it is an ancient historical tradition about a war of extermination that reflects Sauls war against Amalek. Very brief googling makes it clear, too, that theres a lot more going on regarding the role the Amalekites playand have long playedin the Jewish origin story. Im extremely tired of evangelicals assuming that Jews share the same view of the events described in the books in the Old Testament that evangelicals do. They dont. The Jewish Torah might as well be a completely separate book, so great is the difference between Jewish and evangelical approaches and interpretations. As for the others, I wasnt able to find an official Catholic position online. However, I looked in my Catholic Study Bible and found this footnote: Under the ban: in such wars of extermination, all things (men, cities, beasts, etc.) were to be blotted out; nothing could be reserved for private use. The interpretation of Gods will here attributed to Samuel is in keeping with the abhorrent practices of blood revenge prevalent among pastoral, semi nomadic peoples such as the Hebrews had recently been. The slaughter of the innocent has never been in conformity with the will of God. This interpretation is common among both Catholics and mainline Protestants, who often look at the Old Testament as a combination of Gods attempts to reveal himself to a tribal people far different from our society today, and those peoples interpretations of Gods commands (which were not always accurate). But evangelicals of the Child Evangelism Fellowship mold are not comfortable with any of this. They argue that the Bible should be taken at face value. Yes, you have to understand the context and culture of the time, but if the Bible says God commanded something, no matter how horrific, God did indeed command it. Growing up in an evangelical home, I was taught that good and bad is defined by God, and that if he commands something it is de facto moral and right. At some point, though, I concluded that we cannot both have absolute moral standards (i.e. willfully taking innocent life is always wrong) and a moral system based on the idea that whatever God commands is automatically right or wrong. Today my moral system has more nuancetry squaring the belief that willfully taking innocent life is always wrong with the trolly problemand it can be strange, sometimes, to remember my mother reading aloud the story of the Amalekites. I have a Patreon! Please support my writing! Patna: A day after Congress leader and former Chief Minister of Punjab Amarinder Singh visited Patna Saheb Gurudwara to offer prayer to Guru Govind Singh, Punjab Chief Minister and the leader of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) Prakash Singh Badal arrived in Patna on Wednesday to pay his obeisance to the 10th Guru as part of the ongoing celebration to mark the 350th birth anniversary of the religious leader. Badal, whose party is part of the Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the center, was welcomed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar at his residence from where he was taken to the Tent City in Gandhi Maidan that also features a replica of the actual Gurudwara in Patna Saheb to accommodate more devotees. Badal bowed his head in respect of the Guru at the grand 'Durbar Hall' in Gandhi Maidan and also took part in the 'langar' to serve food to the visitors. "I am very pleased with the arrangement made by the Nitish Kumar government and the people of Punjab are very thankful to him for making their visit so pleasant and comfortable. The 'Khalsapanth' will forever be grateful to the Chief Minister who took personal interest in making sure no one was inconvenienced during their stay in Patna," Badal, the 90-year old leader from Punjab, said. Talking to the reporters at the Patna Airport, Badal exuded confidence in his party's landslide win in the upcoming state elections. "There is no competition to us in Punjab where our coalition will win more than three-fourth seats in the Assembly elections," he said adding Punjab was a peaceful state and Punjabis believed in communal harmony which, he said, will also lead to a peaceful election. Patna: More than a lakh people of different faith took part in the 'Nagar Kirtan', or religious procession, in Patna on Wednesday to mark the 350th birth anniversary of Guru Govind Singh, the 10th guru of the Sikhs. {gallery}newsimages2017/jan/010417{/gallery}The procession began at the Tent City at Gandhi Maidan and moved towards the Takht Shri Harmandir Saheb Gurudwara in Patna Saheb, a distance of nearly seven kilometers, on Ashok Rajpath along the side of Patna University colleges. With the Guru Granth Saheb, the religious book of the Sikhs, comfortably ensconced in a gold palanquin, the procession complete with bands, horses, camels, and elephants, was led by Panj Pyare, the collective name given by Guru Govind Singh to the five brave Khalsas who were the first one to receive Khanda di Pahul, or the rites of the two-edged sword. With hundreds of thousands of people standing by the side of the road to watch the colorful procession passing by, women wearing traditional Sikh attire were seen sweeping the road in honor of the Guru Granth Saheb. Even young Sikh girls carrying swords gave a distinct look to the procession as curious onlookers showered them with flowers and colored powders from balconies and roof tops. Following closely, the Nihang priests charmed the crowd with their eye-popping, yet extremely dangerous acrobatic skills involving traditional Sikh arms including swords and knives. Meanwhile, security arrangement around Gandhi Maidan and Ashok Rajpath all the way to the Gurudwara had been tightened to ensure no untoward incident took place. With security cameras at every nook and corner, armed policemen and security personnel were seen roaming on tall buildings keeping an eye below to provide a sense of security to those who have come to join the celebration from faraway places. Except for emergency vehicles like ambulances and police cars, the traffic on Ashok Rajpath has been barred to the general public for the next 24 hours. Patna: Prime Minister Narendra Modi who arrived in Patna on Thursday to take part in the ongoing celebration of the 350th birth anniversary of Guru Govind Singh, the 10th religious guru of the Sikhs, wasted no time in returning favor to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar showering him with praise for introducing prohibition in the state and organizing an event like 'Prakash Utsav' at this grand level. {gallery}newsimages2017/jan/010517{/gallery}As recalled, Kumar, going against the consensus within his own grand alliance made up of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Congress, had come out in support of the PM's controversial demonetization move saying he was in favor of any change that aimed to end corruption in the country. Speaking at Patna's Gandhi Maidan during his visit to the Tent City, a place to accommodate thousands of tourists while also doubling as a surrogate to the actual Gurudwara in Patna Saheb, a very patronizing Modi rained praise on the Chief Minister calling his decision to impose prohibition in the state a 'very bold and courageous step'. "Such decisions are not easy and even tougher to implement and yet, Mr. Nitish Kumar has shown immense courage in taking this bold step that would, in the end, help the people of Bihar. We must not forget that it is not only the job of the Chief Minister but also of every citizen of the state to make Bihar a successful and developed state," the Prime Minister said adding if the alcohol policy in Bihar succeeded, it would inspire the entire nation to implement similar policies in other states. The Chief Minister, well known for his dislike for the former Chief Minister of Gujarat, also toned down his rhetoric that he had adopted against Modi since he became the Prime Minister of India. "Our honorable Prime Minister was the Chief Minister of Gujarat for 12 years and he carried out the prohibition policy quite effectively in his state. He must be commended for his success," Kumar said. On the occasion, the Prime Minister, amidst large cheer by thousands of Sikh devotees who have arrived in Patna from all corners of the world, released a commemorative stamp on Guru Govind Singh calling him a fearless leader who inspired an entire nation by his ideas and principles and continues to inspire the world. Keeping up with the tradition while wearing the traditional Sikh headgear, the Prime Minister also served in the 'langar' or the community kitchen, and offered prayer to the religious leader of the Sikhs. Earlier Modi, who arrived in an Indian Air Force aircraft to attend the Prakash Utsav, was warmly received by both Governor Ram Nath Kovind and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal who arrived in Patna on Wednesday, Union Minister and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) President Ram Vilas Paswan, and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad were among many who took part in Thursday prayer at the Gandhi Maidan. It was a long, drawn-out Wednesday for newly-appointed District 15 Senator Lynne Walz, but dont think for a second that she wasnt enjoying every minute of it. After being sworn in to the District 15 seat previously held by Scribners David Schnoor at 10 a.m., Walz and her 48 Legislative colleagues were in session until around 3:15 p.m. discussing and voting on various topics and issues, including positions of committee leadership and temporary Legislative rules. I thought everything went pretty well today, Walz said during a Wednesday afternoon phone interview. It was super, super busy, but I had a lot of fun I wasnt nervous at all and overall it was a really exciting day, Im super excited to represent the people of District 15 and Dodge County. I felt like I was so ready to go to work and do the job that people voted for me to do for them. In Mays Primary Election, Walz received 2,871 votes to the incumbent Schnoors 3,433 votes a 562-vote gap. Schnoor garnered support from some heavy political hitters, including U.S. Senator Deb Fischer and Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts. While Walz had backing from numerous outlets including former Nebraska Senator Ray Janssen, it appeared from the get-go that Walz faced an uphill battle. But she embraced it and didnt let it detract her from setting her sights on the District 15 Seat. During Novembers General Election, Walz pulled off an upset victory over Schnoor by collecting 51 percent of the vote to Schnoors 48 percent. And while an upset it was, Walz expected to win the election, and following the primary she felt good about the direction her campaign was heading. I felt like we were sitting right where we needed to be, she said. We werent ahead, but we were in a good range and that pushed everybody harder to get the job done in the end. Ultimately, Walz said winning the election came down to reaching out to her constituency, finding out what their needs were and putting herself on the line in regard to fulfilling her Senatorial obligations. I feel that we really did the work, she said. We knocked on an awful lot of doors and talked to an awful lot of people. And now Im going work even harder in the Legislature to do what needs to be done for the people of Dodge County. One major point of emphasis from her constituency revolves around the creation of jobs to alleviate unemployment, she said. People really want to go to work, Walz said. And right now a lot of people are on assistance programs that dont allow them to work, so that is one thing that I am going to focus on this year. We also heard a lot of discussion about the (proposed) chicken processing plant, the presidential race and all sorts of other things. Walz is thankful to have so much support from the community and those closest to her. I appreciate everyone that came out to vote, and I certainly appreciate their vote, she said. But whether they voted for me or not, I want them to know that I am going to be working hard for them, and I want to make sure people know I am listening. Modernizing Islam: Iran's Reformists and Reconstructionists Square off 01/05/17 By: Mahmoud Sadri, Radio Zamaneh Preface: Two months ago I published two articles in the Persian page of Zamaneh entitled: "the Discourse of Religious reform and reconstruction" and "Evolution and Ripening of the Idea of Religious Reform" Subsequently, I participated in a round table discussion at the BBC's "Pargar" program, the first installment of which was aired on December 29, 2016 under the title of "Reform or Beyond?". Given the fact that all of the above were written and spoken in vernacular Persian, I thought an English synopsis may be of interest. Tempest in the Crucible: Iran's Reformists and Reconstructionists Square off on the question of Modernizing Islam An image from 19th century Qajar carpet from Museum of Carpet in Tehran About a year ago, a group of diaspora Muslim intellectuals were sitting around a blazing fire by a muddy river in Broken Bow, Oklahoma, debating strategies of modernizing traditional Islam. The worldwide Islamic reform movement, undaunted by the lurid cruelty of Islamic extremism, forges ahead. Its anxious debates may sound Byzantine to Western ears, but since they may very well presage the arrival of Islam's own brand of reformation, they deserve a hearing. What is the debate about? Reformation in Islam was a response to the challenge of "modernity" (as was fundamentalism.) The definition of modernity to me, a sociologist, boils down to one word: "Differentiation," (of institutions like religion and state, and of spheres of life like public and private.) This is inevitable for every society as it becomes more complex. It's also a good thing because it makes liberty and prosperity more accessible to everyone. It comes, however, with a price. Modernization is a painful transition for every traditional society. It divides political power, angering the powerful, and increases specialized knowledge, confusing the believers. And yet, it is doubly hard for the non-Western and particularly Islamic societies. Why? Because they must accommodate modernization while resisting Westernization. Unlike in the West, where modernity was a local groundswell, it came to non-Westerners as suspicious cargo: a cluster of unknown ways, brought by distrusted visitors. Mohammad Iqbal This challenge split the Islamic response to modernity into two: "Revivalists" saw modernization as inseparable from the Westernization, renounced it, and resorted to a crude reconstruction of the old religion to rival modernity. "Reformists", on the other hand, sought to accommodate the modern while resisting the Western. The two Muslim camps faced off in the 19th century on the fringes of the Ottoman and Russian Empires, in places like Bosnia Herzegovina and Trans Caucasia. Their successors continued the debate in the twentieth century in the Colonial India and pre-revolutionary Iran. By the 20th century, however, Revivalism (exemplified in Egypt's anti-traditional Salafi school of thought) had collapsed and what was left of it was swallowed whole by Wahhabism (from nomadic Arabian Peninsula). It was and still is the deadly enemy of modernity. Reformism, too, had changed. It had sprouted a new branch, Reconstructionism, which sought to re-imagine Islam, as a whole, in light of the modern science, ethics and politics, and aesthetics. Now the step-by-step Reformists had to mollify the vaulting ambitions of Reconstructionists within their ranks. Nowhere was the debate between Islamic Reformism and Reconstructionism (both modernist projects) better illustrated than in pre-independence India. There, the Reformist politician Abul Kalam Azad, a Gandhi loyalist, faced Mohammad Iqbal, an astute philosopher and lyricist who had coined the term "Reconstruction" of Islamic thought. Azad believed traditional Muslims and Hindus only needed a modicum of literacy and civic tolerance in order to live and prosper together in the modern independent India. Mohammad Iqbal, on the other hand, despised both Islamic and Hindu superstitious parochialism. In a historic letter to his colleague, Jinnah, (the founder of modern Pakistan) he counseled partition and formation of a new state based on his idea of a modern progressive Islam. The subcontinent split into two and later, three countries. The bloody legacy of partition and the history of India and Pakistan, however, corroborated Azad's modest reformist views. Iqbal's ambitious Republic of Virtue, the world's first Islamic Republic, soon succumbed to authoritarianism and radicalism, while Azad's reformist vision of tolerance and pluralism in India contributed to the creation of the world's largest democracy. This was a bitter and bloody divorce but was not inevitable. Reformists and Reconstructionists could have collaborated. They still can. Enter Iran The same rivalry played out in the second half of the 20th century in Iran, pitting the tireless Reformist Mehdi Bazargan against the ebullient Reconstructionist Ali Shariati. The former looked for a practical path toward liberty and prosperity through party politics and (when that failed) peaceful protest. The latter, oblivious to short term solutions, envisioned another Islam, compatible with soaring humanist and progressive ideals. Abdulkareem Soroush These meandering currents emptied into the torrent of the Islamic Revolution of 1979 which unceremoniously metabolized their democratic and progressive energies and forged its own unique hybrid blend: a dual (half democratic, half theocratic) republic; a political oxymoron known as the Islamic Republic of Iran. Iranian Reformists regrouped 15 years after the revolution, first with the slogan of rebuilding and prosperity under President Hashemi Rafsanjani, and then under the banner of civic liberty under President Mohammad Khatami. The movement suffered an eight-year setback under Ahmadinejad's neo-fundamentalist demagoguery but, having learned its lessons, returned with the slogan of "Prudence and Hope" under President Rouhani. Present and Presently... Now, once more, the Reform and Reconstruction camps of Islamic modernism are debating each other. Among the people present around the Broken Bow campfire was Abdulkarim Soroush, (who has been called the "Luther of Islam"). Soroush's bold Reconstructionist views (he makes no secret of his admiration for Mohammad Iqbal) have caused a tempest in the crucible of Reform-Reconstruction debates. The proponents of Reform fear a repetition of a variant of the Indian scenario in the Iranian theater. Reformism is moderate, pragmatist, and realist; Reconstructionism is ambitious, idealist, even "Emanationist" (expecting realities to "emanate" from ideas, like Athena, springing forth, fully armed, from Zeus's forehead.) Soroush's increasingly radical departures from received religious wisdom include his recent views on God (as impersonal and - for all intents and purposes - absent), Qur'anic revelation (as dream sequences), and Islamic jurisprudence (as antiquated and all but irrelevant). Reformers are worried about the compatibility of these ideas with the reform program in Iran and across the Islamic world. They believe radical pronouncements such as these are not only incompatible with the theology and history of the religion but that they may alienate the masses and push them toward the fundamentalists. Soroush and his other Reconstructionist colleagues (Mohammed Arkoun in France, Nasr Abu Zayd in Egypt, Mohammad Mojtahed Shabestari in Iran, and others) risk alienating their reform-minded colleagues who increasingly despair of translating their radical reconstructions for a more traditional Muslim audience. For their part, Soroush and his colleagues have argued that their only "responsibility" is to the "truth." Their reform-minded colleagues argue that, resigning from the role of "engaged intellectuals" (as defined in Europe by Emile Zola and Jean Paul Sartre) they risk irrelevance and obscurity at this sensitive juncture in the history of Iranian and Islamic reformation. The relentless demystification of religious precepts at the hands of Reconstructionists may very well alienate the community of believers and deliver them into the hands of the extremists in traditionalist clothing. Land ahoy Soren Kierkegaard, the 19th century Danish philosopher, once proposed that religious believers are like passengers in ships that have been launched a long time before they were born. The Reform movement contends that the necessary changes and repairs can only be implemented from within the ship. Reconstructionists must work with the reformers and, above all, must be careful not to drill holes in the ship's hull. The (inner worldly) salvation may be closer than the Reconstructionists imagine. *** About the author: Mahmoud Sadri is a professor of sociology and affiliated professor of Women's Studies at Texas Woman's University and the Federation of North Texas Area Universities. Persecution of Dual Nationals: Businessman Serving 10-Year Prison Sentence In Iran After Coerced Confession 01/05/17 Source: International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran Iranian-Austrian dual citizen Kamran Ghaderi is entering the second year of his 10-year prison sentence in solitary confinement in Tehran after being coerced into confessing to espionage in 2016, an informed source told the Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. Kamran Ghaderi Wife Used as "Bait" "They threatened him that if he didn't cooperate, his wife would be taken into custody," said the source. "They forced him to sign a confession under intimidation and psychological torture, otherwise they had nothing to convict him of espionage." However, Ghaderi's wife was never in such danger, and now the 53-year-old is in poor physical and mental condition after being held in solitary confinement in Evin Prison's Ward 209 since his arrest on January 2, 2016. His repeated requests to be transferred to a public ward have been denied, said the source, adding that Ghaderi's "family demands his unconditional release and immediate return home." The source continued: "There is no evidence to show Kamran committed espionage... His lawyer said in court that Kamran signed the confession under duress and therefore it should not be admitted as reliable evidence. Also, Kamran himself denied the accusations in court. So it's strange that the judge still sentenced him to 10 years in prison only on the basis of the so-called confession." "We don't know if Kamran was arrested in connection with some political issues between Iran and Austria or if it's purely a financial matter," said the source. "But he's just a businessman who has done nothing wrong, and Iranian judicial officials are well aware of that. If they are looking for spies, they should catch real ones." The prosecution used the coerced confession to gain a 10-year prison sentence against Ghaderi in the Revolutionary Court where he was tried for "conducting espionage for enemy states." The Appeals Court later upheld the sentence. The sentence was announced by Tehran Prosecutor General Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi on October 17, 2016, along with the announcement of identical sentences against other dual nationals Siamak Namazi, Bagher Namazi, Farhad Abd-Saleh, Nizar Zakka, and Alireza Omidvar . Ghaderi was the CEO of Avanoc, an Austrian IT management and consulting company, and living with his wife and three children in Vienna when Intelligence Ministry agents arrested him upon arrival at Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport on January 2, 2016. He was on a routine business trip and had previously traveled to Iran on many occasions for work and business seminars, including as a member of the Austrian delegation to Tehran led by then-President Heinz Fischeri in October 2015. "In February [2016], a month after Kamran was arrested, the Intelligence Ministry informed his brother that Kamran's wife, Harika, could visit him," the source told the Campaign. "When Harika (his wife) heard this, she immediately flew from Vienna to Tehran and went straight to the Intelligence Ministry. She was questioned for three and a half hours and then told that she was not allowed to see her husband, so she went back to Vienna." The source continued: "Then, in April, Kamran was allowed a visit from his mother and told her that he had no choice but to sign a (false confession) because if he didn't, his wife would be detained." But Ghaderi's mother informed him that his wife was "never" under the threat of detainment by the authorities and was safe at home. "That's when Kamran realized he was lied to," said the source. "The authorities used Harika as bait to get him to sign a false confession." Experts on Iranian law have questioned the legality of the charge of "espionage for enemy states," a veiled reference to the United States. "According to the Foreign Ministry, Iran is not at war with any state other than Israel," Tehran-based attorney Saeed Khalili, who has defended many prominent political prisoners, told the Campaign in October 2016. "We even have joint treaties with the U.S. from before the [1979] revolution, which are still referenced in international negotiations and court cases," he added. "On the basis of the Foreign Ministry's position, we cannot accuse anyone of cooperating with the U.S. as an enemy state." Wife Used as "Bait" Iranian-Austrian dual citizen Kamran Ghaderi is entering the second year of his 10-year prison sentence in solitary confinement in Tehran after being coerced into confessing to espionage in 2016, an informed source told the Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. "They threatened him that if he didn't cooperate, his wife would be taken into custody," said the source. "They forced him to sign a confession under intimidation and psychological torture, otherwise they had nothing to convict him of espionage." However, Ghaderi's wife was never in such danger, and now the 53-year-old is in poor physical and mental condition after being held in solitary confinement in Evin Prison's Ward 209 since his arrest on January 2, 2016. His repeated requests to be transferred to a public ward have been denied, said the source, adding that Ghaderi's "family demands his unconditional release and immediate return home." The source continued: "There is no evidence to show Kamran committed espionage... His lawyer said in court that Kamran signed the confession under duress and therefore it should not be admitted as reliable evidence. Also, Kamran himself denied the accusations in court. So it's strange that the judge still sentenced him to 10 years in prison only on the basis of the so-called confession." "We don't know if Kamran was arrested in connection with some political issues between Iran and Austria or if it's purely a financial matter," said the source. "But he's just a businessman who has done nothing wrong, and Iranian judicial officials are well aware of that. If they are looking for spies, they should catch real ones." The prosecution used the coerced confession to gain a 10-year prison sentence against Ghaderi in the Revolutionary Court where he was tried for "conducting espionage for enemy states." The Appeals Court later upheld the sentence. The sentence was announced by Tehran Prosecutor General Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi on October 17, 2016, along with the announcement of identical sentences against other dual nationals Siamak Namazi, Bagher Namazi, Farhad Abd-Saleh, Nizar Zakka, and Alireza Omidvar . Ghaderi was the CEO of Avanoc, an Austrian IT management and consulting company, and living with his wife and three children in Vienna when Intelligence Ministry agents arrested him upon arrival at Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport on January 2, 2016. He was on a routine business trip and had previously traveled to Iran on many occasions for work and business seminars, including as a member of the Austrian delegation to Tehran led by then-President Heinz Fischeri in October 2015. "In February [2016], a month after Kamran was arrested, the Intelligence Ministry informed his brother that Kamran's wife, Harika, could visit him," the source told the Campaign. "When Harika (his wife) heard this, she immediately flew from Vienna to Tehran and went straight to the Intelligence Ministry. She was questioned for three and a half hours and then told that she was not allowed to see her husband, so she went back to Vienna." The source continued: "Then, in April, Kamran was allowed a visit from his mother and told her that he had no choice but to sign a (false confession) because if he didn't, his wife would be detained." But Ghaderi's mother informed him that his wife was "never" under the threat of detainment by the authorities and was safe at home. "That's when Kamran realized he was lied to," said the source. "The authorities used Harika as bait to get him to sign a false confession." Experts on Iranian law have questioned the legality of the charge of "espionage for enemy states," a veiled reference to the United States. "According to the Foreign Ministry, Iran is not at war with any state other than Israel," Tehran-based attorney Saeed Khalili, who has defended many prominent political prisoners, told the Campaign in October 2016. "We even have joint treaties with the U.S. from before the [1979] revolution, which are still referenced in international negotiations and court cases," he added. "On the basis of the Foreign Ministry's position, we cannot accuse anyone of cooperating with the U.S. as an enemy state." Iranian Startups: Maman Paz delivers 200,000 orders of "mom-made" food in Tehran 01/05/17 Source: Weekly Saturday (Shanbe) magazine, Tehran Shanbe talks to Tabassom Latifi, the founder of home food delivery site Maman Paz Tabassom Latifi, founder of Maman Paz www.mamanpaz.ir Tabassom Latifi has employed housewives and launched Maman Paz, a startup that delivers home foods to people (in Tehran, Iran) who are not at home most of the time or don't want to cook. Who are your testers? Are they food experts? No, our team test foods. I and one of our members have attended a cooking course. Maybe we are not good cooks but we are expert in testing foods. We have good information about foods in different parts of Iran and different tastes. We rate them from 1 to 5. 5 is excellent and 4 means good. If the food gets 4 or above, it will be accepted. Each woman who is accepted, should be trained and get health card. Then an official visit her place so that its health be examined. Did you have a customer who was not satisfied and returned the food? It happened but we tried to satisfy them. Customers send their comments about our foods and others who visit our site can use these comments. There are good and bad comments sited. If comments about a food are too bad, we remove the food from menu. Do you remove the food or fire the cook? If a person has ten bad foods and all her foods become removed, we won't work with her any more. How many mothers are working with you right now? 50 mothers. How many members does your team have? 7 in technical team and about 16 in courier. We work with three taxi agencies as well. In general, we work with 80 persons directly. We should consider indirect employment too. We work with many mothers some of whom are very active and we order them every day. One of the benefits of your work is that it employs many low-income people; for example women who are the head of household. On the other hand revenue is important. How much money do you pay to these mothers? The maximum income per month for mothers was about 3.500.000 Tomans and 10% of all the mothers receive this amount. Do you calculate the cost of ingredients in this income? No. we pay them about 12 to 13 million Tomans per month. They are professional. What percent of them are the head of household? About 30%. And around 30% of them don't need money and they just love cooking. What is the reason that Maman Paz doesn't reach a big growth? Scaling is a problem in our business because we have many works done outside of web. But the hardest part of our business is delivery. We want to cover 19 and 20 area of Tehran and we should start its delivery service before anything else. It seems that the price of your foods is to some extent high and one day you will lose a part of your customers who are worker and student. Yes. But we can not reduce the price because of delivery cost. Definitely we will lose a part of our customers. Do you have a plan to receive the cost of delivery? Yes, we want to launch an app so that we can receive this cost. How much would it be? About 1500 Tomans. But first we should see how our customers would react to this. Who are your customers? We offer three types of products: individual, company and ceremonies. Right now individual orders constitute the most part of our job but we want to expand the other types as well. How much does Maman Paz advertise? We haven't advertised for our business so far. Haven't you felt that you should be introduced or known more? We didn't advertise because we want to control our growth. We didn't want to have many customers without the ability to provide them a good service. How many orders do you get per day? About thousand orders, but we had 3000 orders a day too. Which foods are offered in your site? Between 70 to 80 kinds of foods. Are orders done a day before? Yes. Mothers cook according to the number of orders so that no food is wasted. How do you control the freshness of your foods? We haven't any complain about the quality of foods. Each mother should cook a different food each day. Don't you think that many people can't use internet and therefore you will lose those potential customers? We accept orders by SMS as well and our app will be launches soon. If we want to have a call center, we should employ 10 persons and we need a big space for it. If someone can't use this app, he/she is not a startup customer. Don't you have a customer who calls you by telephone? We have. 8 to 10 persons each day call us and order what they want. How is your interest calculated? 30% of the price of each food belongs to Maman Paz and 70% of it is for the cook. Packaging and distribution cost is included in this 30%. What is your outlook for Maman Paz? Our first goal is to cover all parts of Tehran and we want to become the first option for ordering food in Tehran in 5 years. We want to have branches in other big cities. Some of the dishes offered by Mamanpaz Do you think how many employment would happen if your business becomes larger? We want to deliver 200.000 orders per day. How many cooks should cook these foods? Each cook can prepare 16 to 60 foods. It is 30 foods on the average. If we divide 200.000 foods to 30, we come up with a large number. It is going to happen in 5 years? No, we think it needs more time and this is our vision. But we want to become one of the first options for ordering food. How much money have you paid for Maman Paz so far? About 300 million Tomans. Have you attracted investors? Yes. How much is the capital attracted? I prefer not to mention. What percent of the share does belong to you? Less than half because investor should be manager so that he/she has enough motivation to run the business. Has Maman Paz been rated based on value? I prefer not to say. If an investor wants to buy the whole company, do you sell Maman Paz? No! This is my business and I don't want to sell it. It happened but I didn't accept. From foreign or domestic investor? Foreign investor, the one to which most of current internet businesses are related. How much money did they offer? I prefer not to mention it. If a business similar to Maman Paz emerges in the market, what is your reaction? It depends on how much it is serious. If it has large capital, we have to expand our workforce and attract more capitals. Do you think how many people in Tehran know you? 10 percent. Do you know how many foods you have sold from the beginning until now? More than 200.000 foods within two years. How many foods did you sell at first month? About 50 foods and we have grown constantly. And the last month? We sold about 40.000 foods at last month. Have you calculated your growth rate? Our sale is 20 times more compared to last year. You use a special packaging like old bundles. How did this idea come to your mind? We had this idea in mind from the very beginning to have a packaging suitable for the name "Maman Paz". We wanted it to be different and feel like home. We calculated the price and costs and because it is not high we offer this kind of packaging. What are the most important risks and threats? Which factors can lead to your failure? Distribution and delivery. These are the hardest parts. But it is related to individual delivery because it is time-consuming. Maybe in this part of the job, we face with the problem that Uber is faced. Uber is sued by Taxi agencies in different countries and now it should attend many courts and defend itself. Taxi agencies say that Uber must not get involved in taxi business because they don't have taxi license. ABOUT SHANBE MAGAZINE: Weekly Saturday (Shanbe) is the first specialized publication in the field of startups in Iran. Our goal for promoting entrepreneurship culture and employment is to introduce startups and fields having the capacity for the launch of startup in Iran, show successful and unsuccessful foreign examples to the audience, teach how to launch a startup and how to enter global market, talk to big Iranian startup owners and new startups, cover news and news events in the field, start discussion through talking about issues with authorities and activists in this field, and authorities in private sector, solutions for problems and challenges and etc. Sony showed off on Wednesday an OLED television it plans to sell later this year that features a gorgeous image and eliminates traditional speakers by vibrating the display to produce sound. The A1E series Bravia TVs represent a return to the commercial OLED TV business for Sony. OLED screens are based on a fundamentally different technology from the dominant LCD and produce light from fluorescence of an organic element. That produces deeper and richer colors than LCD and means the displays can be thinner both attributes of the new Bravia sets. Sony was an early leader in OLED and presented its first commercial OLED TV in Japan in 2007, but the XEL-1 was expensive, had a small screen and ultimately died a quiet death. Sony has continued to produce OLED monitors for professional users, but had stuck with LCD technology until now. Martyn Williams A Sony OLED TV on show at CES in Las Vegas on January 4, 2017. The lack of speakers not only helps the TV get a little thinner but the space around the screen is also reduced. On show at CES in Las Vegas on Wednesday, the A1E TVs were displaying stunning images and drawing praise from those seeing them. But the real test will be in the home, where lighting isnt as well controlled as at CES and the source video image is probably not as high quality. Youll see more than you ever thought possible in a display, said Sony CEO Kaz Hirai during a news conference. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is cracking down on D-Link for selling wireless routers and internet cameras that can easily be hacked, the regulator said Thursday. Thousands of consumers are at risk, the FTC said in a complaint filed against the Taiwanese manufacturer charging D-Link with repeatedly failing to take reasonable measures to secure the products. The action comes as hackers have been hijacking poorly secured internet-connected products to launch massive cyberattacks that can force websites offline. Recently, a notorious malware known as Mirai has been found infecting routers, cameras, and DVRs built with weak default passwords. In D-Links case, the company said its products were easy to secure and offered advanced network security. But in the reality, the devices contained preventable security flaws open to easy exploitation, the FTC alleged. Among those flaws, were guessable login credentials embedded in D-Link camera software, using the word guest for both the username and password. In addition, D-Link also failed to patch vulnerabilities in the product software, including a command injection flaw that would have given hackers remote control over a device. We cant say whether we will take action against similar companies, an FTC spokesman said on Thursday. However, shoddy security has also been found in numerous IoT products in recent years, and lately, security experts have been urging the U.S. government to issue tough regulations to stop the problem. In D-Links case, the security flaws could have paved the way for hackers to spy on consumers and steal their data via a compromised web camera or internet router, the FTC claims. However, the Taiwanese company said it denies all the allegations found in the FTCs complaint and is taking steps to defend the action. The FTCs complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for Northern California, is seeking an injunction against D-Link to prevent further violations. In addition to D-Link, the FTC has also gone after PC maker Asus over similar problems found with its routers and cloud computing service. Asus agreed to a settlement with the FTC last February. If the HTC Vive has one flaw, its that tangle of cords that constantly threatens to trip you up. But thanks to a partnership with Intel, the promise of a wireless (yes, wireless!) HTC Vive is just over the horizon. You might have thought we knew everything there was to know about HTCs VR headset: the hardware, its price, even a handful of cool launch titles. But HTC executives showed off some new additions to the Vive ecosystem at CES on Wednesday, including a new tracker and an improved audio accessory. They also announced a new partnership with Intel, and the launch of a wireless kit for the Vive developed by TPCast that will be available in the second quarter of 2017. HTC also plans to establish a monthly subscription service, a la Netflix, that will let users play a wide variety of VR games. IDG / Mark Hachman HTCs Vive, with the new Deluxe Audio Strap next to a vanilla Vive in the foreground. According to HTCs vice president and head of AR Daniel O Brien, 2016 was all about making virtual reality cooland 2017 will be about building an ecosystem. This was the coming-out party for VR, he said. 2017 is about establishing the future. Vives Tracker and Deluxe Audio Strap HTC was the first to make virtual reality mobilenot through a phone, but through the ability to move around a physical space and interact with virtual objects through a pair of controllers. For example, a Vive user can hold a controller in either hand, complete with a thumbstick and trigger, and simulate reaching for a backpack by putting their hand on their shoulder. The Vive Tracker adds another virtual object to the space. A little larger than a deck of playing cards, the Tracker serves as a placeholder of sorts for a third virtual object. HTC executives showed off how it could be built into a replica of a rifle, to mimic how a user could hold a virtual blaster to ward off aliens. The Vive Tracker is 10cm long, a bit smaller than the current Vive controller. It will have about 6 hours of battery life, executives said. Dotdotdash, a developer and partner of HTCs, showed off how it used the Tracker as a virtual camera that the player could physically hold and snap photos of in-game scenes, complete with zoom and other effects. HTC will give away 1,000 Trackers in 2017 to developers, in much the same way it seeded entire Vive systems to get the ball rolling on content. IDG / Mark Hachman The Tracker can be used in a gun as well. HTC also promised an improved audio experience in the form of another accessory. Dubbed the Vive Deluxe Audio Strap, the new experience is about convenience and comfort, OBrien said. The headset, which will replace the current audio portion of the Vive, will have another advantage: It will route the current cables out of the side of the headset, rather than the rear, which will hopefully make it a bit more comfortable for users, according to OBrien. Unfortunately, HTC disclosed neither the pricing nor the availability of either the Tracker or the Deluxe Audio Strap. Both will ship in the second quarter of 2017, and the company will release the price closer to launch. Wireless future, wireless partnerships But cables are still cables, which is why HTCs partnership with Intel to take the Vive wireless is intriguing. HTC didnt say when the Vive would actually go wireless or what its price point will be, let alone what the performance would be likeits more of a prototype at this time. But the tether will actually be wireless, using a technology called WiGig. Intel has said previously that it sees tethered and untethered VR merging, and the high-speed WiGig connection makes that a reality. Previously, HTC partnered with wireless company TPCast, which announced that it would be providing a wireless upgrade module for existing Vive systems back in November 2016. That system will launch during the second quarter of 2017, executives said, for $299. The module will have a 6,000mA battery sufficient for 2 hours of use, according to HTC. Over the past year, HTC and its partners developed about 1,000 pieces of content, including games and other apps that can run on the Vive. But discovering them all can be difficult, especially with many of them requiring users to cough up a few bucks. Rikard Steiber, president of HTCs VR app store Viveport, said that HTC will offer a monthly subscription for users to experience as much new content as they want. The price and launch date hasnt been set. However, you can already play about 300 Vive games across a series of arcades in China. HTCs goal is to expand that video arcade experience to about 5,000 different arcades worldwide by the end of the year. Xiaomi launched its Mi Router HD on Thursday, which serves as both a local repository of the homes digital content as well as a gateway to services like Dropbox. Xiaomi also launched its next-gen Mi TV 4. All of its announcements are exclusive to China for the time being, however. As a young company founded in 2010. Xiaomi has dipped its toe in a few markets, with last years Mi Mix nearly bezelless Android phone, which it will ship in white. The company also markets the Mi Band wearable, plus a number of consumer electronics device for the Asian markets. IDG / Mark Hachman Xiaomi launched a new router that also stores the homes content inside it. Xiaomis major launches for CES 2017 here in Las Vegas was the Mi Router HD and the updated Mi TV 4. The Mi Router HD is a 2,600-Mbit/s 802.11ac router, featuring a 44 MIMO configuration. Inside are two storage configurations of either 4TB (for under the equivalewnt of $200) or 8TB (for under the equivalent of $500). Both routers are automatically set up to back files to Dropbox, Time Machine, and other cloud services. Xiaomi claims that its Mi TV 4 is its thinnest ever, at 4.9 mm at its thinnest point. Like its Mi Mix, the company has striven to virtually eliminate the bezel. Mi TVs are also modular, placing components like the CPU and motherboard in a discrete Mi Bar that can be connected to the display via a single proprietary cable. IDG / Mark Hachman Xiaomis new Patchwall interface. New for the Mi TV 4 is a new PatchWall user interface, which looks very much like the tiled interfaces of Netflix and other movie services. Xiaomi claims that its TVs can tap into a sophisticated series of algorithms, to intelligently make movie recommendations for each user. The Mi TV 4 is also Xiaomis first to incorporate Dolby Atmos; the TV uses two wireless remote speakers to bounce sound off the ceiling, creating a surround sound effect. The 65-inch version will sell for under the equivalent of $1,500, and 49-inch, 55-inch, and 65-inch screen sizes will also be available. For now, both the new router and the Mi TV 4 will only be sold in China, but they may arrivesomedayin the United States. Without the help of blood donors, San Bernardino County sheriffs Detective Alex Collins wouldnt be alive. Collins was shot four times in a mountain gun battle a year ago with fugitive murder suspect Christopher Dorner. He received 10 units of blood supplied by donors from LifeStream, aiding his recovery that included more than two dozen surgeries and having bone grafts taken from his hips to rebuild his jaw, part of his left arm and his left leg below the knee. Collins, who was in a medically induced coma for nine days after the shootout, returned to his job Sept. 30. He now works as a detective on a specialized crime-fighting team. The deputy thanked donors Sunday, March 2, during a LifeStream celebration honoring those who have given at least 10 gallons of blood. Founded in 1951, the San Bernardino-based blood center serves more than 80 medical facilities in Southern California. You guys saved my life last year when I was in the hospital, said Collins, 27, flanked by his wife, Lila. Collins is featured in this years LifeStream donor-patient video that was shown for the first time at Sundays event on two large screens at the National Orange Show Events Center ballroom in San Bernardino. The nine-minute video chronicles Collins injuries and recovery from the gunbattle at the cabin in the San Bernardino Mountains where Dorner took refuge after he was discovered in Big Bear. Collins addressed the audience of about 800 people after receiving a wood-framed certificate from Dr. Frederick Axelrod, LifeStreams president and chief executive officer. In a brief speech, Collins thanked his doctors and others who are part of the video. The community can not only see what law enforcement did, but everyone behind the scenes, and the huge impact they had during that event, he said. San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon was recognized Sunday as LifeStreams Humanitarian of the Year. McMahon gave LifeStream access to the department to obtain footage for the video, including taping of officers statements. We cant thank you enough for what you do for us, McMahon told donors in the audience. Last year, 10-gallon donors gave a combined 3,639 gallons of blood to assist local patients, Axelrod said, adding that 179 people reached the 10-gallon mark for the first time in 2013. You are the backbone of our success, and the numbers you put up each year are staggering, he told the crowd. You give the greatest of gifts for the best of reasons. Collins said he has given blood twice and plans to keep donating. Unexpected events occur every day, he said in an interview after the ceremony. You never know when its going to be you or a family member that needs it. I encourage everyone to go out and donate blood and give back. Contact Steve Wall at steve-wall@msn.com A gas line ruptured by demolition work in Cabazon on Wednesday, Jan. 4, led to the evacuation of nearby businesses, including a Burger King and The Cabazon Dinosaur museum. The leak was reported at 12:46 p.m. in the 50000 block of Seminole Drive, according to Tawny Castro of the Riverside County Fire Department. A construction crew damaged a main gas line while tearing down a building, according to a news release issued by the Riverside County Sheriffs Department. Firefighters from Riverside County and the Morongo Fire Department responded to the gas line rupture. No injuries were reported. The Southern California Gas Co. was on scene, but there was no estimate on how long it would take to make repairs. Seminole Drive was closed for several hours while repairs were made. Staff Writer Ali Tadayon contributed to this report. State-employed firefighters, some of the lowest-compensated in their profession in California, are preparing to vote on a contract offer that would increase their base pay by 9.29 percent to 22.55 percent over four years. The leadership of Local 2881, which represents about 6,000 current and retired Cal Fire employees, could bring the contract to the membership in late January. Several previous offers by the state were rejected by union leadership without a membership vote. The contract would increase compensation for the job categories of Firefighter II at the bottom and Battalion Chief at the top. For instance, a Firefighter II currently making base pay of $3,872 monthly would make $4,483 in 2020 after a 17.45 percent pay raise over that span. Right now, its a tentative proposal, said Battalion Chief Scott McLean, a spokesman for Cal Fires state office. Local 2881 President Mike Lopez did not respond to messages sent Wednesday seeking comment. Cal Fire, operating in the Inland Empire as the Riverside County Fire Department, provides firefighting and paramedic services to the countys unincorporated areas as well as 21 cities and the Rubidoux Community Services District. Cal Fires San Bernardino/Inyo/Mono Unit provides those services to Highland and Yucaipa. Firefighters pay was such a point of contention that they protested at the Capitol in August. In the days leading up to the rally, Mike Alvarado, a Temecula-based Cal Fire firefighter, told The Press-Enterprise, I have never seen morale this low. Alvarado is married with three children and said he needed to work a handful of extra shifts each month to supplement his $2,500 monthly take-home pay. Firefighters pointed to a salary survey conducted by the state in 2014 that showed Cal Fire total compensation lagged behind 20 other firefighting agencies by 29.7 percent to 39.9 percent, depending on the position, and that base pay for those same jobs lagged by an average of 86.5 percent to 91 percent. How the pay raises will affect the cost for the Inland cities and counties who contract with Cal Fire is unclear. McLean, the Cal Fire spokesman, would not speculate. Riverside County spokesman Ray Smith said the county will have to review information (about the raises) and talk with Cal Fire in order to determine the effect on the county. The raises could pose a challenge to Riverside Countys efforts to rein in ongoing expenses, such as salary costs, which are outpacing the projected growth in future revenue. The Board of Supervisors has committed to a five-year plan that calls for strict limits on new spending to build up reserves and put the county on a path to financial sustainability. As part of that, county officials have taken a hard line on raises with labor unions during ongoing collective bargaining talks. Contact the writer: brokos@scng.com or 951-368-9569 For Gail Howard, the 2011 Cinnamon Creek Apartment Shooting haunts her to this day. It was around 5 p.m. on Jan. 5 six years ago when her son, Jordan James Howard, then 17, met up with friends in a playground area inside the complex when shots rang out. Two of Jordans friends Quinn McCaleb, 17, and Andrew Jackson, 16 died and he and another friend were wounded. To mark the sixth anniversary of the shooting, Howard is leading the fifth annual memorial walk starting at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the corner of Post Street and Sun Avenue, where Quinn died. The walk circles the neighborhood and ends at the area where the boys were shot. Howard does not expect a huge turnout, but she plans to walk the route each year for as long as possible. Theres a need for this in our community period, she said. I feel it is important to recognize our youth and be active in our community. We havent had a murder this year, thank God, but I think the kids and the community over there are often forgotten. The parties affected by the shooting are still working to move on. Howard said she was inspired to help out more with the community, often volunteering with local groups and co-organizing the annual Shop with a Cop effort. Everyone thinks because the boys were shot and the people responsible were convicted that everything is over and done, she said, but they dont realize the affect it has on the survivors and their families. My main goal is to see kids go to school and I want to establish a scholarship to help pay for their education, she said. There are so many kids in need and we must not forget about them. We should want to do better and make a difference. Howard believes if someone would have reached out to those responsible for the shooting before the incident took place, everyone affected would have had different outcomes. Im the type of mom with a zero-tolerance policy, but other kids dont have that push, she said. Just think of what the shooter, Anthony Legaspi, could have done if he hadnt shot my kids. Would he have been a productive citizen? I always think of him, and dont ask me why. I cant help what God put in my head, but if I can stop another kid from pulling out a gun, my life was well spent. All those responsible for the shooting were found guilty and given life sentences in June 2014. Contact the writer: khernandez@scng.com@TheFactsKris on Twitter California hopes to take the lead in giving the cannabis industry access to banking services in 2017, with a new working group focused on finding a solution to conflicts between state and federal laws that force marijuana businesses to operate largely in cash. The Golden State has a year to come up with a plan. Thats when Californias first recreational marijuana shops are expected to open under voter-approved Proposition 64, which legalized marijuana for adults 21 and over. We need quick action and practical solutions, State Treasurer John Chiang, who formed the Cannabis Banking Working Group, said on a call with reporters in December. California is willing to assume a leadership role nationally to effectively achieve this goal. Federal law still classifies cannabis as a Schedule I narcotic on par with heroin. That means major banks and credit card companies wont do business with growers and dispensaries out of fear theyll be penalized for money laundering. That changed little even after U.S. Deputy Attorney General James Cole in 2013 issued his now-famous Cole memo, which gave banks guidance on how to service marijuana businesses without breaking any federal laws. Some local banks and credit unions have been quietly taking on marijuana businesses as customers. A 2015 report from American Banker showed 266 of the nations nearly 6,200 financial institutions had accounts with marijuana-related businesses. But once recreational pot shops can open after Jan. 1, Californias cannabis industry is expected to start raking in $7 billion in profits and paying $1 billion in state taxes each year. A lot of businesses will be hauling around a lot of cash with no place to deposit their money, putting them at risk of robbery, Chiang said. That also makes the industry ripe for money laundering, he noted. Chiang brushed aside the idea of creating a state bank specifically to service cannabis customers. Its an approach proposed by the Board of Equalization to combat the industrys poor record of paying state taxes, and one thats been tried and shut down by federal regulators in other legalized states. The state of Colorado sought to create its own cannabis credit union in November 2014. But the Federal Reserve rejected the states applications to create a master account that would have allowed banks to do business with the credit union. And a U.S. District Court judge dismissed Colorados challenge to that decision, stating he was compelled to do so because marijuana remains illegal under federal law. Efforts to remove marijuana from the Schedule I drug list have also repeatedly failed, most recently under the Obama administration. So have efforts to pass legislation that would remove criminal penalties for banks that service businesses that are operating in accordance with state law. Those avenues seem even less promising now that Republicans, who have traditionally been less supportive of marijuana legalization, control both the executive and legislative branches. And President-elect Donald Trumps choice of Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions for attorney general hasnt boosted optimism for a federal solution, given the Republicans staunch opposition to marijuana in the past. Chiang reached out to both Trump and Californias congressional delegation asking for clarification and support in finding banking solutions for the industry. But no federal representatives attended the first meeting of Chiangs working group, which was held Dec. 19 in Sacramento. The 16-member working group, along with about 100 attendees, including cannabis industry and banking stakeholders, gathered in the state Capitol not so much to discuss solutions, but to lay out the challenges ahead. Defining the problem is our first objective, Chiang said. As we continue to hold meetings around the state and compile information, I think we will continue to gain ever more clarity on precisely what should be done and how. The working group is set to hold four more meetings throughout the state to discuss banking issues. Given that 45 states now permit some form of legal marijuana use, Chiang and other members of his banking group said theyre optimistic theyll be able to make progress over the coming year in easing the conflict between state and federal law. The cannabis industry is the largest shadow economy in California, group member and Board of Equalization Chairwoman Fiona Ma said in a statement. Allowing them banking access would facilitate compliance and bring millions of dollars into our economy. Staff writer Will Houston contributed to this report. Contact the writer: 714-796-7963 or bstaggs@ocregister.comTwitter: @JournoBrooke Ghana, the world's second largest cocoa producer has put in place a number of interventions and best agronomic practices which will almost double output of the chocolate ingredient within ten years. Ghana's cocoa industry, touted as the nation's economic back-bone will receive a further boost in its average annual cocoa output to over 1 million tons from the current 800,000 tons, Noah Amenyah, Snr. Public Affairs Manager of the Ghana Cocoa Board, the regulator said in an interview in the capital, Accra. Ghana, which lost its position as world's largest producer of the chocolate ingredient to Ivory Coast, its West African neighbour due to factors including diseased tree stock has distributed over 120 million free high yielding hybrid seedlings to farmers in the last two years to re-cultivate old farms and replace aged trees. ``The execution of the interventions started with the cocoa farm rehabilitation programme which sought to eradicate diseased cocoa farms as well as old unproductive farms. Such cocoa trees are being cut and replaced with early bearing, high yielding and disease tolerant hybrid seedlings,'' Amenyah said. In the current 2016/17 crop year, COCOBOD is again nursing 60 million hybrid seedlings in over 332 nursery sites across all the cocoa regions for free distribution to cocoa farmers. We expect to add an estimated 50,000 hectares of cocoa farms this year. Thus 500,000 hectares would have been established within the ten-year period,'' Amenyah stated. It is worth noting however, that the COCOBOD's impressive efforts aimed at increasing production and creating sustainable jobs for farmers and the youth are being undermined by the activities of some business concerns and individuals both local and foreign. These groups sometimes work through Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) who undertake similar ventures of raising cocoa seedlings in some cocoa growing areas for distribution to farmers at a cost, this underscores the profit-making motive of such organizations and the individuals involved,'' Amenyah added. ``It is a great source of worry,'' Amenyah said. ``Farmers need not incur the cost of seedlings, we have the Cocoa Health and Extension (CHED) and Seed Production Division which produces free seedlings,'' he said. ``This is the reason for which COCOBOD encourages farmers to source their early bearing and high yielding seedlings from respective Cocoa Health and Extension (CHED) and Seed Production Division nurseries sites,'' he said ``We dont only supply free seedlings to farmers but also have a holistic program which provides free fertilizers to improve soil fertility and free mass spraying exercise against pests. The Mass Spraying Programme has also seen massive improvement in its structure and form over the past years, he stated. Of great concern is ageing cocoa farmers, poor road network in cocoa-growing areas and access to education. COCOBOD has therefore introduced the Youth-in-Cocoa Initiative, Cocoa Roads Rehabilitation programme, COCOBOD Child Education Support Programme and also improved upon the cocoa farmers wards Scholarship Scheme as a way of addressing these issues while at the same time, promoting cocoa sustainability issues. Ghana Cocoa Board's modules and programmes have been carefully developed to reduce cost to farmers and improve livelihood of farmers,'' Amenyah said. Source: Chris Joe Quaicoe/ email: [email protected] Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Flagstaff House Ghanas seat of Government has been re-christened the Golden Jubilee House as Nana Akufo-Addo takes office from January 7, 2017. The plush presidential palace was re-built in 2008 during the tenure of former President John Agyekum Kufuor. It was then known as the Golden Jubilee House until the National Democratic Congress (NDC) took over governance of the country in 2009 under the late president Prof. John Evans Atta Mills. Mills moved the office of the president back to the Osu Castle and later changed the sign in front of the building back to its original name claiming that the previous government had not used a Legislative Instrument to effect the change as required by law. Yes, we are going to use the name Golden Jubilee House to refer to the presidential palace instead of Flagstaff House. Thats how Nana Addo has referred to it throughout his campaign, a top official of the incoming NPP government told Starrfmonline.com. Everybody should come and ride on the back of the Elephant. The Elephant has entered the White House let us get the elephant in the Jubilee House Ghanas seat of government, Nana Addo said during the 2016 electioneering. THE FLAGSTAFF HOUSE Location: Accra Inaugurated: November 2008 Cost: $30-50 million Ranking: Worlds 10th most beautiful Presidential palace Background When Prof. Mills came to power he refused to occupy the Flagstaff House, preferring the colonial edifice the Osu Castle as the seat of government. The house was temporarily used as offices for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs until the presidency was moved there later in 2013. The Flagstaff House has served as a residence and office to the President of Ghana. It was built on the site of a building that was constructed and used for administrative purposes by the British Gold Coast Government. The current edifice was funded by the Indian government. Source: starrfmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video It's amazing how people show respect to their elders, particularly in times of need. Some tend to kneel or bow before their superiors while others resort to other humble means to display their respectful character. This was exactly the case at the forecourt of Parliament House Thursday when President John Dramani Mahama went to deliver his last State of the Nation's Address. Present at the Legislative House were various dignitaries including Former President Jerry John Rawlings. Arriving at the premises, an interesting event occurred when former President Rawlings was walking up the stairs leading to the entrance of the Legislative House. For the Mayor of Accra, Alfred Oko Vanderpuiye, it must have been a mortifying moment captured in a video gone viral when he attempted to seize the opportunity to exchange pleasantries with the former President; and Mr. Rawlings openly rebuffed him. Mr. Rawlings seems to have had enough of Oko Vanderpuiye and so blatantly refused to recognize the latter when he (Oko Vanderpuiye) approached him (Rawlings). Watch the awkward moment below: Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi /Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG) has lauded president-Elect, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo first appointment of his ministers as well as some presidential staffers. The group expressed extreme happiness with the quality of appointments made so far by the President-Elect particularly by naming Madam Frema Opare as Ghanas first female Chief of Staff. AFAG appreciate the quality of appointments made so far by President-Elect, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. As an institution that cherishes good governance, we are impressed with the brilliant men and women of substance that would be manning the office of the president a statement copied to Peacefmonline.com reads Nana Akufo-Addo who has been dropping names of members of his in-coming government, yesterday revealed some staffs of his incoming administration. They are mainly his staff at the Presidency and include 69-year old Frema Opare, a labour expert and former legislator who becomes Ghana's first female Chief of Staff. Of her two deputies, is 33-year-old Samuel Abu Jinapor and Francis Asenso-Boakye, a political assistant to Akufo-Addo over the years. Other security appointments include Brigadier General Emmanuel Okyere, a Military Engineer, National Security Advisor; Security Expert and former Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) Director, Joshua Kyeremeh, has been also been named the National Security Co-ordinator. However, AFAG in a statement urged the President-elect to include the youth in his administration after describing his recent appointment as excellent Read Below AFAGs statement 1st Female Chief of Staff and Youth Inclusion Excellent AFAG appreciate the quality of appointments made so far by President-Elect, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. As an institution that cherishes good governance, we are impressed with the brilliant men and women of substance that would be manning the office of the president. The appointment of the first female Chief of Staff is laudable and it deserves commendation of the highest esteem. Also, the inclusion of vibrant and result orientated youth who distinguished themselves in service to the nation should also be celebrated. These sharp young minds must be properly nurtured by the best senior citizens to ensure the continuity of the moral fiber of our Ghanaian society. AFAG urge the President-Elect and the appointing authority to look within the pool of the NPP to ensure that young people of excellent standard and virtue that form a sizeable number of the human resource at the nation's disposal are identified nurtured. Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/ Twitter: @Washman5/ Instagram: Washman007 Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video For someone whose long cherished dream was to pursue a career as a fashion designer, former Big Brother Africa housemate, Selly seems to have gotten exactly what she wished for- to dress to kill. The wife of Praye Tietia recounted how she couldnt pursue her passion for a career in fashion designing because her mother, who had starred in major film productions, wanted her to be a flight attendant; believing that therein lay her true calling. Whilst growing up, I had the desire to be a fashion designer but my mother didnt like the idea. But as I grew older, I took particular interest in how I looked anytime I stepped out, obviously, fashion has been my passion and Im living it now, she told Showbiz in an interview on Tuesday. For her, it isnt about impressing anyone or catching the attention of competitors but her style of fashion has been inspired by how she loves to look good every time. Alongside the slay queens fondness to look good, her sense of style is aimed at promoting local designers and said she was happy about her contribution so far. There are many young designers in the country who want recognition so I always use every opportunity to promote their works by patronizing their designs. The feedback since I started this agenda has been great and I hope to use the platform I have to sell Ghanaian designs to the outside world, she said. Her style has won her many admirers and awards among which include the Best Dressed Celebrity at the Kids Choice Jigwe awards last year. She has also been a multiple recipient of the Eurostar Limousines style accolades which aims to honour celebrities who slay on the red carpet. Alongside her regular television appearances as host of The Premieres on Joy Prime, Selly has featured in a number of movies yet to be released. At last years Pan African Awards in Togo, Selly proudly won the Best Supporting Actress for her role in the movie, In Six Months Time. Prior to that award, Selly had earned a nomination for Most Promising Actress at the City Peoples Awards in Nigeria. Her favourite movie, she said, was African Child in which she played the role of an orphan. As an actress, the curvaceous young lady who got married to Cartel Big J, in 2014 has featured in many movies among which include Beautiful Ruins, Any Other Monday and You May Kill The Bride. For this year, Selly says she plans on starting her own TV production and also launch a lingerie line of collections. Source: Graphic Showbiz Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Its no secret that Australias business elite arent huge fans of the underclass. They invest a lot of energy into sooking about penalty rates, because the idea of the poor being given a boost on their usual meagre stipend for giving up their weekend absolutely galls them. Which is all well and good. Your opinion is your opinion. A tiny piece of advice for our cashed up betters, though: when youre advocating for slashing penalty rates, try your best not to do it while standing on a fucking yacht. Props to Fairfax, who managed to capture exactly that. Reporter Sarah Danckert attended the annual Couta Boat Classic sailing regatta at Sorrento on Wednesday, and took the opportunity to ask the plutocrats in attendance about their thoughts on the pressing issues for the year ahead. So what the article looks like is quotes about how slashing penalty rates is good and big bank regulation is bad, alongside photos of the business and political elite having a lovely time aboard a yacht like so: A quote from former Reserve Bank board member Donald McGauchie (while, we stress, on a literal yacht): The days where the majority of people are going to church are no longer. We all accept the fact that for people working outside normal working hours there will be some additional payment, but those things need to be more balanced than what it currently is. Former Federal Treasurer and current Future Fund chairman Peter Costello confirmed that he agrees with the the broad vision of penalty rate reform (also and I cannot repeat this enough in the proximity of a yacht). I think we should look at industrial relations because theres still areas where outdated work practices are holding us back, Mr Costello said. There we go. Advice: save it for when youre on dry ground. Source: Sydney Morning Herald. Photo: Wolf of Wall Street. In news that feels astonishing even to me, a hardened cynic resigned to my inevitable lifelong poverty, it has emerged that Federal Health Minister Sussan Ley bought a $795,000 investment property on the Gold Coast while visiting on a work trip. She says the purchase was was not planned nor anticipated. Okay???? The mid-2015 trip, which Ley has insisted was for official business, took Ley and her husband first to Brisbane Hospital, where she announced $1.3 billion in funding to list new medicines and vaccines. They then headed to Main Beach on the GC, 80km from Brissie. There, I guess, while gazing up through their opera glasses at the high-rises sparkling beyond their open sunroof, they spotted the apartment and exclaimed to one another, How charming! Darling, we must have it! All up, Ley claimed $3,949 in flights for the trip. Her office has denied any wrongdoing on her behalf, saying that all travel undertaken was in accordance with the rules. Apparently, she was on the Coast in order to meet with stakeholders. Her office has declined to disclose whether or not the apartment is negatively geared. All this comes after reports emerged that Ley had spent $12,000 chartering a private jet to take her to a meeting on the Gold Coast last year. She does know that the Gold part of the places name is a moniker, not a spending requirement, yeah? But it must be hard to be one of these people, dont you reckon? Buying an oopsie apartment worth nearly a million dollarydoos on a cheeky business trip hooky break, lying about on yachts and complaining about poor people wanting penalty rates for their weekend dirt farming, feeling totally justified in demanding thousands of dollars of dodgy debt repayments from single mothers and people with disabilities can you imagine? Really tough shit. Source: Herald Sun. Image: Thomas Kurmeler / Getty. A 21-year-old man is in custody after setting 40 pokie machines on fire at The Royal Hotel in the Brisbane suburb of Beenleigh. According to police, the man left the hotel early on Wednesday night, but returned at around 8:40pm with a container of petrol which he used to set all of the pokies in the gaming room ablaze. Three machines were completely destroyed, and another 37 have been damaged beyond repair. The man has been charged with endangering particular property by fire. He is being held in custody for his own protection, say police, who also allege that he had threatened to harm himself and others. No word from police on the ongoing threats to mental health posed by the proliferation of poker machines in our public bars, though, despite it being well known that they prey on the most vulnerable members of society (and despite people genuinely wanting them to piss off out of their lives). No commentary, either, on whether someone taking that Whitlams song seriously might actually be a fair response to the insidious spread of those coruscating portals of despair. If youre struggling with gambling addiction or depression, please get in contact with one of the below services, and look after yourself. Gambling Helpline 1800 858 858 Lifeline 13 11 14 MensLine Australia 1300 789 978 Beyond Blue 1300 22 46 36 Source: ABC. Image: Getty. Goon of Fortune is something of a rite of passage for younger Australians. But theres having a fang off a bladder hanging from a Hills Hoist, and then theres taking things to utterly ridiculous levels like this. An alleged thief in Victoria was nabbed by police after reportedly stealing a two-litre cask of Yalumba wine from a BWS in the outer Melbourne suburb of Lilydale. A staff member at the store reported the theft to 000, and police subsequently arrested a man a short time later allegedly carrying the full cask in a backpack. He was transported to a local police station and placed into an interview room in preparation for questioning over the incident. However, so the story goes, the arrested man asked attending officers for a drink, and when they went to fetch it for him, he reportedly pulled out the goon sack and downed the whole lot in one go. All two litres of it. He later refused questioning claiming to be too drunk to answer police enquiries. Which, yknow, fair enough. After being held in remand overnight, the 46-year-old man appeared in the Ringwood Magistrates Court earlier today on a bail hearing. Magistrate Mark Sergeant, clearly saying what we are all thinking, remarked: Thats certainly no mean feat of achievement to be able to do that. That look thats certainly not wrong. It definitely eclipses any feat I saw achieved in suburban Tasmania during my more formative years, thats for sure. A bail application by the alleged thief was denied by the Magistrate, which might seem harsh for a single cask of wine, but when you consider hed only been out of jail on bail for a day when the theft occurred, it gets a little clearer. Also theres the little nugget of info pertaining to a prior conviction of murder on his record, for which he was sentenced to 17 years prison with a 12-year minimum. So, uh at the end of the day? Probably not a bad call by the judge. Hell return to court later this month. Source: Herald Sun. Apparently, theres recently been more cocaine coming into Australia than ever, so youd think market price would go down! But apparently thats not how it works. Honestly, youd think theyd teach you stuff like this school, yknow? In the last six months, Ozs Federal Police and Border Force have made significant seizures of cocaine, which included the 95kg of cocaine taken from a luxury cruise ship the MS Sea Princess in August (remember when those Canadians posted as tourist on an Instagram sponnod holiday but were actually smuggling loads of drugs?), and the whopping total of 1100kg of coke confiscated in the insane drug bust in Sydney on Christmas Day. Thats a helluva lot of drergs! Yeah, cocaine trafficking is reportedly about to hit a record high in Australia. In the financial year from 2014 to 2015, cocaine detected (which doesnt necessarily mean seized) at Aussie borders came to a total of 368.9kg. The year before that, the total was 245.6kg. But news.com.au is reporting that in the six months leading up to December, police seized more than 600kg at Aussie borders and identified a further 632kg which was heading straight for us. Its a bloody BLIZZARD. The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) said that this represented an increase in both the amount of importations, as well as an increase in the weight of cocaine shipments seized at the border. Despite the country being awash with nose candy, coke in Australia is insanely expensive: 1 teensy weensy lil gram ranges between $250 and $900 depending on location, the most expensive market being the Northern Territory. Source: News.com.au. Photo: Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Regardless of whether or not you reckon the Hottest 100 should be moved away from Jan 26 (spoiler alert: it should), it doesnt change the fact that it is happening this year on the Australia Day holiday. And it just so happens that that date also coincides with the Brisbane leg of the travelling carnival of rad that is Laneway Festival. So while on any other day you might have to choose between catching a band and impatiently gluing your ear to the radio in order to see if Triple J does the right and just thing finally by filling the top ten with nothing but TISM, the kind folk at St. Jerome have decided to two-birds-one-stone it and chuck a yuge Backyard Party at the Brissy fest so those keen to can get fully involved with the countdown. The festivals Hottest 100 Backyard Party will see a big ole area of the festival grounds decked out in full backyard party regalia, with a live-stream to the Hottest 100 firmly plugged in. Whats more, theyve tapped local Brisbane favourites Patience Hodgson from The Grates, and comedian/writer Mel Buttle to host the whole shebang. Violent Soho and DZ Deathrays are also gonna be hanging out, possibly signing the odd vinyl, definitely sinking the odd Precious Bevington, which means things could go from casual to loose in a record amount of time. Beyond gimmicks, the areas gonna have a heap of sweet, sweet shade for the pasty among you to shield your glorious alabaster skin from the bastard sun. The Bowery lords will be on-hand to mix you up a bangin mojito or a variety of other summer deliciousness, and Crafted Q will be smoking up a shiteload of BBQ just to round things up nicely. If thats not a white hot way to idly while away a couple of hours, then we do not want to know what is. Tickets are still available for the Brisbane leg of Laneway, which hits the Showgrounds on Thursday, January 26th. All the vital details can be found over at the Laneway Festival website. Source: Laneway Festival. Photo: Supplied. A Victorian law firm has issued a call-out for punters injured during the serious crowd crush incident at Falls Festivals Lorne leg, suggesting legal proceedings may be launched against the music fests organisers. Maddens Lawyers, based in Warrnambool, issued a Facebook post this afternoon asking patrons hurt during (or witness to) the stampede-like event to reach out. The posts click-through link leads to a page saying individuals may be entitled to compensation. The firm has reportedly already been in contact with ten festival attendees regarding the issue. 19 people sustained serious injuries, and more than 60 were treated on-site by medical professionals, after surging crowds leaving DMAs Friday night set unintentionally trampled patrons whod fallen further ahead. In a statement obtained by the Sydney Morning Herald, Maddens Lawyers Brendan Pendergast said environmental factors, including the Grand Theatre tents entrances and exits, were well outside the control of festival patrons. Pendergast said registering interest with Maddens Lawyers isnt necessarily a commitment to take action, but may represent a way for respondents to remain informed about the progress of our investigations and remain across what options are in relation to legal action and compensation. Previously, Falls Festival co-producer Jessica Ducrou issued a statement defending the events impeccable safety record. Patron safety is paramount to Falls, we spend a lot of time engaging with local authorities, emergency services, on a local and State level, specialist consultants, local and State Council and various other community services to ensure we are offering the safest environment for our patrons. An in-depth report into the incident is expected in the near future. Source: Sydney Morning Herald. Photo: Anthony Smith / Falls Music & Arts Festival / Facebook. The head of the Northern Territorys tourism department has taken an official stance against those bootleg, official-looking CU In The NT singlets, but look, shes not exactly mad at the whole deal either. And frankly, bless her for it. Valerie Smith, the acting executive director of the NTs legitimate tourism body, welcomed the Advertising Standard Boards (ASB) recent ruling that those bits of unofficial, third-party merch from the cheekily-named company NT Official are suggestive enough to be classified as obscene. A photo posted by CU in the NT (@cuinnt) on Nov 8, 2016 at 6:43am PST However, comments made to the ABC still suggest a modicum of appreciation for the suggestive slogan. After the ASB upheld a complaint the line is denigrating, Smith said its not something we would do or condone, but at the same time it does hanker (sic) to some of that larrikinism that is still up here in the Northern Territory. She also gave some sly props to the operation, as it certainly did get a lot of people talking about the Top End and its tourism opportunities. As far as were concerned, thats some awfully wink-wink nudge-nudge stuff on par with the shirts themselves, and its backed up by her take on our fine nations international reputation: One of the things that we commonly find when we do research overseas is that something people appreciate around Australians is our open and warm and friendly nature. That can sometimes blend into that larrikinism and it can go back to the Paul Hogan and shrimp on the barbie approach. While she did definitely emphasise that we ought to move on from the shocking language apparently featured in advertising materials in previous decades, she also doubled-down on her perception that Aussies shouldnt be needlessly monitored. Larrikinism, indeed. FWIW, its yet to be seen what the ASB will do rather, what it can do regarding the offending merch, but dont be surprised if a couple of those tops are smuggled away in the NT tourism departments headquarters. via NTOfficial.com. Source: ABC. Photo: NT Official. Katie Kyker hopes to draw attention to the dangers of stalking. Stalking is very real. It can happen to anyone, anywhere. Its dangerous and can escalate, said Kyker, outreach coordinator for The Bridge. January is National Stalking Awareness Month time to focus on a crime that affected 7.5 million people in one year in the United States. So this month, The Bridge launching a Community Stalking Awareness Campaign. The Fremont-based agency, committed to eliminating violence in peoples lives, will provide awareness materials in all five counties it serves: Burt, Cuming, Dodge, Saunders and Washington. Citing statistics from the Stalking Resource Center, Kyker points out that more than 85 percent of the victims are stalked by someone they know. And 54 percent of femicide (homicide of women) victims reported stalking to police before they were killed by their stalkers. The Bridge also released this information about stalking: Its tough to recognize. Stalking is also difficult to investigate and prosecute. Unlike other crimes, its not a single identifiable crime, but a series of acts that would cause a person to fear. It can take many forms. Some forms include: assaults, threats, vandalism, burglary or animal abuse. It also can involve unwanted cards, calls, gifts or visits. It can involve technology. One in four victims states that the stalker uses technology such as computers, global positioning satellite (GPS) devices or hidden cameras to track them. It can involve weapons. In one in five cases, stalkers use weapons to harm or threaten victims, information from The Bridge states. And about the stalkers: Two-thirds of stalkers pursue their victim at least once a week, many daily, using more than one method. Almost one-third of stalkers have stalked before. Stalkers dont fit a standard psychological profile and many will follow their victim from one jurisdiction to another. That makes it tough for authorities to investigate and prosecute their crimes. Victims of stalking can suffer from anxiety, social dysfunction and severe depression at much higher rates than the general population. Many lose time from work or must move to another location because of their victimization. People of all ages experience stalking, but people between the ages of 18-24 experience the highest rate. The resource center also states that 15 percent of women and 6 percent of men have experienced stalking victimization at some point during their lifetime in which they felt very fearful or believed that they or someone close to them would be harmed or killed. National Stalking Awareness Month began in 2003 after the resource center got a call from Debbie Riddle, sister of murdered stalking victim Peggy Klinke. Klinke was stalked by an ex-boyfriend for months, the center stated. She reported the stalking to police, changed her phone number and moved to a new state. Eventually, Klinkes ex-boyfriend found and brutally murdered her. Kyker urges area residents to listen and show support for someone being stalked and to not blame the victim for the crime. She also list tips of things people, who are being stalked, can do: If you are in immediate danger, call 911. Develop a safety plan. Dont respond to the stalker in their attempts to contact you. Keep evidence of the stalking. Tell people about the stalking. Contact the Bridge to know your options. If you think you are being stalked, its important to trust your instincts and take threats seriously, Kyker said. For more information, contact The Bridge at 402-727-7777 or toll free at 888-721-4340. rashan ross.png (Lancaster County district attorney's office) The second of two Delaware cousins implicated in September 2015 murder in Lancaster Township was recently ordered to stand trial in Lancaster County Court. Rashan Ahkeem Ross, 27, is accused of killing Jared Weaver over $90 worth of "lean," a candy-flavored cough syrup concoction used as a drug. Weaver, 19, was shot to death at Advance Auto Parts on the 1000 block of East King Street in Lancaster Township during the transaction with Rashan and Kareem Ross. Manheim Township police Det. Brent Schultz testified that both of the Rosses cellphones showed communication with Weaver, according to a news release from the Lancaster County district attorney's office. Additionally, the phones were tracked form Delaware to the murder scene and then back to Delaware, officials said. Surveillance video showed two males confronting Weaver before he fell to the ground from the fatal wound. The Rosses face charges for criminal homicide, robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery and theft as a result of Weaver's killing. Kareem Ross was ordered to stand trial in county court following a preliminary hearing in October. Rashan Ross is scheduled for formal arraignment in county court at 9 a.m. Jan. 27. By Becca Oken, Special tol PennLive Strawberry Square took on a new look the first Friday in December. The work week crowd with their purposeful strides were replaced by leisurely shoppers, sippling coffee and browsing the booths of vendors and artists that filled the square's tall-ceilinged atrium and branching hallways. On this day, Strawberry Square was host to The HBG Flea, Harrisburg's own pop-up flea market and craft fair. Founders Mary Imgrund and Meghan Jones have been hosting The HBG Flea on the first Saturday of each month since November 2015. In the past, it's been held in Midtown Harrisburg, but for the past two months, it's taken place at Strawberry Square. "Today has been going really well," Imgrund said. "I haven't gotten a huge chance to go talk to vendors. I've been manning our charity booth and wrapping presents all day. But the one man I did talk to told me he was averaging about $250 an hour. So, yeah, it was noon, and he was up to over $500." Creative People, Local Roots The idea for the HBG Flea was Jones'. She and Imgrund met as undergraduates at Penn State Harrisburg. "Our message is very story-based, and I think people can connect with it because, Meghan and I, we both are from this area. We both consider ourselves creative people, and we can really tap into that desire of starting a business," Imgrund said. Jones pitched the idea to Imgrund in July 2015, and after months of planning, 45 vendors -- far more than they'd anticipated -- came to sell their goods at the first Flea at the Harrisburg Midtown Arts Center (HMAC). Although planning each month's Flea is a "40-hour-per-week-job" for the pair, they each keep busy outside of it, too, to make a living. Jones works at Bagel Lovers, and Imgrund is a full-time graduates student American University in Washington, D.C. She commutes each week. "You really have to be dedicated to it...To see how it has benefitted the community and the artists who are here...that's the ultimate goal," Jones said. 'Really awesome group of people' "I love coming because of the variety of shops. There's kind of a community. Everyone is kind of all doing it for the same reasons," said Andrew Kintzi, owner of The Midtown Dandy, a vintage menswear booth at The Flea. Like many vendors at the market, The Midtown Dandy is a hobby Kintzi enjoys apart from his full-time job in advertising. "It's a really awesome group of people that come to The Flea...It's a really artsy crowd that's attracted to this market, so a lot of people come to buy. They know that it's going on, it's well advertised, and they come to buy things," Kate Wasson, another vendor, said. Uniqueness in vendors Vendors must apply for booths at each market, even if they're a repeat-seller, and they pay a fee that helps cover costs for ads, fliers, maps, and other materials. "If we just let everyone in, we would probably have 40 different jewelry vendors, and then no one would do well because they'd all just be competing with each other and groaning," Imgrund said. Still, though, the variety among vendors working within similar niches was impressive at the market in December. There were a few pottery booths, like Wasson's Art of the Earth, but they were spread out throughout Strawberry Square, and all employed different styles, so they weren't necessarily negatively affecting one each other. With the increased capacity at Strawberry Square -- 70 vendors can fit as opposed to 45 at HMAC -- Imgrund and Jones look forward to growing The HBG Flea even more. "We're doing this completely independently...We're not, like, The HBG Flea brought to you by Verizon," Imgrund said. And at the December holiday-themed market, more than ever, they were realizinge the role The Flea has come to play in the community. They rounded up $600 in raffle items from vendors, and the proceeds will go to Animeals, which Imgrund described as "Meals on Wheels for pets." Come 2017, Imgrund and Jones have big plans for The HBG Flea, with regular markets, mini-markets, and partnerships with other local organizations in the works. "It's not our intention to stop if it gets to be too much work," Imgrund said. If you go: The next market is Jan. 7, 2017 from 10am-4pm at Strawberry Square. Admission is free. Metered street parking is available. If you're interested in being a vendor: You can apply online at http://www.hbgflea.com/apply. Costs for booths are $45 for an 8x10-ft. space; $20 for a 4x6-ft. space. To learn more about The HBG Flea's full lineup of 2017 events, visit hbgflea.com. Hoarder-found-dead-in-cluttered-PA-home.jpg The dead body of a 45-year-old man living with his mother inside this cluttered western Pennsylvania home was discovered among the trash when police and EMTs went to check on the woman in her 60s who hadn't been seen in several days. (screen shot via KDKA-TV) The dead body of a 45-year-old man living with his mother inside a cluttered western Pennsylvania home was discovered among the trash when police and EMTs went to check on the woman in her 60s who hadn't been seen in several days. As KDKA-TV and the Associated Press write, the victim is identified as 45-year-old Christopher Baldauf. KDKA reports that through the open front door of the Bethel Park, Allegheny County, home, trash could be seen on the floor and items were in disarray. This, as the man's body was found amid the clutter Tuesday evening. Police called it a "hoarding situation," and said the house was filled with unspecified items. The news station quotes neighbors as saying the residents would never let anyone else inside the home The mother, described as being in her 60s, was taken to a local hospital for medical treatment. Co-workers had called police to check on her after she hadn't shown up for work in several days. The man's death did not appear suspicious, according to police. However, the investigation continues. Read more top-trending Pa. news: Pa. teen shoots mom in head, then kills himself, after arguing over pot Pa. mom gives birth while waiting for car oil change READING, Pa. (AP) -- A graduate of a Pennsylvania college has been sentenced to more than 13 years in prison for sexually assaulting two of his fraternity brothers as they slept. Robert Convery Jr. The Reading Eagle reports Robert Convery Jr., of Williamstown, New Jersey, was convicted of assaulting the two Albright College students. Each attack occurred after the victim fell asleep after fraternity parties. Prosecutors say Convery sexually assaulted one fraternity brother on separate occasions in 2013 and 2014. The second victim was assaulted in 2015. Convery says he made a mistake. Both victims testified at Convery's sentencing Wednesday in Reading. Judge Paul M. Yatron also read a four-page letter from the victim who was assaulted twice. The 23-year-old Convery will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- A federal judge in Pennsylvania has mandated that the state should provide expensive new medication to former death-row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal to treat his hepatitis C infection. Mumia Abu-Jamal The Philadelphia Inquirer reports Abu-Jamal sued to improve the health care he was receiving in prison after he fell into diabetic shock and was diagnosed with hepatitis C in 2015. The former Black Panther spent 29 years on death row following his conviction in the 1981 murder of white Philadelphia police Officer Daniel Faulkner. Abu-Jamal's sentence was reduced to life without parole in 2011. Judge Robert Mariani on Tuesday ordered that a doctor see Abu-Jamal to determine whether there is a medical reason he shouldn't get the treatment drugs, which can range from $50,000 to $75,000 per person or more. PA-child-porn-suspect-plunges-to-his-death.PNG It was a bizarre end for Patrick J. Harper, a 52-year-old engineer from western Pennsylvania who was facing multiple child pornography charges. He plunged to his death while hiking on the icy Matterhorn in Switzerland just weeks before he was due in court for a hearing on his case. (screen shot/MogaznewsEN) It was a bizarre end for a 52-year-old man from western Pennsylvania who was facing multiple child pornography charges when he plunged to his death while hiking on the icy Matterhorn in Switzerland just weeks before he was due in court for a hearing on his case. The Post-Gazette in Pittsburgh identifies the suspect as Patrick J. Harper, 52, of Penn Township, Butler County, who was facing 52 child pornography counts for allegedly accessing and downloading child pornography on the BitTorrent file sharing network. He was out on $10,000 bail bond in the case when he fell 500 feet down the mountain while vacationing with his wife on Dec. 26. He was due in court this week for a hearing on the child porn charges, according to multiple media reports. The international website MogaznewsEN writes that Swiss authorities said Harper fell "for an undetermined reason" along a steep, icy slope of the mountain. His body was reportedly taken off the mountain by helicopter. MogaznewsEN also published the undated photo (above) that it identified as showing Harper on the mountain. Harper, an engineer, was charged by Pennsylvania State Police in November, the result of an investigation dating to 2014. The Post-Gazette quotes police as saying Harper admitted he downloaded child porn onto his laptop during an interview with investigators. Read more top-trending Pa. news: Protesters block a main road for about an hour to protest fuel price hikes in Mexico City, Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2017. Protesters have blocked highways, distribution terminals and gas stations since prices went up by as much as 20 percent over the weekend under a price deregulation plan. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte) One Man's Opinion: In a sea of spam, where are our true leaders? columns As this is my first article of the year here at ftnNEWS, I would like to express that 2016 was not a good year for tourism. Terror attacks in Paris, Brussels, and Berlin together with continuous attacks in Turkish cities such as Istanbul and Ankara create obstacles for tourism industry. Tourism means peace, if there is no peace we cant talk about tourism. Terrorism is not a problem of countries that mentioned above but it is a problem for the whole world. Therefore countries should give hand in hand to stop terror. So I would like to mention again Ataturks foreign policy with his own words: Peace at Home, Peace in the World. Suat Tore 11-04 16:54 Commander Mark Divine leads athletes through a Box Breathing exercise. (Photo Courtesy of Mark Divine) So much has changed in my 25 years in law enforcement. Communications devices, less-lethal devices, tactics, training, paperworkand more paperwork. In fact, when I see photos of my 1992 patrol vehicle, that car looks old-school. No matter what equipment or ideas have changed, though, one inescapable feature of this job has not changed: stress. That is why I am so glad that a tried and true, simple and highly effective stress-reduction tool has been written about and taught since before my law enforcement career even began. It is a breathing technique that has had several monikers, including "Box Breathing." In my previous article ("Just Take a Deep Breath," Dec. 2016), we discussed the importance of slow deep breathing and that law enforcement officers may achieve better performance and resiliency when they learn to control how they breathe. "Box Breathing" is another way of using breathing to heighten performance and resiliency. This slow, deep-breathing technique has been around for many years and has been utilized by professional athletes, fighters, elite military personnel, and law enforcement officers. Regular use of this breathing technique can enhance concentration, lower heart rate, lower blood pressure, reduce stress, and assist with emotional regulation. The Technique To do the "Box Breathing" technique, find a quiet place and sit upright. Begin by slowly exhaling all of the air from your lungs. Then, inhale slowly and deeply through your nose for a count of four. Think low and slow. Fill the lowest portion of your lungs first, then the middle and then the upper portion of your lungs. Hold for a count of four. Next, exhale through your nose (or mouth) beginning with the upper portion of your lungs, then the middle and then the lowest portion of your lungs. Hold for a count of four. Repeat. As you progress in your practice of this breathing technique, you can build up to doing this for five to 10 minutes. You also may extend the exhale for a longer period if you choose by doing it for up to six to eight seconds. Most importantly, you should take the four-breath count as a consideration but actually do what feels natural to you. A pattern of 3, 3, 3, 3 might work better for you personally. Established Pedigree I have used breathing techniques with very good results since I was a young boy. However, the first time I was exposed to this particular technique was in 1991 while I was in the police academy. I read Charles Remsberg's book The Tactical Edge (1986). He described a "Belly Breath" that could be used to combat stress, reverse the alarm response of the body, and restore a psychological sense of control. Remsberg explained that the "Belly Breath" is performed by sitting down in a quiet place, closing your eyes, slowly inhaling through your nose for a slow count of four, pausing for a slow count of four, exhaling through your mouth for a slow count of four and then pausing for a slow count of four. Then repeat. He further explained that this technique is part of achieving the "Relaxation Response," a concept that he also outlines in the book. Similarly, Lieutenant Colonel David Grossman, who authored the Pulitzer-nominated book On Killing (1996), has taught this breathing technique for many years during his Bulletproof Mind seminars. Grossman calls the technique "Combat Breathing." It consists of the same four-count breathing technique (4, 4, 4, 4, repeat)." More recently, retired Navy SEAL Commander Mark Divine, the founder of SEALFIT, has championed this breathing technique and has taught it to thousands of people who are interested in achieving high performance while reducing the debilitating effects of stress. Divine recognizes that this breathing technique is incredibly beneficial and, in his book "Unbeatable Mind" (2015), he writes, "this exercise strengthens your mental power. This one technique alone is so transformative that with consistent execution it will profoundly change your life." He is the person who named the technique "Box Breathing" because the 4, 4, 4, 4 breathing pattern is consistent and even, just like the four sides of a box. Use in Real-Life Police Work A good friend of mine who spent many years on a SWAT team would regularly use the "Box Breathing" technique right before he was about to make entry into a structure. He felt that it put him in the perfect performance zone in order to operate at a high level as a tactical operator. Another good friend of mine who is a veteran SWAT operator begins each day by doing the "Box Breathing" technique right after he wakes up. He does this four-count breathing sequence for five to 10 minutes each morning. By doing so, he feels that he is much more efficient in his work, has more clarity and mental focus, and experiences an overall better sense of well-being. Field Applications With some practice and experience, you can utilize this technique in a variety of non-combative/dynamic circumstances: responding to critical radio calls or crucial events, post-dynamic/combative incidents, during non-dynamic yet stressful situations, etc. The "Box Breathing" technique helps to trigger the parasympathetic nervous system. This is the calming, resting, digesting part of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) that balances the effects of the "fight or flight" Sympathetic Nervous System. As such, "Box Breathing" helps to manage the negative effects of adrenaline, and it helps to put you in a psychophysiological zone that is consistent with performance excellence. No matter what has changed in law enforcement, "Box Breathing" has remained the same for decades. This is because it works. You can utilize this technique after any stressful event or crisis incident to help regain composure, manage your emotions and restore balance to your ANS. You can also use it to control your adrenaline on your way to a call. You can use it to begin your day with better clarity. Hopefully, you will just use it. Melissa Ryan assisted with the preparation and writing of this column. George Ryan is a sergeant with a major Southern California agency. He spent 17 years in SWAT, and he created his department's Peak Performance and Recovery Training program. With the onset of 2017, here are 10 New Year's resolutions for cop-bashing politicians and media to contemplate on behalf of law enforcement. Please note that this does not apply to the stand-up politicians that consistently support cops. No one dies in the line of duty. As former Attorney General John Ashcroft recently stated in his capacity as the Chairman of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF), "The way to honor the fallen is to stop the falling." We endured a horrific year losing too many heroes to fatal assassination-style attacks and this needs to end. Politicians, the media, and the public need to do everything they can to prevent the murder of law enforcement officers. Politicians must advocate for new-found respect for officers' verbal commands. Thanks to the inflammatory reporting of the news media, law enforcement verbal commands have been dismissed as irrelevant. Anyone with gray hair will tell you that back in the day, listening to an officer's directives wasn't negotiable. When subjects comply with officer commands, we don't have to call for an ambulance. Politicians should be demanding that data be collected for all non-compliant subject encounters and incidents of resisting arrest. Stop scape-goating law enforcement for all the problems in low-income, high-crime areas. The problems plaguing our poorer communities are not caused by police abuses. Cop-bashing politicians continue to ignore the causes for the cycle of poverty and despair in our minority communities and how the presence of violent gangs fuels this cycle. From a global perspective, any low-income area will drive the violent crime, irrespective of race. Let's make sure our nation's guardians are properly equipped. This means politicians need to support the full implementation of the 1033 program and empowering the chiefs to request what they need and not the mayors. Let's make sure we get our funding priorities right and that every uniformed officerlocal, state, and federalis issued a TASER. When our task force assets pursue violent criminals, each team should have a Range-R through-the-wall radar device to minimize their exposure to a fatal ambush. Stop commuting the sentences of the peddlers of death; drug traffickers are inherently violent. According to the Center for Disease Control's latest report, there were 52,404 drug-induced fatalities in 2015. That is more than four times the number of fatalities attributed to gunfire. Dope peddlers do not bring good will and Hallmark moments. The fatal product they peddle wrecks lives, destroys families, and kills people nationwide. The cop-bashers should abandon their fatal notion that drug traffickers are non-violent. Cop-bashing politicians need to withdraw their hands from officers' paychecks and find another means to fund their wasteful spending. The mounting deficit is not attributable to the brave men and women who risk their lives to defend our citizenry and uphold the rule of law. Law enforcement officers are wage earners and pay their fair share of income taxes every two weeks. Those who make the ultimate sacrifice in defense of our great nation make their payment in blood. Don't siphon away the hard-earned pay and benefits of law enforcement officers to fuel other programs. Cop-bashing politicians must cease their efforts to create additional barriers for officers who need to obtain cyber-based information in a timely manner. Contrary to the mythology put forth by the bashers, officers are not juggling donuts while spying on Americans to pass the time. All law enforcement agencies have internal affairs and other components charged with investigating abusive practices. Check their score cards and you'll see we haven't gone cyber-rogue. Innocent lives are put at great risk when politicians make it more difficult for officers to obtain critical information. Authorize and provide liability protection for state and local officers to enforce immigration detainers and help capture and deport violent criminal aliens permanently. Support the civil asset forfeiture program. These funds are needed to support local and state law enforcement participation in joint task forces. Draining funding from joint law enforcement operations only serves to weaken task force assets. If the joint task forces are drained, violent criminals will roam free. Please light a blue candle during National Police Week in honor of our fallen heroes and their families. It's time to stop the bashing, start the honoring, and respect the defenders of our democracy. An Indiana Veterans Affairs Hospital police officer is being honored after he helped save the life of a military veteran, reports WPTA. The VA Northern Indiana Healthcare System says Capt. Roger Humphries is being honored for his "selfless heroism" on patrol June 16. He used CPR on an unconscious veteran while directing the response of other emergency personnel at the Marion, IN, campus, reports the Journal Gazette. Capt. Humphries, who was recently promoted to training captain, will receive the award during a ceremony January 19. Photo: Michael Schlosser At some point in a law enforcement career, you may be faced by an assailant who is pointing a handgun at you. The assailant may have taken your duty weapon from you or produced a handgun of their own. Officers may wonder how they will react if confronted with this situation, which is why training for this critical situation is essential. Circumstances dictate tactics. Imagine yourself in such a situation. Does the assailant possess your handgun? Their own handgun? What is the assailant's demeanor? What is the assailant saying or not saying? What is the distance between you and the assailant? Is there cover nearby? Do you have a backup gun? Depending on these circumstances, your tactical choices may include: immediately attempting to disarm the assailant, talking to the subject using de-escalation techniques, attempting to disarm the assailant while talking to them, retrieving your service weapon or backup handgun (if the assailant possesses your handgun), or retreating. If you decide to reason with the assailant, the assailant may hesitate to shoot. The best time to disarm an assailant during that conversationshould you decide to attempt a disarming techniqueis when the assailant gives you a command. For example, if the assailant says, "Back up," or "Get your hands up higher," the assailant then expects movement from you. That makes this the best time for you to react with a disarming technique. There are several disarming techniques. I will describe three. If the assailant is in front of you and pointing a handgun at you, the assailant will likely expect you to become submissive, perhaps by putting your hands up. Though you can maintain a submissive appearance, you should keep your hands facing the assailant while staying within your silhouette. If your hands are kept within your own silhouette, any disarming technique requires much less distance to the handgun. The least amount of movement required will give the assailant less time to react. Horizontal Twist Technique For the horizontal twist technique, you can bring one hand to the front of the weapon while moving the other to its rear, turning the handgun toward the assailant and maintaining a good grip. Importantly, this must be one simultaneous movement, with your forearms crossing. This twisting motion will weaken or dislodge the assailant's grip on the handgun. If this movement alone does not cause the assailant to release the handgun, you should create a strong base by lowering your center of gravity and widening your stance. Then quickly and forcefully pull the handgun away from the assailant toward the center of your abdomen, using the muscles in your back and biceps. This technique has the advantage of comprising just one simple movement, regardless of how or in what hand(s) the assailant is holding onto the weapon. While learning this technique, you can decide which hand feels more comfortable grabbing the front of the handgun and which hand feels more comfortable going to its rear. Vertical Twist Technique The vertical twist technique can be done in two different ways. If the assailant is holding the weapon in their right hand, you can grab the gun with your left hand while stepping off line to the left. Your left hand should then strongly hold the assailant's wrist and arm in place. With the right hand, rotate the gun backward, directly toward the assailant's wrist. The key to this movement is to rotate the gun in a tight circular motion, quickly and forcefully. Conversely, if the assailant is holding the weapon in their left hand, you should grab the gun with your right hand while stepping off line to the right. Using your left hand, you should, again, rotate the gun backward, directly toward the assailant's wrist, in a tight circular motion. Arm Lock Technique If the assailant is behind you and pointing the weapon at your back, a good option is the arm lock technique. You can rotate your body backward and closer to the assailant, while moving off line from the handgun. Your inside arm should rotate over the assailant's arm, locking it tightly at the elbow to prevent it from moving. Once the arm is locked, attack the assailant with head strikes, continuing to turn until facing away and grabbing hold of the handgun with both hands. Then twist the weapon from the assailant's hand. If the gun is not yet released from the assailant's hand, to release the handgun you will need to then quickly and forcefully move your hips back while simultaneously pushing the weapon forward. After Disarming the Assailant Once you've disarmed the assailant, create distance, give commands to the assailant, and assess the threat. You can create distance by pushing, striking, and/or retreating. If you have recovered your own weapon during the struggle, you should "tap/smack" to make sure the magazine is seated properly, and "rack" in case any brass is hung up in the ejection port, and get a fresh round into battery. If you have taken away the assailant's weapon, you should now draw your service weapon. Keep Your Options Open There is never a foolproof technique to disarm a subject with a gun. Options include immediately disarming the assailant, waiting for the right moment, using de-escalation communication, getting to another weapon, and even retreating. Your best option will depend on the situation. As with all skills, it is important for officers to train and practice often. You can never have enough repetitions of any skill or technique. As the saying goes, amateurs practice until they get it right; professionals practice until they cannot get it wrong. Dr. Michael Schlosser, Ph.D., is the director of the University of Illinois Police Training Institute, and the Institute's lead control and arrest tactics instructor. He retired from the Rantoul (IL) Police Department as a lieutenant. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) took on president-elect Donald Trump and called him for lying when he claimed that he would not take healthcare away from millions of Americans. Video: Sanders said, What we are looking at right now is a budget process whose ultimate goal is to remove health insurance from tens of millions of Americans. Sen. Sanders continued, Let us be very clear, the Republican plan, their budget plan, lays the groundwork for ending the Affordable Care Act, which will remove tens of millions of Americans from the health insurance they get. He demanded that Republicans come down and tell the Senate what their new plan is. Sanders called out Trump and the Republicans for wanting to end Medicare as it currently exists by turning it into a voucher program. Later in his speech, Sen. Sanders took direct aim at the president-elects lies about not cutting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, Mr. Trump right now has got to do one of two things. Number one, if all that he was talking about was campaign rhetoric then what he is obliged to do now is to tell the American people, Yeah, I was lying. Yeah, I said I would not support cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid but I was lying. It was a campaign ruse. I just said what came to my mind to get votes. I have no intention of keeping my word. Sanders said that if Trump was sincere about not cutting Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, I would hope that tomorrow or maybe today he could send out a tweet and tell his Republican colleagues to stop wasting their time [and] tell the American people that he will veto any proposal that cuts Medicare, that cuts Medicaid and the cuts Social Security. The speech from Sen. Sanders was a barnburner, and it was the loudest shot yet from Senate Democrats in their resistance movement against the Republican agenda. Bernie Sanders has been one of the staunchest supporters of expanding the beloved programs in the Senate. What the Republicans have done is nothing less than an act of war against decades of social safety net progress. Senate Democrats are going to make Republicans regret their efforts to dismantle Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who blocked Obama SCOTUS nominee Merrick Garland, complained to reporters and claimed that the American people would not tolerate Democrats blocking Trumps Supreme Court nominee. Video: McConnell: "The American people simply will not tolerate" Democrats blocking Trump's SCOTUS nominee https://t.co/9b6sqFrQTM CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) January 4, 2017 McConnell said, I noticed my counterpart Sen. Schumer announced yesterday that their goal was apparently to never fill the Supreme Court vacancy. Thats kind of an expansion of Biden rule. You recall the Biden rule in 1992 was the Senate would not confirm a Supreme Court nominee in the middle of a presidential election year, which was my view last year. Sen. Schumer said in the second Bush administration that they would not confirm a Supreme Court nominee in the last eighteen months of President Bushs forty-threes tenure. Apparently, theres yet a new standard now, which is to not confirm a Supreme Court nominee at all. I think thats something that the American people simply will not tolerate, and well be looking forward to receiving a Supreme Court nomination and moving forward on it. Since 54% of voters did not vote for Donald Trump, I suspect that the Majority Leader is completely wrong. The American people would probably be fine with a president that the majority rejected getting nothing. It could be argued that Democrats will be carrying out the will of the people by blocking Trumps Supreme Court nominee. McConnells use of the Biden rule, a rule which doesnt exist was complete nonsense. The truth is a man who carried out the historic obstruction of President Obamas Supreme Court nominee does not want to held to the same standard now that Republicans are in control of the White House and Congress. The louder McConnell complains, the more Democrats dig in and focus on paying back the Majority Leader for his obstruction. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print President-elect Trump is planning on cutting the nations intelligence agencies in another move that is a direct sellout designed to empower Russia and Putin. The Wall Street Journal reported, President-elect Donald Trump, a harsh critic of U.S. intelligence agencies, is working with top advisers on a plan that would restructure and pare back the nations top spy agency, people familiar with the planning said, prompted by a belief that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has become bloated and politicized.One of the people familiar with Mr. Trumps planning said advisers also are working on a plan to restructure the Central Intelligence Agency, cutting back on staffing at its Virginia headquarters and pushing more people out into field posts around the world. The CIA declined to comment on the plan. One can make a compelling argument that the intelligence agencies have become too bloated after the post-9/11 additions, but coming from a Trump team that is openly hostile to the nations intelligence community, the plan looks like an effort to weaken a national intelligence apparatus that Trump refuses to listen to, or believe. The best way to head off a potential investigation into the role that the Russian election interference played in the outcome of the 2016 election would be to weaken the agencies that would be responsible for the investigation. If Trump cuts the CIA and the intelligence community, the American people should be asking what Trumps sources of information will be? Is he going to pick up his intelligence from watching cable news? Is going to rely on Putin and Russia to keep him informed? The plan to cut the intelligence community will weaken the United States around the world while empowering Russia. A slashed national intelligence system will also make America less safe and potentially more susceptible terrorist attacks. Instead of making America great, it appears that Trump is weakening the country while selling us out to Putin. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print Senate Democrats are calling for the Office of Congressional Ethics to investigate Trumps HHS nominee, Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) for making $300,000 in trades in healthcare stocks while pushing legislation that would impact the stock price of the companies Price owned shares in. Video of Senate Democratic leadership demanding that Prices nomination not move forward until an investigation has been completed: Senate Democratic Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said, These reports that Congressman Price traded hundreds of thousands of dollars in health-related stock while, as a senior member of Congress, advocating for legislation that impacted those very companies stock prices should shock and appall every American. Thats why Senate Democrats today are calling on the House Office of Congressional Ethics the very office Republicans moved to gut behind closed doors as their first order of business in the new Congress to investigate Price for these potentially serious violations. In the spirit of draining the swamp, we need to ensure that our nominees for top cabinet posts prioritize the welfare of all Americans over their own financial gain. The Wall Street Journal reported that Price bought and sold stock 40 healthcare related companies while sponsoring or cosponsoring 44 health-related bills in the House. What Price did raises questions about whether or not he broke the law. As Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) said, These are very serious questions and the American people deserve answers. People need to have confidence that our top cabinet officials are focused on serving American families, not boosting their own stock portfolios. The heart of the question is whether or not Price violated the STOCK Act which prohibits members of Congress and the employees from using non-public information gained by their position to personally profit on stock trades. Democrats are going to use the confirmation process to shine a light on Trump corruption. If a president like all human beings is defined the company they keep, Donald Trump is stacking his administration with some very shady characters. Tom Price may be one of the first Trump nominees that Democrats have called for an investigation into, but heres betting that he almost certainly wont be the last. CEDAR RAPIDS | Sen. Rob Hogg hopes 2017 is the Year of Water in the Iowa Legislature. House Agriculture Committee Chairman Lee Hein, R-Monticello, urges him to think in term of Years of Water. Water quality problems didnt happen overnight and we probably wont have the magic bullet this session or maybe not next session, the Jones County farmer said. While there is general agreement among lawmakers and policy groups on the need for water quality improvements, interest groups pushing for action are concerned that lower revenue estimates and the impact of low agricultural commodity prices will limit the Legislatures ability to fund water quality efforts, according to Kirk Leeds, CEO of the Iowa Soybean Association. Its one of several groups backing a sales tax increase that would channel three-eighths cents of every new penny of revenue into the voter-approved Iowa Water and Land Legacy. GOP Gov. Terry Branstad and Republicans have all but nixed that approach despite the fact they have to cut spending by $100 million during the last six months of the current budget year. The Revenue Estimating Conference also projected lawmakers will have $51 million less to work with in the fiscal year beginning July 1. I dont think there is an interest in raising the sales tax, Branstad said at a Statehouse news conference Wednesday. Even when Democrats controlled the Senate they never passed it. I certainly dont expect the Republicans to do it. Although some Republicans suggest a sale tax increase could be part of a broad tax reform effort that would include income tax and property tax relief, Branstad doesnt. I dont see the interest in raising the sales tax, he repeated. However, legislative leaders say there will be a water quality discussion and indicate the Iowa Water Quality Improvement Plan that 65 House Democrats and Republicans approved in 2016 is a good starting point for the discussion when the Legislature convenes Jan. 9 in Des Moines. That plan, Branstad said, would provide a growing, reliable source of water quality funding. Hogg, D-Cedar Rapids, doubts lawmakers can find the resources in the current budget to fund water quality and other priorities. Like Democrats, in general, Hogg sides with groups representing farm, water, environmental, recreational and natural resources interests in support a sales tax increase. The sales tax, Leeds said, would provide water quality with the same sustainable funding source the state made to transportation with the constitutionally protected Road Use Tax Fund. Weve got to have a long-term commitment, Leeds said. He also suggests lawmakers might not want to dismiss Branstads proposal to use revenue from the school infrastructure sales tax for water quality improvements. Branstad projected schools still would be getting $20.7 billion for infrastructure otherwise funded by property taxes, while $4.7 billion would be channeled to improving Iowa waterways. Although it is opposed by school boards, administrators and teachers, Leeds said that as a school board president he knows school districts especially in districts where enrollment and the property tax base are not growing needs the infrastructure tax extension. Pairing it with another Iowa priority water quality may provide the political compromise needed, he said. Debating funding schemes might be getting the cart before the horse, according to Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Dan Zumbach, R-Ryan. He believes the biggest issue facing lawmakers this year are identifying and defining the problem, and reaching consensus on the degree of water quality Iowans want to achieve. We have a lot of different interpretations of poor water quality, the Delaware County farmer said. Iowans, lawmakers included, need to go through an education process to understand water quality issues. Im not comfortable spending money throwing a solution after something thats not necessarily a problem, Zumbach said. Hogg, an attorney who has authored a book on climate change and its environmental impacts, acknowledges that some legislators remain skeptical about water quality problems. There are people who just want to pretend its not our problems and they think if you make the Clean Water Act go away the problem goes away and thats just wrong, he said. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print President-elect Trump has rewarded Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi with a White House because she took his illegal campaign contribution and dropped an investigation into Trump University. Bloomberg reported, Florida attorney general Pam Bondi, who came under scrutiny last year for her offices dealings with Trump University and President-elect Donald Trump, will take a job in Trumps White House, according to a person familiar with the decision. It was not immediately clear what her title would be. Bondi was not among a lengthy list of White House appointments Trump announced on Wednesday. As Florida Attorney General, Bondi accepted an illegal $25,000 donation from Trumps foundation and later decided not to pursue an investigation into Trump Universitys Florida operations. Bondi was a frequent face on the campaign trail who introduced Trump at his rallies, so it is far from a shock that she would land a job in the Trump White House. The job appears to be a gift for Bondis willingness to accept a bribe and turn a blind eye to Trumps acts of fraud. Donald Trump is filling his administration with the sort of corrupt low character individuals that should concern every American. Trump isnt draining the swamp. He is boldly expanding it. Pam Bondis job is the latest example of a president-elect who has a taste for corruption filling his administration with like-minded individuals. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print *The following is an opinion column by R Muse* In the continuing saga surrounding the overarching question of whether or not Donald J. Trump is really an American, or a Russian operative, it is getting a little clearer that defector Donald is intricately aligned with Russia and its interests; he has shown absolutely no allegiance to America, its people, or its security interests. He certainly has no allegiance to, or respect for, the American intelligence community (IC) that he praised to high heaven a few short years ago. But of course that praise from Trump was prior to the IC doing its job and then revealing that a hostile foreign power committed an act of war against the United States of America to put one of its operatives in the White House; something Trump is still mocking the intelligence community for reporting and claimed that when it comes to a dependable and accurate intelligence source, his trust lies with a Russian operative. For anyone keeping track of Trumps lies, particularly regarding his intent to clarify various abominations concerning his position and excuses on any number of things, he promised reporters last Saturday that he would hold a press conference for a special Trump revelation on the Russian attack on America. Remember he claimed that, although computers and the age of computer make his life complicated, he knows a lot of things that other people dont know about hacking, and that all the things he does know would be revealed to the world on Tuesday or Wednesday. He added that And I know a lot about hacking, and I also know things that other people dont know, and so they cannot be sure of the situation. The people and they dunce Donald is talking about are Americas intelligence agencies such as the CIA, FBI, NSA and about 14 others that work day and night to keep America and Americans safe. Dufus Donald was referring to the 17 American intelligence agencies that do know what they are talking about and he was contradicting their claim that Russia, under the direction of Vladimir Putin, committed an act of war by hacking the DNC and other politicians to assist Trumps campaign for the White House. Of course, dishonest Don failed to reveal anything on Tuesday or Wednesday and instead used 140 characters or less to mock the American intelligence community again. On Wednesday he took to the Twitter to announce that he places his trust in Julian Assanges Wikileaks when it comes to intelligence on the Russian cyber-attack. Trump cited Assange and claimed that the Russians could not possibly be behind the cyber-attacks because Julian Assange said a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta, why was DNC so careless. Also said Russians did not give him the info! Trumps press release via Tweet was another in a series of attempts to discredit the IC by casting doubt about how the Russian-funded and protected outfit Wikileaks acquired the hacked emails it used in its effort to discredit Hillary Clinton. It is noteworthy that there is no doubt whatsoever in the minds of the agents working for the 17 different intelligence agencies about how Wikileaks or Assange got hold of the stolen data or who handed it to them. Then Trump did what he does best, lied like the pathological liar he really is. He claimed that intelligence officials postponed an intelligence briefing about what he claimed was the so-called Russian hacking and said it was because they needed more time to come to a determination on who committed the attack and build a case. Trumps claim that his briefing was postponed was a lie according to intelligence officials who say his briefing has always been scheduled for Friday, so his remarks were a very intentional attempt to discredit them. As this column has stated more than once; it is never a good idea to insult the American intelligence community. Now, as far as Trumps persistent claims that a teenager or a 400-pound guy sitting in his bed are responsible for launching an act of war against America is a giant pile of bovine excrement. According to the intelligence people who do know a lot about hacking; Information about the hacker who stole John Podestas emails indicates his or her resume is much more robust than your typical teenagers. To keep his lies going nonstop, Trump also claimed that the DNC was lax in its cyber-security because the hackers were unable to hack into the Republican National Committees data; another patently false assertion. The White House and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) both reported that the Russians hacked the Republican National Committees computer systems in addition to their attacks on Democratic organizations, but did not release whatever information they gleaned from the Republican networks. It is likely that Trumps claim about the RNC not being hacked was intel handed to him by his Russian comrade Julian Assange. Look, even Trumps fellow Republican, House Speaker Paul Ryan, comprehends that of all the malcontents on Earth to hold in high esteem, Julian Assange is not one. Ryan told Hugh Hewitt on the same day Trump was holding up Assange as his most-trusted intelligence source that, the guy [Assange] is a sycophant for Russia. He leaks, he steals data, and he compromises national security. Mr. Ryan had better start exercising a little more caution because Trump did say a week or so ago that he appreciates Paul Ryan until he goes against me. It is safe to say that contradicting Assange and Trump is easily going against dirty Don and the Russians funding Assanges outfit Wikileaks. It seems there is no end to deceitful Donalds lying on everything, but particularly the certainty that Russia was behind the cyber-attack, or as John McCain rightly called it, an act of war against the United States on Donald Trumps behalf. His steady stream of lies is bad enough, but his explicit and public display of trust in a foreigner, Julian Assange, with very close ties to Russia for his source of intelligence over Americas intelligence community is beyond the pale. It is just another glaring example that Donald Trumps allegiance is to the foreigners who helped his campaign and not America; it is something the powerful intelligence community will not, if ever, forget and that should worry dirty Don. There is nothing like a Broadway show. It's the reason that so many people from around the world return time and again to experience the thrill. But all too often people can choose to see familiar, long running shows like Phantom of the Opera or Chicago instead of taking a chance on something new. With these classic shows already likely to show up on tour in local cities, I'd like to propose a few alternatives for those seeking bold and exciting theater experiences this winter. Great Comet Marquee Walter McBride 1. Natasha, Pierre, and The Great Comet of 1812 The new electronic musical adapted from a section of Tolstoy's War and Peace, tells the moving story of a young woman's forbidden affair and the lost soul who seeks to help her in her darkest hour. And while that description may read like stuffy melodrama, the production transforms it into a stunningly immersive, and often raucous event as performers enter the audience for everything from wild dance numbers to sharing some complimentary pierogies. The show also marks the Broadway debut of recording star Josh Groban who ably demonstrates his acting (and accordion playing) talents. Ben Platt taking bows Jenny Anderson 2. Dear Evan Hansen A clear descendant of hit shows like Spring Awakening and Next to Normal, the musical tells the story of the titular high school outsider who is surprisingly thrust into the spotlight after an unexpected tragedy. Boasting one of the catchiest pop scores to hit Broadway in years from Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (currently receiving attention for their work on La La Land), the show is perfect for teenagers and anyone who recalls the pains of growing up. The musical also features a star making turn from Pitch Perfect's Ben Platt in the lead role who figures to be a strong contender for Tony recognition come this June. Jitney Marquee Walter McBride 3. Jitney Manhattan Theater Club's revival of Pulitzer Prize winner August Wilson's play tells the story of a group of men in 1970's Pittsburgh working as unlicensed cab drivers and the drama that ensues when the city threatens to close them down. Boasting the rich, colorful language many expect from Wilson (who's best known play Fences was was just adapted as a film), each member of the play's driver ensemble shines in their roles and present themselves as nuanced and compelling figures. While this show may not have the biggest names compared to others on this list, it does feature a strong performance from rising star Andre Holland, currently receiving acclaim for for his work in Moonlight. The Price star Mark Ruffalo Larry Busacca 4. The Price Beginning this February, Roundabout Theatre Company will be offering a star-studded revival of Arthur Miller's drama examining the aftermath of the depression and the impact it had on the lives of a family. The talent that has been assembled for this production includes Emmy Award winners Tony Shalhoub and Danny DeVito as well as the recently announced addition of Academy Award nominee Mark Ruffalo. Coming a year after acclaimed revivals of Miller's A View From The Bridge and The Crucible, one can only hope this production capitalizes on its talented cast and demonstrates the continued importance of Miller's contributions to the American theater. Sunday in the Park with George star Jake Gyllenhaal Bruce Glikas 5. Sunday in the Park with George Fresh from an acclaimed concert production at New York City Center, Stephen Sondheim and James Lapines's Pulitzer winning musical returns to Broadway this February with Jake Gyllenhaal in the lead. The musical which examines the artistic process in its depiction of Georges Seurat in his creation of his masterpiece, "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" and the legacy the work has on his descendants. One of the most revered musicals of all time, new audiences will have the opportunity to enjoy Gyllenhaal's impressive turn in the titular role as well as the moving performance of his Tony Winning costar Annaleigh Ashford. This moving show is an unforgettable experience for anyone who appreciates the creation of art. Pizza has been a constant in Brian Kesslers life, from the time he got a job in a pizzeria as a teenager until the day he met his wife in a pizza joint. Read moreIggy's Pizza Shop is now open in Mount Pleasant Watchdog and Public Service reporter Thad Moore is a reporter on The Post and Couriers Watchdog and Public Service team and a graduate of the University of South Carolina. To share tips securely, reach Moore via ProtonMail at thadmoore@protonmail.com or on Signal at 843-214-6576. The Big Kmart on Savannah Highway in West Ashley closed about three years ago. On Wednesday, the company announced it will close its store on Rivers Avenue in North Charleston. File/Staff Charleston, SC (29403) Today Partly cloudy. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 77F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight A few clouds. Low 68F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. DES MOINES The process by which Iowas state troopers, correctional facility staff and teachers among others negotiate their wages and benefits with the state appears destined for changes in 2017. One of the options being discussed in the Iowa Capitol which is now under complete Republican control that would have a significant impact would be to require unions and other organizations that represent public employees to hold annual certification votes among its members. A similar measure was included in the package of collective bargaining laws passed in Wisconsin in 2011. Since passage of that law, there are 132,000 fewer union members in Wisconsin, and the share of union members as a share of the workforce has fallen by almost half, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. What youve got now is you have unions that got certified in the 1970s and its never been looked at since. So I think what Wisconsin said is, wait a minute, lets let the employees make that decision every couple of years. I think thats something the (Iowa) Legislature is seriously looking at, yeah, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad said Thursday in an interview with the Globe Gazette Des Moines Bureau. Tammy Wawro, president of the Iowa State Education Association, which represents more than 34,000 Iowa teachers, said such a law would not have a dramatic impact on the organization because its members enroll each year. But that doesnt mean Wawro is supportive of such a law, and she said she suspects it could be an act of political retribution against an organization that for the past six years has pressed Republican state legislators to provide more state funding to public K-through-12 schools. Im curious as to how many constituents of the governor have asked him, when they door-knocked (during the campaign) or talked to people in main street, that having unions recertify every year is something that the public wants, Wawro said. I think we have fought hard for public school funding and maybe thats coming back as a backlash. But if we cant be the voice for our public schools, there isnt another voice. In the past, any such legislation would have been stopped by Democrats in control of the Iowa Senate. But as a result of the Nov. 8 election, Republicans have complete lawmaking control at the Iowa Capitol for the first time in 20 years, and they plan to use that newfound authority to make changes to the states collective bargaining laws during the upcoming legislative session. Any debate over collective bargaining issues is likely to create some legislative fireworks. Democrats, now in the minority in both the Iowa House and Senate and thus incapable of stopping the GOPs agenda, have pledged to be vocal opponents of any proposed changes to collective bargaining. They have in the past. In 2015, when majority Republicans in the Iowa House pursued a bill that would have tweaked one portion of the states collective bargaining laws, minority Democrats used legislative maneuvers some of them rarely invoked to drag out the debate over nine hours and two calendar days. Were preparing for an all-out fight to ensure that Iowas workers are at the table and have a voice in the decision-making here in the state of Iowa, said Mark Smith, leader of the minority House Democrats. We believe that there are important issues that affect the well-being of workers and that theirs are voices that need to be heard as well. Republican leaders say collective bargaining changes are needed to protect Iowa taxpayers. The goal here is to make sure we have the taxpayer at the table and people are mindful that resources do come from somewhere and those folks have a voice in this as well, said Iowa House Speaker Linda Upmeyer, R-Clear Lake. And then I think just trying to find some common-sense approaches that make sense to people would be a good start. The state already has delivered a clear signal of at least one planned change to collective bargaining laws. When making initial contract proposals to the various unions that represent the states employees, the state did not offer specifics on health insurance because of expected changes to the law that may come during the legislative session. Branstad has said since the election results swept Republicans into power that he would like to explore a master contract for all state employees health insurance. Were looking at, is there a better, more efficient way that we can deliver health care, Branstad said. We want to make sure that we provide quality health care for all our employees. But right now, its being done on a very ad hoc basis, not just the state but also school districts, counties, cities. Id like us to look at, could it be much more efficient if we had one master contract as opposed to all of these individual ones? The bill that sparked Democrats outrage in 2015 would have altered the way collective bargaining disputes are mediated. When the state and a public employee union cannot agree to contract terms, an arbitrator picks one sides final offer. The 2015 bill approved by House Republicans would have given arbitrators flexibility to pick a midpoint between the offers. That proposal could resurface this year. Upmeyer said Republicans may again consider that proposal, Branstads master contract for health insurance and possibly others. Were certainly hopeful that we can have good conversations and work hard to allay what I think is sort of unnecessary fear (over potential changes), Upmeyer said. We appreciate what (public employees) do, so our goal is to create sustainable kinds of environments where we dont find ourselves in a position to not be able to continue to do health care or salaries because we just dont have the resources. Dan Homan, president of the states largest public employee union, said he is disappointed by the states initial contract offers and thinks attempts to change collective bargaining laws are simply an attempt to make wages and benefits cheaper for the state at the expense of its employees. Its clear to me that this governor has a different vision than what I believe everyday Iowans have for the hard-working state employees that provide needed services to them, Homan said. I guess time will tell on just exactly how bad a particular (political) party wants to wreck the Iowa that most Iowans love. The massive amount is unusual for a local school board race and thousands more than any of the other 31 candidates have managed to raise. Read moreA CCSD board candidate has raised almost $100K in campaign funds Emanuel AMEs former secretary is suing the church and the Rev. Norvel Goff for ending her employment after she questioned the handling of donations that poured into the church after a gunman killed nine worshippers. Read moreFormer secretary at Emanuel AME sues for unpaid wages Deanna Pan is an enterprise reporter for The Post and Courier, where she writes about education and other issues. She grew up in the suburbs of Cincinnati and graduated with a degree in English from Ohio State University in 2012. As parts of South Carolina continue to struggle with the effects of one of the strongest, costliest American storms on record, some automakers appear poised to destabilize one of the most important and effective public safety tools being used in the states recovery efforts. Read moreCommentary: Hurricane Ian a reminder of the importance of AM car radios The pandemic stressed us all, but its impact was compounded among pregnant women and those who had just given birth; their rates of mood and anxiety problems doubled during that time. That should not come as a major surprise, given how the stresses around this life-giving, life-changing even Read moreEditorial: Important outreach to SC's expectant and new mothers There are five candidates vying for three open seats on Clemson City Council. We asked the two incumbents and three newcomers what they think is most important for Clemson's residents and council. Read moreMeet the candidates: 5 vying for 3 seats on Clemson City Council Incoming Senate Democratic Leader Robb Hogg says he is dedicated to fixing the part of the state school funding formula that doesnt allow the Davenport district and others to spend as much per pupil as other districts in the state. Hogg, D-Cedar Rapids, was in Davenport on Wednesday to urge Iowans to stand up to the Republicans legislative agenda. Starting Monday, Republicans will control both houses of the Legislature and Democratic leaders have been fanning out across the state to raise support for what they concede will be a defensive posture this session. Hogg, along with Rep. Phyllis Thede, D-Bettendorf, and Sen. Rita Hart, D-Wheatland, told reporters at a news conference that they are worried about the potential for curtailing collective bargaining rights for public employees, imposition of identification requirements to vote, the prospects for an increase in the minimum wage and K-12 education funding. Republicans and Democrats have argued about how much to spend on K-12 schools for years, and Hogg said he is very concerned there wont be enough money this session. At the same time, he said that even though he could not guarantee complete unanimity in his caucus, there is a sense the equity issue needs resolving. Its a problem, but Im telling you as a leader of the Senate Democratic caucus, for me, we need to address that issue, he said. I think its actually unconscionable that the superintendent would stand up and say hes going to do the right thing and hes criticized for violating the law. We need to address that issue period. Davenport school officials have been trying for years to get lawmakers to change the formula, which allows some districts to spend up to $175 more per pupil than others. Currently, Davenport can spend $6,591 per pupil. Others can go as high as $6,766 per pupil, although most are below that. Davenport Superintendent Art Tate has objected to the inequity and has broken state law by using district reserves to make up the difference. As a result, he faces an ethics complaint that was filed by the state education department. The complaint is pending. Resolving the issue is a political challenge in the Legislature, where the per pupil disparity is just one of a number of inequities in the school funding formula. In addition, revenue estimates this year are limiting the amount of new money to spend. Some Quad City lawmakers have proposed allowing districts to dip into unspent reserves to make up the disparity, at least until a longer-term fix is instituted. But that has raised concerns that it could lead to increases in property taxes. A Chicago man accused of sexually assaulting a Rochester girl over a period of several months has pleaded guilty in the case. Gerrick Jones, 22, was charged in August with one count each of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and disseminating pornography, as well as 13 counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct. All are felonies. He pleaded guilty Dec. 23 in Olmsted County District Court to two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct-victim 13-15, 23 months older. The remaining counts are expected to be dismissed at sentencing, which is set for Feb. 22; Jones was released on his own recognizance until then. The investigation began in February, when the girl contacted law enforcement. She met Jones through social media just before Christmas 2014; she was under the age of 15, but told him she was 17. The two first met in person in April 2015 in Rochester. They went to a hotel, where Jones wanted to engage in sexual intercourse, but the girl refused. Jones became angry, the complaint says, and "forcibly removed" the victim's pants and underwear, then sexually assaulted her. ADVERTISEMENT The girl told him to stop, allegedly angering Jones even more. He grabbed her by the neck and slammed her into the wall, court documents say, then forced more sexual contact. About a month later, the two met again in Rochester. Jones had reportedly learned the girl's real age, but said they were "already in too deep," and allegedly sexually assaulted her again. The victim told detectives that Jones remained in contact with her, sexually assaulting her about six more times, the complaint says, the last time on Dec. 31, 2015. The girl said she tried to break off the relationship with Jones, but claimed he threatened to send explicit photographs of her to her friends and family. A forensic exam of the victim's phone contained information confirming a relationship between the two, the reports say. A search warrant led to examinations of Jones' social media accounts, which allegedly contained multiple photos of the girl's body, as well as photos of sexual contact between the two. George Armstrong Custer, one of the most gifted and controversial generals in American history, is the topic of the next meeting of the Rochester Civil War Round Table at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the History Center of Olmsted County, 1195 W. Circle Drive SW. The speaker is Loren Else, who will look at Custer's Civil War record. Custer probably is best known for his death at the Battle of the Little Big Horn on the western frontier, but before that, he had a reputation as a dashing and daring cavalry officer during the Civil War. In particular, the cavalry charge he led at Gettysburg is credited with ensuring Union victory in that battle. Admission to the presentation is a free-will offering. Rochester Mayor Ardell Brede asked for civility and compassion in his annual State of the City address, delivered Wednesday at a Rochester City Council meeting. The mayor, who is serving his 15th year in office, drew inspiration from the Dalai Lama in asking for compassion and quoted President George Washington in directing civility in local governance. "Now's the time to respect one another, debate the issues and disagree without becoming disagreeable," Brede said. "Compassion and civility will be traits that will be beneficial for us all to each other and our public." Brede had plenty to celebrate from the past year of local government actions. He cited the successes of the city staff in meeting the challenges of a growing city and the success of the continuing Destination Medical Center economic initiative. The mayor also called out his actions to value diversity in the community. Last year, he proclaimed the day after Thanksgiving as Indigenous Peoples Day, a city holiday. He also joined a nationwide initiative called Mayors Against LGBT Discrimination. ADVERTISEMENT The city does have challenges in its future. Brede noted perhaps the most significant for Rochester will be the planned retirement of its 37-year city administrator, Stevan Kvenvold. "He will leave a legacy of accomplishments and a knowledge that is beyond any city manager in Minnesota," Brede said. Brede last year also met with the Dalai Lama as part of the U.S. Conference of Mayors annual meeting in Indianapolis. Brede shared three of the Dalai Lama's main commitments: to promote human values; to promote religious harmony and understanding; and to work to preserve a culture of peace and nonviolence. In continuing his commitment to compassion, Brede this year will travel to India and the monasteries where Mahatma Gandhi studied as part of a project to "reinvigorate nonviolence in America." The project is a followup to a documentary film, "From India with Love." Following a year of some political turmoil, both nationally and in Rochester, the mayor also asked for civility and for local elected officials to focus on governance, not politics. Brede read two rules from the "Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation," an etiquette text popularized by President George Washington who copied the text as a school exercise, according to NPR . The council's commitment to civility was tested just before Brede gave his State of the City Address during the course of the council meeting. Council President Randy Staver and council member Michael Wojcik exchanged words regarding the council's committee appointments. After the exchange, Brede told Wojcik to "act like an adult." ADVERTISEMENT Brede inserted a few digs into his remarks. He referred to "frivolous ethics challenges" he and Staver were the subjects of complaints to the Rochester Ethical Practices Board last year and in introducing the council's newest representative, Annalissa Johnson, Brede said the council members might have gotten to know Johnson better "if we had our council dinners." The mayor suspended council dinner meetings last year after some council members boycotted for transparency concerns. Brede concluded his address with "God bless each and every one in our city. Together we will continue to prosper." AUSTIN For Christmas, Malcolm McDonald got what he wanted: a peaceful and dignified passing. McDonald, the 81-year-old man who advocated publicly for the right to die on his own terms, died on Christmas Day at Mayo Clinic Health System in Austin. Judy McDonald, Malcolm's wife, spent the last week cleaning with her son, Ian, 47, of Hutchinson. Although saddened by Malcolm's death, the two got to enjoy sharing memories and time together while preparing for his memorial service. There were the car rides and adventures to the East Coast. Ian and his father would listen to classical music for hours on end, which drove Judy "up the wall." There was that one time when Malcolm and Judy invited their pastor over for Thanksgiving supper, and Malcolm ended up falling asleep, leaving Ian and his wife to entertain. "It's been a hard week," Ian said quietly. "I loved my dad. Just as other people who lose their parents, it's very painful. It's a huge loss in your life. We're going one day at a time; we're going to be just fine. It's going to take time. We miss him; he was a great man. I just miss him every day and always will." ADVERTISEMENT Those were the memories the cancer didn't taint or steal from the family. When Malcolm started experiencing pain in July, he made four trips to Rochester and was given the final diagnosis in September: stage-four lung cancer. "It was a shock, of course," Judy said. "At the age we're at, you're gonna go up with something that wasn't something we were expecting." At first, Malcolm wanted to see if there was anything to change his prognosis. The doctors said there was nothing else they could do, other than make his last few months comfortable. "There really wasn't anything," Ian said. "Anything that was really available to him was just to live momentarily and lengthen his life by a month or two. It came at a significant cost, and some of the therapies would have affected his quality of life. It was a hard choice." 'A great dad, a great man and a great husband' In December 1962, Judy was an elementary school teacher in Anchorage, Alaska. With high apartment rental prices, most of the educators there developed a system of trying to pair up with another person to ensure having a roommate to ease financial burden. She placed a newspaper ad in the school paper, seeking a roommate. One day, a man came to the door, introduced himself and asked about the apartment for a woman who claimed she needed a place to stay. After showing him around, Judy knew this wasn't the man's main intentions. "I asked for the name of the girl. Well, I knew that girl, and she did not need a place to live," Judy said with a fond laugh. "He was looking for a girlfriend. We had a lot of fun with that. I said, 'You're pulling a con job, and I'm wise to you.' We laughed, and that was the beginning." ADVERTISEMENT Almost sounding like a perfect story from a romantic comedy, Judy insisted "it was absolutely true." The man introduced himself as Malcolm McDonald, a junior high school teacher. They married in April 1963 and spent 53 years together. Before that, Malcolm also was in the military for a significant part of his life. He was in the Army Reserves from 1956 to 1995, retiring as a master sergeant. During his 39 years in the military, he also served in Operation Desert Storm. His commitment to helping others continued in education. He served as the special education director for the Austin Public Schools district. Malcolm still wanted to help others. Ian said his father donated his body to Mayo Clinic for research. "It was one of his desires so people could benefit others with his remains for education," Ian said. "He was a great dad and a great man and a great husband." Judy agreed, and her voice grew soft. "We had a lot of fun." 'He got what he hoped for' On the Thursday before Christmas, Judy noted Malcolm's behavior changed in some ways, and he did things he had never done before. "He came into bed Thursday night; he was just not the same." ADVERTISEMENT The next morning, Judy got showered and dressed. When she entered the living room, however, she found Malcolm clinging to a chair for dear life. He did not speak; he could not communicate. He was standing and did not move. "We finally had to call 911," she said. "That was the Friday morning before Christmas. We were never able to talk to him. It had gone to his brain." Malcolm spent the last days of his life in hospice care. He was given medication and was not in pain. He couldn't communicate. All he wanted was just to have the last few days be comfortable. Ian said his father was adamantly against using artificial means in prolonging his life. Fiercely independent, Malcolm didn't want any drugs to prevent the inevitable, his family said. He defined death as a time when he could no longer function or combat the events of daily life. He wanted to be constantly present and aware. On Christmas Day, he came as he went, peacefully. "It was hard for me," Ian said. "I know it was hard for me and Mom. You don't want to play a role in your loved one's passing. It was sure his desire to, if his time had come, he wanted to claim it. He ended up getting the outcome he had hoped for, and close to it, he did not suffer long." Death with dignity It was a natural conversation and a frequent one at that. Both Judy and Malcolm talked about this for the last eight years. Malcolm's family was not a stranger to the ailments of cancer. His father died from cancer, and so did his older sister. "Both of us are firmly rooted in reality as far as that stuff is concerned. If we were in such a condition, then why stick around or put misery on your family," she said. "There was no hope for him to improve; the best they could've done was to keep the pain in control. It reached his brain, and when they diagnosed it, there was nothing he could do." However, Ian felt more conflicted about Malcolm's wishes. "I was not part of the conversation; honestly, I was really fighting it," Ian said. "I didn't want to be put in a position in making that decision or playing a role in it. Mom and Dad talked about this issue, and I guess I had a couple conversations can't say they were lengthy." Malcolm advocated for a "death with dignity" law in the state after getting diagnosed. The law would have allowed the administering of medication to end his life. He penned a letter to Gov. Mark Dayton for some additional political support: "I have asked my primary physician to recommend one of the above states where I would have the freedom to pursue my desire to use laws that provide for dying with dignity. Can your office provide information and guidance regarding this topic, so that I, a resident of Minnesota, can take advantage of the freedoms these laws provide to individuals so they and their families can avoid the experiences that they can anticipate are coming and that others who have passed away have experienced in the past." Few bills have been introduced at the Legislature to allow "death with dignity," and none passed. There's no indication on whether a similar bill would meet a different fate in the session, if one were to appear. In March 2015, three senators sponsored the Minnesota Compassionate Care Act, and 17 representatives introduced a companion bill in the state House. There were no legislative actions taken, and it received a discussion-only hearing. Since the Legislature is on a biennium, the bill carried over in 2016, and a hearing took place on March 16. One of the senators who sponsored the bill previously Sen. Chris Easton, D-Brooklyn Center withdrew it before a vote could take place because of lack of support. It's unknown if the bill will be filed again for consideration in the legislative session. Another poll conducted by the Greenberge Quinlan Rosner Research poll in September found 73 percent of Minnesotans supported "medical aid in dying," and 55 percent favored the option strongly. With no answer from Dayton, the McDonalds were disappointed. "The lack of response from Dayton is notable. I know there are lots of other people who suffered through this and are experiencing the same thing," Ian said. "He didn't quit" Malcolm's story drew support from those who could relate to his situation, and it also drew criticism from those who didn't agree. Yet, he didn't allow opposing views to dictate how he felt about having the freedom to make his own choice about his health. "Dad's prognosis, as an 81-year-old man with stage-four cancer, he did not have the opportunity to heal," Ian said. "His only outlook from the day he was diagnosed going forward was to live each day like it was his last. It's not like he gave up on life. He didn't quit. All he wanted was the choice to avoid the pain and suffering imminently coming for him and to shorten the difficulty for himself and for family members that cancer meant." Ultimately, Malcolm died before having that ability to make his own choice. However, his family takes comfort in knowing he didn't have to stay in pain for long. "God called him home on Christmas, and his suffering and pain came to an end," Ian said. "I would say yes, his length of time that he had to live in that way was short, and so, my dad died with dignity. ... He was a good man." After six months of controversy, Mayo Clinic has presented a plan to SEIU's food service workers as part of its pending transition to Morrison Healthcare later this year. Union members will vote on the proposal Jan. 12-13. No details about the plan have been made public. It's the first proposal Mayo has offered union members since the proposed move was announced during the summer, prompting 15 bargaining sessions, two pickets in downtown Rochester and criticism from more than 30 state lawmakers. According to an SEIU press release, the upcoming vote will cover about 500 union members in Rochester and Albert Lea. The union earlier estimated that 350 SEIU workers in Rochester would receive about $3 million less annually in wages and benefits under Morrison, though that's subject to change based on what's offered under Mayo's new proposal. "The proposal addresses most but not all of the priorities that workers have been fighting for since the outsourcing news was announced this summer," the SEIU press release said. "The food service workers, many with decades of experience, have been firm in their demands that these jobs remain positions that support workers, their families, and the patients and staff they serve in Rochester, Albert Lea and across Southern Minnesota." SEIU representatives declined comment after issuing a three-paragraph press release to announce Mayo's proposal. ADVERTISEMENT The Sodexo employees who voted to join SEIU in October will not be eligible to take part in the upcoming vote. Instead, separate negotiations will be done on their behalf. Mayo spokeswoman Ginger Plumber released the following statement Wednesday afternoon: "Our recent discussions with SEIU Healthcare Minnesota have been productive and we are looking forward to having the union present the proposal to its members for a vote. Mayo Clinic remains optimistic that we will reach an agreement with the unions representing food service workers in Minnesota." Updated at 4:30 p.m. to correct information on West's doctoral degree. Saint Mary's University officials confirmed that West does not hold a doctoral degree but did not say the degree was revoked. WINONA Facing questions about his academic record, Winona Area Public Schools Superintendent Stephen West is expected to resign effective late Thursday. According to the school board meeting agenda, the board will vote Thursday on a separation of employment with West, then appoint an interim superintendent. That separation a resignation by West, according to supporting documents with the agenda would take place at 11:59 p.m. Thursday. West has led the district since the 2014-15 school year. In November, he announced he would step down at the end of the school year, but that timetable has been accelerated. West earned a master's degree in education from SMU in 1998 and received a doctoral degree in 2009. In a story about his hiring in the Fall 2014 edition of Saint Mary's Magazine, the school's alumni publication, West's degrees are listed, but a Saint Marys spokeswoman today confirmed only that West does not currently hold a doctoral degree from the university. ADVERTISEMENT Calls and emails to West on Tuesday went unanswered. The board action follows reports in the Winona Post , a twice-weekly newspaper, that West does not hold a doctorate and that his 2009 doctoral thesis, "African Americans' Motivations for Becoming Principals," appears to plagiarize a 2007 doctoral thesis by a student at the University of Georgia. Ben Baratto, chairman of the Winona Area Public Schools Board, said he could not comment on West and his status with the district. "We have a meeting on Thursday," he said, when asked if the board will address the issue. Baratto said it's not a district requirement for the superintendent to hold a doctoral degree. "When you're searching, you can specify certain qualifications," he said. "It's not absolutely necessary. There are a lot of very good people out there that don't have a doctorate." In the "Traits and characteristics desired in new superintendent" from the minutes of the Nov. 7, 2013, school board meeting, nothing is mentioned concerning advanced degrees. But academic integrity is a standard the Winona schools state in its student handbook for 2016-17: "All students have the responsibility to uphold the highest standards of academic and behavioral integrity in their own work." The handbook goes on to say that work presented by students should represent their own personal efforts and, when applicable, properly attribute the intellectual work of others. ADVERTISEMENT SMU has similar policies regarding academic integrity, a university official said. The superintendent issue comes at a time when the Winona district is facing major changes. On Dec. 15, the board approved the recommendation of the WAPS Facilities Task Force to consolidate its elementary schools. The district will close Madison, Rollingstone and Washington-Kosciusko elementary schools and keep open renovated Jefferson and Goodview elementary schools. The move, meant to save more than $1.25 million per year in operating costs, would cost $89 million, including renovations to the two elementary schools and deferred maintenance on those and other buildings within the district. DES MOINES | Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate on Thursday proposed a $1 million upgrade to the states election system to guard against fraud. That would involve using electronic poll books statewide and requiring voter or signature verification at polling places and for absentee ballots. Pate said he has shared a draft of his proposed election integrity legislation with majority GOP leaders with favorable responses, but he noted that the upgrade probably would not be in place until the 2020 election unless lawmakers put the changes on a fast track to be in place by 2018. Some Democratic Party officials immediately criticized the proposal. As I have stated many times, protecting the integrity of our election system is my top priority and this legislation will help to do that, Pate told a Statehouse news conference. I want to make it easy to vote but hard to cheat. Pate proposes that voter identification including existing Iowa drivers licenses, passports and military IDs be required and signatures be verified at polling sites. Eligible voters, out-of-state students and others who lack approved identification would be issued free ID cards with ID numbers by election officials, he noted. A registration ID number would be required for all voters requesting absentee ballots. If you dont have an ID, we will send you a new voter registration card to use at the polls, Pate said. This bill streamlines the system to make checking in easier and quicker. It will reduce waiting times at the polls, ensure every eligible Iowan is able to cast a ballot and ensures their ballot will count. Utilizing electronic poll books, voters will scan their state-issued ID or voter registration card upon checking in at their polling place. Pates bill also establishes post-election audits to ensure public confidence in the electoral process. The proposed legislation would cost $500,000 up front to create the voter identification cards and likely another $35,000 annually after the initial one-time start-up cost. Pate is seeking another $500,000 to establish a revolving fund to provide electronic poll books in all 99 counties. He said 72 counties currently have some form of electronic poll books. Other features of Pates proposal would set the first date to request absentee ballots at 120 days prior to an election; create a deadline for proxies to return collected voter registration forms and absentee ballots to the county auditors office; require that county auditors certify their compliance to all state and federal laws and report all suspected instances of election misconduct with the Pates office; and ensure uniform, ongoing training for election staff and poll workers. Pate praised Iowas current voting system but said the changes he is seeking will continue to ensure the fairness of the election system statewide while increasing measures to enhance integrity. We are one of the top states in the nation for voter registration and voter participation, he said. This legislation will not have any negative impact on either of those. Instead, it will help instill confidence in our voting system and let every Iowan know that their vote counts. Johnson County Auditor Travis Weipert said the proposals appeared to be a fix for a system that isnt broken and ranks among the top in the nation. He questioned whether overseers would be properly trained to verify signatures and the new requirements would contribute to long lines at polling places on Election Day. He also worried some of the costs would become an unfunded mandate for county officials. Democratic Party officials also criticized the proposal. Less than two months after praising the integrity of elections in Iowa, Secretary of State Paul Pate has released a partisan proposal that will suppress voter turnout across Iowa, said Sen. Jeff Danielson, D-Cedar Falls, chairman of the Senate State Government Committee until next Monday. Voter ID and other changes outlined today will disenfranchise older Iowans, younger Iowans and people of color. Danielson said state lawmakers and county auditors have worked to increase voter participation and election integrity in our state, but the changes proposed Thursday by the secretary of state would turn back the clock by making election policy a partisan issue. Monica Biddix, communications director for the Iowa Democratic Party, issued a statement noting that so-called election integrity" legislation in other states has included voter ID laws and other initiatives that are only designed to suppress the vote of the elderly, minorities and those in poverty. "Voter ID laws are intended to suppress the vote, period," Biddix said. This is a new revelation for the Secretary of States office who bragged on the integrity of Iowas elections three months ago. As we start a new year, there is a lot of focus on how divided our society is and how difficult it can be for the gears of government to turn with such seemingly deep partisan division. And on many issues, this may be reality. But the new year also brings with it a great opportunity for our elected officials to seek out what brings us together as a people and show that some things are bigger than politics. Minnesotans have a strong connection to place. We truly revere this land and the legacy we all hope to leave for future generations. A future where our unique Minnesota traditions and experiences are available for children to share with grandchildren and the values that live in those traditions are safely delivered into the future. In 2008, surrounded by uncertainty as our nation plunged into the "Great Recession", Minnesotans from every corner of our state came together to overwhelmingly pass the Clean Water, Land & Legacy Amendment that provided new funding for clean water, wildlife habitat, parks and arts institutions statewide. It was a bold and positive statement by voters about the future we all want for our state. As part of that campaign, I traveled all over our state talking to voters. It was clear to me then that as important as clean water is to all of us, the Legacy Amendment wasn't just about the specific initiatives it funded. Each conversation I had brought a different perspective, but they all connected to one central idea. The Legacy Amendment was important because it was a key strategy to sustain vibrant and healthy communities throughout Minnesota. ADVERTISEMENT Today, we need more strategies to deliver vibrant Minnesota communities into the future so that young people can both envision and realize a prosperous future close to home. And there are plenty of ways that, once again, preserving this unique place we call home goes hand in hand with this goal. For example, clean energy is one of the fastest growing sectors of the Minnesota economy. With wind energy having become the most cost effective type of energy to produce, our community colleges are working to keep up with demand for people trained for these good-paying jobs. A simple dedication to clean energy will have all the traditional benefits as well as helping to create more livable wage jobs for people throughout greater Minnesota. Along similar lines, Minnesota's sustainable working forests support both an important industry and our goals to keep water clean. We should work on incentives to expand the use of environmentally friendly forest and agricultural products that provide jobs throughout Minnesota instead of using more and more plastics and inheriting the legacy of pollution that comes with them. Finally, one item that remains undone from Minnesota's last legislative session is the passage of a bonding package that would fund clean water infrastructure projects to again put people to work in greater Minnesota and also clean up our water. Funding the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program would also bring matching federal dollars to support our farming communities' goals for clean water. Protecting our health and natural resources go hand in hand with creating prosperous communities throughout our state. Our elected officials can choose to focus on the ways they don't agree in hopes of gaining short-term political advantage. Or they can embrace who we are as Minnesotans, and look for ways to chart a path forward that creates prosperous communities while protecting the unique places, values, and traditions that are such a critical part of the Minnesota we love. Let's hope they choose Minnesotans. Paul Austin is executive director of Conservation Minnesota. I was spraying the most deadliest substance on Earth and I am responsible for it." Leroy Foster, Vietnam War veteran A Florida resident is coming out about the truth of what, he says, happened on Andersen Air Force Base in the 1960s and '70s. Leroy Foster, a Lakeland veteran, did an interview with WFLA TV claiming he sprayed hundreds of thousands of gallons of Agent Orange while stationed at AAFB. Agent Orange was one of the defoliants known as rainbow herbicides used by the U.S. military as part of its herbicidal warfare program during the Vietnam War from 1961 to 1971. They were used to destroy bushes, trees and vegetation to deprive insurgents of cover and food crops, as part of a starvation campaign in the early 1950s, according to Post news files. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request. It was also used to clear the perimeters of military bases to give service members a clear line of fire. The herbicide was known as Agent Orange because of an orange band painted on the drums used to store and transport it. Consistent denials Officials have consistently denied that the U.S. military used Agent Orange outside of Vietnam. Veterans stationed on Guam, including Foster, have testified in several forums that they sprayed Agent Orange in military facilities and defense properties on Guam including tank farms, a cross-island pipe line, pump houses, hydrant pits and filtering systems at AAFB, files state. Guam veterans believed they contracted various types of diseases such as respiratory cancers, heart disease, and Parkinsons disease as a result of their exposure to Agent Orange. The Department of Veterans Affairs, on separate occasions, also acknowledged that herbicides, particularly Agent Orange, were used on Guam from 1968 to 1970 and other military installations and facilities outside of Vietnam. According to the report, Foster, who is sick with multiple cancers and auto-immune diseases, said he bears enormous guilt for exposing other veterans and their families to the herbicide. Foster said he was assigned to vegetation control at AAFB that housed, fueled and armed B-52 bombers for missions over Vietnam in the '60s and '70s. 'Two and three trailer fulls a day' In the interview, Foster said he sprayed Agent Orange along the flight line, sidewalks, fences, fuel tank farms and barracks, exposing Air Force personnel and their families to the herbicide. I was spraying two and three trailer fulls a day, Foster told the Florida news outlet. They told me that I could brush my teeth in it, wouldnt hurt anybody, he said. Foster, like many thousands of other Vietnam veterans, has been plagued with various cancers and diseases that he believes are linked to Agent Orange exposure. Ive got 33 diseases, I had 28 until all the cancers started popping up, Foster explained He said he has rectal cancer, colon cancer, thyroid cancer, bladder cancer and prostate cancer. Foster said his own grandchild was born with 24 fingers and toes. 'Symptoms ... in the general population' WFLA referred to a 2004 report to investors of Dow Chemical, the company that manufactured Agent Orange, which states: Soldiers stationed on Guam who handled Agent Orange have become ill and symptoms of TCDD (dioxins) are apparent in the general population of the island as well. Foster said he felt guilty for all the children who were hurt and the unborn children who died and didnt have a chance to live. I was spraying the most deadliest substance on Earth and I am responsible for it, he told the Florida news outlet. Our veterans, they gave their lives to our country, they dont deserve to be lied to. If you dont want to pay for compensation, dont. But dont lie to us did we lie to you? In an email to U.S. senators, Foster begged for Guam to immediately be added to the Agent Orange locations list, writing, I will refuse anymore care and will die if you refuse, sir. I will not live under persecution and denial of the truth of what I did on Guam at Andersen Air Force Base. In his column today, Victor Davis Hanson asks Why the anti-Israel sentiment? As the Obama administration expressly joins the jackals, its a good question. Let us pause in particular over Dr. Hansons framing of the question: Secretary of State John Kerry, echoing other policymakers in the Obama administration, blasted Israel last week in a 70-minute rant about its supposedly self-destructive policies. Why does the world including now the U.S. single out liberal and lawful Israel but refrain from chastising truly illiberal countries? Kerry has never sermonized for so long about his plan to solve the Syrian crisis that has led to some 500,000 deaths or the vast migrant crisis that has nearly wrecked the European Union. No one in this administration has shown as much anger about the many thousands who have been killed and jailed in the Castro brothers Cuba, much less about the current Stone Age conditions in Venezuela or the nightmarish government of President Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines, an ally nation. President Obama did not champion the cause of the oppressed during the Green Revolution of 2009 in Iran. Did Kerry and Obama become so outraged after Russia occupied South Ossetia, Crimea, and eastern Ukraine? Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power was never so impassioned over the borders of Chinese-occupied Tibet, or over Turkish-occupied Northern Cyprus. In terms of harkening back to the Palestinian refugee crisis that started in the late 1940s, no one talks today in similar fashion about the Jews who survived the Holocaust and walked home, only to find that their houses in Eastern Europe were gone or occupied by others. Much less do we recall the 11 million German civilians who were ethnically cleansed from Eastern Europe in 1945 by the Soviets and their imposed Communist governments. Certainly, there are not still refugee camps outside Dresden for those persons displaced from East Prussia 70 years ago. More recently, few nations at the U.N. faulted the Kuwaiti government for the expulsion of 200,000 Palestinians after the liberation of Kuwait by coalition forces in 1991. Whole thing here. For more on the Israel test, see Ron Lipsman, George Gilders Israel test: Who passes? Who fails? The pseudonymous Ishmael Jones is a former CIA case officer and author of The Human Factor: Inside the CIAs Dysfunctional Intelligence Culture. He writes with a timely comment on the current intelligence controversy that is reaching a fever pitch. Mr. Jones advises that his commentary has been reviewed and approved by the CIAs publications review board. He writes: CIA intelligence reporting stating that the Russian government hacked the presidential election in order to elect Donald Trump is false. It is merely a political attack against Donald Trump with the goal of delegitimizing his presidency. The depth and quality of the CIA reporting are too good to be true. A December 16 NBC report states, for example: Putin personally directed how hacked material from Democrats was leaked and otherwise used. Everyone knows that a great deal of hacking comes out of Russia. But evidence of hacking does not lead to the conclusion that there was a Russian government conspiracy to get Mr. Trump elected. Such a conclusion would require access to Putins inner circle and knowledge of Putins plans and intentions. Any spy that close to Putin would be one of the best intelligence sources of all time. If such a source existed, he doesnt exist any more. The leaked reporting would have put him in grave danger, and he would already have been imprisoned or executed. The reporting instead reflects the political opinions and agendas of bureaucrats. CIA bureaucrats are a big blue voting machine with a long record of creating information harmful to Republican presidents. The danger to Mr. Trump is ratcheted up because the recent election influenced many people at the CIA to believe that Trump is the second coming of Hitler. And to stop Hitler, anything is ethical, even treason. CIA bureaucrats have chosen to attack Mr. Trump before he even takes office. The CIA is meant to spy upon foreign countries. The secrets we seek are located in foreign countries. Yet the bloated CIA bureaucracy exists almost entirely within the United States. CIA bureaucrats appear to find foreign service disagreeable. They enjoy their lifestyle and will fight with aggressive passivity to keep it that way. More than 90% of CIA employees spend their careers living and working entirely within the United States. James Bond would periodically come in from the field to report to the chief of British intelligence, M. On the way into Ms office he would joke around with Ms secretary, Miss Moneypenny. When I reported to CIA Headquarters, there were thousands of these people thousands of Ms and thousands of Miss Moneypennys. The CIA cafeteria looks like a great herd grazing peacefully upon the plains. The incoming CIA chief, Mike Pompeo, will be astonished by how many of his senior leaders have not had an overseas assignment in decades. Brief junkets and TDYs to foreign countries do not count. CIA boss John Brennans 40-plus years of CIA service have occurred almost entirely within the Headquarters building. During a 20-year career, the Lefts favorite spy, Valerie Plame, spent less than two and a half years in foreign operational assignments, mostly during an initial tour in Europe. The CIA has a military origin, and in the military, huge staffs are required for planning and logistics. There are relatively few actual fighting infantrymen at the point of the spear because to send that infantryman to combat requires support from tanks, artillery, aircraft and so on, which need massive expenditure and meticulous planning. The CIA has the massive expenditure and the huge staffs, but the CIAs equivalent of the infantryman is the case officer, and the best case officers require only a passport and an airline ticket to get half a world away and produce. Michael Morell, author of the New York Times op-ed column I Ran the CIA. Now Im Endorsing Hillary Clinton inhabited the Washington, D.C., area for nearly all of his 33 years in the CIA. In the article, he writes: I will do everything I can to ensure she is elected. While at the CIA, Morells top goal was to promote greater inclusiveness and diversity. The CIA has come a long way since the days of the polygraph question, Have you ever held another mans penis in your hand? Today we have more employees working in encouraging diversity and, as of recently, more transgender employees than we do case officers operating under cover in Russia, China, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Iran, and North Korea combined. We should try to do both. Lets be dedicated to diversity and also spy on our enemies. Mr. Pompeos staff may wish to contact the staff of former CIA chief Porter Goss. Goss was the last Republican appointee to attempt change at the CIA and his staff will be able to provide valuable insights, especially former staffer Patrick Murray Gritty foreign countries with their strange ways and pungent smells are not the only reason for bureaucrats to live in the United States. CIA Headquarters is also the place to make deals. Fighting fraud will be a real challenge to Mr. Pompeo. Most bureaucrats retire and become contractors, wheedling contracts from their pals still at the CIA. I hear many tales from colleagues about waste, theft, and great riches accruing to phony contractors. The CIA paid $40 million to contractors to review documents to help prepare the Senate torture report, according to ABC News on December 10, 2014, for example. Had Hillary won, Michael Morells support may have put him on track to be a billionaire. Forty million here and forty million there really starts to add up. It may be possible to make great progress in draining the swamp by firing or prosecuting just one leaker just a single one. And by imprisoning just one phony contractor just one. Word will spread that theres a new sheriff in town and Mr. Pompeo may be pleasantly surprised to see that the swamp starts to drain itself. Arise and take our stand for freedom as in the olden time. Winston Churchill Proclaim Liberty throughout All the land unto All the Inhabitants Thereof. Inscription on the Liberty Bell An Indianola woman was sentenced Thursday to up to 25 years in prison for sexually abusing two girls in Davenport. April Mae Lincoln, 29, must serve 70 percent or 17.5 years of the sentence before she is eligible for parole. She pleaded guilty in September in Scott County District Court to two counts of felony second-degree sexual abuse, punishable by up to 25 years in prison. On March 17, the Indianola Police Department received a complaint claiming sexual abuse, according to arrest affidavits filed by the Davenport Police Department. Lincoln and co-defendant Christopher James Myers, 31, repeatedly sexually abused the girls, ages 6 and 7, while they were staying in the 100 block of South Howell Street in Davenport, according to the arrest affidavits. The couple then told the girls not to tell anyone about what was happening, according to the arrest affidavits. According to Scott County District Court electronic records, the abuse began taking place in 2013. Lincoln's attorney, public defender Derek Jones, urged District Court Judge Joel Barrows to accept the plea agreement, which called for the sentences to run at the same time, and noted that Lincoln herself had been abused in the past. I think what were seeing here is a tragic example of the cycle of abuse, he said. He argued that Lincoln owned up to what she had done when speaking to investigators and agreed to cooperate against Myers, who has a change-of-plea hearing scheduled for Jan. 13. Jones also said Lincoln will seek sex offender treatment in prison. She declined to make a statement at sentencing. Barrows said that given the fact that there were multiple victims and the horrific nature of the offense, he would have considered running the sentences back-to-back. However, he noted that Lincoln took immediate responsibility and cooperated in the investigation. Barrows also accepted a recommendation from Assistant Scott County Attorney Blake Norman to enter a five-year no contact order for both victims. Per Lincolns plea agreement, Norman dismissed to additional counts of second-degree sexual abuse. Tara Becker is a reporter for the Quad City Times, another Lee Enterprises newspaper. Vice president-elect Pence met this morning with House Republicans. According to what Ive been told by a member who was present, Pence said that Donald Trump will cut short his inauguration parade so he can go to the Oval Office and rescind many of President Obamas executive orders. In addition, as I understand it, Trump will take immediate action to begin undoing some of the administrations regulations. There are limits to a presidents power to overturn regulations. For regulations enacted within the last eight months, Trump can ask Congress to use the Congressional Review Act. It allows Congress to bypass filibusters in the Senate to overturn recently issued regulations. This procedure would apply to regulations issued since May 2016, of which there are many. For older regulations, Team Trump will have to undertake a protracted administrative process. Pence reportedly told House Republicans that some of the executive action Trump plans to take on Inauguration Day will pertain to Obamacare. Trump cant repeal the Affordable Care Act; nor will he want to gut it through executive orders until serious thought has been given to how to replace the Act. Indeed, Pence reportedly has spoken in terms of using executive action to smooth the transition away from Obamacare, not to bring Obamacare to an immediate and grinding halt. Thus, whatever executive action Trump takes regarding Obamacare on Day 1 may be mainly symbolic. Symbolically, cutting his parade short in order immediately to undo some of Obamas handiwork would be a great way for Trump to kick off his administration. Substantively, in many areas, it would also make for a nice beginning. Yesterday, I observed that Chuck Schumers tough talk on the Supreme Court is backed up by a hand consisting of. . .nothing. Schumer is no Paul Newman, so for him nothing isnt a cool hand. Schumer is also talking tough about Obamacare. He insists that Democrats will not help Republicans replace the Affordable Care Act. He anticipates, therefore, that repeal will produce a disaster. He intends to call that disaster Trump Care and ride a harsh critique of it back into power, the way the Republicans did with Obamacare. You break it, you own it will be the mantra. Clearly this hand is not nothing. Unlike with a Supreme Court nominee, Republicans seemingly need Democratic votes in Congress in order effectively to replace Obamacare. Some replacement can be accomplished with only 50 votes, via reconciliation. How much replacement can be done this way is unclear to me and, I think, unclear to everyone except perhaps the Senate parliamentarian. However, no one seems to dispute that full replacement is not possible through reconciliation. Thus, some Democratic support will be required in the Senate. Otherwise, its likely that serious gaps will remain in a post-repeal environment. These gaps might well produce instability, if not chaos, for which Democrats can blame Republicans. Donald Trump, making America sick again is a slogan Schumer is already trying out. So Schumer has a decent hand. But is it as strong as he thinks it is? Im not sure. Obamacare was unpopular from the beginning. Republicans have enjoyed great success by promising to repeal and replace it. If, now that they are in power, they repeal Obamacare as promised and propose reasonable legislation to replace it, why isnt the ball then in Democrats court? Why, in other words, would the Democrats get a pass for hardship resulting from their unwillingness to support a reasonable replacement? Sure, the Dems could say that, had Obamacare not been repealed, we wouldnt be in this particular mess. But Republicans could respond that we wouldnt be in this mess had Democrats not spitefully filibuster replacement legislation. Its quite possible that a plurality, if not a majority, will attach more blame to Democratic obstruction than to Republican promise-keeping, especially if Americans like most of the rest of what they see from their new president. But even if Schumers hand is only so-so, he might play it well enough to win. He knows that congressional Republicans are cautious and prone to blinking when the going gets tough. Often, rather than going to the mat, they take the easy way out. The easy way out in the coming battle over replacing Obamacare care would be to replace that Act with something similar but with enough differences to make Republicans feel they can save a little bit of face. The alternative gambling their position of power on outdebating Chuck Schumer, backed up by the mainstream media, in a blame game over a mini-health insurance crisis isnt likely to appeal to Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan. Would it appeal to Donald Trump? I dont know. Hes bound to be more courageous than congressional Republicans. However, its not clear to me whether he dislikes Obamacare enough to risk his popularity taking it down and not effectively replacing it. Yesterday, Trump tweeted this to congressional Republicans: Be careful in that the Dems own the failed Obamacare disaster and Dont let the Schumer clowns out of this web. Precisely what this means, Im not sure. It seems clear, however, that when it comes to repealing and replacing Obamacare, Trump is wary of Chuck Schumers hand. In a piece called Washington Post unwittingly destroys the Sessions is a racist slander, I reviewed the evidence set forth in an article that supports the slander and the evidence that undercuts it. The undercutting evidence is overwhelming. It includes, but is hardly limited to, the testimony of African-Americans, including several from Alabama, who have known and/or worked with Sessions over the years. Evidence on the other side of the ledger consisted primarily of the opinion of the widow of a civil rights leader Sessions once prosecuted for voter fraud. Evelyn Turner, 80 years-old and a stroke survivor, insists that Jeff Sessions is racist to the core. Her bitterness is understandable given Sessions prosecution of her late husband. But now Turners son has weighed in. He disagrees with his mother. According to Albert Turner, Jr., who succeeded his father on the Perry County Commission in Alabama, Sessions is not a racist. Here is Mr. Turners full statement: A lot has been said about Senator Jeff Sessions and his record on issues related to race some of it distorted and unfair. Some of these statements have included references to matters with which I have a very personal connection. My family and I have literally been on the front line of the fight for civil rights my whole life. And while I respect the deeply held positions of other civil rights advocates who oppose Senator Sessions, I believe it is important for me to speak out with regard to Senator Sessions personally. First, let me be clear: Senator Sessions and I respectfully disagree on some issues. That wont change when he is the Attorney General of the United States. And I expect that there will be times as it is with all politicians when we will legitimately disagree and I will be required by my conscience to speak out. I look forward to those constructive debates if necessary. However, despite our political differences, the Senator and I share certain Alabama and American values, including a love for our State, its people and our Country. I have known Senator Sessions for many years, beginning with the voter fraud case in Perry County in which my parents were defendants. My differences in policy and ideology with him do not translate to personal malice. He is not a racist. As I have said before, at no time then or now has Jeff Sessions said anything derogatory about my family. He was a prosecutor at the Federal level with a job to do. He was presented with evidence by a local District Attorney that he relied on, and his office presented the case. Thats what a prosecutor does. I believe him when he says that he was simply doing his job. I believe that he is someone with whom I, and others in the civil rights community can work if given the opportunity. I believe that he will listen, as he has in the past, to the concerns of my community. More than most I am very familiar with him. I believe he will be fair in his application of the law and the Constitution; as such I support his nomination to be the next Attorney General of the United States. I encourage the civil rights community to engage in constructive dialogue with Senator Sessions concerning the protection of voting rights for African Americans and other minorities, gun control, senseless killings and strengthening Constitutional protections for all Americans. I stand ready to work with Senator Sessions as he becomes our Countrys Attorney General, and offer to him my willingness to help him in any way I might be of service. When the African-American son of a man Jeff Sessions prosecuted for voter fraud, a son who still idolizes his father, not only refutes the racism slander but endorses Sessions for Attorney General, you can be sure that those still pushing the slander dont have a leg to stand on and are operating in bad faith. Im scheduled to appear on Denvers afternoon drive-time Rush to Reason (Denvers Afternoon Rush!) radio show with John Rush and Dan Meurer at the top of the hour at 4:00 or 6:00 p.m. (Central) hour today; Dan has invited me on to talk about The curious case of Ilhan Omar. The show airs on KLZ 560 AM and 100.7 FM. The Rush to Reason show website is here. You can listen to the show online here. The curious case of Ilhan Omar is not just a local Minnesota story. Omar is on her way to national celebrity. People Magazine introduces Omar to low-information readers this week in Meet Ilhan Omar, the First Somali-American US Legislator: My Win Offers a Counter-Narrative to the Bigotry in the World, by Jeff Nelson. Nelson himself may be a low-information sort of guy. He doesnt mention anything about the circumstances that render Omars case curious. Since I wrote the linked column for City Journal in early September, the curious case of Ilhan Omar has only grown curiouser, if not curiouser and curiouser. The Nation, Americas leading Communist journal, is wrong about everything. But sometimes its candor opens a valuable window on how the far Left understands an issuein this case, immigration. In the January 30 issue of the Nation, one Julianne Hing writes: Donald Trumps plans for undocumented immigrants are what get all the headlines. Theres the wall, of course, and his promises to dismantle deportation-relief programs for undocumented young people, known as Dreamers. There are his proposals to detain and deport millions of noncitizens. But lurking behind the president-elects frightening promises to crack down on people who live in the United States without documentation is a much larger ambition: to slow the nations massive demographic change by curtailing our legal-immigration system as well. Put aside the hysteria. The Nation is correct on this vital point: the much larger issue is not illegal immigration, but Americas horribly flawed legal immigration system. Within just a few years, immigration as a share of the national population is set to break all historical records, Trump said during an immigration address in Phoenix this past August. The goal of his presidency, he continued, would be to keep immigration levels measured by population share within historical norms. He added that the country ought to choose immigrants based on meritmerit, skill, and proficiency. Doesnt that sound nice? It does sound good to a large majority of Americans, which is a principal reason why leftists fear Trump. Now the Nation goes off the rails: The reference to historical norms was an unusually circumspect choice of words for the president-elect, but its a phrase that ought to worry many. What Trumps hint meant was a return to an explicitly racist immigration system put in place in the 1920s. Much silliness follows. Obviously, Trump referred to historical norms with respect to the number of immigrants admitted, in proportion to the native-born population. The race stuff is sheer liberal fantasy, and any sane observer understands that Trumps call for merit-based immigration implies lots of non-white immigrants. But now the Nation gets back to the numbers: These policies [of the 1920s] had their intended effect: a precipitous drop in the nations foreign-born population, from a high of 14.8 percent in the 1890s to its lowest level on recordless than 5 percentin 1970. These pre-1890/post-1920s levels are presumably the historical norms to which Trump was referring on the campaign trail. I fervently hope so! In short, he was pledging to halt the demographic trajectory that the country has been on since the 1970s. In 2013, 13 percent of the US population was foreign-born. Current projections suggest that by 2065, nearly one in five people in the United States will have been born outside the country. That is exactly right. The 1965 immigration bill, of which Ted Kennedy was the prime sponsor, has been a disaster. It has led to an unprecedented influx of unskilled immigrants who have driven wages down and contributed to vast social, environmental and economic problems. But slowing this trend will require Trump to do more than simply deport people who are here without authorization: It will mean slashing the numbers of those who immigrate legally as well. Exactly. Here is the heart of the matter: As it stands, there are two main avenues by which people can apply to become US residents. The first is through family: reunifying with family members who are US citizens already living in the country. The second is through merit: by happening to have the education and skills deemed attractive by US employers. After the election, Trump again stressed which of the two groups hed prefer the legal-immigration system to serve. I love how Communists put merit in quotes. But the large majority of Americans agree with Trump. The Nation acknowledges what a major change a merit-based immigration system (like Canadas, for example) would be: That would mean inverting the current legal-immigration system. The immediate relatives of US citizens made up 41 percent of the roughly 1 million green cards issued in 2014. Those who came based on employer preferences? Just 15 percent of the total. The Nations vision of Americas future is explicitly racist. It is, moreover, triumphalist: Slowing down demographic change by curbing legal immigration is one thing; stopping it is another. Already, more babies of color are being born in the United States than white babies. Between 2012 and 2016, 3.2 million US-born Latinos turned 18; these citizens make up the bulk of the Latino electorates growth. Fifty years after the immigration law that paved the way for the demographic remaking of the United States [Ed.: Contrary to the representations of the acts sponsors], its not likely that shutting down legal immigration will stop the changes now under way. Whether these supposedly inevitable changes are good for America is a matter of indifference, at best, to the Left. On Wednesday, Macys announced it was closing 68 of its stores and cutting more than 10,000 jobs. In its press release, the retail chains chief executive, Terry J. Lundgren, said the cuts arent the only way Macys will try to bolster its shrinking market share. The company will also tap into customer data to better cater to their behaviors: Over the past year, we have been focused and disciplined about making strategic decisions to position us to gain market share and return to growth over time. While we are pleased with the strong performance of our highly developed online business, as well as the progress we have made on selling and visual presentation programs and expense reduction initiatives in 2016, we continue to experience declining traffic in our stores where the majority of our business is still transacted. Given the overall trends challenging us and the broader retail industry, and the time needed to execute new strategies, we expect our 2017 change in comparable sales to be relatively consistent with our November/December sales trend. Our omnichannel strategies continue to evolve based on the changes in our customers shopping behaviors, including a focus on buy online, pickup in store and mobile-enabled shopping. In addition, we have invested in and enlarged our customer data and analytics team, which will help drive our new marketing strategies for 2017. Whether it is improving corporate agility, enhancing our customer engagement strategies, or continuing to capitalize on the potential value of our real estate assets, we remain focused on the actions that will ultimately improve our financial results and provide the greatest return for our shareholders. LATIMER | A small North Iowa school district plans to begin whole-grade sharing in two years. The CAL School Board Jan. 9 will inform the community of its intention to whole-grade share with Hampton-Dumont Schools in 2018-19, Todd Lettow, shared superintendent for CAL and Hampton-Dumont, said via email. Lettow said the announcement will allow the districts and its families time to plan for transition. "Not all the logistics have been worked out but will be over the next 18 months," Lettow said. CAL had an enrollment of 261 in 2016-17. Ashley Miller The Nigeria military has confirmed the rescue of another abducted Chibok schoolgirl. The spokesman of the Nigeria Army, Sani Usman, confirmed the development via a WhapsApp account operated by his office. He responded to enquiries made by journalists on the matter. Troops of Operation LAFIYA DOLE during investigation of arrested suspected Boko Haram terrorists discovered one of the abducted Chibok School girls, Rakiya Abubakar, with her six months old baby, he said. According to preliminary investigation, it was discovered she is the daughter of Abubakar Gali Mulima and Habiba Abubakar of Chibok. She further stated that she was a student of Senior Secondary School Class 3B (SS 3B), before her abduction along with her colleagues on 14th April 2014 by the Boko Haram terrorists. Rakiya Abubakar is presently undergoing further medical investigation and would soon be released to the Borno State Government. Mr. Sani said. Some sources said the girl was found near Damboa town, 85kilometres from Maiduguri, the Borno state capital. Damboa is one of the border towns leading to Sambisa Forest. The girl was said to have been found by a joint patrol team of soldiers and operatives of the Civilian-JTF. This brings to 23 the number of abducted Chibok school girls rescued so far. Boko Haram insurgents on April 14, 2014, abducted nearly 300 school girls from their dormitory in Chibok town. A handful of the girls managed to escape while being flocked away in a vehicle. About 209 of them were held in captivity for over two years. Besides the 23 so far rescued, the others remain in captivity. The first girl to be rescued was Amina Nkeki, who was found in 2016 with a baby, alongside a man she said was her husband. Boko Haram insurgents later released 21 girls in a deal with the government, brokered by the Red Cross and the Swiss government. Share this: Twitter Facebook President Muhammadu Buhari has, over the past week, given instructions for decisive measures aimed at bringing an end to the recurring violence in the Southern part of Kaduna State, his office said Thursday. On his directive, the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, was in the area on Saturday and Sunday to assess the situation first hand, President Buharis spokesperson, Garba Shehu, said in a statement. Clashes between Fulani herdsmen and southern Kaduna residents have left many dead. A curfew imposed by the government in December 2016, was relaxed Wednesday. The Catholic Church said over 800 people had been killed, but the police chief, Mr. Idris, disputed the figure. He did not however give a different figure. Governor Nasir El-Rufai said the attackers were herdsmen from neighbouring countries, who had returned to avenge attacks on their relatives and livestock back in 2011. The governor came under fire after admitting he had sent payments to the attackers to compensate for their losses, as part of efforts by his government to end the bloodshed. President Buhari also faced fierce criticisms for his deafening silence. Remarks by his special adviser on public affairs, Femi Adesina, that the president could not comment on everything, especially as Gov. El-Rufai had handled the crisis properly, infuriated Nigerians even more. The statement signed by Mr. Shehu said in addition to conventional policemen deployed in the area, a squadron of mobile policemen has now been stationed there. It said the president had once again, sent condolences to the people of Southern Kaduna, who have lost loved ones in the recent violence. The Nigerian army is also in the process of setting up two battalions in Southern Kaduna while the military continues to carry out air surveillance across flash points of the area, Mr. Shehu said. President Buhari has equally directed the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to carry out a joint assessment of the situation with the sister agency in Kaduna, SEMA, to determine the level of response required for urgent aid to the victims of the violence, the statement said. These measures should soon ensure the return of normalcy to the region, while the Kaduna State government continues its peace building efforts. The statement said Mr. Buhari commended efforts of the State government and the security agencies in the steps taken so far to curtail the violence. Road Construction: The government has completed some roads in the state, including the Umuola and Winners Junction Road in Aba, commissioned by former President Olusegun Obasanjo last December. These roads cut across the three geopolitical zones of the state. It is constructing a new bridge at Okonu Afia, Ohafia, and has done a realignment of the bridge at Umunneochi. The government is presently working on 47 active sites. There are plans between the state and the neighbouring Akwa Ibom to jointly rehabilitate the shared federal roads. Abia State is also pioneering the use of cement technology (or what experts call rigid pavement technology in road construction). This involves casting with concrete over a mass of iron before asphalting the road. The idea is to extend the lifespan of the roads. Establishment of Trade Centers: Abia is establishing trade centres where old professions are to be revived. This will be supervised and handled by Mexicans and Filipinos. The idea is for them to begin to teach Abia children the rudiments of the old craft works like carpentry, masonry, house wring so that the state can produce household items without going abroad to import them. Also traders will be taught such handiwork as carpentry, plumbing, electrical, tiling etc. The idea is to help the artisans add some professionalism and education to their trade. Education: The governor started work on the construction of the permanent site of Abia Polytechnic at Osisioma area of Aba. On his 51st birthday last year, he launched the Friends of Abia Schools Adoption Initiative (FASAI) to renovate the worst primary schools in the 17 Local Government Areas of the State. He did this by calling on his friends to help him give face-lift to primary schools in serious state of dilapidation. Under its Universal Basic Education Provisions, the Abia State Government has launched a pilot arrangement to feed 30,000 primary school pupils three times in a week in 10 local council Areas. Pupils are to be fed on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Aba Industrial Clusters/Skill Acquisition Programme: The government has concluded plans to launch construction work on the Abia Industrial Clusters starting with Aba. It is currently procuring equipment needed for the clusters. The aim is to mechanize and automate the process of leather-making and other artisanship works in Abia State. The Aba Industrial Cluster would involve 40,000 shoemakers who are capable of producing 1000 shoes daily. Also, the government has resuscitated three moribund technical schools in the state to run the skills acquisition programme. The goal is to develop the trade sector in Abia so that the state could make all the shoes for school children, the military and the paramilitary in Nigeria instead of importing them. Agriculture: The government is collaborating with the State of Georgia in the U.S. in agriculture, especially in the area of Green House farming and poultry. Georgia State is the poultry headquarters of the world. It says it will soon unveil other initiatives in terms of poultry farming in which the American technology and expertise will be brought to bear in Abia State. This will have positive effect in the economy and the productive capacity of the states agricultural sector. Failures Slow pace of work: Most roads that the government started are yet to be completed apart from Ominyi drive and a few others. Even the road leading to the governors village, Ururuka from Obikabia Junction is yet to be completed. Poor refuse disposal record: The governor, despite making efforts, has not been able to tackle the issue of environmental sanitation in the state. The problem of gabbage disposal in the commercial city of Aba remains intractable. Although there has been improvement in the area, Aba is still relatively dirty and this has been blamed on the poor funding of ASEPA, the agency responsible for refuse disposal in the state. The agency lacks adequate gabbage disposal equipment, vehicles, staff and other logistics to properly carry out its duties. Arrears of salaries: Workers welfare is hit an all-time low in many agencies and parastatals in the state: For example, Abia Polytechnic workers and staff of state university teaching hospital went on Christmas break without pay as they are being owed seven months salaries. Similarly, local government workers and staff of the state broadcasting media outfit, BCA, have not been paid for about months. Health: The governor has not done anything noticeable in the health sector. The state University Teaching Hospital is almost comatose. The primary health care service is in a poor and shabby condition across the state. Local government election: The Local government election contrary to his promise was everything but free and fair. The election was described by the opposition, monitoring groups and other analysts as a charade. Share this: Twitter Facebook A former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, has hailed the appointment of his former wife by the president-elect of Ghana. Nana Akufo-Addo appointed Saratu Atta on Wednesday as a personal assistant to serve in his government which will be inaugurated on Saturday. I am very happy for her, Mr. Fani-Kayode told PREMIUM TIMES by telephone Thursday afternoon. She certainly deserves it because shes been working with Akufo-Addo for so long and I am sure she will do a great job. Mr. Fani-Kayode also spoke highly of Mr. Akufo-Addo while commending his ex-wife for her perseverance. Akufo-Addo is my good friend and a great man, Mr. Fani-Kayode said. I think thats why they were able to remain focused after narrowly missing the Ghanaian presidency in 2008 and 2012. The Ghanaian president-elect, a member of the New Patriotic Party, emerged winner of the December 7, 2016 elections there, defeating incumbent John Mahama of the National Democratic Congress. Ms. Atta, 53, married Mr. Fani-Kayode in 1987 and bore him a female child named Folake in the same year. They parted ways around 1989 when Mr. Fani-Kayode found a new wife, Yemisi Wada. She is the daughter of the first civilian governor of Kwara State, Adamu Atta, who passed on in May 2014 at the age of 87. PREMIUM TIMES findings also reveal that Mr. Akufo-Addo was once married to Mr. Fani-Kayodes older sister, Remi. The Ghanaian president-elect and Remi were married for 10 years and spent most of their time together in Paris before returning to Accra where they later divorced after two children together. Ms. Atta declined to comment when contacted by PREMIUM TIMES on Thursday. MASON CITY | A Mason City man and his wife are accused of running a can redemption scheme at a local grocery store. Kelsey Lewis Thayer, 34, and Joni Michelle Thayer, 35, were charged Wednesday with felony forgery. They were arrested after Mason City police officers served a warrant on their residence. Kelsey Thayer told investigators he and his wife, Joni, printed copies of can redemption vouchers that she fraudulently redeemed at a Hy-Vee store in Mason City, according to court documents. They allegedly presented 52 fake vouchers worth $246.80. That's an average value of $4.75 per voucher. The Thayers were released Thursday with a promise to appear at their court hearing on Jan. 20 in District Court in Mason City. The investigation is ongoing. Police say more charges are possible. Doug Barrett and Molly Montag MASON CITY | A Hampton man accused of driving the vehicle another man was sitting in when he allegedly showed a BB gun and threatened someone on a Mason City street has received a suspended two-year prison sentence. Brady Hunt, 36, was put on probation for two years after pleading guilty this week to misdemeanor charges of being an accessory to a felony and third-degree harassment. He received a 30-day jail sentence for the harassment conviction. A $625 fine was suspended. Hunt's passenger, Jack Hovenga, 18, Mason City, allegedly displayed a BB gun to someone at around 8:30 a.m. Nov. 28 in the 100 block of North Pennsylvania Avenue. 2 accused of gun threat, harassment in Mason City MASON CITY Two men accused of threatening someone with a gun Monday on a Mason City street He entered a written plea of guilty in December to misdemeanor assault with a dangerous weapon. He originally was charged by Mason City police with intimidation with a dangerous weapon, a forcible felony. Hovenga also entered a written plea of guilty to felony possession of contraband in a jail and misdemeanor first-degree harassment with threat of a forcible felony. His sentencing date has not been scheduled yet. -- Mary Pieper MAYS LANDING A 64-year-old Atlantic City man appeared in court Wednesday on charges he killed a 52-year-old man with stones and stuffed him in a trash can. Thomas Green arrived in court Wednesday afternoon from the Atlantic County jail and heard the charges against him as six police officers stood nearby. Green asked Judge Bernard E. DeLury to read the charges to him even though he said he had a copy of the complaint against him. He said he did not bring his copy of the charges to court. Wearing an orange jail outfit with his hands handcuffed in the front and a chain around his waist, Green listened as DeLury read the charges. At one point, Green said the victims name, Ricky Ward, interrupting the judge and causing him to pause. Atlantic City man charged with murder after body found in trash can ATLANTIC CITY Police have identified the man whose body was found Saturday morning, and an The complaint alleges that on or about Friday, Thomas struck Ward, also of Atlantic City, in the head multiple times with stones. Wards body was found in a trash can Saturday morning in the 1200 block of Adriatic Avenue near South Carolina Avenue. Ward was pronounced dead by medical personnel at the scene. Green was arrested that afternoon in the 1300 block of Atlantic Avenue. DeLury told Green he had the right to remain silent and that any statements he made could be used against him. DeLury asked Green whether he understood his rights and wanted a lawyer to represent him. Green did speak, referring to the guy who got hit with the stones. As he spoke, DeLury told Green not to discuss the facts of the case. Im only asking you can you afford a lawyer, DeLury told Green. Green first told DeLury no, indicating he could not afford a lawyer, although moments later, he told the judge he might get another lawyer. Greens bail had been set at $1 million full cash by Superior Court Judge John C. Porto. DeLury said he did not see any reason to adjust it. Besides murder, Green also was charged with possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and unlawful possession of a weapon, related to the stones. A murder conviction in New Jersey carries a potential prison sentence of 30 years to life. The Atlantic County Prosecutors Major Crimes Unit and the Atlantic City Police Department are continuing the investigation. BRIDGETON The first Superior Court appearance for the man who allegedly killed his estranged wife Dec. 19 in Commercial Township came via a video screen Wednesday. Jeremiah Monell never left the Cumberland County jail, where he was incarcerated Tuesday after being released from Inspira Medical Center Vineland, where he was taken following his arrest Monday. The Cumberland County courthouse was filled with family members of the victim, 35-year-old Tara OShea-Watson. They sat quietly as a tired-looking Monell answered most questions posed by Judge Cristen DArrigo in a monotone, Yes, your honor. The only time Monell provided an extended answer was when DArrigo asked if he intended to apply for a public defender. Not from inside here, Monell replied. Monell, of the Cedarville section of Lawrence Township, is charged with murder. Authorities found Monell on Monday after a two-week manhunt. Cumberland County Prosecutor Jennifer Webb-McRae said the decision to use the video system was up to the court. He is being held without bail, which was originally set at $1 million. Bail will be one of two issues to be decided during a preventive-detention hearing scheduled for 9 a.m. Monday. The court will also hear arguments as to whether to continue Monells incarceration, with one of the considerations being whether Monell represents a danger to the community, Webb-McRae said. Details of Monells arrest could also be revealed during the hearing, she said. After Wednesdays proceeding, OShea-Watsons cousin, Bryan Dunn, said the family wants Monells fate to be decided appropriately by the states justice system. He also said many of OShea-Watsons family members hold the justice system partially to blame for her death. OShea-Watson wanted to leave New Jersey to live with family in Tennessee, but the courts required her two youngest children to remain in the state, Dunn said. She wasnt going to leave them behind, he said. Dunn said family members are holding onto each other and staying in constant communication to help make it through this difficult time. State Police were called to OShea-Watsons house in the 7900 block of Raymond Drive in the Laurel Lake section of Commercial Township shortly after 8 a.m. Dec. 19 after a neighbor found her wrapped in a blanket on the living room floor. State Police said OShea-Watson was unconscious and unresponsive when they arrived at the house, later saying she died from multiple stab wounds. State Police quickly named Monell their suspect. Authorities have yet to comment on a motive for the slaying. Friends of OShea-Watson alleged Monell physically abused her for more than a decade. They also said OShea-Watson had a court-issued restraining order against Monell and had recently filed for divorce. The search for Monell eventually became a nationwide manhunt. Monell was arrested without incident Monday in a patch of woods near Routes 322 and 54 in Folsom, Atlantic County. State Police said they were alerted to his whereabouts at 2:45 p.m. by a person who recognized him. Assemblyman Vince Mazzeo will run to replace retiring Sen. Jim Whelan, setting up what may be the most expensive and competitive state Senate race this year. Mazzeo, D-Atlantic, announced his candidacy in the 2nd Legislative District on Thursday, a day after Whelan, 68, said he wont seek re-election in November. I am proud to announce my candidacy for state Senate and thank Senator Whelan for his distinguished career in public service, Mazzeo said in a statement. Today, Atlantic County is facing historic economic challenges. In many ways, we stand at a crossroads, and I am committed to rolling up my sleeves as I do every day running a successful small business to do the hard work necessary to ensure our best days are ahead of us. Mazzeo will likely face fellow 2nd District Assemblyman Chris Brown, a Republican, in a rematch of a nasty and costly 2015 Assembly race. Nearly $5 million was spent on that contest, including $2 million from a super political action committee tied to Democratic power broker George Norcross, making it the most expensive race in New Jersey that year. State Senator Jim Whelan will not seek re-election State Sen. Jim Whelan announced Wednesday he will not seek re-election in November, ending a Despite all the money spent, both candidates kept their seats, with Brown being the top vote-getter. If Assemblyman Brown enters the race, I truly hope we can have a positive dialogue on the merits of our ideas rather than resort to his gutter political tactics of 2015, Mazzeo said. It is OK that we have clear differences, but the challenges facing Atlantic County require an honest discussion of how we create a path to progress. Brown has not announced whether he will seek the Senate seat. But a December email from the Atlantic City Republican Club said he was running for state senator. In a statement, Brown said hes humbled by calls for him to run for the Senate but said: I have to thoroughly discuss this with my wife and three children, and will make my decision shortly. A former Northfield mayor and owner of a grocery store, Mazzeo has served in the Assembly since 2014. The 2nd Legislative District includes most of Atlantic County, an area still suffering from five casino closings in Atlantic City since 2014. He was a primary sponsor of a two-bill package that gave the state vast powers over Atlantic Citys government and barred casinos from making costly tax appeals by letting them make fixed payments in lieu of property taxes. The measures, the subject of much local debate, also redirected $110 million in casino tax funds over 10 years to help the broke city pay debt and expenses. Mazzeo also has sponsored measures to combat the heroin epidemic, restore funding for womens health services and forgive student-loan debt when the borrower dies, among other legislation. In his statement, Mazzeo said lowering property taxes and bringing new jobs and industries to Atlantic County are top priorities. His announcement drew rebukes from Atlantic County Republican Chairman Keith Davis and Senate Republican Leader Tom Kean, who both issued statements criticizing Mazzeo. Vince Mazzeo isnt qualified or capable of continuing to serve as our assemblyman, let alone be our senator, Davis said. Atlantic County cant afford to have someone like Mazzeo as our senator, mumbling and bumbling his way around Trenton, blindly following orders from his big-money donors. We need an intelligent, independent senator. Theres too much at stake. Unsurprisingly, Mazzeo already received Whelans endorsement. In a statement, Whelan accused Brown of playing politics and telling people what they want to hear. Atlantic County doesnt need more talking heads or panderers, Whelan said. We need more leaders who put words into action to defend our community. Thats Vince Mazzeo. If Brown decides to run for the Senate, all three seats in the hotly contested 2nd Legislative District will be open. Sure, two of the first four days of 2017 were washouts. But its undoubtedly been a mild start to the new year. Our average early January high should be about 42 degrees. Our high temperatures over the past four days tell a different story: 55, 47, 51 and 57. For the next six days, however, it will feel more like January should. It wont be a bone-chilling or record-breaking cold, but winter jackets, hats and gloves will all be necessities through early next week. Of course, South Jersey snow lovers want to know if snow brushes and sleds will also come in handy in the coming days and are hoping the current cold is not wasted. Well, it wont be entirely wasted, as we will see two opportunities for light snow, the first late Thursday night and the second Saturday. However, snow lovers hoping for the big one will be disappointed, especially when they learn the heavier snow will miss us to our south over Virginia and North Carolina. Couple that fact with the numerous misses weve had to the north this year, and that means snow appetites will not be entirely fulfilled with this one-two glancing blow. On the other hand, as far as the state of New Jersey is concerned, southeastern New Jersey will see the most snow. Sure, the most may only be an inch or two, but we can claim to hit the jackpots of these storms where the brunt will stay to our south and east. The first round of light snow arrives overnight and tapers off around sunrise Friday. One to 2 inches should be the general rule, and your Friday morning commute will be affected. An isolated 3-inch total is possible but should be the exception and not the rule. The second opportunity for snow comes Saturday, with an even farther offshore but stronger storm. Well be on the northwest fringe but could pick up a dusting to an inch if it comes close enough. Note the if with this second storm, which still could be a miss. The sunshine returns as the cold air peaks Sunday into Monday, then eases by the middle of next week. PLEASE BE ADVISED: Soon we will no longer integrate with Facebook for story comments. The commenting option is not going away, however, readers will need to register for a FREE site account to continue sharing their thoughts and feedback on stories. If you already have an account (i.e. current subscribers, posting in obituary guestbooks, for submitting community events), you may use that login, otherwise, you will be prompted to create a new account. Some challenges cant be overcome at will, no matter how strong the will, how vigorous the whatever-it-takes effort. Sometimes what can be done is limited, and a moderate effort to keep progress alive and possible is the best course. Thats the case with two matters at the perennially underused Atlantic City International Airport in Egg Harbor Township. Spirit Airlines, its only major carrier, has a robust and growing service mainly to points south. For years, the South Jersey Transportation Authority has tried with little success to get an additional carrier at the airport. The goal in the past has been to get flights that would bring visitors and vacationers to Atlantic City. At least five times in the past three decades, public money subsidized commercial flights and then the airlines dropped the flights as soon as the subsidies ended. For example, about $2 million in Casino Reinvestment Development Authority funds were used to support United Airlines limited service from Chicago and Houston to ACY. The eight months of flights carried an average of 13 passengers per plane, according to the federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics. As we said last year, there are better ways to spend public money to boost the area economy. Flights bringing visitors to Atlantic City will be feasible when the city becomes competitive with other destinations available to air travelers. Last month, the SJTA chose a new approach. We like two things about it enough to overcome our general skepticism about government subsidies. The flights being sought now would serve South Jersey residents, providing them with more convenient flying than driving to metropolitan airports. Spirit Airlines already has shown that can be profitable and sustainable. The subsidy offered as encouragement seems appropriately modest, $100,000 a year for marketing and the waiver of landing fees, space rental and other charges. Whether there is enough demand from residents for additional flights and destinations is unknown but worth finding out. There may be many people living an hour or so north who would prefer to drive south to a less crowded airport if the alternative were available. The other flights in play at the airport, by the Air National Guard 177th Fighter Wing, are a roaring success. A sensible major upgrade to that mission, however, has for now been thwarted by a factor quite out of local control. The 177th was on a list of 18 locations being considered for future deployment of the worlds most advanced fighter jet, the F-35A Lightning II. The base didnt make the cut to the final five primarily because this regions air quality is lower than that of others on the list. We can only speculate why the Air Force would make that a significant criteria, since in war zones the dusty, polluted air is the least of concerns. Maybe for the initial deployments, fewer external factors will make evaluating the new planes performance easier. South Jerseys air quality is good, but prevailing winds bring it factory and power-plant emissions from the Midwest. Cant do anything about that. What Rep. Frank LoBiondo and the rest of the N.J. congressional delegation did was sign and send a measured, thoughtful letter to the secretary of the U.S. Air Force expressing their disappointment with the decision on the 177th and asking what could be done to improve the ACY bases chances for future deployments. More importantly, the letter laid out three strong advantages of the 177th location: The base already has the infrastructure for the advanced jets and needs little modification; it is strategically located midway between New York City and Washington, D.C.; and the unit has 14 years of homeland-defense experience including three combat deployments to the Mideast. Thats just the right touch. LoBiondo has higher hopes for the airport and its FAA Hughes Technical Center in the coming air traffic control modernization. The reasonable letter shows that interest in a 177th upgrade and willingness to work for it remain strong, without putting off anyone or trying to use too much influence vainly. Drownings occurred on O.C. guarded beaches Regarding the Dec. 17 story, Ocean City Beach Patrol chief retires after 51-year career: In the article, the Beach Patrol says it has not had a drowning on a guarded beach in its history. I remember my last year on the beach patrol, around 1960. Two young brothers drowned on a guarded beach. I think their names were Mark and Mike, and they were around 6 to 8 years old. The beach was somewhere between 15th to 18th streets. It should be in the records. Gene Platt Egg Harbor Township Political hack questioned Meddling in other nations politics is nothing new. Every nation does it, we especially do it and sometimes even using men with guns. So a little hacking of a political party members email or personal server shouldnt really be all that concerning. After all, its not like any trusted government official would be careless enough to send or receive anything marked classified over an unsecured personal server stored in, say, a bathroom or something. Other than Edward Snowden still being granted asylum in Russia, is there any evidence the Russians were even behind the hack? Russian hackers, Snowden paying rent, or some lone intern just trying to make America great again, I dont really care who did it, Im just glad it was done. Mark Naughton Egg Harbor Township State Police should use bigger, safer vehicles It seems to me that once again the state of New Jersey made another bone-headed decision when officials decided to give better gas mileage priority over safety for police vehicles. In looking at the newspaper picture of the horrific crash on Route 55 involving a state trooper and a doctor, it seemed to show that the trooper was driving one of those tiny Chevrolet Malibus. The Malibu is classified as a mid-sized car, so why are such small and light cars used for highway patrol? They dont make Ford Crown Victorias anymore but they do make full-size SUVs that offer considerably more protection and functionality than the smaller mid-sized cars. Im told the back seat in a Malibu is too small to use for prisoners, so how much fuel is being saved when a second and larger vehicle must be called out for such transport? The environmentally obsessed government wont talk about it, but common sense should demand that the safety of a larger vehicle should be the No. 1 priority for State Police vehicles used on high speed roadways. Rich Jacobus Hammonton Sen. Rand Paul is skeptical. He thinks something's fishy about this whole "repeal and replace" thing that Republican congressional leaders have planned for Obamacare, which is basically the name for the multi-trillion-dollar U.S. health-care system and the complex web of insurance rules, subsidies and taxes that enables millions of Americans to obtain health insurance and, as a result, care. After Republicans were handed control of Washington in November, their longtime insistence on "repeal and replace" began morphing into "repeal and delay." Politically, Republicans find this easy to justify. First, they are eager to avoid blame for throwing 20 million Americans off of their health insurance, causing some to forgo vital care and, as a consequence, expire prematurely and, worst case, publicly. Second, they have never actually had a replacement policy, do not now have a replacement policy and, given ideological and cost constraints, are highly unlikely ever to have a replacement policy. The reason for this is not complicated. Both insurance and health-care services cost money. Poor people don't have money. And Republicans don't want the people with money to subsidize the people without it (although they are not always opposed to a reverse transaction). Paul sees an opportunity for political arbitrage here. He's hardly alone in speculating that whatever Republicans end up with could be a cosmic mess. Most likely, they will strip key funding for Obamacare while trying to maintain as much as possible of Obamacare's services. The result will be compromised services combined with large and unsustainable contributions to federal deficits. Instead, Paul suggests in an op-ed essay, "As we repeal Obamacare, we would be wise to vote on its replacement at the same time." What should we replace Obamacare with? Perhaps we should try freedom, he writes. The freedom to choose inexpensive insurance free of government dictates. The freedom to save unlimited amounts in a health savings account. The freedom to buy insurance across state lines. The freedom for all individuals to join together in voluntary associations to gain the leverage of being part of a large insurance pool. Even casual readers of political or health-care news will find these ideas numbingly familiar. They are the rusty bolts that have long held Republican boilerplate together. Together, they would deliver loads of freedom to people who, under the circumstances, might prefer to see a doctor. Paul, an ophthalmologist, knows that. His home state of Kentucky has been one of the great beneficiaries of Obamacare's expansion of care to the poor and working class. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 151,000 more Kentuckians have Medicaid insurance due to Obamacare, resulting in 180 "avoided deaths" in the state annually. More than 74,000 others obtained coverage through Obamacare's individual market. And the 2.3 million in the state who have employer-based insurance have benefited from rules changes that have made their insurance coverage more robust and more secure, such as requiring coverage for pre-existing conditions and an end to annual and lifetime limits. Even if all Republican complaints about Obamacare were accurate -- and they're not -- those would still be real people with real insurance coverage that enables them to gain access to real health care. Freedom is a great concept. But it will leave some of those people sicker and others dead. Instead of partaking in the current charade that Republicans can repeal Obamacare and eventually, somehow, some way, come up with a replacement that doesn't cost a lot or literally kill a couple hundred of his neighbors every year, Paul is sticking to the old charade: That repealing Obamacare and replacing it immediately with GOP talking points about freedom will solve the problem. In effect, Paul is calculating that his transparent nonsense will look pretty good compared with whatever his Republican colleagues actually come up with. Then, in 2024 (or 2020), Paul will campaign for the GOP presidential nomination as a truth-teller and conservative stalwart who told everyone that freedom was the antidote to Obamacare. If only they'd listened. Sure, his stance isn't brave. It's just another cheap gimmick in a long line of same. But in the context of the bankruptcy that is Republican health-care politics, it's not a bad play. 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. WILMINGTON, Del., Jan. 04, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Andrews & Springer LLC, a boutique securities class action law firm focused on representing shareholders nationwide, is investigating potential breach of fiduciary duty claims against the Board of Directors of Calamos Asset Management, Inc. (Calamos Asset Management or the Company) relating to the sale of the Company to an entity owned by founder John Calamos, who currently owns and controls over 77% of Calamos Asset Managements stock. On December 19, 2016, the two parties announced that they reached an agreement in principle pursuant to which John Calamos will acquire Calamos Asset Management in a going private merger via a tender offer. As a result of the merger, Calamos Asset Management shareholders are only anticipated to receive $8.25 per share in cash in exchange for each share of Calamos Asset Management. Andrews & Springers investigation so far has revealed that the consideration Calamos Asset Management shareholders are expected to receive is inadequate. While the Company claims that shareholders will receive a premium for their shares, the deal consideration is less than the average $8.95 per share price that John Calamos and his affiliates paid when they repurchased over 525,000 shares of Class A stock during the third quarter of 2016. Our investigation has also revealed that the process leading up to the announcement of the merger appears to have significant conflicts of interest thus making the process and consideration unfair. If you own shares of Calamos Asset Management and want to receive additional information and protect your investments free of charge, please visit us at http://www.andrewsspringer.com/cases-investigations/calamos-asset-management-class-action-investigation/ or contact Craig J. Springer, Esq. at cspringer@andrewsspringer.com, or call toll free at 1-800-423-6013. You may also follow us on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/company/andrews-&-springer-llc, Twitter www.twitter.com/AndrewsSpringer or Facebook - www.facebook.com/AndrewsSpringer for future updates. Andrews & Springer is a boutique securities class action law firm representing shareholders nationwide who are victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty or corporate misconduct. Having formerly defended some of the largest financial institutions in the world, our founding members use their valuable knowledge, experience, and superior skill for the sole purpose of achieving positive results for investors. These traits are the hallmarks of our innovative approach to each case our Firm decides to prosecute. For more information please visit our website at www.andrewsspringer.com. This notice may constitute Attorney Advertising. ABBOTT PARK, Illinois, Jan. 4, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Abbott (NYSE: ABT) announced today it has completed the acquisition of St. Jude Medical, Inc., establishing the company as a leader in the medical device arena. The transaction provides Abbott with expanded opportunities for future growth and is an important part of the company's ongoing effort to develop a strong, diverse portfolio of devices, diagnostics, nutritionals and branded generic pharmaceuticals. "Abbott has a strong track record of successfully integrating dozens of businesses on a global scale and accelerating growth," said Miles D. White, chairman and chief executive officer, Abbott. "The addition of St. Jude Medical strengthens our global medical device leadership while offering innovative products to address more areas of care, in more physicians' offices and hospitals around the world." Pursuant to the terms of the Merger Agreement, upon completion of the acquisition, St. Jude Medical became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Abbott. As a result of the completion of the acquisition, Jan. 4, 2017, was the last day of trading of St. Jude Medical shares on the New York Stock Exchange. Strategic Fit St. Jude Medical's strong positions in fast-growing areas such as atrial fibrillation, heart failure, structural heart and chronic pain complement Abbott's leading positions in coronary interventions and mitral valve disease. Together, the company will compete in nearly every area of the $30 billion cardiovascular market and hold the No. 1 or 2 positions across large and high-growth cardiovascular device markets. This leading combined portfolio will have the depth, breadth, scale and innovation to help patients restore their health, improve outcomes and deliver greater value to customers and payors. Furthermore, the acquisition balances and strengthens the Abbott portfolio, which includes leading positions across all of its four core businesses. Breakthrough Invention Abbott will have a powerful pipeline across cardiovascular and neuromodulation patient care ready to deliver next-generation medical technologies and offer improved efficiencies for health care systems around the world. In fact, Abbott will continue to bring numerous new products to key markets during the coming years, including: EnSite Precision (which received U.S. FDA approval last month) next-generation cardiac mapping system to visualize and navigate catheters in the heart during ablation procedures (which received U.S. FDA approval last month) next-generation cardiac mapping system to visualize and navigate catheters in the heart during ablation procedures ConfirmRx Implantable Cardiac Monitor to help physicians remotely diagnose and treat the most difficult to detect cardiac arrhythmias Implantable Cardiac Monitor to help physicians remotely diagnose and treat the most difficult to detect cardiac arrhythmias HeartMate 3 , which offers physicians more options for patients with advanced stage heart failure , which offers physicians more options for patients with advanced stage heart failure Portico Transcatheter Aortic Heart Valves for patients with severe aortic stenosis the narrowing of the aortic valve that obstructs blood flow from the heart Transcatheter Aortic Heart Valves for patients with severe aortic stenosis the narrowing of the aortic valve that obstructs blood flow from the heart Proclaim DRG system and other stimulation waveform technologies to provide more options for patients with chronic pain DRG system and other stimulation waveform technologies to provide more options for patients with chronic pain Absorb, the world's first bioresorbable coronary stent and MitraClip, the world's first transcatheter mitral-valve repair device in additional countries "We continue to deliberately shape our business for long-term success by securing leadership positions in attractive markets and focusing on customer needs," said Mr. White. "This philosophy has served as the foundation for significant and sustainable value creation for our shareholders. The addition of St. Jude Medical creates one of the broadest medical device portfolios in the world and provides a steady stream of new technologies and therapies for many years to come." About Abbott Abbott is a global healthcare company devoted to improving life through the development of products and technologies that span the breadth of healthcare. With a portfolio of leading, science-based offerings in diagnostics, medical devices, nutritionals and branded generic pharmaceuticals, Abbott serves people in more than 150 countries and employs approximately 74,000 people. Visit Abbott at www.abbott.com and connect with us on Twitter at @AbbottNews. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 A Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements Some statements in this news release may be forward-looking statements for purposes of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Abbott cautions that these forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements, including but not limited to the ability of Abbott to successfully integrate St. Jude Medical's operations, and the ability of Abbott to implement its plans, forecasts and other expectations with respect to St. Jude Medical's business and realize expected synergies. Economic, competitive, governmental, technological and other factors that may affect Abbott's and St. Jude Medical's operations are discussed in Item 1A, "Risk Factors,'' in each of Abbott's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended Dec. 31, 2015, and St. Jude Medical's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended Jan. 2, 2016, respectively, and under the heading "Risk Factors" in Abbott's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2016, and St. Jude Medical's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended April 2, 2016, which are incorporated by reference. Abbott undertakes no obligation to release publicly any revisions to forward-looking statements as a result of subsequent events or developments, except as required by law. Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150928/271488LOGO Related Links http://www.abbott.com SOURCE Abbott DUBLIN, Jan 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Automotive Lead Acid Batteries - 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 Automotive Lead Acid Batteries in US$ Million and Thousand Units by the following End-Use Segments: Original Equipment Market (Motorcycles, Passenger Cars, & Commercial Vehicles) Aftermarket/Replacement Market (Motorcycles, Passenger Cars, & Commercial Vehicles). The report profiles 55 companies including many key and niche players such as ATLASBX Co., Ltd. ( South Korea ) ) Banner Batteries ( Austria ) ) Camel Group Co., Ltd. ( China ) ) CSB Battery Co., Ltd. ( Taiwan ) ) East Penn Manufacturing Company, Inc. ( USA ) ) ENERSYS ( USA ) ) Exide Technologies ( USA ) ) Exide Industries Limited ( India ) ) F.I.A.M.M SpA ( Italy ) ) Firefly International Energy Co. (USA) Fujian Quanzhou Dahua Battery Co. Ltd. ( China ) ) Furukawa Battery Co. Ltd. ( Japan ) ) GS Yuasa Corporation ( Japan ) ) Johnson Controls, Inc. ( USA ) ) Leoch Battery Corporation ( USA ) ) Lion Batteries (Wholesale) Pty Ltd. ( Australia ) ) Trojan Battery Company ( USA ) Key Topics Covered: 1. Industry Overview 2. Product Overview 3. Lead - The Primary Raw Material For Lead Acid Batteries 4. Recent Industry Activity 5. Focus On Select Players 6. Global Market Perspective Total Companies Profiled: 55 (including Divisions/Subsidiaries 68) The United States (13) (13) Japan (6) (6) Europe (15) (15) - Germany (1) (1) - The United Kingdom (3) (3) - Italy (5) (5) - Rest of Europe (6) (6) Asia-Pacific (Excluding Japan) (28) (Excluding Japan) (28) Latin America (1) (1) Middle-East (2) (2) Africa (3) For more information about this report visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/thr5x5/automotive_lead 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 MANAMA, Bahrain, January 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco), the national oil company of Bahrain, has chosen Avaya's technology to transform its network infrastructure. In line with its business objectives of rebranding and digital transformation, Bapco will deploy Avaya's next-generation Fabric technology to power the corporate network across its locations in Bahrain, enabling the company to add services and devices securely and seamlessly in the Internet of Things (IoT) era. (Photo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/453208/Avaya_Fabric_Network.jpg ) Overview of Bapco Infrastructure and improvements experienced by switching to Avaya Software-Defined Networking. (PRNewsFoto/AVAYA) The first company to discover oil in the Arabian Peninsula in 1932, Bapco will become the first company in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region's oil & gas sector to deploy Avaya's next-generation Fabric networking solution. The technology chosen will give Bapco a future-proof infrastructure, providing simplicity and reliability for the deployment of new services as and when needed. With minimal configuration touch points, the technology reduces human error, and guarantees the resiliency necessary to avoid outages and impact on business processes. The new network infrastructure will provide connectivity for a range of services, including voice, data, CCTV, video, digital signage, and more. The technology chosen allows Bapco to benefit from emerging trends such as cloud, mobility and the IoT safely and securely. By enabling Bapco to create stealth, hyper-segments within their network, Avaya provides the elasticity to protect the 'everywhere perimeter,' delivering end-to-end network segmentation. Devices and services can be provisioned quickly and easily, reducing rollout time. Bapco is a regional leader in the oil & gas sector and an important contributor to modern Bahrain, accounting for a significant portion of the region's energy-related activities. Wholly-owned by the Government of Bahrain, Bapco's activities include refining, storage, production, marketing, training and development, and environmental initiatives in the kingdom. Quotes "Bapco has never stood still and we are always looking at how we can use technology to further our leadership in the oil & gas sector. We require a networking infrastructure that can meet our needs for today and enable us to deliver the services required in the future. Avaya's state-of-the-art technology will deliver the resiliency, scalability and security to ensure there is no impact on business processes, while simplifying the provisioning of new services as and when required." Mr. Daij Khalifa, Manager - Information Technology, Bapco For more information, please visit www.avaya.com SOURCE AVAYA LONDON, Jan. 4, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Further to the release of 24 October 2016, in which VTTI BV, VTTI Energy Partners LP, (NYSE: VTTI) (together "VTTI") and Vitol stated that Buckeye Partners, L.P. ("Buckeye") had signed a definitive agreement to acquire a 50 percent equity interest in the holding company of VTTI, we today announce that the transaction has been completed. The joint shareholding of Buckeye and Vitol will add greater strategic value to VTTI and will further strengthen VTTI's position as a leading independent provider of energy storage solutions. About VTTI BV VTTI BV is a fee-based, growth-oriented business formed to own, operate, develop and acquire refined petroleum product and crude oil terminalling and related energy infrastructure assets on global scale. VTTI BV's assets include interests in a broad-based portfolio of terminals that are strategically located throughout the world with a combined total storage capacity of 54 million barrels including assets under construction. On 1 August 2014, VTTI Energy Partners LP began trading on the New York Stock Exchange as a master limited partnership (MLP). For more information: http://www.vtti.com/ http://www.vttienergypartners.com About Vitol Vitol is an energy and commodities company; its primary business is the trading and distribution of energy products globally it trades over 6mbpd of crude oil and products and, at any time, has 200 ships transporting its cargoes. Vitol's clients include national oil companies, multinationals, leading industrial and chemical companies and the world's largest airlines. Founded in Rotterdam in 1966, today Vitol serves clients from some 40 offices worldwide and is invested in energy assets globally including; circa 15.5mm3 of storage across six continents, 390kbpd of refining capacity and Shell-branded downstream businesses in 16 African countries, as well as Australia. Revenues in 2015 were $168 billion. For more information: www.vitol.com. For more information: Vitol: Andrea Schlaepfer T: +44 (0)207 973 4230 M: +44 (0)7525 403796 acs@vitol.com VTTI: Lisanne Kosters M: +31(0)652526405 lis@vtti.com Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20141031/155895LOGO Related Links http://www.vttienergypartners.com SOURCE VTTI Energy Partners LP English French Clermont-Ferrand, January 5 2017 Michelin launches an offering of non-dilutive cash-settled convertible bonds due 2022 for USD 400 million Michelin announces the launch today of a USD 400 million offering of non-dilutive cash-settled convertible bonds due 2022 (the "Bonds"), which may be increased up to USD 500 million if the increase option is exercised in full. Michelin will purchase cash-settled call options (the "Call Options") to hedge its economic exposure to the potential exercise of the conversion rights embedded in the Bonds. Since they will only be cash-settled, the Bonds will not result in the issuance of new shares or the delivery of existing shares of Michelin (the "Shares") upon conversion. This USD denominated debt will be immediately converted into euros. Michelin intends to use the net proceeds of the issuance of the Bonds for general corporate purposes. The Bonds will have a nominal value of USD 200,000 per Bond and will not bear interest. The Bonds will be issued at an issue price of 98% to 100% of their nominal value, corresponding to an annual gross yield to maturity of 0% to 0.40%, on January 10, 2017, the expected settlement date of the Bonds. The Bonds will be redeemed at par on January 10, 2022. The initial conversion price (the "Initial Conversion Price") will represent an issue premium of 23% to 28% over the Share Reference Price (as defined below). The reference price of the Share (the "Share Reference Price") will be determined as the arithmetic average of the daily volume-weighted average prices of the Share in euros on the regulated market of Euronext in Paris ("Euronext Paris") over the 10 consecutive trading days commencing on (and including) January 6, 2017 (the "Reference Period"). The initial conversion ratio of the Bonds will correspond to the nominal value converted in euros and divided by the Initial Conversion Price. The Bonds will be offered via an accelerated bookbuilding process through a private placement to institutional investors only, outside the United States of America, Australia, Canada, South Africa and Japan. No prospectus, offering circular or similar document will be prepared in connection with the offering. After the determination of the final terms of the Bonds, other than the Share Reference Price and the Initial Conversion Price, it is anticipated that the hedge counterparties to the Call Options will enter into transactions to hedge their respective positions under the Call Options through the purchase or sale, of Shares or any other transactions, on the market and off-market, at any time, and in particular during the Reference Period and at the conversion or redemption of the Bonds. The final terms of the Bonds will be announced later today, except for the Share Reference Price and the Initial Conversion Price that will be announced through a press release at the end of the Reference Period, expected to occur on January 19, 2017. Application will be made for the Bonds to be admitted to trading on the Open Market (Marche Libre) of Euronext Paris and such admission to trading is expected no later than 30 days following the expected settlement date. In the context of the offering, Michelin will agree to a lock-up undertaking in relation to its Shares and equity-linked securities for a period ending 60 calendar days after the settlement and delivery date, subject to certain exceptions. This press release does not constitute or form part of any offer or solicitation to purchase or subscribe for or to sell the Bonds and the offering of the Bonds is not an offer to the public in any jurisdiction, including France. Investor Relations Valerie Magloire +33 (0) 1 78 76 45 37 +33 (0) 6 76 21 88 12 (cell) valerie.magloire@michelin.com Matthieu Dewavrin +33 (0) 4 73 32 18 02 +33 (0) 6 71 14 17 05 (cell) matthieu.dewavrin@michelin.com Humbert de Feydeau +33 (0) 4 73 32 68 39 +33 (0) 6 82 22 39 78 (cell) humbert.de-feydeau@fr.michelin.com Media Relations Corinne Meutey +33 (0) 1 78 76 45 27 +33 (0) 6 08 00 13 85 (cell) corinne.meutey@michelin.com Individual Shareholders Jacques Engasser +33 (0) 4 73 98 59 08 jacques.engasser@michelin.com DISCLAIMER Available information The issue of the Bonds was not subject to a prospectus approved by the French Financial Market Authority (Autorite des marches financiers) (the "AMF"). Detailed information on Michelin, including its Shares, business, results, prospects and related risk factors are described in Michelin's registration document, the French version of which was filed with the AMF on March 7, 2016 under number D.16-0114 (the "Reference Document"). The Reference Document and Michelin's interim financial report as at June 30, 2016, are available together with all the press releases and other regulated information about Michelin, on Michelin's website (https://www.michelin.com). Important information This press release may not be published, distributed or released directly or indirectly in the United States of America, Australia, Canada, South Africa or Japan. The distribution of this press release may be restricted by law in certain jurisdictions and persons into whose possession any document or other information referred to herein comes, should inform themselves about and observe any such restriction. Any failure to comply with these restrictions may constitute a violation of the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. No communication or information relating to the offering may be transmitted to the public in a country where there is a registration obligation or where an approval is required. No action has been or will be taken in any country in which such registration or approval would be required. The issuance or the subscription of the Bonds may be subject to legal and regulatory restrictions in certain jurisdictions; none of Michelin and the Joint Bookrunners of the offering assumes any liability in connection with the breach by any person of such restrictions. This press release is an advertisement and not a prospectus within the meaning of Directive 2003/71/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of November 4, 2003 as amended (the "Prospectus Directive"). The Bonds will be offered only by way of a private placement in France to persons referred to in Article L.411-2-II of the French monetary and financial code (Code monetaire et financier) and outside France (excluding the United States of America, Australia, Canada, South Africa and Japan), and there will be no public offering in any country (including France). This press release does not constitute a recommendation concerning the issue of the Bonds. The value of the Bonds and the Shares can decrease as well as increase. Potential investors should consult a professional adviser as to the suitability of the Bonds for the person concerned. European Economic Area With respect to the Member States of the European Economic Area which have implemented the Prospectus Directive (the "Relevant Member States"), no action has been undertaken or will be undertaken to make an offer to the public of the Bonds requiring a publication of a prospectus in any Relevant Member State. As a result, the Bonds may only be offered in Relevant Member States: to any legal entity which is a qualified investor as defined in the Prospectus Directive; or in any other circumstances falling within Article 3(2) of the Prospectus Directive. For the purposes of this paragraph, the expression "offer to the public of Bonds" in any Relevant Member State, means any communication, to individuals or legal entities, in any form and by any means, of sufficient information on the terms and conditions of the offering and on the Bonds to be offered, thereby enabling an investor to decide to purchase or subscribe for the Bonds, as the same may be varied in that Relevant Member State. These selling restrictions with respect to Relevant Member States apply in addition to any other selling restrictions which may be applicable in the Relevant Member States who have implemented the Prospectus Directive. France The Bonds have not been and will not be offered or sold or cause to be offered or sold, directly or indirectly, to the public in France. Any offer or sale of the Bonds and distribution of any offering material relating to the Bonds have been and will be made in France only to (a) persons providing investment services relating to portfolio management for the account of third parties (personnes fournissant le service d'investissement de gestion de portefeuille pour compte de tiers), and/or (b) qualified investors (investisseurs qualifies) acting for their own account, as defined in, and in accordance with, Articles L.411-1, L.411-2 and D. 411-1 of the French monetary and financial Code (Code monetaire et financier). United Kingdom This press release is addressed and directed only (i) to persons located outside the United Kingdom, (ii) to investment professionals as defined in Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 (the "Order"), (iii) to people designated by Article 49(2) (a) to (d) of the Order or (iv) to any other person to whom this press release could be addressed pursuant to applicable law (the persons mentioned in paragraphs (i), (ii), (iii) and (iv) all deemed relevant persons ("Relevant Persons")). The Bonds are intended only for Relevant Persons and any invitation, offer of contract related to the subscription, tender, or acquisition of the Bonds may be addressed and/or concluded only with Relevant Persons. All persons other than Relevant Persons must abstain from using or relying on this document and all information contained therein. This press release is not a prospectus which has been approved by the Financial Conduct Authority or any other United Kingdom regulatory authority for the purposes of Section 85 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. United States of America This press release may not be published, distributed or transmitted in the United States of America (including its territories and dependencies, any State of the United States of America and the District of Columbia). This press release does not constitute or form a part of any offer or solicitation to purchase for securities in the United States of America or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. Persons (as defined in Regulation S under the US Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"). The securities mentioned herein have not been, and will not be, registered under the Securities Act, the law of any state of the United States of America and may not be offered or sold in the United States of America or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. Persons, except pursuant to an exemption from, or a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the Securities Act or the law of the above states. The Bonds will be offered or sold only to non-U.S. persons in offshore transactions outside of the United States of America, in accordance with Regulation S of the Securities Act. Michelin does not intend to register any portion of the proposed offering in the United States of America and no public offering will be made in the United States of America. Australia, Canada, South Africa and Japan The Bonds may not and will not be offered, sold or purchased in Australia, Canada, South Africa or Japan. The information contained in this press release does not constitute an offer of securities for sale in Australia, Canada, South Africa or Japan. The distribution of this press release in certain countries may constitute a breach of applicable law. PEORIA, Illinois, January 4, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT/Euronext: CATR) informs its stockholders that today, in accordance with Section 16(a) of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, 12 Forms 4 (the report on Form 4 being a statement of beneficial ownership of its officers, directors and 10% owners) were filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"). Caterpillar files electronically with the SEC required reports on Form 8-K, Form 10-Q, Form 10-K and Form 11-K; proxy materials; ownership reports for insiders as required by Section 16(a) of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended; and registration statements on Forms S-3 and S-8, as necessary; and other forms or reports, as required. All of the forms and reports filed electronically with the SEC are available on the SEC Internet site (www.sec.gov ). Caterpillar also maintains an Internet site (www.Caterpillar.com) and copies of its annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and any amendments to these reports filed or furnished with the SEC are available free of charge through Caterpillar's Internet site (www.Caterpillar.com/secfilings ) as soon as reasonably practicable after the relevant document has been filed with the SEC. CONTACT: Rachel Potts, Corporate Public Affairs, +1-309-675-6892 This is a disclosure announcement from PR Newswire. SOURCE Caterpillar Inc. "The addition of these capabilities to our existing NGS applications creates a more holistic genomics solution ," said Jeff Noonan, Core Informatics' Vice President of Business Development. "For example, now our biopharma clients who rely on Sanger for sequence validation in the development of therapeutics will be able to share a broader variety of sequencing data across their organizations without stepping out of the Platform for Science." The Sanger sequencing applications enable data management for Sanger workflows for smaller-scale projects, long reads, and validation of NGS results. The apps can be used in regulated (GxP, CAP, CLIA, etc.) laboratory environments, as well as non-regulated environments supporting biopharma research. The microarray genotyping applications enable large scale genotyping data management by providing end-to end sample tracking during microarray workflow execution using the Affymetrix GeneTitan. The apps capture and manage critical data to enable industrial genome centers and core labs to initiate high-throughput, automated, and accurate genotyping more efficiently. The Sanger sequencing and microarray genotyping apps enable research and clinical labs to handle multiple types of sequencing and genotyping workflows within the same software platform the Platform for Science. The apps expand upon the capabilities in Core's application marketplace, such as biologics registration and molecular biology workflows, to provide more comprehensive coverage of customers' lab informatics needs. About Core Informatics: Core Informatics is a leader in lab informatics, providing cloud-based scientific data management. Core Informatics partners with customers across the globe to deploy solutions to derive more value and insight from their data. Founded in 2005, Core Informatics supports customers worldwide from its offices in Branford, CT; Cambridge, MA; San Diego, CA; and London, England. For more information, visit www.coreinformatics.com. Logo - http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/223236/core_informatics.jpg Related Links http://www.coreinformatics.com SOURCE Core Informatics OSTERSUND, Sweden, Jan 05, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Dios Fastigheter AB (publ) announced on December 21, 2016, that the shareholders at an Extraordinary General Meeting held on December 21, 2016, approved a fully underwritten issue of shares with preferential rights for Dios shareholders in order to finance part of an acquisition of a property portfolio from Castellum. On December 28, 2016, Dios announced the final terms for the rights issue. The prospectus regarding the rights issue has today been approved and registered by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority and is available on Dios' website, www.dios.se/Finansiellt/foretradesemission/ and on Swedbank's website, www.swedbank.se/prospectus. An English version of the prospectus will be made available on Dios' website, www.dios.se/In-English/rights-issue/. The application form can be obtained from Dios' website, www.dios.se/Finansiellt/foretradesemission/ and www.dios.se/In-English/rights-issue/, and on Swedbank's website, www.swedbank.se/prospectus from the start of the subscription period on January 9, 2017. Financial and legal advisors Nordea and Swedbank are joint global coordinators in the rights issue. Savills has performed the property valuations. Advokatfirman Glimstedt is legal advisor to Dios and Linklaters is legal advisor to the joint global coordinators in connection with the rights issue. CONTACT: For further information, please contact: Knut Rost, CEO Phone: 010-470 95 01 E-mail: knut.rost@dios.se Rolf Larsson, CFO Phone: 010-470 95 03 E-mail: rolf.larsson@dios.se Important notice This press release does not contain or constitute an invitation or an offer to acquire, sell, subscribe for or otherwise trade in shares, subscription rights or other securities in Dios. An invitation directed towards concerned parties to subscribe for shares in Dios will only be made through the prospectus referred to in this press release. The prospectus contains, among other things, risk factors, financial statements as well as information regarding the company's Board of Directors. This press release has not been approved by any regulatory authority and is not a prospectus. Accordingly, investors should not subscribe for or purchase any securities referred to in this press release except on the basis of information provided in the prospectus referred to in this press release. This press release may not be published or distributed in jurisdictions that are subject to restrictions according to law and persons in those jurisdictions where this press release has been published or distributed should inform themselves about and abide by such restrictions. This press release is not directed to persons located in the United States (including its territories and possessions, any state of the United States and the District of Columbia), Canada, Japan, Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa or in any other country where or to persons to whom the offer or sale of the subscription rights, paid subscribed shares (Sw. BTA) or new shares is not permitted. This press release may not be announced, published or distributed, directly or indirectly, in or into the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa or any other country where such action is wholly or partially subject to legal restrictions or where such action would require additional prospectuses, other offer documentation, registrations or other actions in addition to what follows from Swedish law. The information in this press release may not be forwarded, reproduced or disclosed in such a manner that would contravene such restrictions or would require such additional prospectuses, other offer documentation, registrations or other actions. Failure to comply with this instruction may result in a violation of the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act") or laws applicable in other jurisdictions. In addition, if and to the extent that this press release is communicated in any European Economic Area member state that has implemented Directive 2003/71/EC (together with any applicable implementing measures, including Directive 2010/73/EC, in any member state, the "Prospectus Directive"), this press release is only addressed to and directed at persons in Sweden and the member states who are "qualified investors" within the meaning of the Prospectus Directive and must not be acted on or relied on by other persons in that member state. This press release does not constitute a prospectus within the meaning of the Prospectus Directive or an offer to the public. In the United Kingdom, this press release is being distributed only to, and is directed only at (i) 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, as amended (the "Financial Promotion Order"), (ii) persons falling within Article 49(2)(a) to (d) (high net worth companies, unincorporated associations, etc.) of the Financial Promotion Order, or (iii) other persons to whom it may otherwise be lawfully communicated (all such persons together being referred to as "relevant persons"). This press release is directed only at relevant persons and must not be acted on or relied on by anyone who is not a relevant person. No subscription rights, paid subscribed shares (BTA) or new shares have been or will be registered under the Securities Act, or with any other securities regulatory authority of any state or other jurisdiction of the United States. In the United States (including its territories and possessions, any state of the United States and the District of Columbia) any offering will only be of subscription rights and paid subscribed shares (BTA) made by the Company to a limited number of existing shareholders who are reasonably believed to be qualified institutional buyers (as defined in Rule 144a under the Securities Act) pursuant to an exemption from registration under the Securities Act in a transaction not involving any public offering and who have executed and returned an investor letter to the Company. There is no intention to register any securities referred to herein in the United States or to make a public offering of the securities in the United States. This press release may contain certain forward-looking statements which reflect Dios current view on future events and financial and operational development. Words such as "intend", "will", "expect", "anticipate", "may", "plan", "estimate" and other expressions than historical facts which imply indications or predictions of future development or trends, constitute forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements inherently involve both known and unknown risks and uncertainties as they depend on future events and circumstances. Forward-looking statements do not guarantee future results or development and the actual outcome could differ materially from the forward-looking statements. The information, opinions and forward-looking statements concluded in this announcement speak only as of its date and are subject to change without notice. This information is information that Dios Fastigheter AB (publ) is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation, the Swedish Securities Markets Act and/or the Swedish Financial Instruments Trading Act. The information was submitted, through the agency of the contact persons above, for publication at 10:15 on January 5, 2017. This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com http://news.cision.com/dios-fastigheter/r/dios-publishes-prospectus,c2160864 The following files are available for download: http://mb.cision.com/Main/198/2160864/611152.pdf Press release Related Links http://www.dios.se/Finansiellt/foretradesemission SOURCE Dios Fastigheter HATFIELD, England, January 4, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- FOR EU MEDIA ONLY: NOT FOR SWISS/AUSTRIAN MEDIA Approximately 15,000 people in Germany develop renal cell carcinoma every year.[1] The German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) has published a report which concludes that an additional benefit for Kisplyx (lenvatinib) in combination with everolimus for the treatment of advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) versus the established comparator therapy - as defined by the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) - has been proven.[2] The final decision to implement the report's recommendation lies with the G-BA and is expected for March 2017. It will follow consideration of the IQWiG report, written statements and an oral hearing. Eisais request for an accelerated assessment was agreed upon by the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) on 19 November 2015 as the product was considered to be of major public health interest.[3] In August 2016, the European Commission issued the Marketing Authorisation for lenvatinib in combination with everolimus for the treatment of adult patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma following one prior vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-targeted therapy.[4] In the pivotal phase II trial (study 205),[5] 153 people living with advanced RCC who had progressed after one previous VEGF therapy were evaluated.[5] In the study, patients were randomised to either receive everolimus or lenvatinib monotherapy, or the combination of both agents. The results from study 205 revealed that there are significant differences in efficacy between the combination treatment and everolimus monotherapy. When treated with lenvatinib in combination with everolimus (n=51), patients experienced a median progression-free survival of 14.6 months compared with 5.5 months for those who received everolimus alone (n=50) (HR 0.40; 95% CI: 0.24-0.67; p=0.0005; investigator assessment).[5] Median overall survival (OS) in the study population was 25.5 months in the lenvatinib plus everolimus group compared with 15.4 months in the everolimus group in two update analyses (HR 0.51; 95% CI: 0.30-0.88 and HR 0.59; 95% CI: 0.36-0.97).[6] The absolute difference in median OS of 10.1 months shown in these analyses suggests a large and sustained improvement in overall survival.[6] For lenvatinib in combination with everolimus, the most common any-grade treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs) were diarrhoea, decreased appetite and fatigue.[5] The most common TEAEs of Grade 3 or higher in the combination arm were diarrhoea, fatigue and hypertension.[5] "This news will be welcomed by clinicians and patients alike. The phase II trial was the first to successfully combine these two types of cancer drug in renal cell carcinoma and there are currently few efficacious treatment options available in Germany," comments Dr. med. Helga Schmitz, Medical Director, Eisai GmbH. Renal cell carcinoma represents 2-3% of all cancer diagnoses.[7] Around 15,000 people in Germany develop renal cell carcinoma each year, and there are few effective systemic treatment options for this type of cancer in advanced stage.[1] "Eisai is encouraged by the fact that IQWiG has confirmed the additional benefit for lenvatinib in combination with everolimus in renal cell carcinoma. Eisai remains committed to exploring new and innovative uses for this important anti-cancer therapy for the benefit of patients around the world," comments Dr Patrik Holler, Director Business Group Oncology, Eisai GmbH. Lenvatinib is also indicated in the European Union for the treatment of adult patients with progressive locally advanced or metastatic, differentiated (papillary, follicular, Hurthle cell) thyroid carcinoma (DTC) refractory to radioactive iodine (RAI).[8] The development of lenvatinib underscores Eisai's human health care (hhc) mission, the company's commitment to innovative solutions in disease prevention, cure and care for the health and well-being of people worldwide. Eisai is committed to the therapeutic area of oncology and to address the unmet medical needs of patients and their families. Notes to Editors About Lenvatinib Lenvatinib is an oral multikinase inhibitor of vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 1-3, fibroblast growth factor receptor 1-4, platelet-derived growth factor receptor-alpha, and RET and KIT proto-oncogenes.[9],[10] About Everolimus Everolimus is a selective mTOR (mechanistic target of rapamycin) inhibitor. mTOR is a key serine-threonine kinase, the activity of which is known to be upregulated in a number of human cancers.[11] Eisai in Oncology Eisai is committed to the development and delivery of highly beneficial new treatments for people with cancer. The development of therapeutic options in oncology is a major strategic area for Eisai in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Russia and Oceania (EMEA). In the European Union, Eisai currently has three marketed treatments across four indications: Lenvima (lenvatinib) is indicated in the European Union for the treatment of adult patients with progressive, locally advanced or metastatic, differentiated (papillary, follicular, Hurthle cell) thyroid carcinoma (DTC) refractory to radioactive iodine (RAI). (lenvatinib) is indicated in the European Union for the treatment of adult patients with progressive, locally advanced or metastatic, differentiated (papillary, follicular, Hurthle cell) thyroid carcinoma (DTC) refractory to radioactive iodine (RAI). Kisplyx (lenvatinib) is indicated in combination with everolimus in the European Union for the treatment of adult patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma following one prior vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-targeted therapy. (lenvatinib) is indicated in combination with everolimus in the European Union for the treatment of adult patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma following one prior vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-targeted therapy. Halaven (eribulin) is indicated in the European Union for the treatment of adults with locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer who have received at least one chemotherapeutic regimen for advanced disease. Prior therapy should have included an anthracycline and a taxane in either the adjuvant or metastatic setting, unless patients were not suitable for these treatments. Halaven (eribulin) is also indicated in the European Union for the treatment of adult patients with unresectable liposarcoma who have received prior anthracycline containing therapy (unless unsuitable) for advanced or metastatic disease. About Eisai Co., Ltd. Eisai Co., Ltd. is a leading global research and development-based pharmaceutical company headquartered in Japan. We define our corporate mission as "giving first thought to patients and their families and to increasing the benefits health care provides," which we call our human health care (hhc) philosophy. With over 10,000 employees working across our global network of R&D facilities, manufacturing sites and marketing subsidiaries, we strive to realise our hhc philosophy by delivering innovative products in multiple therapeutic areas with high unmet medical needs, including Oncology and Neurology. As a global pharmaceutical company, our mission extends to patients around the world through our investment and participation in partnership-based initiatives to improve access to medicines in developing and emerging countries. For more information about Eisai Co., Ltd., please visit http://www.eisai.com. References 1. Schrader J, et al. Renal Cell Carcinoma Update: News from the AUA, EAU, and ASCO Annual Meetings 2011. ISRN Urology 2012. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3384960/ [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3384960 ] Accessed in January 2017. 2. IQWiG Assessment Report. Available at: https://www.iqwig.de/en/projects-results/projects/drug-assessment/a16-63-lenvatinib-renal-cell-carcinoma-benefit-assessment-according-to-35a-social-code-book-v.7685.html#overview [https://www.iqwig.de/en/projects-results/projects/drug-assessment/a16-63-lenvatinib-renal-cell-carcinoma-benefit-assessment-according-to-35a-social-code-book-v.7685.html ] 3. European Medicine Agency. Kisplyx: EPAR. Available at: http://www.ema.europa.eu/docs/en_GB/document_library/EPAR_-_Public_assessment_report/human/004224/WC500216286.pdf Accessed in December 2016. 4. Fachinformation Kisplyx (Stand August 2016). 5. Motzer, R, et al. Lenvatinib, everolimus, and the combination in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma: a randomised, phase 2, open-label, multicentre trial. Lancet Oncology, 2015;16:1473-82. 6. Dossier on the benefit assessment of 35a SGB V, Lenvatinib (Kisplyx), Eisai GmbH. Available at: https://www.g-ba.de/informationen/nutzenbewertung/261/ [https://www.g-ba.de/informationen/nutzenbewertung/261 ], Accessed in January 2017 7. National Cancer Institute at the National Institute of Health. Available at: http://www.cancer.gov/types/kidney/hp/kidney-treatment-pdq . Accessed in September 2016 8. Fachinformation Lenvima (Stand Mai 2015). 9. Matsui J, et al. E7080, a novel inhibitor that targets multiple kinases, has potent antitumor activities against stem cell factor producing human small cell lung cancer H146, based on angiogenesis inhibition. Int J Cancer 2008;122:664-671. 10. Okamoto K, et al. Distinct Binding Mode of Multikinase Inhibitor Lenvatinib Revealed by Biochemical Characterization. ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letter 2010. 11. Fachinformation Afinitor. Available at: http://www.ema.europa.eu/docs/en_GB/document_library/EPAR_-_Product_Information/human/001038/WC500022814.pdf Accessed in January 2017. January 2017 Corporate-EU0016a SOURCE Eisai NEW YORK, January 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Lead Acid Battery Market Pegged to Witness Steady Growth Driven by Transportation Application, APAC Continues to Dominate Globally. The estimated CAGR over 2014-2020 is 4.6%. PMR Reports Introduction and rapid acceptance of smart battery will continue to fuel the growth of the market for lead acid battery. The global market for lead acid battery registered the revenues of around US$ 46.8 Bn in 2015, which are likely to climb up by 2016 end. Applications in the transportation industry are expected to attract the highest sales revenues, whereas APAC will remain the largest market registering the maximum consumption of the lead acid battery. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161114/438683LOGO ) Rising demand for electric or battery-operated vehicles is generating a discernible level of demand for battery on a global level, especially in developed regions. Consumption of lead acid batteries by manufacturers of two-wheelers, passenger cars, heavy transportation vehicles, and commercial carriers is anticipated to sustain the demand for lead acid battery on a global level. Exploding industrialization and urbanization in developing countries have been fuelling the need for UPS as a reliable source of uninterrupted power, which is foreseen to remain a key factor pushing the battery market growth. Expansion of consumer electronics market is further boosting lead acid battery consumption. Browse Full Market Overview and Research Methodology@ http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/lead-acid-battery-market.asp A growing trend of consumer preference for extended battery life will further add to the smart battery market. Developing markets in China, India, and other emerging economies are rapidly adopting grid storage technology since the past decade. This will be another major driver escalating the market growth. Technological advancements in vehicle technology, such as the hybrid vehicle, battery-operated vehicle, or electric vehicle, will be some more strong factors bolstering the market growth. Innovations such as smart battery have been trending in the market since the recent past, which is expected to accelerate the market growth. However, highly volatile raw material prices and evolving lead emission standards may hamper the market growth. Moreover, relatively higher battery weight and lower energy density will remain longstanding challenges to widespread adoption. Request to View Report Table of Contents, Figures, and Tables@ http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/lead-acid-battery-market/toc On the basis of application, the global market for a lead acid battery is classified into seven key segments viz. transportation, stationary industrial, motive industrial, stationary industrial, commercial, residential, and grid storage. Transportation has been a major segment, expected to remain dominant over 2015-2020, accounting for the maximum revenues through to 2020. The stationary industrial segment, which is the second largest segment, will account for over 18% share of the total market revenues. This segment is expected to register significant growth at a CAGR of 8.6% during 2015-2020. Grid storage although the smallest segment is foreseen to witness robust growth during this period. This growth is primarily attributed to growing adoption of lead battery in developing economies for grid storage application. By region, the global market for a lead acid battery is segmented into five key regions. APAC is predicted to remain a major revenue shareholder, possibly exceed a value of US$ 24.0 Bn in 2020. Europe is expected to register a market share of around 24% by 2020 end, with over 24% market share. Europe will, however, expand at a higher CAGR compared to APAC. A sample of this report is available upon request@ http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/12934 Exide Technologies, Johnson Controls Inc., EnerSys, and GS Yuasa Corporation are a few of the key players operating in the global lead acid battery market. To Buy Full Report for a Single User @ http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/checkout/12934 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 SOURCE Persistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd. DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- This year at INTERSEC Dubai, Hikvision, the world's leading supplier of innovative video surveillance products and solutions, will demonstrate their latest explorations in the development of intelligent data, including the impressive H.265+ video compression technology, unmanned aerial vehicles, facial detection abilities, thermal and 'all-in-one' PanoVu series cameras. "INTERSEC is the first international security trade show of the new year, and we are very excited to use the opportunity to showcase Hikvision's latest innovations to worldwide visitors," said Binson Xu, GM at Hikvision MENA (Middle East and North Africa), "Besides intelligent technologies and products, visitors will also gain a complete introduction of Hikvision end-to-end solutions with exceptional user experience, for example, the Smart Retail solution and Smart Traffic solution to name just a few." Hikvision H.265+ Smart codec Hikvision's self-developed H.265+ compression helps users to get the most value by significantly reducing the bit rate to allow less bandwidth usage without compromising image quality. H.265+ improves the compression ratio with the help of three core technologies, namely: Prediction Encoding, Noise Suppression and Bitrate Control. H.265+ smart codec is planned to be applied to all Hikvision products in the future, while at INTERSEC Dubai, this technology will first be available in Hikvision Easy IP series, EXIR series, and Hikvision DarkFighter series etc. Hikvision wide spectrum of solutions Illustrating that the company is not only a video surveillance manufacturer but a total 'end-to-end' system solutions provider, Hikvision will be showcasing their enhanced vertical solutions, and Pyronix home & business intruder alarms. Specifically, live view OSD (On Screen Display) for transaction integration will be demonstrated for the Hikvision Smart Retail solution. The Smart Retail solution features accurate Business Intelligence reports for SMB owners to understand their business operation status and improve management efficiency accordingly. The Hikvision Smart Traffic & Parking solution will be presented via a simulated scene of road traffic and parking lot, featuring E-police traffic monitoring and ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition). Industrial Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Hikvision continues to push the boundaries of security technology, one example is its UAV product, which will also be showcased at INTERSEC. Hikvision drone technology provides more efficient solutions for places where humans find it hard to access, such as forest fires, high voltage grids and natural disasters. Hikvision is located at booth SA-A12. SOURCE Hikvision Middle East The additional financing will help fund the infrastructure build and commercial launch of Intuity Medical's POGO Automatic Blood Glucose Monitoring System, the first fully-integrated blood glucose monitor SUNNYVALE, California, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Intuity Medical, Inc., a privately-held company developing innovative technologies for diabetes management, announced today that it has closed an additional $15 million, which brings the total Series 3 equity financing for the company to $55 million. KCK Group joins lead investor PTV Healthcare Capital and affiliates of Luther King Capital Management as new investors along with existing investors: Accuitive Medical Ventures, Investor Growth Capital, U.S. Venture Partners, Venrock and Versant Ventures. Intuity's POGO Automatic Blood Glucose Monitoring System, which received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in April 2016, is the first blood glucose meter and multi-test cartridge to provide automatic testing with lancing, blood collection and analysis in one easy step without the need for separate strips and lancets. By combining all of the necessary blood glucose testing supplies into a self-contained 10-test cartridge, POGO provides a convenient and discreet solution for millions of patients who need to regularly test their blood glucose in the management of their diabetes. The number of adults with diabetes is a staggering 422 million worldwide, with the disease being the 7th leading cause of death in the U.S. According to the American Diabetes Association, nearly half of the 29 million U.S. patients are not achieving glycemic control in the management of their diabetes. The burdens associated with blood glucose testing are among the reasons for poor glycemic control; many patients cite lack of both simplicity and discretion as barriers to testing with their current meter. Unlike other meters, POGO does not require a patient to use individual test strips or a separate lancing device, which eliminates carrying and disposing of multiple supplies. This means patients can quickly perform a glucose test while on the go or in public settings. To perform a test, a patient simply presses the POGO test port, and POGO automatically lances the finger, collects a blood sample and displays a result after a four-second countdown. The test only requires a tiny blood sample of 0.25 microliters to analyze the glucose value. After completing 10 tests, the self-contained cartridge can be conveniently disposed of, eliminating the need to handle used test strips and lancets. "The additional funding will help further our commercialization efforts in bringing POGO Automatic to the U.S. market for patients who have been looking for a convenient way to test their glucose," commented Emory Anderson, President and CEO, Intuity Medical, Inc. When combined with Intuity Medical's proprietary Patterns Diabetes Management System, a secure cloud-based platform for managing glucose information, POGO provides both healthcare professionals and patients a comprehensive shared platform to detect and manage important patterns and trends that impact overall glucose control. About Intuity Medical Intuity Medical is committed to simplifying diabetes management by developing proprietary and innovative technologies to address common barriers of glucose testing. Intuity Medical's POGO is the first blood glucose meter and multi-test cartridge designed to automate testing into one easy step, without the need for separate test supplies. POGO's unique integrated design and the Patterns Diabetes Management System give patients the flexibility to test as often as recommended by their healthcare professionals to help in their daily diabetes management. The Company's investors include Accuitive Medical Ventures, Emergent Medical Partners, Investor Growth Capital, KCK Group, Luther King Capital Management, PTV Healthcare Capital, U.S. Venture Partners, Venrock and Versant Ventures. For more information about POGO and Intuity Medical, visit www.presspogo.com. About Intuity Medical's Investors For more information about Intuity Medical's investors, visit: Accuitive Medical Ventures www.amvpartners.com Emergent Medical Partners www.emvllp.com Investor Growth Capital www.investorgrowthcapital.com Luther King Capital Management www.lkcm.com PTV Healthcare Capital www.ptvhc.com U.S. Venture Partners www.usvp.com Venrock www.venrock.com Versant Ventures www.versantventures.com Related Links http://www.presspogo.com SOURCE Intuity Medical, Inc. STEVENAGE, England, January 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- - New funds to advance unique neurokinin receptor antagonist pipeline towards late-stage clinical development in common, chronic and debilitating respiratory and women's health conditions - New investors Fountain Healthcare Partners, Forbion Capital Partners and OrbiMed join existing investors Advent Life Sciences and Novo A/S NeRRe Therapeutics ('NeRRe'), a clinical-stage company developing a unique portfolio of neurokinin (NK) receptor antagonists for the treatment of common, chronic and debilitating conditions caused by neuronal hypersensitivity, announced it has raised 23 million in an oversubscribed Series B financing round. The funds will be used by NeRRe to generate Phase 2 data on orvepitant, its lead oral NK-1 antagonist candidate as a potential new treatment for a common, chronic respiratory condition; and to advance NT-814, a dual NK-1,3 antagonist, into Phase 2 trials as a potential non-hormonal treatment of distressing post-menopausal vasomotor symptoms. The financing round involved a syndicate of leading transatlantic life sciences investors led by new investor Fountain Healthcare Partners, and co-led by Forbion Capital Partners and OrbiMed. Existing investors, Advent Life Sciences and Novo A/S also participated. Dr Ena Prosser, Partner at Fountain Healthcare Partners; Geert-Jan Mulder MD, General Partner at Forbion Capital Partners; and Dr Iain Dukes, Venture Partner at OrbiMed will join Dr Kaasim Mahmood, General Partner at Advent Life Sciences (Chairman), Dr Mary Kerr, NeRRe's CEO and Jo Craig, Vice-President GSK (Board Observer) on the NeRRe Board of Directors. OrbiMed's Iain Dukes, formerly Senior Vice President, Business Development & Licensing at Merck & Co., said: "We have been impressed by NeRRe's clear strategy, and are pleased to be involved in funding the company to deliver important Phase 2 clinical data on both of these exciting candidates. We look forward to supporting the company in achieving these aims." Mary Kerr, NeRRe's CEO, said: "NeRRe is delighted to have attracted such a substantial investment from these high profile life sciences investors. Now that we are fully funded to execute the next phase of development, everyone at the company is focused on moving orvepitant and NT-814 closer to the market for the alleviation of these common, chronic and debilitating conditions." *Biographies of the Board of Directors can be found at http://www.nerretherapeutics.com Notes to Editors About NeRRe Therapeutics (http://www.nerretherapeutics.com ) NeRRe Therapeutics is a private, UK-based clinical-stage company focused on the development of its unique portfolio of NK receptor antagonists for the treatment of common, chronic and debilitating conditions caused by neuronal hypersensitivity. NeRRe Therapeutics was founded in 2012 as a spin out from GSK, which transferred its NK antagonist portfolio, including clinical data, toxicity, safety and formulation packages, and all associated IP to NeRRe. NeRRe is led by an experienced management team including Dr Mary Kerr (CEO), formerly SVP and Global Franchise lead at GSK and Dr Mike Trower (Co-founder, CSO/COO), formerly VP & Head of the External Drug Discovery Group in the Neurosciences CEDD at GSK. NeRRe Therapeutics is backed by leading international life sciences investors: Advent Life Sciences, Fountain Healthcare Partners, Forbion Capital Partners, OrbiMed, and Novo A/S. NeRRe is based at the state-of-the-art Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst (www.stevenagecatalyst.com), the UK's first open innovation bioscience campus. About Fountain Healthcare Partners Fountain Healthcare Partners is a life science focused venture capital fund with 176 million ($200 million) under management. Within the life science sector, specific areas of interest to Fountain include specialty pharma, medical devices, biotechnology and diagnostics. The firm deploys the majority of its capital in Europe, with the balance in the United States. Fountain's main office is in Dublin, Ireland, with a second office in New York. www.fh-partners.com About Forbion Capital Partners Forbion Capital Partners is a dedicated life sciences venture capital firm with offices in The Netherlands and Germany. Forbion invests in life sciences companies in the pharmaceutical, as well as the medical device space. Forbion's investment team has built an impressive performance track record since the late nineties with successful investments in multiple companies. With the new FCFIII fund, Forbion manages well over EUR 700M across six funds, including the new fund FCF III. Its investors include the EIF through its European Recovery Programme (ERP), LfA and Dutch Venture Initiative (DVI) facilities and the KFW through the ERP - Venture Capital Fondsfinanzierung facility. Forbion also operates a joint venture with BioGeneration Ventures, who manages two separate seed and early stage funds focused on Benelux. For further information please visit www.forbion.com. About OrbiMed OrbiMed is a leading investment firm dedicated exclusively to the healthcare sector, with over $14 billion in assets under management. OrbiMed invests globally across the spectrum of healthcare companies, from venture capital start-ups to large multinational companies utilizing a range of private equity funds, public equity funds, royalty/debt funds and other investment vehicles. OrbiMed maintains its headquarters in New York City, with additional offices in San Francisco, Shanghai, Mumbai and Herzliya. www.OrbiMed.com About Advent Life Sciences Advent Life Sciences founds and invests in early- and mid-stage life sciences companies that have a first- or best-in-class approach to unmet medical needs. The investing team consists of 16 professionals, each with extensive scientific, medical and operational experience, a long-standing record of entrepreneurial and investment success in the US and Europe, and is particularly focused on supporting entrepreneurs and founders to take innovative new medical entities from concept to approval. The Firm invests in a range of sectors within life sciences, principally drug discovery, enabling technologies and med tech, always with an emphasis on innovative, paradigm-changing approaches. Advent Life Sciences has a presence in the UK, US and France. For more information, please visit www.AdventLS.com For more information, please contact: Mary Kerr, CEO of NeRRe Therapeutics Tel: +44 1438 906960 Email: info@nerretherapeutics.com Katja Stout/Mark Swallow, Citigate Dewe Rogerson Tel: +44 20 7282 1066/2948 Email: NeRRe@citigatedr.co.uk SOURCE NeRRe Therapeutics No. 1 Overseas Japanese Cuisine Chef Is Cheong Cherng Long from Malaysia TOKYO, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- On December 15, the final round of the Washoku World Challenge 2016, a Japanese cooking contest for international chefs hosted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, was held in Tokyo and Cheong Cherng Long (age 31) from Malaysia won the crown of No. 1 overseas Japanese cuisine chef (Gold Prize). The Silver Prize went to Shaun Presland (45) of Australia and the Bronze Prize to Songkran Comnew (35) of Thailand. http://prw.kyodonews.jp/opn/release/201612287545/ (Photo1: http://prw.kyodonews.jp/prwfile/release/M103899/201612287545/_prw_OI1fl_1I29N1IB.JPG) Cheong Cherng Long from Malaysia receiving the Gold Prize Crystal Trophy from State Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ken Saito at an awards ceremony held in a Tokyo hotel The original dish prepared by Gold Prize winner Cheong was "Akamutsu no kenchin yaki." This is a dish prepared by roasting "tofu" and winter vegetables wrapped in "akamutsu" (rosy seabass), which is delicious in winter. This time the competitors were required to use winter vegetables and Cheong added a side dish of "gobo" stuffed with soft-boiled pumpkin with seeds removed, while also devising a way to add "edamame" tempura, demonstrating an awareness of giving variety to the coloring and texture of the dish. He was highly evaluated for the overall degree of perfection of the dish, including not just flavors but also the arrangement. (Photo2: http://prw.kyodonews.jp/prwfile/release/M103899/201612287545/_prw_OI2fl_3YAm4OA7.png) The original dish "Akamutsu no kenchin yaki" created by Cheong Cherng Long. Cheong held the trophy as he spoke about his renewed determination to "use what I have experienced and learned on this trip to Japan for my future self and to do everything I can to share genuine Japanese food with the world." (Photo3: http://prw.kyodonews.jp/prwfile/release/M103899/201612287545/_prw_OI3fl_s2abA2z7.png) The Washoku World Challenge 2016 received entries for 205 dishes from 26 countries and regions. After the entry deadline, 23 dishes entered by 20 candidates who passed the initial screening were recreated in Tokyo according to their recipes and judged on elements such as their understanding of washoku techniques, taste, appearance, originality, and viability in their home countries. From those 20 candidates, 10 were selected to compete in the final round. SOURCE Washoku World Challenge Executive Committee Office LONDON, January 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Appoints Leading Experts in Cell Therapy, Cardiovascular Diseases and Wound Healing Rexgenero Ltd, a clinical stage regenerative medicine company developing advanced cell-based therapeutics, is pleased to announce today the formation of its Scientific Advisory Board ("SAB") with five key appointments: Professor Jill Belch FRCP, MD (Hons), FMedSci, FRSE, OBE; Dr Marianne Brodmann MD; Professor Keith Harding CBE, FRCGP, FRCP, FRCS; Professor William R. Hiatt MD, FACP, FAHA; and Professor Paul Quax PhD. The SAB is expected to serve as a strategic network of scientific, medical and clinical experts to Rexgenero as the company progresses the development of its pipeline in Critical Limb Ischemia (CLI) and initiates phase III trials with its lead candidate Rexmyelocel-T (REX-001), an autologous cell therapy. The SAB is also expected to play an integral role for the company in assessing opportunities for its cell-based therapies in other disease areas with unmet medical needs. Joe Dupere, Rexgenero's CEO, said "We are thrilled to have attracted leading authorities in the field of cardiovascular diseases, wound healing and cell therapies to support Rexgenero as we develop advanced breakthrough therapies in these areas. The formation of our SAB serves as a clear endorsement for scientific, medical and clinical potential of our lead compound Rexmyelocel-T, which we believe could be a transformative advance for the treatment of Critical Limb Ischemia, a poorly treated disease." Biographies Professor Jill Belch FRCP, MD (Hons), FMedSci, FRSE, OBE Professor Belch graduated as a Doctor from the University of Glasgow (MB ChB), becoming a Lecturer within the University Department of Medicine, where she completed her Research MD degree in 1987. She was appointed Senior Lecturer with Honorary Consultant status at the University Department of Medicine in Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, also in 1987, and became Professor of Vascular Medicine in 1995. She was Director of the Tayside Clinical Trials Centre before becoming the Director of the Tayside Medical Science Centre (TASC) and the Tayside R&D Director. She is a founder Fellow of the Academy of Medical Science, and a Fellow of the Royal Society, Edinburgh. She was awarded an OBE in 2016. She was involved in the first Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh, PAD Guideline (Medical management of peripheral arterial diseases) in 1998, leading to a second one in 2007 (Management of peripheral arterial disease), she participated in the recent NICE Quality Standard Advisory Committee (QSAC) for peripheral arterial disease. Dr Marianne Brodmann MD Dr Marianne Brodmann is an interventional angiologist, vascular specialist and expert in clinical trials for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. Dr Brodmann is the Head of Division of Angiology, Head of Clinical Research at Division of Angiology at the Medical University of Graz, Austria. Active in many national and international societies Dr Brodmann is a Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology, Board Member of the European Union of Medical Specialist (UEMS), past President of the OGA (Austrian Society of Angiology) and National Delegate of the IUA (International Union of Angiology). Research activities include anticoagulation and thrombolysis, new endovascular technologies in the peripheral field and evaluation of the nature of restenosis. She also founded a research establishment for experimental angiology animal models at the University of Graz. Dr Brodmann has participated in over 50 international clinical trials including Principal Investigator for the Bioflex I, Lutonix BTK and TOBA-BTK clinical trials and Steering Committee of the CVI Ingenuity trial. Professor Keith Harding CBE FRCGP FRCP FRCS Professor Keith Harding has had a longstanding interest in wound healing and was Director of TIME Institute (Translation, Innovation, Methodology and Engagement) and Head of Wound Healing Research Unit, School of Medicine, Cardiff University and Clinical Lead for Wound Healing in the Cardiff & Vale NHS Trust from 2011 to 2013. In September 2013 he was appointed as University Dean of Clinical Innovation at Cardiff University and in 2014 was appointed as Medical Director of the Welsh Wound Innovation Centre. He is Editor-in-Chief of the International Wound Journal. He was the First President of the European Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel, First Recorder of the European Wound Management Association and is a Past President of the European Tissue Repair Society. He was Chair of a number of Expert Working Groups that produced a range of International Consensus Documents from 2004 to 2016. He has obtained funding of over 50 million from a range of academic, commercial and clinical sources since the Wound Healing Research Unit was created in 1991. He was awarded the CBE in the New Year Honours list in January 2013 for Services to Medicine and Health Care. Professor William Hiatt MD, FACP, FAHA William R. Hiatt, MD, is a professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Division of Cardiology with a clinical and research focus in vascular medicine. He is president of CPC Clinical Research which is a university-affiliated, non-profit cardiovascular and clinical trials research organization. Dr Hiatt is a past chairman of the United States Food and Drug Administration Cardiovascular and Renal Advisory Committee (2003-08) and past member of the FDA Endocrinologic and Metabolism Advisory Committee (2010-2016). He has been elected several times as Best Doctors in America (most recently in 2012) and in 2014 he was recognized as a Distinguished Scientist of the American Heart Association. Dr Hiatt serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Vascular Medicine, the Cochrane Review Group, is guest editor for Circulation and section editor for the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Research activities include studies evaluating the pathophysiology and epidemiology of peripheral artery disease, mechanisms of supervised exercise as an effective treatment modality for claudication, and numerous clinical trials to develop new therapies for claudication and critical limb ischemia. His research at the CPC has pioneered new methods to control endpoint variability in clinical trials. He has authored 240 peer-reviewed papers. Professor Paul Quax PhD Paul H.A. Quax, Ph.D. is Professor in Experimental Vascular Medicine at the Department of Vascular Surgery of the Leiden University Medical Center, the Netherlands and has a main research interest in post-interventional vascular remodeling. Over the past decades he has extensively studied not only the pathophysiology of peripheral artery disease but also of vein graft disease, restenosis and accelerated atherosclerosis. He has a strong interest in exploring novel therapeutic options to induce neovascularisation, including gene and cell therapy, with the goal to define new strategies for therapeutic angiogenesis and arteriogenesis. He is an Established Investigator of the Netherlands Heart Foundation, Fellow of the American Heart Association and has published more the 175 papers in peer-reviewed journals. About Rexgenero Rexgenero is a clinical-stage regenerative medicine company developing innovative cell-based therapies targeting serious diseases with unmet medical needs. The Company's lead candidate Rexmyelocel-T (REX-001) is a ground-breaking autologous cell therapy about to enter a phase III clinical trial in patients with Critical Limb Ischemia (CLI), a poorly treated disease. Rexmyelocel-T showed strong efficacy in Phase I/II and Phase II trials with resolution of CLI in the majority of patients, offering the potential to normalize lives of CLI patients by reducing pain, hospital stay and removing the need for amputation. Rexgenero's intention is to drive the clinical development of Rexmyelocel-T and market the specialty product in major territories. A privately owned company, Rexgenero draws on an exceptional understanding of the fundamental science of cell therapy developed by the Andalusian Health Authority (Servicio Andaluz de Salud and Andalusian Initiative of Advanced Therapies). The Company was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in London (UK) with R&D operations in Seville (Spain). For more information, please visit http://www.rexgenero.com Contacts : Rexgenero Joe Dupere, CEO T: +44(0)203-709-1969 E: info@rexgenero.com Citigate Dewe Rogerson Sylvie Berrebi, Katja Stout T: +44(0)20-7638-9571 E: rexgenero@citigatedr.co.uk SOURCE Rexgenero English French PRESS RELEASE Babcock France and Dassault Aviation to team up for French FOMEDEC training contract Paris, France, January 05, 2017 - Babcock France and Dassault Aviation have signed a partnership which would initially materialize in the delivery of the French "FOMEDEC" training contract with the creation of a joint company under the leadership of Babcock France. Following a competitive bid process, the France's Direction Generale de l'Armement (DGA) has awarded Babcock France with the FOMEDEC contract to provide and maintain a training platform and related services for the French Air Force (Armee de l'Air). This 11-year contract will provide new training aircraft (Pilatus PC 21), related simulators (CAE) and modernised training facilities for the training of fighter jet crews to be performed by the Air Force itself at the Cognac Air Base. The first aircraft will be delivered in March 2018. Archie Bethel, Chief Executive of Babcock International Group, said: "We are delighted that our French company will be working as a key support partner on this major French defence contract. The project will draw on our expertise in the European aviation industry and our experience of delivering long-term military flight training programmes. It is also a great satisfaction to engage a partnership with such a recognized aviation leader as Dassault. We look forward to working with the French Air Force over the next decade." Eric Trappier, Chairman and CEO of Dassault Aviation, said: "As the manufacturer of the Rafale, the spearhead of the French fighters, and of its advanced training companion, the Alpha Jet, Dassault Aviation bolsters this new project with Babcock, an outstanding provider of support environments, for the benefit of the French Ministry of Defence. With this programme, we are very proud to keep on our enduring participation to the training of the French fighter pilots. Since 1959, our company has been the provider of the French fighter training cursus." * * * About Babcock France: Babcock France also supports the training of the French armed forces, through HeliDax, providing 36 EC 120 helicopters for the initial training of military pilots. Babcock is a major player in the maintenance of other French state helicopters, and the leading supplier of Helicopter Emergency Medical Service in France, with a fleet of 30 helicopters. The company was incorporated in 1985 and integrated into the Babcock Group in 2014. Babcock International Group is the UK's leading engineering support services company, delivering complex and critical projects, both in the UK and overseas. With revenue of circa 4.8 billion in 2016, we support vital assets within a number of industry sectors including defence, emergency services, energy, transport and training. The unparalleled expertise of our 35,000 global employees means that - whether designing, building, operating, managing, or maintaining vital assets - Babcock is a partner that can be trusted to deliver. About Dassault Aviation: With more than 8,000 military and civil aircraft delivered to more than 90 countries over the past 60 years, and having logged nearly 28 million flight hours to date, Dassault Aviation can offer recognized know-how and experience in the design, development, sale and support of all types of aircraft, from the Rafale fighter to the Falcon range of high-end business jets, as well as military unmanned air systems. In 2015, Dassault Aviation reported revenues of 4.20 billion. The company has almost 12,000 employees. In 2016, Dassault Aviation celebrated the first centennial of its history, which started in 1916 with Marcel Dassault and the Eclair propeller. www.dassault-aviation.com Twitter: @Dassault_OnAir Contacts: Babcock France Sarah Foucher Pierre Basquin Tel.: +33 (0)1 56 89 20 90 Sarah.Foucher@babcockinternational.com Dassault Aviation Mathieu Durand Tel.: +33 (0)1 47 11 85 88 mathieu.durand@dassault-aviation.com AUSTIN, Texas, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- SoftServe, a global leader in digital software development and consulting, and ADAM Software, a leader in Digital Asset Management (DAM) recently named as a Digital Asset Management leader in The Forrester Wave: Digital Asset Management For Customer Experience, Q3 2016, today announced a strategic partnership. Logo - http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/454198/SoftServe_Logo.jpg This partnership combines SoftServe's expertise in such areas as Experience Design, Big Data and Advanced Analytics, IoT, and Digital Enterprise Consulting, with the holistic capabilities of ADAM's Smart Content Hub, a content platform that engages customers and creates opportunities connected to their brands. Robert Corace, EVP, Digital Disruption, SoftServe, said: "SoftServe has been innovating in the digital space for over 20 years with deep R&D acumen delivering complex business solutions for both Enterprise and the software companies that serve them. We are always looking to expand our global partner network and bring value to our customers. The partnership with ADAM will allow SoftServe to couple its deep engineering capabilities and leading digital design expertise to ADAM's best in class DAM and PIM solutions. The resulting innovative offerings will be presented in our Digital Design Center in Austin, TX, which is opening soon". Pieter Casneuf, CEO, ADAM Software, commented: "DAM is a crucial part of a larger marketing technology landscape that manages customer-facing rich media content. Together with SoftServe, we can deliver the best outcome for organizations and their projects through the DX Platform. We are proud and honored that ADAM is a part of this platform". SoftServe's market focus around Commerce, Media, Financial Services and Healthcare/Life Sciences aligns with ADAM's positioning, creating a powerful Digital Services offering. About SoftServe With over 20 years of experience in digital software development and consulting, SoftServe has transformed the way thousands of global organizations do business by developing the most innovative technologies and processes in Big Data, Internet of Things (IoT), security and experience design. Visit www.softserveinc.com to learn more. About ADAM ADAM Software helps brands deliver great customer experiences. Its Smart Content Hub helps you to answer many of today's marketing challenges. Available in the cloud or on-premise, this content platform is scalable for enterprises of all sizes and brings a new way of thinking to managing customer experiences. Visit www.adamsoftware.net to learn more. Contact: Nataliya Diomova US: +1-866-687-3588 x 1282 UK: +44-203-519-1216 x 1282 ndiom@softserveinc.com Related Links http://www.softserveinc.com SOURCE SoftServe This marks an important first step in a national precision medicine initiative that brings together NHCS as a leading research hospital in cardiovascular disease, SingHealth Duke-NUS PRISM, as the institutional flagship program on Precision Medicine, and the IMDA , as a part of its mission to advance Singapore's Smart Nation vision. In addition to co-funding the project, IMDA scoped the initiative's technical requirements. WuXi NextCODE was awarded by NHCS following a competitive review of leading global genomics platforms. Under the partnership, WuXi NextCODE will create an instantly queriable cloud-based enterprise data warehouse integrating large-scale whole genome sequence, medical and wearables data from both cardiovascular patients and healthy control subjects recruited by NHCS. This proof-of-concept resource will power research into novel genetic risk factors for heart disease in the Singapore and Southeast Asia populations more broadly. It will also enable the generation of clinical reports offering actionable insights on different types of genetic risk, carrier status and drug response, with the aim of informing personalized health and wellness. The partnership contemplates expanding from heart disease into other disease types, and WuXi NextCODE's infrastructure is scalable to hundreds of thousands of participants. "We are honored to be chosen by such visionary partners to innovate cutting-edge precision medicine in Singapore," said Hannes Smarason, COO of WuXi NextCODE. "We are the backbone for leading precision medicine projects in the US, Europe, China and the Middle East, and Singapore's leadership in digital convergence and healthcare provides a unique opportunity to advance our technology in new ways to benefit patients and people here and across the region." "NHCS is delighted to partner with IMDA and WuXi NextCODE in this pilot project," commented Associate Professor Yeo Khung Keong, Senior Consultant, Department of Cardiology, National Heart Centre Singapore. "We believe that the scientific and technical expertise that WuXi NextCODE provides will enable us to integrate precision medicine into clinical care and medical research. I am very much looking forward to this collaboration." "IMDA seeks to enhance Singapore's technology capabilities through the use of infocomm media to improve the lives of citizens and enhance businesses. Our collaboration with partners such as WuXi NextCODE in bioinformatics is one example of using Singapore as a testbed to develop new innovative technological solutions that bring significant benefits and create high value-added jobs and businesses for ICM professionals in the health and pharmaceutical industries. Creating and applying new infocomm media technologies in healthcare and wellness is an important aspect of Singapore's Smart Nation journey," said Mr Khoong Hock Yun, Assistant Chief Executive (Development), IMDA. About WuXi NextCODE WuXi NextCODE is a fully integrated global contract genomics organization. With offices in Shanghai; Kendall Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts; and Reykjavik, Iceland, we offer comprehensive services that enable population, precision medicine, diagnostics and wellness initiatives and enterprises to use the genome to improve health around the world. Our capabilities span study design, sequencing, secondary analysis, storage, and interpretation and scalable analytics all backed by the most proven and widely used technology for organizing, mining and sharing genome sequence data. We are also applying the same capabilities to advance a growing range of sequence-based tests and scans in China. WuXi NextCODE is a subsidiary of WuXi AppTec. Visit us on the web at wuxinextcode.com. About National Heart Centre Singapore The National Heart Centre Singapore (NHCS, ) is a leading specialist centre for cardiovascular diseases in Singapore and Asia. NHCS provides a one-stop comprehensive cardiovascular care in preventive, diagnostic, therapeutic and rehabilitative services for heart patients. Besides a preferred regional training and education centre for cardiac specialists and healthcare professionals, NHCS is also an active research and development centre for cardiovascular diseases, in particular its National Heart Research Institute Singapore, a joint research setup with Duke-NUS. About SingHealth Duke-NUS Institute of Precision Medicine (PRISM) SingHealth Duke-NUS Institute of Precision Medicine (PRISM) is the institutional flagship initiative of SingHealth and Duke-NUS Medical School that aims to drive, promote and standardize the use of Precision Medicine and Precision Health for improving patient care, focusing on diseases relevant to Asian populations. About Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) The InfocommMedia Development Authority (IMDA) will develop a vibrant, world-class infocomm media sector that drives the economy, connects people, bonds communities and powers Singapore's Smart Nation vision. IMDA does this by developing talent, strengthening business capabilities, and enhancing Singapore's ICT and media infrastructure. IMDA also regulates the telecommunications and media sectors to safeguard consumer interests while fostering a pro-business environment. IMDA also enhances Singapore's data protection regime through the Personal Data Protection Commission. For more news and information, visit www.imda.gov.sg or follow IMDA on Facebook IMDAsg and Twitter @IMDAsg. Contacts: WuXi NextCODE Edward Farmer, PhD EVP, Communications and New Ventures efarmer@wuxinextcode.com +1 781 775 6206 SOURCE WuXi NextCODE LAS VEGAS, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading technology company Xiaomi kicked off its CES debut in Las Vegas today with an announcement of Mi TV 4. Pushing the boundaries of innovation, Mi TV 4 has a 4.9mm ultra-thin frameless metal body. The 65-inch version is designed with a modular approach, with the separate Mi TV Bar consisting of the mainboard and a sound system that supports Dolby Atmos, delivering a stunning viewing experience within the home that rivals the experience in a cinema. At the same time, Xiaomi unveiled its booth on the CES showfloor (LVCC, South Hall 3, #30309), which will display a range of over 70 products from Xiaomi's core range of smartphones, smart TVs, and smart routers, as well as dozens of Mi Ecosystem products in the smart home, health & fitness, personal transportation, smart toys, and other categories. Mi Ecosystem covers hundreds of smart products manufactured by Xiaomi's ecosystem partners. What makes Xiaomi's approach to Internet of Things unique is the way it incubates and invests in specialized companies to effectively expand its product line in a highly scalable manner. As the world's most successful hardware incubator, Xiaomi has invested in 77 companies that design and manufacture products beyond the three core product categories designed in-house: smartphones, smart TVs and smart routers. Xiaomi also announced today that over 23 million Mi Bands and 3.3 million webcams have been sold to date, and over 1 million Mi Air Purifiers are sold annually. Tying these smart products together is the Mi Ecosystem IoT platform, which now has over 50 million connected devices, with the Mi Home app crossing over 5 million daily active users. Xiang Wang, Senior Vice President, Xiaomi, said: "We have proved that the Mi Ecosystem model works, and our focus going forward is to ensure that we can scale this model further in terms of products, and also geographically. CES, as a global event that showcases innovations from around the world, is the ideal place for us to kick off this effort." At its media event today, Xiaomi also took the wraps off the white version of Mi MIX, a gorgeous work of art with a clean and modern finish. Mi MIX was first announced three months ago to wide acclaim. With a full display design jointly developed with world-renowned designer Philippe Starck, Mi MIX has an ultra-high screen-to-body ratio made possible because of new innovations that do away with the physical earpiece speaker and proximity sensor. The white version will be available in China later this year. Hugo Barra, Vice President, Xiaomi, said: "Xiaomi is bringing a glimpse of the future to the world as we explore the frontiers of technological innovation to deliver even more amazing features to our users. We continue to push boundaries with the use of ceramic on smartphones, this time in white, which presents more challenges in terms of yield." Mi TV 4: The thinnest ever Mi TV with revolutionary Dolby Atmos home theater Since its first TV, Xiaomi has redefined what users expect from a smart TV. Mi TV 4 continues this trend in terms of design, visual and audio performance. Mi TV 4 is extremely thin at 4.9mm. With a screen that goes almost all the way to the edge, the 4K display takes centerstage. This is further complemented by a transparent stand. Mi TV 4 (65") has been crafted with a modular design approach first introduced with Mi TV 3. The TV set is separated into two parts: a 4K display and the Mi TV Bar, which incorporates both the motherboard and an independent sound system that now includes upfiring speakers. These speakers, together with a subwoofer and two rear wireless satellite speakers together make up the Mi TV 4 Dolby Atmos home theater. Having such a design makes Mi TV 4 easily upgradeable, as changing the Mi TV Bar will make any TV like a brand new product, while keeping the 4K panel unchanged. Mi TV 4 will be available in China at a later date, with an estimated price well under US$2000 for the 65-inch version that comes with the Dolby Atmos home theater. Key features of Mi TV 4: 4K display (3,840 x 2,160 pixels) 4.9mm ultra-thin metal body Quad-core 64-bit flagship TV processor Independent Dolby Atmos cinematic sound system Dolby and DTS dual audio decoding Deep learning AI system for intelligent recommendations Sizes: 49"/ 55"/ 65" Additional media assets, including product and launch event images, as well as executive profiles are available here: http://bit.ly/Xiaomi_CES2017 About Xiaomi Xiaomi was founded in 2010 by serial entrepreneur Lei Jun based on the vision "innovation for everyone". We believe that high-quality products built with cutting-edge technology should be made accessible to everyone. We create remarkable hardware, software, and Internet services for and with the help of our Mi fans. We incorporate their feedback into our product range, which currently includes Mi and Redmi smartphones, Mi TVs and set-top boxes, Mi routers, and Mi Ecosystem products including smart home products, wearables and other accessories. With more than 70 million handsets sold in 2015, Xiaomi is expanding its footprint across the world to become a global brand. Media Contacts Kaylene Hong khong@xiaomi.com SOURCE Xiaomi CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Coming off its most successful year to date, the Tom Tom Founders Festival will hold a stakeholders meeting and kick-off reception on January 12, 2016, in Charlottesville. The meeting and reception will launch Tom Tom's 2017 national programming with founding sponsors at the University of Virginia, and major new initiatives with the 2019 Commemoration. WHEN: January 12, 4:00 PM (Press Announcement), 5:30 PM (Kick-off Reception) WHERE: Old Metropolitan Hall, 101 E Main Street, Charlottesville, VA WHAT: Attendees will include supporters of the Tom Tom Festival including local elected officials, representatives of the festival's sponsors and organizers. Media is invited to attend both the stakeholder meeting and the kick-off reception. Paul Beyer of Tom Tom, Kathy Spangler of the 2019 Commemoration, and Erika Herz of UVA's Darden School of Business, will be available for interviews. RSVP: Please RSVP to Lucas Czarnecki ([email protected]) or Sarah Mars Bowie ([email protected]) to attend. ABOUT THE PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN TOM TOM AND 2019 COMMEMORATION The 2019 Commemoration is working to promote events around the Commonwealth of Virginia that exemplify the themes of democracy, diversity and opportunity. The 2019 Commemoration is pleased to partner with Tom Tom and make the festival one of the Commemoration's signature events as the 2019 Commemoration seeks to promote Virginia's innovation ecosystem and honor its entrepreneurial and cultural leaders. ABOUT THE TOM TOM FOUNDATION AND THE FOUNDERS FESTIVAL The Tom Tom Foundation is the nonprofit organization that hosts the annual Tom Tom Founders Festival. Supporting high-impact events throughout the year, the Foundation seeks to empower the innovators whose creativity, entrepreneurial spirit, and dedication to community help ensure a better future for us all. Now in its sixth year, the action-packed Founders Festival is held during the week of April 13 (hometown hero Thomas Jefferson's birthday) in Charlottesville, VA. Featuring outstanding local music, art, and food, as well as high-stakes startup competitions and high-impact conversations with business, entrepreneurial, and academic and civic leaders, the event attracted 38,000 attendees in 2016. Learn more at www.tomtomfest.com. CONTACT Lucas Czarnecki, Marketing Manager Tom Tom Founders Festival Press@tomtomfest.com (239) 297 6297 Sarah Mars Bowie 2019 Commemoration [email protected] (202) 974-5081 SOURCE 2019 Commemoration " American Masters has set the gold standard for documentary film profiles," said Stephen Segaller, vice president of programming at WNET. "The generous support of AARP will help us to maintain the standard of excellence that THIRTEEN and American Masters are known for." WNET is the parent company of New York's public television stations THIRTEEN and WLIW21 and operator of NJTV . "Through AARP's generosity we're able to continue to celebrate the luminaries that have left an indelible impression on our cultural landscape," said Michael Kantor, executive producer of American Masters. "Their support will help us bring viewers some of our best films yet and expand our digital offerings over the next two years." "We are delighted to support THIRTEEN's American Masters series," said Myrna Blyth, Senior Vice President and Editorial Director for AARP Media. "Our audience is not only one of the largest population subsets in the country, it is a group of people that loves compelling and smart films and this series speaks directly to those that appreciate good storytelling about people who have shaped our world." AARP is the nonprofit, nonpartisan social welfare organization aiming to change the way America defines aging and make life better for today's 50-plus population. AARP also works to promote important issues such as health care, personal fulfillment, employment and income security. Other films premiering as part of American Masters Season 31 include American Masters Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise (February 21), Patsy Cline: American Masters (March), and a "Chefs Flight" of four documentaries on culinary legends: American Masters James Beard: America's First Foodie (May 19) and American Masters Jacques Pepin: The Art of Craft (May 26) paired with encore presentations of American Masters: Julia! America's Favorite Chef and American Masters: Alice Waters and Her Delicious Revolution, respectively. Launched in 1986, American Masters has earned 28 Emmy Awards including 10 for Outstanding Non-Fiction Series and five for Outstanding Non-Fiction Special 12 Peabodys, an Oscar, three Grammys, two Producers Guild Awards and many other honors. To further explore the lives and works of masters past and present, the American Masters website (http://pbs.org/americanmasters) offers streaming video of select films, outtakes, filmmaker interviews, educational resources and In Their Own Words: The American Masters Digital Archive: previously unreleased interviews of luminaries discussing America's most enduring artistic and cultural giants as well as the American Masters Podcast. The series is a production of THIRTEEN PRODUCTIONS LLC for WNET and also seen on the WORLD channel. Major support for American Masters is provided by AARP. Additional funding is provided by Rosalind P. Walter, Ellen and James S. Marcus, Lillian Goldman Programming Endowment, The Philip and Janice Levin Foundation, The Blanche & Irving Laurie Foundation, Judith and Burton Resnick, Vital Projects Fund, Cheryl and Philip Milstein Family, The Andre and Elizabeth Kertesz Foundation, Lenore Hecht Foundation, Michael & Helen Schaffer Foundation, and public television viewers. About WNET WNET is America's flagship PBS station and parent company of THIRTEEN and WLIW21 . WNET also operates NJTV, the statewide public media network in New Jersey. Through its broadcast channels, three cable services (KidsThirteen, Create and World) and online streaming sites, WNET brings quality arts, education and public affairs programming to more than five million viewers each week. WNET produces and presents such acclaimed PBS series as Nature, Great Performances, American Masters, PBS NewsHour Weekend, Charlie Rose and a range of documentaries, children's programs, and local news and cultural offerings. WNET's groundbreaking series for children and young adults include Get the Math, Oh Noah! and Cyberchase as well as Mission US, the award-winning interactive history game. WNET highlights the tri-state's unique culture and diverse communities through NYC-ARTS, Reel 13, NJTV News with Mary Alice Williams and MetroFocus, the daily multi-platform news magazine focusing on the New York region. In addition, WNET produces online-only programming including the award-winning series about gender identity, First Person, and an intergenerational look at tech and pop culture, The Chatterbox with Kevin and Grandma Lill. In 2015, THIRTEEN launched Passport, an online streaming service which allows members to see new and archival THIRTEEN and PBS programming anytime, anywhere: www.thirteen.org/passport. About AARP AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, with a membership of nearly 38 million that helps people turn their goals and dreams into 'Real Possibilities' by changing the way America defines aging. With staffed offices in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, AARP works to strengthen communities and promote the issues that matter most to families such as healthcare security, financial security and personal fulfillment. AARP also advocates for individuals in the marketplace by selecting products and services of high quality and value to carry the AARP name. As a trusted source for news and information, AARP produces the world's largest circulation magazine, AARP The Magazine and AARP Bulletin. AARP does not endorse candidates for public office or make contributions to political campaigns or candidates. To learn more, visit www.aarp.org or follow @aarp and our CEO @JoAnn_Jenkins on Twitter. SOURCE WNET Related Links http://www.thirteen.org/ ROCKVILLE, Md., Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Abbott's acquisition of St. Paul, MN-based device company St. Jude Medical will impact a number of medical device markets, and place the pharmaceutical and testing giant into a leading position in the medical device industry, according to Kalorama Information. The healthcare market research firm finds that the purchase puts Abbott into the electrostimulation market particularly in neurostimulation, a fast-growing market that St. Jude is one of three top companies. These devices offer an alternative to medication therapy. Kalorama focuses on device and testing markets and covered neurostimulation device markets in its report The World Market for Neurostimulation Devices, available at http://www.kaloramainformation.com/Neurostimulation-Devices-TENS-8520946/. "Non-medical pain relief is a focus with attention on the dangers of pain medication and the need to find alternatives to reduce chronic pain," said Bruce Carlson, Publisher of Kalorama Information. "Abbott builds on its cardiovascular device properties with this deal, and that is a big focus of press coverage. St. Jude's impressive spinal cord offering should not be obscured in this transaction." Numerous treatment techniques and devices apply therapeutic energy to selected areas of the body. Most act on nerves and muscles, and many use electrical stimulation. Such electrical techniques are variously referred to as neurostimulation, or neuromodulationthese two words refer to essentially the same group of techniques. Kalorama estimates a 5.3 billion dollar market in neurostimulation technologies. Neurostimulation is often associated with use in pain relief or therapy. It is naturally segmented into two classifications: those that use external electrodes and those that use internal (implanted) electrodes. The two common external electrode methods are electromuscular stimulation (EMS) and transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS), which both use similar equipment and external electrodes. Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) systems are implantable devices that are used to treat a variety of conditions, including pain and spasticity. The use of spinal cord stimulators is growing through advances in technology increasing effectiveness and improved education of physicians and patients. Because SCS is a therapy to manage chronic pain SCS patients may be able to decrease or even discontinue pain medication using the system. The components of the SCS system are implanted during a surgical procedure, which is often a brief and minimally invasive procedure using local anesthesia. The stimulation leads are positioned in the epidural space above the spinal cord; the IPG or receiver is placed just under the skin in a practical location; and the leads are connected to the IPG or receiver. The electrodes on the leads stimulate the specific nerves that communicate between the spinal cord and the painful areas. The stimulation of these targeted nerves alters the brain's perception of the pain signals. St. Jude's marketed neurostimulation therapies include spinal cord stimulation (SCS) for chronic pain therapy, and deep brain stimulation (DBS) for symptoms of Parkinson's disease. It also offers peripheral nerve stimulation systems for the treatment of chronic migraines. The main SCS product lines include the Eon Implantable Pulse Generator (IPG) and Genesis Primary Cell IPG systems. The company's SCS systems include a remote control so patient's can control their pain therapy levels and location. Kalorama Information is an independent medical device industry analysis firm based in New York as well as Rockville, MD. Kalorama Information's report contains more detail on these markets including segments such as TENS and deep brain stimulation. Please link any media or news references to our reports or data to http://www.kaloramainformation.com/. About Kalorama Information Kalorama Information, a division of MarketResearch.com, supplies the latest in independent medical market research in diagnostics, biotech, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and healthcare; as well as a full range of custom research services. Reports can be purchased through Kalorama's website and are also available on www.marketresearch.com and www.profound.com. We routinely assist the media with healthcare topics. Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and our blog on our company website. Press Contact: Bruce Carlson 212 807 2262 [email protected] SOURCE Kalorama Information Related Links http://www.kaloramainformation.com/ BOSTON, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Actifio, the copy data virtualization company, today announced support of Microsoft Azure with the availability of the Actifio Sky in the Azure Marketplace. Actifio's copy data virtualization platform helps enterprise customers move faster to the cloud, speeding up hybrid cloud adoption for test data provisioning for application development, backup, disaster recovery, instant recovery, data migration, long-term retention or analytics. IT leaders are driving initiatives to accelerate business innovation and speed to market via faster software development while driving down costs. Actifio helps enterprise CIOs reduce risk while moving faster to a hybrid cloud, with a data management platform that: Provides a cloud on-ramp that can start with low-risk use cases, such as vaulting backups to the cloud, bursting and shifting application testing and development to the cloud, and testing instant recovery in the cloud; Satisfies development, test, and line-of-business teams with accelerated software releases, driven by improved Test Data Management with instant, secure, self-serve access to virtual data in Azure using Actifio Sky; Empowers cloud-focused continuous integration (CI) and delivery (CD) processes to build, deploy and deliver higher quality applications faster which speed new capabilities to market; Protects critical applications such as large databases, with instant recovery on-premises or in the cloud and point-in-time rollbacks, regardless of location; Applies SLA-based data lifecycle policies that can be managed easily across clouds and sites globally; and Supports on-premises deployments, including Azure, AWS, Google Cloud Platform, IBM Softlayer, Oracle Cloud, and over 50 MSP clouds. The Actifio data virtualization platform is designed to help enterprises leverage Azure for their mission-critical applications, such as application test and development with SQL Server, for vaulting backups, as well as for disaster recovery, all in a safe, incremental approach. In addition to the launch of Actifio Sky in the Azure Marketplace, Actifio OnVault will also support Azure Blob storage as an object storage target for vaulting data, for long-term retention. Beyond low-cost retention, Actifio OnVault allows enterprises to access data in cloud vaults instantly for business intelligence, analytics, compliance and data warehousing operations to unlock business value, using on-demand cloud infrastructure. "Enabling a dynamic hybrid cloud architecture can be a real challenge for administrators," said Steven Hill senior storage analyst with 451 Research. "Public cloud resources like Microsoft Azure offer a rich set of off-premises options for businesses of every size, but a major key to effectively integrating the public cloud lies in establishing a policy-based data management framework like Actifio that allows a customer to effectively administrate data resources regardless of where they reside." "Microsoft Azure is the trusted cloud destination for enterprises and governments, in no small part because of Microsoft's deep understanding of the requirements of their mission critical-applications," said Tad Brockway, General Manager, Azure Storage. "As enterprises move to the cloud, we see hybrid as their primary strategy and of course their key applications and databases demand special attention. The Actifio data virtualization platform with Actifio Sky in the Azure Marketplace extends hybrid cloud capabilities to help enterprises leverage Azure for their most important applications." One of several early adopters of the combined technologies is Maryland Courts, the judiciary branch of the state government. In addition to using Actifio for backup and DR of Oracle and SQL Server databases, and VMs, Maryland Courts is now vaulting critical data to Actifio Sky in Microsoft Azure for out-of-region compliance requirements. "The move to cloud is a fundamental shift that allows IT leaders to break free from 20-year old mindsets, backup tools, and siloed approaches to data management that burden Ops and Dev teams and restrict agility between data centers and Cloud," said Ash Ashutosh, CEO and Founder of Actifio. "Data and particularly databases in Microsoft Azure need to be available on-demand, instantly, via an API, not stuck in an archaic backup format. Actifio copy data virtualization is allowing our customers to get their data into Azure, build SQL-as-a-service capabilities to speed up their development pipelines and satisfy board-level requirements for rapid disaster recovery." Actifio Sky, version 7.0 is now available on the Azure Marketplace, here. In addition to Sky on Azure - Actifio OnVault for Azure Blob is also available now. For more information on this partnership, please visit our website. About Actifio Actifio virtualizes the data that's the lifeblood of businesses in more than 30 countries around the world. Its Virtual Data Pipeline technology enables businesses to manage, access, and protect their data faster, more efficiently, and more simply by decoupling data from physical storage, much the same way a hypervisor decouples compute from physical servers. To accelerate toward hybrid cloud architectures, build higher quality applications faster, and improve business resiliency and availability, Actifio is the first and only enterprise class copy data virtualization platform. For more visit Actifio.com, or follow us on Twitter @Actifio. Media Contact: Callum Gibson Durr Bite for Actifio [email protected] SOURCE Actifio Related Links http://www.Actifio.com MENLO PARK, Calif., Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Adicet Bio, Inc. ("Adicet"), a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of next-generation cell immunotherapies, announced today that it has appointed Anne Altmeyer Ph.D., M.B.A, M.P.H. as its Chief Business Officer. Dr. Altmeyer brings over 15 years of experience in business development and strategy, project and alliance management. "We are excited to welcome Anne to the Adicet executive team," said Aya Jakobovits, Ph.D., Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Adicet. "Her broad experience will be invaluable as we advance our business development activities around the oncology product pipeline derived from our universal immune cell therapy ("uICT") platform, as well as the novel immunotherapy products directed to MHC-peptides complexes underlying core drivers of severe immunological diseases." Dr. Altmeyer joined Adicet from Baxalta where she served as Vice President, Negotiations, Global Business Development & Licensing. Prior to Baxalta, she spent 11 years at Novartis in positions of increasing responsibility, most recently as Vice President, Global Business Development and Licensing, Head of Negotiations of the Oncology Business Unit and Molecular Diagnostics. During her tenure at Novartis, she played a lead role in key transactions that expanded and strengthened the Novartis oncology portfolio. In addition, her leadership of different multidisciplinary projects was instrumental for the advancement of several key cancer and endocrinology drugs to clinical development and to the market. Before joining Novartis, Dr. Altmeyer managed project teams in various therapeutic areas at Merck & Co. Dr. Altmeyer holds a Ph.D. in molecular immunology from Strasbourg University, France and an M.B.A and M.P.H from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey/Rutgers University, USA. "Adicet has cutting edge platform technologies that are being applied to the development of a pipeline of novel immunotherapy products relevant to different patient populations," said Dr. Altmeyer. "I am very excited to join Adicet and to work with Aya and the team to develop and implement a business strategy that will realize the broad potential of the company's assets through in-house activities and strategic partnerships. It is our aim to bring new therapeutic options to patients as expeditiously as possible." About Adicet Bio, Inc. Adicet Bio, Inc. is a privately held, pre-clinical stage biotechnology company engaged in the design and development of cutting-edge immunotherapies for cancer and other disease indications, with a focus on novel universal immune cell therapies (uICT). In August 2016, Adicet entered a strategic collaboration with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to develop next-generation engineered immune-cell therapeutics using Adicet uICT platform technology. Adicet's wholly owned subsidiary, Adicet Bio Israel, Ltd. is developing immunotherapies directed to the disease-specific peptide-MHC complexes associated with different disease indications. Adicet Bio was named by FierceBiotech to its "Fierce 15" Biotech Companies of 2016. Adicet Bio is located in Menlo Park, California. For more information, please visit our website at http://www.adicetbio.com. SOURCE Adicet Bio, Inc. Related Links http://www.adicetbio.com SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Aeropuertos Dominicanos Siglo XXI, S.A. ("Aerodom" or the "Company") announced that it has commenced a cash tender offer (the "Tender Offer") on January 4, 2017, for any and all of its outstanding 9.250% Senior Secured Notes due 2019 (CUSIP Nos. 007866 AA4 and P0100V AA1; ISIN Nos. US007866AA48 and USP0100VAA19) (the "Notes"). The Tender Offer will expire at 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on February 1, 2017, unless extended or earlier terminated by the Company. In connection with the Tender Offer, the Company is also soliciting consents (the "Consent Solicitation") from the holders of the Notes to amend the indenture governing the Notes to eliminate most of the restrictive covenants and certain events of default contained in the indenture as they relate to the Notes. The Tender Offer and Consent Solicitation are being made upon the terms and subject to the conditions set forth in the Company's Offer to Purchase and Consent Solicitation Statement dated January 4, 2017 (the "Offer to Purchase") and the related Consent and Letter of Transmittal. The Offer to Purchase and the Consent and Letter of Transmittal are collectively referred to herein as the "Offer Documents." Under the terms of the Tender Offer, the total consideration for each US$1,000 principal amount of the Notes validly tendered and accepted for purchase will be US$1,050.31. The Company will also pay accrued and unpaid interest to the applicable payment date. The total consideration includes an early tender payment in an amount in cash equal to US$4.06 for each US$1,000 principal amount of Notes tendered by such holder and accepted for purchase, and is only payable to holders who validly tender (and do not validly withdraw) their Notes and validly deliver (and do not validly revoke) their consents at or prior to 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on January 18, 2017 (the "Early Tender/Consent Deadline"). Holders who tender their Notes after the Early Tender/Consent Deadline and prior to the expiration of the Tender Offer will (promptly after such expiration) receive the total consideration less the early tender payment, or US$1,046.25 for each US$1,000 principal amount of Notes. Prior to the expiration of the Tender Offer, upon satisfaction or waiver of the conditions to the Tender Offer, the Company may, at its option, accept for purchase all Notes validly tendered and not validly withdrawn before such expiration. The Company will pay for the Notes tendered at or prior to the Early Tender/Consent Deadline on a business day chosen by the Company promptly following both the Early Tender/Consent Deadline and the satisfaction or waiver of the conditions set forth in the Offer to Purchase and as summarized below to the consummation of the Tender Offer and the Consent Solicitation. Subject to limited conditions, all Notes validly tendered and not validly withdrawn after the Company's initial acceptance of Notes for purchase will be accepted and paid for promptly following the expiration time of the Tender Offer. The Company's obligation to consummate the Tender Offer is conditioned upon the satisfaction of certain conditions, the full details of which are set forth in the Offer to Purchase, including (i) the consummation of one or more debt financing transactions on terms and conditions acceptable to the Company, (ii) holders of the Notes representing a majority in aggregate principal amount of the outstanding Notes having validly tendered (and not validly withdrawn) their Notes and validly delivered (and not validly revoked) their consents and (iii) the execution and delivery of a supplemental indenture amending the indenture to give effect to the proposed amendments. The complete terms and conditions of the Tender Offer are set forth in the Offer Documents. Holders of the Notes are urged to read the Offer Documents carefully. The Company has retained J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and Scotia Capital (USA) Inc. as the dealer managers and solicitation agents for the Tender Offer and Consent Solicitation. The Company has retained D.F. King & Co., Inc. as information agent, tender agent and tabulation agent for the Tender Offer and Consent Solicitation. Persons with questions regarding the Tender Offer and Consent Solicitation should contact J.P. Morgan Securities LLC at 1 (888) 846-2874 (toll free) or (212) 834-7279 (collect) or Scotia Capital (USA) Inc. at 1 (800) 372-3930 (toll free) or (212) 225-5714 (collect). Requests for documents may be directed to D.F. King & Co., Inc. by phone at (800) 859-8511 (toll free) or (212) 269-5550, by email at [email protected] or in writing at 48 Wall Street, 22nd Floor, New York, New York 10005. None of the Company, the dealer managers and solicitation agents, the information agent, tender agent and tabulation agent, the trustee for the Notes or their respective affiliates makes any recommendation as to whether holders of the Notes should tender all or any portion of their Notes pursuant to the Tender Offer or consent to the proposed amendments to the indenture, and no one has been authorized by any of them to make such recommendations. Holders must make their own decisions as to whether to tender Notes and deliver consents, and, if so, the principal amount of Notes to tender. This press release is neither an offer to purchase nor a solicitation of an offer to sell the Notes or any other security or a solicitation of consents with respect to any of the Notes. The Tender Offer and Consent Solicitation are being made solely pursuant to the Offer Documents and are subject to the terms and conditions stated therein. In any jurisdiction where the laws require the Tender Offer and Consent Solicitation to be made by a licensed broker or dealer, they will be deemed made on behalf of the Company by J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Scotia Capital (USA) Inc. or by one or more registered brokers or dealers under the laws of such jurisdiction. The Tender Offer and Consent Solicitation are not being made directly or indirectly to any resident or person located in any jurisdiction in which the making and acceptance thereof would not be in compliance with the securities, blue sky or other laws of such jurisdiction. Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains certain "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, concerning, among other things, the terms and timing of the Tender Offer and Consent Solicitation. Such forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and involve inherent risks and uncertainties, including factors that could delay, divert or change any of them, and could cause actual outcomes to differ materially from current expectations. These statements are likely to relate to, among other things, the Company's current beliefs, expectations and projections about future events and financial trends affecting the Company's business. Any of such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and may involve risks and uncertainties, and that actual results may differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors (including, without limitation, the actions of competitors, future global economic conditions, market conditions, foreign exchange rates and other operating and financial risks), many of which are beyond the control of the Company. The occurrence of any such factors not currently expected by the Company would significantly alter the results set forth in these statements. SOURCE Aeropuertos Dominicanos Siglo XXI, S.A. LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa., Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Air Products (NYSE: APD), a world leading industrial gases company, today announced that it has won the 'Best Social Responsibility Brand Award 2016' at the 6th China Charity Festival. For the second consecutive year, Air Products was among leading or fast growing companies from various industries, including Pfizer, Starbucks and LANXESS, receiving this honor. The China Charity Festival is a non-profit event advocating philanthropic spirit and behaviors of individuals and organizations, co-organized annually by over 30 Chinese mainstream media outlets since 2011. Its judging panel, comprising leaders and experts from public welfare organizations, consulting firms, institutions and media, evaluates candidates and their projects based on various indicators, including sustainability, creativity, credibility, adaptability and level of influence. Air Products was recognized for its good sustainability performance and continued social responsibility contributions. "Sustainability is a core value at Air Products, and winning this award for another year is great testimony to our longstanding commitment to corporate social responsibility in China," said Saw Choon Seong, China president, Industrial Gases, at Air Products. "As China continues to transition to a more sustainable growth under the government's 13th Five Year Plan, we pledge to build a better future for the country together with our customers, our employees and the community through our innovative offerings and corporate citizenship." According to its 2016 Sustainability Report published recently, Air Products has exceeded nearly all of its 2015 goals with 55 percent of its revenue generated from sustainable offerings that improve energy efficiency, lower emissions and meet societal needs. The company has been serving the China market for 30 years with its leading-edge products and technologies that help manufacturers and industries improve productivity, efficiency, quality and environmental performance. Air Products has also been actively driving and participating in a variety of corporate social responsibility initiatives, including its university scholarship programs to cultivate future talent and liquid nitrogen (LIN) Ambassador Program to demonstrate to local schools and communities the application of gas science in our daily lives through experiments. About Air Products Air Products (NYSE: APD) is a world-leading Industrial Gases company in operation for over 75 years. The Company's core industrial gases business provides atmospheric and process gases and related equipment to manufacturing markets, including refining and petrochemical, metals, electronics, and food and beverage. Air Products is also the world's leading supplier of liquefied natural gas process technology and equipment. The Company had fiscal 2016 sales of $9.5 billion and has a current market capitalization of approximately $30 billion. Approximately 17,000 employees in 50 countries strive to make Air Products the world's safest and best performing industrial gases company, providing sustainable offerings and excellent service to all customers. For more information, visit www.airproducts.com. NOTE: This release may contain forward-looking statements within the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on management's reasonable expectations and assumptions as of the date of this release regarding important risk factors. Actual performance and financial results may differ materially from projections and estimates expressed in the forward-looking statements because of many factors not anticipated by management, including risk factors described in the Company's Form 10K for its fiscal year ended September 30, 2016. SOURCE Air Products Related Links http://www.airproducts.com VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jan. 05, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pure Energy Minerals Limited (TSX-V:PE) (FRANKFURT:A111EG) (OTCQB:PEMIF) (the Company or Pure Energy) is pleased to announce that exploration borehole CV-7 has been successfully drilled to its target depth (TD) of 2,000 ft (610 m) below ground level at its Clayton Valley South Lithium Brine Project (CVS Project), located near Silver Peak, Nevada. Licensed Nevada well drillers from Harris Exploration Drilling & Associates Inc. employed a variety of techniques to complete the exploration borehole, but diamond core drilling covered the lithium-prospective stratigraphy from approximately 500 ft (152 m) to TD at 2,000 ft (610 m). Core recovery was excellent throughout the target interval (averaging well over 90%). After completing the core hole, the drillers subsequently reamed the borehole to a diameter of 12.25 in (31 cm) to allow for installation of temporary casing. Pure Energy geologists collected representative samples of drill core from aquifers of interest for testing of physical and hydrogeological properties at accredited laboratories. Preliminary observations of fluid conductivity, lithology, and other geological properties of the sediments are encouraging and consistent with other successful lithium brine exploration boreholes drilled at the CVS Project. Given the encouraging geology encountered, the team has decided to convert the borehole into a temporary exploration well for brine sampling and possible later pumping tests. After the temporary well casing is installed and well development is complete (air-lifting to remove drilling fluids from the well), the Company expects to conduct downhole geophysical logging to investigate fluid and geological properties. Hydrogeologists will commence detailed sampling of brine from the well as soon as possible in early to mid January. Sampling should be completed in two to three weeks. The data from CV-7 will be incorporated into the forthcoming update of the mineral resource for the CVS Project, and a full discussion of the hydrogeology and chemistry of CV-7 will be included in the subsequent technical reports. Patrick Highsmith, Pure Energy Minerals CEO commented, The drilling crew and geologists did a great job on CV-7. Drilling progressed very efficiently and core recovery continues to be high. CV-7 is positioned just west of an interpreted fault, so this hole fills an important gap in the drill pattern to support the resource update. A little over 1 km to the west-northwest, core drilling is also progressing well on CV-8. These important drill holes are the final ingredients needed for the resource update and PEA that we plan to deliver in the first quarter of 2017. Quality Assurance and Quality Control Patrick Highsmith, Certified Professional Geologist (AIPG CPG # 11702), is a qualified person as defined by NI 43-101, and has supervised the preparation of the scientific and technical information that forms the basis for this news release. Mr. Highsmith is not independent of the Company as he is an officer and director. Pure Energy Retains Focus Communications for Investor Relations Services The Company is also pleased to announce that it has retained Leo Karabelas of Focus Communications Ltd. (Focus) in Toronto to provide investor relations services to the Company pursuant to a consulting agreement dated January 3, 2017 (the Consulting Agreement). Focus will provide services to the Company including initiating and maintaining contact with the financial community, the Companys shareholders, investors and other stakeholders for the purpose of increasing awareness of the Company and its activities. The Consulting Agreement is for a term of one year. In accordance with the terms of the Consulting Agreement, Focus will receive a monthly fee of C$5,000 plus applicable taxes from the Company as well as eligibility to receive incentive stock options to be awarded based on performance. The Consulting Agreement is subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval and the Companys stock option plan. About Focus Communications Focus Communications is a private Toronto based firm, specializing in investor relations, corporate communications and market awareness services. Utilizing its extensive database of private investors, brokers, analysts and fund managers, Focus provides customized investor relations solutions for its clients. Focus implements a proactive and one on one approach in managing relationships between clients, their shareholders and the investment community for positive, long term relationships. About Pure Energy Minerals Ltd. Pure Energy is a lithium resource developer that is driven to become a low-cost supplier for the burgeoning lithium battery industry. While the Company is currently focused on the development of the CVS Lithium Brine Project and the adjoining Glory Lithium Clay Project in Clayton Valley, Nevada, it is actively evaluating new lithium targets in North and South America. Pure Energy has developed core strengths in innovative development and processing technologies for lithium brines and lithium mineral deposits. The Companys key attributes and activities include: Generating positive results on a large land position with excellent infrastructure in a first-class mining jurisdiction: approx. 11,000 acres in four main claim groups in Clayton Valley, Esmeralda County, Nevada; The only lithium brine resource in North America except for its neighbor, which is the only producing lithium operation in the United States (Albemarles Silver Peak lithium brine mine); An inferred mineral resource containing approximately 816,000 metric tonnes of Lithium Carbonate Equivalent (LCE) at an average grade of approximately 102 mg/L lithium, reported in accordance with NI 43-101 (see July 2015 Inferred Resource Report); An advanced program of testing the efficacy and economics of modern environmentally-responsible processing technologies to convert the CVS brines into high purity lithium products for new energy storage uses; and, An active business development program, applying its expertise to the evaluation of new lithium targets around the world. On behalf of the Board of Directors, Patrick Highsmith Chief Executive Officer Forward Looking Statements: The information in this news release contains forward looking statements that are subject to a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in our forward looking statements. Factors that could cause such differences include: changes in world commodity markets, equity markets, costs and supply of materials relevant to the mining industry, change in government and changes to regulations affecting the mining industry. Forward-looking statements in this release may include statements regarding mineral processing, adaptation of test work to larger scale and/or future operational scales, estimates of reduced future capital and operating expenses, delivery of a preliminary economic assessment, future exploration programs, operation plans, geological interpretations, and mineral tenure issues. Although we believe the expectations reflected in our forward looking statements are reasonable, results may vary, and we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. DETROIT, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Ally Financial Inc. (NYSE: ALLY) today announced that it will conduct its 2017 annual meeting of stockholders on Tuesday, May 2, 2017 at 9 a.m. ET in Detroit, Michigan. Additional details will be provided in the company's proxy statement. About Ally Financial Inc. Ally Financial Inc. (NYSE: ALLY) is a leading digital financial services company and a top 25 U.S. financial holding company offering financial products for consumers, businesses, automotive dealers and corporate clients. Ally's legacy dates back to 1919, and the company was redesigned in 2009 with a distinctive brand, innovative approach and relentless focus on its customers. Ally has an award-winning online bank (Ally Bank Member FDIC), one of the largest full service auto finance operations in the country, a complementary auto-focused insurance business, a growing digital wealth management and online brokerage platform, and a trusted corporate finance business offering capital for equity sponsors and middle-market companies. The company had approximately $157.4 billion in assets as of Sept. 30, 2016. For more information, visit the Ally press room at http://media.ally.com or follow Ally on Twitter: @AllyFinancial. Contact: Sarah Comstock 313-656-6954 [email protected] SOURCE Ally Financial NEW YORK, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Summary Angola Orca Project Panorama, GlobalData's latest release, presents a comprehensive overview of the asset. This upstream report includes detailed qualitative and quantitative information on the asset, provides a full economic assessment and reflects several parameters including (but not limited to) geological profile, asset development and specific challenges. Based on this analysis, future outlook for the asset is presented with possible trends and related scenarios identifying upside/downside potential. Scope - Overview of the asset based on an analysis of the economic indicators - Key financial indicators including Net Present Value and Internal Rate of Return - Review of factors affecting the economic outcome of the field including development overview, geology, challenges, reserves and production with qualitative perspective on of the overall assets life with GlobalData's analysis on the asset's future outlook - Detailed production profile for the asset, giving annual output rates for each commodity produced - Cash flow statements from our economic analysis of the asset including capital expenditures, operating expenditures and tax liability - Individual valuations for equity holders - Sensitivity analysis for asset value considering a range of factors Reasons to buy - Understand the economic and non-economic factors that affect production of an asset - Benefit from an asset valuation derived from detailed research and modeling by our analysts - Basic view of various scenarios and its effect on the asset for risk or strategy planning - Utilize the quantitative and qualitative evaluation to ascertain trends within the region to inform decision making - Identify economic trends of an asset to determine investment requirements Read the full report: http://www.reportlinker.com/p03284394-summary/view-report.html About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place. http://www.reportlinker.com Contact Clare: [email protected] US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 SOURCE Reportlinker Related Links http://www.reportlinker.com PARIS, January 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- On December 2016, Viparis announced that it had awarded a new contract to Areas to redesign the food service offerings at Paris expo Porte de Versailles. This partnership perfectly reflects Viparis's "Guest Attitude" policy, which aims to offer the best service per square meter. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160411/353501LOGO ) Viparis is working tirelessly to bolster the Porte de Versailles exhibition complex's appeal and to transform it into a vibrant and living venue. As part of this, food services play a key role, and customers have high expectations. Striking a perfect balance between the best local restaurants and a portfolio of renowned international brands, Areas won the Viparis tender in 2016. Areas, the global concession catering brand of Elior Group, was awarded an exclusive 11-year contract to supply food services to Paris expo Porte de Versailles. Across 40 points of sale, Areas will provide a unique and exclusive offering in harmony with the complex's goal - to become a 'permanent universal exposition'. As a long-time partner of Viparis, Areas has a unique set of skills when it comes to exhibition complexes, providing appealing, contemporary food services that can be customized to match the nature and scope of each trade show. Areas will offer visitors a range of contemporary catering services in line with the positioning of the exhibition complex - innovative, customized, quality-focused, digital and sustainable. The opening of the Maison Pradier stand on 1 December 2016 kicked off the new Areas offer. McDonald's and Paul, both internationally-known brands, have designed site-specific outlets for Paris expo Porte de Versailles. Throughout 2017, Areas will open some thirty French and international food service brands, such as La Place, Red d'Hippo, Deli&Cia, MasQMenos, Marguerite du Pre, Super Wild Coffee, and more. In the form of stationary, temporary and ambulatory points of sale, these brands can adapt to the size of every event, and will feature a digital component for the benefit of target customers (exhibitors, organizers and visitors). More information http://www.eliorgroup.com SOURCE Elior Group Over the past three years, Martinez has argued seven cases in the Supreme Court of the United States. He has briefed some of the most important commercial cases to come before the Supreme Court in the past several terms, advised on many more cases before the Supreme Court and the courts of appeals, and worked with many federal government agencies and components of the Department of Justice. His cases have spanned a wide array of areas, including intellectual property, environmental, securities and criminal law. Most notably, Martinez successfully argued on behalf of the United States in Halo Electronics, Inc. v. Pulse Electronics , helping to secure a win in one of the most important intellectual property cases before the Court last Term, addressing the legal standard for awarding enhanced damages under the Patent Act. He also successfully argued for the United States in Octane Fitness, LLC v. Icon Health & Fitness Inc. , a high-profile case concerning the availability of attorney fees in patent litigation. In recognition of his achievements, the Hispanic Bar Association of the District of Columbia presented Martinez with its 2016 "Rising Star Award." "Roman's thoughtful advice and advocacy experience will undoubtedly benefit clients across industries as they face complex legal challenges. He earned universal acclaim for his extraordinary work, broad skill set and judgment when he worked at Latham previously and we couldn't be more excited to have him back at the firm following his service in the Solicitor General's office," said Michael Egge, Office Managing Partner of Latham & Watkins in Washington, D.C. Martinez rejoins Latham's nationally renowned Supreme Court and Appellate Practice in Washington, D.C., led by Gregory Garre, a former Solicitor General of the United States, and including such notable appellate litigators as Richard Bress, Scott Ballenger and Melissa Arbus Sherry, who returned to Latham in 2014 after serving as an Assistant to the United States Solicitor General as well. Prior to his work in the Solicitor General's office, Martinez handled a wide variety of matters in the Supreme Court and before federal and state appellate courts, and he argued appeals in the D.C. Circuit, Federal Circuit and Tennessee Court of Appeals. Martinez received the Veterans Community Service Award from the National Organization of Veterans Advocates for his successful Administrative Procedure Act challenge to a Department of Veterans Affairs regulation depriving veterans of due-process protections in the disability claims process. In a letter commending Martinez, Chief Justice of the United States John G. Roberts, Jr., wrote that "Roman's work on behalf of American veterans is admirable and in the best tradition of the bar's commitment to pro bono service." Gregory Garre, Global Chair of the Supreme Court and Appellate Practice, commented: "We are thrilled to welcome Roman back to our appellate practice. He is a rare talentan excellent oral advocate and superb writer with judgment well beyond his years." "I was honored to work in the Solicitor General's office alongside extraordinarily talented colleagues on many precedent-setting matters. It was an invaluable experience that I will cherish for years to come," said Martinez. "I'm excited to return to Latham and put the knowledge and experience I've gained to use by advising the firm's clients as they navigate the many legal challenges that organizations face today. My practice will center on appellate litigation, defending against administrative action raising constitutional and other legal issues and helping clients develop creative approaches to difficult legal questions that arise in and out of litigation." Martinez earned his law degree in 2008 from Yale Law School. He then clerked for Judge Brett Kavanaugh at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., at the Supreme Court of the United States. Before law school, he worked for several years at the U.S. Department of Defense, at the United States diplomatic mission in Iraq and on the National Security Council staff at the White House. About Latham & Watkins Latham & Watkins is a global law firm with more than 2,200 lawyers in its offices located in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the United States, including: Barcelona, Beijing, Boston, Brussels, Century City, Chicago, Dubai, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Milan, Moscow, Munich, New York, Orange County, Paris, Riyadh, Rome, San Diego, San Francisco, Seoul, Shanghai, Silicon Valley, Singapore, Tokyo and Washington, D.C. For more information on Latham & Watkins, please visit the website at www.lw.com. Notes to Editors 1Latham & Watkins operates as a limited liability partnership worldwide with affiliated limited liability partnerships conducting the practice in the United Kingdom, France and Italy and affiliated partnerships conducting the practice in Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore. Latham & Watkins operates in Seoul as a Foreign Legal Consultant Office. Latham & Watkins practices in Saudi Arabia in association with the Law Office of Salman M. Al-Sudairi. Contacts Michael Egge, Office Managing Partner, Washington, D.C., +1.202.637.2285 Gregory Garre, Global Chair of the Supreme Court and Appellate Practice, Washington, D.C., +1.202.637.2207 SOURCE Latham & Watkins Related Links http://www.lw.com "What led me to the staffing industry and kept me there was the ability to change people's lives," said Leverant. "We're helping people find a job and put food on the table. It's really exciting to be able to make an impact in somebody's life like that. I think that's what the 40 Under 40 is about making a positive impact on the people in your community, both in business and in your personal life. For that, I am proud to be a part of this year's honorees." Leverant joined AtWork in October 2007 as vice president of sales, and was promoted to president and COO in 2014. He has worked with the American Staffing Association on a number of fronts and in November Leverant was named their first Volunteer of the Year. Leverant was instrumental in rejuvenating the Tennessee Staffing Association, where he served as president. AtWork provides companies with flexible employment solutions with the highest level of service available and was recently named Franchise Times Top 200+ list, No. 349 on Entrepreneur Magazine's 2016 "Franchise 500" List, as well as an Inavero's 2016 Best of Staffing Client and Talent Award winners list. AtWork Group's list of accolades also includes: Workforce Magazine's Temporary Staffing Providers Hot List for 2013, the Staffing Industry Analysts Largest U.S. Staffing Firms List for 2013, the Franchise Times' Next 300 Franchise Systems, and a 2016 Inc. 5000 ranking. About AtWork Group Leading the staffing industry since 1992, AtWork Group has grown its franchise to more than 90 locations nationwide. Each location provides employers and employees with the AtWork range of services including: AtWork Personnel Services, AtWork Medical Services, AtWork HelpingHands Services, and AtWork Search Group. AtWork has been cited as one of Staffing Industry Analysts' top U.S. staffing firms. They rank on Entrepreneur Magazine's 2016 "Franchise 500" list, the Staffing Industry Analysts' "Largest U.S. Staffing Firms for 2015" and "Fastest Growing Staffing Firms" lists, and the "Inc. 5000 2016" list. AtWork Group's remarkable growth is fueled by the vision of founders John and Glenda Hall: "Think ahead, create opportunity, give exceptional support to franchise offices and always look for the better way, every day." For more information, visit www.atwork.com or call 800.383.0804. MEDIA CONTACT: Heather Ripley Ripley PR 865-977-1973 [email protected] SOURCE AtWork Group Related Links http://www.atwork.com NEW YORK, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Report Details Road fatalities are increasingly high up the media agenda. The automotive industry also realises that emissions and vehicle deaths are their two Achilles heel in terms of brand image and sustainability as a product and means of mass transport. The automotive industry therefore has every interest in responding to the growing consumer demand for increased safety systems. This brand new report evaluates the current global market and future outlook for the automotive safety systems market. The report identifies the prevailing trends in the automotive safety system market and the drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges along with new business opportunities in the near future. Safety is one of the major concerns for the driver and the passenger while travelling. Growing number of fatalities in car accidents, increasing awareness, and stringent government regulations has led to higher adoption of passive and active safety systems in vehicles. Automotive safety systems are equipment that helps in avoiding an accident, and in the event of accident, saves passengers and drivers from getting injured. The role of passive safety system comes into play during or after the accidents to minimize the damage from the collision whereas active safety systems prevent the risk of collision or accidents. Examples of these are Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD), Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC), and Driver Monitoring Systems (DMS) Visiongain's report keeps you informed and ahead of your competitors. Gain that competitive advantage. This report answers questions such as: - What are the prospects for the overall automotive safety systems sector? - What are the factors driving increased adoption of automotive safety systems? - Which automotive safety systems technology will prevail? - In which regions are the growth opportunities for automotive safety systems? - Who are the key players in the automotive safety systems industry? - What are the demand and supply dynamics underpinning the automotive safety systems sector? 5 Reasons why you must order and read this report today: 1) The report provides detailed profiles of 10 leading companies operating within the automotive safety systems market: - Bosch Company - Delphi Automotive PLC - Autoliv Inc. - Denso Corporation - Takata Corporation - ZF TRW - Continental AG - Johnson Electric Holdings Limited - Magna International Inc. - Mobileye N.V. 2) Global forecasts of automotive safety systems from 2017-2027 3) Our overview forecasts and analyses the passive automotive safety systems technologies from 2017-2027 These are forecast at the global level as well as individually for each of the 4 regions and 11 national markets: - Seatbelts - Airbags 4) Our study also forecasts and analyses the 10 active automotive safety systems technologies from 2017-2027. These are forecast globally and also for each of the 4 regions and 11 national markets: - Anti-Lock Braking Systems (ABS) - Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD) - Electronic Stability Control (ESC) - Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems (TPMS) - Blind Spot Detection (BSD) - Lane Departure Warning Systems (LDW) - Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) - Adaptive Front-Lighting Systems (AFS) - Night Vision Systems (NVS) - Driver Monitoring Systems (DMS) 5) The study reveals where and how companies are investing in automotive safety systems. We show you the prospects for the following 4 regions and 11 national markets. Each country is also further segmented and individually forecasts each of the 12 automotive safety technologies. Asia-Oceania - China - India - Japan - Rest of Asia-Oceania North America - US - Canada - Mexico Europe - Germany - UK - France - Rest of Europe Rest of the World - Brazil - South Africa - Rest of RoW Competitive advantage This independent 180 page report guarantees you are better informed than your competitors. With 152 tables and figures examining the automotive safety systems. market space, the report gives you an immediate, one-stop breakdown of your market as well as analysis, from 2017-2027 keeping your knowledge that one step ahead of your rivals. Who should read this report? - Anyone within the automotive industry and supply chain - Automotive OEMs - Electronic component suppliers - Software developers - Companies looking to enter the automotive safety systems market - Technological solution providers - R&D staff - Automotive organisations & associations And also - Executives - Investors - Business development managers - Marketing managers - Banks - Government agencies Don't miss out This report is essential reading for you or anyone in the automotive sector with an interest in automotive safety systems. Purchasing this report today helps you to recognise those important market opportunities and understand the possibilities there. Read the full report: http://www.reportlinker.com/p04595336-summary/view-report.html About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place. http://www.reportlinker.com Contact Clare: [email protected] US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 SOURCE Reportlinker Related Links http://www.reportlinker.com LA JOLLA, Calif., Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Avidity Biosciences today announced the completion of a $16 million Series B financing round to support the development of its Antibody-siRNA Conjugate (ASC) platform. The Series B round includes investment of $10 million in new capital and conversion of $6 million in convertible debt. Takeda Pharmaceuticals, through its venture group, led the Series B round, and both new and existing investors participated, including Alethea Capital, Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Brace Pharma, EcoR1 Capital, F-Prime Capital, Moore Venture Partners and Tavistock Life Sciences. "Our ASC platform unites two of the most impactful innovations over the past twenty years monoclonal antibodies and oligonucleotides to create a new class of precision medicines," said Troy Wilson, Ph.D., J.D., president and chief executive officer of Avidity Biosciences. "Although siRNA-based therapeutics have demonstrated significant clinical and commercial promise, conventional approaches are limited to targeting diseases of the liver. Because ASCs use antibodies to overcome barriers of delivering siRNA, they have the potential to impact a broader range of therapeutic areas. Our goal is to partner with leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to deliver a pipeline of ASCs targeting genetic drivers of disease." ASCs link a monoclonal antibodydesigned against a specific molecular targetwith a siRNA therapeutic payload, allowing the conjugate to have unmatched specificity and selectivity. In preclinical models, ASCs have shown potential to knockdown messenger RNA levels in multiple important cell types and tissues, including tumor, muscle, heart, lung, liver and B cells. In addition, ASCs have drug-like properties comparable to antibodies and antibody-drug conjugates. In connection with the financing, Avidity Biosciences announced that Michael Martin, Ph.D., global head of Takeda Ventures Inc., and Todd Brady, director of finance and investments of Brace Pharma Capital, will join its board of directors. Tony Hsu, founder and chief investment officer of Alethea Capital, will also join the board as a non-voting member. "We believe Avidity's ASC platform offers a compelling approach that builds on successes with antibodies, ADCs and oligonucleotide-based therapeutics," said Dr. Martin. "Avidity has recruited a top-notch team and made significant progress against its scientific and business goals. We look forward to working with the company to realize the promise of ASCs as a new class of precision medicines." About Avidity Biosciences Avidity Biosciences is a privately held biotech company pioneering a new class of precision medicines Antibody-siRNA Conjugates (ASC) which combine the strengths of monoclonal antibodies and siRNA-based therapeutics. Avidity Biosciences is working with partners to discover best-in-class drug candidates against important undrugged therapeutic targets. Avidity has entered research collaborations with leading biopharma companies and are actively seeking additional partnerships. Avidity has raised $25 million in venture financing from a top-tier group of sophisticated healthcare investors. More information about Avidity can be found on the company's website at www.aviditybiosciences.com. SOURCE Avidity Biosciences Related Links http://www.aviditybiosciences.com/ "Brident Dental and Western Dental offices have locally partnered with schools in their communities for many years. We are excited to expand and formalize this commitment to working with the schools in the neighborhoods near each of our offices," said Joshua Marder, Chief Marketing Officer of Western Dental & Orthodontics and its affiliate, Brident Dental & Orthodontics. 'Smiles for Schools' will help raise oral health awareness by sharing the expertise of our clinical staff with students and their parents." The funds, which are just one component of the program, may be used by schools at their discretion. In addition, Brident Dental will provide support at school events, sharing oral health information with students and their parents as part of an ongoing partnership with each school. To learn more about Brident Dental or inquire about employment opportunities for dental professionals, visit www.brident.com or call 1-855-834-4451. ABOUT BRIDENT DENTAL Brident Dental & Orthodontics, with 30 offices throughout Texas, is an affiliate of Western Dental, one of the nation's largest dental providers and the leader in accessible, affordable, high-quality oral health care, with over 2 million patient visits annually in more than 200 affiliated offices throughout California, Arizona, Nevada and Texas. Brident is a leading provider of orthodontics services in Texas, and last year expanded its network of orthodontists, oral surgeons, pedodontists, periodontists and endodontists to better service patient needs all within their local office. All of Brident's services are backed by a unique quality assurance system that electronically monitors all patient visits, treatments, dental staff and clinical performance to enable high-quality care. For more information, please visit www.brident.com. SOURCE Brident Dental & Orthodontics Related Links http://www.brident.com Viewers will join The Balancing Act correspondent, Amber Milt, as she talks to the cast about the themes of this beloved fairy tale and meets Diana Huey, who plays Ariel. Diana talks about the blurred lines between good and evil, making sacrifices for what you want most out of life and what it means to her to play one of the most iconic Disney princesses on stage. Amber will also speak with Marjorie Failoni and Amanda Minano, who play two of Ariel's mersisters, and Jennifer Allen, the actress who plays Ursula. Based on the 1989 film, Disney's The Little Mermaid, this spectacular new production features dazzling costumes, a stunning set and visual effects that are pure magic. Plus, the Academy Award-winning hits by Alan Menken including, "Kiss the Girl" and "Part of Your World." To learn more about the Broadway Balances America series, please visit: www.broadwaybalancesamerica.com Broadway Across America (BAA) is part of The John Gore Organization family of companies, which includes Broadway.com and The Broadway Channel. Led by nine-time Tony-winning producer John Gore (Owner & CEO), BAA is the foremost presenter of first-class touring productions in North America, operating in 41 markets with over 270,000 subscribers. Current and past productions include Cats, Chicago, Fiddler on the Roof, Finding Neverland, Hairspray, School of Rock and The Producers. For more information please visit BroadwayAcrossAmerica.com and Broadway.com. The 5th Avenue Theatre is the nation's premier incubator for new musical theater. Since 2001, the Seattle-based company has produced 17 new musicals. To date, nine (including the sensational hit Disney's Aladdin) have moved to Broadway premieres, earning a combined 15 Tony Awards , including two for Best Musical (Hairspray and Memphis). The 5th Avenue Theatre is also known for its world class, critically acclaimed productions of musicals chosen from both the contemporary canon and the Golden Age of Broadway. Unique in its Chinese-inspired design, the exquisite theatre opened in 1926 as a venue for vaudeville and film. Today, under the leadership of Executive Producer and Artistic Director, David Armstrong; Managing Director, Bernadine C. Griffin and Producing Artistic Director, Bill Berry, this non-profit theatre company attracts an annual attendance of more than 300,000. In addition to its main stage productions, The 5th Avenue Theatre is also committed to encouraging the next generation of theatergoers through its extensive educational outreach programs. For more information, please visit www.5thavenue.org. SOURCE BrandStar WASHINGTON, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today announced its opposition to the confirmation of Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) as attorney general of the United States. "Senator Sessions' past statements and troubling views on issues impacting American Muslims and other minority communities make him unfit to serve as attorney general," said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad. Awad said CAIR is also calling on all Americans to urge members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to question Sen. Sessions about his past anti-Muslim statements, current associations with anti-Muslim hate groups and his views on a number of civil rights issues during next week's confirmation hearing. TAKE ACTION: See Phone Numbers and Call Script Below SEE: Attorney General Nomination Hearing http://www.judiciary.senate.gov/meetings/01/03/2017/attorney-general-nomination-01-10-17 CAIR has already expressed its concerns to members of the committee, and now the Washington-based civil rights organization is urging community members to do the same by contacting all members of that committee to urge that they question Sen. Sessions about the following issues of concern: 1. Question Sen. Sessions on His Support for Trump's Religious Test to Ban Muslims Traveling to the United States In December 2015, Sessions voted against and publicly lashed out at a nonbinding amendment seeking to prevent a religious litmus test for people entering into the United States. The amendment had been offered by ranking Senate Judiciary Committee Member Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT). During that vote, Session said: "Many people are radicalized after they enter. How do we screen for that possibility, if we cannot even ask about an applicant's views on religion? Would we forbid questions about politics? Or theology?" Following the horrific shooting at an Orlando nightclub Sessions also warned Americans on FOX News Sunday in June 2016 to "slow down" on foreign born admissions into the United States, particularly those with Islamic backgrounds. "It's a real part of the threat that we face and if we can't address it openly and directly and say directly that there is an extremist element within Islam that's dangerous to the world and has to be confronted." 2. Question Sen. Sessions About Upholding the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) In the past 10 years, the DOJ has opened 51 Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons act (RLUIPA) investigations, filed seven lawsuits under RLUIPA's land-use provisions and participated in 40 privately filed lawsuits. A number of these cases have been in support of the right of religious minorities, including Christians, Jews, Muslim, and Sikh communities. RLUIPA protects individuals, houses of worship, and other religious institutions from discrimination in zoning and landmarking laws. In December 2016, the Center for Security Policy published "a practical primer for assessing mosque land use applications" entitled Mosques in America: A Guide to Accountable Permit Hearings and Continuing Citizen Oversight. Given Sen. Sessions close associations with the Center for Security Policy, CAIR questions Sessions ability as Attorney General to support the right of American Muslims to construct houses of worship in the same manner one would expect him to support other religious communities. 3. Question Sen. Sessions Over His Association with Anti-Muslim Hate Groups In 2015, Sen. Sessions accepted the "Keeper of the Flame" award from the anti-Muslim hate group Center for Security Policy, whose leader Frank Gaffney has asserted his belief in the conspiracy theory that President Obama is Muslim, writing "there is mounting evidence that the president not only identifies with Muslims, but actually may still be one himself." The FBI said a Center for Security Policy report is based on "outdated information" and "overstated" any threat Muslim observances pose to America. Sen. Sessions has also accepted the "Annie Taylor Award" in 2014 from the anti-Muslim hate group the David Horwitz Freedom Center and attended the group's annual "Restoration Weekend" Florida retreat events in 2008, 2010 and 2013. The Southern Poverty Law Center, a group that tracks hate movements in the United States, labels David Horowitz "the godfather of the modern anti-Muslim movement." 4. Question Why Sen. Sessions Sent a Letter to the National Endowment for the Humanities Demanding Their Justification for Funding the "Muslim Journeys Bookshelf" Program In October 2013, Sen. Sessions as Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee sent a letter to the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) in part demanding a justification for why the NEH was "promoting" Islamic cultures at the expense of Christian and Jewish cultures. The purpose of NEH's Muslim Journeys program is to "offering resources for exploring new and diverse perspectives on the people, places, histories, beliefs, and cultures of Muslims in the United States and around the world." 5. Question Sen. Sessions About Allegations of Racist Comments In 1986, Sen. Sessions was accused of making racist comments while serving as a U.S. attorney in Alabama, including calling an African-American assistant U.S. attorney "boy." Sessions has called the NAACP and the ACLU "un-American" and "communist-inspired." 6. Question Sen. Sessions About Police Reform, Voting Rights, Civil Rights Sen. Sessions should also be questioned about his views on other critical issues such as police-involved shootings, protection of voting rights, enforcement of hate crimes laws, discrimination in education, and immigration reform. TAKE ACTION TODAY AND CALL MEMBERS OF THE SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE Suggested Message: "Hello, my name is [YOUR NAME] and I am calling to urge Senator [NAME OF SENATOR] to strongly question Attorney General Nominee Senator Jeff Sessions about his past anti-Muslim statements and current associations with anti-Muslim hate groups as well as alleged racist remarks during next week's confirmation hearing taking place Tuesday, January 10. Specifically, I urge the Senator to question Sen. Sessions about: His support for President-elect Trump's religious test to ban Muslim travels to U.S. Whether or not he would uphold the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) His association and acceptance of awards from the anti-Muslim hate groups Center for Security Policy and David Horwitz Freedom Center. As Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, his demanding that the National Endowment for the Humanities justify why it supported educational programs about Muslims in the U.S. Allegations over his calling an African-American assistant U.S. attorney "boy" and him calling the NAACP and the ACLU "un-American" and "communist-inspired." His views on other critical issues such as police-involved shootings, protection of voting rights, enforcement of hate crimes laws, discrimination in education, and immigration reform. There are millions of American Muslims in the United States making innumerable contributions to our nation's cultural fabric and economic well-being. The civil rights of all persons in the U.S., including Muslims, should be protected and preserved by the next attorney general." Committee Leadership Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA): (202) 224-3254 Ranking Member Patrick Leahy (D-VT): (202) 224-4242 Committee Membership (ordered by state) Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ): (202) 224-4521 Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA): (202) 224-3841 Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT): (202) 224-2823 Senator Christopher A. Coons (D-DE): (202) 224-5042 Senator David Perdue (R-GA): (202) 224-3521 Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL): (202) 224-2152 Senator David Vitter (R-LA): (202) 224-4623 Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC): (202) 224-6342 Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN): (202) 224-3244 Senator Al Franken (D-MN): (202) 224-5641 Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY): (202) 224-6542 Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI): (202) 224-2921 Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX): (202) 224-5922 Senator John Cornyn (R-TX): (202) 224-2934 Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC): (202) 224-5972 Senator Orrin G. Hatch (R-UT): (202) 224-5251 Senator Michael S. Lee (R-UT): (202) 224-5444 If you have difficulty reaching senate offices using these numbers, call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be transferred. CAIR is America's largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding. La mision de CAIR es mejorar la comprension del Islam, fomentar el dialogo, proteger las libertades civiles, capacitar a los musulmanes estadounidenses, y construir coaliciones que promuevan la justicia y la comprension mutua. Become a Fan of CAIR on Facebook www.facebook.com/CAIRNational Subscribe to CAIR's Email List http://tinyurl.com/cairsubscribe Subscribe to CAIR's Twitter Feed http://twitter.com/cairnational Subscribe to CAIR's YouTube Channel http://www.youtube.com/cairtv CONTACT: CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw, 202-742-6448, [email protected]; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, [email protected] SOURCE Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Related Links http://www.cair.com FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla., Jan. 05, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Netsurion, a leading provider of managed data and network security services for multi-location businesses, today announced the launches of two security information and event management (SIEM)-based advanced threat detection solutions, marking significant breakthroughs in cybersecurity for highly-distributed companies edge locations, including franchisees and branch offices. The first is a managed SIEM solution called SIEM-at-the-Edge, designed specifically to protect multi-location businesses through the implementation of leading SIEM technology directly on workstations, combining security event monitoring capabilities with managed detection and response (MDR). The second offering, Breach Detection Service, is an automated breach alerting platform designed specifically for businesses looking for advanced threat detection capabilities that augment anti-virus, firewall, and other traditional security measures. Powered by the award-winning EventTracker security management platform, these services give businesses an affordable level of protection from cyberthreats that was previously only available inside the perimeter of large enterprisesfor as low as $20 per month per location for SIEM-at-the-Edge and $10 per month per location for Breach Detection Service. Without the proper security technology and services, it takes an average of 265 days to discover a data breach. Reputational damage and revenue loss from a breach headline not only impact individual edge locations, but the corporate brand as well. Recent major breaches at Fortune 500 companies and household names across the retail, restaurant, and hotel sectors demonstrate that anti-virus, anti-malware, and firewalls alone are not enough to secure businesses from the ever-evolving threat landscape. Clearly, more needs to be done to secure each and every location under a brand umbrella. Filling this void, SIEM-at-the-Edge provides advanced cybersecurity technology through an industry-leading SIEM and MDR solution uniquely tailored to be effective and affordable for small and medium-sized multi-location businesses. Underpinning SIEM-at-the-Edge, the EventTracker security management platform provides easily deployed sensors that protect critical endpoints, like point-of-sale (POS) systems. Real-time alerts and recommendations about critical security events are automatically sent to the customer, and in certain situations, the sensor can perform automated response actions, neutralizing the threat before damage to a network can occur. SIEM-at-the-Edge perfectly complements Netsurions existing offerings of network security, resilience, and PCI compliance, resulting in a comprehensive managed security solution scalable for businesses of any size, said Kevin Watson, CEO of Netsurion. Cyberattacks are succeeding at alarming rates, and the impact of data breaches on multi-location brands, individual franchisees, and other small businesses can be catastrophic and unrecoverable. Adding these advanced SIEM services to our portfolio enables us to give our customers even stronger protection without the costs and complexity of full-time, dedicated resources. Our recent merger with EventTracker made this possible, and we are thrilled to introduce this capability to businesses that previously were unable to afford and manage such sophisticated security measures. As a cost effective way to know when events that are highly indicative of a possible breach occur in a network environment, Netsurion is offering its Breach Detection Service platform. This fully-automated system alerts businesses to potential breach threats in real time, including system changes, such as the installation of unknown or unsigned applications, unexpected user behavior, and connection with poor reputation IP addresses. This low-cost system is an added layer on top of firewall and anti-virus solutions, alerting businesses to possible zero-day viruses and ransomware. Balancing the need for added security without further over-complicating the IT environment is a challenge for all businesses, especially those whose IT resources are already stretched thin. Breach Detection Service directly addresses that problem through a very simple-to-install application that adds the next layer of protection beyond anti-virus and firewalls, said Watson. We designed the service to alert on those specific breach-related events that require immediate action, such as the installation of a potential ransomware application, and to provide actionable intelligence to our users. For more information, please visit http://www.netsurion.com/solutions/advanced-threat-protection. Tweet this: .@Netsurion launches managed #SIEM capabilities, brings advanced #threatprotection to multi-location businesses http://bit.ly/2iE8yOo Resources Netsurion Security Blog Netsurion Success Stories EventTracker YouTube EventTracker Case Studies About EventTracker EventTrackers advanced security solutions protect enterprises and small businesses from data breaches and insider fraud, and streamline regulatory compliance. EventTrackers platform comprises SIEM, vulnerability scanning, intrusion detection, behavior analytics, a HoneyNet deception network and other defense-in-depth capabilities within a single management platform. The company complements its state-of-the-art technology with 24/7 managed services from its global security operations center (SOC) to ensure its customers achieve desired outcomessafer networks, better endpoint security, earlier detection of intrusion, and relevant and specific threat intelligence. The company serves the retail, hospitality, healthcare, legal, banking, and financial services, utilities, and government sectors. EventTracker is a division of Netsurion, a leader in remotely-managed IT security services that protect multi-location businesses information, payment systems, and on-premise public and private Wi-Fi networks. www.eventtracker.com. Twitter: @logtalk. About Netsurion Netsurion is a leading provider of remotely-managed IT security services that protects multi-location businesses information, payment systems, and on-premise public and private Wi-Fi networks from data breaches and other risks posed by hackers. Its new service offering SIEM-at-the-Edge is powered by its subsidiary, EventTracker, which helps deliver comprehensive security benefits to edge locations that normally would not have the means to leverage such a solution. Netsurions award-winning remote network security services and PCI compliance solutions help keep businesses of any size secure. Any sized branch or remote office, franchise, or sole proprietor operation can use Netsurion without the costs of onsite support. The company serves the retail, hospitality, healthcare, legal, and insurance sectors. www.netsurion.com CINCINNATI, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Carew International, a leading provider of sales training and sales leadership training programs, has announced a strategic partnership with ProActivate sales talent acquisition firm. Carew CEO Jeff Seeley positioned the partnership as a natural extension of Carew's mission to drive growth and increased profitability through sales performance improvement. "This partnership expands Carew's value to and strategic partnership with our clients in a way that is perfectly aligned with our culture and mission," said Seeley. Jeff Seeley, CEO of Carew International Seeley indicated that, for years, clients have asked for Carew's help with finding and hiring top quality sales professionals. "As much as we wanted to support our customers in any way possible, talent acquisition was not an area of core competence, and we didn't want Carew offering any product or service unless it was best in its class," said Seeley. "I had not come across a talent acquisition firm that I was one hundred percent comfortable in recommending to clients or whose service I was confident offering under the Carew name. That changed once we became aware of ProActivate. The company's innovative process and dedicated focus on sales professionals makes ProActivate a superior resource for sales talent acquisition," said Seeley, "and one that we can feel confident and proud to offer our clients." Jamie Crosbie, CEO and founder of ProActivate, explained, "We see this partnership as being in line with providing top-tier sales talent to forward thinking companies." Crosbie continued, "Losing even one top sales performer costs a company over a million dollars in lost revenue, downtime, missed opportunities and ramp-up time. Our bedrock philosophy is based on creating real value, protecting the sales funnel and ensuring top sales talent who are primed to perform from day one. Partnering with Carew International makes sense because it allows us to leverage a broader skillset that creates a genuine win-win for our clients." About ProActivate ProActivate is a leading edge provider of highly qualified, fully vetted sales professionals and sales leaders. The company employs streamlined, dynamic processes that actively weed out all but the most qualified sales professionals and helps companies hire the best and upgrade the rest, moving their entire teams up a notch to become sales rock stars. ProActivate is headquartered in Dallas, Texas and serves companies globally. About Carew International Carew International is a leader in the professional development industry, providing innovative, high-impact solutions for performance improvement with sales training, sales leadership training, customer service training and negotiations training. For more than 40 years, Carew has delivered unique, comprehensive and renowned development programs to fulfill its mission of creating value, supporting dramatic bottom-line results and acting as a strategic asset to customers worldwide. Carew International is a privately-owned company headquartered in Cincinnati. For more information on Carew development programs, or upcoming sales training events, contact us at 800.227.3977, [email protected], or visit us online at www.carew.com. SOURCE Carew International, Inc. During his address, Donald unveiled the Ocean Medallion, a first-of-its-kind wearable device that enables every guest to have a personal digital concierge to maximize each guest's experience. The Ocean Medallion bridges the physical and digital worlds to deliver a new level of personalized service not previously considered possible. The quarter-sized, 1.8-ounce disc has no on/off button, needs no charging or instructions, and can be accessorized with jewelry, clips, key chains and bands, or simply carried in a pocket. "Great guest experience is our ethos. The Ocean Medallion is an amazing use of technology that potentially redefines travel as we know it. It opens an entire world of experiences, and the personal power it unleashes is huge," Donald told the 2,600 people at the opening session at CES 2017 in the main ballroom at the Venetian Las Vegas. His remarks were also streamed via Facebook Live and are now available at https://www.facebook.com/oceanvacations and https://www.youtube.com/oceanvacations. Added Donald: "We are creating the most personal, simple and intuitive vacation experience. It's an all-encompassing and totally unique approach we call OCEAN the One Cruise Experience Access Network. This global platform delivers a lifestyle engagement and is a real game-changer." Powered by proprietary technology developed by Carnival Corporation that features an Internet of Things (IoT) network of intelligent sensors and experiential computing devices, the Ocean Medallion revolutionizes guest service not only for the cruise industry, but the broader vacation industry. It goes well beyond the growing number of wearables used by theme parks and other vacation companies by leaving behind the required guest action of "tap" and ushering in a new guest interaction paradigm. Joining Donald to present details of the new guest experience platform were the three company executives who are leading the effort: John Padgett, chief guest experience & innovation officer for Carnival Corporation; Michael Jungen, senior vice president of experience design and technology for Carnival Corporation; and Jan Swartz, president of Princess Cruises. Padgett explained how the Ocean Medallion is the central component of a larger ecosystem. "Our focus is exceeding guest expectations in ways that cannot be anticipated or duplicated. What makes a Medallion Class experience so special is the level of personalization," Padgett said while presenting the opportunities to maximize guest experiences throughout an entire vacation journey. "We've gone well beyond conventional guest segmentation with the creation of Guest Genomics, where every guest is unique and every guest can represent many different personas within a single vacation or across multiple vacations. The Ocean Medallion enables experience delivery to be personalized and customized dynamically to each guest in real-time." Added Jungen while revealing details behind the Ocean Medallion and its extensive ecosystem: "The Ocean Medallion is clean and sleek in design, and functions as an identifier for each guest. The Ocean Medallion connects directly with our experience ecosystem, so our guests' desires and needs can be anticipated. It's intuitive, but not disruptive. Personal, but not invasive." Each Ocean Medallion gifted to every guest and laser-etched with the guest's name, ship and date of sailing -- contains Near Field Communication (NFC) and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) communication capabilities that interact with thousands of sensors, kiosks, interactive surfaces and smart devices infused throughout the ships and ports. Some of the Ocean Medallion's benefits include: streamline and expedite the port embarkation and disembarkation process, allow guests to access their staterooms as they approach door (no keycard required), locate friends and family around the cruise ship, enable guests to purchase merchandise without any transaction, cards or paper, deliver enhanced on-demand dining experiences based on food and beverage preferences, power an array of interactive gaming and immersive entertainment experiences, and significantly enhance service interactions with crew members and guests. The new guest experience platform called the xiOS -- will debut on Regal Princess from the company's Princess Cruises brand in November 2017, followed by Royal Princess and Caribbean Princess in early 2018, as part of the new Ocean Medallion Class to be rolled out over several years on the entire Princess Cruises fleet. Swartz, who leads the world's largest premium cruise line, detailed the opportunities made possible by the Ocean Medallion to surprise and delight the 2 million guests that sail with the brand each year. "With this innovation, from the moment our guests first engage with us, their experiences will be powered by their preferences, from extra pillows to their favorite drink," Swartz said. "Services they desire will be delivered seamlessly, in real time, often without asking, where and when they want them. At the end of the day, the Ocean Medallion takes vacations to an entirely new level. And Princess Cruises will be leading the way, not just for Carnival Corporation, but for the entire vacation industry." Added Donald: "Our OCEAN strategy is guest-centric, and every creative decision we make arises from our guests. Our main goal and our focus are to make their dream vacations come true." For more information on OCEAN, visit Ocean.com. To book a Princess Cruises Ocean Medallion Class experience, visit Princess.com/ocean. About Carnival Corporation & plc Carnival Corporation & plc is the largest leisure travel company in the world, with a portfolio of 10 cruise brands in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia comprised of Carnival Cruise Line, Fathom, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, Seabourn, AIDA Cruises, Costa Cruises, Cunard, P&O Cruises (Australia) and P&O Cruises (UK). Together, these brands operate 102 ships visiting over 700 ports around the world and totaling 226,000 lower berths with 17 new ships scheduled to be delivered between 2017 and 2022. Carnival Corporation & plc also operates Holland America Princess Alaska Tours, the leading tour companies in Alaska and the Canadian Yukon. Traded on both the New York and London Stock Exchanges, Carnival Corporation & plc is the only group in the world to be included in both the S&P500 and the FTSE 100 indices. Additional information can be found on www.carnival.com, www.hollandamerica.com, www.princess.com, www.seabourn.com, www.aida.de, www.costacruise.com, www.cunard.com, www.pocruises.com.au, www.pocruises.com and www.fathom.org. SOURCE Carnival Corporation & plc Related Links http://www.Carnivalcorp.com HORSHOLM, Denmark, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- CiVi Biopharma, Inc. (CiVi Biopharma) a privately held biopharmaceutical company, announced today that it has signed an agreement with F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd (Roche), which provides CiVi Biopharma worldwide, exclusive rights to research, develop and commercialize Roche's single stranded, anti-PCSK-9 anti-sense drug candidate. Drug mediated inhibition of PCSK-9 causes an upregulation of surface expressed LDL-receptors on liver cells, which in turn increases systemic clearance of LDL-cholesterol, commonly referred to as bad-cholesterol because of its involvement in atherosclerosis. The investigational drug candidate is based on Roche's proprietary Locked Nucleic Acid (LNA) technology and will enter phase I clinical development in 2017. Under the terms of the agreement, CiVi Biopharma will pay to Roche an upfront fee and Roche is eligible to receive clinical, regulatory and sales milestones as well as royalties. Announcing the license agreement, Founder of CiVi Biopharma, Henrik rum, said, "We are delighted that Roche has selected CiVi Biopharma as their license partner for this exciting new drug candidate that will be developed for patients with elevated cholesterol despite treatment with maximally tolerated statins. We are convinced that the characteristics of the drug candidate with regards to dosing, safety and efficacy, have the potential to translate into an important new medicine in the emerging anti-PCSK-9 class of drugs." About the LNA PCSK-9 drug candidate The LNA PCSK-9 drug is based on Roche's proprietary LNA drug technology, which enables scientists to rapidly develop safe and effective drug-candidates against RNA targets, involved in a number of human diseases. The LNA PCSK-9 drug candidate further incorporates Roche's proprietary GalNac targeting technology that directs the payload to the liver. By using the GalNac technology, the number of injections per year and the cost of the drug may be significantly lower compared to the commercially available antibodies against PCSK-9. About Civi Biopharma Inc. Civi Biopharma Inc. is a US-based, privately held biopharmaceutical company, founded in 2016. The company's research and development activities are focused on creating novel therapies against cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. The company is incorporated in Delaware and has a wholly owned Danish subsidiary, Civi Biopharma A/S, which is located in Hrsholm Science Park, Denmark. Civi Biopharma Inc. recently concluded a $40M series A financing with Boxer Capital of the Tavistock Group. Civi Biopharma Forward-Looking Statements This announcement contains forward-looking statements, identified by the use of words such as "believes," "expects," "may," "will," "should", "potential," "anticipates," "plans" or "intends" and similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, events or developments to be materially different from the future results, events or developments indicated in this announcement. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. For further information, please contact Henrik rum, Founder Cell.: (+45) 2834 6474 e-mail: [email protected] This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. For more info visit: http://www.newswire.com/. SOURCE CiVi Biopharma, Inc. BOSTON, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Clear Ballot announced today that Clinton County, New York will be using ClearCount election technology as a central count tabulation and reporting solution for absentee ballots beginning in 2017. Clinton County is a leader in the state as the first county to adopt Clear Ballot technology setting a new bar for election transparency. ClearCount scans absentee ballots at a central location and provides a fully searchable visualization of voter marks. This visualization allows counties to establish voter intent with confidence. Although New York regulations call for black ink, blue ink, or pencil voter marks, many voters use other writing implements such as highlighter pens, which ClearCount is uniquely able to discern and correctly tabulate. Clear Ballot CEO, Larry Moore is pleased to have Clinton County on board, "We're looking forward to bringing Clinton County's Election Commissioners superior speed and technology and bringing the voters confidence in the accuracy of the election." Commissioners Greg Campbell and Mary Dyer were in agreement saying, "We at the Clinton County Board of Elections are happy to partner with Clear Ballot in the use of their ClearCount vote tabulation system. We look forward to it becoming an integral part of our election process." Clear Ballot conducted demonstrations in 2013 in Monroe, Saratoga and Schenectady Counties. Monroe County demonstrated ClearCount using ballots from the 2012 general election, while both Saratoga and Schenectady demonstrated ClearCount twice with ballots from the 2012 primary and general elections. Clear Ballot passed New York State certification in December of 2015. Clear Ballot election technology is currently used in 57% of the state of Oregon as well as in Florida. Clear Ballot also conducted a statewide audit of six randomly selected towns in Vermont and the nation's first 100% statewide audit in Maryland for the 2016 Presidential Election. About Clear Ballot: Clear Ballot is an emerging leader in election management innovation. Clear Ballot has introduced modern software solutions with the speed, accuracy and transparency that has been lacking in the industry. Designed for low cost and ease-of-use, Clear Ballot's browser-based software, used with commercially available scanning hardware, scales to election jurisdictions of all sizes, responding directly to the budgetary realities of America's counties and municipalities. For more information about Clear Ballot, please visit: www.clearballot.com. Contact Hillary Lincoln Clear Ballot [email protected] SOURCE Clear Ballot Related Links http://www.clearballot.com FORT WORTH, Texas, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Career Management Partners (CMP) has opened a new office location in Fort Worth, Texas. This new office in the Alliance Building (9800 Hillwood Parkway, First Floor, Fort Worth, TX 76177) will work with the Dallas office to better service clients and prospects in the Fort Worth and DFW mid-cities area. "Our Fort Worth area clients have been a key part of our success for years, and a key element of our recent growth. We are committed to the area and this investment will help us more closely support companies on the western side of the DFW Metroplex," said Joe Frodsham, President of CMP. Maryanne Pina will be leading the Fort Worth Office in her dual role of Office Leader and Director of Research. Ms. Pina has a deep background in developing people and educators. Most recently Pina held a role within Forth Worth Independent School District where she was focused on building teacher capacity through literacy, dual-language content, one-on-one consultation and classroom training. "Maryanne brings a deep understanding of adult development and learning, and a history of impact within the Fort Worth community," says Joe Frodsham. "In her new role she will be our face to the Fort Worth Community while continuing to support the most contemporary solutions with her client-centered research." About CMP CMP is a talent and transition firm in the business of developing people and organizations across the full talent life cycle from talent acquisition and leadership development, to organization development and career transition support. In doing so, we combine our decades of experience with a contemporary approach to building people and teams. We marry the art and science of talent and transition to provide individuals and organizations with a unique competitive advantage. For more information see: www.careermp.com CONTACT: Faith Abbott, 1-972-680-9200, [email protected] SOURCE Career Management Partners (CMP) Related Links http://www.careermp.com EUGENE, Ore., Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- College Choice, a leading authority in college and university rankings and resources, has published its 2017 ranking for the Most Affordable Colleges in Florida. http://www.collegechoice.net/rankings/most-affordable-colleges-in-florida/ Attending college or university is increasingly and exponentially expensive. But it doesn't have to be. Many schools are committed to making an undergraduate or graduate degree an affordable option for their students. But these are not just the most affordable colleges and universities; some of these schools are also the best, being regionally, nationally, and globally ranked. "Whether you want to study fire science technology at Chipola College in Marianna or jazz studies at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, the schools on our list have something for everyone," Christian Amondson, Managing Editor of College Choice said of the ranking. "And the tuition rates alone at these schools make attending college a possibility for almost anyone who desires it, and in addition, most of these schools offer additional financial aid by way of scholarships, fellowships, and loans." The College Choice 2017 ranking for the Most Affordable Colleges in Florida finds Chipola College in the top spot. Lake-Sumter State College and Florida Atlantic University round out the top three. The complete alphabetical rankings are as follows: Chipola College, Marianna, FL Lake-Sumter State College, Leesburg, FL Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, Tallahassee, FL University of South Florida--St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg, FL Florida Gulf Coast University, Fort Myers, FL University of West Florida, Pensacola, FL University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL University of Florida, Gainesville, FL University of North Florida, Jacksonville, FL College Choice is the leading authority in college and university rankings, searches and resources dedicated to helping students and their families find the right college. The site publishes rankings and reviews that make finding the best colleges for different interests easier and more fun, as well as resources to help students get into, pay for, and thrive at the college of their choice. Contact: Christian Amondson, Managing Editor, College Choice Web: http://collegechoice.net Email: [email protected] Phone: (541) 255-3801 SOURCE CollegeChoice.net Related Links http://collegechoice.net SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- CREDO, the mobile carrier with a conscience, announced that it will donate more than $150,000 to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Demos and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). Throughout January, CREDO invites its members and the public to vote on the distribution of funds at CREDO Donations. Since 1985, CREDO has donated more than $81 million to progressive organizations fighting for women's rights, economic justice, voting rights, environmental justice and more. By choosing CREDO products and services, members generate donations for these causes. Their everyday acts of commerce support CREDO Action, a social change network with 4 million activists, and CREDO Donations, the company's philanthropy program. In 2016, CREDO Donations raised over $2 million for progressive nonprofits. CREDO conducts monthly donations and voting in order to support nonprofits when action is most critical. This month, voters can take a stand for civil rights, civil liberties and economic justice. CREDO will fund three nonprofits that can make an immediate difference for these causes. "The ACLU, Demos and EFF stand up for the American people in complex situations that require a great deal of legal expertise, research and courage," said Ray Morris, CEO of CREDO. "Again and again, these organizations have challenged powerful government agencies, corporations and political actors who would otherwise exploit the public. Their victories are a source of pride and hope for all progressives." For almost 100 years, the ACLU has worked to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States. From achieving nationwide marriage equality for the LGBT community to challenging government surveillance, the ACLU has won innumerable victories for progressive causes. Funding from CREDO will give the ACLU flexibility to respond to emerging crises including new voting and abortion restrictions passed by states. The grant will also enable the ACLU to take advantage of unplanned advocacy and litigation opportunities, like those that arose from Edward Snowden's revelations about NSA spying programs. Demos is a public policy organization dedicated to ensuring that people of all backgrounds have an equal say in our democracy and an equal chance in our economy. The organization's research, campaigns and litigation have helped achieve notable victories. These include the implementation of the National Voter Registration Act in 20 states, enactment of Same-Day Registration for voting in 13 states (plus Washington, D.C.), and legislation limiting use of credit checks in employment in multiple states. A CREDO grant will give Demos the flexibility to respond to the rapidly changing narrative in post-election America. EFF was founded in 1990 to protect the rights of technology users. The organization provides leadership on cutting-edge issues of free expression, privacy and human rights. In 2016, EFF scored a massive victory in Jewel v. NSA, a case in which EFF became the first party to obtain the right to issue discovery directly against the NSA on its mass surveillance programs. A CREDO grant will ensure that in 2017 EFF can take on another formidable NSA program: Section 702 surveillance over the Internet backbone. Funding will enable EFF to evaluate proposed legislation and pursue litigation against surveillance. "CREDO is an invaluable resource for the non-profit community," said Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU. "It advances so many vital social justice movements through its generous funding program and its commitment to building a progressive community." "CREDO is a valuable partner in Demos' mission to ensure people of all backgrounds have an equal say in our democracy and an equal chance in our economy," said Heather McGhee, President of Demos. "CREDO is building a better, freer future for technology users worldwide," added Richard Esguerra, Development Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. About CREDO Founded in 1985, CREDO gives individuals the power to make positive social change every day. Whenever members use a CREDO product or service, they generate critical donations for progressive causes (at no extra cost) and fund vital activism work. Since 1985, CREDO has donated over $81 million to progressive nonprofits, and the company has built a network of over 4 million activists. Visit CREDO Mobile, CREDO Action and CREDO Donations to learn more. SOURCE CREDO Related Links http://www.credomobile.com DENVER, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- DaVita Inc. (NYSE: DVA), the leading independent medical group in America and leading provider of kidney care services, announced today that Pascal Desroches has been appointed to the company's Board of Directors. With this appointment DaVita joins a small group of Fortune 500 companies who have diverse representation of 50 percent or more within their boards of directors. In October 2015, DaVita's CEO and Chairman Kent Thiry announced his intention for a "majority diverse" board within 24 months. Since early 2015, Pascal has been the chief financial officer for Turner Broadcasting, an $11 billion global business. He has helped adapt strategy to the changing digital landscape, including strengthening core products, managing costs, and investing in digital businesses: CNN on Snapchat, streaming video, videogaming, and the eSports league. Prior to his role as CFO, he was senior vice president and controller of Time Warner Inc., working with the company's accounting officer. There, he was responsible for internal and external reporting, mergers and acquisitions activity and other transitions. He was a partner at KPMG LLP in the Department of Professional Accounting Fellow with the Office of the Chief Accountant at the United States Securities and Exchange (SEC). "We are excited about welcoming Pascal to our board," said Peter Grauer, lead independent director. "He brings impressive finance experience and intimate understanding of the workings of large organizations." Desroches earned a master's degree in business administration, with a concentration in corporate finance and management of organization, from Columbia University and a bachelor's degree, with honors, in accounting from St. John's University. He is a certified public accountant and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). He has been recognized as Top 100 Most Influential Blacks in Corporate America by Savoy magazine. Desroches serves on the boards of directors of New Alternatives for Children and Prep for Prep in New York. "DaVita has been a long-time leader in innovation and clinical quality in the health care space," said Desroches. "I look forward to incorporating my financial expertise into the changing health care system and DaVita's growth." About DaVita Inc. DaVita Inc., a Fortune 500 company, is the parent company of DaVita Kidney Care and HealthCare Partners, a DaVita Medical Group. DaVita Kidney Care is a leading provider of kidney care in the United States, delivering dialysis services to patients with chronic kidney failure and end stage renal disease. As of September 30, 2016, DaVita Kidney Care operated or provided administrative services at 2,318 outpatient dialysis centers located in the United States serving approximately 186,000 patients. The company also operated 139 outpatient dialysis centers located in 11 countries outside the United States. HealthCare Partners manages and operates medical groups and affiliated physician networks in California, Nevada, New Mexico, Florida, Colorado and Washington in its pursuit to deliver excellent-quality health care in a dignified and compassionate manner. As of September 30, 2016 HealthCare Partners provided integrated care management for approximately 750,000 patients. For more information, please visit DaVita.com/about. Contact Information Media: Kate Stabrawa +1 303-876-7527 [email protected] Contact Information Investors: Jim Gustafson (310) 536-2585 [email protected] SOURCE DaVita Inc. Related Links https://www.davita.com "Philanthropy and community involvement have been hallmarks at EDCO since the company was founded back in 1946," said Eric Lindquist, EDCO President and CEO. "Having been located in Hopkins since our company began, we wanted to find a meaningful way to give back to the community that has been so good to us. We are honored to be partnering with the ICA Food Shelf and to support the vital services they provide within Hopkins and the surrounding communities." "EDCO's commitment to our food shelf will provide significant resources that will allow us to better serve the more than 2400 individuals who currently depend on ICA on a monthly basis," said Peg Keenan, ICA Food Shelf Executive Director. "We are delighted to have EDCO join our team and look forward to their support for many years to come." EDCO Products is one of the oldest, privately held, exterior building products manufacturers in the United States. In 1946, EDCO officially incorporated and began a 70-year journey with a laser-focused commitment to innovation, quality and service. The entrepreneurial spirit of Arthur Edwards, Sr. and his son, Arthur Edwards, Jr., led to the creation of an award-winning residential and commercial building products manufacturer which established its headquarters in Hopkins, Minnesota -- where their main offices and manufacturing still exist today. Arthur Edwards, Jr. continued to work at EDCO each day until his passing in 2012 at the age of 92. His inspirational legacy lives on today through his two daughters, Jan Edwards and Danae Kasbi, as well as his grandson Kavon Kasbi, who are now 3rd and 4th generation owners of the company. In 2015, the company appointed a new President and CEO, Eric Lindquist, to lead EDCO into the future. "I am honored to have been chosen to lead this incredible company and look forward to expanding on the rich tradition of innovation, quality, and service we are renowned for while at the same time capitalizing on the significant growth opportunities we see before us," said Lindquist. "We are confident that the next 70 years will be just as impressive as the first 70." About EDCO Products, Inc. Headquartered in Hopkins Minnesota, EDCO Products, Inc. is one of the largest privately held manufacturers of pre-finished exterior building materials in the United States. They design and manufacture a full-line of siding, roofing, soffit, and rainware products. EDCO has established distributor partnerships across the United States and into Canada. EDCO was founded in 1946 by the enterprising Edwards family who capitalized on a strong demand for affordable building materials in the wake of WWII. For the past 70 years, EDCO has delivered numerous industry innovations while achieving industry leading quality and service. Today, EDCO continues to set the standard for quality, service, and innovation. About ICA Our Mission: To offer hope as we provide assistance to our neighbors in need Our Vision is to: Uphold the dignity of our neighbors in need as they strive for self-sufficiency Share the ongoing work of assisting our neighbors in partnership with the congregations, organizations, businesses and individuals in our communities Our Belief: ICA's presence in our communities makes our neighborhoods more stable and secure SOURCE EDCO Products, Inc. TORONTO, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - Exact Imaging (www.exactimaging.com), the world's leader in high resolution micro-ultrasound systems enabling real-time imaging and biopsy guidance for the prostate, announced it has secured CDN $21.5 million in a Series C investment to commercialize its ExactVu micro-ultrasound system. The financing, which closed late in 2016, was co-led by Lumira Capital (Toronto, ON) and Vesalius Biocapital (Luxembourg) with participation from numerous new investors including PMV (Participatiemaatschappij Vlaanderen) (Brussels, Belgium) and strong support from existing investors including iGan Partners/Rowanwood Ventures (Toronto, ON). "We are very pleased to have been able to achieve an investment of this magnitude from such a high quality investment syndicate. This financing will allow us to scale our commercial organization, aggressively implement our product roadmap, and help us to realize the significant opportunity in the prostate biopsy and imaging marketplace," says Randy AuCoin, Exact Imaging's President and CEO. "We have followed the evolution of the Exact Imaging story for a number of years and in May of 2016 we participated in bridge financing to support this financing process and to allow the company to achieve regulatory approvals in key markets. Having met those milestones, we are very pleased to be a co-lead on this financing which is one of largest financing rounds for a private Canadian medical device company in Canada for 2016," said Peter van der Velden, Managing General Partner of Lumira Capital. "The Lumira Investment reflects both our view that the technology addresses a significant unmet market and patient need and that the Exact team is the right team to successfully scale the business globally," said Dr. Jacki Jenuth, Principal at Lumira Capital. Dr. Gaston Matthyssens, Managing Partner of Vesalius Biocapital, noted, "Exact Imaging's micro-ultrasound technology has the potential to change the standard of patient care in the urological practice by providing the urologist with the very tool they have been seeking. Specifically, a solution for prostate biopsies that provides much better resolution, is controlled by the urologist and is based on a known technology and workflow. With resolution down to 70 microns or 0.07 of a millimeter, the ExactVu high resolution system provides a 300% improvement in imaging resolution compared to the traditional standard-of-care urological ultrasound systems. Urologists now have a tool, designed around their workflow, to facilitate the detailed interrogation and visualization of suspicious regions and perform targeted prostate biopsies." PMV's Dr. Alexandra Tolia added, "Our participation in Exact Imaging's Series C financing reflects our fund's investment strategy in healthcare. Specifically, we invest in companies with a disruptive technology, a unique product pipeline that addresses a highly unmet medical need and with an excellent management team committed to bringing these products to market and, consequently, to the patient. Through this financing, we are excited to support Exact Imaging in realizing their international development plan, including the creation of its European headquarters in Flanders, which will be spearheading the commercial roll-out efforts for the ExactVu system in Europe." "As a founding investor in Exact Imaging and longtime supporter of the company, we have always believed in the potential of this high resolution micro-ultrasound technology and the impact it could have on the urology marketplace," says Mr. Sam Ifergan, CEO of iGan Partners/Rowanwood Ventures. "Having worked with this management team in the past on other successful ventures, we were fully confident to further invest in this round to support the Company's future and the pursuit of this next level of commercialization." Mr. van der Velden, Dr. Matthyssens and Dr. Tolia will be joining Exact Imaging's Board of Directors along with existing Board members Mr. Ifergan (co-founder, iGan Partners/Rowanwood Ventures), Mr. William Wortman (Private Investor), Dr. Harold Wodlinger (Wodlinger Consulting) and Exact Imaging's President and CEO, Mr. AuCoin. About Exact Imaging: Exact Imaging (www.exactimaging.com)is the world's leader in high-resolution micro-ultrasound systems enabling real-time imaging and guided biopsies in the urological market for prostate cancer. Exact Imaging's ExactVu micro-ultrasound platform operates at 29 MHz and enables a whole new level of resolution with the benefits of ease of use, affordability, and being an extension of the current urological workflow. Using the Exact Imaging platform, urologists will now be able to visualize areas of interest in the prostate and specifically target biopsies at those areas in addition to performing systematic biopsy protocols. The ExactVu micro-ultrasound system has recently been granted regulatory approval in the European Union (CE Mark) and the United States (FDA 510(k) where the company will initiate its commercialization focus. Exact Imaging was founded in 2013 by Mr. Sam Ifergan (iGan Partners) and Mr. Randy AuCoin to develop and commercialize this novel high resolution technology in order to disrupt the market and enable new levels of clinical imaging. SOURCE Exact Imaging Related Links www.exactimaging.com NEW YORK, Jan. 05, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ITG (NYSE:ITG), a leading independent broker and financial technology provider, today released a survey of North American institutional investors about the likely impacts of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (MiFID II), a sweeping set of European Union financial regulations scheduled to come into force on January 3, 2018. Under MiFID II rules, asset managers will be required to explicitly separate, or unbundle, their trading commissions from investment research payments. In order to continue paying for research alongside executions, asset managers will be required to set up a research payment account (RPA). The survey polled more than 100 buyside professionals who participated in an ITG webinar on the impact of MiFID II regulations on North American asset managers. The buyside firms that participated represent institutional investors with assets under management (AUM) ranging from approximately $125 million to more than $1 trillion, with average AUM of $47 billion. Survey Findings: Direct Impact: Only 43% of asset managers expect MiFID II to have a direct impact on them. The regulations apply to asset managers with operations in the EU and may also impact asset managers who have sub-advisory agreements with EU investment managers or that sell and manage European mutual fund vehicles known as UCITS. Only 43% of asset managers expect MiFID II to have a direct impact on them. The regulations apply to asset managers with operations in the EU and may also impact asset managers who have sub-advisory agreements with EU investment managers or that sell and manage European mutual fund vehicles known as UCITS. Research Payments: 59% of those surveyed plan to continue paying for research using commission sharing arrangements (CSA), while 33% expect to use a combination of both CSA and RPA for payments and 8% plan to set up a new RPA ahead of the MiFID II start date. 59% of those surveyed plan to continue paying for research using commission sharing arrangements (CSA), while 33% expect to use a combination of both CSA and RPA for payments and 8% plan to set up a new RPA ahead of the MiFID II start date. Unbundling Is Coming: While the majority of asset managers do not believe MiFID II applies directly to them, 82% of North American firms plan to fully unbundle all of their brokers globally . Commenting on the survey findings, ITGs Head of Global Commission Management, Jack Pollina, said MiFID II is going to have a significant impact well beyond the shores of Europe, as institutional investors require asset managers to change the way they budget, fund, price and pay for research. North American firms are anticipating these changes and are taking steps now to adapt to the shifting expectations of their end investors. ITG is a leading provider of commission management services and offers both traditional CSA as well as RPA administration and aggregation services. ITG provides access to a network of more than 5,000 research providers, brokers and vendors worldwide, with client service, finance and operations teams in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Asia for a true global coverage model. ITG was ranked #1 for CSA service and execution quality among mutual funds and hedge funds in the 2016 Greenwich Associates U.S. survey. For more information about ITGs commission management services and our MiFID II webinar about the impact of unbundling on North American asset managers, please contact info@itg.com. About ITG Investment Technology Group (NYSE:ITG) is a global financial technology company that helps leading brokers and asset managers improve returns for investors around the world. We empower traders to reduce the end-to-end cost of implementing investments via technology-enabled liquidity, execution, analytics and workflow solutions. ITG has offices in Asia Pacific, Europe and North America and offers execution services in more than 50 countries. Please visit www.itg.com for more information. NASHVILLE, Tenn., Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- This winter and spring, visitors to the Frist Center will enjoy opportunities to examine the art of Buddhism in unusual depth. Organized by the Newark Museum exclusively for the Frist Center, Secrets of Buddhist Art: Tibet, Japan, and Korea explores one of the great faiths of the world through paintings and sculptures by Japanese, Korean, and Tibetan artists. On view in the Center's Ingram Gallery from February 10 through May 7, 2017, the exhibition features 109 paintings and sculptures from the Newark Museum's world-renowned collection of Buddhist art made between the late thirteenth and early twentieth centuries. Secrets of Buddhist Art provides a basic understanding of how these artistic objects function within the esoteric or "secret" Vajrayana branch of Buddhism. Between the fourth and third centuries BCE, Buddhism split into two main branches: Mahayana and Theravada. Seven-hundred years later, in the third century, a third form, called Vajrayana, rose within the Mahayana branch. This esoteric school dominates Tibetan practice and is also prominent in Japan. Its devotees participate in initiation and empowerment ceremonies kept secret from outsiders. "A key to understanding these secrets is to study the complex array of both human and divine figures within esoteric Buddhism, as well as the rich, multilayered vocabularies of motifs that instruct and assist practitioners," says Katherine Anne Paul, curator, Arts of Asia, Newark Museum. This exhibition marks the first time that a selection of traditional Korean artincluding a major depiction of the Geumgangsan Diamond Mountains on a folding screen, as well as 15 other pieceswill be presented in Nashville. "The thematic groupings of objects intentionally transcend national boundaries and encourage viewers to compare each cultures' interpretations of Buddhism and their distinguishing aesthetic forms and styles," says Frist Center curator Katie Delmez. Images of the historical Buddha, born Siddhartha Gautama in the sixth century BCE in present-day Nepal, are prevalent throughout the Buddhist world, as are depictions of great events from his many lifetimes, especially his miraculous birth, departure from home, attainment of enlightenment, first sermon at Deer Park, and realization of nirvana upon his final death. Buddhist practices of Tibet, Japan, and Korea are also populated with other non-historical Buddhas as well as numerous bodhisattvas. "Bodhisattvas are spiritually realized figures who have attained enlightenment but postpone nirvana (the ceasing of cyclic existence) to assist other sentient beings until all become enlightened," says Paul. "In art, bodhisattvas frequently are distinguished from Buddhas by jewelrydiadems, earrings, necklaces, armlets, bracelets, ankletsand by luxurious, often gravity-defying clothing that floats around them." Secrets of Buddhist Art includes sections that examine how Buddhism explains the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth and which particular Buddha and bodhisattvas are worshipped to promote good health, longevity, and increased wealth. The exhibition also features portraits of teachers and students not only from different regions and periods of time, but also from different Buddhist schools within each region. Particularly rare for any museum collection are the two complete sets of biographical paintings. The detailed hagiographies (biographies of saints) include fifteen Tibetan paintings that illustrate the life of Tsongkhapa and four Japanese paintings that illuminate the life of Tokuhon. Tibetan Monks to Create Mandala in Education Gallery As the featured component of the exhibition's education gallery, Ritual in Action: Making a Mandala Sand Painting, seven Tibetan monks from Drepung Loseling Monastery in India will construct a sand mandala with millions of grains of colored sand. Mandalas are elaborate circular designs that are intended to represent the universe or a cosmic order. The making of temporary sand mandalas is an expression of devotion unique to Tibetan Buddhism. "The mandala connects to the older works of art and reminds us that this is very much a living practice," says Frist Center curator Katie Delmez. Beginning on Friday, February 10, visitors can watch the monks work for five consecutive days. The mandala will remain on view for the duration of the exhibition. On Sunday, May 7, the monks will return for the Frist Center's Free Family Festival Day, ritually destroying the mandala in a closing ceremony that symbolizes impermanence. Public Programs Friday, February 10 Curator's Perspective: "Unlocking the Secrets of Buddhist Art: Tibet, Japan, and Korea" presented by Katherine Anne Paul, PhD, curator, Arts of Asia, Newark Museum noon Frist Center Auditorium Free; first come, first seated Join curator Katherine Anne Paul for an illustrated lecture that will introduce the stunning aesthetics of Buddhist art. Paul will also translate important visual vocabularies employed to communicate Buddhism. The talk will culminate in a virtual walk-through of a mandala (circular representations of the universe). After the lecture, join us for the opening ceremony of a Tibetan Buddhist mandala sand painting that Tibetan monks will create in the education gallery. Exhibition Credit This exhibition was organized by the Newark Museum. Sponsor Acknowledgment The Frist Center for the Visual Arts gratefully acknowledges our sponsors: Platinum, the HCA Foundation on behalf of HCA/TriStar Health; Supporting, The Nissan Foundation and Korea Foundation; Hospitality, Union Station Hotel. We also thank our 2017 Frist Gala Nirvana and Mandala Society Patrons. The Frist Center is supported in part by the Metro Nashville Arts Commission, the Tennessee Arts Commission, and the National Endowment for the Arts. About the Frist Center Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, the Frist Center for the Visual Arts is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit art exhibition center dedicated to presenting and originating high-quality exhibitions with related educational programs and community outreach activities. Located at 919 Broadway in downtown Nashville, Tenn., the Frist Center offers the finest visual art from local, regional, national, and international sources in exhibitions that inspire people through art to look at their world in new ways. Additional information is available by calling 615.244.3340 or by visiting fristcenter.org. SOURCE Frist Center for the Visual Arts Related Links http://www.fristcenter.org WASHINGTON, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Family Research Council (FRC) commended Texas State Senator Lois Kolkhorst for introducing the Texas Women's Privacy Act (SB 6), which will protect women and children. The bill prevents public schools, state government agencies, and political subdivisions from adopting policies that would open women's showers, bathrooms, and changing facilities to men and visa-versa. It also prevents political subdivisions from forcing private entities, including contractors, to open their showers, locker rooms and bathrooms to people of the opposite sex. It leaves private entities free to determine their own policies regarding the use of shared bathrooms and showers. Family Research Council President Tony Perkins released the following statement: "Family Research Council is pleased to support the Women's Privacy Act because it protects students in public schools from having their privacy threatened in bathrooms and showers, while allowing reasonable accommodations for students who may choose not to use multi-use facilities. This commonsense bill is also needed because it stops government from forcing private entities, including contractors, to open their showers, locker rooms, and bathrooms to people of the opposite sex, instead allowing them to choose their own policies. "The Women's Privacy Act is needed because the government, at the federal, state and local level, has taken unprecedented steps redefining 'sex' to include 'gender identity,' threatening the privacy and safety of peopleespecially women and girls--in showers and bathrooms. Some public school districts, including two in Texas, at the encouragement of the Obama administration, are ignoring privacy and safety concerns and attempting to adopt policies that force boys and girls to shower together, stay together on school trips, and use the same locker rooms and bathrooms. "What we were taught in kindergarten, boys use the boys room and girls use the girls room, has been made old school by liberal bureaucrats. This is commonsense legislation, which should never have been needed," concluded Perkins. This evening at 5:05 PM ET, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick will appear on Washington Watch with Tony Perkins to discuss the legislation. Listen online at www.tonyperkins.com. SOURCE Family Research Council Related Links http://www.frc.org FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Featured on CNBC Blue Collar Millionaires, Flooring King's CEO Antonio Sustiel uses his growing business and success to reinvest into his community with his partnership with Habitat for Humanity and other community endeavors. What started as a simple idea has turned into a flooring empire for Antonio Sustiel, CEO of Flooring King. The company, which offers the best in laminate wood, vinyl and hardwood flooring at wholesale, clearance and liquidation pricing for dealers and retailers across the United States, installs flooring into approximately 4000 homes a year, making it the largest flooring company in the country. But it's more than just installing flooring for Sustiel, its providing people a home they can be proud of and often a solution when they need assistance. Sustiel has been in this business for more than 20 years. His Flooring King warehouses are full of major brand name premium, quality flooring that has been manufactured in the United States and Canada as well as top European brands, never in China. Already working at buying and selling things for a good price, Sustiel became involved in the flooring business when he came across wood flooring at a warehouse. He was asked if he could sell it, and Sustiel took the opportunity. He purchased it and sold it quickly. Realizing the demand for the product, Sustiel had asked if there was more in the warehouse. There was and this inspired Sustiel to reach out to others who had wood flooring they were looking to sell. Sustiel eventually started working with American manufacturers who needed to sell their flooring. By five years into the business, he was selling close to 1,000 containers a year worldwide and was determined to be the world's largest flooring liquidator. Sustiel grew his business through sheer determination and an unwavering work ethic bolstered by his positive outlook despite the challenges of running and scaling a business. "A couple years into the business, I started to see an opportunity to stop doing liquidation and focus on laminate wood flooring," says Sustiel. "I started to see that this could turn into a business so we opened a couple retail stores to not only sell the laminate flooring but also do installation in people's homes. I run my business on the highest-quality customer service and ensure 100 percent customer satisfaction, otherwise I lose sleep at night." Knowing from the outset that it was more than just selling and installing flooring, Sustiel wanted to reinvest into his community. He's partnered with Habitat for Humanity to supply the organization with wood flooring nationwide. He also helps sponsor the organization for families that cannot afford to put in any flooring. In addition, Sustiel supports military members, firefighters, police, and anyone that cannot afford wood flooring to help them for free. "Helping the community was my goal, and the better I've done in business, the more I give back to the community," adds Sustiel. "I make sure people get the flooring they need. We have also replaced a lot of poor quality flooring that was made in China with higher-quality flooring made in America." Looking to the future, Sustiel has set a goal to take his flooring company public and open 150 stores nationwide and 150 stores in Europe. He is looking to open the 300 stores in the next three years so the company is currently looking for investors as an owner/operator rather than as a franchisee. Sustiel is also looking into opening one of the largest distribution centers in the world in the Los Angeles, California and Dallas, Texas areas. Sustiel has been recognized in the flooring business as the world's largest flooring liquidator and has won multiple awards as the best local business in Fort Lauderdale. For more information about the company, its products and to contact about investment opportunities, visit FlooringKing.com. About Flooring King Flooring King has the best in laminate and hardwood flooring available at wholesale, clearance, and liquidation prices for both dealers and retailers across the United States. For more information, visit FlooringKing.com. Press Contact: Jon Pierce [email protected] 941.256.0394 Related Images image1.jpg image2.jpg image3.jpg Related Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i95q0_b61II This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. For more info visit: http://www.newswire.com/. SOURCE Flooring King Related Links http://www.flooringking.com WASHINGTON, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Foundation for Financial Planning, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable organization, announced that Kenneth (Kacy) Gott, CFP has become Chair of its Board of Trustees and that it has elected three new members to the board: Lazetta Rainey Braxton, MBA, CFP, founder and CEO of Financial Fountains; Ben Harrison, managing director at Pershing Advisor Solutions; and Trisha Miller, an Executive Director of W.P. Carey Inc. "I'm excited to partner with Kacy as we move forward during this period of rapid change for the Foundation," said Jon Dauphine, the Foundation's executive director. In 2016, the Foundation moved its operations from Atlanta to Washington, DC, and hired a new team. "I'd also like to thank Bernie Clark, our outgoing board chair, for his many contributions and vigorous leadership in advancing pro bono financial planning." Clark will remain on the Foundation's board and serve on its executive committee. Kacy Gott, CFP, has been a financial advisor since 1995, with past roles at Aspirant and now at Meritas Wealth Management in California. He's been active in service to the profession for many years, including serving on the Financial Planning Association's (FPA) national Board of Directors; as Chair of the FPA of San Francisco; and as Chair of CFP Board's Council on Education. Kacy has taught financial planning at UC Berkeley Extension and Golden Gate University, has mentored new professionals in the FPA Residency program, and is a national recipient of the Heart of Financial Planning award. Kacy began his service on the Foundation's board in 2014. "We have ambitious growth plans and a sharp focus on increasing our impact," noted Kacy, "and I'm thrilled to be assuming the Chair at this pivotal time." He continued, "We are delighted to welcome Lazetta, Ben, and Trisha to our board. They each bring unique insights that will strengthen our mission of connecting the financial planning profession to underserved people who need quality, objective, pro bono services. Our board consists of leaders from the financial advisory and services professions who have come together to help the most vulnerable, and Lazetta, Ben, and Trisha will be great assets to our brain trust as we move forward." Added Executive Director Jon Dauphine, "The contributions of our new trustees will be invaluable as we seek to launch new initiatives, including a program designed to help low- and modest-income families navigate the costs of serious medical diagnoses." Lazetta is founder and CEO of Financial Fountains, Inc., a fee-only financial planning and RIA firm, and has more than 18 years of experience in financial management services, including tenure at several leading wealth management companies. She advises people from diverse economic backgrounds and has a long history of supporting pro bono financial planning, including as a non-trustee member of the Foundation's Grants Committee, where she helped identify and fund worthy nonprofits. Named a 2015 "Woman to Watch" by Investment News, Lazetta served as president of the Association of African American Financial Advisors (Quad-A) and on many other notable boards and committees advancing the profession. Ben is a managing director for Pershing Advisor Solutions, a BNY Mellon company, where he serves as head of Business Development and Relationship Management and a member of the Executive Committee. Prior to joining Pershing in 2006, Ben served as vice president of regional sales for TD Ameritrade Institutional. He started his career with TD Waterhouse Institutional and has spent the last 15 years serving registered investment advisors. In 2008, Ben was nominated by the Pershing Advisor Solutions' Executive Management Team for exemplary leadership and recognized by The Family Wealth Alliance as a top leader under the age of 40. Ben was a 2010 Chairman's Circle Honoree recognizing outstanding performance within BNY Mellon. Trisha, an Executive Director of W.P. Carey Inc., is also Head of Distribution and Co-President of Carey Financial, LLC, W.P. Carey's broker-dealer subsidiary. She began her career in the financial services industry in 1986, having worked previously at Dean Witter, Putnam Funds, Columbia Funds, and Rydex Investments. Trisha has spoken to thousands on the topics of alternative investments and on the need to educate and empower women to enhance their financial security, and in the latter role was featured on Lifetime Channel's The Balancing Act. The Chair of the Foundation's Board of Trustees typically serves a two-year term, while the term of a trustee is for a three-year period. About the Foundation for Financial Planning The Foundation for Financial Planning, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, is the nation's only nonprofit solely devoted to supporting the delivery of pro bono financial planning to vulnerable people, including wounded veterans, domestic violence survivors, people with serious medical diagnoses, and many others. Dedicated to Powering Pro Bono Financial Planning, the Foundation has provided more than $6 million in grants to community-based nonprofits to support local programs; worked with partners to activate more than 15,000 volunteer financial planners to serve their communities; and acted as a leader and catalyst to embed a rich tradition of and commitment to pro bono across the financial planning profession. Visit FoundationForFinancialPlanning.org to learn more. CONTACT Jon Dauphine, Esq. Executive Director 202.864.5180 SOURCE Foundation for Financial Planning Related Links http://www.foundation-finplan.org FREDERICK, Md., Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Fugue Inc. announced it has closed an approximately $41 million Series D financing round, bringing the company's total funding to more than $75 million. The company's flagship product, also called Fugue, radically simplifies cloud infrastructure complexity at scale with its dynamic, software-defined cloud orchestration and enforcement system. The round was led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), with participation from previous investor Maryland Venture Fund and new investor Future Fund, the sovereign wealth fund of Australia. The funding comes as Fugue prepares to launch new enterprise-grade cloud infrastructure automation products that provide enhanced capabilities for team collaboration, dynamic infrastructure control, and continuous enforcement of regulatory compliance. The company plans to use the newly raised funds to fuel its go-to-market strategy and accelerate product development to meet the requirements of enterprise customers needing an end-to-end approach to reducing deployment friction, automating the cloud lifecycle, and mitigating risk in the cloud. "Cloud adoption is moving at a breathtaking pace, and enterprises are running into challenging hurdles when attempting to operate in the cloud at scale, impeding velocity of application delivery and, ultimately, their ability to compete effectively," said Ron Bernal, venture partner, NEA. "With its patented approach to solving modern-day cloud challenges, Fugue is well positioned to help enterprises fully realize the potential of the public cloud for the new era of agility and innovation. We are excited about our partnership with the Fugue team." Fugue is a holistic, extensible, and cloud-native system for managing the entire cloud infrastructure stack as an automated process at the cloud API layer. In contrast, existing DevOps tools typically address isolated segments of the cloud infrastructure management problem. Furthermore, cobbling these disparate solutions together requires significant development and manual maintenance of custom code to create a scalable cloud toolchain. Fugue uniquely offers a strategic, streamlined approach to managing cloud operations and supports customers through the entire cloud journey, from migrating legacy applications from the datacenter to deploying modern workloads that leverage today's container-based and serverless services--and future services yet to be introduced. "We developed Fugue with the vision that modern cloud architectures must be highly flexible, allow for innovation at velocity, and deliver always-on resiliency all while operating at the scale enterprises demand," said Fugue Co-founder and CEO, Josh Stella. "The massive shift from the datacenter to the public cloud, combined with the constant introduction of new cloud service offerings has created a complicated landscape for enterprise users to navigate. Fugue solves this complexity by giving the enterprise user the ability to provision, operate, enforce, and terminate cloud workloads with unprecedented ease and control. With the strong support of our investors, Fugue is committed to solving complex cloud challenges both today and well into the future." Morrison & Foerster LLP served as legal counsel to Fugue in connection with the financing. About Fugue Fugue Inc. radically simplifies cloud operations with its software-defined system for dynamically orchestrating and enforcing cloud infrastructure at scale. Teams can use Fugue to declare the desired state of cloud infrastructure and policies in a collaborative, human-friendly programming language and automate the provisioning, management and teardown of complex cloud environments, while continuously enforcing infrastructure state and policy compliance. Fugue has eight patents granted and sixteen pending. The company is privately held and headquartered in Maryland, with investments by New Enterprise Associates, Future Fund, Maryland Venture Fund and Core Capital Partners. To learn more about the company, visit www.fugue.co. About NEA New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA) is a global venture capital firm focused on helping entrepreneurs build transformational businesses across multiple stages, sectors and geographies. With nearly $17 billion in cumulative committed capital since inception NEA invests in technology and healthcare companies at all stages in a company's lifecycle, from seed stage through IPO. The firm's long track record of successful investing includes more than 200 portfolio company IPOs and more than 320 acquisitions. www.nea.com. About Future Fund The Future Fund was established in in 2006 to invest for the benefit of future generations of Australians. By helping to meet unfunded public sector superannuation liabilities it will ease growing pressure on the government's finances. Investing independently of the Australian government, the Future Fund is valued at AUD124.7 billion (30 September 2016). The organization manages an additional four public asset funds for the Australian government with a combined value of AUD18.1 billion. About Maryland Venture Fund The Maryland Venture Fund is an early-stage, evergreen venture capital fund dedicated to funding and growing the next generation of outstanding businesses in Maryland. We are an experienced team with significant venture and operating experience whose focus is on making the entrepreneurs successful. With more than $100M in assets under management, we partner with exceptional entrepreneurs and help them build valuable companies that last. www.marylandventurefund.com. SOURCE Fugue Inc. Related Links http://www.fugue.co NEW YORK, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP, a leading national securities law firm, is investigating potential securities fraud at General Cable Corp. ("General Cable" or the "Company") (NYSE: BGC). The investigation focuses on whether the Company and its executives violated federal securities laws by failing to disclose that the Company might have engaged in activities in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 ("FCPA"). Specifically, on December 29, 2016, General Cable announced that it had agreed to pay a criminal penalty of over $20 million to resolve the Department of Justice's investigation of inappropriate payments to government officials in Egypt, Angola, Bangladesh, China, Indonesia and Thailand. According to the Department of Justice, "General Cable subsidiaries paid approximately $13 million to third-party agents and distributors, a portion of which was used to make unlawful payments to obtain business, ultimately netting the company approximately $51 million in profits." The Company will also give up or disgorge profits of about $51.2 million and pay a $4.1 million in interest. Request more information now by clicking here: www.faruqilaw.com/BGC. There is no cost or obligation to you. Take Action If you invested in General Cable stock or options and would like to discuss your legal rights, visit www.faruqilaw.com/BGC. You can also contact us by calling Richard Gonnello toll free at 877-247-4292 or at 212-983-9330 or by sending an e-mail to [email protected] Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP also encourages anyone with information regarding General Cable's conduct to contact the firm, including whistleblowers, former employees, shareholders and others. Attorney Advertising. The law firm responsible for this advertisement is Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP (www.faruqilaw.com). Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome with respect to any future matter. We welcome the opportunity to discuss your particular case. All communications will be treated in a confidential manner. FARUQI & FARUQI, LLP 685 Third Avenue, 26th Floor New York, NY 10017 Attn: Richard Gonnello, Esq. [email protected] Telephone: (877) 247-4292 or (212) 983-9330 SOURCE Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP Related Links http://www.faruqilaw.com SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- GI Partners ("GI"), a leading alternative asset manager, announced today it has acquired KOMO Plaza, a state-of-the-art carrier hotel and data center facility located at 100 and 140 Fourth Avenue North in Seattle, Washington for $276 million. The highly resilient and secure facility combines data center, network neutral interconnections and a class A office in a superior, accessible location. A two-building campus, KOMO Plaza offers robust infrastructure across approximately 294,000 square feet. Based in San Francisco, GI Partners offers a differentiated, technology focused approach to real estate investment. With a 15-year history of investing in data centers, carrier hotels and other technology-advantaged real estate, the team leverages its expertise in sourcing, underwriting, financing, and actively managing its holdings. The company also owns the One Wilshire building, located in downtown Los Angeles, which serves as one of the most comprehensive United States network gateways to Asia and West Coast interconnection environments. Both KOMO Plaza and One Wilshire offer enterprises, service providers, and telecommunication companies flexible and reliable infrastructure and unmatched access to domestic fiber routes and transpacific undersea cables. "The acquisition of KOMO Plaza further expands GI's portfolio of technology-advantaged real estate and exemplifies its strategy of leveraging the firm's operational excellence, technical knowledge, and market expertise to acquire properties with significant critical building infrastructure," stated Tony Lin, Director of GI Partners. "GI Partners is well positioned to offer tenants and users connectivity along the West Coast through KOMO Plaza and its sister carrier hotel, One Wilshire." KOMO Plaza offers industry leading building infrastructure and mission-critical systems including: Meet-me-room with more than 15 carriers and service providers through diverse routing paths Reinforced concrete foundations, raised flooring, multiple riser systems and conduits 18 megawatts of installed utility power with separate A and B utility feeds and data center power densities in excess of 150 watts per square foot Backup power provided by nine generators totaling 16.5 megawatts Close proximity to transpacific subsea cables for low latency service to Asia One of four core switches for the Seattle Internet Exchange, a neutral and independent peering point and 4th most active internet exchange in the United States Rooftop satellite and antenna facilities for multiple communication configurations For KOMO Plaza leasing information, please contact Tony Lin, Director, at [email protected]. For more information, please visit www.gipartners.com and www.komoplaza.com. About GI Partners Founded in 2001, GI Partners is a leading private investment firm based in San Francisco, California. The firm currently manages over $13 billion in capital commitments through private equity and real estate strategies for recognized institutional investors, including some of the largest state and sovereign pension funds in North America, Europe, Australia, Asia, and the Middle East. GI Partners' real estate team invests across a number of property types and investment strategies, including industrial, apartments, and technology-advantaged properties, such as data centers, life science facilities, and corporate campuses. For more information on GI Partners, please visit www.gipartners.com. About KOMO Plaza KOMO Plaza is a unique 294,000 square foot, two-building, carrier hotel that combines wholesale data center, co-location, Class A office, and retail space with state-of-the-art communications and media service facilities. Located in a highly desirable location, the heart of South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle, KOMO Plaza is adjacent to the Space Needle, Seattle Center, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. KOMO Plaza supports the mission-critical infrastructure, strategic office needs, and business continuity provisions of a large roster of local, national, and international companies. For more information on KOMO Plaza, please visit www.komoplaza.com. About One Wilshire One Wilshire is widely recognized as the most vital carrier hotel in the Western United States. The building is the premier communications hub to the Pacific Rim and noted industry-wide for its essential unmatched connectivity, at the nexus of a rich telecommunications network. One Wilshire is owned and operated by a team committed to maintaining and enhancing its position as one of the premier carrier hotels in the world. To learn more, visit www.one-wilshire.com. Media Contacts: Jaymie Scotto & Associates +1 866-695-3629 ext 13 [email protected] Chris Tofalli Chris Tofalli PR +1 914-834-4334 [email protected] Caroline Schimmelbusch GI Partners | Investor Relations +1 415-688-4800 [email protected] SOURCE GI Partners Related Links http://www.gipartners.com HOUSTON, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Houston attorney John H. Kim, founder of The Kim Law Firm, was elected as a national trustee on the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) Foundation. Mr. Kim was one of only two lawyers elected by the national Fellows of the Foundation for a three-year term beginning 2017. The mission of the ABOTA Foundation is to preserve the constitutional vision of equal justice for all Americans and to preserve the U.S. civil justice system for future generations. Trustees promise to help educate Americans about the right to trial by jury and to elevate the standards of legal professionalism. "ABOTA and the foundation's work have never been more important," Mr. Kim said. "Government budget constraints and legislative erosion of the legal system make our goals even more crucial. I am committed as a trustee to keep our focus on youth education, professionalism and civility and to ensure participation in our civil courts." Mr. Kim has been promoting ABOTA goals since 2002. He has repeatedly served on the ABOTA National Trial College faculty and has served on the organization's national board. He also served as president of the Houston chapter in 2012 and was a TEX-ABOTA Foundation liaison. He has been selected one of the Top 100 attorneys in Houston by Texas Super Lawyers since 2013 and was listed by that group among the Top 100 lawyers in Texas in 2015. He has been named a Benchmark Litigation Star each year since 2013 for accomplishments in general commercial litigation cases, as well as personal injury and product liability claims. Mr. Kim is Board Certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization in Personal Injury Trial Law. The firm Mr. Kim founded was a 2017 Best Law Firm selection by U.S. News & World Report and The Best Lawyers in America, earning a Tier 1 ranking in business litigation in the Houston metropolitan area. The firm also has been on a list of recommended national law firms for several years by Benchmark Litigation, a peer-review guide to leading U.S. lawyers and law firms Mr. Kim and The Kim Law Firm represent defendants and plaintiffs nationwide in oil & gas litigation, fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, securities litigation, claims of tortious interference and trade secret actions. The Kim Law Firm has recovered more than a half billion dollars for clients directly and through counterclaims through aggressive litigation. The firm represents entrepreneurs, business start-ups, mid-sized companies, and established national and international corporations in everything from contract and complex business disputes to insider trading allegations, product liability and other intellectual property disputes. For further information on Mr. Kim's practice please contact Mary Flood at 800-559-4534 or [email protected]. SOURCE The Kim Law Firm Related Links http://www.thekimlawfirm.com/ (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/792302 ) Browse 69 market data Tables and 40 Figures spread through 141 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Hydrogen Storage Market" http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/hydrogen-storage-market-15698551.html Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report. Rising demand for transportation fuels, increase in oil consumption, decline of overall crude oil quality, and stringent environmental standards for production of cleaner fuels are some of the factors driving the growth of the hydrogen storage market. Physical form is the largest segment of the hydrogen storage market. Physical form is the largest storage form segment of the hydrogen storage market. Physical form of storage includes storing hydrogen in tanks, which are used in various end-use applications, such as ammonia production, crude oil refining, metal working, glass production, and transportation. The physical form segment is driven by the rise in hydrogen demand from refineries due to poor quality crude, stringent regulations on emission by developed countries, and rise in demand for transportation fuel. Make an Inquiry @ http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_Buying.asp?id=15698551 On-board segment is expected to witness the highest growth By type of storage, the on-board segment of the market is expected to witness the highest growth during the forecast period. This segment is driven by the rise in production of transportation fuel cells for applications, such as submarines, ships & boats, and buses among others. The development of hydrogen powered vehicles in Japan and South Korea has also contributed to this segment's growth. Asia-Pacific is the largest market for hydrogen storage Asia-Pacific is the largest and the fastest-growing regional segment of the Hydrogen Storage Market. This growth is mainly attributed to the strong demand for ammonia and methanol from the region's developing countries, such as China, India, and Malaysia. China's stringent regulations on oil refineries for producing cleaner fuels are expected to further boost the demand for hydrogen storage in this region. Purchase Report at http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Purchase/purchase_report1.asp?id=15698551 The key players in the hydrogen storage market are Air Liquide (France), Linde AG (Germany), Praxair, Inc. (U.S.), Worthington Industries, Inc. (U.S.), Luxfer Holdings Plc (U.K.), McPhy Energy S.A. (France), HBank Technologies Inc. (Taiwan), INOXCVA (India), VRV S.p.A. (Italy), and Hexagon Composites ASA (Norway). Subscribe Reports from Chemicals & Materials Domain http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Knowledgestore.asp About MarketsandMarkets MarketsandMarkets is the largest market research firm worldwide in terms of annually published premium market research reports. Serving 1700 global fortune enterprises with more than 1200 premium studies in a year, M&M is catering to a multitude of clients across 8 different industrial verticals. We specialize in consulting assignments and business research across high growth markets, cutting edge technologies and newer applications. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. M&M's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "RT" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. The new included chapters on Methodology and Benchmarking presented with high quality analytical infographics in our reports gives complete visibility of how the numbers have been arrived and defend the accuracy of the numbers. We at MarketsandMarkets are inspired to help our clients grow by providing apt business insight with our huge market intelligence repository. Contact: Mr. Rohan Markets and Markets 701 Pike Street Suite 2175, Seattle, WA 98101, United States Tel: +1-888-600-6441 Email: [email protected] Visit MarketsandMarkets Blog @ http://www.marketsandmarketsblog.com/market-reports/chemical Connect with us on LinkedIn @ http://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsandmarkets SOURCE MarketsandMarkets NEW YORK, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Hynes Keller & Hernandez, LLC is investigating potential claims against the Board of Directors of General Cable Corporation (NYSE: BGC) concerning possible breaches of fiduciary duty. On December 29, 2016, General Cable Corporation disclosed that it would pay $82.3 million to resolve a U.S. government investigation into inappropriate payments to public officials in Egypt, Angola, Bangladesh, China, Indonesia and Thailand. The United States Department of Justice announced that, "[b]etween 2002 and 2013, General Cable subsidiaries paid approximately $13 million to third-party agents and distributors, a portion of which was used to make unlawful payments to obtain business, ultimately netting the company approximately $51 million in profits." Click here for more information about our investigation of BGC: http://hkh-lawfirm.com/investigations-cases/general-cable-corporation-bgc/ Hynes Keller & Hernandez, LLC is a boutique law firm that represents institutional and individual investors. The firm is focused on providing exemplary legal services in the area of shareholder litigation. The firm has an experienced litigation team which has achieved significant victories on behalf of the firm's clients. You can visit our website at www.hkh-lawfirm.com for more information. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes. If you hold shares in BGC and would like to obtain additional information about your legal rights and protect your investment, please visit our website or contact the attorneys below. There is no cost or obligation to you. Contact: Hynes Keller & Hernandez, LLC Hynes Keller & Hernandez, LLC Michael J. Hynes, Esq. Beth A. Keller, Esq. 101 Lindenwood Drive, Suite 225 118 North Bedford Road, Suite 100 Malvern, PA 19355 Mount Kisco, NY 10549 Telephone: (484) 875-3116 Telephone: (914) 752-3040 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] SOURCE Hynes Keller & Hernandez, LLC Related Links http://www.hkh-lawfirm.com INDIANAPOLIS, Jan. 05, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Global Water Technologies (OTC Pink:GWTR) is taking steps to prepare for growth in 2017, including expansion of its consulting team and strategic positioning for deployment of smart water solutions. The company outlined accomplishments over the past year in its annual shareholder letter that is posted on its web site and includes updates on work with non-chemical water treatment, smart water solutions and trenchless technologies. The company also has issued new shares of restricted common stock to secure additional consulting services in the coming year. Those include business development services in the East Coast, West Coast and Midwestern United States and intellectual property legal services. As a result, the number of common shares has increased from 21,645,146 as reported at December 31, 2016 to 22,745,146 on January 4, 2017. The number of free-trading shares remains at 5,895,503. As part of its move to raise capital and prepare for additional growth, the company also approved an issuance of stock warrants as part of an executive compensation package to be completed by June 30, 2017. The warrants to purchase 2,000,000 shares of common stock at the existing share price of $0.0155 expire in five years. Global Water Technologies is also pleased to announce that it will participate in the first event for the North American Alliance of the Smart Water Networks Forum (SWAN) that will be held at Qualcomm headquarters in San Diego on January 25. More information about these activities and the companys shareholder letter are available on its web site at: gwtr.com. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENT: Statements in this press release relating to plans, strategies, economic performance and trends, projections of results of specific activities or investments, and other statements that are not descriptions of historical facts may be forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Forward-looking information is inherently subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors, which include, but are not limited to, risk factors inherent in doing business. Forward-looking statements may be identified by terms such as "may," "will," "should," "could," "expects," "plans," "intends," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," "forecasts," "potential," or "continue," or similar terms or the negative of these terms. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. The company has no obligation to update these forward-looking statements. HOUSTON, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Hyperdynamics Corporation (OTCQX: HDYN) today announced that it has reached a settlement agreement in a lawsuit filed against the Company in 2012 by five hedge funds that had invested in the Company's common stock. Under the terms of the settlement agreement, Hyperdynamics will issue to the plaintiffs a total of 600,000 common shares of new HDYN stock, and it will cause a payment to be made of $1.35 million in cash that will be covered under its director and officer insurance policy. The plaintiffs are restricted from selling the shares before April 1, 2017, at the earliest, under the terms of the agreement. The common stock will be issued following a fairness hearing to be held pursuant to Section 3(a)(10) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. If the presiding court in the case does not approve the issuance of the common stock, then Hyperdynamics will file a registration statement registering the shares for resale by the hedge funds, but the cost of that filing to the Company will be capped at $25,000. The plaintiff group includes Iroquois Master Fund Ltd., Hudson Bay Master Fund Ltd., Kingsbrook Opportunities Master Fund LP, and Parkfield Funding, LLC, as assignee of original investors, Cranshire Capital Master Fund, Ltd., and Freestone Advantage Partners II, LP. "We are pleased to close the final lawsuit against the Company so that we may focus on preparing for our upcoming exploration drilling campaign offshore the Republic Guinea this Spring," said Hyperdynamics President and Chief Executive Officer Ray Leonard. About Hyperdynamics Hyperdynamics is an emerging independent oil and gas exploration company that is exploring for oil and gas offshore the Republic of Guinea in West Africa. To find out more, visit our website at www.hyperdynamics.com. Forward-Looking Statements This News Release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27 A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21 E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, expectations, future events or performance and underlying assumptions and other statements which are other than statements of historical facts. Forward-looking statements generally can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "may," "will," "expect," "plan," "project," "anticipate," "estimate," "believe," or "think." A number of risks and uncertainties could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements, including without limitation, funding and exploration efforts, fluctuations in oil and gas prices and other risk factors described from time to time in the Company's reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company's Reports on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2016 and Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended September 30, 2016. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update these forward looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that occur after the issuance of this news release or to reflect any change in the Company's expectations with respect to these forward looking statements. Contacts: Ray Leonard President and Chief Executive Officer 713-353-9445 Anne Pearson / Jack Lascar Dennard-Lascar Associates 713-529-6600 SOURCE Hyperdynamics Related Links https://www.hyperdynamics.com BROOKLYN, N.Y., Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced that P-TECH, the IBM-inspired six-year education model that is leading a national wave of career-focused technical education in nearly 60 schools across six states, has already graduated more than 50 students, including a new class of 16 graduates in January. All of these graduates completed the six-year curriculum ahead of schedule, earning both their high school and two-year college tech degrees, with some finishing in as little as 3.5 years. Some of their stories can be found here. P-TECH schools combine high school with a clear pathway to a community college degree, coupling strong academic rigor with workplace skills. IBM is committed to work with educators and businesses to create an additional 20 schools in the U.S. within the next year, growing the number of schools in the P-TECH network to 80 by 2017, with added expansion in the coming years. There are currently over 250 businesses partnering with P-TECH schools serving thousands of students. The IBM-inspired P-TECH schools are designed to open new pathways to better prepare young people for college and for "new collar" careers in the United States skilled positions that don't always require four-year college degrees. The schools make it easier to cultivate the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) skills that underpin some of the nation's fastest growing industries and new collar careers. "The new economy requires us to equip our nation's students, with skills to succeed in college and new collar jobs, regardless of their income or zip code," said Stanley S. Litow, IBM Vice President of Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs and President of the IBM Foundation. "P-TECH's extraordinary early achievers who have already earned their associate degrees ahead of schedule, quite simply break the mold. We are committed to grow P-TECH to address the nation's skills crisis and prepare youth for new collar careers. Nothing is more critical to our nation's economic success." "Our early graduates and young IBM hires show that American STEM talent can be achieved, pointing the way to what is possible," said Rashid F. Davis, P-TECH Founding Principal. "Providing equal opportunity to underserved youth in our community is what success looks like. Starting here in Brooklyn, this model has taken off around the country, helping struggling students live up to their full potential and helping recharge economies." The first P-TECH school in Brooklyn launched in 2011 as a public-private partnership among IBM, the New York City Department of Education, and the City University of New York. Within six years or less, students can earn both their high school and two-year college degrees in a STEM field. The academic curriculum is aligned to skills that employers are looking for. P-TECH students are paired with business mentors, gain practical workplace experience with paid internships and workplace visits, and successful graduates are first in line for available jobs. P-TECH Brooklyn has achieved graduation rates that significantly surpass national community college completion rates, with 35% of students from the first P-TECH class in 2011 graduating one to two years ahead of schedule with both their high school diplomas and two-year college degrees. This contrasts with national data showing that only 20% of U.S. students complete a two-year community college degree in three years, after a four-year high school program. In addition to high student achievement, strong teacher support is evidenced by the school's 99% teacher attendance rate, tied for second highest among all New York City high schools. Some of these graduates take jobs with IBM, mostly in "new collar" positions, in areas ranging from digital design to data analytics, while others pursue their bachelor's degrees. The education model has taken off so far in six states, including New York, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Rhode Island, and Colorado with plans in many of those states for more schools. According to the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, "middle-skill jobs" now account for 36 percent of all jobs, much greater than those in retail, food, and manufacturing and personal services. The report also revealed that 99% of U.S. jobs (11.5 million jobs out of 11.6 million) created since the recession went to workers with at least some college education. Meanwhile, there were fewer jobs available for those with only a high school diploma. IBM, together with many P-TECH schools and the City University of New York, created a website (www.ptech.org), making publicly available the formula, tools, and case studies to help other school districts, colleges, universities, and businesses establish new P-TECH schools across the nation. For more information about the P-TECH story, journalists can access a press kit at http://ibm.co/1lIYVqf IBM has a long-standing commitment to fostering diversity, tolerance and inclusion. The company understands that diversity goes beyond fair hiring practices and protection for all employees, and it firmly opposes discrimination of any kind toward anyone. IBM's ability to continually innovate is enhanced by building diverse teams and inclusive strategies across recruitment, hiring, training and career development. For example, to help diverse students be competitive when they enter the workforce, IBM recently launched a series of leadership workshops at college campuses affiliated with AMIE (Advancing Minorities' Interest in Engineering), a coalition of corporations, government agencies and ABET-accredited Historically Black colleges and universities in the U.S. For more information, go to ibm.com/diversity. Contact(s) information Angie Hu IBM Media Relations 1 (914) 499-6532 [email protected] SOURCE IBM Corporation Related Links http://www.ibm.com TEL AVIV, Israel, January 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- ICL (NYSE and TASE: ICL) today announced the following changes in its global executive management: Mr. Nissim Adar, President of ICL Essential Minerals, is expected to retire from his position on March 31, 2017 after 37 years of service with the Company. Mr. Adar will be replaced by Mr. Ofer Lifshitz, Executive Vice President, currently manages ICL's cost efficiency and cash flow optimization program. Mr. Lifshitz joined ICL in 1996 and has served in various positions, among others, as an Executive Vice President and head of a Bromine and Bromine compounds' business unit in ICL industrial products' segment. Furthermore, Mr. Lifshitz was the managing director of ICL's in China during the years 2002-2005. Mr. Lifshitz managed the recent integration of the YPH JV and was lately nominated as the chairman of the board of the JV and as board member of Yunnan Yuntianhua (CH: 600096). Mr. Lifshitz will be based in ICL's offices in the Negev, Israel. Mr. Mark Volmer, President of ICL Specialty Solutions, informed the Company's Chief Executive Officer of his wish to resign from his position as of January 31, 2017. Mr. Volmer will be replaced by Mr. Eli Glazer, Executive Vice President, currently CEO of ICL Europe. Mr. Glazer joined ICL in 1983 and served in various positions, among others, as the CEO of ICL Performance Products in Europe & Asia Pacific for a period of 5 years and as the CEO of ICL China for a period of 5 years. Prior to that, Mr. Glazer served in various positions in ICL industrial products' segment, including as the head of the Bromine and Bromine compounds' business unit. Mr. Glazer will be based in ICL's offices in Ladenburg, Germany. The Board of Directors and the management team thank Mr. Nissim Adar and Mr. Mark Volmer for their contributions to the Company and its achievements, and wish success to Messrs. Ofer Lifshitz and Eli Glazer in their new positions. Name of the authorized signatory on the report and name of authorized electronic reporter: Lisa Haimovitz Position: SVP, Global General Counsel and Company Secretary Signature Date: December 8, 2016 INVESTOR RELATIONS CONTACT Limor Gruber Head of Investor Relations, ICL +972-3-684-4471 [email protected] PRESS CONTACT Gadi Ohana Debby Communications +972-3-5683000 [email protected] SOURCE ICL "It's incredibly rewarding to be in the company of other leading companies such as Demandbase, Seismic and Attivo in receiving this recognition," said Dave R Taylor, chief marketing officer of Impartner. "What's equally exciting, is that the pace of awards we've received this year has tracked with the incredible growth of the PRM industry and Impartner as a company. In 2016, we climbed to more than 2 million partners using Impartner technology worldwide, a 100 percent increase year over year, and we look forward to continuing this momentum as more companies turn to PRM to impact their channel sales in as few as 30 days." One Planet Awards recognizes companies for their business and professional excellence. The One Planet Awards honors are currently conferred in categories that include executives, teams, new products and services, PR, Marketing, and Corporate Communications, and organizations from all over the world. Learn more about the One Planet Awards at www.oneplanetawards.com and participate. Click here to find out more about Impartner's enterprise-class web application for managing all aspects of the partner lifecycle, from partner recruiting to cooperatively marketing and selling to performance managing. About Impartner With nearly two decades of experience in accelerating indirect sales, Impartner delivers the industry's most advanced SaaS-based Partner Relationship Management solution, helping companies worldwide manage their partner relationships and accelerate revenue and profitability through indirect sales channels. The largest pure-play PRM vendor in the world, Impartner provides the industry's only out-of-the-box solution that can deploy an enterprise-class Partner Portal in as few as 30 days, using the company's highly engineered, multi-award winning, three-step Velocity onboarding process. For more information on Impartner, which is based in Utah's tech hotbed, the Silicon Slopes, visit www.impartner.com, or in the United States call +1 801 501 7000, for EMEA general call +33 1 40 90 31 20, for London call +44 0 20 3283 4465, and for LATAM call +1 954 364 7883. Follow Impartner on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Contact: Kerry Desberg Impartner 425-231-9529 [email protected] SOURCE Impartner Related Links http://www.impartner.com SUNNYVALE, Calif., Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Intuity Medical, Inc., a privately-held company developing innovative technologies for diabetes management, announced today that it has closed an additional $15 million, which brings the total Series 3 equity financing for the company to $55 million. KCK Group joins lead investor PTV Healthcare Capital and affiliates of Luther King Capital Management as new investors along with existing investors: Accuitive Medical Ventures, Investor Growth Capital, U.S. Venture Partners, Venrock and Versant Ventures. Intuity's POGO Automatic Blood Glucose Monitoring System, which received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in April 2016, is the first blood glucose meter and multi-test cartridge to provide automatic testing with lancing, blood collection and analysis in one easy step without the need for separate strips and lancets. By combining all of the necessary blood glucose testing supplies into a self-contained 10-test cartridge, POGO provides a convenient and discreet solution for millions of patients who need to regularly test their blood glucose in the management of their diabetes. The number of adults with diabetes is a staggering 422 million worldwide, with the disease being the 7th leading cause of death in the U.S. According to the American Diabetes Association, nearly half of the 29 million U.S. patients are not achieving glycemic control in the management of their diabetes. The burdens associated with blood glucose testing are among the reasons for poor glycemic control; many patients cite lack of both simplicity and discretion as barriers to testing with their current meter. Unlike other meters, POGO does not require a patient to use individual test strips or a separate lancing device, which eliminates carrying and disposing of multiple supplies. This means patients can quickly perform a glucose test while on the go or in public settings. To perform a test, a patient simply presses the POGO test port, and POGO automatically lances the finger, collects a blood sample and displays a result after a four-second countdown. The test only requires a tiny blood sample of 0.25 microliters to analyze the glucose value. After completing 10 tests, the self-contained cartridge can be conveniently disposed of, eliminating the need to handle used test strips and lancets. "The additional funding will help further our commercialization efforts in bringing POGO Automatic to the U.S. market for patients who have been looking for a convenient way to test their glucose," commented Emory Anderson, President and CEO, Intuity Medical, Inc. When combined with Intuity Medical's proprietary Patterns Diabetes Management System, a secure cloud-based platform for managing glucose information, POGO provides both healthcare professionals and patients a comprehensive shared platform to detect and manage important patterns and trends that impact overall glucose control. About Intuity Medical Intuity Medical is committed to simplifying diabetes management by developing proprietary and innovative technologies to address common barriers of glucose testing. Intuity Medical's POGO is the first blood glucose meter and multi-test cartridge designed to automate testing into one easy step, without the need for separate test supplies. POGO's unique integrated design and the Patterns Diabetes Management System give patients the flexibility to test as often as recommended by their healthcare professionals to help in their daily diabetes management. The Company's investors include Accuitive Medical Ventures, Emergent Medical Partners, Investor Growth Capital, KCK Group, Luther King Capital Management, PTV Healthcare Capital, U.S. Venture Partners, Venrock and Versant Ventures. For more information about POGO and Intuity Medical, visit www.presspogo.com. About Intuity Medical's Investors For more information about Intuity Medical's investors, visit: Accuitive Medical Ventures www.amvpartners.com Emergent Medical Partners www.emvllp.com Investor Growth Capital www.investorgrowthcapital.com Luther King Capital Management www.lkcm.com PTV Healthcare Capital www.ptvhc.com U.S. Venture Partners www.usvp.com Venrock www.venrock.com Versant Ventures www.versantventures.com SOURCE Intuity Medical, Inc. Related Links http://www.presspogo.com DUBLIN, and CHICAGO, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Iterum Therapeutics Limited, an Irish clinical-stage pharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of anti-infectives for patients with infectious diseases and other acute illnesses, today announced that its first product candidate, sulopenem, a novel oral penem antibiotic, is under development for the treatment of multi-drug resistant infections. Sulopenem, with a safety and efficacy profile similar to other penems, has demonstrated broad-spectrum coverage and is highly effective against the pathogens most commonly associated with uncomplicated urinary tract infections, complicated urinary tract infections and complicated intra-abdominal infections (uUTI, cUTI and cIAI), including potent in-vitro activity against Enterobacteriaceae (ESBL) mutants of E. coli and K. pneumonia. "The emergence and spread of drug-resistant and serious infections is increasing, and new antibiotics are needed. We believe sulopenem can effectively address the need for new therapies given the existing and projected resistance to generic antibiotic options, particularly fluoroquinolones, which are the most often used antibiotic class for urinary tract infections," said Corey Fishman, Iterum's CEO. "With both oral and IV options, sulopenem enhances the utility of penems, the 'gold standard' treatment of gram-negative infections. In the hospital setting, oral sulopenem will provide flexibility, allowing for simplified, effective step-down therapy upon patient discharge and potentially reducing the length of hospitalization. In the case of community-related infections, sulopenem will provide an efficacious treatment alternative, as well as the potential avoidance of hospitalization." Sulopenem was licensed from Pfizer in late 2015 and under the license agreement, Pfizer received an initial equity interest and an upfront cash payment from Iterum. Pfizer is also eligible to receive additional equity, development and commercial event-driven cash milestone payments and royalties based upon global net sales of any potential sulopenem products. In the initial indications of interest, it is estimated that there are more than 25 million infections annually in the U.S. alone, with approximately 80 percent of those occurring in uUTI. Resistance to fluoroquinolones, currently a main treatment in uUTI, has become an issue in many parts of the country and is expected to continue to rise. Additionally, there have been no new treatments approved for uUTI in the last 20 years. "With very limited products in late-stage development for uUTI, resistance rates to fluoroquinolones above 30 percent in some parts of the country and the strong profile of sulopenem, we believe that our new, unique oral agent will have a leading share of voice and be very well received in the marketplace," said Dr. Michael Dunne, Iterum's Chief Scientific Officer. Sulopenem's global development efforts to date confirm its safety and efficacy, having been studied in more than 1,100 subjects in Japan with its IV formulation and a Phase 2a oral study in community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in the U.S. Iterum anticipates commencing three Phase 3 studies under Special Protocol Assessment (SPA) with the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Scientific Advice from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in the initial indications of uUTI, cUTI and cIAI by the end of 2017 and filing a new drug application (NDA) and marketing authorization application (MAA) in the second half of 2019. As previously announced, Iterum secured a $40 million Series A financing in November 2015 from a syndicate of sophisticated life science investors. The round was led by Frazier Healthcare Partners and joined by Canaan Partners, Sofinnova Ventures and New Leaf Venture Partners. These investors also backed two previous companies (MedPointe Healthcare and Durata Therapeutics) that the Iterum team led, grew and successfully sold. "The Iterum team has made tremendous progress over the last 12 months since licensing this asset. We are very excited to continue development of this novel asset and ultimately bring a new, powerful agent to the marketplace that provides an effective option to treat both hospital and community infections," said Patrick Heron, managing general partner of Frazier Healthcare Partners. Separately, the FDA has granted the QIDP designation to sulopenem for its oral and IV formulations for the treatment of uUTI, cUTI and cIAI. The QIDP designation will make sulopenem eligible to benefit from certain incentives for the development of new antibiotics provided under the Generating Antibiotic Incentives Now (GAIN) Act, which include priority review and fast-track status. Further, if approved, sulopenem would be eligible for an additional five-year extension of Hatch-Waxman exclusivity. Iterum Therapeutics Limited Iterum Therapeutics Limited is an Irish clinical-stage pharmaceutical company dedicated to developing differentiated anti-infectives aimed at combatting the global crisis of multi-drug resistant pathogens to significantly improve the lives of people affected by serious and life-threatening diseases around the world. Iterum is advancing its first compound, sulopenem, a novel penem anti-infective compound with oral and IV formulations in an IV only class of antibiotics that has demonstrated potent in-vitro activity against a wide variety of gram-negative, gram-positive and anaerobic bacteria resistant to other antibiotics. Iterum has received QIDP designations for its oral and IV formulations for the treatment of uUTI, cUTI and cIAI. Iterum is led by a highly experienced team and backed by a blue-chip venture capital syndicate including Canaan, Frazier, New Leaf and Sofinnova. For more information, please visit http://www.iterumtx.com. SOURCE Iterum Therapeutics Limited Related Links http://www.iterumtx.com HAMPTON, Va., Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Medical device manufacturer ivWatch, LLC today announced United States availability of the ivWatch Model 400 for pediatric patients under the age of 18. The device is a continuous monitor for a patient's IV and provides early detection of an infiltration when medication or fluid leaks outside the vein into the surrounding tissue. Peripheral IVs (PIVs) are one of the most common invasive medical procedures performed with over 150 million IV catheters placed in the Unites States annually, yet current medical reports peg the failure rate of IVs in excess of 20% due to infiltrations.[1] The ivWatch Model 400 was developed to address this unmet need in health care. Pediatric patient with the ivWatch Model 400 for the early detection of peripheral IV infiltrations. "We continue to focus on improving patient safety and outcomes," states Dr. Brian Clare, Chief Medical Officer at ivWatch. "We are excited to be able to offer the ivWatch Model 400 for pediatric patients to enable children's hospitals and other facilities catering to pediatrics another measure of protection for the early detection of IV infiltration or extravasation events." Pediatric patients can be at high risk for infiltrations due to body size and movement. With several hundred pediatric hospitals in the United States alone, the ivWatch Model 400 represents a new option for pediatric medical professionals a continuously monitored peripheral IV that can reduce costs, risk, patient harm and medication dosing errors while improving outcomes. The ivWatch Model 400 received FDA clearance for patients 18 years and older in February 2015 and most recently received FDA 510(k) clearance for patients 17 and under in December 2016. The ivWatch Model 400 is backed by 16 years of research and development and includes a noninvasive sensor that uses near-infrared light to detect changes in the optical properties of tissues. The sensor is coupled to a highly intuitive pole-mounted patient monitor. The device notifies clinicians if conditions suggest an infiltration, allowing them to address the issue early to reduce patient harm. "We see this new indication as a milestone for the company. By addressing this gap in health care, we are filling a need in the pediatric space by offering a solution that will reduce harm to children already faced with medical issues," states John Lawson, President & CEO, W.M. Jordan Company and ivWatch board member. "To offer this type of proven technology to children will further impact and improve patient safety and outcomes for this at risk population." "When we received our first FDA clearance, I stated our goal was to be on every IV pole in the country and provide continuous monitoring of every IV placed," says Gary Warren, President & CEO of ivWatch. "Our ability to offer our product to both adult and pediatric patients takes us one step closer to that goal and solving this significant health care problem." To learn more about ivWatch and how to begin an evaluation of the ivWatch Model 400, visit our website at www.ivWatch.com or call us at 1-855-489-2824, Option 1. About ivWatch ivWatch, LLC is a medical device manufacturer focused on improving the safety and effectiveness of IV therapy. The company's technology aids clinicians by continuously monitoring a patient's peripheral IV, providing early detection of IV infiltrations and extravasations. Media Contact Leah Moore 1-855-489-2824 ext.7031 [email protected] [1] R.E. Helm, J.D. Klausner, J.K.Klempeer, L.M.Flint, and E. Huang, "Accepted but Unacceptable: Peripheral IV Catheter Failure," Journal of Infusion Nursing, Vol. 38, No. 3, May/June 2015, pp. 189-203 Related Links ivWatch Model 400 Product Page Related Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi5W-OoIqb8 This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. For more info visit: http://www.newswire.com SOURCE ivWatch, LLC Related Links http://www.ivwatch.com BOSTON, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- John Hancock Investments announced that 11 of its strategic beta ETFs are now available to investors on E*TRADE's commission-free ETF platform. "Expanding investor access to our ETFs is a key priority for us and so we're pleased that E*TRADE has chosen to include our multifactor ETFs, managed by Dimensional Fund Advisors, on what is one of the largest platforms in the industry," said Todd J. Cassler, president, institutional distribution for John Hancock Investments. "We look forward to continuing to bring our unique manager-of-managers model to a broadened range of investors, and to building this relationship for the benefit of our clients." "Strategic beta ETFs use sophisticated factor-based methodologies in an effort to reduce risk or increase returns. They deliver an alternative way to approach index investing than what you find with traditional ETFs, adding to the retail investor's arsenal of investing choices," said Lena Haas, SVP, Investing at E*TRADE Financial. "With the addition of John Hancock's strategic beta ETFs to E*TRADE's commission-free ETF platform, we continue in our pursuit to offer our customers the latest in investment choices." E*TRADE's commission-free platform was launched in 2011 and currently offers 122 ETFs covering 44 Morningstar categories. John Hancock Investments ETFs available on E*TRADE include: John Hancock Multifactor Large Cap ETF (JHML) John Hancock Multifactor Mid Cap ETF (JHMM) John Hancock Multifactor Consumer Discretionary ETF (JHMC) John Hancock Multifactor Consumer Staples ETF (JHMS) John Hancock Multifactor Energy ETF (JHME) John Hancock Multifactor Financials ETF (JHMF) John Hancock Multifactor Healthcare ETF (JHMH) John Hancock Multifactor Industrials ETF (JHMI) John Hancock Multifactor Materials ETF (JHMA) John Hancock Multifactor Technology ETF (JHMT) John Hancock Multifactor Utilities ETF (JHMU) About John Hancock Investments John Hancock has helped individuals and institutions build and protect wealth since 1862. Today, we are one of America's strongest and most-recognized brands. As a manager of managers, John Hancock Investments searches the world to find proven portfolio teams with specialized expertise for every fund we offer, then we apply vigorous investment oversight to ensure they continue to meet our uncompromising standards and serve the best interests of our shareholders. Our unique approach to asset management has led to a diverse set of investments deeply rooted in investor needs, along with strong risk-adjusted returns across asset classes. About John Hancock Financial and Manulife John Hancock Financial is a division of Manulife, a leading Canada-based financial services group with principal operations in Asia, Canada and the United States. Operating as Manulife in Canada and Asia, and primarily as John Hancock in the United States, our group of companies offers clients a diverse range of financial protection products and wealth management services through its extensive network of employees, agents, and distribution partners. Assets under management and administration by Manulife and its subsidiaries were CAD$966 billion (US$862 billion) as at September 30, 2016. Manulife Financial Corporation trades as MFC on the TSX, NYSE, and PSE, and under 945 on the SEHK. Manulife can be found on the Internet at manulife.com. The John Hancock unit, through its insurance companies, comprises one of the largest life insurers in the United States. John Hancock offers and administers a broad range of financial products, including life insurance, annuities, investments, 401(k) plans, college savings, and other forms of business insurance. Additional information about John Hancock may be found at johnhancock.com. Strategic beta refers to indexes and the investment products that track them, the majority of which aim to enhance returns or minimize risk relative to a traditional marketcapitalizationweighted benchmark. A fund's investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses should be considered carefully before investing. The prospectus contains this and other important information about the fund. To obtain a prospectus, contact your financial professional, call John Hancock Investments at 800-225-5291, or visit our website at jhinvestments.com/etf. Please read the prospectus carefully before investing or sending money. Investing involves risks, including the potential loss of principal. There is no guarantee that a fund's investment strategy will be successful. Due to various factors, shares may trade at a premium or discount to their NAV in the secondary market, and a fund's holdings and returns may deviate from those of its index. These variations may be greater when markets are volatile or subject to unusual conditions. John Hancock Multifactor Exchange-Traded Funds (ETF) shares are bought and sold at market price (not NAV), and are not individually redeemed from the fund. Brokerage commissions will reduce returns. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP receives compensation from John Hancock in connection with licensing rights to the John Hancock Dimensional indexes. Neither John Hancock Advisers, LLC nor Dimensional Fund Advisors LP guarantees the accuracy and/or completeness of an index (each an underlying index) or any data included therein, and neither John Hancock Advisers, LLC nor Dimensional Fund Advisors LP shall have any liability for any errors, omissions, or interruptions therein. Neither John Hancock Advisers, LLC nor Dimensional Fund Advisors LP makes any warranty, express or implied, as to results to be obtained by a fund, owners of the shares of a fund, or any other person or entity from the use of an underlying index, trading based on an underlying index, or any data included therein, either in connection with a fund or for any other use. Neither John Hancock Advisers, LLC nor Dimensional Fund Advisors LP makes any express or implied warranties, and expressly disclaims all warranties, of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose or use with respect to an underlying index or any data included therein. Without limiting any of the foregoing, in no event shall either John Hancock Advisers, LLC or Dimensional Fund Advisors LP have any liability for any special, punitive, direct, indirect, or consequential damages, including lost profits, arising out of matters relating to the use of an underlying index, even if notified of the possibility of such damages. John Hancock ETFs are distributed by Foreside Fund Services, LLC, and are subadvised by Dimensional Fund Advisors LP. Foreside is not affiliated with John Hancock Funds, LLC or Dimensional Fund Advisors LP. JHAN-2016-12-22-0488 SOURCE John Hancock Investments JUPITER, Fla., Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Jupiter Orphan Therapeutics, Inc., Jupiter, FL, today announced that it has secured a $2 million financing commitment from Tarnagulla Ventures, Melbourne, Australia ("Tarnagulla"). The financing is in the form of a convertible note with the first $1 million paid out immediately and the remaining $1 million to be paid when certain milestones are met. In addition, JOT has received $500,000 in an equity financing through a charity based financing group. Ms. Natalie McNamee will represent Tarnagulla on the Board of Directors at JOT. "This is a great step for JOT to get Tarnagulla as an investor. They made a very thorough due-diligence and started to act as a partner very early in the investment process. We would be hard pressed to find a better lead investor," stated JOT Chairman & CEO, Christer Rosen. Natalie McNamee is a board member at Jupiter Orphan Therapeutics. Natalie attended and obtained her Masters of Bioengineering from the University of California San Diego (UCSD). During graduate school, Ms. McNamee worked at Tocagen Inc, a gene therapy company, in business development. She then went on to work as a bioengineer at the newly formed start up Quanticel Pharmaceuticals specializing in cancer stem cell drug development. In 2015, Celgene Corporation acquired Quanticel for $485M. Natalie currently serves as a Director of the healthcare investment firm, Tarnagulla Ventures. About Jupiter Orphan Therapeutics Jupiter Orphan Therapeutics, Inc. (JOT) is a clinical stage specialty pharmaceutical company developing therapies for rare diseases linked to single gene deficiencies. JOT, a Delaware Corporation with its principal office located in Jupiter, FL, USA, was founded in the summer of 2015. In its short period of operations, JOT has assembled a very strong management and scientific team as well as defined five pipeline products which of one is already in Phase II. For more information, visit http://www.jupiterorphan.com/. Media contact: Christer Rosen, +1 561 308-7780, [email protected] About Tarnagulla Ventures Tarnagulla ventures provides seed and venture capital to promising companies in the healthcare space. We invest in companies that we can provide strategic value and not just financial capital. Our headquarters are in Melbourne, Australia however we are global in scope with a particular focus on bringing promising technology to the US Market. For more information, visit http://www.tarnagullaventures.com/. SOURCE Jupiter Orphan Therapeutics Related Links http://www.jupiterorphan.com WINDSOR, Calif., Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Acclaimed artisan winery La Crema today announced the promotion of Craig McAllister to the position of Head Winemaker. McAllister, who first joined La Crema as the harvest enologist in 2007, has been a passionate steward of La Crema's Monterey program and played a vital role in elevating the winery's Sonoma Coast portfolio throughout his tenure. In addition, he has helped to further develop La Crema's esteemed collection of single vineyard Chardonnay and Pinot Noir wines. In his new role, McAllister, who has most recently served as associate winemaker, will gain increased responsibility for the oversight of all winemaking operations. "Craig's long tenure with La Crema and passion for cool-climate winemaking make him a natural fit," said Mitch Davis, senior vice president of production for Jackson Family Wines. "In particular, his expertise on the Central Coast, in the Monterey appellation, a region in which we see tremendous potential for La Crema, coupled with his skill, experience and passion, will continue to enhance the strength of the La Crema winemaking team." "I couldn't be more thrilled to hand the helm of La Crema over to Craig," said Elizabeth Grant-Douglas, La Crema's most recent winemaker. "He has been my partner and right hand at La Crema for so many years and has the passion and commitment to take La Crema to the next level," she added. A New Zealand native, McAllister earned a bachelor's degree in viticulture and enology from Lincoln University in Christchurch, New Zealand. His deep passion for winemaking has taken him all over the world, from New Zealand to Australia, Chile and Cyprus. Since moving to California, in addition to his work with La Crema, McAllister has also made wine for Wild Ridge, crafting elegant Pinot Noir from vineyards on the rugged Sonoma Coast. In his expanded role at La Crema, McAllister will continue to build the winery's impressive portfolio, ranging from coastal regions as far north as the Willamette Valley, Oregon to as far south as Arroyo Seco, California, with a particular focus on raising the profile of the winery's Monterey series, which includes Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris and a soon-to-be-released Rose of Pinot Noir. Previously only producing small batches of Rose, La Crema will be releasing its first nationally-distributed bottling this spring. "This is a dream job for a winemaker who enjoys the challenges and rewards of producing Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris from cool-climate regions," said McAllister. "I am thrilled to be a part of this this special team and look forward to carrying on the legacy that has been entrusted to me by continuing to produce the stylistically elegant wines for which La Crema is known, while elevating the winery to new levels of success." For more information regarding La Crema, visit www.lacrema.com. About La Crema La Crema was founded in 1979 as La Crema Vinera, meaning "Best of the Vine." For more than 35 years, the family-owned and operated winery has focused exclusively on cool-climate coastal appellations, where ocean winds and fog allow grapes to ripen slowly on the vine. Using boutique, time-intensive techniques to produce distinctively balanced and elegant wines, La Crema combines consistent high quality and elegant flavor with a modern cosmopolitan personality. For more information, visit www.LaCrema.com . SOURCE La Crema Related Links http://www.lacrema.com LAS VEGAS, Jan. 05, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ADT LLC, a leading provider of security and automation solutions for homes and businesses, today announced the nationwide availability of ADT Canopy, a month to month contract service with 24/7 professional security monitoring via LG Smart Security, an all-in-one security and home automation device with full HD video capabilities. ADT Canopy will also extend their intrusion detection and panic response service offerings through new partnerships with leading smart home and consumer electronics brands, including Samsung, NETGEAR and Glympse. The LG Smart Security device can now be purchased online for $199.99 through Amazon.com, and ADT Canopy security and video services can be added directly through the ADT Canopy for LG Smart Security mobile app, which is available for free download on Apple App Store and Google Play. Our core belief behind delivering ADT Canopy is that everyone deserves to feel safer, no matter where they are. With availability on new smart devices, no long-term contract and monthly costs under $10, customers can receive a potentially life-saving service designed to meet their needs, said Jay Darfler, Senior Vice President, Emerging Markets. Since its inception more than 140 years ago, ADTs top priority is the safety of our customers. With over 20,000 employees that stand ready to do just that more partners are seeking ADT. An Eye on the Home via Intrusion Detection LG Smart Security, an all-in-one security and home automation device with full HD video capabilities, recently made its debut as the first device to be secured by ADT Canopy. The collaboration between global consumer electronics leader LG Electronics and smart security pioneer ADT resulted in an intuitive, modern security solution protected by the largest monitoring network in North America. At launch, LG Smart Security customers will have the option to choose from Intrusion Detection and Secure Video Storage solutions based on their lifestyle, and what they need protected. LG Smart Security will also serve as a smart home integration device allowing consumers to integrate other connected products and control them through the dedicated ADT Canopy for LG Smart Security mobile application. ADT Canopy Intrusion Detection is available for $19.99 per month, and users may also add Secure Video Storage for as low as $9.99 per month with no long term contract. Beyond these two protection offerings, future Canopy product partnerships will include such applications as Panic Response and Life Safety. Customers who purchase an LG Smart Security device may sign up for a 60-day free trial of ADT Canopy monitoring, including seven-day video storage. Intrusion Detection Secure Video Storage Delivers 24/7 professional security monitoring and will alert emergency responders to alarm triggers caused by burglars or intruders. With either a 7- or 30-day history, allows subscribers to view past events with continuous streaming video storage. $19.99/month $9.99/7-Days $29.99/30-Days Panic Response Protection via Wearables As wearable technologies continue to enter the market, ADT Canopy will serve the growing segment of on-the-go consumers who want professional security monitoring on the connected and wearable devices that fit their lifestyle, like smartwatches. With the launch of ADT Canopy later this month, the Samsung Gear S2 and S3 smartwatches will be the first wearable devices to include this new level of personal protection. ADT Canopy Panic Response provides comfort and confidence by enabling users to signal for help by tapping on the ADT panic button app directly from the Gear S2 or S3 interface. The ADT Canopy app will provide key location information to ADT triggering a call from ADTs professional security agents to the individual or their designated emergency contact. The ADT Canopy Panic Response feature will be available on the Samsung Gear S2 and S3 for less than $10 a month, making smart technology safe and affordable. Newly Announced ADT Canopy Partners ADT continues to work with world-class home automation and IoT partners. Future integrations of the Canopy platform include: NETGEAR Arlo: Arlo Smart HD Security Cameras by NETGEAR: By integrating with the ADT Canopy platform, the customers ability to use the existing Arlo self-monitoring application will be enhanced with 24/7 professional monitoring and response. The Arlo Family of Smart HD Security Cameras consists of wire-free indoor/outdoor connected cameras (WIFI and 3G/4G LTE) with night vision and both motion and audio triggered recording. Glympse: Glympse, a leader of location technology services, is partnering with ADT to integrate with the ADT Canopy professional monitoring platform. This new partnership will make ADT Canopys Mobile Panic service available to Glympse customers in the mobile, IoT, automotive and enterprise segments. This enhancement will allow users to notify ADTs professional monitoring agents of emergency events with real-time location updates, either directly through an automotive system or an ADT panic button integrated directly into a Glympse-enabled mobile or auto app, or, partner service display. Glympse works with many top-tier companies to integrate their location sharing platform into their own products, applications and services. Those attending CES 2017 can learn more about ADT Canopy and its collaborators at ADTs display at The Venetian (Conference Room: Titian 2304) starting Thursday, January 5 through Sunday, January 8 during show hours. For more information, please visit http://ces.adt.com About ADT Canopy ADT Canopy extends best-in-class ADT professional monitoring to the DIY and IoT markets, through partnering with premium device partners. With the goal of helping more people experience the peace of mind of ADT in more ways than ever before, ADT Canopy-secured products offer a variety of service levels ranging from in-home to mobile protection. Starting with LG Smart Security, ADT Canopy services will be able to be added to many of the top connected devices, providing consumers with an innovative and flexible way of getting 24/7 professional monitoring services. Learn more at www.adtcanopy.com. About ADT ADT is a leading provider of security and automation solutions for homes and businesses in the United States and Canada. ADT's broad and pioneering set of products and services, including ADT Pulse interactive home and business solutions, and health services, meet a range of customer needs for todays active and increasingly mobile lifestyles. Headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida. SANFORD, Fla., Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- OnlineLabels.com, a leading internet retailer and manufacturer of blank and custom printed labels, has expanded their product line to include roll labels compatible with weigh scale printers. These labels provide an option for shops like delicatessens, meat shops, and grocers to purchase printable roll labels for their scales with no minimum order requirements. A total of 24 direct thermal scale label products have been added and are compatible with popular models of Hobart, Toledo, and CAS scale printers. Both blank and pre-printed stock materials are offered. Several labels will provide spaces to print information such as the unit price, net weight, packed-on date, sell-by date, and total price. Other stock options include 'thank you' messages and 'safe handling' information. Those that have their own label format to print can purchase completely blank labels. "We are ecstatic to provide new labeling options to the grocery industry,'" explains OnlineLabels.com President Dave Carmany. "By offering easy online ordering along with competitive pricing, quick turnaround time, and no minimum orders, we can help small and large shops alike operate their business." Scale labels are commonly printed at the point of sale to accurately price and package deli meats, produce, and bakery products after weighing. Because most of the information provided on these labels is universal among shops, customers seek a pre-printed option that includes fields for necessary information. This is especially popular for mom-and-pop style grocery stores, where they may not have the capacity to design their own scale label format. "Adding a section specifically designed for scale labels is yet another way we have continually enhanced both our site and our product offerings," continued Carmany. "This lets us help customers from industries of all kinds find the products and labels they need." Launched in 1998, Online Labels Inc. offers one of the world's largest selections of custom printed and blank labels for laser, inkjet, direct thermal and thermal transfer printers. The company is a privately-held internet retailer based in Sanford, Florida. OnlineLabels.com serves customers all over the world for personal and professional labeling needs. To ask about this press release, contact: Johnny Nieves [email protected] OnlineLabels.com 1-888-575-2235 SOURCE OnlineLabels.com Related Links http://www.onlinelabels.com RESTON, Va., Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Leidos (NYSE: LDOS), a global science and technology company, was awarded a subcontract to support the Joint Improvised Threat Defeat Organization (JIDO) with analytical operations, intelligence, and training services under prime contractor CACI. The single-award cost-plus award-fee task order has a two-year base period of performance, three one-year options, and a total subcontract value to Leidos of $202 million if all options are exercised. The subcontract expands Leidos' footprint in the intelligence and threat reduction market. JIDO has developed, established and refined its core capabilities fighting improvised threats such as the improvised explosive device. The enduring nature of threats that exist today, combined with the proliferation of technology, drive the need for innovation in emerging capability areas to ensure improvised threats do not have a strategic effect in today's and future conflicts. Leidos has demonstrated an enduring commitment to JIDO's mission to apply intelligence and rapid capability development and delivery to enable U.S. Joint Force preparedness to defeat improvised threats. Under the new subcontract, Leidos will provide deployable analytical operations, intelligence, and training services to support JIDO's Focused Support/Decisive Effort mission worldwide. The task order provides a key component for JIDO's mission to enable Department of Defense actions to counter improvised threats with tactical responsiveness and through anticipatory, rapid acquisition in support of combatant commands' efforts to prepare for, and adapt to, battlefield surprise in support of counter-terrorism, counter-insurgency, and other related mission areas including counter-improvised explosive device. "Our innovative operations, intelligence, and training services will arm JIDO with the capability to understand, disarm and defeat adversaries that employ improvised-threat weapons for nefarious purposes," said Leidos Defense Group President, Michael Leiter. About Leidos Leidos is a global science and technology solutions leader working to solve the world's toughest challenges in the defense, intelligence, homeland security, civil, and health markets. The company's 33,000 employees support vital missions for government and commercial customers. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, Leidos reported pro forma annual revenues of approximately $10 billion for the fiscal year ended Jan. 1, 2016 after giving effect to the recently completed combination of Leidos with Lockheed Martin's Information Systems & Global Solutions business (IS&GS). For more information, visit www.Leidos.com. Statements in this announcement, other than historical data and information, constitute forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause our actual results, performance, achievements, or industry results to be very different from the results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Some of these factors include, but are not limited to, the risk factors set forth in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the period ended January 1, 2016, and other such filings that Leidos makes with the SEC from time to time. Due to such uncertainties and risks, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. SOURCE Leidos Related Links http://www.leidos.com BALLERUP, Denmark, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- LiqTech International, Inc. (NYSE MKT: LIQT) ("LiqTech") is pleased to announce that LiqTech and Grundfos Biobooster A/S (Grundfos) have signed a framework agreement for the delivery of Silicon Carbide ceramic discs. The agreement has a value of minimum $450,000 and an initial term of 2 years. The ceramic discs will be used in Grundfoss Ultra Filtration (UF) systems for water re-use. Mr. Sune Mathiesen, LiqTech CEO, remarked, "We are very pleased to sign this framework agreement with Grundfos. Grundfos has developed a unique filtration technology based on a rotating principle and we have worked closely together in the development of a ceramic disc to be used in a new product for water re-use." "The rotating filtration technology offers great advantages over conventional technologies, and we are convinced that the combination of Grundfoss unique rotating filtration technology and LiqTechs durable and well proven Silicon Carbide technology will prove to be a success in several markets for water re-use," Mr. Mathiesen concluded. About LiqTech International LiqTech International, Inc., a Nevada corporation, is a clean technology company that for more than a decade has developed and provided state-of-the-art technologies for gas and liquid purification using ceramic silicon carbide filters, particularly highly specialized filters for the control of soot exhaust particles from diesel engines and for liquid filtration. Using nanotechnology, LiqTech develops products using proprietary silicon carbide technology. LiqTech's products are based on unique silicon carbide membranes, which facilitate new applications and improve existing technologies. In particular, LiqTech Systems A/S (www.provital.dk), the Company's subsidiary, has developed a new standard of water filtration technology to meet the ever increasing demand for higher water quality. By incorporating LiqTech's SiC liquid membrane technology with its longstanding systems design experience and capabilities it offers solutions to the most difficult water pollution problem. For more information, please visit www.liqtech.com Follow LiqTech on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/liqtech-international Follow LiqTech on Twitter: https://twitter.com/LiqTech Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains "forward-looking statements." Although the forward-looking statements in this release reflect the good faith judgment of management, forward-looking statements are inherently subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to be materially different from those discussed in these forward-looking statements. Readers are urged to carefully review and consider the various disclosures made by us in the our reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the risk factors that attempt to advise interested parties of the risks 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. Readers are urged not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this release. We assume no obligation to update any forward- looking statements in order to reflect any event or circumstance that may arise after the date of this release. CONTACT: Aldo Petersen, Chairman +45 2390 0000, [email protected] Sune Mathiesen, CEO +45 5197 0908, [email protected] SOURCE LiqTech International, Inc. Related Links http://www.liqtech.com DENVER, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) has been selected to design, build and operate the spacecraft for NASA's Lucy mission. One of NASA's two new Discovery Program missions, Lucy will perform the first reconnaissance of the Jupiter Trojan asteroids orbiting the sun in tandem with the gas giant. The Lucy spacecraft will launch in 2021 to study six of these exciting worlds. The mission is led by Principal Investigator Dr. Harold Levison of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland will manage the mission. The program has a development cost cap of about $450 million. "This is a thrilling mission as the Jupiter Trojan asteroids have never been studied up close," said Guy Beutelschies, director of Interplanetary Systems at Lockheed Martin Space Systems. "The design of the spacecraft draws from the flight-proven OSIRIS-REx spacecraft currently on its way to a near-Earth asteroid. This heritage of spacecraft and mission operations brings known performance, reliability and cost to the mission." Lucy will study the geology, surface composition and bulk physical properties of these bodies at close range. It's slated to arrive at its first destination, a main belt asteroid, in 2025. From 2027 to 2033, Lucy will explore six Jupiter Trojan asteroids. These asteroids are trapped by Jupiter's gravity in two swarms that share the planet's orbit, one leading and one trailing Jupiter in its 12-year circuit around the sun. The Trojans are thought to be relics of a much earlier era in the history of the solar system, and may have formed far beyond Jupiter's current orbit. "This is a unique opportunity," said Dr. Levison. "Because the Trojans are remnants of the primordial material that formed the outer planets, they hold vital clues to deciphering the history of the solar system. Lucy, like the human fossil for which it is named, will revolutionize the understanding of our origins." Lucy is the seventh NASA Discovery Program mission in which Lockheed Martin has participated. Previously, the company developed the Lunar Prospector spacecraft; developed the aeroshell entry system for Mars Pathfinder; developed and operated the spacecraft for both Stardust missions; developed and operated the Genesis spacecraft; developed and operated the two GRAIL spacecraft; and developed and will operate the InSight Mars lander set to launch in May 2018. NASA's Discovery program class missions are relatively low-cost, their development capped at a specific cost. They are managed for NASA's Planetary Science Division by the Planetary Missions Program Office at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The missions are designed and led by a principal investigator, who assembles a team of scientists and engineers, to address key science questions about the solar system. About Lockheed Martin 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 "Krista has a broad background that will assist our clients in navigating the complexities of the ever-changing healthcare landscape," said Chuck McDaniel, President and Chief Executive Officer. "Her addition to our Denver office signals a continued growth of our business and a furthering of our commitment to providing our clients with the best available professional services." Henry is a graduate of Purdue University with a Bachelor's Degree in Actuarial Science. She joins our team with over ten years of experience in our industry. Her extensive consulting experience includes working with clients ranging in size from 250 15,000; including public and private sector, collective bargaining arrangements and pooled employer trusts. Krista Henry can be reached at 303-414-6127 or [email protected]. Her office is located at 8110 E. Union Avenue, Suite 700, Denver, CO 80237. About Lockton More than 6,000 professionals at Lockton provide 50,000 clients around the world with risk management, insurance, employee benefits consulting, and retirement services that improve their businesses. From its founding in 1966 in Kansas City, Missouri, Lockton has attracted entrepreneurial professionals who have driven its growth to become the largest privately held, independent insurance broker in the world and 9th largest overall. For eight consecutive years, Business Insurance magazine has recognized Lockton as a "Best Place to Work in Insurance." To see the latest insights from Lockton's experts, check Lockton Market Update. SOURCE Lockton Related Links http://www.lockton.com NEW YORK, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Long Island Wine Council, the organization promoting, protecting and strengthening Long Island Wine Country in New York, announces Teuwen Communications as its agency of record. The compelling program includes strategic media and trade relations as well as a social media campaign to further establish Long Island as a world-class wine region and showcase its passionate producers and balanced wines. Established in 1989, Long Island Wine Council is a non-profit trade organization comprised of 40 member-wineries. Spearheaded by Executive Director Ali Tuthill and President Roman Roth of Wolffer Estate Vineyard, the Council aims to reveal the quality, character and distinct style of Long Island wines while maintaining community values and honoring the unique culture of this vital agricultural region. The Region Long Island Wine Country encompasses approximately 4,000 acres of vines spread over three American Viticultural Areas: The Hamptons AVA, North Fork AVA and Long Island AVA. Vines were first planted in Long Island in 1973 in the town of Cutchogue by pioneering winemakers Alex and Louisa Hargrave. Since then, the region has grown to 57 bonded producersprimarily small, family-owned businessesproducing nearly half a million cases a year. The Environment With a cool, maritime climate and sandy soils, Long Island winemakers are able to work with minimal intervention. The cooling breezes and mostly sunny conditions reduce the risk of diseases, while creating a long growing season that yields fully ripe, healthy grapes. The region has nearly 20 sustainable vineyards and wineries certified through the Long Island Sustainable Winegrowing organization, with many others practicing organic or biodynamic methods to protect, preserve and restore the environment. The Climate and Wine Styles Long Island is suitable for growing a wide array of varieties and making wine in all shades and styles: white, rose, orange, red, sparkling, still, sweet and dry. Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc as well as Cabernet Franc and Merlot are recognized as the flagship white and red grapes, respectively. Heralded for its diversity, the region also has the ideal growing conditions for other familiar and up-and-coming varieties alike, from Pinot Grigio, Gewurztraminer and Albarino to Pinot Noir, Petit Verdot and Refosco. With all varieties, Long Island wines strive to be balanced, sophisticated, delicious and characteristic of their terroir. The Community In addition to representing its member-wineries, the Long Island Wine Council advocates for partner-affiliates such as local restaurants, hotels, shops and transportation businesses to unite the community around the goal of creating a world-class destination for premium wine. The wine industry on the East End is responsible for generating some 2,000+ jobs and an estimated $150 million dollars in non-wine expenditures such as food, accommodations and retail. Long Island Wine Country is also an active and integral community member, supporting local East End organizations and charities, including HRHCare, the Peconic Land Trust and The Long Island Farm Bureau. Connect with Long Island Wine Council on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, or visit LIWines.com to learn more about the region and its members. Long Island Wine Council's marketing and PR efforts are funded in part by I Love NY. For more information, please contact: Marisa Jetter, [email protected] Samantha Januszeski, [email protected] Hannah Bowler, [email protected] Stephanie Teuwen, [email protected] About Teuwen Communications Teuwen Communications is a full-service food and beverage public relations and marketing agency based in New York City. It provides high-energy, client-focused services across multiple platforms such as media and trade relations, brand strategy, event production, digital marketing and social media. For more information, please visit: www.teuwen.com. SOURCE Long Island Wine Council Related Links http://www.liwines.com VALHALLA, N.Y., Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- USI Insurance Services ("USI") announced that Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, has appointed Todd R. Johnson, senior vice president and property-casualty practice leader of the USI Massachusetts offices located in Woburn, Needham, and West Springfield, to a two year term as chairman of the Massachusetts Workers' Compensation Advisory Council (WCAC). Joseph Fico, USI New England regional chief executive officer, said: "Todd is a trusted professional with extensive knowledge and more than 25 years of experience in the workers' compensation industry. I have seen his talent, drive and work ethic first hand, and I know he will play an integral role in advancing the founding principles of the Massachusetts workers' compensation system. I congratulate Todd on this well-deserved and prestigious appointment, and I am proud to have him as a member of the USI family." Johnson has been with USI for more than six years and has been a member of the Massachusetts WCAC for over four years, holding the council's insurance and self-insurer representative positions. As senior vice president and property-casualty leader for the USI Massachusetts offices, Johnson is responsible for driving revenue growth for a wide range of industries throughout the Commonwealth. In addition, he serves as an elected municipal selectman for the town of Tewksbury, overseeing a municipal budget of approximately $110 million dollars. During his tenure, the town has emerged from a severe fiscal picture to earn an AA+ bond rating. Johnson graduated from Merrimack College with a B.A. in political science and has a J.D. from the Suffolk University Law School. He also holds professional insurance certifications in risk management and claims management. The Massachusetts Workers' Compensation Advisory Council, which consists of 10 voting and 6 non-voting members, was established during a series of workers' compensation reforms that were signed into law in 1985. Its purpose is to monitor, recommend action, give testimony and report on the State's workers' compensation system. The council's advisory responsibilities involve budget oversight, judicial appointments, legislative initiatives pertaining to workers' compensation, and issuance of an annual report evaluating the operations of the Department of Industrial Accidents (DIA). As chairman, Johnson is responsible for running the monthly council meetings and helping to establish its agenda. These meetings are open to the general public pursuant to the Commonwealth's open meeting laws. About USI USI is a leading local and national insurance brokerage and consulting firm, delivering property and casualty, employee benefits, personal risk and retirement solutions throughout the United States. Headquartered in Valhalla, New York, USI has over $1.0 billion in revenue, employs more than 4,400 professionals and operates out of 140 local offices serving every state. USI has become a premier insurance brokerage and consulting firm by leveraging the USI ONE Advantage, an interactive platform that integrates proprietary and innovative client solutions, networked local resources and enterprise-wide collaboration to deliver customized results with positive, bottom line impact. USI attracts best-in-class industry talent with a long history of deep and continuing investment in our local communities. For more information, visit usi.com. Contact: Cecile M. Locurto USI Insurance Services 914-747-6331 [email protected] SOURCE USI Insurance Services Related Links http://www.usi.com CHICAGO, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Mayor Rahm Emanuel and David Whitaker, President & CEO of Choose Chicago, today announced that visitors to Chicago in 2016 reached 54.1 million a new record and 2.9 percent increase over the previous year's record performance. The increase of 1.5 million visitors moves the city closer to reaching the Mayor's goal of 55 million visitors. "Three years ago we set a goal for Chicago to reach 55 million visitors by 2020," Mayor Emanuel said. "We had an incredible and record-breaking year in 2016, but we are not stopping there. We have seen record increases in jobs and investment from our tourism industry, which is creating economic opportunities that reach every neighborhood in the city of Chicago." "We are thrilled to be pacing so well in our collective efforts to grow visitation to Chicago, and the impact of these numbers speak to the importance of our industry and the role we can play in moving Chicago forward not only as a great city to live, work and play but also a great city to visit or meet in," Whitaker said. "As we look ahead to 2017 and beyond, it remains imperative for us to focus on building the destination's profile internationally and educating and reminding our partners in the travel industry, and the travelers we target, that Chicago is not only an amazing city to visit, but a top-notch place to convene and do business." In 2016, Chicago's tourism industry supported an estimated 145,137 jobs (3.3 percent increase) and $15 billion in direct tourism spending (2.6 percent increase). That's an increase of more than 20,000 new jobs since Mayor Emanuel took office. Chicago's visitor industry is supported by group business (also known as major meetings and conventions), paired with increasing leisure visitation. Leisure visitation reached a record of 40.65 million in 2016, a gain of 3.4 percent. Meanwhile, business visitation grew by 2.1 percent to 11.9 million. Chicago welcomed 52.55 million domestic visitors (+3.1 percent) and an estimated 1.56 million overseas visitors (-3.7 percent) in 2016. While there is projected continued growth from emerging markets such as China (+22.7 percent), India (+7.1 percent) and South Korea (+10.2 percent), economic uncertainty and unfavorable exchange rates are expected to influence declines in key European markets such as the United Kingdom (-18.3 percent), Germany (-6.1 percent), France (-3.6 percent) and Spain (-14.5 percent), as well as South America's largest market, Brazil (-19.4 percent). Of the 31 major meetings and conventions held in Chicago in 2016, several set records: eight saw record-setting attendance; four had their most exhibiting companies participate; and four had their highest net square footage of exhibition space. These 31 meetings and conventions welcomed 916,888 attendees to Chicago in 2016. The estimated overall economic impact of major meetings and conventions held in Chicago in 2016 totals $1.32 billion. Looking ahead, there will be 35 major meetings and conventions coming to Chicago in 2017. The number of room nights projected to be generated from these groups is 1.04 million, a 6.4 percent increase in room nights from those hosted in 2016. Assisting in continuing the momentum, Choose Chicago's convention sales team surpassed its 2016 annual sales goal by successfully booking 59 new major future meetings and conventions to be held at and in collaboration with McCormick Place (up from 55 new meetings secured in 2015). Choose Chicago's convention sales team collaborated with the local hotel industry to secure commitments from bids on 2,173 future "in-house" meetings. Total bookings resulted in 2,505,207 room nights for Chicago hotels. The economic impact of these combined meetings is estimated at just under $3.8 billion in estimated future spend in Chicago. Choose Chicago is aggressively working to bring in meetings and conventions that have never been held in Chicago. The strategy is paying off - of the 59 new future major meetings and conventions that have chosen to meet in Chicago, 22 will be convening in the city for the first time with an additional eight choosing to meet in Chicago for the first time in over ten years. Supporting Choose Chicago and the City's 2020 strategy, 30 of the 59 meetings bid on and won are scheduled to meet in Chicago in the next three years. Eight new hotels opened their doors in Chicago's Central Business District in 2016 bringing the total number of daily rooms available to 40,947, an increase of 4.2 percent. Overall room demand trailed closely at nearly three percent growth in 2016, setting a record in nine out of twelve months of the year, with leisure room demand reaching record levels eleven out of twelve months of the year. Chicago has welcomed 24 new hotels since 2013 resulting in more than 5,400 daily rooms added over the past four years. Another six new hotels are scheduled to open in 2017 and eight in 2018, further demonstrating investor confidence in Chicago. In 2016 tourism in Chicago generated $911 million in total tax revenue (2.2 percent increase), $2.28 billion in Chicago Hotel Revenue, and $127.3 million in Chicago Hotel Tax Revenue. For every dollar invested in Choose Chicago, $32 dollars in state and local taxes are generated. About Choose Chicago Choose Chicago is the official sales and marketing organization responsible for promoting Chicago as a global visitor destination leveraging the city's unmatched assets to ensure the economic vitality of the city and its member business community. For more information, visit www.choosechicago.com. SOURCE Choose Chicago Related Links http://www.choosechicago.com BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- McGlinchey Stafford is pleased to announce the election of Christopher A. Bottcher as a Member of the firm. Bottcher joined McGlinchey Stafford in 2015 and played a key role in the firm's expansion to Alabama through the opening of its Birmingham office that year. Christopher Bottcher "Chris has served as an outstanding resource for our clients doing business in Alabama. He has also provided remarkable guidance and leadership for the firm's expansion to Alabama, and has been critical to the success and growth of our Birmingham presence," said Rudy Aguilar, Managing Member of McGlinchey Stafford. "We are proud to promote such an accomplished individual as Chris to membership in our firm." "It has been a privilege to work with the talented attorneys and staff of McGlinchey Stafford to establish the firm's Alabama presence and offer new services to the firm's existing clients in the state," said Bottcher. "I am proud to be elected a Member in a firm that is so dedicated to contributing to the growth and success of the Birmingham business community." Bottcher represents companies across a variety of industries in a vast range of civil, business, and commercial litigation matters, as well as in business and consumer fraud claims. Bottcher frequently represents corporate clients in matters involving trade secrets and the enforcement of restrictive covenants. He represents banks, mortgage servicers, title companies, and property owners in matters involving claims under the Truth in Lending Act and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, as well as in matters involving boundary disputes, establishing easements and means of ingress/egress, mortgage reformations, partitions, and lien priority. Bottcher received his J.D., magna cum laude, from the Cumberland School of Law in 1996, and received honors as Curia Honoris, Cordell Hull Teaching Fellow, and Phi Delta Phi Legal Honor Society. He received his B.S. in Commerce and Business Administration from the University of Alabama in 1991. ABOUT MCGLINCHEY STAFFORD McGlinchey Stafford is a full-service law firm providing innovative legal counsel to business clients nationwide. Guiding clients wherever business and law intersect, McGlinchey Stafford's 200 attorneys are based in 13 offices in Alabama, California, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, New York, Ohio, Texas, and Washington, DC. To learn more about McGlinchey Stafford, visit www.mcglinchey.com. SOURCE McGlinchey Stafford Related Links http://www.mcglinchey.com ALBANY, N.Y., Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- McGlinchey Stafford is pleased to announce the election of Laura Greco as a Member of the firm. Greco represents banks, mortgage companies, and other financial institutions in the areas of commercial finance, banking operations, and consumer financial services compliance and litigation. She is licensed to practice in New York and California, and practices from the firm's Albany and Irvine offices. Prior to joining McGlinchey Stafford in 2009, Greco served as Deputy General Counsel for the New York State Consumer Protection Board. Laura Greco "Laura is a key player in our Consumer Financial Services and Manufactured Housing practice groups, and we have enjoyed having her on our team for many years. We are proud to promote such an accomplished individual as Laura to membership in our firm," said Rudy Aguilar, Managing Member of McGlinchey Stafford. "I am proud to be elected a new Member within McGlinchey Stafford, and I look forward to continuing to work with my talented colleagues throughout the firm's 13 offices to help clients address challenges they face in the consumer financial services arena," said Greco. With extensive experience in consumer financial services compliance and litigation, Greco advises banks and financial institutions on consumer financial services issues, including licensing and regulatory compliance matters, and represents financial institutions in state and federal court. She has experience advising servicers on default servicing and foreclosure issues nationwide, as well as on vendor management and compliance with state and federal laws. Additionally, Greco has extensive knowledge of chattel (manufactured housing) lending and serves as editor of McGlinchey Stafford's Manufactured Housing Update. She also works with tiny home lenders in addressing the unique issues of this market segment. Greco received her J.D. from the University of Southern California Gould School of Law in 2000, where she was a member of the Southern California Law Review. She received her B.S.F.S., cum laude, from Georgetown University in 1997. ABOUT MCGLINCHEY STAFFORD McGlinchey Stafford is a full-service law firm providing innovative legal counsel to business clients nationwide. Guiding clients wherever business and law intersect, McGlinchey Stafford's 200 attorneys are based in 13 offices in Alabama, California, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, New York, Ohio, Texas, and Washington, DC. To learn more about McGlinchey Stafford, visit www.mcglinchey.com. SOURCE McGlinchey Stafford Related Links http://www.mcglinchey.com Dublin, Jan. 05, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Chatbots and Artificial Intelligence: Market Assessment, Application Analysis, and Forecasts 2017 - 2022" report to their offering. Chatbots are taking Customer Relationship Management (CRM) to a new level as business-to-business, business-to-consumer, and consumer-to-business communications is both automated and improved by way of push and pull of the right information at the right time. Chatbots also provide benefits to customers as both existing clients and prospects enjoy the freedom to interact on their own terms. Existing User Interfaces (UI) do not scale very well. Chatbots represent a way for brands, businesses and publishers to interact with users without requiring them to download an app, become familiar with a new UI, or configure and update regularly. Chatbots provide a conversational interfaces supported by Artificial Intelligence (AI) to provide automated, contextual communications. As the interface between humans and computers evolves from an "operational" interface (Websites and traditional Apps) to an increasingly more "conversational" interface (ChatBots, Voice Interfaces, etc.), expectations about how humans communicate, consume content, use apps, and engage in commerce will change dramatically. This transformation is poised to impact virtually every aspect of marketing and sales operations for every industry vertical. This research provides and in-depth assessment of the Chatbots market including the following: Global and regional forecasts by industry, application, and business model Analysis of Chatbot market across industry verticals with use cases in diverse sectors Analysis of Chatbot companies including their strategic initiatives, solutions, applications, and services Assessment of current Chatbot developments and role of Machine Learning and AI other technologies Analysis of Chatbot architecture, feature/functionality, and how it will impact enterprise and business in general Assessment of emerging Chatbot business models and associated economic impact on labor, investments, and ROI Select Findings: Chatbots are moving aggressively beyond CRM in leading industry verticals Stand-alone Chatbots are expected to contribute 40% of the market by 2022 Lost jobs due to Chatbots and other AI represent lost wages of $262.7B annually by 2021 Consumer Chatbot applications will continue to lead the market through 2022 with $744M in revenue Key Topics Covered: 1 Introduction 2 Intelligent Chatbots Ecosystem Analysis 3 Chatbot Market: SWOT Analysis and Use Cases 4 Chatbots Market Analysis and Forecasts 5 Chatbot Company and Solution Analysis 6 Conclusions and Recommendations Companies Mentioned 24me Amazon Apple Inc. Artificial Solutions Ltd. Aspect Software, Inc. Conversica Creative Virtual Ltd. Cubic Facebook Inc. Foursquare Google Haptik, Inc. Hound HP IBM Watson Indigo Intel Corporation Kik Mattel Microsoft Corporation motion.ai Robin Saleforce SAP SIRIUS SK Telecom Co, Ltd. Skype Slack Speaktoit Inc. TacoBell Uber Vokul WeChat WhatsApp Yahoo Inc. For more information about this report visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/lgnd6b/chatbots_and "It is an honor to be elected a Member within the firm and to be a part of the growth and success of our Cleveland team and Consumer Financial Services Compliance practice group," said Chylik. "I look forward to continuing to work with my talented colleagues here and throughout the nation, and continuing to grow and build my practice in the years to come." "From the time I joined McGlinchey Stafford in 2013, I have enjoyed working with this outstanding group of attorneys. I am proud and honored to be elected to membership, and I am optimistic about our Commercial Litigation practice group's momentum as we enter the new year," said Kostura. Chylik advises state and national banks, automotive and personal property finance companies, mortgage lenders and servicers, and small loan lenders on a variety of compliance and regulatory matters. She is a 2009 graduate of The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, and received her B.A., summa cum laude, from Kent State University in 2005. Kostura represents both publicly traded and private companies in civil litigation matters, with a particular focus on consumer financial services litigation. A Major in the United States Army Reserves, he serves as the Senior Defense Counsel in the 16th Legal Operations Detachment. Kostura received his J.D. from the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in 2004 and his B.A. from John Carroll University in 2001. ABOUT MCGLINCHEY STAFFORD McGlinchey Stafford is a full-service law firm providing innovative legal counsel to business clients nationwide. Guiding clients wherever business and law intersect, McGlinchey Stafford's 200 attorneys are based in 13 offices in Alabama, California, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, New York, Ohio, Texas, and Washington, DC. To learn more about McGlinchey Stafford, visit www.mcglinchey.com. SOURCE McGlinchey Stafford Related Links http://www.mcglinchey.com WAKEFIELD, Mass., Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Eliassen Group, a leading technology and life sciences staffing, consulting and training firm, today announced that Michael H. Barker, former senior vice president and general manager of Experis, North America, has been appointed to the Company's board of directors. Barker has a long history of proven success in the technology staffing industry as well as other technology experience, and has held numerous leadership positions during his nearly forty years of professional experience. In addition to performing leadership roles in Staffing at Experis and Comsys IT Partners, Inc., Barker founded a systems integration company, LAN Solutions, which he ultimately sold to Evernet, a company that became part of Control Data in the early nineties. "Mike is an outstanding leader with tremendous industry experience and a proven track record of success," said David MacKeen, Jr., CEO of Eliassen Group. "Mike is very well known in the staffing industry and highly regarded, having made numerous contributions to the advancement of our field. He is a welcomed addition to our board." "Mike has a terrific background in both staffing solutions and information technology, which positions him well to add tremendous value to the company," said Ian Blasco, managing partner at Riverside Partners and Eliassen Group board member. "It was important to us in our board search that we found an individual whose experience was aligned fully with our needs as we continue to grow Eliassen Group aggressively." "Having competed with Eliassen Group in the technology staffing space for many years, I have witnessed first-hand the tremendous growth and geographic expansion of the company," said Barker. "The Company's reputation in the industry has been stellar since their founding in 1989, and I'm thrilled to be joining the board and working closely with Ian Blasco, David MacKeen and the other board members." A graduate of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Mike and his wife Robin reside in Charlotte, North Carolina, and have two adult children, Claire and Philip. About Eliassen Group Eliassen Group, headquartered in Wakefield, MA, is a technology staffing and consulting company offering services to clients nationwide, with divisions and practices focusing on IT Staffing, Agile Staffing and Consulting, Creative Consulting, Biometrics and Data Solutions, Life Sciences, Government Services and Workforce Management. Eliassen Group has been driving the success of our clients, consultants and employees since 1989. For over 27 years, we have been at the forefront of innovation by uniting talented people and quality solutions with successful companies to help them attain their business objectives. Our solution oriented approach to understanding your needs ensures that we identify and represent the best possible talent available in the market, personally selected and matched to your requirements by our highly-tenured, extraordinarily capable recruitment services team. For more information, go to http://www.eliassen.com or call 1-800-354-2773. Contact: Renay Picard 617.999.5404 [email protected] SOURCE Eliassen Group Related Links http://www.eliassen.com FREEHOLD, N.J., Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Monmouth Real Estate Investment Corporation (NYSE: MNR), a real estate investment trust (REIT) specializing in single-tenant, net-leased industrial properties, will host its First Quarter 2017 Financial Results Webcast and Conference Call. Senior management will discuss the results, current market conditions and future outlook on Thursday, February 9, 2017, at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time. Monmouth Real Estate's First Quarter 2017 financial results will be released on Wednesday, February 8, 2017, after the close of trading on the New York Stock Exchange, and will be available on the Company's website at www.mreic.reit in the Investor Relations section, under Filings and Reports. To participate in the webcast select the 1Q2017 Webcast and Earnings Call "Link to Webcast" on the homepage of the Company's website at www.mreic.reit, found in the Highlights section, which is located towards the bottom of the homepage. Interested parties can also participate via conference call by calling toll free 1-877-510-5852 (domestically) or 1-412-902-4138 (internationally). The replay of the conference call will be available at 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, February 9, 2017. It will be available until May 1, 2017, and can be accessed by dialing toll free 1-877-344-7529 (domestically) and 1-412-317-0088 (internationally) and entering the passcode 10097752. A transcript of the call and the webcast replay will be available at the Company's website on the Investor Relations homepage, at www.mreic.reit . Monmouth Real Estate Investment Corporation, founded in 1968, is one of the oldest public equity REITs in the U.S. The Company specializes in single-tenant, net-leased industrial properties, subject to long-term leases, primarily to investment grade tenants. Monmouth Real Estate Investment Corporation is a fully integrated and self-managed real estate company, whose property portfolio consists of one hundred properties located in thirty states, containing a total of approximately 16.6 million rentable square feet. In addition, the Company owns a portfolio of REIT securities. SOURCE Monmouth Real Estate Investment Corporation Related Links http://mreic.com/ Dr. Xydas brings a wealth of experience and expertise to Mount Sinai's premier cardiovascular program. He is board certified in cardiac and general surgery and is an expert in minimally invasive, open, endovascular, and transcatheter approaches to a full spectrum of serious cardiac diseases, including valve disease, coronary disease, and aortic aneurysms. A graduate of Harvard College and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Dr. Xydas received post-graduate surgical training at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York. He has spent the last seven years as a cardiothoracic surgeon at Morristown Medical Center in New Jersey, a U.S. News & World Report "Top 50 Hospital" for cardiac surgery, where he established a prolific, high-volume surgical practice with one of the lowest mortality rates in New Jersey based on published state reports. In addition, doctors in New Jersey chose Dr. Xydas as a "Top Doctor" in New Jersey Monthly magazine in 2015, and he is nationally recognized as a Castle Connolly 2016 "Top Doctor." "The successful recruitment of Dr. Xydas is yet another in the long line of accomplishments for Mount Sinai and our cardiovascular program," said Steven D. Sonenreich, Mount Sinai president and CEO. "We know the community counts on Mount Sinai as a destination hospital for cardiac surgery, and we look forward to adding the specialized procedures and expertise that Dr. Xydas brings to our medical center." Dr. Xydas joins the team of cardiothoracic surgeons already in place at Mount Sinai, including Roy Williams, M.D., Angelo LaPietra, M.D., and Maurice Mawad, M.D. For years, Mount Sinai has remained the region's leader in cardiovascular services, offering the best cardiac surgery survival rate in Florida among hospitals performing a high volume of complex cases, and the best heart attack survival rate in Miami-Dade County, according to the Agency for Healthcare Administration and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. State data also shows that Mount Sinai doctors perform more heart valve procedures than any other hospital in South Florida and the second most in Florida and cardiac surgery patients experience the shortest recovery time, compared to other hospitals in the county. "It is a great honor to be chosen as the new chief of cardiac surgery at one of the leading academic and cardiac hospitals," said Dr. Xydas. "I look forward to maintaining Mount Sinai's legacy of cardiac excellence and continuing to grow and improve our efforts to provide high quality patient care." Nearly half of the South Florida market (46%) turns to Mount Sinai for its expertise in cardiac valve surgery and our doctors perform twice as many of these surgeries when compared to other hospitals in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. Dr. Xydas will not only maintain Mount Sinai's strong valve surgery program but is now also the only cardiac surgeon in Miami to offer valve-sparing aortic root repair surgery. This procedure allows aortic aneurysms to be repaired or removed while the patient's own aortic valve is preserved and repaired. By preserving the native aortic valve, patients avoid the need for an artificial heart valve. Aneurysms of the aorta occur most often in patients with hypertension, but are also very common in patients with congenital weakness of the aortic wall or connective tissue disease, like Marfan's syndrome. Typically without symptoms, aneurysms can lead to tears in the aorta that can be fatal if left untreated. Dr. Xydas helped pioneer a registry of over 600 aneurysm patients who are followed and monitored annually in a surgical clinic setting and will bring this advanced level of follow-up care for all aneurysm patients at Mount Sinai. "We have tremendous depth and breadth in our cardiovascular program," said Dr. Lamas, who also is chairman of medicine and chief of the Columbia University Division of Cardiology at Mount Sinai. "The addition of Dr. Steve Xydas means our cardiac surgical team will expand with new skills, which will result in tremendous benefits to our patients." Dr. Xydas will treat patients at Mount Sinai's main campus in Miami Beach. To schedule an appointment, call 305-674-2780. For more information on Mount Sinai Medical Center and the Mount Sinai Heart Institute, visit www.msmc.com. About Mount Sinai Medical Center Founded in 1949, Mount Sinai Medical Center is the largest independent, private, not-for-profit teaching hospital in South Florida. Mount Sinai's Centers of Excellence combine technology, research and academics to provide innovative and comprehensive care in cardiology, urology, neurology, oncology and orthopedics. One of a select few statutory teaching hospitals in the state, Mount Sinai is the hospital of choice for those who seek the level of expertise and care that only a teaching hospital can offer. The medical center's commitment to quality has garnered prestigious recognition, including designation as a comprehensive stroke center and providing some of the best heart attack and cardiac surgery survival rates in Florida. Press Contact: Joanna Palmer [email protected] (305) 674-2589 SOURCE Mount Sinai Medical Center Related Links https://www.msmc.com/ NEW YORK, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Namely, the leading HR platform for mid-sized companies, today announces the close of a Series D round of financing. This $50M round brings the total financing raised to $157.8M and represents the largest venture capital round in the fast-growing core HR technology industry in the past year. New investors Altimeter Capital and Scale Venture Partners lead the round, alongside previous investors, which include Sequoia Capital, Matrix Partners, and True Ventures. "Namely has built an exceptional HCM product for the mid-market and is well positioned as the industry continues to shift to cloud-based end-to-end solutions," says Nikhil Sachdev, Partner at Altimeter Capital. "Altimeter is excited to partner with Namely and support their continued growth." In addition, Namely is introducing time management as a core feature on the platform. Namely's time and attendance solution includes both software and hardware to manage hourly employees. By adding time management together with HR, payroll, and benefits, Namely now supports all the core HR needs of mid-sized companies. Hourly workers make up 58.5% of the American workforce, and this new offering is especially impactful for those industries that employ a large number of hourly workers, including healthcare, retail, and manufacturing. To help employers tackle another key challengerising healthcare costsNamely is also announcing the company's new benefits offering. Namely Health Advantage allows mid-sized companies to offer their employees flexible, high-quality healthcare plans at preferred rates typically available only to larger companies. "From day one, our mission at Namely has been to create an HR platform that employees love to use," says Matt Straz, Founder and CEO of Namely. "We're proud to fulfill this promise for mid-sized companies. These are the companies driving innovation, and we're fortunate to support them in building better workplaces where their people can do amazing things." The Series D investment speaks to the company's tremendous growth. To date, Namely supports over 650 clients, representing 120,000 employees and $4B in annual payroll processed. In 2016, the company hired over 100 employees, expanded its New York headquarters to include a product and technology floor, moved into a new office in San Francisco, and opened an office in Austin to better support its fastest-growing region, the central United States. To support the expansion, Namely has enlisted an experienced leadership team. The company has recently welcomed VP of Product, Brian Crofts (formerly of TurboTax, QuickBooks), Chief People Officer, Nick Sanchez (formerly of LinkedIn, Trulia), and VP of Legal & Compliance, Manuel Martinez-Herrera (formerly of MetLife). "Namely is truly the leading HR platform for mid-sized companies everywhere," adds Stacey Bishop, partner at Scale Venture Partners. "They've made HR a differentiator for their clientsproviding the best possible experience for employers and employees alike. We are thrilled to partner with Namely as they continue to transform the industry." About Namely Namely is the first HR platform that employees actually love to use. Namely's powerful, easy-to-use technology allows companies to handle all of their HR, payroll, and benefits in one place. Coupled with dedicated account support, every Namely client gets the software and service they need to deliver great HR and a strong, engaged company culture. Namely is used by over 650 clients with over 120,000 employees globally. Headquartered in New York City, the company has raised $157.8 MM from leading investors, including Altimeter Capital, Scale Capital, Sequoia Capital, Matrix Partners, and True Ventures. For more information, visit www.namely.com. Important Notice Namely provides employee benefits-related insurance services through Namely, Inc., Namely Employee Benefits, LLC, or other Namely affiliates ("Namely"). Namely is domiciled in Delaware and has its principal place of business at 195 Broadway, 15th floor, New York, NY, 10007. All Namely employees that sell, solicit, negotiate, consult or provide advice about insurance are also appropriately licensed as individual insurance producers in the corresponding states where they perform such activities. SOURCE Namely Related Links http://www.namely.com NEW YORK, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Neuberger Berman, a private, independent, employee-owned investment manager, is pleased to announce the final close of NB Secondary Opportunities Fund IV LP ("SOF IV"), Neuberger Berman's fourth global private equity secondary fund. SOF IV closed at $2.5 billion, surpassing its target of $2.0 billion. SOF IV, which launched in April 2016, is the successor to NB Secondary Opportunities Fund III LP, which had commitments of $2.0 billion. SOF IV seeks to achieve attractive risk-adjusted returns through the purchase of seasoned private equity investments from investors seeking liquidity. SOF IV has a global mandate and will pursue secondary opportunities in private equity funds, direct investments, co-investments and structured private equity opportunities. SOF IV's investment team is led by Brian Talbot, Tristram Perkins, Ethan Falkove and Benjamin Perl. The team has significant secondary experience and a proven track record dating back to 1991. The investment team leverages a large pool of talent within Neuberger Berman's over $40 billion private equity platform, which includes approximately 110 investment professionals in the U.S., Europe, Asia and South America. SOF IV's diverse investor base includes corporate and public pension plans, endowments, foundations, insurance companies, family offices and high net worth individuals. Investors are global, including from North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia. Brian Talbot and Tristram Perkins are global co-heads of Neuberger Berman's secondary investing group. "We are enormously appreciative of our investors' trust and strong support of SOF IV,'' said Mr. Talbot. Mr. Perkins added "Investors appreciate our ability to leverage the global investment sourcing, due diligence and valuation resources of a $255 billion asset management firm, as well as our focus on the secondary middle market and the growing opportunity in GP-led secondary transactions." About Neuberger Berman Neuberger Berman, founded in 1939, is a private, independent, employee-owned investment manager. The firm manages equities, fixed income, private equity and hedge fund portfolios for institutions and advisors worldwide. With offices in 19 countries, Neuberger Berman's team is more than 1,900 professionals and the company was named by Pensions & Investments as a Best Place to Work in Money Management for four consecutive years. Tenured, stable and long-term in focus, the firm fosters an investment culture of fundamental research and independent thinking. It manages $255 billion in client assets as of September 30, 2016. For more information, please visit our website at www.nb.com. All information is as of September 30, 2016 unless otherwise indicated and is subject to change without notice. Firm data, including employee and assets under management figures, reflects collective data for the various affiliated investment advisers that are subsidiaries of Neuberger Berman Group LLC. Firm history dates back to the 1939 founding of Neuberger & Berman (the predecessor to Neuberger Berman LLC). This material is being issued on a limited basis through various global subsidiaries and affiliates of Neuberger Berman Group LLC. Please visit www.nb.com/disclosure-global-communications for the specific entities and jurisdictional limitations and restrictions. The "Neuberger Berman" name and logo are registered service marks of Neuberger Berman Group LLC. 2016 Neuberger Berman Group LLC. All rights reserved. Media Contact: Alex Samuelson, 212 476 5392, [email protected] (Europe) Joanna Pope, 44 203 214 9087, [email protected] SOURCE Neuberger Berman Related Links http://www.nb.com SAN DIEGO, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Neurelis, Inc. today announced that it has finalized a Series B financing round led by HBM Healthcare Investments. In addition, LYZZ Capital, which led the Series A funding for Neurelis, has participated in the Series B round. The company will utilize the funds to complete clinical trials for NRL-1 (intranasal diazepam), prepare the planned New Drug Application (NDA) for submission to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and begin preparations for the commercial launch of the product. NRL-1 is being developed for pediatric, adolescent, and adult epilepsy patients who experience acute repetitive or cluster seizures. The program is in the final phase of clinical development and the NDA application is planned for submission in 2018. "We are very excited to have completed the company's Series B financing round," said Craig C. Chambliss, President and Chief Executive Officer of Neurelis. "We are pleased to bring an outstanding investor in HBM Healthcare to the Neurelis team and greatly appreciate the continued confidence that LYZZ Capital has shown with their full participation in this financing. We can now complete the clinical development work for NRL-1, assemble our NDA submission, and prepare for the commercialization of this important Orphan Drug product for the epilepsy community." On Wednesday, the company announced that that the FDA has designated NRL-1 as a Fast Track Development program. The Company had previously received Orphan Drug designation for the NRL-1 in November of 2015. There is a significant unmet clinical need that exists for epilepsy patients suffering from acute repetitive or cluster seizures. The only approved product currently available, Diastat, requires rectal administration. This can be an issue especially with adolescent and adult patients. NRL-1 was developed as a unique formulation which allows delivery of a therapeutic dose of diazepam via a well-tolerated nasal spray in order to provide rapid treatment of these seizures where they occur at home, work, school or elsewhere. About NRL-1 NRL-1 (intranasal diazepam) is a proprietary patented formulation of diazepam, delivered via a nasal formulation in a spray, being developed for the management of pediatric and adult patients who require intermittent use of diazepam to control bouts of acute repetitive seizure activity, also known as cluster seizures. NRL-1 has been granted Orphan Drug and Fast Track Designations by the FDA. In clinical trials, NRL-1 has demonstrated high bioavailability, low variability from dose to dose, and was well-tolerated. Acute Repetitive/Cluster Seizures There are over 2.7 million people with epilepsy in the United States with approximately 200,000 new patients diagnosed each year. It is estimated that between 30% and 40% of these patients are uncontrolled on oral therapy and are at-risk for acute breakthrough seizures. Acute repetitive or cluster seizures may occur over a number of hours or days and can include any seizure type. Studies have shown that prolonged or repetitive seizures can cause neurological damage and dramatically increase the risk of changes in neuropsychological function or even death. About Neurelis Neurelis, Inc. is a privately-held San Diego-based specialty pharmaceutical company organized to license, develop, and commercialize product candidates for epilepsy and the broader central nervous system (CNS) market. Neurelis is leveraging its expertise in the development and commercialization of CNS compounds and strong relationships with leading researchers and clinicians in these markets to advance unique product candidates, such as NRL-1 for the treatment of acute repetitive or cluster seizures, to address significant unmet medical needs. For more information, go to www.neurelis.com. For More Information: Mark Leonard [email protected] 847-651-9682 SOURCE Neurelis, Inc. Related Links http://www.neurelis.com LAS VEGAS, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- (from 2017 International Consumer Electronics Show) -- New Age Electronics, a leading distributor of consumer electronics and gaming products and services and a division of SYNNEX Corporation (NYSE: SNX), announced that it has selected BJ's Wholesale Club as Brick and Mortar Retailer of the Year and Purchasing Power as E-commerce Retailer of the Year at its customer appreciation event during the 2017 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. "BJ's Wholesale Club and Purchasing Power are two strategic customers for New Age Electronics, and we are pleased to congratulate them for their achievements over the course of 2016," said Fred Towns, President, New Age Electronics. "They both continue to deliver innovative new ways to market and sell products to consumers and exemplify the success that can be achieved in the Consumer Technology industry through a closely aligned distributor and retailer relationship." Both award recipients are selected for year-over-year revenue growth, close executive alignment, strategic partnership, sourcing of multiple brands, and a consistent positive credit standing. BJ's Wholesale Club is recognized for its ability to grow its business with New Age Electronics in today's highly competitive retail environment. The company's success is a result of an ongoing commitment to evolving its business model to deliver a one-stop shopping experience built on unmatched value and product selection. Purchasing Power is recognized for expanding its portfolio through innovative new ways to market products to consumers through multiple platforms. The e-retailer continues to demonstrate how a company can successfully evolve as the market changes and consumers continue to shop differently. "BJ's is honored to be selected as New Age Electronics Retailer of the Year," said Chris Desantis, Vice President General Merchandise, BJ's Wholesale Club. "Families can find a range of the latest consumer electronics at BJ's at a value that can't be matched. New Age Electronics has been a tremendous partner in helping BJ's deliver the best assortment at the best prices to our members." "We are very excited and extremely honored to be named New Age Electronics E-Commerce Retailer of the Year. We have enjoyed a long standing strategic partnership with New Age, which has been pivotal to driving the growth and success of our e-commerce platform," said David Carlock, Vice President, Merchandising, Purchasing Power. "New Age brings great value to our business, from offering premium brands and innovative emerging technologies to providing vast bundling solutions. Furthermore, NAE partners closely with us to plan our business and excels in delivering flawless execution." At its CES customer appreciation event, New Age Electronics also announced that its 2017 Retail Dealer Summit conference will be held July 19-21 in Las Vegas. Retail Dealer Summit is New Age Electronics' premier annual event catered exclusively for its retailer and vendor partners designed to help them prepare for the back-half of the year and the all-important Holiday Season. For more information about New Age Electronics, call (800) 947-5974, email [email protected] or visit www.newageelectronics.com. About New Age Electronics New Age Electronics, a division of SYNNEX Corporation (NYSE: SNX), is a sales and supply chain solutions innovator that provides consumer technology (CT) manufacturers with a broad offering of logistics, distribution and remanufactured services. Extensive experience in the CT industry and a customer-centric approach has made New Age Electronics the provider of choice. New Age Electronics distinguishes itself with efficient operations and relentless focus on customer satisfaction. Founded in 1988, New Age Electronics is headquartered in Carson, California. For more information about New Age Electronics, call (310) 549-0000, toll-free (888) 234-0300 or visit the company's website at www.synnex.com/nae. About SYNNEX Corporation SYNNEX Corporation (NYSE:SNX), a Fortune 500 corporation, is a leading business process services company, optimizing supply chains and providing outsourced services focused on customer relationship management. SYNNEX distributes a broad range of information technology systems and products, and also provides systems design and integration solutions. Concentrix, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SYNNEX Corporation, offers a portfolio of strategic solutions and end-to-end business services around customer engagement strategy, process optimization, technology innovation, front and back-office automation and business transformation to clients in ten identified industry verticals. Founded in 1980, SYNNEX Corporation operates in 26 countries around the world. Additional information about SYNNEX may be found online at www.synnex.com. About BJ's Wholesale Club, Inc. Headquartered in Westborough, Massachusetts, BJ's is the leading operator of membership warehouse clubs in the Eastern United States. The company currently operates 214 clubs and 130 BJ's Gas locations in 15 states. BJ's provides a one-stop shopping destination filled with top-quality, leading brands, including its exclusive Wellsley Farms and Berkley Jensen brands, along with USDA Choice meats, premium produce and delicious organics, many in supermarket sizes. BJ's is also the only major membership warehouse club to accept all manufacturers' coupons and, for greater convenience, offers the most payment options. Visit www.BJs.com, and for exclusive content find us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. BJ's is wholly owned by affiliates of Leonard Green & Partners, CVC Capital Partners and its management team. About Purchasing Power, LLC Purchasing Power, LLC, is one of the fastest-growing voluntary benefit companies in the industry, offering a leading employee purchase program for consumer products and services as well as providing financial tools and resources to improve employee financial wellness. Purchasing Power is available to millions of people through large companies including Fortune 500s, associations and government agencies. Headquartered in Atlanta, Purchasing Power is 'Powering People to a Better Life' through its employee purchase program, financial literacy efforts and corporate social responsibility initiatives. Purchasing Power is a Flexpoint Ford, LLC company. For more information, visit www.PurchasingPower.com. Safe Harbor Statement Statements in this release that are forward-looking, such as the success of the collaborations, involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause the Company's actual results in future periods to be materially different from any future performance that may be suggested in this release. The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this release. Copyright 2017 SYNNEX Corporation. All rights reserved. SYNNEX, the SYNNEX Logo, CONCENTRIX, NEW AGE ELECTRONICS, the NEW AGE ELECTRONICS Logo, and all other SYNNEX company, product and services names and slogans are trademarks or registered trademarks of SYNNEX Corporation. SYNNEX, the SYNNEX Logo, CONCENTRIX, NEW AGE ELECTRONICS and the NEW AGE ELECTRONICS LOGO Reg. U.S. Pat. & Tm. Off. Other names and marks are the property of their respective owners. SNX-G SOURCE New Age Electronics Related Links http://www.newageelectronics.com At the 2017 North American International Auto Show, Ram Truck will introduce a special edition of the popular Ram 1500 Rebel the Rebel Black. The Ram Rebel Black special edition traces its origin to one of the truck brand's fastest-selling off-road powerhouses, adapting dark features as a design component. The package is offered with all available Rebel colors, adding black wheels, brush guard and theme-matched all-black interior. "Adding the Rebel Black package to an already aggressive off-road truck will continue feeding the momentum Rebel is creating for the Ram Truck brand," said Mike Manley, Head of Jeep Brand and Ram Brand, FCA - Global. "The Ram Rebel is unique in the full-size truck segment with 33-inch off-road tires, air suspension and custom interior details." The Rebel Black interior features black anodized bezels on the doors, center console, instrument panel and gauge cluster trim rings. All-black heated seats with black "Rebel" embroidery stay to the theme, highlighted by Light Slate Gray accent stitching, which traces the instrument panel, center console lid, doors and seats. Deep rubber floor mats capture snow and mud. Additional luxury can be had with optional Black leather Katskin seats. The Ram 1500 Rebel Black special edition is available in crew cab with either the legendary 5.7-liter HEMI V-8 or 3.6-liter Pentastar V-6 at a starting MSRP of $45,590 plus $1,320 destination. Rebel Black will start arriving in dealerships in March 2017. About Ram 1500 Rebel The Ram 1500 Rebel brings an aggressive, one-of-a-kind, off-road design to the full-size truck segment, offering customers a custom truck with capability. Equipped with factory lift, 33-inch all-terrain tires, Bilstein shocks, skid plates, tow hooks and other off-road-ready features, Rebel drops right into a core segment of the truck market with unique design cues and can-do attitude backed by Ram Truck engineering. Ram 1500 Rebel also takes advantage of exclusive air suspension in order to offer increased ride height. New front grille design and "RAM" branding offer a new styling signature for Ram Truck. Rebel is also distinguished by unique interior colors and materials, including Radar Red and Black seats with tire tread-matching patterns. The Ram 1500 Rebel is available in three short wheelbase Crew Cab configurations with a standard 4x4/3.6-liter Pentastar V-6/TorqueFlite 8 combination, delivering 305 horsepower and 269 lb.-ft. of torque; a 4x2 5.7-liter HEMI V-8 with variable valve timing, fuel-saver technology and 395 horsepower/410 lb.-ft. of torque mated to a TorqueFlite eight-speed transmission 4x2; or HEMI-powered 4x4. About Ram Truck Brand Since its launch as a stand-alone division in 2009, the Ram Truck brand has steadily emerged as an industry leader with America's longest-lasting line of pickups. Creating a distinct identity for Ram trucks has allowed the brand to concentrate on core customers and the features they find valuable. Whether focusing on a family that uses a Ram 1500 day-in and day-out, a hard-working Ram 3500 Heavy Duty owner or a business that depends on its Ram ProMaster commercial van every day for deliveries, Ram has the truck market covered. In order to be the best, it takes a commitment to innovation, capability, efficiency and durability. Ram Truck invests substantially in its products, infusing them with great looks, refined interiors, durable engines and exclusive features that further enhance their capabilities. Ram continues to beat the competition in the most sought-after titles: Longest-lasting line of pickups Best-in-class ride and handling with exclusive link coil rear and auto-level air suspensions Best-in-class fuel economy and longest range with exclusive EcoDiesel 29 mpg and 754 miles with Ram 1500 Best-in-class gas towing 16,320 pounds with Ram 2500 Highest snow plow rating Ram 2500 and 3500 Most interior space with Ram Mega Cab Most capable fullsize off-road pickup Ram Power Wagon Truck customers, from half-ton to commercial, have a demanding range of needs and require their vehicles to provide high levels of capability. Ram trucks are designed to deliver a total package. Follow Ram and FCA US news and video on: Company blog: http://blog.fcanorthamerica.com Company website: www.fcanorthamerica.com Media website: http://media.fcanorthamerica.com FCA360: www.fca360.com Ram Truck brand: www.ramtrucks.com Ram Zone blog: www.ramzone.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/RamTrucks and https://www.facebook.com/FiatChrysler.NorthAmerica/ Flickr: www.flickr.com/RamTrucks and www.flickr.com/ChryslerGroup Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/ramtrucks and www.pinterest.com/FCAcorporate Instagram: www.instagram.com/ramtrucks and www.instagram.com/FiatChrysler_NA Twitter: www.twitter.com/RamTrucks and www.twitter.com/FiatChrysler_NA YouTube: www.youtube.com/RamTrucks and www.youtube.com/pentastarvideo SOURCE FCA US LLC Related Links http://www.fcanorthamerica.com DALLAS, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Cotton Patch Cafe is ringing in the New Year with the launch of two new flavors of its Southern, crispy Chicken Tenders -- sweet Kickin' Honey and tangy Southern Buffalo -- and new limited-time homestyle menu specials. Guests now have two new ways to "Surrender to the Tender" with the addition of these bold, flavorful variations of classic tenders: sweet and spicy Kickin' Honey and tangy, hot Southern Buffalo for $7.99 a basket and $8.99 a plate. Cotton Patch will celebrate the new tender flavors on "I Surrender Day," Thursday, Jan. 12, when guests who order chicken tenders can enter to win prizes such as free chicken tenders for a year and $100 gift cards by posting photos with their "I Surrendered" stickers (provided by the restaurant) to social media using #ISurrendered. "We want to offer our guests a fun way to take a break from their New Year's resolutions and surrender to two delicious new flavors of chicken tenders," said Cotton Patch Cafe CEO Kathy Nelson. "We've also added hearty new homestyle dishes that are perfect for a filling up on a chilly winter's day." Through Feb. 26, Cotton Patch will offer new limited-time specials including: King Ranch Chicken: A brand-new Tuesday special combines cheesy, Southwestern chicken with a rich, creamy blend of corn tortillas, spicy flavors and roasted poblano peppers, topped with sour cream and green onions and served with two traditional sides for $8.99 A brand-new Tuesday special combines cheesy, Southwestern chicken with a rich, creamy blend of corn tortillas, spicy flavors and roasted poblano peppers, topped with sour cream and green onions and served with two traditional sides for Crispy Onion Strings: Hot 'n' crispy onion strings served with ranch dipping sauce for $3.99 Hot 'n' crispy onion strings served with ranch dipping sauce for Skillet Cornbread: Served warm in a cast-iron skillet with honey butter for $1.99 Served warm in a cast-iron skillet with honey butter for Mama's Special Butter Cake: Buttery cake with a creamy cheesecake layer topped with whipped cream and caramel sauce for $3.99 With its mill-inspired design, the restaurant is known for Southern hospitality and Southern classics made from scratch using the freshest ingredients. More information about the Cotton Patch menu, which varies by location, is available at www.cottonpatch.com. About Cotton Patch Cafe Founded in Nacogdoches, Texas, in 1989, Dallas-based Cotton Patch Cafe is a Texas-inspired, homestyle restaurant serving Southern classics in 48 locations across Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arkansas. Cotton Patch is deeply committed to being a community partner in each town it calls home, and gives to many local organizations and charities in addition to being a major donor to Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children. Recently, Cotton Patch was named among the industry's most significant brands as part of NRN's Top 200 Chains. For more information, visit cottonpatch.com or follow Cotton Patch on Facebook and Instagram. MEDIA CONTACT Sara Hundley Carson Cline 817-329-3257 [email protected] [email protected] SOURCE Cotton Patch Cafe Related Links http://www.cottonpatch.com Rosh Ha'ain, Israel, Jan. 05, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The agenda of the meeting is as follows: To re-elect Mr. Yochai Hacohen, Mr. Eli Blatt and Ms. Amira Paz to the Companys Board of Directors, to serve until the next annual general meeting of shareholders and until their successors have been duly elected and qualified; To re-elect Ms. Hadas Gazit for a fourth term as an external director, to hold office for 3 years, starting from the the date of her re-election; To reappoint Kost, Forer, Gabbay, and Kasierer, a member of Ernst & Young International Ltd., as the Companys Independent Auditors, for the year ending December 31, 2016 and for such additional period until the next annual general meeting of shareholders; To review the Auditors Report and the Companys Consolidated Financial Statements for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2015; and To transact such other business as may properly come before the Meeting or any adjournments thereof. The Board recommends the approval of each of these proposals. Proposals 1 and 3 are ordinary resolutions which require the affirmative vote of a majority of the shares voted in person or by proxy at the Meeting on the matter presented for passage. The votes of all shareholders voting on the matter will be counted. Proposal 2 is a special resolution which requires the affirmative vote of a majority of the shares present, in person or by proxy, and voting on the matter, provided that either (i) at least a majority of the voted shares of shareholders who are not Controlling shareholders and who do not have a Personal Interest in the resolution are voted in favor of the election if the external director; or (ii) the total number of shares of shareholders, who are not Controlling shareholders and who do not have a Personal Interest in the resolution voted against the election of the external director resolution does not exceed 2% of the outstanding voting power in the Company. For this proposal, a Personal Interest does not include an interest in the resolution that is not as a result of ties to a Controlling shareholder. The presentation to the shareholders for consideration of the Companys audited Financial Statements for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2015 described in Proposal 4 does not involve a vote of the companys shareholders. The presence, in person or by proxy, of at least two shareholders holding at least 33% of the voting rights, will constitute a quorum at the meeting. If within one-half of an hour from the time appointed for the meeting a quorum is not present, the Meeting will be adjourned to the same day in the next week, at the same time and place, or to such day and at such other time and place as the chairman of the meeting may determine with the consent of a majority of the voting power present at the meeting, in person or by proxy, and voting on the question of adjournment. Additional Information and Where to Find It In connection with the meeting, RadView will send to its shareholders as of the record date a proxy statement describing the various matters to be voted upon at the meeting, along with a proxy card enabling them to indicate their vote on each matter. Copies of the resolutions to be adopted at the meeting, and the Companys Financial Statements for the year ended December 31, 2015 will be available to any shareholder entitled to vote at the meeting, at the Companys offices during regular business hours or upon written request, submitted to the Company. You can contact the Company by phone at (972) 3 915-7060, by facsimile at (972) 3 915-7553, or by email, at omerl@radview.com. About RadView RadView Software Ltd. develops, sells, and supports WebLOAD, the world's best value commercial-grade load and performance testing solution for internet applications. Deployed at over 3,500 customers and built with nearly 300 engineering man years, WebLOAD improves the Internet experience for everyone by helping organizations build higher quality internet applications and launching them with confidence. visit www.radview.com or call 1-888-RADVIEW ROSEMONT, Ill., Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, established under the leadership of dairy farmers, is accepting nominations for the sixth annual U.S. Dairy Sustainability Awards honoring exceptional dairy farms, businesses and partnerships for their socially responsible, economically viable and environmentally sound practices. "Communities urban and rural benefit from the individual and collective efforts of dairy farmers and dairy companies that work to advance sustainability," said Barbara O'Brien, president of the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy. "We are excited to collect and share success stories that exemplify this commitment, and we continue to depend on people to nominate themselves, their business partners and their neighbors." Nominations are open through March 3, 2017. All segments along the U.S. dairy value chain and those who promote dairy-related health and wellness are eligible to submit nominations in the following categories: Outstanding Dairy Farm Sustainability: Recognizes three farms that serve as examples of socially responsible, economically viable and environmentally sound dairy production. Successful nominees take a holistic approach to sustainability and provide replicable results that can inspire greater industrywide change. Recognizes three farms that serve as examples of socially responsible, economically viable and environmentally sound dairy production. Successful nominees take a holistic approach to sustainability and provide replicable results that can inspire greater industrywide change. Outstanding Dairy Processing & Manufacturing Sustainability: Recognizes dairy processors and manufacturers whose businesses exemplify the triple bottom line of sustainability. Successful nominees have demonstrated both measurable progress and corporate commitment. Recognizes dairy processors and manufacturers whose businesses exemplify the triple bottom line of sustainability. Successful nominees have demonstrated both measurable progress and corporate commitment. Outstanding Achievement in Resource Stewardship: Recognizes dairy operations (both on and off the farm) that have measurable success in managing their resources with optimal efficiency and quality. Successful nominees have implemented efficiencies or innovations in areas such as energy, water and soil conservation, manure and waste management and/or renewable energy generation . Recognizes dairy operations (both on and off the farm) that have measurable success in managing their resources with optimal efficiency and quality. Successful nominees have implemented efficiencies or innovations in areas such as energy, water and soil conservation, manure and waste management and/or renewable energy generation Outstanding Achievement in Community Partnerships: Recognizes collaborations (both on and off the farm) that improve lives and communities by making positive impacts on health and wellness, hunger relief, workforce development and/or environmental stewardship. Successful nominees will demonstrate instances in which organizations collaborate with other stakeholders in their community to develop practical and effective solutions for shared challenges and goals. Winner Benefits The U.S. Dairy Sustainability Awards have honored 39 businesses in the past five years. Help us celebrate others who make sustainability a reality every day. The 2017 winners will receive: An expense-paid trip to Chicago in June 2017 to the awards ceremony and dairy sustainability events in to the awards ceremony and dairy sustainability events National and local recognition of their stories and passion for sustainability A featured case study on USDairy.com/Sustainability to share insights and lessons learned with industry peers Opportunities to work with others in the dairy community to help advance sustainability Program Details The awards are part of the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy's commitment to Americans to ensure a socially responsible and ever-improving dairy community. An independent panel of judges evaluates all nominations based on measurable results and the potential for other dairy farms and businesses to adopt the practices. Nominations are also evaluated for demonstrated learning, innovation and improvement as well as scalability. Judges and sponsors will be announced soon. Visit USDairy.com to submit your nomination by March 3, 2017. There is no fee to enter. Winners will be announced in June 2017. Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy is a forum that leverages the collective power of the dairy community to address the changing needs and expectations of consumers through a framework of shared best practices and accountability. Our voices span the food chain, from dairy farms through retail, including farmers, companies, organizations and grocers. We focus on priorities that are pre-competitive in nature, where working together brings strength and the opportunity to make meaningful change. Initiated in 2008 by dairy farmers through the dairy checkoff, we collaborate on efforts that are important both to us and our valued customers issues like food safety, nutrition and health, the environment and economics. The Innovation Center is committed to continuous improvement from farm to table, striving to ensure a socially responsible and economically viable dairy community. Contact: Eileen Gallagher [email protected] (312) 240-2966 SOURCE Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy(R) Related Links http://www.usdairy.com OREM, Utah, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Novi Security and Best Buy Co. Inc. today announced the industry leading, simple, affordable home and business security solution from Novi Security is now available in Best Buy Canada stores spanning every province in the country and online at bestbuy.ca. Novi Security products will be showcased at CES 2017 in the Wynit Distribution Booth (# 31253 LVCC South Hall 3). "To be offered by the largest retailer for consumer electronics is tremendous validation for our product and company," said Tyler Crawford, CEO of Novi Security. "This quick rollout further shows the need for simplified security, providing intuitive control and putting critical decision making such as calling police or the fire department at the user's fingertips. The Novi Security 4-in-1 smart security system provides all of this at a price point many times lower than competing home security systems." Launching sales in early 2016, Novi Security has already empowered home and business owners across the world to take control of their safety and security. The Novi Security offering includes a battery-powered 4-in-1 sensor, a relay station, and the Novi app, which empowers the user with complete control of the system and response to any critical event within their home or business. "Novi Security's simplified security system offers tremendous value and safety benefits for the consumer and it is a solution that is a natural addition to Best Buy's innovative product assortment," said Zayn Jaffer, Vice President Emerging Business at Best Buy. "Best Buy's chief goal is to serve our customers a great selection of the latest technology." The inclusion in the Best Buy product assortment comes on the heels of Novi Security's added capability to purchase Novi +, which can add professional monitoring, unlimited cloud storage, and additional enhancements to the Novi app. The Novi Security system and Novi + options are available at a fraction of the cost of traditional security systems. For more information, please visit https://www.novisecurity.com/. About Novi Security Founded in 2013, Novi Security, Inc. develops security solutions for homes and businesses. Its solution package includes a sensor, a base station, and a smartphone application. The innovative product detects motion or smoke, takes a series of high definition pictures and sends the images to the customer through the Novi app. Media Contact: Jeff Keller Novi Security 801-367-8456 [email protected] SOURCE Novi Security Related Links https://www.novisecurity.com/ "This is a significant advancement for those engaged in the battle against neighborhood blight in Ohio," said Robert Klein, founder and chairman of Community Blight Solutions and an advocate for HB 463. "Plywood is an outdated solution to a growing modern-day problem. We need to apply 21st century solutions to reverse the trends that are decimating our neighborhoods. It is my hope that other states will follow Ohio's leadership and enact similar legislation." For decades, plywood has been the standard material for boarding vacant and abandoned properties, but it also has become the ugly and stigmatizing symbol of community blight. Plywood announces that a building is vacant and abandoned, and sends a distress signal of a neighborhood in trouble. Plywood can be easily removed, extending an open invitation to vandals and squatters. It often must be replaced three times or more. For first responders, plywood boarded properties are a safety hazard, preventing them from seeing inside when arriving on the scene. Clearboarding is a preferable solution, and one that mortgage servicers will turn to as plywood use is phased out in Ohio, Klein said. The plywood ban is effective 90 days after HB 463 became law. "Clearboarding is a new technology solution that is far preferable to plywood," Klein said. "It is virtually unbreakable, resembles glass so it enhances neighborhoods, protects property values and secures properties so they can be returned to the market more quickly in a more stable and marketable condition." The ban comes less than two months after Fannie Mae issued a game-changing declaration to expand its reimbursement criteria to include clearboarding as a method to secure vacant properties, whether they are real-estate-owned or in a pre- or post-foreclosure state. "The industry is recognizing what I have been advocating for some time, that plywood contributes to blight rather than prevents it," Klein said. "It is critical that this momentum away from plywood and toward more favorable solutions such as clearboarding continue in 2017." Klein also played a significant role in the passage of HB 390, the fast-track foreclosure law Ohio passed in June to reduce the number of vacant and abandoned properties that remain vacant and vulnerable to vandalism and crime sometimes for years. That law also is a national model for states wishing to reduce the number of "zombie" properties in their neighborhoods. About Community Blight Solutions Community Blight Solutions is focused on understanding, solving and eliminating the problems of communities experiencing blight. Prominent solutions currently include Cleveland's Slavic Village Recovery Project; SecureView, a window and door system that utilizes clear polycarbonate and offers a practical and attractive alternative to plywood; and advocacy of fast-track foreclosure legislation. For more information, go to http://www.communityblightsolutions.com/ About Robert Klein Robert Klein is a successful entrepreneur and over the past 25 years, he has earned a reputation as a pioneer and innovator in the property preservation industry and strong advocate for eliminating blight in communities across the country. Klein is the Founder and Chairman of Safeguard Properties, Community Blight Solutions and SecureView, all based in Cleveland. Klein is a frequent speaker at field service industry conferences. SOURCE Community Blight Solutions Related Links http://www.communityblightsolutions.com WASHINGTON, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Gina Worthey, Managing Director of Worthey Solutions International and honoree of a Resolution for Distinguished Service from the City of Wilmington, Delaware was recently consulted for her advice by Fast Company Magazine and Bizwomen Business Journal. Gina Worthey The Fast Company Magazine quoted Ms. Worthey, a leadership trainer, for the recent story "A Practical To-Do List That Will Finally Make Training Seminars Worth Your Time." Ms. Worthey spoke about the value of researching the seminar instructors prior to attending and strategies for implementing information after training seminars. Ms. Worthey stated, "If you have information about who your instructor will be, it's a good idea to do a little homework." She continued, "That can facilitate networking and provide good fodder for conversation during downtime [with the instructor]." Ms. Worthey adds to the practical guide for getting the most from training seminars with the following points: Present or preserve your learning. As a manager have your team members summarize training for the rest of the group after they return. The key is to follow up to both reinforce what you've learned and share it with the team. Reach out to new contacts. Keep in touch with the people you talked to, and that includes your instructor if they are open to it. Connect on LinkedIn and share your progress after training. You may be able to learn from each other long after you've left the session. Ms. Worthey was consulted for her marketing advice for women business owners who are exploring Instagram as an avenue for social marketing in the December edition of Bizwomen Business Journal. In the article, she explained the importance of making sensible matches between brand and influencer. Ms. Worthey also adds the following point: An audience won't connect with a campaign lacking authenticity. When the right partnership and connections are made for related paid social marketing, then it becomes a win-win for both companies and Instagram followers. Ms. Worthey has also been honored with a Resolution for Distinguished Service from the City of Wilmington, Delaware for her workforce development training program that impact the lives over 350 individuals and entrepreneurs. "Through her leadership, professionalism, commitment and expertise, the impact Ms. Worthey has had in this community has been immeasurable and will contribute to the revitalization of the Eastside and benefit the residents, City of Wilmington and the State of Delaware," stated Hanifa Shabazz, City Council President of the City of Wilmington, Delaware. About Ms. Gina Worthey Ms. Gina Worthey is the Managing Director for Worthey Solutions International, a business consultancy and training company. She has worked with various Fortune 500 corporations, government agencies and nonprofit organizations both domestically and internationally. She runs a year long Mastermind Group with individuals whom were formerly incarcerated, training them in the areas of entrepreneurship and financial literacy. She is dedicated to empower individuals to realize their full potential and maximize their skills to be change agents. For information about Ms. Worthey and Worthey Solutions International, please go to www.WortheySolutions.com Contact: Ms. Gina Worthey (646) 761-2254 [email protected] SOURCE Worthey Solutions Related Links http://www.wortheysolutions.com LOS ANGELES, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- OriginClear Inc. (OTC/QB: OCLN), a leading provider of water treatment solutions, today announced that it has responded to EU-level water infrastructure mandates by African governments by working with French engineering company UltraEpur. "UltraEpur contacted us to help rapidly clear up contaminated industrial water, beginning in Algeria, where the government intends to upgrade to developed-world water standards rapidly," said "JL" Kindler, President of OriginClear Technologies. "We have since entered a technology license agreement, and UltraEpur purchased a laboratory demonstration unit, which it plans to exhibit at the SIEE Pollutec trade show in Algiers in February." "We identified OriginClear's EWS:AOx as a perfectly complementary upstream treatment solution for our filtration systems," said Thierry Vignal, founder and principal of UltraEpur. "We have already integrated OriginClear into our planned pilot system for an Algerian industrial site that must meet stringent new water regulations effluents that exceed 4000 m3 per day (or more than one million gallons daily)." "In a conservative water industry, we look for fast-adopters that intend to respond to intense demand in their regions," added Kindler "We're delighted to add UltraEpur to the ranks of these visionaries." According to founder Vignal, UltraEpur is active in France, where it is headquartered, but also in North Africa and French-speaking Western African countries such as Ivory Coast. While UltraEpur is not relying on government funding for its commercial activities, development of the country's water supply system is a high priority for the Algerian government in its new five-year plan. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Signup for our Newsletter About OriginClear, Inc. OriginClear is a leading provider of water treatment solutions and the developer of a breakthrough water cleanup technology serving the rapidly growing $500 billion world market. Through its wholly owned subsidiaries, OriginClear provides systems and services to treat water in a wide range of industries, such as municipal, pharmaceutical, semiconductors, industrial, and oil & gas. To rapidly grow this segment of the business, we strategically acquire profitable and well-managed water treatment companies, which allow us to expand our global market presence and technical expertise. To enable a new era of clean and socially responsible water treatment solutions, we invented Electro Water Separation, a breakthrough high-speed water cleanup technology using multi-stage electrolysis, that we license worldwide to water treatment equipment manufacturers. Water is our most valuable resource, and the mission of the "Family of OriginClear Companies" is to improve the quality of water and help return it to its original and clear condition. To learn more about OriginClear, please visit our website at www.originclear.com. OriginClear Safe Harbor Statement: Matters discussed in this release contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. When used in this update, the words "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "may," "intend," "expect" and similar expressions identify such forward-looking statements. Actual results, performance or achievements could differ materially from those contemplated, expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements contained herein. These forward-looking statements are based largely on the expectations of the Company and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. These include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties associated with our history of losses and our need to raise additional financing, the acceptance of our products and technology in the marketplace, our ability to demonstrate the commercial viability of our products and technology and our need to increase the size of our organization. Further information on the Company's risk factors is contained in the Company's quarterly and annual reports as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company undertakes no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason. Press Contact: Antenna Group Kaitlyn Finegan 415-977-1914 [email protected] Investor Relations OriginClear: Tom Becker Toll-free: 877-999-OOIL (6645) Ext. 3 International: +1-323-939-6645 Ext. 3 Fax: 323-315-2301 [email protected] www.OriginClear.com SOURCE OriginClear, Inc. Related Links http://www.OriginClear.com SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Parents Education Network (PEN) announced today that Melissa Fedoronko has been named as its new Executive Director, effective January 5, 2017. Ms. Fedoronko will succeed Laura Maloney. PEN is the Bay Area's leading provider of support services for students, parents and teachers impacted by learning and attention differences like dyslexia and ADHD. PEN works to empower and bring academic and life success to the 1 in 5 students impacted by learning and attention differences. PEN operates a variety of programs including a speaker series, a teen self-advocacy group and professional development workshops. PEN also produces EdRev, an annual, one-day educational event and celebration at AT&T Park. PEN's programs operate in San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Sacramento, Los Angeles and Phoenix, AZ. Ms. Fedoronko brings to PEN her deep experience both in and out of the classroom supporting students with learning and attention differences. She believes that creating a collaborative relationship between parents and educators will create the best outcomes for the student. She is currently the lead learning specialist at Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School. She has previously worked with both Sand Hill School and Charles Armstrong School, which solely serve students with learning and attention differences. "After an exhaustive search, the board unanimously agreed that Melissa's background and track record makes her the ideal choice for PEN." said PEN Board Chair Jenna Ellis. "She brings so much to our mission to collaborate with educators, students and the community to empower and bring academic and life success to students with learning and attention differences. On behalf of the entire board, I would like to thank Laura for her 13 years of commitment and leadership." "I am eagerly looking forward to joining PEN," said Ms. Fedoronko. "My goal is to build upon the tremendous foundation laid by Laura, where I may utilize my perspective as a former educator and move beyond the school setting to grow the organization and have a larger impact on the LAD community. I am excited for the opportunity and look forward to getting started." About PEN: PEN is a coalition of parents collaborating with educators, students and the community to empower and bring academic and life success to students with learning and attention differences. For more information, please see ParentsEducationNetwork.org. SOURCE Parents Education Network (PEN) Related Links http://ParentsEducationNetwork.org MIAMI, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Park Street Imports, LLC "Park Street" a provider of cutting edge software and back-office solutions for alcoholic beverage brands, today announced that it has been named a "Great Workplace" by the independent consulting firm Great Places to Work. The process is exhaustive and extensive. Great Places to Work reviews both employee and client surveys to determine a company's rating. Park Street now counts itself part of an elite list of certified companies including Diageo, Royal Caribbean, Publix, Google and FedEx. According to Park Street CEO, Dr. Harry Kohlmann, "Highly engaged team members are what sets us apart in this industry and allows Park Street to provide an unparalleled level of service to our clients." Kim Peters, Vice President of Great Place to Work's Recognition Program, adds, "The certification confirms Park Street's capacity to earn its own employees' trust and create a great workplace - a critical designation that anyone considering working for or doing business with Park Street should take into account as an indicator of high performance." This is just the beginning. The workplace landscape is ever changing, and Park Street is dedicated to leading the way in the alcoholic beverage industry. Park Street was founded in 2003 with the goal of delivering cost saving and productivity enhancing back-office solutions to alcoholic beverage brands. With this certification, Park Street is taking the next step in ensuring that its team members continue to grow and deliver the best client service and most innovative solutions in the industry. Park Street President, Chris Mehringer, notes, "Our culture is everything to us and every time one of our clients expresses their appreciation for the amazing client services we provide I am reminded of what a great team we have assembled here at Park Street." About Park Street Imports: Park Street was founded in 2003 and has been a rising star in the alcohol beverage industry. The company provides back-office solutions, compliance and advisory services, and working capital to over 4,500 alcoholic beverage brands from the U.S. and around the world. The company provides a fast and reliable conduit to the U.S. and E.U. markets and a cost-effective operating platform. Park Street works with suppliers at all stages of growth and its clients range from entrepreneurial craft distillers to multi-brand global portfolios. The firm's major practice areas are 1) Back-Office Solutions, including regulatory compliance, logistics, national importing, distribution, warehousing, order-fulfillment, accounting, customer service, and more; 2) Advisory Services, including business building, route-to-market planning, organizational effectiveness, strategic partnerships, joint ventures, negotiation support, and more; 3) Working Capital Solutions, including accounts receivable financing (factoring), revolving credit facilities, term loans secured by accounts receivables and other assets, guarantees, and letters of credit. With its extensive expertise in the alcoholic beverage sector, Park Street provides clients comprehensive, turn-key solutions across its practices areas, all within the context of exceptional professional service delivery. www.parkstreet.com. About Great Place to Work Great Place to Work is the global authority on high-trust, high-performance workplace cultures. Through proprietary assessment tools, advisory services, and certification programs, including Best Workplaces lists and workplace reviews, Great Place to Work provides the benchmarks, framework, and expertise needed to create, sustain, and recognize outstanding workplace cultures. In the United States, Great Place to Work produces the annual Fortune "100 Best Companies to Work For" list and a series of Great Place to Work Best Workplaces lists including lists for Millennials, Women, Diversity, Small and Medium Companies and over a half dozen different industry lists.www.greatplacetowork.com. For Inquiries: Park Street Imports [email protected] (305) 400-8324 Related Links Park Street This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. For more info visit: http://www.newswire.com/. SOURCE Park Street Imports Related Links http://www.parkstreet.com LOS ANGELES, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- A letter was jointly sent to House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan by the Presidents of the Los Angeles Police Protective League (LAPPL), the Sergeants Benevolent Association of New York, and the San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose Police Officers Associations, strongly urging him to exert the extraordinary power he possesses to remove from our nation's Capitol a piece of "art" that depicts police officers as Pigs intent on harming the very communities we serve. This "art" was selected by a Missouri Congressman as part of an annual congressional art competition with little regard to the negative and offensive portrayal of law enforcement. The letter states: "Speaker Ryan, please stand up for those of us in law enforcement and immediately remove this stain from our beloved Capitol and send a message that you support the men and women of law enforcement over those that perpetrate lies about our profession." The associations above represent over 27,000 police officers, sergeants, and other ranks. You can view the letter here and the "art" here. What: Media Availability Who: Jerretta Sandoz, Vice President, Los Angeles Police Protective League Paul Kelly, President San Jose Police Officers' Association LAPPL Board Members When: Thursday, January 5, 2017 11:30 AM Where: Los Angeles Police Protective League 1308 West Eighth Street, 1st Floor Los Angeles, CA 90017 (Parking behind LAPPL office with access from Witmer Street) About the LAPPL: Formed in 1923, the Los Angeles Police Protective League (LAPPL) represents the more than 9,900 dedicated and professional sworn members of the Los Angeles Police Department. The LAPPL serves to advance the interests of LAPD officers through legislative and legal advocacy, political action and education. The LAPPL can be found on the Web at www.LAPD.com. SOURCE Los Angeles Police Protective League Related Links http://www.LAPD.com DALLAS, January 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Puration, Inc. (OTC: PURA) and ML Capital Group (OTC: MLCG), in partnership with Spanish Peaks ScrumpDelicacies, today announced plans to work together to introduce a Cannabis Tourism Service Offering into Colorado's $19.1 billion tourism industry. Yesterday, MLCG announced a letter of intent to acquire Spanish Peaks Scrumpdelicacies . MLCG is an experienced luxury travel operator. The Company's flagship tour service offering, Platinum Tours of Maui, is well established within the Hawaiian luxury travel market. MLCG will leverage the Spanish Peaks ScrumpDelicacies acquisition to launch a new, specialty tourism sector focused exclusively on cannabis-related travel experiences. PURA recently published a confirmation and update of its $1 million collaboration agreement with Spanish Peaks ScrumpDelicacies. Earlier this year, PURA and Spanish Peaks entered into a collaboration agreement to produce a line of cannabis Infused beverages. "Consider the vineyard tours in Napa Valley or Tuscany; Picture the distillery tours in Scotland or the brewery tours in Bavaria," said Kevin Bobryk, CEO of ML Capital Group. "I think now you might have an idea of the magnitude of the opportunity we plan to build into Colorado's $19 billion travel market with the help of Spanish Peaks and Puration." The Puration CEO, Brian Shibley added, "I am very focused on generating opportunity where Puration can sell its gold standard cannabis extract. We're already working with Spanish Peaks to infuse our cannabis extract into Spanish Peaks' beverages. Now consider that nearly 25% of Napa Valley wines - almost $1 billion in wine sales - are sold to customers directly at the vineyards. That's selling wine to tourists. Needless to say, Puration is enthusiastic about participating in a partnership with Spanish Peaks and ML Capital Group." On Tuesday, January 10, Puration, ML Capital Group and Spanish Peaks will jointly publish an online, on-demand presentation highlighting the strategy to bring luxury cannabis tourism to Colorado. Safe Harbor: This release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 27E of the Securities Act of 1934. Statements contained in this release that are not historical facts may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain. Actual performance and results may differ materially from that projected or suggested herein due to certain risks and uncertainties including, without limitation, ability to obtain financing and regulatory and shareholder approval for anticipated actions. Explore Inc. Investor Relations [email protected] +1-786-313-3206 Puration Contact: Brian Shibley, CEO [email protected] +1-214-937-9097 SOURCE Puration, Inc. & ML Capital Group NEW YORK, Jan. 05, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Attorney Advertising -- Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC reminds investors that a class action lawsuit has been filed against New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc. (New Oriental or the Company) (NYSE:EDU) and certain of its officers, and is on behalf of a class consisting of all persons or entities who purchased or otherwise acquired New Oriental American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) between September 27, 2016 and December 1, 2016, inclusive (the Class Period). Such investors are advised to join this case by visiting the firms site: http://www.bgandg.com/edu. This class action seeks to recover damages against Defendants for alleged violations of the federal securities laws under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the Exchange Act). The Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements, as well as failed to disclose material adverse facts about the Companys business, operations, and prospects. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) New Oriental engaged in college application fraud; and (2) consequently, New Orientals statements about its business, operations and prospects were materially false and misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis at all relevant times. On December 2, 2016, Reuters reported that New Oriental has been accused of college application fraud. The report describes how New Oriental engaged in writing application essays and teacher recommendations, and falsifying high school transcripts. Reuters also said that the American International Recruitment Council (AIRC) will investigate the company in response to the report, and that the AIRCs president-elect said the allegations were highly concerning. Following this news, New Oriental stock dropped $6.99 per share, or 14.27%, to close at $42.00 on December 2, 2016. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to review a copy of the Complaint you can visit the firms site: http://www.bgandg.com/edu or you may contact Peretz Bronstein, Esq. or his Investor Relations Analyst, Yael Hurwitz of Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC at 212-697-6484. If you suffered a loss in New Oriental you have until February 13, 2017 to request that the Court appoint you as lead plaintiff. Your ability to share in any recovery doesn't require that you serve as a lead plaintiff. Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC is a corporate litigation boutique. Our primary expertise is the aggressive pursuit of litigation claims on behalf of our clients. In addition to representing institutions and other investor plaintiffs in class action security litigation, the firms expertise includes general corporate and commercial litigation, as well as securities arbitration. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes. ATLANTA, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Pursuant Health, a leader in consumer health engagement and data collection, announced today it has completed a $12.8 million Series A1 round of financing. Consisting of new and existing investors, this round included the conversion of previous debt financings to equity. Pursuant Health will use this financing to add new channels to its unique population health platform to better serve the Company's growing customer base. These channel expansions include texting, mobile, digital and incentive management capabilities, providing broader program administration, engagement and collection of health data. The Company announces this fundraising after a year of significant milestones. Throughout the course of 2016, Pursuant Health achieved NCQA Certification for the "Health Age" health risk assessment co-developed with Cleveland Clinic Wellness, launched their first member health screening and rewards program with Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield and established a 3-year partnership with the American Diabetes Association. In December, the Company surpassed 130 million health screenings and over 3 million active account holders. In 2016, the Company's revenue grew 28% and EBITDA improved to breakeven. "Pursuant Health has experienced a pivotal year with immense innovation, growth and strategic development. As we enter 2017 with 8 health plan contracts in implementation and a robust pipeline, the Company will use this funding to expand our services and capabilities to best serve our customers," said Larry Gerdes, Pursuant Health CEO. "Through these enhancements, we can continue building a unique platform that will position Pursuant Health as a leader in population health management." Pursuant Health's innovative approach to population health management enables health plans to improve quality, increase compliance and produce better outcomes. This is achieved through the Company's patent-pending platform that couples principles of behavioral economics with real-time incentives and adaptive logic to drive sustainable member engagement. By utilizing multi-channel communication strategies, convenient care settings and real-time incentive management capabilities, Pursuant Health engages a wide range of at-risk, historically hard-to-reach members. About Pursuant Health (formerly SoloHealth): Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Pursuant Health's purpose is to engage individuals to manage their health and improve outcomes. In summer 2010, the Company received a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to help develop a self-service health kiosk. Pursuant Health's platform consists of multiple channels, including a unique kiosk network of over 3,600 FDA-cleared, HIPAA-compliant self-service medical devices located within 10 miles of 79% of the U.S. population. For more information, please visit www.pursuanthealth.com. SOURCE Pursuant Health Related Links http://www.pursuanthealth.com WASHINGTON, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Reneo Consulting LLC announced today that its subsidiary company Coabana Trading LLC has finalized an agreement with Cuba Export to import into the United States Marabu (sicklebush) charcoal produced in Cuba. This marks the first time in more than half a century that a Cuban-produced product will be exported from Cuba and sold in the United States. "This is truly a momentous occasion," said Scott Gilbert, Chairman of Reneo. "Marabu charcoal is widely viewed as the best artisanal charcoal in the world. Now U.S. consumers will be able to purchase this product, as have Europeans and others for many years." "More importantly," Gilbert emphasized, "this marks the beginning of a new era of trade between the United States and Cuba. This is a perfect example of a win-win for both our countries. The Marabu plant is an invasive weed that clogs otherwise fertile organic fields in Cuba now it can be used to produce this fantastic artisanal charcoal, thereby clearing the fields and making them available for agricultural growth." "Marabu charcoal is cut and produced by private Cuban cooperatives, providing them with a growing market less than 100 miles away. This is but the first step in what should be a blossoming trade relationship involving many different products," said Gilbert. "Of course," Gilbert added, "we still are severely limited in what we can do by the so-called embargo, the most severe trade and travel restrictions we have imposed on any country in the world. This demonstrably failed relic of the cold war should be consigned to the trash heap of history, where it belongs. For those who may disagree, I urge you to travel to Cuba, to interact with the Cuban people, to see what works and what does not, and then to make a considered judgment. In the meantime, we will do all that we can to expand our economic relations with the people of Cuba." Cuban Marabu charcoal should be available in the United States in early 2017, marketed by Fogo Charcoal, a subsidiary of Susshi International Inc. and sold through various retailers. About Reneo Consulting LLC Reneo Consulting LLC is a strategic consulting firm helping businesses, private and public organizations, and individuals resolve their most intractable and complicated challenges. Reneo is well-versed in crisis management and international strategic negotiation among other practices which ensure our clients' core business interests are maintained. SOURCE Reneo Consulting LLC Dr. Guleserian brings with her a wealth of experience in congenital heart surgery as well as pediatric heart transplantation and mechanical circulatory support. Prior to joining The Heart Program, she served as Surgical Director of Pediatric Cardiac Transplantation at Children's Medical Center/University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, where she held the post of Surgical Director of the Adult Congenital Heart Surgery Program. Her achievements include: Performing a heart-liver transplant in the world's youngest patient, a 3-year-old with familial homozygous hypercholesterolemia in 2006. Performing a heart transplant in the world's smallest and youngest patient, a week-old, 5-pound baby in 2007. Implanting a pacemaker in the world's smallest and youngest patient, a 32-week premature neonate weighing less than 4 pounds in 2008. Implanting a total artificial heart in the world's smallest and youngest patient, a 9-year old with complex congenital heart disease in 2013. Board certified in thoracic and congenital heart surgery, Dr. Guleserian operates on neonates, infants and children, as well as adolescents and adults with congenital heart defects. She has established a global presence as a founding member of the World Society of Pediatric and Congenital Heart Surgery, and for her work with professional organizations, including the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, Society of Thoracic Surgeons, Congenital Heart Surgeons' Society, International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation, International Society for Nomenclature of Paediatric and Congenital Heart Disease, Southern Thoracic Surgical Association, and Women in Thoracic Surgery. Dr. Guleserian earned her medical degree from Boston University School of Medicine after graduating from Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She completed her general surgery residency at Rhode Island Hospital/Brown University Alpert Medical School in Providence and her thoracic surgery residency at Barnes-Jewish Hospital/Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. She then pursued fellowships in congenital heart surgery, cardiovascular tissue engineering and cardiac pathology at Boston Children's Hospital/Harvard Medical School. Her clinical interests include cardiac morphology and pathology, minimally invasive cardiac surgery, such as mini sternotomy and video-assisted thoracic surgery, complex aortic arch reconstruction, heart transplantation and mechanical circulatory support of the failing heart. Dr. Guleserian's book, Surgeon's Story, is expected to be released in January 2017. The Heart Program at Nicklaus Children's, a world leader in pediatric cardiology and cardiovascular surgery for the care of children with congenital heart disease, serves as a beacon to families confronting the reality of a child or newborn with a heart defect. The Heart Program offers the most innovative and least invasive approaches to the treatment of congenital heart disease, including many first-in-the-world procedures that were pioneered right here by The Heart Program's own internationally renowned cardiologists and cardiovascular surgeons. Dr. Guleserian is employed by Pediatric Specialists of America (PSA), the physician-led group practice of Miami Children's Health System. About Nicklaus Children's Hospital Founded in 1950 by Variety Clubs International, Nicklaus Children's Hospital part of Miami Children's Health System is South Florida's only licensed specialty hospital exclusively for children, with more than 740 attending physicians and over 220 pediatric sub-specialists. The 289-bed hospital is renowned for excellence in all aspects of pediatric medicine with several specialty programs ranked among the best in the nation in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016-17, by U.S. News & World Report. The hospital is also home to the largest pediatric teaching program in the southeastern United States and has been designated an American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) Magnet facility, the nursing profession's most prestigious institutional honor. For more information, please visit www.nicklauschildrens.org. SOURCE Miami Children's Health System Related Links http://www.mch.com CALGARY, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - Resverlogix Corp. ("Resverlogix", or the "Company") (TSX:RVX) today announces its participation in the 9th Annual Biotech Showcase Conference during J.P. Morgan week in San Francisco, CA. Mr. Donald J. McCaffrey, President and CEO, will provide a corporate update and overview of recent activities at the conference. Presentation Details: Date: January 9th Time: 2:00pm PT Duration: 30 minutes Location: Room 3 (Ballroom Level) at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square Mr. McCaffrey's presentation will be available on the Company website on the Media/Events page immediately prior to the scheduled presentation time. To schedule a meeting with senior management in San Francisco during the event, please contact Investor Relations. About Resverlogix Resverlogix is developing apabetalone (RVX-208), a first-in-class, small molecule that is a selective BET (bromodomain and extra-terminal) inhibitor. BET bromodomain inhibition is an epigenetic mechanism that can regulate disease-causing genes. Apabetalone is the first and only BET inhibitor selective for the second bromodomain (BD2) within the BET protein called BRD4. This selective inhibition of apabetalone on BD2 produces a specific set of biological effects with potentially important benefits for patients with diseases such as high-risk cardiovascular disease (CVD), diabetes mellitus (DM), chronic kidney disease, Alzheimer's disease, Orphan diseases, and peripheral artery disease, while maintaining a well described safety profile. Apabetalone is the only selective BET bromodomain inhibitor in human clinical trials, currently in a Phase 3 trial BETonMACE in high-risk CVD patients with type 2 DM and low high-density lipoprotein (HDL). Resverlogix common shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX:RVX). For further information please visit www.resverlogix.com. Follow us on Twitter: @Resverlogix_RVX (https://twitter.com/resverlogix_rvx), or on our blog at http://www.resverlogix.com/blog For further information please contact: Investor Relations Email: [email protected] Phone: 403-254-9252 SOURCE Resverlogix Corp. Related Links http://www.resverlogix.com BOSTON, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Riverside Partners, a Boston-based private equity firm focused on investing in middle market healthcare and technology companies, is pleased to announce the promotions of Michelle Noon and Max Osofsky to General Partner, David Del Papa to Partner, and Chris Ryan to Principal. The promotions further strengthen the Firm's investment team as they continue to invest Riverside Fund V, L.P., a $561 million equity fund. "We are very proud of the team that we are building at Riverside Partners and we are thrilled to be developing partners from within our organization," said David Belluck, General Partner. "Since joining the firm over eight years ago, both Michelle and Max have demonstrated the dedication, investment expertise, and values that are important to our partnership. They are both taking on lead roles with new investments and portfolio companies, and are helping to build and manage our firm. We are also excited to promote David Del Papa to Partner. He joined the team in 2012 and has played significant roles in evaluating new investments and working with our portfolio companies. We are delighted to welcome David to our partnership. And we are pleased to promote Chris Ryan to Principal, as he has been instrumental in completing and working with several technology investments since joining Riverside." Michelle Noon joined Riverside Partners in 2008 and focuses on technology investments with a specific emphasis on software, software-based services, transaction processing and media technology. She brings more than 15 years of experience in private equity and finance to her role. Michelle has played key deal and portfolio management roles with Riverside's technology investments including Thinklogical, Contractor Management Services and Pilgrim Quality Solutions. Prior to joining Riverside, Michelle was on the investment team at Thoma Bravo (f/k/a Thoma Cressey Equity Partners) in San Francisco and focused on software investments. Michelle also worked as part of the investment banking group at Morgan Stanley in New York. Michelle holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance and business economics, magna cum laude, from the University of Notre Dame and a Master of Business Administration, with distinction, from the Harvard Business School. Max Osofsky brings more than 16 years of private equity and consulting experience to the Riverside Partners' team, which he joined in 2008. Max co-leads the firm's healthcare investing activities. He has played key leadership roles with several current Riverside portfolio companies, including Bottom Line Systems, Allied Dental, BioAgilytix, Dominion Diagnostics and HealthDrive, as well as with prior investments in Tegra Medical (sold to SFS Group) and Vocollect (sold to Honeywell). Prior to joining Riverside, Max was a Vice President at Summit Partners, and a consultant at Bain & Company. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics, summa cum laude, from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and a Master of Business Administration from the Harvard Business School. David Del Papa joined Riverside Partners in 2012 as a Vice President, and has more than ten years of private equity and consulting experience. He has been involved in all facets of the investment process and played a key role on several Riverside Partners' technology and healthcare investments including ITC Global (sold to Panasonic Corporation), Eliassen Group, and Thinklogical. Prior to joining Riverside, David was on the lower middle market buyout team at H.I.G. Capital. David also worked as a strategy consultant at the Boston Consulting Group. David holds a Bachelor in Business Administration in Ethics, Politics, & Economics, magna cum laude, from Yale University and a Master of Business Administration from the Harvard Business School. Chris Ryan joined Riverside Partners in 2011 and brings more than 10 years of private equity and consulting experience to the firm. Chris focuses on investments in the technology sector. He has worked closely with several Riverside portfolio companies including Contractor Management Services, FirstLight Fiber (sold to Oak Hill Capital Partners), Thinklogical, and ITC Global (sold to Panasonic Corporation). Prior to joining Riverside Partners, Chris was an Associate with Advent International and a strategy consultant with the Parthenon Group. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, cum laude, from Williams College and a Master of Business Administration, with honors, from the Wharton School. About Riverside Partners Founded in 1989, Riverside Partners is a middle market private equity firm currently investing Riverside Fund V, L.P. The fund focuses on growth-oriented companies in the healthcare and technology sectors. Riverside Partners is particularly experienced at partnering with founders, owners and management teams and it brings substantial domain expertise and operating experience to its portfolio companies. Today, Riverside Partners manages approximately $850 million of equity capital and seeks to make investments in companies with revenues between $20 and $200 million and with $5-$25 million of EBITDA. For more information, please visit www.riversidepartners.com. SOURCE Riverside Partners Related Links http://www.riversidepartners.com HERZOGENAURACH, Germany, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Schaeffler, a global automotive and industrial supplier, will demonstrate its Mobility for Tomorrow vision specific to the North American automotive industry during its press conference and at its technology exhibits at the 2017 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) next week. As an event sponsor for the 11th year, Schaeffler will use NAIAS as a platform to announce its market-specific plans and products, as well as showcase two of its vehicle concepts. At the press event on Monday, Jan. 9 at 7:05 a.m., Schaeffler will discuss the company's In the Region, For the Region motto that has fostered technologies targeted specifically to the North American auto market, including its: Vision for Mobility for Tomorrow and its focus on four main areas: eco-friendly drives; urban mobility; interurban mobility; and energy chains; and its focus on four main areas: eco-friendly drives; urban mobility; interurban mobility; and energy chains; Anticipated 2017 global and North American growth and production plans; and Current and future e-mobility strategy. To demonstrate its Mobility for Tomorrow products and concepts, Schaeffler will host two NAIAS exhibits for media and invited guests: a Technology Suite in the Ambassador Ballroom (room 360 on third level) and an AutoMobili-D exhibit in the Cobo Center Atrium. At these exhibits, Schaeffler will show: Its Bio-Hybrid concept that is positioned very close to a bicycle, but eliminates the fundamental disadvantages of bikes, such as no weather protection and limited stowage space; The "Schaeffler High Performance 48 Volt" display with technology that closes the gap between standard 48 volt systems and high voltage hybrid drives. The concept has an electric rear axle that supplements the front axle drive comprised of a conventional internal combustion engine and belt-driven 48 volt starter generator; and New internal combustion engine, hybridization and electric vehicle technologies that connect current products to future trends. As part of the AutoMobili-D exhibition, Jeff Hemphill, chief technical officer, Americas, will participate in an e-mobility panel discussion at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 11 on the Atrium Stage. As part of the discussion, Hemphill will discuss Schaeffler's vision for E-mobility transformation, including its BioHybrid and other concepts and technologies. NAIAS one of the world's premier automotive exhibitions opens to the media and industry officials on Monday, Jan. 9. It will open to the public from Saturday, Jan. 14 through Sunday, Jan. 22. For more information, please visit: www.naias.com. About Schaeffler The Schaeffler Group is one of the world's leading integrated automotive and industrial suppliers. The company stands for the highest quality, outstanding technology, and strong innovative ability. The Schaeffler Group makes a decisive contribution to "Mobility for tomorrow" with high-precision components and systems in engine, transmission, and chassis applications as well as rolling and plain bearing solutions for a large number of industrial applications. The technology company generated sales of approximately 13.2 billion euros in 2015. With around 85,000 employees, Schaeffler is one of the world's largest companies in family ownership. It has a worldwide network of manufacturing locations, research and development facilities, and sales companies at approximately 170 locations in over 50 countries. Schaeffler is a recognized development partner for global automakers and suppliers. To serve the North American automotive market, Schaeffler operates development centers in: Troy, Mich.; Fort Mill, S.C.; Wooster, Ohio; and Puebla, Mexico. The company's 600 North American engineers and technicians, who are supported by a team of more than 6,700 global R&D engineers, drive development in the region by utilizing state-of-the-art test and measurement equipment, computational tools and CAD systems. Schaeffler Automotive has headquarters in Fort Mill and manufacturing facilities in: South Carolina; Missouri; Ohio; Ontario, Canada; Puebla and Irapuato, Mexico. For more information, please visit www.schaeffler.us. Follow us on Twitter @schaefflergroup to get all of our latest press releases and news. SOURCE Schaeffler EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I., Jan. 4, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- For the third time in as many years, Shamrock Financial Corporation has, yet again, won one of the sought-after National Brightest and Best Companies to Work For award. Handed out by the National Association for Business Resources (NABR), the Best and Brightest Companies to Work For competition acknowledges those businesses across the country that display their devotion to excellence in both their human resource principles and employee betterment programs. Candidates were evaluated in categories such as work-life balance, communication, employee education, diversity, recognition of excellence, resource retention, and more. As in its earlier contests, the recipients of the Best and Brightest Companies to Work For 2016 awards were measured using two metrics: an Employee Engagement survey about attitudes and observations in the workplace, and a Human Resources survey to gauge how well the organizational guidelines match the experience of their employees. Shamrock Financial promotes and encourages training for everyone associated with their New England business. For example, they offer education for their employees through multiple streams, including training, webinars, and workshops on a variety of current and necessary topics. Next, their referral partners and real estate agents can access seminars and other types of information to ensure that they can use material for comprehensive learning whether for sales, marketing, or local New England economics. Finally, through emails, text, or phone calls, clients are kept aware about every step involved in the home buying process. They are urged to take advantage of the on-demand learning, including videos, blog posts, and e-Books, that they can find on Shamrock Financial's intuitive web site. Shalimar Albanese, Director of Marketing & Client Delight, proclaimed, "Once again, we are thrilled that our business not only was selected as a winner for this amazing award, but this is the third time in a row that it happened. We believe in offering service, value, and expertise for every one of our clients across New England, and we are ecstatic that the efforts by our wonderful employees have been recognized." Established in 1996, the NABR aims to develop and maintain a cooperative and collaborative workplace where businesses and its leaders learn and then apply best practices, current trends, and other crucial details that benefit both the business and its employees. You can read the complete list of award winners for the Brightest and Best Companies to Work For 2016 from their web site. About Shamrock Financial Shamrock Financial Corp. is a privately owned mortgage lender with corporate headquarters in Rumford, RI. We take the client experience and having fun very seriously. Learn more about our culture here: http://careers.shamrockfinancial.com/ Photos: https://www.prlog.org/12611139 Press release distributed by PRLog SOURCE Shamrock Financial Corporation Related Links http://www.shamrockfinancial.com NEW YORK, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP, a leading national securities law firm, reminds investors in Agria Corporation ("Agria" or the "Company") (NYSE:GRO) of the January 9, 2017 deadline to seek the role of lead plaintiff in a federal securities class action lawsuit filed against the Company and certain officers. The lawsuit has been filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey on behalf of all those who purchased Agria American Depository Shares ("ADSs") between December 16, 2011 and November 4, 2016 (the "Class Period"). The case, BALON v. AGRIA CORPORATION et al., No. 16-cv-08376 was filed on November 9, 2016, and has been assigned to Judge Leda D. Wettre. The lawsuit focuses on whether the Company and its executives violated federal securities laws by failing to disclose that the Company and its executives had been engaging in trading to artificially inflate the Company's ADS price. Specifically, on November 4, 2016, Agria issued a press release announcing that it received a letter from New York Stock Exchange ("NYSE") on November 3, 2016, informing the Company that the NYSE decided to commence proceedings to delist Agria ADSs from the NYSE. The NYSE claimed that certain Company executives had been trading Agria ADSs in an effort to inflate the stock price. Further, the Company disclosed that, on December 23, 2015, it received a subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") relating to a nonpublic investigation into Agria's historic and ongoing business operations in China. After these announcements, Agria ADSs was suspended on November 3, 2016 at a closing price of $0.85 per ADS. Request more information now by clicking here: www.faruqilaw.com/GRO. There is no cost or obligation to you. Take Action If you invested in Agria ADSs between December 16, 2011 and November 4, 2016 and would like to discuss your legal rights, visit www.faruqilaw.com/GRO. You can also contact us by calling Richard Gonnello toll free at 877-247-4292 or at 212-983-9330 or by sending an e-mail to [email protected] Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP also encourages anyone with information regarding Agria's conduct to contact the firm, including whistleblowers, former employees, shareholders and others. The court-appointed lead plaintiff is the investor with the largest financial interest in the relief sought by the class that is adequate and typical of class members who directs and oversees the litigation on behalf of the putative class. Any member of the putative class may move the Court to serve as lead plaintiff through counsel of their choice, or may choose to do nothing and remain an absent class member. Your ability to share in any recovery is not affected by the decision of whether or not to serve as a lead plaintiff. Attorney Advertising. The law firm responsible for this advertisement is Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP (www.faruqilaw.com). Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome with respect to any future matter. We welcome the opportunity to discuss your particular case. All communications will be treated in a confidential manner. FARUQI & FARUQI, LLP 685 Third Avenue, 26th Floor New York, NY 10017 Attn: Richard Gonnello, Esq. [email protected] Telephone: (877) 247-4292 or (212) 983-9330 SOURCE Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP Related Links http://www.faruqilaw.com BOULDER, Colo., Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- SomaLogic announced today that it has agreed to join the "Digital Life Alliance" established by iCarbonX, the China-based company founded in 2015 to build a "Global Digital Health Ecosystem that can define each person's 'digital life' based on a combination of individual's biological, behavioral and psychological data, the Internet and artificial intelligence." Under the agreement between the companies, SomaLogic will provide proteomics data and applications expertise to the Alliance to accelerate the ecosystem's development. Also under the agreement, iCarbonX and SomaLogic will establish a joint venture in China to provide the SOMAscan proteomics assay for research and health applications in China. The iCarbonX ecosystem will also make an equity investment in SomaLogic to help accelerate these efforts. "We founded iCarbonX with the goal of hastening the day when each person can receive truly useful digital health information, derived from many different aspects of their physical being, that they can use to live a healthier -- and thus happier and fuller -- life," said Jun Wang, Founder and CEO of iCarbonX. "Our new SomaLogic colleagues share that vision deeply, and they provide the world-leading expertise in proteomics that we need to realize that vision sooner." "Jun Wang and iCarbonX are at the forefront of the transformation of healthcare that we and many others are working hard to realize," said Larry Gold, Chairman and Founder of SomaLogic. "All of us at Somalogic are excited that Jun and his colleagues recognize the primary contribution of proteomic information in bringing about that transformation, and that they have selected our technology and scientists to partner with them in making it happen." Under this new agreement SomaLogic and iCarbonX will establish a joint venture in China, which will include installing SomaLogic's SOMAscan proteomics assay in China to support the Digital Life Alliance as well as many other Chinese research and clinical concerns. "The joint venture with our iCarbonX colleagues significantly expands SomaLogic's global reach," said Byron Hewett, SomaLogic's Chief Executive Officer. "iCarbonX is the best partner possible for helping us gain access to the enormous Chinese healthcare-related markets." Through the ecosystem it is building, iCarbonX has made a substantial equity investment in SomaLogic, but specific financial details were not released. Earlier today at the 1st Digital Life Summit & Digital Life Alliance Global Recruitment Conference in Shenzhen, China, Wang announced that SomaLogic and six other companies and organizations are founding members of iCarbonX's Digital Life Alliance. SomaLogic, HealthTell, PatientsLikeMe, GALT, Inc. , Robustnique and AOBiome join Imagu Vision Technologies, which iCarbonX acquired in September 2016. About SomaLogic SomaLogic is transforming healthcare by applying our proprietary protein-measurement technology to enable the precise monitoring of each individual's health and wellness status in real time. We work with many different partners across research, health management, pharmaceutical development, and other health-related fields to build applications on our "Wellness Chip Platform," a single cost-effective and reliable testing platform that provides actionable and timely information to patients and healthcare providers across a wide range of diseases and conditions. Our SOMAmer and SOMAscan technologies also have multiple applications across the life sciences, and are available to the entire biomedical scientific community for their own research needs. For more information, visit www.somalogic.com. SOURCE SomaLogic, Inc. Related Links http://www.somalogic.com LOS ANGELES, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Representing the 300,000 kids diagnosed with cancer each year worldwide, five kids have been announced as the St. Baldrick's Foundation's 2017 Ambassadors. The Ambassadors and their families will serve as spokespersons for the Foundation, attend fundraising events and provide the public with an in-depth look into their lives for a year. The St. Baldrick's Ambassadors' goal is to raise awareness for all childhood cancers and the need to find cures and treatments that are as unique as every child diagnosed. St. Baldrick's Ambassadors highlight different ages, disease types, geographic locations and are all in varying stages of their journey with cancer. They serve as a reminder that childhood cancers don't discriminate. Princeton Bryan, 7, from Palm Bay, Fla, was diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma at just 2 years old. After years of treatment including immunotherapy, Princeton is now in remission. Each year, he shaves his doctor's head at a St. Baldrick's head-shaving event. He is enjoying childhood after cancer, spending time racing through obstacles at his American Ninja Warrior class and swimming over waves at the beach. Ike Yarmon, 8, from Rogers, Minn., is known for his spunky personality and competitive spirit one that never wavered, even when he was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). After more than three years of chemotherapy, Ike is in remission. He is using his renewed energy and passion for life to raise awareness for childhood cancer. Abby Furco, 10, from Virginia Beach, Va., was diagnosed with Ph+ acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) when she was 5 years old. After 32 months of unique combination therapy, she was declared cancer free, only to relapse one year later. After being deemed cancer free for a second time, Abby developed a severe disease from her bone marrow transplant, causing her kidneys to fail. Doctors gave Abby 48 hours to live, but Abby proved them wrong. She returned to school, walked down the aisle as a flower girl for her camp counselor's wedding and visited Italy with her family. Abby is continuing her journey today. Benny Martinez, 12, from Park Ridge, Ill., was diagnosed with medulloblastoma nine months ago. He underwent a seven-hour brain surgery leaving him unable to walk, talk or swallow. However, Benny is currently in treatment and making great progress. He has graduated from his wheelchair and attends half days at school. Benny is known for the signature pies he bakes and his selfless personality he even participated in one of the St. Baldrick's Foundation's signature head-shaving events before he was diagnosed. Emily Hines, 17, from Ponchatoula, La., recently finished treatment for acute promyelocytic leukemia. Emily was the first pediatric patient to enroll in an 8-month clinical trial where doctors used arsenic, instead of chemotherapy, to kill her leukemia cells. This reduced her treatment time from two to three years to only six months. Emily just finished treatment, and her determined and optimistic attitude leads her to the opinion that cancer has blessed her more than it has taken away from her. To learn how you can get involved visit www.StBaldricks.org, and connect with St. Baldrick's on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Vimeo. About St. Baldrick's Foundation As the largest private funder of childhood cancer research grants, the St. Baldrick's Foundation believes that kids are special and deserve to be treated that way. St. Baldrick's funds are granted to some of the most brilliant childhood cancer research experts in the world and to innovative explorers who bring with them the promise of a future free from childhood cancers. Kids need treatments as unique as they are and that starts with funding research just for them. Join us at StBaldricks.org to help support the best cancer treatments for kids. SOURCE St. Baldrick's Foundation Related Links http://www.stbaldricks.org English French Clermont-Ferrand, January 5, 2017 Michelin successfully places USD 500 million non-dilutive cash-settled convertible bonds due 2022 Michelin announces today the successful placement of a USD 500 million offering of non-dilutive cash-settled convertible bonds due 2022 (the "Bonds") following the exercise in full of the increase option. Concurrently, Michelin purchased cash-settled call options (the "Call Options") to hedge its economic exposure to the potential exercise of the conversion rights embedded in the Bonds. Since they will only be cash-settled, the Bonds will not result in the issuance of new shares or the delivery of existing shares of Michelin (the "Shares") upon conversion. This USD-denominated debt has been immediately converted into euros. Based on the final terms and after conversion into euros, this transaction enabled Michelin to raise a euro financing with a negative yield. Michelin intends to use the net proceeds of the issuance of the Bonds for general corporate purposes. The Bonds will be issued at an issue price of 100% of their nominal value on January 10, 2017, the expected settlement date of the Bonds. The Bonds will have a nominal value of USD 200,000 per Bond, will not bear interest and will be redeemed at par on January 10, 2022. The initial conversion price (the "Initial Conversion Price") will represent an issue premium of 28% over the Share Reference Price (as defined below). The reference price of the Share (the "Share Reference Price") will be determined as the arithmetic average of the daily volume-weighted average prices of the Share in euros on the regulated market of Euronext in Paris ("Euronext Paris") over the 10 consecutive trading days commencing on (and including) January 6, 2017 (the "Reference Period"). The initial conversion ratio of the Bonds will correspond to the nominal value converted in euros and divided by the Initial Conversion Price. The Bonds have been offered via an accelerated bookbuilding process through a private placement to institutional investors only, outside the United States of America, Australia, Canada, South Africa and Japan. No prospectus, offering circular or similar document will be prepared in connection with the offering. It is anticipated that the hedge counterparties to the Call Options will enter into transactions to hedge their respective positions under the Call Options through the purchase or sale of Shares or any other transactions, on the market and off-market, at any time, and in particular during the Reference Period and at the conversion or redemption of the Bonds. The Share Reference Price and the Initial Conversion Price will be announced through a press release at the end of the Reference Period, expected to occur on January 19, 2017. Application will be made for the Bonds to be admitted to trading on the Open Market (Marche Libre) of Euronext Paris and such admission to trading is expected no later than 30 days following the expected settlement date. In the context of the offering, Michelin has agreed to a lock-up undertaking in relation to its Shares and equity-linked securities for a period ending 60 calendar days after the settlement and delivery date, subject to certain exceptions. This press release does not constitute or form part of any offer or solicitation to purchase or subscribe for or to sell the Bonds and the offering of the Bonds is not an offer to the public in any jurisdiction, including France. Investor Relations Valerie Magloire +33 (0) 1 78 76 45 37 +33 (0) 6 76 21 88 12 (cell) valerie.magloire@michelin.com Matthieu Dewavrin +33 (0) 4 73 32 18 02 +33 (0) 6 71 14 17 05 (cell) matthieu.dewavrin@michelin.com Humbert de Feydeau +33 (0) 4 73 32 68 39 +33 (0) 6 82 22 39 78 (cell) humbert.de-feydeau@fr.michelin.com Media Relations Corinne Meutey +33 (0) 1 78 76 45 27 +33 (0) 6 08 00 13 85 (cell) corinne.meutey@michelin.com Individual Shareholders Jacques Engasser +33 (0) 4 73 98 59 08 jacques.engasser@michelin.com DISCLAIMER Available information The issue of the Bonds was not subject to a prospectus approved by the French Financial Market Authority (Autorite des marches financiers) (the "AMF"). Detailed information on Michelin, including its Shares, business, results, prospects and related risk factors are described in Michelin's registration document, the French version of which was filed with the AMF on March 7, 2016 under number D.16-0114 (the "Reference Document"). The Reference Document and Michelin's interim financial report as at June 30, 2016, are available together with all the press releases and other regulated information about Michelin, on Michelin's website (https://www.michelin.com). Important information This press release may not be published, distributed or released directly or indirectly in the United States of America, Australia, Canada, South Africa or Japan. The distribution of this press release may be restricted by law in certain jurisdictions and persons into whose possession any document or other information referred to herein comes, should inform themselves about and observe any such restriction. Any failure to comply with these restrictions may constitute a violation of the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. No communication or information relating to the offering may be transmitted to the public in a country where there is a registration obligation or where an approval is required. No action has been or will be taken in any country in which such registration or approval would be required. The issuance or the subscription of the Bonds may be subject to legal and regulatory restrictions in certain jurisdictions; none of Michelin and the Joint Bookrunners of the offering assumes any liability in connection with the breach by any person of such restrictions. This press release is an advertisement and not a prospectus within the meaning of Directive 2003/71/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of November 4, 2003 as amended (the "Prospectus Directive"). The Bonds have been offered only by way of a private placement in France to persons referred to in Article L.411-2-II of the French monetary and financial code (Code monetaire et financier) and outside France (excluding the United States of America, Australia, Canada, South Africa and Japan), and there will be no public offering in any country (including France). This press release does not constitute a recommendation concerning the issue of the Bonds. The value of the Bonds and the Shares can decrease as well as increase. Potential investors should consult a professional adviser as to the suitability of the Bonds for the person concerned. European Economic Area With respect to the Member States of the European Economic Area which have implemented the Prospectus Directive (the "Relevant Member States"), no action has been undertaken or will be undertaken to make an offer to the public of the Bonds requiring a publication of a prospectus in any Relevant Member State. As a result, the Bonds may only be offered in Relevant Member States: to any legal entity which is a qualified investor as defined in the Prospectus Directive; or in any other circumstances falling within Article 3(2) of the Prospectus Directive. For the purposes of this paragraph, the expression "offer to the public of Bonds" in any Relevant Member State, means any communication, to individuals or legal entities, in any form and by any means, of sufficient information on the terms and conditions of the offering and on the Bonds to be offered, thereby enabling an investor to decide to purchase or subscribe for the Bonds, as the same may be varied in that Relevant Member State. These selling restrictions with respect to Relevant Member States apply in addition to any other selling restrictions which may be applicable in the Relevant Member States who have implemented the Prospectus Directive. France The Bonds have not been and will not be offered or sold or cause to be offered or sold, directly or indirectly, to the public in France. Any offer or sale of the Bonds and distribution of any offering material relating to the Bonds have been and will be made in France only to (a) persons providing investment services relating to portfolio management for the account of third parties (personnes fournissant le service d'investissement de gestion de portefeuille pour compte de tiers), and/or (b) qualified investors (investisseurs qualifies) acting for their own account, as defined in, and in accordance with, Articles L.411-1, L.411-2 and D. 411-1 of the French monetary and financial Code (Code monetaire et financier). United Kingdom This press release is addressed and directed only (i) to persons located outside the United Kingdom, (ii) to investment professionals as defined in Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 (the "Order"), (iii) to people designated by Article 49(2) (a) to (d) of the Order or (iv) to any other person to whom this press release could be addressed pursuant to applicable law (the persons mentioned in paragraphs (i), (ii), (iii) and (iv) all deemed relevant persons ("Relevant Persons")). The Bonds are intended only for Relevant Persons and any invitation, offer of contract related to the subscription, tender, or acquisition of the Bonds may be addressed and/or concluded only with Relevant Persons. All persons other than Relevant Persons must abstain from using or relying on this document and all information contained therein. This press release is not a prospectus which has been approved by the Financial Conduct Authority or any other United Kingdom regulatory authority for the purposes of Section 85 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. United States of America This press release may not be published, distributed or transmitted in the United States of America (including its territories and dependencies, any State of the United States of America and the District of Columbia). This press release does not constitute or form a part of any offer or solicitation to purchase for securities in the United States of America or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. Persons (as defined in Regulation S under the US Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"). The securities mentioned herein have not been, and will not be, registered under the Securities Act, the law of any state of the United States of America and may not be offered or sold in the United States of America or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. Persons, except pursuant to an exemption from, or a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the Securities Act or the law of the above states. The Bonds will be offered or sold only to non-U.S. persons in offshore transactions outside of the United States of America, in accordance with Regulation S of the Securities Act. Michelin does not intend to register any portion of the proposed offering in the United States of America and no public offering will be made in the United States of America. Australia, Canada, South Africa and Japan The Bonds may not and will not be offered, sold or purchased in Australia, Canada, South Africa or Japan. The information contained in this press release does not constitute an offer of securities for sale in Australia, Canada, South Africa or Japan. The distribution of this press release in certain countries may constitute a breach of applicable law. LOS ANGELES, January 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Sugarmade, Inc. (OTC: SGMD) today announces the up-listing of its common shares to the OTCQB Venture Market, which is specifically designed for quality early stage and developing public companies. Jimmy Chan, CEO commented, "The move to the OTCQB Venture Market reflects the substantial accomplishments made over the past two years. We have restored the Company to fully reporting status, raised growth capital, significantly reduced costs, realigned our product portfolio and commenced shipments of several new products. Over the past quarter, we have begun to reduce our long-term debt levels and we are now seeing very strong interest in not only our legacy products, but also in our new products. Over the coming months, our investors will see additional progress." Sugarmade recently announced two new products in the cannabis packaging sector, CannaShroud, which is a unique security-oriented odor control transport system and DabBox, a unique concentrate packaging product for processors and dispensaries. The Company has begun receiving orders for both products. Sugarmade also plans to launch, during the first calendar quarter, its Sriracha Seasoning Stix product under license from Huy Fong Foods, Inc., the makers of the REAL Sriracha sauce, and from Seasoning Stix International. Interest in the Sriracha product has been very strong with over 60,000 consumers already signing up for free and priority shipping upon product availability. About Sugarmade, Inc. (OTC:SGMD) Sugarmade, Inc. is a product and brand marketing company investing in products and brands with disruptive potential. Sugarmade's brands include CarryOutSupplies.com, Sugarmade Tree Free Paper, FreeHand ThumbTray and CannaShroud, the world's first Cannabis specific shipping systems. During early 2017, the Company will be launching Sriracha Stix, a revolutionary culinary seasoning product under official license from Irwindale, California-based Huy Fong Foods, Inc., the maker of Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce. For more information on the Company's products, please visit http://www.Sugarmade.com. For inquiries please contact Jimmy Chan at (888)982-1628 or [email protected] . SOURCE Sugarmade, Inc. FREMONT, Calif., Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- SYNNEX Corporation (NYSE: SNX), a leading business process services company, today announced its Board of Directors declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of $0.25 per share. The dividend will be paid on January 27, 2017 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on January 13, 2017. About SYNNEX Corporation SYNNEX Corporation (NYSE: SNX), a Fortune 500 corporation, is a leading business process services company, optimizing supply chains and providing outsourced services focused on customer relationship management. SYNNEX distributes a broad range of information technology systems and products, and also provides systems design and integration solutions. Concentrix, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SYNNEX Corporation, offers a portfolio of strategic solutions and end-to-end business services around customer engagement strategy, process optimization, technology innovation, front and back-office automation and business transformation to clients in ten identified industry verticals. Founded in 1980, SYNNEX Corporation operates in 26 countries around the world. Additional information about SYNNEX may be found online at www.synnex.com. Safe Harbor Statement Statements in this release that are forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties which may cause the Company's actual results in future periods to be materially different from any future performance that may be suggested in this release. The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this release. Copyright 2017 SYNNEX Corporation. All rights reserved. SYNNEX, the SYNNEX Logo, CONCENTRIX, and all other SYNNEX company, product and services names and slogans are trademarks or registered trademarks of SYNNEX Corporation. SYNNEX, the SYNNEX Logo, and CONCENTRIX Reg. U.S. Pat. & Tm. Off. Other names and marks are the property of their respective owners. SNX-F SOURCE SYNNEX Corporation Related Links http://www.synnex.com SCHAFFHAUSEN, Switzerland, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- TE Connectivity Ltd. (NYSE: TEL) today announced that its 2017 annual general meeting of shareholders (AGM) will be held on Wednesday, March 8, 2017 at 2:00 p.m. Central European Time (8:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time) at the Park Hyatt hotel, Zurich, Switzerland. Shareholders who are registered with voting rights in the share register of TE as of the close of business (EST) on February 16, 2017 (the record date) will be entitled to vote on the matters presented at the AGM. Beneficial holders whose shares are held by nominees registered with voting rights in TE's share register on their behalf as of the same time and date will be entitled to instruct nominees to vote on the matters presented at the AGM. Full details about voting at the AGM are provided in TE's preliminary proxy statement for the AGM, which has been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. A Notice of Internet Availability of Proxy Materials (Notice) relating to the AGM will be mailed to each shareholder registered in the share register of TE as of the close of business (EST) on January 12, 2017. Instructions on how to access the proxy materials over the Internet or request a printed set of proxy materials will be provided in the Notice. The Notice also will provide instructions on how to submit a proxy over the Internet or via mail. A copy of the proxy materials, including a proxy card, also will be sent to any additional shareholders who are registered in our share register as shareholders with voting rights, or who become beneficial owners through a nominee registered in our share register as a shareholder with voting rights, as of the close of business (EST) on February 16, 2017. Shareholders are urged to read the definitive proxy statement which contains important information. The company has requested that banks, brokerage firms and other nominees who hold TE shares on behalf of beneficial owners as of the close of business (EST) on January 12, 2017 forward the Notice to those beneficial shareholders and forward the proxy materials, together with a voting instruction card, to any additional beneficial owners who acquire their shares after the close of business (EST) on January 12, 2017 and continue to hold them at the close of business (EST) on February 16, 2017. In order to vote or give instructions to vote (as applicable) at the AGM, holders of record and beneficial owners who hold shares at the close of business (EST) on or after January 12, 2017 must continue to hold those shares at the close of business (EST) on February 16, 2017. ABOUT TE CONNECTIVITY TE Connectivity (NYSE: TEL) is a $12 billion global technology leader. Our connectivity and sensor solutions are essential in today's increasingly connected world. We collaborate with engineers to transform their concepts into creations redefining what's possible using intelligent, efficient and high-performing TE products and solutions proven in harsh environments. Our 75,000 people, including over 7,000 engineers, partner with customers in close to 150 countries across a wide range of industries. We believe EVERY CONNECTION COUNTS www.TE.com. SOURCE TE Connectivity Ltd. Related Links http://www.te.com Real-Time Temperature Alerts TempTraq alleviates many concerns of those caring for a sick child, including eliminating the need to continually disturb or wake them when rest is critical to a speedy recovery. Plus, no more poking or prodding an already irritable child to get an accurate temperature reading. The wearable patch delivers on-the-spot temperature readings in just seconds and even sends alerts to mobile devices when the child reaches a pre-determined, user-set temperature level. Valuable Temperature Data Unlike other devices that provide users with only one point of data and offer no continuous monitoring or alerts, the accompanying free downloadable Apple or Android compatible TempTraq app allows users of all ages to reach a new level of health care. It displays both real-time and historical temperature data transmitted from the patch in graphical or tabular views, making it possible for caregivers to see fluctuations and quickly adapt treatment, if necessary. Easy to Use Simply press the "start" button to activate the temperature monitor and connect it to the app. Then, apply the thin, flexible patch to the underarm of the patient as directed. As long as the parent is within range of the child (up to 40 feet away), they can easily review data and receive alerts. TempTraq further simplifies the temperature reading process by providing easy-to-follow colors that indicate temperature levels: Green, less than 100.4F; orange, equal to or greater than 100.4F; red, equal to or above the user-set temperature alert level. Conveniently Monitor Health For those who want to share temperature data with their doctors or family members, TempTraq allows users to securely send temperature information via email. Through the app, users can also keep track of when the patient eats, drinks or takes medicine. For those caring for multiple people, the TempTraq app conveniently allows them to monitor multiple patches simultaneously. One-time Use Design The single-use, hygienic design eliminates the hassles of cleaning the device between uses or among different users. TempTraq's existing 24-hour patch is available now for $19.99 online at Amazon.com, Target.com, and CVS.com and in stores at Walgreens, CVS, Target, Kroger, Fry's, Dillon's, Ralph's and Hy-Vee. The new 48-hour patch will be available for purchase for $24.99 in Q1 2017. For more information visit: temptraq.com About Blue Spark Technologies, Inc. Headquartered in Westlake, Ohio, Blue Spark Technologies, Inc. is the leader in developing thin, flexible, printed power solutions for printed electronic systems, including solutions developed utilizing their thin, flexible proprietary battery technology. Blue Spark Technologies' latest innovation, TempTraq, is the only Bluetooth, wearable temperature monitor in the form of a soft, comfortable patch that continuously, safely and comfortably, monitors body temperature for up to 24 or 48 hours and sends alerts to Apple or Android compatible mobile devices. The company's TempTraq Connect HIPAA-compliant service supported by Google Healthcare Cloud Platform allows parents and caregivers to monitor body temperature from anywhere. It also allows direct integration with health care provider electronic health records (EHR) systems and central nurse's stations, providing a secure method of storing patient health care data. SOURCE Blue Spark Technologies, Inc. Related Links http://www.temptraq.com NASHVILLE, Tenn., Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As the Tennessee General Assembly convenes its session next week, it is widely expected to consider proposals by Gov. Bill Haslam to increase transportation revenue in the state. A new survey, conducted by a center within the Social Work Office of Research & Public Service at The University of Tennessee at Knoxville (UT Knoxville), finds that Tennesseans support greater investments in biking and walking infrastructure as well as funding for multimodal transportationhighways, roads, bridges, trails, sidewalks, bike lanes and public transit. Tennessee voters also believe decision-making about transportation spending should occur at the local level. "This survey shows that Tennesseans want more biking and walking opportunities in their communities," said John Paul Shaffer, board chairman of Bike Walk Tennessee. "Voters believe that more sidewalks, separated bike lanes and off-street trails can make a difference in the safety and quality of transportation options for everyone in the state, regardless of whether they live in urban, suburban or rural communities." Support for biking and walking infrastructure isn't limited to large urban areas. A majority of respondents in small towns and rural non-farm areas indicated there were "too few" on-street bike lanes, walking and biking paths, and off-street trails in their communities. Support for spending any revenue increase on multimodal forms of transportation was highest in small cities (64.1 percent), followed by towns and large cities (58.7 percent each), rural non-farm areas (53.6 percent) and small towns (50.4 percent). "Tennesseans from Memphis to my Dutch Valley farm in East Tennessee's Anderson County want safer, better transportation options for themselves and their children to walk, bike and get around," said Marianne Wesley Fowler, senior strategist for policy advocacy at Rails-to-Trails Conservancy. "But they also want the ability to make decisions locally about the transportation options that work best for their communities." Safety and local control were important considerations for Tennesseans. Nearly two-thirds (66.2 percent) of registered voters indicated that adding a separated bike lane would improve safety for both vehicles and bikes. Respondentsincluding Republicans and those from communities of all sizeswould also be more likely to support a gas tax increase (43 percent) if decisions about how to spend it were made at the local level. Bike Walk Tennessee and Rails-to-Trails Conservancy commissioned the Center for Applied Research and Evaluation in the Social Work Office of Research & Public Service at UT Knoxville to conduct a survey of 762 registered Tennessee voters in October 2016. Surveyscompleted using landline sampling, cell phone sampling and a web panelresulted in a margin of error +/- 3.6 percent at a 95 percent confidence level. A summary of survey findings may be viewed here. Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC), a nonprofit organization with more than 160,000 members and supporters, is the nation's largest trails organization dedicated to connecting people and communities by creating a nationwide network of public trails, many from former rail lines and connecting corridors. Founded in 1986, RTC's national office is located in Washington, D.C., with regional offices in California, Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania. For more information, visit www.railstotrails.org. Bike Walk Tennessee is a nonprofit organization committed to making Tennessee a great place for people who walk or bike. Founded in 2009, Bike Walk Tennessee advocates for policies and infrastructure that enhance the safety of roads and trails across the state. Bike Walk Tennessee believes that biking and walking create vibrant, healthy communities that contribute to economic development and quality of life. For more information, visit www.bikewalktn.org. CONTACT: Andrew Dupuy 202.370.7905 [email protected] CONTACT: Anthony Siracusa 901.482.3979 [email protected] SOURCE Rails-to-Trails Conservancy; Bike Walk Tennessee Related Links http://www.railstotrails.org For Black America, summer 2016 brought about a tangible shift in understanding the power of its $1.2 trillion in spending power. Millions were able to "move their minds" through the phenomenon of the #BankBlack Movement, answering the call for a collective show of economic force, by moving money from traditional banks to Black owned banks. In that time, millions of dollars have been moved to Black owned banks resulting in more loans and jobs for the Black community. OneUnited Bank saw $20 million in deposits, generated $130 million in loans, doubled its social media numbers and increased its national staff by 10% to keep up with the explosion of interest in Black owned banks. President & COO of OneUnited Bank, Teri Williams comments "The #BankBlack and #BuyBlack movements are an outgrowth of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, which has increased awareness of the importance of supporting the Black community. OneUnited is using social media to tell inspiring stories, answer questions, teach financial literacy and help everyone appreciate the power of our dollars." Both BMe and OneUnited Bank place a strong emphasis on the importance of strengthening the Black community through initiatives that focus on economics, community development, entrepreneurship and technology. In August 2016, BMe solidified its commitment to collective economics with the re-direction of $1 million in deposits to OneUnited Bank; and a partnership was born. "BMe Community has partnered with OneUnited Bank because we want you to have the know-how and networks for building wealth," said Trabian Shorters, Founder and CEO of BMe Community. Recently rated one of the top 25 community banks in America for its social media presence, OneUnited Bank is committed to remaining on the forefront of the digital banking age by providing multiple platforms to engage and interact with their customers in local communities and online. The #BankBlack Live event on January 12th, 2017, 7PM EST is the first of a series of digital forums to interact with OneUnited Bank and the #BankBlack Movement. MEDIA CONTACT: Suzan McDowell, Circle of One Marketing, [email protected] or 305-576-3790. ONEUNITED BANK: OneUnited Bank is the premier bank for urban communities, the largest Black-owned bank, the first Black internet bank and a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI). Its mission is to provide affordable financial services to support economic development in urban communities and maintain superior financial performance to maximize shareholder value. OneUnited is an FDIC insured bank and an equal housing lender. SOURCE OneUnited Bank Related Links https://www.oneunited.com LAS VEGAS, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Today at CES in Las Vegas, Under Armour (NYSE: UA, UAA) revealed a new revolutionary sleep and recovery system including the brand's first-ever Athlete Recovery Sleepwear powered by TB12 and a new UA Record app experience, both designed to improve sleep and overall athlete performance. UA Athlete Recovery Sleepwear was developed in collaboration with Under Armour athlete Tom Brady, who credits sleep as one of the most important components to his training regimen. Along with the brand's newly announced line of recovery-focused Record Equipped running footwear, the Athlete Recovery Sleepwear will be on display at Under Armour's booth at CES (#43912). UNDER ARMOUR LAUNCHES NEW SLEEP & RECOVERY SYSTEM, BACKED BY SCIENCE AND VALIDATED BY ATHLETES "At Under Armour our goal is to constantly innovate and uncover new solutions that take performance to the next level," said Kevin Haley, President of Innovation and Category Management, Under Armour. "We are providing athletes with untapped insight and guidance into the importance of sleep and recovery in a way that's truly unique to Under Armour with a revolutionary Sleep Recovery System that was created for athletes, by athletes." Through the new UA Athlete Recovery Sleepwear, Brady and Under Armour aim to provide all athletes with the off-field support that will maximize their ability to perform. Under Armour has incorporated the bioceramics technologyused and validated by TB12into a pattern lining the garments, which are designed to maximize comfort and fit. The pattern includes special bioceramic particles that absorb infrared wavelengths emitted by the body and reflect back Far Infrared, helping the body recover faster while promoting better sleep. "I firmly believe that sleep and recovery are critical aspects of an effective and holistic training program," said Tom Brady. "Proper sleep has helped me get to where I am today as an athlete and it is something that I continue to rely on every day. I am excited to partner with Under Armour to bring game-changing sleepwear with the same bioceramics technology I use to athletes all around the world." Under Armour is also launching a major update to the UA Record mobile app: a Sleep Recovery System. New features within UA Record provide a deep understanding into an athlete's sleep schedule and help users set smart guardrails and goals that put them on a path towards sleep optimization. The Sleep Recovery System works by: Tracking sleep : Using UA Band, a phone or supported third party sleep-tracking device, this feature automatically monitors your sleep each night. : Using UA Band, a phone or supported third party sleep-tracking device, this feature automatically monitors your sleep each night. Delivering detailed analysis : A proprietary 14-day Sleep Score assesses the quality of sleep; requiring users to establish consistent patterns of quality sleep to improve, while the UA Body Clock establishes consistent bed/wake times. : A proprietary 14-day Sleep Score assesses the quality of sleep; requiring users to establish consistent patterns of quality sleep to improve, while the UA Body Clock establishes consistent bed/wake times. Custom coaching: UA Record offers timely reminders, insights, and tips to provide direct guidance on how to improve sleep habits and maximize recovery and performance. By using the Athlete Recovery Sleepwear and UA Record together as a system, athletes will be able to accelerate recovery time and gain a deeper understanding of their sleep. As part of the system, Brady also helped develop six steps to better sleep to further educate athletes, which will be incorporated in retail packaging and available on UA.com/TB12. "By monitoring trends within our Connected Fitness communities, we've seen an uptick in athletes who are adopting a 24/7 training mentality, which led us to think about factors like sleep and recovery and how important they are to overall performance," said Mike Lee, Chief Digital Officer, Under Armour. "This drove our focus to make all athletes better through the science of sleep and recovery, and to unlock the potential for athletes to use sleep as a weapon to reach their absolute peak." Under Armour's science-backed approach to sleep and recovery is strengthened by a new collaboration with Johns Hopkins Medicine centered around tracking, understanding and analyzing sleep patterns. Under Armour has engaged a team of sleep experts at Johns Hopkins Medicine who are working to study the effectiveness of sustained patterns in improving overall sleep behaviors. This in-depth evaluation on sleep comprises the first scientific study powered by the Under Armour Connected Fitness platform and will help shape the brand's sleep products and UA Record user experience. Under Armour has expanded its presence at CES this year with unique programming, new core products and appearances from the brand's arsenal of world-class athletes. Under Armour Founder and CEO Kevin Plank will lead a keynote presentation on Friday, January 6 from 3:00-4:00 p.m. PST to discuss the brand's commitment to recovery and the newest chapter of Under Armour Connected Fitness. A complete schedule of programming, including athlete appearances from Michael Phelps, Bryce Harper, Georges St-Pierre, Natasha Hastings and Mikaela Mayer can be found at https://blog.underarmour.com/gear/under-armour-ces-2017. Under Armour's Athlete Recovery Sleepwear is priced from $80 - $100 and is available now on UA.com and at select Under Armour Brand Houses. The new line of Record Equipped running footwear retails for $140.00 - $160.00 and is available for pre-order now on UA.com, with a launch date of February 1. To get connected, download the UA Record app on the App Store or on Google Play. About Under Armour, Inc. Under Armour, the originator of performance footwear, apparel and equipment, revolutionized how athletes across the world dress. Designed to make all athletes better, the brand's innovative products are sold worldwide to athletes at all levels. The Under Armour Connected Fitness platform powers the world's largest digital health and fitness community through a suite of applications: UA Record, MapMyFitness, Endomondo and MyFitnessPal. The Under Armour global headquarters is in Baltimore, Maryland. For further information, please visit the Company's website at www.uabiz.com. Under Armour has two classes of publicly traded common stock listed on the New York Stock Exchange: Class C stock trades under the ticker symbol "UA" and Class A stock trades under the ticker symbol "UAA". For more information about Under Armour's stock, please visit the Company's Investor Relations website at http://www.uabiz.com/investors.cfm. SOURCE Under Armour, Inc. Related Links https:///www.underarmour.com/en-us/ AUSTIN, Texas, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Unilectric, a developer of energy management, control and safety technology, will introduce its innovative home automation product, the Unilectric Energy Controller (UEC), at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas on January 5 - 8, 2017. Employing circuit-level digital instrumentation, the UEC manages the electrical network to drive a cloud-based solution for energy management, safety, and security. Complementing the custom designed hardware is a suite of mobile and web applications for managing the system. At CES, Unilectric will showcase the UEC in the Eureka Park section, Booth 51018, by providing a demonstration of its circuit-level control, measurement and analytic capabilities. The UEC, in concert with its cloud-based analytics tools, supports a wide range of home and business applications such as automating actions to streamline energy control, reducing energy consumption, ensuring safety, and enhancing security. The product also utilizes a set of proprietary disaggregation algorithms both to actively monitor performance and to spot potential problems affecting appliances and other devices, making it an attractive solution for residential and industrial customers. The UEC is modular, globally capable, and easily scalable thus offering broad applicability across residential and commercial environments for US and World markets. A key feature is the implementation of a utility-driven Automated Demand Response (ADR) function useful in reducing power usage during peak periods (with user notification and control of each event). For example, a user can pre-set rules to restrict usage of devices or change HVAC settings during peak periods. Highlights of the UEC system include: Automated monitoring and control of each circuit (8k samples/second on each circuit) Remote control and notification (mobile and web applications) Manage energy usage per circuit and per individual device (meter quality power measurements) World power capable (1, 2 and 3 phase, 50-60Hz, 110 640V) Monitoring of individual device health Participation in utility-initiated power reduction programs such as Automated Demand Response (ADR) with full user notification and control Integrates into existing IoT home automation networks (e.g. Samsung's SmartThings) Independent cloud storage and energy usage analytics Guided by an experienced team, and possessing a current international patent portfolio of more than 30 assets with additional patent filings in progress, Unilectric is actively seeking partnerships to commercialize its technology. IoT Research firm Parks Associates notes that nearly 50% of U.S. broadband households plan to buy a smart home device in the next 12 months, but at the end of 2016, there still were over 100 million U.S. households that did not have a smart home device. "Unilectric offers a "highly differentiated solution" that is a key component for smart home and energy management which addresses key value propositions for consumers, businesses and channel partners, said Tom Kerber, Director, IoT Strategy, Parks Associates. "It enables new business models for energy services, cross selling with home services, lead generation, insurance loss mitigation, demand response and aging in place solutions." Dan Van Ostrand, CEO of Unilectric, states, "Effective energy management is comprised of both measurements and actions. Most energy management company products are really only energy monitors. Many of these companies believe that measuring a subset of select circuits or using software algorithms to divine individual device consumption from the total power measurement is sufficient. That is like selling a car with a speedometer and gas gauge but no steering wheel or brake pedal. We believe that 'knowing your power is only the beginning' of what is necessary to truly achieve energy efficiency and unlock the power of technology to truly integrate home and building automation, improve safety and enhance security. We monitor and control every circuit, identify each device, look for anomalous usage or device behavior, communicate with Utilities to reduce peak demand and seamlessly interact with other devices in the home or building to provide the most advanced energy management platform on the market. This is the future of true home and building automation." Visit Unilectric at CES 2017 on January 5-8, 2017 at Eureka Park in the Sands Expo Center, Level 1, Hall G, Booth 51018. Eureka Park (https://shar.es/1IKwoH) is a specialized exhibit area that provides startups a unique exhibiting opportunity to launch a new product, service or idea. About Unilectric, LLC Founded in Round Rock, Texas in 2015, the core ideas for the Unilectric system were conceived by a handful of visionary technologists who understood that the industry needed a solution providing both advanced energy management hardware and powerful analytics. Unilectric has developed an energy technology system that provides multi-layer event processing to achieve control, energy efficiency, safety, and security that synergistically integrates with existing home management products. The product offering is expanding to meet the far-ranging demands of every conceivable customer; from home and small business owners to major utilities and big data users. To find out more, please visit www.unilectric.com. SOURCE Unilectric, LLC Related Links http://www.unilectric.com TUKWILA, Wash., Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Representatives of the U.S. Army Recruiting Command and Genoa, a QoL Healthcare Company (Genoa) signed an agreement to provide priority-hiring status to qualified Soldiers participating in the Partnership for Youth Success (PaYS) Program. Michael Walters, SVP Human Resources signed the agreement with John Figueroa, CEO during a ceremony at the Seattle Army Recruiting Headquarters in Washington. "Genoa is excited to partner with the Army PaYS program as a way to recruit servicemen and women to work for Genoa. As an Army Veteran myself, I know that the Army produces high quality, dedicated and professional individuals who will exemplify Genoa's commitment to high ethical values and providing compassionate care. I am proud to collaborate with the Army on this important initiative." John Figueroa, CEO, Genoa, a QoL Healthcare Company. PaYS is a strategic partnership program between the Army and a cross section of U.S. corporations and public sector agencies. PaYS was developed to help the Army attract, train and deploy talented young people who want to serve their country, but also want to help secure their future success once their Army service is complete. Under terms of the agreement between United States Army Recruiting Command and Genoa, enlistees interested in gaining specific job training and qualifications will receive that training while in the U.S. Army. As part of the enlistment process, recruits sign a statement of intent to work for Genoa upon completion of their term of service or completion of their military training. As they near the end of their enlistments, the Soldiers will have the opportunity to interview with Genoa for a specific job at a specific location. "Genoa is fortunate to be a high growth organization. We hired over 900 new team members in 2016 in positions ranging from Pharmacists, Technicians, Drivers and Administrative roles. We are excited to partner with the Army PaYS program to develop relationships with the excellent men and women of our military to help them transition to the private sector after their service to our country is complete." Michael Walters, SVP of Human Resources, Genoa, a QOL Healthcare Company. Genoa jobs are available in the Army's PaYS database. For more information, interested applicants may visit their local recruiter or log on to www.armypays.com. The Army has more than 600 partner corporations and public sector agencies across the nation, including Amazon, Washington State Patrol, and Pierce County Sheriff Department. Genoa is the most experienced pharmacy provider specializing in serving the behavioral health community. Genoa is improving consumer care and saving centers time and money throughout the country, making a positive impact in the centers they work with and in the lives of the consumers they serve. Genoa offers a unique on-site pharmacy setting based on the needs of the center they are located in and strives to be the provider of choice to both their center partners and their consumers. Consumers benefit from the interaction they have with the pharmacist; the organization eliminates inefficiencies by directing pharmacy functions back into the pharmacy and has more control over how medications are handled. Although Genoa is a nationwide company, they have retained the feel of the hometown pharmacy and the services that go along with it. Being on-site allows their pharmacists and technicians to work closely with prescribers, nurses, and caseworkers, to provide the best possible care for each individual consumer. While they specialize in behavioral health, they have the capacity to fill all medications. They are able to bill Medicaid and Medicare, as well as private insurances. In addition, Genoa also offers several packaging options that can be tailored to fit the needs of the consumers, including specially designed adherence packaging. About Genoa, a QoL Healthcare Company Genoa has been serving the behavioral health community for over 15 years. The company provides pharmacy and telepsychiatry services to more than 500,000 individuals annually. They have over 340 pharmacies, fill more than 10 million prescriptions per year, and provide services in 44 states and the District of Columbia. For more information on Genoa please visit www.genoa-qol.com. About U.S. Army Recruiting Command The U.S. Army Recruiting Command, headquartered at Fort Knox, recruits quality men and women to serve in the Army and Army Reserve. More than 8,000 Soldiers and civilian employees conduct recruiting operations throughout the States, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and at U.S. facilities in Germany and Asia. http://armypays.com/ SOURCE Genoa, a QoL Healthcare Company Related Links http://www.genoa-qol.com LAS VEGAS, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Today at CES, the largest consumer electronics show in the world, U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance (USFRA) introduced a new communications concept, called SMART Farm, aimed at bridging the gap between the acceptance of innovation that's a part of consumers' everyday lives with the science and technology happening on today's farms and ranches. "Science and technology are embraced by consumers in all aspects of their lives," said Brad Greenway, USFRA Chairman and South Dakota crop and pig farmer. "We want to demonstrate that farmers and ranchers are using similar technology to produce food in a way that is good for the soil, air, habitat and water on and around our farms and ranches without compromise on cost, quality or taste." Today's SMART Farms use data and technology to help farmers and ranchers become more efficient, nimble, and more equipped to protect the planet's resources while producing food. While at CES, USFRA and its partners will showcase a few examples of these innovations that, for example, result in better care for animals, fewer trips across the field and more precise application of water and crop inputs like fertilizer and pesticides. "Media, influencers and consumers all understand the notion of 'smart' as a descriptor for the innovation and technology that helps improve their lives the smart phone, the smart home, the smart classroom," said Randy Krotz, USFRA Chief Executive Officer. "Just like every other forward-thinking industry, American agriculture is employing science and technology to help build an ever-improving version of the American farm." In the coming year, USFRA will incorporate programs and activities, such as 360 videos, infographics, events, speaking opportunities and more, to demonstrate SMART Farming practices. During CES, USFRA and its partners including John Deere and The Climate Corporation, will be showcasing today's SMART Farm at Booth #21662. About U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance (USFRA) U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance (USFRA) consists of about 100 farmer and rancher led organizations and agricultural partners representing virtually all aspects of agriculture, working to engage in dialogue with consumers who have questions about how today's food is grown and raised. USFRA is committed to continuous improvement and supporting U.S. farmers and ranchers' efforts to increase confidence and trust in today's agriculture. To learn more, visit our website at www.fooddialogues.com. You can also find USFRA on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. This news release was wholly or partially funded by one or more Checkoff programs. SOURCE U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance Related Links http://www.fooddialogues.com WATERTOWN, Mass., Jan. 05, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- RallyPoint, Americas leading online vertical network for service members and veterans, today announced that it has welcomed its one-millionth member, reaching a major milestone in the military community. RallyPoint has experienced rapid growth since it was founded in 2012, becoming the platform of choice for the military and veteran community. RallyPoint membership is split approximately 50-50 between service members and veterans, adding over 1,000 members per day. RallyPoint brings online scale to the conversations we service members have always had offline, throughout our military careers. Our site connects active duty, veterans and civilian supporters in an intergenerational and global manner that has never before been possible, said CEO Dave Gowel, an Army veteran. In addition to surpassing one million registered members, our sites engagement is exciting. With more than one million people visiting RallyPoint monthly, including members and non-members, RallyPoints audience consumes the content that our members actively create, comment or vote on more than 200,000 times each month. In recent years, RallyPoint has also expanded to welcome civilian supporters, military family members and Department of Defense civilians who make up approximately five percent of RallyPoints total membership. Though limited in their ability to engage proactively with active service members on the site, they are still able to view content and participate in robust discussions. RallyPoint is defined by its focus on providing a comprehensive online experience exclusively to the military community. Unlike other online social or professional networks, RallyPoint does not partition the community based around a members personal connections. RallyPoint discussions are visible to all site users, where members can engage with each other openly. RallyPoints news feed is customized based on a members personal interests and previous interactions. The result is a place where Americans who share common experiences and histories through military service can engage in a civil dialogue around topics of interest, provide career guidance or seek help in solving a challenging personal or professional problem. RallyPoint uniquely breaks down the major institutional boundaries common to the military experience, allowing people to converse freely across military service and ranks, which creates experiences and engagements that would often never happen in face-to-face conversations. Nowhere else on the Internet do you see on a daily basis a Navy commander receive advice from an Air Force technical sergeant on maintaining unit discipline, a Vietnam veteran share a meme with a post-9/11 veteran, and a former member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff host a public Q&A session. Member profiles on RallyPoint include details such as branch of service, military rank, military specialty, deployments and specialized schools. Users have the ability to incorporate civilian experiences in their profiles, which makes it possible to cross-reference military and civilian data points. RallyPoint taps the common power of the military experience to help individual service members and veterans more effectively navigate their careers and personal lives. In November, RallyPoint ranked second in a national analysis of veteran-owned startups. As RallyPoint has grown, its value proposition to employers and advertisers has expanded. In 2016, the company tripled its customer base while also expanding business products offered. Businesses that once saw RallyPoint as simply LinkedIn for the Military now come to the platform not just to hire veterans, but also to place highly effective native advertising and to manage their talent by leveraging RallyPoints unique data regarding the common characteristics of the military personnel who have found success in specific industries. For more information about RallyPoint, please visit www.RallyPoint.com/about-us. ABOUT RALLYPOINT RallyPoint is the online platform where the troops talk. With over 1 million members, RallyPoint is the premier social network for military service members and veterans to come together and discuss military life through both professional and personal perspectives. Visit www.RallyPoint.com to learn more. Follow RallyPoint on Facebook and Twitter @RallyPoint. DUBLIN, Jan 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Public Safety Technology and Solutions: Market Analysis and USA Forecasts 2016 - 2020" report to their offering. Enhanced 9-1-1 is a North American telephone network (NANP) feature of the 9-1-1 emergency-calling system that automatically associates a physical address with the calling party's telephone number. A second phase of Enhanced 9-1-1 service allows a wireless device to be located geographically using various radio-location technologies from the cellular network, or by using a Global Positioning System (GPS) built into the phone itself. This report evaluates the current state of public safety technology and solutions and assesses emerging technologies and potential future solutions. The report also provides forecasts for public safety technology spending in the United States for 2016 through 2020. Emerging technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR) are expected to improve emergency response effectiveness and also protect first responders themselves. Coupled with LTE, 5G, and other broadband wireless systems, AR and other technologies will bring about an entirely new class of public safety applications and services that are heretofore inconceivable. Leveraging Big Data Analytics and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies for public safety is also important for the future of public safety. There is an increasing demand for ubiquitous data connection for the public safety community. Data connectivity of the future will come from many sources, many of which will be machine-to-machine based, requiring little or no human interaction. There is also an opportunity to improve public safety by leveraging data analytics, especially in the area of real-time processing at the edge. Report Benefits: - Forecasts for USA 2016 to 2020 - Understand current public safety technologies - Identify emerging tech and solutions for public safety - Understand the use of Big Data and IoT for public safety - Learn about GIS, positioning, and location management methods - Learn about the impact of LTE on next generation public safety apps - R&D and planners in other regions will learn about USA public safety Target Audience: - Network operators - System integrators - LMR radio suppliers - Public safety agencies - Public safety app developers - Network infrastructure providers Key Topics Covered: 1 Executive Summary 2 Introduction 2.1 Public Safety in Perspective 2.2 Scope of Public Safety 2.3 Emergency Response and Control 2.4 Current Technology Supporting Public Safety 3 Leading Companies and Solutions 3.1 Airbus DS 3.2 Alcatel-Lucent 3.3 Carousel Industries 3.4 Cisco 3.5 Ericsson 3.6 General Dynamics Corporation 3.7 Harris Corporation 3.8 Hitachi Technology 3.9 IBM 3.10 InterDigital 3.11 Intrado (West) 3.12 Lockheed Martin 3.13 Motorola Solutions 3.14 NICE 3.15 Nokia Networks 3.16 Northrop Grumman 3.17 Raytheon 3.18 Telecommunications Systems Inc. 3.19 Thales 4 Important Global Public Safety Organizations 4.1 APCO 4.2 CALEA 4.3 EENA 4.4 ETRI 4.5 FEMA 4.6 NICE 4.7 NENA 4.8 NIST 4.9 NPSTC 4.10 PSCR 5 Next Generation Public Safety Communications and Apps 5.1 Next Generation 9-1-1 5.2 Improved Location Data: Proximity and Indoor Location 5.3 Broadband: LTE, 5G, and Beyond 5.4 Augmented Reality (AR) in Public Safety 5.5 Virtual Reality in Public Safety 5.6 Integrated Wireless Devices, Communications, and Apps 6 Next Generation Big Data Analytics and Public Safety 7 Internet of Things (IoT) and Next Generation Public Safety Systems 8 US Public Safety Forecasts 2016 - 2020 8.1 Overall Public Safety IT Spending 8.2 Public Safety Device Spending 8.3 Public Safety Spending by Segment 9 Summary and Recommendations For more information about this report visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/fkqkbp/public_safety 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 ANNAPOLIS, Md., Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The School District of Philadelphia has awarded its vending contract for its 220 schools the 8th largest public school district in the U.S. to Annapolis, MD-based Vend Natural, announced the company's CEO William H. Carpenter, Jr. This award follows other large school districts in Baltimore, Minneapolis, Richmond, Dallas/Ft. Worth and others across the nation that have selected Vend Natural as their healthy vending partner. Today, more than 2 million students have access to Vend Natural's nutritious snacking program. Vend Natural is partnering with NJ-based Refreshments Plus to provide bottled water. Vend Natural CEO William H. Carpenter, Jr. Vend Natural (www.vendnatural.com) was selected for its long track record in the healthy vending industry and its specialty in providing customized nutritional vending programs to large public school districts and prominent higher education institutions across the country. The school district values Vend Natural's commitment to offering the latest technological advancements in vending, including: energy efficient machines with touch screens and a broad array of payment options; real-time inventory management systems providing the company with 24/7 sales information; and its extensive array of all-natural snacks. Vend Natural is the oldest healthy vending company in the country and now operates in 25 states and the District of Columbia. Vend Natural CEO William Carpenter said, "We are excited that more than 134,000 Philadelphia students and nearly 20,000 teachers and staff will now have access to a nutritionally sound snacking program. Recognizing the connection between good nutrition and learning outcomes, we applaud the school district for making sure their environment is fueled by healthier snacking options," said Carpenter. "The District has found a partner in Vend Natural that will continue to promote a healthy school environment for our students by following our comprehensive Snack and Beverage Standards," commented Wayne Grasela, Senior Vice President-Division of Food Services for the School District of Philadelphia. With this contract award, the School District of Philadelphia has instituted a no-carbonation program and will offer water as the only beverage. Vend Natural and their partner Refreshments Plus will provide bottled water in addition to USDA-approved snacks and ice cream options throughout the school district. "Philadelphia Schools' decision to avoid carbonated drinks and follow USDA's Smart Snacks recommendation puts them on the forefront of our nation's schools making the right decisions to fuel our young students," said Steve Warech, President of Refreshments Plus. Vend Natural's machines will carry a wide selection of healthy snacks such as all-natural chips and popcorn, low-fat health bars, high protein nuts, trail mix, dried fruits and a full range of whole grain, low sugar snacks. All of the products available to the District through Vend Natural meet or exceed federal, state and school nutritional standards for calories, fat, vitamins, fiber, sodium and more. "With the first phase of our machine installations now complete, we are looking closely at how students are responding," said Vend Natural's V.P. of Operations Hans Lutkefedder. "Our success depends on us balancing products that appeal to students, adherence to the nutritional requirements, and attractive pricing," said Lutkefedder. "Technological advancements make it possible to see sales in real time and make adjustments quickly. We are proud to provide this to Philadelphia's schools." About Vend Natural Vend Natural's mission is to support improved eating practices by offering healthy products that are easily accessible and affordable. Vend Natural is the only healthy snacking company in the U.S. that both partners with local market distributors and owns and operates its own machines, enabling the company to test new equipment and products and provide relevant training and customer service operation for its distributors. For more, visit www.vendnatural.com. About Refreshments Plus Refreshments Plus is a full-service refreshments company offering gourmet and specialty coffees, bottled or filtered spring water, state-of-the-art vending machines and break room essentials. The Cherry Hill, NJ-based company has been serving its vending customers in New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia for more than 25 years. For more, visit www.myrefreshmentsplus.com. Contact: Anya T. Harris, 410.340.3354 / [email protected] SOURCE Vend Natural Related Links http://www.vendnatural.com HOUSTON, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Decorated veteran, author and philanthropist Marcus Luttrell will deliver a keynote speech at an awards banquet Feb. 25 recognizing veteran entrepreneurs. The banquet, hosted by the Houston chapter of the global non-profit Entrepreneurs' Organization, is the culmination of the EO-Houston Veterans Business Battle (www.vetbizbattle.com), a business plan competition for veterans seeking investment capital. In the organization's first two years, more than $1.7 million of investment offers were extended to finalists. Applications will be accepted through Jan. 15, which is a newly extended deadline. Luttrell is author of best-selling book Lone Survivor, which tells the story of his time in Iraq as a member of the U.S. Navy SEALs and Operation Red Wings. After his medical release from the Navy, Luttrell established the Lone Survivor Foundation, which helps wounded veterans and their families. "Marcus Luttrell's compelling story of survival has inspired many, and we at Veterans Business Battle are especially eager to learn how, by sharing his story in his book and the movie it inspired, he ventured on an accidental path of entrepreneurship," said Mark Martin, Veterans Business Battle Chairman. "Veterans just starting out in the business world can learn much from his experience." The winners of the competition, which will be held earlier that day at Rice University, will be announced at the dinner. The competition, which partners with the U.S. Small Business Association, Amegy Bank, the City of Houston and Rice University, is open to start-ups and existing businesses ready to grow. To compete, individuals or teams must apply on the competition's website, www.vetbizbattle.com, by January 15. Tickets for the dinner may also be purchased on the website. Seats start at $150. Portions of the proceeds from the dinner will go toward the Rice University Veterans in Business Association Military Scholars Program, which provides scholarships for veterans pursuing a Rice MBA degree. Veterans Business Battle was established in 2015 by The Houston chapter of Entrepreneurs' Organization and Rice University's Veterans in Business Association. The competition aims to foster entrepreneurship among veterans, grow veteran-owned businesses and give back to veterans seeking to make a difference in the business world. For more information, visit www.vetbizbattle.com Contact: Sara Yonker, 713-296-0004 [email protected] SOURCE Veterans Business Battle Related Links http://www.vetbizbattle.com/ Wook S. Kim comes to McDonald Hopkins from Pepper Hamilton where he served as a patent agent. He is registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Kim has substantial industrial experience as a design, research and development engineer. His expertise includes electrical, semiconductor, chemical, computer software, biotechnology and medical/health care arts. Kim earned a M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Cleveland State University in 2007 and a B.S. in Life Sciences and Biotechnology from Korea University in 1992. He can be reached at 216.430.2019 or [email protected] . Kirstyn M. Wildey 's experience includes three years as a human resource generalist at Lake Michigan Financial Corp. (now Chemical Financial Corp.). Most recently, she has been an officer with InSite Capital where she was responsible for asset management and financial analysis of the company's tax credit portfolio. Wildey earned a J.D. from Western Michigan University Cooley Law School in 2016 and a B.B.A. in Human Resource Management and Marketing from Grand Valley State University in 2011. She can be reached at 216.348.5420 or [email protected]. She is licensed to practice law in Michigan, but is not admitted in Ohio. About McDonald Hopkins Founded in 1930, McDonald Hopkins' mission is to provide insightful legal solutions and business counseling that help our clients strategically plan for an increasingly competitive future. McDonald Hopkins is a business advisory and advocacy law firm with locations in Chicago, Cleveland, Columbus, Detroit, Miami, and West Palm Beach. For more information about McDonald Hopkins, visit mcdonaldhopkins.com. CONTACT: Deborah W. Kelm McDonald Hopkins LLC 600 Superior Avenue, East, Suite 2100 Cleveland, Ohio 44114 Phone: 216.348.5733 Email: [email protected] SOURCE McDonald Hopkins Related Links http://www.mcdonaldhopkins.com ONTARIO, Calif., Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Yuneec International, a world leader in electric aviation, today announced the expansion of its industry-leading customer service offerings. These customer service upgrades include a new one year warranty, a total of twelve authorized service locations for after-warranty repair across the U.S. and Canada and Typhoon H product hotline, all effective immediately. "At Yuneec, we're committed to ensuring our customers receive the maximum benefit and enjoyment from our products and that ultimately comes down to having a customer service team that's always performing at its optimum level," said Ryan Borders, vice president of business operations. "We feel that by extending our product warranty to one year and providing quick, nimble and reliable support across the U.S. and Canada when customers need help, we will do just that." The upgraded one year warranty extends to all Typhoon and Breeze series products and automatically guarantees against manufacturer defects from the original date of purchase. Yuneec will extend the one year warranty from date of purchase to all existing and future Typhoon series and Breeze class owners. Yuneec has more authorized service centers in the U.S. and Canada than any other major drone manufacturer. The additional authorized service providers will reduce customer shipping times, repair times and overall cost. The twelve Yuneec regional authorized service centers are located in: Visalia, CA Las Vegas, NV Redmond, WA Willsall, MT Plano, TX Tempe, AZ Kansas City, MO Colts Neck, NJ Syracuse, NY Miami, FL Ontario, Canada Ontario , CA - Yuneec U.S. headquarters Along with authorized service centers, Yuneec has implemented a dedicated hotline so that Typhoon H owners can quickly and directly consult product experts. The hotline is available at 1-844-343-9770. Yuneec general customer service is accessible via email ([email protected]) or phone 1-844-898-6332 Monday through Friday from 6:00am 5:00pm PT and Saturday from 8:00am 4:30pm PT. Yuneec USA provides U.S. based customer support in English, Spanish and has French translation service available for live calls. After-hours support will be available soon with support being provided by Yuneec support personnel in English out of the German and Chinese office locations. For more information on Yuneec and its customer service program, please visit www.yuneec.com. About Yuneec International Founded in 1999, Yuneec is a world leader in electric aviation. Rooted in a passion for innovation, Yuneec holds hundreds of patents worldwide. Its core technologies power manned aircraft as well as both consumer and commercial oriented drones. With offices in North America, Europe and Asia, Yuneec manufactures over one million units a year that accommodate a range of customers. From the Typhoon series for the enthusiast, to the Breeze series for the consumer and the Tornado series for commercial application, Yuneec continues to innovate, making aerial photography attainable at any level of flight experience. The company's achievements include the introduction of the industry's first "Ready to Fly" radio controlled electric powered airplane and the design and manufacture of market-leading radio controlled helicopters and consumer drones. SOURCE Yuneec International Related Links http://www.yuneec.com BOSTON, Jan. 05, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sense, the home intelligence platform that interprets the power usage and activity of devices in the home, today announced an additional investment from a new investor, iRobot Ventures (IRBT), resulting in the completion of its series A Round. This brings the total for the round, co-led by Shell Technology Ventures (SVT) and Energy Impact Partners (EIP), to $15 Million and Senses total funding to-date to $20 Million. Following the success of its pre-order release in 2016, the company is announcing general product availability as well as an integration with IFTTT. In addition, Sense is expanding its executive team with the hiring of Scott Taylor, Vice President of Business Development at Sense. A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e5cb5270-a391-4e72-9305-ef15a7b86822 Sense recently closed a $15M Series A Round, co-led by Shell Technology Ventures (STV) and Energy Impact Partners (EIP). The round included participation from previous seed investors Capricorn Investment Group, Prelude Ventures, CRV, and hardware accelerator Bolt; and has brought on a new investor, iRobot Ventures (IRBT) who recently participated in the completion of the round. Additionally, the company is connecting the Sense platform to IFTTT, which allows homeowners to have their connected and unconnected devices talk to one another. IFTTT is Senses first step toward home automation and the company hopes to learn from both the passionate Sense community and the early-adopter IFTTT community. The IFTTT recipes they will create with Sense will help determine additional IoT integrations tech-savvy consumers are looking for and what the smart home of 2017 will truly look like. Example IFTTT and Sense integration recipes include: Turn on my connected lights when the garage door opens. Send my kids a text when the washing machine is done. Senses view is that a smart home consists of three layers: broad-based sensing intelligence automation In contrast to point solutions (e.g. a connected garage door or a connected oven), broad-based sensing is the ability to detect unconnected or dumb appliances (e.g. a regular refrigerator or curling iron). Broad-based sensing in turn enables the mining of device intelligence to determine what is actually happening in the home and whether appliances are performing efficiently and reliably. As a last step and through broad-based sensing, Sense integrates connected and unconnected appliances so that they can talk to one another which is otherwise known as home automation, as a result bringing to life the concept of the smart home. Scott Taylor joins the company as Vice President of Business Development. He brings over 20 years of experience in mobile products and enterprise software platforms. In his day-to-day role at Sense, Scott will lead the charge in developing strategic partnerships with energy providers and others and help understand the needs of smart homeowners. Sense is now available for purchase for $299 online at www.sense.com and ships anywhere in the U.S. CES visitors can check out Sense for themselves at the Eureka Park Marketplace in the Sands Hotel and Casino (Hall G 51531) in ENGIEs booth from Jan. 5-8. For more information on Sense, please visit www.Sense.com. Quote from Michael Phillips, CEO and Co-Founder, Sense: "Contrary to how the smart home has been positioned in the market to-date; at Sense, we believe that in order for the smart home to truly come to fruition, we must be able to connect the dots between connected and unconnected devices. In doing so, we enable them to communicate with one another and can fully achieve complete home automation, said Michael Phillips, CEO and co-founder of Sense. As a first step in this process, we look forward to learning what customers actually want to have automated in their home by integrating with IFTTT. We are excited to get Sense into as many homes as possible so homeowners can be more empowered about the efficiency and reliability of their home appliances and devices. Quote from Scott Taylor, Vice President of Business Development, Sense: I have been impressed by the level of interest Sense has attracted from companies looking to help their end customers better manage their energy and their homes. I look forward to working with energy providers and other strategic partners to provide their customers with home awareness and energy insights. About Sense Sense's mission is to make all homes intelligent by keeping people informed about what's happening in their homes, and helping to make them safer, more efficient, and more reliable. Founded in 2013 by pioneers in speech recognition, Sense uses machine learning technology to provide real-time insights on device behavior, even for those devices that are not "smart." Customers rely on Sense for a wide range of uses including checking what time their kids get home, monitoring their home appliances, determining whether they left appliances running or doors open and identifying how to reduce their energy costs. Sense is headquartered in Cambridge, Mass. To make sense of your energy, visit: https://sense.com If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found here New Delhi, Jan 1 : General Bipin Rawat, the Indian Army's new chief, on Sunday said that the nation wants peace and tranquillity but if necessary "will not hesitate to use force". "Our country and our army wants peace and tranquillity but this does not mean we are weak. We are capable in every manner and if necessary, we will not hesitate to use force", he said. He added that "there will be no change in the vision and thrust area of the army". General Rawat, who assumed office of the army chief on the New Year's Day, was speaking after inspecting the guard of honour presented to him at South Block. Replying to a question on him superseding two Lt. Generals, Gen. Rawat said: "It was government's decision. I respect the superseded officers. In past, we have worked together and I can speak with confidence that we continue to work together to strengthen the army." In a rare decision ignoring the tradition of nominating the senior most Lt. General as the Chief of the Army Staff, the government selected Gen. Rawat over Lt. Gen. Praveen Bakshi and Lt. Gen. P.M. Hariz. Earlier in the day, Gen. Rawat paid homage to the martyred men of the Indian armed forces at Amar Jawan Jyoti at India Gate here. He assumed the charge of the army chief on retirement of Gen. Dalbir Singh on December 31. New Delhi, Jan 2 : An on-duty Delhi Police head constable on Monday shot himself dead with his service revolver inside the Supreme Court premises, the city police said. Chand Pal Singh, 45, who was deputed at the court for the last one-and-half years, shot himself sometime between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. The shooting took place near Gate G of the apex court complex, a police officer said. A resident of Baghpat in Uttar Pradesh, Singh was reportedly unhappy over some problems in his family. The police also suspect family reasons behind his suicide. Singh was currently staying with his family in staff quarters at a police colony in Mohammadpur. He was posted in security at the Supreme Court in April 2014. Another police official said Singh's promotion to the rank of Assistant Sub-Inspector was due. Singh was hoping for his promotion this time after Delhi Police Commissioner Alok Kumar Verma announced to promote 25,000 policemen. Singh was saddened for the last two days when he did not get promotion, the officer added. Singh's duty hours started at 7 a.m. but on Monday he came at 8 a.m. After he shot himself, he was rushed to the nearby Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, where he was declared brought dead by doctors, the police officer said. Jerusalem, Jan 3 : Israeli police have interrogated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over corruption allegations, a statement said. Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit said the interrogation ended at around 23.00 (local time) on Monday, Xinhua news agency reported. It was the first time the Attorney and the police officially acknowledged the probe conducted for months. Mendelblit said Netanyahu was interrogated over suspicions that he received "benefits" from businessmen. He confirmed that Netanyahu was investigated as a suspect, with "a slew of allegations that the Prime Minister allegedly committed offences in the field of integrity". The investigation led to several other affairs, Mendelblit said. The probe has been conducted for several months but in December the investigators found evidence that "changed the situation of the case", leading to Monday's questioning. Black screens were placed outside the Prime Minister's official residence here on Monday to keep the media out. Netanyahu's office rejected the allegations as "baseless". In a meeting of his Likud party ministers, he said: "They won't come to anything because there is not anything." Netanyahu is under criminal investigation over suspicion that he and his family received "favours", including gifts and money, from businessmen. According to local media, Ron Lauder, an American billionaire, was linked with the case. Lauder was Netanyahu's close friend until their relation soured. Lauder was investigated by the police when he arrived in Israel for the funeral of the late President Shimon Peres in September. Lauder then confirmed that he had given Netanyahu "various gifts and also financed a trip abroad for the Prime Minister's son Yair". Jakarta, Jan 4 : Indonesia has suspended all forms of military cooperation with Australia due to the disrespect shown to its Pancasila national credo, an official said on Wednesday. Indonesia made the decision in mid-December 2016, Xinhua news agency quoted military spokesman Major General Wurjanto as saying. "We temporarily terminate all forms of cooperation with Australian military due to technical matters," he said. The disrespect shown toward Pancasila during a joint exercise between Indonesian special unit force (Kopassus) and Australia's Special Air Service in Western Perth "is one of the main causes of the termination", the general said. GREENVILLE, S.C., Jan. 05, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- eRAD announced today that it has successfully deployed its PACS at St. Georges General Hospital in Grenada as part of a philanthropic effort by the company to bring the benefits of digital imaging to Grenadians. eRAD is a leading provider of standards-based, web-centric radiology image and data management solutions. It is the information technology division of RadNet, Inc., the largest imaging center network in the U.S. Randy Becker, M.D., a radiologist at Advanced Radiology, a RadNet center in Baltimore, obtained his medical degree from St. Georges University School of Medicine in Grenada and has been spearheading the initiative to bring modern radiology imaging equipment and supplies to the island. Medical services available to Grenadians are extremely limited, Dr. Becker said. In fact, nearly all the imaging supplies in the Department of Radiology at the Main General Hospital in the capital of Grenada, St. Georges, have been secured via outside donations. Dr. Becker has donated his time and expertise as a radiologist for many years. He visits regularly and provides donated supplies, such as IVC filters, dialysis catheters, oral contrast agents, drainage catheters, angio catheters, biopsy needlesessentially anything I can get my hands on that will improve health care accessibility and service for Grenadians. Even internally on the island, transferring images between the main General Hospital and other imaging centers proved cumbersome. A second facility, Princess Alice Hospital, serves patients who cannot come to the capital. Princess Alice has limited imaging equipmenta CR and a few ultrasound machinesand no means of transferring those images to the General Hospital in St. Georges or surrounding local clinics. Printing reports and film incur significant financial costs for patients and the radiology department. To save money, radiology reports had to be hand-written, and additional copies for a referring physician made with carbon paper, said Dr. Becker. eRAD PACS solves those problems, since now all radiology reports and images are saved and accessible on two servers. So eRAD is driving healthcare costs down for patients and for the government, which supports most of the public sector medical services. Imaging performed on different sites of the island is now linked, and physicians both in and out of the hospital can see images and results online, and almost immediately. eRAD PACS enables better access, faster transmittal of images, and the portability of radiology reports, said Dr. Becker. We are so fortunate to have many volunteer physicians in diverse subspecialties who donate their time and services to the Grenadian patients. Now these physicians have radiology images, patient histories, and other medical record information available to them for review, often already loaded on eRAD PACS prior to their arrival in Grenada. Plus the information is stored forever, allowing easy retrieval for future projects. Ranjan Jayanathan, General Manager of eRAD, said: Dr. Becker has contributed so much to the island, and we saw a way for eRAD to help. Were honored that our PACS deployment is a successful first step in Grenadas overall vision for taking healthcare digital. Radiology touches so many facets of healthcare delivery, and this was right in line with our focus on better access of care and greater portability. Providing better imaging services to people who have no access, who have no healthcareits a good feeling. About St. Georges General Hospital Originally built in the 19th century, St. Georges General Hospital has gradually expanded its services and capacities, culminating in a new hospital in January of 2003 which overlooks the harbor and Grand Anse beach. The new facility will enter a second phase of expansion, adding new departments such as Accident and Emergency, Outpatient Services and a laboratory. For more information, visit www.health.gov.gd Contact: Randy Becker, M.D. Advanced Radiology | Crossroads 443-436-1600 About eRAD, Inc. eRAD offers a complete suite of workflow solutions for the imaging industry. Its Meaningful Use Certified Stage 2 RIS, web-based PACS, and multi-site workflow solutions are used by teleradiology businesses, specialty reading groups, multi-site reading groups, hospitals, and outpatient imaging centers. With over 500 customers in the U.S. and abroad, eRADs products are available as cloud-based hosted solutions, or as in-house enterprise solutions. For more information, visit www.erad.com. Contact: Seth Koeppel, SVP Sales Cell: 617-821-4175 | skoeppel@erad.com About RadNet, Inc. RadNet, Inc. is the leading national provider of freestanding, fixed-site diagnostic imaging services in the United States based on the number of locations and annual imaging revenue. RadNet has a network of 306 owned and/or operated outpatient imaging centers. RadNets core markets include California, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Florida and Rhode Island. In addition, RadNet provides radiology information technology solutions, teleradiology professional services and other related products and services to customers in the diagnostic imaging industry. Together with affiliated radiologists, and inclusive of full-time and per diem employees and technicians, RadNet has more than 7,000 employees. For more information, visit www.radnet.com United Nations, Jan 5 : UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke on phone with US President-elect Donald Trump, UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq said. Haq said "this was an introductory phone call during which they had a very positive discussion on US-UN relations." "The Secretary-General said that he looked forward to engaging with the president after his inauguration," Haq told reporters on Wednesday, Xinhua news agency reported. Guterres, former Prime Minister of Portugal, took reins of the UN on January 1, 2017. On his first day of work, Guterres said though there is skepticism about what role the UN can play, many people have suffered much less because of the organisation. Trump's inauguration is scheduled on January 20, 2017. His recent comments on the Paris climate deal as well as on the question of Israel and Palestine have raised concerns over the US-UN relationship in the coming years. Wellington, Jan 5 : New Zealand's new Prime Minister Bill English will visit three European capitals in January to shore up trade and security links, an official statement said. English said on Thursday that his first overseas trip as the country's Prime Minister would take him to Brussels, London and Berlin from January 9 to 18, Xinhua news agency reported. "This is an opportunity to exchange views on a range of issues facing Europe and the world, and to reaffirm that New Zealand remains a committed friend and partner," English said in the statement. "The focus of my trip will be to advance New Zealand's business and trade opportunities in the region, including starting the negotiations on an FTA (free trade agreement) with the European Union in 2017." In Brussels, English would meet with the three presidents of the EU -- European Council President Donald Tusk, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and European Parliament President Martin Schulz -- as well as Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel. In London, English would meet with British Prime Minister Theresa May. "I will be interested to hear Prime Minister May's views on Brexit and will take the opportunity to reaffirm New Zealand's commitment to working towards a high quality trade deal when Britain is in a position to negotiate," English said. In Berlin, he would meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble. He would be accompanied by Trade Minister Todd McClay in Brussels and Foreign Minister Murray McCully in London and Berlin. New Zealand's ruling centre-right National Party selected English as its leader in December 2016, after the shock resignation of John Key, who had served eight years as the Prime Minister. Chennai, Jan 5 : Debutante Megha Akash made her co-star Dhanush feel comfortable while filming some intimate scenes in upcoming Tamil action-thriller "Enai Nokki Paayum Thota", a source said. "There are a few lip-lock scenes in the film. Although they have been shot aesthetically in a way that it doesn't look vulgar, Dhanush wasn't really comfortable doing these scenes. But it was Megha who made him feel comfortable," a source from the film's unit told IANS. If not for Megha, the source said, these scenes would have been a pain to shoot. "If Megha didn't make Dhanush feel comfortable, it would have been very challenging for the makers to make these scenes look authentic," he said. In the film, Megha plays an actress who falls head over heels for Dhanush, to be seen as a college-goer. Directed by Gautham Vasudev Menon, the film has music by Darbuka Siva, and is gearing up for February release. Phnom Penh, Jan 5 : The state-owned Cambodia Post will launch an online shopping platform in March in a move to tap the current rise in e-commerce activity, a media report said on Thursday. Ork Bora, director-general of the Cambodia Post, said that after a year of studying e-commerce, the enterprise decided to launch the platform to allow all business owners to sell their products with the postal service. Bora said that the enterprise had already served as an agent for China's biggest online shopping company Alibaba and has delivered their products to customers in Cambodia for four months, Xinhua news agency reported. "We plan to launch in the first quarter of the year, maybe in March. I have been conducting a study and working on online shopping for about a year, so now we decided to launch an online shopping platform," Bora was quoted as saying. "You see that online shopping is getting popular among our people now. If you look at the number of internet users with the Telecom Regulator of Cambodia, there were some seven million," he said. He said that currently the Cambodia Post has a nationwide delivery and transport service, so an online shopping platform would be convenient for both sellers and customers. Chennai, Jan 5 : Composer Sathish Selvam has recorded the background score of upcoming Tamil thriller "Dhayama, a film to be completely shot in a single room, with the help of 60 piece orchestra at Macedonia. "Composing for a single room thriller is really a tough task and for a debutant composer, it is even more challenging.AThe film's story is such that its genre changes every 10th minute. The background score needs to accentuate the mood of the film. Hence, we decided to record it with 60 piece orchestra in Macedonia," Sathish told IANS. "The background score will travel as a character throughout the film," he said. Directed by Kannan Rangaswamy, the film stars Santhosh Prathap, Jayakumar, Jiiva Ravi and Aira Aggarwal. Hyderabad, Jan 5 : In a blow to the TRS government in Telangana, the Hyderabad High Court on Thursday directed it not to acquire lands for various irrigation projects under the state government order. The High Court, in its interim order, said lands should not be acquired under Government Order (GO) 123. The court, however, ruled that the state government can acquire the lands under Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013. The division bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan passed the orders on a batch of petitions filed by farmers affected by projects like Mallanna Sagar and others. The petitioners alleged that the government is forcibly acquiring lands from them under GO 123 when there is already a central legislation for land acquisition. The government, however, denied that it is forcibly acquiring lands. It informed the court that it is taking lands only from those who are coming forward voluntarily. The government also argued that it is paying more compensation than under the 2013 act. Panaji, Jan 5 : The Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) on Thursday snapped ties with the ruling BJP in Goa. MGP President Deepak Dhavalikar said his party will contest 22 of the 40 assembly seats and soon formalise an alliance with rebel Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader Subhash Velingkar's outfit. Dhavalikar released to the media a letter written to Goa Governor Mridula Sinha to inform her about the snapping of ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party. "After the election results, a BJP-MGP government took charge of the administration and we continued our cooperation in spite of differences on various issues which recently led to the ouster of MGP MLAs from the Cabinet," Dhavalikar said in his letter, which was also submitted to Goa assembly Speaker Anant Shet. He said now that Goa elections had been announced for February 4, the MGP had decided not to continue its alliance with the BJP. MGP ministers Deepak and Sudin Dhavalikar were sacked by Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar from the Cabinet last month following their criticism of his leadership. The sacking of the ministers virtually signalled the end of the alliance. "We will contest 22 seats... we already have an in-principle understanding with the Goa Suraksha Manch," Dhavalikar said. The Shiv Sena is likely to be the third party to join the anti-BJP alliance, the idea for which was first floated by Velingkar. Dhavalikar said his brother and former Public Works Department Minister Sudin will be MGP's chief ministerial candidate. New Delhi, Jan 5 : The Trinamool Congress MPs were on Thursday detained from near the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) here as they tried to march towards it to protest the arrest of their fellow MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay on Tuesday. No less than 32 Trinamool members of Parliament took out a march towards the PMO on Raisina Hill. They were, however, stopped midway by the Special Protection Guards (SPG) and the Delhi Police. The police detained the protesters and packed them off in buses. The TMC members alleged that male police officers manhandled the female MPs while restraining them. The protesters shouted slogans like "Modi Hatao, Desh Bachao", as they marched. Bandyopadhyay was taken into custody for six days by the CBI in Kolkata on the charge of involvement in the Rose Valley chit fund scam. Another Trinamool MP, Tapas Paul, is also in CBI remand in the case. Sheopur (Madhya Pradesh), Jan 5 : Out shopping with some money he managed to withdraw from his bank in this Madhya Pradesh district, a farmer was shocked when shopkeepers returned the Rs 2,000 note saying it was a fake since it had no picture of Mahatma Gandhi on it. However, the State Bank of India branch, from where Lakshman Meena had withdrawn the money, on Thursday said they had changed the notes and attributed the faulty notes to a "printing mistake". Meena and some other farmers from Bicchugavandi village had withdrawn money from a State Bank of India branch in Baroda town on Tuesday. He had chosen to take out Rs 6,000 and received three notes of Rs 2,000 each. On Wednesday, when Meena went out to buy groceries, he was told that the notes do not have the picture of Gandhi and can be fake. A worried Meena went back to the bank with all haste. "The notes with missing Gandhi were taken back and exchanged for new ones. They were not fake but printing mistake," SBI bank official Aakash Srivastav told IANS on Thursday. According to sources, the amount was received from SBI's Sheopur branch chest in bundles of Rs 2,000 in which there were other notes as well with printing issues, because of which the bundle is being sent back to the branch. It is not yet known how many others have received such notes. Since the demonetisation in November 8 last year, many such cases involving Rs 2,000 notes have come forward, such as notes with two pictures of Gandhi or having no water mark. But this was the first case where the Mahatma was entirely absent. Bhubaneswar, Jan 5 : Nayna Bandyopadhyay, wife of arrested Trinamool Congress MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay, on Thursday said political vendetta is the reason for the arrest of her husband. "It is very much clear that the CBI is being used by the BJP. From back-to-back arrest of two Trinamool leaders, it is evident that political vendetta is the reason behind Sudip's arrest," Nayna told media persons here. Nayna, a Trinamool MLA, spent about one hour at the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) office here. She came to meet Sudip, who has been arrested for his alleged links with the Rose Valley group chit fund scam, said sources. The Trinamool MP is currently under a six-day CBI remand for further interrogation over his alleged complicity in the scam. A special court here on Wednesday rejected the bail plea of Bandyopadhyay and remanded him to six-day CBI custody. A four-time Lok Sabha member and a minister of state in the Manmohan Singh government, Sudip was brought here on Tuesday night after his arrest by the CBI at Kolkata. Protesting against the arrest of Sudip, Nayna had said in Kolkata on Wednesday that the CBI has turned into the central government's "caged parrot". "The CBI has become a caged parrot of the central government. How can they arrest an MP and a senior politician like Sudip Bandyopadhyay on fake charges when he was summoned for interrogation in the case?" she said. Sudip's arrest came days after the arrest of another party MP Tapas Pal in the Rose Valley chit fund case. Both MPs are in CBI custody in Bhubaneswar. The investigating agency has taken Pal on three-day remand for further interrogation. Company announcement 1/2017 European Energy A/S has decided to early adopt the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) 15 in the annual report for 2016. This leads to an adjustment of the expectations for 2016. European Energy A/S now expects revenue in the level of 100 mEUR for 2016 compared to the previously announced expectations of a higher level than in 2015 (59 mEUR). Profit is now expected in the level of 13-15 mEUR compared to previously announced expectation of same level as in 2015 (6 mEUR). The equity is expected to be in the level of 61-63 mEUR end of 2016. Compared to the interim financial report for Q3 2016, published 30 November 2016, the impact from the adoption of IFRS 15 can be illustrated as follows: Unaudited ('000 EUR) YTD Reported YTD applying IFRS 15 Revenue Net result Equity Revenue Net result Equity Q3 2016 69.797 2.221 68.438 80.099 12.761 60.737 The increase in revenue and profit in 2016 follows the delay in revenue recognition especially from 2015. The decrease in the equity in Q3 follows the delay in revenue recognition resulting in results from one solar and wind power plant being deferred to 4th quarter 2016 and results from one solar and wind power plant being deferred until 1st quarter 2017 (expected). The early adoption of IFRS 15 is based on a dialogue with the Danish Business Authority (Erhvervsstyrelsen) regarding the company's current accounting policy for recognition of revenue from sale of solar and wind power plants under IAS 18. The Danish Business Authority disagrees with the Company's interpretation of IAS 18. The company has so far recognized income from sale of solar and wind power plant when all material risks and rewards have been transferred to the buyer. In accordance with the company's interpretation of IAS 18, all material risks and rewards related to the sale of a solar and wind power plant have been considered transferred when all of the following criteria were met: a) All permits for the construction are in place b) All financing is in place c) The delivery of the wind and solar power generating asset for the construction has been confirmed d) The share or asset purchase agreement with no significant conditions precedents has been signed by both parties The company has considered that the vast majority of the value creation has taken place when these criteria have been fulfilled. There have never been projects that have fulfilled these criteria where the sales have not finally been concluded. The company notes that the Danish Business Authority assesses that these criteria are not sufficient under IAS 18. The Danish Business Authority finds that the selling company has not fulfilled its performance obligations towards the buyer before the asset has been constructed and the buyer has accepted the acquisition (which happens at closing/completion of the sale). Knud-Erik Andersen, CEO, says: "To align the company's reporting with the Danish Business Authority's assessment, the company has decided to early adopt IFRS 15." The adoption of IFRS 15 means that revenue from contracts regarding sale of solar and wind power plants will be recognized on the basis of contractual performance obligations. For previous contracts this will normally be the case when the asset is constructed and delivered to the buyer and the buyer has accepted the acquisition (closing/completion of the sale has taken place). The effect of adoption of IFRS 15 is that revenue will be recognized at a later date, typically 3-9 months. On 28 February 2017 the interim financial report for Q4 will be released including the adoption of the IFRS 15 standard. The report will include a detailed analysis of the IFRS 15 adoption. European Energy A/S will release its full year 2016 financial report on 30 April 2017. Contact information: Jens-Peter Zink, chairman of the board jpz@europeanenergy.dk ph. + 45 2047 8220 New Delhi, Jan 5 : Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee feared a coup by a section of his BJP that wanted to have him replaced by his deputy Lal Krishna Advani, a new biography has claimed. The "coup of sorts" was in the works a few months after Advani took over as the Deputy Prime Minister in June 2002, says the book, "The Untold Vajpayee: Politician and Paradox" (Penguin/304 pp/Rs 599), by journalist Ullekh N.P. Citing an unnamed minister whom Vajpayee summoned to his residence, the author says: "The Union minister asked Vajpayee not to worry too much about it. "The PM replied that he was merely stating that he knew of a plan to unseat him and replace him with Advani. He didn't know who was behind it, but he was convinced of the plan. He had earlier been asked by an RSS honcho to become India's President, and leave the PM's role to Advani," the book contends. The author also claims that Vajpayee offered a "compromise formula" during the 1975-77 emergency by asking activists of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) -- the RSS student wing -- to own up to destruction of public property so that the opposition could cut a deal with the government. "Vajpayee spoke about the arson and destruction of public property in many parts of the country by miscreants and told Rai (Ram Bahadur Rai, then ABVP General Secretary) that it was time for the ABVP to own up to its mistakes and tender an apology before the government could start thinking of repealing the Emergency laws," Ullekh, who is the Executive Editor of Open magazine, mentions in the book. Dubbed by Penguin as the "the biggest political biography of the year", the book takes a fresh look at the former Prime Minister and shows that he had often taken "brief excursions into the hard-line camp". The book, according to the publisher, is thoroughly researched, supported by hard facts and accompanied by inside stories and anecdotes, insightful interviews and archival photographs, and opens a window to the life and times of the poet-politician. "Vajpayee's early speeches and comments show him to be a dyed-in-the-wool Sanghi, who, over the decades, turned out to be liberal and Nehruvian in his approach and pronouncements," Ullekh, whose first book was "War Room: The People, Tactics and Technology behind Narendra Modi's 2014 Win", told IANS. "However, he made frequent excursions into the hardline camp, as evident from his provocative speeches in Assam in 1984 and to karsevaks in Ayodhya in 1992. His public persona of being a moderate was different from his deafening silence over contentious issues within the party. He could afford to do things on his own terms thanks to his unbeatable popularity," Ullekh added. The book also says that Advani, as Home Minister, tried to "use Shias of Iran to nullify the claims of Sunni Muslims in India on Babri Masjid" in a bid to make way for a Ram Temple in Ayodhya. "But Advani's plans were foiled by Vajpayee loyalists who feared that the former would take all the credit for resolving the burning issue." The book also provides some additional details on a significant moment in the party's and the nation's history -- the aftermath of the Gujarat riots of 2002. According to the book, Vajpayee, after the Godhra train burning and the riots that followed, was resolute that (then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra) "Modi has to go" but Advani said that Gujarat would descend into chaos if that happened. Referring to a conversation that took place onboard a flight in which Vajpayee, who was reading a newspaper, and some other leaders were headed to a national executive meet in Goa, Ullekh writes: "Then (Arun) Shourie surprised himself. He pulled the newspaper out of Vajpayee's hands and interjected, 'Vajpayeeji, newspapers can be read later also. Why don't you tell Advaniji what you wanted to tell him?'" "Vajpayee kept the newspaper away, and muttered in his usual style about what had to be done. First, Venkaiah Naidu would replace Jana Krishnamurthi as the BJP president. Then he said, 'Modi has to go'. By the time they landed in Goa, the decision was taken: Modi would go," the book claims. The author mentions that Jaswant Singh shared another version of the episode. "He narrated that though Advani didn't protest when Vajpayee insisted that Modi had to go, the Home Minister added, 'There will be chaos in the state'," says the book. Eventually, Modi stayed on as the Gujarat Chief Minister. Vajpayee was India's 10th Prime Minister, first for 13 days in 1996 and then from 1998 to 2004. He is ailing now and resides in a heavily-guarded bungalow in Lutyens Delhi and has not been seen in public for more than a decade. (Saket Suman can be contacted at saket.s@ians.in) Beijing, Jan 5 : The Harbin Ice and Snow Festival, one of the largest in the world, kicked off its 33rd edition on Thursday with hundreds of sculptures, installations and leisure activities and a swimming contest in north-eastern China. The ice sculptures, with colourful lights, attract millions of visitors to the former Russian colony in Heilongjiang province. Harbin's temperatures can fall to minus 25 degrees Celsius, Efe news reported. The event, which has become among the major winter attractions of the country, is mainly based in the Zhaolin Park, located along the banks of the Songhua river that crosses the city. It will also display ice sculptures in 21 squares, 32 streets and 56 other points of interest in Harbin. Around 180,000 cubic metres of ice and 150,000 of snow was used for the structures. The swimming contest was held in the chilly waters of the Songhua, in which some 400 people took part. In this edition of the festival, tourists will be able to enjoy giant installations of temples, pagodas, palaces and buddha idols made from ice and snow and light and sound shows on European heritage-themed building installations. This year the festival, which lasts until the spring heat melts the snow and ice, has also organised a competition in building ice sculptures for international university students. New Delhi, Jan 5 : A delegation of the West Bengal BJP unit on Thursday met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh here and submitted a memorandum alleging that the Mamata Banerjee government has failed to protect the party's interests in the state. In the memorandum, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) General Secretary and the party's state affairs in-charge Kailash Vijayvargiya said there is complete breakdown of law and order in the state. He accused the ruling Trinamool Congress of attacking BJP offices in various parts of the state. "There have been arson and attacks by the ruling party goons on January 3, 2017, in different parts of the state. The principal target of the ire is the BJP." "The violence has the blessings of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and therefore police are silent spectators," Vijayvargiya said. He alleged that despite repeated phone calls to police in the wake of attack at the BJP office in Kolkata, no help came from them. "Many of our workers were injured in the brutal aggression in our state office. Several of the ruling party leaders were seen in the mayhem, encouraging their goons," he said. "Trinamool leaders such as MLA Shashi Panja and Councillor Santanu Sen were seen marshalling the mob," he added. Terming it "an unfortunate and serious situation", he urged the Home MInister for immediate review of law and order situation in the state. The Trinamool Congress and BJP workers have clashed since the arrest of Trinamool MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay by the CBI in the Rose Valley chit fund scam. Kolkata, Jan 5 : A private club in Kolkata on Thursday cancelled a discussion scheduled to be held on Balochistan and Kashmir issue on January 7 due to "unavoidable circumstances". Author and political commentator Tarek Fatah, who was among the speakers at the proposed discussion titled 'The Saga of Balochistan and Kashmir: What the world needs to know', expressed displeasure on a social networking website and claimed Kolkata Police and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's office forced the club to cancel the event. "@KolkataPolice on urging of CM @MamataOfficial forces @TheCalcuttaClub to shut talk on Kashmir Balochistan," Fatah tweeted on Thursday. Apart from Fatah, Kashmir activist Sushil Pandit, Major General G.D. Bakshi and Baloch activist Brahamdagh Bugti were supposed to participate. Kolkata Police denied the allegation and said the cancellation was an internal decision of the club. "The club submitted a letter day before yesterday (Tuesday) asking permission for the event but the very next day they informed the event has been cancelled. It is a decision of the club authority. They would be in a best position to say why the event got cancelled," Vineet Kumar Goyal, Additional Commissioner of Kolkata Police (I), said. Fatah posted a screenshot of an email sent to him by the club. "It would not be possible to hold the said programme on the club premises. Being a private social club we would like to ensure a cordial atmosphere in the club," Ranjit Dutta, club CEO and Secretary wrote. When contacted, club representatives however said they have no information on the event. "There are no events like that in the club. We have no such information," a club employee said. New Delhi, Jan 5 : Moodys Investor Service on Thursday retained its Baa3 rating for all three state-run Indian oil marketing companies (OMCs) on the basis of continued improvement in their credit metrics. "Moody's Investors Service has affirmed the Baa3 ratings of India's three state-owned oil refining and marketing companies -- Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL)," the American rating agency said in a release. "The outlook on the ratings of all three oil refining and marketing companies is positive," it said. "The ratings affirmation reflects the continued improvement in the credit metrics of the three oil refining and marketing companies, as diminished levels of fuel subsidies and moderated working capital requirement - resulting from low oil prices - have reduced borrowings," Moody's Vice President Vikas Halan said in the statement. Baa3 rating indicates moderate credit risk. Moreover, OMCs' earnings have improved as the commissioning of new capacity and higher marketing margins have more than offset weaker refining margins, Moody's said. "We expect the earnings of the state-owned refiners to improve as their additional capacities become fully operational during fiscal 2018," Halan added. "As a result of better earnings and lower borrowings, the credit metrics of the oil refining and marketing companies have improved to levels that are more consistent with a higher baseline credit assessments (BCA)," the ratings agency said. It noted, howvever, that the Indian OMCs plan to invest in upstream assets through acquisitions. "BPCL and IOC invested $1 billion in 2016, buying upstream assets in Russia," the report said. "The continued need to expand capacity and investment in upstream assets could result in increased borrowings and weaker credit metrics, especially if refining or marketing margins decline," it added. Moody's has also assigned Baa3 ratings to the foreign currency senior unsecured bonds to be issued by BPRL International Singapore Pte Ltd. and guaranteed by BPCL. New Delhi, Jan 5 : The meeting with JNU Vice Chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar on Wednesday, held after a long time, has failed to resolve the issues between the authorities and the students community, JNU Students Union (JNUSU) President Mohit Pandey said here. "The VC (M. Jagadesh Kumar) didn't give us any assurance. He just heard what we said. We met him to show that JNU students do not believe only in protests, which is a measure of last resort," he told IANS on Thursday. "We asked him to revoke the suspensions of the 12 students and to roll back the increase of weightage to viva, which unduly gives the university a chance to exercise prejudices," Pandey said. During the meeting the students also asked the Vice Chancellor to stop using "threats" against students and to engage more in dialogue with them. "We asked the VC to do away with his threatening tactics already. We believe in talks, but the other party is not willing. There have been many vice chancellors before him but none as supercilious as him," Pandey said. According to him, the JNUSU raised the matter of post-graduate student Najeeb Ahmed's disappearance since October 14 night as well, and conveyed to the VC its unhappiness at Najeeb's alleged attackers being allowed to get away almost unpunished. The meeting came after months of protests over a host of issues -- including Najeeb's disappearance -- the latest of which was the suspension of 12 students last month. They were mostly from student parties championing minority rights. The students were suspended for protesting at the session of the university's Academic Council at the campus. The council decided to increase the weightage of interview in the entrance test for admission to M.Phil. and Ph.D programmes. Many teachers, who were members of the Council, also disapproved the move. Gurugram, Jan 5 : Two Delhi-based women, including a teenager, were arrested by Gurugram police while they were trying to open fake bank accounts, police said on Thursday. The accused, Nitu Sharma, 19, and Pooja Sharma, 22, were arrested while they were opening fake bank accounts in a Central Bank of India branch at IMT Manesar here on Delhi-Jaipur National Highway 8. "The accused, who are employed as 'welcome girls' in a Delhi-based event management firm, prepared fake documents in the name of Richa, a resident of Malviya Nagar and Vaishali, living at Vasant Kunj," police officer Mandeep Kumar told IANS. The bank employees suspected a conspiracy by the activities of the women and the operation's mastermind Sanjeev Kumar and informed the police. However, Sanjeev Kumar managed to flee the bank premises before the arrival of police. "Accused were presented before the court of Judicial Magistrate (First Class) Devender Kumar who remanded them to 14 days judicial custody," the officer said. He added that police are trying to establish the identity of Sanjeev Kumar on the basis of available CCTV footage and his mobile number as the arrested women were not aware of his address. New Delhi, Jan 5 : The Presidents of Kenya and Rwanda will visit India next week, an official statement said on Thursday. Both leaders of the East African countries will also be attending the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit scheduled to be held at Gandhinagar next week. Rwandan President Paul Kagame will be on a working visit to India from January 9-12, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday. He will hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Gandhinagar on January 9. A business delegation would accompany Kagame, who will be addressing a National Business Seminar on Rwanda. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta "will pay a state visit to India from January 10-12 on an invitation extended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi", the release said. The two leaders will hold official talks on January 11 in New Delhi. "During the visit President Kenyatta is also expected to call on the President.Indian dignitaries including the Vice President, Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Defence are also expected to call on President Kenyatta," release added. President Kenyatta is likely to be accompanied by several Ministers. He is expected to attend a business forum in Delhi on January 12. Modi paid a state visit to Kenya in July 2016, the first by an Indian Prime Minister in 35 years. The 8th edition of the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit will be held from January 10-13 in Gandhinagar, Gujrat, with the central focus of "Sustainable Economic and Social Development". Islamabad, Jan 5 : Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Thursday rejected claims by the Indian Army chief about "surgical strike" against Pakistan, or its possible recurrence, the army's public relations unit said. "Gen. Bajwa rejects self-defeating claims by Indian COAS about 'so called surgical strike' and its possible recurrence," Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations Maj. Gen. Asif Ghafoor said in a statement. The army chief said the armed forces were ready to respond to any aggression from the Indian side. "Pakistan armed forces are fully geared to respond to any aggression by India." The statement came a day after the newly appointed Indian Army chief, General Bipin Rawat, said "surgical strikes" against Pakistan were meant to deliver a message, and the possibility of similar action in future could not be ruled out. Also, Gen Rawat on January 2 said India's armed forces would not "shy away from flexing their muscles, if need be." In September last year, New Delhi said that its forces carried out surgical strikes inside Pakistan against "terror launch pads". The claim was forcefully rejected by Islamabad. Tensions between Pakistan and India have been running high following the unrest in the Kashmir Valley and the attack on the Indian Army's Uri base camp in September. Since then, cross-border firing has broken out repeatedly in Kashmir, with both sides reporting deaths and injuries including of civilians. Pakistan maintains that India is attempting to divert the world's attention away from atrocities committed by the government forces in Jammu and Kashmir. Kolkata, Jan 5 : French Nobel laureate Jean Tirole on Thursday said demonetisation "can't catch much of corrupt money" although it will make corruption more difficult in the future. "You cannot get the corrupt money right away because the money has already been invested in real estate, gold and other things," the economist said at a lecture organised by Presidency University. "It will make future corruption more difficult," he said, when asked on demonetisation. Cashless economy, according to him "is a good thing" but "it has to be ensured that poor people who are most dependent on cash do not suffer". Expanding on demonetisation, Tirole referred to similar attempts in Scandinavian countries but cautioned that situation in India is different. "People want to get rid of cash for several reason and you see that in Scandinavia for example, Denmark and Sweden are trying to get rid of cash because it is more convenient. In India, the reason is to get rid of corruption," he said. Completion of the contribution in kind of DEINOBIOTICS' shares to DEINOVE which now holds 100% of its subsidiary Consequential DEINOVE's share capital increase reserved to the contributors Montpellier, January 5, 2017 - DEINOVE (Alternext Paris: ALDEI), a biotech company that discovers, develops and produces high-value compounds from rare bacteria, notably from the Deinococcus genus, announces the positive outcome of the Extraordinary General Meeting that was held on January 5, 2017. DEINOVE NOW HOLDS 100% OF ITS DEINOBIOTICS SUBSIDIARY Following the strategic move announced on 29 September 2016 to refocus DEINOVE's activities on the fields of health, nutrition and cosmetics, in order to develop high-value compounds, the extraordinary shareholders' meeting approved the terms of the contribution in kind of the DEINOBIOTICS' shares, after which DEINOVE now holds 100% of DEINOBIOTICS' share capital. This contribution has been completed under the following conditions: Contribution in kind of 71.67% of DEINOBIOTICS' shares, previously owned by several "FCPI" (venture capital trusts dedicated to innovation), by "Holding Incubatrice Chimie Verte" (Incubator holding dedicated to green chemistry) and by the managers of the Company, and valued at 3,641,588 euros (2 euros per share). Contribution paid by the issue of 1,001,437 new DEINOVE's shares, valued at a unit price of 3.64 euros, corresponding to the closing price of DEINOVE's shares on the trading day before the proposed takeover was announced, i.e. September 26, 2016. The new shares will carry immediate dividends rights and will be entirely assimilated to the existing shares. They will be admitted to trading on Alternext Paris from January 10, 2017, on the same quotation line as the existing shares (ISIN code: FR0010879056). Following this transaction, the share capital of DEINOVE is made up of 9,862,524 common shares with a par value of 0.40 euro each. The dilution resulting from this capital increase amounts to 10.15%. Emmanuel PETIOT, CEO of DEINOVE, stated: "Our strategic refocusing is clearly underway and now a significant portion of our resources is allocated to the antibiotic program. This full takeover of our subsidiary is reinforcing DEINOVE's ability to generate value from DEINOBIOTICS." Dominique LE BELLER, CEO of DEINOBIOTICS, added: "My team and I are delighted to work closer to the DEINOVE team, leading to a true synergy of competencies. This integration will allow us to speed up our projects and extend our ability to discover new molecules." The General Meeting also approved a delegation of authority for the purpose of issuing a maximum of 345,200 warrants entitling the subscription of 345,200 shares (3.5% of DEINOVE's share capital) for the benefit of the DEINOBIOTICS' share contributors as well as the holders of warrants for subscription to common shares/business creator shares of DEINOBIOTICS. These warrants are exercisable only in a limited number of cases and until thirty months after their issuance. ABOUT DEINOVE DEINOVE (Alternext Paris: ALDEI) is a biotech company that discovers, develops and produces compounds with industrial value from rare microorganisms, for the healthcare, nutrition and cosmetics markets. These innovative production methods represent a sustainable and competitive alternative. For this, DEINOVE relies on two key assets: A unique strain bank with 6,000 rare bacteria that have not yet been exploited, mainly of the Deinococcus genus; A genetic, metabolic and fermentation engineering platform that enables them to customize these natural micro-factories, transforming them into new industry standards. Based in Montpellier, DEINOVE employs approximately 50 employees and has nearly 170 international patent applications. The Company has been listed on Alternext since April 2010. More information on www.deinove.com Contacts Gandhinagar, Jan 5 : A day ahead of a joint procession by Patels, Dalits and OBCs to highlight the issue of unemployment in the state, Gujarat Chief Secretary J.N. Singh on Thursday said that the state tops in providing jobs. "During the last three years, 13.45 lakh people have been provided direct employment, both in government and private sector," Singh told reporters here. He said that Gujarat ranks highest among all the states in the country in terms of providing employment. Singh's claim was, however, disputed by OBC Ekta Manch convenor Alpesh Thakor, under whose leadership the march would be taken out on Friday. The Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) of Hardik Patel and the Una Dalit Atyachar Virodhi Samiti of Dalit activist Jignesh Mevani will be part of the march. The march will begin from Becharaji in north Gujarat and conclude at Gandhinagar. More than three lakh youngsters from all the communities would join the march, according to Alpesh Thakor. He said, "Despite claims by the state government of attracting mammoth investments in the state in the last seven 'Vibrant Gujarat' events, more than 60 lakh youth in the state remain unemployed." All the three organisations have demanded 85 per cent reservation for local Gujaratis in jobs going forward. They have even threatened to disrupt the high-profile four-day Vibrant Gujarat summit beginning on January 10. Patidar leader Varun Patel, a close aide of PAAS Convenor Hardik Patel, announced solidarity with the "Unemployment March", stating that the root cause of all the ongoing agitations is unemployment. Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani too has extended his support. Thakor has claimed that other than Patidars and Dalits, communities including Brahmins, Rabaris and Muslims have also extended support to the march. The Chief Secretary, on the other hand, cited more numbers to back his claim. Pointing at figures released by the Labour Bureau of the Government of India in September last, he said: "Unemployment rate for 15 years and above in Gujarat has been at 9 per 1,000. Compared to this, the national figure stands at 50 per 1,000." He went on to say that Gujarat roughly has 600,000 youth listed with 48 employment exchanges. The official said that the state has done an extensive survey among 1.4 lakh of these listed candidates and found only 34 per cent of them actually did not have a job. The rest had enlisted themselves either for underemployment or for better employment opportunities, he claimed. New Delhi, Jan 5 : The political storm after the arrest of Trinamool Congress MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay continued on Thursday as party MPs staged a protest march here to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) but were detained on their way. No less than 32 Trinamool MPs took out the march towards the PMO on Raisina Hill. They were, however, stopped midway by personnel of the Special Protection Group (SPG) and Delhi Police. The police detained the protesters and whisked them away in buses. The TMC members alleged that male police officers manhandled female MPs while restraining them. The protesters shouted slogans like "Modi hatao, desh bachao" during their march. Bandyopadhyay was arrested on January 3 by the Central Bureau of Investigation on charge of involvement in the Rose Valley chit fund scam and sent to six-day custody. Another Trinamool MP Tapas Paul is also in CBI remand in the case. Paul had accused BJP member and Union minister Babul Supriyo of not only involvement in the scam but also "tricking" him into the fraud, a charge reiterated by his wife Nandini. Supriyo, meanwhile, said he will file defamation suits against the TMC leaders and Paul's wife. "I will file separate cases of defamation, both civil and criminal, against Saugata Roy, Tapas Paul and Nandini Paul," Supriyo told the media here. The Trinamool, including its chairperson and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, have repeatedly alleged Supriyo's involvement with the company and demanded his arrest. Supriyo, the Minister of State for Heavy Industries, also came down heavily on Banerjee over attacks on BJP activists in Bengal following Bandyopadhyay's arrest. Suspected Trinamool activists attacked the BJP Bengal headquarters in Kolkata and injured over a dozen BJP workers. Supriyo's Kolkata residence was also attacked on Wednesday. Some cars parked in the alley leading to the office were vandalised and the building pelted with stones, leading to injuries to 12 BJP workers. A BJP West Bengal unit delegation meanwhile met Home Minister Rajnath Singh and submitted a memorandum that the Mamata Banerjee government had failed to protect their party's cadres in the state. In the memorandum, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) General Secretary and party's state affairs in-charge Kailash Vijayvargiya said there is complete breakdown of law and order in the state. He accused the ruling Trinamool Congress of attacking BJP offices in various parts of the state. West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi advised the Mamata Banerjee government to maintain law and order, irrespective of political affiliations. "Every state, irrespective of political attachments, should try to ensure peace in the state and maintain law and order," Tripathi said in reference to the eruption of violence in West Bengal in the last few days. Bhopal, Jan 5 : Fake currency notes also found their way to banks during the mad spree to deposit scrapped 500 and 1,000 rupee notes post demonetisation, police said here on Thursday. Out of the total money deposited in the local Kolar branch of the IDBI Bank, Rs 2,03,000 were found to be in counterfeit currencies, a police officer told IANS. The bank has lodged a complaint in this regard with the MP Nagar police as this is the nodal police station of the capital city, the officer said. The state branch of the Reserve Bank of India is also located in this area. The government had demonetised old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes from the midnight of November 8, 2016. People were given an option to exchange or deposit old notes at bank branches and post offices up to December 30, or exhaust the same at some select commercial outlets. New Delhi, Jan 5 : The Delhi government on Thursday asked all private schools except ones built on government land to commence with entry level admission in a transparent manner. "As per orders of honorable High Court of Delhi, all private schools have to adopt the criteria of admission which must be clear, well defined, equitable, non discriminatory, unambiguous and transparent," Delhi's Directorate of Education (DoE) said in a statement. The admissions for nursery, KG, prep, and class 1, were started on January for the schools except for the ones built on land allotted to them by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA). There are about 300 schools in the capital which are built on government land for which the admission criteria is yet to be clarified by the Delhi government. The list of such schools can be found at the education department's website, www.edudel.nic.in. The department also shared a weblink (http://doepvt.delhi.gov.in) and asked the parents and guardians to register their grievance if they find any school non-complying with the rules. The aggrieved party can address any complaints related to "donation or capitation fee being charged by schools, non display of criteria or procedure of admissions, non-availability of admission forms". The schools were also directed to display the number of seats available and later allotted to children with a break-up of marks awarded to them on each count, on their notice boards and websites. BOSTON, Jan. 05, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- LearnLaunch, along with co-host MIT Office of Digital Learning, unveiled today the full agenda for the upcoming Across Boundaries Conference, to be held on February 2-3, 2017 at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston. With a theme of Personalizing Pathways to Learning and Careers, the conference will bring together professionals from across the edtech sector, to discuss critical challenges toward moving education practice forward, to play with cutting- edge products, and to learn from leaders in the field. Keynotes include: The Conferences Learning Innovation Showcase will feature the innovations of 25 secondary and higher ed teacher and student teams, ranging from greengineering to the application of virtual reality at a local high school. Leading superintendents, including those from the recently launched MAPLE Consortium, will address how to personalize the system as well as the classroom, while pioneer educators will address successful piloting and the latest in research on product efficacy. Hot topics include sessions on assessment, on simulations and on coding and IOT. Business leaders will address the need for product interoperability, the role of tech giants in edtech, the move to software suites and the use of marketplaces. Leading investors will take on the role of social impact investing and global opportunities. The five 2017 LearnLaunch Accelerator Breakthrough Cohort companies will be introduced by Michael Hansen, CEO of Cengage Learning and will demonstrate their products at the Breakthrough Showcase event on Friday, February 3, 2017. They include: CareAcademy, CourseStorm, Kaymbu, Quality Interactions, and WriteSteps. More than 1,000 entrepreneurs, educators, edtech industry participants, students, and investors will connect with each other and the opportunities presented in five plenary sessions, a pitch competition, 48 concurrent sessions, birds-of-a-feather dinners, and a startup exhibition area - a sneak peek of cutting-edge innovations that are not only transforming learning but also changing the way educational institutions do business. Sponsors for this years event include: McGraw Hill Education, Curriculum Associates, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Parthenon-EY, EF, Pearson, Extension Engine, Vital Source, Nelson Mullins, Google, Ligature Partners, Nutter, Rethink Education, Tyton Partners, Cengage Learning, Bisk, KnowledgeVision, and Credly. Please visit our sponsorship page if you are interested in becoming a Conference sponsor. To register for the 2017 Across Boundaries Conference, visit the event registration page. About the LearnLaunch Annual Conference Since its inception in 2013, the LearnLaunch Conference has grown into the premier edtech for conference in the Northeast. Its mission is to promote dialogue and bring together a diverse set of voices to discuss the most challenging questions facing the edtech industry around digital learning. The Conference empowers the education community to build, use, and deliver effective and engaging digital tools and learning experiences. About LearnLaunch Institute LearnLaunch Institute catalyzes a community that drives innovation to transform learning and increase achievement. Our education innovation ecosystem mobilizes educators, entrepreneurs, learners, investors, and industry affiliates. As a nonprofit, the Institute offers learning opportunities and connections to individuals, support services to schools, and a district network. We believe in expanding access to learning that is engaging, personalized, and effective. Edtech is a critical component of achieving this vision at scale. For more Information and our upcoming events, visit www.learnlaunch.org or follow us @LearnLaunch. About LearnLaunch LearnLaunch is dedicated to connecting, supporting, and investing in the education technology ecosystem to drive innovation and transform learning. We offer a vibrant community, educational events, a collaborative co-working space, and a selective accelerator program to promote the growth of the edtech sector. LearnLaunch is based in Boston, a world education hub. Learn more about LearnLaunch Accelerator, Campus and Institute at www.learnlaunch.com and follow LearnLaunch on Twitter at @learnlaunch. Follow LearnLaunch on Twitter at @learnlaunch or #AcrossBoundaries2017 All logos, company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. Vol. 56 Issue 1 (2017) We need to recognize the vulnerability of those species that form the base of these ecosystemsand this base includes the seaweeds. Any oil and gas development must have the integrity of these habitats and their biodiversity as a priority. Phycologia Algae have long been identified and classified by their physical appearance, such as their color and branching. However, reliance on the form and structure of these organisms has made it challenging to determine diversity and map distribution. Molecular technologies have changed that. As scientists use DNA analysis, they have discovered more diversity among algae than was previously classified. The authors of an article published in the current issue of Phycologia used DNA barcoding and multigene analysis to study the genetic makeup of several algae species in British Columbia. By studying the DNA of the algae, the researchers discovered greater diversity than was previously thought to exist. In the current study, Gary Saunders and his team used a multi-step process to gather and then analyze the genetic data. In this case, the team collected specimens, extracted and sequenced their DNA, used barcode analysis to find genetic variation, and ultimately examined the results. Through this process, the researchers discovered a surprising amount of diversity among algal species throughout the Northern Hemisphere and particularly in the northeast Pacific Ocean. The authors of this study identified 10 species in the red algal genus Ptilotafour more species than they had expected to find in British Columbia. The algae near Haida Gwaii, a collection of islands located off the coast of British Columbia, were particularly diverse: eight of the 10 species were found there, four of which seemed to be native to the area, and two of which have not been found anywhere else in British Columbia. The results of this study have influenced the way the researchers think about species distribution and diversity. Saunders concluded that, Some species are very rare, only one or two collections, so as a first step it would be useful to get a better appreciation of their distribution. Saunders also noted that even as data piles up, huge areas remain to be surveyed, and, it is inevitable that additional rare species will be uncovered as we continue to explore. The shallow coastal waters of British Columbia are a hotspot for seaweed biodiversity with many new species having been described in recent decades, especially by the Saunders team. The rarity of many of these species and their highly productive habitats make them vulnerable to pollution from industrial development, in particular pollution from the oil and gas industry. Editor-in-Chief, David Garbary cautions While society has raised concerns regarding human impacts on the charismatic marine fish and mammal fauna of the region, we also need to recognize the vulnerability of those species that form the base of these ecosystems and this base includes the seaweeds. He continues Any oil and gas development must have the integrity of these habitats and their biodiversity as a priority. Full text of the article A molecular-assisted investigation of diversity, biogeography and phylogenetic relationships for species of Neoptilota and Ptilota (Wrangeliaceae, Rhodophyta) reported along Canadian coasts, Phycologia, Vol. 56, No. 1, 2016, is now available at http://www.phycologia.org/doi/full/10.2216/15-141.1. ### About Phycologia Phycologia is published bimonthly by the International Phycological Society and serves as a publishing medium for information about any aspect of phycology, basic or applied, including biochemistry, cell biology, developmental biology, ecology, evolution, genetics, molecular biology, physiology, and systematics. Learn more about the society at http://www.intphycsoc.org/. Unshattered has collaborated with Woolrich, Inc. to create a new line of Unshattered handbags. These limited edition bags will be sold at Woolrich Boutiques in New York City, Boston, and at their flagship store in Woolrich, PA. Woolrich, Inc. has joined with Unshattered by donating some of its fine grade soft wools to the project. Woolrich is proud to offer these bags designed and produced by the women of Unshattered. A percentage of the proceeds from the sale of these items will be donated back to Unshattered and the Walter Hoving Home where the women of Unshattered, and many others like them, found freedom from addiction. About Unshattered Unshattered is a non-profit social enterprise that provides pathways toward economic independence and sustained sobriety for women winning their fight against addiction. Every Unshattered product is handmade out of repurposed items and other high quality materials by women in recovery. Making these products gives the women an opportunity for creative expression and act as tangible representations of the transformation occurring in their lives. All the proceeds go to support Unshattered and the Walter Hoving Home where the women of Unshattered and many others have found freedom from addiction. For more information about Unshattered, please visit unshattered.org. Point of Reference, a leading provider of customer advocate program solutions, announced Shared Contacts capabilities as part of the two most recent quarterly releases of ReferenceEdge, the only customer advocate management application native to Salesforce. This new capability addresses the needs of specific markets, notably life sciences where a single individual, such as a doctor, may be associated with more than one account. The new functionality enables users to associate an individual contact record to multiple accounts, products, and reference activities without creating duplicate records. There is a significant requirement for this capability in areas such as healthcare where individual practitioners may be associated with multiple accounts for different products, says Darren Smith, CTO of Point of Reference. For example, a doctor may have hospital privileges at several hospitals. All the hospitals may be customers of the same vendor but use different products from that vendor at each facility. That doctor may be able to take reference calls for several products, but only represent a particular hospital for any given product or service. All of this information must be attributed to the contact as well as to the accounts. We know this is big for life sciences, said Smith. Supporting this level of complexity is another reason Point of Reference is at the forefront of customer advocate initiatives for major companies around the world. About Point of Reference Since 2003, Point of Reference has been helping companies leverage customer advocates to fuel business growth and fortify brands. With complete perspective and proven execution, we integrate scalable, Salesforce-native technology, content and supplemental program staffing solutions that organize and optimize authentic customer voices. By combining decades of industry expertise along with business-to-business customer reference management solutions, Point of Reference helps its clients orchestrate coordinated reference activities, inject relevant customer references and related content at the critical time in a sales cycle. For more information, visit http://www.point-of-reference.com Pilot and Renault will be showcasing a new innovation to celebrate the beginning of their collaborative partnership at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show. Pilot, a retail supplier of automotive accessories and electronics, is working with Renault to integrate its Light Pulse technology into the charging cable of its electric car, Twizy. By combining Pilots patented technology with Renaults expertise in electric mobility, the two companies will provide a more exciting and useful cable for electric car owners. Designed to connect an electric vehicle to its charging source, it indicates the current charging level by illuminating and flashing on and off simulating the proportionate flow of electricity. The lower the charge level of the vehicles battery, the faster the visible flow of current as it moves through the cable sheath, resembling a dynamic string of Christmas lights as it indicates the direction of current flow. The flash rate and visible rate of flow slows down as the battery charges and will completely switch off when it is full. The technology was inspired by a charging cable, developed and brought to market by Pilot for smartphones and tablets, based on the same principle. We are proud to partner with Renault, a leading automobile manufacturer worldwide who has been very accomplished in collaboration and innovation over its 100-year history. Pilot has developed many automotive accessories, lighting, and electronic innovations in the North American market that have made driving more enjoyable for consumers and contributed to our trading partners success. We are very excited to work with Renault to co-develop new technologies to appeal to todays generation of vehicle owners, said Calvin Wang, CEO at Pilot. See it at CES: South Hall 1, Booth #20236, Las Vegas Convention Center. About Pilot Founded in 1984, Pilot is an award-winning leader in aftermarket accessories for cars and trucks, and electronics accessories. They are best known for bringing to market unique and innovative products. Their headquarters in the City of Industry, California, is home to their in-house design and marketing, R&D and engineering, category management, and merchandising teams. http://www.pilotautomotive.com http://www.pilotelectronic.com LECMPA, winner of its second consecutive national Best and Brightest to Work For award, is a recognized leader committed to cultivating its workforce with innovative human resource initiatives LECMPA, provider of wage loss protection for railroad and transportation workers, today announced it has been named a winner of the national 2016 Best and Brightest Companies to Work For Award for the second consecutive year. Determined by the National Association for Business Resources (NABR), the Best and Brightest Companies to Work For competition identifies and honors organizations that display a commitment to excellence in their human resource practices and employee enrichment. Organizations are assessed based on categories such as communication, work-life balance, employee education, diversity, recognition, retention and more. National nominees were benchmarked against similar companies throughout the United States. LECMPA, winner of its second consecutive national Best and Brightest to Work For award, is a recognized leader committed to cultivating its workforce with innovative human resource initiatives, said Jennifer Kluge, NABR president. LECMPA should be proud to again receive this award for their outstanding work atmosphere. LECMPA is a nonprofit, member-owned company founded in 1910 to provide job protection to union railroad workers. It has expanded to provide job insurance protection to workers in all union transportation crafts. The company offers a variety of programs that support maintaining a positive work-life balance and are especially proud of its collaborative, team-oriented workplace environment. We are proud and humbled to again receive the coveted national Best and Brightest Companies to Work For Award and honored to be included with other model American companies, stated LECMPA President Susan Tukel. We firmly believe we can best serve our member clients with employees who are treated well as they are essential to our organizations continued success. The Best and Brightest awards strives to recognize the most influential, trend-setting companies in the country. They believe that creating a better business environment results in richer lives and stronger communities. Award winners for the 2016 Best and Brightest Companies to Work For can be viewed here. About LECMPA LECMPA, founded in 1910 as a cooperative assessment insurer for railroad workers, provides wage loss protection to unionized transportation workers in all crafts and industries throughout the United States. LECMPA is a nonprofit, member-owned company with approximately 27,000 members nationwide. LECMPA is headquartered in Southfield, Michigan and has regional offices throughout the United States. More information is available at http://www.lecmpa.org. "There is a certain organic, beauty and simplicity of living in Italy that cant be found elsewhere, a love of food, fashion, and the way they live their life" Nancy Ann Crowley Keep Italy Alive at home with Fine Artworks from Local, Award Winning, Recognized, Fine Art Painters at Gioia Italian Art and Products Open House Event January 15th, noon to 6 pm. Let us show them a very warm welcome and un grande abbraccio for bringing Italy to life in home decor. Gioia Company is created to bring joy through the arts of Made in Italy and Made in the US. Italian ceramics, linens, flatware, glassware, Venetian Masks, Italian Jewelry, Italian Fine Art, Italian Wedding Registry. https://gioiacompany.com/home Francesca Benevento is an artist contributor to Gioia Italian Art and Products painting Pinocchio on childrens chairs, creating original illustrations of Venetian Masks and cards of her photographs of Italy. Her mother was born in Rome, Italy. Francesca recently created custom artworks for the Italian American Heritage Childrens Theater and the Little Italy Language School. When I was 10 years old, I took a trip to Italy with my Italian family. We traveled to Rome where I visited the most beautiful works of art. The city influenced my dreams of becoming an artist. Since then, Ive had a love affair with artNow, I work as a Creative Director & Illustrator. My experience includes conceptual strategy, design and production for domestic and international products (ranging from packaging to print), catalogs and web. My paintings have been displayed in fine art galleries in Washington DC, San Francisco, and Japan.. Artist, Illustrator, Francesca Benevento, Zia Franny, http://www.ziafranny.com Nancy Ann Crowley has shown artworks all over the globe and recently at the Italian American Heritage Foundation in San Jose where she displayed her large original Sunflowers in Tuscany. There is a certain organic, beauty and simplicity of living in Italy that cant be found elsewhere, a love of food, fashion, and the way they live their lifeyou always think of love, and romance, sun burnished landscapes, colorful fishing villages along the Mediterranean and Adriatic seas, ancient ruins and hilltop castles..artworks of Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Tintoretto and Caravaggio..I am proud to present a collection of originals and limited editions reflecting my on-going travels and love for this special country. Nancy Ann Crowley, Crowley Fine Arts, http://crowleyart.com/index.htm Carol Ann Nulk is Italian whose family roots are in the Prato and Lucca areas. She visits Italy frequently for inspirations and scenes to both photograph and to paint. She has painted with the ceramic artists of Tuscany. Carol Ann has provided greeting cards at Gioia for many years, she says we have traveled many times to Italy savoring all the major cities, charming hill towns, aquamarine coasts, enticing wine country and many out of the way places.my favorites (to paint) are stucco and brick walls, vineyards, 250-year-old olive potsflowerspainting puts me in my happy zone Carol Ann Bocci Nulk, The Artists Palette, http://artistatavola.com/ Welcome to these fine artists, Francesca Benevento, Nancy Ann Crowley, and Carol Ann Nulk to Festa Gioia January 15th. This is an opportunity for you to enjoy some terrific creators, learn of their travel recommendations and experiences, possible commissions, purchase their artworks, and meet face to face for lunch and shopping Italian style at Festa Gioia, January 15th noon to 6pm. In Los Gatos. RSVP for reservations and directions. No entry fee, come over for lunch! 408-640-6628 http://www.gioiacompany.com, info@gioiacompany.com, https://www.facebook.com/gioiaitalianartandproducts/?fref=ts Kathy Winkelman, https://vimeo.com/162764971 Third-party logistics provider Kane Is Able, Inc. (KANE -- http://www.kaneisable.com) and Dow Building Solutions, a business unit of The Dow Chemical Company, have signed a long-term agreement for logistics support. KANE will operate Dow Building Solutions Northeast distribution center from KANEs logistics campus in Scranton, Pennsylvania, which is also KANEs headquarters location. The characteristics of Dows insulation product allow much of it to be stored outdoors. Because Dow uses an intermodal transportation solution, the company sought a 3PL with a large amount of outdoor space that was also close to a Northeast region intermodal ramp. KANEs Scranton lower business campus covers 44 acres and it is less than two miles from the Norfolk Southern-operated intermodal terminal in Taylor, PA. Providing our customers with reliable and timely service is the utmost priority for Dow, said Jon Huls, integrated supply chain leader for Dow Building Solutions. Were confident that our new partnership with KANE will enable the level of service we seek for our customers. KANE CEO Mike Gardner said, The partnership with Dow leverages KANEs proximity to the nearby intermodal terminal to help Dow gain the economic and sustainability advantages of rail transportation, while still moving a high volume of product to market very quickly. About Dow Building Solutions Dow Building Solutions serves the residential and commercial building and construction markets with an industry-leading portfolio of products and integrated systems designed to insulate and seal the whole building envelope. Beginning more than 75 years ago with our flagship STYROFOAM Brand Extruded Polystyrene (XPS) Foam Insulation, Dow has continued to offer innovative insulation, weatherization and air sealing solutions that work behind the scenes above grade, below grade to help builders and contractors deliver more comfortable, durable and affordable buildings. Follow Dow Building Solutions on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn or subscribe to our News Release RSS Feed. http://www.dowbuildingsolutions.com. About Kane Is Able Kane Is Able is a third-party logistics provider that helps manufacturers and their retail partners efficiently and effectively distribute goods throughout the United States. KANEs value-added logistics services include retail consolidation, nationwide warehousing and distribution, contract packaging, fulfillment, and transportation solutions. The Telly Awards has named the ARS animated TV Spot as a Bronze winner in the Regional TV & Multi-Market Cable Professional Services category. The spot was created by Owens Harkey Advertising on behalf of ARS, a Memphis, Tenn. based, privately-held national provider of air conditioning, heating and plumbing services. With over 13,000 entries from all 50 states and numerous countries, this is truly an honor. The Telly Awards has a mission to honor the very best in film and video, said Chris Mellon, Chief Marketing Officer of the ARS/Rescue Rooter. Owens Harkey Advertisings accomplishment made on behalf of ARS illustrates their creativity, skill, and dedication to their craft and serves as a testament to great film and video production. ABOUT AMERICAN RESIDENTIAL SERVICES: Based in Memphis, Tenn., privately-owned ARS operates a network of more than 70 locally-managed service centers in 22 states, with approximately 5,500 employees. The ARS network features industry-leading brands including, A.J. Perri, Aksarben ARS, Allgood, Andys Statewide, ARS, Aspen Air Conditioning, Atlas Trillo, Beutler, Blue Dot, Brothers, Columbus Worthington Air, Conway Services, Efficient Attic Systems (EAS), Florida Home Air Conditioning, Green Star Home Services, McCarthy Services, Rescue Rooter/ Proserv, Rescue Rooter, RighTime Home Services, RS Andrews, The Irish Plumber, Unique Services, "Will" Fix It, and Yes! Air Conditioning and Plumbing. United by Exceptional Service, the ARS / Rescue Rooter Network serves both residential and light commercial customers by providing heating, cooling, indoor air quality, plumbing, drain cleaning, sewer line, radiant barrier, insulation and ventilation services. Each location has a knowledgeable team of trained specialists, who have undergone rigorous drug testing and criminal background checks. Providing exceptional service and ensuring the highest standards of quality, ARS has the experience to do any job right the first time, with all work fully guaranteed. ABOUT THE TELLY AWARDS: The Telly Awards was founded in 1979 and is the premier award honoring outstanding local, regional, and cable TV commercials and programs, the finest video and film productions, and online commercials, video and films. Winners represent the best work of the most respected advertising agencies, production companies, television stations, cable operators, and corporate video departments in the world. A prestigious judging panel of over 500 accomplished industry professionals, each a past winner of a Silver Telly and a member of The Silver Telly Council, judged the competition, upholding the historical standard of excellence that Telly represents. To find out more about the Telly Awards visit our website at http://www.tellyawards.com. ### Anton Gunn (l) and Gareth Hedges (r) The addition of Anton Gunn and Gareth Hedges to our board of directors provides two unique perspectives on child sexual abuse prevention on a national scale... Darkness to Light is pleased to announce that two new members have been welcomed to their board of directors. This announcement comes on the heels of the recent hire of Katelyn Brewer as CEO. Anton Gunn and Gareth Hedges were nominated and voted onto the board just before Q4 of 2016. The appointments demonstrate Darkness to Lights commitment to child sexual abuse prevention policy and advocacy and firmly establishes the organization as a national leader on the issue. "The addition of Anton Gunn and Gareth Hedges to our board of directors provides two unique perspectives on child sexual abuse prevention on a national scale, said board chair Jamie Tozzi. From Antons experience with implementing national healthcare reform, to Gareths experience with corporate prevention policies, their voices will help us create a national call to action for all adults to be trained in child sexual abuse prevention." Anton Gunns background mobilizing grassroots campaigns both locally and nationally parallels Darkness to Lights model of community-based prevention and will prove invaluable to the organizations mission. As Chief Diversity Officer and Executive Director of Community Health Innovation at the Medical University of South Carolina, his experience working in the community in which Darkness to Light is headquartered will provide a relevant local perspective to community activation. Through his instrumental involvement in increasing engagement on the sign up for the Affordable Care Act, Darkness to Light will benefit from his experience on how to nationally mobilize action around a health issue. Im thrilled to be joining the board of directors of Darkness to Light. I look forward to bringing my experience with public policy to the organization, said Gunn. Through advocating for more child protective policies, Darkness to Light has the ability to affect real change, transform lives, and move the needle. Gunn recently completed a semester as a resident fellow at Harvard University's Institute of Politics and before that served as a senior official with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, won election to the South Carolina House of Representatives, and earned a masters degree in social work from the University of South Carolina. Anton resides in Charleston, South Carolina with his wife Tiffany, and daughter Ashley. Gareth Hedges is Chief Claims Officer for The Redwoods Group. Prior to this position, Gareth served as General Counsel, Director of Consulting, and as a Risk Management Specialist focused on aquatic and child safety. He is deeply committed to the issue of child sexual abuse prevention and to Darkness to Light as an organization. Both he and his wife are authorized facilitators of Darkness to Lights Stewards of Children child sexual abuse prevention training, a training which Hedges took for the first time on his family vacation in 2006. Having worked on countless child sexual abuse cases, he brings a unique perspective on the direct impact of child sexual abuse on the corporate sector and thus the need for corporations to establish a child protective policy from the outset. Being on the front lines and seeing the devastation that child sexual abuse causes, I look forward to working with fellow board members on creating national prevention policy and seeing Stewards of Children training implemented across the United States, said Hedges. Gareth received a BS in Public Policy from Georgia Tech in 2003, and a JD from Albany Law School in 2009. He lives in Durham, North Carolina with his wife Nicole and daughter Eleanor. The Gonzales Family We combine fresh food made with fresh ingredients, a passion for helping pets live longer and healthier lives, and the convenience of free delivery. Thats what sets Pet Wants apart from the competition. Sid and Tracey Gonzales are excited to announce the launch of their new all-natural pet food company, Pet Wants BIG D. Pet Wants carefully developed proprietary pet food is slow-cooked in small batches with fresh, all-natural ingredients once per month, so every kibble is guaranteed to be fresh and packed with nutrition. Pet Wants BIG D offers free, personal delivery to pet families in the heart of Dallas proper inside the LBJ loop including Preston Hollow, Lakewood, Lake Highlands, East Dallas, Oak Lawn, Turtle Creek, Uptown, Downtown, Highland Park and University Park. As a family, we watch what we eat and we care about nutrition and that extends to our furry loved ones as well. So, when we had the chance to start our own business and we found Pet Wants, we knew it was the perfect opportunity to do something we loved while providing a high-quality pet food option to our area, Sid said. In addition to being made fresh monthly, Pet Wants only sources the best salmon, chicken, lamb, brown rice and other ingredients available. Theres no sugar added, no fillers and no animal by-products and Pet Wants never uses corn, wheat, soy or dyes, which means the food is great for animals with allergies. Pet Wants BIG D also sells homemade pet treats and jerky, skin spray, pest repellent, healing salves, paw wax and more. At Pet Wants BIG D, we are dedicated to educating people about animal nutrition and getting to know the pets were feeding. We want to help pet parents understand whats in Pet Wants food versus what theyll find in other commercial pet food products and, if they want to go with Pet Wants, we want to make sure theyre using the best product for their pets, Sid said. Pet Wants BIG D is a minority-owned business and both Sid and Tracey are native Texans. Tracey was born and raised in Dallas and the couple has lived in East Dallas for the past 30 years. Prior to opening Pet Wants BIG D, Sid built his career in corporate IT and Tracey spent the last 7 years in education at St. Johns Episcopal School. Sid and Tracey, along with their daughter Izzy, are members of St. Johns Episcopal Church and actively involved at Episcopal School of Dallas. The family also has an adopted foster border collie mix named Paisley, who is about a year old. Paisley loves Pet Wants and we have experienced the difference it makes for her firsthand her coat is unbelievably soft and shes so full of energy. We are so excited to share this pet food with our other pet families in this area, Tracey said. We combine fresh food made with fresh ingredients, a passion for helping pets live longer and healthier lives, and the convenience of free delivery. Thats what sets Pet Wants apart from the competition, Sid added. Pet Wants originally launched in Cincinnati in 2010. Owned by Michele Hobbs, the business was built to provide proprietary crafted, fresh, slow-cooked, all-natural pet food delivered to customers through a retail store and a convenient home-delivery service. Hobbs, now the company founder, turned the business into a franchise in 2015 with the help of Franchise Funding Group, an investment and franchise-development company designed to help entrepreneurs scale their companies nationally as franchise systems. To get a free sample, order Pet Wants food for your favorite companion or to learn about the company, call (214)712-8212, email SGonzales[at]PetWants[dot]com or visit http://www.PetWantsBIGD.com. About Pet Wants: Pet Wants was started by Michele Hobbs out of love for her pets and frustration. Veterinarians were unable to help relieve her dogs painful skin allergies. After doing much research, Michele discovered the national dog food brand she trusted was not fresh, not all natural, and lacked sufficient nutrition...and when pet food sits in warehouses and store shelves for months and months it loses even more nutritional value. She was committed to developing a better solution for all dogs and cats. Their food is exclusively crafted fresh, healthy, slow-cooked and all natural with no sugar added, no fillers and no animal by-products. They source only the best salmon, chicken, lamb, brown rice, and other ingredients. Fresh ingredients make for better food and better health for pets. And since they never use corn, wheat, soy or dyes, the common pet health problems associated with these ingredients are no longer worries. Their fresh food is conveniently delivered to the customer within weeks of production, not months. Roughly half of Pet Wants products are sold through their store and half through their convenient, home-delivery program. You can learn more at http://www.PetWants.com. TULSA, Okla., Jan. 05, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In conjunction with Helmerich & Payne, Inc.s (NYSE:HP) first quarter earnings release, you are invited to listen to its conference call that will be broadcast live over the Internet on Thursday, January 26, 2017, at 11:00 a.m. (ET) with John Lindsay, President and CEO, and Juan Pablo Tardio, Vice President and CFO. What: Helmerich & Payne, Inc.s First Quarter Earnings Release. Other material developments may also be discussed. When: 11:00 a.m. ET (10:00 a.m. CT), Thursday, January 26, 2017 Where: http://www.hpinc.com How: Log on to http://www.hpinc.com then click on For Our INVESTORS Questions: Investor Relations, 918-588-5190 Helmerich & Payne, Inc. is primarily a contract drilling company. As of December 31, 2016, the Company's existing fleet included 350 U.S. land rigs, 38 international land rigs and nine offshore platform rigs. If you are unable to listen during the live webcast, the call will be archived for one year on Helmerich & Payne, Inc.s website at http://www.hpinc.com under Audio Archives, which can be accessed through the Investor Relations section of the website by clicking on For Our INVESTORS. This release includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and such statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical facts included in this release and conference call, including, without limitation, statements regarding the registrants future financial position, business strategy, budgets, projected costs and plans and objectives of management for future operations, are forward-looking statements. For information regarding risks and uncertainties associated with the Company's business, please refer to the "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" sections of the Company's SEC filings, including but not limited to, its annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. As a result of these factors, Helmerich & Payne, Inc.'s actual results may differ materially from those indicated or implied by such forward-looking statements. We undertake no duty to update or revise our forward-looking statements based on changes in internal estimates, expectations or otherwise, except as required by law. TAN Medias solution ensures that we can deliver fantastic brand content in a completely non-interruptive way. HELLO! Magazine have selected native advertising network TAN Media in order to deliver quality content-led digital advertising that enhances rather than interrupts the consumer experience. TAN specialises in supplying publishers with high quality stay-on-site brand campaigns delivered seamlessly by automated technology. This allows HELLO! Magazine to keep readers within their site and capture valuable authentic audience engagement for advertisers. Using best-in-class native technology - powered by NATIVO - TAN is able to provide UK publishers with best in class tools for managing both direct sold and third party sponsored content campaigns. Quality was critical when it came to selecting a native advertising partner. Our audiences expect high quality editorial content, so it should be no different when it comes to sponsored content said Ali Deas, Commercial Director of HELLO! Magazine. It was also vital to select a partner who can deliver a seamless execution that maintains the on-site user experience. TAN Medias solution ensures that we can deliver fantastic brand content in a completely non-interruptive way. Adam Rock, Managing Director of TAN Media, comments: Were excited to be working with HELLO! Magazine to monetise its inventory while maintaining the integrity of the user experience. HELLO! Magazines high quality audience is the perfect fit for our growing network, supporting our premium brand advertiser client base. GA Solar 2016 Solar Advocate Award The accomplishments of this years winner and finalists are a testament to the strength and potential of Georgias solar industry. We look forward to the growth and innovation the industry will contribute to the Georgia economy in 2017. The Georgia Solar Energy Association awarded its 2016 Solar Advocate Award to Shan Arora, program manager for Southface, at its annual holiday celebration on Thursday, December 15. Arora created and manages http://www.GeorgiaEnergyData.org, an interactive website that provides current information on Georgias growing solar assets. He also conducts the annual Clean Energy Industry Census that shows the growth and economic contribution of Georgias clean energy industry. In a video debuted as part of the awards presentation, http://bit.ly/2j0L82o, Georgia PSC Commissioner Tim Echols praised Southface for providing these useful services. The Georgia Public Service Commission relies on data to make informed policy decisions, Echols said. The PSC staff and commissioners like me use the Southface GeorgiaEnergyData.org website to track solar development all over our state. Both the solar map and the dashboard show Georgias solar landscape. This helps me as a Commissioner to know where solar energy is needed in the entire Georgia resource portfolio. When the website was created in 2012 under the leadership of Southface senior policy fellow John Sibley, the goal was to dispel doubts about whether solar was a viable energy source for the state, Arora said. Weve got to have the data to show its already here, Arora said. That begins a conversation about the opportunities were not taking advantage of within this state. A logical extension of Southfaces work in tracking Georgias solar energy assets was to quantify the economic impact of Georgias clean energy industry. Shan works with colleagues at the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association, http://www.energync.org, as well as partners in South Carolina and Virginia to conduct an annual four-state clean energy industry census. In 2015, Southface identified Georgias solar sector as providing 3,000 solar jobs and generating more than a half a billion dollars in gross revenue. The 2016 data, which will be released soon, shows that Georgias solar sector continues to grow in jobs and revenue. Lisa Bianchi-Fossati, Southface policy director, said Aroras work has been important in showing policymakers what solar contributes to the state economy. The tools that Shan developed have proven invaluable to the efforts of John (Sibley) and other solar advocates in the state as they work to advance solar-friendly policies here in Georgia, she said. The other finalists for the 2016 Solar Advocate Award were Jeff Pratt and Kerry Sibley of Green Power EMC for its Cooperative Solar Program, and Rachel Petry of Southern Power for developing the 1 MW solar research project at the University of Georgia. GA Solar Chair Don Moreland congratulated Shan Arora and all of the finalists for this years Solar Advocate Award. The accomplishments of this years winner and finalists are a testament to the strength and potential of Georgias solar industry. We look forward to the growth and innovation the industry will contribute to the Georgia economy in 2017, Moreland said. For more information on Georgias solar industry and solar energy in Georgia, visit the GA Solar website at http://www.gasolar.org. About the Georgia Solar Energy Association The Georgia Solar Energy Association, comprised of leading experts in solar manufacturing and installation, academia, finance, and the law is leading the effort in Georgia to promote the economic and environmental benefits of solar energy through education, advocacy and industry support. About Southface Southface inspires market-based solutions at the nexus of the natural, social and built environments. Since 1978 Southface has served as the Southeast's nonprofit leader in promoting sustainable homes, workplaces and communities through education, research, advocacy and technical assistance. Learn more at http://www.southface.org. The new corporate headquarters supports our growing organization and will enable us to better serve customers, partners and resellers. Tryon Solutions, Inc., a leading provider of supply chain software and implementation services, today opened the doors to its new corporate headquarters in the Raleigh Corporate Center office park at 801 Corporate Center Drive. The company will occupy Suite 118 in the multi-tenant building. Tryon Solutions has seen tremendous growth in both consulting services and software sales over the past two years, said Marc van Welsen, President and CEO at Tryon Solutions. The new corporate headquarters supports our growing organization and will enable us to better serve customers, partners and resellers with expanded training and meeting facilities. The companys new headquarters features a training room with video conferencing technology, collaborative hubs for the development and services teams, and flexible work space for partners and remote employees. The Raleigh Corporate Center office park offers additional amenities including access to a cafe, fitness center and community conference room. Founded in 2009, Tryon Solutions is a leading provider of professional services and software solutions for JDA (formerly RedPrairie) supply chain applications. Tryon Solutions experienced unprecedented growth as a result of launching Cycle automated testing and business process validation software and expanding its production support options in 2015. In addition to the Raleigh headquarters, Tryon Solutions operates an office in Hyderabad, India. We are thrilled to find a new headquarters location that supports our growth trajectory and provides employees with the innovative work environment Tryon Solutions is known for, said Adam Downing, VP of Finance and Administration at Tryon Solutions. As we continue to grow and hire in 2017, our new headquarters is yet another advantage Tryon Solutions offers when attracting highly skilled talent. About Tryon Solutions Tryon Solutions provides professional services and software solutions for JDA (formerly RedPrairie) supply chain applications. Tryon Solutions has extensive experience with end-to-end implementations, upgrades and optimization services for Warehouse Management Systems and associated solutions, such as Transportation Management Systems, Workforce Management, parcel, automation and other logistics execution software applications. In additional to implementation services, Tryon Solutions specializes in supply chain automated testing using its propriety software, Cycle. Designed to validate supply chain business processes, Cycle enables customers to automate testing without the need for advanced training or technical expertise. Through partnering with customers, Tryon Solutions helps logistics teams leverage its services and solutions to increase productivity, reduce risk and optimize operations across their supply chain. For more information, visit http://www.tryonsolutions.com. "This is the first cybersecurity conference completely dedicated to address the cybersecurity issues and challenges for the nations Credit Unions, said Gene Fredriksen, Executive Director/CEO of the NCU-ISAO. The National Credit Union Information Sharing and Analysis Organization (NCU-ISAO) convenes its inaugural conference January 31 February 2, 2017 at the Global Situational Awareness Center at NASA/Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Bringing together public- and private-sector Credit Union stakeholders, the NCU-ISAO is advancing cybersecurity at a more rapid pace through information sharing, coordinated response and adoption of best practice and education to operationalize Credit Union-specific cyber resilience. The NCU-ISAO, a Credit Union Member-driven organization, officially launched in August 2016, enables a dedicated mission to advance Credit Union cyber resilience. Credit unions represent a major segment of the global financial services critical infrastructure and are increasingly leveraging technology and telecommunications to better serve their Members. As they also continue to face more cyber regulatory scrutiny, the need to manage cybersecurity risk rises as a critical priority for the industry. "This is the first cybersecurity conference completely dedicated to address the cybersecurity issues and challenges for the nations Credit Unions, said Gene Fredriksen, Executive Director/CEO of the NCU-ISAO. We are incredibly excited to have the opportunity to hold the NCU-ISAOs inaugural conference at our headquarters, the Global Situational Awareness Center at NASA/Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Serving as the only operational and threat intelligence information sharing organization dedicated wholly to Credit Unions, just as Credit Unions exist to serve the needs of their communities; the NCU-ISAO exists to serve Credit Unions needs in the cybersecurity space. Because the information sharing needs for Credit Unions encompass more than just cyber threats, the NCU-ISAO supports innovative, member driven initiatives around benchmarking, process improvement, and regulatory strategies." The NCU-ISAO Conference agenda provides opportunities for attendees to engage with a defining voice in NCU-ISAO collaborative initiatives, have discussions with decision makers and to support approaches to cyber resilience strategic planning. Agenda sessions include the latest information on cybersecurity threats, technologies, mitigation strategies, the NCU-ISAO Threat Intelligence Information Sharing and Coordinated Response infrastructure, the International Association of Certified ISAOs (IACI), Credit Union Panel Discussions, an Incident Response Table-Top Exercise facilitated by FireEye and the FBI that includes a Cyber Exercise Package for attendees to use in their Credit Unions and information regarding the Credit Union Cybersecurity Specialist (CCSC) Training and Certification. A cybersecurity technology expo area is also available for attendees. As an integral cyber resilience nexus and communication channel, the NCU-ISAO represents a collaborative, member-driven independent non-profit organization that enables credit unions to participate in a globally trusted community that enhances security protection efforts. The NCU-ISAO is the first Information Sharing organization created exclusively to address threats and operational intelligence issues that are unique to credit unions. For more information on attending the NCU-ISAO Conference please visit https://ncuisao.org/events, or for sponsorship and membership inquiries, contact Brian Hinze, brian(dot)hinze(at)ncuisao(dot)org. About the NCU-ISAO The NCU-ISAO, a 501(c)6 non-profit organization, strengthens credit union cyber resilience through leadership and a sustainable infrastructure that inspires and facilitates cooperation, collaboration and coordination. http://www.ncuisao.org Global Situational Awareness Center, NASA/KSC, Florida. The NCU-ISAO is a founding Member of the International Association of Certified ISAOs (IACI), leveraging a private sector-led global cyber threat intelligence infrastructure working in collaboration with government (U.S. DHS, etc.), headquartered at the Global Institute for Cybersecurity & Research (GICSR) Global Situational Awareness Center at NASA/Kennedy Space Center. IACI advances cyber information sharing through guidance, operations and technologies for ISAOs worldwide to share information, coordinate response, provide mutual assistance and benefit from economies of scale. Learn more at http://www.certifiedisao.org Aljex Software, a leading provider of web-based transportation management software (TMS) and BAM Worldwide, the leader in innovative cash management solutions and financing to the transportation industry, today announced a partnership with the Navy SEAL Foundation. For every shipment completed on the Aljex platform using BAM financing, a donation will be made to the Navy SEAL foundation to help provide immediate and ongoing support and assistance to the Naval Special Warfare community and their families. Aljex and BAMs integrated systems provide freight brokers and carriers with BAMs end-to-end cash management solution within Aljexs TMS for all shipments. The powerful combination of Aljex and BAM deliver value for users and a seamless mechanism for giving back to the Navy SEAL Foundation. Established in 2000 to serve U.S. Navy SEALs, Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen, Naval Special Warfare support personnel and their families, the Navy SEAL Foundation provides a comprehensive set of programs specifically designed to improve health and welfare, build and enhance resiliency, empower and educate families and provide critical support during times of illness, injury, loss and transition. We are honored and excited by the support from BAM and Aljex, said Robin King, CEO of the Navy SEAL Foundation. Their contributions will help develop and refine our program offerings, ensuring the Naval Special Warfare community and its families are receiving the best support and care possible. The Navy SEAL Foundation brings truly immeasurable benefits to the community it serves, said Todd Ehrlich, CEO and founder of BAM, and a U.S. Navy SEAL veteran. BAM is committed to the ongoing support of the Navy SEAL Foundation and we are proud to partner with Aljex to use our businesses as a source for good. As a provider of transportation management software, Aljex recognizes the men and women who served or are serving in the armed forces who work in the transportation industry, said Tom Heine, CEO of Aljex. We are grateful for their military service, and are thrilled for an opportunity to give back to the Naval Special Warfare community and their families. ABOUT ALJEX Based in Somerville, New Jersey with a technology center in Boulder, Colorado, Aljex Software has provided innovative, cloud-based software and business systems for freight brokers, 3PLs, and carriers for more than 20 years. For more information, visit http://www.aljex.com. ABOUT BAM WORLDWIDE BAM is a leading provider of cash management and working capital solutions for 3PLs, committed to helping clients increase their financial performance through operational efficiency. BAMs proprietary payment processing and cash management engine, BAMwire, allows brokers to book loads quicker, reduce their days to pay, improve their credit score and build stronger carrier relationships while increasing cash flow and independence. Unlike traditional bank lending or factoring arrangements, BAM does not require personal guarantees or take control of collections. For more information, visit http://www.BAMworldwide.com. ABOUT NAVY SEAL FOUNDATION The Navy SEAL Foundation is focused on the preservation of the Naval Special Warfare (NSW) force and its families. It provides immediate and ongoing support and assistance to the NSW community and is a source of empowerment and comfort for the families of the fallen. The Foundation offers a comprehensive set of programs specifically designed to improve health and welfare, build and enhance resiliency, empower and educate families and provide critical support during times of illness, injury or loss. The Navy SEAL Foundation is a 501(c)(3), tax exempt, national non-profit charitable foundation which has maintained a 4-star rating by Charity Navigator since November 2011 for sound fiscal management and commitment to accountability and transparency and is also certified by the Independent Charities of America as a Best in America charity. http://www.navysealfoundation.org Coffee farmers from Olopa, Guatemala cup coffee in the Crimson Cup Innovation Lab At Crimson Cup, direct trade means that a member of our team has traveled to the coffee-growing region and signed an agreement directly with a farmer or growing cooperative, rather than working through a coffee broker. Past News Releases RSS Crimson Cup Welcomes The Office... Crimson Cup Coffee & Tea... Barista Magazine Names Crimson... Columbus, Ohio coffee roaster Crimson Cup Coffee & Tea has committed to purchasing coffee from a small cooperative of farmers in Olopa, Guatemala for the next three years. Negotiated through the roasters Friend2Farmer direct trade program, the purchase agreement will provide stability and additional funds for the farmers and their local community. Standard coffee industry practice is to purchase coffee annually after tasting the current crop. Crimson Cup Founder and President Greg Ubert said he agreed to the longer contract after visiting the community in the Chiquimula department of eastern Guatemala and learning about their needs. Crimson Cup committed to buy two containers of coffee each year, paying a premium above the current-market price to give farmers additional funds to invest in their community. Instability in the coffee market was leading some of the 64 coffee-growing families in the Asociacion de Productores de Cafe de Olopa (Apolo) co-op to consider abandoning the crop that had been their livelihood for over 80 years, he said. We believe our three-year commitment will give co-op members the confidence and cash flow they need to invest in agricultural improvements and their local community. The agreement was signed during a recent trip to Columbus by Apolo President Arnoldo Cardona, Vice President Alvaro Lemus and Member Eric Ramos. The co-op leaders cupped coffee at Crimson Cups Innovation Lab, met with students at the Connecting Grounds cafe on the Ohio State University Campus and toured the Crimson Cup Coffee House in Upper Arlington. We were the first American roaster to visit the community of Olopa in 2015, said Coffee Buyer Dave Eldridge. It was a great pleasure to show Arnoldo, Alvaro and Eric around our Columbus coffee operations so that they could see how their coffee is roasted and sold to consumers. Apolo co-op members harvest Guatemalan Olopa coffee from Catuai, Acturra and Bourbon varietals growing at 4,900 feet. The beans are fully washed and patio dried. After a medium roast at the Crimson Cup roasting facility, the beans produce a remarkably clean cup, with chocolate fragrance, silky body and pleasing acidity. Tasting notes of brown sugar, caramel and toast round out the sensory experience. Ubert noted that there is no universally accepted definition of direct trade in the specialty coffee industry. At Crimson Cup, direct trade means that a member of our team has traveled to the coffee-growing region and signed an agreement directly with a farmer or growing cooperative, rather than working through a coffee broker, he said. Through our Friend2Farmer program, we go even further by investing time and money to improve coffee quality and quality of life in the community. We make recurring visits to make friends, strengthen relationships and help fund local schools and other life-enriching projects. About Crimson Cup Coffee & Tea Columbus, Ohio coffee roaster Crimson Cup Coffee & Tea is Roast magazines 2016 Macro Roaster of the Year. Since 1991, Crimson Cup has roasted sustainably sourced specialty and craft coffee in small batches. The company also teaches entrepreneurs to run successful coffee houses through its coffee franchise alternative program, which includes a coffee shop business plan. Crimson Cup coffee is available through a community of more than 350 independent coffee houses, grocers, college and universities, restaurants and food service operations across 29 states, Guam and Bangladesh, as well as the companys own Crimson Cup Coffee Houses. To learn more, visit crimsoncup.com. Geographic Information Services, Inc (GISinc), welcomes Brad Epker, Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) to their executive leadership team. Brad comes from Blue Box, an IBM company, bringing over 28 years of experience in sales and business development. As Chief Revenue Officer, Brad provides leadership to all sales organizations and marketing for GISinc. His principal primary focus will be to grow revenue through initiatives and channels relating to the Internet of Things (IoT). Brad brings over a decade of experience building sales teams and partner relationships in rapidly expanding technology companies to the role of CRO. His goal, I might even say his passion, is to make GISinc the leading integrator of the GeoSpatial Internet of Things (GeoIoT)a one-stop shop that assembles best-of-breed technologies into a single location-aware solution. We expect tremendous growth in our traditional government core markets and exciting new opportunities to help businesses serve their customers. We are confident that Brad is the right leader to drive new solutions to market while growing GISincs market-share as a premier GIS services firm, Dale Dunham, Chairman and Founder. Most recently, Brad was responsible for global sales of Blue Box Cloud market leading Private Cloud as a Service offering. He successfully drove sales growth of Blue Box cloud service built on OpenStack by doubling customer implementations in his first nine months. While he comes to GISinc without a GIS background, his expansive knowledge and experience in implementing new market channels, partner/alliance strategies, account turnarounds, and revenue optimization will continue and expand upon the history of GISincs year-over-year growth. Having a true personal passion for technology, I came to GISinc because I see a company that has years of experience and trusted relationships in location services. By leveraging this experience, GISinc is now poised for great success in the emerging Geospatial IoT markets. The idea of bringing better services and tools to businesses and consumers through indoor and outdoor location services, gets me so excited I wake up thinking of new applications daily. With 25 years of experience, GISinc is truly the leader in the industry and I am very proud to be able to guide this team into emerging markets, Brad Epker, Chief Revenue Officer. GISinc, celebrating 25 years in GIS, is an employee owned company located in Birmingham, Alabama, with offices throughout the United States. GISinc has a passion for delivering customer driven location technology solutions to federal, state and local governments, and commercial organizations. For more information, please visit http://www.gisinc.com, or call (205) 941-0442. Episcopal Relief & Development Press Release The diversity of perspectives represented on our Board will enable us to rise to the challenges of becoming a more powerful player in the international development space while remaining true to our Episcopal Church roots. Past News Releases RSS Episcopal Relief & Development... Renewed Support for Refugee Center... Sri Lanka Flood Relief Continues... Episcopal Relief & Development welcomes four new members to its Board of Directors: The Rt. Rev. Mary Gray-Reeves (Diocese of El Camino Real), The Rt. Rev. Wilfrido Ramos Orench (Diocese of Puerto Rico), Mark D. Constantine (Diocese of Southern Virginia) and Meg L. DeRonghe (Diocese of Olympia). Effective leadership of Episcopal Relief & Development whose programs touch millions of people in nearly 40 countries throughout the world requires board members who are knowledgeable, engaged and proactive leaders in their fields. Our newest board members more than fit that profile, said Neel Lane, Chair of the organizations Board of Directors. As we live into the new strategic plan for 2017 and beyond, the diversity of perspectives represented on our Board will enable us to rise to the challenges of becoming a more powerful player in the international development space while remaining true to our Episcopal Church roots. The Rt. Rev. Mary Gray-Reeves is Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of El Camino Real. Her passion for making the Christian faith relevant in todays complex world is reflected in her support for strong leadership in all orders of church ministry. She is an author, a leader in clergy formation and an active participant on committees and boards of The Episcopal Church. Her support for strengthening Anglican Communion partnerships is evident in the triad partnership among El Camino Real, Gloucester and Western Tanganyika. The Rt. Rev. Wilfrido Ramos Orench is Provisional Bishop of Puerto Rico. Born and raised in Yauco, Puerto Rico, where he currently resides, he was called to serve as Latino Missioner in the Diocese of Connecticut in 1984. After his consecration as Bishop Suffragan in Connecticut and during his time as Provisional Bishop of Ecuador, he served on Executive Council, the Commission on World Mission and the Board of Trustees of General Theological Seminary. He was Officer of The Episcopal Church for Province IX from 2009-13. Mr. Mark D. Constantine is President and Chief Executive Officer of Richmond Memorial Health Foundation (RMHF). Prior to joining RMHF, he directed program-related investment and affordable housing initiatives at the Jessie Ball duPont Fund, and served for more than a decade as a consultant on issues related to governance, strategy, and learning with organizations such as the Ford Foundation, Lilly Endowment and the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation. He is an author on philanthropy and social impact investing. Ms. Meg L. DeRonghe is a Senior Program Officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation working on Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD). She has over 20 years of experience in advocacy, public policy and resource mobilization for a range of global health issues from reproductive health to malaria. She was previously interim Executive Director and Director of Corporate, Government and Foundation Business Development for NetsforLife, Episcopal Relief & Developments award-winning, flagship malaria control initiative. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization operating under the General Convention of The Episcopal Church, Episcopal Relief & Development is governed by a 21-member Board of Directors that includes clergy and lay leaders from around the country. New board members are nominated by the Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church and the Chair of the Board of Episcopal Relief & Development, in consultation with the Boards Governance Committee. The Board votes, and elections take effect when ratified by the Executive Council of The Episcopal Church. Board members are invited to serve three-year terms beginning January 1, which may be renewed once. I offer deep thanks to Neel and all of our Board members for their continued excellence in leadership, and a joyful welcome to our new members who are joining at an exciting time in the development of our organization, said Rob Radtke, President of Episcopal Relief & Development. I am grateful that we can draw on the knowledge and experience of all of our members both lay and ordained, those coming from not-for-profit and corporate sectors and those who understand how we as a faith-based organization can fit into the larger international development sphere as we strengthen our ability to do our work on behalf of all Episcopalians. For over 75 years, Episcopal Relief & Development has served as a compassionate response to human suffering in the world. The agency works with more than 3 million people in nearly 40 countries worldwide to overcome poverty, hunger and disease through multi-sector programs, using the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a framework. An independent 501(c)(3) organization, it works closely with Anglican Communion and ecumenical partners to help communities create long-term development strategies and rebuild after disasters. WebRezPro Property Management System This is our second year exhibiting at this annual event and were looking forward to the opportunity to show attendees how WebRezPro can make their work day more productive and profitable. WebRezPro Property Management System (PMS) by World Web Technologies Inc. will be exhibiting at the 2017 InnSpire Summit and Marketplace held in Long Beach, California, January 29th to February 1st. Visitors to the WebRezPro booth can view the cloud software in action and learn about how WebRezPro automates daily operations to boost efficiency and revenue. This is our second year exhibiting at this annual event and were looking forward to the opportunity to show attendees how WebRezPro can make their work day more productive and profitable, said Mike Berezowski, Director of Communications and Design at World Web Technologies, who will be demonstrating the cloud PMS during the marketplace. From managing inventory, rates and reservations to housekeeping and accounting, visitors to WebRezPros booth will be able to gain an overview of the property management systems features, as well as its cloud advantages, such as mobile access, data security and third-party integrations. WebRezPro is always evolving and improving, commented Berezowski. Since we attended the show last year, many features have been updated to offer an even more intuitive user experience and maximize property revenue, including rate management features, the interactive availability calendar (tape chart), and property gift certificates can now be sold online too. WebRezPro is proud to be a sponsor of this years event, presented by the California Association of Boutique and Breakfast Inns (CABBI) in partnership with Select Registry and the Association of Independent Hospitality Professionals (AIHP). Held on the historic Queen Mary, InnSpire 2017 offers five days of workshops, educational sessions, vendor exhibits and networking opportunities designed especially for B&B and boutique inn operators. WebRezPro will be at Booth #3. About WebRezPro WebRezPro is a powerful, easy-to-use cloud property management system for all accommodation types and sizes. The fully integrated and automated system saves lodging operators time and boosts revenue by streamlining and modernizing front desk and back office operations. Bringing the benefits of the cloud to properties in 40 countries, WebRezPro is a product of World Web Technologies Inc., an Internet marketing and software company for tourism and hospitality since 1994. For more information, visit http://www.webrezpro.com. The companies will now operate as one company to provide high-value software development services for existing and new clients. DCG Software Value, a global provider of Function Point Analysis, Software Value, and Software Estimation services, and The Spitfire Group, LLC, a business-oriented technology consulting firm, today announced the merger. The companies will now operate as one company to provide high-value software development services for existing and new clients. The companies will continue to do business under the existing brand names. Founded in 1994, with offices in the U.S. and U.K., DCG Software Values suite of services measures and maximizes the flow of software development value to foster improved decision making and resource management and to quantifiably impact a companys bottom line. Founded in 2004 and based in Denver, The Spitfire Group specializes in technology projects that are critical to business success, with services including technology architecture assessments, custom development projects, project management, and leadership training. Merging with The Spitfire Group is a natural progression of our partnership, as we seek to better serve our clients and maximize the value they receive from their software, said Mike Harris, CEO of the new company. The combination of our function point analysis, software value, and software estimation expertise together with The Spitfire Groups custom offerings and resources will enable us to bring additional value to our clients across a greater breadth of services. I started The Spitfire Group with the vision of solving mission-critical technology issues in a way that supports the overall goals of businesses, said Mark Richtermeyer, Executive Vice President and Head of Consulting for the new company. Today, I couldnt be more excited to merge with DCG to further realize that vision and drive high-value software development initiatives for our collective client base. About DCG Software Value DCG Software Value is a global provider of high-value software development services in the areas of Function Point Analysis, Software Value, and Software Estimation. Since 1994, companies of all sizes have relied on DCG to measure and maximize the flow of software development value to foster improved decision making and resource management and to quantifiably impact their bottom line. DCG maintains corporate offices in the U.S. and U.K. For more information, visit http://www.softwarevalue.com. About The Spitfire Group, LLC Founded in 2004, The Spitfire Group is a business-oriented technology-consulting firm headquartered in Denver, Colorado. The Spitfire Group delivers technology architecture assessments, development and integration services, project management, and leadership training. Spitfire specializes in working on custom development projects and working on the difficult projects that are mission critical to business success. For more information, visit http://spitfiregroup.com. Las Vegas - CES 2017 - DJI, the world leader in unmanned aerial technology, has selected HERE, the Open Location Platform company, as its global partner to provide mapping interface technology for drone pilots using the DJI GO app. HERE's highly accurate map data will appear in the DJI GO app that controls all of DJI's aerial platforms, allowing drone pilots to pinpoint their location in real time and navigate precisely through critical segments of flight. The HERE-powered map will also draw the flight path of a drone as it flies, and can reorient it by creating a direct line home. The app works offline, so DJI drone pilots can locate and fly their drone even when they are out of mobile network range. HERE was recently selected as the top location platform by global research and consulting firm Ovum, ranking highest in completeness, mapping data, features and device compatibility. "Boosting and enhancing our user experience was front of mind when searching for a map graphics partner, and HERE was able to think outside the box when it came to mapping needs for our aerial robots," said Jan Gasparic, Head of Enterprise Marketing at DJI. "With HERE, we're partnering with an innovative company whose image library reaches across all corners of the globe, so our pilots will always be assisted in their flight navigation." HERE's work with DJI's aerial platforms complements its strength in providing mission-critical map data for traditional and autonomous land vehicles. HERE works with leading vehicle manufacturers around the world to provide location-based data and services used in in-dash navigation systems. HERE is also developing high definition (HD), real-time mapping for autonomous driving and other IoT applications that need precise location-based information and services. "Our partnership with DJI marks a momentous leap in the increased functionality of drones on a global scale, giving pilots more independence and inspiring them to be more adventurous with the support of HERE's leading map and platform technologies," said Leon van de Pas, Head of Internet of Things at HERE. HERE maps are currently available through the latest DJI GO app update for Android devices. Media Enquiries Keep Left Tim Lele: tim@keepleft.com.au | +61 411 293 176 About HERE HERE, the Open Location Platform company, enables people, enterprises and cities to harness the power of location. By making sense of the world through the lens of location we empower our customers to achieve better outcomes - from helping a city manage its infrastructure or an enterprise optimize its assets to guiding drivers to their destination safely. To learn more about HERE, including our new generation of cloud-based location platform services, visit http://360.here.com and www.here.com About DJI DJI is a global leader in developing and manufacturing innovative drone and camera technology for commercial and recreational use. DJI was founded and is run by people with a passion for remote-controlled helicopters and experts in flight-control technology and camera stabilization. The company is dedicated to making aerial photography and filmmaking equipment and platforms more accessible, reliable and easier to use for creators and innovators around the world. DJI's global operations currently span across the Americas, Europe and Asia, and its revolutionary products and solutions have been chosen by customers in over 100 countries for applications in filmmaking, construction, emergency response, agriculture, conservation and many other industries. Texas A&M prototype Autonomous Underwater Vehicle designed by Texas A&M Engineering Students As an Industry advisor to the Texas A&M Shell OceanDiscovery XPRIZE team, I couldnt be prouder of the student based team who are using the absolute most from their current educational curriculum." Ron Smith, President, CEO Deep Down Inc. TX Texas A&M Ocean Engineering students have put together a multi-national team and entered for a chance of winning the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE, a global competition, that comes with a prize purse of $7 million dollars, of which $4 million will be awarded to the team that garners first place. What is the Challenge? You may ask. It is not an easy challenge and a challenge that some believe is impossible to complete. It is to build an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle that will be capable of exploring and mapping the ocean floor. Our planets surface is covered with approximately 70 percent of ocean and as of today, only about 5-7 percent is mapped in any significant way, in fact we know more about the Moon and Mars than we do about our own Ocean floor. Texas A&M have made their submission for the first round of judging and met with XPRIZE judges to discuss their design last month in San Diego, CA. A&M Team Leader Dylan Blakeslee, went to San Diego with the Industry Advisor, Ron Smith, CEO of Deep Down Inc., (Houston TX) to discuss his team's submission, an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle they have designed and named Marlin. Blakeslee is highly enthusiastic about the vehicles designs, capabilities and believes that his team is up to the challenge. He stated We have devised an approaching method from shore to the Competition Area without human intervention. The hull has been designed with a material that can withstand hydrostatic pressure and a structure that minimizes resistance during navigation. We have put together a navigation and position system that allows us to accurately navigate the planned route while measuring its position even under water. Our team has designed a propulsion system that can achieve the fastest speed within a range that does not interfere with measuring data. The Marlin will be equipped with cost effective sonar, sensors and communication systems to transfer this information to the user. The energy source for all these functions is a rechargeable battery. Although it is not directly related to the Criteria required by the XPRIZE, to apply innovative and green technology, we designed a system to charge the battery via renewable energy generation and finally, we also designed a safety device that can recover safely when an unexpected situation occurs. Ron Smith, President, CEO of Deep Down, Inc., an oilfield services company serving the worldwide offshore exploration and production industry, and Texas A&M Ocean Engineer stated, As an Industry advisor to the Texas A&M Shell OceanDiscovery XPRIZE team, I couldnt be prouder of the student based team who are using the absolute most from their current educational curriculum and blending it with industry experience, and scientific advancements, for the going forward innovations necessary to win a contest such as this and change the world. I will continue to support them to the best of my ability and look forward to celebrating a winning system. For the Texas A&M team from the submission stage to meeting with the judges, has been a huge learning curve. In the early stages, they were told that the task at hand was impossible, however, now, industry leaders and pioneers are feeling extremely optimistic that what they thought was impossible has potential to be an actual reality. The A&M team in addition to students from College Station and Galveston, have utilized the help from students attending two different universities in Brazil, although the A&M team has a diverse group of individuals emanating from all over the world. Electrical Systems Lead Pankaj Goel said, I am really excited about being a part of the XPRIZE team, this is a unique challenge where you have to work with multidisciplinary teams. For this challenge, you have to think out of the box while implementing engineering concepts learned during the coursework. Our biggest challenge will be to integrate all the components and subsystems and run the complete system successfully, which I have every faith our team is more than up to the task. When Blakeslee was asked why there had been a change in outlook by people in the industry he said Our Team has worked hard and done an extensive amount of due diligence. There are many cutting edge technologies that have already been developed throughout the world, all standalone, we intend to use these technologies with the consent of the owners, bring them all together and use them in unison, with our proprietary technology, designed by our A&M students. Our advising partners, Deep Down Inc., Oceaneering Intl., and Texas A&M University Ocean Engineering Department have been invaluable in the assistance and services they have given us so far. Additionally to the XPRIZE $7 million dollar purse, The National Oceanographic Atmospheric Administrations (NOAA) have added a $1 million bonus prize intended to incentivize teams to develop technologies to detect the source of chemical and biological signals underwater. Team Members, Faculty & Advisors Hansung Kim, Jaewon Kim, Jin-young Kim, Gabe Tatman, Pankaj Goel, Prahant Gundale, Sambong Jang, Pranjay Gupta, Nabil Moosajee, Jacob Kennedy, Aishwarya Mahadevan, Susmitha Kotu, Nirup Kumar, Brian Hubbard, Zachary Ratliff, Chinenye Nwagbara, Levi Roady, Chung-Kuk Jin, Garrett Malatek, Jessica Heath, Mitchell Disbrow, Vinit Shah, Nathaniel Franklin, Marlon Batistella, Luis Cardoso, Micah Hutcherson, Hunter Adams, Sudikshya Bhandari, Charlie Donaway, Dylan Blakeslee, Dr. Robert E. Randall, Dr. Sharath Girimaji, Ronald Smith, http://www.oceandiscovery.xprize.org http://www.tamu.edu http://www.noaa.gov http://www.deepdowninc.com http://www.oceaneering.com http://www.ansys.com UPMC Susquehanna displays its new name on a flag in front of Williamsport Regional Medical Center Our medical staff, service partners, volunteers and trustees have fulfilled our mission of extending Gods healing love by providing outstanding patient care and helping shape the future of health care in our region. Its been said that change is the only constant in life and that progress is impossible without it. The year 2016 brought a number of notable changes for Susquehanna Health (SH), namely its name, yet its mission remains constant. Our leadership family is incredibly proud of the collaboration and commitment shared by the entire organization in 2016, said UPMC Susquehanna President and CEO Steven Johnson. Our medical staff, service partners, volunteers and trustees have fulfilled our mission of extending Gods healing love by providing outstanding patient care and helping shape the future of health care in our region. What follows are accolades and advancements that occurred for UPMC Susquehanna within each season of 2016 and set the stage for promising performance in 2017. Winter SHs new Surgery Center opened March 1. Formally known as Same Day Services, the Surgery Center includes 23 surgical and cardiovascular procedure rooms, a patient-centered check-in and reception area, 33 new pre- and post-operative bays, one cardiovascular operating room, two general operating rooms, two cardiac catheterization laboratories, one electrophysiology laboratory and shelled space for another electrophysiology laboratory. Williamsport Regional Medical Center (WRMC) earned The Joint Commissions Gold Seal of Approval for Hip and Knee Joint Replacement Certification. The Gold Seal of Approval is a symbol of quality that reflects a commitment to providing safe and effective patient care. In addition, Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield recognized WRMC as a Blue Distinction Center for Knee and Hip Replacement, part of the Blue Distinction Specialty Care program. Blue Distinction Centers are nationally designated healthcare facilities shown to deliver improved patient safety and better health outcomes. Hospitals designated as Blue Distinction Centers for Knee and Hip Replacement demonstrate expertise in total knee and total hip replacement surgeries, resulting in fewer patient complications and hospital readmissions. The Skilled Nursing & Rehabilitation Center was selected to participate in the Agency for Healthcare Research and Qualitys (AHRQ) On-Time Pressure Ulcer Prevention Dissemination Program as a result of its five-star rating and commitment to providing the highest quality care to its residents. A division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, AHRQ developed this program to help nursing homes with electronic health records (EHR) reduce the occurrence of in-house pressure ulcers. Best practices from this research will help elevate care nationwide in more than 15,400 nursing homes. Spring A partnership between SHs Home Care & Hospice and Shirati Hospital Palliative Care, Tanzania, received the 2016 Global Partnership Award from Global Partners in Care, an affiliate organization of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO). The award was presented at NHPCOs annual Management and Leadership Conference held in the Washington, D.C. area. The Joint Commission and The American Heart Association/American Stroke Association recognized SH with The Joint Commissions Gold Seal of Approval and the American Heart Association/American Stroke Associations Heart-Check mark for Advanced Certification for Primary Stroke Centers. The Gold Seal of Approval and the Heart-Check mark represent symbols of quality from these organizations. In addition, Susquehanna Regional EMS (SREMS), the regions largest EMS agency, was recognized by the American Heart Association with the Mission: Lifeline EMS Gold Award for implementing quality improvement measures for the treatment of patients who experience severe heart attacks. Agencies that receive this award demonstrated at least 75 percent compliance for each required achievement measure for two years. Summer The American Hospital Associations (AHA) Health Forum named SH to the nations list of Most Wired Health Systems in the U.S. The health system has received this recognition for 14 of the past 16 years. For the fourth consecutive year, Muncy Valley Hospital (MVH) was named one of the Healthstrong Top 100 Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) in the U.S. by iVantage Health Analytics. MVH is the only Pennsylvania hospital to receive this award in 2016. The Hospice and Palliative Care program was honored in June with the prestigious 2016 Circle of Life Award from the AHA. The Circle of Life Award celebrates innovation in end of life and palliative care. The Cancer Center was recognized in September with the American Cancer Societys East Central Divisions Health Systems Excellence Award. This award recognizes the health system for embracing the full scope of its relationship with the American Cancer Society (ACS) and demonstrating exemplary support in advancing the fight against cancer. Fall The grandest change for SH in 2016 is its affiliation with UPMC. Following two years of extensive exploration and a letter of intent in May, SH determined UPMC to be most supportive of its long-term vision for the communities it serves. UPMC is committed to advancing SHs goals to expand healthcare services, maintaining its patient-focused mission, investing in information technology and providing an additional choice for health insurance to the region. UPMC Susquehanna celebrated the end of a great year with an Employer of Choice designation. This coveted recognition was presented based on the health systems demonstrated dedication to the highest level of employee relationships, which goes above and beyond normal human resource practices. ### About UPMC Susquehanna UPMC Susquehanna is an affiliate of UPMC and a northcentral Pennsylvania based health system that includes Divine Providence Hospital, Muncy Valley Hospital, Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hospital and Williamsport Regional Medical Center. Serving patients from an 11-county region, UPMC Susquehanna has been recognized at the national and state levels for quality of care. This regional provider offers a wide array of services that include cancer care, heart and vascular care/heart surgery, neurosciences including neurosurgery, orthopedics, urology, OB/GYN, gastrointestinal services, behavioral health, physical rehabilitation, home care, long term care, assisted living and paramedic/ambulance services. About UPMC A world-renowned health care provider and insurer, Pittsburgh-based UPMC is inventing new models of patient-centered, cost-effective, accountable care. It provides nearly $900 million a year in benefits to its communities, including more care to the regions most vulnerable citizens than any other health care institution. The largest nongovernmental employer in Pennsylvania, UPMC integrates 60,000 employees, more than 20 hospitals, more than 500 doctors offices and outpatient sites, a 3-million-member health insurance division, and international and commercial operations. Affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences, UPMC ranks No. 12 in the prestigious U.S. News & World Report annual Honor Roll of Americas Best Hospitals. For more information, go to UPMC.com. Friends w/ the legendary John Lee Hooker, Sage brings her unique musical roots to Hart's blues rock tour. "Part Bob Dylan part Taylor Swift Rachael Sage has the guts, vision and talent to embody both within the confines of her music." --MAVERICK UK Four-time Independent Music Award-winner and multi-instrumentalist Rachael Sage will join Grammy-nominated blues rocker Beth Hart on her upcoming U.S. album release tour during February and March 2017. An adventurous pairing, both of these strong and passionate artists will perform their own soulful brand of music while remaining true to their roots. NYC-based Sage has released 12 albums of eclectic originals on her own label, MPress Records, and will join Hart for just over a dozen dates beginning in Atlanta, Georgia and ending in Kent, Ohio. While she is most known for what The Village Voice describes as lovely and literate folk-pop-rock, Sage also has a musical and personal connection to the blues. When she was a DJ in college, she became friends with the legendary John Lee Hooker and frequently visited his Bay Area home. The occasional jam on his Wurlitzer piano led Sage to pen the song Blue Light about Hooker. Shortly after, blues-rock vanguard Eric Burdon invited her to support his European tour, which deepened her admiration for the genre. For Sage, it will be a particular thrill to share the stage with Hart, whose powerful voice she first discovered via the Off-Broadway show, "Love Janis". Sage reveals, I was absolutely blown away by her presence and her incredibly passionate vocals. From that point forward Ive followed her career with enormous respect. Sages latest album, "Choreographic", reflects not only her background in dance but a variety of her influences while also incorporating elements of rock, folk and Americana. Members of Ian Hunter and Patti Smiths bands appear on "Choreographic" alongside her regular touring outfit, The Sequins, with Sage playing both acoustic and electric guitar. Sage...seemed relaxed and confident as she shared anecdotes between songs. Her material had a warm, slightly off-kilter charm that won the trust of the room." - No Depression Magazine Known for her impressive musicianship, colorful stage banter and for personally connecting with her audiences, Sage looks forward to providing support for Hart's "Fire On The Floor" tour, accompanied by guitarist James Mastro (Ian Hunter, Garland Jeffreys, The Bongos). After these dates, she'll then join synth-pop pioneer Howard Jones in the U.K. for the Spring leg of his world tour. Rachael Sage is available for in-person, phone, or email interviews. Press considerations are much appreciated. If you wish to attend any of the shows for review or would like to request a copy of "Choreographic", please email: press(at)mpressrecords(dot)com ABOUT RACHAEL SAGE: With 9.5 million YouTube views and 12 full-length albums, Rachael Sage is one of the busiest touring artists in independent music, performing 100+ dates a year both solo and with her band, The Sequins. She has earned a loyal following for her dynamic piano playing, delicate guitar work, soulful vocals, and improvisational audience interaction. Sage has shared the stage with Ani DiFranco, Jamie Cullum, Eric Burdon, Marc Cohn and Shawn Colvin. She's received numerous songwriting awards including The John Lennon Songwriting Contest (Grand Prize) and several Independent Music Awards. Her songs have appeared on MTV, HBO, A&E, TLC, Comedy Central, the Fame soundtrack, and Lifetime TV's hit reality series "Dance Moms". Sage has also been an outspoken advocate against bullying, releasing a benefit EP in 2016 for anti-bullying charity Ditch The Label and giving workshops at schools combining musical improvisation, dance and storytelling. Prometheus Real Estate Group, the largest private owner of multifamily properties in the San Francisco Bay Area, today announced that it was named the Elite Winner, ranking the firm number one in the large business category by Best and Brightest Companies to Work For In the Nation, a national competition that honors organizations that display a commitment to excellence in their human resource practices and employee enrichment. Our Prometheans (employees) work incredibly hard to build the culture here, and all the credit goes to them, said Jackie Safier, President of Prometheus Real Estate Group. Prometheus has a long history of excellence as an employer. In 2016, the company was named one of the Best Places to Work by the San Francisco Business Times/Silicon Valley Business Journal, and one of the 100 Best Workplaces for Women by Fortune. The company has also received numerous industry awards, including three years as the NAHB Pillars of the Industry Property Management Company of the Year (more than any other firm in history). To learn more about working at Prometheus, please visit iamhomeatwork.com or http://www.linkedin.com/company/prometheus-real-estate-group. Prometheus Real Estate Group, Inc. is the largest private owner of multifamily properties in the San Francisco Bay Area, with a growing portfolio of more than 15,000 metropolitan-area apartments in the Bay Area, Seattle and Portland. Since its inception in 1965, Prometheus has specialized in the acquisition, development and management of high-quality residential and commercial properties throughout the western United States. Prometheus has a long history of award-winning approaches to development, management and general excellence. Its philosophy is centered on making the apartment experience more fun and interesting while providing a true sense of home. For more information, visit prometheusreg.com. Maplesoft and University of Waterloo provide students and educators access to a variety of online undergraduate courses in a variety of subjects The blending of highly effective technology infrastructure with top quality content is critical to the advancement of online education Maplesoft and the University of Waterloo today announced a partnership that will combine Maplesofts online courseware platform, Mobius, together with Waterloo-developed content in math and other STEM subjects. Mobius will be available along with courses and online Waterloo material to provide institutions and professors with a rich online learning solution that allows learning by doing, using technology that keeps students actively engaged through interactive applications, visualizations and immediate feedback. The University of Waterloo is one of the largest institutions in the world for STEM education. With 17,000 students in Math and Engineering and another 6000 in Science, the university is uniquely positioned to offer a wide array of specialized courses. The Faculty of Mathematics alone offers close to 600 courses in mathematics, statistics and computer science. About 50 such complete courses are currently being offered online using Mobius. Maplesoft has successfully developed technology solutions and tools used in STEM education for nearly 30 years and its technology is now used by 8000 educational institutions, research labs, and companies, in over 90 countries. A combined offering by these two partners aims to transform online education and help students develop a deeper understanding of complex problems and concepts in STEM topics. Through this new partnership, students and educators around the world can get access to a variety of online undergraduate courses covering a wide array of subjects. The University of Waterloo has a long history of high quality distance education and substantial experience in online courses and degrees. We eagerly embrace advances in technology to give all our students the most effective learning experience. Mobius allows both on-campus and online students to learn at their own pace and at their own time, said Stephen Watt, Dean of the University of Waterloo, Faculty of Mathematics. Rather than learning by watching, students can learn by doing. We are delighted to see Waterloo-developed material made widely available through Mobius. The blending of highly effective technology infrastructure with top quality content is critical to the advancement of online education, said Jim Cooper, President and CEO of Maplesoft. It provides a complete solution that enables institutions to move courses online and make full use of the opportunities that the application of technology to education can provide. The University of Waterloo has a strong reputation in the STEM education community and the top quality university level content developed using Mobius will offer opportunities for more effective education. We are excited about this initiative that will empower educators to succeed in a new teaching environment with a solution designed to meet the particular needs of STEM education. The initial offerings will be available beginning spring 2017, with a larger suite of courses coming in fall 2017. Maplesoft and the University of Waterloo previously partnered to create the Secondary School Courseware Project, a free online education initiative that encourages and promotes the study of mathematics amongst high school students. The project, developed using Mobius, supports high school teachers in precalculus and calculus courses and better prepares students for STEM courses at the post-secondary level. This new agreement is the next step in building on the success of that initiative. For further information on Mobius and online education as a whole, please view the following white paper: The Evolution and Revolution of Online Education About Maplesoft Maplesoft has provided mathematics-based software solutions to educators, engineers, and researchers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) for over 25 years. Maplesofts flagship product, Maple, combines the world's most powerful mathematics engine with an interface that makes it extremely easy to analyze, explore, visualize, and solve mathematical problems. Building on this technology, the product line includes solutions for online assessment, system-level modeling and simulation, and online STEM courseware. Maplesoft products provide modern, innovative solutions to meet todays challenges, from exploring math concepts on a smartphone to enabling a model-driven innovation approach that helps companies reduce risk and bring high-quality products to market faster. Maplesoft products and services are used by more than 8000 educational institutions, research labs, and companies, in over 90 countries. Maplesoft is a subsidiary of Cybernet Systems Group. For further details, please visit http://www.maplesoft.com. About the University of Waterloo University of Waterloo is Canadas top innovation university. With more than 36,000 students Waterloo is home to the world's largest co-operative education system of its kind. Waterloos unmatched entrepreneurial culture, combined with an intensive focus on research, powers one of the top innovation hubs in the world. Find out more at uwaterloo.ca. The 2017 Sheep Show and Sheep Week in Reno will once again be the place to be for the mountain hunter and conservationist, Gray Thornton, President & CEO Wild Sheep Foundation The Wild Sheep Foundation (WSF) Convention and Sporting Expo, The Sheep Show, will hold its 40th conservation and mountain hunting convention at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center and Peppermill Resort Spa & Casino January 19-21, 2017. WSFs Sheep Show is the largest conservation and mountain hunting convention in the U.S., and features hundreds of exhibitors, entertainers and educational events, as well as online and silent auctions. The auctions at the event offer more than $6 million in hunts, trips, art, firearms and equipment, as well as more special conservation permits than any other convention or wildlife show. The 2017 Sheep Show and Sheep Week in Reno will once again be the place to be for the mountain hunter and conservationist, said WSF President and CEO Gray N. Thornton. It is the summit of the hunting and conservation shows with something for the entire family. Well have more exhibits than ever before, as well as informative free seminars for men and women, a wildlife conservation and adventure experience for youth, silent auctions, raffles for sheep and other hunts and gear. We feel they really are the best conservation auctions in the land. Through convention success and member donations, the WSF directed more than $4.6 million last year to wild sheep conservation and other mission programs. In just the last three years, weve directed more than $13.4 million to conservation programs that benefit wild sheep populations and habitat throughout North America and around the globe. Thornton said pre-registered attendance for the 2017 convention is currently up by 10 per cent and up 50 per cent over last year on some events. Sponsorships from industry partners are also up 50 per cent over the record-breaking totals for last years event. WSF considers Reno as our home for this event as it attracts people from all across the country and all over the world, said Thornton. We expect more than 10,000 wild sheep conservationists to attend the 2017 event. With the support of auction bidders, attendees, exhibitors, sponsors and donors, the WSF expects to raise more than $6 million in gross revenue to help wild sheep and other wildlife across North America and around the globe. For a complete listing of the special sheep and other permits offered, visit http://www.wildsheepfoundation.org. The three-day convention and expo is open to the public, Thursday through Saturday, Jan. 19-21 at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center. Show hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday. Daily admission is $15 with $5 off coupons available at Cabelas, Scheels, Scolaris Food and Drug, Mark Fore & Strike, and Sportsmans Warehouse stores. Discount tickets are also available at Bass Pro Shops in Sacramento, Honey Lake Firearms in Susanville and Sportsmans Warehouse in Fresno. Paid attendees are entered daily for floor credit drawings from $1,000-$5,000. Free seminars from experts on mountain hunting in North America, Europe, and Asia will also cover topics from bow hunting to travel and equipment. The WSF Convention Official Sponsor is Sitka Gear. Visit http://www.wildsheepfoundation.org/convention/sponsors for more sponsors and information. For a full schedule of events, information on hotel discounts at the Reno Peppermill Resort Spa Casino and the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa, or to join as a member with the WSF and the conservation and education programs, please visit http://www.wildsheepfoundation.org, contact 800-OK-FNAWS (800-653-6297), email info@wildsheepfoundation.org or visit Facebook.com/wildsheepfoundation. Online registration is available through Jan. 11. Contact WSF at (406) 404-8750 to register after Jan. 11 or visit the Expo Registration Deck at the convention site after Jan. 17. ### The Wild Sheep Foundation, formerly the Foundation for North American Wild Sheep, was founded in 1977 by wild sheep conservationists and enthusiasts. WSFs Mission is to enhance wild sheep populations, promote professional wildlife management, and educate the public and youth on sustainable use and the conservation benefits of hunting while promoting the interests of the hunter and all stakeholders. With a membership of more than 6,000 worldwide and a Chapter and Affiliate network in North America and Europe, WSF is the premier advocate for wild sheep, other mountain wildlife, their habitats and their conservation. Since forming in 1977, the Wild Sheep Foundation and its chapters and affiliates have raised and expended more than $110 million on conservation, education and conservation advocacy programs in North America, Europe and Asia towards its purpose to Put and Keep Wild Sheep On the Mountain. These and other efforts have resulted in a three-fold increase in bighorn sheep populations in North America from their historic 1950-60s lows of 25,000 to 85,000 today. WSF, its Chapters, Affiliates and agency partners are also working together to ensure thinhorn sheep thrive in their northern mountain realms for generations to enjoy. Daves efforts will be instrumental in helping us to serve the needs of current and future limited partners, and we are thrilled to welcome him to the Summit team. Summit Partners announced today that David Schiller has joined the company as Chief Investor Relations Officer. Dave joins the Summit Partners team at the firms Boston headquarters, and is focused on building and maintaining relationships with the firms global limited partner investor base. Prior to Summit, Dave was a Managing Director at Renaissance Institutional Management, where he was responsible for business development and investor relations efforts for the companys hedge fund products. Previously, Dave co-led North American institutional distribution for BlackRock Alternative Investors, the business unit responsible for BlackRocks investments in hedge funds, hedge fund of funds, private equity, real estate, infrastructure and specialized alternative products. In the past, he has also held business development and institutional relationship management roles with Barclays Global Investors and Goldman Sachs & Co. Dave brings invaluable experience and great enthusiasm to this important role, said Summit Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer, Marty Mannion. His efforts will be instrumental in helping us to serve the needs of current and future limited partners, and we are thrilled to welcome him to the Summit team. This is a passionate group of investors and a firm with more than three decades of experience investing in growth sectors across the globe, said Dave Schiller. I am excited to join Summits investor relations team, and I look forward to getting to know our limited partners and helping them meet their investment needs. About Summit Partners Founded in 1984, Summit Partners is a global alternative investment firm that is currently investing more than $7.2 billion into growth equity, fixed income and public equity opportunities. Summit invests across growth sectors of the global economy and has invested in more than 440 companies in healthcare, life sciences, technology and other growth industries. These companies have completed more than 140 public equity offerings, and more than 165 have been acquired through strategic mergers and sales. Summit maintains offices in North America and Europe, and invests in companies around the world. For more information, visit http://www.summitpartners.com or follow on Twitter at @SummitPartners. In the United States of America, Summit Partners operates as an SEC-registered investment advisor. In the United Kingdom, this document is issued by Summit Partners LLP, a firm authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Summit Partners LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales with registered number OC388179 and its registered office is at 2022 Bedford Row, London, WC1R 4JS, UK. This document is intended solely to provide information regarding Summit Partners potential financing capabilities for prospective portfolio companies. Chamberlain Hrdlicka is pleased to announce that it has added former Philadelphia Deputy City Solicitor Adam M. Koelsch to its Philadelphia office. Koelsch comes to Chamberlain Hrdlicka from the City of Philadelphia Law Department, where he represented the city in high-dollar-value and complex local tax cases at administrative hearings before the Philadelphia Tax Review Board. He also was involved in agency appeals and collection actions at the Court of Common Pleas and in appeals at the Commonwealth Court. Koelsch joins other former Philadelphia legal department attorneys at Chamberlain Hrdlicka, adding to the legal insight the firm offers in state and local tax law as well as tax controversy. With four offices in major metro areas nationwide, Chamberlain Hrdlicka is one of the nations most profitable mid-size law firms. Prior to joining the City of Philadelphia Law Department, Koelsch worked at the district attorneys office in Brooklyn, New York, one of the largest prosecutors offices in the country. He first was an assistant district attorney in the trial division, handling a significant criminal case load. In 2010, Koelsch moved to the Appeals Bureau, where he became a Senior Appellate Attorney in 2012. During that time, he wrote appellate briefs for the state and federal courts in a variety of cases, including homicide and fraud. After earning a bachelors degree in history from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Koelsch went on to earn his law degree from Brooklyn Law School. He is admitted to practice in New York and Pennsylvania, as well as the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. About Chamberlain Hrdlicka Chamberlain Hrdlicka is a diversified business law firm with offices in Houston, Atlanta, Philadelphia and San Antonio. The firm represents both public and private companies as well as individuals and family-owned businesses across the nation in a wide variety of practice areas, including commercial and business litigation, tax, tax controversy and litigation, federal white-collar criminal defense, corporate, securities and finance, employment law and employee benefits, energy law, estate planning and administration, intellectual property, international and immigration law, and real estate and construction law. # # # A nonprofit with nearly 50 years service in the community. We are excited to have these nine experienced and accomplished professionals on our voluntary Board of Directors. They each bring a fresh perspective and unique skills. - Helene Raynaud, President & CEO Nonprofit Guidewell Financial Solutions (also known as Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Maryland and Delaware, Inc.) begins the New Year by presenting the eight professionals who joined its volunteer Board of Directors this past year. President and CEO Helene Raynaud says, "We are excited to have such experienced and accomplished professionals with invaluable insights and involvement. They each bring a fresh perspective and unique skills to our Board." Guidewell Financial's new Board Members include: Laurie Benner - Benner has years of experience and expertise in the housing and nonprofit sectors. Her current role as Director of Housing Programs at the Maryland Association of Realtors will provide the agency with opportunities to reach more than 23,000 real estate, lending, financial services, and community development professionals in Maryland. Tisa Silver Canady - As Director of Financial Education and Wellness at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, Canady has gained a firsthand knowledge of the financial struggles campus employees, students, and their families face. She is a seasoned educator, finance author, and advocate who plans to help the agency build relationships with educational partners and government agencies throughout Maryland and Delaware. Lauren Hughes - Hughes is the Family Services Manager at Habitat for Humanity of the Chesapeake. In this role, she manages families' progress in the Habitat home ownership program and oversees its financial literacy curriculum. Her work has given her insight into how financial empowerment and goal setting help individuals and families achieve home ownership and financial wellbeing. Kathleen P. Hyland - In Hyland's consumer law practice, she assists clients with debt, auto loan, and student loan issues and helps them understand their mortgages and leases. She brings board planning skills and a knowledge of fundraising, financial management, and program development from her role as Treasurer of the Board of Directors for the Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition and her nonprofit work at Civil Justice. Benjamin Lowenthal - Lowenthal is the Associate Vice President of Financial Services at University of Maryland, Baltimore County, where he also co-chairs the Financial Literacy Work Group. He has 22 years of financial management experience on four University System of Maryland campuses. As a CPA with an MBA in Finance, he has also delivered course content in Accounting and Organizational Behavior. Timothy Pierce - Pierce is employed as Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer at Howard Bank. With more than 15 years of banking regulatory compliance experience, he brings Community Reinvestment Act expertise and knowledge of other consumer regulations. Committed to community service, he belongs to the Y of Central MD's Community Leadership Board and Howard County Police's Citizen Advisory Council. Charlie Rocha - As Chief Marketing Officer for Sallie Mae, Rocha wants to help young people learn to manage their money responsibly and become financially self-sufficient. His perspective on student lending will be particularly useful to the agency. He also has more than 30 years experience in consumer and small lending and has held leadership positions in credit, operations, sales, and marketing. Martha C. Souder - Souder is the first counseling client to serve on Guidewell Financial Solutions Board. Participating in the agency's debt management program, she repaid nearly $50,000 of debt in just three-and-a-half years and has since become an influential consumer finance advocate. Souder works as a Program Specialist in the Commission on Certification division of the American Nurses Association. These new Members join Guidewell Financial's current Board of Directors: Rahn V. Barnes (Consultant - Healthy Neighborhoods), John Bratsakis (President / CEO - Maryland and DC Credit Union Association), Gordon E. Clark (Former President / CEO - Leeds Federal), Christopher V. DiPietro (Executive Director - Mid-Atlantic Financial Services Association, Inc.), and J. Steven Lovejoy (Board Chair and Attorney Shumaker Williams, PC). Raynaud says, "We want to thank all of our Board Members for devoting their time, efforts, and expertise. Their contributions and guidance will help make this another banner year at Guidewell Financial!" About Guidewell Financial Solutions Guidewell Financial Solutions (also known as Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Maryland and Delaware, Inc.) is an accredited 501(c)(3) nonprofit agency that helps stabilize communities by creating hope and promoting economic self-sufficiency to individuals and families through financial education and counseling. Maryland License #14-01 / Delaware License #07-01 ProMIS Neurosciences (ProMIS or the Company), a company focused on discovery and development of precision treatments for neurodegenerative diseases, today announced that PMN 310, a monoclonal antibody (mAb), has been designated its first lead product for development in Alzheimers disease (AD). We previously demonstrated that the mAb therapeutic candidates ProMIS is developing display the optimal target profile of selectively binding prion-like forms of A and inhibiting both their propagation (spreading) and neurotoxicity in laboratory tests (in vitro), stated Dr. Neil Cashman, ProMIS Chief Scientific Officer. We have now achieved a significant development milestone by demonstrating that PMN 310 directly blocks the neurotoxicity of these prion-like forms of (A) in a well validated mouse model. The neuroprotective effect of PMN 310 was investigated at a well recognized contract research organization (CRO) specializing in neurodegenerative diseases. Injection of prion-like forms of A (also called toxic oligomers) into the brains of mice causes a neurological deficit that can be assessed in a memory-behavior test called novel object recognition. Normal mice exposed to an object remember the familiar object when re-exposed to it and spend more time exploring a newly introduced object. In contrast, oligomer-injected mice lose the ability to discriminate between known and novel objects and spend equivalent amounts of time exploring both. Results obtained in this assay showed that administration of PMN310 to mice completely prevented the loss of short-term memory formation caused by toxic oligomers. The past year has been devoted to characterizing our mAbs with a view to select and prioritize our therapeutic candidates for AD; these compelling in vivo results have led us to declare PMN 310 our first lead product for development in AD, commented Eugene Williams, ProMIS Executive Chairman. Furthermore, the animal model used is particularly relevant to recent scientific developments that toxic prion-like forms of A are the appropriate target for therapy, and to our knowledge, PMN 310 is the first mAb specifically designed to address this target. About ProMIS Neurosciences, Inc. The mission of ProMIS Neurosciences is to discover and develop precision medicine therapeutics for effective treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, in particular Alzheimers disease and ALS. ProMIS Neurosciences proprietary target discovery engine is based on the use of two complementary techniques. The Company applies its thermodynamic, computational discovery platformProMIS and Collective Coordinates to predict novel targets known as Disease Specific Epitopes (DSEs) on the molecular surface of misfolded proteins. Using this unique "precision medicine" approach, ProMIS Neurosciences aims to develop novel antibody therapeutics and specific companion diagnostics for Alzheimers disease and ALS. The company has also developed two proprietary technologies to specifically identify very low levels of misfolded proteins in a biological sample. In addition, ProMIS Neurosciences owns a portfolio of therapeutic and diagnostic patents relating to misfolded SOD1 in ALS and currently has a preclinical monoclonal antibody therapeutic against this target. The TSX has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This information release may contain certain forward-looking information. Such information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those implied by statements herein, and therefore these statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results. All forward-looking statements are based on the Company's current beliefs as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to it as well as other factors. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. Due to risks and uncertainties, including the risks and uncertainties identified by the Company in its public securities filings, actual events may differ materially from current expectations. 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. For further information please consult the Company's website at: http://www.promisneurosciences.com Follow us on Twitter Like us on LinkedIn NATIONAL Equicom Michael Moore Tel. 858-886-7813 mmoore(at)national(dot)ca Abby Garfunkel Tel. 403-218-2887 Tel. 403-218-2887 or contact Dr. Elliot Goldstein President and Chief Executive Officer, ProMIS Neurosciences Inc. Tel. 415 341-5783 Elliot.goldstein(at)promisneurosciences(dot)com VANCOUVER, B.C., Jan. 05, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aben Resources Ltd. (TSX-V:ABN) (OTCBB:ABNAF) (Frankfurt:E2L2) (Aben or the Company) is pleased to announce, further to its News Release on Dec. 13th, the TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing the Company's Option Agreement to acquire up to an 80% interest in the 2915 hectare Chico Gold Project located 125 km east of La Ronge, Saskatchewan and 40 km south of Silver Standard Resources Seabee / Santoy mine complex. Chico Gold Project location map, Saskatchewan: http://www.abenresources.com/i/maps/ABN_Chico_Location_and_Highlights.jpg Eagle Plains Resources (TSX-V:EPL), the optionor of the Chico Project, recently completed fieldwork on the property which consisted of a 661 line-km airborne geophysical survey, mapping, trenching and soil geochemical surveys designed to define high-grade gold targets for upcoming drilling activity. Results of this work were summarized in an Eagle Plains news release dated Dec. 6th, 2016. Chico property highlights include the presence of a 1.5 km mineralized structural corridor which is confirmed by geophysical surveys, geological mapping and recent soil sample coverage which included numerous highly anomalous samples ranging up to 4.5 g/t gold. Sporadic historical drilling has been completed in the area and has returned high-grade intercepts. Rock samples collected in 2016 by Eagle Plains along this structural corridor ranged from trace quantities to 20.2 g/t gold. Recent work resulted in numerous high-priority drill targets being identified. Chico Gold Project soil results map, Saskatchewan: http://www.abenresources.com/i/maps/ABN-Chico-Soil-results-2016.jpg The overall objective of the 2016 program was to identify mineralization similar to that at the nearby Seabee and Santoy deposits. The Seabee gold operation has been in continuous production since 1991 and has produced 1.2M ounces of gold from the Seabee and the Santoy deposits. Ore geology at Seabee/Santoy consists of high-grade vein mineralization associated with volcanic and mafic intrusive rocks which have been structurally disrupted by splays of the deep crustal Tabbernor Fault system. The Tabbernor Fault is a 1500 km long regional structure which has been traced from as far north as the Rabbit Lake uranium mine in northern Saskatchewan to as far south as the Black Hills of South Dakota, the latter of which hosts the 40M oz Homestake gold deposit. The shared proximity to the Tabbernor fault and similarities in terms of age and tectonic history to the Homestake and Seabee deposits was the main driving force behind both Eagle Plains and Abens interest in the Chico property. Management cautions that past results or discoveries on proximate land are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be achieved on the subject properties. Chico Project Summary and History The Chico structural zone comprises a north/northeast-trending 20m- to 150m-wide multi-episodic shear system comprising both ductile and brittle gold-bearing quartz vein systems. Trenching and drilling activities carried out by Corona Corporation and Cameco from 1988 to 1993 defined a mineralized strike length of over 1400m. Trenching by Corona at the Royex showing returned five chip samples greater than 1000 ppb gold with a best (chip) sample of 14.3 g/t gold over 1m (AR 63M06-0034). Follow-up diamond drilling by Cameco near the Royex trench returned five significant intercepts ranging from 0.51 g/t gold over 1.5m, to 36.0 g/t gold over 0.3m (AR 63M06-0041). Mineralized shear zones and quartz veining that define the Chico zone are hosted in diorite and granite and especially along the sheared contact between these two units. The Chico and the adjacent parallel Ed and Western structural zones are related splay structures off the larger Tabbernor fault system. Despite the significant surface discoveries of gold along these structural trends, mineralization remains largely untested at depth and along strike extensions. Eagle Plains has initiated permitting for future drilling within the property area. President of Aben Resources Ltd, Jim Pettit comments, The Company is pleased to add the Chico Gold Project to its portfolio of high-value properties. Based on past and recent exploration results, this region of Saskatchewan appears to be on the verge of a renaissance of significant new exploration in the coming years. On top of that, Saskatchewan is considered one of the best mining jurisdictions in the world as ranked by the Fraser Institute. This exciting new project allows the Company to potentially drill through the winter while it is compiling data and permitting for summer work and drilling programs on its BC based Forrest Kerr Project and Yukon based Justin Project. In other news Aben announces, pursuant to its stock option plan, the Company has granted incentive stock options to its directors, officers, employees and consultants to purchase up to an aggregate of 1,800,000 common shares in the capital stock of the Company, exercisable for a period of five years, at a price of $0.10 per share. The Company's 10% rolling stock option plan was approved by the shareholders at the Annual General Meeting of the Company held on March 15, 2016. About Aben Resources: Aben Resources is a Canadian gold exploration company developing projects in British Columbias Golden Triangle, the Yukon and now Saskatchewan. For further information on Aben Resources Ltd. (TSX-V:ABN), visit our Companys web site at www.abenresources.com. Aben Resources has approx. 30 million shares issued and outstanding. ABEN RESOURCES LTD. Jim Pettit ____________________________ JAMES G. PETTIT President 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 release includes certain statements that may be deemed to be "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that management of the Company expects, are forward-looking statements. Although management believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance, and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements if management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements, include market prices, exploration and development successes, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Please see the public filings of the Company at www.sedar.com for further information. Today the Online Trust Alliance (OTA) released its updated IoT Trust Framework at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Serving as a product development and risk assessment guide for developers, purchasers and retailers of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, the Framework is the foundation for future IoT certification programs. OTAs goal is to highlight devices and companies that demonstrate a commitment to device lifecycle security and embrace responsible privacy practices. Such notifications and disclosures will aid consumers to make informed IoT device purchasing decisions. Echoing written testimony he recently provided to the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee, OTA Executive Director and President Craig Spiezle said; Recent IoT attacks like those which compromised hundreds of thousands of connected devices to take websites like Amazon, Twitter and Netflix offline were just a shot across the bow. The next incident could create significant safety issues. While most IoT devices are safe and secure, many still lack security safeguards and privacy controls placing users and the Internet at large are at risk. OTA recognizes that while there is no perfect security, companies that apply the Framework principles should be shielded from regulatory oversight and class action suits, and potentially realize lower insurance premiums. The updated Framework reflects input from hundreds of leading security and privacy industry leaders including ADT, Microsoft, SiteLock, Symantec, TRUSTe, Verisign and others. This newest Framework builds on the first version released in March 2016, and incorporates a broad range of public and private efforts to help secure IoT devices. I have long supported multi-stakeholder processes to address the significant cybersecurity challenges facing our nation, said Congressman Jim Langevin (D-RI), co-founder and co-chair of the Congressional Cybersecurity Caucus. Recent attacks leveraging IoT devices have only highlighted the need for the work of organizations like OTA. It is essential that companies manage the cybersecurity risk of their IoT devices, applications, and services, and the IoT Framework provides clear principles that developers can use to mitigate risk and protect their customers. OTA researchers integrated IoT security and privacy recommendations from U.S. government agencies including the Department of Commerce, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC). In addition, OTA incorporated several key recommendations advocated by organizations including the Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group (BITAG), Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT), Consumer Federation of America (CFA), Consumer Technology Association (CTA), I am The Cavalry, International Telecommunications Union (ITU), Internet Society and National Association of Realtors (NAR). The IoT Trust Framework includes 37 principles, segmented into four key categories: Security (1-9) - Applicable to any device, and their applications and backend cloud services. These include embracing a rigorous software development security process, adhering to security principles for data stored and transmitted by the device, supply chain management, penetration testing and vulnerability reporting programs. Further principles outline the requirement for lifecycle security patching. User Access & Credentials (10-14) - Requiring encryption of all passwords and usernames, shipping devices with unique passwords, implementing generally accepted password reset processes and integrating mechanisms to help prevent brute force login attempts. Privacy, Disclosures & Transparency (15-30) - Requirements consistent with generally accepted privacy principles including prominent disclosures on packaging, point of sale and/or posted online. Provide the capability to reset devices to factory settings and be in compliance with applicable regulatory requirements, including but not limited to the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Require disclosures about the impact to product features or functionality if connectivity is disabled. Notifications & Related Best Practices (31-37) - Key to maintaining device security is having mechanisms and processes to promptly notify a user of threats and action(s) required. Principles include requiring email authentication for security notifications and that messages must be written clearly for users of all ages and reading levels. In addition, tamper proof packaging and accessibility requirements are highlighted. Multi-Stakeholder Support OTAs IoT Trust Framework provides actionable and prescriptive advice to help every IoT developer secure their apps and embrace responsible privacy practices. In order to continue to drive innovation and keep regulation at bay, these principles are an essential roadmap, Jonathan Zuck, President of ACT The App Association. The OTA IoT Trust Framework is really quite remarkable, covering technical and procedural aspects of trust throughout the entire IoT lifecycle; if tech companies, hardware manufacturers, and software producers were to abide by these principles, the IoT wouldn't be the wild, wild west it is now," Joseph Lorenzo Hall, Chief Technologist, Center for Democracy & Technology. Sometimes in the rush to get new technology to market not enough thought is placed on privacy and security said Susan Grant, Director of Consumer Protection and Privacy at Consumer Federation of America. With the OTA IoT Trust Framework as a guide, companies can develop products and services that not only deliver great value but that consumers can be confident in using. "The OTA IoT Trust Framework provides a broad array of best practices that taken together will significantly increase the security and privacy of IoT devices," said Philip Reitinger, the President and CEO of the Global Cyber Alliance. "These devices are of significantly increasing importance to our daily lives and the functioning of the Internet, and our individual and collective security and privacy will depend on our ability to secure them. As an excellent and continually improving set of security and privacy principles, OTAs recommendations should be implemented by IoT vendors and developers." "The IoT Trust Framework is a good example of the security culture that is needed in the connected devices space, said Olaf Kolkman, Chief Internet Technology Officer for the Internet Society. If companies are in the business of selling smart devices, they need to implement the requirements outlined in this framework before calling them smart. Time has come to establish a clear understanding of what can be expected from IoT suppliers and users. The OTA IoT Trust Framework is excellent input in the global dialogue on Internet of Things good practice and deserves the full attention of all those that care about a sustainable way forward in developing and deploying Internet of Things products, services and ecosystems, said Maarten Botterman, Chairman of the IGF Dynamic Coalition on the Internet of Things. The Online Trust Alliances IoT Trust Framework includes valuable practices that companies should embrace to make sure consumer smart home technology is secure, private and sustainable for the future, said National Association of REALTORS President William E. Brown, a Realtor from Alamo, Calif. The collaboration between NARs Center for REALTOR Technology and OTA has allowed us to understand and address best practices and technologies necessary to protect anyone using smart and connected device technology in their home. The Internet of Things is at the forefront of driving the digital economy. However, recent cyberattacks make it clear that there's more to be done to cement trust into IoT devices. OTA's IoT Trust Framework is precisely the type of industry-led, consensus-based approach that can help industry thrive and innovate, without being weighed down by potentially onerous and preemptive regulations, said Ryan Hagemann, Technology and Civil Liberties Policy Analyst, Niskanen Center. "Symantec has helped protect over a billion Internet of Things (IoT) devices so far, but unfortunately, the vast majority of new IoT devices lack proper security fundamentals when they come to market, said Brian Witten, co-chair of the IoT working group and senior director of Symantec Research Labs. The OTA IoT Trust Framework provides device manufacturers with the appropriate guidelines to build in security and ensure that consumers are protected from day one. We are happy to see the Online Trust Alliances commitment to aligning the industry on IoT security requirements." Interactive Marketing, Technology & Privacy Leaders "OTAs IoT Trust Framework is impressive and much needed to achieve our vision of trust, and we support the OTA's work in bringing the myriad of stakeholders together to help solve these security and privacy issues," said Ben Williams, head of operations and communications with Adblock Plus. "At the end of the day, companies need to take responsibility for engineering into their IoT products and protocols some appropriate protections from exploits and vulnerabilities." The IoT is expanding rapidly and is expected to grow further over the coming years. Unfortunately, security is typically an afterthought, simply because it is deemed too difficult to do and to facilitate effectively at the scale required for IoT devices, said Device Authority CEO Darron Antill. The OTAs IoT Trust Framework addresses critical challenges and provides important guidelines for device manufacturers to implement essentially a best practice guide for IoT security, privacy and safety. With the rapid growth of connected devices, its critical that developers incorporate key security protections such as identity, authentication and encryption into their product designs, said DigiCert CTO Dan Timpson. The OTA Trust Framework outlines essential security practices that manufacturers need to follow to advance market confidence and protect their IoT investments. "IoT and connected devices become more and more common in our everyday life. Healthcare, law enforcement, space and telecommunication companies rely on smart devices in many aspects of their everyday work. This is why it's extremely important to adopt a clear and comprehensive framework addressing IoT security and privacy. We applaud OTA in creating the IoT Trust Framework in this emerging sector of the global economy, said Ilia Kolochenko, CEO, High-Tech Bridge. Our identities can be exploited due to vulnerabilities in IoT connected devices, said Neil Daswani Chief Information Security Officer at LifeLock, Inc. We applaud efforts, such as the 2017 IoT Trust Framework, to boost security standards across the industry and protect entry points associated with identities in a way that is accessible by business and consumers alike. "IoT devices have tremendous promise, but also carry great risks. As 20 billion new IOT devices come online over the next five years, adherence to security and privacy principles are essential for users and the resiliency of the Internet. It is clear the status quo is not acceptable. But even with the recent events involving Mirai and its derivatives, we likely wont see a serious effort in securing these emerging technologies. The IoT Trust Framework from the OTA is a crucial step in the right direction. It includes baseline requirements for every new IoT product coming to market and should be used by businesses, consumers and retailers alike to assess risk prior to selling or buying any connected device, Jean-Philippe Taggart, Senior Researcher, Malwarebytes. As a leading consumer online brand, Publishers Clearing House has learned security and privacy practices are the foundation of trust and long-term consumer relationships. With the rise of IoT solutions in the home, office and classroom, the risks to consumers and the internet at large is being amplified exponentially, said Sal Tripi, AVP at Publishers Clearing House. The IoT Trust Framework serves as a self-regulatory framework providing balanced criteria for every IoT company to adhere to. "Every individual and organization has much greater security exposure than most realize," said Dr. Aleksandr Yampolskiy, CEO of SecurityScorecard, the leader in security ratings. "Our vulnerability research shows the proliferation of IoT devices in an interconnected society has created an alarming risk for every organization. The OTA framework is key for IoT manufacturers to standardize on and for enterprises to measure and help protect their customers data and privacy." Its always best to build in comprehensive security practices from the very beginning. Unfortunately, this is not always the case which ultimately leads to a reactive versus proactive approach impacting both customer and company. We hope that the OTAs IoT Trust Framework becomes widely utilized from concept to launch in the development cycle to help prevent security and privacy compromise, Neill Feather, President of SiteLock. Responsible privacy practices are a global requirement for all IoT solutions, when they are sold and through their entire life. The OTA IoT Framework provides clear guidelines for all device manufactures to implement from providing disclosures prior to purchase through the ability for users to delete or transfer data when devices are sold or use terminated, Chris Babel, CEO of TRUSTe. "With malicious actors exploiting security vulnerabilities on IoT devices in an effort to compromise the resiliency and availability of websites and services, companies must consider the impact their devices can have on the broader Internet ecosystem. OTAs IoT Trust Framework is a set of essential security principles for vendors to use in development as well as for enterprises to use to assess every connected device on their network from the boardroom to the breakroom," said Danny McPherson, Senior Vice President and Chief Security Officer, Verisign. "As innovation in the digital age keeps growing, so do the risks associated with every exciting new product or concept. The OTA as an organization has made exceptional strides to limit those risks while still promoting the benefits of an interconnected world and its recent IoT Trust Framework is a great example of this. It provides detailed best practices for tackling security challenges and privacy concerns while protecting developers, companies and consumers from the potential pitfalls of IoT technology that's still in its infancy." Michael Fisher, President, Yes Lifecycle Marketing "As more IoT solutions become data and ad driven, it is incumbent on the industry to adopt security standards and responsible privacy practices. The IoT Trust Framework is an excellent roadmap to maximize data protection, privacy and regulatory compliance," Roy de Souza, CEO, ZEDO. The IoT Framework represents outstanding collaboration of some of the worlds most respected cybersecurity and privacy advocates. This comprehensive collection of best practices serves as an excellent and much needed guide for data security and privacy for all types of organizations, regardless of size or mission, said Rich LaMagna, President of LaMagna and Associates. As a baseline for certification programs it is an excellent assessment tool for developers, retailers and consumers. The OTA IoT Trust Framework is a benchmark set of security standards for the Internet-connected home and wearables device market. Developed as the first comprehensive set of criteria, it puts a minimum set of controls on manufacturers and device service providers to help protect consumers not only from privacy and device risks, but exposing intruders to other Internet-connected computers in the home and workplace, said Scott Perry, Principal at Scott S. Perry CPA, PLLC. OTA is meeting with leading manufacturers and retailers at CES to accelerate the adoption of the Framework, and discuss the importance of device security and responsible privacy practices. In addition, Spiezle will be speaking about IoT threats and solutions during a panel at the CES Cybersecurity Forum at the Venetian today at 1pm PST alongside leaders from DHS, Intel Security and RSA. Also at CES, OTA is a Platinum sponsor of the Consumer Technology Association Alliance Community Reception being held on Friday, Jan. 6 at 4pm PST in the Venetian, Level 2, Bellini 2005, where OTA will be providing onsite briefings. The updated Framework and supporting resources are posted at https://otalliance.org/IoT. About OTA The Online Trust Alliance (OTA) is a non-profit think tank with the mission to enhance online trust and user empowerment while promoting innovation and the vitality of the Internet. Its goal is to help educate businesses, policy makers and stakeholders while developing and advancing best practices and tools to enhance the protection of users' security, privacy and identity. OTA supports collaborative public-private partnerships, benchmark reporting, and meaningful self-regulation and data stewardship. Its members and supporters include leaders spanning the public policy, technology, ecommerce, social networking, mobile, email and interactive marketing, financial, service provider, government agency and industry organization sectors. https://otalliance.org For More information Contact: Andrew Goss /Voxus PR (for OTA) 253.444.5446 agoss(at)voxuspr(dot)com Bryn will take sales and revenue for InfoMart to the next level. InfoMart, Inc., a leader in the background screening and information industry, announced today that Bryn Palena has joined the company as Executive Vice President of Sales. Palena will assume all sales leadership responsibilities for InfoMart. InfoMart is a recognized expert in the background screening industry, having been founded more than 27 years ago, and serves some of the most recognized Fortune 100 companies as well as thousands of companies across numerous industries. "Bryn will take sales and revenue for InfoMart to the next level," said Tammy Cohen, founder and president of InfoMart. "Her unique background screening industry experience, incredible customer relationships and passion for 100 percent customer satisfaction, knowledge of industry services and trends, tremendous energy, and team-player attitude make her a perfect fit for InfoMart." Palena has more than 20 years of successful sales and leadership experience. Palena has held customer-facing leadership positions with leading global background screening companies such as ChoicePoint, which was acquired by LexisNexis, The CARCO Group, ASIS International, and First Advantage. She is passionate and dedicated to the screening industry, and is a member of the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM), a board member of the Philadelphia Society of People and Strategy (PSPS), and a member of PSPS's parent global HRPS organization. She is also a member of ASIS International and a founder of the Young Professionals Initiative, and she serves on the Women in Security Council. Palena's reputation as a passionate leader and customer advocate has been the cornerstone of her successful career. "I am excited to join the InfoMart team," said Palena. "They have built a successful company by focusing on customer satisfaction, quality products, and efficient and scalable operations. The InfoMart culture is positive and team-oriented, and I'm thrilled to be joining such a talented and professional team. Our goal is to focus on growing the InfoMart brand into numerous additional markets and introduce new and innovative solutions for our customers." Utilizing the tremendous professional expertise of the InfoMart team, along with the quality and efficiency of the InfoMart products and processes, Palena will focus on new market opportunities and expanding globally. InfoMart continues to be one of the most innovative background screening solution providers in the industry and provides highly-regarded customer advocacy and support. "2017 is going to be an exciting, watershed year of growth and innovation for our customers and for InfoMart," said Cohen. About InfoMart InfoMart is an industry leader in background screening services, providing businesses the information they need to make well-informed hiring decisions. With more than 27 years in business, InfoMart is a pioneer in developing innovative technology and screening services, from criminal history searches to verifications of employment. Accredited by the National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS), a designation earned by only 10% of the industry, InfoMart has also been recognized on Security Magazine's Security 500 and Workforce Magazine's Hot List. The company prides itself on its dedication to customers, innovation, and accurate reporting. For more information about InfoMart, please visit http://www.infomart-usa.com or call (770) 984-2727. For additional information, please contact: Valerie Uhlir InfoMart (770) 984-2727 ext 1340 media(at)infomart-usa(dot)com The purpose of the conference is to explore challenges and create dialog around solutions for communities of color in 21st Century The first-ever Communities Conference: Civic Conversations Concerning 21st Century American Life in Communities of Color to commemorate the 130th anniversary of the incorporation of Eatonville, Florida will take place Thursday thru Saturday, January 26-29 during the 28th annual Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities (ZORA! Festival). Featured presenters include, Eleanor Traylor, Ph.D., Professor Emerita, Howard University, Charles M. Blow, The New York Times, Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Ph.D., Professor of History, Race and Public Policy, Harvard University and Suzanne Young Murray Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies. The event is a partnership between the Association to Preserve the Eatonville Community, Inc. (P.E.C.) and Rollins College and is curated by N. Y. Nathiri, Executive Director, P.E.C., Inc. and Julian Chambliss, Ph.D., Chair Department of History and coordinator, Africa and African American Program at Rollins College. The purpose of the conference is to explore challenges and create dialog around solutions for communities of color in 21st Century, said Chambliss. In 50-minute plenary and 75-minute breakout workshop sessions, conferees will have the opportunity to interact with nationally-recognized thinkers; local and national scholars and local and national community activists on topics, including personal finance, options in education, community economics, and cultural vibrancy. The Friday schedule will be devoted to Communities of Color and Their Policing. A special Saturday morning session will develop action plans with an eye to report card sessions at ZORA! Festival 2018, January 25 27. What: Communities Conference: Civic Conversations Concerning 21st Century American Life in Communities of Color When: Thursday - Saturday, January 26-28 Where: Rollins College 1000 Holt Avenue Winter Park, Florida St. Lawrence African Methodist Episcopal Church, 549 East Kennedy Boulevard Eatonville, FL For the full conference schedule, visit http://communitiesconference.net/schedule/ . Media Credentials Approved media will have access to interview areas and for media that have RSVPd in advance and received confirmation from Tina Spencer tinaospencer(at)gmail(dot)com. This includes media opportunities for the speakers and artist who are in town, as well as other ZORA! Festival events. All media must email Tina Spencer at tinaospencer(at)gmail(dot)com to request access to cover these opportunities. We will do our best to facilitate requests. Contacts: Terri Vismale-Morris Director of Marketing and Public Relations, 28th Annual Zora Neale Hurston Festival tvmorris(at)new-ideas-images(dot)com Tina O. Spencer Manager of National Public Relations, 28th Annual Zora Neale Hurston Festival tinaospencer(at)gmail(dot)com Adrienne Noel Manager of Regional and Local Public Relations, 28th Annual Zora Neale Hurston Festival anoel(at)marketingmindsatwork(dot)com About ZORA! Festival The Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities (ZORA! Festival) is produced in honor of writer, anthropologist and folklorist Zora Neale Hurston, every January in historic Eatonville, Maitland and Orange County Florida. ZORA! Festival is a multi-day, multi-disciplinary event that commemorates the life of 20th Century Renaissance woman Zora Neale Hurston; her hometown, Eatonville and the cultural contributions people of African ancestry have made to the United States and the world. About the Association to Preservation the Eatonville Community (P.EC.) The mission of the Association to Preserve the Eatonville Community (P.E.C.) is to enhance the resources of Eatonville, popularly known as the oldest incorporated African American municipality in the U.S. and the hometown of writer, folklorist, and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston; to educate the public about Eatonvilles historic and cultural significance; and to use the communitys heritage and cultural vibrancy for its economic development. P.E.C. is the nonprofit historic preservation group that organizes the ZORA! Festival and whose mission is to enhance the resources of Eatonville, to educate the public about the towns historic and cultural significance, and to use the communitys heritage and cultural vibrancy for its economic development. We honor the careers of talented poets, both new and mid career, who are finalists for these distinguished awards." -- CGU Professor Lori Anne Ferrell Claremont Graduate Universitys Lori Anne Ferrell believes poetry has the power to remind us of what is truly significant, worthy, and lasting in our culture. Ferrell directs the Kingsley & Kate Tufts Poetry Awards program at CGU, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this spring. This week the program announced a new crop of diverse and talented finalists for the prestigious Kingsley Tufts Poetry and Kate Tufts Discovery Awardsboth hallmarks of CGUs English Department and nationally recognized honors in the field. The finalists, Ferrell says, represent a cross-section of cultural backgrounds that underscores the importance of critical discourse at an uncertain moment in U.S. culture. We honor the careers of talented poets, both new and mid career, who are finalists for these distinguished awards, says Ferrell, who is the John D. and Lillian Maguire Distinguished Professor of Humanities. Their voicesdiverse, compassionate, challengingrepresent America at its best. One of the most generous poetry prizes in the world for mid-career poets, the $100,000 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award provides financial support that allows the recipient to concentrate on their craft. The Kate Tufts Discovery Award, consisting of a $10,000 purse, honors the first poetry volume published by a poet of particular promise. Both awards honor volumes published the previous year. Winners will be announced in February and recognized at the 25th Annual Kingsley & Kate Tufts Poetry Awards Ceremony, Thursday, April 20, 2017, at the Mark Taper Auditorium of the Los Angeles Public Library. The finalists for the 2017 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award are: Vievee Francis Forest Primeval (Northwestern UP) Francis is the author of Forest Primeval, Blue-Tail Fly, and Horse in the Dark: Poems, the latter of which won the Cave Canem Poetry Prize. Her work has appeared in Best American Poetry 2010 and Angles of Ascent: A Norton Anthology of Contemporary African American Poetry. She is an associate editor for Callaloo. Tyehimba Jess Olio (Wave Books) Jesss first book of poetry, leadbelly, was a winner of the 2004 National Poetry Series. His poetry has appeared in American Poetry Review, Ploughshares, Obsidian III: Literature in the African Diaspora, and more. Jess is an associate professor of English at College of Staten Island. Ada Limon Bright Dead Things (Milkweed) Limons first collection of poetry, Lucky Wreck, was the winner of the 2005 Autumn House Poetry Prize. She is also the author of Bright Dead Things (2015), Sharks in the Rivers (2010), and This Big Fake World (2006), the latter of which received the 2005 Pearl Poetry Prize. Jamaal May The Big Book of Exit Strategies (Alice James Books) Mays poems have appeared in Poetry, New England Review, The Believer, and Best American Poetry 2014, and he has received fellowships from Cave Canem, Bread Loaf, and more. His first book, Hum (2013), won a Beatrice Hawley Award and an American Library Association Notable Book Award and was nominated for an NAACP Image Award. Patrick Rosal Brooklyn Antediluvian (Persea Books) A former Fulbright Research Fellow, Rosal is the author of four full-length collections of poetry, including his most recent, Brooklyn Antediluvian. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Grantland, Poetry, Tin House, The Best American Poetry, and dozens of other magazines and anthologies. The finalists for the 2017 Kate Tufts Discovery Award are: Derrick Austin Trouble the Water (BOA Editions) Austin is the author of Trouble the Water, selected by Mary Szybist for the 2015 A. Poulin Jr. Prize. He is a Cave Canem fellow. His work has appeared in Best American Poetry 2015, Image: A Journal of Arts and Religion, New England Review, Callaloo, Nimrod, Puerto Del Sol, and elsewhere. Currently, he is the Ron Wallace Fellow at the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing. Rickey Laurentiis Boy With Thorn (University of Pittsburgh Press) Laurentiis is the author of Boy With Thorn, winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize (2014) and Levis Reading Prize (2016) and a Buzzfeed Top 16 Best Poetry Book. He is the recipient of 2013 Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and a 2012 Ruth Lilly Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, among other honors. Jordan Rice Constellarium (Orison Books) Rices poems have been selected for the Indiana Review Poetry Prize and the Gulf Coast Poetry Prize, among other honors, and have been anthologized in Writing the Walls Down: A Convergence of LGBTQ Voices, The Southern Poetry Anthology: Volume V, Best New Poets (2008 & 2011), and more. Rice is co-editor of the anthology Voices of Transgender Parents. Ocean Vuong Night Sky With Exit Wounds (Copper Canyon Press) Vuong is the author of Night Sky With Exit Wounds and winner of a 2016 Whiting Award. A Ruth Lilly fellow from the Poetry Foundation, Vuong has been published in The Atlantic, The Nation, New Republic, The New Yorker, The New York Times, and American Poetry Review, which awarded him the Stanley Kunitz Prize for Younger Poets. Phillip B. Williams Thief in the Interior (Alice James Books) Williams is the author of Thief in the Interior, a finalist for an NAACP Image Award. He received a 2013 Ruth Lilly Fellowship and is the co-editor in chief of the online journal Vinyl. He is currently visiting professor in English at Bennington College. Judges This years judging panel consisted of Don Share, chair of the judging committee and editor, POETRY Magazine; Elena Karina Byrne, poetry curator and moderator, Los Angeles Times Festival of Books; Terrance Hayes, Kate Tufts Discovery Award recipient (2000) and professor of English, University of Pittsburgh; Meghan ORourke, poet, essayist, editor, and literary critic; and Brian Kim Stefans, poet and professor of English, University of California, Los Angeles. The Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award was established at Claremont Graduate University by Kate Tufts to honor the memory of her husband, who held executive positions in the Los Angeles Shipyards and wrote poetry as his avocation. The Kate Tufts Discovery Award was launched a year later in 1994. This is one of the few stand-alone buildings with outside storage in the market. JP Matan, Director of Leasing Matan Companies, one of the regions premier commercial real estate and development firms, announced today that it has purchased a stand-alone warehouse building in Frederick, Maryland. Conveniently located near I-70 in Industrial Center East, their newest acquisition offers excellent warehouse, office and show room space. According to JP Matan, Director of Leasing for the Matan Companies, This is one of the few stand-alone buildings with outside storage in the market. Prior to settlement Matan Companies signed a lease with Stulz Air Technology Systems, Inc. to occupy the entire building commencing in mid January. About Matan Companies Matan Companies, headquartered in Frederick, Maryland, is a trusted investment manager, owner, developer and operator of industrial, office, retail and multifamily real estate. Founded over 40 years ago on the principle of providing a comprehensive, full service, hands on approach, the firms focus is on strategic investment, development and management in opportunistic suburban markets. Since inception, the company has directed and invested over $2 billion in real estate transactions in the greater Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. Matans current portfolio consists of 6 million square feet of industrial and office assets, and 4 million square feet in the development pipeline. In addition, the company has a multifamily portfolio and pipeline consisting of over 1,300 units across multiple markets. For additional information about the Matan Companies, please visit http://www.mataninc.com. Elijah Chaudhry turns a pen during the Turn for Troops National Turn-a-thon as Brian Coppotelli, Woodcraft of West Atlanta assistant manager, watches. Congratulations to Woodcraft stores and the volunteer turners who made 2016 a record year for making pens for military personnel. Volunteer woodturners and Woodcraft retail store employees, working together, produced 13,720 one-a-kind wood pens during the Woodcraft Turn for Troops National Turn-a-Thon that have been shipped to military personnel on active duty or recovering in rehabilitation centers. Volunteers have turned a grand total of 146,118 pens in the events 13-year history. The 13,720 total for 2016 is the second highest yearly total in the events 13-year history. The 2009 total is 17,228. The annual turn-a-thon was held the weekend of Nov.11-12 and hosted by Woodcraft stores nationwide. Pens were also turned by individual volunteers and woodworking groups throughout the year and turned in to stores. Volunteers include a note with each pen to thank the recipient for service to his or her country. Congratulations to Woodcraft stores and the volunteer turners who made 2016 a record year for making pens for military personnel, Woodcraft president Jody Garrett said. As the need continues for a U.S. military presence at many locations around the world, as well as at home, Woodcraft will continue to support this outreach effort to recognize the daily sacrifices made by military men and women. Store Leaders Woodcraft of Tucson, Arizona, is the top store in numbers of pens contributed during the 13-year event: 16,064. The store also provided the third highest number of pens in 2016:1,686. According to store owner Randy Castellini, these numbers reflect the dedication of Southern Arizona Woodturners Association members, along with other volunteers. The association members turn pens year-round so that by the National Turn-a-Thon time the annual total is substantial. Woodcraft of Grand Rapids, Michigan, contributed the most pens in 2016: 4,004, and has the fourth highest 13-year total: 10,433. Hugh DeWeerd, Grand Rapids store manager, said customer David Moore, a Cold War/Vietnam veteran, is the key to the stores large pen contribution. He turns 60 or so at a time and exchanges them for kits when completed. I think he has turned at least 3,900. Volunteers at the turn-a-thon also contributed to the 2016 total. Moore learned about the Turn for Troops program at Woodcraft soon after he taught himself woodturning. A motorcycle wreck over 20 years ago and complications from Agent Orange in Vietnam have left Moore disabled, with a lot of time to fill. I could spend my days watching television, but I find the offerings lacking substance. Instead, Ive turned my energies to providing Americas troops with writing utensils pens. I turn whatever number of pen kits Im given at one time, from a normal of 60 about twice a week to a hundred this past week. My total so far (for five years) is11,137 finished pens. Other store leaders include: Woodcraft of Nashville, Tennessee, second highest 13-year total: 15,218, and second highest number of pens in 2016: 2,000. Woodcraft of Boise, Idaho, third highest 13-year total: 13,941, and fourth highest in 2016:1,303. Individual Contributions In addition to turners who contribute through stores, there are some who turn pens and send them directly to the Woodcraft corporate office. These volunteers include The Sutton family from Cape Coral, Florida, who contributed 148 pens in 2016 and an overall total of 710, and Nial J. Haden from Fredonia, New York, who turned 110 in 2016 and 734 overall. David Sutton shared his familys process for making their pens for the military personnel: It is truly a family affair; my mom, Delores, sews the pouches and helps with the final pack up where we put all the packets together. My dad, Donald, who is retired from the military, and I do the woodworking. I guess practice makes perfect because we have streamlined the process pretty well. We try to make an assembly line; we cut, then glue up, trim to barrels, turn, finish, and assemble. We try to do batches, so its not just one at a time. Sutton said his parents will be 80 this year, so he likes keeping them involved through the pen project. Hadden writes: I enjoy doing the pens and feel that in a small way I am making a contribution to our troops. I am a veteran myself (Korean War and Cold War period) and have some idea what they are going through. For more information about Woodcraft, please contact the store nearest you, visit http://www.woodcraft.com or call (800) 535-4482. To learn about Woodcraft franchise opportunities, visit http://www.woodcraftfranchise.com or email woodcraftfranchise(at)woodcraft(dot)com. We appreciate Wahls commitment and continuous support for professional pet groomer education, said Steven Appelbaum, president and CEO of Animal Behavior College. For the second year in a row, WAHL Clipper Corporation (Wahl) will be a Gold-level sponsor for Animal Behavior Colleges (ABC) Grooming Instruction Program (GIP), the school announced today. The sponsorship renewal is effective immediately. Wahl is honored to be a continued partner with ABCs Grooming Instruction Program. ABC is focused on quality education and improving the lives and safety of professional groomers and the pets they care for. said Helen Cox, WAHL Clipper Corporation marketing manager. The GIP offers an essential service of education, as well as promoting the wellness of professionals and animal care. The gold-level sponsorship enables Wahl to reach out to and interact with GIP students, graduates and alumni in a number of ways, such as product information flyers and articles, product samples and social media contests, to name a few. We appreciate Wahls commitment and continuous support for professional pet groomer education, said Steven Appelbaum, president and CEO of Animal Behavior College. They are a global grooming products leader and offer some of the most sought-after and innovative supplies and tools available in the industry. Best-known for its wide-ranging professional and home-grooming products, Wahl products are popular among barbers, hairstylists and groomers worldwide. For almost 100 years, the Sterling, Illinois-based company has manufactured personal care and professional grooming supplies, including clippers, trimmers, combo kits, brushes and shampoos. Wahl products are currently sold in 165 countries with six global manufacturing facilities. The increase in pet ownership is driving demand for pet boarding, grooming and other services. It is estimated that 65 percent of U.S. households own a pet, which equates to approximately 79.7 million homes, according to the 2015-2016 American Pet Products Association (APPA) National Pet owners Survey. The APPA estimates that by the end of 2016, pet owners will have spent more than $5.41 billion on pet services, which includes grooming and boarding. To date, ABC has certified and graduated 2,213 professional groomers through its pet grooming program. In addition to pet groomer certification, ABC offers certification through its Dog Obedience Program (DOP) and Veterinary Assistant Program (VAP). The school also offers a variety of relevant Short-Term Programs on subjects such as cat management and training, pet nutrition, pet massage, pet sitting, training shelter dogs and doggy daycare (to be introduced in the first quarter of 2017). To learn more about WAHL Clipper Corporation, visit the website at http://www.wahl.com. To become a pet groomer, dog trainer or veterinary assistant and learn more about Animal Behavior College visit our website at http://www.AnimalBehaviorCollege.com/info or call 1-800-795-3294. ### About Animal Behavior College As of December 22, 2016, Animal Behavior College (ABC) has graduated and certified 2,213 professional pet groomers through its Grooming Instruction Program. Dedicated to developing innovative programming, maximizing efficiencies and driving sales with regional and national account partners, Precept Wine is excited to announce the formation of its new Strategic Accounts Division and has promoted and appointed Austin Gangel to Senior Vice President to oversee it. Gangel will report to Precept Wine Chief Sales & Marketing Officer Alex Evans. With decades of combined experience in wine marketing and sales with regional and national retailers, hoteliers and restauranteurs, the Strategic Accounts Division will work in concert with our partners to pursue innovative products and programming, ensure excellence in service and deliver strong growth. Our strategic account partners are a key driver to the success of Precept Wine, Chief Sales & Marketing Officer Alex Evans said. This team will keep us on the forefront of innovation bringing value to our partners through quality, creativity and a collaborative approach to business. Our regional and national strategic account partners are important to us. We have watched them grow exponentially internally and externally and in-turn they have helped us to expand our business and for that we are truly humbled, Gangel said. Our goal in Strategic Accounts is to develop with them by giving them resources at Precept to continue to build innovative alcoholic beverage solutions and drive sales. Gangel, who started with Precept Wine in 2012, has continuously proven his ability to drive sales growth results through effective leadership and meaningful relationships. As Senior Vice President of Strategic Accounts, Gangel has formed a team of dynamic individuals to meet the needs of Precept partners. This includes wine industry veteran, John Heinz as Chairman of Strategic On-Premise Accounts. With more than 30 years of industry experience 28 of those years spent with Constellation Heinz will consult and advise on a number of key accounts providing a wealth of expertise and guidance. Also part of the team are Precept Sales Directors Lisa Blount (east) and Chelsea Blalock (south). New to this team is Jessie Naluai, who is promoted to Sales Director West. Naluai has worked in a variety of capacities at Precept since 2012, most recently as direct to consumer sales manager where she executed programs that dramatically increased sales in that channel. With Jessies knowledge and successful management of direct to consumer sales as well as her ability to create and maintain deep relationships with our clientele, she will be an incredible asset to the Strategic Accounts Division, Gangel said. In addition, Precept Wine is hiring a dynamic leader to fill the role of Sales Director - National. This role will be working with some of our top national account partners. Rounding out the new division will be the companys Grape & Grain Marketing team led by Marketing Director Nicole Hogan. The Grape & Grain team is responsible for developing wine solutions, including specialty regional brands and top-performing exclusives for on- and off-premise accounts that align with partners goals at service or retail. The Grape & Grain division has accounted for consistent double-digit growth for the past three years. Grape & Grain offers a dynamic team of winemakers, brand managers, logistics and compliance managers and graphic designers, Evans added. It is truly a full-service, seamlessly integrated team so we can steward projects from design to development. The teams holistic approach to market represents the future of the wine business. Seattle-based Precept Wine Is the largest privately held wine producer in the Pacific Northwest and a top 15 American wine producer. With deep roots representing 30 years of Northwest investments in the wine industry, it owns and maintains more than nearly 5,000 acres of vineyards across Washington, Idaho, New Mexico and Oregon; such leading wine brands as HOUSE Wine, Browne Family Vineyards, Waterbrook, Canoe Ridge Vineyard, Gruet, Primarius, Ste. Chapelle, Pendulum and Shingleback, and Red Knot, plus tasting rooms and hospitality throughout the Northwest. Founded in 2003 by Andrew Browne, the companys wineries have garnered more than 600 combined best buys and critical scores exceeding 90 points. Learn more at http://www.preceptwine.com. Ask The Doctor in Mandarin Ask The Doctor, the world's largest medical question and answer platform, announced today it will begin operations in China to meet the countries user-base demand. Ask The Doctor allows users to ask a doctor sensitive medical questions anonymously in any language and receive answers from a network of over 20,000+ general physicians and specialists in a few hours or less. These question and answer pairs are then published with all personal information removed to create a medical q&a library. This library is proving to be a very valuable asset for medical AI research, even used by the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Edward Tan, Medical Director, China, says, Expanding to China was a no-brainer. With a population of 1.3 billion people of which more than half have smartphones, our service is proving to be extremely valuable. Access to immediate and proper medical advice is very limited in the country, especially in rural China. We realized this early on and made expanding to China a priority. As of today, Ask The Doctor Chinas main page will be in Mandarin with the Chinese Yuan being the accepted currency. Ask The Doctor also plans to convert its library of questions and answers to Mandarin over the coming year. Its a proud day today for Ask The Doctor," says CEO Prakash Chand. We already have users everyday from every single country in the world with the exception of North Korea. With a larger focus on the Chinese market, our companies global mission to give everyone equal access to quality medical advice just got one step closer." About Ask The Doctor Launched in 2010, Ask The Doctor is a digital health platform accessible to any patient with an internet connection that allows them to type a question to a General Physician or Specialist. In 2011, Ask The Doctor became an official partner of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), publishers of PubMed. The question and answer data collected provides insight into how patients communicate their health concerns and has helped identify unmet medical needs internationally. Today, Ask The Doctor is the most trusted resource for customized medical information and advice, servicing patients from nearly every country around the world. Diane Dillon As part of the current lecture series sponsored by the Napa County Historical Society, the Sharpsteen Museum is proud to host Napa County Supervisor Diane Dillon at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 24. Dillon will give an update on the compilation of her research project, the History of the Napa County Supervisors, subtitled Late Arrivers Must Buy Cigars (a carefully recorded note which appeared in the minutes of an 1890 Board of Supervisors meeting). Since 2011, Dillon has been carefully and painstakingly researching the long-forgotten history of the Board of Supervisors, collecting stories, biographies, and photos of all 115 men and women who have sat on it. While accumulating little-known details of county supervisors dating back to Napa County's inception in 1852, the more the personal lives of these figures curiously come to light. Take, for instance, Jesse Warren Whitton, who in 1852 sat on the first Napa County Board of Supervisors. Born in Kentucky in 1812, Whitton traveled to California as part of a John Fremont expedition. In Sept. 1859, Whitton found himself in the midst of a political argument with a fellow Napan, Charles Marks, on the streets of downtown Napa. The paper had described Marks as an average-size, very peaceable, inoffensive German who ran a bakery and a candy store. He was a Republican, but not a noisy one. Whitton himself had been described as big and strapping and a man of violent passions. Nevertheless, Whitton was offended by Marks' politics, knocking him to the ground and nearly stomping him to death. Many other Republicans in the mob that gathered called for lynching Whitton. Whitton was forced to hide out inside a nearby brick building, subsequently being smuggled out the back by a sheriff. Whitton was arrested and put in county jail but escaped serious punishment. Whitton felt it best at this point to leave town. Another discovery of Dillons: the Board of Supervisors had only three seats between 1852 and 1874 when it transitioned to todays five seats. But, in 1874, it had eight seats. Apparently, as the five new supervisors came in, the three already seated refused to go. And as for William Greenwood Raney? He took office in 1910 serving less than six months having died of ptomaine poisoning after eating a bulls head breakfast in Monticello. Dillons personal history runs deep through the Napa Valley, being the fifth generation of her family to live in Napa County. Conn Valley and Conn Dam should be familiar. Dillon is descended from these early valley settlers: John Conn who arrived in the 1840s and helped Dr. Bale build his grist mill, and Connelly Conn who followed in 1852. Dillon grew up hearing stories about her grandmothers trips to St. Helena by horse and buggy over the Pope Street Bridge, and over Mt. St. Helena to visit family in Lake County and at the quicksilver mines. Dillons understanding of the importance of local history and preservation organizations is not surprising. After graduating Napa High School, Diane earned a B.A. degree with honors from UC Santa Barbara, a master's degree in library and information science from UCLA with a specialization in law librarianship, and a J.D. from UC Davis where she was a member of law review. As for her visit to the Sharpsteen Jan. 24, she said, I hope to focus on the supervisors that were from the Calistoga area. Its convenient that there is (at least) one for each of the first four decades when the Board of Supes as an entity was being shaped to look pretty much as it does today. They are Leonard Lillie (1856), Joseph Mecklenberg (1865), Andrew Safley (1874), William Lyman (1883) and Samuel Collins (1885). While Kathy Bazzoli, who sits on Sharpsteen's Board of Directors, is hoping that past county supervisors from Calistoga didnt try to stomp anyone to death or die from ptomaine poisoning, she believes the stories will be just as interesting. There will be time for questions so be ready! Scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m., Dillon will share some of these little-known stories discovered during her research project. Please join Sharpsteen Museum Tuesday, Jan. 24. Seating is limited, so please be prompt. Coffee and sweets will be provided. For more information on this lecture series and future events sponsored by the Napa County Historical Society, please visit their website at http://www.napahistory.org About Sharpsteen Museum: The Sharpsteen Museum's permanent exhibits are designed to present the history of the upper Napa Valley from its pre-history to post-World War I with an emphasis on people and changes brought by the period of U.S. emigration and development. In addition to its many historical exhibits, the museum uses unique and extraordinarily extensive dioramas to depict Calistoga during its period as the elegant 1860s Hot Springs resort developed by pioneer, promoter, publisher, entrepreneur, and California's first millionaire, Sam Brannan. Sharpsteen Museum has special exhibits which change twice a year, every six months, and reflect the varied interests of the people of the Valley. They have ranged from antique silverware to model ships to historical musical instruments. DALLAS, Jan. 05, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Westwood Holdings Group, Inc. (NYSE:WHG) today announced the Westwood Dividend Growth Fund (WHGDX) has transitioned [effective December 30, 2016] to the Westwood Low Volatility Equity Fund and will trade under the ticker WLVIX. The new mandate will incorporate a fundamental bottom-up approach to low-volatility investing, primarily in equities and convertible securities, with a goal of providing investors participation in up-markets with loss limitation in down-markets and an attractive current yield. The fund transition comes in response to growing demand from investors looking for equity exposure without the severity of fluctuations that equity markets can experience. We are very excited to offer this fund, which is rooted in our firms 30-year-old philosophy that seeks to protect client capital and exhibits Westwoods continued focus on developing our suite of low-volatility, outcome-oriented solutions, said Matt Lockridge, Senior Portfolio Manager and member of Westwoods U.S. Value Team. Through fundamental bottom-up security selection, across two distinct asset classes, the fund offers a differentiated way of investing in a space dominated by quantitative-based funds. The Fund The Fund aims to provide investors total return, through a combination of current income and capital appreciation, with a lower level of volatility than traditional equity-oriented strategies over a market cycle. The new mandate will leverage the fundamental research capabilities across Westwoods equity and convertible securities platforms. A strategic allocation to convertibles can provide an income boost to the portfolio and provide additional downside protection through the structural asymmetric return profile offered by the asset class, said David Clott, Senior Portfolio Manager and member of Westwoods Global Convertible Securities Team. Additionally, the use of convertibles allows us to balance the sector bias that is inherent in many low-volatility products that invest only in common stock. The Fund will be managed by portfolio managers representing Westwoods equity and convertible securities capabilities, with an average of 19 years of industry experience. The Fund will offer a lower fee structure by reducing its management fee to 70 basis points (bps), with total fund expenses capped at 75 bps. About Westwood Holdings Group, Inc. Westwood Holdings Group, Inc. provides investment management services to institutional investors, private wealth clients and financial intermediaries. With $21.3 billion in assets under management (as of September 30, 2016), the firm offers a range of investment strategies including U.S. equities, Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs), Multi-Asset, Global and Emerging Markets equities, and Global Convertible securities portfolios. Access to these strategies is available through separate accounts, the Westwood Funds family of mutual funds, UCITS funds and other pooled vehicles. Westwood benefits from significant, broad-based employee ownership and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol WHG. Based in Dallas, Westwood also maintains offices in Toronto, Boston, Omaha and Houston. For more information about Westwood, please visit our website at www.westwoodgroup.com. For more information on Westwood Funds, please visit us as www.westwoodfunds.com. It is currently expected that the Adviser will contractually agree to reduce fees and reimburse expenses in order to keep total annual Fund operating expenses (excluding interest, taxes, brokerage commissions, acquired fund fees and expenses, and extraordinary expenses) from exceeding 0.75% of the Funds average daily net assets from the Effective Date through February 28, 2018. To determine if a Fund is an appropriate investment for you, carefully consider the Fund's investment objectives, risk factors, charges, and expenses before investing. This and other information can be found in the Fund's prospectus, which may be obtained by calling 1.877.FUND.WHG, or by visiting our website at www.westwoodfunds.com. Read the prospectus carefully before investing or sending money. The Westwood Funds are distributed by SEI Investments Distribution Co., 1 Freedom Valley Dr., Oaks, PA 19456 which is not affiliated with the Adviser. There can be no assurance that a Fund will achieve its stated objectives. Mutual fund investing involves risk, including possible loss of principal. The American Insurance Association (AIA) today announced that Jeremy Merz will join the organization as Vice President of State Affairs, Western Region effective January 9. Most recently, Merz was a lobbyist for Californias most influential business organization, the California Chamber of Commerce. During his five years with CalChamber, Merz represented over 14,000 member companies on workers compensation, taxation, privacy, transportation and infrastructure issues. Were excited to have Jeremy join our state affairs team. His advocacy experience at the California Chamber and extensive legal knowledge on issues crucial to our industry will be a great asset for AIAs members, said AIA President and CEO Leigh Ann Pusey. His background in workers compensation as a claims case manager and navigating state and federal policy as a private attorney make Jeremy a great fit for our membership. Hell be a wonderful addition to our California office, working with Katie Pettibone, as AIA strives to achieve sound public policy outcomes, while laying the ground for future initiatives, added AIA Senior Vice President for State Affairs Joe DiGiovanni. Im thrilled to be joining AIA and working with its diverse membership to achieve their public policy goals, said Merz. With many legislatures about to convene their 2017 session, I look forward to representing the nations leading property-casualty trade association and working with policymakers to promote an efficient regulatory system that benefits insurers and their policyholders. Prior to joining the CalChamber, Merz was an associate with Sacramentos largest law firm, Downey Brand, LLP, where he represented private defendants in state and federal courts on business litigation and employment law issues. Previously Merz served as a judicial extern to the Honorable Frank C. Damrell, Jr., U.S. District Court judge for the Eastern District of California. Merz received a B.A. in Economics from the University of California, Davis and a J.D. with distinction from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law, where he served on the editorial board of the McGeorge Law Review. Kuwaits Al-Sumait Prize for African Development today called for nominations for its 2017 award for education. Applications for the prize need to be received by Al-Sumaits Prize office no later than April 30, 2017. Al-Sumaits 2017 Education Prize is open to individuals and organizations delivering pioneering contributions across the education spectrum in Africa, said Dr. Adnan Shihab-Eldin, Director General of the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS), which administers the prestigious prize. Dr. Adnan Shihab-Eldin said the aim of the prize is to recognize efforts to improve access throughout the African continent to basic or advanced education, boost literacy and decrease dependence of childrens education on the socio-economic status of their parents. Key conditions for the prize include being able to demonstrate research work or projects that are innovative and have achieved high-impact in line with the international standards established for the prize. The nomination form can be found at https://oe.kfas.org.kw/alsumait2017 or requested from KFAS Prize office by sending an email to alsumaitprize(at)kfas(dot)org(dot)kw Dr. Shihan-Eldin said the one million dollar Al-Sumaits Education award will build on the success of the recently awarded Al-Sumait 2015 Health and 2016 Food Security awards in creating a legacy of solid transformation in the lives of countless underprivileged individuals and societies. The winners of Al-Sumaits 2015 health and 2016 food security awards demonstrated initiatives of paramount importance in promoting significant economic, social, human resources and infrastructure development in the African continent. Now educationalists have their opportunity to put forward their innovative work and projects to furthering development in Africa, said Dr. Shihab-Eldin. Initiated in 2013 by His Highness Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, the Al-Sumait Prize for African Development is designed to reward innovative and inspiring initiatives and research by individuals and organizations that address the challenges facing the African continent. The award recognizes and honors individuals and institutions who help advance economic and social development, human resources development and infrastructure in Africa. For more information, please visit http://www.alsumaitprize.org Media enquiries, please contact: Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS) at: P. (+965) 22270465 E. prize(at)kfas(dot)org(dot)kw "We are excited to support development of novel live biologic therapeutics. We think the concept of using good bugs to fight bad bugs will positively impact a lot of patients. - Jeff Friedman, MD, PhD; Head of Tech Coast Angels' Life Sciences Committee Tech Coast Angels (TCA) and MatriSys Bioscience (MatriSys Bio) today announced the completion of their $1.5 million convertible note financing round. MatriSys is developing and commercializing a novel class of live biologic therapeutics targeting major skin and dermatologic conditions that affect more than 230 million people worldwide. Recent pioneering advances in skin microbiome research, led by Professor Richard Gallo of UCSD, have resulted in a new understanding of the beneficial relationships that exist between skin microbes and health. By building on these discoveries, MatriSys is producing live biological therapeutics (LBTs) that rebalance the normal mix of bacterial species present on the skin by expanding the beneficial good microbes and selectively removing the damaging or pathogenic species - bad bugs. MatriSys sees commercialization paths for its intellectual property in topical dermatology therapeutics, cosmetics, and skin care. The companys lead live biologic therapeutic is currently in Phase I/II clinical trials targeting atopic dermatitis (commonly referred to as AD or eczema) patients. In the past, there have been very few options for a patient suffering from AD, said Mark S. Wilson, CEO of MatriSys. The choices were to take an antibacterial therapy that removed all the bacteria both good and bad from the skin, or to take something that suppresses the patients immune system. Neither of these is particularly good as depletion of good bacteria can create an environment where pathogens can multiply, causing more imbalance and infection. What our technology does is selectively remove the bad bugs by application of 'good bugs' to re-balance the skin condition. Our investment in MatriSys is a terrific example of TCAs focus to support local, exceptional early-stage companies that are leveraging new technology to confront key health concerns, said Jeff Friedman, MD, PhD, deal lead and head of TCAs life sciences committee. MatriSys' core technology is derived from cutting edge research from Dr. Richard Gallos group at UCSD. To move from the lab to clinical testing so rapidly indicates this is a highly promising technology. TCA is excited to support development of novel live biologic therapeutics. We think the concept of using good bugs to fight bad bugs will positively impact a lot of patients. Friedman will join the board of MatriSys and will help the company with business development, counsel, and assist with subsequent financing. This round of funding will be used to support and accelerate clinical trials for atopic dermatitis and continue preclinical work to support MatriSys growing pipeline of live biologic therapeutics for additional clinical indications. We are excited to move forward with our clinical trials and the funding round will allow us to continue our work in this breakthrough technology, concluded Wilson. About Tech Coast Angels: Tech Coast Angels (TCA) is one of the largest and most active angel investor networks in the nation, and a leading source of funding for seed-stage and early-stage companies across all industries in Southern California. TCA members are accredited investors who collectively invest in startup companies in the range of $250k to $2M as a group. The companies TCA invest in go through well-structured, transparent, and time efficient screening and due diligence. TCA members are themselves founders and executive level business leaders who have extensive knowledge in the investment process and world-class business practices. TCA members thus provide companies with more than just capital; they also contribute counsel, mentoring and access to an extensive network of investors, customers, strategic partners and management. TCA is a catalyst in the growth of the thriving Southern California entrepreneurial ecosystem of innovation, funding mostly emerging technologies and life science companies. The most recent Halo Report rated TCA as #2 nationally in a number of funded deals. A recent analysis by CB Insights ranked TCA #1 out of 370 angel groups on Network Centrality and #5 overall in Investor Mosaic. Since its founding in 1997, TCA has invested over $176 million in more than 300 companies and has helped attract more than $1.5 billion in additional capital/follow-on rounds, mostly from venture capital firms. For more information, please visit http://www.techcoastangels.com. About MatriSys Bioscience: MatriSys Bioscience (MatriSys Bio) is a clinical stage Specialty Biopharmaceutical Company focused on developing and commercializing rational microbiome therapies for the top five dermatology and skin care conditions. Our foundational microbiome therapeutics platform is based on the pioneering work of Richard L. Gallo MD PhD, Professor and Chair, Department of Dermatology at the University of California, San Diego and the http://gallolab.ucsd.edu/. For more information, please visit http://www.matrisysbio.com/. For laid-back listeners, hardcore gamers and vinyl enthusiasts alike, these versatile speakers leave no one behind. Kanto returns to CES to showcase their new YU4 and YU6 powered speakers, on display in Suite 30-318 at The Venetian throughout the show. Officially launching January 20, these powered speaker pairs represent an evolution in the Kanto line, adding a built-in phono pre-amp to a wide range of connectivity options that make them a perfect fit for almost any application. YU4 and YU6 were designed to do it all. For laid-back listeners, hardcore gamers and vinyl enthusiasts alike, these versatile speakers leave no one behind. YU4 (pronounced You Four) houses a 140W peak Class D amplifier, 4 Kevlar drivers and 1 silk dome tweeters, and is available in seven colors. YU6 (pronounced You Six) is built with a 200W peak Class D amplifier, 5.25 Kevlar drivers and 1 silk dome tweeters, and comes in six colors. Like all Kanto speakers, YU4 and YU6 incorporate a design aesthetic centered on two modern design principles: simple form factor and use of premium materials. Carefully sanded acoustic MDF cabinets produced in a range of gloss and matte colors, woven Kevlar drivers and eye-catching silk dome tweeters provide more than something to listen to. Simply put, they look as great as they sound. In fact, Kantos speakers are so elegant in design and exceptional in function that they appeared in an Architectural Digest photo spread of the Obama familys White House private quarters (November, 2016). Inputs on both speakers include two optical ports, one RCA (with a switchable phono pre-amp), one AUX, plus Bluetooth with Qualcomm aptX technology for instant connection and streaming from any wireless device. Both speakers feature automatic standby and power-up modes for responsiveness and power economy. The included remote gives full control over audio tone and balance, while a simple front knob controls volume, power modes and inputs. Outputs include a subwoofer connection and a 5V 1A USB charge port. Plan to visit Kanto in Suite 30-318 to not only see YU4 and YU6, but the rest of the companys audio line. YU2 desktop speakers, plus sub6 and sub8 sub-woofers, are also on display. About Kanto Living (http://www.kantoliving.com) Kanto Living, based in Coquitlam, BC, is a fresh brand of consumer electronics products with a mission to support the digital lifestyle with an emphasis on style. Since 2007, the company has developed a highly regarded line of audio systems and video mounting solutions. For more information, visit http://www.kantoliving.com or email sales(at)kantoliving(dot)com. Residential Cost to Install Solar installing a home solar system, without any subsidies, is already a promising investment opportunity for homeowners in more than a dozen states Solar systems may already be a cost-effective choice for many American households, even if subsidies like tax credits and rebates become a thing of the past. According to new analysis by the website Cost to Install Solar, installing a home solar system, without any subsidies, is already a promising investment opportunity for homeowners in more than a dozen states. The federal investment tax credit (ITC), the most widespread solar incentive currently in place, provides a 30 percent tax credit for the installed cost of a residential solar system. After 2019, the credit is scheduled to step down and ultimately go away at the close of 2022. However, with the impending change in administration and talks of tax reform, some question whether the solar tax credits will be around that long. Based on analysis of hundreds of thousands of solar installation records, Cost to Install Solar found that residential solar is probably here to stay regardless of what happens in the White House. Using installation data compiled by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the website calculates the average unsubsidized cost of solar and solar system performance across the United States. Out of the 15 states with enough installation records to perform a full analysis, the site determined that homeowners in 14 states could to pay off their initial solar investment with electric bill savings within the expected lifetime of the system. Only in Oregon, with its low electricity rates and lack of sunny days, was solar found to be a questionable investment. While Indiana, Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Utah rank as the least expensive places to install a residential solar system, none of these topped the list as the most cost-effective state for residential solar. That distinction goes to Rhode Island, which has the highest statewide electricity prices in the Northeast. Based on estimated electric bill savings of nearly $2,000 a year, a Rhode Islander could pay off their solar investment in less than 15 years. Thats half the expected lifetime of a typical solar system. Other states with high electricity prices, like New Hampshire, California, and Connecticut, also have a good solar value proposition. Arizona, which has fairly a low electricity rates but ranks as one of the sunniest states in the nation, also rated among the most cost-effective states for homeowner to invest in solar. At the city-level, the site found that solar is cost-competitive in more than 90 percent of the 1,725 cities analyzed. The towns of Ione, California near Sacramento and Walpole, New Hampshire along the Vermont border have the best solar investment potential in the country. Residents in these towns can break even with solar savings in less than 11 years. The site notes that these payback estimates are only meant to be a starting point for households considering a solar investment. They do not account for additional system maintenance or financing expenses or the cost of replacing hardware like an inverter, but they also assume that electricity prices wont increase over time, which is unlikely. Even taking into account the simplified nature of these calculations, it looks likely that solar is here to stay, no matter what happens to the future availability of incentives. Social Media Scholarship I believe in the power of education, it's an important part of creating a strong and successful group of future digital marketing professionals that will lead innovation in social media and digital marketing for years to come. WeAreTop10 is proud to announce the launch of their social media scholarship. Students who are entering or currently attending an undergraduate or postgraduate program in Marketing, IT, Journalism, or Communications at a U.S. university or college are eligible to apply for this $1,000 scholarship. Students must submit an application with their essay on the impact of social media by the application deadline on March 15, 2017. All scholarship participants have to research and submit a 500 to 1,500 word essay on the following topic: What is the impact of Social Media on our generation, and how can we use it to play a positive role? The essay should discuss the impact of social media on millennials and generation Z as well as ways that social media can be used in a positive role in society. Students should aim to be as creative as possible and demonstrate their genuine interest in the field of social media marketing as well as their personal strengths and how they might relate to the field. WeAreTop10 will select the best submission and award the student $1,000 to be used on course materials and other college resources. As a digital first brand, WeAreTop10 has seen the impact that social media and digital marketing can have on brands and consumers alike, says Hafiz Muhammad Ali, founder of WeAreTop10. This scholarship gives students who are passionate about social media the opportunity to explore and share this passion. To be eligible for this scholarship contest, students must be a U.S. citizen or legal permanent U.S. resident. The student can be a current high school junior or senior or a student who is currently enrolled in a two-year or four-year U.S. college or university. The scholarship funds will be transferred directly to the educational institution to be distributed directly through their financial aid office. I believe in the power of education, and I know that higher education is an important part of creating a strong and successful group of future digital marketing professionals that will lead innovation in social media and digital marketing for years to come, Hafiz comments. Our goal with this scholarship opportunity is to help recognize students who are passionate about social media and dedicated to shaping the future of digital marketing. To apply for this $1,000 Social Media Scholarship, students should submit their application with essay to scholarships(at)wearetop10(dot)com. All applications should include legal name, email address, current or future educational institution, current or anticipated degree program, estimated month and year of graduation, and proof of enrollments or acceptance into the educational institution. The deadline for Spring submissions is March 15, 2017, and the winner will be announced on March 21, 2017 with funds awarded by March 31, 2017. The deadline for Fall submissions will be September 15, 2017, and the winner will be announced on September 21, 2017 with funds awarded by September 30, 2017. For more information about the scholarship criteria or eligibility requirements, students should visit WeAreTop10.com. About WeAreTop10 WeAreTop10 is one of the webs most trusted list websites for the top 10 products across industries. Founded by entrepreneur, Hafiz Muhammad Ali, WeAreTop10 aims to empower consumers with the information they need to make more informed purchasing decisions by providing researched and handpicked lists of the top products in different price brackets. If you are new to iQ you can schedule a demo and learn more about this opportunity. PSFK iQ - Where Innovators Turn for Research. Our professional-grade research platform is designed specifically for Retail and CX leaders who want to know whats next. Whether youre staying current on trends or need a real-time research partner to help you get ahead, count on PSFK iQ to deliver the info you need to make your next move. Taking a scientific approach to understanding art has led to novel and provocative ideas about its origins, the basis of aesthetic experience, and the nature of research into art and the humanities. Rampleys inquiry examines models of artistic development, the theories and development of aesthetic response, and ideas about brain processes underlying creative work. He considers the validity of the arguments put forward by advocates of evolutionary and neuroscientific analysis, as well as its value as a way of understanding art and culture. With the goal of bridging the divide between science and culture, Rampley advocates for wider recognition of the human motivations that drive inquiry of all types, and he argues that our engagement with art can never be encapsulated in a single notion of scientific knowledge. Introduction In 1959, the novelist and chemist Charles Percy Snow delivered a now famous lecture titled The Two Cultures. The cultures in question were those of the scientific community and the literary intelligentsia, and Snows lecture analyzed the polarization of intellectual life due to the estrangement and gulf of incomprehension between the two. Indeed, he argued, more than just incomprehension, there existed mutual hostility and suspicion: Thirty years ago the cultures had long ceased to speak to each other, but they at least managed a frozen smile across the gulf. Now the politeness has gone and they just make faces. Snows lecture remains perhaps the best-known expression of what one commentator has referred to as his technocratic liberalism, an optimistic embrace of the idea of a meritocratic and technologically advanced society that he set in opposition to the Luddite tendencies of the artistic and literary community of the 1950s. It was the culmination of a larger debate in postwar Britain about the place of scientific inquiry, and, in the wake of the 1951 Festival of Britain, it drew on a wider process of introspection about the future of British society. Snows diagnosis focused on the specialization in education that occurred too early, and his consequent remedy was to broaden the educational curriculum. While he overstated the differences, his argument was to prove enormously influential, and it continues to be invoked as a point of reference in debates in this area. Indeed, the call for a dialogue between the arts and humanities and the sciences has become a recurring theme; national and international research councils and funding bodies frequently and actively encourage projects that cross the boundaries between the two. A response to the immediate historical circumstances of postwar Britain, Snows lecture was also rooted in a longer debate over the relation between the social and natural sciences in Germany before the First World War. Occupying the attention of major thinkers of the time, including Max Weber, the debate concerned the status of historical and social knowledge. If empirical historical findings could not be generalized into normative statements comparable to the laws discovered by the natural sciences, how could the humanities defend their scholarly status? Famously, Webers response to this question was to assert the distinctiveness of inquiry in the humanities. They did not need to mimic the natural sciences in order to attain legitimacy. There is no absolutely objective scientific analysis of culture, he argued, for it consists of the empirical science of concrete reality and its aim is the understanding of the characteristic uniqueness of the reality in which we move. This purported difference was summarized by Webers contemporary, the philosopher Wilhelm Windelband, as the distinction between the nomothetic concerns of the natural sciences and idiographic approach of the humanities. Both thinkers acknowledged that this difference was not absolute. Windelband noted that one and the same object can be the subject of nomothetic as well as ideographic inquiry. A language might be studied in terms of its grammatical, morphological, and syntactical structures and rules, but at the same time, each language is a unique, temporary phenomenon in the life of human speech. Likewise, Max Weber highlighted the use of the ideal type as a heuristic procedure in sociology. The ideal type, a synthesis of a great many diffuse, discrete, more or less present and occasionally absent concrete individual phenomena . . . arranged . . . into a unified analytical construct, serves as the basis for the identification of historical and social patterns against which individual cases can be contrasted. Despite such concessions, both men sought to mark out the distinctiveness and legitimacy of a domain of inquiry the objects of which could not be defined in terms of conformity to objective lawlike behavior. Linked to this, too, was the claim that the natural sciences are concerned with the objective, third-person explanation of observed phenomena, in contrast to the central role of understanding in the humanities, where actions and events are seen as the product of human agency and subjective intentions. Knowledge of the details of the dispute among German scholars of the early twentieth century is now of limited resonance except to specialists, but it laid down the outlines of a debate that has continued to the present. Definitions of science still revolve around notions of the role of covering laws, as the philosopher Carl Hempel termed them. To quote Hempel, Scientific explanations, predictions, and post-dictions all have the same logical character: they show that the fact under consideration can be inferred from certain other facts by means of specified general laws. It is often assumed, Hempel suggested, that the historical and natural sciences are distinguished on this very point, that the former deal with singularities that cannot be accommodated within a framework of generalized rules. Hempel formulated this distinction in terms of the opposition between the nomological and the idiographic. Rather than thereby dismiss history as lacking the objectivity of the natural sciences, Hempel tried to argue that it, too, operates in a similar manner. Historical explanation, too, aims at showing that the event in question was not a matter of chance but was to be expected in view of certain antecedent or simultaneous conditions. The expectation referred to is not prophecy or divination, but rational scientific anticipation which rests on the assumption of general laws. Hempels formulation now belongs to the history of the philosophy of science, but the basic framework was taken up by scholars in the humanities. Michael Baxandall, for example, used it in his analysis of art-historical interpretation. Recognizing that historians employ soft generalizations, Baxandall emphasized that art history is nevertheless a primarily idiographic enterprise. This is not only because our interest as historians or critics is . . . towards locating and understanding the peculiarities of particulars, but also, he argued, because of the distinct focus of art historians. Historians study actions and events that may or may not be subsumable under covering laws, but art historians are concerned with artworks as the deposits of those actions. The historian may be concerned with works of art and other historical artifacts, but his attention and explanatory duty are primarily to the actions they document, not to the documents themselves. In contrast, the art historian is concerned with the document itselfa work of arteven though it is the result of an intentional behavior. Given the debated status of unanalyzed notions of intentionality, agency, and authorship, one may wish to be more cautious than Baxandall, but he has nevertheless captured something important that distinguishes art history both from the model of scientific explanation advanced by Hempel and others and from what might be seen as the nomological dimension of historical inquiry. To take one of Baxandalls examples, we may be able to explain certain aspects of Piero della Francescas Flagellation of Christ by reference to antecedent or simultaneous conditions such as patterns of church patronage, iconographical traditions, theological doctrine, and the like. But this only manages to identify the painting as an instance of a certain type, rather than capturing something about the specificity of this image in contrast to all the other versions of the flagellation. This issue lies at the center of many of the attempts to overcome the division between the arts and the sciences, and it will be discussed again in this study. But before going further into methodological reflection, it is useful to consider more recent attempts to implement Snows call for an integration of knowledge. Perhaps the most high-profile instance can be seen in the growing calls for consilience. Its leading advocate has been the biologist Edward O. Wilson, who has attempted to summarize the ideal of consilience as a systematic and coherent approach to the production of knowledge. Envisioning himself as heir to such philosophes as Condorcet, Voltaire, and Diderot, Wilson sees consilience as picking up the tradition of Enlightenment thought that was interrupted by the French Revolution and the rise of romantic irrationalism. Many of Wilsons arguments have a pertinence and force that is difficult to deny. He claims, for example, that one of the reasons for the failure of governments (and societies) to respond adequately to the challenges of environmental degradation is the fragmentation of knowledge. Biology, ethics, economics, environmental policy, and social science occupy different domains of knowledge, when there is an urgent need for them to be combined. A leading entomologist, Wilson has been particularly preoccupied with how the biological sciences can be deployed to explain facets of human culture. His first major foray into this area, the book Sociobiology, sought to ground human social behavior in inherited biological traits. Although much disputed, not least because of its political and ideological implications, sociobiology became a substantial field in its own right, and it is currently enjoying renewed interest. The idea of a dialogue between, or even a convergence of, different domains of inquiry may, at first sight, appear a largely positive goal; few dispute the value of interdisciplinary thinking. Yet it raises a host of questions that will be the focus of this book. Wilsons example of environmentalism is initially persuasive, except that the real object of criticism is the failure of government to take into account insights from numerous domains in the formation of policy, rather than the epistemological problem of the unity of knowledge. Wilsons argument, moreover, is based on an undeclared realist epistemology that assumes the world as a single object of knowledge, when there are many more constructivist positions that would cast into doubt the a priori possibility of a unified field of knowledge. Aside from such theoretical issues, there are other reasons to be wary of the new consilience, for in many cases the calls for such cross-disciplinary activity have been prompted less by a search for a dialogue of equals and rather more by a desire for intellectual imperialism, in which the proponents of the natural sciences lay claim to superior explanatory powers. Wilson provides an illustration when he states, Without the instruments and accumulated knowledge of the natural sciencesphysics, chemistry, and biologyhumans are trapped in a cognitive prison. They are like intelligent fish born in a deep, shadowed pool. Wondering and restless, longing to reach out, they think about the world outside. They invent ingenious speculations and myths about the origin of the confining waters, of the sun and the sky and the stars above, and the meaning of their own existence. But they are wrong, always wrong. The arts and humanities, lacking the tools of the natural sciences, are lost in a world of delusional mythologies. A similar opinion is expressed in Creating Consilience, a recent collection of essays that examines how the humanities and the sciences might be integrated. The nature of such integration is apparent, perhaps, in the first sentence of one of the essays in this collection, by the anthropologist Pascal Boyer: Why is most cultural anthropology irrelevant? For Boyer, it is because anthropology has written itself out of the concerns of most importance to contemporary society. His upbeat solution is that it should embrace the biological sciences, since, he asserts, the traditional concerns of cultural anthropology are currently being given a new lease of life and often a much more lively public relevance by evolutionary biologists and economists, suggesting that there may be such a field as the science of culture. Boyer is himself closely associated with a program of evolutionary anthropology that has claimed to identify the inherited biological roots of a wide range of cultural and social practices. Yet of course the use of the term irrelevant invites the question: for whom? Boyer and his colleagues never answer this question, but it is a recurring theme in this study, which starts from the premise that the construction of knowledge is a function of the interests of the inquirer, which, in turn, determine the questions to be asked. One of the principal causes of the two cultures divide is, it is alleged, the emergence of conflicting ontologies. Scientists are ontological monists, whereas exponents of the humanities hold on tenaciously to a dualism of mind and body and to the mystifying concepts of Verstehen (understanding) and Geist (spirit) inherited from the German hermeneutic tradition. Once such dualism is overcome, it is argued, the humanities and the sciences can be properly integrated, and more rational accounts produced of cultural practices and representations. Criticisms of such proposals are, it is claimed, little more than an unreflective response to their counterintuitive implications. Because of our innate folk dualism, human level realitiesbeauty, honor, love, freedomstrike us as pertaining to the ontological realm entirely distinct from the blind deterministic workings of the physical world, and we are always ready to trot out the emotionally fraught charge of reductionism. This trivializes, of course, the philosophical stakes involved. While some defenders of the specificities of the humanities may fall back onto unanalyzed notions of mind, subjectivity, and intention, such breezy dismissal makes no serious attempt to understand and engage with the philosophical underpinnings of the humanities. One of the shrillest voices of all in this debate has been that of Richard Dawkins. Having written a number of groundbreaking works in evolutionary biology in the 1970s, Dawkins has since become the advocate of an increasingly fetishized and reified notion of science. Taking particular aim at religious belief, Dawkins has tended to dismiss anything other than scientific method. It is not the goal of this book to defend religions against his polemics, but it is legitimate to express concern at Dawkinss wish to monopolize the field of inquiry in the name of a simplistic, philosophically and historically uninformed image of science. The voices calling for consilience or for a dialogue between the sciences and the humanities therefore often seem to be aiming at anything but an open conversation. They envisage not a meeting of equals but, instead, an encounter in which the purported illusions motivating the humanities are shown for what they are and replaced with a properly rational program of research. This book is concerned with the attempts to apply such an outlook to the study of art. It examines questions to do with theories of aesthetic response as well as issues relating to the historical understanding of art. There are some obvious examples of the interaction between scientific research and art-historical inquiry. Technical art history, for instance, is a by-product of modern chemistry, and its relation to the natural sciences is not in question. However, this study focuses less on that well-defined subfield of art history and more on the particularly prominent role that the biological sciences have played in the project of rethinking art and aesthetics. The theory of evolution has been of central importance in this context, and one might even argue that the call for consilience amounts to little more than an attempt to create a neo-Darwinian framework for the analysis of art. Indeed, evolutionary aesthetics has become a recognized field, and much of this book is devoted to the critical appraisal of the claims of neo-Darwinian accounts of art and aesthetics. Other, related approaches have also gained prominence, however. These include neuroarthistory and the attempt to analyze artistic creativity, as well as the response to art and architecture, using techniques devised in brain science. This book also examines systems theory. More usually seen as a product of the interest in management and computerized systems in the 1960s, systems theory has a much wider set of conceptual roots, and in the writings of its most important representative, the social theorist Niklas Luhmann, the theory of evolution is a central organizing theme. It has gained particular traction with theorists of contemporary art. Almost as soon as art history emerged as a modern discipline, art historians expressed anxiety about its status. This anxiety related not only to its assumed role as a mere auxiliary discipline to history but also to its status as a scientific enterprise. At the first-ever international congress of art historians, held in Vienna in 1873, the convener, Rudolf Eitelberger, declared that art history was created through scientific workand it is only through scientific work that it has a future. This claim, as much a defensive plea as a confident assertion, reveals the fear that art history might be vulnerable to the charge that it was little more than an exercise in dilettantism, its exponents pursuing personal aesthetic preferences when writing about art. It was to counter such suspicions that Eitelberger proclaimed its scientific status, a view that was repeated by his successor as professor of art history in Vienna, Moritz Thausing, who in his inaugural professorial address of the same year declared that taste and aesthetic value had no place in art-historical scholarship. The term Kunstwissenschaft, used by Eitelberger and Thausing to denote art history, suggested not only science but also scholarship. It had a less restrictive set of meanings than the English term science would suggest, and German Kunstwissenschaft embraces a broad spectrum of practices, from positivistic and archaeological documentation of factual information to iconological interpretation and formal and technical analysis. Nevertheless, almost from the inception of their discipline, art historians showed a lively interest in the natural sciences. Darwins On the Origin of Species, first published in 1859, played an important part in influencing the thought of art historians across Europe and North America in the late nineteenth century. For many, the overall shape of arts history could be conceived of as an evolutionary process; Gottfried Semper, Alois Riegl, Franz Wickhoff, and Max Dvorak all espoused this concept. This not only informed the understanding of forms; Riegl and Heinrich Wolfflin also saw art as an index of the evolution of vision. The meaning of this concept remains much debated, but it reveals the clear influence of Darwinism. Wolfflins and Riegls contemporary Aby Warburg mapped the history of art onto the evolution of human emotional and aesthetic response, with the constant possibility of the reemergence of atavistic impulses from a primitive past. Warburgs interest in the representation of bodily gesture, for example, was indebted to his repeated reading of Darwins study The Expression of Emotions in Animals and Man (1872). In Britain, too, Darwinian thinking was marshaled to provide an explanatory framework for the development of artistic forms; the anthropologists Alfred Haddon and Henry Balfour, for example, both described the history of artistic decoration in evolutionary terms, mapping out the genealogy of a wide range of artifacts. Alongside their interest in the theory of evolution, Wolfflin, Riegl, and others responsible for the development of modern art history sought to explain style and aesthetic response in terms of physiology and the psychology of perception. Younger scholars, such as Yrjo Hirn (18701952), Wilhelm Worringer (18811965) and, later, Ernst Gombrich (19092001), continued this interest. But the subsequent identification of art history as one of the humanities entailed the marginalization of attempts at such integration. Edgar Wind may have attempted, in Experiment and Metaphysics, to draw parallels between scientific experimentation and art-historical inquiry, but this work fell stillborn from the press. Gombrich attempted to explore the psychology of perception, but his work was effectively ignored by the art-historical establishment. The occasional eccentric publication, such as Patrick Trevor-Ropers attempt to explain the work of a range of artists by reference to the defects in their vision, has done little to alter the larger general pattern. It is therefore all the more striking that in recent years there has been a renewed effort to bring scientific (read: biological) methods and concepts to bear on the understanding of art. This book proceeds on the premise that despite the often unhelpful tone of their aggressive and triumphalist rhetoric, the exponents of consilience cannot be simply ignored or dismissed; their claims require critical scrutiny. This is especially so given that neo-Darwinian approaches aim to explain some of the most fundamental questions to do with art, such as the nature of artistic creativity, the character and purpose of aesthetic experience, the process of artistic transmission, arts social purpose, and, ultimately, arts origins. Speculation as to the origin of art is coterminous with the history of writing about art; Pliny the Elders account of painting in the Natural History opens with a comment not merely on who the first artists were but also on how painting first emerged. Every subsequent major writer on art, from Vasari to Winckelmann, Hegel, Riegl, and Gombrich, includes an account of arts origins, and the discovery of Paleolithic artifacts and rock art in the nineteenth century gave added impetus to such conjecture. Nevertheless, the question of origins has been taken up again with renewed vigor in recent years, encouraged by neo-Darwinian theorizing about art and culture. Authors with otherwise disparate theoretical and ideological commitments, such as Ellen Dissanayake, Denis Dutton, Steven Mithen, and Winfried Menninghaus, have all advanced evolutionary theories of art, with an emphasis on its adaptive function. In the absence of other satisfactory metanarratives, evolutionary theory has also been used as the underpinning of world art studies. The first chapter of this book examines and critiques the argument that art emerged as an evolutionarily adaptive behavior, not only by questioning the strength of its claims, or indeed of its politically problematic assumptions (heteronormative models of sexual and social behavior are frequently inserted into descriptions of the Paleolithic primal scene), but also by interrogating its value as a statement about art and art behavior. It may be persuasive to assert that art was the product of some adaptive mutation, but there is no way of knowing, and it is difficult to identify evidence for such a claim, or even to agree on what might count as evidence. In other words, I argue that such theories are underdeterminedone might even add unscientificand an indicator of this might be that the meaning of the term adaptive remains markedly uncertain. Some authors have pointed toward parallels in the mating rituals of other species to suggest that art was primarily directed toward reproduction. In contrast, others have suggested that art emerged out of a reservoir of behaviors that were reinforced by, and crucial to, human cognitive development. Still other commentators have suggested that arts representational function, its ability to evoke virtual and fictional realities, built on and enhanced the ability to weigh up possible worlds, a capacity that underpins deliberation on different courses of action and their possible consequences. Finally, some have argued that art was adaptive inasmuch as it enhanced the sense of communal identity and thereby ensured the reproduction of the group. Each of these arguments is equally plausible, but the difficulty is that there is very little evidence for which might be more plausible. This touches on a wider debate over the concept of underdetermination. The philosopher of science Larry Laudan has argued that the critique of underdetermination is not necessarily decisive, inasmuch as a weaker criterion of rational defensibility may be all that is required to sustain an argument. This may be the case, but the difficulty with evolutionary aesthetics is that the models of adaptation advanced are all equally defensible, and the decision to select one over another is ultimately dictated by extrinsic criteria. One might thus begin to dispute the claim that the biological sciences provide a superior interpretative approach. Instead, it turns out that a central aspect of evolutionary theories of art lacks any logical or scientific basis. One can, of course, make similar criticisms of the humanities in general and art history in particular. Even the most descriptive account of a work of art is a selective interpretation of what the commentator is observing; close reading, a much-repeated trope in recent years, is anything but close, since it is a selective attention directed by the wider interests of the interpreter. Moreover, as James Elkins has argued, although art historians have frequently drawn on nomothetic frameworks, from iconography to semiology and cultural materialism, there is nothing objective or nomological about their application to specific instances. The difference, however, is that art historians are all too aware of the contingent, interest-driven, and ideological nature of their work. In other words, they make few of the claims on behalf of their practice that the exponents of consilience make in relation to their own. The difficulties mount up when one interrogates the issue further. Even if it is accepted that art emerged as an adaptive behavior, this is of little help when tracing arts subsequent historical course. For example, certain types of landscape painting may perhaps evoke primal ancestral memories of a Pleistocene natural environment to which humans were adapted, as various authors suggest, but this helps little when trying to analyze the history of landscape as a subject of artistic representations. How does this help when trying to determine the historical relationship between a classical landscape by Claude and a transcendentalist vision of northern Germany by Caspar David Friedrich, for example? How does it help when trying to determine the relationship between individual paintings of the same subject, Friedrichs The Oak Tree in the Snow (1829) and Gustav Klimts Tree of Life (1909), if they are both expressions of the same atavistic impulse? This type of criticism can be applied equally to the subject of the second chapter of this book, namely, the use of evolutionary theory to describe artistic diffusion and the development of artistic traditions. Aby Warburg was the first to attempt such a project, using the biologist Richard Semons theory of memory to describe artistic reproduction and variation. Comparing artistic images to mnemic traces imprinted on biological organisms, Warburg envisioned the Renaissance as a process of mnemic recall, in which the retrieval of classical symbols was a reactivation of latent memories imprinted on the collective memory. Semon saw mnemic replication not only as a repetition of the same but also as a process where mutation could introduce variation, leading to the production of new lines of descent. This opened up the possibility that artistic tradition was not merely doomed to an eternal recurrence of the same, but rather could subvert the meanings of ancient memories buried in the inherited stock of visual imagery. Artistic tradition could thus be as much about the sublimation of primitive inherited impulses as about their repetition. This model clearly bears similarities to Darwinian notions of evolution and descent, in which genetic lineages are either passed on and reproduced unchanged to subsequent generations, or are passed on in mutated form and even confer reproductive advantages on their bearers. Warburg focused his study of artistic transmission on dynamogramsthose visual symbols that were charged with cultural memory. More recently, in his book The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins took up the idea with the concept of the meme, the unit of cultural transmission that could be compared to the gene in biological evolution. For Dawkins, memes are handed down, repeated, and transmitted because of one of a range of qualities that bestows success on their ability to reproduce. A melody may be highly memorable; an image may be particularly moving or striking in the specific context in which it is produced. In other words, it will be better adapted than others in that it has features that render it more likely to be passed on. Other authors have attempted to construct similar theories of cultural and social adaptation. Of these, the most ambitious is Walter Runciman, whose wide-ranging historical sociology is founded on notions of social evolution and adaptation. This is so not only in the case of larger-scale theories of social adaptation but also in more specific claims about the adaptational function of art. It is possible to see almost any social (and cultural) phenomenon as either adapted or maladapted, depending on the perspective chosen. Given that historical phenomena come into existence for a certain time, it is possible to assert their superior adaptivity over what preceded them, but, equally, since nothing lasts forever, it is also possible to argue that everything is maladapted, since all eventually comes to an end. As the biologist John Maynard Smith has admitted, the claims often advanced become irrefutable and metaphysical, and the whole program merely a test of ingenuity in conceiving possible functions. The issue of arbitrariness comes to the fore when more detailed studies of individual cultural and artistic practices are examined. Numerous authors, from Alfred Barr and George Kubler to more recent writers such as Mark Collard and Franco Moretti, have attempted to construct evolutionary trees, or cladograms, that map out the lines of ancestry, continuation, variation, and extinction of specified artistic and literary objects. A common difficulty in such accounts is that the features they use as the basis of such mappingclues in the case of detective fiction for Moretti, geometrical figures in textile designs for Collardare chosen arbitrarily. It would be possible to use other features, equally arbitrarily, to reach quite different conclusions. Such evolutionary accounts ultimately run the danger, too, of offering a positivistic tautology: certain cultural and artistic practices persist or gain greater influence than othersin other words, are selectedbecause they are more successfully adapted. This weakness is evident in the work of Niklas Luhmann, the focus of the final chapter. Luhmanns systems theory has had a growing impact on aesthetics and art history, initially in Germany, but now, gradually, in the Anglophone world as well. Evolution is central to Luhmanns theory of social systems, according to which systems persist through time by means of the processes of self-reproduction, variation, and selection. But systems theory suffers from the same weakness as other evolutionary theories. Namely, while it observes such processes at work, it lacks a midlevel theoretical framework for identifying how or why certain variations are selected and others are not. This deficiency is especially significant given that in systems theory the environment is not seen as a constraining factor (against which certain variations are better adapted than others), but rather as something that is itself defined by the system. In other words, the process of variation and selection is determined entirely within the system, but systems theory has no theory of the grounds for such determinations. It is limited to making two observations: there is variation, and there is selection. The third chapter addresses what has become one of the most contentious and disputed areas in which biological insights have been applied to the study of art: neuroarthistory. Although associated with John Onians in particular, it has been promulgated by a number of authors, who have used neuroscience to explore familiar issues in aesthetics and the history of art. Subjects have ranged from the meaning and origins of Paleolithic artit was the visual expression of a profound evolutionary leap in human cognition and neurological structureto more detailed art-historical case studies, such as responses to modernist abstraction, classical Greek architecture, and the Renaissance invention of perspective. For such theories, the power of art is due to its ability to stimulate certain evolved neurological processes. Conversely, neuroarthistory claims that artists and architects derive their creative disposition from specific patterns of neural development; certain areas of the brain are overdeveloped, and these are the centers of creative activity. Neuroarthistory has been the object of trenchant criticism, not least from researchers in the neurosciences, who have criticized its superficial understanding of neurological processes. Although some of these criticisms are outlined here as well, my main concern is, again, with neuroarthistorys explanatory value. Arguably, even if reactions to artworks can be correlated with observed patterns of neural activity, it is open to question whose interests this insight serves. Does neuroarthistory generate findings that address the disciplinary concerns of art historians, or does it merely use artistic raw material to provide data that are primarily of interest to those researching the operations of the brain? What would it mean for the results of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans of the brain to be of significance for art-historical investigation? How might it shape the course of the discipline? What answer might there be to the suspicion that neuroarthistory merely uses the vocabulary of neuroscience to describe commonplaces about the formative role of social and natural environments? What does neuroscience add to conceptions of aesthetic experience? The limitations of this approach are all the more apparent when it is used to account for individual episodes in the history of art; it turns out to be unable to provide any method for distinguishing between responses to individual artworks, much less for considering their aesthetic, cultural, or other value and significance. Critics of the new Darwinism in the humanities are often accused of a blinkered attitude, of an ideological and willful blindness that interferes with the possibility of genuine and meaningful dialogue with the natural sciences. In some cases, this accusation may be justified, but it should not be allowed to distract attention from the serious issues that attend the attempts to apply neo-Darwinian and neuroscientific ideas to the analysis of art. C. P. Snows original complaint was about the lack of meaningful engagement between the two cultures, which had become both socially and intellectually estranged. Overcoming this division may undoubtedly be an important objective, but, as stated earlier, many proponents of consilience aim at something more ambitious: the wholesale subordination of the humanities to a scientific paradigm. Yet even advocates of a naturalization of the humanities have recognized that this is impossible. Neurology can, at best, describe individual brain states, but this is far from explaining the cultural and artistic objects that are of interest to the humanities. As Jan Faye puts it, Cultures, norms and meanings supervene on numerous brains and their interactions, as mediated by language and other cultural symbols, which are themselves not neurophysiological states. . . . Individuals who share a common culture or communicate via some communal symbolic medium do not share some common brain state. At the center of the debate over the value of the natural sciences for the understanding of art is the question of the unity of knowledge. The premise of this book is that the desire for such unity is at the heart of the problem, for it is a misconceived project. It is no small irony that one of the most forceful advocates of epistemological pluralism has been Niklas Luhmann, whose vision of a system-oriented modernity stresses its polycontextural nature. For Luhmann, there is no overarching form of knowledge that would encompass all insights generated by individual social, biological, and psychic systems. The perspectives of individual systems may interact (Luhmann speaks of structural coupling or interpenetration), and indeed they may sometimes depend on such interactions, but, in contrast to the proponents of consilience, this is far from constituting a single field of knowledge. Cashed out in concrete terms, this means that insights from the natural sciences and the humanities may well converge on topics of shared interest, and that the possibilities of such convergence have to be examined. The argument, for example, that the emergence of representational art across the world at an approximately similar time is linked to crucial evolutionary developments in human cognition is compelling, unless one is committed to a nonnaturalistic theory of human mind. Equally, for all their contentious and problematic character, Darwins speculations as to the sexual origins of aesthetic experience merit serious attention. Likewise, through quantitative analysis it is possible to detect patterns of development that enable the reconstruction of evolutionary trees of artistic and cultural reproduction, variation, and selection. Nevertheless, in each of these cases the most striking feature is the limits of such explanations. Even though an important cognitive evolutionary step may have been taken some forty thousand years ago that enabled the emergence of complex representational imagery, this can tell us little about the subsequent history of such imagery. A similar restriction besets the Darwinian reading of aesthetic sensibility. It may be that the sense of beauty is descended from earlier responses to visual display in mating rituals and is thus rooted in sexual selection, but such distant origins have long since been overwritten by layers of cultural meanings, which are precisely what concern art and cultural historians. In other words, evolutionary theory may provide an additional explanatory layer, but it does not easily replace more established discourses in the humanities. It is possible to map out patterns of cultural evolution, but the data generated require interpretation about the significance of such processes, which requires the application of a wide range of other methods and concepts from the humanities. Such reservations do not entitle one to dismiss such initiatives out of hand, for they may offer important insights and, on occasion, lead to a reframing of established questions. As the individual analyses suggest, the use of the evolutionary framework poses questions about how one might formulate models of art-historical change and time, about the cross-cultural validity of the categories of art and aesthetic experience, about the relation between art and sexuality, about the use of quantitative information in art-historical analysis, about norms of evidence and argumentation. At the same time, they suggest that the proponents of consilience of the arts and sciences are less entitled to the confidence that has often been a hallmark of their interventions. It may be objected that in concentrating on questions of value, i.e., whether such approaches offer a difference which makes a difference, as Gregory Bateson put it in another context, I have adopted an instrumental attitude toward inquiry. In response, I argue that in an important sense it is entirely pointless to debate whether Constables Hay Wain is as it is owing to the way in which his brain was formed in childhood, or whether we enjoy the landscape paintings of Albert Bierstadt because they evoke buried primordial memories of our Pleistocene past, or whether we find Myrons Discus Thrower beautiful because his proportions signify his genetic and hence reproductive fitness. I am not in a position to adjudicate the truth-value of research into mirror neurons, or the evolution of the human mind, nor are any other art historians. My concerns lie elsewhere, with issues such as whether the claims to greater rigor advanced by the proselytizers of consilience are borne out by the examples of scientific approaches to art and culture, whether they offer decidable and compelling propositions, and whether the explanations offered provide answers to the kinds of questions that preoccupy art historians and critics, as well as theorists of art and culture in general. My aim is therefore to interrogate what is gained when the world is represented in this way rather than in others. The remainder of the book will explore what such an interrogation might consist of and whether it, too, has positive value. SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 05, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Golden Gate University (GGU) is now accepting applications for a new masters degree in Business Analytics (MSBA), which focuses on the application of data analytics to solve real-world business problems. The MSBA program enables students to seize on the lucrative and abundant opportunities presented by the rise of Big Data in the corporate sphere. Leveraging its position as the top-ranked adult education university in the US (Washington Monthly), GGU will provide students with online and night classes, instruction by faculty working with business analytics at major companies, and a relevant and business-focused curriculum. Data analytics is a strategic discipline that gives practitioners new opportunities to discover insights that can support strategic goals and decision making at an organization, says Dr. Judith Lee, Associate Professor & Department Chair, and Operations & IT Management. The MSBA degree provides a toolkit of statistical and analytic theory, processes, tools, and techniques, which can be integrated into the business depending on the discipline and needed outcomes. Topics and skills of the GGU MSBA degree include: Big Data and its supporting technologies Business applications of structured and unstructured data Preparing data for analysis Data visualization for effective communication with colleagues Descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive analytic disciplines Machine learning and algorithms Natural Language Processing R and Python programming languages, SPSS Modeler Text Analytics, SAS EnterpriseMiner, Machine Learning, Tableau, SQL, NOSQL, OLAP, and Hadoop Solutions to challenges of data security, privacy, and ethics Corporate issues such as data policy governance, ownership, and strategies Career Advancement Opportunity GGU continues to develop innovative programs such as the MSBA that keep pace with the rapidly changing world of business. According to Forbes, demand for new Business Analytics competencies in San Francisco and the Bay Area is the highest in the nation. By providing insights from complex data that support company strategy and decision making, professionals with Data Analytics competencies typically earn over 100K per year, as indicated by Glassdoor. US News & World Report ranked Business Statistician a role that rests on this skill set first on its list of best business careers. Webinar for Interested Students Dr. Lee will lead a webinar about the MSBA program on January 11 at 12:30 pm for prospective students. Register online. Applications are being accepted for 2017 Summer and Fall Terms. About Golden Gate University Since 1901, non-profit Golden Gate University (GGU) has been helping adults achieve their professional goals by providing high quality, practice-based undergraduate and graduate educational programs in law, taxation, business and related professions in an innovative and challenging learning environment that embraces professional ethics and diversity. Marilyn Sachs, groundbreaking author of titles in the early wave of realistic fiction for middle grade and YA readers, and a progressive social and political activist, died on December 28. She was 89. Sachs was born Marilyn Stickle on December 18, 1927 in The Bronx, N.Y. She noted in her autobiography for Something About the Author that her childhood neighborhood bustling with children including some who bullied her was an inspiration for many of her books. She credits her desire to avoid bullying, and a rich family history of storytellers, as catalysts for developing a talent for rearranging the truth and telling tales, which served her well as a novelist. Sachs had a fondness for reading and writing from an early age, and often took refuge from neighborhood hassles in the local library. After completing high school, where she served as editor of the school paper, Sachs wanted to attend college, though her father objected to the idea. She persisted, moving to Brooklyn where she supported herself with part-time jobs while studying at Hunter College. At the same time, she was becoming politically active, and met her future husband, sculptor Morris Sachs, when the two belonged to the progressive political organization American Youth for Democracy. The couple soon married, and after she graduated from Hunter in 1949, Sachs took a job as a childrens librarian trainee at the Brooklyn Public Library. She worked there for a decade while earning her masters of library science degree at Columbia University. But she also had begun entertaining thoughts of being a professional writer. I loved my job, most of the kids, and the books, she said in an interview, I read and read and read, and somewhere along the line I realized what kind of books I wanted to write and who I wanted to write for. Sachs took a leave of absence from the library in 1954 to focus on her writing. She completed her first novel during that time, Amy Moves In, about a [poor Jewish] girl named Amy who told lies, as Sachs once described it. Though she shopped the manuscript around, editors in those days were not interested in a realistic story of a family going through hard times. Sachs temporarily set the book aside, and with her husband and their two young children made a cross-country move to San Francisco, where Sachs worked part-time at the San Francisco Public Library. In 1963, a former colleague from her days at the Brooklyn Public Library got in touch with Sachs, letting her know that she had become a book editor, and inquiring about the Amy manuscript. With that, Amy Moves In had finally found a home and was published by Doubleday in 1964 to favorable reviews. For the next 20 years, Sachs published roughly a book a year, writing in between childhood sicknesses, peace marches, flooded toilets, and all the other demands life made on my time, she said in her autobiography. In 1968, with four titles already under her belt, she became a full-time writer. Among the books from that early period is the middle grade novel Veronica Ganz (Doubldeay, 1968), featuring a tomboy character that Sachs has said was a composite of all the bullies who terrorized me as a child. The novel was named an ALA Notable Book. Her 1971 novel The Bears House (Doubleday), about a family of neglected children struggling to survive, was a finalist for the 1972 National Book Award. Sachss acclaimed YA novels include The Fat Girl (Dutton, 1983), which tackles issues of body image and social status. Sachs was a co-editor, with her longtime editor Ann Durell, of the anthology The Big Book for Peace (Dutton, 1990), which provided proceeds to peace organizations, and enabled her to combine her childrens book and activist passions. She went on to write more than 40 books for young people, more recently the 2005 novel Lost in America (Roaring Brook), which is a sequel to her novel A Pocket Full of Seeds (Doubleday, 1973), about a French Jewish girl who must fend for herself when her family is taken away by the Germans during WWII. North Star Editions first attracted attention in children's publishing circles when it acquired the Flux imprint from Llewellyn Worldwide last July. Three months later it followed up that purchase by acquiring Jolly Fish Press, which was on the verge of closing down. Mari Kesselring, managing editor of North Star, declined to identify the two primary investors who started the new company, only telling PW that the publisher's cofounders are business people living in Minnesota "who want to support the publishing industry" and feel strongly that "reading is important," especially during the teen years. "Providing high-quality fiction is important in serving this market," Kesselring said. Although North Star has kept in print the titles it acquired from Flux and Jolly Fish, it will release its first original books early this year. The focus at the publisher will be on publishing trade fiction under the Flux and Jolly Fish imprints. Flux, which launched the careers of Maggie Stiefvater, A.S. King, Laura Faria Stolarz, and Simone Elkeles, is already a young adult imprint that specializes in "alternative voices," and it will continue in that direction. Jolly Fish, which for five years published a wide range of fiction for both children and adults, will stop acquiring adult books and narrow its focus to YA and middle grade fiction. "Jolly Fish is the sister of Flux," Kesselring said while discussing the acquisition of Jolly Fish during a recent visit by PW to North Star's offices in suburban Mendota Heights, close to the MinneapolisSt. Paul International Airport. Negotiations between North Star and Jolly Fish were completed within a week of Jolly Fish's initial announcement that it was planning to close. "We knew Jolly Fish would be a good companion to Flux. Flux is more edgy, while Jolly Fish is more family friendly and G-rated," Kesselring noted, disclosing that North Star had no knowledge of Jolly Fish's financial problems prior to the announcement. North Star has three full-time employees in addition to Kesselring, who had worked at the book-packaging company Red Line Editorial before moving to North Star. Joe Riley, a sales and marketing veteran who has worked for Fortress Press, Liturgical Press, Hazelden Publishing, and Creative Publishing, is North Star's sales manager, while Megan Naidl, whose background includes serving as communications manager at e-book distributor Big Timber Media, is its publicity manager. North Star's spring list will be made up of four YA titles. Two titles will be published under the Flux imprint: The Edge of the Abyss (Apr.) by Emily Skrutskie, a sequel to The Abyss Surrounds Us, and Seeking Mansfield (May), a debut novel by Kate Watson. The other two spring 2017 titles will be published under the Jolly Fish imprint: The Fall of the Dragon Prince by Dan Allen (Feb.) and The Black Tempest (Apr.) by Ryan Dalton, the second in a trilogy. Print runs have yet to be determined. Although only two additional titles have been scheduled for release in fall 2017, Kesselring said that North Star expects to publish 20 new books this year. To augment its own list, starting this month North Star will begin distributing nonfiction MG titles published by Focus Readers to the school and library market. Focus Readers, which has separate ownership from North Star, will launch with 50 titles for students in grades 37. At the moment North Star is building up its 2017 list, introducing itself to the trade, negotiating representation with commission reps, and making sure that its titles are made available through all of the major wholesalers. However, at some point in the future, North Star is considering publishing nonfiction for the teen market in addition to fiction. "It's a market that isn't tapped," Kesselring said. "That would be great, to create a YA-friendly imprint to disseminate facts." When young men and women take their places on factory floors today, whether they know it or not, they stand on the shoulders of people like William Bill Bowling. The Geneseo man who died at age 77 Monday, spent a lifetime working for their rights. The influential UAW leader and former state labor director did that by never forgetting where he came from. His remarkable story will be shared by many who knew him best when they gather for his visitation from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, and at his funeral service immediately afterward. They are to be held, appropriately, at the Richard Shoemaker UAW Hall, 630 19th St., East Moline. His biography deserves a larger audience. His roots were modest. The son of a Kentucky coal miner came to the Quad-Cities as a third grader. He worked a short time at the East Moline State Hospital and for the Rock Island Mill Works before joining International Harvester in 1961. He told a reporter in 1977 that he wanted to help people and thought the UAW was the way to do it. Theres about 25 committees in the union and I served on every one of them, he said. He eventually would be elected to nearly every office in Local 1309, representing nearly 3,000 of his fellow Farmall workers. That included three often tumultuous terms as president punctuated by contract talks and two strikes. A lifetime Democrat, he put politics aside when it was in the best interest of workers. As chair of the Quad-City CAP (Community Action Program) Council, he instituted reforms that required candidates to earn its endorsement rather than automatically giving it to the Democratic candidate. As a result, Republicans sometimes get the councils nod. GOP Gov. James Thompson noticed. He named him the states Director of Labor. As labor chief, Mr. Bowling instituted reforms, including securing overdue unemployment benefit checks for striking IH workers. He said in an interview with UPI, I really cared about the people who worked for me and the people who were having difficulty in getting unemployment insurance checks. You see, I used to draw unemployment insurance and I used to wait in those lines. His tenure ended after an election in which the UAW declined to back either Gov. Thompson or Democrat Michael Bakalis. But rather than take a white-collar job in Springfield, he returned to the factory floor and the union fold, from which he warned in an interview with The Dispatch in 1981, Unions the next few years will go through some of the most difficult times theyve ever faced. Over the years, he did battle to protect his union brothers and sisters as recording secretary of the National Association of Governmental Labor Officials and on the National Labor Relations Board, the State Education Labor Relations Board and the Illinois Labor Relations Board. Throughout his life, he remained a strong voice for labor and a promoter of the public good. We always welcomed his letters to the editor. They grew rarer in recent years and weve missed sharing his well-written views, especially when they skewered us on issues about which we disagreed. Not just labor, but our community is poorer for the silencing of this fair-minded man with a strong voice and something to say. Our sympathy to his loving family and legion of friends. Get a bright start to new year The River Music Experience is thanking its members with a special show at the Redstone Room, 129 Main St., Davenport, at 8 p.m. Friday. The Americana/folk band Cereus Bright will perform, and those showing their RME membership card will get in free. Admission is $10 for everyone else. Based in Knoxville, Tenn., the five-member group is fronted by Tyler Anthony and Evan Ford, who started as a duo and "connected over a shared passion connecting with people by writing and performing meaningful, melodic songs," according to the group's website, cereusbright.com. We want to make honest music songs about real life, which can be beautiful or messy or both," according to the site." A Paste magazine review of its 2016 album, "Excuses," called it "a mellow and mature record, one that demonstrates the bands earnestness and acumen." Make wedding plans and help a good cause The first bridal show of the year is the 14th annual Wedding Max Bridal Show on Saturday, from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the iWireless Center, 1201 River Drive, Moline. Admission is $10 at the door, and $5 in advance at weddingmaxbridalshow.net. While you browse and book vendors to help create the ideal ceremony and reception, the show again is partnering with Strong Partners Empowering Change and Solidarity (SPECS), Inc., a locally-based nonprofit organization. All bridal show proceeds will be donated to SPECS, which offers assistance to women affected by emotional and physical abuse. It works with schools, shelters, counseling centers and communities to spread awareness in an effort to prevent future abuse, according to the group. Meredith Rausch (pictured) founded SPECS in 2012, after experiencing emotional abuse from family members who suffered from mental health issues, her bio says, on specspartners.org. In the last two years, the Wedding Max show has donated more than $9,000 to the charity. Fly like an eagle in Rock Island The annual Bald Eagle Days takes flight this weekend at the QCCA Expo Center, 2621 4th Ave., Rock Island. The environmental fair features live birds of prey demonstrations, Audubon bus tours to see eagles, Jim Nesci's Cold Blooded Creatures show and information booths. You can see "Bubba" the eight-foot alligator, an exotic wildlife sanctuary and animals from the Big Run Wolf Ranch. Each winter, the waters of the Mississippi River remain unfrozen near the locks and dams; fish are plentiful, and trees on the riverbanks provide prime sites for perching and roosting, according to visitquadcities.com. Bald Eagle Days will be at the Expo Center Friday from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. (when kids ages 15 and younger will be admitted for free); Saturday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $6 for adults, $1 for kids ages 6-15, and no charge for kids under 6. Retired Iowa City teachers display their art The latest exhibit at Quad City Arts, 1715 2nd Ave., Rock Island, is by six practicing artists who call themselves R.A.T.S., or Retired Art Teachers. Each was a teacher in the Iowa City School District and shares a lifelong history and love of learning and teaching, and learning some more, according to a Quad City Arts news release. Each artist Laurie Zaiger, Gwen Leslie, Becky Kobos, Buffy Quegg, Sharon Burns-Knutson and Suzy McNeil of Iowa City expresses herself in different media with her own unique style, according to the release. The exhibit, Learning, Teaching, Learning," will be on view through Feb. 3. The public is invited to meet the artists and enjoy complimentary food and beverages at a reception on Friday, from 7 to 9 p.m. Regular gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. A Geneseo woman who co-owns a business that owes creditors more than $765,000 filed for bankruptcy in federal court in December. Bethany C. Alexander, co-owner of King-Alexander Farms, filed for Chapter 12 bankruptcy in U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois, according to court documents. Alexander-King Farms, which opened in 2012, and its offshoot, The Corner Meat Market, which opened in 2016, sold meat online or by telephone. The business has been the subject of dozens of complaints from customers who say they paid for beef and pork products that never were delivered. Ms. Alexander estimates on bankruptcy forms she owes between 200 and 999 creditors $765,780. Her liabilities total $814,030.35. Her assets include two vehicles, a trailer, a wrecked moped, household goods and furniture, and bank accounts containing less than $30 combined. These assets are worth about $18,612.39, according to court documents. Ms. Alexander's attorney, Justin Raver, of Barash & Everett LLC, said he hopes the bankruptcy process will yield a positive outcome. "It's a mechanism to move forward," Mr. Raver said, "and to put this chapter behind everyone and have an equitable way to manage the debt." He acknowledged everyone may not receive everything they're owed. The Facebook group People Against Alexander-King Farms had 892 likes on Wednesday and a feed full of complaints. Court records indicate a hearing is set for Jan. 19 at the U.S. District Courthouse in Rock Island. A Davenport man charged in connection with an October shooting has been indicted in federal court. Romance DeSuave Armstrong, 29, awaits an arraignment and detention hearing Friday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa for one count of possessing a firearm as a felon, according to court records. The indictment, filed in November, alleges Mr. Armstrong possessed a Ruger P95 9mm handgun on Oct. 16. Police responded to a 4:14 a.m. report of shots fired at 5400 Division St. in Davenport. Police said Mr. Armstrong and another adult male suffered gunshot wounds that were not life threatening, according to court documents. Mr. Armstrong was treated and released for his injury. He subsequently was charged in Scott County District Court with being a felon in possession of a firearm, intimidation with a dangerous weapon and possession of a controlled substance. Mr. Armstrong was arrested Wednesday in connection with the federal indictment and had an initial appearance the same day. CHICAGO (AP) A federal judge says the city of Chicago acted in "bad faith" when it ignored a court order and made little effort to provide documents to the family of a 20-year-old who was shot to death by police. Judge Joan Gottschall on Tuesday criticized the city for its approach to discovery. Discovery is the legal process allowing the two sides in a lawsuit to uncover relevant facts through the exchange of documents, depositions and other disclosures. Gottschall wrote the city's "cavalier attitude toward the discovery process" warrant findings of bad faith. Law department spokesman Bill McCaffrey said the city believes it fully complied with the subpoena in the case, however it will promptly comply with the current order. Gottschall gave the city until Tuesday to turn over all the records involving the 2012 shooting of Divonte Young. WASHINGTON (AP) Brushing aside Donald Trump's dismissiveness, the nation's intelligence chief insisted Thursday that U.S. agencies are more confident than ever that Russia interfered in America's recent presidential election. And he called the former Cold War foe an "existential threat" to the nation. Did Russian hacking sway the results? There's no way for U.S. agencies to know, said James Clapper, the director of national intelligence. Asked about the possible effect of the disclosure of private information stolen by hackers, Clapper said, "The intelligence community can't gauge the impact it had on the choices the electorate made." But he did say Russian hacking "did not change any vote tallies." Clapper's testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee was short on concrete evidence of Russian activities, but it raised the stakes in the intelligence community's standoff with Trump. Clapper indicated the agencies he leads would not back down in their assessment, even if that threatens a prolonged crisis of confidence with their next commander in chief. That puts the pressure back on Trump, who has raised the possibility of more positive relations with Russia and has repeatedly disparaged the U.S. intelligence agencies. He will be briefed Friday on the classified evidence concerning Russian interference. Shortly after Thursday's hearing, news leaked that Trump would soon name former Republican Sen. Dan Coats of Indiana to replace Clapper after the new president takes office. The intelligence agencies' classified report, which was shared with President Barack Obama on Thursday, identifies multiple motives for Russia's interference, Clapper said, but he did not provide details. The Washington Post, citing anonymous U.S. officials, reported Thursday that intelligence agencies have identified parties who delivered stolen Democratic emails to WikiLeaks. The officials also said there were disparities between efforts to infiltrate Democratic and Republican networks, and said the U.S. intercepted communications in which Russian officials celebrated Trump's victory. It was not clear which of those details are included in the classified report. In a joint report that roiled the presidential campaign last fall, the Homeland Security Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said the U.S. was confident about foreign meddling, including Russian government hacking of Democratic emails. "We stand actually more resolutely on the strength of that statement," Clapper said Thursday. He declined to discuss whether Russia's interference was aimed at helping Trump win. An unclassified version of the report will be released next week, Clapper said. That version, expected to be a fraction of the length of the classified one, is not likely to answer all the questions about Russia's actions. Exactly how the U.S. monitors its adversaries in cyberspace is a closely guarded secret, since revealing such details could help foreign governments further obscure their activities. "I think the public should know as much about this as possible," Clapper told the senators. "And so we'll be as forthcoming as we can, but there are some sensitive and fragile sources and methods here." Clapper was less shy about declaring Russia "an existential threat to the United States." That's strong rhetoric that harkens back to the Cold War between the U.S. and Soviet Union, language Obama has avoided. For his part, Trump has embraced the possibility of warmer U.S.-Russian ties. Republican John McCain of Arizona, chairman of the Senate panel, pressed Clapper as to whether Russia's actions constituted an "act of war." The intelligence director said that was "a very heavy policy call," more appropriate for others in the government to decide. Obama announced sanctions against Russia late last year, a move Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said was akin to throwing a pebble. "I'm ready to throw a rock," Graham said. The GOP is divided over how to deal with Russia. Once Trump takes office, he is certain to face opposition from Democrats as well as some in his own party regarding his posture toward Russia. Trump has criticized U.S. intelligence findings, even citing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's contention that Russia did not provide him with hacked Democratic emails. But in new tweets early Thursday, he backed away and blamed the "dishonest media" for portraying him as agreeing with Assange, whose organization has been under criminal investigation for its role in classified information leaks. "The media lies to make it look like I am against 'Intelligence' when in fact I am a big fan!" Trump wrote. In fact, Trump has been skeptical to the point of dismissive about the certainty of the assessment of Russian hacking, bringing up past failures, specifically intelligence reporting the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq in the lead-up to the war there. Trump has derided the intelligence community on Twitter, his comments widely reported by The Associated Press and other news organizations. Clapper said Thursday, "I think there is an important distinction here between healthy skepticism, which policymakers to include policymaker No. 1 should always have for intelligence, but I think there's a difference between skepticism and disparagement." White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Obama is confident that the intelligence assessment on Russia is "unvarnished." "The president has insisted that the intelligence community should not hesitate to present to the president what could be considered bad news, because a whitewashed assessment doesn't serve anybody well," Earnest said. He added that anyone who consumes intelligence "using rose-colored reading glasses is not going to be able to make good decisions." ___ Follow Eileen Sullivan and Richard Lardner on Twitter: http: twitter.com/esullivanap and http://twitter.com/rplardner WASHINGTON After demanding for six years that the Affordable Care Act be gutted, Republican leaders refused Wednesday to outline concrete steps to repeal and replace it, even as members of their party voiced growing reservations about rolling the law back without a viable alternative. Neither President-elect Donald Trump nor Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who met with House and Senate Republicans at the Capitol, offered lawmakers details about their repeal plan a centerpiece of their winning campaign short of vague promises that Trump would take executive action after he assumes office in just over two weeks. And GOP congressional leaders would not say how they will proceed or even how long they will take to develop a replacement for the current law, widely known as Obamacare. This is going to take a little time, Texas Sen. John Cornyn, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, said after the meeting with Pence. The lack of detail underscored the complexities of undoing the biggest expansion of the social safety net in decades without interfering with health care for tens of millions of Americans. Republicans wavering just a day after the start of a new Congress also may give opponents additional time to shore up support for preserving Obamacare in some form. Cornyn and other Republican leaders repeated assurances Wednesday that consumers would not lose coverage while Republicans work to develop an alternative to the law. More than 20 million Americans have gained coverage through the law and many more depend on its key protections, including a guarantee that people can get coverage even if they are sick and limits on how much patients can be forced to pay out of their pocket for medical care. We dont want to pull the rug out from anybody, said House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis. We dont want people to be caught with nothing. After meeting with Senate Republicans, Pence told reporters at the Capitol that Trumps executive orders would ensure that there is an orderly transition during the period after we repeal Obamacare to a market-based health care economy in America. The assurances have not convinced patient advocates, leading medical groups or even many conservative health policy experts, who are urging the GOP not to roll back the law without first developing an alternative. Many are skeptical Republicans can craft one; they have failed to do so for more than six years. This week alone, leading physician groups, including the American Medical Association, joined the push to slow the repeal campaign. Others urging caution include the American Diabetes Association and the advocacy arm of the American Cancer Society. A growing number of Republican senators are also voicing reservations about the lack of a clear plan, jeopardizing GOP leaders vision for swift repeal in a chamber where just three Republican defections could torpedo legislation. Were not sure exactly what direction were going to go to have a full and careful transition period, said West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, whose state has seen a dramatic drop in its uninsured rate thanks to Obamacare. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, a centrist who is being closely watched, urged party leaders to make more progress on an alternative to the current law before voting to scrap it. It would be far better to have a detailed framework of what replacement is going to include as we are moving toward repealing, Collins said. On Wednesday, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who has publicly criticized the repeal push, joined Democrats in voting against a motion to start debating a resolution that would set the stage for repeal. Outside Washington, state GOP officials are raising concerns about repealing Obamacare as well. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, who was among the first Republican governors to expand Medicaid coverage through the health care law, called his states expansion a national model in an interview with the Detroit News. Under Republicans current repeal plan, the House and Senate over the next couple weeks would pass a budget resolution directing Congress to develop a repeal bill through a process called budget reconciliation. The House would then craft the repeal legislation, pass it and send it to the Senate. Under budget rules, Republicans, who have a 52-48 edge in the Senate, would need only a simple majority to pass the bill and send it to Trump. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Wednesday that the repeal package, which congressional committees are to draw up by Jan. 27, would hew closely to repeal legislation that Republicans developed in 2015 and sent to President Barack Obama a year ago. Obama vetoed it. That bill removed the unpopular insurance mandates in the law that require Americans to have health insurance or pay a fine. It also rolled back federal aid for Medicaid, scrapped federal insurance subsidies for low- and moderate-income consumers and eliminated a Medicare surtax on high-income households and other taxes on medical device makers and health insurance companies that go toward funding the law. To allow Republicans time to develop an alternative, the bill delayed implementation of the repeal for two years. If congressional Republicans stick to this repeal-and-delay strategy, Trump could take steps through executive action that might help stabilize insurance markets while a replacement is being developed, said Larry Levitt, an insurance market expert at the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation. These steps might include tightening rules on when people could sign up for coverage in Obamacare marketplaces or even loosening requirements on what benefits insurers must offer, which could lower premiums though would likely leave consumers with fewer protections. But in case those steps prove inadequate, Republicans appear to be laying the groundwork to shift blame back to Democrats. Trump said Wednesday that the current health care law will fall of its own weight. And Pence outlined for lawmakers plans for the new president to barnstorm the country attacking Obamacare and keeping up momentum for the repeal-and-replace push. Im promising you, you will not be doing it alone, Pence told House Republicans, according to a source in the closed-door meeting, which was described as more of a pep rally than a strategy session. Well be making the case all around the country. Democrats, meanwhile, are working on their own political campaign, which is designed to capitalize on growing reservations in Republican ranks and polls showing public unease over repeal. After meeting separately in the Capitol with Obama, Democratic leaders warned that the GOP was risking chaos by unraveling Obamacare. They seek to rip health care away from millions of Americans creating chaos for our entire economy, warned Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y. It is their obligation they are voting for repeal it is their obligation to come with replace. In a twist on Trumps campaign slogan, Democrats warned that Republicans want to make America sick again. WASHINGTON Shortly after President-elect Donald Trump angered China with what they saw as a rogue call to its adversaries in Taiwan, the powerful communist nation is making moves to establish official ties with the Dominican Republic as it looks for more friends in Latin America who support its national interests. Once content to stick primarily to economic opportunities in Latin America, China is forging a stronger political push in the region. Its efforts to establish diplomatic relations with the Dominican Republic may be considered a small thing, but the pointed action could grow into an all-out proxy war with China if other Latin American countries follow, said Jorge Guajardo, Mexicos former ambassador to China. Its a shot across the bow from China saying, We wont go quietly on the Taiwan issue, and we can get allies in other parts of the world that used to be in your sphere, Guajardo said in an interview. Latin America has found itself in the middle of a sensitive political skirmish between Trump and China, one that goes beyond U.S. or China interests in Latin America and centers on deeper, more sensitive issues in Asia over Taiwans independence. A 10-minute call between Trump and Taiwans leader Tsai Ing-wen after the November election sparked intrigue because such a conversation hadnt happened in decades. Mainland China and Taiwan both adhere to the idea that there is only one China, so if a country forges ties with either Beijing or Taipei, it must end ties with the other. Trump, meanwhile, has threatened to withdraw from various trade agreements with Latin American countries, raising concerns that the United States is closing its lucrative market and giving up its role in helping organize the hemispheres economy. Guajardo doesnt think the Dominican Republic would even be considering switching its allegiance from the Republic of Chinas government in Taipei over the Peoples Republic of Chinas in Beijing if Trump wasnt pulling back from Latin America. Trump has not shied away from confronting Beijing, and he openly questioned whether the United States should keep its long-standing position that Taiwan is part of One China. His phone call with Tsai angered China, which considers Taiwan a province and not an independent country. An editorial in a state-run newspaper chided Trump as ignorant as a child on foreign policy. Chinas interest in Latin America is not new. Beijing has been building up its presence in Latin American and Caribbean states for years. But the focus has largely been economic and the politics were underplayed, said Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the Washington-based Council of the Americas. China already is the regions second-largest commercial partner after the U.S. It imports 40 percent of the global production of soybeans the vast majority of which comes from Brazil and Argentina and a third of the iron ore, which also largely comes from Latin America, according to the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, a private research organization. Farnsworth sees a new urgency from China as Trump raises questions about the independence of Taiwan. The way Im reading this is to the extent that the United States wants to play in the South China sea, China is going to feel unencumbered by saying, We can do that too and were going to work with countries in Latin America to support our core interests which may very well turn out to be opposed to the United States, Farnsworth said. This is a huge issue. The Trump transition team did not return a request for comment. But some familiar with the incoming administrations thinking feel this is nothing new and simply an extension of Chinas outreach in the region. Former U.S. ambassador to Venezuela Otto Reich said Chinas outreach in Latin America began long before last months phone conversation between Trump and the Taiwan president. There is a tendency all of a sudden in Latin America to blame Trump for everything, the bad weather, crop failures, all this stuff, said Reich, who has shared ideas with the transition team. The Dominican Republic would not be the first country in the region to break ties with Taiwan. In 2007, Costa Rica broke ties with Taiwan after establishing diplomatic relations with Beijing. Less than two dozen countries governments still have a foreign relationship with Taiwan; most are concentrated in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. China has pressed others in the region to end their relationships with the island. China President Xi Jinping used a gathering of hemispheric leaders at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Peru to tout new strategic partnerships and trade deals. China will not shut the door to the outside world, but open itself even wider, Xi told business leaders in November. The Chinese government also issued an 11-page policy paper in November that calls for greater cooperation on international issues including global governance. If the Dominican Republic does switch allegiances, other nations are likely to follow, said Guajardo. Taiwanese media reports El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama could follow. Others will be tempted, Guajardo said. It just goes to show you that you cant turn your back on one part of the world without it having repercussions in other parts of the world, he said. 2017 McClatchy Washington Bureau Visit the McClatchy Washington Bureau at www.mcclatchydc.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Humility is a virtue but fake humility is a sin, or ought to be. So let me begin the new year with full-throated praise of some people and institutions that supposedly got their comeuppance in November: the mainstream media, so-called "coastal elites," share-the-wealth liberals, pointy-headed intellectuals and others said to be hopelessly out of touch with the "real America." In what too quickly became the consensus view, all of the above were put in their place by Donald Trump's narrow electoral victory. We unreal Americans were demonstrated to be clueless, the conventional wisdom has ruled, and now are obliged to slink away and repent. All of this is pure rubbish. It's time to stop all the self-flagellation and raise our voices to insist that things like knowledge, experience, qualifications and respect for objective fact still matter -- now, perhaps, more than ever. Let me start with a much-maligned sector that is near and dear to my heart: the news media. We have been accused of causing the whole Trump phenomenon, failing to notice said phenomenon was happening, or both. We did neither. Trump's campaign was initially covered as nothing more than a publicity-seeking stunt, for good reason: He had a long history of publicity-seeking stunts. His outrageous and inflammatory statements were reported because they were newsworthy. His raucous and unscripted rallies were, let's face it, a lot more interesting to watch than Jeb Bush's or Marco Rubio's. The fact that Trump got a lot of exposure did not compel a single voter to support him; many, in fact, were motivated in the other direction, to oppose him any way they could. Did we fail to recognize and understand the grievances of white, working-class Trump voters? Not for lack of trying. We interviewed Trump supporters at the rallies, sent reporters to bereft Rust Belt cities, profiled individual voters to understand their personal travails. The one thing that definitely would have made media coverage better is more October polling in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Do urban, coast-dwelling "elites" really have such haughty disdain for the heartland? That's an odd way to look at a country in which, according to the Census Bureau, more than 70 percent of the population lives in "urbanized areas" and more than half lives in "coastal watershed" counties, generally within 50 miles of one of the oceans or the Great Lakes. Americans have been moving from rural areas and small towns into cities for decades because that's where they find economic opportunity -- and because, well, big cities are interesting places to live, full of diversity and cultural attractions and good restaurants. Yes, this is still a nation of purple mountains' majesty and fruited plains. But that's not where most Americans live. Should liberals be hanging their heads in shame? No way, as the conservative majorities in the House and Senate will soon find out. Trump promised during the campaign to improve and even expand the social safety net, not rip it to shreds. He also pledged to spend $1 trillion on infrastructure projects and cut everyone's taxes. To read Trump's win as some kind of sweeping victory for conservatism would be absurd. Progressive voices, loud ones, will be needed to hold him accountable. One thing we learned during the campaign is that Trump's voters -- unlike many congressional Republicans -- do not necessarily see big government as oppressive. They rely on its help. And another thing: Despite Trump's general lack of knowledge about how the government works, and despite the lack of relevant experience of some of his Cabinet picks, knowledge and expertise really do matter. Scientists who have spent their entire careers studying the Earth's atmosphere and oceans know more about climate change than politicians who base policy positions on the fact that it gets cold in the winter. Remember that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote. I point that out not to delegitimize Trump's election, but to refute the notion that Trump's America is somehow more "real" than mine or yours or anyone else's. The America that supports progressive policies, rejects racism and sexism in all their forms and believes that what critics call "political correctness" is actually just common courtesy -- that America is real, too, and needs to make itself heard. Let's begin the new year with the realization that an election was lost, but not the country -- and not our rights as full participants in the American experiment. Donald Trump is our newly hired employee. Let's not hesitate to tell him what to do. I read Dan Lee's negative column regarding some who supported the Donald Trump election. How sad. To imply in any way that a small, hate-filled group of white nationalists will have any impact on the Trump administration is absurd. How many articles did Mr. Lee write about Black Lives Matter when groups of their members were chanting "pigs in a blanket, fry em' like bacon," and this just a day after Texas Sheriff's Deputy Daron Goforth was murdered by a black nationalist? It makes no difference to Mr. Lee that Trump denounced these clowns but President Obama has never denounced BLM. Also, racist Al Sharpton was a regular visitor to the White House. Why? Do these not justify being "anxious?" Perhaps Mr. Lee is concerned that we no longer will have a racist Justice Department or a radical Environmental Protection Agency or an IRS department that targets conservatives. The party is over for these clowns and I, for one, look forward to America being made great again! Larry Uelk, Moline Trump won, fair and square but, it should be noted that he won from the bottom up. The best and brightest didnt vote for Donald Trump His support came from those who arent dealing well with the complexities of a technically advanced, global society. Anthropogenic climate change has been understood since the Victorian era. No one with any scientific or engineering understanding doubts that were burning too much fossil fuel. Military leaders have pointed out that much of what Trump proposes would be ineffective or even outright illegal. I doubt that many genuine foreign policy experts voted for Trump. Low-skill/high-paying jobs have been replaced mostly by automated processes, not by the Chinese or illegal aliens. Those who actually are prepared to compete in todays labor market, and economists who understand the huge advantage to free-trade, didnt vote for Trump. Im hopeful that Republican leaders can point Trump toward intelligent economic decisions. There are good solutions, but those productive ideas havent, as yet, come from Trump. Issue after issue, Trump is wrong more often than not or he simply has no idea what hes talking about. The bigger problem is the populist support he receives that is based on anti-intellectualism, anti-science, anti-elitism and an apparent fear of anything new or different. Policy should be determined on merit, not resentment and fear. Truth, intelligence and integrity have been replaced by the lies of fake news sources and the poor judgment of those with poor decision-making skills. Mike Brugger, East Moline The countdown is on to the official start of digital radio switchover in Norway, beginning on January 11th at 11:11.11am. The formal ceremony in Norway will be watched by many countries around the world who themselves are heading towards a digital radio future, including the UK. Norway is the first country in the world to move the majority of its radio stations off FM. Norway has 25 national radio channels via DAB and currently has five national radio channels via FM. The DAB network now covers the same as FM. 54% of digital listeners listen to radio on DAB; 19 per cent of digital listeners are on the net. Local radio stations outside the main cities will continue to broadcast in FM. The FM networks will be switched off region by region, starting in Nordland. The event will take place in Bod and the final switch-off will be done at 11.11 pm CET. The Norwegian Radio industry will be present in Bod, represented by head of NRK radio and commercial radio. Also, head of BBC Radio, Helen Boaden, and head of Radio at EBU, Graham Dixon, will attend. An international seminar for European broadcasters will be held the day before the historic move to FM switch-off and an international press-conference will be broadcast on inRad.io via radio.no at 1pm GMT. Representatives from Digital Radio UK will be at the event, and will keep RadioToday readers up-to-date with developments from next week. Reaction to the plan to remove stations from FM has not been welcomed in Norway, with a last-ditch attempt to postpone the move failing in the Norwegian parliament. This story appeared in our partner website RadioToday.co.uk Baden-Wurttemberg Ministry of Transport and Bavarian Railway Company (BEG) awarded DB Regio the contract to operate regional passenger services on the Hohenlohe - Franken - Untermain network, which includes the following lines: Aschafenburg Main Station - Miltenberg - Wertheim - Lauda - Crailsheim Heilbronn - Ohringen - Schwabisch Hall - Hessental - Crailsheim Miltenberg - Walldurn - Seckach (with some services extending to Osterburken) Osterburken - Lauda, and Wurzburg - Lauda - Bad Mergentheim. The contract will commence in December 2019 and lasts for 12 years. It includes the operation of around 3.4 million train-km per year, of which 1.1 million train-km is in Bavaria where the volume of operations will increase by about 10%. DB Regio will use existing class 642 Desiro two-car DMUs to operate the services. The trains will be modernised and equipped with Wi-Fi, power sockets and offer improved amenities for passengers with reduced mobility. The trains will also have air conditioning and touch screen displays with passenger travel information. Meanwhile, the public transport authority of the states of Thuringen and Saxony-Anhalt have awarded DB Regio a five-year contract to operate a new Regional Express service between Jena and Halle from December 2018. Operation of the two-hourly RE 18 service will start in December 2018 using double-deck three-car trains, and will connect Jena Goschwitz and Halle Main station offering intermediate stops at Merseburg, Weissenfels and Naumburg (Saale). The annual volume of this contract is 160,000 train-km. The new service is part of the Saxony-Anhalt diesel network, which Abellio secured the contract to operate from December 2018 in August 2016, and is also scheduled to expire in December 2023. https://www.railjournal.com/index.php/europe/abellio-signs-saxony-anhalt-diesel-network-contract.html The coalition of the Liberal Democrat Party and Komeito is also expected to select a preferred route by March for the remainder of the line from Kyoto to Shin-Osaka. No date has been set for the start of construction, although work is unlikely to begin before 2030 and will take at least 15 years to complete. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism estimates the project will cost more than Yen 2 trillion ($US 17.2bn). The initial 228km section of the Hokuriku Shinkansen from Nagano to Kanazawa opened in March 2015 and the 120.7km Kanazawa - Tsuruga extension is due to be completed in 2022. In 1973 the Japanese government approved a plan to build five Shinkansen lines across the country and the Tsuruga - Shin-Osaka line is the only section of this network where construction has not yet begun. The proposed line will link the Anne de Bretagne bridge across the river Loire with the district of Reze south of the city centre, serving the western part of the Ile de Nantes and the new university hospital, which is due to open in 2026. Preliminary studies could begin as soon as next month, although no timescales for implementation of the project have been put forward. Nantes opened its first modern light rail line in 1985 and over the last three decades the network has grown to 44km with 83 stations. For detailed data on hundreds of new-build rail projects around the globe, subscribe to IRJ Pro. He was 39 years old but moved like an old man, his body weakened by HIV, his right side withered by stroke. At a crowded clinic in Entebbe, Uganda, he confessed that he could not stop crying, and a voice in his head kept telling him to end it. He had already bought a rope. His HIV diagnosis would have once been a swift and sure death sentence here. But stunning advances in antiretroviral drugs have helped transform the disease into something in many ways more complicated: a chronic conditiona life sentence. A small team of RAND researchers has spent years working with local clinics in Uganda to help people not just survive HIV, but learn to live with it, and even thrive. Their work has helped treatment-weary patients keep up with their medicine, delivered care to itinerant fishermen, and let one desperate man, aged beyond his years, see the way to another day. HIV Is Ubiquitous in Uganda It might not seem that an American trucker has much in common with a fisherman on the rough waters of Lake Victoria. Or that lessons learned in the busy HIV clinics of Kampala could improve diabetic care in the United States. But there are common threads here, and they run through the research RAND has been doing in Uganda for more than a decade: the difficulty of getting treatment to people on the move; the social and psychological costs of chronic disease; the day-in, day-out drudgework of keeping up with a drug regimen. The reality of life in Uganda puts those challenges into stark relief. The country is about the size of Oregon, with a population approaching that of Californiaand, with 1.5 million cases, more people living with HIV than in the entire United States. Everybody is touched by the epidemic. Everybody has a family member that is touched by the infection. Everyone is impacted, said Glenn Wagner, a senior behavioral scientist who leads RAND's work in Uganda. It's an opportunity to really have an impact, he said, to go beyond the completion of a study, the publishing of a paper, and really change how community services are provided. Photo courtesy of Laura Bogart Meeting People Where They Are That's what led senior behavioral scientist Laura Bogart to the fishing islands of Lake Victoria. She had asked clinic staffers in this rural part of Uganda where they needed help the most. In response, they took her to a remote villageto a tent where fishermen were being tested for HIV. They were desperately poormen whose very lives depended on chasing migrating schools of fish across the African Great Lake. Bogart watched them emerge from the tent staring at pieces of paper that said they were HIV-positive, with the name of a clinic some 30 miles away for treatment. She could see from their faces that those 30 miles might as well be 300. They would never make it. Bogart and the community clinicians started making trips to the islands themselves, sometimes making the rough crossing as water swirled around their feet in the bottoms of the boats. The clinicians tested hundreds of fishermen and their families in those few months, at times going door to door, and then delivered drugs to the more than one in ten they found infected with HIV. It was not as easy as setting up a tent. But it demonstrated that meeting people where they arenot just with tests, but with treatmentcould save lives in such hard-to-reach, on-the-move communities. It's about not just making incremental change, Bogart said. It's the potential to do something, to get treatment to these fishing villages that never had it before. There's still a long way to go, but this one piece is significant. Behavioral Economics in Situ Sebastian Linnemayr knew the people he saw at the HIV clinics had been up since before dawn, waiting in line for hours for a few minutes with a doctor. They were on drug regimens that demanded near-perfect adherence, no excuses. They could live with the disease they carried if they kept upbut their lives would never be the same. Linnemayr is a senior economist at RAND whose work in Uganda had focused on labor markets and loan programs. He wondered whether basic economics could give those people standing in line a little rewarda nudgeto help them keep their appointments and stick to their drug regimens. Could giving people with HIV a little rewarda nudgehelp them keep appointments and stick to drug regimens? He put numbered cards in a bag and announced a lottery, open to anyone who kept up with the treatment. The prizes were little more than tokens: an umbrella, a thermos, a $2.50 mug. It wasn't buying adherenceit was playing on a simple principle of behavioral economics, turning a chore into a challenge, a grind into a game. And it worked. The number of patients with near-perfect adherence jumped by 20 percentage points. Just as astonishing: People left the clinic laughing. It really showed how we can use economics to get people healthier, Linnemayr said. Put yourself in the shoes of the people in Africa who have so many competing demands. You're trying to do something that makes a difference in their lives, not just something that makes sense from a research point of view. Photo by dzalcman/iStock Hope for People with Depression That's a message Wagner has tried to live for more than a decade. He was part of RAND's earliest work in Uganda, a 2006 study on expanding access to life-saving drugs. He's returned at least a few times almost every year since then, building a tight partnership with clinic leaders and local researchers that has helped shape and strengthen RAND's research there. He also helped found a nonprofit shelter in the capital city of KampalaCovenant Youth Homethat now houses, educates, and counsels 15 former street boys. His recent research has focused on improving not just the physical health of people living with HIV, but their mental health as well. It's driven by what he saw at clinics across Uganda, where people would describe crushing sadness, sleepless nights, trouble concentratingwhat one woman described as bad feelings. Depression and other mental health problems are common in people with HIV. But the clinics often had only a few nurses, a medical officerand patient lists hundreds of names long. Few had the time, much less the experience, to screen patients for depression and get them the help they needed. Wagner teamed up with local researchers to develop a simple checklist protocol that nurses and other clinic staffers could use to quickly assess patients for depression. In hundreds of cases, it has proven just as effective at getting depressed patients into treatment as evaluations by trained doctors. It just brings hope to people, Wagner said. He didn't have to wait long to see the impact. One of the first patients the clinics screened with the new protocol was that 39-year-old man, half-paralyzed by stroke. He told his story as a nurse worked through the questions: He was HIV-positive. His wife had left him. He couldn't work. He had lost sleep, lost his appetite, lost the energy to keep up with his daily routine. The nurse diagnosed him with severe depression and assured him he could get treatment. You mean 'it' has a name? he asked. And then he smiled. He asked if someone would accompany him home. He had a rope, he explained, but he didn't think he'd need it, and he wanted someone to take it off his hands. Doug Irving RAND's work in Uganda benefits from strong partnerships with Mildmay Uganda, an organization that operates HIV clinics there, and with researchers at Makerere University in the capital city of Kampala. Spains competition authority has once again fined the countrys public broadcaster RTVE for covert advertising on television. The broadcasting corporation is not allowed to air any private advertising, however the Comision Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia (CNMC) considers that some products have been covertly advertised and so is fining RTVE nearly 220,000, which had ignored the warnings issued in February 2016.Through a resolution issued on 11 February 2016, the CNMC told RTVE to put an end to any commercial communications during the Masterchef and Masterchef Junior shows, stated the CNMC.Despite the warning, viewers complained that during the Masterchef show aired on 18 May 2016, several products from a Spanish winery were advertised. Similar practices were flagged up in 2015, instigating a CNMC investigation at the time.The CNMC started the penalty process in July 2016, which has now produced a fine of 219,342. The broadcasting corporation has two months to appeal against the decision through the National Court. Find a great selection of commercial real estate, manufactured homes, timeshares and more for Sale Buy real estate. Find a great selection of commercial real estate, manufactured homes, timeshares and more for Sale in US and Canada. Search Real Estate On the evening of New Year's Eve, with the state legislature not yet in session and most New Yorkers focused on ringing in 2017, Governor Cuomo vetoed a stack of bills that had been on his desk for months. Given that those bills had passed both houses of the state legislature to get to that point, they had broad support. Among them were a bill to create a uniform state funding mechanism for New York's public defenders, and a bill to create a new class of safety-net hospitals and require the state to provide increased Medicaid reimbursement to those facilities. The proposed public defense funding would address longstanding shortfalls in New York's system, currently funded at the county level through a patchwork of public defender offices, Legal Aid Society branches, and private lawyer contracting schemes. New York officials have noted the inadequacy of the state's indigent defense basically since the 1963 Supreme Court decision Gideon v. Wainwright established a right to counselin 2006 a state commission deemed the system in "crisis," and said it failed to adequately represent "a large portion" of poor defendants. A 2014 class action lawsuit settlement forced the state to support under-resourced offices in five counties. The bill would have implemented this statewide. The Medicaid reform bill was meant to address discrepancies between the Affordable Care Act and the state's formula for reimbursing hospitals that treat patients who don't pay their share of the bill. The current arrangement throttles the hospitals' reimbursements, effectively punishing hospitals that take in a large portion of uninsured/nonpaying patients. The new structure would have effectively subsidized these hospitals so that they could continue taking charity cases. In his statement accompanying the veto of the hospital bill, Cuomo wrote, "This bill would result in increased and unbudgeted costs to the Medicaid program, which will ultimately be shouldered by the State's taxpayers." Instead, he said, this "should be addressed in the context of the annual budget negotiations." Similarly, Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi told reporters regarding the indigent defense bill: Until the last possible moment, we attempted to reach an agreement with the legislature that would have achieved the stated goal of this legislation, been fiscally responsible, and had additional safeguards to ensure accountability and transparency. Unfortunately an agreement was unable to be reached and the legislature was committed to a flawed bill that placed an $800 million burden on taxpayers$600 million of which was unnecessarywith no way to pay for it and no plan to make one. These two statements taken together make it sound as if Cuomo takes great care in protecting the state coffers from big-spending liberals who would have us all wearing burlap sacks. But it doesn't exactly jibe with his history, and present, as a big-spending "liberal" who, when he sees the project in question as attached to his political fortune, could care less where the money is coming from. Take the reconstruction of the Tappan Zee Bridge. Not only did Cuomo not have the $3.9 billion construction funding lined up when he announced it, but he started without all the money in place, then got in trouble with the Environmental Protection Agency for trying to divert loan money earmarked for environmental protection. He still does not have a long-term financing plan. There was also last year's MTA capital budget debacle, in which Cuomo extracted newly burdensome funding commitments from New York City, delaying the budget by a year in the process, and then utterly failed to explain where the state's $8.3 billion commitment was coming from. Also of unclear provenance: the $450 million for his roundabout LaGuardia Airport AirTrain connection, the $570 million for his planned overhaul of Penn Station, the $1 billion to redo the Javits Center, and the multi-billion-dollar Hudson River train tunnel replacement. At least one MTA board member questions how the agency is going to pay for Cuomo's spiffy new Penn Station. (Governor's Office/Flickr) Just this week, Cuomo tried to further burnish his image as an FDR revivalist by proposing a massive CUNY and SUNY free tuition program worth around $6,000 a year per student and available to about 940,000 New York families, and proposing a $10 billion overhaul to JFK Airport and the surrounding highways and rail system. It's far from clear how these will be funded either. Tweeting about the disconnect in response to my questions, Azzopardi, the Cuomo spokesman, wrote, "Cap budgets w/ fed streams &other variables not the same as recurring general fund expenses." He emphasized that his boss plans to include indigent defense funding in his budget proposal, as Cuomo said he would do for expanded Medicaid. As the Village Voice notes in breaking down Cuomo's political maneuverings, the Democratic governor works closely with the Independent Democratic Conference, undermining the influence of the Democrats, even when they had a Senate majority, and he prefers to push measures through the budget process, where he has more control. The Voice: [R]evisiting [indigent defense] through budget negotiations would presumably lower the states investment while keeping Cuomo the arbiter of what amount of progressivism can be allowed in his state. A college tuition bill similar to Cuomos proposal was proposed by two state legislators last spring, but Albany's leadership tuned out. The same thing happened with the battle over the states minimum wage, where Cuomo ignored calls from fellow Democrats for a raised minimum wage statewide, in favor of a compromise deal, reached through budget negotiations, that leaves out upstate areas with conservative politicians who opposed the wage increase. Cuomo's claim to being defender of the state coffers also runs counter to a central campaign of his governorship: keeping county taxes down. Cuomo has implemented an array of schemes to accomplish this, including a statewide two-percent cap on increases, with rebates for homeowners whose counties abide by the cap, and inter-county contests for which municipalities collaborate to come up with the most innovative service consolidation, with cash prizes coming from state coffers. A high-tech factory that is part of the Buffalo Billion project, now at the center of federal prosecutions of some of Cuomo's closest allies. (AP) Funding indigent defense was a prime opportunity to save counties money and thus keep them from having to raise taxes, and Cuomo dropped the ball, according to Ron Deutsch, director of the watchdog Fiscal Policy Institute. "In reality [with the indigent defense bill] he is the one that literally holds the keys to lowering property taxes by basically having the state pick up the costs that they're pushing down to the lower level," Deutsch explained. "The fact that he's vetoing it just because there's no clear funding mechanismwe continuously put together projects that have no clear funding mechanism, in particular on the capital infrastructure side. In Albany, where there's a will there's a way." He added, "There's always money to be had if something is a priority. If lowering property taxes is a priority, then the governor should have signed this bill." Also, Deutsch said, tax and other giveaways to corporations and developers, a hallmark of Cuomo's economic policy, could be money better spent. Cuomo's own tax commission found in 2013 that corporate tax incentives "may not result in a good return on investment" and "more efforts are needed to measure their effectiveness." A separate New York budget analysis the same year by two economists found "there is no conclusive evidence from research studies conducted since the mid-1950s to show that business tax incentives have an impact on net economic gains to the states above and beyond the level that would have been attained absent the incentives." And yet, half of the state's $8 billion economic development budget consists of tax incentives. "You could take $2 billion out of the...economic development budget and use that to cover, for instance, the local cost of Medicaid for our upstate counties," Deutsch argued. "That way you could, rather than lowering taxes for a handful of select businesses, you could use that money to lower taxes for residents and businesses alike all across the board." But Cuomo likes things better this way. The governor has raised millions of dollars in campaign funds from developers who benefit from the 421-a tax breakwhich is supposed to but overwhelmingly doesn't create below-market housing, and which Cuomo is pushing to renewas well as from developers and companies that went on to win bids for his signature economic development projects worth hundreds of millions. Such developers and Cuomo fundraisers, including New York City real estate giant Glenwood Management, were at the center of the successful federal criminal prosecutions of former Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver and former Senate majority leader Dean Skelos, and the ongoing cases against two former aides to Cuomo and his handpicked nanotech czar. Those cases are centered around alleged bid-rigging. The Governor's Office did not respond to a request for comment on Deutsch's criticisms, or further explanation of why vetoing indigent defense reform makes sense. , We're sorry, this article is not currently available Hate inspires hate hate inspires division, said Leah Johnson, a student at the Athens campus of the Augusta University College of Nursing who attended the University of Georgia for her first two years of college. As a part of its coordination with The Cottage, an Athens sexual assault advocacy center, the University of Georgia often collects reports from the center to include as a separate table in its yearly crime statistics for awareness purposes. It is no secret that celebrities are often idolized, made into these superhuman creatures with the power to change the world. We rely on witty tweets from singers and interviews with actors to make a change in the world, even outside of the realm of entertainment. At a time when the AIADMK has chosen the late Jayas personal aide to lead the party, M K Stalin re-enters the scene with greater credibility and better clarity of his own role in the DMK, says N Sathiya Moorthy. As he moves along from being the party treasurer and leader of the opposition in the state assembly, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagams youth wing secretary M K Stalin has moved one more step closer to the top job. With nonagenarian father and party president Muthuvel Karunanidhi falling seriously ill, the party general council, meeting in Chennai on Wednesday elected Stalin as the working president, after amending the DMK constitution for the purpose. Owing to age-related ailments and more especially the fallout of skin rashes and throat infection, the latter requiring hospitalisation and tracheostomy only a fortnight ago, Karunanidhi himself did not attend the general council meeting, a first since the founding of the party, and more so after his taking over the party reins after the death of founder and former chief minister C N Annadurai. For Stalin, it has been a long journey forward, but only step by another baby step, tottering all the time, not necessarily owing to his own deficiencies, if any. Even as he began claiming up the party ladder from his student days, and suffered imprisonment and physical hurt during Indira Gandhis infamous Emergency, the DMK lost power in the 1977 assembly elections, never to return until charismatic actor-politician M G Ramachandran had left the scene. Yet, when the party returned to power in the post-MGR polls of 1989, and began alternating the roles with MGRs AIADMK, now under an equally charismatic and even more determined Jayalalithaa, feuds within the DMKs first family had begun taking their toll on Stalins own elevation. Karunanidhi would fight Stalins war against party second-liner and more famous political propagandist in Vaiko, then known by his christened name V Gopalswamy. But Karunanidhi would also promote Stalins older brother Mu Ka Azhagiri, alongside, who was alien to politics until then, and to whom, too, politics was alien, and equally so. Later on, their half-sister, Kanimozhi, would also vie for party honours, occasionally getting the ageing fathers ears and also some recognition or other. On the side, Stalins late cousin, Murasoli Maran would always have the closest of ears of Karunanidhi, followed by his politician-son, Dayanidhi Maran, who again was as new to politics and power as Azhagiri was only a decade earlier. Today, Stalins famous patience has paid off even as family competitors for the honours have fallen by the way side. The Marans, including Dayanidhis brother Kalanidhi, seem to have blotted their copy-book vis-a-vis the old man. They are also caught in the web of 2G scam related cases. So is Kanimozhi, against whom the trial court verdict was reserved long ago. Its another matter that she is now a Rajya Sabha member and heads the DMK womens wing -- but nothing more. Karunanidhi, rather than giving away more, seemed to have drawn the red line as an afterthought and amends, following the 2011 assembly poll debacle. He also sacked Azhagiri from the party, for the second time in a decade, but did not revoke it until faculties began failing him. Thus, Stalin, who was made the DMK youth wing leader in 1980, continues to be its all-important secretary, although past 60. If he plans to give up the party treasurer post after the current elevation, he did not provide any hints. Truth be acknowledged, the uneasy crown of Prince Charles of Tamil Nadu politics still sits uncomfortably on Stalins head. But there is no denying that he has become more than heir-apparent in the partys scheme of things. Its not without reason. Be it the 13 long years of DMKs vanvas from political power (1976-1989), or more recently as the chief election manager and propaganda head of the party since 2009 (when Karunanidhi as chief minister became wheel-chair bound after a spinal surgery), Stalin has become the beacon light for GenNext party cadres. Noticeably, the time lag has also provided for smooth transition in his case, from the DMKs founding generation to the next, where he belongs. This also provided time and space for Stalin to ensure that the party general council was overwhelmingly for and with him. In the present-day context, the Yadav father-son big fight in Uttar Pradesh has rendered greater relevance and credit to Stalins approach to politics and the political leadership of his own father. In the past, whenever Stalin was tipped for a higher post, family promotions and elevations of the kind elsewhere in the country have drawn inevitable parallels. It was the Abdullah clan in Jammu and Kashmir, the father-son Badal duo in Punjab. There were also occasional references to the Gandhi-Nehru dynastic rule in the Congress at the national level, but Stalin sat out to defy all logic and abuses targeting the first family of Tamil Nadu in his own way. Where he had differences of opinion with the father, Stalin ensured that it did not get out-of-hand, and more especially to the media space. It has since paid dividends for Stalin. More importantly, it has ensured that the party cadres have greater respect now than when Karunanidhi had imposed him on the party in the post-Emergency era after half-brother Mu Ka Muthu, pitted by the father against MGR in films en route to politics, had come a cropper. According to party sources, Karunanidhi had begun acknowledging his failing health and inability to discharge his political functions, hence it was his own decision to hand over the reins to Stalin after his decades-old wait of patience and perseverance. The sources have also indicated that Karunanidhis advice for Stalin was not to mix family and politics as he himself had done, more especially in the past two decades. The older man also reportedly reminded his son that there had to be a DMK alive and active, beyond him, beyond their times. Stalins conduct of the very imaginative Namakku Naame street campaign in the May 2016 assembly polls, showed him in a better light than whenever the party had lost elections under father Karunanidhi. It also proved a remote point that wherever the DMK won polls under Karunanidhi, it owed mostly to the breakaway AIADMKs weaknesses. Today, when the rival AIADMK has chosen the late Jayas personal aide, Sasikala, to lead the party, and possibly even the state government later, replacing Chief Minister O Pannerselvam, Stalin re-enters the scene with greater credibility and better clarity of his own role in the party -- and be accepted as such by his contemporaries and the rest from within. Yet, Sasikala would be no write-off, and more certainly the AIADMK as a party and poll machine. Even more so if Sasikala were to let OPS continue in his present role, and he too continues to be an effective, efficient and accessible CM (as evidenced during the post-Vardah cyclone-relief work). Either way, to quote the famous like of yesteryear villain P S Veerappa from the classic Tamil film Vanjikkottai Vaaliban, it would be Sabaash, sariyaana potti (Great! Let the contest begin!)... PS: In the film, the veteran was referring to a dance duel between actresses Vyjayanthimala and Padmini. Image: M K Stalin seeks the blessings of his father and DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi after being elected as working president at the partys general council meeting, in Chennai, on January 3, 2017. Photograph: PTI Photo. N Sathiya Moorthy, veteran journalist and political analyst, is director, Observer Research Foundation, Chennai Chapter. 'The ruling provides a Constitutional template, it draws boundaries, and there is this expectation that henceforth political parties will not make crude appeals to religion for electoral gains.' Zoya Hasan -- Professor Emerita, Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Distinguished Professor, Council for Social Development -- is one of India's most distinguished political scholars. Professor Hasan, image, below, tells Rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore that the Supreme Court judgment deeming as 'corrupt practice' the use of religion, caste, language or creed for electoral gains will discomfit political parties from exploiting identity politics and the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh will definitely test the effectiveness of this ruling. Will the Supreme Court judgment on making illegal the use of appeals to religion, caste, language and creed to influence voters help clean the Augean stables of communalism and casteism in Indian politics? The Supreme Court was basically grappling with the question of whether a provision in electoral law which bars candidate from canvassing for votes on the basis of religion, caste and other identities in an election is limited to the groups to which candidates or their rivals belong, or whether it is a general prohibition on sectarian appeals and should this attract disqualification. The Supreme Court in a majority verdict (4:3) has ruled that any use of religion or any other communal or sectarian appeal in the electoral arena will be considered corrupt and will attract disqualification. The Supreme Court judgement is significant because it is a 'purposive interpretation' that covers both candidates and voters. It is also significant because it buttresses India's commitment to secularism which it regards as a basic feature of the Constitution. However, implementing this judgment will be a major challenge because it is not easy to delink electoral politics from religion and caste, which have become extremely important from the early 1990s starting with the mobilisation campaigns during the Mandir and Mandal movements. So, there is a great deal of uncertainty about the implementation of this verdict. Isn't then there a loophole in this judgment? BJP MP Subramaniam Swamy has said the BJP will make use of Hindutva in elections. Yes, there is a loophole. The one big limitation with this judgment is that it has nothing to say on the substantive issue of how to characterise Hinduism or Hindutva within the broader context of electoral appeals. It has basically ducked the issue. This allows the BJP and the Sangh Parivar to use Hindutva for political mobilisation in elections and not be called out for it. This verdict did not revisit the famous or infamous Hindutva judgment of 1995 where the Supreme Court held that Hinduism and Hindutva amounted to a way of life, and therefore speeches that invoked these words did not amount to a corrupt electoral practice. The Hindutva judgment has to be tackled. But given the sway of majoritarianism in Indian politics today, it is unlikely that this can be done at this moment. However, it is extremely important to make a distinction between Hinduism and Hindutva. The latter is an ideology, a political platform, for mobilisation which makes use of Hinduism and gives primacy to Hindu interests. Conflation of Hinduism and Hindutva and characterising Hindutva as a way of life allows majoritarian appeals to go scot free. This was apparent in the 2014 Lok Sabha election campaign and in the Bihar campaign in 2015. Important BJP leaders were continually making speeches, statements and innuendos and insinuations about the Muslim community to polarise the electorate and influence the voters. The Election Commission was not able to put a stop to it. Given this assertion, do you believe politicians who play the identity card to appeal to voters will be deterred by this judgment? That remains to be seen. Even so, in the present circumstances and given the growing importance of Hindu nationalism and the wider social and political context in which religion and religious communities have come to dominate public discourse in India, this ruling can act as a check on the exploitation of religion for political mobilisation. By religion, you would also mean caste, language? I think these are two different issues. The language issue has not been so problematic, it is more or less settled; the critical issues are really religion and caste. This ruling clearly states that communal and sectarian appeals should be taken off the table; they should be excluded from electoral politics. The ruling provides a Constitutional template, it draws boundaries, and there is this expectation that henceforth political parties will not make crude appeals to religion for electoral gains. But what happens to the parties such as the Shiv Sena, Akali Dal, AIMIM, whose very name evokes sectarian affiliation? Does it mean that these parties cannot operate and participate in electoral politics? That remains to be seen. The other big issue is caste. There are serious doubts with regard to its applicability to caste. Caste and the politics surrounding it enjoy a certain degree of legitimacy and acceptability in government policy and electoral politics in India. The same cannot be said about religion, especially with regard to minority religions or minority interests which are always treated with suspicion. Electoral politics has in fact promoted caste and one could argue that it has played a positive role in mobilisation and empowerment of the marginalised communities. So, how do you eliminate political mobilisation based on caste identity? We also have representation in India's elected legislatures based on caste... we have seats reserved for the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes? Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes are constitutional categories. The Constitution allows reservations and range of affirmative action on the basis of caste, but it bars reservations on the basis of religion. Can't then the same logic be used for mobilising people on the ground of religion? Political parties who mobilise voters based on religion can pose a counter argument. Let's for a moment keep aside the issue of caste which complicates the present debate. We should focus on the principal issue which is prohibiting sectarian appeal to religion. If only this can work, then it would go a long way in reducing the role of religion in political mobilisation. What dilutes it, or takes away its significance, is that it did not return to the Hindutva judgment of 1995. But one could argue that the Supreme Court was not really called upon to do so; the Court was principally required to interpret Section 123 (3) of the Representation of People's Act. That said, it appears the Supreme Court did not want to get into this territory. As long as the Court doesn't re-examine the Hindutva judgment, the recent judgment would be in the nature of an exhortation to political parties to not use religious, casteist and linguistic identities for seeking votes. Do you see any chance of the Supreme Court revisiting the 1995 Hindutva judgment? I don't see the Supreme Court tackling it. Let's face it: Hindu nationalism is presently a very powerful political, cultural force. It is entrenched in the political system. Therefore, it is unlikely the Hindutva judgment will be revisited anytime soon. But I certainly hope that this judgment will in some ways discomfit political parties and constrain them from making communal appeals. How do you see the Uttar Pradesh election campaign rolling out? We have the BJP, the SP, the BSP, all willy-nilly use identity politics to win votes. Will the judgment weaken the identity plank of these political forces in the UP elections? The UP elections will be the first test of the effectiveness of this ruling. A ruling such as this will only act like a framework requiring political parties not to use any caste or communal parameters to canvass for votes, regardless of whether the candidates themselves belong to such groups. Ultimately, this framework has to be operationalised, which means the parties violating it should be penalised. But who is going to do that is the basic question? The Election Commission will have to take action, but it does not have sufficient power to disqualify candidates. The Election Commission should be more proactive as it can now take stronger punitive action in the light of this judgment. Complaints can also be filed in the court, but we know that route takes a long time to conclude. In the light of this judgment, will the Ram Mandir be an issue in the UP elections? The prime minister will talk about development while the other BJP leaders will be making direct and indirect appeal to religion to mobilise voters, including possibly on the Ram Mandir issue. If the Election Commission decides to follow this judgment in the letter and spirit, then any reference to the Ram Mandir should be excluded from their election campaign and should attract debarment. Do you think Prime Minister Narendra Modi will use the word Ram Mandir in his election speeches in UP? The prime minister may not do so. But he has his own way of speaking where he brings these issues in oblique, elliptical ways. So, he may not speak directly about Ram Mandir. And does he have to? There are number of other BJP leaders who can do so. The point is that the 1995 Hindutva judgemnt provides space and gives latitude to the BJP to talk about Hindutva and as you said Subramaniam Swamy has already said so. Notwithstanding the ruling, will there be crude appeals to identities in the UP elections? I won't say there will be crude appeals, but yes identity politics is not going away anywhere. It's a staple of Indian politics. It won't go away after this judgment. Whether this will secularise politics or otherwise remains to be seen. IMAGE: A scene from Ayodhya. Will the Ram Janambhoomi issue resurface during the UP election campaign? Photograph: Roy Madhur/Reuters The two leaders heaped praise upon each other for effectively implementing prohibition in their states. M I Khan reports from Patna. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday praised Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for effectively implementing liquor ban in the state. "Prohibition is a good step. Any step for social change is very difficult. But Nitish Kumar has initiated it by enforcing prohibition. All people including political parties should back him for it, Modi said as Nitish and his ally Rashtriya Janata Dal President Lalu Prasad shared the dais with him during the concluding function of 350th Prakash Parva of 10th Sikh Guru Govind Singh in Patna. Modi's word of praise for Nitish came after the Janata Dal-United chief supported PMs demonetisation move even after all non-Bharatiya Janata Party chief ministers strongly opposed it. The PM said that Bihar will become an example for the entire country through successful implementation of prohibition. The PM's mention of prohibition came in response to the Bihar chief minister's request to him to spread prohibition across the country. Fulfilling its poll promise, Nitish Kumar government had imposed total prohibition in Bihar. Kumar in his address mentioned that Narendra Modi as Chief Minister of Gujarat had successfully carried prohibition which has been in force in the western state since its inception. Though Modi and Kumar have been bitter political opponents, the prime minister had praised the Bihar chief minister recently for supporting demonetisation after the winter session of Parliament was washed out due to protests by a united opposition on note ban. The Janata Dal-United had walked out of the National Democratic Alliance over naming of Modi as the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate in 2014. The two leaders led a shrill campaign in the 2015 assembly elections against each other with Kumar, in alliance with the RJD, handing down a humiliating defeat to the BJP. However, breaking from opposition ranks, the JD-U has supported demonetisation. Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Bihar Governor Ramnath Kovind, Union ministers Ramvilas Paswan and Ravishankar Prasad were also present on the dais at the function. Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab Sukhbir Singh Badal, Union minister Harsimrat Kaur, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Prasad Yadav and senior BJP leader and Patna Saheb MP Shatrughan Sinha were also present. Bowing his head in reverence to the 10th Sikh Guru Govind Singh, the PM lauded his efforts for unity of the country through formation of "Panch Pyara panth". Patting Nitish Kumar for taking personal interest in making elaborate arrangements for the 350th Prakash Parva, the PM said the Centre on its part, besides helping the Bihar government in organising the event, is celebrating the historic occasion in different countries through its embassies. The central government has allocated a sum of Rs 100 crore for the celebration of 350th Prakash Parva abroad which is being done through a committee formed for the purpose, Modi said. The PM also highlighted the Centre's contribution in successful organisation of the occasion in Bihar. He said the railway ministry as well Union culture ministry have spent Rs 40 crore each for Prakash Parva in Bihar. The PM received "prasad" (offering) from a langar in the tent city that has been erected in Gandhi Maidan, before leaving for Patna Airport on way back to Delhi. The PM, Nitish Kumar, Union ministers Ramvilas Paswan and Ravishankar Prasad wore turban at the function. Lakhs of Sikh devotees from the country and abroad have arrived for the event. Punjab Chief Minister and Akali Dal President Prakash Singh Badal also showered praise on Nitish Kumar for elaborate arrangements for the Prakash Parva. "In 70 years of my public life, I have seen several samagams...but the way Nitish Kumar took personal interest in hosting the event is an example," Badal said. "I could not have organised the occasion in much grander way," he said. Badal also hailed the PM for his special bond with Sikhs and thanked him for his presence in all the functions organised by the community. Besides the 350th Prakash Parva, Kumar said, the state government would also host centenary celebration of Champaran Satyagraha of Mahatama Gandhi launched against British rule in 1917. While referring to prohibition, Kumar said it was a tribute to Guru Govind Singh and Mahatama Gandhi who had heralded agitation against British rule through Champaran satyagraha in East Champaran district of Bihar against forced indigo plantation enforced by Britishers. With the concluding function ton Thursday, 350th Prakash Parva which began on December 25 last has come to an end. With inputs from PTI Photograph: PTI Photo In an irony of fate, an Indian fisherman died of heart attack in a Karachi jail hours before he was to be released, along with 218 others, by Pakistan as a "goodwill gesture", according to Gujarat Fishermen Association. Jeeva Bhagwan, 37, whose name was on the list of 219 fishermen released on Thursday, hailed from Khan village in Una tehsil of Gir Somnath district of Gujarat, Veljibhai Masani, senior vice president of Gujarat Fishermen Association, said. He died of heart attack yesterday, Masani told PTI. The fishermen were freed from Malir jail on instructions from the Interior Ministry as a goodwill gesture, jail superintendent Hasan Sehto said. With the release of the fishermen on Thursday, the total number of Indian fishermen freed from Pakistani jails as "goodwill gesture" in the last 10 days reached 439, despite the chill in bilateral ties. This is the second batch of Indian fishermen released from Pakistan jails since relations between the two countries became tense after the terror attack on an Indian army base in Uri in September for which India has blamed Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed terror outfit. On December 25, the Pakistan government had freed 220 Indian fishermen who were in jail for more than a year as goodwill gesture after Prime Minister Narendra Modi greeted counterpart Nawaz Sharif on his birthday. Sehto said the Indian fishermen who were released today would be handed over to Indian officials at the Wagah border. He said that around 110 more Indian fishermen remain in Landhi jail in Karachi. Last March, the Pakistan government had released 87 Indian fishermen who had been languishing in jail in Karachi for the last two and half years. Pakistan and India frequently arrest each others' fishermen for violating the territorial boundary. Poor fishermen from both countries routinely find themselves arrested for illegal fishing as there is no clear demarcation of the boundaries between the two countries in the Arabian sea near Sir Creek and lack of technology has made life difficult for the fishermen of both the countries. Last Friday, Pakistan Maritime Security Agency arrested 66 Indian fishermen for illegally fishing in Pakistan's territorial waters. Fishermen from both countries end up languishing in jails for years even after serving their sentences and their only hope of getting released is when the governments decide to take goodwill steps. Opposition parties on Thursday moved the Election Commission objecting to the presentation of the Union Budget on February 1 ahead of the assembly elections in five states and demanded that the government be asked to defer the annual exercise till March 8, the last day of voting. A delegation of opposition parties comprising the Congress, the Janata Dal-United, the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Samajwadi Party, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Rashtriya Janata Dal met Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi to press that the government be asked to defer the budget presentation till at least March 8. Punjab and Goa will go for polls on February 4 and the last phase of assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh and Manipur will be held on March 8. "When the opposition had objected in 2012 during the assembly polls to these five states, Congress had accepted their stand and postponed presentation of the Union Budget from February 28 to March 16. We want that there should be no presentation of the Budget till the elections are over," Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha and Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad told reporters after meeting the EC. Another party leader Anand Sharma said no government in the past has used the Budget to influence voters in the midst of a poll process. Azad said electoral laws make it clear that the ruling party should have no advantage during elections and both the Opposition and the ruling side should be on an equal footing. He said the Budget on February 1 will tilt the balance in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party as it would use the exercise to influence voters by doling out sops. Others who met the CEC included Derek OBrien of the Trinamool Congress, Ambeth Rajan of the BSP, Naresh Agarwal of the SP, T Siva of the DMK and K C Tyagi of the JD-U. Sources in the commission said a view of the government could be sought on the representation made by the opposition parties. While the commission has said it will examine a representation made by parties opposing the February 1 Budget plan, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has defended the move asking why the opposition parties are afraid of it when they have claimed that demonetisation is an unpopular decision. Sixteen parties have already written to the President and EC opposing the decision to have an early Budget session beginning January 31. IMAGE: Opposition leaders come out after a meeting with the Election Commission to demand postponing the Union Budget presentation ahead of the assembly polls. Photograph: PTI Photo After winning hearts on social media with their witty tweets, Mumbai police has once again come up with its own eye-catching calendar. For the second year running, photographer Pravin Talan captured Mumbai cops in action. While last years calendar was a pictorial tribute to the police and Mumbai's signature landmarks, this year Talan showcases the force in real-time. Here are the images from the calendar. (Please click on the photos for high resolution images) Coastal security is one of the top priorities of Mumbai Police and they detest the serenity of the sea being disturbed by attempts to trouble the waters. All Photographs: Pravin Talan The sun never fails to rise over the Mumbai sky nor do the patrol boats of Mumbai Police fail to scale its waters. They trail the sunlight and travel with it from dawn to dusk to ensure a round the clock coastal vigilance. Matches at Wankhede Stadium don't get over for Mumbai Police with the tenth wicket or the fiftieth over. They end only after each spectator safely exits the stadium. This holds true for every event, festival or celebration in any part of the city all through the year. The uniform defies the gender boundary. It only identifies strength, will power and the commitment to serve. Mumbai Police is proud to have an increasing number of lady commandos in the team with their focus set on one target -- safety of the city and citizens. Mumbai Police dives deep to get to the root of the threats to the city from different routes -- none left unattended by the respective units. The second most populous metropolitan area in the country, Mumbai always beams with tourists from across the world. It's heartening when some of them spare a moment to share a smile with the police. Mean machine with designer windshield, utility boxes and high intensity white and blue LED flicker lights are for Beat Marshalls. The reflective radium stickers will make sure you don't miss them on the streets as they dont miss any happening on the street. Women have always been a symbol of 'Shakti' and the lady commandos in the Quick Response Team are a living example. Fit, alert, sensible, patient and aggressive -- all in the perfect proportions. The four legged best friends of Mumbai Police always help the team in keeping their detections on track. They can easily sniff a reality from a rumour and vice versa. Trained extensively to track criminals and substances, Mumbai Police's investigations are often impossible without them. Lady officers of Mumbai Police -- constantly and consistently rising the ladder of success. Compassion is Mumbai Police's strongest weapon and their smile signals are always green. The traffic police don't just use their hands to regulate traffic but also readily lends them for help in times of need. Ready to scale any height to make sure the safety and security parameter of the city never drops. Protector of the good. Mumbai Police never fails to checkup on the senior citizens of the city. Destroyer of the evil -- a commando from Mumbai Police Quick Response Team in action. Mumbai Police's QRT is highly trained commando unit, well equipped with modern weapons and technology to protect the city. SP-Congress alliance is likely to consolidate Muslim vote in their favour. Archis Mohan reports. With the battle for Uttar Pradesh looking too close to call and a Samajwadi Party (SP) and Congress pre-poll alliance a possibility, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is looking at bringing back the Ram Janambhoomi issue. An SP-Congress alliance is likely to consolidate the Muslim vote in their favour. However, this would also give the BJP space for working towards a counter-polarisation of a consolidated Hindu vote. The Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid case is pending in the Supreme Court. While the case is unlikely to be heard day to day as yet, as has been demanded by BJP Rajya Sabha member Subramanian Swamy, the Sangh Parivar is already making efforts to bring the issue back in the public discourse. The BJP national executive meet in Delhi, scheduled for Friday and Saturday, will have speeches by leaders that might mention the Ayodhya issue, sources said. In end-December, the Parivar marked with some fanfare the 67th anniversary of the controversial appearance of an idol in the Babri Masjid premises. Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti reached Ayodhya on December 25 and visited the makeshift temple at the disputed site. The Vishva Hindu Parishad, a Parivar affiliate, also organised events to mark the anniversary and its leading lights said they wanted an out-of-court settlement. The petitions on the case are currently before the apex court bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Amitava Roy. A source in the lawyers' cell associated with the Parivar said a battery of lawyers are prepared once the case comes for listing at the end of this month. The BJP hopes to create a buzz around the issue at the time The party is also preparing to criticise state Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav for going against India's 'civilisational ethos' by leading a coup against his father, Mulayam Singh Yadav. "In our society, the father has the right to write a will, not the son... It amounts to removal of an authorised president by an unauthorised chief," BJP General Secretary Bhupender Yadav said on Wednesday regarding Mulayam's ouster as SP president in favour of Akhilesh. A BJP leader said the party had taken heart from the fact that its 'Parivartan Yatra' that travelled 17,000 km across UP didn't face any protests on account of the Narendra Modi government's note ban decision. Congress hints at SP alliance as Akhilesh-Mulayam feud continues Amit Agnihotri reports. The Congress made some pro-alliance noises in Uttar Pradesh, even as a patch-up attempt between Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh proved futile. Ghulam Nabi Azad, in charge of Congress affairs in Lucknow, hinted to party seniors there at a possible alliance with the SP. He said the Congress was preparing to fight in all 403 legislative assembly seats for the coming election, but there was also a need for secular forces to come together to defeat the 'communal' BJP. Congress Chief Ministerial nominee Sheila Dikshit told Business Standard: "I am prepared to withdraw my candidature if an alliance happens with the SP." At the Congress briefing of journalists, spokesperson Ajoy Kumar also said the party might go with like-minded players in UP to stop the BJP. These developments took place on a day the Election Commission of India announced a seven-phase poll in the state, from February 4 to March 8. The results will be out on March 11. Many Congress seniors and others in UP favour an alliance with the SP. Dikshit said the decision would be by party chief Sonia Gandhi and Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi, when the two returner from their vacation abroad. On Monday, addressing a rally in Lucknow, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had lashed at the SP, Congress and Bahujan Samaj Party, saying they had each failed to develop the state. And urged voters to give his BJP a complete majority in UP. Dikshit said a Bihar-like alliance, where the Congress-JD-RJD combine defeated the BJP in 2015, could be worked out in UP as well. "Akhilesh has been saying the SP and Congress together can win 300 seats," she said. Congress sources said Rahul Gandhi is open to a pact with the Akhilesh faction, but averse to one with Mulayam. The prospective alliance, Dikshit said, would depend upon the benefits for the Congress, in terms of number of seats to contest. In Lucknow, the two SP groupings refused to budge from their respective positions despite veteran Azam Khan holding extensive parleys with both. "There is no agreement," said Ram Gopal Yadav of the Akhilesh group, referring to a two-hour meeting between Akhilesh and his father on Tuesday. At the ECI, both have claimed rights over the SP poll symbol, the bicycle. "The Commission while keeping in mind precedents and set principles followed till now, will examine the documents before us and will take an appropriate decision at the right time," Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi said after announcing the poll schedule. "A patch up is too late. Netaji(Mulayam) himself went to the EC," said a source close to Akhilesh, indicating the chief minister's camp was in no mood for a compromise, which entails sacking controversial party leader Amar Singh and shifting Mulayam's brother Shivpal Yadav to Delhi. BSP chief Mayawati welcomed the seven-phase elections in UP and said the state's police machinery could be used for political purposes by the Akhilesh Yadav government. She urged the EC to keep an eye on rivals BJP, SP and Congress and ensure strict compliance of the model poll code. "These parties are in the habit of flouting the poll code as has been experienced in 2014 Lok Sabha polls," she said. IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Aishbagh Ramleela in Lucknow on Dussera 2016. Photograph: Press Information Bureau United States President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday appointed young Indian-American Raj Shah, who played a leading role in the Republican Partys anti-Clinton campaign during polls, to a key White House position. Shah, whose parents immigrated to the US from Gujarat, has been appointed as deputy assistant to the President and deputy communication director and research director, as per an announcement made by the Presidential Transition Team. Shah, who is in his early 30s, is currently head of Opposition Research in the Republican National Committee. In this position, he led a team of experts to carry out research against Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential candidate. Shah was behind all the anti-Clinton campaign during the presidential elections. The announcement of Shahs appointment to this key White House position was made by incoming White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus along with other appointments. These individuals will be key leaders in helping to implement the President elects agenda and bring real change to Washington, Priebus said. A second generation Indian American, Shahs parents are from Mumbai having origins from Gujarat. First his father came to the US for studies in 1970s then moved back to India. But after marriage his father and mother moved back to the US in late 70s. They lived in Chicago and then moved to Connecticut, where he was born and raised. The United States army has issued a new regulation under which servicemen who wear turbans, hijabs or beards can now be enrolled in the military, making the force more inclusive of minority religions and cultures. The new set of rules, issued by Secretary of the Army Eric Fanning, allows religious accommodations to be approved at the brigade-level. Previously it was at the level of secretary. Once that approval occurs, the change will ensure that the religious accommodation is enduring and applies to most positions within the US army. "This is a major progress, not just for the Sikh-American community but for our nation's military. Sikh-Americans love this country and want a fair chance to serve in our country on equal footing. Today's (Thursdays) announcement will help do just that," Congressman Joe Crowley said welcoming the directive issued by the US army secretary. "We are a stronger nation, with a stronger military because of our respect for religious and personal freedom," he said. The move has been welcomed by Sikh-Americans and US lawmakers who have been on the forefront of a national campaign in this regard for the past several years. Before the January 3 changes announced by the US army, Sikh-Americans and others had to be granted a limited accommodation or permission to serve in the army while maintaining their articles of faith. Such accommodations were neither permanent nor guaranteed, and had to be renewed after virtually every assignment. Service members had also been required to remove their articles of faith while their accommodation request is pending, once again subjecting them to the difficult position of choosing between their faith and job. Sikh-American Coalition, which has been on the forefront of such a campaign, welcomed the move, but said that this is still short of what they have been asking for. "While we still seek a permanent policy change that enables all religious minorities to freely serve without exception, we are pleased with the progress that this new policy represents for religious tolerance and diversity by our nation's largest employer," said the coalitions legal director Harsimran Kaur. The new provisions updates rules governing religious liberty that significantly improve the standards for Sikhs and other religious minorities who seek to serve their country with their religious articles of faith intact, she said. Under the new policy, Brigade commanders must grant religious accommodations for unshorn beards, unshorn hair, turbans and Muslim hijabs unless the requestor's religious belief is not sincere or the army identifies a specific, concrete hazard. Last week, the New York Police Department, in a move aimed at inclusiveness, said it will allow its Sikh officers to wear turbans and maintain beards. According to the latest regulation, accommodations must be granted across all duty positions except in certain limited circumstances. The army intends to conduct additional testing for the use of protective equipment by bearded soldiers. "The Sikh articles of faith have always been consistent with the best of American values and we are pleased that the burden no longer rests with Sikh soldiers to prove this through a lengthy administrative process," said Amandeep Sidhu, partner at McDermott Will and Emery. In 1981, a prohibitive ban was placed on Sikh-American soldiers. Last year, four Sikh-American soldiers, including the decorated Captain Simratpal Singh, filed a lawsuit against the US army in this regard. "My turban and beard represent my commitment to pluralism and equality. This policy change underscores the military's commitment to these values and is a sign of meaningful progress that will ensure the strength of our democracy," said Major Kalsi, who was the first Sikh-American in more than a generation to be allowed to serve in the US military without violating his articles of faith. Image for representation only. Photograph: Ints Kalnins/Reuters Organising a festival that attracts 500,000 devotees is not easy, discovers M I Khan. The cold winter air is suffused with chants of 'Wahe Guru,' 'Guru ji ki kirpa,' 'Satnam Wahe Guru' and 'Bole so Nihaal!' For a few wee seconds, you could be forgiven for imagining you were nearing the Golden Temple in Amritsar. A sense of spirituality and celebration prevails over the sprawling, makeshift, tent township that has sprouted up at the Gandhi Maidan in Patna in honour of the 350th birth anniversary of the Guru Gobind Singh, the 10th Sikh Guru. The celebration, known as Prakash Utsav, began in the 61 acre tent city on December 30, with the recital of Gurbani Shabad by Giani Iqbal Singh, the jathedar (leader) of the Takht Sri Harmandir Sahib. This kirtan was first sung by Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism. The utsav will end on Thursday and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to grace the occasion. Granthis (priests who are the custodians of the Guru Granth Sahib, the sacred scripture of the Sikhs) specially invited from Amritsar have been reciting hymns in the mornings and evenings at the large, centrally located darbar hall. According to Patna District Magistrate Sanjay Agrawal, the makeshift gurdwara's darbar hall -- which has been built with German technology -- occupies about 7.09 acres. It has three stages, including a specially elevated one in which the Guru Granth Saheb has been installed on a gold-plated palki. The other two are reserved for VVIPs. "This unique darbar hall is built with polystyrene (thermocol) and plywood and can accommodate more than 20,000 devotees at a time," the DM adds. The tent city is thematically designed with the colours and symbols of the Sikh religion. The Nishan Sahib (a triangular flag, with a tassel at its end; it carries the emblem of the Sikh symbol, the khanda) adorns all pathways. Visitors will spot a beautiful replica of the Takht Sri Harmandir (also known as the Takht Sri Patna Sahib, it was originally built by Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1850 at Patna Saheb in memory of the birthplace of Guru Gobind Singh who was born ion December 22, 1666, to Guru Teg Bahadur and Mata Gujri. Guru Gobind Singh, then known as Gobind Rai, spent the first eight years of childhood in Patna.) Three thousand workers, artisans and experts worked for two-and-a-half months to build a large darbar hall, three langar halls that can seat over 5,000 people at a time and dozens of big dormitories, with single and double beds, to accommodate the devotees who have made their way here for the festival. In addition, there is a stadium where gatka (a form of combat training developed by Sikhs where wooden sticks are used instead of swords) matches take place. "Located barely 100 metres from the darbar hall, it has tiered sitting arrangements like any other stadium," says Tuntun Singh, event manager for Lalluji and Sons, the company that has constructed the tent city. Three joda ghars, with steel racks for keeping the devotees' footwear, and a cloak room for storing valuables, have also been constructed. Nearly 1,000 prefabricated toilets have been provided for the devotees. Heaters have been installed at strategic locations to battle the winter cold. Other arrangements include a hospital, an ambulance service, a temporary fire station and a call centre. More than 500 Sikh devotees, clad in white kurta-pyjamas -- they have mainly come the UK and Canada -- have come to Patna Saheb to give sewa by serving food in the langars. "Security personnel have been deployed at every nook and corner inside and outside the tent city," says Patna Senior Superintendent of Police Manu Maharaj. Chandan Kushwaha, a district police officer, says there are separate lounges, with two rooms each, for Prime Minister Modi and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. The Bihar tourism department has put up images of the five important sites associated with Sikhism in Patna -- the Bal Leela Gurdwara, the Handi Sahib Gurdwara, the Guru Ka Bagh Gurdwara, the Kangan Ghat Gurdwara and Takht Sri Patna Sahib. Of these, the Takht Patna Sahib is the most important; it is, after the Golden Temple in Amritsar, considered the second holiest site of the Sikhs. Sardar Avtar Singh Makkar, Takht Sri Harmandir Sahib management committee chief, estimates that, by the time the festival ends, nearly 500,000 Sikh devotees from Punjab, Haryana and other parts of India and abroad -- including the US, Canada, the UK and European countries -- would have attended the Utsav. Photographs: M I Khan The FDNY has just shared a dramatic series of photographs from January 4th, 1969, showing the aftermath a massive gas explosion which "lifted 40to100foot sections" of Delancey Street in Manhattan. The explosion occurred on the evening of January 3, 1969. According to a 1970 NTSB report, around 11 p.m., "a gas explosion erupted beneath a main downtown Manhattan Street, buckling the pavement for a distance of four blocks. The initial explosion was followed shortly by several more explosions, and fires along the path of the ruptured pavement. Three hundred families were evacuated from their homes. Fires continued to burn for more than 7 hours until the gas in the area could be shut off." A New Yorker Talk of the Town piece from February 1st, 1969 described the aftermath: "Although the explosion created the customary inconveniencesservices on two subway lines was suspended, bridge traffic was halted, and three hundred families were evacuated from nearby tenementsthere were, miraculously, no deaths and only five minor injuries. (Two firemen were hit by flying debris, two Con Edison employees were blown off their feet by the force of the blast, and a girl seated in an automobile on Delancey Street was slammed headfirst into the windshield." It turns out that there was an abandoned tunnel that had been trapped with leaked gas. At the time, FDNY Chief Fire Marshal Vincent Canty told the New Yorker, "When gas is confined in an unvented space, you get an explosion. And since this was a long, narrow explosion, extending for several blocks, there had to be some kind of long, narrow void underneath the road level. What puzzled us was that the fire seemed to be coming from an area between the subway, which runs down the center of Delancey Street, and the gas main, which runs along the north curb." When the FDNY sent someone to the NYC Transit Authority, their blueprints revealed "there were two sealed-off tunnels""one on either side of the B.M.T. line," apparently built in 1908. The NTSB report of the following year delved further into the incident: Although the blast occurred in a densely populated and heavily traveled district, only seven persons were injured in the accident. The explosion disrupted traffic and forced the closing of the westbound lane of [the Williamsburg Bridge]. Subway service was also disrupted. About 11 hours before the explosion took place, a utility crew had been sent to the scene to repair a gas leak which was causing a small fire in the roadway. The fire went out and re-ignited by the repair crew several times. Workmen continued to search for the leak, and it was reported that the explosion occurred on one of the occasions the gas was being re-ignited. After the accident, it was determined that an abandoned tunnel or "pipe gallery" was located beneath the roadway. This tunnel was constructed 60 years ago to hold utility ducts and pipes, but it was never used and subsequently sealed. Gas from leaking mains seeped into the tunnel, accumulating along its entire length, and was ignited, causing the blast. The problem of locating the source of the gas leakage was complicated by the multiplicity of interconnected mains in the area. This condition stems back to when gas service was first provided in Manhattan. The area was supplied by a number of companies, each with its own gas main. Through the merger of these original companies, a condition of redundancy of parallel mains on the same streets, some of which are almost 100 years old, no exists. Because of this multiplicity of mains, it was difficult to pinpoint the leaking gas. This problem also exist throughout Manhattan. For example, there are 2,675,000 feet of street but almost 6,000,000 feet of gas main in Manhattan. In 1971, the NY State Public Service Commission ordered Con Ed to improve its gas detecting program. (Some things never change.) The tunnel under Delancey Street has since been filled in by the city. Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Unconfirmed: Akhilesh Pratap Publisher Committee to Protect Journalists Publication Date 31 December 2016 Cite as Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Unconfirmed: Akhilesh Pratap, 31 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e0452a.html [accessed 4 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. Akhilesh Pratap Taaza TV May 12, 2016, in Chatra, Jharkhand, India Akhilesh Pratap, a district correspondent for the regional Hindi language news channel Taaza TV in Chatra, Jharkhand state, was returning home on his motorcycle at night when unidentified gunmen shot him three times, before fleeing, according to local media reports. Pratap, better known locally as Indra Dev, died before reaching the hospital. He was known locally for his critical reporting on corruption in the implementation of government projects in the region and had also worked for print outlets in the past, according to a statement by Human Rights Defenders Alert, a Chennai-based human rights organization. The motive behind Pratap's killing was not immediately clear. Local police Deputy Inspector General Upendra Prasad told reporters: "We have formed at least three teams to unravel the incident. The forensic team has also visited the spot." A few days following the killing, police said they arrested two men after they were able to identify the gunmen on the basis of CCTV footage, reports said. A preliminary investigation by police found that Pratap, in addition his journalism, also worked as a contractor on rural electricity projects, reports said. Police believed a dispute in connection to his contract work may have been the motive behind his murder, reports said. Chief Minister Raghubar Das of Jharkhand state announced compensation of Rs. 500, 000 (US $7500) for the family, according to press reports. Motive Unconfirmed: CPJ is investigating to determine whether the death was work-related. Copyright notice: Committee to Protect Journalists. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced only with permission from CPJ. Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Unconfirmed: Abdul Wahed Abdul Ghany Publisher Committee to Protect Journalists Publication Date 31 December 2016 Cite as Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Unconfirmed: Abdul Wahed Abdul Ghany, 31 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e0453a.html [accessed 4 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. Abdul Wahed Abdul Ghany Anadan Media Center June 21, 2016, in Mallah, Syria Abdul Wahed Abdul Ghany, known as Abdo Abdo, was critically wounded on June 9, 2016, while covering clashes between Syrian government troops and rebels in Mallah, near Aleppo, the Syrian Journalists Association's Syrian Center for Journalistic Freedoms reported. He died of his injuries on June 21. Abdul Ghany was a photojournalist for the Anadan Media Center, a pro-opposition press office documenting on the impact of the Syrian war on the northern Aleppo town of Anadan, and Turkey's official Anadolu Agency. An Anadan employee told the Committee to Protect Journalists that the majority of Abdul Ghany's work was with the media center, which commemorated his death on its Facebook page. He worked from their office most days of the week, and been working for them for since 2014, his colleague Ramy said, requesting that CPJ refer to him only by his given name for fear of retribution. Turkey's Anadolu Agency did not respond to CPJ's request for comment on Abdul Ghany's employment status, but Ramy told CPJ Abdul Ghany sold them images on a freelance basis. Ramy told CPJ that on June 9 Abdul Ghany was reporting for the media center on clashes between the regime and rebel forces in the town of Mallah, roughly 20 kilometers from Anadan. The media center normally reports on the immediate vicinity of Anadan, and Ramy was unable to explain why Abdul Ghany was on the frontline and whether he was embedded with a rebel group. A video uploaded to YouTube purports to show the moments immediately after Abdul Ghany was wounded. According to Ramy, Abdul Ghany also worked as a press officer for the Sham Legion, a coalition of Islamist rebel brigades primarily operating in north Syria. Two weeks before he was injured, Abdul Ghany uploaded an image of himself wearing camouflage trousers, standing next to a man carrying a machine gun. Another photograph published to Instagram in 2015 depicts Abdul Ghany aiming a rifle, with the word "revolution" superimposed on the image. Ramy told CPJ that Abdul Ghany may have been "practicing" using a gun, but that he was never a fighter with the Sham Legion. A spokesperson for Sham Legion told CPJ that he did not have a record of Abdul Ghany's having worked for the coalition, but that he could not completely rule it out. Motive Unconfirmed: CPJ is investigating to determine whether the death was work-related. Copyright notice: Committee to Protect Journalists. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced only with permission from CPJ. Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Zaher al-Shurqat Publisher Committee to Protect Journalists Publication Date 31 December 2016 Cite as Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Zaher al-Shurqat, 31 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e045430.html [accessed 4 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. Zaher al-Shurqat Aleppo Today April 12, 2016, in Gaziantep, Turkey Syrian journalist Zaher al-Shurqat died in hospital on April 12, 2016, after a masked man shot him in the head on April 10 in a street in the southern Turkish town of Gaziantep, according to news reports. He was 36. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the murder, making Al-Shurqat the fourth Syrian journalist the group claimed to have killed in Turkey since October 2015. Al-Shurqat worked for the online broadcaster Aleppo Today, where he hosted a show called "Lines of Fire, " which covered the conflict in Syria and especially Aleppo. He also produced reports for a show called "From the trenches: the concept of jihad, " and was a host of a show called "Islamic State in the words of the leadership, " which interviewed leaders of other rebel groups critical of Islamic State. According to news reports, the attack on Al-Shurqat was caught by a security camera footage, which Turkish police said they were examining for evidence. Al-Shurqat was hospitalized immediately after the attack, and remained in critical condition until his death two days later. The Islamic State group's Amaq News Agency claimed on April 11 that the group was responsible and that it targeted Al-Shurqat in retaliation for his work. Turkish media described Al-Shurqat as a former fighter with the Abu Bakr al-Sadiq Brigade rebel group in the northern Syrian town of Al-Bab. Al-Shurqat began working for Aleppo Today after the Islamic State group captured his town in 2013. He moved to Gaziantep in 2015, according to news reports. The Islamic State group has previously claimed responsibility for murdering Syrian journalists Ibrahim Abd al-Qader and Fares Hamadi in Urfa, in southeastern Turkey, on October 30, 2015, and Naji Jerf in Gaziantep on December 27. Al-Shurqat was also the second Aleppo Today journalist that the Islamic State group claims to have killed. Medium: Internet Job: Broadcast Reporter Beats Covered: War Gender: Male Local or Foreign: Foreign Freelance: No Type of Death: Murder Suspected Source of Fire: Political Group Impunity: Yes Taken Captive: No Tortured: No Threatened: Yes Copyright notice: Committee to Protect Journalists. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced only with permission from CPJ. We rely on your support to make local news available to all Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2022. Donate today Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Zabihullah Tamanna Publisher Committee to Protect Journalists Publication Date 31 December 2016 Cite as Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Zabihullah Tamanna, 31 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e0455a.html [accessed 4 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. Zabihullah Tamanna National Public Radio June 5, 2016, in Marjah district, Helmand province, Afghanistan Zabihullah Tamanna, 38, died when at least one rocket propelled grenade hit the Afghan Army vehicle in which he was travelling. His American colleague, David Gilkey, and the Afghan army driver of the vehicle were also killed. The journalists were on assignment for NPR at the time, the U. S. broadcaster said in its account of the deaths. They died on their first day of being embedded with the Afghan army. They were covering intense fighting between the Afghan military and Taliban fighters in and around Marjah, a Taliban stronghold that had once been taken by American forces. The NPR journalists were being escorted to cover the situation in Marjah when their convoy came under heavy fire. Two other NPR journalists traveling in a separate vehicle in the convoy were not injured. Though Tamanna was working as a field producer and interpreter at the time of his death, his career as a journalist started in 2002, according to the Afghan Journalists Safety Committee. His first job was as a photojournalist for Xinhua News Agency; he was later promoted to run the Chinese government news agency's Kabul bureau until 2010. Typical of local journalists in conflict zones like Afghanistan, Tamanna had many clients other than NPR: Anadolu News Agency; CNN-IBN; Swiss TV; Brazil TV; China Central Television; Stars and Stripes, as well as several Dari-language local media organizations. Tamanna had degrees in law and political science from Kabul University, AJSC reported. Medium: Print, Radio, Internet Job: Producer Beats Covered: Culture, Human Rights, Politics, War Gender: Male Local or Foreign: Local Freelance: Yes Type of Death: Crossfire/Combat-Related Suspected Source of Fire: Political Group Copyright notice: Committee to Protect Journalists. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced only with permission from CPJ. Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Taha Shawkat Al-Halou Publisher Committee to Protect Journalists Publication Date 31 December 2016 Cite as Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Taha Shawkat Al-Halou, 31 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e0456a.html [accessed 4 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. Taha Shawkat Al-Halou Freelance August 27, 2016, in Daret Ezza, Aleppo province, Syria Al-Halou was killed on his way back from covering airstrikes in Daret Ezza, a town in Aleppo province, on August 27, 2016, according to local news outlets and a colleague of the journalist. Al-Halou was a former photographer and reporter for the Daret Ezza Media Center, an opposition media group that uses social media to circulate news and updates about Daret Ezza, according to Anas al-Hage, a member of the media office. Al-Hage told CPJ that Al-Halou left his job three months earlier to became a freelance photographer, and that he posted photos and updates on the situation in Daret Ezza on his personal Facebook page, which had more than 390 followers. He also shared his work on platforms including Instagram and Vine. According to local outlets and the Syrian Network for Human Rights, al-Halou was killed while covering airstrikes in his town. Al-Hage said the freelancer died from a head injury on his way back from covering the airstrikes, when a missile launched by Syrian government forces hit him. A graphic video posted on the Daret Ezza Media Center YouTube page shows the aftermath of the missile strike. Al-Halou's body can be seen on the ground next to his motorbike. Local outlets citing the media center reported that a second civilian was killed by the missile strike. In his last Facebook post al-Halou reported that four airstrikes had hit the center of Daret Ezza. The media group's YouTube page posted a graphic video that day showing the airstrikes as they were happening, with a commentary that said it was the third day of airstrikes on the town, and showing injured people being transferred into an ambulance. At least three civilians were killed and tens of others injured in airstrikes on Daret Ezza that day, according to news reports. The accounts differed on whether Syrian government or Russian troops were responsible for the strikes. By mid-November 2016, neither government had claimed responsibility. Medium: Internet Job: Photographer, Internet Reporter Beats Covered: War Gender: Male Local or Foreign: Local Freelance: Yes Type of Death: Crossfire/Combat-Related Suspected Source of Fire: Military Officials Copyright notice: Committee to Protect Journalists. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced only with permission from CPJ. Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Sami Jawdat Rabah Publisher Committee to Protect Journalists Publication Date 31 December 2016 Cite as Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Sami Jawdat Rabah, 31 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e0459a.html [accessed 4 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. Sami Jawdat Rabah Syrian Observatory for Human Rights October 2015 - June 2016, in Deir al-Zour, Syria Militants from the Islamic State group murdered Sami Jawdat Rabah, an online reporter the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, his employer and a relative told the Committee to Protect Journalists following the release of a video showing his murder. The video also shows the killing of four other Syrian journalists and media workers. The Islamic State group on June 25, 2016, released a 15-minute video showing the murder of Rabah and four other Syrians accused of working with media and nongovernmental organizations in Deir al-Zour, Syria. The 15-minute video, entitled "Inspiration of Satan, " is marked has having been produced by the local media branch of the Islamic State group in Deir al-Zour. The video, which CPJ reviewed, shows the five men confessing, apparently under duress, to collaborating with various media outlets and nongovernmental organizations. The men also perform re-enactments of their alleged reporting. Rabah, who was professionally known as Abu Islam, had worked for the SOHR since 2011, the year the Syrian uprising began, contributing stories and images to the monitoring group, its director, Rami Abdul Rahman, told CPJ in a phone interview. Islamic State group militants abducted Rabah on October 4, 2015, from Deir al-Zour, other SOHR contributors in the area told Abdul Rahman. His capture came five days after Rabah received a phone call from an unknown caller in Turkey who demanded he share information about the activity of the Islamic State group in Deir al Zour and his exact location. Although Rabah did not give the caller any information, he told Abdul Rahman that he felt he was being monitored by the militants and that their conversation had been recorded. At the time, the Islamic State group controlled around half of Deir al-Zour province. Other victims in the video were also abducted in early October 2015, according to their families and colleagues. Abu Abdul Rahman, a producer for Free Deir al-Zour Radio, which is opposed to the Syrian government and the Islamic State group, told CPJ that a senior Egyptian figure in the Islamic State group arrived in Deir al-Zour in October 2015 and implemented tighter restrictions on journalists. The exact date of Rabah's death is unclear. In December 2015, two months after his abduction, several Syrian opposition news websites reported that four journalists had been executed by the militant group in Deir al-Zour. Some of these reports cited causes of death different than those apparently shown in the video. In the video, Rabah says he is a 28-year-old independent journalist who had documented civilian life under the Islamic State group's rule in Deir al-Zour, and that he had passed information about the group to colleagues outside Syria. Rabah is then apparently killed when an explosive device attached to his computer is detonated. Rabah does not say he worked for SOHR in the video, but the monitoring body issued a statement on June 26, saying Rabah had been employed by them. Abdul Rahman, who is based in London, told CPJ he is concerned about the safety of the outlet's remaining contributors in Deir al-Zour. They continue to provide information to the news desk, but Abdul Rahman warned them against shooting video and taking photographs. Abdul Rahman said he believes the video to be authentic. Abdul Rahman told CPJ that he didn't know when Rabah had been killed. A cousin of Rabah's said the family had heard "rumors" in January that the journalist had been killed, but continued to hope he still was alive until video was released in June. CPJ has not named the cousin out of concern for the cousin's security. Medium: Internet Job: Photographer, Internet Reporter Beats Covered: War Gender: Male Local or Foreign: Local Freelance: No Type of Death: Murder Suspected Source of Fire: Political Group Impunity: Yes Taken Captive: Yes Threatened: Yes Copyright notice: Committee to Protect Journalists. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced only with permission from CPJ. Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Saif Talal Publisher Committee to Protect Journalists Publication Date 31 December 2016 Cite as Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Saif Talal, 31 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e045a39.html [accessed 4 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. Saif Talal Al-Sharqiya January 12, 2016, in Baquba, Diyala province, Iraq Talal, a correspondent for the independent television channel Al-Sharqiya, was shot dead alongside one of the station's cameraman, Hassan al-Anbaki, on January 12, 2016, according to the channel and news reports. Talal and al-Anbaki were driving near the Diyala province capital of Baquba when unidentified gunmen intercepted their vehicle, forced them to get out the car, and opened fire, according to news reports that cited unnamed security officials. Al-Sharqiya journalist Minas al-Suhail told Agence France-Presse that the journalists, who were accompanied by an Iraqi general, were returning from a reporting trip to the Muqdadiyah area, which the night before had been hit by twin bombings that killed 20 people in a cafe. As they passed through the village of Abu Saida, the gunmen stopped the journalists' car, which had lagged behind the general's convoy, al-Suhail said. It is not clear if the journalists' car or clothing identified them as press. In a statement published on its website on January 12 Al-Sharqiya accused "one of the militias on the loose" of carrying out the murder. The station, which had its license suspended by the Iraqi Commission of Media and Communications in 2013 for using a "sectarian tone" in its coverage of Sunni protests, did not accuse any specific militia or armed group of carrying out the attack. In its live broadcast, Al-Sharqiya reported that Talal survived an assassination attempt by unknown gunmen two years ago. The station broadcast an interview with Talal at that time, in which he vowed to continue his work for the channel. In a series of tweets just hours before his death, Talal warned that strict security measures were needed against all those who operate outside the law in Diyala province and criticized extremists of all sects for failing to know the true meaning of humanity. The Iraqi press freedom group Journalistic Freedoms Observatory said in a statement it emailed to CPJ that it holds the Iraqi military command in Diyala responsible for the killing of the journalists. It called on the command to investigate the murders and to improve protection for journalists. The Iraqi Journalists Syndicate called on officials to take "all possible efforts" to find the perpetrators. Iraqi security forces bolstered by Shia militias declared victory over Islamic State militants in Diyala province in early 2014, but violence had spiked repeatedly since that declaration, according to news reports. Meanwhile, human rights organizations and news organizations documented likely war crimes and atrocities committed by Shia militias supporting the Iraqi government, including in Diyala province. Talal leaves behind a wife and young son, Al-Sharqiya reported. Medium: Television Job: Broadcast Reporter Beats Covered: War Gender: Male Local or Foreign: Local Freelance: No Type of Death: Murder Suspected Source of Fire: Political Group Impunity: Yes Taken Captive: No Tortured: No Threatened: Yes Copyright notice: Committee to Protect Journalists. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced only with permission from CPJ. Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Samer Mohammed Aboud Publisher Committee to Protect Journalists Publication Date 31 December 2016 Cite as Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Samer Mohammed Aboud, 31 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e045a4.html [accessed 4 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. Samer Mohammed Aboud Free Deir al-Zour Radio, Development Interaction Network October 2015 - June 2016, in Deir al-Zour, Syria Militants from the Islamic State group murdered Samer Mohammed Aboud, a radio journalist and writer in Deir al-Zour, Syria, his colleague confirmed to the Committee to Protect Journalists following the release of a graphic video showing his murder. The video also shows the killing of four other Syrian journalists and media workers. The Islamic State group on June 25, 2016, released a 15-minute video showing the murder of five Syrians accused of working with media and nongovernmental organizations in Deir al-Zour. The 15-minute video, entitled "Inspiration of Satan, " is marked has having been produced by the local media branch of the Islamic State group in Deir al-Zour. The video, which CPJ reviewed, shows the five men confessing, apparently under duress, to collaborating with various media outlets and nongovernmental organizations. The men also perform re-enactments of their alleged reporting. Aboud was a producer and reporter for Free Deir al-Zour Radio, a radio station opposed to the Syrian government and to the Islamic State group. He had begun working as a journalist in 2011 and had taken up a formal role with Free Deir al-Zour Radio at the beginning of 2012, Abu Abdul Rahman, a producer at the channel, told CPJ. Aboud, who was also known as Abu Jafaar, reported on politics in Deir al-Zour until militants from the Islamic State group overran most of the province in mid-2014. Under the rule of the Islamic State group, Aboud shifted the focus of his reporting to social issues, such as the impact of the war on food prices, and did not directly criticize the Islamic State group, Abu Abdul Rahman said. Aboud's colleagues believe he was abducted in early October 2015, shortly after a senior Egyptian figure from the Islamic State group arrived in the city and imposed tighter restrictions on journalists, Abu Abdul Rahman told CPJ. The exact date of his death is unclear. In December 2015, several Syrian opposition news websites reported that four journalists, including Aboud, had been murdered by the militant group in Deir al-Zour. Some of these reports cited causes of death different than those depicted in the video. In the video, Aboud confesses apparently under duress to working for the Development Interaction Network, a news website. Aboud says he reported on the impact of the war on Deir al-Zour, including on the fluctuation of food prices and on the local police, as well as battlefield developments. A militant from the Islamic State group then stabs Aboud in the neck with a knife in the middle of a street. The Development Interaction Network has not published any articles or post posts to their social media channels since October 2015, when Aboud is believed to have been kidnapped. CPJ has not been able to reach the outlet for comment. Abu Abdul Rahman confirmed to CPJ that Aboud was a contributor to the website in addition to his work for Free Deir al-Zour Radio. The radio station has effectively gone underground since the new media regulations and the kidnap of Aboud, Abu Abdul Rahman said. Their reporters continue to collate daily news, but often struggle to broadcast, fearing repercussions from the militant group. Medium: Radio, Internet Job: Broadcast Reporter, Internet Reporter Beats Covered: War Gender: Male Local or Foreign: Local Freelance: No Type of Death: Murder Suspected Source of Fire: Political Group Impunity: Yes Taken Captive: Yes Threatened: Yes Copyright notice: Committee to Protect Journalists. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced only with permission from CPJ. Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Sagal Salad Osman Publisher Committee to Protect Journalists Publication Date 31 December 2016 Cite as Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Sagal Salad Osman, 31 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e045ca.html [accessed 4 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. Sagal Salad Osman Radio Mogadishu June 5, 2016, in Mogadishu, Somalia Sagal Salad Osman, 24, was a producer and presenter for the state-run Radio Mogadishu and a university student. She was leaving her university campus in the Hodan neighborhood of Mogadishu when three gunmen shot her in the head and the chest, killing her, police Major Nur Ali told Reuters. The gunmen immediately fled the scene, according to news reports. Sagal produced a children's program for the radio station, according to a Somali journalist who spoke to CPJ on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, according to news reports, but Alitold Reuters that he believed Al-Shabaab were responsible. Militants have a history of targeting journalists for Radio Mogadishu and other state media, according to CPJ research. Women in public roles in particular have been targeted, the Strategic Initiative for women in the Horn of Africa found in a 2016 report. CPJ was unable to determine if Sagal had received threats prior to the attack. Medium: Radio Job: Broadcast Reporter Beats Covered: Culture Gender: Female Local or Foreign: Local Freelance: No Type of Death: Murder Suspected Source of Fire: Political Group Impunity: Yes Copyright notice: Committee to Protect Journalists. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced only with permission from CPJ. Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Rohat Aktas Publisher Committee to Protect Journalists Publication Date 31 December 2016 Cite as Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Rohat Aktas, 31 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e045d7.html [accessed 4 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. Rohat Aktas Azadiya Welat January 30 to February 24, 2016, in Cizre, Turkey Rohat Aktas, a news editor for the Kurdish-language daily Azadiya Welat, was last heard from on January 30, 2016, in the southeastern Turkish town of Cizre. On February 24, local media reported that his body had been identified using DNA testing. The details of his death are unknown. Aktas was shot in the arm on January 22 while reporting on efforts to help those wounded during clashes between Kurdish separatists and Turkish forces, his editor, Zeynel Bulut, told CPJ. Turkish forces fired on those trying to help the wounded, according to Bulut and news reports. CPJ was not able to verify this claim as journalists were barred from the area. Aktas took refuge in a basement, where he became trapped with dozens of others, Bulut said. "He called his family two days after he was shot and said he was wounded in the left arm, " Bulut told CPJ. The Azadiya Welat newsroom lost communication with Aktas in late January, Bulut said. On February 4, Bulut told CPJ that that the newspaper had had no communication with Aktas for five days. Cirze is one of several areas in Turkey's southeast where security forces, backed by tanks, fought militants linked to the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK. The city was under 24-hour curfew from December 14, 2015, to March 2, 2016, news reports said. Kurdish groups claimed that dozens of people were burned to death in Cizre basementsclaims that were not possible to verify because journalists were barred from the area. The curfew was kept in place for three weeks after February 11, when officials declared the end of military operations in the town, The Associated Press reported. Pro-opposition and pro-Kurdish media reported that at the time government forces denied medical treatment to those injured in clashes in Cizre. Pro-government media claimed that the people trapped in the city were terrorists, and that separatists had prevented ambulances from helping the injured. In May, U. N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said he had received a succession of alarming reports alleging human rights abuses by Turkish security forces in the southeast, including the shooting of unarmed civilians by snipers, and "reports quoting witnesses and relatives in Cizre which suggest that more than 100 people were burned to death as they sheltered in three different basements that had been surrounded by security forces." He urged Turkish authorities to allow independent investigators, including U. N. staff, unimpeded access to the area. Aktas, 19, was working as "responsible news editor" at the time of his death. Bulut, his editor, told CPJ that those who fill this role are legally responsible for the contents of the newspaper, alongside the journalists whose bylines are shown, and staff takes turns filling the role to mitigate the risk to each employee. Azadiya Welat has for years been the subject of frequent judicial harassment. On Aktas's Twitter account, which has since been suspended, the journalist's profile picture portrayed him seated with a rifle propped against his chest and shoulders. Azadiya Welat told CPJ that Aktas was not a fighter and was on assignment in Cizre to cover the clashes. CPJ also spoke with his colleagues, other journalists from the region, and press freedom activists who frequently visit southeastern Turkey. All said they had no reason to believe that Aktas was a fighter. EDITOR'S NOTE: This text has been updated to correct the spelling of Cizre throughout. Medium: Print Job: Editor, Print Reporter Beats Covered: Politics, War Gender: Male Local or Foreign: Local Freelance: No Type of Death: Unknown Suspected Source of Fire: Military Officials Copyright notice: Committee to Protect Journalists. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced only with permission from CPJ. Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Rajdev Ranjan Publisher Committee to Protect Journalists Publication Date 31 December 2016 Cite as Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Rajdev Ranjan, 31 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e045ea.html [accessed 4 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. Rajdev Ranjan Hindustan May 13, 2016, in Siwan, Bihar, India Unknown men shot Rajdev Ranjan, the Hindi national daily newspaper Hindustan's bureau chief for Siwan, in the central Indian state of Bihar, at close range as he was returning to his office, according to press reports. The journalist, also identified as Rajdeo Ranjan in press reports, was hit in the head and the chest, killing him, according to local media. Police said they were investigating the killing, and said Ranjan had no known personal enmity with anyone, according to reports. In June, police said they had arrested five suspects in the shooting, who named Laddan Mian as the man who hired them to commit the murder, reports said. Mian, whom news reports identified as having political connections, voluntarily appeared before a court on June 2, 2016, and denied involvement in the killing, news reports said. The journalist's widow, Asha Devi, believes Ranjan was killed in retribution for his critical reporting on a lawmaker who is currently serving prison time for dozens of charges, including murder, illegal possession of firearms, and voter-intimidation, according to news reports. In March 2016, Ranjan had broken news about a prison meeting between the former lawmaker and another local official, who shared a "feast, "reports said. Local journalists said Ranjan had been receiving death threats from criminals before his death, news accounts said. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's state government called for a probe into the killing by the national-level investigative agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation, according to reports. Medium: Print Job: Print Reporter Beats Covered: Corruption, Crime, Politics Gender: Male Local or Foreign: Local Freelance: No Type of Death: Murder Suspected Source of Fire: Criminal Group Impunity: Yes Taken Captive: No Tortured: No Threatened: Yes Copyright notice: Committee to Protect Journalists. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced only with permission from CPJ. Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Pavel Sheremet Publisher Committee to Protect Journalists Publication Date 31 December 2016 Cite as Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Pavel Sheremet, 31 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e045f7.html [accessed 4 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. Pavel Sheremet Ukrainska Pravda, Radio Vesti July 20, 2016, in Kiev, Ukraine Pavel Sheremet was killed in Kiev on July 20, 2016, when an explosive device detonated under the car he was driving. He was 44 years old. Sheremet, who wrote for the independent news website Ukrainska Pravda, was driving to the offices of the independent broadcaster Radio Vesti, where he also hosted a morning radio show, when the car he was driving exploded, Ukrainska Pravda reported. Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy V. Lutsenko said that a car bomb had caused the explosion, according to press reports. Sheremet was a 1998 recipient of CPJ's International Press Freedom Award. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko condemned Sheremet's murder, requested that top law enforcement officials personally oversee the probe, and urged them to seek assistance from the FBI and other international law enforcement experts, according to a statement on the president's website. According to reports in the local and international press, investigators said that they were investigating Sheremet's journalism as the primary motive in a case of premeditated murder. Authorities also said they were investigating the possibility that the killers had sought to kill Alena Pritula, owner and former editor of Ukrainska Pravda, whose car Sheremet was driving when he died, Ukrainska Pravda reported. Poroshenko ordered law enforcement agencies to place Pritula under protection, Ukrainska Pravda said. Sheremet's friends told journalists that he and Pritula had complained of being followed in Kiev. Sheremet told Reuters in October 2015 that he did not feel safe visiting Moscow, where had previously worked as a journalist. "I'm threatened often and given hints. Every time I go to Moscow, it's like I'm in a minefield, " he told the news agency. In his work for Ukrainska Pravda, Sheremet commented on political developments in Ukraine, Russia, and his native Belarus. In the weeks before his murder, he had written about Ukrainian volunteer battalion fighters' joining criminal gangs after leaving the militias, petty corruption among police in Belarus, alleged corruption among Ukrainian government officials and police, and the work of Russian government propagandists. Sheremet was originally from Belarus. He was producer and anchor of a weekly news and analysis show called Prospekt on Belarus state TV's Channel 1 for a year, until President Aleksandr Lukashenko's government ordered it off the air in April 1995. In 1995, Sheremet began working for the Russian broadcaster ORT, and that year won the Belarus PEN Center's Adamovich Prize as best television reporter in Belarus. He edited independent Belarussian newspaper Belarusskaya Delovaya Gazeta. In 1997, Belarussian authorities jailed him for three months in connection to his reporting, and stripped him of his citizenship in 2010. In an October 18, 2016, interview with the news agency Ukrinform, Ukraine's deputy police chief, Vadim Troyan said, "Definitely, there has been progress" in the case, but did not provide further details on the grounds that it could harm the investigation. Medium: Radio, Internet Job: Broadcast Reporter, Internet Reporter Beats Covered: Corruption, Crime, Politics Gender: Male Local or Foreign: Foreign Freelance: No Type of Death: Murder Suspected Source of Fire: Unknown Fire Impunity: Yes Taken Captive: No Tortured: No Threatened: Yes Copyright notice: Committee to Protect Journalists. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced only with permission from CPJ. Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Osama Jumaa Publisher Committee to Protect Journalists Publication Date 31 December 2016 Cite as Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Osama Jumaa, 31 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e04607.html [accessed 4 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. Osama Jumaa Images Live June 5, 2016, in Aleppo, Syria Jumaa, a photographer and video journalist, was killed by Syrian government artillery fire while reporting on the rescue of civilians after a bombardment in the Aleppo district of Al-Mashad, his employer told CPJ. Jumaa, 20, was traveling in an ambulance to the site of the attack, when the vehicle he was in was hit by artillery fire and he was injured, according to a statement from his outlet, Images Live. Abdul Aziz Sharha, a paramedic, was treating Jumaa when a second round of artillery fire struck the ambulance and both men died, according to the statement. The Syrian government did not publicly comment on the incident, but opposition outlets reported on the government strikes that day and local news reports said an ambulance was hit. Jumaa was an employee of the photo agency Images Live, an offshoot of the U. K.-based parent company International Photo Media. Medyan Dairieh, the company's founder and a producer at Images Live, told CPJ Jumaa was being trained by International Photo Media in journalism, photography, and filmmaking in Turkey. He was due to begin work full-time at the Images Live/International Photo Media office in Turkey after his training was complete. Jumaa first worked for Images Live in spring 2015 in Idlib, covering the work of the Syrian Civil Defense, a volunteer first-responder organization that helps rescue trapped civilians. He moved to Turkey for training and returned to Syria in May 2016. Three days before his death, Jumaa covered clashes in the Al-Ameria area of Aleppo for the agency. The monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and residents documented nearly 50 government and Russian aerial attacks on Aleppo on June 5, in which at least 16 civilians were killed. The bombardments came as the Syrian government stepped up its attempts to wrest control of the city from rebel groups. In its statement, International Photo Media described Jumaa as an "extremely brave, independent, impartial young journalist with deep integrity and great humanity." Medium: Television, Internet Job: Camera Operator, Photographer Beats Covered: War Gender: Male Local or Foreign: Local Freelance: No Type of Death: Crossfire/Combat-Related Suspected Source of Fire: Military Officials Copyright notice: Committee to Protect Journalists. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced only with permission from CPJ. Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Naimatullah Zaheer Publisher Committee to Protect Journalists Publication Date 31 December 2016 Cite as Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Naimatullah Zaheer, 31 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e04614.html [accessed 4 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. Naimatullah Zaheer Ariana News November 4, 2016, in Lashkar Gah, Helmand Province, Afghanistan Naimatullah Zaheer was killed on November 4, 2016, by roadside bomb in the southern province of Helmand. He was 38 years old. Zaheer and a group of local reporters were travelling to an area in Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital of Helmand, where the Afghan military had fought with the Taliban the previous night, when their vehicle came under fire. Following advice from police, the group drove off the main road. Shortly thereafter, the journalists' vehicle hit a makeshift bomb. The blast killed Zaheer and seriously wounded his driver, Abdul Mannaf, according to news reports. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Zaheer graduated from Kabul University in 2003 with a degree in journalism. He had worked as a reporter for more than a decade and had been with Ariana News Television Networks for eight years. While at Ariana News, Zaheer reported on security, social, political, and cultural issues in Helmand province, according to a statement published by the TV network, which described him as "a dedicated and hardworking provincial reporter." Zaheer left behind a wife, three sons, and a daughter. Medium: Television Job: Broadcast Reporter Beats Covered: Culture, Politics, War Gender: Male Local or Foreign: Local Freelance: No Type of Death: Crossfire/Combat-Related Suspected Source of Fire: Political Group Copyright notice: Committee to Protect Journalists. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced only with permission from CPJ. Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Mustafa Said Publisher Committee to Protect Journalists Publication Date 31 December 2016 Cite as Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Mustafa Said, 31 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e04624.html [accessed 4 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. Mustafa Said Kurdistan TV August 14, 2016, in Mosul, Iraq Cameraman Mustafa Said was killed on August 14, 2016, while covering fighting between Kurdish militias and fighters from the Islamic State group near Mosul. Correspondent Hayman Nanqli was also injured, AFP reported. Both journalists worked for Kurdistan TV, a TV channel owned by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), the de facto party of government in northern Iraq's semi-autonomous ethnic-Kurdish region. The journalists were covering an offensive by Kurdish forces aimed at recapturing villages from Islamic State control. While reporting in a village that had recently been retaken by Kurdish forces, they were hit by a round of mortar fire which killed Said and injured Nanqli, according to a statement by the KDP. Medium: Television Job: Camera Operator Beats Covered: War Gender: Male Local or Foreign: Local Freelance: No Type of Death: Crossfire/Combat-Related Suspected Source of Fire: Political Group Copyright notice: Committee to Protect Journalists. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced only with permission from CPJ. Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Mustafa Abdul Hassa Publisher Committee to Protect Journalists Publication Date 31 December 2016 Cite as Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Mustafa Abdul Hassa, 31 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e04633.html [accessed 4 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. Mustafa Abdul Hassa Shaam News Network October 2015 - June 2016, in Deir al-Zour, Syria Mustafa Abdul Hassa, a 28-year old former correspondent for Shaam News Network, was executed by Islamic State militants, his former employer confirmed to the Committee to Protect Journalists, following the release of a video showing his murder. The video also shows the killing of four other Syrian journalists and media workers. The Islamic State group released a 15-minute video on June 25, 2016, showing the murder of five Syrians accused of working with media and nongovernmental organizations in Deir al-Zour, Syria. The 15-minute video, entitled "Inspiration of Satan, " is marked has having been produced by the local media branch of the Islamic State group in Deir al-Zour. The video, which CPJ reviewed, shows the five men confessing, apparently under duress, to collaborating with various media outlets and nongovernmental organizations. The men also perform re-enactments of their alleged reporting. Abdul Hassa, known as "Steve" among his friends, contributed to Shaam News Network (SNN) before the entrance of the Islamic State group into Deir al-Zour province, the outlet reported. Videos posted on various YouTube channels in 2012 show Abdul Hassa giving interviews to Al-Arabiya and Syria al-Ghad TV channels as a SNN correspondent on the latest violations committed by Assad forces in Deir al-Zour. The All4Syria news website also reported that he founded a Facebook page called the "Deir al-Zour Mirror, " but CPJ was unable to access the page in July 2016. Militants from the Islamic State group abducted Abdul Hassa after he refused to pledge allegiance to the group, Abdul Hassa's childhood friend, Maher al-Ghadir, wrote in an article published by the Syrian news website Fresh in December 2015. According to News Deeply, the group forced all journalists to pledge allegiance and to agree to restrictions on their work as journalists. The exact date of Abdul Hassa's kidnapping is unclear, but other victims in the video were kidnapped in early October 2015, according to their families and colleagues. Abu Abdul Rahman, a producer for Free Deir al-Zour Radio, which is opposed to the Syrian government and the Islamic State group, told CPJ that a senior Egyptian figure in the Islamic State group arrived in Deir al-Zour in October 2015 and imposed even greater restrictions on journalists. The exact date of Abdul Hassa's death is unclear. In December 2015, several Syrian opposition news websites reported that four journalists, including Abdul Hassa, had been executed by the militant group in Deir al-Zour. Some of those reports cited causes of death different than those depicted in the video. Abdul Hassa says in the video that he worked as an independent journalist after the Islamic State group arrived in Deir al-Zour and sent photographs and information concerning military movements to Human Rights Watch. The video then apparently shows him being killed by an explosive device placed in a camera around his neck. Human Rights Watch said in a June 27, 2016, statement that it was unaware of Abdul Hassa's ever having worked for the organization, and said it had never employed anyone from areas controlled by the Islamic State group. Medium: Internet Job: Internet Reporter Beats Covered: War Gender: Male Local or Foreign: Local Freelance: No Type of Death: Murder Suspected Source of Fire: Political Group Impunity: Yes Taken Captive: Yes Threatened: Yes Copyright notice: Committee to Protect Journalists. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced only with permission from CPJ. Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Mohsen Khazaei Publisher Committee to Protect Journalists Publication Date 31 December 2016 Cite as Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Mohsen Khazaei, 31 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e04657.html [accessed 4 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. Mohsen Khazaei Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting November 12, 2016, in Aleppo, Syria Iranian journalist Mohsen Khazaei, a reporter for the state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting News Agency (IRIB), was killed on November 12, 2016, while covering clashes in the Minyan district of western Aleppo, his network and Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency reported. IRIB cameraman Tamer Sandooq was also injured in the same incident, the outlets said. Khazaei's employer said he was killed when shrapnel from a mortar blast struck his head. Fars News Agency reported that Khazaei's cameraman, Sandooq, was hit with shrapnel in the shoulder and was subsequently transported to a nearby hospital for treatment. The IRIB crew was covering efforts by pro-government forces to regain control of western Aleppo territory captured by rebels attempting to break the government siege on eastern Aleppo. According to the independent Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the pro-opposition Baladi News Network, government forces backed by foreign militias held back a rebel counterattack in the Minyan district the day Khazaei was killed. Iran-backed armed groups from both Lebanon and Iraq have provided essential support to government forces fighting in and around Aleppo, according to the Associated Press. Khazaei, born in 1972, began working with IRIB as an audio engineer in 1995, the broadcaster reported. He is survived by two sons and a daughter. Medium: Television Job: Broadcast Reporter Beats Covered: War Gender: Male Local or Foreign: Foreign Freelance: No Type of Death: Crossfire/Combat-Related Suspected Source of Fire: Political Group Copyright notice: Committee to Protect Journalists. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced only with permission from CPJ. Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Mohammed Sayyed Hassan Publisher Committee to Protect Journalists Publication Date 31 December 2016 Cite as Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Mohammed Sayyed Hassan, 31 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e04668.html [accessed 4 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. Mohammed Sayyed Hassan All4Syria, Al-Nabaa Media Center August 1, 2016, in Atareb, Syria Syrian journalist Mohammed Sayyed Hassan was injured in airstrikes in his home town of Atareb, in northern Syria, late at night on July 24, 2016, and died of his wounds in a Turkish hospital on August 1, according to news reports. Hassan covered events in his hometown of Atareb in the countryside near Aleppo for numerous outlets, including, most recently, the All4Syria news website. He also founded the Al-Nabaa Media Center, which reports on the Syrian war's impact on northern Syria. According to All4Syria and the Al-Nabaa Media Center, Hassan was injured while covering Russian airstrikes on Atareb on the night of July 24. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 10 civilians were killed in those attacks. The Russian Ministry of Defense said that "Russian Aerospace Forces and Syrian Air Force did not make strikes on opposition armed formations, which follow ceasefire regime and informed the Russian[s] or American[s] ... about their location, " on either July 24 or July 25. The Russian Ministry of Defense and the Russian Embassy in Washington did not respond to CPJ's emailed requests for comment in October 2016. Hassan was evacuated to Turkey with serious injuries to his head, chest, stomach, and hands, according to All4Syria. A graphic picture published by Al-Nabaa Media Center shows Hassan on a gurney with bloodied bandages on his left temple and left arm. Hassan died after a week of efforts to save him. Hassan routinely published his reporting on his Facebook page. On July 23 Hassan posted an All4Syria interview he conducted with the founder of the rebel Free Syrian Army, Riad al-Asaad. Two days before, on July 21, he posted an Al-Nabaa Media Center photograph purportedly showing a medic carrying a young boy from Atareb who had lost his right arm in a government airstrike. Medium: Internet Job: Photographer, Editor, Internet Reporter Beats Covered: War Gender: Male Local or Foreign: Local Freelance: No Type of Death: Crossfire/Combat-Related Suspected Source of Fire: Military Officials Copyright notice: Committee to Protect Journalists. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced only with permission from CPJ. Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Mohammad Nasir Mudasir Publisher Committee to Protect Journalists Publication Date 31 December 2016 Cite as Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Mohammad Nasir Mudasir, 31 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e046812a.html [accessed 4 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. Mohammad Nasir Mudasir Melli Paigham Radio December 15, 2016, in Mohammed Agha District, Logar Province, Afghanistan Mohammad Nasir Mudasir, the 53-year-old journalist and editor-in-chief of Melli Paigham Radio, was leaving his office in the Mohammed Agha district of Afghanistan's Logar Province, south of Kabul, on the afternoon of December 15, 2016, when unknown gunmen fatally shot him, according to press reports. The journalist died immediately, and the attackers then fled the scene, the reports said. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the murder. Local police began an investigation, according to media reports. According to the Afghanistan Journalists Center (AFJC), a national press freedom group, Mudasir and his colleagues at the radio station had often received threats from the Taliban, which Mudasir had reported to security forces, asking for protection. Mudasir was a founding member of the local journalists group the Afghan Independent Journalists' Association. He left behind four children, according to the AFJC. Medium: Radio Job: Editor Gender: Male Local or Foreign: Local Freelance: No Type of Death: Murder Suspected Source of Fire: Political Group Impunity: Yes Taken Captive: No Tortured: No Threatened: Yes Copyright notice: Committee to Protect Journalists. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced only with permission from CPJ. Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Mohammed Eissa Publisher Committee to Protect Journalists Publication Date 31 December 2016 Cite as Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Mohammed Eissa, 31 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e04683.html [accessed 4 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. Mohammed Eissa Nateq Network October 2015 - June 2016, in Deir al-Zour, Syria Militants from the Islamic State group murdered Mohammed Eissa, a former cameraman for the Syrian Nateq Network news website, his brother Yasser confirmed to the Committee to Protect Journalists following the release of a graphic video showing his murder. The video also shows the killing of four other Syrian journalists and media workers. The Islamic State group released a 15-minute video on June 25, 2016, showing the murder of five Syrians accused of working with media and nongovernmental organizations in Deir al-Zour, Syria. The 15-minute video, entitled "Inspiration of Satan, " is marked as having been produced by the local media branch of the Islamic State group in Deir al-Zour. The video, which CPJ reviewed, shows the five men confessing, apparently under duress, to collaborating with various media outlets and nongovernmental organizations. The men also perform re-enactments of their alleged reporting. Eissa, 41, was abducted on October 2, 2015, after refusing to pledge allegiance to the group, his brother Yasser told CPJ. Yasser told CPJ they both worked for a local news website, Nateq Network, reporting on events in Deir al-Zour and its environs. Yasser left the province shortly before the Islamic State group took control in 2014, but Mohammed remained behind. According to News Deeply, the group forced all journalists to pledge allegiance and agree to restrictions on their continued work as journalists. Other victims in the video were abducted in early October 2015, according to their families and colleagues. Abu Abdul Rahman, a producer for Free Deir al-Zour Radio, which is opposed to the Syrian government and the Islamic State group, told CPJ that a senior Egyptian figure in Islamic State arrived in Deir al-Zour in October 2015 and tightened restrictions on the press. Eissa says in the video that he had worked for Nateq Network before the Islamic State group entered the city, and that he had sent information to his brother for publication on Al-Jazeera's website in exchange for money. A militant from the Islamic State group then slits Eissa's throat while the journalist is handcuffed to a chair. Yasser, who frequently contributes to Al-Jazeera, told CPJ that the allegation Eissa sent information to Al-Jazeera is false. He said he believed his brother had been "intensely tortured" to make a false confession. He added that he was not sure exactly when his brother was killed, but he said sources close to the group had informed him two months prior to the video's release that Eissa had been executed. A spokesman from Al-Jazeera told CPJ that the video was not relevant to the network. Nateq Network reported that Eissa had been killed in May 2016 following torture, citing unnamed individuals close to the Islamic State group. According to the outlet, Eissa worked under the name Mohammed al-Homsi but, in the office, he also became known as "Abu Marwan Reuters" in recognition of his skill as a reporter. Medium: Internet Job: Photographer, Internet Reporter Beats Covered: War Gender: Male Local or Foreign: Local Freelance: No Type of Death: Murder Suspected Source of Fire: Political Group Impunity: Yes Taken Captive: Yes Threatened: Yes Copyright notice: Committee to Protect Journalists. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced only with permission from CPJ. Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Marcos Hernandez Bautista Publisher Committee to Protect Journalists Publication Date 31 December 2016 Cite as Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Marcos Hernandez Bautista, 31 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e046a19.html [accessed 4 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. Marcos Hernandez Bautista Noticias, Voz e Imagen de Oaxaca January 21, 2016, in Oaxaca, Mexico Hernandez, a reporter for the daily Noticias, Voz e Imagen de Oaxaca , was shot in the head with a 9mm pistol as he climbed into his car outside a bar in the municipality of San Andres Huaxpaltepec, in the state of Oaxaca, according to his paper and other reports. Ismael Sanmartin Hernandez, the editorial director of Noticias, Voz e Imagen de Oaxaca, told CPJ that Hernandez wrote about cacicazgos (local strongmen who rule parts of the region) and their alleged influence in local politics. "He was often in fear, " Sanmartin said. He told CPJ Hernandez had been working on sensitive stories and was afraid of reprisal. Hernandez, 38, was also a freelance correspondent at La Ke Buena radio in the municipality of Pinotepa Nacional, and at a community station in Santiago Jamiltepec, according to local news reports and a colleague at the paper, who spoke with CPJ. The colleague, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of reprisals, said Hernandez reported on social issues including poverty, education, and politics. He said Hernandez had recently reported on protests over the construction of a dam. The colleague added that he did not know of any threats against Hernandez, but said the journalist had been afraid over his reporting on sensitive issues. A journalist familiar with the case, who asked to remain anonymous out of security concerns, told CPJ Hernandez had been threatened over his reporting. On February 25, police arrested the police commander of Santiago Jamiltepec, Jorge Armando Santiago Martinez, and charged him with the murder of Hernandez, according to local news reports. Hernandez's colleague told CPJ in November that the Santiago Martinez remained in prison, but that there had been no new updates and that prosecutors had not released any information about the motive for the murder. The Oaxaca attorney general's office did not respond to emails or phone calls from CPJ. Sanmartin told CPJ Hernandez was affiliated with the left-wing opposition political party MORENA, and was a municipal official responsible for culture in Santiago Jamiltepec. A column published in Noticias, Voz e Imagen de Oaxaca on January 24, 2016 described Hernandez as a brave reporter covering a region beset by political violence and, increasingly, drug cartels. "Time and again, Marcos Hernandez Bautista, in the pages of Noticias, tirelessly revealed the true face of the coast; people's aspirations, their struggles and conflicts, not only with organized crime, but with the other powers that be and corrupt public functionaries suspected of being linked with narcotics trafficking activities, " Amado Sanmartin Hernandez wrote in the newspaper. Medium: Print, Radio Job: Broadcast Reporter, Print Reporter Beats Covered: Corruption, Politics Gender: Male Local or Foreign: Local Freelance: No Type of Death: Murder Suspected Source of Fire: Unknown Fire Impunity: Yes Taken Captive: No Tortured: No Threatened: Yes Copyright notice: Committee to Protect Journalists. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced only with permission from CPJ. Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Majid Dirani Publisher Committee to Protect Journalists Publication Date 31 December 2016 Cite as Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Majid Dirani, 31 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e046b198.html [accessed 4 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. Majid Dirani Freelance February 19, 2016, in Daraya, Syria Majid Dirani, a cofounder of the local Darayya Media Center, was killed on February 19 by a shell from a Syrian military tank while filming the shelling and aerial bombardment of his neighborhood, Daraya, a suburb of Damascus, his colleague and co-founder of the media center, Sultan al-Shami, told CPJ. Dirani, 21, was at the frontlines of street battles in the area when a military tank fired at the building he was using as cover, according to a video the Darayya Center published on its YouTube channel and a photo it published to its Facebook page on the day he was killed. The video was shot by Dirani's colleague at the media center, Hossam al-Bokhari, according to al-Shami. Al-Shami told CPJ that once the military tank left the area, they were able to retrieve Dirani's body and his camera, which contained videos he had recorded just before his death. "In one of the videos, you can hear Dirani saying that the tank was hit by Free Syrian Army fighters... It also shows the tank's driver aiming and firing in his direction, " al-Shami told CPJ. The media center is still deciding whether to publish these videos, al-Shami said, but it published a picture on social media showing Dirani's lifeless body with his camera. Dirani had worked with Darayya Media Center, a local media group dedicated to reporting news from the district, since the beginning of the Syrian uprising in 2011. Beginning in December 2015, he also contributed to the Turkish Anadolu Agency as a freelancer, according to his colleague at Anadolu, Mohammed Misto, who was quoted in a statement published on the agency's website and other news outlets. "We used to call him our 'eyes in Daraya, '" Misto said. Dirani, who was also known as Majid Abu Shafiq, had extensively documented the bombing of his district, according to his Facebook account, videos he recorded, the testimony of his colleague from the Darayya Media Center, and news reports. His older brother, Majeed, was killed December 7, 2013, fighting to break the siege of the city. Daraya, a suburb of Damascus, has been besieged by the Syrian army since 2012. The district has seen increasing street battles and bombings since January, according to the Syrian Human Rights Observatory. Medium: Internet Job: Camera Operator, Internet Reporter Beats Covered: War Gender: Male Local or Foreign: Local Freelance: Yes Type of Death: Crossfire/Combat-Related Suspected Source of Fire: Military Officials Copyright notice: Committee to Protect Journalists. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced only with permission from CPJ. Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Mahad Ali Mohamed Publisher Committee to Protect Journalists Publication Date 31 December 2016 Cite as Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Mahad Ali Mohamed, 31 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e046c13.html [accessed 4 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. Mahad Ali Mohamed Codka Mudug Radio November 6, 2016, in Galkayo, Somalia Mahad Ali Mohamed, a journalist for Codka Mudug Radio, was fatally shot in the north-central Somali town of Galkayo amid heavy fighting between fighters allied with the Galmudug and Puntland regions on November 6, 2016. Hanad Abdi Farah, the director of Codka Mudug Radio, told Somalia media that Mahad was shot in the head by a stray bullet at roughly 10.30 a.m. soon after he left his house for work, and that he died in hospital six hours later. The town, which is divided into areas under the control of the semi-autonomous Galmudug and Puntland regions, had been a flashpoint in weeks of fighting in a border dispute between partisans of each region, despite repeated efforts to reach a ceasefire, according to press reports and human rights groups. Medium: Radio Job: Broadcast Reporter Beats Covered: War Gender: Male Local or Foreign: Local Freelance: No Type of Death: Crossfire/Combat-Related Suspected Source of Fire: Paramilitary Group Copyright notice: Committee to Protect Journalists. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced only with permission from CPJ. Police are searching for a man accused of criminal mischief for striking a vehicle parked in Brooklyn repeatedly with a "blunt object." According to the authorities, the incident occurred at 5 p.m. on November 13th, 2016 in the 61st Precinct, which covers Sheepshead Bay, Gravesend, Kings Highway, Homecrest, Madison, Manhattan Beach, and Gerritsen Beach: "An unidentified individual used a blunt object to smash the victim's car window while it was parked on Ocean Court." The smasher, who appears to be covering his face with an orange or red scarf/shirt, fled in a Mercedes with NJ license plates, police say. (The video has no audio, so it's unclear if the man was screaming anything along the lines of "YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENS LARRY.") Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime stoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577. Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Khaled Eissa Publisher Committee to Protect Journalists Publication Date 31 December 2016 Cite as Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Khaled Eissa, 31 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e046d13.html [accessed 4 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. Khaled Eissa Freelance June 25, 2016, in Aleppo, Syria Independent Syrian cameraman Khaled Eissa, 25, died in a hospital in Antakya, Turkey, on June 24, 2016, of injuries he suffered a week prior, according to his friends and news reports. Eissa and independent Syrian journalist Hadi Abdullah were wounded by an improvised explosive device (IED) that destroyed their house in the Syrian city of Aleppo late the night of June 16, according to media reports. The IED exploded at around midnight in front of Abdullah's home, where he and Eissa were staying. Eissa was taken to a hospital, where he fell into a coma with wounds to the head and abdomen, according to reports. Abdullah remained trapped beneath the rubble for a longer period. Members of the Syrian Civil Defense, a volunteer organization which is also known as the White Helmets, were able to remove him early the following morning, and took him to the same hospital as Eissa, Kenan Rahmani, a Syrian-American lawyer close to both journalists, told CPJ. Abdullah suffered multiple fractures in his left leg, as well as an injury to one eye and to his jaw, Rahmani said. Syrian activists and the pro-opposition website Orient.net described the attack as an assassination attempt. Abdullah has been outspoken against the Syrian government since protests against President Bashar al-Assad swept the country in 2011, and has reported from different cities in the country since then. Both journalists were injured by a barrel bomb only two days before, on June 14, while covering government airstrikes in Aleppo. An online video shows Abdullah immediately after the bombing. The next day, the journalists shared a photograph on social media of themselves back at work. Abdullah and Eissa had been based in Aleppo to cover the conflict there for the past three months, according to Rahmani. They had been working together for more than a year. Eissa began his work in media covering anti-government demonstrations in his hometown of Kafranbel. In one video posted to his YouTube channel on March 21, 2014, Eissa filmed the chaotic aftermath of the government's bombardment of the town's largest mosque during Friday prayers. The current imam of the mosque refused to administer prayers for Eissa's funeral, according to the Syrian opposition website Enab Baladi, which described the imam as close to the Nusra Front, an Al-Qaeda affiliate. Nusra Front has repeatedly censored independent journalists and activists in the area. A day before the IED explosion, Nusra Front forcibly shut down Radio Fresh, an independent radio station based in Kafranbel founded by Eissa's close friend, Raed Fares, according to news reports. The group also briefly detained Fares and Abdullah after storming the station in January 2016. No group has claimed responsibility for Eissa's murder. Medium: Television, Internet Job: Camera Operator, Photographer Beats Covered: Human Rights, War Gender: Male Local or Foreign: Local Freelance: Yes Type of Death: Murder Suspected Source of Fire: Unknown Fire Impunity: Yes Taken Captive: No Tortured: No Threatened: No Copyright notice: Committee to Protect Journalists. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced only with permission from CPJ. Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Khaled al-Zintani Publisher Committee to Protect Journalists Publication Date 31 December 2016 Cite as Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Khaled al-Zintani, 31 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e046e11.html [accessed 4 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. Khaled al-Zintani Freelance June 24, 2016, in Benghazi, Libya Photojournalist al-Zintani was killed by a sniper while reporting in Gwersha, a southern district in Benghazi, on June 24. Al-Zintani documented the involvement of the Saiqa (special forces) of the Libyan National Army in the conflict in Libya. He also sold content to local and international networks on a freelance basis. Al-Zintani was covering an offensive by the Saiqa against Islamist militias at the time of his death, according to his colleagues and news reports. The Saiqa's media office released a statement announcing the death of seven of its members on June 24, including al-Zintani, who was described as a media professional. Some of the work produced by the photographer, who had an unarmed role in the forces, was used internally by the Saiqa and some was used to promote the group on local channels, according to colleagues of al-Zintani. After he was hit, al-Zintani was taken to a hospital in Benghazi, where he died later that day from his injuries, Omar Altwati, a freelance producer with whom al-Zintani had worked in the week before his death, told CPJ. According to Altwati and local news reports, the sniper likely belonged to the Islamist militias fighting for territory in and around Benghazi. CPJ was unable to determine if any group took responsibility. The journalist had worked for multiple Libyan outlets, including al-Zintan TV, which released a statement paying tribute to him after his death. In the weeks before his death, he had worked closely with Altwati, a freelancer who produces video and images for Sky News Arabia TV, which is part-owned by British Sky Broadcasting and has headquarters in Abu Dhabi. A spokesperson for Sky News Arabia TV told CPJ that it did not deal directly with al-Zintani. Altwati, the producer, told CPJ that al-Zintani had provided him with images of fighting in Gwersha earlier in June and that they communicated on June 23, the day before al-Zintani was killed. Records of text messages between the two journalists, viewed by CPJ, show that al-Zintani said on June 23 that he would cover any fighting for Altwati in the area in the coming days. Altwati said he did not hear from al-Zintani again and when he tried to call him on June 24, the photographer's phone was turned off. Altwati said that another journalist told him al-Zintani had been killed covering a Libyan National Army offensive that day. Altwati told CPJ that he confirmed the death with a military spokesperson, who also said al-Zintani was with a Saiqa unit at the time he was hit. A YouTube channel in al-Zintani's name contains videos dating back to 2012, mostly about the fighting in Libya. Videos from the past three months before his death include a report about the Libyan National Army reclaiming a cement factory in Benghazi from Islamist militias, and promotional reports about the Libyan National Army's air force. The videos are marked as filmed and produced by al-Zintani. Al-Zintani took up photojournalism in 2011 after the Libyan uprising against Muammar Qaddafi. Brian Conley, director of the U. S.-based company Small World News, which provides training to citizen journalists, told CPJ he met al-Zintani in Libya in 2011 when the journalist was covering fighting in the town of Zintan. He said that they met again in 2012 at a video production workshop that Conley ran in Benghazi. Conley said he helped al-Zintani sell content to U. S. television networks. The two later discussed collaborating on running workshops for young journalists in Libya, but the project never materialized, Conley said. Benghazi has been the scene of fierce fighting in 2016 between units belonging to the internationally recognized Libyan National Army, led by General Khalifa Haftar, and Islamist militias, some with affiliations to the militant group, Islamic State. Medium: Television, Internet Job: Photographer Beats Covered: War Gender: Male Local or Foreign: Local Freelance: Yes Type of Death: Crossfire/Combat-Related Suspected Source of Fire: Political Group Copyright notice: Committee to Protect Journalists. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced only with permission from CPJ. Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Karun Misra Publisher Committee to Protect Journalists Publication Date 31 December 2016 Cite as Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Karun Misra, 31 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e046fc.html [accessed 4 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. Karun Misra Jansandesh Times February 13, 2016, in Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India Three gunmen on motorcycles shot Misra in Sultanpur district as the journalist was driving to his home in Ambedkar Nagar on the afternoon of February 13, according to local media reports. Misra, who was the Ambedkar Nagar bureau chief of the Hindi daily Jansandesh Times, died from his injuries on the way to the hospital, according to The Hindu. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav expressed his "deep concern" about the journalist's death, and ordered Director-General of Police Javeed Ahmed to form special teams to investigate the case, according to press reports. On February 18, 2016 police arrested five people in connection with Misra's murder, according to news reports. Inspector General A. Satish Ganesh, of the Lucknow-zone, issued a statement saying that two mining contractors in the area were allegedly upset with Misra's coverage of illegal mining for his paper. Ganesh named two local mining contractorsRahul Singh and Pawan Singhas the suspected masterminds behind Misra's murder. The pair allegedly paid five locals 100, 000 Indian rupees (approximately US$1, 500) to kill Misra, according to the police statement. CPJ was unable to determine if they have denied the accusations. Both contractors and three of the five men they allegedly hired, identified as Ajay Singh, Sandeep Singh, and Haider Abbas, were arrested following a joint operation by Sultanpur police and the state's Special Task Force, an investigative body set up to investigate criminal matters including mafia activities in the state. During questioning, the three men allegedly hired by the contractors confessed to murdering Misra, reports said. Police were still searching for two other suspects, identified as Aman Singh and Mama, who was identified by only one name. CPJ is unable to determine if the suspects have been officially charged or if they are being held in custody. An officer at the Kudwar police station was suspended for not taking adequate measures to address illegal mining in the area, reports said. Medium: Print Job: Print Reporter Beats Covered: Corruption, Crime, Politics Gender: Male Local or Foreign: Local Freelance: No Type of Death: Murder Suspected Source of Fire: Criminal Group, Local Residents Impunity: Yes Taken Captive: No Tortured: No Threatened: No Copyright notice: Committee to Protect Journalists. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced only with permission from CPJ. Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Joao Miranda do Carmo Publisher Committee to Protect Journalists Publication Date 31 December 2016 Cite as Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Joao Miranda do Carmo, 31 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e0470fe.html [accessed 4 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. Joao Miranda do Carmo SAD Sem Censura July 24, 2016, in Santo Antonio do Descoberto, Brazil At least two men in a car parked next to Joao Miranda do Carmo's house in Santo Antonio do Descoberto, a small town roughly 30 miles west of the capital, Brasilia, the night of July 24 and shouted his name, according to local news reports. When do Carmo appeared, they shot him seven times in the chest and sped off in a red Fiat Palio, according to press reports. He died instantly. Do Carmo edited a pugnacious news website called SAD Sem Censura (Santo Antonio do Descoberto Uncensored, by the town's acronym). Do Carmo told police that he had been threatened at least twice before his murder. He spoke to police in May 2014, when his car was set on fire, and again in February this year, when he reported having received death threats, Gilson Ferreira, a police spokesman, told the Committee to Protect Journalists by telephone from the state capital, Goiania. Ferreira said the journalist did not specify who was threatening him. The president of the Goias State Union of Professional Journalists also told CPJ that do Carmo had angered local authorities with his outspoken reporting. "He was very controversial in his city. He demanded answers from politicians, police, and local officials, " Claudio Curado told CPJ by phone. "We believe the crime has a political component. He questioned local politicians." Ferreira, the police spokesman, said do Carmo had been accused of defamation and other offenses three times. On his website, do Carmo had recently criticized the city's unpaved roads, a local tax on garbage collection, and had featured complaints from local municipal employees that they were not being paid on time. The National Federation of Journalists (Fenaj) said do Carmo was a member of the Communist Party of Brazil. Curado said the 54-year-old journalist planned to run in municipal elections later this year. On July 27, police arrested Douglas Ferreira de Morais, 40, on suspicion that he had participated in the murder. Ferreira de Morais, the head of a group of security guards who work public sites in the city, was seen by witnesses driving the car used in the killing, according Fernando Gama, an investigator in the case, who spoke to the news website G1. Gama told G1 that de Morais can be jailed for up to 30 days pending investigation. Gama told CPJ on August 10 that police were still pursuing the person responsible for planning the murder, and that a motive had not yet been established. He said that de Morais was connected to a drug trafficker who had threated do Carmo over articles that the journalist had written. Medium: Internet Job: Editor, Internet Reporter Beats Covered: Corruption, Crime, Politics Gender: Male Local or Foreign: Local Freelance: No Type of Death: Murder Suspected Source of Fire: Criminal Group Impunity: Yes Taken Captive: No Tortured: No Threatened: Yes Copyright notice: Committee to Protect Journalists. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced only with permission from CPJ. Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Jeroen Oerlemans Publisher Committee to Protect Journalists Publication Date 31 December 2016 Cite as Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Jeroen Oerlemans, 31 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e0471c.html [accessed 4 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. Jeroen Oerlemans Freelance October 2, 2016, in Sirte, Libya Oerlemans, a Dutch freelance photographer, was killed October 2, 2016 while covering a battle in the city of Sirte between forces loyal to the United Nations-backed Libyan government and members of the militant group Islamic State. He was working with Dutch reporter Joanie di Rijke, who was on assignment for the Belgian magazine Knack, Gerry Meeuwssen, the magazine's editorial coordinator, told CPJ by email. While photographing the front line, Oerlemans was shot in the chest several times by an Islamic State sniper, according to an account published in Knack by de Rijke and news reports that quoted Libyan hospital and government officials. In her account in Knack, de Rijke said that in the hours before he was killed, she and Oerlemans were following a group of Salafist fighters who were fighting Islamic State. The journalists followed the fighters to a square. Islamic State fighters had made a base in a building a few hundred feet away, and its snipers were shooting into the street. Oerlemans ran across the street with some fighters to photograph the front line, ducking the sniper fire. De Rijke stayed behind. About 10 minutes later she was notified by a phone call from a Libyan contact that he had been hit, at which point she raced to the Misrata field hospital where she learned that Oerlemans had been shot dead. Oerlemans was shot while running alone across the street, according to de Rijke's account. The shooting seemed to come from snipers in the building where Islamic State fighters had a base. At least 18 other people were killed in the fighting in Sirte that day, 10 from the Islamic State side and eight from militants fighting against them, according to news reports quoting government officials. Oerlemans was wearing a flak jacket but one of the bullets hit him in the side of the chest, under his arm. He died instantly, reports said. Oerlemans was a well-known photojournalist with extensive experience in the Middle East. A photo essay featuring his work in Sirte was published by the Dutch magazine De Volkskrant in July 2016. In July 2012, Oerlemans was kidnapped by Islamist militants along with British freelance journalist John Cantlie as the pair crossed into Syria from Turkey. The journalists were held for a week before they were rescued by what Oerlemans told the media were anti-government Syrian fighters. Cantlie was kidnapped again in Syria later that year. Since being held hostage he has appeared in several Islamic State videos. Medium: Print, Internet Job: Photographer Beats Covered: Politics, War Gender: Male Local or Foreign: Foreign Freelance: Yes Type of Death: Crossfire/Combat-Related Suspected Source of Fire: Political Group Copyright notice: Committee to Protect Journalists. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced only with permission from CPJ. Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Ibrahim Omar Publisher Committee to Protect Journalists Publication Date 31 December 2016 Cite as Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Ibrahim Omar, 31 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e0472c.html [accessed 4 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. Ibrahim Omar Al Jazeera July 11, 2016, in Tarmanin, Idlib, Syria Ibrahim Omar, a contributor to Al Jazeera's live-feed TV channel, Al Jazeera Mubashar, was killed in an air raid on the northern Syrian town of Tarmanin, in Idlib, on July 11, 2016, Al Jazeera said. The channel accused Russia of carrying out the attack. In a statement published July 11, Al Jazeera said Omar was one of 13 people who died when Russian warplanes struck a fuel market in Tarmanin. omar was covering the airstrikes in the area for al jazeera at the time of his death, the channel reported in a program commemorating his life. The Syrian channel Halab Today published footage of emergency workers racing to put out the blaze from the burning fuel trucks. The anti-government outlet said only three people had been killed in the airstrike, but also blamed Russia for carrying out the attack. Al Jazeera did not respond to CPJ's repeated emails seeking information about Omar's death and Russia's involvement. The Russian Defense Ministry likewise did not respond to CPJ's emailed request for comment on the July 11 attack. An Al Jazeera reporter in Syria who had worked with Omar in the past told CPJ that he believed Russia carried out the attack. He said Omar had covered fighting in Idlib and Aleppo for Al Jazeera for more than a year and was an experienced cameraman. The reporter requested that CPJ not use his name because he was not authorized to speak on behalf of the channel. Medium: Television Job: Camera Operator Beats Covered: War Gender: Male Local or Foreign: Local Freelance: No Type of Death: Crossfire/Combat-Related Suspected Source of Fire: Military Officials Copyright notice: Committee to Protect Journalists. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced only with permission from CPJ. Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Hassan al-Anbaki Publisher Committee to Protect Journalists Publication Date 31 December 2016 Cite as Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Hassan al-Anbaki, 31 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e0473a.html [accessed 4 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. Hassan al-Anbaki Al-Sharqiya January 12, 2016, in Baquba, Diyala province, Iraq Al-Anbaki, a cameraman for the independent television channel Al-Sharqiya, was shot dead alongside one of the station's correspondents, Saif Talal, on January 12, 2016, according to the channel and news reports. Talal and al-Anbaki were driving near the Diyala province capital of Baquba when unidentified gunmen intercepted their vehicle, forced them to get out the car, and opened fire, according to news reports that cited unnamed security officials. Al-Sharqiya journalist Minas al-Suhail told Agence France-Presse that the journalists, who were accompanied by an Iraqi general, were returning from a reporting trip to the Muqdadiyah area, which the night before had been hit by twin bombings that killed 20 people in a cafe. As they passed through the village of Abu Saida, the gunmen stopped the journalists' car, which had lagged behind the general's convoy, al-Suhail said. It is not clear if the journalists' car or clothing identified them as press. In a statement published on its website on January 12, Al-Sharqiya accused "one of the militias on the loose" of carrying out the murder. The station, which had its license suspended by the Iraqi Commission of Media and Communications in 2013 for using a "sectarian tone" in its coverage of Sunni protests, did not accuse any specific militia or armed group of carrying out the attack. In a live broadcast, Al-Sharqiya reported that Talal, the correspondent shot dead alongside al-Anbaki, had survived an assassination attempt two years ago. In a series of tweets just hours before his death, Talal warned that strict security measures were needed against all those who operate outside the law in Diyala province and criticized extremists of all sects for failing to know the true meaning of humanity. The Iraqi press freedom group Journalistic Freedoms Observatory said in a statement it emailed to CPJ that it holds the Iraqi military command in Diyala responsible for the killing of the journalists. It called on the command to investigate the murders and to improve protection for journalists. The Iraqi Journalists Syndicate called on officials to take "all possible efforts" to find the perpetrators. Iraqi security forces bolstered by Shia militias declared victory over Islamic State militants in Diyala province in early 2014, but violence had spiked repeatedly since that declaration, according to news reports. Meanwhile, human rights organizations and news organizations documented likely war crimes and atrocities committed by Shia militias supporting the Iraqi government, including in Diyala province. Al-Anbaki leaves behind a wife and young daughter, Al-Sharqiya reported. Medium: Television Job: Camera Operator Beats Covered: War Gender: Male Local or Foreign: Local Freelance: No Type of Death: Murder Suspected Source of Fire: Political Group Impunity: Yes Taken Captive: No Tortured: No Threatened: No Copyright notice: Committee to Protect Journalists. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced only with permission from CPJ. Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Hashim al-Hamran Publisher Committee to Protect Journalists Publication Date 31 December 2016 Cite as Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Hashim al-Hamran, 31 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e0474a.html [accessed 4 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. Hashim al-Hamran Al-Masirah TV January 22, 2016, in Dahyan, Saada Province, Yemen Hashim al-Hamran was seriously injured in a Saudi-coalition airstrike on January 21, 2016 in the town of Dahyan, in Saada province, while reporting for the Houthi-run al-Masirah TV, the station and the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate said. The 17-year old cameraman died of his wounds the following day. Al-Masirah published a graphic video claiming to show the last footage al-Hamran took before he died. The footage shows residents sorting through rubble from a previous airstrike when a second strike hits, knocking al-Hamran to the ground. Those strikes killed at least 20 people, according to news reports. CPJ emailed Saudi Arabia's embassy in Washington on February 2 to ask for further information about the airstrike that killed al-Hamran. CPJ has yet to receive a reply to any of its inquiries about journalists killed in coalition operations. On January 22, 2016, al-Masirah TV published a photo on its Facebook page of al-Hamran wearing military fatigues holding an automatic rifle accompanied by the official slogan of the Houthis known in Arabic as "The Scream." Al-Masirah TV did not respond to several requests by CPJ to explain the photograph and whether al-Hamran ever participated in fighting. In the graphic video published by the channel, al-Hamran can be seen in civilian clothing as he reports on the damage caused by coalition airstrikes. Medium: Television Job: Camera Operator Beats Covered: War Gender: Male Local or Foreign: Local Freelance: No Type of Death: Crossfire/Combat-Related Suspected Source of Fire: Military Officials Copyright notice: Committee to Protect Journalists. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced only with permission from CPJ. Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Elidio Ramos Zarate Publisher Committee to Protect Journalists Publication Date 31 December 2016 Cite as Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Elidio Ramos Zarate, 31 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e0475a.html [accessed 4 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. Elidio Ramos Zarate El Sur June 19, 2016, in Oaxaca, Mexico Elidio Ramos Zarate, a reporter for regional daily newspaper El Sur, was shot in the head by two unknown assailants driving a motorcycle on June 19, 2016, according to media reports. Authorities found Ramos Zarate's body at a street crossing near a local restaurant at approximately 4:00 p.m. with a fatal gunshot wound in the neck. A 9-millimeter bullet case was found on the scene, which was located about a quarter of a mile (500 meters) from where local teachers unions were protesting, according to the editor of El Sur, Luciano Pacheco. Ramos Zarate was found with Raul Cano Lopez, the brother of the owner of Punto Critico , another regional newspaper. Cano Lopez was also killed in the attack, though it remains unclear whether he was targeted. The attack happened shortly after Ramos Zarate had finished reporting on several blockades and buses set on fire by protesters in the city of Juchitan. The teachers' union at the time had set up a series of blockades and protest marches across Oaxaca and other states to oppose changes to educational policy. In some places police forcibly dispersed the protesters. The day before the killing, masked men at the protest had threatened Ramos Zarate and other reporters, Pacheco told CPJ. A spokesperson for El Sur told the Mexican news website Animal Politico that the men threatened the reporters not to document acts of violence. Ramos Zarate, 45, was a crime reporter for El Sur and, according to Pacheco, had not previously been threatened for his work. "He had not received death threats in the normal line of duty. This was something, we believe, that happened in the moment, " Pacheco told CPJ. Pacheco said reporters of El Sur and other media regularly suffer harassment and violence during protest marches and other kinds of demonstrations. "During these marches they're regularly being pushed and shoved around, harassed, cursed at, threatened... their equipment is taken, " he told CPJ. "As a journalist, in this area and in these situations, you are extra exposed. We're not safe from anyone. Sometimes it's the protesters, other times the police, other times criminals, like now." Confrontations between protesters and security forces are a common occurrence in Oaxaca, an ethnically and culturally diverse state with a large indigenous population, widespread poverty, and myriad social conflicts, according to press reports. The Tehuantepec Isthmus, a region of tropical lowlands in the Oaxacan southeast where Juchitan is located, is often the stage for such clashes. Medium: Print Job: Print Reporter Beats Covered: Crime Gender: Male Local or Foreign: Local Freelance: No Type of Death: Murder Suspected Source of Fire: Unknown Fire Impunity: Yes Taken Captive: No Tortured: No Threatened: Yes Copyright notice: Committee to Protect Journalists. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced only with permission from CPJ. Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: El-Hadj Mohamed Diallo Publisher Committee to Protect Journalists Publication Date 31 December 2016 Cite as Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: El-Hadj Mohamed Diallo, 31 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e04764.html [accessed 4 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. El-Hadj Mohamed Diallo Guinee7, Afrik February 5, 2016, in Conakry, Guinea Diallo, a reporter for the news websites Guinee7 and Afrik , was shot in the chest during clashes outside a meeting of Guinea's main opposition party, the Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea, in the capital, Conakry, according to reports. He died on the way to the hospital. The reporter was shot during clashes at a political meeting he was covering. When the politician Oury Bah, who had recently been removed from his post as party vice-president, was denied entry to the party's headquarters, clashes erupted between his supporters and those of the current leader, Cellou Dalein Diallo, according to reports. Ibrahima Sory Traore, publication manager of the privately owned Guinee7, told reporters on February 5 that he had viewed the reporter's body. Traore said, "He was shot at point-blank range." It was not immediately clear who shot Diallo, Reuters said. Government spokesperson Damantang Albert Camara said the killing is being investigated as a "voluntary homicide, "according to reports. Guinea's Justice Minister Cheick Sako told reporters, "This crime will not go unpunished." Attempts by CPJ to call police in Conakry for comment in early February went unanswered. Diallo, who was married and had a young daughter, also contributed to the weekly L'Independant, according to reports. On February 8, 2016, hundreds of people marched in the capital, and nationwide the media held a "press-free" day to demand justice for Diallo, according to reports. A tribute to Diallo, published by his outlet Guinee7 on February 10, described the reporter's death a "huge loss for the Guinean press." According to media reports, 17 of the 20 people arrested in connection with the crime were freed by August 2016. Two were still detained, while a third died in state custody, the U. S.-government-funded Voice of America reported. Ibrahima Sory Traore, publication manager of the privately owned Guinee7, told CPJ on December 5, 2016, that five people were charged in connection with Diallo's murder. He said two of suspects were in custody, and that police had warrants for the arrest of three other suspects still at large. Medium: Internet Job: Internet Reporter Beats Covered: Politics Gender: Male Local or Foreign: Local Freelance: No Type of Death: Dangerous Assignment Suspected Source of Fire: Political Group Copyright notice: Committee to Protect Journalists. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced only with permission from CPJ. I am offering the solution to a problem most Republicans don't know they have -- that they can be outmaneuvered and thrown on the defensive endlessly, on nearly any issue, because they accept as true Democrat lies about the Republican Party. To correct that misperception and to help the Republican Party get 'back to basics' is why I'm a man on a mission. A few years ago, after one of my speeches, a man told me "Do you know what your problem is? You're too far ahead of your time!" My efforts to show Republicans how they would benefit from celebrating the heritage of our Grand Old Party have been arduous, but if this were easy someone else would have already done it. Among my speech topics are Reconciling the Tea Party and the GOP; Barack Obama, the Worst President Ever; Socialism, the new Slavery; Appreciating the Heritage of our Grand Old Party; Returning to the Founding Principles of the United States; The Womens Rights Achievements of our Grand Old Party; Abraham Lincoln, Republican; Frederick Douglass, Republican; Martin Luther King and the Republican Civil Rights Legacy. Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Awab al-Zubiry Publisher Committee to Protect Journalists Publication Date 31 December 2016 Cite as Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Awab al-Zubiry, 31 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e047726.html [accessed 4 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. Awab al-Zubiry November 18, 2016, in Taiz, Yemen Photojournalist Awab al-Zubiry was killed on November 18, 2016, while documenting destruction from fighting between pro-government and Houthi rebel forces in the city of Taiz, roughly 200 miles (322 kilometers) south of Sanaa, according to Taiz News Network, the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate, and news reports. Khaled al-Hammadi, the president of the Yemeni press freedom group Freedom Foundation, spoke to al-Zubiry's father, Tariq al-Zubiry, at the Committee to Protect Journalists' request. Al-Hammadi told CPJ that the journalist's father said al-Zubiry was a communications student at Taiz University and worked as a volunteer freelancer for several organizations, including Taiz News Network. Taiz News Network issued a statement on its Facebook page on November 18, 2016, mourning the death of their photojournalist while he documented the destruction of civilian homes. Taiz News Network covers events in Yemen with a focus on the city of Taiz through its social media platforms. As of December 2016, the network was followed by roughly 97, 000 people on Facebook, 20, 000 people on Twitter, and more than 1, 000 people on YouTube. Zakaria al-Sharabi, Taiz News Network's director, confirmed to CPJ that al-Zubiry was on assignment with the network at the time of his death. Al-Zubiry was active with various local youth photojournalism and production groups, according to al-Sharabi. Al-Zubiry's Facebook page listed him as working for A'alamy for Media Production, which produces video clips, films, and advertisements. According to Mustafa Nasser, the director of the Studies and Economic Media Center, a Yemeni think tank that releases a quarterly report on press freedom, eyewitness Hussam al-Qulaiah said that al-Zubiry was advancing towards a building when he noticed explosives. He raised the alarm to warn others not to enter the building, but the explosives detonated before he could distance himself. Taiz News Network said the detonation and collapse of the building were caused by explosives rigged by pro-Houthi forces. Video footage posted on Facebook by Taiz News Network on November 18 shows multiple people struggling to clear the rubble to retrieve al-Zubiry's remains as gunfire ricochets around them. Medium: Internet Job: Camera Operator, Photographer Beats Covered: Politics, War Gender: Male Local or Foreign: Local Freelance: Yes Type of Death: Crossfire/Combat-Related Suspected Source of Fire: Political Group Copyright notice: Committee to Protect Journalists. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced only with permission from CPJ. Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: David Gilkey Publisher Committee to Protect Journalists Publication Date 31 December 2016 Cite as Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: David Gilkey, 31 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e04773.html [accessed 4 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. David Gilkey National Public Radio June 5, 2016, in Marjah district, Helmand province, Afghanistan David Gilkey, 50, died when at least one rocket propelled grenade hit the Afghan Army vehicle in which he was travelling. His Afghan colleague, Zabihullah Tamanna, and the Afghan army driver of the vehicle were also killed. The journalists were on assignment for NPR at the time, the U. S. broadcaster said in its account of the deaths. They died on their first day of being embedded with the Afghan army. They were covering intense fighting between the Afghan military and Taliban fighters in and around Marjah, a Taliban stronghold that had once been taken by American forces. The NPR journalists were being escorted to cover the situation in Marjah when their convoy came under heavy fire. Two other NPR journalists traveling in a separate vehicle in the convoy were not injured. Gilkey was a highly experienced, award-winning photographer: In its reporting on his death, NPR said he had covered wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, the end of the apartheid regime in South Africa, an earthquake in Haiti, famine in Somalia, and the Ebola epidemic in Liberia. Medium: Radio, Internet Job: Photographer Beats Covered: Politics, War Gender: Male Local or Foreign: Foreign Freelance: No Type of Death: Crossfire/Combat-Related Suspected Source of Fire: Political Group Copyright notice: Committee to Protect Journalists. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced only with permission from CPJ. Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Almigdad Mojalli Publisher Committee to Protect Journalists Publication Date 31 December 2016 Cite as Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Almigdad Mojalli, 31 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e047813.html [accessed 4 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. Almigdad Mojalli Freelance January 17, 2016, in Hamam Jarif, Yemen Almigdad Mojalli, a Yemeni freelance journalist, was killed by a Saudi-led coalition airstrike outside the capital of Sanaa on the morning of January 17, 2016, while on assignment for Voice of America, the outlet reported. Mojalli reported for Voice of America, the international humanitarian news network IRIN, The Telegraph, and others on the devastating humanitarian toll that the conflict in Yemen has taken upon ordinary civilians. Mojalli, 34, also frequently assisted international journalists in covering the conflict as a fixer and source of information. According to IRIN, Mojalli considered fleeing Yemen multiple times but decided to stay to continue his work documenting the conflict. More than 5, 800 people died in the fighting since the start of the conflict in March 2015 and Mojalli's death, according to the Associated Press. Bahir al-Sharabi, a Yemeni journalist working for the Yemen Digital Media production company, told CPJ he traveled with Mojalli on the morning of January 17 along with a driver and a local resident to cover the effects of recent Saudi-led airstrikes in the Hamam Jarif area, about 25 miles south of the capital, Sanaa. According to The New York Times, at least 15 civilians had been killed in airstrikes there the previous week. Al-Sharabi told CPJ that they arrived to the scene around 9 a.m. After about 15 or 20 minutes, they were unexpectedly caught in a Saudi-led coalition airstrike. An explosion knocked Al-Sharabi unconscious. When he came to his senses, Al-Sharabi said, he found Mojalli seriously injured nearby. Al-Sharabi and others, many of them injured themselves, loaded their colleague into the car and tried to find medical assistance, but Mojalli died before they could find help. Al-Sharabi, who suffered light injuries, told CPJ he did not think he and Mojalli were directly targeted by the Saudi coalition airstrikes, and he was not sure if there were any military targets in the area when the airstrike hit. He said their car was not marked as a press vehicle, and nothing on their clothing identified them as press. Mohammed al-Asaadi, a communications specialist with UNICEF, told CPJ Mojalli had been scheduled to interview a UNICEF official that afternoon about the impact of the conflict on the education system in the country. Al-Asaadi said Mojalli's work "informed the world about the forgotten people" in Yemen, adding he worked as a fixer for a UNICEF film about marginalized communities in the country. Al-Asaadi, who is also the former editor-in-chief of the English-language Yemen Observer, also said Mojalli had previously worked for the newspaper. At the time of Mojalli's death, at least four other journalists had been killed in airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition since its military campaign against Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthis, and their allies began in the spring of 2015, according to CPJ research. In 2015, Mojalli told CPJ he was facing increased harassment from Ansar Allah and that he feared the group would detain him in retaliation for his reporting. Medium: Print, Internet Job: Broadcast Reporter, Print Reporter Beats Covered: Culture, Human Rights, Politics, War Gender: Male Local or Foreign: Local Freelance: Yes Type of Death: Crossfire/Combat-Related Suspected Source of Fire: Military Officials Copyright notice: Committee to Protect Journalists. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced only with permission from CPJ. Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Ali Mahmud Publisher Committee to Protect Journalists Publication Date 31 December 2016 Cite as Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Ali Mahmud, 31 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e047a13.html [accessed 4 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. Ali Mahmud Al-Ghadeer TV July 13, 2016, in Qayyarah, Nineveh province, Iraq Al-Ghadeer TV cameraman Ali Mahmud, also known as Ali Senaeh, was killed on July 13, 2016, while covering clashes between pro-government forces and Islamic State militants south of Mosul, the station reported. Two journalists for the state-run Al-Iraqiya television station, correspondent Ali Jawad and producer Ali Muftin, were also injured in the incident, according to Al-Ghadeer TV, Al-Iraqiya, and Agence France-Presse. In a commemorative documentary by Al-Ghadeer TV, Jawad and Muftin said the three journalists were accompanying pro-government forces attempting to recapture the Islamic State-controlled Qayyarah area south of Mosul. They said that Islamic State militants suddenly attacked the convoy with chlorine explosives. CPJ could not independently confirm the claim, although the Islamic State group has attacked with chlorine previously, according to news reports citing doctors and Iraqi officials. The troops and journalists pushed to higher ground to avoid the chemical clouds from the chlorine attack but then began to receive heavy fire, the journalists said in the documentary. Mahmud and Muftin took cover behind armored Humvees but continued to receive direct fire. Footage from the documentary shows Mahmud filming without protective gear under heavy fire between two armored vehicles. Mahmud ducks behind the vehicle in front as a bullet strikes the windshield of the vehicle behind. Muftin and Mahmud were far behind Jawad's position and without the ability to move forward. Jawad said that as he arrived with a Humvee to retrieve the other two journalists, a heat-seeking missile detonated nearby, resulting in Mahmud's death. According to the Al-Hurra television station, Jawad suffered broken bones and shrapnel wounds and Muftin suffered less severe injuries due to the explosion. According to Al-Iraqiya footage, the severely wounded journalist, Jawad, recovered and was once again reporting less than three months after sustaining his injuries. Muhannad al-Aqabi, the head of the media office for pro-government paramilitary forces, confirmed that a heat-seeking missile killed Al-Ghadeer TV's Mahmud and injured Al-Iraqiya's Jawad and Muftin, according to Agence France-Presse. Al-Ghadeer TV is closely affiliated with the Badr Organization, a Shia political party and paramilitary force fighting alongside the Iraqi government. Footage in the Al-Ghadeer TV documentary shows Mahmud pointing out enemy fighters seen through his zoomed camera lens to the pro-government forces with which he was embedded. There were also several photographs of Mahmud in fatigues and body armor carrying rifles and his camera simultaneously. Ali Muftin told CPJ that Mahmud was killed while on assignment with Al-Ghadeer TV, and confirmed that the specific combat footage from that commemorative documentary was from the day of Mahmud's death. Muftin told CPJ that Mahmud would point out enemy fighters to the pro-government forces with which he was embedded, including at night with his night-vision camera capabilities. He said that Mahmud only carried a weapon for self-defense, that the photos in the documentary were posed, and that Mahmud never fired a shot. Muftin praised Mahmud's journalistic courage, saying he covered Islamic State car bombs, even as they barreled toward the journalist. Mahmud was in his late twenties, married, and had one young daughter, Muftin said. The battle for Qayyarah in which Mahmud was killed was part of operations in preparation for the campaign to retake the city of Mosul, the Islamic State group's stronghold in Iraq. Three months after Mahmud's death in Qayyarah, the Iraqi government formally commenced the military campaign to retake Mosul, according to The Associated Press. Medium: Television Job: Camera Operator Beats Covered: War Gender: Male Local or Foreign: Local Freelance: No Type of Death: Crossfire/Combat-Related Suspected Source of Fire: Political Group Copyright notice: Committee to Protect Journalists. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced only with permission from CPJ. Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Ahmet Haceroglu Publisher Committee to Protect Journalists Publication Date 31 December 2016 Cite as Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Ahmet Haceroglu, 31 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e047b13.html [accessed 4 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. Ahmet Haceroglu Turkmeneli TV October 21, 2016, in Kirkuk, Iraq Ahmet Haceroglu, of Turkmeneli TV, was killed on October 21, 2016, by a gunshot wound to the chest while covering fighting between Kurdish security forces and Islamic State militants in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, roughly 175 kilometers (108 miles) south of Mosul, a police colonel in Kirkuk told Agence-France Presse. The journalist's news outlet and police said the shot was fired by a sniper from the Islamic State group. The station identified Haceroglu as a manager from the satellite channel's news division. A Turkmeneli TV employee, responding to CPJ's inquiries via the station's Facebook account, confirmed Haceroglu died while covering fighting that erupted this morning when Islamic State militants launched a series of attacks in Kirkuk. The employee did not identify himself or immediately respond to additional questions. The head of correspondents for the station, Sami Beirakdar, told the website Al-Sumaria News that Haceroglu was killed while attempting to return home from assignment. Turkmeneli TV is headquartered in Kirkuk, home to many of Iraq's Turkmen minority. On the morning Haceroglu was killed, the city came under attack by militants from the Islamic State group. At least 80 people were killed after almost two days of fighting to clear the city of Islamic State militants, Kirkuk police Brigadier General Khattab Omer said, according to the Associated Press. In the same week Haceroglu was killed, at least one other journalist was killed and nine others injured covering the fight against Islamic State in Iraq, according to CPJ research. Medium: Television Job: Producer Beats Covered: Politics, War Gender: Male Local or Foreign: Local Freelance: No Type of Death: Crossfire/Combat-Related Suspected Source of Fire: Political Group Copyright notice: Committee to Protect Journalists. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced only with permission from CPJ. Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Ahmed al-Shaibani Publisher Committee to Protect Journalists Publication Date 31 December 2016 Cite as Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Ahmed al-Shaibani, 31 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e047c105.html [accessed 4 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. Ahmed al-Shaibani Yaman News, Yemen TV February 16, 2016, in Taiz, Yemen Al-Shaibani was shot in the central Yemeni city of Taiz on February 16, 2016, according to his colleagues and employers. Al-Shaibani, a Yemeni journalist working for the independent Yaman News website and state-run Yemen TV, was fatally shot in the head by gunmen belonging to the Houthi rebel alliance while reporting on the shelling of a factory in Taiz, both his employers reported. A graphic video published by the Yemen Shabab television channel on February 16 shows al-Shaibani and three other individuals in civilian clothes running across a street in a neighborhood badly damaged by fighting. Al-Shaibani, who is not wearing clothing identifying him as a journalist, can be seen running, clutching a satchel, when he suddenly falls to the ground with a gunshot wound to the head. Later, two men in military clothing attempt to pull al-Shaibani off the street, but they also come under fire. Residents of Taiz have endured a months-long siege as a patchwork of pro-government and Islamist groups resist attempts to take the city by fighters belonging to Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthis, and forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh. A month before al-Shaibani's death, a crew working for Al-Jazeera in the city were abducted for several days by unknown gunmen before being released. Ahmed al-Basha, a Yemeni photographer who contributes to Agence France-Presse, told CPJ that he, al-Shaibani and a group of other journalists had gone to Al-Hasab neighborhood of western Taiz to report on a fire in a plastics factory that had been hit by a shell believed to be from pro-Houthi fighters. Al-Basha stayed behind with some of the journalists, as others, including al-Shaibani, left the factory site. As al-Basha returned from the factory, he photographed a puddle of blood in the street shown in the Yemen Shabab video, only to find out later the blood was al-Shaibani's. Al-Basha told CPJ that what he believed to be pro-Houthi gunmen purposefully targeted the journalists, saying that he too had come under fire crossing that street as he returned from the factory. In a report filed two days before the killing, Sky News Arabic correspondent Mohammed al-Qadhi said that Houthi forces had deployed snipers on the street. Al-Basha told CPJ that all the journalists who went to the factory had to cross the same street, including another Yemen TV journalist, Ahmed al-Bokari. Al-Bokari wrote on his Facebook page that he crossed the street first and was waiting on the other side as al-Shaibani attempted to cross. After al-Shaibani was hit, two anti-Houthi fighters were able to retrieve him under fire and transport him to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Al-Shaibani's most recent reports for the website Yaman News were about the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Taiz and attempts to distribute humanitarian assistance. The administrator of the general email account for Yemen TV, who did not identify himself by name, told CPJ in an email that al-Shaibani was on his first assignment for the station the day he was killed. After Houthi forces took control of the capital of Sanaa in September 2014, they commandeered government institutions, including Yemen TV and other state media outlets. Yemen's internationally recognized government in exile in 2015 set up a rival station, also named Yemen TV, for which al-Shaibani worked, according to news reports. Regional satellite broadcasters Nilesat and Arabsat removed the Houthi-controlled stations from their transmissions in favor of the station run by the government recognized by regional governments. Medium: Television, Internet Job: Camera Operator, Photographer, Internet Reporter Beats Covered: War Gender: Male Local or Foreign: Local Freelance: Yes Type of Death: Crossfire/Combat-Related Suspected Source of Fire: Political Group Copyright notice: Committee to Protect Journalists. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced only with permission from CPJ. Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Ahmad Hallak Publisher Committee to Protect Journalists Publication Date 31 December 2016 Cite as Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Ahmad Hallak, 31 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e047d3d.html [accessed 4 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. Ahmad Hallak Al-Buraq Media Institution August 2, 2016, in Aleppo, Syria Ahmad Hallak, a correspondent with Al-Buraq Media Institution, was killed in an airstrike on the western outskirts of Aleppo on August 2, 2016, while he was on his way to cover fighting in the east of the city, Seraj al-Deen al-Omar, the director of outlet, told the Committee to Protect Journalists. Al-Omar said that Hallak, who was also known as Ahmad Abou al-Baraa, was on his way to cover fighting in eastern Aleppo when he was caught in the airstrike. Al-Omar said he could not confirm the source of the airstrikes, but said he believed the planes to have been Russian. Neither the Syrian military nor its Russian backers have claimed responsibility. Al-Buraq Media is a pro-opposition Syrian news website founded in June 2015 to report on the conflict via their website, Facebook, and YouTube. Various Syrian news outlets reported Hallak's death and identified him as a journalist for Al-Buraq Media Institution. In its monthly report on attacks on the media, the Syrian Network for Human Rights said that Hallak worked for both Al-Buraq Media and as a photographer for Sham Legion, an armed rebel group. Al-Omar told CPJ that this was incorrect, and that Hallak had not worked for the Sham Legion. He said that Hallak would sometimes embed with the group on the battlefield to carry out his reporting for Al-Buraq Media. The director of Sham Legion's media office, who uses the pseudonym Abu Omar for security reasons, also confirmed to CPJ that Hallak was not a member of the armed group but died while embedded with the group's fighters. Al-Omar, the head of Al-Buraq Media, said Hallak often covered fighting in Aleppo and carried out interviews for the outlet. One video he shared with CPJ shows Hallak reporting the aftermath of airstrikes on the Kafr Hamra hospital in July 2016 for the station, and interviewing a doctor on site. On August 1, 2016, Al-Jazeera reported rebel advances in eastern and western Aleppo, amid intense fighting between rebel groups and government forces. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights likewise reported fighting between rebel groups and government forces, as well as shelling and airstrikes by the Russian and Syrian forces southwest of Aleppo city. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimates that at least 40 people, including 22 civilians, were killed in government-controlled areas of Aleppo over the course of August 2-3, 2016. Medium: Internet Job: Photographer, Internet Reporter Beats Covered: War Gender: Male Local or Foreign: Local Freelance: No Type of Death: Crossfire/Combat-Related Suspected Source of Fire: Military Officials Copyright notice: Committee to Protect Journalists. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced only with permission from CPJ. Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Abdullah Mohammad Ghannam Publisher Committee to Protect Journalists Publication Date 31 December 2016 Cite as Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Abdullah Mohammad Ghannam, 31 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e047e13.html [accessed 4 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. Abdullah Mohammad Ghannam Shahba Press Agency July 14, 2016, in Kafr Hamra, Aleppo, Syria Abdullah Mohammad Ghannam, a correspondent for Shahba Press Agency, was killed by an airstrike on a hospital in Kafr Hamra, on Aleppo's northern outskirts, on July 14, 2016, while filming the aftermath of a previous airstrike, Mamoun al-Khatib, the director of Shahba Press Agency, told the Committee to Protect Journalists. Al-Khatib confirmed that Ghannam was in the Kafr Hamra hospital filming the aftermath of the airstrikes when a second airstrike hit the hospital. Al-Khatib told the Syrian Network for Human Rights, an independent human rights organization, that Ghannam was severely injured from the second strike and suffered from fractured bones and internal bleeding. He was rushed to hospital but succumbed to his injuries and died within an hour. According to the Syrian American Medical Society, a humanitarian organization providing healthcare in Syria, the hospital was completely destroyed, five medical personnel were killed, and four medical staff and a number of patients were injured by the airstrikes in Kafr Hamra on that day. Local reports also said several civilians, including medical staff, were killed in the strikes. Al-Khatib shared with CPJ some samples of Ghannam's work for the Shahba Press Agency, saying he often filmed on-site interviews and covered the aftermath of bombings. On the day of his death, Ghannam had reported that there was severe shelling in the Hraytan neighborhood north of Aleppo, close to Kafr Hamra. "He was our main correspondent covering all the events in the [area], " Al-Khatib said. The Shahba Press Agency, and the Violations Documentation Center in Syria both accused Russia of carrying out the airstrikes on Kafr Hamra hospital. The Russian Defense Ministry has not responded to a request for comment CPJ sent by email on October 6, 2016. This is the second death of a Shahba Press Agency correspondent. In October 2015, CPJ reported the death of Jomaa al-Ahmad who was killed by an airstrike in Hayan, Aleppo province, while filming for the outlet. On its website, Shahba Press Agency commemorated Ghannam's dedication to documenting the war. Shahba press agency was established in 2013 in Aleppo and describes itself as a neutral news agency, run by Syrian journalists, and unaffiliated with any government or political party. Ghannam was one of the founding members of the Shahba Press Agency in early 2013, al-Khatib said. Medium: Internet Job: Photographer, Internet Reporter Beats Covered: Human Rights, War Gender: Male Local or Foreign: Local Freelance: No Type of Death: Crossfire/Combat-Related Suspected Source of Fire: Military Officials Copyright notice: Committee to Protect Journalists. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced only with permission from CPJ. Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Abdul Salam Kanaan Publisher Committee to Protect Journalists Publication Date 31 December 2016 Cite as Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Abdul Salam Kanaan, 31 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e047f13.html [accessed 4 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. Abdul Salam Kanaan Al-Jisr TV October 31, 2016, in Zafraneh, Syria Abdul Salam Kanaan, a photographer for the Syrian satellite channel Al-Jisr TV, was killed on October 31, 2016, while recording video of Syrian military airstrikes on the village of Zafraneh, north of Homs, the channel and the local press freedom group the Syrian Center for Journalistic Freedoms (SCJF) reported. Al-Jisr on October 31 published a graphic video to its YouTube channel purportedly showing the moment Kanaan's body was recovered. The video shows medics rushing to a destroyed building and removing what appears to be Kanaan's corpse out of the rubble to a nearby vehicle. The videographer can be heard calling Kanaan's first name. Al-Jisr's Homs correspondent, Anas Abu Adnan, who worked with Kanaan in reporting on the area for years, was present at the time of the air strike and survived. He told the station that Kanaan filmed Syrian military planes firing missiles at the village from his home. A second strike directly hit his home and destroyed it. Kanaan was hit in the back of the head by shrapnel and died instantly, but several members of his family and neighbors were injured, Abu Adnan said. Kanaan was an activist and a fighter with the Syrian opposition before he started working for Al-Jisr TV in April 2014, the station said in a YouTube video commemorating the journalist. He was arrested in 2007 and spent three years in jail for writing poetry opposing former Syrian president Hafiz Al-Assad, who in 1982 killed thousands of people putting down a Muslim Brotherhood rebellion in the nearby town of Hama. Kanaan joined mass protests against the Syrian government in 2011 and, after the government used lethal force in an attempt to quell the uprising, joined the armed opposition in 2012, Al-Jisr reported. Following Kanaan's death, his brother, Mohamed, published a photograph of the journalist posing with a gun on his personal Facebook page. A friend also used the photograph of Kanaan posing with a gun in a video obituary published on YouTube on November 2. Abu Adnan told the Committee to Protect Journalists that Kanaan had stopped fighting, and that over the course of the two years Kanaan had worked with Al-Jisr TV, Abu Adnan had never seen him carry a gun. SCJF, which is part of the Syrian Journalists' Association, and local news sources said Kanaan moved to Zafraneh village in 2013 after a Syrian army offensive in Homs forced many residents of surrounding villages to flee. Al-Jisr TV, founded in 2012, focuses on Syrian and regional news. The Egyptian satellite company NileSat broadcasts its signal. Kanaan was survived by his wife. Medium: Television Job: Broadcast Reporter Beats Covered: War Gender: Male Local or Foreign: Local Freelance: No Type of Death: Crossfire/Combat-Related Suspected Source of Fire: Military Officials Copyright notice: Committee to Protect Journalists. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced only with permission from CPJ. Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Abdiaziz Ali Publisher Committee to Protect Journalists Publication Date 31 December 2016 Cite as Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Abdiaziz Ali, 31 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e0480115.html [accessed 4 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. Abdiaziz Ali Radio Shabelle September 27, 2016, in Mogadishu, Somalia Abdiaziz Ali, a journalist for the Somali station Radio Shabelle, was walking home at around 6:10 p.m. on September 27, 2016, after visiting his parents in the Yaqshid district of Mogadishu, when two men on motorbikes pulled over and shot him several times, killing him, the BBC reported. A former colleague of Abdiaziz's at the Shabelle Media Network told CPJ that the journalist had taken the day off to visit his relatives. He said that Abdiaziz's most recent work was a series of radio programs about the plight of the tens of thousands of Somalis forced to flee their homes in the long conflict with the militant group Al-Shabaab. The 30-year-old hosted a morning talk show that often featured various topics, including corruption and the government's efforts to confront Al-Shabaab. Somali authorities have repeatedly shut down Radio Shabelle and arrested its staff, and its journalists have repeatedly been targeted and killed, CPJ research shows. Abdiaziz was newly married, his colleague said, and had no children. Medium: Radio Job: Broadcast Reporter Beats Covered: Corruption, Human Rights, War Gender: Male Local or Foreign: Local Freelance: No Type of Death: Murder Suspected Source of Fire: Political Group Impunity: Yes Taken Captive: No Copyright notice: Committee to Protect Journalists. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced only with permission from CPJ. Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Abdelqadir Fassouk Publisher Committee to Protect Journalists Publication Date 31 December 2016 Cite as Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Killed in 2016 - Motive Confirmed: Abdelqadir Fassouk, 31 December 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e048113.html [accessed 4 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. Abdelqadir Fassouk Arraed Satellite TV July 21, 2016, in Sirte, Libya Arraed television correspondent and Libyan photojournalist Abdelqadir Fassouk was fatally shot on July 21, 2016, while covering a battle between government-allied forces and the Islamic State militant group, in the Ouagadougou neighborhood of the outskirts of the coastal city of Sirte, Arraed reported. Fayez Swiry, a supervising news editor with Arraed channel, a satellite news channel based in Istanbul, told the Committee to Protect Journalists that Fassouk was on an assignment with the station, covering fighting between forces loyal to Libya's unity government and the Islamic State group when he was shot. He added that medical staff who saw Fassouk's body and Brazilian photojournalist Andre Liohn, who was with Fassouk at the time of his death, told the station that Fassouk had been shot by a sniper. Liohn told CPJ that he was covering the clashes with Fassouk, and that the two had worked alongside each other covering Libya since 2011. He told CPJ that he and Fassouk were trapped by constant fire from fighters loyal to the Islamic State group. When they tried to take cover behind a car, a sniper shot Fassouk in the head. Liohn on July 22, 2016, published short video showing Fassouk on the frontlines, photographing a young fighter allied with the government firing a rocket-propelled grenade at Islamic State group positions. He later told the story of Fassouk's killing to the Brazilian newspaper Folha, in a video that was published on the newspaper's YouTube channel on July 24. Arraed channel published several video reports by Fassouk in the days following his death, saying that he was committed to obtaining exclusive footage from the front, even at the risk of his life. "His motive was always (finding) the truth and nothing more. He was our first source for information and verification, " his colleague, Yasin Khattab, said in an interview published on the broadcaster's YouTube channel on July 22. In a statement issued on its website on July 22, the local press freedom group Libyan Center for Freedom of the Press said that Fassouk had spoken with researchers from the group the day before he was killed. In that conversation, Fassouk emphasized that journalists covering the war against the Islamic State group face serious risks, including a lack of safety equipment, and that journalists had been repeatedly trapped in the fighting. Fassouk was the second Libyan photojournalist to be killed in conflict in a month. Freelance photojournalist Khaled al-Zintani was fatally shot while covering clashes on June 24 in Benghazi. Fassouk had worked as a photojournalist since the 2011 Libyan uprising. His work appeared in The Associated Press and Time magazine. Medium: Print, Television Job: Camera Operator, Photographer Beats Covered: War Gender: Male Local or Foreign: Local Freelance: No Type of Death: Crossfire/Combat-Related Suspected Source of Fire: Political Group Copyright notice: Committee to Protect Journalists. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced only with permission from CPJ. Iran's authorities must stop toying with life of activist on hunger strike Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 3 January 2017 Reference MDE 13/5414/2017 Cite as Amnesty International, Iran's authorities must stop toying with life of activist on hunger strike, 3 January 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e07124.html [accessed 4 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 Iranian authorities are putting the life of imprisoned human rights defender Arash Sadeghi at grave risk and should release him and his wife, Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee without further delay, Amnesty International said today. Over two months into his ongoing hunger strike, Arash Sadeghi remains jailed in Tehran's Evin Prison, with reports indicating that he is vomiting blood and experiencing severe respiratory, heart, kidney and gastrointestinal problems. Pending Arash Sadeghi's release, the authorities must ensure that he receives access to specialized health care in a hospital outside prison, in compliance with medical ethics, including the principles of confidentiality, autonomy and informed consent. After weeks of inaction and following global public pressure, the Iranian authorities promised on Saturday 31 December 2016 that they would grant the couple temporary leave from prison if property bonds worth 10 billion rials (US$300,000) and 5 billion rials (US$150,000) were secured for Arash Sadeghi and Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee respectively. The couple's lawyer announced on Sunday 1 January 2017 that the property bond for Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee had been provided. However, the authorities have said that her release is likely to be delayed until Tuesday due to bureaucratic processes involving assessments of the property in question. Arash Sadeghi has said that he will not end his hunger strike until his wife is let out. Unjustly detained himself for his peaceful human rights work, Arash Sadeghi has been on hunger strike since 24 October 2016 to protest against the imprisonment of his wife, Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee. She is a human rights defender and writer jailed for writing a story against stoning. Amnesty International considers both Arash Sadeghi and Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee to be prisoners of conscience who should be released immediately and unconditionally. Amnesty International is disturbed that instead of ordering the immediate and unconditional release of this activist couple, Iran's judicial authorities have chosen to treat them like serious criminals, imposing extortionate bail conditions. The authorities are well aware that even a delay of a few hours can mean the difference between life and death for Arash Sadeghi. Hunger strike crisis highlights plight of political prisoners In recent weeks, a hunger strike crisis in the country's prisons has brought into sharp focus the callous nature of Iran's criminal justice system. Multiple political prisoners, including prisoners of conscience, have felt compelled to resort to hunger strike because they see little hope of legally challenging their unjust imprisonment. In solidarity, hundreds of people in Iran and around the world have taken to social media to express outrage at the refusal by Iranian authorities to address the legitimate grievances of prisoners who are in poor health due to prolonged hunger strikes. Among the prisoners other than Arash Sadeghi whose health hangs in the balance is Ali Shariati. He has been on hunger strike since 31 October 2016 to demand his freedom. He is serving a five-year prison sentence imposed on him for his peaceful activism, including his participation in a peaceful protest to condemn acid attacks against women in Iran. Amnesty International considers him a prisoner of conscience. Other political prisoners currently on hunger strike include prisoner of conscience and children's rights activist Saeed Shirzad, dissident cleric Mohammad Reza Nekounam, Turkish-Iranian national Hassan Rastegari Majd. As of 31 December, online activist Mehdi Koukhian and Lebanese IT expert Nizar Zakka were also believed to be on hunger strike but information about their latest situation is not available. Copyright notice: Copyright Amnesty International Brazil: Regain Control of Prison System Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 4 January 2017 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Brazil: Regain Control of Prison System, 4 January 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e09294.html [accessed 4 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. Brazil needs to seize control of its prison system from gangs and guarantee the safety of all detainees, Human Rights Watch said today. "During the past several decades, Brazilian authorities have increasingly abdicated their responsibility to maintain order and security in prisons," said Maria Laura Canineu, Brazil director at Human Rights Watch. "That failure violates the rights of prisoners and is a boon to gangs, who use prisons as recruiting grounds." On January 1 and 2, 2017, 60 detainees died in two prisons in the state of Amazonas, allegedly as a result of gang violence. Another 22 were killed in prisons in Roraima, Rondonia, and Acre in October 2016. Under Brazilian as well as international human rights law, Brazil's government is obligated to protect prisoners from violence and abuse behind bars. Prisoners in Brazil are three times as likely to be homicide victims as members of the general population, according to the Ministry of Justice. The country's prisons, built to hold about 372,000 people, held more than 622,000 in 2014, the last year for which official data exists. Overcrowding and understaffing make it impossible for prison authorities to maintain control within many facilities, leaving inmates vulnerable to violence and gang activity, as Human Rights Watch documented in the states of Pernambuco and Maranhao. The National Council of Criminal and Prison Policy determined in 2009 that prisons should have at least one guard for every 5 detainees. But that standard goes unmet in most states. The ratio of guards to inmates in Amazonas prisons was only one to almost 10 in 2014. In some prisons Human Rights Watch visited, guards only patrol the outside perimeter and some prison grounds and do not enter cellblocks. Brazil's prison population increased 85 percent from 2004 to 2014. Forty percent of inmates are awaiting trial, and many are housed alongside convicted prisoners, in contravention of human rights principles and Brazilian law. Brazil should reduce overcrowding by bringing timely justice to every person arrested. Judges should also make wider use of alternatives to prison both before trial and in sentencing, as allowed by Brazilian law. Brazil also needs to reform its approach to drugs. The current policy of criminalizing drug use, production, and distribution has fueled the growth of criminal organizations. It has also filled prisons with people detained for possession of small quantities of drugs, who become vulnerable, while incarcerated, to recruitment by gangs. "Detainees often join gangs to protect their lives behind bars and remain affiliated after release," Canineu said. "As long as the state fails to guarantee the safety of all detainees, gangs will continue to grow, endangering security both inside and outside the prison walls." Copyright notice: Copyright, Human Rights Watch Welcoming DR Congo political accord, UN Security Council urges efforts to resolve remaining issues Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 4 January 2017 Cite as UN News Service, Welcoming DR Congo political accord, UN Security Council urges efforts to resolve remaining issues, 4 January 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e0b4740c.html [accessed 4 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. 4 January 2017 - The United Nations Security Council today welcomed a comprehensive political agreement in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and called on all stakeholders to continue to exercise flexibility and compromise in their discussions to swiftly resolve all pending issues, particularly those related to the holding of elections in the country within 2017. "The Security Council is encouraged by the spirit of flexibility and compromise demonstrated by Congolese political leaders in reaching this agreement, for the stability, peace, development and consolidation of constitutional democracy in the DRC," said a Presidential Statement read out at a formal meeting of the 15-member body today. In the Statement, the Council also urged all political parties which didn't sign the agreement to do so. The agreement - facilitated by Conference Episcopale Nationale du Congo (CENCO) mediators, and reached in DRC's capital, Kinshasa, on 31 December 2016 - represents a significant step towards a peacefully managed transition consistent with the democratic principles enshrined in the country's Constitution. This new agreement followed an initial political agreement between part of the opposition and the majorite presidentielle reached in October under the auspices of the African Union facilitation. Also by the Presidential Statement, the Council expressed hope for a swift implementation of the agreement in order to organise peaceful, credible, inclusive and timely presidential, national and provincial legislative elections no later than December 2017, as well as leading to a peaceful transfer of power. "The Security Council stresses the importance for the Government of the DRC and its national partners to take all necessary steps to accelerate preparations for the elections without further delays, within the agreed timeframe," added the Statement in which the Council also stressed the importance of the inclusion of women in the follow up and implementation of the agreement. UN-backed aid plan requires $310 million for crisis-affected communities in Cameroon Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 4 January 2017 Cite as UN News Service, UN-backed aid plan requires $310 million for crisis-affected communities in Cameroon, 4 January 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e0ba740d.html [accessed 4 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. 4 January 2017 - A $310 million humanitarian response plan, backed by the United Nations, has been launched to provide life-saving assistance to 1.2 million people in Cameroon's northern and eastern regions. "Cameroon continues to confront a complex crisis deeply affecting the lives and livelihoods of millions of people," said UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, Najat Rochdi, in a press release issued today by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). "The Government and people of Cameroon are showing great hospitality to hundreds of thousands of Nigerian and Central African refugees. We call for the renewed engagement of humanitarian partners and international donors to match this generosity and assist the people most in need," she added. Cameroon hosts some 360,000 refugees from neighbouring Central African Republic and Nigeria, and the number of internally displaced people has more than doubled in 2016 to almost 200,000 people. Malnutrition remains equally high, affecting some 200,000 children. In 2017, almost three million people in Cameroon are expected to be in need of assistance. Around 2.6 million will face crisis and emergency levels of food insecurity, mostly in the arid Sahel belt of the northern regions. The 2017 response plan, launched by the Government of Cameroon with the United Nations and humanitarian organizations, covers the immediate needs of the most vulnerable and emphasises complementary action and cooperation with government and development partners. Over the last three years, humanitarian needs and financial requirement in Cameroon have steadily increased leading to a significant scale up of response capacity and number of partners. Budget constraints however caused significant gaps across all sectors. In 2016, only 64 per cent of the required $232 million was funded. Two UN peacekeepers killed, two injured in ambush in Central African Republic Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 4 January 2017 Cite as UN News Service, Two UN peacekeepers killed, two injured in ambush in Central African Republic, 4 January 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e11b740c.html [accessed 4 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. 4 January 2017 - The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic (CAR) today condemned a deadly ambush on a convoy in the south-eastern part of the country which killed two blue helmets from Morocco and wounded two others. "No claim can justify that individuals direct their grievances against peacekeepers whose presence [here] has no other objective than to help the country to end this cycle of violence," warned the Special Representative of the Secretary-General in the country, Parfait Onanga-Anyanga. In a statement, Mr. Onanga-Anyanga, who is also the head of UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in CAR, known by its French acronym MINUSCA, added that "every effort" will be made to track down those responsible and bring them to justice. An attack on a peacekeeper may constitute a war crime. According to MINUSCA, the attack took place about 60 km (37 miles) west of Obo. The convoy was heading to the city with fuel picked up at Zemio when unknown insurgents surprised them, killed two peacekeepers, and then escaped into the bush. Speaking to UN News from Bangui, MINUSCA's spokesperson, Vladimir Monteiro, said the two injured peacekeepers are receiving treatment, one of them for severe injuries. Gambia: Arrests, media closures as deadline nears Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 5 January 2017 Cite as Amnesty International, Gambia: Arrests, media closures as deadline nears , 5 January 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e62304.html [accessed 4 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 government of President Yahya Jammeh, defeated in Gambia's December presidential election, has arbitrarily arrested opposition sympathizers and closed three independent radio stations in the past week, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said today. Jammeh is required under Gambia's constitution to cede power to president-elect Adama Barrow by January 19, 2017. Since December 31, intelligence agents have arrested and briefly detained at least six people for wearing or selling t-shirts bearing the logo of the #Gambiahasdecided movement, which has called for Jammeh to respect the election results and step down. Several senior members of the movement have fled Gambia after receiving credible threats from alleged National Intelligence Agency (NIA) officers. Since December 31, intelligence agents have arrested and briefly detained at least six people for wearing or selling t-shirts bearing the logo of the #Gambiahasdecided movement, which has called for Jammeh to respect the election results and step down. Several senior members of the movement have fled Gambia after receiving credible threats from alleged National Intelligence Agency (NIA) officers. On January 1, intelligence agents forcibly closed three private radio stations, depriving Gambians of independent sources of information during this critical period. "The targeting of the #Gambiahasdecided movement and the closure of private radio stations threaten the rights of Gambians to express their opposition to Jammeh's attempt to stay in power," said Jim Wormington, West Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. "It's at times like this that free expression is most crucial." Jammeh publicly conceded defeat the day after the December 1 election, but then rejected the results on December 9, criticizing what he called the "treacherous" Independent Election Commission (IEC) for its lack of independence. Gambian security forces on December 13 evicted Alieu Momarr Njai, the commission chairman, and his staff from their headquarters. Njai subsequently told Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International that he feared for his safety, and on December 30 he left Gambia to seek refuge abroad. Jammeh's party, the Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC), on December 13 filed a challenge to the election results in the Supreme Court. Because the Supreme Court has no permanent associate judges, and so hearing the case would require Jammeh to appoint new justices, the Gambian Bar Association has said this appeal is "fundamentally tainted." Jammeh's refusal to accept the election results has been widely condemned internationally, including by the United Nations Security Council, the African Union, and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). On December 17, ECOWAS said that when Jammeh's term ends on January 19, Barrow "must be sworn in" and promised to "take all necessary actions" to enforce the election results. Sources in Gambia described to Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International how intelligence agents detained two men, Alpha Sey and Muhammed Kuyateh, wearing #Gambiahasdecided t-shirts on the evening of December 31. One witness said five men in civilian clothes forced Sey into a white pickup truck. "They asked to have a word with him and, after a brief conversation, they just pushed him into the car," the witness said. "Sey was the only one wearing a #Gambiahasdecided t-shirt, and I heard him say, 'There's no need for me to get in the car, I can just take it off.' But they forced him in anyway." Another witness described how on December 31 men in civilian clothes forced Kuyateh into a vehicle in Bakoteh, a suburb of Banjul, apparently for wearing a #Gambiahasdecided t-shirt. Kuyateh and Sey were held incommunicado at NIA headquarters, then released on bail on January 3. Intelligence officers detained three store managers selling #Gambiahasdecided merchandise in the Westfield area of Serrekunda on the evening of December 31. Ebrima Sambou, Mamie Serreh, and Isatou Jallow told Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International that the intelligence officers came to their shops and confiscated t-shirts and other materials featuring the text #Gambiahasdecided or graphics supportive of president-elect Barrow or the opposition coalition. They were then taken to the intelligence agency headquarters in Banjul, where they were questioned about the suppliers of this merchandise, and released a few hours later. The store merchandise has not been returned. Serreh said that before she was released, an intelligence officer told her, "Anything you say about this, it will come back to you." The wife of another of the store managers left Gambia soon after his release, fearing for her safety. Intelligence officers also reportedly detained a coalition supporter, Wandifa Kanyi, for selling t-shirts in Serrekunda on January 2. Kanyi was released on January 3. Two founding members of the #Gambiahasdecided movement, Salieu Taal and Raffi Diab, fled Gambia on December 31 after receiving what they believe was credible information of their imminent detention by the intelligence agency. The agency has a long track record of arbitrarily arresting opposition activists, many of whom were tortured and sometimes killed while in agency custody. Taal, the movement's chair, said that NIA officers nearly intercepted him outside his house on December 31. "I believe Jammeh is trying to send a message, to stop us from resisting his attempt to stay in power," he told Human Rights Watch and Amnesty. "But we won't be intimidated." On January 1, intelligence agents forced three private radio stations, Teranga FM, Hilltop Radio and Afri Radio, to go off air. Although Afri Radio was reopened again on January 3, it is not currently airing news-related material. Given the government's control of state television and radio, private radio stations provide an important outlet for Gambians to access dissenting views and opinions, although the security forces' history of arresting and intimidating journalists have caused many to self-censor. Teranga FM and Hilltop Radio were two stations that discussed diverse political news in local languages. Emil Touray, president of the Gambia Press Union, told Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International that the radio closures, "denied Gambians several essential media outlets during a crucial phase in the country's history." Teranga FM has been closed three times in recent years and the station's managing director, Alhagie Ceesay, was arrested in July 2015, beaten and tortured at the NIA headquarters and then charged with sedition. He escaped from custody and fled abroad in April 2016. As the deadline for Jammeh to leave office and transfer power nears, the Gambian authorities and security forces should respect and protect the rights of all Gambians to freely and peacefully express their political views and opinions, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said. Private radio stations should be free to operate without government interference or fear of reprisals. "The risk of a crackdown against independent and critical voices will only increase as calls for Jammeh to step down intensify prior to the January 19 deadline," said Sabrina Mahtani, West Africa Researcher at Amnesty International. "The Gambian authorities must send a clear message that human rights abuses, including by members of the security forces, will not be tolerated and that those responsible for abuses during the transition will be adequately investigated and prosecuted." Copyright notice: Copyright Amnesty International Slovenia: Proposals to strip refugees and asylum-seekers of their rights must be rejected Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 5 January 2017 Cite as Amnesty International, Slovenia: Proposals to strip refugees and asylum-seekers of their rights must be rejected, 5 January 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e641e4.html [accessed 4 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 Slovenian parliament must reject amendments to the Aliens Act that, once triggered, would deny refugees and asylum seekers the protections to which they are entitled under international and EU law, Amnesty International said following the adoption of the amendments by the government today. Emergency measures set out in the bill would give authorities the possibility to adopt special measures that would deny entry to people arriving at the borders and automatically expel migrants and refugees who had entered Slovenia irregularly, without assessing their asylum claims or the risk of them being tortured or persecuted upon return. The application of the measures would be conditional on the decision of the parliament to trigger their enforcement, following government's assessment that the public order and national security are under threat. "Stripping people fleeing for their lives of their right to claim asylum and pushing them back at the border is a breach of international and EU law. Instead of treating refugees and asylum-seekers as a security risk, the Slovenian authorities should recognize their responsibility to protect people who have made terrifying journeys and risked everything in search of safety," said Gauri van Gulik, Amnesty International's Deputy Europe Director. "This bill resembles similar efforts of Slovenia's neighbours - most notably, Hungary, but also Austria - to seal their borders to those fleeing horrors of war. It rides roughshod over both the right that every individual has to ask for asylum and the obligation Slovenia has to fully assess each claim." Rejecting an asylum seeker or a migrant at the border without due process and consideration of their individual circumstances is a pushback, and is prohibited in all circumstances under EU and international law. Further, the measures do not include sound safeguards against the risk of torture or persecuted upon return (the principle of non-refoulement) and potential chain refoulement - or the return to the country where persons could be exposed to torture and ill-treatment. For example, migrants and asylum-seekers denied entry to Slovenia and returned to Croatia could further be at the risk of being returned to Serbia or Bulgaria where reception conditions are inadequate, or to Hungary which flagrantly ignores EU and international law. "The government claims that people whose life or health would be in danger would be excluded, but how would the government even identify these people if it circumvents proper assessments altogether?" said Gauri van Gulik. "These measures would place already traumatized people at even greater risk and must be rejected." Background The application of the measures would be conditional on the two-thirds majority vote by the parliament and based on the government's assessment that migration has become a "serious threat to public order and internal security". Copyright notice: Copyright Amnesty International Gambia: Arrests, Media Closures as Deadline Nears Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 5 January 2017 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Gambia: Arrests, Media Closures as Deadline Nears, 5 January 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e64de4.html [accessed 4 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 government of President Yahya Jammeh, defeated in Gambia's December presidential election, has arbitrarily arrested opposition sympathizers and closed three independent radio stations in the past week, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said today. Jammeh is required under Gambia's Constitution to cede power to President-elect Adama Barrow by January 19, 2017. Since December 31, intelligence agents have arrested and briefly detained at least six people for wearing or selling T-shirts bearing the logo of the #Gambiahasdecided movement, which has called for Jammeh to respect the election results and step down. Several senior members of the movement have fled Gambia after receiving credible threats from alleged National Intelligence Agency (NIA) officers. On January 1, 2017, intelligence agents forcibly closed three private radio stations, depriving Gambians of independent sources of information during this critical period. "The targeting of the #Gambiahasdecided movement and the closure of private radio stations threaten the rights of Gambians to express their opposition to Jammeh's attempt to stay in power," said Jim Wormington, West Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. "It's at times like this that free expression is most crucial." Jammeh publicly conceded defeat the day after the December 1, 2016 election, but then rejected the results on December 9, criticizing what he called the "treacherous" Independent Election Commission (IEC) for its lack of independence. Gambian security forces on December 13 evicted Alieu Momarr Njai, the commission chairman, and his staff from their headquarters. Njai subsequently told Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International that he feared for his safety, and on December 30, he left Gambia to seek refuge abroad. Jammeh's party, the Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC), on December 13 filed a challenge to the election results in the Supreme Court. Because the Supreme Court has no permanent associate judges, and so hearing the case would require Jammeh to appoint new justices, the Gambian Bar Association has said this appeal is "fundamentally tainted." Jammeh's refusal to accept the election results has been widely condemned internationally, including by the United Nations Security Council, the African Union, and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). On December 17, ECOWAS said that when Jammeh's term ends on January 19, Barrow "must be sworn in" and promised to "take all necessary actions" to enforce the election results. Sources in Gambia described to Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International how intelligence agents detained two men, Alpha Sey and Muhammed Kuyateh, wearing #Gambiahasdecided T-shirts on the evening of December 31. One witness said five men in civilian clothes forced Sey into a white pickup truck. "They asked to have a word with him and, after a brief conversation, they just pushed him into the car," the witness said. "Sey was the only one wearing a #Gambiahasdecided T-shirt, and I heard him say, 'There's no need for me to get in the car, I can just take it off.' But they forced him in anyway." Another witness described how on December 31, men in civilian clothes forced Kuyateh into a vehicle in Bakoteh, a suburb of Banjul, apparently for wearing a #Gambiahasdecided T-shirt. Kuyateh and Sey were held incommunicado at NIA headquarters, then released on bail on January 3, 2017. Intelligence officers detained three store managers selling #Gambiahasdecided merchandise in the Westfield area of Serrekunda on the evening of December 31. Ebrima Sambou, Mamie Serreh, and Isatou Jallow told Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International that the intelligence officers came to their shops and confiscated T-shirts and other materials featuring the text #Gambiahasdecided, or graphics supportive of president-elect Barrow or the opposition coalition. They were then taken to the intelligence agency headquarters in Banjul, where they were questioned about the suppliers of this merchandise, and released a few hours later. The store merchandise has not been returned. Serreh said that before she was released, an intelligence officer told her, "Anything you say about this, it will come back to you." The wife of another of the store managers left Gambia soon after his release, fearing for her safety. Intelligence officers also reportedly detained a coalition supporter, Wandifa Kanyi, for selling T-shirts in Serrekunda on January 2. Kanyi was released on January 3. Two founding members of the #Gambiahasdecided movement, Salieu Taal and Raffi Diab, fled Gambia on December 31, after receiving what they believe was credible information of their imminent detention by the intelligence agency. The agency has a long track record of arbitrarily arresting opposition activists, many of whom were tortured and sometimes killed while in agency custody. Taal, the movement's chair, said that NIA officers nearly intercepted him outside his house on December 31. "I believe Jammeh is trying to send a message, to stop us from resisting his attempt to stay in power," he told Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. "But we won't be intimidated." On January 1, intelligence agents forced three private radio stations, Teranga FM, Hilltop Radio, and Afri Radio, to go off air. Although Afri Radio was reopened again on January 3, it is not currently airing news-related material. Given the government's control of state television and radio, private radio stations provide an important outlet for Gambians to access dissenting views and opinions, although the security forces' history of arresting and intimidating journalists have caused many to self-censor. Teranga FM and Hilltop Radio were two stations that discussed diverse political news in local languages. Emil Touray, president of the Gambia Press Union, told Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International that the radio closures "denied Gambians several essential media outlets during a crucial phase in the country's history." Teranga FM has been closed three times in recent years and the station's managing director, Alhagie Ceesay, was arrested in July 2015, beaten and tortured at the NIA headquarters, and then charged with sedition. He escaped from custody and fled abroad in April 2016. As the deadline for Jammeh to leave office and transfer power nears, the Gambian authorities and security forces should respect and protect the rights of all Gambians to freely and peacefully express their political views and opinions, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said. Private radio stations should be free to operate without government interference or fear of reprisals. "The risk of a crackdown against independent and critical voices will only increase as calls for Jammeh to step down intensify prior to the January 19 deadline," said Sabrina Mahtani, West Africa researcher at Amnesty International. "The Gambian authorities must send a clear message that human rights abuses, including by members of the security forces, will not be tolerated and that those responsible for abuses during the transition will be adequately investigated and prosecuted." Copyright notice: Copyright, Human Rights Watch Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. Afghan Mosques Turn Up the Volume Publisher Institute for War and Peace Reporting Author Qayum Babak Publication Date 4 January 2017 Citation / Document Symbol ARR 562 Cite as Institute for War and Peace Reporting, Afghan Mosques Turn Up the Volume, 4 January 2017, ARR 562, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/586e74174.html [accessed 4 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. Haji Qiamuddin currently lives in the Baba Yadgar neighbourhood of Mazar-e Sharif city, right next to a local mosque. His proximity to the religious institution had made his life a misery, he told IWPR. Five daily calls to prayer broadcast at high volume - as well as sermons, Koran recitals and other announcements - were proving to be a constant source of noise pollution. No one in his family could hear themselves think, Qiamuddin explained. "I have a child, and whenever something is broadcast through the loudspeakers he always starts, looks fearfully around and begins yelling," he said. 'It's making him mentally ill." Qiamuddin said that it was particularly awful to hear scholars reciting the Quran through the loudspeakers during intimate moments such as while he was relieving himself in the bathroom or having sexual relations with his wife. "Isn't it a sin? These scholars make us and themselves both sinful," Qiamuddin continued. His pleas to mosque officials had gone unanswered, he continued. Finally, in desperation, he had put his house up for sale and was planning to move as soon as possible. Residents of the Balkh provincial capital complain that frequent broadcasts from many dozens of mosques now amount to an unacceptable level of noise pollution. Officials say that they try to control the volume of broadcasts from registered mosques, but that other unlicensed centres of worship operated outside their control. Hanan Hamid, in charge of mosques at the Balkh department of Hajj and religious affairs, acknowledged that he had received numerous complaints, with some Mazar residents even forced to move home. Loud calls to prayer calls and in fact any religious practice that caused discomfort to others was not allowed, he said. Almost 50 mosques were registered with his department, and his office was in weekly contact with them, he continued, noting that they were frequently warned to avoid annoying people with overly loud broadcasts from their minarets. "The mosques that are registered with us accept our orders but the others do as they wish," he said, adding that Koran recitations and other broadcasts were a fairly recent innovation. Raziqdad Qulzari, acting director of Balkh's Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), confirmed that they had received dozens of complaints about environmental concerns, including noise. "Sound pollution is any kind of loud noise which causes people discomfort including car horns, ambulance sirens, loud music in wedding halls and record shops as well as loud calls to prayer and other things," he said. Balkh mayor Jan Mohammad also agreed that noise pollution was a concern in the city. "When I travel through Mazar-e Sharif, I am forced to put my fingers in my ears because of the sound pollution," he said, vowing to clamp down on the problem. Locals say they want something done about the issue. "In all the developed countries of the world, followers of religion cannot disturb other people to hold their religious ceremonies," said Mazar resident Zakir Zarifi. He added, "I lived in America for many years. The mosques in America don't broadcast the call to prayer at a high volume and they don't cause any disturbance. Even the churches and centres of worship of other religions are not allowed to disturb people. "Worshipping is the right of every Muslim, but it should be according to the Sharia and civil rights and should not annoy people," he concluded. Mohsin, a driver in Mazar-e-Sharif, said that the sound issuing from local minarets was "just like the sound of a rocket," adding that he would not be surprised of pregnant women simply miscarried as a result of the blasting calls to prayer. Some people have taken the law into their own hands, according to Ahmad Fareed who owns a shop near a mosque in the Chaghdak area. "During the azan [call to prayer], many mullahs speak nonsense and rubbish and the volume of their loudspeakers is so high that I cannot hear my customer's voice," he told IWPR. This had infuriated other locals, he continued. "One day three youths came and beat up the man who calls people to prayer. They said, 'We told you many times not to turn up the volume of the loudspeakers, but you didn't listen to us because of you we can't sleep either day or night.'" But local clerics do not appear keen to address the problem. One Sunni imam, Mawllawi Niamatullah, insisted that it was followers of Shia Islam who were particularly guilty of noise pollution. "My mosque's loudspeakers aren't as loud as those of Mullah Sultan's mosque, which is Shia," he said, adding, "People who complain about our mosque's loudspeakers should one day stand near to a Shia mosque and then they will really hate start hating loudspeakers and the call to prayer." This report was produced under IWPR's Promoting Human Rights and Good Governance in Afghanistan initiative, funded by the European Union Delegation to Afghanistan. Copyright notice: Institute for War & Peace Reporting . An environmental non-governmental agency is searching for legal grounds for a lawsuit that could uncover the truth about what happened to millions of dollars in sand that disappeared from Cambodia over the past decade. Mother Nature Cambodia founder Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson told RFAs Khmer Service on Thursday that a Singaporean law firm, Eugene Thuraisingam, had agreed to collect information on Singaporean sand purchases for a possible lawsuit against the city-state. Gonzalez-Davidson told RFA that they were looking at a pair of legal tracks that they could follow if they decide to sue. The first is to file a lawsuit in relation to sand dredging in Koh Kong province that has caused serious impacts on the livelihood of local residents, he said. On the second, we know that the sand has been exported illegally from Cambodia without paying tax, so it involved in high-profile corruption cases. U.N. data shows that Cambodia exported $752 million in sand to Singapore over the past eight years, but Phnom Penh only reported that about $5 million worth of sand was exported to the island nation that is the worlds top destination for the building material. Driven by the growing demand for sand, either for concrete for construction, or in Singapores case for expanding its territory, the demand for sand has been outstripping the supply. According to information in the World Atlas, the United States is the biggest exporter of sand, with Cambodia coming in at number seven. The Observatory of Economic Complexity reports that 97 percent of Cambodias sand goes to Singapore. Cambodias position as a top sand exporter sits at odds with Prime Minister Hun Sens policies. Sand bans In 2013 Hun Sen imposed a ban on dredging along the Mekong and Ton Le Sap, and in 2015 the Cambodian government put a hold on new applications for licenses to conduct sand-dredging operations in the country's rivers and lakes in order to study the environmental and social impact, but it is unclear if those moves had any effect, as sand mining appears to be continuing. In a 2016 report, the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) found the Cambodian government had continued to supply licenses to sand miners despite the bans. In April the government decided to auction four two-year sand dredging licenses along the Mekong River, under the auspices of restoring navigation of the waterway. Four other licenses were granted for designated green zone areas, where there is no risk of riverbank collapse while nearly 70 new sand dredging licenses were issued without holding public auctions or requiring the companies to make publicly available environmental impact assessment results. In all, CCHR found there were 84 companies holding licenses to dredge sand as of May 2016, despite the governments bans. The discrepancy between the governments words and actions troubles Gonzalez-Davidson. I dont believe, at all, that the government or relevant ministries such as the Ministry of Commerce or Ministry of Mines and Energy have a genuine will to seek a solution, he said. They just pretend by acting as if in a theater in order to cheat Cambodian citizens so that they can continue their activities of exporting sand overseas. The Khmer-speaking Gonzalez-Davidson was deported from Cambodia back to his native Spain in 2015, after he had long campaigned against the planned Chhay Areng hydropower dam in Koh Kong province. The 108-megawatt dam is backed by ruling Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP) lawmaker Lao Meng Khin and his wife, who have evicted thousands of families from land around the country. Sand is big business The worlds sand mining industry is estimated to be a $70 billion a year industry with illegal trade in the material worth even more, according to a 2016 report in The Sydney Morning Herald. A 2015 report in Wired detailed the emergence of so-called sand mafias that use bribery, intimidation and killings to control the illegal sand trade. Thanks in a large part to the worlds sand, Singapore is 22 percent larger than it was in the 1950s, according to the Sydney Herald report. The newspaper said the island is pushing ahead with plans to import titanic amounts of sand to artificially expand its territory by 6,200 hectares by 2030. Singapore is getting larger, but the sand mining that aids its growth often wreaks havoc on rivers, deltas, and marine ecosystems in Cambodia and elsewhere. Gonzalez-Davidson said they were also looking at filing a similar lawsuit in India. According to a 2013 report in the Cambodia Daily some $1.5 million worth of Cambodian sand turned up in India. Meng Saktheara, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Mines and Energy, told RFA that Cambodia doesnt export sand to India, and he criticized Mother Nature for exploring a legal action. This is not a good solution, as it creates complicated issue, Meng Saktheara told RFA. I request civil society organizations, if possible, to undertake comprehensive studies so as to help the government [in dealing with this issue]. Say, if the findings related to 30 countries, please point out which countries in order that the government asks the customs of those countries to reveal which companies are really involved in this issue. Gonzalez-Davidson, disagreed, saying the ministry should carry out their own studies. I encourage relevant ministries to carry out [the studies] themselves. And if any ministry does not have the capacity to do it, perhaps the issue can be pushed to other units such as the Anti-Corruption Unit, he said. Reported by Chandara Yang for RFA's Khmer Service. Translated by Sovannarith Keo. Written in English by Brooks Boliek. Rights lawyer Jiang Tianyong, who went missing on Nov. 21, 2016, after meeting relatives of jailed lawyers, in an undated photo. A prominent Chinese human rights lawyer held in an unknown location on suspicion of subversion is at risk of torture or other ill-treatment, an international rights group has warned. Jiang Tianyong, who went missing on Nov. 21 in the central city of Changsha, is now confirmed by police as detained under "residential surveillance in a designated location" on suspicion of "inciting subversion of state power." But London-based Amnesty International has issued an urgent alert on Jiang's case, saying that he is judged to be at risk because his whereabouts are unknown, and he has been refused permission to meet with a lawyer or family members. "Jiang Tianyong is a well-known human rights lawyer, whose activism resulted in him being disbarred in 2009," the group said in an "Urgent Action" notice. "He has since continued his work as a human rights defender, despite suffering ongoing harassment, detention and physical beatings," it said. It called on its members to press for Jiang's immediate release, and to urge the authorities to protect him from torture or other ill-treatment. Jiang should also be granted access to his family, a lawyer of his choice and adequate medical care, it said. Jiang's father Jiang Lianghou said the family is extremely concerned about him. "Who wouldn't be worried? It has been more than a month, nearly two months, and we still don't know where he is," he told RFA in an interview earlier this week. Jiang Lianghou, father of Jiang Tianyong, says he received a notice from the Changsha municipal government that his son is being held under a specific type of 'coercive measures' linked to state security charges. Photo courtesy of rights activists Detained in Changsha Jiang is currently being investigated for "fraudulent use of identification," "illegal possession of state secrets," and "illegally providing state secrets," official media have reported. He was detained by China's railway police at Changsha Railway Station while attempting to use someone else's ID card to buy a ticket for the D940 express train back to Beijing, and initially held under administrative detention. Jiang's father Jiang Lianghou received an official notification on Dec. 31 from the Changsha municipal government that his son is being held under a specific type of "coercive measures" linked to state security charges, which allow the authorities to hold a suspect incommunicado for up to six months under criminal law. Their lawyer, Chen Jinxue, said his requests to meet with Jiang had been refused by the Changsha police department. "The grounds for refusal was that a meeting could hinder the investigation or leak state secrets, but that is far too vague," Chen said in a recent interview. "I wanted them to be more specific about what state secrets might be leaked as a result," he said. Meanwhile, a court in Shanghai has agreed to accept a crowdfunded lawsuit alleging that media reporting of the detention had defamed Jiang, sources told RFA. The family is suing the Procuratorate Daily, the Southern Metropolis Daily, The Paper, and the Legal Daily newspapers, among other outlets, for damaging their son's reputation and prejudicing due legal process. The acceptance of the libel suit by Shanghai's Jingan District People's Court comes after similar lawsuits were rejected by courts in Beijing and Guangzhou. "I hope this gets as far as a hearing," Chen told RFA after the decision was announced. "But there are no guarantees that the process will get that far; they still have the option to reject it as inappropriate." "We tried to file at the Chaoyang District People's Court in Beijing and at the Yuexiu District People's Court in Guangzhou," Chen said. "They wouldn't take the cases [we] filed there; they wouldn't accept any files, nor issue any documentation about it whatsoever," he said. Fengrui law firm raid More than 300 lawyers, law firm staff, rights activists and relatives were detained, questioned, or placed under surveillance or other restrictions since police launched a nationwide crackdown on the profession with a July 9, 2015, raid on Beijing's Fengrui law firm. Fengrui lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan said that even some of those detained and later released on "bail" remain under restrictions, and haven't returned to normal life since. "The criminal case against them has lapsed after a year, so the authorities can no longer prosecute them," Liu said. "From a legal point of view, they should be at liberty, but they haven't come back to the firm to take up their old jobs." "They dare not come back, and basically there's nobody working here at Fengrui anymore," he said. "It exists in name only." At least 16 remain in criminal detention on subversion charges, while four have been handed jail terms of up to seven years, according to the Hong Kong-based Chinese Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group. Many others have been denied access to lawyers, and to family visits. Reported by Yang Fan for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by Wong Lok-to for the Cantonese Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie. A Myanmar government-appointed commission investigating recent violence that has occurred in northern Rakhine state said it has found no cases of genocide or religious persecution of Rohingya Muslims in the wake of deadly border guard attacks in October. The commissions interim report on the situation in Rakhine was issued on Tuesday, days after a video surfaced showing policemen beating members of the Muslim group. Human rights experts criticized the report as an effort to put a gloss on atrocities and blunt international criticism. The 13-member commission was created by presidential order on Dec. 1 to probe the Oct. 9 border guard attacks in Maungdaw and Rathedaung townships as well as subsequent violence in Muslim villages in Maungdaw on Nov. 12 and 13, when armed men are said to have ambushed police and soldiers deployed to northern Rakhine to conduct security operations. The Bengali population residing in Maungdaw region, the increasing population of Mawlawi [Muslim religious scholars], mosques, and religious edifices are proof that there were no cases of genocide and religious persecution in the region, the report said, using a derogatory name for the stateless Rohingya who are and are discriminated against as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh in Buddhist-majority Myanmar. The report went on to say that the commission conducted special investigations of allegations of rape, torture, arson and illegal arrests in Rohingya villages. The commission said it interviewed local villagers and women about the rape allegations, but found insufficient evidence to take legal action. Investigations into allegations of arson, torture, and illegal arrests are still under way, the report said. Responsible security personnel performing their duties in those villages submitted that they have been ready to take legal action against those who committed crimes if there was sufficient evidence, it said. Some of the roughly 50,000 Rohingya who fled northern Rakhine, mostly to Bangladesh, have accused security forces of extrajudicial killings, torture, rape, and arson, though the Myanmar government has denied the charges. The commission said the violent armed attacks in Maungdaw were carried out by members of the Islamic terrorist organization Aqa Mul Mujahidin that operated in Maungdaw region in conjunction with the Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO), a local extremist group that was believed to be defunct. Authorities have taken legal action against 485 suspects in 49 cases so far, of which 28 have gone to trial with three convictions, the report said. Authorities released 10 detainees found innocent of committing any crimes. Havid Tuhar, a 45-year-old religious extremist who lived in Maungdaws Kyaukpyinseik village and uses the alias Arpu Hamad Zooluni, had participated in a six-month training program conducted by the Taliban, the report said. In its one-paragraph conclusion to the interim report, the commission said: The commission is carrying out its duties, being ever mindful that, as per the nature of these conflicts, illegal activities and fabricated rumors and news can appear occasionally. A military official (C) briefs Myanmar Vice President Myint Swe (2nd R), head of a national investigation commission on Rakhine state, during his visit to Gwazon, a Muslim-majority village in Maungdaw township in western Myanmar's Rakhine state, Dec. 12, 2016. Credit: Myanmar State Counselor's Office/AFP Pre-baked political conclusions New York-based Human Rights Watch called the report methodologically flawed and a classic example of pre-baked political conclusions to assert the situation is not so bad, designed to push back against international community pressure. Their astonishing finding that there was no religious persecution against the Rohingya because they saw mosques is methodologically flawed, Phil Robertson, the group's deputy Asia director, told Turkeys state-run Anadolu Agency. Meanwhile, Myanmar rights activists reacted to a written appeal by a group of 23 Nobel laureates politicians, philanthropists, and activists to the United Nations Security Council on Dec. 28 to end ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity in Rakhine state. Mie Mie, a prominent member of the 88 Generation Peace and Open Society Group, suggested that outside forces not press Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmars de facto leader and herself a Nobel laureate, to resolve the issue Because Daw [honorific] Aung San Suu Kyi is also a Nobel laureate, she doesnt need to be pressured to stop human rights violations or to be sent an open letter, she said. This countrys problems are those of the citizens and the government, she told RFAs Myanmar Service. We will work together to resolve them. Mie Mie pointed to the efforts of Aung San Suu Kyis special Rakhine Advisory Commission, headed by former U.N. chief Kofi Annan, to help resolve the religious and ethnic divisions in Rakhine state. We are going to work on our countrys issues with the help of international experts as we are doing right now, Mie Mie said. So please dont pressure her or us. Wai Wai Nu, a Rohingya activist for peace and womens rights and founder of the Womens Peace Network Arakan, an organization that conducts training to promote relations between the Rohingya and ethnic Rakhine people, agreed with the Nobel laureates that the government must work on resolving the Rohingya crisis. Although she [Aung San Suu Kyi] has been speaking out about the attacks in Maungdaw, the situation in Rakhine state hasnt settled yet, so its still difficult to assume what will happen next. Reporters still dont have freedom to cover news in the area, so people cant know the actual situation there, she said, adding that it is likely that the Rohingya women who said they had been raped by security forces are telling the truth. According to my experience as a female activist, women usually keep silent even though they have been sexually abused because they can face social problems in the future, she said. Aung Myo Min, executive director of Equality Myanmar, a nongovernmental organization dedicated to human rights education and advocacy programs, said Aung San Suu Kyi, who also holds the titles of state counselor and foreign affairs minister, has been working on trying to resolve the Rakhine issues as much as she can. He pointed out that in addition to forming the Rakhine Advisory Commission late last August in response to calls from the international community, she voluntarily met with foreign affairs ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to discuss the Rohingya issue. The Nobel laureates have urged her to do something about the Rohingya, but what they dont notice is that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is not only a Nobel laureate right now, but also a government member, he said. I believe she is frustrated because she has many things to do and also has limitations and restrictions placed upon her as to what she wants to do, he said. But the international community doesnt see that point. Different assumptions Presidents Office spokesman Zaw Htay said the governments work to address and resolve the crisis in northern Rakhine must refute the many different reports and other information that have been disseminatedsome of which the government has called fake newsto change the different assumptions that various countries have about the issue. We think that these Nobel laureates wrote the letter based on the information they got, so we are going to release truthful information, he said. We will punish those who violate laws and human rights. On Tuesday, Aung San Suu Kyi told officials attending a meeting on the stability and development of Rakhine state in the capital Naypyidaw that the situation in Maungdaw has grown worse since the Oct. 9 attacks because the government has placed an emphasis on the stability of the area and the rest of Rakhine state in the long run, according to state-run Myanmar News Agency. She also warned that a new crisis could develop in the region once stability has been restored and that current problems should be resolved properly and accusations should be refuted with the truth, the agencys report said. Reported by Kyaw Zaw Win for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin. Authorities in Tibetan-populated areas of southwestern China are warning local residents against involvement in a major Buddhist gathering in India led by exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, calling the gathering illegal and threatening punishment for those spreading news of the event or organizing local ceremonies in support. More than 100,000 devotees from some 80 countries around the world have already assembled in Bodh Gaya, Indiasite of the enlightenment of the historical Buddhato participate in this years Kalachakra empowerment, which is set to run from Jan. 11 to 13, with preparatory teachings and other events already under way. Thousands of pilgrims from Tibetan-populated areas of western China who had hoped to attend have been forced to return home, though, while others have been blocked from leaving China. Now, official notices circulating in Yunnan provinces Dechen (in Chinese, Deqin) county, copies of which have been obtained by RFAs Tibetan Service, have threatened jail terms of from 10 days to five years for involvement in the event. One, undated and disseminated to all relevant departments at township, county, and prefecture levels, warns Tibetans not to share informationincluding audio or video clipsabout the Kalachakra over the internet or on social media. Other related activities, such as organizing celebrations in support of the Kalachakra, are also forbidden, the notice says. Anyone engaging in these acts will be in violation of Article 55 of Chinas Public Security Law and will face severe consequences, the notice adds, with penalties ranging from 10 to 15 days of police detention to jail terms of up to five years for more serious cases. Article 55 pertains to undefined risks to national security. Families warned A notice forwarded in December to Tibetan households in Dechen likewise orders government departments to immediately call home any county residents already present in India, warning families that anyone found to have participated in the Kalachakra teachings will lose their passport and ration card after they return. If they are monks or nuns, their right to study Tibetan Buddhism will also be revoked, the notice adds. Kalachakra, which means Wheel of Time, is a ritual that prepares devotees to be reborn in Shambhala, a celestial kingdom which, it is said, will vanquish the forces of evil in a future cosmic battle. The ceremony and teachings are often conducted outside Tibet by the Dalai Lama, who is widely reviled by Chinese leaders as a splittist seeking to separate Tibet, which was invaded by Communist China in 1950, from Beijings control. In a bid to reduce attendance at this years ceremony, Chinese officials moved beginning in November to confiscate the passports of Tibetans authorized to travel abroad, at the same time ordering Tibetans already present in India and Nepal to return home. Many had been told their families would be harmed if they failed to go back, sources told RFA in earlier reports. Reported by RFAs Tibetan Service. Translated by Dorjee Damdul. Written in English by Richard Finney. Ethnic Uyghur government workers in northwestern Chinas Xinjiang region are being ordered to remove the word Islam from a box indicating religious affiliation on their household registration forms, in a move aimed at further reducing cultural identity in the volatile region, sources say. An official directive sent out a month ago warns recipients not to delay in changing the form if the offending word has already been entered, sources in Xinjiang told RFAs Uyghur Service. The police department is in charge of household registration forms, a worker in Kashgar (in Chinese, Kashi) prefectures Municipal Office of Petition Affairs told RFA. If you have entered Islam on the form as your religion, you have to take the form back to the office that first issued it and have them change it, RFAs source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. I cant tell you anything more about it than this, though, the source said. Also speaking to RFA, a police officer in Xinjiangs Hotan (Hetian) city defended the move, saying, Yes, it is right that these should be changed. Whoever gets a government salary should not write that they believe in such-and-such a religion on their registration form, he said. This should be left blank. We have a government directive on this, though I cannot tell you when it was issued or what the deadline may be for compliance. 'Aimed mainly at Uyghurs' Religious affiliations are not officially noted down in many other countries in the world, but in those countries, you are at least free to practice your religion, Memet Tohti, a Uyghur living in Canada told RFA. We cannot put the Chinese government in this category, Tohti said. First of all, this move is aimed mainly at the Uyghurs. China penalizes normal religious practice such as keeping religious books at home, sending ones children to religious classes, and so on, Tohti said. For these reasons, we can say that removing religious affiliation from household registration forms is yet another example of Chinas atheistic policies. Rights groups accuse Chinese authorities of heavy-handed rule in Xinjiang, including violent police raids on Uyghur households, restrictions on Islamic practices, and curbs on the culture and language of the Uyghur people. China regularly vows to crack down on what it calls the three evils of terrorism, separatism, and religious extremism in Xinjiang. But experts outside China say that Beijing has exaggerated the threat from Uyghur separatists, and that domestic policies are responsible for an upsurge in violence that has left hundreds dead since 2012. Reported by Gulchehra Hoja for RFAs Uyghur Service. Translated by Mamatjan Juma. Written in English by Richard Finney. Two separate car bombings in Baghdad on January 5 killed more than a dozen people and wounded numerous others, with the Islamic State (IS) extremist group claiming responsibility for one of the attacks. Iraqi officials said a vehicle exploded in a predominately Shi'ite neighborhood in the Iraqi capital, killing at least six people and wounded 15 others. Police said the explosives-laden car was parked near a market in Baghdad's eastern neighborhood of Al-Obaidi when it detonated. IS claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it targeted a gathering of Shi'a, considered apostates by the Sunni militants. The second blast hit a security checkpoint in central Baghdad's Bab al-Moadham district, killing eight people. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the second car bombing. Attacks across Baghdad over the past week, some claimed by the IS group, have killed dozens of people. The attacks came as Iraqi security forces, backed by U.S. air strikes and militia fighters, battle to retake the northern city of Mosul from IS fighters. Iraqi military officials said the country's forces on January 5 had launched an offensive against IS militants near the Syrian border in a bid to recapture towns in the area. "A military operation has begun in the western areas of Anbar [Province] to liberate them from" IS forces, AFP quoted Lieutenant General Qassem Mohammedi, head of Jazeera Operations Command, as saying. With reporting by Reuters, AP, AFP, and dpa Russia launched more kamikaze drones on infrastructure and civilian targets in southeastern Ukraine, officials said on November 4, as extensive damage to the power grid left millions of Ukrainians without electricity, prompting President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to accuse Moscow of "energy terrorism." 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. Valentyn Reznichenko, the governor of the Dnipropetrovskov region, said the Ukrainian military destroyed eight Iranian Shahed-136 "kamikaze" drones in the region's southern Nikopol district. "Our air defense did a great job this night. Eight enemy Shaheds downed," Reznichenko wrote on Telegram. It was the second day in a row that Nikopol was targeted by Russian drones. Reznichenko said Russian troops also pounded four settlements in the same district -- Myrivska, Chervonogrigorivska, Marganetska, and Nikopolska -- with Grad rockets and artillery fire, damaging a gas pipeline and a power line and destroying residential buildings. Russian troops regularly bombard the Dnipropetrovsk region, one of Ukraine's steelmaking hubs, with various types of weapons. Moscow denies its attacks on civilians in Ukraine. Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address on November 3 that millions of Ukrainians were temporarily without power due to the Russian attacks. "Tonight, about 4.5 million consumers have been temporarily disconnected from energy consumption," Zelenskiy said. "The very fact that Russia is resorting to energy terrorism shows the weakness of our enemy. They cannot beat Ukraine on the battlefield, so they try to break our people this way." Russia has been targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure and other civilian buildings with missile, drone, and artillery attacks for several weeks amid a Ukrainian counteroffensive that has driven Russian troops out of the northeast and pushed them back in the east and southeast. Over the past days, however, despite heavy fighting, there has been no significant change on the ground on the eastern and southern Ukraine fronts, with preparations building for a fight over the southern city of Kherson. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry accused Moscow of forcibly deporting Ukrainian citizens from Kherson to Russia. "The Russian occupation administration has begun mass forced relocation of residents of the left bank [of the Dnieper River] of the Kherson regionto the territory of the temporarily occupied Crimea or the Russian Federation," the ministry said in a statement on November 3. Similar deportations are also being carried out by Russia in the Zaporizhzhya, Luhansk, and Donetsk regions, as well as in Crimea, the ministry said. Russia in September proclaimed to have seized the partially occupied Ukrainian regions of Kherson, Zaporizhzhya, Luhansk, and Donetsk following referendums condemned by Kyiv and the West as shams. Volodymyr Saldo, the Russia-appointed head of Kherson, announced on October 31 an expansion of what Russia has called the evacuation of Ukrainian citizens. Saldo said he was moving people further into the region or to Russia because of the risks of a "massive missile attack." Just three days earlier, the Russian-installed officials announced that the evacuation process in Kherson region had ended. Kyiv reiterated on November 3 that it saw the move as a "deportation." It also said reports continue to circulate about the alleged mining of the Nova Kakhovska hydroelectric power plant by Russian troops. Zelenskiy previously said that Ukraine suspects Russia has mined the dam and units of the power plant on the Dnieper River, and that if it were blown up, more than 80 settlements, including Kherson, would be in danger of flooding. The Foreign Ministry statement also accused Russian troops of looting industrial, cultural, educational, and medical institutions, as well as private houses and apartments. Russian forces also removed roadblocks in Kherson. The head of the Kherson regional military administration, Yaroslav Yanushevich, believes that they did this to create the illusion that Russian forces have left the city. WATCH: Near Bakhmut in Ukraine's Donetsk region, Ukrainian forces often rely on artillery from the 1970s and '80s. The front line there is one of the most hotly contested areas. The soldiers say that although the Soviet-era weaponry is old, it is still very effective. It was also reported that the Russian flag was removed from the Kherson regional administration building. The head of the joint coordination press center of the Defense Forces of Southern Ukraine, Natalya Humenyuk, said that this could be a provocation. The loss of Kherson, which Russian troops captured in March in the early days of the war, would signal a significant retreat. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, asked to comment on the battlefield situation in southern Ukraine, said he believes Ukrainian forces in the Kherson region have the capacity to retake the territory on the west side of the Dnieper River and Kherson city from Russian troops. With reporting by Reuters President Hassan Rohani has traded barbs with hard-line officials from Iran's judiciary in a highly public spat in which each side appears determined to tar the other with accusations of corruption in an election year. The feud appears to have been smoldering since the president's rise to power in 2013 on calls for reform and the arrest of one of Iran's wealthiest men, Babak Zanjani, months after Rohani took office. It was reignited last month, when Rohani obliquely attacked the judiciary's competence, and elicited seemingly unprecedented challenges this week when hard-liners urged Rohani to disclose past fundraising and to help bring his brother in for questioning. Rohani tweeted on January 3 that his government was "ready to create a website and clarify all of its spending and accounts" but demanded that "in return, the judiciary is expected to clarify all of its accounts." A spokesman for the powerful judiciary countered by intimating that the president was "using the debate about transparency as a tool" in the face of a reelection bid, and dozens of parliament deputies the same day demanded that Rohani's brother face "financial corruption charges." Where's The Money? In December, Rohani questioned the judiciary's handling of the case against Zanjani, who has been sentenced to death for stealing more than $2 billion from the government through crooked oil sales during the administration of former hard-line President Mahmud Ahmadinejad. Even though the judiciary had already issued a sentence, Rohani said, "people still want to know where is the money and who has helped him." The case is particularly sensitive because the thefts occurred during tough economic times made more difficult by international sanctions, some of which were lifted as part of a deeply divisive nuclear agreement struck in 2015 between Tehran and world powers. Conservatives and hard-liners have yet to commit to a challenger to face Rohani in the May election, but many of them staunchly opposed the nuclear deal, on which Rohani has staked considerable political capital. Rohani suggested that a lack of transparency and a failure to answer the public's questions in the Zanjani case risk losing "a more important thing than $3 billion, and that is public trust as social capital." He said the Intelligence Ministry should have investigated the case before sending it to a court. "People expect the matter to become clear," Rohani said, according to the transcript of his comments posted on his website. http://president.ir/fa/97072 Where's YOUR Money? The head of the judiciary, an appointed post independent of the Justice Ministry, was quick to hit back. Speaking on January 2, Sadegh Larijani said Zanjani claimed that he had contributed to Rohani's election campaign. "Babak Zanjani has said that he has helped the election of the president with millions of tomans," Larijani said, a reference to a superunit of Iran's national currency, the rial. But, he added, "We don't consider all his comments fully true; he talks a lot and makes many allegations." Larijani said the judiciary could summon all the individuals against whom Zanjani has leveled accusations and arrest them, if need be. "They say people should know where the money has been spent," Larijani said. "By the way, we're also after the same thing: finding out where the money has been spent. Where is the presidential office's money spent?" That's when Rohani fired back on Twitter, expressing willingness to create a system for transparency in all its spending and accounts, and that the judiciary should, too. "Every institution must act within the scope of its own powers and responsibilities and respond to public opinion," Rohani told his Twitter followers. Unconfirmed reports have claimed in recent weeks that Larijani -- part of a powerful political family that includes brothers who are parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani and a senior official on human rights within the judiciary -- controls more than 60 private bank accounts filled with public funds. Iran's state prosecutor has said that all of the judiciary's accounts are in order and that some of the fund transfers have been done with the knowledge of the country's supreme leader. Transparent Or Secretive? Rohani's tweets prompted a reaction by a spokesman for the judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, who said on January 4 that the judiciary's accounts were "transparent" and that lawmakers had seen "documents" proving it. Mohseni-Ejei then suggested that the government was not forthright in all its dealings and that Rohani's call for transparency was a campaign tactic ahead of May's presidential election. He cited the 2015 nuclear agreement as an example, saying some details of the deal were only "leaked" later. Mohseni-Ejei urged the government to disclose Rohani's campaign spending from 2013 and where the money came from. The ultra-hard-line daily Kayhan seemed to side with Mohseni-Ejei, suggesting that Rohani talks loudly about the need for transparency despite heading what it said is a "government of secrets." The pro-reform daily Etemad said Rohani's tweets demonstrated the government's "serious determination" and argued that his readiness to show transparency was "unprecedented." Meanwhile, on January 4, more than 46 lawmakers called on Rohani to present his brother, Hossein Fereydoun, to the judiciary to face "financial corruption charges." That demand echoed recent statements by Rohani's rivals in which they accused Fereydoun -- a member of the president's inner circle who has been called his "eyes and ears" -- of corruption. The commander of Iran's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Hossein Salami, warned protesters that October 29 would be their last day of taking to the streets. "Do not come to the streets! Today is the last day of the riots," Salami was quoted as saying by state media. Iran has been gripped by protests triggered by the death of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, in the custody of Tehrans morality police. Since Aminis death on September 16, thousands have been demonstrating across the country against the clerical establishment. Protests were reported on October 29 at several universities across the country where students chanted, Death to the dictator, and, Woman, life, freedom. Iran has blamed its foreign enemies and their agents for the unrest. The U.S.-based Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA) posted videos on Twitter showing protests at several universities. One of the protests showed people holding hands in a large circle and chanting: "If we don't unite, we will be killed one by one." HRANA said 272 protesters had been killed in the unrest as of October 28, including 39 minors. Some 34 members of the security force have also been killed and nearly 14,000 people have been arrested, it said. The Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights also posted a video of a protest at a university campus and said that in the city of Arak state security forces fired tear gas as mourners gathered for the funeral of Mehrshad Shahidinejad, a young aspiring chef who reportedly was killed after being arrested during a protest. The IRGC warning on October 29 came as the United Nations expressed "increasing concern" about reports of deaths in the antiestablishment protests in Iran. "We condemn all incidents that have resulted in death or serious injury to protesters and reiterate that security forces must avoid all unnecessary or disproportionate use of force against peaceful protesters, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in New York on October 28. Those responsible must be held to account, he said, adding that the UN was urging Tehran to address the legitimate grievances of the population, including with respect to womens rights. The United Nations urged the Iranian government in Tehran to respect human rights, noting that the crisis can and should be brought under control through dialogue. In a separate statement, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also expressed concern about "rising fatalities and injuries" to protesters in Iran. "Its essential that unfettered access to health care is provided to those in need, [including] the appropriate use of medical vehicles, facilities & the ability of health workers to help patients," WHO chief Tedros said on Twitter on October 28. Protesters clashed again with security forces on October 28 in Zahedan, a city in southeastern Iran were dozens of people were killed in clashes four weeks ago during anti-government protests. Activists posted videos on social media showing protesters in the city calling for the death of "dictator" Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and against the Basij militia, which has played a major role in a crackdown on the demonstrations. The United States and Albania will hold an informal UN Security Council gathering on November 3 that will focus on the protests in Iran, according to a note outlining the event seen by Reuters. Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi and Iranian-born actress and activist Nazanin Boniadi are set to address the gathering. "The meeting will highlight the ongoing repression of women and girls and members of religious and ethnic minority groups in Iran," the note said. "It will identify opportunities to promote credible, independent investigations into the Iranian government's human rights violations and abuses." Javaid Rehman, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, is also due to address the meeting, which can be attended by other UN member states and rights groups. "The meeting will underscore ongoing unlawful use of force against protesters and the Iranian regime's pursuit of human rights defenders and dissidents abroad to abduct or assassinate them in contravention of international law," read the note about the planned meeting. With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and dpa The U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State (IS) extremist group in Iraq said it has doubled to about 450 the number of military advisers assisting Iraqi troops engaged in the campaign to retake Mosul. "We have increased the number of advise and assist forces that are there with the [Iraqi Security Forces]," coalition spokesman Colonel John Dorrian said in a video conference from Baghdad on January 4. Dorrian said the reinforcements were part of a series of measures taken to "accelerate the advance of the Iraqi security forces." While military advisers work behind the front lines, they have already entered the city several times, he said. American military forces are carrying out air and artillery strikes in Iraq as part of the U.S.-led coalition, and U.S. special forces have also fought IS on the ground. There are about 5,000 American military personnel in Iraq, according to the coalition. Even with more advisers, officials say it could be months before Iraqi forces are able to completely retake Iraq's second largest city, where hundreds of thousands of civilians still live. "There are more than 200,000 buildings in Mosul and...you end up having to clear each one," Dorrian said. Based on reporting by AP and AFP A French court has ordered former Kosovar Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj to remain in custody pending an extradition request from Serbia on war crimes in a case that has strained the already fragile ties between Belgrade and Pristina. A court in Colmar in eastern France on January 5 ordered Haradinaj, a former guerrilla commander during Kosovo's 1998-99 war, to remain in custody rather than be released under judicial supervision following his arrest by French police a day earlier. Haradinaj's Alliance for Kosovo's Future (AAK) party told RFE/RL's Balkan Service on January 5 that the decision to keep him in custody is "unacceptable," echoing denunciations from top officials in Pristina. Serbia accuses Haradinaj, who served briefly as prime minister of Kosovo in 2004 and 2005, of committing war crimes during the conflict in the former Serbian province, which declared independence in 2008. His arrest upon arrival at an airport in eastern France on a flight from Pristina has triggered outrage in Kosovo, where the government called the Serbian charges "illegal, unfair, and tendentious." Kosovar President Hashim Thaci wrote in a January 4 Facebook post that Haradinaj's detention is "unacceptable in every way" and that the government is using "all available mechanisms" to secure his freedom. Speaking to reporters in Belgrade before the French court's decision on January 5, Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic pledged that Serbia would continue to press for Haradinaj's extradition, saying prosecutors "have numerous pieces of evidence" against him. "He is accused of so many [crimes] that they are impossible to list," Vucic said. Haradinaj was tried and acquitted twice of war crimes at a United Nations court in The Hague. In June 2015, he was arrested in Slovenia on a Serbian warrant but was released two days later under diplomatic pressure. The standoff has prompted calls from some officials and politicians in Kosovo to halt EU-mediated normalization talks with Serbia. Unlike France and most other European countries, Serbia does not recognize the independence of its former province. Normalized bilateral relations are considered a precondition for Serbia and Kosovo to gain EU membership, which both countries seek. But the EU-brokered deal between Belgrade and Pristina to improve and regulate ties between the two states has only been moderately successful. Edita Tahiri, Kosovo's minister in charge of the EU-brokered talks with Belgrade, called for Pristina to hit Serbia with reciprocal measures in response to arrest warrants it has issued against Kosovar citizens. "As long as the Serbian state treats members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), who fought for this country's freedom, in this manner, this kind of behavior must have an adequate response from our side," Tahiri told RFE/RL's Balkan Service. Reuters cited a security source in Pristina as saying that around 20 Kosovar citizens are currently the subjects of Interpol warrants. Most of these individuals previously served in the KLA, which fought against Serbian forces in the Kosovar war, the source said. Tahiri said that she has asked the EU to exert its influence on Serbia in order to have the arrest warrants canceled. Kosovo on January 5 also refused to allow Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic to visit a Kosovar city primarily inhabited by ethnic Serbs to mark the upcoming Orthodox Christmas. Kosovo's government said the decision was made because Nikolic did not file his entry request on time. Reuters cited an unidentified Serbian official as saying border-control officials had "harassed" Nikolic's advance team, preventing them from conducting required security checks. "The visit will not proceed as planned. This is likely related to the Haradinaj arrest," Reuters quoted the official as saying. With reporting by RFE/RL's Balkan Service, Reuters, AP, and balkaninsight.com Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is open to joint military exercises with Russia, his spokesman has said. Since taking office in June, Duterte has made repeated threats and verbal tirades against the United States, a long-time ally, while taking steps to boost relations with China and Russia. Two Russian warships are currently on a four-day visit to Manila -- the first official navy-to-navy contact between the two countries. Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said on January 5 that the visit was "an indication that the maritime cooperation can further be enhanced to enable diplomacy and camaraderie." A memorandum of agreement would need to be signed between Manila and Moscow to establish the framework of any future military drills, Abella added. On January 4, Russias ambassador to the Philippines Igor Khovaev said Moscow was ready to become a "close friend of the Philippines," adding that Russia would be willing to supply the southeastern Asian nation with "sophisticated weapons." Based on reporting by Bloomberg and Philstar Rex Tillerson, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of state, has won over some Republicans on Capitol HIll, but Democrats have said they want more time to scrutinize his ties to Exxon Mobil and Russia. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker described Tillerson as "very much in the mainstream" of U.S. foreign-policy thinking on January 4. Corker, whose committee is scheduled to start Tillerson's confirmation hearings on January 11, said he was comfortable Tillerson would lead a robust U.S. policy toward Russia. Tillerson, Exxon Mobil's former chief executive, drove the company's expansion in Russia, became a friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and opposed sanctions imposed over Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014. Some lawmakers from both parties have expressed concerns about Tillerson's relationship with Moscow. Asked if he could support Tillerson, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, who has described Putin as a "thug," said: "Sure. There's also a realistic scenario that pigs fly," the Houston Chronicle reported on January 4. Democrats have called for a delay before Tillerson's hearing, citing his ties to Exxon and Russia. Tillerson has moved to preempt possible criticism by severing all ties with Exxon to comply with conflict of interest rules. Based on reporting by Reuters, AP, and dpa VIDEO REPORTS Three U.S. lawmakers visited a NATO training center in Georgia, with Senator John McCain calling Russian military actions in the region illegal and immoral. Ukrainians staged a torchlight march through the streets of Kyiv to mark the 108th anniversary of the birth of the late nationalist leader, Stepan Bandera. It looks a little like Germany, but it is in the Caucasus. A small village in Georgia still retains some of the character brought there by German settlers in the late 18th century. OTHER NEWS Senior U.S. intelligence officials will testify on January 5 at a Senate hearing on allegations of a Russian cybercampaign to meddle in the presidential election. The British journal The Banker has named Russian central bank head Elvira Nabiullina as the European Central Bank Chairman of the year. Against the backdrop of a four-day visit to Manila of two Russian warships, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has said he is open to joint military exercises with Russia. A war of words has broken out between Russias central government and the Republic of Tatarstan, one of the country's most prosperous regions, in a sign of tension as cash-strapped Moscow struggles to fill its budget deficit. More than 100 relatives of alleged militants who reportedly took part in fatal attacks on local police during clashes in Grozny in December 17-18, 2016 have lost their jobs, pensions, and social benefits, in contravention of Russian law. (in Russian) In a survey of leading fake news stories appearing in Russian media in 2016, RFE/RLs Russian Service selected Poor Lisa about a girl in Berlin, Hillary Clinton Preparing a Color Revolution in the U.S., Hillary Clinton Beats Her Husband, and Hague Tribunal Acquits Slobodan Milosevic as standouts. (in Russian) Ukrainian munitions giant Ukroboronprom announced on January 3 that it will begin joint production with the U.S. company Aeroscraft of the American M16 rifle. (in Russian, Current Time TV) French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has dismissed Ukraine's threat to bar her from entering the country following her assertion that Russia's annexation of Crimea was not illegal. Kazakhstan says it has lifted visa requirements for citizens of countries of the European Union and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, as well as a number of other states. Tajik authorities are looking into claims by an Afghan official that Taliban tanks and other heavy weapons are being repaired by Russian engineers in Tajikistan. Prominent political analyst and forecaster Valery Solovey told RFE/RL that he expects a radical reform of Russias political system beginning in 2017 and peaking in 2018 that could transform the country into a normal presidential republic. (over 150k views on Russian Service website) WASHINGTON -- The United States' top intelligence official has said a suspected Russian cyberhacking campaign constituted unprecedented meddling in the American electoral process. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper made the assertion on January 5 at an extraordinary hearing of a leading Senate committee focusing on the question of alleged Russian interference in the presidential election campaign. "I don't think we've ever encountered a more aggressive, a more direct effort to interfere in our elections processes than in this case," Clapper told the Senate Armed Services Committee. The hearing is the first of several congressional inquiries looking into the scope, intent, and purpose of what Washington says was a Russia-government-orchestrated intrusion into the computer servers and e-mail accounts of U.S. political organizations. The conclusions by U.S. intelligence agencies in October that hackers -- backed by top Russian officials -- compromised U.S. computer servers roiled the November 8 presidential vote. It also cast a shadow over Republican President-elect Donald Trump's victory over Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. Adding to the tensions is the fact that Trump has repeatedly dismissed the intelligence assessments, which also reportedly concluded that Russia intended to help ensure victory for the president-elect, who has pledged to seek better ties with Moscow. The Kremlin has repeatedly rejected allegations that Russia was behind the intrusions. A day before the Senate hearing, Trump appeared to endorse a claim by Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, that Russia was not the source of the leaked e-mails that were published by the website. That endorsement drew criticism from top Democratic and Republican lawmakers. And just before the hearing began, Trump published a series of posts on Twitter, denying he was agreeing with Assange but also suggesting that Assange's claim might be considered credible. "I simply state what he states, it is for the people to make up their own minds as to the truth," Trump wrote. "The media lies to make it look like I am against 'Intelligence' when in fact I am a big fan!" In a joint statement released before the hearing, Clapper and two other witnesses -- National Security Agency Director Admiral Mike Rogers and Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Marcel Lettre -- singled out Russia and its cyberefforts. "We assess that only Russia's senior-most officials could have authorized the recent election-focused data thefts and disclosures," they said. "Russia is a full-scope cyberactor that poses a major threat to U.S. government, military, diplomatic, commercial and critical infrastructure," they said. The committee's Republican chairman, John McCain, a well-known hawk on Russian matters, has publicly endorsed the intelligence findings. He also suggested such hacking might be considered an act of war. There is "no escaping the fact that this committee meets today for the first time in this new Congress in the aftermath of an unprecedented attack on our democracy," McCain said in opening remarks at the hearing. Clapper, whose office coordinates the work of 17 different agencies, demurred when asked by McCain whether he agreed. "Whether or not that constitute an act of war...is a heavy policy call that the intelligence community is not capable of making," he said. "It would certainly, in my view, carry great gravity." Clapper told the committee that alleged hacking was only one aspect of Russian interference in the U.S. electoral process. "It was a multifaceted campaign, the hacking was only one part of it, and it also entailed classical propaganda, disinformation, fake news," he said. On December 9, The Washington Post reported that the CIA had determined the intent of the Russia hackers was to help Trump win the presidency, not just to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral system. WATCH: McCain: U.S. Inaction On Cybersecurity Has 'Emboldened Adversaries' The New York Times later reported that intelligence officials had concluded Russian hackers accessed Republican Party computers but didn't release potentially damaging e-mails or other materials. In contrast to Trump's announcements, the findings of the U.S. intelligence community have been publicly endorsed by President Barack Obama. On December 29, the White House announced new sanctions in response to the hacking, targeting Russia's leading intelligence agencies, the GRU and the FSB. It also expelled 35 Russian diplomats in response to what Washington calls a campaign of harassment of its diplomats in Russia. Obama had also ordered a full investigation of the alleged Russian hacking and promised to make it available prior to leaving office on January 20. Clapper told the committee that he wouldnt discuss details of the report, a classified version of which was delivered to Obama on January 5. But he said an unclassified version will be released publicly next week. Two other Senate committees are also taking up investigations of the matter. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee was scheduled to hear classified testimony on January 5 from Victoria Nuland, an assistant secretary of state who has been one of the Obama administrations leading officials in dealing with the Russian government. Police have arrested a parole absconder suspected of dealing methamphetamine. Elbert Flores Hernandez, 43, of Helena, is jailed on a felony charge of criminal possession of dangerous drugs with intent to distribute. On Tuesday afternoon, an officer working with the Missouri River Drug Task Force pulled Hernandez over after watching him leave a home in the area of Boulder and Hannaford streets he is known to frequent. Court documents allege Hernandez had about seven grams of meth on him. Hernandez also had numerous smaller bags and the type of straw typically used to snort drugs, the documents state. A Smith and Wesson .40-caliber pistol was found in the vehicle under the seat, police allege. Hernandez is wanted as a parole absconder and had two arrest warrants, including one from Arizona with nationwide extradition. His criminal record includes a previous local conviction of criminal possession of dangerous drugs with intent to distribute. The Virginia attorney generals office is again asking that an exoneration bid be denied a Chesapeake man who says he is innocent of a rape that occurred almost 40 years ago. Roy L. Watford III, 57, filed a petition for a writ of actual innocence with the Virginia Supreme Court in August, citing DNA evidence that he contends shows he is innocent of the Sept. 14, 1977, rape of a 12-year-old girl in Portsmouth. Watford, 18 at the time, says he pleaded guilty in a favorable deal in which he got a 10-year suspended sentence that allowed him to stay out of jail and remain in high school. He has no other criminal record. In October, the attorney generals office, while telling the justices that the case is unsettling, nevertheless concluded that under the known circumstances it had not been shown that no rational judge or jury could have found him guilty, as required to win a writ. Watfords lawyer, Jonathan P. Sheldon, of Fairfax, disagrees and says DNA testing strongly supports Watfords innocence claim. The girl said she was raped by Watford and his two brothers on a mattress in a vacant home. One of the brothers was found not innocent in juvenile court, and charges were dropped against the third brother. Later, testing as part of Virginia post-conviction DNA project identified the DNA of several males from semen found at the scene. The DNA did not belong to Watfords brothers, and in 2010, Watford was excluded as well, leading to his filing for a writ of actual innocence last year. Sheldon sent the court more information in November, including some of the records in the case file that had not been available when Watfords petition was filed. The records show that a man now serving life in prison for murder was called as a witness. That man has a brother recently released for a 1988 rape in Portsmouth. On Wednesday, Alice T. Armstrong, an assistant attorney general, wrote that the new information from Sheldon was not new evidence. Armstrong wrote that the state agrees that the victim in the case was very upset and confused about what happened during her attack. That circumstance, however, does not exonerate Watford, she added. The victim may have accurately identified Watford and been mistaken about his brothers. Watford may well have not pleaded guilty had he known of the DNA evidence in 1978, but Armstrong wrote that does not demonstrate actual innocence. She added that if two other offenders suggested as the real perpetrators by Sheldon had been involved, there was no cold hit when the DNA profiles were run through the states DNA databank. The commonwealth is sensitive to the complexity this case presents, but without a more complete record that places the test results in context, the commonwealth maintains that the evidence is equivocal, she wrote. Sheldon said Wednesday that he had only had a chance to scan the response from the attorney general. What stuck out is the allegation that the Circuit Court file is not new evidence, he said. Of course its not, Sheldon added. But it provides a context and facts of the case which were unknown at the time of filing, and that is important to understanding the significance of the DNA evidence and puts it into a whole different context. Shane Sater paused for a moment to listen to the call, picking out the sharpness in pitch that let him know a downy woodpecker was somewhere in the mass of tangled branches above. I love being outside, and the birds just amaze me so much, he said. I get to choose whether or not Im out here on a subzero day, but theyre out here all the time. The annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count sponsored by Last Chance Audubon pushed into the new year after severe winter weather caused organizers to reschedule from December. On Monday, 31 volunteers blanketed nine sections of the Helena area to record species and populations as part of the longest-running national bird count in the country. In 1900, Frank Chapman organized the first Christmas Bird Count in his publication Bird Lore, the predecessor to Audubon Magazine. After more than a century, about 72,000 birders, including 1,000 in 33 Montana counts, contributed data for thousands of species. Scientists use the information to track populations and home ranges. Monday came during a slight warming from recent Arctic air, but still kicked off at 3 below zero and only the promise of a sunny day ahead. A collection of volunteers charged with counting in west Helena and the western Helena Valley emerged from their vehicles bundled to the hilt. Immediately a few magpies scattered and a raven glided effortlessly across the sky. Sater wrote furiously to keep up with species and numbers as birders continued to scan for flapping wings or a familiar call. Among the counters were father and son Brian and Thomas Nelson. Thomas was hard at work on a Boy Scout merit badge which required identification of 20 species. Its cold, Thomas said of birding for the Christmas Count, but still a lot of fun. A raptor perched high in a cottonwood above Helenas Nature Park, the dark figure difficult to identify for even the experienced birders. Bohemian waxwings first numbering in the hundreds and then more than 1,000, swung from the air in waves and landed in a nearby tree, clearly sparking the predators interest as he flew closer to investigate. Birding in winter is more difficult than other times of the year not just because of the weather, but because fewer birds are around, said group leader Sharon Dewart-Hansen. She is coming off her personal best year of birding in 2016, documenting 271 species which put her seventh in Montana on the eBird data collection service. Numbers from Mondays bird count included some record lows, but also a first. Volunteers documented 56 species the lowest in 13 years but about average for individual birds at 10,800. A high abundance of waxwings contributed to the individual numbers. For the first time in the Helena-area counts 62-year history, birders recorded a Western bluebird. Volunteers also recorded gold finches and a Western meadowlark, species more known for warm weather but not unprecedented. For Sater, a recent transplant to Helena, birding is a great way to learn more about a place and the wildlife calling it home. I love how birding gives me an in on the ecology and interactions in nature, he said. Its a good blend of getting to connect with other people who enjoy being out in nature and learning more about the birds while contributing to conservation. CHARLOTTESVILLE Making his surprise entry into the governors race official, Democrat Tom Perriello said Thursday that he wants his party to have a healthy debate about the top of the statewide ticket and promised to build a progressive firewall against the politics of President-elect Donald Trump. Perriello, a 42-year-old former congressman who most recently served as a State Department envoy in Africa, rolled out his campaign Thursday morning, starting with a website launch and video message followed by a series of three events throughout the state. When I go around Virginia, when I go around really anywhere in the world, people care a lot less about whether youre on the right or left, than whether youre trying to help them move up or down, Perriello said during a midday announcement speech in a crowded room at a black history center in Charlottesville, his hometown. Perriellos run, assembled over the last 10 days after he discussed the possibility with his family over Christmas, dramatically reshapes the gubernatorial field just five months before the June primaries. It ensured Democratic Lt. Gov. Ralph S. Northam, who has been running for governor for nearly two years with the backing of Gov. Terry McAuliffe and other top Democrats, will, at a minimum, be forced to devote money and resources to a contested primary. McAuliffe has reaffirmed his support for Northam, as have U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine. Ralph Northam is proud to have the support of Governor McAuliffe and Democrats across Virginia, including all of our statewide elected officials, and will continue to fight back against attempts by Republicans to discriminate against the LGBT community and limit womens access to reproductive health care, said Brad Komar, Northams campaign manager. On Thursday evening, Northam issued a statement touting his support by all statewide elected officials in Virginia, plus 18 Democrats in the state Senate and 33 in the House of Delegates including every African-American member of the General Assembly. The Northam release included a joint statement by McAuliffe and Attorney General Mark Herring reaffirming their support for his candidacy. With Republicans in the midst of a three-way gubernatorial primary that largely pits the establishment versus the grass roots, similar dynamics could come into play on the Democratic side. Drawing a contrast with Northams more moderate, low-key style, Perriello pitched himself as a populist fighter who would take on a system that has been too stagnant and too corrupt. Perriello called Northam on Wednesday to disclose his plans. Speaking to reporters Thursday, Perriello called Northam a class act and said the two agree on an awful lot. I think folks want to see a set of options, Perriello said. I think that makes us stronger as a democracy and as a party. Perriello pitched himself in broad terms as a defender of the middle class willing to take on entrenched interests, but he outlined few specific policy issues other than a pledge to end partisan redistricting. Asked by a reporter about his stance on the controversial Atlantic Coast Pipeline project, which has drawn fervent opposition near Charlottesville for its impacts in Nelson County, Perriello deferred. Were going to be coming out with some stuff in the next couple of weeks, he said. And youre going to definitely get an answer on that. Asked whether his challenge to Northam could give him a role similar to the territory Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders occupied in the Democratic presidential primary, Perriello suggested the 2016 punditry was wrong and is shaping up to be wrong again about the Virginia governors race. Obviously, Im most associated with Barack Obama. Thats who I ran with in 2008, Perriello said. I think you see from my track record that I believe in trying to build broad coalitions across racial and class lines to solve our problems. Perriello represented the sprawling 5th District, which then stretched from the Charlottesville area south to the North Carolina line, for just one term. He lost the seat in 2010 to Republican Robert Hurt, who retired last year and was recently succeeded by Rep. Thomas A. Garrett Jr., a conservative former state senator. Representing a mostly rural district with a liberal population centered in and around Charlottesville, Perriello has at times broken with party orthodoxy on issues such as guns and abortion. In Congress, he backed language in the Affordable Care Act to prevent federal funding for abortions and earned the National Rifle Associations endorsement when he ran for re-election. He earned praise from liberal groups for his unapologetic support for the health care overhaul and cap-and-trade legislation meant to curb climate change. In response to Perriellos announcement, Republicans said voters already rejected Perriello over his support for Obamas policies. They also suggested that, like Sanders, Perriello will face resistance from his own partys leaders. While I disagree with Tom Perriello on virtually every policy position he holds, he is to be commended for standing up to the last remnants of the rigged system Clinton Inc. has put in place here in Virginia, Republican Party of Virginia Chairman John Whitbeck said in a statement. On his website, Perriello criticized two of his Republican rivals. The main Republican challengers include the corporate D.C. lobbyist who wrote the playbook that sold out the middle class to the highest bidder. His team rigged the district maps to ensure our legislature reflected his clients instead of our citizens, he said, referring to former Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie. The other is a top Trump acolyte who sows fear and racial hatred, denies climate change and stoked the war on women, Perriello said, referring to Prince William County Supervisor Corey Stewart, who served as the Trump campaigns Virginia chairman but was fired for taking part in an unauthorized, anti-establishment protest at the RNC headquarters. Confidence is growing that tonight and Saturday will bring some snow to the Richmond area, but the highest amounts in the state are likely to fall near the North Carolina border and across Hampton Roads. The National Weather Service in Wakefield has issued a winter storm watch for tonight and Saturday for most of the region including Richmond, Petersburg, Farmville, South Hill, Emporia, Franklin, Tappahannock and all of Hampton Roads. A watch is issued when theres a potential for 4 inches of snow. Before that system arrives, spotty snow showers and rain showers were expected to track through Virginia late Thursday night and early this morning, but with little to no accumulation. Todays daytime hours should be mostly cloudy but dry. Timing A winter storm will bring snow and ice to the Deep South and Carolinas today. Virginia will be on the northern edge of that system tonight and Saturday. Snow showers could appear in Virginia as early as this evening, but most of the accumulation will occur between early Saturday morning and midday. Snow could continue into Saturday afternoon closer to the coast, which will help to push amounts higher in Tidewater. Dry and very cold weather will take over for Saturday night, Sunday and Monday. Totals The snowfall totals may range significantly just within the metro Richmond area, which makes it premature to give one forecast number for Richmond. The general pattern will be more to the south and southeast, and less to the north and northwest. Thursdays data increase Richmonds potential snow amounts by a notch. For the Richmond metro area, 2- to 3-inch snow totals are most probable. The reasonable high-end scenario could involve 5 to 7 inches. The no snow outcome is probably off the table for the metro area. At the very least, the storm should produce a light coating in Richmond. The Tri-Cities and Williamsburg regions stand a better chance for several inches of snow. The heaviest amounts will fall between Emporia, Franklin, Suffolk and Virginia Beach. That region is likely to see several inches of snow, but a few areas might wind up with 1 foot. Its still possible that some northern suburbs of Richmond and places such as Fredericksburg, Louisa County and Charlottesville see an inch or less. Temperature The coldest stretch of weather so far this winter will be felt over the weekend. Temperatures will stay below freezing all day Saturday and Sunday, and probably Monday too. Fortunately, Sunday and Monday should bring abundant sunshine, thanks to high pressure. The clear, quiet mornings and snow-covered ground will be ideal conditions for temperatures to sink into the teens or single digits. A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind. In an unusual labor settlement, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks has been ordered to remove its chief law enforcement officer, Thomas Flowers, and replace him with a 2015 competitor for the job. Flowers' promotion in 2015 was successfully challenged by one of his officers, Region 3 warden Sgt. David Loewen of Helena, who had filed a grievance with the Board of Personnel Appeals. In its findings the board told FWP to appoint Loewen to "his position of choice," according to a Jan. 2 FWP email to staff explaining the situation. Loewen is now scheduled to assume Flowers' job as FWP chief of law enforcement beginning Jan. 9. Flowers is on paid administrative leave. Becky Docktor, FWP's chief legal counsel, said she's never seen such a ruling by the board before. More often it will direct the agency to redo its hiring process. The board told FWP that it had "erred in its implementation of the hiring processes associated with the July 2015 hiring of the Chief of the Enforcement Division and the September 2015 hiring of the Assistant Chief of the Enforcement Division," according to the FWP email. "The Board found that the department violated provisions of Montana Rules, FWPs Recruitment and Selection Policy, and the Veterans Employment Preference Act and Rules. Loewen had filed three grievances with the board, centered on the fact that he wasnt hired for three different positions in the department, according to David Scrimm, chief administrative law judge for the Department of Labor and Industry. The three positions were law enforcement division chief, Region 3 warden captain and enforcement division assistant administrator. The Region 3 warden captain is Adam Pankratz. The assistant administrator is Ron Jendro. Both of those men were also promoted to their positions in 2015. Although FWP could appeal the ruling, Dustin Temple, chief of administration in consultation with Paul Sihler, chief of staff, and Mike Volesky, chief of operations chose to abide by the decision after "extensive discussions," Sihler said. The men are filling in for FWP director Jeff Hagener who retired last month. No replacement has yet been named by Gov. Steve Bullock. "We'll do everything we can to make him as whole as we can, recognizing there's only one chief position," Sihler said. The administrators' stance riled Flowers, who has no standing in the case. "The most disappointing thing was not to have backing from the department," Flowers said. In response, he has talked to an attorney about petitioning in District Court for reinstatement. For now he's on paid administrative leave. Flowers said he found the department's decision especially irritating considering that the agency plans to appeal a $1,500 fine by the Department of Political Practices over FWP's loaning a trailer to a trapping group. "Maybe I should register myself at (the Department of Motor Vehicles) as a trailer and I would be treated a little better," he joked. "I've got to figure out a way to attach a license plate to my backside." The FWP email to staff said Loewen and Flowers were both "well qualified finalists" for the chief's position. Because of that, it was a very difficult issue that the directors office has been struggling with during the last month. The memo was co-authored by Sihler, Temple and Volesky. The directors office regrets these mistakes, and apologizes to those directly affected by the consequences, the email said, and also noted that it is the departments intent to keep Flowers employed in FWP enforcement in a meaningful capacity. What that means Flowers isn't sure, since there's no lateral move from chief of enforcement. The issue erupted less than a month after the same interim directors dismissed Montana State Parks director Chas Van Genderen over what was termed a personnel issue. Flowers is a 28-year veteran with FWP. Prior to being hired as chief of law enforcement he worked as FWPs Region 6 supervisor in Glasgow. He took that position in 2013 after previously working as a criminal investigator based in Choteau. He started with FWP as a warden in Miles City in 1988. A voice message left for Loewen and his attorney were not returned by press time. They requested attorney fees be paid as part of the settlement, but the hearing officer denied that request, which they are appealing to the board. FWP and the Montana Department of Transportation are the only two agencies in the state to use the Board of Personnel Appeals to rule on complaints. The Board of Personnel Appeals is a five-member quasi-judicial board charged with providing appellate-level review for matters involving the Collective Bargaining Act for Public Employees, according to the Department of Labor and Industrys website. Other agencies have their own internal processes, Scrimm said. We dont see a lot of them 10 to 15 a year for all state agencies, Scrimm said of such cases. Most are resolved at a lower level so they dont make it this far. According to its website, The Office of Administrative Hearings, formerly known as the Hearings Bureau, holds impartial administrative hearings and provides dispute resolution services in unemployment insurance cases, wage and hour claims, public employee collective bargaining and unfair labor practices cases, state employee classification appeals and grievances, uninsured employer regulatory matters, professional and occupational licensing appeals, and human rights complaints. In the wake of the ruling and change in duties, FWPs administrators said in their letter to staff, We are taking steps to add additional rigor to department hiring practices to ensure these mistakes are not repeated. The Rotary Club of Roanoke Valley will honor four extraordinary women of the Roanoke Valley during 2017. Each honoree will be recognized at club breakfast meetings at the Holiday Inn Tanglewood in Roanoke County throughout the calendar year. The series will begin Jan. 17 by featuring Dr. Sharon Landesman Ramey. Dr. Ramey is a distinguished scientist and Professor of Psychology, Neuroscience, and Human Development at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine. She has conducted pioneering research on the early origins of childrens cognitive, social, and emotional competence. In addition to speaking about her research during the meeting, Dr. Ramey will designate a Rising Star an extraordinary woman who holds great promise in her field of expertise and the community at large. Additional women being honored by the Rotary Club of the Roanoke Valley during 2017 include: Della Watkins, the executive director of the Taubman Museum of Art who will be honored March 21; Diana Rosapepe the director of Roanoke County Library, who will be honored May 16; and Nancy Howell Agee, the president and CEO of Carilion Clinic, who will be honored Sept. 19. Each session in the series will begin with breakfast at 7 a.m. All lectures are open to the public with pre-registration and the purchase of a breakfast ticket. Pre-registration for the first lecture in the series is available at www.extraordinary-women-of-the-roanoke-valley.eventbrite.com. $10 tickets, which include breakfast, can be purchased the day of the meeting at the door (cash only). For more information, contact the Rotary Club of Roanoke Valley at rotaryroanokevalley@gmail.com. Detailed information about each event can be found below: Jan. 17 - Dr. Sharon Landesman Ramey Exploring Human Potential through Rigorous Science and Community Engagement The science of human development has repeatedly demonstrated that human potential to grow and change particularly of vulnerable children is far greater than ever recognized. Examples from Dr. Rameys own research will illustrate how transformative the right interventions can be. Just as importantly, the need to effectively engage consumers and local communities is key to realizing the full benefits of recent discoveries about maximizing the potential of all children to thrive. Sharon Landesman Ramey is a Distinguished Scientist and Professor of Psychology, Neuroscience, and Human Development at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, Virginia Tech, and Professor of Psychiatry at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine who has conducted pioneering research on the early origins of childrens cognitive, social, and emotional competence. March 21 - Della Watkins Making Museum Leadership Matter sponsored by Baumoel & Goodman Enjoy an entertaining story of how Della landed in Roanoke as the Executive Director of the Taubman Museum of Art and was provoked to turn the then negative perception of the TMA into todays positive community resource for schools and families, economic driver, recruitment tool, and engaging visual arts tourist destination. Della Watkins has been the Executive Director of the Taubman Museum of Art for three and one half years. She completed fifteen years of leadership and non-profit management at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, Virginia. As a museum leader she is passionate about the function that the visual arts play in building a strong community and culture. She uses her dynamism and leadership skills to run a strong non-profit business, create programs, garner support, and raise visibility for the Taubman Museum of Art. May 16 - Diana Rosapepe Lifelong Learning: How to be the Smartest You Lifelong learning really is an almost hidden goal of all library service and one we invest quite a bit ofthought and energy into encouraging it. Come learn about how lifelong learning is the key to being the smartest you! Diana was hired as the Hollins Branch Librarian by Roanoke County Public Library in 1986, promoted to assistant director in 1990, and made director in January 2001. Thanks to the work of many colleagues and citizens, the system has made some remarkable steps since then. Diana plans to retire by April 1, 2016. Sept. 19 - Nancy Howell Agee From the Back Room to the Board Room...One Womans Journey Ms. Agee will describe her journey from a youth volunteer to the CEO of the largest employer in our region. Her heartfelt, approachable style will be on display as she talks about leadership challenges in a fast paced, changing environment where lives are literally at stake. Nancy Howell Agee is President and CEO of Carilion Clinic. Ms. Agee has dedicated her lifes work to her twin passions of health care and higher education. She has received many honors including Modern Healthcare's list of 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare, the Ann Fralin Award for support of the arts, the Junior Achievement Laurent Award in the Business Hall of Fame, the Silver Hope Award from the Multiple Sclerosis Society - Blue Ridge Chapter, and is especially proud of receiving Carilions Paladin Award, the highest honor given by Carilion for quality and patient safety. Submitted by Frank Giannini Most everyone is seated with a paper plate full of chicken or ham rolls when Sam Rasoul takes his spot before the group, ready to start. Sport coat tossed over a chair, in jeans and open-collar dress shirt, Rasoul has an out-of-town polish. But he grew up here in Roanoke. He's the city's delegate to the Virginia General Assembly, and these three dozen residents have asked for his advice. They're part of a grass-roots group looking to fight corruption in politics, an issue they believe should cut across party lines. But most are liberals, and Donald Trump's victory in the presidential election has left them feeling that many of their fellow citizens are alien creatures. They don't even know how to talk with them. So they turned to Rasoul. He made headlines after the election by scolding his own Democratic Party for losing touch with white, rural and working-class voters. Saying it was wrong for Democrats to demonize Trump supporters, Rasoul quit his leadership role within the assembly's House Democrats to draw attention to the issue. It was brash and, seemingly, presumptuous. Democrats actually did deliver Virginia for Hillary Clinton, the only Southern state to back her. And who the heck is Sam Rasoul, anyway? At 35, he's only been in the General Assembly a little more than two years. But his background is unique. The son of Palestinian immigrants, Rasoul is the lone Muslim in the Virginia legislature. His Roanoke district is so disparate that Rasoul has joined both the Legislative Black Caucus and the Rural Caucus. Like Richmond's new mayor, Levar Stoney, Rasoul is part of a next generation of Democratic politicians in a state where their party has lost control of a legislature it dominated for most of the 20th century. "I'm a big fan of Sam I think he's terrific. Young leadership," Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe said in an interview. But he's not a fan of his critique. Rasoul seems to be talking more about national party issues than Virginia issues, the governor said. "You know we won the state [for Clinton]," he said, a little testily. But Rasoul won't back down. As one of just two states to hold gubernatorial elections this year (the other is New Jersey), Virginia presents the first post-Trump test of whether the Democratic Party can reconnect with disaffected voters. Blue parts of Virginia got bluer during the presidential race, and red parts, more red. Urban and suburban areas are separating from vast rural areas. Like everywhere else in America, Democrats and Republicans are pulling apart. The solution, Rasoul says, is something that's always been precious to a Muslim kid growing up in Southwest Virginia: trust. "This is the problem with liberals," he tells the Roanoke group. "We have all the facts. We have all the figures. We know all the right answers. It doesn't matter. You have to know how to build trust with people." Even within his party, Rasoul is a bit of an outsider. He had failed in earlier runs at Congress and for the mayor's job in Roanoke. He won his seat in 2014 during a special election to fill a vacancy, then won reelection last year. His district is drawn to be reliably Democratic, but it has become the frontier the westernmost seat in the House of Delegates that is held by a Democrat. Thanks in part to redistricting, Democrats are vastly outnumbered in the House, 66 to 34, and Republicans control the state Senate, as well. Rasoul lives in a heavily African American section of Roanoke, which has yet to overcome its legacy as one of the most segregated cities in the state. But his district is majority-white, and he seems comfortable in all its strata whether he's greeting a white business executive outside the old Hotel Roanoke, with its full-length portrait of Robert E. Lee in the lobby, or being hailed by hipsters at the downtown Mill Mountain Coffee. "I heard you been stirring the pot," a man calls out to Rasoul inside the coffee shop. This is Mike Wilson, 43, a commercial photographer who met Rasoul through the local Chamber of Commerce. Describing himself as a lapsed Republican, Wilson says he's anxious about the country's deep political divisions. He sees chaos ahead. "People like Sam who are just natural world-changers are going to be the ones who are strategic and pragmatic and get us where we need to be," Wilson says. Rasoul's family emigrated to the United States from the Palestinian territories at the beginning of the 1970s. The oldest of four siblings, Rasoul was born in Ohio, but his parents had moved to Roanoke by the time he turned 3. His mother's father had opened a convenience store there. "As the children of immigrants, you go where the business opportunity is," Rasoul says. The young family lived in a one-bedroom apartment downtown as his father opened a convenience store of his own in a poor, crime-ridden neighborhood called Hurt Park. A stray bullet once hit a soup kettle right in front of his father, Rasoul says; the shop's next owner was killed in a robbery. Roanoke had no mosque at the time. Rasoul's parents were spiritual but not dogmatic and would pray in the homes of other immigrants in the region's small Muslim community. Thanks to Boy Scouts and friendships, Rasoul spent more time in Baptist churches growing up than around organized Islam. His parents worked hard to fit in. His mother got a college degree and completely shed her accent. His father built deep connections with his customers. One family story holds that his father once recognized a young man who tried to rob the store. While his mother called the police, his father called the robber's parents. Weeks later, his father gave the boy a ride to court and then testified that he was a good kid who made a mistake. This made a deep impression on Rasoul. "What kind of experience did this person have my father to be able to see and empathize with someone like that?" he says. "It's an education in itself." After high school, Rasoul went to Roanoke College, then got an accelerated MBA at Hawaii Pacific University. He came back home, sold medical equipment, opened a couple of video stores, got married. When he got the itch for politics, he turned to Google to figure out how to start a campaign. Lately he and some partners have opened a consulting firm to help businesses with change and leadership issues, but he says it's not generating much income yet. He spends more time being a politician. His meeting with the anti-corruption group, for instance, takes three hours on a Sunday night. It's not hard to see how his parents' drive to fit into their adopted community influenced the way Rasoul thinks about politics, which he lays out for the group in an elaborate presentation with slides, games and lists. For political leaders to be effective, he says, they must register as genuine and connect with people on an emotional level. When Donald Trump said he'd restore the coal industry, for instance, it hit some in a visceral way that carries more weight than the literal truth of Trump's words. Rasoul repeats a line from an opinion article that makes his point: "Democrats are speaking to the mind, Donald Trump was speaking to the gut," he says, jabbing at his stomach. Regaining that connection involves concepts that Rasoul says carry some risk. One is what he calls "radical empathy." Truly understanding someone else's position takes time and can be unpleasant, he says, and you run the risk of appearing to share beliefs you don't embrace. But it's important to make the effort. The key is remembering that a person in Appalachia may see the world differently from someone in downtown New York, he says. Neither is wrong, within their own sphere of experience. And to reach a deeper understanding of others, don't view them through the filter of ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or other characteristics - something Rasoul calls "bucket thinking." "As your resident brown-skinned Arab terrorist-looking guy here in Southwest Virginia," he says, smiling, "I want you to forget about that [identity] and speak to me on a values level." In a red-blue context, that means getting past stereotypes about people who support Donald Trump. Some Trump supporters are racist, he says. Some Democrats are, too, he adds. "You can't put them all in one bucket." This all strikes a chord with Chris "Mac" McGowan, 37, who retired from the Army on disability after serving in combat in Afghanistan. "The left doesn't speak to rural America," he says. "We don't ever speak to them from their perspective." Rasoul nods. "White, rural they feel the same economic injustice we feel in the inner city, in Roanoke city," he says. Rasoul's message has caused some chafing at high levels of his party. When he quit his House leadership role and criticized Democrats, it seemed as though he was diminishing the fact that Clinton won the state. More recently, Rasoul announced that he's forming a leadership group to train young politicians and community activists. It is a provocative step, implying that others have failed to do this. McAuliffe pointed out in the interview that all five statewide offices governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and two U.S. Senate seats are held by Democrats. He conceded that there are economic and cultural issues dividing Virginians, such as jobs, education and the opiate addiction problem. "The things Sam talks about I think are great," McAuliffe said. "I love when people throw issues up there to talk about. [But] I say let the results speak for themselves." Told of the governor's comments, Rasoul smiles. "I enjoy working with the governor very much," he says. "But when I'm one of 34 in the House, out of 100, it doesn't feel like we're winning Virginia." In his eyes, the party is one election away from near-irrelevance. "If we lose the governor's election next year, what do we really have as far as Virginia is concerned?" he says. The House, Senate and Executive Mansion would all be Republican. "We don't have a firewall," he says. "This is the one race that prevents us from having this disastrous legislation we saw in North Carolina." "I'm proud that we delivered for Hillary Clinton," he says. "But we certainly are not bringing all of Virginia along in this conversation." Susan Swecker, chairman of the Virginia Democratic Party, said officials made repeated trips to rural parts of the state throughout the presidential campaign bright-red areas that were never likely to go for Clinton. "I have one foot in really, really deep blue and one in really, really deep red," said Swecker, who grew up on a farm in rural Highland County. "Did we do very well in those [red] places? No. . . . Maybe we need to listen a little harder. But you know what? As long as I'm party chairman we're not going to forget about people out there." For all of his confidence, Rasoul has yet to demonstrate that his theories can deliver results. He hasn't been in office long enough to have amassed much of a record. But he did manage to get elected in a place where not many people look like him, and where he faced predictable attacks. "The first time he ran [for Congress], he went through some of those lies. There was a lot of, you know, 'that Muslim group,' or he's connected to somebody, or they questioned where he got his money," says Robin Barnhill, 69, a retired health-care worker who is politically active in Roanoke. "But he overcame that by being who he is. . . . There's a lot of faith and trust of Sam broadly in the community." He won't talk of any ambition beyond running for reelection to the House next year. If he has dreams of, say, the state Senate, he'll have to work even harder to connect with rural voters in the mountains around Roanoke. For now, he is focused on the city. Grover Price, 36, turned to Rasoul for advice in starting a community service project called the Hope Center last year in Hurt Park, which distributes food and offers job training and social activities. Rasoul counseled him not to depend on donations; he told Price to start a business that could help fund the center. Specifically, a juice and smoothie shop. Rasoul's legislative intern helped with the business plan, and in November, Price opened the Cup of Hope Cafe. Now Price has dreams of running for City Council one day, inspired by Rasoul. But also, it turns out, by someone he otherwise disagrees with: Donald Trump. "I definitely respect what Trump did. Was I happy that he won? No," Price says. "But he came from a place where nobody expected him to be able to do what he's doing. At the end of the day, he gives me hope I might be able to pull off something like that myself." Which is, after all, the kind of connection Rasoul is talking about. Gov. Terry McAuliffe on Thursday signed an executive order requiring future contractors that do business with the Executive Branch to adhere to a non-discrimination policy that includes bias based on sexual orientation or gender identity. As my first act as governor, I signed Executive Order 1 to ban discrimination in the state workforce based on sexual orientation, take divisive social issue battles off the table and help build an open and welcoming economy, McAuliffe said in Charlottesville, where he announced the executive order. Starting today, the commonwealth of Virginia will not do business with entities that discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Virginia is home to the best state workforce in the country and this policy will ensure there is no question that all Virginians are to receive the full benefits of their citizenship, without regard to their sexual orientation or gender identity." The order took effect immediately upon McAuliffe's signature and will remain in force until it is amended or rescinded by a further executive order. The governor's move comes as a Virginia lawmaker, Del. Robert G. Marshall, R-Prince William, has filed a bill that would force transgender people to use the bathroom corresponding to the sex on their birth certificate and require school principals to notify a student's parents if the student makes any attempt to be "treated as the opposite sex." Marshall's proposal, which faces long odds in the General Assembly session that begins Wednesday, mirrors North Carolina's House Bill 2, which prompted business boycotts and outcry from LGBT groups. McAuliffe has said he will veto "any bill that restricts the rights of Virginians based on sexual orientation or gender identity." Gavin Grimm, a transgender teenager from Gloucester County who was barred from using the boys' bathroom, has filed a civil rights lawsuit against his school district that could lead to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling with nationwide impact. Gay rights advocates praised McAuliffe's move. In addition to keeping Virginia a place with a commonsense, pro-business government, todays Executive Order is a huge leap forward in our goal toward becoming a state that is a safe, welcoming, and equal place for all Virginians," said James Parrish, executive director of Equality Virginia. Under the terms of McAuliffe's Executive Order Number 61: * All Executive Branch entities are ordered to include in their procurement contracts valued over $10,000 a prohibition on discrimination by the contractor, in its employment practices, subcontracting practices, and delivery of goods or services, on the basis of race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, political affiliation, disability, or veteran status. * No state employee or agent within the Executive Branch may engage in discrimination in the provision of public services based on race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, political affiliation, disability, or veteran status. McAuliffe's order says that "any state employee or agent who engages in such discrimination will be subject to appropriate disciplinary action." CHARLOTTESVILLE Making his surprise entry into the governor's race official, Democrat Tom Perriello said Thursday that he wants his party to have a healthy debate about the top of the statewide ticket and promised to build a progressive "firewall" against the politics of president-elect Donald Trump. Perriello, a 42-year-old former congressman who most recently served as a State Department envoy in Africa, rolled out his campaign Thursday morning, starting with a website launch and video message followed by a series of three events throughout the state. "When I go around Virginia, when I go around really anywhere in the world, people care a lot less about whether you're on the right or left, than whether you're trying to help them move up or down," Perriello said during a mid-day announcement speech in a crowded room at a black history center in Charlottesville, his hometown. Perriello's run, assembled over the last 10 days after he discussed the possibility with his family over Christmas, dramatically reshapes the gubernatorial field just five months before the June primaries. It ensured Democratic Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, who has been running for governor for nearly two years with the backing of Gov. Terry McAuliffe and other top Democrats, will, at a minimum, be forced to devote money and resources to a contested primary. McAuliffe has reaffirmed his support for Northam, as have U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine. "Ralph Northam is proud to have the support of Governor McAuliffe and Democrats across Virginia, including all of our statewide elected officials, and will continue to fight back against attempts by Republicans to discriminate against the LGBT community and limit women's access to reproductive health care," said Brad Komar, Northam's campaign manager. With Republicans in the midst of a three-way gubernatorial primary that largely pits the establishment versus the grassroots, similar dynamics could come into play on the Democratic side. Drawing a contrast with Northam's more moderate, low-key style, Perriello pitched himself as a populist fighter who would "take on a system that has been too stagnant and too corrupt." Perriello called Northam Wednesday to disclose his plans. Speaking to reporters Thursday, Perriello called Northam a "class act" and said the two "agree on an awful lot." "I think folks want to see a set of options," Perriello said. "I think that makes us stronger as a democracy and as a party." Perriello pitched himself in broad terms as a defender of the middle class willing to take on entrenched interests, but he outlined few specific policy issues other than a pledge to end partisan redistricting. Asked by a reporter about his stance on the controversial Atlantic Coast Pipeline project, which has drawn fervent opposition near Charlottesville for its impacts in Nelson County, Perriello deferred. "We're going to be coming out with some stuff in the next couple of weeks," he said. "And you're going to definitely get an answer on that." Asked whether his challenge to Northam could give him a role similar to the territory Bernie Sanders occupied in the Democratic presidential primary, Perriello suggested the 2016 punditry was wrong and is shaping up to be wrong again about the Virginia governor's race. "Obviously, I'm most associated with Barack Obama. That's who I ran with in 2008," Perriello said. "I think you see from my track record that I believe in trying to build broad coalitions across racial and class lines to solve our problems." Perriello represented the sprawling 5th District, which then stretched from the Charlottesville area south to the North Carolina line, for just one term. He lost the seat in 2010 to Republican Robert Hurt, who retired last year and was recently succeeded by Rep. Tom Garrett, a conservative former state senator. Representing a mostly rural district with a liberal population center in and around Charlottesville, Perriello has at times broken with party orthodoxy on issues such as guns and abortion. In Congress, he backed language in the Affordable Care Act to prevent federal funding for abortions and earned the National Rifle Association's endorsement when he ran for re-election. He earned praise from liberal groups for his unapologetic support for the health care overhaul and cap and trade legislation meant to curb climate change. In response to Perriello's announcement, Republicans said voters already rejected Perriello over his support for Obama's policies. They also suggested that, like Sanders, Perriello will face resistance from his own party's leaders. "While I disagree with Tom Perriello on virtually every policy position he holds, he is to be commended for standing up to the last remnants of the rigged system Clinton, Inc. has put in place here in Virginia," Republican Party of Virginia Chairman John Whitbeck said in a statement. On his website, Perriello criticized two of his Republican rivals. "The main Republican challengers include the corporate D.C. lobbyist who wrote the playbook that sold out the middle class to the highest bidder. His team rigged the district maps to ensure our legislature reflected his clients instead of our citizens," he said, referring to former Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie. "The other is a top Trump acolyte who sows fear and racial hatred, denies climate change and stoked the war on women," Perriello said, referring to Prince William County Supervisor Corey Stewart, who served as the Trump campaign's Virginia chairman but was fired for taking part in an unauthorized, anti-establishment protest at the RNC headquarters. State Sen. Frank Wagner, R-Virginia Beach, is also seeking the Republican nomination for governor. Denver Riggleman, the owner of a Nelson County distillery, is also considering a run. The transfer of federal lands to the states would become easier under a rules change approved late Tuesday by the U.S. House. The Washington Post reported that a provision of the 43-page rules package changes how Congress values transferred federal lands. The Congressional Budget Office could no longer count federal dollar losses from use of the land for everything from mining to tourism as increases to the federal deficit. The rules change came from House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, who has been one of the most vocal advocates of transferring federal lands to state and even local governments. Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for Secretary of the Interior, voted in favor of the change. Zinke had opposed federal land transfers during his first term in office, including bucking party lines to vote against them. He resigned his post this summer from the party's platform committee at the Republican National Convention over the GOP's support of the transfers. Zinke spokeswoman Heather Swift said Wednesday that despite Zinke's vote, his position on federal land transfers has not changed. She did not respond to follow-up questions seeking clarification on his position. The rules package passed Tuesday night 233 to 190, mostly along party lines. The House vote triggered quick condemnations from Montanas senators. I continue to strongly oppose the transfer of federal lands to the states while fighting to improve the management of those lands, Republican Sen. Steve Daines said in a statement. Sen. Jon Tester called the House vote "an underhanded assault on Montana's outdoor economy, our hunting heritage, and our way of life.'' "Public lands belong to all Americans and Congress should be safeguarding them, not clearing the way to auction them off to the highest bidder,'' the Democratic senator said. "I ask all those who care about our public lands to join me in demanding more public access, not more attacks on our public lands, from their representatives in the House." Federal lands have been transferred and sold at small scales, but Bishop and others have pushed for large-scale transfers, saying that states can do a better job managing the lands and produce economic opportunities for rural communities. Parish Braden, Bishops spokesman, said in a statement to The Hill that in many cases "federal lands create a significant burden for the surrounding communities.'' Allowing communities to actually manage and use these lands will generate not only state and local income tax, but also federal income tax revenues, as well as reduce the need for other taxpayer-funded federal support, either through Payments in Lieu of Taxes or other programs like Secure Rural Schools, Braden's statement to The Hill said. Unfortunately, current budget practices do not fully recognize these benefits, making it very difficult for non-controversial land transfers between governmental entities for public use and other reasons to happen. Opponents of federal land transfers argue that the lands are owned by all Americans and state ownership would lead to large-scale sell-offs. Montana-based conservation and outdoor business groups condemned the vote. "This is an absolute affront to Montana's way of life and to the millions of Americans who hike, hunt, fish, and camp on public lands," said Brian Sybert, executive director of Montana Wilderness Association. "These lands belong to all Americans. They're what make America so great. It's unimaginable that some in Congress would want to simply give these lands away. "It's especially troubling that Rep. Zinke, a self-proclaimed Roosevelt conservationist and possibly our next Interior secretary, voted for this measure, because this is a major attack on Roosevelt's legacy." The House vote threatens outdoor-oriented businesses, said Marne Hayes, executive director of Business for Montanas Outdoors. While Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke voted for the package, we hope that in his new role as Interior secretary, he will stand firm against future threats to Montana jobs and our outdoor way of life, she said in a statement. From food recalls to Zika, health care issues were among the most popular online searches in 2016. Montanans increased their knowledge of antibiotic resistant superbugs, contributed to the social media firestorm following a spike in the cost of Epi-Pens, and advanced the global effort to erase the stigma of mental illness and improve access to suicide prevention and addiction services. Montanans care about their health, and the health of their communities. The Montana Hospital Association (MHA) continues to advance these attributes with its commitment to ensuring every Montanan has access to health care and health care coverage in the New Year. The Montana Legislature and Congress have the privilege of adopting public policy solutions that have a direct impact on improving the lives of their neighbors. As our elected leaders move forward with the debate over the future of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), it is imperative that they take into consideration the impact of their actions on the millions of Americans who have benefitted from the monumental health law. The ACA enabled 2.05 million new customers and 4.31 million returning customers to obtain coverage through the health insurance exchange during the 2016 open enrollment period. Nearly 38,000 Montanans actively selected an individual plan for coverage starting Jan. 1, 2017. Millions nationwide were automatically renewed. In addition, more than 60,000 Montanans have obtained coverage through Medicaid. This coverage expansion has contributed to a drop in the uninsured rate in our state from about 20 percent in 2012 (one of the highest in the nation) to 7.4 percent in 2016. The impact of the coverage expansion on individual lives is undeniable. Newly-insured Montanans now have improved access to primary care providers. Many are benefitting from preventive health measures and are addressing previously unmet medical needs, including chronic conditions that cripple their ability to work. Progress made in our communities demonstrates that health coverage is key to ensuring Montanans have access to the care they need. MHA believes healthier communities result in a more viable economy, a more efficient and effective health care delivery system and, over time, will lead to a long-term slowdown in health care spending growth. If Congress decides to reconsider the ACA and move forward with strategies to eliminate health coverage gains or health care access rural and frontier America may lose more than its local safety-net services. Our communities already face challenges brought on by an aging population, a higher percentage of low-income residents, and persistent shortages of physicians and other health care professionals. Recent history has shown that a lack of health coverage for rural residents and support for rural health care providers can exacerbate these threats and also lead to a loss in jobs, and eventually, to boards on the windows of local businesses and homes. It is imperative that the Montana Legislature and Congress ensure the number of Montanans covered by some insurance plan does not diminish under efforts to repeal and/or replace the ACA. MHAs members are community-driven organizations whose mission is to serve the health care needs of their friends and neighbors. We ask our elected leaders to ensure we can continue to fulfill our mission to make Montana a Top 10 Healthy State that provides viable opportunities for current and future generations. Dick Brown is president/CEO of the Montana Hospital Association. After two attempts in the last two years to secure funding from voters for the Lewis and Clark County Detention Center, officials might ask voters this year to help address jail overcrowding. County officials noted that if a special election is held to fill the congressional seat currently held by U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., the election would give the county an opportunity to ask voters for jail funding again. President-elect Donald Trump nominated Zinke to lead the Department of the Interior, a process that will require Senate confirmation. Should the Senate support Trumps selection, Zinke would resign his seat as Montanas sole congressman and an election would be needed to fill the vacancy. The county detention center opened in 1985 with beds for 54 inmates. While additional beds have been added, common areas of the facility cannot be expanded. On Tuesday, the county was responsible for 141 inmates, of which 113 were being housed locally with the overflow detained in other counties where the county has contracted for space. County officials have said the facility is in a crisis and noted concerns for the safety of inmates and staff. The first question the county commission will face is whether to tag on to the special election for the U.S. House seat, if it is held, said Eric Bryson, the countys chief administrative officer. Bryson noted the commission has not yet made a decision on this. Should the commission agree to again ask voters for jail funding, one possibility would be to ask for support of inmate programming and services, Bryson said. Again, no decision has been made on a ballot issue for programming and services. Voters in November rejected a $4 million ballot measure to provide these services for 15 years, which would have included addressing mental health and chemical dependency issues, risk assessment to determine which people accused of crimes require incarceration pending trial, recidivism and community intervention. Although the operational levy failed with nearly 57 percent opposed, voters approved the $6.5 million bond to remodel the Law Enforcement Center by 76 votes, which amounted to 0.02 percent. Because the renovation bond that would have provided 160 beds was tied through ballot language to the programming and services levy, the county commission is seeking legal opinions whether it can proceed with the renovation. Opinions are being sought from both the county attorneys office and the bonds legal counsel on this point. I dont know the county had enough time in the lead-up to the last election to be able to educate the voters on the need for operating costs. Because we were successful in the renovation, the remodel, I think that shows a pretty good sign that the public understands we need to do something with our jail facility, Bryson said. If the county is not allowed to proceed with renovation of the Law Enforcement Center, then a funding proposal for renovation could also become a candidate for an upcoming ballot. The commission has previously expressed its appreciation for voters support in November of the bond issue to renovate the Law Enforcement Center. Novembers election comes after voters were asked in 2015 for a longer-range and more comprehensive solution to jail overcrowding that included a space for the Sheriffs Office. But the plan for a 244-bed detention facility at a cost of nearly $41 million failed with nearly 65 percent opposed. The permanent levy that was proposed with the 2015 detention center plan would have generated nearly $5.3 million when fully implemented failed with nearly 70 percent opposed. Amid statewide spending cuts, legislators agreed Thursday to modestly trim their own funding bill. With declined revenues from agriculture and natural resources, the governor has proposed 5 percent budget cuts for the two-year budget. Republican legislators say those should go deeper rather than raise taxes. So, Rep. Nancy Ballance, R-Hamilton, said it seemed natural to look for extra cash in the first measure passed each session. House Bill 1, known as feed bill, approves spending for the current legislative session and costs to set up the next one. The original version of the bill introduced Wednesday put the total tally at about $11 million divided between the House, Senate and Legislative Services Division, a 16 percent increase from the 2015-16 budget period. On Thursday, the House Appropriations Committee met again to cut almost $180,000 from the bill, which reduces that session-to-session comparison to a 14 percent increase. I thought it was important to have this discussion because this session, as you know, is going to be one well continually talk about reductions and money were trying to find, Ballance said Wednesday. Some Republicans said the cuts made Thursday do not go far enough, suggesting legislators hourly pay and a new stipend approved last session also could be reduced. Because those amounts are written into state law, they cannot be changed with HB 1 and would require a separate measure. Rep. Tom Burnett, R-Bozeman, was the sole vote against the feed bill on Thursday. He said in a GOP caucus before the meeting that it was a vote in protest of legislative pay and stipends he described as out of line with the compensation of working Montanans. After consulting with other Republicans, he said he might propose a bill to reduce those benefits codified in state law. The feed bill approves spending for legislator and staff salaries, travel reimbursements, technology such as laptops, and health insurance for those who elect to accept it, among other expenses. The cuts approved Thursday, reduced spending on mileage reimbursements, a secondary stipend amount available to legislators in large districts designed to offset travel and eliminated one of two pre-session trainings for legislators. Another amendment pushed back the timeline for when legislators in the 2019 session would receive their first check; rather than those costs being covered by this bill legislators would have to include them in the next sessions feed bill. During the last six sessions, legislators have left an average of $400,000 unspent. Committee members hope that the cuts approved Thursday will cut that ending balance in half going forward. If we continue to have these large ending fund balances, why would we not cut that out of the budget to begin with? Ballance said. The Speaker of the House and the Senate President have authority to decide whether to redirect some or all of that money into the legislative IT fund or to put it back into the general fund. This years leaders will decide what to do with about $500,000. One amendment passed Thursday suggested that up to $93,000 be made available to new legislators for laptops and other technology reimbursements because they do not receive their stipend until July. The committee hoped the rest will revert to the general fund to be spent on other state programs. Based on a formula set in state law, legislators are paid about $90 a day during the 90-day session and the top leader in each chamber is paid an extra $5 a day. Legislators can choose to decline their salary. Legislators who live more than 50 miles from the Capitol also receive about $100 per day to cover meals, lodging and other expenses during the session. Legislative Services Director Susan Fox said the double-digit increase from the previous two-year budget was caused by a number of factors: rising insurance costs, offering insurance to more members as required by federal law and increasing pay for legislators and some staff by up to $1 per hour. The last Legislature also created a new constituent services reimbursement fund to pay for members to travel their district for events and meetings. Each of the 150 legislators receive a $3,000 stipend they can spend on technology, travel or any other costs. They also can receive up to $4,000 more depending on the size of their district, but on a reimbursement basis. The bill now moves to the House chamber for a vote. Juan Ocampo/LACMTA The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) has announced a commitment of approximately $1.6 billion to the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) to support the completion of the second phase of its Westside Purple Line Extension. The announcement marks continued federal funding needed to expand subway service farther west in what is described as one of the regions busiest corridors. The Obama administration is making an important investment in the future of the Los Angeles region, said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. Thanks to a strong local vision and federal support, Los Angeles will continue its transformation from the nations car capital to one that embraces sustainable, multimodal solutions that increase access to opportunity. The Purple Line extension will span 2.6 miles and travel through Beverly Hills and Century City, and representatives say it is expected to significantly improve commuters access to jobs, educational centers and other area attractions. The total project cost is $2.5 billion. The federal funds being allotted include a construction grant agreement for $1.187 billion through the Federal Transit Administrations (FTA) Capital Investment Grant program, a loan agreement to cover up to $307 million through the USDOTs Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act program. The Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality program is also providing a $169 million commitment to the extension. The federal funding will be allocated throughout a period of 12 years on an annual schedule and will be subject to Congressional appropriations. FTA is awarding highly competitive grant funds for this project because, as Los Angeles residents and visitors well know, there is a clear need for alternatives to traffic-congested corridors like Wilshire Boulevard, FTA Acting Administrator Carolyn Flowers said. The Purple Line extension will offer Angelenos better options for getting to and from their jobs, classrooms and all that the area has to offer. The extensions second phase will bring the addition of two stations at Wilshire/Rodeo and Century City/Constellation, serving areas in Beverly Hills, Century City and the Golden Triangle. The new stations are set to open in 2026 and facilitate more than 36,000 daily rides within a decade. Representatives say the Purple Line extensions first section is under construction between Wilshire/Western and Wilshire/La Cienega. Anoka County Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton and Lt. Governor Tina Smith introduced a bill that would spend $1.5 billion to build more than 240 projects across the state, including more than $91 million in rail projects. Minnesota legislators failed to pass a bonding bill at the close of the 2016 session. My proposals would put thousands of Minnesotans to work throughout our state, increasing economic opportunity and strengthening local economies, said Gov. Dayton. This bill will help deliver clean, reliable water to Minnesota communities, ensure our higher education institutions have the facilities they need to train our workforce, and build community projects across our state. I urge the Legislature to pass this Jobs Bill quickly, to support our local economies and create good jobs across the state. The governor says the bonding bill would help address many of the states infrastructure needs and balances the needs of the state, with 35 percent of projects in Greater Minnesota, 30 percent in the Twin Cities Area and 35 percent having impacts statewide. Additionally, the governor says the bill is designed to make state resources go further, by leveraging more than $600 million in private, local and federal investment in Minnesotas infrastructure. The majority of the funds included in the proposal for rail, more than $69 million, are designated for grade separations along crude oil routes. The bill would provide $42.3 million for a grade separation in Moorhead where 85 trains pass through the city every day, but the configuration of the tracks and streets makes gate installation impossible. The bill also includes $14.8 million for a project in Prairie Island to separate the tracks from Sturgeon Lake Road, which is the towns only public roadway and evacuation route. The final grade separation included in the proposal is for the Hanson Boulevard crossing in Coon Rapids, which the governors office said is regularly blocked by trains, which makes it difficult for emergency vehicles to travel across town. The grade crossing deemed the states worst, the Ferry Street/BNSF crossing in Anoka, was not included in the project list. The Minnesota Department of Transportation recently completed a study of the crossing and made a recommendation to separate the railroad from the highway with a road flyover. The project is currently unfunded. The state has $3 billion available in bonding capacity for 2017-2018. The governors office said the proposal stays within the limits. The proposal will now be considered by the state legislature. President-elect Donald Trump sought to downplay the possibility of a rift with the intelligence community on Thursday, blaming the media for giving the impression of a divide. "The media lies to make it look like I am against 'Intelligence' when in fact I am a big fan!" Trump said in a post on Twitter. The latest tweet from Trump comes even though he has expressed skepticism about the intelligence community's conclusion that Russia hacked Democratic officials and political committees in an effort to influence the U.S. elections. In a previous post to Twitter, the president-elect suggested that an intelligence briefing on the alleged Russian hacking was delayed until Friday to provide more time to build a case. Trump also previously tweeted statements by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange claiming the Russians did not give him the information he released from Democratic officials. However, in his latest posts, Trump argued that the tweets should not be seen as an indication that he agrees with Assange. "The dishonest media likes saying that I am in Agreement with Julian Assange - wrong," Trump tweeted. "I simply state what he states, it is for the people to make up their own minds as to the truth." Trump has come under fire from some Republican lawmakers for seeming to agree with Assange, who has been accused of jeopardizing national security by releasing classified military documents. The latest tweets from Trump come as the Senate Armed Services Committee is holding a hearing on foreign cyber threats to the U.S. (Photo: Marc Nozell) For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News Former U.K. Independence Party leader Nigel Farage revealed Thursday he will attend the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump later this month. Farage, who vigorously campaigned for Britain to leave the European Union, was a vocal Trump supporter during the presidential campaign and spoke at a rally for the billionaire-turned-politician in Mississippi. The British politician told Sky News he will attend Trump's inauguration as a guest of Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant. "It's going to be a great, historic event," Farage said. "In America they've had a political revolution and it's complete; the problem in Britain is our revolution is not complete because the same people are still in charge." Farage and Trump both frequently compared the U.S. presidential campaign to the U.K.'s so-called Brexit vote last June. While Trump has suggested Farage would make a good British envoy to the U.S., the idea has been rejected by the government of Prime Minister Theresa May. (Photo: Michael Vadon) For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News Senate Democrats are calling on the Office of Congressional Ethics to investigate President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for Health and Human Services Secretary, suggesting that Congressman Tom Price, R-Ga., may have engaged in insider trading. The Democratic lawmakers pointed to a Wall Street Journal report alleging that Price traded more than $300,000 worth of shares of healthcare companies while simultaneously pushing and advocating for legislation that could impact the companies' stock prices. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the reports about Price's -related stock trading should "shock and appall every American." "In the spirit of 'draining the swamp,' we need to ensure that our nominees for top cabinet posts prioritize the welfare of all Americans over their own financial gain," Schumer said. Schumer was joined by Senators Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., the top Democrats on the Senate committees that will hold confirmation hearings on Price's nomination as HHS Secretary. The Senators argued that Price's nomination should not move forward until the questions about his stock trading are adequately answered. "We don't know if he broke the law," Schumer said. "But there certainly are enough serious questions to warrant a serious investigation before any hearing is held on Congressman Price to become Secretary of HHS." "This is serious stuff. And that's why we need full investigations, with plenty of questions and full disclosure," he added. "We do not believe any of these hearings should be rushed through." Schumer noted that Democrats were able to able to make the request after House Republicans reversed course on a proposal he claims would have gutted the Office of Congressional Ethics. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Political News Australia will on Friday release November numbers for imports, exports and trade balance, highlighting a modest day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. The trade deficit is pegged at A$550 million following the A$1.541 billion shortfall in October. Malaysia will see November figures for imports, exports and trade balance. In October, imports were worth 59.4 billion ringgit and exports were at 69.2 billion ringgit for a trade surplus of 9.8 billion ringgit. 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. By SA Commercial Prop News Jay Padayatchi. Redefine Properties, the JSEs second-largest real estate counter, with a market cap of R21,5bn, is by no means shooting out the lights yet. Redefine Properties, the JSEs second-largest real estate counter, with a market cap of R21,5bn, is by no means shooting out the lights yet growth of 3% in income payouts for the year to end-August is, after all, well below the sectors average of 6%-7%. But shareholders are no doubt pleased that the counters latest set of results is in line with forecasts. Thats unlike some prior reporting periods, when management didnt deliver on its promises. Redefine CEO Marc Wainer concedes that investor sentiment may well have been hurt because results in recent times have not always lived up to market expectations. But hes confident that the company is on track to achieve sustainable growth in distributions over the next few years on the back of a restructuring strategy aimed at improving the quality of the groups core portfolio. Progress has already been made in getting rid of the rats and mice in the SA-based portfolio. The disposal strategy includes the recently approved unbundling of 98 smaller buildings to Arrowhead Properties for R1,72bn. Wainer says the number of its SA properties will shrink to around 260, from more than 400 two years ago. At the same time, the average property value will increase from R50m to R80m. There will also be a shift away from smaller provinces like the Eastern Cape, the Northern Cape and North West, where Wainer believes local authorities are becoming increasingly dysfunctional. We are concerned about the provision of services in a number of local authorities and have accordingly chosen to vote with our cheque book, Wainer says. Redefine will in future concentrate the bulk of its portfolio in the Western Cape, KwaZulu Natal and Gauteng, he says. Meago director Jay Padayatchi says the jury is still out on how successful Redefines restructuring strategy will be. Some investors actually liked having access to Redefines smaller, high- yielding properties. He notes that managements intention to include non recurring fee and trading income in distributions could create some volatility in earnings . In the meantime the stock continues to trade at a discount, at a yield of 8,9% compared with the sectors 8%. Its another new year and if youre like me, youre reflecting on the choices (good and bad) you made in 2016. After being on a weight loss journey a few years ago, I have sadly put some of it back on and now is the time to do something about it. Im firing up MyFitnessPal again and planning an exercise routine that will get me back on track and hopefully create a new lifestyle I can live with. This time of year demand is high for gym memberships, so were skipping that routine and looking to add a couple pieces of equipment alongside our worn out treadmill in the basement. It turns out that January is a fantastic time to purchase these types of products as manufacturers are all vying for your dollars, much like buying a TV or toys before Christmas! Weve looked around and can find no better deals than the ones currently being offered on Amazon for a wide variety of fitness equipment and accessories. While we havent made our final decisions yet on which to buy (or consulted our savings account), these are some of the things that have amazing deals running right now! Treadmills Walk your way to fitness with the Schwinn MY16 830 Treadmill. Featuring a USB charging port and MP3 input, play music through the console to power you through your workout. Upload your progress to a variety of popular fitness apps to track your results. The SoftDrop deck folding system allows you to easily move or store the treadmill. A 4-cell Softrak deck cushioning system reduces joint stress. An onboard screen system offers increased visibility to programs and goal tracking. Transfer metrics via USB to the SchwinnConnect website and popular apps like UA, MyFitnessPal, GoogleFit, Apple Health, Endomondo, MapMyRun/Ride. Includes an adjustable three speed fan, 22 preset exercise programs including manual, quick goal, train, weight control, heart health, interval, and custom workouts, a motorized 0-12 degree incline offering challenging resistance, and a 2.75 continuous horsepower motor keeps up throughout the workout. Inspired by their commercial grade equipment, this top-of-the-line treadmill features a 3.0 CHP motor, 26 workout programs and their DualTrack display that provides two high-resolution, blue backlit LCD monitors so can watch your tablet or read a magazine while still tracking your workout time, distance traveled and calories burned. It also boasts their StrikeZone cushioning system to deliver unparalleled comfort and relief for long runs. Bluetooth connectivity makes syncing your data with Nautilus Connect, the Nautilus Trainer App and MyFitnessPal a breeze. Plus, the T616 also features USB media charging, an MP3 input port, in-console speakers and an adjustable fan, making it the best treadmill theyve ever designed. The TC10 delivers an impressively low-impact workout thats easy on your joints. As a result, your perceived exertion is incredibly low. That means youll burn more calories on a TreadClimber than you would with other cardio machines, but wont feel as tired when youre done. Youll get the effectsand the resultswithout feeling the fatigue. A University of Wisconsin study indicates that TreadClimber technology lets you burn up to 3.5 times the calories in the same amount of time as with other cardio machines. Ellipticals The Schwinn 470 elliptical has a ten degree motorized ramp. It gives you an ergonomic, fat-burning workout, with intuitive controls and customizable programs to work with your specific fitness goals. And with its integrated heart monitor, youll know when your heart rate is in the fat-burning zone, ensuring more efficient exercise routines. With easy to use features, simple assembly, and a unique console designed with you in mind, the newly designed Schwinn 470 is made with the same high standards that has made the Schwinn name famous. If youre ready to get fit, the E616 elliptical is up to the challenge. Built on years of innovative designs for the fitness clubs, our top-of-the-line offering features 29 customizable workout programs, 25 levels of resistance, motorized incline, in-console speakers, an MP3 input port, USB media charging and more. Built-in Bluetooth LE technology allows you to effortlessly sync to the Nautilus Connect portal, the Nautilus Trainer App, and the popular nutrition app MyFitnessPal. It also features our DualTrack display, allowing you to cover the main display with your tablet or magazine and still track your workout results on a second high-resolution blue backlit LCD monitor, making the E616 Elliptical the ultimate combination of features and technology. Precor Precision Series Ellipticals are commercial models for your home with the design and features favored by fitness center exercisers and owners. New technology uses your preferences and exercise data to deliver a personalized workout experience that promotes better results and saves you time. The Precision Series is club-proven reliability in an elliptical personalized for your home. Maximize your workout results with touch sensor and wireless heart rate monitoring. Works with any Polar compatible wireless heart rate transmitter (included). Your workout data from the EFX 447 can be automatically uploaded to the Preva mobile app making it easy to track your goals and achievements. Recumbent Bikes Featuring a brilliant console with brilliant LED display, which displays your resistance level, total time, segment time, watts, HR zone, distance, calories, AD rpms. This bike offers plenty of magnetic resistance at 32 levels, which are quick keys for instant resistance change, provide you with challenging workout sessions. The 1060RB console is equipped with 35 motivating workouts, including a fitness test, strength, hill, interval, fat burn, random, lap 5K and lap 10K, + heart rate controlled programs. Also included are 2 user profiles, in which you can create your own profile including your age and weight to accurately keep track of your total times, calories, and heart rate. Plug into the console with an MP3 audio jack to provide the sound of music to your workout and let your electronic device or phone rest on the Smart devices no-slip Station. The R616 Recumbent is the perfect combination of features and style. Their premium recumbent bike features Bluetooth connectivity to sync your data with Nautilus Connect and MyFitnessPal. It also comes with a DualTrack display with two high-resolution blue backlit LCD monitors so you can cover the main display with your tablet or magazine and still see your results. Loaded with 29 workout programs, 25 levels of resistance, an MP3 input port and USB media charging capabilities. Plus, for an added level of comfort in every workout, theyve added a ventilated back support and padded, contoured seat; making the R616 the most fully featured recumbent theyve ever designed. Getting you to your fitness goals, one pedal at a time, the Schwinn 270 Comfort Recumbent Exercise Bike lets you look your best while developing a healthy and active lifestyle. A large, ventilated seat with seat back and padded contoured seat bring a level of added comfort to virtually every workout. Heart grips are ergonomically placed for relaxed riding when using a heart rate program. With a range of programs and levels designed for every user, youll have no trouble constantly challenging yourself. The recumbent comfort exercise bike leverages years of Schwinns expertise to deliver innovative excellence. A new oversized console makes tracking your progress easier on DualTrack LCD displays as well as exporting data to keep you updated on your fitness goals. The consoles USB port charges your smartphone, tablet or other device while working out so draining your battery is not a concern. Many times weve found that purchasing a piece of equipment for the home ends up being much cheaper in the long run than an annual gym membership. Plus it is staring you in the face every day, guilting you for not using it! Now to only figure out which one we can afford! What are your fitness goals for 2017? SNc Channels: Search About Salem-News.com Jan-05-2017 12:49 TweetFollow @OregonNews Speaker Ryan Threatens to Defund Planned Parenthood Health Services and Leave Millions Without Care A petition asking Congress to stand with Planned Parenthood received 63,000 signatures in less than 2 days. Susan B. Anthony was a women's rights advocate, and anti-slavery activist. Image: Pinterest (WASHINGTON D.C.) - Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) announced plans to defund Planned Parenthood, cutting off health care for millions of low-income women, men and young people who access quality preventive and basic care like cancer screenings and birth control at hundreds of health centers across the country. Statement from Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood Action Fund: "Defunding Planned Parenthood is dangerous to people's health, it's unpopular, and it would leave people across the country without care. "Two and a half million women, men and young people come through our doors every year for lifesaving care like cancer screenings, birth control, and STI and STD tests, and they cannot afford to have basic reproductive health care attacked. "Planned Parenthood has been here for 100 years and we're going to be here for 100 more. Women and men in this country won't let politicians like Paul Ryan and Mike Pence take us back decades." "It's likely no accident that this attack was launched the day after Vice President-elect Mike Pence, a longtime opponent of Planned Parenthood, held a closed-door meeting with Speaker Ryan and the Republican leadership. "Now that their plan is clear, Planned Parenthood, the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the one in five women who have come to Planned Parenthood, the entire public health establishment and the millions of supporters across the country are ready to defend care with everything we've got." Yesterday, Planned Parenthood Action Fund launched the #IStandWithPlannedParenthood national campaign. In the weeks ahead volunteers and activists will hold 300 events in 47 states and 150 cities to mobilize supporters to fight back against this attack. The events will take place throughout January, February and March, and include marches, rallies, organizing events and more. The events coincide with the launch of a new website, istandwithpp.org, directing supporters to take action by sending letters to their members of Congress, volunteering for Planned Parenthood, sharing their story, finding an event, or calling their senator. A petition asking Congress to stand with Planned Parenthood against the attacks also launched on Tuesday, already boasting 63,000 signatures. Source: Planned Parenthood Advocates of Oregon _________________________________________ Politics | United-states | Women | Health | Most Commented on Articles for January 4, 2017 | Articles for January 5, 2017 | A founding member of the popular reggae group, Three Houses Down, is a new chief of Siumu. New Zealand-based Sione Niumotu Pomee was bestowed the chiefly title of Tupuola along with his sister-in-law, Leilani Faalogo-Fangatua, last week. A Design Engineer and the Owner of Pomee Constructions Ltd in New Zealand, Tupuola Sione is originally from Tonga. He is married to a Samoan. I feel very honoured to be given the name Tupuola, he said. Although I'm Tongan married to a Samoan with two kids I definitely won't take the chief title lightly. As I sat in the ceremony all I could feel was the presence of my father in-law, Faalogo Masei, who has passed but has his title in Siumu. To me it was definitely an experience to witness the beautiful Samoan culture which in the future I wish for my kids to practice for they are the future of our peoples. Therefore this gives them something to look forward to and help keep their culture as written by me in one of our biggest songs (Three Houses Down - Keep Your Culture). Tupuola added he is ready to serve his family both in Samoa and Tonga. I am looking forward now to serve to the fullest and carry the name Tupuola proudly, he said. As mentioned by me before my ava, Tupuola in Tongan means, a new beginning to success. The day of my title marked a new beginning for me as I now serve my people of Samoa. Tupuola Sione helped formed Three Houses Down in 2004 wit his brothers Robert Pomee, Lisiate Langi, Charlie Pomee and Loiola Pomee. The band was formed after Robert left another band that was based three houses up the road from their parents home. The band PA and equipment was purchased by Robs dad, Talanoa, after some encouragement from the boys grandfather Tevita Aho Pomee, who sadly passed away recently. The band is built on a strong choral tradition. Rob, his father and his late grandfather have all been choirmasters. The band are based in Otara and have built up a large and loyal live following by playing gigs week in, week out. They are known for tight musicianship, a good work ethic and putting on a great show. Three Houses Down specialise in reggae. LAS VEGAS (AP) High technology is taking to the high seas. Cruise ships are being outfitted with sensors and trackers, all to help crew members better anticipate passengers' needs and whims. Carnival Corp., the operator of cruise lines including its namesake, Princess, and Holland America, unveiled the new concierge technology at the CES gadget show in Las Vegas on Wednesday. It's scheduled to debut on the Regal Princess cruise ship in November. With it, the door to your cabin will to unlock automatically as you approach wearing your personalized tracking medallion. The wait staff can bring your favorite cocktail before you even ask. This type of personalization is important as cruise ships get bigger and come across as impersonal, says Mike Driscoll, editor-in-chief of Cruise Week, an industry publication. It can also help cruise companies attract more first-timers, including tech-savvy millennials. The leisure-cruise industry is playing catch-up with travel peers like hotels and airlines, which now let you unlock rooms with a smartwatch or fly with a boarding pass on your phone. "It's catching up to what life is like on the land," Driscoll said. The linchpin of the system is a tracking medallion the size of a quarter. Cruise passengers wear it as a pendant, throw it into a purse or place it in a pocket. The medallion uses wireless technologies to communicate with sensors placed around the ship, cruise terminals and even airports, where staff can provide personalized greetings as passengers fly in. Crew members armed with tablets can respond to any needs nearby. For example, a guest could be having a drink when a crew member comes by to remind him that a yoga class starts in five minutes. Or a waiter working poolside can ask whether a guest wants her usual gin and tonic. In addition, interactive displays can offer personalized directions to guests' rooms. And the medallion ties into a payment system, so no one has to swipe or sign anything when buying souvenirs or drinks. Whether anticipating guests' needs will feel useful or creepy remains to be seen. Those who might be spooked don't have to use the medallion or can limit how much they want to participate, Carnival CEO Arnold Donald said. "In the end, the guests will tell us," Donald told The Associated Press. "If it doesn't (resonate), it's back to the drawing board." Donald said he hopes the service will encourage customers to sign up for repeat cruises while spending more on incidentals. Different passengers might react quite differently to the service. "With your 83-year-old aunt in Saskatchewan, it might be too much," Driscoll said. But for a passenger in his 50s, it could make life on the ship "just easier." Miami-based Carnival plans to expand the setup to all other Princess ships in the next several years and eventually to other vessels. Carnival, the world's largest leisure travel company, owns more than 100 ships across 10 brands. Personalization isn't new to the travel industry. Walt Disney World in Florida has a MagicBand wristband device that doubles as a room key and "FastPass" reservations to popular rides. The MagicBand is also linked to a credit card for speedier payments at restaurants and gift shops. John Padgett, who was one of the chief architects of the MagicBand before joining Carnival in 2014, said the cruise ship's system goes further in eliminating the need to touch or tap a terminal. Sensors pick up signals automatically. "There are no wires. There is no charging," Padgett said. "It doesn't require a guest or consumer to do anything specific." Carnival officials say there will be safeguards against someone walking away with another guest's medallion. Each guest's profile is tied to a security picture, so a crew member can compare a passenger's photo on a portable device. It also says the medallion doesn't contain sensitive information such as the stateroom number, much like a hotel room key. The company added that the system features additional authentication, although it declined to elaborate. Donald said the technology could be adapted for other industries, too. Imagine a patient entering the hospital and being recognized immediately by a nurse without having to check in or fill out forms. I've recently run some names through it and found lots (a whole lot), of names of people and companies that have money being held by the state treasurer awaiting a claim to be processed so they can distribute those funds. Names like the Decatur Police Department, Decatur Schools, several car dealerships, churches, bars, clubs, legions and even the city of Decatur. Everyone should run their name or company or organization through this web site, (icash.illinoistreasurer.gov), to see if they have money coming. I contacted two friends that had less than $100 coming, and they did the research and filed claims. One had $67 and the other $54 coming. Many of the claims however, are for more than $100. What's also interesting is that every state has this type of website. I've found relatives in other states that have money coming from their states. The Head of State, His Highness Tui Atua Tupua Tamasese Efi, has personally congratulated the reappointed leaders of American Samoa. His Highness Tui Atua led a strong delegation from Samoa to the inauguration ceremony of American Samoas Governor and Lieutenant Governor. Governor Lolo Matalasi Moliga and Lt. Gov. Lemanu Peleti Mauga have taken their oaths to begin their second four-year term in office as leaders of the American territory. The ceremony at the Malaeoletalu in Fagatogo was well attended. Among the guests was the Head of State, His Highness Tui Atua, the Masiofo, Her Highness Filiflia Tamasese, Prime Minister Tuilaepa Dr. Sailele Malielegaoi and other senior government officials. Speaking during the inauguration, Prime Minister Tuilaepa congratulated Governor Lolo and Lemanu on being re-elected. Tuilaepa said their election is a depiction of the successful developments that you and your government have delivered in the past four years to serve the needs of the people of American Samoa. The government of Samoa is determined to continue our closer social and economic relations and is keen on fortifying our partnership to collectively respond to the challenges we, as small Island developing states, currently face, he said. We look to the future with unwavering faith that our Lord God will continue to lead and direct our paths towards prosperity, peace and harmony. For Governor Lolo, he is humbled by the faith of the people of American Samoa in him and his deputy. This event has been made possible by your vote of confidence, faith and trust, he said in a statement. Let us start [this] new administrative term together affirming our collective commitment that we will adopt President John F. Kennedys call to ask not what the Government can do for you, but rather ask what you can do for your government. We are mindful of the responsibility, inherited in these leadership roles that we hold, to ensure that we build a future of long-lasting opportunities for growth and development of our Territory. Lemanu on the other hand added: The only way to improve American Samoas stance against the unexpected swells and challenges of tomorrow is for us to persevere and work together while unceasingly serving our people with both dignity and integrity. Businesswoman, Moe Lei Sam, is calling on the community to work together to address the issue of the growing number of young children roaming the streets of Apia late at night. Disappointed about what is happening, Ms. Lei Sam said the problem isnt one that involves the parents of the children alone. They are our children, the future of our country, she told the Samoa Observer yesterday. I see the M.P. talking about urgent action to address it but let me just say that the problem isnt new and we have been singing about it. The government had been ignoring their plight and turning a blind eye to the young kids. The issue is bigger than anyone knows and to address it everyone plays a part in fixing it. The mother shared her view after she saw the front page story on Wednesday with headline, Street vendors or future convicts? Ms. Lei Sam pointed out that if the three young children that beat up the homeless man was not captured on CCTV and exposed the government would have maintained that nothing is wrong. The Prime Minister should be the first person to look at this problem, she suggested. He is the leader and the father of the nation but he does not talk about this kind of issue. I dont know if he doesnt know it or he is also turning a blind eye to it. Ms. Lei Sam said its near back to school season and the future of the young vendors is uncertain. She had also done her part with hope to address the issue. Ms. Lei Sam said she was part of a radio programme hosted by Rev. Falefatu Enari to raise awareness about the street vendors problem. She explained the show talked about encouraging parents of the children to meet with guest speakers like pastors and others that can help to discuss their issues. Its sad what we are seeing in Samoa because we dont want to see young children out selling goods late at night, she said. The radio show was to encourage discussion and conversation around the issue for everyone to help in their own way to address the problem. We appealed for a space to allow the parents to meet up and asked for guest speakers that can talk to the parents what the real problem is because they are not hungry its something else. But sadly no one offered to be guest speakers and society is turning a blind eye to this. Ms. Lei Sam said she had offered to talk with parents about the issue at her own store at Saleufi and plays her part by feeding young vendors who come to her store. According to the mother when she asked the parents what the problem was that they had to send out their young children late at night they did not respond. They just looked at me and didnt say anything, she recalled. I wanted to help them but it was like their lips were sealed they just did not say anything. She pointed out that every morning when she opens the store the vendors are waiting outside her door. There was a new girl from the other children that I use to see this morning, she said. She was only 8 years old and I looked at her with a heavy heart. How could her parents let her do this? My main concern is the parents and they really need to stop sending the children out. I look outside and think to myself what kind of future are we heading to? she asked. Just outside Ms. Lei Sams store the 8 year old, Folole Taoipu was sitting there with her goods yesterday morning. The young girl targets customers going up to Georgies Pizza to sell her small items. She said it was her first time out selling on the streets because she was asked by her parents to do so. My other siblings sell on the other areas and this is my spot, she said. We go home around 1amI meet up with my siblings infront of Mc Donalds where my parents would collect us to go home. The young girl added she didnt want to be on the street but she had to listen to her mother. Its not a Festive Season without young people walking along the road blasting their music, getting drunk and starting up trouble. At the village of Tapatapaoo, they were spared from all the nonsense. With fewer people living in the area and the rain acting as a drunkard repellent, Malama Pesa, aged 70, described her village as peaceful and trouble-free during the holiday season. There arent many people living in this area, she told the Village Voice. If you go driving around, you wont find many families and I am thankful for that because it keeps the area peaceful. Take for example the holiday season which just passed, there was no trouble at all and no one walking along the road drunk which is common in many villages during this time of year. Although the village is peaceful with not many residents, Malama says they occasionally run into a few issues with drunkards but its bearable. Dont get me wrong, we still have problems with people getting drunk in the area but I am happy that they dont go overboard, she said. They just drink for a few hours then they go to sleep. I feel that the rain during Christmas and New Years acted as a repellent for the drunks because they dont want to be out and get wet. But all in all, Malama says that she and her family are living a blessed life with enough to cover needs on a daily basis. By the Lords blessings, my family has enough, she said. We use our land very wisely by planting some bananas and other crops which play a big part in the lives of my family. When we cant afford anything nice to eat then we just have taro or banana in coconut milk because things from the shops are getting more and more expensive over time. We have our fair share of bad and good days but I guess we are used to it. I mean, we cant expect to have only good days and during times of struggle, its also helpful because it keeps your life moving forward. If you dont have any issues then you wont learn from it and improve your life. She urges Samoa to come together in prayer as we continue on into this new year. As we continue on this year, I feel that the most important thing for our people is to pray, fast and stand together, she said. This is a new year and with 2017, there must come a bit of change for our people and we must remember that peace and service to others is our way. And with this also being the cyclone season, it only means that unity and prayer is needed now more than ever. HONOLULU (AP) A man accused of biting a Hawaiian Airlines employee during a July flight from American Samoa to Hawaii is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday for interfering with a flight crew. Aumoeualogo Agaaoa Togia pleaded guilty in September in exchange for dismissal of an assault charge. Togia drank alcohol before and during the nonstop flight from Pago Pago to Honolulu, according to his plea agreement. Halfway into the flight, he refused to take his seat when the seat belt light turned on and became verbally and physically abusive punching the bathroom door and threating to kill flight attendants, the court document said. An FBI affidavit said Togia bit a load planner in the hand while the worker was trying to restrain Togia. Load planners determine where the bags and cargo are placed on the aircraft to ensure proper weight and balance, airline spokeswoman Ann Botticelli. It's not clear why the load planner was on the flight. Togia pushed the load planner, the affidavit said. Togia disputes that he bit anyone, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Margaret Nammar. Assistant Federal Defender Melinda Yamaga, who represents Togia, didn't return a message seeking comment Thursday morning. While in a holding cell at Honolulu International Airport, Togia told an FBI agent he fought back after being "ambushed," that he "might have blacked out" and didn't remember what happened. Qualcomm unwrapped its latest integrated mobile processor chip on Tuesday the Snapdragon 835, which aims to deliver faster speeds and longer battery life to smartphones and other mobile gadgets without adding bulk to the devices. The news from the San Diego wireless chip giant came as part of an avalanche of product announcements coming out of CES 2017, a massive consumer electronics trade show that opens Thursday in Las Vegas. Several other San Diego companies also will be showing off their technology at CES, including 3-D headphone maker Ossic; senior-focused technology providers Great Call and Independa; and smart glasses start-up Aira, which offers an On-Star like service to help the visually impaired better navigate their surroundings. Advertisement RELATED: 5 things to watch at CES 2017 For Qualcomm, the new Snapdragon 835 chip is one of a handful announcements it will make at the show. Also Tuesday, Qualcomm touted the expansion of a partnership with managed health care giant UnitedHealthcare to offer certain health plan members discounts for using fitness trackers and hitting-steps-per-day targets. Qualcomm Life is providing the secure wireless backbone to collect exercise data from UnitedHealthcare policy holders, who can earn up to $1,500 in credits toward their out of pocket annual deductibles. The San Diego wireless chipmakers new Snapdragon 835 processor is expected to be the first chip to hit the market using leading edge 10-nanometer process technology from Samsungs semiconductor factories. The complex manufacturing technique cuts down chip size and power demands by packing more tiny transistors more than 3 billion onto a piece of silicon smaller than a penny. The mobile market especially Qualcomm is accelerating in being aggressive in new process node technology, said Keith Kressin, senior vice president of product development for Qualcomm Technologies. And 10 nanometers gets really, really small thousands of times smaller than a strand of hair small. Qualcomm said the Snapdragon 835 will begin showing up in devices in the first half of this year. Osterhout Design Group (ODG), a San Francisco start-up that in December raised $58 million, is the first to use the Snapdragon 835 in two new smart glasses products. The chip was designed to the ground up to support new and innovative products and experiences beyond mobile phones, said Raj Talluri, senior vice president of product management for Qualcomm Technologies. But Snapdragon 835 clearly will target flagship smartphones with its integrated features that include a data mobile capable of peak download speeds of 1 gigabit per second. It is also 35 percent smaller size than Qualcomms previous top-end Snapdragon 820 chip. The chip uses 25 percent less power, adding roughly 2.5 hours to a daily battery life on average. And it has a framework to enable fingerprint, eye and face-based biometric security. You get an advantage because the power is lower and the thermals are better at the 10 nanometer, and you also can put in a bigger battery while keeping your phone the same size or shrinking it, said Kressin. Rival chipmaker Intel also is expected to launch 10-nanometer products, but not until the second half of this year. The company hasnt said if 10 nanometer technology will be used for mobile semiconductors. Intel makes a variety of chips for everything from data center servers to PCs. In addition to Snapdragon, Qualcomm said it has expanded its work with UnitedHealthcare to give certain insurance plan members incentives to exercise while earning credits against their deductibles. In March, Qualcomm Life/UnitedHealthcare launched a pilot program in 12 states that included the custom built Trio Tracker wearable, which learned a users gait to prevent gaming the system. Now, UnitedHealthcare has expanded the program to 40 states and will allow participants to use off the shelf fitness trackers starting with the Fitbit Charge 2. Fitbit Charge 2 has the capability to be customized so users can see how they are tracking against UnitedHealthcares daily fitness goals which include walking 300 steps in under five minutes six times a day, walking 3,000 steps in 30 minutes and reaching 10,000 steps each day. Qualcomm continues to provide the connectivity to monitor steps through its 2net Platform from subsidiary Qualcomm Life. Wearable technology can help encourage employees to walk each day and earn financial rewards at the same time, using secure technology that we believe is intuitive and convenient, said Richard Migliori, chief medical officer of UnitedHealth Group, in a statement. Business mike.freeman@sduniontribune.com; Twitter:@TechDiego 760-529-4973 Cross-border super chef Javier Plascencia has pulled out of Bracero Cocina de Raiz, the high-profile Little Italy restaurant he opened to much fanfare in 2015. Citing financial pressures from operating in one of San Diegos most fiercely competitive and expensive dining neighborhoods, the celebrity chef said creative differences led to the rupture of his partnership with his co-owner, who is also his brother-in-law. RELATED: High-profile chef Javier Plascencia leaves Bracero Advertisement Working with family is very difficult, especially if you dont have the same ideas or the same passion, said Plascencia, who was reached Wednesday by phone in Todos Santos, Mexico, where he is opening his latest restaurant project. Im very, very passionate about my cuisine, and Im very strict with my ingredients. I dont like to take short cuts. I was having a difficult time with the labor cuts. My food is very labor intensive. Bracero was taking all of my energy it was draining me, physically and mentally. Plascencias departure from Bracero and its operator, Mexiterranean Hospitality, was first reported by Eater San Diego on Tuesday. Plascencia said Wednesday that he was more relieved than disappointed by his decision, adding that the expense of operating Bracero, a stylized two-story, 5,000-square-foot eatery on the corner of Kettner Boulevard and Beech Street, put his star power as a chef in direct conflict with the realities of operating a profitable business. The margins are very tight and having a chef like me, I want my money of course, but my partner wanted money and the investor wanted his money back, Plascencia said. They wanted to start cutting corners around the kitchen and doing simpler things and ordering from Sysco, the multinational food supply company. I didnt become a chef to get rich, and I dont open restaurants to get rich. I have passion and thats the struggle that chefs have. That sentiment was echoed by a fellow chef who was familiar with Braceros finances but not authorized to speak about them. From the beginning, Javier was typing his menu with his heart not with his accountant sitting next to him, the chef said. Indisputably the biggest restaurant opening of 2015, Bracero debuted in a neighborhood already teeming with some of the most-heralded, showcase eateries in San Diego, including Juniper & Ivy, Ironside Fish & Oyster and Kettner Exchange. Bracero went on to earn a slew of critical acclaim and a James Beard nomination for best new restaurant. But after the buzz died down, the crowds inevitably moved on to the newer, shinier objects, including Brian Malarkeys nearby Herb & Wood, 2016s highest-profile opening. Plascencia said he was confident that a restaurant built on his culinary cachet he is the scion of Tijuanas successful Grupo Plascencia restaurant family, has been featured on Top Chef, and both The New Yorker and The New York Times have done glowing profiles of him could survive his departure. But he added that the value of his brand might have been undervalued by his partners in the now-fractured Mexiterranean Hospitality group. Eventually theyre going to know that I dont think they appreciated the name I have, the following that I have, Plascencia said. But I want people to know this restaurant is still open and I want this restaurant to succeed. Im not in a fight or anything like that with them. That said, Plascencia, who still helms multiple restaurants in Tijuana and the Valle de Guadalupe wine region, said he has learned from the mistakes he made at Bracero. Even if its family, you should have a really good contract. Hire a lawyer who knows everything you want in that contract and make sure its covered, he said. Plascencias brother-in-law and former partner, Luis Pena, dispelled talk of unpaid bills at Bracero and said the eatery is profitable but needed to operate more efficiently. He said the restaurants $20,000-a-month rent isnt onerous or excessive, given the eaterys size and Little Italy location. He said Bracero went from having a staff of 120 employees at its opening to 60 today. Its two kitchens, one on each level, werent sustainable so the upstairs kitchen is now only used for prep work. Javier wanted to be more focused on other things right now and Bracero is very, very challenging because of the size of the operation. Things change all the time, Pena said. Right now were in the big leagues, were in Little Italy thats where the magic is happening and you need to step up and be creative. Pena said Braceros menu was too focused on modern Mexican cuisine and will be revamped to make it more familiar, yet still with modern elements. Mexiterranean Hospitality still runs Romesco, in Bonita, which was Plascencias foray in the San Diego restaurant scene more than a decade ago. The chef confirmed Wednesday that he had quietly left Romesco a long time ago. Candice Woo, editor of Eater San Diego, called Plascencia leaving the area a loss. Bracero was such an enormous spotlight, it was really (Plascencias) grand platform to make him a household name, not just in San Diego, but on a national scale as a culinary leader, Woo said. Seeing the attention it generated and the interest in that style of food, its success encouraged a lot of other chefs to do projects along the same vein. We definitely saw an uptick in travel to the area, lots of press. He made a great ambassador. Twitter: @sdeditgirl michele.parente@sduniontribune.com Companies that depend on H-1B visas for a substantial part of their workforce may have a tougher time hiring more as Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, has introduced legislation to restrict loopholes in their application process. His proposal comes after Southern California Edison laid off about 400 employees in early 2015 and brought in workers through consulting companies. Those consulting companies are heavy users of H-1B visas to obtain employees, reportedly at salaries that undercut those of American workers. It was pretty easy to see that wasnt the intent of H-1B, which is to make up for shortage when you cannot find enough labor at any price, Issa said in an interview. Anuncio Edison said in a statement at the time of the layoffs that it was not hiring H-1B workers to replace displaced employees. Any H-1B visa workers SCE does hire for its own workforce are paid a wage comparable to SCEs domestic workforce. Companies that have a certain proportion of H-1B employees, 15 percent or higher for companies with more than 50 employees, have to submit paperwork with H-1B applications showing they advertised the job to American workers, and considered their applications. Currently, employers can be exempted from that paperwork if the potential employee holds a masters degree or is paid at least $60,000 annually. The H-1B visa program allows workers to come to the United States in a temporary, non-immigrant status. The visa lasts for three years with the option to renew for another three. While in the U.S., H-1B visa holders can apply for green cards. Issas bill would remove the masters degree exemption and increase the salary exemption to $100,000 annually. Issas bill has bipartisan support, including backing from the San Diego delegation in Congress, including Democrats Scott Peters, Juan Vargas and Susan Davis and Republican Duncan Hunter. Almost 4,300 people were certified to work in San Diego on H-1B visas in 2015, according to data from the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation. The data does not specify the workers nationalities. About 8 percent, or 337 people, were paid salaries under the $60,000 exemption. Close to 64 percent, or 2,735 people, were paid less than $100,000. The lowest annual salary, at $22,000, was for a master teacher at Parks Global Martial Arts Inc. The highest salary was, at $400,000, was for a model at No Ties Management LLC. Of the 948 companies that obtained certifications for H-1B visas for San Diego area employees in 2015, Qualcomm Technologies Inc had the most at 953 employees with an average annual salary of $102,095. The next highest company, Tata Consultancy Services Limited, which was one of the consulting groups involved in the Edison controversy, had 103 employees certified for H-1B visas with an average annual salary of $74,559. A representative for Tata, Benjamin Trounson, declined to comment for this story. We dont engage in industry speculation, so there isnt anything for us to offer on this topic at this stage, Trounson said. Qualcomm did not respond to requests for comment about whether it would be affected by the changes in time for publication. Matt Rifat, president of Alcala Labs, said that the one employee hired through an H-1B visa for the company last year is an H-1B success story. He said Alcala recruited for 18 months for a geneticist, and, after finding no one, pursued and hired an Austrian geneticist in 2015. After coming to the U.S., the geneticist fell in love and married an American woman. He continues to work for Alcala and is now applying to adjust his status. For the scientific and biotech community, its really valuable, and, in my experience, its not being abused, Rifat said of the H-1B visa program. Had an American shown up with those qualifications, we wouldve hired them. Issa said that the changes would actually help the biotech community because the U.S. only allocates 85,000 H-1B visas per year. Those visas are assigned through lottery. Every year, in a matter of hours, we oversubscribe beyond the entire 85,000 slots plus, Issa said. Theres no question that if you were to take the best and the brightest, most highly needed, most highly compensated, you wouldnt do it by lottery, and yet lottery is how its done. Issa said he hopes to make further H-1B reforms in the future but that this legislation was what seemed doable in the current legislative climate. PEORIA Caterpillar Inc. dangled the possibility of some rare good news for its Decatur plant Wednesday: It is considering moving large-wheel loader and compactor production to Decatur from its Aurora factory. Caterpillar spokeswoman, Jamie Fox, said if the move goes ahead it could mean about 500 new jobs shifted to Decatur. She said the factory facilities here, which build the biggest off-road dump trucks in the world, are being considered because they are capable of handling the work with a proven history of manufacturing excellence. The Decatur facility is a world-class facility, she said. A final decision on whether Decatur will get the jobs is due in the second quarter of 2017. Fox said the timing was linked to the evaluation process and required notifications tied to bargaining agreements regarding union jobs. Shifting production away from Aurora is not about ramping up manufacturing, however, but part of Caterpillar's continuous efforts to save money in the face of a grinding four-year-old slump in sales. Since 2015, Caterpillar has announced the closure or planned closure of 30 facilities around the world to cut its manufacturing square footage by 11 percent. In September 2016, its global workforce stood at 108,800, down from 122,900 in September 2015. Aurora, which has 800 production jobs, was also told it may see its medium-wheel loader assembly work shifted to another Caterpillar plant in Arkansas. Faced with lower demand, we continue to evaluate our global manufacturing capacity, said Denise Johnson, the group president for resource industries which controls the Aurora and Decatur plants. We must use our existing space in the most efficient way possible while maintaining the ability to meet demand when it returns, added Johnson. But in Decatur, where regular Caterpillar layoffs have become a sad fact of life, even the prospect of some unexpected good news was greeted with jubilation. Without doubt this is great news for Decatur, said Ryan McCrady, the president of the Economic Development Corporation of Decatur and Macon County. And I would have to say that the credit for this primarily goes to the outstanding workers at the Caterpillar facility here in Decatur. They have an excellent history of product quality, an excellent history of being an outstanding workforce and an unbelievable amount of pride in the work they do. McCrady recalled that, in August, Caterpillar had announced it was moving some component manufacturing linked to large mining trucks to Decatur from another plant in North Carolina. That was a good opportunity to show what our workers in Decatur could do and now, hopefully, we get to take it to the next level, he added. I don't have any doubt that the workforce at the Decatur facility can do an outstanding job. McCrady said the people of Decatur sometimes underestimate their abilities and don't always appreciate the potential locked up inside the city. For somebody like Caterpillar to look at making this investment in Decatur is significant to tell us that people outside of here see some amazing opportunities, he said. The first women are reporting for infantry jobs at a Marine Corps battalion this week, a historic step in the integration of females into U.S. military combat roles. Three female Marines are checking into the 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, a Marine Corps spokesman said Thursday, confirming a report in the Marine Corps Times. Advertisement Its the first time women will fill regular infantry jobs in the Marine Corps. Welcome to The Intel, a blog examining the hot military news of the day These women qualified for the lateral move from their prior positions during a Marine Corps research study, which tested whether females could make it in the combat environment. Also this week, two women at the Marine Corps boot camp in South Carolina have exceeded the standards to move forward with infantry training. Upon successful completion of recruit training, they will be the first women to graduate under infantry contracts, said Capt. Philip Kulczewski, a Marine Corps headquarters spokesman. All Marine Corps jobs are now available to women and females are enlisting for them, Kulczewski said. This move follows an order by Defense Secretary Ashton Carter in December 2015 that affected all branches of the American military. The Marine Corps asked for an exclusion for roles including infantry, machine gunner and reconnaissance, but Carter said no. The deadline to make the jobs available was April. It took time for women to step forward for the newly opened positions. Its unclear what will happen with these jobs in the future. President-elect Donald Trumps comments have raised questions about whether he will try to reverse the new policies for women. His nominee for defense secretary, retired Marine Gen. James Mattis, has also made recent comments critical of social experiments with infantry roles. Military Videos On Now D-Day paratrooper from Coronado jumps again in France at age 96 On Now Remembering war's fallen, one name at a time On Now In Ramona, an airplane and an aviator provide living lessons on World War II 1:43 On Now Video: Navy's newest vessel sails into San Diego and a new future in surface warfare On Now Video: U.S. Navy files homicide charges over warship collisions On Now Stopping Marine hazing On Now Video: U.S. Navy Air Crew Grounded After Creating Vulgar Sky Drawing On Now Navy says Asia Pacific ship collisions were avoidable On Now Hundreds of recruits get sick at Marine boot camp On Now Cutler Dawson Talks Navy Federal jen.steele@sduniontribune.com Facebook: U-T Military Twitter: @jensteeley Protesters opposed to Mexicos rising gasoline prices blocked traffic on Baja Californias Transpeninsular Highway on Wednesday south of Ensenada near San Quintin. A spokesman for Mexicos Federal Police said that the road remained closed on Wednesday afternoon at the community of Camalu. The highway is a main artery for passenger and truck traffic headed up and down the Baja California peninsula. There have been a number of blockades set up on the Transpeninsular Highway in the San Quintin area since Monday, a day after Mexicos federal government moved to deregulate gasoline prices, leading to price increases as high as 20 percent. Advertisement The new policy abolishes the prevailing practice in Mexico for the government to set the price for gasoline. A U.S. resident of the San Quintin area, Jim Sprague, said in a telephone interview on Wednesday that the gas station in Ejido Emiliano Zapata was closed, as were others in the vicinity. Protests have been taking place across Mexico this week. In Rosarito Beach, demonstrators have prevented gasoline trucks from entering or exiting the PEMEX storage and distribution facility. I think that by tomorrow several will have to close due to a lack of supply because of the blockade of the Rosarito plant, said Alejandro Borja, whose family owns three gas stations in Tijuana. sandra.dibble@sduniontribune.com @sandradibble With 14 new lanes, a long-awaited U.S. Customs and Border Protection inspection facility for pedestrians coming into the United States at the San Ysidro Port of Entry is scheduled to open on July 15. Known as PedWest, the facility will give border-crossers a new option when entering San Ysidro from Tijuana on foot. They will be able to decide whether to cross on the eastern side of the vehicle lanes, as they currently do, or enter through the new facility on the ports western side. We are going to be really changing how pedestrians cross the border, said Anthony Kleppe, of the U.S. General Services Administration, which is overseeing reconstruction of the busy port, a multiphase, multiyear $741 million project scheduled for completion in 2019. Advertisement Kleppe, the regional land port of entry program manager for the GSA, was among a number of officials leading a tour of PedWest on Thursday. In the coming days, authorities plan campaigns to promote awareness of the facility. The changes directly impact some 20,000 northbound pedestrians who cross on a daily basis through San Ysidro, according to the latest figures from CBP, the agency that operates the port. Peak waiting times in recent years have stretched to two hours or more for pedestrians. For the immediate future, the western side of the border will only accommodate northbound pedestrians. Mexicos federal government expects to complete construction of its inspection facility for southbound crossers by the end of the year, said Luis Del Moral Gonzalez of the federal agency known as INDAABIN, Mexicos equivalent of the GSA. But it remained unclear when the facility will begin processing travelers. The opening of PedWest means that there will be two northbound pedestrian entrances, both operating 24 hours a day, and both with separate Sentri lanes for pre-cleared travelers and Ready lanes for those with U.S. passport cards and other radio-frequency-enabled documents. Both will be able to process handicapped travelers. PedWest was also designed with a lane that can accommodate bicyclists, though it will not be for their exclusive use. PedWests launching is seen as the critical first step in the reconstruction of the ports pedestrian infrastructure. Its opening allows for the demolition of the current 14-lane pedestrian inspection facility on the ports eastern side to make way for a new 20-lane pedestrian entrance there that is scheduled to open in 2019. In the interim, travelers on the eastern side will be processed through a provisional six-lane facility. It remains unclear whether the opening of the new lanes will reduce waiting times for pedestrians. CBP will commit at a minimum to providing the same level of service were providing today, said Pete Flores, director of the agencys San Diego field office. One factor that could make some pedestrians reluctant to use the facility could be the distance six-tenths of a mile between PedWest and the border trolley station, which is near the exit of the eastern pedestrian crossing. According to the Metropolitan Transit System, which operates the trolley, about half the northbound pedestrian crossers board the trolley at San Ysidro. Adjacent to PedWest and opening on the same day will be the new Virginia Avenue Transit Center, a multimodal facility designed to organize traffic. It will accommodate buses, taxis, pedicabs, and drop-offs and pickups by private vehicles. Pedestrians entering San Ysidro through PedWest will be able to use their trolley tickets for a bus to the San Ysidro trolley stop at no extra cost. U-T interns Allen Siegler and Kate Sequeira contributed to this report. sandra.dibble@sduniontribune.com A real estate agent was charged with arson and murder Wednesday in connection with the slayings of two women and a house fire in Westminster on New Years Day, according to court records. Christopher Ken Ireland, 37, faces two counts of murder and one count of arson, according to an Orange County Superior Court criminal complaint. He is also charged with one count of aggravated mayhem for intentionally and unlawfully [causing] permanent disability, disfigurement, and deprivation of a limb, organ and body member of one of the victims, according to the complaint. Westminster police have released few details about killings, which they said occurred sometime Sunday. Advertisement Firefighters were called at about 5:30 a.m. to put out a fire at a home in the 5000 block of Northwestern Way in Westminster, police said. But the homeowner, Yolanda Holtrey, and her friend, Michelle Luke, were nowhere to be found. Police said the fire was suspicious, so an arson investigator and detectives were asked to look into the case to determine what happened. The next day, police found Holtrey and Lukes bodies in a field off Bonita Canyon Drive and Ford Road in Newport Beach, according to the Orange County Sheriff-Coroners Division. Investigators found neighborhood surveillance video that led them to Ireland, KNBC-TV reported. He was arrested after he and his wife showed up at Holtreys home offering to help, the television news station reported. The couple had gone to a party at Holtreys home on New Years Eve. His wife, Samantha Ireland, told KNBC-TV that they went home after the party and she didnt recall him leaving. She said she thinks her husband was sleep walking. Ireland is a real estate agent who worked at Realty ONE Group and was going to help Holtrey sell her home, she told the news station. I dont know any realtors that would kill their clients, Samantha Ireland told KNBC-TV. Thats stupid -- why would he do that? A relative of Holtrey told KTLA-TV that Irelands wife worked with Holtrey at a department store, the relative said. Although Irelands wife knew Holtrey, the defendant hadnt met the victims before that evening, the relative told television news station. veronica.rocha@latimes.com For breaking news in California, follow @VeronicaRochaLA on Twitter. If only all crimes were so easy to solve: Alvin Lee Neal robbed a downtown San Diego bank, but before he did he inserted his ATM debit card at the teller window revealing his name and other personal information. Neal, 56, was sentenced in federal court Tuesday to three years and 10 months in prison for the robbery, the U.S. attorneys office said. Neal entered the Wells Fargo branch on First Avenue on May 13 and approached a teller window, according to his plea agreement. He swiped his card through the card reader, and when the teller asked how he could be helped, Neal replied: Youre being robbed. Dont make a mistake. He then handed the teller a note that had a similar statement. Advertisement When the teller hesitated, Neal said: You dont want anyone to get hurt, dont make a mistake. The teller handed him $565 and Neal ran out of the bank, according to the complaint. With his debit card information on hand, investigators looked up his drivers license and address. A registered sex offender, Neal previously had been convicted of attempted rape and sexual battery, according to the California Megans Law website. FBI agents and San Diego police set up surveillance at a downtown hostel and stopped Neal as he left the building. He agreed to a search of the room he was staying in, which turned up a checkered, double-breasted jacket that appeared to match one the robber had worn, as well as Neals debit card, the complaint said. He admitted to robbing the bank when questioned by investigators, according to the complaint. As part of his sentence, Neal was ordered to pay $565 in restitution to the bank. kristina.davis@sduniontribune.com Davis writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune How old would you be if you didnt know how old you was? Satchel Paige Advertisement Buried in the news stories about Rex Tillerson severing ties with Exxon Mobil was a weird wrinkle that caught my attention. At 69, maybe Im a little sensitive on the subject of mandatory retirement at 65. But I figure Im in good, and getting better, company. Tillerson, as you know, is Donald Trumps nominee for secretary of state, the most prominent position in the Cabinet. Tillersons confirmation hearing, which will drill deep into his business and personal dealings with Russia, promises to be contentious. To sweep any conflicts of interest off the table, Tillerson stepped down as Exxons CEO, accepting a retirement package worth $180 million. But, and heres the relevant fact, Tillerson reportedly had to give up $7 million in compensation and benefits because he did not stay at his post until March. Whats special about March? Tillerson then turns 65, Exxons mandatory retirement age, the end of a CEOs road in that corporate culture. So how out of whack is that? At the age Exxon turns its top executive out to pasture, Tillerson, assuming hes confirmed, will be in charge of the nations foreign policy. Amid all the Russia hand-wringing, I havent heard one talking head remark that the retiree might be too old for the post. (After all, his boss in the White House will be older.) In fact, when my first reaction to the Exxon exit story was to wonder if the throwback policy is even legal in this age-enlightened age. To check, I called two respected San Diego employment attorneys Lynne Lasry and Golnar Fozi who are well-versed in what constitutes age discrimination in the workplace. Both lawyers assured me that Exxon was on the right side of the law despite the fact that the majority of elderly American workers labor in a gray free zone where retirement is often marked by what Fozi calls difficult conversations between faltering workers and bosses who increasingly are past 65 themselves. Fifty years ago, you probably wont recall, Congress passed the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, which specifically prohibits employers from imposing mandatory retirement on workers over 40, an age that in the contemporary workplace strikes me as barely pubescent. By and large, retirement is a voluntary, not a legally compulsory, decision. Theoretically, you can work to 101 and, if you capably perform the job, you cannot be forced to retire because of your age. In its finite wisdom, however, Congress allowed mandatory age-driven retirement for two classes of employees. The first is what you might guess: Workers whose age is predictably a factor in physically performing the job. (Think pilots or firefighters.) The other exemption is the one that applies to Tillerson, a mandated retirement that goes against the grain of the evolving belief that age is an irrelevant measure of ability to perform a job that primarily tests mental faculties. According to the ADEA, companies can require mandatory retirement at 65 (or above) if the elite employee is a bona fide executive or in a high policymaking position. In other words, if you order people around or set the course for the company, your youthful vitality is so incredibly important that a fundamental civil liberty can be contractually suspended. In light of everything we believe about aging, from the Supreme Court on down, does this exemption make sense? No. But thats the law. To soften the landing for corporate bigshots, the ADEA stipulates that the retirees must have a retirement package of at least $44,000, a quaint figure compared to Tillersons Faberge nest egg. The grim reality of the post-pension private-sector American workplace is that working, not retirement, is whats often mandatory after 65. Right now, roughly a third of the American workforce is older than 50. By 2050, the U.S. Census estimates nearly 20 million U.S. workers will be 65 years or older, nearly a fifth of the workforce. What this means is that the stereotype of elderly workers as inevitable liabilities is getting harder to square with the reality that the person running HR might be in his or her 60s or 70s. Whats needed, for bosses and employees alike, is a way to frame the dilemma posed by aging workers who are failing to perform, a deterioration thats as individual as loss of hearing or eyesight. My favorite workplace metaphor, one that I often apply to the career of a columnist, is rooted in Americas pastime. In the spring of their careers, pitchers typically rely on their fastballs. Like Nuke LaLoosh in the film Bull Durham, young guns are wild, all over the place. Lots of strikeouts, lots of walks. But as they get older, hurlers rely more on guile, not gas. They study the hitters. They mature from throwers to pitchers, as the cliche goes. If theyre lucky and healthy, like legendary Negro and Major League pitcher Satchel Paige who pitched well into his 40s, their careers exceed expectation. At some point, however, the off-speed stuff doesnt fool anybody anymore. They labor. They take extra time between pitches. Theyre like Lefty Gomez who, when manager Joe McCarthy told him he wasnt throwing as hard as he used to, said, Youre wrong, Joe. Im throwing twice as hard, but the ball isnt going as fast. Driven by financial and emotional incentives, many workers hang on as long as possible while the manager (of a ball team or a company) has to stay focused on fielding the best team possible. Of course, this gray zone of difficult conversations (and, in the bad cases, litigation) is a world apart from the kingly career of Rex Tillerson. At age 65, the gray-haired retiree is on the verge of being handed a really huge ball, one with nuclear capabilities. And you know whats great? We dont think hes too young for the job. logan.jenkins@sduniontribune.com San Diego killer Elisabeth Betty Broderick will remain in state prison where she is serving time for the 1989 murders of her ex-husband and his new wife at their Hillcrest home. At the end of a daylong hearing, a two-member panel of Californias parole board voted unanimously on Wednesday that Broderick is not suitable for release from prison. They denied parole for the longest term possible: 15 years. She could request another hearing sooner than that if she meets certain criteria. Advertisement Broderick, 69, is being held at the California Institution for Women in Corona where she is serving out a sentence of 32 years to life. This was the second time the former socialite had been granted a parole hearing since she was convicted in 1991 for the murders of her ex-husband Daniel Thomas Broderick III, 44, and his wife, Linda Kolkena Broderick, 28. Daniel Broderick was a well-known medical malpractice lawyer. His wife, Linda, had been his office assistant before they married. Both were fatally shot the morning of Nov. 5, 1989, as they lay in bed at home. Betty Broderick is an unrepentant woman, said Deputy District Attorney Richard Sachs, who argued against a grant of parole at the hearing, which he said ran nearly 11 hours. She has no remorse and zero insight into the killings , Sachs said in a phone interview. She just basically said they drove me to do this. Sachs said several of the victims family members attended the hearing, as well as some of Daniel Brodericks former colleagues who were there to represent family who could not attend. Roughly 18 people made statements to the panel, which took about two hours. Betty Broderick was represented by an appointed attorney, who declined to comment after the hearing. Broderick was tried twice for the slayings. The first time ended in a mistrial in 1990, when 10 jurors voted to convict her of murder and two voted to convict her of the lesser charge of manslaughter. In December 1991, a different jury found Broderick guilty of two counts of second-degree murder. Broderick was first denied parole in 2010, after being incarcerated for more than two decades. During the trials, she never denied firing the fatal shots, but she contended that she had been pushed to do so because she had long been a victim of her husbands abuse during their contentious divorce and the custody battle over their children. The prosecution maintained that Broderick was a cold and deliberate killer who felt she had the right no matter the cost to others to act out in vicious and extreme ways just because she was angry. Deputy District Attorney Kerry Wells, now a Superior Court judge, presented evidence in trial that Broderick had left several angry and some profane messages on her ex-husbands answering machine before the murders and even drove her Chevrolet Suburban through the front door of his home. Many people reported they had heard Broderick say she wanted to kill her ex-husband and his new wife. The killings occurred on a Sunday morning. Broderick was unable to sleep and picked up a letter she had received a couple days earlier from Daniel Brodericks lawyer. She testified at the first trial that she read the letter, which warned her that she would be subjected to contempt of court proceedings if she continued to leave obscene messages on her ex-husbands answering machine. She said the letter set her off like a fuse, according to a November 1990 article published in the San Diego Union. To get into the house where the couple was sleeping, Betty Broderick used a key she had taken from her daughter weeks earlier. She sneaked up the stairs as Daniel and Linda Broderick slept, and fired a .38-caliber revolver into their bedroom. Three bullets struck the victims. Broderick left the home and turned herself in to police later that day. She has said she did not intend to kill the couple, only to confront her ex-husband. The gun, she said, was to help get his attention. The high-profile case divided San Diego County residents and drew attention both nationally and internationally. It was the first San Diego court case to be broadcast on the Court TV cable network. The events were turned into two made-for-TV movies, as well as a cable television documentary and several books. dana.littlefield@sduniontribune.com Twitter: @danalittlefield The operator of a Carmel Valley horse ranch is facing federal charges of possessing and distributing child pornography. Christian Clews, 51, was arrested last month after an investigation by the San Diego Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. He later posted bond and was placed on house arrest, where he is subject to GPS monitoring. According to a complaint filed Dec. 12 in U.S. District Court, Clews faces two counts of knowingly possessing or distributing materials depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Until Dec. 21, the document had been sealed by the court. Advertisement The complaint references acts that prosecutors say occurred between May 17, 2015, and Nov. 19, 2015, and Oct. 28 of last year. The October date is when investigators served a search warrant at a residence on Clews Ranch Road in San Diego. Its the same location where the Clews family runs the Clews Horse Ranch, which offers boarding for horses, as well as horsemanship clinics and trail riding, according to the facilitys website. Various electronic devices were taken from Clews and his home on the ranch property, according to the court document. After examining the devices, investigators found numerous image and video files containing child pornography. About 100 videos, some of which showed nude prepubescent girls and boys engaged in sexual acts with each other or with adults, were found on a desktop computer that was taken from the home. One of the images involved a dog. According to the complaint, Clews admitted on the date of the search that he had possessed and distributed child pornography. Nothing in the court documents indicate he created or is depicted in any of the illegal images. Calls to Clews lawyers were not returned on Wednesday. Local Investigators were first alerted to Clews in 2014, after the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children sent a tip line report to the task force. The report documented two image files depicting suspected child pornography that were uploaded by someone using a cellphone with a San Diego area code. The investigation revealed that Clews was the wireless subscriber linked to that phone number between Aug. 1, 2014, and Nov. 17, 2014. In October 2015, the national center sent another tip line report with an image file depicting suspected child pornography to the San Diego task force. The image was linked to the same cellphone number. dana.littlefield@sduniontribune.com Twitter: @danalittlefield Alana Robinson has been appointed acting U.S. attorney for San Diego and Imperial counties until the seat is filled by a pick of incoming President Donald Trump, the office announced Thursday. Robinson, second-in-command at the U.S. Attorneys Office, was appointed by U.S. Department of Justice officials to the interim position for a period of 300 days. The announcement comes on Laura Duffys last day as U.S. attorney. She leaves the office after 6 years for a seat on the San Diego Superior Court bench. Duffy will be sworn in Friday. Robinson has served in numerous leadership positions during her 26 years at the U.S. Attorneys Office, including as criminal chief overseeing all criminal prosecutions and appeals and as supervisor of drug trafficking organization investigations. For four years, she was lead attorney for the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces program, and prosecuted cases against Mexican drug cartels and outlaw motorcycle gangs. She also served on the Department of Justices Electronic Surveillance Working Group due to her expertise in using wiretaps in prosecutions, the office said. Advertisement She has won national recognition for her work. She is married to Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Robinson. Alanas proven leadership skills, intellect and litigation experience will serve this office well as she assumes the Acting U.S. Attorney post, Duffy said in a statement. I have every confidence that she will continue our strong relationships with local and federal law enforcement officials and community leaders and devote her full attention and considerable talent to federal prosecutions that will safeguard our community. Robinson earned her bachelors degree in political science and Spanish literature from UC San Diego and her law degree from UC Berkeley School of Law. She began her legal career at Baker & McKenzie in San Diego and came to the U.S. Attorneys Office in 1990. Under the Vacancies Reform Act, the first assistant U.S. attorney is temporarily promoted when the U.S. attorney leaves office. Robinsons 300-day appointment would be cut short if the president appoints and the Senate confirms a replacement U.S. attorney before then. Related: Trumps choice to replace U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy will be a key pick U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy appointed to Superior Court bench kristina.davis@sduniontribune.com Twitter: @kristinadavis DECATUR Jonathan R. Galley, 47, of Decatur is being held in jail on $500,000 bond for allegedly sexually assaulting and abusing a girl younger than 12 repeatedly for more than 11 weeks. Galley was arraigned Wednesday on four Class X counts of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child, each count punishable by six to 60 years in prison, and six counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, three to seven years on each count. The incidents allegedly occurred at Galley's house in the 800 block of West Olive Street between Oct. 1 and Dec. 19. Decatur police officers were sent to HSHS St. Mary's Hospital on Dec. 22 on the report of a sexual assault. A relative of the victim told police that the girl had been sexually abused on several occasions by Galley, who was acquainted with the family, said an affidavit by patrol officer Eric Waggoner. The relative told police the victim reported that Galley asked her to play a game with him. He would then disrobe and sexually assault and abuse her. An emergency room nurse told police that the victim related to her details of the alleged incidents. Those details matched the narrative the victim told her relative. A few days later, officer Waggoner, on temporary assignment to the detective bureau, interviewed another relative of the victim. That relative said the victim reported that Galley performed acts with sex toys on her. The victim told that relative that there were three sex toys, which were purple, blue, and white with pink polka dots. She said those items were stored in a nightstand drawer in Galley's bedroom. That relative showed me photographs he had taken on Dec. 23, 2016, after having spoken with (the victim) about this incident, Waggoner wrote in his statement. The relative said the photographs were of the master bedroom and residence of Jonathan Galley. He took the photographs after hearing the victim's reports about the sex toys and other items. In one photograph of the opened nightstand drawer were what appeared to be one blue and one white with pink polka dot sex toys. Photographs also captured other items described by the child that were used during the incidents. In a forensic interview at the Child 1st Center on Dec. 28, the victim reiterated what she had previously told her two relatives and the nurse. She told the interviewer, Jonathan had shown her pornography on his computer on several occasions. She said some of the pornography depicted teen girls, which she knew were teens because it said so in the titles of the movies. Galley, who was assigned a public defender, is due in court for his preliminary hearing Jan. 18. A special education assistant was accused last week of abusing and endangering students at a Chula Vista middle school, authorities said Wednesday. Michael Cobb, 44, pleaded not guilty on Dec. 27 to felony child abuse and misdemeanor child endangerment, a spokeswoman for the District Attorneys Office said. If found guilty, he could face for more than six years in jail. The charges stem from two separate incidents early last year, each involving a different child, according to court documents. The first incident occurred on Feb. 18, 2016. The second, which resulted in the felony charge, happened on March 7, 2016, according to court documents. Advertisement Although authorities wouldnt release the actions that led to the charges, Cobb was working at Bonita Vista Middle at the time, and the incidents involved two students there, said Manny Rubio, spokesman for the Sweetwater Union High School District. He wouldnt say what Cobbs job was at the Otay Lakes Road campus. Rubio said Cobb is currently employed by the district, but he wouldnt say where or if he was on leave. Cobb is listed as an instructional health care assistant on the middle schools online staff directory. An instructional health care assistant helps a certified teacher supervise and instruct students with special needs, according to a professional job description posted by the district. . Twitter: @LAWinkley (619) 293-1546 lyndsay.winkley@sduniontribune.com San Diego firefighters rigged a pulley system to rescue an injured sailor who fell down a 20-foot hatch on a Navy ship in drydock Thursday. A medic was lowered into the narrow hatch to tend to the injured man, who was then hauled up with ropes, a fire spokesman said. The sailor was taken to a trauma center with head and possible leg injuries, San Diego Fire-Rescue Department Capt. Joe Amador said. Advertisement A special Fire Department rescue squad was sent to BAE Systems ship repair docks on Belt Street in Barrio Logan about 9 a.m. The crew carries technical rescue gear, including an A-frame that can span a hole and secure ropes in a pulley directly above it, Amador said. He said the sailor had fallen into a hole two decks deep. It wasnt clear if he fell the entire distance from the top or was part-way down before slipping. The rescue took about 50 minutes, Amador said. San Diego police scoured the Lincoln Park neighborhood for an armed man who robbed a Home Depot store Wednesday. Witnesses told police the man lifted his shirt and brandished a handgun at the Home Depot on Marketplace Avenue near Ocean View Boulevard in the Mountain View neighborhood about 4:30 p.m. Police did not say what the thief stole before he ran away. Advertisement Officers, aided by a police helicopter and dogs, were going door-to-door at an apartment complex near 47th and Nogal streets and searching a ravine east of nearby Interstate 805. The robber was not arrested. He was described as Latino, 5 feet 11 inches, with a medium build, and wearing a black trench coat, beanie, pants and boots. Breaking News Twitter: @D4VIDHernandez A federal lawsuit over costs for the San Onofre nuclear plant failure should be dismissed because a settlement agreement was reopened and reforms passed last year will help prevent future abuses, lawyers for state utility regulators argued in a new court filing. San Diego nonprofit Citizens Oversight sued to overturn the 2014 settlement, which assigned customers $3.3 billion of the $4.7 billion of costs from the January 2012 closure of the plant amid a radiation leak. Citizens Oversight argued the deal was lopsided, improperly influenced by an undisclosed meeting between state regulators and a utility executive in Warsaw in 2013. The group lost its claim in 2015, but the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has agreed to hear oral arguments in an appeal next month. Advertisement California Public Utilities Commission lawyers say in their new filing that two commissioners named in the suit no longer serve and the plants majority owner Southern California Edison has already been fined almost $17 million for improper communications including the Poland rendezvous. The CPUC has made substantial efforts to ensure parties have additional notice and opportunity to be heard, which render Citizens appeal moot, the motion filed Tuesday states. In any event, federal courts should not be hearing state law matters. The filing Tuesday claims the case is moot because the commission reopened the settlement deal in May amid criticism. It also notes that Gov. Jerry Brown nominated two new commissioners last month and said a new law requires regulators to disclose backchannel conversations like the one in Warsaw. Once a controversy ceases to exist, a federal court must dismiss the action for lack of jurisdiction, commission lawyers said. Citizens Oversight attorney Michael Aguirre said Wednesday that utility customers are still paying billions of dollars for a plant that is producing no electricity. They passed the burden on to ratepayers, he said. How is that a benefit? Early last month, the commission ordered parties in the San Onofre proceeding to begin meeting in January to try and divvy up the closure costs more fairly. On Dec. 23, Edison sought to delay the meetings until later this year. Watchdog Videos On Now Sexual misconduct accusers worry deputy is being protected 6:16 On Now City funded $2-million waterfront bathroom 1:26 On Now Public water district charges customer for legal work, response to records request On Now Video: Tiny homes won't be reused amid housing, homeless crisis On Now Attorney General seeks documentation for Miss Middle East On Now Rep. Hunter probe covers possible fraud On Now Video: SDG&E delaying solar credit for some low-income housing tenants On Now Video: Former San Diego Junior Theatre teacher sentenced for sex with teen girl 0:24 On Now Video: Shelter volunteers believe they were fired for finding a dog a home 0:49 On Now McKamey Manor is leaving San Diego 3:35 jeff.mcdonald@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1708 @sdutMcDonald Five times in two years, toddlers in a preschool program at Central Elementary School were left unsupervised, including one case in which a young boy or girl was lost for 30 minutes before being found wandering alone, a state report shows. The incidents were serious enough for state officials to revoke the license for the City Heights campus of the San Diego Unified School District program, although the revocation was stayed for three years in favor of probation. During the period of license, respondent failed to provide care and supervision to meet the needs of children in care and violated the personal rights of children in care, state regulators wrote in a March report. Advertisement District officials did not dispute the allegations. Instead, they acknowledged the findings and agreed to a series of reforms that allowed the preschool to stay in business. In a statement released Wednesday, child development director Stephanie Ceminsky said the problems identified by state licensing officials were limited to a single facility and the violations dated back to 2013. Since the complaint was filed, weve taken steps to address any and all outstanding administrative issues raised by the state, she said. The stipulation, agreed to by all parties and formally approved Nov. 8, required the district to submit a plan to correct the violations, including increased training, specific staffing ratios and periodic head counts. Staff will receive training on the Corrective Action Plan prior to supervising children and on biannual basis as well as periodically, as needed, to maintain compliance with the plan, states the plan, which is in draft form until approved by licensing officials. According to the California Department of Social Services, the state agency that regulates preschools and day-care centers, employees at the Central Elementary site repeatedly allowed toddlers to walk away unsupervised. In July 2015, an employee left a child unsupervised with an uncleared adult, who took the child to a restroom at the facility, regulators said. The prior month, another child was left alone for several minutes while napping, the state report says. In October 2014, staff was unaware that a child was missing from his or her assigned classroom. Child #3 was found crying in a facility restroom by an elementary school child and was returned to Child #3s classroom by the elementary school child, the report states. One month before then, employees lost track of another child for an unspecified period of time. Child #4s foot became tangled near the water fountain when Child #4 was attempting to drink from the fountain, the report said. The child subsequently fell and sustained injury. In September 2013, another child walked away from his or her classroom, unknown to staff. Approximately 30 minutes after leaving the classroom, Child #5 was found wandering alone inside one of the elementary school buildings located across the playground from Child #5s assigned classroom, the report said. The Central Elementary program is one of more than 50 preschool centers operated by the San Diego Unified School District. The program has long been offered to low-income families. The district last summer expanded its preschool enrollment, including at Central, to all families who apply, at a cost. The program offers part-, full- and extended-day service for fees ranging from $530 to $1,060 per month. Discounts are available to military families, district employees and siblings whose brothers or sisters are also enrolled. About 3,000 children, generally 3 to 5 years old, are enrolled district-wide; 58 children are served at Central. Under the agreement with the state, preschool officials are required to post the document inside the facility and collect signatures from parents acknowledging that they have seen it. Ceminsky said changes at the Polk Avenue campus are working and practices have improved in recent months. Today our program at Central is thriving, she said. In fact, we had to add an entire new classroom at Central to accommodate demand. The community is voting with their feet and continues to support the outstanding preschool education taking place at Central. Watchdog Videos On Now Sexual misconduct accusers worry deputy is being protected 6:16 On Now City funded $2-million waterfront bathroom 1:26 On Now Public water district charges customer for legal work, response to records request On Now Video: Tiny homes won't be reused amid housing, homeless crisis On Now Attorney General seeks documentation for Miss Middle East On Now Rep. Hunter probe covers possible fraud On Now Video: SDG&E delaying solar credit for some low-income housing tenants On Now Video: Former San Diego Junior Theatre teacher sentenced for sex with teen girl 0:24 On Now Video: Shelter volunteers believe they were fired for finding a dog a home 0:49 On Now McKamey Manor is leaving San Diego 3:35 jeff.mcdonald@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1708 @sdutMcDonald Regardless of their income or background, students with involved parents are more likely to have higher grades and test scores, attend school more regularly, have better social skills, show improved behavior and adapt well to school. So why do so many educators feel that school choice is merely a smokescreen to divert public money to the private sector without accountability or transparency, and not a process that allows parents to have more say in their childrens education? As the school choice movement gains momentum locally, many parents are electing to enroll their kids in charter schools. A growing number of parents feel that charter schools are a viable alternative to failing neighborhood schools and offer a more engaging and rewarding educational curriculum. There also appears to be a concern that charter schools are attempting to take over public education, but the numbers do not support this assertion. According to the California Charter School Association, for-profit charter schools represent less than 1 percent of charter schools in California. So what is all the commotion about? Advertisement Charter schools are public schools that families choose for their children. They operate with freedom from some of the regulations that are imposed upon district schools. Charter schools are accountable for academic results and upholding the promises made in their charters. They must demonstrate performance in the areas of academic achievement, financial management and organizational stability. If a charter school does not meet its performance goals, it may be closed; and parents always have the right to remove their child from a charter school that is not meeting the childs needs. It is no surprise that many local public schools need improvement, and some schools have been underperforming for years, so it makes sense that school choice is filling the void for parents who may not have the resources to place their children into a private school. Educators should embrace school choice because well-run charter schools create competition that can trigger low-performing schools to improve. Rather than simply providing an alternative to neighborhood public schools for a few students, school choice also encourages students to remain in their neighborhood schools. This happens because competition motivates schools and school districts to respond to the loss of students, and the revenues students bring, producing a rising tide that lifts all boats. It is clear that one way to empower parents is through school choice programs that allow students and their parents to pick the school that works best for them and the money to pay for it should follow the student. In San Diego County, there are limited school choice programs in comparison to the number of public schools and these choice schools vary widely in terms of who is eligible to participate and how many students may attend. Roughly 16 percent of the schools in San Diego County are charter schools. Several are successful, some are not so successful and some are performing about as well as the local public counterpart. When it comes to school choice, parents with money have options, while parents with little or no money have fewer options. This makes charter schools a good free option for parents with little or no money. Students in San Diego County are able to attend the public, private, charter or magnet school of their choice, but many local charter schools are full making it necessary to place students on a long waiting list. San Diego Unified School District offers a school choice program and parents may apply to have their student attend any school within the district. Enrollment is granted on a space-available basis and the spaces fill up quickly so many students are also are placed on long waiting lists. Parental involvement generally equates to increased student success. That involvement should include a parents ability to select the school that will educate their child, and if a school is not meeting a childs needs then the parent should have the option to remove their child from the school and place them back into their neighborhood school or another school of choice. Powell was elected to the San Diego County Board of Education, District 1, in June 2016; his term begins this month. He has been a teacher, vice principal and dean of students with San Diego Unified. He is a professor at National Universitys School of Teacher Education and a small-business owner. Not hard to imagine a third Obama term Steve Breens cartoon on Barack Obama claiming I would have beaten Trump (Dec. 29) suggests the presidents claim is from Fantasy Island. However, the U-T has repeatedly reported Obamas currently high popularity rating and Hillary Clintons weaknesses as a campaigner, so it would be no fantasy for Obama to recapture the lower turnout among African-Americans and those 80,000-plus votes in the Rust Belt states with his vigorous campaign style. Advertisement Letters and commentary policy The U-T welcomes and encourages community dialogue on important public matters. Please visit this page for more details on our letters and commentaries policy. E-mail letters@sduniontribune.com Mail: Andrew Kleske, Reader Outreach Editor San Diego Union-Tribune P.O. Box 120191 San Diego, CA 92112-0191. You can also leave a comment below The point is that liberal democracy is still alive in America despite its setbacks within national government. Peter Zschiesche San Diego Media must be part of democratic process Regarding Trump is smart to avoid leftist filters of media (Dec. 29): The writer appears to be advocating the dissolution of the free press, at least for Donald Trump. The free press/media is essential to maintaining our democracy. Even if a certain percentage of members of the press do not support Trump, they have the integrity to present his statements and views in a truthful manner. All previous presidents have had press conferences and have not hidden behind tweets. I am sure it is challenging for presidents to have press conferences and spontaneously respond to the probing questions they are asked. However, this is part of the job of president and the American people need to know what their presidents views and policies are. Tweets are not sufficient. Joanne Tunstall Normal Heights Accepting this behavior led to Trumps rise Regarding After 11-year wait, voucher recipient looks for home (Dec. 31): I may be way off-base, but please tell me how it is such a great thing that an unmarried 27-year old woman with two kids and another on the way is finally getting a rent voucher after 11 years of trying? Eleven years ago, as an unwed teenage mother, Sharron Harville knew that she would need help to pay rent, so she applied for a housing voucher with the San Diego Housing Commission. Did Harville not realize that if she couldnt afford the rent with one child, that perhaps two more might be a bigger burden? As a taxpayer, I am fed up with this. Perhaps the federal giveaways could have been better spent on birth control education. What is more amazing is that the progressive liberal left still cant figure out how a man like Donald Trump was elected president. J.F. Smith San Diego So we defend this affront to democracy? Regarding Electoral College has proven its worth to U.S. (Dec. 31): Gary Ritzman says in his letter, The Electoral College was established to prevent regions with a high concentration of like-minded voters from determining the outcome of presidential elections. Huh? In other words, if too many people think the same way, we give those minority thinkers more voting power to compensate against this majority opinion. Huh? Look, if you dont believe in democracy, just say so. Lee Galloway North Park Coming to grips with restaurant surcharges Regarding Wage hike comes with dining surcharge (Jan. 2): I realize the businesses that are now assessing surcharges to cover the increase in the hourly wage can justify it as the effect of this new law. I just wonder why they havent had a surcharge when the cost of their ingredients went up, or the cost of their utilities went up, or, better yet, when the owners of the business decided they wanted more profit. Mike Cavanaugh University City * * * It was informative to learn that the wait staff at most restaurants are paid minimum wage because income from gratuities tend to be substantial. Having restaurants adding a surcharge to compensate for government wage mandates is a good thing. It provides transparency to customers as to the justification for increased prices. It also provides them with a guideline for reducing tips in a like amount. Carl Lind La Jolla Coronado residents wont miss Fleet Week Regarding Foundation goes broke celebrating Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard (Dec. 31): So the cost of Fleet Weeks Coronado Speed Festival has driven the Fleet Week Foundation into the red. Perhaps there is now a chance that those of us who live near the event will no longer have to listen to obnoxious sound of these auto races in 2017. The new year is looking better already. E. J. Anderson San Diego Beating war drums doesnt solve problem I tried to write a counter opinion to Charles Krauthammer (Knife in Israels back, Dec. 31), but I have realized that he only writes anti-peace rhetoric with vague references and no real substance. Here is something of substance. The scroll of the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel guarantees freedom of worship and access to all the holy places in Israel whether people be Jewish, Christian or Muslim. How about an international site, belonging to all, foreign to none? Lunacy is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. John Kerry is doing something different. Lets try it, lets try to make peace. Krauthammer should leave behind the war drums and write the words of hope. Gregg Ferry Carlsbad Trump deserves credit for recent market gains Regarding the stock market: It appears that the Trump rally has changed to the Trump reality. Maureen Conn-Williams Rancho Bernardo Want to see more letters that appear only online? Follow @UTLetters on Twitter and UTOpinion on Facebook. SHELBYVILLE A new clinic coming to Shelbyville says it will be a fast on-ramp for patients eager to get the benefits of medical cannabis. The Marijuana Pain Management & Wellness Clinic will open its doors at 10 a.m on Feb. 4 at 480 S. Heinlein Drive. The clinic will not dispense cannabis itself, but an in-house doctor will assist qualified patients to apply to become part of the Illinois medical cannabis program. You will only be about 30 days out, from the point when you come and see us, from getting your (registration) card in the mail from the Illinois Department of Health, said Caprice Sweatt, the founder and CEO of Medical Cannabis Outreach Pain Management & Wellness Clinics, which will run the Shelbyville facility. Sweatt already has three clinics operating in Illinois and says they evaluate and counsel patients on the type of cannabis treatment that will benefit them most. Nurses will also be available for in-home visits to monitor patients and help them as they use the drug. We don't want them to take too much so their heart races and they feel anxiety, said Sweatt, talking of patients new to the drug. We want them to feel comfortable and get the best out of it they can. She said once patients are qualified and evaluated, they will be directed to any of several cannabis dispensaries there is one in Effingham where they will buy the drug. Sweatt said there is a need for her clinic because she claims many physicians, under business pressure not to prescribe outside of regular drug pharmacology, will not approve the use of cannabis. So those patients have been left with nowhere to go, she added. But now we want to be there for them. Sweatt, 50, says she can speak with authority about the benefits of cannabis because it has helped her for years. She smokes the drug to control pain and ease inflammation she suffers with Crohn's Disease, an inflammation of the bowels. Sweatt says cannabis use has freed her from taking prescription medications that had worse side effects than the underlying disease and has allowed her to function normally. Cannabis saved my life, she said. To find out more about the Shelbyville clinic and its services, call 1-309-338-8900. The start of several new construction projects will likely highlight municipal activities in the coming year, according to City Manager Tina White. At the top of the list for 2017 is the start of the long-awaited undergrounding of utility lines along a section of Espola Road. Other planned projects include solar energy panels being installed at the Poway Center for the Performing Arts and at Fire Station No. 3 on Pomerado Road. White said she also expects progress toward deciding how best to replace the Community Center at Community Park and the completion of the Poway Road Corridor Study. Overhead lines will be buried along Espola Road, from Mountain Road to Northcrest Lane, starting around mid-year. A 6-foot-wide decomposed granite pathway, intended largely to protect students walking to and from schools, will stretch from the existing sidewalk south of Mountain Road to the one south of Willow Ranch Road. A split rail fence will run alongside the pathway. There are two parts to the project, but all work will be done at the same time. The first undergrounding district will encompass 2,000 lineal feet. It will likely cost $1.9 million and will be paid for through the citys allocation of 20A fees collected by San Diego Gas & Electric Co. The city currently has only $1.25 million available in its account and plans to borrow the balance for five years worth of future annual allocations. The second undergrounding district involves 2,200 lineal feet and will cost about $2.6 million. It will be paid for through general fund reserves. The total cost of the pathway, including design and construction, is pegged at $1.5 million, which will paid for by an existing city general fund appropriation. Officials estimate the project will take about a year to complete. For years the city has been planning to knock down the aging Community Center and nearby Senior Center and replace both with a new center combining both functions. However, when preliminary construction estimates came in around $20 million, the City Council started having second thoughts. That led to the San Diego YMCA in October proposing that a new branch be built on that site, with the city contributing up to the entire estimated cost of around $9 million. No decision has been made, but the council signed off on having the YMCA conduct a telephone survey of residents in and around Poway to gauge public reactions to having the branch built, the types of programming that might be offered and the costs of those programs. White said the survey work began just before Christmas and results should be available to the council toward the end of this month or in early February. Meanwhile, an 11-member ad hoc committee should be wrapping up its efforts on the Poway Road Corridor Study, White predicted. The panel, comprised of representatives of the business community, real estate professionals and citizens, has been meeting with and without several consulting firms over the future of Poways primary retail district. The panels eventual report will be forwarded to the City Council, along with a separately prepared streets report, economic implementation study and a proposed Poway Road Specific Plan Amendment. The amendment will require an environmental review, which will add time to a process that is already six months beyond its June 2016 published deadline. Email: editor@pomeradonews.com UPDATE 1/17/17: The fourth annual Bookin It 5K Run/Walk and Wellness Expo scheduled for this Sunday has been postponed to Sunday, Feb. 26 due to anticipated wet weather in the coming days, organizers announced on Tuesday. * * * * * Supporters of Rancho Bernardo Highs library want you to plan on lacing up your running shoes and joining them on the Piedras Pintadas trail later this month. The fourth annual Bookin It for the Broncos 5K Run/Walk and Wellness Expo will be held on Sunday, Jan. 22 at Rancho Bernardo Community Park, 18448 W. Bernardo Drive. The professionally chip-timed race begins at 8:30 a.m. and the expo will go from 9 a.m. to noon. This Sunday is participants last opportunity to take advantage of early-bird pricing. The online registration fee is $30 for those 18 and older, $20 for students 17 and younger. They will also receive a race T-shirt. Register at BookinItForTheBroncos5K.com. Starting Monday, Jan. 9 the registration fee increases to $35 for adults, $25 for students and a race T-shirt is not included. A limited number of race T-shirts will be available at the event for $10. A new category for this year is the Bronco Virtual Runner. It is for supporters who are not participating in the race. Their registration fee is $20 and they will receive a T-shirt if registered online by Sunday. Online registration will close on Jan. 18. Day-of registrations will be accepted starting at 7:30 a.m., but walk-up participants must pay by cash or check. The Piedras Pintadas trail is rated easy according to the San Dieguito River Park website. Its name pays tribute to the remarkable rock art that was created in the Rancho Bernardo area by the Kumeyaay some 500-1,000 years ago. Race organizers said the trail is not stroller-friendly. Medals will be given to the top three male and female finishers in each age group. They are 8-10, 11-14, 15-18, 19-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69, 70-plus and every five years after 70. Proceeds from the event will go to the Rancho Bernardo High School Friends of the Library. Heather Kostyzak, a Friends board member, said organizers are hoping for at least 150 participants, based on previous races. She said the race and expo are more of a fun raiser than fundraiser, with the goal of increasing exposure of the Friends in the community. Money raised will go toward purchasing books and learning materials for the library. As for the wellness expo, Kostyzak said that came about due to a county grant approved by Supervisor Dave Roberts. That led to the Friends becoming part of the countys Live Well San Diego program. (The goal is) to expose our community to learn more about the Live Well resources to help them thrive, live healthy and safe, she said. Various businesses and organizations will be participating in the free expo. They are also donating opportunity drawing prizes that will be distributed at the event. Email: rbnews@pomeradonews.com Mountain View Community Church joined the Ramona Chamber of Commerce. The chamber held a ribbon cutting at Mountain View Community Church to celebrate the new membership. Sally Westbrook, incoming chamber president, presented church pastors with a chamber member plaque. Lead Pastor Dr. Eric Clarke said the church joined the chamber because it wants to become more involved with the community. He noted that several local organizations hold their meetings or events at the church campus at 1191 Meadowlark Way, off state Route 78 and Ash Street. Without much fanfare, Encinitas Mayor Kristin Gaspar took the oath of office in late December and she continues her preparations to become just the second new San Diego County supervisor in 24 years. While she doesnt have much of a precedent to follow before her terms starts on Monday, she is poised to take a different course than her predecessor, outgoing Supervisor Dave Roberts and her future colleagues on the board. She said she wont make as many appearances at community groups and civic organizations as Roberts was well known for, and she plans to have a strong focus on the countys mental health care services and programs to help homeless people. Its an emphasis that is shaping how shell spend her day, who shell hire to her staff and what sort of policies she may propose. Advertisement She said she wants to bring in more benchmarks to the countys mental health and homelessness programs in order to better track progress and setbacks. Its not OK to be throwing dollars at programs that are not accountable, she said. She said she also wants to partner with additional service providers while making sure that their initiatives all move in unison. She said she is also meeting with representatives of different governments, including the City of San Diego, to learn about their needs and how they and the county can work together. The county, as the primary provider of mental health services and programs for homeless people, is in the best position to address these issues, but hasnt moved as quickly as other large governments, like Houston and Orlando, said Michael McConnell, the former vice chairman of the Regional Task Force on the Homeless who is still heavily involved in the issue. They have moved in the right direction, albeit very very slowly, he said. Supervisors have taken steps to to provide care for people with Alzheimers disease, mental healthcare for homeless people, supported partnering sheriff deputies with therapists for some emergency calls, and hired more professional caregivers, among other initiatives. The biggest challenge, McConnell said, is to make sure that people who require services have access to them. He said that the county needs to make sure that contractors keep and provide data on the people that they serve in order to track different needs among homeless people, and to determine what services they receive, what efforts work and which ones dont. Additionally, the county needs to make sure it maintains safety-net services so that people who are on the verge of homelessness do not fall into more serious troubles, he said. And virtually everyone agrees the region must increase the stock of affordable housing. Gaspar, on the campaign trail, said a dearth of affordable housing was one of the most pressing issues and that it will likely be difficult for her school-age children to afford to return to San Diego after they graduate from college. When her term begins she wont be fully-staffed, a lapse that she said was due to the 20 days it took for her close race to be decided, and part of a deliberate decision to hire employees after she has the chance to assess the needs of her team. One of the benefits of the delay, she said, is that shell have the time to hire staffers who are qualified to work on mental healthcare and homelessness issues. Each and every hiring decision, I want to make sure that each individual who comes on board understands that it is a priority of mine, she said. While other supervisors have assigned staffers to handle different policy topics, whether its land use or public safety or social services, Gaspar said that nearly all of the people she hires will do some sort of work related to mental health care and ending homelessness as a portion of their responsibilities. Her staff likely wont include a land-use policy expert like other supervisors since nearly all of her north coastal district is composed of incorporated cities that make their own urban planning decisions, she said. Land use isnt the most prominent in District 3, while Dianne Jacob has to deal with a lot of unincorporated county, Gaspar said. Jacobs supervisorial district includes much of the countys rural back country. While Gaspar will still have a help wanted sign hanging when her term begins, she has hired Dustin Steiner as her chief of staff and recently selected a scheduler a crucial position that can keep an office running smoothly. Steiner has also worked on land use policy in past positions in county government. Certainly well change things up on the types of positions that are offered, Gaspar said. She has also decided that she will keep a district office in Escondido. That citys mayor, Sam Abed, praised Roberts for opening an outpost there, and said he hoped Gaspar would keep the office open and staffed. Gaspar defeated Roberts in November after both advanced from the June primary, ahead of Abed. In the coming year the Board of Supervisors faces several issues. It will have to decide on an extension of a moratorium on new medical marijuana facilities, pay raises for supervisors Gaspar said she will vote against the pay hike when it comes up for a second vote Tuesday and, as it does every year, a multi-billion dollar budget. Project One For All, an initiative to provide intense and comprehensive support for homeless people with mental illnesses, will also have its one-year anniversary. In just four years Gaspar will, if she is re-elected, be the most experienced supervisor on the board after her four colleagues are forced out of office by term limits. Each of them Ron Roberts, Bill Horn, Greg Cox and Jacob has spent some two decades on the board. While Gaspar was sworn into office by an assistant clerk on Dec. 27, she begins working in an official capacity on Monday. Her term would normally begin on Jan. 2 (the County Charter says terms start the first Monday after Jan. 1 after an election), but the county was closed for business on Jan. 2 because of the New Year holiday. Consequently, her tenure starts a week later. Twitter: @jptstewart joshua.stewart@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1841 After some success with similar legislation last year, Rep. Juan Vargas has reintroduced a bill that could turn Chicano Park in Barrio Logan into a National Historic Landmark. The park, while still a popular hangout for family events, art-lovers and people who are just looking for a place to relax, was the setting of San Diegos Chicano civil rights movement. Vargas said its an asset that needs to be recognized. The story of Chicano Park is important to the people of our community. It highlights years of community accomplishments through activism and it deserved to be preserved for years to come, said Vargas, D-San Diego. Advertisement The 7.4-acre park was the setting of a 1970 protest lead by the members of the citys Hispanic community who were concerned that property in Barrio Logan was going to be redeveloped. In addition to its significance to civil rights, its also known for the large murals painted on columns supporting the Coronado Bridge and other surfaces. There are 49 paintings in all, and they depict Aztec divinity, legends, Mexican colonialism, and other images. Vargass bill, if passed and signed, will start a process that could lead to Chicano Park becoming a National Historic Landmark. If his bill becomes law, the secretary of the interior will be required to study of the parks resources, including murals, to determine if the park should be designated a National Historic Landmark, or an Affiliated Area of the National Park System a parcel that is significant but outside of the park system, yet is funded by National Park Service. It will also require Department of the Interior to consider protecting and preserving the park and its murals, either through work from the federal, state or local governments, or the private sector, including non-profit organizations. Vargas introduced similar legislation on Oct. 8, 2015 that passed the House of Representatives on Dec. 8, 2016. The Senate, however, did not pass the matter before the last Congress adjourned, and per procedure, Vargas legislation and all other bills still before legislators died. The park is already included in the National Register of Historic Places, but national historic landmarks are a different designation. Under its current status it is eligible for certain federal grants for historic preservation among other benefits. There are approximately 2,500 designated historic landmarks in the United States, including 16 in San Diego County. The Steam Ferry Berkeley received the designation in 1990 and is the most recently named local landmark. Twitter: @jptstewart joshua.stewart@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1841 Just 2 days ago, I embarked on my 2 week trip in Guatemala. Not exactly backpacking since the idea of sharing a dorm room with the young party crowd makes me feelwelltired. But a lazy tour taken solo with a budget (or a guideline budget of $50US a day) no real schedule or plans except to start my trip in Flores, Guatemala. Flores is just over the western border from Belize. There is the city of Santa Elena (with an airport and a bus station) and her smaller sister island city now connected by a causeway Flores. Built on top of an older Maya site (like many of the towns in this region), Flores is the ideal spot to start off a Guatemalan holiday. Both are on the 2nd largest lake in Guatelama, Lake Peten Itza. Fresh water and about 40 square miles. Flores has always been referred to as the gateway to Tikal and for many, Flores and Tikal seem almost interchangeable. Tikal and the jungle around it are stunningly beautiful and a major Maya site but is it the only reason to go to Flores? I spent just only 24 hours in Flores. Seriously! But still, I feel qualified and am very willing to answer that question. The answerdrum roll pleaseis YES. Flores is worth spending a few days. After that, unless you have an obsession with seeing all the Mayan sites (and there are MANY in the area including a 5 day trek to El Mirador), it might be time to move on. Here are the things I think you must do in Flores beside Tikal. But let me start from the beginning. I was lucky enough to hitch a ride with Tropic Air by FAR the easiest and fastest way to get to Flores. It was a short flight from San Pedro to International Airport (and the Prime Minister was on my flight now one degree of separation) and then 45 minutes onto Flores, Guatemala. Its so lovely flying over Belize your see the stark changes as you go deeper into the countryfrom wetlands to savanna to flat farm land to the hills. I guess most coastal areas recede that same way but Belize is so sparsely population, it really is stunning. And then over Lake Peten Itza as well get ready to land at sunset. I went to Tikal first (and I have some recommendations on that) and explored Flores after. Heres my list of must-dos OTHER than Tikal. 1. Walk around Flores: The town is quite small and you can easily cover the entire place in a few hours. The cobble stone streets are lined with tour places, hotels and restaurantsleaving room for little else. There are shops with some junky things like tee shirts that say GuatEver and some beautiful hand made fabrics. Ive found the prices to be cheaper in Antigua but if you are not moving on, buy some here. The island is a hill with the church on top which is nice but not great. Cute little tuk-tuks that charge very little to get you to the airport. Q30 or about $4US. Wouldnt less taxis and more of these in San Pedro be great? 2. Walk around the Island, literally: The lake is stunning and there is a cobblestoned circle road around the island. You can see the towns across the way, the kids swimming and the boats parked along the way. 3. Rent a boat for an hour, late afternoon is beautiful: If you can find a crowd that will cut your cost significantly. Most guys quoted 150Q for an hour or $20US. Instead of haggling, I took a half price, half hour cruise. The best thing I did in Flores. My trusty boat Rashel. There were some amazing birds the birdwatching in Peten is pretty damn good from what I can tell. I was very please with the beautiful black ducks with white beaks. The American coot. The late afternoon lake. There were fishermen out hunting for a fish called blanco. It was listed on most menus in town. A very cool bar and rope swing a place I would put on my to-do list next time. Note: Know how to use a rope swing otherwise you are in for a world-of-inner-thigh-hurt rope burn. And chugging back an AMAZING view of the island it almost looks medieval. 4. Eat street food: Stands set up all over town in the late afternoon as people are coming home from work. Mine was across the street from my hotel on the ring road next to the water. The food was delicious and I ate my heart out for 15Q or $2US. That included 3 tostada I let the chef choose and got an odd but tasty assortment. I got a lime juice from this selection. And then I turned to see this. I heard Guatemalan angels sing. I chose a moist tender almond cakea HUGE SLAB for 7Q. Most impressive was that this stand set up in about 20 minutes. ALL THIS FOOD! 5. Watch the Sunset: Choose the highest vantage point you can the electrical wiring around the island is abundant. My view was actually from the stairway to my attic room at my hotel. View during day. Take a look at this. No filters, no adjustments of color. It was crazy beautiful. One of the best Ive ever seen. Where I stayed in Flores: Hotel Casa Amelia. Luckily on the west side of the island with a large rooftop terrance. I also scored a new room added to the top. 4 flights up and then an added circular stair case. Not only was the view to do for but the AC and the hot water were powerful and the bed comfortable. Things you should bring. The weather is HOT and humid. Much like Belize though it felt a bit cooler at night. Bring sunscreen, light clothing ESPECIALLY for Tikal and sturdy shoeslike I did. All my life I SWORE I would never ever ever wear sport sandals. And for this trip (and Im very glad I did) I bought and am wearing TEVAs. Im trying to move past it. Im ALREADY in Antigua after a long bus ride and starting my quest to find the very best cafe and best coffee in one of the most lauded coffee regions in the world. Im off to a good start. And, if youd like to save this information for your trip to Flores, stick a pin in it. New Braunfels, TX (78130) Today Windy with scattered thunderstorms. High around 85F. Winds S at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 50%. Higher wind gusts possible.. Tonight Mostly clear. Low 52F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph. Harjumaa, Estonia -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/05/2017 -- The news that bethestrongest.com is providing all the necessary details and tips for maintaining fitness may excite health-conscious people. 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The posts about food items like apricot, coconut, etc. and about various types of vitamins are certain to impress upon people the benefits they can derive if they choose to eat wisely. To summarize, their website is an ideal place to visit for health-conscious people, says bethestrongest.com. About Bethestrongest.com Bethestrongest.com is providing all the necessary details and tips so people can maintain their fitness and health. Apart from offering tips on various types of exercises, bethestrongest.com gives the health benefits of various food items like coconuts, apricots, fruits and so on and the nutrients people can get by eating them. In short, the posts on their site will motivate people to do their exercises, eat wisely and maintain their health. For Media Contact: Bethestrongest.com Address: Vabaduse pst 3,11211 Tallinn, Harjumaa, ESTONIA Contact Number: +372 53 77 55 82 Contact: Jack Donate Email: admin@bethestrongest.com http://bethestrongest.com/ Sarasota, FL -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/05/2017 -- Global Aseptic Packaging (Bags & Pouches, Cartons, Vials & Ampoules, Pre-filled Syringes and Bottles & Cans) Market by Materials Used (Glass, Plastic, Paperboard and Metal) for Pharmaceutical, Food, Medical Applications, Beverages and other applications: Global Industry Perspective, Comprehensive Analysis and Forecast, 2015 2021. The report covers forecast and analysis for the aseptic packaging market on a global and regional level. According to the report, global demand for aseptic packaging market was valued at over USD 38.25 billion in 2015, is expected to reach above USD 67.47 Billion in 2021 and is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of above 10.1% between 2016 and 2021. 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 study of opportunities available in the aseptic packaging market on a global level. Request Free Sample copy of Report @ http://bit.ly/2decMqr Aseptic packaging market is driven by expanding dairy industry in the Asia Pacific and Brazil. As dairy products are prone to spoilage, and posses low shelf life, highly aseptic environment is required to maintain. Growing demand from the pharmaceutical sector stimulates the growth of aseptic packaging market. Surging beverage industry in the developing countries results in increase demand for aseptic packaging triggers the demand for the market. However, high initial cost with low packaging equipments may impede the penetration of aseptic packaging market. Nonetheless, ongoing research for technological advancement and rising demand from the emerging economies is likely to open new avenue for the aseptic packaging market in the near future. Based on type the aseptic packaging market can be segmented as bags & pouches, cartons, vials & ampoules, pre-filled syringes and bottles & cans. Bottle, cans, bags and pouches are the leading type segment due to easy handling, and availability with consumer preference towards cans and pouches. For the packaging, various materials are utilized some of those are glass, plastic, paperboard and metal. Mainly plastic and paperboard are used for packing of food and beverages. Increasing environmental concern the use of plastics and paper are restricted in some regions. Growing use of aseptic packaging in various end user industries is due to its numerous applications such as pharmaceutical, food, medical applications, beverages and other applications. Pharmaceutical is the dominating application segment owing to high aseptic conditions required for packaging of drugs and chemicals. Food and beverage emerged as the potential segment due to high demand for safe and healthy processed and packed food. Browse detail report with in-depth TOC @ http://atozresearch.com/global-aseptic-packaging-market-research-report/ Asia Pacific is considered to be the most prominent market for aseptic packaging owing to rising consumer preference for processed food. Factors such as growing beverage and dairy industry across India and China and increased spending capacity over fast and junk food contributes to the high growth of market. Escalating pharmaceutical sector in U.S. is expected to show sharp rise in aseptic packaging in North America. Europe is likely to witness faster growth in the estimated period due to stern rules led by European government over the packaging and high demand for packed food. Latin America is anticipated to show sustainable growth owing to expanding dairy industry in Brazil. Middle East and Africa is projected to experience decent growth over the period due to change in lifestyle and increasing demand for processed and packed food. In order to give the users of this report a comprehensive view on the aseptic packaging market, we have included a detailed competitive scenario, strategic development and patent analysis and material portfolio of key vendors are included. To understand the competitive landscape in the market, an analysis of Porter's five forces model for the aseptic packaging market has also been included, strategic development along with patents analysis is included in this report. The study encompasses a market attractiveness analysis, whereintype segments are benchmarked based on their market size, growth rate and general attractiveness. The aseptic packaging market can be segmented on the basis of types, materials used, applications and region. Types of aseptic packaging market are bags & pouches, cartons, vials & ampoules, pre-filled syringes and bottles & cans. Some of the materials used for packaging are glass, plastic, paperboard and metal. Aseptic packaging possess numerous applications that are used in the end user industries for several purpose are pharmaceutical, food, medical applications, beverages 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 Middle East and Africa with its further bifurcation into major countries including U.S. Germany, France, UK, China, Japan, India and Brazil. Related reports: Research Report Global E-Waste Management Market Forecast 2015 - 2021 http://atozresearch.com/global-e-waste-management-market-research-reports/ Hepatitis C Drug Market Worldwide Growth by 2021 http://atozresearch.com/global-hepatitis-c-drug-market-research-reports/ Global Radiofrequency Ablation Market to Record an Impressive Growth by 2020 http://atozresearch.com/global-radio-frequency-ablation-market-research-report/ Fish Oil Market Worldwide Growth by 2020 http://atozresearch.com/global-fish-oil-market-research-reports/ 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 Dickinson & Company, Robert Bosch GmBH, Ecolean Packaging, Schott AG, Parish Manufacturing, Greatview Aseptic Packaging Co Ltd., Becton, Printpack, Tetra Laval, E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, Scholle Packaging, Amcor Limited and Reynolds Group Holdings among others. This report segments the aseptic packaging market as follows: Aseptic Packaging Market: Type Segment Analysis Bags & pouches Cartons Vials & ampoules Pre-filled syringes Bottles & cans Aseptic Packaging Market: Material used Segment Analysis Glass Plastic Paperboard Metal Aseptic Packaging Market: Application Segment Analysis Pharmaceutical Food Medical applications Beverages Other Aseptic Packaging Market: Regional Segment Analysis North America US Europe Germany France UK Asia Pacific China Japan India Latin America Brazil Middle East and Africa About A to Z Research A 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 US 3422 SW 15 Street,Suit #8138, Deerfield Beach,Florida 33442, USA Tel: +1-386-310-3803GMT Tel: +49-322 210 92714 USA/Canada Toll Free No.1-855-465-465 Email: martin@atozresearch.com Website: http://atozresearch.com/ Willow Grove, PA -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/05/2017 -- Anyone searching for fencing companies in Montgomery County, PA or any of its surrounding areas can be relieved that their search is finally over: Greenhill Fencing Inc. offers the preferred team of experts when it comes to installing any type of fencing design. Without a doubt, customers can count on the experts at Greenhill Fencing Inc. to bring their visions to life. With many years of experience in the fencing industry and a passion for installing eye-catching layouts, there's no better team to turn to when in need of a fence. Whether a customer is interested in a PVC, wooden, chain-link or aluminum fence, the experts provide solutions for a variety needs and desires. Some people install fencing for more peace of mind about the protection of their home, while others want more privacy. Then again, there are also people who do it for their pets or even strictly for aesthetics. All in all, there are a slew of reasons why a resident might want to put up a fence on their property; fortunately, Greenhill Fencing Inc. is experienced with them all. After an interested customer contacts the professionals at Greenhill Fencing Inc. for a free quote, they'll listen closely to understand the reasons why they want a fence and also to help them visualize the design they're going for. They'll also perform an in-depth evaluation of the area where the customer plans to install it. Thanks to this process, they're able to develop a design based on their exact needs and preferences. Once the customer gives the go ahead, the professionals will break ground and begin building the fence they've been longing for. Move forward with a fencing project this winter. Learn more about fencing contractors in Montgomery County, PA by calling 267-329-3005 or by visiting their website today. About Greenhill Fencing Inc. For over 25 years and 3 generations of family ownership, Greenhill Fencing Inc. has consistently met its goal of providing fast, affordable fence installations to their community. Located in Willow Grove, PA, the company hires the most experienced technicians and offers high-quality materials at competitive prices. Greenhill Fencing serves homes in Philadelphia as well as customers throughout Bucks, Montgomery, Chester, and Delaware Counties. To learn more visit http://www.greenhillfencing.com/ Greensboro, NC -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/05/2017 -- Stephen Hopkins was from Hampshire, England. He married his first wife, Mary, and resided in the parish of Hursley, Hampshire. They had three (3) children: Elizabeth, Constance, and Giles; all baptized there. It has long been claimed that the Hopkins family was from Wortley, Gloucester, but this was disproven in 1998 with the discovery of his true origins in Hursley. http://mayflowerhistory.com/hopkins-stephen/ Stephen Hopkins went with the ship Sea Venture on a voyage to Jamestown, Virginia in 1609 as a minister's clerk, but the ship wrecked in the "Isle of Devils" (Bermuda). Stranded on an island for ten months, the passengers and crew survived on turtles, birds, and wild pigs. Six months into the castaway, Stephen Hopkins and several others organized a mutiny against the current governor. The mutiny was discovered and Stephen was sentenced to death. However, he pleaded with sorrow and tears. "So penitent he was, and made so much moan, alleging the ruin of his wife and children in this his trespass, as it wrought in the hearts of all the better sorts of the company." He managed to get his sentence commuted. Eventually the castaways built a small ship and sailed themselves to Jamestown. How long Stephen remained in Jamestown is not known. However, while he was gone, his wife Mary died. She was buried in Hursley on 9 May 1613, and left behind a probate estate which mentions her children Elizabeth, Constance and Giles. Stephen was back in England by 1617, when he married Elizabeth Fisher, but apparently had every intention of bringing his family back to Virginia. Their first child, Damaris, was born about 1618. In 1620, Stephen Hopkins brought his wife and children Constance, Giles, and Damaris on the Mayflower (child Elizabeth apparently had died). Stephen was a fairly active member of the Pilgrim group shortly after arrival, perhaps a result of his being one of the few individuals who had been to Virginia previously. He was a part of all the early exploring missions, and was used as an "expert" on Native Americans for the first few contacts. While out exploring, Stephen recognized and identified an Indian deer trap. And when Samoset walked into Plymouth and welcomed the English, he was housed in Stephen Hopkins' house for the night. Stephen was also sent on several of the ambassadorial missions to meet with the various Indian groups in the region. Stephen was an assistant to the governor through 1636, and volunteered for the Pequot War of 1637 but was never called to serve. By the late 1630s, however, Stephen began to occasionally run afoul of the Plymouth authorities, as he apparently opened up a shop and served alcohol. In 1636 he got into a fight with John Tisdale and seriously wounded him. In 1637, he was fined for allowing drinking and shuffleboard playing on Sunday. Early the next year he was fined for allowing people to drink excessively in his house: guest William Reynolds was fined, but the others were acquitted. In 1638 he was twice fined for selling beer at twice the actual value, and in 1639 he was fined for selling a looking glass for twice what it would cost if bought in the Bay Colony. Also in 1638, Stephen Hopkins' maidservant got pregnant from Arthur Peach, who was subsequently executed for murdering an Indian. The Plymouth Court ruled he was financially responsible for her and her child for the next two years (the amount remaining on her term of service). Stephen, in contempt of court, threw Dorothy out of his household and refused to provide for her, so the court committed him to custody. John Holmes stepped in and purchased Dorothy's remaining two years of service from him: agreeing to support her and child. Stephen died in 1644, and made out a will, asking to be buried near his wife, and naming his surviving children. BAPTISM: 30 April 1581 at Upper Clatford, Hampshire, England, son of John and Elizabeth (Williams) Hopkins. FIRST MARRIAGE: Mary, possibly the daughter of Robert and Joan (Machell) Kent of Hursley, co. Hampshire, prior to 1604. SECOND MARRIAGE: Elizabeth Fisher on 19 February 1617/8 at St. Mary Matfellon, Whitechapel, co. Middlesex, England. CHILDREN (by Mary): Elizabeth, Constance, and Giles. CHILDREN (by Elizabeth): Damaris, Oceanus, Caleb, Deborah, Damaris, Ruth, and Elizabeth. DNA HAPLOGROUP: R1b-M269 The Mayflower was hired in London, and sailed from London to Southampton in July 1620 to begin loading food and supplies for the voyage--much of which was purchased at Southampton. The Pilgrims were mostly still living in the city of Leiden, in the Netherlands. They hired a ship called the Speedwell to take them from Delfshaven, the Netherlands, to Southampton, England, to meet up with the Mayflower. The two ships planned to sail together to Northern Virginia. The Speedwell departed Delfthaven on July 22, and arrived at Southampton, where they found the Mayflower waiting for them. The Speedwell had been leaking on her voyage from the Netherlands to England, though, so they spent the next week patching her up. On August 5, the two ships finally set sail for America. But the Speedwell began leaking again, so they pulled into the town of Dartmouth for repairs, arriving there about August 12. The Speedwell was patched up again, and the two ships again set sail for America about August 21. After the two ships had sailed about 300 miles out to sea, the Speedwell again began to leak. Frustrated with the enormous amount of time lost, and their inability to fix the Speedwell so that it could be sea-worthy, they returned to Plymouth, England, and made the decision to leave the Speedwell behind. The Mayflower would go to America alone. The cargo on the Speedwell was transferred over to the Mayflower; some of the passengers were so tired and disappointed with all the problems that they quit and went home. Others crammed themselves onto the already very crowded Mayflower. Finally, on September 6, the Mayflower departed from Plymouth, England, and headed for America. By the time the Pilgrims had left England, they had already been living onboard the ships for nearly a month and a half. The voyage itself across the Atlantic Ocean took 66 days, from their departure on September 6, until Cape Cod was sighted on 9 November 1620. The first half of the voyage went fairly smoothly, the only major problem was sea-sickness. But by October, they began encountering a number of Atlantic storms that made the voyage treacherous. Several times, the wind was so strong they had to just drift where the weather took them; it was not safe to use the ship's sails. The Pilgrims intended to land in Northern Virginia, which at the time included the region as far north as the Hudson River in the modern State of New York. The Hudson River, in fact, was their originally intended destination. They had received good reports on this region while in the Netherlands. All things considered, the Mayflower was almost right on target, missing the Hudson River by just a few degrees. As the Mayflower approached land, the crew spotted Cape Cod just as the sun rose on November 9. The Pilgrims decided to head south, to the mouth of the Hudson River in New York, where they intended to make their plantation. However, as the Mayflower headed south, it encountered some very rough seas, and nearly shipwrecked. The Pilgrims then decided, rather than risk another attempt to go south they would just stay and explore Cape Cod. They turned back north, rounded the tip, and anchored in what is now Provincetown Harbor. The Pilgrims would spend the next month and a half exploring Cape Cod, trying to decide where they would build their plantation. On December 25, 1620, they had finally decided upon Plymouth, and began construction of their first buildings. Women of Early Plymouth: Governor William Bradford reported that the Pilgrims were worried that the "weak bodies of women" would not be able to withstand the rigors of a trans-Atlantic voyage and the construction of a colony. Prior to the Mayflower, very few English women had made the voyage across the ocean. Sir Walter Raleigh's Roanoke colony arrived in Virginia in 1587, and amongst those 120 colonists there were 17 women: a baby girl, Virginia Dare, was born after arrival. When re-supply ships came from England, they could not relocate the people. The colony had mysteriously disappeared, and was never seen again. The Jamestown Colony was founded in 1607, but relatively few women had yet made the voyage and taken up residence there. The Pilgrim husband, as head of the household, had an important and difficult decision to make. Building a colony would be hard on a woman's "weaker body." It might be safer and healthier to leave her behind, and have her come later once the houses were built, and the general safety and successfulness of the colony were better established. But that could be several years. Could he live several years without his wife? How strong was his wife anyway, could she really handle it? Was it right to put your wife's life in danger in this manner? As the Mayflower left England for America, there were 18 adult women on-board. Three of them, Elizabeth Hopkins, Susanna White, and Mary Allerton, were actually in their last trimester of a pregnancy. All the adult women on the Mayflower were married; there were no single women--although there were a few teenage girls nearing marriageable age. While no women would die during the Mayflower's voyage, life after arrival proved extremely difficult. In fact, 78% of the women would die the first winter, a far higher percentage than for men or children. Dorothy Bradford was the first woman to die, and the only woman who died in the month of December. While many of the men, including her husband, were out exploring on Cape Cod, she accidentally fell off the Mayflower into the bitter cold waters of Provincetown Harbor. Most of the women's death dates were not recorded, but we do know that Rose Standish died on January 29, Mary Allerton died on February 25, and Elizabeth Winslow died on March 24. Most of the women died in February and March. The extremely high mortality rate among women is probably explainable by the fact the men were out in the fresh air, felling trees, building structures and drinking fresh New England water; while the women were confined to the damp, filthy and crowded quarters offered by the Mayflower, where disease would have spread much more quickly. The two-month voyage was long enough; the women, however, remained living on the ship for an additional four months while the men built storehouses and living quarters on shore. Many of the sick were no doubt cared for on-board the ship by the women, increasing their exposure to colds and pneumonias. William Mullins died on February 21, apparently on-board the Mayflower since his will was witnessed by the ship's captain and ship's surgeon. His wife Alice and son Joseph had not yet died, but it wasn't too long before they did, orphaning their teenage daughter Priscilla in the New World. Only five women survived the first winter. One of the five survivors, Mrs. Katherine Carver, died in May of a "broken heart," her husband John having died of sunstroke a month earlier. Weak bodies or not, by the time of the famous "Thanksgiving," there were only four women left to care for the Colony's fifty surviving men and children. The four women were Eleanor Billington, Elizabeth Hopkins, Mary Brewster, and Susanna (White) Winslow. http://mayflowerhistory.com/women Greensboro, North Carolina General Society of Mayflower Descendant, Adam Paul Green (Ancestor Stephen Hopkins / Gen.No. 86,723) Announces New Geneology Support Website for Local Enthusiasts http://www.mychocolatepod.com/ Adam's hard work and creativity helped him land this job of a lifetime. He obtained incredible business experience there and spent years innovating, improving processes and setting sales records. Although this dream job in Traditional Corporate America was a fun challenge for him, and something he truly enjoyed mastering, Adam's natural entrepreneurial spirit kept nudging him to do something more significant with his time and talents. http://www.MyChocolatePod.com http://www.Facebook.com/AdamPaulGreen Since 2001, Adam has been involved in the Health and Wellness Industry as a successful Entrepreneur, Broker, Product Developer and Manufacturer of Cosmeceutical products. During his career, he has worked with some of the most recognizable Fortune 500 businesses along with many top international Network Marketing companies. Adam has consistently proven his unique ability to help his clients achieve their goals through creative Distribution-Channel Placement, innovative Product Development and custom Manufacturing. Adam currently owns three profitable businesses. http://www.ImAdamGreen.com About MayflowerHistory.com MayflowerHistory.com, the Internet's most complete and accurate website dealing with the Mayflower passengers and the history of the Pilgrims and early Plymouth Colony. The website was first created back in 1994 (when the web was still mostly text!) as a simple, but complete, passenger list of the Mayflower. It has grown over the past twenty years as the author, historian Caleb Johnson, has researched and compiled material. http://mayflowerhistory.com Henderson, NV -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/05/2017 -- Stephen Hopkins was from Hampshire, England. He married his first wife, Mary, and resided in the parish of Hursley, Hampshire. They had three (3) children: Elizabeth, Constance, and Giles; all baptized there. It has long been claimed that the Hopkins family was from Wortley, Gloucester, but this was disproven in 1998 with the discovery of his true origins in Hursley. http://mayflowerhistory.com/hopkins-stephen/ Stephen Hopkins went with the ship Sea Venture on a voyage to Jamestown, Virginia in 1609 as a minister's clerk, but the ship wrecked in the "Isle of Devils" (Bermuda). Stranded on an island for ten months, the passengers and crew survived on turtles, birds, and wild pigs. Six months into the castaway, Stephen Hopkins and several others organized a mutiny against the current governor. The mutiny was discovered and Stephen was sentenced to death. However, he pleaded with sorrow and tears. "So penitent he was, and made so much moan, alleging the ruin of his wife and children in this his trespass, as it wrought in the hearts of all the better sorts of the company." He managed to get his sentence commuted. Eventually the castaways built a small ship and sailed themselves to Jamestown. How long Stephen remained in Jamestown is not known. However, while he was gone, his wife Mary died. She was buried in Hursley on 9 May 1613, and left behind a probate estate which mentions her children Elizabeth, Constance and Giles. Stephen was back in England by 1617, when he married Elizabeth Fisher, but apparently had every intention of bringing his family back to Virginia. Their first child, Damaris, was born about 1618. In 1620, Stephen Hopkins brought his wife and children Constance, Giles, and Damaris on the Mayflower (child Elizabeth apparently had died). Stephen was a fairly active member of the Pilgrim group shortly after arrival, perhaps a result of his being one of the few individuals who had been to Virginia previously. He was a part of all the early exploring missions, and was used as an "expert" on Native Americans for the first few contacts. While out exploring, Stephen recognized and identified an Indian deer trap. And when Samoset walked into Plymouth and welcomed the English, he was housed in Stephen Hopkins' house for the night. Stephen was also sent on several of the ambassadorial missions to meet with the various Indian groups in the region. Stephen was an assistant to the governor through 1636, and volunteered for the Pequot War of 1637 but was never called to serve. By the late 1630s, however, Stephen began to occasionally run afoul of the Plymouth authorities, as he apparently opened up a shop and served alcohol. In 1636 he got into a fight with John Tisdale and seriously wounded him. In 1637, he was fined for allowing drinking and shuffleboard playing on Sunday. Early the next year he was fined for allowing people to drink excessively in his house: guest William Reynolds was fined, but the others were acquitted. In 1638 he was twice fined for selling beer at twice the actual value, and in 1639 he was fined for selling a looking glass for twice what it would cost if bought in the Bay Colony. Also in 1638, Stephen Hopkins' maidservant got pregnant from Arthur Peach, who was subsequently executed for murdering an Indian. The Plymouth Court ruled he was financially responsible for her and her child for the next two years (the amount remaining on her term of service). Stephen, in contempt of court, threw Dorothy out of his household and refused to provide for her, so the court committed him to custody. John Holmes stepped in and purchased Dorothy's remaining two years of service from him: agreeing to support her and child. Stephen died in 1644, and made out a will, asking to be buried near his wife, and naming his surviving children. BAPTISM: 30 April 1581 at Upper Clatford, Hampshire, England, son of John and Elizabeth (Williams) Hopkins. FIRST MARRIAGE: Mary, possibly the daughter of Robert and Joan (Machell) Kent of Hursley, co. Hampshire, prior to 1604. SECOND MARRIAGE: Elizabeth Fisher on 19 February 1617/8 at St. Mary Matfellon, Whitechapel, co. Middlesex, England. CHILDREN (by Mary): Elizabeth, Constance, and Giles. CHILDREN (by Elizabeth): Damaris, Oceanus, Caleb, Deborah, Damaris, Ruth, and Elizabeth. DNA HAPLOGROUP: R1b-M269 The Pilgrims did not leave behind any lists of the items they brought with them on the Mayflower, but historians have used a provision list put together by Captain John Smith (of Pocahontas fame) to take an educated guess. However, in 2012, Caleb Johnson, Simon Neal, and Jeremy Bangs started transcribing and studying a rare manuscript (a page of which is here illustrated) in the possession of the Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants, that was written by one of the investors in the Pilgrims' joint-stock company. This manuscript actually contains several lists of suggested provisions the colonists should bring with them. It is the closest thing we can get to a list of what the Pilgrims would have actually brought. A summary of some of the key items on the provision lists: http://mayflowerhistory.com/pilgrim-history/ -Food and Drink: Biscuit, beer, salt, (dried) beef, salt pork, oats, peas, wheat, butter, sweet oil, mustard seed, ling or cod fish, "good cheese", vinegar, aqua-vitae, rice, bacon, cider. -Clothing: Monmouth cap, falling bands, shirts, waistcoat, suit of canvas, suit of cloth, Irish stockings, 4 pairs of shoes, garters. Slippers, plain shoes, little shoes, French soles, sewing needles. -Bedding: Canvas sheets, bolster "filled with good straw", rug and blankets. -Arms: Light armor (complete), fowling piece, snaphance, sword, belt, bandoleer, powder horn, 20 pounds of powder, 60 pounds of shot. -Household: Iron pot, kettle, frying pan, gridiron, two skillets, spit, platters, dishes, spoons of wood, napkins, towels, soap, hand mill, mortar and pestle. -Tools: Broad hoes, narrow hoes, broad axe, felling axe, steel handsaw, whipsaw, hammers, shovels, spades, augers, chisels, gimlets, hatchets, grinding stone, nails, locks for doors. Master Christopher Jones and several business partners purchased the ship Mayflower about 1607. Its origins prior to that remain uncertain. Its first documented voyage of record was to Trondheim, Norway, in 1609. Andrew Pawling hired the ship to take a cargo of London goods to Norway, sell them off, and buy Norway goods (lumber, tar, and fish) to return back to England. Unfortunately on the return voyage, the Mayflower encountered a severe North Sea storm and the master and crew were forced to toss most of Pawlings goods overboard to lighten the ship. The home of Master Christopher Jones: Harwich, co. Essex, England. http://mayflowerhistory.com/ Following that, Christopher Jones seems to have stuck with safer trading routes. The Mayflower made numerous trips primarily to Bordeaux, France, returning to London with cargoes of French wine, Cognac, vinegar, and salt. The Mayflower could freight about 180 tons of cargo. The Mayflower also made occasional voyages to other ports, including once to Malaga, Spain, and twice to Hamburg, Germany. Upon returning from a voyage to Bordeaux, France, in May 1620, the Mayflower and master Christopher Jones were hired to take the Pilgrims to Northern Virginia. This was the first recorded trans-Atlantic voyage for both ship and master, though Christopher Jones had several crewmembers, including pilot and master's mates John Clarke and Robert Coppin, who had been to the New World before. The Mayflower was supposed to accompany another ship, the Speedwell, to America, but the Speedwell proved too leaky for the voyage so the Mayflower proceeded alone. Departing on 6 September 1620, the ship was at sea for 66 days, arriving November 9. The ship and crew overwintered with the Pilgrims and departed back for England on 5 April 1621, arriving back to England on May 6. Christopher Jones took the ship out for a few more trading runs, but he died a couple of years later in March 1621/2. The ship was appraised for probate purposes in May 1624, and was referred to as being "in ruins." It was only valued at 128 pounds sterling, and was almost certainly broken up and sold off as scrap. Henderson, Nevada General Society of Mayflower Descendant, Adam Paul Green (Ancestor Stephen Hopkins / Gen.No. 86,723) Introduces New Geneology Support Website for Local Enthusiasts http://www.mychocolatepod.com/ Adam Paul Green was born to a multi-talented beauty queen Mother and a Father who, in addition to being a US Army Spy and a Counter-Intelligence Special Agent, was also a highly accomplished entrepreneur. Adam was taught at a young age that, in both life and business, loyalty is a requirement for success. He's had the honor of working directly with his father in several of the family businesses. In fact, this is where he learned crucial entrepreneurial skills and honed his talents with international business strategies and venture capitalism. http://www.MarketingChocolateInternational.com http://www.AdamPaulGreen.com http://www.ImAdamGreen.com Adam earned his Bachelors of Science Degree in International Business and Marketing from the University of Utah. He was hand-picked by the President of the University's renowned School of Business to compete with dozens of other ambitious nationwide-graduates for the opportunity to secure a lucrative job within a prestigious Fortune 100 company. http://www.mxicorp.com/fab/ http://www.Twitter.com/AdamPaulGreen http://www.ImAdamGreen.com About MayflowerHistory.com MayflowerHistory.com, the Internet's most complete and accurate website dealing with the Mayflower passengers and the history of the Pilgrims and early Plymouth Colony. The website was first created back in 1994 (when the web was still mostly text!) as a simple, but complete, passenger list of the Mayflower. It has grown over the past twenty years as the author, historian Caleb Johnson, has researched and compiled material. http://mayflowerhistory.com Honolulu, HI -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/05/2017 -- Stephen Hopkins was from Hampshire, England. He married his first wife, Mary, and resided in the parish of Hursley, Hampshire. They had three (3) children: Elizabeth, Constance, and Giles; all baptized there. It has long been claimed that the Hopkins family was from Wortley, Gloucester, but this was disproven in 1998 with the discovery of his true origins in Hursley. http://mayflowerhistory.com/hopkins-stephen/ Stephen Hopkins went with the ship Sea Venture on a voyage to Jamestown, Virginia in 1609 as a minister's clerk, but the ship wrecked in the "Isle of Devils" (Bermuda). Stranded on an island for ten months, the passengers and crew survived on turtles, birds, and wild pigs. Six months into the castaway, Stephen Hopkins and several others organized a mutiny against the current governor. The mutiny was discovered and Stephen was sentenced to death. However, he pleaded with sorrow and tears. "So penitent he was, and made so much moan, alleging the ruin of his wife and children in this his trespass, as it wrought in the hearts of all the better sorts of the company." He managed to get his sentence commuted. Eventually the castaways built a small ship and sailed themselves to Jamestown. How long Stephen remained in Jamestown is not known. However, while he was gone, his wife Mary died. She was buried in Hursley on 9 May 1613, and left behind a probate estate which mentions her children Elizabeth, Constance and Giles. Stephen was back in England by 1617, when he married Elizabeth Fisher, but apparently had every intention of bringing his family back to Virginia. Their first child, Damaris, was born about 1618. In 1620, Stephen Hopkins brought his wife and children Constance, Giles, and Damaris on the Mayflower (child Elizabeth apparently had died). Stephen was a fairly active member of the Pilgrim group shortly after arrival, perhaps a result of his being one of the few individuals who had been to Virginia previously. He was a part of all the early exploring missions, and was used as an "expert" on Native Americans for the first few contacts. While out exploring, Stephen recognized and identified an Indian deer trap. And when Samoset walked into Plymouth and welcomed the English, he was housed in Stephen Hopkins' house for the night. Stephen was also sent on several of the ambassadorial missions to meet with the various Indian groups in the region. Stephen was an assistant to the governor through 1636, and volunteered for the Pequot War of 1637 but was never called to serve. By the late 1630s, however, Stephen began to occasionally run afoul of the Plymouth authorities, as he apparently opened up a shop and served alcohol. In 1636 he got into a fight with John Tisdale and seriously wounded him. In 1637, he was fined for allowing drinking and shuffleboard playing on Sunday. Early the next year he was fined for allowing people to drink excessively in his house: guest William Reynolds was fined, but the others were acquitted. In 1638 he was twice fined for selling beer at twice the actual value, and in 1639 he was fined for selling a looking glass for twice what it would cost if bought in the Bay Colony. Also in 1638, Stephen Hopkins' maidservant got pregnant from Arthur Peach, who was subsequently executed for murdering an Indian. The Plymouth Court ruled he was financially responsible for her and her child for the next two years (the amount remaining on her term of service). Stephen, in contempt of court, threw Dorothy out of his household and refused to provide for her, so the court committed him to custody. John Holmes stepped in and purchased Dorothy's remaining two years of service from him: agreeing to support her and child. Stephen died in 1644, and made out a will, asking to be buried near his wife, and naming his surviving children. BAPTISM: 30 April 1581 at Upper Clatford, Hampshire, England, son of John and Elizabeth (Williams) Hopkins. FIRST MARRIAGE: Mary, possibly the daughter of Robert and Joan (Machell) Kent of Hursley, co. Hampshire, prior to 1604. SECOND MARRIAGE: Elizabeth Fisher on 19 February 1617/8 at St. Mary Matfellon, Whitechapel, co. Middlesex, England. CHILDREN (by Mary): Elizabeth, Constance, and Giles. CHILDREN (by Elizabeth): Damaris, Oceanus, Caleb, Deborah, Damaris, Ruth, and Elizabeth. DNA HAPLOGROUP: R1b-M269 Honolulu, Hawaii General Society of Mayflower Descendant, Adam Paul Green (Ancestor Stephen Hopkins / Gen.No. 86,723) Declares New Geneology Support Website for Local Enthusiasts http://www.mychocolatepod.com/ The Pilgrims did not leave behind any lists of the items they brought with them on the Mayflower, but historians have used a provision list put together by Captain John Smith (of Pocahontas fame) to take an educated guess. However, in 2012, Caleb Johnson, Simon Neal, and Jeremy Bangs started transcribing and studying a rare manuscript (a page of which is here illustrated) in the possession of the Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants, that was written by one of the investors in the Pilgrims' joint-stock company. This manuscript actually contains several lists of suggested provisions the colonists should bring with them. It is the closest thing we can get to a list of what the Pilgrims would have actually brought. A summary of some of the key items on the provision lists: http://mayflowerhistory.com/pilgrim-history/ -Food and Drink: Biscuit, beer, salt, (dried) beef, salt pork, oats, peas, wheat, butter, sweet oil, mustard seed, ling or cod fish, "good cheese", vinegar, aqua-vitae, rice, bacon, cider. -Clothing: Monmouth cap, falling bands, shirts, waistcoat, suit of canvas, suit of cloth, Irish stockings, 4 pairs of shoes, garters. Slippers, plain shoes, little shoes, French soles, sewing needles. -Bedding: Canvas sheets, bolster "filled with good straw", rug and blankets. -Arms: Light armor (complete), fowling piece, snaphance, sword, belt, bandoleer, powder horn, 20 pounds of powder, 60 pounds of shot. -Household: Iron pot, kettle, frying pan, gridiron, two skillets, spit, platters, dishes, spoons of wood, napkins, towels, soap, hand mill, mortar and pestle. -Tools: Broad hoes, narrow hoes, broad axe, felling axe, steel handsaw, whipsaw, hammers, shovels, spades, augers, chisels, gimlets, hatchets, grinding stone, nails, locks for doors. Women of Early Plymouth: Governor William Bradford reported that the Pilgrims were worried that the "weak bodies of women" would not be able to withstand the rigors of a trans-Atlantic voyage and the construction of a colony. Prior to the Mayflower, very few English women had made the voyage across the ocean. Sir Walter Raleigh's Roanoke colony arrived in Virginia in 1587, and amongst those 120 colonists there were 17 women: a baby girl, Virginia Dare, was born after arrival. When re-supply ships came from England, they could not relocate the people. The colony had mysteriously disappeared, and was never seen again. The Jamestown Colony was founded in 1607, but relatively few women had yet made the voyage and taken up residence there. The Pilgrim husband, as head of the household, had an important and difficult decision to make. Building a colony would be hard on a woman's "weaker body." It might be safer and healthier to leave her behind, and have her come later once the houses were built, and the general safety and successfulness of the colony were better established. But that could be several years. Could he live several years without his wife? How strong was his wife anyway, could she really handle it? Was it right to put your wife's life in danger in this manner? As the Mayflower left England for America, there were 18 adult women on-board. Three of them, Elizabeth Hopkins, Susanna White, and Mary Allerton, were actually in their last trimester of a pregnancy. All the adult women on the Mayflower were married; there were no single women--although there were a few teenage girls nearing marriageable age. While no women would die during the Mayflower's voyage, life after arrival proved extremely difficult. In fact, 78% of the women would die the first winter, a far higher percentage than for men or children. Dorothy Bradford was the first woman to die, and the only woman who died in the month of December. While many of the men, including her husband, were out exploring on Cape Cod, she accidentally fell off the Mayflower into the bitter cold waters of Provincetown Harbor. Most of the women's death dates were not recorded, but we do know that Rose Standish died on January 29, Mary Allerton died on February 25, and Elizabeth Winslow died on March 24. Most of the women died in February and March. The extremely high mortality rate among women is probably explainable by the fact the men were out in the fresh air, felling trees, building structures and drinking fresh New England water; while the women were confined to the damp, filthy and crowded quarters offered by the Mayflower, where disease would have spread much more quickly. The two-month voyage was long enough; the women, however, remained living on the ship for an additional four months while the men built storehouses and living quarters on shore. Many of the sick were no doubt cared for on-board the ship by the women, increasing their exposure to colds and pneumonias. William Mullins died on February 21, apparently on-board the Mayflower since his will was witnessed by the ship's captain and ship's surgeon. His wife Alice and son Joseph had not yet died, but it wasn't too long before they did, orphaning their teenage daughter Priscilla in the New World. Only five women survived the first winter. One of the five survivors, Mrs. Katherine Carver, died in May of a "broken heart," her husband John having died of sunstroke a month earlier. Weak bodies or not, by the time of the famous "Thanksgiving," there were only four women left to care for the Colony's fifty surviving men and children. The four women were Eleanor Billington, Elizabeth Hopkins, Mary Brewster, and Susanna (White) Winslow. http://mayflowerhistory.com/women Adam Paul Green was born to a multi-talented beauty queen Mother and a Father who, in addition to being a US Army Spy and a Counter-Intelligence Special Agent, was also a highly accomplished entrepreneur. Adam was taught at a young age that, in both life and business, loyalty is a requirement for success. He's had the honor of working directly with his father in several of the family businesses. In fact, this is where he learned crucial entrepreneurial skills and honed his talents with international business strategies and venture capitalism. http://www.MarketingChocolateInternational.com http://www.AdamPaulGreen.com http://www.ImAdamGreen.com Adam earned his Bachelors of Science Degree in International Business and Marketing from the University of Utah. He was hand-picked by the President of the University's renowned School of Business to compete with dozens of other ambitious nationwide-graduates for the opportunity to secure a lucrative job within a prestigious Fortune 100 company. http://www.mxicorp.com/fab/ http://www.Twitter.com/AdamPaulGreen http://www.ImAdamGreen.com Adam's hard work and creativity helped him land this job of a lifetime. He obtained incredible business experience there and spent years innovating, improving processes and setting sales records. Although this dream job in Traditional Corporate America was a fun challenge for him, and something he truly enjoyed mastering, Adam's natural entrepreneurial spirit kept nudging him to do something more significant with his time and talents. http://www.MyChocolatePod.com http://www.Facebook.com/AdamPaulGreen Since 2001, Adam has been involved in the Health and Wellness Industry as a successful Entrepreneur, Broker, Product Developer and Manufacturer of Cosmeceutical products. During his career, he has worked with some of the most recognizable Fortune 500 businesses along with many top international Network Marketing companies. Adam has consistently proven his unique ability to help his clients achieve their goals through creative Distribution-Channel Placement, innovative Product Development and custom Manufacturing. Adam currently owns three profitable businesses. http://www.ImAdamGreen.com About MayflowerHistory.com MayflowerHistory.com, the Internet's most complete and accurate website dealing with the Mayflower passengers and the history of the Pilgrims and early Plymouth Colony. The website was first created back in 1994 (when the web was still mostly text!) as a simple, but complete, passenger list of the Mayflower. It has grown over the past twenty years as the author, historian Caleb Johnson, has researched and compiled material. http://mayflowerhistory.com Houston, TX -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/05/2017 -- Stephen Hopkins was from Hampshire, England. He married his first wife, Mary, and resided in the parish of Hursley, Hampshire. They had three (3) children: Elizabeth, Constance, and Giles; all baptized there. It has long been claimed that the Hopkins family was from Wortley, Gloucester, but this was disproven in 1998 with the discovery of his true origins in Hursley. http://mayflowerhistory.com/hopkins-stephen/ Stephen Hopkins went with the ship Sea Venture on a voyage to Jamestown, Virginia in 1609 as a minister's clerk, but the ship wrecked in the "Isle of Devils" (Bermuda). Stranded on an island for ten months, the passengers and crew survived on turtles, birds, and wild pigs. Six months into the castaway, Stephen Hopkins and several others organized a mutiny against the current governor. The mutiny was discovered and Stephen was sentenced to death. However, he pleaded with sorrow and tears. "So penitent he was, and made so much moan, alleging the ruin of his wife and children in this his trespass, as it wrought in the hearts of all the better sorts of the company." He managed to get his sentence commuted. Eventually the castaways built a small ship and sailed themselves to Jamestown. How long Stephen remained in Jamestown is not known. However, while he was gone, his wife Mary died. She was buried in Hursley on 9 May 1613, and left behind a probate estate which mentions her children Elizabeth, Constance and Giles. Stephen was back in England by 1617, when he married Elizabeth Fisher, but apparently had every intention of bringing his family back to Virginia. Their first child, Damaris, was born about 1618. In 1620, Stephen Hopkins brought his wife and children Constance, Giles, and Damaris on the Mayflower (child Elizabeth apparently had died). Stephen was a fairly active member of the Pilgrim group shortly after arrival, perhaps a result of his being one of the few individuals who had been to Virginia previously. He was a part of all the early exploring missions, and was used as an "expert" on Native Americans for the first few contacts. While out exploring, Stephen recognized and identified an Indian deer trap. And when Samoset walked into Plymouth and welcomed the English, he was housed in Stephen Hopkins' house for the night. Stephen was also sent on several of the ambassadorial missions to meet with the various Indian groups in the region. Stephen was an assistant to the governor through 1636, and volunteered for the Pequot War of 1637 but was never called to serve. By the late 1630s, however, Stephen began to occasionally run afoul of the Plymouth authorities, as he apparently opened up a shop and served alcohol. In 1636 he got into a fight with John Tisdale and seriously wounded him. In 1637, he was fined for allowing drinking and shuffleboard playing on Sunday. Early the next year he was fined for allowing people to drink excessively in his house: guest William Reynolds was fined, but the others were acquitted. In 1638 he was twice fined for selling beer at twice the actual value, and in 1639 he was fined for selling a looking glass for twice what it would cost if bought in the Bay Colony. Also in 1638, Stephen Hopkins' maidservant got pregnant from Arthur Peach, who was subsequently executed for murdering an Indian. The Plymouth Court ruled he was financially responsible for her and her child for the next two years (the amount remaining on her term of service). Stephen, in contempt of court, threw Dorothy out of his household and refused to provide for her, so the court committed him to custody. John Holmes stepped in and purchased Dorothy's remaining two years of service from him: agreeing to support her and child. Stephen died in 1644, and made out a will, asking to be buried near his wife, and naming his surviving children. BAPTISM: 30 April 1581 at Upper Clatford, Hampshire, England, son of John and Elizabeth (Williams) Hopkins. FIRST MARRIAGE: Mary, possibly the daughter of Robert and Joan (Machell) Kent of Hursley, co. Hampshire, prior to 1604. SECOND MARRIAGE: Elizabeth Fisher on 19 February 1617/8 at St. Mary Matfellon, Whitechapel, co. Middlesex, England. CHILDREN (by Mary): Elizabeth, Constance, and Giles. CHILDREN (by Elizabeth): Damaris, Oceanus, Caleb, Deborah, Damaris, Ruth, and Elizabeth. DNA HAPLOGROUP: R1b-M269 The Pilgrims did not leave behind any lists of the items they brought with them on the Mayflower, but historians have used a provision list put together by Captain John Smith (of Pocahontas fame) to take an educated guess. However, in 2012, Caleb Johnson, Simon Neal, and Jeremy Bangs started transcribing and studying a rare manuscript (a page of which is here illustrated) in the possession of the Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants, that was written by one of the investors in the Pilgrims' joint-stock company. This manuscript actually contains several lists of suggested provisions the colonists should bring with them. It is the closest thing we can get to a list of what the Pilgrims would have actually brought. A summary of some of the key items on the provision lists: http://mayflowerhistory.com/pilgrim-history/ -Food and Drink: Biscuit, beer, salt, (dried) beef, salt pork, oats, peas, wheat, butter, sweet oil, mustard seed, ling or cod fish, "good cheese", vinegar, aqua-vitae, rice, bacon, cider. -Clothing: Monmouth cap, falling bands, shirts, waistcoat, suit of canvas, suit of cloth, Irish stockings, 4 pairs of shoes, garters. Slippers, plain shoes, little shoes, French soles, sewing needles. -Bedding: Canvas sheets, bolster "filled with good straw", rug and blankets. -Arms: Light armor (complete), fowling piece, snaphance, sword, belt, bandoleer, powder horn, 20 pounds of powder, 60 pounds of shot. -Household: Iron pot, kettle, frying pan, gridiron, two skillets, spit, platters, dishes, spoons of wood, napkins, towels, soap, hand mill, mortar and pestle. -Tools: Broad hoes, narrow hoes, broad axe, felling axe, steel handsaw, whipsaw, hammers, shovels, spades, augers, chisels, gimlets, hatchets, grinding stone, nails, locks for doors. Houston, Texas General Society of Mayflower Descendant, Adam Paul Green (Ancestor Stephen Hopkins / Gen.No. 86,723) Announces New Geneology Resource Website for Local Enthusiasts http://www.mychocolatepod.com/ Master Christopher Jones and several business partners purchased the ship Mayflower about 1607. Its origins prior to that remain uncertain. Its first documented voyage of record was to Trondheim, Norway, in 1609. Andrew Pawling hired the ship to take a cargo of London goods to Norway, sell them off, and buy Norway goods (lumber, tar, and fish) to return back to England. Unfortunately on the return voyage, the Mayflower encountered a severe North Sea storm and the master and crew were forced to toss most of Pawlings goods overboard to lighten the ship. The home of Master Christopher Jones: Harwich, co. Essex, England. http://mayflowerhistory.com/ Following that, Christopher Jones seems to have stuck with safer trading routes. The Mayflower made numerous trips primarily to Bordeaux, France, returning to London with cargoes of French wine, Cognac, vinegar, and salt. The Mayflower could freight about 180 tons of cargo. The Mayflower also made occasional voyages to other ports, including once to Malaga, Spain, and twice to Hamburg, Germany. Upon returning from a voyage to Bordeaux, France, in May 1620, the Mayflower and master Christopher Jones were hired to take the Pilgrims to Northern Virginia. This was the first recorded trans-Atlantic voyage for both ship and master, though Christopher Jones had several crewmembers, including pilot and master's mates John Clarke and Robert Coppin, who had been to the New World before. The Mayflower was supposed to accompany another ship, the Speedwell, to America, but the Speedwell proved too leaky for the voyage so the Mayflower proceeded alone. Departing on 6 September 1620, the ship was at sea for 66 days, arriving November 9. The ship and crew overwintered with the Pilgrims and departed back for England on 5 April 1621, arriving back to England on May 6. Christopher Jones took the ship out for a few more trading runs, but he died a couple of years later in March 1621/2. The ship was appraised for probate purposes in May 1624, and was referred to as being "in ruins." It was only valued at 128 pounds sterling, and was almost certainly broken up and sold off as scrap. Adam Paul Green was born to a multi-talented beauty queen Mother and a Father who, in addition to being a US Army Spy and a Counter-Intelligence Special Agent, was also a highly accomplished entrepreneur. Adam was taught at a young age that, in both life and business, loyalty is a requirement for success. He's had the honor of working directly with his father in several of the family businesses. In fact, this is where he learned crucial entrepreneurial skills and honed his talents with international business strategies and venture capitalism. http://www.MarketingChocolateInternational.com http://www.AdamPaulGreen.com http://www.ImAdamGreen.com Adam earned his Bachelors of Science Degree in International Business and Marketing from the University of Utah. He was hand-picked by the President of the University's renowned School of Business to compete with dozens of other ambitious nationwide-graduates for the opportunity to secure a lucrative job within a prestigious Fortune 100 company. http://www.mxicorp.com/fab/ http://www.Twitter.com/AdamPaulGreen http://www.ImAdamGreen.com About MayflowerHistory.com MayflowerHistory.com, the Internet's most complete and accurate website dealing with the Mayflower passengers and the history of the Pilgrims and early Plymouth Colony. The website was first created back in 1994 (when the web was still mostly text!) as a simple, but complete, passenger list of the Mayflower. It has grown over the past twenty years as the author, historian Caleb Johnson, has researched and compiled material. http://mayflowerhistory.com Huntington, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/05/2017 -- Stephen Hopkins was from Hampshire, England. He married his first wife, Mary, and resided in the parish of Hursley, Hampshire. They had three (3) children: Elizabeth, Constance, and Giles; all baptized there. It has long been claimed that the Hopkins family was from Wortley, Gloucester, but this was disproven in 1998 with the discovery of his true origins in Hursley. http://mayflowerhistory.com/hopkins-stephen/ Stephen Hopkins went with the ship Sea Venture on a voyage to Jamestown, Virginia in 1609 as a minister's clerk, but the ship wrecked in the "Isle of Devils" (Bermuda). Stranded on an island for ten months, the passengers and crew survived on turtles, birds, and wild pigs. Six months into the castaway, Stephen Hopkins and several others organized a mutiny against the current governor. The mutiny was discovered and Stephen was sentenced to death. However, he pleaded with sorrow and tears. "So penitent he was, and made so much moan, alleging the ruin of his wife and children in this his trespass, as it wrought in the hearts of all the better sorts of the company." He managed to get his sentence commuted. Eventually the castaways built a small ship and sailed themselves to Jamestown. How long Stephen remained in Jamestown is not known. However, while he was gone, his wife Mary died. She was buried in Hursley on 9 May 1613, and left behind a probate estate which mentions her children Elizabeth, Constance and Giles. Stephen was back in England by 1617, when he married Elizabeth Fisher, but apparently had every intention of bringing his family back to Virginia. Their first child, Damaris, was born about 1618. In 1620, Stephen Hopkins brought his wife and children Constance, Giles, and Damaris on the Mayflower (child Elizabeth apparently had died). Stephen was a fairly active member of the Pilgrim group shortly after arrival, perhaps a result of his being one of the few individuals who had been to Virginia previously. He was a part of all the early exploring missions, and was used as an "expert" on Native Americans for the first few contacts. While out exploring, Stephen recognized and identified an Indian deer trap. And when Samoset walked into Plymouth and welcomed the English, he was housed in Stephen Hopkins' house for the night. Stephen was also sent on several of the ambassadorial missions to meet with the various Indian groups in the region. Stephen was an assistant to the governor through 1636, and volunteered for the Pequot War of 1637 but was never called to serve. By the late 1630s, however, Stephen began to occasionally run afoul of the Plymouth authorities, as he apparently opened up a shop and served alcohol. In 1636 he got into a fight with John Tisdale and seriously wounded him. In 1637, he was fined for allowing drinking and shuffleboard playing on Sunday. Early the next year he was fined for allowing people to drink excessively in his house: guest William Reynolds was fined, but the others were acquitted. In 1638 he was twice fined for selling beer at twice the actual value, and in 1639 he was fined for selling a looking glass for twice what it would cost if bought in the Bay Colony. Also in 1638, Stephen Hopkins' maidservant got pregnant from Arthur Peach, who was subsequently executed for murdering an Indian. The Plymouth Court ruled he was financially responsible for her and her child for the next two years (the amount remaining on her term of service). Stephen, in contempt of court, threw Dorothy out of his household and refused to provide for her, so the court committed him to custody. John Holmes stepped in and purchased Dorothy's remaining two years of service from him: agreeing to support her and child. Stephen died in 1644, and made out a will, asking to be buried near his wife, and naming his surviving children. BAPTISM: 30 April 1581 at Upper Clatford, Hampshire, England, son of John and Elizabeth (Williams) Hopkins. FIRST MARRIAGE: Mary, possibly the daughter of Robert and Joan (Machell) Kent of Hursley, co. Hampshire, prior to 1604. SECOND MARRIAGE: Elizabeth Fisher on 19 February 1617/8 at St. Mary Matfellon, Whitechapel, co. Middlesex, England. CHILDREN (by Mary): Elizabeth, Constance, and Giles. CHILDREN (by Elizabeth): Damaris, Oceanus, Caleb, Deborah, Damaris, Ruth, and Elizabeth. DNA HAPLOGROUP: R1b-M269 Huntington, New York General Society of Mayflower Descendant, Adam Paul Green (Ancestor Stephen Hopkins / Gen.No. 86,723) Introduces New Geneology Resource Website for Local Enthusiasts http://www.mychocolatepod.com/ Women of Early Plymouth: Governor William Bradford reported that the Pilgrims were worried that the "weak bodies of women" would not be able to withstand the rigors of a trans-Atlantic voyage and the construction of a colony. Prior to the Mayflower, very few English women had made the voyage across the ocean. Sir Walter Raleigh's Roanoke colony arrived in Virginia in 1587, and amongst those 120 colonists there were 17 women: a baby girl, Virginia Dare, was born after arrival. When re-supply ships came from England, they could not relocate the people. The colony had mysteriously disappeared, and was never seen again. The Jamestown Colony was founded in 1607, but relatively few women had yet made the voyage and taken up residence there. The Pilgrim husband, as head of the household, had an important and difficult decision to make. Building a colony would be hard on a woman's "weaker body." It might be safer and healthier to leave her behind, and have her come later once the houses were built, and the general safety and successfulness of the colony were better established. But that could be several years. Could he live several years without his wife? How strong was his wife anyway, could she really handle it? Was it right to put your wife's life in danger in this manner? As the Mayflower left England for America, there were 18 adult women on-board. Three of them, Elizabeth Hopkins, Susanna White, and Mary Allerton, were actually in their last trimester of a pregnancy. All the adult women on the Mayflower were married; there were no single women--although there were a few teenage girls nearing marriageable age. While no women would die during the Mayflower's voyage, life after arrival proved extremely difficult. In fact, 78% of the women would die the first winter, a far higher percentage than for men or children. Dorothy Bradford was the first woman to die, and the only woman who died in the month of December. While many of the men, including her husband, were out exploring on Cape Cod, she accidentally fell off the Mayflower into the bitter cold waters of Provincetown Harbor. Most of the women's death dates were not recorded, but we do know that Rose Standish died on January 29, Mary Allerton died on February 25, and Elizabeth Winslow died on March 24. Most of the women died in February and March. The extremely high mortality rate among women is probably explainable by the fact the men were out in the fresh air, felling trees, building structures and drinking fresh New England water; while the women were confined to the damp, filthy and crowded quarters offered by the Mayflower, where disease would have spread much more quickly. The two-month voyage was long enough; the women, however, remained living on the ship for an additional four months while the men built storehouses and living quarters on shore. Many of the sick were no doubt cared for on-board the ship by the women, increasing their exposure to colds and pneumonias. William Mullins died on February 21, apparently on-board the Mayflower since his will was witnessed by the ship's captain and ship's surgeon. His wife Alice and son Joseph had not yet died, but it wasn't too long before they did, orphaning their teenage daughter Priscilla in the New World. Only five women survived the first winter. One of the five survivors, Mrs. Katherine Carver, died in May of a "broken heart," her husband John having died of sunstroke a month earlier. Weak bodies or not, by the time of the famous "Thanksgiving," there were only four women left to care for the Colony's fifty surviving men and children. The four women were Eleanor Billington, Elizabeth Hopkins, Mary Brewster, and Susanna (White) Winslow. http://mayflowerhistory.com/women Master Christopher Jones and several business partners purchased the ship Mayflower about 1607. Its origins prior to that remain uncertain. Its first documented voyage of record was to Trondheim, Norway, in 1609. Andrew Pawling hired the ship to take a cargo of London goods to Norway, sell them off, and buy Norway goods (lumber, tar, and fish) to return back to England. Unfortunately on the return voyage, the Mayflower encountered a severe North Sea storm and the master and crew were forced to toss most of Pawlings goods overboard to lighten the ship. The home of Master Christopher Jones: Harwich, co. Essex, England. http://mayflowerhistory.com/ Following that, Christopher Jones seems to have stuck with safer trading routes. The Mayflower made numerous trips primarily to Bordeaux, France, returning to London with cargoes of French wine, Cognac, vinegar, and salt. The Mayflower could freight about 180 tons of cargo. The Mayflower also made occasional voyages to other ports, including once to Malaga, Spain, and twice to Hamburg, Germany. Upon returning from a voyage to Bordeaux, France, in May 1620, the Mayflower and master Christopher Jones were hired to take the Pilgrims to Northern Virginia. This was the first recorded trans-Atlantic voyage for both ship and master, though Christopher Jones had several crewmembers, including pilot and master's mates John Clarke and Robert Coppin, who had been to the New World before. The Mayflower was supposed to accompany another ship, the Speedwell, to America, but the Speedwell proved too leaky for the voyage so the Mayflower proceeded alone. Departing on 6 September 1620, the ship was at sea for 66 days, arriving November 9. The ship and crew overwintered with the Pilgrims and departed back for England on 5 April 1621, arriving back to England on May 6. Christopher Jones took the ship out for a few more trading runs, but he died a couple of years later in March 1621/2. The ship was appraised for probate purposes in May 1624, and was referred to as being "in ruins." It was only valued at 128 pounds sterling, and was almost certainly broken up and sold off as scrap. Master Christopher Jones and several business partners purchased the ship Mayflower about 1607. Its origins prior to that remain uncertain. Its first documented voyage of record was to Trondheim, Norway, in 1609. Andrew Pawling hired the ship to take a cargo of London goods to Norway, sell them off, and buy Norway goods (lumber, tar, and fish) to return back to England. Unfortunately on the return voyage, the Mayflower encountered a severe North Sea storm and the master and crew were forced to toss most of Pawlings goods overboard to lighten the ship. The home of Master Christopher Jones: Harwich, co. Essex, England. http://mayflowerhistory.com/ Following that, Christopher Jones seems to have stuck with safer trading routes. The Mayflower made numerous trips primarily to Bordeaux, France, returning to London with cargoes of French wine, Cognac, vinegar, and salt. The Mayflower could freight about 180 tons of cargo. The Mayflower also made occasional voyages to other ports, including once to Malaga, Spain, and twice to Hamburg, Germany. Upon returning from a voyage to Bordeaux, France, in May 1620, the Mayflower and master Christopher Jones were hired to take the Pilgrims to Northern Virginia. This was the first recorded trans-Atlantic voyage for both ship and master, though Christopher Jones had several crewmembers, including pilot and master's mates John Clarke and Robert Coppin, who had been to the New World before. The Mayflower was supposed to accompany another ship, the Speedwell, to America, but the Speedwell proved too leaky for the voyage so the Mayflower proceeded alone. Departing on 6 September 1620, the ship was at sea for 66 days, arriving November 9. The ship and crew overwintered with the Pilgrims and departed back for England on 5 April 1621, arriving back to England on May 6. Christopher Jones took the ship out for a few more trading runs, but he died a couple of years later in March 1621/2. The ship was appraised for probate purposes in May 1624, and was referred to as being "in ruins." It was only valued at 128 pounds sterling, and was almost certainly broken up and sold off as scrap. Admittedly, Adam was not initially a fan of Network Marketing. He did not understand the business model because it was new to him. However, once he learned that the REAL focus of Direct Sales is to help average people get a taste of entrepreneurialism --- with minimal risk and at a low cost --- Adam was absolutely convinced of the potential with Multi-Level Marketing. http://www.Xocai.com http://www.MXICorp.com http://www.HealthyChocolate.com http://www.JeanetteBrooks.net Since joining MXI Corp (Xocai) as one of the original 11 founding distributors, Adam has discovered that many of his life-goals truly do align perfectly with Network Marketing. Adam enjoys helping others find significance. Adam is most grateful for the complete time-freedom he has with his fantastic wife and five children. It's my pleasure to introduce you to Adam Paul Green, MXI Corp Ambassador and Multi-Millionaire Earner. http://www.mxicorp.com/fab/index.php?dist=winnerscircle http://www.Youtube.com/AdamPaulGreen http://www.mxicorp.com/multimillionaires/ http://www.ImAdamGreen.com About MayflowerHistory.com MayflowerHistory.com, the Internet's most complete and accurate website dealing with the Mayflower passengers and the history of the Pilgrims and early Plymouth Colony. The website was first created back in 1994 (when the web was still mostly text!) as a simple, but complete, passenger list of the Mayflower. It has grown over the past twenty years as the author, historian Caleb Johnson, has researched and compiled material. http://mayflowerhistory.com Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/05/2017 -- This research study analyzes the industrial boilers market in terms of revenue (US$ Mn). The market has been segmented on the basis of capacity and geography. For the research, 2014 has been taken as the base year, while all forecasts have been given for the period from 2015 to 2023. Market data for all the segments has been provided at the regional and state level from 2015 to 2023. The report provides a broad competitive analysis of companies engaged in the industrial boilers business. The report also includes the key market dynamics such as drivers, restraints, and opportunities affecting the industrial boilers market. These market dynamics were analyzed in detail and are illustrated in the report with the help of supporting graphs and tables. The report also provides a comprehensive industry analysis of industrial boilers with the help of Porter's Five Forces model. This analysis helps in understanding the five major forces that affect the market structure and profitability of the U.S industrial boilers market. The forces analyzed are bargaining power of buyers, bargaining power of suppliers, threat of new entrants, threat of substitutes, and degree of competition. The high-level analysis in the report provides detailed insights into the industrial boilers business in the U.S. There are currently numerous drivers of the market. One of the most prominent drivers is the stringent regulations for emission control. Market attractiveness analysis was carried out for the industrial boilers market on the basis of revenue realization and industrial growth. Market attractiveness was estimated on the basis of common parameters that directly impact the market in different regions. Get a Free Sample Copy of the Report @ http://www.mrrse.com/sample/1645 The industrial boilers market was analyzed across eight regions: South Atlantic(Delaware, Florida, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia), West South Central (Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas), West North Central(Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota), Pacific States(Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington), Mountain States (Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming), North East(Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania), East North Central(Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin), and East South Central(Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee). These regions are further segmented by states and capacity of installed industrial boilers in the U.S. Capacity ranging from (0 to 300 BHP and 301- 600 BHP) has been provided for each states and region. Regional data has been provided for each sub-segment of the industrial boilers market. Key players in the industrial boilers market include Fulton Boiler Works, Inc., Hurst Boiler & Welding Company, Inc., Columbia Boiler Company, Superior Boiler Works, Inc., and Le Groupe Simoneau Inc. The report provides an overview of these companies, followed by their financial details, business strategies, and recent developments. Read Complete Report with TOC @ http://www.mrrse.com/us-industrial-boilers-market About MRRSE MRRSE stands for Market Research Reports Search Engine, the largest online catalog of latest market research reports based on industries, companies, and countries. MRRSE sources thousands of industry reports, market statistics, and company profiles from trusted entities and makes them available at a click. Besides well-known private publishers, the reports featured on MRRSE typically come from national statistics agencies, investment agencies, leading media houses, trade unions, governments, and embassies. Kansas City, MO -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/05/2017 -- Stephen Hopkins was from Hampshire, England. He married his first wife, Mary, and resided in the parish of Hursley, Hampshire. They had three (3) children: Elizabeth, Constance, and Giles; all baptized there. It has long been claimed that the Hopkins family was from Wortley, Gloucester, but this was disproven in 1998 with the discovery of his true origins in Hursley. http://mayflowerhistory.com/hopkins-stephen/ Stephen Hopkins went with the ship Sea Venture on a voyage to Jamestown, Virginia in 1609 as a minister's clerk, but the ship wrecked in the "Isle of Devils" (Bermuda). Stranded on an island for ten months, the passengers and crew survived on turtles, birds, and wild pigs. Six months into the castaway, Stephen Hopkins and several others organized a mutiny against the current governor. The mutiny was discovered and Stephen was sentenced to death. However, he pleaded with sorrow and tears. "So penitent he was, and made so much moan, alleging the ruin of his wife and children in this his trespass, as it wrought in the hearts of all the better sorts of the company." He managed to get his sentence commuted. Eventually the castaways built a small ship and sailed themselves to Jamestown. How long Stephen remained in Jamestown is not known. However, while he was gone, his wife Mary died. She was buried in Hursley on 9 May 1613, and left behind a probate estate which mentions her children Elizabeth, Constance and Giles. Stephen was back in England by 1617, when he married Elizabeth Fisher, but apparently had every intention of bringing his family back to Virginia. Their first child, Damaris, was born about 1618. In 1620, Stephen Hopkins brought his wife and children Constance, Giles, and Damaris on the Mayflower (child Elizabeth apparently had died). Stephen was a fairly active member of the Pilgrim group shortly after arrival, perhaps a result of his being one of the few individuals who had been to Virginia previously. He was a part of all the early exploring missions, and was used as an "expert" on Native Americans for the first few contacts. While out exploring, Stephen recognized and identified an Indian deer trap. And when Samoset walked into Plymouth and welcomed the English, he was housed in Stephen Hopkins' house for the night. Stephen was also sent on several of the ambassadorial missions to meet with the various Indian groups in the region. Stephen was an assistant to the governor through 1636, and volunteered for the Pequot War of 1637 but was never called to serve. By the late 1630s, however, Stephen began to occasionally run afoul of the Plymouth authorities, as he apparently opened up a shop and served alcohol. In 1636 he got into a fight with John Tisdale and seriously wounded him. In 1637, he was fined for allowing drinking and shuffleboard playing on Sunday. Early the next year he was fined for allowing people to drink excessively in his house: guest William Reynolds was fined, but the others were acquitted. In 1638 he was twice fined for selling beer at twice the actual value, and in 1639 he was fined for selling a looking glass for twice what it would cost if bought in the Bay Colony. Also in 1638, Stephen Hopkins' maidservant got pregnant from Arthur Peach, who was subsequently executed for murdering an Indian. The Plymouth Court ruled he was financially responsible for her and her child for the next two years (the amount remaining on her term of service). Stephen, in contempt of court, threw Dorothy out of his household and refused to provide for her, so the court committed him to custody. John Holmes stepped in and purchased Dorothy's remaining two years of service from him: agreeing to support her and child. Stephen died in 1644, and made out a will, asking to be buried near his wife, and naming his surviving children. BAPTISM: 30 April 1581 at Upper Clatford, Hampshire, England, son of John and Elizabeth (Williams) Hopkins. FIRST MARRIAGE: Mary, possibly the daughter of Robert and Joan (Machell) Kent of Hursley, co. Hampshire, prior to 1604. SECOND MARRIAGE: Elizabeth Fisher on 19 February 1617/8 at St. Mary Matfellon, Whitechapel, co. Middlesex, England. CHILDREN (by Mary): Elizabeth, Constance, and Giles. CHILDREN (by Elizabeth): Damaris, Oceanus, Caleb, Deborah, Damaris, Ruth, and Elizabeth. DNA HAPLOGROUP: R1b-M269 The Mayflower was hired in London, and sailed from London to Southampton in July 1620 to begin loading food and supplies for the voyage--much of which was purchased at Southampton. The Pilgrims were mostly still living in the city of Leiden, in the Netherlands. They hired a ship called the Speedwell to take them from Delfshaven, the Netherlands, to Southampton, England, to meet up with the Mayflower. The two ships planned to sail together to Northern Virginia. The Speedwell departed Delfthaven on July 22, and arrived at Southampton, where they found the Mayflower waiting for them. The Speedwell had been leaking on her voyage from the Netherlands to England, though, so they spent the next week patching her up. On August 5, the two ships finally set sail for America. But the Speedwell began leaking again, so they pulled into the town of Dartmouth for repairs, arriving there about August 12. The Speedwell was patched up again, and the two ships again set sail for America about August 21. After the two ships had sailed about 300 miles out to sea, the Speedwell again began to leak. Frustrated with the enormous amount of time lost, and their inability to fix the Speedwell so that it could be sea-worthy, they returned to Plymouth, England, and made the decision to leave the Speedwell behind. The Mayflower would go to America alone. The cargo on the Speedwell was transferred over to the Mayflower; some of the passengers were so tired and disappointed with all the problems that they quit and went home. Others crammed themselves onto the already very crowded Mayflower. Finally, on September 6, the Mayflower departed from Plymouth, England, and headed for America. By the time the Pilgrims had left England, they had already been living onboard the ships for nearly a month and a half. The voyage itself across the Atlantic Ocean took 66 days, from their departure on September 6, until Cape Cod was sighted on 9 November 1620. The first half of the voyage went fairly smoothly, the only major problem was sea-sickness. But by October, they began encountering a number of Atlantic storms that made the voyage treacherous. Several times, the wind was so strong they had to just drift where the weather took them; it was not safe to use the ship's sails. The Pilgrims intended to land in Northern Virginia, which at the time included the region as far north as the Hudson River in the modern State of New York. The Hudson River, in fact, was their originally intended destination. They had received good reports on this region while in the Netherlands. All things considered, the Mayflower was almost right on target, missing the Hudson River by just a few degrees. As the Mayflower approached land, the crew spotted Cape Cod just as the sun rose on November 9. The Pilgrims decided to head south, to the mouth of the Hudson River in New York, where they intended to make their plantation. However, as the Mayflower headed south, it encountered some very rough seas, and nearly shipwrecked. The Pilgrims then decided, rather than risk another attempt to go south they would just stay and explore Cape Cod. They turned back north, rounded the tip, and anchored in what is now Provincetown Harbor. The Pilgrims would spend the next month and a half exploring Cape Cod, trying to decide where they would build their plantation. On December 25, 1620, they had finally decided upon Plymouth, and began construction of their first buildings. Master Christopher Jones and several business partners purchased the ship Mayflower about 1607. Its origins prior to that remain uncertain. Its first documented voyage of record was to Trondheim, Norway, in 1609. Andrew Pawling hired the ship to take a cargo of London goods to Norway, sell them off, and buy Norway goods (lumber, tar, and fish) to return back to England. Unfortunately on the return voyage, the Mayflower encountered a severe North Sea storm and the master and crew were forced to toss most of Pawlings goods overboard to lighten the ship. The home of Master Christopher Jones: Harwich, co. Essex, England. http://mayflowerhistory.com/ Following that, Christopher Jones seems to have stuck with safer trading routes. The Mayflower made numerous trips primarily to Bordeaux, France, returning to London with cargoes of French wine, Cognac, vinegar, and salt. The Mayflower could freight about 180 tons of cargo. The Mayflower also made occasional voyages to other ports, including once to Malaga, Spain, and twice to Hamburg, Germany. Upon returning from a voyage to Bordeaux, France, in May 1620, the Mayflower and master Christopher Jones were hired to take the Pilgrims to Northern Virginia. This was the first recorded trans-Atlantic voyage for both ship and master, though Christopher Jones had several crewmembers, including pilot and master's mates John Clarke and Robert Coppin, who had been to the New World before. The Mayflower was supposed to accompany another ship, the Speedwell, to America, but the Speedwell proved too leaky for the voyage so the Mayflower proceeded alone. Departing on 6 September 1620, the ship was at sea for 66 days, arriving November 9. The ship and crew overwintered with the Pilgrims and departed back for England on 5 April 1621, arriving back to England on May 6. Christopher Jones took the ship out for a few more trading runs, but he died a couple of years later in March 1621/2. The ship was appraised for probate purposes in May 1624, and was referred to as being "in ruins." It was only valued at 128 pounds sterling, and was almost certainly broken up and sold off as scrap. The Pilgrims did not leave behind any lists of the items they brought with them on the Mayflower, but historians have used a provision list put together by Captain John Smith (of Pocahontas fame) to take an educated guess. However, in 2012, Caleb Johnson, Simon Neal, and Jeremy Bangs started transcribing and studying a rare manuscript (a page of which is here illustrated) in the possession of the Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants, that was written by one of the investors in the Pilgrims' joint-stock company. This manuscript actually contains several lists of suggested provisions the colonists should bring with them. It is the closest thing we can get to a list of what the Pilgrims would have actually brought. A summary of some of the key items on the provision lists: http://mayflowerhistory.com/pilgrim-history/ -Food and Drink: Biscuit, beer, salt, (dried) beef, salt pork, oats, peas, wheat, butter, sweet oil, mustard seed, ling or cod fish, "good cheese", vinegar, aqua-vitae, rice, bacon, cider. -Clothing: Monmouth cap, falling bands, shirts, waistcoat, suit of canvas, suit of cloth, Irish stockings, 4 pairs of shoes, garters. Slippers, plain shoes, little shoes, French soles, sewing needles. -Bedding: Canvas sheets, bolster "filled with good straw", rug and blankets. -Arms: Light armor (complete), fowling piece, snaphance, sword, belt, bandoleer, powder horn, 20 pounds of powder, 60 pounds of shot. -Household: Iron pot, kettle, frying pan, gridiron, two skillets, spit, platters, dishes, spoons of wood, napkins, towels, soap, hand mill, mortar and pestle. -Tools: Broad hoes, narrow hoes, broad axe, felling axe, steel handsaw, whipsaw, hammers, shovels, spades, augers, chisels, gimlets, hatchets, grinding stone, nails, locks for doors. Kansas City, Missouri General Society of Mayflower Descendant, Adam Paul Green (Ancestor Stephen Hopkins / Gen.No. 86,723) Introduces New Geneology Asset Website for Local Enthusiasts http://www.mychocolatepod.com/ Adam Paul Green was born to a multi-talented beauty queen Mother and a Father who, in addition to being a US Army Spy and a Counter-Intelligence Special Agent, was also a highly accomplished entrepreneur. Adam was taught at a young age that, in both life and business, loyalty is a requirement for success. He's had the honor of working directly with his father in several of the family businesses. In fact, this is where he learned crucial entrepreneurial skills and honed his talents with international business strategies and venture capitalism. http://www.MarketingChocolateInternational.com http://www.AdamPaulGreen.com http://www.ImAdamGreen.com Adam earned his Bachelors of Science Degree in International Business and Marketing from the University of Utah. He was hand-picked by the President of the University's renowned School of Business to compete with dozens of other ambitious nationwide-graduates for the opportunity to secure a lucrative job within a prestigious Fortune 100 company. http://www.mxicorp.com/fab/ http://www.Twitter.com/AdamPaulGreen http://www.ImAdamGreen.com About MayflowerHistory.com MayflowerHistory.com, the Internet's most complete and accurate website dealing with the Mayflower passengers and the history of the Pilgrims and early Plymouth Colony. The website was first created back in 1994 (when the web was still mostly text!) as a simple, but complete, passenger list of the Mayflower. It has grown over the past twenty years as the author, historian Caleb Johnson, has researched and compiled material. http://mayflowerhistory.com Las Vegas, NV -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/05/2017 -- Stephen Hopkins was from Hampshire, England. He married his first wife, Mary, and resided in the parish of Hursley, Hampshire. They had three (3) children: Elizabeth, Constance, and Giles; all baptized there. It has long been claimed that the Hopkins family was from Wortley, Gloucester, but this was disproven in 1998 with the discovery of his true origins in Hursley. http://mayflowerhistory.com/hopkins-stephen/ Stephen Hopkins went with the ship Sea Venture on a voyage to Jamestown, Virginia in 1609 as a minister's clerk, but the ship wrecked in the "Isle of Devils" (Bermuda). Stranded on an island for ten months, the passengers and crew survived on turtles, birds, and wild pigs. Six months into the castaway, Stephen Hopkins and several others organized a mutiny against the current governor. The mutiny was discovered and Stephen was sentenced to death. However, he pleaded with sorrow and tears. "So penitent he was, and made so much moan, alleging the ruin of his wife and children in this his trespass, as it wrought in the hearts of all the better sorts of the company." He managed to get his sentence commuted. Eventually the castaways built a small ship and sailed themselves to Jamestown. How long Stephen remained in Jamestown is not known. However, while he was gone, his wife Mary died. She was buried in Hursley on 9 May 1613, and left behind a probate estate which mentions her children Elizabeth, Constance and Giles. Stephen was back in England by 1617, when he married Elizabeth Fisher, but apparently had every intention of bringing his family back to Virginia. Their first child, Damaris, was born about 1618. In 1620, Stephen Hopkins brought his wife and children Constance, Giles, and Damaris on the Mayflower (child Elizabeth apparently had died). Stephen was a fairly active member of the Pilgrim group shortly after arrival, perhaps a result of his being one of the few individuals who had been to Virginia previously. He was a part of all the early exploring missions, and was used as an "expert" on Native Americans for the first few contacts. While out exploring, Stephen recognized and identified an Indian deer trap. And when Samoset walked into Plymouth and welcomed the English, he was housed in Stephen Hopkins' house for the night. Stephen was also sent on several of the ambassadorial missions to meet with the various Indian groups in the region. Stephen was an assistant to the governor through 1636, and volunteered for the Pequot War of 1637 but was never called to serve. By the late 1630s, however, Stephen began to occasionally run afoul of the Plymouth authorities, as he apparently opened up a shop and served alcohol. In 1636 he got into a fight with John Tisdale and seriously wounded him. In 1637, he was fined for allowing drinking and shuffleboard playing on Sunday. Early the next year he was fined for allowing people to drink excessively in his house: guest William Reynolds was fined, but the others were acquitted. In 1638 he was twice fined for selling beer at twice the actual value, and in 1639 he was fined for selling a looking glass for twice what it would cost if bought in the Bay Colony. Also in 1638, Stephen Hopkins' maidservant got pregnant from Arthur Peach, who was subsequently executed for murdering an Indian. The Plymouth Court ruled he was financially responsible for her and her child for the next two years (the amount remaining on her term of service). Stephen, in contempt of court, threw Dorothy out of his household and refused to provide for her, so the court committed him to custody. John Holmes stepped in and purchased Dorothy's remaining two years of service from him: agreeing to support her and child. Stephen died in 1644, and made out a will, asking to be buried near his wife, and naming his surviving children. BAPTISM: 30 April 1581 at Upper Clatford, Hampshire, England, son of John and Elizabeth (Williams) Hopkins. FIRST MARRIAGE: Mary, possibly the daughter of Robert and Joan (Machell) Kent of Hursley, co. Hampshire, prior to 1604. SECOND MARRIAGE: Elizabeth Fisher on 19 February 1617/8 at St. Mary Matfellon, Whitechapel, co. Middlesex, England. CHILDREN (by Mary): Elizabeth, Constance, and Giles. CHILDREN (by Elizabeth): Damaris, Oceanus, Caleb, Deborah, Damaris, Ruth, and Elizabeth. DNA HAPLOGROUP: R1b-M269 The Mayflower was hired in London, and sailed from London to Southampton in July 1620 to begin loading food and supplies for the voyage--much of which was purchased at Southampton. The Pilgrims were mostly still living in the city of Leiden, in the Netherlands. They hired a ship called the Speedwell to take them from Delfshaven, the Netherlands, to Southampton, England, to meet up with the Mayflower. The two ships planned to sail together to Northern Virginia. The Speedwell departed Delfthaven on July 22, and arrived at Southampton, where they found the Mayflower waiting for them. The Speedwell had been leaking on her voyage from the Netherlands to England, though, so they spent the next week patching her up. On August 5, the two ships finally set sail for America. But the Speedwell began leaking again, so they pulled into the town of Dartmouth for repairs, arriving there about August 12. The Speedwell was patched up again, and the two ships again set sail for America about August 21. After the two ships had sailed about 300 miles out to sea, the Speedwell again began to leak. Frustrated with the enormous amount of time lost, and their inability to fix the Speedwell so that it could be sea-worthy, they returned to Plymouth, England, and made the decision to leave the Speedwell behind. The Mayflower would go to America alone. The cargo on the Speedwell was transferred over to the Mayflower; some of the passengers were so tired and disappointed with all the problems that they quit and went home. Others crammed themselves onto the already very crowded Mayflower. Finally, on September 6, the Mayflower departed from Plymouth, England, and headed for America. By the time the Pilgrims had left England, they had already been living onboard the ships for nearly a month and a half. The voyage itself across the Atlantic Ocean took 66 days, from their departure on September 6, until Cape Cod was sighted on 9 November 1620. The first half of the voyage went fairly smoothly, the only major problem was sea-sickness. But by October, they began encountering a number of Atlantic storms that made the voyage treacherous. Several times, the wind was so strong they had to just drift where the weather took them; it was not safe to use the ship's sails. The Pilgrims intended to land in Northern Virginia, which at the time included the region as far north as the Hudson River in the modern State of New York. The Hudson River, in fact, was their originally intended destination. They had received good reports on this region while in the Netherlands. All things considered, the Mayflower was almost right on target, missing the Hudson River by just a few degrees. As the Mayflower approached land, the crew spotted Cape Cod just as the sun rose on November 9. The Pilgrims decided to head south, to the mouth of the Hudson River in New York, where they intended to make their plantation. However, as the Mayflower headed south, it encountered some very rough seas, and nearly shipwrecked. The Pilgrims then decided, rather than risk another attempt to go south they would just stay and explore Cape Cod. They turned back north, rounded the tip, and anchored in what is now Provincetown Harbor. The Pilgrims would spend the next month and a half exploring Cape Cod, trying to decide where they would build their plantation. On December 25, 1620, they had finally decided upon Plymouth, and began construction of their first buildings. Master Christopher Jones and several business partners purchased the ship Mayflower about 1607. Its origins prior to that remain uncertain. Its first documented voyage of record was to Trondheim, Norway, in 1609. Andrew Pawling hired the ship to take a cargo of London goods to Norway, sell them off, and buy Norway goods (lumber, tar, and fish) to return back to England. Unfortunately on the return voyage, the Mayflower encountered a severe North Sea storm and the master and crew were forced to toss most of Pawlings goods overboard to lighten the ship. The home of Master Christopher Jones: Harwich, co. Essex, England. http://mayflowerhistory.com/ Following that, Christopher Jones seems to have stuck with safer trading routes. The Mayflower made numerous trips primarily to Bordeaux, France, returning to London with cargoes of French wine, Cognac, vinegar, and salt. The Mayflower could freight about 180 tons of cargo. The Mayflower also made occasional voyages to other ports, including once to Malaga, Spain, and twice to Hamburg, Germany. Upon returning from a voyage to Bordeaux, France, in May 1620, the Mayflower and master Christopher Jones were hired to take the Pilgrims to Northern Virginia. This was the first recorded trans-Atlantic voyage for both ship and master, though Christopher Jones had several crewmembers, including pilot and master's mates John Clarke and Robert Coppin, who had been to the New World before. The Mayflower was supposed to accompany another ship, the Speedwell, to America, but the Speedwell proved too leaky for the voyage so the Mayflower proceeded alone. Departing on 6 September 1620, the ship was at sea for 66 days, arriving November 9. The ship and crew overwintered with the Pilgrims and departed back for England on 5 April 1621, arriving back to England on May 6. Christopher Jones took the ship out for a few more trading runs, but he died a couple of years later in March 1621/2. The ship was appraised for probate purposes in May 1624, and was referred to as being "in ruins." It was only valued at 128 pounds sterling, and was almost certainly broken up and sold off as scrap. Women of Early Plymouth: Governor William Bradford reported that the Pilgrims were worried that the "weak bodies of women" would not be able to withstand the rigors of a trans-Atlantic voyage and the construction of a colony. Prior to the Mayflower, very few English women had made the voyage across the ocean. Sir Walter Raleigh's Roanoke colony arrived in Virginia in 1587, and amongst those 120 colonists there were 17 women: a baby girl, Virginia Dare, was born after arrival. When re-supply ships came from England, they could not relocate the people. The colony had mysteriously disappeared, and was never seen again. The Jamestown Colony was founded in 1607, but relatively few women had yet made the voyage and taken up residence there. The Pilgrim husband, as head of the household, had an important and difficult decision to make. Building a colony would be hard on a woman's "weaker body." It might be safer and healthier to leave her behind, and have her come later once the houses were built, and the general safety and successfulness of the colony were better established. But that could be several years. Could he live several years without his wife? How strong was his wife anyway, could she really handle it? Was it right to put your wife's life in danger in this manner? As the Mayflower left England for America, there were 18 adult women on-board. Three of them, Elizabeth Hopkins, Susanna White, and Mary Allerton, were actually in their last trimester of a pregnancy. All the adult women on the Mayflower were married; there were no single women--although there were a few teenage girls nearing marriageable age. While no women would die during the Mayflower's voyage, life after arrival proved extremely difficult. In fact, 78% of the women would die the first winter, a far higher percentage than for men or children. Dorothy Bradford was the first woman to die, and the only woman who died in the month of December. While many of the men, including her husband, were out exploring on Cape Cod, she accidentally fell off the Mayflower into the bitter cold waters of Provincetown Harbor. Most of the women's death dates were not recorded, but we do know that Rose Standish died on January 29, Mary Allerton died on February 25, and Elizabeth Winslow died on March 24. Most of the women died in February and March. The extremely high mortality rate among women is probably explainable by the fact the men were out in the fresh air, felling trees, building structures and drinking fresh New England water; while the women were confined to the damp, filthy and crowded quarters offered by the Mayflower, where disease would have spread much more quickly. The two-month voyage was long enough; the women, however, remained living on the ship for an additional four months while the men built storehouses and living quarters on shore. Many of the sick were no doubt cared for on-board the ship by the women, increasing their exposure to colds and pneumonias. William Mullins died on February 21, apparently on-board the Mayflower since his will was witnessed by the ship's captain and ship's surgeon. His wife Alice and son Joseph had not yet died, but it wasn't too long before they did, orphaning their teenage daughter Priscilla in the New World. Only five women survived the first winter. One of the five survivors, Mrs. Katherine Carver, died in May of a "broken heart," her husband John having died of sunstroke a month earlier. Weak bodies or not, by the time of the famous "Thanksgiving," there were only four women left to care for the Colony's fifty surviving men and children. The four women were Eleanor Billington, Elizabeth Hopkins, Mary Brewster, and Susanna (White) Winslow. http://mayflowerhistory.com/women Las Vegas, Nevada General Society of Mayflower Descendant, Adam Paul Green (Ancestor Stephen Hopkins / Gen.No. 86,723) Declares New Geneology Asset Website for Local Enthusiasts http://www.mychocolatepod.com/ Admittedly, Adam was not initially a fan of Network Marketing. He did not understand the business model because it was new to him. However, once he learned that the REAL focus of Direct Sales is to help average people get a taste of entrepreneurialism --- with minimal risk and at a low cost --- Adam was absolutely convinced of the potential with Multi-Level Marketing. http://www.Xocai.com http://www.MXICorp.com http://www.HealthyChocolate.com http://www.JeanetteBrooks.net Since joining MXI Corp (Xocai) as one of the original 11 founding distributors, Adam has discovered that many of his life-goals truly do align perfectly with Network Marketing. Adam enjoys helping others find significance. Adam is most grateful for the complete time-freedom he has with his fantastic wife and five children. It's my pleasure to introduce you to Adam Paul Green, MXI Corp Ambassador and Multi-Millionaire Earner. http://www.mxicorp.com/fab/index.php?dist=winnerscircle http://www.Youtube.com/AdamPaulGreen http://www.mxicorp.com/multimillionaires/ http://www.ImAdamGreen.com About MayflowerHistory.com MayflowerHistory.com, the Internet's most complete and accurate website dealing with the Mayflower passengers and the history of the Pilgrims and early Plymouth Colony. The website was first created back in 1994 (when the web was still mostly text!) as a simple, but complete, passenger list of the Mayflower. It has grown over the past twenty years as the author, historian Caleb Johnson, has researched and compiled material. http://mayflowerhistory.com Lexington-Fayette, KY -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/05/2017 -- Stephen Hopkins was from Hampshire, England. He married his first wife, Mary, and resided in the parish of Hursley, Hampshire. They had three (3) children: Elizabeth, Constance, and Giles; all baptized there. It has long been claimed that the Hopkins family was from Wortley, Gloucester, but this was disproven in 1998 with the discovery of his true origins in Hursley. http://mayflowerhistory.com/hopkins-stephen/ Stephen Hopkins went with the ship Sea Venture on a voyage to Jamestown, Virginia in 1609 as a minister's clerk, but the ship wrecked in the "Isle of Devils" (Bermuda). Stranded on an island for ten months, the passengers and crew survived on turtles, birds, and wild pigs. Six months into the castaway, Stephen Hopkins and several others organized a mutiny against the current governor. The mutiny was discovered and Stephen was sentenced to death. However, he pleaded with sorrow and tears. "So penitent he was, and made so much moan, alleging the ruin of his wife and children in this his trespass, as it wrought in the hearts of all the better sorts of the company." He managed to get his sentence commuted. Eventually the castaways built a small ship and sailed themselves to Jamestown. How long Stephen remained in Jamestown is not known. However, while he was gone, his wife Mary died. She was buried in Hursley on 9 May 1613, and left behind a probate estate which mentions her children Elizabeth, Constance and Giles. Stephen was back in England by 1617, when he married Elizabeth Fisher, but apparently had every intention of bringing his family back to Virginia. Their first child, Damaris, was born about 1618. In 1620, Stephen Hopkins brought his wife and children Constance, Giles, and Damaris on the Mayflower (child Elizabeth apparently had died). Stephen was a fairly active member of the Pilgrim group shortly after arrival, perhaps a result of his being one of the few individuals who had been to Virginia previously. He was a part of all the early exploring missions, and was used as an "expert" on Native Americans for the first few contacts. While out exploring, Stephen recognized and identified an Indian deer trap. And when Samoset walked into Plymouth and welcomed the English, he was housed in Stephen Hopkins' house for the night. Stephen was also sent on several of the ambassadorial missions to meet with the various Indian groups in the region. Stephen was an assistant to the governor through 1636, and volunteered for the Pequot War of 1637 but was never called to serve. By the late 1630s, however, Stephen began to occasionally run afoul of the Plymouth authorities, as he apparently opened up a shop and served alcohol. In 1636 he got into a fight with John Tisdale and seriously wounded him. In 1637, he was fined for allowing drinking and shuffleboard playing on Sunday. Early the next year he was fined for allowing people to drink excessively in his house: guest William Reynolds was fined, but the others were acquitted. In 1638 he was twice fined for selling beer at twice the actual value, and in 1639 he was fined for selling a looking glass for twice what it would cost if bought in the Bay Colony. Also in 1638, Stephen Hopkins' maidservant got pregnant from Arthur Peach, who was subsequently executed for murdering an Indian. The Plymouth Court ruled he was financially responsible for her and her child for the next two years (the amount remaining on her term of service). Stephen, in contempt of court, threw Dorothy out of his household and refused to provide for her, so the court committed him to custody. John Holmes stepped in and purchased Dorothy's remaining two years of service from him: agreeing to support her and child. Stephen died in 1644, and made out a will, asking to be buried near his wife, and naming his surviving children. BAPTISM: 30 April 1581 at Upper Clatford, Hampshire, England, son of John and Elizabeth (Williams) Hopkins. FIRST MARRIAGE: Mary, possibly the daughter of Robert and Joan (Machell) Kent of Hursley, co. Hampshire, prior to 1604. SECOND MARRIAGE: Elizabeth Fisher on 19 February 1617/8 at St. Mary Matfellon, Whitechapel, co. Middlesex, England. CHILDREN (by Mary): Elizabeth, Constance, and Giles. CHILDREN (by Elizabeth): Damaris, Oceanus, Caleb, Deborah, Damaris, Ruth, and Elizabeth. DNA HAPLOGROUP: R1b-M269 Lexington-Fayette, Kentucky General Society of Mayflower Descendant, Adam Paul Green (Ancestor Stephen Hopkins / Gen.No. 86,723) Announces New Geneology Support Website for Local Enthusiasts http://www.rich.goodchocolateblog.com/ The Mayflower was hired in London, and sailed from London to Southampton in July 1620 to begin loading food and supplies for the voyage--much of which was purchased at Southampton. The Pilgrims were mostly still living in the city of Leiden, in the Netherlands. They hired a ship called the Speedwell to take them from Delfshaven, the Netherlands, to Southampton, England, to meet up with the Mayflower. The two ships planned to sail together to Northern Virginia. The Speedwell departed Delfthaven on July 22, and arrived at Southampton, where they found the Mayflower waiting for them. The Speedwell had been leaking on her voyage from the Netherlands to England, though, so they spent the next week patching her up. On August 5, the two ships finally set sail for America. But the Speedwell began leaking again, so they pulled into the town of Dartmouth for repairs, arriving there about August 12. The Speedwell was patched up again, and the two ships again set sail for America about August 21. After the two ships had sailed about 300 miles out to sea, the Speedwell again began to leak. Frustrated with the enormous amount of time lost, and their inability to fix the Speedwell so that it could be sea-worthy, they returned to Plymouth, England, and made the decision to leave the Speedwell behind. The Mayflower would go to America alone. The cargo on the Speedwell was transferred over to the Mayflower; some of the passengers were so tired and disappointed with all the problems that they quit and went home. Others crammed themselves onto the already very crowded Mayflower. Finally, on September 6, the Mayflower departed from Plymouth, England, and headed for America. By the time the Pilgrims had left England, they had already been living onboard the ships for nearly a month and a half. The voyage itself across the Atlantic Ocean took 66 days, from their departure on September 6, until Cape Cod was sighted on 9 November 1620. The first half of the voyage went fairly smoothly, the only major problem was sea-sickness. But by October, they began encountering a number of Atlantic storms that made the voyage treacherous. Several times, the wind was so strong they had to just drift where the weather took them; it was not safe to use the ship's sails. The Pilgrims intended to land in Northern Virginia, which at the time included the region as far north as the Hudson River in the modern State of New York. The Hudson River, in fact, was their originally intended destination. They had received good reports on this region while in the Netherlands. All things considered, the Mayflower was almost right on target, missing the Hudson River by just a few degrees. As the Mayflower approached land, the crew spotted Cape Cod just as the sun rose on November 9. The Pilgrims decided to head south, to the mouth of the Hudson River in New York, where they intended to make their plantation. However, as the Mayflower headed south, it encountered some very rough seas, and nearly shipwrecked. The Pilgrims then decided, rather than risk another attempt to go south they would just stay and explore Cape Cod. They turned back north, rounded the tip, and anchored in what is now Provincetown Harbor. The Pilgrims would spend the next month and a half exploring Cape Cod, trying to decide where they would build their plantation. On December 25, 1620, they had finally decided upon Plymouth, and began construction of their first buildings. Master Christopher Jones and several business partners purchased the ship Mayflower about 1607. Its origins prior to that remain uncertain. Its first documented voyage of record was to Trondheim, Norway, in 1609. Andrew Pawling hired the ship to take a cargo of London goods to Norway, sell them off, and buy Norway goods (lumber, tar, and fish) to return back to England. Unfortunately on the return voyage, the Mayflower encountered a severe North Sea storm and the master and crew were forced to toss most of Pawlings goods overboard to lighten the ship. The home of Master Christopher Jones: Harwich, co. Essex, England. http://mayflowerhistory.com/ Following that, Christopher Jones seems to have stuck with safer trading routes. The Mayflower made numerous trips primarily to Bordeaux, France, returning to London with cargoes of French wine, Cognac, vinegar, and salt. The Mayflower could freight about 180 tons of cargo. The Mayflower also made occasional voyages to other ports, including once to Malaga, Spain, and twice to Hamburg, Germany. Upon returning from a voyage to Bordeaux, France, in May 1620, the Mayflower and master Christopher Jones were hired to take the Pilgrims to Northern Virginia. This was the first recorded trans-Atlantic voyage for both ship and master, though Christopher Jones had several crewmembers, including pilot and master's mates John Clarke and Robert Coppin, who had been to the New World before. The Mayflower was supposed to accompany another ship, the Speedwell, to America, but the Speedwell proved too leaky for the voyage so the Mayflower proceeded alone. Departing on 6 September 1620, the ship was at sea for 66 days, arriving November 9. The ship and crew overwintered with the Pilgrims and departed back for England on 5 April 1621, arriving back to England on May 6. Christopher Jones took the ship out for a few more trading runs, but he died a couple of years later in March 1621/2. The ship was appraised for probate purposes in May 1624, and was referred to as being "in ruins." It was only valued at 128 pounds sterling, and was almost certainly broken up and sold off as scrap. Women of Early Plymouth: Governor William Bradford reported that the Pilgrims were worried that the "weak bodies of women" would not be able to withstand the rigors of a trans-Atlantic voyage and the construction of a colony. Prior to the Mayflower, very few English women had made the voyage across the ocean. Sir Walter Raleigh's Roanoke colony arrived in Virginia in 1587, and amongst those 120 colonists there were 17 women: a baby girl, Virginia Dare, was born after arrival. When re-supply ships came from England, they could not relocate the people. The colony had mysteriously disappeared, and was never seen again. The Jamestown Colony was founded in 1607, but relatively few women had yet made the voyage and taken up residence there. The Pilgrim husband, as head of the household, had an important and difficult decision to make. Building a colony would be hard on a woman's "weaker body." It might be safer and healthier to leave her behind, and have her come later once the houses were built, and the general safety and successfulness of the colony were better established. But that could be several years. Could he live several years without his wife? How strong was his wife anyway, could she really handle it? Was it right to put your wife's life in danger in this manner? As the Mayflower left England for America, there were 18 adult women on-board. Three of them, Elizabeth Hopkins, Susanna White, and Mary Allerton, were actually in their last trimester of a pregnancy. All the adult women on the Mayflower were married; there were no single women--although there were a few teenage girls nearing marriageable age. While no women would die during the Mayflower's voyage, life after arrival proved extremely difficult. In fact, 78% of the women would die the first winter, a far higher percentage than for men or children. Dorothy Bradford was the first woman to die, and the only woman who died in the month of December. While many of the men, including her husband, were out exploring on Cape Cod, she accidentally fell off the Mayflower into the bitter cold waters of Provincetown Harbor. Most of the women's death dates were not recorded, but we do know that Rose Standish died on January 29, Mary Allerton died on February 25, and Elizabeth Winslow died on March 24. Most of the women died in February and March. The extremely high mortality rate among women is probably explainable by the fact the men were out in the fresh air, felling trees, building structures and drinking fresh New England water; while the women were confined to the damp, filthy and crowded quarters offered by the Mayflower, where disease would have spread much more quickly. The two-month voyage was long enough; the women, however, remained living on the ship for an additional four months while the men built storehouses and living quarters on shore. Many of the sick were no doubt cared for on-board the ship by the women, increasing their exposure to colds and pneumonias. William Mullins died on February 21, apparently on-board the Mayflower since his will was witnessed by the ship's captain and ship's surgeon. His wife Alice and son Joseph had not yet died, but it wasn't too long before they did, orphaning their teenage daughter Priscilla in the New World. Only five women survived the first winter. One of the five survivors, Mrs. Katherine Carver, died in May of a "broken heart," her husband John having died of sunstroke a month earlier. Weak bodies or not, by the time of the famous "Thanksgiving," there were only four women left to care for the Colony's fifty surviving men and children. The four women were Eleanor Billington, Elizabeth Hopkins, Mary Brewster, and Susanna (White) Winslow. http://mayflowerhistory.com/women Adam Paul Green was born to a multi-talented beauty queen Mother and a Father who, in addition to being a US Army Spy and a Counter-Intelligence Special Agent, was also a highly accomplished entrepreneur. Adam was taught at a young age that, in both life and business, loyalty is a requirement for success. He's had the honor of working directly with his father in several of the family businesses. In fact, this is where he learned crucial entrepreneurial skills and honed his talents with international business strategies and venture capitalism. http://www.MarketingChocolateInternational.com http://www.AdamPaulGreen.com http://www.ImAdamGreen.com Adam earned his Bachelors of Science Degree in International Business and Marketing from the University of Utah. He was hand-picked by the President of the University's renowned School of Business to compete with dozens of other ambitious nationwide-graduates for the opportunity to secure a lucrative job within a prestigious Fortune 100 company. http://www.mxicorp.com/fab/ http://www.Twitter.com/AdamPaulGreen http://www.ImAdamGreen.com Long Beach, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/05/2017 -- Stephen Hopkins was from Hampshire, England. He married his first wife, Mary, and resided in the parish of Hursley, Hampshire. They had three (3) children: Elizabeth, Constance, and Giles; all baptized there. It has long been claimed that the Hopkins family was from Wortley, Gloucester, but this was disproven in 1998 with the discovery of his true origins in Hursley. http://mayflowerhistory.com/hopkins-stephen/ Stephen Hopkins went with the ship Sea Venture on a voyage to Jamestown, Virginia in 1609 as a minister's clerk, but the ship wrecked in the "Isle of Devils" (Bermuda). Stranded on an island for ten months, the passengers and crew survived on turtles, birds, and wild pigs. Six months into the castaway, Stephen Hopkins and several others organized a mutiny against the current governor. The mutiny was discovered and Stephen was sentenced to death. However, he pleaded with sorrow and tears. "So penitent he was, and made so much moan, alleging the ruin of his wife and children in this his trespass, as it wrought in the hearts of all the better sorts of the company." He managed to get his sentence commuted. Eventually the castaways built a small ship and sailed themselves to Jamestown. How long Stephen remained in Jamestown is not known. However, while he was gone, his wife Mary died. She was buried in Hursley on 9 May 1613, and left behind a probate estate which mentions her children Elizabeth, Constance and Giles. Stephen was back in England by 1617, when he married Elizabeth Fisher, but apparently had every intention of bringing his family back to Virginia. Their first child, Damaris, was born about 1618. In 1620, Stephen Hopkins brought his wife and children Constance, Giles, and Damaris on the Mayflower (child Elizabeth apparently had died). Stephen was a fairly active member of the Pilgrim group shortly after arrival, perhaps a result of his being one of the few individuals who had been to Virginia previously. He was a part of all the early exploring missions, and was used as an "expert" on Native Americans for the first few contacts. While out exploring, Stephen recognized and identified an Indian deer trap. And when Samoset walked into Plymouth and welcomed the English, he was housed in Stephen Hopkins' house for the night. Stephen was also sent on several of the ambassadorial missions to meet with the various Indian groups in the region. Stephen was an assistant to the governor through 1636, and volunteered for the Pequot War of 1637 but was never called to serve. By the late 1630s, however, Stephen began to occasionally run afoul of the Plymouth authorities, as he apparently opened up a shop and served alcohol. In 1636 he got into a fight with John Tisdale and seriously wounded him. In 1637, he was fined for allowing drinking and shuffleboard playing on Sunday. Early the next year he was fined for allowing people to drink excessively in his house: guest William Reynolds was fined, but the others were acquitted. In 1638 he was twice fined for selling beer at twice the actual value, and in 1639 he was fined for selling a looking glass for twice what it would cost if bought in the Bay Colony. Also in 1638, Stephen Hopkins' maidservant got pregnant from Arthur Peach, who was subsequently executed for murdering an Indian. The Plymouth Court ruled he was financially responsible for her and her child for the next two years (the amount remaining on her term of service). Stephen, in contempt of court, threw Dorothy out of his household and refused to provide for her, so the court committed him to custody. John Holmes stepped in and purchased Dorothy's remaining two years of service from him: agreeing to support her and child. Stephen died in 1644, and made out a will, asking to be buried near his wife, and naming his surviving children. BAPTISM: 30 April 1581 at Upper Clatford, Hampshire, England, son of John and Elizabeth (Williams) Hopkins. FIRST MARRIAGE: Mary, possibly the daughter of Robert and Joan (Machell) Kent of Hursley, co. Hampshire, prior to 1604. SECOND MARRIAGE: Elizabeth Fisher on 19 February 1617/8 at St. Mary Matfellon, Whitechapel, co. Middlesex, England. CHILDREN (by Mary): Elizabeth, Constance, and Giles. CHILDREN (by Elizabeth): Damaris, Oceanus, Caleb, Deborah, Damaris, Ruth, and Elizabeth. DNA HAPLOGROUP: R1b-M269 The End of the Mayflower: "Mayflower's End," by Mike Haywood. The Mayflower returned to England from Plymouth Colony, arriving back on 9 May 1621. Christopher Jones took the ship out on a trading voyage to Rochelle, France, in October 1621, returning with a cargo of Bay salt. Christopher Jones, master and quarter-owner of the Mayflower, died and was buried at Rotherhithe, co. Surrey, England, on 5 March 1621/2. No further record of the Mayflower is found until May 1624, when it was appraised for the purposes of probate and was described as being in ruins. The ship was almost certainly sold off as scrap. The claim, first originating from J. Rendel Harris' book The Finding of the Mayflower (1920), that the Mayflower ended up as a barn in Jordans, England, is now widely discredited as being a figment of an overzealous imagination on the tercentenary anniversary of the Mayflower's voyage, combined with a tainted oral history. None of the evidence has withstood subsequent investigation. Regardless of the lack of evidence for its authenticity, it has been featured in National Geographic on several occasions and is a tourist destination. It is important to realize that in 1624, when the ship was scrapped, it was not at all famous, and nobody would have thought twice about letting it rot away. Master Christopher Jones and several business partners purchased the ship Mayflower about 1607. Its origins prior to that remain uncertain. Its first documented voyage of record was to Trondheim, Norway, in 1609. Andrew Pawling hired the ship to take a cargo of London goods to Norway, sell them off, and buy Norway goods (lumber, tar, and fish) to return back to England. Unfortunately on the return voyage, the Mayflower encountered a severe North Sea storm and the master and crew were forced to toss most of Pawlings goods overboard to lighten the ship. The home of Master Christopher Jones: Harwich, co. Essex, England. http://mayflowerhistory.com/ Following that, Christopher Jones seems to have stuck with safer trading routes. The Mayflower made numerous trips primarily to Bordeaux, France, returning to London with cargoes of French wine, Cognac, vinegar, and salt. The Mayflower could freight about 180 tons of cargo. The Mayflower also made occasional voyages to other ports, including once to Malaga, Spain, and twice to Hamburg, Germany. Upon returning from a voyage to Bordeaux, France, in May 1620, the Mayflower and master Christopher Jones were hired to take the Pilgrims to Northern Virginia. This was the first recorded trans-Atlantic voyage for both ship and master, though Christopher Jones had several crewmembers, including pilot and master's mates John Clarke and Robert Coppin, who had been to the New World before. The Mayflower was supposed to accompany another ship, the Speedwell, to America, but the Speedwell proved too leaky for the voyage so the Mayflower proceeded alone. Departing on 6 September 1620, the ship was at sea for 66 days, arriving November 9. The ship and crew overwintered with the Pilgrims and departed back for England on 5 April 1621, arriving back to England on May 6. Christopher Jones took the ship out for a few more trading runs, but he died a couple of years later in March 1621/2. The ship was appraised for probate purposes in May 1624, and was referred to as being "in ruins." It was only valued at 128 pounds sterling, and was almost certainly broken up and sold off as scrap. The Mayflower was hired in London, and sailed from London to Southampton in July 1620 to begin loading food and supplies for the voyage--much of which was purchased at Southampton. The Pilgrims were mostly still living in the city of Leiden, in the Netherlands. They hired a ship called the Speedwell to take them from Delfshaven, the Netherlands, to Southampton, England, to meet up with the Mayflower. The two ships planned to sail together to Northern Virginia. The Speedwell departed Delfthaven on July 22, and arrived at Southampton, where they found the Mayflower waiting for them. The Speedwell had been leaking on her voyage from the Netherlands to England, though, so they spent the next week patching her up. On August 5, the two ships finally set sail for America. But the Speedwell began leaking again, so they pulled into the town of Dartmouth for repairs, arriving there about August 12. The Speedwell was patched up again, and the two ships again set sail for America about August 21. After the two ships had sailed about 300 miles out to sea, the Speedwell again began to leak. Frustrated with the enormous amount of time lost, and their inability to fix the Speedwell so that it could be sea-worthy, they returned to Plymouth, England, and made the decision to leave the Speedwell behind. The Mayflower would go to America alone. The cargo on the Speedwell was transferred over to the Mayflower; some of the passengers were so tired and disappointed with all the problems that they quit and went home. Others crammed themselves onto the already very crowded Mayflower. Finally, on September 6, the Mayflower departed from Plymouth, England, and headed for America. By the time the Pilgrims had left England, they had already been living onboard the ships for nearly a month and a half. The voyage itself across the Atlantic Ocean took 66 days, from their departure on September 6, until Cape Cod was sighted on 9 November 1620. The first half of the voyage went fairly smoothly, the only major problem was sea-sickness. But by October, they began encountering a number of Atlantic storms that made the voyage treacherous. Several times, the wind was so strong they had to just drift where the weather took them; it was not safe to use the ship's sails. The Pilgrims intended to land in Northern Virginia, which at the time included the region as far north as the Hudson River in the modern State of New York. The Hudson River, in fact, was their originally intended destination. They had received good reports on this region while in the Netherlands. All things considered, the Mayflower was almost right on target, missing the Hudson River by just a few degrees. As the Mayflower approached land, the crew spotted Cape Cod just as the sun rose on November 9. The Pilgrims decided to head south, to the mouth of the Hudson River in New York, where they intended to make their plantation. However, as the Mayflower headed south, it encountered some very rough seas, and nearly shipwrecked. The Pilgrims then decided, rather than risk another attempt to go south they would just stay and explore Cape Cod. They turned back north, rounded the tip, and anchored in what is now Provincetown Harbor. The Pilgrims would spend the next month and a half exploring Cape Cod, trying to decide where they would build their plantation. On December 25, 1620, they had finally decided upon Plymouth, and began construction of their first buildings. Long Beach, California General Society of Mayflower Descendant, Adam Paul Green (Ancestor Stephen Hopkins / Gen.No. 86,723) Reveals New Geneology Support Website for Local Enthusiasts http://www.rich.goodchocolateblog.com/ Adam Paul Green was born to a multi-talented beauty queen Mother and a Father who, in addition to being a US Army Spy and a Counter-Intelligence Special Agent, was also a highly accomplished entrepreneur. Adam was taught at a young age that, in both life and business, loyalty is a requirement for success. He's had the honor of working directly with his father in several of the family businesses. In fact, this is where he learned crucial entrepreneurial skills and honed his talents with international business strategies and venture capitalism. http://www.MarketingChocolateInternational.com http://www.AdamPaulGreen.com http://www.ImAdamGreen.com Adam earned his Bachelors of Science Degree in International Business and Marketing from the University of Utah. He was hand-picked by the President of the University's renowned School of Business to compete with dozens of other ambitious nationwide-graduates for the opportunity to secure a lucrative job within a prestigious Fortune 100 company. http://www.mxicorp.com/fab/ http://www.Twitter.com/AdamPaulGreen http://www.ImAdamGreen.com About MayflowerHistory.com MayflowerHistory.com, the Internet's most complete and accurate website dealing with the Mayflower passengers and the history of the Pilgrims and early Plymouth Colony. The website was first created back in 1994 (when the web was still mostly text!) as a simple, but complete, passenger list of the Mayflower. It has grown over the past twenty years as the author, historian Caleb Johnson, has researched and compiled material. http://mayflowerhistory.com Newtown Square, PA -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/05/2017 -- For thousands of vapers throughout The Delaware Valley, the holidays brought new mods, tanks, batteries, and other accessories to enjoy. With new products to experiment with, vapers can rely on one of the most trusted local vape shops in Chester County, PA, Make It Vapor, to provide them with everything they need to get the most out of their gifts. Make It Vapor not only carries a wide selection of boutique and affordably priced tanks, rebuildables and devices, but they also stock some of the area's favorite e-juices. Four new flavors have recently been unveiled at the shop: Rocket Pop, Blazmataz, Strawberry Shortcake and Cherryola. The four new flavors add to the dozens that the vape shop already offer. For those who enjoy the classic tobacco flavor, Make It Vapor carries several takes on the taste including chocolate tinged and menthol. For vapers who prefer sweeter flavors, Make It Vapor stocks fruit-inspired options like blueberry, grape, strawberry lemonade and melon. For vape aficionados who crave a more delectable dessert flavor, the shop mixes up their own takes on cupcake, sherbet, donuts, candied apple and other flavors. Make It Vapor has also created a breakfast flavor collection that includes honey, banana and peanut butter, coffee and cereal tastes. Vapers throughout Chester County and beyond are invited to visit the vape store in West Chester, PA to try some of the new and recurrent flavors. To learn more about Make It Vapor, view their inventory of products or learn about the company's advocacy for vapor products, interested parties are encouraged to visit the website at http://www.makeitvapor.com/. About Make It Vapor With two stores in Newtown Square and West Chester, PA, Make It Vapor is one of Southeastern Pennsylvania's premier destinations for all things vaping. The online store makes it even easier to purchase Make It Vapor's famous e-liquids from any corner of the country. To learn more about all the products and accessories they offer, visit http://www.makeitvapor.com/. Charlotte, NC -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/05/2017 -- Greece has borrowed a huge amount of money from other European countries. Strong European economies such as Germany have lent money to the country and this could result in Greece dumping the currency Euro to accept Drachmas. With such policies prevalent in the country, American tourist to Greece must be aware of certain things about the banks in Greece. With literally no cash in the banks and withdrawal limits on ATMs, tourists are advised to carry more than one form of payment with them while on tour to Greece. According to the U.S. Embassy in Greece, "American tourists visiting Greece should certainly not rely on any single form of payment: "U.S. citizens are encouraged to carry more than one means of payment (cash, debit cards, credit cards), and make sure to have enough cash on hand to cover emergencies and any unexpected delays." Most of the banks are over crowded with long queues which can be quite stressful for tourists. There also could be shortage of food, fuel and other essential commodities in Greece due to the present scenario. Based on the website, "You can load your currency cards with a foreign currency at a pre-agreed exchange rate and use it in shops or at ATMs whilst abroad without incurring commissions or transaction fees. Smaller shops might start to be reluctant to take them, although they are still fully functional. Also remember that Traveller's cheques are not widely accepted so it would not be advisable to rely on them as the only source of payment. Even Western Union, the world's largest money transfer company, now allows transfers into the country but the withdrawal limits from Greek bank accounts still apply." American tourists are advised to store cash before visiting the country. It is also advisable to use deposit boxes and safes to store money. Splitting the money between family members is another idea to store money safely while travelling to Greece at this time period. With specific warnings about bank closures issued, American tourists are advised to carry cash and other forms of payment to enjoy their visit to Greece. To know more about Banks in Greece, please log to the website: http://banksgreece.com/using-greek-banks-as-an-american-tourist Using Greek banks as an American tourist is explained elaborately in the website. With the country facing money issues, tourists need to be aware of the different scenarios in the banks of Greece. Media Contact: URL: http://banksgreece.com/using-greek-banks-as-an-american-tourist Oakland Park, FL -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/05/2017 -- The Brazil E-commerce Market Forecast to 2020 - Growing Internet Penetration and Last Mile Delivery to Shape Future Growth provided a comprehensive analysis of the E-commerce market in Brazil was corroborated by the global manufacturing research division of TR Cutler, Inc. Manufacturing journalist, Thomas R. Cutler noted the growing Brazilian e-commerce market impacts manufacturers throughout South America. The integration of materials handling with manufacturing is growing rapidly throughout Brazil and other South American countries to accommodate the E-commerce growth. Thomas R. Cutler will meet with the Manufacturing Media Consortium on January 27, 2017 in Madrid, Spain. Cutler will lead the meeting with several hundred members of the European members of the Manufacturing Media Consortium. A South American meeting will be scheduled shortly. About TR Cutler, Inc. TR Cutler, Inc. was founded seventeen years ago by Thomas R. Cutler. Cutler is the President and CEO of Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based, TR Cutler, Inc., (http://www.trcutlerinc.com), the largest manufacturing communication firm worldwide with four dozen industry experts and thought leaders on staff. Cutler maintains extraordinary relationships with clients, journalists, editors, economists, trendsetters, and key business leaders worldwide and has become a key resource for those writing about the manufacturing sector. Cutler founded the Manufacturing Media Consortium in 1999, which now has more than 6,000 global members including journalists, editors, publishers, and economists, worldwide writing about trends, industrial data, manufacturing case studies, material handling profiles, and robotics feature articles. Cutler works with thousands of media outlets to expand the coverage and importance of the manufacturing media coverage. Cutler has authored more than 6,000 articles for a wide range of manufacturing periodicals, industrial publications, and business journals each published in leading monthly trade magazines, B2B periodicals, blogs, and marquis publications globally. Cutler is the most published freelance industrial journalist worldwide, and more than 3500 industry leaders follow Cutler on Twitter daily at @ThomasRCutler. The selling of shark fins in Rhode Island is now considered a crime. Ignoring this law will be fined or subject to imprisonment. This came to effect last January 1, 2017. The Humane Society is thankful to the members of the legislature for their unwavering efforts to stand up for the sharks. It stated that the passage of this measure ensures that the Ocean State is now part of the solution to help end the global shark fin trade and the cruel practice of shark finning worldwide. Selling Shark Fins Is Now A Crime In Rhode Island https://t.co/0lfh7b7okl pic.twitter.com/RjVQXnUaMu World of Nature (@WorldfNature) January 3, 2017 Shark finning is the removing or slicing off the shark's fins even though the shark is still alive. Then, they let the shark back to the ocean, in which it will have an agonizing death. The shark fins are used as an ingredient for shark fin soup, which is an Asian "delicacy." Shark fin soup is no reason to decimate a species or ruin the oceans pic.twitter.com/r78o6BlEY0 botShark-bot (@sharkisamazing) December 22, 2016 The shark fin soup costs about $100 a bowl and often served during wedding celebrations. Its demands are increasing in countries like China and nations in the Far East. With the high demand, the traders and the restaurant owners make a lot of money out of shark fins. Other states across America have implemented banning the selling of shark fins. These include California, Hawaii, New York, Texas and Washington. In Hawaii, the banning of shark fin trade was implemented in 2010, according to Huffington Post. There are about 100 million sharks killed every year for their fins. The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization stated that over 1,000 metric tons of shark fins were exported to the United States in 2007. State Senator Susan Sosnowski, who sponsored the Rhode Island bill, said that shark finning is a barbaric and reprehensible practice. A Science mission has been selected by NASA. For the first time, the target mission will allow astronomers to explore hidden details of some of the most extreme and exotic astronomical objects. Stellar, neutron stars, pulsars and supermassive black holes will be exposed. Black holes, such objects can heat up surrounding gasses to more than a million degrees. The gas contains high-energy X-ray radiation that can cause them to polarize, vibrating in a specific direction. To measure the polarization of these cosmic X-rays, the scientists will launch three telescopes with cameras with the help of the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer or IXPE mission. If it happens, it would allow the scientists to answer the fundamental questions about these extreme and turbulent environments wherein electric, gravitational and magnetic fields are at their edge, according to Phys.org. Astrophysics division director for the Science Mission Directorate based at NASA Headquarters in Washington Paul Hertz said that, "We cannot directly image what's going on near objects like black holes and neutron stars, but studying the polarization of X-rays emitted from their surrounding environments reveals the physics of these enigmatic objects." Hertz added that NASA has a great history of launching observatories of the Astrophysics Explorers Program with new and unique observational capabilities. "IXPE will open a new window on the universe for astronomers to peer through. Today, we can only guess what we will find," Space News reported. Proposals for the new missions in September 2014 were requested by NASA's Astrophysics Explorers Program. Fourteen proposals were sent, and three mission concepts were chosen for an additional review by the panel of the agency and external scientists. NASA indicated that the IXPE proposal provides the best science potential and most beneficial development plan. Thus, the mission is scheduled to launch in 2020 that will cost $188 million. The budget includes the cost of the vehicle that will be used for launching, data analysis and post-launch operations. The mission will be led by the Principal Investigator of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Martin Weisskopf. The mission integration and the spacecraft will be provided by the Ball Aerospace in Broomfield, Colorado. Also, the Italian Space Agency will give additional support to the polarization sensitive X-ray detectors that are developed in Italy, according to Space.com. About a million tourists visit Israel every year to tour biblical sites such as the Sea of Galilee, the Tomb of Jesus Christ at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and other archeological sites. Now, tourists can finally get a closer look of the ancient Jerusalem, where Jesus performed some of his remarkable miracles, in the new Cradle of Christianity tour. CBN News reported that an Israeli museum of the Biblical Jerusalem gives tourists a historical experience of the life of Jesus. Built in a scale of 1 to 50, the large model of the city shows some of the famous locations Jesus visited as recorded in the Bible such as the pools of Bethesda and Herod's Jewish temple. According to the Scripture, a lame man was waiting for years for a chance to get into the miraculous pool when Jesus made him walk. Meanwhile, the famous Jewish temple was where Jesus preached to the Jews and where the curtain was miraculously torn into half when Christ died on the cross. The museum also features archeological artifacts dating back to the Biblical time. These historical proofs include a stone bearing the name of Pontius Pilate -- the Roman officer who ruled the trial of Christ's crucifixion as well as a Hebrew -- and Greek inscribed stone used by priests during the New Testament era. Evidence of the Roman practice of crucifixion was also found in a box containing a heel bone with a large iron nail through it. "To see so many artifacts of world history and of our Christian faith in one place so quickly and to be able to comprehend it so quickly is just really amazing and it really confirms our faith, it confirms what the bible teaches us and teaches us the place of our Christian faith in world history, context, it's outstanding," a tourist told CBN News. Another tourist commented: "Just seeing the artifacts made it come alive and to see what I've read about made it come alive in my life." The so-called "alien call" coming from the broad part of the universe has been traced. The mysterious FRBs that baffled the scientists for 10 years have been drawn to their source. The fast radio bursts or FRBs have been detected 18 times since the scientists have heard these back in 2007. No one ever knows and left the scientists puzzled to where their origins come from or what might have triggered them. Speculations show that these came from a huge star. For some, they are from the jets of materials shooting out of a black hole, and some are said to come from aliens. The FRBs do not last more than a millisecond, though they are powerful but very short radio waves. The first to be detected was by Australia's Parkes telescope in 2007. Since then, 17 others have followed and only one of which has been detected repeatedly. Independent reported that the repeated burst allows the scientists to study it for six months and look for its definite place in the space. The scientists said that the FRBs were likely to be from a 3 billion lightyears away faint dwarf galaxy. FRB 121102 was found using the Very Large Array. It is a radio telescope with a multi-antenna and is being operated by the U.S. National Science Foundation. McGill University in Montreal, Canada, team member Dr. Shriharsh Tendulkar said that, "Before we knew the distance to any FRBs, several proposed explanations for their origins said they could be coming from within or near our own Milky Way galaxy. We now have ruled out those explanations, at least for this FRB." The FRB reveals that it is being accompanied by a stream of ongoing, persistent weaker radio emissions; thus, it adds more question to the scientists. The scientists added in the journals Nature and The Astrophysical Journal Letters that, "Further high precision observations showed that the two emission sources could not be more than 100 light years apart." Coming from the Joint Institute for VLBI in Dwingeloo, Netherlands, Dr. Benito Marcote shared that, "We think that the bursts and the continuous source are likely to be either the same object or that they are somehow physically associated with each other." However, what produced the FRB is still unknown. One chance could be that it is coming from a super-dense neutron star, possibly a "magnetar." Thus, the co-author from Cornell University, Dr. Shami Chatterjee, mentioned that, "Finding the host galaxy of this FRB, and its distance, is a big step forward, but we still have much more to do before we fully understand what these things are," according to Mirror. A new documentary titled Titanic: The New Evidence was aired on Jan. 1 in the U.K. It indicated that the cause of the sinking of the huge ship was fire and not the iceberg that struck it. This was claimed by Senan Molony, an Irish author who researched and wrote about the history of Titanic for over 30 years. It was reported that the Titanic sank over 104 years ago and killed more than 1,500 people. The tragedy was mysterious and it was said that the ship collided and was struck by an iceberg off the coast of Newfoundland. On the other hand, in the new documentary, evidence suggests that there was a huge coal fire in the ship's hull and seemed to have started three weeks before it sailed to New York from Southampton in England. Molony said that the fire damaged the hull before it was struck by an iceberg. He argued in the documentary and said that it is a perfect storm of extraordinary factors coming together: fire, ice and criminal intelligence. He added that the fire was known about, but it was played down. He also said that it should never have been put to sea. Molony and a collaborator had collected rare photographs of the ship, which were taken by Harland and Wolff's engineering chief. Harland and Wolff was the company that built the Titanic. Mr. Molony found in the images a 30-foot-long diagonal black mark on the hull's front starboard side, which was near the ship, was pierced by the iceberg. Meanwhile, when the engineers from Imperial College London examined the photos, they revealed that the mark was caused by a fire in a coal bunker of the ship. Richard de Kerbrech, a marine engineer, who had also written two books about the Titanic disaster, said that the fire could have damaged the ship's bulkhead and it became vulnerable after it was struck by an iceberg. He further said that this discovery is a revelation and could change the knowledge of the history of what happened. The documentary will be aired in the United States on the Smithsonian Channel on Jan. 21, according to New York Times. Books, films and televisions all demonstrated at some point the human race's fascination with outer space -- including, but not limited to, Earth's neighboring planet, Mars. The Martian landscape has always been something that modern humans are interested in: from its otherworldly landscape, sulfurous gases and the possibility of a life outside humans' own planet, the thought alone of landing on the Red Planet is enough for most astronauts to go on a certain high: science is that cool. However, landing on a new planet that so far does not show any signs of having human life can be tricky. That is why, according to The Washington Post, NASA is on a mission to prepare its own scientists for the mission. To do so, the agency set up a landscape expedition to the Mauna Ulu volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii -- which is thought to have a similar landscape to Mars -- as a form of dry run for when humans can make an even greater step for mankind. BASALT, or Biologic Analog Science Associated With Lava Terrains, is a mission that makes certain discoveries made for putting humans on Mars is worth the expense and risk of sending them there in the first place. The newspaper noted that while NASA can spend billions of dollars getting its astronauts to space, it does not actually have a plan for what happens when they arrive at their destination. NASA geobiologist Darlene Lim wants to change that. She shared, "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." Perf Science noted that NASA has been aiming to launch a manned mission to the Red Planet in the 2030s, thus the "practice" for the mission. However, it seems that it may not be finished by then, considering the current pace of the program. Sure, the planet has had scientists outside the Earth's atmosphere for years, but risks are larger and more immense in Mars and help from home is not easy, considering how far away and how expensive it is to get there. That being said, it may take a while before humans can set foot on the Red Planet. But it is never too early to get ready for the adventure that is yet to come. Many are convinced that the Titanic was doomed by its collision with an iceberg. However, a recent discovery revealed that the luxury ship's demise was caused by a joint force of fire and ice -- a mystery solved by photographs showing burnt marks on the watercraft's hull. Fox News reported that experts including journalist Senan Molony observed rare photos of the Titanic before it departed London's Belfast shipyard bound for New York. The team discovered black marks about 30 feet long on the ship's hull, which they figured was the result of a huge on-board coal fire that started 10 days before departure. According to the experts, the burnt area was located near the iceberg's damage. This led them to conclude that the marks had contributed to the shipwreck on the night of April 14, 1912, killing a total of 1,503 people. "We are looking at the exact area where the iceberg stuck, and we appear to have a weakness or damage to the hull in that specific place, before she even left Belfast," Molony said in a documentary that aired on Britain's Channel 4 on Jan. 1. In 2008, researcher Ray Boston concluded that Titanic was traveling too fast when it hit the sea ice. A stoker who survived the tragedy testified that the fire on the ship's bunker six was so huge that even a 12-man crew was not able to extinguish it. The owner hoped the fire could be quenched by fireboats in the New York harbor before it spreads further, thus the ship's increased speed when it headed towards the unforeseen iceberg. "This isn't a simple story of colliding with an iceberg and sinking," Molony said as quoted by Independent. "It's a perfect storm of extraordinary factors coming together: fire, ice and criminal negligence." FLORENCE, S.C. Devine Records Management is celebrating its tenth anniversary by hosting a Hurricane Matthew relief concert on Jan. 28 to benefit the storm victims in Marion and Dillon counties. The concert will start at 6 p.m. at the CD Joyner Auditorium at 161 Elizabeth St. in Marion. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to long-term recovery groups in Marion and Dillon County. Kenneth Smith, owner of Devine Records, said 100 advance tickets are being sold at $5. Those who purchase advanced tickets must bring three canned food items with them to the concert to further support Hurricane Matthew victims. After the 100 advance tickets are sold, tickets prices will increase to $10. My company wanted to do something to give back family members who suffered through the storm, Smith said. I came up with the idea celebrate our tenth anniversary and make it a community event to help out the victims of Hurricane Matthew. Smith is also encouraging victims of Hurricane Mathew to attend the concert. Smith will be providing cases of water and first aid kits to those devastated by the storm. Artists from across the country are set to perform at the concert, including Jason Rogers & A Levites Call from New Jersey and Donald Ashley & Millennium from Delaware. Local performers will also take the stage, including Florence native and Stellar Award winner Kendra Smith and Maurice McZeke & MDK of Dillon. All of the artists performing at the benefit volunteered to do so which Smith said is really a blessing. Its going to be an awesome program, Smith said. For more information about the concert, call 470-238-9424. Tickets to the concert can be purchased at Eventbrite.com. Ahead of his arrival at the yard, Sirugue told France's RMC Radio, 'If the prosperous STX yard in Saint Nazaire won't be nationalized', the French government has a minority blockade as the 33.33% shareholder. The minister continued, 'We want to keep the Saint-Nazaire site and want to keep the network, that is the link with the subcontractors plus we want to keep two very important elements, which are the strategy and the patent rights, to prevent our know-how to be taken from us. 'These four requirements will be defended in our negotiations with Fincantieri, he added. Stephane Le Foll, French government spokesman, said on France Info Radio, 'the French Government is going to act. We are shareholders, so the French State will stipulate conditions which are a continuation of activity, securisation of the know-how and the capacity to plan for the future.' The possibility of military shipbuilder DCNS (62% owned by the French State) taking an equity share in STX Saint-Nazaire is not excluded, said Sirugue, 'but it wouldnt be up to 50%,' he added.We have said we wanted a European industrialist as a buyer, which is the case with Fincantieri. It would be difficult for us to say no.' STX France has 12 confirmed cruise ship orders for delivery through to 2024. Our dwell time target is two days by the end of this year, said Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution was quoted as saying in local media. President Joko Widodo has instructed relevant ministries to continue the push for better services at seaports to help ease the flow of goods. Darmin noted that the current dwell time at Tanjung Priok Port had improved significantly from the average dwell time of 6.5 days in 2012. To achieve the two-day target, Darmin said, coordination among the relevant ministers should be strengthened, including the implementation of an online system among ministries and other government institutions through the Indonesia National Single Window (INSW). Therefore, we agree with the Finance Ministry and Transportation Ministry about strengthening the function of the INSW as an institution, he added. The four VLCCs, one from 2006 and three from 2007, built at Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co were sold to investment vehicles advised by Wafra Capital Partners. Wafra Capital Partners is majority owned by a agency of the government of Kuwait. Euronav is chartering back the vessels for five years at $22,000 per day, per ship, which were delivered to their new owners on 22 December 2016. Euronav booked a $37m capital gain on the transaction and said it would generate in excess of $100m in free cash. Euronav is very pleased to have executed this transaction in what have been challenging conditions for asset values in shipping markets. This transaction has the advantage of increasing our liquidity position for 2017 whilst maintaining our exposure to a market that, we believe, will be interesting over the next five years, said Hugo de Stoop, cfo of Euronav. Any chronicle of cultural and ethnic patterns in Metro Detroit must begin, of course, with the groups of Native American settlers who first established territory in Michigan centuries before the first European French settlement. Too often, though, that narrative glosses over the deep cultural impact of Detroits Native American groups and roots their stories in the far distant past. This romanticization and exoticization tend to characterize Detroits first occupants as unambiguously historical. But although many treaties and forced relocations of Detroits native peoples may have caused the redistribution of land and tribes, Detroits first peoples continue to work, live and effect change in the area today. Because the early history of the Native American population in the area is more than enough matter for several college courses, well begin with the first contact between Native Americans and the French settlers of the 17th century. For excellent and impeccable researched coverage of the Mound Builders and other early groups impact on the land of Detroit, though, read Paul Szewczyks First contact: French, British and Native Americans in early Detroit When French Jesuits first visited Southeast Michigan, they had unknowingly arrived at a moment of stalemate: the recent Beaver Wars between the Iroquois from the east and the native Sauk, Fox and Kickapoo tribes had created a no-mans-land, as the Iroquois forced the smaller tribes further inland. With the building of Fort Pontchartrain in 1701, small bands of Hurons, Ottawa, and Ojibwe re-settled in a broad swath around the trading post in an uneasy alliance. The After that, the majority of Southeast Michigans Native American population was a part of the Anishinaabe, a long-standing alliance of Ojibwe, Ottawa and Potawatomi groups. Remnants of these settlements can be seen all over Metro Detroit and are reflected in place and street names throughout our region, like Shiawassee, Washtenaw, and Algonac. Indian Village is full of these names, but they were not intended to be named after different tribes; originally at least, they were racehorse names! By the mid-18th century, tensions between Native Americans and the new British military forces at Detroit led to the three-year Pontiacs War, which engulfed the Great Lakes area after British land grabs and reduction in treaty payments. The war united groups of Native Americans from all over the region; it also caused panic in the increasing number of white settlers at Detroit, especially after the Most importantly, the conclusion of Further treaties, including the historic One example of post-Pontiac relations between White and Native American settlers is the story of Sarah Sally Ainse, an Oneida woman who moved her successful trading business from upstate New York to Detroit in 1774. By all accounts she was quite successful: by 1779, she owned a town lot, four slaves, three cows and four horses. But by 1794, having been pushed off her city land, Ainse was living in Ontario, fighting for the rights to her familys acres. She spent the last 25 years of her life petitioning the courts repeatedly and unsuccessfully to confirm her land claims. Native Americans in modern times Pontiac and his war--and the Pontiac brand--is as good a place as any to turn our focus to the ways in which Detroits later immigrant story dovetails with its Native American history. Doctor Kyle T. Mays, a history fellow at UNC-Chapel Hill, finds the Pontiac brand a good example of how White Detroiters have used Indigenous imagery as a mechanism through which to construct their own identities. He says early 20th-century Detroit was the epitome of modernity, illustrated through the auto industry. And Pontiacs image represented modernity and power. But, he continues, Lost in all that was the fact that the Odawa war chief Pontiac was central to white men constructing a history of Detroit, appropriating a Native American Detroiter to sell white modernity while actively erasing traces of Native peoples in the city itself. This appropriation and erasure has had long-reaching consequences for contemporary Detroits Native American population. Mays family has been active in the Detroit Indigenous community for a long time. His great-grandmother, Esther Shawboose-Mays, and his aunt, Judy Mays, helped found the Detroit Indian Educational and Cultural Center in 1974. Before that, community members in 1940 established the North American Indian Club (now According to the 2010 Census, 0.4% (2,417) of Detroiters identify as Native American only. Within that group are families that have been in the city for generations as well as individuals and families who moved to Detroit from rural areas across the state and the country. Detroits Native Americans face many of the same challenges as other minority groups: displacement, poverty, and suburban exodus erode at the communitys population density. In the 1980 census, Detroit listed 12,487 Native Americans living in the city, many concentrated along Cass Avenue and in Corktown along 6th Avenue. A 1972 Free Press article cites 3,000 Native Americans living in the Cass Corridor. Now, much of that population is centered in Southwest neighborhoods. First, he says, is his Indigenous Anishinaabe heritage. But just as important for Knoxx is the most recent changes to Detroits scene: being born and bred here for decades or centuries in the city before the current continuous takeover makes his work even more important. He advocates for those left behind in Detroits boom-and-bust cycles. Knoxx brings his multimedia performances to Indigenous gatherings, academic conferences, and concert venues across the United States to raise awareness of his cultural heritage and the dangers it faces in New Detroit. Knoxx and Mays see several complex reasons for the Native American population shifts in metro Detroit. For Knoxx, people moved [away] because they were being affected directly by violence or indirectly through family and friends, including violence from the state with cultural and economic displacement from colonial enterprise. Just as many other groups fled the city or concentrated their population densities into smaller ethnic enclaves, Detroits Native Americans did so as a result of the citys increase in crime and decrease in public services beginning in the 1960s and continuing through the 1990s. At the same time, though, Native Americans were pouring into the city from rural farms and reservations in search of work in Detroits factories. During the 1930s and 1940s, local bars such as Sam Foxs at Michigan and Third served as information centers and paycheck cashing operations for recently arrived Native Americans. In response to the crisis of public services, organizations such as the NAIA and the Detroit Indian Educational and Cultural Center were established around grassroots efforts, combined with stubborn political lobbying. These groups stepped in where social services were lacking; for example, the NAIA operated a food and clothing donation center from the basement of Corktowns Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church. Beginning in 1943, Father Clement Kern worked with the Michigan Avenue neighborhood to mobilize assistance to neighbors in need. Church groups and neighborhood associations, then, stepped in to fill in the gaps created by the citys increasing economic and labor shortages. The future: Gaining visibility for a modern people The long arm of colonial displacement, throughout much of the 20th century, affected the Native American population in Detroit in disproportionate numbers. Edward Dazingers And despite Detroits recent economic upswing, Knoxx and Mays see warning signs. Knoxx views recent Detroit immigration narratives as further resource manipulation thinly disguised as opportunity. Some of Detroits newcomers, he argues, have moved here because of Detroit's opportunity or ability to take advantage of and extract resources, land, and wealth. Especially for the Native American and Chicanx population centers in Southwest Detroit, gentrification remains a significant hazard for underrepresented groups. Both Knoxx and Mays agree that the underrepresentation of Indigenous peoples in Detroit, especially contemporary inhabitants as opposed to historical groups, has allowed the narrative of Detroits Native Americans to focus far too much on the past, rather than current issues facing families in Detroit. The greatest obstacle, Mays says, like Native people everywhere, is visibility. He finds that too often, people assume that Native people are a people of the past, and that their cultures dont adapt and change. This insistence on obscuring Native Americans Detroit story under clouds of romantic historicization, he argues, allows recent triumphs and challenges faced by the group to be overlooked. Knoxx agrees. As we continue to build autonomous community-led media, we have and will bring more visibility to Anishinaabe identity. Cultural identity as a consciously defined product is an important factor in Mays thinking, too. I find it more productive, he says, to think about the types of Indigenous cultures and identities being produced at a given moment rather than taking the approach about maintaining cultures. He insists that cultural identity is a dynamic process rather than an attachment to a historical set of facts or rules. "This might be more important for Native people than other racial [or] ethnic groups for the simple fact that general U.S. citizens know little to nothing about contemporary Native cultures and people, and also assume that the majority of Native people live on some far-off reservation, Mays says. Since southeastern Michigan is home to so many Native Americans, and since most Native Americans now live in cities, taking a hand in controlling their cultures narrative is crucial to Mays, Knoxx and others. What Danziger called Detroits most invisible minority group is achieving strides in both visibility and representation. This is the first in a new series on the cultural history of Metro Detroit. Mickey Lyons is a Detroit researcher and writer. She has a BA in Literature from Wayne State University and a Masters in Irish Language and Literature from Boston College, along with Ph.D. work in 19th-century material history and literature from the University of Connecticut. Her archival history experience includes work for Boston College's Burns Library and fellowship work at Baylor University and Dublin's Marsh's Library. She is currently researching a history of Detroit during Prohibition. ExxonMobil has agreed to provide an investment package worth about $180 million to its outgoing chief executive, Rex Tillerson, letting him cash in on benefits that he would have been required to give up in order to serve as President-elect Trump's top diplomat. If the Senate approves Tillerson's nomination as secretary of state, ExxonMobil will provide him with an independently managed trust holding non-ExxonMobil investments, according to the terms of the deal, which was described in an ExxonMobil press release and a federal ethics filing this week. The company said the agreement would see Tillerson "sever all ties with the company to comply with conflict-of-interest requirements." (Separately, Tillerson has committed to selling off about $55 million worth of stock in the company that he already owns outright.) In the federal ethics filing, Tillerson vows to recuse himself for up to a year from decisions directly involving ExxonMobil or a host of organizations he has helped to lead, including the American Petroleum Institute, Center for Strategic and International Studies and Boy Scouts of America. The payout to Tillerson is similar to those secured by other corporate appointees who have sold off stocks before joining previous presidential administrations. Hank Paulson sold $500 million worth Goldman Sachs holdings before serving as George W. Bush's treasury secretary. He then guided the company's $13 billion federal bailout after it nearly collapsed. RELATED: Trump Picks Exxon's Rex Tillerson for Secretary of State What makes the Tillerson deal unusual is that ExxonMobil has agreed to provide him with benefits it had no legal obligation to provide. "This was not a clause in his employment contract that was triggered," Stanford law expert Michael Wara said. "It's a special arrangement of massive economic significance to Tillerson that was given to him purely because of his move into government." Experts warned the deal could make Tillerson more likely to promote federal policies friendly to America's biggest oil company, where he worked for 40 years. ExxonMobil is one of the world's greatest greenhouse gas polluters, and it has long resisted efforts by others to slow warming. The past three years were the hottest on record, fueling floods-directly-linked-to-climate-change-20671">storms, floods and droughts. Wara described the arrangement between Tillerson and the ExxonMobil's board of directors as a legally questionable "sweetheart deal." The board discloses in its shareholder filings that executive pay arrangements, which were designed to promote loyalty and long-term planning, cannot be "accelerated for any reason other than death." Most of Tillerson's multimillion-dollar annual remuneration and bonus packages in recent years have been in the form of restricted stocks - stocks that can't be sold for up to 10 years. He owns more than 2 million restricted stocks, which at the current trading price would be worth $180 million. In exchange for sacrificing these restricted stocks, ExxonMobil agreed to transfer nearly their full value to a trust that's independently managed on Tillerson's behalf. The investment would be sold off over 10 years, potentially providing Tillerson with $18 million a year on average. Meanwhile, Tillerson agreed to give up about $7 million in company benefits owed to him. "By frontloading what would otherwise be deferred compensation, they obtain his gratitude," Kathleen Clark, a professor at Washington University Law who specializes in ethics, said. "To be cynical, you could say, 'I bet that gratitude is worth more than $100 million to Exxon.' "Others were more welcoming of the deal, pointing to a caveat that would bar Tillerson from working in the gas and oil industry for the next decade. If he violates that clause in the agreement, the remaining value of his managed trust would be donated to charity. "I don't want a secretary of state going into the oil industry when he's done," said University of Minnesota corporate law professor Richard Painter, a former ethics advisor to President George W. Bush. RELATED: Obama Bars Arctic Drilling Ahead of Trump Inauguration "I want to see some questions at the confirmation hearing about how much those oil companies are going to be coming around and chatting him up," Painter said. "Are there going to be cognitive biases and personal loyalties?" Clark said she believes the $180 million payout is an "extraordinary payment" under ethics rules affecting federal employees. That would bar Tillerson from being involved in decisions involving ExxonMobil for two years, such as regarding royalty payments owed for drilling. Regardless, the arrangement would free the lifelong oilman to immediately begin weighing in on decisions that indirectly affect the company. The secretary of state leads America's global strategy on climate change, shaping whether the U.S. pressures other countries to reduce their pollution. Although Tillerson this week told Rep. Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat, that he supports a United Nations climate treaty negotiated in Paris in late 2015, environmental groups worry that his support will be superficial. That's because efforts to reduce greenhouse gas pollution hurt the bottom line of ExxonMobil. The company pursues a business strategy that relies on drilling, selling and refining climate-changing fossil fuels. Such decisions could also affect the future of sanctions President Obama imposed on Russia following its invasion of parts of Ukraine. The sanctions led ExxonMobil to suspend an oil drilling project in the Russian Arctic, at an estimated loss of nearly $1 billion. The company has lobbied against efforts to extend the sanctions. "It's just brilliant on the part of Exxon," Clark said. "He will be in the room when the U.S. government is addressing whether to lift sanctions against Russia, which absolutely will have an effect on Exxon's finances." More From Climate Central: The family of a girl who died in a car crash is suing Apple in a Santa Clara County court, alleging the crash was caused by a driver who was distracted by a FaceTime call on his iPhone. On Dec. 24, 2014, the the Modisette family was stuck in traffic on Interstate 35W in Texas when their vehicle was struck from behind by Garrett Wilhelm's Toyota 4Runner SUV at 65 mph. All four family members were seriously hurt and their five-year-old daughter Moriah later died in the hospital from her injuries. When Texas highway patrol arrived at the scene of the crash, they found Wilhelm's iPhone still connected to a FaceTime call. Wilhelm, 22, has been charged with manslaughter, but the Modisettes have also chosen to seek damages from Apple for what they believe was their part in the crash. RELATED: Texting Blocks Brain's 'Sixth' Sense While Driving The family filed a lawsuit based on a patent the company filed in 2008 for technology that can lock a cell phone when sensors detect the owner's vehicle is in motion. Apple has yet to actually install the safety feature in any of their iPhones. A portion of the patent reads: "Texting while driving has become a major concern of parents, law enforcement, and the general public. An April 2006 study found that 80 percent of auto accidents are caused by distractions such as applying makeup, eating, and text messaging on handheld computing devices. According to the Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety and Students Against Destruction Decisions, teens report that texting is their number one distraction while driving. Teens understand that texting while driving is dangerous, but this is often not enough motivation to end the practice. The lock-out mechanisms disable the ability of a handheld computing device to perform certain functions, such as texting, while one is driving." The Modisettes claim that Apple's failure to install their patented technology constitutes gross negligence. Patent law does not require the patent's owner to incorporate the technology into a product and sell it. "Patent law is an incentive for inventing, not for creating product that reaches the public," said Amy Landers, professor of law and director of the Intellectual Property Law Program at Drexel University's Kline School of Law. "In fact, there are thousands of patents issued that have never found their way into any commercial product." Landers also points out that negligence law, as opposed to patent law, raises a different question in this scenario, "Did Apple act unreasonably by failing to implement the measure, and ignore knowable risks in doing so?" she commented. "In many cases, that's a question for a jury. Certainly, the driver who caused this horrific event was, it would appear, the primary cause of the accident." In 2015, 38,000 people died in motor vehicle crashes in the U.S., and 26 percent of those accidents were caused by distracted driving, according to the National Safety Council. About 330,000 people are injured each year due to texting and driving. Many people believe that using a hands-free device in the car is legitimately safe, but these technologies are more often about convenience than safety. RELATED: Uber Testing Self-Driving Cars in Pittsburgh Several third-party tools are currently available that will lock your smartphone when your vehicle is in motion. One such device, Groove, invented by rocket scientist Scott Tibbitts, only allows navigation and listening to music while driving. Tibbitts was inspired to work on Groove after he went to meet with the vice president of an engineering company back in 2008, but the VP never arrived. He was killed in a car crash on his way to the meeting by a driver who was distracted by his phone. Tibbitts was profoundly affected by the incident, which he said was "both mindless and tragic." There are 46 states that currently ban texting while driving, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association, but no state in the country prohibits all cell phone use while driving. Devices like Groove are trying to make it easier for the public to change their habits, but implementation is slow. While the circumstances of the Modisette family's lawsuit are devastating, they likely face an uphill battle. "This is a terrible event, certainly, yet it is difficult to say clearly who would win or lose," Landers remarked. "Overall, negligence is a very fact-intensive claim to bring," she added. "Until some documents are produced and some witnesses questioned, it's going to be very difficult to predict the outcome here." WATCH: How Texting Affects Your Brain US spy chiefs said Thursday that the hacking of Democratic Party computers was just one part of a multifaceted campaign by Russia to disrupt the American presidential election. In a closely watched Senate hearing, top intelligence officials presented a united front as they reiterated their conclusion that Moscow interfered with last year's campaign and that its cyber-meddling poses a "major threat" to the United States - findings that President-elect Donald Trump has so far refused to accept. "This was a multifaceted campaign. So the hacking was only one part of it, and it also entailed classical propaganda, disinformation, fake news," Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told the Senate hearing. While Trump continues to question the evidence of Russian meddling, Clapper, National Security Agency chief Michael Rogers and Marcel Lettre, undersecretary of defense for intelligence, told the committee they are convinced that Moscow is aggressively targeting the United States in offensive cyberspace activities. "We assess that only Russia's senior-most officials could have authorized the recent election-focused data thefts and disclosures," they said in a joint statement to the Senate Armed Forces Committee. "Russia is a full-scope cyber actor that poses a major threat to US government, military, diplomatic, commercial and critical infrastructure and key resource networks," they said. In the first public hearing dealing with Russia's alleged interference since the allegations first came out in October, Clapper said such cyber threats are "challenging public trust and confidence in information, services and institutions." "Russia has clearly assumed an even more aggressive cyber posture by increasing cyber espionage operations, leaking data stolen from these operations and targeting critical infrastructure systems," he said. RELATED: Russian Hacks Continue as States Prep for Election Day The incoming Republican president has repeatedly cast doubt on the intelligence community's assessment that Moscow was behind the hacking of Democratic Party computers to leak documents and emails that would damage Trump's rival Hillary Clinton in November's election. But asked in the hearing to provide more proof of their conclusion, Clapper said he could not reveal details publicly. Trump will be briefed Friday by the heads of the CIA, FBI and DNI on the evidence behind their conclusion on Russia election interference. And a declassified version of a report produced for the White House on the case is expected to be released next week. The president-elect has raised the ire of the intelligence community by questioning the record of the CIA, FBI and other agencies in providing solid assessments to the government. On Wednesday he raised more hackles by citing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in once more dismissing the conclusion that Russia was behind last year's Democratic Party hacking. Without naming Trump, Clapper said he had fielded many queries from international colleagues over the recent "disparagement" of the intelligence community. "Public trust and confidence in the intelligence community is crucial," he said. Asked about Assange's credibility, Clapper said his publication of leaked materials had "put people at risk." "I don't think those of us in the intelligence committee have a whole lot of respect for him," Clapper said. The three spy chiefs also said that, despite having agreed in 2015 to halt its own cyber attacks on the US government and companies, China also continues such activities, albeit it at a lower level. "Beijing continues to conduct cyber espionage against the US government, our allies, and US companies," they said. "China continues to integrate and streamline its cyber operations and capabilities into a dedicated cyber element that will be increasingly difficult to detect or counter," they said. Caption: Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testifies before a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on foreign cyber threats, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., January 5, 2017. WATCH VIDEO: What Is Life Really Like for Women in Russia? A 280-million-year-old skull of a so-called ghost shark has helped researchers determine exactly how chimaeras - mysterious, mostly deep-sea fish with wing-like fins and pointy snouts - are related to sharks, a new study finds. The ancient skull, belonging to the 4-foot-long (1.2 meters) shark-like fish Dwykaselachus oosthuizeni, was a rare find, as this animal's skeleton is made of cartilage, which rarely fossilizes, the researchers said. An anatomical examination showed that the animal had a surprising number of similarities to modern chimaeras - also called ghost sharks for their silvery white exterior and overall appearance - suggesting that the two types of creature are related, the researchers said. "Chimaeras are ancient specialists, now anchored within a large and very distinctive group of early shark-like fishes that thrived in the late Paleozoic era," said the study's lead researcher Michael Coates, a professor in the Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy at the University of Chicago. "We now have a glimpse of the preconditions from which modern chimaeras evolved, suggesting that the large eyes of these early sharks predisposed chimaeras for low-light, deep-sea habits." [Photos: The Freakiest-Looking Fish] RELATED: Mysterious 'Ghost Shark' Captured on Video for the First Time Little is known about chimaeras, which are also called ratfish. Scientists aren't sure what chimaeras eat, how long they live or how often they reproduce. But based on chimaeras that have washed ashore or been caught as bycatch, researchers know that these fish have cartilaginous skeletons, indicating that the mysterious animals are related to sharks and rays, which also have cartilaginous bodies. But beyond that, the chimaeras' evolutionary origins were a real mystery, the researchers said. However, Coates had an inkling that a fossil in South Africa could help solve the mystery, he said. Roy Oosthuizen, an amateur fossil collector, discovered the specimen on his farm in Cape Province, South Africa, in the 1980s, and it had stayed at the South African Museum in Cape Town ever since. NASA will develop a new telescope that looks at polarized X-ray emissions triggered by black holes, neutron stars and other high-temperature phenomenon. Slated to launch in 2020, the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer, or IXPE, actually consists of three telescopes with cameras that will be able to detect how light is polarized, or skewed in a particular direction. NASA says the information will allow scientists to answer fundamental questions about the turbulent environments around stellar and supermassive black holes, neutron stars and pulsars. "We can only guess what we will find," NASA's chief astrophysicist Paul Hertz said in a statement. "We cannot directly image what's going on near objects like black holes and neutron stars, but studying the polarization of X-rays emitted from their surrounding environments reveals the physics of these enigmatic objects." RELATED: These Trippy Dots Reveal the Growth of Monster Black Holes IXPE was selected from among three projects vying for funding under NASA's Astrophysics Explorers Program. "NASA determined the IXPE proposal provided the best science potential and most feasible development plan," the agency said. Total mission costs, including the ride into space, will be $188 million. The lead researcher is Martin Weisskopf with NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Ball Aerospace in Broomfield, Colorado, will build the spacecraft and the Italian Space Agency is contributing the polarizing-sensitive X-ray detectors. WATCH VIDEO: How Do We Know Black Hole's Exist? In an unprecedented new view of the cosmos, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has taken a long hard look into the dark and spied a "treasure trove" of ancient black holes. This unique image shows the X-rays being radiated mainly from supermassive black holes in the cores of galaxies billions of light-years distant, some of which date back to the dawn of the universe. Without context, it might be hard to see the profundity of this image. Chandra was commanded to stare into the same portion of the sky for a total of 7 million seconds, or eleven and a half weeks. This amount of time was needed to capture enough of the weak X-ray photons traveling over billions of light-years to reach the space telescope's lens to "see" the faintest (and therefore most distant) objects. And - like the Hubble's Space Telescope's famous "Deep Field" revealed an apparently empty region of space is in fact chock-full of thousands of undiscovered galaxies - Chandra's deep field observation of the X-ray universe has revealed a cosmos chock-full of black hole behemoths. RELATED: Supermassive Black Holes Could Be Everywhere Astronomers think, with the help of this new X-ray view of the cosmos, that as many as 5,000 X-ray emitting objects can be found in an area of the sky around the size of a full moon. They estimate a billion such objects cover the entire sky. Each dot represents some kind of powerful X-ray emission, 70 percent of which are active black holes ranging in size from 100,000 to billions of times the mass of our sun. By lining up the X-ray view of the cosmos with Hubble observations of the same region of sky, the researchers were able to confirm that these powerful black hole emissions were indeed being generated inside the cores of galaxies. These are black holes that are pulling in huge amounts of matter, causing superheated plasma near to the black holes' event horizons to form accretion disks and blast out powerful X-rays. The most distant X-ray sources, coming from galaxies 12.5 billion light-years away, are likely caused by huge collections of stellar-mass black holes (ranging between 5 to several dozen times the mass of our sun) actively consuming galactic gases. As X-ray emitting black holes can be seen at all cosmic ages, astronomers can now study how these massive objects evolve with time, starting only two billion years after the Big Bang to the modern universe. "With this one amazing picture, we can explore the earliest days of black holes in the Universe and see how they change over billions of years," said Niel Brandt, of Pennsylvania State University in University Park, Pa., and team leader of the astronomers who are currently studying this historic cosmic view. This work is being presented at the 229th meeting of the American Astronomical Society meeting in Grapevine, Texas. RELATED: This Is How to Feed Our Supermassive Black Hole "It can be very difficult to detect black holes in the early Universe because they are so far away and they only produce radiation if they're actively pulling in matter," added collaborator Bin Luo, of Nanjing University in China. "But by staring long enough with Chandra, we can find and study large numbers of growing black holes, some of which appear not long after the Big Bang." Although this observation of the deep X-ray universe will keep astronomers occupied for years to come, it seems some early discoveries have already been made. Although with know supermassive black holes occupy the cores of most galaxies, very little is known about how they form and how they get to be so massive. By measuring the distance of each of this Chandra dots, astronomers have worked out how old the black holes they represent are. Interestingly, in the earliest epoch of the universe, two billion years after the Big Bang, these black holes didn't gain pass steadily, they seemed to go through dramatic growth spurts. "By detecting X-rays from such distant galaxies, we're learning more about the formation and evolution of stellar-mass and supermassive black holes in the early Universe," said Fabio Vito, also of Penn State. "We're looking back to times when black holes were in crucial phases of growth, similar to hungry infants and adolescents." WATCH VIDEO: The Race To See The Black Hole At Our Galaxy's Core NASA kicked off the new year by making travel plans to visit a bevy of asteroids, including an all-metal world that is believed to be the remnant core of a planet that was destroyed during the solar system's violent early years. The metal asteroid, known as Psyche, will be visited by a spacecraft of the same name that is targeted for launch in 2023. The asteroid, which is located about three times farther away from the sun than Earth, is about 130 miles in diameter. Unlike other rocky or icy asteroids, Psyche is made entirely of iron-nickel metal, similar to Earth's core. Scientists suspect Psyche may have started off as a Mars-sized planet that lost its outer rocky layers after being pummeled by other asteroids and mini-planets billions of years ago. "Humankind has visited rocky worlds and icy worlds and worlds made of gas, but we have never seen a metal world," planetary geologist Lindy Elkins-Tanton, with Arizona State University in Tempe, told reporters on a conference call. The mission is one of two selected by NASA on Wednesday for funding under its Discovery Program, with costs capped at about $450 million, not including the launches. RELATED: NASA's Bold Asteroid Sampling Mission Launches The second mission, called Lucy, will head beyond Psyche's home in the main asteroid belt, located between Mars and Jupiter, to a group of asteroids pinned in orbits around Jupiter. These bodies, known as Trojans, have never been visited by a space probe. The Lucy mission gets its name from the 3.2 million-year-old female skeletal remains, which were discovered in 1974. "These small bodies are really the fossils of planet formation and that's why we named Lucy after the human ancestor known as Lucy," lead scientist Hal Levinson, with the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, told reporters. "One of the really surprising aspects of this population is its diversity. If we look at them through telescopes we see that they are very different from one another in their color, in their spectra, and so we believe that's telling us something about how the solar system formed and evolved," Levinson said. Lucy is slated to launch in 2021 and visit one main belt asteroid and six Trojans between 2025 and 2033. Artist's rendering of the Lucy spacecraft (left) flying by the Trojan Eurybates and the Psyche probe (right) visiting the metal world 16 Psyche. Credits: SwRI and SSL/Peter Rubin. WATCH VIDEO: Why Do We Want to Capture An Asteroid? STATEMENT OF SEN. LEILA M. DE LIMA ON THE ANNOUNCED PLAN TO IMPOSE ADDITIONAL TAXES ON FUEL PRODUCTS ON TOP OF THE 12% VAT This is not acceptable! Dagdag pahirap ito sa publiko, siguradong magtataas ang pamasahe at bilihin habang ang kakayahang bumili ng tao ay hindi naman tumataas. Galit ba talaga sila sa mahihirap? Palagi na lang mahihirap ang biktima, sa war on drugs mahihirap lang ang biktima, pati ba naman sa pagkolekta ng buwis ang mahihirap pa din ang dapat pasakitan? This should be studied extensively because the consequences will be carried by the poorest segment of our society. They should likewise disclose where will this additional revenue be used. Finally, is this necessary? Last year they dropped the collection targets for BIR and BOC and now they want to impose additional taxes to increase revenue? Maybe they should focus more on fulfilling the President's campaign promise to curb corruption in these revenue collection agencies to increase collection efficiency. Press Release January 5, 2017 GORDON EYES BLUE RIBBON PROBE ON CALOOCAN KILLINGS; SLAMS SLOW POLICE PROBE With the spate of killings that greeted the last few days of 2016 and the first few days of the New Year, Senator Richard J. Gordon is considering conducting an inquiry into the reasons for law enforcers being slow in investigating the killings, particularly those committed in Caloocan City at the start of the week. Gordon, chair of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, pointed out that the committee can conduct a motu proprio investigation when misfeasance, malfeasance or non-feasance is committed. "I am contemplating conducting an investigation into these recent killings. The Blue Ribbon Committee can conduct a motu proprio inquiry into these killings. What is taking the police so long to finish the investigations? If they are not conducting an investigation then they are not doing their job. That is non-feasance. If they did their job but did not do it properly, that is malfeasance," he said. The senator reiterated the need for the creation of a joint Congressional oversight committee to monitor killings, which he proposed in the Committee on Justice and Human Rights Report that was submitted to the Senate last year following the committee's inquiry into recent and rampant killings. Gordon also chairs the Committee on Justice and Human Rights. "The report proposed that the Philippine National Police (PNP) shall submit to the oversight committee a monthly report on the killings committed nationwide. It should show the statistics per province, per city, per municipality and the status of cases. This way we can see the areas where there are high incidents of unsolved killings and then we can call the pertinent police officers to question them and make recommendations afterwards," he said. Gordon also noted that should an investigation be conducted, it would also enable the Senate to determine any deficiencies in the PNP that should be addressed so that it could serve the people better. "In our investigation last year, we were able to establish that thousands of killings with impunity have been taking place every year in the last two decades at least. Many of the killings have remained unsolved to date which have already engendered apathy in the people. If we investigate, the PNP can tell us what they need, as I have read, they need 74,000 investigators, If we can provide at least half of the investigators they need, that would already be an improvement," he said. "Killing is killing and killing is murder. We cannot allow our country to have these deaths to remain uninvestigated," Gordon added. A few days before 2016 ended, gunmen shot dead seven people including three teenagers and a pregnant woman in a violent incident suspected to be linked to a feud involving illegal drugs in Caloocan. One of the suspects has been arrested. Last Monday night, in a separate incident, four people were killed in Caloocan when assailants on board a motorcycle stormed the house where the victims were in and peppered them with bullets. As many as six teenagers suffered minor injuries Wednesday night when they climbed out an apartment window in Concord to escape a fire in their kitchen, a blaze that displaced 30 people in their building, officials said. The fire was reported about 6 p.m. on the 1300 block of Lani Kai Drive at a two-story apartment building with eight units, said Capt. Lisa Martinez of the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District. The fire originated in the kitchen of a first-floor unit. The teenage girls were in one of the bedrooms with their door shut and the adults were in another bedroom when a smoke alarm started going off, Martinez said. One of the residents of the apartment went to investigate when he was engulfed by heavy, black smoke. He yelled for the girls to get out and they couldnt open the door because of their proximity to the black smoke so they went out the window, Martinez said. They suffered scratches and abrasions from climbing out the window, and were taken to a hospital for further evaluation, Martinez added. Two people had to be rescued from the balcony of a unit on the second floor. Neither sustained injuries, Martinez said. A total of three apartments in the building sustained heavy to moderate heat and smoke damage. Residents of the other five units were evacuated due to smoke and water damage. A total of 30 people, 20 adults and 10 children, were displaced. The fire appears to be accidental and caused about $400,000 worth of damages, Martinez said. The source of the fire is still under investigation. It is unclear how long the residents will be displaced. But residents of the three units that were heavily damaged by the fire will be displaced for some time, Martinez added. If the male adults of the unit had not heard those smoke alarms, it wouldve been a much different scenario, Martinez said. Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Oakland Mayor Libby Schaafs campaign to straighten out the citys Police Department culminated Wednesday with her introduction of a new chief whom some observers pegged as a consummate outsider: a Southern woman whose exuberance and folksy drawl belie the grave challenges ahead. Yall are probably thinking, Where did that accent come from? Anne Kirkpatrick said during her introductory news conference, eliciting laughter in a room full of reporters and city officials. As the first woman to head Oaklands troubled department, Kirkpatrick embraced her outsider status. She offered a succinct version of her life story, from beat policing in her hometown of Memphis to helping institute a series of reforms in the Chicago Police Department, where she worked for six months before taking the Oakland job. Along the way, she established herself as a no-nonsense leader who has no qualms about angering the rank and file. Serving as the police chief in Spokane, Wash., Kirkpatrick had an officer arrested in 2011 after he allegedly threatened to kill his wife. The incident prompted a wrongful termination lawsuit against the city and Kirkpatrick, who resigned the following year. The officer was acquitted of wrongdoing and won his suit, according to media reports. Spokanes chief financial officer, Gavin Cooley, defended Kirkpatricks handling of the case, saying she had made a principled decision based on right versus wrong which doesnt mean there wont be lawsuits. More than most people, she comes at (her job) with a principle-based approach, Cooley said. She has good old-fashioned values, and she thinks its important to tell the truth. Shes very up front about whats going on and she engages with the city organization and the citizens. Her insistence on trust and accountability may have soured relationships in Spokane, but it most certainly won her points in Oakland. Voters in November overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure for a citizen-led police commission that will have broad powers to discipline officers and fire the chief if five of its seven members vote to do so. Former Mayor Jean Quan hailed Kirkpatrick as a strong reformer (and) community partner in a tweet posted Wednesday, saying the new chief had been a close second in previous searches. Schaaf spoke in similarly glowing terms, calling Kirkpatrick the reform-minded leader that Oakland has been searching for. In Chicago, Kirkpatrick took a job in June to lead the Police Departments reform efforts in the wake of a Justice Department probe resulting from the release of a police video in 2015 that showed a police officer shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times in 2014. As recently as two weeks ago, she told reporters in Chicago that the changes were expected to decrease violence and help community relations, according to the Chicago Tribune. Oaklands department has for years cycled through chief after chief as city leaders struggled to reduce the citys homicide rate, boost morale among the rank and file, and get out from under federal court oversight, stemming from a 2003 civil rights settlement over four West Oakland police officers alleged beatings, evidence planting and falsified reports. Despite its troubles, the force appeared to be on an upswing in recent years. When Schaaf took office in 2015, she aligned herself with the citys well-liked chief at the time, Sean Whent, who won accolades from the White House for embracing a new style of community policing. The mayor also promised to bring the force to 800 officers by the end of 2018, a remarkable increase from 2010s low of 695 after a round of crippling layoffs. But that brief renaissance ended last year after a string of disciplinary cases that led up to a major sexual misconduct scandal in June, involving several Oakland police officers and their dealings with a sexually exploited teenager. Whent abruptly resigned, and two successors each lasted only days. Embarrassed and clearly angered by the negative publicity, Schaaf rebuked the department she had once applauded. I am here to run a police department, not a frat house, the mayor famously declared at a June news conference, at which she named assistant City Administrator Sabrina Landreth to oversee the force while Oakland searched for a new permanent police leader. With the wounds of the recent scandal still festering, several attendees at Wednesdays news conference asked whether Kirkpatricks appointment signaled an end to Oaklands frat house culture. 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. Why did you even consider coming to this mess? one spectator asked. I dont consider it a mess, Kirkpatrick parried. Its an opportunity. Civil rights lawyer John Burris, who represented plaintiffs in the civil rights case that led to Oaklands 2003 settlement agreement, expressed optimism about Kirkpatrick, largely because she built her career in other cities. The most important thing is that she bring a fresh look, a fresh set of eyes here, Burris said. Nonetheless, he was skeptical about some aspects of Kirkpatricks resume that set her apart from Oakland namely, that she served as chief of several departments in Washington that bear little resemblance to the intricate, racially diverse East Bay city. Oakland is a challenging, complex place with a lot of unique issues, Burris said. Im hopeful she understands that. Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate The Obama administration called Wednesday for an expedited review of Gov. Jerry Browns $15.7 billion delta tunnels project, a show of support for the long-disputed plan to shore up Californias water supplies. An order issued by Interior Secretary Sally Jewell directs federal officials to complete their preliminary environmental assessment of the water project this month, potentially removing a major barrier before President Obama leaves office Jan. 20. While final federal review of the project wont come until April, when Donald Trump is president and the governments priorities will undoubtedly have changed, state officials believe the stepped-up proceedings by the Obama administration will give the delta plan a sense of inevitability. Putting a public timeline on when the federal government will make its final decision builds on the momentum we have, said Erin Mellon, spokeswoman for the California Natural Resources Agency, which is spearheading the tunnels effort. Anyone who comes in is going to have to look at the ... 10 years of work that has been done on the project. Were pretty confident that the work we put in will be convincing that this is the solution to Californias water supply reliability and ecosystem health. The project, officially known as California WaterFix, calls for the construction of two 35-mile tunnels to carry water beneath the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta from Northern California to the drier south. Because pumping water through the delta has historically caused problems for fish and wildlife, prompting state and federal orders to halt flows, the tunnels offer a better means of delivery, advocates say. Critics, however, fear the project could reduce the amount of water pouring into the delta and harm water quality there. The delta, a sprawling estuary at the intersection of the states largest rivers, the San Joaquin and Sacramento, serves as a hub for water deliveries to two-thirds of California residents. It also provides habitat for 500 species of wildlife, including migrating salmon. A state-required environmental review of the tunnels project was completed last month, but before work can begin, the federal Bureau of Reclamation and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must ensure the plan doesnt violate the Endangered Species Act. Jewells order Wednesday calls for an initial draft opinion on the matter to be issued by the end of the month, a final draft opinion by March and a final opinion by April. Federal officials said the timely action seeks to support California as it wrestles with the effects of drought and climate change. This secretarial order is a practical and broad-based strategy to help protect Californias water lifeline for present and future generations, Deputy Interior Secretary Michael Connor said in a statement. Brown welcomed the order, saying in a statement that a state-federal partnership is whats necessary to improve water reliability for residents and farmers. Restore the Delta, a group that has long fought the tunnels proposal, said the governor seemed desperate in his bid to win federal backing for the project before the incoming Republican administration takes over. Trump has not weighed in on the plan, but has broadly endorsed efforts to deliver more water to growers. The Silicon Valley Leadership Group, an association of Bay Area businesses that supports the tunnels, said Wednesday that it had hoped Obama would give final approval before leaving office. But the group said it was optimistic that Jewells order will push the project forward. Let me put it this way, said Vice President Mike Mielke. Better late than never. Kurtis Alexander is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kalexander@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kurtisalexander The U.S. Department of Labor said Wednesday it filed a lawsuit against Google because the company failed to provide compensation data, which it had agreed to do as a federal contractor. The data requested include job and salary history of employees as of Sept. 1, 2014 and 2015, as well as the names of employees and their contact information, the department said in the suit, which was filed with its Office of Administrative Law Judges. The department said it is requesting this data as part of its efforts to make sure there is no employment discrimination by its contractors and subcontractors. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Redwood Hill Farm & Creamery, the Sebastopol goat dairy founded in 1968, has been acquired by Swiss dairy cooperative Emmi. Owner Jennifer Bice, who took over the dairy from her parents in 1978 and turned it into a national brand, will retain ownership of the farm, where she lives, and its 300 goats. She will also maintain her role as head of operations of both Redwood Hill Farm, the goat dairy, and Green Valley Organics, a lactose-free cow dairy brand thats part of the company. Bice, who said she has been approached at least 20 times to sell her company in recent years, decided on Emmi partly because of the experience of her friend Mary Keehn of Cypress Grove Chevre in Arcata (Humboldt County), which was bought by Emmi in 2010. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Bices move follows the acquisition of Niman Ranch, another Northern California food brand known for humane animal treatment and premium products, by Purdue in September. Redwood Hills quart-size goat milk yogurt is the biggest seller of its kind nationally. The company also produces fresh and aged goat cheese, goat milk and kefir products; its products have been labeled Certified Humane since 2005, the first U.S. goat dairy with that certification. Craig Lee/Special to The Chronicle Bice said the company will be run independently and that employees will stay in place. She plans to retire within a few years and said she made the move to assure the longevity of the company. It was a hard decision, and Im really happy with the way things turned out, she said. Its like my baby that Ive raised all these years. Its a big step. Because of the family background, I really was so attached, and I really wanted to continue on with the values we have and the people we have and staying on in Sonoma County, said Bice, who wrote a long letter explaining her decision that accompanied a press release on the sale. Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes Called Emmi Holding (USA) in the United States, Emmi is a cooperative of dairy farmers each with an average of around 20 cows, the company says founded in 1907. It exports Swiss cheese and other dairy products to about 60 countries. Redwood Hill Farm is part of the thriving Marin-Sonoma cheese community that came to national prominence with Laura Chenel Chevre, which was founded in the 1970s, also in Sebastopol. That company was bought by the French dairy company Rians Group in 2006. Tara Duggan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: tduggan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @taraduggan There hadnt been a homicide in Daly City in more than two years, but the circumstances of the slaying that occurred near the close of 2016 mirrored the previous one in many ways. Two weeks before the start of the new year, San Francisco State University student Ariana Hatami was beaten to death in her home, allegedly by her boyfriend, Frederick Tran, 24. The case shows similarities to the citys last murder, when San Francisco social services employee Ruby Gim died at the hands her abusive partner in 2014. There were clear differences: Hatami was 23 years old; Gim was 65. Hatami was a student studying business, while Gim had been an esteemed resident mother at Telegraph Hill Neighborhood Center. But both women had been victims of domestic violence, both had been in relationships with their suspected killers, and both suspects had been ordered by police to stay away from their victims before the abuse became fatal. Officials at San Mateo Countys Community Overcoming Relationship Abuse, a domestic abuse treatment center that advocates for victims, noted on Wednesday the tricky dynamic that comes with handling domestic violence cases. Each case is often unique in its own right, said Melissa Lukin, executive director of the organization. The constant is that oftentimes the victims are not aware of the degree of danger theyre in even if they have a temporary restraining order. Tran appeared in San Mateo County Superior Court in Redwood City on Tuesday, where he pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and violating a restraining, protective, or stay away order, among other counts, according to the San Mateo County district attorneys office. In Hatamis case, she met Tran when they both worked at a Wells Fargo Bank in San Francisco, according to prosecutors. In June 2016, Tran vandalized her car after an argument. Things escalated in August 2016, when prosecutors say Tran struck Hatami in the face twice. Daly City police responded and obtained an emergency protective order mandating that Tran, a San Francisco resident, stay away from Hatami, and he was charged with and convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence. On Dec. 15, two days before Hatamis death, Tran, back in jail for a probation violation, was bailed out on $25,000 bond. He reconnected with Hatami a day later and persuaded her to let him stay one night at her apartment, officials said. Then, around 1:20 a.m. on Dec. 17, he allegedly killed her while she slept, repeatedly hitting her with a bottle. Her roommates heard the attack and held Tran as they called police. Sgt. Ron Harrison, a Daly City Police Department spokesman, said the details of Hatamis death fit a pattern of domestic violence that officers often see. One in 4 women and 1 in 7 men experience domestic violence in San Mateo County, according to Community Overcoming Relationship Abuse. Daly City leads the county in the number of referrals to the organization with about 1,070 in the 2016 fiscal year. Its kind of a unique system, Harrison said. We look at all types of ways to just try to end the cycle of violence. Despite the groups best efforts, some cases inevitably fall through the cracks, said Lukin. Restraining orders, while they have been proved to deter future violence ... theres of course no guarantee that they keep someone safe, she said. Police officers related Hatamis case to the citys last homicide, where Gim was allegedly beaten to death by her longtime partner, Daniel Bryan Thomas, in her Daly City home two years after obtaining a restraining order against him. Friends described Thomas as having enormous emotional and physical problems, while prosecutors said Tran suffered from a severe mental illness. Gim was found unresponsive in her Florence Street home in Daly City on April 30, 2014. Thomas, 67 at the time, was convicted of murder in October 2015. But in 2012, Gim had filed a restraining order against him. A year later, Thomas had been arrested for an alleged domestic violence-related offense and charged with misdemeanor vandalism and violation of a court order, according to prosecutors. Gims death came as a shock to her friends in San Francisco, where she was well known in the community. Local groups, including the Asian Womens Shelter, rallied in a call for justice for Gim throughout Thomas trial. Now, two years later, they expect to do the same for Hatami, said Beverly Upton, of the San Francisco Domestic Violence Consortium. We tried to show our collective outrage at her homicide, Upton said of Gim. Were certainly interested in supporting in this current case as well. Chronicle staff writer Vivian Ho contributed to this report. Jenna Lyons a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jlyons@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JennaJourno More than a year after the San Francisco Sheriffs Department announced efforts to house female transgender inmates based on their gender identity, officials say the department is moving in the right direction but some critics insist its not moving fast enough. Sheriff Vicki Hennessy said the department has been making steady, if slow, progress when it comes to transgender-rights issues, requiring deputies to undergo gender-awareness training and working with advocates to develop a department policy for handling inmates whose gender identity differs from whats on their birth certificates. But the policy, which addresses not just housing but how a transgender inmate is treated from booking to release, has been stalled for months in negotiations with unions representing jail deputies and managers. Hennessy, who took on the job after former Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi announced plans for changes in late 2015, acknowledged that she did not expect the process to take as long as it has. Once I got into it, I realized how specialized, how very nuanced this really was in terms of being respectful and maintaining the safety of the jail, Hennessy said. The training is important because this is new to people. I can tell them, Do it, and then I can be undermined. Or, I can bring them along. My goal is to bring people along so they understand why we are doing things the way were doing them. For one transsexual woman who went on a 64-day hunger strike in jail last summer to protest her treatment, the change in policy and attitude needs to happen sooner rather later. Leah Millis/The Chronicle Athena Cadence, 29, staged her hunger strike after being jailed on assault and false imprisonment charges, which she says stemmed from a psychotic episode she had when she was prescribed the wrong medication in November 2015. Cadence ended her hunger strike in August, when her sentence was up and she was released. She went straight to a hospital, 40 pounds lighter, but said she felt optimistic about the Sheriffs Departments progress on transgender issues. The Transgender Law Center was working with the department, deputies were allowing her strip-searches to be conducted by volunteer female deputies, and it seemed like things were going pretty well, Cadence said. But then she was remanded into custody briefly in November and was labeled as male, she said. I was Athena Cadence, the man. It was incredibly frustrating, she said. Because (Hennessys) deputies and the Department of Public Health classified me as a man, I had to withstand male deputies violently removing clothes against my will. I had to withstand deputies making sexual comments as I was cavity-checked. I had to withstand violent extractions by bigoted deputies in riot gear. Sheriffs officials declined to comment about Cadences treatment, saying department policy bars them from discussing individual cases. But even as the policy makes its way through the meet-and-confer process with the unions, Hennessy said she has made it a priority to improve the treatment of transgender inmates in county jails. Although Mirkarimi announced in September 2015 that he planned to house transgender women based on their preferences, Hennessy said when she took over last January, the transgender population was still housed together in a unit separate from the general population in County Jail No. 4 on the seventh floor of the Hall of Justice a jail that has long been considered the oldest and most decrepit of the citys four lockups. She confirmed Cadences account that the transgender population was classified among inmates with sexual issues, a category that advocates for transgender people consider offensive. The sheriff said she has since changed the classification to gender nonconforming inmates, and moved the female transgender unit to a protected pod in the male population section of County Jail No. 2 around the corner on Seventh Street. There, they have access to programming available to other inmates, such as coding and yoga classes. The department has long housed transgender inmates in their own unit for their protection, but Cadence said that doesnt necessarily guarantee more safety. In fact, she said, she was physically and sexually assaulted while she was incarcerated. A lot of things that fall under the umbrella of transgenderism have nothing to do with transsexuality, and being a transsexual woman in this population of transgender, gender-variant, gay men, straight men, etc., is actually scary, she said. Theres a lot of weird nuance and conflation of all these types of people. A great number of the people who are male-bodied and dont identify as female actually hate women. The sheriffs ultimate goal is to put transgender inmates in their stated housing preference while balancing safety issues. Hennessy has been working with the Police Department so this process can begin with booking under the proposed transgender policy, officers would ask suspects for their legal names, their preferred names, their sex and their gender identity. This would also be when suspects could state their preference of being strip-searched by an officer of a corresponding gender identity. Representatives of the deputies union did not respond to requests for comment. Theresa Sparks, Mayor Ed Lees senior adviser for transgender initiatives, who has been involved in the negotiations, said the union seemed most concerned about the strip-search part of the policy. Keep in mind, this has never been done successfully anywhere in the country, Sparks said. When Cadence was on the seventh day of her hunger strike, she said, a male deputy tried to strip-search her after she returned from a hospital. When she refused, a female deputy volunteered to conduct the search. Hennessy issued a memo afterward ordering her staff to allow volunteer deputies to conduct searches on transgender inmates an order counter to current policy and said that if no volunteers are available, a male deputy should proceed. Hennessy said she hopes to bypass the issue entirely by getting funding for body scanners. But that may not be the unions only issue. When Mirkarimi announced his intentions in 2015, the union president called the move a safety issue and a liability issue. Do you think male inmates are really going to care if a female believes shes a male but has female parts? Deputy Eugene Cerbone asked at the time. Theyre in jail, Cerbone said. When did we give these people all these choices? Theyre committing crimes. Thats why theyre there, and now we want to ask them what do you feel, what do you think? Its these attitudes that require not just a strong policy but training, Hennessy said. In an interview, Mirkarimi said it was vital that the Sheriffs Department continue moving forward. Its taken decades to get to this place, Mirkarimi said. At some point, this really boils down to is there the will and the culture that is implementing these policies. Cadence said she plans to do what she can to work for changes in the jail system. It was a nightmare, and I will never be the same, Cadence said, but I will do my best to shield others. Vivian Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: vho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @VivianHo This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Editor's note: Santa Rosa police dropped their request on Friday, Jan. 6, 2017, for prosecutors to charge Kyle Cameron for allegedly robbing a bank. --- A 20-year-old Santa Rosa man once named Sonoma Countys youngest vineyard manager was arrested for allegedly robbing a bank last month, police said. The suspect, Kyle Cameron, was seen dropping cash and other evidence as he ran away from a U.S. Bank on Guerneville Road in Santa Rosa the morning of Dec. 15, according to Sgt. Josh Ludtke, a police spokesman. The bank robber had passed a note to a teller demanding money, investigators learned. When the bandit clad in a black hoodie and ski mask got the cash, he went west through the parking lot, police said. Detectives believe he dropped some of the cash to get rid of possible security devices. After weeks of investigation, officers Wednesday followed Cameron as he left his home and arrested him on suspicion of robbery, burglary and violating his probation. They served search warrants on his home and car. At age 14, Cameron was featured in the Teen Life section of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, which called him the youngest vineyard manager in Sonoma County, and possibly the youngest in the country. The El Molino High School teen had been working for his grandfather, who owned a 10-acre vineyard along River Road near Fulton, the newspaper reported. I desperately, desperately want to grow and diversify our farming, the young Cameron told the Press Democrat. I want to keep our family growing, both in total acreage and with the grapes we grow. Asked about the arrest, a woman who answered the phone at Camerons grandfathers residence said Wednesday, There is no comment at all, before hanging up. 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. Kimberly Veklerov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kveklerov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kveklerov One of Northern Californias first producers of fresh goat milk has been sold to Swiss dairy company Emmi. Meyenberg Goat Milk Products of Turlock (Stanislaus County) is the third acquisition of a prominent California goat milk dairy by Emmi, which is majority-owned by a Swiss dairy cooperative. Emmi made Bay Area headlines in May when it purchased artisan Petaluma cheese maker Cowgirl Creamery. We feel it was an excellent fit for us. They are a very fine company, and they have a dairy background, said Carol Jackson, who has run Meyenberg for decades with husband Robert, whose family has co-owned the company since 1934. Though the couple, who have a majority ownership stake, decided to sell because they are getting ready to retire, Robert Jackson will stay on as acting CEO during the transition. The terms of the sale, which was announced Thursday, were not disclosed. Matthias Kunz, executive vice president of the Americas for the Emmi Group, explained the companys continued acquisition of goat dairies. At Emmi, we love goats. Goat milk is a precious and highly seasonal resource, and demand for goat milk continues to increase, he said in a press release. The Meyenberg brand is the only nationally distributed fluid goat milk in the country. Its products, which also include evaporated and powdered milk, butter and a cheddar cheese, are distributed as far away as Sri Lanka and the Philippines. The Jacksons do not own goats themselves but work with 55 farmers in four states who produce 25 million pounds of milk per year. Our farmers are as important to us as our immediate employees in the plant. We have a very close relationship with our farmers, Jackson said. Jennifer Bice, founder and managing director of Sebastopols Redwood Hill Farm & Creamery, which was bought by Emmi a little over a year ago, sees the Swiss dairy companys purchase of Meyenberg as a way of rounding out its U.S. goat dairy portfolio. While Meyenberg specializes in milk, Redwood Hill specializes in goat milk yogurt and cultured products, and Cypress Grove Chevre of Arcata (Humboldt County), a third Northern California goat milk dairy that Emmi bought in 2010, makes cheese. Bice, who has known the Jacksons since the 1980s, said shes happy she chose to sell her familys company to Emmi. Its really been all Ive wanted and hoped for being able to run the business and have our company go forward, and all of our employees have stayed in place, she said. Were running it with our cultures and values its not someone purchasing us and coming in and telling us how to do things. Bice and her employees have also gained expertise working with the larger company and visiting its affiliates in Europe. Like many California dairies, Meyenberg has its roots in a Swiss immigrant family. In this case it was John Meyenberg, founder of the company that eventually became Carnation. His son later started the Meyenberg goat milk dairy, of which Robert Jacksons father, Harold, eventually became the sole distributor. His original partnership in the company was sparked by a desire to find milk that young Robert, who couldnt digest cows milk, could drink. Robert took over the company at age 17, shortly after his father died in a car accident. Though the product started out to serve those like Robert who couldnt digest cow milk, its now also sold to veterinary practices and the occasional zoo that need an alternative for baby animals of all kinds. Jackson said the company advertises in magazines ranging from Fine Cooking to Veterinary Practice News. In recent years, goat milk products have become a trendy ingredient in American restaurants. I do think that Emmi sees goat dairy as a niche thats really growing, said Redwood Hills Bice. And I think they probably have seen it in advance of us in Europe. Tara Duggan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tduggan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @taraduggan Julieta stands with the best films of its director, Pedro Almodovar, but its a different kind of Almodovar film. Its a film of moment-by-moment virtuosity, and yet its without any of the directors signature flashiness. Here he does a lot with a little, while he usually does a lot with a lot. One of the most impressive things about Julieta is its double casting. It features one actress in the role of a woman from the age of 40 through 56, and another actress as the same woman from ages 25 through 40. This kind of casting is common, but whats remarkable here what feels as much a spiritual achievement as a technical achievement is that we really feel as though were seeing the same person. Not merely the same character, but the same face and soul. The effect of this is profound. Through this cinematic illusion, its as if were witnessing what time can do to a person, and also what time doesnt do. The disappointments and heartaches of youth and middle age are present in the face of the older actress, Emma Suarez. But as depicted by this most sensuous of directors, the beauty is there, too, tempered and battered a bit by the years, and yet elevated by a kind of grace. Its a rare film that can burrow deep into your spirit and make you feel, OK, yes, this is life. Julieta touches the essential. Its based on three related stories written by Alice Munro. When we meet the older Julieta (Suarez), she is thinking of starting a new life with a new man in another country. But on a street in Madrid, she runs into a childhood friend of her daughter. The friend remarks on the coincidence she says that she recently ran into Julietas daughter and the look on Suarezs face suggests a mix of panic, hope and anguish that really cant be described. What Julieta doesnt mention to the friend is that she has no idea where her daughter lives and hasnt seen or heard from her in years. When she arrives back at her apartment, Julieta starts writing an account of her youth, in the hope that the daughter might someday read it. And its here where the story moves some 30 years into the past, to the fateful train ride when Julieta met the man who would become her husband. Because Almodovar is a director who cares about these things, young Julieta (Adriana Ugarte) looks not only like Suarez but exactly like the mid-1980s, with a hairstyle not unlike that of Melanie Griffith around the time of Body Double. And the train interiors are saturated with color. Theyre beautiful. They look like the past, and they look like romance. Theres not a scene in this film in which there is not both something to see and an acting moment to savor, as well as some nuance or implication or suggestion to ponder. But just to talk about Almodovars virtuosity for a moment, theres a character in the film that of a housekeeper, who works for Julietas future husband who is a little bit odd and forbidding. The housekeeper has shades of Hitchcock about her, further emphasized by Alberto Iglesias Bernard Herrmann-like score. Whats interesting: In the 1990s, Almodovar would have hit you over the head with the reference. Here he presents it with the lightest touch, so that you catch it, even as youre registering everything else. Almodovar used to be able to do one thing at a time. Now he can do several things at once. He gives us the etymology of the character, but also the subtle variations, even as hes conveying the power dynamic in the room, and staying focused on Julieta. The directorial gift is one of the oddest, in a sense, because its the hardest to explain or define. Suffice it to say that Almodovar presents this material in a way that never splits our attention, even as hes giving us a deluge of sensory and emotional detail. Its as if hes internalized the story so completely that he cant make a gesture cant move the camera, cant shape a moment without saying something true. Mick LaSalle is The San Francisco Chronicles movie critic. Email: mlasalle@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MickLaSalle Julieta Drama. Starring Emma Suarez and Adriana Ugarte. In Spanish with English subtitles. (R. 99 minutes.) To see a trailer: https://youtu.be/YH5_4osOZK8 California investigators found evidence in 2013 that a bank operated by Steven Mnuchin, now President-elect Donald Trumps nominee for Treasury secretary, had violated state laws at least 1,000 times in mortgage foreclosures on homeowners, according to a newly released document. The violations included reducing homeowners chances to challenge foreclosures by backdating documents and manipulating bids at property auctions to cut off the owners rights, according to a memo from attorneys in then-state Attorney General Kamala Harris office. The memo, reported by the news website the Intercept, said the lawyers had recommended that Harris sue the bank, OneWest, to seek damages for the homeowners, penalties for the state and an injunction requiring the bank to change its practices. Harris did not sue. The reason was that federal law, as interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court, dimmed the prospects of any such suit by allowing national banks to withhold documents and other evidence from state regulators, a former senior staff member in the office told The Chronicle on Wednesday. The 2013 memo was written by four staff attorneys in Harris consumer law section and then reviewed by supervising attorneys, who concluded that such a case would require substantial time and expense with limited chances of success, said the former staff member, who talked on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for the attorney generals office. During her successful campaign for the U.S. Senate last year, Harris showcased her decision in 2011 to reject a nationwide settlement with mortgage companies, resulting in a new agreement that added billions of dollars for foreclosed homeowners in California. She received a $2,000 campaign contribution from Mnuchin. On Wednesday, a day after being sworn in as a senator, Harris told the online publication the Hill that in the OneWest case, we followed the facts and the evidence, and its a decision my office made. She did not say whether she was involved in the decision. Barney Keller, a spokesman for Mnuchin, called the California staff memo worthless and said federal regulators had given OneWest their top rating for compliance with federal foreclosure rules. A San Francisco consumer advocate, meanwhile, said the Senate should insist that Mnuchin produce evidence on OneWests foreclosure practices that Harris office could not obtain. The Senate must vote on Mnuchins nomination as Treasury secretary. Mnuchin has to answer for the banks behavior to the Senate, the American people and tens of thousands of families who have lost their homes, said Paulina Gonzalez, executive director of the California Reinvestment Coalition. She said Trump ran on a platform of protecting working-class families, and Mr. Mnuchins track record is one of harming working-class families. Mnuchin was chief executive of OneWest from 2009 to August 2015, when it was sold to CIT Group. The staff memo said an investigation of OneWests practices in 2011 and 2012, based on documents filed with county offices or purchased from a private website, found that more than 900 foreclosure documents were backdated. That means they bore dates for the appointment of a foreclosure trustee that wrongly shortened a homeowners 90-day period to redeem the property before it was put up for sale. In 86 cases, the memo said, the documents bore dates before March 19, 2009, when OneWest opened for business. The memo also found that OneWests trustees disregarded the 90-day waiting period in dozens of cases, the Intercept reported. And in other cases, the memo said, after a foreclosed property was sold at auction, OneWest created documents falsely depicting the winning bidder as the property owner, who under the states rules can acquire the property by paying the amount due on the loan rather than the full price. Further violations might have been found in records of OneWests 35,000 foreclosures in California from 2009 through 2012, but those documents were unavailable because federal law would allow the bank to ignore a subpoena from the state, Harris attorneys said. But they still recommended a lawsuit, despite acknowledging the difficulties, and wrote that the continuing investigation accompanying a court case would have substantial public justice value. Although it decided against suing, Harris office filed arguments with the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2014 in support of a Nevada County man whose home had been foreclosed by OneWest. The office argued that California foreclosure laws should prevail over more restrictive federal laws, but the court dismissed the case in August and said the former owner had no valid claims under state law. Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko Madam Speaker, grab the gavel. The Chronicles front page from Jan. 5, 2007, covers San Franciscos Nancy Pelosi becoming the most powerful woman in the history of U.S. politics. (Pelosi) took control of the House of Representatives on Thursday, declaring herself proud of her historic role as the first woman elected speaker and determined to offer a new vision, a new America, the story read. The 233 jubilant Democrats in the new 110th Congress cheered and clapped as they voted unanimously for their 66-year-old party leader. Pelosi grew up as Nancy DAlesandro in a strong Italian family in Baltimore. Her father, Thomas DAlesandro, was a congressman and Baltimores mayor. She married Paul Pelosi in 1963, moved to San Francisco six years later and had five children. Pelosi was elected to the House of Representatives in 1987 and climbed her way up the ladder of power until she made history two decades after she opened her office in Washington, D.C. The election capped Pelosis remarkable rise through the congressional ranks since her first election in June 1987, culminating in what she called the shattering of the marble ceiling that had blocked women from the Houses top post since the chamber was organized in 1789, the story read. Pelosi, for her part, said it best. This is a historic moment, for the Congress, and for the women of this country, she told her colleagues. It is a moment for which we have waited more than 200 years. Never losing faith, we waited through the many years of struggle to achieve our rights. See more front pages: Go to SFChronicle.com/covers to search a database of hundreds of Chronicle Covers articles that showcase the newspapers history. Chronicle Covers is a yearlong project highlighting one classic Chronicle newspaper page from our archive every day for 366 days. Library director Bill Van Niekerken and producers Kimberly Chua, Alexandra Irving and Jillian Sullivan contributed to the project. Tim ORourke is the executive producer and editor of SFChronicle.com. Email: torourke@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @TimothyORourke Must the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approve the Geary Bus Rapid Transit project on Thursday? No. The supervisors should postpone their vote until the incoming District One supervisor is seated. The supervisors constitute the board of the county transportation authority. The authority acts as our bank, steering millions of dollars of sales tax revenue into transportation projects. The Geary Bus Rapid Transit project is but one of many. The first phase of the Geary BRT project is estimated to cost $50 million to $60 million and goes from Gough Street to Masonic Avenue and then nearly to Arguello Boulevard without any significant construction. It is the 2-mile piece from Arguello to 27th Avenue that raises issues. That segment carries a price tag of $250 million to $300 million. The work will destroy more than 100 trees and the median, which makes a boulevard what it is, require four years of construction during which fragile neighborhood businesses will fail, and become an irreversible red-lane freeway for buses in the center two lanes. (Red lanes employed elsewhere in the city have not cut transit times but have increased vehicle congestion.) The 38-Geary service today includes the 38R-Geary, the rapid service with fewer stops and twice as many trips as the local service. The Rapid is exactly that very quick because fewer stops mean faster transit. The ride from 20th Avenue to Union Square takes a scant 21 minutes. The Local has only half as many buses and gets complaints about overcrowding and slowness. An alternative to the Geary BRT plan has been advocated by the Planning Association of the Richmond and San Franciscans for Sensible Transit. We want an incremental approach: more buses, tighter schedules, repaving, better synchronization of traffic lights, upgraded bus-driver controls to extend green lights briefly, fewer Rapid stops and better stations. Disabled and elderly riders would be forced to cross to the center lanes to board from narrow platforms between bus and car lanes, enduring longer walks and more dangerous conditions than at stops on sidewalks. All of this to save just two minutes for maybe 700 commute riders. The incremental approach advocated by the association and Sensible Transit includes proven measures than can be put in place as part of the initial phase, which is already funded. If these incremental steps are not sufficient, then both the association and San Franciscans for Sensible Transit agree that further ideas should be tried. But take the simple incremental steps first and see what they achieve. Is a decision urgently needed on Thursday? Hardly. The expensive phase cannot go forward until the federal agencies have approved the environmental impact statement, and that is unlikely before March. In the meantime, Sandra Fewer will be sworn in Jan. 9 as supervisor for District One (which contains the area in dispute) and will get to question the necessity for the project the authority recommends. She expressed doubts about it during the campaign, as did the runner-up candidate, Marjan Philhour. It apparently is not wanted by the voters, and it is too costly. We ask the board to defer a decision and listen to her concerns. Richard L. Corriea, a retired police commander, is the president of the Planning Association of the Richmond. Robert Starzel, a retired transportation law attorney who once sat on the Muni Commission, is the director of San Franciscans for Sensible Transit Inc. Go to www.sfsensibletransit.org. As Republicans in Congress start dismantling Obamacare, they run the risk of hurting a particularly vulnerable population in California: a whole lot of people who voted for Donald Trump. In 49 of the states 58 counties, nearly 1 in 4 residents is enrolled in Medi-Cal, Californias Medicaid program, which the Affordable Care Act helped to expand, according to a study by the nonpartisan California Budget and Policy Center. On election day, Trump won eight of the 15 counties with the highest percentage of Medi-Cal clients. Places like Kern and Tulare counties, which are far from the wealthy and largely Democratic coastal areas that have benefited from the tech-driven recovery. The ACA has pumped $20 billion into Californias economy, creating 200,000 jobs 135,000 of them in health care, according to a December study from the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education. If the ACA disappeared, Kern County, where the unemployment rate is at 9.2 percent and 45 percent of the population is on Medi-Cal, would lose an estimated 5,000 jobs. Tulare County, where the unemployment rate of 10.8 percent is twice the statewide figure, would lose 3,000 jobs. If the ACA is repealed without any replacement, we estimate that those jobs would go away, said Laurel Lucia, a co-author of the UC Berkeley study. Some of the counties that voted for Trump have the most to lose. And if those Trump voters in California and elsewhere start losing their health care benefits and their jobs, it could be the start of Trump eating his own political seed corn. Low-income voters supported Trump in California and elsewhere because they wanted him to change a political system they felt was ignoring their needs. If Republicans spike the Affordable Care Act and dont replace it with something that improves the coverage and lowers the price, the GOP is going to face the same blowback Democrats did in November. Changing the ACA in California is going to be difficult no state is more deeply invested in it. Statewide, nearly 35 percent of Californians are enrolled in Medi-Cal, according to the independent California Budget and Policy Center. One of the highest countywide figures is in heavily Democratic Los Angeles County, where 40 percent of the population receives Medi-Cal. But if Republicans do repeal Obamacare without a solution, heres an inconvenient political truth: Kern and Tulare counties are represented by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, the Bakersfield resident who is the second-most powerful Republican in Congress. Another chunk of Tulare County is represented by Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Tulare, who has Trumps ear as a key member of his transition team. Nunes also represents part of Fresno County, where 50 percent of the residents receive Medi-Cal. As Trump might tweet: Awkward! It does seem to be troublesome for them, said Scott Graves, director of research for the California Budget and Policy Center. It is one of the classic dilemmas of anyone in Congress who is asked to take votes in Washington on something that aligns with the national partys goals, but is not good for their own constituents. And a lot of Republicans are not going to want to repeal (the ACA) because it would get them in hot water with their constituents. But in these heady early days of total GOP control in Washington, dont hold your breath waiting to see which Republicans raise their hands to say they want to save Obamacare. For now, theyre following the lead of Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who said Wednesday that the American people have sent new leadership here because Obamacare has failed. It has been rejected by the American people. In some ways, hes right. President Obama told voters repeatedly: If you like your health care plan, you can keep it. The nonpartisan fact-checkers at Politifact named that its Lie of the Year in 2013 and it enraged Americans who had trusted Obama to tell the truth about his signature program. It didnt help that top Democrats like former Maryland Rep. (now Sen.) Chris Van Hollen said things like Obamacare has resulted in significantly reducing the per-capita cost of health care. Nobody living paycheck-to-paycheck wants to hear Washingtonspeak about the per-capita cost of health care. Either their premiums are going up or down. And they have been rising. Obamacare tamped down the rate of increases, but it didnt reduce costs in most cases. What the ACA did do was provide insurance to an estimated 20 million people who didnt have it. Many of those people had to wait in the emergency room for hours for ailments that could have been treated by a primary care physician. Others couldnt even get insurance previously because they had a pre-existing condition. Thats why despite what Pence said, and despite the fact that 2.8 million more Americans voted for Trumps opponent, Hillary Clinton, than for the president-elect Americans remain split on what they want to do with the ACA. A post-election survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 26 percent of the respondents want to see Trump and Congress gut the law, and 17 percent want to see them scale it back. But 30 percent wanted to expand it, and 19 percent said to keep it the way it is. After years of railing how horrible Obamacare is, it is now up to the Republican-controlled Congress and Trump to come up with a better system. Standing next to Pence, McCarthy and other top Republicans at a news conference in Washington, D.C., Wednesday, House Speaker Paul Ryan didnt offer specifics on how the GOP would replace Obamacare. None of them did. But Ryan did say that Republicans will make sure the transition from Obamacare to whatever Republicans replace it with doesnt pull the rug out from anybody. If it does, many of the people who will be hurt the worst will look familiar to him. They will be Trump voters. Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicles senior political writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoli Volta. Cadence. Bar Tartine. Bourbon Steak. Ame. Ninebark. Range. LuLu. All these restaurants and many more closed in 2016. Following a year where highly regarded projects struggled to last even a few months, and well-known operators decided to shutter their projects, one question remains: Whats next? The answer might be a mixture of profitable familiarity proven formulas and bar-centric concepts and a few moments of singular ambition. A cadre of chefs and restaurateurs is doubling down with offshoots and replicas. Several are aimed toward the exploding fast-casual market. Everyone talks about rents being expensive and labor costs. On the restaurateur side, there is a natural reaction to that, says Evan Rich, chef-owner of the popular Rich Table in Hayes Valley. He and his wife, Sarah, are planning a nearby spinoff this year named RT Rotisserie (101 Oak St.), a counter-service restaurant specializing in sandwiches and roasted chickens, with lower price points (nothing over $21). How do I make a sensible business that combats the expenses that it takes to run a restaurant in San Francisco? Is it going to be worth doing? Rich says. Thats what people are looking at more closely now. Liz Hafalia/The Chronicle While a recognizable name doesnt automatically spell success, it can provide leverage in what has become a nebulous dining landscape. The ethos is evident in Michael Minas upcoming move to SoMa (350 Mission St.) with a yet-to-be-named Mediterranean-leaning project. And Christopher Kostow, Katianna Hong and Nathaniel Dorn the folks behind Napa Valleys four-star Restaurant at Meadowood have plans to open their more casual effort, the Charter Oak, in St. Helenas bygone Tra Vigne (1050 Charter Oak Ave.). Not far away, Cockscombs Chris Cosentino is opening the Acacia House in St. Helenas Las Alcobas hotel (1915 Main St.). Russell Moore and Allison Hopelain of celebrated Camino are taking over the old Salsipuedes space (4201 Market St.) in Oakland to create the Kebabery. And the team behind Wood Tavern and Southie will unveil the Wolf (3853 Piedmont Ave.) also in Oakland, an homage of sorts to the locations former occupant, the landmark Bay Wolf. Preeti Mistry of Juhu Beach Club is expanding to Emeryvilles Navi Kitchen (5000 Adeline St.), a counter-service spot with market-driven Indian-inspired food and Indian pizza. Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle Namus Lee brothers are opening two new joints: a noodle one (2405 Third St.) and a stone pot one (553 Divisadero St.). Nick Balla and Cortney Burns, fresh off their Bar Tartine time, are hoping to nail down a location for their upcoming Crescent while they cook at the now-open Motze. The Mission might overflow with Louisiana fare this year as two restaurants are slated to open in the neighborhood with similar themes. Alvin Garcia of Popsons Burgers and his chef-partner Adam Rosenblum are opening Cajun-inspired Alba Rays (2293 Mission St.) in the former Hapa Ramen space. Not far away is Bayou (3412 17th St.), from ex-Garcon chef Arthur Wall. While many of the areas new restaurants will come from familiar faces, out-of-towners are entering the fray, too. Nobu, the global high-end Japanese restaurant chain, will arrive in Palo Altos Epiphany Hotel (180 Hamilton Ave.) this year. And quirky Portland, Ore., ice cream shop Salt and Straw has plans for a few San Francisco locations, the first of which is a 2,400-square-foot outpost at 2201 Fillmore St. Acclaimed ramen chain Ippudo is finally coming to San Francisco on the ground floor of the Four Seasons (757 Market St.) . New York Citys popular street-food vendor Halal Guys continues to expand in the Bay Area; next is San Franciscos Union Square neighborhood at 340 OFarrell St. Despite the rise of fast-casual, the year will still see a few ambitious projects, the most notable being China Live (644 Broadway), a 30,000-square-foot mega-marketplace on the border of North Beach and Chinatown. The space will span two floors and will include a fine dining restaurant, to be named Eight Tables. Rooh, an upscale Indian restaurant, is taking over the 3,600-square-foot space in the Dropbox building (333 Brannan St.). It is the first American enterprise from the India-based Good Times restaurant group and will feature a modern tasting menu inspired by regions of India. Che Fico (838 Divisadero St.) will bring yet another notable restaurant to the Western Addition; its a rustic Italian project from David Nayfeld, Matt Brewer and Angela Pinkerton, who have worked in top Chicago and New York restaurants. John Storey / Special to The Chronicle Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more. On the bar side, Dominique Crenn is opening Bar Crenn (3131 Fillmore St.), a wine bar next door to her Michelin two-star flagship, Atelier Crenn. And fresh off a second Michelin star of its own, the Lazy Bear team is working on a cocktail bar a few blocks away in the short-lived Tradesman (753 Alabama St.). Food and drink continue to ally. Former Nombe chef Noriyuki Sugie is joining the scrum with Hitachino Beer and Wagyu (639 Post St.) in the Tendernob. Glenas Tacos and Margaritas (632 20th St.) will open in Dogpatch, led by Kin Khao opening chef Michael Gaines. Despite the ongoing popularity of neighborhood bars, the Bay Areas drinking scene continues to diversify as places focus on subsets of alcohol and potential clients. San Francisco is big enough so if you define your space and stick to it, people will get excited, says Jen Pelka, the PR maven spearheading the Riddler in Hayes Valley (528 Laguna St.), due to open in the next week or so. The project is backed completely by women, and will have 100 varieties of Champagne. I think limiting a concept breeds the most creativity, Pelka says. Similarly hyper-focused is Thad Voglers newest project in the Mission, a rum bar named Obispo (3270 24th St.). To do the project justice, and to keep it from straying into the realm of tiki or Prohibition-era Cuba, Vogler (Bar Agricole, Trou Normand) has been working with the citys Museum of the African Diaspora. More and more were seeing bars with something very specific to say about a particular region or spirit, he says. Ten years ago, the opening of a rum bar was news. Now we see a cultural landscape where rum bars are a category within which different bars differentiate themselves. Looking ahead, Pelka sees the trend of food and drink options diversifying even more, like a wine bar that focuses on a single varietal or region: If you look at whats successful in the city, they are tightly focused concepts. Justin Phillips is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email jphillips@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JustMrPhillips This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 2 1 of 2 POOF Show More Show Less 2 of 2 POOF Show More Show Less So its a new year and this time youre really committed to the resolutions you make every January: to get fit and lose weight. Then you glance over at your significant other, who is sprawled across the sofa. You observe the slack jaw, the subtle snore, the rotund belly, and it occurs to you that your beloved could stand to lose a few pounds, too. Yes, when your dog starts looking more swine than canine, its time to ramp up the exercise. Enter Poof, the newest activity tracker in the fitness technology craze that targets the animal kingdom. Consider Poof a Fitbit for your pet. Just like its counterpart for humans, Poof measures activity, monitors calorie intake, and also tracks sleep and resting levels, empowering owners with data about their pets daily habits. Over time, owners should note a pattern, which places them in a better position to catch what is normal or out of the ordinary through easy-to-read graphs on their smartphone. The sooner abnormal behavior is detected, the more likely it is to be treated and resolved. BAGHDAD Several attacks in and around Baghdad, including a suicide car bombing in a busy commercial area after nightfall on Thursday, killed at least 27 people in a particularly brutal day in the Iraqi capital. The suicide bomber, who targeted shops and food stands near a bus station in the citys busy Bab al-Muadam area, killed 11, a police officer said. He says the bombing also wounded at least 22 people. Earlier in the day, bombings elsewhere in and around Baghdad killed at least 16 people and wounded dozens, officials said. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks but they bore the hallmarks of Islamic State, which has carried out a string of bombings in Baghdad over the past week, killing nearly 100 people. The Sunni extremists frequently target Iraqs security forces and civilians in Shiite neighborhoods. Earlier Thursday, a car bomb tore through a Baghdad market, killing nine people while four other attacks mostly by bombs that went off in commercial areas or targeted security forces killed at least seven. Islamic State has managed to carry out a series of attacks across Iraq while also putting up stiff resistance in the northern city of Mosul, where U.S.-backed Iraqi forces have been waging a massive offensive since mid-October to retake the city, Iraqs second-largest, from the militants. Mosul, about 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, is the extremist groups last major urban bastion in the country. Iraqi forces have retaken around a quarter of the city since the offensive began. Iraq announced a new operation on Thursday to recapture Islamic State-held towns near the Syrian border. Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Mohammadi said the troops would try to dislodge Islamic State from Rawah, Anah and Qaim, towns in the western Anbar province that fell to the extremists in 2014. U.S.-backed Iraqi forces drove Islamic State from the two main cities of Anbar, Ramadi and Fallujah, last year. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate This article originally appeared on KCRA. The American River water level will continue to rise Thursday as operators have begun increasing water releases through Nimbus Dam. The first gate at the dam opened at 7:30 a.m., releasing 5,000 cubic feet per second of water downstream. "Been such a long time since the drought started. It's a treat to see," said Glen Lutz who came to watch the gates open. Throughout the day, the water releases were scheduled to increase steadily. At 2 p.m., the flow was set to increase to 10,000 c.f.s. according to the California Date Exchange Center. The releases come as Folsom Lake continues to rise following the recent rain and snow. Between Wednesday morning and Thursday morning, the lake rose roughly five feet. RELATED VIDEO: Folsom Lake levels reached a record low in Oct. 2016 The amount of water flowing into the lake after days of rain and snow has surpassed 30,000 cubic feet per second. That is the greatest amount of water flowing into the lake since mid-December. Meanwhile, the outflow, as of 6:30 a.m., stood at 4,622 cubic feet per second. "It's great to see. I'm a skier and the last six years have bee horrible. Nice to see water coming down," said Neil MacMullin, who lives near Nimbus Dam. The lake level stood at 408 feet Thursday morning and was at 44 percent capacity. That's compared to the same time last year when Folsom Lake stood at just 25 percent capacity. This has led to a warning for lower lying areas downstream along the American River. Water officials last increased released from both dams in December after Folsom Lake picked up more than 100,000 acre-feet of water in a 24-hour period, leading to the lake increasing by more than a tenth of its capacity during that time. This article originally appeared on KCRA. A man trapped between railcars at the 24th Street Mission BART station in San Francisco caused systemwide delays during the commute Wednesday evening, according to the transit agency and fire officials. The incident, first reported at 6:13 p.m., prevented trains from stopping at the station, which was later closed to the public as rescuers tried to free the man, according to Jim Allison, a spokesman for BART. The man was rescued just before 7 p.m. and taken to a trauma center in serious condition, officials with the San Francisco Fire Department said. The man appeared to have accidentally fallen onto the tracks and was struck by a train before being pinned down, Allison said. The man was semi-conscious as firefighters tried to rescue him, the department reported. Long delays were expected throughout the BART system following the incident, and no trains were running from San Francisco to the East Bay while the rescue was in progress. After the man was rescued, trains still werent stopping at the station, which was filled with medical responders, Allison said. Trains were single-tracking through one side of the station past 7 p.m., causing a backup to build throughout the system, he said. Crews were working to clear the scene and re-open the closed track, he said, and the station re-opened just before 8 p.m. as workers cleared the scene. Residual delays were expected throughout the system as BART recovered from the delay. Obviously, that is impacting the level of service we are able to provide, Allison said of the delays. Its the second instance of a man on BARTs tracks in less than a week. A trespasser who entered the Transbay Tube Dec. 29 at Embarcadero Station was taken into custody after avoiding police for more than an hour. Michael Bodley is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mbodley@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @michael_bodley Theres a lot of glass in the Pauley Ballroom at UC Berkeley, and campus officials hope it holds when the explosive provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos delivers his message to students there on Feb. 1. He typically aims his barbs and taunts at women, people of color and anyone left of Donald Trump. But it isnt Yiannopoulos that campus officials are so worried about. Its the people he infuriates and there are plenty of them who are causing the administration to consider hiring 40 extra police officers on top of the usual seven, said UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof, whos been bombarded with emails from students demanding that the university cancel the invitation. Yiannopoulos, a gay conservative, is a public speaker and editor for the right-wing opinion site Breitbart News Network. Hes been making the rounds at college campuses across the country with his Dangerous Faggot talks, specializing in remarks meant to insult, offend and disgust those who disagree with his ideas. A What to Do About Milo instruction sheet is circulating that tells critics how to express their outrage in writing and where to show up in person including a protest at UC Davis on Jan. 13, when activists hope to shut down Yiannopoulos talk there. A No Milo Yiannopoulos at UC Berkeley Facebook page had been shared 1,800 times by Monday, with 529 clicks from people saying theyll attend the protest. Thats compared with the 500 sold-out seats to the event, hosted by the Berkeley College Republicans. Even if there were a specific threat (of disruption), that would not be grounds to cancel the event, Mogulof said, adding that the students hosting the event are required to help the university pay for basic security. Their contribution is estimated at $7,500 to $10,000 for about seven officers. And although high security fees required at Yiannopoulos events have led to cancellations on some other campuses because students couldnt afford them, Mogulof said UC Berkeley may not set fees with the intention of blocking the event and will pay for any additional officers needed. What would be grounds to cancel would be if the speaker said, Im going to come to your campus and break the law. On the contrary, Yiannopoulos has gotten a good workout exercising the law that distinguishes the United States from countries that dont have a First Amendment, such as his native Britain. But private companies set their own rules, and Twitter banned him in July for repeatedly breaking harassment and abuse policies. Yiannopoulos, who has called feminists the most easily offended group of people on the planet, took such offense at his banning from Twitter that he devoted a speech at Florida State University in September to a eulogy for the company. He also accused college students in August of running for safe spaces at the slightest hint of a challenge to their coddled worldview, and defended Internet trolls perpetrators of the kind of activities for which Twitter banned him as harmless pokers and prodders of the most vulnerable among us. Trolls are experts at finding soft targets, he wrote, offering a euphemism for what is usually called bullying. Yiannopoulos found a soft target on Dec. 13 at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, where in front of 350 people in the Student Union and countless others watching on the Web, he mocked and identified by name a student who had protested a new rule requiring students in locker rooms to cover their nonconforming genitalia. The rule was imposed after the student, who was making the physical transition from male to female, used the sauna in the womens locker room last January, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The newspaper reported that Yiannopoulos held up the students photo, accused her of being a man trying to go into womens bathrooms, and said: The way you know hes failed is I can still bang him. In September, he took a dig at people who protest the disproportionate use of excessive force by police against black people, suggesting that no such imbalance exists and that protesters should focus on weight loss instead. If Black Lives Matter cared about black people, in addition to their fact-free musings about police officers they would be organizing aerobics classes, not protesting the police, he told students at Louisiana State University. The apparent joy Yiannopoulos takes in making young adults feel bad then mocking them for feeling bad has prompted an array of student protests. Hes joined some of them incognito, carrying a sign that reads Milo Sucks. Seven people were arrested for blocking the entrance to his speech at Michigan State University on Dec. 7, the Lansing State Journal reported. And on Dec. 15, some 40 protesters showed up at Minnesota State University chanting, Yiannopoulos, out of Minneapolis! reported the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Its enormously good fun, he told the paper. All of the very worst people in the world get triggered by the mere mention of my name. Among those worst people are UC Berkeley students, including about three dozen so far who have emailed campus spokesman Mogulof with requests to cancel the speech. The What to Do About Milo paper also recommends contacting at least a dozen other campus leaders, from Chancellor Nicholas Dirks to Nailah Nasir, vice chancellor of equity and inclusion. Yiannopouloss visit would very likely pose a direct physical threat to individual students on this campus, a student identified only as Gerard wrote Mogulof, calling the speech at the University of Wisconsin an act of sexual harassment. Echoing the claims of other critics, Gerard urged the university to prohibit the College Republicans from holding this event on campus property on the ground that, in his view, harassment of that kind is not protected free speech. Meanwhile, the Berkeley College Republicans have found themselves in the ironic position of championing what they call the New Free Speech Movement on the same campus where students of the political left gave it life a half century ago. Club members could not be reached for comment. Mogulof has been sending out a four-paragraph response to those asking UC Berkeley to cancel the event. It says that registered students groups like the Republicans can invite speakers onto campus and that the university has no authority to disapprove the speaker. Nor can opponents use the hecklers veto to shut down a speaker they dont like. The courts have made it very clear, contrary to widely held beliefs, that there is no general exception to First Amendment protection for hate speech or speech that is deemed to be discriminatory, says the response, which adds that officials and campus police will not hesitate to act if there is a threat to security. Some private universities have barred Yiannopoulos. In July, DePaul University banned him from returning because his presence had created a hostile environment in May, when protesters took over the stage, grabbed his microphone, and hit him in the face. Campus President Dennis Holtschneider later called Yiannopoulos a self-serving provocateur and unworthy of university discourse. NYU canceled in October, citing physical altercations at Yiannopoulos events. At some public universities, students rescinded invitation because of costs. The College Republicans group at North Dakota State uninvited Yiannopoulos on Dec. 2, saying it didnt have enough money for security. And Students 4 Trump at Iowa State canceled after the campus tacked an extra $1,900 on to the security fee. These cancellations suggest that UC Berkeley should find a way to do the same, Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda, a doctoral student there in the department of east Asian languages and cultures, told Mogulof. In order to preserve student safety, I urge the university to do everything in its power to cancel this event, she wrote. If not, students and community members will take the initiative. Yiannopoulos schedule calls for eight campus stops before UC Berkeley, including the UC Davis event, UC Santa Barbara on Jan. 17, and Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo on Jan. 31. His tour ends at UCLA on Feb. 3. Nanette Asimov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: nasimov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @NanetteAsimov The river that flows through fabled Yosemite Valley is expected to overflow its banks during this weekends storms, rising even higher than it did during the devastating flood of 1997. Forecasters with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted that the Merced River would surge to a level of 23.7 feet, about a half a foot higher than it did 20 years ago when the river flooded a valley hotel and other facilities, causing an estimated $176 million damage. Macys says it is eliminating more than 10,000 jobs and plans to move forward with 68 store closures after a disappointing holiday shopping season. The department store chain also lowered its full-year earnings forecast. The retailer said Wednesday that sales at its established stores fell 2.1 percent in November and December compared to the same period last year. Macys Inc. pointed to changing consumer behavior and said its performance reflects the challenges that are facing much of the retail industry. As if to underscore that point, Kohls Corp. also reported disappointing holiday shopping numbers Wednesday. Macys said the 68 store closures are part of the 100 closings it announced in August. Of the 68, three were closed by the middle of 2016, 63 will close in the spring and two will be closed by the middle of 2017. Some workers may be offered positions at nearby stores but Macys estimates that 3,900 employees will be affected by the closures. None of the announced closures is in Northern California. Macys also said it plans to restructure parts of its business and sell some properties. Those moves will eliminate 6,200 jobs, and Macys estimates they will save $550 million annually. Overall, Macys said, the job reductions represent about 7 percent of its workforce. The company, which includes Bloomingdales, has been struggling with declining traffic in its stores. It said it is closing stores that are unproductive or are no longer robust shopping destinations, and selling those with highly valued real estate. It plans to invest some of its savings into the expansion of its digital business. Macys said it now expects to earn between $2.95 and $3.10 per share on an adjusted basis for its 2016 fiscal year, down from its prior forecast of $3.15 to $3.40 per share. The company is scheduled to report full results in February. Shares in Macys fell nearly 10 percent to $32.30 in after-hours trading. Kohls shares fell almost 15 percent to $44.15 after it cut its earnings forecast for fiscal 2016. When Yahoo disclosed last year that it had experienced two huge data breaches in prior years, some analysts were worried that those events could put the struggling Sunnyvale companys plans to sell its Internet properties to Verizon in jeopardy. A Verizon executive said Thursday that the company is still looking into the impact of those giant lapses, but reiterated the reasons Verizon wanted to buy Yahoo in the first place. There are still things that have to be completed in the investigation, Verizon executive Marni Walden said at a Citigroup investing conference in Las Vegas. With time, we will have answers to those questions ... We will be very responsible with what we do to make sure that we are getting the value of the asset and doing the right thing for our shareholders. When asked how long it would take before Verizon decides whether to stick with the $4.8 billion deal, Walden declined to give a timeline and said she couldn't say with confidence one way or another that the deal would go through, because the company still needs more information. She said that could take weeks, but that Verizon doesnt want the matter to drag on. Verizon announced last summer it plans to purchase Yahoos Internet properties, a deal that was expected to close in the first quarter. The telecom giant said it was interested in Yahoo because it wanted to expand its digital advertising business. In 2015, Verizon purchased AOL for $4.4 billion. Buying Yahoo, a far bigger property, would boost Verizons Internet audience into the billions. On Thursday, AOL executive Tim Armstrong told CNBC he is hopeful that the deal will be completed. The merits of the transaction still make sense, Walden said at the Las Vegas conference. Many analysts believe the recent data breaches, which were not disclosed to Verizon during the deal negotiations, will probably prompt Verizon to seek a discount on the purchase price. Venky Ganesan, a venture capitalist whose firm sold a company to Yahoo in 2014, told The Chronicle that he thinks Verizon might be able to buy Yahoo for as little as half the original negotiated price. Yahoo said it continues to work toward integrating with Verizon. We are confident in Yahoos value, the company said. Yahoo released data showing that the 2014 breach it disclosed in September didnt seem to negatively impact user engagement. Verto Analytics, which looked at Yahoos traffic, said it does not appear that traffic has been affected by Yahoos December announcement of a 2013 breach or the September disclosure of the 2014 one. Brett Harris, an analyst with Gabelli & Co., said he now expects the deal to be pushed back into the second quarter. Its always made sense, despite the hacking issues, to close on the transaction. Its the question of price, Harris said. Verizon is just being the smart buyer. Wendy Lee is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: wlee@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @thewendylee A body found near a wrecked car at the bottom of a steep hillside in San Luis Obispo County was identified as a missing Los Angeles woman, while her boyfriend remained unaccounted for, authorities said Wednesday. The California Highway Patrol received a report of a mangled car below Highway 1 at about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, said Officer Patrick Seebart, a CHP spokesman. A CHP helicopter hovering overhead spotted the car on rocks 325 feet below the highway, resting near the shoreline of the Pacific Ocean, just south of Ragged Point and 10 miles north of Hearst Castle. LAPD / / LAPD The bodies of 20-year-old North Hollywood resident Olivia Hannah Gonzalez and a dog were found about 15 feet from the car, Seebart said. Gonzalez and her 21-year-old boyfriend, Brian Fernandez, were last seen Dec. 23 when they left for Big Sur, 300 miles north of Los Angeles, police said. Our condolences go out to the family and friends of Olivia, Seebart said in a statement. There was no information on the presence of a second body. The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Department dispatched search and rescue teams to the hillside, and dive teams to the ocean to continue search efforts, Seebart said. The car probably will not be recovered until Thursday or Friday due to inclement weather. Its extremely wet and rainy and stormy, Seebart said Wednesday. We didnt recover the vehicle last night because of the conditions. The conditions are worse today. CHP investigators will handle the crash investigation while the sheriffs department will continue the search-and-recovery operations. The Los Angeles Police Departments missing persons unit had released a photo of Gonzalez and Fernandez on Friday. Officials said family members had expected them back home Christmas Day. Jenna Lyons is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jlyons@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JennaJourno A pair of arrests were made in the last two homicides in San Francisco in 2016, slayings that occurred less than an hour apart and 2 miles from each other, police said Wednesday. The killings brought the total number of homicides in San Francisco to 59 for the year, up from 52 in 2015, said Officer Giselle Talkoff, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco Police Department. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Editor's note: Santa Rosa police dropped their request on Friday, Jan. 6, 2017, for prosecutors to charge Kyle Cameron for allegedly robbing a bank. --- A 20-year-old Santa Rosa man once named Sonoma Countys youngest vineyard manager was arrested for allegedly robbing a bank last month, police said. The suspect, Kyle Cameron, was seen dropping cash and other evidence as he ran away from a U.S. Bank on Guerneville Road in Santa Rosa the morning of Dec. 15, according to Sgt. Josh Ludtke, a police spokesman. The bank robber had passed a note to a teller demanding money, investigators learned. When the bandit clad in a black hoodie and ski mask got the cash, he went west through the parking lot, police said. Detectives believe he dropped some of the cash to get rid of possible security devices. After weeks of investigation, officers Wednesday followed Cameron as he left his home and arrested him on suspicion of robbery, burglary and violating his probation. They served search warrants on his home and car. At age 14, Cameron was featured in the Teen Life section of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, which called him the youngest vineyard manager in Sonoma County, and possibly the youngest in the country. The El Molino High School teen had been working for his grandfather, who owned a 10-acre vineyard along River Road near Fulton, the newspaper reported. I desperately, desperately want to grow and diversify our farming, the young Cameron told the Press Democrat. I want to keep our family growing, both in total acreage and with the grapes we grow. Asked about the arrest, a woman who answered the phone at Camerons grandfathers residence said Wednesday, There is no comment at all, before hanging up. Kimberly Veklerov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kveklerov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kveklerov LONDON Ruth Mackenzie, the British director of the Holland Festival, has been chosen as the next artistic director of the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris, succeeding Jean-Luc Choplin, who has held that position since 2004. The decision, which must be ratified at a Wednesday, Jan. 11, meeting of the theaters administrative board, was announced Tuesday by the Paris mayors office. Later, the mayor, Anne Hidalgo, tweeted that Mackenzie had been chosen for her experience and her ambitious and innovative artistic project. Mackenzie, 59, will not just be the rare Briton to head a French national institution, but the first woman to run the Chatelet since the theater opened in 1862. She will have a partner in the French arts administrator, Thomas Lauriot dit Prevost, who was Choplins No. 2 from 2006 to 2013, and who will hold the title of general director. We applied as a team, Mackenzie said. These are big jobs, and its very nice when there are two of you to work things out. Lauriot dit Prevost is also fantastically French, Mackenzie added, which makes up a little for me being British. Mackenzie, who was the director of Londons Cultural Olympiad in 2012, has also been the general director of Scottish Opera; artistic director, with Steven Pimlott and Martin Duncan, of the Chichester Festival Theater; general director of the Manchester International Festival; and a consulting dramaturge at the Vienna Festival. Since 2015, she has been the artistic director of the ambitious, multidisciplinary Holland Festival, which she will continue to direct through 2018 while the Chatelet theater undergoes major renovations that will keep it closed for the next two years. Under Choplin, Chatelet moved away from classical music and dance productions to became a hub for American musicals, with highly successful productions of Kiss Me, Kate, Singin in the Rain, 42nd Street and, notably, An American in Paris, which transferred to Broadway and will open in London in March. Mackenzie said that because her first season will begin in September 2019, it is too early to discuss the direction of her artistic program. What I will say is that I am interested in inventing new popular forms, whether with pop stars or classical composers or choreographers, whether onstage or on the Internet, she said. Chatelet has always been an innovator, since the 19th century search for new forms of opera, to Diaghilev and Stravinsky, William Forsythe and contemporary pop operas like Damon Albarns Monkey: Journey to the West. As the mayor says, its as special to Paris as the Eiffel Tower, she added. I want it to house work that is original, new and sets the trend. The feudal lords of Japan tortured many Roman Catholics during the 17th century, and yet the numbers of their victims pale when you consider how many people Martin Scorsese will ultimately torture with Silence. Based on the novel of the same name by Shusaku Endo, this has been a dream project of Scorseses for nearly three decades, and its good that he got to make it. Well, at least its good that he got it over with. Of course, Scorsese is one of our great filmmakers and that, coupled with the films unmistakable sincerity, could lead a person to mistake Silence for an important piece of work. But Silence is not just sincere, its naive. Its performances are tin-eared and histrionic. The dialogue feels off, as if rendered from the Japanese by Google Translate, and the conversations go on and on and on ... It is an exhausting film to watch, but its not exhausting emotionally, because it barely engages the emotions. As bad movies often do, Silence sucks energy from the audience, and it does so for a punishing two hours and 41 minutes. It tells the story of Portuguese Jesuit missionary Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield), who gets some disturbing news at the start of the film. He and his colleague Father Garrpe (Adam Driver) are told that their mentor their confessor and spiritual teacher, Father Ferreira (Liam Neeson) has turned apostate. Captured by the shoguns while on a mission to Japan, Ferreira gave up his faith and married a Japanese woman. The young priests dont believe that, and with all the impetuosity of sheltered youth, they get the idea to go to Japan and try to rescue him. They believe that the apostasy and marriage rumors are pure slander, and that Ferreira is either in hiding or being held prisoner. In human terms, one can see how this could be interesting two young men armed with nothing but their religious conviction, who dont even speak Japanese, go to a place where they can be arrested at any moment. As presented in the film, the oppression of Christians is unrelenting. Theyre being set on fire, or drowned, or scalded with boiling water, or killed after being tortured for days and days. The authorities offer only one option for escape: If a prisoner steps on a religious icon, thus implicitly rejecting Christianity, he or she can go free. Much of the conversation in Silence revolves around the implications of caving into authority and stepping on the icon. But the discussions never get sophisticated enough and they certainly dont vary enough to command a sustained interest. While stepping on a sacred symbol would be disturbing to a person of faith, the moral absolutism of the young priest begins to seem excessive. Would a forgiving God really throw believers into the jaws of hell just for committing a harmless act that will keep them from being boiled alive? In particular, would a Christian God do that, one who knows firsthand how scary it can be to inhabit a human body? As it stands, Silence feels like a film about two rival forms of primitive dogmatism, in which neither side quite realizes that they both might be wrong. The film doesnt seem remotely mystical, but earthbound. The whole movie is reminiscent of the prayer that the King utters in Hamlet, which never takes wing but stays leaden on the ground. Its a strange case, a movie about spiritual doubt that unintentionally provokes spiritual doubt. Silence is just ugly and drab, with not a hint of the transcendent about it. Garfield is unconvincing as a man of conviction, and the temptation would be to blame him, except that he just got through playing a religious man in Hacksaw Ridge, one of the years best performances. No, the problem is the material itself. Father Rodrigues wrestles with Gods silence, and Scorsese, who adapted the novel with Jay Cocks, leaves the audience feeling that Rodrigues is just talking to himself. Well, Scorsese is free to do that, but then why make the film? Either Silence is about the spirit, or its about a series of pathetic incidents, centuries ago, involving a delusional young man. Garfield goes through the film speaking English with a Portuguese accent, and Driver has some kind of accent that might be Portuguese, but Neeson will have none of that. He just sounds Irish from some previously unknown Irish section of Lisbon. Most of the Japanese actors overact shamelessly, as if theyd just drunk 10 cups of coffee and watched a Kurosawa movie, but Tadanobu Asano is charismatic as the translator, and Issey Ogata plays the grand inquisitor with wit and presence. Still, when youre making a Christian epic and the best thing about it is the guy playing the inquisitor, you have a serious problem. Mick LaSalle is The San Francisco Chronicles movie critic. Email: mlasalle@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MickLaSalle Silence Drama. Starring Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver and Liam Neeson. Directed by Martin Scorsese. (R. 161 minutes.) To see a trailer: https://youtu.be/IqrgxZLd_gE A masked intruder found out the hard way that older people are not easy targets. Rebbie Roberson, 74, of Bowie County told news station KSLA that when an intruder came at her with a gun, she pulled her .38-caliber pistol on the man. Roberson said she followed the man and fired at him, leaving bullet holes in the walls of her home. WASHINGTON Researchers infected lab mosquitoes with genetically weakened malaria parasites, and then recruited volunteers this week willing to be bitten a lot to test a possible new strategy for a vaccine. The idea: vaccinate using living malaria parasites that are too weak to make people sick. Its a huge challenge, and while the study is a small step, it illustrates the urgent quest for a powerful malaria vaccine. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate California investigators found evidence in 2013 that a bank operated by Steven Mnuchin, now President-elect Donald Trumps nominee for Treasury secretary, had violated state laws at least 1,000 times in mortgage foreclosures on homeowners, according to a newly released document. The violations included reducing homeowners chances to challenge foreclosures by backdating documents and manipulating bids at property auctions to cut off the owners rights, according to a memo from attorneys in then-state Attorney General Kamala Harris office. The memo, reported by the news website the Intercept, said the lawyers had recommended that Harris sue the bank, OneWest, to seek damages for the homeowners, penalties for the state and an injunction requiring the bank to change its practices. Harris did not sue. The reason was that federal law, as interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court, dimmed the prospects of any such suit by allowing national banks to withhold documents and other evidence from state regulators, a former senior staff member in the office told The Chronicle on Wednesday. The 2013 memo was written by four staff attorneys in Harris consumer law section and then reviewed by supervising attorneys, who concluded that such a case would require substantial time and expense with limited chances of success, said the former staff member, who talked on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for the attorney generals office. During her successful campaign for the U.S. Senate last year, Harris showcased her decision in 2011 to reject a nationwide settlement with mortgage companies, resulting in a new agreement that added billions of dollars for foreclosed homeowners in California. She received a $2,000 campaign contribution from Mnuchin. On Wednesday, a day after being sworn in as a senator, Harris told the online publication the Hill that in the OneWest case, we followed the facts and the evidence, and its a decision my office made. She did not say whether she was involved in the decision. Barney Keller, a spokesman for Mnuchin, called the California staff memo worthless and said federal regulators had given OneWest their top rating for compliance with federal foreclosure rules. A San Francisco consumer advocate, meanwhile, said the Senate should insist that Mnuchin produce evidence on OneWests foreclosure practices that Harris office could not obtain. The Senate must vote on Mnuchins nomination as Treasury secretary. Mnuchin has to answer for the banks behavior to the Senate, the American people and tens of thousands of families who have lost their homes, said Paulina Gonzalez, executive director of the California Reinvestment Coalition. She said Trump ran on a platform of protecting working-class families, and Mr. Mnuchins track record is one of harming working-class families. Mnuchin was chief executive of OneWest from 2009 to August 2015, when it was sold to CIT Group. The staff memo said an investigation of OneWests practices in 2011 and 2012, based on documents filed with county offices or purchased from a private website, found that more than 900 foreclosure documents were backdated. That means they bore dates for the appointment of a foreclosure trustee that wrongly shortened a homeowners 90-day period to redeem the property before it was put up for sale. In 86 cases, the memo said, the documents bore dates before March 19, 2009, when OneWest opened for business. The memo also found that OneWests trustees disregarded the 90-day waiting period in dozens of cases, the Intercept reported. And in other cases, the memo said, after a foreclosed property was sold at auction, OneWest created documents falsely depicting the winning bidder as the property owner, who under the states rules can acquire the property by paying the amount due on the loan rather than the full price. Further violations might have been found in records of OneWests 35,000 foreclosures in California from 2009 through 2012, but those documents were unavailable because federal law would allow the bank to ignore a subpoena from the state, Harris attorneys said. But they still recommended a lawsuit, despite acknowledging the difficulties, and wrote that the continuing investigation accompanying a court case would have substantial public justice value. Although it decided against suing, Harris office filed arguments with the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2014 in support of a Nevada County man whose home had been foreclosed by OneWest. The office argued that California foreclosure laws should prevail over more restrictive federal laws, but the court dismissed the case in August and said the former owner had no valid claims under state law. Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko Plans now before Dane County Board's Public Protection and Judiciary Committee to centralize, expand and improve the Dane County Jail in and around the Public Safety Building Downtown would eliminate two floors of outdated and dangerous maximum security cells in the City-County Building located across Carroll Street from the PSB and close down the Ferris Center for work-release inmates at 2120 Rimrock Road. Inmates from both of those places would be housed in the expanded and improved PSB jail facility instead, according to the two proposed renovation options. A Madison man faces multiple charges after allegedly stealing money and causing damage to Leos Upper Dells Bar in Lyndon Station. Mark D. Goad, 52, is charged with burglary of a building or dwelling, theft-movable property, and criminal damage to ATM/other machines all felonies after an alleged incident on July 20. Goad was charged with the counts on Dec. 1. If convicted, the first offense carries a $25,000 fine or imprisonment of not more than 12 years and six months, or both, while the second charge carries a $10,000 fine or three years and six months imprisonment, or both. If convicted of the third offense, Goad could pay a $10,000 fine or face a prison term of three years and six months, or both. According to a criminal complaint, officers from the Juneau County Sheriffs Office investigated the break-in at Leos Upper Dells Bar on the morning of July 21. Several gaming machines had been broken into, along with the ATM. A detective processed the scene, swabbed the machines for DNA evidence, and collected a flashlight that had been left behind. Upon further investigation, $2,880 was reported stolen from the ATM machine, $144 from the juke box and about $120 from the gaming machines. The cost of damage to the machines was estimated at $2,400. On Oct. 25, a Juneau County detective served a search warrant to Goad for his DNA. He was incarcerated at the Sauk County Jail for unrelated charges. The detective collected a DNA sample at the jail. On Nov. 18, the state crime lab reported the DNA taken from Goad matched the DNA from evidence collected at Leos on July 21. Goad will have an initial appearance at the Juneau County Justice Center on Jan. 25 at 10:30 a.m. Goad is currently being held in the Sauk County Jail. RACINE A West Bend man has pleaded not guilty to accusations that in 2015 he sexually assaulted a woman who was incapacitated by alcohol and drugs. The alleged crime took place on Nov. 29, 2015, but charges werent filed against the defendant, 27-year-old James A. Orosz Jr., until late last month. Sitting in Racine County Circuit Court on Wednesday in Racine County Jail scrubs, Orosz entered a not-guilty plea to the single felony charge of second-degree sexual assault he faces. Probable cause was found to pursue the charge against him after he agreed to waive his preliminary hearing. The charge against Orosz comes about four months after the Racine County District Attorneys Office received a toxicology report from the Wisconsin State Crime Lab revealing the victim had Oxycodone in her system on the night the alleged assault occurred. The charge also comes about three months after the Crime Lab sent results of a rape kit revealing that DNA matching Orosz was collected from the victim on the day of assault. According to the criminal complaint, Racine police were called to a residence in the 3400 block of Third Avenue at 5:13 p.m. on Nov. 29, 2015, on a report that the victim had been assaulted by Orosz, her friend of roughly nine years. The victim reportedly told police that she, her cousin and Orosz had been out drinking the night before. The group went to at least a couple of bars, the complaint states, and the victim told police she probably had several drinks as well as about six or seven shots of different liquors. Her cousin bought most of her drinks, but Orosz wasnt drinking with them, she said. The next thing the victim remembered of the night, the complaint states, is waking up on her back in her bed with Orosz assaulting her. She added that was only partially dressed and couldnt control anything. She couldnt tell Orosz to stop, she reportedly told police, and she couldnt speak. Detained for questioning later that day, Orosz reportedly agreed to a search of his vehicle. During that search police allegedly recovered a pill bottle containing eight amphetamine pills and about 11 tablets of generic Xanax, a sedative. On Wednesday, Oroszs attorney Christopher M. Glinski asked if the court would consider lowering the defendants $20,000 bond, stating his client could not afford to post that much money. Assistant Racine County District Attorney Rebecca Sommers objected to any change in bond stating that the charges facing the defendant are extremely serious. Orosz bond remains at $20,000. The original Stamm House was known for its fish fry, and the Wisconsin Friday night tradition is the biggest draw at the new Stamm House and where it gets the most business. Its certainly one of the best fish fries in the Madison area. At $17, its expensive. But youre also paying a premium for the atmosphere to eat in a gorgeously restored historic stone building. Its worth the price tag if you have a big appetite because its all-you-can-eat. And you can mix it up, starting with fried cod and later switching to baked, if you like. Both are outstanding. The fried cod had a thin, crisp shell that didnt detract from the flaky fish. The baked version had an understated flavor as cod does, but thats where the thick, homemade tartar sauce came in. Those who have followed the saga of the Middleton restaurant know it floundered a bit after owner Troy Rost painstakingly renovated and reopened the historic spot with partner Jim Hagstrom in May 2015. They renamed it 1847 at the Stamm House to reflect the year the building was built. The men closed it in July 2016, when they lost chef Nick Johnson, formerly of 43 North and Restaurant Magnus. Then they scaled back the higher-end menu in some ways, and brought in general manager Craig Madigan, who has a one-third ownership stake. Madigan, who formerly managed the Statehouse at the Edgewater, Francescas al Lago, and Johnny Delmonicos, helped overhaul the menu, which is now more supper club-oriented with four types of steak (sirloin, $20, ribeye, $43, NY strip, $31/$43, and tenderloin, $31/$40), and four types of fish (lake perch, $25, walleye, $21, trout, $18, and smelt, $12). There are also more casual selections such as a burger and a beer-braised brat. In September, when it reopened, the owners brought in a chef who had no executive experience, but was the No. 2 at both Flemings and Rare. After a couple of months, Madigan decided he wasnt working out and replaced him with Sergio Lopez, the executive chef at Francescas. Madigan said its the little things that matter: the tartar sauce and the coleslaw are better now, he pointed out. Thats what I knew he could do, he said about Lopez. Hes right. Both were excellent, although the coleslaw was overdressed. The fish comes with french fries, but customers can instead choose from the menus numerous and enticing sides. Our server recommended the garlic sauteed spinach, which, packed with chopped garlic, really popped. Too bad Madigan, who had been checking in with us and was trying to be helpful, whisked the plate away before I could finish it. Our other entree, the oven roasted half chicken ($16), was every bit as good as the cod. It was a large bird, juicy and well seasoned, served with wonderful fingerling potatoes and mushrooms. The menu described the mushrooms as roasted and wild, but while delicious, they didnt give off a roasted or wild vibe. The chicken sat in a small pool of butter and jus, which gave it extra moisture and flavor. Starters were slightly weaker not bad, just not worth ordering again. The housemade potato and cheese pierogies ($8) were bland without the sauteed onions, sour cream and coleslaw that came on the plate to save them. While pierogi are by their nature bland, these could have used more personality. Tenderloin tips sauteed in zip sauce ($8) were a good value when you consider that a whole tenderloin is $31 for 6 ounces or $40 for 8 ounces. The tips, which come already cut from Neesvigs in Windsor, are cut from the same tender meat, just in smaller pieces. The appetizer held nine chunks, and Im guessing they would have added up to at least 6 ounces, so this seems like the smart way to go. When our waitress came by to ask how they were, she said, how do you like the zip sauce? I told her it was good, but in truth, the brown steak sauce didnt seem to have much zip. She had touted the first drink on the restaurants cocktail list, a strong hot toddy ($8) made with brandy and served with a cinnamon stick. It seemed like the thing to order that snowy night, until it arrived and turned out to be rather ordinary. What we didnt regret ordering was dessert. There were three and they werent listed on the menu. A triple chocolate cake with coconut cream frosting sounded great, but we went with the creme brulee ($7). It was served with blueberries, strawberries and whipped cream on top and was as fine a version as you are going to find. That also could be said for the reincarnation of the new Stamm House. Its as fine a restaurant as you are going to find, particularly when it comes to its fish fry, service and ambiance. The body of a woman found in a Janesville park on Monday has been identified as a Madison woman, the Rock County Medical Examiner's Department said Wednesday. Whitney Carlson, 26, was found by a pedestrian in Lustig Park around 11:25 a.m. on Monday about 40 yards from the Rock River, the Janesville Police Department said. Police said preliminary findings don't indicate suspicious circumstances to the death. The medical examiner's department said preliminary results of an autopsy completed Tuesday depend on additional testing, while there was no significant inflicted trauma discovered. The death is continued to be investigated by the medical examiner's department and Janesville police. Two sides trying to tell a federal court panel how to fix a state election map that the court called an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander took their last shots Thursday, with continued disagreements about whether to wait until the U.S. Supreme Court acts before ordering a new redistricting plan. In briefs filed Thursday, lawyers for a group of Wisconsin Democratic voters again said the process to redraw state Assembly district maps should begin immediately, while lawyers from the state Attorney Generals Office said theres no hurry to act before the Supreme Court decides its inevitable appeal. The three-judge panel, consisting of two U.S. district court judges and an appeals court judge, ruled 2-1 in November that the 2011 Assembly redistricting plan, drawn up in secret by Republicans, was an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander that favors the GOP. The court ordered the two sides to tell it what to do next. Last month, both sides submitted briefs in which lawyers for the Democrats argued for immediate action so that new boundaries would be in place before the 2018 election. The states brief, submitted by Attorney General Brad Schimel and Assistant Attorney General Brian Keenan, argued for waiting until after a Supreme Court decision. In briefs submitted Thursday, the two sides picked apart one anothers earlier submissions. Lawyers for the Democratic voters, headed this time by Nicholas Stephanopoulos, said that by waiting, defendants argue that this streak of three straight unlawful elections should be extended to four. Waiting until the Supreme Court decides the states appeal, he wrote, would likely mean that the remedy phase of the case wouldnt begin until summer 2018, too late for the 2018 election. The court should also immediately bar the use of the 2011 map in any election, he wrote. The states brief counters that the Supreme Court may well decide the case before then, and as long as a plan is in place before June 1, 2018, the deadline for submitting paperwork to get on the ballot for the fall election, nobody will be harmed by the delay. The novelty of this courts decision makes it extremely likely that the Supreme Court will either reverse entirely or provide substantial additional guidance, which guidance would then shape whatever new plan the legislature would adopt, Schimel and Keenan wrote. It would thus be a needless waste of judicial and state resources to require the creation of a new plan before the Supreme Court acts. The Campaign Legal Center, which is representing the Democratic voters in the lawsuit, also announced Thursday that Paul M. Smith, who has argued 19 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, is joining the legal team in the Wisconsin redistricting case. Among the cases Smith has argued is the 2003 landmark gay rights case, Lawrence v. Texas, which struck down Texas sodomy law and made sexual activity between same-sex couples legal throughout the U.S. Andrew Steele, a former Dane County sheriffs deputy who shot his wife and her sister to death in 2014 but was found not mentally responsible for the crimes, was ordered released Thursday to live with his parents, who will provide around-the-clock care for him until he dies from the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis with which he is stricken. Steele, 42, had been ordered released from Mendota Mental Health Institute in March after Dane County Circuit Judge Nicholas McNamara ruled that because of the advancement of his ALS, a terminal neuromuscular disorder, Steele no longer posed a danger to himself or others. But it was difficult to find a care facility that would take Steele because of the notoriety of his case. Late last year, though, a plan for Steeles release was devised, and on Thursday, McNamara approved the plan. Steele pleaded guilty in March 2015 to two counts of first-degree intentional homicide for the shooting deaths of his wife, Ashlee Steele, 39, and her sister, Kacee Tollefsbol, 38, at the Steele home in Fitchburg on Aug. 22, 2014. But he also pleaded not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect, and a jury agreed with him in April 2015. Since the trial, Steele has been kept at Mendota. He chose not to be brought to court for Thursdays hearing. One of Steeles lawyers, Jessa Nicholson Goetz, said that under the release plan, Steele will live in a home with his parents and will have 24-hour in-home care along with supervision. She said Steele has virtually no mobility left at this point and cannot speak or eat on his own. What were really talking about at this point is end-of-life care, Nicholson Goetz said. The location of the home is confidential by law. Police will be notified of Steeles location once he is released, she said, but there is no requirement that neighbors be told. She said she did not expect problems should neighbors become aware of his presence. I would expect the next few months of Andys life to be very private ones, Nicholson Goetz said. I dont expect that there will be a lot of interaction with neighbors or community members. It was not clear when Steele would be moved out of Mendota and into his parents home. The plan wasnt approved without concerns raised by Brad Putnam, the brother of the two sisters killed by Steele. Putnam and his wife, Rachelle, who live in Minnesota, are guardians of Ashlee Steeles two children. He said that during Steeles time at Mendota, Steele has called and sent letters to the children, without the Putnams approval. Once, Putnam said, Steele called his son on his cellphone just to talk to him about his day, like nothing ever happened. And voicemail messages from Mendota on Steeles behalf were left on the cellphone of Steeles daughter. I could not believe what I was hearing, and thought, How is that monster able to call his kids cellphone from Mendota? Putnam said. Once again, that murderer is reaching out to vulnerable kids who we are guardians of, without our knowledge, on their cellphones. Steele has also sent several letters to the Putnam home, as recently as Christmas. The children showed the letters to the Putnams without opening them, Putnam said. If Steele can contact the children from Mendota, Putnam asked, how will he be kept from contacting them once he is free? McNamara said that while Steele was at Mendota, the court didnt have authority over his actions. But once on supervised release, McNamara said, he will be monitored by a state Department of Corrections agent and any contact violations will be reported to the court. Putnam called Steeles release from Mendota another blow to a family still trying to pull itself back together. That murderer ripped our family to pieces and were just trying to put them back together, Putnam said. He said it was hard enough to see this murderer not held responsible for his sisters deaths due to an illness that I know does not affect his brain. Making what he called the final judicial comments of the case, McNamara turned the focus back to Ashlee Steele and Kacee Tollefsbol, whose surviving family, particularly their children, deserve one last public acknowledgment of their infinite loss. Each of the women carried an inner strength and a perseverance to work to improve the lives of their children and their communities, McNamara said, along with a relentless sense of hope. Hope that with perseverance there would be better days ahead for themselves and those they loved. Remembering the strength and hope that Ashlee and Kacee never lost, this should be the focus as this case now concludes, McNamara said. I could not believe what I was hearing and thought, How is that monster able to call his kids cellphone from Mendota? BRAD PUTNAM, Ashlee Steeles brother and guardian of her two children, on voicemail messages left by Andrew Steele A Madison man arrested with a lighter in his pocket and starter fluid in his backpack was sentenced to three years in prison Wednesday for setting fire in April to a Southwest Side house where he had rented, and been kicked out of, a basement room. James T. Riendeau, 39, admitted setting fire to a house in the 1100 block of Sunridge Drive on April 24. As part of a plea agreement, charges of attempted first-degree intentional homicide and violating a restraining order were dismissed. At the hearing, Riendeau said he started fires outside the house because he was tired of sleeping outside as a homeless person and wanted to get arrested and put in jail. Dane County Circuit Judge William Hanrahan sentenced Riendeau to three years in prison and five years of extended supervision. He will be credited with 316 days already served in the Dane County Jail. The arson charge carried a maximum penalty of up to 40 years of combined prison and extended supervision. Dane County Assistant District Attorney William Brown asked for three years in jail plus 10 years extended supervision. Noting that Riendeau had been banned from the UW-Madison campus (from 2012 to 2016), where he was employed as a computer technician for 17 years, Brown said Riendeau clearly has serious problems with his thought processes. After he was fired in 2012, Riendeau made several threats in front of police that he would shoot people on campus, according to a search warrant issued at that time. In many respects he was a bad arsonist, but an arsonist nonetheless, Brown said in court Wednesday, and an extremely dangerous man. He not only made threats, but he acted on those threats, said Brown. The homeowner told police it appeared that Riendeau set three fires outside her house so they would burn the bedroom where she slept and the room where her computer sits at night, according to a criminal complaint. The fire melted the siding on the house. Burn damage was also found on a wooden fence and a bush. A boarder at the house for about three years, he had threatened weeks earlier, while in a mental health institution, to burn her house down, information relayed to the woman by police. The night of the fire, police located him a short distance away. He was carrying a 10-inch lighter in one pocket, a bottle of charcoal fire-starter fluid in his backpack and a GPS bracelet from the Dane County Bail Monitoring program. That showed the wearer had visited the burned house area a few minutes earlier. His lawyer, Murali Jasti, asked for 30 days of jail time and 5 years probation, recounted Riendeaus horrible childhood, a litany of institutional failures and resulting significant mental health issues. In a short statement, Riendeau, who slumped in his chair during the hearing, intently staring at the table top, said his actions were not a game for me, this is my life. I have no excuses for what I did. I dont like sleeping out in the cold, that is why I did it. Hanrahan also ordered Reindeau have no contact with the homeowner, make restitution, and not possess any weapons or lighters. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate The first and biggest battle of the Trump presidency came into full view Wednesday as President Obama and Vice President-elect Mike Pence went to Capitol Hill to steel their troops for the fight over repealing the Affordable Care Act, a complex and risky undertaking that could swallow much of the GOP agenda. Under intense pressure from campaign promises and their own right wing, Republicans pledged to repeal and replace the law as their first order of business, despite having no replacement in hand. When you start to pull one thread, you dont realize what you are unraveling, said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, the San Francisco Democrat who was instrumental in the laws 2010 passage. That undertaking consumed the first 15 months of Obamas presidency, and was fraught with political and technical peril, nearly collapsing several times. I kind of know it better than they do, Pelosi said Wednesday, adding that she is willing to help Republicans fix parts of the law that she acknowledges should be improved, but not to help them repeal it. Democrats rolled out their slogan, Make America Sick Again, as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., promised that Republicans will own the entire health care system once they repeal the law. The Affordable Care Act affects millions of people, many in red states that voted for President-elect Donald Trump, as well as a sixth of the U.S. economy, including hospitals, doctors, insurance companies and drug companies, all now invested in it to various degrees. Warnings are flashing everywhere, from rural hospitals worried about an influx of uninsured patients, to conservative policy analysts cautioning that the repeal and delay modification Republicans have lately adopted repeal the law and delay the effective date of the repeal for years cannot work as insurers would flee the market. Trump tweeted his own cautionary advice to Republicans to be careful in that the Dems own the failed ObamaCare disaster, saying the law will fall of its own weight be careful! The Senate began debate Wednesday on a budget blueprint that instructs the three committees with jurisdiction to produce bills to start the repeal process by Jan. 27. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said Republicans will help Americans crying out for relief from Obamacare. And we will keep our promise to the people. Neither Ryan nor Pence offered any specifics. Rep. Jim Costa, a Democrat, said that in his Fresno district, 44,000 of the 80,000 uninsured before the law took effect are now insured. He said it was wrong to promise to replace the law with something terrific, as Trump did during the campaign, without saying what that would be. Costa also said Obama urged congressional Democrats on Wednesday to stress the laws popular parts, such as the ban on insurance companies denying coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions, letting children stay on their parents policies until age 26, and prohibiting insurers from charging women more than men. Some Republicans, including Trump, have said they like these parts of the law. Their problem is that the popular parts work only in conjunction with the unpopular parts, such as the mandate that everyone buy insurance. In a detailed blog published Tuesday, Joseph Antos and James Capretta, health policy experts at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, warned that repealing the law first and replacing it later with something that has yet to be identified will destabilize insurance markets, particularly the health care exchanges where individuals who are not covered by their employer can now buy insurance. A process focused solely on reversing the ACA and not on putting something better in its place could easily backfire on the GOP, they wrote. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office and the American Academy of Actuaries both predicted that if two bedrocks of the law the mandate to buy insurance and the subsidies to help people afford it are repealed, premiums probably will skyrocket and policies disappear as insurers flee the exchanges. Schumer said Republicans are like the dog who caught the bus. They will soon learn that you cannot keep the good parts of the ACA and remove the rest of the law and still have it work, he said. Thats what theyre struggling with, and thats why theyre not getting anywhere. Repeal could have huge budget consequences for states, not just California but also states that Trump won and where Medicaid was expanded under the act. The Congressional Budget Office said the Affordable Care Act is spending $1.37 trillion over 10 years to expand coverage to 22 million people, financed mostly by taxes. About 1.2 million Californians receive subsidies to buy insurance, and another 3.6 million of the states working poor gained access to Medicaid, known as Medi-Cal. The federal government paid $15 billion to the state last year for the Medicaid expansion, all of which would be lost under repeal. The Republican Study Committee, a group of 172 conservatives in Congress, released ideas Wednesday for a replacement that included a time-worn list: limiting medical liability for doctors, expanding health savings accounts, establishing a high-risk pool to help insurers cover sicker people, and allowing individuals to buy insurance across state lines. Health policy experts described such efforts as tinkering around the edges. Some have been tried. Six states, for example, tried allowing people to buy insurance across state lines, but the changes did not induce additional competition from insurers because of the difficulty of building local provider networks of doctors and hospitals. Antos and Capretta argued that Republicans need a coherent set of policies covering the entire health care system, and that half measures will produce a result that many Americans will view as worse than the ACA status quo. Chronic problems plagued the U.S. health care system when Democrats tackled the issue in 2009. Costs were rising relentlessly, devouring workers wages and businesses profits. Workers were loath to change jobs for fear of losing access to insurance, and more than 40 million people had no insurance. Hospitals bore the brunt of caring for the uninsured. Pelosi noted that despite complaints of rising premiums, health care costs rose last year at their lowest rate on record and the uninsured rate fell to a record low of 9.1 percent. Carolyn Lochhead is The San Francisco Chronicles Washington correspondent. Email: clochhead@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @carolynlochhead Teresa Shook never considered herself much of an activist, or someone particularly versed in feminist theory. But when the results of the presidential election became clear, the grandmother and retired attorney in Hawaii turned to Facebook and asked: What if women marched on Washington around Inauguration Day en masse? She asked her online friends how to create an event page, and then started one for the march she was hoping would happen. By the time she went to bed, 40 women responded that they were in. When she woke up, that number had exploded to 10,000. Now, more than 100,000 people have registered their plans to attend the Women's March on Washington in what is expected to be the largest demonstration linked to the inauguration of Donald Trump, and a focal point for activists on the left who have been energized in opposing his agenda. Planning for the Jan. 21 march got off to a rocky start. Controversy initially flared over the name of the march, and whether it was inclusive enough of minorities, particularly African-Americans, who have felt excluded from many mainstream feminist movements. Organizers say plans are on track, after securing a permit from D.C. police to gather 200,000 people near the Capitol at Independence Avenue and Third Street SW on the morning after Inauguration Day. Exactly how big the march will be has yet to be determined, with organizers scrambling to pull together the rest of the necessary permits and raise the $1 million to $2 million necessary to pull off a march triggered by Shook's Facebook venting. The march has become a catch-all for a host of liberal causes, from immigrant rights to police killings of African-Americans. But at its heart is the demand for equal rights for women after an election that saw the defeat of Democrat Hillary Clinton, the first female presidential nominee of a major party. "We plan to make a bold and clear statement to this country on the national and local level that we will not be silent and we will not let anyone roll back the rights we have fought and struggled to get," said Tamika Mallory, a veteran organizer and gun-control advocate who is now one of the march's main organizers. More than 150,000 women and men have responded on the march's Facebook page that they plan on attending. At least 1,000 buses are headed to Washington for the march through Rally, a website that organizes buses to protests. Dozens of groups, from Planned Parenthood to the antiwar CodePink, have signed on as partners. Organizers insist the march is not anti-Trump, even as many of the groups that have latched on to it fiercely oppose his agenda. "Donald Trump's election has triggered a lot of women to be more involved than they ordinarily would have been, which is ironic, because a lot of us thought a Hillary presidency would motivate women," said Dana Brown, executive director of the Pennsylvania Center for Women in Politics at Chatham University. "A lot of women seem to be saying, 'This is my time. I'm not going to be silent anymore." Boris Epshteyn, spokesman for the Trump Inaugural Committee, defended the president-elect's popularity among women in an interview on CNN. While Trump did not receive the majority of women's votes he got an "overwhelming" number of them, Epshteyn said. "We're here to hear their concerns," he said. "We welcome them to our side as well." That all this could grow out of a dashed-off post from her perch nearly 5,000 miles from Washington is amazing to Shook, who has booked her ticket and plans to be in Washington on Jan. 21. "I guess in my heart of hearts I wanted it to happen, but I didn't really think it would've ever gone viral," Shook said. "I don't even know how to go viral." Unsure of how to proceed those initial few days, she said she enlisted the help of the first few women who messaged her to volunteer, some of whom independently also had an idea for a march. But as the march grew in prominence, it got caught up in a broader conversation in liberal circles about race and leadership, with activists and others criticizing that initial planning group for its racial makeup: Shook said all the women, including herself, that she tapped to help in the march's nascent stages were white. Some also took issue with the name Shook had proposed, the Million Woman March, which was the name of a 1997 black women's march in Philadelphia. The racial concerns set off a heated conversation on the group's main Facebook page, with some African-American women especially taking umbrage. For her part, Shook said her aim was not to coopt any other movement. It was just an idea that took hold after the victory of a president-elect caught on tape boasting of grabbing women's private parts, and the defeat of a woman who seemed to her much more qualified for the job. She said she had no idea the race of the women she first contacted; in fact, she said, most had an image of Clinton as their Facebook profile photo. Complicating matters, it became apparent that the march likely could not start at the Lincoln Memorial as Shook had proposed, since the inaugural committee has dibs on that space. Overwhelmed and under pressure, the original organizers eventually handed the reins to a diverse group of veteran female activists from New York: Mallory, the gun-control activist; Linda Sarsour, executive director of the Arab-American Association of New York; Carmen Perez, head of Gathering for Justice, a criminal justice reform group; and Bob Bland, a fashion entrepreneur. Together, they settled on a new name: The Women's March on Washington, a nod to the 1963 demonstration that was a cornerstone of the Civil Rights movement. They even got the blessing of Martin Luther King Jr.'s youngest daughter, Bernice King. In D.C., Janaye Ingram, the former executive director of Al Sharpton's National Action Network, has been working to secure permits and hash out logistics for the march, including ensuring there is a proper sound equipment and sufficient Porta Potties. People traveling to attend the march seem less concerned with behind-the-scenes politics than the chance to call for more family-friendly government policies, equal pay for women or reproductive rights. Some simply want to stand against the crass way Trump has spoken about women. Lindsey Shriver, a 27-year old former pastry chef who is now an at-home mom in Ohio, said she was offended this election cycle by Trump's rhetoric, which she characterized as "hateful and misogynistic." She also wants to highlight the need for paid family leave and affordable child care. "I realized that being a feminist in my own personal life wasn't going to be enough for my daughters," said Shriver. Caroline Rule, 57, an attorney living in Manhattan, says she will attend with her 15-year-old daughter. While she agrees with the pro-women message behind the march, she said she'd likely participate in any march that pushed against Trump's messages. "I absolutely despise Donald Trump and everything he stands for," she said. Feminist icon Gloria Steinem has recently signed on as a march co-sponsor, and celebrities like Amy Schumer, Samantha Bee and Jessica Chastain say they plan to attend as well. Feminist scholars say the march reflects an emerging view of feminism: That it is less defined by reproductive issues such as birth control and abortion and more about how the challenges faced by women intersect with those encountered by African-Americans, gays and immigrants. Still, reproductive rights will be a large part of the march, with Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America as key partners. Hahrie Han, a political science professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara specializing in political organizations and political engagement, said it's not all that surprising that individual women instead of an established organization founded this march. Established organizations all come with at least some political baggage. "The challenge with having one organization brand it as its own, is that each organization has its own image that draws some people, and pushes others back away," she said. (c) 2017, The Washington Post Besides billionaires, Big Oil and bankers, the Trump Cabinet tentatively will have at least two members Vice President-elect Mike Pence and HUD nominee Ben Carson who if not actual card-carrying Creationists, are at least supportive of their beliefs. Creationists believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible. This includes the notions that the Earth was created 6,000 to 10,000 years ago and that the Flood destroyed all life on Earth, save for Noah, his family and the creatures on the Ark. Such tenets, when challenged by the geological record, present a timeline problem for fundamentalists. In this month's Louisville Magazine, reporter Charles Wolford recounts a surreal exchange between Answers in Genesis geologist Andrew Snelling and himself last year at the Noah's Ark theme park, the monument to Creationism in Williamstown, Kentucky. [AiG's Dr. Georgia] Purdom introduced me to geologist Andrew Snelling, who followed Ken Ham to the U.S. from Australia and for the last nine years has been the director of research for Answers in Genesis. I said, "There were dinosaurs on the Ark, right?" Snelling nodded. "Right." "Then why aren't there dinosaurs today?" "Dinosaurs went extinct after they left the Ark. After the Flood, we had the Ice Age. We had a radically different world. Some creatures weren't able to adapt. But most cultures in the world have some legend about dragons, and these dragons are actually a good description of dinosaurs. The Chinese, for example their dragons are depicted on scrolls pulling the chariots of emperors. And there was a story called Beowulf in which the king slays a dragon, and this happened in Norway." "So you take Beowulf to be evidence of dinosaurs existing?" "Yes," Snelling said. "It was an eyewitness account." For those of you slept through 11th-grade English Lit, "Beowulf" is a fictional story considered to be one of the oldest surviving works of literature. It is generally not cited as proof or disproof of the existence of dinosaurs. So to recap, Creationist geologist Snelling suggests that the monster in "Beowulf" Grendel is a dragon. Dragons resemble dinosaurs, so if dragons existed, so did dinosaurs after the Flood. Therefore, it follows that dinosaurs were on the Ark. Or something like that. Vice President-elect Pence is on record saying that "evolution is only a theory and that "intelligent design" should be taught in schools as an equally weighted "scientific" alternative. Intelligent design proponents believe that the universe is so complex it must have had an intelligent creator. Many subscribe to the "young Earth" notion (6,000-10,000 years old). Ben Carson has said he believes that the Earth literally was created in six days. However, he stops short of endorsing the 6,000-year-old Earth contention. The Earth, he says, could have been around for a long time before God began creating things on it. Of course, that assertion doesn't jibe with the fossil record that indicates the last dinosaurs died off about 65 million years ago. The man tapped to lead HUD by all accounts a highly talented neurosurgeon and a man of science does not believe in evolution. He has asserted that Darwin's theory of evolution was "encouraged" by "the Adversary," a.k.a. Satan. Julie Ingersoll, professor of religious studies at the University of North Florida, said the choice of Amway heiress Betsy DeVos to head the Department of Education was likely pushed by Pence. DeVos, an evangelical, supports school vouchers, which Pence expanded when he was governor of Indiana. Voucher programs make public money available for religious or private schools. "It's been a long-standing goal of the Religious Right to replace public education with Christian education," Ingersoll told the Washington Post. "The long term strategy of how to change culture is through education." As a candidate for governor of Indiana, DeVos' husband Dick backed the teaching of intelligent design. OREGON An Oregon High School student was arrested Thursday after a small midmorning fire in a bathroom caused the building to be evacuated and afternoon classes to be canceled. No one was injured. Oregon police arrested a 17-year-old student who was tentatively charged with arson after a joint investigation by the Oregon fire and police departments, Fire Chief Glenn Linzmeier said. Students and staff evacuated the school to nearby buildings in frigid temperatures of 8 to 10 degrees after fire alarms sounded when smoke was detected at 10:25 a.m. in the music wing of the school at 456 N. Perry Parkway, school district Superintendent Brian Busler said. Firefighters arrived as students and staff were getting out and found thick, black smoke coming from one door of the school and filling one hallway. The fire was contained to a paper towel dispenser in a bathroom and quickly extinguished, Busler said. Fire crews from Oregon, Brooklyn, Fitchburg and McFarland then spent several hours pushing a large amount of smoke out of the building using positive pressure fans after the schools HVAC system was shut down, Linzmeier said. Students and staff were dismissed for the day for safety reasons at 12:15 p.m. Students were told to be out of the high school by 12:45, with only brief returns inside allowed to collect belongings. School buses were routed back to the school to take students home. Students also were allowed to walk home, leave in their own vehicles or be picked up by parents. A damage estimate was not available. There was a lot of talk from Americans about moving to Canada this election season, and the New York Times is now saying you should definitely gofor vacation anyway. Canada tops the NYT 2017 list of the 52 places to visit in the new year. Humble, charming little Wales is a land of lusty mens choirs, salty harbors, slate-roofed villages, stunning mountains and stout castles. For many travelers, these mighty castles alone are reason enough to visit, and Wales is slathered with them. During the late 13th and early 14th centuries, English King Edward I started building these awe-inspiring fortresses arguably the most breathtaking youll find anywhere in Europe to subdue the rebellious Welsh. These castles were masterpieces of medieval engineering, built with state-of-the-art castle technology, with sea access to restock from England. In the Middle Ages, the standard castle was a simple stone building (keep) on a hill (motte), surrounded by a wall that enclosed a yard (or bailey) where the people lived. This mound-and-yard (motte-and-bailey) pattern was the basis of the typical medieval castle. Later castles were much bigger, with more rings of walls as much as 20 feet thick, once whitewashed and gleaming in the sun, flags flying high. Outside the wall was the moat, a ditch occasionally filled with water (they put alligators in them only in fairy tales). Edward Is castles were English islands in the middle of angry Wales. Most were built with a fortified grid-plan town attached and then filled with English settlers. If you want to visit some Welsh castle towns but dont have time for the whole region, head for North Wales, where my preferred home base is the town of Conwy. Built in the 1280s to give Edward I a toehold in Wales, it also served as a busy port, back when much of England was roofed with Welsh slate. Today it boasts the best medieval walls in Britain, a protective castle dramatically situated on a rock overlooking the sea, and an appealing harbor front that locals treat like a town square. Conwy is also home to whats billed as the oldest house in Wales: Plas Mawr, the first Welsh home to be built within Conwys English enclave. It was built in 1580, during the reign of Elizabeth I (Elizabeths Tudor family had Welsh roots and therefore relations between Wales and England warmed under her rule). For visitors, it offers a delightful look at 16th century domestic life among the wealthy. Historically accurate (if facsimile) household items bring the rooms to life, as does the refreshing lack of velvet ropes youre free to wander as you imagine life in this house. While Conwy oozes with Welsh charm, the most famous Welsh fortress is half an hours drive away at Caernarfon Castle, where the last two Princes of Wales were invested. (An investiture is a royal ceremony similar to a coronation; Prince Charles had his in 1969.) Like Conwy, Caernarfon is an Edward I garrison town the city still follows the original medieval grid plan laid within its well-preserved ramparts. Modeled after the striped, angular walls of ancient Constantinople, the castle, though impressive, was never finished and never really used. Despite its unfinished state, its fun to climb around, especially its huge Eagle Tower. While the castle is late 13th century, Caernarfon is mostly a 19th century town. At that time, the most important place in town was the area that sprawls below the castle (now a parking lot). This was once a booming slate port, shipping tidy bundles of slate from North Wales mining towns to ports all over Europe. While the slate trade is gone, Caernarfon still bustles with shops, cafes and people, making this pleasant town worth a wander. For one of Britains most beautiful castles, visit the romantic little village of Beaumaris on the Isle of Anglesey, about a 30-minute drive northeast from Caernarfon. Beaumaris originated, like other castle towns, as an English green zone in the 13th century, surrounded by Welsh guerrillas. Today, it feels genuinely Welsh, with a fine harbor front, lots of colorful shops and eateries, a fascinating Victorian prison (now a museum), and the remains of an idyllic castle. The site has no natural geological constraints like those that encumbered the castle designers at Caernarfon and Conwy, so its wall-within-a-wall design is almost perfectly concentric. While Beaumaris shows medieval castle engineering at its best four rings of defense, a moat and a fortified dock problems in Scotland changed the kings priorities before his vision could be completed. Construction stopped by 1330, and today it looks ruined (and rather squat) but it was never ransacked or destroyed; its simply unfinished. The site was overgrown until the last century, when it was cleaned up to create a parklike space, with pristine lawns and a classic moat. Because its harder to get here, its less crowded, making your visit feel more authentic. Wales has a fierce loyalty to tradition and a distinct and thriving local culture. And, even with literally hundreds of once-fierce castles glaring down on any visitor, it offers among the warmest welcomes youll find anywhere. Rick Steves writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. Email: travel@sfchronicle.com Q: This summer, I made a reservation by phone for a stay at the Days Inn property in Maui, Hawaii. I was quoted $108 a day plus three free breakfasts for me and my son. When we arrived, it took more than 45 minutes to check in. After all that waiting, we signed paperwork that did not show the price until the very last sheet, which showed a much higher rate than $108 per night for five nights. I gave the receptionist my confirmation number, and was told that the rate Id been quoted by phone was wrong. The actual rate was between $129 and $189 per night, depending on the day, plus tax. The receptionist told me to call reservations back. I called the same evening we arrived and was on the phone for over an hour. Reservations called the hotel back, and a representative later told me that the company was going to write up the hotel because the receptionists were rude and put reservations on hold three times with no resolution. I was told that an investigation would take place and that I would hear back within 10 days. I never did. When I checked out, the hotel would not let me leave without paying the whole amount. Ive sent a detailed letter to the CEO of Days Inn with a return receipt requested. It was signed for, but I never got a response. Id like Days Inn to adjust my rate and refund the $600 extra I had to pay. Can you help me? Chris Danscuk, Novato A: Days Inn should have charged you the rate you agreed to pay when you made your reservation no more, no less. Your case underscores the importance of taking a printout of your reservation, including your rate, when you travel. Make sure theres a reservation number, in case you need to verify the rate with your hotel. Dont trust the company to keep these records; it may or may not, as you discovered. Days Inn properties such as the one you stayed in are independently owned and operated, so corporate cant always tell a hotel what to do. That may be why even Days Inn was getting hung up on as it tried to fix the price discrepancy. But the warning signs that this might be a difficult stay were there long before the pricing dispute: A 40-plus-minute wait to check in, even on a busy day, suggests that the hotel has some operational problems. You imply that the hotel wanted to lure you in with a low rate and then charge you more, a classic bait-and-switch. I want to give the hotel the benefit of the doubt. Maybe its operational challenges extended beyond your long wait. Perhaps its reservations systems were affected as well, making it difficult to see the rate you were quoted. The Days Inn property tried to address this by offering you a military rate, but you still were out $600, which is far too much. Incidentally, a $108-per-night rate in Maui is really, really good. Maui has a well-deserved reputation as a pricey destination. You might have tried contacting one of the Days Inn customer-service executives. I list their names, numbers and email addresses on my consumer-advocacy site: http://elliott.org/company-contacts/wyndham-hotel-group. I contacted the company on your behalf, and it adjusted your rate, refunding the extra $600 youd been charged. Christopher Elliott is the ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine. Find travel tips at www.elliott.org. Email: chris@elliott.org Twitter: @elliottdotorg The parable of the prodigal son takes on a whole new and darker meaning in the unsettling miniseries Taboo, premiering on FX on Tuesday, Jan. 10. This time the prodigal returns to a dead father and may wind up that way himself if he isnt careful. Tom Hardy plays James Keziah Delaney, who returns to England in 1814 after a decade in Africa getting up to all sorts of strange and possibly nefarious things we can only guess at as the eight-episode series begins. Long thought dead, he has returned to claim his inheritance after the death of his father, who owned a shipping business. Steven Knight created the series with Tom Hardy and his father, Edward Chips Hardy. Horace Delaneys (Edward Fox) estate includes a strip of land near what is now Vancouver, British Columbia, that figures in negotiations between England and the fledgling United States to bring the War of 1812 to a close. One of the more delicate issues to be discussed at treaty talks in Ghent, Belgium, is where the border between Canada and the United States will be drawn. The little piece of land Delaneys father bought has enormous economic potential in developing trade with China, and the East India Company, Englands dominant trading company, is desperate to get its hands on the scraggly piece of coastline and make sure it stays under the Union Jack. Delaney knows the value of what hes got, or, rather, what he will get if he lives long enough. Whoever doesnt fear him in London hates him, and topping his enemies list is Sir Stuart Strange (Jonathan Pryce), head of the all-powerful East India Company. The company was far more than an economic power in its heyday: It raised its own army and eventually came to all but rule large parts of India. Strange will stop at nothing to ensure the East India Companys power, and no one in the British government has the power to stop him. The shows drama is compelling, and the tension between Delaney and the East India Company builds effectively. Delaneys life is in danger every time he steps outside. There are also others seeking to claim the inheritance, including a woman who says she was married to Horace. As engaging as the story is, its the characters who seal the deal not just the ones whose allegiances and desires we know, like Strange, but even more the enigmatic characters. And no one is more of an enigma than James Delaney. His body is heavily tattooed and hes given to horrifying and disturbing flashes of memory that suggest that his time in Africa was not consumed with viewing the wildlife from a distance. Hardy has a way of seething every one of his lines, making his character even more disturbing and compelling At heart, Taboo is a melodrama, but a melodrama with superior attention to character detail and finely nuanced performances. It is filled with darkness, danger and mystery, and has a level of quality and import not often seen in television miniseries. David Wiegand is an assistant managing editor and the TV critic of The San Francisco Chronicle and co-host of The Do List every Friday morning at 6:22 and 8:22 on KQED FM, 88.5 FM in San Francisco, 89.3 FM in Sacramento. Follow him on Facebook. Email: dwiegand@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @WaitWhat_TV Taboo: Eight-episode miniseries. 10 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 10, on FX. JERUSALEM Police have arrested an Israeli man on charges of inciting against military judges who convicted a soldier for manslaughter over the fatal shooting of a badly wounded Palestinian attacker. Police spokeswoman Luba Samri says Thursday the arrest came after a threatening Facebook post. She says police will act against those inciting violence against public officials. Snow on the Way? Forecasters at the National Weather Service have announced a winter weather advisory for the north and central regions of New Mexico beginning at 6 pm. They say the mountains could see up to 6 inches of snow before Friday night. Check out opensnow.com for the prediction from a powder chaser recently featured in the Santa Fe Reporter. WIPP in Action Workers on Wednesday drums into an underground storage facility in southeastern New Mexico that's been closed for three years. Watchdog groups say the work is risky, but the US Department of Energy and officials in says it's a day worth celebrating. Power Push A proposal to build 33 miles of electricity transmission lines across federal territory " under the management plan for the land," according to what The Santa Fe New Mexican learned from the Bureau of Land Management. As part of its next step in evaluation of the Verde Transmission Project, the BLM must decide whether to amend the plan. Missing Lobos More endangered Mexican gray in 2016 than in any single year since the federal government began reintroducing the predators in New Mexico and Arizona in 1998. Javi-Year As Santa Fe considers hiking its mayoral salary again in 2018, a data-viz analysis of public documents shows how Mayor Javier Gonzales , including where he likes to dine, which city councilors he sees privately more than others, and his busy travel schedule. No Motor Environmental lawyers say a plan that provides "vitally important landscape protections for the Santa Fe National Forest" has survived another challenge. The Albuquerque Journal in repeat case from off-roaders who didn't like being banned from some forest trails. Final Flight The aging F-4 Phantom jets at Holloman Air Force Base took their last month. The primary US bomber between the 1960s and '70s, the plane has been replaced by unmanned craft stationed at the base near Alamogordo. Get There And the last in today's planes, trains and automobiles section: Did you know you can ride the Rail Runner to the capital city and the Mountain Trail buses that travel all the way to Ski Santa Fe? Some of the SFR staff recently learned just how cool the bus tire chains can be. Safe travels. Let it snow. Santa Fe Reporter ERoad, the logistics and fleet management company, said its total contracted units at the end of 2016 were "broadly in line" with expectations, with a 5.1 percent lift from a quarter earlier. As at Dec. 31, the Auckland-based company had 45,657 total contracted units, up 5.1 percent Sept. 30, it said in a statement after trading closed. Units in its established markets of Australia and New Zealand rose 4.8 percent to 39,964, while units in its commercial market of the US rose 7.4 percent to 5,693. When announcing its first-half results at the end of November last year, ERoad said it expected strong growth in New Zealand, whereas the US would be modest until there was greater acceptance of electronic logging device compliance. The volume of distance recorder units contracted to ERoad customers in North America increased 68 percent to 5,301 in the six months to September, and rose 35 percent to 38,129 in Australia and New Zealand. In the first half of the previous year, the number of units contracted rose more than 300 percent in North America, and 47 percent in Australia and New Zealand. The shares last traded at $1.60, up 0.6 percent today before the release. The shares first publicly traded at $3.32 in August 2014 after being sold to investors at $3 apiece, and lost 29 percent of their value in the last 12 months. In October, chairman Michael Bushby said the board didn't think the share price, then at a record low of $1.45, reflected the underlying value of the business. 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: SKC - ADDITIONAL US PRIVATE PLACEMENT FUNDING SECURED Spark New Zealand Limited's Annual Meeting Results 2022 Fonterra Australia settles class action proceedings PFI - Q3 Dividend, Development and Divestment Update November 4th Morning Report 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 A traffic stop near Potosi might also have stopped a burglary spree attributed to a Rockford man, accused of stealing 41 different times across the Midwest. James Stroup, 46, and Nina Patrick, 27, were arrested early Tuesday morning after being informed by Illinois State Police that a GPS tracking device they had installed on Stroup's car had him in the Platteville area late Monday night. Patrick was subsequently released from jail on Thursday and not charged, according to the Grant County District Attorney's Office. Stroup's Buick was located by GPS near Scott Implement, just off Highway 80 south of Platteville. The store had previously been burglarized on Christmas Eve, so a Grant County deputy was dispatched and found that the store had been broken into again. Lancaster, Fennimore and UW-Platteville police helped in locating Stroup's vehicle, and the traffic stop was made on Highway 61 south of Potosi at about 12:20 Tuesday morning. "Several Stihl chainsaws were located inside the car, and they didn't belong to Stroup or Patrick," said Grant County Sheriff Nate Dreckman. When interviewed, Stroup allegedly told investigators of 41 burglaries he was involved in, including break-ins in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and Wisconsin. "There are four investigations in Wisconsin in which Mr. Stroup is a suspect, two in Grant County and one each in Green and Rock counties," Dreckman said. Charges against Stroup are pending. Five companies were selected Wednesday as finalists for their proposals to redevelop Madison Area Technical Colleges Downtown campus. The colleges District Board of Trustees decided on the finalists in closed session from a pool of 11 developers interested in ground-leasing the land from the college. Four of the five proposed projects call for using some existing structures on the 2-acre site. While the projects vary in features including creating public park space and providing living space for artists four of the plans call for a hotel at the site at 211 N. Carroll St. After reviewing each company and projects qualifications, trustees selected Alexander Company, of Madison; Baum Revision Real Estate, of Chicago; C.D. Smith & HKS Holdings, of Fond du Lac and Milwaukee; Hovde Development, of Madison; and Sherman Associates Inc., of Minneapolis. Alexander Company proposes using some buildings for apartments, including an affordable housing component. A boutique hotel, an additional multifamily building and underground parking would also be built on the land. Baum Revision hopes to use existing structures for living and work space for artists, convert the first three floors of the building for nonprofit office space, and create affordable studio and loft units in the remaining levels. C.D. Smith would construct apartments, office space, a hotel, conference center, parking, retail and restaurants, and a public plaza. The building would be reused only if financially feasible. Hovdes plan calls for using current space for affordable housing and constructing a boutique hotel, grocery store, parking, office space and retail stores on the block-sized property. Sherman Associates would create mixed-income housing in current buildings, and build a nationally-branded hotel, retail stores, shared parking and a public dog park. In March, the board plans to pick a developer and formally begin negotiations with the company by May. Through the coming summer, terms of the lease would be negotiated with approval of the conditions expected by fall 2017. College officials hope to leave the campus by 2019. Trustees voted last May to start soliciting proposals for the property, just off Capitol Square, while opting to expand the colleges campus on the South Side. Part of the decision to abandon the Downtown location, opposed by some faculty and students, was the cost of renovating the dated buildings. Proceeds from the lease would go to the colleges general fund. The six other developers who submitted proposals were Beitler Real Estate Services, Dominium Development, Drury Southwest, Gorman and Co., Mecca Companies and Royal Capital Group. State Superintendent candidate John Humphries has been hired as a consultant by the same district he resigned from in December. The Dodgeville School Board approved Humphries resignation on Dec. 12 and hired his consulting company in the same meeting. Humphries had worked as the districts director of state and federal programs until his resignation, which was effective Dec. 31. His new contract requires him to provide the same services but on a schedule that will accommodate his campaign to challenge Tony Evers, the state superintendent. The primary election will be held Feb. 21, with the top two vote-getters advancing to the April 14 general election. Humphries firm, BrainDance LLC, will receive $650 per day of services or up to $39,000 as part of a contract of up to 60 days, according to the districts agreement with Humphries firm. The contract lasts between January and June. Humphries said Wednesday he resigned to spend as much of my time campaigning as possible and to have a clean break between my professional and political responsibilities. I am interested in insulating my political activities from my professional duties so that there can be no confusion about my role for the Dodgeville community, by the voting public, or any accusations by my political opponents, Humphries wrote in a Nov. 28 email to Dodgeville School District superintendent Jeff Jacobson proposing the idea. This proposal will allow me to handle my professional duties as a contractor who has a job to complete, without worrying about hours of employment, etc. The Wisconsin State Journal obtained Humphries consulting firms contract and emails about his resignation under the states open records law. Humphries said Wednesday that his role will be to help the districts administrative team transition to taking on the roles he held previously. Consulting work is not new for Humphries, he said. After he ended his job as a consultant for the Department of Public Instruction in 2011, he held contracts with school districts in Kansas and regional school district organizations in Wisconsin to provide youth suicide prevention training and school improvement services, Humphries said. Humphries was hired by the district in 2012 and earned $94,360 annually at the time of his resignation, according to Jacobson. Jacobson said the two have not discussed whether Humphries will be rehired permanently if his bid for superintendent is unsuccessful. Evers did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Fellow candidate Lowell Holtz, former Whitnall School District superintendent, said he does not work as a consultant currently. Scot Ross, executive director of liberal advocacy group One Wisconsin Now, which tracks campaign spending in the race, said Humphries decision to resign during the campaign is putting his political ambitions before kids. This is a sleazy deal that lets a candidate for public office keep getting paid by taxpayers, with no oversight for how he spends his days, said Ross. All the while promoting selling out our public schools to chase campaign cash from the private school voucher industry and the billionaires that support it. Humphries said Ross comments were unfortunate. Running for office is quite challenging if you are not independently wealthy and I am making a very serious commitment to this effort while also trying to sustain my family, he said. I hope Mr. Ross could recognize this. Humphries is one of two candidates backed by conservatives seeking to defeat Evers in his bid for a third term as the head of DPI. He is backed by Assembly Education Committee chairman Rep. Jeremy Thiesfeldt, R-Fond du Lac, and Rep. Jason Fields, D-Milwaukee. Both lawmakers, whom Humphries referred to as his campaign co-chairmen, have been supportive of the expansion of taxpayer-funded vouchers for private schools. Evers, the states highest-ranking constitutional officer backed by Democrats, has been at odds with the Republicans who in his first term took control of almost every part of state government except his: the state Department of Public Instruction. I have learned the hard way not to put my personal life on the Internet. But suffice it to say that, God willing, things should be pretty much back to norm... 3 weeks ago BENGALURU: ATMs have been of great help after the demonetization drive initiated by the government, and no matter the long queues outside the ATMs, they have been of great help during this period of cash crunch. You may find it strange and weird, but the fact remains that no matter which bank has an ATM, 50 percent of it is run by ATM operators, who earn commission from each transaction made. However, after demonetization, the ATM operators are incurring heavy losses every day. In November the industry that manages ATM reported a loss of the magnitude of 500 crore. Same can be expected in December and now the operators want the government to make up for the losses. While our revenues are zero, our costs have tripled. We ran additional shifts, we reconfigured all ATMs in minimum time, V Balasubramanian, president (Transaction Processing and ATM service), FSS, told the Economic Times. But the fact remains that ATMs have been the saviors in times of distress after demonetization and it seems natural on their part to ask for compensation. "If the government can compensate toll operators for loss due to demonetization, they should do the same for ATM operators," Navroz Dastur, MD, NCR India - the largest ATM manufacturer, which also manages networks, told the ET. Read Also: India's Economy Trumped Britain In 2016 Nine Of Top 10 Companies Add 71,964 Cr In M-Cap, ITC Biggest Gainer BENGALURU: Taiwanese hardware and electronics corporation Acer on Wednesday launched Chromebook 11 N7 (C731) for education customers. The Chromebook features 11.6-inch display with 1,366x768 resolution and is designed to open up to 180 degrees making the device lay flat on a table for sharing purposes. "The new Acer Chromebook 11 N7 (C731) will set the bar even higher for what schools utilise for their classrooms and labs, a durable design, quiet fan-less operation and a portable form factor," said Chris Chiang, Vice President, Product Management, Acer America, in a statement. The device is compliant with the US military standard (MIL-STD 810G), has spill-resistant keyboard and is powered by Intel Celeron dual-core processors. The Chromebook connects easily to peripherals via Bluetooth 4.0, two USB 3.0 ports and one HDMI port. The Chromebook 11 N7 (C731) will provide additional capabilities given the planned support for Android apps via the Google Play Store in the coming months, the company said. Read Also: HP Unveils New PCs At CES 2017 Samsung Unveils New Galaxy A Series Smartphones NEW DELHI: Apple's iPhone has been named as Indias most reputed mobile phone brand, followed by Samsung and domestic brand Micromax. According to a report "India's Most Reputed Mobile Phone Brands 2017" by media analytics company BlueBytes, in association with business intelligence company TRA Research, Apple's iPhone has the highest positive media appearances in terms of sheer volume. "In a cluttered space like the mobile phone industry, with diverse brands attempting to capture consumer attention, customers buy and recommend on the basis of reputation, making it the most important influencer of buying decisions," said Pooja Kaura, Chief Spokesperson for "India's Most Reputed Brands". China's Xiaomi and Finland's Nokia secured fourth and fifth position respectively. Seventy two mobile phone brands were listed from 12 different countries in the report, of which Indian origin brands held 29 positions. Chinese brands Lenovo, Huawei, and Motorola -- now owned by Lenovo -- ranked sixth, seventh and eighth respectively. LG (South Korea) and Intex Technologies (India) figure last in the list. Read Also: Samsung Unveils New Galaxy A Series Smartphones Coolpad Mega 3: Budget Smartphone For Selfie Lovers NEW DELHI: India has 51 million small and medium businesses (SMBs) today that contribute 37 pct to Indias GDP. Out of these, only 32 pct are online or are leveraging the power of the digital. It is the balance 68 pct that Google India wants to digitally empower in 2017, according to global chief executive officer Sundar Pichai. Pichai, who was on a short trip to India, reaffirmed Googles commitment to SMBs at an event in New Delhi on Wednesday. Pichai said: The internet and digital technology will be an engine of growth for the Indian economy. Today, anyone can become an entrepreneur, a developer, or a creator, but it is important that they have the right tools and skills to digitize. We believe it is important for us to invest in training and equipping these individuals and small businesses to accelerate their journey of growth. Investing in SMBs makes for perfect business sense too as a joint study between Google and KPMG titled Impact of internet and digitization on SMBs in India pointed out that 52 pct of digital businesses cater to customers outside their city,employ five times more people than businesses that are offline while profits of digitally engaged SMBs grow twice as fast compared to offline SMBs. The research also found that rising penetration and greater uptake for digital by SMBs could help increase their contribution to Indias GDP by 10 percentage points, taking it up to 46-48 pct by 2020. To address the offline 68 pct SMBs, Pichai announced the launch of Digital Unlocked, a training program for business owners in India that will empower them with essential digital skills to help them get online and start using the internet to grow their business. The programme is built across the different formats of online, offline and mobile. The offline training is being conducted in partnership with FICCI and over the next three years, 5,000 workshops will be held across 40 Indian cities. The online training comprises a set of 90 self-paced video tutorials, curated specifically for India and is available free of charge. The tutorials cover a comprehensive set of topics ranging from building a web presence and driving online growth to reaching customers over mobile and video. The trainings are certified by Google, Indian School of Business and FICCI. Pichai also announced a free tool that will be launched later this year. Called My Business Website, this will help SMBs create a free, mobile optimised website. This new feature will provide simple, templated, editable websites for small businesses created from their data and photos on Google Maps and will be available in 9 Indic languages. In addition, Google also launched Primer, a free mobile app designed to teach digital marketing skills in a quick, easy and interactive way. Available for download through the Google Play and iOS app store. Primer also works offline and is currently available in English and Hindi with Tamil, Telugu and Marathi versions coming shortly. Pichais announcements are in continuation of Googles efforts to support Digital India. Last year, Google had launched Google My Business, a program aimed at helping SMBs get an online presence on Google Search and Google Maps, without having to invest in a website or domain. Till date, over 8 million Indian SMBs are on these platforms. Read Also: Few Unknown Facts about Army Chief Bipin Rawat NASA Mission To Study Black Holes Set For 2020 Launch WASHINGTON: The Indian Embassy here and its five consulates in the US will hold an open house every fortnight starting from January to address the grievances of people on issues related to visa, passport and Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) card. "I would like to announce an initiative today. We would institute from the first week of January next year an open house in the Indian Embassy," Indian Ambassador to the US Navtej Sarna, said yesterday at a reception held in his honour by top Indian-American community organisations of greater Washington DC area. Addressing several hundred Indian-Americans from in and around Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia, Sarna said "the Open House would be held every fortnight wherein people with their grievances related to passports, visas and OCI cards can simply walk in and the senior embassy officials would address them." "We would put out on the website once a fortnight, a designated day and a time where somebody who may have put in his papers and is not getting a response; somebody who actually have a particular problem which he wants to come and discuss with some body at the Embassy; somebody who is facing a problem in communication; somebody who does not have a paper for OCI, but still wants to have it; they would be able to come and we will have the our senior officers and the nodal officers will meet them and attend to their problem," he said. "We will also institute a similar arrangement in all our consulates in the United States," the Indian Ambassador said. His announcement was welcomed by the community leaders present at the reception, who also felicitated the outgoing Deputy Indian Ambassador Taranjit Singh Sandhu, who now heads to Colombo as the Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka. In his second stint to the Indian Embassy in Washington DC, Sarna acknowledged that problem persists despite best of the efforts and improvement in the system. "I know one place where we always go wrong is passport, visa, OCI. No matter, how, where we do, we outsource it, we monitor it and this is the nature of the beast, nobodys fault... no matter how efficient the machinery is this is ultimately a human error... there will always be a problem when you rang and nobody picked up the phone," he said. "When you actually send the passport and for some reason they are stuck in the post, where you actually wanted to use the electronic visa system, and they did not accept your card. "These happens, because these are new systems. These are being put through the teething problems. They need to be improved upon. In a couple of years, I can assure you will laugh at these problems," he said. In his remarks, Sandhu highlighted the role of the Indian American community in strengthening India US relationship. Among other things, he stressed on the need to involve second generation Indian Americans in community activities and strengthening India US ties. Read Also: Artificial Intelligence, Self-Driving Cars To Rule CES 2017 Bill Gates Invests $140 Million In HIV Cure BENGALURU: As the entire nation waited to welcome 2017 with new hopes and resolutions, PM Narendra Modi delivered an inspiring speech on New Years Eve. Although initially the PM started off by appreciating the peoples patience and co-operation post demonetization, motive of his speech was something more interesting. As a part of the PMs New Year gift for the people, he laid down a series of announcements thatin every aspectalso aims towards the countrys progress. Highlighting the fact that millions of people residing in urban areas still don't own houses, the PM announced two new housing schemes for the urban poor. According to him,in 2017, a 4 pct rebate in interest would be offered to the urban poor applying for home loans of up to 9 lakh rupees. Moreover, an interest rebate of 3 pct on would be granted for home loans of up to 12 lakh. Whereas in villages, home loans of up to 2 lakh for new housing or extension of housing would attract a 3 pct rebate in interest. The number of houses being built under the Pradhan MantriAwaasYojana for the poor in rural areas will also be increased by 33 pct. The PM has also promised to offer 6,000 for the pregnant women in poor districts. In a bid to help farmers, the PM also announced a 60-day interest waiver for farm loans taken during the Rabi season from primary societies and district co-operative banks.Furthermore, the three crore farmers who currently have Kisan Credit Cards will also be given RuPay debit cards within three months. For senior citizens, the PM has assured a fixed 8 pct interest on deposits of up to 7.5 lakhs for the period of 10 years.The year 2017 will also turn out to be beneficial for small entrepreneurs as the PM has asked the banks to increase cash credit from the existing 20 pct to 25 pct. Additionally, the credit guarantee will be effectively increased from 1 crore to 2 crores. Read Also: Google CEO Sundar Pichai To Address India's Tech Market Now Add Money On Paytm Using 'United Payments Interface' BENGALURU: Nisha Desai Biswal, one of the top ranking Indian-American officials in the outgoing Obama administration, will make her last official visit to India this week to discuss a range of bilateral and global issues, in a bid to deepen strategic Indo-US partnership. Biswal, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, will travel to New Delhi, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Mumbai from January 5-12 where she will meet with government officials and business leaders to discuss the dynamic growth in ties between the United States and India, the State Department said in a statement yesterday. "While in India, the Assistant Secretary will meet government leaders to discuss trade and business ties, as well as a range of bilateral, regional, and global issues to deepen the US-India strategic partnership," the State Department said. Biswal, among other things, will attend the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit in Ahmedabad where she will meet with government and community leaders. She will also attend the annual Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Convention in Bengaluru, which marks the contributions of the overseas Indian community to the development of India, the State Department announced. Read Also: Bill Gates Invests $140 Million In HIV Cure Artificial Intelligence, Self-Driving Cars To Rule CES 2017 STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Charges are still pending against the two suspects involved in a police shooting early Thursday morning in Charleston, police said. The "person of interest" currently being questioned by police has been identified as Jonathan Derbyshire, 24, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation. He was taken into custody around 6:30 a.m. coming out of a wooded area about a mile from the shooting. Suspect, Patrick Allen, 24, remains hospitalized at Staten Island University Hospital in Ocean Breeze, with several non-fatal gunshot wounds. "He (Allen) was struck four times, three times in the leg and once in the vest," an NYPD official said during a press conference in Queens Thursday morning. Allen has several past arrests on drug charges and refused to speak with police, according to the New York Daily News. Derbyshire also has a criminal record, officials said. Authorities claim the two men were test-firing shots in the nearby wooded area. Police recovered four firearms from the scene, including three automatic guns and a machine gun, officials said. The guns were unlicensed, police said. "The investigation is still ongoing," officials said. The preliminary investigation indicates that the suspects were hanging out together when they went outside of a house in the vicinity to test-fire some guns, police officials said at the press conference. The suspect who was shot pointed his gun at officers, but it hasn't yet been determined whether he actually fired at police, the official said. The incident began at about 1:10 a.m. when police received emergency calls reporting shots fired in the vicinity of Androvette Street and Arthur Kill Road. A marked patrol car with a sergeant and a police officer responded to the scene and the officers canvassed the area and wound up at the corner of Kreischer Street and Androvette, said Assistant Chief Edward Delatorre, the borough commander. Cops noticed two male suspects, one who fled into the woods and the other who initial reports indicated approached from the side of a building. The second suspect then turned toward the officers and drew a 9 mm Glock 26. "The officers responded by firing several shots back at the male and struck him numerous times, I believe three times, in the left leg, once in the left arm," Delatorre said. After the wounded suspect was taken into custody, police realized "he had a ballistic vest on and there may be evidence that he was also struck in the vest, although we haven't fully examined the vest at this time because it is still a part of the crime scene," Delatorre said in the statement. Police followed the other suspect who ran into the woods and after canvassing the area, officers found an AR 15 semi-automatic rifle, evidence of several shells that may have been fired in that area in the woods near the street and a large hunting knife, Delatorre said. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- It's prison stint number two for a repeat felon from Mariners Harbor who was arrested in connection with a shooting outside a Port Richmond nightclub two years ago. Cwame Taylor, 30, was sentenced Wednesday in state Supreme Court, St. George, to 18 months to three years behind bars under a plea agreement. In July of last year, Taylor pleaded guilty to criminal firearm possession, stemming from the Sept. 13, 2014, incident outside Latin Paridise at 2032 Richmond Terrace. Authorities alleged two armed men fired into a crowd of people standing outside the club, striking two victims -- a 38-year-old man who was hit in the leg and a 29-year-old man shot in the arm. Both victims were treated at Richmond University Medical Center, West Brighton, for their injuries, which were not life-threatening, according to an NYPD spokesman. Police originally reported the incident as a drive-by shooting, but later said the suspects were standing in front of the club when they fired the rounds. It's unclear what prompted the shooting. Taylor and another suspect, Ralph Charles, 28, of West Brighton, were inside the nightclub for an unspecified amount of time prior to the gunplay, police said. Shortly after the incident, the NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Public Information's office released images of both suspects taken from surveillance video at the night club. In a statement, police identified both men as suspects. Police later arrested Charles and Taylor. Charles pleaded guilty in 2015 to a felony count of reckless endangerment and was sentenced to two to four years in prison. Taylor has previously served prison time. He was convicted in 2013 of attempted second-degree assault in an unrelated case and sentenced to 18 months to three years behind bars, according to online records of the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. Mario F. Gallucci represented Taylor in the latest case. Assistant District Attorney Joe Gim prosecuted the case. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The repeat felon from West Brighton, who, authorities said, stuck a gun into the ribs of a Roman Catholic priest during a holdup and beating seven months ago in his community, may never step foot outside of prison again. Kerry Pack, 40, was sentenced Thursday in state Supreme Court, St. George, to 12 years to life behind bars stemming from the June 2 incident in West Brighton. Based on his criminal history, Pack was deemed a persistent violent felon, which called for a potential lifetime component in his sentence. According to a criminal complaint, Pack and a co-defendant, Antwyne Lucas, 44, of Brooklyn, approached the Rev. Marc Roselli at about 5:30 a.m. outside St. Mary of the Assumption-Our Lady of Mount Carmel-St. Benedicta R.C. Church, at 1265 Castleton Ave. Police said the pair accosted the priest as he exited his car. Pack jammed a gun in Father Roselli's ribs, the complaint said, and the victim handed over his car keys, phone and other property, as demanded. The suspects then punched Father Roselli in the face, blackening his eye, said police. They fled in the victim's champagne-colored Ford Fusion, which was recovered several blocks away from the scene, police said. Later that day, around 4 p.m., the two suspects and a third person entered and unlawfully remained in a building on the 700 block of Henderson Avenue, alleges the complaint. They were charged with misdemeanor criminal trespass for those alleged actions. Lucas' case is pending in state Supreme Court, St. George. Pack was also accused of burning another person with a hot piece of glass in a prior incident on May 19 of last year on the 100 block of North Burgher Avenue. He was charged with assault in that episode. In September of last year, Pack pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree robbery to satisfy all charges against him. Afterward, District Attorney Michael E. McMahon called Pack's actions "wanton and craven," adding, "Staten Island is a safer place with this criminal behind bars." Garbed in tan prison scrubs, the stocky defendant shook his head Thursday when Justice Stephen J. Rooney asked if he wished to say anything before sentence was imposed. Father Roselli did not attend the proceeding. Pack has an extensive criminal record. He served two prior prison stints in New York and one in New Jersey, according to public records and statements made in court. In 1994, he was convicted in Queens of attempted second-degree robbery and sentenced to 18 to 54 months behind bars, online state court records show. Two years later, he was again convicted in Queens, this time for rape and sodomy, said those records. He was sentenced to seven and a half to 15 years in prison. Pack has also served an 18-month sentence in Bergen County, N.J., for receiving stolen property, it was said in court. Mark Geisser, Pack's lawyer, could not immediately be reached for comment. Assistant District Attorney Adam Silberlight prosecuted the case. AX061_62EC_9.JPG St. Christopher's School, Grant City, is one of 22 Staten Island Catholic elementary schools to host an open house event January 10. Dubbed "Touring Tuesday" the event will take place from 9 to 11 a.m. (Staten Island Advance) STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Catholic elementary schools throughout Staten Island will host an open house event, dubbed "Touring Tuesday" from 9 to 11 a.m. on January 10. The universal open houses are scheduled throughout the school year and are designed to introduce prospective families to the Catholic elementary schools in the community. "Touring Tuesday offers an exciting way to see Catholic schools in action, and meet with principals, faculty, other parents and students from Pre-K through Grade 8. Parents will also have an opportunity to learn about the simple admissions process," said Dr. Timothy McNiff, superintendent of schools for the New York Archdiocese. Similar open-house tours are taking place in Manhattan and the Bronx, as well as elsewhere in the archdiocese. According to the archdiocese, since its inception in 2013, the Touring Tuesdays initiative has been attended by thousands of families and has resulted in more than 7,000 new student enrollments from Pre-K through Grade 8 throughout the archdiocese. A total of 22 Staten Island schools are participating. Reservations are required and can be made online at www.buildboldfutures.org or by calling the 24/7 bilingual hotline, 646-794-2885. For those who cannot attend January 10, the open-house sessions will be repeated January 31, during Catholic Schools Week, as well as February 14, March 14 and April 4, from 9 a.m.-11 a.m., or by appointment School tours can also be arranged by appointment by calling the hotline or making a reservation online. By MAURA GRUNLUND, MIRA WASSEF EDDIE D'ANNA, ANTHONY DEPRIMO and JAN SOMMA-HAMMEL STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A heavily-armed man wearing a bulletproof vest was shot by police officers after he pointed a gun at cops in a wild incident in Charleston early Thursday morning, which sparked a massive manhunt for another suspect who fled into the woods, the NYPD said. The second individual was taken into custody several hours later and is being questioned, police said. Cops encountered the men at approximately 1:10 a.m., when police responded to calls reporting shots fired in the vicinity of Androvette Street and Arthur Kill Road, according to the NYPD. Here are live updates as this story develops: Cops: 4 guns recovered, charges pending Police recovered four firearms from the scene, including three automatic guns and a machine gun, NYPD Chief of Patrol Terence Monahan said during a press conference in Queens. The guns were unlicensed, police said. Patrick Allen, who was shot by cops, and Jonathan Derbyshire were both taken into custody, according to Monahan. Both have prior arrests, he said. "Both males are currently under arrest," he said. Charges are still pending against the suspects. Click here for the story. PBA: 'Extremely dangerous environment' for cops Patrick J. Lynch, president of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, sounded out about the police-involved shooting in our borough. "This morning's shootout on Staten Island is further proof of the extremely dangerous environment that New York City police officers now face," Lynch said in a statement. "On any call police officers respond to they could be confronted by perps armed to the teeth with assault weapons and body armor, as was the case today. These are the types of situations that made 2016 the deadliest year for U.S. law enforcement in a half decade." He called for increased support for law enforcement from politicians and the general public. "NYC police officers need to be treated like professionals, paid like professionals, and given the equipment and training we need to counter these increasing threats," Lynch said. NYPD: Suspects 'test-fired' guns in woods The preliminary investigation indicates that the two suspects in the police-involved shooting were hanging out together when they went outside of a house in the vicinity to test-fire some guns, NYPD Chief of Patrol Terence Monahan told reporters in Queens. The suspect who was shot pointed his gun at officers, but it hasn't yet been determined whether the suspect fired at police, the official said. Frenzied radio transmissions depict encounter Emergency radio transmissions from early Thursday morning offer a real-time depiction of the harrowing encounter between police officers and an armed suspect. "Shots fired!" one officer can be heard yelling, as he repeatedly transmits the 10-13 code for officer in assistance. "Androvette and Kreischer! Androvette and Kreischer!" "We got one male down, we got another perp," the officer says, describing a male with a brown jacket running into the woods. Additional officers and helicopter units are summoned. A four-minute recording of those transmissions has been posted on YouTube: Police officials expected to discuss incident Top NYPD officials, including Commissioner James O'Neill, are expected to discuss the shooting following an 11 a.m. swearing-in ceremony in Queens for new recruits entering the Police Academy. Manhunt delayed opening of some businesses The shooting took place about two blocks away from Project Brunch, the brunch-only restaurant at 4553 Arthur Kill Road. When the morning crew came in at 5 a.m., police said the staff couldn't open due to the manhunt. With the Emergency Service Unit officers, helicopters and dogs roaming the neighborhood, Project Brunch could open the doors finally at 7 a.m. "I'm just glad people are here," said owner Jodi Guagliardo. The dining room was seated almost to capacity but there was no line out the door, as is usually the case at 9 a.m. The staff brought coffee and egg sandwiches to police on patrol in the area. 'It was something big going on' Watch the video below for Charleston residents' account of the dramatic police-involved shooting and subsequent manhunt in their community: 3rd police-involved shooting since Tuesday NYPD officers have been involved in three shootings of suspects over the past two days. In addition to the shots fired by cops that wounded a suspect in Charleston, police discharged their weapons in two separate incidents where suspects died in Brooklyn. James Owens, 63, was shot and killed on Tuesday at about 9:30 p.m. after uniformed officers from the 69th Precinct responded to a 911 call for a non-violent, emotionally disturbed person inside of 967 E. 99th St. in Brooklyn. As the officers entered, Owens allegedly emerged from a back room and retrieved a 13-inch knife from the kitchen and advanced towards the officer. An officer used a taser on Owens, but it had no impact since the knife-wielding suspect continued to advance toward the officers. A second officer discharged his firearm and requested an ambulance. Joshua Martino, 18, of Bridge Street in Brooklyn, died after he was shot in Brooklyn during gunplay with police. A sergeant and two police officers, all in plain clothes, were on patrol in the vicinity of Atlantic and Grand Avenues in Brooklyn at about 3:40 a.m. Wednesday. The officers heard gunfire coming from the vicinity of 990 Atlantic Ave. and allegedly saw Martino firing a gun into a lounge. Martino ran and then allegedly turned on the officers with his gun in hand and the two police officers fired, striking the suspect in the torso, the police statement said. Person of interest identified The "person of interest" currently being question by police has been identified as Jonathan Derbyshire, 25, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation. He was taken into custody around 6:30 a.m. coming out of a wooded area about a mile from the shooting. Suspect, Patrick Allen, 24, remains hospitalized at Staten Island University Hospital, with several non-fatal gunshot wounds. Allen has several past arrests on drug charges and refused to speak with police, according to the New York Daily News. Police have not announced any charges at this time. 'Get back in your house!' Charleston residents were on edge after the NYPD descended on the community in the immediate aftermath of the overnight shooting. "Once I saw this massive police response, I knew it was something quite out of the ordinary," said one man who lives around the block. "I actually opened my door to ask one of the officers what was going on, and they yelled 'get back in your house.' "I quickly figured out they were looking for somebody because more cops came," he continued. "I could see that there were heavily armed officers coming with helmets and rifles. So then we were pretty concerned." Police investigate on Ellis Road in Charleston, where a "person of interest" was detained. That person was ultimately released and not connected to the crime, according to reports. Detours remain as investigation continues Police officers still have streets roped off in the area as they investigate. Androvette and Kreischer Street, where police say the gunfire exchange took place, remains cordoned off with several evidence casings on the ground. Police are also blocking Ellis Road, where the "person of interest" was taken into custody. The S78 buses are running with delays in both directions due to the NYPD investigation, according to MTA.info. Helicopters continue to fly over the area. Motive unknown at this time Officers have not yet determined what they men were initially doing in the area with the weapons and body armor and are considering multiple possibilities, including hunting, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation. Wounded suspect identified Police sources have identified the suspect shot by police as Patrick Allen, 24. He is currently in stable condition at Staten Island University Hospital in Ocean Breeze. Sources: 2nd 'Person of interest' in custody The "person of interest" who fits the description of the suspect who fled was taken into custody Thursday morning, according to multiple police sources. That person, a male, is being questioned and has not been charged at this time. Police radio communications indicated that the person of interest was nabbed near Ellis and Arthur Kill roads at approximately 6:30 a.m. Police and K9 units continue to investigate in the area. NYPD account of shootout Police released photos of guns and body armor recovered from the scene. At 6:37 a.m., the NYPD released the following account of what happened, from Assistant Chief Edward Delatorre, the NYPD's borough commander: The incident began at about 1:10 a.m. when police received two calls from the 123 station house and also from 911 reporting shots fired in the vicinity of Androvette Street and Arthur Kill Road. A marked patrol car with a sergeant and a police officer responded to the scene and the officers canvassed the area and wound up at the corner of Kreischer Street and Androvette, Delatorre said. Cops noticed two male suspects, one who fled into the woods and the other who initial reports indicated approached from the side of a building. The second suspect then turned toward the officers and drew a 9mm Glock 26. "The officers responded by firing several shots back at the male and struck him numerous times, I believe three times, in the left leg, once in the left arm," Delatorre said. Delatorre's account doesn't indicate whether the suspect fired his gun during the encounter with police. After the wounded suspect was taken into custody, police realized "he had a ballistic vest on and there may be evidence that he was also struck in the vest, although we haven't fully examined the vest at this time because it is still a part of the crime scene," Delatorre said in the statement. Police followed the other suspect who ran into the woods and after canvassing the area, officers found an AR 15 semi-automatic rifle, evidence of several shells that may have been fired in that area in the woods near the street and a large hunting knife, Delatorre said. The suspect who may still be at large is described as a white male, about 25 years old, wearing a brown, canvas waist-length jacket. Anyone with information is asked to visit the NYPD's Crime Stoppers website, call the Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-8477 (TIPS) or for Spanish, 1-888-577-4782 (PISTA) or text their tips to 274637 (CRIMES), then enter TIP577. All calls are strictly confidential. Live broadcast of shooting response, manhunt Advance reporter Shane DiMaio live covered the NYPD manhunt an initial response once the shooting was reported. Watch his footage below: SPRINGFIELD - It takes losing a job for some people to spill their guts about their bosses, and that may be the case of outgoing State Rep. Mike Smiddy (D-Hillsdale), who told a Quad City television station this week just what he thinks of House Speaker Mike Madigan. Smiddy said Madigan has "outlived his usefulness in Springfield." The video of the News 8 interview is no longer posted on the station's website, but a major part of interview content remains.